Edge Left

Edge Left

• May Day in Manhattan: David McReynolds- Note: David, twice the SP-USA's Presidential candidate, has been an active member of the SP, and a leader in the New York Left, since the 1950's. You can read his Web Log at http://www.mytown.ca/mcreynolds/. The day started bright and sunny as I headed uptown to the Church Center for the UN to take part in an action endorsed by the NY Local of the SP, and organized mainly by clergy (including a lot of heavy duty lifting from the Catholic Workers). I had been careful to empty my pockets of anything that might get me in trouble after arrest - my Swiss army knife, nail clippers, and the little plastic container of catnip for cats I meet along the way (the police might easily think it was a stash of pot). I packed a bottle of water for what I expected would be the long wait between arrest and release (and three Hershey bars to cope with hunger). We had an orderly two-by-two march down from the Church Center at 44th and First Avenue, across to Third Ave., and up to 45th St. where the US Mission to the UN is. (I do not know why it moved from 46th St. - the old site is a big hole in the ground now so maybe they are building a new US Mission there). We arrived, about 75 of us willing to risk arrest by blocking the entrance, and over 75 across the street in the legal area. We stood, with orange T shirts that said "Shut Down Guantanamo" and "End Torture", and a metal cage the Catholic Workers had constructed, with someone inside in an orange jump suit and a black hood. (The cage was kept across the street in the legal area - but it had been carried across town with us and was very dramatic). The group of us waiting for arrest were almost entirely clergy - I was kind of the honorary atheist. We waited. There were lots of cops. Lots of police cars. But after about a half an hour word came down that the building manager was not going to ask the police to arrest us. Had we entered the building and gone up to the US Mission office we would have been arrested but that would have been a much more serious federal charge which hadn't been anticipated. (That would have needed a long group discussion - we had not anticipated this). So there were closing prayers and Rabbi Arthur Waskow took the occasion of reminding us about the origins of May Day in Chicago, and with that we dispersed. (There was a mention of this on the BBC News). Thus, instead of ending up under arrest I came home, did my laundry and then went over to Mary House, run by the Catholic Worker, for their annual celebration of May Day. For those interested, there is an ongoing Guantanamo Project (of which this is a part) and if you want to help with local organizing, let me know. Peace, David McReynolds
• The deepening crisis.-

  Edge Left: An occasional column by David McReynolds.

  Fri, 14 Jul 2006 David Mcreynolds * dmcreynolds@nyc.rr.com http://www.mytown.ca/mcreynolds/. This current crisis flows not only from relatively old quarrels between Israel and the Palestinians, but from recent Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. When Hamas won the election in Palestine, one could deplore their refusal to recognize Israel, but one should not have been surprised by it, given the long policy of Israel of "targeted assassinations" which too often had high civilian casualties. (If one counts the number of Israelis killed by terrorists attacks and stacks those deaths up against the terrorist attacks by Israel on the Palestinians, the death rate is very much higher for the Palestinians - something the US media seems never to get clear). One can feel a deep concern for the fear the Israelis have - I have that concern - but

• Edge Left: Iraq, the End Game-

  By David McReynolds

    After the remarkable beginning of the Iraq War, bitterly opposed by so many millions around the world, the gradual unraveling of the war became clearer. There were no weapons of mass destruction.  Bush changed the rational for the invasion to one of "building democracy". One is curious as to what Bush will say, when he finally has to address the present reality - the war is lost, there will be no democracy, the lives and the money down a black hole.  

  For months the Republican line has consisted of three arguments (none of them addressing the issue of weapons of mass destruction). First, "while many can make critiques of past decisions, we must now 'stay the course'". (Ie., it is OK to talk about events in the past - but to challenge the current Bush policy was unpatriotic). Second, "whatever people thought about why we went in, we cannot now 'cut and run'", and the Democrats have not outlined what they propose as an alternative".Third, "if we don't fight the terrorists in Iraq, we will fight them here in our own country".   As it turns out, the Democrats, who, aside from John Murtha, never did have a coherent plan for getting out, didn't need one. Because the US now doesn't have any choice.

• The "Surge" We Need-
  
  An occasional column
  by David McReynolds.

  Before I sleep tonight I must put aside the bills to pay, the chaos of my small lower east side studio apartment, and take some brief time dealing with page 16 of the New York Sunday Times of March 18.

  Most of that page is taken up with charts and graphs. They reveal a chilling truth, one which almost all of us have known, but which the Administration has been denying, as it, on the one hand, tells us the "surge" is showing signs of success, and on the other hand, asking for still more troops.

  Bush and his supporters are right about one thing - many of us hope for the failure of the "surge" because we hope for the failure of the entire dreadful US project in Iraq. We opposed it before it began, and we have fought against it every step of the way. It was a project based on imperial ambition, rooted in the desire to control the oil of that region, with no regard for international law, for the people of Iraq, or for our own troops. We have paid a terrible price already, in the slow bleeding of our image around the world, in the draining of funds needed here for housing, medical care, and education. We have become a nation known for Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, not for the Statue of Liberty or the Bill of Rights. The nation of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, has become a nation led by thugs.

  So yes, we were not hoping for the success of the "surge", not hoping that the vast new Embassy being built would survive, not hoping that the Green Zone would remain secure. We hoped for the defeat of the US military, even as we did not agree with the hideous culture of violence of the Sunni and Shiite forces which have killed more Iraqi civilians than American troops.

• EdgeLeft: Grace Notes-
  
  An occasional column
  by David McReynolds.
  As a preface for this short EdgeLeft column, folks in the NYC area should know that PEN is having a tribute to Grace this Tuesday (I assume at 7 but not sure) at Cooper Union. I can't make it because of a conflict - it is the monthly meeting of the New York Bromeliad Society. I certainly hope there will be another and broader Memorial for Grace. If you are in New York, I hope you can make it.
  
  
  
  
  

  EdgeLeft: Grace Notes
  Sun, 4 Nov 2007
  by David McReynolds

  Grace Paley died this August 22, at the age of 84, in her beloved Vermont, survived by her husband, Bob Nichols. Most of the world knows Grace for her writing, but to many of us in the peace movement she was at least as well known for being on the front line of actions.

  This is a remembrance of Grace on two occasions, 1967, and 1971, small "grace notes" for a great woman.

  In New York City, in 1967, War Resisters League had taken on the first day of a week-long series of actions aimed at closing the Whitehall Street Induction center. I found it amusing that the coalition of anti-war groups, which was not united on the concept of nonviolence, agreed to let the WRL take that first day for what was described as "traditional civil disobedience". (In theory I was in charge of organizing that event, though Maris Cakars did the major part of pulling the event together).

  Maris and I were excited when we found Ben Spock had signed our list of people who would be there at 5 a.m. on December 5th. Neither of us wanted to call Spock to ask if he planned to join the civil disobedience or would be part of the larger "legal witness". Our fear was that Ben, who was known as a moderate sort of person, would withdraw entirely if he found out that arrests were planned. How groundless our fears - Ben led the way that day, and was among 264 folks arrested. It was, I believe, his first arrest.

  Grace Paley was that rare "public intellectual" who both enriched the world by her writing and put herself on the front line, not once, but many times.

  As we gathered in the darkness of pre-dawn I suggested to Grace Paley, whom I knew only as a key figure in the Greenwich Village Peace Center, that she and I take two groups of "non-celebrities" around to the rear of the Induction Center, and leave the front of the building for the celebrities. (Ah, it show how little I was keeping up with the field of literature, where Grace was already a celebrity).

  
  Grace Paley, 1979.

  We took our groups to the back, out of sight of the press. My own group - which was just out of sight of Grace's group - was quickly picked up by the police, tossed a few feet through the air, and arrested. But Grace's group, I later found out, had been charged by cops on horses, and several were injured, including Dr. Conor Cruise O'Brien and his wife. Grace had at once marched up to the officer in charge, grabbed him by the collar, and, shaking him like a misbehaving puppy, demanded he call off his men. Which he did.

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