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TIDBITS – MAR.21 2024 – READER COMMENTS: MOST COMMITTED ARE THE
UNCOMMITTED; SCHUMER CLEARS PATH FOR DEMOCRATS; JONATHAN GLAZER’S
BRAVE OSCAR SPEECH; FOLK MUSIC AND THE NEW DEAL; WOMEN’S HISTORY
MONTH IN SONG, SPOKEN WORD; BLOCK & BUILD-LEFT STRATEGY  
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March 21, 2024
xxxxxx
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_ Reader Comments: Most Committed Are the Uncommitted; Schumer Clears
Path for Democrats To Disavow Netanyahu; Jonathan Glazer’s Brave
Oscar Speech; Folk Music and the New Deal; Women's History Month in
Song, Spoken Word; Block & Build: Left Strategy; _

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Announcements AND cartoons - Mar. 21,
2024, xxxxxx

 

* RE: THE MOST COMMITTED ARE THE UNCOMMITTED  (LORRAINE SUZUKI)
* GETTING SO TIRED OF WAITING  --  MEME
* RE: SCHUMER CLEARS PATH FOR DEMOCRATS TO DISAVOW NETANYAHU. WILL
BIDEN FOLLOW?  (SONIA COBBINS)
* RE: NEW COALITION AIMS TO DEFEND ‘SQUAD’ AND OTHER
PROGRESSIVES TARGETED BY AIPAC  (KARIN PRITIKIN)
* FAMINE IN GAZA  --  CARTOON BY NICK ANDERSON
* RE: CLAIMS OF MASS RAPE BY HAMAS UNRAVEL UPON INVESTIGATION
 (JEFFREY BORKAN; BILL BARCLAY)
* RE: JONATHAN GLAZER’S BRAVE OSCAR SPEECH REPRESENTS THE BEST OF
JUDAISM  (GEOFF MIRELOWITZ; LIZ ZOOB; GINA KLEIN; PAUL BUHLE)
* ARE YOU AFRAID OF BRITT?  --  CARTOON BY CHRISTOPHER WEYANT
* RE: HOW DOES PARIS STAY PARIS? BY POURING BILLIONS INTO PUBLIC
HOUSING  (DANIEL MILLSTONE; RACHELLE KIVANOSKI; SONIA COBBINS; ALAN
HART; RICK FANTASIA)
* WHY NOT A RENT DEDUCTION  --  MEME
* RE: A REVOLUTION IN AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY  (MIKE LISTON;
CHARLES PATRICK LYNCH)
* RE: THE ERA OF ABUNDANT LABOR REPORTING IS COMING TO AN END
 (DAVID BACON)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

* TEACH IN: WHY OPPOSING ZIONISM IS NOT ANTISEMITISM  --  CHICAGO
 --  MARCH 25  (UIC JEWISH FACULTY FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE;
FACULTY & STAFF FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE; THE SOCIAL JUSTICE
INITIATIVE; AND THE INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON RACE AND PUBLIC POLICY)

* WEBINAR  -  FOLK MUSIC AND THE NEW DEAL: COLLECTING THE HIDDEN
SOUNDTRACKS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION  --  MARCH 26  (THE LIVING NEW
DEAL)

* WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH IN SPOKEN WORD AND SONG ON ZOOM  --  MARCH
27  (PEOPLE'S MUSIC NETWORK)

* VIRTUAL EVENT  -  BLOCK & BUILD: LEFT STRATEGY IN THE MAGA ERA
 --  APRIL 2  (CONVERGENCE MAGAZINE)

* UNIONIZING THE IVORY TOWER - A SPECIAL BOOK EVENT WITH THE AUTHOR
 --  NEW YORK CITY  --  APRIL 2  (ILR WORKER INSTITUTE)

* BOOK LAUNCH AND DISCUSSION - JACKSON RISING REDUX  --  NEW YORK
CITY  --  APRIL 5  (1199 SEIU & PM PRESS)

 

* VIRTUAL EVENT  -  COUNTERING AIPAC FORUM - FIGHTING BACK  --
 APRIL 10  (NEW YORK PROGRESSIVE ACTION NETWORK)

..

 

RE: THE MOST COMMITTED ARE THE UNCOMMITTED
 

excerpt:

The president is in effect playing a game of chicken with his own
voters, doing what he wants in defiance of their pleas and daring them
to vote for Trump if they don’t like it. The underlying premise of
this dangerous game is that voters will put the issue aside come
Election Day because it will have become less important to them than
domestic politics. This premise, of course, ignores the reality that
for many voters Israel’s war on Gaza is not a foreign policy issue
but a civil rights issue, as well as a matter of survival for those
with loved ones in Gaza and other occupied territories.

The complacency of the Biden reelection campaign is one of the biggest
factors that could put Trump back in the White House.

Lorraine Suzuki
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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GETTING SO TIRED OF WAITING  --  MEME

 

 

RE: SCHUMER CLEARS PATH FOR DEMOCRATS TO DISAVOW NETANYAHU. WILL BIDEN
FOLLOW?
 

So much waffling and shifting responsibility. Biden says the solution
is for Israelis to have new elections. We have no control over that
and it would take months, at least. And there is no evidence that
anyone electable in Israel would change their practices. Meanwhile
every day starvation and death for Palestinians. We do have immediate
control over our contribution to funding, and we keep funding
genocide. We do have control over whether we block UN ceasefire
resolutions and we keep blocking them. But we are going to donate some
food.

Sonia Cobbins
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: NEW COALITION AIMS TO DEFEND ‘SQUAD’ AND OTHER PROGRESSIVES
TARGETED BY AIPAC
 

It’s about time AIPAC, what a pernicious horrid entity with a
horrifying mission. . 

Karin Pritikin
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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FAMINE IN GAZA  --  CARTOON BY NICK ANDERSON

 

 

Nick Anderson
March 18, 2024
Pen Strokes [[link removed]]

 

RE: CLAIMS OF MASS RAPE BY HAMAS UNRAVEL UPON INVESTIGATION
 

Your acceptance of an article “Claims of Mass Rape” is despicable
and misogynous.  It negates all suffering by one side of the
conflict, which is both dishonest reporting and part of a larger
narrative.  How could you?

Jeffrey Borkan

      =====

Do you actually believe that Hams members did not do rapes???

Bill Barclay

 

RE: JONATHAN GLAZER’S BRAVE OSCAR SPEECH REPRESENTS THE BEST OF
JUDAISM
 

The tepid -- at best -- response to his brief speech was a reminder
that courage is often in short supply in Hollywood.

Geoff Mirelowitz
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

Obfuscation at its finest. It is obvious to any who cared to hear that
he was rejecting the weaponization of his Jewishness to be used in the
service of genocide.

Liz Zoob
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

Glazer and others disagree about the very complex Israel-Palestinian
crisis. At this time freedom of speech still exists in some places in
the world, although it is at great risk in the USA. Any loss of lives
in the process of resolution of the Israel-Palestinian standoff is
abhorrent. Will the current crisis move the parties to a resolution
that will result in peaceful coexistence? It does not seem that
Glazer’s statements were focused on that objective.

Gina Klein
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

think how angry this made the big shots.

Paul Buhle
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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ARE YOU AFRAID OF BRITT?  --  CARTOON BY CHRISTOPHER WEYANT

 

 

Christopher Weyant
March 13, 2024
Boston Globe
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RE: HOW DOES PARIS STAY PARIS? BY POURING BILLIONS INTO PUBLIC HOUSING
 

What do socialists in office do in Paris? Create public transportation
and cycling infrastructure and as reported here by Thomas Fuller and
recirculated by xxxxxx
[[link removed]],
they build lots of public housing. We can do the same if we elect
socialists and tax the rich.

Daniel Millstone
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

While I applaud all efforts at economic integration in housing, I
still have questions about inclusion of people from other communities,
such as immigrants and people with disabilities, who may not
contribute to the promotion of the tourist friendly vibe

Rachelle Kivanoski
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

Lots of Arab and African people live in public housing within Paris,
as well as in the suburbs. In the Goutte d'Or neighborhood, which has
lots of nice medium rise public housing, whole streets are filled with
men on prayer rugs several times a day. If some tourists do not like
it, I believe that would be their problem.

Sonia Cobbins
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

How un-American of them!

Alan Hart
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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      =====

The French policy of “social housing” is remarkable, and
especially in contrast to the nightmare of the “free market” in
housing rates that are continuously “gentrifying” so many US
cities….

Rick Fantasia
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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WHY NOT A RENT DEDUCTION  --  MEME

 

 

RE: A REVOLUTION IN AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
 

It seems like every week I read from my own safe position abroad how
Americans behave like stupidly vicious morons and yet, I know a lot of
Americans including myself, my friends and plenty of fellow
 Americans who are not stupidly vicious morons so I'd like to ask: '

What gives?" Is it the water, the food, the air or even perhaps some
sort of artificially created virus designed by some dept. of the  USA
designed to finish off its own  'deplorables'?  Honestly, I'm
stumped,;does anyone else have a clue?

Mike Liston

      =====

Love Bernie, but all this does is display our hypocrisy. No one takes
the US seriously when it talks about human rights. Practice before we
preach.

Charles Patrick Lynch
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
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RE: THE ERA OF ABUNDANT LABOR REPORTING IS COMING TO AN END

(posting on xxxxxx Labor
[[link removed]])
 

Hamilton Nolan disrespects the many people who did labor reporting in
the 80s, 90s, 00s, giving us no credit for the work we did "before
Steven Greenhouse retired" and our work was in danger of being
"permanently marginalized."  He does credit his own home publication,
In These Times, with having carried stories on labor and workers, but
no one else.

David Bacon

 

TEACH IN: WHY OPPOSING ZIONISM IS NOT ANTISEMITISM  --  CHICAGO  --
 MARCH 25  (UIC JEWISH FACULTY FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE; FACULTY &
STAFF FOR JUSTICE IN PALESTINE; THE SOCIAL JUSTICE INITIATIVE; AND THE
INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH ON RACE AND PUBLIC POLICY)

 

 

Join UIC Jewish Faculty for Justice in Palestine for an introductory
conversation on the connections between antisemitism and critiques of
Zionism

MONDAY, MARCH 25 FROM 2:00PM TO 3:30PM

Richard Daley Library, Room I-470
University of Illinois - Chicago Circle Campus

Speakers include:

LIAT BEN-MOSHE, JENNIFER BRIER, RACHEL HAVRELOCK, PAULINE LIPMAN, AND
RABBI BRANT ROSEN.

This event is co sponsored by Faculty & Staff for Justice in
Palestine, the Social Justice Initiative, and the Institute for
Research on Race and Public Policy.

This is a student centered event, and masks are recommended!

 

WEBINAR  -  FOLK MUSIC AND THE NEW DEAL: COLLECTING THE HIDDEN
SOUNDTRACKS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION  --  MARCH 26  (THE LIVING NEW
DEAL)

 

 

COLLECTING THE HIDDEN SOUNDTRACKS OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION WITH SHERYL
KASKOWITZ AND CATHERINE HIEBERT KERST

TUESDAY, MARCH 26 · 8 - 9PM EDT

GET TICKETS  --  FREE  --  RSVP HERE
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Most people are familiar with the New Deal's legacy in the visual
arts, but the soundtracks left by its folk music collecting activities
have remained largely unknown. Beginning with a Music Unit hidden
within the Resettlement Administration in 1936 and continuing with the
WPA California Folk Music Project in the late 1930s, the pioneering
collector Sidney Robertson Cowell amassed hundreds of recordings that
provide new insight into life during the Great Depression, as she
followed her own interests in union protest songs and the folk music
of ethnic immigrants.

* Music scholar Sheryl Kaskowitz is author of the forthcoming A
Chance to Harmonize: How FDR's Hidden Music Unit Sought to Save
America from the Great Depression—One Song at a Time, (Pegasus
Books, April 2024) [[link removed]] the story of
the Resettlement Administration's Music Unit, a little-known program
that laid the groundwork for a folk music revival that had a lasting
impact on American culture.

* Catherine Hiebert Kerst, who worked for many years as a Folklife
Specialist and Archivist in the American Folklife Center at the
Library of Congress, is author of the forthcoming book, California
Gold, Sidney Robertson and the WPA California Folk Music Project (UC
Press, April 2024)
[[link removed]] about
Sidney Robertson, whose fieldwork for the WPA documented the diverse
musical culture of California.

The Living New Deal documents the vast legacy the New Deal (1933-1942)
left to America and the spirit of public service that inspired it.

The Living New Deal [[link removed]]    
University of California, Berkeley
PO Box 2148
Berkeley, California 94702
[email protected]

 

WOMEN'S HISTORY MONTH IN SPOKEN WORD AND SONG ON ZOOM  --  MARCH 27
 (PEOPLE'S MUSIC NETWORK)

 

 

FREE LIVESTREAM:

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2024, 7:00 – 9:00 PM (ET)

ON YOUTUBE [[link removed]]

_*** Once event ends, livestream is archived at this same link
[[link removed]]._

Women’s History Month traces its origins back to the first Women’s
Day March in 1909, organized by socialist women in New York City to
amplify the call for women’s rights and to honor the memory of the
city’s garment workers’ strikes.  Two years later, the
International Conference of Socialist Women established International
Women’s Day, now celebrated in over 80 countries worldwide.  It has
become an annual day of radical activism for women’s rights and
against war.  In the United States, the day has expanded into
Women’s History Week (1980) and eventually into Women’s History
Month (1987).

Come join us to hear a roster of PMN singer/songwriters and poets
share their vision for peace, justice, and equality in 2024! 

By registering for the event on this page, you have a chance to make a
donation to support PMN's work of sustaining a vibrant and diverse
community space in which music is a catalyst for a just and peaceful
world.  When you register, you also get access to the Zoom Meeting
info, which is a somewhat different viewing experience than the free
livestream.   

PERFORMERS:  Marcie Boyd, Elise Bryant, Joanie Calem, Lydia Adams
Davis, Lucelia De Jesus, Lorna Gonsalves, Judy Gorman, Bev Grant,
Colleen Kattau, Pat Lamanna, Bonnie Lockhart, Jendog Lonewolf, Luci
Murphy, Sarah Pirtle, Rebel Voices (Janet Stecher and Susan Lewis),
Jane Sapp, Nancy Schimmel, Angie Whitehurst, Lindsey Wilson, and Hana
Zara.

HELP SPREAD THE WORD!

ON FACEBOOK [[link removed]]

ON INSTAGRAM
[[link removed]]

People's Music Network for Songs of Freedom and Struggle
[[link removed]] is a 501(c)(3) non-profit
organization.

 

VIRTUAL EVENT  -  BLOCK & BUILD: LEFT STRATEGY IN THE MAGA ERA  --
 APRIL 2  (CONVERGENCE MAGAZINE)

 

Join _Convergence Magazine [[link removed]]_ and Seed
the Vote [[link removed]] for a special online event
introducing the concepts, content, and applications of the BLOCK AND
BUILD SYLLABUS: LEFT STRATEGY IN THE MAGA ERA. The event will preview
the syllabus content, as well as present case studies about its use
and development. Plus, you’ll learn how you can get support to bring
this study and insight into organizations of every size.

The syllabus is a political education tool developed
by _Convergence_, originally for our own internal study, that best
articulates our position and strategy for the road ahead. While the
organized Left moved beyond abstentionism as a central strategy in
2016, making a critical difference in 2018, 2020, and 2022, many are
questioning whether electoral work is worth it, given the options on
the menu in 2024. The crisis in Gaza and US policy failures provide an
immediate example of how hard, and necessary, the work of Block and
Build is at this moment; THE NEED FOR BROAD-FRONT POLITICS THAT ARE
ROOTED IN OUR PRINCIPLES AND VISION IS URGENT.

Written with organizers in mind, we’re pleased to offer this
seven-part self-paced course that examines the current moment in the
arc of US democracy: where we are, how we got here, and our best
assessment about how we might BLOCK a total capture of the federal
government while also BUILDING the capacity of our movements to
shape the trajectory of the “small-d” democratic alternative.

Host: CAYDEN MAK, Publisher, _Convergence Magazine_

Panelists:

* WHITNEY MAXEY, Editorial Board, _Convergence Magazine_
* SANDRA HINSON, Editorial Board, _Convergence Magazine_
* JOSH ELSTRO, Audio Producer, _Convergence Magazine_
* EMILY JA-MING LEE, Executive Director, Seed the Vote
[[link removed]]

 

UNIONIZING THE IVORY TOWER - A SPECIAL BOOK EVENT WITH THE AUTHOR  --
 NEW YORK CITY  --  APRIL 2  (ILR WORKER INSTITUTE)

 

UNIONIZING THE IVORY TOWER: CORNELL WORKERS’ 15-YEAR FIGHT FOR
JUSTICE AND A LIVING WAGE

APRIL 2 | 8:30 - 10:30 A.M.

570 Lexington Ave
New York, NY 10022

Register Here
[link removed]…
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Please join us for a breakfast book event with Al Davidoff, author
of _Unionizing the Ivory Tower: Cornell Workers’ Fifteen-Year Fight
for Justice and a Living Wage_. 

This in-person event will include a brief reading and spirited
discussion about _Unionizing the Ivory Tower _with the book’s
author, Al Davidoff.

Davidoff is the Director of Organizational and Leadership Development
at The Solidarity Center, the AFL-CIO’s global labor institute. He
served as the president of Cornell’s UAW local union, the president
of the Tompkins County Labor Council, NYS director of the AFL-CIO, a
Vice President of SEIU Local 1199, AFT chief of staff, and Director of
the national AFL-CIO GOLD team.  Davidoff is co-founder of the
Cornell-NYS AFL-CIO Union Leadership Institute (ULI) and co-founder of
the Cornell-AFL-CIO National Labor Leadership Initiative (NLLI).  He
has been a labor leader and organizer for over 30 years.

Al is an ILR graduate and was a student leader who became a custodian,
labor organizer, and leader of the Cornell union. With passion,
sensitivity, and wit, he tells the extraordinary story of how these
Cornell workers unionized the university.

His memoir reveals how they took on Cornell – the dominant power in
Ithaca – and built a strong organization that waged multiple strikes
and campaigns for livable wages and worker dignity. Their strategies
and tactics were creative and feisty, founded on worker participation
and ownership.

The union's commitment to fairness, equity, and economic justice also
engaged these workers – primarily rural, white, and conservative –
at the intersections of racism, sexism, classism, and homophobia.
Davidoff's story demonstrates how a fighting union can activate
today's working class to oppose anti-democratic and white supremacist
forces.

Breakfast available at 8:30 a.m.
Program begins promptly at 9 a.m.

Speakers

* AL DAVIDOFF - Director of Organizational and Leadership
Development at the Solidarity Center
* ELAINE KIM - Senior Cornell Extension Associate
* KATHLEEN MULLIGAN - Interim Executive Director, The Worker
Institute; Director of the National Labor Leadership Initiative
* VINCENT ALVAREZ - President, New York City Central Labor Council
(NYCCLC)
* MILLY SILVA - Secretary Treasurer, SEIU 1199

 

BOOK LAUNCH AND DISCUSSION - JACKSON RISING REDUX  --  NEW YORK CITY
 --  APRIL 5  (1199 SEIU & PM PRESS)

 

 

VIRTUAL EVENT  -  COUNTERING AIPAC FORUM - FIGHTING BACK  --
 APRIL 10  (NEW YORK PROGRESSIVE ACTION NETWORK)

 

 

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2024 AT 7:00 PM ET

AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) has committed
tens of millions of dollars to demolishing progressive candidates.
 And we can't let them do that.

Just ask Nina Turner, who lost a very winnable election when AIPAC
dumped big bucks into it against her.

So come join NINA TURNER, BETH MILLER (Jewish Voices for Peace), REP.
JAMAAL BOWMAN and other honored guests at our Countering AIPAC Forum
on April 10th from 7:00-9:00pm to find out how we fight back to
protect our friends - Nina, AOC, Jamaal, Rashida and others - from the
onslaught of dark money. Co-Sponsored by: NY Working Families Party,
Progressive East End Reformers. (List in formation)

RSVP
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INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

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