An appeal for Father’s Day, June 17, 2018 [Ed. Note: Marion Lardner, the 87-year old mother of Emily and a retired kindergarden teacher wrote this letter about the Administration’s policy of arresting and deporting undocumented parents and of separating children from families newly entering the US. She persuaded members of…
Posts published by “Anna Zanella”
One effect of radical economic inequality is to make it difficult for those of us who have sufficient income to imagine how little it takes to push a person over the edge—or to keep them from it. The fact that small amounts of money can make a huge difference in…
A UN official who inquires about extreme poverty and human rights recently came to the US to check out our performance in those areas. (1) He had some interesting things to report: “[Professor Philip Alston’s] visit coincides with a dramatic change of direction in US policies relating to inequality and…
Seattle June 11, 2018: Anti-nuclear activists called for the abolition of nuclear weapons in Seattle on the eve of the historic US-North Korea summit. Activists from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action began their summer campaign against nuclear weapons by holding banners over Interstate 5 during the morning rush hour.…
The July 2018 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” helps us and our society understand how science works – and helps us push governments for smart and wise public policies based on honest science. In modern America, honest science is being attacked by gigantic business corporations in order to corrupt all…
This issue’s theme: The surveillance society I took a class in college in the 60s called “Totalitarianism and Society” (and the college wasn’t Evergreen). Totalitarianism is a political concept where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to control every aspect of public and private life wherever…
Twenty-some people who help directly and indirectly to make this newspaper possible met together in May to discuss ways to transition Works in Progress to a more sustainable mode. Lots of good ideas—now for people to execute them! For over a decade the person principally responsible for creating and shepherding…
I-1600, Universal Health Care for Washington State All month signature collection. Volunteer at www.wholewashington,org I-1631, Carbon Fee and Dividend Collect signatures all month. Volunteer at Yes on 1631 (Facebook) Poor People’s Campaign rallies Mondays beginning June 2. See schedule in the article. Rock against Trump! Saturday, June 2, 6 pm at Capitol…
From the May reporting on the National Bail Out Collective: The call raised over $440,000 to help local organizers fight mass incarceration This past Mothers Day, the contributions freed over 140 Black women from jail and gave them the opportunity to reunite with their families, From the December 2017 WIP…
Emily Lardner “We are building a new story for Grays Harbor County. We are reclaiming our right to fresh food, to sustainable use of the land, and to an economy that benefits all of us, not just the few at the top.” How can a tiny vegetable farm change the…
The Harbor Roots story A rural logging and fishing community, with industry in decline, Grays Harbor County can feel isolated and forgotten by the rest of the world. When the timber economy collapsed, the region was left with very few jobs and little hope. But many of the people didn’t…
Walter Smith Last year, two Stanford researchers announced their automated process could analyze facial images and predict human subjects’ sexual orientation with much higher accuracy than human investigators guessing the subjects’ orientations. This discovery gives me pause, thinking of the dystopian possibilities it suggests. Sure, artificial intelligence like this could…
Staff writer From press releases A couple of years ago, then NFL starting quarterback and Superbowl hero, Colin Kaepernick decided either to remain seated or kneel during renditions of the Star Spangled Banner in support of Black Lives Matter, and to protest police violence against Black people. Bigger than football…
The Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice Building community and making room for joy For eleven years, the Rachel Corrie Gaza Sport Initiative has conducted football tournaments for juniors, men and athletes with disabilities. Thousands of spectators and hundreds of competing athletes participate each year. The initiative is unique…
Enlist in the fight to end poverty and the evils that sustain it Let us strive to build bridges while others call for walls. Let‘s reach out for allies and unity to old and new friends of like heart and from other groups to share this most critical journey with…
Olympia YWCA This year’s Racial Justice Summit presents the theme of Anti-Racist Accountability as continuation of last year’s subject of Intent vs Impact. YWCA Olympia works to recognize and raise up the voices and experiences of People of Color in our community who are continually harmed by systematic and organizational…
Gary Murrell Radicalism isn’t a concept that many readers of Works in Progress call to mind when thinking (if they ever do think) about Grays Harbor. Ocean, yes; oysters and crab, yes; salmon, undoubtedly. Radicalism? Not so much. Radicals in Grays Harbor often looked on in envy at Olympia’s activism,…
Dylan Brooks [Ed note. This was one of several talks given at a gathering to celebrate International Workers’ Day at Sylvester Park. On hand with information and activities were folks from the Just Housing, Green Party, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters, several interactions of socialists, along with organizers from the…
The Months of Labor—June Eugene V. Debs, Labor leader Presidential Candidate and Prisoner #9653 My parents emigrated to the US and started a grocery in Terre Haute, Indiana where I was raised. I organized the American Railway Workers Union in 1894. Eventually I embraced socialism, and ran in five presidential…
The social history of wiretaps David Price In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, the American public hastily abandoned a century of fairly consistent opposition to government wiretaps. Months before the 9/11 attacks, distrust of the FBI was at one of its highest historical levels, as the June 20, 2001 USA…
Hello. Pizza Milano? —No, sir. This is Pizza Google. Oh, sorry, I must have the wrong number. —No, this is the number; we acquired Pizza Milano. Ok! Can you take my order? —Yes, of course. The usual? “The usual?” Do you know me? —Yes, we identified you by your telephone…
Living in a society of mass surveillance Enrique Quintero Synchronized vigilante-voyeurism Strange as it may sound, for all practical purposes it could be argued that in contemporary capitalism we exist only as data. It seems all of us have been trans-mutated, turned into commodified digital beings. Yes, our corporeality maintains…
Viviendo en una Sociedad de Vigilancia Masiva Enrique Quintero Voyerismo Vigilante y Sincronizado Por extraño que parezca, pero por fines prácticos podría argumentarse que en el capitalismo contemporáneo solo existimos como datos. Actualmente parece que todos nosotros hemos sido transmutados y convertidos en seres digitales mercantilizados. Por supuesto, nuestra corporeidad mantiene su materialidad de carne y hueso y continuamos comprando y trabajado; amando…
Andrea Germanos The National Security Agency (NSA) collected over 530 million phone records of Americans in 2017—that’s three times the amount the spy agency sucked up in 2016. The figures were released Friday in an annual report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). It shows that…
Fr: The ACLU RE: Tell Amazon not to sell a mass surveillance system to governments Amazon is offering powerful facial recognition technology to governments. This technology, Rekognition, will enable an unprecedented level of mass surveillance to threaten civil rights and civil liberties, particularly for vulnerable communities. This powerful technology can…