This week, chaos has reigned over our cities. Black people
are at the center of this most
recent offense against all humanity. America, land of the free, has been
the cradle of lynching of both black and brown people for decades. Those
lynchings have sparked grief, terror, and rage, and, whereas in earlier decades
lynching was exploited by specialized photographers who sold lynching postcards
3 for a quarter, times have changed in America as its demography has changed.
Which is to say, the proportion of necks to knees has increased.
The best framing in all the noise comes from my 89-year-old
colleague friend and lifetime activist:
In the long range, Lynchings
a century ago affect black voting behavior today. Like you, like all
my readers, we have been assailed by TV images, radio broadcasts, print media,
the internet, all manipulative “news” sources focused on chaos and rage, most
of them trying to frame these protests as riots. But let’s keep our eyes on the
prize. If all the energy released by all the venting that now concentrates
itself in our streets, suppose for a moment that all that energy were focused
on guaranteeing the vote in the next election cycle.
What would that have to look like? What would be the strategy? How might that
work be divided into the kind of bite-sized pieces that became manageable in a
country where the vote has been repeatedly and thoroughly compromised by the
prison slavery complex that deprives felons who’ve serve their time of their
right to vote, of Republican owned voting machines with proprietary code that
can easily be flipped, of gerrymandering, of caging, of vote purging, of the
electoral college, of the Supremely (Corrupt) Court that gave us Citizens
“United,” and George Bush?
As Harvey Wasserman, along with Greg Palast, and Bob
Fitrakis, the nation’s voting mavens, point out, the answer is VOTING BY MAIL. Wasserman
published an article to that issue:
“20 Ways Vote by Mail Could Revolutionize Our Democracy and Save our Nation
– If Election Protection Activists (like you) Make it Happen.”
Voting by mail depends on an existing, solvent Post Office
(not a privatized, Trump-owned pony express); and it depends on the hard work
of popular insistence on a scale of energy we are presently seeing pouring out in
our streets.
Although much of what we see there is an authentic outpouring
of grief and rage, please let’s be absolutely clear that reactionary
forces have wasted no time coopting it to serve their own agenda. (At least
one window smasher has been outed as an undercover cop.) Unfortunately, what I say
here is no hyperbole. As one activist writes: “Is this part of a premeditated
‘CoIntelPro3’ fascist coup strategy, indicated by nationwide coordination of
violent insurgency, using urban warfare tactics, crossing state lines, bringing
guns and knives to demonstrations, and using them against police and security
guards…to give pretext for mobilization of not only national guard, but insertion
of federal armed forces? ICE using its drone for surveillance is indicative of their
testing what they can get away with.“
America has made sure to asphyxiate any Left it might have
enjoyed. It has made sure to garrot a robust trade union movement. Last time I looked, only one newspaper still
listed a labor correspondent in its ranks. There are no accepted channels into
which we can siphon our Will Toward Democracy. It means every time we
experience a popular movement, we are thrown back on re-inventing the
wheel. But there are guidelines based on
tough historical analysis how to go about re-invigorating American Democracy. “How
to Take on Fascism without Getting Played” is one of them.
Read Short Diary: White
Supremacist infiltration of Minneapolis Protests.
Listen to blackouted Sanders
statement.
NYC bus drivers union refuses to transport protesters for
NYPD.
Minneapolis Metro Transit union driers refuse to transport
George Floyd protesters to jail.
Detroit car caravan support workers and fights U.S. Postal
Service privatization.
NOLA garbage workers form union to fight back.
UN human rights chief demands U.S. take serious action to
stop killing unarmed African-Americans.
ACLU calls out U.S. Border Patrol as ‘rogue agency’ for using
predator drone to spy on Minneapolis protesters.
In voting rights victory, court rules Florida pay-to-vote
system unconstitrutional.
Louisville releases 911 call in Breonna Taylor shooting;
backs up her boyfriend’s claim against cops.
Here we go again: Federal Court Restore voting rights to
hundreds of thoussands of Florida prisoners.
Standing Rock Sioux announce that the mayoral candidacy of Native American Hoksila
White Mountain in town of McLaughlin, has been reinstate after City Hall
blocked it.
Twitter blocks White House tweet for ‘glorifying violence.’
In latest legal blow to Trump and dirty energy, federal
appeals court upholds block on Keystone XL Pipeline.
COVID-19 sparks rebirth of local farm movement.
Agrarian Trust announces new model for community-owned
farmland.
Supremes reject California Pentacostal church challenge to
shutdown order.
Judge orders Social Security to pay survivors benefits to
previous disqualified gay couples.
Huge rose: Spain to offer families minimum monthly income.
Scientist say burning trees for biofuel is a false climate
solution.
Baton Rouge inmates sue for release due to COVID-19
potential death sentence.
ACLU sues tech firm, Clearview AI, to halt “unlawful
privacy-destroying; facial recognition activities.
ACLU sues FDA over abortion care restrictions in midst of
COVID-19.
Ethic complain files to force Trump COVID-19 vaccine czar,
Moncef Slaoui, a former Pharma exec, to submit to ethics rules.
Bridging democratic divide, Biden bids Ocasio-Cortez and
Kerry to lead his climate task force.
Purged watchdog, Christi Grimm, who found ‘severe’ medical
supply shortages persists with 14 ongoing investigations.
Co-operative Corporation of.org Registrants announces plan to democratize
large parts of internet.
AOC launches Apartheid Off Campus.
Smithfield sued for misleading consumers with false claims
of superior safety.
Working class Party of Maryland gathers 14,00 signature to
put a Working Class Party on Md. ballot.
Sanders (media want you to forget that name) condemns lack
of price control on tax-payer funded Remdesivir.
Black people are prepared for this moment with a long
history of mutual aid.
Huichol Center for Cultural Survival feeds the hungry
through a program of permaculture and offers the Wixárita people training and
employment.
Kremlin-owned unnamed company provides firewall for
Venezuela against U.S. sanctions.
As COVID-19 takes its toll, frontline workers turn to
socialism.
Colombian social leaders protest for access to healthcare
and food.
Minnesota tenant buy properties from negligent landlord who
tried evicting them.
Hundreds of medical professionals and group urge COVID-19
stimulus must be prescriptions for #healthyrecovery.
Congress urged to bock U.S. arms sales to Philippines citing
dual threats of Duterte and COVID-19.
Two hundred teachers and activists urge Biden to go bold on
public education, demanding end to failed billionaire-backed policies.
Anti-fascist group won’t back down despite being targeted
for murder by far right.
Lake of Ozarks partygoers told to isolate for 2 week after
breaking social distancing guidelines.
OMG: Tennessee’s secret to plentiful coronavirus testing:
pick up the tab.
We are the ones: Hawaii considers an explicitly feminist
plan for COVID-19 era economic recovery.
Philadelphia car caravan targets Juvenile Justice Services
Canter to “free our youth.’
Scientists find way of restoring dying coral reefs.
Gig workers collective organizes nationwide strikes.
Fords shuts down two assembly lines after workers refuse
return to work after COD-19 cases break out.
Mutual aid in public housing continues after Baltimore
housing authority pushback.
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