Local
Germany has shut its last three commercial atomic reactors.
Thus Satrday, April 15, 2023, marks a day that will live in joy and promise.
The world’s fourth-largest economy has gone post-nuclear.
While the conjoined atomic power and weapons industry wastes uncounted millions pushing yet another doomed-to-fail “nuclear renaissance,” Europe’s biggest economy has steered itself toward a sustainable green-powered future.
For more than a half-century, a powerful Solartopian movement has fought reactor construction in Germany.
A key early uprising came in the rural community of Wyhl, where thousands of No Nukers physically occupied the site of a proposed radioactive waste dump. Films of the action circulated worldwide, helping to inspire mass non-violent occupations at Seabrook, New Hampshire, Diablo Canyon in California, and dozens of other reactor sites around the US, Canada, Latin America, Europe and Asia.
Germany’s Green movement achieved significant parliamentary clout. In early 2011, it set a massive national demonstration to shut the nation’s 19 reactors.
Saturday, April 15, 10 am to 1:15 pm
913 E Mound Street
Sunday, April 16, 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Behind Old First Presbyterian Church, 1101 Bryden Rd.
We will be planting spring crops, clearing out debris, setting a compost bin, trim bushes/trees, turning soil, prepping beds and grab litter from the surrounding nkighborhood. We will also go into the neighborhood to recruit people to help us this year and set plans for what to plant where and figure out how many plots can go to individuals to use. Bring gloves, sunscreen and garden wear that can take some dirt on them. We'll provide tools, beverages, pizzas from Donatos at 1:15 . Many hands make less work and we look forward to a great bounty this year to share.
Detested by most residents, “hated” to use the word regularly repeated by Columbus Police, and used without obeying the law by relatively few, the plague of unregulated electric scooters is one of Columbus’ few marks of distinction. With almost all other distinctions, this is another grade of F for failure; P for profiteering; C for corruption; V for the City’s violation of its own laws and its residents’ rights. This is The Columbus Way.
Columbus is the largest US city with no policy for regulating electric scooters. See, for example, John Seabrook, “The E-Scooters Loved by Silicon Valley Roll into New York” (The New Yorker, Apr. 19, 2021; for related humor, Fred Noland, “The Scooter Menace,” Sept. 19, 2022). /Other cities pursue a variety of means of regulating scooters—with more or less success—especially for safety and the physical environment.
The slogans that scooters benefit the physical environment or “enhance mobility” (one of the Division of Public (aka Private) Service’s favorite self-promotional terms) are shown over and over to have no merit. That never matters to the City of Columbus.
Thursday, April 13, 7pm, Enarson Classroom Building [Rm. 214], 2009 Millikin Rd., and online at tinyurl.com/CORSMeeting
“The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles” — Marx and Engels
Join Central Ohio Revolutionary Socialists on Thursday, April 13 to discuss the history of revolutions and the meaning of revolution for us today.
In recent years, we have seen the reemergence of mass struggles across the world. Yet rarely have we seen real improvements in what people have been fighting for, let alone an end to the oppression and exploitation that are the norm under world capitalism.
This presentation and discussion will consider the importance of revolution for achieving real social change and what core lessons we have to learn from the long history of revolutionary struggle by the lower classes.
Wednesday, April 12, 5-6:30pm, Ohio Environmental Council, 1145 Chesapeake Ave., Suite I [this event will also be occurring via Zoom]
Ohio Energy Law and Policy is a complex web of regulations, laws, and administrative decisions. It is constantly evolving, making it difficult for attorneys and advocates to understand how best to represent their communities or their clients in venues like the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio or the Ohio Power Siting Board — or in other venues, such as city councils or the Ohio General Assembly.
But the reality is, energy law and policy dictate the future of climate action in Ohio.
Through our “Ohio Energy Law and Policy Primer,” the Ohio Environmental Council will outline the recent history of Ohio’s energy world, from deregulation in the early 2000s to the RPS and EE standards of 2009, onward to House Bill 6 and its aftermath in 2019 and 2020 as well as even more recent developments, like Senate Bill 52 passed under the 134th General Assembly.
The recently introduced Ohio Senate Bill 83, the so-called Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act, has generated heated debate and considerable confusion over the bill’s motivation, what it actually says, its implications and impacts.
When asked at the first hearing what problem in Ohio public and private universities and colleges the bill was solving, the bill’s author, Sen. Jerry Cirino (R-Kirtland) stated plainly and clearly: to deal with a trend towards indoctrination in our universities.
But what is less plain and clear from the rattle-bag of bans and demands in the bill, is what this means in practice. Indoctrination is nowhere mentioned as the cause for the bill banning mandatory Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) training, courses, and initiatives, academic relations with China, or university employees from striking.
At the same time, indoctrination is missing from the rationale for the bill demanding a compulsory American History course, Board of Trustees education programs, making course syllabi public or determining faculty workload and annual reviews.
Community Festival returns to Goodale Park on June 23, 24 and 25, 2023.
ComFest showcases the very best in live music in Columbus and Central Ohio. Entertainment applications for all stages are now open through April.
Street Fair brings local artisans, food vendors and community organizations together to showcase their wares, interact and celebrate with the Columbus Progressive community. Street Fair applications are open until April 20, 2023 at www.comfest.com
In just a few words -- “those who control the present, control the past and those who control the past control the future” -- George Orwell summed up why narratives about history can be crucial. And so, ever since the final helicopter liftoff from the U.S. Embassy’s roof in Saigon on April 30, 1975, the retrospective meaning of the Vietnam War has been a matter of intense dispute.
Free Press readers gathered Saturday evening, April 8, for a Cyber-Salon.
Mark Stansbery, Free Press Board member, started out the salon by introducing the two speakers, progressive candidates for the general election this fall in Central Ohio. Both speakers are also recipients of the Free Press Libby Award for community activism.
The first speaker was Joe Motil, who is running for Columbus mayor, the only opponent in the race is current mayor, Andy Ginther. Joe is a lifelong Columbus resident, 40 years active in city public policy, and a retired union worker.
Joe is running because he’s tired of the pay to play city politics that benefit developers. His campaign will focus on affordable housing, police reform, public transit, homelessness, neighborhood infrastructure, and government corruption.
Joe has lots of public policy proposals, including bond packages, raising the hotel tax, and having tax abated companies like Intel kick in to help create affordable housing. He proposes that the City should purchase land and build affordable housing.
WHAT: Oil and Gas Land Management Commission public hearing and business meeting
WHEN: Monday, April 10, at 10 a.m.
WHERE: Ohio Department of Natural Resources, 2045 Morse Road, Building E, 1st Floor Assembly Center, Columbus, OH 43229
The Oil and Gas Land Management Commission will hold a hearing on Monday, April 10, to hear public testimony on Draft Rule 155-1-01, which will create the process for granting oil and gas industry leases for fossil fuel extraction from Ohio public lands.
In attendance will be a group of dedicated Ohio citizens and users of Ohio state parks and forests to call out the oil and gas industry’s grab of our public lands.