Originally published at People’s World.
WASHINGTON — Upset and energized by President Trump’s inadequate tele-prompted words on white supremacy, racism and the mass murders in El Paso and Dayton, hundreds of people gathered opposite the White House Aug. 6 to link Trump to the massacres — and to vow continued campaigning to get Congress to act, plus retribution at the polls next year for lawmakers and Trump if they don’t.
The snap demonstration, called by the New Poor People’s Campaign, the Teachers (AFT) and the Service Employees, also drew large contingents from the AFL-CIO and Labor’s Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), organized labor’s constituency group for Latinx people. …
Originally published at People’s World.
It was early in the morning and 7-year-old second-grader Michiko Kodama was learning her lessons with her classmates when the life she knew — the world she knew — came suddenly to an end.
There was a blinding flash of light and an enormous explosion. The school roof fell in, literally. The windows shattered into hundreds of shards of glass. Many impaled her, leaving her dazed and bleeding. When she made it to the nurse’s station, there were no medicines, bandages or gauze to help heal her.
Kodama, you see, was a schoolgirl in Nagasaki, Japan, that day, August 9, 1945, when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on that Japanese city, her home. It exploded 600 meters above and several blocks away from the school, and changed her life forever. It was the U.S.’s second A-bomb of Japan, after the destruction of Hiroshima three days before. …
Originally published at People’s World.
“The function of freedom is to free someone else.” — Toni Morrison
The world lost an icon today. Prolific novelist, essayist, editor, and professor Toni Morrison passed away at the age of 88. Morrison’s family confirmed “with profound sadness” that Morrison had died “following a short illness.” The Nobel Prize winner leaves behind a legacy rooted in uplifting the voices and visibility of Black women and Black culture, along with never backing down when speaking against the ills of society that continue to cause oppression.
Morrison authored 11 novels. Some of her most well-known books include The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, Beloved, and Tar Baby. Although many know Morrison for her own writing, she had a long history of working to bring Black literature into the mainstream as an editor. …
BY SUSAN GOSMAN
Originally published at People’s World.
My great-aunt Mary Gosman Scarborough was born in Russia “at the time of the Czar” and was sent by her parents to America with a man, a family friend, when she was only twelve. They neglected to tell her that he was to be her husband, which exacerbated an already difficult life.
Mary was a hard worker and a believer in the Communist Party all her life. In Detroit, she was an organizer of the Ford Hunger March and the Unemployed Councils, and went to jail on numerous occasions for these and other activities. …
BY ED RAMPELL
Originally published at People’s World.
Hobbs & Shaw is an action-packed spin-off from the Fast & Furious film franchise, with Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock) and Jason Statham reprising their roles from that highly kinetic cinematic series as the titular Luke Hobbs and Deckard Shaw. There are plenty of explosions, car chases, combat and death-defying stunts that make Evel Knievel look like a wuss in this 2 hour, 15 minute ultra-violent, noisy movie. …
BY AL NEAL
Originally published at People’s World.
Dedicated to the memory of the lives lost in El Paso on August 3, 2019 — victims of domestic terrorism, innocent casualties in Trump’s war against humanity and morality: Jordan Jamrowski Anchondo, 24; Andre Anchondo; Arturo Benavides, 60; Javier Amir Rodriguez, 15; Leo Cimpeda Campos, 41; Maribel Hernandez, 56; David Johnson, 63; Angie Silva-Englisbee, 86; Mario Flores, 77; Raul Flores, 77; Elsa Libera Marquez, 57; Luis Alfonso Juárez, 90; Margie Reckard, 63; Sara Esther Regalado Moriel, 66, of Ciudad Juárez; Adolfo Cerros Hernandez, 68, of Aguascalientes, Mexico; Jorge Calvillo Garcia, 61, of Torreon, Mexico; Elsa Mendoza de la Mora of Yepomera, Mexico; Gloria Irma Marquez of Ciudad Juárez; María Eugenia Legarreta Rothe, 58, of Chihuahua; Juan de Dios Velázquez Chairez, 77, of Zacatecas; Ivan Hiliberto Manzano, 46, of Ciudad Juárez; Hiliberto Manzano, 46, from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua; Teresa Sanchez, 82; Alexander Gerhard Hoffman, 66, from Germany. …
BY JOHN WOJCIK AND MARK GRUENBERG
Originally published at People’s World.
Even after a speech today in which President Trump said hate has to end, calls to impeach him and statements identifying him as responsible for a mass shooting carried out by a white supremacist in El Paso, Texas, this weekend continued.
The day after two mass shootings, the first in El Paso and the second in Dayton, Ohio, in which at least 29 people died, Democratic New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker became the first presidential candidate speaking on nationwide media to blame GOP President Donald Trump for the mass murder in El Paso. …
Originally published at People’s World.
ATLANTA — Over 1,000 members of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), the fastest growing and largest socialist organization in the United States, convened their 2019 National Convention here over the weekend. Their goal: To forge a path forward for 2020 and beyond.
DSA has seen dramatic growth since Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign to win the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, growing from a few thousand members then to over 56,000 now.
“DSA is an entirely new organization today,” Eric Robertson, 45, a Teamster from Atlanta, told People’s World during a break in the deliberations. “It now consists of people who have come to the idea of socialism in a new way, in a new set of circumstances. They are completely new to politics. …
BY C.J. ATKINS
Originally published at People’s World.
The rainbow-emblazoned corporate swag has been ordered, the gay and lesbian employees dispatched to New York. The floats are all designed and constructed, ready to roll down Fifth Avenue — colorful billboards advertising just how LGBT friendly T-Mobile, MasterCard, TD Bank, Delta Air Lines, and other sponsors are these days.
Muscle boys, drag queen celebrities, and “unconventional” families will fill the streets while up to four millionpeople cheer them along. Politicians will be on hand, proving their progressive credentials. …
Originally published at People’s World.
In the wake of Trump’s threat to begin massive deportation sweeps of migrant families, the inhuman conditions at facilities holding refugee children were brought to light just this past weekend. These nightmarish conditions are far worse, in fact, more atrocious in many respects than previously reported.
The ghastly, first-hand account of the conditions was given by lawyers and a board-certified physician, Dr. Dolly Lucio Sevier, who visited holding facilities in McAllen, Texas, and the Clint center, also in that state. Dr. Sevier was as quoted on Good Morning America on June 24, saying the facilities were “torture chambers.” …
