‘Raise Your Voice’ Archives
Union Pride
By Peter Molenaar UNION PRIDE MEETS NATIVE PRIDE, this is the frontline caption seen in the August issue of The St. Paul Union Advocate. From the article: “Participants in a unique pre-apprenticeship program co-sponsored by the Cement Masons and area tribal authorities, worked in silence, heads down, as their instructors barked orders”¦”'Let”'s go, you”'ve got to pick up the pace,”' Local 633 apprenticeship instructor Moke Eaglefeathers warned”¦” Historical note: A visit to the Interpretive Center at Fort Snelling State Park will reveal the family names of the 1600 innocent Dakotas, interned in the concentration camp of 1862. Innocent? In fact, many had risked their lives to save White settlers. For their reward, they received the ”˜collective punishment”'. Are there White workers who fail to recognize a Native man”'s right to walk where he walks? Do some whine about treaty rights and every other [...]
Philosophy and the Police
By Peter Molenaar They say that all conscious beings are a product of the evolution of matter. Yet we must resist all forms of oppression as if moved by ”˜God”'s will”'. Such is one meaning of the expression: Black Lives Matter. Yes, we live in a country built upon the most massive genocide and cruelest enslavement, and yes, the existing ruling class descends from the perpetrators. Are the police merely servants of the capitalist order, or are things complex in nature? Once upon a time, land based “lords” hand-picked their cops from peasant stock, to facilitate tribute from travailing merchants. However, as mass production industry developed, the emergent bourgeoisie disdained to tolerate the tolls, which every fiefdom imposed. Hence, in the “religious wars” of Europe, ”˜divine right”' was defeated by ”˜predestination”' and the modern nation state was born. The new bourgeois Protestantism also dealt a blow to [...]
My Talk With June Bug Regarding Non-Violence
By Peter Molenaar Hah! June Bug, you have come to rest your long forelegs across a rumple of my jeans”¦evidently not to bite me. Alright then, it seems we shall enter a state of mutual contemplation. Are you aware of the violence in this world? Note: “The LGBT community has stood side by side with the American-Muslim community during challenging and difficult times. We stand together against hatred, violence and demonization of entire communities.” ”“ Jalani Hussein, Executive Director of the Minnesota Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (as found in Alondra Cano”'s NOTICIAS). Do you wonder if I, a proponent of socialism, am also an advocate for violent revolution? No, marvelous creation of the evolution of matter, God”'s gift to me, I am not. But neither am I a pacifist, nor do I consider the philosophical concept of “a just war” to be entirely passé. Yet in the context of our mutual [...]
