Editorial: The Global Crisis of Capitalism!
We are On The Eve of Destruction! Humanity and Life Itself, is Under Direct Immediate Threat.
Published Books:
The View From The Painters Ladder
Why the U.S. Government Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 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 Successful
The Rise and Fall of the Civil Right Movement
Martin 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
My name is Roland Sheppard, I worked for 31 years as a union 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!
Don’t Vote For Ecocide or Genocide!
Freight Traffic is a Catastrophe in Waiting
Editorial: The 1%’s Supreme Court’s Coup D’etat!
Book Reviews:
Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks At Cancer and the Environment
Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
Civil Rights Movement:
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
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 (2024 Update)
Evironmental Racism: Every Petrochemical District is a ‘Cancer Alley!
Environment:
Editoial: End Lead Poisonig! Get Rid of Lead!
Agribusiness/Factory Farms — Environmental Hazards!
Freight Traffic is a Catastrophe in Waiting
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!
Organic Farming — Cuba: “The Road Not Taken”: The Other Cuban Revolution
Another Global Warming Elephant in the Room: The Pentagon Military Industrial Complex!
Big Energy Frackers Keep on Fracking With Their Own Private Water Supplies During Drought
United States Coronavirus Pandemic Crisis: Lessons to be Learned
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
There Are No ‘Safe Radiation’ Levels!
The Environment and Cuba— Organic Farming
The Fight to End Global Warming
The Poisoning of Children and the Arrogance of Wealth
Visions of Sustainable America
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?
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 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 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?
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
9-11 World Trade Center Dust Cloud: How Many Will Die
Movie Review: 911 Dust and Deceit at the WTC
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: 1% Rule Has Always been Consitutional!
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
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 The People Vote on Healthcare!
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
The Government Protects Monsanto — Not Your Right to Life
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
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
U.S. Crumbling Infrastructure Biden’s Bipartisan Budget Proposal is $5 Trillion Below What is Needed!
Why Oil Companies Want California’s Water
Four Essays: