Baltimore Activist Alert –January 2 – 4, 2021

Baltimore Activist Alert –January 2 – 4, 2021

"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours." -Martin Luther King Jr.

Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center.  Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com. 

If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to Max Obuszewski, BNC, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net.

1] Books, buttons and stickers

2] Web site for info on federal legislation

3] Get involved with NCNR   

4] Volunteer with a Catholic Worker house  

5] Max is looking for tips on a garage or a storage suggestion.

6] House cleaner needed

7] Welcome an Afghan Family to Baltimore!

8] A friend needs a house or an apartment to rent

9] Town Hall on Omicron – Jan. 2  

10] Make calls for the Freedom to Vote Act. – Jan. 2, 3 & 4

11] Make calls for a progressive candidate – Jan. 2

12] Protest at the Pentagon – Jan. 3

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1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available.  “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Call Max at 410-323-1607.

2] –To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/.  Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.

3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR].  It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed.  It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to U.S. wars.

  To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.  Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe.  

4] - Suzanne Fontanesi and Jeff Ross are in the beginning stages of renovating the basement of their house for purposes of bringing in a volunteer (targeting young adults in discernment mode), starting next fall. They are trying to grow a Catholic Worker House in Irvington (West Baltimore). In a nutshell, there is a lot that a volunteer could do in that neighborhood/Baltimore, in addition to prayer and daily community living and in addition to plugging into all the good work that people are already doing in and around Baltimore (and beyond).  If you think you might know of anyone who might be interested in starting a conversation with them about becoming such a volunteer/community member, please contact Jeff/Suzanne at 443-690-6872.

5] – Max is in need of a garage or a storage space.  Any suggestions would be welcome.  Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.

6] – Is there a woman in the Baltimore area who does house cleaning?  This assignment would be on an irregular basis with several hours per week.  Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net.

7] – St. Matthew, Blessed Sacrament, and the IOSC are partnering to welcome an Afghan Family to Baltimore! Are you interested in serving our new immigrant family? If you are interested, you will be trained in how you may serve, you will be guided and scheduled at your convenience by the Lead volunteer coordinator, you may also make donations through the IOSC to assist the family in the transition process in order to: Purchase food & Purchase clothes for winter and other necessities. Contact the IOSC at info@IOSCbaltimore.org, call the office at 410-323-8564 and leave a message for Nathalie.

8] – A friend, Brendan Walls, has to move out of a rented home on March 1.  So he is looking for housing and wants to live south of the Baltimore beltway, east of US 95 and north of Route 214.  Do you know of a house or apartment in the Annapolis area with as much peace and quiet as I can get for no more than $1800 a month? He does not mind pet sitting, house sitting, keeping someone company or community living.  Let me know if you have a lead on a home or apartment for Brendan to rent.  Thanks for giving this your consideration.

9] – Dr. Bill Honigman for Progressive Democrats of America [info@pdamerica.org] wants you on Sun., Jan. 2 at 4 PM ET to attend a Town Hall to discuss Omicron, candidates, and more. With the now worldwide surge of #COVID19 infections due to the #Omicron variant, Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) remains vigilant in pursuit of solutions to our state of national sorrow and disgrace over the U.S. being the ongoing international leader in pandemic deaths. PDA still is calling for a #SinglePayer expanded and improved #MedicareForAll system to provide, not just universal COVID care but comprehensive non-COVID care, as well. A system that lowers medical risk in the population at large, prioritizes public health needs based on community input not commercial interests, and recovers precious resources currently squandered for the sake of corporate stakeholders can and must instead be applied to those very human needs.  Register at https://zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0tceuhrzsvHdymeeZRwb-i7X50FJa-HMR4. The speakers will be Medicare for All candidates for U.S. House of Reps David Palmer IL-13 and for CA Assembly Jennifer Esteen, RN, AD-20, along with a brief COVID-19/Omicron Update from Drs. Henry Broeska, Ph.D. and David Cohen, Ph.D.

10] – Join the Freedom to Vote Act Phonebank with Common Cause on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Work together to demand bold changes to our alleged democracy to create a government that represents all of us, not big corporations or special interests. Call voters in targeted states and connect them to their Senators to support the Freedom to Vote Act and eliminate the filibuster. These phone banks are subject to change based on variables outside of our control (i.e. a Senator's mailbox is full). On Sun., Jan. 2 from 6 to 8 PM ET, connect WV voters to Sen. Manchin to ask that he does everything possible to pass the Freedom to Vote Act including fixing the filibuster.  On Mon., Jan. 3 from 4 to 6 PM and 6 to 8 PM EST, connect AZ voters to Sen. Sinema to ask that she does everything possible to pass the Freedom to Vote Act including fixing the filibuster. On Tues., Jan. 4 from 4 to 6 PM ET, connect WV voters to Sen. Manchin to ask that he does everything possible to pass the Freedom to Vote Act including fixing the filibuster.  Register at https://www.mobilize.us/dfadcoalition/event/376178/?followup_modal_context=newsletter.

11] – On Sun., Jan. 2 from 6 to 8 PM, Mon., Jan. 3 from 4 to 6 PM and 6 to 8 PM ET and Tues., Jan. 4 from 4 to 6 PM and 6 to 8 PM ET, call voters in District 8 to support Edward Burroughs for County Councilperson in the special election this upcoming January. Prince George's County deserved a more progressive County Council and for that to happen we have to make your voice heard! Sign up at https://www.mobilize.us/progressivemarylandneweraproject/event/427687/.

12] – There is a weekly Pentagon Peace Vigil from 7 to 8 AM on Mondays, since 1987, outside the Pentagon Metro stop.  The next vigil is Jan. 3 and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker.  Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call 202-882-9649.  The vigil will be outside the Pentagon's south Metro entrance and in the designated "protest zone" behind bicycle fences across from the entrance to the Metro.  By Metro, take Yellow Line and get out at the "Pentagon" stop. Do not go to the Pentagon City stop! Go up south escalators and turn left and walk across to protest area. By car from D.C. area, take 395 South and get off at Exit 8A-Pentagon South Parking. Take slight right onto S. Rotary Rd. at end of ramp and right on S. Fern St. Then take left onto Army Navy Dr. You can "pay to park" on Army Navy Dr.,  and there is meter parking one block on right on Eads St. Payment for both of these spots begins at 8 AM.  No cameras are allowed on Pentagon grounds. Restrooms are located inside Marriott Residence Inn on corner of S. Fern and Army Navy Dr.  

To be continued.

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph.: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

Baltimore Activist Alert -- December 31, 2021 -- January 1, 2022

24] Knock on doors for a progressive – Dec. 31

25] White House peace vigil – Dec. 31

26] Vigil for the Freedom to Vote Act – Dec. 31

27] Makes calls for a progressive – Dec. 31

28] New Year's Eve Meditation – Dec. 31

29] National Watch Night Service – Dec. 31

30] Peace and Justice Vigil – Dec. 31

31] Interfaith Comedy – Jan. 1

32] Brendan Walls is seeking a home/apartment to rent

33] Tell JHU president to renounce nuclear weapons contracts

34] Read Dave Eberhardt’s book "For All the Saints- a Protest Primer"

35] Do you need a doctor?

36] Donate books, videos, DVDs and records

37] Do you need any book shelves?

38] Join the Global Zero campaign.

39] Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil

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24] – The clock is ticking! There is a critical special election on January 4th to fill a seat on the Prince George’s County Council. Now’s the time to get involved and support progressive candidate Edward Burroughs! Join the team in Prince George’s County on New Year’s Day from 10 AM to 2 PM ET by knocking on doors. RSVP at https://www.mobilize.us/progressivemarylandneweraproject/event/433312/?emci=b30ff555-e361-ec11-94f6-0050f2e65e9b&emdi=f83bac76-e761-ec11-94f6-0050f2e65e9b&ceid=136680.

25] – The Dorothy Day Catholic Worker will host a peace vigil at the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, WDC, on Fri., Dec. 31 at noon.  Contact the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker: 202-882-9649 or artlaffin@hotmail.com.

26] –  Our Revolution Howard County and Indivisible HoCoMD continue their joint weekly action at the Gorman Road I-95 Overpass in support of HR1/SR 1, aka the Freedom to Vote Act on every Friday from 3:30 to 5:30 PM ET. Committed activists stand by large banners and wave at approximately 12,000 vehicles per hour as they whiz by. Go to https://www.facebook.com/Our-Revolution-Howard-1907025362884865/events/?ref=page_internal.

27] –   Make Calls with Friends of Edward Burroughs on Fri., Dec. 31 from 4 to 6 PM and 6 to 8 PM ET and on Sat., Jan. 1 from 6 to 8 PM ET.  Call voters in District 8 to support Edward Burroughs for County Councilperson in the special election on January 4. Prince George's County deserves a more progressive County Council and for that to happen, make your voice heard! Sign up at https://www.mobilize.us/progressivemarylandneweraproject/event/427687/.

28] – There is a New Year's Eve Meditation on Fri., Dec. 31 from 4:30 – 6 PM. You are invited to come to the Golden Lotus Temple of the Self-Revelation Church of Absolute Monism, 4748 Western Ave., Bethesda 20816 for your own individual devotion and meditation. You will first hear two musical selections from Rabindranath Tagore followed by your own participation in chanting the Gayatri Mantram led by Srimati Karuna.  At sunset you may illumine a candle in the prayerful light of faith and holy hope, and offer incense of fragrant devotion at the beautiful altar prepared for your silent invocation. Let the receding twilight of 2021 draw you into Self-reflection. Call 301-229-3871 or email selfrevelationchurch@gmail.com.

29] – The Maryland Poor People's Campaign [maryland@poorpeoplescampaign.org] is informing us that on Fri., Dec. 31 at 5 PM ET, there will be a National Watch Night Service by the Poor People’s Campaign. Join us online to hear a declaration that the organizing, mobilizing, standing for love and justice, and uplifting the rights of the poor and low wealth in this society will continue.  Watch Livestream at https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/livestream/?link_id=0&can_id=4b9d4061aec5469758759317ac0f5285&source=email-ppc-dec-24-christmas-eve-online-rally&email_referrer=email_1396782&email_subject=ppc-dec-31-new-years-eve-watch-night-service.

30] -- There is usually a Quaker Vigil for Racial Justice on Fridays, from 5 to 6 PM, hosted by the Baltimore Quaker Peace and Justice Committee (BQPJC) outside the Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St.  The next scheduled vigil is on Dec. 31. Black Lives Matter. Stop the Killing. Physical distancing applies. Wear your face mask. Email homewoodfriends@gmail.com or call 410-235-4438. Quaker values call us to speak truth and to seek equality for all people. Aim to follow Bayard Rustin’s wisdom that “we need, in every community, a group of angelic troublemakers” and John Lewis’s call to “make good trouble.” See https://www.facebook.com/events/311508100243529/?event_time_id=311508113576861.3&akid=18263%2E3302379%2Ez6bJVQ.

31] – There is an interfaith comedy show at 8 PM ET on Sat., Jan. 1, 2022.   It involves three Jews, three Muslims, two Christians and a Buddhist.  The show will be held in person at the Kehilat Pardes synagogue, 13300 Arctic Ave., Rockville20853.  Tickets are $15. Go to https://www.kehilatpardes.org/event/interfaith-comedy-night/.  Masks are required, as well as verification of COVID-19 vaccine or negative PCR test required.

32] – A friend, Brendan Walls, has to move out of a rented home on March 1.  So he is looking for housing and wants to live south of the Baltimore beltway, east of US 95 and north of Route 214.  Do you know of a house or apartment in the Annapolis area with as much peace and quiet as I can get for no more than $1800 a month? He does not mind pet sitting, house sitting, keeping someone company or community living.  Let me know if you have a lead on a home or apartment for Brendan to rent.  Thanks for giving this your consideration.

33] -- This is A PLEA TO CONVINCE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY TO OBEY INTERNATIONAL LAW. The world reached a historic milestone on January 22, 2021: The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons [TPNW] entered into force and become binding international law -- https://www.icanw.org/the_treaty.

  Prevent Nuclear War/Maryland has called attention to the growing danger of nuclear war and the outrageous $1.7 trillion dollars we are spending to upgrade the nuclear arsenal. On July 18, 2017, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, a U.S. Navy - affiliated research center received a seven-year, $92 million contract to continue its systems engineering and research-and-development services for the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center. Help convince JHU to renounce nuclear weapons contracts. Contact the president, Ron Daniels, to urge him to reject all nuclear weapons contracts: Office of the President, 242 Garland Hall, The Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, Maryland 21218.  Call his office at (410) 516-8068 or email president@jhu.edu.

34] – David Eberhardt was a member of the Baltimore Four with Father Philip Berrigan, Tom Lewis and Rev. James Mengel.  The group poured blood on draft files on October 27, 1967.  They would be convicted and sentenced to prison. Dave has written a book "For All the Saints- a Protest Primer"- documenting the Baltimore Four action and many others up to and including the most recent Plowshares action – Kings Bay Plowshares 7.  Phil Berrigan’s wife, Elizabeth McAlister, is a member of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7. 

Dave just printed the 5^th edition of the book which is available for $25 by sending him a check: Dave Eberhardt, 4 Hadley Square North, Baltimore, MD 21218. You can contact him at mozela9@comcast.net. He prefers that you DO NOT order the book from Amazon. Image 1 of 2 for FOR ALL THE SAINTS: A PROTEST PRIMER. David Eberhardt; Image 2 of 2 for FOR ALL THE SAINTS: A PROTEST PRIMER; and FOR ALL THE SAINTS: A PROTEST PRIMER.  This is a self-published book printed in 2017 with updates.

 The price is $25 for a Spiral Bound, and Signed. This edition being what the publisher calls “The 4th edition (or first edition 4th state?)  of this book (with “final” additions) has been printed by the firm of FEDEX numbered 150-200, signed by the author, February 2017.”This is copy 187 and is numbered and signed by David Eberhardt on the title page.~~While the bibliographical information is a bit head-spinning, this is an engaging memoir by David Eberhardt recounting his involvement with the Brothers Berrigan in the protests against the Viet Nam war, and his subsequent time as an inmate at the Lewisburg Federal Prison. There is Near Fine binding: Item #291479.  

35] – Yousef Zarbalian [mailto:yzarbali@gmail.com] started his own medical practice in December before the pandemic hit. It is called East-West Medicine and Rheumatology, and its website is EastWestMD.com.  Yousef is licensed in Maryland and Virginia. He is doing primary care as well as rheumatologic care (focusing on joint problems and autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and sjogren's).  He is offering telemedicine visits, and he has very reasonable rates for uninsured individuals.  He makes use of herbs (which can be sent directly to patients from the herbal dispensary) as well as prescribing medications to their local pharmacy if needed.  

36] -- If you would like to get rid of books, videos, DVDs, records, tarps and table cloths, contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at comcast.net.

37] -- Can you use any book shelves? Contact Max at 410-323-1607 or mobuszewski2001 at comcast.net.

38] -- Join an extraordinary global campaign for the elimination of nuclear weapons: http://www.globalzero.org/sign-declaration. A growing group of leaders around the world is calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and a majority of the global public agrees.  This is an historic window of opportunity.  With momentum already building in favor of Zero, a major show of support from people around the world could tip the balance. When it comes to nuclear weapons, one is one too many.

39] – A Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil takes place every day in Lafayette Park, 1601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 24 hours a day, since June 3, 1981. Go to http://prop1.org; call 202-682-4282.

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

“One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better" - Daniel Berrigan

Baltimore Activist Alert -- December 30, 2021

19] Freedom to Vote – Dec. 30

20] Throwdown Thursday – Dec. 30

21] Public Citizen phone bank – Dec. 30

22] Phonebank for Brooke – Dec. 30

23] Finding Joy on Death Row – Dec. 30

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19] – Join Common Cause activists around the country at a virtual phonebank to urge voters in key states to demand their senators’ support the Freedom to Vote Act, and to eliminate the filibuster. These phone banks are subject to change based on variables. Our democracy is in crisis: with redistricting around the corner and hundreds of voter suppression laws being introduced in states across the country, we do not have time to wait. Call on Thurs., Dec. 30 from 6 to 8 PM and connect DE voters to Sen. Coons to ask that he will do everything possible to pass the Freedom to Vote Act including fixing the filibuster. Register at https://www.mobilize.us/dfadcoalition/event/376178/?followup_modal_context=newsletter.

20] – On Throwdown Thursdays phone bank or text bank with the team from 6 to 8 PM ET. Every week call or text voters across the state about a number of important issues. Visit https://www.mobilize.us/progressivemarylandneweraproject/event/416692/?emci=c2a8dfd3-4730-ec11-981f-c896653b9208&emdi=f068a6d2-5b30-ec11-981f-c896653b9208&ceid=136680.  On Thurs., Dec. 30, make calls with Friends of Edward Burroughs by call voters in District 8 to support Edward Burroughs for County Councilperson in the special election this upcoming January. Prince George's County deserves a more progressive County Council and for that to happen, make your voice heard!  Help get progressives elected.

21] –Public Citizen [action@citizen.org]wants you to help West Virginians contact Senator Manchin to take decisive action to pass the Freedom to Vote, John Lewis Voting Rights, and DC Statehood bills.  Stop the attacks on voting rights and make democracy work for everyone. Join the Freedom to Vote Action Party on Thurs., Dec. 30 from 6 to 8 PM ET and call West Virginians and help put them in touch with their senator. This will continue each Thursday through March 31, 2022.  RSVP at https://www.mobilize.us/wv-wfp/event/409469/?utm=PC&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=7e28d2d4-20e9-421d-89cf-64ddccd03d72.

22] – Madison [madison@brookelierman.com] is alerting you to an opportunity on Thurs., Dec. 30 from 6:45  to 8 PM ET for a New Year's Phone Banking Power Hour! Gather on zoom and help make over 2,000 calls for the candidate for comptroller. RSVP at https://www.mobilize.us/brookeliermanforcomptroller/event/433021/.

23] – Abe at Death Penalty Action [info@deathpenaltyaction.org] is inviting you to join in on Thurs., Dec. 30 at 7 PM ET for Finding Joy on Death Row: LIVE. Hear from a special guest John Lucio, whose mother is an innocent woman on Texas death row. Discuss the case of Melissa Lucio and how John and his family members are finding ways to be joyful amid the sorrow and pain of facing her execution. Be sure to sign the petition for Melissa Lucio at bit.ly/MelissaLucio!  SEND QUESTIONS IN ADVANCE to info@Deathpenaltyaction.org.  REGISTER to join the Zoom audience: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Bi_E4HFyQK2mkT8EGkp1YQ?link_id=1&can_id=4b9d4061aec5469758759317ac0f5285&source=email-its-my-birthday-18&email_referrer=email_1396221___subject_1843531&email_subject=finding-joy-on-death-row-join-us-live-thursday-evening.

To be continued.

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph.: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

Join a Ban Killer Drones demo at 4 PM on December 28./Climate Denial Satire "Don't Look Up" Now Top Film on Netflix Worldwide

Friends,

  I really loved DON’T LOOK UP! But note SPOILER ALERT that the government uses drones to try to take out the comet. Remember it is only a movie. So join us on Tuesday, December 28 at 4 PM in a demonstration against JHU’s swarming drones research.  The organization Ban Killer Drones is promoting actions on December 28th, the Christian Feast of the Holy Innocents, calling for an end to drone attacks. The recent report in the New York Times, "Civilian Casualties Files," is another reason to take action. Besides the call for actions, Ban Killer Drones is urging concerned citizens to lobby House Democrats to investigate the U.S. military’s systematic cover-up of civilian casualties caused by its drone-dependent air wars, urging them to conduct an investigation into the numbers and identities of all people killed by U.S. drones in the past twenty years.

  So on Tues., Dec. 28 we will hold our Ban Killer drones support demonstration at Johns Hopkins University at 33rd and N. Charles Sts. from 4 to 5 PM. Contact Max at mobuszewski2001 at Comcast dot net or 410-323-1607.  You may consider contacting President Ron Daniels and telling him that the university should reject all military contracts, including those for killer drone and nuclear weapons research.  The president’s mailing address is Office of the President, 242 Garland Hall, The Johns Hopkins University, and 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, Maryland 21218.  You can also reach his office by Phone: (410) 516-8068, Fax: (410) 516-6097 or email: president@jhu.edu. Kagiso, Max

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/27/climate-denial-satire-dont-look-now-top-film-netflix-worldwide

 Astronomers played by Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio appear in a scene of the new film "Don't Look Up." (Photo: Netflix)

Climate Denial Satire "Don't Look Up" Now Top Film on Netflix Worldwide

"Absolutely love to see a climate movie hitting this huge a global audience on the world's largest platform," said journalist David Sirota, who co-created the story for the film.

 JAKE JOHNSON

December 27, 2021

The new feature film "Don't Look Up," a dark comedy satirizing the complacency and mendacity of elites in the face of an existential threat to human civilization, is now the most popular movie on Netflix worldwide, according to data compiled by FlixPatrol.

"Absolutely love to see a climate movie hitting this huge a global audience on the world's largest platform," journalist David Sirota, who co-created the story for the film, tweeted Monday. "An amazing success for the team that made the movie and for everyone who has been spreading the word."

An allegory of the human-caused climate emergency and other civilizational dangers, "Don't Look Up" follows two low-level astronomers as they attempt to alert political leaders and the rest of the world to a massive comet barreling toward Earth.

The film's scientists, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, soon discover that few can be bothered to care, let alone act, in the face of impending annihilation.

"This is the worst news in the history of humanity, and they just blew us off," Dr. Randall Mindy, DiCaprio's character, says following a meeting at the White House.

As the movie's political leaders dither, Peter Isherwell—a mega-rich Silicon Valley tech guru played by Mark Rylance—discovers that the apocalyptic comet contains more than $30 trillion worth of precious metals needed to manufacture electronic goods. Buoyed by that revelation, the federal government proceeds to partner with Isherwell on a plan to break the comet into pieces and mine its contents.

"This might all sound far-fetched—the stuff of comedy whimsy—were it not for the fact that Isherwell is clearly a sendup of real-world tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who are very much convinced that saving the human species from extinction might be extraordinarily lucrative," Tyler Austin Harper, assistant professor of environmental studies at Bates College, wrote in his review of the film for Slate.

Watch the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbIxYm3mKzI.

Adam McKay, the film's director, told Space.com in a recent interview that the plot of "Don't Look Up" is "a Clark Kent-level disguise for the climate crisis."

"We're not trying that hard with disguising it," he said. "You hear the news not mention [the climate emergency] and then they go right to a commercial for a gas-driven car or an oil company. It's conflict of interest, it's careerism. It's a lot of people who are financially insecure. And it takes a lot of guts to raise your hand at that newspaper meeting and go, 'Why don't we have a giant headline that says, 'Oh, my God, we're all going to die!'"

But as The Intercept's Jon Schwarz wrote in his review of the movie, "The good news, if there is any, is that when the lights come up at the end, you'll realize that in reality we're only half an hour into this story."

"We can still save ourselves if we want to," he added. "And part of that will have to be much more human creativity like this, in service of understanding the horrifying destination toward which we're heading."

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Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

Baltimore Activist Alert -- December 29 - 31, 2021

17] Makes calls for a progressive candidate – Dec. 29, 30 & 31

18] Make calls for the Freedom to Vote Act. – Dec. 29 – 30

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17] – Make Calls with Friends of Edward Burroughs on Wed., Dec. 29 from 4 to 6 PM and 6 to 8 PM ET, Thurs., Dec. 30 from 4 to 6 PM and 6 to 8 PM ET, and Fri., Dec. 31 from 4 to 6 PM and 6 to 8 PM ET .  Call voters in District 8 to support Edward Burroughs for County Councilperson in the special election this upcoming January. Prince George's County deserves a more progressive County Council and for that to happen, make your voice heard! Sign up at https://www.mobilize.us/progressivemarylandneweraproject/event/427687/.

18] – Join Common Cause activists around the country at a virtual phonebank to urge voters in key states to demand their senators’ support the Freedom to Vote Act, and to eliminate the filibuster. These phone banks are subject to change based on variables. Our democracy is in crisis: with redistricting around the corner and hundreds of voter suppression laws being introduced in states across the country, we do not have time to wait. On Wed., Dec. 29 from 4 to 6 and 6 to 8 PM ET, connect AZ voters to Sen. Sinema to ask her to do everything possible to pass the Freedom to Vote Act including fixing the filibuster. Call on Thurs., Dec. 30 from 6 to 8 PM and connect DE voters to Sen. Coons to ask that he will do everything possible to pass the Freedom to Vote Act including fixing the filibuster. Register at https://www.mobilize.us/dfadcoalition/event/376178/?followup_modal_context=newsletter.

To be continued.

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph.: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs

The Radical Printmaking of Käthe Kollwitz

Friends,

  I was profoundly moved by the Kathe Kollwitz exhibit at the National Gallery many years ago.  But actually I became acquainted with her art through the now-deceased Ted Klitzke.  After World War II, Ted and his wife lived in Germany.  One day the wife came home and told Ted that she had sold the Volkswagen in order to buy numerous Kollwitz prints.  I never met his wife, but I knew Ted when he was a dean at the Maryland College Institute of Art.  And when I worked for the American Friends Service Committee, Ted brought some of the prints over to the building and did a presentation of this great artist’s work. This is an artist who knew about suffering, and used her art to present the suffering of the working class. Kagiso, Max

Published on Portside (https://portside.org/)

The Radical Printmaking of Käthe Kollwitz

Billy Anania

December 18, 2021

Jacobin

In our times, expressionism is often conflated with the movement that succeeded it in the United States — abstract expressionism. Mid-century painters like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko blurred away all traces of realism in a highly expressive, and individualistic, mode of painting that aligned with US propaganda during the Cold War. Decades before drip painting and the Seagram murals hit the American art world, expressionist artists in Europe were concerned with a figurative style capable of responding to war and economic hardship at the turn of the twentieth century.

Among the most prominent of these artists was Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945). Coming of age amid rapid industrialization in Germany, Kollwitz worked across painting, sculpture, and printmaking, helping to give expressionism its radical consciousness.

In lithographs, etchings, and woodcuts, Kollwitz portrayed scenes of poverty and class warfare, devoid of color, using only line and shadow. As a propagandist and educator, she worked with socialist organizations to criticize inequality and oppression under the German Empire, Weimar Republic, and Third Reich. Her monochromatic designs, which appeared on posters and pamphlets, revived an aesthetic form of protest developed during the German Peasants’ War. That she herself produced an iconic print cycle on the sixteenth-century uprising speaks to her sustaining the old cause with the old tools.

Kollwitz was the first woman admitted to the Prussian Academy of Arts. However, her success was cut short when the Nazis banned her work. Dying just sixteen days before Victory in Europe Day, she never saw the ban lifted. Her experience losing children in both world wars led to a preoccupation with motherhood as the first line of defense. From peasant matrons sharpening scythes to mothers leading a weavers’ revolt, Kollwitz’s women subjects transcend their traditional gender roles to rebel against the capitalist order that necessitated their poverty. Despite the many trials she experienced, Kollwitz’s faith in socialism speaks to her sacrifices as a working artist who brought print to a higher plane of social commentary.

Crumbling Empire

Käthe Schmidt was born into a progressive religious family in conservative Prussia. Her maternal grandfather, Julius Rupp, founded the first Free Religious Congregation, and her father, Karl, was a Marxist member of the Social Democratic Party (SPD). Together, these men influenced her intellectual development. “Father was nearest to me because he had been my guide to socialism,” she wrote to a friend. “But behind that concept stood Rupp, whose traffic was not with humanity, but with God. . . . To this day I do not know whether the power which has inspired my works is something related to religion, or is indeed religion itself.”

Käthe Kollwitz, “Uprising” (1899). Line etching, drypoint, aquatint, brush etching, sand paper, some roulette. (Wikimedia Commons)

“Little Käthe,” as her family called her, was the fifth of seven children, three of whom died young. Her mother Katharina’s stoicism was formative for Käthe’s early notions of parenthood. The artist was prone to anxiety attacks and suffered from dysmetropsia, or “Alice in Wonderland syndrome,” which distorted her perception of size and self. These early experiences marked her introduction to art-making.

Originally trained in painting, Käthe was drawn to the work of the realist artist Max Liebermann — who painted Germany’s working class — as well as the naturalist literary movement. It was after reading Max Klinger’s essay Painting and Drawing that she delved into printmaking, thanks to Klinger’s championing of the medium and its potential for poetic invention. Her earliest series, monochromatic line etchings adapted from Émile Zola’s 1885 novel Germinal, brought together these influences by depicting a miners’ revolt violently suppressed by the French police and military.

Käthe Kollwitz, “March of the Weavers” (1893–97), sheet 4 of the cycle A Weavers’ Revolt . Line etching and sandpaper. (Wikimedia Commons)

In 1891, Käthe married Karl Kollwitz, a doctor and SPD councilman who ran a clinic for Berlin’s working class. Through Karl, she met impoverished mothers and children, who would stay after their appointments to chat with her. Kollwitz soon became a mother herself, giving birth to sons Hans and Peter. Despite the labor of motherhood, Karl worked to ensure that Käthe could sustain an art career while they raised children.

Kollwitz’s first artistic breakthrough came after experiencing Gerhart Hauptmann’s naturalist play The Weavers, which dramatized an 1844 workers’ uprising against poor living conditions and low wages. Her print cycle A Weavers’ Revolt (1893–97) adapts the story across six sheets. The first three provide exposition: a family watches over a dying child in a cramped house filled with weaving looms, leading the father to conspire with fellow workers in a dimly lit barroom. The next two sheets exchange darkness for daylight, showing workers marching with pickaxes and mothers carrying children. In “Storming the Gate,” women lead an attack on a capitalist’s home. Kollwitz juxtaposes their dirty clothing with the lavish gate design, which is overtaken by workers’ hands.

Käthe Kollwitz, “Storming the Gate” (1893-97), sheet 5 of the cycle A Weavers’ Revolt. Line etching and sandpaper. (Wikimedia Commons)

Men carry away dead weavers in the final sheet, revealing subtle Christian themes of martyrdom and suffering. Biographer Martha Kearns notes that A Weavers’ Revolt “transformed” Kollwitz into “an artist who celebrated revolution.” After seeing the work at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition, a Prussian awards jury proposed nominating her, but Kaiser Wilhelm II refused. This decision, along with a highly publicized closing of Edvard Munch’s first major exhibition, led Kollwitz and several jury members — including Liebermann — to organize the Berlin Secession. From then through the German Revolution, Kollwitz’s art became inextricably linked with anti-imperialism, leading to further breakthroughs that converged with personal tragedy.

Printing Revolution

The turn of the twentieth century brought Kollwitz to Paris and London, where she studied European art history. While abroad, she created the large-scale etching La Carmagnole, which depicts a scene of French revolutionary women dancing to a battle hymn from Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. That same year, she began her second major print cycle inspired by Wilhelm Zimmermann’s illustrated history of the German Peasants’ War, which Friedrich Engels viewed as the first revolutionary worker uprising of the modern era.

Käthe Kollwitz, “Sharpening the Scythe” (1908), sheet 3 of the cycle Peasants’ War. Line etching, drypoint, sandpaper, aquatint, and soft ground with imprint of laid paper and Ziegler’s transfer paper. (Wikimedia Commons)

The seven screens of Peasants’ War (1901–8) follow a similar narrative to the weavers. Two opening sheets show a plowman bending to the earth and a woman embedded in dirt after being raped. The next frame, “Sharpening the Scythe,” portrays a tense older woman with tired eyes running a whetstone across a long blade. Only two sheets show the actual war, with a sea of peasant warriors fighting night and day, led by a peasant named Black Anna. This is followed by the haunting “Battlefield,” in which an elderly woman makes contact with a young man’s corpse; her veiny hand and his face appear illuminated at the point of contact. The series concludes with survivors tightly packed in an open-air prison.

Peasants’ War was a major success, and Kollwitz’s work was quickly acquired by institutions like the British Museum and New York Public Library. She ensured wide accessibility to her work by producing in high volume and selling at low cost. This meant allowing her work to be reproduced, and, in 1908, she began contributing to Munich satire magazine Simplicissimus, which was committed to publishing visual and literary work critiquing economic inequality.

She also designed propaganda that addressed working-class issues. Her 1906 poster for the Exhibition of German Cottage Industries, showing an exhausted working woman, was so distasteful to Empress Augusta Victoria that she refused to visit. Another for the Greater Berlin Administration Union, which denounced the city’s housing shortage, was banned by an association of landlords.

Käthe Kollwitz, “Battlefield” (1907), sheet 6 of the cycle Peasants’ War. (Wikimedia Commons)

After the assassination of Spartacus League leaders Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg by the Freikorps in 1919, Kollwitz attended Liebknecht’s funeral with thousands of supporters and became sympathetic to the Communist Party of Germany (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands, or KPD). Her memorial to Liebknecht is one of the results of that experience. It shows his pale corpse lying flat in the style of a Christian lamentation, surrounded by black-clad mourners. His side profile appears to glow, emanating bright streaks into the coat of a sobbing man who seems not to notice.

Radical Motherhood

In 1913, Kollwitz cofounded the Organization of Women Artists, coinciding with her foray into sculpture. One year later, and just three months into World War I, her son Peter was killed in action. This sent the artist, who spoke with so many ailing mothers, into a deep melancholy that informed the remainder of her career. While working in a cafeteria for the unemployed, she experienced a long period of creative stagnation that lasted until the revolution.

As poet Richard Dehmel urged further action in the war, Kollwitz published a dissenting letter in the German press that quoted Johann Wolfgang von Goethe: “Seeds for sowing should not be ground.” Following armistice, her woodcut series The War (1918–1923) provided a searing critique of the conflict’s effects on family life. One sheet, simply titled “The Mothers,” shows a group of women holding each other as one. This piece, which looks almost sculptural, became the archetype for her many sculptures of mothers protecting children, and an enlarged version is prominently displayed at the Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny in Berlin.

Käthe Kollwitz, “The Mothers” (1921-22), sheet 6 of the series The War. Woodcut. (Wikimedia Commons)

The peak of Kollwitz’s career came in 1927 with recognition by the Weimar Republic. She visited the Soviet Union with Karl to commemorate ten years since the October Revolution and became the head of the Master Studio for Graphic Arts at the Prussian Academy, but her tenure was short-lived. When the National Socialists came to power, Kollwitz signed an appeal with Karl, Heinrich Mann, Albert Einstein, and other intellectuals to align the SPD and KPD against the National Socialists, followed by a second attempt led primarily by Mann and Kollwitz in 1933.

Coverage in a Moscow newspaper led the Gestapo to question Kollwitz and threaten imprisonment, and eventually led to the removal of her work from German museums and her forced resignation from the academy. The Nazis stored her art in the basement of the Crown Prince’s Palace throughout World War II, claiming that “mothers have no need to defend their children. The State does that.”

A Clear Political Message

Some critics have argued that Kollwitz’s work was not political because she never portrayed the oppressor. Others have alleged that her style was “out of touch” during the birth of abstract expressionism. For Louis Marchesano, this notion is a result of the “aesthetic purification” that took place during the Cold War in North American and West German cultural institutions.

Käthe Kollwitz, “In Memoriam Karl Liebknecht” (1920). Woodcut. (Wikimedia Commons)

But Kollwitz’s art, grounded in her radical commitments, and with its representations of working-class history, was deeply political. She aligned herself with many of the largest democratic and anti-war organizations. She was a member of the communist-led Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom as well as the Workers’ International Relief. She designed posters for the International Labour Union, and her “Never Again War” illustration for the Central German Convention of Young Socialist Workers became an icon of the anti-war movement after her death.

Kollwitz embraced negative space, wielding shadow to define her scenes before expressionist filmmakers popularized this aesthetic. The darkness of daily life took its toll on her, but optimism persisted. This is evident in one of her last letters, to her daughter-in-law Ottilie, in 1944:

Every war is answered by a new war, until everything, everything is smashed. The devil only knows what the world, what Germany will look like then. That is why I am whole-heartedly for a radical end to this madness, and why my only hope is in a world socialism.

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Billy Anania is an art critic, editor, and journalist in New York City.

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Source URL: https://portside.org/2021-12-19/radical-printmaking-kathe-kollwitz

Donations can be sent to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206, Baltimore, MD 21212.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs