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Tea party offers a lesson, but progressives don’t get it.

By Rick Janhkow

Below is a recent NYT News Service article that illustrates a point I have tried to make in the past about why progressive activism in this country is so weak and ineffective, and why counter-recruitment and school demilitarization work is an antidote to that weakness.

In general, peace and other progressive movement organizations in the U.S. focus on electoral campaigns, legislative lobbying and street protests that are immediate responses to crises, while they fail to simultaneously pursue long-term strategies that are necessary to make the general public willing to embrace and actively seek progressive social change.

The newly empowered Republicans in Pennsylvania are considering changing the way the state awards its electoral votes in presidential elections despite growing concerns by some Republicans that the move could backfire

Former Gov. Edward G. Rendell, a Democrat, calls the effort to change how electoral votes are awarded in Pennsylvania “somewhere between despicable and reprehensible.”

Get your history of voter suppression right here! GOP rev’s up efforts to make voting more difficult by Americans

In the 1964 presidential elections, a young political operative named Bill guarded a largely African-American polling place in South Phoenix, Arizona like a bull mastiff. Bill was a legal whiz who knew the ins and outs of voting law and insisted that every obscure provision be applied, no matter what. … It turned out that it was part of a Republican Party strategy known as “Operation Eagle Eye”, and “Bill” was future Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist.

By Channel 8 News

A strike by 10,000 grocery workers in San Diego County was averted Monday when union negotiators struck a tentative agreement with the owners of Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons/Pavilions.

The two sides faced a 7 p.m. Sunday strike deadline, but labor talks continued through the night, with both sides indicating that some progress was being made.

By Micah White and Kalle Lasn / September 19, 2011

We need deeper changes to our financial system, or tent cities of people angry at corporate greed will keep appearing.

On Saturday 17 September, many of us watched in awe as 5,000 Americans descended on to the financial district of lower Manhattan, waved signs, unfurled banners, beat drums, chanted slogans and proceeded to walk towards the “financial Gomorrah” of the nation. They vowed to “occupy Wall Street” and to “bring justice to the bankers”, but the New York police thwarted their efforts temporarily, locking down the symbolic street with barricades and checkpoints.

Wall Street Protests Continue, With at Least 5 Arrested

By Colin Moynihan / New York Times / September 19, 2011

In a continuation of the demonstrations that began on Saturday, nearly 200 protesters marched along Wall Street and other parts of the financial district Monday morning, brandishing American flags and signs denouncing the economic system. At least five of them were arrested.

By Kit-Bacon Gressit / Excuse Me, I’m Writing / September 19, 2011

I vaguely recall the first time someone asked me what it means to be a feminist. I was still a kid, freshly baptized in the blaze of radical feminism.

Or so it seemed, as our consciousness-raising group met in Anita’s living room. She was into her middle years, a professional woman returned to college, and the group was a school project.

By Jason Everitt / Two Cathedrals / September 16, 2011

On Wednesday, the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council called on KUSI to acknowledge their broadcast of the station-sponsored special report, “Pension Reform: The Fight to Get it on the Ballot,” as a campaign contribution. The Labor Council’s claim is based on the fact that the “special report” was explicitly produced for the purpose of advocating for qualification of a ballot measure. For anyone who watched the hour and a half long CPR commercial (and I did), it would be impossible to draw any other conclusion

Canceling the contract does not mean grocery workers will walk out in 72 hours, but it removes the final barrier to a strike. After the contract is no longer in effect, a strike can be called at any time.

Frustrated at supermarket corporation stonewalling, workers take next step towards strike

As contract negotiations stall, grocery workers issued a 72-hour notice canceling the grocery contract extension and paving the way for a strike.

By Center On Policy Initiatives / Sept 14, 2011 A committee of the San Diego City Council on Wednesday, Sept…

By Billie Jo Jannen / East County Magazine / Sept 12, 2011

A resolution introduced by District 40 State Senator Juan Vargas (D-San Diego) and passed in both houses Friday [Sept. 9th] seeks to put the brakes on a high voltage trans-border power line slated to bring electricity in from the proposed 1250 MW La Rumorosa wind turbine project near Jacumba.

DeMaio Enters Signers’ Info Into Mayoral Campaign Database, But It Can Only Be Used For Qualification Of Measure

SAN DIEGO – The “Just Say No, San Diego” campaign has obtained documents from the Carl DeMaio for Mayor 2012 campaign illustrating the city councilman inappropriately stole voter identification information from a ballot measure petition, a violation of California campaign laws.