Who is Henry Winston?

Who was Henry Winston?

 

An unsung hero of Black History.

 

Winston was an African American. A Cold War political prisoner.  A communist.

 

Imprisoned with other communist leaders for a “conspiracy” to teach revolution, Winston was stricken with a brain tumor behind bars.

 

Thousands around the world rallied for his release.

 

Fidel Castro offered to trade the imprisoned Bay of Pigs mercenaries for his release.

 

President John F. Kennedy granted him executive clemency, but his release was too late.

 

Henry Winston went blind from medical negligence while serving a prison term because of his belief in a Socialist USA.

 

Come celebrate the life of Henry Winston.

 

Speakers:

Angela Y. Davis, professor, activist, former political prisoner

Jarvis Tyner, Executive Vice-Chair, Communist Party

Charlene Mitchell, labor and political activist, founder of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism

Danny Rubin, National Board, Communist Party

 

Special Tributes:

Vinie Burrows, veteran actor and activist

Harmonic Insurgence, a cappella choral group

 

MC:

Judith Le Blanc, National Field Director, Peace Action

 

Sunday Feb 19, 2012

2:00 PM

Henry Winston Unity Hall

235 W. 23rd Street, 2nd floor

New York, NY

 

Fruit, Wine And Cheese Reception to Follow

Donation: $10 in advance • $15 at the door • $5 Low-income

For more information call: 646-556-7409

Make checks payable to: People Before Profits Education Fund

 

Sponsors

People Before Profits Ed. Fund • Communist Party USA

Young Communist League • PeoplesWorld.org

Free Speech and Occupy Wall Street

By George Reisman

 

The Occupy Wall Street protesters were allowed to remain in New York's Zuccotti Park for two months, against the will of its private owners. They were clearly trespassers, indeed, much worse than garden variety trespassers, who almost always quickly leave. They were there prepared to stay indefinitely. In effect, they were literally attempting to steal the park from its lawful owners.

 

Nevertheless, they were allowed to remain, in the belief that to eject them would somehow constitute a violation of their freedom of speech. They had seized the park in order to denounce capitalism. Ejecting them, would have ended their use of the park for that purpose and thus, according to virtually everyone with a public voice, from New York's Mayor to the lowliest media reporter, would have violated their freedom of speech.

 

A major lesson to be learned from the occupation is that hardly anyone nowadays understands the meaning of freedom of speech. Contrary to the prevailing view, freedom of speech is not the ability to say anything, anywhere, at any time. Actual freedom of speech is consistent with respect for property rights. It presupposes that the speaker has the consent of the owners of any property he uses in speaking, such as the land, sound system, or lecture hall or radio or television studio that he uses.

 

Had the owners of Zuccotti Park invited the protesters to camp on their land and propound their ideas, and then the police had ejected them, the protesters' freedom of speech would in fact have been violated. But that was not the case. The only actual violation of freedom present was… (Read more)

 

Source: Mises.org

‘Ron Paul Is Right’ Hits Manhattan December 5!

Northbrook, IL (PRWEB) November 21, 2011 - Leading voices on the economy, health care, foreign policy and civil liberties will converge in Manhattan December 5 to fundraise on behalf of Revolution PAC, booster of the presidential campaign of Congressman Ron Paul. “Ron Paul is Right” will present a series of speakers backing the free market positions of the 12-term congressman, who now is tied for first place among Republican contenders in Iowa and polling second in New Hampshire.

 

Hosted by Dr. Murray Sabrin, finance professor at Ramapo College’s Anisfield School of Business and former gubernatorial and senatorial candidate, the event will be keynoted by Rep. Paul’s selection for Federal Reserve chairman, Jim Grant. Grant – a financial author, former Barron’s columnist and founder of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer – will speak on “Why Ron Paul is Right about the Fed.” Other presenters will include:

• Dr. Michael Scheuer, Georgetown University Security Studies adjunct professor and former head of the CIA’s “Bin Laden Unit,” speaking on “Why Ron Paul is Right about Foreign Policy;”
• Dr. Alieta Eck, President of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons and founder of the Zarephath Health Center, Somerset, NJ, speaking on “Why Ron Paul is Right about Health Care;”
• NJ State Sen. Michael Doherty, speaking on “Why Ron Paul is Right about Civil Liberties.”

The event will begin at 5:00 p.m., Monday, December 5 at the Manhattan Bridgewaters, 11 Fulton Market Building in New York City. Individual tickets begin at $300; event sponsorships are available. Phone 866.202.9367 for more information and to reserve tickets.

 

“Ron Paul is a physician and AAPS member who understands the danger of too much regulation and government control over the practice of medicine,” explains Dr. Eck. “Eliminating the middleman will help us secure the best medical care for the lowest cost.”

 

Adds Scheuer, “U.S. Special Forces deploy to Africa? U.S. Marines deploy to Australia? Senators McCain and Graham move to stop defense spending cuts? Each of these makes perfect sense based on the addiction of both Republicans and Democrats to relentless foreign intervention. But, you cannot build and keep an empire without blood and treasure. Dr. Paul’s sturdy, non-interventionist doctrine is the only foreign policy prescription that allows Americans the chance to protect their own country first, last and always by avoiding participation in other people’s wars that do not involve any genuine and material U.S. interest.”

 

“I have known Rep. Paul for nearly 30 years and have supported his political campaigns for the House of Representatives and the presidency,” remarks Sabrin. “His devotion to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States is not just words; he has lived up to his oath in every vote he has cast. This alone makes him the most qualified candidate to occupy the Oval Office.”

 

Revolution PAC is supporting Ron Paul’s consistent, constitutional message with targeted TV advertising, direct mail campaigns and innovative Web promotions complemented by billboards and radio ads in key primary states. Unlimited donations by individuals, businesses and organizations are being accepted by Revolution PAC to support that effort.

 

Read the release at PR Web

 

Source: Revolution PAC

Occupy Wall Street, from the viewpoint of Liberty

By Zach Foster

 

Part I: The Parable

 

Recent events have raised such noise, stirred many emotions, spun controversy, spawned heated debates, but most of all such events have caused great confusion regarding the Occupy Wall Street movement and its sister/satellite movements around the country.  In order to fully grasp the nature of the beast it is necessary to begin with a parable.  During the massive protests in Wisconsin early this year, many leftists—principally Marxists—spouted this parable as a metaphor for what they so passionately believe to be the demeaning and destructive nature of capitalism and the creation of wealth.

 

The parable goes as such: A CEO, a worker, and a union representative are sitting around a table.  On the table is a plate with a dozen cookies.  Suddenly the CEO grabs eleven of the cookies and shoves as many of them into his mouth, the rest of what he grabs being jammed into the pockets of his fine tailored coat.  Wiping his mouth, he belches and then turns to the worker.  Pointing to the union representative, the CEO shouts to the worker, “He wants a piece of your cookie!”  This image can faithfully sum up the Marxian perspective of capitalists and laborers.

 

Now, in order to bring a greater understanding of the economic order, let the parable be modified to realistically fit the true economic model of growth and prosperity.

 

The same three are sitting around the same table with the same plate of cookies, yet all three know the same truth: the CEO—a successful businessman and creative entrepreneur—owns the cookie dough, the cookie sheet and the oven whose machinery baked the cookies, as well as the kitchen in which the cookies were baked.  He bought the kitchen and the materials therein, spending a lot of money on them, such money being his own profits made from other ventures in which he invested.  The worker broke the cookie dough on the cookie sheet, placed it in the oven, and pressed the button to start the baking process.

 

The CEO, having already had a contract with the worker, regardless of the fact that his investment in the cookie kitchen has yet to pay itself over, takes eleven of the cookies and passes one to the worker as compensation for putting the dough in the oven.  He then points to the union representative, saying to the worker, “that man who neither split the costs of my investment nor joined you in your labor wants a piece of your cookie, and he wants several pieces of mine as well.”

 

Where does this leave the union representative?  Clearly in this situation he is a leech, though it is not meant to be an indictment of all unions.  Many labor unions have truly made daily life and working conditions better for workers all across America.  Meanwhile, many unions have disguised collective greed with the mask of the plight of the workers.  It all depends on what their demands and goals are, what repercussions would reverberate through the local and national economies, and whether or not the give and take consists of more take than give on the part of the unions.

 

The point of this parable is neither to demonize unions nor to attack workers, and it doesn’t take place in Wisconsin.  The original parable, that shouted by Marxists, was meant to demonize the “capitalist class” for their “oppression” of the working class.  The modified parable more clearly represents the economic model of growth and prosperity on the part of the entrepreneurs and businessmen.  One thing remains abundantly clear: had it not been for the investment of the entrepreneur and his one-cookie-per-dozen labor contract, the workers would not have a cookie.  Furthermore, while the businessman collects the remaining cookies for recuperation of his investment, the worker is saving the cookies he earns over time so that he can one day make an investment of his own.  It will be a very small cookie kitchen at first, but the worker is creative and has secretly been devising ingenious recipes for delicious cookies.  As his small investments begin to yield results in the future, his cookie kitchen will grow and continue to prosper.

Continued in Part II: The Protests

Photo by Dan Smith and used via Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic license. Photo was obtained from Wikimedia Commons

West Wing Week: "A Good Day For America"

West Wing Week is your guide to everything that's happening at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Last week, the President announced the death of Osama bin Laden, visited New York City to honor the victims of 9/11 and their families, made sure the federal government was doing its part in the states devastated by storms and much more.

Watch the video at WhiteHouse.gov.

Allegory of the Cave and American Politics, part 2

By Zach Foster

Continued from Part 1

Let the reader take into consideration the idea of a large open field on the outskirts of the city or town.  This open field is fairly well known.  Rabbits and other small field animals make their homes there, while birds and occasionally owls make their homes in the dispersed trees.  Environmentalists like to stroll through there in the morning to enjoy nature.  Families periodically picnic there in the afternoons.  Amateur astronomers like to forget about their 9-to-5 jobs and take their telescopes there at night to enjoy the celestial wonders, away from the city’s street lights and the glows from kitchen windows.  Teenagers periodically go there to make out.  This open field is in an unincorporated area and is no one’s property, yet it is a very popular place.  The community seems to have established and agreed to an unwritten social contract that this un-owned piece of land belongs to everyone.

Meanwhile, the said mayor and city council took notice of their constituents’ lack of civil awareness and saw an opportunity for themselves.  They raised city taxes, passed a measure to raise their own salaries, passed another measure to raise the salaries of the top municipal police (in order to have the cops in their pockets), applied for some federal environmental grant resulting in passing another law requiring every homeowner to plant a tree in their front yard or pay a heavy fine (much to the chagrin of those with impeccable front lawns and gardens), zoned an area in favor of porn shops and liquor stores rather than restaurants and mom-and-pop shops.  They also, in a closed session, incorporated the popular field, flattened it, tore down the trees, and sold the land to a major globalized department store—a threat not only to the environment and the local wildlife, but also to the local economy, especially the small consumer goods businesses.  There is now a chain link fence surrounding the field, and any citizen trespassing will be fined or arrested.  All of a sudden municipal elections seem to matter!  Better yet, the mayoral candidate that lost the election was in favor of mom-and-pop shops, lower property taxes, and wanted to make the field into a nature park and a wildlife preserve.  Don’t municipal elections all of a sudden matter more?  After this series of crooked measures, the citizens literally have fewer freedoms and the community has been impacted for the worse.  This corrupt mayor and city council represent many politicians who perhaps started with good intentions but were corrupted by the power, prestige, and perquisites that come with the territory of public office.

Those who keep themselves chained to the allegorical cavern walls may still be on their messianic high from voting for Barack Obama in 2008, and not only do they feel good because they took part in “saving the world” by voting for him (or whatever rock star candidate in whatever election), but they also convince themselves that this kind of corruption doesn’t happen, or that it rarely ever happens at all.  Reality says otherwise.

New York City councilmember Larry Seabrook was hit with a sixty-six page federal indictment including fraud, scams, false reimbursements (like $177 for a $7 lunch), embezzlement of tens of thousands of dollars from philanthropic organizations, redirecting non-profit funds to his girlfriend’s private account (and he’s married), etc.  In California’s city of Bell, City Manager Robert Rizzo was raking in a salary of $800,000 plus schemes on the side, while other city councilmembers and workers were making $357-500 thousand a year, and part-timers bringing in $100,000—all from the public coffers.  Corruption charges were filed against councilmembers from Carlisle, NY and Baltimore, MD, city call workers from Dallas, TX and Baltimore, MD.  These are just a sampling of the hundreds of municipal corruption cases in the United States from last year alone.

If simple mayors can simultaneously strip their indifferent constituents of freedom and make themselves rich, what is stopping members of Congress—who have multibillion dollar special interest groups throwing money and favors at them—from going down the same crooked route?

Continued in Part 3: City Councils, U.S. Congress, and blissful ignorance in the 2012 elections

Allegory of the Cave and American Politics

By Zach Foster

Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

…they are prisoners…Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?

--Plato, The Republic, Book Seven

Why is it that human beings often sink to the level of self-imposed mediocrity?  Everyone has heard the phrase “ignorance is bliss,” though most pretend that they are neither ignorant nor blissful.  Nonetheless, they go about their daily lives, maintained with the status quo and ignore both the successes and the problems surrounding them.  Though this image is a painting of all people, it especially applies to Americans in the following context: Why do so many Americans refuse to take an active part in the preservation of liberty?

American citizens—especially those who profess themselves to be educated, civic-minded, and aware of the political atmosphere—continually vote less and less often at the polls, whether it’s a municipal election they miss or even the last Presidential election.  The knowing and conscious failure of citizens to go to the polls and vote retranslates, in the minds of those actually in favor of upholding and preserving liberty, as “Hey!  Despots!  Please prey on me!  I didn’t vote, nor am I remotely aware of what actually goes on!  I’m just wearing this campaign button because my favorite celebrity endorsed this idiot!  I obviously don’t know you’re after my freedom, so go ahead and take it…  I won’t miss what I never used!”  Every once in a while some blow-hard will give lip service to the First Amendment to justify some ridiculously violent, vulgar, and utterly pointless design on his t-shirt, but seldom will the same blow-hard exercise his Constitutional right to elect a President and a Congress—or even a mayor.  People like this are the very prisoners Plato writes about, who see shadows on the cavern wall and think they know the world.  Better yet, these people aren’t even aware that they’re in chains!

“Municipal elections are unimportant!  Who cares about a mayor or some old farts on a city council?”  Similar words were echoed by some friends of the authors’ near the last municipal election in his hometown.  The author was feeling very much like the escaped prisoner who actually saw the world and came back to share his discovery with his mates in the cave so that they might also be free.  The author argued the following: the City of Los Angeles operates on an annual budget of $6.75 billion.  New York City operates on an annual budget of $40 billion.  Even small suburban cities operate on millions of dollars a year.  Much of this money comes from the citizens’ property taxes and other hidden taxes, fees, and living expenses.  Mayors and city councils are the individuals that make city laws and control how these millions are used (or misused).  They also control how their municipal Police will be able to operate, what the laws regarding individual property and housing will be, whether or not there will be a curfew at night time, whether to spend money building a library or a youth center, whether to zone an area for churches and mom-and-pop shops or for porn shops and cheap motels, if a local field is to be made into a nature preserve, a public park, or sold as private property to a corporate bidder, etc.  A small “elected” body of people (elected only by whatever majority from within the minority that actually showed up to vote) controls all these things.

Continued in Part 2: Guess how corrupt that city council became.  And you haven't even met the Congressman!