A video chronicle of some of the best talks on the Left
There is a radical antiwar movement - and it speaks a lot of sense. Watch some of the best speeches on the the left today at Peace Journal
Categories: current events left & socialist video
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The War on Democracy
Pilger's interviews with the ruling classes are priceless - he has a certain genius calmness and straight talking that illicit a brutal frankness in response. Watch them condemn themselves. Watch this all the way through - and pass it on.
Categories: activism left & socialist video
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If you try to save the life of one person today - make sure it is Kenneth Foster
We can save Kenneth Foster, we might even be able to set him free, and in my wildest dreams I could see him getting reparations for having spent 10 years on Death Row for driving a car - BUT it will take action. The state of Texas is serious about killing people. We have to make it politically impossible for them to commit this legal lynching. That means making some noise. Pass it on.
The State of Texas plans to kill Kenneth Foster on August 30, 2007. Kenneth didn't rape, kill or maim anyone. He didn't reveal a CIA agent, or price gauge the state of California, he certainly didn't start a war for oil in which hundreds of thousands of people have been killed.
He was the driver of a car, from which Mauriceo Brown, one of the passengers, exited, got in an altercation with Michael LaHood and shot and killed him. (Long story, made short) Kenneth was 85 feet away from the crime scene listening to music with the windows rolled up. Kenneth went to leave without the other passenger - but ended up picking him up as he left the scene.
Texas has a Law of Parties which means that accomplices in crimes may be charged with the crime itself and sentenced accordingly - in this case to death. Even if you were so backward as to think that might be a just kind of law - it shouldn't apply in this case. Kenneth did not know the crime was going to happen. It is not clear than anyone knew it was going to happen in advance including Mauriceo Brown.
How could this happen? There must be more to the case, right? Well there is - read up on it, the more that you read, the closer to the ground your jaw will drop. It seems each injustice in this case is riddled with more astounding injustices.
No really, how could this happen? Racism. Kenneth is Black. Young Black men are looked at by the criminal justice system as crimes waiting to happen. So what if Kenneth didn't actually do anything this time, it was just a matter of time right? That is racism.
What can you do to help Kenneth Foster? Make some noise. You write a blog about information graphics? - find a way to write about Kenneth Foster. You have an Aunt that works for a paper? Tell her the story. You have friends? Tell them to do the same. Don't have many friends but have money? Send some to:
Velocity Credit Union
PO BOX 1089
Austin, Texas 78767-9947
Acct. Name : To Save Kenneth Foster
Acct #: 831766.1
Saving Kenneth Foster, is about saving Kenneth Foster, but it is also about fighting racism, ending the law of parties, and ending the death penalty.
Links:
Save Kenneth Blog
Free Kenneth Foster website
Meeting: If you are in San Francisco, come to hear Barbara Becnel and Elizabeth Terzakis from the Campaign to End the Death Penalty speak about Kenneth's case. If you haven't heard Barbara speak before then you have been missing out, if you have then you will know that this is an event not to be missed. There will be a discussion afterwards - so come and have your say. That will be 7.00 pm Wednesday August 1st at 110 Capp St, Buzz 202, near 16th Street Bart. Sponsored by the International Socialist Org.
You can email me: josh@theyrule.net for more info.
Video from the blog:
Mario Africa makes the case so well...
Categories: activism left & socialist watching them
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Pre Post Industrialism
Adam Turl's article Is the U.S. becoming post-industrial? answers the question neagtively - though yearns for a world which can take advantage of new technology. I loved this article and want everyone to read it.
Categories: left & socialist
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Save Tookie!
Stan Tookie Williams is a peacemaker on death row. He is an ex-gang member who now works tirelessly to keep kids out of gangs - writing children's books and speaking by phone to schools and youth groups. He maintains his innocence and the physical evidence connecting him to the crimes he was committed of is flimsy at best. All African Americans were kept off his jury, and racist terminology (comparing him to a Bengal Tiger) was used in his trial. He claims that he was drugged by the prison system during his trial and everything seems to point to that being the case. We must end the racist death penalty and save Stan Tookie Williams. Go to www.savetookie.org and read the discovery motion, and about Stan, go to some events, promote the site. Go to The Campaign to End the Death Penalty and get involved in putting an end to this outrage!
Categories: activism current events left & socialist
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Blog from Gulf
Report from the Gulf Coast
Socialist Worker's Eric Ruder, Paul D'Amato and Meredith Kolodner traveled to the Gulf Coast to witness the devastation that followed in the wake of Hurricane Katrina--as well as the grassroots relief effort that began almost immediately afterward. SW Online is posting their reports as we receive them.
Categories: activism current events left & socialist
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First By the Floods, Then By Martial Law: Trapped in New Orleans
There are many accounts of people's devastating experiences in New Orleans, but this story really gave me a sense of the callous ineptitude of the authorities. After reading it I saw this photo and got really mad. My guess is that the people who took that post office truck were heroes, that should have been the guess of the armed officers too. It should be apparent to all that we need a system with a whole other set of priorites. I suggest reading The Case for Socialism by Alan Maass. I am reading it right now and although I was already convinced at the outset, I am sill finding it very compelling reading!
Categories: current events left & socialist watching them
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Vote with your checkbook
"Shop by Color" is the new "Anybody But Bush." Following the lead at ChooseTheBlue.com, buy a computer with Intel inside by all means, but don't get it from Dell - they are a "red" company, you could get it from the (big) "blue" IBM however. If you thought that red and blue states were ridiculous then you are going to love this. Intel is a "blue" company because it gave 53% of its donations to Democrats and 47% to Republicans. Karl Rove owns more stock in Intel ($100,000) than the difference between their party donations. If the difference was relevant then he would probably cash in his investment! When you get that Big Blue IBM computer with Intel inside you will be pleased to know that it will probably come with "blue" Microsoft's Windows XP. But a closer analysis of this proves the whole thing to be nuts. "Blue" Microsoft paid over 3 times more to the Republicans than "red" Dell. How is this possible? Because Microsoft paid even more to the Democrats. The real lesson in all of this, is that if we want to effect change through our checkbooks, we have to contend with the fact that those with the biggest checking accounts will have the most say.
The equally enormous corporate donations to both parties helps to explain why their similar pro-corporate, pro-war bigotted positions.
Boycotts may well be a tactic that the left can employ, but in this case it is worse than meaningless, it is a distraction from the real tasks we need to engage in for example: rebuilding the antiwar movement, the women's rights movement, the gay rights, and civil rights, the anti-death penalty movements. Buying things from corporations that marginally supported the pro-war, anti-gay Kerry, over the pro-war anti-gay Bush is absurd.
Categories: activism data sources left & socialist
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If we are all middle class...
What are we in the middle of?
working class
middle class
ruling class
Categories: left & socialist
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Reverse Vote Swap
The time has come to show those motherf*ckers you're serious!™ It took 150 years of Republicans and Democrats to produce something as tragically funny as this website. Learn how the Kerry factor is stoping Nader from winning!
Sophisticated.
Categories: activism left & socialist
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The Most Important Election of our Lifetime
The Most Important Election of our Lifetime ~ Spot the Difference Quiz Game! ~
It is common knowledge that this is 'the most important election ever' - but can you tell the
difference between the two main candidates?
This quiz is intended to question just how significant the difference between Bush and Kerry really is. I hope that people find it provocative as well as thoughtful. Please follow the link at the end
of the quiz for some more serious examinations of the question.
Categories: activism art & politics flash left & socialist they rule
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I met a nurse who doesn't have healthcare
Last Saturday, I went to a demontration against the continuing occupation of Iraq, the continued US funding of aparthied Israel and for more funding for education and healthcare. Near the end of a march I met a woman who was equally outraged by the contradictions between the claims of democracy and freedom and reality. It turns out that she was a nurse who had no healthcare benefits. The irony is as inescapable as the situation is disgusting. I believe that her situation is analagous to the condition that most people in the U.S. find themselves in. This article on the working poor demonstrates that well. The people who do the work - don't reap the benefits, or have any meangiful say in what gets made or done.
Categories: activism left & socialist
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