Cornel West: Integrity is Key to Liberation
“They are closing our schools, they’re foreclosing our homes, closing our libraries, closing the factories, closing the post office,” said Larry Hamm, president of the Newark-based People’s Organization for Progress. “They continue to do it, because they have not yet met the countervailing force that can stop them from doing,” he told the Bethany Baptist Church crowd. Hamm then directed the question to the evening’s speaker, noted public intellectual Dr. Cornel West, of New York’s Union Theological Seminary. “How do we build this countervailing force?”
Organizing for liberation requires “three things,” said Dr. West. “Your vision, and the courage behind your vision. Your analysis; Do you really understand what you’re up against? And then, the organizing and mobilizing that has to take place.” Integrity is key. “When you confront a system that either buys off your leaders, lies on your leaders, or kills them, the freest persons are always those who have an absolute commitment to integrity and decency, and are willing to go under.”
Pressure Mounts on Temple University in Monteiro Firing
Students and community organizations plan a series of actions to protest Temple University’s firing of African American Studies professor Dr. Anthony Monteiro. A student walkout is set for this Wednesday and, next week, Philadelphia community groups will march on the campus seeking justice for Monteiro, a fair contract for university employees, and against gentrification of the Black neighborhoods that surround Temple. People recognize that “injustice to the community has gone hand in hand with this injustice to me,” said Monteiro. African American Studies chairman Dr. Molefi Asante has resorted to red-baiting to defend his complicity in Monteiro’s firing. Asante argues “that I am a radical, that I’m a Marxist, that I’m a socialist and, therefore, I don’t fit into his view of African American Studies at Temple,” said Monteiro.
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Monday at 11:00am ET on PRN. Length: One hour.
Black graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote this statement in support of Palestinians and of their rights to speak and act freely.
Panamanians are in protest against a contract granted to a Canadian Mining Company. Black communities are particularly impacted by environmental degradation and displacement caused by open-pit mining.
The Kenyan government now demands that the United Nations pay for the deployment of a police force to Haiti. But Black face imperialism is the problem, not negotiations over money.
Workers around the world can play a role in mobilizing action against the apartheid Israeli state.
In this series, we ask acclaimed authors to answer five questions about their book. This week’s featured author is J. Brent Crosson. Crosson is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and…
