Uneven Results in Fast Food Drive
The largely Black, brown and female fast food workforce is well-suited to the SEIU-backed campaign for a $15 an hour minimum wage, said independent journalist Arun Gupta, since “all three of these groups favor unions.” Gupta’s article, “Fight for 15 Confidential” appears in the current issue of In These Times. The campaign, including brief strike actions, has yielded uneven results. In overwhelmingly Black Detroit, the drive has attracted about 500 “active” workers. However, despite the efforts of 10 paid organizers in both Washington DC and Seattle, only about 10 or 12 workers are actively involved in each city, said Gupta.
Obama Tries to Ram Corporate “Rights” Treaty Through Congress
WikiLeaks’ publication of secret provisions of President Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty may derail efforts to “fast track” the legislation through Congress, said Robert Naiman, policy director of Just Foreign Policy, which rewarded Wikileaks with $70,000 in crowd-sourced cash. TPP would establish corporate “rights” that would supersede regulation by sovereign governments, said Naiman. “This is a terrible dynamic from the point of view of democracy – which is why corporations love it so much.”
New Book on William Patterson, of “We Charge Genocide”
Throughout their history in North America, Blacks have sought international allies in the fight against racist oppression, said Dr. Gerald Horne, professor of African American Studies at the University of Houston. In his new book, Black Revolutionary: William Patterson and the Globalization of the African American Freedom Struggle, Horne details how the Black communist lawyer’s international organizing efforts “eventually led to the erosion of Jim Crow” in the U.S. Patterson played a central role in the famous Scottsboro Boys case and, along with Paul Robeson, presented a petition to the United Nations, in 1951, charging the U.S. with genocide against Blacks.
Crusading Black Radio Station Needs $4,600 to Survive
Radio station WMXP, a low-power FM outlet operated by the Malcolm X Center, in Greenville, South Carolina, can only broadcast an hour or two a day because of a faulty transmitter, said activist and attorney Efia Nwangaza. Even more desperate is the need to raise $4,600 to save the community center’s building from the county tax collector. “We did the radio station as an enhancement of the center,” said Nwangaza. “It has to be a vehicle that extends the voice of the people of the community. Otherwise, it has no meaning.” To help, go to www.wmxp955.com, or call 864.901.8627.
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.
The arrest and assault of Chris Smalls is about more than the repression of any effort to subvert the genocidal blockade on Gaza; it exposes Israel’s attempt to sever Black and Palestinian solidarity…
A study in The Lancet estimates that unilateral sanctions have caused as much death as wars, with an estimated half a million deaths per year.
Interview with Arnold August, writer, political commentator, and analyst of the North American continent, on the political situation in Canada and its relationship to the US.
The New York Declaration doesn't merely betray Palestine. It weaponizes the language of statehood to formalize the suppression of a people's right to exist without colonial rule.
Gambians from all walks of life – led by the youth-driven GALA movement mobilized across the country on July 23 in an anti-corruption protest as momentum for change grows.
