[Reader Comments: Stopping Future Authoritarians, Working Class
Voters; Nursing Home Workers; Georgia Runoff; Urban-Rural Voter
Divide; Biblical Roots of Socialism; China; How to Rebuild the U.S.
Economy; Discount/Free Books; Resources; Announcements;]
[[link removed]]

TIDBITS - DEC. 3, 2020 - READER COMMENTS: STOPPING FUTURE
AUTHORITARIANS, WORKING CLASS VOTERS, URBAN-RURAL DIVIDE; NURSING HOME
WORKERS; GEORGIA RUNOFF; BIBLICAL ROOTS OF SOCIALISM; CHINA; HOW TO
REBUILD THE ECONOMY; DISCOUNT/FREE BOOKS; ANNOUNCEMENTS;  
[[link removed]]


 

December 3, 2020
xxxxxx

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

_ Reader Comments: Stopping Future Authoritarians, Working Class
Voters; Nursing Home Workers; Georgia Runoff; Urban-Rural Voter
Divide; Biblical Roots of Socialism; China; How to Rebuild the U.S.
Economy; Discount/Free Books; Resources; Announcements; _

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, AND cartoons -
Dec. 3, 2020, xxxxxx

 

Re: How do we Avoid Future Authoritarians? Winning Back the Working
Class is Key (Harry Targ; Ted Pearson; Marlena Santoyo)
Re: Why Nursing Home Aides Exposed to COVID-19 Aren't Taking Sick
Leave (Gail Joseph; Fran Tobin)
The Real Reason Trump Won’t Concede  --  meme
SolidarityINFOService
Re: If Biden Wants to Be Like F.D.R., He Needs the Left (Warren
Chamberlain; Gene Grabiner; Tom Canel; Eleanor Roosevelt; Francis
Kenny)
You're Welcome  --  cartoon by Mike Luckovich
Re: Why Georgia is Now on Everyone's Mind (David Slavin)
Re: Not Every Trump Voter (David Wilson)
Re: What We Must Do: Understanding and Overcoming the Urban-Rural
Divide (Elliot Fratkin; Dan Morgan)
Re: Why Democrats Keep Losing Rural Counties Like Mine (Mike Arney)
Re: 'From Each According to Ability; to Each According to Need' –
Tracing the Biblical Roots of Socialism's Enduring Slogan (Geoffrey
Jacques; John A, Imani; Gordon Gland)
Re: How to Celebrate Thanksgiving Without Erasing the Exploitation and
Genocide of Native American People (Quince Grove)
Re: Book Review of The Inner Level (Ronald Reosti)
Re: The Huawei War - Media Bits (Mike Liston)
 

RESOURCES:

Report - Principles for the Relief and Recovery Phase of Rebuilding
the U.S. Economy (Economic Policy Institute)
How to Organize Your Building (Jewish Currents)
40% OFF ALL Haymarket Books - Now thru January 4
Free Hard Ball Press book for the holidays - Give a child this sweet
Christmas labor story.
Digital collection now available: Stephen Lewis poster collection
(Healey Library at UMASS Boston)
 

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

Organizing the Diaspora: The U.S.-China Conflict, Anti-Asian Racism,
and Transnational Solidarity - December 4 (Democratic Socialists of
America)
The US Labor Movement and Racial Justice - December 5 (NYC-DSA Labor
Branch)
Webinar Resisting the Racism of COVID-19 - December 8 (Democratizing
Knowledge Project)
2020 Academy Awards - December 9 (Midwest Academy)
Public Health, Private Equity, & the Pandemic - December 10 (CUNY
School of Labor and Urban Studies)
Dismantling Antisemitism, Winning Justice: A Panel Discussion -
December 15 (Jewish Voice for Peace; If Not Now; United Against Hate;
Jewish Currents; Foundation for Middle East Peace; Arab American
Institute; JFREJ; The Jewish Vote; The People's Collective for Justice
and Liberation)
Break ‘Em Up! Redistributing Economic Power to the People - December
15 (People's Action - American Economic Liberties Project)

 

RE: HOW DO WE AVOID FUTURE AUTHORITARIANS? WINNING BACK THE WORKING
CLASS IS KEY
 

IMO this article by Bernie Sanders, posted on xxxxxx, provides a
useful analysis and program of action for progressives in the coming
months (the first 100 Days?).

Perhaps organizations might embrace particular campaigns to educate,
organize, and agitate around in the spirit of the Sanders program. We
might be best equipped to address the healthcare issue, with members
who have been active in such issues for years. I would be excited if
we established a Healthcare for All Task Force to lead us in this
campaign.

Harry Targ

     =====

I think what Bernie says is true, but it’s only part of the truth. I
think that until progressives come to grip with the reality of settler
colonialism in the U. S. and the role of African slavery and the
genocide of the indigenous inhabitants we will not overcome, and the
Left needs to say this. The “American Dream” is the mythology of
the settlement of a land “wrested from the wilderness” (stolen
from its people) by European settlers (pioneers) and the building of
an economy based on slave and wage labor in agriculture and
manufacturing which were both the goals and the means for conquest and
settlement. The United States has exported this nightmare to the whole
world. This nightmare history has no redeeming qualities – there is
nothing that can justify the death and suffering this system has
wrought and continues to wreak.

Trump voters feel entitled to this dream, which is a nightmare in
reality. They feel this dream is theirs and is under attack, as well
it needs to be. But the chickens are coming home to roost.

The Black Lives Matter movement of mainly young people led by Black
youth but embracing all races, has become the conscience of our
nation. Trump may be pushed out of the White House but Trumpism and
the American Nightmare are far from extirpated. In the wake of the
election there needs to be a revival of organized Labor and class
struggle that will rebuild and unite our multi-racial multi-national
many gendered working class grounded on the rejection of the American
Nightmare and white supremacy. Until the fight to restore those who
suffered and continue to suffer from this ongoing crime becomes the
fight of the whole working class our country will be just riding on a
pendulum swinging between lesser or greater degrees of lies and
oppression.

Just to let you know what prompted this was not Bernie’s piece, but
the article “The New US-While Calling Our Trump White Women
[[link removed]]",
which was very disturbing because it was so true. I did an experiment
with it. I did a global replace of “women” with “workers”.
It’s as much or more disturbing, and true.

Ted Pearson

     =====

One side is for ending starvation wages and raising the minimum wage
to $15 per hour. One side is not.

One side is for expanding unions. One side is not.

One side is for creating millions of good paying jobs by combating
climate change and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. One side
is not.

One side is for expanding healthcare. One side is not.

One side is for lowering the cost of prescription drugs. One side is
not. One side is for paid family and medical leave. One side is not.

One side is for universal pre-K for every three- and four-year-old in
America. One side is not.

One side is for expanding social security. One side is not.

One side is for making public colleges and universities tuition-free
for working families, and eliminating student debt. One side is not.

One side is for ending a broken and racist criminal justice system,
and investing in our young people in jobs and education. One side is
not.

One side is for reforming and making our immigration system fair and
humane. One side is not.

Marlena Santoyo
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: WHY NURSING HOME AIDES EXPOSED TO COVID-19 AREN'T TAKING SICK
LEAVE
 

Thank you for this long overdue article on nursing home care and the
pandemic. As an R.N. who spent 8 years as a long term care surveyor
and a bout 15 years as a nursing assistant instructor, I can add a
little to the facts. 

Nursing home owners are interested in the bottom lime, namely, their
profit. Equipment is in short supply, and CNAs are given way too much
work by Way of assignments.  Medicare and Medicaid patients are often
allowed 20 minutes of care per shift.  Continent patients are told to
wear diapers as staffing is too short to get to them when then need
assistance, for example.

More to the point, training of nursing assistants is rarely even 2
weeks long, with the federal standard being 75 hours.  They are
expected to show mature judgement with almost no experience.
 Infection control is but one of the complex concepts they are
expected to master  Additionally, practical nurses, with a single
year of training are often their only supervisors, and I have never
seen a nursing home with adequate staffing by registered nurses.
 Preparation for this job is inadequate - guidance is almost non
existence for new, or even experienced nas.  In many settings, they
pass medications with inadequate additional training.

I think that it was a given that patients living in nursing homes and
assisted living facilities ( Wisconsin mandates very few hours of
training for care givers in these facilities!) would be victims of
this pandemic.  All infections are under reported. Within the past
year, our state reduced the state requirement for nurse assistant
training from 120 hours to 75 hours.

This is a scandal that really needs to be exposed, but the lobbyists
are very powerful in this country, and we must never discount the
importance of profit!

Thank you for your important article.  It highlights the atrocious
treatment of the poor and the undereducated among us, especially
vulnerable women and immigrants.

This country has a lot to be ashamed of.

Sincerely,

Gail Joseph

     =====

This is a very good article, but PLEASE STOP SPREADING the "COVID-19
PANDEMIC HAS DEVASTATED AMERICA'S NURSING HOMES" language.

Nursing homes are doing just fine.  It's those that live and work in
them that are devastated. 

The facilities, overwhelmingly privately-owned, for-profit entities,
are making money - overwhelmingly from public dollars - getting
hundreds of millions of extra and doing little or nothing for those
with nowhere else to go. 

This may seem nitpicky, but talking about facilities as devastated
rather than those stuck inside (even this piece leaves out the voices
of those most likely to die) leads to institutional responses that
prop up the institutions.
Across the country, disability advocates and disaster relief
specialists have been calling for a rescue - moving folks into safer,
non-congregate settings, with needed supports.  Reducing the
population density in institutions ('petri dishes for covid) reduces
the spread of the virus and increases safety for all residents and
workers.

Fran Tobin

 

THE REAL REASON TRUMP WON’T CONCEDE  --  MEME
SOLIDARITYINFOSERVICE
 

SolidarityINFOService [[link removed]]

RE: IF BIDEN WANTS TO BE LIKE F.D.R., HE NEEDS THE LEFT
 

"The radical and sweeping nature of its proposals enabled the
administration forces to say to the indifferent and to the
conservative that unless the latter accepted the moderate program put
forward by the administration they might later be forced to accept the
radical and far-reaching provisions of the Lundeen bill."

Warren Chamberlain
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

I get what you’re saying re: Biden and the Left. But can he be
pushed?

Gene Grabiner
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

My take:  This is true.  Also, we need to defend Biden from the
RIGHT, as we pressure him from the Left.  The maintenance of the
Democratic coalition is key.

Tom Canel
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

The real pressure from the left, especially during the Popular Front
era was the CPUSA's push to form a serious and substantial
Farmer-Labor coalition party in opposition to both the Democrats and
Republicans. This pressure led directly to Social Security in 1936,
but it continued during the ill-fated rightward shift taken by the
Administration in 1937, warning FDR that he couldn't take leftward
support for granted. But the pressure wouldn't have worked if it
wasn't based on serious party-building efforts. A lesson for 2021.

Eleanor Roosevelt
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

Most dems are not that extreme left thankfully.
What we need is accountability and jail time for lies and corruption.
From the top to the lowest rungs of the sewer Washington has been
transformed into.

Been true blue all my life.
WTF Does an "OATH" really mean any f$#@*n way.
Ole Joe is well aware of this

Francis Kenny
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

YOU'RE WELCOME  --  CARTOON BY MIKE LUCKOVICH
 

Mike Luckovich
December 3, 2020
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
[[link removed]]

 

RE: WHY GEORGIA IS NOW ON EVERYONE'S MIND
 

Yes! 24 Nov 2020 on the two US Senate runoff. Having lived in Decatur,
next door to Atlanta, for twenty years, I think the article overlooks
critical weaknesses in the Democratic establishment's game plan to
take the seats and secure a Senate majority. Despite the heroic
efforts of Fair Fight and Stacey Abrams in registering hundreds of
thousands of voters, the voter demographics in Atlanta on 3 November
reveal a grave weakness in turnout. 

Atlanta Progressive News reporter Adrian Paulette Coleman noted that
overall voter turnout in the city was 59%, with 221,000 votes cast out
of 371,500 registered. There are 167 voter precincts in the city. In
the two or three dozen precincts of the predominantly white and
affluent north side, voter turnout was above 70%. It's safe to say
that Purdue's votes came from these precincts, even if support for
Ossoff from liberal whites offset Republicans. However, in 32
precincts concentrated in the predominantly Black working class and
poor south side of the city, voter turnout was less than 40%
[[link removed]].
 

The Atlanta south side has been subjected to widespread property
speculation and gentrification over the last decade, with affluent
buyers, Black and white, profiting, and with Atlanta's Black
Democratic political establishment enabling them and sharing in the
spoils. For several years, a local realtor, has been documenting this
collusion and conflicts of interest. The local gentry have been able
to control Neighborhood Planning Units by forming private, dues-paying
associations to take seats on the local NPUs. [for extensive evidence
on real estate speculation, see RobbyCaban.com] I can't help but draw
a connection between low turnout in Atlanta's south side Democratic
strongholds and venal party officials who have abandoned working
people in these historic Black neighborhoods to upheaval and
displacement. 

Consider also that Ossoff garnered 100,000 less votes than Biden
(Biden 2.474 million versus Ossoff 2.374 million) and that without the
"spoiler" Libertarian candidate, who got more than 2% of the vote,
Purdue most likely would have made the 50% threshold. This runoff
would not be happening. Ossoff has a big hill to climb. In the other
Senate race, the open primary, Warnock won 33% of the vote (1.6
million) to Loeffler's 26% (1.267 m). Loeffler will likely get almost
all of Doug Collins 975,000 votes (20%) plus 2% from the half dozen
other Republicans who ran. Four other Democrats in the Senate race got
about 652,000 votes (16.3%) combined. 

Will the Democratic voters show up for the runoff? There is good
reason to think not. First off, the local races drew enthusiasm in
Cobb and Gwinnett counties (northwest and northeast of Atlanta) are
over, with two Black women winning county commission seats in each and
a Black woman elected as Cobb District Attorney (along with a white
woman winning the 7th Congressional District seat (Gwinnett). These
races will not be on the ballot on 5 January. Several of Warnock's
Democratic rivals, particularly Tamara Johnson Shealey, ran on a
Sanders-progressive Democrat platform: Medicare for All, Green New
Deal, and specifically called for reparations for #ADOS (American
descendants of slavery). With only a shoestring budget, she traveled
the state for two months talking to voters. She won 106,000 votes. But
her message sharply criticized the Democrats and Warnock in particular
for unwillingness to adopt a specifically Black agenda. It's worth
speculating as to whether Tamara Johnson Shealey's 106,000 voters
could put Ossoff and Warnock over the top. And that's the rub. Ossoff
and Warnock have taken voters like those who voted for Tamara for
granted. 

But the low voter turnout in Atlanta's predominantly Black and low
income south side suggests not apathy but angry rejection of Democrats
by a long-ignored constituency. Yet both candidates run to the center.
They seem to assume the Black vote is in their pocket and see the
"lean Republican" voters as the key to victory. Centrist Republicans
sick of Trump were willing to vote against the orange monster but not
against Purdue. They may even want the Senate to remain under
McConnell's control to serve as a counterweight to Democratic control
of the House and Executive. I have seen no efforts on the part of
Georgia Democrats to address that argument or to acknowledge their
strategy. After Trump's gargantuan tax cuts in 2017 and the
multi-trillion dollar Covid relief bill last spring, Republican
justification for restricting spending is patently lame. But McConnell
still used this fig leaf to block another relief package, unless the
lion's share goes to the 0.1% and their enablers in the 9.9%, the
upper middle class centrists who "lean Republican" to keep their taxes
low. 

Ossoff, Warnock, Stacey Abrams and the Democratic establishment seem
to hope the "Republican problem" and "Black working class problem"
will both go away. Democrats ignore specific Black demands because
they assume Black voters have no alternative and took the Black vote
for granted. Ossoff and Warnock are to the left of the previous
generation of Georgia moderate Democrats, such as Jimmy Carter, Sam
Nunn, Max Cleland. They support Medicaid expansion, but oppose
Medicare for All, Green New Deal, and radical police reform. Will that
be enough? 

The Georgia Democratic coalition around the candidates is comprised on
the one hand of a predominantly working class Black base of support
heavily dependent on Black women's organizing efforts, tied to mainly
female, liberal, middle class "white allies." The two groups have
different priorities if not direct conflicts of interest. The "white
allies" rallied around Ossoff in 2017 in his bid to unseat
anti-abortion absolutist Karen Handel in the 6th Congressional
District. Despite raising $27 million, he lost. Then in the 2018
Democratic primary state senate race in the 40th district which covers
the southern half of the 5th CD, they rejected a Black woman candidate
(the same Tamara Johnson Shealey) for a white women in the Democratic
Primary. She unseated a Republican incumbent who Johnson Shealey ran
against and had been gaining on in 2014, 2016. 

The only way out of this dilemma involves recruiting working class
"whites," who have been set against their Black working class brothers
and sisters since their early 18th century. LBJ was in the midst of
passing historic civil rights bills of the mid 1960s when he observed
that, "If you can convince the lowest white man he's better than the
best colored man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell,
give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for
you." [recently quoted Rana Dasgupta "The Silenced Majority. Can
America still afford democracy?
[[link removed]]" Harpers
Dec 2020 p 51] It is the special responsibility of progressive
'whites' to take on this strategic task, one the 'white' left has
almost entirely neglected. Generations of betrayal of Black working
people by whites can be overcome, but only by building the kind of
solidarity that poses an existential choice to 'whites': either racial
superiority or class loyalty. But the left rarely present this choice
or tiptoes around this essential condition for transformational
change.

Sanders' op ed for The Guardian [How Do we avoid future
authoritarians? Winning back the working class is key
[[link removed]]"
24 November 2020] suggests his thinking has advance little since 2015
when BLM activists took over his rally in Seattle. His response to his
own question, "which side are you on?" remains the same laundry list
of bullet points that includes racial justice without acknowledging
the inequality within the working class, much less offering a plan to
bring 'white' working people to the side of the rest of the working
class. As long as Sanders, Our Revolution and the rest of the
Democratic Party left, DSA, The Squad, etc. avoid the gnarly problem
of how to win white workers to the fight against white supremacy --
the only path to solidarity -- Republicans will "Trump" class with
race. The down ballot setbacks in the House and the state legislatures
that took the Democrats by surprise reflect that Republican "Southern
strategy" of race over class still wields power. 

David Slavin

 

RE: NOT EVERY TRUMP VOTER

(posting on Dispatches From the Culture Wars - Nov. 24
[[link removed]])
 

This is an interesting article, but the section on immigration and
wages is misleading. Author Nesrine Malik cites an Economist piece
from February suggesting that Trump's anti-immigrant policies have
somehow raised wages for lower-paid US-born workers. But the Economist
article hedges a lot, admitting that other factors could explain the
wage increase, such as new minimum wage legislation in a number of
states and municipalities.

In fact, the minimum wage raises are almost certainly the main reason
wages have gone up for lower-paid workers, as the Brookings Institute
[[link removed] ]
has noted. 

David Wilson

 

RE: WHAT WE MUST DO: UNDERSTANDING AND OVERCOMING THE URBAN-RURAL
DIVIDE
 

Since Trump's ascent to the presidency in 2016, I have dismissed his
followers as racist, uneducated, and selfish people lacking any
empathy for non-whites and non-Christians. I still feel that way, but
this article helped me understand at least why rural poor people
continue to support him.

Elliot Fratkin
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

     =====

An essential discussion. It's not just rural USA but much of the world

Dan Morgan

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

 

RE: WHY DEMOCRATS KEEP LOSING RURAL COUNTIES LIKE MINE
 

I am not doubting that the Democratic Party has failed rural America.
However, Mr. Hogseth must explain what the Republican Party has done
for rural America. He does not in this article. Furthermore, he
implicitly and explicitly states that rural voters are logical in
their rejection of the Democratic Party; yet regarding the rural vote
for Republicans, he avoids the question of rationality. You can't have
it both ways: you can't claim people are smart to reject the DP but
not criticize them when they uncritically accept the Republicans. It
is silly and completely inconsistent to ascribe the white vote for
conservatives as strictly due to the failures of the DP.

He argues that the rural voters have (logically) rejected the DP. But
he doesn't convince me that the rural vote for Trump and the
Republicans has been rational. Might it be that the rural white
voters, just like the urban white voters, are much more conservative
and misled than we care to admit? Going from the DP to the GOP is not
a progressive step; it is a reactionary step, a movement towards the
worse of the two parties, even if the better of the two isn't working
well. Did Trump really stand up to " 'elitist' Democrats and fight for
citizens like" rural voters? Or did he merely promise to do so, and
thoroughly blew them off for four years? If the answers are "no" and
"yes," then explain how rural voters voted rationally by giving Trump
their votes? Sitting it out or going third party would have
represented a more "rational" response to the failures of both parties
(though in the two party system, those wouldn't be the wisest choices,
either.) And why are only Democrats labeled as "elitist"? When we do
that, are we inadvertently accepting the FOX and GOP bullshit that
conservative politicians are much closer to the ground?

Democratic failure leads to a vacuum to be filled ... by racial
divide, in Hogseth's words. So these rural white voters, like far too
many of their urban counterparts, are voting along racist lines. Led
by whom? The Republican Party. The GOP is not working to protect the
interests of rural America from executives, investors and
shareholders. But the rural vote went to the Republicans. Looks to me
like a case of racism being central to the class struggle. Sorry if
that sounds too simplistic.

I don't think enough progressives are able to come to the following
terms: many voters, especially but not exclusively white voters, are
deeply conservative. Period. That isn't a permanent condition, but it
sure the hell is a present condition.

Mike Arney

 

RE: 'FROM EACH ACCORDING TO ABILITY; TO EACH ACCORDING TO NEED' –
TRACING THE BIBLICAL ROOTS OF SOCIALISM'S ENDURING SLOGAN
 

Over the years I have met many Christian Communists and Christian
socialists. I've known Communists that became preachers, and preachers
that became Communists. Some of these Christian adherents to socialism
were Roman Catholics, while others were of various Protestant
denominations. I came of age in the radical movement in Detroit, where
the Rev. Charles A. Hill, a Baptist minister, was a friend of
Communists and a legendary movement hero. The Catholic Worker movement
was also strong in my town. And, of course, despite middlebrow
culture's determination to erase the fact that Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr., another Baptist, was a also friend of Communists as well as a
principled critic, and identified himself with democratic socialism,
the truth will not go away. 

At a time when those that seek to use Christianity as a battering ram
for fascism have become one of the faces of Christianity itself in
this country, we should pay attention to articles such as the one
posted below. This is especially true now in the United States, where
socialism is seeing an upsurge. The Biblical roots of the socialist
idea extend far beyond the example shown in this article. (Don't be
surprised by the Stalin references. The facts they allude to were once
widely known and uncontroversial.) Reading this is as good a way as
any to begin to remember those roots.

Geoffrey Jacques
posting on Facebook

     =====

31 As they prayed, the house where they were assembled rocked. From
this time they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to
proclaim the word of God fearlessly.

32 The whole group of believers was united, heart and soul; no one
claimed private ownership of any possessions, as everything they owned
was held in common.

33 The apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus with great power, and they were all accorded great respect.

34 None of their members was ever in want, as all those who owned land
or houses would sell them, and bring the money from the sale of them,

35 to present it to the apostles; it was then distributed to any who
might be in need.

Acts of Apostles - Chapter 4
[[link removed]]

John A. Imani

     =====

Socialism is profoundly Christian. However, its proponents tend to be
agnostic or atheist; whilst its opponents tend to be avowedly
Christian.

To quote the King of Siam:
It is a puzzlement...

Gordon Gland
Posted on xxxxxx's Facebook page
[[link removed]]

 

RE: HOW TO CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING WITHOUT ERASING THE EXPLOITATION AND
GENOCIDE OF NATIVE AMERICAN PEOPLE
 

Why even have thanksgiving! Surely that's the real question!

Quince Grove

 

RE: BOOK REVIEW OF THE INNER LEVEL
 

but what drives inequality, neo-liberalism i.e. capitalism in the raw

Ronald Reosti

 

RE: THE HUAWEI WAR - MEDIA BITS (MIKE LISTON)

(Media Bits and Bytes
[[link removed]]
- December 1, 2020)
 

I live in China and have done so for over two decades. The change has
been tremendous and given that change, I have few doubts that China
can survive this US onslaught and even thrive as per Morozov's
article.  As best I can see, this mad desperate flailing about of a
declining empire is only hastening its demise.  A real American would
support cooperation with a rising China, a China that up until all
these recent attacks has had an almost childish respect for Mei Guo
(the US) which means Beautiful Land  in Chinese. 

Well, they know better know, huh? Good work, Uncle Sammy, the rest of
you stay safe, 

Mike  Liston

 

REPORT - PRINCIPLES FOR THE RELIEF AND RECOVERY PHASE OF REBUILDING
THE U.S. ECONOMY (ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE)
 

Use debt, go big, and stay big, and be very slow when turning off
fiscal support

By Josh Bivens

November 24, 2020
Economic Policy Institute
[[link removed]]

The economic shock of the COVID-19 pandemic demands an overwhelming
policy response. The pandemic has both caused horrendous economic harm
and exposed the rot in our economy’s ability to provide security for
all. The policy response must first stop the economic bleeding caused
by the pandemic, and then second, build a more resilient economy that
repairs the rot.

By “stop the bleeding” we mean using fiscal policy to end the
crisis of joblessness and restore the labor market to a reasonable
degree of health. Failing to invest enough to sustain a healthy labor
market would fatally compromise both the political and the economic
ability to structurally reform the economy’s key institutions to
create fairer outcomes. We have seen this failure before, with fiscal
recovery efforts following the Great Recession of 2008–2009 that
were insufficient and too short-lived. As a result of this austerity,
it took a full decade for the labor market to return to even its
pre–Great Recession health (which was too modest a benchmark to
begin).1
[[link removed]] It
seems clear that a key reason why the Obama administration was unable
to get ambitious reform efforts finished after its first year in
office was the continued intense labor market distress.

THIS MEMO EXPLAINS WHY POLICYMAKERS NEED TO PASS ROUGHLY $3 TRILLION
IN DEBT-FINANCED FISCAL SUPPORT NOW, WITH THE FIRST $2 TRILLION
HITTING THE ECONOMY BETWEEN NOW AND MID-2022. This amount of upfront
stimulus, combined with investments that ensure a very slow phaseout
of this fiscal support, are needed to ensure a return to a
high-pressure, low-unemployment labor market by mid-2022.
Specifically, the memo calls on policymakers to take the following
actions:

Read full memo here
[[link removed]]

Economic Policy Institute [[link removed]]
1225 Eye St. NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC xxxxxx
Phone: 202-775-8810 • [email protected]

 

HOW TO ORGANIZE YOUR BUILDING (JEWISH CURRENTS)
 

By Rose Lenehan , Tracy Jeanne Rosenthal; Illustrated by Matt
Lubchansky

November 30, 2020
Jewish Currents
[[link removed]]

Matt Lubchansky  //  Jewish Currents
LIKE workers struggling with their bosses, tenants dealing with their
landlords have little power—as individuals. Organizing, however,
turns shared vulnerability into shared power. Tenants can create
associations and unions to defend ourselves and our communities
against the cruelties of a market-based housing system. 

The system as it currently stands prioritizes landlords’ right to
property and profit over people’s right to shelter and to remain in
the communities they’ve helped build. Why should a corporation’s
target profit rate determine whether you can stay in your home of 20
years? Why does the sheriff show up to carry out evictions so much
more reliably than the housing inspector shows up to enforce the
housing code? 

Tenant organizing changes the balance of power. Organizing your
building is the first step toward forcing a landlord to patch a roof,
or negotiating a lower rent increase, or stopping the eviction and
displacement of your neighborhood’s residents. It also creates
community, establishing a framework for neighbors to take care of one
another, plan for natural disasters and other emergencies, and mediate
conflict without police.

YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE. YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOCK ON DOORS,
DISTRIBUTE FLYERS, AND HOLD MEETINGS.

Read more here
[[link removed]].

Jewish Currents [[link removed]]
POB 130049 
Brooklyn, NY 11213

[email protected]

 

40% OFF ALL HAYMARKET BOOKS - NOW THRU JANUARY 4
 

FOR THE HOLIDAYS, WE ARE OFFERING 40% OFF ALL OF OUR BOOKS UNTIL
MONDAY, JANUARY 4!

Make sure to place your orders early—Covid-19 related delays mean
longer shipping times!

This is the year to introduce your favorite radical books to your
family, friends, coworkers, neighbors, and comrades, and to treat
yourself after an impossibly long 2020. If you're looking for a place
to start, check out some of our favorite reading lists:

If you appreciate our books and want to support our independent,
radical publishing project during this time of crisis, please consider
joining the Haymarket Book Club
[[link removed]].

Haymarket Books [[link removed]]  
P.O. Box 180165
Chicago, IL 60618

Tel: 773-583-7884
Email: [email protected]

 

FREE HARD BALL PRESS BOOK FOR THE HOLIDAYS - GIVE A CHILD THIS SWEET
CHRISTMAS LABOR STORY.
 

Imagine young children reading a book about a union that wins back the
job of a sanitation worker unfairly fired for taking toys out of the
trash. That’s what they will discover in Good Guy Jake.

For years Jake has repaired and painted broken toys he pulled from the
trash on his rounds and given to the children in the local shelter at
Christmas. But when an angry motorist reports Jake to the sanitation
company, the worker is fired for breaking city regulations.

His union takes the case to arbitration, where the union brings in a
crowd of children. The children show the judge the toys Jake gave them
in years past and testify that the gifts taught them the true meaning
of Christmas.

The judge reinstates Jake, and the union announces they will organize
a city-wide toy collection for all the children in all the city
shelters, calling it the “Good Guy Jake Toy Drive.”
 
FREE WITH THE PURCHASE OF ANY 3 HARD BALL PRESS CHILDREN'S BOOKS.
[[link removed]]
                          Or...
Give a copy of Some Cuts Never Heal, a union shop steward detective
novel.

"This well-plotted page-turner is guaranteed to scare the bejesus out
of anyone anticipating a hospital stay anytime in the near future."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY"

Drawing on 30 years' ex­perience as a critical care nurse, Sheard
pro­vides realistic details of hospital routine and budget-cutting
politics. Other bonuses are polished prose and elements of warmth and
humor. Strongly recommended for most mystery collections." LIBRARY
JOURNAL

"If you're a devotee of TV's "ER," you'll devour "Some Cuts Never
Heal... In fact Sheard, a 30-year critical-care nurse, vividly takes
the pulse of James Madison University Hospital in much the same way
"ER" seduces viewers with the inner life of the emergency room."
FREE WITH THE PURCHASE OF ANY 3 BOOKS FOR GROWNUPS!
[[link removed]]

ORDER EARLY FROM HARD BALL PRESS,
[[link removed]] A SOCIAL JUSTICE PUBLISHING
COMPANY...

Hard Ball Press [[link removed]]
415 Argyle Rd., 6A
Brooklyn, NY, 11218
917 428 1352

 

DIGITAL COLLECTION NOW AVAILABLE: STEPHEN LEWIS POSTER COLLECTION
(HEALEY LIBRARY AT UMASS BOSTON)
 

University Archives and Special Collections (UASC) in the Joseph P.
Healey Library at the University of Massachusetts Boston is pleased to
announce that more than 500 activist posters from the Stephen Lewis
poster collection, circa 1921-2017
[[link removed]] are
digitized and available online. UASC has been working with Stephen
Lewis to digitize more than 3,000 posters through the Boston Public
Library and make them available through our digital collections
portal. We will add new posters on a regular basis.

The posters in the collection provide insight into poster design and
serve to document a variety of issues that adversely affect a variety
of people and communities around the world. Lewis has collected
thousands of local, national, and international posters documenting
labor organizing, student unions, political activism, and other
radical and social justice movements and causes, such as the women’s
and civil rights movements, socialism, communism, antiracism, and
antifascism. Other topics include human rights, police brutality,
political prisoners, Black History Month, Asian Heritage Month, art
exhibitions, university events, conferences, memorials, and
remembrances. These posters date primarily from the 1970s to the
present. Earlier posters in the collection from the 1940s document
efforts by the American government to promote war bonds and include
several posters illustrated by Norman Rockwell.

 

ORGANIZING THE DIASPORA: THE U.S.-CHINA CONFLICT, ANTI-ASIAN RACISM,
AND TRANSNATIONAL SOLIDARITY - DECEMBER 4 (DEMOCRATIC SOCIALISTS OF
AMERICA)
 

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4TH AT 7 PM ET/6 PM CT/5 PM MT/4 PM PT

2020 has seen rising tensions at various pressure points between the
U.S. and China: political crises in Hong Kong and Xinjiang; increased
anti-Asian racism, specifically Sinophobia, with the spread of
COVID-19; and nationalist fearmongering on China from establishment
politicians across the aisle.

Caught between this crossfire are Asian workers and others in the
diaspora, from international students to long-time Chinatown
residents. We have also seen heroic struggles against these forms of
oppressions and have been inspired by the BLM uprising in the US.

How can leftists of color and allies help connect transnational
solidarity to anti-racist movement-building at home? What are some of
the possibilities or pitfalls to anticipate with a Biden
administration in terms of building up Asian and Asian American
movements from China to Chinatowns abroad?

Speakers in this webinar will show the interconnections between these
aspects, addressing topics like the Chinese right wing, pro-Beijing
disinformation, Chinese international students’ organizing, and
avenues for left-wing solidarity with movements in Hong Kong and China
against state repression while remaining vigilant against the forces
of U.S. imperialism.

This event hopes to stimulate organizing that concretely gives shape
to what connecting the transnational and local in the mass movement
and beyond can look like.

Speakers:

* TOBITA CHOW, Justice is Global
* HELENA WONG, Chinese Student Activist Network
* DAVID XU BORGONJON, International and Immigrant Student Workers
Alliance (IISWA)
* SHARON YAM, Lausan Collective 
* JM WONG, Pacific Rim Solidarity Network (Parisol) 

REGISTER HERE [link removed]
[[link removed]]

Hosted by Democratic Socialists of America
[[link removed]] and DSA AfroSocialist and
Socialists of Color Caucus [[link removed]]

 

THE US LABOR MOVEMENT AND RACIAL JUSTICE - DECEMBER 5 (NYC-DSA LABOR
BRANCH)
 

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 05, 2020• 2:00 PM • EASTERN STANDARD TIME

Join the NYC-DSA Labor Branch for a conversation with the scholars
Michael Goldfield (Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University and
author of "The Color of Politics: Race and the Mainsprings of American
Politics" and "The Southern Key: Class, Race, and Radicalism in the
1930s and 1940s") and Robin Kelley (Professor of American History,
UCLA, and author of "Hammer and Hoe: Alabama Communists During the
Great Depression" and "Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination")
on how the labor movement has addressed the question of race in the US
and how that history applies to today's situation.

RSVP to receive a Zoom link!

RSVP HERE
[link removed]
[[link removed]]

 

WEBINAR RESISTING THE RACISM OF COVID-19 - DECEMBER 8 (DEMOCRATIZING
KNOWLEDGE PROJECT)
 

Resisting the Racism of COVID-19

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 2020, 3 – 5 PM EST

REGISTER BY MONDAY, DECEMBER 7
[link removed]
[[link removed]]

This event is free and open to the public

 

2020 ACADEMY AWARDS - DECEMBER 9 (MIDWEST ACADEMY)
 

On December 9th, the Midwest Academy will honor these three visionary
leaders:

* ALICIA GARZA, Principal of Black Futures Lab & Strategy +
Partnerships Director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance;
co-creator of #BlackLivesMatter and the Black Lives Matter Global
Network -- transforming communities through innovative organizing
methods and strengthening Black political power
* DARREN WALKER, President of the Ford Foundation --
ground-breaking, responsive philanthropic strategies to reduce racial
disparities, inequality and advance long-lasting change
* MICHAEL PODHORZER, Senior Advisor of The American Federation of
Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) -- fighting
for social and economic justice and striving to vanquish oppression in
all its forms.

We hope you've already saved the date for our 2020 Academy Awards!
[link removed]
[[link removed]] It's sure to be an
inspirational program, highlighting the progress we've made and
energizing us for the work still to come.

Our annual fundraiser looks different this year, but the purpose is
still the same -- to take a moment to honor some amazing social
justice heroes while spotlighting just what good, strategic community
organizing can do.  

PAY-WHAT-YOU-CAN TICKETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE VIA ACTBLUE.
[link removed]
[[link removed]]

We'd like to thank our early sponsors:

ActBlue, AFSCME, Center for Popular Democracy, CTU, New Jersey Citizen
Action, Planned Parenthood, Rockefeller Family Fund, Sierra Club,
UTLA, Jeffrey Blum, Heather Booth, Cathy Hurwit, David Medina & Tim
DeMagistris, Eddy Morales & Hugh Harris, Nick Nyhart & Kathleen
Mctigue, Mike Pratt, and Teresa Vilmain

Midwest Academy, Inc. [[link removed]]
53 W. Jackson Blvd. #1634
Chicago, IL 60604

 

PUBLIC HEALTH, PRIVATE EQUITY, & THE PANDEMIC - DECEMBER 10 (CUNY
SCHOOL OF LABOR AND URBAN STUDIES)
 

"Even before the pandemic began, an epidemic of hospital closures had
turned whole swathes of the country into vast “health care
deserts'... Private equity firms have grabbed up a significantly
expanded share of the broader healthcare market over the last few
decades, with rural hospitals and healthcare providers—which were
often financially distressed to begin with, and relatively cheap to
buy—among some of their favored targets for acquisition. The results
have often been ugly." _- __Max Fraser in the Fall 2020 issue of New
Labor Forum_
[[link removed]]

JOIN THE CUNY SCHOOL OF LABOR AND URBAN STUDIES (@CUNYSLU) ON
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10 AT 12 NOON (ET) FOR A VIRTUAL LUNCH HOUR
EVENT titled, "Public Health, Private Equity, and the Pandemic:
Distressed Assets in Rural America" that will examine a timely example
of how privatized health care is deepening inequality during the
height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The discussion will be moderated by Samir Sonti, Assistant Professor
of Labor Studies and Urban Studies at CUNY SLU, and will feature Max
Fraser, Assistant Professor of American History at the University of
Miami, who has written on this topic in the Fall 2020 issue of New
Labor Forum
[[link removed]].

THIS LIVE EVENT IS CO-SPONSORED BY CUNY SLU'S NATIONAL JOURNAL, _NEW
LABOR FORUM_ [[link removed]]​, AND ITS NEW
PODCAST, ​_REINVENTING SOLIDARITY_
[[link removed]]. This event will be held online via
Zoom. Please download or update the Zoom app before joining the event.
Click here to join the Zoom event on Thu. Dec. 10 at noon.

Featuring:

* MAX FRASER - Assistant Professor of American History, University of
Miami; Columnist, New Labor Forum
* SAMIR SONTI - Assistant Professor of Urban Studies, CUNY School of
Labor & Urban Studies; Books & Arts Editor, New Labor Forum

REGISTER HERE
[link removed]
[[link removed]]

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

 

DISMANTLING ANTISEMITISM, WINNING JUSTICE: A PANEL DISCUSSION -
DECEMBER 15 (JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE; IF NOT NOW; UNITED AGAINST HATE;
JEWISH CURRENTS; FOUNDATION FOR MIDDLE EAST PEACE; ARAB AMERICAN
INSTITUTE; JFREJ; THE JEWISH VOTE; THE PEOPLE'S COLLECTIVE FOR JUSTICE
AND LIBERATION)
 

 

We believe that safety for marginalized people, including Jewish
people, can only be achieved when all who are vulnerable are in
solidarity with one another. It takes all of us being truly invested
in the safety of our neighbors, and learning from one another's
struggles, to protect each other.
Join social justice movement and political leaders as they share what
fighting antisemitism looks like to them and how it connects to their
own liberation struggles. Panelists will address their own experiences
of fighting oppression, how they learned about and have experienced
antisemitism, and how this informs their approach to dismantling
antisemitism. Together, we will explore how learning from one another
helps us fight against antisemitism, as well as those that seek to
wield charges of antisemitism to undermine progressive movements for
justice.

We welcome all to join us for a conversation with this powerful panel
of leaders committed to dismantling antisemitism and winning justice
as a joint struggle for a world where all of us live in safety,
vibrancy and freedom.

The panel: 

* REP. RASHIDA TLAIB is U.S. Representative for Michigan's 13th
congressional district since 2019.
* PETER BEINART is Professor of Journalism and Political Science at
the City University of New York. He is also a Contributing Opinion
Writer at The New York Times, a CNN Political Commentator,
Editor-at-Large of Jewish Currents and a Non-Resident Fellow at the
Foundation for Middle East Peace. He writes the Beinart Notebook
newsletter on substack.com.
* DR. MARC LAMONT HILL is the Steve Charles Professor of Media,
Cities, and Solutions at Temple University. He is also currently the
host of BET News and the Coffee & Books podcast. 
* DR. BARBARA RANSBY is a writer, historian, professor, and
activist. She is an elected fellow of the Society of American
Historians, and holds the John D. MacArthur Chair at the University of
Illinois at Chicago.

Moderated by RABBI ALISSA WISE, Deputy Director of Jewish Voice for
Peace and JVP Action.

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2020 8:00 PM -  9:00 PM ET

REGISTER HERE
[link removed]
[[link removed]]

 

BREAK ‘EM UP! REDISTRIBUTING ECONOMIC POWER TO THE PEOPLE - DECEMBER
15 (PEOPLE'S ACTION - AMERICAN ECONOMIC LIBERTIES PROJECT)
 

On December 15th at 2pm ET, join the American Economic Liberties
Project and People’s Action for the kickoff of our new virtual event
series “Break ‘Em Up! Redistributing Economic Power to the
People” to learn why. 

The “Break 'Em Up” series will bring together a diverse range of
progressive voices to share information about the ways unchecked
corporate power is hurting workers, small businesses, communities and
our democracy. It will build on the momentum of the House Antitrust
Subcommittee’s 16-month investigation into Big Tech, and galvanize
the progressive movement around fighting monopoly power. 

Economic Liberties and People’s Action’s first event will examine
how concentrated corporate power hurts labor and workplace organizing
efforts.

Welcome:

* GEORGE GOEHL, Director, People’s Action
* SARAH MILLER, Executive Director, American Economic Liberties
Project

Keynote Remarks:

* SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), Ranking Member of the Senate Budget
Committee

Featured Discussion: Centering Worker Power in Anti-Monopoly Fights

* ZEPHYR TEACHOUT, Author of Break ‘Em Up and Associate Professor
of Law, Fordham Law School

In conversation with Morgan Harper, Senior Advisor, American Economic
Liberties Project 

Panel Discussion: The Consequences of Corporate Power for Working
People

* SARU JAYARAMAN, President, One Fair Wage and Director of the Food
Labor Research Center, University of California, Berkeley
* SARA NELSON, International President, Association of Flight
Attendants-CWA, AFL-CIO
* VEENA DUBAL, Professor of Law, University of California, Hastings

Moderated by GEORGE GOEHL, Director, People’s Action

Closing Remarks:

* CONGRESSMAN DAVID CICILLINE (D-RI), Chair of the House Antitrust
Subcommittee

RSVP
[link removed]
[[link removed]]

DECEMBER15, 2020 --  02:00 PM IN EASTERN TIME

American Economic Liberties Project
[[link removed]]  
1150 Connecticut Ave NW Ste 800
Washington, DC 20036-4130

*
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*
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*
* [[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

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