The New Dark Age

by BAR editor and senior columnist Margaret Kimberley

Talk about holding President Obama’s feet to the fire was always empty noise, as many making it surely knew. In fact the US political system provides few or no ways for anyone except the wealthy to influence what legislators, judges, governors or presidents do, and many ways to ensure that those (s)elected to high office are disposed to protect the rights of the 1% against the 99%. Clearly, the First Black President is only serving his corporate masters, not serving us.

by Abayomi Azikiwe

An all white jury in Whirlpool’s company town, Benton Harbor MI overcame an astounding lack of evidence to convict Rev. Edward Pinkney of forgery on petitions to recall the city’s mayor. It’s the latest in a long series of willful political prosecutions of Rev. Pinkney. It must not stand.

by Sarah Lazare

Palestinian activist and torture survivor Rasmea Odeh was found guilty of an immigration violation on Monday by a U.S. federal jury in Detroit, following what her supporters say was an unjust trial for trumped up charges aimed at crushing political movements.

Call for Massive Demonstrations “the NEXT DAY” If Ferguson Cop Not Indicted

“Whatever the day is that they come back with no indictment,” as widely expected, against the Ferguson, Missouri, policeman that killed unarmed Black teenager Michael Brown, “we should fill the streets of America,” said Larry Hamm, chairman of the New Jersey-based People’s Organization for Progress (POP). Hamm spoke at a rally and march on the White House by the Black Is Back Coalition for Social justice, Peace and Reparations, of which POP is a member. “And, it shouldn’t be a one-day protest,” said Hamm. “We should keep the powder lit as long as we can.”

“Peace Through Revolution”

Omali Yeshitela, chairman of the Black Is Back Coalition, affirmed the organization’s endorsement of POP’s “Next Day” action. Yeshitela told a tech-in at Howard University on the day after the rally: The capitalist world economy is what gave rise to White Power. Europe achieved their identity as a consequence of slavery and colonialism” The fight against imperialism is a struggle for peace, but it requires a total transformation of society – “Peace through Revolution.”

Delegation Fights US Torture of Political Prisoners

Following through on previous successes in gaining United Nations recognition of US political prisoners, a delegation of US activists, backed by the Jericho Movement, is in Geneva, Switzerland, pressing for substantive change in the treatment and status of men and women imprisoned during the Civil Rights and COINTELPRO repressions. “We know that many of the political prisoners were, in fact, tortured” and that forced confessions contributed to their convictions, said veteran people’s lawyer Efia Wangaza, of the Malcolm X Center for Self-Determination, in Greenville, South Carolina. Some political prisoners have been held for four decades, largely in solitary confinement.

Mumia: It is Right to Resist

The nation’s best known political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, cites the example of the “Dallas 6,” who were charged with riot for protesting torture at the Dallas state prison, in Pennsylvania, in 2010. The inmates go on trial, this week, in Wilkes-Barre. “Stand up for the Dallas 6 for refusing to submit to torture,” said Abu Jamal, in a report for Prison Radio. “Stand up for justice and human rights.”

Cornel West and Bob Avakian Examine Religion and Revolution

Carl Dix, a member of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), has had half a dozen public dialogues with Black pu pic intellectual Dr. Cornel West, with whom he co-founded the Stop Mass Incarceration Network. This Saturday, November 15, West will engage RCP leader Bob Avakian, at New York’s historic Riverside Church – a dialogue that Carl Dix expects to be “even more interesting” because it will explore questions of revolution and religious belief.

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