Radical Tradition
2016 2016-01Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 4 →
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(Left) Activist and scholar Angela Davis appears before a photo of Mumia Abu-Jamal as she listens to a phone message from Mumia to the Philadelphia conference on THE BLACK RADICAL TRADITION.
The Jan. 7-10 event, held at Temple University, drew over 1500 people, according to Tony Monteiro, one of the key organizers. The conference’s Call to Action decried a government that represses immigrants and Muslims while unleashing “a reign of racist police terror against people of color.”
The goals of the conference were broad, said Monteiro: “One, to discuss the moment that we’re living through ... in terms of the integrity and the safety of Black lives. And to go beyond, to the whole question of social and economic justice for poor people and for working people.”
The Thursday, Jan. 7, session, with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, was entitled “The Black Prophetic Voice in a Morally Broken World.” Friday evening’s panel discussed “The Moral Bankruptcy of Capitalism: The Black Radical Tradition as Socialist Alternative.” Cornell West was the featured speaker.
Saturday began with a panel on “War, Peace, and Global Justice: Resistance to the U.S. Empire,” with Glen Ford, Vijay Prashad, Johanna Fernandez, and Steven Salaita. Speakers at the Jan. 9 evening panel on prisons and political prisoners included Angela Davis, Charlene Carruthers, and Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Mumia reviewed the history of U.S. disruption efforts against the Black liberation movement. “Today,” he said, it’s perfectly acceptable to large segments of the American populace to beat someone to death ... particularly if that person is Black.” In these times, he observed, police are equipped with weapons of war, stemming especially from fake wars on terrorism; murder has been legalized.
Mumia said we should be encouraged by the formation of Black Lives Matter. Speaking to the younger generation, he enthused: “It’s movement time again! We welcome you—right on time!”
In riveting testimony, Mumia’s doctor, Dr. Joseph Har ris, fully described how over the past two years these new antiviral drugs (marketed as Salvadi and Harvo ni) have “revolutionized” the treatment of Hepatitis-C (HCV) with a 90-95 percent cure rate. Immediate treat ment for all those with active Hepatitis-C is now the recommended standard of care by the American Asso ciation for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD) and the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) and is en dorsed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC).
The World Health Organization added these new medications to its essential medicines list. In curing HCV, the “extra-hepatic” secondary symptoms includ ing fatigue, itchy rashes, arthritis and muscle pain will (continued on page 9, in “L.A. methane leak”)
the U.S.-Mexico border forced more mi grants to cross through the desert, lead ing to more deaths.
But who will take responsibility for these people as the flood of refugees continues? Who will take them in? As countries close their borders and mi grants are pushed from one place to the next, it is important to note that the ref ugee crisis, whether in Europe or in the Americas, is not about to go away. More people, not less, will continue to flee their countries as the climate crisis cre ates increasing environmental disasters around the world and the long reach of imperialism and capitalism continue to create unending poverty, war, and po litical unrest around the globe.
It is here that we must recognize the potential of mass movements to de mand change. The immigrant rights movement in the United States has successfully risen up against threats of deportations and abuses of workers in the past, and such a movement has the potential to do so in other parts of the globe as well.
We would all do well to become in volved in these grassroots movements and to stand in solidarity with our immigrant and refugee brothers and sisters as they struggle for their basic needs, against racism and exploitation, and for human dignity and respect. Any victory for the immigrant rights move ment is a victory against capitalism! n