Tractivists represent at NC Pride 2007!

As the old cheer goes… sort of… We’re here, some of us are queer, get used to it! (We’ll work on getting a bigger picture…)

Traction is throwing a salsa party!

Here’s the scoop…

What: Salsa Doble (hips and dip)
When: Sunday August 19

• 6pm salsa-making workshop
• 7pm dance lesson
• 8pm party

Where: the fabulous porch of Parker and Otis (formerly Fowler’s) in Durham
Who: Traction, El Pueblo, El Centro, SEEDS, Locopops and a porchload of your favorite Tractivists
Cost: $10 donation for the workshop or the dance party; get both for $17
Get your tickets here.

Since we’ll be both EATING and DANCING, we’re calling it Salsa Doble (hips and dip). And because it’s Traction, you know you’ll find spicy info about progressive issues — this time it’s immigration, farmworkers’ rights and local food — and ways to take action.
That’s right, local food. It would be WRONG to let peak tomato season pass without making some badass salsa. (Remember, friends don’t let friends buy El Paso.) So we’re throwing a salsa-making workshop. Spaces are limited…

Make a donation and get your tix here.

Hey, you know how you’ve been waiting for just the right occasion to volunteer for Traction? I think this is it. Write to salsa@getTraction.org to get in the mix…
Good food, good friends, good politics, and you’re supporting a great cause. Get your ticket now, and we’ll see you on the 19th!

Traction was honored to be part of H K on J, or Historic Thousands on Jones St., on Saturday.
Thousands of North Carolinians gathered in an NAACP-led People’s Assembly and adopted (by roaring acclamation) a bold 14-point progressive agenda:

1. High quality, well-funded, diverse schools for all children
2. Living wages
3. Health care for all
4. Government redress for the Wilmington Race Riots of 1898 and the forced sterilization of black women from 1947 to 1977
5. Same-day voter registration and public financing for elections
6. More funding for historically black colleges and universities
7. Redress for 200 years of discrimination in state hiring and contracting
8. Affordable housing and consumer protection
9. Criminal justice reform including abolition of the death penalty
10. Creation of an environmental job corps for youth
11. Collective bargaining for public employees
12. Immigrant rights
13. More funding for civil rights enforcement agencies
14. Bringing troops home from Iraq

Then we marched to the General Assembly and posted it there for our state legislators to see.

Thanks to Tractivist Robert S., who posted lots of H K on J clips on You Tube! Here’s one featuring several Tractivists on stage, including yours truly…

Traction represented well, with Dave, Celeste, Bria, Anne, Tamara, Brandi, Jim, Adam and many more among the marchers.

Did you take pictures? Post them to flickr and tag them HKonJ and Traction!

This morning a Wake County judge issued an injunction to stop two impending executions until the state of NC can come up with a new protocol for carrying out the death penalty without physicians.  This comes after a new policy from the NC Medical Board prohibiting doctors from assisting in executions, because of their pledge to do no harm.

The judge’s decision this morning has brought to center stage the conflict between the oath taken by doctors and their role in executions.  Go to the WRAL site and check out this story on whether or not we should stop executions that don’t have a doctor present. Then be sure to see the poll (on the right side) and vote on the issue!

Join Traction again this Tuesday to hear from local civil rights heroes & sheroes and watch another episode of the amazing Eyes on the Prize. This week, the prize is EDUCATION.

When: Tues 1/23, 7pm.
Where: Durham Food Co-op, 1101 W. Chapel Hill St. (at Buchanan).
Cost: FREE, but donations are appreciated!
Contact: eyes@getTraction.org

This week, we’ll hear from
- Irv Joyner, legendary civil rights attorney and co-chair of the NAACP-NC Legal Redress Committee
- Floyd McKissick, Jr., whose family led the fight to integrate Durham’s public schools
- Tractivist Torrey Dixon, fellow at the UNC Center for Civil Rights who’s monitoring the Leandro decision and the state of NC education today

Then we’ll watch Episode 2:
Fighting Back (1957-62), on the legal and street showdowns to desegregate the public schools. (Afterwards, some of us will watch the State of the Union address either at the Co-op or somewhere else nearby where we can get a stiff drink…)

By popular demand, we’re making this a weekly series, as we learn from our elders, watch the most critically acclaimed documentary on civil rights in America, and ground ourselves in the ongoing progressive and civil rights movement. Until…

On Feb 10th, Tractivists will join the NAACP and many other progressive organizations for a movement-building event in Raleigh called Historic Thousands on Jones Street, or H K on J!

You won’t want to miss H K on J, so mark your calendar and sign up now!

Note: Episode Information: Fighting Back (1957-1962)
States’ rights loyalists and federal authorities collide in the 1957 battle to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School, and again in James Meredith’s 1962 challenge to segregation at the University of Mississippi. Both times, a Southern governor squares off with a U.S. president, violence erupts — and integration is carried out.

“… and that time has come for us in relation to Vietnam.”
—Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

This year, Traction and the Durham Food Co-op add our collective voices to the chorus celebrating the life and legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

Join us on Tuesday 1/16 to learn from our elders as we watch an episode of Eyes on the Prize, and talk with local civil rights leaders. We’ll watch Episode 10: The Promised Land (1967-68), wherein Dr. King speaks out against the war in Vietnam and embarks on a Poor People’s Campaign, calling for a radical redistribution of economic power.

Before the film, we’ll hear from some LOCAL civil rights heroes and sheroes, including R. Kelly Bryant, Jr. (pictured), who led a large-scale 1968 boycott calling for changes in welfare, housing, and employment practices in Durham.

And we’ll learn about ongoing civil rights work, including the VERY exciting NC NAACP-led People’s Assembly known as H K on J (Historic Thousands on Jones St.), coming up on Feb 10th in Raleigh.

“… We are dealing with issues that cannot be solved without the nation spending billions of dollars and undergoing a radical redistribution of economic power.”
—Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

When: Tues 1/16, 7pm
Where: Durham Food Co-op, 1101 W. Chapel Hill St. (at Buchanan)
Cost: FREE, but donations are appreciated
Questions & RSVPs: eyes-AT-getTraction-DOT-org

Tractivists!

Is there any doubt that you stole the show at the NC Pride parade? None whatsoever.

Picture, if you will, a bike rickshaw pulling a giant beautiful patchwork kite, with anywhere from 6-20 Tractivists dancing and cheering in its wake. The rickshaw driver and the two mannequins riding in back were all decked out in Traction T-shirts and the crowd went wild! We warmed them up for the very sexy men on the Legends float right behind us.

We couldn’t have done it without Anne, Celeste, Keith from Greenway Pedicabs (so cool), Keith’s partner Kira, and Chris! Anyone with pictures, please send them to getTraction@gmail.com and we’ll post them on our flickr site: http://flickr.com/photos/traction/
P.S. Coming up later this month:
10/12 Jesus Camp advance screening (we’ve got free tix)
10/14 Bill Scher, author of “Wait! Don’t Move to Canada!” at the Regulator
10/21 Early Voting Tail-gate Party (Are you registered to vote???)

Hey Tractivists,

Join Traction this Saturday, Sept 9th to celebrate our local harvest with a two-part event: a morning conversation about local food plus an evening potluck!

We’ll meet at the Durham Farmers’ Market at 10:30am, talk with Tractivists who know their local food and sustainability issues (your chance to find out about that CSA thing), and do a little shopping for the week. Then we’ll reconvene at 7pm for a community potluck dinner. It will be fun *and delicious* to share what we and our local farmers have grown this summer.

Some Food for Thought:
– The average American meal travels 1500 miles to your table!
–> After I flew to California this spring, I decided Cali was just too far away for my organic veggies. Then I discovered the Durham Farmers’ Market and was hooked. When you come, you’ll find out why!
– Farmers’ markets enable farmers to keep 80 to 90 cents of each dollar spent by the consumer as opposed to only 9 cents by traditional groceries!
– Throughout history, humans have eaten 80,000 plant species — 3,000 of them consistently. Industrial Agriculture has narrowed it to only 8 different crops for 75% of the world’s food!
– Local food means variety, biodiversity and sustainability.
– Wonder why high-fructose corn syrup shows up in almost everything? Uh, maybe it’s the subsidies in the obscure Farm Bill, which dictates the lay of the land (millions of acres of it), the food most Americans eat and therefore our very health! It’s up for debate in 2007.
– Getting a family to quit eating factory-farmed meat will cause a greater reduction in carbon emissions than switching to a hybrid car!

Here in this Fast Food Nation of ours, folks clearly want things to be fast, easy and cheap –- especially food -– and cooking is seen as work. The Slow Food movement is about recovering relationships with food, the land, and community. What’s so powerful is how Slow Food values (buying local, eating in community) can make such an impact on so many important issues: social justice, health care, workers’ rights (Labor Day is around the corner), sustainability, animal cruelty, global warming, family farms, land conservation, and the list goes on.

Put your politics where your mouth is, and join Traction in saving the world, one delicious bite at a time:

Saturday, Sept 9 at 10:30 am
Gather for local food discussion at the Durham Farmers’ Market.
(Optional FREE yoga at 9am)

Saturday, Sept 9 at 7pm
Harvest potluck at Kelly’s apartment
Please bring a home-cooked dish (preferably vegetarian), a plate, and anything else inspiring to share.

Please RSVP for either/both events and for directions to kelly@getTraction.org, and let me know what you’re bringing.

Kindest regards,

Kelly
Tractivist, local food addict and amateur cook

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Over 80 people came out to get an early start on Labor Day when Traction showed The Uprising of ‘34 at Culture Crawl in downtown Durham on 8/18/06.

Mary Coles, whose father was president of Durham’s textile union during this walk-out and mass movement, graced us with her presence and shared memories from the perspective of an 11-year old girl. We also heard from Durham historian Jim Wise and Tractivists working on modern-day labor issues — including the Justice as Smithfield campaign — through Student Action with Farmworkers, National FarmWorker Ministries, and IUE-CWA, a local union for the employees of non-profits.
Turns out Frank Stasio (host of The State of Things) was there in the audience, and their show today will be about this historical moment, plus the fight at Smithfield. So listen in! We’re thrilled that Traction had a role in inspiring the show and raising more awareness of labor issues, past and present.

Many thanks to Theo, JoAnne, Dave Z., Lori, Tony, Denise, Becky & Devin, Veronica, Kelly, Tom & Tema, and the Transom Gallery (and probably many others) for helping with this event! And to Wessel for taking pictures under tough conditions. We’ll see if we can resize this one and do it justice…

Labor Day is just around the corner and this year we’ll travel back in time to a largely forgotten piece of Labor Day history — right here in Durham.

Seventy two years ago this September, over 7,000 textile mill workers in Durham went on strike, joining hundreds of thousands of others around the country to demand better pay and better working conditions.

This Friday, Traction returns to Culture Crawl and we’re bringing our ReelPolitik film series with us. We’ll be showing an outdoor movie: The Uprising of ‘34, about the textile worker strike in the South that was the largest mass strike in U.S. history.This is what Labor Day is really about — celebrating and honoring the legacy of the millions of largely unknown folks who fought for things we take for granted today — like a 40-hour work week, a minimum wage and safer workplaces.

We’ll be joined by special guests Mary Cole, who lived through the strike as the 11 year old daughter of an Erwin Mill union organizer, and Jim Wise, a local historian and newspaper columnist who has written about the strike in Durham. Plus, we’ll benefit from cameo appearances by current labor organizers in North Carolina, who can update us on how to support the labor struggles of the 21st century.

The vitals:
“The Uprising of ‘34″
Fri, Aug 18th, 8pm
Outside Jo and Joe’s Pub
427 W. Main St. in downtown Durham
FREE
–> BuyYOB at everyone’s favorite local pub, Joe & Jo’s
–> BYOBlanket to sit in the grass

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