Good mail day @rparkinson.bsky.social

Eating dinner in Oban, Scotland and they have “American” food. I’ll admit I never knew there was a “Chicago-style” bbq rib. And don’t get me started on the Philly Cheese Steak containing emmental cheese. That is way too fancy (and contains too many letters) for Philly residents. Where’s the whiz?

I always wanted to see my name in @dissentmag.bsky.social. I assumed it would be as an author, but my pitch wasn’t selected for the recent “sewer socialism” series. I was pleasantly surprised to see that Aims McGuinness shouted me out. It’s surreal to see accomplished scholars citing my work.

Lastly, I'm thankful to my wife Halle. She got a great new job in the Pittsburgh area and we bought a house in June. She was my rock when I lost my grandpa in September and I can't wait for what 2026 brings. Oh, and thank you to my Elton. The bestest boy... when he wants to be. (end)

I'm thankful for the @milwaukeebrewers.bsky.social and a magical season. It may have ended in disappointed, but I'm a socialist... I'm immune to disappointment. Seeing the Cubs lose was my World Series.

After losing at the convention, Harrington resigned and, with his former caucus, he formed the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee. In 1982, the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee merged with the New American Movement, an organization of New Left activists, forming the DSA.

After Norman Thomas's Socialist Party absorbed Shachtman's ISL in 1957, Harrington endorsed the Shachtman strategy of working as part of the Democratic Party rather than sponsoring candidates as Socialists.

His estrangement from religion was accompanied by an increasing interest in Marxism and secular socialism. After leaving The Catholic Worker, Harrington became a member of the Independent Socialist League (ISL), a small organization associated with the former Trotskyist activist Max Shachtman.

Harrington was a founding member of the Democratic Socialists of America, and an influential early leader. As a young man, he was interested in both leftist politics and Catholicism. He joined Dorothy Day's Catholic Worker Movement, a communal movement that stressed social justice and nonviolence.

🗃️ Socialist of the Day LAST POST: Edward Michael Harrington Jr. (1928 – 1989) was an American democratic socialist. As a writer, he was perhaps best known as the author of The Other America. Harrington was a political activist, theorist, professor of political science, and a radio commentator.

She was a widely read and award-winning columnist and essayist, and author of 21 books. Ehrenreich is perhaps best known for her 2001 book Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America; a memoir of Ehrenreich's three-month experiment surviving on a series of minimum wage jobs.

🗃️ Socialist of the Day: Barbara Ehrenreich (1941-2022) is an American author and political activist who has been called "a veteran muckraker" by The New Yorker. During the 1980s and early 1990s she was a prominent figure in the Democratic Socialists of America.

They’re the best!

Rustin was a gay man and, due to criticism over his sexuality, he usually acted as an influential adviser behind the scenes to civil-rights leaders. In the 1980s, he became a public advocate on behalf of gay causes, speaking at events as an activist and supporter of human rights.

Rustin became the head of the AFL–CIO's A. Philip Randolph Institute, which promoted the integration of formerly all-white unions, and promoted the unionization of Black Americans.

Rustin worked alongside Ella Baker, a co-director of the Crusade for Citizenship, in 1954; and before the Montgomery bus boycott, he helped organize a group, called "In Friendship," amongst Baker, George Lawrence, Stanley Levison of the American Jewish Congress, and some other labor leaders.

Rustin later organized Freedom Rides, and helped to organize the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to strengthen Martin Luther King Jr.'s leadership and teaching King about nonviolence; he later served as an organizer for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

🗃️ Socialist of the Day: Bayard Rustin (March 17, 1912 – August 24, 1987) was a leader in movements for civil rights, socialism, nonviolence, and gay rights. Rustin worked with A. Philip Randolph on the March on Washington Movement, in 1941, to press for an end to racial discrimination in employment.

Randolph inspired the "Freedom Budget", sometimes called the "Randolph Freedom budget", which aimed to deal with the economic problems facing the black community, it was published by the Randolph Institute in January 1967 as "A Freedom Budget for All Americans".

In 1963, Randolph was the head of the March on Washington, which was organized by Bayard Rustin, at which Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have A Dream" speech. Randolph was chosen because conservative civil rights leaders did not want Rustin’s gayness to draw criticism.

This effort eventually led President FDR to issue Executive Order 8802 in 1941, banning discrimination in the defense industries during WWII. The group then successfully pressured President Harry S. Truman to issue Executive Order 9981 in 1948, ending segregation in the armed services.

Randolph was a prominent voice in both the Civil Rights and Labor movement. His continuously agitated, with the support of fellow labor rights activists, against unfair labor practices in relation to people of color.

🗃️ Socialist of the Day: Asa Philip Randolph (April 15, 1889 – May 16, 1979) was an American labor unionist, civil rights activist, and socialist politician. In 1925, he organized and led the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first mainly Black labor union.

Schneiderman was also a founding member of the American Civil Liberties Union and served on the National Recovery Administration's Labor Advisory Board under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

As a member of the New York Women's Trade Union League, she drew attention to unsafe workplace conditions, following the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911, and as a suffragist she helped to pass the New York state referendum of 1917 that gave women the right to vote.

🗃️ Socialist of the Day: Rose Schneiderman (1882 – 1972) was a Polish-born American socialist and feminist, and one of the most prominent female labor union leaders. She is credited with coining the phrase "Bread and Roses," to indicate a worker's right to something higher than subsistence living.

In 1929, she formed the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control, which served as the focal point of her lobbying efforts to legalize contraception in the United States. From 1952-1959, Sanger served as president of the International Planned Parenthood Federation. She died in 1966

In 1921, Sanger founded the American Birth Control League, which later became the Planned Parenthood Federation of America. In NYC, she organized the first birth control clinic to be staffed by all-female doctors, and a clinic in Harlem which had an all Black advisory council.

Sanger felt that women needed to be able to determine when to bear children. She believed that, while abortion may be a viable option in life-threatening situations for the pregnant, it should generally be avoided. She considered contraception the only practical way to avoid them.

In 1916, Sanger opened the first birth control clinic in the United States, which led to her arrest for distributing information on contraception, after an undercover policewoman bought a copy of her pamphlet on family planning. Her subsequent trial and appeal generated controversy.