If your town didn't celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day this week, here are some resources to help you establish it in your area:
https://www.zinnedproject.org/campaigns/abolish-columbus-day
Free Indigenous Prisoner Leonard Peltier!
https://therealnews.com/free-indigenous-political-prisoner-leonard-peltier
Indigenous Led Alliance Moves to Stop Bolsonaro's Ecocidal Destruction of the Amazon
Indigenous Coalition Tells Biden Communities Need Clean Water and Climate Action
The US Has Used Conservatorships to Exploit Indigenous Peoples
https://scheerpost.com/2021/10/11/happy-indigenous-peoples-day-from-those-who-made-it-possible/
More information on IPD below this week's article. Power to all Indigenous Peoples!
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October 15th is the day for a #General Strike
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| https://octoberstrike.com/ |
A Week in View
by Coast Watcher
In Alabama over a thousand mine workers have been on strike for over over two hundred days, demanding higher pay and benefits. Nabisco workers recently won their strike after closing all the company’s plants in the US. Kellogg's workers are out on strike over pensions, healthcare and more. Hollywood is grinding to a stop over the IATSE strike. All the above labor disputes were voted for by over 98% of the workers concerned. Next Saturday will see a national general strike.
Things are turning at last. We are seeing a seismic shift in public attitudes toward the corporate world, with its pathetic wage structure, benefit cuts, ever demanding work hours and atrocious working conditions. The public is finally becoming aware that too many people are now finding they have to spend more money to work than they actually make in wages and salary.
The current COVID-19 situation is analogous to that pertaining during and after the Black Death of the fourteenth century. Europe’s population dropped by between 30-40%, leading to a chronic shortage of labor. The feudal system, which depended heavily on forcing workers to live and labor all their lives on land owned by the lord of the manor, suddenly faced a surviving population empowered by this shortage of labor and the lack of any effective means of coercing the people to work.
That’s not to say things will be easy in our modern world. A steady increase in store prices began not long after COVID shut down the economy for several months. The capitalists saw far enough ahead to realize the threat their cozy system faced, and they’re trying to force people back to work through raising prices across the board. All we have to do is stay the course. Without labor, the rich will not get richer. Now is the time to pile on the pressure and force through real change for the better for the 99%. Strike!
BIO: Coast Watcher says it's time to strike while the iron's hot. The workers have been burnt and the capitalists and their politician puppets have been throwing our human rights into the fire for far too long. Organize your place of work if you're not represented by a union. Don't cross picket lines. Support those workers who are on the picket lines with food, water, money, and your gratitude for their courage. Power to the people!
It’s a great time for the entire working class population to go on strike. #GeneralStrike
— DEMEXIT_HARD (@MonroePuzzle) October 11, 2021
Tired of working for the man? You can find a Workers' Co-operative in your area:
https://www.usworker.coop/directory/
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Important Stories You Might Not Have Heard Anything About In The Mainstream Media This Week:
The Science of Propaganda is Still Being Developed and Advanced https://soundcloud.com/going_rogue/the-science-of-propaganda-is-still-being-developed-and-advanced
Julian Assange: Silence in the Face of CIA Murder Plots https://progressivehub.net/julian-assange-silence-in-the-face-of-cia-murder-plots/
Assange and Donzinger Attacked (video) https://www.portable.tv/series/redactedtonight?v=86fddabd-b3a0-440c-8970-e9f45f48c2c8
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Osiyo,
Today — Indigenous Peoples Day (IPD) — marks the highlight of the Indigenous year. I hope you will join us as we gather to celebrate, heal, and re-Indigenize. This long weekend represents a reprieve from trauma, sadness, and grief as we travel with good hearts to see close family and distant relatives, celebrate together, and share our cultures.
As you likely know, many places do not yet celebrate with us. They’re still celebrating Columbus Day, perpetuating the myth that Christopher Columbus discovered so-called America. Columbus arrived on October 12, 1492 on Taino homelands. This first voyage was a reconnaissance mission wherein he later established La Navidad in present-day Haiti — America’s first colony. The following fall, he returned with an invasion force of 17 ships and 1,500 soldiers. He found La Navidad destroyed by Taino People, who had retaliated against rapes and murders carried out by the Spaniards.
European weapons (like cannons and muskets), armour, horses, and dogs soon overwhelmed the Indigenous warriors, who were armed only with clubs and spears. Celebrating Columbus, therefore, condones genocide and colonization. Many think of these issues as only existing in the past. But these systems, set in motion hundreds of years ago by Columbus and other conquistadores, continue. All Taino homelands, from Puerto Rico to the Bahamas, remain colonized today — many by the United States.
To combat the Columbus-as-hero narrative, we’re working to replace Columbus Day with IPD everywhere. Our hope is that more people like you will come together with us, as Indigenous People focus throughout the long weekend on empowerment through solidarity and sharing pathways to action.
Watch Tara Houska’s Ted Talk. As our skilled Anishinaabe relative points out, many of these struggles are deeply rooted in trauma. But today is about sharing successes within our sustained resistance to colonization. We see ourselves in the faces of our relatives while they reflect on Indigenous sovereignty, land and water rights, education, economic development, language preservation and promotion, and religious freedom.
Our celebrations feature Indigenous poets, musicians, artists, singers, leaders, and performers from across Turtle Island, who offer their gifts. Everyone who attends an event can actively participate in round dancing and be uplifted by traditional prayers. The overwhelming feelings of celebration and open-heartedness are palpable. This is the chance for settlers and non-Natives to catch us in our most generous mindset. As we come together across nations to actively decolonize and re-Indigenize our communities and share our gifts, I hope you will join a celebration in your area.
Wado — thank you for your ongoing solidarity with our Indigenous nations.
Sarah Rose Harper
Social Media Coordinator
The Lakota People’s Law Project
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From Hip Hop Caucus:
Christopher Columbus didn’t just commit genocide against Indigenous people. He also set the precedent of cruelty and massacre which would haunt the American continents for hundreds of years; a precedent that is still active in the present brutality against Indigenous and Black communities.
Ceasing to honor a genocidal maniac won’t bring back the millions of lives lost to white supremacy and violent imperialism- but it will, at the very least, stop giving that maniac state sanctioned respect.
President Biden, this year, has finally acknowledged the holiday which we should never have had to fight for. It’s time to go a step further, and ensure that this holiday is a permanent federal holiday- and that Columbus day is not one.
Tearing down statues and removing inappropriate holidays may seem small to some.
But we know it’s the difference between a society which gleefully uplifts murder, and one which is actively attempting to heal.
For Future Generations,
Rev Yearwood
President & CEO
Hip Hop Caucus
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