People Before Profit blog

Cop show reveals the U.S.-Mexico divide

Tue, 30 Jul 2013 12:32:00 +0000

The Bridge of the Americas connects El Paso, Texas, with Juarez, Chihuahua. In "The Bridge," on FX on Wednesdays, murder victim, or maybe it's more than one, found at the exact center of the bridge brings together two of the most disparate and interesting of all "cop buddy" productions so far. The Chihuahua state police send Detective Ruiz and El Paso homicide sends Detective Cross.

Detective Marco Ruiz is a pleasant and easygoing veteran. Actor Demián Bichir is faultless in the role. He already earned great respect on this side of the border with "Weeds" (he was the gangster mayor of Tijuana), and "A Better Life" (he was the day laborer). Diane Kruger is El Paso Detective Sonya Cross. She grows on the audiences very slowly, but then her character has some kind of non-affective disorder that keeps everybody at a distance. She doesn't seem to care for anyone anywhere, and people's displays of affection for one another only makes her abstractly curious. If actress Kruger pulls this off, and I think she will, she'll go down as the best mentally disabled crime solver since Adrian Monk.

Another interesting and interwoven plot has to do with a widow who learns that her husband owned one end of a tunnel leading to gangster coyotes in Juarez. In episode two, band leader Lyle Lovett makes one of his macabre appearances as a threatening attorney representing whoever owns the other end of the tunnel. Another subplot, or maybe they all come together, has a cold-blooded Anglo abducting a young Mexican woman for who knows what purpose.

The TV show doesn't spare the teeming Juarez in its description of human trafficking, prostitution, drugs, and police corruption. Some may say it goes too far in depicting everything on the Mexican side as dark, chaotic, and with more than a suggestion of shame and sleaze. On the El Paso side, by comparison, antiseptic light characterizes almost every scene. Marco Ruiz, of course, is dark and whiskered. Sonya Cross is blond and fair, almost alabaster in looks and demeanor. Dark slippery streets are common in crime dramas, of course, but in this drama they are all in Mexico. On the other hand, all the really warm, caring and interesting people seem to live on the south side of the bridge. The uglier and more exploitative people are on our side.

What makes "The Bridge" fascinating is not only its many fascinating characters, but what is going on behind them. Juarez has hundreds of unsolved murders of young women. Poverty is forcing Mexicans northward, and some of the worst people on Earth are finding ways to feed on them.

Apparently, "The Bridge" is adapted from a successful crime program in Denmark and Sweden, but the built-in emotions already surrounding the U.S.-Mexico border add a lot of gravitas to this effort. People are already worried about the border. Immigration reform is the top emotional issue of the day. The Latino vote -- the "sleeping giant" -- is going to transform U.S. politics. What a time for a crime drama about a bridge!

"The Bridge"

Wednesdays on FX

Updated 7/31/13 to include author revision.

Photo: Detectives Sonya Cross and Marco Ruiz in "The Bridge" (via fx)

“Fruitvale Station”: an American tragedy

Mon, 29 Jul 2013 13:25:00 +0000

First-time African-American feature filmmaker and Oakland native Ryan Coogler, 27, gives us Fruitvale Station as a symbolic recapitulation of the Stations of the Cross, recounting the last 30-plus hours of Oscar Grant III's life. Grant was the African American 22-year-old celebrating New Year's Eve with friends in San Francisco, who, on the return trip at 2 a.m., was attacked and provoked into a scuffle, exited the train at Fruitvale Station in Oakland, and was murdered by BART officers in what can only be described as a minor police riot.

Oscar Grant died on the morning of January 1, 2009, immediately entering the pantheon of victims of American racism. People's World covered the story at the time.

Michael B. Jordan portrays Grant not as a deity or man/God without sin; but Grant's body, like the transcendent Passion of Christ, similarly agonizes with the moral trespasses of the society around him.

Some thorough independent research might determine if the filmmaker has exaggerated Grant's positive qualities: He cares for animals, he's generous and loving toward his family (including in-laws), he's an adoring father to his daughter Tatiana, he's trying hard to support his Latina girlfriend (and mother of his child), he offers help free willingly to strangers at the supermarket and on the street, he's a supportive, fun-loving friend, seemingly well liked by all.

At the same time, he's recently been let go from his supermarket job for being late (and tries to hide it out of embarrassment and in hopes of recovering it), he's had a small-time career as a dope dealer that he's now trying to end, and he's done time at San Quentin.

Our inference is unmistakably to see Grant as a Jesus-like figure, almost incredibly "post-racial" in this polarized nation, which the viewer may or may not accept as faithful to the historical Grant. Either way, the story stands for itself: Here's a young guy under a lot of pressure who, despite his faults, oozes humanity as he tries again and again to be connected and make good on his better instincts.

The larger society, though, sees him otherwise: not as a person but as a feared archetype. Young Black men simply do not have the leeway to be playful, brash, or macho as they explore their emerging manhood in the same way young whites are allowed. Excesses in whites are excused as "boys will be boys." For Blacks, there's a fast track from lousy inner-city schools through the War on Drugs to prison, as Michelle Alexander describes in "The New Jim Crow."

Apparently, Oscar had no one, no visible Oscar Grant II or I, to teach him the "rules" that Black parents still have to pass on to their children in the shadow of Stand Your Ground, to act as the "colonized" in front of the police. "Yes sir, no sir," or the cops will beat the life out of you. The aggressive persona Grant adopted in prison for self-preservation against Aryan Nation-style racists was not going to work on the outside.

As in an Easter Passion Play, we know what will happen from the opening sequence of video and cell phone documentation of the fatal incident. Omens along the way-sirens, fireworks sounding like gunshots, the memory of a swollen red face in prison, a dog killed by a hit and run driver, Mama Wanda suggesting the kids take the BART instead of driving, anticipating New Year's Day fun, the countdown to midnight-all heighten the suspense.

Fruitvale Station is meant to keep Oscar Grant lifted up out of the numbing mass of statistics, recently Trayvon Martin, now Jordan Russell Davis (whose killer will soon be going on trial in Florida), going back to Medgar Evers, the students at Jackson State, Emmett Till, the Scottsboro teenagers, and countless lynchings lost to memory.

We are not afforded the luxury of catharsis. This is not Greek tragedy where the end is pre-determined by the fates and the gods, where man is powerless to intervene. No, this is an American tragedy, where we know-we must believe-that the script is not already written. It does not have to be this way.

Aside from Jordan, Octavia Spencer deserves a powerful shout-out as Grant's mom Wanda, also Melonie Diaz as the girlfriend Sophina.

This is passionate, masterful work by a sensitive, insightful artist, who takes a specific American martyrdom and makes a universal statement. It won Best First Film award at the 66th Cannes Film Festival. Ryan Coogler will certainly be heard from again.

Fruitvale Station

Directed by Ryan Coogler

2013, Rated R, 90 min.

Photo: Scene from Fruitvale Station (FruitvaleFilm.com) http://www.fruitvalefilm.com/

Living New Deal illuminates labor, art history on San Francisco’s waterfront

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 15:50:00 +0000

For 19 years, LaborFest of San Francisco has marked the occasion of the July 1934 waterfront labor struggles with a monthlong festival of events, films, and tours. Progressives and union leaders breathe life into the history that marked the beginning of the longshoremen's struggle to gain their union, which included a unique and successful general strike in San Francisco. Guides from many organizations give tours of significant areas in historical events, also tying in the artists and artwork of the New Deal era.

Many outside of San Francisco have heard of Coit Tower, but perhaps fewer know that the muralists who painted the beautiful works inside were the first artists employed by the massive work program put into place by President Roosevelt to alleviate Depression-era joblessness. Furthermore, these same artists were witnesses to the violence of the 1934 waterfront fight, the "Battle of Rincon Hill," which they could see from up in the Tower while it raged.

Gray Brechin and Harvey Smith of Living New Deal, an organization with a mission to catalogue and preserve New Deal projects in the U.S., are veteran guides of LaborFest tours, highlighting WPA projects that still exist in San Francisco. A mine of information like the story of Coit Tower's artists, they also give a popular tour of the murals of Rincon Annex, which were the last works created by the public programs of the New Deal.

Living New Deal founder Brechin is a historical geographer and author of Imperial San Francisco: Urban Power, Earthly Ruin. A scholar and activist, he has taken on fighting to preserve the memory and the physical remains of New Deal sites, making people aware of the success this massive social program had in saving the country from economic ruin, and also in modernizing and beautifying spaces all over the United States. Brechin also intervened when the semi-privatization of the Post Office (forcing it to look at liquidating real estate assets) in the 1970's threatened the the Rincon Post Office, which he considers "the Taj Mahal of labor."

In his essay Politics and Modernism: the Trial of the Rincon Annex Murals, Brechin describes the controversy that dogged the artist, Anton Refregier. The bulk of the work was painted after the death of FDR and the end of World War II and the content and even the existence of the murals was threatened by ultra-right Cold War reactionaries in government. Refregier, a left-wing artist, made California history the murals' subject matter, depicting the role of working people in creating civilization.

Brechin writes, "On the morning of May 1, 1953, the House Committee on Public Works convened in Washington, D.C., to debate the destruction of one of the largest and most expensive artworks ever commissioned by the federal government.

The artist Anton Refregier, according to Republican Representative Hubert Scudder of Sebastopol, California, had foisted upon the American taxpayer propaganda designed to slander the state's pioneers and convert patrons at San Francisco's main post office to communism. In its daylong deliberations, the committee put history, as well as art, on trial."

Damning to the right-wing congressional subcommittee convened to accuse the artist was that Refregier had dared to depict white workers alongside African-American workers, made sympathetic figures of the Native Ohlone peoples who worked under Missions in California, and also accurately depicted the role of the Chinese in building Golden State railroads. Radical left-wing labor leader of the ILWU Harry Bridges, hero to Longshoremen, is represented in a mural titled "The Waterfront". Among the conservative politicians who wished to destroy the murals was a Congressman from California would would one day be better known as President Richard M. Nixon.

Rincon Annex and many other New Deal projects are listed on an interactive map maintained on the Living New Deal website, which is the only compendium that exists of the projects completed by all of the "alphabet soup" agencies. Scholars are adding new material to the map as more discoveries are catalogued.

Bay Area PBS affiliate KQED has made Rincon's murals available for exploration, along with Coit Tower and other cultural and historical places of interest in San Francisco, on a phone application called "Let's Get Lost." The interactive program draws on scholarship like Brechin's to provide visitors with a rich depth of archives and historical background when visiting sites on self-guided tours or to learn more at home.

Living New Deal's website also offers resources for people interested in helping to save embattled New Deal landmarks, and also for creating awareness to bring back programs like the New Deal to bring the country out of the 2008 crisis, the effects which are still felt today by working people.

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Flickr set of photos from Rincon Tours

Photo: Gray Brechin. Michelle Kern/PW

“The Assassination of Leon Trotsky: A Comedy”: What??

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 15:01:00 +0000

File this under the rubric "Is Nothing Sacred?" An anything-goes irreverence animates playwright Peter Lefcourt and the world premiere of his anti-Marxist madcap mishmash The Assassination of Leon Trotsky: A Comedy.

In this play within a play within a play, Trotsky arrives in Coyoacán, near Mexico City, where the ex-Bolshevik will live in exile with his wife Natalia. Dialogue alludes to the faction fight between Trotsky and his arch-nemesis, Josef Stalin, who, after Lenin's death in 1924, edged his rival out and (in Trotskyist parlance) established a bureaucratic dictatorship in a deformed workers state (that had some attributes of socialism).

The great painters Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo interceded on the stateless Trotskys' behalf and arranged for them to find asylum in Mexico, which in 1937 under President Lázaro Cárdenas had a sort of New Deal type government.

More ahistorical than hysterical (not to mention heretical), the play's premise provides plenty of fertile material, as the bohemian Diego and Frida welcome the Trotskys to her Casa Azul. Emmy Award-winning writer Lefcourt merely uses actual annals for a springboard to the derring-do of his feverish imagination. Facts, schmacts, in two acts!

All of the historical figures are caricatured, perhaps Diego (Joe J. Garcia) above all. Rivera here is a trigger-happy buffoon who shoots first and asks questions later. How will Chicanos and Mexicans react to their brilliant muralist being played strictly for laughs as a clown? The author is obviously far more concerned with his characters' sex lives than, say, with a little thing like Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution (which goes unmentioned).

I actually enjoyed the first act. The conceit is that a troupe of actors are putting on a play about Trotsky in Mexico, and they in turn mirror that drama's revolutionary subject matter by rebelling against an overbearing playwright (Greyson Lewis, who, in a droll bit of casting, also plays Trotsky's assassin). As part of their revolt, the play within a play's actors "ad lib" lines, mainly by reciting dialogue from other plays. The first time this happens, it's imaginative, even ingenious. But in Act II, as the actors continue to use the same theatrical device, the charm wore off, like a guest who has overstayed his welcome.

Lefcourt and his director, Terri Hanauer, may be amusing themselves with this pastiche parody. But seriously, folks, consider the fact that in just the past month or so we witnessed mass uprisings in Turkey and Brazil, not to mention what are reportedly the largest protests in human history in Egypt. Audiences would be far better served by a play that took a sober look at the ideal of and prospects for world revolution (certainly, in Marxist parlance, "the objective conditions exist") than by one mocking it and those who fought for freedom.

Finally, a word about the propriety (does this word exist in Mr. Lefcourt's lexicon?) of making fun of the murder of any human being, let alone one as significant as Trotsky. Making light of an ice pick or modified alpenstock piercing a human skull is no laughing matter. There is another comic treatment of Trotsky's assassination, the 1966 British film Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment, which portrays poor Trotsky's elimination with sly comic effect. So it can be done - but it depends upon how and to what purpose.

To be fair, many in the audience seemed entertained by this spectacle. The less one knows about the actual personages depicted, the more one is likely to enjoy this slapstick bagatelle. The play makes no mention that Trotsky was eliminated by a Stalin agent in 1940, at the height of the Hitler-Stalin pact, when Berlin and Moscow had a non-aggression treaty that for the most part sidelined worldwide Communist parties from the anti-fascist struggle. In many ways Lefcourt had far more interesting material to explore, but passed it by for a frothy entertainment.

Lefcourt's cream pie in the face of the old Bolshevik is Trotsky's second assassination. To quote Marx's 1852 The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, "First time tragedy, second time farce."

If you must: The Assassination of Leon Trotsky: A Comedy plays Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm and Sundays 3 pm through July 28 at the Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA. For more info: (323) 960-7735; www.plays411.com/trotsky.

Photo: The cast of The Assassination of Leon Trotsky: A Comedy: left to right, Christopher Rivas, Ashley Platz, Joe J. Garcia, Murielle Zuker, Holly Hawkins, Greyson Lewis and Joel Swetow. Photo by Ed Krieger.

Stevie Wonder boycotts Florida, opposes “stand your ground” (video)

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 14:02:00 +0000

Musical artist Stevie Wonder vowed to "never perform" in the state of Florida while the National Rifle Association-backed "stand your ground" law is in effect.

In a video posted on YouTube, the 63-year-old singer said at a concert in Quebec City, Canada, on July 14, that until the law is abolished in Florida, he will "never" perform there again.

"Wherever I find that law exists, I will not perform in that state or in that part of the world," Wonder said.

(story continues after video)

The "stand your ground" law supposedly allows people to use deadly force if they believe their life is in danger, which led to George Zimmerman's acquittal in the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin. However, the law does not seem to apply to Black Floridians, critics say, as was the case in 2012 when an African American woman, Marissa Alexander of Jacksonville, Fla., fired warning shots at her husband, wounding no one. While she feared for her life, she got a 20-year jail sentence instead of an acquittal under the so-called self-defense law.

Wonder has often used his celebrity status to celebrate and promote important causes. The great musical genius spearheaded the campaign for a national holiday to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., writing a song simply titled "Happy Birthday," which became the anthem for the national holiday movement. Wonder also boycotted the state of Arizona for its refusal to recognize the federal holiday, which was observed for the first time in 1986. Finally, in 1992, voters overwhelmingly approved a referendum that included the King holiday in the list of official state holidays.

The Justice For Trayvon movement also got a boost from other artists, including The Boss Bruce Springsteen. At a show in Limerick, Ireland, Springsteen performed his song, "American Skin (41 Shots)," dedicating it to Martin.

"I want to send this one out as a letter back home," Springsteen reportedly told the crowd. "For justice for Trayvon Martin." Originally released in 2001, "American Skin (41 Shots)" was written by Springsteen after the 1999 shooting death of Amadou Diallo. Springsteen played the song for the first time on his current tour in Tampa, Fla. in March, weeks after the state witnessed the shooting death of Martin by Zimmerman. Beyonce, and Young Jeezy have also spoken out for the teenager and his family. Beyonce held a moment of silence for the young man at a recent show, and Young Jeezy penned a song in his honor called "It's a Cold World (A Tribute to Trayvon Martin)."

Photo: Stevie Wonder performs at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles on July 7, 2008. (Burns!/CC)

“What Lies Across the Water”: Revealing new book on Cuban 5

Wed, 17 Jul 2013 11:01:00 +0000

Publication of Stephen Kimber's book about Cuban anti-terrorists serving wildly extravagant terms in U.S. jails is a remarkable event. Previously appearing as an e-book, "What Lies Across the Water" is the first full-length book published in English on the so-called Cuban Five. They were arrested in Miami on Sept. 12, 1998, and a worldwide movement on their behalf is demanding their freedom. Many view them as political prisoners.

In comprehensive and convincing fashion the book explains how Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González came to be arrested, tried, and imprisoned. Its coverage of bias and legal failings that marred their prosecution and trial is adequate, but less detailed. Kimber devotes more attention to events and personalities directly affecting the Five than to the context of early anti-Cuban terror attacks and the Cuban revolution.

Kimber, a journalism professor at the University of King's College, in Halifax, Nova Scotia, drew upon news stories in the Florida, Central American, and Cuban media and read 20,000 pages of court transcripts. He interviewed officials and contacts in Florida, Cuba, and elsewhere, and also family members of the Five and the prisoners themselves, via correspondence. The author's clear, flowing, and often seat-gripping, even entertaining, narrative is an added plus. The book is highly recommended.

Kimber starts out by confessing he was no expert on the case initially. He was about to write a novel that touched upon Cuba. Then a Cuban friend with political and intelligence experience told him that "nothing can really be resolved between Washington and Havana until they [the Five] are returned to Cuba." So instead of writing a novel, Kimber began work on a story he realized was important and that "needed to be told by someone who didn't already know which versions of which stories were true."

The way Kimber's report unfolds serves to highlight convoluted linkages of the prisoners' experiences and their case to the many-faceted U.S. apparatus set up to undo the Cuban revolution. Implacable, non-stop U.S. enmity sets the stage for obfuscations, contradictions, intrigue, ambiguities, and strange twists. For Kimber, the resulting atmosphere was one where "Nothing, it seems, is ever as it seems."

For example, Cuba's "Wasp Network" included at least 22 agents it employed in an effort to block terrorism directed against it, not just the Cuban Five, as is often assumed. Agents were posted throughout the United States, away from Florida. Some of those arrested in 1998 pled guilty and served only short sentences. Cuban agents served as FBI informants. Far from exclusively monitoring private paramilitary groups, as many assume, one Cuban Five agent did gather non-classified intelligence from a U.S. military installation. For years, the FBI monitored movements, contacts, and communications of the Five and other agents. Meanwhile, the Cuban American Nation Foundation (CANF), darling of U.S. presidents, professed non-violence, yet operated a paramilitary wing.

Even the Miami Herald, reviled by Cuba solidarity activists, gains points through its reporter Juan Tamayo, who linked Havana hotel bombings to the Cuban exile terrorist Luis Posada.

The book attests to difficulties attending intelligence gathering in the midst of all but open U.S. war against Cuba. Cuban agents were well prepared, and superior officers in Havana supervised them closely. "Compartmentalized," they were unable usually to identify fellow agents in the United States. They relied on advanced technical skills, support from loved ones, fearlessness, their own resourcefulness, their sensitive understanding of hazardous situations, and very hard work.

Kimber's "What Lies across the Water" has the potential for stimulating new thinking on the case of the Five. Information it provides and the book's fact-based style of presentation ought to persuade readers to move beyond viewing the prisoners' fate as a sort of morality tale, one with U.S. over-reaction, prisoners' revolutionary virtue, and suffering. The book would encourage them instead to develop a response built on considering the larger context of generalized U.S. bullying of Cuba. The book may or may not succeed in this, but in all respects it is essential reading for those either new or old to the case of the Five.

The book exerts an appeal through effective portrayals of characters so far out of the ordinary, with such bizarre purposes, as almost to defy belief. They include: Cuban agent Percy Alvarado Godoy, CANF infiltrator for years; terrorist honchos Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada; the opportunistic Brothers to the Rescue leader Jose Basulto; and even Nobel Prize winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez, message carrier to the Clinton White House.

There is the flamboyant Wasp agent, pilot, unfaithful husband, and FBI informant Juan Pablo Roque, who returned to Cuba; CANF founder and Miami titan Jorge Mas Canosa; and not least, Francisco Avila Azcuy. That FBI informant, Cuban spy for 13 years, and chief of Miami's Alpha 66 private military formation, was unusual, even in a setting where double agents were, and undoubtedly are, routine.

This book tells the tragic story of the Cuban Five. But here's hoping it also helps re-orient energies of justice-seeking activists toward joining or rejoining a necessary fight. Their task is to take on the century-long U.S. campaign to impose domination over a Caribbean island. The agenda presently is to end the U.S. economic blockade, end campaigns of internal subversion and international isolation of Cuba, and, surely, free the Cuban Five.

"What Lies across the Water, The Real Story of the Cuban Five"
Stephen Kimber
2013, Fernwood Publishing, Canada
Paperback, $29.95 CAD

Photo: Fernwood Publishing

"The Attack": Can a love story explain the Arab-Israeli conflict?

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 15:29:00 +0000

Dr. Amin Jaafari beings the movie as a celebrated surgeon in Tel Aviv. He is also passionately in love with his beautiful wife, Siham. The movie begins with the two of them in embrace. It is full of flashbacks of their meeting, their lovemaking, and their married life. Amin is at the pinnacle of success, the first Arab doctor ever to receive accolades in Israel.

But Siham disappears and is accused of being a suicide bomber responsible for many deaths, including a number of Israeli children who were celebrating a birthday party before being blown to pieces. Amin's hospital receives the dead, and he is called upon to treat the wounded.

When the police take Amin into custody, will he be treated with the same deference that his vocation and accomplishments usually merit? Or will he face degrading torture at the hands of Israeli police? Was Siham secretly a terrorist? Did she deceive their many Jewish friends? How will those friends react to the accusation? Does this all have something to do with religion, even though Siham was a Christian?

Worse, did his loving wife deceive Amin? Could she have been the wonderful wife, the center of his personal life, and yet have other commitments that he could neither condone nor even understand? Is Amin's family, out in the disputed territories where barbed wire and Uzi-toting Israeli soldiers are everywhere, somehow involved?

Amin denies even the possibility that Siham was responsible for the very graphic death and destruction he saw in the hospital. He denies that she could have had a secret life apart from him. "We share everything!" he asserts. He sets out determinedly to find out who is really to blame for the attack, and he is eager to fix the blame.

Like many of the best movies ever, the story of Amin, Siham and their friends and family, is only the front part of the film, while the real story is taking place in the background. In sparkling Tel Aviv and in the downtrodden territories, the real story unfolds behind Amin's shame, frustration and anger. It is a story of much larger shame, much larger frustration, and a much larger anger.

I couldn't recommend it more.

"The Attack"

Directed by Ziad Doueiri

1 hour 42 minutes

Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Ziad Doueiri grew up during the country's Civil War. He left Lebanon at 20 and studied in the United States, graduating in 1986 with a degree in Film from San Diego State University. The film is based on Yasmina Khadra's international bestseller of the same name.

Photo: Cohen Media Group Facebook page.

"Liberation Music": Defining an era of protest through jazz

Tue, 16 Jul 2013 12:57:00 +0000

The late 1960s and early '70s produced seismic shifts in all aspects of human rights in our country. Music and art thrived, as the progressive mood of the people merged with creativity. Although jazz has always been a welcome realm for open minds and new ideas, it has rarely been in the forefront of political movements. Or has it? A new CD, Liberation Music: Spiritual Jazz and the Art of Protest on Flying Dutchman Records 1969-1974, is a compilation of jazz and spoken word recordings that reveals the close relationship between jazz and progressive politics.

Flying Dutchman Records was formed in 1969 by Bob Thiele. A lifelong jazz fan, the liberal-minded Thiele worked his way through several record companies as recruiter of artistic talent and producer. At a time when many other independent labels were fading, he set out to record the voices, music, and ideals of the radical era that was at hand. A sampling of the musicians and poets that Thiele recorded is the basis of this new collection, sure to enlighten every listener from the novice to the most astute.

The first voice the listener will hear on this CD is Angela Davis, freedom activist and member of the Communist Party USA at the time. Her powerful comments ("We're Threatening The Oppressors") on the continuing fight for independence set in motion by our Founding Fathers are an extract from her 1971 album Soul And Soledad. This sets the stage for a mix of spoken word politics, poetry, song and jazz instrumentals throughout 16 tracks. Poet Gil Scott-Heron proclaims the scathing testament "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" from his 1970 album Small Talk At 125^th and Lenox. H. Rap Brown, former chairman of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, contributes with "Do Your Own Thing," an excerpt from a speech he made Oct. 29, 1969, at Long Island University and featured on the album SNCC's Rap.

It may not be widely known that Angela Davis preserved her thoughts and ideals on a vinyl record. The same might be said for groundbreaking politician Carl B. Stokes, the first African American mayor of a major American city. The mayor of Cleveland from 1968-1971, Stokes also recorded an album for Flying Dutchman entitled Mayor And The People. From that album, the emotionally charged "Sit Down" is an inspired reading of a poem written by Langston Hughes. Stokes also performs "Paint It Black" by Gil Scott-Heron. Superb background orchestrations are provided by the Oliver Nelson Orchestra, who also contributes a wonderful salute to Dr. Martin Luther King, "Martin Was A Man, A Real Man".

Perfectly interspersed between words and poetry are the excellent musical selections. Lonnie Liston Smith contributes an incredible instrumental, "Sais (Egypt)." Jazz enthusiasts will also savor tracks by Ornette Coleman ("Friends and Neighbors"), The Horace Tapscott Quintet ("The Giant Is Awakened"), Gato Barbieri ("Tupac Amaru"), and Chico Hamilton ("Gonna Get Some Right Now"). There is a timeless spiritual vocal by Leon Thomas ("Echoes"), a previously unreleased pop-styled selection by Black and Blues ("Toast To The People"), and a track from the Norwegian group The Esoteric Circle ("Nefertite"). Bob Thiele is also represented with his own group performing "Lament For John Coltrane".

A welcome addition is mainstream jazz great Louis Armstrong, who sings a duet entitled "The Creator Has A Master Plan" with Leon Thomas. The selection is from his 1970 Flying Dutchman release, Louis Armstrong And His Friends. This recording was near the end of Armstrong's long career, and although he was never overtly political, the beloved jazzman was definitely there in spirit. The traditional style of Armstrong completes the circle of old and new. It also shows the wisdom of independent record labels from that period, embracing the avant-garde while still honoring and recording the masters.

Also included is an impressive 20-page booklet describing the history of Flying Dutchman Records and the featured artists and activists. It is expertly compiled by Dean Rudland, and draws information from new interviews conducted with musicians Lonnie Liston Smith and Brian Jackson. There is much to be learned within, both musically and politically. The disc and booklet present a well-informed and quality product.

Liberation Music: Spiritual Jazz and the Art of Protest on Flying Dutchman Records 1969-1974 is a new 2013 CD release from UK-based BGP/Ace Records Ltd., and is readily available now in the United States. The music is representative of the free style era that bore it, but there is nothing obsolete about this compilation. A number of jazz musicians listed on the tracks are still actively performing. The recordings illuminate a period in history when musical expression played an important role in progressive politics. More importantly, the spoken words and poetry present ideals that are as vital now as the day they were recorded.

Class struggle from the couch

Mon, 15 Jul 2013 15:14:00 +0000

Older readers may not be aware, but video games have developed quite a bit since the Pac-Man booths of yore. Games increasingly include sophisticated plots, top-of-the-line voice acting, and graphics that could be mistaken on first glance for live-action film. I have little doubt their quality will increase exponentially in years to come and they will represent one of the most important media of the 21^st century. Back in 2011, The Economist reported the video-gaming industry was already three-fifths the size of the movie industry. For that reason alone, games deserve serious critical attention.

On Sept. 17, Grand Theft Auto V, the latest installment in the wildly popular video game franchise, will be released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, perhaps as one of the final major games for the current console generation.

I'd like to take the opportunity of GTA V's release to examine, as one might examine books or movies, how its publisher, Rockstar has dealt with political themes. Specifically, as a "fellow traveler" myself, I'd like to look at the publisher's portrayal of socialism and class struggle. I'll do this through the lens of Rockstar's earlier games Red Dead Redemption and L.A. Noir.

Red Dead Redemption is a 2010 action and adventure game inspired by the spaghetti westerns of filmmakers such as Sergio Leone. Now, you should know, I'm not a diehard gamer. I haven't played everything out there, or even close. During the opening character-creation sequence of Skyrim, a game that hardcore reviewers were in ecstasy over, I got bored and gave up. But I LOVED Red Dead Redemption. And yes, the caps lock is necessary. It boasts a beautifully rendered world, solid character development and a well-written story. So if you've never picked up a controller or haven't in a while, give RDR a chance.

Part of the game is set in the Mexican Revolution. It's my understanding that some of the characters are based on real-life figures but I'll leave discussion of the release's historical accuracy to those with more knowledge on the subject. I am, sadly, just another dumb gringo.

Red Dead Redemption's central protagonist is a bounty hunter named John Marston. Asked whether or not he is a socialist, he explains, "I'm many things, most of them bad. But a man of political principles? No." Marston fights on both sides of the conflict before throwing in his lot with the rebels, seemingly more out of personal loyalty than ideological conviction.

Rockstar portrays the Mexican dictatorship as brutally corrupt, though eventually paints the rebel leadership as little better. Similarly, the publisher seems sympathetic to the revolutionary rank-and-file, while also suggesting they are naive. Luisa Fortuna, a selfless peasant fighter, is perhaps the game's most uniformly likable character. She speaks passionately of the struggle without Rockstar imposing a noticeable sense of irony. At the same time, however, she is in love with a local guerrilla leader, who admits to Marston he would never marry a peasant and is revealed to be something of a political tyrant-in-waiting. His insincere commitment to Fortuna and the rebel cause is perhaps explained by his upper-class origins.

In the end, Rockstar sides with the rebels, but quite unenthusiastically. Whether this is an appropriate position, given how the revolution turned out, is a question I'll leave for those with more knowledge of Mexico's history. But the publisher seems to go further, cynically suggesting government can never be representative of the people's interests, no matter the circumstances, no matter how much the masses struggle. This, of course, leaves no room for progressive change.

L.A. Noir, also published by Rockstar, is a 2011 pulpy period piece set in the 1940s. Unfortunately, it's not fractionally as fun as RDR. There's very little overarching story or character development to propel you forward, and the cases you work through could probably be played in any sequence, as you might watch the TV show Law & Order, without missing much.

One investigation could be interpreted as an implicit criticism of Red Scare hysteria. The central protagonist, a police officer, investigates a series of suspicious fires he believes to be connected. The game leads you to charge a low-level gas company employee found in possession of anarchist pamphlets, specifically Peter Kropotkin's Law and Authority. And if I'm following the game's twists and turns correctly, the employee is actually innocent.

Another investigation, however, introduces us to a communist character who, while also falsely charged, is the most unflattering representation of a leftist in either L.A. Noir and RDR. The guy's insufferably snotty and just in case you didn't pick this up from what he says, he's wearing an ascot. I mean, an ascot? But it doesn't stop there. He looks down on working class people and beats women, just in case you didn't get that he is a monstrous hypocrite too.

Of course, we live in a conservative country where, according to Gallup, only 36 percent of the population has a positive view of socialism, however it may be defined. So it makes sense that a major game publisher would present an ambiguous-to-negative view of economic democracy and those who work for it. Have readers out there played any other games, by Rockstar or other publishers that deal with issues of class struggle?

Photo: Jay Prospero/Flickr (CC)

Pacific Rim: a great giant monster film!

Fri, 12 Jul 2013 11:55:00 +0000

Want to see giant monsters rampage through major cities destroying everything in their path? Want to see giant man-made robots fight said monsters? Want spectacular action and special effects in 3-D that immerse you in the unfolding battle for humanity's survival? Want a richly nuanced, heartening, and humanizing tapestry of personal stories woven throughout the monsters vs. robots action? Well, then, go see Pacific Rim! It's all that and a bag of chips - or bowl of popcorn, whichever you prefer.

In fact, I haven't had this much fun at a movie theatre since I was a kid. Unlike the dark, moody, even cynical action/superhero movies of late, director Guillermo del Toro isn't looking for existential meaning in Pacific Rim.

Don't misunderstand me, the re-imagined, brooding comic book movies (Batman, Man of Steel, Iron Man, et al), are good movies. I'm actually a big fan - of the movies, and the original comic books. And Joss Whedon's The Avengers, in my opinion, is a wonderful superheroes-as-dysfunctional-family blockbuster.

However, del Toro's characters aren't faced with an existential crisis, like Christopher Nolan's Batman. These characters have an obvious purpose. Their world may still be absurd, but it isn't meaningless. Their actions are decisive and geared towards one unifying goal: Save humanity from monsters.

Del Toro's Pacific Rim is a throwback to the classic 1950's and 60's era Godzilla movies. In fact, the monsters in Pacific Rim are called kaiju, the Japanese word for 'strange beast,' of which Godzilla is the most famous.

To del Toro's credit, Pacific Rim's plot is pretty straight forward, not convoluted and obtuse. While some recent action/superhero movies have felt weighed-down by what I would call "analysis paralysis," Pacific Rim tells a story without paralyzing us with the "why."

Del Toro doesn't need to explain every little thing in Pacific Rim, which reminds me of another really good monster movie, J.J. Abram's Cloverfield.

In fact, del Toro spends very little time on the "why," and Pacific Rim is a better movie for it - as sometimes the "why" just doesn't matter, especially when you just want to have a good time and be blown away by some amazing special effects.

Simply put, Pacific Rim is about kaiju (giant monsters/strange beasts) transported through a wormhole from another world sent here to wreak havoc on our world, and the robots that fight them. Enough said! It's just good old fashioned smash 'em up fun.

That said in this script we find a rich tapestry of human relationships, loyalty, and longing for survival among a cast of characters who aren't cookie cutter or generic. Surprisingly for an action movie, they seem like real people struggling to figure out what the hell is going on, without dwelling too much on the loss, fear, or absurdness of the world they inhabit.

It's a delicate balance, and del Toro has done a superb job of building real people into a completely absurd world, which makes the film that much more enjoyable.

The cast includes well known actors - Charlie Hunnam (Sons of Anarchy), Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Sons of Anarchy, Idris Elba (Thor, Prometheus), Rinko Kikuchi (Babel), and Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia), among others - but not superstars.

The way these characters interact is collective magic.

Rinko Kikuchi's character Mako Mori is probably the most endearing. She fights the inner demons of a small child confronted by the enormous destructive power of the kaiju, while proving that she is capable, determined, and self-sacrificing. Mako as a small child is probably one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in Pacific Rim. Its subtleness is the very definition of great filmmaking.

Charlie Day adds some comedic relief as an eccentric scientist; if you've ever watched It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia then you know what I mean by eccentric. Idris Elba plays Stacker Pentecost, the commanding officer in charge of the man made robot army; Elba brings a lot of authority and gravity to the role, a unique sternness. And Charlie Hunnam plays a retired robot pilot brought back for one final push against the kaiju.

Like his Hellboy movies and Pan's Labyrinth, del Toro is a master of visual design. The monsters and robots, called Jaegers, are so full of detail they become characters. The scale, seen in all its 3-D glory, is truly immersive and the action is spectacular.

While some may find (or look for) a deeper meaning is del Toro's Pacific Rim, I believe his intent was to make a visually stunning, highly entertaining adventure story, something that doesn't take itself too seriously, while reintroducing the kaiju (monster) and mecha (robots) genres to a new generation of fans. He has told a great, fun story. I think I'm going to go see Pacific Rim again.

Photo: Pacific Rim official Facebook page

“Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead:” A review

Thu, 11 Jul 2013 12:07:00 +0000

Every mother has a head lice story. Mine takes place after a series of recurring outbreaks at the local Y daycare. I was angry and humiliated when the frustrated staff unjustly accused not only the long hair of our three little girls, but also that of our fluffy St. Bernard Brandy of being the vector. Sheryl Sandberg's tale - equally mortifying - involves her little boy and little girl and the corporate jet of eBay's CEO John Donahue. There you have it in a nitshell: women of every race and class face corresponding challenges, but the dramatically different circumstances leave you wondering if there's the basis for an alliance?

In "Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead," Sandberg doesn't address that issue, rather, she shares lessons she's learned during her climb to the top of corporate America as Facebook's chief operating officer and former Google executive. She advises women to go after leadership positions and "lean in" to their careers. Negotiate aggressively for better pay and better positions, she says.

Any woman who's worked in non-traditional jobs will recognize the issues she lays out. "Read it, she's not evil," urged my daughter Megan as she handed me the book. I found that I did not resent Sandberg's encouragement of women to "sit at the table" nor her deflation of the annoying myths about mentoring. And Sandberg did have some good ideas worth taking into account. Two that struck me were: besides your long-term dream, have an 18-month plan for goals you want to accomplish and a corresponding 18-month plan for new skills you want to learn or acquire. Hers was to learn to "run a small deal team." Not sure what that means, but mine or yours might be to get a GED, or learn to become proficient on social media. Short-term goals completed do give a sense of accomplishment.

Here's another thing that I've seen stymie women: If you're successful some people won't like you. It's true. Further, I agree with Sandberg. You can address it around the edges, but basically it's your own thinking you have to change - being liked is not the goal. Easy to say, but hard to live, for people who have spent our lives trying to be liked.

Sandberg notes that she, like many of her generation, held back from calling themselves feminists, not wanting to look like they couldn't look out for themselves. That made me smile. I, from a generation earlier, also held back. From the opposite end of the spectrum, I didn't want to be associated with those who felt the primary contradiction in a world of class conflict was that between men and women. I think we both had to learn that sisterhood is powerful.

Sandberg tries to address "the myth of doing it all," which afflicts working-class women as much as others and is usually seen as the competition between paid employment and staying home to watch your children unpaid. Of course, the first thing that must be said about that issue is that the vast majority of American women have no choice - they must seek paid employment to support their families. We are even more limited than women in the entire rest of the developed world, nearly all of whom receive at least some paid maternity leave. A worker at McDonald's will probably be back at the grill as soon as she's able to be on her feet, because every day off is a day without pay.

But Sandberg, while she acknowledges " that the vast majority of women are struggling to make ends meet and take care of their families" isn't aiming her advice at all women, only those on a career track to advancement. Yes, we need such advice - we've all given and taken more advice as well as encouragement in the workplace bathrooms than in a therapist's office. But these tips and encouragement cannot be taken as a long range plan for women's equality.

For example, Sandberg gives a lot of advice about negotiating your salary, but few working-class women will ever be in a position to negotiate their compensation. That is unless they bargain collectively. Unlike for corporate managers, having a union is the only workable negotiating strategy for working-class women or men.

How women - all women - feel about our work, and how our work makes us feel about ourselves is an issue that calls out for discussion in an era when more than 75 percent of women over 16 participate in the paid workforce. Sandberg obviously derives great satisfaction from the challenge, pride and social interaction of her work life. I've worked a million jobs in my life - from waitress to lab tech, to assembly line worker, to florist, now as a (volunteer) administrator. I treasure every tool and co-worker, every lesson and interaction, every hard-learned skill, every locker room joke and smile of encouragement, every job well done. And mostly the stories my co workers shared from their lives. Honestly, I was disappointed that Sheryl Sandberg didn't share more of what a corporate exec actually does as a manager.

Personally, I feel the same need to be a participant in the social infrastructure that extends beyond my family and I would say that is a need that most humans feel. So let me speak on behalf of Sandburg and say that even if her job didn't come with its zillion dollar trappings (and try as I might I just couldn't write this review without mentioning - not just fabulous home, wardrobe and vacations, but finances to insure no worries about day care, maternity leave paid staff for housecleaning, laundry, food preparation, quality education, health care, dependable transportation ok I admit it's hard to see beyond all that ) - even without all that I believe she would agree that she derives satisfaction from being engaged in the work itself. I don't fault that - even in a socialist society there would be a need for Facebook and so for the contribution that Sandberg as a manager makes to that enterprise, hurray for her.

What Sandberg doesn't say, but I will, is that any job can be satisfying if it is compensated and respected. Thus, a call center worker, for example, helps people, has skills. What's missing is the respect and the pay. The server at Dunkin Donuts is part of the social network of society as much as Facebook, and her work and people skills affect scores of customers and co-workers. A retail worker can take pride in her job, as can the child care worker and the person who harvests strawberries. Even the lowly instrument mechanic exploring the dark and redolent crevices of Chicago's sewers (that would be me!). All of these jobs have intrinsic value and social connections and could provide satisfaction and mental stimulation if they were compensated commensurate to their contribution to the social good.

There was a time in the history of the American women's movement when, parallel to the suffragist struggle, middle-class and even wealthy women lent their energies and passion, voices and resources to the struggles of poor and working-class women. They fought for higher wages and safe working conditions for factory girls. These women were essential parts of the Womens Trade Union League. They marched, lent their homes for meetings, even went to jail. They provided educational opportunities and encouragement. Where are their spiritual descendants today?

Sandberg argues that having women in decision-making spots will make things better for all women. But we have not heard her voice chime in for paid maternity leave. She points out the compelling statistic that the cost of day care for two children exceeds the median rent in every state of the union! Where is the call for national child care? And on a corporate level, while the Silicon Valley tech workers seem to have generous benefits, how about the women who work for the contractors, like security firms who are currently struggling for a union? I'm sure a company offer to include paid maternity leave would be a welcome gesture and the kind of thing we would like to see initiated by women in positions of power.

So I don't think it's nitpicking to say it would be wonderful to see corporate leaders like Sandberg go beyond giving advice and use their corporate clout to advocate for social policies like government-financed day care and employer maternity leave.

Sister, it's not enough for women to just "Lean In," we've also got to reach out.

Photo: Knopf

“The East” probes ultra-left minds in twisted plot

Wed, 10 Jul 2013 14:46:00 +0000

Ellen Page is wonderful in "The East." I've never seen her in a movie when she wasn't wonderful. At the end of the film, there is an IATSE union bug. Other than that, there isn't a lot to learn in this far-fetched morality tale about rich kids seeking revenge on their parents and other authority figures. Their oft-stated goal is to make the perpetrators of corporate crimes feel the suffering of their victims. They pollute the polluters and drug the drug-company exploiters.

The movie is told from the point of view of an undercover agent. She's an ambitious, religious, and idealistic young employee of a for-profit intelligence agency. She cleverly inserts herself into the inner circles of a major eco-terrorist organization, where she finds their devotion and commitment to their cause so enchanting that she begins to feel divided loyalties.

Patricia Clarkson, also a wonderful actress, plays the intelligence agency villain. She couldn't care less how many people are killed or crippled as long as she finds a way to make money out of it. Warned of an impending victimization, she tells her undercover agent to keep quiet because, "They're not my clients."

Will the agent turn in these loving hippies? Or will she give in to her newfound commitment to social justice and carry out more ultra-left attempts at change? Or will she, as I kept hoping, sit down and think through how social improvement might actually be achieved? Is there any way to wring a happy ending out of all this twisted plot?

Probably. It's Hollywood, and "The East" is far from its worst example. My movie buddy and I liked it, appreciated it, and were moved by its message, almost as much as "The Lone Ranger."

"The East"

Directed by Zal Batmanglij

Starring Brit Marling, Ellen Page, Alexander Skarsgaard, Patricia Clarkson

2013, PG-13, 118 min.

Photo: The East/FOX Searchlight

"Winter in the Blood": compelling Native American drama

Tue, 09 Jul 2013 14:54:00 +0000

Whenever I think about what happened to the indigenous peoples of this continent (plus the islands!), I want to howl at the moon, gnash my teeth, foam at the mouth, pull my hair out by the roots and rend my garments - and I'm descended from Europeans. So imagine how Native peoples feel about their conquest, genocide, displacement, etc., at the hands of the settlers who stole what we now call North America away from them.

Winter in the Blood imparts an excellent sense of the impact this foreign invasion and occupation has had on America's aboriginal inhabitants. Although its co-directors, Andrew and Alex Smith, who co-wrote the script with Ken White, are all of European ancestry, the author of the source novel of the same name, James Welch, was of the Blackfoot and Gros Ventre tribes. Welch was born in Montana, where the gritty Winter was shot and set.

The screen image of the losing half of the cowboys and "Indians" motion picture paradigm is a truly fascinating subject beyond the scope of this review. Suffice it to say that the celluloid stereotypes of Native Americans have been, as a general rule, controlled by non-indigenous people and intended as mass entertainments marketed to ticket buyers of the predominant majority culture. Self determination, on the other hand, means the "self" - not the other or the outsider - determining how one is portrayed and presented to the world. Every once in a while a landmark film helps to redefine America's indigenous people. In 1989 there was the rebellious Powwow Highway, followed by two seminal 1998 movies: Smoke Signals, based on Sherman Alexie's fiction, and Naturally Native (the latter two starred the sublime Irene Bedard).

Now Winter in the Blood has joined this rarefied "tribe." It co-stars Gary Farmer, who appeared in Powwow and Smoke. Alexie is an associate producer of this adaptation of Welch's troubling depiction of America's troubled Natives. David Morse (who plays a detective on HBO's Treme and is in World War Z) portrays a con man in this searing drama, which fluidly goes back and forth in time. Chaske Spencer (who appeared in the Twilight movies and, like many cast members, is of tribal origin himself) plays the lead character, Virgil First Raise. He is a self-destructive young Blackfoot who romances Agnes (part Choctaw and Chickasaw actress Julia Jones) and Marlene (Lily Gladstone of the Blackfeet and Nez Perce Nations), as he desperately tries to find himself in "whitey's" world. Bedeviled by booze and an abusive streak, when he awakes from spending the night with Marlene, she rather charmingly asks Virgil to perform oral sex on her. Instead, for some strange reason, Virgil punches her in the face.

After its Los Angeles Film Festival premiere last month, Winter's cast assembled for a Q&A. Gladstone (who was excellent as Carlisle in the 2011 play The Frybread Queen, presented by Native Voices at the Autry Museum in L.A.) spoke about the feature's importance for Native Americans. In a drunken rage in one flashback Virgil's outraged father, John First Raise (Richard Ray Whitman), screams in a saloon: "This is our land! This is our land!" This reviewer asked if this was the movie's crucial dialogue: that today's dysfunctions, addictions, etc., in America's indigenous communities flow from the conquest by whites. Casey Camp-Horinek, who plays Theresa First Raise and has appeared in movies such as 1993's Geronimo, raised a clenched fist, said, "You got it!" and asked: "Are you listening, Obama?"

Winter is a compelling, no-holds-barred look at contemporary Natives. When Virgil encounters the aged, traditional Yellow Calf (Saginaw Grant, a venerable actor of the Sac-n-Fox, Iowa and Otoe-Missouria Nations, who appears in 2013's The Lone Ranger and HBO's Family Tree comedy series), before imparting ancient wisdom that will reveal clan secrets to the confused Virgil, Yellow Calf rather symbolically unbraids his hair before telling all. One could say that Winter does the same. Watch for local release.

Movie information:
"Winter in the Blood"
Directed by Andrew and Alex Smith
Starring Chaske Spencer, David Morse, Gary Farmer
2013

Photo: Chaske Spenser as Virgil First Raise by Michael Coles, from film's official website.

Student debt crisis: an American horror story

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 13:26:00 +0000

Posters went up across the country for a new horror movie this April, featuring a billowing red mist drifting through an air vent. The film was The Red, with the tagline, "It will consume you." Obviously this was a film in the tradition of The Ooze or John Carpenter's The Thing, where a faceless, inescapable force devoured everything in its path. But the film's main attraction was nothing as tame as a ghost, alien, or a biological weapon run rampant. Instead, The Red ups the ante by giving us the ultimate monster: the student debt crisis.

The eight-minute movie is about a recent college graduate, Kate. Everywhere she goes, her debt follows her, symbolized by a creeping red mist. The movie uses scare tactics to promote SALT, a new debt "solution" program. But The Red is more than a high-budget commercial and clever marketing campaign. The Red is American zeitgeist. One of the film's strongest themes is isolation, but Kate is anything but alone: she shares her fate with 37 million others with outstanding student loans.

Like any good horror movie monster, the student debt crisis started slow and subtle. Many public colleges suffered cuts in their state funding, which drove up tuition rates to cover their costs. In the past three decades the cost of higher education shot up well past what could be accounted for by inflation costs, even dwarfing the costs of health care. The increased costs of tuition made federal student loans necessary (and sometimes even private loans) to even afford higher education.

This is especially true among the poor and middle class: More than half of student loans were taken by households making a less than $50,000 a year. College students have an average a debt of $27,000 upon graduation (at the interest rate of 3.4 percent for federal student loans, with higher rates for private loans). The total student debt in the U.S as of 2013 has reached a titanic $1.1 trillion: that is more than the total national credit card debt and car debt.

The student debt crisis could then be seen as part alien invasion and part Faustian bargain. Students take on great debt to get the education and skills they need for the American dream of upward mobility. They are told by their parents and others that the high-paying jobs their education gives them access to will easily offset the cost. But these students were thrust from school into an unstable job market in the midst of a global depression and no time to wait for a job suited to their education.

According to the Federal Reserve of New York, the number of student loan borrowers who are delinquent (one stage short of defaulting) is 17.8 percent. Out of that percentage of delinquent borrowers, those who have entered repayment are 31 percent. That tallies up to 6.2 billion on the verge of defaulting. With these statistics it's clear that it's not easy for borrowers to keep up with loans at a 3.4 percent interest rate. And then Congress has just passed a measure to double the interest rate to 6.8 percent on July 1, which adds an average of $1,000 in debt per year of schooling.

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand proposed stop gaps to solve the problem. Warren wanted to drop new borrowers interest rates down to 0.75 for one year. That's the same interest rate that federal banks get on short-term loans. (It's curious how we treat our businesses better than our individuals.) Gillibrand proposed freezing the 3.4 interest rate for a few years. But neither as proposed unravels the juggernaut of student debt and the crisis rumbles on.

The student debt crisis is a tenacious beast. That's especially true since the federal government is presently trying to fix a problem that (spoilers!) the federal government benefits from. A recent report by the Congressional Budget Office states that out of every dollar in federal loans, the federal government earns an average of 36 cents. While graduates across the states struggle with colossal debt, the federal government reaps roughly $34 billion in benefits.

We cannot as a country solve a problem, to paraphrase Einstein, at the level of thinking that created the problem. Trying to stem or redirect the debt will not help in the long term. We should take a cue from Finland and start supporting our students for going to college instead of punishing them with crippling debt. If free or low-cost higher education seems too extreme, think about how extreme it is that students must spend $1.1 trillion (and counting) collectively just for the opportunity to get a better career.

Photo: The Red Facebook page

“American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs”

Wed, 03 Jul 2013 12:04:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Cinema without hard-hitting politics is like pancakes without syrup. Although they may not be the majority of movies being screened at showcases, many festivals feature films of compassion, controversy, consciousness, and conscience, including one of the nation's top filmfests, the Los Angeles Film Festival, held here June 13-23. LAFF's roster of 200 films features 25 or so decidedly left-leaning entries listed in the program guide as "Social Awareness" productions.

American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs is not only listed under that heading but is also one of a similar number of nonfiction works categorized as "Documentary." This progressive picture is about the Chinese-American woman whom Angela Davis declares onscreen to have "made more of a contribution to black people than most blacks." The former Weatherman Bill Ayers also lauds the longtime Detroit-based activist, who is identified in the doc as "a Marxist theoretician" and "black power" advocate.

"Revolutionary" is engagingly, wittily directed by Grace Lee. No relation to her doc's subject, Lee first stumbled upon Boggs a decade ago while making another nonfiction film, 2005's The Grace Lee Project, about various women named Grace Lee, in order to debunk stereotypes of Asian females. The UCLA Film School grad had no idea what she was getting into 10 years ago. Revolutionary is a solo look at what I'd imagine is the most singular of her previous doc's various subjects, the dogged if not dogmatic, indefatigable Boggs. Lee appears onscreen in Revolutionary, but the focus remains fixed on Boggs. Lee has a good film sense and her techniques run the gamut, from naturalistic talking heads footage (including of Bill Moyers, Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, and Danny Glover) to the imaginatively cinematic. For example, in sharp contrast to most longwinded left-wing intellectuals, Lee humorously sums up Hegel and Marx in 30-second montages, and creatively uses reverse motion historical news clips to represent going back in time for this biopic about Boggs.

As Boggs' life has spanned almost a century, plenty of American history is chronicled in this Detroit-centered doc. During the 1940s Boggs wed African American radical James Boggs and they set up shop, so to speak, in that hub of the industrial proletariat, "Motor Town." The Boggses were champions of the rabblerousing Malcolm X, and when the rabble roused - the 1967 Detroit riot, or "uprising" - it's covered at length in this film.

The effervescent 97-year-old Boggs has evolved in her thinking and may have renounced violence as a means of attaining revolutionary ends. Grace Lee Boggs attended the festival screenings in her wheelchair, took part in Q&As with Lee, and appeared on Tavis Smiley's PBS talk show on June 21. An inspiration on- and off-screen, this radical icon remains full of grace: Bogged down she's not, as she remains ready for the revolution, whatever form it may take. Watch for local release.

"American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs"

Directed, written by Grace Lee

2013, 87 min.

Photo: AmericanRevolutionaryFilm.com

2 million in Chicago celebrate Blackhawk victory

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 15:04:00 +0000

CHICAGO - Chicagoans turned out two million strong last Friday to celebrate the Blackhawks winning the Stanley Cup. It was like "a Ferris Buehler day off" with people packing the Grant Park rally and jamming the streets of the Loop area for most of the morning and afternoon.

They started arriving early, with Metra trains coming up from the South Side - already packed - at 7 a.m.

The team members, most of whom hail from working-class families and homes, rode atop double-decker buses with cheering red-shirted working-class crowds pushing down sidewalk barriers to chase them en route to the rally.

Relative decorum was observed this time with team members refraining from drinking alcohol as they rode atop the buses. When the Blackhawks paraded in Chicago after their Stanley Cup win three years ago, beer and champagne flowed not just on their buses but also in the streets.

Verbal decorum, however, was not as strictly observed.

"F*** the Bruins!," chanted a woman as she made her way through crowds that jammed Jackson Blvd. after the rally.

A bit earlier, when Blackhawks goalie Corey Crawford was presented with the championship belt, he declared to the sea of humanity assembled before him: "F***ing right Chicago! Biggest bunch of beauties in the league. F***ing worked their nuts off for this trophy. No one will ever take this away from us. We're the champs." The crowd loved it.

Just two days later, team owners did take two of the champs away from the team, however.

They traded away David Bolland, the very guy who scored the winning goal to give the Blackhawks the Stanley Cup championship. He's going to the Toronto Maple Leafs.

"Things like this happen - they make trades, " Bolland told the sports reporters. "It's part of the game. You sort of know going into this game this can happen. It's tough leaving this team. It's one of the greatest organizations in the league. I've been here for so long."

It didn't stop there. They then sent winger Michael Frolik, who assisted on Bolland's winning goal, to the Winnipeg Jets.

Despite the 80-degree heat, many wore Blackhawk jerseys. Most were content, however, to sport the lighter and cooler red t-shirts.

A fan, who darted out of the Panera Bread store on Michigan Ave., seemed excited, anxious and a bit confused. "I'm ok," he told a concerned woman.

Some 85 other people ended up in area hospitals, however. Ambulances had to make their way through thousands crowds jamming the streets.

While the crowds were huge and diverse, many had at least one thing in common: They were all absent from a job, a meeting, or an appointment they should have been keeping.

A teacher from Kankakee, Ill.. was in Grant Park with two of this students. "I'm not really worried about playing hooky," said Nick Grad. "I'm entitled to the day off and I put in for it. I can do this type of thing because I'm in the union."

Grad is secretary-treasurer of Local 641, American Federation of Teachers. He said he has been in Chicago "supporting the struggle of the teachers here, but now its nice just to be able to be here and celebrate."

Danielle Rutkowski, a cocktail waitress, was on Michigan Ave cheering with her nephew. She said she recently became unemployed and wasn't going to let it get her down. She said she wanted to come out with her nephew to "celebrate something."

"What an incredible feeling it is to be here with all these people," she said. "I like people, people are my job but seeing this many turn out for such a great team, seeing this many turn out for anything, is something I won't easily forget."

"Awesome," said Colin Kraft, her nephew, who, to catch a better glimpse of the crowd, was standing on the ledge of a stone flowerpot.

Six Columbia College students were sitting on the sidewalk curb at Van Buren St., also cheering and waving at the crowds passing them. "I knew they'd win and I knew the crowds would be awesome," said Kyle Foster, one of the six. "This kind of thing is great," he said. "You hear bad news like the cost of student loans going up. Then you have something so great like this happening. I just love it."

Another fan, lifelong Chicagoan who grew up listening to the Hawks on radio, said now that the team is on top, it's time to change the name and logo. "Let's be proactive and change the name to the Hawks. That's what most people call them anyway. Then the logo can be a bird, instead of a Native American, supposedly representing the Blackhawk tribe," she said.

Photo: Nick Grad, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Teachers, Local 641, and Blackhawk fan, with one of his students. Blake Deppe/PW

Occupy Comics: a comic book for the 99 percent

Mon, 01 Jul 2013 13:55:00 +0000

Familiarity with comics is divided into two categories. Folks who collected them most of their lives, and folks who haven't. Occasionally a special publication appears with an important message that appeals to a broader audience. Occupy Comics is an anthology of art and stories inspired by the Occupy movement.

Occupy Comics initially obtained financial backing through Kickstarter, an online funding site where individuals can contribute to fund a creative project, motivated by their personal support rather than investment or monetary gains.

When protesters occupied Zuccotti Park in New York City's financial district in October 2011, they launched the Occupy Wall Street movement. This made front-page headlines, and the movement spread throughout the world. It helped bring the struggles of everyday citizens to the forefront of the news, and made a political impact. The "powers that be" wasted no time attempting to squash the voices of the 99 percent. Which leads to the mission of Occupy Comics. A wide range of writers and artists have donated their time and talents to create a serious comic book series that chronicles the spirit of the Occupy movement. As stated on the inner cover, "All profits past hard costs will be donated to Occupy protesters."

The premiere issue, which debuted to the public in May this year, is sold out in many shops. Issue No. 2 hit the stands in June with striking cover art by Riley Rossmo on the outside and engaging stories within. Writers in the current issue include Mark Sable, chronicling a young man who reflects on a creative career in comics over Wall Street trading in "The One Percent Solution." Si Spurrier's "New Thumbs" is a stark black and white illustrated tale of a struggling woman in poverty who gathers strength and eventually joins the movement. "Single Family Home," written by Matthew Rosenberg and Patrick Kindlon, follows the trials of a young family about to lose their house to foreclosure. Molly Crabapple adds some great visuals in both issues. The illustrators and the letterers help bring each of these stories to life.

The eclectic mix of artists and styles will help entice readers who normally don't buy comic books. Besides the black and white and color panel stories, Occupy Comics also features engaging pinups, including a centerfold by David Mack portraying the Guy Fawkes mask made popular by the Alan Moore classic, V for Vendetta. Speaking of Alan Moore, the comic legend himself has lent his talent and support to the cause.

Moore has contributed installments on the history of comic books as an important voice in the arena of ideas. He explains how the illustrators and writers struggled in the early days for recognition in the publishing industry. He commends publisher William Gaines, who not only created Mad Magazine, but also tried his best to avoid the Comics Code imposed back in the 1950s. This code was a response to claims by some that certain comics were "corrupting" young children.

The contribution by Alan Moore is important in two ways. His marquee name on the cover will be an instant draw for some, while his ongoing feature will enlighten new readers who buy Occupy Comics strictly for the political content, but are unfamiliar with the history of the comic genre.

Another important feature is Casino Nation. This exposes the flawed policies of former and current Federal Reserve Chairmen Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke, and Secretary of the Treasury appointees Henry Paulson and Timothy Geithner. It reveals how they fell in line with Wall Street over the average American people before and after the financial crisis.

Some may feel Occupy Comics is late to the game, as the height of the Occupy movement as far as street protests was in late 2011 and 2012. The movement itself is still active in various forms. The mainstream media appears interested in reporting the news only when they can sensationalize it. This is why alternative sources, even comic books, are important. Black Mask Studios, which publishes the comic, was created strictly to produce Occupy Comics, and is completely independent. There is no corporate involvement. The ideals of the Occupy movement enlightened many people and helped bring them into the realm of progressive politics. Occupy Comics surely continues that effort in its own special way, and creates some new comic book fans in the process!

Photo: Occupy Comics