Another Library fee update

Apparently the room fees have been changed again.  According to an article on the front of the Herald-Sun Metro section Wednesday, the fees are now $25 dollars for non-profit use of larger meeting rooms (but $50 for the Main Library's Auditorium), and double that for for-profit use. I think the rooms covered are the same as what was in the original press release I posted, and there will be free rooms at the Main, East, North, Parkwood, and Stanford L Warren libraries (but not at Southwest).  Refreshments are prohibited in the free rooms now.  As I said before, I think the County Commissioners need to explain why this is being done and the aim should be to make services as cheap or free as possible for the public.  It is an improvement for some relatively large rooms to remain free for use, and the reduced fee is also better.  I am posting this on both of my blogs because it is relevant for people in Durham and it affects the impeachment movement in Durham, which meets at a library.  

 

On a different note, I blogged about the new State amphibian a while back (on Durham Spark), and the NC Herpetological Society now has an online poll soliciting opinions on the State frog and salamander, at www.ncherps.org. 

Durham Library fee update

I have received more information about the Durham Library
room fees, which were implemented September 4th.  The 

Durham People's Alliance contacted the County
Commissioners and the Library Board of Trustees asking
about the policy and why they think fees are necessary.  

The PA might do more after its next

coordinating committee meeting later this month.  The
Library's advisory Board seems to be in favor of free use, but
the County Commissioners, or some of them, seem to
feel that the fees are needed for expenses associated
with the rooms, and the Commissioners originated this
idea.  There might be further changes, and there

was a working meeting on the 4th.  

Some rooms are still free.  I still think this
is a bad idea and cannot be justified by the charges
to use spaces in the Durham Public Schools, but it is an
improvement to leave smaller spaces free (at least for
now). A press release was sent out August 7th, but
irresponsibly ignored by the media.  The part below is on

 the room fee:

       # # #


       News Release


       Date:  Aug. 7, 2007

       FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

       CONTACT:  Jana A. Alexander

       560-0151 or jalexander at durhamcountync dot gov

       Durham County Library Policies Change Sept. 4

       . . . Meeting Rooms
During the process to create the library's
2007-2008 budget, the Durham Board of County
Commissioners directed the library to implement fees
for meeting rooms.  In the past, community

organizations could use meeting rooms free of charge
if they were not serving refreshments.  The library
charged a nominal fee of $25 for meeting room use if
the organization served refreshments; the fee was for
facilities maintenance.

Durham County Library will continue providing some
free meeting rooms.  However, effective Sept. 4, 2007,
the library will charge nonprofit organizations a flat
rate of $50 for booking one of the library system's
large meeting rooms for up to four hours.  The fee for
commercial enterprises and for-profit organizations
will be $100 for meetings that last four hours or
less.  There will not be a separate fee for
refreshments.

The meeting spaces that will require a fee include
the Main Library auditorium (capacity 150) and the
meeting rooms at North and East regional libraries
(capacity 100), Parkwood Branch Library (capacity 40),
Southwest Branch Library (capacity 50) and Stanford L.
Warren Branch (capacity 75).

The spaces that will remain available to the community
free of charge include Main Library's third-floor
conference room (capacity 40); and the study/tutoring
rooms at East and North regional libraries (capacity
8), Parkwood Branch Library (capacity 12); and
Stanford L. Warren Branch Library (three rooms, with
capacities of 2, 2 and 6).

"Throughout its history, Durham County Library
facilities have been popular meeting places for a
number of community organizations," said [Skip] Auld.  "The
new fee will help us to better maintain our
facilities."


Late breaking information:  The City Council seems to
be considering changes to its position (stated in a 2003 resolution) of ignoring
immigration status except for those charged with serious crimes,
but the consensus is said to be to modify it, not repeal it. 

This might have come up at the Council meeting earlier in the evening.

The Iraqi Resistance is just and should be supported

Below is an article by Kosta Harlan, a local anti-war activist, on the need to support the Iraqi resistance, in response to a recent debate online.  I know soldiers who have been sent to Iraq and, although I don't know them well, I pay attention to the names of casualties in Iraq and dread seeing someone I know listed.  Despite this, US and allied soldiers who occupy Iraq are in the wrong and the Iraqi people have a right to free their country and determine their form of government themselves, including through armed struggle.  The real enemy of US soldiers and patriotic Iraqis is not the Iraqi resistance, but the US and British governments, who decided to illegally invade and occupy Iraq for profit and strategic advantage against other powers, and, at least in the case of our country, don't even treat their troops that well.  Groups that are trying to fracture Iraq along ethnic and religious lines are aiding imperialism and have gained power because of the occupation.         

 

 

Reply to Bennis: The Iraqi Resistance is just and should be supported

In the four years of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, public debate within the U.S. antiwar movement on whether to support the Iraqi resistance has rarely taken place. Consequently the recent polemic between Alexander Cockburn and Phyllis Bennis (a leader in the United for Peace and Justice Coalition) is an extremely positive development and should be welcomed. It is an important debate that needs to take place at all levels within the U.S. antiwar movement.

Some weeks ago Alexander Cockburn wrote of the need for the U.S. antiwar movement to openly support the resistance ( "Support their troops?", CounterPunch). In her reply, "Why the Anti-War Movement Doesn't Embrace the Iraqi Resistance" , Bennis correctly argues that the basis of unity in the movement should not be "Victory to the resistance", but the demand "Troops out now". But Bennis goes further and argues that anti-imperialists have no responsibility to raise support for the Iraqi resistance. Bennis says that the Iraqi resistance is illegitimate (with some arrogance, she refers to the Iraqi resistance in quotation marks) and is therefore undeserving of support. This conclusions rests on a number of erroneous arguments, concentrated here in one paragraph of her article:

"...As a whole, what is understood to be "the Iraqi resistance" against the U.S. occupation is a disaggregated and diverse set of largely unconnected factions, in which the various often-antagonistic armed movements (including some who attack Iraqi civilians as much as they do occupation troops) hold pride of place. There is no unified leadership that can speak for "the resistance," there is no NLF or ANC or FMLN that can claim real leadership and is accountable to the Iraqi population as a whole. There is no unified program, either of what the fight is against or what it is for. We know virtually nothing of what most of the factions stand for beyond opposition to the U.S. occupation - and from my own personal vantage point, of the little beyond that that we do know, I don't like so much."

Essentially, Bennis objects to the alleged lack of unity among the resistance forces. For the sake of argument, let's suppose what Bennis says is true: competing organizations within the Iraqi resistance are incapable of reaching the level of political unity required to form a common resistance front, program, and central political and military command. What does this prove if not the difficult conditions of work that the Iraqi partisans face? Bennis ends up arguing that without a national liberation front there can be no national liberation movement. But this is to ignore the historical development of national liberation movements throughout the 20th century, which in each case formed unified liberation fronts through a protracted process of resolving political, social, and military contradictions among numerous organizations.

It is also an inconsistent argument. Apply the same logic to the U.S. antiwar movement and see what results. Given the numerous political differences within the different coalitions and political organizations that make up the U.S. antiwar movement (not to mention the serious class and racial divisions), one could accurately state, "There is no unified leadership that can speak for [what is called 'the U.S. antiwar movement'], there is no [common front] that can claim real leadership and is accountable to the [American] population as a whole. There is no unified program, either of what the fight is against or what it is for."

Yet it would be absurd to use this as a basis for writing off the importance of the antiwar movement in U.S. society.  The U.S. antiwar movement may lack a single unified command, but it certainly has a large social base, an ability for coordination in action, some political unity, and the ability to impact events in U.S. society. Likewise, the absence of a single liberation front uniting the entire Iraqi resistance in no way precludes the existence of dynamic resistance movement, with a large social base, acting towards a common strategic goal. In fact, such a dynamic, coordinated and popular resistance movement is precisely what exists in Iraq today.

In any case, the facts on the ground are quite different from what Bennis tells us. Over the years the Iraqi resistance has developed from hundreds of smaller organizations to a handful of large, powerful political and military fronts. (According to Abdul Jabbar al-Kubaysi, the secretary general of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance, there are currently eight resistance fronts that comprise the Iraqi resistance.) This is very much an ongoing process: just last month, the formation of the Patriotic National Islamic Front for the Liberation of Iraq (July 2007) marked yet another major advance in the unification of the Iraqi resistance. It will take some time to form a single, unified political and military command for all of the Iraqi resistance, but its formation is question of when, not if.

The fact that well over 100,000 attacks have been carried out by the Iraqi resistance against the U.S. occupation forces in the past four years (currently about 1100 a week) should be enough to indicate the steadfastness, strength, and popularity of the resistance. The frequency and intensity of these attacks would be inconceivable without a high level of inter-organizational political unity, coordination and cooperation. Further, it would be impossible to fight a guerrilla war of this scope without the broad support and involvement of millions of ordinary Iraqis. Bennis implies that the resistance lacks such popular support, claiming that "some [resistance groups] attack civilians as much as they do occupation troops." (One might might recall that during the Vietnam war the U.S. government told the same lies about the Viet Cong–whom Bennis then supported.) But once again, Bennis' claim is not supported by facts. According to the Department of Defense figures, U.S. troops are subjected to 75% of the resistance attacks, Iraqi puppet security forces to 17%, and civilians, 8%. Clearly the overwhelming majority of resistance attacks are aimed squarely at the U.S. occupation and its puppets in occupied Iraq.

Bennis writes, "We know virtually nothing of what most of the factions stand for beyond opposition to the U.S. occupation - and from my own personal vantage point, of the little beyond that that we do know, I don't like so much." Actually, we don't need to know any more than that. Again, why is Bennis applying double standards? The basis for unity in the U.S. antiwar movement is "troops out now." Why does Bennis demand a higher level of unity for the Iraqi resistance before it would be deemed acceptable to support? In the same article, Bennis says that the future of Iraq is up to Iraqis to decide. This applies to the resistance as well. It is the Iraqi people's resistance. We don't get to pick and choose the cloth it is cut from.

In her article, Bennis points out that it was solidarity with the resistance in Vietnam that raised the level of consciousness among millions of people in the U.S. about the nature of the imperialist war in Vietnam. "That was then, this is now," writes Bennis. On the contrary, just as it did during the Vietnam war, this solidarity must become a key component of our work in the antiwar movement. Grasping the nature of the Iraq war, its causes, consequences, and possibilities for resolution, is a prerequisite to building a consistent and powerful antiwar movement that can strike hard at the foundations of the U.S. war machine. A critical part of this process is raising understanding and support for the resistance in Iraq. It is disappointing that an important leader of one of the largest antiwar coalitions in the U.S. would dismiss the importance of this solidarity work and take an openly hostile view towards the Iraqi people's resistance.

Bennis is wrong to separate the resistance from the people. The Iraqi resistance is the legitimate, just, and heroic expression of an occupied people struggling for liberation. It should be recognized as such and firmly supported by those who oppose U.S. imperialism and stand for an independent, sovereign, and liberated Iraq.

Kosta Harlan
August 11, 2007

The author is an antiwar activist and member of Students for a Democratic Society in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. In March 2007 he attended the first international solidarity conference with the Iraqi resistance in Chianciano, Italy.

TSF 9/1 Class in the US

What is the reality of class in the USA and what does
it mean for the middle and working classes?  Join a
discussion of class difference, disrespect and risk at
work, unemployment, unions, and other issues Saturday,
September 1st at 2:30 at the Chapel Hill Public
Library conference room.  There will also be a showing of Predatory
Class War, a presentation by a Duke continuing studies
professor originally shown on The Peoples Channel of Chapel Hill.  This is part of the
monthly Triangle Socialist Forum.  

 

For those on the social networking site www.facebook.com, there is now a Facebook TSF with updates, room for discussion, etc. 

Support impeachment Monday in Chapel Hill

Monday, Aug. 20^th at 2:45; Chelsea Theater

Timberlyne Shopping Center; Chapel Hill;

Near the corner of Weaver Dairy Rd and M. L. K. Boulevard. 

Members of GRIM* & guests will meet to prep for an upcoming celebration. Everyone is encouraged to attend and bring friends. 

We plan to celebrate the leadership initiative by Our Representative David Price to respond to the White House's stonewalling against every effort of Congress to get accountability. Because the administration has blocked every other avenue, it has become absolutely necessary to

Impeach Cheney & Bush.

At 3:00 we'll start a short walk across Weaver Dairy Rd. to Vilcom Center Drive for a brief 'Pep Rally' @ 3:15. 

Several members of GRIM, local elected officials, and human rights activists will meet with Representative Price from 3:30 to 4:00. 

After the meeting, we'll all walk back to the shopping center where we will be granted access to the Chelsea Theater to begin the celebration.  

PLEASE WEAR AS MUCH ORANGE

AS YOU CAN (symbol of impeachment)  
 

*GRIM—Grass Roots Impeachment Movement— www.impeachbushcheney.net

 

++++++
We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

 

—Edward R. Murrow

Upcoming events in August and September

Here are some upcoming meetings on social justice and impeachment events:

 

The next Durham Bill of Rights Defense Committee (BORDC) meeting will probably be September 8^th at 3pm, at a library if free space can be found.   At the August meeting people brought up Price's vote on the bill that would seem to legalize Bush's illegal domestic wiretapping, anti-torture organizing, impeachment efforts, easily tampered with American voting machines and those who support them (at least Durham has machines with paper ballots), the effort to get NC, along with other states, to award their electoral votes to the presidential candidate who gets the most votes nationally, the Durham library fee, etc.   There is lots going on and this was an unusually well-attended meeting, hopefully replicated in September. 

 

The next Durham Impeach Bush-Cheney meetup (online at impeachbush.meetup.com/349/ ) will be at the Parkwood Library on Thursday, August 16^th at 7pm.  There is going to be a viewing of Bill Moyers' recent program on impeachment and a work session to type petitions into Excel on Sunday, the 12th, at 2pm.   

 

GRIM (impeachbushcheney.net) is meeting with Rep. Price at I think 2pm on Monday August 20 ^th in Chapel Hill, possibly with a meeting at Cup A Joe beforehand.  We are trying to collect 5000 signatures for a new petition and it is going quickly (one person alone got 200 signatures in 200 minutes holding a sign at a civic event in downtown Raleigh recently), but we need more people to circulate the petition.   I was told 20 people attending a few events would be enough to reach the goal.  We have almost 1000 signatures now, and it is already at 1000 if the earlier petitions, such as www.petitiononline.com/dsmnc/petition.html and its paper version, are included.    

 

NC Stop Torture Now is having several events soon.  Saturday, August 11^th from 1-3pm there will be mobile freeway blogging protests at overpasses in Raleigh.  Signs and banners will be placed at overpasses and entrances/exits.   An anti-torture and anti-war rally or rallies are being organized for the weekend of October 27^th near Aero Contractor's hangar at the Johnston County Airport.  There might be an earlier event in Raleigh as well.   The next STN monthly meeting will be August 19^th, 2-4pm at the usual Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Raleigh location. 

 

The Duke Human Rights Center and several other groups are hosting a half-day conference on extraordinary rendition and Guantánamo at John Hope Franklin Center room 240 (see map.duk.edu for directions) on Wednesday, September 26^th, 12 to 5:30pm.  Stephen Grey, the author of a book on the rendition flights, Ghost Plane , Maher Arar, a Canadian who was sent to Syria by the US, where he was tortured, and Ariel Dorfman, author of the foreword to Poems from Guantánamo:  The Detainees Speak, will be at the conference (Arar will telecommute, because the Bush Administration still bars him from entering the country, without explanation).   Everything will also be streamed live on the Internet and at Duke's Bryan Center, and an audience at the University of Ottawa, in Canada, will also take part.

 

The Triangle Socialist Forum will discuss rights on the job and fair wages September 1^st at 2:30pm in the usual place at the Chapel Hill Public Library.   If there are readings, they will be posted soon, at Durham Spark, but Marx's Value, Price, and Profit, which we looked at last year, is a good work to review, summarizing the theory that monetary value comes from the cost of labor, which is the lowest cost of maintaining a worker and his family.   The UN International Labor Organization's standards are another document to look at, to see how many rights the US violates (which is one basis for Hear Our Public Employees' case against the State, for denying public employees the right to collectively bargain).  

 

I think a national anti-war demonstration is being organized in Washington, DC for September 29^th.    

Update on the library meeting room fee

I have heard some more details about the changes in the Durham libraries, and a response by some citizen groups is in the works. 

 

A librarian gave me an unconfirmed rumor that there will be a three day grace period to return books and fines for an overdue book or video will be capped at $5 dollars. Someone else in the know told me that libraries around the country are doing this, because people apparently accumulate fines, and then never use the library again!

 

There are various explanations for the fee.  A librarian told me it was to replace lost revenue.  A member of the Library's board of trustees told me that they did not like this decision, but it came straight from the County Commissioners, and is relatively low and seen as half of the for-profit fee.  Reportedly Ellen Reckhow proposed it two years ago and it was approved during budget discussions at the Commissioners' meetings in May and June this year.  The board member told me the fee is for room upkeep.  The rooms aren't that dirty or in need of upgrades I think.  Another person with Library connections told me this is not related to the changes in fines, but is purely the County Commissioners trying to raise general revenue for the government.  That person expects this policy will fail, because for-profit users won't use the libraries.

 

The changes are supposed to start September 4th.  It looks like the smaller room at Parkwood and even smaller rooms at the North and East branches will continue to be free.  The board member said there were some inaccuracies in my earlier account,  I think this corrects them (though I doubt the fee is really only for room upkeep), but if anyone with information thinks this is inaccurate, please comment!

 

I noticed yesterday that (I think) 62 luxuriant marijuana plants were found and destroyed in Durham.  I wonder how much those drug surveillance flights cost and what levels of government pay for them.  The anti-drug war looks worse for society than the affects of many or all of the major illegal drugs, and money is being spent on this counterproductive policy and wars while services, such as free library services, are being cut or made more costly to the public.  My point is, there are plenty of ways to reduce government spending without cutting services that are beneficial or vital to Americans, especially those who aren't wealthy.        

Impeachment protest Monday and Library update

This is an announcement abourt the protest in Chapel Hill at noon Monday.  At first I thought this had to do with the July 23rd national day of action on the Downing Street Memos in 2005, which is about the time when I got involved in impeachment campaigning.  The media is being invited, so let's make it a big event and make them pay attention to the mass support for impeaching Bush-Cheney! 

 

> > > MONDAY /JULY 23RD AT TWELVE O'CLOCK
> > >
> > > AT FRANKLIN STREET POST OFFICE
> > >
> > > IN CHAPEL HILL
> > >
> > > 300 ORANGE BALLOONS
> > >
> > > WILL BE GIVEN AWAY
> > >
> > > COME AND BRING YOUR SUPPORT FOR IMPEACHMENT
> > >
> > > AND BE SUPPORTED BY THOSE
> > >
> > > AROUND YOU
> > >
> > > IF YOU CAN, WEAR ORANGE ON MONDAY
> > >
> > > JULY 23, A COLOR THAT HAS COME TO STAND FOR
> > >
> > > NONVIOLENT REVOLUTION
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > *
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > MONDAY JULY 23RD CINDY SHEEHAN WILL LEAD A MARCH
> FROM ARLINGTON NATIONAL
> > > CEMETERY (AT 10AM) TO CAPITOL HILL, TO THE
> OFFICE OF CONGRESSMAN JOHN
> > > CONYERS TO ASK HIM TO MOVE FORWARD WITH
> IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT, GEORGE
> > > BUSH AND VICE-PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > This event has been accomplished by private
> funds of average people and
> > > businesses tired of the goings on of the
> Government. There will be no
> > > speeches, brochures or requests for funds; just
> people to people. Please
> > > come. Thank you.
 

> > > CEMETERY (AT 10AM) TO CAPITOL HILL, TO THE
> OFFICE OF CONGRESSMAN JOHN
> > > CONYERS TO ASK HIM TO MOVE FORWARD WITH
> IMPEACHMENT OF THE PRESIDENT, GEORGE
> > > BUSH AND VICE-PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > This event has been accomplished by private
> funds of average people and
> > > businesses tired of the goings on of the
> Government. There will be no
> > > speeches, brochures or requests for funds; just
> people to people. Please
> > > come. Thank you.
 

I wouldn't link this to Ukraine's so-called "revolution" a few years ago, which was really just a fight between two different wings of capital, not between different classes, like the revolutions in England, America (I would guess), France, or Russia.  Orange is a logical color for impeachment because peaches are an orange color (im-peach).  Thus Andy Silver's orange to impeach campaign, which has either spread across the country or been independently duplicated all over.   

 

The Durham Library Situation

 

I was told by a librarian that one or both of Parkwood's meeting rooms will cost starting in September, and this is a systemwide policy.  The fee will be $50 dollars for anything up to 4 hours and $100 dollars over that.  The rooms will also be opened up to for-profit activities, though those users will pay double the cost,

 

Apparently this is part of a longstanding wish by the County Commissioners for changes in the Library system.  Overdue book fines will be reduced, for example, by restoring the four-day grace period (which I think is a helpful idea), and the Commissioners introduced the fee to make up for the lost revenue.  There is at least some discontent among the librarians. 

 

As I said yesterday, I think this policy discourages citizens from organizing groups and events by depriving those without funds of a very user-friendly and publicly funded meeting space.  Taxes are supposed to support the libraries and surely they could have saved some money by making cuts elsewhere if they couldn't increase the Library's appropriation in the budget.  I'm glad for-profit users will have to pay more, thus potentially discouraging them from competing with non-profits for the spaces, but at the same time it seems a bit arbitrary and unfair to make them pay double the price.  Possibly the small meeting room at Parkwood will stay free, but I predict it will then be hard to book, because that Library is already sometimes very busy.  I belong to three groups that meet about monthly in the libraries, two of them at Parkwood, and as I said, I would have to pay for one of those groups.   

 

There is a complaint list, at least at Parkwood, and concerned people can also call, email, or write to the County Commissioners to complain (contact info is on the County Government website and in the League of Women Voters publications at the libraries).  The Library had several public meetings earlier in the summer, but as far as I know they did not advertise that this fee was being eyed and I don't know if it was discussed at those events.   

Keep the Durham Co. libraries free

I heard from the Durham BORDC's organizer that using either the auditorium or the upstairs conference room at the Main Library now costs $50 dollars.  I also heard that the Parkwood Branch Library will probably charge for the large meeting room (according to one librarian) or possibly both starting in September.  It looks like this is a system wide change, but I haven't confirmed that yet. 

 

I think this is a bad idea that conflicts with the traditional concept of a public library that also serves as a community center.  I reserve a library meeting room in Durham at least 12 times a year, and it is too costly to pay a fee of $600 dollars a year.  This impacts everyone, but especially citizen groups without financial status, the poor, students, and homeless people.  Sure there are cheaper or free spaces, but these are mostly private locations with more drawbacks.  Church rooms are often very busy, may have a fee, and political meetings might be prohibited.  Homes might be too small, lack parking, and are private spaces that people might not want to use for public meetings open to everyone,  Southpoint Mall and coffee shops provide meeting spaces, but they are also crowded or busy with through traffic, small, and are more limited than the libraries have been,  If this change is to save money, I think it would be more in keeping with the mission of libraries if they saved money instead by not allowing refreshments (the serving of which already has a fee), cutting the lawn less often, etc.  

 

I will provide an update about this when I have more details, but I was told that the Library is taking complaints, so we should send them in (contact information is available at www.durhamcountylibrary.org). 

 

Another longstanding issue, possibly having to do with money, is the way the Library decides which books in its collection to sell. 

Cindy Sheehan in Carrboro today

Cindy Sheehan will be at Weaver Street Market in
Carrboro today (7/19) at noon for an event organized
by the Grass Roots Impeachment Movement.

In the evening (I think at 7pm) the Durham Bush-Cheney
Impeachment Meetup will be meeting for July at the
Parkwood Branch Library in Durham.

____________________________________________________________________________________
Need a vacation? Get great deals
to amazing places on Yahoo! Travel.
http://travel.yahoo.com/

Creeping US fascism? discussion July 21st

The next Triangle Socialist Forum meeting will be
Saturday, July 21st at 2:30 at the Chapel Hill Public
Library, to discuss whether not the US society is becoming
more fascistic.  I might have a short video or clips
to show again and I expect someone from a local branch
of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee
(www.bordc.org ) will come.  The meeting will probably
focus on civil liberties and democracy, but as was
discussed at the last meeting, there is more to
fascism than just the overthrow of representative
democracy.

Two readings to consider:

 

Chapter 28 of Michael C. Ruppert's book Crossing the
Rubicon focuses on the loss of civil rights and some
other things and presents a good case.
www.fromthewilderness.com has two essays that I think
are the same ones excerpted in that chapter, The "F"
Word and Trial Balloon? under the civil liberties
section of the website.  The book overall is mainly
about problems with the official account of 9/11,
which we could consider at the meeting, but that argument is not
necessary to discuss fascism in this country.

After I suggested the readings for the last meeting, I
found another reading on fascism that might be useful
to look at.  Chapter 4 of Fascism and Social
Revolution and the short section on Franklin D
Roosevelt's administration, starting on page 267,
might be most appropriate.  The book is online at:

www.plp.org/books/Dutt.html

Let me know if you need printed copies of the
readings.

Durham BORDC meeting Saturday at Stanford Warren

The Durham Bill of Rights Defense Committee's June meeting is today at 3pm at the Stanford Warren Library, on Fayetteville St.  I think the main agenda items will be the ongoing campaign against the NC connection to rendition of prisoners for torture and tabling at July 4th events. 

 

Also, this is the second day of the Friends of the Durham Library's summer booksale.  They have a range of books, most going for $1 dollar hardcover and 50 cents paperback.  I found most of my Marxist books in the philosophy section and sometimes in the history section, along with books on the histories of the "socialist bloc" countries.

 

I think the renovations downtown are also being officially unveiled Saturday, with the festivities starting at 10am.  It would be nice if the editors of UNC's Daily Tar Heel and others who are hard on Durham's image would take notice.  Though we could use some new trees downtown to replace the ones cut for street work.  

 

If the Grass Roots Impeachment Movement meeting Sunday at 5:30 is open to the public, I assume it is announced at www.impeachbushcheney.net.     

Protecting and expanding democracy discussion July 2nd

Mark the July 4th national liberation of the USA by
joining a discussion Monday, July 2nd at 7pm at
Internationalist Books in Chapel Hill (405 W. Franklin
St.) about the need for revolutionary political and
economic change to make the country more democratic,
fair, prosperous, and sustainable.  How can we remove
Bush and Cheney for their proven crimes?  Whose
interests control politics?  Is monopoly capitalism
serving most Americans well?  How can we live up to
our democratic and progressive ideals?

Now is the time to discuss this, as Bush leads an
an anti-democratic reaction, and at a time when we
celebrate America's revolutionary birthday.

Highway 54 condo rezoning, etc. on the 18th

The rezoning of the back half of the proposed Highway 54 condominium project will be voted upon Monday evening at 7pm at the City Hall.  The rezoning of the cleared area on Fayetteville Rd. at Massey Chapel Rd., I think to expand a daycare, will also be voted upon.  I think the proposal to sell part of the old Lowes Grove Elementary School grounds for commercial development is a County and not a City issue, but that is another local development concern right now.  Some in the community are against the government giving public land to private interests when the site's location by two schools and the future location of what is now the Parkwood Branch Library make it useful for public projects.    

   
Of the rezonings, I am most concerned about case the condominium request, rezoning from
commercial neighborhood to office and institutional, supposedly for condominiums on Highway 54 in front of Parkwood at Blanchard Rd., near the intersection of 55.  I have heard that the developer proposes to build condominiums on the side by 54, with the rezoned portion to be less impacted. When I saw that the house on the site, in a yard with large Willow Oaks, was for sale, I expected that it would just be sold to another homeowner.  I had a dream once that the site would be levelled, but I didn't expect it to happen, but that now seems likely.  The hilly site will probably require a lot of grading to be built upon and much of it is mature hardwood forest with large oaks and relatively rare spring wildflowers, such as Fringe Tree, Mayapple, Rue Anemone (Windflower). There is some English Ivy and Vinca creeping in, but it seems pretty pristine (more so than a lot of Parkwood's public green spaces.  The site is cut by a tributary of Northeast Creek, and the Creek's
floodplain is near or touching the area to be rezoned. It is bad for the area's biodiversity and scenery to cut this woods, probably left over from a larger hardwood forest cut for Parkwood.  Any grading that is done will further harm the water quality of NE Creek and Jordan Lake from silt and later the additional polluted stormwater runoff and flood surge from the development.  Siltation means the loss of topsoil and is bad for aquatic organisms.  You can see how much silt NE Creek is burdened with when it flows yellow-brown into Jordan Lake at 751 after storms. I am surprised that none of the neighbors are opposing this rezoning.  I wrote to Mayor Bell and the City Council to urge them

to get written assurances about what the developer intends to build, to minimize grading, to preserve the wooded back part of the property (and as many trees as possible), and to add a sidewalk (and a bikelane if 54 will be modified).  Given the hilly nature of the site, stormwater control would also be good.  At least the development is proposed along bus routes and is not a gas station (that is apparently the Parkwood Association's argument, but why did it oppose Audubon Park then, which is supposed to be the reason why the area north of Sedwick Rd. was clearcut?).  I don't see how the development would benefit the community.  Also, will it be lower cost housing or will it be more expensive, but poorly situated housing, like some of the neighborhoods along Grandale Rd., for example where a house was built in a partially filled-in seasonal pond?

The  other area, on Fayetteville Rd. by Massey Chapel Rd., is being requested rezoned from rural residential to transitional office overlay.  The Council could require the owners to replant a
buffer on the east side of the clearcut property to buffer the neighbors and a pond on a tributary of Crooked Creek, which also flows into Jordan Lake.  Given the amount of development along Fayetteville Rd., I expect Crooked Creek is getting pretty silty now and has stormwater problems.  I heard that the clearcutting might have been in violation of the rules, but that might be allowed under rural residential zoning. 

Discussion: What is Fascism? June 30th

After a short hiatus, I reserved the Chapel Hill
Public Library's conference room on Saturday, June 30th,
2:30-4:30 for the next Triangle Socialist Forum discussion.   

 

This meeting will be on fascism.  Fascism is
a word that is often used as an epithet, even today,
but what it is and who is fascist is usually poorly
defined by its opponents and even less often is there an attempt to
explain the material basis for fascist seizure of power

and their policies.  Has there ever really been a coherent

political syndrome that we can call fascism, is fascism in power anywhere
today, and if there is fascism now, is it the same
thing as the fascism of the 20's-40's?  I'm thinking of this

as the start of a series of discussions on fascism,

but that depends on how this meeting goes.       

There will be a showing of the 28-minute presentation made
by William Manson and Maria Darlington for The Peoples
Channel of Chapel Hill.  

 

Useful readings are:

A recent short article on the 14 characteristics of
fascism, Fascism Anyone?, by Laurence W. Britt

and published in Free Inquiry magazine.  It is available at:

www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/britt_23_2.htm

The first section of Part 1 of a collection of
speeches. reports, etc. by Gregori Dimitrov, a Bulgarian
communist who was the general secretary of the
Comintern (the third international communist association)

around the time of WWII.  I think he was
also tried by the Nazis for the Reichstag fire (which
the Nazis probably set themselves).  He gives another
analysis of fascism and the Comintern definition:

www.marx2mao.com/Other/TUF35i.html

Chapter 20 of economic historian Karl Polanyi's book,
The Great Transformation, might also be helpful, but
this isn't required reading.  It would be
interesting to discuss later.  The book is about the
development of capitalism up to WWII, focusing on the
tension between the assumptions capitalism requires to
work and the economic, social, and environmental
realities.  Chapter 20 focuses on why fascism
developed.  I haven't looked to see if the book is
online, but you would probably have to find a library
copy or buy it.

I'm not suggesting a survey of all the currents of
thought on fascism, but another contemporary view is
presented in a 1932 analysis by Trotsky:

www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/germany/1932/onlyroad1.htm#s0

As always, it is best to read for the meeting, but
that shouldn't stop anyone from coming.  I think a
film relating to this, From Freedom to Fascism is
being shown at The Open Eye Cafe in Carrboro Friday
evening. 

Confederate and US Memorial Days

If you were in Raleigh on May 10th, Confederate Memorial Day, you
might have seen a Confederate flag, the Stars and Bars (an early
Confederate flag with a circle of white stars on a blue jack and two
red stripes and a white stripe) flying over the State Capitol. The
News & Observer covered it at
www.newsobserver.com/692/story/414858.html.

I think it also flies on
January 19th for Robert E. Lee's birthday, January 19th. Several
states mark a Confederate Memorial Day, and it is May 10th only here
and in South Carolina, which is when Confederate President Jefferson
Davis was captured by Federal forces in 1865.

I don't think it is wrong to memorialize those who died for
reactionary causes, which unfortunately is largely what the
Confederates fought for. The Civil War was partly over a different
view of the Constitution and states' rights, but it came about because
the Southern planter capitalists depended on slavery and the Northern
industrial capitalists did not and wanted to end it in the USA. In a
way the Confederates were defending themselves from Northern
aggression, and the Union did use brutal tactics at times,
foreshadowing the total wars of the 20th century. But the
Confederates were fighting for the right to oppress blacks and so once
the Union decided to end slavery in the Confederate states it gained
the moral high ground and undercut the Southern economy at its base.
Marx and Engels opposed the CSA over slavery and I think also because
they thought a Southern victory would set the entire world back by
weakening the US economy. I think the Constitution allows secession
(though I could be wrong) and it is a natural right people should have
in any country (and it was a right in the Soviet constitution). On
the other hand, I'm not sure that the vote was very democratic among
the citizens in the states that joined the CSA, and of course it
excluded blacks, other minorities, and women (probably also poor
whites).

It would be more accurate, but also probably more offensive, for NC to
fly the Third National, or last Confederate flag over the Capitol.
That flag is white with the Battle Flag (the familiar red, white, and
blue St. Andrew's cross) in the upper right and a red stripe at the
trailing edge). One article I saw said the Stars and Bars is used
because of a decision by Governor Jim Hunt, I think ending use of the
Confederate Battle Flag or Naval Ensign. I don't feel strongly about
having the flag over the Capitol, though it is strange to imagine a
progressive government continuing the practice and the comments at the
memorial ceremony were probably reactionary and said by conservatives,
judging by what the N&O quotes. I sympathize with the defiance of the
US government by flying the Confederate flag, even if it is defying it
over a war that was for slavery and using symbols that have been
appropriated by white supremacists.

We in the South need to end our shame over slavery, our part in the
wars against the native peoples, and our current status as being among
the poorest, most backward, and most anti-worker part of the Union by
being the place where the second American revolution begins. That is
progressive Southern nationalism. More short term, instead of just
apologizing for the wrongs of the past, the South and the entire
country needs to give reparations by bringing minority communities up
to the standard of living and democracy of the rest of the USA. Full
equality will probably not be possible under capitalism though, and
possibly any oppressed nations in the USA will want to exercise their
right to independence.

One final thing on memorial days - it is a lie to pretend that US
Memorial Day is not about legitimizing every war the USA has fought,
whether it was just or not. Just listen to all the talk of fighting
those "terrorists" trying to liberate their country in Iraq and how
the US military makes possible our freedom (when it really is for
doing whatever the capitalists want and for oppressing the freedom of
people in other countries, like in the Vietnam War). The US has been
on the side of justice in some wars and modern soldiers are competent,
brave, and making sacrifices, but their great sacrifices today are for
injustice and the majority of Americans want them to be withdrawn out
of Iraq.

Alliance ML social networking

Around May Day, Alliance Marxist-Leninist (www.allianceml.com) set up group pages on Facebook and MySpace, two popular online social networking sites.  The MySpace site is available to anyone at groups.myspace.com/allianceml, and the Facebook site is only available to registered users of www.facebook.com.  The sites still need pictures (any suggestions?), etc., but they are basically done.  The Facebook group already has some members, which was quicker than I expected and shows how well that site can bring people together.  

 

Facebook has some liabilities as an organizing tool, but there are a lot of political groups there, and many communist groups, unfortunately I think mostly revisionist.  I'm not sure how things stand on MySpace, but Alliance isn't the first red group there either.   

 

The Triangle Socialist Forum is also on Facebook, but that page is pretty bare right now.     

Three salutes over the weekend

There were three important celebrations and anniversaries this weekend. 

 

First, this is the time for marijuana legalization events.  Maybe I'll post more on that later and I'm hoping to write on the related issue of industrial hemp (a very valuable non-narcotic variety used for fiber, paper etc.) legalization later on. 

 

April 22 is the anniversary of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's birth in 1870.  He was born in Simbirsk (renamed Ulyanovsk, I assume in honor of Lenin's family name), on Russia's Volga River.  He went on to lead the great socialist revolution that created the longest lasting workers' state, and made many useful innovations in revolutionary communist theory and practice.  These include his analysis of monopoly capitalism (see Imperialism, online at www.marx2mao.org), linking the proletarian revolutionary movements in the most developed capitalist countries with the national liberation movements in the colonies, strengthen both movements for freedom and democracy, and the two-stage theory of revolution in oppressed nations.  

 

Now to the most popular anniversary.  As most people know, today is also Earth Day, I think first established in the USA in 1970.  A lot of media outlets are portraying it as a celebration of the living Earth, which it is, but I think of it more as a day to work to conserve the environment.  This usually involves picking up trash, which I did yesterday with NE Creek Stream Watch, or lobbying politicians for better environmental protections.  I think the most pressing environmental issue now is climate change caused by humans, and it is good that there is more focus on that this year.  I am trying to reduce my carbon footprint, though I admit that I'm not doing enough, and we should all cooperate and work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  Otherwise we risk a world with more natural disasters and disease, the loss of many species (probably leaving more of the weedy species we tend not to find so beautiful), and coastal flooding that will even sink some nations.  There is even a possibility that warming will actually trigger the next ice age, rather than putting it off, as some reactionaries say they think will happen.  Then we in northern North America and Europe, who caused most of the carbon dioxide pollution, will really be in trouble.  If we work to prevent this, we will have more leverage on India and China to get them to industrialize more responsibly than we did.  I also plan to write on global warming for  Alliance! later this year.              

More for the SF meeting

For the May meeting, I was thinking of focusing on immigration (since there will be immigrant rights protests again this year in May) or a different aspect of the so-called "War on Terror" and militarism, or whatever other topics are suggested.  Then we could look at some more theoretical issues over the summer, though it seems to be harder to get people to come to events during the summer.  
 

Link corrections/additions:

The article from the Fight Back! newspaper is online at at www.fightbacknews.org/2007/03/voices.htm .

www.iraq-news.de - (might not be online now) this is the address I have bookmarked, and the one I gave before might not be correct  - has a lot of useful information, mostly Baathist I think

www.mltranslations.org/Brazil/iraq.htm - a Brazilian interview with a leader of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance.  There is also an analysis of the international significance of the Iraqi Resistance, by the Ray O Light group, posted at www.mltranslations.org/US/ROLiraqnlm.htm

www.iraqiresistance.info - this is the website of the Italian Iraq solidarity conference

www.albasrah.net/moqawama/english/iraqi_resistance.htm - this is an often cited website from Basrah, Iraq, and has all of the Iraq Resistance Reports archived, along with other information.

The 2005 Alliance! article on the Resistance that I referred to is online at
www.allianceml.com/PAPER/2005NOVEMBER/Lars.htm .

Iraqi resistance readings

Below is a report-back from the UNC SDS and FRSO teach-in on the conference recently held in Italy in solidarity with the Iraqi resistance. 

 

The teach-in last Thursday

 

The teach-in was in the place I referred to in an earlier post and I think there were about 20 people in the class room.  When I came in the presentation was starting, with background statistics on how living standards have declined under the foreign occupation.  He also spoke about how the Italian conference was held, despite some speakers not being able to come, and an earlier attempt at a conference that was cancelled when US Congress members pressured the Italians to deny entry to people. I think Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Hezbollah, and the Lebanese Communist Party were represented, in addition to Iraqi guerilla groups.  Next the speaker talked about the composition and actions of the Resistance, based on his research, Conference attendees, and an interview with a member of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance. 

 

History and composition of the Resistance

 

Kosta said part of the reason for resistance is that an Iraqi has the duty to avenge the death of a family member.  This duty came up because the occupation forces killed innocent Iraqis, including peaceful demonstrators (I think he referred to 17 killed after US troops panicked in Falluja in April 17th, 2003, but I could have the date and place wrong).  Public meetings were then held, along with underground meetings to organize cells.  The US had too few soldiers, so they tried to surround Falluja (?), but they could not block all routes.  The US has twice attacked Falluja, devastating the city, and I think Kosta said that now only people with government cards saying that they were residents before 2003 can go there.  He showed statistics showing that resistance attacks have been increasing since 2003, with a few very high spikes, I assume from the battles with al-Sadr's Mahdi Army.  The terrorist attacks we here about in the media against civilians are a minority of the actions.  I think the figure given for the number of guerillas was 400-500,000, which the speaker said he was doubtful about, but heard from several sources.  Patriotic nationalists, Baathists, Islamists, and communists make up the Resistance.  Kosta said that only about 2% of the Resistance is with al-Qaida, which targets civilians.  For this, groups such as the Islamic Army Group have broken all links with the Iraqi branch of al-Qaida.  

 

The militias

 

Militias such as the Badr Brigades, the Mahdi Army, and others are also behind attacks on civilians, and they are operating through the official "puppet" security forces.  The speaker also pointed out that Negreponte was posted to Iraq at one point, and he was behind the death squads in Honduras.  There was also talk in the US military of the El Salvador style death squad option to fight the Resistance.  Perhaps that option has been taken, since the militias can get through occupation check points, even carrying many prisoners.  

 

Civil War?

 

Kosta argued that Iraqis are not split by sectarianism as much as the Western media would have us believe, and that there will not be a civil war after the occupation ends, since the occupation is fomenting divisions.  The CIA could try to destabilize the post-occupation government, but they will be opposed.  He also argued that the resistance is what will end the occupation and hold in check the Bush Administration, not the Democrats or the anti-war movement, though I doubt Kosta meant that protest in pointless, only that, like the Vietnam War protests, it is not decisive.    

 

Q&A

 

There were several questions, I would say cautiously supportive of the proposition that we should support the Resistance.  Political support is all the Resistance wants from us, Kosta said, not material aid or new Lincoln Brigades (Americans who fought on the side of the Republic in thr Spanish Civil War in the 30's).  He was asked if he supported impeachment, which he said he does, though I think he also said it was a doubtful prospect and not what will be decisive.       

 

Hopefully he will be able to come to the TSF meeting on April 29th so you can hear this from the source.  You can read an article he wrote about the conference in the Fight Back! newspaper in March, but unfortuntely I can't provide a link at the moment. 

 

The Death Squads, a video available on Google Videos was suggested as a useful documentary on the action of the militias, and if I can I will download it and bring it to the meeting.

 

Useful readings for the TSF:

 

I looked at these quickly this afternoon and all but the first work, unless there are typos.  Just paste them into your browser if my blog does not list them as actual links.  I'll add more or edit these later.  They are a mix of documents about the Resistance and Iraq or directly from the Resistance, representing a variety of views, along with more about the non-violent Iraqi Civil Resistance.  These aren't required readings for the meeting, but could help answer questions, provide more context, and prompt discussion.  www.iraq-news-network.de (might not be available now) - a lot of useful information, mostly Baathist I think www.broadleft.org/ir - list and links to many Iraqi political parties, including the Worker-communist Party of Iraq (which has an English language website), which is mentioned in "Iraqi Civil Resistance" www.keele.ac.uk/depts/por/Iraq.htm - also links to parties and copies of the Iraqi consititutions, NGOs, etc.  www.mltranslations.org - an interview with a leader of the Iraqi Patriotic Alliance, which is an alliance of several secular and religious groups resisting the occupation, and formed during the 90's to oppose the sanctions.  I can't remember the link, but you can find it in the what's new section near the top.    home.zonnet.nl/patrioticalliance - this appears to be the IPA's website www.iraqiresistance.info - I think this is the website of the Italian conference The October 2005 edition of Triangle Free Press carried an interview from www.counterpunch.org (the Voices of the Resistance series), with Sheik Hadi al-Khalassi, of the Iraq National Foundation Congress, a political group seemingly speaking for the Resistance.  I can't find the interview online and I don't think I saw an INFC website, so I can't provide an easy link at the moment.  www.idao.org - this looked like another useful site, I think about the secular and democratic side of the Resistance www.jihadunspun.com/articles/18122003-Iraqi-Resistance/ir/ailatir01.html  - a useful list of Resistance groups that I think is supportive of Iraqi liberation (from the title I thought that it might be rightwing)  www.ifcongress.com - I think this is the group that I bought my copy of "Iraqi Civil Resistance" from, and it is probably connected to ICR  gnn.tv/articles/2359/Civil_Resistance - more about the ICR and I think also the IFC www.albasrah.net/moqawama/english/iraqi_resistance.htm  - this is an often cited website, and has all of the Iraq Resistance Reports archived, as do other sites.  I haven't examined its politics yet.

                                                                                                                                          

www.counterpunch.org has an article (posted this week) by a Durham writer about a new documentary on the Resistance, which has a website online at www.meetingresistance.com. 

The group I bleong to has an article by a knowledgeable guest writer about the composition and history of Iraq's Resistance online at www.allianceml.com that can be reached by seeing What is New and then scrolling to the 2006 or 2005 issues.