Local

It’s easy to nowadays to casually flip through the newspaper, “Such a shame,” we say. Crying babies and images of ICE agents cover the front page. “Too bad, those poor kids.” And yet we turn to the next page; these are only problems in border states. Besides, it doesn’t affect us...right?

Each day, it seems, new foreign policy changes appear in the newspaper headlines: increased border security to deter Central American illegal immigration, harsher and speedier deportation laws, the end of the DACA program, as well as the proposed travel ban which would limit travelers and immigrants from Chad, North Korea Venezuela, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.

We skim these headlines, our eyes glancing over writers addressing important questions; What would America be without its immigrants? More importantly, how would the immigrant policies affect our local communities?

Ready for 100 Columbus, a campaign to persuade the city of Columbus to commit to achieving 100 percent renewable energy by 2050 or before, is hosting an aerial art photography project on Earth Day.

Ready for 100 Columbus is launching its public campaign for 100 percent renewable energy with an aerial art project at this year’s Earth Day Columbus celebration.

Ready for 100 is a national campaign by the Sierra Club aimed at inspiring leaders in cities across the nation to embrace a vision of healthier communities powered by 100% clean energy. The Columbus campaign’s goal is to persuade the city of Columbus to commit to 100 percent renewable energy citywide by the year 2050.

The aerial art project will feature Columbus residents gathering in formation on the Scioto Mile greenway to spell out “100%”, which will be captured by a professional photographer with the Columbus city skyline in the background. The project will be held in conjunction with the annual Earth Day Columbus celebration, sponsored by Green Columbus on Sunday, April 22.

The universal laws of physics have been turned upside-down and torn to shreds: we’ve traveled back in time. We have hurtled back to the 1990s with a homophobic sexual predator as president. America’s military is once again launching strikes to protect the fossil fuel industry and distract the country from sex scandals and legal troubles. We are saying goodbye to a right-wing ideologue Speaker of the House while healthcare is being used as a political weapon.

Wednesday morning quickly brightened our month by bringing us the news of Paul Ryan’s retirement. Ryan, the creepiest teenager ever, confirmed recent speculation by declaring he was stepping down from the speakership and would not seek reelection at the end of the year. He has spent his entire career drafting crippling cuts to public spending, especially to Social Security and various healthcare programs. As speaker, he has overseen a large increase in federal spending and falling tax revenues. For all of his talk about fiscal common sense, he has possessed none.

La La Land was pelted with jokes galore for its alleged depiction of a white man who wanted to “save” jazz. Personally, I thought the attacks were unfair. The way I saw it, Ryan Gosling’s character was simply a white musician who idolized and was inspired by black jazz icons.

So why do I have such an uncomfortable feeling watching Flock of Four, the story of a white high school student who idolizes and is inspired by a black jazz icon? Maybe because the modest little film tries to tackle the issues of race and cultural appropriation head on, and it does it in a way that’s sometimes awkwardly self-conscious and embarrassingly naïve.  

Directed and co-written by Gregory Caruso, Flock of Four partially makes up for this shortcoming by taking us on a pleasant journey through a pivotal era in Southern California’s musical history.

Saturday, April 14, 2018 6:30-11pm
1021 E. Broad St., Columbus
Parking in side driveway, front or rear parking lot

Come to network and socialize with progressive friends with refreshments, music, and presentations: 
Using Social Media
@ 7:30 p.m. 
and
"Stop the Wars at Home and Abroad!!
and a report back from the Labor Notes Conference,
how labor brought US the weekend."
@ 8 p.m.
Free, no RSVP required.
614-253-2571, colsfreepress@gmail.com
columbusfreepress.org

Thursday, April 12, 7-8:30pm
St. Stephen's Episcopal Church, 30 W. Woodruff
The ISO’s Where We Stand document, which details ISO’s guiding political principles, reads:

“To achieve socialism, the most militant workers must be organized into a revolutionary socialist party. The ISO is committed to playing a role in laying the foundations for such a party. We aim to build an independent socialist organization, rooted in workplaces, schools and neighborhoods that, in fighting today’s struggles, also wins larger numbers to socialism.” (page 1) 

But what exactly is the theory behind this, and what does this theory look like in practice? How do our local branch routines and practices such as movement work, study groups, recruitment, and our organization’s newspaper relate to this project? 

Join us for a discussion on building revolutionary organization today. This meeting is both for members, and for anyone interested in learning about the theory and practice behind ISO's overall political project. 

-----------------------------------------------------------------

History books often contain a chapter that tries to answer the question: What caused such-and-such a revolt or revolution?
For example: What caused the “Boston Massacre” in 1770 when British troops stationed in Boston fired on a crowd that was pelting them with frozen snowballs and oyster shells? What caused the “Boston Tea Party” of 1773 when chest after chest of tea imported from Great Britain was thrown into Boston harbor? (Hint: There had not been a new tax.) What caused the beginning of actual warfare at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775?

The truth is that it is very difficult to be sure why human beings suddenly throw caution to the winds, and, knowing that there may be enormous consequences, take a stand and risk everything. Unsure as to the real causes of a rebellion, the historian may take refuge in a chapter title like “The Gathering Storm.”

Let’s see if we can do better regarding the causes of the longest prison uprising in United States history in which lives were lost, at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF) in Lucasville, April 11-21, 1993.

The Authorities’ Account of Causes

Wednesday, April 11, 5:30-8:30pm
Columbus Metropolitan Library - Northside Branch, 1423 N High St.
Cages are disabling and traumatizing environments. As a result, prisoners suffer from low morale. They also suffer from a variety of human rights abuses committed by jail and prison officials such as torture and “extremely poor quality health care.” These forms of violence are state-sanctioned. Therefore, we can’t expect meaningful oversight of Ohio's concentration camps to come from the state.

Correctional officers practice sadism and identify targets for malicious repression by taking a path of least resistance. They are less likely to target a prisoner with outside support but more likely to target a prisoner who receives no mail. Since there is a lack of community support for incarcerated people, our aim is to use the tactic of One-Prisoner-One-Contact to maintain the security of prisoners while boosting their morale and providing community oversight of Ohio's prison system. We will use our penpal program to support each other across prison walls while strengthening the movement to abolish prisons.

We had yet another week of very little to be joyful about. The executive branch is fixated on destroying our environment and living out childhood fantasies by playing around with the military. We are yet to see a sanguine and inspiring candidate for the midterms rallying the people on the scale of Ralph Nader or Bernie Sanders. Even beautiful actions by teachers calling for higher wages and better educational conditions have a demoralizing side. They are receiving meager support from national political figures, and they show us how poorly the most important people in our communities are treated. The last seven days become even more unacceptable when they are just a continuation of the garbage we had to endure throughout March. I’ll begin with a recap of the month to put this week’s news into perspective.