| Progressive Calendar 05.02.09 | <– Date –> <– Thread –> |
From: David Shove (shove001 tc.umn.edu)
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| Date: Sat, 2 May 2009 04:23:36 -0700 (PDT) | |
P R O G R E S S I V E C A L E N D A R 05.02.09 1. AHS protest 5.02 8:15am 2. Peace walk 5.02 9am Cambridge MN 3. Living green expo 5.02/03 10am 4. Northtown vigil 5.02 2pm 5. Gun safety 5.02 4:45pm 6. IWW benefit 5.02 5pm 7. Neo-libbers 5.02 9pm 8. Mumia Abu-Jamal - Turning point in history --------1 of 8-------- From: Ellen Weinstock <ellenweinstock [at] comcast.net> Subject: AHS protest 5.02 8:15am Please join me and many others in protesting at the Animal Humane Society's Walk for Animals on Saturday morning, May 2 from 8:15 to 11 a.m.. (Registration for the walk starts at 8:30 and the walk starts at 11, so this is the time the most people will be coming through. If you can't make it the whole time, please come anyway!) The nearly 50% slaughter rate at the richest Humane Society in the Midwest has gone on too long. I'm pasting my press release below to give you more background. Please share with anyone who may be interested. Please don't park on AHS property, which is at the end of Meadow Lane (they're on a cul-de-sac). But there is plenty of parking along the street and in the office park before you get to AHS (several of the large office buildings are empty, so it shouldn't be an issue - just be discreet). Or you can take the 755 bus (http://www.metrotransit.org/images/routes/755.pdf). If you can, please come and dress comfortably (wear sunscreen!) and bring a sign. I would like signs to focus on the kill rate generally, but some of you may want to have signs about the St. Anthony cats who were killed in February. Some effective signs I saw at the last protest: the simple word "SHAME" in red letters ones that had printed-out photos of the St. Anthony cats on them ones that said "You can cure ringworm, but you can't cure STUPID." It's best to mount signs on a stick so that they are easier to hold. You can do this cheaply by printing out on printer paper and pasting it to leftover cardboard. I also saw ones that were "laminated" with clingwrap, which is an excellent idea in case there's any drizzle. If you want to consult on slogans, please email me. If you RSVP to me, that would be great, too! (I'd like an idea of how many people we'll have in case the media ask me.) Hope to see you all there!!! The animals depend on us! With gratitude, Ellen FFI: Ellen Weinstock, Attorney at Law (651) 324-2779 ellenweinstock [at] comcast.net This Saturday (May 2), Twin Cities animal lovers will be protesting at the Animal Humane Society (AHS) Walk for Animals[1], asking AHS to start working to make the Twin Cities a no-kill community. Many other places around the country have achieved save rates for homeless dogs and cats of over 90%, including: Reno, NV[2]; Charlottesville, VA[3]; and Tompkins County, NY[4]. Rescue groups, animal control agencies, and other shelters in the Cities are already working together through the Homes for All Pets Initiative[5], but the Animal Humane Society still kills almost half the animals it takes in every year[6] and refuses to do the serious work necessary to bring that number down, even though AHS is one of the richest humane societies in the US, with assets of over $17M at the end of 2007.[7] One recent example of AHS's high-kill policies was the questionable killing of over 120 cats seized from a trailer home in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Anthony. The Animal Humane Society seized the cats on 2/10/09, invited the media to cover the story. The AHS initially stated that it would assess the cats for 2-3 weeks and treat their treatable illnesses. Myriad local and national rescue groups started calling AHS to offer help, but their pleas fell on deaf ears. Many of these volunteers and organizations had helped save animals from similar or worse hoarding operations, such as a hoarder operation of 800 cats in the desert of Pahrump, Nevada last year. The AHS admitted on 2/15 that it had already killed ALL of the cats within 48 hours of taking them in.[8] (The speeded-up timeline makes it unlikely that the cats were actually tested for the illnesses they allegedly had.) Animal lovers, including dog and cat mascots in costume, will protest outside AHS in Golden Valley from 8:15 to 11 a.m. THIS SATURDAY, May 2 (Highway 55 and Meadow Lane N., one exit west of Theodore Wirth Parkway). "Years of polite requests and offers of help to AHS and its Board of Directors have not stopped the AHS slaughter," said Ellen Weinstock of St. Paul, a lawyer who volunteers with homeless dogs. "All we can do now is tell their donors how few animals AHS saves." [1] http://www.animalhumanesociety.org/walk [2] http://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org/success.html [3] http://www.nokilladvocacycenter.org/success.html [4] http://www.spcaonline.com/nokill.htm [5]http://www.animalarkshelter.org/animal/ArkArticles.nsf/AllArticles/EC595B73E54B3D5686257204006BE606?OpenDocument [6] AHS gives its last year statistics as placing or transferring 18,255 animals (http://www.animalhumanesociety.org/aboutus/whatwedo). It "serves" 36,000 animals per year. (http://www.animalhumanesociety.org/services/surrendering) [7] http://www.animalhumanesociety.org/webfm_send/22 [8]http://animalarkshelter.org/animal/ArkArticles.nsf/EmailArticle/3590DF9CAA8644C686257560005A1D26 (has links to television and newspaper stories) --------2 of 8-------- From: Ken Reine <reine008 [at] umn.edu> Subject: Peace walk 5.02 9am Cambridge MN every Saturday 9AM to 9:35AM Peace walk in Cambridge - start at Hwy 95 and Fern Street --------3 of 8-------- From: Do It Green! Minnesota <Do_It_Green_Minnesota [at] mail.vresp.com> Subject: Living green expo 5.02/03 10am Living Green Expo - Sat & Sun May 2-3 Sat & Sun, May 2-3, 2009 Sat: 10am-6pm Sun: 10-am-5pm Minnesota State Fair Grounds, Grandstand, St. Paul The 8th Annual Living Green Expo will feature over 250 exhibitors who offer practical advice on how to make effective, sustainable choices. Learn from the experts in one of the 62 workshops. Get in on the latest green technologies. Connect with others who value green living. At Minnesota's largest environmental event, you'll find everything from how to compost and reduce toxicity in your home, to using the latest energy-saving technology, to cooking with organic, locally grown food. This family-friendly event features kids' activities and an exciting music lineup. Admission is free! Secure bike storage is available and Metro Transit is offering free rides to the Expo using the Go Greener Pass. Visit the link below for more information on exhibitors, workshops and activities. Click here to find out more or register to volunteer at the event http://cts.vresp.com/c/?twincitiesgreenguide/050a3704a9/8acadfd1b4/c329adee00 -- From: MetroIBA <info [at] metroiba.org> Subject: Meet us at the Green Expo Please stop by and visit our booth at the Living Green Expo, May 2nd and 3rd at the MN State Fair Grounds. This is a free event and is open from 10:00 to 6:00 Saturday and 10:00 to 5:00 Sunday. We will be selling copies of Stacy Mitchell's book, Big Box Swindle, and passing out Passport directories of our membership. Look for us in the Outdoor Living area just outside the main building. Supporting locally owned businesses is more than an economic issue, it is an environmental issue as well. As a whole, local stores make better use of existing structures, reducing sprawl. Vibrant downtowns encourage walking and alternatives to automobile traffic. Buying locally produced goods also reduces the amount of pollution caused by transporting goods across the country. While you're there, make sure to say hi to other MetroIBA member exhibitors, AM 950 KTNF, Linden Hills Natural Home, Locus Architecture, Pea Pods Natural Toys, and Warners' Stellian. For more information about the Expo, visit http://www.metroiba.org/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=18&qid=25 --------4 of 8-------- From: Vanka485 [at] aol.com Subject: Northtown vigil 5.02 2pm Peace vigil at Northtown (Old Hwy 10 & University Av), every Saturday 2-3pm --------5 of 8-------- From: "Heather Martens, Citizens for a Safer Minnesota" <csm [at] endgunviolence.com> Subject: Gun safety 5.02 4:45pm Join us on Saturday, May 2, 4:45-7 p.m. for a reception at the Urban League, 2100 Plymouth Avenue North, Minneapolis. We'll celebrate together, and you'll be the first to see our brand new, hard-hitting TV spot! Go to www.endgunviolence.com to register. Your donation will support Citizens for a Safer Minnesota. The reception immediately follows an exciting conference on Preventing Violence and Promoting Peace in Our Communities - The Spirit of Sankofa II. Register on line now for this Twin Cities Anti-Violence Coalition event! Registration of $35 covers both the conference and the reception. Visit www.endgunviolence.com. At the conference, you will find out what works in all aspects of violence prevention - gun violence, domestic violence, gang violence -- and what communities can do. Help create a community action plan. Earn 9 continuing education credits in social work. Meet others in the Twin Cities' vibrant community of peacemakers! Visit www.endgunviolence.com to register/donate. Parking is free. With your support, we are working tirelessly to stop the carnage. Citizens for a Safer Minnesota has drafted bills, visited legislators, aired radio ads, brought you to the Capitol and stepped up the emails. We've put the gun lobby in a panic. The movement for gun violence prevention is stronger because of you! On Monday, April 20, statewide TV news carried our Columbine memorial event at the Capitol! Donna Evans sounded a gong in memory of the victims of Columbine and the 32 people who die from gun homicide each day in the United States. And on Tuesday, April 21, a Federal bill was introduced to close the gun show loophole! Heather Martens Executive Director Citizens for a Safer Minnesota From: "Heather Martens, Citizens for a Safer Minnesota" Subject: Victory! House Finance Committee votes to close gun show loophole! Thanks to an outpouring of hundreds of emails from you, the House Finance Committee on Tuesday night voted to close the gun show loophole! Rep. Michael Paymar's amendment to the Game and Fish bill passed 12-11! (For more detail, scroll down.) IT'S TIME TO CELEBRATE!! Join us SATURDAY, MAY 2, from 4:45 to 7 p.m. at the Urban League, 2100 Plymouth Ave. N. Minneapolis, following the day-long Promoting Peace in Our Communities conference. RSVP by replying to this email or going to this link: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5610/c/237/t/5480/event/index.jsp?event_KEY=6400 (A donation is requested.) We'd like to thank the representatives who voted to close the gun show loophole: Reps. John Benson, Bobby Champion, Karen Clark, Mindy Greiling, Alice Hausman, Phyllis Kahn, Kate Knuth, Ann Lenczewski, Michael Paymar, Nora Slawik, Lyndon Carlson, and Paul Thissen. You can thank all of them at once using this link: http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5610/c/237/t/5480/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=1474 There is more work to do. Your participation and support helps us to educate the public about gun violence prevention and work for sensible policy around guns. If you can't be with us Saturday, please consider making a donation by visiting www.endgunviolence.com. Heather Martens Executive Director Citizens for a Safer Minnesota www.endgunviolence.com MORE about the bill, the debate and vote: The gun show loophole bill would require a background check before the sale of any gun sale at a gun show. Current law requires such checks only if the seller is a Federally licensed dealer. To become law, this measure will need to pass in the House and Senate. Before the meeting, the NRA sent out emails claiming that only 1 percent of crime guns come from gun shows, a figure based on interviews with convicts. But during the committee discussion, Rep. Paymar made it clear that the ATF has identified gun shows as a major trafficking channel. Convicts who are not themselves gun traffickers have little understanding of the gun trafficking pipeline. From 2004 to 2006, the ATF made one arrest for every 1.6 gun shows investigated. (An excellent new report on no-check gun sales can be found at http://www.bradycenter.org/xshare/pdf/reports/no-check-no-gun-report.pdf) QUOTES of the day: Rep. Al Juhnke, to Rep. Bobby Champion of North Minneapolis: "If I lived in your district, I'd vote for everything (gun regulation)." Rep. Tom Hackbarth to one of our supporters by email: "I do not support infringing upon a person's second amendment right; or any of their constitutional rights!" THE VOTES Voting against were Reps. Laura Brod, Mark Buesgens, Pat Garofalo, Tom Hackbarth, Bill Hilty, Al Juhnke, Paul Kohls, Tom Rukavina, Ron Shimanski, Steve Smith, Loren Solberg. Abstention: Rep. Steve Simon. Absent: Reps. Tom Emmer, Larry Howes, Tom Huntley, Mary Kiffmeyer, Mary Murphy, Gene Pelowski, Joyce Peppin, Marty Seifert, Ryan Winkler, Jean Wagenius. For more information, and to stay posted on what happens next with the bill, visit our web site, www.endgunviolence.com. --------6 of 8-------- From: Kirsten Kohlhase <kkohlhase [at] gmail.com> Subject: IWW benefit 5.02 5pm ONE BIG MAY DAY PARTY! Saturday May 2nd 14 Bands! Food and Drinks Benefit for the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) & Sisters Camelot The Brand New Sisters Camelot Show Space 2657 32nd Ave. S. Minneapolis 5:00pm Doors *All ages* $5-10 suggested donation Brian Whitson and the Night Wolves Truck Stops Across America Ogre Smash Death Boom Holy!Holy!Holy! (MO) Building Better Bombs Bla Bla Blacksheep Nancy Drew Crew Junkyard Empire Shannon Murray Bouncer Fighter Clawthroat Black Sails Terracide ShugE Twin Cities Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) twincities [at] iww.org * 612-339-1266 * P.O. Box 14111, Minneapolis, MN 55414 --------7 of 8-------- From: Eric Angell <eric-angell [at] riseup.net> Subject: Neo-libbers 5.02 9pm Maying Minneapolis Television Network (MTN) viewers: "Our World In Depth" cablecasts on MTN Channel 17 on Saturdays at 9pm and Tuesdays at 8am, after DemocracyNow! Households with basic cable may watch. Saturday, 5/2, 9pm and Tues, 5/5, 8am The Crisis of Neoliberalism (repeat) guests: Peter Rachleff, history professor at Macalester College, Karen Redleaf, people's economist. --------8 of 8-------- Turning Point in History By Abu-Jamal, Mumia May, 02 2009 ZNet As these words are being written, the G20 meeting is taking place in the world's second major banking city (London), and US president Barack Obama has arrived with a retinue not seen since an imperial king visited his dominions in the hinterlands, to impress upon the rabble the power and splendor of Empire. But, as always, looks can be deceiving, for the true princes wear no diadems, and sport no trains. They are the princes of Capital, and as Marx has aptly observed, they occupy the 'commanding heights' of economic power, and thus, the political leaders meet to kiss their rings, in private and in silence. But, for the last 5 months or so, those 'commanding heights' don't seem so commanding any more. As banks crumble overnight, and as long-term businesses and firms dissolve; as foreclosures gather speed, and unemployment rises like a thermometer in hell, capital's place hasn't seemed this insecure in several lifetimes. If we lived in a world ruled by logic and reason, it would appear that this should be the time of left ascendancy, when socialist ideas stormed the barricades of capital, sending their stone idols crashing to the earth. Yet, this is hardly our reality. Why, we wonder? It seems to me that some fundamentals need recounting here, as they've been no doubt through days of your panel and workshop meetings. Capital is like a vampire; it has many faces and many lives. In the last several decades, we've seen the erection of so-called think tanks, the well-capitalized repositories of court scholars, whose jobs it is to defend capitalist ideas and promote all manner of retrograde, anti-social and indeed, repressive ideas. Because of their wealth and influence, they have ready access to the mikes of media, and are thus able to amplify their volume and influence, and achieve the status of ubiquitous expert - on all matters, big and small. Such figures such as these proved pivotal in the 2001 and 2002 selling of the Iraq War, and their voices peppered the aural universe like wallpaper, with claims that now seem quite ridiculous: "Americans will be greeted like liberators": "They'll toss flowers at our feet": "A garden of democracy will spring from our efforts", and the like. Now, of course, this was bull-manure, but the point is, it doesn't matter. They're back. Many are out of government, yet thanks to billions socked into the think tanks, they are a kind of shadow government, who still are able to bum rush the mike, now as think-tankers, immune from failure, for they have lifetime sinecures from capital. Not surprisingly, there is no left counterpoint (as far as I know). In part, I think, because the left doesn't possess the right's resources, or alternatively, such resources aren't utilized in this fashion. Thus, at a time when capital has come under serious question, few are the voices primed to offer any mass alternative, or if present, (as in this conference) how does it reach a mass audience? Or does it? We just saw a general election several months ago in which one party repeatedly tried to accuse the other of being "socialist." Of course, to a forum such as this, that's hardly a slur; but didn't you wish that the candidate really was a socialist? Of course, if he were, he could hardly have enjoyed the corporate largesse that made his candidacy possible (not to mention the support of the party apparatus). But, ultimately, it matters little what's at top, as long as folks at the bottom are mobilized and organized and militant in defense of their class and social interests. In a nutshell, there is no alternative to social movements. People should be crowding the streets in protest of the present economic situation, when bankers get hundreds of billions in public monies, and people get foreclosure notices, as well as lay-off slips, amid the terror of homelessness. But, as [Freidrich] Engels opined in the introduction to Marx's The Civil War in France (1871), "[T]he state is nothing else than a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed no less so in the democratic republic than in the monarchy" (26). In the Communist Manifesto,(150 anniversary edition (1998:Kerr Publ.) Marx reminds us that "The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing...the whole bourgeoisie" (14-15). That is, a democratic state is but an instrument of the bourgeoisie - nothing more, nothing less. Seen from this light, why should they not squander public wealth for private ends? Are they not tools of private wealth and influence? Social movements, movements of the masses of the people, break those links by forcing them to serve public needs with public resources - and to at least give a better show of serving their interests. We live in an era where wars are waged in the name of democracy, yet few institutions are as profoundly undemocratic as financial ones. The wealthy, in fact, the architects of economic ruin and failure, are [seen as] inherently worthy of multi-billion dollar bailouts - while the poor and unemployed deserve, at best, our sympathy; and at worst; our contempt. Those ways of thinking taint and poison our consciousness, and influence not only our thinking, but foreclose avenues of alternative resolutions. All around us, in the failing businesses, the joblessness, and the foreclosures which gave rise to homelessness, are proofs of capitalism's crises, which are growing as we speak. This is the essence of the business cycle - boom and bust; bust and boom. Wars in defense of corporate greed and industrial acquisition. More for the millionaires and billionaires - nothing for the many. What social condition could be better for our purposes? What more is needed to show that the present status quo is a recipe for more failure? This is a great opportunity that may not come again for generations - let us not waste it. Let us organize our movements with an eye towards the seriousness of the hour. For we live in an hour not seen since the 1930s, in a time when politicians owe their offices to the very forces of speculative capitalism that wrought this epic disaster, and thus are loath to go against their paymasters, even in a time of crisis. The epicenters of this economic earthquake are in New York and London, where the mortgage-trading scams originated and matured into new ways of creating great wealth. And in the capitals of both economic empires, the elected leaders, American President Barack Obama, and British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, fear the claim that they are socialists, and are thus hesitant to exert more than symbolic dominance over the banks that have demonstrated their inability to manage their own assets, not to mention the wealth of nations. Now is the time to organize, to expand our movements, to protest in our strength and our diversity, for if history teaches us anything, if the left fails to organize, the right will do so. I don't say this lightly, but as a result of my reading of a set of lectures delivered by the brilliant Marxist historian and revolutionary organizer, C.L.R. James, in Trinidad, during the summer of 1960. These were collected years later in Modern Politics (1973). James, speaking to Trinidad Public Library's Adult Education Program, discussed the pivotal turning point facing Germany in 1931-32. It was a period, he explained, in which the future of Europe would be decided. Here now, a direct quote from James: The German Communists got instruction from Moscow to let Hitler come into power. These things are very difficult to say to an audience that is not familiar with the material and cannot go to town tomorrow morning and buy books. I have brought here my own book, written in 1937. I have 52 pages (the Chairman will corroborate) on Germany in those days, and the title of the chapter is, "After Hitler Our Turn." That was the slogan of the German Communist Party in Germany from 1930 -1931 right up to the time that Hitler came into power in 1933. Let him come in. He will be a failure, and then we will make the revolution. They were the specific instructions of Stalin [p.58] My point here? If the Left fails to organize, the Right will do so. We are all at a critical turning point in American and world history. What happens next may depend on our efforts. Thank You! Ona Move! Long Live John Africa! >From Death Row, this is Mumia Abu-Jamal ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- - David Shove shove001 [at] tc.umn.edu rhymes with clove Progressive Calendar over 2225 subscribers as of 12.19.02 please send all messages in plain text no attachments vote third party for president for congress now and forever Socialism YES Capitalism NO To GO DIRECTLY to an item, eg --------8 of x-------- do a find on --8
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