[act-ma] 3/26, TUESDAY 7PM EST: Mumia Abu Jamal and Hugo Chavez commentary ~Voices radio
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Tue Mar 26 12:10:16 PDT 2013
Voices From the Frontlines
<%3CTrackClick%3Ehttp://www.thestrategycenter.org/radio>
*Host: Eric Mann*
*Every Tuesday from 4 - 5pm*
*KPFK Pacifica 90.7 FM Los Angeles, listen live at kpfk.org*
/*Tuesday,**March 26, 2013 4PM PST:*/
*1. Mumia Abu Jamal in conversation with Eric Mann
2. Readings from Political Prisoners:
Russell Maroon Shoatz and Mumia Abu Jamal
3. Eric Mann Commentary:
"The Life of Hugo Chavez
and the Death of the L.A. Mayoral Elections"*
Mumia Abu Jamal with copy of his book, Live from Death RowRussell Maroon
Shoatz
*Mumia Abu Jamal
Russell Maroon Shoatz*
We share another conversation between Mumia Abu Jamal and Eric Mann.
Afterward, Eric reads from:
Mumia's book:
*/Live From Death Row/, *
<https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10437&qid=467026>
and
Russell Maroon Shoatz' book:
*/Readings from Maroon the Implacable/*.
<https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10438&qid=467026>
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Hugo Chavez
*Eric Mann commentary:*
*"The Life of Hugo Chavez
and the Death of the L.A. Mayoral Elections"*
Eric will also read his commentary on Hugo Chavez. Text below, please
post comments here.
<https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10439&qid=467026>
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The Life of Hugo Chavez and the Death of the L.A. Mayoral Elections
<https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10439&qid=467026>
Eric Mann
On Tuesday, March 5, 2013 two events happened of diametrically opposed
moral and historical significance—the end of the life of the great world
leader Hugo Chavez and the death of the Los Angeles mayoral elections.
In between yawns and “oh, was there some kind of election in the news
that I missed?” 8 candidates ran in the “fight for the soul-less city”
mayor race. The results: City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Council
member Eric Garcetti will run in another soul-less run-off on Tuesday
May 21 to see who will carry out the bidding of Eli Broad, the downtown
business elite, the transnational capitalists, and the LAPD for the next
four years—the job officially called “Mayor of Los Angeles.” This
election was met with such a yawn that even the “voting class” -- the
group of middle-class people with no power and the illusion that they
have some, forgot to vote. (“Hey, did you know that my brother-in-law
knows Wendy’s nanny who knows Eric Garcetti’s mechanic and they
said…blah blah blah.”) L.A. like most urban center is a city of color—of
the 4 million residents 12 percent are Black and 46 percent Latino. But
you wouldn’t know it by listening to the candidates. Police brutality,
low-wage and no wage jobs, choking air pollution, police and ICE
suppression of immigrants, deteriorating social services, were not on
the agenda—but all the candidates, including Jan Perry, a Black city
councilperson, debated how many more police they wanted. These are the
“free elections” that are so free that nobody gives a damn, only 16
percent of eligible voters showed up at the polls and the rest just
stayed home and debated whether Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, or Rihanna
should be number one.
Meanwhile, on the same day, in Venezuela, a true champion of the people,
the amazing Hugo Chavez, died-- an event of enormous world consequence.
Hugo Chavez, a man of African, Indigenous, and Spanish ancestry was
elected president of Venezuela in 1998, re-elected in 2000, 2006, and
again in 2012. During the election of 2006, Manuel Criollo and I,
representing the Labor/Community Strategy Center, were so fortunate to
have witnessed history. We went not as “impartial observers” but on the
invitation of friends in Venezuela as partisan U.S. friends of the
Venezuelan people. On Election Day, we were awakened by bells ringing at
6 A.M. These were not church bells but bells of liberation—urging
working class voters to get up and get to the polls before they even
opened. But that was really not necessary. Most of the voters were awake
long before the bells rang. By the time we got to the streets at 9AM,
the lines to vote went on as far as the eye could see--an entire city
ready to vote. We saw hundreds of thousands of Indigenous working people
with Chavista hats, banners, red-t shirts, chanting, talking, laughing.
They were not “waiting” to vote but having a “vote-in” that was an
all-day event. In one of the more affluent downtown districts, I asked a
woman of European-descendant, obviously a very affluent voter, what she
thought of the elections. She told me, “Well, Chavez will win because he
is for the poor and there are so many of them, but he does not represent
‘us.’” I thought, well, she certainly knows her place in the class
struggle, and fortunately, in Venezuela, so does the working class and
the working people.
That night, the bells rang again, when Chavez won with 63% of the vote
and a 74% voter turnout. Manuel and I stood in the rain in Caracas,
along with what seemed like the entire city in the streets, crying with
joy. It was impossible to explain to people in the U.S., the world’s
policeman, what a free election feels like and looks like. Certainly no
one in L.A. could comprehend if they judged by ours. And ironically, as
soon as Chavez won in free elections again, the U.S. government kept
referring to him as a “dictator” to justify its plans to overthrow him.
But Chavez got elected because he had a program--social services for the
poor, free health care, and challenging Yankee Imperialism. As the New
York Times reported,
“In office, he upended the political order at home and abroad. Inspired
by Simon Bolivar, the mercurial Venezuelan aristocrat who led South
America’s 19^th Century Wars of independence, Mr. Chavez sought to unite
the region and erode Washington’s influence.” In a 2006 speech to the
United Nations he said, ‘The hegemonic pretensions of the American
empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species,” In
the same speech, he called President George W. Bush “the devil.” (Note
that “the devil” remarks are repeated endlessly, a good thing in itself,
but his context of the U.S. Empire is of course left out by the
journalists of the U.S. Empire.)
As Simon Romero continues in the New York Times: “For years, he
succeeded in curbing U.S. influence…Fidel Castro was not only an ally
but also an inspiration. He forged a Bolivarian alliance with some of
Latin America’s energy exporting nations like Ecuador and Bolivia, and
applauded when they expelled U.S. ambassadors, as he had done. He
asserted greater control of Venezuela’s economy by nationalizing dozens
of foreign-owned assets, including oil projects controlled by
Exxon-Mobil and other large American corporations. Though he met
opposition at home, he enjoyed broad support. He did this in part by
going into the slums to establish health clinics staffed by Cuban
doctors and state-run stores selling subsidized food. These and other
social welfare programs made the poor feel included in a society that
had long ignored them.”
Sadly, as we go back to Los Angeles, for now (“Por ahora! As Chavez
explained”) neither Wendy Greuel nor Eric Garcetti are running on a
“social welfare state not the police state” campaign. They do not
propose free medical care or subsidized food and housing—but the
Strategy Center’s Fight for the Soul of the City does. So, with the
Mayoral elections run-off coming up on May 21, we are reaching out to
candidates Wendy Greuel and Eric Garcetti to ask them to support our
vision that includes:
* Restore one million hours of bus service lower the Monthly pass to
$42 on the way to creating a first-class, 24/7, zero emission, free
public transportation system based on a 5,000 MTA bus fleet (more
than double the current fleet.)
* Restricting auto use, toxic air contaminants, and greenhouse gases
by initiating auto free zones, auto free rush hours, reducing auto
and truck traffic, and expansion of freeway buses.
* Stopping police sweeps of LA schools, eliminating police from any
role in school discipline, and reversing LAPD’s decision to put 600
“police patrols” inside schools.
* Reducing, not expanding the size of the police force and the overall
police budget.
We know there cannot be “free” elections when the corporations control
our society and the electoral process. But we are asking candidates
Greuel and Garcetti to consider our alternative to their soulless city
based on private profit and the interests of the corporatizing,
policing, privatizing, and polluting classes. We are building a
movement in Los Angeles that is based on the Black/Latino strategic
alliance. We want to encourage a national urban insurgency in alliance
with the movements of the peoples and nations of the Third World--as we
continue to Fight for the Soul of the Cities—from Los Angeles to Caracas!
Eric Mann is the director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center, the
host of KPFK’s Voices from the Frontlines, www.voicesfromfrontlines
<https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10440&qid=467026>
and author of Playbook for Progressives: 16 Qualities of the Successful
Organizer, the Spanish language edition of which, /Camino Para
Progresistas/, is now available from the Strategy Center, 213-387-2800.
please post comments here.
<https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10439&qid=467026>
you can also email Eric with your comment at: eric at ericmannspeaks.com
<mailto:eric at ericmannspeaks.com>
*Voices from the Frontlines* airs every Tuesday from 4-5pm PST on
KPFK 90.7 FM
Click here to listen live
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missed a show? find Us Online!
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shows, you can find them at VoicesFromFrontlines.com.
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*Eric Mann* is a veteran of anti-war, labor, and environmental
organizing, working extensively with Congress of Racial Equality,
Students for a Democratic Society, and the United Auto Workers. Since
1989, he has been the Director of the Labor/Community Strategy Center.
<https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10443&qid=467026>
He is the author of seven books and two films on social movements and
organizing theory, including his most recent book,/Playbook for
Progressives: 16 Qualities of the Successful //Organizer. /
*His work can be found at VoicesFromFrontlines.com
<https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10444&qid=467026>.*
<https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10445&qid=467026>
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*Voices From the Frontlines* is dedicated to helping reconstruct a U.S.
and world Left. The guests on /Voices /are strategists, tacticians and
leaders of on-the-ground social movements. Our goal is to develop a
group of activist listeners who will pressure elected officials, attend
movement events, march in the streets, join organizations, and help to
build the movement against racism and empire.
For comments or more information: (213) 387-2800 eric at ericmannspeaks.com
<mailto:eric at ericmannspeaks.com>
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