By Teka Lark (September 29, 2015)
It makes me very sad that in the US we have a safety net to catch you in a free fall and not a universal support system that prevents you from falling. I get angry too, but it really breaks my heart when I hear people’s stories of struggle. The older I get the more I really do care. I thought I would get numb to people’s suffering, but I can’t. Continue reading “A Safety Net is Not a Support System”
By Chris Crass (September 25, 2015)
Don’t let anyone sell you a pack of reactionary moderate whitewashing about who #DorothyDay and #ThomasMerton were, two of the Catholic leaders named by #PopeFrancis. Day was an anarchist socialist founder of the Catholic Worker movement that both feeds the poor and actively opposes the capitalist system that creates poverty. Day was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World labor union, had an abortion before raising her daughter, and was a proponent of disruptive non-violent direct action. Her life’s work was dedicated to creating grassroots people’s movements to help build up a democratic and socialist society.
Thomas Merton opposed the U.S. imperialist war against Vietnam, supported the political and spiritual leadership of Thich Nhat Hanh in building international opposition to the war. Merton was a vocal white anti-racist who spoke out to the white faith community during the Civil Rights movement of the 60s and 70s, calling on white people of faith to challenge structural racism and racist violence against the Black community. He said that racism was a problem coming from the white community and white’s needed to take responsibility.
Merton, like Day, would today be speaking out for #BlackLivesMatter, #FightFor15 minimum wage increase, and galvanizing people of faith to understand and strive to practice the revolutionary values of Jesus Christ.
Jesus, the Palestinian Jewish migrant working class socialist who took direct action and was always on the side of poor, working class and oppressed people, and was killed by the ruling class of the Empire, who feared his ability to galvanize poor people into action.
By Chuck Morse (September 23, 2015)
Bernie Sanders is running for president and I know people who say that, given the options, he’s the best choice. I understand this position, but I think it confuses things. We should ask less about what type of president we’d like and more about what type of political culture we want. Continue reading “Who Deserves to be Captain?”
Christina Allaback is the Artistic Director for Trek Theatre, a new theater company out of Eugene, Oregon that seeks to bring Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes to live public performances. Continue reading “Interview: Christina Allaback and Trek Theatre”
By Teka Lark (September 21, 2015)
They have zero loyalty to anyone Black,white, Latino, Asian, Native or biracial.
They don’t care how smart you are.
They don’t care that you went to school.
They don’t care if you follow the Bible or the Torah or the Quran. They don’t care how hard you work.
And if you don’t spend every moment awake and asleep supporting the institution by your work or compliance they don’t care if you are alive or dead.
They are the wealthy. They are the 1% in this country who want to have us all on our knees.
Are you tired?
Are you disgusted?
Are you sick of working for nothing?
Having a job and being homeless, is not having a job. Looking for work for 10 years, is not normal.
That is slavery. That is sharecropping.
According to a June 11 article in the Wall Street Journal, the net worth of the US is $84 trillion.
The stock and mutual funds owned by the richest in this country just in this year alone increased by $487 billion. Real estate’s value increased by $503 billion.
And this is just what the Wall Street Journal is letting us know. The wealth of the richest in this country is probably worth twenty times that, but yet we can’t get free medical care without a body cavity search.
We can’t have housing not infested with bedbugs without perfect credit. We can’t have perfect credit unless we have a job.
We can’t get a job unless we have perfect credit.
Are you sick of living or are you living sick?
And there is no middle class. There is the temporarily privileged poor and the slumming rich. There is no left in the US.
There is a far right and a playground for the rest of us to let off steam and get our wiggles out.
On the playground you ride bicycles, grow organic tomatoes, draw pictures and eat gluten free muffins.
The playground is the left.
You vote for the student body president during nutrition.
Are you a child? Is this is a game to you?
You should not have to fight for your life. That narrative needs to be thrown in the trash.
This is not my grandfather’s left.
The left that fought for the right to have a vacation and a weekend. The right to do nothing.
The right, if you work 40 hours a week to have a home. The right to send your children to college with dignity without having to hold your breath and pray that your child’s loan will have a bit left over after paying for a PUBLIC university tuition to cover such basics as food and books.
The right to have a good retirement.
The right to be able to get hurt and not have to live on the streets.
What do we have now brothers and sisters?
We have a left that wants a cookie for $15.00 an hour.
We have a fight for housing, not for those who have houses, but only WHEN, not if, but WHEN you become homeless.
People are homeless, because housing is too high and wages are too low, but fighting that is not fundable.
We have a left that fights not for wages that you can easily feed a family of four on, but a left that fights for you to have the right to stand in line at a church and beg for food.
This is our left.
This is our “paid for by corporate America” left.
A left paid for by people who will give every kid a computer, but won’t pay their parents a livable wage. A left paid for people who will give one person money to draw a picture, but won’t pay their fair share of taxes.
Corporate America has taken over the narrative of the radical. It has twisted the radical’s mind into thinking, “What is fundable?”’
The rich will never have a grant process to fund change.
You are not the left and you are not radical if you are on your knees begging for change from those who are committing economic terrorism against your brothers and sisters.
Those who no longer want to negotiate with oppression are not the distractions or the agent provocateurs.
Teka Lark is a journalist, poet and satirist based in the L.A. suburb of Inglewood. She is the founder of the Blk Grrrl Book Fair and the editor of Blk Grrrl Magazine–www.blkgrrrl.com and the author of the upcoming book, Queen of Inglewood,to be published on Punk Hostage Press.
By Tom Motko (September 18, 2015)
As a democratic socialist of many years myself, this graphic demonstrates my issue with many Bernie Sanders supporters who seem to want to run from socialism although their candidate happens to be a socialist (Democratic Party supporters/members who are themselves pro-capitalist but find the Clinton gang distasteful). Continue reading “Social Democracy Isn’t Socialism at All”
By Mark Naison (September 17, 2015)
Someone carved the “N” word on the door of a Black student living in one of Fordham’s residence halls this weekend. I have no comforting words for those who feel profoundly violated. I will do whatever is necessary to protect my students and all who feel vulnerable and alone as a result of this very serious attack on our community’s values and integrity. Continue reading “When Gentrification Happens in the University”
By Alex Riccio (September 15, 2015)
9 August 2014; eighteen-year-old Mike Brown was shot dead by police officer Darren Wilson and left face down on a public street for four and a half hours before being processed into a local morgue. (1, 2) The murder of Mike Brown proved a catalyst for the revival of a black-led liberation movement with roots in preceding Abolitionists, Civil Rights, and Black Power! movements. Continue reading “Black Lives Matter: A Two Hundred Year Old Spirit”
Thoughts on 9/11 that were written right after Hurricane Sandy:
By Mark Naison (September 11, 2015)
As we struggle through the aftermath of the worst storm in New York’s history, my thoughts turn to the first responders- firefighters, police officers, EMS workers- and the role they played in the last great tragedy to strike New York, the collapse of the Twin Towers on 9/11. Continue reading “Hymn to Working Class New York”
By Teka Lark (September 9, 2015)
The institution is made up of the systems that holds up the elite. The elite are the people who keep other people oppressed, so that they can continue to hold power. Many systems (people, organizations and laws) within the institution set up a sort of living narrative that makes it easier to participate in your own oppression than to go outside and play with your dog. Continue reading “The Institution”
By Mark Naison (September 4, 2015)
When I was growing up, many people, whether blue collar or white collar, worked at the same job for long periods of time, and were protected by union representation or, if they worked for government, by civil service laws. Stability on the job translated into stability at home. Continue reading “Seeds of Oligarchy Sown: Reflections for Labor Day”
