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Quotes of the Day:
Black Liberation/Civil Rights:
Ditch Both War Parties: Anti-War Coalition Maps Independent Course to Peace The Democrats claim their warmongering is justified by a manufactured Russian threat, while Donald Trump wants to turn the U.S. war machine on China and Iran. For those that want peace, the destination is Richmond, Virginia, where the United National Anti-War Coalition will hold a national conference independent of the two parties of war. This year’s conference will boast “the largest Black presence in UNAC’s history.” A Black Agenda Radio commentary by executive editor Glen Ford
Freedom Rider: Climate Agreement Smoke and Mirrors Donald Trump backed out of the Paris climate accords, but “the world leaders who condemn him are even more guilty because they have used sleight of hand to give an appearance of concern and of action when they lie to the world and continue killing the planet.” The big polluters gave themselves a free pass on previous emissions, while agreeing “not to pay poor countries for the damage that global warming does to them and to their people.” by BAR editor and senior columist Margaret Kimberley
The Crisis of US Imperial Governance and the Struggle for a New World “The struggle against neo-liberal capital and anti-Russian hysteria is a struggle to transform and revolutionize society,” writes Black Agenda Report contributor Danny Haiphong, who delivered the following remarks at BAR’s “Resisting Trump, Exposing the Democrats” panel the Left Forum, in New York City. “This system has run its course,” said Haiphong. “It cannot hold onto political legitimacy any more than it can spur economic development.” by Danny Haiphong
Russia’s Vladimir Putin v. NBC’s Megyn Kelly Vladimir Putin mopped the floor with NBC’s Megyn Kelly last weekend, responding to her canned anti-Russia spiel with the contempt, and even humor, it deserved. NBC failed to broadcast a far more newsworthy interchange between Kelly and Putin, doubtless because it called attention to Washington’s deep ties to jihadist terror. “Vladimir Putin said that the U.S. is using terrorists against Assad and that the same terrorists are likely to bite back.” by Ann Garrison
In the Face of Trump’s Surveillance Threats, Local Movements Demand Disclosure of Police Technologies In anticipation that the Trump administration will expand on Obama’s domestic spying practices, a coalition of civil liberties groups is pushing a Community Control Over Police Surveillance initiative in cities across the nation. The campaign would require local approval of police surveillance tools such as “cell phone tracking equipment, automated license plate readers, facial recognition technology and closed-circuit television cameras.” by Candice Bernd
“Zuma Must Fall” and the Left: Lessons from Zimbabwe Faced with a growing crisis, South African President Zuma has raised the prospect of a radical reorientation of the ANC and the possibility of radical economic transformation. Alarmed, another faction of the South Africa’s capitalist class has thrown its support behind the “Zuma Must Fall” movement. The author says there are lessons for South Africa from the movement that rose up against Mugabe in Zimbabwe in the late 1990s. by Munvaradzi Gwisai
The Failure of the Socialist Movement in Nigeria Africa’s most populous nation has lots of parties that call themselves “socialist” or “communist,” but “all of them fail by the crucial criterion of possessing sufficient interventional capacity for sustained and broad-based influence over the agenda, course, pace, and outcomes of the social conflict between the oppressed and the oppressors.” by Osaze Lanre Nosaze
Fortress Europe: The Rise of Fascism and Racism in the Netherlands Police in a small Dutch town broke up a long-scheduled and totally peaceful gathering of Eritreans from all over Europe, as the event was besieged by Ethiopians pretending to be Eritreans. Meanwhile, “a well known Dutch ‘human rights activist’” was heard on her cell phone “ranting and raving against Eritrea and provoking the ‘protesters’ to carry out their attacks.” by Thomas C. Mountain
Environment:
OECD: World Is Still Locked in a “Low-Growth Trap” with Rising Inequality The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) just released its latest economic outlook which it sums up as “better but not good enough,” noting that, since the financial crisis of 2008, global growth remains “below past norms and below the pace needed to escape fully from the low-growth trap.” Projecting a modest pickup in global growth to 3.5 percent this year, the authors write: “After many years of weak recovery, with global growth in 2016 at the lowest rate since 2009, some signs of improvement have begun to appear. Trade and manufacturing output growth have picked up from a very low level, helped by firmer domestic demand growth in Asia and Europe, and private sector confidence has strengthened. But policy uncertainty remains high, trust in government has diminished, wage growth is still weak, inequality persists, and imbalances and vulnerabilities remain in financial markets. Against this background, a modest pick-up in global GDP growth is projected this year to 3½ per cent, with an upturn in trade and investment intensity and improving outcomes in several major commodity producers.” By Pam Martens and Russ Martens
World: