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I doubt that many social justice radicals and working activists and genuine -- genuine -- liberals in this country, or even abroad, are at all surprised by the nature of the scandals now engulfing the Obama administration like a horde of rapidly proliferating and imperialistic Kudzu vines. The wide scope of some of these authoritarian affairs may be surprising but, if one looks in retrospect, it's only what can be expected when The State -- any State under any flag -- is given carte blanche. We now hear frequently the official apologists and supporters of these nefarious policies, with varying degrees of media support, trying desperately to explain that "everything has been done lawfully." That conjures up several things in my mind. One of these draws from the excellent 2001 film, Conspiracy, which depicts the extraordinarily infamous 1942 meeting of Nazi honchos at Wannsee, an "elegant" estate on the outskirts of Berlin. There, in the context of totally irrational Hitlerism, with SS General Reinhard Heydrich presiding, assisted by Colonel Adolph Eichmann, the "Final Solution" to the "Jewish Problem" is calmly created via step by step pseudo- rationalistic discussion and pseudo-logical policy formulation. All very "properly handled." (See my mini review of Conspiracy in the second half of this page: http://hunterbear.org/reminiscence.htm ) And a personal experience comes to mind. On December 12, 1962, my wife, Eldri, and I and four Black Tougaloo College students of mine, conducted our civil rights picket demonstration in Mississippi's capital. This was the formal launch of the downtown Jackson economic boycott. We chose the Woolworth store as our basic site. It was the coldest day of the year and only a few people were out and about. We were arrested very quickly by between 75 and 100 Jackson police. And the formal charge was "obstructing the sidewalk." Coincidentally, on that same day, a major FBI official, Cartha "Deke" Deloach, arrived in Jackson and met with the mayor, Allen C. Thompson. At their news conference, Deloach congratulated the mayor and the police for having handled our arrests in a "lawful" fashion via local (Mississippi) law. The media gave his comments wide coverage -- without, of course, indicating the First Amendment had been mangled on that cold and relatively empty sidewalk. (C. Wright Mills covered these kinds of things, "big" and "little," with the apt term, "Crackpot Realism.") But the Mississippi newspaper media also carried, without realizing the implications, a front page photo of our arrests -- with Eldri and her picket sign at the fore. The sign read, "Negro Shoppers / Don't Buy on Capitol Street." Couldn't ask for better publicity -- but then we got even more. The mayor, in a news conference the next day, blasted the now fast developing boycott as a "conspiracy to restrain trade" and threatened to sue us all for "a million dollars." That was given very wide and conspicuous coverage in all Magnolia media. And the boycott was off and running, very effectively. Within a few months it had moved into very large-scale nonviolent direct action -- the historic Jackson Movement. Repression was very bloody. Federal agents "observed" but didn't comment. Hunter (Hunter Bear) HUNTER GRAY [HUNTER BEAR/JOHN R SALTER JR] Mi'kmaq / St. Francis Abenaki / St. Regis Mohawk Member, National Writers Union AFL-CIO www.hunterbear.org (much social justice material) For the new and expanded/updated "Organizer's Book," JACKSON MISSISSIPPI -- with a new and substantial introduction by me. This is the 50th Anniversary of the massive Jackson Movement of 1962-63. This book is a full, very detailed discussion of the rise and development of that Movement, including its external life and internal dynamics. And this book is also an organizer's how-to manual. http://hunterbear.org/jackson.htm And see the related http://crmvet.org/comm/hunter1.htm ("Militant and Radical Organizer": -- and also "Fifty Years: Remembering Medgar Evers") http://www.solidarity-us.org/site/node/3876 See the Stormy Adoption of an Indian Child [My Father]: http://hunterbear.org/James%20and%20Salter%20and%20Dad.htm (Many photos.)
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