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Featured Editorials

Judith Butler on the extermination of trans women

Submitted by Robyn on Fri, 12/18/2015 - 2:42pm

Judith Butler, well known feminist philosopher and the author of Gender Trouble participated in an email discussion with the feminist collective Broadly on the topic Why do Men Kill Trans Women?. It is intertwined with Broadly's own offering by Diana Tourjee, He's Not Done Killing Her

There were 23 known killings of transgender women in the United States in 2015. That number nearly doubled from the 12 reported in 2014. Broadly published an in-depth feature on these crimes in which we investigate their underlying cause. In addition to contacting police departments, victims' friends, and family, we interviewed the renowned queer theorist, Gender Trouble author Judith Butler.

One of the most disturbing, yet often easily overlooked, aspects of these crimes is the gender of the killers. Butler maps anti-trans violence back to the source, ultimately suggesting that trans deaths were caused by men because of men's need to meet culturally held standards of male power and masculinity.

She also insists that gender cannot be parsed from the other realities of the victims' lives. Ninety-one percent of the trans murders we investigated were people of color. They were primarily poor; many engaged in sex work. Law enforcement agencies have widely failed to classify these murders as hate crimes, maintaining a myopic perspective. By insisting that these facts be considered together, Butler does what the police have failed to do: recognize that the context in which these women lived and died is inseparable from their lives as transgender women of color.

--Broadly

Hellraisers Journal: Thousands of Chicago Garment Strikers Win 48-Hour Week With No Loss of Wages

Submitted by JayRaye on Fri, 12/18/2015 - 12:55pm

You ought to be out raising hell. This is the fighting age.
Put on your fighting clothes.
-Mother Jones

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Saturday December 18, 1915
From the Chicago Day Book: Thousands of Striking Garment Workers Win Shorter Hours

The Day Book of Chicago, Illinois, reported in its December 16th edition that, although recognition of the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America has not been granted, nevertheless, thousands of Garment Workers have won the 48-hour week with no reduction in wages:

Chicago Garment Workers Strike of 1915, Day Book headline, Dec 16.png

Hellraisers Journal: From the Appeal to Reason, Speech by Eugene V. Debs to Steel Workers of Chicago

Submitted by JayRaye on Thu, 12/17/2015 - 12:55pm

I am for Socialism because I am for humanity.
We have been cursed with the reign of gold long enough.
-Eugene V. Debs

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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.

Eugene Debs Talks to Steel Workers, text, Appeal to Reason, Dec 16, 1905.png
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(The following address was delivered by Eugene V. Debs at South Chicago, on November 24th, to an immense audience.)

Eugene Debs, Wilshire's Magazine, Nov 1905.png

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.

Crossing the Rubicon: I will NOT vote for Hillary.

Submitted by detroitmechworks on Thu, 12/17/2015 - 11:03am

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.

Tucson VA opens transgender clinic

Submitted by Robyn on Wed, 12/16/2015 - 2:13pm

photo VA_zpsmgvpq0mx.jpgThe 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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