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On this day, 15 October 1966, in Oakland, California, Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton met and set up the Black Panther Party for Self Defence. The Party would exist, despite heavy repression, until 1982 and ran a variety of programmes from free breakfasts for school children and community health clinics to armed citizen patrols and monitoring of the police. The group advocated for revolutionary socialism, and for the liberation of Black and all other oppressed peoples. Another little-mention fact about the group is that in the 1970s a majority of its membership were women and girls. It was eventually broken by violent state repression, including being targeted by the FBI's COINTELPRO operation, with many of its members killed or imprisoned. Learn more about the Panthers in these books by former members: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/collections/books/black-panthersTo access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image

Good Idea: Start seeing the network

https://www.strangeloopcanon.com/p/seeing-like-a-network

As our connections with each other get tighter and information flows faster, our culture is changing fast. Back when information moved slower and was mainly controlled by sources like newspapers and TV, people got news in a more gradual, controlled way.
Now, with the internet and social media, information spreads almost instantly, leading to a more uniform culture and a quick shift to whatever the "current thing" is. This has some big side effects: we’re more polarized, traditional media doesn’t hold as much power, and people often feel overwhelmed by the constant flood of information.
This setup makes it easy for misinformation and outrage to go viral since only the most eye-catching stories get attention. So, even though we have more access to information than ever, our culture sometimes feels like it's on repeat, jumping from trend to trend, often fueled by frustration and outrage.

Seeing the world as a network, makes us realize how deeply interconnected we’ve become—both a powerful asset and a complex challenge. It means recognizing that ideas, trends, and emotions travel fast, impacting people across cultures almost instantly. This networked view also shows that our actions, opinions, and media consumption affect not just our close circles but resonate outward, shaping the larger cultural pulse. Embracing this perspective encourages us to interact more mindfully, choosing how and what we share or consume, knowing it all contributes to the broader social fabric.

Schrott statt Schnäppchen: Kommt jetzt das Temu-Verbot in Europa? https://www.watson.ch/!797345588

Israels Vorgehen und seine militärische Überlegenheit lassen es in den Augen seiner Nachbarn als Bedrohung erscheinen, sagt Daniel Gerlach. Der Publizist und Nahostexperte über Irans Dilemma, saudische Ambitionen und Zukunftsszenarien für Gaza. https://www.woz.ch/!2VSCK27GH18E

Media
On this day, 16 October 1968, Black sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their gloved fists in a Black power salute during the playing of the US national anthem as they were awarded gold and bronze medals at the Olympics. Smith would later clarify: “I wore a black glove to represent social power or Black power; I wore socks, not shoes, to represent poverty; I wore a black scarf around my neck to symbolise the lynching, the hangings that Black folks went through while building this country.” Following the protest, they were largely ostracised by the US sporting establishment. While Time magazine now considers their picture of the event as the most iconic photograph of all time, back then they wrote: "'Faster, Higher, Stronger' is the motto of the Olympic Games. 'Angrier, nastier, uglier' better describes the scene in Mexico City last week." Back home, both Smith and Carlos were subject to abuse and they and their families received death threats. The Australian athlete Peter Norman, the other man on the podium, also showed solidarity with the protest wearing an 'Olympic Project for Human Rights' badge in protest of his government's 'White Australia' policy. He too would also be reprimanded by his nation's Olympic authorities and was not picked for the following Olympic games — although it is disputed whether this was as a consequence of his stand in Mexico. After Norman’s sudden death in 2006, Smith and Carlos helped carry his coffin and delivered eulogies at his funeral.This story and hundreds of others are featured in our book, Working Class History: Everyday Acts of Resistance & Rebellion, available with global shipping in our online store: https://shop.workingclasshistory.com/products/working-class-history-everyday-acts-resistance-rebellion-bookTo access this link, click our link in bio # 1 then click this image

The political civilization which has sprung up from the soil of Europe and is overrunning the whole world, like some prolific weed, is based upon exclusiveness. It is always watchful to keep the aliens at bay or to exterminate them. It is carnivorous and cannibalistic in its tendencies, it feeds upon the resources of other peoples and tries to swallow their whole future. It is always afraid of other races achieving eminence, naming it as a peril, and tries to thwart all symptoms of greatness outside its own boundaries, forcing down races of men who are weaker, to be eternally fixed in their weakness. Before this political civilization came to its power and opened its hungry jaws wide enough to gulp down great continents of the earth, we had wars, pillages, changes of monarchy and consequent miseries, but never such a sight of fearful and hopeless voracity, such wholesale feeding of nation upon nation, such huge machines for turning great portions of the earth into mince-meat, never such terrible jealousies with all their ugly teeth and claws ready for tearing open each other's vitals.

Rabindranath Tagore, Nationalism (1917)

TIL in the Maori language the name for France is Wiwi (from overhearing the French say "Oui Oui" denoting agreement) [source, comments]

Swiss Song of the Day 🇨🇭😇: https://open.spotify.com/track/6pXKSo89ne9mbPInCWk8dw

Here's the full playlist of my "Song of the Day" project for 2024 so far. Including all the Swiss songs, but with much more international songs. More than 13 hours of music so far. Do enjoy 🎧 :
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/00Zo7zVsAnuoV5IyyDD86M?si=bmbc2CSMSdOi9ZqXgPELpg