February 23, 2012

Happy birthday, Dr. Du Bois!

Today would have been the 144th birthday of WEB Du Bois, the great scholar, civil rights and peace activist.

Born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in 1868, Du Bois quickly emerged as one of the 20th century's outstanding thinkers and social activists. Armed with a PhD from Harvard University, the young scholar came to national prominence at the turn of the century when he challenged Tuskegee University head Booker T. Washington's accommodationist policies.

His famous collection of essays, The Souls of Black Folk remains poignant and relevant even today. Du Bois went on to help found the Niagara Movement, a group of activists, workers and scholars devoted to fighting segregation and racism.

<snip>

Handcuffed at the age of 83 during the McCarthy period of Cold War repression, Du Bois ran for the U.S. Senate in New York and won over 100,000 votes. He joined the Communist Party in 1961 and died in Ghana in 1963, the day before the iconic civil rights march on Washington, led by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...

Read the entire article here: http://peoplesworld.org/university-of-pennsylvania-awards-du-bois-honorary-doctorate/

February 21, 2012

A bug that I found for Elad -

I don't know if this always happens, but I found a post (OP) last night that was hidden by jury but still shows in someone's journal.

February 19, 2012

Just Don’t Call Her Che

LATE last month the British newspaper The Guardian asked readers to vote for its person of the year. The candidates included household names like German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the Egyptian techno-revolutionary Wael Ghonim and the Burmese pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. All placed far behind a striking, nose-ringed student from Chile named Camila Vallejo.

Though far from a familiar face in the United States, the 23-year-old Ms. Vallejo has gained rock-star status among the global activist class. Since June she has led regular street marches of up to 200,000 people through Santiago’s broad avenues — the largest demonstrations since the waning days of the Pinochet regime in the late 1980s. Under her leadership, the mobilization, known as the Chilean Winter, has gained nationwide support; one of its slogans, “We are the 90 percent,” referred to its approval rating in late September.

Ms. Vallejo’s charismatic leadership has led commentators to make the obligatory comparisons to other Latin American leftist icons like Subcomandante Marcos and Che Guevara. Yet “Commander Camila,” as her followers call her, has become a personality in her own regard. She skewers senators in prime-time TV debates and stays on message with daytime talk-show hosts hungry for lurid details about her personal life, while her eloquence gives her a preternatural ability to connect with an audience far beyond her left-wing base.

In perhaps the most poignant set piece in the year of the protester, Ms. Vallejo addressed a dense ring of photographers and reporters in August while kneeling within a peace sign made of spent tear-gas shells, where she calmly mused about how many educational improvements could have been bought with the $100,000 worth of munitions at her feet...

Much more here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/29/opinion/sunday/student-protests-rile-chile.html?_r=1

February 17, 2012

GM to move all salaried workers to 401(k) plans

This was posted in Late Breaking News, but I'd like to keep a copy of these types of posts in our group as well. Many corporations have done away with pension plans in favor of 401ks (with the exception of places like law firms which will offer 401K on top of their pensions). A troubling development that folks are being left to their own devices trying to manage 401ks while owners continue to target Social Security:


GM to move all salaried workers to 401(k) plans

By Bryce G. Hoffman
The Detroit News
February 15, 2012 at 9:27 pm

General Motors has the largest pension obligation of any company in the United States, and the automaker had been hinting for months that it needed to do something to reduce the risk that liability posed to its financial strength.

General Motors Co. is ending traditional pensions for its longtime U.S. salaried employees, but the automaker is softening the blow by giving all salaried workers an extra week of vacation.

All of the company's approximately 26,000 white-collar workers in the United States will now get defined contribution, or 401(k) plans, instead.

Those workers hired after Jan. 1, 2001, were already getting 401(k) plans instead of traditional pensions. Workers hired before that date will not lose the pension benefits they have already accrued, the automaker said.

GM said all U.S. salaried employees will also be getting bonuses tied GM's global performance, though details will not be released until Thursday.

GM also said it will give pay increases to workers with critical skills this year, but said there would be no across-the-board raises...

More here: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20120215/AUTO0103/202150397/GM-move-all-salaried-workers-401-k-plans?odyssey=tab

February 13, 2012

It's the Wealth Gap, Stupid

I know I'm preaching to the choir in this group, but nice to see relatively mainstream sources starting to talk about this:

It's the Wealth Gap, Stupid
Why the truly alarming economic trend is not income inequality.

—By Reid Cramer
Mon Feb. 13, 2012 3:00 AM PST

When Mitt Romney bowed to political pressure and released his 2010 tax return, it showed, to no one's great surprise, that the Romneys are rich. Really, really rich. They reported income of more than $21 million, itemized deductions of over $4.5 million, and a total tax bill of just over $3 million. They made charitable contributions of almost $3 million, although more than half of that went to their church.

But what really stood out in the tax return—beyond the presidential candidate's 13.9 percent tax rate—is not that Mitt makes a lot of money, it's that he has a lot of money. Romney's finances are illustrative of the growing gulf between haves and have-nots. It's not about income equality; it's about the widening wealth gap.

In recent years, the fortunes of the Romneys and others in their cohort have continued to grow, notably diverging from the majority of Americans still struggling to deal with a slow economic recovery...

... Recent estimates indicate that the while the top 1 percent earn 21 percent of the nation's income, they possess 36 percent of total wealth. This is especially troubling because while income dictates how well you're doing today, it is access to wealth (the stock of resources) that creates opportunities down the line...

more here: http://motherjones.com/politics/2012/02/its-wealth-gap-stupid

February 12, 2012

Solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Greece -

The KKE hung 2 giant banners from the rock of the Acropolis on Saturday morning, the second day of the 48hr general strike. Hundreds of members of the KKE holding red flags and shouting slogans against the barbaric measures of the government-EU-plutocracy called on the people to a general rising up and state of alert.

http://inter.kke.gr/News/news2012/2012-02-11-48ori-2mera



Today in Greece:



Greece's parliament was expected to defy angry protesters on the streets of Athens and endorse a deeply unpopular package of savage austerity measures in order to try to avoid a sovereign default and retain the euro as its currency.

With eurozone leaders declaring it was time for Greece to put up or shut up and that Athens' promises could no longer be believed, Greece's two main political parties and the caretaker prime minister invoked apocalyptic scenarios for the country if the €3.3bn (£2.76bn) of cuts ordained by the eurozone were not supported.

Street battles between police firing rounds of tear gas and demonstrators hurling firebombs and marble slabs left Syntagma Square, the plaza in front of the parliament building, resembling a war zone. Rubbish bins burned as plumes of smoke and asphyxiating clouds of toxic chemicals filled the air...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/feb/12/greece-eurozone-bailout-deal

February 10, 2012

NO WAR, NO SANCTIONS ON IRAN! From the Houston Peace Council -

Posted by paz on 2/08/12

Clear the Middle East of All Nuclear Weapons!

As the drums of a military strike against Iran are getting louder and louder, the leaders of the United States and Israel, in a good-cop/bad-cop style of approach, are trying to present the U.S. and Israeli public opinion with an apparently “inevitable” — but certainly false — choice. While the “bad-cop” Israel is threatening Iran with an immanent Bush-style “preemptive strike,” the Obama Administration, trying to look like a “good-cop,” is pretending to be “opposed” to such a unilateral military action on the part of Israel, while forcing other governments into taking part in the imposition of devastating economic sanctions on Iran and its people.

All this is done in the name of forcing Iran to stop developing its nuclear program. Yet, it is apparent to anyone who knows even the slightest about the U.S.-Israeli policy in the Middle East that the objective of both approaches is none other than imposing a pro-West “regime change” in Iran and establishing an imperialist “pax-Americana” on the whole of the region.
In doing so, both the U.S. Administration and the Israeli government are distracting the public eye from several very significant facts:

<snip>

The US Peace Council calls for the full implementation of the Non-Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and its immediate application to the Middle East. Middle East should be declared as a Nuclear-Weapons Free Zone, and all nuclear weapons should be removed, or otherwise eliminated, from the region. This is the only way to peace in the Middle East and an urgent measure to avoid the impending war and devastation, not only for the people of Iran and the Middle East, but of the people of the United States as well.

Read the remainder of the article here: http://www.houstonpeacecouncil.com/no-war-no-sanctions-on-iran/

February 9, 2012

Ron Paul: No friend of the 99%

Commentary by Fight Back! Editors
January 28, 2012

Ron Paul is attracting a lot of attention, including some attention from some people in the anti-war movement, because of his views on foreign policy. Paul has demanded that the president "bring the troops home." He reflects popular opinion when he says that President Bush overstepped his powers in starting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan without a declaration of war. In general, Paul is known as an isolationist, rather than a pro-war candidate. However, Ron Paul supports assassinations and other ‘covert actions,’ acts, which are both illegal and anti-democratic, against other countries. In the Republican debates, his campaign tends to put little emphasis on his anti-war stances. Still, to find a candidate of either party who is against the wars is viewed by some as refreshing.

Many supporters of Ron Paul have also been reaching out to the Occupy Movement. But when Ron Paul ran for Congress in 2010, he said, “We should cut payroll taxes and give workers the opportunity to seek better returns in the private market.” While Ron Paul claims to want to protect Social Security, he is in fact backing a privatization of Social Security that would be a boon for Wall Street. His campaign plays the same tune as Wall Street when he says that Social Security is “broke and broken,” when in fact the Social Security trust fund grew by some $70 billion last year, to almost $2.7 trillion.

That said, there are many other big problems with Ron Paul, including his views and policies on racism and discrimination, women’s rights, GLBTQ rights, workers' rights, the environment and even civil liberties. The solutions Ron Paul is selling will not solve the problems of working people or create more equality. They will create more poverty and oppression, just like those of the other Republicans...

Much more here: http://www.fightbacknews.org/2012/1/28/ron-paul-no-friend-99

February 9, 2012

Chicago U.S. Attorney office confirms ‘investigation is continuing’

Chicago U.S. Attorney office confirms ‘investigation is continuing’ against anti-war, international solidarity activists
Holy Land Foundation prosecutor now working on case
By Mick Kelly |
January 31, 2012

Chicago, IL – The Northern Illinois Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas stated that the “investigation is continuing” into the case of the anti-war and international solidarity activists who have been hit with FBI raids and grand jury repression. Barry Jonas played a leading role in prosecuting the leaders of the Holy Land Foundation while he was trial attorney for the Department of Justice Counter-terrorism Section.

“This is another confirmation of what we have been hearing all along from the U.S. Attorney’s office - they are going for multiple indictments of multiple activists,” stated Jess Sundin, a Twin Cities Anti-War leader whose home was raided by the FBI. “The government subpoenaed 23 international solidarity activists to a Chicago grand jury and the government is trying to jail veteran Chicano leader Carlos Montes. Jonas confirmed what we already knew - the government is trying to imprison anti-war activists on the grounds of ‘material support for terrorism.’”

Much more here -- http://www.fightbacknews.org/2012/1/31/chicago-us-attorney-office-confirms-investigation-continuing-against-anti-war-internationa

February 1, 2012

To My Old Master

LETTER FROM A FREEDMAN TO HIS OLD MASTER

[Written just as he dictated it.]

Dayton, Ohio, August 7, 1865.

To my old Master, Colonel P. H. Anderson, Big Spring, Tennessee.

Sir: I got your letter, and was glad to find that you had not forgotten Jourdon, and that you wanted me to come back and live with you again, promising to do better for me than anybody else can. I have often felt uneasy about you. I thought the Yankees would have hung you long before this, for harboring Rebs they found at your house. I suppose they never heard about your going to Colonel Martin's to kill the Union soldier that was left by his company in their stable. Although you shot at me twice before I left you, I did not want to hear of your being hurt, and am glad you are still living. It would do me good to go back to the dear old home again, and see Miss Mary and Miss Martha and Allen, Esther, Green, and Lee. Give my love to them all, and tell them I hope we will meet in the better world, if not in this. I would have gone back to see you all when I was working in the Nashville Hospital, but one of the neighbors told me that Henry intended to shoot me if he ever got a chance.

I want to know particularly what the good chance is you propose to give me. I am doing tolerably well here. I get twenty-five dollars a month, with victuals and clothing; have a comfortable home for Mandy,—the[266] folks call her Mrs. Anderson,—and the children—Milly, Jane, and Grundy—go to school and are learning well. The teacher says Grundy has a head for a preacher. They go to Sunday school, and Mandy and me attend church regularly. We are kindly treated. Sometimes we overhear others saying, "Them colored people were slaves" down in Tennessee. The children feel hurt when they hear such remarks; but I tell them it was no disgrace in Tennessee to belong to Colonel Anderson. Many darkeys would have been proud, as I used to be, to call you master. Now if you will write and say what wages you will give me, I will be better able to decide whether it would be to my advantage to move back again.

As to my freedom, which you say I can have, there is nothing to be gained on that score, as I got my free papers in 1864 from the Provost-Marshal-General of the Department of Nashville. Mandy says she would be afraid to go back without some proof that you were disposed to treat us justly and kindly; and we have concluded to test your sincerity by asking you to send us our wages for the time we served you. This will make us forget and forgive old scores, and rely on your justice and friendship in the future. I served you faithfully for thirty-two years, and Mandy twenty years. At twenty-five dollars a month for me, and two dollars a week for Mandy, our earnings would amount to eleven thousand six hundred and eighty dollars. Add to this the interest for the time our wages have been kept back, and deduct what you paid for our clothing, and three doctor's visits to me, and pulling a tooth for Mandy, and the balance will show what we are in justice entitled to. Please send the money by Adams's Express, in care of V. Winters, Esq.,[267] Dayton, Ohio. If you fail to pay us for faithful labors in the past, we can have little faith in your promises in the future. We trust the good Maker has opened your eyes to the wrongs which you and your fathers have done to me and my fathers, in making us toil for you for generations without recompense. Here I draw my wages every Saturday night; but in Tennessee there was never any pay-day for the negroes any more than for the horses and cows. Surely there will be a day of reckoning for those who defraud the laborer of his hire.

In answering this letter, please state if there would be any safety for my Milly and Jane, who are now grown up, and both good-looking girls. You know how it was with poor Matilda and Catherine. I would rather stay here and starve—and die, if it come to that—than have my girls brought to shame by the violence and wickedness of their young masters. You will also please state if there has been any schools opened for the colored children in your neighborhood. The great desire of my life now is to give my children an education, and have them form virtuous habits.

Say howdy to George Carter, and thank him for taking the pistol from you when you were shooting at me.

From your old servant,
Jourdon Anderson

Source: The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Freedmen's Book, by Lydia Maria Child

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Freedmen's Book

Author: Lydia Maria Child

Release Date: January 3, 2012 [EBook #38479]

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38479/38479-h/38479-h.htm#Page_265