{"id":12200,"date":"2014-02-09T00:25:41","date_gmt":"2014-02-09T08:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/?p=12200"},"modified":"2014-02-09T00:25:41","modified_gmt":"2014-02-09T08:25:41","slug":"rouge-forum-dispatch-givin-em-what-fer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.richgibson.com\/blog\/rouge-forum-dispatch-givin-em-what-fer\/","title":{"rendered":"Rouge Forum Dispatch: Givin’ “em What Fer!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0We Say Fight Back!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Fist<\/a><\/p>\n

The Rouge Forum Conference Facebook Page \u00a0https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/events\/793215820695881\/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular<\/strong><\/p>\n

Haitian Teachers Set to Strike \u00a0<\/strong>The Executive Council of the National Union of Teachers\u2019 College Graduates of Haiti (UNNOH) informs the Haitian teaching body, pupils, college students, trade unions, other social organizations and our international partners that the Minister of Education has suspended, for two months now, the negotiations begun last November, following the two-day teachers\u2019 strike and demonstration November 13-14, 2012.
\nThe Minister, Pierre Vanneur, who announced publicly that he was authorized by the government to negotiate with the teachers\u2019 unions for real solutions to problems and for satisfaction of our just demands, has maintained for quite some time a guilty silence concerning these negotiations.
\nTo get things moving again we have to intensify mobilizing our movement. Therefore one week of a rolling strike will be observed in the schools starting Monday January 28. To kick off this strike, a new nation-wide march is being organized on that date.
\nOur demands are the same as in November: back pay, minimum living wage, legal status for the teaching profession, the education budget to rise to 34% of the national budget, decent working conditions, a union voice in social security policy, a real quality public school system, vaccination against cholera in all schools and colleges, one hot meal a day for all students and teachers, and measures to protect the environment. \u00a0http:\/\/www.psc-cuny.org\/unnoh<\/p>\n

Portland Teachers Authorize Strike\u00a0<\/strong>Portland Public Schools teachers have authorized the first strike in the history of Oregon’s largest school system and set a walkout date: Feb. 20.
\nNearly 3,000 Portland Association of Teachers members gathered behind closed doors at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall Wednesday and emerged after about an hour with a firm yes vote to walkout.
\n“We are sad but empowered,” said Rosa Parks Elementary teacher Stephanie Windham. “It was an uproar. We are united.”
\nThe precise language they endorsed — “PAT shall call a legal strike” — sounds definitive, but the vote does not automatically trigger a walkout. Schools will be open and fully staffed Thursday.
\nInstead, Wednesday’s decision gives union negotiators permission to authorize a strike if continued negotiations do not yield a contract \u00a0http:\/\/www.oregonlive.com\/portland\/index.ssf\/2014\/02\/portland_public_schools_teache_26.html<\/p>\n

Illinois-Chicago Faculty Votes to Authorize Strike \u00a0<\/strong>Faculty members at the University of Illinois at Chicago voted overwhelmingly last week to authorize a possible strike, following 17 months of contract negotiations with the institution. Joe Persky, professor of economics and president of the University of Illinois at Chicago United Faculty, a union affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers and the American Association of University Professors, said in a statement that he hoped to resolve contract negotiations without a strike. Mediation sessions have been scheduled through January.
\nBut if the union decides a strike is necessary, 10 days’ notice will be given, as required by law. About 80 percent of voters, both on and off the tenure track, showed up for the election, and 95 percent approved of a possible strike, according to the union. The faculty association says it’s pushing for more equitable compensation for non-tenure-track professors and shared governance, among other issues.
\nRead more: www.insidehighered.com\/quicktakes\/2013\/12\/09\/illinois-chicago-faculty-votes-authorize-strike#ixzz2sIPuRuxj<\/a>
\nInside Higher Ed<\/p>\n

Below, Ewart Layne Discusses his book on the Grenada Revo<\/strong><\/p>\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_gzYrBJUNRI&feature=c4-overview&list=UUlRKqiONx0IAxmx499Tl8jQ<\/a><\/p>\n

Refusal to Testify Wins a Brooklyn Man His Freedom \u00a0<\/strong>The grand jury for which Mr. Koch was subpoenaed appeared to be examining events from 2008, when a bicyclist approached the armed forces recruiting center in Times Square, then pedaled away before a homemade bomb exploded, damaging the center but harming nobody. Mr. Koch, who has identified himself as an anarchist, said that investigators believed that he had heard a conversation in a bar about who was behind the episode but that he remembered no such event….Ultimately, few of those involved in Mr. Koch\u2019s grand jury narrative, which stretches over more than four years, would appear to be gratified by the results. Mr. Koch, a former student at the New School, experienced conditions that he called \u201cremarkably unpleasant.\u201d Prosecutors failed to elicit his testimony. And Judge Keenan dedicated several pages of his opinion to a discussion of the \u201cperverse results\u201d of a 30-year-old ruling that provided the precedent to release him. \u00a0http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/02\/04\/nyregion\/in-switch-refusal-to-testify-wins-a-brooklyn-man-his-freedom.html?hpw&rref=nyregion<\/p>\n

\"Skinny<\/a><\/p>\n

Skinny Puppy band demands $666,000 for music used in Gitmo torture<\/strong> \u00a0Canadian electro-industrial band, Skinny Puppy, has invoiced the US government for $666,000, after its music was used at the Guantanamo Bay prison facility as an instrument of torture.
\nThe band says its music has been played at the Guantanamo base in Cuba as part of the interrogation process for detainees. The facility was set up in 2002, in the wake of the 9\/11 US terrorist attacks.
\n\u201cWe sent them an invoice for our musical services considering they had gone ahead and used our music without our knowledge and used it as an actual weapon against somebody,\u201d keyboardist Cevin Key told CTV News.
\n\u201cI am not only against the fact they’re using our music to inflict damage on somebody else, but they are doing it without anybody’s permission,\u201d he added.
\nKey had \u2018insider knowledge\u2019 regarding the usage of his music, learning from a fan who also served as a guard at the prison camp that the music had been used. After sending the documents to the Pentagon, Key said that they are even contemplating the possibility of a lawsuit. \u00a0 rt.com\/news\/skinny-puppy-torture-music-032\/<\/a><\/p>\n

THE Plan from a Vacillating Reactionary and the sap who destroyed SDS (today’s grant sucking liberal and yesterday’s tearrorist) on how to revamp capitalist schooling \u00a0<\/strong>truth-out.org\/opinion\/item\/21690-this-school-is-not-a-pipe#13918934427031&action=collapse_widget&id=3801713<\/a><\/p>\n

The Little Red Schoolhouse<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Calvin\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Susan Ohanian on NEA\/AFT and the Common Core\u00a0<\/strong>Voices of Support
\nNOTE: As these undated videos show, NEA and AFT leaders provided early and enthusiastic support for the Common Core. Both claim their teacher members helped create the Standards. Notice how Randi cleverly speaks from a classroom engaged in discussing Charlotte’s Web.
\nYour union dues at work.
\n2011 salaries:
\nDennis Van Roekel — $460,060
\nRandi Weingarten — $493,859
\nNEA Official Position
\nOur teacher members have provided input to the Standards. . . and will continue to work with the initiative on the roll-out of the Standards and with our affiliates to implement the Standards in their state . . . . in ways to ensure great education for every student.
\nNEA applauds this first step and views these
\nstandards as a lever to raise the quality of American public education.– Dennis Van Roekel NEA President<\/p>\n

AFT Official Position
\nHaving Common Core Standards are important. . . make sure there’s a common focus for what kids are able to do across the country. . . .
\nThe most important thing for us as the American teachers movement was to make sure they were also reality based. . . We had teachers from across America travel into Washington last summer to actually help make sure they were really real and user friendly both to children and to teachers.– Randi Weingarten AFT President\u2014 Dennis Van Roekel and Randi Weingarten
\nVoices of Support \u00a0http:\/\/susanohanian.org\/core.php?id=660<\/p>\n

Facebook page promotes campus repairs over iPads in L.A. schools \u00a0<\/strong>Critics of a $1-billion school computer project in Los Angeles have launched an increasingly popular Facebook page asserting that the money should be spent instead on campus repairs.
\nThe page, called \u201cRepairs Not IPads,\u201d was started anonymously but has been supplied with ample comments and pictures by school staff. The images include missing ceiling tiles, broken sinks and water fountains, ant invasions, dead roaches and rat droppings.
\nThe creators describe the page as, \u201ca place for teachers & the community to document neglected school repairs while construction bond $$ is diverted to purchase iPads.\u201d www.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-ln-facebook-ipads-20140206,0,5763779.story#ixzz2soGMLg63<\/a><\/p>\n

\"capitalist<\/a><\/p>\n

CA Middle School Principal Responds to Journalist’s Criticism : \u201cWho is this Susan luzzaro bitch?!\u201d <\/strong>\u00a0Throughout 2013, the Reader reported on Castle Park Middle School\u2019s extracurricular priorities: recruiting Sweetwater students to Alliant, a costly private university; extending the Steven Hawking charter school into the Castle Park Middle site; questionable spending for secretary of education Arne Duncan\u2019s visit; squabbling with SBCS\/Promise Neighborhoods about money and data-sharing.
\nA series of emails, recently acquired by the Reader through a public-record request, demonstrate how far Castle Park principal Robert Bleisch will go in order to keep himself aligned with Sweetwater superintendent Ed Brand\u2019s agenda. \u00a0<\/strong> www.sandiegoreader.com\/news\/politics\/<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Conference of Hispanic Christians endorses Common Core \u00a0<\/strong>Critics of a $1-billion school computer project in Los Angeles have launched an increasingly popular Facebook page asserting that the money should be spent instead on campus repairs.
\nThe page, called \u201cRepairs Not IPads,\u201d was started anonymously but has been supplied with ample comments and pictures by school staff. The images include missing ceiling tiles, broken sinks and water fountains, ant invasions, dead roaches and rat droppings.
\nThe creators describe the page as, \u201ca place for teachers & the community to document neglected school repairs while construction bond $$ is diverted to purchase iPads.\u201d
\nwww.latimes.com\/local\/lanow\/la-me-ln-facebook-ipads-20140206,0,5763779.story#ixzz2soDI2fOd<\/a><\/p>\n

NY School Boss Fights for Common Corpse\u00a0<\/strong>Schools chancellor Carmen Fari\u00f1a defended the politically besieged Common Core curriculum during a meeting Wednesday evening with a group of P.T.A. presidents from District 15.
\nFari\u00f1a began her long tenure as an educator as a teacher at P.S. 29 in the Brooklyn school district, eventually becoming superintendent where she worked with then-councilmember Bill de Blasio and helped shape his philosophy on education.
\n“Testing itself is not the issue,” she said, when asked about the controversy over increased standardized testing. “I do think Common Core is the way to go. … It hasn’t been implemented well.” \u00a0http:\/\/www.capitalnewyork.com\/article\/city-hall\/2014\/02\/8539912\/fari\u00f1a-defends-common-core-meeting-education-allies<\/p>\n

The International Hot War of the Rich on the Poor<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

www.youtube.com\/watch?v=5Q0pvDWgScM<\/a><\/p>\n

Forgetting Diem–Karzai Arranged Secret Contacts With the Taliban \u00a0<\/strong>President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan has been engaged in secret contacts with the Taliban about reaching a peace agreement without the involvement of his American and Western allies, further corroding already strained relations with the United States.
\nThe secret contacts appear to help explain a string of actions by Mr. Karzai that seem intended to antagonize his American backers, Western and Afghan officials said. In recent weeks, Mr. Karzai has continued to refuse to sign a long-term security agreement with Washington that he negotiated, insisted on releasing hardened Taliban militants from prison and distributed distorted evidence of what he called American war crimes.
\nThe clandestine contacts with the Taliban have borne little fruit, according to people who have been told about them. But they have helped undermine the remaining confidence between the United States and Mr. Karzai, making the already messy endgame of the Afghan conflict even more volatile. \u00a0 www.nytimes.com\/2014\/02\/04\/world\/asia\/karzai-has-held-secret-contacts-with-the-taliban.html?hp&_r=2<\/a><\/p>\n

US Navy sailors seek \u00a3600m damages from owners of Fukushima nuclear power plant<\/strong> \u00a0Dozens of American sailors who assisted Japan during the 2011 nuclear disaster are suing the operators of Fukushima power plant for more than \u00a3612 million (US$1bn) in damages, claiming that they have become sick from radiation exposure.
\nThe sailors were on board the USS Ronald Reagan super-carrier when it was diverted to northeast Japan following the devastation of the March 11, 2011 earthquake which triggered a tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster.
\nAs they helped rescue victims and evacuate disaster zones, the claimants allege that they drank, bathed and waded through water contaminated with radiation from the damaged nuclear power plant and were reportedly exposed to radioactive plumes. \u00a0http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/worldnews\/asia\/japan\/10624946\/US-Navy-sailors-seek-600m-damages-from-owners-of-Fukushima-nuclear-power-plant.html<\/p>\n