TIM HAYES' – Page 8 – TALES FROM POST-RACIAL AMERICA

Remembering the Murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner

June 21, 2014 by Tim Hayes 1 Comment

Today is actually for me a hard day to write about. I’ve been thinking about it for more than a week because I knew it was coming. Fifty years ago today James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. went missing in Philadelphia, Miss.. All members of COFO ( Council of Federated Organizations) a coalition of national and regional organizations engaged in civil rights activities in Mississippi. Established in 1962 with the goal of maximizing the efforts of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Congress of Racial Equality, and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). After visiting Longdale Miss. the three workers went missing. I already knew of the movement in Miss. that summer, Centered around the need to register Black people to vote, but also revealing the serious need for local people themselves to step forward and take over the struggle. Outsiders were easy to spot and often targets. Also mostly they were students and would be gone after a while. This struggle really belonged to the local people. I was in high school and spent most of that summer being a busboy at an Atlanta nightclub ..but I already had friends in SNCC and CORE who went down to set up “Freedom Schools” …to train local people to set up voter registration drives and provide an atmosphere of solidarity that would last beyond the “Freedom Summers”. I got to go down for a couple of weekends but was not allowed to stay long…they even then knew there was danger and I was one of the youngest people in SNCC.. James Chaney I had met several times..a young brother with powerful vision..The bodies of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner were found after 44 days in what has been called an “earthen dam” . They had been killed by a “lynch mob” of at the very least 10 Klansmen and “wannabes” after a pursuit on Highway 19..Miss State officials refused to prosecute the killers for murder,a state crime..the Federal Government tried the “mob” for conspiracy to deprive the civil rights workers of their civil rights.They indicted Sheriff Rainey, Deputy Sheriff Price and 16 other men. Only Seven were found guilty most received a sentence 0f 3 to 10 years…This would become a “watershed” moment for many people ..and for myself pretty much mark the end of my childhood. I had been watching the civil rights movement in the newspapers and on TV since the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955….and in recent years ’62—’65 we had seen the Miss. Riots ( white people who literally went mad..over James Meredith,the first Black student accepted, trying to enter the University of Miss)…the Freedom Riders: groups of Black and White students who broke the rules riding segregated inter state buses …and the Bombings one after another in Birmingham. I was still a kid …living in the biggest city in the deep south and all these people , mostly just three or four years older than I was were literally risking there lives to change a way of life that was so intrenched in the culture we almost thought of it as “normal”. The “whites only” and “colored area ” and “no colored served here” signs were as common in our lives as “STOP” signs are today…I can remember how most of our parents and grand parents didn’t even dream of things changing any time soon…. And those who did did not want their child to be among the people who tried …Almost every family had a story of some relative or neighbor who defied “Jim Crow” ….always with a tragic ending …But this generation ..literally took a deadly “Tiger by the Tail”..I was the first and for a long time the only kid in my school or my neighborhood who took an interest in the movement…. I went from Science nerd and “that brainy kid” to the “movement guy” during the course of the summer of 1964 and as the 1960s went on I began to disappoint and even anger many of the adults in my world. “Timothy you had so much potential..and you are just throwing it away”..But life simply could not be the same after that summer. Those brave students just a little older than I was became real heroes ..Lonnie King, John Lewis . Willie Ricks, Bob Moses, Julian Bond..Diane Nash….many more…I would try to sneak into meetings …run errands ..anything just to be around those people In the year to come I would have my “baptism in blood” ..1965 would mark the first time I actively participated in a march…. As this website grows and develops I will talk about a lot of what happened in later years but today …..let’s remember the lives of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner.

James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner

The bodies of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner..as they were found 44 days after the murder

How my Great Grandfather found me in my late forties

June 10, 2014 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

This is my great grand father Charlie White. Papa as we called him. Papa died when I was about 7 or 8 years old, I think ..I could have been younger, but in my memory he looms as a huge mythological person. Frankly I don’t know how tall Papa was. He certainly seemed to us taller than any one else. Charlie White was the father of my maternal Grand mother Jessie White. Jessie died young and left behind three little girls..my mother Hattie , the oldest, Rosa Mae, and Ludi ..the baby .The girls were raised by Charlie and his wife “Ella” ..and until I was in my teens I thought they were my actual grandparents.

Charlie White My Great grandfather from Dawson Ga.

In Dawson Georgia, Terrell county Charlie White is said to have in his time been the only Black man who was addressed as Mr. rather than “boy” if you were young or ‘Uncle” if you were middle aged or over. Charlie was “Mr. White” where ever he went. His tall lean frame and his Stetson hat most of the year But a straw fedora in the summer …Mr. White was the man to go to if you had trouble…. Over a time it became hard to separate. The man from the myths. We knew he was a union organizer, but we were too young to know what that was. The people in the other picture are supposed to be some of Papa’s “union folks”. It was this picture that peaked my interest and made me want to learn more about a man who was a Black union organizer in the 20s, 30s and 40s in the deep south and why his “union folks” were Black people and White people and even as a child in the 1950s I knew that was unusual.I spent a lot of time over the period of my life searching for history about real people in the southern labor movement …every few years I would come across someone who had heard of Charlie White …many times it turned out to be someone else…I thought that for sure that a union organizer of Black and White workers would stick out some how… It turns out there were many attempts to organize workers in the early textile mills and even to old cotton mills in the deep south. Many people ended up dead.. and I did find a White guy named Charlie White who was murdered in Albany, Georgia in 1942…Finally when I was in my late forties ..and in Philadelphia where I now live. I met Vince Pieri ..an old lefty and something of an expert on Paul Robeson. Vince remembered meeting a Charlie White. I went home and got him a picture to see. And it was the same man…Paul Robeson had come to Dougherty County, Georgia to sing a concert to raise money for the Cotton Mill Workers United…There it was I now knew the name of at least one of the unions Papa had worked for…and it just knocked me out that he probably knew Paul Robeson…. Vince sad the reason for Papa’s trouble was he was constantly being called a “RED”…a communist..Vince said Papa not only denied this but said he didn’t even know any….in another conversation years later he called him self a “peoples” Socialist ….Vince is now long gone..but meeting him and becoming his friend was to me a miracle…It’s a good feeling to know that Charlie White’s genes are running through my veins,and it explains a lot about who I became in my life.

Tribute to an old friend and the truth about the Horror of Mt. Rushmore

June 9, 2014 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

This is a moving video I came across from Julia Christopher Perri Moreno last year. this is moving to see how a typical “dorky” white guy gets exposed to the truth of reservation life and how he is changed…I’m posting this in memory of my old friend the late Robert Cruz . who I met when we were both at the Yale Summer High School in 1967. The Yale Summer High School was a program for so-called gifted high school kids from impoverished backgrounds. I went there for two years Robert went there for two years and worked there for one summer. Robert was a part of the “Rosebud Sioux Tribe” or ” Sicangu Oyate Lakota” He grew up on the Rosebud Reservation .He was s champion Gymnast and like the rest of us in the program blessed with a brilliant intellect but cursed to be born in a place where there was no opportunity…and we would stay up late at night comparing life on an Urban housing project where I came from and The Reservation that he came from …Robert was the first person to explain to me how the sculptures on Mount Rushmore could be compared to Hitler carving his likeness on the “Wailing Wall” in Israel ..The constant insult of seeing those horrible sculptures on what to his people was sacred Land.( see this link http://www.nps.gov/wica/historyculture/history-of-the-black-hills.htm) .he called Mt. Rushmore a “monstrosity” and he was right.To this day I can’t imagine living with such a constant reminder that his whole nation and people are still “prisoners of war..so please watch this video when you have time …it’s not what you may expect. Try this link.. http://www.upworthy.com/a-journalist-went-near-mount-rushmore-to-take-some-photos-what-he-found-changed-his-life-forever

This List of notable political prisoners was hard work and deserves to be archived here

June 5, 2014 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

I put together this partial list of political prisoners mostly out of frustration with the “Free Mumia” movement… while I fully support their assertion that his trial was bogus…Mumia’s conviction for murder grew out of his being a “Hot head” and anger over the way a Philadelphia policeman dealt with his brother and not from his going about any “revolutionary” work.. he was NOT arrested because he had once been in the Black Panther Party ..And Mumia became the “darling” of “trendy” clueless lefties the world over..on the other hand there are many civil rights workers, labor organizers, Puerto Rican Nationalists, former Black Panthers , etc.. all arrested and some convicted for going about their work…who remain in prisons ..some on death row and don’t get the Celebrity Mumia treatment. So here is the article from facebook that makes the case for the REAL political prisoners…

Leonard Peltier, an activist in the American Indian Movement, whose goal was to organize the native American communities to stand up for their rights. In a Cointelpro style operation, he was sentenced to life for murdering two FBI agents on the basis of fabricated and suppressed evidence. Evidence exonerating Peltier was withheld by the FBI. In his appeal, the government admitted it had no evidence to show he killed the two FBI agents. Peltier has been imprisoned for 35 years for this crime that he did not commit. See Robert Redford’s documentary “Incident at Oglala”. http://whoisleonardpeltier.info/…..The Cuban 5 (Gerardo Hernández, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez), sent by Cuba to report on the anti-Cuban terrorist networks operating in Miami. They collected information for Cuba, which gave much of it to the FBI to thwart a terrorist plot to blow up a civilian airliner heading to Cuba. Those the Cuban 5 monitored included Orlando Bosch and Posada Carriles, guilty of many bombings, including blowing up a Cuban passenger plane in 1976, killing 73 civilians. Bosch was pardoned by Bush Sr. Luis Posada Carriles remains free in Miami. The FBI did not arrest the Miami terrorists, but jailed the Cuban 5 in 1998. They were convicted of “conspiracy” to commit espionage and murder, and sentenced from 15 years to life (Rene Gonzalez now released). Both the UN Human Rights Commission and Amnesty International have condemned their trial. See: “Mission Against Terror” and “Will the Real Terrorist Please Stand Up!” http://Thecuban5.org/, http://freethefive.org/, http://antiterroristas.cu/..Ricardo Palmera, a Colombian revolutionary, is in solitary confinement in the Supermax prison at Florence, Colorado, serving a 60 year sentence for “conspiracy” to hold 3 captured CIA contractors prisoner in the FARC-held zone of Colombia. He was arrested in Ecuador in the process of negotiating with the UN for their release, then extradited to the U.S. where he was subjected to four separate trials. For years he led mass movements for social change, and many of his friends were murdered by death squads of the Colombian government. http://freericardopalmera.org/

Black Panther Party, New Afrikan, and Black Liberation Army political prisoners, were victims of the COINTELPRO operations in the 1960s-70s when the FBI sought to destroy the Black liberation movement. This U.S. government campaign resulted in at least 38 Black Panther Party members being killed and hundreds more imprisoned on frame-up charges. Chicago BPP leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were murdered by the Chicago police on December 4, 1969 in one of these operations. The FBI used COINTELPRO to infiltrate and disrupt groups seeking basic change in society. Many Black liberation activists have been imprisoned as a result of these operations, dozens of them for over 30 years.

These include Russell Maroon Shoats, who has spent 40 years in prison, 30 in solidarity

(http://russellmaroonshoats.wordpress.com/), Jalil Muntaqim, jailed since 1971 (http://www.freejalil.com/), Mutulu Shakur, who helped free Assata Shakur (http://assatashakur.org/, http://assatashakur.com/), and Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (formerly H. Rap Brown). SundiataAcoli was with Assata Shakur (who escaped and found political asylum in Cuba) http://SundiataAcoli.org/

Veronza Bowers, imprisoned for 40 years, was convicted in the murder on the word of two government informers. There were no eye-witnesses and no other evidence independent of these informants. At trial, two relatives of the informants testimony insisting that they were lying was ignored. http://veronza.org/

Eddie Conway has been imprisoned since 1970 for attempted murder of a police officer. He was denied the right to choose his own lawyer, William Kunstler, and was assigned a lawyer who never met with him. Conway’s Post Office supervisor testified that at the time of the shooting, Conway was at work. Like so many other victims of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO), is a former leader of the Baltimore Black Panther Party and was targeted for his political and social activism.

See Marshall Law: The Life and Times of a Baltimore Black Panther. http://freeeddieconway.org/

Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (David Rice), leaders of the Black Panthers in Omaha in the 1960s, were targets of COINTELPRO. Both men have been imprisoned for 43 years, serving life sentences on charges of killing an Omaha policeman. They were convicted on the testimony of a teenage boy who was beaten by the police and threatened with the electric chair if he did not blame the crime on Poindexter and Mondo. Amnesty International defends them as prisoners of conscience. See: http:// youtube.com/watch?v=wi0luaq0eyM http://www.n2pp.info/, http://www.itsabouttimebpp.com/Announcements/Justice_for_the_Omaha_Two.html

Sekou Kambui, a BPP/BLA member, imprisoned since 1975, was convicted of the murders of two Klansmen. Some witnesses reported that they were threatened and forced to provide false testimony. This deprived Sekou of his defense that he was nowhere near the scene of the murders. http://consciousplat.com/page/political-prisoners

A number of other mostly Black Panther Party/ Black Liberation Army political prisoners have been imprisoned over 40 years for armed self-defense actions against the police: Herman Bell, Romaine ‘Chip’ Fitzgerald, Robert Seth Hayes, Kamau Sadiki (since 2002, http://freekamau.com/). See: The FBI’s War on Black America: COINTELPRO, Cointelpro 101, Cointelpro Documentary http://prisonactivist.org/, http://thejerichomovement.com/

Attorney Lynne Stewart was imprisoned for 10 years on charges of conspiracy to provide “material support” to terrorism and to “defraud” the U.S. government. An outspoken legal advocate for black activists and the poor, she was convicted in 2005 along with translator Mohamed Yousry and paralegal Ahmed Abdel Sattar on charges arising from her legal defense of Islamic cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who is serving a life sentence for a plot to blow up NYC landmarks in the early 1990s. http://lynnestewart.org/

Sami Al-Arian was indicted in 2003 on multiple counts related to supporting a Palestinian group on the State Department’s terrorist list. One of the early victims of the Patriot Act, he was tried and imprisoned for “conspiracy.” Al-Arian spent over 5 ½ years in prison (3 ½ in solitary). He was repeatedly brought to trial and is now under house arrest for “criminal contempt” for refusing to participate in grand jury investigations. The documentary “USA vs. Al-Arian” explains his case. http://FreeSamiAlArian.com/

Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar Lopez Rivera was a community activist mainly in the area of health care, employment, police brutality and involved in the Puerto Rican independence struggle in the 1970s and 80s. He is imprisoned for “seditious conspiracy” and connection to armed robbery. He is currently serving his 32th year of a 55-year sentence. Avelino González Claudio reached a plea agreement of conspiracy to rob bank funds, while stating he was acting in support of the independence of Puerto Rico, and in 2008, sentenced to 7 years in prison, as well as to restitution of the money. http://Boricuahumanrights.org/, http://prolibertadweb.com/

The Angola 3, Robert King, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, in Angola Prison, LA, since the late 1960s. While in prison, the men organized prisoners to build a movement within the walls to desegregate the prison, to end systematic rape and violence, and worked as jailhouse lawyers helping prisoners file legal papers. The Angola 3 were placed in solitary, blamed for the 1972 murder of a prison guard, and were kept in solidarity for a combined total over 100 years! King was released after 29 years in solitary once his first conviction was overturned. Wallace and Woodfox are still prisoners in Angola prison and after 36 years, they were moved from solitary to maximum security. See In the Land of the Free, and Angola 3: The Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation. http://www.angola3.org/

Shukri Abu-Baker and Ghassan Elashi of the Holy Land Foundation, were each sentenced in 2008 to 65 years in prison. Three others of the Holy Land 5 were sentenced to 13-20 years: Mohammad El-Mezain, Abdulrahman Odeh and Mufid Abdulqader. All were imprisoned for giving more than $12 million to charitable groups in Palestine which funded hospitals, schools and fed the poor and orphans. The U.S. government said these groups were controlled by Hamas, a group it lists as a terrorist organization. Hamas is the elected government of Gaza. Some of these charitable committees were also still receiving US funding through the USAID as late as 2006. Testimony was given in the case by an Israeli government agent whose identity and evidence was kept secret from the defense. This marked the first time in American legal history that testimony has been allowed from an expert witness with no identity, therefore immune from perjury. The defendants were acquitted in their first trial when the jury remained deadlocked. http://freedomtogive.com/

Dr. Aafia Siddiqui is an American-educated Pakistani neuroscientist who was convicted in a U.S. court of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan and sentenced to 86 years in prison. Four British Parliamentarians wrote to President Obama “there was an utter lack of concrete evidence tying Dr Siddiqui to the weapon she allegedly fired at a US officer” and that she be freed immediately. The weapon she allegedly fired in the small interrogation room did not have her fingerprints, nor was there evidence the gun was fired. http://freeaafia.org/

Dr. Rafil Dhafir founded the charity, Help the Needy in direct response to the humanitarian catastrophe created by the brutal sanctions against Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. For 13 years before his arrest, he publicized the plight of the Iraqi people and raised funds to help them. According to the government, Dhafir donated $1.4 million of his own money over the years. As an oncologist, he was also concerned about the effects of depleted uranium on the Iraqi population which was experiencing skyrocketing cancer rates. In February 2003, just before the second US war on Iraq, Dhafir was arrested as a “funder of terrorism,” though no evidence was presented at trial. Dhafir was sentenced to 22 years in prison connected to breaking the sanctions against Iraq http://dhafirtrial.net/

Abdelhaleem Ashqar, who, along with co-defendant Muhammad Salah, was charged but found innocent of “conspiracy” and terrorism-financing charges in 2007 for their opposition to Israeli occupation of Palestine. Ashqar was then convicted of “criminal contempt” for his decision to refuse to testify against other U.S. Palestinian activists before a grand jury, even though he was given immunity from the prosecution. For this refusal to testify, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison, the longest sentence ever handed down for that “crime.” http://www1.freewebs.com/free-ashqar/history/index.htm

Jeremy Hammond arrested in 2012 for the hacking of Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor), leaking information to Wikileaks showing that Stratfor spies on human rights activists at the behest of corporations and the U.S. government. He has been denied bail and held in solitary confinement, facing a maximum sentence of ten years. http://freejeremy.net/

Barrett Brown is a writer/journalist whoe work has appeared in the Guardian, Vanity Fair, Huffington Post, Businessweek;. founder of Project PM, co-author of Flock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism. He wasimprisomed in 2012 related to the Stratfor case. Despite lack of direct involvement in the operation , he faces charges simply for allegedly pasting a hyperlink online. http://freebarrettbrown.org/

Patrice Lumumba Ford was a Muslim targeted after 9-11 as part of the Portland Seven. Lumumba accepted a plea agreement, but he refused to further the “war on terror” by helping with more prosecutions. For that refusal he was sentenced to 18 years in a maximum-security federal prison on “conspiracy” charges. http://freelumumba.org/
The MOVE 8 were sentenced to 30-100 years after the 8 August 1978 siege of their Philadelphia home by over 600 heavily armed cops, having been falsely convicted of killing a police officer who died in the cops’ own cross fire. The trial judge stated he had no idea who shot the officer. In 1985, eleven of their MOVE family members, including five children, were massacred by Philly cops when a bomb was dropped on their living quarters. http://move9parole.blogspot.com/

Rev. Joy Powell was consistent activist against police brutality, violence and oppression in her community. She was warned by the Rochester Police that she was a target because of her speaking out against corruption. Rev. Joy, a Black woman, was convicted of burglary and assault by an all white jury; the state provided no evidence and no eyewitnesses. She was given 16 years. http://freejoypowell.org/

In 1969, Sekou Odinga was forced to go underground when he and 20 members of the BPP were falsely charged with criminal conspiracy in the infamous New York Panther 21 case. Sekou was captured in 1981 and tortured in a NY police station. The police and FBI were trying to find out information about Assata Shakur. Found guilty of freeing Assata Shakur and of attempted murder of police. Sekou is not eligible for parole until 2033. http://sekouodinga.com/

Amina Ali and Hawo Hassan were convicted of “material support for terrorism” in 2011, and given 20 and 10 year sentences respectively. The two Rochester, Minnesota women had collected clothing and raised money to help destitute people in their homeland. The prosecution claims that they helped al-Shabab, an Islamist organization that fights to free Somalia from foreign domination.

The NATO 5 jailed in May 2012 before the NATO summit, based on accusations of undercover police informants. Brent Betterly, Jared Chase, and Brian Church await trial for “possession of incendiary or explosive devices, conspiracy to commit terrorism and providing material support for terrorism.” Sebastian Senakiewicz is charged with “falsely making a terrorist threat,” accused of saying to an undercover agent he had explosives when he didn’t. Mark Neiweem, imprisoned for “attempted possession of explosive or incendiary devices,” was accused of asking an undercover informant to acquire explosives. http://nato5support.wordpress.com/

Eric McDavid and Marie Mason, environmental political prisoners, are both serving sentences of around 20 years imprisonment. In March 2008, Marie Mason was arrested for vandalism of a GMO office and of logging equipment in 1999 and 2000; no one was harmed in either of them. She was sentenced based on the Patriot Act to 22 years, now serving the longest sentence of any “Green Scare” prisoner. Eric McDavid was convicted of one count of “conspiracy” based on FBI informant testimony and sentenced to 20 years. He engaged in no illegal action. See Green is the New Red, http://supportmariemason.org/, http://supporteric.org/

Memorial Day 2014 ..had a bad dream

May 28, 2014 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

I woke from a fitful dream this morning , in my sleep I kept seeing guys I knew who never came back from the war Viet Nam..in that way that dreams can be, some of them were real guys that I knew in high school or from my “hood” but some of them were just faces. I think it’s because I went to sleep with the TV on and there was so much stuff on about Memorial day… But yes I knew a lot of guys and even a few women who went to “the NAM” many never came back. As high school was ending for me and my generation, you had many people who lived in complete fear of the day they would get “called up” in the draft to go fight that war To be honest I also grew up with guys who grew up watching all those WW II movies with John Wayne and Audie Murphy..( I know none of you young people know who Audie Murphy was…do what you do best google him) and these people could not wait to get in uniform and go fight and kill some communists. You have to understand that everybody I mean EVERYBODIES Dad had fought in WW II in fact you could not buy a house in our neighborhood unless you were a veteran. Also I have to mention that not as many Black men went to college as they do today some didn’t have the grades , even more could not afford it. I was in that few who were sought out by the colleges both Black and White. We didn’t have Affirmative Action back then so all the big white colleges would literally hunt down Black “super students” …you only needed two or three in your school then no one could say Cornell , or Dartmouth were “racist” ..but you really had to be that “super student” ten times better than the white student to be what we called in those days “the nigger who sat by the door”..I didn’t have the best grades but in my IQ tests I scored in the 160s ..by the time I was in 11th grade it was not unusual for there to be a big black car sitting in front of my parents house when I got home from school two or three times a week ..all asking us to sign an agreement for me to go to their University … I don’t say this to brag .in fact it was a curse that inflicted a lot of pain on my parents and to this day colors the relationships I have with my siblings. But that’s a story for another day, the point here is that I seemed to be in a position to not be “cannon fodder” in that war….But they got a lot of us…I feel bad about it today that the stupid young man I was would make fun of these guys..”hey man you a little brown guy who is treated like shit in your own country going off to kill little brown guys on the other side of the world who just want to run their own country, man you’re a complete fool”. That was easy for me to say …I would have a student deferment and would not have to go…or so I thought ..that’s another story too for another day. But the point here is Uncle Sam took a lot of boys through no fault of their own .Money and class for the most part decided if you had to go or not.0ver 58,000 never came back.. and today I salute every single one of them. This picture is of a statue that sits in the park where the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial is….I kind of like it ..look closely at the soldiers faces ….I think it says it all.

The More things change the more they stay the same/ Does Philadelphia’s Left have it’s fair share of arrogant White Males scambling to be the Leader ?

May 28, 2014 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

This past weekend in Philadelphia we had a huge demonstration,I did not attend the March Against Monsanto Philadelphia that happened this week end. I simply was not feeling well and these days I have to really pay attention to that. Many of my friends were there. One old friend from my days in the Co-op business is David Woo, a long time activist who many people may recognize from his days at WHYY. Apparently there is an Asian person who works for Monsanto and sometimes shows up at these things ..sort a spy or a Shill if you will. My friend David is Asian ..apparently there were not many Asian persons in this crowd because one “full of himself..arrogant” White guy ..sort of the self appointed savior among recent Philly activist picks out David ..calls him the Shill and fanned the flames of what could have become a mob attack….David was shouted down and not really allowed to defend him self…The Arrogant “prick” responsible for all this is called David Mauriello..at least that what he calls himself now..Days later on the FB page for “March Against Monsanto” this guy posted a supposed apology ..his excuse ..The other guy looked just like David..now let me add that David Woo is a particularly gracious person and with some reluctance accepted the “apology” ..I don’t… it’s racist and almost says that it was Mr. Woos fault for looking Asian…cause as we all know “they all look just alike.” Here is the apology ..judge for yourself but to me it’s BULLSHIT ..call it the “they all look alike defense”……………………………”March Against Monsanto Philadelphia would like to clarify that there was a case of mistaken identity during the march on Saturday. David Woo, an apparent supporter of non-GMO proliferation, was mistakenly identified as a shill, pointed out unfairly, booed, and made to feel unsafe. We deeply regret this unfortunate incident, and sincerely apologize to David Woo.

Firstly, let us clarify, that we did not confuse you, Mr. Woo, with a 70-80 year old man in the GMO OMG documentary. You were mistakenly identified as a 40-50 year old man at a viewing of the GMO OMG movie whom Diamond and Leah interacted with for at least 20 minutes. Leah (the in-reality-not-so-young “blond woman”) spent some time trying to eliminate you as this man from ten feet away, but the evidence mounted against you. This man looked, acted, dressed, and spoke uncannily similarly to you, and absolutely was a biotech shill who spouted false information about GMO science and obfuscated conversation with the audience and individuals incessantly. This set of circumstances made it impossible to decipher you from this man. So for the mistaken identity, the assumption, despite that it was based on good educated information, and for publicly embarrassing you and for the hurt and anger this caused you to feel, we fully apologize. This was absolutely NOT a stunt – it was an honest mistake. We don’t do stunts. We believe in honesty, transparency, and the truth. We wish you had approached one or both of us at the MAM table at the market and clarified who you were; either one of us would have made the time to listen and discuss this. We also wish we had taken the same initiative.

The very sad reality is that there are shills out there who attempt to confuse and obfuscate the public about the issues in GMO science. Independent research is stifled, blocked, and discredited. Scientists in academia are paid off. Shills are everywhere – they show up to public events, they infiltrate social media, they attempt to block communication, they are present everywhere in the mainstream and even some alternative media. There are groups in social media who are there only to paint non-GMO activists as stupid and “against science” (check out the GMO Soapbox group or GMO LOL community on facebook as examples, and prepare to be attacked if you do join). They are everywhere precisely because of how much is at stake, i.e., the power, money, and greed inherent in potentially controlling the world’s food supply and the fate of public health. We are on high alert all the time because of this. This is an information war of the highest degree. It is absolutely the case that “an informed public is Monsanto’s worst enemy.”

The sheer volume of money that is spent to misinform the public is the proof of the significance of the stakes. An informed public is the worst enemy for the political machine as well, as it has been completely corrupted by corporate money. This applies at every level, Democratic, Republican, whatever. Multinational corporations have taken full control of the reins. As examples: one of the most important issues the non-GMO movement faces is the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which would undo all efforts in the United States and the globe to ban and/or label GMOs. After three years of study and wiretapping, it was proven in 2012 by Food and Water Watch through Wikileaks information that the federal government is strong-arming foreign countries and demanding GMO proliferation while simultaneously promoting global trade deals that would do the same. Unless corporate money is removed from the political system, these issues will only get worse.

To be clear, March Against Monsanto Philadelphia does not have a left/right political “slant” in the sense that is it not associated with, nor ever will be beholden to, any political party. However, the fight against GMOs absolutely IS a political issue, precisely because all politics is manipulated by financial motivations. Paul Glover and the Green Party of PA showed up to March Against Monsanto because of alignment with our beliefs – that corporate money must be removed from politics completely, that there should be no tolerance for political parties who do take corporate money, and that GMO proliferation must be stopped in its tracks. This is case of a party using the system to change the system, by not taking corporate money, and by supporting a platform that is about the people, not corporate interests. March Against Monsanto Philadelphia refuses to support a system that revolves around corporate interests. Because the Democratic and Republican parties are beholden to corporate multinationals, the entire political machine is corrupted and therefore invalid. We passionately oppose any candidate who is a part of this system, or anyone who supports such a system candidate. We believe the solution is to leave the system or find an alternate political solution that is not controlled by corporate multinational interests.”……..Well , that’s the apology they posted ..days after David almost got his ass kicked…what do you think..as always I welcome your comments

What does Malcolm Still Have to Say ?

May 19, 2014 by Tim Hayes Leave a Comment

Today Malcolm X would have been 89 years old had he not been cut down. What made it most tragic was Malcolm died just when he had finally found his message…hit his stride. After all those years as a mouthpiece for Elijah Muhammad. Learning how to handle a crowd, learning how to use the press and most of all learning the organizational skills from setting up all those Temples of Islam. many of us were dazzled and still today can recite word for word those fiery phrases like by “any means necessary”…But what Malcolm’s mission had become at the time of his death was something very different . Malcolm had traveled to Egypt, Ethiopia Tanganyika, Nigeria, Ghana, Guinea, Sudan, Senegal, Liberia, Algeria, and Morocco..meeting with all the leaders of the anti-colonial movements as well as the leaders of the budding anti-imperialism movements Gamal Abdul Nasser among other leaders even invited him to become part of their governments. But it was the Organization of African Unity that most impressed Malcolm. All these nations and colonies trying to become free nations, sitting down and sharing ways to benefit them all. He saw future armed revolutionaries mapping out strategies to aid each other as one movement…Why Not bring Afro-Americans into the equation ??..On January 30th 1965 I was in New York City traveling on my own for the very first time. I was still in high school and in NYC to be a part of the National Science Fair . one of many that leading industries like Westinghouse use to have in the old days. Of course I had known for quite some time that If I EVER got to NYC the first thing I wanted to see was Harlem, The Apollo Theater and find Malcolm X… Malcolm was easy to find, I asked a shoeshine boy. He said walk down to the next subway station ..he’s probably in that shop drinking coffee. Well off I went …he was not in any shop but standing outside talking to a group of boys about my age and older. He gave us all a hand full of leaflets and told us to pass them out in front of the subway stations..I told him I had seen him speak in Atlanta when he was still with the nation..and could he talk with me for a minute or two. “Pass these out, come back in about two hours if I’m still here we can talk a minute” actually he may have said it differently but that’s the way I remember it..this was almost 5o years ago. When I got back Malcolm was talking to a small group of men and women .. Basically what he said was Nationalism is the infancy of a movement ..a way to wake yourself up from the sleep of slavery and oppression. But for a movement to succeed you had to become international and our time as Afro-Americans ( a word he used a lot..Afro- Americans not African Americans) to join the international movements was now. To be honest I forget a lot of the exact words..but toward the end Malcolm mentioned he was building an organization that would take the case to the United Nations…I will never forget how he said he had to go… walked over, shook my hand and said.”.Muhammed’s Temple of Islam number 15″..(that’s the Temple in Atlanta) ..I said “yeah”…” don’t stay a Nationalist for too long..it will hold you back”.The picture below is of one of the very same leaflets I passed out that day..Malcolm was shot down just about a month later..I was in my Moms car ..coming home from church when I heard over the radio the he was dead…that last phrase of Malcom’s is still what I live by today it’s what got me involved with SNCC and was at the Core of the politics of the Black Panther Party. I kept a few of those flyers Malcolm gave me ( see pic below ) We all remember the Spike Lee movie and all the catchy militant words that Denzel said so well.. but today that seems to be all that many of us remember..But to me Malcolm real message was much more than that. As these little essays on this web site progress I will get back to this subject ..but please I welcome your comments

The Real reason why I love this picture so much.

May 15, 2014 by Tim Hayes 1 Comment

In early 1971 I found myself in Havana Cuba along with about a four other members of the Black Panther Party who were not among the dozen or so who already lived there for various legal reasons. One day a Cuban military officer Cuban Major Manuel Piñeiro Lozada gave a speech about the export of the Revolution to Africa. Not sending a fighting force but sending medical teams and engineering squads to maybe Angola or Guinea-Bissau. I was about twenty years old and still stupid enough to think of this as an adventure. I asked if I could be among the first to go. 6 other Panthers also asked to go. At that time tuberculosis, as well as one of the scaryest things I have ever seen, Dracunculiasis or ” guinea worm disease (GWD)”,were a major problem, Guinea worm is caused by drinking the water from a pond or stream and ingesting the worm larvae. There are sometimes no other symptoms for years but eventually a blister, very painful shows up. The worm sometime tries to come out or may stay for years and grow,sometimes up to four feet long, still inside the body. This is an horrible thing to see when half a village may be in some stage of the disease. As it is very painful when the worm bores its way out of the body. I had to watch and sometimes assist as Cuban doctors would extract the worms from the legs of screaming children in Guinea -Bissau, where I went first. The real reason I was there was to dig wells to secure clean water..the best way to prevent the disease. Still a horrible job with all the biting insects and leeches… and trust me this was not an exciting adventure at all. The whole time we were in Africa with the Cubans we were assigned to a “cadre” of three with the fourth person being a Cuban soldier. In Guinea-Bissau and later in Angola I had Antonia Guzman who spoke English as well ..maybe better than we did, as well as French, and some of the local Portuguese. Which was one reasons why our next stop was Angola, then still a Portuguese colony and already in a fierce struggle for independence, Angola was all about Tuberculosis and getting as many children vaccinated as we could in three weeks, in the town of Huambo, as well as a secondary location called Andulo..I think. This was to become very dangerous work. It was my first time ever in a real war zone.. I still have bad dreams about diving to throw my body over some child to shield the body from debris ,while they were in the middle of some medical procedure.. we got bombed almost every day from what I later found out were American supplied planes and ordinance.. which the Cubans found very funny “uncle Sam no help you now..ha ha ha” was a frequent joke. This went on for about a month. Bombs falling daily and sometimes having to pack up and move in the middle of the night…trying to keep the locations of our makeshift clinics unknown. But it was not a bomb but some large caliber bullet that shattered the skull of Antonia Guzman and sent bits of bone and brains all over my face and in my mouth. We had to run for what seemed like miles to get away from the Portuguese patrol that found us one morning. I could still taste Antonia’s brain tissue hours later..something you never forget… Some poor soul had informed on us for probably a meal for his family… and the pigs found the medical camp…We never went back to find Antonia’s body. She was beautiful,, smart, funny and had a little girl somewhere in Oriente, Cuba. And she looked a lot like the woman in the lower left hand corner of this picture. This picture is of Female Cuban soldiers marching in a MayDay parade. I like to think that Antonia’s spirit and the spirits of other freedom fighting women live on in women like this.

Thoughts on viewing the Documentary about the MOVE tragedy

May 14, 2014 by Tim Hayes 2 Comments

I saw this documentary last night , and all these years later it was still painful to watch. Maybe not for the reasons you may think. Unlike many people who simply don’t know any better I have no sense
of the Move people being positive ,progressive, revolutionary, or as many people who weren’t there say a “Black Power” group. I got a chance to see Move grow from a tiny “cult” centered around the “handyman” for an apartment building I lived in for a few months named Vince, (who I knew and used to talk to often until he stared calling himself “John Africa”) ..to a insanely aggressive group of lost people..on the other hand the Philadelphia Police Dept . was literally at that time equally out of control ..I posted this response on a link for an out of town friend…and it’s all true………..”At that time Philadelphia had what may have been the most out of control Police department in the Nation and what most people outside Philly don’t get is the Move Cult was an insane, volatile, prone to spontaneous violence group of people. I lived two doors away from them from 1973-78…though they were a mostly Black group they were not a progressive or positive group in any way.. living next to them or within a block of them was a living hell. They would broadcast obscenities over a bullhorn twenty four hours a day. Just walking past their house was risky thing to do..you could be vocally or physically attacked for no logical reason. And the stench from the rotting raw meat they would throw away on the front lawn was horrible. Finally people from the community went to the city for help. What happened in 1978 when they lived next to me and in ’84 was have an insane police dept. set loose on them …two insane forces meeting and a whole neighborhood held hostage and in 84 destroyed ..I have no stupid romantic notions of Move “standing strong” against the police that’s not what happened ..and I am a veteran of SCLC. SNCC. and was an organizer for the Black Panther Party..I know the difference between standing strong and just plain crazy….insanity met insanity and the mad dog racism of the Philadelphia police turned it into a tragedy.”