Undercurrents

Nashawn Williams was brutally attacked by racist whites in Plainfield while waiting for a school bus in Oct. 2007; yet there has been NO progress to date by the Plainfield Police department nor actions by the State of Connecticut speaking in outrage to such a racist act.

Date: Saturday, September 6th
Time: 11 am
Place: Charter Oak Cultural Center in Hartford, Carpools to depart at 11:15 am for Moosup.

Time: 12:35pm
Place: Town of Moosup

Gathering at parking lot where coffee shop eatery is located 12:35 PM, followed by RALLY at street of Union & North main (near white fence) where Nashawn was beaten and final short Rally at 29 Main Street where 17 whites hurled racial slurs at Nashawn et al.  Following rallies drive to Plainfield Police Station where Rabbi Donna Berman reads a Manifesto Statement, which is tacked to police station.
More info: Cornell Lewis: 860-220-4051 pager

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For those of you who know me, you know that my wife (I will call her Susan) is a Dominican U.S. citizen.  You also know we have an 8 year old son (whom I will call Jeffrey), though technically he’s my stepson.  Our son’s biological dad is an African American man whom my wife met while attending college.  Susan is in her final year of Ph.D. study at the University of Connecticut where she’s excelling in the graduate program.   (more…)

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And so it begins:

Protesters make their presence felt in Denver.

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According to the Washington Post, the Bush administration has announced that it intends to push for a federal regulation that “empowers federal health officials to pull funding from more than 584,000 hospitals, clinics, health plans, doctors’ offices and other entities if they do not accommodate employees who refuse to participate in care they find objectionable on personal, moral or religious grounds.” (more…)

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The New Haven Independent is - for those who don’t know - a great online “newspaper” combining their own news coverage with links to other online independent news sources and blogs.  I just read an excellent interview with Judge Anthony DeMayo, who provides his observations on what it is like to preside over a weekly court calendar that typically consists of more than 120 foreclosure actions, the impact of the housing foreclosure crisis on working people and people of color, and how things got this way.  Recommended reading.

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This is a great analysis of the government and media responses to the current crisis in Georgia, Russia, etc.  It’s from the Guardian UK:

Click here for the full story.

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Before considering a curfew to stem violence on Hartford’s streets, Eddie Perez should beg our people, our leaders, our industry, our media to end the sanctioned violence we do in these senseless wars we’re having.  Does anybody think that the lessons of war and tyranny are lost on the criminals who walk among us?

It stands to reason that a corrupt and warlike government will produce an intractable criminal class.  The natural inhibitions against violence are overcome when a nation resolves to rain bombs and bullets on people in distant lands, and a willingness to offend is indispensable when all transactions are fixed to favor the “haves” over the “have-nots.”  

It doesn’t help that we tolerate all this unwillingly.  We have the power to destroy the thuggish government that brought us to this point, but we don’t do it   The violence on our streets is truly an expression of our paralysis in the face of atrocity.  Nobody doubts that criminals in government have compromised our moral authority, and this must harden and embolden predators of every kind.   

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For the first time, the Green Party has submitted enough signatures to qualify candidates in each of Connecticut’s five Congressional races. (more…)

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Last night, August 11, the Hartford City Council voted unanimously to
adopt an ordinance effectively removing Connecticut’s capitol city from
the business of enforcing federal immigration laws. Though the
ordinance must still be signed by Mayor Perez, the vote is an enormous
step forward for the immigrant rights movement here in Connecticut. (more…)

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I posted video from the Clean Slate Committee Block Party, from July 26, 2008. Click below or visit http://www.youtube.com/hartfordimc for all HIMC video coverage.

(more…)

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