Progressive Calendar 04.18.11 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001tc.umn.edu) | |
Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2011 12:48:24 -0700 (PDT) |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 04.18.11 1. Peace walk 4.18 6pm RiverFalls WI 2. Freethought talk 4.18 6pm 3. GP 3CD meeting 4.18 7pm 4. Gary Snyder 4.18 7pm 5. Inside Job/$$$ 4.18 7pm 6. Egypt/dinner 4.18 8pm 7. John Muir/TV 4.18 8pm 8. Energy/Mn 4.19 8am/3:30pm/6:30pm 9. Rally vs FBI 4.19 4:30pm 10. Undeserving rich 4.19 6:30pm 11. Plastic bags/TV 4.19 11pm 12. Chris Hedges - Throw out the money changers 13. Brian Tierney - US Uncut - The new movement against austerity --------1 of 13-------- From: Nancy Holden <d.n.holden [at] comcast.net> Subject: Peace walk 4.18 6pm RiverFalls WI River Falls Peace and Justice Walkers. We meet every Monday from 6-7 pm on the UWRF campus at Cascade Ave. and 2nd Street, immediately across from "Journey" House. We walk through the downtown of River Falls. Contact: d.n.holden [at] comcast.net. Douglas H Holden 1004 Morgan Road River Falls, Wisconsin 54022 --------2 of 13-------- From: Minnesota Atheists <web [at] mnatheists.org> Subject: Freethought talk 4.18 6pm Monday April 18, 6:00pm Freethought Toastmasters Larpenteur Estates Party Room, 1276 Larpenteur Ave. W, St. Paul 55113 This group meets the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month. Contact George Kane, nup [at] Minn.net for more information. --------3 of 13-------- From: Allan Hancock <alforgreens [at] gmail.com> Subject: GP 3CD meeting 4.18 7pm 3rd Congressional District Green Party Local Meeting 7 PM Monday April 18 Southdale Library in the Public Conference Rm,. 7001* *York Ave. S. Edina, 55435. Agenda: Lobbying at the Capitol and MN Health Care Look forward to seeing you there. Any questions or need a ride please contact: Allan Hancock, Chair 3rd Congressional District Green Party (763)-561-9758 or 3rdCDGreenParty [at] gmail.com --------4 of 13-------- From: Christine Frank <christinefrank [at] visi.com> Subject: Gary Snyder 4.18 7pm MONDAY, APRIL 18, 7:00 PM ENVIRONMENTALIST-POET GARY SNYDER Beautiful poem included with event http://birchbarkbooks.com/events/gary-snyder Gary Snyder Reading Monday, April 18 @ 7pm, Free Plymouth <http://www.plymouth.org/visiting/location.php> Congregational Church Prize-winning poet and essayist Gary Snyder, who lives in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California, will read his poems at Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis (1900 Nicollet Avenue . Minneapolis MN 55403) on Monday, April 18 at 7pm. Co-sponsored by The Loft Literary Center and Plymouth's Literary Witnesses series, the event is free with plenty of free parking. For more information, visit www.plymouth.org/calendar/calendar.php or www.loft.org or call 612-871-7400. Birchbark Books will have many of Gary Snyder's books available for purchase at the reading, ready to be signed by the author. Gary Snyder has won nearly all the major literary prizes in America, including the Pulitzer and the Shelley Memorial Award. His Chinese and Japanese inflected poems represent a new American voice, inspired by the poetry and Buddhism of Asia and the ecology and peoples of native North America, including native languages, stories and practices. His eleven poetry collections include Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems (1969), Turtle Island (1974, Pulitzer Prize), Mountains and Rivers Without End (1996), and Danger on Peaks (2005). He has been called the "Poet Laureate of Deep Ecology." Snyder was elected a Chancellor of The Academy of American Poets in 2003. In addition, he is a visionary essayist, from The Old Ways (1977) and the influential Earth Household (1980), The Practice of the Wild (1990), to The Etiquette of Freedom, a conversation (and film, DVD included) between Snyder and novelist Jim Harrison released late last year. He has been awarded the John Hay Award for Nature Writing.Finally, Snyder is a serious scholar of Asian literature, anthropology, linguistics and ecology, a translator of Chinese and Japanese poetry, and a life-long practitioner of Zen Buddhism. He is a celebrated activist for bioregionalism and for a Native American inspired practice of how to live lightly on the land. was selected by the Utne Reader as one of 100 visionaries for his ecological and social activism. Christian Wiman, editor of Poetrymagazine, in awarding Snyder the Ruth Lilly Poetry Prize in 2008, said, "Gary Snyder is in essence a contemporary devotional poet, though he is not devoted to any one god or way of being so much as to Being itself. His poetry is a testament to the sacredness of the natural world and our relation to it, and a prophecy of what we stand to lose if we forget that relation." FOR ALL Ah to be alive on a mid-September morn fording a stream barefoot, pants rolled up, holding boots, pack on, sunshine, ice in the shallows, northern rockies. Rustle and shimmer of icy creek waters stones turn underfoot, small and hard as toes cold nose dripping singing inside creek music, heart music, smell of sun on gravel. I pledge allegiance I pledge allegiance to the soil of Turtle Island, and to the beings who thereon dwell one ecosystem in diversity under the sun With joyful interpenetration for all. (From AX HANDLES: Poems by Gary Snyder,C1983, North Point Press, used by permission of the author) --------5 of 13-------- From: "Karen Redleaf" vegan14ever [at] riseup.net Subject Inside Job/$$$ 4.18 7pm monday, april 18th 7 pm at mayday bookstore "Inside Job" is the documentary about the causes of the current financial crisis that won the academy award this year. we'll be showing it at mayday bookstore this coming monday, april 18th starting at 7 pm. join us! invite anyone you think might be interested. May Day Books 301 Cedar Ave. S. (basement of Hub Bicycle, door frwy side of  bldg), West Bank, Minneapolis (612)333-4719 FREE! solidarity, karen redleaf, co-host of Our World In Depth on MTN's channel 17 Mpls/SPPN channel 15 www.ourworldindepth.org "Israel's self-image as a liberal Jewish and democratic state is impossible to maintain against the reality of a militarized, ultranationalist, sectarian Jewish settler colony that has to carry out regular massacres of indigenous civilians in order to maintain its control. Zionism simply cannot bomb, kidnap, assassinate, expel, demolish, settle and lie its way to legitimacy and acceptance."  -Ali Abunimah, at the Hampshire BDS conference --------6 of 13-------- From: Friends for a Non-Violent World <info [at] fnvw.org> Subject: Egypt/dinner 4.18 8pm Celebrate the Egyptian Revolution! BelAhdan and Ahmed Tharwat invite you to: Egypt Freedom Trail Dinner Monday, April 18, 8-10:00 pm Big Marina Restaurant 4755 Central Avenue NE, Mpls 55421 BelAhdan, "A show with an accent for those without one," and host Ahmed Tharwat are creating an on-the-ground documentary about the nonviolent movement in Egypt which brought down Hosni Mubarak. Please join BelAhdan and Friends at a fundraiser for the Egypt Freedom Trail documentary. Free roasted lamb dinner, music and a fun and engaging program will make it an evening not to be missed! More information at: www.belahdan.com Please RSVP to ahmediatv [at] gmail.com BelAhdan airs on Public TV Saturdays at 10:30 pm, on tpt MN, the MN channel, on digital 202-17. Visit www.belahdan.com for details. Ahmed Tharwat interviewed Ways of Peace II speakers last week. --------7 of 13-------- From: Christine Frank <christinefrank [at] visi.com> Subject: John Muir/TV 4.18 8pm * "John Muir in the New World", Monday, 4/18 at 8 pm "John Muir in The New World" Nearly a century after his death, John Muir is remembered and revered as the father of the environmental movement, the father of conservation, and the founder of the Sierra Club. It was this Scottish-American who believed it was our responsibility as citizens to care for and protect our natural surroundings. He taught us by example and passion -- through his actions, his writings, his art -- how to do so. Through his tireless advocacy, he almost single-handedly saved the Yosemite Valley of California from destruction and was the force behind the creation of the National Parks Service. Filmed throughout the majestic, breathtaking landscapes and wilderness traveled by Muir those many years ago, this documentary places our nation's most important asset in a cultural and social context. Muir's story could not be a more timely reminder of America's unique and, ultimately, threatened eco-system. "John Muir in the New World" will be shown on TPT-2 ..... * Monday, 4/18, at 8 pm * Tuesday, 4/19, at 2 am --------8 of 13-------- From: Lisa Ledwidge/IEER < ieer [at] ieer.org > Subject: Energy/Mn 4.19 8am/3:30pm/6:30pm 3 events: 1. "100% Renewable Energy Based Electricity System for Minnesota" Arjun is the featured speaker at the April "Green Ideas and Ham" breakfast series hosted by Environment Minnesota. He will be leading a discussion on a achieving a 100% clean renewable energy based electricity system in Minnesota. Arjun will be sharing the initial findings from a forthcoming report on a 100% Renewable Minnesota future. This is your opportunity to join the discussion of how we get there together. Please join us Tuesday April 19th for a special Earth Day "Green Ideas and Ham" 8-9:30am at the Red Stag Supper Club (509 1st Avenue Northeast, Minneapolis, MN 55413) To RSVP and for more information about the event visit http://www.environmentminnesota.org 2. "Fukushima: Implications for US nuclear policy" You are invited to hear respected energy expert Dr. Arjun Makhijani discuss the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactors and its implications for existing and future nuclear power policy in the US and in Minnesota. Come participate in a dialogue on how the events in Japan will impact regulations of existing nuclear reactors in the US and how it will affect state and federal energy policy moving forward. Please join us Tuesday April 19 th for a discussion on the future of nuclear power policy (Note: the same topic will be discussed at both venues) 3:30-5pm at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (2104 Stevens Ave S., Minneapolis, MN 55404). Co-sponsored by the Center for Earth, Energy and Democracy at at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. 3. 6:30-8pm at the Red Wing Library (225 East Avenue, Red Wing, MN 55066) Questions? Contact Christina Mills at (612)722-9700 or christina [at] ieer.org Please feel free to forward this email onto others who may be interested. Arjun Makhijani, President of IEER, holds a Ph.D. in engineering (specialization: nuclear fusion) from the University of California at Berkeley. He has produced many studies and articles on nuclear fuel cycle related issues, including weapons production, testing, and nuclear waste, over the past twenty years. He is the principal author of the first study ever done (completed in 1971) on energy conservation potential in the U.S. economy. Most recently, Dr. Makhijani has authored Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy (RDR Books and IEER Press, 2007), the first analysis of a transition to a U.S. economy based completely on renewable energy, without any use of fossil fuels or nuclear power. He is the principal editor of Nuclear Wastelands and the principal author of Mending the Ozone Hole, both published by MIT Press. --------9 of 13-------- From: Women Against Military Madness <wamm [at] mtn.org> Subject: Rally vs FBI 4.19 4:30pm Rally: Say No to FBI Repression Tuesday, April 19, 4:30 p.m. FBI Building, 111 Washington Avenue, Minneapolis. Join others outside the FBI building in downtown Minneapolis for a picket and bannering to show your support for local activists under attack. Let's remind the FBI that free speech is our right and that their scare tactics won't stop our voices from being heard! Organized by: the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. FFI: Visit mnstopfbi.wordpress.com --------10 of 13-------- From: patty <pattypax [at] earthlink.net> Subject: Undeserving rich 4.19 6:30pm This Tuesday, Tom Dooley will be the guest. He will answer this question and we can discuss it. What moral or ethical entity advocates giving more money to those who already have more than they need and more than they deserve? Pax Salons ( http://justcomm.org/pax-salon ) are held (unless otherwise noted in advance): Tuesdays, 6:30 to 8:30 pm. Mad Hatter's Tea House, 943 W 7th, St Paul, MN Salons are free but donations encouraged for program and treats. Call 651-227-3228 or 651-227-2511 for information. --------11 of 13-------- From: Christine Frank <christinefrank [at] visi.com> Subject: Plastic bags/TV 4.19 11pm "Bag It!" Is your life too plastic? In this touching and often flat-out-funny film, we follow "everyman" Jeb Berrier as he embarks on a global tour to unravel the complexities of our plastic world. See "Bag It" this week on TPT at these times. Tuesday, 4/19 at 11 pm on TPT-2 Wednesday, 4/20 at 5 am on TPT-2 Monday, 4/25 at 12:00 am on TPT-2 Saturday, 4/30 at 11:30 pm on TPT Life See more info about "Bag It!" at <http://www.bagitmovie.com/> http://www.bagitmovie.com/ --------12 of 13-------- Throw Out the Money Changers by Chris Hedges Published on Monday, April 18, 2011 by TruthDig.com These are remarks Chris Hedges made in Union Square in New York City last Friday during a protest outside a branch office of the Bank of America. We stand today before the gates of one of our temples of finance. It is a temple where greed and profit are the highest good, where self-worth is determined by the ability to amass wealth and power at the expense of others, where laws are manipulated, rewritten and broken, where the endless treadmill of consumption defines human progress, where fraud and crimes are the tools of business. The two most destructive forces of human nature - greed and envy - drive the financiers, the bankers, the corporate mandarins and the leaders of our two major political parties, all of whom profit from this system. They place themselves at the center of creation. They disdain or ignore the cries of those below them. They take from us our rights, our dignity and thwart our capacity for resistance. They seek to make us prisoners in our own land. They view human beings and the natural world as mere commodities to exploit until exhaustion or collapse. Human suffering, wars, climate change, poverty, it is all the price of business. Nothing is sacred. The Lord of Profit is the Lord of Death. The pharisees of high finance who can see us this morning from their cubicles and corner officers mock virtue. Life for them is solely about self-gain. The suffering of the poor is not their concern. The 6 million families thrown out of their homes are not their concern. The tens of millions of pensioners whose retirement savings were wiped out because of the fraud and dishonesty of Wall Street are not their concern. The failure to halt carbon emissions is not their concern. Justice is not their concern. Truth is not their concern. A hungry child is not their concern. Fyodor Dostoyevsky in "Crime and Punishment" understood the radical evil behind the human yearning not to be ordinary but to be extraordinary, the desire that allows men and women to serve systems of self-glorification and naked greed. Raskolnikov in the novel believes - like those in this temple - that humankind can be divided into two groups. The first is composed of ordinary people. These ordinary people are meek and submissive. They do little more than reproduce other human beings in their own likeness, grow old and die. And Raskolnikov is dismissive of these lesser forms of human life. The second group, he believes, is extraordinary. These are, according to Raskolnikov, the Napoleons of the world, those who flout law and custom, those who shred conventions and traditions to create a finer, more glorious future. Raskolnikov argues that, although we live in the world, we can free ourselves from the consequences of living with others, consequences that will not always be in our favor. The Raskolnikovs of the world place unbridled and total faith in the human intellect. They disdain the attributes of compassion, empathy, beauty, justice and truth. And this demented vision of human existence leads Raskolnikov to murder a pawnbroker and steal her money. The priests in these corporate temples, in the name of profit, kill with even more ruthlessness, finesse and cunning than Raskolnikov. Corporations let 50,000 people die last year because they could not pay them for proper medical care. They have killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis, Palestinians and Pakistanis, and gleefully watched as the stock price of weapons contractors quadrupled. They have turned cancer into an epidemic in the coal fields of West Virginia where families breathe polluted air, drink poisoned water and watch the Appalachian Mountains blasted into a desolate wasteland while coal companies can make billions. And after looting the U.S. treasury these corporations demand, in the name of austerity, that we abolish food programs for children, heating assistance and medical care for our elderly, and good public education. They demand that we tolerate a permanent underclass that will leave one in six workers without jobs, that condemns tens of millions of Americans to poverty and tosses our mentally ill onto heating grates. Those without power, those whom these corporations deem to be ordinary, are cast aside like human refuse. It is what the god of the market demands. When Dante enters the "city of woes" in the Inferno he hears the cries of "those whose lives earned neither honor nor bad fame," those rejected by Heaven and Hell, those who dedicated their lives solely to the pursuit of happiness. These are all the "good" people, the ones who never made a fuss, who filled their lives with vain and empty pursuits, harmless perhaps, to amuse themselves, who never took a stand for anything, never risked anything, who went along. They never looked hard at their lives, never felt the need, never wanted to look. Those who chase the glittering rainbows of the consumer society, who buy into the perverted ideology of consumer culture, become, as Dante knew, moral cowards. They are indoctrinated by our corporate systems of information and remain passive as our legislative, executive and judicial branches of government - tools of the corporate state - strip us of the capacity to resist. Democrat or Republican. Liberal or conservative. It makes no difference. Barack Obama serves corporate interests as assiduously as did George W. Bush. And to place our faith in any party or established institution as a mechanism for reform is to be entranced by the celluloid shadows on the wall of Plato's cave. We must defy the cant of consumer culture and recover the primacy in our lives of mercy and justice. And this requires courage, not just physical courage but the harder moral courage of listening to our conscience. If we are to save our country, and our planet, we must turn from exalting the self, to subsuming of the self for our neighbor. Self-sacrifice defies the sickness of corporate ideology. Self-sacrifice mocks opportunities for advancement, money and power. Self-sacrifice smashes the idols of greed and envy. Self-sacrifice demands that we rise up against the abuse, injury and injustice forced upon us by the mandarins of corporate power. There is a profound truth in the biblical admonition "He who loves his life will lose it". Life is not only about us. We can never have justice until our neighbor has justice. And we can never recover our freedom until we are willing to sacrifice our comfort for open rebellion. The president has failed us. The Congress has failed us. The courts have failed us. The press has failed us. The universities have failed us. Our process of electoral democracy has failed us. There are no structures or institutions left that have not been contaminated or destroyed by corporations. And this means it is up to us. Civil disobedience, which will entail hardship and suffering, which will be long and difficult, which at its core means self-sacrifice, is the only mechanism left. The bankers and hedge fund managers, the corporate and governmental elites, are the modern version of the misguided Israelites who prostrated themselves before the golden calf. The sparkle of wealth glitters before them, spurring them faster and faster on the treadmill towards destruction. And they seek to make us worship at their altar. As long as greed inspires us, greed keeps us complicit and silent. But once we defy the religion of unfettered capitalism, once we demand that a society serve the needs of citizens and the ecosystem that sustains life, rather than the needs of the marketplace, once we learn to speak with a new humility and live with a new simplicity, once we love our neighbor as ourself, we break our chains and make hope visible. --------13 of 13-------- The New Movement Against Austerity US Uncut By BRIAN TIERNEY April 18, 2011 CounterPunch By Monday April 18th most Americans will have finished filing their taxes, helping to boost government revenue at a time when the only thing most politicians care to discuss is how to cut the deficit. But a large pack of corporate citizens will probably not be worrying about paying their dues; tax day, like any other day for them, will be strictly devoted to growing their bloated profit margins. Recent reporting that some of the largest U.S. corporations have paid little to nothing in federal income taxes in the past few years hasn't stopped the upside-down debate in Washington. The beltway budget battle remains focused on one blunt question: how much of a beating should be given to workers and the poor in order to bring down the deficit while leaving the corporate bottom line unscathed? Beyond Capitol Hill, however, the scope of corporate tax-dodging during a period of devastating budget cuts has inspired the ire of thousands of Americans and given birth to a new people-powered movement to hold big business and their mouthpieces in Washington accountable for the cuts. It's called US Uncut, a campaign that has produced hundreds of direct actions targeting notorious tax cheats like Bank of America and Verizon while agitating around other major offenders like General Electric and Citigroup. Thanks to tax breaks, creative accounting schemes, loopholes and off-shore havens, these companies are raking in billions and getting away with systematic tax-evading operations that would land ordinary people in jail. Launched back in February, US Uncut has so far made Bank of America and Verizon the primary targets of its actions. According to US Uncut, Bank of America's 2009 pre-tax income was $4.4 billion. As the fifth largest corporation in the world, Bank of America received $45 billion in bailout funds in 2008 and 2009 but didn't pay a single dime in federal income taxes in 2009. In the same year, Bank of America received up to $1.9 billion in tax refunds. How did they get away with it? Bank of America has 115 foreign tax-havens where it keeps its income in order to avoid taxes. And Bank of America is not alone. Roughly 25 percent of the largest U.S. corporations don't pay any federal income taxes. US Uncut has adopted a model of organizing first used in the U.K. where an organization called UK Uncut has been using hundreds of creatively-themed, non-violent direct actions targeting companies that flout their duty to pay taxes while budget crises are crippling social programs. The "flash mob"-style actions are meant to both pressure companies and galvanize the broader population through attention-grabbing and highly publicized direct actions. According to its website, "US Uncut is a grassroots movement taking direct action against corporate tax cheats and unnecessary and unfair public service cuts across the U.S. Washington's proposed budget for the coming year sends a clear message: The wrath of budget cuts will fall upon the shoulders of hard-working Americans. That's unacceptable." The approach taken by US Uncut relies heavily on the use of social media and a decentralized, do-it-yourself system for organizing protest actions and posting them on its website. George Taghi, a leading organizer with US Uncut in Washington DC, explained that US Uncut wants to change the public discourse around the budget and the deficit and engage the public with its approach to activism. "US Uncut's goal is to punctuate and change the narrative that says 'we have a spending problem' to 'we have a revenue problem,'" Taghi says. When asked why US Uncut is focused on tax-dodging companies rather than the lawmakers who enable them, Taghi pointed to the corporations as the real source of power in Washington: "US Uncut has focused on bringing protests to companies' storefronts, instead of lawmakers, because that is where the true powers lie. On the whole, for companies to claim ignorance or deny responsibility for our lopsided tax code - that legalizes off-shoring of profits and accounting gimmicks - is a farce. These companies have lobbied Congress for such privileges and donate to representatives to enact loopholes." In addition to Bank of American, US Uncut is shining the spotlight on other corporations like Verizon, which reported a pre-tax income of $24.2 billion last year and was rewarded with a $1.3 billion tax refund. Citigroup has paid zero dollars in taxes in the last four years, according to US Uncut. The company also was the largest recipient of government bailout money, totaling a staggering $476 billion. The issue of corporate tax-dodging has been pushed into the limelight in recent months. Last month, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders compiled a list of "the 10 worst corporate income tax avoiders." The list included companies such as those on the US Uncut target list, in addition to Exxon Mobile, which made $19 billion in profits in 2009, paid no federal income taxes and received a $156 million tax rebate, according to SEC filings. While the official corporate tax rate is 35 percent, Goldman Sachs managed to whittle its tax obligations down to 1.1 percent of its income in 2008. In March, the New York Times published a front-page article describing how General Electric, the second largest corporation in the world, paid nothing in federal income taxes last year while it reported $14.2 billion in profits. On top of that, GE claimed a tax benefit of $3.2 billion. "Its extraordinary success," according to the Times article, "is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore." Add to all of this GE's anti-worker policies - which include plant closures that have eliminated a fifth of GE jobs in the U.S. since 2002 and the company's drive to cut the wages and benefits of its mostly unionized workforce - and you have what President Obama lauds as a "model" for American business. On Wednesday that model was the target of a hoax executed by the same activists of US Uncut, in partnership with the "Yes Men," an anti-corporate group notorious for pulling pranks that parody corporate propaganda. The two groups put out a fake GE press release that announced GE's plans to return all of its $3.2 billion tax refund in response to public outrage. The stunt brilliantly put GE into an awkward public relations situation in which the company was forced to openly admit that it in fact had no intention of paying anything back. Given GE's relationship with the White House, the egregiousness of its tax-dodging helps to contextualize the willingness of the Obama administration to inflict such harsh cuts like the ones that went through Congress last week to avert a government shutdown. Instead of being sanctioned for its tax cheating, GE's CEO, Jeffrey Immelt, was awarded a top position in the Obama administration as chair of the president's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness. So when it comes to spending and budget cuts, forget hope and change. Compromise and capitulation is the catchphrase of this administration, and this should surprise no one who knows the company that Obama keeps. In fact, the president's "compromise" last week with Republican House Speaker John Boehner cannot even be called that. Democrats and the White House conceded even more in spending cuts than what Republicans themselves originally proposed at the beginning of the year. And it was a "compromise" that Obama applauded as the largest annual spending cut in U.S. history. On Wednesday Obama delivered a speech in which he seemed to be changing course and finally turning back to the progressive ideals that inspired millions during his campaign. His argument for progressive tax policies, making the wealthy pay more and preserving critical programs like Medicare and Social Security was a rhetorical departure from what we've seen from his administration over the past several months of budget wrangling. Following the speech, liberal commentators voiced their exuberance and suggested that Obama's disillusioned base can again find some cause for excitement. Others were not as impressed. "[Obama] has given so many great speeches before, only to disappoint. Unfortunately, he still adheres to the right's narrative that spending cuts on domestic programs has to happen to the tune of nearly $1 trillion over ten years," said Taghi from US Uncut. The speech also left the door open to unspecified reforms to Social Security and Medicare that will play into the hands of the right-wing tea party-backed Republicans in Congress who want to privatize and destroy those programs. Last week Congress voted to chop $38 billion dollars from the budget with cuts that will affect health programs, heating assistance to the poor, education programs, the Environmental Protection Agency, and food safety. Funding for essential women's health services provided by Planned Parenthood just barely made it passed the GOP's ideological chopping block, but Obama and the Democrats still traded away money for those services for residents of the District of Columbia. And while the let-them-eat-cake budget cutters are using the deficit to justify these cuts at the federal level, they have also been on the attack at the state level where budgets are being slashed and unions are under assault. The campaign against unions has helped breathe some life back into the labor movement. But what started as an anti-union crusade in Wisconsin - inspired and funded by the right-wing billionaire Koch brothers - has spread to other states, and it's not just Republicans who are out to make union workers scapegoats for the deficit. Democratic governors in California, New York, and Illinois are using the deficit as an excuse to force major concessions from public sector unions. In response, unions and labor activists have been mobilizing and fighting back. A national day of action last week on April 4th saw over a thousand union rallies and other actions for labor across the country. In the midst of this labor upsurge, US Uncut is another component of the progressive fightback, and it's a campaign that goes directly to the corporate tax-dodgers who are materially and ideologically feeding the narrative about a deficit crisis that can only be solved through budget cuts. A unified progressive fightback - including labor, environmentalist and consumer rights groups - is needed in order to push back against austerity and fight to rebuild the tattered social safety net that Washington is poised to shred altogether. The right yearns for capitalism unfettered, and to get there they are relying on a structure in Washington that can only be described as plutocracy. And neither party is willing to consider serious cuts to the massive Pentagon budget. Unpopular wars abroad and unpopular tax cuts at home for the wealthy are all evidently worth the resultant suffering inflicted on millions here in the U.S. under the budget ax. In Wisconsin and other states where workers have been fighting back, an important example has been set. This class war no longer needs to be asymmetrical. Working people can and must fight back, not just against the budget cutters in Washington, but against their corporate paymasters whose anti-worker and tax-dodging practices have helped set the stage for ruthless austerity. We simply cannot defeat the high-powered corporate lobbyists on their own turf. If ever there was a time for progressives and the left to abandon the tired and feeble strategies of lobbying, letter-writing, and petition-signing, that time is now. We need to exert pressure where it will be felt - on the streets and in the workplace through mass mobilizations, strikes, and yes, militant direct actions. US Uncut called for national days of action on "Tax Weekend," April 15th to the 17th, and on Friday there were over 130 actions across the country posted on its website through tax day. It's time to go directly after the corporate powers using creative direct action and other forms of protest to expose their dirty war against workers and the poor. Brian Tierney is a labor journalist in Washington, DC. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - David Shove shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu rhymes with clove Progressive Calendar over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02 please send all messages in plain text no attachments vote third party for president for congress for governor now and forever Socialism YES Capitalism NO Impeach Obama To GO DIRECTLY to an item, eg --------8 of x-------- do a find on --8 Research almost any topic raised here at: CounterPunch http://counterpunch.org Dissident Voice http://dissidentvoice.org Common Dreams http://commondreams.org Once you're there, do a search on your topic, eg obama drones
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