Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair | It's been three decades, but he's making one last charge. Thirty years ago this spring David Brower, the man later dubbed "the Arch-Druid" stood at what seemed the apex of his vocation as America's most effective green crusader. Under his leadership the Sierra Club had turned from an elite hiking club of some 2,000 members into a vibrant movement of 77,000. When Brower's Sierra Club stood up for a river, a canyon, a mountain range or a forest, or against nuclear power plants, politicians had to listen.

Brower kept dams out of the Grand Canyon. He engineered passage of the Wilderness Act, setting aside tens of millions of acres of public lands. If it had not been for Brower Alaska would have become a back lot of the oil and timber corporations.

Brower made some deals he learned to regret: He traded Glen Canyon, upriver from the Grand Canyon, to keep a dam out of Dinosaur National Monument. But unlike may of his environmental progeny, he acknowledged the blunder, remarking famously, "Never trade a place you've seen for one you haven't" Ultimately his audacity proved too much for the club he'd built from almost nothing. On May 3, 1969, in one of the most notorious evictions in American environmental history, the board of the Sierra Club threw out their leader. CONTINUES

May, 2000 | CounterPunch

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McCaffery (Goliath) v. Hersh (David)

By Saul Landau

On March 1 and 2, 1991, one and two days after President Bush declared a cease-fire, US soldiers shot Iraqis who apparently posed no threat to them.  On February 27, US troops dispatched a group of Iraqis who had already surrendered. The Army "investigated these episodes and, shockingly, found no wrongdoing. Hersh, as he did three decades ago when he reported about the covered up My Lai massacre in Vietnam, found witnesses and information the Army missed or ignored. FULL STORY
May 22, 2000

Saul Landau's Homepage | Seymour Hersh Investigates US War Crimes in Iraq |  War Crime Whitewash? The Salon.com story.

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Marx in Sacramento.

Michael Parenti's Historic Lecture to Launch the Marxist School of Sacramento

Michael Parenti, author of 14 books and one of America's leading progressive speakers, will deliver an historic lecture, "Democracy vs. Capitalism: From NATO to the WTO," on Saturday, May 20 at 7 p.m. at the 24th Street Theater in the Sierra 2 Center, 2791 24th Street, Sacramento, CA.

Before Michael Parenti speaks, enjoy performances and poetry by the Sacramento Labor Chorus, Addict Merchants, V.S. Chochezi and Staajabu, and Mario Ellis Hill.

"The Marxist School of Sacramento is an important project whose time has come," said Parenti.  "I have every confidence that the school will make a unique contribution to the lives of working people in the community."

There will be a question-and-answer period after Parenti's lecture. This event is free, with a suggested donation of $5.00, and is sponsored by the Marxist School of Sacramento.

Seth Sandronsky | May 15, 2000 |  ssandron@hotmail.com Michael Parenti Biography

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Resume.

The Sacramento Free Press Online Media Center is back from its extended vacation. How long, afterall, can you wiggle your toes in the sand and sip rum drinks before tiring of all that relaxation?

We the editors are rested and eager to resume SFP at full speed -- copy-editing, writing, and hammering away at the fragile html code that gives this page life.  The site is still being re-tooled, retrofitted, improved, enchanced, and expanded. (Our five regular visitors should be impressed.)

The Press Sheet updates frequently with news of interest and relevance. The Calendar is up. Other articles and information are being added  weekly. The Sacramento Comment and Sounds Celebrating Resistance archives will also return soon.

Richard Hansen | April 26, 2000