Joel Bleifuss

Joel Bleifuss

Template:TOCnestleft Joel Bleifuss

DSOC/DSA

Joel Bleifuss attended the 1979 Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee conference in Texas and later attended several Democratic Socialists of America conferences. In his speech to DSA's 2010 conference in Illinois, Bleifuss referered to DSA members as "we".

JournoList

Joel Bleifuss of In These Times, was an identified member of JournoList - an email group of approximately 400 "progressive" and socialist journalists, academics and "new media" activists.

JournoList members reportedly coordinated their messages in favor of Barack Obama and the Democrats, and against Sarah Palin and the Republican Party. JournoList was founded in 2007 and was closed down in early 2010.

"Support Bill Ayers"

In October 2008, several thousand college professors, students and academic staff signed a statement Support Bill Ayers in solidarity with former Weather Underground Organization terrorist Bill Ayers.

In the run up to the U.S. presidential elections, Ayers had come under considerable media scrutiny, sparked by his relationship to presidential candidate Barack Obama.

We write to support our colleague Professor William Ayers, Distinguished Professor of Education and Senior University Scholar at the University of Illinois at Chicago, who is currently under determined and sustained political attack...

We, the undersigned, stand on the side of education as an enterprise devoted to human inquiry, enlightenment, and liberation. We oppose the demonization of Professor William Ayers.

Joel Bleifuss of In These Times signed the statement.

In These Times

As of 2009 Joel Bleifuss was Editor, Publisher and on the Board of Directors of Chicago based socialist journal In These Times.

2013 14th Annual Douglass-Debs Dinner

167 people attended the fourteenth annual Frederick Douglass-Eugene V. Debs Dinner at UAW Local 600 in Dearborn on Saturday, October 19, 2013. Honorees were retired Michigan Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Kelly and Reverend Charles Williams, II, Pastor of King Solomon Baptist Church. Keynote speaker was Joel Bleifuss, publisher of In These Times magazine.

Dinner co-chairs were Rory Gamble, Director of UAW Region IA, and David Hecker, President of the American Federation of Teachers-Michigan. Entertainment was provided by actress Karen Kron who performed a selection from Emma, an upcoming Matrix Theater production on the life of radical activist Emma Goldman and by folksinger Julie Beutel.

Justice Kelly received the Douglass-Debs Award for her strong defense of workers’ rights and consumers’ rights during her tenure on the court. She has also worked to expand ordinary citizens’ access to the courts. In addition, Justice Kelly has been an advocate of public education. She served for twelve years on the State Board of Education.

Reverend Williams is a local labor, civil rights, and social justice advocate. He is the local leader of the National Action Network which organized last summer’s commemoration of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1963 Civil Rights March through downtown Detroit. He has been one of the leading voices protesting against the Detroit bankruptcy.

In his keynote address, Joel Bleifuss emphasized the importance of electoral work in promoting progressive change.

References

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