1) In honor of Karl Marx, the BBC Radio 4's "In Our Time
Greatest Philosopher Vote" winner, Bay Area United Against
War is presenting a Benefit Presentation of Howard Zinn's
one man play, MARX IN SOHO
Starring Jerry Levy as Karl Marx
Directed by Michael Fox Kennedy.
Thursday, August 4, 7:00 p.m.
Friday, August 5, 7:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 6, 2:00 p.m.
Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts
1519 Mission Street near 11th Street
Advance tickets: $10
Door: $20.00
For advance tickets call: 415-824-8730
Bay Area United Against War
The premise of the play is that Marx dies in 1883,but he
is able to see what's happening on earth for next 100 years
and then comes back to talk about it. Imagine all Karl Marx would
have to say after one hundred years of just being able to watch...
The single actor in this one-man play is Jerry Levy,
who has been teaching sociology at Marlboro College
and been acting with the Actors' Theater of Brattleboro
since he moved there from Chicago in 1975. Originally
directed by Michael Fox Kennedy of the Actors' Theater,
Levy has been on the road with Zinn's version of Karl
Marx for a year, performing at benefits, colleges, small
theaters and other venues around the state. At Middle
Earth he was sponsored by the Bradford-based Coos Peace
and Justice Alliance and performed free of charge but
charged with mighty talent and a bottomless love of the play.
www.bauaw.org
MARX IN SOHO--REVIEW
Sacramento, California
7-30-05
It's weird to experience a topic like political
economy as anything but dry and boring. It's even
stranger to expect that an academic professor of
sociology could entertain a crowd with historic
lessons of the origins of economic contradictions and
deep-seated social troubles. Yet Marlboro College
sociologist and Brattleboro, Vermont veteran actor
Jerry Levy did just that in a one-man show of Howard
Zinn's Marx in Soho.
Jerry Levy is on academic sabbatical to
professionally act this year, touring with his
rendition of Zinn's surreal return of Karl Marx to
earth, 120 years after his death. Zinn does not spare
Marx of his warts and boils, but characterizes the
divine presentation of Marx as a sort of 'second
coming'. The world metaphorically shares Marx's
proverbial case of boils, and needs to go beyond
historical report of the ills of the world, to ?get up
off its ass?, to change the world.
What's promising about Levy's interpretation as Marx
in Soho is what he injects emotionally into the
character of Karl Marx. It's refreshing to see and
hear an actor make such an important historical
personage like Marx, reviled by the West yet lionized
by the South, seem so very human, despite his eerie
return. Jesus would have made it, but declined. Marx
has unfinished business, however.
There are lessons to be learned, and Professor Levy
insists upon telling them. He catechizes about
praxis, surplus value, and the brutality of
revolutionary dogmatism. What's novel about his
thespian endeavors is that he has presented this work
in the Dominican Republic with an accompanying Spanish
language powerpoint translation. One can only shudder
at the empowering conscientiousness engendered at such
a proletarian production.
See this play. Contact www.levyarts.com. Then get
up off your asses. After all, boils can be painful.
Review by Michael Monasky at
thegeneralwelfare@yahoo.com
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2) Military Classes are Off Course
By Danny Westneat
The Seattle Times
Friday 29 July 2005
In Seattle, the public schools are hostile territory for the
military, as parents shoo away recruiters and are pushing to
bar them entirely.
In the suburbs, though, the armed forces are welcomed for
more than just visits. They're teaching some of the classes.
Two high schools in Federal Way will debut Air Force courses
this fall. Students as young as 14 will wear uniforms, march
in drills with decommissioned guns and get schooled in
military history, customs and technology.
Course materials are mostly created by the Air Force, and
the classes taught by retired officers. Costs will be split
between the Air Force and the school district.
Federal Way is the third King County school district to ask
the military to set up shop as part of the Junior Reserve
Officer Training Corps (JROTC). Kentwood High in Covington
has a program taught by the Marines; two Issaquah high
schools have courses taught by the Navy.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/073005A.shtml
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002408579_danny29.html
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3) Democratic Leadership Council drafts
right-wing platform for coming elections
By Joseph Kay
28 July 2005
Clinton emphasized her commitment to creating "a unified,
coherent strategy focused on eliminating terrorists wherever we
find them" and "improving homeland defense." She envisioned
a future society in which "we've put more troops in uniform,
we've equipped them better, and we've trained them to face
today's stress, not yesterday's." In calling for more troops, she
repeated the main criticism that Democrats have directed against
Bush's handling of the war in Iraq-that not enough forces
were committed to guarantee victory.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jul2005/dlc-j28.shtml
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4) The Hidden Scourge
Unending Graft Is Threatening Latin America
By LARRY ROHTER and JUAN FORERO
Published: July 30, 2005
So widespread is the disgust that last year another
regionwide poll found that a majority of Latin Americans
would prefer a return to dictatorship if it would bring
economic benefits. Despite improved economic indicators
since then, the ranks of the poor have continued to swell,
as has the resentment of those who are pocketing the
wealth of the nation for their own benefit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/international/americas/30latin.html?hp
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5) Children Are Left Behind After Immigration Raid in Arkansas
Published: July 31, 2005
ARKADELPHIA, Ark., July 30 (AP) - About 30 children, some
as young as 3 months old, were left without their parents
this week after immigration officials raided a poultry
plant here and took the parents away to face possible
deportation.
"A lot of those families had kids in day care in different
places," said Mayor Charles Hollingshead, "and they didn't
know why Mommy and Daddy didn't come pick them up."
The federal officials arrested 119 people on Tuesday in the
raid at the plant, Petit Jean Poultry, after a former worker
said she had supplied others with fake ID cards. The
authorities said that 115 of the people were from Mexico
and the others from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/national/31arkansas.html
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6) Senate Makes Permanent Nearly All Provisions
of Patriot Act, With a Few Restrictions
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: July 30, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/politics/30patriot.html
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7) Military Recruiters Teaching High School Classes
In Seattle, the public schools are
hostile territory for the military,
as parents shoo away recruiters and
are pushing to bar them entirely.
In the suburbs, though, the armed
forces are welcomed for more than
just visits. They're teaching some
of the classes.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/073005A.shtml
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8) SPLENDOR ON THE GRASS - VENUS AT WIMBLEDON
[Col. Writ. 7/2/05] Copyright '05 Mumia Abu-Jamal
To the surprise of some, I'm a tennis fan.
Well, to be honest, it's to my own surprise.
Tennis has always seemed like an effete, genteel, even
snobbish game, and it never captured my interest.
Years ago, an older guy on Death Row, Bro. Karim,
mentioned his growing fascination with, of all
things, tennis!
I could hardly believe my ears.
Why would this Black guy, in his later 50s,
give a hoot about tennis?
"Mu, brotha -- You gotta see these two young
sistas -- from the ghetto of Compton, California,
with braids in they hair, whippin' everything
that come in front of them!"
"Two *sistas*? C'mon, Bro. Karim -- playyin' *tennis*?"
"Mu -- I'm tellin' ya! And they just as *black*!
It's a wonderful thing to see, man -- seriously though!"
"I ain't no tennis fan, Bro. Karim. It just don't
grab me; I can't make no sense of it."
"Bro. Mu -- I'm sayin' -- I know you busy, man;
but, just take twenty minutes, and watch them
play this afternoon. I guarantee -- I'm sayin' -
I *guarantee*! -- you'll become a fan!"
"Bro. Karim -- you *guarantee*? How you gonna
guarantee, man?"
"'Cuz, Mu -- these ain't just 'sistas' -- they
Sisters! From the same family! And, Mu -- they
changin' the game!"
I knew that Karim, a former trainer, loved
boxing; but tennis?
I watched that afternoon -- and I've been
a fan ever since.
At this year's Wimbledon, it was with sheer
pleasure that I saw the stunning rebound of
Venus Williams, the elder sister of the two tennis
stars, win, in straight sets, over the much-favored,
younger, Russian-born star
(and multi-millionairess) Maria Sharapova.
In her semi-final victory she showed pure exaltation
at her win, which came over the doubting chorus
of commentators and sportswriters, who gave her
little chance of winning.
And then came the final -- two American women -- the
6-foot, 2-inch Lindsay Davenport, known as a master
of ball placement, and groundstrokes; versus
Venus Williams, and the doubts were still raised.
"This is Venus's game, *if* she plays Lindsay like
she played Sharapova."
But commentators, at their very best, are but
spectators of the game.
Venus played. And Lindsay played. And like a seesaw
in a children's playground, the games veered one way,
only to turn, moments later, the other. Twice, Venus
came within a breath of losing to the better-serving
Davenport.
But a double-fault crept in; then, an aching back,
and a Time was called, to allow a trainer to tape
muscles in pain.
Fierce hitting exploded between the two tall women,
and at last, after nearly 3 hours of the seesaw, Lindsay,
visibly wincing, launched a ball into the sagging net,
and it was over.
Venus looked like a child wrapped in a warm blanket
of joy, leaping vertically, like a Masai warrior.
A great smile suffused her countenance, and the
doubters fell silent.
It took years, and fights, and great losses, but
here, in tennis's greatest English-speaking shrine,
on a green and fraying field, Venus Williams took
the trophy that marked her once again, as Champion.
For what seemed like a full ten minutes, Venus
grinned and laughed like it was her first and
greatest win. Like it was new.
And for a fan, it was a wonderful, thrilling
moment to behold.
For, Venus rarely showed her emotions on the
screen. She was the introvert to sister Serena's
extrovert. She was cerebral, calm, even placid
in her comments. And even when she won, it was
often painfully bittersweet, coming at the
cost of her beloved sister's loss.
This time, joy burst forth like sunshine through clouds.
She was, for now -- Champion.
Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal
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9) On Farthest U.S. Shores, Iraq Is a Way to a Dream
By JAMES BROOKE
July 31, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/national/31recruit.html
SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands - By jogging at sunset on
the white sands of a palm-fringed beach here, 17-year-old
Audrey O. Bricia is doing more than toning up for her next
try in this island's Miss Philippines contest. She is
getting in shape for United States Army boot camp.
To gain an edge on the competition for enlistment, she
reserved a seat two days in advance to take Army's aptitude
test on a recent Saturday morning here. Safely ensconced
in her seat, she watched an Army recruiter turn away
10 latecomers, all new high school graduates.
"I am scared about Iraq, but I am going to have to give
something in return for those benefits I want," said Ms. Bricia,
a daughter of Filipino immigrants whose ambition is to
attend nursing school in California.
From Pago Pago in American Samoa to Yap in Micronesia, 4,000
miles to the west, Army recruiters are scouring the Pacific,
looking for high school graduates to enlist at a time when
the Iraq war is turning off many candidates in the States.
The Army has found fertile ground in the poverty pockets
of the Pacific. The per capita income is $8,000 in American
Samoa, $12,500 in the Northern Marianas and $21,000 in Guam,
all United States territories. In the Marshalls and Micronesia,
former trust territories, per capita incomes are about $2,000.
The Army minimum signing bonus is $5,000. Starting pay for
a private first class is $17,472. Education benefits can be
as much as $70,000.
"You can't beat recruiting here in the Marianas, in
Micronesia," said First Sgt. Olympio Magofna, who grew
up on Saipan and oversees Pacific recruiting for the Army
from his base in Guam. "In the states, they are really
hurting," he said. "But over here, I can afford go play
golf every other day."
Here, where "America starts its day," the Army recruiting
station in Guam has 4 of the Army's top 12 "producers."
While small in real terms, enlistments from Guam, Saipan,
and American Samoa are the nation's highest per capita.
Saipan, with a population of about 60,000 American citizens
and green card holders, has 245 soldiers in Iraq.
[American Samoa, population of 67,000, has lost six
soldiers in Iraq, most recently Staff Sgt. Frank F. Tiai
of Pago Pago on July 17. Guam has lost three. Saipan has
lost one.]
"I see yellow ribbons everywhere," Staff Sgt. Levi Suiaunoa
said by telephone from the Army recruiting station in Pago
Pago, capital of the territory. " 'Come home safely' signs
almost litter the streets."
Despite the casualties, poverty and patriotism fuel
enlistments.
"I buried at least one myself, but it hasn't stopped
the number of recruits going in," said the Rev. J. Quinn
Weitzel, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago.
"They still feel like they want to do something special
for the United States."
In Guam and Saipan, the letters U.S.A. are emblazoned on
license plates, as if to educate tourists that these
territories are American.
"There is a very strong sense of patriotism throughout
the U.S. territories," David B. Cohen, deputy assistant
secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs, said.
"How else can you explain someone like Ray Yumul,
a sitting Northern Marianas congressman who has spent
a year serving in Iraq? He's certainly not someone who
needed the military as a ticket out."
In the Marianas, the tradition of American military
service stretches back three generations, starting with
the defeat of Japanese rule here in the summer of 1944.
"We support our Liberation Days, our Memorial Days,
our Flag Days," said Ruth A. Coleman, military and
veterans affairs director for the Northern Marianas.
A retired Air Force officer, she said: "Look at me: my
father, husband and I were in the service. My youngest
son is an M.P. His wife is an M.P. commander. My middle
son is in the Air Force."
The tie between military service and economic advancement
is clear to many young people here.
"It's the benefits," said Arnold Balisalisa, who took the
aptitude test here in late June. Taking a break from his
$3.25-an-hour job at a McDonald's, he said: "It is better
than staying on this island. There's nothing going on
here. I'm 19, and I have never even been to Guam."
His friend Ms. Bricia spent a year at a high school in
California, and she can see the difference.
"People in the states have the higher pay, the residency,"
she said, referring to residency requirements to attend
a state university at lower rates. "A lot of people in
Saipan are joining the Army for the higher pay, the benefits."
Clouding Saipan's economic future, Japan Airlines, the
carrier for one-quarter of Saipan's tourists, is to
suspend service here in October. The garment industry,
the island's largest source of employment, laid off
thousands of workers after the recent liberalization of
American import rules for clothing made in China.
To a tourist, Saipan may look like a paradise. For
a restless teenager, it may look like a dead end.
On the eastern flank of Mount Tapochao, Ross Delarosa,
18, looked beyond the cows and chickens near his front
yard and seethed with ambition.
"There's hardly any life this island," Mr. Delarosa
said. The son of Filipino immigrants, he confronts
a society where land ownership and government jobs
are largely the preserves of the indigenous Chamorro
and Carolinean groups. A self-taught mechanic, he said:
"Here it is not what you know, but who you know."
For teenagers who think they are invincible, the brakes
often come from their mothers. Ms. Bricia's mother,
Mira, kept her arms crossed during most of her
daughter's interview.
"I heard about that Jessica Lynch, and I thought,
'My daughter? No way!' " she said, recalling the
American private who was briefly captured early
in the war. In the end, she signed the Army
authorization papers for her daughter, a minor.
Potential recruits say that Iraq weighs heavily
in their decision.
"The scary part is, what if you go to Iraq, and
someone shoots you?" Mr. Balisalisa during his
break at work. But soon he was worrying about how
he fared on the Army's aptitude test. Turning to
Audrey Bricia, he said: "He's called you.
Why hasn't he called me?"
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10) Tuesday, August 2, 7pm
ANSWER/Haiti Action Committee Forum:
EYEWITNESS HAITI
San Francisco Women's Building, 3543 18th St.
(btwn Valencia and Guerrero, near 16th St. BART)
Join us for a special forum, co-sponsored by the ANSWER
Coalition and the Haiti Action Committee, featuring
a report back and video footage from a Bay Area labor
delegation recently returned from Haiti. The delegation
was able to document the massacre of civilians in the
neighborhood of Cite Soleil on July 6th by United Nations
troops. Speakers from the Haiti Action Committee include
Pierre Labossiere, Dave Welsh - participant in the
delegation, and Doug Spalding - who was in the Haitian
capital when Father Gerard Jean-Juste was arrested
and thrown in the National Penitentiary on false charges.
$3-10 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
Wheelchair accessible. Call to reserve free childcare.
For more info, call 415-821-6545.
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11) From: Susan Quinlan
Sent: Jul 30, 2005 11:10 AM
MOOS-Bay Friends,
At our 7/28 meeting we agreed to accept an invitation
from the Campus Anitwar Network to join On The
Frontlines-Options for Youth in Times of War with
the national CAN conference on October 22-23 at UC Berkeley.
We will be meeting on Sunday evening to work out the
specifics of how to build a combined conference that
will empower high school and college students, parents,
educators and community members to counter the military
recruitment of youth in our schools, and to provide
non-military alternatives for all young people.
Please come contribute your best thinking and energy
to build an amazing conference!
Sunday, July 31st, 7pm
AFSC-65 9th St.
(Btwn. Market and Mission, near Civic Center BART)
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12) Campus Antiwar Network Statement on Self-
Determination and Unity in the
Antiwar Movement
As students organizing against the war on campuses across the United
States, we stand in support of full self-determination throughout the
Middle East, including the self-determination of Iraqis and of
Palestinians. As our generation is asked to sacrifice our consciences
and our lives for the sake of U.S. empire-building, we are committed to
opposing that empire-building in its entirety.
In the Middle East today, illegal occupations exist not only in Iraq,
but also in Palestine. We believe the antiwar movement must stand
solidly against them both. This task takes on a particular urgency
today, amid the very real possibility of a bloodbath in Palestine, if
Israel takes the occasion of withdrawing settlers from Gaza to unleash
a full-scale assault on that region. It would be a tragedy for the
antiwar movement to remain silent in the face of the ongoing violence
against an occupied population in the Middle East -- funded by our own
government.
We also believe it is imperative to condemn the racism directed
against Arabs, Muslims, and immigrants in the United States.
These populations have faced the brunt of the war at home --
targeted for racially-motivated suspicion, detention and
deportation. As every original excuse for the war has been
disproven, racism has become the central justification for
continuing to occupy Iraq. The effects of this daily dehumanization
of Arabs and Muslims can be seen in the horrific torture
at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. For this reason we believe opposing
this racism must be a primary task of the antiwar movement.
Our generation is refusing to become cannon fodder in an unjust
occupation. As such, we are one of several groups organizing a College
Not Combat contingent in the September 24 protests on the East and West
Coasts. As a new counter-recruitment movement is exploding across the
country, it is vital for students, teachers, parents, and others who
wish to reclaim our schools from recruitment for a war most Americans
oppose to be able to march alongside one another. This unity is
threatened by the specter of two separate protests in DC.
Therefore, in the interests of building the strongest movement possible
to end occupation, we call on United for Peace and Justice to drop its
opposition to demands in support of Palestine and civil liberties, so
that all of us -- including broad segments of the populations most
affected by the war at home -- can come together as one united protest
in Washington.
All out for September 24, from DC to San Francisco! College, Not
Combat!
Campus Antiwar Network
http://www.campusantiwar.net
Forwarded by
Charles Jenks
Traprock Peace Center
http://www.traprockpeace.org/
Charles Jenks
Web Manager and Past President
Traprock Peace Center
103A Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
413-773-7427
fax 413-773-7507
http://www.traprockpeace.org
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