13-YEAR CICADAS IN NC
Early this morning I was noticing that an old root sprout from a larger red maple looks dead, and then I noticed a brown cast-off cicada exoskeleton. Did I miss it from last summer? Then I noticed about 15 more, and a black, yellow, and red-eyed adult Brood XIX 13-year periodical cicada, maybe a female periodic cicada, and I probably heard some of their calls (and maybe a cuckoo as well, mowing, etc). I definitely heard a few calls around mid-day. Someone else saw one here on the 27th. Given that they are already calling, they must have begun emerging around a week ago. In past emergences I don't think I heard them until the first or second week of May. Brood XIX (the Great Southern Brood) includes all four known species of 13-year cicada, one discovered recently, but I think only three species emerge around here. Their appearance and sounds are very similar and all of these, both 13 and 17-year cicadas, are in genus Magiciada. Brood XIII of 17-year cicadas (the Northern Illinois Brood) will emerge near Chicago this year, coinciding with XIX after 221 years, and these are supposed to be large broods. Periodical cicadas are unique to the Eastern US and only appear above ground for about a month after many years underground sucking on tree roots, but apparently there are cicadas in India's northeastern Meghalaya state and Fiji that have higher abundances on even year cycles. I think the various cryptically colored annual species, which might actually have multi-year life cycle as well, start emerging in late June, after the periodic cicadas are gone. At least around here, periodic cicadas miss the large cicada killer wasps of late summer, solitary wasps that specialize in hunting cicadas. I hope to write more about cicadas in coming weeks.
ANTI-WAR EVENTS
The Deir Yassin Massacre in Palestine was April 9, 1948.
Information and photos from occupations and protests in the USA, Canada, and throughout the world: cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/MS5428.HTM#1
Global protest calendar (note that some of the entries are old, such as a Nakba Day protest in Raleigh, NC in 2022): samidoun.net/2022/04/calendar-of-resistance-take-action-for-palestine/
There was Students for Justice in Palestine organized a protest at UNC-Chapel Hill April 26th and an occupation began before the 26th, apparently only passively opposed by the administration so far (PSL Carolinas: www.instagram.com/uncsjp/p/C6Oi7TdOhaQ/?img_index=1 , references to other events: a book study group April 6th at 2pm at the PSH in Durham, the 27th at 2pm in Raleigh, and the 30th at 5:30pm at the 180 Cameron Avenue YMCA in Chapel Hill with author Richard Becker; a march at UNC on the 28th at 3pm; a protest April 27th in Columbia, SC; April 24th writing to Mumia Abu-Jamal (?); a May Day March and Rally at Durham's CCB Plaza at 5pm on the 1st ). Commencement will be May 11th and classes end April 30th: registrar.unc.edu/events/category/university-registrars-calendars/spring-2024/list/ There was an occupation during the Occupy movement, or maybe both UNC and a Chapel Hill occupations.
There will be a May Day March and Rally at 5pm May 1st at CCB Plaza in Durham, demanding a $25 hour minimum wage, affordable housing, that Duke University pay its "fair share of taxes," a ceasefire, divestiture from war, etc (PSL Carolinas: www.instagram.com/pslcarolinas/p/C6FCfoJPP6H/ ; can be viewed without joining Instagram)
UNAC is organizing a webinar "May 2: Remember the Odessa Massacre [May 2, 2014]! US and NATO Out of Ukraine" Thursday, May 2nd 12pm ET, with speakers Bruce Gagnon, Joe Lombardo, John Parker, Phil Wilayto, and Alison Bodine, and a member of the Uhuru 3 (related to the Biden FBI raids against the African People's Socialist Party), on trial September 3rd in Tampa (despite the raids under Obama, I don't think anyone from FRSO faced a court trial): us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XcxaoXglQragoqh1Dc9oHg#/registration
Peace Walk 2024: Silence the Drums of War, from Maine to DC, now beginning May 7th: peacewalk2024.org
"1,000 Grandmothers" Song Festival: Women's Voices for Peace May 9-10th in DC: www.codepink.org/grandmasdc
The 19th annual Israeli-Palestinian Joint Memorial Day Ceremony May 12th at 8:30pm in Jerusalem, 6:30pm in London, 1:30m in New York City, and 10:30am in Los Angeles: www.afcfp.org/2024-joint-memorial-day-ceremony
Nakba Days of Action May 14-15th in Washington, DC: secure.actblue.com/donate/stop-arming-israel-action-days
Nakba Day ("Memory of the Catastrophe") is May 15th each year: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba_Day
There was a Nakba Day Protest at 12pm Sunday, May 15, 2022 in Raleigh, NC's Moore Square: samidoun.net/2022/04/calendar-of-resistance-take-action-for-palestine/ and www.instagram.com/p/CdRPVFkp3wn/ (PSL Carolinas)
Water Melon 5K Fest for Palestine May 18th at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina: www.gathergood.org
The first annual PaliCon May 18-19th in Dearborn, Michigan, by New Generation for Palestine: www.ngpalestine.org and www.tickettailor.com/events/ngp1948
Naksa Day ("Day of the Setback"?) June 5th? – en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naksa_Day
Israeli air and naval forces attacked the USS Liberty in international waters off Egypt's Sinai Peninsula June 8, 1967, during the 1967 War.
3rd annual global 24-hour Peace Wave June 22-23, during the annual RIMPAC exercise; see: 24hourpeacewave.org
No to NATO, No to War, Free Palestine July 6-7th in Washington: "NATO will be coming to Washington, D.C. in July to meet and celebrate their 75th anniversary. NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, no longer is related to the North Atlantic but has redefined itself as an international imperialist organization and, as it always has been, an extension of US imperialism. It has been an aggressive military alliance that has started wars from Afghanistan and Iraq to Ukraine and is a supporter and partner in the Israeli genocide in Gaza. When NATO comes to the US, we will meet it with an alternative summit of our own and a demonstration. UNAC will join with others for these events and will also hold a meeting of our own with other anti-imperialist forces. Please mark your calendars, save the date and prepare to join us in Washington, D.C. during the weekend of July 6 – 7. More information to follow soon or you can contact us at UNACpeace [gmail]."
The Poor People's Army March from the RNC in Milwaukee July 15th to the DNC in Chicago August 19th: www.poorpeoplesarmymarch.com (my browser doesn't want to open this link)
More actions and anniversaries are listed in recent calendars. Quds Day ("Jerusalem Day") was April 5th in 2024, the last Friday of Ramadan; Israel's Jerusalem Day overlaps with Naksa Day in 2024: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quds_Day and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_Day
Wake County's Bookmobile will be touring Wake parks during the summer: www.wake.gov/departments-government/libraries/about-wcpl/library-go
A new song by David Rovics – "Boycott, Sanction, Divest:" davidrovics.substack.com/p/boycott-sanction-and-divest-video
Send letters to multiple university administrations: actionnetwork.org/letters/solidarity-with-university-students-for-peace They say send a letter and then go to your local university in person, and I need to go over to the UNC campus for multiple reasons. Maybe this week.
From the United National AntiWar Coalition's original post April 24th ( nepajac.org/solcol.htm ) and an April 27th email bulletin; slightly edited:
Solidarity with the Student Protesters for Palestine: Divest from Apartheid and Genocide
Thousands of students in colleges across the country have continued the growing protests on their campuses despite repression by university administrations and the government to end them. These protests have been held in order to pressure their universities to stop supporting genocide in Gaza through their investments and their support for the apartheid regime of Israel. The protests have also called for a ceasefire in Gaza and an end to Zionist oppression of the Palestinian people.
[Photo: "Columbia students rally for Palestine"]
The campus actions come after months of protests across the country and across the world in opposition to what the International Court of Justice has called a “plausible” case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Despite this finding, Israel has doubled down on its war against the people of Gaza and Palestine and the US has upped its support for Israel, most recently with a new 26-billion-dollar aid package.
The campus protests have been happening across the country for some time but on April 17th, the students at Columbia University upped the ante and set up an encampment on their campus to maintain a permanent presence for Palestine; a fitting action given the fact that Israel has destroyed all the universities in Gaza.
On the same day that the encampment was set up, Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia, testified before Congress in Washington, D.C. where she supported the false claims that the protests are antisemitic. She announced that she has fired a professor who expressed support for the Palestinian resistance, and she has since called the police onto the campus to put down the demonstrations. Dozens of students have been arrested and many expelled.
Minouche Shafik herself has previously held jobs with various imperialist organizations. She was a former World Bank vice president, former International Monetary Fund [IMF] deputy managing director, former British Department for International Development permanent secretary and former Bank of England deputy governor and is presently a 2022-appointed Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Board member.
The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard had previously been called before congress for McCarthyite interrogation to pressure them to curtail freedom of speech and clamp down on campus protests at their schools. This interrogation caused both college presidents to resign.
However, the repression of the student protesters has not stopped them, and in fact the protest at Columbia has grown in size and spread to campuses throughout the country. Occupations and civil disobedience actions on the campuses are now also happening at UC Berkeley, The New School, NYU, Rutgers, Tufts, Vanderbilt, Yale, [UNC-Chapel Hill (?), the University of Indiana-Bloomington, Emory, Washington University, the University of Michigan, MIT, Emerson, Humboldt, Smith, Pomona, Arizona, Northeastern,] the University of Minnesota and many other places as the list grows daily. Additionally, at Columbia, Barnard and other schools the faculty has come out to defend the students, and support freedom of speech and assembly on their campuses.
With the school year coming to an end and graduations happening across the country the administrations are concerned that the graduation ceremonies could be disrupted by protest. There is also a concern that with elections coming up in November, the protests are exposing the role of the US government and the Biden administration as being complicit in supporting genocide.
[Photo: "Columbia 1968"]
In 1968, Columbia University decide it would knock down the homes of the people in the surrounding Harlem community to build a new gym. This, happening in the context of growing opposition to the Vietnam war[, ] led to a student rebellion that took over buildings on the campus. The police violently removed the protesters from the Columbia buildings as students fought back. This was the beginning of the protest movement that swept the country and the campuses and led to the police and national guard murders of students at Kent and Jackson State Universities. These murders were followed by protests that shut down universities across the country. Such an event today could have much more far-reaching consequences as US imperialism and Zionism have been exposed as never before, the US and its NATO allies are being defeated in Ukraine and their economic structures are being challenged.
UNAC urges total support for the student actions and demands.
Freedom of speech and assembly on the campuses and schools!
End McCarthyite repression!
Amnesty for all students charged or expelled!
Free Palestine!
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