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The View From the Painter’s Ladder
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“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 lightningThey 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, 1857
“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
Roland Sheppard Speaking Against Gentrification San Francisco City Hall 4/26/06
My name is Roland Sheppard, I am a retired Business Representative of Painters Local #4 in San Francisco. I have been a life long social activist and socialist. Prior to my being elected as a union official in 1994, I worked for 31 years as a house painter. 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. 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 breakthrough 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
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.
The Government Assassinated Macolm X ad Martin Luther King Audio Book
The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights Movement Kindle Edition
Lessons From the Montgomery Bust Boycott
The Government Assasssinated: Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
Audio Book: The Government Assassinated Malcolm x and Martin Luther King
Why the U.S. Government Assassinated Malcom X and Martin Luther King, Jr. Kindle Edition
My Essays
United States
United States: The Objective Situation
Revolutionary Socialist Critique of US Capitalism: The Truth About the Elections, Environment, Inflation, Racism, Etc.
The Fascade, of Democracy, No Longer Exists, the 1% Conrol Everyting !
The United States is Not a Democracy! This is proven by the US Regressive Tax Policy! The Real State of the Union:Daily Blog 2/25
The Real Enemy Within? The Capitalist Class!
Bansters are the Biggest Crooks!
Pax Americana and The Failure of ‘Lesser Evilism’
Editorial: The Big ‘Entitlements’ Swindle Workers Wages Are Not ‘Entitlements’
Originalism and Our Democracy Supreme Court decisions
Today’s Supreme Court & The U.S. Government
Book Review: The Media Monopoly
9-11 World Trade Center Dust Cloud: How Many Will Die?!
A Step Closer to World War III
Bansters are the Biggest Crooks!
Perpetual War for Perpetual Peace
Obama Left Trump the Power to Declare Martial Law — Is Martial Comming to the United States?!
Obama’s Coup D’état — A Police State In Imerging
For the Last 155 Years, the United States has Followed a Policy of Ignorance is Strength!
Editorial: Re: California Governor wants to pass a massive $3.6 billion tax plan on autos
After World War I Rosa Luxemburg Raise the Slogan Socialism of Barbarism! Today the Slogan Should be Ecosociasm if Ecocide!
Warning: Factory Farms are a Threat to Life!
Human Society Stands At The Crossroads:Either Socialism Or The Destruction of Humanity
For A Ecosocialist United Front!
Climate Change? The Oil Industry Knew!
Organic Farming — Cuba: “The Road Not Taken”: The Other Cuban Revolution
Human Society Stands At The Crossroads:Either Socialism Or The Destruction of Humanity
Earth Day Editorial: Survival of the Human Species is Now at Stake!
Energy crisis or capitalist crisis?
Another Global Warming Elephant in the Room: The Pentagon Military Industrial Complex!
Living Downstream An Ecologist Looks At Cancer And The Environment
PG&E Ripoff: Return of the Robber Barons
PG&E’s Christmas Rip Off Time To Nationalize Energy Corporations!
“Trade Secrets” Cancer and the Environment(What the Bill Moyers Program Trade Secrets Revealed
Nuclear Power: What Have They Done to the Rain?
Visions of Sustainable America
The Poisoning of Children & The Arrogance of WealthNew York City Focuses on Lead Poisoning Prevention
The Fight to End Global Warming
There Are No ‘Safe Radiation’ Levels!
Seattle IMF Environmental Protest
Big Energy Frackers Keep on Fracking With Their Own Private Water Supplies During Drought
Oil Workers Killed by Company Neglect
Ocean Pollution—”Oceans Without Fish”
Greenwashing the Philly Oil Explosion and Fire (All is Safe as the Carcinogens Burn)
Black Liberation/Civil Rights
New Orleans Katrina
Other America Speech (MLK)
All They Will Call You Will Be ‘Refugees’
The Ethnic Cleansing of New Orleans 2008: A Requiem
During Natural Disasters: Is ‘Looting’ a Crime? Is Survival a Crime?
The Poisoning of Children & The Arrogance of WealthNew York City Focuses on Lead Poisoning Prevention
* * * *
The Day the Music Died: Malcolm X’ Assassination, Feb. 21, 1965
The Government Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King
Why the U.S. Government Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King (Pamflet Text)
The Assassinations of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.
The Judas Factor by Karl Evanzz The Plot o Kill Malkom X
Book Review: ‘Why the U.S. Government Assassinated Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.’
Malcolm X 3/12/1964 Press Statement After He Broke From the NOI
Fusion TV’s: A First Look: Who Killed Malcolm X? — A More Subtle A
ssassination of Malcolm X and The Man He Had Become When He Was Assassinate
Lessons From the Montgomery Bust Boycott
Lessons From the Montgomery Bust Boycott
The Rise and Fall of the Civil Rights Movement
Why the Monntgomery Boycott Was Successful
John Lewis 1963 March on Washington Speech
The Historic Role of Police Brutality in the Black Community and African American Oppression
The First Impeachment Trial: Andrew Johnson in 1868
Justice and Injustice in California: A comparison between rich and poor communities
An Open Letter To The San Francisco Board Of Supervisors: Re 50% Hiring Mandate
Legal/Extra-legal Terrorism Has Been a Tool of the United States 1% to Subjugate Black People
2004: Did You Know Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Still Has Radioactive “Hot Spots” Since World WarII?
The First Impeachment Trial: Andrew Johnson in 1868
San Francsco: Sewage Plant Explosian!
The Other San Francisco: Institutionalized Racism
Documentaries: Who Killed Martin Luther King? by Michel Perbot
Editorial: Black Community Control of the Police
Crime and Punishment: ‘Three Strikes and You’re Out’ Targets Blacks and Poor
Diallo Verdict Gives Police a License for ‘Legal Lynchings’
An Open Letter To The San Francisco Board Of Supervisors: Re 50% Hiring Mandate
Labor
Stateification of the United States Trade Unions
The Default of the Labor Union Bureaucracy Set the Stage for Trump!
The Condition of the United States Working Class — Where Do We Go From Here?
The Fall of the Trade Union Movement
The State of Today’s Trade Union Movement (1998)
Why I Do Not Celebrate Labor Day But I celebrate May Day
The Rise and Decline of the Coal Miners Union 1989-1994
Another U.S. Killing Field: The War at the Point of Production
Workplace Roulette: Gambling With Cancer
My Efforts to Prevent Painters’ Occupation Cancer
US Government Declares War on West Coast Dockworkers
Wildcat Protest Against Employer-Union Partnership
Why The West Virginia Teachers Won! Where to go from here?
Why The Chicago Teachers Union Strike Was Won!
Contradictions of the UAW GM Strike
San Francisco: 1000 Nurses Rally For ‘Medicare for All
Economy
2008 “A Ponzi Scheme” The Economy is Only A Paper Moon
World
Oil is Behind Most in the Middle East ! The Gaza War/Palestinian Genocide is No Execption!
Editorial: Greece There is nothing more demoralizing for the working class than to be sold out by their ‘leaders’ and suffer a defeat, cuts in their standard of living, without a struggle or fight. — is as true in this country as it is in Greece.
Editorial: Syriza A Popular Front
Health, Welfare, and Education
Ignorance Is Strength! The Orwellian Nightmare of American Public Schools!
Let The People Vote on Healthcare!
United States Coronavirus Pandemic Crisis: Lessons to be Learned
For Want of a Vaccine the World is Lost: Free the Vacine!
Frontline The Power of the Fed Last, I watched the Frontline Program, The Power of the Fed, When COVID-19 struck, the Federal Reserve stepped in to try to avert economic crisis. As the country’s central bank continues to pump billions of dollars into the financial system daily, who is benefiting and at what cost.
Political
The Iron Heel is Comming
The US Government’s Constant Bi-Partisan Attacks Upon the Labor Movement and the Social Movements
Under Capitalism — Human Lives Don’t Matter
Revolutionary Socialist Critique of US Capitalism
In Defense of Marxism! In Defense of the 4th International! Published February 1, 2000
The State of the Union and the State of Capitalism
The Degeneration of the Socialist Workers Party (SWP)
Another U.S. Killing Fied: The War at the Point of Production