Skip to toolbar
  • About WordPress
    • WordPress.org
    • Documentation
    • Support
    • Feedback
  • Log In
  • Register
↓
 

The Progressive Wing

You Are The Revolution

The Progressive Wing
  • Home
    • About Us
      • Contact Us
      • FAQ
    • Members
  • Candidates
  • Organizations
  • Media
Home→Categories Activism→grassroots

Category Archives: grassroots

Post navigation

← Older posts

There’s no Magic Move, only good tools—plus OT–1/25/2021

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 25, 2021 by NYCVGJanuary 25, 2021

Israel will halt all flights in and out of Ben-Gurion Airport for at least a week beginning tonight, in an effort to stop the spread of new strains of the virus, reports a Jewish newsletter that arrived in my mailbox today.

“What? “you may ask,   “I thought Israel had corralled all the vaccine they needed and had innoculated   their Israeli citizens.  (Not the Palestinians in Gaza, of course, but Yes to the Palestinians in the West Bank.”)

And so they have.

But vaccination is Only a Tool.  Not a solution.

Just as Masks are a Tool.  Not a solution.

Just as Social Distancing and  hand washing are Tools, not solutions.

The USA is being led slowly and carefully to the truth of our situation.  All the measures listed above are intended to slow the spread.  None of them are guaranteed to end the threat of the Coronavirus.

The vaccine hoopla has at least as much to do with Profit as it does with lifesaving.

The Virus is mutating more quickly than we can contain it.

HIV-AIDS has been with us since the early 80’s.  No Vaccine has ever been found.

Treatments, otoh, have been very effective in keeping those stricken alive and well.  And paying for meds every day for the rest of their lives.

What a world we live in.

Posted in Activism, grassroots, Open Thread | Tagged pandemic, vaccines | 179 Replies

Martin Luther King, Union Man and OT Jan. 18

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 18, 2021 by polarbear4January 18, 2021

Photo: King speaks at Local 10 in San Francisco, September 1967. ILWU Archives, Author provided

In 1934, San Francisco longshoremen – who were non-union since employers had crushed their union in 1919 – reorganized and led a coast-wide “Big Strike.”

In the throes of the Great Depression, these increasingly militant and radicalized dockworkers walked off the job. After 83 days on strike, they won a huge victory: wage increases, a coast-wide contract and union-controlled hiring halls.

Soon, these “wharf rats,” among the region’s poorest and most exploited workers, became “lords of the docks,” commanding the highest wages and best conditions of any blue-collar worker in the region.

At its inception, Local 10’s membership was 99 percent white. But Harry Bridges, the union’s charismatic leader, joined with fellow union radicals to commit to racial equality in its ranks.

Originally from Australia, Bridges started working on the San Francisco waterfront in the early 1920s. It was during the Big Strike that he emerged as a leader.

Bridges coordinated during the strike with C.L. Dellums, the leading black unionist in the Bay Area, and made sure the handful of black dockworkers would not cross picket lines as replacement workers. Bridges promised they would get a fair deal in the new union. One of the union’s first moves after the strike was integrating work gangs that previously had been segregated.

Local 10 overcame pervasive discrimination
Cleophas Williams, a black man originally from Arkansas, was among those who got into Local 10 in 1944. He belonged to a wave of African-Americans who, due to the massive labor shortage caused by World War II, fled the racism and discriminatory laws of the Jim Crow South for better lives – and better jobs – outside of it. Hundreds of thousands of blacks moved to the Bay Area, and tens of thousands found jobs in the booming shipbuilding industry.

Black workers in shipbuilding experienced pervasive discrimination. Employers shunted them off into less attractive jobs and paid them less. Similarly, the main shipbuilders’ union proved hostile to black workers who, when allowed in, were placed in segregated locals.

A few thousand black men, including Williams, were hired as longshoremen during the war. He later recalled to historian Harvey Schwartz: “When I first came on the waterfront, many black workers felt that Local 10 was a utopia.”

During the war, when white foremen and military officers hurled racist epithets at black longshoremen, this union defended them. Black members received equal pay and were dispatched the same as all others.

A gang of welders at the Marinship yard, Sausalito, California, in around 1943. National Park Service
For Williams, this union was a revelation. Literally the first white people he ever met who opposed white supremacy belonged to Local 10. These longshoremen were not simply anti-racists, they were communists and socialists.

Leftist unions like the ILWU embraced black workers because, reflecting their ideology, they contended workers were stronger when united. They also knew that, countless times, employers had broken strikes and destroyed unions by playing workers of different ethnicities, genders, nationalities and races against each other. For instance, when 350,000 workers went out during the mammoth Steel Strike of 1919, employers brought in tens of thousands of African-Americans to work as replacements.

Some black dockworkers also were socialists. Paul Robeson, the globally famous singer, actor and left-wing activist had several friends, fellow socialists, in Local 10. Robeson was made an honorary ILWU member during WWII.

In 1967, King walked in Robeson’s footsteps when he was inducted into Local 10 as an honorary member, the same year Williams became the first black person elected president of Local 10. By that year, roughly half of its members were African-American.

King addressed these dockworkers, declaring, “I don’t feel like a stranger here in the midst of the ILWU. We have been strengthened and energized by the support you have given to our struggles. … We’ve learned from labor the meaning of power.”

Many years later, Williams discussed King’s speech with me: “He talked about the economics of discrimination. … What he said is what Bridges had been saying all along,” about workers benefiting by attacking racism and forming interracial unions.

Eight months later, in Memphis to organize a union, King was assassinated.

The day after his death, longshoremen shut down the ports of San Francisco and Oakland, as they still do when one of their own dies on the job. Nine ILWU members attended King’s funeral in Atlanta, including Bridges and Williams, honoring the man who called unions “the first anti-poverty program.”

More at the link. https://theconversation.com/martin-luther-king-jr-union-man-110004

Martin Luther King had grit and depth, and knew whose side he was on. He would be like Jesus with the Pharisees if he could see how much farther his country has fallen.

I want to think that we will not give up and we will honor his life every day in our struggle to transform the world.

Posted in Activism, grassroots, News, Open Thread | Tagged MLK | 152 Replies

1/15 TGIF News Roundup & OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 15, 2021 by BennyJanuary 15, 2021

We’ll start with Stephen Colbert’s interview with Bernie Sanders last night on The Late Show. There are 2-3 segments, in which Bernie got about 20 minutes altogether. Among the topics: the experience of the riot in the Capitol building, Biden’s America Rescue being introduced, and how to reach Trumpers.

Here’s the first one. Bernie’s introduced at the 2:30 mark.

Second segment, in which at the 7:00 mark, they discuss America Resue:

And the last one:

More tweets, news, videos in the comments. TGIF – we’ll have a happy hour later if there is interest.

Posted in Bernie Sanders, grassroots, News, Open Thread, Video | Tagged Stephen Colbert, The Late Show | 231 Replies

1/13 Can’t You Hear Steam Starting to Play…and Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 13, 2021 by BennyJanuary 13, 2021

The House of Representatives has done its job and impeached Donald Trump on a bipartisan basis.

The Senate must now carry out its constitutional duty and convict Trump to ensure that neither he, nor any other president, can subvert our democracy again.

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) January 13, 2021

10 not as terrible idiots who realize they have to work with “these” people crossed over the Potomac to impeach the worst POTUS in this century.

They recognize they have to get re-elected. And also they have to work with others, especially these representatives, the most diverse group of Dems.

Especially these guys:

Benny’s B & D is open. Have one on the house and contribute your tweet, news, video. Jukebox is welcome too, this is an open thread.

Posted in Bernie Sanders, grassroots, News, Open Thread, Video | 72 Replies

1/11 News Roundup & Open Thread

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 11, 2021 by LieparDestinJanuary 11, 2021

HELLO SOMEBODY: We're excited to announce our endorsement of @NinaTurner to represent #OH11 in Congress.

We know she'll be part of a mission-driven team in Congress to deliver relief, Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, and racial justice.

Join us: https://t.co/hDvyCgXYmJ pic.twitter.com/cFme5WfJBU

— Justice Democrats (@justicedems) January 11, 2021

More news, videos, tweets, etc. in the comments.

Posted in grassroots, News, Open Thread, Uncategorized | 163 Replies

1/10 Sunday News Roundup & OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on January 10, 2021 by BennyJanuary 10, 2021

Good day birdies!

I’ll start today’s thread with an op-ed in WaPo by Congresswoman Cori Bush.

This is the America that Black people know

My skin burned for 22 hours after I was pepper-sprayed. The memory of that burn stung with a new kind of pain on Wednesday as I, now a newly sworn-in member of Congress, watched in horror and disbelief as an insurrectionist mob overran the Capitol.

Back in July, we had been protesting at the police station in Florissant, Mo., where a police officer had recently run over a Black man with his car. The police had been beating protesters for weeks. They tear-gassed us to the point of suffocation for painting “Black Lives Matter” on a road, arrested us for putting our fists in the air and beat those who they’d taken into custody.

That night was no different from any other night. The officers rushed out of the station in riot gear, slapping their batons against their shields, holding shotguns loaded with rubber bullets and chanting commands. They chased us into the middle of the street, forcing us to backpedal blindly in the dark. The police were pushing with such force that people began falling to the ground all around me, finding themselves swarmed by officers who began hitting them with batons. I reached in to try to pull a woman away to safety.

They sprayed us with mace. It wasn’t your average mace, either. I used every trick in the book to try to make the pain stop — milk, water, dish detergent. But my skin did not stop burning for 22 hours.

On Wednesday, as I sat in the House gallery listening to my colleagues debate the certification of the electoral college votes, something prompted me to get up and leave. I left the chamber and quickly went to check on what was happening outside. The doors were locked, but as I stood on the second floor of the Capitol and looked out through windows in the doors, I could see Trump flags and Confederate flags gradually moving closer. I froze in disbelief. The next minute, my staffer was rushing me back to my office.

Once I was in my office and we secured the door, I felt a different kind of burn — this time inside. Watching on TV, we saw white supremacists stroll past Capitol Police, untouched and unscathed. Just minutes after we had locked our door, the mob entered the House Rotunda. The rioters broke windows, sat in the House speaker’s office and invaded the Senate floor.

There was no way to avoid the comparison or to duck the obvious answer: Would this have happened if the rioters were there to fight for Black lives rather than white supremacy? We’ve been tear-gassed for much less, beaten for much less and shot at for much less. We’ve been assaulted by law enforcement for much less.

But it’s clear to me that top law enforcement leaders on Capitol Hill had little interest in preventing this attempted insurrection. Videos have emerged of police taking selfies with protesters, walking them down the stairs and even opening gates for them. The front line of officers were not in riot gear, they were not wearing gas masks, they were not holding guns loaded with rubber bullets. And, above all else, there were no police dogs.

We faced police dogs when we fought for justice for Mike Brown in Ferguson in 2014. There were police dogs at protests for Black lives this year, from the East Coast to the West. The president himself tweeted in May that the “most vicious dogs” awaited protesters standing up for Black lives at the White House.

But there were no police dogs awaiting the white supremacists who gathered outside the Capitol. It was no coincidence that this tool of racial control was absent Wednesday, as rioters carried the flag of the slave-catcher’s Confederacy — and its modern manifestation, the Trump flag — through the House Rotunda.

Many have said that what transpired on Wednesday was not America. They are wrong. This is the America that Black people know. To declare that this is not America is to deny the reality that Republican members of the U.S. House and Senate incited this coup by treasonously working to overturn the results of the presidential election. It’s to deny the fact that one of my senators, Josh Hawley, went out of his way to salute the white supremacists before their attempted coup. It’s to deny that he appropriated the sign of Black power, the raised fist, into a white-supremacist salute — a fist he has never raised at a march for Black lives because he has never shown up to one. It’s to deny that what my Republican colleagues call “fraud” actually refers to the valid votes of Black, brown and Indigenous voters across this country who, in the midst of a pandemic that disproportionately kills us, overcame voter suppression in all of its forms to deliver an election victory for Joe Biden and Kamala D. Harris.

This is America, and it will continue to be America, until white supremacy is dismantled. Justice starts at removing each and every representative who incited this insurrection. I’ve unveiled my first piece of legislation that would do just that. We cannot denounce white supremacy and allow its endorsers to continue serving in our government.

image courtesy of Tulsa World

More news, tweets, videos in the comments. This also serves as an open thread.

Posted in Activism, grassroots, News, Open Thread | Tagged BLM, Congress, Cori Bush, Trump riots | 156 Replies

12/16 News Roundup and OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on December 16, 2020 by BennyDecember 16, 2020

Here’s a headline to get your attention:

AOC: NANCY PELOSI NEEDS TO GO, BUT THERE’S NOBODY TO REPLACE HER YET

But the left, she said, currently has no plan on how to fill the subsequent leadership vacuum.

“If you create that vacuum, there are so many nefarious forces at play to fill that vacuum with something even worse,” she told Jeremy Scahill during an interview aired Wednesday on Intercepted this week.

Pelosi cruised to reelection in a virtual caucus vote last month and will face a full House floor vote for the speakership in January. She’s expected to remain speaker but has almost no room for error, after a disastrous performance in the general election cost the caucus at least a dozen seats. With a single-digit majority, she can only afford to lose a handful of Democratic votes on the House floor or else she’ll be short of the required 218, which would then throw the contest back to the caucus.

The interview is in a podcast, embedded within the article.

More news, tweets, etc, in the comments. Happy Hump Day, birdies!

Posted in grassroots, Open Thread | Tagged AOC, Democrats | 85 Replies

12/15 Name the Pootie at Benny’s Bar & Evening OT

The Progressive Wing Posted on December 15, 2020 by BennyDecember 15, 2020

Friends,

If you were adopting a 13 mo old kitty, which looks like this, what would you name it?

Update: “Nino” as a name has 2 votes.

Bar is open for cocktails and mocktails! Nina Turner is running for Congress!

WI Old Fashioned Brandy 2020-10-07 212822.jpg

WI Old Fashioned Brandy 2020-10-07 212822.jpg

Mocktail  2020-09-08 213703.jpg

Mocktail 2020-09-08 213703.jpg

See you in the comments! Look forward to hearing your replies!

Posted in Bernie Sanders, grassroots, News, Open Thread | Tagged Nina Turner | 63 Replies

Post navigation

← Older posts

Register

Recent Posts

3/3 News Roundup & Open Thread

March 3, 2021 8:35 am | By LieparDestin | 66 comments

3/2 News Roundup and Open Thread

March 2, 2021 8:24 am | By jcitybone | 131 comments

3/1 News Roundup and Open Thread

March 1, 2021 8:38 am | By jcitybone | 144 comments

2/28 Labor News and Open Thread

February 28, 2021 8:53 am | By la58 | 94 comments

2.27 Open Thread

February 27, 2021 8:14 am | By orlbucfan | 79 comments

2/26 Biden Promotes War in Syria, Chooses Legislation that Favors Wall Street Donors Over Raising the Fed Min Wage in a 5 year Period; Open Thread (updated with Bernie’s comment about Syria)

February 26, 2021 7:16 am | By Benny | 184 comments

2/25 News Roundup & Open Thread

February 25, 2021 6:19 am | By LieparDestin | 162 comments

2/24 News Roundup & Open Thread

February 24, 2021 6:49 am | By LieparDestin | 150 comments

2/23 Deb Haaland’s Hearing for Interior Post; News Roundup & Open Thread

February 23, 2021 8:57 am | By Benny | 129 comments

2/22 News Roundup and Open Thread

February 22, 2021 8:56 am | By jcitybone | 191 comments

Recent Comments

  • NYCVG on 3/3 News Roundup & Open Thread
  • NYCVG on 3/3 News Roundup & Open Thread
  • NYCVG on 3/3 News Roundup & Open Thread
  • polarbear4 on 3/3 News Roundup & Open Thread
  • polarbear4 on 3/3 News Roundup & Open Thread
  • polarbear4 on 3/3 News Roundup & Open Thread
  • jcitybone on 3/3 News Roundup & Open Thread
  • jcitybone on 3/3 News Roundup & Open Thread

2020-2022 Progressive Candidates

The Squad

  • Jamaal Bowman (NY-16) – WON – Profile
  • Cori Bush (MO-01) – WON – Profile
  • Mondaire Jones (NY-17) – WON – Profile
  • Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14) – WON – Profile
  • Ilhan Omar (MN-05) – WON
  • Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) – WON
  • Rashida Tlaib (MI-13) – WON – Profile

House

  • Jesús “Chuy” García (IL-04) – WON
  • Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) – WON
  • Ro Khanna (CA-17) – WON
  • Mark Pocan (WI-02) – WON
  • Nina Turner (OH-11) – May 4, 2021

Senate

  • John Fetterman (PA) – 2022
  • Ed Markey (MA) – WON
  • Raphael Warnock (GA) – WON

 

State & Local Races

  • Lee Carter (VA-GOV) – June 8, 2021
  • Anna Eskamani (FL-HD-47) – WON

Search TPW

Archives

©2021 - The Progressive Wing
↑