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From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation

Justin Campbell Los Angeles Review of Books
"Can there be Black liberation in the United States as the country is currently constituted?" asks Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor in her new book. "No. Capitalism is contingent on the absence of freedom and liberation for Black people and anyone else who does not directly benefit from its economic disorder." Justin Campbell, in this review, surveys Taylor's analysis of the roots, present status, and future prospects of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Why We Dream About a World Without Police

William C. Anderson Praxis Center
Who Do You Serve,Who Do You Protect questions the necessity of the police from several different angles. While some might talk about possibly reforming the police, many of the contributors to this anthology question the police down to their very existence. Contributors from different perspectives center the importance of a movement against state violence that appropriately challenges white supremacy.

The DOJ and the Counter-CAPS Report

We Charge Genocide We Charge Genocide
We wrote the Counter-CAPS report to challenge the emerging common sense on police reform. In the past two years, the Obama administration has advocated community policing as a key part of the solution to the “Post-Ferguson” crisis of police legitimacy. The Counter-CAPS Report is an expression of the movement’s rejection of false solutions like community policing.

Ava DuVernay Documentary About Sky-high Incarceration in US to Open New York Film Festival

Cara Buckley New York Times
Named after the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, “The 13th” threads together archival footage with modern-day commentary, and focuses on the ramifications of the amendment and its clause: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”

Clinton: First Day of Republican Convention 'Surreal'

Ken Thomas WiscNews
Secretar Clinton in addressing the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees in Las Vegas called the first day of the Republican Convention "Surreal". AFSCME represents 1.6 million public sector workers. She attacked the anti-worker policies of the Republican Governors of Wisconsin and Illinois, Scott Walker and Bruce Rauner. She said Trump had no solutions to help working families. Later in the day she picked up the support of UNITE HERE.

Free State of Jones: Two Views

Charles M. Blow; Mark Lause
The question is whether good film presents us a prettified view of the past or challenges us to realize that we are yet living with that past—and that, however comforting the desire to ignore it, we continue to pay a price for failing to own it. We owe the makers Free State of Jones a serious debt for giving us the opportunity to do that.

 Night 1 of the RNC: When Plagiarism Isn’t Your Worst Problem

Joan Walsh The Nation
 There was a visceral and occasionally alarming passion in the hoots and howls of the delegates every time they had a chance to boo Clinton. The only other moments of genuine excitement came when two of the night’s three black speakers declared “Blue lives matter” and “All lives matter,” praising American police and attacking Black Lives Matter protesters. About policy: There was none. 

A Question of Leadership

Hillary Wainwright Red Pepper
The ‘new politics’ Jeremy Corbyn proclaims must be an explicit agenda of institutional change, not simply a change of style at the dispatch box, writes Hilary Wainwright

Cashing in on a Failed Coup

Vijay Prashad The Hindu
Mr. Erdogan deliberately linked the Gülen movement to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which the Turkish army has attacked in its bases in south-eastern Turkey and in Iraq. To call both the Gülen movement and the PKK ‘terrorists’ is a convenient way to sweep up all Erdogan enemies into one target and use the coup — a “gift from God” — as the opportunity to go after them with vehemence.