NO HOLDS BARRED

On this edition of No Holds Barred, host Eddie Goldman discussed the prospects in 2019 for a heavyweight title unification fight between WBA-IBF-WBO champ Anthony Joshua (22-0, 21 KOs) and WBC champ Deontay Wilder (40-0-1, 39 KOs), as well as a rematch between Wilder and Fury (27-0-1, 19 KOs), who fought December 1 to a highly criticized split draw decision. That fight is analyzed, options and obstacles facing all three fighters' next fights are discussed, and much more.

(Photo of Wilder vs. Fury by Esther Lin/Showtime.)

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The No Holds Barred theme song is called "The Heist", which is also available on iTunes by composer Ian Snow.

No Holds Barred is sponsored by:

The Catch Wrestling Alliance, resurrecting and promoting the sport of authentic catch-as-catch-can wrestling. The Catch Wrestling Alliance provides tournaments, seminars, and training as well as education about catch wrestling. Join the movement and keep real wrestling alive. For more information, go to CatchWrestlingAlliance.com.

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Labels: Anthony Joshua, boxing, Deontay Wilder, Eddie Goldman, heavyweight, No Holds Barred, Tyson Fury

Statement on Russia’s Refusal to Allow World Anti-Doping Agency to Access Moscow Lab Evidence
Jim Walden, lawyer for Dr. Grigory Rodchenkov

“Craig Reedie is Nero, playing his fiddle while Russia burns clean sports to the ground. The time for half measures and appeasement must finally come to an end. If RUSADA is not now banned, the last measure of WADA’s integrity will vanish. The time has come for meaningful criminal enforcement, as the current structure is broken beyond repair, so I applaud the U.S. Congress for introducing the Rodchenkov Anti-doping Act and look forward to its passage in 2019.”

— Jim Walden
December 22, 2018

Labels: doping, Grigory Rodchenkov, Jim Walden, Russia, WADA

The book in which I have a chapter is now available. It is called You Say You Want a Revolution. It was written by former members and supporters of the once-Maoist Progressive Labor Party, most of whom left in the 1960s and 70s. I left in 1970.

My chapter is about what happened at Columbia, and also somewhat about what happened in New York City and Harlem. There is no one analysis of what happened, just our own views and experiences.

Book events are being organized around the U.S. for early 2019. You can get it, among other places, on Amazon.

For those still using it, the book has its own Facebook page.

Here is the table of contents:

Introduction 4
1. Ellen S. Israel (CUNY)
Cuba Trips 1963-64 We Danced Everywhere 17
2 Dick J. Reavis (University of Texas at Austin)
A Revolutionary Journey 34
3 Paula Campbell Munro (University of Texas Austin)
My Sister, Lynn 47
4 Becky Brenner (University of Texas, Austin, Columbia University)
I was more Baptist Than John the Baptist 60
5 Eric A. Gordon (Tulane)My SDS Activist Years in New Orleans 80
6 John F. Levin (San Francisco State, Columbia)
“On Strike! Shut It Down!” 109
7 Margaret Leahy (San Francisco State University)
A New World Opens 128
8 Ernie Brill (San Francisco State University)
Memories 135
9 Anatole Anton (Stanford, San Francisco State University)
The Stakes Were Higher Than We Knew 152
10 Michael Balter (UCLA & U.S Army)
I Might Have To Kill Vietnamese People 168
11 Ed Morman (City University of New York, University of Washington)
PL and Me 182
12 Eddie Goldman (Columbia University)
PLP, the Struggle at Columbia, and the Road to Irrelevance 194
13 Susan Tarr (City University of New York, San Francisco)
The East Was Red 208
14 Steven Hiatt (University of Iowa)
The (Broken) Promise of the Worker/Student Alliance: Building a Base in Iowa 212
15 Joe Berry (University of Iowa-San Francisco State University)
Movement Learning: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly 232
16 Joan Kramer (1947-2017) (UC Berkeley, WSA/SDS)
A Life on the Left 246
17 Barbara Selfridge (UC Berkeley)
The Spread of Maoism 256
18 Henri Picciotto (Princeton, UC Berkeley)
“Princeton’ll Straighten You Out!” 281
19 Frank Kashner (University of Wisconsin, Cambridge MA)
Growing up in the ‘60s: from Introvert to Organizer 287
20 Emily Berg (Harvard University)
PL Reconsidered 302
21 Debbie Levenson (University of Massachusetts in Boston)
Global Boston 308
22 Mary Summers (Harvard University)
The Harvard Strike of ’69 and What Happened Next 319
23 John Mitchell
(Harvard PL/SDS)
A Texas Republican's Path to SDS-WSA and PL 336

Labels: Eddie Goldman, No Holds Barred, PLP. Progressive Labor Party, SDS, You Say You Want a Revolution

by Eddie Goldman

In a sports world infested with corruption, exploitation, bigotry, chicanery, fraud, and swindling of every type, there are still a few people remaining trying to do something positive, ethical, progressive, and liberatory. Athlete Ally is one of those groups, even though it still believes the mainstream sports organizations are not beyond repair.

Founded in 2011 by Hudson Taylor, who was a three-time All-American wrestler at the University of Maryland, Athlete Ally is a non-profit organization which says its "mission is to educate and activate athletic communities to eliminate homophobia and transphobia in sports and to exercise their leadership to champion LGBTQ equality." Some staff and supporters are from the LGBTQ community, while others, including Hudson Taylor, who is described as its "founder, executive director & board member," are not. Hence, all "stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ community" whether they are part of it or an ally.

On Monday, December 17, Athlete Ally held a public event, a panel discussion entitled the Annual State of Sports Conversation, at The Phluid Project, a gender-free retail clothing store in lower Manhattan.

Moderating the panel was Anne Lieberman, the director of policy and programs at Athlete Ally, and a Muay Thai fighter and coach, again showing how the combat sports, seen by some as the backwater of world sports, are well-represented at Athlete Ally.

The two panelists were Casey Legler, a former Olympic swimmer, model, activist, author, and Toni Smith-Thompson, an organizer with the New York Civil Liberties Union. After their presentations, a few questions from the audience were answered.

The event was live-streamed on Facebook, and can be seen (although the audio is not great) at https://www.facebook.com/AthleteAlly/videos/2290369794570411.

While Athlete Ally has made some gains in the fight against anti-LGBTQ bigotry, discrimination, and repression in mainstream sports, there is still a long way to go. For example, in a video interview just posted December 14 on the web site of the U.K. tabloid The Sun, boxer Amir Khan, a former unified light-welterweight champion, who is trying to get a lucrative fight with former IBF welterweight champ Kell Brook, called Brook "gay" and challenged him to "come out".

This is in a sport, boxing, and a country, the U.K., where there is far more acceptance of LGBTQ people than most places. Two-time Olympic gold medalist Nicola Adams, now 5-0 as a pro, is openly bisexual, highly popular in the U.K., and the recipient of many honors and endorsements. Boxing manager and promoter Kellie Maloney, once known as Frank Maloney, and who had managed then-heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis, announced in 2014 that she was transgender and would be undergoing gender reassignment surgery, which was completed the following year.

More recently, the first openly male trans boxer, Patricio "Pat" Manuel, won his first pro fight December 8 on the undercard of a Golden Boy Promotions card in Indio, California. This received widespread positive media coverage, especially for a fight involving a boxer making his pro debut and an opponent with a 0-5 record. On my Facebook and Twitter accounts I linked to articles about this, with approving reaction through many "likes". One person noted how this reaction was far different from the ones I received from my numerous interviews with Fallon Fox, the first openly female trans MMA fighter who is now retired, a few years back. The MMA world, in the main, is still a sewer of bigotry, ignorance, and hate.

As noted above, Athlete Ally also faces the obstacles of the virulent and sometimes deadly anti-LGBTQ practices and laws in many countries whose prominence in world sport is growing, including Russia and Saudi Arabia, plus other countries in the Middle East. Even in countries where LGBTQ equality is more accepted and more political and legal rights exist, there is a seemingly endless and growing list of scandals and horrors from Olympic, professional, college, and so-called amateur sports organizations. More and more upholders of justice, fairness, and decency in world sport believe the major existing sports organizations cannot be fundamentally reformed, and instead a new, grassroots-based sports movement must be developed.

As the crisis in world sport deepens, how will Athlete Ally respond? Already many LGBTQ athletes and supporters and many women have been playing a critical role in fighting injustice in sport on many fronts. The old sports world is in great disorder, with a new one yearning to be born, so the challenges ahead must be faced head on.

Below are some photos I took at this Athlete Ally event.

Anne Lieberman introducing the panel.

Casey Legler speaking.

Toni Smith-Thompson speaking.

Anne Lieberman and Eddie.

Labels: Anne Lieberman, Athlete Ally, Casey Legler, Eddie Goldman, Hudson Taylor, LGBTQ, No Holds Barred, sport, sports, Toni Smith-Thompson