Over 50 years ago, the Black Panther Party established a Ten-Point Plan: We want freedom. We want the power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.We want full employment for our people.We want an end to the robbery by the capitalists of our Black and oppressed communities.We want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.We want education for our people that … [Read more...] about The Black Panther Party and its Ten-Point Plan
racism
Letter from Rose, niece of a local resident living in Portland, Oregon
Feeling pretty mentally fried at the moment – so forgive me if this is not super concise or coherent – but I wanted to share some general musings on what is currently happening in Portland. I’ve been a little hesitant to post firsthand accounts in the past months because protesters are being targeted by surveillance, and because I remain unsure whether centering my own … [Read more...] about Letter from Rose, niece of a local resident living in Portland, Oregon
A poem by Raymond Nat Turner
Shooting and looting started: 400 years ago Shooting, looting, scalping, lynching, Raping, torturing their way across the continent — 400 years ago — Colonial settler thugs launched this endless crimson tide rolling down on Today... Colonial settler thugs launched this endless crimson tide leaving in- visible yellow crimescene tape crisscrossing Tallahassee to … [Read more...] about A poem by Raymond Nat Turner
How Che Guevara Taught Cuba to Confront COVID-19
by Don Fitz Beginning in December 1951, Ernesto “Che” Guevara took a nine-month break from medical school to travel by motorcycle through Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Venezuela. One of his goals was gaining practical experience with leprosy. On the night of his twenty-fourth birthday, Che was at La Colonia de San Pablo in Peru swimming across the river to join the … [Read more...] about How Che Guevara Taught Cuba to Confront COVID-19
Notes from the Editor
“Everything Hurts” “I’m claustrophobic, my stomach hurts, my neck hurts, everything hurts, some water or something, please, please, I can’t breathe officer, don’t kill me.” These were some of the last words uttered in desperation by George Perry Floyd Jr before he was pronounced dead as officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck for nearly eight minutes. Since then millions of … [Read more...] about Notes from the Editor
10 Reasons Why Defunding Police Should Lead to Defunding War
by Medea Benjamin & Zoltan Grossman Since George Floyd was murdered, we have seen an increasing convergence of the “war at home” against Black and brown people with the “wars abroad” that the U.S. has waged against people in other countries. Army and National Guard troops have been deployed in U.S. cities, as militarized police treat our cities as occupied war zones. In … [Read more...] about 10 Reasons Why Defunding Police Should Lead to Defunding War
‘Dear White People…’
Former Texas Longhorn and NFL player Emmanuel Acho has a strong message for white people what they can do to help. In what he says is the first video in a series titled, “Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man,” the Austin resident addresses many questions he’s been asked by white people. I recommend this as a good thing to show your friends who still don't get … [Read more...] about ‘Dear White People…’
How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
Daniel Immerwahr. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, $35 (528p) ISBN 978-0-374-17214-5 Reviewed by Doug Heath In How to Hide an Empire, Daniel Immerwahr, Associate Professor of History at Northwestern University, reframes the standard account of US history to incorporate events in all of the lands outside the conterminous 48 states that were brought under formal US rule, thereby … [Read more...] about How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States
Notes from the Editors (Left Turn #4)
Excessive gun violence and mass shootings have become the norm in the US, so has the trite and totally ineffective response of offering “our thoughts and prayers” by the governing political elite. There were about 252 mass shootings in the first 215 days of 2019. About 35% of mass shooters are young white men with prior training in how to use guns — often learned as high school … [Read more...] about Notes from the Editors (Left Turn #4)
Orwell’s Doublethink, Alive and Well in Trump’s America
Anthony DiMaggio George Orwell’s 1984 is a dystopian novel about authoritarianism, and is widely understood as a critique of Stalinism and centralized communist states. But Orwell believed that propaganda functioned in both communist and capitalist states alike. His insights about the uses and abuses of propaganda are remarkably relevant when studying American and … [Read more...] about Orwell’s Doublethink, Alive and Well in Trump’s America