McKesson Parachutes into Baltimore Democratic Mayoral Primary DeRay McKesson, the Twitter communicator who heads Campaign Zero, is a “ridiculous” candidate for mayor of Baltimore, said Jill Carter, the most radical member of the Maryland state legislature. “He hasn’t been part of any movement or struggle here, or any social circles other than, possibly, social media.” McKesson, a Teach for America alumnus and staunch advocate of charter schools, “may also cause a greater wedge in the justice movement” in Baltimore, said Carter, who notes that corporate media have given the McKesson campaign more play than the rest of the crowded field of candidates.
Movement Must Fulfill Its Obligations to Political Prisoners People’s lawyer and former political prisoner Lynne Stewart and Ralph Poynter, the veteran human rights activist and educator, said the current movement must reaffirm its support for political prisoners and prisoners of war. “Let us not divert our energies into the courts, because if we do that, we lose the streets, and the streets is where it’s got to happen,” said Stewart, who spent 28 months in federal prison for the crime of zealously defending her client. Her husband Poynter said lawyers must defend “those brothers and sisters who defied the government in the same way that the government defied their rights – by using force.”
McKinney: “Selective Outrage” Over Flint The Democratic Party is displaying “selective outrage” in its attempts to gain political points from the poisoning of Flint, Michigan’s water system, said Dr. Cynthia McKinney, the former six term congresswoman from Georgia and Green Party presidential candidate. “Where has the Congressional Black Caucus been on Detroit, where you’ve got all that water, but they were turning people’s water off?” she said. McKinney noted that the Black Caucus has failed to support Rev. Edward Pinkney, the Benton Harbor, Michigan, community activist who is imprisoned on political charges for opposing corporate domination of his majority Black town.
Good Riddance “Sweet Mickey” The Haitian people are glad at the exit of Michel “Sweet Mickey” Martelly, the U.S.-backed president chosen five years ago in a blatantly rigged election, whose term of office ran out last Sunday, said Jerome Franz, a Haitian community activist living in Miami. Public outrage over voting fraud forced the cancellation of run-off presidential elections and the appointment of a transitional government. Were it not for massive voter suppression, former president Jean Bertrand-Aristide’s party, Fanmi Lavalas, “would sweep every single post,” said Franz, because “Lavalas is the party of the popular movement.” Martelly’s party’s strength flows from the huge sums of money put at its disposal by the U.S. and other foreigners.
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The USAID may appear to give a helping hand all over the world, but there are always very dangerous strings attached.
This week we hear about US relations with Nicaragua, and the introductory webinar for the People’s Senate. But first the effort to provide abortion access in Texas, a state which has banned the…
The Texas Equal Access Fund works to expand access to abortion care while simultaneously shifting culture towards reproductive justice.
The Central American nation of Nicaragua has been the focus of US interventionism ever since the Sandinista revolution which occurred in 1979.
The upcoming introductory webinar of the Peoples' Senate will be held on Saturday, February 18.
