April 10
1516
In what was the first ghetto*, Jews in Venice, Italy, were forced to live in a specific, restricted area of the city.
The word “ghetto” comes from the Venetian word “geto”, meaning foundry. Prior to becoming an exclusively Jewish neighborhood, the Venice ghetto was the site of two foundries.
1866
The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) is incorporated.
Continue reading
Each year the City Weekly has its “Best of Utah” campaign and awards. This year my friend Raphael’s shop, Free Speech Zone. won the staff selected award in the category of “Best Shopping for a Cause”:
BEST SHOPPING FOR A CAUSE
The Free Speech Zone
How’s your social activism these days? Got a decent T-shirt or bumper sticker than adequately conveys your sentiments about the war in Iraq and the Bush administration? Here’s where you buy all your sweat-shop-free stuff. Pick up the latest fliers on antiwar demonstrations and rallies. There’s also a free meeting room for nonprofits that also moonlights as a screening room on Friday and Saturday nights for films such as The Battle of Algiers, The Oil Factor and Thirteen Days. Hippies of yesteryear, come home to your roots.
2144 S. Highland Drive
801-487-2295
To celebrate, City Weekly invited award recipients and their guests to a party. Here are a couple of photos I took at that:
Raphael Cordray, owner of Free Speech Zone.
Raphael and another business owner who also won an award.
April 9
1947
First freedom ride, the “Journey of Reconciliation,” left Washington, D.C. to travel through four southern states. The integrated bus tour was sponsored by CORE (Congress for Racial Equality) and FOR (Fellowship of Reconciliation).
The Salt Lake City General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) held its first annual Organizer Traning Conference this weekend at the Salt Lake AFL-CIO Union Hall.
Here are photos from the kick-off event held Friday, April 7th, including music, a panel discussion, and lively discussion.
Tony Roehrig was the moderator of the evening. Tony is one of the original Wobblies of the modern era in SLC. He is a delegate who helped revive the branch in the late 20th centery and has kept the branch active in organizing, educating and agitating.
Scott Fife, Local IWW activist, artist (he painted the art above of Joe Hill), opens up the evening with some labor songs.
Pete Litster, Local IWW activist, performs spoken word.
Meet the panelists for the evening, James Mouritsen, Evan Enns, and Michael Garcia (descriptions below).
James Mouritsen read and explained the preamble of the IWW Constitution. Since taking out a red card on May Day 2003, shortly after returning to the SLC area, James has joined fellow Wobs and radicals planning and carrying out pickets, rallies, Mayday celebrations, soapbox events, and free public film screening son labor and jusice related themes.
Evan Enns explained and spoke to the IWW philophy, history, and current actions. Eva currently serves as secretary/treasurer of the Denver IWW branch. She has been active in organizing since she came to the union through a drive at Telefund, Inc.
Michael Garcia spoke to Wobbly tactics and direct action in the workplace. Michael has been a Wob for the last decade. He has talked up the union at his workplace, Big City Soup, has been able to get many co-sorkers into the union, and has been active in related work.
My role as Listserve Forum Manger for the Green Party of the United States is really keeping me and my fellow forum managers busy. The latest challenges involve working out the technicalities of moderating posts – working with the list administrator of the national lists and the FM team has shown all of us that we have a lot to learn – even those that are more “techie” than we are! I am sure that once all the “bugs” are ironed out, we will have in place a great system for effectively ensuring that the national discussion lists run smoothly – from the technical standpoint and the moderation standpoint.
I am running for the position of secretary of the GPUS Eco Action Committee. It looks like I am the only one running for that office. That doesn’t mean I will automatically be elected, though. Since we vote by ranking our choices, there could potentially be write-ins and also “none of the above”.
Here is the bio I provided for members of the committee so they would know more about who they are voting for:
Continue reading
April 8
1898
Paul Robeson born.
1939
Marian Anderson performs a concert at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington after she is denied the use of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution.
1993
Women in Black demonstrated in solidarity with their Serbian sisters in Lund, Sweden.
Most activists have heard this news by now. Rest assured we won’t be silent. Details of actions will be posted.
Today’s Salt Lake Tribune: Bomb Test: The Pentagon says it’s just a test and won’t lead to nuclear development
The “Divine Strake Test” is what it has been dubbed. It would
would use ammonium nitrate and fuel oil – a common explosive combination and the same used in the Oklahoma City bombing, only 280 times larger.
It is expected to throw a plume of dust as high as 10,000 feet into the air. Computers on the ground will measure the shockwaves and damage to the tunnel so models can be made, according to Pentagon budget documents, “to improve the warfighter’s confidence in selecting the smallest proper nuclear yield necessary to destroy underground facilities while minimizing collateral damage.”
The blast would be five times larger than the largest existing conventional weapon, but many times smaller than the smallest nuclear weapon in the U.S. stockpile. Similar tests have been conducted in the past at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
The Pentagon has said it plans to detonate 700 tons of explosives above a buried tunnel at the Nevada Test Site in June.
Congressman Jim Matheson says:
“I think this is a precursor for the development of nuclear weapons. I’ve had that suspicion about this administration all along,” Matheson said. “I want to get answers to this before they have the test in June.”
While this is a noble statement, I just don’t believe the latter part of it. Matheson has been a supporter of the Bush Administration’s Iraq campaign and war efforts. I know this from personal experience with Mr. Matheson, having been part of an arrest action in his office in 2003 and then in a meeting with him and several of my activist colleagues as a follow-up to that action. I would like to think the Mr. Matheson is sincere, but actions speak louder than words and his past actions just have not proven that he is opposed to nuclear anything.
Another “oops” for the Bush-ites:
Ex-Cheney aide says Bush OK’d disclosure: Testimony is first hint of direct role by president
The testimony by the former official, I. Lewis Libby Jr., cited in a court filing by the government made late Wednesday, provides the first indication that Bush, who has long assailed leaks of secret information as a threat to national security, may have played a direct role in authorizing the disclosure of the intelligence report on Iraq.
April 7
World Health Day
1994
Genocide in Rwanda began. Over the next 90 days at least a half million people were killed by their countrymen. This day is commemorated annually with prayer vigils in Rwanda.
>
>
Stop Genocide Today ~ Save Dafur!
Part of my campaign platform is calling for Salt Lake County to join other brave communities in the nation in adopting resoultions agains the illegal war and occupation in Iraq.
Wisconsin communities have done just that. 24 of 32 communities approved referendums Tuesday calling for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
Kudos to those communities for taking a stand.
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 