Hero of the Democratic Left: A. Philip Randolph

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Before Martin Luther King, Jr., there was A. Philip Randolph. Without A. Philip Randolph, no Martin Luther King, Jr.

After Randolph led a 12-year campaign to win a union contract for the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, he was catapulted into the top ranks of African-American leaders. In 1941, he launched the March on Washington Movement (MOWM) and compelled President Roosevelt to issue an executive order outlawing discrimination in defense production. Randolph continued the struggle and the MOWM during WWII. At its 1943, the MOWM adopted a policy of non-violent direct action to fight discrimination. After the war, Randolph led the campaign that integrated the Armed Services. In 1962, Randolph and Bayard Rustin conceived the idea for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Randolph was, fittingly, the lead speaker at that 1963 event and, just as appropriately introduced Martin Luther King, Jr.



The Most Dangerous Negro in America

Born in 1899 in Florida, the son of an AME minister, Randolph moved to Harlem in 1911. Working as an elevator operator, porter, and waiter, he took night classes at City College, he was introduced to the ideas of the growing Socialist movement. The history of the European working class movements was so exciting that he began "reading Marx as children read Alice in Wonderland." It was "like finally running into an idea which gives you your outlook on life."

In 1917, Randolph with Chandler Owen founded a magazine The Messenger. Although devoted to radical politics, it had a lively literature and arts section, which published the works of Langston Hughes, Claude McKay, and Countee Cullen.

Randolph led an energetic Harlem effort for Morris Hillquit's Socialist campaign for mayor of New York in 1917. In 1920, the Socialist Party nominated Randolph for State Comptroller and he polled 202,361 votes--only 1,000 less than Eugene Debs, the Socialist Presidential candidate.

Randolph, Owen, and The Messenger fully supported the SP opposition to the first world war. They told President Wilson "Lynching, Jim Crow, segregation discrimination in the armed forces and out, disenfranchisement of millions of black souls in the South--all these make your cry of making the world safe for democracy a sham, a mockery, a rape on decency and a travesty on common justice."

In 1918, speaking at an anti-war rally in Cleveland, Ohio, Randolph and Owen were arrested for violating the Espionage Act. White socialists like Eugene Debs and Kate Richards O'Hare were sent to prison under this law, but Randolph narrowly escaped.

Randolph later recounted the proceedings:

The judge was astonished when he saw us and read what we had written in the Messenger. Chandler and I were twenty-nine at the time, but we looked much younger. The judge said, why, we were nothing but boys. He couldn't believe we were old enough, smart enough, to write that red-hot stuff in the Messenger. There was no doubt that the white Socialists were using us, that they had written the stuff for us. [Our lawyer] was ready for a grand political defense, indicting the war and everything else. But the judge looked at him and said, "I don't think we are going to have a trial, I am going to release these boys in your custody, and I want you to see that they return to their parents home."

After questioning Randolph and Owen and hearing them expound their radical views, the judge almost changed his mind.

"I ought to throw you in jail," he said. "But take my advice and get out of town. If we catch you here again, you won't be so lucky."

Federal authorities kept Randolph under surveillance. The Department of Justice recommended prosecution of  the "most dangerous Negro in America."


Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters

Randolph's efforts to organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters is well-dramatized in the 2002 HBO movie 10,000 Black Men Named George (this can be rented from Netflix). The best account of the strategy, tactics, and impact of the BSCP is Beth Tompkins Bates, Pullman Porters and the Rise of the Protest Politics in Black America, 1925-1943.

Wikipedia has a good entry on the BSCP. Here's the background to the struggle.

The campaign to found the union was an extraordinarily long one, that put it at odds with not only the company, but many members of the black community. The Pullman Company was not only one of the largest employers of blacks in the 1920s and 1930s, but had created an image for itself of enlightened benevolence by its financial support for black churches, newspapers and other organizations. Many porters were, moreover, well-paid enough to enjoy the material advantages of a middle class lifestyle and prominence within their own communities.

Working for the Pullman Company was, however, less glamorous in practice than it appeared from the outside. Porters were dependent on tips for much of their income; that, in turn, made them dependent on the whims of white passengers, who uniformly referred to all porters as "George", the first name of George Pullman, the founder of the company. Porters spent roughly ten percent of their time in unpaid "preparatory" and "terminal" set-up and clean-up duties, had to pay for their food, lodging, and uniforms, which might consume half of their wages, and were charged whenever their passengers stole a towel or a water pitcher. Porters could ride at half fare on their days off — but not on Pullman coaches. They also could not be promoted to conductor, a job reserved for whites, even though they frequently performed many of the conductors' duties.
The Company also squelched any efforts they had made to organize a union during the first decades of the twentieth century by either isolating or firing any union leaders. Like many other large, ostensibly paternalistic companies of the time, the Company employed a large number of employee spies who kept the company informed of employees' activities; in extreme cases Company agents assaulted union organizers.

When 500 porters meeting in Harlem on August 25, 1925 decided to make another effort to organize, they therefore not only launched their campaign in secret, but chose Randolph, an outsider beyond the reach of the Company, to lead it. The union chose a dramatic motto that summed up porters' resentment over their working conditions and their sense of their place in history: "Fight or Be Slaves".

Randolph later said

There was no other group of Negroes in America who constituted the key to unlocking the door of a nationwide struggle for Negro rights as the porters. Without the porters I couldn't have carried on the fight for fair employment, or the fight against discrimination in the armed forces.

E. D. Nixon, a BSCP activist, played a key role in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. He was president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Montgomery Welfare League, and the Montgomery Voters League. He recruited both Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King

March on Washington

Frustrated with the poor results of behind the scenes lobbying to get the Roosevelt administration to act against discrimination as the nation began an arms buildup, Randolph came up with the idea of 10,000 Negroes to march down Pennsylvania Avenue.

On January 15, 1941, Randolph issued a statement to the press

. . only power can effect the enforcement and adoption of a given policy, however meritorious it may be. The virtue and rightness of a cause are not alone the condition and cause of its acceptance. Power and pressure the foundation of the march of social justice and reform . . . power pressure do not reside in the few, and intelligentsia, they lie in and flow the masses. Power does not even rest with the masses as such. Power is active principle of only the organized masses, the masses united for a definite purpose. Hence, Negro America must bring its power and pressure w upon the agencies and representatives of the Federal Government to exact their rights in National Defense employment and the armed forces of the country...I suggest that TEN THOUSAND Negroes march on Washington, D.C....with the slogan WE LOYAL NEGRO AMERICAN CITIZENS DEMAND THE RIGHT TO WORK AND FIGHT FOR OUR COUNTRY .. No propaganda could be whipped up and Spread to the effect that Negroes seek to hamper defense. No charge could be that Negroes are attempting to mar national unity. They want to do none of those things. On the contrary, we seek the right to play our part in advancing the cause of national defense and national unity. But there certainly can be no national unity where one tenth of the population are denied their basic rights as American citizens///One thing is certain and that is if Negroes are going to get anything out of this national defense, which will cost the nation 30 or 40 billions of dollars that we Negroes must help pay in taxes as property owners, and workers and consumers, WE MUST FIGHT FOR IT AND FIGHT FOR WITH GLOVES OFF.”

The idea caught on like wildfire, and soon Randolph was calling for 100,000 to march. After tense negotiations with FDR, Executive Order 8802 was issued declaring it to be the policy of the US government "that there shall be no discrimination in the employment of workers in defense industries or government because of race, creed, or national origin" and that "it is the duty of employers and of labor organization...to provide for the full and equitable participation of all workers in defense industries."

Integrating the Armed Forces

The March on Washington Movement continued through (and a little beyond). At the Detroit conference in 1942, Randolph called attention to "the strategy and maneuver of the people of India with mass civil disobedience and non-cooperation." In 1943, he urged the 1200 delegates to adopt a policy of "non-violent good-will direct action." After sessions on non-violence led by Bayard Rustin and Dean William Nelson of Howard University, the MOWM convention unanimously voted to adopt non-violent direct action tactics and projects were planned for the 26 cities with chapters. These plans were shelved after the 1943 Detroit race riot and because of opposition from the black press, but the prospect of non-violence action returned after the end of WWII.

In 1947, President Harry Truman called for a peacetime draft, but the draft bill contained no provision for a ban against segregation. Randolph with Grant Reynolds, NY Commissioner for Corrections, soon founded the League for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience Against Military Segregation. On March 31, 1948 Randolph told the Senate Armed Services Committee

This time Negroes will not take a Jim Crow draft lying down. The conscience of the word will be shaken as by nothing when thousands and thousands of us second-class Americans choose imprisonment in preference to permanent military slavery.... I personally will advise Negroes to refuse to fight as slaves for a democracy they cannot possess and cannot enjoy....I personally pledge myself to openly counsel and abet youth, both white and Negro, to quarantine any Jim Crow conscription system....On previous occasions, I have seen the 'national emergency' psychology mow down legitimate Negro demands...

A poll of black men in Harlem showed 71 percent in favor of a civil disobedience against a Jim Crow draft. Randolph and others picketed the 1948 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. On July 26, President Truman issued Executive Order 9981 ending segregation in the military.

1963 March on Washington

Randolph continued to play a crucial role in the civil rights and labor movements through the 1950s and 1960s. He has the grand old man of the civil rights movement, the one man who could bring together the diverse and often contentious institutions and movements. His long time colleague Bayard Rustin became an off-and-on key advisor to Martin Luther King, Jr.

Without Randolph's great strategic genius in conceiving of the March and his tactical wisdom in bringing it about, history might have been far different.

Here is part of his speech which was the first to the 200,000 at the Lincoln Memorial.

Let the nation and the world know the meaning of our numbers. We not a pressure group, we are not an organization or a group of organizations, we are not a mob. We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom. . . . But this civil rights revolution is not confined to the Negro, nor is it confined to civil rights, for our white allies know that they cannot be free while we are not, and we know we have no future in a in which six million black and white people are unemployed and millions live in poverty .... We want a free democratic society dedicated to the political, economic and social advancement of man along moral lines. . . . We know that real freedom will require many changes in the nation’s political and social philosophies and institutions. For one thing, we must destroy the notion that Mrs. Murphy's property rights include the right to humiliate me because of the color of my skin." The sanctity of private property takes second place to the sanctity of the human personality.

It falls to the Negro to reassert this priority of values, because our ancestors were transformed from human personalities into private property. It falls to us to demand full employment and to put automation at the service of human needs, not at the service of profits .... All who deplore our militancy, who exhort patience in the name of false peace, are in fact supporting segregation and exploitation. They would have social peace at the expense of social and racial justice. They are more concerned with easing racial tensions than enforcing racial democracy.

Jervis Anderson writes in his superb A. Philip Randolph: A Biographical Portrait

..it had been the "most beautiful and glorious of Randolph's life. As the thousands walked away from the Memorial, singing, he had stood at a deserted end of the platform, looking out over the grounds that were slowly emptying. Seeing him standing alone, Bayard Rustin broke away from a group of friends, went over, and put his arm around the old man's shoulders. "I could see he was tired," Rustin recalled,. "I said to him, 'Mr. Randolph, it looks like your dream has come true.' And when I looked into his eyes, tears were streaming down his checks. It is the one time I can recall that he could not hold back his feelings."

Books

• Jervis Anderson, A. Philip Randolph: A Biographical Portrait (1973; University of California Press, 1986). ISBN 978-0520055056
• Beth Tompkins Bates, Pullman Porters and the Rise of the Protest Politics in Black America, 1925-1943 (University of North Carolina Press, 2001) 
• Cornelius Bynum, A. Philip Randolph and the Struggle for Civil Rights  978-0-252-07764-7
• Paula Pfeffer, A. Philip Randolph, Pioneer of the Civil Rights Movement (1990; Louisiana State University Press, 1996). ISBN 978-0807120750
• Andrew E. Kersten, A. Philip Randolph: A Life in the Vanguard (Rowan and Littlefield, 2006). ISBN 978-0742548985
• Cynthia Taylor, A. Philip Randolph: The Religious Journey of An African American Labor Leader (NYU Press, 2006). ISBN 978-0814782873

Films
A. Philip Randolph: For Jobs and Freedom A 1996 PBS documentary not available from California Newsreel.

10,000 Black Men Named George. A HBO dramatization of Randolph's long and ultimately successful campaign to organize the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.

Web Documentaries

A. Philip Randolph Exhibit based on the 1992-2001 traveling exhibit on A. Philip Randolph sponsored by the AFL-CIO.

Hawker Beechcraft Workers Rally in Wichita

Here's a inspiring video of Tuesdays' rally by IAM LL 733 nenbers.



Here's a report from the Wichita Eagle and a video on KAKE-TV's website.

Democratic Left Hero: Norman Thomas

I'm not sure if "hero" is the right word, but I've decided to start a weekly series featuring some of the political and intellectual giants of the American democratic left. (I may include some non-Americans such as George Orwell or Tommy Douglass who have had a profound lasting impact on the American democratic left.)

Norman Thomas is first up, partly because Rick Hertzberg recently blogged about him after neo-con David Frumm mistakenly calledThomas an "adamant isolationist."

Here's what Hertzberg wrote

If you’ve never heard of Norman Thomas (all too likely if you’re not yet eligible for A.A.R.P. membership), he was the leader of the American Socialist Party and its Presidential candidate in every election from 1928 to 1948. This may make him sound like a marginal crank, but he was neither. Bigger by far than his party affiliation, he embodied and fought for just about every decent cause of his era, whether that cause was popular (social insurance) or not (protesting the internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War). Tall, handsome, white-haired, and resonant-voiced, with a manner and a wardrobe more aristocratic than proletarian (Princeton, the Presbyterian ministry, Gramercy Park), he was one of the most famous Americans of his day, and his prestige was such that F.D.R. found it politic to have him in for regular White House visits.

Frum probably has mistaken Thomas for an isolationist on account of Thomas’s opposition to U.S. entry into World War II before Pearl Harbor. This opposition was ill-judged, a misjudgment shared by many liberals of the day, including Chester Bowles, William Benton, Oswald Garrison Villard, and Robert Maynard Hutchins—people who believed (rightly) that the first World War had been a catastrophe for all concerned and (wrongly) that participation in a second one would push the country over the edge into totalitarianism, as the first one had done to Russia and Germany. But the fact that on this one issue Thomas found himself temporarily in uncomfortable alliance with isolationists did not make him one, any more than their initial support for the Iraq war makes John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Paul Berman, Peter Beinart, and Matt Yglesias a bunch of alliance-busting, torture-promoting, habeas corpus-trashing Bush-Cheney unilateralists.

In every other way one can imagine, from his decades-long advocacy of greatly strengthened international institutions to his tempered support for Truman’s (and the U.N.’s) military intervention in Korea to his untiring and highly concrete work on behalf of the victims of tyrannical regimes no matter what their ideological colorations to the grown-up level-headedness of his opposition to the Vietnam War (“don’t burn the flag, wash it”), Norman Thomas was an internationalist par excellence. And unlike his old Princeton and coast-of-Maine friend John Foster Dulles, he knew the words to “The Internationale."

Something that Hertzberg doesn't mention is that in 1948, Thomas very actively urged A. Philip Randolph to run as the Socialist Party candidate, or as the candidate of the New Party, an effort to create an American version of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation of Canada.

Several excellent biographies of Norman Thomas. Check one out in your public or college library. Consider buying one, if you come across it in a used book store.

• Harry Fleischmann, Norman Thomas: A Biography, New York, Norton & Co., 1964.
• Bernard K. Johnpoll, Pacifists Progress: Norman Thomas and the Decline of American Socialism, 1987. ISBN 0-8129-0152-5 (1970 first edition)
• Murray Seilder, Norman Thomas: Respectable Rebel, Binghamton, New York, Syracuse University Press, 1967. Second Edition.
• W. A. Swanberg, Norman Thomas: The Last Idealist, New York, Charles Scribner and Sons, 1976.

Articles on Thomas on the Web

• Elizabeth Balanoff Norman Thomas: Socialism and the Social Gospel

Darwin vs Kansas

Kansas vs. Darwin, a documentary film about the 2005 "kangaroo court" hearings on evolution, is scheduled to air on Kansas PBS stations in late July and August.

It will air at 9:00 p.m. on July 28 on KTWU, Channel 11 in Topeka; at 7:30 p.m. on July 31 on KCPT, Channel 19 in Kansas City; and at 8:00 p.m. on August 21 on KPTS, Channel 8 in Wichita.

Jim Slattery on Unions and Prevailing Wage

I've been posting a number of clips of US Senate candidate Jim Slattery talking issues with Wichita union members from an informal June 23 meeting. This is one of the most important-- in this clip Slattery emphasizes his long-standing support for the rights of workers to form unions and for prevailing wage legislations which protects a race to the bottom in construction wage.

Only a glitch in my understanding of how to use my video software has delayed.




Correcting the gross imbalances in US labor law in favor of companies should be a top concern for everyone in the libera and progressive community.

But that's a subject for another day.

(See here on Air Force tanker decision and here on why he's running and here on why climate change legislation must be done right.)

Is Libby Dole the Most Out-of-Touch US Senator?

I'm beginning to think that North Carolina Senator Libby Dole, married to one-time Kansan Bob Dole, might be the dimmest bulb in the United States Senate.

Now I don't follow North Carolina politics closely, but here are two real bone-headed moves.

1. Dole is trying to name a bill for giving funds to AIDS victims in the developing world after Helms--a homophobe and racist

"The government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct." At a different time, he contextualized his comments by saying, "Nothing positive happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, and nothing positive is likely to happen to America if our people succumb to the drumbeats of support for the homosexual lifestyle." He once said that AIDS prevention literature was "so obscene, so revolting, I may throw up.".

2. According to a report in the Hill newspaper, an ad aired by North Carolina Republican Elizabeth Dole taking credit for saving North Carolina military installations actually included images of a French-made Dassault Super Etendard fighter jet, which was last seen in combat action being flown by Saddam Hussein's Air Force during the Iran-Iraq War.

Support Harry's Place

Harry’s Place, a UK blog dedicated of the democratic left, is being sued by Mohammed Sawalha, the President of the British Muslim Initiative, which has been linked to Hamas and the Islamic Brotherhood, both terrorist organizations. The blog reports that Mr. Sawalha, according to the BBC…

master minded much of Hamas’ political and military strategy” and in London “is alleged to have directed funds, both for Hamas’ armed wing, and for spreading its missionary dawah”.

In their revelation of the impending lawsuit against them leveled by Mohammed Sawalha, they write:

Mr Sawalha claims that we have “chosen a malevolent interpretation of a meaningless word”. In fact, we did no more than translate a phrase which appeared in an Al Jazeera report of Mr Sawalha’s speech. When Al Jazeera changed that phrase from “Evil Jew” to “Jewish Lobby”, we reported that fact, along with the statement that it had been a typographical error.

Mr Sawalha has been the prime mover in a number of Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood associated projects. He is President of the British Muslim Initiative. He is the past President of the Muslim Association of Britain. He was the founder of IslamExpo, and is registered as the holder of the IslamExpo domain name. He is also a trustee of the Finsbury Park Mosque….

…Mr Sawalha says that the attribution of the phrase “Evil Jew” to him implies that he is “anti-semitic and hateful”. Notably, he does not take issue with our reporting of the revelation, made in a Panorama documentary in 2006, that he is a senior activist in the clerical fascist terrorist organisation, Hamas.

It looks like Harry’s Place is going up against some pretty top-notch lawyers on this one, and they’ve got guts, but as the post goes on to say:

If Mr Sawalha persists in attempting to silence us with this desperate legal suit, we will need your help.

We won’t be able to stand up to them alone.

A blogburst has been started by the NeoConstant site, to get the word out that we won’t let members of Hamas or any radical terrorist group censor us or any of our fellow bloggers. Since that's a right of center site, they've gotten mainly right of center sites so far. I happy to begin tobalance that and encourage my fellow left of center bloggers to join us to support Harry's Place and freedom of the blog.

Jim Slattery: Climate Change Has To Be Done Right

Another in our series of Jim Slattery addressing the issues. (See here on Air Force tanker decision and here on why he's running.)

Jimmy LaFave

Jimmy LaFave, an Austin-based, folk-rock singer songwriter appeared at the Bartlett Arboretum,Sunday afternoon backed by a nice band and straight from the just-concluded Woody Guthrie festival in Okemah, Oklahoma.

I had read about LaFave, but hadn't really heard his music except, I think, at the Guthrie Festival several years ago. I've been hoping to make it back to Okemah, but it hasn't worked out. So when I read about the Sunday concert, it seemed like a good opportunity to indirectly support the festival (LeFave is a founder and serves on the board of directors) and the Arboretum.

Well, I think I'm a fan, now. The 12-year old I took enjoyed him and enthusiastically said yes. (We bought Texoma, which I'm enjoying now). On the road home, he asked when LaFave was going to play in Kansas again.

Here's a video of LaFave doing a Dylan tune, something he excels at.



BTW, you can help the Arboretum by voting on-line for for them to $25,000 grant to deal with sever flooding and erosion problems undermining both the Arboretum and area residents.

Jim Slattery: Why He's Running for the U.S. Senate

On June 23, US Senate Jim Slattery meet with a group of union activists from the IAM and other unions to discuss his campaign. In this video, he makes an off-the-cuff summary of why he's running.

Jim Slattery on the Air Force Tanker Debacle

On June 23, US Senate candidate Jim Slattery talked issues with union activists in Wichita. This is the first of several YouTube clips I'll post here.

Workers Uniting, the First Global Union

Last week in Las Vegas, the United Steelworkers and the UK based Unite the Union agreed to merge to create the first global union. Together they'll represent almost 3 million workers.

KBOE Forum: Science Standards

Five of the six Wichita area candidates for the Kansas Board of Education appeared at a forum on June 30 at Allison Middle School. Towards the end, they were asked about science standards (i.e., evolution vs. creationism.)




It's not always easy to tell where BOE candidates really stand. In the past, anti-evolution candidates have been elected to the KBOE through stealth campaigns.

Two candidates in the 8th district--Democrats Walt Chappell and Chalels Wiggins are clearly in favor of strong science-based science standards. Republican Dennis Hedke appears ambivalent.

In the 10th District, Democrat Paul Cassanova and Republican David Dennis are against imposing religious views on science instruction. Republican Marty Marshall skipped the forum.

Marshall and Hedke have both been endorsed by the Kansas Republican Assembly, which supports so-called intelligent design.

Fourth of July Thoughts

1. Essential Fourth of July Reading

Frederick Douglass' 1852 Independence Day speech (via Daily Kos)

2. Another Banner Controversy

Just two years after going ballistic over the national anthem being sung in Spanish, right-wing talk shows and xenophobic politicians like Tom Tancredo are all upset that at a meeting of the Denver city council "jazz singer Rene Marie sang the melody of Francis Scott Key’s "Star Spangled Banner" but used the lyrics of “Lift Ev'ry Voice in Praise,” written by poet James Weldon Johnson in 1900. The song is often described as the 'black national anthem.'"

Funny that Tancredo and his ilk never seems to get angry at the Confederate flag which is a real insult to American values.

Marie Renee is not the first to put new words to the Star Spangled Banner. During the Civil War, Oliver Wendell Holmes penned a new stanza

When our land is illumined with liberty's smile,
If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile
The flag of the stars, and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained,
Who their birthright have gained
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.

I would have like to have heard the first stanza, followed by the Holmes stanza, and then the words to "Lift Every Voice and Sing."

"Long May It Wave"--my blog on the Spanish anthem controversy

3. Be Patriotic, Defend the Constitution

John Nichols writes on the Nation's blog

advertisement in Thursday's New York Times that announced "A Declaration for Our Times" -- a variation on the Declaration of Independence that, in the spirit of the original document, rejects sacrifices of basic liberties in the name of security.

The declaration is signed by 500 individual Americans and organizations -- including this writer -- the who pledge support for fully restoring Constitutional rights and human rights in a United States steered dangerously off course during the Bush interregnum.

The Declaration is part of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee's "People's Campaign for the Constitution," which has been launched to organize grassroots coalitions in communities across the country to demand that 2008 election candidates get serious about renewing rights that have been seriously undermined and threatened during the Bush-Cheney interregnum.

Here's the link to the People's Campaign for the Constitution

4. Message for Progressives, Democratic Lefists, Liberals: Take Back the Flag

Paul Slansky at Huffington Post

Of all the stupid things done by the anti-war crowd, the most gratuitously moronic was allowing the sanctimonious hypocrites of the right to co-opt the nation's most basic icon, its flag. The emblem of the country's highest aspirations was mindlessly ceded to the holier-than-thou zealots who used it as a bludgeon against the less fanatical.

Having unburdened itself of patriotism, the left proceeded over the years to also give away religion, national security and, finally, the elections themselves, but this devolution, into the pathetic puddle of unprincipled, acquiescent wimpiness that the Democrats have become, started with -- or rather, without -- the flag. It's hard to remember a presidential election in which that cavalier surrender hasn't exacted a serious price.

Merle Haggard at the Cotillion

I went to Merle Haggard's show at Wichita's Cotillion tonight. It was a little under a full sell-out, which was good since I bought my ticket at the door.

Merle is one of the true giants of American music. I was glad I went. It was my first live Merle show. A fellow at the next table said he had 17 Merle albums. I'm close to that--or more, but about half of mine are LPs I bought second hand after the beginning of the CD era. For a while, I went to lots of yard sales and flea markets. I was mainly looking for jazz, but if I found any Merle vinyl in decent shape I picked it up.

Merle has written some great tunes and the audience tonight knew the songs and the lyrics singing along to quite a few. Some of Merle's tunes are solidly in the country genre, but he's written a number that could and should become part of the American songbook. Someone like Kevin Mahogany could do a nice jazz treatment. The Merle Haggard Songbook should be up there alongside Gershwin and Porter.

I had hoped the Kansas City's Iris Dement might be the opening act, but she wasn't. Merle's son Noel did a warm-up set and after a brief intermission, it was time for the Merle show. A credible guy whose name I didn't catch let the Strangers through a mini-set of 3 or 4 tunes.. Then it was time for the master.

Merle opened with "Silver Wing." I didn't write down the set list, but I recall "Mama Tried," "Big City" "I Think I'll Stay Here and Drink" "Rainbow Stew" "I"m a Lonesome Fugitive" "Fighting Side of Me"

The Strangers is/are still an outstanding band. Merle is a great guitar player. And there are two other fine ones in the group. If I heard right one is a Haggard.

Only disappointment were that Merle didn't do an encore, didn't do "Working Man Blues" or any of his recent political songs. And I didn't like the selection of tee shirts on sale. The designs I like are at the on-line store.

Merle didn't come back for an encore, but he did say he was planning on coming back next year.

I'll plan on catching him again.

Here's a fine "Left Side of Merle" stanza from "Big City"

Been working everyday since I was twenty.
Haven't got a thing to show for anything I've done.
There's folks who never work and they've got plenty.
Think it's time some guys like me had some fun.

UPDATE July 3 5:30 PM. Eagle on-line review is here. That was Merle's youngest son, Ben, on guitar. The review is mostly okay, but contains a real howler. Jeffrey Lutz wrote Haggard "had played most of the chart-topping hits he has made famous during the last 40 years." Wikipedia has a list of 38 #1 hits.

Machinist leaders on Spirit Negotiations

Slattery: impressive fundraising in second quarter

From Daily Kos

KS-Sen: Preliminary Q2 fundraising numbers in the Kansas Senate Race indicate that Democrat Jim Slattery raised over $500,000 in the quarter, next to $850,000 for incumbent Republican Pat Roberts.

For a Democratic candidate in Kansas, $500K is a pretty good haul for one quarter. Granted, Slattery is still in the hole in terms of cash-on-hand (Roberts has over $3.1 million).

Roberts is already on the air, and has plenty to spend, but Slattery is showing surprising resilience in a difficult red-state battle. I wouldn't be surprised if the national parties wind up spending in Kansas, at least a little bit.

Is Thornburg Playing Politics with the November Ballot?

Is Kansas Secretary of State Ron Thornburgh playing politics with the November ballot?

Ballot Access News reports

The ballot-qualified Kansas Reform Party held its state convention back on May 31, and nominated candidates for office, including presidential electors pledged to Chuck Baldwin for president. On June 27, the party turned in the paperwork for these nominations.

The Kansas Secretary of State has hinted that he won’t allow the party to do this. He has not ruled definitively, however. Now that the party has finalized its choice, he will need to either honor the nominations, or explain precisely what provision of Kansas law purports to tell the party that it cannot nominate the presidential candidate of the Constitution Party. In 1980, the American Party of Kansas was allowed to nominate Frank Shelton for president, even though the national convention of the American Party had chosen Percy Greaves. Also, in 1968, the Conservative Party of Kansas was permitted to nominate George Wallace as its presidential candidate, even though the Conservative Party was not affiliated with George Wallace’s American (also called American Independent) Party.

I'm certainly no friend of the Reform or Constitution Parties and I think Chuck Baldwin is a creepy right-wing theocrat, but Thornburgh's actions seem very questionable. The Kansas Reform Party has been on the ballot ever since Ross Perot's first Presidential campaign. They have run numerous candidates for federal and state office. In the last two elections, they have filed candidates in a number of legislative districts where one of the major parties has failed to field a candidate. Moreover, in 2004, Thornburgh placed on the ballot a number of Presidential candidates for non-ballot qualified candidates. (They received, 4, 33,5 and 5 votes)

UPDATE SEPT 17 Ballot Access News reported on Sept 15

...Kansas held an administrative hearing to determine the presidential nominee of the Reform Party of Kansas. The committee holding the hearing consisted of the Secretary of State, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Attorney General. After taking testimony, the group voted to place Chuck Baldwin on the ballot as the presidential nominee of the Reform Party of Kansas. The state party had unambiguously desired this outcome, but a doubt had been raised because a national Reform Party convention had chosen Ted Weill.

Slattery Questions Roberts’ Role in Removal of Buy American Provisions

At a press conference in Wichita today Jim Slattery criticized incumbent senator Pat Roberts’ role in the removal of a precisely worded Buy American provision from the 2006 Defense Authorization Bill. The removal of the provision allowed EADS to compete with Boeing for the Air Force tanker contract.

“Roberts had two chances to fight for Boeing and Kansas,” Slattery said. “First as a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and then as a member of the conference committee for the 2006 Defense Authorization bill. On both occasions, Roberts failed.”

The explicit purpose of the provision was to prevent EADS from competing against Boeing for the Air Force tanker contract.
“This is not just about Buy American provisions,” Slattery said. “This is about a narrowly written section of the bill aimed at preventing EADS from winning the Air Force tanker contract over Boeing, its American rival.”

In an article published in the Wichita Business Journal last week, a Roberts’ spokesperson claimed Buy American provisions were “protectionist” and “impractical.”

In response, Slattery said, “Roberts should have protected the 3,800 new jobs the contract would have brought to Wichita. What was truly impractical was Boeing being forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars cleaning up a mess Roberts could have prevented in the first place. Roberts should have known that it was unfair to ask Boeing to compete with a company subsidized by European governments.”

Roberts’ office also argued that President Bush would have vetoed the defense bill had it contained the Buy American provisions.

“It’s time Roberts put the best interests of Kansas ahead of old party politics,” Slattery said. “Roberts had an obligation to do his job and stand up to President Bush on behalf of Boeing and Wichita.”

Slattery said Roberts should be fired for failing to protect Kansas jobs. “It is time to replace Roberts with a senator who will care about Kansans and champions the issues important to them,” Slattery said.

Steve Hatfiield/Wichita Creative Music Society

Tuesday night I dropped by B-side Gallery above Rewound Sounds (817 W. Douglass) to hear one of the summer concerts being put on by Wichita's Creative Musice Society.

Drummer Steve Hatfield led the group, played a bunch of tunes from his CD Just Being Wally, which I bought. It's a great CD. Post-fusion electric jazz. Electric guitar, keyboards and bass.

There are shows on Tuesday nights 8-10 for the rest of the summer. Well worth checking out.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Kansas Federal Democratic Candidate Web Sites

US Senate
Jim Slattery KSDP Info page website

Lee Jones KSDP Info page Website
Candidate for US Senate
US Congress

James Bordonaro
Candidate for US House 1st District KSDP Info Page Website

Congresswoman Nancy Boyda
Candidate for US House 2nd District KSDP Info Page Website

Congressman Dennis Moore
Candidate for US House 3rd District KSDP Info Page Website

Senator Donald Betts
Candidate for US House 4th District KSDP Info Page Website

Updated: June 24, 2008

Why Won't Tiahrt Endorse McCain?

Via Daily Kos, the Washington D.C. insider newspaper The Hill reports that 14 GOP Senators or Representatives have declined to endorse John McCain for President. Among them is Wichita's Todd Tiahrt. (Another dozen won't comment.)

Doolittle’s and Tiahrt’s offices did not specify their disagreements with McCain, but both lawmakers were ardent opponents of McCain’s push for campaign finance reform six years ago

.

Kansas election outlook after the filings

Today noon was the filing deadline for Republican and Democratic primaries in Kansas.

Kansas Democrats are is an upbeat mood with a

full slate of candidates running this year for federal office and the State Board of Education and will also have more legislative candidates on the ballot than ever before.

In 2004, Kansas Democrats contested 62 Republican-held legislative seats. This year, the Kansas Democratic Party has candidates running in 134 seats, including 77 seats currently held by Republicans.

The Lawrence Journal World reports that 4 of 40 Senate seats and 44 of 125 House seats will be uncontested. They then quote Republican Secretary of State Ron Thornburg as saying, "I think it’s getting tougher and tougher to get people to run for office." But, neither Thornburg or the LJW provide any evidence. Are there more or less contested general election races this year than in 2006 or 2004? Seems like we ought to know before passing judgment that it is harder to get candidates. Maybe it's just harder to get Republicans.


Wichita area races here.

Lawrence area here

State Board of Education Races

The narrow 6-4 moderate margin on the State Board of Education is up for grabs again this year.

The Topeka Capital Journal has a run-down on the State Board of Education races here. Looks like there will be moderates vs. creationists battles in each of the 5 districts. At least two open evolution opponents--incumbent Kathy Martin and Alan Detrich have filed. There are two GOP candidates in two other districts, so there's a good chance of evolution battles there as well. In a surprise, creationist Steve Abrams isn't running for re-election, but is running for the State Senate. Iris Van Meter, a former creationist BOE member who didn't run for re-election in 2006 in order to spend more time with her family is running for another Senate seat.

Roberts--Intelligence Failure

Jon Stewart skewers Kansas Senator Pat Roberts over his failures as chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Income inequality becoming a issue around the globe

From the Financial Times

Public opinion across Europe, Asia and the US is strikingly consistent in considering that the gap between rich and poor is too wide and that the wealthy should pay more taxes.

Income inequality has emerged as a highly contentious political issue in many countries as the latest wave of globalisation has created a "superclass" of rich people.

A United National Development Programme report in 2005 estimated that the world's richest 50 people were earning more than the 416m poorest. [emphasis added]

According to the latest FT/Harris poll, strong majorities in five European countries - ranging from 76 per cent in Spain to 87 per cent in Germany - consider that income inequality is too great. But 78 per cent of respondents in the US, traditionally seen as more tolerant of income inequality, also think the gap is too wide.

A flawed history of international communism

The best book reviews are those that steer you to a book you wouldn't have discovered on your own or warn you away from a book that won't live up to expectations.

Werner Cohn reviews Robert Service's Comrades: A History of International Communism and finds it slipshod despite the author's anti-Communist stance and academic standing.

First problem emerges in Service's comments on Paul Robeson.

Speaking of the famous African-American baritone Paul Robeson, Professor Service tells us (p. 278), without benefit of footnotes of any kind: "He never joined the Communist Party of the USA. (Not that this saved him from investigation by Joe McCarthy.)"

...

But what about the substance of the claim that Robeson never was a Party member? How does Professor Service know that this is so? True, Robeson always claimed, throughout his life, that he was not a member. But those who know about the American CP -- this is the main point -- also know that there always were secret members in addition to the open ones. Robeson's unfailing support of every twist of the Party line, including his support of the Stalin-Hitler pact, always led to the strong suspicion, among those who understood the Party, that he most probably was under Party discipline, i.e. that he was a member. If Professor Service has no such suspicion, I would say that he knows little about American communism.

Of course, in the case of Robeson, we can go beyond suspicion. We have evidence, from the very mouth of one of the horses, that he was a Party member: "My own most precious moments with Paul were when I met with him to accept his dues and renew his yearly membership in the CPUSA. I and other Communist leaders like Henry Winston, the Party's late, beloved national chair, met with Paul to brief him on politics and Party policies and to discuss his work and struggles." (Gus Hall, "Paul Robeson: An American Communist," published by CPUSA, 1988.)

A detail, but telling. And Service misses some very big issues.

But Professor Service's complete misunderstanding of the political alignments of the 1930's is more than a detail: "But undoubtedly it was the socialists in Europe and North America who bowed lowest in their admiration of Stalin." This goes with Professor Service's ignoring of the profound anti-Stalinism of the Weimar-era SPD in Germany, of the inter-war SFIO of France (think Leon Blum!), of the anti-Bolshevism of British Labour, of the anti-Communist struggles of the CCF in Canada and the Socialist Party of the US (think Norman Thomas!).

A reader looking for further reading about, say, the French or German Communist parties will find no help at all in Professor Service's sparse footnotes. Take the rich historiography on the French CP. It seems that Professor Service is completely innocent of any knowledge here. The important "Histoire" by Courteois and Lazar is not on the bibliography. There is no title by Annie Kriegel. There is no mention of Robrieux. And, as far as Professor Service is concerned, the German scholars who spent so many years studying the KPD (Ossip Flechtheim, Hermann Weber, etc.) might as well have saved their trouble.

Another poll shows Slattery in good position

Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 6/2-4. Likely voters. MoE 4% (No trend lines). * denotes incumbent.

Roberts* (R) 50
Slattery (D) 38

Roberts is right at the 50% mark, teetering on the edge of the danger zone. Slattery trails by twelve points, an almost direct confirmation of an earlier Rasmussen poll which showed Roberts leading 52% to 40%.

I thought that Rasmussen poll was almost too good to be true, despite the twelve-point gap. Roberts is a two-term incumbent from a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to the Senate since the New Deal.

Slattery, meanwhile, has been out of politics since 1994, when he was thrashed in his race for Governor of Kansas. He has only just officially filed for the race, and started campaigning and raising money only in mid-March.

For him to be so competitive with Roberts, so quickly, in such a red state, is truly remarkable.

Meanwhile, McCain leads Obama 51% to 40%.

Read the entire poll here

Runners against genocide

On Monday, eight teenagers from Wichita's East High school began a 1,300 mile relay run to Washington D.C. to raise awareness about genocide. Each teen will run half a marathon (13 miles) each and everyday.

The runners hope to raise $100,000 for the Genocide Intervention Network's civilian protection program. They've already raised $16,000.

They've got a facebook page here.

Report by a local TV station here or watch a video here.

Songs of Kansas

Norm Geras of the popular normblog has started an interesting series devoted to songs that mention states in their lyrics. The list for Kansas come up yesterday. I hadn't been able to think of a single song that mentioned Kansas.--and web-searching didn't help either. The Jayhawk state fared better than I thought we might. Songs written or performed by Bob Dylan, Tammy Wynette, and Woody Guthrie.

No where as cool as the songs about Texas, but not bad.

Anybody think of a cool one Norm missed?

Songs of Kansas

[The series and its rules are explained here.]

16a. 40 Hour Week: 'Hello Kansas wheat field farmer'. (1, 2.)

16b. Have You Heard The News? - 'Well, they took him to Kansas to the home of an uncle'. (1.)

16c. We're Not The Jet Set: 'And you won't find Onasis / In Mullinville, Kansas'. (1, 2, 3.)

16d. Ballad of Donald White: 'I left my home in Kansas / When I was very young'. (1.)

16e. Do Re Mi: 'Oh, you better go back to... Kansas'. (1. 2.)

UPDATE JULY 3 Norm has added a few more Kansas songs.

6f. The Beehive State: 'Since you're the delegate from Kansas'. (1, 2.)

16g. The Nebraska Song: 'Well I came up from Goodland, Kansas'. (1, 2.)

16h. I'm A Man: 'I'm goin back down / To Kansas.' (1, 2.)

16i. Long Vermont Roads: 'In Kansas and in Missouri'. (1, 2.)

16j. Rhode Island Is Famous For You: 'And Kansas gets bonanzas from the grain'. (1, 2, 3, 4.)

Asiatic Mode of Production in the News

This is going to be a little arcane, but it is important.

National Public Radio is doing some very interesting reporting from China. Two of their top people were in China when the earthquake struck.

One of them, Melissa Block, filed a fascinating report the other day.

Looking back, it seems a bizarre coincidence that when I first visited Dujiangyan in April, there was a water-releasing ceremony — a happy occasion.
It was an over-the-top spectacle with thousands of actors and dancers dressed as ancient warriors and princesses. The annual event honors a visionary engineer named Li Bing.

In the third century B.C., Li designed Dujiangyan's legendary irrigation system, which is now a major tourist attraction.

The earthquake damaged the water system, though it is reported to be safe.

About 2,300 years ago, Li figured out a way to control the unpredictable, destructive Min River. He built a massive dike and irrigation system, channeling through a mountain and splitting the river in two.

His engineering masterpiece put an end to constant flooding, drought and famine in Sichuan province.
Here's why Li is still celebrated in grand style, after more than two millennia: People here will tell you that the Dujiangyan irrigation system transformed Sichuan into a powerhouse.
Without it, people say, Sichuan would never have flourished into the breadbasket it is now — it's known as "the land of plenty."

And great poets and writers arose from Sichuan. The Taoist religion sprang into being on a mountain overlooking the Min.

A neglected and suppressed (by Stalin) aspect of Marx's theory was what he termed the "Asiatic mode of production."

Here's what wikipedia says about the AMOP

...initially used to explain pre-slave and pre-feudal large earthwork constructions in China, India, the Euphrates and Nile river valleys (and named on this basis of the primary evidence coming from greater "Asia"). The Asiatic mode of production is said to be the initial form of class society, where a small group extracts social surplus through violence aimed at settled or unsettled band communities within a domain. Exploited labour is extracted as forced corvee labour during a slack period of the year (allowing for monumental construction such as the pyramids, ziggurats, ancient Indian communal baths or the Chinese Great Wall). Exploited labour is also extracted in the form of goods directly seized from the exploited communities. The primary property form of this mode is the direct religious possession of communities (villages, bands, hamlets) and all those within them. The ruling class of this society is generally a semi-theocratic aristocracy which claims to be the incarnation of gods on earth. The forces of production associated with this society include basic agricultural techniques, massive construction and storage of goods for social benefit (granaries).

Karl Wittfogel, member of the Frankfurt school, developed Marx's ideas further in his book Oriental Despotism and found some striking parallels with the Soviet Union and Maoist China.

There was a certain affinity between the theory of the Asiatic Mode of Production and the theory of bureaucratic collectivism developed by Joseph Carter, Max Shachtman, and others to explain the economic and social system of Stalin's Russia. The Soviet Union was not a superior (to capitalism) form of society. State ownership of the means of production was not the defining characteristic of socialism. If the state owned the means of production, these leftists argued, the question is who controls the state. Only through genuine democracy, including independent unions, can the people "own" the state. Democracy is the essence of socialism. They saw bureaucratic collectivism as a new form of class society with new forms of exploitation.

Returning to Block's story. She discusses the widespread opposition to the dam-building mania of the Chinese elite.

Ai's group, CURA, has been active in opposing the huge hydropower projects built all over southwestern China to feed the country's ever-rising demand for energy. More and more, he says, even before the earthquake, the Chinese people had been saying no to dams, with vocal public protests.

"Here's the contradiction: The country needs power for development," Ai says. "You open a map of China and you see that almost all of its rivers have been dammed. There are almost no rivers that flow naturally.

"Of course, a certain number of dams make sense," he says. "But all in all, too many dams have been built. So these days the voice of opposition to dams is strong."

The Chinese people don't benefit from building dams, Ai says. They're the ones uprooted from their homes by the millions. It's the developers who profit, he says, including a company run by the son of former Premier Li Peng.

"They're behind most of the hydropower projects in southwestern China," Ai says. "They are the ones who benefit the most.

"Most of the money is going to the developers and to local governments," he says. "Officials at all levels — starting with the village — are making money off this. Some of it is mismanagement, and some of it is just corruption."

Ai says the earthquake makes it even more urgent to reassess the wisdom of building so many dams.
And he adds one final thought to the mix, in this new appraisal of dams, and rivers, and who controls them.

Right after the earthquake, Ai says, the Chinese army was trying to reach people to rescue them, but the roads were blocked. If there weren't so many dams, more soldiers could have gone by boat. But the dams were in the way.

Jewish voters and Obama

Jeff Weintraub comments on Matt Yglesias post about the myth of Obama's Jewish problem.

they prefer either Democratic candidate over McCain by very large margins:

Clinton: 66%
McCain: 27%

Obama: 61%
McCain: 32%

=> OK, let's add a small qualification. The 61% figure estimated here does not match the proportions of the Jewish vote that have gone for the Democratic candidate in the most recent Presidential elections.

Jeff goes on to argue that the 61% is a "floor" not a "ceiling" for Obama. There's good reason to think he's right.

Kerry is estimated to have received in the mid-70s of the Jewish vote. But that was in November 2004. How was Kerry doing earlier in 2004? An American Jewish Committee poll in December 2007 showed Kerry with the support of 59 percent of the Jewish vote. By mid-September that had increased to 69 percent.

Rasmussen poll shows Slattery within striking distance

The first poll I've seen on the Kansas Senate race shows challenger Jim Slattery within striking distance. Rasmussen has just released the results of a telephone poll sowing Roberts with 52% and Slattery with 40%, This is a very respectable showing. Slattery has just started campaigning and is still putting the major part of his efforts into fund-raising.

Here's a little of the Rasmussen report

Election 2008: Kansas Senate

Kansas Senate: Roberts 52% Slattery 40%

Friday, May 16, 2008

Before March, the Unites States Senate election in Kansas was a shoe-in for Republican incumbent Pat Roberts. At that point there was no viable Democratic candidate in the race and the state has not elected a Democratic senator since 1932. However, the decision by Democratic Congressmen Jim Slattery to run for office has made the race potentially more interesting.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Kansas voters found Roberts leading Slattery 52% to 40%.

The incumbent leads Slattery by twenty-one points among male voters, but just six percent among women.

The Democratic challenger leads Roberts by three points among unaffiliated voters. Roberts earns the vote from 82% of Republicans while Slattery attracts 75% of Democrats.

John Edwards for VP?

Eric Lee is not only making the case that Barak Obama should pick John Edwards as VP, he is organizing a grass roots campaign to send that message to the Obama campaign.

Here's what Eric writes

It's the morning after the Indiana and North Carolina primaries. It now seems pretty clear to everyone that Barack Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee for President. The question now is -- what can we do to ensure that he defeats John McCain in November. And not only defeats McCain, but defeats him decisively.

We need more than a Democratic victory in November -- we need a landslide. We need huge Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. We can only achieve that if we have the kind of unbeatable team at the top that unites the party and the nation.

It's obvious that Hillary Clinton is not going to be Obama's running mate. Obama has to choose from among many outstanding Democrats, including some who ran against him in the early primaries, to find a great Vice Presidential choice. But one man stands head and shoulders above all the others as the obvious choice: John Edwards.

John Edwards set the agenda for all the candidates in the early stages of the primary battles. He came up with the first and best comprehensive health care plan. He raised the issue of poverty as no leading politician has done for 40 years. His charisma, his abilities and his appeal to those voters Obama must win in November are beyond dispute.

An Obama-Edwards ticket in November is the Democratic party's best chance of winning a resounding victory. If you agree, please sign the form above. We'll make sure that Obama gets this message loud and clear from the many Democrats who we're sure agree with us.

If you agree, visit the Edwards for VP site and sign-on. BTW, Eric promises to have Obama-Edwards campaign materials available soon.

Most lists of potential VPs for Obama seem to be to excessively centrist and rather bland. Despite the importance of Ohio, no-one seems to mention Senator Sherrod Brown, a very forceful critic of the myths of fair trade (he's even written a book on the subject) or Governor Ted Strickland.

If Eric is right and Hillary out of the equation, it seems to me that Obama's advisors will present him with three options. First, a woman to win over Hillary's female supporters. Second, a balance-the-ticket moderate who will satisfy the media and the punditcrats. Third, as Eric argues pick a running mate who will give an economic populist punch to the ticket. This is the way to build an enduring, progressive Democratic majority.

Gallup poll shows support for re-dstribution

A new Gallup poll shows strong public support for re-distributing incomes,
April 25, 2008

Many Americans OK With Increasing Taxes on Rich
Most say upper-income households pay too little in taxes

by Frank Newport

PRINCETON, NJ -- Slightly over half of Americans believe the government should redistribute wealth by heavy taxes on the rich.

The percentage holding this view, similar to that found in Gallup polling last year, is up from 1998 and in particular is higher than was found in a Roper poll conducted for Fortune Magazine back in 1939. Although the methods and sampling of polling done in the 1930s may differ significantly from those of today, the rough comparison suggests that Americans appear to have become even more "redistributionist" in their views than they were at the tail end of the Depression.Other recent Gallup Poll questions underscore the finding that Americans are generally open to the idea of some type of effort to distribute wealth more evenly.

Asked if the distribution of money and wealth in this country is fair or if they need to be distributed more evenly, about two-thirds of Americans agree with the latter response. This is up slightly from last year and, by two points, is the highest "more evenly distributed" response to this question that Gallup has found over the eight times it has been asked since 1984.

The reference to public opinio in 1939 is intresting. From the 1930s until the mid-1970s, there was a long-term trend for the working- and middle-classes to share in prosperity. Income and wealth became more even distributed. Since the 1980s, there has been an opposite trend towards greater inequality. More and more the benefits of economic growth are going only to the very rich, while the vast majority are stuck on a treadmill or losing ground. The increase in two-earner households and the over-utilization of credit have masked this reality. But apparently, the mask is off.

Changing tax policy is one component of reversing this trend. But there are some other essential parts. Making it easier for workers to form unions and reversing the disastrous trade policies are two other essential tools towards creating economic justice.

Remembering the Warsaw Uprising

Leonard Zeskind reminds us that we must re-tell the story

On April 19, 1943—the day of the first night of Passover sixty five years ago—the Jewish resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto launched an armed revolt. Faced with little material help from the non-Jewish populations surrounding them, as well as open opposition from Polish anti-Semites, these Jews fought with pistols, hand grenades and Molotov cocktails the heavy artillery, noxious gas, fire and air power of the German army and its minions. Despite the fact that this was the first open urban revolt against Nazi rule in Europe, the bravery of these Jewish fighters was met with less than an enthusiastic response by the Allied command. These acts of armed opposition, and others like it, should put an end forever to the myth that the Jews of Europe walked quietly and without protest to their deaths. And their story must be told and retold in every generation.

Cesar Chavez Celebration

About 60 people gathered on Sunday March 30 to celebrate Cesar Chavez birthday ( a day early) at Connie's Mexico Cafe in Wichita. I took some picture and created this slide show on Photobucket, a photo-sharing site. It's the first slide-show I've created there. It's a pretty cool tool.

For more on Chavez, read this tribute by Duane Campbell on the Talking Union blog and the Cesar Chavez Information and Action Center created by the United Farm Workers.

Langston Hughes Peformance at WSU

Wichita State University is hosting a performance of a "Ask Your Mama" Langston Hughes project this Wednesday. It sounds like it'll be worth catching.

The Langston Hughes Project "Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz" is a College of Fine Arts Connoisseur Series bonus event with the WSU Office of Multicultural Affairs as co-sponsor.

"Ask Your Mama" will open at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 2, in Miller Concert Hall.
Langston Hughes

Its mood is set in an 800-line suite of poems written by Hughes in the 1960s that reflect the writer's vision of the global struggle for freedom during the early years of the decade.

Illustrated by voice and accompanied by music from the nationally known McCurdy/Wright Consort, it will be lit up by on-screen visual illustrations of Hughes' Harlem Renaissance world by such collaborators and contemporaries as Gordon Parks, Jacob Lawrence and Romare Bearden.

I don't expect to to sound as great as the commercials on KMUW which feature some stirring Charles Mingus. Sounds to me like it is from Blues and Roots, the first Mingus LP I ever bought and one of his finest. Mingus did collaborate with Hughes on The Weary Blues, so it's not totally inappropriate.

Still, Hughes is one of the great American poets, so it should be a good show.

Congrats to the Jayhawks

It was a squeaker, but I'm sure glad they pulled it out. On the final four.

New or newly discovered blogs

I've been busy with other projects-web and otherwise-- and posting has been unexcusably light. So let's start with a round-up of websites I've just recently discoverd.

Sisyphus Sharp political analysis of international events and great jazz videos. From Richmond, Virginia.

Vietnamese workers abroad Launched to support Vietnamese workers in Jordan working in a Taiwanese-owned factory. One of the new and most pernicious forms of exploitation.

The Pump Handle public health and worker safety issues.

Third Party Watch

Consider the Evidence Lane Kenworthy is a professor of Sociology and Political Science at the
University of Arizona. His blog has great stuff on the causes and consequences of poverty, inequality, mobility, employment, economic growth, and social policy in the United States and other affluent countries.

Slattery might be back in Senate Race

I've argued that there is a real chance for a Democrat to upset Kansas Senator Pat Roberts. And, I still think so. The latest Survey USA shows Roberts with a less than stellar approval rating. But I was beginning to think I was the only one who saw it that way. First, Jim Slattery decided to pass. Then, businessman Greg Orman entered the race and had a good month of fundraising--$450,00 or so, probably several times what recent Democratic sacrificial lambs have had, but he rather abruptly left the race.

Now it appears that former Congressman Jim Slattery may be re-thinking his decision not to take on Roberts. The KC Star's Prime Buzz blog reports

Slatts just called. He's looking. He's thinking. "It's not going to take long," he said of making a decision.
He'd like some clarity on the presidential race before pulling the trigger. "That's not the sole consideration, but it's certainly a factor, as you can imagine."
***
Former 2nd District Kansas Congressman Jim Slattery tells Prime Buzz he's reconsidering his decision not to challenge two-term incumbent Sen. Pat Roberts this year.
Slattery, a Democrat, weighed the race last year before backing away.
The only Democrat in the race now is Lee Jones, a 56-year-old railroad engineer from Overland Park who ran unsuccessfully for the Senate in 2004.
Insiders say Jones is not positioned to give Roberts, a Republican, a major challenge.

Jonathon Singer comments on My DD

With Slattery in, this would likely be another one of those races that wouldn't be in the top-tier but would nevertheless potentially be competitive by November

Leonard Zeskind on Minuteman in KC

I left Wichita about 6 AM Saturday to drive up to Kansas City to attend an all-day conference on immigration and racism and got back to Wichita around 9:00 PM. A very long day, but well worth it. I'll try to find time to write up some observations, but for now I want to bring to your attention an analysis of the recent national Minuteman conference held in Kansas City and the impetus for yesterday's conference.

For those who don't know Zeskind, he is a legendary observer and analyst of the racist, far right.

He recently started a website, which has his writings over the years.

Zeskind promises new articles as part of the Zeskind fortnight, with the Minuteman report being the first.

Zeskind reports that at the Minuteman public rally, attended by over 500.

[Minuteman founder Chris] Simcox urged, first, an executive order to secure the borders (and build a bigger thicker fence line). Second, he wanted to put several thousand National Guard troops on the border. Both ideas were met with mild applause. When he proposed making English the official language, the crowd was a bit more enthusiastic. But the idea to abolish “birthright citizenship” for the children of “illegal aliens” made the crowd go wild.

And, this Zeskind points out is where the claim that the Minutemen and the anti-immigrant is not racist falls apart.

Any person or organization that advocates turning citizens into non-citizens, or that seeks to abridge the Fourteenth Amendment is, by any fair standard, a racist person or organization. They need not parade around in white sheets or swastika armbands; or spout racist obscenities like a barroom bigot; or make clever statements about the biological or cultural inferiority of certain peoples. They need only touch one hair on the Constitutional Amendment that guaranteed the citizenship rights of freed slaves after the Civil War, and they are ipso facto a racist.

And, there's reason to be worried.

... the Minutemen were well pleased with their performance at the Uptown Theater. Since that meeting they have been pushing hard for legislation in Kansas sponsored by Sen. Peggy Palmer (R. Augusta) entitled the “Kansas Illegal Immigration Relief Act.” A set of publicity ads they produced have been airing over the radio waves in southern Kansas, and they are gearing up for a recruitment drive at gun shows in the bi-state area.

Stephen Marglin's Heilbroner Memorial Lecture

Just came across this interesting lecture on Fora.tv, which looks like You Tube for intellectuals.



View Stephen Marglin on the Future of Capitalism on FORA.tv

"The Future of Capitalism: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community with Stephen Marglin.

This was the third annual Robert Heilbroner Memorial Lecture at the New School in New York. Heilbroner wrote, "Capitalism's uniqueness in history lies in its continuously self-generated change, but it is this very dynamism that is the system's chief enemy." In recognition of what Heilbroner identified as "the deep human need to be situated with respect to the future," The New School is sponsoring a lecture series in his memory that focuses on capitalism's future. This year, we will host Stephen Marglin, Walter S. Barker Professor of Economics at Harvard University and author of The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community - New School

KC Conference on Immigration and Racism

There's an interesting conference next Saturday in Kansas City.

Saturday March 8 9 am- 4 pm
Cristo Rey School 211 West Linwood Kansas City Missouri

Learn the truth about immigration and the rise of groups that target immigrants and people of color and practice the politics of division. Hear ideas on how to fix our broken immigration system and how to stop the hate spread by the Minutemen and FAIR.

Download a flyer
Para un volante en español

Plenaries .
Voices of KC Immigrants
Strategizing & Framing
How to Get Involved

Bilingual Workshop Who’s Stealing Whose Job?

Workshops In Spanish

Your Workplace Rights
Your Immigration Rights

Workshops (selected)

Why Don’t They Just Get Legal?
The Political Climate That Discourages Inclusion
Retreat from Civil Rights
How To Get Involved
The Minutemen & FAIR
Youth Activism & Civil Rights
Immigration Wedge Politics
Immigration History

Cost: $15 or $5 low income Donations needed Lunch included

Spanish translation
Children welcome
Register ! Call 816-235-1470 Email: ancelj@umkc.edu


Sponsors: All Souls Immigration Taskforce, American Immigration Lawyers Association, Cristo Rey School, Cross Border Network, Institute for Labor Studies, Interfaith Worker Justice, Latino Civil Rights Task Force, Missouri Immigrant & Refugee Advocates, New Sanctuary Movement, Sons and Daughters of Immigrants, Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

March 6 Day of Acton in Solidarity with Iranian Workersi

On 6 March, trade unions around the world are holding an international day of action in solidarity with the workers of Iran. The day will include protests, meetings, and other actions. An on-line petition has been launched to support the campaign.

The Iranian government has been arresting workers who have stood up and tried to organize unions -- including Mansour Osanloo and Mahmoud Salehi, who both languish in jails despite continuing health problems. There is a YouTube video which tells the story of Osanloo and the bus drivers of Tehran.