Voices from the Appalacian Coalfields
Voices From the Appalachian Coalfields – A review by Larry Kerschner Voices From the Appalachian Coalfields by Mike and Ruth Yarrow with photographs by Douglas Yarrow (Published by Bottom Dog Press, Huron OH, 2015) is a book filled with the voices of the coal miners and their families that fill you in on the day to day health and safety issues found in the dangerous work of underground coal mining. It shows the camaraderie that develops between people who “don’t care what a man’s religion is or what his politics is”. The voices of women miners and miner’s wives are well represented. Woman Miner “Connie” “At first they didn’t like the idea of us women being in there. One crew…
Corporate Greed by Miner “Ed”
Corporate Greed by Miner “Ed” (Interview by Mike Yarrow; arranged by Ruth Yarrow) Before we came out on strike, the owner asked us, “If you all go non-union, and you work for this one company, we can make you millionaires in 20 years.” We asked, “What happens if this one company shuts down?” “Your retirement starts over.” We asked, “How about our grandpas and our daddies that are on retirement?” “We don’t care about them. None of them work for us.” We told him flat “No.” He wanted the whole mines to have a decertification vote. But our grandparents and our daddies made this union, And without them you wouldn’t have the Social Security they helped push through, you wouldn’t…
Report on 2015-16 Mike Yarrow Peace Fellowship
Report on 2015-16 Mike Yarrow Peace Fellowship By Bruce Pruitt-Hamm Background After sponsoring and organizing the Peace Activist Trainee Program for 14 years under the leadership of Mike and Ruth Yarrow, with WWFOR Organizer Ellen Finkelstein as the Lead Trainer and Director, the Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation faced the dismal prospect that this program might have to be laid down for several reasons. First, Mike and Ruth Yarrow were compelled to retreat from active leadership in the program when Mike had a recurrence of his colon cancer. His death on June 2, 2014 ultimately led to Ruth moving back to Ithaca to be closer to her children. Second, Ellen Finkelstein was reluctantly laid off by the WWFOR in October…
Dahr Jamail’s article about Bert Sacks
One Man’s Mission: Justice for Iraq Published Friday, 09 October 2015 by Dahr Jamail, Truthout |reprinted by permission of the author While in Boston in 1994, full-time peace activist Bert Sacks made a decision that changed his life forever. He decided to seek out a study produced by a group called the Harvard Study Team, which had reported to The Washington Post that the deliberate destruction of Iraq’s civilian infrastructure by the US military, along with the US-led economic sanctions against that country, were likely to cause 170,000 Iraqi children to die. Unfortunately, that estimate would turn out to be far, far too low, as President Bill Clinton’s secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, infamously boasted on national television when she said the price of 500,000…
Reflections of the Value of Life in America
Reflections on the Value of Life in America by Larry Kershner What is the value of a life in our country? Do we value life in a country that generally approves of State sponsored death? Many court battles have been fought over the question of what is a life worth after murders or death in accidents of many kinds. How would you value the life of your child or your parent? Varying estimates have been made of the value of life in the Unites States. Most private and government-run health insurance plans worldwide use $50,000 per year of quality life in order to determine whether to cover a new medical procedure. An analysis of kidney dialysis procedures by Stefanos…
Finance as Class Warfare
Finance as Class Warfare By John M Repp A review of Killing the Host (2015) Michael Hudson The wealth of the 1% comes from the 99%. The 99% are enriching the 1%. There are many ways this happens, for example low wages and high prices. But increasingly, today, the 99% redistribute their wealth through indebtedness. In order to try and live in dignity, the 99%, or at least two-thirds of them that have debts, pay off their debts with interest as they educate themselves, buy houses or small businesses, buy a car, and use their charge cards. Debt peonage is ancient, much older than the industrial revolution and this older pattern is becoming more prominent every day Since the crash…
A Good Vehicle for Organizing
A Good Vehicle for Local Organizing by Lisa Kauffman About two years ago, a group of us in West Seattle started the West Seattle Meaningful Movies—free monthly documentary films for the local community, on topics like social justice, the economy, and the environment. Along with providing information, they’ve been a great way to build local connections. It hasn’t been hard to get a good turnout. For busy, stressed-out people, it seems to be doable to go a nearby venue, eat some refreshments, and sit and watch a movie. And the food and the movies are free (we ask for voluntary donations). Before each film, there’s a half-hour social time in which people can eat and visit with neighbors. Afterward there…
A Book Review of American Nations
A Review of American Nations by Colin Woodward by Larry Kerschner Have you ever asked yourself why in the world did people make the political and social decisions that they do? A remarkable book, American Nations, subtitled “a history of the eleven rival regional cultures of North America” by Colin Woodard lends answers to many of the political questions of today. Woodard shows that it is necessary to understand the history of each region and each region’s interactions with the other regions before beginning to understand why the United States is as it is today. In his introduction Woodard states, “America’s most essential and abiding divisions are not between red states and blue states, conservatives and liberals, capital…
A Plan for Lasting Peace
A Plan for Lasting Peace by John M Repp A book review of Shift: The Beginning of War, the Ending of War (2014) by Judith L. Hand “None of us realized how much more powerful is instinct compared to intelligence. We would do well to bear this in mind or the tragic errors of the past may be repeated.” Albert Einstein, Heinz Norden, and Bertrand Russell Einstein on Peace, p. 26 (1988) (p. 71 in Hand ) In the last few years, there have been many books published that argue for the abolition of war. Examples include War No More: The Case for Abolition (2013) by David Swanson, a peace activist, and The End of War (2012) by…
Letter to the Editor
Letter to the editor of The Chronical By Larry Kershner The Obama administration has committed to a $65 million 13 year propaganda program to adjust US thinking about what the Vietnamese call the American War. Observing the 50th anniversary of this war, President Obama stated, “we pay tribute to the more than 3 million men and women who left their families to serve bravely….fighting heroically to protect the ideals we hold dearly as Americans”. We might ask what ideals he is referring to. Almost 60,000 Americans died while killing 4,000,000 Vietnamese. Most of those we killed were civilians living in the South Vietnam we supposedly were there to protect. The book “Kill Anything that Moves” by journalist and historian Nick…
