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New Ground 101July - August, 2005Contents
Abolitionists Meetby 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 Solidarityby 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 Actsby 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 Everyoneby 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:
Compare Wallis' call for a spiritual component in politics in his closing chapters:
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 Intentionsby 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 Newscompiled by Bob Roman Illinois United to Protect Social SecurityOrganizing 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 PartyDSA 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 PremierThe 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 ConventionThe 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 - 2005By 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 CampaignIn 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 |
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New Ground
#101.1 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >> A Note from the Editor The format will be pretty typical of
email newsletters: a teaser and a link. This is a project you can help without
a great deal of work. If you run The electronic edition of New Ground
will be coming out approximately Eventually (somewhere between right away
and Real Soon Now), we'll be In solidarity, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >> Politics > 3 Views on the AFL-CIO Convention
and a follow up Steering and Splitting by Harold Meyerson AFL-CIO Convention Calls for Troop Withdrawal
from Iraq by David Bacon Gods and Mortals by David Moberg Solidarity Creeps Back In by Harold Meyerson > Estate Tax Action Alert > CAFTA Consequences Bean Bounced from Fete by Ralph Zahorik But even more troubling are the 6 Democrats
from safe districts who http://www.ourfuture.org/missing_dems.cfm !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >> Democratic Socialism > Some Lessons for the Future Winnowing Wheat from Chaff: Social Democracy
and Libertarian Socialism in > Intentional Communities Tennessee Co-op Takes a New Look at Education
by Andrea Seabrook You can also go to The
Farm's own web site for more information: [BR] !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! >> Upcoming Events of Interest MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 11 AM - 1 PM MONDAY, AUGUST 15, 11:30 AM - 1 PM TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 7 PM - 9 PM WEDNESDAY, August 17, 6:30 PM THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 7 PM - 9 PM |
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Contents 0. Yet Another Bloody Note From the Editor 1. Politics 2. Democratic Socialism 3. Upcoming events of Interest !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A Note from the Editor I can't find the
Steering & Splitting article. When I log on to the link,
I get an old Robert Reich article. This is the explanation: 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): Finally, thanks to Gene Birmingham
and Tom Broderick for content contributions to this issue. You
can help too! Send items to ng@chicagodsa.org. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Politics Change to Win Coalition Chair Anna
Burger responds to AFL-CIO proposal September 24 Marches on Washington LabourStart - Gate Gourmet The Unfeeling President by E. L.
Doctorow
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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?": 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": 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:
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Upcoming Events of Interest TUESDAY, AUGUST 23, 5:30 PM
7 PM
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