Oct. – Dec. 2011 newsletter pages

I have lately been remembering FDR.  Here is a quote from an impassioned speech given by him in 1936, when he was running for reelection.  It is what we need from President Obama, in speech AND in action.  The naysayers would say that Roosevelt was just trying to co-opt their movement, but I say that if social security and allowing unions to organize and jobs through the WPA and  CCC and other New Deal reforms (Food Stamps and the Glass Steagall Act and others) are being ‘co-opted’, we need more of it.  (James Forsyth)

“For nearly four years you have had an Administration that instead of twirling its thumbs has rolled up its sleeves.  We will keep our sleeves rolled up.

We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the  Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs.  We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob. Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.

I should like to have it said of my first administration that in it the forces of selfishness and of lust for power have met their match.  I should like to  have it said of my second administration that in it these forces have met their master.” —FDR Madison Square Garden 1936

Últimamente me he estado acordando de FDR.  Aquí hay una cita de un discurso apasionado que él dio en el 1936, cuando estaba postulado para ser reelegido. Es lo que necesitamos de parte del Presidente Obama, tanto en discurso como en acción.  Los negativistas dirían que Roosevelt solamente estaba tratando de copar al movimiento, pero yo digo que si el seguro social y el permitir que los sindicatos se organicen y los trabajos mediante el programa de WPA y CCC y otras reformas del Nuevo Trato (los cupones de alimento y el Acta de Glass Steagall y otros) es lo que significa copar un movimiento, necesitamos un poco más de esta actividad.

 “Durante casi cuatro años    

Other matters of interest from the proceedings:  The California Federation of Teachers  will put a “millionaires tax” on the ballot in November 2012,  though it appears that the governor and some other unions will support a weaker measure to increase the sales tax.  Anti-union props will also be on the ballot.

Former Senator Sheila Kuehl and Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones spoke of the deteriorating access to health care, despite some long overdue reforms in the Affordable Care Act.  The ACA notably fails to control costs, and both speakers reiterated the need for passing SB 810 and enacting Medicare For All.

They pointed out that we now have a governor who has said he will sign the bill if it comes to him, which means some conservative Democrats are loath to vote for it.  The same is true of AB 52, which requires that the Insurance Commissioner review all  health insurance rate hikes.

A young organizer who worked on the Vermont single payer bill, James Haslam, told of the years-long campaign to educate and mobilize Vermonters to pass the bill.  Organizing was carried out in every county in the state. The first time it passed the legislature, a Republican governor vetoed it, but the present Democratic governor, Peter Shumlin, actually ran and won the election on the issue of single payer health care. Interestingly, a last minute amendment to exclude undocumented residents was defeated.  Two thousand (2000) people rallied in Montpelier for the bill and against the amendment.

Jones spoke of the difficulty of enforcing the limits on “medical loss” in the ACA.  That is a provision that restricts insurance companies from spending more that 15 or 20%  of their premium income on overhead (salaries, advertising profits, etc.).  Medicare spends about 3% of its budget on overhead.  Meanwhile, Jones said, the five largest health insurance companies in California made $11.7 billion in profits last year, an increase of 51% over 2008.    Haslam said we should be “inoculating” our members against the lies that the insurance companies will parrot .  He said this campaign is about more than health care.  It is a grassroots movement to reclaim our country.

The convention unanimously endorsed the Occupy Wall Street movement.  The CARA Legislative Committee is at the cutting edge of progressive influence in Sacramento.  Several busloads of CARA members will go to the state capitol on January 9 to join the Medical Students rally for SB 810.   The bill must pass the January 17 hearing in the Appropriations Committee and a vote on the senate floor by January 31st.

Joins us on the bus for a wonderful rally!

“In only a little over two months this incredibly dynamic movement has already effected a massive shift in US public consciousness and shifted the political discussion to a new level of open critique of capitalism, ” writes Mike Carr, a reluctantly retired Ph.D Sessional Instructor from Simon Fraser U. in Vancouver, B.C.  He has been a social and community activist for the past 40 years and presently lives in Cuba with his family.

Francis Fox Piven has written:  ”It’s [the 99%] energy will supercharge the arduous work other organizations have been doing for years, amplifying their actions as well as their agendas.”  The December 2nd march of over 1,000 people in SF started out as a rally to protest cuts in Medicare and Medical/Medicaid, and to demand hands off Social Security, and on the way targeted Wells Fargo for, among other things, foreclosing people out of their homes, Verizon, the phone company, for not negotiating with its union workers, and the Hyatt Regency for refusing to sign a contract with its unionized workforce.  The infectious spirit of the crowd, which included multiple ages, genders and nationalities, showed that indeed, we are the 99%!  

Marchers at Occupy SF

A month earlier 30,000 people in Oakland had marched to the port to shut it down for a day in cooperation with the dockworkers.

The movement is still developing, and its future direction is still unclear.  But OWS, in its many facets including OO, has already led to the deafeat of the “Super Committee” scheme to privatize Social Security and Medicare.  And many attribute the amazing recent electoral victories in Ohio, Maine, Arizona and Mississippi (in Ohio 400,000 people who had not previously voted went out to repeal an anti-union law), to the OWS movement.

The possibilities are limitless, and they require our full participation, because the 1% will respond furiously.  We (the 99%) are finally awakening!

Resistance, Honduras style

We heard from several activists from the Honduras resistance movement, including Nelly del Cid, a vibrant and brave woman who has been threatened by government thugs backed by our government.

The School of the Americas (SOA) is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers and police officers located in Fort Benning, Georgia which was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC).  As stated in the history of the SOA, it has “left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned. For this reason the School of the Americas has been historically dubbed the “School of Assassins”.

SOA graduates target “… educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refuge by those trained at the School of Assassins.” (http://soaw.org/about-the-soawhinsec/what-is-the-soawhinsec)

Father Roy Bourgeois, a decorated veteran and Roman Catholic priest, started the movement to close down the school in 1990; he began from a small apartment very close to the gates.  Here he is speaking to the assembled multitudes:

On Sunday there is a solemn vigil to remember the many dead at the hands of graduates of the SOA (the coup that toppled the constitutionally elected President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, was led by four SOA graduates); people walk to the gates of Fort Benning and put up crosses, flowers and remembrances for people who were tortured and killed by SOA graduates trained by our soldiers at Fort Benning:

The Gates of Hell

Martin Sheen, actor and activist, gave an impassioned speech on Sunday, and posed with our Membership Director:

Say queso!

You can find more information on this school that is an abomination by visiting soaw.org, and contributing, or writing a letter to President Obama asking for the immediate closure of this monstrous institution of evil!

On December 2, 2011, Jim and Silvia traveled to a rally sponsored by CARA and by student and labor organizers, marching around SF, making strategic stops at places such as Wells Fargo and other banks, Verizon, and the Hyatt Regency, and ending at Occupy SF for some wonderful entertainment.  The peaceful and joyful parade was led by a group of clergy, among whom we saw Father Louis Vitale, who has served time twice for crossing the line at the School of Assassins in Georgia, and who was arrested during the second raid on Occupy Oakland in early November along with the entire interfaith tent.  They were carrying a mock-up of the Golden Calf, representing the adoration of money which is such a hallmark of our current society.  Student activists talked about the fee increases for college education; many of them are graduating with student debt of $100,000 to $200,000, which in this economy they will not be able to repay.

At Verizon, two employees held up a sign from inside the shop that read: Occupy Verizon. There were more than 1,000 people at the march and rally, including a delegation from Mujeres Unidas y Activas, with whom both Jim and Silvia marched.

The Hyatt Regency was almost barricaded by the protesters; Unite Here Local 2 there has been picketing because the workers have no contract.  You can see a video Hyatt rally of this portion of the rally.

Labor everywhere is under attack; we must support any action by workers to preserve their right to organize and their benefits!  Occupy labor now!

The streets, by the way, were filled with police; this writer wonders what the cost of this massive police presence is to the City of San Francisco, on the day of a peaceful exercise of the 99%’s right to peacefully assemble and enjoy their rights under the First Amendment…

What was most amazing about this particular action was the multi-generational, multi-ethnic, multi-racial nature of the participants, from children to elders, in all shapes, colors of the rainbow, economic strata, except that all are part of that 99% that you hear so much about.  Another video of the rally, including some of the entertainment, may be viewed here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuonXYt68yI

Finally, wonderful photos were taken by Orange Hat Photographer; they can be downloaded and purchased from their website.   Some of them are included here for your enjoyment.

On Sunday, December 3rd, the GA began a discussion on a proposal from the Ohlone people to change the name of OO to Decolonize Oakland.  The presentation of the proposal, discussion of pros and cons and vote took over 3 hours, but was a wonderful example of true democracy in action.  Consensus requires approval by 90% of all present; there were about 300 people present at Sunday’s GA, and the proposal did not pass, but it did obtain a very large number of votes.  Silvia and Jim disagreed on this proposal, Jim feeling (as did many others), that the change in name would divide and disperse the value of the Occupy Movement, Silvia feeling, as did many others, that living as we do in a time of increased imperial occupation the world over, especially in the Américas, changing the name would honor and respect the First Peoples.

Although the permanent camp was raided in early November, the next day there were at least a thousand people at the GA, including Jim Forsyth and Silvia Brandon Pérez, as well as Ginny Di Martini.  It was our first actual participation with the human mike, and the three of us came out inspired and awed by the experience… There is now a 24-hour a vigil, with no porta-potties or tents, only a symbolic teepee.  There is a big action planned for the 12th, in solidarity with all West Coast ports, which will close down the Port of Oakland.  Posters for the action are attached, and we will post pictures when we have them.

We need volunteers to man the kitchen, which feeds anyone from 2:00 to 9:00 PM every day.  Water, fresh fruit, and cooked food, including vegetarian and vegan dishes, are needed.  Before the second encampment was taken down, we were serving hundreds of people every single day, providing medical treatment and counseling, holding teach-ins.  These things are still going on, although the cold weather makes things more difficult.

Occupy (and Decolonize) Oakland reminds you of the following, which is in their original statement:

West Coast Port Blockade Dec. 12

“To the people (aka the 99%): Our only demand is an invitation: Join Us!

We are reclaiming public space to use as a forum for the people to come together, meet one another, listen to each other, and build power for ourselves. Occupy Oakland is more than just a speak-out or a camp out. The purpose of our gathering here is to plan actions, to mobilize real resistance, to defend ourselves from the economic and physical war that is being waged against our communities.

We look forward to making this occupation a space that is welcoming and inclusive of the diverse communities of Oakland (and the bay area). We will acknowledge and learn from each others histories of struggle. And we commit to challenging oppressive ideas, behaviors, and politics, even – or especially – when they come from ourselves or our comrades.

Oakland represent!”

You can read more about this at www.occupyoakland.org, or visit OO’s Facebook page. http://www.facebook.com/groups/occupyoaktown/