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Tidbits - Aug. 13, 2020 - Reader Comments: Defeat Trump, Defeat His Base, Elect Progressives; Kamala Harris and Charlotta Bass; COVID; Danger - October Surprise with Iran or China; Matt Herron - R.I.P.; Republican Voters Against Trump; Announcements;

Reader Comments: Defeat Trump, Defeat His Base, Elect Progressives; Kamala Harris and another VP candidate - Charlotta Bass; COVID; Danger - October Surprise with Iran or China; Matt Herron - R.I.P.; Republican Voters Against Trump; Announcements

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, Shorts, AND cartoons - Aug. 13, 2020,Portside

Re: To Defeat Trump, Discredit His Movement, and Elect Progressives - Sign-on letter (Daniel Millstone; Leanna Noble; Todd Allen; Hector Castillo)
Re: Charlotta Bass's Acceptance Speech for Vice Presidential Candidate of the Progressive Party -1952 (Capn' Steve Krüg; Jaime Knowles)
Re: A Virus Has Brought the World’s Most Powerful Country to Its Knees (David Frazer; Michael Munk)
Nothing Stops the Mail (American Postal Workers Union - APWU)
Postal peril  -- cartoon by Mike Luckovich
Re: Revisiting a Revolution of Mexican Art in America (Joseph Kaye)
Re: Trump’s Desperate, Last-Ditch Effort to Hike Tensions with Iran (Donna Horton Frommeyer; Sheri FRech)
Re: What Would It Take to Avert Military Escalation With China in the South China Sea? (Dorothy Jordan)
Re: Class Solidarity: What It Is and How You Can Engage in It (David Richardson)
Re: The US Labor Movement Needs More of the UE’s “Them and Us” Unionism (Eleanor Roosevelt; Lincoln Smith)
Re: Newly Revealed Documents Show How the AFL-CIO Aided US Interference in Venezuela (Carl Foster; Mike Liston)
Greetings from Puerto Rico (Miguel Angel Reyes De Jesus)
If Trump Wins...If Trump Loses  --  cartoon by Mike Stanfill
Re: Letter to the Socialists, Old and New (Victor Grossman)
Re: What Is Portuguese-American Food? (Sonia Collins)
Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) court decision! (Lakota People's Law Project)
Matt Herron - R.I.P. (Ron Carver)

 

Resources:

Republican Voters Against Trump
F*ck La Migra — Poster of the Week (Center for the Study of Political Graphics)
Movement Matters: Building Capacity for Change

 

 

Announcements:

Webinar - The Economics of the COVID-19 Public Health and Economic Crisis - August 14 (National Jobs for All Network)
Webinar  - "Comfort Women": The Day of Remembrance - August 14
Roundtable Discussion with Sunrise Movement, NY WFP & NYC DSA - August 26 (New York Communities for Change)
“The Internationale” - Web Showing and Discussion with Film's Director - August 30 (Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives - ALBA)
28th Jim Perry Progressive Leadership Awards - Albany, NY - September 10 (Citizen Action)

 

Re: To Defeat Trump, Discredit His Movement, and Elect Progressives - Sign-on letter
 

 

If you like this article, please sign up for Snapshot, Portside's daily summary.

(One summary e-mail a day, you can change anytime, and Portside is always free.)

Many friends have signed onto this letter (as did I) which outlines our views as to the path ahead. If you agree as well, perhaps you'll consider signing the letter as well. Thanks to Portside for sending this along.

Daniel Millstone

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

As a retired union member and white woman, I believe many like me are responsible to recognize the genocidal policies and practices of the Trump administration impacting working class POC here in USA and globally on a daily basis as well as the escalated rape & pillaging of Earth. This is why we must take all possible actions to defeat Trump in 2020 elections -- including voting for Biden and as many progressive Dems candidates as possible.

Leanna Noble

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Todd Allen

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

There can never be Justice if a Country is Run by "Fascist Far-Right Anarchist Thugs"

Hector Castillo

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Charlotta Bass's Acceptance Speech for Vice Presidential Candidate of the Progressive Party -1952
 

Thanks for sharing this, reading her speech was inspirational! But wait, some will say, she and the Progressives got trounced, they, like all third parties are a waste of time! Ah, but words have power and ideas need to be shared, where else (as she noted in her speech) were her words and ideas to be heard? Anyone who thinks the Democrats would have would have come to nominate Kamala Harris without leftists nudging them along have not looked at the history of progress. Third party idealists have long been the source of inclusion, economic and ecological sustainability, workers rights, etc, etc,etc.Congratulations to the Democrats, it only took you 68 years to catch up.

Capn' Steve Krüg

     =====

Makes KH acceptance speech seem so paltry.

Jaime Knowles

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: A Virus Has Brought the World’s Most Powerful Country to Its Knees
 

How did it come to this? A virus a thousand times smaller than a dust mote has humbled and humiliated the planet’s most powerful nation. America has failed to protect its people, leaving them with illness and financial ruin. It has lost its status as a global leader. It has careened between inaction and ineptitude. The breadth and magnitude of its errors are difficult, in the moment, to truly fathom.

A sluggish response by a government denuded of expertise allowed the coronavirus to gain a foothold. Chronic underfunding of public health neutered the nation’s ability to prevent the pathogen’s spread. A bloated, inefficient health-care system left hospitals ill-prepared for the ensuing wave of sickness. Racist policies that have endured since the days of colonization and slavery left Indigenous and Black Americans especially vulnerable to COVID‑19. The decades-long process of shredding the nation’s social safety net forced millions of essential workers in low-paying jobs to risk their life for their livelihood. The same social-media platforms that sowed partisanship and misinformation during the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Africa and the 2016 U.S. election became vectors for conspiracy theories during the 2020 pandemic.
 

David Frazer

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

"While countries as different as South Korea, Thailand, Iceland, Slovakia, and Australia acted decisively to bend the curve of infections downward,..."

Why omit China, the best example? We know why. The author is infected with Sinophobia.

Michael Munk

Nothing Stops the Mail
 

American Postal Workers Union, AFL-CIO

Postal peril  -- cartoon by Mike Luckovich
 

Mike Luckovich

August 13, 2020
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Re: Revisiting a Revolution of Mexican Art in America

A most interesting article.  And as a novelist, you would be interested in Sarah E. Wright's This Child's Gonna Live, https://www.feministpress.org/books-n-z/this-childs writing in the spirit of those you have been describing, who is being whited out of Establishment literary history.

Joseph Kaye

Re: Trump’s Desperate, Last-Ditch Effort to Hike Tensions with Iran
 

Looks like he is creating an incident so he can win, and to keep our focus off all the covid deaths

Donna Horton Frommeyer

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

From the article: 

No one officially took credit for the sabotage, but The New York Times reported that a “Middle East intelligence” source admitted that Israel was behind the bombing. An Israeli newspaper later identified the source as Yossi Cohen, head of the Mossad intelligence agency.

Analysts say such a brazen attack, which constitutes an act of war, would need the approval of officials in Washington, D.C.

“If the US did not participate in the attack directly, at the very least it gave Israel its consent,” Muhammad Sahimi, a professor at the University of Southern California and Iran expert, says in an interview.

Some analysts speculate that the Trump Administration is seeking to provoke Iran into military retaliation. Trump could then launch a war, rally support at home, and win the election. It’s a classic “October Surprise” or even a “Wag the Dog” scenario.

Sheri FRech

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: What Would It Take to Avert Military Escalation With China in the South China Sea?
 

Mr. Bone Spurs is itching to be a War time Pres. Of course No one In His family has ever fought for This Country.

Dorothy Jordan

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Re: Class Solidarity: What It Is and How You Can Engage in It
 

Before I saw this I'd never heard of Teen Vogue, let alone thought I would recommend an article from it.

David Richardson

Re: The US Labor Movement Needs More of the UE’s “Them and Us” Unionism
 

Driving the CPUSA out of the CIO was the beginning of the end for the American labor movement.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

UE and ILWU are the two unions that withstood George Meany's AFL-CIO purge of progressives and Communists from the Labor Movement,,both unions were led by progressives (accused of being Communists).

There's a story that ILWU's Harry Bridges used to tell about when he and UE President James Matles compared their pay to see who was the most progressive judging by how much each made. Bridges would laugh and say in his Aussie brogue he won hands down.

Lincoln Smith

Re: Newly Revealed Documents Show How the AFL-CIO Aided US Interference in Venezuela

(posting on Portside Labor)
 

My question to the AFL-CIO is this, how has this helped the cause of rank and file members such as myself?

Carl Foster

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

     =====

Despite the best intentions of millions of workers and even union officials, this is just one more sordid example of why the US labor movement needs to tear down its current administrative structures to the very basement and completely rebuild. Until it does, American workers, workers all over the world, will never have the representation they need and deserve, 

Mike Liston

Greetings from Puerto Rico.
 

Saludos desde Puerto Rico.

En vista de la gran informacion que proven y que con ella ampliamos nuestro conocimiento del uso que, los EE. UU. , le a dado al movimiento sindical de su territorio, para, desarticular los movimientos sindicales progresistas en otros paises. Me gustaria que si es possible, me envien informacion sobre la ingerencia de la AFL-CIO y la SEIU, no solo en nuestro movimiento syndical, Tambien en los asuntos politicos para afectar adversamente nuetra lucha por nuestra independencia.

Miguel Angel Reyes De Jesus
 

[Goggle translation:]

Greetings from Puerto Rico.

In view of the great information that comes from and that with it we expand our knowledge of the use that the United States has given to the union movement in its territory, to dismantle progressive union movements in other countries. I would like you to send me information if possible about the interference of the AFL-CIO and the SEIU, not only in our union movement, but also in political affairs to adversely affect our fight for our independence.
 

If Trump Wins...If Trump Loses  --  cartoon by Mike Stanfill

Mike Stanfill

August 10, 2020
Raging Pencils

Re: Letter to the Socialists, Old and New
 

Dear Chris Townsend, I just read your letter to socialists, old and new, young and old. As one of the oldest (at 92) I wish to tell you that I agree completely with all you wrote. In fact, I wrote a whole book basically saying the same ideas - but based on my own personal experience living most of my life in a country (the GDR) trying to build up socialism - with all its blunders and worse but also all its important successes - all things to learn from. I would be over-happy if you would read and analyze it. But any response would be welcome. (The title is "A Socialist Defector: From Harvard to Karl-Marx-Allee")

Salud! 

Victor Grossman

Re: What Is Portuguese-American Food?

(posting on Portside Culture)
 

I loved kale soup with chorizos and lots of garlic. Thought it was authentic at the time.

Sonia Collins

Posted on Portside's Facebook page

Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) court decision! (Lakota People's Law Project)
 

In case you haven’t yet heard, yesterday an appellate court dropped a big decision in the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s lawsuit to stop the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL). Unfortunately, the court’s ruling did not support immediately shutting down oil flow as we hoped. However, the court also failed to reverse the lower court’s decision to vacate DAPL’s permit to pass under Lake Oahe, Standing Rock’s primary source of drinking water. DAPL’s continued operation is now officially as illegal as it is dangerous.

Click here

You likely recall that, a month ago, D.C. Circuit Court Judge James Boasberg set a 30-day deadline for Energy Transfer to stop pumping oil through DAPL. Yesterday’s appellate court decision is complex, but it essentially delays that deadline while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers decides whether to stop the oil given the absence of a permit. The Corps can demand Energy Transfer comply with the National Environmental Policy Act, shut down the oil, and perform a full Environmental Impact Study.

If that doesn’t happen, we’ll see more arguments before Judge Boasberg. Bottom line, this fight now looks likely to stretch into 2021, when a new administration could revoke DAPL’s permits for good. I urge you to watch my video breakdown, stay tuned for more updates, and keep a positive outlook.

The struggle continues, but hope is on the horizon. We remain optimistic, and we must keep fighting with all our collective strength. We won’t stop until this pipeline is emptied and dug out of our sacred ground. I look forward to the day we can gather together at Standing Rock again — this time to celebrate the end of DAPL, once and for all.
 

Wopila tanka — my eternal appreciation for standing with Standing Rock!

Chase Iron Eyes

Lead Counsel

The Lakota People's Law Project

Lakota People's Law Project

547 South 7th Street #149

Bismarck, ND 58504-5859

Matt Herron - R.I.P.


Matt Herron
Photo by Jeannine Herron.

RIP Matt Herron (1931-2020) A good friend and mentor, Matt was killed Friday afternoon when his glider crashed near Lakeport, California. A great photographer best known for his documentation of the Selma to Montgomery march, Matt’s photographs of the southern freedom movement were published in Life, Look, Time, Newsweek and the Saturday Evening Post.

I am filled with sadness and admiration for a life filled with art and purpose.

In 1964, with the encouragement and support of photographer Dorothea Lange, Matt founded the Southern Documentary Project to cover the civil rights movement.

That year, Matt invited me to work in his dark room at SNCC’s headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia developing film from half a dozen field photographers documenting the struggle against segregation and for voting rights. As far as I know, no other civil rights organization at the time had a full-time photography department.


If you want to see some of the best photographs for the Freedom Movement, I recommend Matt's book "Mississippi Eyes"

Copyright and photograph by Matt Herron. Possibly the most important photograph of the Selma to Montgomery March, the African American museum in Washington, DC has this blown up the size of a wall.

Their photographs alerted America to the brutality of the police, the Klan and the White Citizens Councils, similar to the exposure of police violence that videos are providing today.

Matt later became the president of the American Society of Media Photographers. We remained friends, working on projects together as recently as two months ago, when he helped me by offering proof that the those claiming to have wrested the copyright from the My Lai Massacre photographer Ronald L. Haeberle were making false claims.

Dedicated to his family and the Albany, California Chamber Orchestra where he played the double bass, Matt was passionate about flying gliders…right to the end.


Matt and his wife Jeannine at a SNCC reunion in Mississippi.
Photo by Ron Carver

Read his own words written in 2016, explaining his passion for testing his skills pushing the limits, while pursuing his dreams. It is a "hair-raising" account of his pursuit of soaring's highest honor.

“Last Thursday, May 19, I crossed a big one off my bucket list. I was able to fly my glider to 27,000 feet in mountain wave over Minden, Nevada, a final requirement for the highest award in soaring, the Diamond Badge.

“Why would I ever want to do this? That's a good question that probably only has answers lodged in emotion. I've been flying gliders for more than fourteen years. I've logged more than 1,400 hours in the air. I fly contests and long cross country flights.

And I'm approaching 85, an age when fellow glider pilots begin throwing questioning glances my way: “Is this guy still fit to fly? Isn't it time he began flying that old rocking chair?” There's no easy, and no single answer to those questions. In one attempt, I wrote a piece for Soaring Magazine last year: “You Are Old Father William, The Young (Pilot) Said.”

This flight was another answer, as much for myself as for my friends. In the final analysis, one makes that critical judgment based on personal evaluations of coordination, skill, judgment, and physical conditioning. Personally, I have no doubts – I love this sport, and I know I have some

    good years ahead!

“Mountain wave, for those not familiar with the term, is a meteorological condition in which strong winds rising against a mountain range generate reference waves downstream in much the same way that a stream of fast flowing water generates reference waves below a large rock. If conditions are right, a glider positioned at the leading edge of a downstream wave can rise as if on an elevator to astonishing heights. The current record of over 50,000 feet was achieved in special wave conditions over the Southern Andes.

“At seven last Thursday morning, I stood next to a Minden runway and watched the launch of the Perlan, a custom pressurized glider (the only one in existence) that is being tested here for an attempted record flight in Andes wave to 90,000 feet, the edge of the Troposphere. Only gliders and space shuttles) can fly that high. The air is too thin for engines. (In my much more mundane flight that day, I outdid the Perlan, which encountered technical problems at 24,000.)

“At 10:15 that morning, I sat in my glider on Runway 16, waiting to be hooked to the tow plane. Much preparation had gone into that moment. This past Spring I'd installed a new oxygen system that automatically delivered the correct amount of O2 whenever I took a breath, and I was now wearing a high tech oxygen mask that muffled my voice and made me feel a bit like I was trapped inside a space suit.

I also carried an emergency oxygen bottle. If my system were to fail at 27,000 feet, I would be left with only about three minutes of usable consciousness, but the emergency bottle would certainly get me down to a safe altitude. I was wearing a new parachute and multiple layers of clothing as if for the ski slopes. At the altitude I was attempting, the temperature could be minus 20 Celsius.

“The launch was pretty wild. The wind was above 20 knots with heavy turbulence and I had to devote all my attention to staying behind the tow plane, which was surging above and below (and sometime beside) me. Mountain wave conditions are often accompanied by rotor – turbulent rolling winds sort of like ball bearings tumbling below a rotating wheel – and there was plenty of rotor to contend with.

“Because I needed an unassisted altitude gain of 5,000 meters (about 16,300 feet) to qualify for Diamond, I had instructed the tow pilot that I would release tow at no higher than 10,000 feet, and asked him to wiggle his wings when he felt we were in good position for a climb. FAA regulations set a ceiling of 18,000 for non-commercial aircraft, but in a special exception for gliders, the FAA has established certain “wave windows,” restricted airspace where gliders upon request can fly above the eighteen thousand limit. The Minden wave window has a ceiling of 28,000 feet, and Oakland Flight Center had opened the window that day until noon. Oakland would now vector all commercial flights around the window leaving that space theoretically free of uncomfortably close encounters of the hairy kind!

“I got the wiggle, and released at ten, retracted my landing wheel, and made a brief dive to leave a notch in my flight altitude recorder so it would be clear where unassisted flight had begun. Then began the search for lift. The rotor was pretty wild. It would suddenly and precipitously launch me skyward and then just as quickly dump me toward the ground. There were no clouds to guide me so a patient search was required, but eventually I began to find little bubbles of smooth lift, and after a bit settled into a steady smooth climb, pointing into the wind at 42 knots (just above stall speed), almost stationery over the ground, tracking the audible beep of my variometer, which was showing an average climb rate of close to 1,000 feet per minute. I thought I had it made as I watched the snow capped Sierra Massive drop below me, the blue waters of Lake Tahoe fill out my canopy to the right, and the needle of my altimeter rotate steadily upward.

“Those are the grand moments of any wave flight. It's a magnificent feeling, and I often imagine I can hear the sonorous strains of the Blue Danube Waltz (from the film Two Thousand And One) ringing in my one good ear.

“But of course all good things have to end. I climbed into the wave window at eighteen and rose at a diminishing rate to about 20,000 feet. Now I began noticing icing on my canopy as my breath frosted the inside surface, and I began to worry that the whole canopy might soon ice over and I would lose outside vision. That could be a fatal error and I would have to give up the flight and descend long before I lost outside vision. I opened the canopy vent to let more (very cold) air flow through, which exhausted my frosty breath and prevented further icing. But the wave was clearly dying. My rate of gain fell from ten knots to 2-3 knots, barely enough to sustain altitude, and I began searching to the South and drifting upwind and downwind within the wave band. The success of the flight was now in doubt, but using all my thermalling instincts to locate the best lift, I was able to sustain a very slow ascent. I passed 25,000 and then 26,500, theoretically enough for a Diamond, but I pushed on, adding a safety factor to 27,226 feet the high point of the flight. Was I happy to have made it? And was I more than ready to leave that hostile environment? Take a guess.

“So it was with considerable relief that I pulled spoilers and began my descent. Now my only problem was a safe landing. I learned that ground winds at the airport were now gusting to 32 knots. I've landed before in cross winds (angled to the runway) of 20 knots. It's hairy, but doable. But 32 knots??? I flew over the Minden airport at about 4,000 feet trying without success to get a good fix on a wind sock. Finally I just flew straight into the wind, judging my drift against the runways below, and discovered that I would experience significant cross wind on any of them. The only favorable runway was one that had been abandoned years ago and had large white “X's” painted on each end. But I knew it was landable – rough but landable and I chose that one. I entered pattern high with full spoilers and fought my way down to about 100 feet where the wind moderated and everything got easy. I was soooo grateful to be safe on the ground!

“The rest, of course is anti-climatic: check the certification of the Flight Recorder, coordinate with my "Official Observer," the guy who witnessed my flight, fill out all the paperwork, and hope that all the ducks sit nicely in a row. I won't know until I receive confirmation from the Soaring Society of America, but I'm pretty sure I made a qualifying flight. Wish me luck!”

Ron Carver

posting on Facebook

Republican Voters Against Trump
 

“I’d vote for a tuna fish sandwich before I’d vote for Donald Trump again.”

These are Republicans, former Republicans, conservatives, and former Trump voters who can’t support Trump for president this fall.

Are you a Republican, ex-Republican, or Trump-voter who won't support the president in November? Share your story.

Republican Voters Against Trump, a project of Defending Democracy Together. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate’s committee. defendingdemocracytogether.org

F*ck La Migra — Poster of the Week (Center for the Study of Political Graphics)
 


F*ck La Migra
Xico Gonzalez, Royal Chicano Air Force (RCAF)
Silkscreen, 2006
Sacramento, CA
25960

On Friday, July 31st, Border Patrol agents, under the premise of executing a federal search warrant, arrested more than 30 migrants at the medical aid camp run by the humanitarian group No More Deaths. Agents surrounded the camp after sunset in several armored vehicles, ATVs, and two helicopters as they arrested both undocumented immigrants receiving care, and medical volunteers. The camp is located in Arivaca, Arizona, and serves as a medical site for people passing through one of the deadliest desert corridors.

Three years ago, No More Deaths published documents revealing that the Border Patrol’s national union had ordered a crackdown on the organization’s humanitarian work. Last month’s violent and public raid marks the second time in two years that the Border Patrol has terrorized No More Deaths’ aid stations as a form of retaliation for exposing their corruption.

Some of the agents that took part in the raid appeared to be members of the Border Patrol’s Tactical Unit, known as BORTAC. They are considered to be the Customs and Border Protection equivalent of a SWAT team. These are the same commando-style units that were filmed kidnapping protesters into unmarked cars in Portland.

Since coming into office in 2016, Trump’s xenophobic and hateful anti-immigrant rhetoric has empowered and enabled government agencies like Border Patrol to act unchecked. Their terrorizing actions have only escalated over the years, from the separation of families, children being put in cages, and the ending lifeline programs, such as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and Temporary Protective Status. These agencies need to be reigned-in, held accountable, and defunded.

Sources:

Center for the Study of Political Graphics

3916 Sepulveda Blvd, Suite 103

Culver City, CA 90230

Movement Matters: Building Capacity for Change
 

Cultural Organizing While Physical Distancing: GETTING TENANTS IN RHYTHM

Getting Tenants in Rhythm is the third of four online case examples we created to support and inspire organizers, advocates, and community leaders during Covid19 and the current economic and racial upheavals.

Engaging community members where they live is a vital part of the organizing process. Even when we are limited in how we can gather, a building can be the cornerstone for developing community resistance and resilience. We have seen many examples of using pots and pans to create noise and show solidarity. With additional coordination, arts, and cultural elements, these actions can bring in new members, deepen constituency, and showcase the narrative of a campaign. 

​We welcome questions, thoughts, and dialogue on these tools, including how to apply them to your particular initiative/campaign.  Connect with us!

Movement Matters furthers the vision and capacity of local and national social change and justice organizations. Founded in 2008 by Marta Vizueta Bohórquez and David S. Haiman and based in Washington, DC, Movement Matters brings a unique perspective grounded in decades of direct experience organizing with local Brown, Black, and immigrant communities, while also being informed by deep relationships, connections, and work with other regional and national movement building efforts.​​​ 

Webinar - The Economics of the COVID-19 Public Health and Economic Crisis - August 14 (National Jobs for All Network)
 

Friday, Aug 14, 2020, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM Eastern Time
 

Register in advance for this webinar:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_YMEdssPZQgWWBpVv4J44TA

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. 

Panelists will discuss:

  • Why reopening the economy now is economically counterproductive;
     
  • Why we CAN afford to float the economy and meet people’s needs until it is safe to reopen;
     
  • Why the best way to respond to the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis is to enact legislation that meets current needs while simultaneously laying the foundation for a permanent restructuring of public policy in the United States to build a just, egalitarian and anti-racist society committed to the realization of everyone’s civil, political, economic, social and cultural human rights everywhere in the world.

Speakers:

  • Walter Tsou, former Commissioner of the Philadelphia Department of Health and past President of the American Public Health Association.
  • Philip Harvey, Professor of Law and Economics, Rutgers Law School, and author of Securing the Right to Employment: Social Welfare Policy and the Unemployed in the United States.
  • William Darity, Samuel DuBois Cook Distinguished Professor of Public Policy, Professor of African and African American Studies, and Professor of Economics, Duke University, and coauthor, with Kirsten Mullen of From Here to Equality: Reparations for Black Americans in the Twenty-First Century.
  • Radhika Balakrishnan, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies, Rutgers University, Faculty Director of the Rutgers Center for Women’s Global Leadership, and co-author with James Heintz and Diane Elson of Rethinking Economic Policy for Social Justice: The Radical Potential of Human Rights.
  • Joel Segal, Co-Founder and Board Member, Progressive Democrats of America; Co-Convenor, US National COVID-19 Emergency Response Group; and former Staffer to Rep. John Conyers with responsibility for overseeing H.R. 676, Rep. Conyers’s Medicare for All Act, and H.R. 1000, Mr. Conyers’s “Humphrey-Hawkins 21st Century Full Employment and Training Act,” also known as the “Jobs for All Act.”
  •  Alan Minsky, Executive Director, Progressive Democrats of America; long-time progressive activist and journalist.

Contact:

Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director, Build A Movement 2020 

mobile: +1-202-365-6786 | email: drpaulzeitz@gmail.com

websites: Dr. Paul Zeitz & Build A Movement 2020 & breathewithme 

Webinar - "Comfort Women": The Day of Remembrance - August 14
 

Tomorrow, Friday, 14 August at 9PM ET, we will be hosting our third webinar of a four-part series, "Comfort Women": The Day of Remembrance. 

What is the Day of Remembrance and why is it particularly significant?

Also known as Japanese Military Comfort Women Victims Memorial Day, it was on this day in 1991 that a comfort woman survivor, Kim Hak-soon, became the first to testify about the hardships she went through during WWII. It was a watershed moment, breaking decades of silence of women who could not speak of their suffering in the hostile societies of a post-war world.

Following her precedent, other courageous testimonies began to emerge in other countries. It became apparent that although Kim Hak-soon was a South Korean woman, her suffering was shared by scores of women in China, the Philippines, Southeast Asia, and many others in Japan and Japan-occupied territories who were forced into comfort women stations and abused. In honour of the voices who dwelt on the margins, this webinar seeks to introduce the problem of "comfort women" in other countries beyond Korea. It hopes to demonstrate that this is an international issue transcending national boundaries, and requires global commitment to fully resolve. 

Who will be speaking and how are their voices relevant to the Day of Remembrance?

Foremost on the agenda is a testimony by a Filipino "Comfort Women" survivor, as we commemorate the remarkable bravery and strength of women who lived and spoke for justice in spite of their pain.

We are also delighted to have with us Professor Peipei Qiu and Professor Yoshimi Yoshiaki, distinguished and pioneering scholars on the "comfort women" issue in China and Japan respectively. Their longstanding work in this field of contested history traces the development and history of the "comfort women" advocacy movement. Complementarily, Judith Mirkinson of the "Comfort Women" Justice Coalition and Sharon Cabusao of Lila-Pilipina will speak about their experiences and leadership in their advocacy.

Click Here to RSVP for Webinar  

Zoom Invitation will be sent upon RSVP

Feel free to also drop us an email at standwithcomfortwomenyale@gmail.com.

Stay tuned for more updates in the coming days: including the detailed webinar agenda, relevant links, and more. Follow our social media pages below!

In community,

STAND @ Yale (WebsiteInstagramFacebook)

"Comfort Women" Justice Coalition (WebsiteInstagramFacebook)

Comfort Women Action for Redress and Education (WebsiteInstagramFacebook)

GABRIELA USA (WebsiteInstagramFacebook)

Lila-Pilipina (Facebook)
 

Roundtable Discussion with Sunrise Movement, NY WFP & NYC DSA - August 26 (New York Communities for Change)
 

A Roundtable with Varshini Prakash, Bianca Cunningham, Sochie Nnaemeka

Join us at 6:30PM on Wednesday, August 26th...

FREE - Register here

NYCOFI's 11th Celebration of the Work of New York Communities for Change!

We didn't want the pandemic to stop us from celebrating our 11th year of organizing victories and the brilliance of our honorees:

  • Sochie Nnaemeka of New York Working Families Party
  • Bianca Cunningham of NYC-DSA
  • Varshini Prakash of the Sunrise Movement

Join us for an intimate roundtable discussion with our special honorees! We've heard from them about the latest climate policy, winning electoral strategies, sustaining national grassroots movement to radically transform the world. But how do they care for themselves? How do they sustain themselves in this moment? From their morning routine to the things that keep them grounded and going, hear our honorees answer the hard and honest questions!

All donations to this page will be made to our 501c4 New York Communities for change and are not tax-deductible.

To make tax-deductible donations, please visit here.

New York Communities Organizing Fund, Inc. (NYCOFI)

“The Internationale” - Web Showing and Discussion with Film's Director - August 30 (Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives - ALBA)
 

Sunday, August 30, 5 PM EDT/2 PM PDT

Join ALBA for “The Internationale” - The award-winning documentary about the revolutionary anthem; 

Followed by a discussion with the film’s director, ALBA Board member Peter Miller

Other special guests to be announced!

"A stirring documentary about the radical song and its impact on social change throughout the world." - 

- Detroit Free Press

Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives

239 West 14th Street, Suite 2

New York, NY
info@alba-valb.org

(212) 674-5398

28th Jim Perry Progressive Leadership Awards - Albany, NY - September 10 (Citizen Action)
 

Please join us as we celebrate the 28th Jim Perry Progressive Leadership Awards from 6-8pm on Thursday, September 10, 2020. This year we'll be honoring:

  • Laura Felts, Executive Director of United Tenants of Albany;
  • Lisa Good, Founder of Urban Grief;
  • Angela Warner, Director of Social Justice Ministries at St. Vincent de Paul Church; and
  • Bhawin Suchak and Darian Henry, Co-founders of YouthFX.

Due to the event capacity limitations brought about by COVID-19, in-person attendance for the event will be limited to this year's honorees, honoree-invited guests, Citizen Action staff, and Capital District chapter board members. All other registrants will have the ability to participate in the event virtually via Zoom; registering using the form below will automatically register you for the Zoom event as well. Please note that each ticket must be purchased individually.

To join the honorary committee for this event, please click here. To become a sponsor or purchase an ad, you can click here.

If you have any questions, please contact Andrew at perry@citizenactionny.org.

Citizen Action of New York

Phone: 518.465.4600
info@citizenactionny.org