It’s Still the Economy, Stupid! No, Seriously. I Mean It.

(Some Thoughts on the HIV Epidemic, Social Problems, and Capital)

Deric Shannon

I picked up a copy of the International Herald Tribune recently on a flight from Madrid to Paris. My friend and co-conspirator, Abbey, and I have been doing a lot of traveling lately and a free copy of an English-language newspaper is a hot commodity for an hour and a half plane ride, particularly this one since I left the “Marx for Beginners” book I was reading at home! I nestled into my seat, prepared for being a little unsettled—what counts for “news” is usually disturbing as all hell, after all. [Read more →]

Forwarded to us by our comrade Regina… From Negrilstories.ca  This is a long though very thought provoking piece if you were wondering WTF around the Dudus saga so poorly reported or analyzed by our corrupt corporate media channels.

Tivoli Gardens is a manipulation
To create the outrageous situation
For a ‘legitimate’ American invasion

Sugarcane, bauxite, tourism - all locked up tight
Deep, deep oil - now seeing the light
Poverty and oppression - things still not right
Freedom from Babylon - bubbling into sight

Politicians in power - caught in a trap
Reaching for gold - can’t give it back
Jamaica’s new wealth - Babylon wants to tap
Satellite blackmail - no stopping that

 As the Dudus saga plays itself out in Kingston, two of the questions that remain unanswered are ‘why is the United States pushing so hard?’ and ‘why now?’. The world is full of dons and drug lords, not to mention the fact that the American plate is full with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a billion Muslims who are being encouraged to attack anywhere at anytime. You would think that they had more immediate things to concentrate on.

Yet they continued to poke and push, treating every Jamaican that went through U.S. customs like a criminal, openly questioned the personal honesty of the the Prime Minister Bruce Golding and even suggested that the Jamaican Labor Party were in violation of their mandate to govern Jamaica. In fact, the Americans haven’t even got an Ambassador to Jamaica anymore. Obama has left the position open, a serious diplomatic slap in the face. All of this tension is for the Don of Tivoli Gardens? Something isn’t right. Dudus just isn’t that big of a problem.

The idea that outside interests have manipulated the situation for a long time begins to form when you question the truth of what we are being told. For two years now Dudus has had an excellent run, controlling the docks in Kingston (on Tivoli Gardens turf, and the true value of the constituency) with his buddies running the government. He has grown more powerful than ever before, with so much money that he doesn’t have to rely on politicians for anything. In the old days back in the 1970’s, when the street gangs were first created by the political parties, they had to get their weapons and cash from the JLP or the PNP, but since the cocaine business showed up, that relationship has slowly turned full circle. Now the politicians need the gangs to control the vote, but the gangs don’t need the politicians for support. They have become an independent power. [Read more →]

A great piece and a MUST READ of why as Queers we cannot hand over increasing power of our bodies, lives and essence to the [Tyranny of the] State.  There is no liberation from such efforts. 

From our comrades over at blackandpink.org

Many liberal, and even self-proclaimed progressive, organizations are fighting for “hate crimes” legislation nationally and state-by-state. The Senate just voted in favor of the “Matthew Shepard Bill”. Challenges and critiques are made over and over again by queer/trans/gender non-conforming folks, people of color, low-income/poor folks, and others most impacted by the many tentacles of the prison industrial complex, yet the campaigns continue on. This document is intended to be a bullet point compilation of materials put out by the following organizations (in no particular order): Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Audre Lorde Project, FIERCE, Queers for Economic Justice, Peter Cicchino Youth Project, Denver Chapter of INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence, Denver on Fire, and the article “Sanesha Stewart, Lawrence King, and why hate crimes legislation won’t help” by jack. The intention behind this document is to present a somewhat simplified critique that can inspire a desire for more information.

If a particular crime is deemed a hate crime by the state, the supposed perpetrator is automatically subject to a higher mandatory minimum sentence. For example, a crime that would carry a sentence of five years can be “enhanced” to eight years.
Plain and simple, hate crimes legislation increases the power and strength of the prison system by detaining more people for longer periods of time. [Read more →]

A recent article in the Vancouver Courier talks about a pharmacy opening up that caters specifically to Woman born Woman.  It is constructive to note that a number of years earlier the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled that the Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter did not breach the Human Rights Code when it refused to allow Kimberly Nixon, a person who did not have the life experience of being treated as a woman, to train as a volunteer peer counselor.

It is interesting that around the same time as the BC Supreme Court decision, I and my partner were working with the Ct Coalition Against Domestic Violence to open up the Ct Women’s DV Shelters to transwomen, independent of their operative status but based solely on their identity. [Read more →]

In framing the title/subject of this piece it is not my intent to spell out a detailed critical analysis of an LGBTQ movement in this brief essay, though rather, as best as I can from my perspective, initiate a framework for such an analysis and most importantly hopefully engender a collaborative dialogue on this subject.

The basic premise of this analysis frames itself around the value and effectiveness of a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (add your own other labels) community to rally around the implicit connotation of a full LGBTQ equality movement.  Is this a movement to secure full equality for all diverse genders and sexualities? Is this a movement demanding true sexual and gender revolution or simply sexual and gender reforms?  Is this a movement that truly represents all peoples and diversities within the LGBTQ communities? Or is this a movement to assure full equality within the heterosexual framework of western culture?

I hear many times and from many people that yes the LGBT Equality movement stands for full and diverse equality.  Sadly after many years as a minority trans activist working within this LGBTQ equality movement, I have come to learn that the answer for me is no.  From my perspective, it is by no stretch of the imagination an LGBTQ equality movement in the sense of any true revolutionary movement. [Read more →]

 Full text can be found at IllVox

Reclaiming Choice for Native Women

By Jessica Yee, Racialicious

June 22, 2009 – 8:00am

I am Native. And I’m pro-choice. Many people seem to think this is an oxymoron – but to me, it makes perfect sense. I have unraveled much of the oppression I was forced to swallow and internalize over the years, which obstructed my ability to wholly see that concepts of “choice” and having “options” in our sexual and reproductive lives are really not new things at all. Moreover, I am entitled to advocate for choice from within my culture, which has always valued women’s choices and decision-making.  First and second wave feminism did not “give” my people reproductive rights; in fact those of us in Native communities had them a long time ago. And how “pro-choice” identities play out in our communities now probably looks a lot different than what most people think. [Read the rest here]

A great short by Pinky (pinkyshow.org) titled: Banked into Submission: The Globalizationalist’s Guide to Developing Poverty.  Click here to see the many other creative pieces from the pinky show.

On a local level QWB is quite a little phenomenon. We’ve had some startling successes and the character of the organization has remained uniquely positive since before we even took up the banner. As an amateur organizer, one thing I know is that success needs to be capitalized upon, otherwise the point becomes somewhat academic, though certainly not without value. So I have some arguments I’d like to make in favor of some directions for QWB to move in; I apologize in advance for making declarative statements, that’s just how I write oftentimes, and should be read as only my opinion and totally open to criticism.
[Read more →]

I truly do not know how anyone at this point in time cannot be in utter disgust at the extent of capitalistic greed, corruption and manipulation,  by Corporate Executives, Politicians and Lobbyists, that has been coerced upon 90% of the US population.  I have a bumper sticker that has been on my car for years and it states simply:  The Earth can No Longer Afford the Rich!  This statement was true many years ago and today it must be a mandatory demand of the worker.

I have been keeping track of headline snippets for awhile now and thought I would share a snapshot of Corporate Greed and Worker abuse with you.  All one needs to do is look at some statistics and the headlines over the last few months:  Feel free to add yours!

Harvard Business Report Feb 2009:  Executives pay relative to workers’ shrank between 1945 and 1974, but only because the rank and file gained leverage through the rise of unions.  However, the decline of unions in the 1970s and the subsequent decline of regulation, offered opportunities for aggressive management and hand in hand the pay of the CEOs at the largest US companies went from 35 times the average worker’s salary to 71 times.  It ballooned to 300 times at the end of the 1990s!

Executive Excess 2008 by United for a Fair Economy: S&P 500 CEOs in 2007, averaged $10.5 million, 344 times the pay of the typical US workers, while the 50 hedge and private equity fund managers averaged $588 million each, more than 19,000 times as much as typical US workers earned.  Average US taxpayers subsidized excessive executive compensation by more then $20 billion last year via a variety of tax and accounting loopholes.  The $20 billion for America’s CEO’s is more than double what the federal government spent last year on educating America’s most vulnerable - children with disabilities.

February 2009:  An overlooked advantage of CEO pay: taxes. Whether you love or hate the structure of America’s tax [Read more →]

Take a visit on over at Rowland’s site, “By Any Means Necessary,” to read one of the best postings on Rick Warren. Rowland’s post “No Bigots At The Inauguration,” begins, “I really hate to say “I told you so,” often because it seems to relate to something that is not so positive, but, unfortunately, this seems to be another case of “I told you so.” Despite the illusions of some people on the “left” about him, this past week President-elect Barack Obama has continued down the path he has cut that demonstrates his ultimate faithfulness to the politics of the ruling-class in the United States. He has done this with every single one of his post-election decisions, beginning with his choice of cabinet officials and now continuing with his announcement that the right-wing evangelical pastor Rick Warren will be his choice for delivering the invocation at the presidential inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20, 2009.”  The full posting can be read by clicking HERE.

Another posting follows. [Read more →]

We’re living through some extraordinary times, the likes of which many of us have been predicting for some time now, but I doubt any of us were prepared for. In Greece the insurrectory anarchists have managed to turn their habitual rioting into something that is quickly spiraling out of control, sweeping up a broad cross section of Greek society including students and workers who have occupied their universities and the offices of their unions’ bureaucracies. And while it will probably not result in a meaningful social revolution, let alone a lasting abolition of capitalism, it is an uprising that cannot be diminished in its significance as taking place in a country that has been one of the earliest and hardest hit in the new global economic depression.

[Read more →]

Many thanks to People of Faith for sending this essay along to QWB. 

“How the Right-Wing Grinches Stole Christmas - The Co-Opted Gospel”
By Daniel C.Maguire

A devout atheist friend of mine often commented: “Wouldn’t it be something if Christians really believed what they say they believe - that the poor are their prime concern and that ending poverty is their mission!” My friend, warming to his topic, would continue his thought along these lines: The Bible says that the Christian gospel is ‘good news to the poor’ (Luke 4:18), that ‘the poverty of the poor is their ruin’ (Proverbs 10:15), and therefore ‘there shall be no poor among you’ (Deut 15:4) because the poor are the apple of God’s eye. (Ps. 72:14)

“If they believed that,” my friend would say, “Christians would be a stupendously powerful lobby for the poor, and no politician would dare neglect ‘the least among us.’ [Read more →]

Republished from Bashback! News  www.bashbacknews.wordpress.com

More Queer People Murdered. Lesbian and Gay Organizations Seem to Care Less.

By Beau Vyne

New Orleans Police discovered the bodies of three young, Black, Queer people in a 7th ward house Saturday. The three people, one of whom was gender variant, were all shot to death in the house sometime around 3 or 4am Thursday. Mainstream media and the Police are as of now ignoring the fact that the three people were queer and possibly trans. However, Facebook groups devoted to the three and comments on news sites, are raising interesting questions by Queer people of color as to why large Lesbian and Gay organizations are ignoring this. Many people have wondered as to whether there would be an LGBT organizational black out on such violence had the three been wealthy and white Gay businessmen. [Read more →]

EDITORIAL

Ode to shoes

Published Dec 17, 2008 3:51 PM

Ah, lowly objects of mundane human existence, forever condemned to carry on your backs the weight of the world, this ode is to you. Because of you we tenderfeet are able to trudge through burning deserts and freezing slush. We slap you upon the pavements of great metropolises and quiet villages until your seams split, your tongues loll and your soles disintegrate. You are then discarded to the ashbins of history, leaving no record of your great service to humanity.

But now comes a humble pair of shoes that shall live forever.

When you flew through the air, one after the other, in a transcendent arc that nearly clipped the ears of W. Mad Dog, a great sigh went up to the heavens and swept the globe. It was the sigh that comes when a door long shut is cracked open, when a torment long denied at last finds its breath. [Read more →]

This in from www.infoshop.org: Richmond County Sheriffs shot and killed 23 year old Justin Elmore on Monday in the Cherry Tree Crossing Housing Projects. The Cops, claiming that Justin had stolen the SUV, surrounded him and opened fire. Bullets flew everywhere. Local apartments had windows shot out and a little boy was almost shot in the Head.On Tuesday, the community held a vigil in response to the shooting. After an occupying force of 90 police descended on the neighborhood the people fought back. Locals threw rocks and bottles at both the Police and the Corporate Media. People also set fires to dumpsters and at least one car. Corporate media reports at least 30 shots had been fired during the riot. Militant resistance to police violence is not confined to the arbitrary borders that make up Greece. Oppressed people’s in the US fight the police on a daily basis. Lets keep Augusta, and all of the other cases of atrocities committed by police in the US in mind when we act in Solidarity on Saturday the 20th. Fighting for Greece means fighting for all of us!You can find corporate coverage at http://www.nbcaugusta.com/news/local/36277654.htmland other local Augusta stations