The IndypendenT #240: oCToBeR 2018 • IndypendenT.oRG

WILL nyC SAVe MoM & pop ShopS? p6 noVeMBeR eLeCTIonS p11 SonGS oF ReSISTAnCe p19 We WILL Be heARd TheRe’S A CULTURAL ReVoLUTIon UndeRWAy ThAT BReTT KAVAnAUGh’S ConFIRMATIon CAn’T STop. LIndA MARTÍn ALCoFF, p4 DAVID HOLLENBACH 2 COMMUNITY CALENDAR The IndypendenT

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BOARD OF DIRECTORS: EVERY MONDAY the Iron Triangle declared draconian immigration civics classes for green man Expressionism, the Ellen Davidson, Anna Gold, 6PM–6:30PM • FREE a blight and marked for policies. card holders on the path to power and beauty of F.W. Alina Mogilyanskaya, Ann RADIO: INDY RADIO NEWS lucrative redevelopment, 59 East 4th St., Rm 7W, American citizenship. The Murnau’s unauthorized Schneider, John Tarleton Tune in Mondays at 6pm to the working class of Wil- Mnhtn 24-hour course prepares adaptation of Dracula has catch our new weekly news lets Point face off against permanent residents for the not diminished in the slight- EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: broadcast with hosts Elia gentrifi cation and urban re- MON OCT 15 civics test portion of the est almost a century since John Tarleton Gran and Lydia McMullen- newal for the future of their 6:30PM–8:30PM • FREE U.S. Citizenship and Immi- its original release. Watch ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Laird. livelihoods and community. PANEL: REPORTING ON gration Services naturaliza- it as musicians with Tenth Peter Rugh WBAI 99.5 FM A discussion will follow this IMMIGRATION tion interview. Participants Intervention provide the documentary screening. Journalists and grassroots will explore the Historical score. CONTRIBUTING EDITORS: THRU OCT 21 NEW YORK PUBLIC advocates discuss the Society’s museum and learn VIDEOLOGY BAR & CINEMA Ellen Davidson, Alina Times vary • $79 LIBRARY – SEWARD PARK impact immigration cover- about American history and 308 Bedford Ave., Bklyn Mogilyanskaya, Nicholas THEATER: WHAT THE CON- BRANCH age has had on immigrant government using objects, Powers, Steven Wishnia STITUTION MEANS TO ME 192 E. Broadway, Mnhtn communities and explore paintings and documents WED OCT 24 Fifteen-year-old Heidi ways reporters can amplify from its collection. Classes 6:30PM–8:30PM • $5 ILLUSTRATION DIRECTOR: Schreck put herself through OCT 15–NOV 19 the stories of immigrants are taught in English and PANEL: THE PATH TO A Frank Reynoso college by giving speeches MON, 6PM–7:30PM • $18 a more safely, ethically and are accessible to English POST-RIKERS NYC about the U.S. Constitution. session effectively. Panel moder- language learners. Hope for breaking the brutal DESIGN DIRECTOR: violence of Rikers Island Mikael Tarkela Now, the playwright and DANCE: AFRO-PUERTO- ated by Garry Pierre-Pierre, NEW-YORK HISTORICAL Obie Award-winning actor RICAN BOMBA DANCE W/ founder of the Haitian SOCIETY with a 10-year plan to close DESIGNERS: resurrects her teenage self JULIA GUTIERREZ-RIVERA Times and CUNY’s Center 170 Central Park W., Mnhtn the complex raises new Leia Doran, Anna Gold in order to trace the docu- Tap into one of the old- for Community and Ethnic questions on accountability, ment’s profound impact on est dance and musical Media. OCT 20–DEC 16 bail reform, borough-based DIGITAL MEDIA DIRECTOR: women’s bodies — starting practices of the Caribbean THE NEW SCHOOL WEL- THU–FRI, 3–7PM; SAT– jails, inmate release and Elia Gran with her great-great-grand- during this special class of- COME CENTER SUN, 1–5PM • FREE the persistent inability to mother, a mail-order bride fered by one of today’s most 72 Fifth Ave., Mnhtn EXHIBITION: WAR AND operate a humane criminal INTERN who died under mysterious noted Bomba dancers, Julia PEACE IN LIBERIA justice system, regardless Chelsey Sanchez circumstances. Gutiérrez-Rivera. Classes WED OCT 17 Tim Hetherington and Chris of location. Experts from NEW YORK THEATRE feature live drumming and 7PM–9PM • $6–$15 Hondros’ powerful photo- the CUNY Institute for State GENERAL INQUIRIES: are open to all skill levels HISTORY: MUSIC, RESIS- graphs played an important and Local Governance, the [email protected] WORKSHOP graphs played an important 79 E. 4th St., Mnhtn and appropriate for all TANCE, REPRESSION role in moving the world Mayor’s Offi ce of Criminal SUBMISSIONS & NEWS TIPS: genders. Using music, video selec- to action and ending the Justice and the Vera Insti- [email protected] THU OCT 11 FIT4DANCE tions, news clippings and Second Liberian Civil War tute weigh in. 6PM • $25–$105 778 Nostrand Ave., Bklyn records from extensive (1999-2003). Hondros risked BROOKLYN HISTORICAL ADVERTISING & PROMOTION: PARTY: WAR RESISTERS Freedom of Information Act death to send frontline im- SOCIETY [email protected] LEAGUE’S 95TH ANNIVER- MON OCT 15 fi lings — including never ages of women and children 128 Pierrepont St, Bklyn SARY CELEBRATION 6:30PM–8PM • FREE before released material being killed by the hundreds VOLUNTEER CONTRIBUTORS: War Resisters commemo- PHOTOGRAPHY: LIVING IN — historians Mat Callahan to front pages around THU OCT 25 Linda Martín Alcoff, Sam rates nearly a century of SANCTUARY: AN EVENING and Aaron Leonard tell the the world. Hetherington 2:20PM–3:45PM • FREE Alcoff, Charlyne Alexis, Gino vibrant, cross-movement WITH CINTHYA SANTOS- story of how some of the embedded with soldiers TALK: OSCAR LÓPEZ Barzizza, Bennett Baumer, community building by hon- BRIONES most prominent folk singers fi ghting dictator Charles RIVERA: PUERTO RICO’S Yousef Oussama Bounab, Taylor’s forces and provided FUTURE Pooja Chopra, Valerio Ciriaci, oring activists committed to Documentary photographer of the twentieth century Taylor’s forces and provided Rico Cleffi , Anne Derenne, peace and justice. Cinthya Santos-Briones will were subject to government documentation of the rebels Puerto Rican independence Federico di Pasqua, Renée DCTV share her latest work from surveillance and suppres- shelling civilians. He was leader Oscar López Rivera Feltz, Lynne Foster, Esteban 87 Lafayette St., Mnhtn her ongoing, long-term proj- sion. also targeted by Taylor’s spent 35 years in prison for Guerra, Lauren Kaori ect about undocumented THE PEOPLE’S FORUM assassination squads. “seditious conspiracy” until Gurley, David Hollenbach, THU OCT 11 families living in sanctuary 320 West 37th St., Mnhn BRONX DOCUMENTARY his sentence was commut- Gena Hymowech, Manvi 6:30PM–9PM • FREE in NYC churches. Angelo CENTER ed by President Obama in Jalan, Gary Martin, Lydia SCREENING: THE IRON Guisado, staff attorney at OCT 20–NOV 10 St. Mary’s, 364 E. 151st St., 2017. He discusses the state McMullen-Laird, Charina TRIANGLE the Center for Constitu- TUES & THURS, 10AM– Bronx of the independence move- Nadura, Farid Nassif, For decades, the Iron tional Rights, and Anu 12PM • FREE ment in the context of the Alex O’Brien Nicoll, Brady Triangle at Willets Point in Joshi, Immigration Policy CLASS: CITIZENSHIP SUN OCT 21 island’s ongoing fi nancial O’Callahan, Donald Paneth, Queens has been the site of Director at the New York PROJECT CIVICS COURSE 7:15PM & 9:15 PM • $22 crisis and Hurricane Maria. Dean Patterson, Mark Read, GUTHART CULTURAL CEN- Reverend Billy, Erin Sheridan, an interconnected network Immigration Coalition join Through the Citizenship SCREENING: NOSFERATU Steven Sherman, Apoorva of hundreds of small auto her to discuss strategies for Project, the New-York WITH A LIVE SCORE TER THEATER AT HOFSTRA Tadepalli, Naomi Ushiyama, repair shops. But with resisting President Trump’s Historical Society offers A masterpiece of Ger- UNIVERSITY and Amy Wolf.

VOLUNTEER DISTRIBUTORS: Erik Anders-Nilssen, Eric Brelsford, Chris & Pam Brown, Hank Dombrowski,

October 2018 Joseph Epstein, Ed Fanning, Kim Frazcek, Lew Friedman, Mindy Gershon, Tami Gold, Allan Greenberg, Priscilla AdVeRTISe In The Indy Grim, Zack Kelaty, Michael UnIQUe AUdIenCe • AFFoRdABLe RATeS • peRSonAL ATTenTIon Korn, Jane LaTour, Dave FoR MoRe InFoRMATIon, eMAIL [email protected] oR CALL 212-904-1282 Lippman, Ashley Marinaccio, Saul Nieves, Caroline Rath, The IndypendenT Liam Reilly, and Carol Smith. The IndypendenT 3 IN THIS ISSUE CoMInG FoRWARd, p4 We are living through a cultural revolution in which oCToBeR more and more women refuse to remain silent. Knee To The GRoIn, p5 A woman describes how she survived two attempted rapes. SAVInG neW yoRK, p6 A bill to preserve NYC’s small businesses might fi nally have its day after 32 years. BRIeFS, p7 779 Hempstead Turn- erational event gath- MUSIC: AWESOME Fossil fuels, corruption and a bit pike, Hempstead, NY ers Black memory TAPES FROM AFRICA of good news too.

workers from across (ATFA) ©CHRIS HONDROS/GETTY IMAGES FRI OCT 26 the country to explore Using twin tape decks CLeAnInG Up The IndUSTRy, 7PM–12AM • $5–$10 the purpose and need to unleash rare disco, p8 PARTY: REAL MON- of archives for Black soul and pop releases Laundry workers are fi ghting STERS! lives. Do you or your from West Africa onto for higher wages and safe Freddy Krueger folks have a special the dance fl oor, ATFA’s working conditions in El Barrio may chase us in our or important physical DJ set is unlike any and beyond. nightmares, but plenty photo that you don’t other. Joining ATFA of real monsters — know what to do with? are special guests one FoR ALL, p9 landlords, bosses, The experts with the Dâm-Funk, nicknamed A new movement breeds wardens and bankers Legacy Project will the “ambassador of solidarity among construction — stalk us during our share their knowledge boogie-funk,” and workers. waking hours. Drink and resources with Miranda Maxwell. and dance away the you. ELSEWHERE The GReAT GReen hope, p10

horrors of medical WEEKSVILLE HERI- 599 Johnson Ave., JOAN MARCUS The Green Party’s Howie debt, college loans TAGE CENTER Bklyn SPOILS OF WAR: Hawkins is the only progressive and high rents. Pro- 158 Buffalo Ave., Bklyn July 20, 2003: Joseph left in the governor’s race. ceeds benefi t Mayday MON NOV 5 Duo, a Liberian militia Space, a multi-story SAT OCT 27 6:30PM–8:30PM • commander loyal to the hoW’S IT GoInG To end? p11 organizing center and 8PM–12AM • $15 sug- FREE government, exults after Local and state races to watch in social hub in Bush- gested donation TALK: ANGELA DAVIS fi ring a rocket-propelled the midterm elections on Nov. 6. wick. PARTY: RED SCARE Activist, scholar and grenade at rebel forces MAYDAY SPACE Dress as your favorite writer Angela Davis at a key strategic bridge ThIS IS hoW IT IS done, p12 176 St Nicholas Ave., revolutionary or discusses politics and in Monrovia. Among Progressives could learn a few Bkyln wear something red aesthetics in the era the photos on view at lessons on building power from (and spooky) to this of Trump, #MeToo and the Bronx Documentary their GOP nemesis. SAT OCT 27 fundraiser for the Black Lives Matter. Center starting Oct. 20. 11AM–5PM • FREE Democratic Social- RSVPs open Oct. 15 at TRUTh & ReConCILIATIon, p14 HISTORY: THE ists’ Central Brooklyn nyuskirball.org. After decades, French authorities LEGACY PROJECT: branch. NYU SKIRBALL SHOW & TELL: cop to the torture and execution ARCHIVES FOR VERSO BOOKS 566 Laguardia Pl, Bklyn Rosdely Ciprian and of a young activist in Algeria. But BLACK LIVES 20 Jay St., 10th Fl, Heidi Schreck in What the case is far from closed. Rooted in perse- Bklyn the Constitution Means verance and self- to Me at the New York FRed MCdARRAh’S neW yoRK, documentation, this FRI NOV 2 Theatre Workshop p17 hands-on, intergen- 11PM • $20 through Oct. 21. When the Village was both the edge and the center of American culture. KICKInG IT, p18 Recent memoirs recount the rise, fall and redemption of two of rock and roll’s great radicals. oLd SonGS FoR A neW deSpoT, p19 Guitarist Marc Ribot and friends retool the protest song and take on Trump. TeMpeRATURe RISInG, p20 Michael Moore asks what went wrong on Nov. 9, 2016 and what can we do now.

The GReAT (And SeCReT) 2018 October AMeRICAn BAKInG ChAMpIon, p21 Vallery Lomas won one of the most watched cooking shows on TV. Here’s why you haven’t IndypendenT The heard of her. TRUMp heLp hoTLIne, p22 Our advice columnist answers readers’ questions on travel, America and ORWGs (old, rich,

TED RALL white guys). 4 FEMINISM

#MeToo AFTeR KAVAnAUGh

will work to shame some into continued silence. For sexual assault accusations, one may still wonder about By Linda Martín Alcoff whom are such events as Ford describes forgettable? why there is such a low incidence of reporting. Why For whom are such events a nagging torment? For do victims of sexual violations so often remain silent, e can’t say we didn’t try. Anti-rape whom is it safe to speak up? Anyone? failing to report even serious crimes to the police? activists all over the country mobi- The threats and repercussions faced by Kavana- Conservatives contended that delay is an obvious lized and marched and called out ugh’s accusers are not uncommon outcomes. Twenty sign of malfeasance, an indication of deceit. Any self- senators with new forms of heart- percent of victims say they are not reporting because respecting women would defend her honor immedi- felt testimonials combined with of fear of retaliation, primarily economic or physi- ately, they suggested, if she were truly violated. Any Wdirect action in elevators! With Brett Kavanaugh’s cal. For this and other reasons, incidents of sexual innocent accuser would refuse any further contact or Supreme Court nomination now confi rmed, we know violation, ranging from harassment to rape, are the communication with the man who assailed her dig- we lost the battle, but we found some new allies, new most under-reported form of crime. By conservative nity. Any other sort of behavior on her part is a sure insights, and new methods to win the war. estimates, two out of three are never reported to the sign that the charge is a falsifi cation. What we witnessed is, in a real sense, the “best case police. Those that are reported are very unlikely to Some liberals contended, on the other hand, that scenario” for accusers of sexual assault. The principal result in convictions. In fact, out of every 1000 rapes, silence is the effect of trauma. The crime itself is what accusation against Kavanaugh, as made by Christine 994 will result in no conviction. silences victims by producing a heightened emotional Blasey Ford, was taken seriously. Her charge was in- Do we still need to wonder why victims rarely re- state where fear determines all their actions. vestigated by the FBI. She had an excellent team of port? Or why they or their advocates seek out “un- Both are wrong. Silence and the decision not to re- lawyers. Major media across the country sent inves- offi cial venues” to warn others while maintaining port these kinds of assaults is socially orchestrated, tigative journalists of their own to follow through on their anonymity? Can anyone still believe that non- man-made. It is the result neither of deceit nor the the details of the case, and gave her story serious cov- victims spread false accusations just for the glory of natural conditions of trauma. Children are happy to erage. Both print and digital media solicited opinion being a victim? tattle. Adult women have an innate capacity to speak essays by well-known feminist commentators. The peril faced by Blasey Ford and her family was up for themselves. But this capacity is ambushed by And, of course, Blasey Ford is white, middle witnessed around the country, but the usual scenario social conventions about speaking about our sexual class, mature in age, the mother in a reassuringly is a persecution carried out in the safety of the private lives in detail, speaking against those with more social heterosexual family and a professional whose ex- sphere. A student stops coming to class, a co-worker status than we have, speaking about our own, as op- pertise includes memory functions of the brain. leaves without explanation, a friend stops answering posed to others’ oppressions. She’s even blond. emails. To ensure their safety, and to lessen the scope What made the Senate Committee confi rmation Furthermore, Blasey Ford’s accusations were sup- of the retaliation, victims ghost their friends, their hearings a “circus,” exactly? My suspicion is that ported by other women, women she did not know families, their own public lives. They delete twitter many of those who declaimed this event as a “circus” previously. These women reported eyewitness ac- and facebook, leave jobs, and move. fi nd any detailed discussions of sexual events distaste- counts of similar behavior from Kavanaugh, involv- Because of my scholarship in the area of sexual ful in the public sphere. The topic breaks a taboo of ing alcohol-fueled sexual misconduct that occurred in violence, I’ve had many students come to me over polite speech. The particulars are uncomfortable to close proximity to his male buddies, possibly for their the years, looking for support, suggestions, safety. hear the fi rst time, much less repeated. The inevitable benefi t as much as his. Like Blasey Ford, these accus- Some had their tires slashed, others had their friends images that come to mind are repugnant. The calm ers have all gone on the record in public. Even if their harassed, their doors pounded on at all times of the and rational, civil disputations that many conserva- accounts were not followed up by the FBI, they made night, their phones ringing off the hook. One received tives imagine to have heretofore ruled the nation’s it into the public airwaves. And, Blasey Ford was will- threatening letters from the perpetrator that he would elite institutions cannot share space with these images ing to subject herself to hours of public testimony in be back to ‘fi nish the job.’ of hands passing over bodies, mouths forcibly shut, which a traumatic event in her life would be picked Now that there are more highly publicized cases penises thrust in faces, queues of boys awaiting the apart. She had to face questions from not just a single like Ford’s, the retaliation can be spread to an anon- chance to engage in serial rapes. There is no way to skeptical attorney, as many accusers must face, but a ymous army, an unseen horde of guerilla-style anti- speak about such events with language that will not room full of them. feminist activists. Their motivation is not based on be considered a transgression on polite civility. In sum, we have watched as these accusers — Bla- knowing the accuser or accused personally; rather, Maybe it is natural that no one really wants to be sey Ford, Ramirez and Swetnik — attempted to use they are clearly incensed at the growing power that forced to hear these descriptions of disturbing events. offi cial channels, to play by the book, to ‘cooperate,’ victims—generally women—are gaining in the public But some may also feel they are entitled to live in a to follow the rules. sphere. This power was represented by Kavanaugh in genteel world where ugly and unpleasant stories can And yet, within 36 hours of her accusation becom- his opening statement as a ‘whirlwind,’ a maelstrom be kept out of the room. ing public, Blasey Ford had to relocate herself and of female emotion and confusion that will bring anar- her family from their home because of credible death chy to our hallowed institutions. Continued on page 23 threats. She had to move locations under cover of dark- This may seem like more than ness as if she had threatened a Mafi a crime boss. The a bit of hysteria on Kavanaugh’s domestic-violence support organization that Deborah part, but it is true that this case VIOLENCE AGAINST violence from purchasing fi rearms. Other added Ramirez is affi liated with also had to institute security was indeed at the nodal point of WOMEN ACT’S provisions would help victims of stalking and measures against threats it received, and Ramirez had an intense political and cultural domestic abuse secure stable housing and pre- to take leave from her job as volunteer coordinator at war zone, between political par- UNCERTAIN FUTURE vent evictions based on the acts of an abuser. a Housing and Human Services Department in Boul- ties and political ideologies. At Lee’s bill also bolsters efforts to combat der. Swetnik’s credibility was attacked by a former stake is the future of critical so- While the Brett Kavanaugh confi rmation sexual assault on tribal lands, granting tribal law boyfriend who made a charge against her about a dif- cial policies that will affect mil- hearings and the allegations of sexual assault enforcement access to federal crime databases, brought against him by Christine Blasey Ford ferent and irrelevant case, and as a result, her account lions of lives. And, because this and affi rms native jurisdiction over non-Indian and at least two other women dominated head- in the Kavanaugh case was ignored. The very idea of case was so much in the head- offenders. There are no Republican sponsors lines in September, the 1994 Violence Against gang rapes perpetrated by white male high school stu- lines, it will have an impact on behind the legislation, making it unlikely to pass. Women Act (VAWA) was set to expire. Republicans have expressed concerns dents was castigated as ridiculous. This reminded me the capacity of victims to make As a part of a larger short-term spending of the Senators in 1991 who expressed naïve surprise accusations after a long time has over the fraud and waste of VAWA funds. They package that will avoid a government shutdown introduced a bill of their own in September that at Anita Hill’s descriptions of the pornography scenes passed, on the norms of teen- ahead of the midterm elections, Congress ap- October 2018 Clarence Thomas described to her. Uh huh. age sexual behavior, and on the would extend the VAWA as is for six months, proved a short-term extension to the VAWA on allowing time to negotiate changes. Although the Kavanaugh case involved a rarifi ed ways in which accusations will be Sept. 28. It ensures funding for support services class in this society, replete with prep schools and heard, judged, and discredited in for victims of sexual assault and domestic vio- — INDYPENDENT STAFF auspicious careers, the effects of the debates and deci- the future. This is what no doubt lence receive will continue through Dec. 7. sions that result from it will reverberate on every level motivated the armies of skilled The Democrats say they want VAWA of society. Character assassination of Ford will affect internet trolls who tried to silence strengthened. A reauthorization bill introduced those considering coming forward. Repeated debates Kavanaugh’s accusers. by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas) in July would prevent individuals convicted of sexual The IndypendenT over the length of time it took her to come forward Yet, in the ordinary cases of 5

#MeToo AFTeR KAVAnAUGh

of the handcuffs with my right hand, pretend- HOW I FOUGHT ing to still be cuffed behind my back. After he sat me down on the bed in my darkened apart- MY RAPISTS & ment, I saw my opportunity as he was unwrap-

ping a piece of duct tape to put over my mouth CHELSEY SANCHEZ WON and was not looking at me. By Carol Lipton I kneed him in the groin with my left knee, then grabbed the barrel of his gun with my left he best way to stop rape in our culture hand, till I had it pointed down at the fl oor, would be for men and boys to stop rap- all the while screaming loudly enough to wake Ting. In the meantime, we women have to the dead. He kicked me with a shoe that had be ready to defend ourselves though, depending cleats on it, and started to run out of my apart- on circumstances, it’s not always possible. ment. I chased him to the door and pushed him In my lifetime I have successfully fought out, yelling “Get the fuck out of my apartment back against two armed rapists, one when I was motherfucker!” and slammed the door on him. 25, another when I was 48. I don’t ever want to This time, the entire building and several neigh- have to do that again. bors who heard me scream gave chase. But be- The fi rst was in Washington, D.C., my last cause he had a stocking over his face, I was un- year in law school. I didn’t know him, and he able to identify him. came up upon me in the street brandishing This time, my right ulnar nerve was perma- what appeared to be a 6-inch hunting knife. nently damaged, so I have tremendous weakness He grabbed me by the right arm, which was his in my right hand and drop things all the time. I mistake, because I’m left handed. When he told didn’t realize until I was in the emergency room me to “Shut the fuck up, bitch!” after I offered how badly he had beaten me. I had no insur- him money, I realized his goal was to rape me ance at the time. I waited two years for Crime and maybe kill me. Victims to give me approval for psychotherapy, I was 5 foot 4 inches and weighed about 120 but could not afford to lay out the money for pounds. In that moment I remembered what I therapy and wait months for reimbursement, so read about martial arts, that you attack your I’ve never had treatment. opponent when he is off-center. As we turned to I’ve never had nightmares, but the way my go into the alley, I swung around with my left PTSD manifests is I am extremely aware of any- hand and in midair, grabbed the blade of his one in my space, and I don’t want anyone walk- knife. I was not cut. I quickly managed to get it ing behind me. I jump any time a car backfi res. pointed it right at his heart, about 1 inch away. And I’m on edge and super alert every time I Then I had a split second to make a decision — leave my apartment or go into an elevator. do I toss the knife, or do I stab him in the heart and have his blood gush all over me? OUTRAGED: Nearly 1,000 protesters I decided that I would disarm him. I threw marched on the Yale Club in mid-Manhattan

the knife away, and started screaming at the on October 1 to voice their opposition to ELIA GRAN top of my lungs. Not a single person on Swann the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Street NW came out of their houses to help me. Kavanaugh, a Yale alumnus. He landed a very powerful punch right be- tween the eyes and sent me fl ying in the air, landing me on the street, badly hurting my SPEAKING OUT: Participants in the back. Since I thought he might have a gun, I im- Sept. 30 March for Black Women called for mediately began rolling over, as in basic train- the Kavanaugh nomination to be rejected ing, until I saw him run away. and for the permanent extension of the At the police lineup two weeks later, I met a Violence Against Women Act. 2018 October pair of women from Antioch Law School who he raped. They were very angry that I didn’t kill him. The second time was a push-in intruder to my Brooklyn apartment. He held a gun to my right temple for about 13 minutes, during IndypendenT The which time he asked for my PIN number, pis- tol whipped me when I initially made a beeline for the front door, took my wallet and wedding ring. He handcuffed me behind my back, which hurt like hell. I’m a pianist, and my hands are very important to me. I asked myself what Charlie’s Angels would do, and I wriggled out 6 GENTRIFICATION

deFendInG MoM & pop

By Apoorva Tadepalli It withstood numerous attempts • Sets a cap on security deposits. to overthrow it in the Court of ON A LEASH: A ick of the chain pharmacies plastering New Appeals until it was eventually al- customer and his pooch York’s corners with stock photos of grotesque- • Imposes “prohibitions on landlord lowed to expire in 1963. squeeze into Marni

ly happy people? The Windex windows, wall- retaliation.” The city’s Law Department Halasa’s coffee shop in ELIA GRAN to-wall carpeting and Muzak atmosphere of raised no qualms with SBJSA when Chelsea. Halasa says her fecundating bank branches? Tired of peering “Small businesses are the backbone of our economy the bill was originally introduced. landlord is putting the Sinto the dark, padlocked spaces where your favorite and are major employers,” Councilmember Ydanis Ro- Its alleged illegality only became squeeze on her. butcher, vinyl purveyor, hairdresser used to greet you driguez said in a statement when he reintroduced the an issue in 2009 when it looked and wondering why the place has sat vacant for months? bill in March. “The pizzerias, the bodegas, the hard- set to pass, but it has since become the most frequent Feeling lost in a city that looks more and more like a ware stores, the Jewish bakeries, the Indian restaurants, explanation given for not backing the legislation offered suburb of itself day by day? among many others, have all shaped the character and by the mayor and councilmembers, who straddle a line New York’s small businesses employ more than half culture of New York City that must be protected.” between satisfying their constituents and keeping out of of the city’s overall workforce. They often serve as a fi rst In August, Council Speaker Corey Johnson an- REBNY’s crosshairs. rung up on the economic ladder for working-class im- nounced he would allow a public hearing on the leg- “REBNY has been holding this back,” says Kirst- migrants. And they are part of what makes New York islation. Johnson has expressed concern over the num- en Theodos, cofounder of TakeBackNYC, a coalition New York. ber of vacant storefronts and chain stores proliferating of small business owners, residents and advocacy “These small businesses are run by human be- throughout the city but has so far shirked from taking a groups who support SBJSA. “They have an unlimited ings, with families, with culture, with history in their public position on SBJSA. amount of resources and it’s no secret that in New neighborhoods, connecting to social networks that “This hearing will be an opportunity for stakehold- York City and in Albany they have a strong hold on keep people in their neighborhoods alive,” says Jere- ers and experts to present testimony and answer ques- our elected offi cials.” miah Moss, author of Vanishing New York. “In order tions so the council may fully evaluate the bill on its Given REBNY’s reach, she is less optimistic than to have a healthy city you need to have long-lasting merits,” he told The Indypendent via email, describing Moss that the legislation will pass this time around. stable businesses.” protecting small businesses as a top priority. Corey Johnson received $63,000 from developers Marni Halasa, who runs Red Eye Coffee in Chel- “They should have passed this bill 30 years ago,” when he last ran for offi ce, part of a $500,000-cam- sea with her husband, says that even though her store complained writer and New York historian Luc Sante. paign chest that he shared with other candidates who is small, it is popular because she and her spouse have “There’s a crisis. You have rows and rows of storefronts later helped him secure the speakership in December. created an intimate atmosphere. “People come to see that are just shuttered because nobody can meet rent Nevertheless, Johnson’s offi ce said the speaker is weigh- my husband,” she says. “My husband knows when their that’s being demanded by these commercial landlords.” ing the bill on its merits, not its legality. grandkids are coming to visit them, when their kids are Sante and others have also called for a vacancy tax “What is vital here is that we discuss policy issues graduating, when they’re going on vacation — it’s what that would penalize large landlords for leaving proper- related to the bill,” a spokesperson told The Indy New Yorkers need! You don’t need an impersonal chain ties empty, a practice often carried out in the hopes of on Johnson’s behalf. “Bills are amended during the store. You need someone who knows your name.” luring wealthier tenants. Mayor Bill de Blasio has said process and we are not going to tie ourselves to a The lease on the couple’s café expires this year he supports such a tax but opposes SBJSA. legal interpretation.” and Halasa says their landlord is hiking their rent Nevertheless, Moss and others are cautiously opti- TakeBackNYC wants clarity going forward. well beyond what they can manage: “We feel like mistic that this time the bill will receive a fair pub- “The best thing to do is to get in writing from the we’re in a chokehold. Either we take it or we have lic hearing and that political pressure could lead to speaker’s legal department — is the SBJSA constitution- to leave. It’s really diffi cult because most spaces are enough support on the council to withstand a mayoral al or not? Does New York City have the ability to enact even more expensive.” veto and/or change de Blasio’s mind if it passes with a this piece of legislation or not?” Theodos said. There’s a bill before the City Council that could help simple majority. The Small Business Congress, which also supports Halasa and thousands of small business operators like “It’s wise to support this [bill],” said Moss. “Since the legislation, is planning to boycott the upcoming her but the legislation has atrophied at councilmembers’ the election of [Donald] Trump, we’re seeing a spectacu- hearing. It is convinced that Johnson is not as dedicated fi ngertips for three decades since it was introduced in lar rise in interest in democratic socialist movements. to giving the bill a fair airing as he claims and notes that 1986, largely thanks to the power of the city’s real estate We’re seeing progressivism come back into popularity the Small Business Committee chair, Mark Gjonaj op- lobby. This October, however, the Small Business Jobs and this is a progressive bill.” poses the legislation. Survival Act (SBJSA) is slated to have another chance at Currently, 15 councilmemembers have lined up to Even if SBJSA clears the council, it could hit a passage. sponsor SBJSA but, in 2009, 32 lined up behind it and it dead end when it reaches de Blasio’s desk, should Here’s what the bill does for mom-and-pops: was set to pass. Yet then-Speaker Christine Quinn (who advocates fail to garner a two-thirds majority to is eyeing a bid for Public Advocate) refused to bring the override the mayor. • Requires landlords to notify commer- bill to the fl oor. She cited talking points from the Real “If the mayor thinks he can veto this bill and there cial tenants 180 days before their leases Estate Board of New York (REBNY), which claimed not be a massive blowback to his political career, then expire and inform them whether they the legislation impinges on private property rights and he doesn’t understand New York,” Friends of SBJSA October 2018 will be granted an option to renew and, that it is a form of rent control, which is regulated by the member David Eisenbach told The Indy. if not, provide a valid reason why. state under the 1971 Urstadt Law. De Blasio’s offi ce did not respond to requests for A recent New York Bar Association report con- comment. • Gives small-business renters the option curred with the latter assessment, although SBJSA does of signing a 10-year lease. not impose restrictions on the amount of rent landlords charge, merely binding arbitration. • Enables them to send lease disputes to On the matter of private property, New York City

The IndypendenT binding arbitration. actually had commercial rent control beginning 1945. Indypendent Ad 5x7 06-23-15.pdf 1 6/23/15 1:56 PM 7 BRIEFING BROADCAST ON MORE THAN 1,300 PUBLIC TV AND RADIO STATIONS WORLDWIDE ROOM A Daily Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman and Juan González

By The Indypendent Staff question the integrity of the manage- ment of the New York State Common AMAZON FEELS Retirement Funds by New York State THE BERN Comptroller Tom DiNapoli,” environ- DEMOCRACYNOW.ORG In news surrounding the mega retailer mental groups, who have long cam- Amazon, New York appears to have paigned for DiNapoli to divest pension Tune In Live Every Weekday 8-9am ET been spared the presence of the compa- funds from fossil fuels, wrote to the ny’s HQ2. Meanwhile, on Oct. 2, the ethics commission. DiNapoli’s offi ce BROOKLYN SOLAR CANOPY COMPANY • Audio, Video, Transcripts, Podcasts mega-corporation announced it could says it cleared Fuller of wrongdoing spare the change to provide its employ- after an internal review. Meanwhile, • Los titulares de Hoy (headlines in Spanish) ees a minimum $15 an hour. “This Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s current cam- is what the political revolution is all paign manager is a registered Williams • Find your local broadcast station and schedule about,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) lobbyist. The company, in the midst of who has led a months long campaign seeking regulatory approval from the • Subscribe to the Daily News Digest calling on Amazon to pay its employees state to build a pipeline in Rockaway, a living wage. Queens, has put $100,000 toward Follow Us @ DEMOCRACYNOW Last year, Amazon stoked fears of Cuomo’s re-election this year. Cuomo’s gentrifi cation in New York and cit- friend, former-campaign manager and ies across North America when it an- ex-chief of staff, Joseph Percoco, was nounced it was looking for a location to sentenced to six years in prison on Sept. establish a second corporate headquar- 20 for accepting $300,000 in bribes ters on the continent. Now it seems the from two power companies with busi- company is zeroing in on towns in the ness before the state. 20% discount to readers of Washington, D.C. metro area. Ama- zon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, met with the governors of Virginia and Maryland GREEN ON GREEN The Indypendent last month. The company already has While the state comptroller’s offi ce a growing presence in New York, how- fi nds itself enmeshed in a scandal sur- ever, including a 855,000-square-foot rounding fossil fuel investments, NYC distribution center in Staten Island, announced plans to put $4 billion expected to be fully operational by from its pension funds toward renew- Christmas, and has signed a 15-year able energy by 2021. The investment, lease at Brookfi eld Properties’ 5 Man- double the city’s previous goal, comes hattan West in Midtown that will be after NYC comptroller Scott Stringer home to its fashion, advertising and announced NYC would begin with- web services divisions. Amazon also drawing funds from fossil fuel entities owns the Whole Foods grocery chain, in January. which operates 14 outlets in New York. RAPEand Resistance THE INVISIBLE DIRTY POWER WALL Linda Martín Alcoff Environmental groups sent a letter to Visa and Green Card applicants will the NY State Joint Commission on no longer be guaranteed the opportu- Public Ethics on Sept. 24, calling for an nity to make corrections should the investigation after a report produced lengthy forms they must submit con- “Alcoff’s groundbreaking book draws on the author’s decades of for WNYC revealed that the state’s top tain errors or lack information. Immi- experience as a scholar, an activist, and a survivor.” pension offi cer took a job with Wil- gration advocates describe the policy, Alison M. Jaggar, University of Colorado at Boulder liams Companies after investing public which went into effect on Sept. 11, funds in the natural gas conglomerate. as the latest brick in the “invisible,” “Alcoff’s work is consistently insightful, clearly written, and well argued ... According to the report, Vicki Fuller bureaucratic wall the Trump adminis-

The best book I have read in several years.” 2018 October left her position overseeing the $207 tration is erecting while the president Debra L. Jackson, California State University, Bakersfield billion state retirement fund this sum- calls for one to be built at the border. mer and that same week took a seat Also in September, the Trump admin- on Williams’ board. During Fuller’s istration announced plans to render May 2018 / 280 pages / 978-0-745-69192-3 / paperback / $24.95 $19.96 tenure at the comptroller’s offi ce, the recipients of federal food and housing state pension fund invested over a $100 assistance ineligible for Green Cards. IndypendenT The million in Williams bonds — even as New York City offi cials say such a the company’s stock value sunk by as move could impact the lives of nearly a much as 20 percent. It also used its po- million New Yorkers. sition as a major Williams shareholder Go to politybooks.com and use promo code IND18 to back executive payouts totaling $62 *Offer valid until November 30th 2018. million between 2014 and 2016. “Ms. Fuller’s appointment calls into 8 LABOR

RInSe & RepeAT LAUndRy WoRKeRS FIGhT To end dIRTy LABoR pRACTICeS

By Alex O’Brien Nicoll did not receive any sick days or time off and 15 percent were not provided breaks. MAKING A SPLASH: he crowd gathered in Thomas Jefferson Park in East Harlem on Virtually all workers, 99 percent, have been Union supporters occupy the TYS June 28 was drenched but determined. They huddled under um- exposed to hazardous materials while doing laundromat in East Harlem earlier

brellas, jumped over puddles forming at their feet and covered their job. This has led to roughly a quarter de- this summer. ERIK MCGREGOR their signs with garbage bags to keep them dry. veloping allergies and a fi fth experiencing skin Mahoma Lopez Garfi as, co-director of the Laundry Workers conditions. Often the worst exposure is from soiled clothes that customers TCenter (LWC), brought the crowd together for a rally as the rain stopped. bring in. Garfi as heard workers complain of laundry bags full of blood, bed The protest was a bit of a coming home for the LWC. The group formed in bugs and cockroaches. One worker, he said, “found a dead cat in a laundry 2011 to organize the laundry industry but the numerous laundromats, each bag.” Meanwhile, one in fi ve laundry employees were forced to purchase their with a limited number of employees proved more challenging than expected, own protective gear. so instead the center began to focus on other low-wage, high-immigrant in- Benitez and Juana raised objections over their working conditions to their dustries. Most recently, the group led a campaign to unionize B&H Photo’s employer before connecting with the LWC but these were ignored. Benitez has warehouses. Seven years later, it is back where it originally intended to begin. worked at TYS Laundromat for eight years, after moving to New York from “This is a groundbreaking campaign,” the center’s other co-director, Guerrero, Mexico, Juana has worked there for ten, but neither know their Rosanna Rodriguez-Aran, says. “We’re trying to bring changes to the indus- bosses’ real names. Instead, they call their male boss Roco and their female try. Not just for this group of workers but for everyone.” boss Bena. Juana (who declined to give her last name because of anti-immigrant senti- The pair met Garfi as when he came to the laundromat to gather informa- ment) and Nicolas Benitez, the only two employees of TYS Laundromat in tion for the center’s report. Benitez and Juana fi lled out the survey and said East Harlem, spoke in Spanish through a megaphone. They detailed their they wanted to learn more. They contacted the center again in October 2017 grievances: earning less than the minimum wage, receiving no gloves, masks and their training as activists began. or even toilet paper from their employer, no overtime pay or breaks either. The LWC encourages workers to be union organizers themselves, instead Juana said that she had contracted gastritis while handling soiled laundry. of clients of a staff of professionals. This point is extremely important for Gar- With the help of the LWC, Juana and Benitez have been meeting with other fi as, who himself came to organizing through a LWC campaign while working low-wage workers and labor advocates over the past eight months in the hope at an uptown bakery. While he is now a full-time organizer, he’s found cam- of building a coalition to support their efforts to organize not just their shop, paigns only work when the workers are in charge. but hundreds like it across the city. In the midst of a summer thunderstorm, at “We can’t lead the campaign for them,” Garfi as said. “They have to be in least 50 people turned up to support them. front. They have to build power in their community. They have to build power The rally marked the inauguration of the fi rst organized retail laundromat in the workplace.” in New York, and potentially in the United States. The employees named their As the sun burned away the clouds on June 28, the protesters marched half campaign Awakening, as they intend to be an example for laundry workers a mile down 116th Street, the heart of El Barrio, to TYS Laundromat. Rush- around the city — and potentially, across the country — to collectively bargain hour commuters held their fi sts in the air and honked their horns in a show of with their employers. support. The march entered the laundromat and snaked between the washing There is virtually no union density in the non-industrial laundry fi eld. The machines, startling customers and one of the managers. The demonstrators combination of small, diffuse workplaces and a largely immigrant work- chanted until it was time for Benitez and Juana to present their demands: mini- force afraid of retaliation, has made the industry very hard to organize. This mum wage instead of $8.25 an hour they earn, protective gear and breaks on leaves a large void for the non-traditional and worker-led organizing tactics the job. of the LWC. Benitez said he felt a combination of fear and nervousness. “But also a lot The rally followed the release of the center’s “Report on Working Condi- of power.” tions in the Retail Laundromat Industry.” Researchers surveyed 100 laundry A few days later, he and Juana had their hours cut. The center’s legal coun- employees in New York City, uncovering harsh and illegal working condi- sel told the laundromat owner that it would sue if the retaliation continued. tions. The LWC hopes to use the report to lobby the City Council to pass a law Shortly thereafter, the pair’s hours were restored and their demands were met. providing stronger protections for those employed in the 2,000-plus laundro- While the campaign was a success in this instance, the center knows the mats citywide, potentially modeled on the New York Domestic Workers Bill industry is too fractured for it to train leaders at every laundromat in the of Rights, passed by the state legislature in 2010. city — not that that is going to stop the LWC from reaching as many work- “We are looking at different models and are looking to see what we can use ers as possible. for all of the industry,” said Rodriguez-Aran. “Going laundromat by laundromat is going to be labor intensive but some- The study was the culmination of two-and-a-half years of work, aided one needs to do something,” said Rodriguez-Aran. “The alternative is no one by the Urban Justice Center’s Community Development Project. LWC staff handling this and that’s why conditions are so bad.” conducted the interviews for the project, while the Community Development The center is also preparing legislation for the City Council that will protect Project trained researchers and helped to analyze the data. It provides ground- laundromat workers from on-the-job hazards. Garfi as anticipates it will be breaking information about retail laundromat workers, who, the survey ready within two years. LWC organizers have already met with Councilwom- October 2018 found, are 99 percent people of color, 86 percent female and 79 percent im- an Diana Ayala (D-East Harlem) multiple times. They plan to have laundry migrants. Laundry workers often work alone or with only one other employee, workers drive the creation of the legislation. and as a result, 54 percent experience some form of harassment, often from “They’re the experts,” said Garfi as. “They’re the persons who spend half of customers. A quarter of workers who reported harassment had been called their lives on the job. They know what they really need.” racial slurs at work. They are often underpaid and overworked. One in fi ve workers were paid less than minimum wage, according to the survey, while 36 percent of work-

The IndypendenT ers were underpaid or not paid at all for overtime. Almost a third of workers 9 UNIONS

UndeR ConSTRUCTIon #CoUnTMeIn pRoTeSTS pReSS deVeLopeRS To ReSToRe UnIon JoBS

By Steven Wishnia The Building Trades Council has a much more symbiotic relationship with the Real Estate ALL TOGETHER NOW: s the sky lightens on Thursday mornings, construction workers Board of New York, the trade group represent- #CountMeIn demonstrators take part stream down the streets west of Penn Station, men and a few ing large developers, than most unions do with in a sit-in on Park Avenue.

women clad in lime-green and orange T-shirts, blue jeans and their employers because they depend on devel- STEVEN WISHNIA work boots, their hands clutching large coffees. Their hard hats opment to get work. They strongly supported the Hudson Yards project, a are festooned with stickers — including a green rectangle that heavily subsidized mix of offi ces and luxury housing that was the centerpiece Areads “#CountMeIn.” of Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s vision for the West Side, on the grounds that #CountMeIn is a campaign and a movement that began last fall, as work- it would bring them jobs. ers began holding weekly rallies outside Hudson Yards to protest developer They did ally with the tenants movement in protesting Mayor Bill de The Related Companies’ use of nonunion labor on the behemoth West Side Blasio’s 2014 affordable-housing program, as his administration refused to project. Related had signed a “project labor agreement” with the New York use union labor. That alliance has largely faded, although smaller groups City Building and Construction Trades Council, the umbrella coalition for the of union workers such as Laborers Local 79 continue to protest the plan’s city’s construction unions, to use exclusively union labor on the fi rst phase. rezoning schemes. But it refused to do that for the second phase, instead hiring contractors using But Related, whose owner, Stephen Ross, is a former chair of REBNY, has a so-called “open shop” mix of union and nonunion workers. attacked the unions both in the courts and in the press. In March, it sued the At 50 Hudson Yards, a 58-story offi ce tower Related says will be the city’s Building Trades Council and LaBarbera for $75 million, charging that the fourth largest when it’s completed in 2022, union offi cials say it has brought in unions had fraudulently infl ated costs at Hudson Yards, such as by having nonunion laborers, operating engineers and metallic lathers, the workers who workers being paid $42 an hour delivering coffee and lunch. (Most high-rise build the metal frameworks that reinforce fl oors and hold walls. construction sites are closed to outsiders, so delivery people can’t get in.) “It’s terrible,” Abraham Hernandez, 66, a 39-year member of Metallic The legal case parallels a publicity campaign. For the last three years, the Lathers and Reinforcing Ironworkers Local 46, said while doing an informa- Center for Union Facts, an anti-union propaganda outfi t run by lobbyist Rich- tional picket at the site in July. “Carpenters, ironworkers, laborers, concrete. ard Berman, has been running ads, launching websites and publishing news- And they’re paid lower money.” paper columns accusing the building-trades unions of racism, with “bosses Construction workers “have had enough of corporate greed and are fi ght- male, pale and stale” and blaming LaBarbera personally for the subways being ing back by demanding middle-class wages, a fair work environment and ac- screwed up. cess to quality jobs,” Building Trades Council President Gary LaBarbera said The building-trades unions were largely segregated until the late 1960s, but in a statement to The Indypendent. blacks, Latinos and Asians are now a majority of union construction work- Nonunion contractors have been gaining an increasing share of the city’s ers in the city and more than 60 percent of apprentices, according to a 2017 construction industry for years. report by the Economic Policy Institute. The nonunion sector is more than half “In the ’80s, we did everything,” says veteran Laborers organizer Mike Latino and largely immigrant — many of them undocumented, which makes Hellstrom, assistant business manager of the four-local Mason Tenders Dis- them much more vulnerable to wage theft. trict Council, speaking to this reporter for LaborPress in early September. But #CountMeIn began with the weekly protests at Hudson Yards by the rank now, work on smaller residential buildings is almost entirely nonunion. and fi le but has expanded to include larger rallies organized by the union lead- Developers like Macklowe Properties, JDS Development Group, and Two ership. A Union Square demonstration in May centered on the Building Trades Trees have used nonunion labor on high-rise apartment buildings in Manhat- announcing their endorsement of Gov. Andrew Cuomo. tan and Brooklyn. At JDS’s 111 West 57th Street, an 82-story tower where Their tone has gotten more militant. In August, 37 people were arrested in apartments start at $18 million, workers were paid as little as $15 an hour and a sit-in on Park Avenue across from the National Football League headquar- the general contractor was indicted in May for allegedly cheating more than ters. (The connection: Related’s Stephen Ross owns the Miami Dolphins.) But 500 employees. the protests, like street demonstrations in general, are still symbolic. Related is now trying to use nonunion labor on large commercial buildings If the unions were to try to stop work at Hudson Yards, that would likely in Manhattan, the industry’s most solidly union sector. “Commercial con- run afoul of federal laws against “secondary boycotts,” which prohibit unions struction is our bread and butter,” says Hellstrom. Over the last fi ve years, he from going on strike against employers they don’t have a direct dispute with. says, anger among rank-and-fi le workers has reached “a boiling point.” In May, Related fi led a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board A spate of fatal accidents increased that anger. In 2015, 25 construction after members of Steamfi tters Local 638 briefl y walked out to demand that the workers in the city were killed on the job; in 2016, 21 were. More than 90 per- developer use union sheet-metal workers. cent of them were nonunion workers, according to the New York Committee Union members see Related’s actions as a war on working people’s right for Occupational Safety and Health. to make a decent living. “My goal is to breed solidarity,” Laborers Local 79 2018 October On nonunion jobs, former workers say, they often don’t have basic safety member Justin Badagliacca, 36, said during a rally in March. “These guys protections such as being “tied off” with a harness to restrain them if they want their employees to live in fear, so they can’t say, ‘I don’t want to do this, fall. “Open shops” are also dangerous, union offi cials say, because nonunion it’s unsafe.’” workers generally don’t get the safety training union apprentices do. “I think they want the title of ‘the guys who took down New York City Large developers have historically been willing to pay extra for union la- unions,’” he added. IndypendenT The bor because they get the job done faster and better, but the open-shop model revolves around using union workers for more skilled tasks and nonunion to save money on others. Building-trades unions also see it as a divide-and-con- quer tactic. “It’s not about saving nothin’. It’s about breaking us,” Mason Tenders District Council business manager Bobby Bonanza told a Times Square rally in April. 10 POLITICS

LAST MAn STAndInG hoWIe hAWKInS IS The onLy pRoGReSSIVe LeFT In The GoVeRnoR’S RACe. BUT IS hIS pARTy STILL ReLeVAnT?

By Peter Rugh have been elusive over the past 34 years. Party members currently hold roughly 150 out of the MAN WITH A MESSAGE: owie Hawkins is running for governor but that’s not why 511,000 elected offi ces that exist in the United Howie Hawkins wants Cuomo’s left- he’s here. That’s what the retired UPS worker in the dark States. For his part, Hawkins has run for city wing critics to vote for him as their “plan

gray suit tells the crowd of about 40 people who assembled council and mayor in Syracuse, for county ex- b” now that Nixon is out of the race. ERIN SHERIDAN to mark the seven year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street on ecutive, state comptroller and thrice for gover- Sept. 17 in the place where it all went down. nor — all to no avail. H“I’m here because I’m a veteran occupier,” says Hawkins, who helped While he is critical of both Democrats and Republicans, Hawkins re- organize a parallel encampment in Washington, D.C. in 2011. serves his strongest disdain for the Working Families Party (WFP), a rival Would the lifelong activist have been on hand at Zuccotti Park if he third party with ties to labor unions and community-based organizations weren’t running for offi ce? Hard to say. The race is what brought the Syra- like Make The Road New York and New York Communities for Change. cuse native to New York City to begin with and, as he prepared to zig-zag Where the Greens reject any relationship with the Democratic Party, WFP his way campaigning across the state from Manhattan to Buffalo, it was regularly alternates between competing against establishment Democrats certainly on his mind. The large stack of green pamphlets he’d stowed on a and supporting them, depending on circumstances. nearby marble bench testifi ed as much. In 2014 WFP backed Cuomo in the primary and the general. Follow- Nevertheless, Hawkins, who dropped out of Dartmouth College just shy ing the election, Cuomo rewarded his labor allies by signing into law a $15 of graduation in 1977 because didn’t want to wind up a paper pusher for the minimum wage. This year WFP backed Nixon in the primary along with rich, addressed the crowd in language more of protest than politics. “You progressive challengers who knocked off seven pro-corporate Democratic never know when you start something that it’s going to be the event that incumbents in the state Senate. On October 3, WFP’s central committee changes history,” he said, refl ecting on Occupy’s fi ght of economic equality voted to replace Nixon with Cuomo as their candidate in November to en- and comparing it to movements he participated in as a young man — Civil sure the 50,000 votes need to maintain their ballot line in New York State Rights and the anti-Vietnam war effort. “Don’t give up, keep agitating and for the next four years. we will make progress.” “The thing Working Families is afraid of most is being accused of split- That’s essentially Hawkins’ motto. The 65-year-old retired Teamster is ting the Democratic vote and a Republican getting elected,” Hawkins says. making his 22nd bid for elected offi ce. So far he is zero for 21. But now that He has fewer qualms about that. Marcus Molinaro, the Republican guber- the hullabaloo surrounding this year’s Democratic primaries has died down, natorial candidate, “may be marginally worse than Cuomo but he can’t do he is hoping larger swaths of New York beyond the limited group here in any really bad things cause he’s got to deal with a Democratic Assembly and Zuccotti will start paying attention. In a year where Democratic voters have shown a keen interest in ruffl ing the feathers IS IT BETTER TO WORK INSIDE OR of the establishment, Hawkins is the only pro- gressive left standing in the New York gover- nor’s race. OUTSIDE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY? He has a message for the half million people who voted for Cynthia Nixon, Gov. Andrew OR DO BOTH? Cuomo’s defeated left-wing challenger in the Sept. 13 Democratic primary: “I’m you’re Plan B.” probably a Democratic Senate. So relax. Vote for who you want.” Hawkins has crafted a platform that is in some ways more sophisticated Hawkins and the Greens want as many Democratic voters to come to than Nixon’s. For instance, when it comes to rent regulation, Nixon called their side as they can get. He accuses WFP of compromising its values in for universal rent control but said nothing about the Urstadt Law, which order to secure infl uence in the Democratic Party and argues Cuomo is more grants lawmakers in Albany, many of whom come from Republican districts likely to notice Green Party votes since they count against him: “If you vote upstate and receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contribu- for Cuomo, even on the Working Families side, you get lost in the sauce if tions from downstate developers, a say in New York City’s rent regulations. you’re a progressive. He’ll take it as a mandate for what he’s talking about Hawkins would give the city home rule when it comes to rent law. cause you voted for him.” His platform also goes a few steps further than Nixon’s or that of any of This argument helped Hawkins garner nearly 5 percent of the general the other high-profi le progressives in New York of late who have identifi ed election vote when he last ran for governor in 2014 following on the heels as socialists and run on the Democratic line. of Zephyr Teachout’s surprise showing that year when she tapped into anti- “Their idea of socialism is basically old-fashion liberalism,” he tells me. Cuomo discontent and won 34 percent of the Democratic primary vote and “I haven’t heard a proposal from any of them saying, ‘We want a public half the counties in the state. bank or public energy or partial socialization of any damn thing.’ They’re Hawkins says his 2014 vote total helped subsequently force Cuomo’s hand not talking about a new economic system. They’re talking about social on imposing a permanent ban on fracking and freezing plans to tie teacher programs, which socialists support, but the difference between us and the evaluations to student test scores — two issues that riled liberal voters that October 2018 liberals is we really mean it and the system really can’t get it. That’s why year. He hopes to catch a similar tailwind this year following Nixon’s spir- our slogan is ‘demand more.’” ited primary run. Hawkins helped found the Green Party in 1984 with the aim of taking the But to what end? energy of social movements and transferring it to the ballot box. Many have Before Bernie Sanders’ presidential run, choosing between triangulating sprung up since — global justice, anti-war, climate, Occupy, Black Lives centrist Democrats and doomed third-party protest candidates was, with Matter, #MeToo — yet the Greens have secured few ticks in the W column. few exceptions, the best the left could hope for from electoral politics. Since Hawkins says the Greens’ tactic has always been to get a grip on power

The IndypendenT through down-ballot races and rise from there, though even local victories Continued on page 16 11 MIDTERMS

SWInG ThIS WAy ny RACeS CoULd deTeRMIne hoUSe oF RepS oUTCoMe

By Indypendent Staff 19TH CONGRESSIONAL THE ANA mAriE COx riCH LOWrY LEft riGHt emocrats need to gain DISTRICT CHALLENGER: JOSH bArrO HOSt & CENtEr 23 seats in November John Faso vs. Antonio to regain control of the Antonio Delgado Delgado is Wednesday, november 7, 2018 • 8pm House of Representa- The 19th Congressional running against tives. If they succeed, District, which covers incumbent KCRW is taking Left, Right & Center on the road - just in time for the 2018 midterm elections that theyD can launch multiple investiga- the Hudson Valley and Republican INDIVISIBLETHEFIGHTISON.COM Josh Barro Rich Lowry Ana Marie Cox will decide which party controls Congress. Join , , , and a host of tions into the Trump administration’s Catskill Mountains, John Faso in a luminaries from across the political spectrum for a rollicking examination of the issues confounding our misdeeds and make the next two voted twice for Obama, congressional country. Imagine the most intensive, in-depth political analysis you’ve ever experienced - only fun! years quite miserable for the President. then went for Trump district that LRC Live - because you have decisions to make. Whether this happens could turn on in 2016. It’s never been covers the the outcomes of several races in New represented in Con- Hudson Valley tICKetS avaIlable at tiCkEtmAStEr.COm and tHE tOWN HALL bOx OffiCE (M-S 12-6pM) York State where Democratic challeng- gress by someone who and the Catskill ers are locked in tough battles with pro- was non-white but that Mountains. 123 W 43rd St NYC | tHEtOWNHALL.OrG Trump Republican incumbents. could change this year. ConneCt: @tOWNHALLNYC Antonio Delgado won a seven-way pri- 2ND CONGRESSIONAL mary in June and polls show him in a DISTRICT neck-and-neck race with incumbent Re- Peter King vs. publican John Faso. A former Rhodes Liuba Grechen Shirley Scholar and lawyer from a half-Black, A pro-Trump immigrant basher and half-Hispanic working class family in virulent Islamophobe, Peter King Schenectady, Delgado has called for a has held his congressional seat along public option for Medicare that would Long Island’s South Shore for a quar- allow anyone who wishes to join the ter century. His district went for program to do so. Trump by nine points in 2016 after Yet, this race has increasingly be- voting Democrat in the fi ve previous come about race. Delgado fi nds him- presidential elections. self under attack from Faso for his His opponent Liuba Grechen Shir- past a decade ago as an obscure rapper ley, a 37-year-old mother of two, is named AD the Voice whose discogra- half King’s age and hopes to ride a phy rails against white supremacy, blue wave of anti-Trump sentiment poverty and systemic racism. “[He] to victory over King. Grechen Shirley denigrated our nation and the free en- founded a Long Island chapter of Indi- terprise system,” Faso complained in a visible, a liberal grassroots group, af- New York Times editorial. ter Trump’s election. She tried to fi nd Delgado has refused to apologize. a candidate to run against King before having an epiphany: “I was waiting 24TH CONGRESSIONAL for the right person to run against DISTRICT him,” Grechen Shirley told the New John Katko vs. Dana Balter York Times, “and a few months later, Hillary Clinton won this district by I realized I was that person.” four points. Running on a platform of Refusing to take corporate money, support for Medicare for All, the elimi- Gretchen Shirley raked in $700,000 nation of cash bail and moving towards in individual contributions by August, 100 percent clean energy, Syracuse Uni- more than the combined total of King’s versity professor Dana Balter won her fi ve previous Democratic opponents. primary in June over an establishment She’s running the same kind of inten- opponent backed by the national Dem- sive door knocking campaign that Al- ocratic Party. She now fi nds herself go- exandria Ocasio-Cortez used to knock ing up against John Katko, the district’s 2018 October off Queens Democratic Party boss Joe Republican representative since 2014. Crowley in their June primary. Gretch- Balter trailed Katko by 15 points, ac- en Shirley made headlines earlier in cording to an August poll. However the summer when she successfully ap- in early October she reported she had pealed to the Federal Election Commis- raised $1.5 million in the third quarter IndypendenT The sion to be able to use some of her cam- of the year from more than 40,000 in- paign funds to pay for child care so she dividual donors, ensuring she can run a could spend more time campaigning, a strong race all the way to the fi nish line. fi rst for any candidate. If elected, she says she will make access to affordable childcare one of her top issues. 12 13 MOVEMENT BUILDING GARY MARTIN

versial issues of public importance and to do so in a manner that was honest, equitable and balanced. With that pesky rule out of 2010 the way, right-wing talk radio takes off with Rush Limbaugh and MONEY EQUALS FREE SPEECH legions of imitators delivering a daily dose of vitriol to millions By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court rules that laws regulating cor- of Americans. porate campaign donations are illegal because they violate the free speech rights of said corporations. The ruling ushers in an unprec- THE LONG GAME edented era of big money infl uence over elections. 1991 WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE REPUBLICANS’ RISE TO POWER CLARENCE THOMAS A conservative ideologue with little judicial experience, Clarence 2010 Thomas sees his already shaky Supreme Court nomination almost MID-TERM DISASTER go down in fl ames when faced with a credible allegation of work- With the generous backing of billionaires like Koch Brothers, a place sexual harassment by Anita Hill. Republicans, led by Orrin conservative rebellion against Obama and the evils of “big govern- Hatch, rallied to Thomas’s cause, trashing Hill as delusional and ment” yields a massive win in the 2010 midterm elections for Re- suffering from “erotomania.” Thomas’s nomination was approved publicans who regain control of the House of Representatives and By John Tarleton by a 52-48 vote with the help of “Yes” votes from 11 male Demo- numerous state legislatures. Republican-dominated state legisla- 1979 cratic senators. tures take the results of the 2010 Census and use it to blatantly ger- ooking back at the history of how the Republican Party A FAITHFUL MARRIAGE rymander state and congressional districts in their favor ensuring has gained so much power over the past half century Christian evangelicals have been averse to participating in the “fall- that only a “blue wave” election could displace them from power. and used it to move a deeply reactionary agenda, two en world” of politics for much of U.S. history. Rev. Jerry Falwell 1993–2001 conclusions leap to mind. changed that. Channeling the post-’60s cultural grievances felt by THE STEALTH REPUBLICAN The fi rst is that we’re in deep trouble and the end many conservative churchgoers, the silver-tongued Falwell founded The Republican-led march to the right in this country has received 2013 Lgame is coming into view. The ultimate Republican goal is to erase the Moral Majority in 1979. It played a key role in moving the plenty of help from Democratic Party enablers, none more so than THE END OF RACISM? all the progressive gains of the 20th century from civil rights for Republicans to the right on social issues and in electing Ronald Bill Clinton. Coming into offi ce in 1993 following 12 years of Re- The Supreme Court strikes again gutting the key protections of the historically oppressed groups to New Deal economic reforms and Reagan to the White House in 1980 The group boasted four mil- publican rule, Clinton working in cahoots with congressional Re- 1965 Voting Rights Act with Chief Justice Roberts arguing that the make it impossible for the rule of money and white supremacy to be lion members and two million donors at its height. It dissolved in publicans oversaw the passage of trade deals that decimated the law was no longer necessary because the historic racism that neces- challenged again in the future. 1989 due to fi nancial woes but numerous right-wing preachers have Rust Belt (which fl ipped to Trump a quarter century later), dereg- sitated its existence was no longer with us. Soon after the Court’s The short-term fi x is to vote the Republicans out of power wher- followed in Falwell’s footsteps and evangelicals remain one of the ulated Wall Street setting the stage for the 2008 fi nancial crash, ruling in Shelby County v. Holder, North Carolina and Texas en- ever possible in 2018 and 2020. But that’s only a band-aid. Going Republican Party’s most loyal voting blocs. implemented welfare reform which targeted poor families and their acted voter suppression measures that the Voting Rights Act previ- back to the tepid centrism long favored by Democratic Party leaders children and overhauled telecommunications laws which led within ously prevented them from doing. is a dead-end. So how do we take the surge of protest and activ- a decade to the consolidation of 90 percent of the media in the ism of the past couple of years and ensure that it isn’t a temporary 1980 hands of six corporations. spasm of outrage but the opening salvo in advancing a transforma- THE GIPPER WINS BIG 2014 tive agenda for an inclusive, multi-racial democracy where everyone Former Hollywood B movie actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan ANOTHER MID-TERM DEBACLE can fl ourish? is elected president promising to cut taxes, roll back government 1996 Voter turnout drops to the lowest level since 1942. Republicans re- Ironically, the conservative movement has left us with a gift social programs, deregulate business, pursue a massive military OUTFOXED gain control of the Senate and promptly use their majority to block which is the history of their own example. Ruthless and amoral buildup and embrace causes espoused by newly politicized evangel- The conservative movement’s drive to build a media echo cham- all of Obama’s federal court nominations including his 2016 pick of but also persistent, strategically savvy, willing to do the nuts and icals, above all repeal of the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court deci- ber for its followers accelerated with the founding of Fox News by Merrick Garland to succeed Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court bolts work of building power and undiscouraged by setbacks ex- sion that legalized abortion. The coalition of pro-business tax cut- media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Fox News was placed under the after Scalia unexpectedly dies in February 2016. perienced along the way, conservatives have advanced their world ters, military hawks and social conservatives that coalesced around control of Roger Ailes, a Republican media operative going back view and policies from the margins to the center of our political Reagan will prove extremely durable in the coming decades. to the Nixon years. Ailes reigned supreme for two decades before system. We don’t have 40 plus years to achieve the same but should being felled by reports that he had sexually harassed more than a 2015–2016 draw whatever lessons we can from the past to help us envision how dozen female co-workers. THE RISE OF TRUMP to win the future we want. 1981 After spending years promoting the “birther” conspiracy that WAR ON UNIONS President Obama was not a real American, Donald Trump runs Today’s economic inequality began in the mid-1970s and was turbo- 2000 an openly racist campaign for president and wins the White House 1971 charged when Reagan came into offi ce. After delivering generous A STOLEN ELECTION despite losing the popular vote by almost 3 million votes. BIG BUSINESS GETS tax cuts for the rich and budget cuts for the poor, Reagan declared George W. Bush becomes the fi rst president in more than a cen- ORGANIZED open season on labor unions, one of the pillars of the Democratic tury to win the electoral college while losing the popular vote. Bush Corporate lawyer and future Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell Party. The big moment came when he fi red 11,000 striking air traf- was aided by a 5-4 Supreme Court decision that stopped a Florida 2017–2018 writes a call-to-arms for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urging fi c controllers and had their leaders jailed. Replacing striking work- vote recount that would have likely handed victory to Democrat Al RESISTING TRUMP big business to rally in defense of the “enterprise system” against ers soon became the norm for corporate America. When Wisconsin Gore. All fi ve justices voting to end the recount had been appointed Shattering political norms and leaping into the Washington swamp liberal and left-wing critics. The Powell Memo, as it came to be Gov. Scott Walker sought to destroy his state’s public sector unions by Republican presidents. Bush in turn would appoint conservative he had cynically promised to drain, Donald Trump goes about en- known, provided a detailed blueprint for how corporate interests in 2011, he cited Reagan’s actions as his model. 20.1 percent of justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito to the court. riching himself and his wealthy backers while staffi ng his admin- could engage in a long-term campaign to build public support for workers belonged to unions in 1983, according to the Bureau of istration personnel provided by the Heritage Foundation and the its both its worldview and desired policies. “Strength lies in or- Labor Statistics. By 2017 it was down to 10.7 percent. Koch Brothers political network. Trump adds two more right-wing ganization,” Powell wrote, “in careful long-range planning and 2001 zealots to the Supreme Court while stoking hatred of immigrants, implementation, in consistency of action over an indefi nite period EXPLOITING 9/11 Muslims, sexual assault survivors and the media among others. of years, in the scale of fi nancing available only through joint ef- 1982 The 9/11 attacks are used by the Bush administration to justify the His creeping authoritarianism tests the limits of an already deeply fort, and in the political power available only through united ac- CAPTURING THE COURTS U.S. invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and the massive buildup of a fl awed democracy. At the same time, the 2016 election prompts tion and national organizations.” Founded by conservative legal elites in the same year as young Brett homeland security industrial complex that has profi ted handsomely a fi erce backlash starting with millions turning out for Women’s Kavanaugh’s infamous calendar, the Federalist Society has grown off the “War on Terror.” One of the new government agencies cre- Marches on the fi rst full day of Trump’s presidency. into a powerful network of conservative lawyers that stretches from ated at that time was Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), 2018 October 1973 top law schools, to white shoe law fi rms to the highest levels of a deportation force which has played a key role in carrying out THE POWER OF IDEAS government and the judiciary. It groomed Supreme Court Justices Donald Trump’s war on immigrants. 2018–?? Inspired by the Powell Memo, the Heritage Foundation opens its Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh and is now the gatekeeper A FORK IN THE ROAD doors in Washington, D.C. as the fi rst of many conservative think along with the Heritage Foundation for all of President Trump’s Will the Trump era be remembered as a long slide into 21st Century October 2018 tanks that now exist at the national, state and local level. Backed judicial selections. 2005–2006 fascism? Or will it be an infl ection point when millions of Ameri- INDYPENDENT THE by wealthy funders, conservative think tanks such as Heritage pro- TEMPORARILY DERAILED cans were jarred into action and threw themselves into the long vide a veneer of scholarly credibility for right wing ideology and After Bush’s re-election in 2004, GOP dreams of establishing a per- hard work of building a nation that begins to live up to its promise policy preferences and then amplify those messages by skillfully 1987 manent Republican majority are derailed by the unraveling of the of “liberty and justice for all?” That’s on all of us. packaging their “expert fi ndings” for use by the media. The Heri- NOT SO FAIR war in Iraq, a botched response to Hurricane Katrina and multiple tage Foundation has also played a key role in advising and staffi ng Stocked with Reagan appointees, the Federal Communications scandals. The Democrats regain control of the House and Senate in Republican administrations from Reagan to Trump. Commission rescinds the Fairness Doctrine, a longstanding rule 2006 but do nothing to end the war.

THE INDYPENDENT that required the holders of broadcast licenses to present contro- 14 ALGERIA

The GhoST oF MAURICe AUdIn

By Youcef Oussama Bounab “On the night of June 11 to 12, I was put in the presence of Mau- rice Audin,” Hadjadj recounts. “It was about one o’clock in the morn- bout an hour before midnight on June 11, 1957, Maurice ing. … Audin was in underwear, lying on a board. Pliers connected Audin was at home with his wife and three small chil- by electrical wires to a generator were attached to his right ear and dren at the family’s apartment in Algiers when a dozen his left foot. … I was then taken back to the infi rmary, and for a long French paratroopers broke in and carried the young ac- time I heard the shouts of Maurice Audin that seemed to be stifl ed by tivist and mathematician away. a gag.” A“Look after the children!” his wife Josette recalls him shouting out In 2012, French journalist Nathalie Funès uncovered a document as he was carried down the couple’s stairway. handwritten by Colonel Yves Godard, a former commander in Algiers It was the last time she saw her husband alive. His body has never during the war. The colonel writes that Audin was confused with an- been recovered. other detainee whose killing had been ordered and that Audin was Audin’s disappearance was the subject of widespread coverage in stabbed to death by a non-commissioned offi cer. Godard also notes in the French press at the time and numerous fi rsthand accounts of both the record that Audin was buried in a pit about 12 miles from the city. the intellectual’s brutal treatment and the widespread use of torture Complicating the plot but not its basic conclusion, the French general by French authorities during the country’s bloody, colonial war in Al- Paul Aussaresses later admitted to ordering Audin’s death. geria have since been published. Less than a month after abducting Audin’s arrest, torture and killing is just one instance among many Audin, French authorities claimed that he managed to escape while in during this sanguinary era of French-Algerian relations. During the transfer from one detention center to another. The French government war, two million Algerians by some estimates were interned without never acknowledged the full scope of the violence it deployed to sup- trial, detained and deported to “villages de regroupement” and to press the resistance in Algeria, including the systematic use of torture, concentration camps built by the French army in desolate rural areas. nor has it come entirely clean about Audin’s death, until now. Many were beaten into confessing to crimes they did not commit. Accompanied by a number of historians and journalists on a visit Vidal-Naquet, considered the leading historian of the war, notes to the home of Josette Audin on Sept. 13 in the Paris suburb of Bagno- that the practice of torture affected an uncountable number of people, let, French President Emmanuel Macron confessed to the 87-year-old some “hundreds of thousands,” the majority of whom were civilians. widow that her husband “was tortured and then executed, or tortured In one instance, Larbi Ben M’hidi, one of the six founders of Al- to death, by soldiers who arrested him at his home.” geria’s National Liberation Front (FLN) was captured by paratroop- The admission was the result of decades of advocacy on the part of ers in February 1957, tortured and executed while in detention. That Josette Audin and her children to uncover the truth about the activist’s same month, Ali Boumendjel, a lawyer and activist, was thrown from fi nal days in the face of denials and deception on the part of French the sixth fl oor of an interrogation building. Boumendjel’s death was authorities. In 2009, Audin’s daughter Michèle, also a mathematician, later passed off as a suicide. Gen. Aussaresses admitted ordering these even declined the Legion d’Honneur, the nation’s highest emblem of killings as well. achievement, citing the government’s treatment of her father. In his book The Real Battle of Algiers, published in 1972, Gen. Macron’s acknowledgement of France’s responsibility gives rise to Massu, by then retired, evoked the practice of torture in Algeria a number of further questions concerning other dissidents who met and particularly in Algiers. Speaking with the French newspaper Le the same fate as Audin, if not worse. Monde in 2000, he said that widespread use of torture, while “cer- “This recognition also aims to encourage the historical work on all tainly reprehensible, was covered, and even ordered, by [French] civil those who have gone missing during the war of Algeria, whether they authorities, who were perfectly aware of it.” were French or Algerian, civilians or soldiers,” said the French presi- France’s political leaders have been more reluctant to discuss their dent, who also conceded during a visit to Algiers in 2017 that French country’s brutality in Algeria. It was only in 1998 that the French Em- colonialism was “a crime against humanity.” bassy in Algiers apologized for the 1945 Sétif and Guelma massacre, “It’s really a big, historical turning point for the history of France,” in which French police and colonial settlers killed thousands of civil- said Benjamin Stora, an Algerian-born French historian who accom- ians in central Algeria. In 2007, President Nicolas Sarkozy declined to panied the president on his visit to the Audin family. “It’s much bigger even respond to a letter from Josette Audin herself. than the case of Maurice Audin. Macron spoke of a system that al- The evasion held up until June 2014, when Macron’s predecessor, lowed torture, violence, crimes — a direct responsibility of the state. François Hollande, made it clear that Audin had never escaped but The case of Audin is emblematic, but this touches the whole history died while in detention. On a presidential visit to Algeria in 2012, of colonization.” Hollande recognized, in vague terms, “the violence of colonization” Torture was widely deployed from the beginning of the coloniza- but failed to make any further statements regarding when or how Au- tion of Algeria in 1830 but was fi nally “institutionalized” when, in din died. 1956, a guerilla insurgency began attempting to rout the French from While meeting with Audin’s widow, President Macron announced Algiers, intensifying the Algerian Liberation War, which ultimately that he would be opening up French intelligence archives to historians claimed 1.5 million lives in the North African country. and to the families of those whose bodies were never found. French resident minister and governor-general of Algeria, Robert Audin’s son Pierre, who was just one month old at the time of his Lacoste, was granted “special powers” by the National Assembly to father’s extra-legal kidnapping, told French radio: “From now on, it is suppress the Algerian rebellion. Lacoste assigned Gen. Jacques Mas- necessary to tell the truth and to transmit the documents which will su, commander of the French 10th Parachute Division, to “pacify Al- make it possible to know, for my father and for thousands of others, giers.” Massu entered the city with some 8,000 paratroopers whom he what happened precisely.” gave carte blanche to “establish order by all means” and proclaimed For Maurice Audin’s widow, Josette, many questions remain and martial law. The military intervention only infl amed tensions in the her fi ght is far from over. “How was Maurice killed? What are the city in revolt, haunted by insecurity and suspicion. names of his torturers? What has been done to his body?” she won- At the time, Audin was teaching at the Science University of Algiers dered aloud during Macron’s visit. while preparing his PhD thesis for the Sorbonne in Paris. Although Not everyone in France was in favor of Macron’s declaration. French, both Audin and his wife were advocates of Algerian liberation “Maurice Audin helped hiding FLN terrorists who committed at- and members of the Parti Communiste d’Alger (PCA), a Marxist, pro- tacks,” Marine Le Pen, who heads the National Rally party, formerly October 2018 independence party. Though he had distributed war circulars and had known as the National Front, tweeted shortly after Macron’s visit harbored fugitives, Audin never was directly involved in the fi ghting. with Audin’s widow. “Macron commits an act of division while think- In The Audin Affair, published a year after the activist’s disappear- ing to fl atter the communists.” ance, French historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet insisted that Audin died Le Pen’s father, Jean-Marie, who also led the National Front, due to torture. The book puts forth the witness of Dr. Georges Hadj- fought in a paratrooper regiment between 1956 and 1957. adj, another PCA member and independence advocate, who was also held on the same day in a covert detention center situated in El-Biar

The IndypendenT on the heights of the city. 15 HealtHcare not warfare. HAVEN’T WE HAD ENOUGH WAR? We must speak up now or face new wars in Iran, Syria, or Korea. • Trump trashed the historic Iran nuclear accord, increasing the threat of war • He’s sending thousands more U.S. troops to Afghanistan • He’s escalating U.S. bombing in Syria • He’s making massive upgrades to the U.S. nuclear arsenal while issuing frightening threats to actually use nuclear weapons against adversaries. • He’s threatening military intervention in Venezuela. IT’S TIME TO TAKE ACTION FOR PEACE! Come To A COMMUNITy MEETING! Meet your Brooklyn neighbors. Let’s talk about what we can do to stop out-of-control war spending. We need to put priorities on human needs: schools, healthcare, jobs, decent mass transit, and bold action on climate change. WEDNESDAy NOV. 14TH, 7 PM BROOKlyN COMMONS // 388 Atlantic Avenue between Hoyt and Bond JOIN BROOKlyN FOR PEACE’S WORK AGAINST MIlITARISM AND WAR

From International Publishers ESTEBAN GUERRA

On the occasion of Bea Lumpkin’s 100th birthday

International Publishers

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AT left can dance with the Democrats for hoWIe hAWKInS long without compromising its integrity. Continued from page 10 He views DSA and the candidates they’ve WBAI 99.5FM helped elect as proponents of a weaker 2016, a constellation of groups both new brand of socialism — if socialism at all. WITH HOSTS and old — Our Revolution, Justice Dem- Nonetheless he says he is glad Ocasio- ocrats, WFP, MoveOn, Democracy for Cortez beat Queens Democratic Party boss America, among others — has taken shape, Joe Crowley and concedes that Sanders and ELIA GRAN backing a strong, diverse fi eld of left-lean- other socialists that have run as Democrats & ing candidates in Democratic primaries. A in his wake have made it safe to use the ‘S’ signifi cant number are winning city coun- word without sending voters running for cil, state legislative and congressional seats, the hills — a development that led to the LYDIA though victory at a statewide level has so Green Party declaring itself an outright an- far proven to be elusive. ti-capitalist party for the fi rst time in 2016. The leftmost of these groups, the “Sanders really turned the tide on that,” MCMULLEN- Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), says Hawkins, noting that in the past he shares an anti-capitalist ideology with the had campaigned with “socialist content but LAIRD Greens but has adopted a different elec- without the word.” toral strategy. Interestingly, Hawkin’s political career Pursuing what might be described as is not dissimilar from the senator’s early an “outside-inside-outside” strategy, the days in Vermont. Sanders’ ran on the Lib- group participates in grassroots activism erty Union third-party ballot line for gov- outside of the electoral arena, fi elds candi- ernor in 1972 and 1976 and the U.S. Sen- dates when members decide that they align ate in 1972 and 1974. He never won more with their socialist principles and then runs than 6 percent of the vote before gaining a door-to-door canvassing operations in sup- political foothold as Mayor of Burlington port of those candidates that are indepen- in 1981 after running as an independent. dent of the politicians themselves. Here in Hawkins is still looking for his leg up. He New York, DSA played a key role in this won’t win on Nov. 6 but his ideas might, INDY summer’s primary victories of future con- should voters decide to keep troubling the gresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez status quo. and of Julia Salazar, who won a hotly con- RADIO tested North Brooklyn state Senate prima- ry just four days prior to Hawkins’ Occupy anniversary appearance. NEWS Hawkins poo-poos the idea that the SOME PLACES YOU CAN FIND The IndypendenT BELOW LGBT CENTER MORNINGSIDE HEIGHTS BROOKLYN METRO COMMUNITY QUEENS THE POINT 14TH ST 208 W. 13TH ST. LIBRARY LAUNDROMAT 940 GARRISON AVE. 2900 BROADWAY BROOKLYN BOROUGH 561 METROPOLITAN ASTORIA LIBRARY SEWARD PARK LIBRARY AVE. HIGH BRIDGE LIBRARY TO HALL 14-07 ASTORIA BLVD. 192 EAST BROADWAY 14TH HARRY BELAFONTE 209 JORALEMON ST. 78 W. 168TH ST. 96TH ST 115TH ST. LIBRARY LEONARD LIBRARY 21 FAMOUS DELI HAMILTON FISH 203 W. 115TH BROOKLYN COMMONS 81 DEVOE ST. 29-15 21ST AVE. NEW SETTLEMENT LIBRARY CIVIC HALL 388 ATLANTIC AVE. COMMUNITY CENTER 415 E. HOUSTON ST. 118 W. 22ND ST. 12TH FL. HARLEM LIBRARY WILLIAMSBURG BROADWAY LIBRARY 1501 JEROME AVE. 9 W. 124TH ST. CARROLL GARDENS LIBRARY 40-20 BROADWAY LES PEOPLE’S FEDERAL EPIPHANY LIBRARY LIBRARY 240 DIVISION AVE. MELROSE LIBRARY CREDIT UNION 228 E. 23RD ST. 125 STREET LIBRARY 396 CLINTON ST. LONG ISLAND CITY 910 MORRIS AVE. 39 AVENUE B 224 E. 125TH ST. KAISA’S CAFÉ LIBRARY MUHLENBERG LIBRARY COUSIN JOHN’S CAFE & 146 BEDFORD AVE. 37-44 21ST ST. TOMPKINS SQUARE 209 W. 23RD ST. GEORGE BRUCE BAKERY JERSEY CITY LIBRARY LIBRARY 70 7TH AVE. CROWN HEIGHTS STEINWAY LIBRARY 331 E. 10TH ST. TACO BANDITO 518 W. 125TH ST. LIBRARY FIVE CORNERS LIBRARY 21-45 31ST ST. 678 NEWARK AVE. 325 8TH AVE. SMILING PIZZA 560 NEW YORK AVE. NATIVE BEAN PICTURE THE 323 7TH AVE. COURT SQUARE 36A AVENUE A COLUMBUS LIBRARY HOMELESS EASTERN PARKWAY LIBRARY WANT TO HELP 942 TENTH AVE. 104 E 126TH ST. CAFÉ MARTIN BRANCH LIBRARY 2501 JACKSON AVE. DISTRIBUTE THE INDY? BLUESTOCKINGS 355 5TH AVE. 1044 EASTERN CALL 212-904-1282 OR COUNTEE CULLEN PARKWAY 172 ALLEN ST. MANHATTAN SUNNYSIDE LIBRARY EMAIL CONTACT@ NEIGHBORHOOD LIBRARY BEACON’S CLOSET 43-06 GREENPOINT AVE. INDYPENDENT. THEATER FOR THE NEW NETWORK 104 W. 136TH ST. 92 5TH AVE. FLATBUSH LIBRARY CITY 537 W. 59TH ST. 22 LINDEN BLVD. WOODSIDE LIBRARY ORG. 155 FIRST AVE. HAMILTON GRANGE SUNSET PARK LIBRARY 54-22 SKILLMAN AVE. YORKVILLE LIBRARY LIBRARY 5108 4TH AVE. TUGBOAT TEA MCNALLY JACKSON 222 E. 79TH ST. 503 W. 145TH ST. COMPANY JACKSON HEIGHTS BOOKS CONNECTICUT MUFFIN 546 FLATBUSH AVE. LIBRARY 52 PRINCE ST. 67TH ST. LIBRARY UPTOWN SISTER’S 429 MYRTLE AVE. 35-51 81ST ST. 328 E. 67TH ST. BOOKS OUTPOST CAFE 4TH STREET CO-OP W. 156TH ST. & DEKALB LIBRARY 1014 FULTON ST. LANGSTON HUGHES 58 E. 4TH ST. ST. AGNES LIBRARY AMSTERDAM 790 BUSHWICK AVE. LIBRARY 444 AMSTERDAM AVE. RED HOOK LIBRARY 100-01 NORTHERN THINK COFFEE FORT WASHINGTON WYCKOFF STARR 7 WOLCOTT ST. BLVD. 248 MERCER ST. 96TH ST. LIBRARY LIBRARY COFFEE SHOP 112 E. 96TH ST. 535 W. 179TH ST. 30 WYCKOFF AVE. ALIGN BROOKLYN CORONA LIBRARY 579 5TH AVE. October 2018 FILM FORUM 38-23 104TH ST. INWOOD LIBRARY 209 W. HOUSTON ST. ABOVE BUSHWICK LIBRARY 4790 BROADWAY 340 BUSHWICK AVE. BAY RIDGE LIBRARY HUDSON PARK LIBRARY 96TH ST. . 7223 RIDGE BLVD. BRONX 66 LEROY ST. INDIAN ROAD CAFE SAVOY BAKERY BAGELSMITH 600 W. 218TH ST. 566 LORIMER ST. COBRA CLUB MOTT HAVEN LIBRARY CINEMA VILLAGE 170 E. 110TH ST. 6 WYCKOFF 321 E. 140TH ST. 22 E. 12TH ST. STARR BAR HUNT’S POINT LIBRARY 214 STARR ST. 877 SOUTHERN BLVD. The IndypendenT 17 EXHIBIT

When IT TooK A VILLAGe

Fred W. McDarrah: New York Scenes Thru Nov. 3 McDarrah made the bleak- queens in a line like that can make you re- Steven Kasher Gallery ness of the tenement the star. alize that this is not all that different from 515 West 26th Street Kennedy is there to look any other pageant. solemn. When he was assas- During the famous gay Sip-In, McDar- sinated not long after, that rah photographed men from the Mat- By Gena Hymowech same photo was used for his tachine Society fi ghting for their right to obit in the Voice, changing drink wherever they wanted. Yes, it was red W. McDarrah: New York the meaning entirely. once against the law to be gay and drink “ Scenes” is a nostalgic and The Beat Generation is well-repre- in public. (Can you even imagine?) In strangely current exhibit, cel- sented. A photo of Jack Kerouac shows capturing that moment of the bartender’s ebrating, as it does, the historic him absolutely commanding a room in hand covering a man’s drink, McDarrah work of a Village Voice photog- a godlike way while reading poetry, his captured nothing less than the brazen cru- Frapher less than two months after the pub- hands powerfully outstretched. In an- elty of a backwards-thinking public. lication’s website shut down. (The print other photo, Allen Ginsberg looks directly Being that McDarrah was so closely as- version ended in 2017 with, fi ttingly, a into a camera as he is photographed at an sociated with the Voice, it seems strange McDarrah photo on its cover.) By the time anti-Vietnam demonstration, wearing an not to see at least some of his work as it it died, the Voice was no longer a brand American fl ag hat. The photo doesn’t have appeared in articles. That — and the fact youth idolized, but at one time it defi ned to show Ginsberg shouting. The hat makes that there is a picture of a Chicago dem- New York City cool, and McDarrah was the point: Like Kennedy, Ginsberg wasn’t onstration in an exhibit titled New York a big part of it. In his long career, McDar- scared to criticize America when he knew Scenes — are my only two criticisms. rah, who died in 2007, captured alterna- it was headed down the wrong path, and (Though I like that Chicago picture. It’s a tive culture’s movers and shakers, as well also like Kennedy, that doesn’t make him great photo of protestors expanding into as everyday New Yorkers — from a ran- any less a patriot. Compare this to a pic- the horizon like an ocean.) We could cer- dom group of folk dancers in Washington ture of a young Donald Trump, looking tainly use McDarrah today, photograph- Square Park to a welfare hotel dweller smug as hell. McDarrah’s camera served ing Trump protests and women’s marches fi ghting with a security guard. This exhibit takes us back to one of the city’s MCDARRAH’S CAMERA

most exciting time peri- Drag queens compete ALL PHOTOS © FRED W. MCDARRAH, COURTESY STEVEN KASHER GALLERY ods (the ’50s through the in the Miss All-America ’70s) with such clarity SERVED AS A TYPE OF Camp Beauty Pageant that you can almost hear at Town Hall, 123 West the shouting of revolution. TRUTH SERUM THAT COULD Forty-Third St., February His pictures, deceptively 20, 1967. simple looking, communi- cate deeply-felt messages. REVEAL A PERSON’S HEART Borders are one stylistic Robert Kennedy in trademark — a line in the street, a “Wom- as a type of truth serum that could reveal and God knows what else, because it’s not Stanton Street apart- en of the World Unite!” sign held against a person’s heart. enough for activists to be out there chang- ment once occupied by a building, Brillo boxes stacked up around Most striking among the queer photos ing the world. The world has to see activ- Senator Jacob Javits, Andy Warhol. McDarrah also seemed to is one of a Pride parade-goer dressed as a ists in just the right light. May 8, 1967. stretch space in a superhuman way by fi t- man on one side and a woman on the oth- ting more into a photo than you’d imagine er. This person stands in front of a white possible. In short, he elevated photojour- road line, another McDarrah border, away Bob Dylan, sitting on a nalism to its highest form. from the rest, suggesting that even in the bench in Christopher Take his photograph of Robert F. Ken- LGBT world this genderfl uid representa- Park (across the street nedy visiting a Lower East Side tenement, tive is pushing the envelope. Someone in from the offi ces of the standing near a picture of Jesus. Perhaps it the background is covering his face with Village Voice) either sa- 2018 October was a coincidence that he found Kennedy his hands, like he can’t believe this is being lutes or shields his eyes there, but I like to think McDarrah under- committed to fi lm. To his credit, McDar- from the sun, January stood the symbolism — Jesus passing the rah did not exploit. The person is glowing 22, 1965. torch to a living representative, Jesus made with confi dence. to suffer like the residents. A clothesline McDarrah’s photograph of contestants IndypendenT The separates Kennedy from Jesus, a McDar- in a drag queen pageant brings to mind rah border that cuts the picture in two: Je- the repetition that made Warhol famous. sus is up in heaven, away from the apart- (Warhol was coincidentally the contest’s ment, but not so far away that he can’t see judge.) And again, McDarrah avoided hell on earth, the tenement. If this picture exploitation. He approached what should were taken by a tabloid photographer, the have been a shocking image for the era in focus would be Kennedy’s celebrity, but a jaded way. Seeing similarly-dressed drag 18 MEMOIR

SeX, dRUGS & RAdICAL poLITICS

Double Life in Double Time By Alan “Al Schvitz” Schultz Manic D Press, 2018

The Hard Stuff like a mature man. The one benefi t of his By Wayne Kramer prison term, he says, was meeting bebop

Da Capo Press, 2018 trumpeter Red Rodney, who became NAOMI USHIYAMA a musical mentor and a father fi gure, something he didn’t get from his alcohol- By Steven Wishnia ic father or his racist, abusive stepfather. Like most people locked up in the adical politics, drugs and rock ’n’ roll Kramer then descended into Detroit’s under- war on drugs, he concludes, “I didn’t need prison; — and winding up in prison — are the world of burglars and dopefi ends, trying to support I needed help.” common threads between the memoirs a heroin habit and a new band, and got four years in Both are still playing. Schultz is touring with Double Life in Double Time, by MDC prison for selling cocaine. (That descent echoes the lead singer Dave Dictor in a revived MDC. “The drummer Al Schvitz, and The Hard city’s, which after the 1967 rebellion, he says, went current government has given us renewed energy for StuffR by MC5 guitarist Wayne Kramer. from “a working-class boomtown of union jobs and being the angry young men we were; we are just not Their bands were arguably the two American solid brick houses” to “an empty shell … ruled by young any more,” he writes in the book’s epilogue. rock bands most explicitly associated with radical crime and despair.”) Kramer revived his career in the ‘90s, making sever- politics. The MC5 were the only band to play the Schvitz, born Alan Schultz, grew up in an affl u- al albums of rock ’n’ roll for adults. He later toured protests at the Democratic Convention in Chicago ent suburb on Long Island, and didn’t start play- with revues doing MC5 songs, and in 2014, cut a in 1968, while MDC played the “Rock Against ing professionally until his mid-twenties. MDC — jazz album called Lexington. He and his wife also Reagan” protests at the Republicans’ 1984 conven- originally an acronym for Millions of Dead Cops founded the U.S. incarnation of Jail Guitar Doors, tion in Dallas. — played what would be dubbed “hardcore” punk, a music-class program for prisoners. If all this is ancient history to you, the “No a relentless, high-speed blast of rage, the drums I don’t know how much these books will mean to Trump! No KKK! No Fascist USA!” chant is de- hammering like a carpenter on methamphetamine. people who, unlike me, don’t have a wall of CDs and rived from a 1981 MDC song. (Kramer’s more music-theory take on ’90s punk vinyl with the MC5 and MDC next to each other. Both memoirs share the same trajectory: rock ’n’ was fast tempos with “an almost 12-tone avoid- But if you want to read about musicians wrestling roll meets radicalism, drugs and incarceration, fol- ance” of anything conventionally melodic.) MDC’s with their personal demons while eternally chasing lowed by partial resurrection. There’s only six years version was about 90 percent hardline politics and the inspirations of high-energy music and fractur- difference in their ages, but a vast gulf between the 10 percent gender-bending, interspersing a chant of ing injustice, both Double Life in Double Time and eras they played in, between the infi nite-possibili- “dead cops” with “why is America so straight and The Hard Stuff are well worth checking out. ties-meet-nasty-backlash days of the late ’60s and me so bent?” the cold, constricted age of Reagan. They inhabited a much narrower subculture, Kramer, who grew up in a working-class family with minimal hope for or desire to reach the main- in and around Detroit, came up in the Motor City’s stream. MDC’s biggest audiences came on the Eu- rich mid-’60s garage-band scene; an early version of ropean squat circuit, and in 1984 they put out a the MC5 opened for British Invasion stars the Dave compilation called P.E.A.C.E., featuring 55 bands Clark Five when he was 17. The MC5 soon blew from a dozen countries, including the Dead Kenne- up their Chuck Berry/James Brown roots with an dys and British anarchists Crass. Schultz’s taste for infusion of LSD, free-jazz chaos, and radical poli- meth grew into professional dealing, and he wound tics — the latter catalyzed by the free outdoor show up in prison for it in 1995. they did on Kramer’s 19th birthday in the spring of Both books are written in an unassuming fi rst- 1967, when mounted police he describes as “over- person style. Schultz’s is the more immediate, as he joyed” and “sadistic” assaulted “a bunch of regular wrote most of it in San Quentin, repeatedly admit- folks, stoned-out weirdos and Budweiser-buzzed ting he’s a neophyte author. The autobiographical factory rats.” bits and tour stories bounce around semi-chrono- Trying to navigate being both radicals and rock ’n’ logically, in between descriptions of prison life— rollers, the MC5 crashed into both music-biz expec- the string-and-hook system used to trade books be- tations and ultra-left dogma. Their fi rst album, Kick tween cells, ramen-based potluck meals, and keeping Out the Jams, cut live at two late-’68 shows, is among enough respectful distance to avoid setting off the the most explosive pieces of rock ’n’ roll ever recorded landmines of racial tension. One of its funniest bits is and briefl y reached the Top 30, but got slagged for his resolving the stereotypical situation of dropping being sloppy; Kramer says he was appalled because the soap in the shower: After the “rough, nasty state October 2018 his guitar went out of tune on the fi rst song. They soap,” he didn’t want to abandon his brand-new bar overcompensated on their cleaner-sounding second of Irish Spring — so he picked it up with a macho album, after mentor/manager John Sinclair was sen- growl, much to the other prisoners’ amusement. (He tenced to nine years in prison for pot. They got it right then confesses losing his anal virginity to a tube of on their third, High Time, with a funkier sound that tweak he was smuggling into Germany.) wouldn’t have embarrassed itself next to Jimi Hendrix Kramer’s has the benefi t of 20 more years of or Miles Davis, but it sank without a trace, and the insight, the hard-won realization that recovery

The IndypendenT band was crumbling into heroin and alcoholism. doesn’t just mean sobriety, but learning how to live 19 MUSIC

Folk, Blues, Brass & Jazz | Live Music Series neW & Sundays at Starr Bar VInTAGe Sept 9 ‘SonGS oF 8pM | Rev Billy

ReSISTAnCe’ and The Church of Stop Shopping Choir

Songs of Resistance Sept 16 1942–2018 fi ne morning, woke up early to fi nd a By Marc Ribot fascist at my door,” Waits sings. 9pm | Roots & Blues Anti-, 2018 In the accompanying music video, seemingly calm American streets are with Fatboy Wilson and Old Viejo Bones shown with increasing police and mili- By Brady O’Callahan tary presence. People gather to protest the Trump administration, police bru- Sept 23 he labor movement had tality and other modern-day horrors 7pm | Songs of Resistance “Solidarity Forever.” Civil plaguing the country. The character in Rights had “Mississippi the song, too, resolves to fi ght the evil a fundraiser for Immigrant rights Goddam,” “Strange Fruit” on his doorstep. Placed in our modern and the spirituals activists context, the song shines a light on the Sept 30 Tsang with linked arms in the streets. damning reality that despotism has Black Lives Matter adopted Kendrick gained a foothold here in America. 9pm | Piano Cabaret Lamar’s “Alright.” This sad state of affairs manifests with Mitch Marcus, Shaye Troha, Jeremy Freer and guests “Every movement which has ever itself powerfully on the standout track won anything has had songs,” says “Rata de dos Patas,” an anti-misogy- Marc Ribot in promotional materials nist ballad sung originally by Mexican introducing his new record, Songs of artist Paquita la del Barrio. This up- 214 Starr St, BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN Resistance 1942-2018. Of course. Mu- dated version of the song powerfully sic helps movements instill resolve in pairs a woman singing in Spanish of VISIT / BOOK EVENTS: their base and renders messages memo- taking down Trump — comparing him starrbar.com rable and digestible as they spread to a to rats, snakes, cockroaches — with wider audience. Trump’s infamous slurs against Mexi- The guitarist knows well the horrors cans. The singer was tragically unable of authoritarianism. His grandparents to be credited on the song for fear of lost siblings in the Holocaust and over repercussion due to her undocumented his career he has toured in places like status in America. Turkey and Russia. He recognizes Pres- Songs of Resistance is certainly ident Trump, he says, “and it’s no mys- never subtle or terribly nuanced, but it tery where we will wind up if we don’t seems fairly disingenuous to begrudge push back.” it that. If you’re looking for precedent Ribot has lent his mastery at the shattering songwriting, you’d best look strings to everyone from Ikue Mori to elsewhere. Simplicity and spreadabil- Elton John, Allen Toussaint to Allen ity (even in bits and pieces) of politi- Ginsberg. With Songs of Resistance, he cal and social messaging may be more gathers an impressive group of friends valuable here. and collaborators to present a captivat- “I have a lot of friends who think ing collection of original and tradition- that any kind of politics isn’t cool,” al protest songs that showcase the lon- Ribot says. “I appreciate the sentiment gevity of message and, conversely, the but we need to get over it, roll up our seemingly glacial nature of progress. sleeves and get our hands dirty if we’re “John Brown,” an original song going to survive this thing.” written by Ribot, recounts the story and I tend to agree, and Songs of Resis- spirit of the abolitionist. It’s an interest- tance succeeds in raising a number of ing and effective blend of tradition and banners you can grab and run with. modernity. The century-and-a-half-old Perhaps the most poignant moment tale of revolt is recontextualized by Ri- on the album is “Srinivas,” a lyrical bot’s funk freak-out arrangement and document of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, a Fay Victor’s soulful vocals. Sikh immigrant murdered in February “Fischia Il Vento,” a 1943 Italian 2017 by a racist who mistook him for a anti-fascist anthem, is updated to rail Muslim. It’s a horrifying story that sad- against climate change and the forces ly illustrates the reality of many Ameri- that perpetuate it in “The Militant cans’ lives, the environment we have Ecologist.” The substitution of the en- fostered for centuries and that has been emy in the song could risk feeling a bit stoked by the current administration. paint-by-numbers, as if songs of pro- “My country, ’tis of thee” Steve test could be written using mad-lib for- Earle sings repeatedly, though he never 2018 October mulas, if not for the fact that climate reaches, as if unable to, the commonly change denial actually seems to be one known following line. He sings of a na- more facet of the authoritarian regimes tion in turbulence, one with unfulfi lled we know today. This adaptation re- potential, one where only certain popu- fi nes the original’s scope, envisioning lations are free to live without worry. IndypendenT The a future where “the earth’s green fl ag Hopefully, one day soon, we’ll be able is fl ying.” to rightfully call it sweet land of liberty. Tom Waits, a long-time collaborator of Ribot’s, joins him on “Bella Ciao,” yet another 1940s Italian anti-fascist song. Waits, per usual, sounds weath- ered but resolute, a natural fi t. “One 20 MOVIES

A FILM FoR A CoUnTRy on FIRe

Fahrenheit 11/9 Directed by Michael Moore Briarcliff Entertainment, 2018 elites, and its in desperate need of being tak- en over.

It is the fi nal part of the fi lm that really CHARLYNE ALEXIS By Mark Read packs a wallop. Moore makes a persuasive case that we are teetering on the verge of fas- ow the fuck did this happen?” they were. They bucked not only cism. The assault on democratic institutions — the “ Michael Moore lobs the question their state’s Republican governor but courts, the press, the political class as a whole — at us as he concludes the prelude of their own weak-kneed union leader- when combined with racial scapegoating and atten- his new fi lm, Fahrenheit 11/9 and it ship when it signed onto a deal that dant appeals to tribalism comprise a methodology looms over the rest of the fi lm, haunt- would have given teachers a raise but that is eerily similar to how the Nazi party built and ingH Moore’s steps as he tries to make sense of a world not bus drivers. The teachers stayed kept their base of support. The Weimar Republic, af- gone mad. out on strike in all 55 of West Vir- ter all, was a fl ourishing democracy, with a robust Moore takes us on a meandering but ultimately ginia’s counties — in defi ance of their free press and highly literate and engaged citizens. entertaining journey through his experience of the union — until the bus drivers, the Hitler was elected. United States since the election of Donald Trump. janitors and the food prep staff got Crucially, both the Trump gang and the Nazis ac- While the fi lm is almost maddeningly structureless, the same deal that they did. And then curately assessed the two factions that need to be ap- Moore is such a familiar and successful fi lmmaker they stoked up strikes in other states. peased in order to take and hold power. Trump satis- that at this point it seems as though he can break or Badasses, every last one of them. fi es his electoral base with a few bombastic tweets rewrite just about any rule of fi lmmaking and get every couple of days, creating counterfactuals while away with it. • The Parkland students do not have letting surrogates make occasional excuses for his It’s a latitude that he has sometimes abused by al- any quit in them and are even smart- “lack of polish.” His other audience is the ruling lowing his oversized persona to overwhelm the story, er than you might have realized. Did class, elite interests that have no interest in actual but here Moore relies far less on his usual schtick. you know that the March for Our populism and might actually be turned off by his di- While he certainly indulges in pranksterism and con- Lives was, according to Moore, the visiveness. Tax cuts and deregulation that send cor- frontation, he makes a point of sharing the spotlight single largest day of protest in the porate profi ts soaring appease them. Turns out that with the other characters. Without Moore as the history of the country? The Parkland the Nazis passed similarly elite-friendly policies while dominating protagonist, the fi lm does feel a bit rud- High School kids basically made they consolidated power. derless, but he remains a compelling storyteller and that happen. Yes, they got loads of The Nazis understood the nature of power. So this time around he has some truly worthwhile sto- support but it was their doing. High does the Trump gang. This is not to say that Trump is ries to share. school kids. Let that sink in for just a genius, but he does intuitively understand the mob, Do you remember election night? Moore’s depic- a second. while the past and present cast around him — Jared tion of that evening makes that already strange expe- Kushner, Stephen Miller, Steve Bannon, Paul Ryan, rience feel even stranger. Watching it all again makes These are all great stories but they don’t address Mitch McConnell — understand the importance of you feel as though the election happened on an al- Moore’s original question about how we wound up keeping the ruling class happy. ternate planet — and now we’re on the wrong one. with Trump as president. So, what do we do? Moore calls for a dual strat- “How the fuck did this happen?” Indeed. Things were fucked up before Trump showed up egy: an electoral insurgency from the populist left But then we’re off to Flint, Michigan, West Virgin- on the scene and Moore does a fi ne job of making led by fi gures such as Bernie Sanders and Alexan- ia and Parkland, Florida among other places. While this very, very clear. Under two consecutive presiden- dria Ocasio-Cortez and, simultaneously, unrelenting none of them directly address the question at hand, cies (Bush and Obama) the country saw that there street activism to keep pressure and heat on those they all have a lot to teach us about just where we are were no consequences for massive criminality in the currently in offi ce. now. Here are a few takeaways from the tour: wake of the illegal war on Iraq and the crashing of Moore has made similar calls to action before. But the U.S. economy. Now we have a president who is the stakes now feel bigger, starker and more frighten- • Flint’s water crisis was a far more in- the very embodiment of impunity. These things are ing. The coming midterm elections will determine a sidious affair than most people real- not disconnected. great deal in regards to keeping Trump in check. I, ize. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder Prior to both of those presidencies, the Clintons for one, immediately took out my checkbook when should be in jail. After the Flint River turned the Democratic Party away from organized I got home and gave to a few political groups that was discovered to be toxic, Snyder labor and towards Wall Street while attacking the share the analysis articulated by this fi lm. I will also allowed a GM plant to hook back social safety net and ramping up the carceral state. do some phone banking and I will re-dedicate myself up to clean water from Lake Huron They and their cohort turned the party into a ver- to showing up in the street. I hope you do the same. If because the river water was corrod- sion of Republican-lite, leaving working people with the house is on fi re, it’s going to take a bucket brigade October 2018 ing its car parts. But he forced the nobody to represent them. of everyday citizens to put it out. population of Flint to keep drinking Obama is in the crosshairs as well. One of the the lead-infused water. How is that most powerful segments of the fi lm is Moore’s un- not a crime against humanity? fl inching look at Obama’s visit to Flint during its water crisis, where his behavior should shock the • The West Virginia teachers who conscience of any liberals still holding out illusions struck this spring were even bolder about Saint Barack. Moore makes it plain that the

The IndypendenT and more heroic than you thought Democratic Party remains a party run by and for 21 FOOD

SWeepInG Up The CRUMBS MeeT The MoST TALenTed BAKeR yoU’Ve neVeR heARd oF.

By Manvi Jalan show. The Great British Baking Show, which the show little town right next to Baton Rouge where I grew up. was based on, had people of color win but never any- She would give me fi gs straight off her trees and at 5, it erfect sponges, fl aky pastries and chocolate one of African-descent. When I won I knew it mattered. was the best thing I’d ever tasted. Or I’d go strawberry seducing you out of yet another diet. Who Growing up, it was always exciting to have someone to picking with my dad and make preserves. Growing up

doesn’t love a great baking show? The popu- look for, have someone who looked like you on TV. You in South Louisiana and enjoying the bounty of fresh MICHELLE MCSWAIN larity of food television may be on a steady don’t always see people who look like you represented fruit was incredible. high but are shows doing a better job of rep- in media so I knew that it was something really special. During the holidays my mother always had this tra- Presenting minorities and women of color? Whose souffl é Of course, I never got to see the fruition of that. But dition where we would bake family heirloom recipes. sinks the fastest when a show is cancelled? the night that it did air [as a 90 second clip on the pro- I grew up with my sisters and everyone had their own Vallery Lomas is a lawyer-turned-baker who you gram’s Facebook Page], I had so many people reach out thing to bake. I always enjoyed it but I didn’t tap into would’ve known as the latest winner of The Great of me, saying, “I have a little girl and she has natural hair it until the third year of law school when the reces- American Baking Show had a twist of fate not awaited like you, she loves your spirit, she loves seeing someone sion was happening and I needed a creative outlet. I her. ABC pulled the show when multiple former em- who looks like her.” That really meant a lot, that it started blogging about baking and that encouraged me ployees accused judge Johnny Iuzzini of sexual harass- wasn’t really about me, it was about this next generation to bake everyday. ment, leaving fans of the show with nothing to hold on of people who have the privilege of seeing someone who to except dreams of Vallery’s orange chocolate donuts. looks like them. To me that was the roughest part of What are you working on now that we can look Born and raised in Louisiana, Vallery grew up in a the show being pulled, I knew that it meant something, forward to? family of bakers, surrounded by her grandma’s fruit that it mattered. It’s crazy that Iuzzini’s actions created trees and fresh preserves. She baked through law school a ripple effect for so many people. I’m working on a cookbook and blogging full time. and now you’ll fi nd her blogging full time from her home in Harlem or eating her way through all the crêpe Do you think women of color are being recognized in Do you have advice for women of color who are try- spots in the city. the food industry? ing to make it as chefs? We spoke to Vallery about the show, it’s sudden can- cellation and life after. I defi nitely think some women are getting recognition I would say just stay true to who you are and remember they deserve but at the same time I think there’s a lot of why you’re here to begin with because you have this pas- THE INDYPENDENT: When did you fi nd out the rounding up. It’ll take time to tell. sion that you want to share with the world. That’s what show wouldn’t air? I tell myself on bad days. What is your fi rst food memory? VALLERY LOMAS: The night before the third episode was going to air, I received a phone call. They said, My grandmother lived in Prairieville, Louisiana, this “Hey, there were some allegations against Johnny Iuzzini and the network had to pull the show.” VALLERY’S PUMPKIN 2 Melt the chocolate by microwaving it at 10-sec- spatula, fold the chocolate into the batter until Within minutes of receiving the ond intervals, stirring until it’s melted. it’s just swirled in, making sure to scrape the call, it was announced nationally. CHOCOLATE SWIRL bottom of the bowl with each stroke, about 5 It’s crazy because it felt like I BREAD 3 Whisk together the fl our, baking soda, cin- strokes total. broke through that glass ceiling namon, baking powder, nutmeg and salt in a before and now I’m back under it Serves 8 medium bowl. 8 Carefully pour the batter into the prepared and keep hitting my head. But I’m Prep time: 30 minutes, Cook time: 60 minutes pan. Dollop the one tablespoon of reserved happy too because I’m passionate 4 Combine the sugar and oil in the bowl of a stand chocolate on top, and use a toothpick to create about baking. INGREDIENTS mixer fi tted with a paddle attachment and beat a swirl design. Butter, for coating the pan on medium-high speed until combined, about How did you end up on the 3 ounces semisweet chocolate chips one minute. 9 Bake at 350°F until the bread is browned on top show? 1 3/4 cups all-purpose fl our and a toothpick inserted into the center comes 1 teaspoon baking soda 5 Reduce the speed to medium and add the out clean, 60-70 minutes. The casting director discovered 1 teaspoon cinnamon eggs one at a time, beating for about 30 sec- my instagram account and they ½ teaspoon nutmeg onds after each addition. Reduce the speed 10 Remove the loaf from the oven and let it cool in sent me an email asking if I was 1/2 teaspoon baking powder to low. Add the pumpkin and vanilla, and mix the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove 2018 October interested in applying. I knew it 1/2 teaspoon salt until just combined, about 30 seconds. Stop the loaf from the pan and allow it to cool would take a lot since I was work- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar the mixer and scrape down the sides of the completely on a wire rack. Slice and savor the 1/2 cup vegetable oil ing as a lawyer but I was already bowl and the paddle. autumnal spices and brisk weather! 2 large eggs blogging. I owed myself a chance

1 cup pumpkin purée 6 With the mixer running on low, slowly pour For more recipes from Vallery visit IndypendenT The to take it to another level. 1 teaspoon vanilla extract in the reserved fl our mixture, and mix until FoodieInNewYork.com. just combined. As an African-American woman, METHOD what was your experience on the 1 Preheat the oven to 350°F. Coat a 9” x 5” loaf 7 Remove the bowl from the mixer and drizzle all show like? pan with butter and set aside. of the melted chocolate evenly over the batter, reserving about one tablespoon. Using a rubber I knew someone of African-Amer- ican descent had never won the 22 bluestockings TRUMP DEPRESSION radical bookstore | activist center | fair trade cafe 172 ALLEN ST • 212-777-6028 bluestockings.com HOTLINE

EVERY THURS • 6:45–7:30AM YOGA: Start your day with sun salutations and a vinyasa fl ow.

OCT 12 • 7–9:30PM Hi Billy, watching the Kavanaugh America is not the old white guys POETRY: 2016 Lambda Emerging Writers hearings and all those Republi- who pay the media to portray them

Fellow Wren Hanks reads from his new cans defend him, I found myself as leaders of their “great nation.” JON QUILTY work The Rise of the Genderqueer. wondering why old, rich, white America is two continents of love, guys are so pathologically f’d up? work and hope. It’s a vast place that NOV 2 • 7–9:30PM Maybe they’re just born that way. reaches around the planet and has SCREENING: Syria: The Impossible Any insights? received the faith of so many. Revolution documents the realities of the Don’t give America to those who war-torn country today. — KRYSTAL, Harlem betrayed that amazing name, which translates universally into the des- Let’s not blame all of society’s ills tination of dreams. There are mil- on the old rich white guys. lions of people wandering today, It does seem reasonable, though, dreaming of a home across a mili- to strip them of their $3,000 suits, tarized border. May they all reach their senate seats, their guns and their America, wherever it may be. Co-founded by Michael Ratner their pornography. Let’s not stereo- (1943-2016) President, Center for type these poor souls, but they re- REVEREND BILLY IS AN ACTIVIST Constitutional Rights; and hosted by ally should scream in the agony of AND POLITICAL SHOUTER, A POST- movement lawyers Heidi Boghosian, humiliation as they kneel for hours RELIGIOUS PREACHER OF THE Executive Director, A. J. Muste before gigantic statues of Anita Hill STREETS AND BANK LOBBIES. GOT Memorial Institute; and Michael and Christine Blasey Ford in the A QUESTION FOR REVEREND BILLY? Steven Smith, New York City center of Times Square. JUST EMAIL: attorney and author. And there is a basic common de- [email protected] cency in the idea that, as their bank AND UNBURDEN YOUR SOUL. accounts are emptied, that we should begin to laugh at them, the laughter building until it rings up the avenues and down the streets. A laughing city! Free of Chuck Grassley and Lindsay Graham and Mike Crapo. Then again, am I guilty of self- loathing? I’ve managed to not be rich but the white part and the guy part do persist. The old part I’ve put off till next Tuesday. All I know is that right now, Krystal, we’re in some deep shit. We have to save each other no matter who we are.

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Hey there, Rev, I’m planning a trip abroad next month. Whenever I go overseas SUBSCRIBe people always ask me, what is wrong with America? Why are you Americans always starting wars? Why can’t you give people health care? What do you have against immigrants? I get a lot of that kind TodAy! of thing. It makes it hard to make friends. What should I tell them? 12 ISSUeS FoR onLy $25 — BRIAN, Crown Heights

MAILed STRAIGhT To yoUR Brian, Our America is with the citizens of hoMe eVeRy MonTh Earth who were here fi rst and the Africans who survived the Middle Passage. As I write this, I feel the IndypendenT.oRG/SUBSCRIBe America of thousands on Capitol Hill who — by the whole-soul com- oR Send A CheCK oR Money oRdeR To The mitment of their protests — are October 2018 bringing survivors’ stories to the IndypendenT/388 ATLAnTIC AVe., 2nd FL./ light of day. Brian, are you looking for friends BRooKLyn, ny 11217 in the wrong places? America isn’t the bankers on Wall Street or the paramilitaries that pry families apart and put children in The IndypendenT The IndypendenT privatized concentration camps. 23

cant. Most importantly, whatever crimes #Me Too have been perpetrated by fine upstanding Continued from page 4 Yale graduates with resumes fit for the Su- preme Court is insignificant. I recall an event at a college campus not Yet there is cause for hope. long ago where I was picketing a Parents The intensity of the backlash is a sign Weekend event on behalf of the union ef- that we are living through a cultural revo- forts for adjunct faculty. This was a fancy lution. Though the current government is school, private and expensive, with beau- headed by a perp-in-chief, even the insti- tifully landscaped grounds. I leafleted a tutions of the state are riven from within woman my age, smartly dressed, looking between partisans from both sides. Victims like she had just stepped out of the hair- are not backing down. Even after seeing dressers. I said to her, this leaflet provides what has happened in the best case sce- information on the working conditions of nario of Blasey Ford’s accusation, they are the faculty who will be teaching your child. accosting senators in elevators, marching She looked at me with an angry distaste in the street, telling their stories from the and refused to take the leaflet. She said be- bullhorn of social media. We have threat- tween clenched teeth: “There is a time and ened some of the central frameworks that a place for such things, and this is not it.” feed the epidemic, which is why we must I had sullied the celebration, the ceremony, be silenced. the sunny morning. She made me feel as if I Revolutions are messy affairs. Nuance is were out there on the sidewalk selling diar- lost, decisions have to be made quickly, and rhea medication. I sensed if she did not take there are always undeserved casualties. But this leaflet now, she would never avail her- what we are fighting for goes way beyond self of any avenue of information about the any individual case, or individual career. topic of injustice perpetrated in this elite This is a revolution over who can speak, rarified space. who can be accused, and who will bear the When is the time and place to air our brunt of the costs. experiences of sexual violation? Where is The key is to keep the fight focused on the proper, public space in which to debate reducing sexual violation in all its forms, the seriousness of these events? Yet how individual and institutional. To not let it can we expect the public, or elected repre- get hitched to the wagon of one political “Citizen Illegal sentatives, to deliberate in the absence of party, or diverted to beef up the carceral is right on time, details? Details about beds, penises, and state, or interpreted through heteropatri- bringing both hands that shove you into rooms and roam archal frames that cast male protection as over your body? our only hope. empathy and What exactly is the time and place for Everything the Republicans trotted out searing critique such discussion? For many people, the to establish Kavanaugh’s squeaky clean to the fore as a correct answer is only the private and morals is, of course, to some of us, a rea- nation debates cloistered room of the therapist, or the re- son for suspicion. The most notorious ligious sanctuary. fraternities school their members in good the very humanity The silence of victims of these sorts works: from charity drives to youth men- of the people who of crimes is systematically produced, en- toring. Good Christians can prefer women built it.” forced, and managed. Most victims are not to marry their rapists rather than abort operating in the ‘best case scenario,’ but their fetuses. The kind of resume Kavana- Eve Ewing, author in lives structured by a subservience cre- ugh can tout — no dropping out, no con- of Electric Arches ated by socially made disadvantages. If we victions, no unexplained gaps in his career speak against bosses or co-workers, we are climb — are often the product of invisible “Citizen Illegal is likely to lose our livelihood, and the same armies of support: the cop who chooses to is true if we speak against partners. If we look the other way, the teachers that give a poetic assault speak against friends we are likely to not be him a break, the victims who never report on the state and believed, and then to face personal reper- because they are doubtful they will be be- cultural processes cussions of harassment. If we speak against lieved over Mr. Clean. that continue to family members we may lose our right to Kavanaugh is being savagely ridiculed be included within our very own families. on late night television, in stand up comedy stamp out empathy Maintaining the smooth functioning of routines, in homemade YouTube scenes. and humanity every form of social connection and eco- Everything about him that would usually within the rise of nomic activity is put above our needs. generate respect is now seen as a sign of today’s migratory What becomes clear is that the system- moral depravity, self-importance, hypoc- atic nature of our enforced silence is not risy. Change is afoot. drift and its only about our credibility: the credibility management by of (usually) those with lower social status, the state.” 2018 October such as females, workers, children, people of color, disabled folks, and queer folks. It Brooklyn Rail is not just that we are not likely to be be- lieved, but that what matters to us does not matter ‘objectively’. Our accusations may Indypenden The be true, and yet nonetheless, as the New York Times lead editorial on October 1 Visit haymarketbooks.org for our Latinx Liberation suggested, be “insignificant.” We have seen that what white teenage boys do, whatever reading list, 50% off now through October 15, it is, has been deemed insignificant. What including free ebook edition with print purchase. happens to young girls is insignificant. What happens a long time ago is insignifi- t