June 2022 FOLWCC Newsletter

JUNETEENTH IS A TIME TO CELEBRATE BLACK FREEDOM,

REFLECT ON TODAY AND ENGAGE IN THE CHALLENGES AHEAD!

Malcolm X, Angela Davis and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were all victims of the US Government's Counter Intelligence Program / CO INTEL PRO US GOVERNMENT'S REPRESSION and ITS WHITE SUPREMACY MURDER OR TRIED these repressive tactics TO STOP THE BLACK FREEDOM and LIBERATION MOVEMENT!

JUNETEENTH Weekend, June 18-19 2022, we must be clear of the need to unite and fight these same dangerous and growing government and white supremacist dark forces!

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there ‘is’ such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”

-ML King Jr.

June 2022 Calendar

12th, Sunday; 4-5:00 PM

Black Workers for Justice Women’s Commission Working Group hosts part 3 of a book review and discussion about Danielle L. McGuire’s “At the Dark End of the Street – Black Women, Rape and Resistance – a New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power”. This will be an in-person, at the FOLWCC, and virtual discussion. Call or text Wille Roberts at (252) 640-0944 for more information and to register.

18th, Saturday

Low-Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March on Washington, DC by the Poor People's Campaign; The Mass Poor People’s & Low-Wage Workers’ Assembly & Moral March on Washington on June 18, 2022 will be a generationally-transformative declaration of the power of poor and low-wealth people and our moral allies to say that this system is killing ALL of us and we can’t…we won’t…we refuse to be silent anymore! There are abundant resources to meet our needs, and we march to summon the political will to do so. America must have a moral revolution now. It is time to nonviolently disrupt, protest, shake up and alter the direction of our nation towards love, truth, justice and equal protection under the law. Learn more here: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/june18/

19th, Sunday CANCELED

Our 22nd Annual Juneteenth and Father’s Day Celebration and Annual Spoons of Justice Cook-Off!

25th, Saturday; 6:00-10:00 PM

World Cultural Cinema Outdoor Movie Series presents “Sorry to Bother You” – an outrageously surreal look at capitalism corporate greed and fractured workplace dynamics. In an alternate present-day version of Oakland, CA, struggling telemarketer, Cassius Green discovers a magical key to professional success, which propels him into a macabre universe. Food is served at 6:30 PM – BBQ wings or Fried Fish Dinners are $12. Hotdogs & chips $7; please rsvp to

(919) 876-7187 and order early. Plates go quickly! The movie starts at 7:45 PM.

Low-Wage Workers' Assembly and Moral March on Washington

By Poor People's Campaign

SATURDAY JUNE 18

Washington, DC

The Fruit of Labor World Cultural Center volunteer staff wants to encourage everyone to join us to take a COVID SAFE bus or organize carpools to Washington, DC on June 18. Please share with your co-workers, family members and neighbors. Learn more here: https://www.poorpeoplescampaign.org/june18/

Join us during this historic time of an ever-increasing U.S. crisis. We cannot stand idle or remain silent...We want a better society and world!

WE MUST BRING OUR POWERFUL MESSAGE FOR CHANGE TO ALL POLITICIANS!

Join our "FOL WCC /SWA working people/workers/ UE Local 150"

Delegation to the March!

Free PPC bus rides are available or for a small donation!

The Love Affair Between Hollywood and the Pentagon

For the Pentagon, films like Top Gun: Maverick are more than just a movie. They are a recruitment bonanza.

portside.org

It came like a bolt from the blue, a gift from the heavens. In 1986, audiences flocked to theaters to see Tony Scott’s Top Gun, starring a fresh-faced Tom Cruise as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a hotshot Navy aviator bent on stardom. They kept coming for seven months. When the dust settled, the film had brought in over $176 million. Unlike its protagonist, who came in second at the eponymous elite flight academy, the film ended 1986 the top earner of the year.

But for the Navy, Top Gun was more than just a movie. It was a recruitment bonanza.

Military recruiting stations were set up outside movie theaters, catching wannabe flyboys hopped up on adrenaline and vibes. Others enlisted on their own. Interest in the armed forces, primarily the Navy and the Air Force, rose that year, though it’s unclear just how much. Naval aviator applications were claimed to have increased by a staggering 500 percent.

Hollywood knows how to sell the life of a soldier. Top Gun paints the life of an elite pilot as mostly a real-life video game, with young men competing to top the charts at the academy. (The rankings were a fiction invented for the film, though the school is real.) In a sort of coda to the story, the pilots do engage in real combat — but we never know who the enemy is, barely get an explanation as to the mission, and mostly see them pulling off daring maneuvers to great acclaim. And in 1986, the US wasn’t engaged in a real-life war. Vietnam was becoming a more distant memory for young people. Who wouldn’t want to be a hero?