The Zinn Education Project goes where Corporate Core (CCSS) refuses to go

In memory of Hugh Thompson, Jr. who died #tdih2006 (age 62.) On March 16, 1968, during the My Lai Massacre, Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson blocked fellow U.S. troops with his helicopter, had his crew train machine guns on them, and rescued a group of civilian Vietnamese villagers hiding in a bunker. His actions led to an end to the brutal massacre. Learn more from this ballad by David Rovics, here:http://bit.ly/19ZLJWY (A related new book is "Kill Anything That Moves: The Real American War in Vietnam" by Nick Turse that documents (tragically) that My Lai was not a rare event. Learn more from this Democracy Now! broadcast:http://bit.ly/1hre14h)

Please visit and support The Zinn Education Project

Bruce A. Dixon of Black Agenda Report posted addional information from Wikipedia

via Karen Watson...
Thompson: What's going on here, Lieutenant?
Calley: This is my business.
Thompson: What is this? Who are these people?
Calley: Just following orders.
Thompson: Orders? Whose orders?
Calley: Just following...
Thompson: But, these are human beings, unarmed civilians, sir.
Calley: Look Thompson, this is my show. I'm in charge here. It ain't your concern.
Thompson: Yeah, great job.
Calley: You better get back in that chopper and mind your own business.
Thompson: You ain't heard the last of this!
Thompson took off again, and Andreotta reported that Mitchell was now executing the people in the ditch. Furious, Thompson flew over the northeast corner of the village and spotted a group of about ten civilians, including children, running toward a homemade bomb shelter. Pursuing them were soldiers from the 2nd Platoon, C Company. Realizing that the soldiers intended to murder the Vietnamese, Thompson landed his aircraft between them and the villagers. Thompson turned to Colburn and Andreotta and told them that if the Americans began shooting at the villagers or him, they should fire their M60 machine guns at the Americans: "Y'all cover me! If these bastards open up on me or these people, you open up on them. Promise me!" He then dismounted to confront the 2nd Platoon's leader, Stephen Brooks. Thompson told him he wanted help getting the peasants out of the bunker. ~ Wikipedia

The Zinn Education Project goes where Corporate Core (CCSS) refuses to go

2ND ANNUAL CEJ/PEAC Social Justice Schools Conference

Attacks on our schools continue, but the fight is stronger than ever as exemplified by the Schools L.A. Students Deserve Campaign. Parents, students, teachers, community organizations have come together to not only build a vision for schools but to think about a strategy to win.

2ND ANNUAL CEJ/PEAC Social Justice Schools Conference by Robert D. Skeels

Program: 2ND ANNUAL CEJ/PEAC Social Justice Schools Conference by Robert D. Skeels

2ND ANNUAL CEJ/PEAC Social Justice Schools Conference

Social Justice Schools Conference by CEJ and PEAC February 2012

What does real school transformation look like? How will we win? Real transformation is rooted in the communities that schools serve, respect the rights of all school employees, and is fully funded.

February 10 & February 11, 2012
Fri: 4:30 to 7:00pm
Sat: 8:30 to 5:00pm
UCLA Community School
700 S. Mariposa Avenue
Los Angeles CA 90005

RSVP: Jimenez.rosa@gmail.com or (909) 753-9007 ASAP
Childcare, Food, and Translation Provided Both Days

Conference Presented Jointly by
Coalition for Educational Justice and Progressive Educators for Action

Keynote Speakers
Bill Fletcher
Labor/civil rights leader and author Bill Fletcher will speak to the attacks on the public sector, the need to project an alternative social vision, and the critical need for an organizing strategy (he is co-author, with Fernando Gapasin, of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and New Pathways Towards Social Justice).

John Rogers
John Rogers from UCLA IDEA (Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access), will speak on a panel with student, parent, and teacher leaders on real, community and labor led reform models in schools, including a community schools model, and the difficulty of implementing reform within a climate of unrelenting attacks against our communities.

Workshops
There will also be over ten workshops led by students, parents, and teachers that demonstrate the work currently being done in our schools that are signs of real community-driven, democratic, culturally relevant, and transformative practices. These include (along with others):

• Balanced Literacy
• Dual Language Programs
• Alternative Teacher Evaluation System
• Problem-Based, Community-Connected Instruction
• Restorative Justice/Alternative Discipline

20120210 CEJ PEAC Social Justice Schools Conference

Social Justice Schools Conference by CEJ and PEAC February 2012

Take the Offensive! L.A. Peoples' Campaign for City Council

The following is courtesy of activist Jubilie Shine

We must get off the habitual defensive if we are to actually accomplish the goals we proclaim. Even from a defensive position we need to mount a counter offensive if we are to win:

1. To build serious grassroots organization door by door and block by block
2. To convert activists into organizers
3. To unite democratic and revolutionary forces
4. To win positions of power and influence and convert those resources into weapons for the peoples' struggle
5. To concretely expose the irreconcilable contradiction between peoples' democracy and imperialism/monopoly capitalism

Protest campaigns are not enough! cursing your enemy is not the same as fighting him, as Mao said. campaigns for positions we are not now able to win are handcuffed at best and at worst, providing objective assistance to the most dangerous elements of the enemy.

But through local electoral campaigns we can raise all the large issues. war, immigration, economy, police abuse, the universal is in the particular!

In March '11 the even numbered city council districts are up in L.A. -- cross-hairs on bernard parks, Crenshaw District 8.

The disgraced (Rampart!) ex-LAPD Chief ran unopposed last time and won with a patry 6,480 votes. Since then he ran for County Supervisor and got thrashed by Ridley-Thomas. Now his own campaign manager has filed a $146,000 lawsuit against him. His machine is fractured. 3 people so far have stepped up to challenge him--all likely business candidates who will split their votes.

The door is wide open for an aggressive, uncompromising, peoples' campaign to run our own candidate on a united front platform and seize a seat in city government or at minimum establish unprecedented working unity among all local progressive forces.

We do not want a personality showcase. We want an issues-driven program democratically determined by the community itself as the driving force. We are proposing a PEOPLES' CONVENTION! In which all residents can participate--regardless of residency status, prison record, or affiliation--to openly nominate and democratically elect their candidate behind the platform they will ratify, to challenge the city establishment and its corrupt ex-police chief for who best represents the interests and needs of the community.

We are inspired by the recent city council victories of Chokwe Lumumba in Jackson, Mississippi, of Ras Baraka in Newark, NJ, and our very own sweep of the south central neighborhood council.

We invite all honest forces who are ready to put in work to our jump-off meeting. 1:30 pm sharp! Saturday, August 7 at the Afiba Center, 5730 Crenshaw North of Slauson. Parking in the US Bank next door.

City of Newark 2010 Inauguration -- Ras Baraka Speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUjTyjurLKY

Unite the many, defeat the few!

Take the Offensive! L.A. Peoples' Campaign for City Council

Money for Schools not for War!

Money for Schools not for War! One would think if the Parent Revolution (née Los Angeles Parents Union) was really concerned about children and schools, that they'd be out marching along with us. Recently Gabe Rose, one of LAPU/PR's haughty executives, suggested that there just isn't any money available for public education — to which I replied:

You live in a country that spends billions monthly on overseas military occupations, and has trillions to give out to investment bankers and hedge fund managers. You live in a state where the rich and corporations pay a lower tax rate than the lowest income quintile of tax payers, a state where oil companies don't pay a penny in extraction taxes. Can you honestly say a world where public education is fully funded is a "perfect fantasy world?" If we merely raised the tax rate on upper quintile which includes the CCSA's wealthy backers to the same a the lowest quintile of taxpayers in the state, there would be a bountiful budget surplus.

A real "Parent Revolution" would march against the war and demand that every penny spent on war and occupation be spent on schools and education instead. Since LAPU/PR is an astroturf instead of a grass roots organization, that'll never happen.

Money for Schools not for War!

Cynthia McKinney: Is President Obama’s Surge A Trap?

Is President Obama’s Surge A Trap?

By Cynthia McKinney

December 2, 2009

Last night, President Obama announced both his decision to add 30,000 U.S. troops to the mire in Afghanistan and his desire to see other countries and N.A.T.O. match his surge. Thanks to U.S. taxpayers, mercenaries will continue to be a part of the foreign presence in Afghanistan. The Republicans support the President’s move and are expected to reward President Obama with the bulk of their Congressional votes to pass his plan.

However, there is deep disquiet today within the ranks of the President’s own base in the Democratic Party, with independents, and with middle-of-the-roaders called “swing” voters. In unprecedented numbers, voters in the United States of all previous political persuasions went to the polls and invested their dreams and, most importantly, their votes in the “hope” and “change” promised by the Obama campaign. But in light of the President’s defense of Bush Administration war crimes and torture in U.S. courts, the transfer of trillions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars to the wealthy banking elite, continued spying on environmental and peace activists as well as support for the extension of the Patriot Act, and removal of Medicare-for-all (single payer) as a central feature of proposed health care reform, Obama voters are rethinking their support.

Already, according to a Daily Koss report written by Steve Singiser: “Two in five Democratic voters either consider themselves unlikely to vote at this point in time, or have already made the firm decision to remove themselves from the 2010 electorate pool. Indeed, Democrats were three times more likely to say that they will ‘definitely not vote’ in 2010 than are Republicans.” By contrast, Republicans are happy today. Almost giddy with glee as far as I can see. Warmonger John McCain and most Republicans will make sure the President gets what he wants. And in 2012, they will abandon their support of this President and support the candidate that comes from their base.

War-weary voters in this country are committed to peace. They reject the notion, as put forward by Vice President Dick Cheney that “the American way of life” is something worth fighting for when that means that war becomes an energy policy.

Tragically, the major unstated U.S. interest in the region that the President has bought into is the unacceptability of a proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (I-P-I) pipeline at a time when our country is saber-rattling against and threatening Iran with more sanctions. Earlier this year, Iran and Pakistan decided to move forward with their pipeline even if India decides to drop out. Ironically, I-P-I is also known as the “peace pipeline.”

The alternative pipeline route, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (T-A-P-I), is supported by Washington because it denies an important economic benefit to Iran. Sadly, nowhere in the President’s remarks did he mention the pipeline on which construction is slated to begin in 2010.

U.S. policy is not only guided by pipeline politics. There is also the consideration of chessboard geo-positioning necessary to contain Russia, China, and ensure U.S. empire—for those inclined to traditional Cold Warrior “containment” thinking. Apparently, behind what some are calling a “shadow war in Muslim lands,” are targeted assassination teams that have wreaked tri-border havoc in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Fortunately, this time around, I’m convinced that U.S. voters will vote for peace. President Obama has now ensured this outcome. Imagine, John McCain and Joe Lieberman have just been made very happy by the President’s choice while that same choice leaves swing voters, independents, and some Democrats who enthusiastically supported Obama’s campaign looking for somewhere else to go.

--
http://www.livestream.com/dignity
http://dignity.ning.com/
http://www.twitter.com/dignityaction
http://www.myspace.com/dignityaction
http://www.myspace.com/runcynthiarun
http://www.twitter.com/cynthiamckinney
http://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinney

--

Cynthia McKinney: Is President Obama’s Surge A Trap?

Review: "Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost"

Joe Allen presents a history of the United States' invasion and occupation of Southeast Asia never discussed in mainstream accounts. Aside from demonstrating several major factors which combined to end the war, the book shows the importance of movements influencing and overlapping each other. This is clearly laid out in discussing the impact the civil rights and black power movements had on the nascent anti-war movement. Another important thread in the book is the often ignored account of how brutal the intervention was. The revelations on the staggering amount of ordinance dropped on the Vietnamese people underscores the degree of violence the U.S. ruling class resorts to when imperial interests are on the line.

In the struggle against the empire's current horrific occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, the lessons laid out in "Vietnam: The (Last) War the US Lost" couldn't be more valuable. From fighting the endemic imperialist racism leading to My Lai and its modern counterpart Haditha, to linking social justice struggles to the enormous costs of the war, to supporting GI resistance in practice as well as principle. If there is any overarching lesson from the book, it is that an anti-war movement diminishes in the absence of an understanding of imperialism.

Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost
By Joe Allen, Foreward by John Pilger
Haymarket Books 2007 ISBN: 9781931859493

Review: "Vietnam: The (Last) War the U.S. Lost"

Paul Krugman Schools George Will On The Great Depression

I think people are misunderstanding Krugman on the effect of the war. He isn't repeating the reactionary dribble that the war saved the economy, but stating the economy recovered. What he doesn't discuss here is important. The only way to prevent the "tendency of the rate of profit to fall" is to destroy capital (mostly means of production in this case). When WWII is considered in a context of every competing country's (allies and opponents), means of production was essentially wiped out, we have the real reason for the United States' economic recovery after the war. The right wing can never admit this since there are too many ideological penalties the come with it. If war really was a easy way to fix economies, why the slumps after Viet Nam, Gulf War I, the current occupations?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Paul Krugman Schools George Will On The Great Depression

Peace Actions in Japan

Peace Actions in Japan

Cynthia McKinney Announces Campaign for Presidency

Cynthia McKinney Announces Campaign for Presidency

Preliminary victory for Lt. Ehren Watada!

Preliminary victory for Lt. Ehren Watada!

Iraq War Resisters to Get Boost from Veterans Group

Iraq War Resisters to Get Boost from Veterans Group

Voices of a People's History

Readings from Anthony Arnove and Howard Zinn's "Voices of A People's History of the United States," held at the George and Sakaye Aratani Japan America Theatre, sponsored by CERSC and KPFK. Readings were from voices of the people's struggle from a selection of people including Susan B. Anthony, John Brown, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Tecumseh, Mark Twain, Cindy Sheehan and many more.

Photos from the event.

Voices of a People's History