The “Sick, Anti-Democratic” Corporate Plan for Detroit
“They want to pour all the resources into a little corridor of 7.2 square miles of downtown and on the river,” instead of “the 139 square miles of Detroit where the people live,” said Tom Stephens, a people’s lawyer who has submitted briefs to the bankruptcy court overseeing the city. Wall Street is pulling the strings – and pulling the plug – on the mostly Black metropolis. “They want to have their own little transit and their own little police force and office buildings and luxury condos, at the expense of the people that live in the neighborhoods,” said Stephens. “You have this brainless, sick, and anti-democratic policy that they’re trying to force down our throats.”
Socialist Surge in Seattle
Kshama Sawant, the Socialist Alternative Party candidate for Seattle city council who garnered 30 percent of the vote in a race for the state legislature, last year, said “the word ‘socialism’ is not so much an obstacle” in electoral politics as in the past, especially among young voters. “What’s really an obstacle is for people to feel that changes can actually happen.” Sawant has picked up endorsements from local chapters of the postal union, AFSCME, the AFT and CWA, on a platform of a $15 minimum wage, affordable housing through rent control and expanded public transit, paid for by taxes on the rich.
Obama’s Long List of Lies
President Obama prevaricated from beginning to end during his speech to the United Nations, last week, said anti-war activist David Swanson, publisher of the influential website WarIsACrime.org. For example, Obama said that national sovereignty cannot protect someone who commits wanton murder. “This, from a man who on Tuesdays goes through a list of men, women and children and picks which ones he wants murdered,” said Swanson. The president’s speech was “absolute hypocrisy, and much of the world hears it that way, just as much of the world heard Colin Powell” in 2003.
Send Killer Kagame to International Criminal Court
Demonstrators in Toronto demanded that Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame be tried by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where six million people have died since 1996. “It is one of the worst dictatorships in the world,” said Christopher Black, a criminal justice lawyer who has argued for 13 years before the Rwanda War Crimes Tribunal. Much of Congo’s wealth has been looted by Kagame’s military. “Rwanda is nothing more now than a sort of pirate haven where these gangsters steal resources and take the biggest cut,” said Black.
Happy Birthday Lynne Stewart
October 8 is the 74th birthday of people’s lawyer Lynne Stewart, who is serving ten years in prison for zealously defending her client. Celebrations will be held around the country, including a grand affair at St. Mark’s Theater, in New York City, said Ralph Poynter, her husband and partner in struggle. Stewart is suffering Stage Four breast cancer, but the Obama administration continues to deny her compassionate release. “Al Capone got out, when he was dying from syphilis,” said Poynter. “As far outside as he was, he was still a part of the system. It’s only the people who say the system must change who become the public enemy.”
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.
Community residents say that Chicago's City Council should pass a slate of housing protections centered on low-income renters instead of advancing plans for a hotel near the Obama Center site.
Vietnam’s defeat of U.S. forces stands as a landmark anti-colonial victory, proving that determined resistance can overcome even the world’s most powerful military—yet its legacy remains fiercely…
In this week’s segment, we hear about an upcoming conference dedicated to Black, radical organizers in the U.S. But first, we have an update on the Congo and the principles of agreement between Congo…
The Democratic Republic of Congo and the Republic of Rwanda recently signed a Declaration of Principles in Washington. Is Rwanda ending its M23 group’s incursion into the DRC?
The second National Black Radical Organizing Conference will convene in Indianapolis, Indiana, from May 30 through June 1. The conference theme is “Base-Building for Collective Power.” We are joined…
