I was happy as someone to the left of the Democratic Party to join the Obama
campaign. We needed to do the hard work of electoral organizing alongside
the thousands of Obama volunteers. A progressive government was desperately
needed to moderate the worst excesses of late capitalism and they knew it.
Obama touched millions of people, especially young people who were
dissatisfied w/o (mostly) being political, and even fewer being consciously
leftist in any way.

I think that these Obama volunteers could become the base of a mass ongoing
movement that lives on after Obama wins, a movement that would be in place
to give the Obama Administration direct, on-going, immediate information
from the base up and hear what Obama thinks from the Government down.

We can try to create such grassroots advisory committees in every district.
Even if we cannot make these ideas realities everywhere or even anywhere,
raising the ideas is a good thing. And in some places we may be able to do
it. Every town, or ward or even neighborhood that succeeds in creating a
post-election advisory committee would be a great lesson, a great guide for
others to build more participatory democracy.

Bert Garskof
Connecticut

Original post by Bert Garskof and reposted by Radical Blogs

NEW YORK — The Industrial Workers of the World present a Night of Film, Music & Revolution!

This Thursday, November 6th, from 6 - 10 pm.

The Film: * ‘The Take’ produced by Naomi Klein
Argentinian workers’ struggles turn the globalization debate on its head in this winner of the International Documentary Competition Grand Jury Prize at the American Film Institute Film Festival in Los Angeles.

The Music: * Straight outta France: Fred ALPI of the CNT-F
French labor songs, acoustic set (www.fredalpi.com)

The Cause: A pass-the-hat benefit for the Wobblies and their efforts to help workers organize and fight for justice and fair pay.

Location: K&M Bar (Corner N. 8th Street & Roebling, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn)
Directions: L train to Bedford

There will $3 K&M Amber Beer and radical books for sale.

6pm - Wobbly chinwag
7pm - movie screening
9pm - music

See You There

Original post by Benjamin Ferguson and reposted by Radical Blogs

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — On Saturday a festive parade, complete with drums, dancing and colorful floats, made its way down Bay Street to the Staten Island Yankees baseball stadium. The event was sponsored by the Island Voice - a progressive community organization that works to promote cultural awareness.

Ed Josey, President of the Staten Island NAACP
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

A number of civic groups sent contingents and NLN spotted Ed Josey, President of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Ed served as this year’s grand marshall.

City Council candidate Debi Rose
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Politicians also took advantage of the opportunity to show their support for the African-American community. There was an Obama contingent, a McMahon (D, NY-13) for Congress contingent and candidate for City Council Debi Rose marched with friends from the College of Staten Island.

View Photos/Videos From The March

Original post by Thomas Good and reposted by Radical Blogs

Hooves Of Fury Stampede Over Veterans/U.S. Constitution
Statement of Matthis Chiroux, IVAW

Wednesday, Oct. 15th, 2008, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War and supporters gathered near the Hempstead, N.Y., train station to march on the final presidential debate at Hofstra University.

Our intent was made clear in a letter to Bob Schieffer, the debate moderator, one week prior. We wanted two members of our organization inside the debate where they would ask one question of Obama and one of McCain. If CBS and the candidates failed to meet our demands, we would march on Hofstra at 7 p.m. in a peaceful attempt to enter the debate to have our voices heard.

I planned on asking Barack Obama if he would back up his assessment of the occupation of Iraq as illegal by supporting servicemembers who would thus be required to refuse service there. Kris Goldsmith planned on asking McCain about his history of failing to vote in favor of V.A. funding, especially since the beginning of the occupation of Iraq.

Non-violence was stressed in every stage leading up to this action. It was stressed by me and Kris in person to Det. Thomas J. Calvert and Det. Robert Annese of the Nassau County Police Department the day before the action. Calvert and Annese were in charge of security for the debate and they assured us they would instruct their officers to respect the non-violent spirit of the action by using restraint towards peaceful veterans and demonstrators.

In every stage of planning, IVAW made every effort to keep all planned tactics and actions “above the table” so that the candidates, the media, the police and the country would know exactly what would happen if our demands were not met.

We were at Hofstra to force the issue that veterans and servicemembers are not being cared for or heard from by our government, and the candidates, CBS and the Nassau County Police Department couldn’t have proved us more correct.

We, the veterans and our supporters, stood together in solidarity, knowing the stakes were high. But a resolve echoed deep from with us to stand our ground and be heard. Twice these candidates had brushed us off, and thrice just wasn’t going to happen.

So at seven p.m. when we’d heard nothing from the moderators, IVAW made good on its promise to the candidates and Det. Calvert. We marched to the front gate of Hofstra, read our questions and peacefully proceeded into police lines.

Because these candidates cared more to hear from “Joe the Plumber” than veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, ten veterans went to jail and five civilian supporters joined us.

This upsets me, but I knew the risk, and if I must fall in defense of democracy, peace and justice, I offer my sacrifice willingly.

What infuriates me is the GROSS MISCONDUCT of the police in the process, much of which I believe to be illegal.

The damage to Nick Morgan’s eye
(Photo: Bill Perry)

After my arrest, the police charged their horses onto a sidewalk and unprovokedly knocked my friend Nick Morgan, a veteran of Iraq, to the ground and trampled his face. They then arrested him, put a piece of gauze on his facewound and loaded him onto a bus headed for jail with the rest of the “Hempstead 15.”

After they brought Nick onto the bus and we the veterans identified him as exhibiting signs of a concussion and as needing immediate medical attention, our arresting officers laughed at us and told us Nick would receive no help unless he himself asked to go to the hospital, though Nick was barely conscience and completely disoriented at the time AND THE COPS KNEW IT!

We pointed out that as a result of a serious head injury, Nick wasn’t aware enough to speak for himself. The police responded with, “too bad.”

(more̷

Original post by Next Left Notes and reposted by Radical Blogs

Written on October 12, 2008

INTRODUCTION

1. Why Radicals Need to Understand the Financial Crisis: Not everyone takes an interest in economics, obviously. Nor do they need to, in general. But anti-capitalist activists do have a special responsibility to be well-informed about what is happening in the capitalist system, especially in times of extraordinary turbulence and instability. In recent months, the capitalist financial system has plunged into a state of profound crisis. Millions of people the world over are beginning to question the claim that markets offer an efficient way of allocating resources. The very idea that capitalism is a system that actually “works,” in contrast to proposals for more just and democratic alternatives which supposedly do not “work,” has been dealt a serious blow. In such a situation, radicals really do need to develop some rudimentary understanding of what is going on, for at least two reasons. First, radicals need to develop an informed activist perspective on how to fight back against attempts by corporations and governments to pay for the crisis on the backs of students, workers, the poor and the unemployed. And second, radicals need to find ways to use this occasion to promote participatory-democratic alternatives to capitalism.
2. The Approach Taken Below: In the following comments, four things are attempted. First, several of the factors that set the stage for the crisis are reviewed, in a simple but hopefully not simplistic way. Second, the actual crisis is concisely described, from its early stages in the sub-prime mortgage market, through to its spread throughout the U.S. (and ultimately the global) financial system, culminating in several high profile bank failures. Third, some more difficult questions are briefly addressed, including the relation between financial crises and macroeconomic crises, and the distinction between a ’structural’ crisis and a ’systemic’ one. These three parts are intended to offer readers a rudimentary analysis of what is going on in the financial system today, with an emphasis on developments in the U.S. (For other perspectives, see the Suggested Readings, at the end.) Finally, a perspective is offered on how radicals should approach the question of short-term ‘policy responses,’ as well as the more fundamental question of how to forge an egalitarian and democratic “participatory” alternative to the capitalist system itself.
   

I: SETTING THE STAGE FOR DISASTER

1. Low Interest Rates: In response to the 2001 recession, especially after 11 September 2001, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept interest rates at unprecedentedly low levels, encouraging borrowers (businesses and consumers, including home buyers) to take on more debt. The strategy – sometimes called “privatized Keynesianism” – was to use household debt to play the demand-fueling role that had once been played by public sector deficit-spending in the Keynesian era (from the 1930s to the 1970s). From the late 1990s to 2007, the ratio of household debt to GDP in the U.S.A. went from just over 60% to almost 100%, with households taking on an additional $3 trillion of debt.
2. Rising Housing Prices: In the 10-year period preceding the crisis, from 1996 to 2006, the average resale price of U.S. homes almost tripled. This “bubble” (or speculation-driven price rise) in the housing market turned residential real estate into a magnet for speculative financial investment, which continually drove prices up, further inflating the bubble.
3. Lax Lending (and Refinancing) Standards: In the context of steadily and rapidly rising home values, mortgage lending began to seem like an increasingly safe bet for lenders, since the money loaned to home buyers was being used to purchase assets (namely, houses and condos) of ever-increasing value. They could be sold at any time, at a profit, so the risk of default seemed low. As a result of this perception of safety, and spurred on by greed and competition for a piece of the action among financial institutions, lending standards were lowered. A new market in “sub-prime” loans, that is, loans offered to low-income borrowers, and borrowers with questionable credit histories, emerged to draw more buyers into the housing bubble economy. Often, these loans were “predatory” in nature, in the sense that they lured gullible borrowers in with initially low introductory rates, which could be “re-set” at as much as twice the initial rate of interest a few years into the loan period. As long as house prices were rising, even these sub-prime loans seemed like a safe (or at least attractive) way to enlarge a financial institution’s share of the riches being generated by the housing boom.
4. Securitization of Mortgages: The ever-expanding pool of mortgages initiated in the context of the housing bubble did not stay on the books of the original lending institutions. Rather, they were packaged together and sold to speculators in the “secondary mortgage market” as transferable financial assets (“securities”), whose new owners took over any risk posed by the prospect of defaulting borrowers. This is a crucial part of the story, because these “mortgage-backed securities” created a tight connection between the fate of the housing bubble and the health of financial markets. It was this connection that could lead the bursting of the housing bubble to have profound effects on the entire financial system.
5. Opacity of Financial Instruments: Moreover, these mortgage-backed securities – precisely because they were designed to be sold to speculators, not kept on the books of the lending institutions – tended to be opaque, in the sense that those buying them could never be quite sure how risky their financial investment was. A breakdown in the system of assigning credit ratings to these securities made the problem even worse.
6. Over-leveraging: Another crucial stage-setting element was the widespread practice of “leveraging” by speculators. This is the habit of using (among other things) asset-backed securities as collateral for borrowing further money, to be used in turn to speculate on still more financial assets. If the assets used as collateral prove to be worth far less than previously thought, the owners of these assets have to “de-leverage,” by selling assets to raise the cash needed to service their debts.

II: THE ONSET OF FINANCIAL CRISIS

1. Falling House Prices: The U.S. housing bubble, which began around 1996, peaked in 2006. Prices then began to fall sharply. In itself, this was a problem not only for the financial sector, but also for the “real” (productive as opposed to financial) economy which had come to rely heavily on housing to boost GDP growth. However, the financial sector was especially heavily reliant on rising housing prices, because the sub-prime mortgage market (and the secondary market for mortgage-backed securities) was premised on the assumption that house values were rising, which was in turn supposed to ensure that the danger of defaults was minimal.
2. Defaults in ‘Sub-prime’ Mortgage Market: As home prices fell, the value of the assets (homes) purchased by “sub-prime” borrowers fell in relation to the debt burden they carried. Increasingly unable to keep up with payments (especially on the predatory “adjustable rate” loans), and with diminishing prospects of refinancing their mortgages, given that (contrary to expectations) their homes had proved not to be worth more than their original purchase prices, many sub-prime borrowers began to default on their debts. In mid-2008, 2.75% of all U.S. home loans were in foreclosure. This was the highest rate of foreclosure ever recorded by the Mortgage Bankers’ Association (which began collecting data in 1979).
3. Deflation of Mortgage-Backed Securities: As the rate of mortgage defaults rose, the market for mortgage-backed securities (whose value is determined, ultimately, by the income stream created by actual mortgage payments) responded to the fact that these assets were less valuable than their purchasers had thought. Accordingly, as the demand for these assets (securities) declined, prices – which had been artificially high because of rampant speculation – declined sharply.
4. Contagion: For a time, it seemed to many as though the collapse of the market for securities backed by sub-prime mortgages could be contained. But the interlocking system of financial asset markets is so complex – so that, for example, risks associated with some financial products are themselves bought and sold in “derivatives” markets – that it was both, objectively, hard to contain the damage to only one category of financial instruments, and, subjectively, impossible to be confident that anyone quite understood exactly how a collapse in one part of the financial system might produce unforeseen “ricochet” effects in other parts of the system. The contagion spread, therefore, partly because of its actual impact on the balance sheets of financial institutions, and partly because the opacity of the scale of the problem severely undercut the confidence of financial speculators in their own capacity to distinguish between safe and unsafe financial investments.
5. Investment Bank Insolvencies and the De-leveraging Spiral: At bottom, the financial crisis is a crisis of the balance sheets of financial institutions. That is to say, banks and other financial firms have found themselves with too little capital, relative to the size of their debt. They are “over-leveraged.” To stay afloat, they have to raise money by shedding financial assets. But the market for such assets is now so weak that they can only sell them at discount prices, which – by lowering the value of financial assets further – makes the problem even worse. It is a downward spiral of “de-leveraging,” a vicious circle of selling because assets are worth too little, and thereby further deflating asset prices, requiring even more selling, at ever-lower prices, and so on. So severe have the problems been at this balance-sheet level that some of the hugest, most powerful investment banks and other financial firms have been plunged into insolvency, either collapsing outright (as in Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns) or being bailed out or nationalized by governments who deem them to be “too big to fail” (as in AIG, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac).
   

III: FROM FINANCIAL CRISIS TO ECONOMIC CRISIS

1. The Relation Between Speculation on Financial Asset Prices and the Financing of Real Investment: In theory, financial markets simply transfer ownership claims to income streams in the real economy from the sellers to the buyers of an asset (such as a mortgage-backed security). If it really were as simple as that, such transfers would not affect the actual value of the assets that change hands (which is determined by the income stream itself, over time). However, real world financial markets, especially in recent decades, are sites of massive, highly speculative casino-style betting on the future value of the assets being bought and sold. So prices of such assets can rise and fall dramatically, sometimes quite suddenly, without it necessarily having a noticeable impact on the real economy (for example, without causing any industrial firms to go bankrupt, and without impacting unemployment rates or causing inflation). But we can think of the financial system as having two very different functions: first, to facilitate speculative gambling on the future prices of financial instruments (like mortgage-backed securities); and second, to make credit (i.e., loans) available for firms planning to purchase investment goods (or finance operations generally) and for consumers hoping to make major purchases (car loans, students loans, credit card debt, mortgages, and so on). The first of these functions is surprisingly limited in its impact on the wider economy. In principle, a collapse of the market for speculative financial products is of no particular importance to the real economy of industrial and other non-financial firms, consumers and labour-force participants. Financial speculators do make purchases, of course, but it is likely that a bad year for Wall Street speculators would mainly affect the demand for high-end luxury consumption, and not much else. What makes a financial crisis troubling for the fate of the real economy is that second function of financial markets: extending credit to firms and consumers. If a collapse of financial asset prices, due to panic among speculators, affects the balance sheets of financial institutions, so that they have to rein in their lending to firms and consumers, the financial woes of Wall Street transform into something with much wider implications: a “credit crunch,” or shortage of credit.
2. Insolvency and the Credit Crunch: In the U.S. and parts of Europe (but much less so in Canada, as of now), there are signs that the speculative collapse in financial asset prices is transforming into a credit crunch affecting the real economy. It is notable, though, that these signs are still limited. We have not seen credit shortages leading to major layoffs, or a dramatic rise in unemployment, at least not yet. (Layoffs in the automobile sector may be partly related to credit issues, but not wholly.) And we have not seen large non-financial firms facing bankruptcy – again, at least not yet. But there have been new difficulties obtaining short term loans, even for highly trusted corporations and banks. And this seems to be because financial institutions are compelled by bad balance sheets to “de-leverage,” or sell off financial assets, in order to raise money. In any case, it seems highly, highly unlikely (and few if any commentators would dissent from this judgment), that it is possible for very long to avoid a significant credit crunch (and resulting “recession”) in the coming months in the U.S. and globally (including in Canada). There seem to be only two questions: first, how long will it take for the credit crunch to make itself felt in the real economy in a big way, and second, how severe will its impact be (especially in light of the uncertain effects of the “bailout” attempt by the U.S. Treasury and the policy response more generally).
3. Conjunctural, Structural, or Systemic Crisis?: In order to put the present crisis into perspective, it is necessary to address the question of what kind of “crisis” is underway. There are three different ways in which capitalism can be “in crisis.” First, and least serious, is the conjunctural crisis. In a conjunctural crisis, there is a convergence of various short term contingencies, which jointly create problems for the system which curtail growth, or lead to declines in GDP, as well as rising unemployment and pronounced industrial overcapacity. Conjunctural crises are often called “recessions.” More rare, and much more serious, are structural crises. In a structural crisis, a certain way of organizing capitalist production has reached a kind of impasse, so that only fundamental economic (and sometimes political) restructuring can restore the economy to profitability and growth. One example: the Great Depression of the 1930s, in which only a Keynesian restructuring process (which took years to carry out) could bring capitalism out of its structural crisis. Another: the “Stagflation” (stagnation/inflation) crisis of the mid-1970s, which only a process of neo-liberal restructuring could bring to an end. Structural crises are certainly serious. But they are not, in and of themselves, fundamentally threatening to the capitalist system. By contrast, a systemic crisis occurs when the system itself runs out of options: it confronts problems that cannot be resolved within the framework of the system itself. A systemic crisis poses the question of what comes next, after capitalism. So, the question for us to ask today is: are we witnessing the unfolding of a systemic crisis of capitalism? It is clear that we have gone beyond a mere conjunctural crisis. That is, it is clear that nothing less than a serious restructuring of contemporary capitalism could possibly be sufficient to address the system’s current problems. The whole trajectory of modern capitalism which, since the dawn of the neo-liberal era at the end of the 1970s, has been bound up with a process of financialization and ballooning levels of private debt, has clearly reached an impasse. That diagnosis would suggest that at least a structural crisis is underway. But, what distinguishes a structural from a systemic crisis is that in a structural crisis the system has options for restructuring itself to restore profitability and growth. Does contemporary capitalism have such options? If the answer is no, than we can say that a systemic crisis is underway. However, it is impossible to say with any certainty that this is the case. To be sure, there is no program waiting in the wings for a restructuring agenda to be put into effect as a way of rescuing the system from its current predicament. The ruling class is presently at a loss about what to do. Throwing borrowed money at the problem, in order to socialize the losses from worthless or at least over-priced financial assets purchased by Wall Street speculators, as in the U.S. government’s Paulson Plan, is the best idea they can come up with right now. And although it may postpone, or even avert, a total collapse of the financial system, it certainly offers little hope of sparking a real and lasting recovery. But that doesn’t preclude the possibility that, over the course of the next few years, as a protracted structural crisis unfolds, there may yet emerge a pro-capitalist political project for a post-neoliberal package of structural reforms, to be imposed on workers with the backing of states.
   

IV: A ROLE FOR RADICALS

1. Weakness of the Radical Left: A new pro-capitalist restructuring agenda, to reorganize capitalism on a post-neoliberal basis, may or may not emerge in the next few years. But this much is clear: whatever the troubles of capitalism right now, the weaknesses of today’s anti-capitalist Left are even greater. What existed in the 1930s and, to a lesser extent, in the 1970s, but no longer exists in the North Atlantic countries today, is a powerful current of anti-capitalist radicalism, able to seize the opportunity of an off-balance ruling class in order to put forward a viable radical alternative. In the absence of such an alternative, it seems highly unlikely that the system itself could be replaced in the short- to medium-range future. We have to face this reality in a sober way, even as we try to move beyond the limits of the contemporary Left, and build a new Left capable of actually winning in its struggle against capitalism.
2. The Need to Have Something to Say: Because radical politics in North America (in contrast to, say, Latin America) remains, for the time being, a marginal political force, it would be deluded for us to expect that our proposals would stand any chance of being implemented in response to the present crisis. We might, then, be tempted to think that there is no need for us to offer proposals about what to do about the financial crisis. This, however, would be a fatal mistake for the radical Left. As radical activists, we need to have something to say about all this, even if we know perfectly well that we will not get our way. The point is not to pretend that our view might actually be implemented; rather, the point is to show that radical politics speak to today’s concerns, in a way that points to a different approach to politics and public policy, and ultimately toward a different kind of society. What kinds of things should we be saying? Evidently, there are two questions that have to be addressed: first, what policy response do we favor in the short term, to deal with what’s happening now?; second, what alternatives do we propose over the long term, to really address the roots of the present crisis in a failed system of profit-motivated, greed-fueled capitalist production?
3. A Radical Policy Response: In principle, radicals should be suspicious of “policy” debates. By their very nature, these debates take for granted precisely those institutional constraints of present-day society that we regard as most problematic: the capitalist economy and the capitalist state. And yet, if we have nothing to say about policy debates, above all during times of crisis, we ourselves will be viewed with suspicion and disdain. So we have to have a point of view on the proper policy response to the present financial crisis. And yet, whatever policies we propose ought to be transitional in nature: pointing toward a path that leads beyond the limits of the capitalist system. In the present context, that means advocating a short-term policy approach based on embarking on the transition from a for-profit banking system focused on enriching financial speculators to a democratized and not-for-profit financial system in which most lending is undertaken by credit unions (non-profit financial co-operatives) or by public sector lending agencies, subject to participatory priority-setting. Rather than a taxpayer-funded “bailout” of banks, what is needed is transitional nationalization of insolvent banks, so that they can be converted into not-for-profit credit unions operated democratically and in the public interest. As Canadian Autoworkers union (CAW) economist Jim Stanford has pointed out recently, “bread-and-butter lending (to home-buyers, consumers, and real businesses) is…something we all depend on, but can’t trust the private market to reliably supply. Developing public or non-profit vehicles to perform this function (including publicly-owned banks, credit unions, building and mutual societies, and other non-profit vehicles) is thus a credible and timely demand.”
4. A Post-Capitalist Alternative: Ultimately, what radicals have to offer is three things: an analysis of what’s wrong with our society, a vision for an egalitarian and democratic alternative to it, and the beginnings of a strategy for getting us from here to there. So, while we have to address questions about policy responses to the financial crisis, our real focus is quite properly on something else: working toward the realization of a long-term vision for how to address problems of this kind at their roots. The roots of the current crisis, like so many of the social problems that plague humanity today, lie in the greed-driven, competitive system of capitalist production. Our vision of a radically democratic and egalitarian post-capitalist participatory economy, founded upon political and economic democracy, and social and environmental justice, grows more relevant with each passing phase of this crisis. This is a contribution that is unique to radicals, because if we don’t play this role, no one else can or will. The LPPS publication, What is Participatory Economics?, written by Michael Albert, author or co-author of several books on the subject, takes up the question of what a post-capitalist alternative could look like. What is rather more obvious is what it will not look like: It will not be a system in which the greed and irresponsibility of financial speculators end up posing a grave threat to the livelihoods and economic security of billions of poor and working-class people around the world. The effort to put a stop, once and for all, to an economy like that is surely a worthy project. And that is our project: the project for a post-capitalist participatory society.
   

SUGGESTED READINGS [Click titles to view these articles]

I. Introductory

I. Schmidt, “Wall Street Panic, Main Street Pain, Policy Choices” (6 October 20

N. Chomsky, “Anti-Democratic Nature of US Capitalism Exposed”

D. La Botz, “The Financial Crisis: A View from the Left” (September 20

W. Bello, “Afterthoughts: A Primer on the Wall Street Meltdown” (1 October 20

J. Stanford, “The Global Financial Crisis for Beginners” (19 June 20

II. Intermediate/Advanced

F. Baragar, “The Credit Crisis in Canada: The First Six Months” (late 2007?)

S. Gindin and L. Panitch, “Perspectives on the U.S. Financial Crisis” (July 20                

J.B. Foster, “The Financialization of Capital and the Crisis” (20

D. McNally, “Global Instability & Challenges to the Dollar: Assessing the Current Financial Crisis” (20

P. Kellog, “The Septembers of Neo-liberalism” (29 September 20

W. Tabb, “The Financial Crisis of U.S. Capitalism” (October 20

R. Brenner, “Devastating Crisis Unfolds” (January 20

D. Henwood, “Reflections on the Current Crisis” (Part 1, August 2007; Part 2, April 20

Panitch and S. Gindin, “The Current Crisis: A Socialist Perspective” (30 September 20

III. Readings on the Wider Issues of Capitalist Stagnation and Financial Instability

J.B. Foster, “The Financialization of Capitalism” (April 2007)

J.B. Foster, “Monopoly-Finance Capital” (December 2006)

F. Magdoff, “The Explosion of Debt and Speculation” (November 2006)

W. Tabb, “The Centrality of Finance” (2007)

D. McNally, “Turbulence in the World Economy” (June 1999)

R. Brenner, “New Boom or New Bubble? The Trajectory of the US Economy

Original post by anticapitalism and reposted by Radical Blogs

Standing vigil at the display: Pete Bronson of Veterans For Peace
(Photo: Elaine Brower / NLN)

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — On October 14th, the day prior to the final presidential debate, organizations brought the moving Eyes Wide Open exhibit to the campus at Hofstra. This memorial was created by the American Friends Service Committee, a part of the Quaker Society, in 2004 and was started with 500 pairs of soldiers’ combat boots that represented the national death toll as it was then of those military members who were killed in Iraq. Four years later, the exhibit holds 4,182 pairs of combat boots and hundreds of Iraqi shoes, representing the innocent civilian lives taken by those soldiers wearing the combat boots.

At the Hofstra campus only the New York State boots were displayed, representing a total of 183 lives lost in Iraq. Sad posters with the faces of Iraqi children surrounded by the shoes also stood a few feet away from those boots. The exhibit, brought there by AFSC, Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Veterans for Peace (VFP) and the Long Island Alliance for Peaceful Tomorrows, was on display from noon until 6 PM at the Labyrinth located in the middle of the campus.

As students and professors headed in and out of class, they passed the exhibit. Most walked through with sad expressions, nodding heads, whispering to each other, and honoring the dead. Those of us who carried the burden of explaining what this all meant, handed out flyers and information explaining its importance. Of course, you had an occasional screech of “We Love War!” and “Bush is Great!” coming from somewhere far off in the distance, as a coward would shout so as not to be identified by those who may actually be suffering and reflecting.

At one point early on, a father showed up to remove his son’s boots and name tag from the display. He was angered by the fact that AFSC would use his son’s death in this way. However, he stood, with a friend, off to the side of the Labyrinth for over 30 minutes shocked by the beauty of what he was seeing, and not really knowing how to approach us.

He argued with the AFSC coordinator about how we must kill the terrorists, and his son did not die in vain, and we had some nerve doing this, and then handed her a DVD of the latest right-wing garbage propaganda “Obsession” detailing how “all of Islam” wants us dead because of our “freedoms.”

The rest of us stood aside and let him rant, feeling his pain, anger and frustration. He left quietly and we remained there talking to those coming and going the rest of the day. The feeling when you walk through the display of combat boots, dog tags, photos, and memorabilia donated by family members is one of complete despair, grief and total sadness. It drains the emotions, as well as fueling a fire of passion to end all wars.

The march of the dead
(Photo: Elaine Brower / NLN)

At closing, 6 PM, the “March of the Dead”, a procession of black-clad students with white face masks symbolizing those Iraqi’s and Afghani’s killed in the wars, proceeded from across campus and stopped at the Exhibit. The vision was so absolutely moving that everyone who was passing stopped and watched as the marching dead surrounded the display of boots in a circle of silence. A reading of the names of all of the fallen soldiers and those innocent civilians continued with the ringing of a gong to announce the solemnity of what war really meant to the lives of others.

Those of us who remained there found it hard to pack up and leave. Flowers had been placed on the boots, and in the middle of the Labryinth earlier in the day, which remained when the exhibit was removed as a symbol to remind all those who passed by that we are still at war and more boots and shoes will be added to the pile.

View Photos/Videos From The Event…

Original post by Elaine Brower and reposted by Radical Blogs

NEW YORK — Political prisoners in the United States? How can that be? The Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and the freedom to petition the government for the correction of injustices. Civil liberties are respected and the right to dissent is allegedly the cornerstone of this nations foundation. The reality is that there are currently over one hundred people being held in prisons across this country who were arrested and convicted for their political ideas or political activity.

On Friday, activists from a wide variety of political and social justice organizations gathered in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza to demand amnesty and freedom for all US-held poliical prisoners and POWs as part of the Jericho Movements 10th Anniversary Weekend of Resistance. Jericho is committed to four principal issues: building an amnesty campaign despite the US governments continued denial that such prisoners exist, educating the people about their existence, providing supportive expenses for lawyers to provide legal defense, and fighting for quality medical care.

Pam Africa
(Photo: Mike Morice / NLN)

This day, while a delegation of Jericho activists meet with diplomats on the issue of amnesty inside the UN, outside in the Plaza, Pam Africa updated everyone on the case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Describing herself as “a seasoned revolutionary”, Africa noted the presence of many younger activists, and no less militant due to years, spoke of the need to “carry on the struggle by any means necessary”. Emerging from the UN meeting, anarchist activist and former political prisoner Ashanti Alston called for continuing the educational campaign and rallied the crowd; “Free Herman Bell” “Free Leonard Peltier”, “Free Mutulu Shakur”, “Free Marilyn Buck”.

Ashanti Alston
(Photo: Mike Morice / NLN)

Finally, radical attorney Lynne Stewart spoke of the governments historic determination to intimidate and silence political dissent. She reminded the protestors of the diversity of US-held political prisoners/POWs, many coming from such varied origins as the Puerto Rican Independence movement, the Black Liberation movement, the Native American struggle, the anti-Imperialist movement, and Earth and Animal Liberation movements. As Stewart put it, “none of us as activists are safe. If it can happen to any one of them, it can happen to you”.

View Photos From The Protest…

Original post by Devra Morice and reposted by Radical Blogs

An animated Norm Siegel (center), flanked by Michael Meyers (left) and State Senator Eric Adams (right)
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s recent announcement that he plans to seek a third term - and wants the City Council to change the law to make this possible - is stirring up controversy. Bloomberg has argued that New York needs him to navigate the City through the current financial crisis. Not everyone agrees.

On Sunday, two separate press conferences were held on the steps of City Hall to take up this issue.

At noon, City Council member David Weprin of Queens held a press conference opposing any legislative changes to term limits. Speakers at the conference included Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, former Parks Commissioner Henry Stern, attorney Gene Russianoff from NYPIRG and Council Members Bill de Blasio, John Liu, Eric Gioia and Charles Barron. The diverse group was united in their opposition to legislating any change that would negate two previous referenda in which the people of New York voted in favor of maintaining term limits.

After some council members stated that Mayor Bloomberg wasn’t the issue - the issue is one of process - Charles Barron disagreed.

“It is about Mayor Bloomberg. This is the worst attempt at a power grab — and changing the democracy into an oligarchy. It is Mayor Bloomberg and the rich on Wall Street who got us in this mess in the first place,” said Barron. “The people spoke in ‘93 and ‘96, said they wanted us eight and out,” he added.

Charles Barron (left) with NLN intern Nathaniel
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Barron proposed a different type of leadership for Bloomberg.

“Mayor Bloomberg came into this office worth 5 billion dollars, 65th on Forbe’s list. He is now eighth on the list and is worth twenty billion dollars. Well, Mayor why don’t you do what your buddy Warren Buffet did … Mayor give the City one of your twenty billion and stop coming to us with cuts, and bail out the poor and stop this power grab, this defiance of democracy, it’s a disgrace, it’s an insult to our city,” he said.

A second conference was held later in the day.

Shortly after two o’clock, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, State Senator Eric Adams, City Council member Letitia James, City Council candidate Debi Rose and NY Civil Rights Coalition Director Michael Meyers joined with many other New Yorkers - individuals and group representatives - in condemning the Mayor’s “power grab”. The large, extroardinarily diverse, group filled the steps of City Hall and the press conference went on well into the afternoon. Speaker after speaker demanded that “the will of the people”, as expressed in the 1993 and 1996 referenda, be respected.

“The people of New York have spoken in favor of term limits … not once but twice,” said Norman Siegel. Commenting on the Mayor’s plan to overturn term limits by legislative mean Siegel said: “You need a public referendum to overrule a public referendum.”

“It’s over,” said Eric Adams, addressing Bloomberg — who was in Europe at the time. “Don’t become a political punch drunk boxer that believes he’s the only that can bring home the crown. New York is filled with competent individuals.”

Eric Adams (left) discusses Bloomberg’s “Napoleonic act”
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

“It was men like Bloomberg and Wall Street billionaires that got us in this mess,” Adams told the crowd. “The same individuals we bailed out are now saying they’re going to get us out — don’t believe the hype, nothing could be more insincere,” he added.

“Shame on the editorial pages of this city. Shame on you,” Adams said, chastising the corporate media as he spoke directly to the assembled press corps.

Returning to his central theme, Adams said that “Mayor Bloomberg cannot duplicate the Napoleonic act of crowning himself as king of New York.”

View Photos/Videos From The Conferences…

Original post by Thomas Good and reposted by Radical Blogs

NEW YORK — On Thursday members of the New York City local of the War Resisters League protested the return of the U.S.S. Intrepid, a World War Two era aircraft carrier, to Manhattan . The Intrepid had been docked in Staten Island for the last two years as it underwent refurbishing. Permanently based on the Hudson River, adjacent to Manhattan’s West Side Highway, the ship is used as a museum - one that glorifies war according to the WRL. Ironically, the warship, propelled by tugs, returned to Manhattan on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. The War Resisters League carried signs referring to the coincidence as a “sad tribute”.

View Photos/Videos From The Protest…

NLN Video

Original post by Thomas Good and reposted by Radical Blogs

NEW YORK — The downtown area was on fire Thursday. At lunchtime over 2,000 workers from various unions protested the Bush plan to bail out Wall Street, after making bad investments for the last 5 years.

Hard hats, transit workers, machinists, teachers and other labor unionists railed against the U.S. government’s proposed bailout of Wall Street on Thursday in a protest steps from the New York Stock Exchange.
Several hundred protesters yelled their enthusiastic support as union leaders decried a proposed $700 billion plan aimed at reinvigorating the credit markets by relieving financial institutions of distressed debt.

“The Bush administration wants us to pay the freight for a Wall Street bailout that does not even begin to address the roots of our crisis,” said AFL-CIO National President John Sweeney.

“We want our tax dollars used to provide a hand up for the millions of working people who live on Main Street and not a handout to a privileged band of overpaid executives.”

On the steps of Federal Hall
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Signs read “No Blank Checks For Wall Street” and “Our Hard-Earned Pensions Are Not Up For Grabs.” Protesters cheered repeated calls for the government to spend money on education, health care and housing as freely and readily as it was proposing to do for Wall Street.

“We know that the economic situation has to be solved. But we want a responsible rescue, not an opportunistic bailout,” said United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.

“And that means, just like every single boss says to me, that there should be accountability for the teachers, then there should be accountability for Wall Street,” he said.

“The bailout is a sellout unless it includes the victims of the tyranny,” civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson told reporters after the rally. “The homeowners need long-term, low interest rate loans and the restructuring of loans, not the repossession of homes.” “This is a Roosevelt moment,” Jackson said, referring to former President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s program to lift the United States out of the Great Depression. “It’s time for reconstruction of manufacturing law, trade law and banking transparency.”

On the steps of Federal Hall
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

After Wall Street faced the wrath of unions, the streets filled again at 4 PM with other concerned citizens who piled up their “junk” at the famous “Bull” at the foot of Broadway. Over 1,000 people, ranging from children to students and working people, showed up and showed their anger. From the rally at the “Bull” people took to the streets to march up to Wall Street where workers were exiting the buildings. The chants ranged from “You Broke it you bought it!” to “No Bailout for Wall Street,” and some others that signified how angry the crowd really was. One sign read “Jump, f**ckers!”

Students were outraged that they soon they would have to pay more for college tuition since CUNY is now threatening to raise fees, are steeped in college loans, and trying to work to just get buy. New Yorkers who are just working class stiffs showed up to let the I-bankers know that since they had to work hard just to buy food, they wouldn’t agree to bailing out anyone.

On the steps of Federal Hall
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Protesters took over the steps across the street from the New York Stock Exchange enraged over what this government is planning to do with a $700 billion buyout package, no strings attached. One young man was yelling the entire time as we marched screaming that he “had had enough of Bush and the rich” in this Country, and that “they need to go down!”

Bush and Treasury Secretary Paulson are trying to ram the “no strings attached $700 billion” proposal down the throats of hard working people in this Country, who have had just about enough of being told what’s good for them.

It was inspiring to see the crowds and hope that Washington is paying attention because this could just be the beginning of the awakening of the masses.

View Photos/Videos From The Action…

Original post by Elaine Brower and reposted by Radical Blogs

AUSTIN, Texas — Demonstrators protested the continuing occupation of Iraq gathered on Friday, September 19 at Dobie Mall adjacent to the campus of The University of Texas at Austin.

Dobie Mall houses a military recruitment center and has been the site of anti-war protests in the past.

The demonstrators represented MDS/Austin, CodePink and the Campus Antiwar Movement to End the Occupations (CAMEO). The action was part of the Iraq Moratorium, a monthly event during which activities in opposition the Iraq war take place throughout the country.

Original post by Thorne Dreyer and reposted by Radical Blogs

17-year-old Keith Smith - Before His Arrest
(Photo: Paul Demko / Minnesota Independent)

The 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota produced over 800 arrests and numerous complaints of police misconduct: pre-emptive raids, mass arrests, targeting of journalists and police brutality - including violence directed against arrestees held in the Ramsey County jail. It was a smaller, but much more violent version of the 2004 RNC held in New York City. By the end of the convention, eight protest organizers had been charged with “conspiracy to commit riot in the second degree in furtherance of terrorism” - the first to be charged under Minnesota’s version of the Patriot Act. {1} Elected officials in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul are pleased the convention is over but for those who protested, and those who reported on the protests, lingering questions remain about police conduct during the RNC. This “Twin Study” is an attempt to put the police behavior in a meaningful context - and to underscore the need to examine that behavior publicly.

Keith Smith - After His Arrest
(Photo: Minnesota Independent)

THINK FEDERALLY, ACT LOCALLY

Recent political conventions have been declared “National Special Security Events” by the Department of Homeland Security. {2} An NSSE designation generally means that security becomes the responsibility of an FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) - a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security components (Coast Guard, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, and the Secret Service) and state and local law enforcement. JTTFs typically conduct surveillance and interrogations of individuals the FBI suspects of being linked to “domestic terrorism” - which includes protest activity.

Replicating what they had done in 2004, the FBI and its JTTFs increased activity a year prior to the 2008 RNC, surveiling and interviewing peace activists - and recruiting paid informants who were asked to infiltrate antiwar organizations. {3}

IN EVERY DREAM HOME, A HEARTACHE

In 2002, the Justice Department removed regulations put in place after the Church Commission hearings in the 1970s, which exposed evidence of politically motivated spying and obstruction of first amendments rights by the FBI’s COINTELPRO division. {4} Civil rights advocates worry that unregulated JTTF actions may constitute violations of the First Amendment, pointing to a number of questionable police practices that have emerged in the years since the 9-11 attacks.

FROM THE TWIN TOWERS TO THE TWIN CITIES

In Philadelphia in 2000, undercover state troopers posed as activists during the Republican National Convention protests, infiltrating street demonstrations and engaging in illegal activity - acting as provocateurs. {5}

In 2003 a Miami Herald reporter, covering the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) protests, reported that “a judge presiding over the cases of free trade protesters said in court that he saw ‘no less than 20 felonies committed by police officers’ during the November demonstrations.”{6}

The “Miami Model” described by the judge - the police response to the FTAA protests - established a standard procedure for police covering the Republican National Convention in New York City in 2004: surveillance, provocateurs, pre-emptive mass arrests, and extended detentions. And despite the fact that NYPD misconduct prompted several lawsuits - and several victories for protesters - the NYPD consulted with authorities planning security for the 2008 RNC in St. Paul. {7}

THE BRIBE STRIPPED BARE

St. Paul received a $50 million “security grant” from the Department of Justice. While there were restrictions on how the cash could be spent, it did allow for equipment procurement and what former Minneapolis police chief Tony Bouza called an “orgy of overtime”. {8} 3000 police officers from other jurisdictions were brought in to the Twin Cities.

In addition, St. Paul signed a deal whereby the city’s first $10 million in payouts to litigants for civil rights violations would be paid by the Republican Party Host Committee. This allowed the 600 local police and 3000 per diem police to engage in aggressive tactics while working the RNC, creating a crowd control force that functioned more like Blackwater mercenaries than a legitimate law enforcement entity.

THE MOCKINGBIRD MEDIA AND ‘KINKOS JOURNALISTS’

Importing a tactic from the Iraq War, the St. Paul police offered local corporate media a deal: journalists who signed a liabilty waiver were allowed to “ride along”, i.e. be embedded, with the police - after agreeing to not run any stories about police tactics until after the convention. The controversial “ride along” and “embargo” agreement allowed Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) reporter Tim Nelson access to the front lines of the conflict between police and protesters. Unlike many of his colleagues, Nelson was not tear gassed, arrested or beaten. Shortly after this came to light, MPR columnist Bob Collins wrote several pieces about police and their treatment of journalists. Collins argued that it was difficult for police to discern “real” journalists from the “posers” or “kinkos journalists” {9} - and this may have led to journalists being swept up in mass arrests. Collins’ animosity towards citizen journalists, and sympathy for law enforcement, served the police department very well - one reader left a comment on a Collins’ piece stating that, “If I were a bonafide journalist, it would piss me off beyond a bushel of kidney stones that protesters would pose as one of us.”.{10}

Trauma nurse Michael Cavlan worked as a street medic during the 2008 RNC and witnessed a number of confrontations between police and journalists. When asked about (St. Paul) Police Chief John Harrington’s comment that it was very difficult to determine who was a journalist and who was a protester, Cavlan told NLN that, “Chief Harrington is a liar”. Cavlan went on to say that he witnessed a police undercover, with press credentials, “masquerading as a journalist” in order to videotape protesters. {11}

When her staff members were arrested on “suspicion of rioting” on September 1, Democracy Now anchor Amy Goodman approached police officers to verify her crew’s credentials. She was arrested and a Secret Service agent confiscated her convention credentials. {12} This act outraged other journalists - and their readers. On September 2 - day two of the convention - a number of media representatives delivered a petition with 50,000 signatures to St. Paul’s Mayor Coleman demanding that he drop all charges against any journalists arrested during the RNC, many of whom were initially charged with felonies including the vague “suspicion of rioting”. {13}

Neither the 2003 FTAA protests or the 2004 RNC involved the targeting of independent journalists or the bargaining with corporate media to the extent seen in St. Paul - this represents an significant expansion of the Miami Model. Protesters did not fare much better. Police actions against activists began three days before the convention started.

Sign the petition calling for an investigation…

(more̷

Original post by Thomas Good and reposted by Radical Blogs

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman was arrested in downtown St. Paul, Minnesota yesterday at approximately 5 p.m. local time. Police manhandled Goodman, yanking her arm, as they arrested her. Video of her arrest is available on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

Goodman was arrested while attempting to free two Democracy Now! producers who were being detained. They are Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Nicole Salazar. Kouddous and Salazar were arrested while covering street demonstrations at the Republican National Convention.

Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher told Democracy Now! that Kouddous and Salazar were being arrested on suspicion of rioting. They are currently being held at the Ramsey County jail in St. Paul.

Democracy Now! is asking all journalists and concerned citizens to call the office of Mayor Chris Coleman and the Ramsey County Jail and demand the immediate release of Goodman, Kouddous and Salazar. Calls can be directed to: Chris Rider from Mayor Coleman’s office at 651-266-8535 and the Ramsey County Jail at 651-266-9350, extension 0.

Democracy Now! has condemned this action by Twin Cities law enforcement as a, “clear violation of the freedom of the press and the First Amendment rights of these journalists.”

During the demonstration in which they were arrested law enforcement officers used pepper spray, rubber bullets, concussion grenades and excessive force. Several dozen others were also arrested.

Amy Goodman is a well-known and respected journalist in the U.S. Democracy Now! has characterized the arrest as, “a transparent attempt to intimidate journalists from the nation’s leading independent news outlet.”

In 2004, the New York Police Department, acting under orders from NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg, arrested 1800 individuals during the RNC. Many were held for extended periods at the infamous “Guantanamo on the Hudson”, Pier 57. Several lawsuits resulted - alleging police misconduct and illegal conditions of confinement. New York City has already paid out several million dollars in settlements. Litigation is ongoing.

The targeted harassment of journalists, legal observers and first amendment activists by police covering the Republican National Convention has apparently become standard operating procedure.

[NLN editor Thomas Good is an alumnus of Pier 57]

Original post by Thomas Good and reposted by Radical Blogs

DENVER, Colo. — Starting on Sunday, August 24, 2008, over 700 people gathered in front of the Capitol Building in Denver to kickoff the weeklong events protesting the democratic national convention, as well as the oppression of the militaristic environment those of us who choose freedom of speech have been denied.

At 9 AM the rally began with a lineup of motivational speakers, high up on the Capitol steps. The rally was called by Recreate 68, mostly comprised of local anti-war groups and residents of Colorado. The protesters heard speeches from Cindy Sheehan, Fred Hampton Jr., Ron Kovic, Vietnam vet and author of “Born on the Fourth of July”, Ward Churchill, Larry Hales, Cynthia McKinney, Larry Holmes, and others, and were roused by a performance by performance by Dead Prez.

Ron Kovic in Denver
(Photo: Elaine Brower / NLN)

Ron Kovic, Vietnam Veteran and author “Born on the fourth of July,” Cindy Sheehan, Peace Mom and Congressional Candidate in San Francisco, Cynthia Mckinney, Green Party Presidential Candidate, Fred Hampton, Jr., son of the former Black Panther, Larry Holmes, Troops Out Now Coalition, and were roused by the music of Dead Prez.

The scene in front of the building, although not a replica of Chicago in 1968 where thousands protested and were beat up by the police, was alive and energized with people from all walks of life, from locations all over the Country, and ranged from age 2 to 72. It had it’s own vitality and beat, which set the stage for the day of spirited marches and moments of confrontation.

The March to the Pepsi Center

At about 11 AM everyone stepped off and got into the streets determined to march directly to the Pepsi Center, about a mile away. The Denver Police would not grant a permit to R68 to get as far as the Pepsi Center, where the convention delegates and press were. Instead, they were determined to force protesters into the “Freedom Cage” constructed for “freedom of speech.” The Cage was far enough away from where the delegates were to keep them from actually seeing or hearing the demands being made by the people to stop the wars, end oppression, end torture, and give us our constitution back!

But the activists involved in the march were not going to accept the herding into the Cage. The numbers swelled to over 1,000 as the march progressed. The street was filled with protesters from curb to curb. The march was led by anti-war Vietnam Veteran Ron Kovic, in his wheelchair and joining the chants calling for shutting down Guantanamo to Troops home now. The crowd was so alive and determined it was something that couldn’t be ignored.

Meanwhile, the Denver police, seen earlier with their new troops transport trucks which allow them to ride on the outside dressed in full battle gear carrying machine guns, and police and bicycles carrying cuffs, batons, mace, and sidearms, all followed and surrounded the march. The police were ignored and the marchers were loud and defiant taking time to chant “5, 4, 3, 2, 1″ and some would drop to the streets in a mock-die in, and the chant would resume “Rise UP! Rise UP! For the people of the World are Watching!”

Heading for the Pepsi Center, the police stopped the front line contingent at a spot to direct them into the cage. One of the R68 organizers told the police we were marching directly to the Pepsi Center under our First Amendment Rights. After a conversation, the police broke the line of blue barricade, and let it go. The crowd felt the palpable victory just won, and became more determined to have their voices heard throughout the City.

The media was in abundance, marching and filming the entire time. As you looked up and down the street you could see wall to wall activists, which included some delegates, noticible by their badges and buttons; anarchists, peace activists, pro-choice activists, former soldiers, mothers, fathers and their kids. It was actually breathtaking, and the press knew it.

Fred Hampton Junior (left) in Denver
(Photo: Elaine Brower / NLN)

Even though it had not been exactly a recreation of the Chicago march, it had a new and better life of it’s own.

Once the march stopped at the gates of the Pepsi Center, where the repressivwe forces were waiting, machine guns in hand, Ron Kovic told everyone to sit down, and show determined defiance of the police state. Hundreds did, right in front of the gates, and it remained that way for about 15 minutes. He gave a rousing speech, and activists were chanting and yelling. Rising, the protesters remained directly in front of the Center, demanding they be heard. The standoff with 1,000 protesters and the police became a very tense situation, and both sides were ready for whatever would happen next.

After about 30 minutes of intense eye contact and angry shouts, delegates needing to get inside started mixing in with the protesters showing their badges to get inside, which they couldn’t. The sun beat down, and the heat from the street was extreme. They held their ground, and won the struggle by having their presence felt and known to those inside the DNC, who were flooding out to take pictures, and those who were trying to get inside.

The marchers walked off, slowly in the direction that was not permitted, and kept marching all the way back to the Capitol.

Abbie Hoffman, who was an extreme activist in 1968, would have been proud! He always said you win if they loose and everyone goes home to fight another day!

View Photos/Videos From The Action…

Original post by Elaine Brower and reposted by Radical Blogs

NEW YORK — In November of 2006, City Council member Melissa Mark Viverito spoke out against police commissioner Ray Kelly’s parade permitting rules. Mark Viverito felt the rules would violate the civil rights of activists. Ironically, on Sunday she faced a large contigent of protesters - permits in hand - at her own front door. Calling Viverito a “serpent” and a “sellout”, members of Movement for Justice in El Barrio visited her luxury townhouse to express their outrage with her support of the 125th Street rezoning plan. To many of the protesters Mark Viverito seemed to personify the gentrification going on in Harlem.

According to her website, “Melissa Mark Viverito made history in November 2005 by becoming the first Puerto Rican woman elected to serve District 8 on the City Council” in 2005. District 8 includes Manhattan Valley, East Harlem, and part of Mott Haven in the Bronx.

Council Member Mark Viverito was born and raised in Puerto Rico. She worked for 1199 SEIU in New York City before being elected to the City Council. Her campaign promised greater transparency in city government. But by 2008, Mark Viverito and her constituency were estranged. On April 30th, Viverito and 41 other City Council members approved a controversial rezoning plan that will bring condominiums and 21 story skyscrapers to Harlem’s historic 125th Street. Only two members of the council, Charles Barron and Tony Avella, voted against the plan. Speaker Christine Quinn called in police to remove protesters from the council chambers when tempers flared in response to the vote. The vote was seen as a victory for real estate developers and was supported by Mayor Bloomberg.

Standing against the gentrification of East Harlem is a grassroots organization called Movimiento por Justicia del Barrio (Movement for Justice in El Barrio). MJB is a self described organization of “immigrants and low-income people of color” who have made their views known and presence felt.

In an effort to avoid being displaced from their neighborhood, members of MJB have filed a groundbreaking lawsuit against property investment giant Dawnay Day Group. The London based firm has a stated goal of increasing the rent sharply in its 47 Harlem properties. MJB alleges that Dawnay Day Group has conducted a campaign of neglect and tenant harrassment in an attempt to force the current residents out so that it may raise the rent. In its suit MJB argues that Dawnay Day has charged current residents “thousands of dollars in false fees” as part of its efforts to drive out low income residents.

In the battle for the soul of East Harlem, Movement for Justice in El Barrio has kept up the pressure on Dawnay Day Group and those politicians, including Mark Viverito, who vote against the interests of their poorer constituents. Complementing its lawsuit and a well run media campaign, MJB has taken to the streets to get their message out.

On Sunday a large contingent of MJB and its supporters rallied at 116th Street and Lexington Avenue - not far from Mark Viverito’s office. The rally was the first stop in what MJB called a “March for Dignity and against Displacement.”

The second stop was the home of City Council member Melissa Mark Viverito.

Carrying signs that said, “Harlem no se vende” (Harlem is not for sale), “We will not be moved” and “El Barrio will not be sold”, the protesters marched down Third Avenue to Viverito’s home. Mothers, fathers and young children held vigil outside the townhouse as activists spoke out against Viverito’s support of gentrification. Protesters spoke through a makeshift bullhorn - a rolled up sign - pointing out that, in addition to voting for the rezoning of 125th Street, Mark Vierito also voted for the Columbia University expansion into West Harlem. The announcement was met with jeers and boos.

The final stop of the protest was the Vertical City realty office on Third Avenue and 99th Street. Here protesters spoke out against the ongoing gentrification of their neighborhood - Vertical City rents Dawnay Day Group’s East Harlem properties. Several speakers vowed to defeat those who would gentrify Harlem as other demonstraters held signs that said, “estamos en la lucha” - we are in a struggle.

(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

View Photos/Videos From The Action…

NLN Video

Original post by Thomas Good and reposted by Radical Blogs

NEW YORK – On Sunday, August 17, 2008, a press conference was held to announce the joint cooperation of State Senators Eric Adams (D-Brooklyn, 20th Dist.) and Bill Perkins (D-Manhattan, 30th Dist.), to introduce in the upcoming January 2009 State Legislative session, a resolution to stop the federalization of the New York State National Guard.

The two Senators joined with Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace and Peace Action New York State in front of the Times Square Military Recruiting Center on W. 43rd Street and Broadway to declare “We will call on Gov. David Paterson to use his authority to challenge calls from the federal government to use the New York National Guard for service in Iraq.”

Outside the Recruiting Station in Times Square Senator Adams said “The Governor has the power to decide if our National Guard troops are to be used on a federal level.” “Our resolution will call on him to do just that.”

Started in Vermont by a local state legislator Representative Fisher of Lincoln, working directly with attorneys from The Liberty Tree Foundation for Democracy, the campaign picked up nationally. The campaign is based upon the legal authority that the “2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force” or (AUMF) issued by Congress, based on UN resolutions, has expired. The conditions set forth in this AUMF stipulated that (1) “Iraq poses an imminent threat to the security of the United States by having weapons of mass destruction; and, (2) “Saddam Hussein poses an imminent threat to the security of the United States and its allies.” These conditions have been met, there is no “national emergency” allowing the use of our state militia any longer, so therefore it should cease and desist.

Not only does the federalization of any state’s National Guard units pose a security risk to that particular state since they cannot respond to a natural disaster or other situation where they are required as by law, but the equipment taken to Iraq, never returns. Each State is required to spend millions of dollars to replace necessary armaments to protect its citizens. Currently, New York State is facing a grave fiscal crisis and budget deficit.

State Senator Bill Perkins looks on as war resister Matthis Chiroux speaks out.
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Participating national organizations include: AfterDowningStreet.org, Cities for Peace, CODEPINK, Courage to Resist, LIBERTY TREE Foundation for the Democratic Revolution, Military Families Speak Out, Peace Action, U.S. Labor Against the War, Women Legislator’s Lobby, Women’s Action for New Directions, and more.

Participating state campaigns: New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, CA, MD, ME, MI, MN, NH, RI, VT, and others. For more information, please see www.nysavetheguard.com and www.bringtheguardhome.org.

View Photos/Videos From The Action…

Original post by Elaine Brower and reposted by Radical Blogs

NEW YORK – On Wednesday, August 6th, commemorating the 63rd year of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima, the World Can’t Wait called together a group of New York activists to demand “No Attack on Iran!” at the Whitehall Street Ferry Terminal in downtown Manhattan. Knowing that this administration, as well as both presidential candidates have declared that “no options are off the table, including a nuclear strike” on Iran, about 60 people gathered outside the terminal at 5:00 PM to get ready to “freeze” inside at 5:30 PM.

Like the two others before it, this “freeze” action message focused on informing commuters about the current aggression which could lead to a strike on Iran. The unifying message “No Attack on Iran!” was displayed on t-shirts, banners, posters and messages affixed to clothing.

This 3rd action was set to the backdrop of a more conservative crowd, or at least that is what we thought. Staten Island has been portrayed as the most conservative borough in the City, and the audience we targeted could prove to be a tough bunch.

Heading up the escalators, activists picked a spot to stand in, and when the signal was given, the sound of a “lunchroom” whistle, compliments of a member of World Can’t Wait, everyone froze in position for 5 minutes. Police remained totally unfazed by the action, although they were warned ahead of time and expected us.

(Photo: Donyal Svilar / NLN)

Commuters, on the other hand, were surprised, and honestly did not know what to make of these people who were not rushing to catch the next ferryboat home. Some shouted supporting our message, some took fliers that were held in frozen hands, others stopped to take pictures, but none were confrontational.

Some people in the group participating in the action were members of Peace Action of Staten Island and Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS) of Staten Island, about 8 residents of the borough. We were very surprised by the positive reactions we received, and stunned that the police did not even wander over to watch!

At 5:35 PM, once again upon our signal, all started chanting “NO ATTACK ON IRAN!” to the commuters who were then boarding the ferry. The terminal resonated with the chanting, and it continued until the boat loaded, and we were left standing relatively alone. Everyone cheered and applauded, felt uplifted by the small event, and hope to do it again soon!

View Photos/Videos From The Action…

Original post by Elaine Brower and reposted by Radical Blogs

RAMALLAH, West Bank — 23 demonstrators were arrested yesterday as they protested in front of the house of Colonel Aviv Reshef, commander of the Israeli army regiment stationed in the Ni’ilin region. Reshef resides in Zichron Yaakov, in Israel’s Haifa district.

The demonstrators were arrested while protesting the shooting of two minors in Ni’ilin last week. The two – Ahmed Mousa, 10-years-old, and Youssef Amireh, 17-years-old, were shot and killed by the Israeli border police. The shooting of Mousa is being investigated by the Israeli Police Internal Affairs Bureau and the Israeli Defense Force.

The demonstrators, who were standing on the sidewalk at the time of their arrest, were beaten and detained. Police continued beating some of the demonstrators after they were detained. Witnesses report that the beatings continued inside the police vehicles.

The 23 will remain in custody for the night and will appear before a judge today.

Ten year old Ahmed Mousa was killed by a border policeman in Ni’ilin on Tuesday, July 29th. He was shot in the forehead from a short distance, while on his family’s land — posing no threat to security forces.

On Wednesday, July 30th, only hours after Mousa was buried, Youssef Amireh was shot in the head by a border policeman sitting inside an armored jeep. He was shot as he stood in a yard in his own village. Amireh was not involved in the ongoing clashes between Israeli security forces and local residents. Two rubber coated bullets, shot from a distance of ten meters, struck Amireh in the head, leaving him clinically dead. After five days in a vegetative state, Amireh died from his wounds.

Amireh was buried on 4 August. The funeral procession can be seen on YouTube.

Amireh is the twelfth Palestinian and seventh minor to be killed protesting the wall; thousands of others have been wounded, many seriously. From its inception, the popular struggle has met with severe military violence, despite its civilian and unarmed nature.

Anarchists Against the Wall said that, “in a place where an army allows itself to kill unarmed demonstrators day after day, we are not surprised that demonstrators protesting this acts are beaten up and arrested. Reshef is directly and morally responsible for the murders in Ni’ilin, and we will continue to demand his accountability, as well as continue to stand together with the people of Ni’ilin”.

Oren Ziv and Bill Templer contributed to this article

View Photos/Videos From The Protest…

Original post by Next Left Notes and reposted by Radical Blogs

RAMALLAH, West Bank — 23 demonstrators were arrested yesterday as they protested in front of the house of Colonel Aviv Reshef, commander of the Israeli army regiment stationed in the Ni’ilin region.

The demonstrators were arrested while protesting the shooting of two minors in Ni’ilin last week. The two – Ahmed Mousa, 10-years-old, and Youssef Amireh, 17-years-old, were shot and killed by the Israeli border police. The shooting of Mousa is being investigated by the Israeli Police Interanal Affairs Bureau and the Israeli Defense Force.

The demonstrators, who were standing on the sidewalk at the time of their arrest, were beaten and detained. Police continued beating some of the demonstrators after they were detained. Witnesses report that the beatings continued inside the police vehicles.

The 23 will remain in custody for the night and will appear before a judge today.

Ten year old Ahmed Mousa was killed by a border policeman in Ni’ilin on Tuesday, July 29th. He was shot in the forehead from a short distance, while on his family’s land — posing no threat to security forces.

On Wednesday, July 30th, only hours after Mousa was buried, Youssef Amireh was shot in the head by a border policeman sitting inside an armored jeep. He was shot as he stood in a yard in his own village. Amireh was not involved in the ongoing clashes between Israeli security forces and local residents. Two rubber coated bullets, shot from a distance of ten meters, struck Amireh in the head, leaving him clinically dead. After five days in a vegetative state, Amireh died from his wounds.

Amireh was buried on 4 August. The funeral procession can be seen on YouTube.

Amireh is the twelfth Palestinian and seventh minor to be killed protesting the wall; thousands of others have been wounded, many seriously. From its inception, the popular struggle has met with severe military violence, despite its civilian and unarmed nature.

Anarchists Against the Wall said that, “in a place where an army allows itself to kill unarmed demonstrators day after day, we are not surprised that demonstrators protesting this acts are beaten up and arrested. Reshef is directly and morally responsible for the murders in Ni’ilin, and we will continue to demand his accountability, as well as continue to stand together with the people of Ni’ilin”.

Oren Ziv and Bill Templer contributed to this article

View Photos/Videos From The Protest…

Original post by Next Left Notes and reposted by Radical Blogs

NEW YORK — Although pouring rain diminished the expected turnout yesterday, a number of activists heeded the call to protest a potential U.S. attack on Iran.

Filing into Times Square the protesters carried anti-war signs, banners - and umbrellas. After a rally the crowd made its way down Seventh Avenue as pedestrians looked on. A few jeered, many cheered and some joined the procession. Near the midpoint of the march - the sun came out.

Among those who took part in the march were members of the Granny Peace Brigade, Iraq Veterans Against The War, Veterans For Peace, Military Families Speak Out, Movement For A Democratic Society, the Green Party, CodePINK, World Can’t Wait and the Peoples Organization for Progress.

View Photos/Videos From The March…

Original post by Thomas Good and reposted by Radical Blogs