Author Randy Shaw
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Can labor organizing ever be properly described as “a discipline” — according to author Randy Shaw this is exactly what Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers accomplished. Shaw makes his argument in his latest book, Beyond The Fields, and in public appearances to promote the book.

NEW YORK — October 21 2010. On Thursday evening activist, attorney, and author Randy Shaw addressed a group of labor organizers and writers at the Brooklyn College Graduate Center for Worker Education. The topic: the legacy of Cesar Chavez and the UFW. The occasion: a tour to promote “Beyond The Fields: Cesar Chavez, The UFW, and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century.” Shaw is an eloquent, dynamic, and thoughtful speaker and this is one book tour that anyone interested in labor history — and organizing — should not miss.

Randy Shaw is Executive Director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, a non-profit, tenant rights organization in San Francisco that Shaw co-founded in 1980. Shaw also edits BeyondChron.org, an alternative — to the San Francisco Chronicle — online daily newspaper. In addition, Shaw has written three well regarded books on activism. His first volume, The Activist’s Handbook, is one of the top ten books in this reporter’s Goodread‘s library: it discusses the relationship activists must maintain with elected officials (electeds must regard activists with “fear and loathing”) and traces the long struggle of a strange alliance. Fighting together to keep a waste incinerator out of their Willamsburg neighborhood, Brooklyn’s Hasidic community put aside a long-standing — and mutual — distrust and allied with the Latino community to take on City Hall. And prevail.

An uncompromising commitment to winning the struggle, willingness to form unlikely alliances, keeping politicians at bay, and taking the long view are themes that inform all of Shaw’s work and Beyond The Fields is no exception.

Randy Shaw: The UFW was an “amazing incubator.”
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Describing the work of the UFW and their legendary leader, Cesar Chavez, Shaw described how the Farm Workers redefined the labor union: tabling at colleges as a recruiting tool, winning struggles by elevating local struggles into national boycotts, digging in for long campaigns, “living off the land,” providing hands-on training for organizers, demanding dedication from — and offering meaningful work to — volunteers, taking principled positions against the Vietnam War and hiring women as organizers are just some aspects of the UFW approach that separated them from their counterparts in the AFL-CIO of the Seventies.

Shaw told the gathering at Brooklyn College that the UFW was the first union to table at campuses. And the point was not simply to hand out fliers. Organizers were expected to engage in “barking” — engaging students directly in conversation. And when a student signed up as a volunteer, that recruit got a phone call that same night. The volunteers were contacted immediately and consistently, were well trained, and were put to work.

The UFW gave fledgling organizers something that transcended good training and opportunities to grow — according to Shaw the UFW gave young activists “Something meaningful to do with their lives.” As a result young organizers were willing to work for $5 a week, to “live off the land,” to travel, to start a union office from scratch, to recruit a staff and organizers and to fundraise to support the organizing work. Shaw said that this sort of immersion training made the UFW an “amazing incubator” that produced very talented organizers — organizers who left the UFW but never left the movement. Many UFW trained organizers went on to work in UNITEHERE and other unions and to involve themselves in a variety of social justice causes. In effect, Chavez and the farm workers built a social movement. And they did this by turning labor organizing into what Shaw termed “a real discipline.” UFW-trained organizers could, and did, build unions and movements literally from nothing.

In the last three decades UFW alumni went on to organize coffee boycotts against the brutal government in El Salvador — with its death squads funded by U.S. tax dollars, to fight agribusiness — and win, to challenge the notion that pesticides didn’t harm the environment, and to stand up for immigrant rights.

The eventual decline of the UFW in the Seventies and Eighties should not be seen as the sole indicator of its effectiveness, Shaw said. Cesar Chavez became very difficult to work with, possibly due to emotional issues, and drove out most of the UFW’s top talent, according to Shaw. But, Shaw notes, the UFW must be assessed, not by its current membership numbers, but by its legacy.

And what a legacy it is.

In its heyday, the UFW was alone in hiring women — and making them officers. Shaw told a story of a 15-year-old woman who became a “boycott captain” — before she was old enough to drive a car.

In 1968, Chavez aggressively recruited organizers and used his recruits for voter outreach — providing a model that was adapted and adopted by Obama in in 2008.

The UFW pushed organized labor to change its position on immigrants. In 2000, the AFL-CIO dropped its long-held anti-immigrant stance and began representing undocumented workers.

A number of great organizers still working today got their start in the UFW – and the training they received served them well. Consequently, the diminished state of the UFW today is no measure of the union’s greatness. Its profound and long-lasting impact on the labor movement is the best quantifier of its success.

As Randy Shaw said, “You have to look at the big picture of what the legacy of the UFW is.”

One means of having a look at that big picture is to read Beyond The Fields. It is packed with great labor history, analysis — and near and dear to the hearts of organizers and activists: ideas. Many of the fascinating stories contained in the book could not be presented in a brief presentation.

For example: Cesar Chavez was an admirer of Mohandas K. Gandhi.

Cesar Chavez studied Mahatma Gandhi. And applied what he learned. In 1968, a UFW grape strike was faltering and some union members advocated violence against strikebreakers. Chavez responded by delivering a 90 minute talk on nonviolence and an announcement that he was going on a spiritual fast until the UFW affirmed its commitment to nonviolence.

Randy Shaw: “The initial reaction to Chavez’s decision to fast was mixed. Some of the more secular and radical UFW volunteers, who included those most critical of Chavez’s strategy of nonviolence, disdained the religious imagery of the fast. Saul Alinsky, whose Industrial Areas Foundation had employed Chavez as an organizer in the 1950s, told Chavez that his fast was ‘embarrassing’ to the IAF. Labor officials were reportedly incensed about the fast. Unions were accustomed to ‘beating up scabs’ as the best strategy for deterring strikebreakers, yet Chavez was ignoring this and instead engaging in what they perceived as a religious act.”

[ p. 85, Beyond The Fields ]

Bobby Kennedy was on hand when Chavez ended his fast — 25 days later — and famously offered the labor leader a piece of bread.

Reading Beyond The Fields, it becomes clear that there is much to learn from the successes and the failures of the UFW.

CLICK HERE to view Randy’s talk (NLN on Blip TV)
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

In a question and answer segment following his presentation, Shaw commented at length on the problem of how unions and other progressive organizations fail to deal effectively with dissent. Unfortunately, in many unions, any dissent is viewed with suspicion and the dissenter is regarded as not being a “team player.” This stifling of dissent and initiative is forcing organizers out at a time when they are most needed.

“When you have to be that homogenous you also then lose people who don’t want to be part of those organizations,” Shaw said.

Given that many unions once profited by borrowing a page or two from the UFW’s playbook now might be an excellent time for labor people to take a look at the rich history of that organization.

View Photos/Videos From The Event…

Kathy Kelly at a 2009 Debi Rose fundraiser
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

 
 
NLN has lost a friend: a fighter for single payer health care, a woman who died of lung cancer at age 50, a woman who was fighting to stop the banks from taking her house after she went broke paying medical bills, a woman who repeatedly pressured Congressman Mike McMahon to represent his constituents and not the insurance companies, a woman whose presence made a long struggle enjoyable for those who stood with her.

 
 

Kathy occasionally contributed reporting to NLN
(Photo: Kathleen Kelly / NLN)

NLN has lost a friend.

Kathy Kelly at a 2010 HCAN rally
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

 
 
If you believe that people should come before profits, that education should come before foreign wars, that health care serves our nation better than torturing helpless prisoners, that elected officials who describe themselves as “centrists” while maintaining a corporate voting record are more accurately characterized as opportunists — then you too have lost a friend.

 
 

Kathy Kelly squared off with Mike McMahon on a regular basis
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

 
 
Her name was Kathleen Kelly. Kathy was a lifelong Staten Islander. She described herself as a moderate and was not a firebrand. But she was a community organizer who put people first and never seemed to tire. She will be missed.

 
 

Kathy Kelly interviewed by NY1 outside Mike McMahon’s office
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

 
 
NLN Articles mentioning Kathleen Kelly:

 
•Health Care Reform: The Cure For Bipartisan Disorder?
•“It’s Good To See So Many People Here…”
•Activists Die-In For Health Care, Protest Outside McMahon’s Office
•Looking For A Leader: Will The Real Mike McMahon Please Stand Up?
•Public Option Protest At McMahon’s Office

 
 
Click Here To See Videos featuring Kathy Kelly

 
 

Kathy Kelly at a 2009 town hall meeting on health care reform
sponsored by McMahon
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Click HERE to read the obituary in the Staten Island Advance.

Kathy Kelly at a 2009 protest at Mike McMahon’s office
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

 
 
In the end, McMahon voted against health care – declining to even discuss single payer health care – but the struggle continues.

Hans Keilson, now over a hundred years old and still alive in Holland, near Amsterdam, is so little known that the Wikepedia entry tells us almost nothing about him, except that he is Jewish, and of Dutch/German descent. After a favorable review of his work in the New York Times Book Review, I picked up the paperback Death of the Adversary, originally published in 1959. It is a haunting 208 page paperback.

We know, whether young or old, that Hitler came, Europe was eaten alive by war, and millions of Jews (and others) died in concentration camps or by execution squads in Eastern Europe. It is all so long ago now that we think of it as happening at one blow. One day the Jews in Germany were fully integrated into German society, held key posts in business and cultural institutions, and then, a day or so later, they were gone.

But of course that is not what happened. Keilson’s narrator is a young man – very young when he begins his notes. He is European in a way few Americans can understand (but perhaps this book will help them, for it is written “from inside the mind” of a young German). The narrator’s own Jewishness is never once mentioned, though before we are too many pages into the book we assume it. His nationality is not clear – quite possibly the narrator of this novel was meant to be Dutch, perhaps German. Even Hitler’s name is never used – only a single letter – “b”.

In the beginning of this novel the young man has heard about “b”, understands he has an intense following, grasps that he is an enemy. He has occasion once to hear his voice as he sits outside a hall where “b” is speaking. And once “b”, now risen to political power, drives in his car through the town, the streets crowded with the residents, eager to see him. And the narrator sees him, wonders at how such an ordinary looking man can hold such power

There is a surreal feeling to the novel. The politics of “b” are never discussed. The issue of Jews is never discussed. Yet by not doing so, by approaching things from his own angle, as the young man watching, we see what it was like to find the walls closing in. Of course it was never possible for the Jews to simply leave Germany. And why should they? They were fully integrated. The thought of the impending gas chambers was so unreal it didn’t arise. One lived there. One spoke the language. One had a job. Had friends.

Only gradually this friendship or that ends badly. A colleague, meeting the young man in the street, asks what they are supposed to do, should they form cooperatives of some kind in order to have work? Legal or medical associations of their own, as they are gradually excluded from those they had been part of? After all, these are the practical daily questions of life. Those who would eventually be taken to the camps could still travel by train, walk the streets, stop in the cafes for coffee or to play cards. They were — such an illusion — still free.

And so we begin to understand — in my case for the first time — how the horror which fell on Europe did not fall like a stone from the sky, but came like a mist, so fine one did not need an umbrella.

Toward the end of the book there is a deeply moving passage as he talks to his father, who is packing his rucksack. The father has it ready for the day when he and his wife will have to leave. The youth talks with his father about what to put in it — soap, aspirin, some cologne for his wife who has fainting spells and is revived by some dashed on her forehead. His father asks him not to mention the packing of the rucksack to his mother, as it will only worry her. His mother knows, of course, about the rucksack, and asks the son what the father is putting into it, to make sure there is some chilblain ointment as his circulation is not so good. The parents, each talking to the son, discuss what to put in this rucksack, neither parent willing to talk directly to the other for fear of worrying them.

The parents have packed a suitcase for him, not a rucksack, and it is sent on to a place where he will meet friends.

And he does leave, and join the underground, though this is not dealt with plainly or with drama. (In fact the author was active in the Dutch underground).

By the end of the book I realized how moved I was by watching this young boy, now a young man, experience the light mist which soon enough became a rain of blood. Sometimes a horror story becomes more powerful by avoiding all the obvious words. So with The Death of the Adversary.

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

NEW YORK — On the morning of September 24 the FBI broke into seven homes and an office belonging to activists in the peace and justice community in Illinois, Minnesota, and Michigan. Subpoenas were handed to 11 people — the subpoenaed activists will have to testify before a federal grand jury — where they are not permitted to have a lawyer with them. The FBI claimed that they were collecting evidence — investigating potential “material support to terrorism” charges against the activists, based on the Antiterrorism And Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996. The FBI seized crates full of computers, books, documents, notebooks, cell phones, passports, childrens’ drawings, photos of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, videos, music CDs, photographs, checkbooks, cameras, and other personal belongings.

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

Activists in the peace and justice community as well as representatives from community groups and labor unions reacted strongly and promptly to what they consider an attack on their First Amendment right to free speech. A diverse group of Americans rose to defend their Constitutional rights.

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

On September 28 there were protest demonstrations in front of federal office buildings or FBI offices in 32 cities across the U.S.

In New York protesters gathered at 26 Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan. Foul weather may have kept some away but 200 joined the protest carrying signs that decried the attack on the American people’s right to protest endless wars — as well as the policies of the U.S. government in several countries such as Israel, Palestine and Colombia.

Charles Barron
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

Representatives from many organizations spoke, as did New York City Council member Charles Barron, Freedom Party candidate for governor. All pledged to support those under attack and to fight this new level of political repression against those who express dissent against the policies of the Obama administration. One speaker after another declared that they will not be intimidated or silenced. They pointed out that the 11 people subpoenaed were not endangering the U.S., if they were they would have been arrested. The “material support” law is very vague and very malleable. It was pointed out that if the law had been in effect at the time of the fight against apartheid in South Africa in the 1980′s, people here who supported that struggle could have been arrested because the Reagan administration had listed Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress as terrorists.

A second protest was held a week later, on October 5, in the same location.

Activists who received grand jury subpoenas will have to appear in October.

View Photos From The Event…

Bob Carpenter of Veterans For Peace leafleting the movie
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

NEW YORK — On September 25 Veteran’s For Peace Chapter 34 sponsored a showing of the Emmy nominated documentary, The Good Soldier, at the Quad in NYC. The film, made by Lexy Lovell and Michael Uys, is the story of five combat veterans who fought in World War II, Vietnam, the first Gulf War, and the current war in Iraq. It begins with a quote from Dwight Eisenhower saying that he hates war, “As one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.”

First we learn why the men enlisted. There were economic reasons but they also thought about defending their country and fighting for freedom. They also describe how they felt when they first went into combat. Terrible fear eventually turned into a high after their first kill. In some it developed into a blood lust. That was not true of the oldest, the World War ll vet who fought in the “good war.” He was wounded in Europe a few months after he got there and was sent home. His story was very different. The experience, he said, ruined his life for decades. Revisiting the site where he was injured 40 years later proved to be very therapeutic for him.

As the other four vets told their stories with painful honesty, and described the things that they, as soldiers, had to do, it became very evident that the trauma of these experiences left a very deep scar. They had been taught to kill, that’s why they were there. But it all came back to haunt them and fill them with a deep sadness. It changed them as human beings, it changed their view of themselves, and it changed their understanding of the world.

The film concludes by describing how their experiences changed the veterans — and how they have used their new understanding, a true mental revolution, to change the world for the better.

Filmmakers and veterans discuss the movie
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

When the theater lights went on the filmmakers and two of the veterans, Perry Parks from North Carolina and Will Williams from Wisconsin, came forward to talk to the crowd and answer questions. Uys pointed out that some of the men changed immediately, right on the battlefield, while others took many years to reject war as a solution to anything. For Perry Parks it took a long time. He said that 15 years after the Vietnam War the Secretary of Defense admitted that the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution that brought the country into the war was based on a lie. No American ship was attacked there. Parks said that he realized then that the government “Doesn’t always tell the truth.” He said it is very hard to kill until one of your buddies is killed — then you want revenge. He is not opposed to soldiers, he is opposed to “The misuse of soldiers.” He added that he is a Christian and doing what he was taught to do as a soldier is against his religion.

Will Williams said he didn’t get involved in anti-war work until after 9/11 when he saw this country on the path to war again. After his own military service, his mind had been changing bit by bit. He learned that there was no attack in the Gulf of Tonkin, he read the Pentagon Papers released by Daniel Ellsberg, and he got angrier and angrier. On 9/11 he saw that “the seeds we had sown in that region had blossomed.” He quickly added that he was not justifying what happened and explained that he views terrorism as a way people fight by whatever means they have. “Because we drop bombs from 30,000 feet and don’t see the results, it doesn’t justify us doing it.” So after 9/11 he said, “This time I will speak out because I feel within my heart that it is the only thing that will save not only America but the world.” Further, “In a country that borrows as much money as it does to fund wars or to maintain bases throughout the world, if a portion of that money was spent in this country we wouldn’t have the social ills that we do have.”

He concluded, “One day we will have the greatest generation in this country, and that will be the generation that will refuse to go fight for corporate interests.”

A pie chart detailing U.S. military spending
(Image: GlobalIssues.org)

The Good Soldier is an excellent film that shows the true face of war, where everyone is a victim. It is also a story of redemption. One of the veterans, former marine Jimmy Massey, is shown standing alone on the street carrying a sign that reads, “I Killed Innocent Civilians For The Government”. The Good Soldier is the story of extraordinary people who refuse to remain victims. They empower themselves and join with others to become a potent force for peace.

The panel at Brooklyn Law School: Fatima Mohammadi, Rashid Khalidi and Glenn Greenwald
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — September 22, 2010. On September 22nd the Brooklyn Law School was the site of a most interesting panel discussion on the subject, Flotilla: Fact, Fiction and the Law. The speakers were Fatima Mohammadi, a lawyer who was part of the flotilla and aboard the Mavi Marmara when Israeli commandos attacked the ship, Glenn Greenwald, a constitutional lawyer, news analyst on Washington Journal (C-Span), Majority Report (Air America), and To The Point (Public Radio International), blogger, and Salon.com columnist, and Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia University. He was also an advisor to the Palestinian delegation at the Madrid peace conference (1991) and has been a guest on many TV and radio shows. The event was sponsored by: Network of Arab-American Professionals of NY, Muslim Law Students Association at BLS, Islamic Law Students Association at BLS, National Lawyers Guild – BLS Chapter, Adalah-NY, and Brooklyn for Peace. Months after the flotilla to Gaza was attacked there was still great interest in hearing what these speakers had to say. The auditorium at the BLS Subotnik Center was filled to capacity and people had to be turned away.

Fatima Mohammadi
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

Fatima Mohammadi spoke first. She is an activist who has been in Gaza several times and has witnessed the horrific living conditions there. Mohammadi brought a part of the Cultures of Resistance film that was successfully smuggled off the Mavi Marmara when the IDF was searching and confiscating all the photos and videos from the passengers so that there would be nothing to counter the Israeli line fed to the press after the assault. It was a very good copy of the video and she did a commentary as the video was viewed which was very helpful in understanding exactly what was happening at several points. It showed the arrival of the Zodiac boats in the pre-dawn darkness, blood splattered on the walls before the helicopter arrival (Israel claimed that the IDF only shot passengers as the IDF came down from the helicopters), commandos shooting from the upper deck before the arrival of the helicopters arrived, red laser lights from the weapons targeting people on a lower deck, also before the helicopters arrived, and a book with photographs of some of the passengers on the Mavi Marmara that was confiscated from an Israeli soldier. It is not known if it was meant to be a hit list or a capture alive list. Passengers could be seen throwing onions at the soldiers and using a sling shot against a helicopter. There were many people bleeding from gunshot wounds. That was the only kind of injury, indicating that they had made no direct physical contact with the commandos. Passengers were carrying them below deck where others were desperately trying to save them. The injured were surprisingly calm. Several had been taking photographs at the time they were shot.

Mohammadi said that the Israelis gave no medical aid to the injured and dying until hours later when the ship docked in Israel. The air conditioning was turned off on the ship and she could smell the blood of those injured in the next room. She sat with the captain’s one year old son sleeping on her lap. A soldier, face covered by the black hood he was wearing, kept looking at the child. She asked him if he had a son too. His response was to point his weapon at the head of the sleeping child.

One passenger onboard, an Australian, who was badly injured was taken to an Israeli hospital for surgery when they docked. He said the doctors there treated him well but the soldier guarding him beat him while he was in the hospital.

At one point she stopped the video – there was too much to see (it can be viewed on line: youtube – Israeli Attack on the Mavi Marmara).

She said that Israel had circulated lies about the events that night. There were no weapons on the ship. People fought the commandos that attacked them with objects at hand – like tools. The purpose of the flotilla was not to anger or provoke Israel. It was to help the people of Gaza and show them that they are not forgotten. It was also to call the attention of the world to what was happening there. When Mohammadi was there last year she spoke to parents who had to walk around picking up their children’s body parts after Operation Cast Lead. One family lost 29 members leaving only 4 little girls, now orphans, alive.

Today people all over the world are raising money to send a ship in the flotilla this fall. In the U.S. fundraising continues. “Do you have any idea of the effect, the symbolism, that will have?”, she asked. It will be a repudiation of the U.S. policy of unlimited aid to Israel. This fall there will be 3 efforts to break the blockade. A convoy going overland through Europe to get aid to Gaza through the Raffah crossing. Then the Viva Palestina convoy which will travel through Europe to Syria where they will take a ferry. Then, finally, another flotilla which the U.S. boat, the Audacity of Hope, flying an American flag, will be part of. The 3 groups will be bringing mostly building supplies and prefab housing so that the homes, schools, hospitals and roads destroyed in Operation Cast Lead can be repaired.

When the people in the last flotilla were released after spending a few days in an Israeli jail they were met by people from their country’s consulates but the Americans were not – no government officials were there for them.

She ended by saying that all had a role to play in this struggle. Put your body on the line by going on a convoy or make a financial contribution, support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) campaign, and spread the truth.

Glenn Greenwald
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

Glenn Greenwald spoke next. He said he was going to focus on what it was about this episode that resonated and caused such a strong reaction. The condemnation around the world was more visceral than we’ve seen before. Diplomatic leaders abandoned niceties. It was hard to see a ship with a humanitarian mission be attacked with such brutal aggression. Lives were wiped out in cold blood for no reason. U.S. commentators were struck dumb – they didn’t reflexively defend Israel. In the first few days the pro-Israel propaganda machine was disoriented, stunned by the criticism in the U.S. media but after about 3 days they had their story down: the people on the ship were the true aggressors, they were terrorists. How the Israeli and the U.S. propaganda apparatus responded is a potent illustration for how fiction, or lies, could deceive. It showed how suffocating and false our discourse is and how the pro-Israel propaganda is maintained in the U.S. media.

The legal issues were totally distorted. First, the IDF seized all documentary evidence of what took place. Then they arrested all on board the Mavi Marmara and the other ships so Israel could create their own narrative without contradiction. Israel created a video that began in the middle of the event. It looked like the passengers on the ship initiated the aggression, fighting the IDF when they climbed down from the helicopters (which they would have had the right to do since this was an act of piracy on international waters). The manipulated video didn’t start with the actual beginning of the event – the Zodiacs filled with commandos attacking the passengers. A video can be started at any point in an event to make it look like the other party started the aggression. As unsophisticated as this attempt was, U.S. media kept showing the video without questioning it. Greenwald added, imagine if 2 sides are in a dispute and 1 side gets to hold back and manipulate the evidence. You ought not trust what you are being shown but there was no skepticism. Israel refused to release videos made on the ship and because of that the finger of guilt should have been pointed at them. Instead the lies went unchallenged. Once again they were allowed to present themselves as a victim, as always and without deviation.

Continue Reading…

Vigilers remember local basketball champ Sandy Brock
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — September 23, 2010. On Thursday, family members who have lost loved ones to gun violence gathered at the Mt. Sinai United Christian Church to remember their fallen children and to organize to take back the streets and to put an end to violence in their community.

Organized by “Shoot Hoops Not Guns,” Thursday’s “Vigil Against Violence: Remembering Sandy Brock” event featured speakers and music in an hour-long ceremony held at the Mt. Sinai United Christian Church, a candlelight march, and a vigil at a local gas station. The event was in part a remembrance of Sandy Brock who was a young, up-and-coming, basketball star when he was shot to death on September 23, 1997. But it was also an opportunity for grieving families and concerned community members to come together and build a future free of gun violence.

Reverend Dr. Victor Brown
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Rev. Dr. Victor Brown, pastor of the Mt. Sinai church and a well known community organizer, opened the event, speaking from his pulpit. Brown listed the many achievements of Sandy Brock, whose dream of playing in the NBA was ended with a fatal gunshot wound. Brown told the crowd that Brock had been Staten Island’s top player and had been honored in the Daily News, as the father of Ron Artest, Jr., star forward of the Los Angeles Lakers, looked on. Ron Artest Sr. is a supporter of the Shoot Hoops Not Guns organization and is working to bring NBA stars to Staten Island as a means of reaching young sports fans before they turn to violence.

Reverend Brown told participants, “It is time for us to make a change.”

“The next meeting must be for the purpose of mobilization and strategy. Because all that is necessary for the forces of evil to win out in this world is for enough good people to sit back and do nothing. We can talk about the problem but as long as we are not willing to step into the arena of responsibility and do something about it then we are not part of the solution, but part of the problem,” he said.

City Council member Debi Rose
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

City council member Debi Rose spoke about the need to intervene in the lives of children, in order to save their lives.

“I am sick and tired of hearing ‘he was a good guy’,” she said.

Rose urged participants to re-examine their role and responsibilities as parents — to think back to their own childhood and their own relationship with their parents. Rose said that her mother and her extended family had zero tolerance for misbehavior.

“I’m still afraid of my Momma!” Rose said.

But times have changed, according to Rose.

“When did we stop teaching our children how to resolve their differences?” she asked.

Expressing her frustration, Rose said, “I’m tired of going to vigils.”

Rose issued a challenge to the parents in the church: “I want you to promise that you are going to step up — that you are going to mentor a young person. That if you see a young person who needs some guidance that you will be the person to give them that advice.”

Tim Gannon, who coached Sandy Brock
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Tim Gannon is principal of Port Richmond High School — and the former coach of Sandy Brock. He said that, “It’s time to stop protecting the shooters and start protecting the children.”

Telling the audience that his five-year-old son “Will never get to play with Sandy Brock’s son,” Gannon said, “So don’t tell me, 13 years later, there’s no impact. That I’m supposed to get over it, because you don’t.”

He urged those present to speak out if they know of someone holding a gun, to help prevent another murder.

“Maybe there’s someone here tonight, maybe there’s someone in this room, who knows where there’s a gun on Staten Island. And I’ve been living here for 20 years. There is no duck hunting on Staten Island. We don’t shoot deer. We’re shooting each other,” he said.

Marquette Elliott, director of Shoot Hoops Not Guns
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Marquette Elliott, executive director of Shoot Hoops Not Guns, told the crowd that the problem extends beyond the borders of New York to several states in the South where guns are easily obtained — and transported back to New York City. Elliott said that in the South it’s easier to get a gun than a library card. He urged the audience to work to change gun laws, to stop the exportation of gun violence from states with lax laws.

After the speeches, Elliott and Reverend Brown led the congregation in a candlelight procession to the Gulf gas station a few blocks away — where several Staten Islanders have been murdered, including Sandy Brock. Circled by vigilers, Elliott asked the participants to shout out the names of loved ones lost to gun violence. More than 30 different names were heard. One young man told Elliott that he wanted to remember “Robert Taylor” — his grandfather.

Elliott told the crowd that the wife of a man killed at the gas station had sent an email saying that it was too painful for her to stand at the site of her husband’s death but she was supports the work of Shoot Hoops Not Guns and was there in spirit.

Driving home the point that far too many people have been lost to senseless gun violence, Elliott, followed by others, named some prominent victims: Biggie Smalls, Malcolm X, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Tupac Shakur, Jam-Master Jay, Huey Newton, and Marvin Gaye. Several participants yelled out “John F. Kennedy.”

A young vigiler holds a candle for the fallen
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Reverend Brown ended the vigil with a prayer — and a plea. He urged all present to work to change things, to get involved in the lives of their children, and to “reconnect with God.”

“We do not want Sandy Brock’s death to be in vain,” he said.

View Photos/Videos From The Event…

NY1 interviewing parade participants
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — September 18, 2010. What do Freemasons, a local realtor, the Shaolin Ryders Motorcycle Club, New York State Assembly member Matt Titone, New York City Council Member Debi Rose, the Against Da Grill restaurant (doubtless Method Man’s favorite), the NAACP and the Staten Island Democratic Association have in common? They all took part in this year’s African Heritage parade.

Assembly member Matt Titone (left) was at the parade
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Saturday’s parade was the fourth of its kind and like its predecessors was organized by Staten Island dynamo Bobby Digi. The parade was started to honor the contributions and the cultures of the Staten Island’s West African, Carribean and African-American residents.

Organizer Bobby Digi with City Council member Debi Rose
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

The parade formed up on Central Avenue and made its way to Tappen Park in the Stapleton section of the Island, traveling along Bay Street before turning up Van Duzer and winding down Beach Street.

Spectators lined Van Duzer, cheering
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

Spectators lining Van Duzer cheered as City Council member Rose waved from a silver PT Cruiser.

Congressman Mike McMahon
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

At the park Congressman Mike McMahon greeted the marchers.

View Photos/Videos From The Event…

Outside City Hall — young protesters ask for acceptance on 9/11
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

NEW YORK — The anniversary of 9/11 was observed differently this year. It was, as always, a day of grief for the victims of the attack NYC endured 9 years ago. A day when over 3,000 people, our friends and neighbors, were lost to us. It was also a day that the workers in the city were the true heroes. Not only the firemen and police who gave their lives attempting to save others, but the transit workers who drove through rubble to get people out of harms way, the teachers who safely evacuated and calmed all their young charges, the steel workers who helped build the twin towers coming to help dig people out declaring, ‘We put this up, we know how to get it down’, and the thousands of workers from all over the city who left their jobs to line up outside hospitals to donate blood to victims that never came. All were gone.

September 10: Candlelight Vigil

An interfaith candlelight vigil drew thousands on 9/10
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

It is, therefore, hateful that right-wing opportunists have used 9/11 to spew hatred against a group that lost 300 people when the towers were attacked – our Muslim fellow citizens. They have used the building of a Muslim community center (Park 51 / Cordoba House) to whip up hostility and unite their followers in a way that Hitler’s toxic propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, would have admired. They planned a rally on 9/11 and were bringing haters from near and far to attend and speak at their rally.

(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

The people of NY responded with 4 separate actions of their own. On Sept. 10th there was a candlelight vigil near the World Trade Center site organized by NY Neighbors for American Values, an umbrella group that included about 100 community, labor, political, and religious groups. One of those groups was the ACLU who, in an e-mail to their members dated the day before, made the statement, “Religious freedom is one of America’s most fundamental liberties, and a founding principle of our nation. But the battle over the proposed Muslim Cultural Center in Lower Manhattan is about more than religious liberty – it is about the very soul of our city.”

Spotted at the vigl: Anglicans…
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

According to TV newscasters “thousands” of people filled 2 blocks along Church St. There were clergy from every denomination, Jewish families with fathers and their sons wearing yarmulkes, young and old of every race. The crowd was generally subdued. There were no signs. All expressed strong support for the community center. There was music and the crowd sang “This Land Is Your Land”. There was also a few speeches, one being from the first Muslim elected to Congress, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) who reminded everyone that the Muslims were our fellow citizens. This crowd already knew that. An imam read the names of Muslims who perished on 9/11.

…Muslims and Buddhists
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

September 11: Protesting Anti-Muslim Bigotry at City Hall

The next day, Saturday, the reactionary Stop Islamization of America took place. Perhaps 2,000 people came – including a large anti-abortion contingent. It was led by Pamela Geller, who has called for the removal of the Dome of the Rock, an extremely holy sight for Muslims, and she posted, on her blog, a picture of the Prophet Mohammad with the face of a pig. The other rally leader was Robert Spencer who has an anti-Muslim blog called Jihad Watch. He believes that the Muslim community center is an insult to the victims of 9/11.

The War Resisters League contingent at City Hall
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

A few blocks away, along Broadway near City Hall Park, the counter-demonstration took place. It was organized by the Emergency Mobilization Against Racism and Anti-Muslim Bigotry, also an umbrella group, representing over 60 organizations including Al-Awda, Bronx Greens, Catholic Scholars for Worker Justice, Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, Green Party Power to the People NY, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network, Stonewall Warriors, Labor Against The War, World Can’t Wait, and the International Action Center. It was different in tone from the candlelight vigil the night before, much more raucous. There were thousands of people holding hundreds of signs calling for peace, justice, jobs, and against racism, anti-Muslim bigotry, and Islamophobia (a word that doesn’t make much sense because hatred is being expressed, not fear). There were about 50 speakers including Cynthia McKinney, Cindy Sheehan, and Ramsey Clark, each mercifully limited to 2 minutes. Some likened the current Anti-Muslim fever being whipped up by a small group to what happened in Germany in the 30′s when the bad economic times made the population vulnerable to anti-Semitic violence. Many spoke of the need for unity to defeat what was going on. Many more said that this demonstration had to be called to respond to the hate filled rally being held by the other group. They said they could not remain silent, surrendering the streets of NY to those filled with such hostility. There had to be an antidote to their poison.

“Bedrock American Principles: Tolerance And Freedom Of Religion”
(Photo: Thomas Good / NLN)

The following day, Sunday, an interfaith group, Religious Freedom USA, held a rally at St. Peter’s Church, the oldest Catholic parish in NY, located very close to the World Trade Center site. The church was badly damaged on 9/11/01 and underwent extensive renovations. It reopened on 9/11/10, the day before. The restoration was beautifully done. Every seat was taken and many remained standing in the back and in the balcony. The huge room was filled with people of faith, priests, rabbis, ministers, imams, and their flocks.

First Father Kevin Madigan welcomed everyone to his church. He began by saying, ” I believe that an overview of our Roman Catholic experience, viewed just within the confines of St. Peter’s Parish, can provide enough examples of religiously based fear, bigotry and prejudice, to demonstrate that this terrible virus is never completely eradicated, but simply lies dormant, seeking new targets to attack, particularly in times of perceived threat and uncertainty.” He spoke of the enormous hostility against Catholics that existed throughout this country’s history. In 1701 any priest discovered within city limits could be sent to prison for life. JFK had to convince the nation that he would not be taking orders from the pope if he was elected president. He ended by saying that grief cannot trump or give veto power over a right so basic as freedom of religion. And somewhere in this country there is a little Fatima or Mohammad who wants to grow up to be our president – and they will.

Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky of Congregation Ansche Chesed on the Upper Westside spoke of interfaith unity and support. He reminded those gathered that the US Constitution is still in effect below Canal St. Charles Wolf, husband of 9/11 victim Katherine Wolf, also spoke strongly in support of the Muslim community center. Speaker after speaker, spoke of interfaith unity and support for Park 51. When the speeches ended all filed out of the church and took a “Liberty Walk” passing the 9/11 site as well as several houses of worship. Some participants were holding small American flags. When the walk ended back at St. Peter’s everyone stood in a fine drizzle singing patriotic songs like “America the Beautiful” and “This Land is your Land”.

The religious leaders that spoke at the church showed great courage because the solidarity they expressed and their support for the mosque was either in contradiction to the ‘official’ positions of their religious hierarchy or against the silence of the hierarchy.

September 16: The “Wiesenthal Museum of Intolerance”

Rebecca Vilkomerson of Jewish Voice for Peace
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

On Thursday, September 16th there was a formidable picket line of about 100 people, who came out in a rain storm, to protest at the Simon Wiesenthal Museum Of Tolerance on East 42nd St. in Manhattan. As they walked they chanted, “Islamophobia isn’t pretty. It has no place in New York City” and “Islamophobia is a shame. New Yorkers say, not in our name.”

The event was sponsored by American Jews for a Just Peace, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jews for Racial and Economic Justice, and Jews Say No because the Simon Wiesenthal Center has demonstrated anything but tolerance – they are opposing the building of the Muslim community center at the present site. In doing so they are reinforcing the idea that all Muslims are responsible for the 9/11 attack. This is the same organization that is violating international law by destroying the Mamilla Cemetery in Jerusalem, a cemetery that dates back to the 7th century and holds the graves of some of Mohammad’s prophets. The Mamilla Cemetery has been completely destroyed so that the Wiesenthal Center could build a Museum of Tolerance there!

“Jews Against Islamophobia And Anti-Arab Racism”
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

The coalition sponsoring the demonstration made the following statement:
” As Jews, we understand well how hateful stereotypes easily become vehicles for exclusion, demonization, discrimination and violence. Our history teaches us that we must always stand up against injustice. We also recognize the connections among our many movements for justice and equity, such as those of low-income and communities of color, immigrant communities, women, LGBT communities, and groups fighting for religious and cultural expression.

In the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, many of us reflect upon the past year and think about the ways we can participate in the struggle for a more just world. During this time of increased anti-Arab racism and Islamophobia in NYC, in the US, and in many parts of the world, we want to make clear our opposition to the targeting of Muslim and Arab communities since 9/11 and to the use of Islamophobia as a means of shaping US foreign policies and public opinion.”

Connecting The Dots: Bigotry 101
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

9/11 dramatically changed the lives of all Americans. For the 1st time we are truly frightened. We have been made painfully aware that we are part of the world, we don’t live in isolation. In the name of the ‘War on Terror” the Muslim population has become objects of suspicion and persecution, we have lost many of our most fundamental freedoms, we openly admit to using torture, we are in a period of seemingly endless wars where hundreds of thousands have died, including our own fellow citizens, and millions have been turned into refugees. There is no money for basic human needs like education, healthcare, housing and the infrastructure or for building a green economy because the wars are so costly. The destruction of the earth is on a back burner, if on the stove at all. And while we weren’t paying attention the functions of the federal government have been privatized, including our military and security apparatus. The government has become a big empty shell with vital services being performed by corporations whose only loyalty is to their bottom line.

CodePINK’s Dana Balicki
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

The response of the good people of NY, fighting against the tidal wave of hate being created in their midst was an encouraging sign that most people here are maintaining their values and principles in spite of the pressures to do otherwise. The populace we saw on September 11, 2001 is still here.

View Photos From The Candlelight Vigil…
View Photos/Videos From The Anti-Bigotry (9/11) Protest…
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Kate Barnhart
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

[ Editor's Note: This was a painful story to edit. Vance's behavior in this instance is beyond disgraceful -- it makes this New Yorker wince to read of his callous disregard for the suffering of a young woman who dares to challenge the insurance companies while suffering from a brain tumor and lupus. As the New York poet Tom Verlaine said, "...how I wish I could change my vote..." ]

NEW YORK — Kate Barnhart, a healthcare activist fighting both a brain tumor and lupus, now has to fight NYC also. The Manhattan District Attorney seems to believe that she belongs in prison. A year ago Barnhart was arrested for participating in a peaceful sit-in at Aetna along with 16 others who were protesting the health insurer’s denial of care to extremely sick people. During the course of the past year charges against those arrested were dropped. In July Judge Shawn Dya Simpson dismissed the trespassing and related charges against Barnhart. Weeks later D. A. Cy Vance’s office threatened to rearrest Barnhart and file new charges against her. This enraged healthcare and LGBT activists. Barnhart is the Executive Director of New Alternatives, a program for homeless LGBT youth. Hundreds of phone calls were made to Vance’s office as well as a petition with thousands of signatures was sent there. The D.A.’s office backed off slightly. They didn’t rearrest her but did refile charges against her. State Senator Tom Duane, knowing Barnhart’s work as an advocate on behalf of people with HIV/AIDS as well as marginalized youth, contacted Vance’s office to object to the refiling of charges.

One of the reasons she joined the sit-in was because her friend, Mark Milano, was denied chemotherapy by Aetna. Barnhart, herself suffering with a brain tumor, was dropped by her own insurer after having paid $900 a month for the insurance. Milano, still battling cancer, believes that the spotlight put on Aetna by the sit-in played a crucial role in getting Aetna to pay for the treatment they were denying him up until that point. He said, “There’s no doubt that what Kate did saved my life. Aetna didn’t care whether I got my chemo or not until the sit-in took place. There’s nothing criminal about what Kate did. The crime is insurance companies withholding care. Why doesn’t the D.A. go after them?”

Donald Grove who was also arrested at the Aetna sit-in commented, “This is pure harassment. Along with all the care she gives to others, she spoke up when the healthcare system was failing her and her loved ones. Why should that make her the target of such harsh treatment by the D.A.?”

Protesters outside 100 Centre Street — demanding justice
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

On the morning of September 15th about 80 of Barnhart’s supporters from both the healthcare and LGBT community rallied outside the city court building at 100 Centre St. in Lower Manhattan where she was to appear. There was a general sense of outrage. They were wearing masks of Barnhart’s face as a symbol of solidarity and carrying signs that read, “Only Guilty of Needing Healthcare.” They chanted, “Patients, not profits. Medicare for All”, “Kate Barnhart is under attack. What do we do? Act-up. Fight back”, and “Today it’s Kate. Tomorrow who? What would you do if they came for you?”.

The police tried to get the protestors to cross the street but one in the group told the police, in no uncertain terms, that they had the right to picket on any street in the city and they would absolutely not cross the street. The NYPD didn’t pursue the issue.

Responding to public pressure Erin Duggin, Vance’s Communications Director, came to the rally and spoke to the press. When asked by Katie Robbins of Healthcare-NOW! why Barnhart was treated more harshly than other peaceful protestors Duggin replied, “You could argue that we treated the other arrestees more fairly.”

“Only guilty of needing health care.”
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)

“The D.A’s office just admitted Kate has been treated ‘less fairly’ by saying that others were treated ‘more fairly’. When voters put Cy Vance in that office, I don’t think they were voting for a ‘sometimes fair, and sometimes less fair’ system” said Laurie Wen, a member of the New York City chapter of Healthcare-NOW!, which organized the rally.

When Barnhart entered the courthouse some of the protestors accompanied her. She was given a date to return in mid-November. When she returns her supporters will return with her. Why Kate Barnhart has been singled out for this treatment remains a mystery. Are they trying to make an example of her to others who might peacefully protest? We just don’t know yet. But the one thing that is for sure, the numbers of her supporters will continue to grow and they will be there to support her whenever she returns to court.

View Photos From The Event…