Today in Labor History June 7, 1971: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that clothing with the words "Fuck the Draft" was protected by the First amendment. The Court overturned the conviction of Paul Cohen for disturbing the peace, setting the precedent that vulgar writing is protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
In 1968, Kiyoshi Kuromiya designed this poster and sent orders by mail. He was arrested by the FBI and charged with sending indecent material through the Post Office. Later that year, after beating the charges, Kuromiya defied the authorities by handing out 2000 of the posters at the Chicago Democratic Convention. The photo is of Detroiter Bill Greenshields was taken at random during a 1967 March on the Pentagon and used by Kuromiya.
There has been no draft in the U.S. since 1973. Ending conscription was one of President Nixon’s campaign promises (not because he opposed conscription or imperialistic wars, but because he wanted to undermine the antiwar protest movement). However, if the U.S. and NATO continue their reckless escalation of the conflict in Ukraine, and their threat to station hundreds of thousands of troops along Russia’s entire western border, from Finland to the Balkans, the mass slaughter could rise to the scale of World War II. And this could force the U.S. and Europe to reimpose the draft, so that they are not forced to replicate Ukraine’s desperate move of sending people over the age of 50 to the front. Indeed, Germany is already considering reimposing conscription because they can’t find enough willing volunteers. https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/06/06/germany-is-thinking-about-bringing-back-conscription
Max Bergmann, a former State Department official and now program director with the Center for Strategic International Studies, predicts Russian-fueled turbulence at the Democratic national convention in August. He foresees attempts of Russian operatives to infiltrate groups of protestors and attempt to turn protests violent.
He also notes that social media has “become way more of a cesspool than it was in 2016.”
@wdlindsy good cover to suppress the opinion of the people . Pretty obvious they will use our tax payer money to plant the violence against us during our protest of their genocide. All to further degrade us from within and create cover for their violence upon us. Staring early with their #Russia smear campaign. #ceaseifrenow#stopgenocide#usa#uspolitics#dnc#chicago
IfNotNow : Chuck Schumer, Mike Johnson, Hakeem Jeffries, and Mitch McConnell will forever be remembered as the leaders who invited the war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu to give a speech to Congress in the middle of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza, days after he crossed President Biden’s red line on an invasion of Rafah. This will be their legacy.
US is showing the world that EVERYTYHING they have said about law and order, human rights, respect for international law and humanity is nothing but complete lie.
They are the most disgusting hypocrites with the power to control the world economy and military. Sadly, the leaders of Europe and most of the other countries are either complicit or cowards to stand up against them.
After massacre in Gaza’s Rafah, advocates ask: Where is Biden’s red line?
In early May, United States President #JoeBiden drew a rare red line for the top US ally, telling CNN that Washington would not provide bombs and artillery shells for the Israeli army to invade Rafah in southern #Gaza.
But the images of charred bodies that emerged from an Israeli attack in #Rafah on Sunday have raised questions about the credibility of Biden’s “red line”.
In recent weeks, Washington justified its failure to hold Israel to account by arguing that the offensive in Rafah was a “limited” operation. Israel followed Sunday’s bombing with another attack near Rafah on Tuesday that claimed the lives of at least 21 displaced Palestinians.
Earlier this month, the US withheld a single shipment of heavy bombs to Israel. Israel receives at least $3.8bn in US military aid annually.
I'd go so far as to say that electing #Trump might actually strengthen the Palestinian cause in the #US, because then we'd finally have an entire major political party opposed to #Genocide.
Donald Trump has violated the gag order placed on him during his NY trial ten times so far. If he keeps violating it, what should Judge Juan Merchan do?
#BlueMAga really better hope #Trump doesn't get elected, or they'll have a hard time explaining why they're suddenly appalled at a #genocide that they'd been pretty blithe about for an entire year.
If you support #palestine, you should support this plan by Speaker Johnson to separate Israel and #Ukraine aid into separate bills -this means Democrats have no excuse to vote for #Israel funding. 🇵🇸
A year ago when the DNC chose Chicago for this summer’s national convention, the last thing they probably had in mind was the disastrous convention of 1968, but now, unless Biden stops his unconditional support of Israel's genocide, they may get just that.
Today in Labor History February 18, 1970: A jury found the Chicago Seven not guilty of conspiring to incite riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. However, Judge Julius Hoffman still convicted all the defendants with contempt and sentenced them to jail time ranging from 3 months to over 4 years. These were all reversed on appeal. Black Panther Bobby Seale had been a codefendant, but his case was declared a mistrial. Judge Hoffman had ordered him physically gagged during the trial.
#Gaza / Israeli forces rescued two hostages held captive by #Hamas
Most Israeli outlets call the operation in which Israeli forces rescued two hostages held by #Hamas in a building in #Rafah an “intelligence success”, or “heroic operation”. Non mention, in the same report, that two #IDF soldiers from the Maglan commando unit were killed (in Khan Yunis).
None discuss in the same report the fact that many more hostages are still in captivity, and that the risk for their lives, in the absence of negotiations, increased substantially as a result.
Some though do include, with a notable sense of accomplishment, that “dozens of Palestinians were killed”.
All in all 566 Israeli soldiers died since October, 229 since the operation-turned-massacre started.
@oatmeal@israel@palestine Israel reported that of the remaining 134 hostages, 31 confirmed dead, 20 probably dead, and an additional number died in earlier operations. This is not a success.
Different subject: at least 29 of the reported 556 IDF killed were killed by the IDF. Likely many more. #radicalzionism #genocide #slaughter #murder #dnc
Life's too short to read or reply to tankies and armchair anarchists who think it's morally superior to sit out elections and make it easier for fascists to take power.
Voting is imperfect. Representative democracies are compromised. The systems are rigged. None of this means we shouldn't use every lever at our disposal to try to shift things.