Bill Fletcher, Jr.

The forgotten Dr. King, then, was a leader who was attempting to unite a workers movement with a racial justice movement with a movement for global human rights. He knew and stated that there was violence inherent in the existing system and, indeed, that the USA was the greater purveyor of violence on the planet. He knew and stated that the system, as currently constructed, could not meet the needs of the majority of its population. And, he knew and stated that the job of social justice activists and social revolutionaries was to ceaselessly make the lives of the comfortable uncomfortable.

This student movement–and it is a movement–needs to be supported. Yes, there were certainly other cases of gun violence that could have…should have started such a movement. But that is not the way that history and social movements work. Timing as well as contributing factors make for social explosions. One can rarely project as to when it will happen, though we can largely guess that an explosion will happen.

It is critically important that we all stop and remember something that should be fundamental for any resistance movement or any movement fighting for justice: the oppressed have never, in history, had more wealth or resources than the oppressor.

the election was not a choice between revolution and counter-revolution. It was an election against misogynism, right-wing populism, irrationalism and racism. It’s significance cannot be underestimated given Alabama’s history as a home of the former Confederacy and a state that voted for Trump by an overwhelming margin.

while the cavalier approach of Trump is demented, the larger problem facing Puerto Rico is beyond that of one, arrogant individual. Puerto Rico has been strangled economically for years through policies of austerity. It is now being driven to the brink in the aftermath of the incompetent and insensitive response by the US government to Hurricane Maria.

One of the concerns raised in the peace talks that led to the demobilization of the FARC was precisely what that would mean for populations that had been targeted by the right-wing. Assurances by the Colombian government, as well as international sponsors of the peace talks, were offered that steps would be taken. Instead, the situation is deteriorating.

Employers’ ability to involve themselves in their workers’ right to choose how they organize undermines the possibility of real democracy.

evidence was displayed of an effort to create a wedge between African Americans and immigrants from the global South, suggesting that such immigrants are our competitors as well as being a threat to our very existence.

Whiteness has confounded every social movement because it declares who is relevant and who is not. The labor movement is a case in point. Some of the most militant of white trade union leaders saw the working class as white, rather than inclusive, a point that is actually relevant to debates that have taken place in the aftermath of the November 2016 elections.