On my old profile

I've been thinking about rewriting my profile, and editing some other parts of this blog, but I wanted to keep some of the information around, so I'm posting the current version here:

I am a Durham native and graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill after studying biology and anthropology.  I am distantly related to Irish bourgeois democratic revolutionary Thomas Francis Meagher, who was also a US general during the Civil War and an acting governor of territorial Montana.  I was a member of AML, which dissolved around 2008 – 2012.  I worked with USMLO's Voice of Revolution newspaper locally for several years without being a member.  I joined the NC Green Party several years ago for electoral work.  Unless otherwise stated, my posts don't represent any group.  My profile image is an uncommon pinxterflower that grew near the edge of RTP in Durham for probably more than 20 years, but that bush and the entire population were seemingly killed by Duke Energy, though they knew about the flowers.  The next nearest pinxterflowers I know of are miles away, so unless there are surviving sprouts or seeds, these rare azaleas are probably not going to return there anytime soon (see my 9/8/2018 DS post).  I reserve the copyright on content I created while other content is posted with permission or under fair use.  I rarely check the listed email. 

I think previous versions gave a few different personal details, covered other groups I worked with and historical figures, and advocated policies.  Most of the time it was minimal and is longer now.  I'm not sure about posting the other profiles again here, though they are still online.  I had to check to see what I had posted previously.

I'm not sure if these versions were all actually posted:

I was born and raised in Durham. I studied biology and anthropology at UNC-Chapel Hill and since then I have done both blue and white collar work, for government and private employers. My profile photo shows Phat Ryan/Rockin' Ruben, the cardinal sculpture in Durham's Central Park.

This might have been posted February 8, 2008:

I was born and raised in Durham. As a communist, I am for a revolutionary democratic working class government that will steadily build socialism. Some steps would be to expropriate Big Business, turning it over to its workers to run within a democratically planned and sustainable economy, end “free trade,” encourage cooperatives, and nationalize land. Government should be open, the anti-democratic “national security state” should be smashed, the people armed, the legislature supreme, and officials should be elected, recallable, and paid like workers. It must support self-determination for all nations, including those in the USA, like Puerto Rico. I support enlarging the Bill of Rights, ending the second class citizenship of LGBT people and other minorities, abolishing the death penalty, preserving biodiversity, fighting climate change with renewable and nuclear power, space development, legalizing industrial hemp and ending the “War on Drugs.” 

I am an anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist, supporting revolutionary communist leaders such as Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Enver Hoxha (Albania), and Bill Bland (UK) [I could add AML's Hari Kumar]. I also admire bourgeois revolutionaries such as Thomas Jefferson.

I was born and raised in Durham and studied biology and anthropology at UNC-Chapel Hill and since then have worked for private and government employers. I am distantly related to Irish bourgeois democratic revolutionary Thomas Francis Meagher, who was also a Union [or Federal] general during the Civil War and a territorial governor of Montana. I was a member of Alliance Marxist-Leninist, but since its dissolution in about 2008 I have worked with groups such as USMLO and PCUSA, though I am not a member. In electoral politics I support the Green Party, the closest thing to a left alternative in North Carolina, though punitive rules have kept it off the ballot. This blog covers a variety of issues, but I am most interested in conservation, labor and economic issues, civil liberties and democratic rights, and fighting imperialism, beginning with US imperialism. My profile photo shows appropriately crimson Phat Ryan/Rockin' Ruben, the cardinal sculpture in the Durham Central Park. My email is listed, but I don't check it very often, so if I reply, it might take a long time.  

For several years I used a late December 2009 image of 'appropriately crimson' Phat Ryan/Rockin' Ruben (there was a dispute about the name), a sculpture of a male Northern cardinal in Durham Central Park, for my profile.  I think that was the first image.  Cardinals, also called "red birds" or "redbirds," though only adult males are so showy in scarlet and black, are North Carolina's state bird.  

The current image, added a few years ago, shows the large, old, possibly ill-fated pinxterflower near Research Triangle Park blooming one evening in late April 2013.  I've thought about posting a photo essay of pinxterflowers I know of in the Triangle in bloom some spring.  The flowers remind me of East Asian higanbana/red spider lilies and pink magic lilies (genus Lycoris, in the Amaryllis family, as apparently are daffodils, soon to bloom or maybe already starting here, since it was an unusually mild January).  I might add to this post later on.  

The Phat Ryan/Rockin' Ruben male cardinal sculpture in Durham Central Park around Christmas 2009 ©.

A large pinxterflower, Rhododendron periclymenoides, a native deciduous azalea, flowering near RTP in Durham in late April 2013 ©.

 

 

FLOC: "NC Governor Cooper and Reynolds' Hypocrisy Demands a Strong Response" and NC Council of State forum

The Farm Labor Organizing Committee AFL-CIO is asking people to sign this letter demanding that Reynolds American negotiate with the union, take steps to reduce the danger tobacco farmworkers face from the coronavirus, and work to stop its suppliers from violating existing laws and labor agreements.  Besides endangering the workers, allowing the coronavirus to spread among farmworkers and denying adequate medical attention increases the risk for everyone.

See:  actionnetwork.org/letters/reynolds-can-save-lives-during-this-pandemic?source=direct_link&

"After six months of refusing to help farmworker communities, Gov. Roy Cooper [a Democrat, up for re-election this year and in the national news recently over the Republican National Convention in Charlotte, etc.] confirmed he will not do anything to help growers and workers cope with the pandemic. The same Governor who in 2017 met with the NC Farm Bureau but refused to meet with FLOC before signing S615, which targeted FLOC and stripped rights from farmworkers to join and form unions [ https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/under-the-dome/article184853933.html?link_id=1&can_id=746ac0676c1f5c05d7883f6be6ff0a2f&source=email-nc-gov-cooper-and-reynolds-hypocrisy-demands-a-strong-response&email_referrer=email_911609&email_subject=nc-gov-cooper-and-reynolds-hypocrisy-demands-a-strong-response ].

When the Pandemic began hitting our community, we never thought the State government would do much and instead FLOC launched an aggressive program equipping members on hundreds of farms with supplies donated by supporters and used our collective power to ensure paid leave, medical access, and other protective policies were uniformly enforced.

An all too common story is that of Julian, an H2A worker who worked for a non-union labor contractor and contracted COVID in the workplace but wasn't provided with medical attention or [transportation] until FLOC provided it. After testing positive, he wasn't paid the required paid leave and was eventually forced by his employer to return to Mexico without appropriate medical attention and in debt, while his employer continued as normal, sending other sick workers to Mexico and simply replacing them.

Thousands of workers face significant barriers to testing and medical care, no paid leave, unsafe working conditions, all in the supply chains of some of the wealthiest corporations in the world like Whole Foods and Reynolds American. 

The Governor and many politicians refuse to look at the agricultural supply chain and understand that while growers and workers struggle in this economy and this Pandemic, wealthy corporations like Reynolds American take advantage, squeezing cheap agricultural products out of us and refusing to take responsibility for the abuse in their supply chain or the serious danger their inaction puts on the farmworkers that make their wealth with our sweat.

We're calling on Reynolds American to finally take action and sign an agreement with FLOC that includes funding for improved housing, transportation, and paid leave to save lives in their supply chain. Please sign in support. Hasta la victoria!" [#BoycottVUSE]

Hear from candidates for commissioner of labor, agriculture, etc.

Farms, Food, and Hunger: A Conversation with the Candidates will be Wednesday, September 9th 7 - 8:30pm on ZOOM, with candidates for NC Commissioner of Agriculture (including Steve Troxler and Jennifer Wadsworth), NC Labor Commissioner (including Josh Dobson and Jessica Holmes), lieutenant governor (including Yvonne Holley), and Superintendent of Public Education (including Jen Mangrum and Catherine Truitt).  Listeners will be able to submit questions and there will be Spanish translation.  This non-partisan forum is hosted by the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, Feeding the Carolinas, MomsRising, NC Alliance for Health, NC Rural Center, and the Rural Advancement Foundation International - USA.   See:  bit.ly/FarmFoodHunger and www.facebook.com/events/3314782091914447 

Blogger changes

Also, this month Blogger/Google changed the format of its user dashboard (the reader experience seems to be unchanged), making it much more difficult to use, like Wordpress.  Hopefully it will get easier to use over time.  It was possible to switch back in August, but not now.  This isn't the reason there haven't been any recent posts this summer, though just writing this using the new system is a lot of trouble.

May 6th primary choices [re-posted December 21, 2022]

[I received an email from Blogger November 22, 2022 at 2pm saying that this post violated the "Malware and Viruses policy" in the Community Guidelines and had been un-published.  I requested a review of the decision a few days later and early on the 26th Google restored the post and three comments, but it is now posted November 25, 2022:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2008/02/may-6th-primary-choices.html  See also:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2022/11/repression-online-tmlu-november-issue.html  Apparently this censorship was automatic and not political, though it is worrying.  I am trying to back date this to exactly when it was originally posted, but the actual time is after 5:04pm on Wednesday, December 21, 2022.]

[This time the post was censored immediately and I don't see a way to appeal; for the original content of this post, see the above link.]

[Even the above was rejected, so I will try a different date, but it should be February 6, 2008 at 8:55pm.]

May 6th [2008] primary choices [re-posted December 21, 2022]

[I received an email from Blogger November 22, 2022 at 2pm saying that this post violated the "Malware and Viruses policy" in the Community Guidelines and had been un-published.  I requested a review of the decision a few days later and early on the 26th Google restored the post and three comments, but it is now posted November 25, 2022:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2008/02/may-6th-primary-choices.html  See also:  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2022/11/repression-online-tmlu-november-issue.html  Apparently this censorship was automatic and not political, though it is worrying.  I am trying to back date this to exactly when it was originally posted, but the actual time is after 5:04pm on Wednesday, December 21, 2022.]

[This time the post was censored immediately and I don't see a way to appeal; for the original content of this post, see the above link.]

[Even the above was rejected, so I will try a different date, but it should be February 6, 2008 at 8:55pm.]

Response to US-Turkish aggression against the Iraqi Kurds

Below is a statement from the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party of Turkey / Northern Kurdistan (www.mlkp.info/index.php) on the recent bombing of Iraqi Kurdistan by Turkey. Now it is coming out that our government allegedly aided and approved of this attack against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and Kurdish villages. This is the kind of liberation the Kurds and Iraqis have as subjects of US-UK imperialism after being "liberated" from the capitalist and dictatorial, but independent and nationalist, rule of President Saddam Hussein. And the two dominant and pro-occupation parties in southern Kurdistan, the PUK and KDP, both collaborated with Saddam Hussein against the other.

For a free and socialist Kurdistan:

LET US PROTEST AGAINST THE POLICY OF DENIAL AND ANNIHILATION OF THE KURDISH NATION FROM THE FASCIST DICTATORSHIP AND ITS ATTACK AGAINST SOUTHERN KURDISTAN

The Turkish bourgeoisie divides the society through laicism-Sharia, Allevi-Sunni, Kurdish-Turkish into different fronts meanwhile also the conflicts of the cliques within the bourgeoisie also continue. But concerning its policy of denial and annihilation the Turkish bourgeoisie was able to reach a unity of will and passed the decision of war through parliament. This parliamentary decision was a declaration of war against the Kurdish nation and also against the progressive, revolutionary and communist movement.

The Turkish state continues to aggravate the terror and make it more extensive. The fascist dictatorship wants to intimidate the progressive, revolutionary and communist movement in Turkey; in short everybody who is in opposition to it and to liquidate them and it applies the concept of denial and annihilation against the Kurdish nation with all force. By organising the Turkish chauvinism they bring the masses to the streets and create a mass bases for attacks and massacres.

The Turkish state attacks all the progressive people, the revolutionaries and socialists who exist in Turkey and Kurdistan. An attack against Southern Kurdistan aims not only at the PKK. The main aim is impeding the formation process of a state there.

The demands of the Kurdish nation are justified and its struggle legitimate. The Kurdish nation fights for its right for self-determination and we support this struggle. Neither the revolutionaries and communists nor the Kurds are the terrorists. The terrorist is the Turkish state.

To which extend the fascist dictatorship, which got moving its army already, will apply its plans depends on the negotiations made with its master USA. These negotiations were concluded in the talks between Bush and Erdogan [the Islamist Turkish Prime Minister]. The USA gave the go-ahead for a limited attack of the Turkish army, a precision operation.

The imperialists and its local collaborators continue to make the peoples of our region [massacre] each [other] and by that maintain their hegemony. In order to get through the confrontations for their different interests between themselves they shed the blood of the workers and labouring masses.

In the name of the Anti-Imperialist Struggle Coordination of the Middle East we strongly oppose the policy of denial and annihilation of the Turkish state against the Kurdish nation as well as the attack against Southern Kurdistan and call upon everybody to protest against this attack.

DOWN WITH IMPERIALSM!
DOWN WITH THE FASCIST DICTATORSHIP!
LONG LIVE INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY!

Anti-Imperialist Struggle Coordination of the Middle East

18 December 2007

[I also changed the preamble to this blog somewhat. The old text is:

This is a personal political blog looking at news and issues, mainly on a local and state level, but including national and global events, from a progressive, democratic (revolutionary) working class perspective from the Triangle area of NC. M-L politics are already somewhat represented in the progressive movements here, but revolutionary socialism is necessary to create an America truly governed by the people. I want to reaffirm the communist perspective through this blog and other media.]