Preparing to board a train to the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 1963 -- Daily LIFT#128
On the way to the historic civil rights march and demonstration at which Martin Luther King Jr. gave the
"I Have a Dream" speech.
Showing posts with label Martin Luther King Jr.. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Martin Luther King Jr.. Show all posts
Friday, February 14, 2020
Friday, December 13, 2019
"We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." -- Daily LIFT #73
"We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
-- Daily LIFT #73
Tuesday, January 29, 2019
The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress - Martin Luther King Jr.
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Imperialist Attack on Venezuela -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos January 20 - 27
This list covers the week of January 20 - 27.
In addition to a general overview of news and opinion, this week's installment begins with a large section devoted to the ongoing attempts of the United States with its lackeys in Canada and Europe to overthrow the legitimate government of Venezuela and install a regime beholden to imperialism and global capital.
1) Fears of US-Backed 'Coup' in Motion as Trump Recognizes Venezuela Opposition Lawmaker as 'Interim President'
Jon Queally, Common Dreams
"Before the people and nations of the world, and as constitutional president," declared Maduro to a crowd of red-shirted supporters gathered outside the presidential residence in Caracas, "I've decided to break diplomatic and political relations with the imperialist U.S. government."
2) Venezuela's VP to Mike Pence: 'Yankee, Go Home'
Telesur
Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodriguez Tuesday said U.S. Vice President Mike Pence was "openly calling for a coup d'état in Venezuela " after Pence issued a video message of support to the Venezuelan opposition to encourage those who are protesting against President Nicolas Maduro and underline U.S. backing for opposition lawmaker Juan Guaido, the self-appointed head of the suspended National Assembly.
Read: In Venezuela as in Chile, what is past is prologue
In the strongest words possible I denounce US aggression against Venezuela, as an international observer in the 2018 elections for President I stand in support of the democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro - Don Foreman
Read: Which of these countries is not like the other? -- A Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland Imperialism Quiz!
3) New Coup Attempt In Venezuela Led by Juan Guaido
Telesur
The Venezuelan right-wing, backed by the United States and other right-wing governments in the region, continue with their coup agenda against the Bolivarian government.
4) Mexico backs Maduro as Venezuela president amid crisis
France 24
Mexico still backs Nicolas Maduro as Venezuelan president, the government's top spokesman said Wednesday after the head of Venezuela's opposition-controlled legislature declared himself interim president.
5) Venezuelan Armed Forces Recognize Maduro as President
Telesur
Venezuela’s Defense Minister, Vladimir Padrino Lopez, declared Wednesday that the National Bolivarian Armed Forces (FANB) refuses to accept the opposition leader Juan Guaido as the interim president of the Latin American country.
6) Venezuela to receive 2,000 Cuban doctors pulled from Brazil: Maduro
Reuters
Venezuela will receive 2,000 Cuban doctors who left Brazil following a dispute between the Communist-run island and the government of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who ordered an end to their stay after taking office this year.
7) Cuba expresses ‘support’ for Venezuela’s Maduro after ‘coup attempt’
Politiko
Cuba sprang to the defense of its socialist ally Nicolas Maduro on Wednesday, expressing its “support” for the Venezuela president and hitting out at “imperialist” foes after opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself president.
8) Canada will host meeting of the Lima Group on Venezuela: source
Reuters
Canada will host a meeting of the Lima Group regional bloc to discuss next steps in Venezuela, where opposition leader Juan Guaido has sworn himself in as interim president, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.
9) Jagmeet Singh questions Canada’s recognition of Venezuelan opposition leader
Alex Ballingall, The Toronto Star
NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is questioning Canada’s decision to recognize a Venezuelan opposition leader as the country’s interim president, after prominent members of his party lashed out at the Liberal government’s foreign policy move Thursday.
10) Hands off Venezuela! No support for made in the USA coup d’etat
Communist Party of Canada
The Communist Party of Canada condemns the Canadian government’s recognition of Juan Guaido, leader of Venezuela’s opposition and self-proclaimed President of Venezuela, as the ‘legitimate’ President of Venezuela; and we condemn the Canadian government’s endorsement of the US call for the Venezuelan military to overthrow the popularly elected and legitimate government of Nicolas Maduro.
11) Freeland spoke to Venezuelan opposition leader two weeks before he declared himself interim president, source says
Michelle Zilio, The Globe and Mail
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland spoke with Juan Guaido to congratulate him on unifying opposition forces in Venezuela, two weeks before he declared himself interim president.
12) Canadian labour group blasts Ottawa’s ‘provocative’ stance on Venezuela
Levon Sevunts, The Globe and Mail
An umbrella group of Canadian labour and civil society organizations says Canada’s recognition of Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s interim president will only lead to more internal conflict and polarization, and sets in motion a diplomatic showdown between Caracas and Ottawa.
13) Declaration of the Revolutionary Government: The aggression against Venezuela must stop
MINREX
The Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba strongly condemns and rejects the attempt to impose through a coup a puppet government in the service of the United States in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and expresses its unwavering solidarity with the Government of the constitutional president Nicolás Maduro Moros.
14) ‘Resistance’ Media Side With Trump to Promote Coup in Venezuela
Alan MacLeod, FAIR
We like to think we have an adversarial media—one that will stand up, in particular, to Donald Trump. The media assured us that they would perform their crucial democratic role in holding this dangerous new president and commander-in-chief accountable at every turn. This struck a chord with the public; in the wake of Trump’s victory in 2016, the New York Times added over a quarter-million digital subscribers in a matter of weeks. “Democracy,” after all, “Dies in Darkness,” as the Washington Post tells us on every webpage.
Yet on Trump’s support for regime change in Venezuela, the “resistance” media are lining up shoulder to shoulder with the president.
15) CUPE Statement on the situation in Venezuela
CUPE
The Canadian government was one of the first governments in the world to declare support for Juan Guaidó. In doing so, they have chosen to side with a self-declared leader over President Nicolás Maduro, who was duly elected by the people of Venezuela. They have also chosen to side with Donald Trump and US foreign policy.
16) Venezuela, Many Nations, Reject US-Led Interventionism at UNSC Session
Telesur
On Saturday the United Nations (U.N.) Security Council was summoned by the United States to meet Saturday to discuss the internal situation of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Minister Jorge Arreaza delivered a speech defending Venezuela against the U.S. interventionism and was backed by several countries from across the world.
17) The Radicalization of U.S. Policy on Venezuela
Steve Ellner, Venezuela Analysis
Washington’s recognition of the shadow government headed by Venezuelan National Assembly president Juan Guaidó is one more demonstration of how the Trump administration has radicalized foreign policy positions and in doing so violates international law, including the OAS charter.
18) Hands off Venezuela!
Communist Party USA
The already dangerous situation involving Venezuela has suddenly escalated over the last few days, as the legally elected president, Nicolas Maduro, has prepared to start a new term.
19) Role of America and local capitalist cronies clear in Venezuelan coup
Heiko Khoo, China.org
A coup d'état is underway in Venezuela seeking to oust President Nicolás Maduro and install a U.S. puppet in his place – 35-year-old opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
20) Venezuelan President Maduro Leads Military Exercises 'To Guarantee Peace'
Telesur
At this event, the military reiterated their support for the Bolivarian Revolution, the constitution and the defense of the homeland.
21) Trump’s fascist aggression on Venezuela will flop, says Musumali
Chambwa Moonga, The Mast
“Trump and his Vice-President, Mike Pence, all their lackeys in the Americas, will be made to swallow their endorsements of those spineless puppets in Venezuela. We will make sure that the voice of the African leftists is heard loud and clear. We are unequivocal in our support of the leadership of Comrade Maduro and we pledge our undying solidarity to the multitudes of that county’s working class masses who have continued to rally behind our comrades in Venezuela,” Dr Musumali said. “The Socialist Party (Zambia) also pledge undying solidarity with the federal government employees in the US who, due to Trump’s failed leadership, have gone for over a month without getting their pay cheque following an unprecedented Government Shutdown driven by Trump’s fascist tendencies.”
22) Maduro rejects ultimatum on fresh elections in Venezuela
The Guardian
Venezuela’s embattled president, Nicolás Maduro, has rejected an international ultimatum to call elections within eight days, and said the opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, had violated the country’s constitution by declaring himself leader.
23) Bolivia's Right-Wing Follows Latest Trend, Plans to Boycott Primary Elections
Telesur
The right-wing script continues in Latin America, opposition parties will boycott primary elections in Bolivia scheduled for Sunday to elect the parties candidates for president and vice president for the presidential elections in October.
24) Trying to sue socialism: Trump ratchets up the pressure on Cuba
Rob Miller, The Morning Star
Using a previously unenforced law against trade with Cuba, the Trump administration is heading towards a major showdown with the international community.
25) U.S govt shutdown exposes capitalism’s unending crises – Socialist Party
Chambwa Moonga, The Mast
DR Cosmas Musumali says the month-long Donald Trump-orchestrated U.S federal government shutdown where over 800,000 public service workers have gone for weeks without pay is an indictment on those neoliberal bureaucrats still living in denial that the end of capitalism is in sight.
26) Time to Break the Silence on Palestine
Michelle Alexander, The New York Times
Martin Luther King Jr. courageously spoke out about the Vietnam War. We must do the same when it comes to this grave injustice of our time.
27) Martin Luther King was no prophet of unity. He was a radical
Bhaskar Sunkara, The Guardian
King was a champion of the poor and oppressed. If we want to truly honor his legacy, we’ll struggle to finish his work.
28) World's 26 richest people own as much as poorest 50%, says Oxfam
Larry Elliott, The Guardian
The growing concentration of the world’s wealth has been highlighted by a report showing that the 26 richest billionaires own as many assets as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of the planet’s population.
29) 'MAGA hat boys' reportedly filmed harassing girls before stand-off with Native American man
Loweena Roberts, INDY 100
A video has emerged on social media reportedly showing the Covington Catholic High School boys 'harrassing' young women, said to have taken place before the viral moment with the Native American protestor happened.
30) The US is still not ready to look at the ugly racism against Native Americans
Julian Brave NoiseCat, The Guardian
The standoff between students and a Native American man reveals who gets compassion, and who doesn’t.
31) How conservative media transformed the Covington Catholic students from pariahs to heroes
Jason Wilson, The Guardian
In just four days, teenager Nick Sandmann and his fellow students at Covington Catholic high school have gone from social media pariahs to conservative heroes.
32) The MAGA Teens Knew They Would Get the Benefit of the Doubt
Jay Willis, GQ
From the moment Nick Sandmann planted himself in front of Nathan Phillips, surrounded by dancing, whooping Covington Catholic students who found the elderly drummer's very existence to be at once amusing and worthy of their scorn, the only thing more inevitable than the initial outrage was the tsunami of counter-outrage directed at anyone who had the audacity to be mad that MAGA-hat-wearing teenagers would mock a Vietnam-era veteran. The campaign, which laundered Sandmann's statement through the usual sequence of right-wing media outlets, ended as all defenses of bigotry cloaked as even-handed appeals to civility do: with a pronouncement of judgment from the man who made his hat famous.
33) Portraying the MAGA Teens as Victims Is an Extension of Native American Erasure
Nick Estes, The Intercept
BY NOW, MILLIONS around the world have seen the viral video of dozens of Catholic schoolboys sporting “Make America Great Again,” or MAGA, hats tomahawk-chopping and mocking a Native elder, who was drumming and singing at the feet of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Nathan Phillips, the military veteran and water protector from the Omaha Nation, waded into the crowd of high school students, as he tried to defuse a tense situation between the students and a group of black Israelites who were taunting Natives and passers-by with racist and homophobic comments. It was an iconic moment loaded with history. And what should have been a time of soul-searching for a nation founded on Indigenous genocide has instead morphed into an attack on Indigenous people.
34) NO FIXED ADDRESS
Nicholas Hune-Brown, Toronto Life
Shelters are overwhelmed, social housing is a mess, rents are exorbitant. The cost: 100 deaths a year. How a city obsessed with growth and prosperity forgot about its most vulnerable.
35) Toronto abandons its homeless people
Paul Salvatori, NOW Magazine
Maybe Mayor John Tory needs to pay a visit to the encampments of homeless people living under the Gardiner to understand the unnecessary human suffering being caused by the housing crisis in our city.
36) Doug Ford scrapping rate protection for more than 325,000 Ontario hydro customers
Brian Hill and Jamie Mauracher, Global News
Premier Doug Ford’s government is scrapping legislation that aims to regulate the price of electricity for more than 325,000 hydro customers in Ontario.
37) Rebranding solitary confinement doesn’t change what it is
Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, The Globe and Mail
There was a time when an unconstitutional government policy was not something lamented then simply rebranded. Once a court found it unconstitutional, the practice just ... ended, especially when politicians had campaigned against it. Not so solitary confinement – an old practice that today’s Parliament loves to hate, hates to love, but just keeps on doing.
38) Pride Toronto members vote no to allowing police to march in annual parade
CBC News
Members of Pride Toronto voted Tuesday night against allowing police to participate in the city's annual parade amid frustrations among many over the organization's recent invitation to police to rejoin the march.
39) Striking LA Teachers Reach Agreement With School District
Telesur
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) announced a resolution Tuesday, which ended the first teachers' strike in more than 30 years.
40) Mexico: 40,000 Factory Workers Strike for Better Wages
Telesur
Demanding an increase in wage and compensation bonus, almost 40,000 factory workers stopped working in around 50 factories in Matamoros, Mexico.
41) Fact-Checking the Jewish National Fund of Canada
Michelle Weinroth, Socialist Project Bullet
My parents first met in 1945 on the subway cars of New York city. They were 16 years of age. Like many Zionist youth of the post-war era, they were dedicated to world peace. Emissaries of the Zionist youth movement (Hashomer Hatzair), they gave fiery speeches in support of Jews seeking safe haven in Palestine. The little blue and white tin they passed around the subway riders served to garner countless donations for the Jewish National Fund (JNF), a charitable organization devoted to purchasing and ‘reclaiming’ land in Palestine for Jews – for Jews only, that is.
42) Kshama Sawant Is Running for City Council Again
Rich Smith, The Stranger
On Thursday morning at Saba Ethiopian Cuisine, a restaurant in the Central District she's trying to save from displacement, two-term incumbent Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant announced her re-election campaign. Little hints of a run have been popping up the last few weeks, but now it's really official.
43) Half of Saskatchewan families on verge of bankruptcy
Ronald Quaroni, Laronge Now
Saskatchewan families are just barely staying financially afloat.
44) Brazil's sole openly gay congressman leaves country after death threats
The Guardian
Brazil’s first and only openly gay congressman has announced that he is leaving his job – and the country – after receiving death threats.
45) Hundreds of nonviolent immigration detainees sent to max-security jails as part of ‘abhorrent’ government program
Brendan Kennedy, The Toronto Star
Canada’s immigration authorities locked up nearly 1,500 nonviolent immigration detainees in maximum-security jails last year, the Star has found.
46) Birmingham Civil Rights Institute Reaffirms Award for Angela Davis
Democracy Now
The Birmingham Civil Rights Institute board has voted to reaffirm leading activist and scholar Angela Davis as the recipient of its Fred L. Shuttlesworth Human Rights Award, after previously rescinding the award over her activism for Palestinian rights.
47) Sun Boss Goes To Work For Doug Ford
Johnathan Goldsbie, Canadaland
In one of the more direct lines from media into politics that this country has seen, James Wallace, vice president of editorial for the Sun papers, announced this morning that he will be leaving Postmedia to take a job in the office of Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Reports indicate that he will become one of Ford’s deputy chiefs of staff.
48) Alberta Is Playing a Dangerous Game with Pipeline Ad Campaign
Mitchell Anderson, The Tyee
Not merely cynical and inaccurate, the campaign to portray Albertans as victims also risks emboldening a growing number of extremist elements hijacking “yellow vest” protests.
49) She Wanted to Drive, So Saudi Arabia’s Ruler Imprisoned and Tortured Her
Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
Remember this name: Loujain (pronounced Loo-JAYNE) al-Hathloul. She is 29 years old and a courageous advocate for gender equality — so she is in a Saudi Arabian prison, and reportedly our Saudi allies have tortured her, even waterboarded her.
50) Far-right Poles protest government at Auschwitz on Holocaust Remembrance Day
The Times of Israel
A far-right Polish activist gathered with other nationalists outside the former Auschwitz death camp to protest Poland’s government.
51) Why incels are a 'real and present threat' for Canadians
The Fifth Estate · CBC News
A Colorado man named Christopher Cleary took to social media and laid out the plan for an attack that was coming together in his mind.
See also: L.A. Teacher's Strike, Gillette, Doug Ford, Neo-Nazis in Ukraine & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos January 13 - 20
Sunday, April 8, 2018
Gaza Massacre, Jewdas, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 1 - 8
This list covers the week of April 1 - 8. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.
This installment has one entry from before the period. It has been integrated into the post.
1) Denmark Gets First Public Statue of a Black Woman, a ‘Rebel Queen’
Martin Sorensen, The New York Times
The statue of the woman is nearly 23 feet tall. Her head is wrapped and she stares straight ahead while sitting barefoot, but regally, in a wide-backed chair, clutching a torch in one hand and a tool used to cut sugar cane in the other.
Read the full article.
2) Gaza is Soweto revisited
Andrew Mitrovica, Al Jazeera
We're angry because strutting liberal hypocrites like Canada's equally effervescent foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, issued a "blistering" statement denouncing Russia's alleged nerve gas poisoning of an ex-spy and his daughter on English soil as a "despicable, heinous and reckless act [that] represents a clear threat to the rules-based international order," but, like her boss, remains silent as unarmed Palestinians were murdered on Palestinian soil by "our friends" in the Middle East.
Read the full article.
3) Israel Kills Palestinians and Western Liberals Shrug. Their Humanitarianism Is a Sham.
Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept
There is no other conclusion: The ongoing and glaring refusal of liberal interventionists in the West to say even a word about the need to protect occupied Palestinians from state-sponsored violence is a reminder of just how morally bankrupt and cynically hypocritical the whole “liberal intervention” shtick is.
Read the full article.
4) Debunking Israel's Talking Points on Deadly Gaza Protests
Marilyn Garson, Haaretz
In 1988 at the gates of Jerusalem’s Old City, I watched Palestinian youths face down Israeli soldiers. The soldiers held rifles, while the Palestinians held stones. That asymmetry sent the Judaism of my childhood crashing headlong into my sense of justice. The stones demanded that I ask, “What could make a young man risk his life this way?"
Read the full article.
5) Palestinian Journalist Wearing Press Jacket Killed by Israeli Fire in Gaza
Jack Khoury and Yaniv Kubovich, Haaretz
The photographer Yaser Murtaja was shot in the chest and four additional journalists were injured by live fire. Israeli army: We did not intend to shoot journalists, circumstances under investigation
Read the full article.
6) In Wake of Gaza Massacre, Israeli Leaders Should Be Prosecuted for War Crimes
Marjorie Cohn, Truthout
On March 30, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers shot 773 unarmed Palestinian protesters in Gaza, killing 17 and wounding 1,400. Twenty remain in critical condition. The protesters were marching to demand the internationally mandated right of return of refugees to their cities and villages in what now constitutes Israel.
The Israeli leaders who ordered the massacre were in clear violation of international law. They should be prosecuted for war crimes.
Read the full article.
7) Teacher Strikes Are Spreading Across America With No End in Sight
Josh Eidelson, Bloomberg
One month after a teachers’ “wildcat” strike ended with a deal to hike pay for all West Virgina state employees, teacher strikes are spreading fast across the country, with no clear endgame in sight.
Read the full article.
8) Wave of teachers' wildcat strikes spreads to Oklahoma and Kentucky
Mike Elk, The Guardian
On Easter Sunday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, those not found in the church could be found touring the Woody Guthrie center downtown. Easter weekend is a time for families and this weekend Oklahoma’s have one thing on their mind: on Monday, teachers in over 100 school districts in Oklahoma are poised to go on strike, demanding higher pay.
Read the full article.
9) Jeremy Corbyn celebrated Passover with us. It’s a simple good news story
Jewdas, The Guardian
As a radical Jewish collective, we were delighted Corbyn came to our seder. To claim we are not ‘real’ Jews is offensive and antisemitic.
Read the full article.
10) Jewdas, Corbyn and the policing of Jewishness
Eleanor Penny, Red Pepper
Last week, Israeli soldiers opened fire on Land Day protesters at the Gazan border wall, killing 17 and injuring hundreds more. They were demonstrating against the occupation, and against a decade-long blockade that has brought the territory to its knees – starving it of food, power and basic medical supplies. Some might want you to think that being a ‘real Jew’ means turning a blind eye to the daily tyrannies of life under Israeli occupation. There are many, many Jews who disagree – and who are (say it with me) no less Jewish because of it. If anything, the lesson of Passover is that the struggle for liberation still continues – not in some heavenly paradise, but right here on earth.
Read the full article.
11) Jeremy Corbyn attacked for celebrating Passover with Jews - but apparently Jewdas are the wrong sort of Jews
Ben Gelblum, The London Economic
Tonight in perhaps the most bizarre chapter in the Jeremy Corbyn anti-Semitism row, he has come under criticism from the usual suspects for celebrating Passover with Jews in his constituency. But these are the wrong sort of Jews apparently. – Left wing Jews.
Read the full article.
12) Tariffs Aren’t the Best Way To Protect U.S. Steelworkers. Global Solidarity Is.
Katy Fox-Hodess, In These Times
The enthusiasm with which the AFL-CIO and United Steelworkers (USW) greeted Trump’s announcement of a global tariff on steel and aluminum exports raises significant questions about the U.S. labor movement’s commitment to international solidarity.
Read the full article.
13) For women, kids and families — we need universal child care
Joshua Ostroff , CBC News
Daycare not only allowed us to develop careers, but also helped us raise a son who is smart and empathetic, even though it came at a financially punishing cost for our young family. That's an important piece of this puzzle and why we need universal child care.
Read the full article.
14) Ottawa woman facing blindness pleads with province to cover sight-saving procedure
Ashley Burke, CBC News
"The Ontario government needs to step up," Boich agreed. "They need to wake up and see this is not an elective surgery. It's something that needs to be done. My vision is worth so much more than the pricetag."
Read the full article.
15) It’s not Winnie Madikizela-Mandela but the Western gaze on her that’s tarnished
Shree Paradkar, The Toronto Star
It’s a hypocritical world that condemns violence selectively, and the New York Times, the fireplace around which liberal-minded elites gather to claim their progressive nonracist bona fides, provides a classic example of it.
Read the full article.
16) So-called ‘intellectuals’ can’t let go of “The Bell Curve”
Alex Nichols, The Outline
Murray, Sullivan, Harris, and Peterson are all enamored with the authority imbued in the word “science,” but they balk at the reality of scientific research, which includes empirical testing, transparency of methods, and a lengthy process of peer review. If the science were truly as established as they seem to think it is, they wouldn’t need to rely on sophistry, deflection and debunked studies by neo-Nazi affiliates whenever critiques arise. Oddly enough, given the numerous parallels between their belief systems, Murray and Harris are agnostic and atheist, respectively, while Sullivan and Peterson are committed Christians. Peterson even once gave a lecture criticizing Harris’ militant opposition to religion titled “The Problem with Atheism.” It would seem that religious belief or lack thereof is largely irrelevant to what really motivates all these men and their overwhelmingly white and male fans — a desire to defend an indefensible status quo from which they psychologically and materially benefit. As long as they get there, the path they take to that conclusion is unimportant.
Read the full article.
17) Punishing women with the death penalty would cut abortions, Idaho candidate says
Kimberlee Kruesi, Idaho Statesman
A Republican lieutenant governor candidate on Tuesday softened his stance that women who get an abortion should be punished if it is ever criminalized in Idaho, a day after saying the punishment should include the death penalty.
Read the full article.
18) Canada Continues to Meddle in Venezuela's Elections
Yves Engler, Venezuela Analysis
Is there no voice in Parliament willing to denounce Canadian interference in another country’s electoral process?
Read the full article.
19) Dance, Dance, Revolution: Exploring Soviet Disco
Jordy Cummings, Red Wedge
The legacy of 1917 could indeed be carried out, so thought its practitioners, in particular the dedicated space disco of Zodiac, by bleeping synths and pounding polyrhythms. It may not have been fully luxury but it certainly was automated “communism.” The idea that a cultural producer would take the responsibility not merely to make bodies move on the dance floor, but to further the great legacy of non-capitalist, dialectically elegant art of the early Soviet avant-garde may seem distant, and contradictory to our understanding of the late Soviet Union as a highly repressive society. But an expression of the possibility of other worlds in Soviet disco was intrinsic to the role it played, both in the history of dance music, but also in the history of Soviet culture. It retains its charm not merely by being kitsch, but is every bit a legacy of Soviet culture as are the films of Tarkovsky. And unlike the ‘high art’ of Tarkovsky, one can indeed imagine Soviet people from all walks of life, including of course, the happy-go-lucky Putin, letting their regimented bodies go loose and wild on the dance floor. As DJs continue to dig in the crates for new textures for their sonic tapestries, let’s hope for a deeper revival of Soviet disco music.
Read the full article.
20) 40 PERCENT OF WHITES THINK BLACK PEOPLE JUST NEED TO TRY HARDER, POLL FINDS
Tim Marcin, Newsweek
Forty percent of white Americans think black people would be just as well off as white people if they worked harder, according to a new poll from YouGov on Wednesday.
Read the full article.
21) Martin Luther King Jr was a radical. We must not sterilize his legacy
Cornel West, The Guardian
The major threat of Martin Luther King Jr to us is a spiritual and moral one. King’s courageous and compassionate example shatters the dominant neoliberal soul-craft of smartness, money and bombs. His grand fight against poverty, militarism, materialism and racism undercuts the superficial lip service and pretentious posturing of so-called progressives as well as the candid contempt and proud prejudices of genuine reactionaries. King was neither perfect nor pure in his prophetic witness – but he was the real thing in sharp contrast to the market-driven semblances and simulacra of our day.
Read the full article.
22) What does the Belfast rape trial tell women? Make a complaint and you'll be vilified
Hadley Freeman, The Guardian
Last week, women got a reminder that if they say they were assaulted on a night out, they will almost certainly be blamed, from what they wore to the text messages they sent. This time, the reminder came courtesy of what the media have dubbed the Belfast rape trial, in which Irish rugby players Paddy Jackson and Stuart Olding were cleared of raping a 19-year-old woman, and two of their friends, Blane McIlroy and Rory Harrison, were cleared of indecent exposure and perverting the course of justice, respectively.
Read the full article.
23) Skripal poisoning: deleted Foreign Office tweet leads to awkward questions
Pippa Crerar, The Guardian
Boris Johnson is facing embarrassing questions over his claims that Russia had produced the Salisbury nerve agent after it emerged that the Foreign Office had deleted a tweet blaming Moscow for the attack.
Read the full article.
24) Why Doug Trump and Donald Ford are cut from the same froth
Martin Regg Cohn, The Toronto Star
There are no two Doug Trumps, and Donald Ford is truly unique. True enough. But truthfully, can we tell them apart?
Read the full article.
25) Richard Poplak sets Jordan B Peterson’s house in order: a (scorching) review of 12 Rules For Life
Richard Poplak, The Johannesburg Review of Books
Imagine a self-help book written by the Darth Maul of tenured campus bad boys, an act of trahison des clercs so severe that it calls into question the entire five-thousand-year academic project—a book that seeks to make accessible to a general audience a mélange of mysticism, philosophy, psychology and dietary recommendations, assembled into a package so intellectually low-cal that it would be hilarious were it not basically a to-do list for a generation of tiki torch-wielding neo-Klansmen.
Read the full article.
26) Deadly force: Fatal encounters with police in Canada: 2000-2017
Jacques Marcoux and Katie Nicholson, CBC News
In the absence of a national accounting of such encounters between Canadian citizens and law enforcement, a team of CBC researchers spent six months assembling the first country-wide database of every person who died or was killed during a police intervention.
Read the full article.
27) Alberta to introduce 'safe zones' around abortion clinics
Michelle Bellefontaine, CBC News
The Alberta government will introduce a bill Thursday to establish "safe zones" around abortion clinics, a move aimed at protecting women, staff and physicians from being harassed by protesters.
Read the full article.
28) Free speech fear-mongering is the elite equivalent of ‘It’s OK to be white’ posters
Shree Paradkar, The Toronto Star
Are we really upset over free speech rights? Or as, Shree Paradkar writes, is it about censoring the protests, for fear that the gatekeeping role on what topics are OK to debate be taken away from groups that have traditionally had that power?
Read the full article
29) Why did Canada expel four Russian diplomats? Because they told the truth
Thomas Walkom, The Toronto Star
The Russians are being punished for saying that Freeland’s grandfather was a Nazi collaborator during the Second World War. He was.
Read the full article.
30) INTERVIEW: Marian Hatcher sets the record straight on the new U.S. anti-trafficking bill, SESTA-FOSTA
Meghan Murphy, Feminist Current
The new anti-trafficking bill in the US has gotten a lot of bad press in the media, as well as from sex work lobbyists and civil liberties organizations. Meghan Murphy spoke with Marian Hatcher, a survivor turned activist, to get the real story.
Read the full article.
31) How the tragic killing of an American teenager halted the military border presence in 1997
Samantha Schmidt, The Washington Post
It was a cloudy afternoon in May 1997, on a desolate hill of rugged desert and alfalfa fields along the Rio Grande known as “El Polvo,” Spanish for dust. Esequiel Hernandez Jr., a high school sophomore who had just turned 18, ventured out with his herd of 43 goats near his family’s home, guiding them through the brush to graze. As usual, to protect his flock from wild dogs or coyotes, he carried with him his .22-caliber rifle.
Read the full article.
32) What About “The Breakfast Club”?
Molly Ringwald, The New Yorker
Earlier this year, the Criterion Collection, which is “dedicated to gathering the greatest films from around the world,” released a restored version of “The Breakfast Club,” a film written and directed by John Hughes that I acted in, more than three decades ago. For this edition, I participated in an interview about the movie, as did other people close to the production. I don’t make a habit of revisiting films I’ve made, but this was not the first time I’d returned to this one: a few years back, I watched it with my daughter, who was ten at the time. We recorded a conversation about it for the radio show “This American Life.” I’ll be the first to admit that ten is far too young for a viewing of “The Breakfast Club,” a movie about five high-school students who befriend one other during a Saturday detention session, with plenty of cursing, sex talk, and a now-famous scene of the students smoking pot. But my daughter insisted that her friends had already seen it, and she said she didn’t want to watch it for the first time in front of other people. A writer-director friend assured me that kids tend to filter out what they don’t understand, and I figured that it would be better if I were there to answer the uncomfortable questions. So I relented, thinking perhaps that it would make for a sweet if unconventional mother-daughter bonding moment.
Read the full article.
33) Slovakia: Thousands rally to demand police chief step down over journalist's murder
DW
Tens of thousands of Slovaks have rallied to demand the country's police chief be fired following the murder of Jan Kuciak. Thursday's march was the largest since protests forced prime minister to resign last month.
Read the full article.
34) Ford’s comments on black community prompt call for apology
Marieke Walsh, iPolitics
A call for an apology and widespread condemnation met Doug Ford’s comments about the black community on Friday.
Read the full article.
35) Richest 1% on target to own two-thirds of all wealth by 2030
Michael Savage, The Guardian
The world’s richest 1% are on course to control as much as two-thirds of the world’s wealth by 2030, according to a shocking analysis that has lead to a cross-party call for action.
Read the full article.
See also: Gaza Massacre, Parkland Survivors, Doug Ford & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List March 25 - April 1
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated April 4th, 1968
Martin Luther King Jr. Assassinated April 4th, 1968
Images from the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963
No, no we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream - I Have a Dream Speech
I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." - Martin Luther King "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Martin Luther King Jr., Unifor, #MeToo and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List January 14-21
This list covers the week of January 14-21. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.
This installment has two entries from before the period. They have been integrated into the post.
1) Ex-FARC Members and Social Leaders Ask UN to Mediate with Govt
Telesur
Ex-members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, now converted into a legal political party, need more guarantees for the reinsertion into civilian life, said Sunday the National Council of Reincorporation in a meeting with UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres.
Read the full article.
2) Abuse isn't romantic. So why the panic that feminists are killing eros?
Jessica Valenti, The Guardian
This moment isn’t about romance, it’s about abuse. Perhaps the fact that so many people can’t tell the difference is part of the problem.
Read the full article.
3) The Aziz Ansari accusations may not be about rape, but they are about rape culture
Meghan Murphy, Feminist Current
While the #MeToo movement has resulted in man after man being outed as rapists, serial harassers, or general creeps, we would be mistaken to view this as a kind of culling. The truth revealed via #MeToo is not that there are a lot of bad men in this world (though, of course, there are many), but that all men, in this culture, are socialized in a particular way, and that socialization is what leads to men’s disrespectful, unethical, and too-often violent treatment of women.
Read the full article.
4) Women deported by Trump face deadly welcome from street gangs in El Salvador
Mark Townsend, The Guardian
Hundreds of young women are killed every year and many face sexual violence in the world’s most dangerous land. Now the president wants to send 200,000 more Salvadorans back home.
Read the full article.
5) #MeToo isn’t enough. Now women need to get ugly
Barbara Kingsolver, The Guardian
Let’s be clear: no woman asks to live in a rape culture: we all want it over, yesterday. Mixed signals about female autonomy won’t help bring it down, and neither will asking nicely. Nothing changes until truly powerful offenders start to fall. Feminine instincts for sweetness and apology have no skin in this game. It’s really not possible to overreact to uncountable, consecutive days of being humiliated by men who say our experience isn’t real, or that we like it actually, or are cute when we’re mad. Anger has to go somewhere – if not out then inward, in a psychic thermodynamics that can turn a nation of women into pressure cookers. Watching the election of a predator-in-chief seems to have popped the lid off the can. We’ve found a voice, and now is a good time to use it, in a tone that will not be mistaken for flirtation.
Read the full article.
6) 'Change is slow': Female superintendent of police in India tackles sexual violence and harassment
Anna Maria Tremonti, CBC Radio
Rema Rajeshwari is a female superintendent of police in the Indian the state of Telangana — a rare figure in a country where women make up only 7 per cent of police officers, and 2 per cent of those in police leadership positions.
Read/listen to the full episode.
7) Aid in reverse: how poor countries develop rich countries
Jason Hickel, The Guardian
Poor countries don’t need charity. They need justice. And justice is not difficult to deliver. We could write off the excess debts of poor countries, freeing them up to spend their money on development instead of interest payments on old loans; we could close down the secrecy jurisdictions, and slap penalties on bankers and accountants who facilitate illicit outflows; and we could impose a global minimum tax on corporate income to eliminate the incentive for corporations to secretly shift their money around the world.
Read the full article.
8) FLORIDA PRISONERS PREPARE TO STRIKE, DEMANDING AN END TO UNPAID LABOR AND BRUTAL CONDITIONS
Alice Speri, The Intercept
FLORIDA PRISONERS ARE calling for a general strike to start this week — marking the third mass action over the course of a year in protest of inhumane conditions in the state’s detention facilities. Detainees in at least eight prisons have declared their intention to stop all work on Monday — Martin Luther King Jr. Day — to demand an end to unpaid labor and price gouging in prison commissaries, as well as the restoration of parole, among other requests.
Read the full article.
9) MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. SPENT THE LAST YEAR OF HIS LIFE DETESTED BY THE LIBERAL ESTABLISHMENT
Zaid Jilani, The Intercept
King’s slide in popularity coincided with his activism taking a turn from what Americans largely know him for — his campaign for civil rights in the American South — to a much more radical one aimed at the war in Vietnam and poverty.
Read the full article.
10) Martin Luther King’s Radical Anticapitalism
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The Paris Review
In a posthumously published essay, Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out that the “black revolution” had gone beyond the “rights of Negroes.” The struggle, he said, is “forcing America to face all of its interrelated flaws—racism, poverty, militarism and materialism. It is exposing the evils that are rooted deeply in the whole structure of our society. It reveals systemic rather than superficial flaws and suggests that radical reconstruction of society itself is the real issue to be faced.”
Read the full article.
11) Jeremy Corbyn just got even more control of the Labour Party
Ashley Cowburn, The Independent
Jeremy Corbyn’s influence on Labour’s governing body has received a significant boost after left-wing candidates won all the positions up for grabs in a crucial set of elections.
Read the full article.
12) ‘It’s not the laws that kill our women. It’s not the streets that kill our women. It’s the men’
Rahila Gupta, Feminist Current
Prostitution or sex work? Your choice of words gives the game away, marks out where you stand on the issue. Violence against women or just a job? It is a serious battleground for the soul of feminism.
Read the full article.
13) Why won't the so-called 'sex workers' rights movement' help ex-teenage prostitutes have their convictions wiped?
Julie Bindel, The Independent
I have never met anyone during my decades of campaigning against the sex trade who supports the criminalisation of prostituted people, and yet it has proved impossible to put aside our differences and form a united front.
Read the full article.
14) Why we shouldn't call it 'sex work'
BBC 4
A woman who was forced into prostitution at 15 wants to see her permanent criminal record erased.
Watch the clip.
15) Real estate industry provided 75% of Vision Vancouver's by-election campaign donations
Jen St Denis, Metro Vancouver
Campaign finance filings show that 75 per cent of recent donations to Vancouver’s ruling civic party, Vision Vancouver, came from just one industry.
Read the full article.
16) Alberta payday loan crackdown shrinks industry
Reid Southwick, CBC News
The payday loan industry is shrinking in Alberta after the province cracked down on the businesses often accused of predatory lending, though dozens remain in Calgary.
Read the full article.
17) Niagara pro-choice campaign gains traction
Richard Harley, Niagara Now
An unofficial group called Niagara for Women’s Rights has started an online fundraising campaign to put up pro-choice billboards across the region.
Read the full article/donate.
18) Mass expulsion under way as Israel begins deporting 40,000 Africans
Tessa Fox, Middle East Eye
Eritrean and Sudanese asylum seekers in Israel will be forced to accept a plane ticket to unsafe countries or face indefinite prison.
Read the full article.
19) The NHL Flips Off Its Fans Again
Acting the Fulemin, SB Nation
More than anything, this is just tiring. If I’m left to follow my uncool, fourth-place league, that’s okay, I love hockey and I love watching it. I’d rather the league not go out of its way to show that it neither gives a shit about improving its popularity beyond its current demographic, nor about a lot of the fans it already has. But hey, I guess that’s too much to ask.
Telesur
With no solution in sight regarding infant mortalities, residents of Chicago's South Side, home to numerous predominantly Black neighborhoods, have resorted to mentors from the Cuban Ministry of Public Health for help.
Read the full article.
21) Wynne’s Liberals gut their own affordable housing policy
John Lorinc, Spacing Toronto
Remember when inclusionary zoning was going to solve Toronto’s affordable housing crisis, or at least take a big step towards ameliorating it?
Read the full article.
22) Indefinite solitary confinement in Canadian prisons ruled unconstitutional by B.C. court
Jason Proctor, CBC News
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled that the practice of prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement in Canadian prisons is unconstitutional.
Read the full article.
23) Notice to Members on Unifor’s Disaffiliation from the Canadian Labour Congress
Unifor
Over the course of the past year Unifor has been vocal and public about our concern with US-based unions trampling on the rights of workers and their democratic right to choose their own representation or to express dissent. In light of the ongoing lack of action and will by the affiliates of the Canadian Labour Congress to address the aggressive and undemocratic tactics shown by US-based unions towards workers in Canadian locals, a decision was made by the leadership of our union.
Read the full statement.
24) Unifor-CLC split demands unity from below
Doug Nesbitt, Gerard Di Trolio, Evan Johnston and David Bush, Rank and File
Unifor, Canada’s largest private sector union, has left the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC). Unifor’s website says the decision was made by its National Executive Board on January 16. In a letter to CLC President Hassan Yussuff dated January 17, Unifor President Jerry Dias states that Unifor’s Executive Board has voted to cease affiliation to the CLC “immediately.”
Read the full article.
25) CLC head accuses Unifor of leaving lobby group to raid another union
Aleksandra Sagan, The Canadian Press
Severed ties between the Canadian Labour Congress and Unifor have culminated in the head of the national lobby group for the labour movement accusing Canada's largest private sector union of raiding another union for members.
Read the full article.
26) Cape Town at risk of becoming first major city in the world to run out of water
Geoffrey York, The Globe and Mail
Cape Town, one of the biggest cities in South Africa and a famed tourist attraction, is warning its residents that they will soon have to queue for water.
Read the full article.
27) Coral Reefs Have Reached 'Make-or-Break Point': Scientists
Telesur
"Today I appeal to every single person on Earth to help us. We must replace the present culture of abuse," said Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama.
Read the full article.
28) Toronto's rental market now the most expensive in Canada
Derek Flack, Blog TO
Anyone searching for an apartment in Toronto already knows just how expensive rent is in this city, but to start the year we've now reached a troubling milestone. When it comes to one-bedroom apartments, Toronto is now the most expensive city in the country.
Read the full article.
29) Dear Gal Gadot: #TimesUp for Invisible Girls, Too
Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, Muslim Girl
Dear Gal,
When I was 16 years old, my main concern in life was figuring out how to get a class with my high school crush. My afterschool occupation involved locking myself in my computer room to design my perfect MySpace profile and rearrange my Top 8. I’d spend hours chatting on AOL Instant Messenger until dark and my mom would tell me it was time to cut the lights. That was the year before I created MuslimGirl.com, to create a space for girls like me to feel like our voices mattered in the real world.
Read the full article.
30) Protesters swarm Tim Hortons locations across Toronto
Lauren O'Neil, Blog TO
Protesters are out in full force today across Toronto and much of Ontario to tell Tim Hortons what they think of its response to the province's minimum wage increase.
Read the full article.
31) Want to understand the problems with minimum wage? Talk to people who earn it
Nick Purdon, CBC News
The National's Nick Purdon and Leonardo Palleja went to St. Francis Table in Toronto, a restaurant for the poor where meals cost $1. The restaurant is run by the Capuchin Franciscan Friars of Central Canada and has served more than a million meals since it opened in 1987. The homeless, people on social assistance and seniors have traditionally been the main customers, but the Friars are increasingly seeing people on minimum wage frequenting St. Francis Table.
Here are three of them, talking about the realities of working hard and trying to live on minimum wage.
Read the full article.
32) Liane Tessier at the Halifax Women′s March: Speaking out has been the sanest thing I have ever done
Liane Tessier, The Nova Scotia Advocate
My name is Liane Tessier. I was once a firefighter, but I was targeted and forced out of a job that I loved and was good at, because I spoke out against the discrimination I faced as a woman.
Read the full article.
33) 'We've kept the ball rolling': Canadians mark 1 year since Women's March
Meagan Fitzpatrick, CBC News
One year ago Sara Bingham was part of a caravan of Canadians on buses heading to Washington, D.C., for the historic Women's March in protest of Donald Trump's inauguration as U.S. president.
Read the full article.
See also: Tim Hortons, BDS and Israel, Donald Trump and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List January 7 - 14
See also: Ontario Minimum Wage, Black Mirror, Woody Allen and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List December 31 - January 7
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