Special Post- American Labor Day, Lessig's attack, Labour Debate

Happy American Distraction Labor Day, Genossinnen und Genossen!  (The real Labor Day is celebrated on May 1st, to commemorate strikers' resistance against police violence at a demonstration in Chicago, some 140 years ago.  It was Grover Cleveland's administration that instituted today as our "labor day" to stop both celebration of a workers' revolt and to stop the growth of solidarity with the rest of the world through a shared holiday).

I just wanted to shoot you all a few updates- for one, Genosse Jeremy "Jez" Corbyn, MP is continuing to dominate in the polls and the debates for leadership of the British Labour Party.  At this point I'll go so far as to say that hope is on the way!  Watched the last debate from Sky News last night, and Jez was terrific- he laid out calm, witty philosophical arguments for withdrawal from participation in American wars and for renationalization of key infrastructure.  He remained cool and mild mannered throughout the evening until the end when Yvette Cooper decided to tear up over the "false hope" provided by his plan of infrastructure and housing investments and his rapacious cruelty to the people to try to increase the quantity of affordable housing which baffles all economists- except, you see, for the forty-one who have endorsed Corbyn's plans, including several Nobel Laureate economists, and he came out swinging at that time, forcefully but respectfully citing examples from Germany to Japan where his moderate socialist ideals have succeeded in recent years under similar conditions, and the room went wild.  Fully 85% of viewers thought he won the debate!

There is some bad news- Lawrence Lessig, quixotic pirate activist and professor, disappointed that Elizabeth Warren has not run for president, has declared his own candidacy to act as a spoiler for Bernie, even promising to resign his term of office early, with no coherent plan of how to implement any agenda, let alone a campaign fiannce reform plan good enough to justify opposing Genosse Bernie.  Lessig has betrayed us all, and many of the causes he's claimed to hold dear over the years by this attack on the single best chance for a political revolution our country has seen in forty-three years.  I have little hesitation in calling his candidacy a tragic mistake at best, and call on his supporters to unite under the banner of the man who has broken through our systems barriers again and again to speak the message of the people's interests, Senator Bernie Sanders. 

Both history and the present- with Genosse Corbyn's campaign- show us the unvarnished truth: With a strong, united, popular front of all leftists our tasks become much easier- it will take a collaboration between everyone who rejects the status quo of manipulation and domination by the capitalist elite in favor of the people's democracy.  Again and again, the failure to unite has proven deadly to movements for social justice: the refusal of the SPD to work with the KPD in the 30s and with die Linke now paved the way for fascist domination and mass murder in the 1930s and 40s, and for Germany's vindictive assault on the Greek people today.

We must all awaken as comrades and struggle together in a united effort to have any hope of beating the corporations.  Lessig's declaration makes our job that much harder, but we will not be turned from our mission, nor our human rights.


Finally, here's today's message from Genosse Bernie Sanders!

" The middle class is at a tipping point, and it won't last another generation if we don't boldly change course now.

The surest path to the middle class for American workers is with unions. The security and strength of a union job means that workers can have good pay, health care, and a voice at work.

Today our country celebrates Labor Day in honor of the working people who fought for our rights to regular hours, fair pay, and a decent living. For decades, the labor movement propped up the middle class in America by ensuring a level playing field for workers.

There are many reasons for the growing inequality in our economy, but perhaps the most significant reason for the disappearing middle class is that the rights of workers to join together and collectively bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions have been severely undermined.

That is why this fall I will introduce a bill in Congress whose sole purpose is to restore and encourage workers' rights to bargain for better wages, benefits, and working conditions. It's called the Workplace Democracy Act, and if it is made law, it will help rebuild the middle class.

Click here to celebrate Labor Day by signing the petition to support the Workplace Democracy Act.

Workers need unions because there are people working for minimum wage, barely able to afford to put food on the table — if even that. There are people whose jobs are dangerous, or even life-threatening, who can't speak up for workplace safety for fear of being fired. And there are countless people working without sick days or even health insurance.

Unions change that equation. When workers have unions, they are no longer afraid to speak up. They have a clear path to getting health care, sick days, basic safety precautions, and better pay. They don't have to live in fear of their employers, and they can work to provide for their families.

That is unfortunately far from the reality that exists today. Under the current law, it is incredibly easy for corporations to prevent workers from joining unions. One in five workers who try to form a union today will be fired for doing so. And half of all employers threaten to close or relocate their businesses if workers elect to form a union.

But there's effectively no deterrence for when companies do break the law. The penalties are far too weak, and there is no incentive to stop corporations from dragging their feet when workers want to negotiate contracts.

The Workplace Democracy Act changes that equation. Our bill would:

1. Ensure companies can’t prevent workers from getting a first contract.
2. Make it easier for workers to form unions through a majority sign up process.
3. Strengthen the enforcement when corporations break the law.

This is a commonsense idea that will help our economy and rebuild the middle class. Can you say you support it?

For Labor Day, join me in standing with working people. Click here to say you support the Workplace Democracy Act.

Thank you for your support.

In solidarity,

Bernie Sanders"

Senator Sanders has expanded his New Hampshire lead over the corporate hacks to 11 points, by the last reputable polls anyway. We need more though, we need to hit the corporate candidates hard and repeatedly to have any hope of success- please come to the Adams School cafeteria at 1311 Tower Grove Ave, St. Louis, MO 63110, Thursday September 10th at 6:00pm to learn what you can do to help our movement win Iowa!

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen.

Elise

Black Lives Matter- What Steps Can We Take?: Sunday's Anniversaries of Oppression

Every 28 hours, an African American is killed by police.

Sunday was worth marking for several reasons. For one, it made seventy years since a civilian population was last subjected to a nuclear attack- in 1945, some fifty thousand defenseless people were cruelly murdered in Nagasaki, and their deaths were weighing heavily on my mind.

For another, it was a year since the murder of Mike Brown and the emergence of the St. Louis resistance to police violence against People of Color.

As a white girl who has never braved the police even with the protections my identity affords me, guilt is obviously the first thing on my mind. I see an injustice- a massive pattern of injustices, and I've not risked anything trying to oppose it, even futilely. Maybe someday I'll be brave enough.

It's more productive to talk about those who are brave- the scores of comrades marching and sitting with Dr. Cornell West, after hearing his visionary speech Sunday night. He wove a masterful rendition of the need to address race and class oppression in the same movement, and it was amazing to hear him speak. The warmup speakers were great as well- focused a lot on whether or not the church could still be an ally of any progressive movement, particularly in bridging generation gaps within the Black community. I'm always troubled by overtures to ally with forces I regard as destructive, including Religion, but in this case I have to have a certain respect for the enemy of my enemy: the Black church wouldn't be the target of as much violence and repression as it is if it weren't something of a threat to parts of our racist system.

I went to the speech to listen and read- especially anything that might look like a legislative program that could be partially enacted at the state or local level. Most of us have heard a lot about two improvements- body camera surveillance of arrests and less weaponry for police departments which would certainly be an outstanding start towards ameliorating police violence against minority communities, but seem far short of the kind of comprehensive plan needed to begin checking centuries of racist practice and assumptions. The Ferguson PD, just to name one example, has returned to its old tricks of disproportionately targeting Black families with arbitrary fines and arrests, inflicting unemployment and violence on many. Body cameras won't fix all of that.

A pamphlet by a Civil Rights group called “Change is On Us” or “ONUS” - http://changeisonus.org/about/blog/ - was being distributed, with a 13 point program. Also, last Thursday, Bernie released his racial justice platform, and I wanted to plug both of these in some detail.

ONUS plan

#1-5- standardizes incident reporting across all American jurisdictions- every officer's reports will be in the same place which will also record patterns of which demographics the officer in question prefers to target, allowing instant transparency for every police officer in the country. This would document the patterns and make weeding out the most rotten apples a bit easier- we could see particular trouble spots and the most visible manifestations of the racist culture of policing.

#6- deputizes more attorneys, and gives them the power to initiate Civil Rights suits against law enforcement abuses.

#7- forever bars an officer fired for bias from working anywhere else in law enforcement, ending the revolving door we see in Balkanized municipalities like St. Louis where a high profile offender leaves his job and then gets another in a different municipality up the street.

#8- imposes burden to preserve life and prevent injury on arresting officers.

#9 gives the victim's family choice of investigators from a state-licensed team.

#10- empowers this investigator to present evidence directly to a grand jury- this bypasses the local County Prosecutors who are naturally close to the cops they're here asked to monitor or even prosecute.

#11- gives victims' families choice of prosecutor from a state-licensed list.

#12- provides for speedy removal of law enforcement agents deemed unfit.

#13- requires the Justice Department to create an office of Civilian Oversight and Accountability.

I must say I like the sound of it, and nearly all the proposals can be championed at the state or local level

Sanders' plan is significant as well- I love that from the getgo it starts on deescalation through community policing and demilitarization of police departments. The demilitarization can begin whenever the president wishes it, as he has generally has final discretionary authority over what weapons are sold out of the service. Community policing is a manyfold goal: draw officers from the community they will be policing and get them to maintain their involvement in the areas under their jurisdiction in gyms and community events and the like. Sanders also calls for a new federal standard in police training. His other plans include requiring public reporting of all police shootings and deaths in police custody, adjust training to incentivize non-lethal approaches, federal funding for body cameras, and pegging police department subsidies to reductions in disparities. Many of the positive steps here will require an act of Congress, but the Justice Department in particular has a great deal of regulatory authority at its disposal in these matters, and I trust Bernie to improve the situation with or without Congress.

What's also critical is the mass disenfranchisement of Voters of Color, and Sanders calls out the United States for allowing a patchwork system that often subjects African-Americans to 7 hour lines at polling stations in majority-minority communities, purges millions of voters from the rolls because of past or suspected felonies, universal voter registration and access to early voting.

Sanders' statement here really needs to be quoted in its entirety “If current trends continue, one in four black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during their lifetime. Blacks are imprisoned at six times the rate of whites and a report by the Department of Justice found that blacks were three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop, compared to white motorists. African-Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police. This is an unspeakable tragedy.

Addressing Legal Violence

• We need to ban prisons for profit, which result in an over-incentive to arrest, jail and detain, in order to keep prison beds full.
• We need to turn back from the failed “War on Drugs” and eliminate mandatory minimums which result in sentencing disparities between black and white people.
• We need to invest in drug courts and medical and mental health interventions for people with substance abuse problems, so that they do not end up in prison, they end up in treatment.
• We need to boost investments for programs that help people who have gone to jail rebuild their lives with education and job training.”
  

Sanders goes on to hit his stride in talking about the directly economic side of racism, and points out that his antipoverty platform is particularly relevant to the struggle for equal rights.

“Addressing Economic Violence

• We need to give our children, regardless of their race or their income, a fair shot at attending college. That’s why all public universities should be made tuition free.
• We must invest $5.5 billion in a federally-funded youth employment program to employ young people of color who face disproportionately high unemployment rates.
• Knowing that black women earn 64 cents on the dollar compared to white men, we must pass federal legislation to establish pay equity for women.
• We must prevent employers from discriminating against applicants based on criminal history.
• We need to ensure access to quality affordable childcare for working families. “
  

I don't usually quote so heavily, but I was inspired to do so by my favorite news source (AlJazeera America) actually denying that it exists, I thought some direct quotes would be important.



I really hope the Sanders campaign can be a useful vehicle for these proposals- unfortunately the debates for the Democratic nomination don't start until October, and with everyone from MSNBC to Markos Moulitsas to Nate Silver trying their hardest to destroy Bernie, we've got a lot of work to do between now and then. I promise to keep up a steady stream of Sanders coverage here-



But we should never lose sight of the people who are being killed every day or those who are sacrificing their freedom to protest the killings. All across my native south and in much of the rest of the country, Black and Brown lives are systematically devalued. The proposals I've reposted here are something of a starting point as far as specific strategies are concerned.



It's still a bleak reality, and one that I as a white person, don't have to live with every day. That alone should be frightening



Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen.

General update

Hello, all. I wish I had better news this week, but it's all grim.

Britain is pursuing additional massive cuts, the brunt of which are falling on the revenue share allotted to Scotland as punishment for Scotland electing so many progressives. This continues the government's pattern of targeting Scots for revenge- plans for stripping Scottish MPs of voting power (!) in parliament were in this year's Queen's Speech- traditionally written for her by the current government to announce their current plans- and cut after cut has been forced on the entire UK.

Last week, Osborne (Cameron's treasury guy) announced that they're proceeding with privatizing the Royal Mail wholesale, even abolishing the last 30% stake the government was required by law to maintain. Even the BBC has pointed out the striking appearance of insider trading or even outright undervaluing of the Mails that followed the last round of Mail privatizations in 2013, with some of the government's approved buyers making 70% profits within days of the initial sale.

President Obama and Senator Paul have submitted competing schemes to abolish Endangered Species Protection- Obama's plan calls for abolishing all new protections and gradual phaseout of existing ones. Paul's plan calls for setting a five year cap on all protections regardless of species' viability, and requiring the consent of state governors to maintain any protections at all. Obama's plan is obviously more likely to go into effect as a regulatory adjustment, and it is plenty scary enough. Couple this with the administration's renewed love for drilling in the Arctic as well as opening huge new coal reserves to strip mining (containing a total carbon footprint of more then 4 times the reduction which would result from their own energy plan, should it ever even go into effect) showcasing once again the strength of this president's love for the environment.

The Labour leadership contest is continuing to heat up- a new candidate has entered- Jeremy Corbyn, the oldest candidate yet to declare. He's a good representative of what is called “Old Labour”- that is, Labour before Blair made them the second party of privatization and cuts. Seems he got in a bit of trouble for taking too hard a line against Thatcher's evisceration of British manufacturing and imposition of discriminatory poll taxes. He sounds terrific, and I'm reconsidering my support for Creagh. There are four previously declared candidates

Mary Creagh- used to be Labour's spokeswoman on agriculture and the environment (separate from the post of energy and climate change). She seems to be the Ed Miliband in this pack- fairly conservative on a lot of important issues- taxes, union rights, wants Labour to start pursuing the fallacious “aspirational voter” who thinks “I don't want to tax the rich, I'm going to be rich someday because I'm better than everybody else who doesn't make it”, all of which are spectacular strikes against her in my book, but she does have a really strong and active environmental record, and that is the single most important issue in my estimation. She pulled off an impossible victory some years back when her protest campaign managed to convince the Cameron government to abandon its plan to abolish 85% of Britain's forest reserve. I don't know much about Corbyn's environmental record, so unless I find out he's better on it than her, she would probably be my first choice though I do have my reservations.

Edit- as of Tuesday, Creagh has rejected a popular fracking ban. I'm now firmly behind Corbyn.

Yvette Cooper- shadow Home Secretary or something. She seems to be the mainstream of the leadership candidates, and has extensive ties to the last few Labour leadership teams. Pass.

Liz Kendall- the Blairite, shadow health secretary, the privatize everything candidate. Pass.

And Andy Burnham- the union's favourite, and dominant frontrunner- this makes him my third choice behind Creagh and Corbyn.

Penultimately, (back to the states) Wisconsin's budget- already horrendous in its attacks on everything from school funding to the Secretary of State's office, is taking a new tack to ensue ideological reliability in the second state to ban public employees from acknowledging climate change: abolishing tenure and putting university policy and curricula entirely in the hands of governor-appointed boards of trustees. Really, watching Scott Walker go is like Frank Underwood without the stealth. I worry that Underwood references are about to become a new Godwin's Law of political discourse but the extent of Walker's power grab is truly astonishing- from the armed paramilitary goons by mining sites harassing local journalists and staging false-flag “eco-terrorist” attacks to the purge of all opposition from both party and government, to requiring unions to function without charging dues, all while being bankrolled into invincibility by the Koch family, Walker has encountered no meaningful opposition since his first union busting in 2011. No bet on whether he or Bush (architect of the most successful purge of Black voters since 1877) will be the GOP nominee.

Finally, everyone should be calling the capitol switchboard complaining about the administration's Trans Pacific Partnership, which is set to clear a procedural hurdle on Friday with the passage of “trade Promotion Authority” which will suspend all debate on the as yet incomplete measure until after we fully adopt it. Because that makes sense to business. Call at (202) 224-3121 , ask for your House member because the senate already passed this disaster.

This treaty, Obama's current top foreign policy priority, will give corporations in any of the 13 signatory countries standing to sue in a privately run court any member government for loss of profit due to regulation, while eliminating all buy-local ordinances and preferences. The cost in jobs alone will be catastrophic, and this will spell the end, once and for all, of things like GMO labelling, renewable energy standards, and if fully enacted, the minimum wage. The reasoning for supporting it is that apparently it will help us sell our GMO beef easier in Australia, and will make China upset, also we're not supposed to know any of this because the bill is entirely secret- Congresswoman Louise Slaughter D-NY risked serious charges by disclosing this much. Obama has joined forces with the Republicans to deal another body blow to the workers of the world, and render all future regulations subject to a corporate tribunal. Believe in that change.

Solidariät, Genossinnen und Genossen

Fighting Bobfest 2014

Hello, all.

Last Saturday was the 13th annual Fighting Bob Fest, in honor of "Fighting Bob" La Follette, Wisconsin's beloved governor, senator, and perennial presidential candidate in the early 20th century, who did really important work for consumer protection, women's suffrage, public education, and the anti-war movement.  A bunch of left and semi-left politicians, journalists and union leaders get together and speak to the faithful.

I must say a lot of this felt more forced than usual- almost like we're all lying to each other.  For one, Mary Burke (Democratic gubernatorial candidate) is rather conservative, but we heard everyone, including some really good leaders, say how sure they are that she'll put a stop to Walker's agenda.  Even if she manages to win, I'm skeptical- she's refrained from taking positions on a lot of key issues- protecting women's right to choose, infrastructure development, and health care among them, and I just feel slimy voting for someone whose main qualification is success in business.  Government is not a business, it's a collective arrangement for everyone's benefit.

There were plenty of bright spots, though we lacked some of the best speakers who usually grace the stage.  Susan Happ came out swinging on equal pay and voter rights, (Wisconsin's supreme court just disenfranchised 200,000 voters, for those who don't follow it), and I think we were all wishing she was running for governor.  The only thing wrong with her speech is that she didn't ride her Harley onto the stage, but plenty of time to fix that once she wins.

Baldwin spoke as well, and she didn't mess up like she did last year- it's nice not to have to riot against your own senators over their possible support of an unjust war.

Doug La Follette spoke there as well, and he has really improved as a speaker since the last time I saw him- a pity they didn't do question and answer, as that's where he does his best, but he was on- voting rights protection, unequal wage distribution, he really hit his stride.  I'm looking forward to his visit to Beloit in October.

The high point, as always, was Sen. Bernie Sanders, Soc-Vt.  Aside from his grave slander that Wisconsin "should be proud of producing the second-best cheddar cheese in the nation" he laid out a perfect indictment of plutocracy at every turn, spoke about climate change as a national security threat, and still called for public employment and nationalized healthcare.  I went up to him afterward and told him that I'd move to wherever his campaign needs me, if he runs.

The event was entirely white (the speakers were a tad more diverse), due largely to a location change to a remote, rural town called Baraboo, rather than the Madison venue of previous years.  Genossin Sophie also pointed out that calls to resistance against unjust regimes may be insensitive, or offensive to minority citizens who are engaged in a constant struggle for basic dignity and in many cases survival; the event would have done well to have a breakout session focused on race-conscious organizing, on everything from transportation to safety.  Finally, there were two speakers who seemed to be inserted as tokens- Angela Trudell Vasquez- her speech was billed as a poem but it was a speech- who talked passionately about immigration and the burden placed on children of deported parents, who often end up caring for their siblings.  She made good points but it seems like the fest made little effort to attract anyone who isn't white, and this was somewhat questionable.  More problematic was Philomena Kebec, a representative of the Ho-Chunk tribe as well as the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.  She spoke at great length about the spiritual beliefs of her tribe, and why they would be violated by allowing unsafe mining practices, which is an argument we definitely need to have, as Burke has shown next-to-no leadership on this issue, but this seemed to undermine it as much as anything.  I'm not sure if the organizers deliberately chose someone to speak for the Ho-Chunk with a bad stutter, and a spiel all about spiritual matters which most people will reject out of hand.  In short, I felt that, while this woman does great work for her cause, the way she was presented here served to make her look incompetent and exoticized in her beliefs.  I don't think this is any fault of hers, just that she was being used as both a token and in some ways a ready-made rhetorical strawman, and that the festival should do a much better job in future of not exoticizing women of color.  To their credit, they did back her up with other anti-mine campaigns, but it seems they chose an inexperienced spokeswoman on purpose to make her and her religion look silly.  It's also worth nothing that neither of the Wisconsin Dems' prominent African-American leaders- Firefighter Union President Mahlon Mitchell and Milwaukee congresswoman Gwen Moore- were present.  Whether this was a schedule conflict on their parts, a deliberate decision not to attend the event after changes made it more hostile to minority constituents, or a snub by the organizers, I don't know but it looked bad.

Oh and Mark Pocan did a nice little trick of linking the American Revolution to opposition to the India Company.  That was fun.  I also got to see a lecture by Professor Nancy Unger, La Follette biographer, who is finishing a work on Belle La Follette and her activist work for feminism, Civil Rights, Peace and Socialism.  Can't wait to read it.

It felt like a sadder, weaker Bobfest than before, and that was disheartening, but we do have some great people in office and on the ballot this year, and it's always nice to hear them speak.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

Candidates to Watch this Fall

Hello, all.

It's been a productive summer for me on this blog (and pretty much nowhere else).  This is the tenth consecutive Wednesday I've posted, and readership has slightly picked up to about 100 a month on this, the parent site, with maybe a dozen more at the duplicate on wordpress.

Now I'm leaving St. Louis to return to Beloit, Wisconsin to start my senior year at Beloit College.  I intend to keep as steady a stream of posts as I can.  I'm also hoping to entice some like minded people to write here with me, broadening the range of topics I can cover and hopefully making regular readers of their respective families and acquaintances.  While I'm studying, I hope to perform what services I can for 

two outstanding candidates- Secretary of State Doug La Follette is up for reelection, and Susan Happ is the Democratic nominee for Attorney General.

La Follette has been SOS for over thirty years, during which time Republican state governments have significantly reduced the scope of the office's powers.  There are still some significant procedural powers though, mainly an ability to delay enactment of bills by several days-weeks, depending on the time in the session, La Follette's use of which was part of the (alas unsuccessful) effort to halt Walker's union-busting in 2011.  More importantly, La Follette has a very impressive record in public service- running Proxmire-type campaigns without traditional fundraising to show he means business on campaign finance ethics, and producing some transformative bills during his time in the state senate, including the first Wisconsin subsidies for both birth control and wind energy.

His campaign site can be found here http://www.douglafollette.com/

I know less about Happ, but she was endorsed by Emily's List, earned La Follette's support, and was not the choice of the conservative wing of the party.  She's a big supporter of treating substance abuse issues as a social problem, not a criminal one, which means fewer people in jail, more people in treatment, less money for the Prison-Industrial-Complex, more recoveries, and fewer lives ruined all around.  She was the only AG candidate to come demonstrate in support of the first Wisconsin same-sex marriages.  Needless to say, she opposes Wisconsin's new restrictions on voting, which is probably the most important issue which will confront the AG's office.  All of that I like.

Her campaign site can be found here
http://www.susanhappforwisconsin.com/

There are three other candidates I'm actively following from a more remote distance.  Zephyr Teachout is challenging Andrew Cuomo in the primary for NY governor, largely out of disgust with his Union-Busting education policy, lax environmental regulation and gross corruption.  Her campaign site can be found here.  http://www.teachoutwu.com/

The other two are already certain to be the Democratic candidate in their respective races this fall.

Shenna Bellows is running for Senator in Maine against media darling Susan Collins, hitting her hard on women's right to choose while also calling for expanded public healthcare, restrictions on student debt, and opposition to the Patriot Act and attendant destruction of the Right to Privacy.  She was state leader of the ACLU for the better part of the last decade, and was a leading figure in the protests against the Hobby Lobby decision.  Crucially, she has also come out in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  Her campaign site can be found here http://bellowsforsenate.com/

Finally, Jason Carter (President Carter's grandson) is running for governor of Georgia, and may actually win!  This would be exciting in itself, but what's truly encouraging is that one of his central messages is opposition to new voting restrictions, and it's selling well even in the South.  Should Carter pull this off, it could provide an effective template for regaining the franchise for the communities targeted by Republican legislatures across the country, and with it everything from gun control to union rights.  His campaign site can be found here- he's talking a bit less about voter access now, which could be discouraging but everything else is still decent for a southern candidate, and we've already seen it's important to him.  I might end up being disappointed on this one, but I'm still hopeful.
https://carterforgovernor.com/

Well, I think that's everything for now.  I'm working on a piece about medicine R/D and the role government must play in it, but it's not ready yet.  Hopefully I'll have that in order for next Wednesday, the 27th.  Nothing like calling for compassionate government (at least domestically) on LBJ's birthday.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen.

My Time in Ferguson

I just got back from today’s march in Ferguson, protesting the recent murder of Black student Michael Brown by the Ferguson PD.  

     This tragedy seems to be a pretty straightforward case of the police brutality that, according to the Malcolm X Grassroots Project, ends in the death of a Black man every 28 hours.  We had a lot of different signs and chants present- it’s been a long time since I was at a rally this size, and the only previous ones were to watch someone speak, not to move and chant.  My voice was definitely out of practice- prominently used were “hands up-don’t shoot!” and the usuals like “No justice-no peace”.  It was an intense atmosphere, and I’m glad this many people are still able to be outraged when a young Person of Color is killed in cold blood. 

     The attendant release of information designed to turn media even more firmly against Brown was, regrettably, a familiar tactic.  What we know to rebut it is that the murderer did not yet know of the crime in which Brown was a suspect, so the shooting had nothing to do with it.  An unarmed person was killed at 35 feet from his assailant, where he really couldn’t pose any threat.  The whole confrontation would probably not have occurred if Brown had been white, and it almost certainly wouldn’t have turned lethal.  This is an example of the systemic racial oppression that characterizes our society, and every leftist in town should have been out there this entire week protesting it, and the glacial pace of the investigation.  I regret only coming out today, but I’m not brave.  The ones who have been out there for six nights being gassed and shot at are heroes, even if some looting is going on.

     There were a lot of other white people at the march, which was encouraging in that it showed anger over injustice can in some cases be enough to establish cross-racial solidarity, but we need to be careful not to overvalue our contribution- we are there to lessen the shame we feel at being part of this oppressive system; our participation is secondary.  We cannot speak for the oppressed as well as they can speak for themselves, and we should only attempt to do so when there is no viable alternative.  If we in our positions of privilege can help our Black comrades in their struggle, all well and good, but we need to make sure we never pat ourselves on the back too much, or allow a shared moment blind us to the reality of wildly different experiences.

     The event itself went well enough.  I got a pleasant surprise when I realized I was standing twenty feet behind Jesse Jackson, who got the crowd going pretty well before we began marching- worked up a lot of positive energy, talking/chanting about getting back up after being knocked down and the like.  He really shows that he cares effectively, and is still an effective leader for any righteous protest.  I was a little disappointed with him later- when we reached the destination, the parking lot of the Church of Greater St. Mark, he began asking for donations to the church.  A woman walked up and told him that not all the marchers were believers, and he left immediately after that- he could well have argued his point, or asked the comrade to speak with him after the speech he was going to give.  Still, it was cool to see him.

     One sign that really caught my eye was one of those cardboard cutouts of the president, with a placard on it reading "Where are you?"  While his policies and general tone have often been centrist and evasive, we know Obama is capable of empathizing with the families of the victims- he's shown us this especially after the Martin murder in 2012, and a visit could be a prelude to something truly transformative- like the administration reducing the military-grade heavy weaponry provided to police departments, preferably combined with some real changes in policing values.  I can't imagine anything decent ever passing this House, but some Democrats and Rand Paul are talking about it a lot in the Senate.  (I'm always a little disconcerted when Paul says anything I agree with, but there it is), and having a no-longer passive executive on this issue could bring about some rapid benefit.  I can't say I'm hopeful, but calling the president out and asking him to come to Ferguson is a good tactic.

     This is a good moment to disseminate information on everything from police militarization to racial profiling to economic policies which maintain unequal divisions of wealth between Black and white.  All I’ll say at this point is that this is just a very visible symptom of America’s disease of racism.  Now that Nixon has reinstated a “no-blacks after sundown” policy, we see even clearer the effort of society to shift the focus from the systemic, racist violence to a few broken windows in fast food franchises.  Anything to keep white America from realizing the Black community has a list of grievances that would take 400 years to read and understand.  Now we should all keep the pressure on- go to what demonstrations we can, call elected officials to demilitarize police, donate to bail funds, whatever, but we must also keep this level of vigilance constant, and try to do our part to improve the status quo.  Much of what hope there is for meaningful change on any number of other issues first start with the erosion of racial boundaries and oppression, especially the climate of fear cultivated by law enforcement.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

UPDATE- I just got back from holding a vigil outside the County Prosecutor's office- his name is Bob McCulloch and he's got a history of ignoring cases of police shooting Black folks, has numerous police officers among his immediate family, and has firmly opposed the addition of the supposedly more moderate highway patrol to protest prevention.  He's also got a history of opposing Black candidates for office- by no means is this conclusive, but we can all see a pattern here, and this is not a man I want deciding anything about this case.

my election day letters

Here's what I sent out yesterday morning at midnight, followed by my message today.  I'll post more creative and less dramatic work later, but right now I'm wiped.

In three hours my alarm will go off and I will begin getting ready for my election work in the St. Louis County Executive Democratic Primary.  Can't sleep- my old boss stopped by the office when I came back from my shift, and that got me excited and ready to go.  The next 24 hours are going to pass in a haze of caffeine, accelerated heartrate, maniacal laughter, serious worry, nailbiting, and exhilaration. 

It's worth it.

Charlie Dooley has shown that local government can do a lot to help people, even in conservative areas.  Our county is now sponsoring everything from mammograms to birth control, helping 80,000 women and 50,000 kids get at least some basic treatment, and a particular success story comes from the county's Black community, which has seen a 30% drop in breast cancer mortality.  The county passed a civil rights bill for Gays and transgendered folks last year, our severely limited public transit system is expanding (slightly and only the bus line, no train) and our single stream recycling program is pretty cool.  There's also talk of a city-county merger, and a new county standard to give some quota of contracts to Minority and Women Owned Businesses.  

(Some problems with that- the Supreme Court pretty much ruled that it's unconstitutional to give public contracts to nonwhites, and most of the local minority-and-women owned businesses are also non-union, but it's encouraging that it's being considered)

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that none of this would have happened had someone like Stenger (Dooley's opponent) been in office.  He's anti-choice, pro-austerity, has accused underage sex slaves of "choosing that lifestyle" and pretty much relied on a whisper campaign of unspecified corruption charges, aided by a local media that is tired of a Black man leading our county.  We've already got a slimy conservative democrat leading a major local government- Mayor Slay of St. Louis city leaves me unimpressed, and Stenger is just him with an anti-choice agenda added in.  I worked for Charlie last time, and the county held true in a bad year, and I bet we will again.

Our once insurmountable 60point lead has vanished- the last information I got from my boss had us neck and neck, while her boss said we had a 5 point lead.  I'm double checking my figures, and yes, 0-5<60, so we've lost ground.  Add in a partial bradley effect- white voters being more likely to say they're voting for the Black candidate than to actually vote for him an the fact that this is a summer primary in an off year with no bigger election to compensate for low turnout, and I would be fucking petrified that all these wonderful things are about to be undone for no good reason.  Would be.

I've got cause for optimism though- both those estimates came BEFORE Stenger's remarks against the trafficking victims had been properly publicized, and we've been hitting him hard with that over the airwaves and in a few flyers.  Charlie killed on the radio forum, but I'm not sure how many voters were listening.  Also, we outgunned Stenger 4-3 on money these last two weeks.  Most important is turnout- powerful forces are at work here to try to beat the disadvantage we have- namely, that the summer electorate is primarily old white pensioners.  All of Charlie's appointed staffers have been running signs around all night under the theory that each one may remind SOME absent minded citizen that the election is today.  We'll have some fifty canvassers (many of them admittedly inexperienced) in the field tomorrow, and that's just for starters.  We'll have 30 Union men out there canvassing too, and that's just from two of the 6 or so major locals that have endorsed us.

And Charlie has me- young, very pretty, and fired up to win him term number 4.  I assure you all, I will be singing "Bandiera Rossa" at the top of my lungs as soon as the sun comes up.  That sun will continue shining on Charlie Dooley's St. Louis.

If you wish to feel solidarity with us today, I recommend the following video, glorifying another city that heroically defended its Leftist bent much longer than it was expected to.  Also notice the heroic German commies who wrote the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJD0eI61ifs

Well then.  Wow.  Beaten more than 2-1.  Even the hostile polls only showed a 15 point gap

In hindsight, I should have foreseen the problem once I thought of Admiral Hansen's speech to Riker explaining the Federation-Klingon preparations to meet the Borg at Wolf 359 when I described all the steps we'd taken and factors in our favor.  If any of you don't know the scene in question, it's from Star Trek the Next Generation Best of Both Worlds Part II, and the prelude to the Battle of Wolf 359, which ended in a similar disaster.  Of course, if you watched the video I sent, it's now even more relevant.

I want you each to know that I have no regrets- this summer I held down a political job (albeit one for which I am overqualified) for a public servant I deeply respect without either being involved in a major catastrophe or having to compromise any principles.  I think I contributed, and things may have been different.  I almost feel like I won already once I got my first paycheck for doing something I love for a cause I believe in.  Almost- I could say a lot here, some of it graceful, some of it thoughtful, and some of it clever, witty and thought provoking, but I'm just going to say that Stenger is a prick and leave it at that.  I'll say more after consulting with EVERYone I know in the business to figure out what went wrong.

Something that was interesting is how high turnout was.  We were expecting 10%, much lower than the 30ish that is often achieved in national elections with a lot of money behind them, but we got something more like 16.  Charlie got the number of votes projected to put him over the finish (we thought we needed 35,000, got 38,000 and change) but Stenger blew us away with 70,000.  I'll know more after talking to everyone who already knows more.  Just wanted to pass this along

Charlie still accomplished a lot, much of which will endure if Stenger wants to keep any of his new friends.  We can be proud of that, and I'd going to work my heart out to get him back in office if he wants it, or to elect Jake Zimmerman next time if he doesn't.

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

Saying more- Well, turnout actually didn't go up.  What happened was the Republicans.  they had no hotly contested races, and therefore no reason not to cross over and vote in our primary.  I've got to laugh though- apparently it is NOT actually a good idea to remind the entire county that your opponent is an anti-choice, misogynistic conservative when all the other anti-choice, misogynistic conservatives have nothing else to keep themselves busy.  In a primary where we expected 70,000 voters there were well over 100,000, and the difference came entirely from Republican areas.  There were other factors working against us- not least of which was a hostile media- but nothing we did would really have stopped this.  I have nothing but respect and gratitude for my superiors, Donna Davis and Chris Corbett, who made a superhuman effort to lead a very green field operation, and everyone I encountered of their level and above was professional, talented, and kind.

My best to you all- now off I'm going to try to sleep for a few hours

Attachments area

Preview YouTube video Ernst Busch - Halt´ stand, rotes Madrid

Ongoing conversation about Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Hello all.  When out canvassing, I got to meet Hazel Erby, County Councilwoman for the 1^st district of St. Louis County, and opponent of the recent (successful) bill to extend employment non-discrimination guarantees based on sexual orientation and gender identity to St. Louis County’s Workers.  We briefly discussed her opposition, and here is the letter I’ve sent her, rebutting her two arguments against it.  This may be beating a dead horse, as the measure passed and was signed by Charlie Dooley, but this is the issue that first got me into this business 8 years ago, and I want your opinion as to whether I’ve stayed sharp.

To the Honorable Councilwoman Hazel Erby

Hello.  My name is Graham Krueger.  I met you when I was canvassing for a candidate we both support, and we spoke briefly- we both had much to do, and we resolved to continue our conversation at the election watch party, come the 5^th.  I just wanted to be sure I ordered my thoughts beforehand, as I find that produces my best results.  If you’d rather continue this conversation via email or in person, let me know.  Either way I look forward to seeing you again at the watch party.

I’d like to say that I’m writing as one who has distributed your campaign flyers, and deeply appreciates your efforts to encourage Minority and Women-Owned Businesses and to break the monopolies on county contracts often held by the business firms of old white men.  Your efforts to obtain foreclosure protection for families targeted by predatory banks are exactly what we need from public policy makers.  I also appreciate your support of Mr. Dooley, whose leadership of the county I continue to view as of the highest quality.  Everything I’ve seen from and about you suggests that you are a great asset to St. Louis county’s government, except for the issue we were discussing. 

We were discussing why you oppose what is commonly referred to as the ENDA – employment non-discrimination act, which would extend protection from prejudice-based firing and in some cases eviction to the LGBT community.  The majority of states have no such statute for the lgbt community as a whole, even more lack it for Trans people.  Now, homophobic discrimination to the level of firing and eviction may not be entirely pervasive, but it does happen frequently, from gas stations in Virginia to police departments in South Carolina to restaurants and schools all across the country.  You responded to my question by claiming that there are no protections against firing or eviction based on race, so there shouldn’t be for sexual orientation or gender identity.  I believe this is incorrect- does the federal Civil Rights Act (1964) not include provisions barring most employers from discrimination based on race, sex or religion?  Title II extends this prohibition to public accommodations, title III to government facilities, while Title VII bars most private employers from discriminating against current or potential employees based on race, sex, religion, or country of origin.  I strongly contend that sexual orientation and gender identity need to be included in ordinances of this kind, and yes, they do exist at the federal and state level for other persecuted minorities.  Now, St. Louis County has joined the list of states, counties and cities to have extended it to the LGBT population, and I’m very excited for that.

You also claimed that extending employment protections to the LGBT community would pave the way for extending them to the short.  I’m not sure where you were going with this, but assuming you intended to suggest that “frivolous” claims to protection (to use Speaker Boehner’s words) would proliferate in the wake of ENDA passage, I’m not sure it necessarily follows.  Of course, in the example you cited, there is some noticeable social bias in favor of the tall, but on the topic of physical difference we did pass the Americans with Disabilities act, which does spell out the principle that physical conditions other than those necessary for performing a job should not affect one’s chances for obtaining that job, and specifically said that disabilities cannot be used as a reason to bar applicants.  Whether the example you offered will ever be included, I don’t know, but the principle in similar cases has been the law of the land for 24 years now.

Returning to my point, you say you believe in “fairness” but oppose this law.  My primary question is, in your opinion, is it fair to allow opponents of the LGBT community to deny employment, fire or evict us based solely on personal prejudice with no legal consequences?

It was an honor to meet you, and I look forward to your reply

Your Comrade

Graham Krueger

Rather more conservative than my usual work, but what do you think?  Perhaps I should have offered some description of the need to build workplace solidarity free from homophobia- the more we get used to seeing each other as comrades first and everything else second the better we'll get at not only reducing hate and violence against the LGBTQ community but at building up awareness of our contributions to society and what we deserve in return- and what we owe to others.

I'll mention that to her the next time we meet.

Solidarität

Genosse Graham