Michael Parenti: Free Speech In The Face Of Oppression + Free Speech – At A Price by Michael Parenti

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by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published Sept. 4, 2011
April 26, 2018

48South7th on Aug 31, 2011

Author Michael Parenti challenges his audience to learn about and advocate free speech in the face of oppression. From the origins of the Bill of Rights up to today’s challenges by the FBI and other government entities, Parenti says, it is essential to stand up for one’s rights. He spoke at an event sponsored by the South Bay Committee Against Political Repression.

Shifting Systems With Nonviolent Strategy + Think Outside the Protest Box by Rivera Sun

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by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
March 28, 2018

The secret to successful nonviolent struggle lies in understanding strategy and systems. All systems require participation and resources to survive. Deny those things, and the system will wither away … or concede to meet your demands.

Bring H.R. 676 into Reality Land by Ralph Nader

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Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page, Mar. 22, 2018
March 25, 2018

Polls show that over 125 million adults in our country already favor full Medicare for all, with free choice of doctor and hospital without stifling networks. I say ‘already’ because, as of yet, there is no major national campaign underway showing that an ‘everybody in, nobody out’ system of health insurance costs less, with better outcomes, is simpler, without maddeningly inscrutable or fraudulent bills, co-pays, deductibles and additional trap doors set by a bunch of greedy corporations. The campaigns that exist today are receiving too little on-the-ground assistance for such a widely-supported issue.

The Problem is Civil Obedience by Howard Zinn + Matt Damon Reads from Howard Zinn’s Speech

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by Howard Zinn
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Previously published on November 25, 2013
March 22, 2018

[By the latter part of May, 1970, feelings about the war in Vietnam had become almost unbearably intense. In Boston, about a hundred of us decided to sit down at the Boston Army Base and block the road used by buses carrying draftees off to military duty. We were not so daft that we thought we were stopping the flow of soldiers to Vietnam; it was a symbolic act, a statement, a piece of guerrilla the after. We were all arrested and charged, in the quaint language of an old statute, with “sauntering and loitering” in such a way as to obstruct traffic.

The Roots of Resistance: An Intense Journey Into The Vibrant Complexity Of Nonviolent Change by Tom Atlee

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Sent to Dandelion Salad by Rivera Sun

by Tom Atlee
March 17, 2018

Rivera Sun always gifts us with usefully creative fiction in the face of daunting challenges to future generations, to current society, to marginalized communities, and to all of us as citizens of our planet. Her Roots of Resistance – the second novel of her Dandelion Trilogy – offers an inspiring story to help guide love-based strategic change efforts during what promises to be a very messy transition to a better world. The novel imagines deeply human responses to our civilizational predicament and to the challenges we (especially as change agents) will face as we try to put such responses into practice.

A Revolution By Any Other Name

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The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
March 9, 2018

There are some who mince their steps and words, who hush the bold and outspoken, who advise moderation. But, a revolution by any other name does not smell as sweet. Reform does not cut it. Resistance is not enough. Massive change is vague. Transformation calls to mind change, yet does not invoke the burning urgency, the gritty intensity of the tsunami of change we need. Evolution implies an unrealistic image of our corporate political pawns awakening, growing, evolving.

Zac Corrigan: Socialists Support the West Virginia Teachers’ Strike

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Watch the videos below

Dandelion Salad

WSWS reporter Zac Corrigan addresses rally of West Virginia students

A Trumparade Would Stir Up War Fever by David Swanson + What Banner Would You Carry In The Counter Parade? by Rivera Sun

Image by Stephen Melkisethian via Flickr

[DS recommends listening to David’s rant on Soundcloud.]

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
February 8, 2018

People have a wide range of reasons for opposing a military Trumparade through Washington. Here are nearly 20,000 people who say:

“We demand that the United States hold no militarism-glorifying parade displaying weaponry of war. Should such a thing be staged, we will visibly support peace on that day.”

One Of The Key Reasons To End War Is That War Impoverishes Us by David Swanson + Rev. Dr. William Barber on Militarism

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
World Beyond War, Jan. 17, 2018
January 23, 2018

The new poor people’s campaign should get every ounce of support we can find and generate. I say that without the qualifications and caveats I would usually include, because the Poor People’s Campaign is doing something that may not be strictly unprecedented in U.S. history but is certainly extremely rare in recent decades. It’s pursuing a worthy noble goal, that of ending poverty, while making ending war a central part of its vision, and doing so voluntarily.

Rivera Sun’s The Roots of Resistance, reviewed by Guadamour

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by Guadamour
Writer, Dandelion Salad
January 20, 2018

The Roots Of Resistance (Rising Sun Press 2017) is the second book in the Dandelion Insurrection trilogy by Rivera Sun. The first book deals with how a non-violent revolution in the United States is able to topple an extremely corrupt corporate controlled federal government, and this book details problems entailed in implementing its policies which are aimed at benefiting the general public.

Take Heart From the Example of Salt by Rivera Sun + What’s Next for Net Neutrality?

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by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
December 15, 2017

It comes as a surprise.

Net Neutrality is the keystone issue in the movement of movements. It is poised to become as pivotal to our interconnected struggles as the Salt March was for Gandhi and the Indian Self-Rule Movement.

We Are Standing On The Sinking Titanic

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The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
December 13, 2017

Blockade the gangplanks of the Titanic! Shut down the boilers of the ship! Storm the stairs from steerage and seize the wheel!

We have passed the point where token victories, small handouts, and crumbs from banquet tables will help us. We have struck too many icebergs and the hull of our society has been breached. Band-Aids on shredded steel will not hold back the floodwaters of injustice.

9-11 Commemoration Garbage Was Nothing But More War Justifying Propaganda by Daniel N. White

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by Daniel N. White
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
December 11, 2017

Bernard Fall, the great French-American writer on the wars in Vietnam, wrote a piece in his Street Without Joy about his early days in Vietnam, during the French war there. One day Fall was in Cambodia doing interviews and research, and afterwards went with a pair of French officers that he’d interviewed to the local club tennis courts, and watched them, in their spotless tennis whites, play a full match of tennis. Early on in their game, a Cambodian NCO came up to the court and attempted to get one of the officers to sign some papers he had. The NCO got a brushoff—the French officers were busy with their game—and so the Cambodian NCO just went off to the sidelines, squatted on his haunches the way Cambodians do, full out in the tropical sun , and waited while the two French officers in their tennis whites batted the ball back and forth. Fall watched, with a feeling of dread coming over him, as the post bugler sounded Last Post, the colors were lowered, the Cambodian standing to attention while the French officers continued playing tennis. Fall wrote:

The Stimulator: Trouble #8 – Hack the System

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Watch the video below

Dandelion Salad

sub.Media on Nov 24, 2017

Every day, more and more of our activities and communications take place online. We’ve become addicted to connectivity… to constant access to an endless catalogue of information, entertainment and engagement, all available at the click of a button.

Tis the Season To Wage Boycotts!

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The Essays of The Man From the North by Rivera Sun
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published November 24, 2013
November 24, 2017

Boycott Season is now upon us. Let every citizen take careful aim. Your target is the corporate empire. Your weapon is your wallet.