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Mae Jackson is a New York City based writer, poet, dreamer and doer whose record of activism on behalf of her people stretches back to SNCC. A founder of Art Without Walls, an art program for the children of imprisoned women, she is well acquainted with the difference between surface change, and fundamental, revolutionary change.
Here are a few minutes of her address to the crowd at May 31, 2009 event memorializing the early 20th century Harlem activist Hubert Harrison, in which she lays out a clear understanding of whose lips move when our First Black President speaks. Referring to some of Barack Obama's widely acclaimed orations at the Democratic convention, atop Lincoln's tomb, and other places, she tells us
“..those wonderful speeches made by the young man from Chicago were actually crafted, that's written, by three young white men 25, 26 and 31 years old. We got the unfortunate opportunity once again to see the world through their eyes. Obama was the spokesperson. Same as when you buy a painting, that doesn't make you the painter...”
She explains how the establishment turned took the politics out of activism, neutralizing and de-politicizing young political activists by turning them into “community organizers."
Two car companies are being sued for continuing the southern tradition of exploiting incarcerated workers in Alabama and Georgia factories.
The Chadian troops arriving in Haiti are the visible arm of imperialist intervention in which the United States projects force without putting its own boots on the ground.
Two weeks before, the armed forces had fought off the highly coordinated attacks on six cities by about 12,000 jihadist and separatist fighters on April 25.
The Ruto regime claims a Pan-African mandate when it sends police to Haiti, but it attacks and arrests Pan-African delegates when they gather in Nairobi.
Communiqué issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba — Havana, May 7, 2026
