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30 episodes with community movement builders
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2 episodes with community movement builders
2 episodes with community movement builders
3 episodes with community movement builders
2 episodes with community movement builders
2 episodes with community movement builders
2 episodes with community movement builders
Grounding Our Purpose https://www.blackagendareport.com/grounding-our-purpose-second-national-black-radical-organizing-conference INDIANAPOLIS, IN – April 7, 2025 – The Second National Black Radical Organizing Conference (NBROC) will convene approximately 500 Black/African/New Afrikan organizers from Friday, May 30th to Sunday, June 1st, 2025, at Butler University in Indianapolis, IN. This crucial gathering aims to build collective political power, advance revolutionary strategies, and craft a liberated future beyond capitalism, imperialism, patriarchy, and white supremacy. Inspired by the historic 1972 National Black Political Convention, this year's conference, themed “Base-Building for Collective Power,” will focus on skill-building, political clarity, and fostering a movement rooted in self-determination, solidarity, and transformative change in the fight against fascism. A significant component of the conference will be a call to action regarding the Pendleton 2. What: Second National Black Radical Organizing Conference (NBROC) - Action for Pendleton 2 When: May 30 - June 1st, 2025 Where: Butler University, Indianapolis 1000 W 42nd St, Indianapolis, IN 46208 Indianapolis, IN Who: Featuring representatives from: the Black Alliance for Peace, Community Movement Builders, National Black Liberation Movement, Black Men Build, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Cooperation Jackson, and more to be announced. Why: To build collective political power, advance revolutionary strategies, and craft a liberated future beyond systems of oppression. The conference aims to address critical issues facing Black communities and strategize for transformative change. A specific action will be called for in regards to the Pendleton 2.
Join Dean Spade & organizers from Atlanta as they discuss how to protect our communities against recent threats to mutual aid & solidarity efforts. This event took place on August 17, 2023. In the last year, we've seen attempts to criminalize mutual aid become more common as an authoritarian tactic. The recent attacks on mutual aid organizers of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund brought into full view how charging, surveillance, and targeted criminalization are an ongoing strategy to shut down political movements and community organizing. In this session, we'll be reviewing how media, right-wing movements, and even supposed allies have often latched onto incorrect and spurious claims about non-profit finances, community organizing structures, and basic accounting practices in attempts to stop the solidarity of mutual aid. Join organizer Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the next), along with Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders, Zohra Ahmed from the University of GA School of Law, plus organizers from the National Bail Fund Network and the Yellowhammer Fund, to discuss the threats organizers are facing and how we protect each other and social justice organizing. This event is co-sponsored by Haymarket Books and Community Justice Exchange. Watch the live event recording: https://youtube.com/live/M3qvIHdZ73E Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
A 'humanitarian pause' comes to Gaza, and it's late, toothless, but something? Comedian Gareth Reynolds joins to talk about the hostage exchange and the shooting of three young Palestinian-Americans in Vermont. Then Stop Cop City organizer Kamau Franklin joins to talk about the wildly racist RICO charges in Georgia against nonviolent demonstrators, and how both Republican and Democratic leaders are in lock step when it comes to police militarism. Finally, New Hampshire is miffed that the DNC tapped South Carolina to vote in presidential primaries first and goes full Karen by scheduling their vote beforehand anyway. We decide which state should really be voting first.Featuring:Kamau Franklin, Community Movement Builders & Stop Cop Cityhttps://communitymovementbuilders.org/Gareth Reynolds, comedianhttps://twitter.com/reynoldsgarethTHE BITCHUATION ROOM IS BACK AT SF SKETCHFEST on Sunday January 28th at 7pm with Miles Gray of The Daily Zeitgeist, Emma Vigeland of The Majority Report and Nato Green. Get tickets here: https://sched.co/1VUttThe Bitchuation Room Streams LIVE every TUESDAY and FRIDAY at 1/4pmEST on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/franifio and Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/franifioSupport the show by becoming a Patron: www.patreon.com/bitchuationroom to get special perks and listen/watchback privileges of the Friday *BONUS BISH*Follow The Bitchuation Room on Twitter @BitchuationPodGet your TBR merch: www.bitchuationroom.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
A 'humanitarian pause' comes to Gaza, and it's late, toothless, but something? Comedian Gareth Reynolds joins to talk about the hostage exchange and the shooting of three young Palestinian-Americans in Vermont. Then Stop Cop City organizer Kamau Franklin joins to talk about the wildly racist RICO charges in Georgia against nonviolent demonstrators, and how both Republican and Democratic leaders are in lock step when it comes to police militarism. Finally, New Hampshire is miffed that the DNC tapped South Carolina to vote in presidential primaries first and goes full Karen by scheduling their vote beforehand anyway. We decide which state should really be voting first.Featuring:Kamau Franklin, Community Movement Builders & Stop Cop Cityhttps://communitymovementbuilders.org/Gareth Reynolds, comedianhttps://twitter.com/reynoldsgarethTHE BITCHUATION ROOM IS BACK AT SF SKETCHFEST on Sunday January 28th at 7pm with Miles Gray of The Daily Zeitgeist, Emma Vigeland of The Majority Report and Nato Green. Get tickets here: https://sched.co/1VUttThe Bitchuation Room Streams LIVE every TUESDAY and FRIDAY at 1/4pmEST on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/franifio and Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/franifioSupport the show by becoming a Patron: www.patreon.com/bitchuationroom to get special perks and listen/watchback privileges of the Friday *BONUS BISH*Follow The Bitchuation Room on Twitter @BitchuationPodGet your TBR merch: www.bitchuationroom.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On this week's show, we'll be turning our focus towards the Solidarity Economy and what is meant by 'Resist & Build'. Joining us for this conversation is Emily Kawano, Co-Director of the Wellspring Cooperative Corporation and Coordinator of the United States Solidarity Economy Network, Matthew Slaats, co-director of the Solidarity Research Center and the founder of the Virginia Solidarity Economy Network, and Edget Betru, an attorney who is on the boards of Community Movement Builders and the Organization for Human Rights and Democracy in Atlanta. Together, we unpack what 'Resist & Build' looks like in practice, discuss the necessity of cross-movement dialogue and collaboration, and explore pathways for scaling up (and arguably, more importantly, scaling out) the solidarity economy. Resources: Resist & Build US Solidarity Economy Network Virginia Solidarity Economy Network Community Movement Builders Organization for Human Rights and Democracy People's Network for Land and Liberation Wellspring Cooperative Corporation Solidarity Research Center Stop Cop City Solidarity The Response: Stop Cop City with Jesse Pratt López & Nolan Huber-Rhoades Episode credits: Produced and hosted by Tom Llewellyn Edited by Robert Raymond. Theme Music by Cultivate Beats Follow The Response on Twitter and Instagram for updates, memes, and more. Our entire catalog of documentaries and interviews can be found at theresponsepodcast.org — or wherever you get your podcasts. Want to help spread the word? Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify — it makes a huge difference in reaching new people who may otherwise not hear about this show. The Response is published by Shareable.
Hundreds of people protested near the proposed site for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center on Monday. For a roundtable discussion, just one day after the demonstration, Beliks Terán, the mother of environmental activist Manuel Terán, Jamie Peck, a spokesperson for Block Cop City, Dr. Jacqueline Echols, board president of South River Watershed Alliance, and Rev. Keyanna Jones, an Atlanta-based minister and an organizer with Community Movement Builders, joined “Closer Look.” The guests discussed several topics, including Manuel's life and legacy, why they oppose the building of the $90 million facility, the overlap between civil rights and environmental justice, and ongoing efforts to stop the construction of the training center.Plus, a little under one year away from the 2024 presidential election, the race is heating up. Fred Hicks, an Atlanta-based political strategist and analyst, and Dr. Tammy Greer, a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Public Management and Policy at Georgia State University, discuss last week's election and who is leading in polls for the presidential race.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Local organizers in Atlanta are set to hold a mass nonviolent community action today against Cop City — the 90-million-dollar police training complex slated to be built in the city's South River Forest. We're joined by Kamau Franklin, founder of the Community Movement Builders, to discuss what's at stake if Cop City gets built and what folks on the ground are doing to keep that from happening.And in headlines: the second largest hospital in Gaza City has run out of fuel, Republican presidential candidate Tim Scott announced that he's dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, and a potential government shutdown is just days away.Show notes:Community Movement Builders – https://communitymovementbuilders.org/What A Day – YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@whatadaypodcastCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/crookedmedia/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday
Earlier this week, nearly five dozen people appeared in a courthouse outside Atlanta, Georgia to answer criminal racketeering charges brought against them by the state. The charges are related to protests against a planned paramilitary police and fire services training facility nicknamed Cop City. Georgia prosecutors have called the demonstrators “militant anarchists.” But many of those charged say they were simply attending a rally or a concert in support of the Stop Cop City movement. The protesters, their lawyers and their supporter say the government is using heavy-handed tactics to silence the movement -- and worry about the type of precedent this might set for our right to protest. Kamau Franklin, one of the leaders of the Stop Cop City movement and a lawyer himself, and Zohra Ahmed, a professor of law at the University of Georgia, join Vinita to talk about the situation, and why so many people are watching it.
Air Date 10/3/2023 The Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta is the current tip of the spear of the police accountability movement but the instinct of elected officials to lean into building more and bigger policing facilities is likely to spread as part of the backlash to the backlash against police violence which calls for defunding and redistributing resources to programs that actually help people. Be part of the show! Leave us a message or text at 202-999-3991 or email Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com Transcript BestOfTheLeft.com/Support (Members Get Bonus Clips and Shows + No Ads!) Join our Discord community! SHOW NOTES Ch. 1: Cop City, RICO, and corporate fascism w/ Taya Graham & Stephen Janis - Rattling the Bars - Air Date 9-18-23 Ch. 2: The Struggle to Stop Cop City - On the Nose - Air Date 6-22-23 Joining to discuss Stop Cop City, Micah Herskind, a community organizer and writer; Keyanna Jones, a reverend and organizer; and Josie Duffy Rice, a writer who covers criminal justice. Ch. 3: Is America becoming Cop City - The Police Accountability Report - Air Date 4-10-23 We went on the ground in Atlanta, GA to find the truth behind the Cop City protests, the police shooting death of Manuel "Tortuguita" Tehran and the dark money funding the creation of the Atlanta Public Safety Center. Ch. 4: The Struggle to Stop Cop City Part 2 - On the Nose - Air Date 6-22-23 Joining to discuss Stop Cop City, Micah Herskind, a community organizer and writer; Keyanna Jones, a reverend and organizer; and Josie Duffy Rice, a writer who covers criminal justice. Ch. 5: Armed Police Raid on Bail Fund for Cop City Opponents Is Attack on “Infrastructure of the Movement” - Democracy Now! - Air Date 6-2-23 These new and unprecedented arrests are a clear attack on “the infrastructure of the movement,” says Kamau Franklin, founder of the organization Community Movement Builders and a vocal Cop City opponent. Ch. 6: Stop Cop City with Atlanta DSA - Revolutions Per Minute - Air Date 8-23-23 Tonight we'll hear from Atlanta DSA member Gabriel Sanchez about the chapter's effort to stop Cop City through a ballot referendum and the terrifying tactics police, the city of Atlanta and the state of Georgia have used to in order to crush opposition. Ch. 7: A Political Prosecution 61 Cop City Opponents Hit with RICO Charges by Georgia's Republican AG - Democracy Now! - Air Date 9-6-23 "They are choosing to use the legal process in an essentially violent way to target protesters," says attorney Devin Franklin with the Southern Center for Human Rights, which is organizing legal representation for the defendants in the case. Ch. 8: Stop Cop City - Keyanna Jones - Air Date 9-17-23 Sam talks with Keyanna Michelle Jones, an organizer with Community Movement Builders. They discuss the ominous and illegitimate RICO indictments "Cop City" opponents face and the fascist assault on the right to protest there. MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S) Ch. 9: Stop Cop City Part 2 - Keyanna Jones - Air Date 9-17-23 Ch. 10: Stop Cop City with Atlanta DSA Part 2 - Revolutions Per Minute - Air Date 8-23-23 FINAL COMMENTS Ch. 12: Final comments Final comments on understanding the movement cycle MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions) SHOW IMAGE: Description: Protesters walking in the street in NYC hold a large banner that says “Stop Cop City: NYC Supports Atlanta Forrest Defenders” with images of trees. Credit: “36 Stop Cop City” by Felton Davis, Flickr | License: CC BY 4.0 | Changes: Cropped Produced by Jay! Tomlinson Visit us at BestOfTheLeft.com Listen Anywhere! BestOfTheLeft.com/Listen Listen Anywhere! Follow at Twitter.com/BestOfTheLeft Like at Facebook.com/BestOfTheLeft Contact me directly at Jay@BestOfTheLeft.com
Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock this episode and our entire premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Tiffany Williams Roberts, Director of the Public Policy Unit at the Southern Center for Human Rights, joins Bad Faith along with Community Movement Builders, Inc. founder and #stopcopcity activist Kamau Franklin to weigh in on the state criminalization of protest that's been happening around the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta. Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube to access our full video library. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands)
Sam talks with Keyanna Michelle Jones, an organizer with Community Movement Builders. They discuss the ominous and illegitimate RICO indictments "Cop City" opponents face and the fascist assault on the right to protest there. Follow her at @kmichelle_atl and learn more about Community Movement Builders here: https://communitymovementbuilders.org. Note this episode was recorded on September 12. On Sunday September 17 Stacey Abrams said that she thinks Cop City should be put up for a referendum vote after the mayor put her on the spot, saying that he consulted with her before trying to obstruct the vote. Mentioned in this episode: Atlanta Solidarity Fund https://atlsolidarity.org Block Cop City mass nonviolent direct action Nov 10-13 in Atlanta: https://blockcopcity.org/ Previous episode about the uprising in Iran: Women, Life, Freedom https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/refuse-fascism/episodes/Women--Life--Freedom-e1pbt30/a-a8mth5u For more background on this topic: Atlanta Community Press Collective: Georgia Attorney General brings RICO indictments against 61 activists https://atlpresscollective.com/2023/09/05/georgia-attorney-general-brings-rico-indictments-against-61-activists/ The Nation: How Georgia Indicted a Movement https://www.thenation.com/article/society/cop-city-indictment-atlanta/ Revolution: RICO Indictment Against Cop City Protesters: An Ominous and Illegitimate Fascist Assault on Legitimate and Righteous Protest https://revcom.us/en/rico-indictment-against-cop-city-protesters-ominous-and-illegitimate-fascist-assault-legitimate-and How to help the show? Rate and review wherever you get your podcasts; share with your friends! Get involved at RefuseFascism.org. We're still on Twitter (@RefuseFascism) and other social platforms including Threads, Mastodon and Bluesky. Send your comments to samanthagoldman@refusefascism.org or @SamBGoldman. Record a voice message for the show here. Connect with the movement at RefuseFascism.org and support: · paypal.me/refusefascism · donate.refusefascism.org · patreon.com/refusefascism Music for this episode: Penny the Snitch by Ikebe Shakedown --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/refuse-fascism/message
Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders joins.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
In this episode we go to Atlanta, where 61 people have been indicted under RICO organized crime charges for alleged participation in Stop Cop City organizing and anarchist political affiliation. Our guests are Keyanna Jones, a Stop Cop City organizer for Community Movement Builders in Atlanta; as well as Steven Hardge, a member of the Atlanta chapter of the Black Alliance for Peace (or BAP). He's also a part of a broader coalition of individuals and orgs fighting back against Atlanta's Cop City plan. —- Subscribe to this podcast: https://plinkhq.com/i/1637968343?to=page Get in touch: lawanddisorder@kpfa.org Follow us on socials @LawAndDis: https://twitter.com/LawAndDis; https://www.instagram.com/lawanddis/ The post RICO Charges Against Stop Cop City Organizers w/ Keyanna Jones & Steven Hardge appeared first on KPFA.
In this episode, we explore the relationship between Atlanta and Cop City in our interview with Kamau Franklin. We explore the events that precluded cop City, how the Black elite helps shield the project, and what the realities are of organizing against it. Kamau Franklin is the founder of Community Movement Builders, Inc. Kamau has been a dedicated community organizer for over thirty years, beginning in New York City and now based in Atlanta. For 18 of those years, Kamau was a leading member of a national grassroots organization dedicated to the ideas of self-determination and the teachings of Malcolm X. Join our Patreon https://www.patreon.com/blackmyths
Kamau Franklin, the Founder of Community Movement Builders, a writer, and an activist, discusses gentrification and how it affects the black community and much more. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/politicsdoneright/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/politicsdoneright/support
In this episode we welcome Thandisizwe Chimurenga and Yusef “Bunchy” Shakur to have a conversation that revolves around Sanyika Shakur's final book, Stand-Up, Struggle Forward: New Afrikan Revolutionary Writings on Nation, Class and Patriarchy. Thandisizwe Chimurenga is an award-winning Los Angeles-based journalist. Having worked in print and radio/broadcast journalism, she is the author of No Doubt: The Murder(s) of Oscar Grant; Reparations … Not Yet: A Case for Reparations and Why We Must Wait; the soon-to-be-published Some Of Us Are Brave: Interviews and Conversations with Sistas on Life, Art and Struggle, published by Daraja Press, and Nobody Knows My Name: Coming of Age in and Resilience After the Black Power Movement co-written with Deborah Jones, to be published by Diasporic Africa Press. Her commitment to infusing radical Black feminist/womanist politics within Revolutionary New Afrikan Nationalism, which she believes is key to destroying capitalism, patriarchy and white supremacist imperialism, has been informed by Aminata Umoja, Assata Shakur, Pearl Cleage, bell hooks, Angela Davis, Queen Mother Moore, Gloria Richardson, Fannie Lou Hamer, Ella Baker, Claudia Jones, Ida B Wells and the “Amazons” of Dahomey. Yusef “Bunchy” Shakur is a father, neighborhood organizer, author of multiple books, educator and a member of Community Movement Builders. He organizes in Detroit, Michigan. Yusef wrote the foreword to Sanyika's Stand Up, Struggle Forward which we're discussing today and Sanyika Shakur wrote the foreword to Yusef Shakur's book Redemptive Soul. In this discussion Thandisizwe and Yusef talk about their own personal and political relationships with Sanyika Shakur and to his writings. We talk a little bit about New Afrikan political thought as it emanated from the New Afrikan Prisoners Organization particularly as was elaborated by Owusu Yaki Yakubu formerly known under the names James “Yaki” Sayles and Atiba Shanna. We discuss the importance of terminology within the New Afrikan Independence Movement and the contributions of Yaki and Sanyika to this body of political thought. Thandisizwe Chimurenga and Yusef “Bunchy” Shakur share reflections on Sanyika's writings on patriarchy, homophobia and transphobia and on revolutionary transformation. They discuss the difficulties of re-entry for politicized and political prisoners in an environment without a strong political home to return to, as well as the use of solitary confinement and control units as weapons against politicized figures. Since the publication of our last episode Dr. Mutulu Shakur has transitioned beyond this realm and we want to send our condolences to all of his loved ones and co-strugglers, we also want to take this moment to recognize his indelible contributions to the New Afrikan Independence Movement and the cause of Black Liberation. In the show notes we will link to the book we discuss which can be found through Kersplebedeb or leftwingbooks.net along with the writings of Yaki. We highly, highly recommend both. We will also include a link to many more related writings available digitally through Freedom Archives. And of course if you like what we do, bringing you these episodes on a weekly basis, become a patron of the show. You can do so for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism Links: Thandisizwe's website (includes ways to support her work) Yusef "Bunchy" Shakur's website (includes a store with his books) Stand-Up, Struggle Forward: New Afrikan Revolutionary Writings on Nation, Class and Patriarchy Meditations on Frantz Fanon's Wretched of the Earth: New Afrikan Revolutionary Writings by James "Yaki" Sayles Freedom Archives: New Afrikan Prisoner Organization Archives "Pathology of Patriarchy: A Search for Clues at the Scene of the Crime" by Sanyika Shakur Beneath My Surface - Thandisizwe Chimurenga (includes reflection on Sanyika's passing as discussed in the episode) Day of the Gun (George Jackson Doc) The Political Theory of Dr. Mutulu Shakur with Thandisizwe Chimurenga, Kalonji Changa, & Akinyele Umoja
In this episode we welcome on multiple activists and organizers involved in the struggle to stop cop city. For this discussion Kamau Franklin from Community Movement Builders, and Micah Herskind return to the podcast, and K from Unity and Struggle, and Matthew Johnson from the Stop Cop City Faith Coalition join them to talk about various facets of the movement to stop cop city current strategic and tactical questions and concerns. They each provide brief introductions during the show itself. We catch folks up on some of the important recent events in this struggle since our conversation on the movement last Fall. We discusss the repression of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, the use of domestic terrorism charges, and against firm and nearly unanimous public opposition the Atlanta City Council's recent allocation of the funding for the building of Cop City. We also get into the new referendum initiative and some of the tactical and strategic debates around that effort. Further all of our guests offer up multiple ways that people can get involved and plug into the struggle against cop city wherever they are. This week is a week of action in the struggle to Stop Cop City so we will include links with more information on ways people can get involved in that as well. UPDATES which occurred after the recording (which are relevant to some discussions within the episode): The referendum effort is now underway, the county clerk approved the ability of organizers to begin collecting signatures a couple of hours after we recorded this conversation. Dekalb County DA Sherry Boston has withdrawn her office from the prosecution of 42 cases against stop cop city activists due to movement pressure. And we are almost at the end of the month, this is our 7th and final episode for the month of June. We are unlikely to hit our goal for new patrons of the month, as we are still over new 10 patrons away from reaching it. But any support you can offer is very much needed and appreciated. You can become a patron of the show for as little as $1 a month at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism Links: Week of Action in Atlanta June 24 - July 1 Contribute to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund Referendum Effort - Cop City Vote (thread on helping with referendum) stopcopcitysolidarity.org communitymovementbuilders.org's Stop Cop City Page Unity and Struggle's Three Theories of Victory in Atlanta This is the Atlanta Way: A Primer on Cop City by Micah Herskind defendtheatlantaforest.org atlpresscollective.com Our prior episode on the movement to Stop Cop City
Eleanor Goldfield hosts this week's program. Her first guest , Morgan Artyukhina, examines the recent flurry of legislation directed against transgender people, and places these attacks in the context of social class. Then in the second half of the show, long-time community organizer Kamau Franklin recounts some of the history of Black resistance to oppression, and explains why a successful organizing campaign must combine both practical accomplishments and political education. Morgan Artyukhina is a Washington DC-based journalist who has written for Mint Press News, Liberation News, Sputnik News and other outlets. Kamau Franklin is the founder of Atlanta-based Community Movement Builders, and has decades of organizing experience, covering issues from education to police misconduct. Previously he lived in New York, where he had his own law practice. The post What's behind anti-transgender legislation / Lessons from a veteran community organizer – Project Censored – June 9, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.
Plans to build Cop City have been mired in controversy and civil rights violations from the beginning—from the city government's attempts to ignore residents' and activists' objections and force through the construction of Cop City in Atlanta's ecologically vital Weelaunee Forest, to police raiding an encampment of peaceful protestors and murdering one of them, Manuel ("Tortuguita") Esteban Paez Terán, who was shot 57 times, to the truly Orwellian crackdown on protestors and advocates, dozens of whom are being arrested and charged with "domestic terrorism."As Micah Herskind writes, "The struggle to Stop Cop City is not just a battle over the creation of a $90 million police urban warfare center. It's not just a fight to protect the 381 acres of forest land, known as one of the "four lungs" of Atlanta, currently under threat of destruction. It's not just a conflict over how the city invests the over $30 million it has pledged to the project, to be supplemented by at least $60 million in private funding. The movement is all of those things. But even more fundamentally, the struggle to Stop Cop City is a battle for the future of Atlanta. It's a struggle over who the city is for: the city's corporate and state ruling class actors who have demanded that Cop City be built, or the people of Atlanta who have consistently voiced their opposition and demanded a different vision for the city." Make no mistake, though, the fight to Stop Cop City is all of our fight, and that very much includes the labor movement.In this urgent episode of Working People, Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Kamau Franklin and Mariah Parker about Cop City, the fight to stop it, and why labor needs to get off the sidelines and join that fight. Kamau Franklin has been a dedicated community organizer for over thirty years, beginning in New York City and now based in Atlanta. He is also a lawyer, writer, and the founder of Community Movement Builders, Inc. Mariah Parker is labor and community organizer, a rapper (known by the stage name Linqua Franqa), and recently served as District 2 County Commissioner for Athens-Clarke County in Athens, Georgia, from 2018 - 2022.Additional links/info here.Music / Post-Production: Jules TaylorHelp us continue producing radically independent news and in-depth analysis by following us and becoming a monthly sustainer: Donate: https://therealnews.com/donate-podSign up for our newsletter: https://therealnews.com/newsletter-podLike us on Facebook: https://facebook.com/therealnewsFollow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/therealnews
The 2020 protests that took place in the immediate wake of Minneapolis police murdering George Floyd were a historic call for America to reckon with its racist, oppressive system of state-sanctioned police violence. Three years later, rather than a reckoning, that same system, along with the political and business elites propping it up, are giving us "Cop City" (ie, the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, the Atlanta Police Foundation's 85-acre, $90-million police militarization and training complex where law enforcement from around the US and beyond will, among other things, train for urban warfare scenarios). Plans to build Cop City have been mired in controversy and civil rights violations from the beginning—from the city government's attempts to ignore residents' and activists' objections and force through the construction of Cop City in Atlanta's ecologically vital Weelaunee Forest, to police raiding an encampment of peaceful protestors and murdering one of them, Manuel ("Tortuguita") Esteban Paez Terán, who was shot 57 times, to the truly Orwellian crackdown on protestors and advocates, dozens of whom are being arrested and charged with "domestic terrorism." As Micah Herskind writes, "The struggle to Stop Cop City is not just a battle over the creation of a $90 million police urban warfare center. It's not just a fight to protect the 381 acres of forest land, known as one of the "four lungs" of Atlanta, currently under threat of destruction. It's not just a conflict over how the city invests the over $30 million it has pledged to the project, to be supplemented by at least $60 million in private funding. The movement is all of those things. But even more fundamentally, the struggle to Stop Cop City is a battle for the future of Atlanta. It's a struggle over who the city is for: the city's corporate and state ruling class actors who have demanded that Cop City be built, or the people of Atlanta who have consistently voiced their opposition and demanded a different vision for the city." Make no mistake, though, the fight to Stop Cop City is all of our fight, and that very much includes the labor movement. In this mini-cast, we speak with Kamau Franklin and Mariah Parker about Cop City, the fight to stop it, and why labor needs to get off the sidelines and join that fight. Kamau Franklin has been a dedicated community organizer for over thirty years, beginning in New York City and now based in Atlanta. He is also a lawyer, writer, and the founder of Community Movement Builders, Inc. Mariah Parker is labor and community organizer, a rapper (known by the stage name Linqua Franqa), and recently served as District 2 County Commissioner for Athens-Clarke County in Athens, Georgia, from 2018 - 2022. Additional links/info below... Kamau's Twitter page Community Movement Builders website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and Instagram Mariah's Twitter page and LinkTree Stop Cop City Micah Herskind, Scalawag, "This is the Atlanta Way: A Primer on Cop City" Candace Bernd, Truthout, "Cop City Protesters Face Felonies for Flyering as Police Repress Student Sit-Ins" Candace Bernd, Truthout, "Atlanta Was a Constitution-Free Zone During “Stop Cop City” Week of Action" Stephen Janis & Taya Graham, The Real News Network, "Atlanta's 'Cop City' Is a Blueprint for America's Future" Frances Madeson, Truthout, "Domestic Terrorism Charges Against Cop City Demonstrators Spur Further Protests" Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, "Atlanta Police Arrest Organizers of Bail Fund for Cop City Protestors" Natasha Lennard, The Intercept, "Police Shot Atlanta Cop City Protestor 57 Times, Autopsy Finds" Fair Fight Action Releases Statement Condemning Anti-Democratic Criminalization of Legal Aid Group Ahead of Vote on ‘Cop City' Funding Jimmy Williams (General President of IUPAT) statement on Cop City Maximillian Alvarez, The Real News Network, "Three Years Later, George Floyd's Family Members Are Still Fighting for Justice" Morgan Simon, Forbes, "The Corporations Funding Cop City In Atlanta" Permanent links below... Working People Patreon page Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show! Labor Radio / Podcast Network website, Facebook page, and Twitter page In These Times website, Facebook page, and Twitter page The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org) Jules Taylor, "Working People" Theme Song
BrownTown virtually visits Atlanta and chops it up with Chelle Sanders and Jasmine Burnett, organizers with #StopCopCity. Chicago's #NoCopAcademy and Atlanta's #StopCopCity movements are part of the same struggle: to end violent policing, protect the environment and defend Black and brown lives. As similar as they are, only years apart, they also both vary in terms of structure and place-based history. Still, the Black-led, multi-racial constellations of grassroots organizations, concerned citizens, and organizers worked and are working to stop their municipalities from investing into a new police compound and divert those resources into the community and life-affirming networks of care. Building coalition and growing more general solidarity both bring strength in the very same ways they can prove difficult to navigate with groups/people coming to an issue from different perspectives, ideologies, and tactics. BrownTown, Chelle, and Jasmine unpack these struggles and the corresponding #DefendAtlantaForest effort to uplift our collective fights for liberation. GUESTSChelle is an organizer with EndstateATL, an ATL-based organization committed to the liberation of Black folk everywhere and building the future we imagine with a Black Queer Feminist politic. Chelle has organized with ESA for four years facilitating political education sessions from abolition to alternative economic systems and connecting Black folks in the city to mutual aid resources, building community along the way. In the fight to Stop Cop City, Chelle co-coordinated and facilitated the 2021 fellowship hosted by In Defense of Black Lives that helped to jumpstart the Black Stop Cop City coalition. Today, that coalition continues to build community with the Black folks who will be most impacted by its construction.Jasmine is an Atlanta native and abolitionist organizer with Community Movement Builders who has been building power in the Black community around displacement, gentrification, and to Stop Cop City.Follow Stop Cop City on Instagram and Twitter and follow Defend Atlanta Forest on Instagram and Twitter. More information on episode topics:Atlanta Community Press CollectiveGet involved with Stop Cop City For Our Futures CampaignNo Cop City Anywhere by Benji's Hart (In These Times)#NoCopAcademy Site, Toolkit, and ReportEp. 26 - Coalition-building & #NoCopAcademy ft. Monica Trinidad & Debbie Southorn CREDITS: Intro and outro soundbite a #StopCopCity protest in March 2023. Intro speaker is former #NoCopAcademy organizer Destiny Harris. Inserts within the episode are from SoapBox's No Cop Academy: The Documentary. Episode graphic from Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights. Audio engineered by Kiera Battles.--Bourbon 'n BrownTownFacebook | Twitter | Instagram | Site | Linktree | PatreonSoapBox Productions and Organizing, 501(c)3Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Site | Linktree | Support
This Week on Talk World Radio: Cop City: What is it and how can we stop it? Our guest is Reverend Keyanna Jones. She is a Political and Social Justice Activist and Community Organizer, and a staunch advocate for quality, affordable childcare and equity in education. She currently works with Community Movement Builders to educate, engage and empower the Black Community in Atlanta, Georgia (focusing on self-sustainability). Before moving back to Georgia in 2020, Keyanna was a Community Organizer in Roselle, NJ. It was there that she began her life of advocacy and resistance to white supremacy and oppressive systems. She was ordained as a Prophetess in the Lord's Church on July 14, 2020 by Pastor Shonda Obi, of Obione Global Ministries International. She is the proprietor of E Equals MC Squared Educational Services, LLC, where she works as a Homeschool Curriculum Consultant, IEP Advocate and German Translator. She is a proud daughter of East Atlanta; old-school hip-hop lover and the biggest fan of her Granny, Mary Kate Thomas. Keyanna is the wife of Jerrod R. Moore and mother to their 5 unique and extraordinary children. See: https:// stopcopcitysolidarity.org
Maria and guest co-host Fernanda Santos talk about former President Donald Trump being found liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll. And they get into two recent tragedies in Texas that left multiple people dead. Then in our roundtable, Julio is joined by Kamau Franklin, the founder of Community Movement Builders, and Jacqueline Echols, board president of the South River Watershed Alliance in Georgia, to discuss the movement to stop the building of a massive police training facility in Atlanta, dubbed “Cop City.” ITT Staff Picks: Lawyer Corey Rayburn Yung explains to Slate why Donald Trump was found liable for sexual abuse, but not rape. “An average 6th grader can look at those facts and determine that while we all have mental illness in our societies the reason only America is awash is gun violence is because we are awash in guns,” writes Heather Digby Parton in this column for Salon. Micah Herskind writes, “the struggle to Stop Cop City is a battle for the future of Atlanta,” in this primer on why Atlanta leadership wants to build the police facility on forest land, for Scalawag. Photo credit: AP Photo/R.J. Rico
For folks who don't know the APSP (African People's Socialist Party) leadership has been indicted under trumped up charges alleging that the APSP leadership “spread malign influence” on behalf of “foreign governments” without properly “registering” with FARA, as well as including an undertone accusation off inciting racial or national-based hatred + violence, of which none have any evidence or basis in reality. The APSP came around in the 70s, and since the dawning of slavery and African oppression, Black/African peoples have been criminalized, incarcerated, or assassinated and have ALWAYS been made to be, among others, a scapegoat for other oppressed communities, and impoverished people. We must NOT let the APSP stand alone! Join w the FRSO, BAP, Spirit of Mandela, Community Movement Builders and others who have supported the APSP or released statements against the indictments of APSP leadership and the 3 Russian nationals also included in this bullshit charge, and consider sending a message or donation of support, or join the African People's Socialist Party, the Unit solidarity movement, or other organizations mentioned like the Black Alliance for Peace (for Africans) BAP solidarity network (for non-Africans), Spirit of Mandela, About the People, Community Movement Builders, All African People's Revolutionary Party or others! UHURU! All power to the people!
Join activists from the movement to Stop Cop City in Atlanta for a discussion of their struggle and its lessons. The movement to Stop Cop City in Atlanta has reopened the prospect of mass abolitionist organizing after years of ongoing racist police murder, carceral expansion, and political quietism under a Democratic administration. The movement has also built important new links between abolitionist politics and climate, labor, and urban organizing. We are excited to share this panel, intended as a contribution to this vital movement and to expanding the contemporary horizons of Left organizing in the U.S. This panel of researchers and organizers will illuminate the deep backstory and intersectional context of the Weelaunee Forest struggle. An organizer with the member-based collective Community Movement Builders will speak to the importance of the forest movement as a struggle on behalf of ecological and racial justice. A researcher examining the international dimensions of police training and the disavowed role of police in counter-insurgency will consider the transnational circuits running throughout the proposal for Cop City. An organizer with the Southern Center for Human Rights will contextualize the fight within landscapes of abolitionism in Atlanta, including the movement against jail expansion there. A historian of the carceral state in Georgia will provide perspective on state violence in the region. Speakers: Micah Herskind is an organizer, policy advocate, and writer based in Atlanta, GA. Kwame Olufemi is a community organizer who has developed worker-owned cooperatives, organized petition drives, mobilized protests, mutual aid programs, cop watches, and community safety training programs to develop safety networks independent of the police. Stuart Schrader is the author of Badges Without Borders: How Global Counterinsurgency Transformed American Policing (University of California Press, 2019). Sarah Haley is a historian interested in the history of gender and women, carceral history, Black feminist history and theory, prison abolition, and feminist archival methods. She is the author of No Mercy Here: Gender, Punishment, and the Making of Jim Crow Modernity (University of North Carolina Press, 2016). Watch the live event recording: https://youtube.com/live/hWwJkxxMuhQ Buy books from Haymarket: www.haymarketbooks.org Follow us on Soundcloud: soundcloud.com/haymarketbooks
VOICES FROM THE FRONTLINES Your National Movement Building Show “Wake up and smell the revolution” Tuesday April 11, 2023 | 8 AM PST On todays show Voices from the Frontlines present In Conversation with Kamau Franklin founder of Community Movement Builders, Inc Kamau Franklin is an activist, grassroots organizer and podcast journalist Channing Martinez and Julian Lamb discuses with Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders, Inc. Atlanta's construction of Cop City. What is Cop City? Cop city is the largest law enforcement facility, designed with intentions to train law enforcement agents in the use of oppressive, suppressive, and violent militarized tactics against Black, Brown, and people of color. The construction of Cop City is an ongoing effort by the city of Atlanta, Georgia to centralized and globalize the paramilitarization of municipal law agents here in the U.S. and abroad. The backers of cop City have initiated outreach efforts and invitations to law agency from other nations such as the Israeli police force. It is an exchange program designed to import and export over-policing, racist policing, and the oppression of poor and marginalized people. True to its purpose, and even before its intended completion, Cop city has already murdered its first victim. on January 18, 2023, Manuel Esteban Paez Terán, a lso known as Tortuguita was shot and killed by Atlanta State Troopers during a raid against peaceful environmental activist protesting and protecting the sight against the construction and violence of Cop City.
This week we continue sharing a panel hosted by Haymarket Books on the abolitionist struggle to stop Cop City. In this section, we hear Hugh Farrell in conversation with Sarah Haley, a leading historian of Black feminism in the South, organizer Kwame Olufemi of Community Movement Builders, and journalist Micah Herskind. Haley roots contemporary resistance to …
Jamie and Aaron report back on their experiences at the recent week of action to defend the Atlanta Forest a.k.a. Weelaunee People's Park. Cop City will never be built. Note: In this episode, Jamie refers to Community Movement Builders as a black-led organization. It is, in fact, an all-black organization. Donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund: atlsolidarity.org Get involved: defendtheatlantaforest.org stopcop.city Outro: Forest Theme From Donkey Kong Country Photo by Jamie Peck
This week we begin sharing a panel hosted by Haymarket Books on the abolitionist struggle to stop Cop City. In this section, we hear from Kwame Olufemi, of Community Movement Builders, and Sarah Haley, a leading historian of Black feminism in the South. Olufemi powerfully situates in the Cop City proposal in Atlanta’s recent history. …
35 people were arrested and 23 charged with domestic terrorism at a music festival gathering that was part of the a week of action to stop Cop City. Cop City, as it is known by activists, is a $90 million dollar police militarization facility in Atlanta, and activists for the past two years have been occupying the forest where it is being built. We discuss how police militarization and the aftermath of 2020 play out in cities across the country, also including the most recent Jim Crow legislative coup in Mississippi. We discuss the state repression, surveillance, and escalation with Kamau Franklin, founder of Community Movement Builders. Support the show
In this episode of Groundings, host Musa Springer is joined by Atlanta organizer Tunde Osazua as co-host; they sit down with local organizer and lawyer Kamau Franklin to discuss the ongoing struggle surrounding the development of Cop City in Atlanta. Kamau provides insightful analysis on the background and larger political context of Cop City, the response from organizers and residents, and what makes this specific movement so important.We dive into Cop City origins, Kamau explains that the idea of the facility started prior to the 2020 uprisings, but after the uprisings, it was brought forth and rushed to the public. The name "Cop City" was coined by local organizers and residents who saw the development as a form of repression and response to the uprisings. We then look at the many organizing efforts against Cop City, and Kamau emphasizes that the community has been active in opposing the development and has formed various coalitions to mobilize against it. This is the first time that 'domestic terrorism' charges have been used against protesters in this way, and it's also the first time an environmental activist, young Tortuguita, has been killed by polcie in the U.S. We talk about the incredibly damning legal and political implications of all this. Patreon.com/HalfAtlantaCommunity Movement Builders - Stop Cop City Intro audio by Big Twen#StopCopCity Week of Action11Alive audio clipAndre Dickens doesn't like being called a "sellout"Atlanta Mayor Sleeping During Cop City ForumFebruary 4th Statement from Tortuguita's FamilyOn James Baldwin and the Atlanta Child MurdersPigs Have Higher Rates of Domestic Violence Than Other Professions
Clearing the FOG with co-hosts Margaret Flowers and Kevin Zeese
Atlanta, Georgia, with the support of the police force, banks and corporations, is trying to build a paramilitary police base in the Weelaunie Forest on 300 acres that was promised as a recreation space to the majority-black community living nearby. The base will be used to house police from across the nation and internationally to train them in urban warfare. The local community is largely opposed to it. They have been using traditional tactics of education, demonstrations and holding space through an occupation of the forest. This has all been met with state repression - violence, the murder of a 26-year old forest defender, arrests and felony terrorism charges. Kamau Franklin, of Community Movement Builders, speaks about the efforts to stop Cop City and why it represents the next level in the escalation of the militarization of police that will impact all of us. A week of action is currently underway. For more information, visit PopularResistance.org.
This week, I speak with Kamau Franklin about the insane charges for Stop Cop City protestors, including possible RICO indictments in the coming days. We discuss Sunday's massive police raid which resulted in 35 arrests and 23 domestic terrorism charges, bringing the total number of domestic terrorism charges for #StopCopCity activists to 44. While RICO charges have not been issued, community organizations in Atlanta including Community Movement Builders and the Atlanta Solidarity Fund have announced that they expect these indictments in the coming weeks. The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act was created in the 70's to go after the mafia. It targets organized criminal enterprises, enabling extended penalties including sentences of 5 to 20 years and the seizure of financial assets from individuals and organizationsKAMAU FRANKLIN is a community organizer, writer, lawyer, and cofounder of Community Movement Builders, a national Black collective that works to build sustainable, self-determining communities through cooperative economics and community organizing. A fundamental component of this work is building resistance to police brutality and overpolicing. I recently spoke with Kamau and 2 other activists from the movement to Stop Cop City and defend the Atlanta forest, and I highly recommend that folks go back and listen to this important discussion.HOW TO HELP:Show up to Weelaunee Park!Donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund!Sign this and this petitionSend automated emails to #StopCopCity funders, contractors, and city officialsGET PLUGGED INTO THE MOVEMENT:Communitymovementbuilders.orgDefendtheatlantaforest.orgFollow and share! @defendATLforest on Twitter and @stopcopcity on InstagramTHE STOP COP CITY COCKTAIL(SIMPLIFIED VERSION)30 ml blueberry shrub40 ml vodka or whiskeySoda water or waterIceBlueberry Shrubb350g Blueberries350ml Granulated Sugar225ml Vinegar (wine, apple cider, or unseasoned rice)Mash berries, add sugar, & stir to combine. Seal & let sit at room temperature for ~24 h. Periodically shake or stir to dissolve sugar.Strain, slowly add vinegar, & taste. It should taste sweet & sharp but not overpowering, so add more sugar or vinegar to your liking. Label & cover with lid. Shelf stable for up to 1 year.Support the showCocktails & Capitalism is an anticapitalist labor of love, but we could use your help to make this project sustainable. If you can support our work with even a dollar a month, that would really help us continue to strengthen the class consciousness of folks suffering under capitalism around the globe. https://www.patreon.com/cocktailsandcapitalism
On this week show; Voices present A collection of brief Conversations Eric Mann has had in recent past with various frontline organizers from across the globe. Including Civil Right activist Janius Williams, a significant figure in the Newark N.J. Black Power Movement from 1965 to the present, director of The North, and author of Unfinished Agenda: Urban Politics in the Era of Black Power, The Black Liberation Movement yesterday, today, and tomorrow/ UCLA Latinx activist Emily Zamora, A lead student organizer for UCLA Friends of the Strategy Center and Bus Riders Union on the struggle against Anti-Blackness and Academic Opportunism at the UCLA Luskin school—and the opportunities for radical reform at Luskin and all of UCLA. Kamau Franklin, an organizer with Community Movement Builders in the Pittsburgh area of Atlanta's Black community. His work spans Afrocentric political education, alternative institutions construction, and defending the Black community against police and gentrification assaults. Check out their very impressive website, www.communitymovementbuilders.org to learn more about their cutting edge work. Check out Kamau's important article, An Ivory Tower Assassination of Malcom X, (Black Agenda Report April 11, 2011). Civil Rights activist Hollis Watkins, about his work and efforts to organize voter's registration, and bring about social justice in the deep south of Mississippi. and Keith LaMar, a poet, a visionary, a Black prisoner, facing a death sentence with a scheduled execution date of November 16, 2023. This cannot happen. We have to do everything in our power to prevent the unthinkable. It's fundraising time and 90.7 FM KPFK needs your generous financial help. Go to kpfk.org and make a generous financial contribution to help kpfk sustain its self, and remain a strong and revolutionary consistent voice for the people.
Subscribe to Bad Faith on Patreon to instantly unlock our full premium episode library: http://patreon.com/badfaithpodcast Briahna speaks to Kamau Franklin, founder of Community Movement Builders and a long-time organizer/attorney/writer in Atlanta who has been working against Cop City and around policing broadly, and Matthew Clair, a Stanford professor of sociology with a focus on how race and class inequalities in the criminal legal system are embedded in and reproduced through the attorney-client relationship. The panel discusses the proposed cop training development known as Cop City, the recent murder of Cop City protester Manuel "Tortuguita" Páez Terán by the police, the murder of Tyre Nichols and debates over whether "racism" could have played a role in the killing of a black man by black police officers. The panel then debated the utility of framing criminal justice reform as a "black" issue, the failures of the Biden administration's criminal justice efforts, and the role black mayors play in affirming the status quo. Subscribe to Bad Faith on YouTube for video of this episode. Find Bad Faith on Twitter (@badfaithpod) and Instagram (@badfaithpod). Produced by Armand Aviram. Theme by Nick Thorburn (@nickfromislands).
1.30.2023 #RolandMartinUnfiltered: 6th Cop Fired in Tyre Nichols Death, Memphis PD Reform, GA Cop City Protest, Jaylen Lewis Petition By now, the world has viewed the four heart-wrenching videos showing the moments leading up to the brutal beating of Tyre Nichols. We will break down the timeline of what happened and the potential legal fallout for the city of Memphis with the President & Executive Director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and the Founder of Black Cops Against Police Brutality. We will also be speaking with Tennessee State Rep Antonio Parkinson about what the city is doing to ensure that Tyre Nichols gets justice and address the critical breakdowns in Memphis law enforcement. Atlanta has faced days of environmental protests over a proposed cop training facility. We are protecting Georgia forest. We will tell you how this environmental protest can help stop gentrification and over-policing in black communities with the founder of Community Movement Builders, Kamau Franklin. The fight for justice for Jaylen Lewis, the black man gunned down by Mississippi capitol police, continues. His family calls for transparency. His mother and sisters join us to discuss what they are doing to get justice for their loved one. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Today on Sojourner Truth hosted by guest host Nana Gyamfi, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made it clear from press conferences from NYC to Texas and back that he doesn't want any more asylum-seekers coming to the City. New York City has seen 36,400 asylum seekers arrive as of Jan. 4th this year, but keeping asylum seekers out of NY is not a real solution so what can be done? We are joined by Carl Hamad Lipscombe, the Executive Director of Envision Freedom Fund, an organization committed to dismantling and transforming the immigration and criminal legal systems in NYC. We discuss this issue and contextualize past and present immigration reforms that disqualify recent arrivals from Africa and African descent from being able to acquire asylum or fix their immigration status in the U.S. On Wednesday January 18th, Atlanta Law enforcement officers shot and killed Atlanta forest defender and activist Manuel Tortuguita Terá. Atlanta Police — including a SWAT team — were violently evicting protesters who had occupied a wooded area outside a proposed $90 million training facility known as “Cop City,” inside Weelaunee Forest, a public forest in Georgia. Kamau Franklin, the founder of Community Movement Builders, a grassroots organization dedicated to creating sustainable Black communities through organizing and cooperative development, joins us to discuss the opposition from community members to “Cop City” and what organizers and community members are calling for since this violent raid. As the Biden Administration approaches its halfway mark. We know that Blacks put this Administration in office just off of the South Carolina primary alone. But they expected to see something from the Biden Administration in the areas of: voting rights, reparations, and addressing white supremacist violence, yet very little if anything in these areas has come from the Biden Administration. We are joined by two members of the Movement for Black Lives, Dr. Amara Enyia and Montague Simmons who will share their take on these shortcomings and what the Movement for Black Lives is doing to build the power to get these priorities accomplished, in spite of a conservative House.
On Wednesday January 18th, Atlanta Law enforcement officers shot and killed Atlanta forest defender and activist Manuel Tortuguita Terá. Atlanta Police — including a SWAT team — were violently evicting protesters who had occupied a wooded area outside a proposed $90 million training facility known as “Cop City,” inside Weelaunee Forest, a public forest in Georgia. Kamau Franklin, the founder of Community Movement Builders, a grassroots organization dedicated to creating sustainable Black communities through organizing and cooperative development, joins guest host Nana Gyamfi to discuss the opposition from community members to “Cop City” and what organizers and community members are calling for since this violent raid.
Today on Sojourner Truth hosted by guest host Nana Gyamfi, New York City Mayor Eric Adams has made it clear from press conferences from NYC to Texas and back that he doesn't want any more asylum-seekers coming to the City. New York City has seen 36,400 asylum seekers arrive as of Jan. 4th this year, but keeping asylum seekers out of NY is not a real solution so what can be done? We are joined by Carl Hamad Lipscombe, the Executive Director of Envision Freedom Fund, an organization committed to dismantling and transforming the immigration and criminal legal systems in NYC. We discuss this issue and contextualize past and present immigration reforms that disqualify recent arrivals from Africa and African descent from being able to acquire asylum or fix their immigration status in the U.S. On Wednesday January 18th, Atlanta Law enforcement officers shot and killed Atlanta forest defender and activist Manuel Tortuguita Terá. Atlanta Police — including a SWAT team — were violently evicting protesters who had occupied a wooded area outside a proposed $90 million training facility known as “Cop City,” inside Weelaunee Forest, a public forest in Georgia. Kamau Franklin, the founder of Community Movement Builders, a grassroots organization dedicated to creating sustainable Black communities through organizing and cooperative development, joins us to discuss the opposition from community members to “Cop City” and what organizers and community members are calling for since this violent raid. As the Biden Administration approaches its halfway mark. We know that Blacks put this Administration in office just off of the South Carolina primary alone. But they expected to see something from the Biden Administration in the areas of: voting rights, reparations, and addressing white supremacist violence, yet very little if anything in these areas has come from the Biden Administration. We are joined by two members of the Movement for Black Lives, Dr. Amara Enyia and Montague Simmons who will share their take on these shortcomings and what the Movement for Black Lives is doing to build the power to get these priorities accomplished, in spite of a conservative House.
On Wednesday January 18th, Atlanta Law enforcement officers shot and killed Atlanta forest defender and activist Manuel Tortuguita Terá. Atlanta Police — including a SWAT team — were violently evicting protesters who had occupied a wooded area outside a proposed $90 million training facility known as “Cop City,” inside Weelaunee Forest, a public forest in Georgia. Kamau Franklin, the founder of Community Movement Builders, a grassroots organization dedicated to creating sustainable Black communities through organizing and cooperative development, joins guest host Nana Gyamfi to discuss the opposition from community members to “Cop City” and what organizers and community members are calling for since this violent raid.
Haiti is in ever-increasing crisis with fuel ports blocked by local gang leaders, escalating levels of violence including the sexual assault of girls, women and, elders and a widespread cholera outbreak. In this episode we discuss the state of things as well as the path forward and why the potential UN/US intervention may not be the way to go … again. We are joined by Mamyrah Dougé-Prosper, professor of global and international studies at University of California, Irvine. She specializes in research on social movements in the Caribbean and Latin America – particularly Black and Haitian social movements. She is also the International Coordinator for the Pan-African Solidarity Network with Community Movement Builders in the United States. We are also joined by Frantz Jerome, a long time Haitian human rights activist, living in Florida. —- Subscribe to this podcast: https://plinkhq.com/i/1637968343?to=page Get in touch: lawanddisorder@kpfa.org Follow us on socials @LawAndDis: https://twitter.com/LawAndDis; https://www.instagram.com/lawanddis/ The post Potential for armed intervention in Haiti w/ Mamyrah Dougé-Prosper & Frantz Jerome appeared first on KPFA.
In this episode we interview multiple people who've been involved in the struggle to Stop Cop City and Defend the Forest in Atlanta. What started as a political struggle against an extremely unpopular massive new police training facility has morphed and evolved in many different directions. We welcome Kamau Franklin from Community Movement Builders back to the platform for the third time for this conversation. He brings with him several folks with knowledge of the movement to stop cop city and what has become known as the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement. This is a conversation that touches on modes of liberal city governance and counterinsurgency against radical social movements like the uprisings that took place across the country in the summer of 2020 in response to many instances of police violence including the police lynching of George Floyd and in Atlanta specifically the police execution of Rayshard Brooks as well. Kamau along with Sara, Paul and River discuss some of the current political economy of the greater Atlanta metropolitan area and discuss different phases of the struggle to prevent the political approval and physical construction of the massive police training facility. Along the way we also get into conversations about some of the dynamics coalition which is diverse both in terms of political tendencies and traditions, but also in terms of its racial composition. We talk about of some of the tensions and issues that can arise from these circumstances. And there is some discussion of tactics and strategy as well that is specific to this struggle, which warrant broader consideration contingent of course on the conditions of other struggles. You can learn more and support at https://defendtheatlantaforest.org You can also contribute to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund as Sara recommends in the show: https://atlsolidarity.org to support folks who are facing repression and legal cases. And you can learn more and support Community Movement Builders at https://communitymovementbuilders.org. Also in Kamau's other role, he is a co-host of the Remix Morning Show on Black Power Media, make sure you check them out and support their work as well, this conversation would not have been what it was without Kamau's support and facilitation. Apologies that due to the number of guests and internet connections some of the audio cuts out at a couple points in the conversation. In all cases it resolves and hopefully minimal meaning and information is lost. But we encourage folks to stick with it even if the audio is a little frustrating in parts because the conversation offers so many important insights. And last but not least, if you like the work that we do here at Millennials Are Killing Capitalism. If you want to hear more conversations about dynamic social movements, revolutionary history, political theory, and tactical and strategic discussion, then join up with the awesome folks who support our show currently by becoming a patron of the show. This October marks the 5th anniversary of doing the show. We've hosted over 165 conversations in that period. And for those 5 years we're looking to add 50 patrons this month to help us sustain this work. 50 is a lot, but you can be one of those folks helping to support by just kicking in a dollar a month or by making a small annual contribution at patreon.com/millennialsarekillingcapitalism.
Welcome, to This Is America, May 21st 2022. On this episode, we speak with Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders about the struggle to build self-determination and community power in Atlanta in the face of gentrification, police violence and racialized capitalism. We also discuss the growing fight to defend the Atlanta forest and react to... Read Full Article
Unfortunately, LDI is coming to an end. We thank all our supporters over the past year who have given us love. In this episode, Dr. CBS lays out the origins of the show, why it's time to move on and what's coming next. Starting May 16th there will be a blog for The Last Dope Intellectual Blog at dr-cbs.com. For our patrons you have not been charged but we encourage you to support our producer Too Black's podcast, The Black Myths Podcast (https://www.patreon.com/creator-home), as well as Millennials are Killing Capitalism, Erica Caines, Dev Springer, and Danny Haiphong. Also, donate to Donate to Black Alliance for Peace, Black Agenda Report, Hood Communist, Community Movement Builders, and No Name Book Club. Again, we greatly appreciate the love you all have shown us and wish you all well moving forward!
In this episode we interview Dhoruba Bin Wahad. A leading member of the New York Black Panther Party, a Field Secretary of the BPP responsible for organizing chapters throughout the East Coast, and a member of the Panther 21. He is a veteran and co-founder of the Black Liberation Army and a former political prisoner. He - and Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt - are, we believe, the only two Black political prisoners to use COINTELPRO documents to secure their release from political imprisonment. Both the FBI and NYPD settled with Dhoruba in lawsuits he filed against them for framing him. There are a number of great writings and conversations with Dhoruba Bin Wahad out there. But we asked Dhoruba to do this episode to discuss his political philosophy. He found our approach to that a bit humorous at times, but as one of our favorite thinkers, and someone who embodies their theory in social practice to a degree few of us can imagine, we hoped to contribute to his legacy in this way. In this conversation we cover some common themes in Dhoruba's writing, we ask about his ideology, his frequent use of the term “whirlwind,” Democratic Fascism, his emphasis on humanism, and the differing historical destinies of white and Black people in the US. Dhoruba talks about demands, encapsulation, the local nature of politics, Black sovereign thinking, solidarity, united fronts and political consequences for injustice. We also discuss the iconification of Assata Shakur and what it means to support the right of self-determination and the people who become political prisoners for exercising that right. There were other questions and follow-ups we wanted to ask, but time did not allow for it. We hope that if possible we will be able to record a part 2 in the future. More importantly, we want to note that we are not requesting financial support for our platform for this episode. Instead what we hope our listeners will do is contribute to the GoFundMe that Community Movement Builders has set up for Dhoruba Bin Wahad's medical fund. Dhoruba has stage 4 cancer and is in need of financial support. The GoFundMe will only be up for two more weeks, so if you can give something to that, please do so now. We'll include a link to that in the show notes. Links: The GoFundMe Dhoruba's website Dhoruba's content on imixwhatilike. Dhoruba's content on Black Power Media. Still Black, Still Strong Look For Me In The Whirlwind Dhoruba Bin Wahad's Political Writings (in French, English and German)
Join Kamau Franklin, Channing Martinez, and Eric Mann in a great conversation about Black Liberation, Black Revolutionary Nationalism and Third World anti-imperialist movement strategy. JOIN US NOW for a discussion about revolutionary strategy in the age of counter-revolution. The conversation goes all over the world back and forth through history. But the unique attraction of this conversation is all three are very successful organizers in the Atlanta and South Central L.A. communities. Kamau Franklin, is an organizer with Community Movement Builders in the Pittsburgh area of Atlanta's Black community. His work spans Afrocentric political education, alternative institutions construction, and defending the Black community against police and gentrification assaults. Check out their very impressive website, www.communitymovementbuilders.org to learn more about their cutting edge work. Check out Kamau's important article, An Ivory Tower Assassination of Malcom X, (Black Agenda Report April 11, 2011). Channing Martinez speaks about the growing attacks on the social structure of the Black community especially Black bus and train riders suffering 50% of all tickets and arrests, so police occupation and brutality reinforce massive poverty and an epidemic of houselessness. Eric Mann, a veteran of the Congress of Racial Equality, is the author of Playbook for Progressives: The 16 Qualities of the Successful Organizer. All three discuss a common view, building social movements independent and to the left of the Democratic Party—exciting ideas of building real revolutionary movements in the real world. Eric Mann's commentary on The U.S. NATO Russia, and the Ukraine. The Russian invasion of the Ukraine is an attack on their sovereignty, sadly in the ugly traditions of the Soviet invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. Russia must withdraw all troops from its invasion of the Ukraine. NATO should disband—it is a U.S. dominated cabal of colonialists, NATO should cease its encirclement, attacks and provocations against Russia. NATO should pay reparations to the nations of Africa, Asia, and Latin America where they continue to carry out genocide and colonialism. Joe Biden and the Democrats should be brought up on international human rights charges for demanding the removal of Russian President Vladimir Putin, hysterical escalation of war rhetoric, providing weapons to the Ukraine, the mass imprisonment of Black people, and the forced starvation of the people of Afghanistan. It is not just pathetic president Biden who is determined to destroy Russia and China. The U.S. people better look into the mirror to see how they are becoming fascists and warmongers. The majority are willing to risk nuclear war over a conflict that is being escalated rather than negotiated by the U.S. government with their active support and participation. For peace activists, Black Liberationists, and anti-imperialists, the central contradiction is always the crimes of our own government and the mass complicity in the systematic genocide against the Third World. The call for Russian withdrawal from the Ukraine is imperative, The primary focus must be to oppose the war mongering of the U.S. white settler, one party state. Stand up to state run mass media and demand that CNN and CNBC register as official spokespeople for the U.S. CIA, Department of War, and State Department. Declining U.S. imperialism demands a Unipolar World because it can't live in peace or effectively compete economically with Russia and China. No matter how small the voice, we need to put the primary focus on the crimes of the U.S.
In this segment of By Any Means Necessary, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Mamyrah Prosper, Assistant Professor of Global and International Studies at the University of California Irvine and International Coordinator with Community Movement Builders to discuss recent strikes by workers in Haiti for better wages, the history of US imperialism in impoverishing Haitian workers and exploiting the power of the dollar, and how the labor movement fits into the recent wave in labor activism in the United States.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Hannah Dickinson, professor and organizer with Geneva Women's Assembly in Geneva, NY and Managing Editor of Breaking The Chains Magazine to discuss efforts to protect some of the gains won by reproductive justice activists through the Women's Health Protection Act, what the political outlook is in the Senate and why the movement is not only necessary, but crucial, to its passage, the attacks on women's health and reproductive justice that have come from state governments and the Supreme Court, and how we can get involved in the fight to protect women's health.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Mamyrah Prosper, Assistant Professor of Global and International Studies at the University of California Irvine and International Coordinator with Community Movement Builders to discuss recent strikes by workers in Haiti for better wages, the history of US imperialism in impoverishing Haitian workers and exploiting the power of the dollar, and how the labor movement fits into the recent wave in labor activism in the United States.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Asantewa Nkrumah-Ture Organizer and Member of the Philadelphia Tenant Union, and the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign/Poor People's Army to discuss a victory over intimidation tactics used to try to force Asantewa Nkrumah Ture to leave her home despite her legal rights to remain in her home for a certain period of time, the importance of the Philadelphia movement in keeping Asantewa safe and helping her secure her legal victory, and how the intimidation faced by Asantewa is more commonplace than generally known.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Walter Smolarek, a journalist and activist editor of Liberation newspaper, and managing editor of LiberationNews.org to discuss the rapid-fire propaganda being pushed by the corporate media on Ukraine and the potential for war with Russia and what history such coverage conveniently leaves out, the misplaced “neither Washington nor Moscow” attitude among some members of the movement and why full focus should be on the US because of its dominance in world affairs, and why it's important to fight against US imperialism in solidarity with poor, working, and oppressed people who are subject to imperialism all over the world.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by John Ross, the senior fellow at the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies at the Renmin University of China and author of the book, “China's Great Road: Lessons for Marxist Theory and Socialist Practices” to discuss US lawmakers' passage of the America COMPETES Act, which is meant to challenge China's Belt and Road Initiative, the meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping and the growing alliance between the countries as both face military threats from the US, and how the current economic crises in the US highlight the differences between the US and Chinese economic models.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Brandon Soderberg, reporter on Baltimore for the Real News Network and coauthor of the book, "I Got A Monster: The Rise and Fall of America's Most Corrupt Police Squad" to discuss Baltimore's issues with vacant properties that both contribute to gentrification and pose danger to the communities they are in, the refusal of Baltimore officials to address the issue despite solutions being proposed in the past, and the city's pursuit of evictions and eminent domain on working and poor communities, its refusal to enforce housing codes or practice eminent domain on properties owned by housing developers, and how this situation exposes who local government actually works for.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa, the editor of TechforthePeople.org to discuss the IRS canceling its use of third-party facial recognition technology, the troubling EARN IT Act which would make all web platforms scan all uploaded content under the guise of stopping child sexual abuse, and the Department of Homeland Security's deployment of robot dogs on the southern border and the questions surrounding how they will be used.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and Co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast to discuss the Supreme Court upholding a GOP-drawn Congressional map that diluted the electoral power of Black voters and the failure of Democrats to take meaningful action to stop the erosion of voting rights, the killing of Amir Locke by Minneapolis police and the challenges that have been faced by the movement against police terror in the aftermath of the 2020 uprisings against racism, the cooptation of people with little community connection into the capitalist propaganda machine to sap energy from movements, and the controversy surrounding Israel's admission into the African Union as an observer and how that relates to the broader ideological struggle on the African continent.
In this episode we were honored to host Kali Akuno, co-director and co-founder of Cooperation Jackson and Kamau Franklin is the founder of Community Movement Builders and a co-host at Black Power Media's Remix Morning Show. We brought Kali and Kamau into conversation under a banner of discussing strategy. Strategy is something that Josh and I feel is both essential and often lacking within a lot of formations in the US left. The conversation is wide-ranging and touches on a number of topics that may prompt folks to need greater context. In the show notes we will include some links to other readings and discussions with Kali and Kamau on what the Jackson plan is, why they left the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and what their current work entails. Beyond strategy, in this episode we get into discussion of political education, neoliberal socialization, burnout, fickle organizers, reflection and criticism, Democratic Centralism, cadre and mass organizing, climate change, ecological collapse, food sovereignty, self-defense, revolutionary violence, and the capture of social movements through the nonprofit industrial complex and Democratic Party electoral politics. It is our greatest hope that conversations like this one provide folks with tools, insights and provocations that they can bring with them into their organizing efforts so that we can build more effectively going forward for the alternatives are clearly bleak and dystopian. Both Community Movement Builders and Cooperation Jackson do accept donations. So we will also provide links to both organizations in our show notes if people would like to give them a donation. And please support Black Power Media as well. And of course, we need your support to continue to bring you these conversations freely, and in non-commoditized form. All of our work is available ad-free and none of our episodes are behind a paywall and we hope that we can always keep it that way so that all of these conversations are freely available to organizers, activists, students, workers, the poor, and the oppressed. To support our ability to do that you can contribute to our patreon for as little as $1 a month or for a yearly contribution of just $11 a year. For more context: Cooperation Jackson's Kali Akuno on the lessons of and the ongoing struggle in Jackson MS Community Movement Builders and Liberated Zones Theory with Kamau Franklin The Jackson-Kush Plan: The Struggle For Black Self-Determination and Economic Democracy Jackson Rising: The Struggle for Economic Democracy and Black Self-Determination in Jackson, Mississippi
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Chris Smalls, President of the Amazon Labor Union, founder of The Congress Of Essential Workers, and host of the podcast “It's a Smalls World,” to discuss a recent settlement reached between the National Labor Relations Board and Amazon over its worker organization repression tacticas, what this means for organizing drives in Bessemer and Staten Island, and recent deaths at Amazon warehouses all over the country and Amazon's complicity in those deaths.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Margaret Flowers, Co-Founder of Popular Resistance Director of the Health Over Profit for Everyone Campaign to discuss a backdoor scheme to privatize medicare through direct contract entities which increase the hold of private equity and private insurance firms on the program, how this program exposes the fundamental cruelty of the for-profit health care system, and how we can fight back against this privatization scheme.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa, the editor of TechforthePeople.org to discuss some of the biggest tech stories of the year, including the leaked Facebook documents outlining how toxic the platform is for all users and especially for teens and pre-teens, the increase in surveillance of workers by their employers as working from home continued during the ongoing pandemic and the violations of privacy that it entailed, the collaboration between the Ring home security system and local police departments, and the organizing of Apple retail employees and other tech employees this year.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and Co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast to discuss the Los Angeles Police Department killing a 14-year-old girl with a stray bullet, what this situation demonstrates about police terror and abolition, the inexplicable order from the CDC cutting the time for isolation after infection with COVID-19 in half and the Biden administration's deference to capital in its response to the pandemic, and the elevation of people like Charlamagne Tha God and other celebrities, comedians, and musicians as the Black community's connection to politics.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Simon Tesfamariam, executive director of the New Africa Institute to discuss massive protests denouncing the actions of the US in the conflict in Ethiopia, why the US is interested in the horn of Africa, and the missing nuance and context in discussions of Ethiopia.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kerbie Joseph, longtime police brutality, mass incarceration and community organizer in Brooklyn, New York with the ANSWER Coalition and SOS coordinator with the Audre Lorde Project to discuss the struggle for justice for Akai Gurley, the policing of public housing by the NYPD that led to Akai's death, and how the struggle for justice has shaped the community.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa, the editor of TechforthePeople.org to discuss the use of AI technologies for surveillance in prisons and the potential consequences of its use, Google workers fighting back against the company's contracts with the defense industry, and Facebook's refusal to take substantial action against harmful hate speech.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and Co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast to discuss the racist tropes on display in the trial of the killers of Ahmaud Arbery, the disparity in the treatment of Kyle Ritenhouse and Tamir Rice and how white fears of Black revenge factor into that treatment, the death of Malikah Shabazz, the exoneration of two people convicted of killing Malcom X, and the sanitization and repackaging of Malcolm X's legacy.
Community Activist & Real Estate expert discusses gentrification with Kamau Franklin, an organizer, Writer, & lawyer in Atlanta. Real Estate expert and community activist Robby Caban cohosted Politics Done Right. She interviewed community organizer, writer, & lawyer Kamau Franklin. He did not disappoint as he did not mince his words about gentrification and the community. Kamau Franklin is the founder of Community Movement Builders, Inc. Kamau has been a dedicated community organizer for over thirty years, beginning in New York City and now based in Atlanta. --- If you like what we do please do the following! Most Independent Media outlets continue to struggle to raise the funds they need to operate much like the smaller outlets like Politics Done Right SUBSCRIBE to our YouTube Channel here. LIKE our Facebook Page here. Share our blogs, podcasts, and videos. Get our books here. Become a YouTube PDR Posse Member here. Become a Politics Done Right Subscriber via Patreon here. Become a Politics Done Right Subscriber via Facebook here. Consider providing a contribution here. Please consider supporting our GoFundMe equipment fund here. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/politicsdoneright/support
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa, the editor of TechforthePeople.org to discuss the Facebook outage and its widespread impacts, the impact of the revelations concerning human trafficking and eating disorders revealed by whistleblower Frances Haugen, the reliance of society on social media and the need for community control over Facebook, and Google complying with dragnet police data requests for accounts that search names, addresses, or telephone numbers.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Afeni, an organizer with Freedom Fighters DC to discuss the clearing out of a homeless encampment in Washington, DC, the absurd obstacles that perpetuate the problem of homelessness and the failure of the District government to implement its pilot housing program, and the rapidly intensifying crisis of gentrification in DC.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Mikaela Nhondo Erskog, an educator and researcher for the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, also a part of the secretariat of Pan Africanism Today and a coordinating committee member for No Cold War to discuss a strike of engineering workers in South Africa, the severe exploitation of engineers in the country, and the significance of this challenge in putting the ideas of a living wage, benefits, and organizing into public consciousness.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and Co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast to discuss Facebook's outage and how it highlights the broader issue of monopoly capitalism, Netflix's representation of Malcolm X in the film “Blood Brothers” and the sanitization and cooptation of revolutionaries, the importance of arts and culture in organizing, and the proliferation of and misunderstandings about important political terms like decolonization.
This week, Aja and Sylvia catch up with city designer and urban thinker Ryan Gravel following Atlanta City Council's vote to pass a proposal by the Atlanta Police Foundation to build an 85-acre police training facility on the 381-acre forested land in DeKalb County known as the Old Atlanta Prison Farm. In this episode, we discuss the events leading up to the vote, the vote itself, and what could happen next.Prior to council's vote, council members sat through 17 hours of public comment in which nearly 70% of voters adamantly opposed the facility. Council deliberated hte proposal for about an hour before passing the legislation, denying any additional amendments, in a 10-4 vote.The proposal originally sought to build a 150-acre training facility before adjusting following intense public outcry and dissent. Local organizers in Community Movement Builders, Sunrise Atlanta, Atlanta DSA, DARC, and others have been galvanizing in the #StopCopCity movement since the ordinance was introduced in June. Other organizations like the South River Forest Coalition have also been advocating and organizing for preservation of the forest.This episode plays exactly as it was aired during the Mainline News Hour on WRFG radio in Atlanta on Fri., Sept. 10.ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:To learn more about the land, which was originally inhabited by the Muscogee Creek Nation before they were forcibly removed. After the Civil War, the land was sold in a land lottery to a plantation owner tho used the land for chattel slavery and forced labor of Black people criminalized by the state: https://itsgoingdown.org/slave-labor-overcrowding-and-unmarked-graves-the-buried-history-of-atlanta-city-prison-farm/Our full breakdown of the council's vote and an overview of public opposition among Atlantans: https://www.mainlinezine.com/atlanta-city-council-passes-police-training-facility-legislation/Our report detailing the arrests made during council's deliberations: https://www.mainlinezine.com/atlanta-protesters-arrested-council-passes-lease-police-foundation/To support our work, consider becoming a sustaining contributor at https://patreon.com/mainlinezine or making a one-time donation at https://mainlinezine.com/donate
This episode is a double feature: the debut of The Mainline News Hour on WRFG 89.3 in Atlanta as well as the People's story about the growing #StopCopCity movement in the city. In this special report, founding editor Aja Arnold delivers a brief explainer of Cop City — the City of Atlanta and Atlanta Police Foundation's newly-proposed massive $90 million police training facility — and the land the city wishes to place it on, the Old Atlanta Prison Farm.The report features recorded audio from last month's People's Town Hall, an event organized by local groups DARC, Atlanta DSA, Community Movement Builders, and Sunrise ATL. The People's Town Hall is the only true public forum event regarding Cop City to date, with no collaboration with any elected officials in city council or City Hall. Of the 13 council members, only two were in attendance.Over 100 Atlantans gathered to speak their opposition, concerns, and sentiments towards the proposal and the city's governance at-large. Tune in to hear the people's story of #StopCopCity. This episode plays exactly as it aired on WRFG on Fri., Sept. 3.INDIGENOUS LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT [also discussed in the report]The City of Atlanta and Atlanta Police Foundation are attempting to build a 150-acre police training facility on 381 acres of forested land that is historically known as the Old Atlanta Prison Farm. The prison farm land is city-owned, but resides in unincorporated DeKalb County. This land was once home to the Muscogee (Creek) indigenous peoples before the land was awarded in a land lottery to a plantation owner who practiced the chattel enslavement of African people.ADDITIONAL RESOURCESAja's recent report about the training facility published in The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2021/08/11/atlanta-police-training-center/An info starter kit to #StopCopCity via The Mainline: https://www.patreon.com/posts/53201136A local researcher's metal analysis testing of Intrenchment Creek, the water source in the South River Forest/Old Atlanta Prison Farm: https://twitter.com/lilponitz/status/1425103516390014991To learn more how you can help in the movement: https://stopcopcity.orgTo support our work, become a sustaining member at https://patreon.com/mainlinezine or consider making a one-time donation at https://mainlinezine.com/donate
In this segment of By Any Means Necessary, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Jasmine, organizer with Community Movement Builders to discuss the struggle against plans to build a new police urban warfare training facility on public land in Atlanta, the city's shady and undemocratic practices in the face of widespread public opposition to the facility, and what people actually want to see built and developed (spoiler alert: it's not militarized police).
Philly Organizers Create Housing Solutions, Atlanta Fights Back Against Cop City, The Bizarre Situation with Bishop SycamoreIn this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Cheri Honkala, National Coordinator for the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign to discuss the Philadelphia and federal governments' failure to house people, the lawsuit filed by the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign against the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the occupation of abandoned houses to meet people's needs, and the importance of a people-focused human rights movement that embraces international solidarity.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Jasmine, organizer with Community Movement Builders to discuss the struggle against plans to build a new police urban warfare training facility on public land in Atlanta, the city's shady and undemocratic practices in the face of widespread public opposition to the facility, and what people actually want to see built and developed (spoiler alert: it's not militarized police).In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Miguel Garcia, host and creator of the Sports As A Weapon Podcast to discuss the racial aspects of cutting of Cam Newton from the Patriots and starting rookie Mac Jones and the bizarre situation surrounding the airing of a football game on ESPN featuring Bishop Sycamore, an evidently fake high school.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Eugene Puryear, host of the Punch Out podcast on Breakthrough News and author of the book Shackled and Chained: Mass Incarceration in Capitalist America to discuss the disproportionate impact of climate change on working and poor people as demonstrated by Hurricane Ida, the normalization of traumatic experiences in our day-to-day lives that are caused by capitalism, and how the movement must combat cynicism in the face of the horrors of capitalism.
This week, Aja talks with Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta about the recent city council vote in which council members voted to table Cop City legislation that would have authorized a ground lease of 381 acres of green space to Atlanta Police Foundation for $10 a year. This means that Cop City was in fact stopped — at least until the vote that is scheduled to take place on Sept. 7. The unexpected turn raises a lot of questions for Atlantans, journalists, and organizers. In this episode, we discuss the vote, how we got here as a city, and what could happen next.In the intro, Aja takes a much-needed moment of reflection of Mariam Abdulrab. The restaurant community in Atlanta mourns as another tragedy ripples through the city, and we stand in solidarity with those communities as well as survivors of violence.To support our work, consider becoming a patron on our newly launched Patreon for as little as $3 or $5/month to unlock an entirely new catalog of news coverage with other cool stuff. https://patreon.com/mainlinezine.Or, consider making a one-time or recurring donation, with nothing in return at https://mainlinezine.com/donateFollow Aja on Twitter at @soundslikeasia& Community Movement Builders at @CommunityMvtADDITIONAL RESOURCES:"How we got here" highlight reel via Mainline's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mainlinezine/Aja's article featured in The Intercept: https://theintercept.com/2021/08/11/atlanta-police-training-center/The People's Town Hall recording: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=414307796658247&ref=watch_permalinkIt's Going Down feature detailing the history of the Old Atlanta Prison Farm by Atlanta Community Press Collective: https://itsgoingdown.org/slave-labor-overcrowding-and-unmarked-graves-the-buried-history-of-atlanta-city-prison-farm/
On this episode, part two of a two part interview, Mamyrah Prosper discusses the aftermath of the assassination of Haitian president Jovenel Moïse, as well as grassroots responses. This interview was recorded just days before the recent earthquake added to the turmoil in Haiti.Mamyrah Prosper is International Coordinator for Community Movement Builders, and Assistant Professor of Global and International Studies at UC Irvine. She immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti at age 15, leaving her parents behind, and moved in with her sister's family in New Jersey. Following a family tradition of activism for social justice – her father was a human and labor rights activist – she champions causes including women's rights, affordable housing and land rights. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on the Haitian Platform for Advocacy for an Alternative Development, a central social movement for social justice in Haiti.Outside of the classroom, Mamyrah has volunteered at Take Back the Land, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, and the Correctional Association of New York. During her time at FIU, she helped organize two conferences on Afro-Latino social movements and feminist reimaginings of the nation that involved academics, students, activists and performing artists. She also served as a teaching assistant and lecturer. Mamyrah has authored and co-authored dozens of peer-reviewed book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, book reviews and encyclopedia entries.See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org. Stay subscribed to The Next World for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation. You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights.Support the show (https://dignityandrights.org/donate/)
On this episode, part one of a two part interview, Mamyrah Prosper discusses her personal history as the daughter of a political prisoner in Haiti through her movement activism and work as a scholar, as well as recent Haitian political history, from the Duvaliers through Jovenel Moïse. Stay tuned for part two, as we discuss the assassination of Moïse and the aftermath, as well as grassroots responses.Mamyrah Prosper is International Coordinator for Community Movement Builders, and Assistant Professor of Global and International Studies at UC Irvine. She immigrated to the U.S. from Haiti at age 15, leaving her parents behind, and moved in with her sister's family in New Jersey. Following a family tradition of activism for social justice – her father was a human and labor rights activist – she champions causes including women's rights, affordable housing and land rights. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on the Haitian Platform for Advocacy for an Alternative Development, a central social movement for social justice in Haiti.Outside of the classroom, Mamyrah has volunteered at Take Back the Land, the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, and the Correctional Association of New York. During her time at FIU, she helped organize two conferences on Afro-Latino social movements and feminist reimaginings of the nation that involved academics, students, activists and performing artists. She also served as a teaching assistant and lecturer. Mamyrah has authored and co-authored dozens of peer-reviewed book chapters, peer-reviewed journal articles, book reviews and encyclopedia entries.See more of the work of host Max Rameau at pacapower.org. Stay subscribed to The Next World for more news from the frontlines of movements for justice and liberation. You can read more about the issues we explore on our podcast and much more at dignityandrights.org, the website of Partners for Dignity & Rights.Please subscribe, spread the word, and support the show.Support the show (https://dignityandrights.org/donate/)
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Stephen Gowans, author of “Traitors, Patriots, and Empires: The Story of Korea's Fight for Freedom,” to discuss vaccine imperialism and the WHO's ask that rich countries halt booster dose programs, how capitalism slows the production of vaccines and allows more variants of COVID-19 to develop, and the United States's use of the pandemic as an opportunity to plunder poor countries and further its violence around the world.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and Co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast to discuss the targeting of Community Movement Builders by real estate developers and the city of Atlanta, Atlanta's prioritization of policing to serve real estate interests and promote gentrification, and the surveillance and intimidation of community organizing by police.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Mike Sampson, co-host of the RedSpin Sports podcast and Miguel Garcia, host and creator of the Sports As A Weapon Podcast, to discuss Donald Trump's attack on “wokeness” on the US Women's National Soccer Team after they earned a bronze medal at the Olympics and the recent release of a photo by the accuser of Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer, who is under investigation for allegations of domestic violence.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Layla D. Brown-Vincent, Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Africana Studies at Northeastern University to discuss the anti-people logic of the neoliberal U.S. state that manifests in sanctions designed to punish the people in the targets of imperialism and in its insufficient and callous response to the pandemic, and the stark contrast in the responses to the pandemic between capitalist and socialist governments in light of the eviction moratorium.
In this segment, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and Co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast to discuss the targeting of Community Movement Builders by real estate developers and the city of Atlanta, Atlanta's prioritization of policing to serve real estate interests and promote gentrification, and the surveillance and intimidation of community organizing by police.
This month we are introducing a new series -- Consider the Following. A debate series administered to engage principled disagreements throughout the Black left and the sociopolitical Black world. Typically, our pod is predicated upon debunking quantifiable myths (propaganda) said about Black people. However, this series expands beyond fact and fiction to promote a discourse that works to clarify principled disagreements. This series will air every so often in combination with our normal episode format. The resolution for this month is "Community Control of the Police is Inconsistent with Police Abolition." We were unable to create the debate format we originally had planned due to unforeseen circumstances but we still built a great discussion/debate for our first attempt. For this episode, we invited Max Rameau of Pan African Community Action and Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders to answer challenging questions about CCOP and Police Abolition. Show notes https://docs.google.com/document/d/1p0yytrynaRQKyYXy6wd1iIkAjJqgXJaYaFK7k-O6qB4/edit
Misogynoir rears its ugly head in sports; Protests continue in Swaziland; Ransomware attack and more; Bill Cosby released due to loopholeIn this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Karleigh Webb, an athlete, activist, journalist, socialist, contributor to @Outsports and host of the TransSporter Room to discuss the recent apology issued by ESPN broadcaster Rachel Nichols to fellow anchor Maria Taylor over Nichols allegation that Taylor was promoted over her as a result of pressure to address the network's lack of diversity, the racist and transphobic history behind disqualification of Olympic women runners due to “naturally high testosterone” levels, as Nambian sprinters Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi are kept from competing in the Tokyo Olympics, and other controversial Olympic rules that are being challenged as biased, such as the ban on the Soul Cap designed specifically for Black women swimmers' hair.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Thokazane Kenneth Kuene, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Swaziland to discuss the uprising in the small African nation against the only remaining absolute monarch on the continent, King Mswati III in Swaziland or Eswatini, the repression of the king's regime and his hoarding of resources while the Eswatini people struggle in poverty, how the legacy of British colonialism persists in the governance of the small country, the brutal repression being carried out against the people demanding and end to Mswati III's reign and colonial-era monarchal rule, and the continuing calls for the youth to continue to protest to recapture the streets. In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Chris Garaffa, editor of TechForThePeople.Org to discuss a serious ransomware attack by criminal group REvil, how robocalls are being addressed and won't be going ending any time soon and how a new platform helps map the victims of spyware.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and Co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast to discuss Joe Biden's Fourth of July celebration, Bill Cosby being released because of a legal loophole, how to reconcile the contradictions of patriarchy and white supremacy and how we can't allow ‘nuance' to mean de facto support of predators
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Kristine Hendrix, President to the University City School Board, Junior Bayard Rustin Fellow with the Fellowship for Reconciliation and contributor to the Truth-Telling Project and "We Stay Woke" podcast, to discuss efforts by city governments across the country to ‘re-fund' the police against the wishes of many community members and Missouri Rep. Cori Bush's praise for the “historic” decision to defund the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Onyesonwu Chatoyer, cadre with the All African People's Revolutionary Party and the All African Women's Revolutionary Union, and national coordinating committee member of the Venceremos Brigade, to discuss the car caravan they're planning for Sunday, May 30th to call for an end to the US government's economic blockade against Cuba, as well as how anti-communist propaganda is used to limit solidarity between working people in the US and in Cuba.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Nate Wallace, co-host of Red Spin Sports podcast, for another edition of our weekly segment “The Red Spin Report.” They discuss Celtics General Manager Danny Ainge's dismissal of Kyrie Irving's comments on racism among sports fans in Boston, the new statement by head coach Brad Stevens regarding the controversy, and why the undervaluation of gymnastics legend Simone Biles' groundbreaking achievements points to racist double standards in athletics.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and Co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast, to discuss former President Barack Obama's assertion that “institutional constraints” kept him from doing more to stop racist police killings, how the Mutual Aid For Veteran Black Panthers Fund is working to help support the elders who were “at the forefront of class struggle,” and the growing importance of political education in a time of mass propaganda and widespread ideological confusion.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Amir Khafagy, Award Winning Journalist, UAW Local 1981 AFL/CIO, and Open City Fellow, to discuss his recent article in The Guardian, “She survived Hurricane Sandy. Then climate gentrification hit,” and what it means that the burden of climate change is increasingly felt by those who bear the least responsibility for it. In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Chris Garaffa, editor of Tech for the People, for another edition of our weekly segment “Tech For The People.” They discuss the FBI's breach of hundreds of computers across the country in an apparent effort to counter hackers, the Detroit man suing police after faulty facial recognition technology led to his wrongful arrest, and the law proposing public broadband networks recently passed by the Washington state legislature.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Jack Rasmus, economist, radio show host, & author of 'The Scourge of Neoliberalism,' to discuss the fragile economic progress occurring as another wave of covid cases looms, as well as the growing homeless crisis that's only been exacerbated by the pandemic.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and Co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast, to discuss the trial of Derek Chauvin as observers prepare for the jury's decision to be read aloud, President Biden demand for ‘peace' from protesters but not police, and why real solidarity requires moving from ‘allyship' to comradeship.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Brian Becker, host of The Socialist Program with Brian Becker, to discuss President Joe Biden's Thursday night prime time speech to the US public, parallels between the governments of Joe Biden and Donald Trump, and the impacts of having an economy more oriented towards waging war than saving lives.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Nicholas J. S. Davies, a researcher and writer for CODEPINK and author of “Blood On Our Hands: The American Invasion and Destruction of Iraq,” to discuss his recent report with Medea Benjamin which found that for nearly two decades the US military has been dropping an average of 46 bombs and missiles abroad per day, how the corporate media works to obscure the casualties, and the under-reported role of NATO in ravaging Libya and other independence-oriented nations.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Nate Wallace, co-host of the Red Spin Sports podcast, for another edition of our weekly segment “The Red Spin Report." They discuss Jackson State football and the water crisis afflicting the majority-black Mississippi city, and the intersections between neoliberalism and the gentrification of sports.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and Co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast, to discuss the trial of Minneapolis police officer recorded kneeling killing George Floyd, Derek Chauvin, how prosecutors stack juries with pro-police jurors, and why the ‘George Floyd Justice In Policing Act' shows the lack of seriousness among the ruling class towards meaningful police reform.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Dr. Margaret Flowers, Co-Founder of Popular Resistance Director of the Health Over Profit for Everyone Campaign, to discuss the news that the US has officially passed 500,000 coronavirus deaths, reports that life expectancy in the US has officially dropped by a full year, and why Latin and Black communities have been left to bear the brunt of the public health crisis. In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Professor of English Literature and Orientalism at the University of Tehran, to discuss fallout from the Biden administration's refusal to axe Trump-era sanctions on Iran, the stopgap agreement between the Iranian government and the IAEA to maintain inspections at nuclear facilities for the next three months, and how the Democratic establishment's continuation of Trump's policies abroad undercuts the nominally anti-racist rhetoric of the Biden-Harris administration. In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta, to discuss the letter by a recently-deceased New York Police Department informant implicating both the NYPD and the FBI in the assassination of Malcolm X, why the revelation bolsters long-time accusations that the US government had a hand in the murder of the Black liberation icon, and how the "thorough" infiltration of the Nation of Islam lends further credence to allegations of state involvement.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Jack Rasmus, economist, radio show host, and author of "The Scourge of Neoliberalism," to discuss the independent probe which found that police in Aurora, Colorado had "no justification" to stop Elijah McClain when they killed him with a lethal dose of ketamine last year, the public debate over student loan forgiveness, and the hypocrisy of many right-wing critics who object to the targeted debt relief strategy.
In this segment of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta, to discuss the letter by a recently-deceased New York Police Department officer implicating both the NYPD and the FBI in the assassination of Malcolm X, why the revelation bolsters long-time accusations that the US government had a hand in the murder of the Black liberation icon, and how the "thorough" infiltration of the Nation of Islam lends further credence to allegations of state involvement in Malcolm X's murder.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Nick Stender, a member of the Chicago Teachers Union and an activist with Reds in Ed, to discuss the vote by the union to postpone the return to in-person teaching following Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot's push to force teachers back to work amid the pandemic and the significance of Joe Biden's attempt to intervene in the labor dispute process on behalf of the city government.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Chris Garaffa, editor of Tech For The People, to discuss how US military intelligence is exploiting a loophole in privacy law to track the movements of Americans without a warrant, the vast sums of money Big Tech spends on lobbying Washington for favorable policies, and the "Right To Repair" legislation currently under consideration in over a dozen states.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Brian Mier, co-editor of Brasil Wire and author of "Year of Lead: Washington, Wall Street and the New Imperialism in Brazil," to discuss his new documentary released via Redfish, "Dismantling Brazil: Bolsonaro's Neoliberal Agenda," the car caravans protesting the rule of far-right Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and why the involvement of the US government in subverting the democratic process in Brazil under both Obama and Trump bodes poorly for the future of the region under Joe Biden. Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast, to discuss Joe Biden's slate of executive orders apparently aimed at promoting racial equity, the continuing consolidation of power by the neoliberal ruling class after the instability generated by the Trump presidency, and what's to come in the "overt civil war" among the Republican base and leadership.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Anoa Changa, retired attorney and freelance journalist, to discuss the important Georgia Senate runoff elections, the extent to which Rev. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff can be ‘pushed left,' and the significance of the Democratic Party's likely control of the US Senate.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Tings Chak, researcher and lead designer for the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, to discuss their recent Anti-Imperialist Poster Exhibitions and the links between art, creativity, and struggle.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Bob Schlehuber, peace-building activist and co-host of Political Misfits on Radio Sputnik, to discuss the thousands of far-right demonstrators in Washington, D.C. mobilized by Donald Trump, the lack of liberal counter-protesters, and why the public response is so muted in comparison with the attempted 2018 rally by white nationalist ‘Unite the Right' organizers.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast, to discuss the pro-Trump protesters storming the Capitol building, their standoffs with DC Metropolitan police, and reports that the Pentagon has refused the request by DC officials to send in the National Guard to stabilize the situation.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, host Jacquie Luqman and producer Wyatt Reed are joined by journalist Alan MacLeod to discuss the various pork-barrel projects passed alongside the COVID-19 relief bill, why such spending is provoking so much outrage among working Americans, and the latest wave of sanctions the Trump administration is unleashing on its way out the door.In the second segment, Jacquie and Wyatt are joined by Phil Wilayto, Editor of the Virginia Defender newspaper and co-founder of the Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality to discuss the removal of the Robert E. Lee statue from the US Capitol, the backlash from largely-white segments of the population to the move, and the significance of 2020 in the struggle for liberation.In the third segment, Jacquie and Wyatt are joined by Chris Garaffa, editor of Tech for the People, for another weekly technology review. They discuss the privacy implications of the ongoing legal fight between Facebook and Apple, the International Monetary Fund's proposal to include consumers' online search, browser, and purchase histories in determining credit scores, and the new report from Citizen Lab which found the governments of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had most likely hacked the phones of dozens of Al Jazeera and Al-Araby TV journalists.Later in the show, Jacquie and Wyatt are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast, to discuss the refusal by high-profile 'progressive Democrats' to demand that Nancy Pelosi allow a floor vote on Medicare For All, why Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described the vote on the $2.3T omnibus which just passed Congress as "hostage-taking," and the racist double standards in police treatment of Black Lives Matter organizers and Proud Boys.
Self-determination was one of Malcom X's key principles, and it's a driving force behind Atlanta-based Community Movement Builders. Episode 6 brings you into the mind of founder and board president Kamau Franklin, who's spent the last twenty years building systems and support for youth education, sustainable urban development, and more. “If we feed people, we're also going to tell them why they don't have food,” Kamau told Trae as they spoke together intimately and openly during Trae's recent visit to Atlanta. Kamau is also an advocate of unity without uniformity, and this is an invigorating discussion for all who believe that Black people have the power to govern their own destiny, to serve themselves, and to own their communities—whatever that might look like for them. *Please note that Equity Rising will be on a short break through the holidays after this episode. We look forward to reconnecting in 2021. This week's Chime In features Cashayla Rodgers. This episode was produced by Linnea Ingalls & Julia Drachman and edited by Josh Berl.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast, to discuss the comment by former US President Barack Obama that politicians lose support when using “snappy” slogans like “defund the police," how Obama has historically served as a bulwark against progressive aspirations and policy demands, and why it seems the former president 'studied blackness rather than living it.'In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Margaret Flowers, Co-Founder of Popular Resistance Director of the Health Over Profit for Everyone Campaign, to discuss the significance of this weekend's Venezuelan parliamentary elections, the latest signs that Juan Guaido has lost his control over the country's opposition forces, and why the country's ability to hold elections despite continuing imperialist aggression represents a victory for Venezuela's democratic process.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Filmon Zerai, writer, independent analyst and an organizing member at Horn of Africa Pan-Africans for Liberation & Solidarity, to discuss the declaration of victory by Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed over the forces of the Tigray Peoples' Liberation Front, escalating human rights concerns in the Tigray region, and the response of the international community to the situation.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Ted Rall, award-winning editorial cartoonist and columnist, and author of the new book, “Political Suicide: The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party,” to discuss the continuing relevance of the abolitionist John Brown on the anniversary of his execution in 1859, the latest in Donald Trump's attempt to occupy the Oval Office for four more years, and how Trump has managed to keep a 'vice-like grip' on the GOP base while giving voice to increasingly-farfetched claims of 'voter fraud' in the 2020 election.
In this segment of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast, to discuss the comment by former US President Barack Obama that politicians lose support when using “snappy” slogans like “defund the police," how Obama has historically served as a bulwark against progressive aspirations and policy demands, and why it seems the former president 'studied blackness rather than living it.'
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Dan Kovalik, a lawyer, professor, and author of “No More War: How the West Violates International Law By Using ‘Humanitarian Intervention' to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests," to discuss attempts to suppress segments of today's voters in the courts, the likelihood of street unrest and violence between pro- and anti-Trump factions in the event of a contested election, and why we're unlikley to have a clear picture of who won the election for several days.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Natasha Lycia Ora Bannan, Senior Counsel for Latino Justice, to discuss the statehood referendum on the ballot for voters in Puerto Rico today, the inability of Puerto Ricans to cast a vote in the US presidential elections, and why relations between the island's population and the US government continue to be characterized by colonialism. In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Jack Rasmus, economist, radio show host, & author of 'The Scourge of Neoliberalism,' to discuss his recent article, "Why the Record Vote Turnout May Not Matter," why the polls favoring Biden are likely to have minimal impact on the outcome of the election, and how GOP disenfranchisement schemes make Biden's all-but-guaranteed advantage in the popular vote irrelevant.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast, to discuss how the latest presidential endorsements from famous rappers point to yet another attempt by the ruling class to drive a wedge within Black communities, how the establishment demonization of third party voters in the wake of HiIlary Clinton's embarrassing 2016 electoral defeat is being used to isolate progressive activists looking beyond the two-party system, and how the mainstream media coverage is ginning up fear of violence and property destruction in cities across the country.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by journalist and By Any Means Necessary producer Wyatt Reed to discuss the latest in US President Donald Trump's apparent rapid coronavirus recovery, the persistent rumors that Trump's coronavirus diagnosis was all for show, and how Democratic credulity and well-wishing exposes the limits of liberal resistance to Trump.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined byPatricio Zamorano, political analyst and co-Director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), to discuss the fallout from viral footage seemingly showing Chilean police pushing a teenager off a bridge, how "regressive" policies and taxes by the neoliberal Chilean government continue to give rise to resistance movements there, and the role of the US government in perpetuating state-sanctioned human rights violations in Chile beyond.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa to discuss the introduction of the EARN-IT Act in the US House of Representatives, the letter by Republican Congressman Ken Buck describing the upcoming US House of Representatives antitrust report as a “thinly veiled call to break up” Big Tech firms, and why the announcement that AT&T 'killing DSL' means the gap in access to high-speed internet will only grow worse.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast, to discuss Trump's dangerous attitude towards the coronavirus and US public health more broadly, the need to organize outside the two-party system to achieve meaningful working-class liberation, and the news Trump has instructed Republicans to stop negotiations on a coronavirus stimulus package.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined from London by Taylor Hudak, journalist and co-founder of Action 4 Assange, to discuss the latest in the Julian Assange extradition hearing, the horrific physical and legal treatment he continues to receive amid the politically-charged trial, and why the corporate media shows so little interest in a trial with such potentially far-reaching implications for freedom of speech.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Laith Marouf, an award-winning multimedia producer as well as a media policy and law consultant with the Community Media Advocacy Centre, to discuss the new economic sanctions unleashed on post-explosion Lebanon by the US naming two former ministers, why so-called "targeted sanctions" really punish the public, and the reasons that broader attempts by imperialist powers to isolate Hezbollah from its base and its allies seem likely to fail. In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kim Ives, editor of the English section of Haiti Liberte, to talk about the recent massacre in Port-Au-Prince, why many are putting the blame at the feet of former police officer Jimmy "Barbecue" Cherizier, and why the apparent assassination of Haitian legal expert and head of the Port-Au-Prince bar Monferrier Dorval reflects the deep instability plaguing the country.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta, to talk about the contrast in the empathy extended to alleged Kenosha protest killer Kyle Rittenhouse and DC's latest victim of police execution, Deon Kay, why the wave of police resignations occurring across the country may not signal the sea change which some suggest, and why arguments suggesting foreign powers are behind the uprisings against police terror—like the demand for 'non-violent protest'—ultimately serve the interests of the ruling class.
Special guests Cairo Person of We-Remember, Community Advocate Jeffrey Benson and, Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders gives us lessons, tips and expertise on bringing our communities together --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta, to talk about the second night of the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee, the shared "values" that Iraq War architect Colin Powell holds in common with presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, and why the Democratic Party continues to show more interest in courting Republican voters than progressives. In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by international affairs and security analyst Mark Sleboda to discuss Belarusian opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya's new shadow government, apparent US and EU attempts to influence the situation in Belarus, why many sympathetic observers worry that Belarussian residents' legitimate grievances with the government of President Alexander Lukashenko have been "hijacked" in another NATO-backed attempt to enact regime change.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Nii Akuetteh, democracy activist, US-Africa relations analyst and professor at George Washington University, to talk about the military coup which last night forced the resignation of the President of Mali, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, how both local and international forces are reacting to the developments, the "central role" of French imperialism in exacerbating the conditions for the seizure of power by unelected military forces.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Jim Kavanagh, a political analyst and contributor to Counterpunch and ThePolemicist.net, where you can read his piece “Over the Rainbow: Paths of Resistance After George Floyd,” to discuss the apparent decision by establishment Democrats to double down on their failed 2016 electoral strategy, the Biden campaign's rejection of the Boycott, Divest, & Sanctions movement as an attempt to "unfairly single out and delegitimize Israel," and why Biden's foundational role in many of US imperialism's worst crimes undercut the narrative that not voting for him is a "privileged" position.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by international affairs and security analyst Mark Sleboda to talk about the news that Russia has produced the world's first coronavirus vaccine, what explains the overwhelming skepticism of the drug among the mainstream media, and the recent re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie continue to be joined by international affairs and security analyst Mark Sleboda to discuss protests in Belarus amid opposition claims of electoral fraud, how broader domestic and international political dynamics are impacting the situation on the ground there, and the significance of Hong Kong's detention of anti-government protest sponsor Jimmy Lai. In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Leith Marouf, award-winning multimedia producer and media policy and law consultant with the Community Media Advocacy Centre, to talk about the resignation of the Lebanese government in the wake of the last week's explosion which leveled the port of Beirut, how the same European powers which colonized Lebanon centuries ago are poised to exploit the tragedy today, and why imperialist attempts to use the crisis to isolate Hezbollah politically may prove more difficult than imagined.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta and co-host of the Renegade Culture podcast, to discuss the resurgence of political hip-hop amid the uprising against racist police terror, the resignation of Seattle's police chief in response to a relatively small cut to the police budget, and how attempts to blame the 'culture' for problems in working communities tend to overlook the role of capitalism in perpetuating poverty.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary on Radio Sputnik hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta, to talk about the new "police reform" bill unveiled by Senate Republicans today, the differences between the GOP legislation and the rival bill by Democrats, and why so little of it seems to appeal to the growing and outspoken movement against police violence.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Margaret Flowers, Co-Founder of Popular Resistance Director of the Health Over Profit for Everyone Campaign, to talk about the recent surge in COVID-19 cases as much of the country "reopens," why many media outlets and politicians appear to be pinning the uptick in cases on the protest movement sweeping the country despite a broad lack of evidence, and why shifting from 'private' to 'public' is the only way to fully eliminate racial disparities in the healthcare system.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Leo Flores, Latin America Campaign Coordinator at CODE Pink to talk about his recent article, "Trump Hammers Cuba While Cuba Cures the Sick Worldwide," the new sanctions recently imposed on Cuba, and why the escalations in the Trump administration's economic aggression towards Cuba seem destined to fail.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Margaret Kimberley, editor and senior columnist at Black Agenda Report and author of the new book "Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents," to talk about the testimony today by George Floyd's brother to the United Nations Human Rights Council, the series of potential lynchings of young black men which have quickly been labelled "suicides" by local police departments across the country, and the significance of the massive shift in popular sentiment around protests, white supremacy, and racist police terror.
In this episode of By Any Means Necessary hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by recently-freed MOVE Family member Janine Africa to talk about what it's like finally being out of prison after over 40 years of imprisonment, why their peace-oriented outlook was considered such a threat by the power structure, and how the horrors enacted by the city on the MOVE family 35 years ago make any supposed apology from city officials seem so insincere.In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by formerly unhoused poverty scholar, revolutionary journalist, and co–founder of POOR Magazine, to talk about her group's efforts to protest the treatment of houseless people amid the pandemic, what the government's refusal to provide shelter says about the twisted priorities of our political system, and why the police's continued persecution of the unhoused community demonstrates that their primary duty is to the rights of property—not humans.In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by National Director of Justice Action Mobilization Network Joel Segal to talk about the new round of coronavirus stimulus proposed by House Democrats, whether progressive doubts about the bill can be addressed as the details continue to be worked out, and whether we can expect to see a piecemeal government approach to the virus as time goes on.Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta, to talk about the new lawsuit by the family of the EMT worker shot and killed by police during a botched no-knock raid on the wrong house, the racist double standards in policing exposed by the Ahmaud Arbery killing, and how the false dilemma between death by disease or starvation exposes the limits of capitalism.
On this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Dr. Jack Rasmus, economist, radio show host, & author of "The Scourge of Neoliberalism," to talk about the all-out price war hitting the oil markets, why the collapse of asset markets as the Coronavirus guts global demand has led us to this moment, why this news immediately sparked a selloff and likely means we're almost certainly in a global recession now, how the US fracking industry originally managed to upend traditional energy markets and how it may be affected now, why fracking companies overextended on junk bonds are likely to face extinction, why the decision to maintain low interest rates means there's no longer any ammunition left in the Fed's holster and it will have to engage in further large-scale quantitative easing and tax cuts, how the overuse of those tools to fatten corporate profits means their efficacy has been severely reduced, why the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic will be felt most acutely by working people. In the second segment, Jacquie and Sean are joined by Kamau Franklin, Founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta, to talk about the news that Kamala Harris and Cory Booker are endorsing Joe Biden for the Democratic Party presidential nominee, why the timing of the endorsement and the fact that Harris and Booker had previously condemned his segregationist policies implies a level of political opportunism, why those two candidates largely failed to attract substantial numbers of Black voters, why the Congressional Black Caucus' proximity to the halls of power precludes the group from being able to meaningfully and positively impact the Black community. In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Jeb Sprague, a research associate at the University of Cali Riverside and author of “Globalizing the Caribbean: Political Economy, Social Change, and the Transnational Capitalist Class,” to talk about the news that the top court in Guyana has halted the release of its presidential election results amid fraud allegations, which regional dynamics play into that Guyana's ongoing political instability, why the next political party to take charge of the country's bourgeois democracy is likely to control a serious windfall of oil profits from extraction by transnational companies like Exxon, and how NATO powers are exploiting the recent trend of integration of Global South economies into the global market to isolate, undermine, and destabilize Venezuela as well as its regional allies.Later in the show, Jacquie and Sean are joined by Ajamu Baraka, National Organizer for the Black Alliance for Peace, to talk about the new endorsements accrued by the Biden campaign over the weekend, why Elizabeth Warren may still be waiting in the wings as the Democratic establishment's Plan B if Joe Biden's glaring weaknesses are used to push him out of contention, why the Democratic establishment's suppression of the progressive factions of their base only ever seems to further inflame intraparty tensions, what the configuration of a 'New Left Front' with a critical approach towards the electoral process may look like, how the obsession with framing Trump as an existential threat to the US is being used to manufacture momentum for Joe Biden, whether Sanders' affirmation that he would support the Democratic nominee regardless of their identity was actually a smart political move, how the New McCarthyism which originally targeted Baraka's 2016 Green Party Vice Presidential run has seemingly gained a stranglehold over the US media landscape, whether perceptions that older Black voters don't understand the Sanders platform actually reflects pragmatism among those who don't believe white voters will ultimately vote for him, why approaching the Sanders campaign from a leftist perspective is so difficult because his campaign is full of contradictory positions for leftists, and why conservative successes in taking over state legislatures have left many cities at a permanent electoral damange.
On this episode of "By Any Means Necessary" hosts Jacquie Luqman and Sean Blackmon are joined by Kamau Franklin, founder and Board President of Community Movement Builders in Atlanta, to talk about the Democratic debate in New Hampshire, if Joe Biden may be exiting the race sooner rather than later, how Buttgieg's dismal poll numbers among Black voters foreshadow a poor showing in southern states later in the campaign, and whether Bloomberg will run as a third-party candidate if he fails to secure the Democratic nomination. In the second segment, Jacquie and Sean continue to be joined by Kamau Franklin to explain why (with the centrist position occupied by Buttigieg and the more progressive position by Bernie Sanders) Warren is getting desperate as she struggles to find a niche, the devastating cuts to the social safety net proposed by Trump's new budget, and why the Democratic Party condemns such cuts despite frequently helping Republicans enact them. In the second segment, Jacquie Luqman and Sean Blackmon are joined by Helena Cobban, veteran foreign affairs writer and founder and CEO of Just World Books, to talk about the revelation that the US government may have intentionally misplaced blame for the missile attacks on a US military base to justify assassinating Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, why the US government is refusing to provide any evidence that Khataib Hezbollah was responsible for the attacks despite requests from numerous high-level Iraqi officials, and how this latest escalations in tensions ties into the protracted struggle between US and Iraqi officials over the country's future.Later in the show, Jacquie and Sean are joined by Jamal "DJ One Luv" Muhammad, host of the "Love Lounge" radio show on Square1Radio.com, to talk about how the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary are exposing deep division within the Democratic Party and unity within the Republican Party, how Tom Perez's refusal to step down as Democratic Party chair speaks to the arrogance of the party's leadership, why so many candidates tend to offer empty talking points instead of substantial policy proposals to Black voters, how Snaders maintains a progressive stance on demostic issues but stays with the status quo on foreign policy, what Chris Matthews' deep-seated anti-communism stands in stark contrast to improving attitudes towards socialism in the US, how the disappearance of the Red Menace from mainstream discourse has allowed for the ruling class to roll back hard-won social reforms but also exposed the hypocrisies of the American Dream, why so many people in the US are predisposed to fearing Official Enemy States which have never attacked them, and why the New York Police Department's union is declaring "war" on Mayor Bill de Blasio.
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