Statement by People’s Union for Democratic Rights, Delhi Press Statement :: 28th February 2014 Pathribal Killing: Requiem for Justice Denied PUDR, condemns the dismissal of charges by the Army’s 15 Corps against four senior officers, a retired Major General, two colonels, a Lt Colonel and a Subedar, belonging to 7 Rashtriya Rifles. The five were […]
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Chhattisgarh – PUDR Statement against attempts by police to harass Nandini Sundar
PEOPLE’S UNION FOR DEMOCRATIC RIGHTS Press Statement :: 28th Jan 2014 PUDR expresses concern over the irresponsible and uncorroborated comment made by Chhattisgarh ADG (Intel) Mukesh on Professor Nandini Sundar. The ADG has alleged Prof. Sundar’s involvements in Maoist activities in the state. The police claims that the recently arrested Congress worker, Badri Gawde, who […]
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Response to the State of the Union address
Milwaukee, WI – As soon as President Obama’s State of the Union address was over, debates around the speech’s central theme of wealth inequality were distributed in carefully packaged arguments to all who would listen.
In tackling the issue, Former Republican Congresswoman Michelle Bachman from Minnesota claimed the problem was not one of income inequality, but of income opportunity. According to the free market capitalist, a lack of jobs are the fundamental problem and we haven’t gone far enough yet in giving corporations freedom to grow as they see fit, and that this will create the jobs Americans need to heal our deeply divided society.
Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, the supposed “socialist” who works closely with the Democratic Party, towed the party line, claiming that solving the problem of soaring education costs will level the playing field and address the inequality gap. The Democrats say that in educating the population, they will provide Americans access to “better” jobs and make our corporations more dynamic, and thus, more profitable, making everyone wealthier along the way.
The problem with both arguments: neither deals with the issue.
When Democrats talk about the cost of education, they mean finding a way to help give middle class students access to getting a degree that leads to a “better” job. When Republicans talk about income opportunity, they mean to shift the blame for a bad economy back onto the poor themselves.
The gap between the 99% and the 1% cannot be solved with how many jobs there are, or what kind of job you have. Jobs themselves have nothing to do with the income gap. The income gap is a question of ownership and power in our society, with which group – working people or Wall Street has influence. The problem lies with who writes the paycheck.
The genius behind the Occupy Movement is that it places the issue in its right place: a problem of class. The working class in the U.S. is on the defensive, losing rights in the workplace, opportunities in school and society, and bargaining rights with the bosses–the 1%. The owners, on the other hand, are gaining more and more power, and seeing their wealth soar as a result.
President Obama’s challenge to employers to raise wages on their own is an empty one. It is a ploy to keep the left-liberals in the Democratic Party happy, while not doing anything to threaten the profits of the super rich. Further, it flies in the face of the experience of the labor movement in the United States, which saw Americans workers organize and struggle for every penny increase in wages and benefits. If the President wanted to take a serious stand for working people, he would do well to remember the words of the great Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”
Working people in the United States need more jobs and higher wages. In an age where one in five children deals with hunger, this cannot be any clearer. We need people to construct buildings, drive ambulances, and work on new technologies. What we do not need is the bankers and corporate heads of Wall Street who suck billions out of workers labor and give nothing back but foreclosures and outsourced jobs.
That said, simply creating more jobs inside the 99%, either the so-called “better” jobs the Democrats propose or just any-old-job we can create as the Republicans wish, does not address the issue of the power divide between the haves and have-nots. It only exposes the fact that both political parties are representatives of the haves, and as such they never will address the real issues workers face.
We won’t find our answers on Wall Street, in Congress, or in the White House. Only when working people, as a class, see through the smoke screen, recognize the problem, and organize to take power in their workplaces and communities will we be able to toss out Wall Street bankers and corporate boards and make a better world possible.
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Jan 29: Pete Seeger the man who brought politics to music
http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/jan/28/pete-seeger-man-brought-politics-to-music Pete Seeger: the man who brought politics to music Dorian Lynskey Pete Seeger was a good man. There aren’t many musicians you can say that about without seeming simplistic. Music is often progressed by flawed, volatile, glamorous egotists, and thank God for them. But Seeger carved out his place in history with a quieter, […]
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Jan 29: Reopen the Pathribal case
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/reopen-the-pathribal-case/article5620678.ece Reopen the Pathribal case The Indian Army has not covered itself with glory by closing the cases against the officers involved in the infamous Pathribal fake encounter in Jammu and Kashmir in which five civilians were killed. Taking over the investigation of the case after an uproar over the 2000 incident, the Central Bureau […]
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People’s songster Pete Seeger dies
Grand Rapids, MI – Singer and folk music icon Pete Seeger passed away today, Jan. 28. Seeger was known for popularizing folk songs and signing everywhere he went. Peter Seeger united peoples in song across the entire society. Children in schools, teenagers at summer camps, worshippers in churches, workers on strike picket lines, civil rights marchers in the South and anti-war protesters across the country and over the decades lifted their voices to sing with Pete Seeger. Always an internationalist, Seeger helped not only to launch the American folk music revival, but folk music revivals in other countries like Australia too.
Pete Seeger was more than a folk musician. He dedicated his life to ending oppression and exploitation. When the going got tough, Seeger appeared to lift people’s spirits and strengthen their resolve.
Seeger joined the Young Communist League in 1936 at the age of 17. He advocated and sang for the U.S. to join the fight against Hitler once the Soviet Union was invaded. He joined the Communist Party in 1942, the same year he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he continued singing for the troops. The next year he recorded Songs of the Lincoln Battalion in honor of the American revolutionaries who fought fascism in Spain before World War II. After the army, Seeger helped create People’s Songs, an organization that promoted music and songs about workers and the people’s struggles.
In the face of McCarthyism and Cold War political repression, Seeger refused to back down. He was blacklisted from performing with the hugely popular Weavers on radio and television. With the Hollywood Ten already convicted and imprisoned for refusing to testify and being ruled in contempt of Congress, Seeger took a principled stand at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings. He was eventually convicted of contempt in 1961 and sentenced to ten years, but the sentence was later overturned on appeal in 1962.
During the African-American Civil Rights movement, Seeger played an important role reaching white audiences, thus changing hearts and minds. He also appeared at countless rallies against the U.S. war in Vietnam and visited Vietnam with his family in 1972, before the final defeat of the U.S. and its puppets.
From If I Had a Hammer to Where Have All the Flowers Gone? to Turn! Turn! Turn! Pete Seeger is remembered today and for years to come.
In Seeger’s words, “A good song reminds us what we’re fighting for.”
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West Bengal – Statement demanding release of adivasi leaders of North Bengal tea workers
We strongly condemn the arrest of Kiran Kalindi, Baijnath Naik, Azad Ansari & Wilson Guria from Nagrakata, Jalpaiguri on January 27, 2014. The four persons were peacefully campaigning for a bandh condemning the gruesome sexual torture and rape of the Adivasi girl at Labhpur, Birbhum. The police have arrested them with charges under Sections 353, […]
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PUDR Statement on the Supreme Court judgement of commuting to life the death sentences of 15 convicts
People’s Union for Democratic Rights PRESS RELEASE 21 January 2014 PUDR welcomes the historic judgment by the Supreme Court, commuting to life the death sentences awarded to 15 convicts People’s Union for Democratic Rights (PUDR) welcomes the judgement of the Supreme Court delivered today commuting to life the death sentences awarded to 15 convicts lodged […]
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Twin Cities Fight Back! fundraising event major success
Minneapolis, MN – More than 40 people came together here, Jan. 25 for an event to raise funds for Fight Back! newspaper. The house party netted close to $2000. Steff Yorek, who helped organize the fundraiser, stated, “The event exceeded our expectations. It’s clear that people want to help build a revolutionary newspaper that builds the people’s struggle.”
The event included brief toasts from leaders in the trade union, anti-war, low-income and student movements, who stressed the accomplishments of the paper and the commitment to build Fight Back! in the coming year. Linden Gawboy, an event organizer and member of the Welfare Rights Committee, stated, “We need the print edition of Fight Back!. We use it during our outreach at the welfare offices and in the community. Most of our folks don’t have the internet. A lot of people don’t even have phones for half the month. We need a printed paper that tells the truth and clearly states what needs to be done.”
Also speaking at the event was Fight Back! editor Mick Kelly who said that the real heroes who have made the newspaper a success are those who in the thick of building the people’s struggle. Kelly urged attendees to read the internet edition of Fight Back! every day and to forward the articles in social media. He also said that the next print edition would be distributed in many workplaces and communities across the U.S.
“Fight Back! is a tool for change. It is tools to help us in our collective effort to get rid of, to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism,” said Kelly.
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Activists march in Jacksonville MLK Parade
Jacksonville, FL – 40 progressive activists marched together in the city’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. parade on Jan. 20. These activists commemorated King’s legacy by demanding freedom for Marissa Alexander, the 33-year-old African American mother whose conviction for resisting domestic abuse was recently overturned, and justice for Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old African American youth murdered in 2012 by a white vigilante in Jacksonville.
The MLK Parade is an important event that takes place in downtown Jacksonville every year. While the event commemorates the life and accomplishments of King, Jacksonville’s activist community wanted to draw attention to modern day civil rights struggles taking place in the city.
“It honors his [King’s] legacy and brings attention to the fact that we still have work to do,” said Terri Brown Neil, an activist with the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition and a participant in the parade. She continued, talking about the current campaigns to free Marissa Alexander and win justice for Jordan Davis, “These issues just keep coming back up. Every now and then, you have to ask yourself, what year is it now? These issues show how important it is to be involved and not just sit back and wait for someone else to do it.”
Activists from the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition, the New Jim Crow Movement and several other organizations marched together as a contingent in the parade. They held signs that featured little-known quotes from King, including, “We must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights.” This quote in particular speaks to the continued struggle against anti-union laws, like the movement to stop right-to-work laws in Michigan last year.
Other important people in Jacksonville’s growing people’s movements attended, including Helen Jenkins, the mother of Marissa Alexander. Shirley Reed, the grandmother of Travis Swanson – an African American youth who was arrested at his high school without a warrant in 2009 – also marched in the parade, carrying a sign with her grandson’s image.
As the parade progressed through the city, activists led chants including, “Hey hey! Ho ho! Angela Corey has gotta go,” referencing Jacksonville-based state attorney Angela Corey, who unjustly prosecuted Alexander, Swanson and countless other African-Americans in the city. Corey was also assigned by Florida Governor Rick Scott to prosecute George Zimmerman, the racist vigilante who murdered Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Activists widely blame Corey’s lackluster prosecution of Zimmerman for that vigilante’s acquittal in July 2013.
Governor Scott attended the Jacksonville parade and rode in the front of the procession, far from the activist contingent. Nevertheless, the sizable crowd that gathered to watch the parade nodded in agreement and chanted along with activists as they yelled, “Hey hey! Ho ho! Rick Scott has got to go!” and “Workers need a raise! Pay a living wage!”
“I’m very pleased with turnout,” said Neil. “This was the first MLK parade I participated in, and the first one in Jacksonville I’ve ever been to. It was inspiring to see that many people turn out. To see young people there was good, too. It’s great to see a renewed presence of the SCLC [Southern Christian Leadership Conference] in Jacksonville, and the folks marching with the Free Marissa campaign. I think we brought attention to issues we still need to work on.”