MDS of Arlington, TX

After failing in starting a group to cooperate with, a busy personal life, etc., what next?

2007-03-31T12:06:00.000-10:00

Around six months ago I started a Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS) chapter here in Arlington, TX. At first, things looked good (outside of the infighting amongst leftists and old authoritarians masquerading as lefties) but it quickly became apparent that I was expected to lead. This is something I have thus far resisted. I want to worth WITH, not for people. I am considering disbanding and just going solo. Activating self-autonomy and working with other groups when I deem necessary.

Also, my personal life has been hectic: raising a child, spending quality time with my girlfriend and family, playing (and listening to) music, work (plus lots of over-time), an upcoming vacation to Mississippi, my brothers wedding, etc. Perhaps I would be more willing to make self-sacrifices if others would show more of an initiative to work WITH me instead of expecting me to lead.

For now, MDS-ATX is on hiatus untill I make an unfortunate decision or others step forward in solidarity.

Again, I will not talk to/work for anyone but I REALLY want to talk/work WITH everyone! Benign authoritarianism is just asking for malignancy and I refuse to walk down that path; MDS-ATX will die before that is even an option.

Sincerely,
Michael

We Know What's Wrong, What Needs To Be Done So Let's Get ALL To Work

2006-12-22T13:39:00.000-10:00

To understand the political (private power versus the public), economic (Bush’s “base” versus the have-nots), legal (government versus the public), social (status quo versus dissidents) and psychological (institutionalized narcissism versus a healthy psyche) factors of our society – locally, nationally and globally – and how divisions exist between races, nationalities, classes, sexes, ideologies, etc is to have a peculiar insight into who, what and where we are; and where we are going as well; to understand the privileges and under-privileges inherited by people based on their background and how certain traits stack the cards against some.

I have long thought about these topics and more.

Recently I read Howard Zinn’s new book, A Power Governments Cannot Suppress. The book touched on many of these thoughts.

But, still I thought some important points could be expanded even further.

When discussing the movement to ban cluster bombs and land mines – because of their horrific consequences for civilians (who bare the brunt of the effects) – Zinn and a certain doctor noted that to do so would be to alleviate a symptom and not be the cure: end war all together.

But isn’t war a symptom too? Is war its own evil, completely separate from the structure of our society that allows other forms of injustice to exist or is it inter-woven in the fabric of our society just like discrimination and poverty is? The answer should be obvious to anyone with an open mind: war is a symptom.

The book was one of those books – like Noam Chomsky’s Hegemony or Survival and Failed States – that has such an important message that to miss it would be a disservice.

I was thinking about our “liberation” of Iraq in 2003 and our “liberation” of Cuba in 1898.

I was thinking about our “privatizing” of Cuba for United Fruit Company, Paul Bremer’s edict to open up Iraq to “foreign investment” and how the IMF pushed Iraq’s Oil Ministry to cut its subsidies.

The result? There has been a quadrupled increase in the cost of gas when more than two-thirds of the country is unemployed and the employed mostly live on $150 a month.

Hardships increased in the spirit of Milton Friedman.

Argentina, eat your heart out. But you are not alone in the understanding of the consequences of the economics we dictate to the world.

Whether we are talking about the deferred and non-prosecution agreements our governments gives corporations – basically, they commit a crime, confess and don’t get in trouble – or the excuses that business-minded apologists give to uphold the double standard of allowing companies to continue to operate as “legal persons” but without the responsibility of paying the consequences when they commit a crime, we clearly see the division between the haves and the have-nots.

The next time you hear someone say companies should have constitutional rights but not be convicted of crimes because such punishments would have negative impacts on innocent people remind them that the two million Americans in prison have families and dependants that relied on their income. The double standard is astonishing.

When you hear such apologists say, “if you don’t have a mind then you cant commit a crime,” ask them: if companies don’t have a mind then how in the Hell can they have constitutional rights as a “legal person”?

I have also been thinking about Guantanamo Bay and the Platt Amendment, and how even in such an adversary as Cuba is now we still have our base in Cuba. The “gulag of our time,” as Amnesty International called it. What will come of our “enduring bases” in Iraq and elsewhere around the world?

Furthermore, I thought about how a “strong majority” of Iraqis want the US to withdraw since they see us an obstacle to security and how one of the grievances sited in the Declaration of Independence: we were angry at King Georges stationing of “standing armies” without our consent.

To think about how the people of this Earth resent us for having a military presence in over 100 countries intensifies this clear hypocrisy.

These are frightening connections to be made.

I was also thinking about how easy it is to see through our lies for war, whether in Afghanistan (despite the warmongers-lite belief that this was the right war, the facts and morals show otherwise), Iraq, etc.

Likewise, I was thinking about how easy it is to see why we really wage aggression: power and wealth. The resources to back this up are so overwhelming. From the State Department documents during the end of World War Two to the admissions of Gen. Smedley Butler (Americas most decorated soldier and ardent critic of war), Gen. Jay Garner, former-National Security Advisor to President Carter, Zbigniew Brzezinski, etc.

“I was a high class muscleman for Big Business, for Wall Street and for the Bankers,” Butler said. “In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism.”

“We used the Philippines. And the Philippines, for the lack of a better term, it was in essence a coaling station for the navy. And it allowed the US navy to maintain presence in the Pacific. They maintained great presence in the Pacific. I think… it’s a bad analogy, but I think we should look right now at Iraq as our coaling station in the Middle East, where we have some presence there and it gives a settling effect there, and it also gives us a strategic advantage there, and I think we ought to just accept that and take that for a period of time, as long as the Iraqi people are willing to allow us to be guests in their country.” – Gen. Jay Garner being honest

I was thinking about Mark Twain’s short story, The War Prayer, and how everything has other sides or dimensions to them. When we pray for victory in war for ourselves we are also praying for suffering and death for someone else; or what Sir Isaac Newton would call in scientific terms the third law of Physics.

President Eisenhower made the more crucial connection when he pointed out that military spending drew resources away from social spending.

The over $600 billion we will spend a year on “defense” and warmongering for 2007 is $600 billion taken from the poor, hungry, thirsty for education, social assistance, etc.

It is long past time that we organize the myriad of movements – anti-war, anti-racism, economic justice, environmentalism, social justice, etc – under one unified movement in solidarity with one another; power in numbers.

“One Big Union,” as constantly called for by the Wobblies, does not mean centralized power or disrespect for diversity. It’s simply connecting the dots and making our voices one. Much like The Who line in the song Bargain, “And like one and one don’t make two. One and one make one.”

We need to do more than erase borders or ensure that immigrants have full and equal rights (like Howard Zinn stated in his new book, I too was taken in by the signs that read: “Human Beings Are Not Illegal”). We need to do more than end the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, but to end war itself. We need to do more than make superficial changes to this or that, but to get to the very root: the structure of modern society. The very structure that exists on the divisions and injustices so that some can prosper from it.

We have the ability to share Earths blessings with all. To carve up nations, to have divisions and schisms that separate us with the inevitable conclusion that (a majority of) others less fortunate will go without is an unnecessary result that must be done away with.

I mean, just look at what happened in the Gulf area when Hurricane Katrina. Our government literally and intentionally did nothing to help until after the storms hit.

I remember talking to my grandmother and asking why they were not doing anything. We knew the storm was coming. We knew it was big. We knew people were trapped and all we did was tell them to go to the Superdome and await their fate.

I was outraged that class and race could be so clearly define but I was more outraged at the lack of organizing that followed.

There was sympathy and then most went back to sleep like the somnambulists they are.

The spirit of societal change has existed in humanity for ages. From the teachings of Christ, to the Koran, to socialism and anarchism, to even Americas own revolution. One great book to read on this topic is Upton Sinclair’s The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest.

It was no surprise that during the Constitution Convention and as James Madison expressed in the Federalist Papers; the calls coming from the indigent masses for “an abolition of debts, for an equal division of property, or for any other improper or wicked project” were to be fought against.

Madison showed clearly which side he was on. His argument was that we need a federalist government in order to protect property rights (a code word for the wealthy) from “domestic faction and insurrection.” Using the people to wage a war of liberation from England is okay, but once that was achieved they – the wealthy plantation owners, merchants, etc – immediately went to business on preserving the new elite from the empty promises of the Declaration of Independence.

People, the structure of our society is unsound; it is unfit to continue to live in. We can no longer allow centralized authority to dictate who suffers and who lives in excess as Madison advocated.

The solution is not violence.

The solution is solidarity and direct action.

Whether in the form of civil disobedience or community organizing, the most important solution is a radical re-awakening of our human spirit. I am talking about kindness and compassion, participation and democratization. Our democratic rights and freedoms have long been under assault and it is no wonder that the military and economic policies we push on the world are anti-democratic.

If you were to think back to every memory and experience, dream or nightmare, you would come to the conclusion that your life has solely been centered on your relationships with others.

We drastically need to build upon and improve our relations with those we love or are indifferent too and transcend those relationships with those we hold grudges against.

If we are to create a new and better world then we must start at home, literally. Inflection on ourselves, the relationships we have with others and the morals and actions we live by are necessary if we are to put forth something better on larger arenas of society.

I am working on acting out these beliefs within our local chapter of Movement for a Democratic Society.

The other night some us from our chapter attended an organizing committee at the Dallas Peace Center to counter military recruiting and better inform students on the realities of war and its attachment to the bigger picture of our society that breeds it.

One group we all feel is important to start with is those who will inherit this world: students.

The kids need to be shown just what precisely is wrong with war, how it is connected to other issues like poverty, racism, class exploitation and other forms of injustice. The dots need to be connected.

Their insight into the military and war as being a possibility of their death is not lost on them but with the promises of opportunities, seeing the world and tuition is not lost on them either. They need to be shown that there are other opportunities as well; and there are.

They need to be better informed on the reality of the world they will inherit. How there are unmentioned heroes who have consistently fought for the rights and freedoms that are wrongly attributed to politicians and military leaders. Nearly all of our privileges were the result of popular movements and not the benevolence of our government.

Multi-dimensions – or different ways and perspectives at looking at things – are needed to show that knowledge is not a one-way street or without texture.

An honest reflection on our existence would show that our suffering is systematic. It’s built into the structure of our society and its purpose is the power and privilege of the opulent minority at the expense of the indigent majority; and this simple fact has been the driving force behind progressive change for centuries.

We can see what is wrong, what needs to be fixed, how to fix it, that our relationships with others are highly important and that this struggle is a global one. In other words, we have the education down. We simply need to organize, unite our movements in solidarity, declare our (civil) disobedience to such intolerable crimes against humanity and participate in building a new society that we can happily pass off to our successors. In many places this is already happening.

Join us.

http://www.studentsforademocraticsociety.org/arlington

Upcoming Event: Counter Military Recruitment Campaign Organizing Meeting at Dallas Peace Center

2006-12-11T14:17:00.000-10:00

The No Child Left Behind ACT allows the U.S. Military a larger presence in our schools.

Their empty promises and tricks to lure kids - mostly from poor neighborhoods - into the military is a threat to our communities.

Our communities need to organize under the banner of counter-recruiting so that kids have a view of the big picture. This is something MDS-ATX discussed at our first meeting and so far everyone is behind this campaign. Below is more information (Charles, I got the directions for ya!) so hopefully most of you can come out and represent the chapter and yourselves.

Please come to the Dallas Peace Center and join us:

Counter Military Recruitment Campaign Organizing Meeting

Start: Dec 18 2006 - 7:00pm

For more information, call Lon at 214-823-7793.

Location:

Dallas Peace Center
4301 Bryan St. #202
Dallas, TX 75204

Yahoo! Maps!

E-mail me: mds_arlington_tx@yahoo.com
Homepage: MDS-ATX

Upcoming Event: 'Worst President Ever' Rally

2006-11-06T09:11:00.000-10:00

[sorry for the late notice. I just learned about this myself.]

by Owen Ware Friday, Nov 3 2006, 1:39pm
signwares@yahoo.com
greater dallas area / texas issues / feature

Reunion Arena, Dallas -- Monday, Nov. 6th, 4:00-8:00pm
George W. Bush will be in Dallas at Reunion Arena to show support for Texas Governor Rick Perry.

Citizens are invited to join the many organizations gathering to protest this WORST President EVER.

Meet at Ferris Plaza, corner of Young & Houston streets, downtown Dallas. More details should be added in the Comments section below this article.

The theme of the rally is that the administration of George W. Bush is the Worst this nation has ever experienced.

The organizing groups and people are diverse, with a wide field of ideas and concerns for which W and the Republican Party have been incompetently responsible. Many people who have expressed their intentions to attend have little or no history of political activism, but have been motivated by the broad and deep incompetence and the outright evil actions of the George W. Bush regime.

The rally will gather at Ferris Plaza, just east of Reunion Arena, and move to the western green area on the arena's west side.

So, y'all decorate your vehicles, make some signs and banners, and come take a stand!! Bring your own signs or use some of ours, just come on out !!

Upcoming Event: Peace & Justice Center - Arlington

2006-11-06T06:09:00.000-10:00

Nov 26 2006 - 5:00pm
Arlington Yoga Center
1011 Abram St.
Arlington, TX
United StatesSee map: Yahoo! Maps

Upcoming Event: End the Occupation of Iraq Committee

2006-11-06T06:08:00.000-10:00

Start: Nov 13 2006 - 7:00pm
End: Nov 13 2006 - 8:30pm

Dallas Peace Center
4301 Bryan St.
#202
Dallas, TX
United StatesSee map: Yahoo! Maps

Upcoming Event: Anti-War Protest & Oil Depletion Alert -- Ft. Worth

2006-11-03T07:20:00.000-10:00

Every wednesday this protest will continue. For more events access the Dallas Peace Center link on the sidebar and click on "calendar of events."

Start: Nov 8 2006 - 4:00pm
End: Nov 8 2006 - 6:00pm
Location:
Federal Building
819 Taylor St.

on the Throckmorton side
Fort Worth, TX United States
See map: Yahoo! Maps

The Antidote For The Masses by Alan Haber

2006-11-03T06:48:00.000-10:00

The following is a DRAFT, perhaps a poem, making the political personal, inviting you, and all, to be part of the movement for a democratic society, addressing the question of exclusion, expressing a beginning of the vision.

anyone who can relate to this is welcome, and can pass it on, and invite more. It's like a 1000 word membership card. i think agents and vanguardists and egoists will keep away.

***********************************************

SDS/MDS is an association of activists, forever young, students of life, for a democratic society, international, intergenerational, inter racial, interesting: students, seniors, survivors, seekers, strugglers, sisters, singers, speakers, scholars, sociologists, socialists, scientists, saints, savants, satirists, soldiers, sailors, slackers, scriveners, scribblers, smiths, semites, whoever you are, from wherever, for a democratic society,

all who would like to join, please do, respond to this invitation.

we are a union
an unarmed army embracing all humanity
to affirm and represent the rights of the common people, the oppressed, the multitude,
all who have been voiceless, and in the struggle to find our own voices.
challenging the old order and building the new

joining the global movements,

of popular democracy, liberation theology, peace education,
non-violence, direct action, civil disobedience, insistence,
for justice, where ever we are and everywhere,
for a transforming of patriarchal power to a true sharing of authority
in partnership and cooperation
between women and men
and all the genders and races and workers
a new social contract
a world labor contract

to affirm human responsibility

to turn around the impending climatic disaster of global warming
and the consequences of the oil and fossil fuel based industrialization of the past age,

and to do what we can to stop the bloody wars,
and putting down the guns
and making peace
and creating a culture of peace
and non-violence
for the children of the world,
that the next generations, to the seventh generation,
should not have to live through the wars and oppressions that we, and our fore-bearers have seen and suffered.

we, of course, serve to overturn the old order of power and war and greed,
and are completely subversive to fascism, authoritarianism, totalitarianism, top down centralization of power
and most of what passes for government these days

we are inclusive, non exclusive,
there is room at the table for everyone with an open heart

agents and vanguardists and recruiters and opportunists enter at their own peril.
our task is to turn your heart
that you become an agent of the movement,
in whatever organization you serve,
to undermine hierarchy and totalitarian purpose
to transform itself and themselves
to serve instead
the grass roots, bottom up, horizontal, work democracy
insurgent movement and movements in every institution of the old order
joining the union for global partnership, the big we

we take on the nsa, cia fbi, rcp, iso, plp, dlc, ,
and any other initialed new-speak contraction of complex reality into simplistic ideology obedient to some old authority

our message is:
give up the old order, the old politics, the old wars
join the new order of the ages
our undertakings are favored.
democracy is what it is about
for everyone
even the minority of one

for justice
for respect
for freedom

for healing from the wars and traumas of past time which we have inherited, and our mis-leaders perpetuated.
and which we must do all what we can to stop now,

in iraq, afghanistan, columbia, darfur, all of them,
and the heart of the war, longest bleeding, in palestine and israel.

the entire war system must be transformed
no more war
economic conversion of the war economy is our common cause
we are workers in building a peace economy

our task is to work together in an artistic harmony
blending our strengths,
meeting our needs also in mutual aid
using the knowledges we have
teaching peace
doing
revolutionary evolutionary actions changing history integrating national groups

r e a c h i n g

for quality public education available for everyone
for quality public health available to everyone
for redirecting resources for ending hunger and poverty
for creating new work
for reclaiming the public commons from the privatizers and usurpers
for putting more minds to curing aids and alzheimers and malaria and all the other dread diseases
for restorative justice, rebalancing what is out of harmony
for cultural survival
for the abolition of nuclear weapons totally
for mother love and apple pie and better days to come
there are many principles of organization in this association
we are a center-less circle with its circumference everywhere
we are an underground army of nurturers, arising
we are a network of affinity groups
we are a chorus of caucuses
we are a solidarity deeper than differences
we are veterans of past struggles, intent to affirm our continuity
we are your best friend and your worst nightmare
we are keepers of the dream

we are intent on change, and changing ourselves as well

we are each of us, you, a center of power
each with unique capacities to reach out
to family and friends, lovers, partners, teachers, coworkers, neighbors, acquaintances
compatriots from by-gone barricades and student days
all who know us.

we are encouragers of one another to mobilize our power

you are a center of power, send the call out,
put it in your own words, to all who know you, try again.

we are discovering what we can do together.

we combine many ideologies and analyses,

we are promoting human solidarity and effort for authentic relationship.

like students for a democratic society
we seek to create a sustained community of educational and political concern
maintaining a vision of democratic society where at all levels people have control of the decisions which affect them and the resources on which they are dependent, increasing democracy in all phases of our common life, promoting participation
we seek relevance through continual focus on realities and on the programs necessary to affect change at the most basic levels of economic, political and social organization.
our urgency is to put forth a radical, to the roots, democratic program whose methods embody the democratic vision
this is an initial statement of mds/movement for a democratic society

if you would like to join,
to acknowledge your membership
which is in your heart

please respond

alan haber, president
(i will sign your membership card, if you like)

answer please, 2 questions:
the beginning of dues

what do you need?
what do you have to offer?

This Is Just The Beginning...

2006-11-03T05:20:00.000-10:00

War

by Chief Joseph

Indian chief. c. 1840-1904

Hear me, my warriors; my heart is sick and sad;

Our chiefs are killed,

It is cold and we have no blankets;

The little children are freezing to death.

Hear me, my warriors; my heart is sick and sad;

From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever!

Boston Hymn

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

American essayist, philospher and poet, 1803-1882

Today unbind the captive,

So only are ye bound;

Lift up a people from the dust,

Trump of their rescue, sound!

Pay ransom to the owner

And fill the bag to the brim.

Who is the owner? The slave is owner,

And ever was. Pay him.

(From "Lady Sings the Blues," written with William Duffy)

Billie Holiday

American singer

You can be up to your boobies in white satin,

With gardenias in your hair and no sugar cain for miles,

but you can still be working on a plantation.

and to end the beginning...

Malcolm X

Black American leader, 1925-1965

I believe that there will ultimately be a clash

Between the oppressed and those who do the oppressing.

I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for Everyone,

And those who want to continue the system of exploitation.

I believe that there will be that kind of clash,

But I don’t believe it will be based on the color of the skin.

You're not to be so blind with patiriotism that you can't face reality.

Wrong is wrong,

No matter who does it or says it.