La lucha sigue

11/8

Robert Brashear, Juan Gonzalez, Lupe Ramsey, Ann Garvin

Different schedules make for a two shift meeting with session members. After Stephen W and Pat, we’ve got a good agenda for next week. But after a meeting with Don, I feel very discouraged. Aware of all that hasn’t been done, needs to be done. Especially with the building. 

Going tonight to see Noche Flamenca at the Joyce. The first chance I’ll have to see scenes from the flamenco Antigone I’ve been watching them develop for months.

11/10

Don has brought a stage manager to check out the gym for a potential rental. Unfortunately, there’s too much echo in the gym for that to work out.

Work hard on a to do list for Leila and Charles for the week.  Concrete ways to move forward, deal with the lingering issues so well articulated by Don, including a dangerously insecure window on the north mezzanine.

The Rev Coms are everywhere hard at work on reaching out and building turnout for Saturday’s Avakian/West dialogue. They’ve made a very big investment in  labor in seeking a public legitimation of their leader and his analysis of our current time. I remain puzzled and intrigued by the Cornell West connection. Anxious to see what will come out.

Tonight is the Dos Pueblos fall gathering. The Upper West Side group that started as a Nicaragua solidarity group in the ‘80’s and has stayed faithful ever since as a sister city group. Most recently, they’ve been successful in connecting Upper West Side youth with their peers in Tipi Tapa. Many from the Lab School, where my son Nate went.

The guest for the evening is Juan Gonzalez, a founder of the Young Lords,(http://www2.iath.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifestos/Young_Lords_platform.html a journalist  with the Daily News and co host with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now on WBAI. http://www.democracynow.org/?gclid=Cj0KEQiAypGjBRCPme6jmqu3gZsBEiQA8NAiIGJkO2CtvH4TRC-YXKIBz1t6oT6sw17xKwmFUXNP0CkaAoXB8P8HAQ&utm_campaign=brand&utm_medium=ppc&utm_source=google&utm_term=democracy+now) His most recent book is Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1HBnMlIt-UF0-QVOlkjiBwLv86x86XtNsH3htc2r8f80/edit) Before the formal presentation begins, Juan spends time in focused and intense dialogue with the young students.That’s where the attention should go, much more than with us aging progressives. 

Juan Gonzalez with students

During his presentation,. Juan made the following points:

1.     The three pillars of news and information are the commercial press, the dissident press and the ethnic/minority press. All three are needed to understand and be informed as to what is going on.  

2.     For last 50 years, the United States  has wrestled with what to do with Latinos

3.     Since World War II, the Third World has come to the First World. The colonies have come to the empire.

4.     In 2006 march/April saw the largest demonstrations in  US history. Immigration, largely ignored by mainstream press.

5.     The real issue for most immigrants is not citizenship but the right to work in peace . Most want to return to their own countries.

6.     Latin America right now is a shining light in the world. True peoples’ movements are actually have won and are winning.

In the question and answer period, Juan spoke of the new canal being built by China in Nicaragua.But Hugo had a very different perspective. An example of danielismo, not sandinismo.

Juan Gonzalez and Hugo

The night winds down with food and dancing. Good to feel connected to Nicaragua and Nicaraguans again. And even met a Nica woman named Indiana who runs a bookstore, the unoppressive non-imperialist bargain bookstore. (http://unoppressivebooks.blogspot.com/

Indiana and Arcadia

La lucha sigue.