caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

Possibly the most important statement of the presidential campaign got ignored the other week. It was made by Donald Trump.

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues singer and guitarist Floyd Jones. Enjoy!

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Sunday December 17, 1905
From the Appeal to Reason: Comrade Debs Speaks to Chicago Steel Workers

In this weeks edition of the Appeal to Reason, we find the text of a speech given by Eugene Debs, on November 24th, to a large audience in Chicago. The Appeal states that Comrade Debs was speaking to Steel Workers of that city. In the speech Debs compares the old out-dated system of craft organization with the revolutionary system of class-conscious industrial unionism as proposed by the newly formed Industrial Workers of the World.

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(The following address was delivered by Eugene V. Debs at South Chicago, on November 24th, to an immense audience.)

THE year now drawing to a close will be memorable in the annals of labor because of the organization of the Industrial Workers of the World. For thirty years I have been connected with the labor movement. All of the years of my young manhood were devoted to the work of organizing my fellow-workingmen, that by the power of united effort they might do something to improve their condition as workers, promote their interests as citizens and advance their general welfare as men. There was a time when I believed that the trade union was in itself sufficient for this work. I have been compelled to revise my opinion and to conclude that something larger, more thorough and comprehensive in the way of organization is required to meet the demands of modern times.

The trade union, itself the product of industrial evolution, is subject to the laws of change, and the union that may have served some purpose a quarter of a century ago is now as completely out of date as the tools of industry that were then in use.

There's a lot of things I've been wanting to say, but even with a ten year track record are hard to express. Fear of rejection, fear of alienating those I respect, but also the desire to be a part of something I love have held my tongue back.

So today, I say all the things I really think. No censor, no holding back.

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues guitarist Buster Benton. Enjoy!

The Southern Arizona VA Health Care System transgender clinic opens its doors today. That VA hospital will become the fourth in the nation to offer special clinic hours for transgender patients.

The Tucson treatment team will be headed by Dr. Sonia Perez-Padilla, who says the Tucson hospital is now recognized by the VA as a "national center of excellence for transgender care."

Local VA officials say the population of transgender veterans in Tucson has grown from 50 to 130 in the past five years.

The Department of Veterans Affairs ordered all its medical facility to take better care of transgender veterans beginning in 2011.

Before that, discrimination was not uncommon.

--Dr. Perez-Padilla

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Thursday December 16, 1915
From The Outlook: Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, Labor's Joan of Arc, Feared by Paterson Authorities

An editorial from yesterday's Outlook defends Miss Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, whom the silk workers call: "Labor's Joan of Arc." The Outlook supports Gurley's right to free speech in the city of Paterson, although they consider her and members of her organization, the Industrial Workers of the World, to be radicals and agitators. Yesterday's editorial follows an article from the November 24th edition which detailed the invasion of Paterson on November 11th by Miss Flynn and a group of prominent New York women. On that day, the Chief of Police stood before the door of the hall and refused to allow Miss Flynn to go inside to speak to the working men and woman of that city. We present, today, both offerings from The Outlook, beginning with the article of November 24:

FREE SPEECH IN PATERSON

One of the things that has bugged me for years is the idea that somehow demanding accountability for the death of a soldier is disrespectful to the soldier.

Liberals, Countrymen, and Dreamers! Hear me for my
Cause, and be silent so you may hear. Believe me
For mine Honour, and have Respect to Mine Honour, that
you may believe: Censure me in your Wisdom, and
Awake your senses, that you may better judge.

In a federal district court in Pennsylvania there is an ongoing challenge to the transgender exclusion in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Passed in 1990 the ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of a medical or mental condition but includes the Helms Amendment, along with a portion of the original act included in hopes of enticing support from the extreme right, which some call the "moral code": the act excludes from protection "transvestism, transsexualism, pedophilia, exhibitionism, voyeurism, gender identity disorders not resulting from physical impairments, and other sexual behavior disorders

Kate Lynn Blatt was hired as a seasonal stocker at Cabela’s Retail in the fall of 2006, according to allegations in the complaint. Before starting her job, she attended a two-day orientation dressed in female attire, and used the women’s employee restroom without issue. Once she started working, however, Blatt was prohibited from using the women’s restroom and was forced to wear a name tag depicting her name as “James,” even after she presented the director of human resources with documentation of her legal name change.

Blatt claims her colleagues called her “ladyboy,” “freak,” and “sinner.” Cabela’s made Blatt use the single-sex “family” restroom at the front of the store, rather than the female employee restroom closer to her work area, according to the complaint. Blatt claims she endured harassment from management and coworkers, and was abruptly terminated in March 2007.