Portside

Re: Trump and the Militias Consummate Their Marriage (Zvi Baranoff; Clare Lark; Zaida Silva Reyes; Fernando Anavitate; Julia Mills; Nancy Kramer; Victor M.carreras Roena; Charles McPherson; John Benson; Aimee Loiselle)
Re: We Are Living in a Failed State (James McGinnis; Sandi Parker Konkel; Eddie Martin Jr; Gabriel Berrios; Santiago Ramos Collado; Tim Boo Boshaw)
Re: Ahmaud Arbery: Anger Mounts Over Killing of Black Jogger Caught on Video (Judyth Hollub; Glenn Kellis; James Williams; Aida Rivera; Marc Major)
Economic Warriers  --  cartoon by Mike Luckovich
Re: Half of World's Workers `at Immediate Risk of Losing Livelihood Due To Coronavirus (Nancy MacLean)
Huntington Beach Open  --  cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz
Re: Some Progressives Are in Denial About Trump's Fascist Momentum (Sheila Blackman; Robert Supansic; Felice Sage)
Re: Echo Chamber Could Hand Win to Trump. Again (Gabriel Andres Ramos Serrano)
Re: Californians in Long-Term Care Remain at Risk Under Newsom (Joy Ann Grune)
Re: COVID-19, Capitalism, and Socialism (Disraelly Gutierrez Jaime; Joe Harris)
MAGA-Donalds  --  carton by Mike Stanfill (Raging Pencils)
Re: `A Bomb in the Center of the Climate Movement': Michael Moore Damages Our Most Important Goal (David Alman; Laurel MacDowell; Steve Krug; Ellen Birrell; Maggie Rodriguez)
Re: Skepticism Is Healthy, but Planet of the Humans Is Toxic - A Critical Review (David Schwartzman; Margaret)
Re: Our Revolution Failed to Live Up to Its Potential. But the Bernie Movement Needs a Mass Organization Now. (Ted Cloak; Jose Felipe Gonzalez Pabon; Rand Wilson)
Re: 'A Dangerous Idea': Public School Advocates Denounce Cuomo-Gates Plan Seizing on Pandemic to 'Reimagine' New York's Education System (Sonia Collins; Amiel Summers; Micheal Crockford; Harry Targ)
Re: Andrew Cuomo's Power Grab is Off Camera (Marta Schmidt; Leslie A. Mariani)
Re: South Africa: Nelson Mandela Ally Denis Goldberg Dies (Professor Raymond Suttner; Jay Schaffner; Marilyn Albert; Ike Nahem; Alan Barnes; Laura Friedman; Ramon Capois; Paul Buhle; Carolyn Toll Oppenheim; Alvin Burroughs)
Re: Defeat of a Dirty Military Incursion into Venezuela on a Sunday Morning (Omar Hunter)
Re: Feet, What Do I Need You For?' How Lockdown Fired Up Frida Kahlo (The Love Lives of the Artists; Jim Pearson)
Re: Lovecraft Country's First Trailer Teems With Monsters, Genre Subversion, and Social Allegory (Robert Daniel Pearce)
Portside - doing a great service (Paul Leavin)
Puerto Rico: Governor Wanda Vázquez - grant us food to distribute directly to the people. 
Gobernadora Wanda Vázquez-Otórguenos alimentos para distribuir directamente de mano a mano (Puerto Rico Rises)
 

Resources:

Race and Democracy - Apple Podcasts
 

Announcements:

Celebrate Mother's Day with Women's Activism - May 9 Mother's Day Eve Digital Storytelling Workshop (NYC Department of Records and Information Services)
Join the Everybody's Got a Right to Live Cultural Day of Action on May 20th (Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival)
The Pandemic, the Economic Crisis and Just Transition - May 27 - Zoom meeting (Labor Network for Sustainability)

 

Re: Trump and the Militias Consummate Their Marriage
 

"It's the new normal: armed fascists intimidate elected officials who oppose the President as Republicans either stay silent or - like Trump himself - egg them on."

Zvi Baranoff
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

I realize now this has been in the works a long time. His father was in the KKK. His first wife said he read Hitler's speeches in bed. These armed gangs were actually paid to be there and came from other areas.

It's being orchestrated and he has known about it. He even has hinted in months past. This is how Nazism win. Everyone else moans and groans but is too nice to prepare for violence.

Clare Lark
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Is that the great America of Trump followers. Violence, intimidation, racism and silence .

Zaida Silva Reyes
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Time to take them on .. police do your thing !!!

Fernando Anavitate
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

He is really making America great for some people.

Julia Mills
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

I said the same thing. Just imagine the response if people of color went to the Capitol armed with assault weapons!

Nancy Kramer
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

This signals the collapse of what used to be a democratic country with an active, valid constitution.

Victor M.carreras Roena
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

We should all protest by staying home if they force businesses to open. Help our essential workers and not overwhelm the hospitals. The economy can't restart without workers. And we shouldn't go back to making money for the rich until they make sure.

1 Everyone can be tested and treated for covid-19
2 Everyone has farepay (UBI)
3 Everyone has health care
4 We have environmentally friendly energy production being funded instead of big oil and coal
5 We have a tax system that makes the rich pay there fair share
6 We have a vote by mail preferential voting system
7 A bailout for the USPS
8 The resignation of Donald J Trump* and everyone he has appointed
9 Donald J Trump* needs to be investigated for treason and crimes against humanity along with all co-conspirators

This maybe the last true chance we have to stand up to our corrupt government. Our president has forgotten that this is supposed to be a government for the people by the people. He shows all signs trying to make himself the first king of the United States( no matter the title he would hold). Within the last week he has had armed followers with no opposition terrorizing several state governments because those States governors do not praise him like his followers. These terrorists have entered state capitals armed like they are prepared to take them over from elected officials. Carrying military-style weapons and they face no opposition even from the police department's who's job it is to secure those buildings. Well their terrorist gatherings only serve to make it harder for these governors to do the jobs they're doing helping save our lives while our president tries to claim responsibility for their actions when it benefits him and blames them and everyone he can for his numerous shortcomings. We need to shut this country down without violence, Stay Safe Protest in Place.

Please pass this on I know if my name gets out with it I will probably get death threats from his cult of followers given that I never use messenger on Facebook they will have to do it publicly if they want me to see them I really don't care what they say. I know a lot of US citizens are tired this mockery of the office he holds.

Charles McPherson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Straight out of the Nazi playbook.

John Benson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

ALEC Leading Right-Wing Campaign to Reopen the Economy Despite COVID-19
By David Armiak and Alex Kotch
April 30th, 2020
Exposed by CMD

Aimee Loiselle
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: We Are Living in a Failed State
 

The legacy of "small government" and "trickle down" policies and their role in the Trump administration's botched response to Covid-19!

James McGinnis
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

This is true but his supporters will never believe it.

Sandi Parker Konkel
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

This is very very sad. Supposedly the greatest country in the world is only concerned about the rich. If we can't see that all of us(BLACK,WHITE) or any other race are not important (only to make the rich more rich) then we are all ASLEEP

Eddie Martin Jr
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Russia, Taiwan, and the United Nations sent humanitarian aid to the world's richest power-a beggar nation in utter chaos.

Gabriel Berrios
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Wrong. This is NOT a failed state. It operates flawlessly, as per design. Just like a land mine, for instance.

Santiago Ramos Collado
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

At what point to we fly the flag upside-down ? A distress signal that we're in such a mess we can't save ourselves.

Tim Boo Boshaw
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Ahmaud Arbery: Anger Mounts Over Killing of Black Jogger Caught on Video
 

And the a**hole who shot him is an ex-cop who worked with the prosecutor's office.

Judyth Hollub
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Finally this tragedy is getting some traction!

Glenn Kellis
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

 

The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery
Another black man falsely assumed to be a criminal is dead.

By Charles M. Blow, Opinion Columnist
May 6, 2020
The New York Times

James Williams
posting on Facebook

     =====

He did not deserve to die the way he did at the hands of two white hillbillies who thought they were cowboys! They interfered with him for no valid reason. What they did is called murder and they must face justice for it.

Aida Rivera
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

True, very true. But those two "hillbillies" are more of a symptom than the actual disease, their facing justice serves little in the long run and the justice they face has a great chance of being no justice at all.

In these cases, we ignore so much of the evil that hides in the shadows, behind desks or in plain sight.
Will we see charges laid of accessory after the fact, for those who made the decision not to investigate? How about the their superiors who are responsible for them.
How about officers, tasked with upholding the law, who chose to do nothing, but knew that a murder was being swept under the rug, are they guilty of professional negligence?
Absolutely every single individual who was directly or even indirectly complicit in avoid the investigation of this crime must face justice this time and every time. Only then, will careers in law enforcement cease being attractive to individuals who are violent, racists, narcissists, and immoral.

Change will come when we hold responsible not only the person who chose to pull the trigger, but also all the people in the system who allow the aforementioned choice to have little or even no legal consequences for the shooter.

Marc Major
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Marc Major You are hoping for too much right now although what you wish for is indeed true justice. Racism has been recently spurred and brought back to front row by our own government. Changes must be made from way up the pyramid of local and federal government.

Aida Rivera
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Economic Warriers  --  cartoon by Mike Luckovich
 

Mike Luckovich
May 7, 2020
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Re: Half of World's Workers `at Immediate Risk of Losing Livelihood Due To Coronavirus'
 

Does anyone know organizations who are helping? Would it be Oxfam?

Nancy MacLean
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Huntington Beach Open  --  cartoon by Lalo Alcaraz
 

Lalo Alcaraz
May 4, 2020

 

Re: Some Progressives Are in Denial About Trump's Fascist Momentum
 

Listen, trump is taking this country to fascism. Don't believe it? Because he hasn't announced openly on TV the groups, (people of color, LQBTQ, poor, disabled, old, non-christian, and anyone else he doesn't like) that he and his functionaries plan to get rid of? So you don't see it coming? Well that's because he does his work under cover, quietly appointing people to head agencies who are transforming the structures of government into obedient groups who will follow his orders unquestioningly.

Sheila Blackman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

I must differ.  In spite of extensive media coverage of events such as the armed protest in Michigan, I think it important to not exaggerate their significance.  Trump has been playing footsie with these fascist wannabees of the right for years.  Now, after more than three years of his Presidency, he has successfully used his great power to convert these fringe groups into fringe groups.

Robert Supansic

     =====

Really ? Which progressives would those be? I don't know any.

Felice Sage
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Echo Chamber Could Hand Win to Trump. Again
 

This intentional strategy uses racism to keep white voters aligned with the Republican Party and diverts the blame of Trump, American corporations and the ruling elite.

All with the " dogwhistles " (hints) like, " Both sides have good and bad " (comparing so-called radicals with non-bad intentions with Fascist Racists) and the " Chinese Virus ".

Gabriel Andres Ramos Serrano
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Californians in Long-Term Care Remain at Risk Under Newsom
 

When deadly actions like this are described, why can't we be given actions to take?

Joy Ann Grune

 

Re: COVID-19, Capitalism, and Socialism
 

Capitalism is the virus. 

"The pandemic has triggered an economic depression. It should lead a lot of people to reconsider assumptions they may have held about the permanence of capitalism. Certainly it underscores the incapacity of the most world's most powerful capitalist government to respond to human need. While many individuals in the US are risking their own health to serve the rest of society, their efforts are more thwarted than aided by the dominant institutions. Corporations as well as key agencies of government prioritize profits and accumulation over public health. As a huge sign recently displayed by a group of New York workers put it, "Capitalism is the virus."

Disraelly Gutierrez Jaime
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Coronavirus reveals the divide between the socialist principal of using health care to meet human needs and the capitalist practice of treating health care as a commodity.

Joe Harris
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

MAGA-Donalds  --  carton by Mike Stanfill (Raging Pencils)
 

Mike Stanfill
April 28, 2020
Raging Pencils

 

Re: `A Bomb in the Center of the Climate Movement': Michael Moore Damages Our Most Important Goal
 

Dear Bill McKibben,

I have followed your writings on the need to face the damage coming to us from hundreds of years of fossil fuels. I'm an educated man, just past 100 years old, and I can tell the difference between the honest truth and deceit. Your work is honest truth, and Moore's and the fossil fuel corporation, now with Moore's help, is deceit. I live in Alaska, where we are doing our best, with insufficient success, to shut off the fossil fuel tap and replace it with nature's wind and the sunlight's rays. The day will come when you are remembered and Moore is forgotten.

David Alman

     =====

Dear Bill McKibben,

You have done an enormous amount of good with your life. We all thank you. Don't let the bastards get you down. Shame on Michael Moore! I have seen his earlier films and thought he was a reformer. Maybe the oil barons paid him off. Anyway if he has a conscience it will make him squirm.

Keep up the good work and thank you for your efforts to make a better world. This pandemic we are living through may help people to think of each other and the health of the planet more.

Best,

Laurel MacDowell

     =====

I agree with McKibben that the movie got things wrong. The info it was based on was dated and/or misinterpreted. 

BUT: Those of us who were involved with Alternate Energy (AE) from the beginning (my spouse and I, starting in 1976, built off grid houses for ourselves and started a company that sold/installed/serviced AE systems) always talked about the need to change the economic structure was every bit as important as changing our energy sources. We talked about the need to simplify. Pretty quickly the movement was co-opted by green capitalists (an oxymoron if i ever heard one) who basically said you don't want to preach simplicity and socialism, you want to sell large systems and leave politics out of it. They wanted to play the game with corporate sponsors and the nature of movement changed from grass roots to glossy. It was the part of the movie that spoke to me, seeing the corporate logos on an event promoting environmentalism, it made me cringe.

If we truly want a sustainable future, with AE, it will not come from an economic system built on constant growth and concentration of power (both the economic and energy sort!), it can only be based on system that can be democratically controlled and owned.

Steve Krug

     =====

I can understand some of McKibben's complaints but I do not think "Planet of the Humans" is "a sewer" as McKibben called it. Making sure that we don't allow good intentions and ideas (i.e. fossil fuel alternative energy sources) to become overrun with "the old ways" of 'heavier, bigger, petroleum dependent is necessary' is worth contemplating. I see the movie as a wake-up call instead of a complete condemnation of all things green.

Ellen Birrell
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Moore is always ahead of the curve. He thinks everything thru and is a certified genius and....he's fearless.

Maggie Rodriguez
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Skepticism Is Healthy, but Planet of the Humans Is Toxic - A Critical Review
 

Good review, but doesn't address the most toxic part of the film's message, arguing that scientists all agree that overpopulation of humans is at root of our environmental crisis. 

Well, I am a scientist like many others who strongly disagree with this conclusion, rather that the "cancerous form of capitalism" identified in this film is the root cause. This cancerous form is militarized fossil capital driving perpetual wars for the control of oil. See my review at: http://www.theearthisnotforsale.org/review_planethumans.pdf 

Too bad Jeff Gibbs and Michael Moore didn't read Ian Angus and Simon Butler's powerful critique of the overpopulation message in their book Too Many People? before they completed this film instead of promoting this user-friendly explanation on behalf of the capitalist ruling class.

David Schwartzman

     =====

the trashing of Planet of the Humans

I have been a long time reader and supporter of Portside until I read the latest post including the Films for Action review of "Planet of the Humans."  The reviewer trashed a very important eye-opening film and missed the point completely. 

Yes transitions are messy but we cannot maintain the faith based approach to alternative energy sources that do not admit the current fundamental inadequacies of these sources.  That's how we got into the biomass fiasco in Vermont and other places. The reviewer also ignored the basic point of the film--that unless we reject unchecked capitalism, consumerism, and population growth--we are not going to survive. If you want to apply the word reckless to anything, it should be applied to this review. 

I agree that Bill McKibben, an environmental hero, was ambushed in the Michael Moore style in the film. Nevertheless I think his open-minded approach was illustrated by his admission of error about biomass. I thought Portside meant when it claimed to take a "left" approach to the news of the day. It certainly did not do that when it published the trashing of a film that so clearly exposed that there is no environmental alternative to controlling capitalism.

Margaret

 

Re: Our Revolution Failed to Live Up to Its Potential. But the Bernie Movement Needs a Mass Organization Now.
 

This is all well and good, but I think it's high time for Bernie to unsuspend his campaign.

Ted Cloak

     =====

Again, portraying Bernie's candidacy and leadership anyhow you want without taking into account the enormous sabotaging and torpedoing by establishment democrats and the
wealthy republican political machinery of his person and ideas is naive. 

If Bernie's momentum is going to survive as a powerful factor in shaping the future of US citizens and encouraging a commitment to change the structural, systemic elements that inhibit democrats from shifting their views to concrete radical actions, the USA is in for a deceptive four years with Biden. Let's face it. 

The USA is still run by its neoliberal capitalism, free-market oligarchs who have a free, unobstructed road to do as they please as long as Citizen's United is in place. Otherwise, centrism will remain as the main force behind an obsolete democratic party that will continue giving their lip service to those citizens that need protection from the hatred of capitalism.

Jose Felipe Gonzalez Pabon
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

see: Our Revolution Is Already the "Post-Bernie" Organization We Need

by Bob Muehlenkamp in Jacobin

Rand Wilson

 

Re: 'A Dangerous Idea': Public School Advocates Denounce Cuomo-Gates Plan Seizing on Pandemic to 'Reimagine' New York's Education System
 

NY teachers are fed up with being forced to repeatedly change direction for the sake of consultants' untested schemes. Enough. How about fully funding schools, smaller classes and gradual introduction of methods that are proven to work with actual children? No more herky jerky to make inexperienced men feel important and to divert attention from under funding.

Sonia Collins
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

No. Cuomo's remarks were not an Executive order , neither was it a piece of proposed legislation. It was an offer to imaginative minded people to capitalize on the opportunity to offer/ suggest improvements to a less perfect system.

Cannot understand how your interpretation of his remarks leaves you with the impression that it is somehow 'bad'.

I notice how these 'progressive' Facebook accounts are slipping in counter revolutionary stuff as we are no size months from the election.

Your post is intended to score political points against a proven politician. And it is glaringly obvious.

If I were Trumps campaign manager, I wouldn't create new Facebook accounts for Trumps propaganda, I'd just offer large sums of money to existing ones to reach the very audiences I wished to ...mislead.

Amiel Summers
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

"If you're looking for a bold new idea for New York public schools," wrote congressional candidate Jamaal Bowman, "how about you just try fully funding them for once?"

Micheal Crockford
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

This is precisely the shock doctrine that Naomi Klein has been talking about. The school privatizers, just like the post office privatizers are using the pandemic crisis to subvert the public institutions that working people have struggled for years to achieve. We need to defend our public institutions, our workers, and oppose shifting our most vital institutions to the market.

Harry Targ
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Andrew Cuomo's Power Grab is Off Camera
 

And also sneakily giving us absentee ballots with one hand, having given the Bd of Elections the ability to cancel the Dem Presidential primary with the other.

Marta Schmidt
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Look he's a politician. He is also human. Yes, he probably plays the politicians game; they all do. And honestly, neither the right nor the left can claim innocence, honesty or truthfulness. Right now the governor is a whole lot better than what governs the country. So he's part of the system. He's informing not bullshitting... explaining, again not bullshitting... Making some very good sense, again not bullshitting.

Leslie A. Mariani
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: South Africa: Nelson Mandela Ally Denis Goldberg Dies
 

The Al Jazeera article on Portside is not accurate in saying that Goldberg is the only white to be convicted for MK activities. There are more, but at very least Marion Sparg, Damian de Lange.

I have not done a proper breakdown but there are more.  People like the late Harold `Jock' Strachan was not directly convicted for MK activities but he was making explosives, so that it requires more work.

Professor Raymond Suttner, PhD
Visiting Professor University of Johannesburg, 
Senior Research Associate, Centre for Change, 
Emeritus Professor, University of South Africa, Pretoria

     =====

A real inspiration in the fight against apartheid and racism. So glad I had the opportunity to meet him when he was in the United States, representing the new government of South Africa at the United Nations. Farewell comrade.

Jay Schaffner
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

By a weird coincidence, I had rented a film from Netflix yesterday. It is "Escape from Pretoria", about the escape in 1979 from the Pretoria prison where white political activists were sent to serve long sentences. A major character in the film is Denis Goldberg.

Marilyn Albert
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

I doubt if the comrade, a revolutionary Marxist freedom fighter to the marrow of his bones, would have considered himself "white" maybe of "European" origin, certainly Jewish, but above all a fighter for the liberation of the working class and oppressed humanity.

Ike Nahem
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

"A member of the ANC's military wing, Denis Goldberg was sentenced with Mandela and spent 22 years in a whites-only prison - the only white member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), to be arrested and sentenced for armed resistance to white-minority rule."

Alan Barnes
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Such a good guy. A true revolutionary and mensch.

Laura Friedman
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Some white people are on the side of what is right.

Ramon Capois
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

a story that must be told and retold.

Paul Buhle
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

"Another hero gone, another South African Jew ignored or despised by the Jewish establishment during the years of struggle." 

Not many Jews know about the generations-long allyship of anti-apartheid Jews in S. Africa .....

Carolyn Toll Oppenheim
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

A giant was he. He was in the trenches with the ANC. May his soul rest in peace.

Alvin Burroughs
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Defeat of a Dirty Military Incursion into Venezuela on a Sunday Morning
 

"What happened today," he said, "is an example of the desperation of the United States and its allies."

Vladimir Padrino López, the minister of defense of Venezuela, said that the government and the people had defeated this attack and would remain vigilant against other such plots. One of the characteristic features of the Bolivarian process has been the mobilization of the population to defend itself; "We declare ourselves in rebellion," Padrino said, adding that Venezuela is now under a state of "permanent vigilance."

Omar Hunter
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Feet, What Do I Need You For?' How Lockdown Fired Up Frida Kahlo

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

"Kahlo's life story, a triumph of creativity against the odds, makes her a role model for an artist in quarantine. "

The Love Lives of the Artists
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Her life is an amazing story. I have two of her biographies (only read one). It didn't mention the Noguchi (his Sky Viewing sculpture stands in Western's Red Square) affair. I've seen numerous miscarriage paintings and severe injury paintings after the accident. She makes one feel her pain. Now I'm psyched to read the other book.

Jim Pearson
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Re: Lovecraft Country's First Trailer Teems With Monsters, Genre Subversion, and Social Allegory

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

An interesting way to handle the problematic part of Lovecraft while also presenting the good stuff. Will reserve judgement until I see it, but I have hopes. It is better than just ignoring the racist stuff on the one hand, or rejecting the whole cannon because of it, on the other. And Peele is producing? That is a good sign.

Robert Daniel Pearce
Posted on Portside's Facebook page

 

Portside - doing a great service
 

I am both old and a remnant of the Old Left, and initially, I knew most of the individuals posting comments on Portside.

Now I recognize 1 in 20 names!

Congratulations to you all, you have really achieved something wonderful, in creating a forum for the Left that is wide-ranging, smart and deep, with a wider readership and participants.

If I had a million dollars, I'd contribute half....maybe not half, 1/3. 

But since I don't and won't, it's moot.

But that doesn't matter, you are doing a great service.

"God's work" I'd say if I were religious.

Keep on truckin'

Paul Leavin

 

Puerto Rico: Governor Wanda Vázquez - grant us food to distribute directly to the people.
Gobernadora Wanda Vázquez-Otórguenos alimentos para distribuir directamente de mano a mano (Puerto Rico Rises)

Honorable Governor,

Our people in Puerto Rico are hungry. The level of unemployment has reached record figures as a result of the COVID-19. Let's add to this, the prevailing need that existed as a result of the scourge of Hurricane Maria, then due to the earthquakes that continue to occur today.

Our organization Puerto Rico Rises together with 68 other organizations successfully rescued the food from 213 school canteens, with which we have impacted over 25,000 people at the island level. We demonstrate our high level of transparency, coordination, logistics, and commitment beyond a reasonable doubt. We threw ourselves into the street taking the necessary security measures, but without thinking much about the possible consequences since our goal was clear, that food had to go from the dining room to your table.

With the opening of the school canteens, the food chain towards our organizations stopped. However, the hunger of the sectors we serve, of single mothers who do not have a car, of children who are victims of violence who will have no one to take them to the dining room, of the bedridden elder person who does not drive, of the father who lost his Employment, or of those families diagnosed with the virus that remain in isolation and cannot leave their homes, will not be solved with this opening.

After over 12 million pounds of supplies distributed and more than 150,000 people impacted since our inception almost three years ago, we are convinced and it is evident in our record that we have the ability to continue supporting as we have done so far autonomously and with the conviction that we are moved by the need of our people and not by partisan political interests, the efforts aimed at providing food for our own, without distinction of the skin or political colors, creeds, gender, sexual preference or any label. We have the physical space and volunteers to receive it, sort it out, and distribute it directly, hand in hand, to whoever needs it the most.

Our request is simple Governor. With respect, the only thing that Puerto Rico Rises and its alliance of organizations are requesting with this petition is FOOD. This mission sets the precedent for the third sector to serve as direct and immediate support assisting in the food chain at the island level, without interfering with the efforts of the State or Municipal Government, which can be effectively implemented for future events.

We are organized and ready to immediately bring it to the table of all those who cannot get to the school and that tonight, and every night that we do not gain access to it, they will go to bed without eating.

Waiting on your prompt response

Sara Lopez, Founder President

Sign petition here.

 

Race and Democracy - Apple Podcasts
 

Dr. Peniel Joseph, Founding Director of the UT Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and Professor of History, discusses issues of race, democracy, public policy, and social justice with expert guests. "Race and Democracy" questions who is America? Where have we been, where do we want to go, and how can we get there? Tune in to learn about American history, race and democracy, and the outlook for the future.

37 episodes

More information here

 

Celebrate Mother's Day with Women's Activism - May 9 Mother's Day Eve Digital Storytelling Workshop (NYC Department of Records and Information Services)
 

It’s said that it takes a village to raise a child, and often there is more than one actual mother who shapes our lives. A grandmother, a sister, a foster mother, an aunt, a mentor, or a community matriarch: women who inspired us and helped make us who we are. Now, at the WomensActivism.NYC's Mother’s Day Eve digital storytelling workshop, you’ll have the opportunity to put your gratitude and admiration for these women into your own words.

Honor a mother’s immeasurable gift with a timeless one. Write Them into History at this FREE digital event .

Join us for a memorable and unique celebration of the mothers and other inspiring women in our lives. Gather virtually in a welcoming community to write the stories of the women who made a difference in your life. Your stories will be maintained in New York City’s Municipal Archives forever, becoming a part of history.

WomensActivism.NYC is an open, crowd-sourced digital archive commemorating the anniversary of women’s suffrage in the U.S. by gathering stories and making them available for future generations. We hope to collect 20,000 stories by the close of 2020. Your participation will bring us closer to this goal.

The Pre-Mother’s Day workshop will be offered twice, as follows:

DATE: Saturday May 9, 2020

TIME: 11:00 AM-12:30 PM and/or 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM (EST)

RSVP: https://bit.ly/WAStory20

To participate in the event:

To attend the event, you will need a computer or phone. The workshop will take place via WebEX. Directions on how to access the event will be emailed to everyone who RSVPs through the Eventbrite link above.

In order to add stories to womensactivismnyc, you will need an internet connection.

For questions, comments, or information on how to host a story-gathering event, contact: womensactivism@records.nyc.gov.
We value your feedback. 

NYC Department of Records and Information Services 
31 Chambers Street
New York, NY 10007

 

Join the Everybody's Got a Right to Live Cultural Day of Action on May 20th (Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival)
 

Trump and other extremists are again calling to “reopen the country.” Over the past week, many states have begun to ease restrictions on stay in place orders. These plans to reopen the economy show no regard for human life and are prioritizing the greed and profit of the few over the health of the majority. We cannot be silent as poor and marginalized people are disproportionately hurt by these policies.

This moment calls for all people of conscience to come together to call for moral noncooperation, to stay in place, stay alive and organize, organize, organize!

We need each of you to get involved in the 50 Days of Action leading up to the Mass Poor People’s Assembly and Moral March on Washington Digital Justice Gathering on June 20, 2020. 

Get involved, get organized for June 20, 2020:

Participate in the National Phone Bank

It is more important than ever to get deeply connected with members of the Poor People's Campaign. Folks are having an amazing time talking with people all over the country about June 20th, the critical moment we are in as a nation, and our demands as a campaign. Sign up to get trained, then hit the phones with other phone bankers! 

Sign Up to Phonebank!

Join the Everybody's Got a Right to Live Cultural Day of Action on May 20th

Everybody's Got a Right to Live - Song Share + Art Build Toolkit

Click here to download

The Virtual Art Build Toolkit includes an art-making guide, designs you can use, art-making how-to guides, songs, music tips, and more to participate in an Everybody’s Got a Right to Live Cultural Day of Action on May 20, 2020.  

We are asking people to sign up to make a Virtual Letter Sign Group Banner and we will need your photos by Sunday May 10th. See p.6-10 in the toolkit for more details and sign up to make a letter here!!
Also, see the toolkit for instructions to record your version of the Everybody’s Got a Right to Live song, video frames and Canva instructions (Songs are due Friday May 15th!)

 

The Pandemic, the Economic Crisis and Just Transition - May 27 - Zoom meeting (Labor Network for Sustainability)
 

The Pandemic, the Economic Crisis and Just Transition

Join us for the Launch of the Just Transition Listening Project!

Register to join the Zoom Meeting

Wednesday, May 27, 2020
8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT

Featured Speakers:

• Noam Chomsky, Linguist, historian, philosopher
• Thea Lee, President, Economic Policy Institute
• Robert Pollin, Co-Director, Political Economy Research Institute

On May 27, 2020 the Labor Network for Sustainability and partners will launch the Just Transition Listening Project. Over the course of the next four months we will gather the stories of workers and community members they experience extreme changes in their local economy-the impact of plant closures, jobs lost to automation, company downsizing and market changes, industries impacted by climate change.

The need for a large-scale Just Transition for workers and communities has never been more urgent as more than 30 million workers have applied for unemployment in the past month. Many face the likelihood that they will never go back to their previous jobs. The Coronavirus pandemic and the economic crisis developing as a result offer an important barometer of whether and how we are prepared socially, politically and economically for massive changes to our economy. The shift to the green economy we need in order to confront the climate crisis will require economic shifts on a similar scale.  

The Just Transition Listening Project will offer us important lessons, shared through the experience of workers and community members who have been through such transitions, are going through them now and who face them in the near future. 

We will learn what is in place and what is lacking in government, private sector and community support . We will learn how people adjusted or are adjusting to the changes in their life and work, aspirations for their community and the vision for their local and our global economy. 

These stories will be made available online, through social media and summarized in a published report for policy makers with our findings and recommendations. 

The JTLP will launch on May 27 with a webinar: The Pandemic, the Economic Crisis and Just Transition. An amazing panel that will include renowned linguist, historian and philosopher Noam Chomsky and economic experts Thea Lee, President of the Economic Policy Institute and Robert Pollin, Co-Director of the Political Economy Research Institute will offer their perspectives and projections of how the economic crisis will unfold in the months and years to come and what we must do about it. 

A series of webinars will follow every four weeks after addressing different questions related to Just Transition, including perspectives from workers, the environmental justice movement, indigenous peoples and international movements. 

Please join us for this important national conversation.

Labor Network for Sustainability
P.O. Box #5780
6909 Laurel Avenue
Takoma Park, MD 20913

Contact via email at info@labor4sustainability.org