Protesting Israeli Apartheid: The Struggle Continues
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
NEW YORK — July 2010. NLN photographer Bud Korotzer shot stills at several anti-Apartheid protests in what has been a very long hot summer in New York City…to view a slideshow click HERE.
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
NEW YORK — June 16, 2010. On Wednesday, June 16, thousands of people showed up at New York’s City Hall to protest the a number of serious city and state budget cuts. Public school teachers, PTAs and students showed up in large numbers. They spoke about schools facing giant service cuts while less than a week ago the news media reported that the top officials in the Department of Education’s headquarters at Tweed Hall gave themselves very extravagant pay raises.
Union leaders and elected officials held the Mayor responsible for the proposed cuts.
Steve Cassidy, of the Firefighters union said “Bloomberg wants us to pay for his mistakes”.
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
Unions turnout was high. There were crowds of union faithful from the UFT, DC37, AFSCME, Teamesters, TWU Local 100, CWA 1180, SEIU/1199, DC 237 City Housing workers, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the Uniformed Firefighters Association, the Professional Staff Congress from the CUNY system, the NY State Nurses Association, and the American Federation of Musicians Local 802. Lively music for the event was provided by Local 802. There were contingents of IBEW members, Lifeguards, and other unions. Norman Seabrook of the COBA, Corrections Officers Benevolent Association, and Pat Lynch of the PBA spoke at the rally. The rally was endorsed by the Central Labor Council. UFT president Michael Mulgrew hosted the event.
The protest was also sponsored by the A. Philip Randolph Institute, the NAACP, the NY Labor and Religion Coalition, NY Charter Protection Association, La Fuenta, and many other organizations.
Mayor Bloomberg has proposed severe cuts to schools which include elimination of many assistant teachers even in special education classes. He wants the elimination of many school nurses, maintainance workers, and after school and weekend test prep programs. He has repeatedly cut back on the fire department and looks to close firehouses in this crowded city. Aditional cuts may affect the departments of buildings, parks, health, and sanitation. Bloomberg has laid off many city workers and announced plans to lay off many more. In the MTA, hundreds have been laid off recently while the subway stations are desperately in need of cleaning, painting, and major repairs. Speakers spoke about too many service cuts to list.
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
Over the past 30 years many city departments have privatized large sections of their agencies. Speakers reported that when this was done the politicians said that the city would save money because the private organizations would have lower labor costs. In reality it boiled down to union busting. Often private organizations had much lower labor cost but very high salary and expenses for the owners of the agencies. Speakers reported that the mayor wants to increase privatization and has been hiring more and more consultants to work in the city departments. Often, consultants are paid many times the salary of city employees doing the same job. Many economic studies show that the mayor’s plans will not save money for the city services — however the money may be going to businesses that the mayor likes. The meals on wheels programs would work this way. As the small not for profit charity groups get pushed out of the food delivery service, the mayor wants to replace them with a large business that will make a profit delivering thousands of lunches a day. Bloomberg is also cutting funds for the private agencies. He has announced his intention to completely close the contracts of over 50 senior centers and possibly closing another 75. He wants to eliminate many programs for seniors and the handicapped — including drastic cuts to Access a Ride, cuts to homeless shelters, and preschools.
Many private agencies, such as food pantries and over 260 homeless shelters were started by citizen’s groups because the government was not providing these necessary services. In recent years the number of people using these facilities has skyrocketed. In 2008, every month brought another record breaking number of people applying to homeless shelters. Bloomberg wants to cut money or the help that these groups have started to receive from the government.
The state and city are planning cuts of over one hundred million dollars to the CUNY colleges. The CUNY system has already cut the number of freshmen applications for next year. The SUNY system is also being drastically cut.
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
Speakers stressed that citizens must fight back against these cuts and urged attendees to call, write and meet with state and city officials. Speakers said to contact our city council members as soon as possible as the next step. Additionally, several speakers urged concerned persons to contact the governor, at 518.474.8390, and state senators and assembly members.
Comptroller John Liu talked about how in this “Great Recession we are in,” it make no sense to lay off people or privatize or cut necessary services .Public Advocate Di Blasio spoke about we can’t morally close down counseling centers, day care centers after school programs, or many of the other cuts the mayor wants. Manhattan Borough President, Scott Stringer said, ” I am ashamed of what the city is doing” with the lay offs and service cuts. He said the unions have been helping the city by investing in the city but in return the city is turning it’s back on the unions and their families.
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
When Mr Bloomberg ran for mayor the first time he promised that he would never spend a single dollar of the taxpayers money on sports stadiums because the city needs to spend the money on schools, and infrastructure. Speakers drew a huge response when they talked about this failed campaign promise.
Bill Reed, Bud Korotzer and Thomas Good contributed reporting to this article.
U.S. Jewish activist: Why I am protesting the Friends of the IDF dinner
By Donna Nevel (with photos from the protest by Bud Korotzer)
Reprinted from http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1154654.html
Constancia ‘Dinky’ Romilly wears her heart on her hat
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
NEW YORK (Haaretz) — Why am I protesting the $1,000-a-plate Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) dinner honoring Chief of the IDF Staff Gabi Ashkenazi at the Waldorf on March 9?
Like many American Jews, I grew up hearing that the IDF was the most moral army in the world. An honest look at the historical and current evidence, however – most recently documented in the report of the UN Fact-Finding Mission on the Israeli Invasion of Gaza (the Goldstone Report)- reveals a very different reality.
Joel Kovel (right) at the IDF protest
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
As a college student in the 1970s, I defined myself as a socialist Zionist and attended Israeli consulate-sponsored “hasbara” workshops.
The literal translation of hasbara is “explanation,” but specifically refers to Israel’s campaign to promote its public image. These sessions taught a simple strategy for “dealing with” Israel’s critics on college campuses.
Vietnam veterans joined the protest
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
Begin by speaking about Israel as having the most moral army in the world. Never address the content of your opponents’ allegations.
Reference the Holocaust repeatedly, emphasizing the need for a Jewish homeland with a strong army so that those who hate the Jews will “never again” prevail.
And be sure to question the integrity of Israel’s critics, insinuating that they are anti-Semitic (or, in some cases, self-hating Jews). Those of us in the room who supported a Palestinian state (and there were a few) recognized ourselves in their descriptions of who to watch out for.
I remained active on Palestine-Israel but left my identity as a Zionist far behind, recognizing the incompatibility of Zionism (and the reality of what it was) with my support for justice for the Palestinian people.
Protesters and counter-protesters outside the Waldorf
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
Recently I experienced deja vu when I saw the exact strategy I had been taught so many years ago being used by the Israeli government and the American Jewish establishment as part of a relentless hasbara campaign to denounce and discredit Justice Richard Goldstone and the Goldstone Report.
On this past International Holocaust Day, as part of this campaign, the Israeli government shamefully used this day to further its attack on Justice Goldstone and the report.
The attack has been particularly virulent, perhaps because this evidence-based report, whose lead author is internationally respected and known as a supporter of Israel, revealed the immorality of the IDF’s actions with powerful legal authority.
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
The IDF is not a “defense” force. It is an illegal occupying army that is brutalizing the Palestinian people. Why am I marching with 22 organizations to protest the Friends of the IDF dinner and the war criminal it is honoring? Quite simply: How could I not?
NWU president Larry Goldbetter stands with NLN editor Tom Good
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — December 21, 2009. On Saturday, National Writers Union President Larry Goldbetter issued a statement defending union writer, and NLN editor, Thomas Good who had recently been on the receiving end of what Goldbetter described as “an unprincipled attack” by Staten Island GOP boss John Friscia.
GOOD WORKS?
Goldbetter’s statement was only the most recent salvo fired by two sides that have squared off over the issue of Good receiving a Congressional certificate from Congressman Mike McMahon (D, NY-13) this past October. Honored by Peace Action for his work as a photojournalist, Good, along with three other honorees, received a certificate from McMahon’s office for “community service.” The Tea Party and the Staten Island GOP leadership attacked McMahon for issuing the certificate, prompting a response from Peace Action’s Sally Jones and subsequently a statement from Goldbetter.
Ironically, neither Peace Action, Goldbetter or Good support McMahon’s political positions. In his acceptance speech, at a Peace Action dinner, Good said that “I hope that it’s okay that I didn’t vote for this guy.” For their part, Peace Action will be holding a protest at McMahon’s office tomorrow — objecting to his support of the escalation of the Afghanistan War — and Goldbetter is annoyed that McMahon voted against health care reform.
RADICAL IDEAS
On December 11 of this year, Staten Island Republican Party Chair Friscia, a personal injury lawyer whose firm has as its motto, “Representing the people, not the powerful,” issued a press statement condemning McMahon for giving an award to Good. Friscia’s ostensible objection to McMahon’s office issuing the award was that Good is a “radical” who helped the new SDS in 2006. Friscia appeared to be repeating charges levelled at Good by Staten Island realtor Frank Santarpia who earlier had written a letter to the editor of the Staten Island Advance. In the letter, Santarpia identified himself as an “organizer” with the Tea Party, an ultra-right group that claims to be “non-partisan” despite the fact that they regard President Barack Obama as a “socialist” who is responsible for their members being “crushed under the boot-heels of radicals.” Santarpia’s website argues that Obama’s administration is “making capitalism a dirty word.” “They and their minions work day and night” towards this end, Santarpia said.
The Staten Island Advance reported that Friscia, like Santarpia before him, had come to the conclusion that McMahon’s giving a certificate to a radical was evidence of “Mike McMahon’s liberal agenda despite his conservative press releases.”
According to the Advance, “McMahon spokeswoman Lauren Amendolara called Friscia’s statement ‘inane.’”
PEACE ACTION CORRECTS FRISCIA
Peace Action responded to Friscia by issuing a press statement, “correcting” the GOP party boss. The statement said that:
Peace Action of Staten Island wishes to correct Staten Island Republican Chair John Friscia’s public statement criticizing Congressman Michael McMahon’s office for issuing a community service certificate to Peace Action honoree photojournalist Thomas Good.
Peace Action of Staten Island feels this honor was well-deserved. Mr. Good has given countless hours to record and document many Staten Island events on the online news website Next Left Notes (www.nextleftnotes.net), including rallies and forums for health care reform, marriage equality, living wage jobs, and for bringing the troops home from eight long years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Staten Island Advance has benefited from Mr. Good’s work to cover events that they do not have the resources to cover. Whether or not Mr. Friscia believes in the position of the hundreds of Staten Islanders who have participated in these events, as someone who believes in the free press, he would have to agree that the coverage of these events is a community service.
Mr. Friscia’s statement condemns Mr. Good for his support of the “radical” Students for a Democratic Society, which is a network of multi-issue student groups around the country grounded in the principle of participatory democracy that was revived in 2006. The new SDS members consider themselves “radical” because they want to change society to end oppression, create a sustainable economy, and end wars of aggression.
Peace Action of Staten Island stands for the “radical” ideas of ending the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as soon as possible and negotiating now for the abolition of nuclear weapons. Many Staten Islanders have come around to believing in these “radical” ideas, too. We want to thank Congressman Michael McMahon for the certificate his office gave to photojournalist Thomas Good in recognition of his documenting these efforts.
THE NATIONAL WRITERS UNION PRESIDENT STANDS WITH TOM GOOD
On Saturday, Larry Goldbetter, President of the NWU — Local 1981 of the United Auto Workers – issued a statement expressing his support of Good:
I want to congratulate photojournalist Thomas Good on receiving his certificate of recognition from Congressman Mike McMahon. I am proud to count Tom among the more than 1,400 members of the National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981, the only union for freelance writers of all genres. Tom has spent thousands of hours and covered countless struggles of working people and in the service of progressive causes. Frankly, the Congressman could learn a thing or two from him, especially in relation to the current struggle for healthcare. Congressman McMahon was the ONLY Democratic Congressman from New York City to vote against the health care bill.
As for the unprincipled attack by Staten Island GOP boss John Friscia, a trivial job if ever there was one, Tom should consider that yet another award, a badge of honor. As a former member of SDS myself, I consider the years spent actively opposing the genocidal war in Vietnam, opposing racism and building a worker-student alliance as having set the course of my life on the side of working people. There’s an old union song called, “Which Side Are You On.” We know the answer with both Tom and Friscia. And I’m standing with Tom Good.
Health care advocates outside Rep. McMahon’s Brooklyn office
(Photo: Kathleen Kelly / NLN)
BROOKLYN, N.Y. (Special to NLN) — On Tuesday, August 25, 2009 health care activists held an effective, well attended, staff meeting and flyering event at Congressman Mike McMahon’s (D – 13th CD) Brooklyn office. The action was organized by Jenny Radtke of MoveOn.org. McMahon was not at the office, but a member of his staff named Jonathan met with activists — who reported that he appeared open to their question and concerns.
Representative McMahon is reported to have concerns with the Health Care Reform Bill — and he hopes to be able to work out the details when Congress resumes session in September.
Activists were told that the sticking points are related to the cost to businesses and health care providers, however McMahon agrees with most of the bill. One of the activists asked if the representative is willing to sign the bill if these issues are not resolved. The staffers could not offer a firm commitment that McMahon would sign the bill. The issue of the Staten Island Conservative base opposing health care reform came up and activists asked McMahon’s staff that the congressman not politicize the health of individuals and the nation.
Activists asked that Representative McMahon sign a bill with a strong public option.
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
NEW YORK — In recent years May Day in New York City has featured a large immigrant rights march, starting at Union Square. This year’s event was covered by NLN photographer Bud Korotzer.
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
Activist Elaine Brower (pictured with Representatives Mike McMahon
and Charlie Rangel) was arrested earlier today
(NLN File Photo)
PHILADELPHIA (Peace Action) — Seven activists were arrested today as several hundred demonstrators from a coalition of 30 national and regional veteran, youth and peace groups, including the Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace, BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action, Student Peace Action Network, protested what they claimed were unethical military recruitment of teenagers at Franklin Mills Mall in northeast Philadelphia.
The protesters rallied at a church, then marched one mile to the Franklin Mills mall where dozens of police blocked them from entering the “Army Experience Center” (AEC). After nearly an hour of chants of “War is no game, shut down the Army Experience Center” and speeches, Bob Smith of the Brandywine Peace Community (a member of United for Peace and Justice, a coalition of 1,300 national and local organizations) delivered a criminal complaint (4) to a Captain at the AEC and to a representative of the mall’s parent company, The Simon Property Group, Inc. After two police warnings, hundreds of protesters continued to chant and listen to speeches by Col. Wright and others, until the police arrested seven conducting civil disobedience by refusing to leave. Forced out of the mall, people continued to vigil and listen to songs by the Granny Peace Brigade outside the “red” entrance to the mall.
“The Army Experience Center is an abomination. It epitomizes the turn for the worse that the military was forced to take over the last eight years. It is misleading. It targets impressionable minors, and it propagates the glorification of war. I am utterly disgusted that the Army which I loved and in which I served so long has resorted to such a deceiving recruiting strategy,” said Sergeant Jesse Hamilton, who served nine years in the Army including tours in Iraq. After receiving and honorable discharge, he joined Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).
Elaine Brower, 53, who sits on the board of Peace Action of Staten Island, was one of those taken to jail. She has been organizing against the AEC because she is the mother of a Marine who just returned from his third tour of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A protester outside Motorola’s NYC HQ
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
NEW YORK — The newly formed New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel (NYCBI) launched their city-wide boycott of Motorola today.
The protest ran from 7:45 – 9:30 a.m. at Motorola’s NYC Headquarters at 335 Adams St. between Willoughby and Tillary Streets, in downtown Brooklyn.
Hanging up on apartheid
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
In a statement released to the press, NYCBI said the boycott was launched because, “in the wake of Israel’s recent assault on the people of Gaza and the US government’s complicity in the attacks, we as people of conscience in the US must challenge Israeli policies. Hundreds of Palestinian civil society organizations have called on the world to work on campaigns of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, and New York is taking up the call.”
(Photo: Bud Korotzer / NLN)
According to NYCBI, Motorola was targeted because “Motorola USA and its wholly owned subsidiary Motorola Israel develop and provide equipment to the Israeli military and settlers, including bomb fuses, military communication systems, and surveillance systems for the wall and settlements. Similar practices by Motorola during South African apartheid prompted a successful boycott against them.”
For more information on the campaign, visit: www.GoodbyeMoto.org.
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Next Left Notes (NLN) is an independent New Left journal. NLN offers coverage of ongoing struggles - from a radical perspective. See You In The Streets.
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Industrial Workers of the World
