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Steps Toward a Third Reconstruction

Reverend Dr. William J. Barber, Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove Alternet
Reverend Dr. William J. Barber has been leading the grassroots, progressive movement in North Carolina. Here are his principles for successful organizing.

Ben Jealous, Danny Glover Back Bernie Sanders

The Baltimore Sun
With relatively little media coverage, some prominent Black leaders have recently endorsed Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, with a former head of the NAACP saying “Bernie Sanders has been a principled, courageous, and consistent fighter against the evils that Dr. King referred as the 'giant triplets of racism, militarism, and greed.’” Are these actions a sign that the presumed 'firewall' of support for Hillary Clinton in the Black community is eroding?

What Do Our Wealthiest Deserve?

Sam Pizzigati Too Much
Our world’s billionaires don’t merit either their billions, the economist Didier Jacobs suggests, or the right to claim we’re all living in a ‘meritocracy.’

Friday Nite Videos -- February 5, 2016

Portside
Jesus Reads Quotes From Republican Candidates. Six Responses to Bernie Sanders Skeptics. Movie 'Requiem For The American Dream.' New York Times Parody Edition. President Obama Speaks at the Islamic Society of Baltimore.

Tidbits - February 4, 2016 - The Bernie Generation, Bernie and After, and Hillary; Clinton's Attack on Reconstruction; Flint; Syria; Books on Black Liberation; and more...

Portside
Reader Comments: The Bernie Generation, and Bernie and After, and Hillary; Clinton's Attack on Reconstruction; Backlash to Corbyn and Sanders; Flint, Racism, African Americans and the Criminal Governor Snyder; The Syrian Peace Talks; Announcements: Building on Bernie: What Comes Next; Migrant Labor in China: A Post-Socialist Transformation; #BlackLivesMatter - Books on Black Liberation

How the World is Proving Martin Luther King Right About Nonviolence

Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan The Washington Post
"I left India more convinced than ever before that nonviolent resistance was the most potent weapon available to oppressed people in their struggle for freedom." - "The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr.," edited by Clayborne Carson. In this decade - in which more people are using nonviolent resistance than ever before - scholars and practitioners alike would do well to consult the pragmatic and principled wisdom of Gandhi and King in building a way forward.

February 4 - Rosa Parks Birthday; How History Got the Rosa Parks Story Wrong

Jeanne Theoharis The Washington Post
Rosa Parks was a lifelong activist who had been challenging white supremacy for decades before she became the famous catalyst for the Montgomery bus boycott. We see a woman who, from her youth, didn't hesitate to indict the system of oppression around her. As she once wrote, "I talked and talked of everything I know about the white man's inhuman treatment of the Negro." Today we honor her, as part of African American History Month.

Israeli Knesset Rejects Equality for All Citizens; Jewish West Bank Settlers are as Smug as White South Africans in 1980

James North Middle East Monitor; Mondoweiss
All constitutions in modern countries begin with stressing the principle of equality amongst their citizens. Even undemocratic countries adopt this principle legally, considering it a cornerstone for any modern political system, including democracy, which seems impossible and meaningless without equality. The Israeli Knesset rejected such legislation last week.

A #BernieLady in a BroWorld

Kate Albright-Hanna Medium.com
I wanted to see Elizabeth Warren run for president. Institutional support was thin. They said that Warren didn't have a chance of winning. I found the argument that Elizabeth can do more in the Senate (but not in the Senate leadership!) than the presidency to be condescending - another manifestation of the glass ceiling. Yet the same people who were making those arguments against Elizabeth running are now Clintonsplaining that I'm a self-hating woman and a bad feminist.