Progressive Calendar 03.13.12 /2
From: David Shove (shove001umn.edu)
Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2012 13:12:59 -0700 (PDT)
*P R O G R E S S I V E   C A L E N D A R    03.13.12   *

1. Occupy vs ALEC $ 3.13.3pm
2. Humanism             3.13 7pm
3. Money                   3.13/14 7pm
4. Write On! Radio      3.13 7pm

5. Haiku Open [repeat]
6. John Nichols     - Tens of thousands rally in Wisconsin for labor rights
and democracy
7. J de Hernandez - May Day mutiny: radical transformation rises

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From: greenpartymike
Occupy vs ALEC $ 3.13.3pm

Occupy Rally Against Money in Politics and ALEC at the MN State Capitol,
Tuesday from 3-6pm

*Fight the Corporate Attack on Democracy*
*STOP the "Right to Work" and "Voter ID" Laws, Defend the Rights of
Immigrants*

Occupy Minneapolis is holding a rally against the influence of money in
politics this Tuesday, March 13th, from 3 to 6pm, on the steps of the state
capitol. Join us in one of the defining political battles of our time, the
fight to get corporate money out of politics.

Corporations use ALEC to work around the rules governing lobbying and
transparency and produce bills for state governments. These bills ALWAYS
serve the corporate interest. They then use money to coerce the politicians
in state level governments to ensure that these bills become part of the
conservative agenda. In a time of economic crises, and unprecedented
political obstructionism, the corporate interest will always be served in
your state government. Meanwhile, the needs of people are served only when
it is politically convenient.

ALEC is the author of numerous bills designed to increase corporate profits
at the expense of the people, including the **"Voter ID"** bill and
**"Right to Work"** laws. At least 18 members of the Minnesota Legislature
are ALEC members.

We are calling on all citizens to fight with us to put the government back
into the hands of the people.

Speakers:
Speakers from AFSCME
Jack Nelson Pallmeyer, for MNASAP
Mike Dean, for Common Cause
Mike Cavlan, for the Minnesota Open Progressives
Liz Loeb, Opponent of "Voter ID" laws
Michael Katch, for the Independence Party


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From: AWE
Humanism  3.13 7pm

Tuesday, March 13, 7:00pm  The Tenets of Humanism--Ethics
Lund's "Uptown," 1450 West Lake Street, Minneapolis, MN 55408


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From: Richard Kotlarz richkotlarz [at] gmail.com
Money 3.13/14 7pm

Week #8 Sessions:
Tues, 3/13/12, Open Workshop - Money, Society and the Spirit
   Suggested theme: Open – Bring your questions and topics of concern
Wed, 3/14/12, Course Offering - Deconstructing & Renewing the Economic Order
   This week’s subject(s) – Continue picturing the process by which a
“Dollar” is born, and its ramifications for our economic practice, language
and culture.
Location: Macalester College (Old Main, Rm 009), 1600 Grand Avenue, St
Paul, MNTime: 7 to 9 pm

Facilitators:
Richard Kotlarz:  richkotlarz [at] gmail.com, 218-828-1366
Richard is a seeker after the truth about money and the economic life, who
has engaged in literally thousands of discussions on money-related topics
with people from all walks of life, across the U.S., and in Canada and
Europe.
Steven Gorg:  steve [at] stevegorg.com, 651-334-7624
Steven is a professional environmental engineer who has come to see that
becoming truly conscious about Money is the portal through which a
meaningful and effective ecological and social transformation can be
achieved.

The purpose of this discussion is to open a positive dialogue amongst the
good people of all segments of society, from the grassroots to the
corporate board room, and including bankers and economists.  There are
stories to be told and realities to be considered from every perspective.
 All are warmly invited to join the conversation.

Offered under auspices of Experimental Community Education of the Twin
Cities (EXCOTC)
Quote of the Week:
“Excess wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer
in his lifetime for the good of the community”
Andrew Carnegie - Scottish-American steel tycoon and philanthropist


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From: Write On Radio writeonradio [at] yahoo.com
Write On! Radio 3.13 7pm   KFAI

Tuesday, March 13th, novelist Arthur Phillips calls in to talk about his
newest novel, The Tragedy of Arthur, a witty book about a supposed newly
discovered play by Shakespeare. It was named a New York Times Notable Book
of 2011. Arthur Phillips is also the author of Prague and Angelica, among
other works.

We'll also speak with Donovan Holn, author of Moby-Duck: The True Story of
28,000 Bath Toys Lost at Sea and of the Beachcombers, Oceanographers,
Environmentalists, and Fools, Including the Author, Who Went in Search of
Them. It was also declared a New York Times Notable Book of 2011, among
other awards garnered. More information is available at www.donovanhohn.com.

Information about regular spoken word and open mic venues can be found at
MinnesotaMicrophone.com.
For scheduling information, contact Ian Graham Leask atLeaskIan [at] aol.com or
Lynette Reini-Grandell at Lynette.Reini-Grandell [at] normandale.edu.


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From:ed
Haiku Open repeat

If ed likes it/them, your original haiku(s) will be printed in the
Progressive Calendar Haiku Section!
No money, just endless glory.

Write and submit one to three original haikus
>From  Thursday March 8 - through Thursday March 22.
The judge is yours truly, ed, David Shove.
Include your name as you’d like it printed.

Rules:
Title optional
17 syllables in 3 lines, 5 7 5:

1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
1 2 3 4 5

example:

TOP 40 UBER ALLES
Right wing radio’s
fascist hit parade dresses
our thoughts in brown shirts.

Each word must be complete on its line; do not break a word across the end
of a line.
If the number of syllables in a word is unclear, look it up in a dictionary.
Rhyme not required.
Any topic.

Email to shove001 [at] umn.eduunder the header Haiku Open.
This is an experiment; let’s see what happens!
[DO NOT send your reply within the Progressive Calendar post - 20-30 bounce
every time due to full mailboxes, and I just delete them without looking.
-ed]


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Published on Sunday, March 11, 2012 by The Nation

Tens of Thousands Rally in Wisconsin for Labor Rights and Democracy by John
Nichols

A year ago, when Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed into law his plan
to undermine collective bargaining rights for state, county and municipal
employees and public school teachers, the prediction from the governor and
his allies was that the mass movement to oppose Walker’s anti-labor agenda
would fade.Thousands gathered in Madison Saturday for a "Reclaim Wisconsin
March" and rally. (Photo: Gary Porter)

The governor and his allies were wrong.

As the state prepares for a recall election that could remove Walker from
the governorship—along with his lieutenant governor and four Republican
state senators—tens of thousands of union activists and their supporters
rallied once more Saturday at the state Capitol in Madison.

It was an epic turnout, estimated by Governor Walker’s Department of
Administration at 35,000 and by organizers at closer to 60,000.

Whatever the actual number, there was no question that the crowd filling
the great square around the Capiol was the largest to gather since the mass
mobilizations of February and March, 2011. The protests of last year drew
the attention of the nation—and the world—and helped to encourage pushbacks
against anti-labor legislation in Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Arizona and
other states. They featured an ongoing peaceful occupation of the state
Capitol that served as one of many inspirations for the Occupy Wall Street
movement.

The resilience of the Wisconsin movement has few precedents in recent
American labor history.

“They didn’t think we could sustain it,” said Wisconsin AFL-CIO President
Phil Neuenfeldt. “Not only have we sustained it. We’ve gotten stronger.”

Neuenfeldt was referring to the movement that submitted more than one
million signatures to recall Governor Walker (46 percent of the electorate
in the last gubernatorial election), 840,000 signatures to recall
Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and another 100,000 signatures to
recall key Republican senators.

“Look at what a difference a year makes,” declared Mary Kay Henry, the
president of the Service Employees International Union, who marveled at the
size of Saturday’s crowd of union members, farmers, small business owners,
students and retirees that surrounded the Capitol. “Governor Walker and the
Koch Brothers started something last year, but they’re not going to like
how it ends. When it ends there is going to be a pro–middle class governor
and lieutenant governor—and a pro-worker majority in the Senate.”

What Walker started was an assault on more than fifty years of commitment
by Wisconsin leaders, Democrats and Republicans, to protect the rights of
workers and their unions.

On Saturday, as tens of thousands of Wisconsinites marched in remembrance
of the uprising against Walker’s agenda, there was much talk about the
upcoming recall election — and that was important.

But it was equally important that the issue focus remained on renewing the
state’s collective bargaining law. There was a recognition that the
Wisconsin fight has never been, and can never be, about partisan politics
alone. Not when basic rights are at stake.

Collective bargaining is a part of Wisconsin history, an example of this
state’s “forward” progressive values.

“I was around in 1959 when Wisconsin became the first state in the United
States, the first state in the Union, to adopt a law to permit public
employees to collectively bargain,” explains the senior member of the state
Legislature, Senator Fred Risser, D-Madison. “Back then, Wisconsin was
known as a progressive, innovative state.”

Risser’s serious about renewing Wisconsin’s reputation as a progressive,
innovative state, And he has joined with a much younger legislator, state
Representative Mark Pocan, D-Madison, to propose legislation that would
fully restore collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin.

Pocan says this is a first-order-of-business necessity.

“For half a century, we have had good working conditions with our employees
because of the collective bargaining law,” explains Pocan.

Governor Walker’s attacks on collective bargaining rights have created
chaos, dissension and a sense of crisis that has stalled innovation and
economic growth in Wisconsin.

Saturday’s rally served as a reminder that there is broad recognition among
Wisconsinites that restoring collective bargaining rights is the place to
begin renewing a tradition of cooperation, efficiency and good government
to a state that has long recognized that labor rights are human rights.

© 2012 The Nation

John Nichols is Washington correspondent for The Nation and associate
editor of The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin. His most recent book is
The “S” Word: A Short History of an American Tradition. A co-founder of the
media reform organization Free Press, Nichols is co-author with Robert W.
McChesney of The Death and Life of American Journalism: The Media
Revolution that Will Begin the World Again and Tragedy & Farce: How the
American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy. Nichols'
other books include: Dick: The Man Who is President and The Genius of
Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism.


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May Day Mutiny: Radical Transformation Rises
by Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez
Published on Sunday, March 11, 2012 by Common Dreams

Today is our “spring forward” day in the U.S., when we move the clocks
forward an hour thus “losing an hour” in the morning, but gaining an
additional hour of light at the end of the day.

It’s a beautiful sunny day here in Massachusetts, with birds singing their
love songs in the trees, and the sap rising steadily in the thick sugar
maple forests.

It’s hard to feel gloomy or pessimistic on a day like today, with our great
source energy, the Sun, shining so brilliantly and steadily down on us.

Even contemplating the social landscape, it seems that there are reasons to
be hopeful.

Yesterday I read Tidal 2, the second journal put out by a group calling
itself Occupy Theory.

The journal, entirely web-based, includes articles by Judith Butler and
Gayatri Spivak, written in as accessible a voice as I have ever heard those
two formidable theorists muster.

It also includes articles by unnamed CUNY Graduate Center students on a
variety of issues, as well as a wealth of other interesting short pieces
and vivid photos and artwork of the Occupy movement.

Butler makes the excellent point, in reference to the call by the
political/media establishment for “a list of demands,” that “the appeal or
demand that sought to be satisfied by the existing state, global monetary
institutions, or corporations, national or transnational, would be giving
more power to the very sources of inequality, and in that way aiding and
abetting the reproduction of inequality itself.”

Instead, Butler calls for a movement for “radical equality,” the
achievement of which would require “the making of new institutions,” rather
than trying to push existing institutions to change radically while still
maintaining their social dominance.

She also envisions an Occupy strategy that would be strategically “episodic
and targeted,” rather than the sitting-duck encampment strategy of last
fall.

Such a strategy might build on the historical model of the General Strike,
as Gayatri Spivak discusses in her contribution to Tidal 2.

The General Strike, as undertaken by Gandhi against the British, “has
always been special because it is undertaken by those who suffer, not by
morally outraged ideologues,” Spivak says.  “It is by definition
non-violent…though the repressive apparatus of the state has used great
violence against the strikers. Although the results are transformative, the
demands are usually focused on laws….If one sees the connection between the
General Strike and the Law, one realizes that this is not legal reformism,
but a will to social justice….Unlike a party, a general strike refuses to
cooperate until things change.”

Tidal 2 ends with a bold call for a General Strike on the symbolically
important day of May 1, 2012, May Day.

I have no doubt that it will happen, and that it will be big.

I am sure police forces across the world are already planning their own
response strategies.

The truth is that if the 99%, “those who suffer” from the structural
inequality of globalized capitalism, were to come out in large enough
numbers on May Day, and refuse to go home until those in power began a
serious dialogue on transformative, institutional change that included the
retooling of our political, social and environmental systems for 21st
century realities—the truth is that we might actually get somewhere.

Somewhere new, somewhere joyful, somewhere beyond the bruising, gridlocked,
decrepit and corrupt politics that currently has our entire planet in a
stranglehold.

The social and political elites who have inherited the 20th century reins
of power and do not want to let go need to be made aware that they are
driving us all over a cliff with their refusal to summon the political will
and the technological know-how to adapt to anthropogenic global heating.

They must be made to understand that they and their children will go down
with the rest of us!

That is the one blind spot in this issue of Tidal 2: there is very little
mention of the impact of climate change and human overpopulation on the
carrying capacity of the planet.

This awareness shows up more in metaphor than head-on, but metaphor is
powerful too.

At one point, the anonymous authors of Tidal 2 describe the 1% as the
captain of a ship “who steers while we shovel coal and swab decks.  He
seems to have us headed towards a typhoon.

“The captain stares at the impending doom on the horizon and grins
ecstatically.  He’s clearly thrilled to be captain.  He faces down a storm
that we can only wincingly glance at with one squinting eye, and he jabbers
incessantly about hope and destiny.  We realize that he does not see as a
normal person, by passively receiving light through his pupils.  Rather he
uses his eyes offensively to project what he wants to see on the world.  He
has become so practiced at his fantasia that he can no longer recognize
what we, cringing on deck, see as certain catastrophe.”

Well, my friends, it is time to stop cringing on deck.

Mutiny is justified if the captain is a raving maniac and the alternative
to mutiny is catastrophe.

On this sunny day, let’s pledge to take a great leap forward this spring,
take charge and steer ourselves into safer waters.

See you on May Day.

Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez teaches comparative literature and gender
studies with an activist bent at Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great
Barrington, MA and blogs at Transition Times.

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