Local

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.

Tuesday, April 10, 6pm (business meeting); 7pm (general meeting)
Northwood-High Building, 2231 N. High St., Rm. 100
Join the Franklin County Greens. We meet on the second Tuesday of each month. Free parking is available in the “R” spaces — “R” for “Rardin Clinic” — behind the building. Contact: fcgreenparty@gmail.com. facebook.com/FCgreenparty.

Monday, April 9, 8am-5pm
Franklin County Board of Elections, 1700 Morse Rd.
vote.franklincountyohio.gov/voters/register-to-vote.cfm. 614-525-3100.
Or go to your local board of elections or Ohio Secretary of State.
https://olvr.sos.state.oh.us/

This is Pedro walking out of ICE detention after being unjustly held and threatened with deportation for the last 7 months! We are excited to see our collective hard work pay off. Without the courage of Pedro’s guardian and his immigration attorneys he would still be in detention or in an even more dangerous situation.

But Pedro’s release from detention is only half the battle. Now we need YOUR help so Pedro can transition back into the community. The link below has more details about Pedro’s story and needs. Please consider a tax-deductible donation that will go directly to housing, food, and transition assistance that are essential to keeping Pedro out of immigrant detention facility.

Together we can!

On March 24, 2018, over 1.2 million people across the country rallied and marched to show the political establishment and the gun lobby that the American people are serious about gun control. Unfortunately, I was not one of them. As a father of two small children, I can’t always make it to every protest. Don’t get me wrong, protesting is in my blood, and my children have been to their fair share already, but on March 14, I was conscripted to help with a seasonal egg hunt. The key to being an activist parent is figuring out how to give your children a better future while allowing them to have meaningful childhoods. That day, in the name of meaningful childhood, I bundled up and hid some eggs.

Saturday, April 7, 9:30am-3:30pm [registration begins at 9am], First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Rd.

A statewide gathering of local chapters of the national Move to Amend organization that is calling for a U.S. Constitutional amendment to reverse several U.S. Supreme Court decisions during the past century and thereby to firmly establish that corporations are not people and that money is not free speech.

“We, the People of the United States of America, reject the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling and other related cases and move to amend our Constitution to firmly establish that money is not speech and that human beings, not corporations, are persons entitled to constitutional rights.”

This event will also include workshops, action planning, a “People’s Assembly,” and reports on work across the state during the past twelve months.

• Keynote Speaker: Mary Jo Kilroy [former U.S. Representative, Franklin County Commissioner, and Columbus School Board member] on “What a True Representative Democracy Looks Like”