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.

Once again . . . once again . . . once again . . .

I’m sure you know what I’m referring to. Yeah, another — the latest (?) — mass shooting in the United States, this one at Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 10, two days ago as I write. Five killed, eight injured. The shooter, an employee of the bank, was killed in a shootout with police. Three officers were injured, including a rookie officer (ten days on the job), who was shot in the head and is struggling to survive. The gunman’s weapon was a nice, reliable AR-15-style rifle, legally purchased at a local gun shop a week earlier.

That’s the basic data.

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 Ron DeSantis led Florida Republicans are working faster than the speed of light in trying to dismantle the inner structure that have sustained Florida’s middle-class society in a liberal democracy. The team is working in almost every aspect of our society in doing so. For example:

A- Gutting public sector labor unions with the exception of those that are tied with law enforcement (pretty clever maneuver since Republicans are going to need those workers to crack the heads of other workers); now in DeSantis’ Florida majority in Labor Unions is defined as 60% of the membership. Florida is a right-to-work state, and nobody is forced to become a labor union member.

B- DeSantis has declared a war on education that includes culture wars against Black history, LGBTQ+ community, and whatever makes white people feel uncomfortable about American history, “woke” people issues, etc. African American history has been banned as an AP course.

C- Women's reproductive choice is being hit with an abortion ban after six weeks of pregnancy and is almost certain to become law.

D- Attacks on LGBTQ community meant to take away their right to exist in dignity.

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.

 The dominant spin has been dismal and bipartisan. “We went to Vietnam without any desire to capture territory or to impose American will on other people,” Jimmy Carter declared soon after entering the White House in early 1977. “We went there to defend the freedom of the South Vietnamese.” During the next decade, presidents ordered direct American military interventions on a much smaller scale, while the rationales were equally mendacious. Ronald Reagan ordered the 1983 invasion of Grenada, and George H.W. Bush ordered the 1989 invasion of Panama.