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A Manual for a New Era of Direct Action

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By George Lakey / Waging NonViolence

Movement manuals can be useful. Marty Oppenheimer and I found that out in 1964 when civil rights leaders were too busy to write a manual but wanted one. We wrote “A Manual for Direct Action” just in time for Mississippi Freedom Summer. Bayard Rustin wrote the forward. Some organizers in the South told me jokingly that it was their “first aid handbook — what to do until Dr. King comes.” It was also picked up by the growing movement against the Vietnam War.

For the past year, I’ve been book touring to over 60 cities and towns across the United States and have been asked repeatedly for a direct action manual that addresses challenges we face now. The requests come from people concerned about a variety of issues. While each situation is in some ways unique, organizers in multiple movements face some similar problems in both organization and action.

What follows is a different manual from the one we put out over 50 years ago. Then, movements operated in a robust empire that was used to winning its wars. The government was fairly stable and held great legitimacy in the eyes of the majority.   [Read more…]

Trump Against the Planet: Defending the Climate With Local Action

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An Indivisible Explainer

Editor’s note: The President’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement has dismayed activists all over the world. We’re reposting this document from Indivisible, whose mission is to fuel a progressive grassroots network to defeat the Trump agenda, to give people some ideas about what steps to take.

The health and safety of Americans and their families is just a game to Donald Trump. On June 1, 2017, he announced—with a televised, grand reveal in the White House Rose Garden—that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. By doing so, Trump hopes to fulfill one of his devastating campaign promises to roll back critical climate and health protections, at the expense of the American public and of generations to come. Trump announced the U.S. will withdraw from Paris despite widespread opposition to pulling out by the American public, the business community, advocates, and even political leaders from both parties.   [Read more…]

Former Lemon Grove Mayor Supports Surveillance Tech Transparency

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Dave Maas / Electronic Frontier Foundation

Former Mayor of Lemon Grove Mary Sessom has added her voice to the rising chorus for statewide surveillance technology transparency in California.

In a letter to the California state Senate and President pro Tempore Kevin de León in support of S.B. 21, Sessom describes her own pursuit of accurate information about police technology as chair of regional public safety committee in San Diego County. The legislation, she writes, would help policymakers obtain the data they need to make an informed decision about whether the benefits of a particular law enforcement technology are proportionate to the impact on personal privacy.   [Read more…]

Single-Payer Health Care in California Would Protect Business and Save the Public Money

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By Stephen Rosenfeld / Alternet

The California Senate Appropriations Committee has vastly overstated the new costs of creating a single-payer health system for the Golden State, according to a national authority on healthcare spending.

Last week, the Committee released its analysis of SB 562, The Healthy California Act. It said the total cost of providing health care to all 37 million Californians was $400 billion a year. Half of that comes from an array of government programs—Medicaid, Medicare, Obamacare, etc. That means Californians would have to raise the payroll tax by 15 percent to pay for the difference, it reported.

“About $200 billion in additional tax revenues would be needed to pay for the remainder of the total program cost. Assuming that this cost was raised through a new payroll tax (with no cap on wages subject to the tax), the additional payroll tax rate would be about 15% of earned income,” the Appropriations analysis said. “It is important to note that the overall cost of those new tax revenues would be offset to a large degree by reduced spending on health care coverage by employers and employees. Therefore, total new spending required under the bill would be between $50 and $100 billion per year.”   [Read more…]

Nixon’s GOP Blocked Investigations into His Actions, As Well—Until They Couldn’t

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By Hunter / Daily Kos

As disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn refuses subpoenas and the vice president dodges questions about his claims that he didn’t know anything untoward was happening (even though he was the man responsible for ensuring it wasn’t), and after we have learned that Trump’s team took direct actions to try to shutter the Flynn investigation, and as a special counsel takes over the Justice Department investigation of Russian election hacking and ties to the Trump campaign, and as still more evidence comes out of meetings between the campaign and specific Russian figures under watch by this country’s intelligence services, many, many Americans are contemplating the parallels between this administration and President Richard Nixon’s downfall.

Of particular import is the question of whether any decent Republicans still exist who would not simply grouse against a president’s crimes, but act upon them. The plain evidence suggests not: there have been no revelations that have resulted in the Republican contingent asking pertinent questions during committee hearings, rather than lecturing on the impropriety of the public finding out about those acts, and party leaders have been obsequious in their condescension to their leader.   [Read more…]

What We Can Learn from War Memorials

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By Kevin Basi / Other Words

In Dryden, New York, a proposed solar farm recently caused a stir.

Thousands of solar panels — enough to power 7,500 homes — are scheduled to be installed near a rural cemetery in the town. Some opponents complain that it’s disrespectful to the veterans buried there.

Energy and environmental considerations aside, what does it mean to respect our deceased service members and veterans?   [Read more…]

New Orleans Mayor Landrieu’s Address on Removal of Confederate Monuments

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By New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu

History cannot be changed. It cannot be moved like a statue. What is done is done. The Civil War is over, and the Confederacy lost and we are better for it. Surely we are far enough removed from this dark time to acknowledge that the cause of the Confederacy was wrong.

And in the second decade of the 21st century, asking African Americans — or anyone else — to drive by property that they own; occupied by reverential statues of men who fought to destroy the country and deny that person’s humanity seems perverse and absurd.

Centuries-old wounds are still raw because they never healed right in the first place.   [Read more…]

Nationwide Report: Insurance Corporations Created Exploitative $2 Billion Bail Industry

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In California, bail insurance corporations’ impact and influence is exposed as the Legislature considers reforms to the state’s unjust and costly money bail system

By ACLU San Diego and Imperial Counties

On May 11th, Color Of Change and the American Civil Liberties Union’s Campaign for Smart Justice released a scathing national report exposing insurance corporations’ hand in creating an unnecessary and largely unaccountable $2 billion bail industry. The report, Selling Off Our Freedom: How Insurance Corporations Have Taken Over Our Bail System, outlines the insurance industry’s role in a money bail system that ensnares thousands of people in detention or debt – or both – as well as the industry’s significant impact and influence in California.

“We all want a justice system that works for everyone,” said Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, Criminal Justice and Drug Policy Director of the ACLU of California.“Sadly, the current money bail system puts bail insurance corporations’ profits before justice. These conglomerates reap tremendous benefits at low risk, while trapping people in debt and evading oversight. This is not a system of justice. It is a system of corporate greed.”   [Read more…]

Extinction Likely for Majority of California’s Native Trout and Salmon

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By Dan Bacher / Daily Kos

If present trends continue, the majority of California’s imperiled native salmon, steelhead and trout are likely to be extinct within 100 years.

That was the alarming news unveiled by scientists and conservation group leaders in a press teleconference announcing the findings of a new report released by California Trout and the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences on Tuesday, May 16.

The report forecasts that 74 percent of the state’s native salmon, steelhead and trout are likely be extinct in the next 100 years — and 45 percent of these iconic fish in 50 years — if the current trends continue.   [Read more…]

Trump’s Deviant Budget Celebrates Cruel Form of Individualism

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By Robert Reich / RobertReich.org

For years, conservatives warned that liberals were “defining deviancy downward.” They said that by tolerating bad social behavior, liberals in effect lowered what was deemed acceptable behavior overall – allowing social norms to decline.

There was never a lot of evidence for that view, but there’s little question that Donald Trump is actively defining deviancy downward for the nation as a whole – whether it’s by lying, denigrating basic democratic values, celebrating tyrants around the world, using his office to build his family wealth, or stopping at nothing to win the presidency.   [Read more…]

Think Tank Recommends Universal Draft Registration and Military Testing

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By Rick Jahnkow / Draft NOtices

The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) recently released a report on U.S. military personnel policy that, among other things, recommends registering women for the draft and giving all young people the military’s aptitude test when they register.

The report’s title is “Building a F.A.S.T. Force: A Flexible Personnel System for a Modern Military” (F.A.S.T stands for Fully engaged, Adaptable, Sustainable, and Technically proficient). It was created by a BPC task force that includes former Department of Defense officials, retired military officers and several former U.S. senators.   [Read more…]

School Choice: Segregation by Another Name

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The Privatization of Public Services Is Always a Money Scam.

By Mark E. Andersen / Daily Kos

On May 9, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos attended a technology conference in Utah. In and of itself, her attendance was not a very remarkable thing. As education secretary, it makes sense that she would be at this event. But then there’s what she said while she was there: yes, she compared school choice to switching cell phone providers.

Under normal circumstances, this would be considered the most out-of-touch thing a member of a presidential administration could say. But these are not normal times.   [Read more…]

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