[ Reader Comments: Voting Rights; Trump Indictment; Defund the
Police; Juneteenth; Lidice Remembered; NYC and Unions Sell Out
Retirees; Before Stonewall - Readers Debate xxxxxx post; Critical
Race Theory; Anti-Racist Resources; and more....]
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TIDBITS - JULY 1, 2021 - READER COMMENTS: VOTING RIGHTS; TRUMP
INDICTMENT; DEFUND THE POLICE; JUNETEENTH; LIDICE REMEMBERED; NYC AND
UNIONS SELL OUT RETIREES; GAY HISTORY - READERS DEBATE xxxxxx POST;
CRITICAL RACE THEORY; ANTI-RACIST RESOURCES;  
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July 1, 2021
xxxxxx

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_ Reader Comments: Voting Rights; Trump Indictment; Defund the
Police; Juneteenth; Lidice Remembered; NYC and Unions Sell Out
Retirees; Before Stonewall - Readers Debate xxxxxx post; Critical
Race Theory; Anti-Racist Resources; and more.... _

Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements, AND cartoons -
July 1, 2021, xxxxxx

 

Re: Mitch McConnell Warns That Voting Bill Would Bring U.S. to the
Brink of Democracy (Eleanor Roosevelt)
I Want My Lawyer  --  cartoon
Re: Yes, We Should Still Defund the Police (Kirsten Barquist)
Re: What Really Happened on Juneteenth — And Why It’s Time for
Supremacists and Their Sympathizers to Surrender (Sue Jackson; Terry
Sanders)
New Toy to Chew On  --  cartoon by Mike Luckovich
Lidice - July 2, 1942 - Remembering Nazi Genocide
Re: The New York City Unions Whose Backdoor Deal Sold Out Retirees,
Helped Insurance Industry (John Magisano; Jay Schaffner)
Re: Before Stonewall: Queer Liberation’s Communist Party Roots
(Naomi; Allen Young; Michael Funke)
Critical Race Theory Boogeyman  --  cartoon by Mike Thompson
Critical Race Theory  --  cartoon by Mike Stanfill
Re: The Roots of Today's White Collar Union Wave Are Deeper Than You
Think (Marilyn Albert)

RESOURCES:

Anti-Racist Resources (Teaching for Change)
Queers Demand A World Without Prisons — Poster of the Week (Center
for the Study of Political Graphics)

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

MICHAEL KLARE ON THE NEW COLD WAR WITH CHINA - CAN WE KEEP IT FROM
GETTING HOT? - JULY 7 (WELLSTONE DEMOCRATIC RENEWAL CLUB)

 

RE: MITCH MCCONNELL WARNS THAT VOTING BILL WOULD BRING U.S. TO THE
BRINK OF DEMOCRACY
 

This "republic not democracy" trope has been a keynote of American
fascists and fascist groups since the 1930s. What's next, Mitch, a
brown shirt?

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

 

I WANT MY LAWYER  --  CARTOON
 

 

RE: YES, WE SHOULD STILL DEFUND THE POLICE
 

Much as I agree with the sentiment and goals of this sentiment, IMO it
is still about the worst messaging/marketing slogan ever. It basically
hands a plate of red meat to the fear-mongering right wing.

How about a positive message that points to both a cause and a
solution: "Re-fund social services"

Kirsten Barquist

 

RE: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED ON JUNETEENTH — AND WHY IT’S TIME FOR
SUPREMACISTS AND THEIR SYMPATHIZERS TO SURRENDER
 

Just Tell the Darn Truth!

“It’s not that Gen. Granger was giving information to the enslaved
people. He was giving it to the masters” — at the barrel of a gun.

That’s the true history of Juneteenth — along with a message that
somehow has eluded the South and their white supremacist inheritors
today:  You lost the damned war. Surrender already.

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

      =====

If you’re still saying it, you must have a strong desire to have
Republicans take back control of. Congress and the Presidency.

You must have a very strong death wish.

If you really mean “reform” not “defund” why don’t you
directly SAY IT!

Terry Sanders
Santa Monica

 

NEW TOY TO CHEW ON  --  CARTOON BY MIKE LUCKOVICH
 

Mike Luckovich
June 30, 2021
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
[[link removed]]

 

LIDICE - JULY 2, 1942 - REMEMBERING NAZI GENOCIDE
 

This is a memorial to the truth that real facts matter:

Over a third of Americans now don’t believe that over 6 million Jews
were killed  in the Holocaust, but on 2 July 1942, 82 children from
Lidice -- a small village in Czechoslovakia -- were transferred to the
Lódz Gestapo office. Those 82 boys and girls were then transported to
an extermination camp at Chelmno 34 miles away. They were gassed
shortly after their arrival. This remarkable sculpture by Marie
Uchytilová commemorates them.—What you ignore you empower.  

Never Again.

 

RE: THE NEW YORK CITY UNIONS WHOSE BACKDOOR DEAL SOLD OUT RETIREES,
HELPED INSURANCE INDUSTRY

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

My lame assed "union" supported this deal, while working members
haven't gotten a raise in 6 years.

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

      =====

The City has been negotiating with the Municipal Labor Committee to
change current health care coverage for retired city workers (from all
unions), forcing people onto Medicare Advantage plans.

Medicare Advantage is not a good option. Claims are denied. For many
of us, we are not currently in a network, we see whatever doctor we
need, with Medicare paying 80%, then our insurance picking up the
rest. Under the proposal we would be surrendering our current Medicare
coverage for Medicare Advantage, and would never be able to go back to
Medicare. Medicare Advantage is a huge step backwards - it is
privatized healthcare, nothing near to the goal of single payer.

The municipal unions are sacrificing the contractual coverage of
retired workers for current workers. This sends a terrible message as
to how unions will treat and look out for current workers when they
retire. This is no way for unions, or for the city, to say they are on
the side of working people.

Simultaneous with this privatization plan, the City's public sector
unions have opposed the New York Health Act under the misguided belief
that enactment will take away negotiated medical benefits from current
members. Ironically, this privatization scheme undermines the very
negotiated benefits the unions claim to be protecting.

There is no question that this would save the city a lot of money. But
those of us who are retirees have already given the city enormous
savings over the years. Whatever we were paid in salary, working
conditions and benefits, included taking into account retiree
healthcare. To now cut these benefits is to take away from us what we
already accepted as prior reduced working conditions and salary, so
that these benefits would be included. We feel betrayed, that the
city, and our unions, consider us disposable.

So where will the funds come from for this, and for other needs of the
people of New York City? How about a stock transfer tax.

This issue is urgent. The city and unions have been conducting secret
negotiations. The plan was to usher in a new plan on July 1. We don't
know if this is still true.

Jay Schaffner

 

RE: BEFORE STONEWALL: QUEER LIBERATION’S COMMUNIST PARTY ROOTS
 

I was shocked to see this article on xxxxxx. To me, having lived
through the Party in the 1960s and ’70s, it is ludicrous, and
self-serving, for the Party to claim "The modern movement for queer
liberation—or gay liberation to use the as-yet less inclusive
terminology of the 1960s and ’70s—wouldn’t exist without the
Communist Party USA"  This is revisionist history, not worthy of any
progressive organization.  In 1979, the Party and the Young Workers
Liberation League (YWLL) blocked Holly Near from the 11th World Youth
Festival in Cuba, under the ridiculous notion that having a gay or
lesbian cultural performer would be an insult to the Cuban people and
give a false representation as to the makeup of U.S. youth.

Going back to the 1930s, including the 1960s and 70s, the Party asked
homosexual members to drop out, feeling that the working class would
not understand an organization that had gays in their membership.
During the McCarthy period this became actual policy, under the notion
that the government would be easily able to turn gay members into
informants since homosexuality was outlawed. In a number of areas, gay
and lesbian members were expelled.

There is no way that the Party participated in the Gay Liberation
movement. What is needed is an apology.

Naomi

      =====

I am a gay man with experience as a New Left and gay liberation
activist, also a red diaper baby, age 79. That People's World article
you published is yet another bullshit article on our history, this one
 suggesting the Communist Party promoted gay liberation. The article
focuses solely on Harry Hay, who was indeed a Communist, but left the
party and moved on politically with great energy via gay liberation
and eventually founded the Radical Faeries with many new & interesting
ideas.  He certainly discontinued pushing old Marxist screed. The
CPUSA was staunchly anti-gay and expelled gay and lesbian members over
many decades.  Its position caused great anguish and pain for party
members as well as other leftist lesbians and gay men. Yet they dare,
in this article, to suggest they helped launch our movement. I shudder
at the re-writing of history, which is happening all over the place. A
friend sent this article to me; I didn't even know the People's World
still existed.

Allen Young

      =====

I appreciate C.J. Atkins's historical and theoretical perspective on
the role that some CPUSA members played in building organizations in
the decades prior to the emergence of a Gay Liberation movement in the
early 1970s.

A more complete history would acknowledge that it was not easy to be
gay in the CPUSA in the three decades between Stonewall and the
Party's 2001 support of LGBTQ equality.

This was especially true in the NY area, and at the Party's national
headquarters. I recall hearing anti-gay slurs by young comrades there
in the late 1970s. Being gay was deemed to be a sign of bourgeois
decadence by many of them.

Things were better in northern California, but even there the handful
of gay Communists I knew or knew of felt the need to be at least
partially in the closet. This was especially true for Party leaders.

This was long after gay liberation and lesbian activism, including the
new women's music movement, were established and accepted in many left
circles.

A thorough history of the CP in relationship to the LGBTQ movement
should recognize this part of Party history as well.

Michael Funke

 

CRITICAL RACE THEORY BOOGEYMAN  --  CARTOON BY MIKE THOMPSON
 

Mike Thompson
June 27, 2021
USA Today
[[link removed]]

 

CRITICAL RACE THEORY  --  CARTOON BY MIKE STANFILL
 

Mike Stanfill
June 26, 2021
Raging Pencils
[[link removed]]

 

RE: THE ROOTS OF TODAY'S WHITE COLLAR UNION WAVE ARE DEEPER THAN YOU
THINK
 

The article on the roots of UAW Local 2110 was very good, but a bit
wrong on one point. The original organizing of the Museum of Modern
Art, Village Voice, and several other white collar "shops" was done,
not in the 1980s, but the 1970s, by the union District 65 before it
affiliated with the UAW and with one union organizer in the early days
- my mother, the late Margie Albert. My mother died in 1981 but left
behind her a group of working class, feminist women organizers who
continued to build the union into what became Local 2110.

Marilyn Albert,
Richmond, California

 

ANTI-RACIST RESOURCES (TEACHING FOR CHANGE)
 

Demand for our social justice, anti-racist resources
[[link removed]] increased
dramatically last year and has remained steady throughout the school
year. We saw exponential growth in the number of families and
teachers accessing our materials as they made the shift to online
learning, and again after the uprisings against racial injustice.

In the last few months, we:

* Added new lessons and articles to CivilRightsTeaching.org
[[link removed]] in preparation for
the new edition of our book, Putting the Movement Back into Civil
Rights Teaching, for teaching about the role of everyday people in the
Civil Rights Movement

* Held our annual teach-in with Howard University and added more
lessons and stories about teaching during the Black Lives Matter at
School Week of Action and Year of Purpose
[[link removed]]

* Through our Zinn Education Project (coordinated with Rethinking
Schools), organized a #TeachTruth Day of Action
[[link removed]] to
challenge GOP legislation in at least 21 states that would require
teachers to lie to students about the role of racism
[[link removed]], sexism,
heterosexism, and oppression throughout U.S. history

* Expanded opportunities for our D.C. area teacher working groups to
meet and collaborate virtually

* Promoted our Zinn Education Project campaigns to teach
about Reconstruction
[[link removed]],
the struggle for voting rights
[[link removed]], climate
justice
[[link removed]], and
the Black freedom struggle
[[link removed]]

In the coming months, we will:

* Partner with SNCC veterans, Duke University’s Center for
Documentary Studies, and the SNCC Legacy Project on a National
Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Teacher Institute
[[link removed]], The Civil
Rights Movement: Grassroots Perspectives.

* Host a series of virtual workshops in collaboration with the
Washington Teachers' Union, "Decolonizing the Curriculum
[[link removed]]"

* Host a virtual Indigenous Peoples’ Day Curriculum Teach-In
[[link removed]] with
the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian

* Host a virtual teach-in Back to the Beat: A Teach-In on Go-Go
Community and Culture
[[link removed]]

* Add more books and book reviews to SocialJusticeBooks.org
[[link removed]]

Thank you for your support
[[link removed]] of social justice,
anti-racist teaching.

Support Teaching for Change
[[link removed]]

Teaching for Change [[link removed]]
PO Box 73038
Washington, DC 20056

 

QUEERS DEMAND A WORLD WITHOUT PRISONS — POSTER OF THE WEEK (CENTER
FOR THE STUDY OF POLITICAL GRAPHICS)

 

Queers Demand
Roan Boucher
Digital print, 2018
Carrboro, NC
53012
Poster text:

"Queers Demand A World Without Prisons We reject hate crimes
legislation, "gender-responsive" prisons, and all other measures that
use gay rights rhetoric to expand the systems that murder and imprison
us. We stand against a prison industrial complex that targets people
of color, immigrants, queer and trans people, sex workers, and poor
people. We believe in queer imagination and transformative justice to
build a new world based on liberation and interdependence."

This poster is featured in our upcoming digital exhibition “Queer
Rights Are Human Rights: Posters of LGBTQ+ Struggles &
Celebrations” premiering next Wednesday, June 30. For more details
about our three-part virtual event, click here
[[link removed]]. 

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

 

MICHAEL KLARE ON THE NEW COLD WAR WITH CHINA - CAN WE KEEP IT FROM
GETTING HOT? - JULY 7 - (WELLSTONE DEMOCRATIC RENEWAL CLUB)
 

JOIN US ON THURSDAY, JULY 7, AT 5 PM
[[link removed]] for
a special Wellstone meeting via Zoom, featuring a talk by Professor
Michael Klare.

THE UNITED STATES AND THE PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA ARE ENGAGED IN
WHAT CAN ONLY BE DESCRIBED AS A NEW KIND OF COLD WAR. Both countries
are rapidly expanding their military capacity to engage in war and
engage in dangerously provocative maneuvers in the South China Sea and
the waters around Taiwan.

THE U.S. AND CHINA ARE INTERLOCKED IN DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS TO ISOLATE
THE OTHER and restrict access to the other to international markets.
These policies could easily result in an incident likely to trigger a
massive war, like the mutual antagonisms among the imperial powers of
Europe resulting in the outbreak of the First and Second World Wars.

MICHAEL KLARE WILL DISCUSS THE CAUSES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NEW
COLD WAR, the risks of its triggering a hot war, and strategies for
preventing this from occurring.

MICHAEL KLARE IS A PROFESSOR EMERITUS OF PEACE AND WORLD SECURITY
STUDIES AT HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE AND A SENIOR VISITING FELLOW AT THE ARMS
CONTROL ASSOCIATION IN WASHINGTON, D.C., where he studies the impact
of emerging technologies on the future of war and arms control.  He
is the Defense Correspondent of _The Nation_ magazine and the author
of fifteen books, including, most recently, _All Hell Breaking Loose:
The Pentagon’s Perspective on Climate Change_.

This event is co-sponsored by the Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club
and the Committee for a SANE U.S. China Policy.

You are invited to a Zoom meeting.

When: Jul 7, 2021 05:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Register in advance for this meeting:

[link removed]
[[link removed]]

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing
information about joining the meeting.

In solidarity,

The Wellstone Democratic Renewal Club Peace Committee

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INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

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