Roland Sheppard’s Blog

Daily News Digest Archives

We are On The Eve of Destruction! Humanity and Life Itself, is Under Direct Immediate Threat.

We’ve Now Reached the Point of Nor Return! We are on the Eve of Environmental Catastrophe! Capitalist Production/Destruction is Now an Immediate Threat to Life Itself!

Published Books:

The View From The Painters Ladder

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Why the U.S. Government Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.

Untitled-2In the 1960s, Roland Sheppard regularly attended Malcolm X’s meetings in Harlem. He is one of the few remaining people who personally witnessed the assassination of Malcolm X in the Audubon Ballroom. Purchase the e-book

The Lessons of the Montgomery Bus Boycott: Why It Was SuccessfulThe Rise and Fall of the Civil Right MovementMartin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘Dream’ is not possible under the ‘Nightmare’ of capitalism. The system of capitalism is based on the exploitation of Labor, and racism is required to divide and weaken the working class. As Malcolm X said: “Racism is profitable. If it was not profitable, it would not exist.”

The previous Civil Rights Movement offers valuable lessons for today: if we don’t let them divide us; if we keep our politics independent of the Republican and Democratic Parties and the Government; if we rely only upon our own power in the streets, in the schools, and at work; if we take up the struggles of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the many other heroes of the movement – we can win. — Roland Sheppard

If there is no struggle there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet depreciate agitation—want crops without plowing up the ground, they want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. . . . Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. — Frederick Douglass

The press is so powerful in its image-making role, it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. — Malcolm X

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          Roland Sheppard Speaking Against Gentrification   San Francisco City Hall 4/26/06

My name is Roland Sheppard, I worked for 31 years as a unions house- painter. I am a retired Business Representative of Painters Local #4 in San Francisco. I have been a life long social activist and socialist.

In 1992, I led a successful rank and file in opposition to a phoney contrct proposed by by local union, the International Union, and the employers. After the strike. The  union/employer partnership blackballed me. But I got back to work in 1994, when the membership elected me as a full time union official.

My web page stands for equality of all people, These essays are written from my ground floor view as a participant in the Antiwar movement, the Black Liberation Movement, the Women’s Movement and the struggle for workers democracy and freedom for all humanity. For Socialism!

These are my essays from my perch on the Painter’s Ladder. I was in the words of Robert Tressell, a Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, a phrase that Tressell used, in his book, The Ragged Trousered Philanthropist, to explain the exploitation of workers, under capitalism, who willingly sell their labor and donate the surplus value, which their labor produces, to the boss. (Hear A Lecture About The Ragged Troussard Philanthropist)

I have led a unique life. I am one, of the few people remaining, who was at the Audubon Ballroom when Malcolm X was assassinated.

House painting was my vocation, but working for a better world has been my lifelong avocation. I became especially interested in the environment when I was diagnosed with cancer due to my work environment as a painter.

I learned how to write essays, when I first got a computer, in 1998.  Using the internet and my word processor, I was able to put together all the medical legal arguments on my workers’ compensation case in California, proving that my work environment, as a painter, had caused my cancer. During the course of the five-year struggle, I won a $300,000 settlement of my court case and, incidentally, I learned how to write.

In my retirement, I am writing about my life experiences as a socialist, as a participant in the Black Liberation Movement, the Union Movement, and almost all social movements. My, essays are based upon my involvement in the struggle for workers democracy and freedom for all humanity. It is my hope that these essays, which I regularly update, when I discover more facts, will help future generations of Freedom Fighters.

Yours for freedom,

Roland Sheppard info@rolandsheppard.com

My Essays:

Genocide is ‘American as Apple Pie’!

Make America Great Again! Make America Great Again! It Sould be a Working Class Slogan!

Israel As the United States Imperialist’s Police Force in the Middle East!

The United States/Israeli Palestinian Genocide

Editorial: United States Antiwar Movement Must Embrace the Environmental Movement! No to Wars! No to Global Warming!

Ecoscoialism or Ecocide!

Don’t Vote For Ecocide or Genocide!

Freight Traffic is a Catastrophe in Waiting 

The Crumbling Infrastructure of The United States: Roads, Bridges, and Railroad Tracks Not Designed for the Weight and Length of 3 Mile Long Trains and 18 Wheeler Trucks!

Editorial:  The 1%’s Supreme Court’s  Coup D’etat!

The Sepctre of Fascism is Due to the Currrent Economic Crisis of Capitalism and its Constant Attack Upon the Working Class Since 1948, and The Default/Treachnrous Roll of the Trade Union Bureaucracy

US Elections 2022

Book Reviews:

Living Black History

Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks At  Cancer and the Environment

Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace

The Judas Factor 

The Media Monopoly

Workplace Roulette

Civil Rights Movement:

Uvalde:Systemic Police Bigotry: If the Students Were Whtite, Would 400 Cops Have Done Nothing for 47 Minutes!

Legal/Extra-legal Terrorism Has Been a Tool of the United States 1% to  Subjugate Black People

New Orleans After  Katrinia Essays:

All They Will Call You Will Be ‘Refugees

The Ethnic Cleansing of New Orleans 2008: A Requiem

An Open Letter To The San Francisco Board Of Supervisors: Re 50% Hiring Mandate

Crime and Punishment: ‘Three Strikes and You’re Out’ Targets Blacks and Poor

Diallo Verdict Gives Police a License for ‘Legal Lynchings’

Did You Know Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Still Has Radioactive “Hot Spots” Since Wwii?

Editorial: Black Community Control of the Police

Editorial: Gun Control for Whom?

John Lewis 1963 March on Washington Speech

Justice and Injustice in California: A comparison between rich and poor communities

Legal/Extra-legal Terrorism Has Been a Tool of the United States 1% to  Subjugate Black People

MartinLuther King Jr. Speech: The Other America

The Other San Francisco: Institutionalized Racism

Reparations and Capitalism

San Francisco: Explosion At Southeast Sewage Treatment Plant: City’s safety violations exposed

The Assassinations of M.L.K. Jr. and Malcolm X

*Appendix 1: Documentaries: Who Killed Martin Luther King? by Michel Perbot

*Appendix 2: Malcolm X 3/12/1964 Press Statement After He Broke From the NOI

The Day the Music Died: Malcolm X’s Assassination, Feb. 21, 1965

The First Impeachment Trial: Andrew Johnson in 1868 By Roland Sheppard

The Historic Role of Police Brutality in the Black Community and African American Oppression

The Lessons of the Montgomery Bus Boycott

The Other San Francisco: Institutionalized Racism

2004: Did You Know Hunters Point Naval Shipyard  Still Has Radioactive “Hot Spots” Since World WarII?

The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights Movement

*Appendix:  Chapter 5, The New Jim Crow: Obama—the Promise and the Peril By Michelle Alexander

Why the Government Assassinated Malcolm X And Martin Luther King Jr.

Book Review: ‘Why the U.S. Government Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.’

Why the U.S. Government Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Pamphlet 

 Fusion TV’s: A First Look: Who Killed Malcolm X? — A More Subtle Assassination of Malcolm X  and The Man He Had Become When He Was Assassinated.

Evironmental Racism: Every Petrochemical District is a ‘Cancer Alley!

Environment:

Ecoscoialism or Ecocide!

Agribusiness/Factory Farms — Environmental Hazards!

Freight Traffic is a Catastrophe in Waiting

The Crumbling Infrastructure of The United States: Roads, Bridges, and Railroad Tracks Not Designed for the Weight and Length of 3 Mile Long Trains and 18 Wheeler Trucks!

The Evivironmental Protection Agentcy is now The Employer Portection Agency!: Two Examples: World Tade Center Implosian and Norfolk Southern Eat Palestine Derailment

Editorial: Capitalism’s Unsatiable Thirst Profits and its’ Wanton Disregard for Humanity and Life

COP 27:Capitalists Have Chosen Ecocide!

For Want of a Vaccine the World is Lost: Free the Vacine!

For An Ecosocialist United Front!

An Ecosocialist Manifesto

The Environment and Cuba

Organic Farming — Cuba: “The Road Not Taken”: The Other Cuban Revolution

Another Global Warming Elephant in the Room: The Pentagon Military Industrial Complex!

Big Oil’s ‘Killing Field’s’

Big Energy Frackers Keep on Fracking With Their Own Private Water Supplies During Drought

United States Coronavirus Pandemic Crisis: Lessons to be Learned

Lift the Blockade! — Stop the Pandemic!:   Cuba Has Enough Antivirals to Help Other Countries Treat Coronavirus  Havana

Earth Day Editorial: Survival of the Human Species is Now at Stake!

Editorial: U.S. Capitalism Can’t Get The Lead Out of the Environment!

Environmental Racism: Chester Pa.

Genetic Engineering – Danger Along the Food Chain?

Greenwashing the Philly Oil Explosion and Fire (All is Safe as the Carcinogens Burn)

Human Society Stands At The Crossroads:Either Socialism Or The Destruction of Humanity

Monsanto: “Playing God in the Garden” Mutant Potato For Alien Food Supply? rBGH in Milk?

 ‘What Have They Done to the Rain?’ In the 1960s, I remember Joan Baez singing this song about “The gentle rain (nuclear fallout) that falls for years.”

Pollution and Prejudice in San Francisco

Profits vs. The Planet: Does Humanity Have a Future? The Environmental Crisis of Capitalism (1999)

Ocean Pollution: “Oceans Without Fish”

Oil Workers Killed by Company Neglect

Seattle IMF Environmental Protest

The Burning of Southeast Asia

There Are No ‘Safe Radiation’ Levels!

The Environment and Cuba— Organic Farming

The Fight to End Global Warming

The Myth of Kyoto

The Poisoning of Children and the Arrogance of Wealth

Visions of Sustainable America

Whither Humanity? The Environmental Crisis of Capitalism We Don’t Need a Green New Deal! — We Need a Green Industrial Revolution

Nuclear Power: What Have They Done to the Rain?

“Trade Secrets” Cancer and the Environment  (What the Bill Moyers Program Trade Secrets Revealed

Labor:

Editorial Why the UPS Teamsters Tentative Agreement in not a ‘Historic’ Victory But Another Defeat!

Editorial: Railroad Workers Sold Out By the Squad, Bernie Sanders, and The Republicrats!

The United States Does Not Require Paid Sick Leave! — Most Countries Require  Paid Sick Leave!

The Way Forward for the Working Class — Rail Workers are Leading the Way!

The Big Lie: A ‘Labor Shortage’!

Contradictions of the UAW GM Strike

The Condition of the United States Working Class —  Where Do We Go From Here?

September 18, 2o23 Update

Inflation Calendar

We need to remove our misleaders now!

San Francisco Labor Council Says Yes to the Gentrification of Hunters Point

Energy Crisis Or Capitalist Crisis?

My Efforts to Prevent Painters’ Occupation Cancer

Peter Infante’s Cancer and Blue-Collar Workers: Who Cares?

PG&E Robber Baron Redux

PG&E Ripoff: Return of the Robber Barons

PG&E’s Christmas Rip Off Time To Nationalize Energy Corporations!

San Francisco: 1000 Nurses Rally For ‘Medicare for All

The Fall of the Trade Union Movement (2010 Update) Elections: The Default of The Trade Union Movement

The War at the Point of Production: The ‘Killing Fields’ of the United States

US Government Declares War on West Coast Dockworkers

Editorial: Re: California Governor wants to pass a massive $3.6 billion tax plan on autos

Why I Celebrate May Day But I Do Not Celebrate Labor Day!

Why The Chicago Teachers Union Strike Was Won! 

Wildcat Protest Against Employer-Union Partnership

Why The West Virginia Teachers Won! Where to go from here?

Social Security ‘Debt’

Politics:

Systemic to Capitalism: Global Warming, Racism. And War

February 2023 Three Graphs Demonstrating the Real Real State of the Union

What’s Behind The Media Monopoly Facebook ‘Scandle’

Editorial: Ecosocialism or Ecocide!!!!

Make America Great Again! Real Wages have Fallen Since the Wage Price Freeze of 1972

Under Capitalism — Human Lives Don’t Matter

Capitalism  Austerity Means More Wealth for the 1% and Pauperization of the 99%

A Historic Document: A Bill of Rights for Working People

Neoliberalism Has Led Us Down the Path to Fascism

2017 State of the Nation

9-11 World Trade Center Dust Cloud: How Many Will Die

Movie Review: 911 Dust and Deceit at the WTC

Big Oil Fracking California—Big Energy Corporations, Politicians, and Water Do Mix!: Thirsty Oil Companies Need More Water!

During Natural Disasters: Is ‘Looting’ a Crime? Is Survival a Crime? Who Are the Real Looters?

Editorial: British Elections — Corbyn Victory

Editorial: Humanity Cannot Survive Under Capitalism!

Editorial: The Big ‘Entitlements’ Swindle Workers Wages Are Not ‘Entitlements’ — We Earn Our Benefits!

Editorial: 1% Rule Has Always been Consitutional!

Editorial: The Teachers Unions Have Been Acting Socially Now is the time to Begin to Act Politically in Opposition to the 1%’s Political Austerity Progam!

Edictorial: Trickle Up and Trickle Down

Editorial: Donald Trump Guilty of Inciting His Supporters to Violence!

Frontline The Power of the Fed

Greece Essays:

Editorial: Syriza A Popular Front

Editorial: Greece

Frontline The Power of the Fed

Hiroshima and Nagasaki Never Again!

Human Society stands At The Crossroads: Either Socialism or the Destruction of Humanity

In Defense of Marxism: In Defense of the Fourth International!

Let Elian Return Home!

Let The People Vote on Healthcare!

Memorial Day

Movie Review: 911 Dust and Deceit at the WTC

My Prepared Speech at Nat Weinstein’s Memorial Meeting

My Forefathers and The 1%’s Forefathers

Lessor Evil Results For 2009

The Government Protects Monsanto — Not Your Right to Life

Time To Nationalize The “Privately owned ‘Public’ Utilities”!: Instead of Nationalizing Their Debts— Nationalize Their Assets!

Obama’s Coup D’état

Obama Left Trump the Power to Declare Martial Law!

Occupy Wall Street Demonstrates The Need To Build An Organization of All Anti-Capitalist Forces!

Party congress backs Gorbachev’s ‘reforms’

Pax Americana and The Failure of ‘Lesser Evilism’

A Ponzi Scheme—The Economy is Only A Paper Moon

PG&E and Capitalism are Politically Bankrupt Robber Barons!

PG&E Ripoff: Return of the Robber Barons

‘Robber Baron’ Energy Cartels Rip Off California

PG&E and Capitalism are Politically Bankrupt Robber Barons!

Robber Baron Usury Capitalism in the United States

Sandra Steingrabber: How Fracking Impacts Public Health

Terrorism in Charlottesville, Va.: Racism, Explotation, and Terror Has Always Been an Integral Part of Capitalism

The American ‘Left’ has become ‘Reformist’ — It No Longer Espouses or Stands For the Principle of Working Class Independence!

The Bernie Sanders Phenomenon

The Onging Saga Of The New Bay Bridge Eastern Span Or How Corpoate Greed, Corruption, and Corporate Government Deregulation Demonstrate The Decline Of The U.S. Empire

The United States ‘Principal of Preventive Strike’and The Establishment of Governmental Vigilante Justice’

The Degeneration of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)

A Bill Of Rights For Working People (1976)

The State of the Union and the State of Capitalism The 1% are getting richer — The 99% are getting poorer.

The State of the Union November 2020

The Sepctre of Fascism is Due the Currrrent economic Crisis of Capitalism and its Constant Attack Upon the Working Class Since 1948, and The Default/Treachnrous Roll of the Trade Union Bureaucracy

U.S. Crumbling Infrastructure Biden’s Bipartisan Budget Proposal is $5 Trillion Below What is Needed!

Today’s Cuba (1992)

Why Oil Companies Want California’s Water

Four Essays:

Roger, My Twin Brother

Grieving for My Mother

Mill Valley Was Once a Pretty How Town

On the Beach and Free