hawkins in plattsburg

Posted on November 22, 2019 by jeffroby

This gallery contains 1 photo.

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In Defense of Passionate Intensity.

Posted on September 29, 2018 by jeffroby

Or why we need to pay attention to what is happening with the Brett Kavanaugh nomination to the Supreme Court.

We all know the lines from the Second Coming by WB Yeats:

“Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;”

Indeed the centre is falling apart. I recall Rose and I watching from our 15th floor Jersey condo as the flames destroyed the Twin Towers on 911. I was on the phone to my brother in Ohio, telling him that one tower had just gone down, while Rose was frantically trying to get my attention and pointing out the window. I looked. There were NO towers. Only an unending plume of smoke that hovered for days.

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Take back the Dome — Round 2

Posted on August 27, 2018 by jeffroby

The fight is picking up right where it had left off.

Last summer, the St. Petersburg political scene was rocked by the Uhuru-backed candidacies of Jesse Nevel for Mayor, and Akilé Cainion (now Anai) for City Council District 6. The establishment battle plan had been to stage a Kabuki dance between the “two Ricks” — Mayor Rick Kriseman and former Mayor Rick Baker — sparring over who could best manage Gentrification and the city’s war against the Black community. As the local fishwrap Tampa Bay Times reported, it was “the ugliest, and definitely the most expensive, mayoral race in modern St. Petersburg history” and “both Ricks clearly preferred to rip each other to shreds rather than offer inspirational messages.”

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Devil Rays Strike Again!

Posted on July 22, 2018 by jeffroby

When the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team first moved to St. Petersburg, they were first known as the “Devil Rays.” The name was most appropriate, as the Boys of Summer play in Tropicana Field over the paved-over graveyards of what was once known as the Gas Plant District, former home of 800 mostly Black families and 100 Black-owned businesses.

Promises were made back in 1986 for reparation programs for the families and businesses including help with financial relocation. But those promises were brazenly broken, deepening the South Side’s legacy of poverty and under-development.

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for a United Front against Gentrification

Posted on June 28, 2018 by jeffroby

united front

One small injustice.

One of our friends — a working class white woman — was in trouble and called my wife Rose.  Her landlord was trying to force her out of her apartment, despite the fact that she had five months left on her lease.  The landlord had ordered workmen to break into her apartment to take measurements for its demolition.  Clothes and other belongings were left strewn around.  Nothing was stolen, so this was clearly a move to terrorize our friend into moving.  The landlord told the friend that he had bought the building for “development,” and our friend would have to move.  Amazingly, he also admitted that his purchased had not even been approved.  He was invading a property that was not even legally his.

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Robin Harris, Green leader

Posted on April 20, 2018 by jeffroby

Orange County, FL commissioner Dist. 6!

tweedback

The pattern of Gentrification in Orange County is classic.  First they drive out the affluent through deliberate neglect, destroying property values, bringing in low-income minorities, ruining the schools, importing a hyper-militarized police occupation that deliberately drives people out, and finally bringing in the developers and gentrifiers who will get rich off the now cheap property.  But Pine Hills resident Robin Denise Harris, a black lesbian, and co-chair of the Black Caucus of the Green Party of the United States, is running for Orange County Commissioner in District 6.  Harris is committed to battling those would-be gentrifiers.

“I will defend the basic human rights of each of my constituents,” states Harris.  “As commissioner, I will fight for the decriminalization of the homeless and the poor, and for actively ending police brutality.  I will explore programs that combat the school-to-prison pipeline.

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Black Community Control of the Police divides the Green Party

Posted on February 28, 2018 by jeffroby

00 ferguson02

ST. PETERSBURG, FL, February 27 — A proposal for Black Community Control of the Police from the Pinellas local of the Green Party of Florida (GPFL) to amend the state platform of the Green Party of Florida failed to get the two-thirds majority necessary for passage. The proposal had stated, “The Platform of the Green Party of Florida should be revised under section ‘N.  CRIMINAL JUSTICE/LAW ENFORCEMENT’ to read: ‘1.  In a society where the police are a tool for the domination and colonization of the Black community, we join the call for Black community control of the police.’ ”  The fight for Black Community Control of the Police is not over. Continue reading →

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Black community must control the police

Posted on January 21, 2018 by jeffroby

selma st pete

“The white man does not abide by law in the ghetto. Day in and day out he violates welfare laws to deprive the poor of their meager allotments; he flagrantly violates building codes and regulations; his police make a mockery of law; he violates laws on equal employment and education and the provision of public services. The slums are a handiwork of a vicious system of the white society.”

— Martin Luther King
September 1967

ST. PETERSBURG, FL, January 18 — The fight continues to this day. The fight, that is, over the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. — King as the uncompromising fighter for social justice, vs. King as the liberal reformer who implored his followers to “turn the other cheek” while “perfecting” the American system of colonialism and worldwide slaughter.

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Uhuru Takes the Stage — out of the blue.

Posted on October 22, 2017 by jeffroby

marx garveyThe left implodes.  Great hopes were stirred by the Bernie Sanders campaign.  It was alleged to be a movement that would continue beyond the primaries, beyond November, promising a Political Revolution that would transform American politics.

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Uhuru Takes the Stage — the theory.

Posted on October 22, 2017 by jeffroby

(continued from Uhuru Takes the Stage — Out of the Blue)

miami africaMost organizations don’t bother much in the way of theory.  Just do what everybody else is doing, and keep doing more of it.  (That’s why the left is doing so well!)  But there is a much higher standard for revolutionary organizations.  And there is a much higher price for failure.  Revolution requires taking what is, then visualizing what must be, and navigating past the bleached bones of one’s forbears along an all too treacherous path.  More must be said about Uhuru’s revolutionary theory.

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