By Paul Le Blanc and Michael D Yates
“A Freedom Budget for All Americans,” published in 1966 by the A. Philip Randolph Institute, demanded that the federal government put in place policies and programs that would eliminate poverty within ten years. Its authors demonstrated with clear and realistic assumptions about government taxes and revenues that this could be accomplished easily. The “Freedom Budget” was a direct descendant of the historic 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The organizers of the march and the architects of the “Freedom Budget” – people like A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King Jr. – understood that ending poverty, achieving full employment, guaranteeing incomes, winning higher wages and providing good schools, national health care and decent housing would not happen without tremendous struggle, one that challenged not only the federal government but the basic structure of a capitalist economy. Their sensibility was democratic and socialist; it envisioned a society both egalitarian and controlled by the people themselves.
For tonight’s Conversation With Great Minds – I’m joined by Dr. Ron Daniels – President of the Institute of the Black World – 21st Century. Dr. Daniels has had a wide ranging career in politics and activism – previously serving as the Executive Director of the Center for Constitutional Rights – the Executive Director of Rainbow / PUSH – and the Deputy Campaign manager for Jesse Jackson’s 1988 presidential campaign. In 1992 – he ran for President himself as an independent candidate.
By Rania Khalek
When Philadelphia public schoolchildren returned to their classrooms on September 9, 2013, there were fewer schools, fewer educators and fewer opportunities because of mass school closings and what amounts to financial starvation. It all started late in 2012, when the Philadelphia School District (PSD) revealed it would be shutting dozens of schools to fill in a $304 million budget gap.
Latinos bring negative stereotypes about black Americans to the U.S. when they immigrate and identify more with whites than blacks, according to a study of the changing political dynamics in the South.
The research also found that living in the same neighborhoods with black Americans seems to reinforce, rather than reduce, the negative stereotypes Latino immigrants have of blacks, said Paula D. McClain, a Duke University political science professor who is the study’s lead author.
They’re involved in Algeria and Angola, Benin and Botswana, Burkina Faso and Burundi, Cameroon and the Cape Verde Islands. And that’s just the ABCs of the situation. Skip to the end of the alphabet and the story remains the same: Senegal and the Seychelles, Togo and Tunisia, Uganda and Zambia. From north to south, east to west, the Horn of Africa to the Sahel, the heart of the continent to the islands off its coasts, the U.S. military is at work. Base construction, security cooperation engagements, training exercises, advisory deployments, special operations missions, and a growing logistics network, all undeniable evidence of expansion – except at U.S. Africa Command.
In a collection of essays and briefs, the IBW’s forthcoming “Black Paper” documents the progress – and lack of progress – made since the 1963 March on Washington and offers potential solutions to the problems afflicting Black America. The authors of the Black Paper say that the compilation is not an academic exercise, but “a call to action.”
OIL POLLUTER SNARED IN CORRUPTION CRACKDOWN
Sep. 3 (GIN) – A Chinese oil giant with several polluting investments throughout Africa has been targeted in a sweeping anti-corruption drive in China. Four senior managers have already been detained in the investigation.
Wang Youngchun, vice president of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), is being questioned by Beijing for “gross violations of party discipline,” a standard euphemism for corruption.
Three other CNPC executives were named the next day and resigned from their posts for “personal reasons.” The four men are said to be facing questions about the award of oil exploration projects.
By Dylan Murphy
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) refuses to negotiate with prison hunger strikers as they enter day 56 of the protest at solitary confinement and inhumane conditions. The hunger strikers are in increasing danger from heart attacks but maintain their resolve to continue their resistance until the CDCR agrees to negotiate around their five core demands.
By Arthur MacEwan
With a president who is African-American and talk of a “post-racial” society, one might think that the economic position of African Americans relative to European Americans had improved significantly over the last 40 or so years. One would be wrong.
By Imam Al-Hajj Talib ‘Abdur-Rashid
Introduction
August 18, 2013 marks the 126th memorial birthdate of Marcus Garvey. In honor of that occasion, the purpose of this brief paper is to cite the influence of Islam and Muslims upon the man known to his millions of followers and admirers as the “Father of Black Nationalism”.
By Michelle Alexander
For the past several years, I have spent virtually all my working hours writing about or speaking about the immorality, cruelty, racism, and insanity of our nation’s latest caste system: mass incarceration. On this Facebook page I have written and posted about little else. But as I pause today to reflect on the meaning and significance of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington , I realize that my focus has been too narrow.
By Joe Madison
There was a lot of talk around the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington this weekend that Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream remains unrealized. The March, of course, was for jobs and freedom, and commentators and activists alike rightly noted that much work remains on both counts. The Supreme Court this summer struck the core of the Voting Rights Act, and the recent Trayvon Martin killing and legal battles surrounding New York City’s stop and frisk policies underscore just how prejudiced our criminal justice system continues to be.
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