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We are seeing protests, civil unrest, and even uprisings sweep across cities and towns all over the United States. What started in reaction to the brutal police murder of George Floyd has become about the systematic abuse, oppression, and destruction of black and brown communities nationwide.
This is, of course, happening within the context of a deadly and terrifying global pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 people in this country alone and put more than 40 million people temporarily or permanently out of work. A few months ago, those frankly felt like unimaginable numbers. But of course, we have to be real and recognize that the hardest hit communities in all of this are communities of color, where inequality and the legacy of racism has made people more vulnerable to the devastation of the virus.
And so people are scared. They are angry. They want things to change. Rightfully so.
At a time like this, understanding how to affect change is more confusing than ever. So we at The TESA Collective put together a robust – but by no means definitive – guide to understanding what you can do right now to help the protests and the movement to end police brutality and murders. We’ve got resources, links, places to donate, ways to have conversations, signs to put up in your windows, free ebooks, advice on how to participate in protests safely in a pandemic, and more.
To be clear, this guide will not focus on the issues of riots or damage to private property. There are other people who are more equipped to talk about that than us.
It is possible some content in this guide may lose us some people. But as we argue below, none of us can stand by right now, and we have to face these difficult conversations, even if they strain cherished relations. So we hope you will join us in saying: black lives matter.
One more thing. Not every piece of advice or every action below will be applicable or useful to everyone. That’s okay. Ignore what doesn’t work for you, and use what does work for you. Because no matter what, it’s time to act.
Become Aware of Systematic Racial Oppression and Police Brutality
The police murder of George Floyd is not an isolated incident, though much of the coverage of the protests by mainstream media have made it out to seem like that is the case. Police forces have been terrorizing and oppressing communities of colors for ages, and in many ways this terrorization is escalating as more military-grade equipment pours into police departments.
To become more familiar with this topic, Haymarket Books is offering the ebook version of its title, “Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?” for free right now. You can download it here.
If you want to dive in immediately, here’s a 7 minute clip of Dr. Cornel West laying it out on national TV:
Understand Police Are Instigating Much of the Violence
Yes, there is civil unrest right now. What is not getting enough coverage, however, is that much of the violence we see is being instigated by the police themselves. Police are responding to protests over police brutality with more police brutality. We have to recognize the implications of the fact that we live in a country that can’t get personal protective equipment to frontline medical workers, but that has police forces everywhere already equipped with military-grade weapons and gear. And they have come ready to use it.
This is perhaps one of the best articles we have seen on the issue: Police Erupt in Violence Nationwide. In this article there are numerous examples of police abusing protesters and innocent bystanders alike in just the past few days alone: people are shot by rubber bullets while in their homes, two black people who are driving have their windows broken and are tased and dragged out of their car, two NYPD SUVs run right into a crowd of protesters, and so much more. If you’re following this at all on social media, however, you will see that this is only the tip of the iceberg.
As the police get more violent, more people will get hurt, and more people will get angry. The police must stand down.
Read Up On What Alternatives to Police and Policing Look Like
A common question people have is: well, what are we supposed to do instead of police and policing?
It’s a fair question because it’s the only system many of us know. But the truth is, it hasn’t always been this way, and it isn’t this way everywhere. There are alternatives to police and policing that we must adopt, especially as police have become increasingly militarized nationwide. If you want to learn more, Verso Books is currently offering the ebook version of its title “The End of Policing” for free. You can download it here.
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What about on a personal level – what are your alternatives to calling the police? You might find the following resource we published on our blog in 2016 useful, which is unfortunately still relevant today: “What To Do Instead of Calling the Police.”
Speak Up, Be Vocal. Even When It Is Uncomfortable.
It’s time for people – and this primarily, but of course not exclusively, goes for white people – to have difficult conversations with friends, family, and other loved ones who may not agree with them on issues of racial justice and police brutality. To be honest, it’s been time. If it might lead to awkward familial situations, or threats of being unfriended on Facebook, or whatever else… it’s worth it. Black and brown people’s lives are worth it. Standing up against police brutality and institutional racism is worth it. Because being silent is being complicit. As the great Brazilian educator Pualo Freire once said:
“Washing one’s hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral. ”
Here are some key talking points on the issue that you might find useful:
These protests aren’t just about a single incident. People have been protesting over police brutality against black and brown people for ages, and no meaningful changes have occurred. Communities of color continue to be terrorized every day.
People are angry, and rightfully so. That will be expressed in different ways.
Saying “Black Lives Matter” means that the system we currently live in does not value the lives of people of color, and that it must be changed to do so immediately.
Saying “All Lives Matter” in response to “Black Lives Matter” misses the point completely. Right now, we live in a system that does not believe that all lives matter. Supporting black lives matter means you want to change the world so that everyone’s lives are equally valued, protected, and nourished. But right now, that is not the way things are.
Here is a helpful comic that expresses the issue from the website Chainsawsuit:
George Floyd was murdered by the police. Any underlying health conditions he had has absolutely no impact on this statement. He, and his family, deserve justice. And we must fight to make sure this does not happen again, and again, and again.
These conversations with friends and families might be hard and awkward. (Although you might be surprised to find not all of them will be as tough as you think.) But ask yourselves this: if you won’t talk to people who need to hear it in your family and amongst your friends, then who will talk to them? And if you don’t talk to them now, then when will you? (This statement is primarily for white people – people of color should not be expected to educate white people on this topic.)
Make Sure Your Neighbors Know Where You Stand With These Printable Window Signs
While surely most people know what’s happening in the United States right now, it is very easy (and common) for people to stick their heads in the sand and just wait for things to blow over. Especially if you live in a town or a neighborhood that is not being severely impacted.
But we can’t let that happen. Like the section above argued, we must be vocal, and we must be vocal now. We must make sure people know that there are people everywhere who support the movement for black lives matter and who want to stop police brutality.
That is why TESA has put together some simple signs you can print out at home to put in your windows. You can even talk to your neighbors (while remaining socially distant) if you see them looking at the sign as they pass by.
You can download several different versions of the window sign for free here. We aren’t taking your email or anything either to download it. Just download it, and feel free to share it widely.
What we know is that the powers that be will not change things on their own – they have had ample opportunity to do so. It is up to us, the people, to change things. And that starts by normalizing the phrase “Black Lives Matter” and the ideas behind it. We must do so in our homes, our blocks, and our neighborhoods.
Join Protests – If You Can Do So Safely
We can’t ignore that this is all happening within the context of a pandemic. We also can’t ignore that much of what is happening is because of the hopelessness, fear, and anxiety caused by the pandemic. This country shut down with no basic social safety nets, leaving many who are constantly terrorized by police and living on the economic edge with no hope. This is not to argue that the COVID-19 pandemic is the reason this is happening, obviously the historical and ongoing legacy of oppression and brutality is the biggest factor, but it is crucial to comprehend that economic violence is a critical part of institutional racism.
With that being said, protests are one of the most important tools we have as activists. They allow us to organize, become energized, demonstrate our power, bring in new people, and grab media attention. Demonstrating within a dangerous pandemic, however, is a complicated thing. Still, what we will say is this: we have to assume that most of the people joining protests have weighed the dangers of the pandemic versus the dangers of not protesting, and what they have decided is that the virus of white supremacy is more dangerous.
But there are ways to join protests while staying as safe as possible from the pandemic – and this should be especially on the minds of people who are medically at risk or have at risk people in their lives.
First and foremost, if you can’t or don’t want to join a protest because of fear of COVID-19, don’t feel bad. There are so many ways we can affect change in our communities. Build mutual aid networks, support protestors with water or bail funds (more on that below), put pressure on public officials, and so much more. Yes, you should be doing something. But if the totally legitimate fear of a pandemic is holding you back from joining a protest, just know it isn’t the only way. But make sure you are taking action.
Keep an eye out for caravan protests in your cities. With that being said, there are protests where people join by car, taking over the streets by vehicle rather than foot. Over the weekend, one of TESA’s members joined one such caravan protest in Chicago. It was powerful to see so many people come together to support the fight for racial justice, while staying safe from the pandemic that has impacted communities of color more than anyone else.
If you join a protest on foot, do everything you’d do outside of a protest to stay safe. Try to keep your distance and wear a mask at all times. Bring hand sanitizer and apply it often. While COVID-19 is shown to be far less effective at spreading outdoors, still keep your distance. (It’s hard at protests – and especially when police are attempting to disrupt them – but try as much as you can.) If you’re chanting, or trying to communicate with someone, don’t pull your mask down or lean in close. Remember that airborne droplets – which are spread when we talk and shout – are the primary way the COVID-19 virus spreads.
So stay safe while protesting. Because we need you. We need you in this struggle now, and we need you in the future.
Listen to POC Voices and Donate. Then Donate Again.
Below are several organizations led by people of color fighting for racial justice and against police brutality. Visit their websites, sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on social media.
And if you have the means, one of the most effective things you can do right now is to donate to them. We need to donate to organizations who are fighting for this movement and for their communities every day:
Black Lives Matter official organization. Make sure to sign their petition. And you can donate here.
Black Visions Collective: “Minnesota-based black, trans, and queer-led organization committed to dismantling systems of oppression and violence.” – Rolling Stone. Donate here.
Assata’s Daughters: “Assata’s Daughters is a Black-led group of abolitionists and organizers active in the protests on Chicago’s South Side.” – Papermag. Donate here
National Police Accountability Project. “With over 500 members and growing, we continue to effect change in the flawed legal system and fight to put an end to police brutality of all forms.” – Their website. Donate here.
And here is a thread on Twitter of bail funds in different cities and states to help arrested protesters
What else should we add?
We do not pretend to have most of the answers, or to have all of the resources. If you see anything that should be added here, you are welcome to contact us and let us know.
But if there’s one thing we want to leave you with, it’s that now is the time to take action. Now is the time to demand change and to say clearly: black lives matter.
https://citizentruth.org/former-federal-reserve-governor-rebukes-central-bank-for-using-covid-19-lending-power-to-bail-out-dying-fossil-fuel-industry/
“If polluters want to deny the existence of the ongoing bailout, Congress should swiftly repeal these blatant corporate tax giveaways and make fossil fuels ineligible for stimulus lending programs.”
(By: Eoin Higgins, Common Dreams) A former Federal Reserve board of governors member on Thursday called on her former colleagues to stop using Covid-19 relief funds to bail out the “dying” fossil fuel industry, calling the decision a threat to the planet’s climate and a misguided use of taxpayer money.
“These concessions to the fossil fuel industry are a risky investment in the past,” Sarah Bloom Raskin wrote in a New York Times op-ed. “The Fed is ignoring clear warning signs about the economic repercussions of the impending climate crisis by taking action that will lead to increases in greenhouse gas emissions at a time when even in the short term, fossil fuels are a terrible investment.”
Collin Rees@collinrees
The last thing the Fed should be doing is bailing one of world's riskiest industries — fossil fuels.
We know Big Oil needs to cease existing very soon — spending billions rescuing it is unfathomably risky. #NoBigOilBailout
Great piece by @SBloomRaskin:https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/opinion/fed-fossil-fuels.html …
Opinion | Why Is the Fed Spending So Much Money on a Dying Industry?
It should not be directing money to further entrench the carbon economy.nytimes.com
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Raskin’s opinion piece sparked praise from climate campaigners like 350.org co-founder Jamie Henn.
“This should cause some waves,” Henn tweeted.
Henn on Thursday penned an opinion piece for Common Dreams arguing that Mike Sommers, CEO of the American Petroleum Institute (API), is spewing lies to the public when he claims the industry doesn’t want—and hasn’t actively pushed for—a bailout from the Fed.
As Henn wrote:
The truth is that despite Sommer’s best efforts to spin a fairytale about oil companies tightening their belts and lifting themselves up by their bootstraps, corporate socialism is exactly what API wants. In fact, the fossil fuel industry, and the American Petroleum Institute in particular, have been at the forefront of corporate efforts to profit off the coronavirus pandemic and government relief efforts.
Climate advocacy group Friends of the Earth program manager Lukas Ross, in a statement Wednesday, also rejected Sommers’ protestations.
“Oil lobbyists are spewing blatant lies, and we have the receipts,” said Ross. “Big Oil has already nabbed $1.9 billion in giveaways thanks to corporate tax cuts from the last stimulus.”
“If polluters want to deny the existence of the ongoing bailout,” Ross added, “Congress should swiftly repeal these blatant corporate tax giveaways and make fossil fuels ineligible for stimulus lending programs.”
Western Values Project@Western_Values
Oil, gas, and coal companies are set to receive billions in federal aid from both the #PPP and #CARESAct. Many of these companies were in financial trouble long before the pandemic.
It’s simple: the @federalreserve is adding fuel to the climate crisis.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/28/opinion/fed-fossil-fuels.html …
Opinion | Why Is the Fed Spending So Much Money on a Dying Industry?
It should not be directing money to further entrench the carbon economy.nytimes.com
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The bailout is presenting taxpayers with a burden, Raskin wrote, citing the industry’s debt and unsustainable business model.
“For taxpayers, shouldering these liabilities is a bad deal,” wrote Raskin. “Buying this bad debt is not likely to support the creation of jobs or even ensure that existing jobs survive.”
Friends of the Earth agreed.
“Trump’s administration has been exploiting this pandemic to bailout Big Oil companies that have been struggling long before coronavirus,” the group tweeted.
The pandemic, wrote Raskin, “provides an unexpected opportunity to build an economy that is stronger in the long term.”
“The decisions that the Fed makes today will go a long way to determining whether tomorrow’s economy is one that remains susceptible to more chaos and vulnerability or builds economic security and resilience,” she wrote.
Alec Pronk May 29, 2020
https://citizentruth.org/president-trump-calls-for-looters-to-be-shot/
Twitter put a warning on the tweet for glorifying violence, while the fight for justice continues on the streets of Minneapolis and across the United States
In the wake of a cop murdering George Floyd, the streets of Minneapolis have been flooded by protestors fed up with the country’s inaction in the face of police brutality.
After announcing on Thursday that the FBI and Department of Justice would be investigating Floyd’s death, President Donald Trump has changed his town. In the late hours of Thursday night Trump tweeted out, “these THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
Twitter put a warning on the tweet for glorifying violence, but the tweet is still accessible because it “may be in the public interest” according to Twitter. Trump is currently in a public feud with Twitter and announced an executive order to make it easier to sue social media companies.
The riots continued into Friday morning and the precinct of the cops who killed George Floyd, the 3rd precinct, was set ablaze. Images of stores and police stations on fire caught the attention of President Trump who has backed Democratic Governor Tim Walz’s activation of the National Guard.
Waiting on Charges
As of Friday morning, no charges have been brought against the four officers involved in the death of George Floyd, despite widely circulated video displaying excessive force and murder.
District Attorney Michael Freeman gave a press conference on Thursday and said the video was “graphic and terrible” before he continued, “there is other evidence that does not support a criminal charge.” Freeman’s office had to put out a statement that said, “evidence not favorable to our case needs to be carefully examined to understand the full picture of what actually happened.”
Local reports also revealed that Floyd and his killer Derek Chauvin worked security at the same night club for 17 years.
But many in Minneapolis and across the country say they have waited long enough. During Senator Amy Klobuchar’s term as chief prosecutor, the woman tipped by many to be Joe Biden’s VP pick refused to bring charges against the cop that killed George Floyd despite multiple complaints.
Similar protests have taken place across the country with police taking similar extreme measures to those in Minneapolis. Protests in Los Angeles, Denver, Columbus, Louisville, New York City, and more ended in police violence.
Police Brutality, Social Media, and Free Speech
Before Trump fired off his call for violence on Twitter, Minneapolis police had already been using excessive force to disperse crowds. Videos of tear gas, flashbangs, snipers, and indiscriminate pepper spray can be found all over social media.
The arrests and police actions have not been limited to protestors and demonstrators. Early Friday morning, CNN reporter Omar Jimenez and his crew were arrested live on air by Minneapolis police. CNN and other commentators were quick to point out that CNN had two reporters on the ground, Jimenez is black and the other reporter is white and was not arrested after speaking with the police.
Jimenez was released from custody, but CNN called the arrest “a clear violation of First Amendment rights.”
President Trump has accused Twitter of restricting free speech after Twitter labeled two of his tweets about mail-in voting with exclamation marks. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg went on television yesterday to say that he thinks social media companies should not fact-check political speech.
With Trump advocating for violence against American citizens and spatting with social media companies, and prominent Democrats entrenched in their own racial controversies, the fight for justice continues on the streets of Minneapolis and across the United States.
Alison Weir May 30, 2020
https://citizentruth.org/us-senate-quietly-approves-38-billion-for-israel-amid-historic-economic-downturn/
S.3176 was passed without being named, debated, or even discussed, even though it would set into law the largest such aid package in US history.
This article was originally published at IAK and Mintpress News on May 22nd
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee quietly passed a bill yesterday to give Israel a minimum of $38 billion over the next ten years despite the ongoing devastation to the U.S. economy caused by the coronavirus.
The bill – S.3176 – will now go before the full Senate. Since the legislation has already been passed by the House of Representatives, if the Senate passes the bill, it will then go to the president to be signed into law.
The bill was passed by the committee under two unusual circumstances and with almost no public awareness.
First, Senate Committee Chairman Jim Risch (R-Idaho) refused to allow a live stream of the meeting, despite the fact that the Senate Rules panel had recommended that extra efforts be taken to ensure public transparency while the Capitol is closed to the public and the presence of reporters is severely limited. The Senate’s Press Gallery Standing Committee of Correspondents had objected strongly to Risch’s decision.
Second, the bill was passed without being named, debated, or even discussed, even though it would set into law the largest such aid package in U.S. history. There has been no mention of the bill by most media in the United States.
The massive package is particularly noteworthy in light of the current devastation to the American taxpayers who will be footing the bill – over $10 million per day. In recent months approximately 30 million Americans have lost jobs, 100,000 small businesses have already closed forever, and over seven million are at risk of doing so.
The bill was voted on as part of a package of 15 bills that were voted on “en bloc” (all together).
After Senator Kaine said he didn’t know what the list contained, Risch responded: “I’m not trying to pull anything here… this was circulated among the staff.”
Risch then rapidly listed the numbers but did not give the titles. There was then a voice vote and the motion passed unanimously.
Democratic members of the committee had voiced strong objections to blocking a live stream of the meeting because of a different agenda item. After the meeting, Committee Ranking Member Robert Menendez (D-NJ) released a video of the meeting.
None, however, voiced any concern for giving a massive aid package to a country widely documented as a major violator of human rights.
Neither did any Democrats on the committee object to requiring American taxpayers to give Israel what amounts to over $7,000 per minute when many Americans are suffering catastrophic financial difficulties.
Democratic committee members Menendez, Ben Cardin, Cory Booker, and Chris Coons, like many of the Republican members, are particularly known for being under the influence of AIPAC and the Israel lobby and receiving pro-Israel campaign donations. Many of the members are co-sponsors of the bill.
The bill, entitled “United States-Israel Security Assistance Authorization Act of 2020,” expands and sets into law a memorandum of understanding agreement signed by the Obama administration with Israel in 2016. This agreement is nonbinding and not required by law. It also set the $38 billion as a ceiling.
The legislation just passed by the committee would make this disbursal legally required, and, in addition, it would make the $38 billion a floor rather than a ceiling. In other words, the amount of money could legally go even higher.
Given the power of the pro-Israel lobby, combined with the fact that U.S. media are not informing Americans of this use of their tax money, the likelihood is that U.S. money to Israel will go up in the future – possibly even this year.)
Most Americans say they feel the U.S. is giving Israel too much money. Israel has received more U.S. tax money than any other country – on average, about 7,000 times more per capita than others around the world.
The Council for the National Interest has posted a petition against this year’s installment, $3.8 billion. So far, it has been signed by close to 2,000 people.
https://citizentruth.org/media-elite-denounce-looting-even-as-billionaires-reap-record-profits-from-taxpayer-funded-bailouts/
A mountain of studies on wealth inequality have shown its corrosive effect on social cohesion, with the more unequal a society gets, the less likely people are to see themselves as participants in a community and view others as a threat.
(By: Alan Macleod, Mintpress News) The extrajudicial killing of African-American man George Floyd by Police Officer Derek Chauvin sparked a storm of protests both in Minneapolis and across the country. These have included large peaceful demonstrations, but also arson, destruction of property and looting. Police have abandoned multiple precincts in the face of overwhelming popular rage.
The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. consistently argued that looting is the language of the unheard and oppressed, a physical manifestation of their marginalization. However, many in the establishment, particularly on the right, have not interpreted the events as such, and appear scandalized by them.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson condemned the uprising as “a form of tyranny” and “oppression.” Referring to the suffocation of George Floyd, Carlson said police brutality was “bad;” “But none of it was nearly as bad as what you just saw. The indiscriminate use of violence by mobs is a threat to every American,” he said, calling for something to be done. President Trump was even more forthright, suggesting that the National Guard be sent in to open fire on “thugs” and “looters.” “When the looting starts, the shooting starts,” he tweeted from both his personal and White House accounts.
molly conger@socialistdogmom
the president has just tweeted his support for using live fire on protesters in minneapolis
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Yet a new and updated report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) reveals that the looting in Minneapolis pales into insignificance compared with the enormous wealth American’s billionaire class has managed to accrue during the pandemic. In the ten weeks since the nationwide lockdown first began, the group calculates that billionaires have increased their wealth by $485 billion – equal to 16.5 percent. This half-trillion-dollar rise, for Chuck Collins, Director of the IPS’ Program on Inequality and the Common Good, is something close to looting the whole economy.
“The wealthy are economically distancing from the rest of society. Worse, some are pandemic profiteering, looting government stimulus programs and taking advantage of market monopolies,” he told MintPress News.
The enormous explosion in wealth, even amidst a pandemic that has caused the economy to collapse, businesses to close, and demand to dwindle, is down in no small part to the passing of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, one of the greatest upwards transfers in wealth in history. While the bill, passed in late March, includes a check of up to $1,200 for most Americans, the vast majority of the benefits go to the ultra wealthy.
A report from the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT), a nonpartisan congressional body, found that almost 82 percent of the tax breaks and other financial benefits go to those already earning over $1 million per year. In contrast, less than three percent will go to the great majority who earn under $100,000 annually. The loopholes around capital gains tax will especially benefit the richest few hundred Americans. The JCT also projects that the tax cut will add almost $170 billion to the deficit over the next ten years.
Some of the biggest winners in the last few weeks, according to the IPS, include Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (up over $34 billion in two months), Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg (up over $25 billion) and Microsoft’s Bill Gates, who increased his already enormous fortune by $8 billion. Meanwhile, Elon Musk, whose California Tesla car plant was closed for months, has seen his net worth increase by almost 50 percent, to over $36 billion. Even in the last week, America’s billionaires’ fortunes have increased by $50 billion.
At the same time, unemployment has surged to over 40 million, and food banks across the country are inundated with customers desperate for anything they can get. Around one third of renters in the United States failed to pay their rent in April and May.
“When the wealth of billionaires surges at the same time that tens of millions lose their lives and livelihoods, it undermines the solidarity required for us to pull together and help one another during a pandemic,” Collins added.
Peter Daou
✔@peterdaou
NO MORE LOOTING
I heard there was looting and I'm furious. Republicans and Democrats stealing from the poor to bail out the rich in a #pandemic. That kind of theft is unacceptable.
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While many among the elite may be aghast at the scenes of low level looting in Minneapolis, the enormous siphoning off of public funds to further enrich billionaires has gone largely unnoticed. A mountain of sociological studies on wealth inequality have shown that it has a corrosive effect on social cohesion, with the more unequal a society gets, the less likely people are to see themselves as participants in a community, viewing others as threats. More unequal societies also commonly favor more repressive policing tactics like the ones seen in Minneapolis this week. Although many might not realize it, the enormous looting by billionaires and the petty looting by protestors in Minneapolis might have more in common than first meets the eye.
By Ángel Guerra Cabrera on May 31, 2020
https://www.resumen-english.org/2020/05/the-us-a-failed-social-experiment/
“What we are witnessing in the United States is a failed social experiment,” the philosopher Cornel West said in an interview with CNN about the murder by the police of African-American George Floyd.
A disciple and follower of Martin Luther King, Harvard University professor and veteran social fighter, West, author of 20 books and actor in the Matrix film trilogy, explains: “What I mean is that the history of blacks for over 200 years in the United States has been one of seeing this country fail. Its capitalist economy could not generate and provide in such a way that people could live decent lives. The nation-state, its criminal… legal justice system, could not generate protection of rights and freedoms. And now our culture, of course, is so market-oriented – everything for sale, everybody for sale – that it can’t deliver the kind of nourishment for the soul, for meaning, for purpose”.
“But the point is that we must fight,” he concluded. “Even when we have a failed social experiment, we must fight. We must have an anti-fascist coalition against what is happening in the White House and in the Republican Party. And we have to tell the truth about the weak, cowardly activity that we see so often in the neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party… “When I saw those images in Atlanta, I could see Brother Martin (Luther King), right there in Atlanta, saying: ‘I warned you about militarism, about poverty. I warned them about materialism, about racism in all its forms. I warned you about xenophobia… You are reaping what you have sown. And at that moment you have Brother George (Floyd) – it is so clear – it was a lynching at the highest level. No one can deny it.”
According to West, the United States now faces a choice between a “nonviolent” revolution or continuing with the failures of the status quo. “And what I mean by revolution is the democratic sharing of power, resources, wealth, and respect. If we don’t have that, we’re going to have more violent explosions.”
“America’s Moment of Reckoning”: Cornel West Says Nationwide Uprising Is Sign of “Empire Imploding”
https://www.democracynow.org/2020/6/1/cornel_west_us_moment_of_reckoning
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Dr. Cornel West, could you respond to what professor Yamahtta Taylor said? You agree that, of course, the murder of George Floyd was a lynching. You’ve also said that his murder and the demonstrations that have followed show that America is a failed social experiment. So could you respond to that and also the way that the state and police forces have responded to the protests, following George Floyd’s killing, with the National Guard called out in so many cities and states across the country?
CORNEL WEST: Well, there’s no doubt that this is America’s moment of reckoning. But we want to make the connection between the local and the global, because, you see, when you sow the seeds of greed — domestically, inequality; globally, imperial tentacles, 800 military units abroad, violence and AFRICOM in Africa, supporting various regimes, dictatorial ones in Asia and so forth — there is a connection between the seeds that you sow of violence externally and internally. Same is true in terms of the seed of hatred, of white supremacy, hating Black people, anti-Blackness hatred having its own dynamic within the context of a predatory capitalist civilization obsessed with money, money, money, domination of workers, marginalization of those who don’t fit — gay brothers, lesbian sisters, trans and so forth. So, it’s precisely this convergence that my dear sister Professor Taylor is talking about of the ways in which the American Empire, imploding, its foundations being shaken, with uprisings from below.
The catalyst was certainly Brother George Floyd’s public lynching, but the failures of the predatory capitalist economy to provide the satisfaction of the basic needs of food and healthcare and quality education, jobs with a decent wage, at the same time the collapse of your political class, the collapse of your professional class. Their legitimacy has been radically called into question, and that’s multiracial. It’s the neofascist dimension in Trump. It’s the neoliberal dimension in Biden and Obama and the Clintons and so forth. And it includes much of the media. It includes many of the professors in universities. The young people are saying, “You all have been hypocritical. You haven’t been concerned about our suffering, our misery. And we no longer believe in your legitimacy.” And it spills over into violent explosion.
And it’s here. I won’t go on, but, I mean, it’s here, where I think Ella Baker and Fannie Lou Hamer and Rabbi Heschel and Edward Said, and especially Brother Martin and Malcolm, their legacies, I think, become more central, because they provide the kind of truth telling. They provide the connection between justice and compassion in their example, in their organizing. And that’s what is needed right now. Rebellion is not the same thing in any way as revolution. And what we need is a nonviolent revolutionary project of full-scale democratic sharing — power, wealth, resources, respect, organizing — and a fundamental transformation of this American Empire.
AMY GOODMAN: And your thoughts, Professor West, on the governor of Minnesota saying they’re looking into white supremacist connections to the looting and the burning of the city, and then President Trump tweeting that he’s going to try to put antifa, the anti-fascist activists, on the terror list — which he cannot do — and William Barr emphasizing this, saying he’s going after the far left to investigate?
CORNEL WEST: No, I mean, that’s ridiculous. You know, you remember, Sister Amy — and I love and respect you so — that antifa saved my life in Charlottesville. There’s no doubt about it, that they provided the security, you see. So the very notion that they become candidates for a terrorist organization, but the people who were trying to kill us — the Nazis, the Klan — they’re not candidates for terrorist organization status — but that’s what you’re going to get. You’re going to get a Trump-led neofascist backlash and clampdown on what is going on. We ought to be very clear about that. The neofascism has that kind of obsession with militaristic imposition in the face of any kind of disorder. And so we’ve got to be fortified for that.
But most importantly, I think we’ve got to make sure that we preserve our own moral, spiritual, quality, fundamental focus on truth and justice, and keep track of legalized looting, Wall Street greed; legalized murder, police; legalized murder abroad in Yemen, in Pakistan, in Africa with AFRICOM, and so forth. That’s where our focus has to be, because with all of this rebellious energy, it’s got to be channeled through organizations rooted in a quest for truth and justice.
