Rouge Forum Update

Dear Friends,

The Rouge Forum No Blood For Oil Page is updated. See especially recent work from Scott Ritter and Sy Hersh.

This week marks the 40th anniversary of the murder of Che Guevera whose sense of egalitarianism swept well beyond the confines of the Cuban revolution, and whose adventurous, courageous spirit lay at the heart of his triumph and tragedy. While Che is for sale today, like everything, his notions of an equitable society based on the sacrifices of new women and men, people who would fight for the right to share, remain challenging to the fear and greed that propels, for example, most US schooling.

Soon, we will also mark the 40th anniversary of what may have been the most conscious, militant, of the 60’s anti-war demonstrations, the March on the Pentagon of October 21, 1967, organized by, among others, the Students for a Democratic Society, the largest of the student movements of the time, later demolished by the terrorist Weatherman sect in 1969. The Weatherman theft and destruction of the SDS mailing lists took place just before the biggest outpouring of antiwar resistance during the May uprisings against the invasion of Cambodia, and the killings at Jackson and Kent State. Watch for upcoming editions of the Rouge Forum and Substance News for an analysis of the Weathermen, then and now.

The debates that went on inside SDS, about nationalism, racism, sexism, capitalism, imperialism, and the resistance, continue today. However, one thing appears different. Masses of people were willing to take serious risks, including imprisonment and death, in order to help change society. Che was clear: Change is sacrifice.
http://library.thinkquest.org/27942/war.htm

Upcoming conferences and action: The Rouge Forum will be gathering at the National Council for the Social Studies Conference in San Diego, November 29 to December 2, complete with a party. Plan to join us at sessions, on our tour of San Diego, and at the social.

The Longshore Workers, ILWU of San Francisco, recently passed a “Strike Against the War,” motion. They plan a conference in SF on October 20.

The Rouge Forum has supported the demonstrations against the wars on October 27. Be there! We hope to unite antiwar people with the movement for justice inside schools.

Set aside Vets Day weekend, upcoming, for a Calcare/Rouge Forum discussion on the plans to boycott NCLB in the spring in California.

The Supremes in black robes issued a ruling supporting the dismissal of a teacher who told her kids she honked for peace.

Neither big schools’ union took action to end the campaigns of fear and intimidation in schools.

In Canada, a courageous teacher was reprimanded for refusing to administer a standardized exam.

Whole Language guru Ken Goodman issued a personal call for resistance to the NCLB, as Jonathan Kozol’s call for NCLB reform came in for some criticism in Indymedia.

Up the rebels. Thanks to Adam, Gina, Bob, Susan, Ken Jr, Sherry, Sharon A., Dave, Beau, Erin, William and Christopher, Amber, Panyon, Sharon E, Michael, Sipho, Mary, Wayne, Paul, Kathy E., and Gilda.

All the best,

r

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