[ Reader Comments: George Floyds final words; Protests for George;
against police brutality, against massive militarized police, against
systemic racism and white supremacy; against Trump; nature of police
unions; mail-in voting; labor solidarity;] [[link removed]]

TIDBITS - JUNE 4, 2020 - READER COMMENTS: GEORGE FLOYD'S FINAL WORDS;
PROTESTS FOR GEORGE; AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY, AGAINST MASSIVE
MILITARIZED POLICE, AGAINST SYSTEMIC RACISM AND WHITE SUPREMACY;
AGAINST TRUMP; NATURE OF POLICE UNIONS; MORE...  
[[link removed]]

 

June 4, 2020
xxxxxx

*
[[link removed]...]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

_ Reader Comments: George Floyd's final words; Protests for George;
against police brutality, against massive militarized police, against
systemic racism and white supremacy; against Trump; nature of police
unions; mail-in voting; labor solidarity; _

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, AND cartoons -
June 4, 2020, xxxxxx

 

George Floyd's final words - A poem from Hell
Re: Demands for Trump Removal Grow as 'Fascist' Speech Condemned as
Declaration of War Against US Public (Jackie Kuikman; Aida Rivera;
Carver Foursquare)
Re: Minneapolis Council Member: 'Police in the City Failed Us' in
Protest Response; The Death of George Floyd, in Context (Robin
Yeamans; Alba Grace Pereira Medina; Ignacia Olvera)
Re: Officer Charged With 3rd Degree Murder in Death of George Floyd
(Alan Gregory Wonderwheel; Virgil Almodovar; Clint Kerkez; Edna
Martinez)
Rise Up  --  meme from Organizing Upgrade
Murder of Black and Brown men and WOMEN by police (Claire O'Connor)
What to you want to be...Alive
California Police...Terrorize and Traumatize African American Girl
(photo of Long Beach police by Richard Grant)
Re: Donald Trump Is Trying to Start a Race War (Byron Charlton; Donna
Marie Martin; Nomar Knight)
Re: Policing in the US is Not About Enforcing Law. It's About
Enforcing White Supremacy (Julio Tito Ortiz)
Re: There's One Big Reason Why Police Brutality Is So Common In The
US. And That's The Police Unions. (Bruce Thompson; Ed Ott)
Re: Minnesota AFL-CIO Calls for Minneapolis Police Union President Bob
Kroll's Immediate Resignation (Women's International League for Peace
and Freedom, U.S. Section; Linda Crowley)
Re: America must Listen to its Wounds. They Will Tell Us Where to Look
for Hope (Rosalina Rosario Melendez; Dan Morgan)
Re: Trump's Warped Definition of Free Speech (Capn' Steve Krug)
Throw another log on the dumpster fire  --  cartoon by Matt Wuerker
Re: Why Trump and the GOP Don't Want Mail Voting (Mike Arney; Buz
Whelan)
Re: The Corrupt Bargain: Inequities of the Electoral College, Past and
Present (Bob Feb; Gog Sheklah)
Re: Coming Soon: Bipartisan Deficit Hawks Calling for Austerity
(Patricia Dowling)
Re: The Bureau of Land Management Went Out of Its Way to Provide
Pandemic Relief to Oil Companies (Roberto Colon Ocasio)
We Must Dismantle White Supremacy - Silence is NOT an Option
(Corporate statement from Ben & Jerry's)
Line of white people forming a barrier between Black protestors and
the police. -  Kentucky National Organization for Women 
Re: United Steelworkers on Solidarity and Justice for Black Lives
(Laurel Sefton MacDowell)
An Injury To One... #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd (US Labor Against the War
(USLAW))
"Stop Killing Us!" " Black Lives Matter!" (Fred L. Pincus)
Re: It's Not Whether You Were Exposed to the Virus. It's How Much.
(Rosie Calderon)
Re: Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, HBO and Paramount Take a Stand in Support
of Black Lives Matter Movement Amid George Floyd Protests (Robert
Stapleton)
Re: Global Left Midweek - May 27, 2020 (Elisabette Calero)
Re: After Losing Hope for Change, Top Left-wing Activists and Scholars
Leave Israel Behind (Harry Bowman)
Re: Another Bank Bailout Under Cover of a Virus (Alfredo Viscasillas)

RESOURCES:

Let Us Build a New World Together (Center for the Study of Political
Graphics)
Call on Me, Not the Cops (18 Million Rising)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Blacklisting During a Pandemic (Farm Labor Organizing Committee,
AFL-CIO)
Fighting for CUNY / Rebuilding NYC  -  June 11 (CUNY School of Labor
and Urban Studies)

 

GEORGE FLOYD'S FINAL WORDS - A POEM FROM HELL

"It's my face man
I didn't do nothing serious man
please
please
please I can't breathe
please man
please somebody
please man
I can't breathe
I can't breathe
please
(inaudible)
man can't breathe, my face
just get up
I can't breathe
please (inaudible)
I can't breathe sh*t
I will
I can't move
mama
mama
I can't
my knee
my nuts
I'm through
I'm through
I'm claustrophobic
my stomach hurt
my neck hurts
everything hurts
some water or something
please
please
I can't breathe officer
don't kill me
they gon' kill me man
come on man
I cannot breathe
I cannot breathe
they gon' kill me
they gon' kill me
I can't breathe
I can't breathe
please sir
please
please
please I can't breathe"

Then his eyes shut and the pleas stop. George Floyd was pronounced
dead shortly after.

_[Sally Dugman, in CounterCurrents.org
[[link removed]]
(India) - May 31, 2020]_

 

RE: DEMANDS FOR TRUMP REMOVAL GROW AS 'FASCIST' SPEECH CONDEMNED AS
DECLARATION OF WAR AGAINST US PUBLIC
 

Get him out. He's a cancer on society and the human race

Jackie Kuikman
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

It was a great mistake of the US to choose this man as president...
the consequences will be long lasting... he us destroying this
nation... and to what purpose? If there is any purpose or just plain
incompetence.

Aida Rivera
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

Carver Foursquare
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

RE: MINNEAPOLIS COUNCIL MEMBER: 'POLICE IN THE CITY FAILED US' IN
PROTEST RESPONSE; THE DEATH OF GEORGE FLOYD, IN CONTEXT
 

The video of Floyd's death is horrific but not surprising; terrible
but not unusual, depicting a kind of incident that is periodically
reenacted in the United States. It's both necessary and, at this
point, pedestrian to observe that policing in this country is mediated
by race.

The investigation into Floyd's death also exists in the context of an
ongoing investigation into the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a
twenty-five-year-old African-American who was shot in southeast
Georgia when two men attempted to enact a citizen's arrest while a
third recorded a video of the incident. There is yet another
investigation of fatal police force in Louisville, Kentucky, where
Breonna Taylor, a twenty-six-year-old African-American E.M.T., was
shot to death in her apartment by officers who were conducting a drug
raid at what her family said was the wrong address.

City Council Member Jeremiah Ellison is among those condemning the
police response to protests over the killing of George Floyd. Officers
in riot gear responded with force.

Robin Yeamans
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

It would be interesting to know whats going on internally with the
culture and the training police are receiving. How is it that a
policeman openly kills a human being without any fear of consequences.

Alba Grace Pereira Medina
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

Now is the time to demand that all political prisoners are free. There
are many wrongly incarcerated.

Ignacia Olvera
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: OFFICER CHARGED WITH 3RD DEGREE MURDER IN DEATH OF GEORGE FLOYD
 

"3rd degree murder" is based on the claim that he did not "intend" to
kill him and Floyd's death was not foreseeable under the
circumstances, and Floyd's death was just the result of negligent
conduct. I don't agree. He should have been charged with 2nd degree
murder because the officer intended to choke Floyd and the death was
foreseeable after 7 to 9 minutes of choking.

Alan Gregory Wonderwheel
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

Virgil Almodovar
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

Yes , they have a rock solid case I feel for 2nd degree not 1st and
3rd degree isn't enough .

Clint Kerkez
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

Animal. Monster. All 4 need to be charge.

Edna Martinez
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RISE UP  --  MEME FROM ORGANIZING UPGRADE

Organizing Upgrade
post on Facebook [[link removed]]

 

MURDER OF BLACK AND BROWN MEN AND WOMEN BY POLICE
 

YES I get it. I get why and how George Floyd was brutally murdered.
And I get that if we are going to get justice for him and end a system
that rests on racially motivated violence we must continue and
escalate the people's peaceful and non violent push back. BUT has
anyone noticed??? Breonna Taylor of Louisville Kentucky was murdered
in her bed by a policeman. Where is the outrage? Oh, never mind. True
she was Black but only a woman. Until this morning, I had forgotten
her too. Why is that? 

Claire O'Connor 
Minneapolis MN 

 

WHAT TO YOU WANT TO BE...ALIVE
 

 

CALIFORNIA POLICE...TERRORIZE AND TRAUMATIZE AFRICAN AMERICAN GIRL
(PHOTO OF LONG BEACH POLICE BY RICHARD GRANT)
 

Richard Grant
Twitter
[[link removed]]

_[Richard Grant is an Army Veteran. Aspiring Journalist and
Photographer. CSULB Class of 2021 Photographer for Cal State Long
Beach and the @Daily49er ]_

 

RE: DONALD TRUMP IS TRYING TO START A RACE WAR
 

I disagree, the race war started in 1619 at Jamestown.
 Unfortunately, Trump is convening the open version that most
Americans were in self-denial of its existence.

Byron Charlton

     =====

THIS WOULD NOT surprise me............his upbringing in a KKK home
life would almost guarantee that to happen!!!!!

Donna Marie Martin
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

We've been in a race war. He's just trying to crank it up a notch.

Nomar Knight
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: POLICING IN THE US IS NOT ABOUT ENFORCING LAW. IT'S ABOUT
ENFORCING WHITE SUPREMACY
 

' On Friday the CNN journalist Omar Jimenez was arrested on live
television as he covered protests of police brutality in Minneapolis,
Minnesota. Jimenez identifies as African American and Hispanic, and
when the cops confronted him, he did just what minority parents tell
their kids to do. Jimenez cooperated; he was respectful, deferential
even. He said "we can move back to where you like . We are getting out
of your way . Wherever you want us, we will go."

It didn't matter; the police officers put handcuffs on him and led him
away, and then came back to arrest his crew. Jimenez narrated his
arrest as they led him away. His voice is steady. His eyes, though.
Jimenez is masked so his eyes are the only clue to what he's feeling.
His eyes are perplexed and terrified. I get it. When a black or brown
person goes into police custody, you never know what is going to
happen. You just know that when you leave police custody, if you are
lucky enough to leave, you will be diminished. That is the point.

What's most interesting is not that Jimenez and his colleagues were
released shortly thereafter without any charges filed (or even being
told why they had been taken into custody). That's what class will buy
a black man in America. You don't get it quite as bad as your
lower-income brethren. Jeff Zucker, the CNN president, talked to Tim
Walz, the governor of Minnesota, and the crew was quickly released.
With an apology from the governor, not the cops. Cops rarely
apologize, especially to black men.

But what's most interesting is what happened to Josh Campbell, a white
CNN journalist who was in the same area as Jimenez and not arrested.
Campbell said his experience was the "opposite" of Jimenez's. The cops
asked him "politely to move here and there". "A couple times I've
moved closer than they would like. They asked politely to move back.
They didn't pull out the handcuffs."

It's a cliche that the US has two systems of justice, separate and
unequal, but I prefer the word Campbell used. The US has "opposite"
systems of justice - one for white people and another for racial
minorities, especially African Americans, Latinx and Native American
people.

Julio Tito Ortiz
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: THERE'S ONE BIG REASON WHY POLICE BRUTALITY IS SO COMMON IN THE
US. AND THAT'S THE POLICE UNIONS.

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

Not the union. Blame the people in the union.

Cities, counties, and states are hiring bad people. Stop hiring
bullies.

Bruce Thompson
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

I agree. They use their," Rights", to deny others theirs.

Ed Ott
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

RE: MINNESOTA AFL-CIO CALLS FOR MINNEAPOLIS POLICE UNION PRESIDENT BOB
KROLL'S IMMEDIATE RESIGNATION

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

Minneapolis Police Union President, Bob Kroll, has failed the Labor
Movement and the residents of Minneapolis. Bob Kroll has a long
history of bigoted remarks and complaints of violence made against
him. The Minnesota AFL-CIO has asked him to resign.

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, U.S. Section
[[link removed]]
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

Cops are Workers Too. BUT. They And Their Leader Act Like They are
ABOVE THE LAW !!
KROLL. R E S I G N !!

Linda Crowley
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: AMERICA MUST LISTEN TO ITS WOUNDS. THEY WILL TELL US WHERE TO LOOK
FOR HOPE
 

Black people are not invisible, of course you have to see them, that
is precisely the problem , people don't accept them for what they are
BLACK !!!!!

Rosalina Rosario Melendez
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

I remember asking why bussing was stopped. It aimed at ensuring racial
integration in schools. Until Black and White grow up together, racism
will not end.

Dan Morgan
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: TRUMP'S WARPED DEFINITION OF FREE SPEECH
 

This exactly sums up the far rights idea of free speech: I get to say
what I want, you cannot criticize/respond to what i say. It is why
they created Fox News, not because their message wasn't getting out,
but because they can blather on and  on without being challenged.

Nat Hentoff is probably rolling in his grave, toward the end of his
life he took the left to task for censorship, we now see how the rich
and powerful really feel about free speech as they try and squelch
opposing ideas.

Capn' Steve Krug

 

THROW ANOTHER LOG ON THE DUMPSTER FIRE  --  CARTOON BY MATT WUERKER
 

Matt Wuerker
August 14, 2018

 

RE: WHY TRUMP AND THE GOP DON'T WANT MAIL VOTING
 

Hartman is on target: absentee voting can be a countermove against
some GOP voter suppression, thriving in states with many organized
Democratic Party voters. Guaranteed on that list, though not exclusive
to it, are states with large Black and (certain) Latino populations.

Readers should not conclude that Republicans everywhere are against
mail-in voting or absentee ballots. They are not always opposed to it,
and in fact favor it, in states in which they have (practically)
nothing to lose. Utah is one of five states that conducts "all-mail"
elections. It is nearly our "reddest" state, with Republicans holding
the governorship, nearly 80 percent of the state senate and house
seats, both U.S. Senate seats, and three of the four seats in the
House. (The fourth seat is held by a Blue Dog Democrat, not a member
of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.) Of course, this method of
voting is not the country's norm. But it shows that the GOP is fine
with mail-in voting from the Right voters.

Republicans in Florida have mobilized the absentee vote for decades.
Since 1999, the GOP has controlled both houses of the state
legislature and all but two years of the governorship. Of course, that
tactic does not preclude anti-democratic maneuvers (gerrymandering,
voter registration impediments, voter suppression, including purging
Democratic voters without telling them), in Florida or anywhere
else. 

For South Dakota's June primary, every active registered voter will
receive an absentee ballot in the mail. Admittedly, not sending to
"inactive" voters will clip more Democrats and perhaps independents
than Republicans. Regardless, this is one of the safest states for the
GOP. The governor is Republican, as are around 85 percent of the state
legislators, both U.S. Senators, and its one House member. Like Utah,
South Dakota has no formidable, organized, enfranchised political
threat to extreme right rule. True, its absentee voting rules are
harsh: ballots must be notarized or include a photocopy of acceptable
photo identification. For voters without access to copy machines,
however, photos from phones or cameras can be emailed.

Especially in our new COVID-19 reality, voting by mail might become
necessary to hold off the Right and score our own electoral victories.
Yes, state and local boards of elections are uneven and often
inefficient. And yes, each state's absentee voting rules differ in
fairness, obstacles, requiring excuses or not, deadlines, costs to
voters, etc. (Your U.S. brand of federalism at work.) The left,
progressive and liberal movements must organize and fight these
obstacles, in courts, legislatures, and voter assistance work.

And if Florida's Democrats get significantly stronger and eventually
are poised to end the Republican trifecta, the state GOP will realize
that absentee voting hurts more than helps its hold on political
power.

Mike Arney
Bronx, NY

     =====

Any vote not cast is a vote for Trump.

Buz Whelan
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: THE CORRUPT BARGAIN: INEQUITIES OF THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE, PAST AND
PRESENT

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

I could never understood, why every city, county, state and as a
matter of fact every county in the world, a political candidate wins
an election by getting 50% plus one vote and it's all over. Even our
SCOTUS decides for approximately 330 million people on a 5 to 4 vote,
but in the good old of the USA we need to have electoral votes. I know
that our founding fathers were thinking right for those times, but
we're living in a new world now.

Bob Feb
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

Yikes! That's a lot more convoluted, corrupt and racist than I ever
could imagine.

Gog Sheklah
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: COMING SOON: BIPARTISAN DEFICIT HAWKS CALLING FOR AUSTERITY
 

Soon the self-appointed guardians of "fiscal responsibility" will call
for cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and SNAP, while leaving the
defense budget and large tax breaks for the wealthy intact.

Patricia Dowling
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT WENT OUT OF ITS WAY TO PROVIDE
PANDEMIC RELIEF TO OIL COMPANIES
 

The world is looking for alternatives to petroleum, prices are
lowering, there is over-production and yet, the US government is
opening for production its lands. Why? Who will benefit from this?

Roberto Colon Ocasio
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

WE MUST DISMANTLE WHITE SUPREMACY - SILENCE IS NOT AN OPTION
(CORPORATE STATEMENT FROM BEN & JERRY'S)
 

All of us at Ben & Jerry's are outraged about the murder of another
Black person by Minneapolis police officers last week and the
continued violent response by police against protestors. We have to
speak out. We have to stand together with the victims of murder,
marginalization, and repression because of their skin color, and with
those who seek justice through protests across our country. We have to
say his name: George Floyd.

George Floyd was a son, a brother, a father, and a friend. The police
officer who put his knee on George Floyd's neck and the police
officers who stood by and watched didn't just murder George Floyd,
they stole him. They stole him from his family and his friends, his
church and his community, and from his own future.

The murder of George Floyd was the result of inhumane police brutality
that is perpetuated by a culture of white supremacy. What happened to
George Floyd was not the result of a bad apple; it was the predictable
consequence of a racist and prejudiced system and culture that has
treated Black bodies as the enemy from the beginning. What happened to
George Floyd in Minneapolis is the fruit borne of toxic seeds planted
on the shores of our country in Jamestown in 1619, when the first
enslaved men and women arrived on this continent. Floyd is the latest
in a long list of names that stretches back to that time and that
shore. Some of those names we know - Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor,
Oscar Grant, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Emmett Till,
Martin Luther King, Jr. - most we don't.

The officers who murdered George Floyd, who stole him from those who
loved him, must be brought to justice. At the same time, we must
embark on the more complicated work of delivering justice for all the
victims of state sponsored violence and racism.

Four years ago, we publicly stated our support for the Black Lives
Matter 
[[link removed]]movement.
Today, we want to be even more clear about the urgent need to take
concrete steps to dismantle white supremacy in all its forms. To do
that, we are calling for four things:

FIRST, we call upon President Trump, elected officials, and political
parties to commit our nation to a formal process of healing and
reconciliation. Instead of calling for the use of aggressive tactics
on protestors, the President must take the first step by disavowing
white supremacists and nationalist groups that overtly support him,
and by not using his Twitter feed to promote and normalize their ideas
and agendas. The world is watching America’s response.

Read full statement here
[[link removed]].

 

LINE OF WHITE PEOPLE FORMING A BARRIER BETWEEN BLACK PROTESTORS AND
THE POLICE.- KENTUCKY NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN
 

Photo credit: Tim Druck
May 28 - 6th and Jefferson in Louisville. This is a line of white
people forming a barrier between Black protestors and the police. This
is love. This is what you do with your privilege. #NoJusticeNoPeace
#SayHerName #BreonnaTaylor
Photo credit: Tim Druck

Kentucky National Organization for Women
[[link removed]]
post on Facebook
[[link removed]]

 

RE: UNITED STEELWORKERS ON SOLIDARITY AND JUSTICE FOR BLACK LIVES

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

My father was a director of the USW. It is a great union and a
wonderful organization. Thank you for printing this message. It filled
me with great pride.

Laurel Sefton MacDowell

 

AN INJURY TO ONE... #JUSTICEFORGEORGEFLOYD (US LABOR AGAINST THE WAR
(USLAW))
 

George Floyd was a worker. For those in the labor movement, police
being used to break up our pickets, strikes and frame trade unionists
on behalf of the boss is nothing new. Both at home and abroad, the big
business elite use militarization to destruct our communities and
target black workers. Racism and the divide-and-conquering of the
working class is all a profit-driven system knows.

Our affiliate Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) and Local 1005 are
leading a response for justice in a time when black workers are
hurting deeply. THE BUS DRIVERS LOCAL IN MINNEAPOLIS AND ST. PAUL,
ISSUED A BOLD LETTER OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE PROTESTERS, CALLING FOR
“A NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT ... THAT IS JOINED WITH THE LABOR
MOVEMENT.”
[[link removed]] ATU
President John Costa, representing more than 200,000 transit workers,
responded swiftly by calling any use of union labor to transport
police to protests "a misuse of public transit.”

All working people must stand with them and the black working class at
large. Policing is looking more and more like a military operation,
and the constant presence of police in black communities is a war
occupation. This is bold union leadership on the right side of
history.

Meanwhile, in the mainstream press, large defense contractors are
continuing their racist hysteria against workers in China, Venezuela,
Iran and throughout the globe. JUST DURING THIS PANDEMIC, THE U.S.
BIG BUSINESS CLASS HAS MADE $485 BILLION OFF OF WORKING PEOPLE, BUT
THEY HAVE BEEN LOOTING FROM BLACK WORKERS FROM AROUND THE WORLD FOR
CENTURIES. After all, war is a big business.

The demand is clear: All four of the Minneapolis police officers must
be charged and arrested. As a labor movement, we must stand with the
family of George Floyd and all of our black brothers and sisters whose
communities have been uprooted by police violence.

In struggle and solidarity,

Yasemin Zahra
USLAW Chairwoman

U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW) [[link removed]]

 

"STOP KILLING US!" " BLACK LIVES MATTER!"
 

These are two of the chants heard by protesters around the country
following the videotaped, brutal murder of George Floyd by white
Minnesota police officers.  The large, militant protests carry the
burden of history.

President Trump's authoritarian, militaristic, law-and-order approach
reflects the traditional conservative, hard-line view blaming outside
agitators and criminals for the disorder.  Liberals, on the other
hand, focus on underlying causes including improving relations between
the police and communities of color.

The explanations are old hat.  For those who are knowledgeable about
the history of racism and riots in the United States, these comments
have a familiar ring.  Consider the following quotation from a report
analyzing a previous race riot that eerily overlaps with what we are
hearing in 2020:

"[The} Chief of Police, in explaining the inability of the police to
curb the rioters, said that there was not a sufficient force to police
one-third of the city.  Aside from this, Negroes distrusted the white
police officers, and it was implied by the chief and stated by [the]
State's Attorney that many of the police were `grossly unfair in
making arrests.'"

If you thought these quotes described the 1992 Los Angeles riots that
resulted from the acquittal of white police officers who had
participated in a videotaped beating of motorist Rodney King the year
before, you would be wrong.  Nor did the quote come from the Kerner
Commission Report describing the 1967 riots in Detroit and other
cities prior to the assassination of Martin Luther King.

These words were written almost a century ago in 1922, by the Chicago
Commission on Race Relations in their report The Negro in Chicago: A
Study of Race Relations and a Race Riot in 1919.  On July 27, 1919,
almost 101 years before George Floyd's murder and ninety-six years
before Freddie Gray died in police custody in  Baltimore, a black boy
drowned after a clash between blacks and whites on a Chicago beach.
 A three-day riot exploded resulting in thirty-eight deaths (23
blacks and 15 whites) and 537 injuries.

The official 672-page report, has chapters about the underlying causes
of the 1919 riot including racial discrimination in housing, criminal
justice, education and employment.  Other chapters outline white
prejudice against blacks which, according to the report, is partly
caused by stereotyped reporting by the media.  "Constant
identification of Negroes with certain definite crimes could have no
other effect than to stamp the entire Negro group in the public mind
as generally criminal.  This in turn contributes to the already
existing belief that Negroes, as a group are more likely to be
criminal than others, and thus they are arrested more readily than
others."

Although much has changed since 1919, Black men and women are still
disproportionately being killed by police. The media is generally more
aware of racial inequality now than in the past, although Fox news is
more mired in the past. Most of today's protesters probably never
heard of the 1919 Chicago riot, but they have experienced enough
injustice to know that things have to change.  It took three days to
charge the Minneapolis officer who suffocated George Floyd and five
more days to charge the other three.  The shooting of Ahmaud Arbery
in April shows that white vigilantes still don't respect black bodies.
It took more than two months to arrest Arbery's killers.  Breonna
Taylor was killed in her bed after police broke down her front door;
they had the wrong address.

  "No justice, no peace" is another chant that is frequently heard.
  Many protestors expressed frustration and anger at the mounting
toll of innocent blacks being killed by the police.

  Sixty-nine years ago, Langston Hughes, the famous black poet,
expressed it better than any of the reports in his poem "Harlem:"

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore --
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over -
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?

_[Fred L. Pincus is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University
of Maryland, Baltimore County.  His memoir, Confessions of a Radical
Academic, will be published by Adelaide Books in June.]_

 

RE: IT'S NOT WHETHER YOU WERE EXPOSED TO THE VIRUS. IT'S HOW MUCH.
 

Three factors seem to be particularly important for aerosol
transmission: proximity to the infected person, air flow and timing.

"This is not a virus for which hand washing seems like it will be
enough," Dr. Rabinowitz said. "We have to limit crowds, we have to
wear masks."

Rosie Calderon
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: NETFLIX, HULU, AMAZON, HBO AND PARAMOUNT TAKE A STAND IN SUPPORT
OF BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT AMID GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS

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

Great. Look forward to them hiring more black directors and writers
for creative content.

Robert Stapleton
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: GLOBAL LEFT MIDWEEK - MAY 27, 2020
 

Thank you, absolutely necessary. A new reality to be assumed
immediately.

Elisabette Calero
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

Re: After Losing Hope for Change, Top Left-wing Activists and Scholars
Leave Israel Behind
 

It isn't just the activists. Some estimates suggest that something
like 10% of Israeli Jews have left in the last 40 years, and the
hopelessness of the Jewish state's endless war on the non-Jewish
people of the Land of Israel is a big part of why they left.

Harry Bowman
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: ANOTHER BANK BAILOUT UNDER COVER OF A VIRUS
 

A disaster is ripe for taking advantage of it. It's time to make
money!

Alfredo Viscasillas
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

LET US BUILD A NEW WORLD TOGETHER (CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF POLITICAL
GRAPHICS)
 

Come Let Us Build a New World Together
Design: Mark Suckle
Photo: Danny Lyon 
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Lincoln Lithograph Company
Offset, 1962/3
Atlanta, GA 32404
Photo from MSNBC Today.
Nearly 60 years separates these two images -- but the toxic racism
that was protested during the Civil Rights Movement still requires
protest. The need for justice is the same. The top photo was taken in
1962, during a protest organized by the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) against a whites-only swimming pool in
Cairo, Illinois. Praying on the left is John R. Lewis, then SNCC field
secretary, later SNCC Chair (1963-66), and a member of Congress from
Georgia since 1987. 

The lower image was taken today at the site where George Floyd was
murdered last week in Minneapolis. Kneeling from the left is Floyd
family attorney Ben Crump with Quincy Mason, one of George Floyd's
children. 

In spite of Covid-19, tens of thousands of people continue to protest
around the country and around the world....

Center for the Study of Political Graphics
[[link removed]]
3916 Sepulveda Blvd, Suite 103
Culver City, CA 90230

[email protected]

 

CALL ON ME, NOT THE COPS (18 MILLION RISING)
 

What is Black Lives Matter in action for Asian Americans?

In this defining moment, with powerful uprisings across the country in
defense of Black lives stolen by state violence, the time to reimagine
safety and practice solidarity is now.

In addition to supporting Black-led movements, we must have hard
conversations with our loved ones and commit to not calling the police
on Black people.

TAKE THE PLEDGE NOW TO DISMANTLE ANTI-BLACK RACISM IN OUR FAMILIES.
ASIANS FOR BLACK LIVES MEANS: DO NOT CALL THE POLICE.
[[link removed]]

Across the country, police are killing Black people. Tony McDade,
Breonna Taylor, Sean Reed and George Floyd were all murdered by police
officers. The police increase violence against all Black people. THAT
WE CAN NAME AT LEAST FOUR BLACK PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEN MURDERED BY THE
POLICE IN THE PAST THREE MONTHS, SHOWS US THAT THIS IS MORE THAN AN
ISSUE OF A “FEW BAD COPS.”

Calling the police means someone could lose their life. Especially if
we own businesses or are homeowners, we can stop violence against
Black people by not involving the police. In Minneapolis, a
convenience store employee called the police on George Floyd for
allegedly using a fake $20 bill. What was the police’s response?
They killed him. POLICE DO NOT DEESCALATE CONFLICT, THEY INCITE IT.
HAD THIS CONVENIENCE STORE OWNER AND HIS EMPLOYEES KNOWN TO NOT CALL
THE POLICE, GEORGE FLOYD WOULD BE ALIVE TODAY [1].

FOR THE SAKE OF OUR NEIGHBORS AND MAKING BLACK LIVES MATTER -- IT’S
TIME TO STOP CALLING THE POLICE. SIGN AND SHARE THE PLEDGE NOW.
[[link removed]]

Organizing our families towards Black liberation is essential work.
Yet, we know there are few roadmaps for having these hard
conversations. IN ADDITION TO TAKING THIS PLEDGE, WE WROTE A LETTER
FOR YOU TO SHARE WITH FAMILY MEMBERS ON WHY THEY MUST STOP CALLING THE
POLICE [2]. When it comes to police violence, we cannot afford to
‘agree to disagree.’ We ask that you share this letter with them
and transform how Asian Americans show up in defense of Black lives.

IT’S TIME TO ORGANIZE OUR AUNTIES AND ELDERS. SIGN THE PLEDGE TO
RECEIVE OUR LETTER TO OUR FAMILIES ON WHY BLACK LIVES MATTER MEANS NOT
CALLING THE POLICE.
[[link removed]]

In solidarity,

sumi, Laura, Cayden, Bianca, Turner, Irma and Charlene -- The 18MR
Team

[1] The Cut
[[link removed]]

[2] "Call On Me, Not the Cops" Letter
[[link removed]]

 

BLACKLISTING DURING A PANDEMIC (FARM LABOR ORGANIZING COMMITTEE,
AFL-CIO)
 

I write today with an urgent action to support two dozen blacklisted
FLOC members on Reynolds farms that grow tobacco and sweet potatoes.

Please sign here
[[link removed]] to
tell Reynolds, PMI, and their industry front group that enough is
enough!

With a global crisis ongoing, Reynolds continues to avoid taking
action to support tens of thousands of exploited workers in their
supply chain. Last year, FLOC members bravely spoke up and demanded an
end to wage theft, unsanitary kitchen facilities, and the recognition
of their union. Instead of negotiating, the grower simply retaliated
and refused to rehire any union members in 2020. Reynolds and PMI are
complicit, knowing this and simply asking the grower not to do it
again, but otherwise continue business as usual, even as they cut
contracts with union growers who comply with higher standards.

Instead, they are spending millions of dollars to create an industry
front group to hide abuses in their supply chain. We have to take a
stand and tell them to put that money where it belongs:  Into the
pockets of the growers and the men and women that harvest tobacco,
sweet potatoes, and dozens of other crops by changing the way they do
business.

This is why we #boycottVUSE
[[link removed]],
Reynolds key e-cigarette brand in the US!

Follow us on Facebook
[[link removed]] for
more info about how workers are fighting back during the pandemic and
please sign and share the petition
[[link removed]]!

On behalf of thousands of hardworking FLOC members, we thank everyone
who continues to support our efforts to bring justice to the
agricultural system.

To find out more about the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO,
please visit our website at WWW.FLOC.COM
[[link removed]].

 

FIGHTING FOR CUNY / REBUILDING NYC  -  JUNE 11 (CUNY SCHOOL OF LABOR
AND URBAN STUDIES)
 

[[link removed]]

FIGHTING FOR CUNY / REBUILDING NYC

THURSDAY, JUNE 11 -- 10 AM TO 11:30 AM

Register here
[[link removed]]

PLEASE NOTE: The ZOOM link will be sent to registrants the day before
the event.

A Zoom forum on past, present and future efforts and struggles to save
CUNY as a working-class institution that embodies the best of our
city’s hopes and aspirations for equality and diversity in public
higher education. Sponsored by the CUNY School of Labor and Urban
Studies (SLU).

_Featured Speakers:_

* STEPHEN BRIER, Professor of Urban Education, CUNY Graduate Center
and Professor of Labor Studies, SLU
* JAMELL HENDERSON, Coordinator, CUNY Rising Alliance and 4-time
CUNY graduate
* JUSTIN SÁNCHEZ, Co-chair SLU Student Union and student in the
B.A. Program in Urban and Community Studies
* ANDREA ADES VÁSQUEZ, First Vice President, Professional Staff
Congress, CUNY

The panelists' presentations, which will focus on ideas and examples
of how CUNY can be saved from austerity and how NYC can be
resurrected, will be followed by a Q&A session with the Zoom audience,
moderated by PENNY LEWIS, Professor of Labor Studies, SLU.

CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies [[link removed]]
25 West 43rd Street, 18th Floor
New York, NY 10036

*
[[link removed]...]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

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