New
Ground 101
July - August, 2005
Contents
Illinois United to Protect
Social Security
DSA House Party
Waging a Living Chicago Premier
Mark Your Calendars: YDS
National Conference
The OPCTJ Wants You!
DSA National Convention
James Weinstein, 1926 -
2005
Stop Torture Campaign
New Ground
101.1
New Ground
101.2
New Ground
101.3
New Ground
101.4
Abolitionists
Meet
by Tom Broderick
The Illinois
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty (ICADP) held its 2005
Annual Meeting on June 15th at the Spertus Museum in downtown
Chicago. The meeting brought together participants in the Illinois
abolition movement to socialize and celebrate. Awards were presented
to some of those who made a contribution to the struggle for
abolition. The ICADP also elected a board of directors.
Although we still send people to death
row in Illinois, the number of people being condemned has decreased.
The message that the capital punishment system is fundamentally
flawed and not fixable is getting across. That said, eight of
our fellow human beings have been sentenced to death since former
Governor George Ryan (R) emptied death row through pardons and
commutations. The moratorium on execution is still in place and
Governor Blagojevich (D) has pledged to continue it.
Awardees this year were New York Assemblyman
Joseph R. Lentol (D-Brooklyn), who was the legislative leader
in the successful fight to end the death penalty in New York;
Illinois State Senator Mattie Hunter (D-3rd), who is the chief
sponsor of the Illinois abolition bill; Joey Mogul, a partner
at the People's Law Office in Chicago and co-founder of Queer
to the Left; and former Chicago Area 2 police detective Frank
Laverty.
During her acceptance speech, Ms. Mogul
talked about the homophobia that runs through the criminal justice
system. She referred to the closing argument to a jury by a prosecutor
in a capital punishment case. He wanted a sentence of death because
"sending a homosexual to prison for life is hardly punishment."
Mr. Laverty was given the "Unsung
Hero Award" for breaking the code of silence to save an
innocent 18 year old from a wrongful conviction for murder. Mr.
Laverty had evidence of the real killer but was prevented from
introducing it. When the case went to trial, he blew the whistle
on the long-standing policy of hiding exculpatory evidence in
secret "street files." These files were off the record
and were not presented to the defense in criminal trials. That
is illegal.
Former detective Laverty had the misfortune
of working in the torture central district headed by infamous
former Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge. Although there was
a great deal of amusement at the idea that the ICADP was giving
an award to a former member of the Chicago Police Department,
Mr. Laverty received two standing ovations from the audience.
Reverend Tricia L. Teater was elected
as the President of the Board of the ICADP. Among those newly
elected to the board was Reverend Calvin Morris, Executive Director
of the Community Renewal Society.
Chicago Democratic Socialists of America
continues to support the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death
Penalty. The ICADP website is www.icadp.org.
A Lesson
in Solidarity
by Bob Roman
The second year anniversary of the Congress Plaza Hotel
strike brought several hundred people to picket and rally
outside the hotel on June 14. This was partly a celebration of
the ongoing strike, partly "shot across the bow" of
the Chicago hotel industry whose contract with UNITE HERE Local
1 is up for renegotiation next year, and partly pressure on the
Congress Hotel to start negotiating in good faith.
This action was preceded by an action
the previous week where a delegation from Chicago
Jobs with Justice attempted to deliver a letter signed by
dozens of community groups. The letter asked that the Congress
Plaza Hotel resume negotiations with the union. Chicago Jobs
with Justice Executive Director James Thindwa very nearly was
arrested then, not for anything he did, but an employee of the
security firm guarding the hotel panicked when she realized she
was not in control of the situation. This may or may not have
had something to do with the main entrance of the hotel being
closed during the June 14 demonstration.
Last year saw a similar, rather larger
demonstration to mark the first year's passage. That demonstration
brought a wide cross section of the labor movement and the community
together as an act of solidarity (see New
Ground 95 and http://www.chicagodsa.org/c040615.html).
There seemed to be less effort at outreach this year though Jobs
with Justice, Chicago DSA and others did postcard and email alerts.
The crowd this year was dominated by UNITE HERE hospitality industry
workers attending a regional conference in Chicago and SEIU members,
though many others were present.
One should not make assumptions about
labor factionalism or the state of the strike based on the crowd.
It had far more to do with the event being a celebration. Celebrate
is an odd word to associate with a strike that has been so long
and painful for the workers. But the mood of the picket line
was buoyant and lively. There was a Mariachi band in full regalia.
(They were often inaudible despite their best efforts. When the
pickets chanted "No Justice! No peace!", they had the
decibels to prove it.) There was recorded music. There was a
stage from which speakers at a concluding rally spoke. One speaker
was John Wilhelm, President of UNITE HERE's Hospitality Division.
Wilhelm praised the strikers. He said he had just come from a
meeting in Washington, DC, where the future of the labor movement
was being discussed and debated. But the future of the labor
movement is here in Chicago, he went on, you are the future
of the labor movement. And after others had added to or ratified
his sentiment, each of the striking Congress hotel workers was
recognized by name. This was indeed a celebration of the courage,
dedication, and endurance of a small band of people.
Patriot
Acts
by Bob Roman
The Bill
of Rights Defense Coalition (BORDC) had promoted and helped
organize the nationwide effort to get various units of government
to pass resolutions against the USA PATRIOT Act. The Chicagoland
Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights (CCCLR) had successfully
led the effort to have the Chicago City Council pass such a resolution
(see New Ground 91,
89, and 88).
The CCCLR became inactive afterwards partly due to personnel
changes in some of the participating organizations and partly
because of a lack of consensus about what should be done next.
As some of the more controversial parts of the USA PATRIOT Act
approach their "sunset" expiration dates, the BORDC
organized a "national week of action" around the 4th
of July celebrations, resulting in the reactivation of the CCCLR.
The CCCLR approached the task of organizing
Chicago's participation in the week of action with a great deal
of enthusiasm and rather limited resources. None-the-less, they
successfully organized
a response to the Chicago Tribune's pro-USA PATRIOT
Act editorial (the editorial included an invitation to readers
to debate the issue, and much of the published response was from
CCCLR activists). The CCCLR also did considerable leafleting
at a variety of venues, some sympathetic and some not, from the
meeting of U.S. Conference of Mayors (where leafleting even on
public property was essentially prohibited) to a coincidental
rally at Chicago's Federal Plaza on July 5 to protest packing
the Supreme Court with conservatives.
Chicago's week of action was concluded
with the July 8th showing of the documentary video State
Secrets at Chicago
Filmmakers. The documentary provided a concise discussion
of the USA PATRIOT Act, including how it fits into the framework
of prior legislation that compromises civil liberties and strips
away official accountability. Some historical background is also
provided, as this is not the first episode of repression and
paranoia our country has gone through. The showing was followed
by a lively discussion, with several lawyers from the Chicago
chapter of the National Lawyers Guild on hand as a resource
on legal issues and news.
Despite all this activity, the CCCLR
has very limited resources, and it shows. For example, CCCLR
activist Brent Mesick designed a series of wonderful posters
that would be ideal as advertising on rapid transit cars and
busses. At present, they are only available as PDF
files on the CCCLR web site; money is definitely one of the
issues.
Chicago DSA has supported the CCCLR
through email announcements, targeted postcard mailings, participation
in its activities, and by making the Chicago DSA office available
for meetings at times when the Chicago Coalition to Defend the
Bill of Rights' office is otherwise occupied.
Coincident with the revival of the CCCLR
is a new organization, the Civil Liberties Coalition of Illinois
(CLCI). Membership in the CLCI and CCCLR overlap; some of the
larger organizations that were initially active in the CCCLR
are now part of the CLCI. Partly in deference to the predominately
501c3 IRS status of its member organizations and partly because
its members range in opinion from repeal to reform of the USA
PATRIOT Act, the CLCI is far more explicitly focused on public
education. The political component (such as it is) is a campaign
to have Illinois' Congressional delegation sponsor town hall
meetings in their districts on the subject, the first of these
thus far being one with Representative Jan Schakowsky on July
17.
Normally, one would expect rivalry and
disdain to arise from such a situation. Thus far that hasn't
happened. Part of it is a result of the more prosperous and more
mainstream situation of the CLCI giving it a fairly secure sense
of its turf. Part of it is a highly pragmatic attitude by the
CCCLR that its projects are basically public property.
The CCCLR is now planning its next steps
in the campaign to repeal the USA PATRIOT Act as well as considering
one or more projects complimentary to that goal. If you'd like
to be involved, call 773.250.3225 or email ccclr@ccclr.org
or go to http://www.ccclr.org.
Matters
of the Spirit Matter to Everyone
by Gene Birmingham
God's Politics: Why the
Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It, by Jim Wallis HarperSanFrancisco, A Division
of HarperCollins Publishers, 2005
Jim Wallis is an evangelical Christian
with a progressive politics and an inclusive stance toward other
religions. He founded Sojourners, a nationwide network
of progressive Christians, headquartered in Washington, D.C.,
and edits Sojourners, a monthly magazine covering faith,
politics and culture.
Wallis has taught faith, politics and
society both at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government
as an Institute of Politics Fellow, and at the very liberal Harvard
Divinity School. Author of seven other books, he speaks over
200 times a year, writes columns in several newspapers, and appears
on radio and TV talk shows. He lined up Christian leaders to
meet with President Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Archbishop
of Canterbury, among others, to plead for an alternative to war
in response to terrorism.
God's Politics,
his latest book, is addressed to the progressive religious community.
The religious Right is wrong by trying to use the Republican
Party for its private agenda. What the religious Left doesn't
get is that the biblical teachings of the Hebrew prophets and
Jesus are a political matter as well as a religious one. Denominational
leaders are inspired to issue justice statements, with little
effect. Rightwing Christianity wants to use public means to enforce
its private religious beliefs. Religious Left politicians keep
their faith to themselves, as though it did not apply to politics.
The only way Wallis sees to make the social justice teachings
of the Bible a political force is for the religious Left to make
them so. His Call to Renewal campaign is an attempt to make it
happen. His example is Martin Luther King's combining biblical
justice with the U.S. Constitution in his civil rights campaign.
Bad religion on the Right must be challenged
by good religion on the Left, rather than allow the Right to
continue to define its religion as the only alternative
to secularism. Good religion will ask the questions Wallis uses
as chapter titles, "When Did Jesus Become Pro-War?"
"When Did Jesus Become Pro-Rich?" "When Did Jesus
Become a Selective Moralist?" The biblical prophets did
not preach for individual conversions, but spoke to the kings,
the priests, and especially to the false prophets, to change
their ways or face God's judgment. Good religion today would
copy them.
Wallis does not address the issue of
economic systems, whether capitalist or socialist. Instead he
presents the spiritual nature of the struggle between Right and
Left as the problem. The losers in our political struggle become
cynical, while the winners are ready to wield the power they
have gained, leaving the issues without even conversation. He
believes the loss of hope is at the root of voter apathy. It
is up to the religious Left to restore hope by reclaiming the
biblical basis of social justice. It remains a foundation for
dealing with the issues of today, as Wallis sees them, race,
poverty and peace.
The most interesting example of his
approach shows up in his moderate pro-lilfe position on abortion.
He accepts the "seamless garment" approach of the late
Cardinal Bernardin, who called for the end both of the death
penalty and abortion as a consistent ethic of life. But instead
of resisting all policy of choice, he calls for both Left and
Right to make abortion "safe, legal and rare", with
emphasis on rare. Neither Right nor Left put enough emphasis
there. The Right plays to its constituency during elections,
but does nothing afterward to help women in need of child care,
health care and employment. The Left fights to preserve Roe
v. Wade, while failing to say how abortion could become rare
through education and economic policy. Wallis believes that millions
of votes by those who agree with progressive issues, but have
a religious view of the sanctity of life, are lost by Democrats
because of a hard line pro-choice stance. The religious Left,
he argues, needs to give expression to the value of all human
life by presenting choice as a last ditch option which may be
necessary at times, but can be made rare by other means of meeting
the needs of women. Unfortunately, he offers no examples of those
who share this hope.
The subtitle of Michael Harrington's
book, The Politics at God's Funeral, is "The Spiritual
Crisis of Western Civilization". Coming from an atheist,
it sounds strangely like what Wallis, the evangelical Christian,
says. Harrington closed his book this way:
"It is at this precise moment and
the conjunction is not an accident that the political and social
God of the Western tradition is dying. An atheism of fools could
rejoice in the emptiness of the heavens he leaves behind; a theism
of fools could keep on singing the old hymns. But the real
issue is whether the horizon is being wiped away, not how it
is defined. No politics can answer that question and only politics
of all those concerned with the survival of the spirit, whether
it is said to be holy or only human, can work to create the social
structures in which people are more likely to answer it for themselves."
[italics mine] (The Politics at God's Funeral, p. 218)
Compare Wallis' call for a spiritual
component in politics in his closing chapters:
"Prophetic faith does not see the
primary battle as the struggle between belief and secularism.
It understands that the real battle, the big struggle of our
times, is the fundamental choice between cynicism and hope.
"...the commission I want to use
to conclude this book... It's a commission that can only be fulfilled
by very human beings, but people who, because of faith and hope,
believe that the world can be changed. And it is that very belief
that changes the world. And if not us, who will believe? After
all, we are the ones we have been waiting for."
Whether or not God is dead, religion
is alive and kicking. Rightwing Christianity is trying to force
a return to Christendom. Wallis believes God will be alive in
the human spirit by action for social justice rather than by
theological beliefs. He sounds like a theist who is singing new
hymns. Whether or not there is hope for justice in the religious
Left, it is true that matters of the spirit matter to everyone.
Thickly
Paved With Good Intentions
by Will Kelley
The Dominion of War: Empire
and Liberty in North America, 1500-2000, by Fred Anderson
and Andrew Cayton. New York: Viking, 2005
For the vast majority of us who are
educated through the public school system, our knowledge of American
military engagements is left with huge gaps. We all learn about
the big wars, the "good" wars: the American Revolution,
the Civil War, World Wars I and II. It often comes as a shock
to us, then, to later learn about the other wars, the ones they
hardly mention: the Seven Years' War (the "French and Indian
War"), The Mexican-American War, and the Spanish-American
War, to name just three. Sometimes there is a vague sense of
embarrassment, and an indirect message that somehow these shouldn't
be included in any evaluation of American history. Yet the first
is how the British colonies secured their claim to Canada and
the Old Northwest, the second yielded Texas, California, and
everything in between, while the third turned the United States
into a trans-oceanic empire. Surely, one wonders, there must
be a way to integrate these wars, along with the many others,
into a more comprehensive understanding of the growth of the
American nation. And now, I am happy to report, Fred Anderson
and Andrew Cayton have given us such a book.
Their goal is simple, nothing less than
to see how various pieces of the history of North America all
fit together. On the one hand, they are acutely aware of the
"grand narrative" of American exceptionalism: that
the United States is a uniquely peace-loving nation whose people
only go to war when they have been forced to do so in order to
defend liberty. They know this is incorrect, but they also are
aware of the flaws in the common alternate narratives that portray
the United States as an arrogant bully, willfully ignorant of
the many cruelties that flowed, and continue to flow, from its
violent domination of other people. Instead, they try to use
stereoscopic vision, combining elements of both to create a more
accurate, three-dimensional view.
Their method is to examine military
conflicts that involved an extension of the "dominion,"
or political control, of state entities. They begin by analyzing
the contest among the three big European empires of Britain,
France, and Spain (with a brief appearance by the Netherlands).
This leads them to a remarkable inference: three unexpectedly
easy victories in the "little" wars we don't learn
about exacerbated tensions that, in short order, precipitated
Anglo-American involvement in the "big" wars we do
hear about. In the 18th century, a sweeping victory in the French
and Indian War led the British to try to extend imperial control
in their American colonies, resulting in the Revolution. In the
19th century, the huge territory acquired from Mexico in 1848
brought to a head the conflict over slavery, and with it the
Civil War. In the early 20th century, an easy victory over Spain
led to a national debate over what the limits of "America"
should be.
In order to show how the issues of the
times were experienced by individuals, the authors explore their
history through a study of the lives of people closely identified
with the struggle for dominion, usually but not always through
war: Champlain, William Penn, George Washington, Andrew Jackson,
Santa Anna, Ulysses S. Grant, and Douglas MacArthur.
The result is a tremendous success.
Without using any of the affected style of contemporary "theorists,"
and in the guise of a simple historical narrative, the authors
have been able to mount a complex, sophisticated argument concerning
the creation and expansion of the power of the United States.
They find that the rhetoric and reality of "liberty"
for those who are one of "US" does not contradict but
is consistent with conduct that others experience as imperial
aggression. If, as psychologists argue, one aspect of maturity
is an ability to live with the ambivalence that arises when we
simultaneously accept both good and bad sides of the same phenomenon,
this is a profound effort to create a mature understanding of
the history of American expansion.
It is, of course, not a perfect book.
Ignore the subtitle. There is a short summary of the conquest
of Mexico by the Spanish, and a brief overview of Colin Powell's
career up to his appointment as Secretary of State, but the study
effectively begins in 1599 with the arrival Champlain in Canada
and ends in 1952, when Eisenhower was elected president and MacArthur
admitted that he was old. There is, in addition, one serious
hole. In two of the "imperial" wars that saw sweeping
victories over non-English speakers, the result was a war among
Americans themselves, first between British imperialists and
separatist colonials, and second between the North and the slave-holding
South. What, though, was the effect of victory in the Spanish-American
war?
The narrative loses focus when it comes
to the consequences of the Spanish-American War. The authors
emphasize that the United States shifted from territorial expansion
to "interventionism," an insistence that its wars were
only for the purpose of liberating people who had been oppressed
by tyrants, not the control of territory. This, they write, was
because the leaders of the nation balked at trying to incorporate
non-White, non-Protestant, non-Anglophone people into the United
States. Yet what was the conflict among Americans that made such
social diversity a threat? Though they hint at an answer through
their mention of who ended up on the losing side of this battle,
they never connect the dots and say it openly: there was a war
going on in the United States. It was a class war, a war over
liberty and authority that one amateur historian called the "Great
Dissent" (see New Ground
94: Finnish Americans and the Great Dissent). This war
was fought in part through arguments over what it meant to be
"an American." Debate took the form of determining
who could be disciplined: enjoined, fined, arrested, imprisoned,
deported, killed, etc. The result was a complex blend. If elites
gave up on the expansion of America abroad, they developed an
ideology of Americanism at home. If the territory of non-White,
non-Protestant peoples was not to be incorporated into the United
States, no longer would many of these people be permitted to
immigrate to the United States. If the government started to
protect citizens against the power of large capitalists, movements
in favor of other forms of political economy were destroyed,
then dismissed as "un-American." Just as Anderson and
Cayton identify distinctive "settlements," political
compromises that both extended and delimited liberty after the
Revolutionary and Civil wars, they could have identified a third
settlement to accompany what they call the Age of Intervention,
one established during the term of Woodrow Wilson and immediately
thereafter. The book would have been a bit more intellectually
satisfying if Anderson and Cayton had taken the additional step
of characterizing this Settlement. It deserves as much because
it is one we are living under still, even if it is unraveling.
Yet no book is perfect and, given the
sweep of their synthesis, their achievement is staggering. It
may be the best one-volume history of the establishment and expansion
of American dominion that we have today.
Other
News
compiled by Bob Roman
Illinois United to Protect
Social Security
Organizing continues in the 15th and
11th Congressional Districts. On June 2, there were press conferences
in Champaign and Bloomington announcing the organizing of the
15th District. 15th District Representative Johnson is a Republican
who could be pried loose from the Republican caucus' machine
on this issue; he's voted independently on other issues in the
past and is beginning to make appropriate noises. The 11th District
committee had a similar press conference in Joliet on June 6.
Among those speaking was DSA member John Ormins, wearing his
AFSCME Retiree Sub-Chapter 73 hat. A delegation from the conference
visited Weller's District Office with their mascot, "Jerry
the Duck", the point being that Jerry Weller needs to stop
ducking the issue. The 11th District is particularly important
as Representative Weller is on the House Ways & Means Committee,
where most of the Social Security legislation is being considered.
He has not been making appropriate noises. All three press conferences
gathered considerable and favorable local coverage.
The campaign to protect Social Security
returned to Joliet on July 6 with a rally in that town's Bicentennial
Park as the Alliance for Retired Americans' "Truth Truck"
came through with its flat bed load of petitions. This was the
start of the Illinois leg of the Truth Truck tour that has already
covered much of the Eastern United States. About a hundred people
attended the late morning demonstration. Chicago DSA sent a postcard
alert to its members and contacts in Will County advising them
of the event.
In August, Illinois United to Protect
Social Security is planning educational events around the 70th
anniversary of start of Social Security. They are also continuing
their efforts to have local units of governments adopt resolutions
supporting the preservation of Social Security (the Illinois
legislature and the City of Chicago are among those that have
done so) and to have local elected public and party officials
sign on to a petition supporting its preservation.
While outright privatization of Social
Security is becoming less and less likely, we should remain alert
for legislation that subtly sabotage this institution.
Bob Roman
DSA House Party
DSA is having a house party at the home
of Ron Baiman, 205 S. Humphrey in Oak Park, on Wednesday, July
27, 7 PM, to raise badly needed monies. Our special guests will
be Harold Meyerson (DSA Vice Chair and Editor-at-large of The
American Prospect), Kent Wong (Director, UCLA Labor Center),
and Frank Llewellyn (Director, DSA). Since before the election
last fall, many non-profit organizations on the left have been
the subject of false, even malicious accusations by the right
wing. The IRS has responded to the charges and right wing political
pressure by initiating a project investigating many non-profits
on the left. Like the NAACP, DSA is one of the non-profit organizations
that have been targeted. We will be completely exonerated; yet
we still have to pay (excellent) lawyers thousands of dollars.
And of course, the IRS won't pick up the tab when they clear
us, even though they are the ones that are forcing us to incur
these costs. Your financial support will enable DSA to both continue
our campaign against the low-wage economy and shut down what
is clearly a politically motivated administrative attack on us.
To RSVP (or for more information), call
the Chicago DSA office at 773.384.0327 or email chiildsaa@chicagodsa.org.
If you cannot attend, send a contribution
of any amount to the DSA Fund, 198 Broadway, Suite 700,
New York, NY 10038. Your donation to the DSA Fund is and
will be completely tax deductible.
"Waging a Living"
Chicago Premier
The Open University of the Left is presenting
the Chicago premier of Waging a Living, a documentary
film by Roger Weisberg, produced by Public Policy Productions
in association with Thirteen/WNET New York. This showing will
be on Sunday, July 24, 7:30 PM, at the United Electrical Workers
Hall, 37 S. Ashland in Chicago.
The percentage of American workers trapped
in poverty rose 50% between 1979 and 2000. Today, one in four
workers (more than 30 million Americans) are stuck in low-wage
jobs that do not sustain a decent or secure existence. This documentary
follows four laborers as they struggle to support their families.
Shot over three years in the Northeast and in California, Waging
a Living offers a first hand view of life lived on the outskirts
of the American dream. A $5 donation is requested, or more if
you can, but no one will be turned away. For more information,
email oulchicago@yahoo.com
or call 773.384.5797.
Mark Your Calendars!
You won't want to miss the annual YDS
national conference and activist retreat on the weekend of August
12-14. This year we will be meeting at a small castle surrounded
by forest and ponds, conveniently located in Ossining, NY (only
30 minutes north of New York City).
We come together at a time when Bush
and the Republicans are on a rampage and greedy corporations
are more powerful than ever. The right wing in the United States
controls all three branches of government and is pushing forward
a regressive agenda of tax cuts for the rich and attacks on unions,
women, people of color, the LGBT community and our social programs.
The labor movement, often the right wing's most formidable opponent,
is at a weak point and is internally divided. Abroad, the violence
in Iraq continues to escalate, destroying countless lives and
draining billions of dollars from the public coffers. As young
people, we see tuition costs and personal debt spiraling out
of control and an uncertain future with fewer decent job prospects
amidst the expanding low-wage economy.
And yet, despite all these distressing
realities, there are signs of hope. Bush's popularity ratings
are at an all-time low. His administration faces considerable
resistance to its domestic privatization schemes and its militaristic
foreign policy. Progressive activists in and outside the Democratic
Party are working to fight mostly defensive battles while also
crafting a long-term strategy to advance our own agenda of social
and economic justice. Internationally, the wave of opposition
to capitalist globalization continues to grow as popular social
movements and left-wing electoral victories spread, particularly
across Latin America. The time to build a stronger democratic
Left in the United States is now. Join us from August 12-14 as
we work together to prove that a better world is possible.
Our conference, entitled "Building
the Next Left," is a unique opportunity for YDS members
and activists to get away from it all, to remember why we do
what we do and to learn how to do it better. There will be workshops
and discussions on organizing strategies, the history of the
left, contemporary social movements, mapping out political priorities
for youth and students organizers, building a stronger progressive
presence in mainstream US politics and more. Come to the castle
to meet young and veteran activists from around the country in
an affordable retreat setting. There will also be partying, video
screenings, and plenty of out-door fun in between workshops and
trainings. Most importantly, this is a great way to wrap up the
summer, make new (and sometimes life-long) friends, and get ready
for a fall of campus and community activism. For more information,
go to http://www.ydsusa.org/confs/nyc_0805.html.
The OPCTJ Wants You!
The Oak
Park Coalition for Truth & Justice (OPCTJ) is planning
the First Annual Oak Park Peace Fair and Town Hall. The OPCTJ
wants to project a view of a peaceful society. Though it will
be a beautiful day when there are no more swords to beat into
plowshares, the absence of war is not enough. The theme of the
Fair is "What Does Peace Look Like?" This is an ambitious
undertaking and one that Chicago DSA supports.
This event will offer peace and justice
groups from the greater Chicago area the opportunity to make
visible a better world. Integral to this event, artists and artisans
will be displaying their craft. There will be a performance stage
where poets, spoken word artists, performance artists and musicians
will entertain and enlighten. A Public Voice Area is planned.
This will be a space where we can engage our elected officials
in structured conversation on the topic of peace with justice.
State and Federal officials are being invited. Speeches are not
on the agenda, as dialogue is the focus.
The Fair will take place Saturday, September
10 from noon to 5 p.m. at Scoville Park. The park is at the northwest
corner of Lake Street and Oak Park Avenue in Oak Park. For general
questions about the Fair: Bill Barclay, chocolatehouse@sbcglobal.net.
Questions from artists and artisans about displaying at the Fair:
Donna Bast, dsbast@majorscale.com.
Questions from those wishing to step onto the Performance Stage:
Laurel Lambert Schmidt, Llambertschmidt@yahoo.com.
If you want to present, display or perform, you should get in
touch with Bill, Donna or Laurel without delay. See you at the
Fair.
Tom Broderick
DSA National Convention
The 2005 DSA National Convention will
be held November 11 through 13 in Los Angeles. A pre-convention
conference on Wal-Mart organizing is also being planned. For
more details, as they become available, go to the DSA
web site.
The Chicago DSA delegate election will
be at our general membership meeting on Tuesday evening, September
13, at the Chicago DSA office. You do not need to be present
at the meeting to run for a delegate position. While the specific
apportionment has not been announced at press time, Chicago generally
has many delegate positions to fill. So even if you are not sure
you can go to the convention, we'd encourage you to run. For
more information, or to file your absentee candidacy, call the
Chicago DSA office, 773.384.0327, or email chiildsa@chicagodsa.org.
James Weinstein, 1926
- 2005
By now most of you have heard that James
Weinstein died this June of brain cancer. I won't duplicate other
obituaries here. Rather, I'll simply note that what impressed
us when we chose him for the 1997 Debs - Thomas - Harrington
Award was his record as a founder of institutions: the periodicals
In These Times,
Socialist Revolution (which later became Socialist Review
then was last heard of as Radical Society), and the Modern
Times bookstore. He was a founding member of the New American
Movement (one story I've heard has him present in the Hyde Park
living room where the idea for NAM is said to have been born).
When it merged with the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee,
he became a founding member of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Over the past decade or so, Weinstein's
relation with DSA was both supportive and cranky. He very helpful
with the 1997 Dinner, and In These Times has cosponsored
several events with Chicago DSA over the past few years. But
it was no secret that he felt DSA had not fulfilled what he (and
many others) had regarded as its potential. He felt this way
about most of the left.
James Weinstein was also a scholar and
author. My own particular favorite was his history, The Decline
of Socialism in America, 1912 - 1925. Others feel that The
Corporate Ideal in the Liberal State, 1900 - 1918 is his
most significant work of scholarship. It is reported that he
was most pleased with his most recent work, The Long Detour.
In May of 2004, In These Times, the Open University of
the Left, and Chicago DSA organized a forum to discuss this book.
Losing someone like Weinstein is always
bad news. If only there were more lefties like him: a builder
of institutions.
Robert Roman
Stop Torture Campaign
In its misguided war on terrorism, the
illegitimate administration of George W. Bush is in violation
of human rights on a massive scale. U.S. Courts, the Italian
legal system, the American Civil Liberties Union, Human Rights
Watch and Amnesty International are among the many groups who
have taken action to stop the Bush administration and its abuse
of human beings.
This administration continues to hold
U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in known and unknown locations
without charges being filed against them. They are held without
access to legal representation or to the evidence against them.
It has disappeared captives to governments that are known to
use torture. This is demurely referred to as "rendition."
This administration has been linked to abuse, torture and murder
of captives in its custody. These actions do not produce safety
or security for anybody. They do make the status of captured
U.S. military personnel (not to mention civilians) far more perilous.
In the summer of 2004, the Unitarian
Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) initiated the Stop
Torture Permanently (STOP) Campaign to spotlight U.S. involvement
in torture. The focus of the campaign is the official authorization
and use of torture, whether mental or physical, direct or by
"proxy." Stating that there exists no justification
of torture of any human being, the UUSC is calling for a "Justice
Weekend" in Washington, DC for the days of September 24,
25 and 26, 2005.
On Saturday the 24th there will be educational
and panel discussions on the history, legal considerations and
security consequences of U.S. involvement in torture. There will
also be discussions of specific and appropriate reform measures.
On Sunday the 25th there will be a Citizens'
Trial of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Attorney General
Alberto Gonzales and former CIA Director George Tenet for violation
of international and U.S. laws prohibiting torture. The trial
will be based on actual laws and evidence. The lawyers will be
real. There will be real testimonies given by Iraqi and Afghan
survivors. There will also be testimonies from torture survivors
from Latin America who suffered torture in their homelands, with
a North American agent present in their cell. There will be an
intelligence expert testifying that torture does not work, that
it only creates rage against the United States. The goal of the
trial is to teach the realities of torture, not create a fictional
event.
On Monday the 26th the Justice Weekend
attendees will head to Congress and other government offices
to share what they have learned about torture and to insist that
all forms of torture be abolished.
For additional information on the "Call
for Justice Weekend," or the STOP Campaign in general, contact
Jennifer Harbury or Nadya Khalife at UUSC at 800 388 3920 or
at stoptorture@uusc.org.
Tom Broderick
|
|
New
Ground #101.2
08.20.2005
Contents
0. Yet Another Bloody Note From the
Editor
1. Politics
Change to Win Reply to AFL-CIO
September 24 Marches on Washington
LabourStart - Gate Gourmet
2. Democratic Socialism
Socialist Feminism
Chicago Women's Liberation Union
Marx's Democratic Critique of Capitalism and Its Implications
for China's Developmental Strategy
Argentine Cooperatives
3. Upcoming events of Interest
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
A Note from the Editor
This wasn't to have become
a habit, but the electronic edition of New Ground continues
to evolve and encounter bugs. Thus another note from me.
First of all, we're going to a slightly fancier html format simply
for readability. Some email lists only allow text (and strip
"non-text characters" from postings), and I'll try
to keep that in mind regarding formatting. (Thanks to Mark Weinberg
for the push in this direction.) But please let me know of any
difficulties you encounter using this newsletter, for example
this next item.
A few of you had problems with links to the Harold Meyerson articles:
I can't find the
Steering & Splitting article. When I log on to the link,
I get an old Robert Reich article.
Also, when I log on to the Solidarity Creeps Back in link, I
get a different article on cloning come up, with the Solidarity
article off to the side.
tb
This is the explanation:
The problem seems
to be that the address is too long: you're getting, for example,
articleid#1004 rather than articleid#10048. This isn't a problem
with many mail programs, but clearly it is a problem with more
than I anticipated. Having the address wrap to another line also
causes the message to bounce from a number of ISP and mail providers
(most commonly hotmail.com and comcast.net) so that's something
I'll need to be on the look out for.
The bottom line is that the useable addresses are:
http://prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10048
and
http://prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10100
FYI, I've added information about
the 1984, 1985 and 1986 Thomas - Debs Dinners to the Chicago
DSA web site. Aside from some pictures of a rather young Barbara
Ehrenreich and an elderly Michael Harrington, the main item of
historical interest is that the 1986 dinner took place during
the centennial of the "Haymarket Affair". This was
quite the big thing among lefties here in Chicago (though at
the time, I was taking a break from politics and only attended
the dinner) and over a month's worth of activities had been organized
in the city. I've included images from the centennial calendar
of events (it was a tabloid size document and our scanner is
letter size):
http://www.chicagodsa.org/d1986
http://www.chicagodsa.org/d1985
http://www.chicagodsa.org/d1984
http://www.chicagodsa.org/dthdin.html
Finally, thanks to Gene Birmingham
and Tom Broderick for content contributions to this issue. You
can help too! Send items to ng@chicagodsa.org.
In solidarity,
Bob Roman
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Politics
Change to Win Coalition Chair Anna
Burger responds to AFL-CIO proposal
http://www.changetowin.org/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC=%7B2F62B3AC-292A-48EB-ABC8-D1D9B97645A7%7D
(If that link doesn't work for you, go to http://www.changetowin.org
and you'll see a link to the article on the right, under "In
the News").
September 24 Marches on Washington
Both International A.N.S.W.E.R. and United for Peace and Justice
are organizing national demonstrations in Washington, DC, against
the war. Neither could agree on the politics of the demonstration,
and still can't, but (possibly by necessity?) both have finally
agreed on having at least some elements in common between their
events:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3075
Here in the provinces, relations are not so strained nor resources
so plentiful, so both sides have been cooperating in organizing
buses to the demonstrations from just about the start. This is
being done through Chicago A.N.S.W.E.R. If you're interested
in going, tickets are $80, check payable to "8th Day Center
for Justice" (write "Sept. 24 bus" in the memo)
and include your name, your phone number and (if you have one)
your email address, and mail it all to A.N.S.W.E.R. Chicago,
27 N Wacker, Box 199, Chicago, IL 60606. You should get a response
within 10 days. For more information, call 773.920.7545 or email
answerchicago@gmail.com
or go to http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/61553/index.php.
At present, two busses have been reserved. If they need to charter
more, the price of a ticket is likely to go up because of fuel
costs. Make your reservation today.
Chicago DSA has not formally endorsed either demonstration, but
CDSA is a member of United for Peace and Justice: http://www.unitedforpeace.org.
LabourStart - Gate Gourmet
No, Virginia, not everyone has heard of http://www.labourstart.org.
If you are among them, it is high time you visited the single
best place for labor news on the web. LabourStart is run by Eric
Lee, a past DSA member (out of the Democratic Socialist Organizing
Committee, actually). He emigrated to Israel where he was a persistent
pain in various anatomical locations for conservative politicians.
Now he is based in Britian doing LabourStart.
LabourStart is not just about news. They also conduct Amnesty
International type campaigns in support of striking or repressed
trade unionists. Their current campaign, at last count generating
over 5,000 messages in less than 3 days, is in support of the
striking Gate Gourmet workers in Britian: the folks who evoked
the "wildcat" sympathy strike by British Air employees.
Check it out at http://www.labourstart.org/gategourmet.
The Unfeeling President by E. L.
Doctorow
This says what many of us have said for a long time, but puts
thoughts together in a withering attack that needs to be made:
http://www.easthamptonstar.com/20040909/col5.htm
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Democratic Socialism
The July August issue of Monthly
Review discussed "Socialism for the 21st Century",
the entire issue being devoted to the subject, some articles
better than others. Check it out for yourself: http://www.monthlyreview.org.
Of particular note to DSA members is a reprint of a 1976 article
by Barbara Ehrenreich, "What is Socialist Feminism?":
http://www.monthlyreview.org/0705ehrenreich.htm
In 1976, of course, Barbara Ehrenreich
was a member of the New American Movement (NAM), which later
became DSA. NAM played a major role in developing socialist feminism
in the 1970s, including holding a national conference in 1975
on the subject in Yellow Springs, Ohio, to which over 2000 people
came. Closer to home, the Chicago Women's Liberation Union (CWLU)
played a similar role earlier in that decade. Much of the history
of CWLU is preserved online at the Chicago Women's Liberation
Union Herstory Site: http://www.cwluherstory.com.
David Schweickart attended the Fifth
Forum of Humanities and Social Sciences of China at Renmin University
in Beijing this past June. He presented a paper, "Marx's
Democratic Critique of Capitalism, and Its Implications for China's
Developmental Strategy":
http://net4dem.org/senet/renmintalk.htm
You may have heard of Argentine workers
seizing factories and other enterprises to run for themselves
during the recent economic disaster there. The War Resisters
League's July August issue of The Non-Violent Activist
talks about their experience (though the article says too little
about Argentine bankruptcy law): "A New Form of Resistance
Argentina's Recovered Factories" by Yeidy Rosa:
http://www.warresisters.org/nva0505-4.htm
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Upcoming Events of Interest
For other events go to http://www.chicagodsa.org/page9.html
TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 5:30 PM
7 PM
Protest for Women's Liberty!
Federal Plaza, Dearborn & Adams, Chicago
A demonstration in protest of the nomination of Judge John Roberts
to the Supreme Court
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/61525/index.php
il_naral@hotmail.com
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
|
New
Ground #101.3
08.29.2005
Contents
0. DSA News
Thank You for Your Support
DSA National Convention
YDS Update
"Democratic Left" Summer, 2005, issue
1. Politics
Is Melissa Bean a Liar?
Must Labor Bureaucratize to Organize?
Labor's New Foreign Policy
The Estate Tax
Chicago City Council Anti-War Resolution
2. Democratic Socialism
Guild Socialism Reconsidered
3. Upcoming Events of Interest
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DSA News
Thank You for Your Support!
But sympathy won't pay the rent, our
union printer, or for that matter, our web hosting service. Nor
does much political organizing take place without funds to support
it. Chicago DSA is low maintenance, but we need your help to
keep on keeping on. You can help by participating in the 10th
annual "New Ground" Labor Day issue.
Your financial support will not only
help us continue publishing a print edition of "New Ground",
it will also help support our work in support of Social Security,
do labor support work, help groups organize in support of civil
liberties, and educate our country about the need for economic
and social democracy.
The deadline for ad copy is September
10! For more information on how you can participate, go to
http://www.chicagodsa.org or call
773.384.0327.
DSA National Convention
The DSA National Convention will be
November 11 through 13 at the Radisson Wilshire Plaza Hotel in
Los Angeles, California. For more information, go to http://www.dsausa.org.
As usual, delegates will participate in a travel share arrangement
that equalizes travel expenses among all delegates, so delegates
from Chicago might reasonably expect some money back for travel.
Chicago DSA will be electing delegates
to the convention at the membership meeting on Tuesday,
September 13, 7 PM, at the Chicago DSA office. If you would
like to be a delegate and can't attend the meeting, or if you
would like more information, email chiildsa@chicagodsa.org
or call 773.384.0327.
The Chicago DSA office is at 1608 N.
Milwaukee, Room 403, in Chicago. This is at the three-way intersection
of Milwaukee, Damen, and North avenues, next to the Damen Avenue
CTA Station on the Blue Line to O'Hare. (Yes you can attend
the anti-war rally then the membership meeting! It's a straight
shot up the Blue Line, maybe 25 minutes if you include waiting
for the train.)
YDS Update
The latest news from the Young
Democratic Socialists national office is online at
http://www.dsausa.org/ydsupdate/25aug2005.htm
"Democratic Left"
Summer, 2005, issue
The Summer, 2005, issue of Democratic
Left is in the mail, but if you're not a member of DSA or
if you're totally curious, the issue is available on line (in
PDF format) at
http://www.dsausa.org/dl/summer_2005.pdf
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Politics
Is Melissa Bean a Liar?
The CAFTA 15: Is Melissa Bean
a Liar? by Jonathan Tasini
http://www.cflonline.org/headline.php?id=183
Must Labor Bureaucratize to
Organize?
If you are a union member and
haven't yet made acquaintance with the Association for Union
Democracy, it's high time you did. This is a great resource for
learning your rights as a union member and discovering other
union members, possibly in your union, who are working on extending
or defending union democracy. The organization was established
by Herman Benson, an old DSA member. Go to:
http://www.uniondemocracy.com/
The Association for Union Democracy
publishes the Union Democracy Review with news and commentary
on labor democracy and integrity. Much of its content is posted
on the Association's web site. Those of you with some familiarity
with Herman Benson will not be surprised to learn that he is
rather skeptical of the Change to Win Coalition's strategy, and
he published a good summary of his arguments in the latest issue
of Union Democracy Review. The article is posted on Benson's
blog:
http://bensonsudblog.blogspot.com/
Labor's New Foreign Policy
There were actually two resolutions
on foreign policy considered at this year's AFL-CIO convention.
The second resolution didn't pass. Read about it here: Labor's
Foreign Policy Heads in a New Direction by Tim Shorrock
http://www.fpif.org/progresp/volume9/v9n18.html
The Estate Tax
Congress is set to return on Tuesday,
September 6 and the Senate faces a dauntingly full schedule with
many high priority issues to address. With the Supreme Court
nomination of John Roberts, the reauthorization of the Higher
Education Act, two reconciliation bills, more than half (7) of
the appropriations bills to finish (not to mention a chaotic
and tangled web of appropriations committee jurisdictions to
sort out with the House), it is hard to understand why the first
order of business will be a vote to permanently repeal the estate
tax. But the Senate will vote on a motion to invoke cloture on
H.R. 8, the House-passed estate tax repeal bill on September
6. Contact your Senators today:
http://www.demaction.org/dia/organizations/ombwatch/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=907
and urge them to vote NO on cloture
on H.R. 8 and finish their more important work before passing
more tax cuts for the super-rich.
Chicago City Council Anti-War
Resolution
After considerable negotiation between
the various factions and organizations of the anti-war movement
in Chicago, a resolution demanding the withdrawal of troops from
Iraq was introduced into the Chicago City Council, passed out
of committee, and will be up for a vote by the Council at its
next meeting on September 14. Please don't assume that because
the resolution has 41 co-sponsors that it will pass; the Chicago
City Council is funny that way. The text of the resolution plus
links to email your alderman and other public officials can be
found at:
http://www.noiraqwar-chicago.org/cawi_008.htm
A rally and march in support of the
resolution has been organized by Peace Pledge Chicago for the
evening prior to the city council meeting. The rally will be
at 5 PM in Daley Plaza. More information can be found at:
http://peacepledgechicago.org or http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/62224/index.php
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Democratic Socialism
Guild Socialism Reconsidered
In this article, Dr. Roger A.
McCain considers what can be learned from another obscure tradition
in socialist thought, "guild socialism". McCain feels
his article is not so good, and discusses his self-criticism
in the preface, but I think its main difficulty is that the article
is not quite complete. Nonetheless, it's a good introduction
to a school of democratic socialism that was once quite popular
but now more than a bit obscure. "Guild Socialism Reconsidered"
by Roger A. McCain:
http://william-king.www.drexel.edu/top/personal/wkpaps/gildf/gildpref.html
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Upcoming Events of Interest
For other events, go to http://www.chicagodsa.org/page9.html
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 7 PM
Democrats, Lakoff, Chicago & Neoliberal Racism in the
Post-Civil Rights Era
Acme ArtWorks, 1741 N. Western,
Chicago
Scholar & activist Paul Street discusses the state
of black Chicago, the Democratic Party and more.
An Open University of the Left forum. Tuition $5. For more information
call 773-384-5797 or email oulchicago@yahoo.com
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 5:30 PM - 6:30
PM
Rally to Save the Court
Federal Plaza, Dearborn &
Adams, Chicago
Timed to coincide with the first day of the confirmation hearings
on John Roberts. It is sponsored by the Illinois Coalition for
Fair Courts. Download a flyer at http://media.pfaw.org/stc/IL-Flyer.pdf
or call Julie Sweet at 312.726.2179 or jsweet@pfaw.org
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, NOON to 5 PM
Oak Park Peace Fair
Scoville Park, Oak Park Av
and Lake, Oak Park
Music, art, "speakouts", organization exhibitions and
more. For more information, go to http://www.opctj.org
or call 708-386-1371 or 708-250-8970.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 5 PM
Anti-War Rally and March
Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington, Chicago
In support of the anti-war resolution pending before the Chicago
City Council. Organized by Peace Pledge Chicago and others. For
more information, go to:
http://peacepledgechicago.org/
or http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/62224/index.php
|
|
New
Ground #101.4
09.08.2005
Contents
0. DSA News
Update from the Young Democratic
Socialists
Chicago DSA Needs Your Help
Membership Meeting
1. Politics
Estate Tax Repeal on Hold, But
Only on Hold
Lessons from a Social Autopsy
More on New Orleans
Hearings on the City of Chicago Anti-War Resolution
New Book By Barbara Ehrenreich
2. Jobs!
USLAW
Marijuana Policy Project
3. Democratic Socialism
Whatever Happened to Guaranteed
Annual Income?
4. Upcoming Events of Interest
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DSA News
Update from the Young Democratic
Socialists
The latest update from the YDS national
office:
http://www.dsausa.org/ydsupdate/index.html
Chicago DSA Needs Your Help
Well, so do many other people. But
it's not too late to participate in the Labor Day issue of New
Ground. The deadline for copy is Saturday, September 10,
though Monday is probably still okay. For details, go to http://www.chicagodsa.org
Chicago DSA Membership Meeting
will be on Tuesday, 7 PM, September
13, at the Chicago DSA office. We'll be electing delegates
to the November DSA National Convention in Los Angeles. You should
have received the details via snail mail by now. If you'd like
to be a delegate but can't attend the membership meeting, give
the office a call at 773.384.0327 or email us at chiildsa@chicagodsa.org
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Politics
Estate Tax Repeal on Hold, But
Only on Hold
Disasters have a way of reordering
priorities. Hurricane Katrina is no exception. The petition to
invoke cloture against the filibuster been withdrawn, but Republican
militants have made it clear that they intend to pursue their
program later. This not only includes making tax cuts for the
wealthy permanent, but also cuts in Medicaid, Food Stamps, student
loans- just to mention a few. Do not assume the destruction of
the Gulf Coast is going to stop them.
Lessons from a Social Autopsy
For socialists, it's no great revelation
that disasters affect communities along social lines, including
class, ethnicity and age. In July of 1995, Chicago suffered an
extended heat wave that ended up killing over 700 Chicagoans.
Sociologist Eric Klinenberg conducted a "social autopsy"
of the event that illustrated how one's position in the economy
and society generally determined one's vulnerability. He also
examined public perceptions of the event were influenced by media
coverage. Published as Heat Wave by the University of
Chicago Press in 2002, Klinenberg's examination of the Chicago
disaster makes the Gulf Coast pretty much more of the same. If
you haven't read Klinenberg's book, a brief interview at the
University of Chicago Press web site gives an adequate precise
of his book:
"Dying Alone, an Interview with
Eric Klinenberg"
Heat Wave: a Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/443213in.html
Slate
was canny enough to ask Klinenberg to compare and contrast the
Chicago and Gulf Coast events:
"When Chicago Baked: Unheeded Lessons from Another Great
Urban Catastrophe" by Eric Klinenberg
http://slate.msn.com/id/2125572/
More on New Orleans
Part of Klinenberg's concern is perceptions transmitted by communication
media. For a somewhat different look at the destruction of New
Orleans, go to:
http://neworleans.indymedia.org/
It hasn't aired yet, but you may want
to tune into Ira Glass' program on public radio, This American
Life: "After the Flood", Surprising stories
from survivors in New Orleans. And, insiders at FEMA, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency, tell the story of how their agency
has changed over the last four years, and how its ability to
respond to national emergencies has been hampered. Broadcast
the weekend of September 9-11 in most places, or available via
RealAudio next week.
http://www.thislife.org/
Hearing on the City of Chicago
Anti-War Resolution
The City Council Committee on Human
Relations will hold a hearing on the Resolution calling for an
immediate orderly withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq.
The hearing is scheduled for Monday, September 12th at 1:00
p.m. at City Hall, 121 N. LaSalle, in the City Council Chambers,
2nd Floor. The resolution was introduced into the City Council
last July and currently has 40 co-sponsors. The lead City Council
sponsors hope to have the committee vote to approve the resolution
on that day. The resolution would then be referred to the full
City Council for a vote on Wednesday, September 14th. Please
make every effort to attend this important committee hearing.
If you have any questions, please call Alderman Joe Moore's office
at 773-338-5796.
New Book By Barbara Ehrenreich
DSA member Barbara Ehrenreich has
a new book, Bait and Switch, about finding white collar
employment after being "downsized". Consider it a sequel
to Nickel and Dimed. For more information, go to:
http://www.nickelanddimed.net/
For a review, "No Help Wanted" by Bob Thompson in the
Washington Post, go to:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/06/AR2005090601923.html
For an interview in NPR's "All Things Considered":
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4837944
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jobs
USLAW
US Labor Against the War (USLAW)
seeks a full-time (or two half time) organizer(s) based in either
the Midwest or East to help recruit affiliates and individual
associate members, build participation in USLAW activities and
programs, conduct worker education on the Iraq war and US foreign
and domestic policies, and to otherwise advance the objectives
and mission of USLAW. For more information:
http://uslaboragainstwar.org/article.php?id=9084
Marijuana Policy Project
Marijuana Policy Project is looking
for a part time contract organizer for Illinois and has other
positions available. For more information:
http://mpp.org/jobs/available_jobs.html
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Democratic Socialism
Whatever Became of the Guaranteed
Annual Income?
The geezers amongst us will probably
remember that back around 1970, the idea of a guaranteed minimum
income had a good deal of support from both the left and from
libertarians as an alternative to welfare. The summer issue of
Dissent includes an article indicating the idea isn't
dead. The article suffers from not examining the ideology (right
and left) of the idea, but fact people are still working on the
concept is of interest:
"Life, Liberty and a Little Bit of Cash" by Sean Butler
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/menutest/articles/su05/butler.htm
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Upcoming Events of Interest
For more events, go to http://www.chicagodsa.org/page9.html
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, NOON to 5 PM
Oak Park Peace Fair
Scoville Park, Oak Park Av
and Lake, Oak Park
Music, art, "speakouts", organization exhibitions and
more. For more information, go to http://www.opctj.org
or call 708-386-1371 or 708-250-8970.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 5 PM
Anti-War Rally and March
Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington,
Chicago
In support of the anti-war resolution pending before the Chicago
City Council. Organized by Peace Pledge Chicago and others. For
more information, go to:
http://peacepledgechicago.org/
or http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/62224/index.php
Saturday, September 17, 11:30 AM - 1
PM
Fundraising lunch with Harvey Wasserman for the National
Election Data Archive Project
at the home of Ron Baiman, 205 S. Humphrey, Oak Park
"I realize its a bad time for yet another fundraiser. However,
we have been told that we need to raise individual donations
in order to appeal to foundations for more substantive funding
for the US Count Votes National Data Base Archive project that
urgently needs funding. This is a critical effort to make detailed
election data available to the public and to statistical analysts
(including US Count Votes analysts) in a timely manner so that
elections can be routinely monitored and audited. In addition,
we need support for our work investigating the 2004 election
exit polls."
Complete financial statements and other information on USCountvotes
is available at:
http://www.uscountvotes.org
Wednesday, September 21, 6 PM to 8 PM
(reception, 6-6:30)
Cross-Class Alliance Building
Seminar
Roosevelt University, 430 S. Michigan, Sullivan Room 2nd Floor,
Chicago
The Center for Working Class Studies will present an informative
discussion on breaking the class barrier in the workplace and
how to build stronger movements for social change. For more information:
http://www.cflonline.org/headline.php?id=186
or
http://www.workingclassstudies.org/
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PLEASE
FORWARD
TO THOSE
YOU
THINK
WOULD
BE
INTERESTED.
"New Ground" is published by
Chicago Democratic Socialists of America
1608 N. Milwaukee, Room 403
Chicago, IL 60647
773.384.0327
Only articles specifically labeled as
representing the views of the organization do so. Subscriptions
to the bimonthly print edition are available at $10 for 6 issues.
Send a check or money order made payable to "CDSA"
to the address above. "New Ground" is also available
on line at http://www.chicagodsa.org/ngarchive,
but your financial support is much appreciated.
To add yourself to the "New Ground"
distribution list
click here: ng@chicagodsa.org?subject=Add
To remove yourself from the "New
Ground" distribution list
click here: ng@chicagodsa.org?subject=Off
To send a comment about or to suggest
a link for "New Ground"
click here: ng@chicagodsa.org?subject=Comment
Or if none of those work with your mail
program, simply send an email to ng@chicagodsa.org.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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