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<p><span style="font-size:20px;"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="%3CTrackClick%3Ehttp://www.thestrategycenter.org/radio"
target="_blank"><img moz-do-not-send="true"
alt="Voices From the Frontlines"
src="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/images/voices-silhouette.gif"
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<p><span style="font-size:20px;"><span style="color:
rgb(175, 238, 238);"><strong><span align="center"
style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Host:
Eric Mann</span></strong></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size:20px;"><span style="color:
rgb(175, 238, 238);"><strong><span align="center"
style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Every
Tuesday from 4 - 5pm</span></strong></span></span><br>
<span style="font-size: 20px;"><span style="color:
rgb(175, 238, 238);"><strong><span align="center"
style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">KPFK
Pacifica 90.7 FM Los Angeles, listen live
at kpfk.org</span></strong></span></span></p>
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<h2 style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><em><span
style="font-size:20px;"><span style="color: rgb(0,
0, 255);"><strong>Tuesday,</strong></span><span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><strong> March 26,
2013 4PM PST:</strong></span></span></em><br>
</h2>
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><span
style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255);"><span style="font-size:
24px;"><strong>1. Mumia Abu Jamal in conversation
with Eric Mann<br>
<br>
2. Readings from Political Prisoners:<br>
Russell Maroon Shoatz and Mumia Abu Jamal<br>
<br>
3. Eric Mann Commentary:<br>
<span style="font-size:20px;">"The Life of Hugo
Chavez<br>
and the Death of the L.A. Mayoral Elections"</span></strong></span></span><br>
</p>
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<td style="padding: 10px 20px; vertical-align: top; width:
220px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align:
center;"><span style="font-size:18px;"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" alt="Mumia Abu Jamal with copy
of his book, Live from Death Row"
src="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/images/mumia-with-book.jpg"
style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 10px;"><img
moz-do-not-send="true" alt="Russell Maroon Shoatz"
src="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/images/Maroon-the-Implacable.jpg"
style="width: 200px; height: 301px; margin: 10px;"></span></td>
<td style="padding: 10px 20px; vertical-align: top;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family:
arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong><span
style="font-size: 20px;"><span style="color:
rgb(0, 0, 255);">Mumia Abu Jamal<br>
<br>
Russell Maroon Shoatz</span></span></strong></span><br>
</p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span
style="font-size:16px;">We share another conversation
between Mumia Abu Jamal and Eric Mann. </span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span
style="font-size:16px;">Afterward, Eric reads from:</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span
style="font-size:16px;">Mumia's book: </span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10437&qid=467026"><strong><span
style="font-size:16px;"><em>Live From Death Row</em>,
</span></strong></a></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span
style="font-size:16px;">and</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span
style="font-size:16px;">Russell Maroon Shoatz' book:</span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10438&qid=467026"><strong><span
style="font-size:16px;"><em>Readings from Maroon
the Implacable</em></span></strong>.</a></p>
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top; width: 220px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);
text-align: center;">
<hr></td>
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<td style="padding: 10px 20px; vertical-align: top; width:
220px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align:
center;"><img moz-do-not-send="true" alt="Hugo Chavez"
src="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/files/civicrm/persist/contribute/images/hugo-chavez.jpg"
style="width: 200px; height: 200px; margin: 10px;"></td>
<td style="padding: 10px 20px; vertical-align: top;
background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family:
arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong><span
style="font-size: 20px;"><span style="color:
rgb(0, 0, 255);">Eric Mann commentary:</span></span></strong></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="color: rgb(0,
0, 255);"><span style="font-size: 24px;"><strong><span
style="font-size:20px;">"The Life of Hugo Chavez<br>
and the Death of the L.A. Mayoral Elections"</span></strong></span></span></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 14px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span
style="font-size:16px;">Eric will also read his
commentary on Hugo Chavez. Text below, <a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10439&qid=467026">please
post comments here.</a></span></p>
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bgcolor="#ffffff">
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<p><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10439&qid=467026"><span
style="font-size:20px;">The Life of Hugo Chavez and
the Death of the L.A. Mayoral Elections</span></a></p>
<p><span style="font-size:20px;">Eric Mann</span></p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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,</p>
<p>“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<sup>th</sup>
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.)</p>
<p>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.”<br>
<br>
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:</p>
<ul>
<li>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.)</li>
<li>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.</li>
<li>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.</li>
<li>Reducing, not expanding the size of the police force
and the overall police budget. </li>
</ul>
<p>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!</p>
<p>Eric Mann is the director of the Labor/Community
Strategy Center, the host of KPFK’s Voices from the
Frontlines, <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10440&qid=467026">www.voicesfromfrontlines</a>
and author of Playbook for Progressives: 16 Qualities of
the Successful Organizer, the Spanish language edition
of which, <em>Camino Para Progresistas</em>, is now
available from the Strategy Center, 213-387-2800.</p>
<p><span style="font-size:16px;"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10439&qid=467026">please
post comments here.</a></span></p>
<p><span style="font-size:16px;">you can also email Eric
with your comment at: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:eric@ericmannspeaks.com">eric@ericmannspeaks.com</a></span></p>
<p> </p>
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<h3 style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; color: rgb(51,
51, 51); line-height: 26px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><strong>Voices from the Frontlines</strong>
airs every Tuesday from 4-5pm PST on KPFK 90.7 FM</h3>
<h3 style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 22px; color: rgb(51,
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style="font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;"
target="_blank">Click here to listen live</a></h3>
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text-transform: uppercase; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);
font-style: normal; font-family:
Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: normal;">missed
a show? find Us Online! </span><br>
<span style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; color:
rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; font-family:
Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Our shows are now being
archived online! If you missed our past shows, you can find
them at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10442&qid=467026">VoicesFromFrontlines.com.</a></span></h2>
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<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51,
51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:12px;"><strong>Eric
Mann</strong> </span><font size="2">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 <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10443&qid=467026">Labor/Community
Strategy Center.</a> He is the author of seven books and two
films on social movements and organizing theory, including his
most recent book,<em> Playbook for Progressives: 16 Qualities
of the Successful </em><em>Organizer. </em></font></p>
<p style="font-weight: normal; font-size: 12px; color: rgb(51, 51,
51); line-height: 24px; font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size:14px;"><strong>His
work can be found at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="https://strategycenter.ourpowerbase.net/sites/all/modules/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=10444&qid=467026">VoicesFromFrontlines.com</a>.</strong> </span>
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normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size:
12px; line-height: 18px; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch:
normal; color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="2"><span
style="color:#000000;"><strong><font face="Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif">Voices From the Frontlines</font></strong>
is dedicated to helping reconstruct a U.S. and world Left.
The guests on <em>Voices </em>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.</span></font></p>
<p style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family:
Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><font size="2"><span
style="color:#000000;">For comments or more information:
(213) 387-2800 </span><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:eric@ericmannspeaks.com" target="_blank">eric@ericmannspeaks.com</a></font></p>
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