May Day Knoxville 2016

Celebrate International Workers Day in Knoxville, Tennessee on Sunday, May 1ST 2016.

Put the capitalists in their place.

Rally at W. Fifth and Richards, 2:00 PM - March through the Old City to fascist Duncan Federal Building, conclude in Market Square.
Form March Action Committee and Grievance Committee
4:20 PM - March to Federal Building and voice grievances.
(Route: W. Fifth to Gay Street, to Cumberland, to Cumberland/Locust)
After grievances, march to Union Avenue to Market Square

#OccupyMarketSquare - Inform the capitalists of the logic of Socialism.
Invite them to the revolution!

Afterword: Meet at the People's Public House for post-action festivities and recap.

212 W. Magnolia Ave,  Knoxville, TN 37917

(Covered overnight shelter across the street)

Please show your solidarity with the victims of capitalism hit harder than you.  Buy a comrade a drink or a meal.

Green vehicles welcome to park in the gated lot pictured above.

 Join in solidarity with the urban pioneers of Rogerostan!

Thank you Knoxville Mercury for helping spread the word!

Update - Bitter Clingers Take Another Life: Knoxville

The bitter clingers are at it again. Twelve-year-old Danny Mayfield was killed by a gun in Knoxville, Tennessee on Saturday night.

On Sunday night, an emotional gathering to honor the life of 12 year old Jajuan Latham. The community came together at Danny Mayfield park, where police say Latham was shot and killed Saturday night.- via WBIR Television

A Knoxville gun ban is long overdue.

Update: The gang unit representative for Knoxville was on one of the fascist talk shows outlining how the police were going to go after gangs. In other words, the police are going to go after the most disenfranchised people in the community rather than finding where all these guns are coming from. Freedom of association is granted by the US constitution but forces behind the scenes obviously want it ignored!

There is no doubt that these guns are brought in from the rich west side and sold under the tables at the Chilhowee Park gun shows in the heart of the urban community. Of course, nothing will be done to those people. The objective is get as many Black men in jail as possible.

Union Made in the New City

Jim Crow is Back

Jim Crow’s Return: Why Are So Many States Getting Anti-LGBT Legislation Now?

Knoxville's true Progressive paper and blog of record, the Knoxville Mercury, has the lowdown.

Also from the Mercury, men of color making inroads in the National Parks Service.

Cassius Cash, the Smokies’ First African-American Superintendent, Aims to Help the Park Evolve

Cassius Cash by Clay Duda

Union Made in the New City

40,000 Verizon Workers on Strike

 Read why in this insightful article, and why Berni Sanders is their best hope.

Union Made in the New City

Black Woman Cast As Herpes

GAP ad: This was nothing compared to what came right before it

How about the role of herpes played by a Black woman?

The diseased white woman of privilege, Mara Davi, is the only named performer and the only one with a speaking role! The strong Black woman (playing the role of the herpes sore) is vanquished and whiteie girl gets to look tough.  IT HAS BEEN RUNNING SINCE 2013!



It is positively bizarre how blind to racism Americans still are in 2016.  For example, this Pantene ad that has been running since 2015:

The white woman of privilege is fully clothed, while the Black woman (Eden Michael) is scantily wrapped in animal skins, dressed like a Las Vegas sex worker.  At 0:11 the white woman of privilege (Klara Vrtalova) drags the woman of Color all the way across the screen!  "Get over here slave girl! Smile like you like it, if you know what's good for you!"



Union Made in the New City

The Corporatism Stops Now

Via @DanteB4u

 

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#DemocracySpring

@rosariodawson marching at #DemocracySpring with organizer @kai_newkirk

Have you heard of Democracy Spring? Probably not if you have been following television news. There is an uprising growing at the US Capitol. The people have had enough of corporate interests running our government. If you want to know more or anything at all, about it, watch the #DemocracySpring page on Twitter and/or follow @DemSpring 

If you are not down with getting a Twitter account, that's cool, you can still watch what is happening on the links without an account. The Knoxville May Day celebration (5/1/2016) will be #DemocracySpring friendly.

Have friends who do not use Twitter? Don't we all! Share the links with them so they can see the news.

Union Made in the New City

Corporate Goon Alert!

 Americans for Prosperity knocking on Knoxville doors today in Gloria Johnson district 13

Americans for Prosperity, a national organization with a Tennessee presence that opposes a gas tax increase, supports a reduction in the Hall tax and seeks paycheck protection laws, will have volunteers knocking on doors today in Knoxville's state House 13th District represented by Republican Rep. Eddie Smith.

When Ogles checked with Rachel Cross, an AFP field director assigned to Knoxville, on where some 20 volunteers would be today, he reported back, "Whatever suburbs are in Eddie Smith's district."

Corporate goons shilling for Smith! Be on the lookout and peacefully get in their way if possible! One good way is to take up their time.  Invite them in, give them a seat and a glass of water, and keep them in one place as long as possible.

Union Made in the New City

Love your Mother

Union Made in the New City

Dr Paul Song "corporate Democratic whores"

Union Made in the New City

Knoxville Community Dashboard on Homelessness

Interesting resources, view the progress

Knoxville Community Dashboard on Homelessness




Union Made in the New City

Another Deadly Building found in Knox County

South-Doyle High:

KNOXVILLE (WATE) – Knox County Schools said South Doyle High’s School’s library is closed for the rest of the school year after asbestos was identified in insulation between the ceiling and the roof.

According to Wikipedia, the school was opened in 1991. Long after the hazards of asbestos were well known.  Former South-Doyle teacher Mike LaSorsa died of mesothelioma in 2011, two months after filing a lawsuit against the school system.  The schools denied the presence of asbestos throughout the trial.  While the revamped school went into operation in 1991, other parts of the school, built as long ago as the 1960s, do have asbestos that the school system still refuses to remove.

UPDATE: The school system has no plans to check further for asbestos.

Union Made in the New City

Vote for Knoxville Permaculture Guild (KPG) Seeds of Change Grant

This is an important group doing important things for the sustainability of our community.   Please vote at the link below and share!

KPG has applied for a Seeds of Change Grant to pay for the remainder of the project. The 50 entries with the most votes will move on to the final judging phase. After that, the pool is narrowed to 24 awards. (4) $20,000 and (20) $10,000. The Seeds of Change grant could pay for the entire project and make a significant impact for the community who utilizes the garden and the East side.

Here is the link to vote. SEEED Community Garden

You can vote once a day until April 18th.

Union Made in the New City

Racism Still Lives in Nashville: Cory Batey Convicted of "Rape"

Vanderbilt Student Convicted Because of His Race

Cory Batey is one of four former Vanderbilt football players charged with aggravated rape and aggravated sexual battery stemming from the June 2013 incident. It took jurors just over two hours to reach the verdict.

The strategy was keep prosecuting until a Black Man is convicted.  Looks like they succeeded.

Union Made in the New City

HUD Recognizes the Racism of Landlords

The General Council for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has finally recognized that prison is racist. Therefore prison records are racist and landlords who discriminate (PDF) on the basis of criminal records are in for trouble.

Specifically, this guidance addresses how the discriminatory effects and disparate treatment methods of proof apply in Fair Housing Act cases in which a housing provider justifies an adverse housing action – such as a refusal to rent or renew a lease – based on an individual’s criminal history. 

More from the same guidance paper - Across the United States, African Americans and Hispanics are arrested, convicted and incarcerated at rates disproportionate to their share of the general population.8 Consequently, criminal records-based barriers to housing are likely to have a disproportionate impact on minority home seekers. While having a criminal record is not a protected characteristic under the Fair Housing Act, criminal history-based restrictions on housing opportunities violate the Act if, without justification, their burden falls more often on renters or other housing market participants of one race or national origin over another (i.e., discriminatory effects liability). 9 Additionally, intentional discrimination in violation of the Act occurs if a housing provider treats individuals with comparable criminal history differently because of their race, national origin or other protected characteristic (i.e., disparate treatment liability).

Progress, with a long way to go. There will be no solution until private property is eliminated.

Union Made in the New City