Bill Ayers

I know how hard it is for Americans—leftists included—to hold two ideas in your heads at the same time. But try it: the Russian invasion of Ukraine was an illegal and monstrous act, full stop; the US and NATO are not forces for peace or justice, full stop. It’s hard—you want good guys somewhere.
For those of you who think Russia is justified, where does justification for invasion stop? Finland? Moldova? Georgia? How about Israel into Jenin—if they feel threatened?
For those who think the US must support Ukraine, how much is too much? Are cluster bombs OK? Tactical nuclear weapons? $100 billion? A trillion?
This war, like all wars, will end in negotiation, so we should all put our shoulders on that plow: Negotiate Now!

What to the slave is your Fourth of July?

Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? And am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you this day rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought life and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today?

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days of the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is a constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes that would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of these United States at this very hour.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, to-day, pour forth a stream, a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and the crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

https://www.haymarketbooks.org/blogs/490-rise-up-and-read-chicago

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Episode # 74: Organizing to Change the World with Clément Petitjean

One of Karl Marx’s most famous dictums is carved onto his gravestone: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.” The first step is opening our eyes, making meaning and making sense, interpreting and constructing a world. Another step is allowing ourselves to feel the world throbbing inside of us, to hear its rhythmic heart-beat in synch with our own—to be astonished at all the beauty and splendor and magnificence available in all directions, as well as all the unnecessary suffering and undeserved pain. And then, acting in response to what the known demands of us, to do something. This takes us into the realm of strategy and tactics where we organize ourselves for action, stating our values, our aims and objectives, and then making and implementing a plan. I’m joined at Pilsen Community Books in a far-ranging conversation with the talented thinker and writer Clément Petitjean about his important new book, Occupation: Organizer, and the challenge of organizing to change the world.