Politics & Society

May Day in Oakland: Immigrant Rights, Occupy Agitation, and a Tank

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I wake up to the sound of helicopters. Living in Oakland, the city of beautiful rebellion and tragic violence, I’ve long since learned to recognize the distant buzz of police choppers, but I usually don’t hear it before 8 am. Then I remember: Today is May Day! The revolution is starting early today! Okay, maybe not the revolution, but like activists across the country, I looked forward to this May Day as a chance to re-energize and unite the diverse working-class movement now called the 99%.

art

Why Passover is the Greatest Holiday of All Time

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Why Passover is the Greatest Holiday of All Time
more than the fourth glass of wine
in a family that gets drunk off two
more than the smirk you throw
at your older brother
when you recite the tenth plague,
the killing of the first-born
more than hiding the afikomen
in the exact same spot you found it
fifteen years earlier:
behind the closet door,
under the board games,
stuffed inside a box of tissues so old
it might actually be the same box
more than your Aunt Fran
sitting at the head of the table
like the orange on the Seder plate
so natural you didn’t even know
that’s not how it always was
more than your mom
adding a new section to the Haggadah
called the Ten Modern Plagues:
1. Unemployment. 2. War for Oil. 3-10.

Politics & Society

The Quiet Racism that Killed Trayvon Martin: Reflections from Miami

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Before he became the latest and most-Tweeted victim of racial violence in America’s long, dirty history, Trayvon Martin was just another kid growing up in Miami. He was a high school junior, got A’s and B’s in his classes, planned to go to college and become a flight mechanic. His folks were separated, so he split time between his mom’s house and his dad’s. He was just another kid. Just another black kid, that is.

General News

Occupy Oakland at a Crossroads: Rebirth or Self-Destruction?

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Over the last few months, I have been an active, critical, yet ultimately proud member of Occupy Oakland. Despite the sometimes-questionable tactics and lack of much diversity in this working-class, multi-racial city, I believed that Occupy Oakland was still a young movement and would mature into a more solid political force. Sadly, it seems, we still have a long way to go. On January 28, Occupy Oakland’s attempt to take over an unused public building turned into yet another painful, predictable street battle with the Oakland Police Department (OPD), with over 400 people arrested by night’s end. The police’s actions were more brutal than ever, from the tear gas and sound grenades to the unlawful mass arrest that has left many of my comrades still in jail as I write this.

art

Rosh Hashanah in Quetzaltenango

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Mount Tajumulco, Guatemala. tonight i gather with my tribe
to welcomea new year with life & laughter
&the biggest bottle of cheapwine
we could find in Guatemala. we are not at shul
in Crown Heights or Skokie. we are at socialist,
Spanish-language school
in the reddest heart of this highland city
called Quetzaltenango. of the twenty-five students here,
at least ten are of the Hebrew persuasion.

Politics & Society

What Next, Wisconsin? Some Ideas for the Movement

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I’ve never been so proud to rep Wisconsin. More than the Packers bringing the Lombardi trophy back to its birthplace, more than the moment I introduced my boys back in DC to the glories of a cheese curd, the massive uprising to defend workers’ rights that has erupted over these past two weeks in Madison has cemented my Badger pride forever. I’m 2000 miles away from the action inside the Capitol Rotunda, but through text messages, Facebook reports, and (sweet Jesus!) decent coverage from the national media, I feel like I’m just down the block on State Street. While my analysis is secondary to the activists and agitators in the trenches (snow trenches, to be exact), I want to offer some notes on what has made all this so amazing:
The Movement is Growing By the Day – And Shows No Signs of Stopping. Since people first learned of Gov. Scott Walker’s proposed death-to-unions legislation two weeks ago, the protests at the Capitol haven’t stopped.

Politics & Society

Class Warfare in Wisconsin: 10 Things You Should Know

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For most of the last decade, I lived in the crazy, cold, contradictory state that is Wisconsin. I wrote research papers in Madison, performed poems in Milwaukee, walked picket lines in Jefferson, organized student conferences in Eau Claire, led artistic workshops in Green Bay, spoke at my roommate’s wedding in Merrill, and went camping with my future wife at Black River Falls. A big-city kid from the East Coast, I never fully got used to the overwhelming whiteness of Wisconsin – the winter, and yes, the people. But I eventually learned how to wear five layers in February, and that amidst the farms and abandoned factories, there was a working-class people with a strong populist ethic. As my freshman roommate from Wausau once told me, “Josh, I don’t follow politics.