Re: [Marxism] Gulf of Oman Crisis: What happened? Where is it headed?

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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thanks for your comments, Michael Karadjis. I have a few differences:

I don't think Bolton is being played by Trump. If anything, the reverse. I
think he convinced Trump that they could bully Rouhani/Khameini and that
they would back down. I think that Bolton thought all along that
Rouhani/Khameini could not back down. Or, put another way, that they would
have to increase their nuclear refining, and that that would lead to war.
But who really knows? In fact, how much does it really matter who is
playing whom?

As far as Netanyahu: I'll have to reread the article, but what I was trying
to raise is "who wants a war between the *US* and Iran?" I do think that
Netanyahu would be delighted with that, as would bin Salman. One possible
scenario would be for the US to initiate the attack. Another would be for
some sort of relatively minor attack between Israel and Iran, and then
Trump & Co. would feel obligated to step in. (Note: David Walters has
commented on the article that the Oman government is another possibility.)

Overall, here is another example of a US president who is out of the
control of the mainstream of the US capitalist class to an unprecedented
degree.

John



On Sat, Jun 15, 2019 at 9:47 PM mkaradjis .  wrote:

> Great article John. I fully agree - while it is obvious that both European
> and Japanese imperialism are opposed to war with Iran, it is also clear
> enough that the mainstream of US imperialism is on the same page as its
> allies/rivals on this one. I get tired of simpleton analysis that points
> out that capitalism is always on a "war drive", something that may be true
> on a large historic scale but is a pretty embarrassing way for a "Marxist"
> to try to analyse every event. Who is pushing confrontation? (1) Bolton - a
> nutter from another, bygone, era, who Trump has employed as his attack-dog
> to raise the pressure on Iran, until he serves his purpose and can be
> dispensed with (2) Pompeo - back and forth, one day to the next - currently
> trying to out-trump Trump in that role, (3) MBS/Saudi monarchy - wants to
> see its key regional rival cut down to size, to employ the US more
> decisively in Yemen, and to maintain its key role in the US arms market and
> the oil/arms/dollars nexus. Who's not on board? Obviously European and
> Japanese imperialism, but also (1) as you show very clearly, the mainstream
> of the US capitalist class, (2) the Pentagon - all their statements have
> been guarded and defensive, "we can defend ourselves if Iran attacks us",
> which can obviously be interpreted in various ways, but none of their
> statements or rhetoric concur with the Bolton/Pompeo line; the Pentagon
> sees blowing things up with Iran as a clear danger to their strategy in
> Iraq and their presence in the region. Who is in the middle? (1) Obviously
> Trump. Trump does not want a war and to get bogged down in some stupid
> neocon fantasy, he's good with war, but smarter than often assumed. he's
> definitely smarter than Bolton, who is being played. Trump wants to emerge
> the King-maker. I suspect Pompeo wants to end up by his side rather than
> Bolton's in the long run. (2) Israel - here I somewhat disagree with your
> article - all the statements coming from Israel have been highly muted on
> this; and as I've long said, the Israeli-Saudi "alliance" is greatly
> exaggerated, in practical terms. Israel doesn't need a bloody conflict with
> Hezbollah just because MBS wants a Gulf conflict and Bolton wants to live
> out superseded fantasies; not because Israel is scared of Hezbollah (a
> breathtaking fantasy), Israel could wipe out all the military junk
> Hezbollah has accumulated over the years in a few days, but Israel would
> prefer to choose when it engages in conflict - not just now when it is
> negotiating a demarcation agreement with Lebanon (where Hezbollah is part
> of the government ...) over the gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea, (3)
> Russia - I agree with your points about Russian-Iranian rivalry in Syria,
> and also Russia has excellent relations with the Saudis and UAE; it does
> not support a US-neocon attack on Iran, but would benefit from it as
> king-maker. I slightly disagree with your explanation re Syria that Russia
> was happy for Iran to come to Assad's aid until Israel objected, then
> Russia changed course; more like, Russia was happy for Iran to supply
> ground troops for Assad that Russia wouldn't, while it just employed its
> airforce (and the US also had little objection, sometimes even worked
> alongside Iranians in Syria); but once Assad's throne was safe, all that
> Iran-led sectarian rabble was no longer necessary, so in the context 

Re: [Marxism] Gulf of Oman Crisis: What happened? Where is it headed?

[mkaradjis . via Marxism]

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Great article John. I fully agree - while it is obvious that both European
and Japanese imperialism are opposed to war with Iran, it is also clear
enough that the mainstream of US imperialism is on the same page as its
allies/rivals on this one. I get tired of simpleton analysis that points
out that capitalism is always on a "war drive", something that may be true
on a large historic scale but is a pretty embarrassing way for a "Marxist"
to try to analyse every event. Who is pushing confrontation? (1) Bolton - a
nutter from another, bygone, era, who Trump has employed as his attack-dog
to raise the pressure on Iran, until he serves his purpose and can be
dispensed with (2) Pompeo - back and forth, one day to the next - currently
trying to out-trump Trump in that role, (3) MBS/Saudi monarchy - wants to
see its key regional rival cut down to size, to employ the US more
decisively in Yemen, and to maintain its key role in the US arms market and
the oil/arms/dollars nexus. Who's not on board? Obviously European and
Japanese imperialism, but also (1) as you show very clearly, the mainstream
of the US capitalist class, (2) the Pentagon - all their statements have
been guarded and defensive, "we can defend ourselves if Iran attacks us",
which can obviously be interpreted in various ways, but none of their
statements or rhetoric concur with the Bolton/Pompeo line; the Pentagon
sees blowing things up with Iran as a clear danger to their strategy in
Iraq and their presence in the region. Who is in the middle? (1) Obviously
Trump. Trump does not want a war and to get bogged down in some stupid
neocon fantasy, he's good with war, but smarter than often assumed. he's
definitely smarter than Bolton, who is being played. Trump wants to emerge
the King-maker. I suspect Pompeo wants to end up by his side rather than
Bolton's in the long run. (2) Israel - here I somewhat disagree with your
article - all the statements coming from Israel have been highly muted on
this; and as I've long said, the Israeli-Saudi "alliance" is greatly
exaggerated, in practical terms. Israel doesn't need a bloody conflict with
Hezbollah just because MBS wants a Gulf conflict and Bolton wants to live
out superseded fantasies; not because Israel is scared of Hezbollah (a
breathtaking fantasy), Israel could wipe out all the military junk
Hezbollah has accumulated over the years in a few days, but Israel would
prefer to choose when it engages in conflict - not just now when it is
negotiating a demarcation agreement with Lebanon (where Hezbollah is part
of the government ...) over the gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea, (3)
Russia - I agree with your points about Russian-Iranian rivalry in Syria,
and also Russia has excellent relations with the Saudis and UAE; it does
not support a US-neocon attack on Iran, but would benefit from it as
king-maker. I slightly disagree with your explanation re Syria that Russia
was happy for Iran to come to Assad's aid until Israel objected, then
Russia changed course; more like, Russia was happy for Iran to supply
ground troops for Assad that Russia wouldn't, while it just employed its
airforce (and the US also had little objection, sometimes even worked
alongside Iranians in Syria); but once Assad's throne was safe, all that
Iran-led sectarian rabble was no longer necessary, so in the context of
Russian-Iranian rivalry over the spoils and "reconstruction" and Israel's
attacks on Iranian assets, Russia can now join the US and Israel in moving
Iran aside in Syria. Anyway, once again, great analysis

On Sun, Jun 16, 2019 at 9:53 AM John Reimann via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> 'On Thursday, June 13, two Japanese-flagged oil tankers were attacked in
> the Gulf of Oman, off the coast of Iran. The Trump administration
> immediately claimed that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were responsible.
> They based this claim on a video they released of a patrol boat of the
> Guards standing alongside one of the tankers, the Kokuta Courageous,
> apparently removing something attached to the side of the ship. Trump & Co.
> claimed the Guards were removing a limpet mine they had attached earlier,
> and that they were removing it to hide the evidence.
>
> *'N.Y. Times *
> *Article*On Friday, the NY Times published an extremely interesting article
> <
> 

[Marxism] Phoenix police threaten to shoot family after a 4-year-old took doll from store. - The Washington Post

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/15/after-year-old-took-doll-store-video-shows-phoenix-police-pulling-gun-parents/
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[Marxism] "How Russian Church learned to stop worrying and love the bomb"

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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From "Foreign Affairs" online magazine:

Every year on May 9, Russia

celebrates
Victory Day—the day on which Nazi Germany surrendered to the Soviet Union
in 1945—with its biggest annual military parade. This year, the ceremonies
opened as they always do, with the Russian defense minister entering Red
Square to inspect the troops and report to the president. When passing
through Spasskaya Tower, the Kremlin’s main ceremonial gate, Defense
Minister Sergei Shoigu’s cabriolet stopped. The minister took off his
peaked cap and made  the sign
of the cross according to Orthodox tradition. Shoigu was the first minister
to introduce this gesture into the ceremony in 2015. Whether he did so as a
genuine expression of his faith, a public relations gambit, or both, his
crossing himself on such an occasion reflects the tightening of bonds
between church and state in today’s Russia.

Since the Soviet collapse, the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), and the
Orthodox faith more broadly, has exerted a growing influence on public and
private life. Although relatively few Russians are actual practitioners,
the majority of the population (about 80 percent) identifies as Orthodox,
and many citizens consider the religion to be a defining element of Russian
national identity. Officials across the Russian government—including
ministers, members of the State Duma and of the Federation Council, senior
military commanders, and President Vladimir Putin himself—have taken to
openly professing their Orthodox faith. At times, some parts of the public
have objected to the state’s privileging of the ROC, but such criticism has
done little to diminish the church’s status.

That the church carries extraordinary weight on Russia’s domestic scene is
well-known and not that unusual. What is more surprising, and less often
explored, is the church’s influence within Russia’s nuclear weapons
complex—the most significant wing of one of the world’s most powerful
militaries. There the nexus between church and state runs deepest, widest,
and longest. During the last three decades, the priesthood has entered all
levels of command and positioned itself as a guardian of Russia’s nuclear
potential. It’s impossible to fully understand the strategic reality in
Russia today without scrutinizing the remarkable conjunction between the
Kremlin, the ROC, and the nuclear weapons community.
THE TRINITY AND THE TRIAD

In Russia, each of the three components of the nuclear force structure—air,
land, and sea—has its own patron saint. Icons adorn the walls of the
sanctified headquarters, the command posts, and even the nuclear weapons
platforms. Each large military base houses a garrison church, chapel, or
prayer room. Aerial, ground, and naval processions of the cross are
routine. Supplication services and the sprinkling of holy water mark oaths
of allegiance, parades, exercises, and space and nuclear launches. Pilots
of strategic bombers sanctify their jets prior to combat sorties and attach
icons to the maps they take to the cockpit. Mobile temples accompany
land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, and nuclear-armed
submarines house portable churches.

The military clergy provides regular pastoral care to the nuclear corps’
servicemen and function as official assistants to the commanders. The
nuclear priesthood and servicemen jointly celebrate religious and
professional holidays, and religious instruction is integral to the higher
education of both military and civilian nuclear personnel. Priests
participate in professional activities through the whole chain of command
and join their flock in operational missions on the ground and underwater.
Within the Russian military, in particular within the nuclear forces,
clerics so frequently lead activities to boost morale and foster patriotism
that they play a role nearly equivalent to that of Soviet-era political
officers, who were responsible for the ideological education of troops and
for ensuring the Kremlin’s control over the military.

Russia’s nuclear theory and practice have become increasingly assertive
over the last decade, as ties between the military and the church have
deepened. Russian strategists more readily incorporate nuclear tools into
their planning and use Russia’s status as a nuclear power to coerce the
behavior of others. The church is not the only or even the main force
behind this posturing, but its open backing burnishes the domestic
legitimacy of the Kremlin’s gambits, generating public support both for
Moscow’s foreign policy and for the modernization of the 

[Marxism] Gulf of Oman Crisis: What happened? Where is it headed?

[John Reimann via Marxism]

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'On Thursday, June 13, two Japanese-flagged oil tankers were attacked in
the Gulf of Oman, off the coast of Iran. The Trump administration
immediately claimed that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards were responsible.
They based this claim on a video they released of a patrol boat of the
Guards standing alongside one of the tankers, the Kokuta Courageous,
apparently removing something attached to the side of the ship. Trump & Co.
claimed the Guards were removing a limpet mine they had attached earlier,
and that they were removing it to hide the evidence.

*'N.Y. Times *
*Article*On Friday, the NY Times published an extremely interesting article

. It was interesting both for the facts it recounted as well as for the
fact that the NYT published it at all!

'[The article writes:] “Yet what the videos and photographs published by
the United States don’t show us is more important…. Nothing presented as
evidence proves that the object was placed there by the Iranians. The video
shows only that the Iranians chose to remove it for an as yet unknown
reason.”

'What’s so significant about this is the fact that the Times would even
bother to raise the point. The article refers to the Gulf of Tonkin
incident'

The known facts plus simple political analysis would seem to indicate that
most likely it was not the Iranian government that carried out these
attacks. Who, then? Bin Salman? Netanyahu? The Houthis? And where does
Putin stand in all of this?

Read entire article here:
https://oaklandsocialist.com/2019/06/15/new-crisis-in-gulf-of-oman-what-really-happened-where-is-it-headed/

-- 
*“In politics, abstract terms conceal treachery.” *from "The Black
Jacobins" by C. L. R. James
Check out:https:http://oaklandsocialist.com also on Facebook
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[Marxism] Socialism or Extinction

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://jacobinmag.com/2019/06/biodiversity-species-extinction-united-nations-report
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[Marxism] Review: We Need To Talk About Putin | rs21

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.rs21.org.uk/2019/06/15/review-we-need-to-talk-about-putin/
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[Marxism] UPDATED 6/15 to Cover Japanese Oil Tanker Attacks: What’s Trump’s Actual Asian Policy? Looks Can Be Deceiving… | Washington Babylon

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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https://washingtonbabylon.com/whats-trumps-actual-asian-policy-looks-can-be-deceiving/


Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 
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[Marxism] Fwd: Campaign Report: Major Progress In Texas

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Hi Louis,

Good News!

The Texas bill that will retroactively and automatically give the Green 
Party of Texas ballot access was signed into law earlier this week!


This is a cool win for a couple of reasons. First, we’re on the ballot 
because of the new law _and_ because of Martina Salinas’ 2016 Railroad 
Commissioner race. Martina garnered 3.25% of the vote in 2016, enough to 
get us on the ballot under the new law.


Second, this is a win that Howie Hawkins 2020—our campaign—worked hard 
to secure. We helped mobilize Greens in Texas with an aggressive online 
and telemarketing outreach plan that had a singular focus: get voters to 
call their reps and _demand_ passage of the new law.


Success is sweet! This win translates into a complete game changer for 
Green Party candidates—including our campaign. Without this bill, we 
would have had to pony up an estimated $100,000 just to get 
this campaign and other Texas Green campaigns on the ballot in 2020.


(Can you hear our collective sigh of relief?)

This is a huge win. But it’s just the beginning.

We need to put organizers on the ground now to help rebuild that state 
party from the ground up. That will take resources. And that’s where you 
come in.


As great as the Texas win is, many states still have draconian ballot 
access laws designed with one purpose in mind: to keep third parties off 
the ballot. In fact, Ballotpedia estimated that for an 
independent candidate for president to get on the ballot in all 50 
states in 2016, they’d need more than 860,000 signatures. (We estimate 
1.5 million to be safe.)


And, while we were in Alabama last week, we were reminded that, 
currently, we need 50,000+ signatures to get on the ballot—and then in 
order to keep ballot access, the presidential candidate needs to achieve 
20% of the statewide vote.


Here’s the thing...

*No matter the challenges, our campaign goal is to get the Green Party 
on the 2020 ballot in every state in the Union, including the District 
of Columbia and the advisory vote in Guam, Puerto Rico, and other US 
territories that decide to hold advisory presidential votes.*


That means we need to organize and deploy Greens _nationwide_ in 
constant petition drives and organizing work until the end of next 
summer/early fall.


Now, we can always rely on our incredible volunteers, but they need 
coordination and support. Our campaign is committed to paying for a full 
time staff member to coordinate ballot access volunteers and hire Green 
organizers on the ground.


*That’s where you come in*. We need to raise about $1.5 million over the 
next year to get about 1.5 million signatures to secure ballot access in 
every state and territory. That’s $1 per signature. That's cheap, 
because the Greens can rely so heavily on our own activists.


Can you help out by sending $250 today 
? 
That’s the maximum amount that qualifies for 1:1 Federal matching funds, 
doubling your donation’s value to $500.


Or, if $250 is not possible today, could you commit to sending $10, $25, 
$50 a month 
 
(or more) through the November 2019 election to help us get on every 
ballot – including the tough states like Alabama?


Whatever you can send will help us achieve nation-wide ballot access in 
2020! There’s no such thing as a donation that’s too small—every dollar 
you send will be stretched to do the work of two or three dollars.


We need your help now 
. 
We need Green organizers working today, and every day between now 
and September 4, 2020, the last state ballot access deadline before the 
November election.


It’s profoundly anti-democratic that we have to battle for ballot 
access; but gaining ballot access will enable us to run local candidates 
and build the Green Party into major party from the grassroots up.


That’s a goal worth our hard work and money.

In solidarity,


  Team Howie


P.S. Campaign finance laws are confusing, so here’s how it works: The 
maximum donation you can make to any campaign is $2800 for the primary 
and another $2800 for the general election, a total of $5,600 
per person. The first $250 you donate _before_ the Green primary next 
August qualifies for 1:1 Federal matching funds. Your $250 becomes $500. 
Please donate today 
.


Forward 

[Marxism] When Rohingya Refugees Fled to India, Hate on Facebook Followed

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, June 15, 2019
When Rohingya Refugees Fled to India, Hate on Facebook Followed
By Vindu Goel and Shaikh Azizur Rahman

KOLKATA, India — Mohammad Salim, a Rohingya Muslim refugee, thought he 
had left genocidal violence and Facebook vitriol behind when he fled his 
native country, Myanmar, in 2013.


But lately, his new home, India’s West Bengal state, has not felt much 
safer. And once again, Facebook is a big part of the problem.


During India’s recent national elections, Mr. Salim said, he saw 
Facebook posts that falsely accused Rohingya Muslims of cannibalism go 
viral, along with posts that threatened to burn their homes if they did 
not leave India. Some Hindu nationalists called the Rohingya terrorists 
and shared videos on the social network in which the leader of India’s 
governing Bharatiya Janata Party vowed to expel the minority group and 
other Muslim “termites.” A week ago, new posts popped up falsely 
accusing the Rohingya of killing B.J.P. workers in West Bengal.


“Many groups demonized us on Facebook and WhatsApp, and they succeeded 
in whipping up a strong anti-Rohingya passion in the state,” Mr. Salim, 
29, said in a recent interview in a village near Kolkata, West Bengal’s 
capital.


He said he had quit selling fruit juice at local rail stations and was 
moving with his pregnant wife and two toddlers to a new, undisclosed 
location — their fourth home in the past 15 months — because he was 
afraid of being attacked by right-wing Hindus or arrested.


Mr. Salim’s experience, echoed in interviews with other Rohingya Muslims 
who sought refuge in India, shows the widening, real-world repercussions 
of Facebook’s failure to stop anti-Rohingya hate speech on its platform, 
an issue that the company’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, promised 
last year to solve.


For years, Facebook ignored dehumanizing anti-Rohingya propaganda on its 
Myanmar pages, despite substantial evidence that it was leading to mass 
killings, rape and the destruction of villages. After United Nations 
investigators criticized Facebook last year for playing a “determining 
role” in the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya and the flight of 700,000 
refugees, Mr. Zuckerberg told the United States Senate: “What’s 
happening in Myanmar is a terrible tragedy, and we need to do more.”


But anti-Rohingya hate speech and falsehoods have since spread to India, 
where Facebook has 340 million users. That is creating the potential for 
violence in tinderbox regions like West Bengal, a Hindu-majority state 
with a substantial Muslim population, where the B.J.P. has stoked fears 
of Muslim “infiltrators” from Bangladesh. In total, the government 
estimates there are about 40,000 Rohingya in India.


“Hate speech and misinformation is adding fuel to the already existing 
hatred towards the Rohingyas,” said Mariya Salim, an independent 
activist on minority and women’s rights who lives in Kolkata. “It’s not 
a secret that online calls for violence can easily turn into real-life 
threats.”


Facebook said it had made progress in combating anti-Rohingya hate 
speech. The Silicon Valley company has assembled a team of 100 people 
who speak Burmese to review posts from Myanmar, which was formerly known 
as Burma. It banned some military accounts responsible for hate speech. 
And it said it had trained its algorithms to better detect hate speech 
globally, claiming that it now removes about two-thirds of such posts 
before anyone even complains about them.


“We don’t want our services to be used to spread hate, incite violence 
or fuel tension against any ethnic group in any country — including the 
Rohingya in India,” Facebook said in a statement. “We have clear rules 
against hate speech and credible threats of violence, and we use a 
combination of technology and reports to help us identify and remove 
such content.”


Yet Facebook is limited in its ability to eradicate hate speech and 
false information. It relies heavily on users to report inappropriate 
posts and on third-party partners to assess falsehoods, which means only 
some of the offending material is caught. The company’s employees and 
contractors often lack the linguistic and cultural knowledge necessary 
to gauge the offline risks posed by certain content. And Facebook’s 
focus on individual posts means it can overlook the long-term impact of 
sustained hate campaigns.


“I think Facebook keeps thinking they can solve this within the bunker 
of their offices and not with the collaboration of the communities who 
are affected,” said Thenmozhi Soundararajan, the founder of Equality 
Labs, a human rights group that tracks hate speech in India.

[Marxism] The case for underestimating Boris Johnson | Richard Seymour on Patreon

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.patreon.com/posts/case-for-boris-27648385
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[Marxism] Why the UAW Lost Again in Chattanooga | Labor Notes

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.labornotes.org/2019/06/why-uaw-lost-again-chattanooga
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[Marxism] Largest Animal Epidemic in History Is Due to Industrial Farming

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://therealnews.com/stories/largest-animal-epidemic-in-history-is-due-to-industrial-farming
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[Marxism] We Must Build An Independent Socialist Group in Houston

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.spacecitysocialists.org/post/we-must-build-an-independent-socialist-group-in-houston
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[Marxism] The Birth, Death, and Rebirth of Postmodernism - The Chronicle of Higher Education

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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In that spirit, we asked 10 contributors to reflect on the continuing 
relevance — or irrelevance — of postmodernism to the academy and the 
larger culture.


https://www.chronicle.com/interactives/20190614-PoMoForum?key=mi0Bff1vaLHL09_no2Emg6JIe3RJXwjaV_o_nbCpuVxMH8gPZXnGwuSab8u8nxr9Y29MdVhxR1R0UDE4OVp0THlZUXVOWGRXcFhLXzM2SkZFcldxR3MwMEc1Yw
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[Marxism] Bernie’s Red Vermont | The New Republic

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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Despite its reputation for small-scale agriculture and green hills, 
Vermont was one of the largest recipients of Defense Department weapons 
contracts in the early ’80s, thanks to the production of Gatling guns at 
the General Electric plant in Burlington.


That summer, a group of peace activists met with Sanders to tell him 
about their plan to block the gate to Burlington’s General Electric 
factory. Sanders was upset with them, Guma says in his book, The 
People’s Republic: Vermont and the Sanders Revolution, for “blaming the 
workers” and not focusing their attention on the federal centers of 
strategic thinking on U.S. foreign policy. Sanders accused the activists 
of pointing “the finger of guilt at working people,” according to the 
Burlington Free Press. He reportedly came around to opposing the sit-in 
after meeting with the workers’ union leaders. “Not everyone has the 
luxury of choosing where they are going to work,” he told the Press. His 
position flew in the face of increased local activism around war and 
peace issues, especially in Vermont, where 159 out of 180 towns had 
passed nuclear freeze resolutions.


Sanders was unmoved by the activists’ arguments and said he would “have 
no choice but to order their arrest,” according to Guma’s account. Soon 
after the protest began the morning of June 20, dozens of activists were 
arrested as, Guma says, “the mayor watched from the side of the road.”


full: https://newrepublic.com/article/154086/bernies-red-vermont
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