Queer-Radical Social Workers/Activists's topics - tribe.net

The Final Edition of the ICP

Ron — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:59:57 GMT

Dear Friends of the International Carnival of Pozitivities:

It is with both joy and sadness that I am writing to announce the final edition of the ICP. After you receive this notice, I will delete the mailing list for the ICP from my files and you will no longer receive announcements about the project. I was placed on a new drug regimen about 2 months ago and have experienced a serious side effect to the new meds. I am no longer able to continue to maintain the project as a result.

Please know that it has been a joy to bring you the ICP for the past 2 years and that I wish I could continue the project into the future. However, my focus has to be on my own healing now. For those of you who have contributed or hosted the ICP, my heartfelt gratitude can hardly be expressed. For those who blog about HIV/AIDS and who fight to end the stigma of this disease, I urge you to continue your work. We are all in the fight of our lives.

Many, many thanks to Sokari at Blacklooks for hosting the final edition of the ICP at the following link:

http://www.blacklooks.org/2008/06/international_carnival_of_positives_-_final_edition.html

Please visit, read and leave your feedback for the host and the contributors in this, the last edition of the ICP.

I wish you all peace and health.

Much love.

Ron Hudson

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Seattle?

cholly — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 02:08:40 GMT

Are there any Seattleites who can share some info on queer and or radical social work in Seattle?

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ICP 2.9 now available at Creampuff Revolution

Ron — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 17:41:04 GMT

Dear Friends of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP):

It is a tremendous pleasure to announce the publication of edition 2.9 of the ICP at the following link:

http://rosemaryrowe.typepad.com/creampuff_revolution/2008/03/creampuff-welco.html

Creampuff, a.k.a., Roro, who hails from Vancouver, is our first repeat host from Canada. I encourage you to bookmark this edition and visit it over time so that you can enjoy each of the contributions from the world of HIV/AIDS. I hope that you will also join me in thanking Roro for her work this month. We “met” about 2 years ago during the NHL Hockey Championship between Edmonton and the Carolina Hurricanes and have been fast friends since despite some rather competitive invocation of mojo to make our teams win the Stanley Cup. Roro’s sense of compassion combined with her sense of humor makes me quite happy to count her among my friends.

This 21st consecutive edition of the ICP features personal accounts, video, a special musical contribution from UK band Slovo, self-help information and the latest in news from the HIV/AIDS community. I hope that you will spend some time reading and that you will leave comments for the contributors. It is through your comments that we can hone our messages and learn how you feel about our work. Please feel free to leave your thoughts with each of the contributors and for our gracious host.

Next Edition

Please visit the ICP homepage to learn more about this project and how you can contribute here:

http://www.internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com .

We are now accepting submissions for edition 2.10 to be hosted here, at Mshairi:

http://www.mshairi.com/blog

This will be Mshairi’s first stint as host of the ICP although she has been a frequent contributor in the past. Mshairi’s edition will mark the first time that the ICP will have been hosted by an African host. If you like poetry, you should scroll through her blog. A selection of her poetry also appears at one of my favorite sites, The Other Voices Poetry International Project, an anthology of poetry from around the world that has been recognized by UNESCO, here:

http://www.othervoicespoetry.org

Mshairi's work appears under the title “Footprints” here:

http://othervoicespoetry.org/vol27/mshairi/index.html .

Contribute Your Work

Please join the growing community of contributors and hosts for this important international forum for genuine voices of AIDS. If you are interested in hosting the ICP, please email me at ron.hudson@verizon.net with the subject listed as “Volunteering to Host the ICP” and I will make the process for you as fun and rewarding as possible. We urgently need new volunteer hosts for the ICP editions after April, 2008. I will work with you to make the process as painless as it can be whether you are a first-time or returning host.

Please Share with Your Friends

Please share this notice with your friends and consider posting announcements of our link on your blogs and websites. Our continuing presence is bolstered by your participation and outreach. Please help spread the word.

To be Removed From or Added To the ICP mailing list:

Please email me at ron.hudson@verizon.net to be added to or removed from the ICP mailing list. Please include the word subscribe or unsubscribe in your subject line to indicate your intent. I will use your source email address as indicated in your note. If you did not receive notice of the ICP from me via direct email, then I do not have your email address in the mailing list. Please note that I can not remove an email address that does not exist on the mailing list. Your privacy is absolutely critical and no email addresses will be shared, sold or given to any other source. I use blind-copy distribution technology to prevent your identity from being revealed.

Peace to you and yours.

Safe Journeys!

Ron Hudson

2sides2ron http://www.ronhudson.blogspot.com
Poundcake Love http://www.poundcakelove.blogspot.com
The International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP)
http://www.internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com

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Is this theory possible? In practice

OTTO — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 19:32:07 GMT

www.worldproutassembly.org

Are you familar with this theory, equalizing wealth , end of capitalism, local economy

Any Thoughts?

Otto

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ILWU to Shut Down Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan

steveargue2 — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 18:31:25 GMT

[Liberation News is in agreement with the following article of the Internationalist Group and both have also actively advocated these kinds of industrial actions.]

For Workers Strikes Against the War!

ILWU to Shut Down West Coast Ports May 1 Demanding End to War in Iraq, Afghanistan

In a major step for the U.S. labor movement, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) has announced that it will shut down West Coast ports on May 1, to demand an immediate end to the war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Middle East. In a February 22 letter to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, ILWU International president Robert McEllrath reported that at a recent coast-wide union meeting, "One of the resolutions adopted by caucus delegates called on longshore workers to stop work during the day shift on May 1, 2008 to express their opposition to the war in Iraq."

This is the first time in decades that an American union has decided to undertake industrial action against a U.S. war. It is doubly important that this mobilization of labor's power is to take place on May Day, the international workers day, which is not honored in the U.S. Moreover, the resolution voted by the ILWU delegates opposes not only the hugely unpopular war in Iraq, but also the war and occupation of Afghanistan (which Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and Republican John McCain all want to expand). The motion to shut down the ports also demands the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the entire region, including the oil sheikdoms of the strategically important Persian/Arab Gulf.

The Internationalist Group has fought from the moment U.S. troops invaded Afghanistan in September 2002 for American unions to strike against the war. Despite the fact that millions have marched in the streets of Europe and the United States against the war in Iraq, the war goes on. Neither of the twin war parties of U.S. imperialism - Democrats and Republicans - and none of the capitalist candidates will stop this horrendous slaughter that has already killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. The only way to stop the Pentagon killing machine is by mobilizing the power of a greater force - that of the international working class.

The action announced by the powerful West Coast dock workers union, to stop work to stop the war, should be taken up by unions and labor organizations throughout the United States and internationally. The ILWU should be commended for courageously taking the first step, and it is up to working people everywhere to back them up. Wherever support is strong enough, on May 1 there should be mass walkouts, sick-outs, labor marches, plant-gate meetings, lunch-time rallies, teach-ins. And the purpose of such actions should be not to beg the bourgeois politicians whose hands are covered with blood, having voted for every war budget for six and a half years, but a show of strength of the working people who make this country run, and who can shut it down!

Now is the time for bold class action. Opposition to the war is even greater in the U.S. working class than in the population as a whole, more than two-thirds of which wants to stop the war but is stymied by the capitalist political system. In his letter to Sweeney, the ILWU president asked "if other AFL-CIO affiliates are planning to participate in similar events." Labor militants should make sure the answer to that question is a resounding "yes!"

There should be no illusions that this will be easy. No doubt the Pacific Maritime Association (PMA) bosses will try to get the courts to rule the stop-work action illegal. The ILWU leadership could get cold feet, since this motion was passed because of overwhelming support from the delegates despite attempts to stop it or, failing that, to water it down or limit the action. And the U.S. government could try to ban it on the grounds of "national security," just as Bush & Co. slapped a Taft-Hartley injunction on the docks during contract negotiations in the fall of 2002, saying that any work stoppage was a threat to the "war effort," and threatened to occupy the ports with troops!

The answer to every attempt to sabotage or undercut this first labor action against this war, and against Washington's broader "war on terror" which is intended to terrorize the world into submission must be to redouble efforts to bring out workers' power independent of the capitalist parties and politicians. If the ILWU work stoppage is successful, it will only be a small, but very important, beginning that must be generalized and deepened. It will take industrial-strength labor action to defeat the imperialist war abroad and the bosses' war on immigrants, oppressed minorities, poor and working people "at home."

ILWU in the Forefront of Labor Action Against the War

Workers strike action against imperialist war isn't new - it just hasn't happened here for a long, long time. During World War I there were huge mass strikes in Germany against the battlefield carnage, culminating in the downfall of the kaiser in November 1918. A year earlier in Russia, working-class opposition to the war led to the overthrow of the tsar and the October Revolution led by Lenin and Trotsky's Bolsheviks. The Internationalist Group and League for the Fourth International call today for transport workers to "hot cargo" (refuse to handle) war shipments. In the early 1920s, Communist-led French dock workers did exactly that, boycotting ships carrying war materiel to suppress a colonial rebellion in the Rif region of Morocco, as they
also did during France's war in Indochina in the 1950s.

In the U.S., the ILWU struck in 1948 amid Cold War hysteria and in defiance of the "slave labor" Taft-Hartley Act to defend its union hiring hall against the bosses and government screaming about "reds" in the union leadership. In 1953, at the height of McCarthyite witch-hunting, the ILWU called a four-day general strike in Hawaii of sugar, pineapple and dock workers over the jailing of seven union members for being communists. During the Vietnam War, socialist historian Isaac Deutscher said that he would trade all the peace marches for a single dock strike. The ILWU was the first U.S. union to oppose the Vietnam war, but during war and especially during the 1971 strike union leader Harry Bridges refused to stop the movement of military cargo. (Ship owners made use of this by falsely labeling cargo as "military" to evade picket lines and undermine the strike.) This betrayal went hand in hand with a "mechanization and modernization" contract that slashed union jobs.

As the U.S.-led imperialist invasion of Iraq was looming, in January 2003 train drivers in Scotland refused to move a freight train carrying munitions to a NATO military base. The next month, Italian railroad unionists and antiwar activists blocked NATO war trains by occupying the rails. In the United States, ILWU dock workers were a target of "anti-terrorist" government repression, as police fired supposedly "less than lethal" munitions point blank at an antiwar protest on the Oakland, California docks, injuring six longshore workers and arresting 25 people (who eventually won their legal case against the police). And every year since the war started, the San Francisco/Oakland ILWU Local 10 has voted for motions for labor action against the war. Usually they were voted down at caucuses and conventions of the ILWU, but not this time.

Last May, Local 10 longshoremen and Local 34 ships clerks refused to cross picket lines set up by the Oakland Teachers Association and antiwar activists, defying arbitrators' orders by refusing to work ships of the notorious antiunion outfit, Stevedoring Services of America (see "Oakland Dock Workers Honor Picket, Shut Down War Cargo Shipper," The Internationalist No. 26, July 2007). In the aftermath of that action, the union issued a call for a Labor Conference to Stop the War that would "plan workplace rallies, labor
mobilizations in the streets and strike action against the war." The Call to Action stated:

"ILWU Local 10 has repeatedly warned that the so-called 'war on terror' is really a war on working people and democratic rights. Around the country, hundreds of unions and labor councils have passed motions condemning the war, but that has not stopped the war. We need to use labor's muscle to stop the war by mobilizing union power in the streets, at the plant gates and on the docks to force the immediate and total withdrawal of all U. S. troops from Afghanistan and Iraq."

As the conference date approached, the union was the target of several police attacks, including a vicious cop assault on two black dock workers from San Francisco working in the port of Sacramento. Some 250 demonstrators from every ILWU local in Northern California rallied in their defense outside the courthouse. Their trial to be set march 18 at a hearing will encounter even larger demonstrations.

The Internationalist Group and its union supporters helped build and attended the October 20 conference, along with some 150 labor and socialist activists from the Bay Area, elsewhere in California and across the country. At the meeting, a particular focus was resistance to the Transportation Workers Identification Card (TWIC), which threatens minority workers and the union hiring hall, and which the Democratic Party in particular has been pushing in order to carry out a purge of dock workers in the name of the "war on terror."
Not long after that conference, a federal judge ordered Local 10 elections canceled and replaced by a Labor Department-run vote, on the eve of 2008 contract bargaining. Federal agents even invaded the union hall to enforce their order. This action is a threat to the independence of all unions.

This set the stage for the recent longshore-warehouse caucus, which voted a motion for a 24-hour "No Peace, No Work Holiday" against the war. The resolution was introduced in Local 10 by Jack Heyman, who also presented the motion for the 24 April 1999 coast-wide port shutdown demanding freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther and renowned radical journalist who has been on Pennsylvania's death row for the last quarter century. Although the union tops maneuvered to prevent Heyman from being elected as a delegate to the Coast Caucus, the motion passed in Local 10. At the Caucus, the delegate from Local 34 referred to the October Labor Conference to Stop the War as the origin of the motion.

At the close of the Caucus on February 8, there was a vigorous debate on the resolution. The union tops tried to stop it, to no avail. They kept asking, "are you sure you want to do this action." The delegates overwhelmingly said "yes." Even conservative trade unionists, including veterans of the Vietnam War, were getting up saying the government is lying to us, we've had it with this war, we've got to put a stop to it now. So instead the bureaucrats tried to gut the motion, which was cut down from 24 hours to 8, and changed into a "stop-work" meeting (covered by a contract clause) instead of a straight-out shutdown, thinking that this would lessen opposition from the employers. In the end there was a voice vote and only three delegates out of 100 voted against.

The efforts to undercut the motion continue, as is to be expected from a leadership which, like the rest of the pro-capitalist labor bureaucracy, seeks "labor peace" with the bosses. In his letter to Sweeney, ILWU International president tried to present the action as an effort to "express support for the troops by bringing them home safely," although the motion voted by the delegates says nothing of the sort. Playing the "support our troops" game is an effort to swear loyalty to the broader aims of U.S. imperialism. It aids the warmongers, when what's needed is independent working-class action against the system that produces endless imperialist war. Yet despite the efforts to water it down and distort it, the May 1 action voted for by the ILWU delegates is a call to use labor's muscle to put an end to the war.

Mobilize Labor's Power to Defeat the Bosses' War!

For the West Coast dock workers union to shut down the ports against the war means a big step forward in the class struggle. The Internationalist Group has uniquely fought for workers strikes against the war, when all the popular-front "peace" coalitions dismissed this and even some shamefaced ex-Trotskyists refused to call for it, saying it had "no resonance" among the workers (see our October 20007 Special Supplement to The Internationalist, "Why We Fight For Workers Strikes Against the War [and the opportunists Don't]"). With signs, banners and propaganda we have sought to drive home the central lesson that it is necessary to defeat the imperialist war abroad and the bosses' war "at home" by mobilizing the power of the workers movement independent of and against the capitalist parties.

That means fighting the war mobilization down the line. First and foremost, this means actively joining the struggle for immigrant rights as the government turns undocumented working people into "the enemy within." Class-conscious workers should demand full citizenship rights for all immigrants. Last year, San Francisco Local 10 voted to stop work and join marches for immigrant rights on May 1, but this was opposed by the employers PMA and sabotaged at the last minute by the union tops. Shamefully, Local 13 in Los Angeles, a majority Mexican American port, made no protest when police attacked immigrant rights protesters that same day. Today, as the ICE immigration police stage Gestapo-style raids across the country, organized labor should take the lead in organizing rapid response networks to come into the streets to block the raids. Despite the campaign by the capitalist media and politicians to whip up anti-immigrant hysteria, there is widespread disgust among American working people toward the jackbooted storm troopers who are terrorizing immigrant communities.

At the same time, the unions should use the power to put a halt to the attacks on civil liberties which are part of the home front of the imperialist war. Driver's licenses with biometric data, TWIC identification cards with "background checks," warrantless spying and phone tapping, setting up special military tribunals for "trials" in which defendants are denied the right of habeas corpus, to know the "evidence" or even the charges against them - all these are part of a drive that is in high gear pushing the United States toward a full-fledged police state. There have been scores, perhaps hundreds of resolutions by unions and city, county and state labor bodies against the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act, showing that labor activists are well aware of the danger. But just as is the case with the countless union antiwar resolutions, there has been no labor action. It is commonplace in the labor movement to bemoan the lack of real action when Reagan broke the 1981 PATCO air traffic controllers' strike, paving the way for massive union-busting, takeaways and racist attacks all down the line. Let's not let the labor bureaucrats bury the vital struggles of today.

Now is the time to turn words into deeds, to speak to the capitalist rulers in the only language they understand. The imperialist war parties must be defeated by a class mobilization of the working people at the head of all the oppressed. The ILWU motion to stop work on May Day to put a stop to the war can provide working people everywhere with the opening to turn from impotent protest to a struggle for power. For that the key is to build a class-struggle workers party fighting for a workers government, for socialist revolution here and around the world, that will put an end once and for all to the system of endless war, poverty and racism.

This is an Article of the Internationalist Group:
www.internationalist.org

and distributed by Liberation News, Subscribe Free!
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news

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ICP 2.8 now available

Ron — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:24:21 GMT

Dear Friends of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP):

It is a tremendous pleasure to announce the publication of edition 2.8 of the ICP at

http://notperfectatall.blogspot.com/2008/02/icp-28.html

Dragonette is our first European host, working from The Netherlands I encourage you to bookmark this edition and visit it over time so that you can enjoy each of the contributions from the world of HIV/AIDS. I hope that you will also join me in thanking Dragonette for her work this month.

This 20th consecutive edition of the ICP features personal accounts, video, music, self-help information and the latest in news from the HIV/AIDS community. Among these posts, you will find news about HIV/AIDS from around the world, posts from long-term survivors, an Annie Lennox HIV-prevention video, news and personal accounts from Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. I hope that you will spend some time reading and that you will leave comments for the contributors.

Next Edition

Please visit the ICP homepage to learn more about this project and how you can contribute at the following link:

http://internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com

We are now accepting submissions for edition 2.9 to be hosted at Creampuff Revolution, located here:

http://rosemaryrowe.typepad.com/creampuff_revolution/

This will be Roro’s second stint as host of the ICP. Her writing style is beautiful, funny, clever and guaranteed to make your ICP experience a good one. Please consider contributing your original artwork, poetry, news, personal accounts, short stories, videos or music files for the next edition.

Contribute Your Work

Please join the growing community of contributors and hosts for this important international forum for genuine voices of AIDS. If you are interested in hosting the ICP, please send an email to ron.hudson@verizon.net and I will make the process for you as painless as possible. We urgently need new volunteer hosts for the ICP editions after March, 2008. If any of you have previously hosted or if you are first-time host, I will work with you to make the process as fun as it can be. It would be especially cool to have a volunteer host for the April edition.

Please Share with Your Friends

Please share this notice with your friends and consider posting announcements of our link on your blogs and websites. Our continuing presence is bolstered by your participation and outreach. Please help spread the word.

To be Removed From or Added To the ICP mailing list:

Please send an email to ron.hudson@verizon.net with the word REMOVE or SUBSCRIBE in your subject line to have your name removed from or added to, respectively, the ICP mailing list. If you did not receive notice of the ICP from me via direct email, then I do not have your email address in the mailing list. Please note that I can not remove an email address that does not exist on the mailing list. Your privacy is absolutely critical and no email addresses will be shared, sold or given to any other source. I use blind-copy distribution technology to prevent your identity from being revealed.

Peace to you and yours.

Ron Hudson

http://www.ronhudson.blogspot.com 2sides2ron
http://www.poundcakelove.blogspot.com Poundcake Love
http://www.internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com
The International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP)

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Edition 2.7 of the International Carnival of Pozitivities Available

Ron — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:50:11 GMT

Dear Friends of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP):

It is a tremendous pleasure to announce the publication of edition 2.7 of the ICP at

http://www.thespincycle.blogspot.com/2008/01/as-positive-as-you-wanna-be-icp-27.html

Matty the Damned at The Spin Cycle

(http://www.thespincycle.blogspot.com)

has graciously served as our host for this month...from Australia. Bless his heart, Matty has a way with words. I have to include a STRONG LANGUAGE WARNING for you to consider, but what is a little language when you are dealing with a terminal illness? I hope that you will read this article and overlook any part that might offend you to see through to the good in the messages that we share to raise awareness about HIV/AIDS.

This 19th consecutive edition of the ICP features personal accounts, video, self-help information and the latest in news from the HIV/AIDS community. I hope that you will spend some time reading and that you will leave comments for the contributors.

Next Edition

Please visit the ICP homepage to learn more about this project and how you can contribute at the following link:

http://internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com

We are now accepting submissions for edition 2.8 to be hosted at NotPerfectAtAll, located here:

http://notperfectatall.blogspot.com/

Please consider contributing your original artwork, poetry, news, personal accounts, short stories, videos or music files for the next edition.

Please Share with Your Friends

Please share this notice with your friends and consider posting announcements of our link on your blogs and websites. Our continuing presence is bolstered by your participation and outreach. Please help spread the word.

Contribute Your Work

Please join the growing community of contributors and hosts for this important international forum for genuine voices of AIDS. If you are interested in hosting the ICP, please send an email to ron.hudson@verizon.net and I will make the process as painless as possible. We have hosts inline through March, 2008, but if you would like to host in April, 2008, or beyond, please let me know. I hope that you will consider signing up to host a specific edition of the ICP.

To be Removed From or Added To the ICP mailing list:

Please send an email to ron.hudson@verizon.net with the word REMOVE or SUBSCRIBE in your subject line to have your name removed from or added to, respectively, the ICP mailing list. If you did not receive notice of the ICP from me via direct email, then I do not have your email address in the mailing list. Please note that I can not remove an email address that does not exist on the mailing list. Your privacy is absolutely critical and no email addresses will be shared, sold or given to any other source. I use blind-copy distribution technology to prevent your identity from being revealed.

Peace to you and yours.

Ron Hudson

posted in Queer-Radical Social Workers/Activists - 0 replies

The Case for Socialized Medicine in the United States, and the Struggle to Achieve It

steveargue2 — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 01:16:54 GMT

The Case for Socialized Medicine in the United States,
and the Struggle to Achieve It

By Steven Argue

As someone without healthcare, I support the idea of socialized medicine for the United States. Socialized medicine will bring healthcare to everyone. Besides legitimate self-interest, my personal position comes from being an advocate for social justice with a vision of an egalitarian society. As such, I not only see universal access to healthcare as a basic human right, I also see that socialized healthcare will mitigate some of the racial and class inequalities in our society. In addition, socialized medicine is cheaper than the costs of current system of for-profit capitalist healthcare. It also looses the profit motive of insurance companies to deny needed procedures. From this knowledge, and these personal convictions, I am strongly in favor of socialized healthcare in the United States like that established in Europe as well as established in Cuba with the 1959 revolution. Short of a fully socialized healthcare system I see that the single payer system (i.e. socialized health insurance run by the government), like in Canada, would be a significant step forward for the United States.

In the United States there’s a lot of confusion on terminology. With a system of socialized medicine hospitals are directly owned by the government and doctors are government employees. It’s a universal system where everyone is covered and all health care is paid for by the government. Under a single payer health care plan, health care is universal and paid for by the government, but it is a system still largely based on private hospitals and private physicians.

Two main arguments are encountered when discussing socialized medicine. One argument is that it will cost too much. The second argument is that socialized medicine doesn’t work to provide adequate healthcare. Neither argument stands up to scrutiny.
Socialized medicine and single payer medicine actually cost less than the United State’s current for profit capitalist health care system. Both statistics and common sense back this up.

According to statistics from 2003, the United States spends $5,711 per capita per year for health care while Canada spends about half of that, $2,998 per capita per year (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2007). In fact, the costs per capita are much cheaper in every other developed country with some form of socialized healthcare. In other examples Sweden spends $2,745, Germany $2,983, and the United Kingdom $2,317 (Kaiser Family Foundation, 2007). In addition, Cuba , with their well known socialized healthcare system, spent only $251 per capita on healthcare in 2006 (United Nations World Health Organization, 2006).

The reason socialized insurance is much cheaper and more efficient than private health insurance is because single payer eliminates the health insurance racket with all of its waste in capitalist profits, paperwork, and overpaid CEOs. In addition, such insurance practices as routinely denying needed medical procedures to keep profits up are eliminated, thus reducing capitalism as being the cause of death.

Socialized healthcare does work. It is working very well in Cuba. Cuban life expectancy in 2006 was 77.6 years, while the life expectancy of the United States for that same year was slightly less, 77.5 years (United Nations Development Program, 2006). It is interesting that poor Cuba with a history of poverty before their 1959 socialist revolution, and a devastating U.S. imposed economic blockade since, is able to provide good healthcare for everyone through socialized medicine. Cuba, unlike the United States, does not let people die in the emergency rooms without treatment, turn sick people away from receiving healthcare because they lack insurance, or allow insurance companies to decide, based on profit motive, whether the insured actually receive the care they paid for and need. The Cubans have done this by taking the profit out of illness and injury and providing healthcare as a basic human right.

Canada, like Cuba, has a higher life expectancy than the United States. In 2004 the life expectancy of Canada hit 80.2 years (Statistics Canada, 2004). With Canada’s socialized health insurance system, like Cuba’s socialized medical system, every single person is covered. In the United States 45.8 million Americans do not have health insurance (U.S. Department of Health and human Services, 2005).

On another key indicator of health, infant mortality, the United States is also nearly the worst in the developed world, only worse than the recently turned capitalist country of Latvia (Green, 2006). The infant mortality rate in the United States in 2002 was 7.0 deaths before the age of one per every 1,000 live births (Center for Disease Control, 2005). In comparison, other advanced countries with forms of socialized medicine and socialized health insurance have lower infant mortality. This includes rates per thousand births in Japan of 3.2, Germany with 4.4, Italy with 4.5, France with 4.6, and the United Kingdom with 5.6 (Treasury Board of Canada, 2003).

Cuba, with their system of socialized medicine has an infant mortality rate of 6.2 per thousand live births, a rate much lower the United States rate of 7.0 per every thousand live births (BBC News, 2002). This is also lower than every other Latin American country (BBC News, 2002).

The only other country in the Americas with an infant mortality lower than Cuba is Canada with their system of socialized health insurance. The Canadian infant mortality rate in the year 2000 was 5.3 (Treasury Board of Canada, 2003).

In addition, a United Nations report on the status of Native Americans in Canada has credited Canada’s relatively recently established socialized health insurance system with drastically reducing an extremely high infant mortality among Native Americans (United Nations, 1993). In 1979, that death rate for Canadian Native Americans was 27.6 per thousand live births, but by 1999 it had dropped to 8.0 deaths per thousand live births (Treasury Board of Canada, 2003). These improvements coincide with Canada’s passage of the Canada Health Act in 1984 that brought their socialized insurance system to the entire country at that time (Health Canada, 2002).

For Blacks in the United States between 1995 and 2002, the infant mortality rate was 13.9, more than double the rate of 5.9 for whites in the same time period (Center for Disease Control, 2005). Canadian statistics are a strong indication that a socialized insurance system in the United States could both decrease the infant mortality rate of the general population and dramatically decrease the infant mortality of oppressed and impoverished minorities such as Blacks, as it did for Canadian Native Americans.

The statistics show that socialized medicine is cheaper, saves lives, and helps alleviate class and racial inequalities in healthcare.

Prospects for Socialized and Single Payer Medicine

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has declared, "It's time to provide quality affordable health care for every American, and I intend to be the president who accomplishes that goal finally for our country" (CNN.com). This is the same promise that Bill Clinton made when he ran for office in 1992.

After being elected, in Bill Clinton’s first State of the Union address, he said, “And on any given day, over 37 million Americans -- most of them working people and their little children -- have no health insurance at all.” Yet, despite Bill Clinton’s campaign promise of universal health care, his defeated proposal to congress would not have provided health care to every American, nor did it address the other fundamental problems of private health insurance. After his health care proposal was defeated, Clinton dropped the issue. In fact, the Bill Clinton administration was opposed to a bill for single payer health care introduced by Wellstone, Conyers, and Mcdermott that actually would have provided universal health care. By the time Bill Clinton left office, an additional three million more Americans were uninsured.

Today Republican candidate Mitt Romney has declared of Hillary Clinton’s promised health care plan, “It’s a European-style socialized medicine plan, that’s where it leads–and that’s the wrong direction for America” (Shulte).

Yet, unfortunately, Clinton’s plan has nothing in common with socialized medicine, neither of the European variety, nor the Canadian single payer. Her plan is to keep the broken and expensive capitalist system of health care, a system that keeps the insurance industry in charge of life and death questions of whether or not we receive health care when we need it.

In addition, the Clinton plan would make the purchase of health insurance by America’s uninsured mandatory for those who do not get insurance from their employer and who do not qualify for government assistance. Yet, the problem for America’s nearly 50 million uninsured is not that we don’t want to have insurance, the problem is that we can’t afford it. Clinton’s plan of making us criminals for not purchasing health insurance will not resolve this fundamental problem.

By making the purchase of health insurance mandatory Clinton makes the false claim that hers is a plan for universal health insurance as compared to the plan of Obama. Neither would provide universal health care. John Edwards has taken the absurdity of forced insurance purchases one step further, detailing a plan that would include the necessity of showing proof of health insurance at the time of paying taxes, with penalties for those who do not provide that proof.

In a similar fashion as Mitt Romney, Republican contender Rudolph Giuliani has extended false accusations of socialized medicine to other Democratic hopefuls stating, “Whether it’s HillaryCare or ObamaCare or EdwardsCare, the idea that it’s not socialized medicine is a trick. It’s a massive growth of government control of medicine” (Rovner).

The truth, however, is that the only presidential candidates of the Democrat and Republican Party that are for single payer health care are Democrats Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel, and none are for full socialized medicine. The other major candidates, who oppose single payer, enjoy massive contributions from the insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

In addition to being excluded from money, the Kucinich and Gravel campaigns have also been excluded from debates. Most recently, for the 2008 election, CNN and the Des Moines Register made the decision to exclude both Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel from a key debate in Iowa. Yet Biden and Dodd, who are behind Kucinich in the national polls, but who reject single payer health care, were allowed into the debate. This kind of undemocratic shenanigan is to be expected of CNN, a corporate media source that was forced to publicly apologize for a number of lies they told about Michael Moore’s pro-socialized medicine film “Sicko”.

While Kucinich has alienated the corporate power structure with his stand for single payer health care, he has also alienated much of his natural base by voting for Bush’s “War on Terror”, voting for the U.S. travel ban against Cuba, and by voting against Mumia Abu-Jamal.

In 2001 Kucinich voted in favor of the US travel ban against Cuba. The travel ban does not allow U.S. citizens to spend any money in Cuba, basically making travel to Cuba illegal. It is under the travel ban that Michael Moore has been harassed by the U.S. government for bringing sick 9/11 rescue workers, who were unable to receive medical treatment in the United States, for medical treatment in Cuba. The United States has had hostile relations with Cuba ever since the 1959 Cuban revolution overthrew the U.S. backed Batista dictatorship, nationalized the United Fruit Company owned by the Rockefeller family, ended Jim Crow style racist segregation, and began providing free socialized health care and education.

In contrast to Kucinich’s support for U.S. measures against Cuba, Mumia Abu-Jamal recognizes the gains Cuba has made in areas such as health care. Of the U.S. and Cuban health care systems, Mumia Abu-Jamal stated May 2nd, 2003:

“What about the human right to health care? In the US, you can obtain excellent health care if you can afford it. Cuba, meanwhile, boasts the largest number of doctors per capita on earth. They provide medical care to people all around the world. Indeed, there are more Cuban doctors working in other countries than the UN’s World Heath Organization. Millions of men, women and children in this country have no medical insurance and no real prospect for decent medical care.” (Abu-Jamal 5/2/03)

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a political prisoner in the United States whose trial, according to Amnesty International, was not fair and “did not comply with international justice standards” (Amnesty International). Yet, in 2006 Kucinich voted to condemn the French City of St. Denis for naming a street after Mumia. The resolution boldly proclaimed Mumia’s guilt, despite international recognition of the injustice dished out to Mumia, and despite the fact that the courts are still reviewing the case. Despite the injustice represented by this resolution and despite 31 members of Congress voting against it, Kucinich voted for it.

Showing a similar lack of support for the needs of the people, Kucinich voted for Bush’s so-called “War on Terror”. This was a vote that effectively gave Bush the power to invade any country at any time. That vote could have been used for anything, and was used by Bush to invade Afghanistan. Likewise, despite pretending to be a peace candidate, Kucinich’s calls for a strong and efficient military do not address the fact that the United States is the most aggressive and dangerous nation in the world.

The tremendous lack of judgment on these three votes alone, along with Kucinich’s promotion of the pro-war, anti-single payer health care, and corporate controlled Democrat Party, have alienated the left from Kucinich’s campaign.

Presidential candidate Mike Gravel doesn’t have a recent voting record, but was actively opposed to the Vietnam War in Congress, voting to cut off funding for the war, and helping to release the Pentagon Papers that exposed many wrong doings by the U.S. government in Vietnam. On the issue of health care, Gravel states on his website that he proposes “a universal healthcare system that provides equal medical services to all citizens, paid for by a retail sales tax (a portion of the Progressive Fair tax)” (Gravel website). Yet, sales taxes are not fair taxes. They are regressive taxes that charge the poor a much higher percentage of their income than they charge the rich. While it is true that the rich are not paying their fair share under the current tax system, Gravel’s proposal is even worse.

Sadly for those who think solutions could come from the Democrat Party, Kucinich and Gravel are the best the Democrat Party could produce.

While the mainstream of the American political establishment rejects any form of socialized medicine, all political parties to the left of the Democrats and Republicans support some form of socialized medicine. This is true from the Green Party and Reconstruction Party to the various socialist parties who run candidates, including the Peace and Freedom Party, Socialist Action, Socialist Party, Workers World Party, Party for Socialism and Liberation, Freedom Socialist Party, Socialist Workers Party, and Socialist Equality Party.

Breaking from the pro-war anti-health care Democrat Party is former Georgia Democratic Congressperson Cynthia McKinney. In a video news release declaring her candidacy for president she says, “The Democrat is no different from their Republican counterparts, eat out of the hands of corrupt lobbyists and feed at the same corporate tough” (McKinney). McKinney is running for president on the Reconstruction Party ticket as well as in the Green Party primaries.

On health care McKinney states, "I've supported every universal single payer health care plan. She goes on to state, “People who rail against `socialized medicine' in Canada and the UK have to explain why life expectancy is longer in Canada and the UK, why infant mortality is lower in Canada and the UK" (Deeth). McKinney further denounces the war in Iraq stating that the money being squandered could be better used on social programs such as rebuilding New Orleans, child nutrition, and health care, stating in part, “one billion dollars a day can provide medical care for the 47 million Americans who don’t have health insurance” (McKinney).

Another Green Party candidate, Kent Mesplay, declares on his website:

“Medical attention is a human right not yet recognized by the United States government. Nearly every other industrialized country on the planet has National Health Care. We are tied with South Africa for last place. In the same manner that we have a socialized military that at best provides for some aspects of our physical security, single payer health insurance is necessary to ensure that all people within our borders receive at least a basic level of medical and dental care.” (Mesplay).

While this may be a good position on single payer health care, it ignores the fact that the U.S. military does not provide physical security to the people of the United States, but is instead used to kill and terrorize the people of the world for the security of the profits of American corporations.

Also supporting single payer health care, Green Party candidate Kat Swift states:

“Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, and other prominent Democrats are the greatest obstacle to universal health coverage. Except for a few mavericks like Rep. John Conyers [D-Mich.], who has regularly introduced single-payer bills, Democrats have joined Republicans in favoring HMO and insurance corporations over guaranteed publicly-financed quality health care for every American. It's a safe bet that the 2008 Democratic nominee will -- like Bill Clinton, Al Gore, and John Kerry before them -- follow the same pattern.”

Likewise, Green Party candidate Jared Ball, a Black free-lance journalist and college professor who calls for freeing Mumia Abu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier, and all political prisoners states, “Medicine for profit cannot be sustained as a model of managing health care for any progressive society” (Ball).

To the left of the Green Party is Elaine Brown, a former Black Panther Party member and activist for social programs for the poor and for prison reform. On health care she declares herself for, “Full and free health care for everyone, as exists in most civilized countries.”

Elaine Brown was a candidate for nomination as Green Party candidate for president until, on December 28, 2007, she broke with the Green Party, pointing out it was a capitalist Party and accusing the Green Party of racism. In her public statement Brown declared, "In effect, the present Green Party leadership promotes a kinder, gentler capitalism, a moderated racism, an environmentally-sustainable globalism, which I cannot support." On racism in the party she declared she intended to use her campaign “to bring large numbers of blacks and browns into the Party, particularly from the hood and the barrio” but that the Green Party “hierarchy seemed utterly fearful of the prospect of a massive influx of blacks and browns into the Green Party". Brown has given no indication that she now intends to continue her run as a candidate to the left of the Greens.

To the left of the Green Party are socialist candidates that call for full socialized medicine, like in Europe and Cuba, but who also see that single payer health care would be a step forward. These include likely Socialist Equality Party candidate Bill Van Auken, who calls for full socialized medicine, and says of the Canadian Single Payer system as an imperfect form of “socialized medicine”.

Likewise Peace and Freedom Party candidate and Socialist Party USA nominee for vice president, Stewart Alexander states,

“I favor a fully socialized medical care system, with as a first step a single-payer system similar to Medicare, but covering people of all ages. I favor eliminating the "co-pays" that are such a burden, and keep people from seeking needed care. We should take the profit out of the health-care system, and fully fund it. (The money now spent on health care in the USA is about twice as much per person as is spent in Western Europe, with less effective delivery of care. No additional money would actually be needed, but taxes on the wealthy few should be used initially to help fund improvements.) Eventually, I favor a fully-socialized system, funded from the surplus of the socialized economy, with an emphasis on prevention and public health.” (Alexander)

Also advocating full socialized medicine is Socialist Party USA nominee and Peace and Freedom Party candidate Brian Moore. In the California Voters Guide he states that he would, “establish guaranteed minimum income, housing and socialized healthcare for all”.

Not mentioning socialized medicine, but supporting single payer, Party for Socialism and Liberation nominee and Peace and Freedom Party candidate Gloria La Riva states, “The three main focuses of my campaign will be to oppose the racist attacks on immigrants; to propose a massive jobs program and increased social spending as an alternative to anti-crime hysteria and new prisons; and to give strong support for Single Payer Healthcare” (La Riva).

While generally being a good activist party, a strong concern among many on the left towards the Party for Socialism and Liberation is their uncritical support for undemocratic communist models, a problem that will cause many to instead vote for non-Stalinist candidates such as Stewart Alexander or Brian Moore in the Peace and Freedom Party primaries, or for other anti-Stalinist socialist parties that may run candidates such as the Socialist Equality Party, Socialist Workers Party, Socialist Action, or the Freedom Socialist Party.

In contrast to some of the anti-democratic positions of Gloria La Riva’s party, presidential candidate Stewart Alexander states,

“Socialism is the common ownership of the means of production, but I like to be more specific. There are, have been, and can be many forms of socialism, but I believe that the best, strongest and most beneficial form of socialism, the kind of socialism I personally work for, is common ownership of the economy coupled with its democratic control by working people.” (Alexander)

Obviously, there are clear alternatives to the capitalist Democrat and Republican Parties that are working hard to promote a workers agenda that includes either fully socialized medicine or single payer healthcare. Yet, almost all of the unions of the United States remain committed to endorsing and financing Democrats and only Democrats in elections. A good number of unions, such as the SEIU, even endorse Democrats that are opposed to single payer health care and help fund the same campaigns that are being funded by the big insurance companies. These endorsements of the anti-worker politicians of the Democrat Party are a blatant violation of the interests of the membership. Such endorsements hurt attempts at building alternative parties that represent workers interests, and hurt the ability of workers to protest and strike against such politicians that are not representing our interests. Some other unions, such as the California Nurses Association, take the stand of only endorsing candidates who support single payer health care. This is a step forward, but many on the left see that a full break by labor from the corporate controlled Democrat Party will be necessary.

Ultimately, what is needed is the building of a spirit of resistance among workers, the unemployed, and students, where we no longer passively agree to politicians and union leaders who pretend to be lesser evils, but are rarely even that. We must challenge and change the organizations we are part of, and when that fails, break away and build new ones. Most importantly, we must fully resurrect the use of political strikes and demonstrations to force the bosses and government to give us what we need, as is often done in countries with socialized medicine such as France. It is this kind of resistance that won socialized healthcare in Europe after the Second World War, and it will be this that will bring socialized medicine to the United States.

This is an article of Liberation News, subscribe free:
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References:

Abu-Jamal, Mumia. "Mumia 5/2/03 Taped Commentary on Cuba." Radio4all and Prisonradio.org. Accessed 2 January, 2008. Available from: http://www.iacenter.org/polprisoners/maj_cuba03.htm. Internet.

Alexander, Stewart. “Presidential Candidate Questionnaire” Socialist National Committee, Socialist Party. Accessed 2 January, 2008. Available from: http://vote-socialist.org/p08/questionnaires/alexander.html. Internet.

Ball, Jared. “Healthcare.” Jared Ball for President Website. Accessed 2 January, 2008. Available from: http://www.jaredball.com/?cat=12. Internet.

“Clinton Unveils Mandatory Health Insurance Program” CNN.com. Accessed 2 January, 2008. Available from: http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/17/health.care/index.html. Internet.

“Concluding observations of the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights: Canada”. 6 March, 1993. United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights. Accessed 26 September, 2007. Available from: http://72.14.253.104/search?q=cache:Jt9OTyVZWTYJ:www.unhchr.ch/tbs/doc.nsf/(Symbol)/280a3783f5a26d09c12563e80058b47e%3FOpendocument+infant+mortality+ canada +%22united+nations%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=16&gl=us. Internet.

“Cuba Records Lowest Infant Mortality Rate”. BBC News. 3 January, 2002. Accessed 26 September, 2007. Available from: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1739773.stm. Internet.

Deeth, John. "Cynthia McKinney Brings Green Campaign to Iowa City." Iowa Independent. Accessed 2 January, 2008. Available from: http://www.iowaindependent.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=3D80FCACF0E1EC162CC087F14BCF9BC5?diaryId=1610. Internet.

Green, Jeff. “U.S. has second worst newborn death rate in modern world, report says”. 10 May, 2006. CNN.Com. Accessed 26 September, 2007. Available from: http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/05/08/mothers.index/index.html. Internet.

Health Canada, Government of Canada. 25 November, 2002. Accessed 26 September, 2007. Available from: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/media/nr-cp/2002/2002_care-soinsbk4_e.html. Internet.

“How Mike Stands on the Issues.” Mike Gravel ’08 Website. Accessed 2 January, 2008. Available from: http://www.gravel2008.us/issues. Internet.

“Human Development Report”. 2006. United Nations World Health Organization. Accessed 23 September, 2007. Available from: http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/indicators/52.html. Internet.

La Riva, Gloria. “Gloria La Riva for Governor”. California Online Voting Guide. Accessed 2 January, 2008. Available from: http://calvoter.org/archive/94general/cand/governor/lari/larispeech3.html. Internet.

Mesplay, Kent. “Healthcare”. Kent Mesplay for President. Accessed 2 January, 2008. Available from: http://www.mesplay.org/healthcare.html. Internet.

McKinney, Cynthia. “Cynthia McKinney Announces Campaign for Presidency” McKinney for President 2008 Website. Accessed 2 January, 2008. Available from: http://www.runcynthiarun.org/node/25. Internet.

“Overview of the Uninsured in The United States, An Analysis of the 2005 Current Population Survey”. 22 September 2005. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Accessed 23 September, 2007. Available from: http://aspe.hhs.gov/health/reports/05/uninsured-cps/index.htm. Internet.

“Presidents Report, Canada’s Performance 2003”. 2003. Treasury Board of Canada. Accessed 26 September, 2007. Available from: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/report/govrev/03/cp-rc-PR_e.asp?printable=True. Internet.

“Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Infant Mortality --- United States, 1995-2002”. 10 June 2005. MMWR Weekly. Center for Disease Control. Accessed 26 September, 2007. Available from: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5422a1.htm. Internet.

Rovner, Julie. “Socialized Medicine Belittled on Campaign Trail.” 6 December, 2007. NPR Morning Edition. Available from Physicians for a National Health Program: http://www.pnhp.org/news/2007/december/socialized_medicine_.php. Internet.

Shulte, Elizabeth. "Hillary Clinton’s First Health Care Non-Reform." 27 September, 2007. Dissident Voice. Available from: http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2007/09/hillary-clintons-first-health-care-non-reform/. Internet.

“Snapshots: Healthcare Costs”. Kaiser Family Foundation. January 2007. Accessed 23 September, 2007. Available from: http://www.kff.org/insurance/snapshot/chcm010307oth.cfm. Internet.

“Statistics Canada”. 20 December, 2006. The Daily. Accessed 23 September, 2007. Available from: http://www.statcan.ca/Daily/English/061220/d061220b.htm. Internet.

“USA: Mumia Abu-Jamal -- Overturning of death sentence falls short of full justice” 19 December, 2001. Amnesty International. Available from: http://www.amnesty.org/en/alfresco_asset/9e6893af-a3f9-11dc-9d08-f145a8145d2b/amr511832001en.html. Internet.

***************
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Announcing Edition 2.6 of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP)

Ron — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 21:37:36 GMT

Dear Friends of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP):

It is a tremendous pleasure to announce the publication of edition 2.6 of the ICP at

http://www.dropdeadhappy.com/dropdeadhappy/ICP26.html

Mark Kokocki is our third host from Canada and our second from the Vancouver area after Roro at Creampuff Revolution. I encourage you to bookmark this edition and visit it over time so that you can enjoy each of the contributions from the world of HIV/AIDS. I hope that you will also join me in thanking Mark for his work this month and Giles of Slimconomy and Roro of Creampuff Revolution for the previous Canadian editions.

This 18th consecutive edition of the ICP features personal accounts, video, music, self-help information and the latest in news from the HIV/AIDS community. Among these posts,you will find news about HIV/AIDS in women and children, a good sampling of posts from long-term survivors, a Bollywood-like HIV prevention video from India, news and personal accounts from Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America, I hope that you will spend some time reading and that you will leave comments for the contributors.

Next Edition

Please visit the ICP homepage to learn more about this project and how you can contribute at the following link:

http://internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com

We are now accepting submissions for edition 2.7 to be hosted at The Spin Cycle, located here:

http://thespincycle.blogspot.com

This new edition marks the first time that the ICP will have been hosted outside of North America as we go to Australia for host Matty the Damned and the Spin Cycle team. It is notable that Matty and the Spin Cycle contributed the first post to the ICP’s first edition in June of 2006. Please consider contributing your original artwork, poetry, news, personal accounts, short stories, videos or music files for the next edition.

Please Share with Your Friends

Please share this notice with your friends and consider posting announcements of our link on your blogs and websites. Our continuing presence is bolstered by your participation and outreach. Please help spread the word.

Contribute Your Work

Please join the growing community of contributors and hosts for this important international forum for genuine voices of AIDS. If you are interested in hosting the ICP, please send an email to ron.hudson@verizon.net and I will make the process for you as painless as possible. We have hosts inline through February, 2008, but if you would like to host in March, 2008, or beyond, please let me know. I hope that you will consider signing up to host a specific edition of the ICP.

To be Removed From or Added To the ICP mailing list:

Please send an email to ron.hudson@verizon.net with the word REMOVE or SUBSCRIBE in your subject line to have your name removed from or added to, respectively, the ICP mailing list. If you did not receive notice of the ICP from me via direct email, then I do not have your email address in the mailing list. Please note that I can not remove an email address that does not exist on the mailing list. Your privacy is absolutely critical and no email addresses will be shared, sold or given to any other source. I use blind-copy distribution technology to prevent your identity from being revealed.

Peace to you and yours.

Ron Hudson

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ICP 17 is now Available. I hope you are finding it helpful and interesting.

Ron — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:09:53 GMT

Dear Friends of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP):

The 17th consecutive edition of the ICP is now available at the following link:

http://slimconomy.blogspot.com/2007/11/w-elcome-to-november-10-2007-edition-of.html

This edition is the second to have been hosted by a Canadian blogger and the second to be hosted internationally. Please join me in thanking Giles at Slimconomy for his participation as our host this month. As usual, this edition features personal accounts, video, self-help information and the latest in news from the HIV/AIDS community. I hope that you will spend some time reading and that you will leave comments for the contributors.

Next Edition

Please visit the ICP homepage at the following link to learn more about this project and how you can contribute:

http://internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com/

We are now accepting submissions for edition 18 to be hosted at Drop Dead Happy, located here:

http://www.dropdeadhappy.com

Please consider contributing your original artwork, poetry, news, personal accounts, short stories, videos or music files for the next edition.

Please Share with Your Friends

Please share this notice with your friends and consider posting announcements of our link on your blogs and websites. Our continuing presence is bolstered by your participation and outreach. Please help spread the word.

Contribute Your Work

I hope that you will join the growing community of contributors and hosts for this important international forum for genuine voices of AIDS. If you are interested in hosting the ICP, please send me a message and I will make the process for you as painless as possible. Return hosts are welcome! We have hosts in line through December, 2007, but need to start recruiting new hosts for next year right now!! I hope that you will consider signing up to host a specific edition of the ICP.

To be Removed From or Added To the ICP mailing list:

Please send me a message with the word REMOVE or SUBSCRIBE in your subject line to have your name removed from or added to, respectively, the ICP mailing list. If you did not receive notice of the ICP from me via direct email, then I do not have your email address in the mailing list. Please note that I can not remove an email address that does not exist on the mailing list.

Peace to you and yours.

Ron Hudson

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ICP 16 is now available

Ron — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 17:23:19 GMT

Dear Friends of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP):

The 16th edition of the ICP is now available at:

http://ogresview.mu.nu/archives/243135.php.

This edition represents an attempt to reach out to a conservative political community about HIV/AIDS. It is my hope that our messages might encourage those who normally do not come in contact with the issues of HIV/AIDS to think about how to help us fight the pandemic. We have poetry, video, personal accounts and news from around the world.

Next Edition

Please visit the ICP homepage to learn more about this project and how you can contribute at the following link:

http://internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com/

We are now accepting submissions for edition 17 to be hosted at Slimconomy at the link:

http://slimconomy.blogspot.com

Please consider contributing your original artwork, poetry, news, personal accounts, short stories, videos or music files for the next edition.

Please Share with Your Friends

As usual, I would like to ask you to post a permanent link to the ICP homepage (you can get a widget there as well) on your blogs or websites and to share the word of this edition with your readers and friends. The more people who know about the ICP, the more likely it will be that we will continue to receive excellent contributions. In fact, feel free to nominate your own HIV/AIDS related contributions from your favorite blogs or websites. The most powerful stories are those of personal nature, so I would encourage you to seek out or write personal accounts and to share them with the ICP. There are many more of you than of me, so join me in the search for quality blogs that share personal stories about HIV/AIDS from around the world. We have hardly begun to tap into the situation in Asia, so blogs from that region of the world are particularly welcome.

Contribute Your Work

I hope that you will join the growing community of contributors and hosts for this important international forum for genuine voices of AIDS. If you are interested in hosting the ICP, please email me at ron.hudson@verizon.net and I will make the process for you as painless as possible. Return hosts are welcome! We have hosts in line through December, 2007, but need to start recruiting new hosts for next year. I hope that you will consider signing up to host a specific edition of the ICP.

To be Removed From or Added To the ICP mailing list:

Please email me with the word REMOVE or SUBSCRIBE in your subject line to have your name removed from or added to, respectively, the ICP mailing list. If you did not receive notice of the ICP from me via direct email, then I do not have your email address in the mailing list. Please note that I can not remove an email address that does not exist on the mailing list!!!!!

Peace to you and yours.

Ron Hudson

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ICP 15 is now available at Living Mindfully with HIV

Ron — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 20:23:40 GMT

Dear Friends of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP):

The 15th edition of the ICP is now available at the following link:

http://hivhsnmindfulness.blogspot.com:80/2007/08/15th-edition-of-international-carnival.html

on the blog Living Mindfully with HIV. This edition includes a return of artwork from Colombian artist Farid de la Ossa, a video from Angelique Kidjo and Joss Stone for relief for Darfur, a special gift offer from me for your contribution to an AIDS Charity of your choice, HIV/AIDS news from around the world, more addiction recovery help, a very special introduction to "Big Love" or "Arohanui", and much more. Please take a few moments to read and leave comments, particularly for your host, James Wortz, who has done yet another great job despite a bout of bad health in the last few days.

Next Edition

Please visit the ICP homepage ( http://internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com ) to learn more about this project and how you can contribute. We are now accepting submissions for edition 16 to be hosted at Ogre's Politics and Views ( http://www.ogresview.mu.nu ). Please consider contributing your original artwork, poetry, news, personal accounts, short stories, videos or music files for the next edition. This next edition is very special. I have approached the host, Mr. Ogre, to participate as an outreach to a conservative political community that normally may not hear from people living with HIV/AIDS. Please consider this an opportunity to share your stories with a group of people who may not normally think of HIV/AIDS as often as we do and how you might make your case for teamwork with people who may not necessarily agree with you.

Please Share with Your Friends

As usual, I would like to ask you to post a permanent link to the ICP homepage (you can get a widget there as well) on your blogs or websites and to share the word of this edition with your readers and friends. The more people who know about the ICP, the more likely it will be that we will continue to receive excellent contributions. In fact, feel free to nominate your own HIV/AIDS related contributions from your favorite blogs or websites. The most powerful stories are those of personal nature, so I would encourage you to seek out or write personal accounts and to share them with the ICP. There are many more of you than of me, so join me in the search for quality blogs that share personal stories about HIV/AIDS from around the world. We have hardly begun to tap into the situation in Asia, so blogs from that region of the world are particularly welcome.

Contribute Your Work

I hope that you will join the growing community of contributors and hosts for this important international forum for genuine voices of AIDS. If you are interested in hosting the ICP, please email me and I will make the process for you as painless as possible. Return hosts are welcome!

To be Removed From or Added To the ICP mailing list:

Please send me an email (ron.hudson@verizon.net) with the word REMOVE or SUBSCRIBE in your subject line to have your name removed or added to the ICP mailing list.

Peace to you and yours.

Ron Hudson

posted in Queer-Radical Social Workers/Activists - 0 replies

PLEASE FORWARD: If you or anyone you know was arrested in Seattle during WTO 1999, READ THIS!

Castropho — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:30:17 GMT

Hello friends and allies,

I need help to get the word out quickly, so please forward this as appropriate. Apologies for sending this out broadly but please read on a bit and help us get the word to the appropriate folks. Please use your resources to get this word out in your community.

We need to find ~ 175 individuals who were in Seattle during the WTO protests in 1999.
We won an important lawsuit against the city of Seattle which violated our rights and these folks need to contact the attorneys by AUGUST 28, 2007 if they want their portion of the settlement $$ (see below to download claim forms.)

Sooo.... WHO DO YOU KNOW who was in Seattle at the WTO protests in 1999?
Please pass this along to them and to others who might have some connections to those events. (Consider sending to your lists or specific people, adding info to your blog, website or announcement lsits, and especially, talking to folks.)

Westlake, Dec 1, 1999? Nov 30, 1999: Nov 30 1999:

We're specifically trying to be sure all 175 people who were arrested at Westlake on December 1, 1999 get this info IMMEDIATELY since they have only two weeks left to return their claim (due August 28th, 2007.)

We settled with the city of Seattle for $1,000,000 and each person arrested at that location is entitled to a portion of those funds. (Hopefully it's clear that ONLY folks arrested at this particular time and place are part of this suit and eligible to make these claims.)

A jury found that our 4th amendment rights were violated. See press release about the case: http://www.witheylaw.com/TLPJ-WTOVerdictNewsRelease.pdf and some news about the settlement: www.witheylaw.com/WTO%20Trial.htm and www.witheylaw.com/news.htm.

The problem is that after nearly 8 years (and not knowing who was actually arrested there), almost everyone has moved or gotten a new phone or email. We need to use our networks to reach folks so PLEASE HELP get this to them by forwarding on to reduce those degrees of separation.

Again, apologies to folks who may not understand why I'm sending this to you or who get this multiple times. Mostly I tried to think of people who might have some connection to the issues, the tactics or the regions that brought people to Seattle in 1999. The hope is that you will know how to reach folks that were involved so we can use our networks to reach these ~175 people.

As an aside, let me note that many of the 175 folks we've already found are still committed to their activism and are planning to put the funds they receive BACK INTO their respective MOVEMENTS. Many of us recognize that though ~175 of us will receive a portion of this settlement, the victory of this case is a victory for us all. The work happening in the streets in 1999 is ongoing...and I personally hope to support that work by funneling my portion of the settlement money into groups still doing that work. Though these arrests violated our rights, many of us of are people of relative privilege which is another reason to give collectively with these funds. That said, most activists I know rarely have large financial means so this will be a rare opportunity for some of us to support financially the causes we work so hard on with our other resources. (My personal view of the money I'll be receiving is that it isn't really mine...it belongs to all the people (~50,000) who were in the streets in 1999 opposing the WTO and, even more, to all the people affected by the WTO's policies. In 1999, I was arrested (wrongly, the jury decided) speaking out for what I believed in and trying to create change. In 2007, I hope to see the funds I'll be getting used to continue that work.)

Thanks and solidarity,
Erica K
Jane WTO #890
can@drizzle.com
206-568-7110
(still in Seattle)

P.S. You may have heard that director Stuart Townsend has made a movie about the protests called "The Battle in Seattle." It's supposed to be based on true events...but we'll see how true it really is...

Taken in Seattle12-09-07 during the filming of the film:
I just saw that it will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 6-15) and I've heard that it will be released broadly around....November 30th, 2007. Many folks recognize that this means our little piece of history will be spotlighted again for a brief moment in time, depending on how well the film does. I've heard of some great plans to reclaim the voices of those actually here to tell the true history of those days and to bring the multitude of globalization issues back into our discussions. Hopefully the arrestees will be announcing our collective donations at about the same time.

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INFO for ARRESTEES
(those arrested mid-morning on December 1, 1999 at Seattle's Westlake Park)

If you are one of the 175 arrested in this situation and you haven't already turned in your forms, please download the two files below and send the claim form in by AUGUST 28th, 2007.

Notice of the lawsuit: www.zoopla.net/viewFile.php?fid=4044
Claim form: www.zoopla.net/viewFile.php?fid=4045

DO NOT DELAY!

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ALSO, let me make a pitch to Westlake arrestees:
Let's join together and put some or all of our settlement money back into our movements.

A small group of arrestees has put together a preliminary proposal that we'd like you to consider about how we can magnify the impact of our giving (including hooking up some matching funds.) From conversations with other arrestees, I know many of us do plan to donate most or all of our settlement money (after taxes) to our communities and to further the work we that brought us to Seattle in the first place in 1999. This proposal provides a forum for us to figure out how to collaborate on that. I invite those who receive settlement funds to consider participating.

We'll try to send the proposal to anyone who makes a valid claim to the settlement dough but, in case we miss you, please email me (can@drizzle.com) or wtosettlement@gmail.com if you are interested in this initiative. Look for this in your email soon. (If you got this first email from someone besides me, we probably don't have your email so be sure to drop us your current email address so we can include you.)

Again, let's use these funds to continue the work we began in 1999! Even if you don't plan to pool your funds with us, we'd love to know what other initiatives you use the settlement to support.

In solidarity,
Erica
Jane WTO #890
can@drizzle.com
206-568-7110

PS. WESTLAKE ARRESTEES: DON'T FORGET to DOWNLOAD and FILL OUT the PAPERWORK by August 28th!!!!

FYI:
Sent by attorney Tyler Weaver on May 30, 2007 to a listserve of arrestees (but only a few folks are still on it after 8 years):

Only Westlake arrestees have access to this list. If forwarding this to others in the community, please make sure the message contains no sensitive legal communications.

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Attention all --

I am pleased to finally be able to send you the official, court-approved notice of the settlement and the claim form for the recent settlement on behalf of those arrested on December 1, 1999, in Westlake Park. These documents are being sent to every person for whom we have a street address, and are also attached in .pdf format. [see download links above]

The notice describes in detail the settlement, the process for any objections and submitting claims, and the various deadlines. Hopefully all of your questions are answered there. If not, there are several avenues, as listed in the notice of the settlement, for you to ask questions and receive answers. If you were arrested at Westlake Park on December 1, 1999, the deadline for returning your claim form is August 28, 2007. There's no reason to wait that long, however.

I should also note that the settlement does not provide for any funding of non-profits or future protest or educational activities. However, if anyone wants to pool all or a portion of their settlement funds for a collective action, you can email either wtosettlement@gmail.com, or can@drizzle.net for more information, and to express your interest and/or participate in the planning process. This is completely and totally voluntary and is not part of the settlement, nor a condition to anyone's participation in the settlement. I merely include this information in the event anyone is interested in banding together.

If you know of anyone else who was arrested at Westlake Park, please forward this message and the attachments to them as soon as possible.

Tyler Weaver
Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP.

posted in Queer-Radical Social Workers/Activists - 0 replies

ICP 14 is now available--Please share this news with your friends

Ron — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 15:55:40 GMT

Dear Friends of the International Carnival of Pozitivities (ICP):

The 14th edition of the ICP is now available at the blog Straight, Not Narrow at the following link:

http://straightnotnarrow.blogspot.com/2004/08/welcome-to-14th-edition-of.html

This edition includes original artwork from HIV+ Colombian artist Farid de la Ossa, an original Spanish-language poem with translation by Mexican poet Jeannette Clariond, a video blog from the American comic ANT at his ANT Colony and a spoken-word video from my friend and 1 Giant Leap collaborator Rich Ferguson of Los Angeles, CA. Other posts address recognizing alcoholism within the HIV/AIDS community, as well as other thought-provoking articles about living with HIV/AIDS. We have a number of returning contributors as well as new participants. Please take a few minutes to visit and bookmark this edition so that you can enjoy it at your leisure over the next month.

Please visit the ICP homepage to learn more about this project and how you can contribute at the following link:

http://internationalcarnivalofpozitivities.blogspot.com/

We are now accepting submissions for edition 15 to be hosted at the blog Living Mindfully with HIV. Please consider contributing your original artwork, poetry, news, personal accounts, short stories, and video or music files for the next edition. The more of you who actively submit your articles, the more I will be able to identify and solicit new participants for this project.

I hope that you will join the growing community of contributors and hosts for this important international forum for genuine voices of AIDS and allies. Please note that we are still seeking hosts for our November, 2007, edition and for all editions beyond December, 2007. If you are interested in hosting the ICP, please email me at ron(dot)hudson(at)verizon(dot)net and I will make the process for you as painless as possible. Return hosts are welcome!

If you have a blog, please feel free to post a notice about the availability of this edition. Also, please share this note with your friends. We need to involve as many people as possible. I really appreciate all of the links that you have added for the ICP in your blog sidebars and would encourage any of you who have not yet done so to consider adding a permanent link to the ICP to your blog.

TO BE ADDED OR REMOVED FROM THE ICP MAILING LIST

If you would like to be added to or removed from the ICP mailing list, please email me with either the word REMOVE or SUBSCRIBE in the subject line of the email and I will ensure that your desires are followed. This email list is confidential and will not be shared with anyone. All correspondence is handled using blind copy so that your identity will be protected.

Peace to you and yours.

Ron Hudson

posted in Queer-Radical Social Workers/Activists - 0 replies