The Rag Blog

From: Mark Rudd mark@…
Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2006 16:18:52 -0600
Subject: They’re back, and ready to ORGANIZE!!!

Dear Friends: Perhaps you’ve heard that Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, a defunct sixties rock group, has been resurrected from the grave. It’s true!

Myself, I’ve kept my distance up to now, thinking that they don’t need any stupid old people hanging around to screw things up, like we did forty years ago.

But I have been watching the growth of this new SDS, with more than 130 chapters on college and high school campuses. You can check out what they’ve been up to at this link. Last May I had the pleasure of meeting two young organizers from Tacoma SDS. They’ve been doing some great work organizing against the war in the Olympia/Tacoma area, which you can read about on the above website.

Last month I was recruited by a zealous grey-haired organizer, Bruce Rubenstein of Hartford, Conn, (or maybe he has no hair, I’ve never met him in person), to join the SDS old people’s auxiliary, Movement for a Democratic Society (MDS). The original MDS was founded around 1967 to provide an organizational framework for post-campus organizers. This one is intended to help the young SDS organizers with bail, fund-raising, advice (only if asked), logistical support, and who knows what else. The president of MDS is our old founder, Al Haber, one of the authors of the Port Huron Statement. Check out MDS at this link.

Somehow, I was immediately put on MDS’ board upon joining. When I looked on the website to try to figure out what the duties of board members are, I found my name alongside those of other several old comrades, among others: Tom Hayden, Carl Davidson, Bernardine Dohrn, Charlene Mitchell, Michael Rossman, Michael James, HOWARD ZINN and NOAM CHOMSKY!!!! Now I know what it feels like to be on the same board with both God and Jesus Christ.

A lot of the start-up SDS support work in the last year has been done by Paul Buhle, at Brown, and Tom Good, of New York City. Tom edits a website called Next Left Notes, which you might want to check out at this link. He has a bunch of great stuff there, plus links to everything under the sun. Check out especially Paul Buhle’s reports and essays.

My deepest hope is that the new SDS flourishes and helps build the broadest possible anti-war movement and even a new radical movement to challenge the violent fascist clique now in power in Washington.

One requisite is that they and we avoid the stupid ideological infighting, sectarianism, name-calling, and “correct lineism” that killed the old SDS. (For my mea culpas, check out my website at this link.) Unfortunately there’s already been an outbreak of this garbage, involving three old comrades, Tom Good, Jesse Lemisch, and Maurice Isserman, all good people; in response young organizers will probably just change the channel, but old people like me will certainly be repulsed and withdraw because we have better things to do with the little time left us on this mortal coil.

Let’s hope this is the last instance of the poison which is guaranteed to kill us off. Or are we incapable of learning from our mistakes?

*Anyway, the purpose of this long message, please forgive me, is to ask you to investigate joining SDS (if you’re a student or young person) and MDS (if you’re a veteran or off-campus).* We need help getting these organizations going. The intergenerational aspect of the work can be a plus, especially if the old people don’t act as a heavy hand on the young.

Speaking of which, anyone interested in helping me organize a Buddhist style self-immolation brigade? We could create instant martyrs, plus get rid of some of our more annoying old comrades at the same time.

Feel free to write me with your response at mark@…

Also, please circulate this message to your lists so that we can get the word out about SDS and MDS.

For peace, justice, and freedom, and a new and better SDS,

Mark

De Arbol Salsa or How to Get Even with a Friend Who Gave You Something That Was Too Spicy

This is incredibly tasty, but it will sneek up on you and whack you in the back of your eyeballs !!! I know you think it should be spelled “sneak,” but not in this recipe – see for yourself what happens to your spelling after tasting it ….

To complete the story: one of Carolyn’s colleagues (Naomi, whose recipe for Shan Salad appears in this book on page 284) gave her two cans of a prepared Thai-style curry paste. I used one to cook some little leftovers (some chicken and a little salmon, plus lima beans and chicken stock), and Carolyn found it way spicy, and could not eat it – I thought it was okay, but darned mouth-biter hot !!!

One 1-quart plastic bag, stuffed with (dry) de Arbol chiles (about 5 ounces)
Juice of 2 limes
3 large shallots, husked
5 cloves of Italian garlic, husked
1 cup homemade tomato sauce (no salt, no nothing)
2 tablespoons cumin
1 tablespoon Mexican oregano
1 teaspoon fresh minced (or ground) ginger
1 teaspoon dried mint leaves (from our garden)
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Bring 1 quart water to a boil while you stem the chiles. I tried to remove seeds, too, but it became dangerous with all the chile dust flying. I think I got about half of the seeds out. Give the chiles a quick cold water rinse to remove the dust and dirt. When the water boils, pour enough over the chiles to cover them. Soak them for a long hour.

In the meanwhile, put all the remaining ingredients into your food processor or blender and go drink a beer while you recover from the chile dust.

The tomato sauce I used , homemade back in April of 2002, was supposed to be tomato paste, but it didn’t want to go there, even though the Roma tomatoes were beautiful. By writing this, I mean the sauce I used consisted of Roma tomatoes, period.

When the chiles are softened, use a slotted spoon to get them into the food processor, cover it, and see if the blade will turn. If it will not, add a little chile soaking water and try again. Mash everything for about 40 to 50 seconds, then pour it into a pot and bring it to a very slow simmer, covered. Watch out, as the salsa is like lava.

Oh, yeh – give it a taste, using a tortilla chip and see what happens to your sinuses, your eyes, and your spelling …

Charlie named this piece “Vision.” Indeed ….

Did you know that “when the final history is written on Iraq, it will look like just a comma because there is … a strong will for democracy”? The utter hypocrisy and sadism of the man in the White House is disgusting.

Read more here.

Someone else we know has expanded on this business a little, and perhaps there’s merit in what he says. If you’re interested, look here. Thanks to Nick Hopkins for the tip about the latter link.

Richard Jehn

It’s Wildlife Wednesday, and I thought you might like to see his girlfriend. You know, the fellow who dropped in last week, that migratory parrot. His girlfriend is a little less showy, but still a beautiful creature in her own right. And she’s a very cautious and curious creature, too, keeping an eye out for their safety as they have a little snack at the feeder. That’s him on the left, with his back turned to us. As previously reported, they are evening grosbeaks.

British military in crisis as NATO mission in Afghanistan unravels
By Harvey Thompson
26 September 2006

Faced with a burgeoning insurgency and the deteriorating authority of the central government of Hamid Karzai, the NATO command has signalled its determination to sacrifice more Afghan civilians and its own soldiers in a desperate bid to wrest control of the country.

The newspaper revealed that British commanders had now been given official clearance to use the army’s controversial Hydra rockets, which are developed to kill large concentrations of people with tungsten darts. It commented that “the disclosure marks a major escalation in hostilities in the war-torn country and directly contradicts claims made by the government that the Army was only in Afghanistan to provide the security conditions needed to allow reconstruction and self-governance to take place.”

Read the full article here.

And there’s this:

24 September 2006
EXCLUSIVE: BETRAYED, SOLDIER QUITS
EXCLUSIVE Army officer quits in disgust over Afghan shambles & reveals: Our troops are called The Borrowers because they have to cadge ammo The heat is so intense that guns are melting British food is being stolen by Taliban looters
By Nick Owens

… The officer – a member of 16 Air Assault Brigade – has now turned whistle-blower to give a shocking account of how shortages have hit troops on the frontline.

“Hearing that message was a kick in the guts for me and the rest of the boys. The truth is not being told and there is anger on the frontline about the lack of supplies.” …

To read the complete article, click here.

At least, I hope these are all about politics in Texas. Somethin’ ’bout a governor’s race, I think … I live in Washington state, so you folks can decide what these are about. Thanks, Charlie. Richard Jehn

Monkeywrench Books will show Rebels With a Cause tomorrow at 8:00 at 110 E. North Loop. Some of you SDSers try to come and participate in the discussion afterwards with the current generation of activists. OK?

Wednesday, September 27th, 8pm, MonkeyWrench Books, 110 E. North Loop

MonkeyWrench Books presents a screening and discussion of “Rebels with a Cause.” Rebels with a Cause is a 2000 documentary that chronicles the movements for social change of the Sixties that began with the civil rights movement and culminated with the angry protests against the US war in Vietnam. Students for a Democratic Society, the largest and most influential student organization of the ’60s, was a uniquely American movement that grew and evolved in response to the times. At tis peak in 1968, SDS had over 100,000 members and 400 chapters. Told through the eyes of SDS members, the film is about far more than SDS. It’s about the values, motivations, and actions of a generation that lost it’s innocence but gained a sense of power and purpose. It’s about a decade that changed America.

I’m running late, so I’ll post more tonight. Thank you, Charlie.

If you haven’t seen this gem, it is indeed that. Couldn’t resist giving ya’ll a double feature today. Make a huge bowl of popcorn, get together other snacks such as bananas or jalapeño poppers, and a mango smoothie or large glass of cranberry juice to drink. Relax and enjoy, and get ready to laugh a lot, even as you acknowledge that this guy is talking about some incredibly serious shit. R. Jehn

A very big word of warning: this video is 45 minutes in length, and consequently is a huge download (157 mB). For dial-up users, you may wish to forgo watching in this venue.

It’s Monday Movie time, and this is a punchy one. I’d recommend garnishing your popcorn with finely minced garlic (or cheat, if you must, with garlic powder), chipotle powder and very finely grated parmegiano reggiano cheese. Yummmm ….

Here’s what the author of this flick, ‘Steven Stealberg,’ has to say about his effort:

One man’s opinion of America and the Bush regime.

S. Stealberg

And now on with the show, New World Lies.

Ted Turner, appearing before journalists in the New York City Reuters offices a few days ago, advocated men being barred from public office for a hundred years in every part of the world.

“If we had women holding all the public offices, the amount of money on the military would be immediately cut way back and more would be spent on healthcare and education. There wouldn’t be lack of family planning or birth control if the women ran things.”

If you want to read more, click here and here.