7 Last Words: Strange Fruit Speaks

By Nyle Fort

The Crisis
Every 28 hours in America, a black person is shot and killed by police, security personnel, or vigilantes. This epidemic of racialized state violence has a long history in this country, from slavery and lynchings to Jim Crow and mass incarceration. As theologian James Cone writes in his book The Cross and the Lynching Tree, "Every time a white mob lynched a black person, they lynched Jesus." The state-sponsored execution of Jesus can be directly linked, both theologically and politically, to the execution of black bodies in America. What is our response to the deaths of Amadou Diallo, Shantel Davis, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Renisha McBride, Trayvon Martin and Sean Bell, just to name a few? Silence is not an option because silence in the face of injustice is sin.

The Call
How are we to express our righteous indignation? How can we respond, with integrity, to racialized violence? As Jesus calls on us to remember his death, so are we to remember the deaths of those "crucified" in our midst. The voices of the executed are crying from the ground, calling us as disciples of Jesus to remember them and advocate for justice. How may we do this? The Church is in desperate need of a political theology that speaks to our theological convictions as well as articulates our political commitments. We pray that this service will be one step in that direction. And the voluntary offering collected during the service will be donated to local organizations working to end police brutality and other forms of state violence.

The Event
Similar to the "Seven Last Words of Jesus" traditionally preached on Good Friday, we will convene a "Seven Last Words: Strange Fruit Speaks" service with a focus on the final words uttered by seven black people slain by police, security personnel, or vigilantes. These words will be the preaching "texts" for sermons on Eric Garner ("I Can't Breathe); Renisha McBride ("I Want to Go Home”), and Michael Brown ("Don't Shoot!”), among others.

The program will be live-streamed directly on the church's website: http://theriversidechurchny.org/
Tweet to show your support with the hashtag:
#7LastWordsRiverside

Watch Pablo Iglesias In Conversation With Amy Goodman

Our friends at CUNY are live-streaming today's much anticipated conversation between Pablo Iglesias of PODEMOS and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now. 

To watch the LIVESTREAM: Go to videostreaming.gc.cuny.edu and click on the link in the "Live Videos" box on the upper right hand side of the page. The talk is titled "Hope Is Changing Sides".

Follow us on Twitter @OccupyWallStNYC for tweets of us looking at Pablo Iglesias and Amy Goodman looking at REVOLUTION things. 

Opposition to Walker Budget Heats Up Despite Bitter Cold

Piercing winds and negative wind chills were not enough to keep hundreds of Wisconsinites from attending two actions against Governor Walker’s proposed budget cuts on the University of Wisconsin’s campus on Saturday, February 14. It was a cold, cold way to spend Valentine’s Day, with the wind in Madison whipping off of Lake Mendota, bringing the already frigid temperatures down to a danger zone of twenty-five degrees below zero. But this is Wisconsin, and in spite of the polar vortex, four or five hundred winter warriors arrived to rally. If these numbers, despite the cold, are any indication, Walker’s budget is drawing a lot of heat.

[Read more at Overpass Light Brigade]

#ChapelHillShooting & Numbers Vs. Reality

By all accounts, three particularly incredible human beings were murdered by a lone gunman about 36 hours ago in Chapel Hill. The victims were Muslim and the murderer was white.

In reflecting on this senseless killing, the oft-repeated statistic that 87% of mass shooters are white men between the age of 13 and 56 came to mind, as did the fact that America admittedly spends a disproportionate amount of resources spying on Muslim communities to prevent “violent extremism.” [Read the full Article on Keegan.NYC]

A #MoralMarch In North Carolina

Yesterday, tens of thousands of people marched on the North Carolina State Capitol in Raleigh to demand a $15 an hour minimum wage, voting rights, environmental justice, affordable healthcare, reproductive rights, and racial justice. This is just the beginning.  

      (Photo by Kaitlyn Barlow * Photographer | Cinematographer *)

Greece: The End Of Austerity

Syriza had 22 days to make history. This is how they did it.

Filmmaker, Theopi Skarlatos followed Syriza's activists, candidates and leadership from the waterfront, to remote mountain villages, to the nail biting final days. 

At this time, Theopi and her team are in the process of raising funds to make the follow-up documentary. 

Greece: Dreams Take Revenge

Book Launch: The Occupiers

When: Tuesday, Feb.17  from  6:30pm - 9:00pm  

Where: Institute for Public Knowledge, 20 Cooper Square, New York, New York 10003

Click here to RSVP

Celebrating the publication of Michael Gould-Wartofsky's new book, The Occupiers, this public forum will explore the ways in which the movement has lived on after Zuccotti Park. It will also help us set an agenda for future action. Activists Michelle Crentsil, Laura Gottesdiener, and Diego Ibanez, and moderator Bhaskar Sunkara of Jacobin, will join the author.

About the participants:

* Michael Gould-Wartofsky is a PhD candidate in Sociology at New York University and author of The Occupiers (Oxford University Press, 2015).

* Michelle Crentsil is an organizer and co-founder of the Occupy Wall Street People of Color Working Group.

* Laura Gottesdiener is a veteran of the People’s Kitchen and author of A Dream Foreclosed (Zuccotti Park Press, 2013).

* Diego Ibañez is co-founder of Occupy Sandy and the Occupy Wall Street Immigrant Worker Justice Working Group.

* Bhaskar Sunkara is founding editor and publisher of Jacobin Magazine.

Co-sponsored by the Urban Democracy Lab.

PS: There will be books on sale for those who can afford them, and for those who cannot, there will be a limited number available for free.

There will also be wine and cheese for all.

Pablo Iglesias In Conversation With Amy Goodman

When: Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2015,  1pm-3pm 

Where: Proshansky Auditorium, CUNY Graduate Center 365 5th Avenue

Ciick here to RSVP.  Please note that seating is 1st come, 1st served. 

Within just one year of its existence, Podemos has shaken politics in Spain. Started in January 2014, as a “citizens tool”, as a “method to turn indignation into political change,” and to challenge the existing Spanish political system, Podemos has become an unprecedented political phenomenon. In just four months, PODEMOS grew spectacularly, achieving 1.2 million votes in the May 25 European Elections, and gaining five seats in the European Parliament.

Since then, Podemos has continued to increase its presence and gain further support. Opinion polls anticipating the upcoming November elections, indicate Podemos would be the second most voted for political option. On January 31st, a 'March for Change' organized by PODEMOS gathered hundreds of thousands in Madrid." Its success can certainly be explained by the dire economic and social situation the Spanish people have been experiencing since 2008: austerity measures in healthcare and education, a housing crisis, and an unemployment rate that has risen to 25%.

But other factors contribute to the explanation of Podemos’ growth, such as its innovative use of political language and media visibility and its ability to relate to the preexisting horizon of social and economic discontent and desire for political change opened by the 15M movement in May 2011, and successive waves of citizen mobilization.

Why and how did Podemos emerge? From where has it come? What are the reasons for their spectacular growth? What are their methods and their political alignments? What is PODEMOS’ relation to Spain’s social movements? How does PODEMOS relate to existing political forces? What are the main proposals of their political program?

Introduced by Amy Goodman (Democracy Now), Podemos’ General Secretary Pablo Iglesias will address a NYC audience in a special opportunity to understand the political, social and economic context of PODEMOS’ emergence as a rising political force, and a unique political phenomenon.

THIS EVENT IS FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

The Left Forum
Center for Place, Culture and Politics (Graduate Center, CUNY)
Advanced Research Collaborative (Graduate Center, CUNY)
Left East
Urban Democracy Lab (NYU)
Verso Books
Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination 

Media Partner: @OccupyWallStNYC

Jornadas Podemos NYC con Pablo Iglesias y Pablo Bustinduy

El lunes 16 de Febrero a las 19:30 Pablo Iglesias y Pablo Bustinduy estarán hablando en el Círculo Español de Astoria en Nueva York. Las jornadas son abiertas por lo que no dudéis en acercaros.

Click here to RSVP on Facebook

Tell the @LeftForum the State of the Struggles #Activism

In preparation for Left Forum’s State Of the Struggles event, which will take place Saturday afternoon/early evening (March 14, 2015), we would like know more about your experiences and concerns doing activist and organizing work in NYC. Please fill out the linked form with your basic info and your answers to a few general questions. Your input will be crucial to locate what are the most pressing concerns of participants, what it is that we really need to talk about, and thus shape the content and structure of this collective conversation.

Valentine's Day Discussion Topic

"I will state flatly that the bulk of this country's white population impresses me, and has so impressed me for a very long time, as being beyond any conceivable hope of moral rehabilitation. They have been white, if I may so put it, too long; they have been married to the lie of white supremacy too long; the effect in the personalities, their lives, their grasp of reality, has been as devastating as the lava which so memorably immobilized the citizens of Pompeii. They are unable to conceive that their version of reality, which they want me to accept, is an insult to my history and a parody of theirs and an intolerable violation of myself."

- James Baldwin, New York Times, 1969

Jackson’s Rise: Revolutionary Dreams in the Deep South by Kayla Diliza and Eric Ribellarsi

We sat amongst thousands of people, almost all Black, some in dashikis or traditional African garb, others in their Sunday best. Throughout the service, the person to the left or right occasionally raised their fist, tears rolling down their face. They cheered for references to revolution from the stage.  Speakers called on the crowd to join in chants of, “free the land, by any means necessary!” We hummed to freedom hymns, embraced one another, and cheered to denunciations of capitalism and white supremacy.

This was the memorial service of Chokwe Lumumba, the late mayor of Jackson, Mississippi. And these are the people of Jackson.

Standing in contrast to the swell of genuine popular sentiment was the all Black contingent of cops who carried in Chokwe’s casket, and the traditional military horn bugling that followed. After all, this was a state funeral, for a state official. Among the movement itself, this very scene was a note of controversy: did it bring legitimacy to the movement, or did it create confusion about friends and enemies (and dishonor a fallen comrade)?

Just imagine: the Mississippi state flag, which bears the ugly symbol of the confederacy, flying at half-mast for the death of a known Black revolutionary.  Former Mississippi governor William Winter spoke about Chokwe at the memorial as a unifying character between the forces of Black liberation and white supremacy. Winter said that initially he “was afraid” of Chokwe’s election, but then he “was relieved” by Chokwe’s actions in office. It was a well-known game. This was a “Nelson Mandela-ization” of Chokwe, said a comrade in Jackson who opposed the inclusion of such figures in the memorial. Winter sought to assume the mantle of Chokwe and disappear his revolutionary contributions.

It was an amazing sight: the funeral of a popular Black revolutionary, who had briefly served as mayor of a state capital, in the heart of the deep South. Chokwe’s funeral captures the contradictions and turmoil developing in Jackson. And it’s no secret that these contradictions exist within the movement as well.

Jackson is a place of profound contradictions–waiting to explode.