On this day in 1794, Philadelphia shoemakers came together in solidarity to stop the erosion of their industry by greedy factory owners at the start of the Industrial Revolution. The workers formed The Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers, a union for leather workers and cobblers. By working together, they managed to regulate machinery use and still allow jobs for craftsmen who took pride in their handwork. For a decade, the organization was highly successful by maintaining a delicate balance: protecting the rights of its members while still allowing the industry to change and grow. In one example, the union helped factory owners cultivate a new market for shoes to the American South.
The union worked peacefully for 12 years, with the only reported problems some scuffles between striking workers and scab employees during a strike in 1805.
But factory owners kept pressuring the union to reduce its piece-rate wages so that they could rake in more profits. That was when the union took action and went out on strike after a proposed wage increase was rejected. The shoe factory owners retaliated by founding a management organization. And then they filed six separate lawsuits, which were heard together as one case, Commonwealth v Pullis. One charge was “criminal conspiracy”: the union, the court papers said, was a price-fixing scheme to raise member wages.
Another charge against the union was that it was a “coercive” and “violent” organization. The violence was a single potato—lobbed at a scab worker during the 1805 strike, it missed and broke a shop window. And the coercion? That was the union’s success at negotiating the first closed shop agreement in the United States. All people working at Society-staffed manufacturing sites had to be members of the union. If a factory owner tried to hire a non-shop employee, the union members working there could strike on the spot and walk out.
During the court case, the factory owners broke the law several times, the worst example of which was that they, not the government, paid the prosecuting attorneys—and at a much higher rate than court-appointed prosecutors usually made. Motivated by their increased takings, the attorneys launched several lines of attack in their six different suits. In addition to the conspiracy charges and charges of coercion and violence, another accusation was that “the workers were transitory, irresponsible, and dangerous,” and needed “the subject of judicial control.”
But the focus taken by the court was that citizens did not have the right to judge their own economic value, and did not have the right to object to any value placed on them by society—with society defined as the factory owners. Commonwealth v. Pullis is one of the first instances on record of the government showing preferential treatment to businesses over citizens. It is also the first American case where the courts were used to bust a union.
After a three-day trial, the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers was found guilty of conspiracy to regulate the price of their labor. It was also noted by the judge that the union members had hampered “the just stewardship of the elite.”
The assessed fines bankrupted the union, so the factory owners were successful in their intent—and continued to use this strategy to their advantage until 1842. That’s when a ruling in the Pennsylvania case Commonwealth v. Hunt affirmed that unions were legal organizations, with the legal right to strike. Between 1806 and 1842, however, any member of a union could be charged and imprisoned on the grounds of conspiracy.
After 1842, capitalists found other ways to attack unions: through anti-trust suits, through court injunctions, through hired thugs who attacked people during union meetings. But a primary strategy in business owners’ line of attack against unions was broken when the judgment against the shoemakers’ union was found to be baseless and unjust
Guerilla Midwife documentary & Future of Birth in Michigan discussion
Guerilla Midwife &
Future of Birth in Michigan
6 p.m. Doors. Film at 6:30 p.m.
Thursday March 3
Wealthy Street Theater
1130 Wealthy SE, Grand Rapids
Donations to International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) and Bumi Sehat Foundation International
Why is a film about a midwife serving the poor in the Philippines relevant to the Grand Rapids community? A community with its own Medical Mile boasting some of the most high-tech obstetric services available today?
Because birth is not about technology. It is about humanity. Not just the human infant or its immediate family, but about how we weave the very fabric of our culture. That fabric is warped, frayed, weak and unevenly woven. Getting back to humane birth—birth where the mother is empowered by her community to give birth naturally and in connection to herself and her child—is an essential piece to the sustainability of a humane human race.
While US obstetric units boast about the latest in ultrasound imagery, fetal monitoring capability, easy epidurals and a technological answer to every complication that might arise, our infant mortality rates remain embarrassingly high (second highest on the world with African American babies twice as likely to die).
Our infants grow to be preschoolers diagnosed as bi-polar and elementary students medicated for ADHD. Autism is practically an epidemic. And, when technology and prescribed medicines don’t do the trick, our teens turn to illegal drugs. As adults, we struggle not only with a host of health issues but also with dysfunction in our relationships.
What does that have to do with birth? Everything. Come and find out why—and to see the simple alternative that could start us on the path to reclaiming wellness, real community, healthy relationships and a sustainable culture.
View the trailer:
Michigan Lobbyists Spent just short of $32 Million for 2010 in Lansing
The Michigan Campaign Finance Network (MCFN) just released new information on the top 200 Lobbyists in Michigan for 2010.
The Lansing-based watchdog group stated in a Media Release on Thursday, “Reported Lansing lobbying expenditures totaled $31,811,476 in 2010, according to figures compiled by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network from reports filed with the Michigan Department of State. That amount is down by $38,440, or one-tenth of a percent, compared to 2009 figures.”
According to the MCFN, “The top six spenders in 2010, and eight of the top ten, were multi-client firms. Leading spenders among the multi-client firms were; Governmental Consultant Services, Inc. ($1,279,804), Kelley Cawthorne ($1,151,760) and Karoub and Associates ($1,041,575).”
Other notable big spenders in the area of lobbying for 2010 were:
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of MI $259,378
Consumers Energy Co. $190,039
DTE Energy $180,602
MI Retailers Assoc. $160,607
Ford Motor Co. $149,064
MI Beer & Wine Wholesalers $140,194
Michigan Farm Bureau $120,773
MCFN director Rich Robinson noted in the Media Release that there are still serious issues of disclosure and transparency for Lobbyist reporting in Michigan. “Michigan lobbying reports reveal less than those required by the federal government and several other states. The multi-clients report their client list, but they don’t report how much they spend representing each of them. And nobody is required to report travel spending less than $725 on behalf of a lobbyable official. Those are important gaps in disclosure that should be corrected by the legislature.”
Transit Forum next Monday with area Legislators
On Monday, March 7 people will have an opportunity to engage legislators from Kent County on the matter of public transportation.
Disability Advocates of Kent County, Concerned Citizens for Improved Transportation, Faith in Motion, and Essential Needs Task Force are the sponsoring organizations that have invited various elected officials to provide an opportunity for the public to engage them on what kind of transportation needs there are in the county.
Grand Rapids and the surrounding municipalities will be voting on a transit mileage in early May, but this forum is not limited to that upcoming election.
The legislators who have been invited are: Representatives Lisa Posthumus Lyons, Ken Yonker, Peter MacGregor, Dave Agema, Brandon Dillon, Roy Schmidt, Thomas Hooker and Senators Mark Jansen and Dave Hildenbrand.
The event is a luncheon that costs $10, but scholarships are available for people who cannot afford it. If you need to apply for a scholarship do so before the end of this Monday, February 28 by sending an E-mail to lorie.t@dakc.us. To register you can also call Lorie Tensen at (616) 949-1100 ext. 230 or lorie.t@dakc.us, with the deadline also being tomorrow, February 28.
The event is Monday, March 7 beginning at noon and will take place at LaGrave Avenue CRC, 107 LaGrave SE in Grand Rapids.
Michigan Unions Rally in Lansing Against State Budget Proposals
Yesterday, over 1,000 people gathered in front of the state capitol in Lansing to participate in a solidarity rally with the current struggle in Wisconsin. The Lansing rally was just one of many that were organized across the country, where tens of thousands of people came together in support of working people in Wisconsin.
In addition to this being a solidarity rally for Wisconsin, working people in Michigan expressed their outrage at the budget proposal that Governor Snyder has put forth, which mimics Wisconsin on many levels.
Speakers at the rally addressed issues like tax breaks for the rich, further cuts to state employee benefits and pensions, further cuts to state education programs and the privatization of public services as a means to undermine organized labor.
There were numerous unions represented at the rally, many with their own signs representing the UAW, AFSME, SEIU, MEA and the CWA. In additional to unions there were also people there fighting for public education, health care and against the tax cuts that Snyder has proposed, which they believe to be another benefit for the wealthy sectors of Michigan society.
While it was encouraging to see this many people come to Lansing to stand in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, there was little evidence that this rally and those who organized it have a strategy to take on the State government’s effort to undermine the working class. There also wasn’t a clear enough analysis of what was going on or any indication of next steps from those who organized.
Having a strategy is certainly necessary if Michigan is to mobilize people the same way the Wisconsin has been able to. Michigan needs to have the kind of leadership and commitment from some of the elected officials to not only challenge the budget proposals of Governor Snyder, but also to honestly listen to and be advocates for the citizens of Michigan.
There was one creative element of the protest, where 5 people representing Billions for Billionaires came to thank the working people for allowing them to get richer. They even created their own song for the occasion.
Let’s Pollute: Oscar Nominee with a Conscience
This week I was able to see some of the Oscar-nominated short animation films prior to the award ceremony tomorrow night. The entry from the United States was “Let’s Pollute,” the brainchild of Geefwee Boedoe, a former employee of Pixar. He wrote, directed, and animated the film on a $15,000 budget, editing the final version in a friend’s garage.
Boedoe also wrote jingles for the film and convinced his wife to do recordings of them. It took him three years to finish the six-minute short. After being rejected as an entrant in 10 film festivals, “Let’s Pollute” won an Oscar nomination last month.
The film is about the economic and social devastation of pollution in our society, but it’s presented in the artificial, upbeat style of 1950s and 60s educational films for children. “Pollution is our heritage and keeps our economy going strong,” the peppy narrator explains in the opening.
The introduction shows the history of pollution; how we initially tried hard without success to pollute the North American continent. It wasn’t always as “fun and easy” as it is now, the narrator tells us. Then we realized that “man needed a partner, an ally: he needed the machine.” It was this “wonder of waste” that helped us to get serious about pollution at last.
The second part of the film is the instructional part: it explains the simple rules of “how to be better polluters for a better blighted tomorrow.”
“Buy twice as much as you need,” the film advises, showing an American family at a huge discount store. One clip shows how to buy products with optimum packaging, as a man opens a case of chips, takes out box of chips, then a “fun-size” package from the box, and finally a tiny bag containing a single tortilla chip.
The film also instructs viewers to “throw twice as much away”—showing the family on a picnic, disposing of their plates, utensils, tablecloth, napkins, and picnic table. Then they roll up some Astro-turf and two fake trees and throw them away as well.
Moving twice as far away from your job is another piece of advice, showing how you can become a better polluter by having to drive longer to work every day. And you might even total your car in the process, creating even more landfill!
Leaving all the lights on in your house at the same time…shunning recycling…throwing away things instead of fixing them…are all great steps toward maximum pollution. But the really important thing, the film instructs, is to stop caring. “Remember,” the narrator says seriously, “you can always care less.”
The film also offers some wickedly funny glimpses of capitalists. It depicts environmental regulations as a menacing dragon destroying the progress of pollution, as it takes smokestacks in a chokehold. The film then explains why it is much better not to have any regulations at all, assuring us that we can trust the capitalists to always do what’s best for us. As the narrator says this, a group of consumers march like lemmings toward a giant set of crushing cogs. A capitalist stands on a platform in safety, urging them forward, with a chart behind him totaling up more and more profits.
You can read more about “Let’s Pollute” on the film’s official site and see screen shots on Facebook.
Speaker at GVSU addresses Race, Class and the LGBTQ Movement
Yesterday, the LGBT Resource Center at GVSU hosted nationally know activist and author Kenyon Farrow to speak at an open forum and for the ongoing Change U participants.
Kenyon has been involved in organizing, activism and writing around a whole range of topics such as HIV/AIDS, Queer politics, race and economic justice. He has worked for and with groups such as Queers for Economic Justice and the prison abolition group Critical Resistance.
Kenyon’s writings have appear on numerous political blogs, he is co-editor of the book Letters from Young Activists: Today’s Rebels Speak Out and the upcoming A New Queer Agenda. The following article is based upon his afternoon talk on race, class and the LGBT movement.
Kenyon began his talk by saying that the four pillars of mainstream LGBT circles are: defense of marriage, gays in the military, Federal Hate Crime statues and the Employment Non-discrimination Act. Therefore it is important to think about what comes next.
These four issues are what in many ways define the “Gay Agenda” in the public mind. This is important for people to understand because it fits into the popular media construction of the LGBT community, which is epitomized by TV shows Will & Grace. Kenyon calls Will & Grace sort of a well fed and well scrubbed version of Leave it to Beaver, which is often what tends to represent everybody in the LGBT community.
This media construction of the LGBT community however is not rooted in any authentic historical understanding of how queer politics evolved. The lack of understanding about queer history was also seen in 2009, with the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots. Kenyon said that many of the upscale celebrations were happening on the heels of Sean Penn winning an Oscar for his role in the film Milk. When Penn accepted the award for his role about the gay liberation activist Harvey Milk he made the point that we all should support marriage equality. Penn statement and the upscale celebrations for Stonewall misrepresents the origins of the LGBT movement, according to Farrow.
The 1969 Stonewall riot was the watershed moment for the current LGBT movement, but much misinformation still surrounds what happened. One of the most commons rumors about the Stonewall riot is that when actress Judy Garland died “all the queens in New York were pissed,” which led to the riot. Kenyon provided people with a more authentic understanding of what took place.
Farrow said that the Stonewall Riots had more to do with how the police were targeting the LGBT community through harassment. Just before the riots New York City Mayor Wagner was lobbying for the city to be the next location for the World’s Fair. In order to make the city more appealing, Wagner decided to “clean up” the streets, even using existing laws to remove certain people from public areas.
Stonewall was one of the main bars that gays frequented. Wagner challenged bars on their liquor licenses. Existing laws also required people to wear at least two items of clothing that would be gender identifiers. Stonewall kept being raided and they eventually fought back. People were able to keep the cops at bay for 3 days during the riots. Kenyon also said that years later FBI documents showed that they thought that either the Black Panthers or the Weather Underground were involved in the Stonewall riots in some way, which demonstrates the power structures perception that the Gay community at that time was perceived as a threat. This, according to Farrow, should signify that the Stonewall riots are not the natural lineage of the current struggle for marriage equality.
After Stonewall groups like the Gay Liberation Front and many others tended to focus on issues like decriminalization and challenging the mental health institutions, which claimed that homosexuality was a mental disorder.
This is not to suggest that there were not more mainstream groups that were operating, but those groups were not calling for liberation. By the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the election of Ronald Reagan, it was seen as an electoral win of the neo-conservatives & the new Right. The Right talked about all the liberation movements of the 60s and 70s as representative of the destruction of the American family and American society. They constructed these movements as a threat to traditional, Patriarchal, normative family structures and as criminal elements.
Ronald Reagan’s election was seen by many as bringing back conservative family values. What was also happening at the same time was the surfacing of HIV/AIDS, what people were calling then the “Gay Cancer.” (Even though heterosexual needle drug users were already dying of AIDS) The right used AIDS as evidence that this was divine punishment for this free love/gay sex behavior.
Kenyons goes on to say that Queer politics at the time were left/radical, but certain factions in the Gay community started to believe the Conservative narrative about their being the cause of AIDS. Another component for the shift from a more radical queer politics was the fact that people of class and racial privilege also became involved because of AIDS. People with money and political clout began to support AIDS education and work, which shifted the politics of the LGBT movement to a more mainstream analysis.
In addition, according to Kenyon, another thing that happened in the late 70s/80s was that marketing data was showing that Gay magazine readers were a targeted group for products and lifestyles, which tended to mean White, Male, wealthier gay people. This is the root of what becomes the Human Rights Campaign and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, both of which are the more mainstream and privileged sectors of the LGBT movement.
This evolution of the LGBT movement continues in 1992, where Clinton became the first Presidential candidate to court the gay vote. He targeted them by saying he wanted to lift the ban on gays serving in the military. However, Kenyon points out that why he was courting the Gay vote Clinton was also polling as soft on crime, so he went back to Arkansas before the election to give an executive order to execute a black man on death row. Farrow makes the point that there was a disconnect between race and class issues that affected millions of people in the LGBT community, but it didn’t matter to the national groups since they were representative of a more racially and economically privileged sectors.
So what we begin to see with these new LGBT organizations is that they were making decisions about a national agenda without getting input from the grassroots. The rationale has been that if these issues can be won it will help the Right see that the LGBT community is ok and can be accepted, according to Farrow. He said that the suicide of numerous queer youth last year shatters this notion that they will be accepted.
Another issue that reflects this disconnect, according to Farrow, is the issue of gays in the military. What Kenyon fins problematic about this policy is that the US is immersed in numerous wars abroad where innocent people are being killed, even queer people who live in Iraq and Afghanistan. Farrow points out that since Iraq was a very secular country under Saddam Hussein, many gay Arabs would come to Baghdad, which was seen as the San Francisco of the Middle East.
Kenyon also pointed out that money spent on militarism was a racial and economic justice issue, which also negatively impacts the LGBT community across the country. Lastly, he pointed out that the military in general is not an institution that is about justice and equality. He gave the example of how mainstream LGBT groups missed the boat on this issue by referring to an incident before the US invasion of Iraq when some US soldiers wrote on the side of a bomb, “Die Iraqi faggots!” The Human Rights Campaign made an issue of the use of the word faggot, but said nothing about the use of the bomb.
On the matter of Hate Crimes legislation Kenyon pointed out that it was important to understand that the US has the largest prison population in the world, with the majority being people of color. This is the context of the US prison system, but there is little analysis of this from the LGBT community on the racist nature of the prison system. Hate Crimes legislation is also being abused he said. He gives the example in South Carolina where blacks kids being charged with assault, where the prosecutors are attaching anti-lynching penalties onto the charges, so sentences are increased by misusing hate crimes laws.
Lastly, Kenyon addressed the issue of the Employment Non-discriminatory policies, which do not address the structural problem of how people of color and LGBT folks are excluded from job opportunities. Kenyon said that the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) talked to the Labor movement about this issue, which in turn wanted support for the Employee Free Choice Act. Kenyon says that HRC has a business council, representing some of the largest multinational corporations, which convinced the HRC to not support the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). HRC eventually did endorse EFCA, but did not post it anywhere on their website.
Kenyon concluded by saying that this is the LGBT movement that has emerged, one that is mainstream and privileged with little regard for doing broader justice work. Farrow believes that if the LGBT movement is to survive and to be an important component in the liberation of people it will need to develop a more radical critique of society and take a strong stand on issues like economic justice, racial equality, anti-militarism and prison abolition, just to name a few.
Levin and other US Senators targeted with US Military Psy-Ops Effort in Afghanistan
On Monday, we reported on a talk given by Michigan Senator Carl Levin based on his 2-day trip to Afghanistan in January. Levin said that the US military occupation of Afghanistan was showing signs of progress.
Levin did mention in his talk that he met with US military leaders and some Michigan combat troops, but what Levin did not mention and probably did not know is that the US military was engaging on a psychological warfare campaign on him and other visiting US officials who came to Afghanistan for an update on the war.
According to an article by Michael Hastings in Rolling Stone magazine Lt. Gen. William Caldwell, a three-star general in charge of training Afghan troops, was charged with the psy-ops campaign. The Rolling Stone articles states that, “a military cell devoted to what is known as “information operations” at Camp Eggers in Kabul was repeatedly pressured to target visiting senators and other VIPs who met with Caldwell.”
It appears that the US military is becoming more desperate in its attempt to win public opinion on the 10-year US occupation of Afghanistan. Rolling Stone Reporter Michael Hasting notes, “Those singled out in the campaign included senators John McCain, Joe Lieberman, Jack Reed, Al Franken and Carl Levin; Rep. Steve Israel of the House Appropriations Committee; Adm. Mike Mullen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; the Czech ambassador to Afghanistan; the German interior minister, and a host of influential think-tank analysts.”
This revelation certainly sheds light on the message that Levin delivered to people on Monday at the World Affairs Council hosted event and should give all of us additional cause for concern about what is really happening in the costly and brutal US occupation of Afghanistan.
Private Sector Group Wants to Change Local Government
This morning at the Kent County Commission meeting, the One Kent Coalition presented a proposal to transform the area from a collection of communities into a “powerful metropolitan body.”
These were the words of Nyal Deems, the main spokesperson for the One Kent Coalition. Deems said that the group is made up of private sector individuals who want to foster more economic development and make Kent County more competitive in the global market.
Deems told the County Commissioners, “it is time to update our governmental structure and to foster economic development. We have educational institutions, business leaders, philanthropic support, the medical mile and even Chicago is trying to mimic ArtPrize. But this isn’t enough.”
Deems, a former mayor of East Grand Rapids and a practicing lawyer cited several local elected officials who have suggested that local governments consolidate, officials like County Commissioners Roger Morgan and Sandy Parish, as well as Grand Rapids Mayor George Heartwell. “Corporate leadership is key in helping government leadership act accordingly. If Grand Rapids would merge with EGR, we would move from about 89th to about 25th in the country in terms of city size, which would give us more clout.”
The One Kent Coalition spokesperson then said the group has been working on a draft for proposed legislation that they would like the state legislature to adopt this year, which would allow for a ballot initiative to be put before Kent County residents sometime in 2012.
The responses from the County Commission were mixed, with Roger Morgan first saying that he “is always in favor of enhancing the private sector.” Morgan did say he had concerns about how this is worked out. He thought that consolidation of the core 6 cities is a step in the right direction, but there would need to be an inter-governmental agreement before moving forward.
Commissioner Saalfield raised concerns about drafted legislation and asked who would pay the taxes for the legislation and how will it effect services.
Commissioner Carol Hennessy said she also looked at other communities who have done similar forms of consolidation and cites a study from New York on governmental consolidation that did not work well. Hennessey also expressed concern that the One Kent Coalition folks were using phrases like corporate leadership and entrepreneurship and she wondered if this focus would detract from government delivery of services.
Commissioner Wawee asked where the funds will come from to make this consolidation happen to create a metropolitan government. Deems said they have raised some funds amongst themselves and mentioned that their group had talked to the Governor’s office, which might have money set aside in a pool to help.
This comment from Deems raised other questions and concerns from a few commissioners about the issue of transparency. Commissioner Koorndyk wanted to know who was part of the One Kent Coalition and if Deems could provide them with a list. Deems said that he could do that and this would relieve him from have to list the members at the meeting.
Commissioner Talen also raised the issue of transparency. He asked if there would be complete transparency from here on out, in terms of who is involved with the One Kent Coalition and where the money is coming from that they have raised. Deems said the group is not that formal, doesn’t meet every week and only came up with the drafted proposal near the end of 2010. This is of course did not answer Commissioner Talen’s question about the group’s commitment to transparency.
Grand Rapids Press reporter Jim Harger noted in a story yesterday that, “The West Michigan Policy Forum, a political action committee formed by the Greater Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce, will be assigned the task of developing the enabling legislation that will lead to One Kent.” Harger also wrote that local lobbyist Jared Rodriguez who has done lobby work for the GR Chamber of Commerce and now works for the West Michigan Policy Forum will be the person who will lobby the state legislature on pushing this proposal forward.
In a story from this morning, Jim Harger with the GR Press does list who is part of the One Kent Coalition:
• Tom Butcher, Grand Valley State University
* Nyal Deems, former East Grand Rapids mayor
• Betsy DeVos, former state GOP chair
• Dick DeVos. former GOP gubernatorial candidate
• Jeanne Englehart, Greater Grand Rapids Chamber of Commerce
• David Frey, Grand Action
• Andy Guy, Wondergem & Associates
• Kurt Kimball, former Grand Rapids City Manager
• David Leonard, Spectrum Health Corp.
• Greg McNeilly, Windquest Corp.
• Marge Potter, former Kent County Commissioner
• Jared Rodriguez, West Michigan Policy Forum
• Milt Rohwer, Frey Foundation
• Peter Secchia, former U.S. ambassador to Italy
• Peter Wege, philanthropist
• Kate Pew Wolters, Steelcase Foundation
• Tim Wondergem, Wondergem & Associates
So, it seems that the same crowd of private business sectors that are part of the Chamber and the West Michigan Policy Forum are behind the One Kent Coalition. This should raise concerns for anyone who doesn’t want to give more power to the private business sector which has made clear that they want to eliminate the Michigan business tax, make Michigan a Right to Work state and make government work in their interests. This doesn’t sound like anything that would enhance democracy, but it does sound like it will benefit private power.
New Media We Recommend
Below is a list of new materials that we have read/watched in recent weeks. The comments are not a “review” of the material, instead sort of an endorsement of ideas and investigations that can provide solid analysis and even inspiration in the struggle for change. All these books are available at The Bloom Collective, so check them out and stimulate your mind.
Exile & Pride: Disability, Queerness and Liberation, by Eli Clare – Eli Clare’s collection of essays was both a refreshing and challenging adventure. Eli forces the reader to come to terms with the limitations of identity around gender, sexual orientation and physical ability. Eli challenges our use of words, our perceptions and our static categorization of how we name people. In addition, the author tackles race, class and environmental degradation in ways that make most attempts at inter-sectionality seem quite sophomoric. Exile & Pride is one of the South End Press Classics that has been revised since its original release in 1999.
Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence, and Empire, by Reese Erlich – Reese Erlich has been doing investigative journalism for several decades now and each of his books reflect that style of writing. This new book is based on interviews with various political leaders in the Middles East over the past few years. With each chapter Erlich attempts to construct vibrant commentary on what leaders of groups like Hamas, the Taliban and Iran’s democracy movement think about not only the struggles in their respective countries, but how they view the US and other regional powers. Erlich also tries to re-frame our understanding of terrorism and what constitutes terrorism. This collection of essays is an important contribution for those wanting to come to terms with US policy in the Middle East.
Guantanamo: Why the Illegal US Base Should Be Returned to Cuba, by Fidel Castro – While many people who voted for Obama are disappointed that he did not keep his promise to discontinue using the US military base in Guantanamo, Cuba as a place of detention and torture for combatants in the “War on Terror,” Fidel Castro argues us that the land that the base inhabits should be returned to the Cuban people. Guantanamo is a well-documented attempt to argue the historical and legal reasons why the US military base that has inhabited that land for over a century should be closed. Castro teaches us a history lesson on how the land known as Guantanamo was appropriated by the US after they undermined the Cuban independence struggle from Spain at the end of the 19th century. The book also includes numerous source documents and short commentary from other Cuban historians.
Colorblind: The Rise of Post-Racial Politics and the Retreat from Racial Equity (DVD) – This is a taped lecture by well-known anti-racist writer/activist Tim Wise from early 2010 and is based on his latest book Colorblind. In this lecture Wise confronts the White Liberal and Progressive community who think that the election of Barack Obama has catapulted us into a post-racial era. Wise, who uses biting humor and well sourced data, exposes the White Supremacist nature of US politics and what it really means for people of color, particularly Blacks and Latinos. This DVD is both challenging and inspiring and should be required viewing for anyone who claims to favor racial justice.
