50th Anniversary of Malcolm X assassination (Feb. 21)

The Autobiography of Malcolm X,
original paperback cover

How can any radicalized in 60s baby boomer ever forget the greatest black leader of our time? With tens of thousands of black Americans in the streets again protesting police brutality (with chants of "Black Lives Matter!")

I vividly recall the still inflammatory images and speeches of Malcolm X. The 50th anniversary of his assassination is coming up on Feb.21. What radicalized  young whites observed was Malcolm's growth and evolution. In the last year of his life (read socialist writer George Breitman's book) he clearly began to connect the evil of racism with the evil of capitalism: "Show me a capitalist and I'll show you a bloodsucker", he declared.

In his famous biography Malcolm X described all the good the Nation of Islam was doing to rescue young black lives from the gutter, from alcoholism and drug addiction, to rescue black prisoners from self-hatred and self-destruction.

Yet in 1965 the Providence Journal was not impressed with Malcolm X : "Put down the assassination of Malcolm Little as a minor footnote in history." ( check your microfilms on this ).

These are the words of Malcolm X (1925-1963)
inscribed high on the front of the University of
Rhode Island Library. link

There is popular quotation of Malcolm expressing his love of books inscribed on the outside wall of the URI library. But his name was blotted out (last time I checked).
I glance at this internet headline: "Malcolm X was right about America". Yes, indeed!

Submitted to: letters@providencejournal.com

Social Justice - "dead in the water" ?

French President Francois Hollande is surrounded by Heads of state including Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Mali's President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, European Council President Donald Tusk, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Italy's Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and Switzerland's President Simonetta Sommaruga as they attend the solidarity march in the streets of Paris January 11, 2015.   PHOTO: Reuters

Well known Rhode Island radio-TV news anchor Gene Valicenti (630wpro.com) says this morning -in passing- that President Obama's plan to TAX THE RICH is certainly "dead in the water."

What, the ONE PERCENT won't hear it?  But we are all one united patriotic family in the struggle against Islamic extremism and terrorism?

Should we working class people of the United States forge a fatuous alliance with our own exploiters and oppressors to punish the downtrodden Muslims of the world?

Shall we join hands with the bloodsuckers of this world in order to make the world safer for their bloodsucking? Bought and sold bourgeois intellectuals babble about international terrorism as if it had no connection to imperialism and global capitalism.

Is social justice "dead in the water" under Republican political domination? Just what kind of "democracy" does the U.S. prescribe for the world? Worth dying for?

Submitted to: letters@providencejournal.com
 

Joining hands with the bloodsuckers against Islamic terrorism?

As a democratic Socialist well aware of the evils of capitalism, I know how hopeless are terrorist strategies to bring about a more just world. But your last sentence here rings false: "a call to collective solidarity against the menace" - of international terrorism.

In the capitalist news media commentaries there is not an iota of scientific insight into the root causes of this world's disorder. Do they think that for some  unknown reason normal individuals mysteriously become intoxicated with a deranged religious ideology? Bought and sold bourgeois intellectuals babble about terrorism as if it had no connection to imperialism and global capitalism.

Should we working class people in the United States forge a fatuous alliance with our own exploiters and oppressors – the infamous ONE PERCENT – to punish the downtrodden Muslims of the world?

I will never forget what that famous Black Muslim, Malcolm X, said about this rotten economic system: "Show me a capitalist and I'll show you a bloodsucker."

Shall we join hands with the bloodsuckers of the world in order to make the world safer for their bloodsucking?

A right wing radio news anchor here in Rhode Island, U.S.A ( Gene Valicenti , 630 wpro.com ) tells me this morning that President Obama's plan to TAX THE RICH is certainly "dead in the water." But we are all one united patriotic family against Islamic extremism and terrorism?

Just what kind of DEMOCRACY does America recommend to the world? Ask WATCHING AMERICA !

(comment on article in Les Echos ( France ) on Jan. 12, 2015 , by Dominique Moisi , WATCHING AMERICA)