People Of Italian-American Dissent
October 11, 2009
Every October in San Francisco’s North Beach, nestled between the sonic booms of the Blue Angels, the Italian-American Political Solidarity Club stages the Avanti-Popolo: Sailing Beyond Columbus reading at the venerable City Lights Bookstore. Given the bookstore’s tradition of instigating and embracing dissent, the location is a fitting one. It is also the former location of the Italian language bookstore that served the community at the turn of the century.
The event celebrates the history most of us didn’t hear about in school: the accomplishments our labor organizers, free-speech advocates, feminists, sports heroes, actors and poets. What we won’t celebrate every October are lost sailors, stolen land, and the not-so little matter of genocide catalyzed by Columbus’ arrival in a world that was only “new” to those from the other side of the pond.
The Avanti readings stand in a tradition which include groundbreaking events in the 1990s organized by New York’s Italian-Americans for a Multi Cultural US, and the powerhouse San Francisco activist Tommi Avicolli-Mecca at the old Josie’s Juice and Cabaret in SF’s Castro District.
Why, 517 years after the arrival of Columbus is this important? On one hand, it is a simple matter of pride. When the history of our people on this continent is rich with those who acted from a vision of a world radically better than theirs. why laud Columbus, who wrote about how easy it would be to enslave the native population? More importantly, by sailing beyond Columbus worship, we also break with a mindset that justifies war and domination. Potentially, this can alter how we react to today’s wars, occupation, immigration debates, and environmental disasters.
The ways in which we understand history directly impact the ways we see the present and future. Over the past five years, we have received a bit of criticism accusing our humble reading as promoting revisionism and guilt. We have time for neither. We love our heritage enough to remember some of our near forgotten heroes and sheroes. If we ever stand in solidarity with immigrants who are facing the same hardships our parents and grandparents faced, our community will be at its best.
This October, let’s reclaim the memories of some real paesans with a different world in their hearts:
Anti-facist Virgilia d’Andrea who fled from Mussolini, landing in New York, known for her fantastic oration in support of workers and women’s causes, “every time she spoke, she left behind seeded ground.”
Angela Bambace, organizer for the International Ladies’ Garment Workers Union, the 1930s, led the sit-down strike against Robert’s Dress Company of Baltimore fighting for improved wages and conditions.
Mario Savio, son of a Sicilian steel worker is best known for his “bodies on the gears” speech in support of the Free Speech Movement. However, Savio was also a fervent opponent of racism and had been arrested while demonstrating in support of black hotel workers fighting their exclusion from non-menial jobs in San Francisco.
We have no illusions that an annual poetry reading will change the world nor topple the pillars of racism and war. The events serve as an opportunity for us to unearth hidden histories, and rededicate ourselves to a future when “discovery” might lead us to a truly new world of peace, equality, and worker’s emancipation and solidarity.
Avanti Popolo 2009, October 12th 2009 7pm. City Lights Bookstore, 261 Columbus San Francisco with Michael Parenti (Author of Democracy For The Few) Giovanna Capone (Avanti Popolo Contributor)Tommi Avicolli Mecca (Editor of Smash The Church, Smash The State) Paola Bacchetta (Smash The Church, Smash The State Contributor) Ed Coletti (No Money In Poetry Blog) Christopher Giovacchini-Ramirez (Author, Poetry In The Whiskey Of The Damned).
Upcoming October Readings
September 27, 2009
Thursday October 8th, 7:00 Modern Times Bookstore, San Francisco with Ananda Esteva, Maiana Minahal, Dani Montgomery. Civil Defense Poetry night!
Monday October 12th, 7:00 Avanti Popolo: Italian Americans Sailing Beyond Columbus, City Lights Bookstore, SF Annual anti-Columbus celebration of real Italian American culture. WIth Michael Parenti and others. www.citylights.com
Saturday October 17th, 6:00 Litquake Litcrawl, phase 1. Manic D Press Showcase at Adobe Books, San Francisco Thea Hillman, Jon Longhi, Tarin Towers, Jennifer Blowdryer, James Tracy, Eric Spitznagel, Jennifer Joseph www.manicdpress.com, http://www.litquake.org
Saturday October 24th, workshop at Santa Cruz State University Practical Activism Conference http://activism.ucsc.edu. My friends from Headrush Crew are going to hold down the spoken word. Not to be missed.
The Willie Horton Hustle 2009
September 6, 2009
When Bay Area activist Van Jones was first appointed by President Barack Obama as Special Advisor for Green Jobs at the Council on Environmental Quality, I could hear the right-wing pundits sharpening their knives.
To me, it seemed a question of when, not if the knives would plunge in. The chorus of pundits “revealing” to the world what was never hidden in the first place: Jones’ former membership in a Marxist organization, any number of speeches he’d given decrying police brutality, stated support for the human rights of Palestinians, and the list goes on.
I expected that Van’s face would be plastered all over the media sometime in 2010, as the Republicans geared up to take some Congressional seats back. Surprise, election season is here, although a bit early.
In the past, the Republican Party would have left Van Jones alone, and instead find the image of a Black inmate, who managed to rape, rob, steal and scare the suburbs while on furlough. The Willie Horton Hustle worked well in 1988, killing Michael Dukakis’ campaign for the White House and ushering in the reign of Bush I.
That playbook isn’t going to work in exactly the same way. Fanning racial resentment while a Black President is in office is a different beast. The assault on Jones is a new bag: “expose” how Obama is catering to “reverse racists” with “dangerous” socialist ideas.
The image of a Black man sneaking in a (white) grandmother’s house and raping her has been replaced by the image of an angry army of Black professionals (college educated thanks to affirmative action) plotting the economic subjugation of all white folks. The beat remixed, yet the song remains the same.
Those who profit from this demonology are the same people who freaked out when they realized their own children bought Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet not to burn, but to dance to. Twenty-years later, they are far more concerned with making sure that health reform saves private profits, and that the Obama administration stays the course in Iraq and Afghanistan. Stoking white people’s Fear of a Black President, and his dangerous advisors is a tune that has withstood the test of time. With Jones’ resignation, we’re likely to hear it again next year, and for years after.
The knife of white resentment is always one that cuts the hand that wields it. In the end, it isn’t Obama himself that the racist wing of the Republican Party is afraid of. His monumental caution and pandering to their needs should have allayed that fear. What they are afraid of is that the hundreds of thousands of people of all races who bought the Hope and Change product are actually going to get up and demand some, beyond the confines of both major parties.
San Francisco Budget Wars 2009
July 6, 2009
(This is the first installment of a series of posts on the San Francisco City Budget and campaigns to challenge cuts to vital human services and layoffs of workers. I’m writing this aware that many of my good friends closely involved with these issues have sharply different opinions. Hopefully, this series with spur serious strategic debate. I’m always open to being proven wrong.)
Late into the evening of July 1st, the Budget Committee of the San Francisco Board Of Supervisors approved a budget that restored about $44 million dollars of cuts proposed by Mayor Gavin Newsom. The deal prevented the outsourcing of City jobs to private contractors and preserved hundreds of vital life-saving services. Immediately, some started to question whether or not the victory was worth the paper it was printed upon. Supervisor Chris Daly, in a near twenty-minute monologue, pointed out that without mechanism to hold the Mayor accountable, many of the funds could simply be held back.
Were Wednesday’s results an organizing victory, or simply a feel-good moment for progressive Supes unwilling to use their majority on the board to secure a deal with teeth? The truth of the matter is firmly located in a grey-area of real politics, and does not fit neatly into any neat explanation of “victory” nor “sell-out.”
The budget, if implemented by the Mayor, is indeed historic in these economic times. Applying Naomi Klein’s concept of the “Shock Doctrine” to local concerns, the economic collapse is a perfect opportunity for those in ideologically attached to a small role for local government to eviscerate city jobs (such as security jobs at museums) and replace them with lower-paying and non-unionized positions. Likewise, low-income working-class people depend on a variety of services saved through the deal. The restoration of eviction defense services, HIV and gang-intervention work, and mental health programs aren’t simply part of a “safety net” or an “entitlement” but rather a part of a “social wage”— based in needs held by most low-income workers yet unreachable by most through high costs. The critique of the deal has much traction.
The Mayor is allowed to simply not spend budget allocations, and given the horrendous situation the State is in, another fight over mid-year reductions is only weeks away. But before condemning Budget and Finance Committee Chair John Avalos as foolish, one needs to keep a piece of reality in mind: his allies on the Board have six votes, not a veto proof eight. In a sense, what we saw on June 1st 2009 was largely determined by the outcome of the November 2008 election. Had one less progressive Supervisor been elected, Newsom’s budget would have stood largely untouched. Yet in absence of two extra votes, compromise would be inevitable. A compromise it was—leaving many of Newsom’s questionable priorities (such as increased PR staff and a homeless court) unscathed.
Mainstream and most progressive news sources ignored was that the Mayor and the Board Of Supervisors were only two forces in the overall budget debate. Labor and Community organizations, such as the Coalition to Save Public Health and the Budget Justice Coalition had waged a spirited fight back against the cuts since December of 2009. In the final weeks before the deal, Direct Action to Stop the Cuts had led several daring actions against the Mayor, highlighting the impact of the cuts to the public health system and people living with HIV.
Next Fragile Coalitions: Labor and Community Come Together for a Just Budget.
Understanding the Tax Revolt of 2009
April 18, 2009
by James Tracy
Populism, Parks Public Spaces and Police Protection
One of the ironies about the April 15th “Tea Party” protests is that they all seemed to take place in public places paid for by taxes; like parks and plazas. Not to mention the ample police protection the demonstrators received as they cashed in on their First Amendment rights, paid for, again by taxes.
Many liberal and progressive commentators have opined that the tax revolt is part of a sign of the apocalypse—heralded by four horsemen of fascism, racism, poor-people hating, and reaction. Certainly, many of the Tea Party’s celebrants politics veer sharply to the right. It’s pretty obvious that the tax protests have mainlined a large dose of hypocrisy. With the exception of Ron Paul’s campaign, you didn’t hear a peep from these people everytime the federal government spends billions of dollars on the war machine.
Just like the Left, who seem to be totally happy with the war when Obama promotes it, the Right only hates runaway government spending when America’s first Black President is doing it.
However, it’s time for the Left to wipe away it’s smug condescending attitude towards this revolt and dig deep and understand it for what it is—the resurgence of populism—rooted in real economic hardship. Populism is simply a revolt against elites, without a clear political trajectory. In times of populist upsurge, the movement will evolve both fascist and progressive faces.
Two Paths of Populism-Reaction or Progress
For example, in the 19th Century, the populist farmer’s movement achieved some impressive victories at limiting the power of the railroad industry to exploit workers and steal land from farmers. However, the same movement managed to evolve a seriously racist and anti-semitic face, as opportunistic leaders such as Tom Watson, and William Jennings Bryan.
Yet the populist impulse has also brought the United States some of its best moments—such as the Bonus Marchers, an integrated movement of World War I veterans who occupied Capitol Hill demanding relief and compensation for their service. The Unemployed Workers Movement, with their militant demands for jobs and housing, rooted in direct action against evictions, was one of the high-marks of the U.S. Left.
Whether the populist moment gives way to reaction or progress will depend on who is ready to organize, to explain the crisis, and point to real ways out of it. Dismissing the rank-and-file Tax Protester as a “racist” or a “redneck” signifies the fact that some in the Left have given up on reaching one of the largest parts of the US working-class. This doesn’t mean not confronting the forces of white and male supremacy who are salivating to gain control of this upsurge. In fact it is a call to confront it through the type of organizing that cedes nothing to the right.
In the sixties and seventies, organizations such as the Young Patriots Organization, Rising Up Angry, October 4th Organization, and Sojourner Truth Organization tried to build this kind of bold politics. The recognized that working-class whites could move simultaneously for their own economic interests and in solidarity with oppressed nationalities. However, to make this happen, the Left had to out organize the Right and offer an alternative set of politics. Of course, during this time, the Right actually out organized the Left and laid the ground for the Reagan Era. But their histories, and local victories, provide a good example that the pillars of racism can actually be challenged through hard work.
Rather we need to recognize that we are in a war of ideas—but to win we have to have ideas, vision, and the willingness to listen and struggle with the very people most of us have been taught to fear.
Today’s tax revolt is rooted in the fact that the corporations who have caused the economic meltdown have been completely left off the hook for paying for the mess they have made—while your average worker, whether low or middle income will be paying the price for years to come.
If the Left doesn’t acknowledge the reality that the nation’s tax structure does disproportionately punish small homeowners, and propose serious, viable programs for taxing the wealthy, then the Right will be there with its own program. That program will continue to deflect people’s attention from the structural causes of the crisis, and continue the scapegoating of immigrants, fuse the alliance between the elites and the middle, and lay the ground for a real fascist backlash.
