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Barack Obama at a campaign rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, with governor-elect Tony Evers, Mandela Barnes and Sarah Godlewski on 26 October.

The new wave of Democrats owes a huge debt to people power.

By Commentaries/Opinions

The party was the natural political conduit for the protest movement. It must not betray that trust. By Gary Younge, The Guardian — With just a few thousand votes between the two candidates for governor, election night during the US midterms in Wisconsin could not have been more tense. The slender lead kept flipping between Republican and Democrat as various precincts reported their results. Then shortly before midnight a local news presenter suggested,…

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‘Mayflower in Plymouth Harbor’ by William Halsall (1882). Pilgrim Hall Museum

Why the Pilgrims were actually able to survive

By Commentaries/Opinions

By Peter C. Mancall, The Conversation — Sometime in the autumn of 1621, a group of English Pilgrims who had crossed the Atlantic Ocean and created a colony called New Plymouth celebrated their first harvest. They hosted a group of about 90 Wampanoags, their Algonquian-speaking neighbors. Together, migrants and Natives feasted for three days on corn, venison and fowl. In their bountiful yield, the Pilgrims likely saw a divine hand…

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Nov 19th Edition of Vantage Point Radio: Can the Working Families Party Be the Third Force in American Politics?

By Vantage Point Radio, Video/Audio

Topics: Protecting the Financial Health of New York Consumers • “The Adultrification of Black Youth in the Criminal Justice System” • Can the Working Families Party Become the Third Force in American Politics. Guests: Lorelei Salas (New York Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, New York, NY) and Jeree Thomas (Policy Director, The Campaign for Youth Justice, Washington, D.C.)

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November 12th Vantage Point: Connecting The Diaspora to Africa and Impact of the Mid-Term Elections

By Vantage Point Radio, Video/Audio

Topics: Connecting the Diaspora to Africa • The Impact of the Mid-Term Elections on Blacks and the Progressive Movement. Guests:
H.E. Arikana Chihombori-Quao (African Union Ambassador to the U.S., Washington, D.C.), Bill Fletcher (Labor and Social Justice Activist, Washington, D.C.) and Maurice Mitchell (National Director, Working Families Party, New York, NY)

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Supporters of Ted Cruz react at his midterm election night party in Houston.

The midterms revealed the power of partisanship and whiteness

By Commentaries/Opinions

Democrats hoped for a huge rejection of Trumpism, but found two forces still hold an intoxicating political power. By Andrew Gawthorpe, The Guardian — The expectations we carry into elections always make it difficult to objectively assess their outcome. Before the midterms, Democrats hoped for a blue wave that would decisively hand them the House and perhaps more, while Donald Trump was poised to declare victory whatever the outcome. The morning…

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The American Civil War Didn’t End. And Trump is a Confederate President

By Commentaries/Opinions

His supporters hark back to an 1860s fantasy of white male dominance. But the Confederacy won’t win in the long run. By Rebecca Solnit, The Guardian — In the 158th year of the American civil war, also known as 2018, the Confederacy continues its recent resurgence. Its victims include black people, of course, but also immigrants, Jews, Muslims, Latinos, trans people, gay people and women who want to exercise jurisdiction over…

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Blue Wave or Red Tide: Vantage Point Pre-Election Special — Dr. Ron Daniels

By Vantage Point Radio, Video/Audio

TOPICS: Defining the Black Agenda in the Post Obama Era • Suppressing the Black Vote • The Midterm Elections: Blue Wave or Red Tide. GUESTS: Dr. Elsie Scott, Interim President, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc, Washington, D.C. • Atty. Barbara Arnwine, President/Founder, Transformative Justice Coalition, Washington, D.C. • Earl Ofari Hutchinson, President, Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, Los Angeles, CA • Bill Fletcher, Labor and Social Justice Activist, Washington, D.C.

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You Can't Have Capitalism Without Racism - Malcom X.

The American Economy Is Rigged — And what we can do about it.

By Editors' Choice

NOTE: No mention of the centrality of racism and sexism the plays in “rigged” capitalism. I put rigged in quotes because it’s redundant to call capitalism rigged! Capitalism has always been rigged against the vast majority of the people: those exterminated or enslaved by capitalism’s founders and those who eventually became the proletariat all over the world. Hence, this essay is fundamentally flawed in its attempt to explain why their…

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