Category Archives: Rock on-Peace Out

This Muslim Marine Has the Perfect Response to Donald Trump | GOOD

Last week, GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump told Yahoo News that he would not rule out “a form of special identification” for Muslims “that noted their religion”—a recommendation that has drawn more than a few comparisons to Nazi Germany. Hours later, Sergeant Tayyib Rashid, a retired Marine from Chicago, posted his response on Twitter:

Source: This Muslim Marine Has the Perfect Response to Donald Trump | GOOD

Massive Rolling Strikes Shut Down Quebec | Labor Notes

After provincial bargaining stalled, 400,000 public sector workers across Quebec walked out in October and November on rolling one-day strikes.The government is proposing pension cuts and only a 3 percent salary increase over five years. Since coming to power in April 2014 it has already begun cuts to services, including slashing health and education funding.The Common Front, a coalition of Quebec public sector unions, is coordinating the strikes, which include teachers, health care workers, and government employees. Members voted to authorize six days of strikes per union. These began with one-day strikes, staggered by region. The Common Front vowed that if no agreement was reached, all members would strike at the same time December 1-3.Labor Notes interviewed Benoit Renaud and Philippe de Grosbois, who have both been on strike. Renaud is an adult education teacher in the city of Gatineau and a member of the La Fédération Autonome de L’enseignement. de Grosbois teaches in a pre-college program in Laval and is an executive of his local, which is part of the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux.At the time of the interview, a December general strike was still planned. However, the Common Front recently announced it’s postponing the strike while negotiations continue.

Source: Massive Rolling Strikes Shut Down Quebec | Labor Notes

Russell Brand: The Usefulness (or Not) of a Working-Class Celebrity Activist | Working-Class Perspectives

It is true that Brand does sometimes appear to take over and speak for the people he is supporting, and this could be frustrating for activists wanting to talk about their issues on their own terms. And some of his commentary has been arguably misguided or counter-productive. He famously stated in an interview prior to the most recent British general election that voting was not useful, and this may have influenced some working-class people (particularly young people) to not vote, which was against their interests.Brand also doesn’t always acknowledge his privilege – particularly his white privilege. In an episode of his YouTube web series The Trews, he suggested that anti-austerity protestors should show some love for the police in order to bring them into the fold. This might be fine for a white man with resources to fight police charges, but not so easy for people of colour who are subject to police harassment. This demonstrates a level of naivety and the cushioning effects of his fame and fortune.Despite this, the class-based criticisms of Brand point to the threat he poses as a working-class background celebrity activist. His fame allows him a platform and his popularity among his fans means many people listen to what he says and are potentially influenced by his views. At the Sydney show, fans cheered at his mention of causes which mainly affect working-class people.The mainstream media is very middle-class. Journalists and commentators tend to be privately educated. There has been a ‘gentrification of the left’, and few working-class voices are heard in politics and the media. Most Left-wing commentators are middle or upper class and despite their good intentions and commitment to social justice causes, their voices dominate. There’s much to admire in the work of Owen Jones, for example, but his social and educational capital means he is not likely to be ridiculed due to his accent or choice of words.When Emma Watson made her gender equality speech in the United Nations she was applauded for her restraint and simple eloquence. When Brand speaks he is accused of being verbose. The combination of working-class accent and intelligent speech is one that seems to particularly irk middle-class commentators across the political spectrum. Brand has the kind of visibility and fan adoration that most political commentators or journalists will never experience. Dismissing him as a narcissistic loud-mouth is arguably a way to silence him and to diminish the working-class causes he has championed.Brand is a comedian, and comedy is a powerful weapon. Comedy can educate, enlighten, and empower. Comedians often speak truth to power, and a celebrity comedian with a political message for working-class people has the potential to be quite powerful indeed. Brand deserves the same respect as middle-class commentators. His ideas should be discussed, debated, and even dismissed at times. But not because he doesn’t have the benefit of an expensive private education or a university degree or because he is loud (or ‘mouthy’ as English people say). He has as much right to occupy the public sphere as any Oxbridge or Ivy League graduate. Brand might not be responsible for starting a working-class revolution, but he might just inspire some of his working-class fans to get involved with politics, to join activist groups, to demand social justice.

Source: Russell Brand: The Usefulness (or Not) of a Working-Class Celebrity Activist | Working-Class Perspectives

Branded a traitor, Russian sports whistleblower hides abroad | Reuters

The sportswoman who blew the whistle on doping in Russian athletics is in hiding abroad, pursued by a barrage of criticism from former colleagues and officials at home who accuse her of betraying her country.Yulia Stepanova, an international runner who was herself suspended for doping offences, secretly recorded Russian coaches and athletes over almost two years describing how they used performance-enhancing drugs.The 29-year-old’s evidence formed a major part of an investigation that led to Russian athletes being suspended from international competition this month, triggering the deepest crisis in Russian sport since the boycott-hit 1980 Moscow Olympics.

Source: Branded a traitor, Russian sports whistleblower hides abroad | Reuters

My Feminism Is: Justice Everywhere | National Women’s Law Center

You see injustice everywhere. And one day, you’ll have a word for what you’re feeling, a word for what you’ve been all along but hesitate to call yourself – “feminist.”When you finally find feminism, you’ll find the incredible community of it. You’ll connect with so many people over the simple belief of equality. You’ll grow to recognize that there are systems in place that keep not only women down, but people of color, people with disabilities, and people of lower socioeconomic status down, too.You have always been driven by the desire to help others. You’ve always been driven by seeking to right the wrongs you see everywhere. You’ve always known the power of words. You’ve always known that words and ideas and that feeling deep in your gut that something’s not right here can change the world, or at least change a person. Soon you’ll discover a word and a community that will accept you just as much as you accept it.You’ve come from a long line of women who didn’t always have the word for feminism but always had the strength of a thousand men – no, not a thousand men. The strength of a woman. Your grandmothers, your mother, your aunt, and everyone before them. Their jobs may not have been glamorous or historic, but they worked hard without complaint. Whatever life throws at them, they bear with gritted teeth and the determination you have inherited.Your feminism began by seeing unfairness in your own life and in the lives around you. How is it fair that we have to decorate the whole school at 7am on Friday mornings and receive no recognition or thanks? How it fair that few spectators come to the girls’ basketball games, and even fewer at our cheerleading competitions?

Source: My Feminism Is: Justice Everywhere | National Women’s Law Center

Amazon.com: Club 8 review

They sing, they dance, they smile, but make no mistake, the underlying genius of Club 8 is the bittersweet sense of impending advancement of time, age, and death. Song after song, in the bubbly summertime feel of Club 8’s sweet disposition there’s a threatening dark cloud off in the distance. They may sound as if they are singing about the silver lining, but listen carefully and you discover they are really chiming about yet another ominous outline behind that silver lining. That’s the craft of Komstedt and Angergård: this notion that our time is brief and our stay is short continues to creep up like ivy along the walls of their club. The duo successfully harnesses into their pop creations what the Brazilian bossa nova masters know as a certain sadness.

Source: Amazon.com: Listmania!

Teenage Girls are the Future — and Present — of Feminism | National Women’s Law Center

Let’s Hear It For the GirlsChronically undervaluing teenage girls like this hurts everyone. Sure, there are practical reasons to support them, like the impact of the youth vote in an increasingly polarized political atmosphere. But more important is that each and every one of these girls matters. Each one deserves to hear, directly and repeatedly, that her ideas are worth sharing, her feelings are valid.Her selfies aren’t shallow — they’re feminist self-construction, an “I was here” painted on the entire Internet. She’s singing on the train because she deserves to take up as much space as anyone else.Some teenage girls don’t care what you think anyway, and that kind of confidence is not easy to come by. Some really do care what you think, and that’s okay because it shows their deep capacity to offer and demand empathy.  My feminism is rooted in supporting these girls no matter what. The ultimate goal is a world in which it’s not just girls themselves who believe they can do anything, but we all know it’s true — and see them accomplish their dreams every day.

Source: Teenage Girls are the Future — and Present — of Feminism | National Women’s Law Center