Skip to content
During This Economic Crisis, Capitalism’s Three Point Political Program: 1. Austerity, 2. Scapegoating Blacks, Minorities, and ‘Illegal Immigrants’ for Unemployment, and 3. The Iron Heel.
Democracy?: As the Capitalist Robber Barons Steal from the 99% — Only the 1%Voted For Austerity — The 99% Should Decide On Austerity — Not Just The 1%Who Profit From Austerity! Under Austerity, All of the World Will Eventually Be Pauperized, Humbled, and Desecrated Like Greece and Puerto Rico.
Images/Quotes of the Day:
MLK Documentary: ‘When Silence Becomes Betrayal’On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the revolutionary Martin Luther King Jr., join us for a screening of a new documentary on MLK’s opposition to the Vietnam War, based on King’s April 30th, 1967 speech.
Mumia’s Lawyer Discusses the Fact that New Boxes of Evidence Were FoundClimate Advocates Underestimate Power of Fossil Fueled Misinformation Campaigns, Say Top Researchers Climate action advocates have underestimated the strength and sophistication of decades-long fossil fuel-funded misinformation campaigns and need a coordinated set of strategies to fight back, say leading academics. Among those strategies, say the three researchers from Yale and Brown University, are promoting financial transparency, suing misinformers and their funders, and researching the vast networks of think tanks and front groups.
U.S.:
. . . Then the original Poor People’s Campaign took place, it was 19 — it was 50 years ago. Dr. Martin Luther King was involved. After he was assassinated, it continued, but what is the connection between then and now? When the original Poor People’s Campaign took place, it was 19 — it was 50 years ago. Dr. Martin Luther King was involved. After he was assassinated, it continued, but what is the connection between then and now? Dr. Martin Luther King was involved. After he was assassinated, it continued, but what is the connection between then and now? Rev. William Barber: Let me say that the connection was, first of all, it did continue, that people realized Dr. King was right. Racism, poverty and militarism were interconnected.The connection today is, we did a study. We did something called the Souls of Poor Folk, auditing America 50 years after the Poor People’s Campaign. What did we find? Today, there are 140 million poor and low-wealth people.Today, there are 250,000 people that die every year from low wealth. We have less voting rights today because of the gutting of the Voting Rights Act than we had in 1965, that we have 62 million people who are working poor, who work less than a living wage, and 14 million children who are in poverty.— On MLK Day, the need for a ‘deeply moral argument’ about American injustice
Ralph Nader: Democrats May Be Surrendering the Rule of LawThere is much more in Barr’s secretive, corporatist, anti-consumer, labor, and environmental record to get the Senate Democrats’ dander up and throw down the gauntlet. But, no, they prefer to be polite and in so doing let the American people down. Please note the comment from the ranking Democrat on the Committee, California Senator Dianne Feinstein, during a break in the hearing: She said the hearing was “going very well” and expected Barr to be easily confirmed by the full Senate. See why I’ve called the Republican and Democratic parties an inbred duopoly? Expect the further decay of a Department of Injustice, shielding a chronically lawless President and turning the rule of on its head.
Shutdown Exposes How Many Americans Live Paycheck to PaycheckToday marks the two-year anniversary of Donald Trump’s inauguration, and we have learned some hard lessons in the interval. The ongoing, historically unprecedented shutdown of the federal government has exposed Trump as one of the worst deal-makers ever to stand up in two shoes. By William Rivers Pitt
Environment:
Ongoing Big Energy Crisis:
Climate Advocates Underestimate Power of Fossil Fueled Misinformation Campaigns, Say Top Researchers Writing in the journal Nature Climate Change,Yale University’ professors Justin Farrell and Kathryn McConnell, together with Brown University’s Professor Robert Brulle, say people working on responses to climate change “cannot afford to underestimate the economic influence, institutional complexity, strategic sophistication, financial motivation, and societal impact of the networks” behind climate misinformation campaigns. Brulle, who is also an academic at Drexel University, told DeSmog that after conversations with leaders of environment groups and foundations, he had concluded “there is virtually no understanding of the nature or extent of misinformation efforts and organized efforts to stop climate action.” By Graham Readfearn 
Civil Rights/Black Liberation:
1. As the House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in 1979, President John F. Kennedy was probably killed as the result of a conspiracy.
2. In the four decades since this Congressional finding, a massive amount of evidence compiled by journalists, historians and independent researchers confirms this conclusion. This growing body of evidence strongly indicates that the conspiracy to assassinate President Kennedy was organized at high levels of the U.S. power structure, and was implemented by top elements of the U.S. national security apparatus using, among others, figures in the criminal underworld to help carry out the crime and cover-up.
3. This stunning conclusion was also reached by the president’s own brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, who himself was assassinated in 1968 while running for president — after telling close aides that he intended to reopen the investigation into his brother’s murder if he won the election.
4. President Kennedy’s administration was badly fractured over his efforts to end the Cold War, including his back-channel peace feelers to the Soviet Union and Cuba and his plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Vietnam after the 1964 presidential election.
5. President Kennedy has long been portrayed as a Cold War hawk, but this grossly inaccurate view has been strongly challenged over the years by revisionist historians and researchers, who have demonstrated that Kennedy was frequently at odds with his own generals and espionage officials. This revisionist interpretation of the Kennedy presidency is now widely embraced, even by mainstream Kennedy biographers.
6. The official investigation into the JFK assassination immediately fell under the control of U.S. security agencies, ensuring a cover-up. The Warren Commission was dominated by former CIA director Allen Dulles and other officials with strong ties to the CIA and FBI.
7. The corporate media, with its own myriad connections to the national security establishment, aided the cover-up with its rush to embrace the Warren Report and to scorn any journalists or researchers who raised questions about the official story.
8. Despite the massive cover-up of the JFK assassination, polls have consistently shown that a majority of the American people believes Kennedy was the victim of a conspiracy — leading to the deep erosion of confidence in the U.S. government and media.
9. The CIA continues to obstruct evidence about the JFK assassination, routinely blocking legitimate Freedom of Information requests and defying the JFK Records Collection Act of 1992, preventing the release of thousands of government documents as required by the law.
10. The JFK assassination was just one of four major political murders that traumatized American life in the 1960s and have cast a shadow over the country for decades thereafter. John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were each in his own unique way attempting to turn the United States away from war toward disarmament and peace, away from domestic violence and division toward civil amity and justice. Their killings were together a savage, concerted assault on American democracy and the tragic consequences of these assassinations still haunt our nation.
Signed: 64 Prominent Persons
Why the U.S. Government Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. By Roland Sheppard ReMarx Publishing (http://www.remarxpub.com/)$2.95 (USD) Purchase the e-book 
Malcolm X was assassinated fifty years ago, on February 21, 1965. Three years later, Martin Luther King, Jr. was also assassinated (April 4, 1968). These murders marked an escalation in the U.S. Government’s war against the Civil Rights Movement. In the 1960s, Roland Sheppard regularly attended Malcolm XIS meetings in Harlem. Between 1964 and 1965, he was in charge of security when Malcolm X spoke at the Militant Labor Forum in New York City. He is one of the few remaining people who personally witnessed the assassination of Malcolm X in the Audubon Ballroom.
Book Review: Why the U.S. Government Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. Review by Roger Hollander of the book by Roland Sheppard, just published by ReMarx Publishing The heart of Sheppard’s work is his analysis of the motive for these two government assassinations.There is nothing more threatening to the U.S. corporate elite, the government, the military and the mass media than the prospect of revolution. Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. were developing beyond their original Black liberation philosophies. They were emerging as powerful advocates and organizers for revolutionary change in the American economic and political system. In his final years, Malcolm X expanded the fight against racism to include the fight against poverty and war. In 1962, he supported striking hospital workers in New York City. And he was the first mass leader in the United States to publically oppose America’s war against Vietnam.
Labor:
Economy:
Government shutdown by the numbers: From food stamps to wages, how Trump’s crusade is damaging the US economy One month in, beer brewers cannot get labels, food inspections have been cut, and the SEC cannot approve new IPOs for rising companies Around 800,000 federal employees have been furloughed or told to come into work even though they are not being paid. That means that hundreds of thousands of people who live month to month have been forced to find ways to pay their mortgages, put food on the table and even pay for petrol to drive to the jobs they are not being paid to do By Clark Mindock
World:
Britain: Put Labour at the head of the anti- Brexit movement (Britain)May has, unsurprisingly, survived the vote of no confidence moved by Labour with the solid support of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the European Research Group after suffering the biggest Parliamentary defeat in British political history on her exit agreement from the EU. The defeat saw both those fighting to stop Brexit altogether and those who don’t believe May’s deal delivers ‘enough Brexit’ celebrating together inside and outside parliament. Labour was bound to call the confidence vote both because of its own conference decision and because, in the face of such a huge crisis, it would have been inexplicable not to follow it through to the next logical step. The government has been roundly defeated on the most significant political issue for 50 years, so the government should fall. The ruling Conservative party is deeply divided in that crisis so those tensions must be teased out. By Socialist Resistance
Germany: militant march commemorates 100 years since Luxemburg-Liebknecht murderOn 13-14 January, tens of thousands of people from across Europe gathered in Berlin to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the murder of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht. Despite the poor weather, this year’s demonstration was one of the largest and most militant events that Berlin has seen in the recent period; a clear sign of the political polarisation and class consciousness that is developing as a result of the intensifying capitalist crisis. By Oliver Brotherton
Health, Science, Education, and Welfare:
Remembering Our Nuclear Past as We Speed Toward an Apocalyptic Future Landing at Nagasaki Airport last November, I joined a line of Japanese men, women, and children waiting to disembark from our plane. Most were likely returning home on this holiday weekend or arriving to visit family and friends. I wondered how many of them remembered or thought about the nuclear annihilation of this city 73 years ago — within, that is, their own lifetimes or those of their parents or grandparents. By Susan Southard
Videos of the Day:
