Cuba Friendshipment caravan set for June
In June and July, the 15th IFCO/Pastors for Peace Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba will visit over 120 U.S. cities, challenging the U.S. government to end the blockade of that island nation.
Campaign to name park for Lucy Parsons
CHICAGO – A proposal to name a northwest side park in honor of Lucy Ella Gonzales Parsons, a working-class leader and spouse of one of the Haymarket martyrs, has drawn heated opposition by the Fraternal Order of Police here.
Texas YCL launches new website
The Young Communist League of Texas (TX-YCL) has recently launched a new website at www.texasycl.org. The website boasts several interactive features: users may vote in online polls, place events on the TX-YCL web calendar, and even submit articles for publishing.
Music Review: Enjoy two new CDs with flair
Music Reviews: “Tenderly,” Oscar Peterson with Herb Ellis & Ray Brown, Just-in-Time Records; “Cover the World – World Music Versions of Classic Pop Hits,” Various Artists, Putumayo
Peoples journalism
Grassroots Journalism: A Practical Manual for Doing the Kind of News Writing That Doesn’t Just Get People Angry, But Active – That Doesn’t Just Inform, But Inspires, by Eesha Williams, Apex Press, 185 pp., $22.95
McCarthyisms stench
Editorial The lid was pried opened this week on the Joe McCarthy archives. The files contain the transcripts of the secret proceedings conducted by Sen. Joseph McCarthy during his notorious anti-communist witch hunt in the 1950s. They were sealed for 50 years.
Mothers Day Proclamation
Each year the president issues a Mother’s Day Proclamation. The original Mother’s Day Proclamation was made in 1870. Written by Julia Ward Howe, perhaps best known today for having written the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1862 when she was an antislavery activist, the original Proclamation was an impassioned call for peace and disarmament. In the years following the Civil War her political activism increased, as did her condemnation of war. Here are the words to the original Mother’s Day Proclamation:
Bebel Gilberto sings
Music review: Bebel Gilberto sings De Tarde, Vendo O Mar, The Sound of Brazil (Evolver)
King Coal: Revisited
BOOK REVIEW Coal: A Human History, By Barbara Freese, Perseus Publishing, 308 pages
Extended unemployment benefits to expire May 31
Sad to say, the fact that the official unemployment rate jumped from 5.8 percent in March to 6.0 percent in April is not the most troubling statistic in the Labor Department’s April unemployment report.
