Carnival of Radical Action

Elle, Ph.D. and Vox ex Machina are hosting the next edition of the Carnival of Radical Action.

Here's the premise for #6:

Please get in your submissions for the Carnival of Radical Action.


...for the sixth edition of the Carnival of Radical Action, Vox and I want you to explore making radical history. How do we create and participate in radical history? And how do we chronicle it?

Some food for thought:
• How do radical activists incorporate history into their activism?
• What are the processes involved in forming radical, history-shaping movements in our day and age (i.e. how do we initiate, shape, translate into action our responses to injustice and violence against and within our communities)?
• How do we learn from the past and incorporate radical themes in our work?
Deadline for submissions is Thursday, November 29.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

I watched the HBO movie based on the book by Dee Brown.

This book, plus the rise of the American Indian Movement had a direct effect on my life when I was in junior high in Mankato, Minnesota.

Think about the stories you hear about young Germans in the 1960s not being educated about the camps. It was the same for us. We were surrounded by this horrible history, and yet nobody talked about it. Mankato is the site of the largest mass execution in U.S. history shown below in an etching:



The settlers originally planned to hang 330, but Pres. Lincoln said it was too many and narrowed it down to 38. This event was celebrated in Mankato with this incredible monoment which greeted ever visitor as they entered town:



AIM and other activists threw red paint and/or blood on the monument to express their displeasure:



Many years later, through the combined efforts of concerned whites and Native activists, the monument is gone and is replaced by a beautiful white buffalo statue in a placed called "Reconciliation Park":



There is a great website put together by local students where you can read more about the events in 1862.