Queen Calafia Publishing

31/08/2024

There will be barbecues; there will be fireworks; there will be speeches from politicians, each telling us how they are the friend of the American Worker. All lies. Not just the speeches, but the entire holiday of Labor Day in America.

Let me tell you the story of the real Labor Day: Born in the USA out of struggle and blood; abandoned and denounced by its own creators as foreign and subversive; and finally brought back to the land of its birth, a hundred and twenty years later, by immigrants. The true, native-born Labor Day of the United States of America –

There will be barbecues; there will be fireworks; there will be speeches from politicians, each telling us how they are the friend of the…

11/08/2024

As the close, here is my family's Olympics story.

I was disappointed, but not surprised, at the news that Sha’Carri Richardson was suspended from the Olympics just because of a positive…

30/08/2022

This California Supreme Court opinion yesterday could be a big help to renters protesting evictions and rent increases. The Court held that sidewalk picketing to protest the eviction of former homeowners who had been foreclosed by a predatory house-flipper was "free speech" over an issue of "public interest" - even though the immediate dispute only involved a few people. That meant that the picketers could not only have the lawsuit thrown out, but collect their attorney fees for doing so, under the "Anti-SLAPP" statute. I've used the Anti-SLAPP statute before, mainly for labor picketing. This gives us this tool for renters rights as well.

06/03/2022

In life, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was too often cast as either a saint or a devil. This tendency has grown since his murder, so that…

06/03/2022

I propose pulling the Thirteenth Amendment from the shelf of history, dusting it off, and putting it to work — in particular as to the “involuntary servitude” of laws restricting women’s choice in abortion.

“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist…

06/03/2022

A historical roadmap for achieving single-payer in California, based on the enactment of worker compensation in California, during the Progressive Era, over a century ago.

Single-Payer Health Insurance should be a no-brainer. The United States pays twice as much for health insurance as anywhere else in the…

06/03/2022

That is what a Native American tried to tell me once, a long time ago. We then got into a long discussion about exactly where I was supposed to go back to.

That is what a Native American tried to tell me once, a long time ago. We then got into a long discussion about exactly where I was…

02/02/2022

For Black History Month, I offer four articles about real (and fictional) Black History, with an emphasis on California. I hope this will provoke further thought and study, and maybe some research of your own.

Read more on Celebrate Black History Month with thought-provoking stories about Black History, with an emphasis on California.

01/01/2022

I am quoted here in this article about Sigismund Danielewicz - a major figure in the early California labor movement - until he spoke against a labor resolution to evict the Chinese "by force if necessary." His message of solidarity is especially needed today.

A Polish Jew with a beard as long as his face and piercing eyes stepped onto a stage in San Francisco in May 1885. His name was a mouthful: Sigismund Danielewicz. He stood before a group of mostly Irish union workers who were about to vote on a resolution that demanded all Chinese immigrants leave [...

02/05/2021

In late 2019, a Civic Memory Working Group impaneled by Mayor Eric Garcetti — a diverse array of thinkers that included 40 leading historians, architects, artists, Indigenous leaders, city officials, scholars and cultural leaders, according to the city — began meeting to explore how Los Angeles could more accurately reflect the brightest and darkest moments of its history. Hawthorne coordinated the group’s efforts, and last month, it released its recommendations.
The 166-page report, produced by the Huntington-USC Institute on California and the West with support from the Getty Foundation, “begins with a simple provocation in the form of a question: What might it mean if the city of the future could simultaneously be lauded for its regard for the past?”
http://civicmemory.la/wp-content/uploads/2021/Report%20PDFs/CivicMemory_PDF_singlepg_for_Media.pdf

12/04/2021

“Cancel Culture” is not new to Hollywood. During the Cold War, Hollywood tried to “cancel” its best and brightest talent. The results were both absurd and horrifying. This history should be studied as a lesson for today.

Cancelling Credits in Cold War Hollywood

05/04/2021

We can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel of the awful pandemic which has claimed nearly three million lives. But we are not waking up from a nightmare. Quite the opposite – the pandemic itself should have awoken us to the nightmarish reality we have been sleeping through for too long. There is a real solution, and it is thousands of years old.
It is time for a Jubilee!

We can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel of the awful pandemic which has claimed nearly three million lives. But this is not…

14/03/2021

A True Story Of Farmworkers, Mushrooms, and Loads of Sh*t (Both Literally And Figuratively)

07/03/2021

How could such a brilliant woman, dedicated to improving the lives of the underprivileged, express such racist ideas?

28/02/2021

Calling out "systemic racism" is only the beginning. It is not the answer, but begs the questions of what it is about the system that incorporates racism, and how we can change it.

In Doug Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, an advanced species builds the largest, most complex computer ever — Deep Thought. When it…

22/02/2021

The fantasy and the reality of Queen Calafia.

Know this — due east of the Indies there is an island called “California” —  just by the terrestrial paradise. It was populated by Black…

07/02/2021

While I appreciate the sentiment behind destroying these symbols of racism, and understand the emotional relief in doing so, I suggest something more practical to actually do something about the systemic racism today embodied in these symbols of the past. These symbols of racism should be preserved as evidence.
I mean this both in the literal sense of legal evidence, and the general sense of historic evidence.

WARNING: The following contains disturbing images and information. That is why you need to read it.

31/01/2021

One of President Biden’s first acts in office was to announce that he was introducing “Immigration Reform” legislation. His “U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021” claims it will provide a path for citizenship for those already here, but only tinkers in small ways with the immigration law itself. This bill will be sure to inspire impassioned arguments, but no matter how that turns out, we will only be repeating our sad history of immigration. We need more.
We need a national conversation on immigration itself.
That must include a conversation about race, for as I explain below, race has always been inextricably tied to immigration in this country.

One of President Biden’s first acts in office was to announce that he was introducing “Immigration Reform” legislation. While the bill…