[Marxism-Thaxis] N.Y. census counts prisoners in home districts
N.Y. census counts prisoners in home districts http://freedianebukowski.org/n-y-census-now-counts-prisoners-in-home-districts/#more-663 NOI Prison Ministry leader Troy X speaks to Second Chance Support Group/ Info: www.hopedetroit.com. By Dr. Publico–American Tribune “Gov. David Paterson of New York took a stand for electoral fairness earlier this month when he signed legislation that bans prison-based gerrymandering — the cynical practice of counting prison inmates as “residents,” to pad the size of legislative districts. The new law, which requires that prison inmates be counted at their homes, deserves to be emulated all across the country.” New York Times editorial, 8/22/10 Some years back, I received a notice from the prison mailroom that a letter containing an application form for an absentee ballot was rejected by the prison and sent back. On the notice, the mailroom guard had written, “When you were sent to prison, you lost your right to vote!” Going to the mailroom, I told the supervisor that there was no such law. States determine specific voting laws and they’re all different. Prisoners from some states can vote. The letter had been part of my procedure for checking on the status of my own state. He snapped that it was federal law, and that I was a federal prisoner. When I asked what law he was talking about, he glared at me and asked, “Who do you plan on voting for?” When I didn’t answer, he said, “I thought so. Well, you can’t vote. And if you don’t get outta my face right now, I’m gonna kick your fuckin’ teeth down your throat!” In the final analysis, that’s what prison is all about: Ignorance and the rule of raw power. Part of the ruling regimen of retribution and punishment includes “civil death”: the loss of all civil rights. In old Europe, the term “outlaw” was associated with individuals guilty of treason (by their lordly masters) or convicted felons. It was carried over into colonial and American law. It became wholesale practice in the South after the Civil War (1865) in order to disenfranchise the vote of the ex-slaves, who in many locales otherwise outnumbered white voters. Together with the exception clause of the 13th Amendment (ostensibly outlawing slavery), southern law officials and politicians enacted the Black Codes], which criminalized many of the conditions and behaviors of the ex-slaves, and also placed them in hard labor and involuntary servitude–neo-slavery. This is the foundation to modern prison society. Two of the ways by which prisoners are denied democratic rights include, the denial of the right to vote, and by creating gerrymandered voting districts. The Census count is used in this cause. In New York, for instance, more than 2/3rds of the state’s 59,000 prisoners serve their sentences in upstate, mostly rural and conservative districts. About 80% of these prisoners are black and Latino, and mostly come from urban areas. The effect is significant. For example, according to a study done by the University of Minnesota at Minneapolis, George W. Bush would have lost Florida in 2000 by 80,000 votes had ex-felons been allowed to vote (even taking into consideration that most ex-felons would not have voted at all, and 1/3rd would have voted Republican). There are many districts across the nation that only exist in whole or significant part by virtue of these city-based prison populations. For instance, Florence, CO: 69.47%; Gatesville, TX: 58.37%; and Avenal, CA: 44.67%. Sixty percent of Illinois prisoners are from Chicago; 99% are counted in outstate areas. To his vast credit, on August 22nd, 2010, Governor David Patterson of New York, signed legislation ]banning the practice of counting these prisoners in areas other than their homes and to which they planned on returning. (These rural areas already have an agreement with and routinely forbid inmates from lingering in the area after their release, much less settling there. Further, the prison systems routinely place city prisoners as far away from their homes as possible to “discourage” family visitation and community “contamination.”) Eighteen European nations do not deny the right to vote to prisoners. Even South Africa counts prisoner votes. Canada ruled that denying prisoners the right to vote “denies the basis of democratic legitimacy.” Voting is not a privilege. Voting is a basic right that defines citizenship. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Forever Young: Staughton Lynd at 80
Forever Young: Staughton Lynd at 80 By Andy Piascik Center for Labor Renewal Forging a New Consciousness of Solidarity and Struggle August 22, 2010 http://www.centerforlaborrenewal.org/?P=A&Category_ID= 1&Article=247 [Note: A version of this article appeared in The Connecticut Post http://www.ctpost.com/opinion/article/Forever-young- Staughton-Lynd-at-80-623779.php ] Suddenly Staughton Lynd is all the rage. Again. In the last 18 months, Lynd has published two new books, a third that's a reprint of an earlier work, plus a memoir co-authored with his wife Alice. In addition, a portrait of his life as an activist through 1970 by Carl Mirra of Adelphi University has been published, with another book about his work after 1970 by Mark Weber of Kent State University due soon. In an epoch of imperial hubris and corporate class warfare on steroids, the release of these books could hardly have come at a better time. Soldier, coal miner, Sixties veteran, recent graduate - there's much to be gained by one and all from a study of Lynd's life and work. In so doing, it's remarkable to discover how frequently he was in the right place at the right time and, more importantly, on the right side. Forty-six years ago, during the tumultuous summer of 1964, Lynd was invited to coordinate the Freedom Schools established in Mississippi by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. The schools were an integral part of the Herculean effort to end apartheid in the United States and became models for alternative schools everywhere. That August, Lynd stood with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party at the Democratic Party convention. Led by Fannie Lou Hamer, the M.F.D.P. had earned the right to represent their state with their blood and their remarkable courage. Instead the party hierarchy supported the official, albeit illegal, delegation, a pathetic band of reactionaries who - the irony is too delicious - supported not Democrat Lyndon Johnson but his opponent, Republican Barry Goldwater, for president. This back-stabbing was carried out by liberal icons Hubert Humphrey, Walter Reuther and Walter Mondale and endorsed, alas, by Martin Luther King. In early 1965, Lynd spoke at Carnegie Hall in one of the first events organized in opposition to the U.S. invasion of Vietnam. A short time later, Students for a Democratic Society asked him to chair the first national demonstration against the war, where he was again a keynote speaker. That April 17, a crowd of 25,000 that was five times larger than even the most optimistic organizers had anticipated turned out in Washington, and what would become the largest anti-war movement in U.S. history was born. That summer, Lynd helped organize the Assembly of Unrepresented People at which peace with the people of Vietnam was declared. It proved prophetic, for in a few shorts years, a majority of people in the U.S. had declared peace with Vietnam. Lynd would continue as one of the seminal figures of the 1960's. He was both a tireless organizer and the author of numerous articles in important movement publications like Liberation, Radical America and Studies on the Left. With co-author Michael Ferber, he documented the movement against the military draft in The Resistance, one of the best books about Sixties organizing. Lynd was an enthusiastic supporter of the New Left and embraced precepts like participatory democracy and decentralization. Ex-radicals of his generation like Irving Howe, Bayard Rustin and Michael Harrington, by contrast, spent much of the Sixties attacking S.N.C.C. and S.D.S. He spoke for many when he mocked their enthusiasm for Johnson and the Democrats as "coalition with the Marines." This, too, proved uncannily prophetic. Within a year of being elected in 1964, Johnson 1.) ordered a massive escalation in Vietnam; 2.) sent an invasion force to the Dominican Republic to overthrow a democratically elected government; and 3.) armed and funded an incredibly violent military coup in Indonesia in which over a million people were killed. The Peace Candidate indeed. At the end of 1965, Lynd made a fateful trip to Hanoi where he witnessed the carnage inflicted by U.S. bombers. Up to that point, he was one of the most promising new scholars in the country. Upon his return, however, his career in academia was essentially at an end. A tenure track position at Yale suddenly disappeared. Department heads at other universities offered teaching positions, only to be overruled by higher-ups. Lynd never looked back. He became an accomplished scholar outside the academy and one of the most perceptive and prolific chroniclers of "history from below", with a special interest in working class organizing. From a series of interviews, he and Alice produced the award-winning book Rank and File, which begat the Academy Award-nominated documentary film Union Maids. Lynd moved to Ohio in 1976, became an attorney and, when the mills in Youngstown began to close, assisted steelworkers i
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Peace, Freedom and McCarthyism - Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement
Ralph Dumain wrote: > This is great stuff, except for the attack on CLR James. But I guess > all publicity can be considered good publicity. Incidentally, when > someone once brought up Malcolm X at one of James's talks, he responded > that the person who really counts is Paul Robeson. I don't know anyone > other than me who has ever said anything like this. I think it's > important to recognize that the vacuum left by McCarthyism fostered a > climate for people who dissented from mainstream liberalism to gravitate > to Elijah Muhammed's fascist cult. Historical amnesia rules the roost to > this day. ^ CB: Certainly agree that Robeson really counted. I'm trying to think more specifically what you mean. Robeson was in the "mainstream" media of the day, a sort of superstar before there was such a thing; so he had a very big audience. ^ > > On 8/25/2010 11:29 AM, c b wrote: >> Peace, Freedom and McCarthyism - Anticommunism and the >> African American Freedom Movement >> >> Book Review >> >> Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement: >> "Another Side of the Story" >> edited by Robbie Lieberman and Clarence Lang >> Palgrave Macmillan. 251 pages, $85.00 >> >> Reviewed by Mark Solomon >> > > ___ > Marxism-Thaxis mailing list > Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu > To change your options or unsubscribe go to: > http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis > ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
Re: [Marxism-Thaxis] Peace, Freedom and McCarthyism - Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement
This is great stuff, except for the attack on CLR James. But I guess all publicity can be considered good publicity. Incidentally, when someone once brought up Malcolm X at one of James's talks, he responded that the person who really counts is Paul Robeson. I don't know anyone other than me who has ever said anything like this. I think it's important to recognize that the vacuum left by McCarthyism fostered a climate for people who dissented from mainstream liberalism to gravitate to Elijah Muhammed's fascist cult. Historical amnesia rules the roost to this day. On 8/25/2010 11:29 AM, c b wrote: > Peace, Freedom and McCarthyism - Anticommunism and the > African American Freedom Movement > > Book Review > > Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement: > "Another Side of the Story" > edited by Robbie Lieberman and Clarence Lang > Palgrave Macmillan. 251 pages, $85.00 > > Reviewed by Mark Solomon > ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] UAW and Rainbow Push Announce Aug. 28th Detroit March
http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2010/08/05/detroit/ UAW and Rainbow Push Announce Aug. 28th Detroit March Posted on August 5, 2010 by dsalaborblogmoderator UAW President Bob King United Auto Workers President Bob King and Rev. Jesse Jackson announced an August 28th march to mark the beginning of a new campaign that will call on our leaders to Rebuild America by enacting policy that will unleash the skills and talent of the American workforce. Here is the statement at a July 12th press conference in Detroit announcing the march. No group has suffered more from America’s economic meltdown than working men and women. The auto industry was decimated and workers paid the price. Urban America is in crisis and teachers, transportation workers, and all who do the hands-on work that make our cities run are the first to feel the effects of budget cuts. Unemployment continues at around 9.8%. Detroit is ground zero of this national crisis with an unemployment rate that is far higher. From December 2007 to June 2009, auto assembly and parts production accounted for 325,000 lost jobs. The auto industry has gone from a high of 1.5 million workers to 400,000 today. In Appalachia and the Gulf, years of unenforced regulation, driven by corporate greed and government complicity, have led to needless deaths and destruction in the coal and oil fields. Our national infrastructure is crumbling–industry, education, transportation, environment–while millions of talented workers stand by, ready to stem the tide. Poverty is on the rise. Home and church foreclosures continue to mount and student loan defaults are increasing. Our cities are under siege. Public transportation services are cut, workers laid off, but fares go up. Teachers are laid off and programs are cut as education budgets are slashed. Public housing faces cuts and we experience reverse redlining in our neighborhoods. We bailed out the predators–banks got money at 0%–while we made loans to the auto industry. We need a plan for recovery. We need economic reconstruction. We need urban policy geared toward reindustrialization. We need fair trade policies that will even the playing field for American companies and workers and, as more and more people face greater economic need, it’s time to revive the War on Poverty. On August 28th in Detroit, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition and UAW, along with our friends and allies, will march to mark the beginning of a new campaign that will call on our leaders to Rebuild America by enacting policy that will unleash the skills and talent of the American workforce. We will march for Jobs, Justice and Peace on the anniversary of that day in 1963 when Walter Reuther, president of UAW, Martin Luther King, Jr., president of SCLC, and other civil rights leaders joined with hundreds of thousands of Americans for the March on Washington. Leading up to that day, marches were held around the country, building momentum for what was to be the largest civil rights rally in history. In Detroit, prior to the March on Washington, 125,000 marchers participated in the Freedom Walk led by Dr. King. At the march, King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech for the first time before sharing it with the world in Washington. This year, a massive march has been called for October 2 in Washington. We will begin to build momentum again right here in Detroit on August 28th. It’s time to enact real change for working families and all America. It’s time to reverse the policies that have resulted in jobs and investment flowing out, creating economic hardship for millions of Americans. It’s time to Rebuild America with Jobs, Justice and Peace. We are calling on our national leaders to Rebuild America by focusing on: Jobs–economic reconstruction driven by targeted stimulus, reindustrialization and trade policy that will create jobs, support manufacturing in America, and put workers first. Justice–enforcement of the law regarding workers rights, civil rights, industrial regulation, and creation of strong urban policy, and fair and just education, economic, and health policy. Peace–ending the ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, saving lives and redirecting the war budget to rebuilding America. We invite all who share our commitment to march with us in Detroit on August 28th. Nothing is more important than strengthening our coalition of conscience and restoring the promise of democracy and economic justice for working families. ___ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
[Marxism-Thaxis] Peace, Freedom and McCarthyism - Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement
Peace, Freedom and McCarthyism - Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement Book Review Anticommunism and the African American Freedom Movement: "Another Side of the Story" edited by Robbie Lieberman and Clarence Lang Palgrave Macmillan. 251 pages, $85.00 Reviewed by Mark Solomon Against the Current Nbr. 147 - July - August 2010 http://www.solidarity-us.org/current/node/2942 The title of this volume is a bit misleading. It has hardly anything to do with the ideological substance of US anticommunism in its encounter with the African American freedom movement. Rather, this collection of essays, ably edited by Robbie Lieberman and Clarence Lang, does something more important for progressive readers and activists: it explores the historic impact of anticommunism, fostered by government and often abetted by non-governmental organizations upon the content, direction and fate of movements for African American freedom. The high cold war years and the heyday of McCarthyism are the crucial points of departure for this collection. Some historians have argued that the cold war was a boon to civil rights with Washington spurring positive change under the impetus of the ideological battle for Third World hearts and minds. Some have marked the start of the freedom movement from Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 and the mass Montgomery bus boycott sparked by Rosa Parks in 1955. Some have contended that it was "good politics" for black leaders in the fifties to resist labeling by red baiting agencies. However, largely among younger historians there is another trend that insists that the red scare seriously wounded the civil rights battle, undermining its broad social vision and depriving the movement of some of its most committed activists. Those historians perceive a "long civil rights movement" whose roots were planted decades earlier and whose ideology and activism were nourished by pioneer radical African American and white radicals, particularly Communists. Within that framework, there is division over whether that neglected historical current was ruptured by the cold war or whether there was continuity that contributed to the civil rights upsurge in the mid-fifties through the sixties. The history of a long civil rights movement with a crucial radical component carries powerful implications for ongoing battles for liberation that require a transforming vision of democracy and a holistic program of struggle for political, social, economic and cultural equality. This volume makes a valuable contribution to that understanding. In the midst of cold war hysteria, a cluster of African American intellectuals insisted that there was an indivisible connection between peace and freedom. Robbie Lieberman points out that under repressive conditions they held fast to anti-colonialism and internationalism - demanding peace as the essential element of battle against empire and calling for an alliance of anti-war and civil rights forces. Lieberman reminds us of courageous (and disparate) figures like writer Julian Mayfield, naval captain Hugh Mulzac, playwright Lorraine Hansberry and others who saw colonialism and neo- colonialism as breeders of war and racism. The fight for peace then was objectively ranged against anti- democratic and militaristic forces. With that outlook, Hansberry, was echoing her mentor Paul Robeson who had maintained that the African American struggle for freedom and social justice "represents the decisive front of struggle for democracy in our country" and is crucial to "the cause of peace and liberation throughout the world." Progressive Linkages Under Fire That linkage of anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism with peace faded under the impact of McCarthyism. But it did not die. A new generation of left intellectuals and activists rekindled interest in African liberation and in combating the negative impact of militarism upon the domestic wellbeing of national minorities. That linkage survived demands from centers of power and influence that peace be severed from freedom to inoculate the civil rights movement against charges of "subverting" US foreign policy. Martin Luther King's courageous opposition to the Vietnam War echoed the small group of fifties intellectuals as he withstood pressures within his own organization and from the upper echelons of government to jettison his opposition to the war. In the midst of McCarthyite hysteria a nearly forgotten group of black and white women on the left worked though the American Labor Party, the New York adjunct of the Progressive Party to forge progressive alliances. According to Jacqueline Castledine, Ada B. Jackson, Thelma Dale, Shirley Graham, Annette Rubenstein and others fervently believed that peace must include justice; that Jim Crow, institutional racism and imperialism were all spawned from the same seed. Ada B. Jackson was a force in Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, building broad coalitions, fighting for economic justice and
