To my Allies and LGBTQ+ comrades boycotting Russian Vodka: Just Stop.

I know that we all mean well when we collectively decided not to buy any more Vodka from Russian companies because of the decision of their President Vladimir Putin to actively endanger his own citizens because of their status (or allyship to) as sexual minorities.

But I suggest that you do not let this dictator's actions sway you to damage the economic integrity of long corporate allies to the LGBTQ+ community. Allies like the hard hit Stolichnaya Vodka (also known as Stoli) have had a long history of supporting Lesbian and Gay movements in the United States and abroad with campaigns such as Be Real: Stories from Queer America which explores the intersectionality of gender identity. Stoli CEO Val Mendeleev recently sent a letter to the American magazine The Advocate (whose audience is predominantly wealthy white gay men) reading as follows: 

Luxembourg, July 25, 2013
An Open Letter from the CEO of Stolichnaya Vodka to the LGBT community.
The recent dreadful actions taken by the Russian Government limiting the rights of the LGBT community and the passionate reaction of the community have prompted me to write this letter to you.
I want to stress that Stoli firmly opposes such attitude and actions. Indeed, as a company that encourages transparency and fairness, we are upset and angry. Stolichnaya Vodka has always been, and continues to be a fervent supporter and friend to the LGBT community. We also thank the community for having adopted Stoli as their vodka of preference.
In the US, the brand’s commitment to the LGBT community has been ongoing for years. Among the best examples, I can cite the series produced by Stoli in 2006 called “Be Real: Stories from Queer America” which featured short documentaries on real life stories depicting the challenges and accomplishments of the LGBT community in the United States (http://www.logotv.com/shows/dyn/be_real_series/series.jhtml)
Stoli is very proud of its current exclusive national partnership with Gaycities.com and Queerty.com in search of the Most Original Stoli Guy. This is a fantastic program that started as a local initiative in Colorado and became a national platform. Previous national initiatives included serving as the official vodka of the Miami Gay Pride Week as well as ongoing events with focus on Pride month.
Some great examples from other parts of the world are the support to the Durban Gay Pride, in South Africa (http://www.durbanpride.org), the Pride Parade in Vienna, in cooperation with HOSI and CT, the largest LGBT communities in Austria and the Tel Aviv Pride Parade, taking place this weekend.
This letter also gives me the opportunity to clear some of the confusion surrounding the Stolichnaya brand, based on facts found online that often inaccurately link our company to the Russian Government. The Russian government has no ownership interest or control over the Stoli brand that is privately owned by SPI Group, headquartered in Luxembourg in the heart of Western Europe.
Stoli’s production process involves both Russia and Latvia. Stoli is made from Russian ingredients (wheat, rye and raw alcohol) blended with pure artesian well water at our historic distillery and bottling facility Latvijas Balzams (www.lb.lv) in Riga, Latvia (formerly part of the Russian Empire and then of the Soviet Union). Latvijas Balzams did not recently become part of the Stoli heritage, but has been one of its main production and bottling facilities since 1948. This has allowed the brand to deliver the outstanding quality it is recognized for consistently across the years. What changed in the last years is politics, with Latvia becoming an independent state part of the EU.
We fully support and endorse your objectives to fight against prejudice in Russia. In the past decade, SPI has been actively advocating in favor of freedom, tolerance and openness in society, standing very passionately on the side of the LGBT community and will continue to support any effective initiative in that direction.
Sincerely yours
Val Mendeleev
Chief Executive Officer
SPI Group

which details the work the company has done for the American LGBTQ+ community in the past. It additionally attempts to highlight the company's corporate independence (as far as that can go nowadays) from Russia. However the company's subsidiary SPI Group is owned by Russian businessman Yury Shefler who won rights to continue privately produce vodka against re-nationalization attempts in 1999 by russian president Putin (details later in the article). SPI group is a Swiss based company with a board headed by predominantly American [USA] folks.

While receiving criticism from gay activist Dan Savage (known for his frequent outing of closeted youth during his talks and his trans*phobia) for lack of action in Russia, Stoli has made historical attempts at distancing itself from Russia since the 1999 nationalization attempts. However what Dan Savage [unsurprisingly] and others missed is that Vodka is not Russia's chief export.

According to the United States Government, the global market and the media Russia's largest export and money maker is - you guessed it - petroleum products! After petroleum products come natural gas, metals, wood and wood products, and then a whole list of chemicals that become a whole lot of other things. Last on the list is civilian based companies that do not make above products. Thus boycotting them is not going to do a whole lot of good. What will occur is that these companies (many of which are allies) will become easier and easier for a hostile government to buy. Once bought, say farewell to nifty LGBTQ+ awareness campaigns (even if they were only in the United States.

"But what should you do," you ask?

Well based on this data you should start contacting petroleum companies and inform them that you plan on boycotting their products as long as they continue to buy from Russian producers. Or, better yet, encourage companies to become green energy providers by buying credits, investing in them, or directing and electing representatives that support green energy initiatives. Contact paper product producers and inform them that you plan on boycotting Russian wood products and tell them that they should find other suppliers if they do not want to be hit hard. Buy local  to make sure that none of your capital goes to the Russian government. Follow Russian LGBTQ+ activist Nikolia Alekseev's advice and put Russian politicians on the visa ban list - effectively erasing their international sway. And perhaps hardest: stop putting Russian politicians in a place where they feel like they can act masculine, such as the Snowden incident, by reforming national laws that protect nationals so they do not need to seek protection overseas. 

A New Look at Cultural Group Identity

While looking around the internet for resources for my research on rights consciousness within the abled differently community in the United States and abroad I wandered upon a marvelous site called Exactitudes®.

Link to the site Here. 

Now before I say anything more, I want to preface this by saying that this site works to identifying various social groups that seek to set themselves apart from their conglomerate cultures. 

Below are some excerpts from their shows:

Museum of Photography, The Hague

"Photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since October 1994. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the last 19 years.... Versluis and Uyttenbroek provide an almost scientific, anthropological record of people’s attempts to distinguish themselves from others by assuming a group identity. The apparent contradiction between individuality and uniformity is, however, taken to such extremes in their arresting objective-looking photographic viewpoint and stylistic analysis that the artistic aspect clearly dominates the purely documentary element."

21_21 DESIGNSIGHT TOKYO

"Photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek classify random people whom they see in cities around the world according to particular characteristics of their appearances and attitudes. They create categories which comprise of people who share the same attributes, and give each catagory unique names. This is the artwork they developed together for more than 15 years. We always belong to some sort of groups. But when we are classified into a certain "tribe' by a third party, ignoring that reality, most of us shall be surprised to find out how different other people see us from the way we see ourselves, thinking "so this is me in other people's eyes". This gives us an opportunity to realize again how we are perceived in other eyes, irrespective of our will or intention, or reality.
What's more interesting is that despite the fact that our real selves are left behind, we find other people very satisfied with their classification, which was based on the appearance and attitude we have not necessarily been aware of before."

However, what I am interested in is how various groups are seen by cultures. Namely what are the characteristics that societies seek in order to distinguish these groups and how they shape group and personal identity. I am interested in the conceptualization of group identities as an objection of conglomerate culture that seems to be central to this project because many subcultures are the foundations of the cultures they oppose.
As seen within the United States, disadvantage cultures are often the fodder for entertainment, clothing, and other cultural aspects. One only needs to step into any clothing store to see the gross cultural appropriation of African, First Nation, and Latino cultures (with the first two being some of the biggest) within the American project. Along side these, though to a lesser problematic degree, is the adoption and appropriation of other subgroup cultures into the American project. Examples such as counter-culture movements like hippies, anarchists, environmentalists, and the Queer community have all become normalized, corporatized and absorbed back into the culture they were ostracized from (voluntarily or not) even as their core values and identities are still considered deviant. This photo collection highlights parts of this process, where group values are separated from their consumable culture, and serves as a good foundation for cultural study. 

WATCH Antigay Activist Warns About Gay College RAs | Advocate.com

WATCH Antigay Activist Warns About Gay College RAs | Advocate.com

What do they think we're doing?
*Knock, knock, knock....* "Rez Life, anyone dying in here - have you tried the gay lifestyle?"
Hahaha! If only!!! 

Conceptualize growing fundamentalism into Progressivism - 1

Moving from a traditional base in order to challenge ideals such as Heterosexism, racism, cultural bigotry, transphobia, and other such categories built to separate us could possibly lead towards some of the most radical transformations in social thought that we can experience. That if we, as catalysts of social change, use fundamental concepts rooted in the consciousness of our families and communities to  move our values out from within the sky or above our heads, as things out of our grasps, into realities inside our communities, things we no longer need to value because they're foundations, we can truly enact inherent and indestructible change. 

Hillary’s shocking comments about Bradley Manning

News From Off the Web

by Logan Price

For those who don’t believe that Bradley’s personal life and sexuality may be used against him by officials or media critics, this gem of information was presented in a recent Vanity Fair articleabout Hillary Clinton, while on tour in the Middle East:

“Hillary told staff that she could not fathom how an army private, Bradley Manning, withpsychological problems and a drag-queen boyfriend could single-handedly cause the United States unprecedented embarrassment just by labeling massive downloads as Lady Gaga songs.”

Were those comments verbatim, or just the ill-chosen words of the author? We probably won’t know, but one thing is for sure:  they were published in a major pop-culture outlet, so there is no taking them back.

Here, is a good take-down of the allegation that Manning had “psychological problems.”  As for the comments about Bradley’s sexuality, you can be the judge of that.

If Hillary did indeed say anything of the sort, it is yet another reminder of the Obama administration’s willingness, almost as retaliation for their own embarrassment, to disregard public outcry about Bradley Manning’s charges and detainment and the fact that he has not yet been convicted of any crime.

At a fundraiser in San Francisco in April, Obama told me that Bradley Manning “broke the law,” a legally irresponsible and inappropriate statement that could constitute the ‘unlawful command influence’ of any military judge or jury that may preside over Bradley’s case.

Should the President and commander-in-chief –or the Secretary of State for that matter– really be saying such things about a high profile prisoner like Bradley Manning who has not yet been to trial?

The release of the Diplomatic Cables may have been embarrassing for the Obama Administration, but the life (not political career) of the most important whistleblower of my generation hangs in the balance.

It seems unlikely that we will hear any response from Hillary about this. This administration seems content to say one thing and mean another. Remember the sad irony felt when former white-house briefer Ray McGovern was rather brutally arrested last January for standing up in silent protest during Hillary Clinton’s lecture about free speech at George Washington University?

Not to mention Obama’s unexpected persecution of more whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than any previous administration, while giving this speech about the Arab Spring,

“Through our efforts we must support those basic rights to speak your mind and access information. We will support open access to the Internet, and the right of journalists to be heard – whether it’s a big news organization or a blogger. In the 21st century, information is power; the truth cannot be hidden; and the legitimacy of governments will ultimately depend on active and informed citizens. Such open discourse is important even if what is said does not square with our worldview.”

Ironically, that sounds a lot like Bradley’s alleged chat logs, which are being held by the Pentagon as evidence that Bradley was ‘aiding the enemy.’

“I want people to see the truth, regardless of who they are… because without the truth you can’t make informed decisions as a public.”

Doubly ironic is that the cables Manning is alleged to have leaked have beenhailed as a catalyst of the growing democracy in the Arab world.

The triple irony is that the greatest charge against him is that of  ’aiding the enemy.’  Despite campaign promises our leaders act at home as if democracy is only good for us on their terms — in fact it just might be ‘the enemy.’  Or we are.  Same thing, really.

Democracy, as the Arab world is showing us, is a do-it-yourself skill that requires courage, humility, and commitment to the truth– no matter the stakes.  If Bradley Manning is indeed guilty,  it is of these “psychological problems.”  He is our Egyptian.

Logan Price is a member of the Bradley Manning Support Network.   You can follow him on twitter @kstrel.

This is not the work of Ehahlil's Notebook.

Can the broad left grow together? Can we create ways to meet the monumental challenges that the American left faces today?

From the People's Record

October 23, 2012

The far left is continuing to grow in North America and around the world. From the conversations we’ve been having with lifetime leftists and activists around this country that much is clear. People likeleftist economist Richard Wolff and Baltimore community leader & Black Panther Reverend Annie Chambers are telling us that the left in America & around the world is growing at a rate they’ve never seen before. Things are possible now that haven’t ever been possible before in their lifetimes. You’d have to go back to the Depression-era left to find a time in North America with a left as swelling as ours is today, they say. That’s inspiring.

With capitalism in crisis and an empire stretched to capacity, high unemployment and low prospects for a future for the indebted youth, we have unprecedented opportunities and unprecedented challenges on the left today.

One of those challenges is the tendency of the left to fracture, disagree and eventually self-destruct. There are many factors that influence a sectarian left; any group of people who desperately want to create a new, better kind of world but genuinely disagree about the means by which we might get there are going to have passionate quarrels. The differences between progressives, anarchists, communists and socialists are many but so are the similarities. And it’s in that similar space - the desire to destroy corporate (and for many, capitalist) influence - that we can work together and grow together.

Another pressing challenge for the left is the need for spaces in an alternative society - the need for leftist organizations, collectives, co-operatives, and Workers Self Directed Enterprises to prepare room for growing numbers of people newly disenfranchised with the system of capitalism, who need a place to plug into that doesn’t just suck energy from them, but spaces that also nourish, empower and encourage them in the fight against capitalism. We need welcoming institutions that comfort and educate those who are broken from the horrors of capitalism and institutions that simultaneously channel energy into attacking the system that is at the root of the world’s most horrific problems.

One such institution working on just that is Red Emma’s Bookstore Coffeehouse in Baltimore. It consciously aims to meet both of the above needs through collective decision-making, left-infrastructure building, and by building spaces that are inclusive to and encourage dialogues among the broad left.  Red Emma’s isn’t your typical bookstore/café; it welcomes the homeless, provides free computer use for the community, provides anti-capitalist education and hosts leftist readings & conferences.

But it isn’t your typical anarchist bookstore either. Red Emma’s expressly aims to bridge the gap between Marxist-socialists and anarchists, and all others among the fractured left. When asked what concerned her most about the left, collective founding member Kate Khatib said the fear of sectarianism was what kept her up at night. It was important to her and to many members of the collective, to focus on projects like Red Emma’s and the Baltimore Free School (one of the divergent projects of Red Emma’s) that aim to appeal to the broad left.

And Red Emma’s is growing, allowing those getting involved to plug into a community of leftists, to stay educated and to make a small amount of money in order to live to fight another day. Creating sustainable infrastructure on the left is at the core of what Red Emma’s hopes to accomplish.

What Red Emma’s is building, in the same vein as the movement Democracy at Work is building, answers some of the biggest problems on the left today.

The People’s Record also hopes to play a part in building infrastructure for disenfranchised citizens and aims to aid the fight for a new united left through a few different projects we’ve been working on. Please take a look at what we’re doing and contact us if you have any interest in getting involved with any of our projects.

-Robert

The My Language My Choice Campaign

This Poster Campaign is a beautiful campaign from Pacific Lutheran University.

The My Language My Choice Campaign is a campaign to address the use of hurtful and harmful language.  Student leaders from various areas on campus have been photographed tearing up a word. Students provided two to three sentences on why they choose not to use the particular word.  The campaign is about why an individual chooses not to use a word, so the campaign is about personal responsibility and choice.

The campaign first aimed to focus on phrases That’s So Gay and No Homo.  But because The Diversity Center and Women’s Center appreciate that students have multiple identities and those identities often intersect, new words and phrases were introduced.  The following words and phrases are a part of the campaign:  That’s so Gay, No Homo, Lame, Retarded, Ghetto, Fat, Nigga, Bitch, and Illegal. 

Gary Johnson's Record Doesn't Quite Match His Rhetoric

By MARK ZUSMAN

For the last two weeks, we've been running clips from our interview with Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson. He's spoken with eloquence about taxes, health careand drug laws. In this clip, we ask him about his record as Governor of New Mexico for eight years and the seeming inconsistency between what he says he will do as President, and what he actually did as Governor. (Fact Check: In this clip, Johnson states several times that New Mexico is the youngest state in the country. That's not true. New Mexico is the ninth.

Read More

(from Williamette Week)

Salt Lake Tribune endorses President Obama over Mitt Romney, who organized city’s Olympics

Salt Lake Tribune endorses President Obama over Mitt Romney, who organized city’s Olympics

"The Salt Lake Tribune endorsed President Obama for reelection Friday, with an editorial that was highly critical of Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who is as close to being a favorite son candidate from Utah, the historic and cultural center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a non-resident can be."

Missouri Pastor’s Fiery Speech Against Equal Rights for Homosexuals Has Stunning Twist Ending

Watch the Video Here, and watch it until the end:

The bill was tabled by the council to allow for a "cooling down period,".

Found on Gawker

Spirit Day

So today was spirit day and I of course wore purple today in support of the LGBTQ+ community on campus. I was also informed, just now, by the advocate of the many media celebrities that are wearing or wore purple today. Also encouraging was the number of organizations and sports teams that are going or went purple today to show support.

However I want to express some feelings that I have long had about spirit day. I love the idea that spirit day has, of being a way of showing support to LGBTQ+ youth.  That the idea that the world gets better, that suicide is really and truly as ridiculous as giving broccoli out on Halloween, and that there are all these people out here that support them is spread around is fantastic!... That is not what I want to criticize. What I want to criticize is both the lack of participation and the complete politicization of the occurrence. I recognize that there are people out there in the world that aren't fans of equality, that don't like the LGBTQ+ community and are most likely never going to adopt healthy attitudes to anything regardless of what we do. They're the people that I could care less about because they are not rational people and consider everything but corduroy couch cozies a sin they are not going to be convinced to change their opinion by people such as myself. Who I'm talking about are the people at the margins of the debate. The people whose support could really magnify the inherent need for equality under the law that is lacking for the LGBTQ+ community that really should be there. These are people like parents of LGBTQ+ youth; like the elderly who are our ardent supporters; like teachers, professors, faculty and staff at schools, colleges and universities across the country; these are our healthcare providers and emergency services staff like first responders and; we need people from every cultural background to reach deep into the depths of their closets and pull out whatever hideous [or lovely] shade of purple that they have and wear it. Because in all reality we can wear purple, and see all the same people who just as ardently support LGBTQ+ equality wear purple, but that is not going to help anyone because there is no progress, no economic growth within our struggle because our labor market is staying the same. We need these people at the margins to create change because these are the people who can make the most change. These are the people who aren't ardent supporters of equality, but their support is just as passionate and just as meaningful. These are the people in both mainstream political parties working for LGBTQ+ rights [even though I think both are ridiculous and unhelpful] and that are on the lines with people that can most benefit from the slow osmosis of equality. 

On that stream of thought I would like to break to my other qualm with what I saw today in the media and through my experience. There is this conception that the fight for LGBTQ+ equality is single sided. That the Democratic party is the party that has our best interest at heart and that we need to vote for President Obama because he is a democrat. There is this idea that people in the Republican party are misogynistic, that they hate equality of any kind, that they are beyond reason and that they are greedy beyond belief. We think that because we see a perception in the media of such hatred towards Women, Hispanics/Latinos/Chicanos, African American/Blacks*, LGBTQ+, First Nation People,  the poor, etc... that it must be true of all people in the party. But I have met so many people that prescribe to the Republican party that don't believe in the same way. I have met some very eloquent persons who seek to create environments that foster the growth of our nation into the Isles of the Blessed. So I don't think we should harp on our Republican allies because of the choice of their party. If we are truly fighting for equality then we should harp on them for their policies regarding our brothers and sisters in the fight. We should ask for them to end racist policies regarding immigration and we should demand an end to class within our society. Because no one has rights while others lie in the chains of slavery; the more injustice we let pass the closer we get to having injustice committed against ourselves. And yes these are things that need to be seen in our community - a stronger tie being built with our allies in the fight for equality and apologize for the wrongs we have committed against them (from racism, sexism, cultural appropriation, religious bigotry, and all other forms of insensitivity) - and a political community of communal respect and communalism that has a House, Senate, Governmental Agencies, and all public works awash in clouds of purple.

We are a nation of people that believe strongly in the greatness that we can create. We know that any challenge can be overcome through our work. But it is time that we recognize that we are no longer the stream that fought injustices in the 1900s - that it is time to create a true nation, a nation that does not simply value equality, but HAS equality. 

Happy Spirit Day

-Ehahlil

* I've included the term "Black" because I was told that for some the term "African American" does not capture their experience because of various reasons including 'African Diaspora' and inherent racisms structurally within our systems of government. I apologize if it happens to offend anyone, but it will remain.