Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.
Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.
His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.
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Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement
Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris
Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.
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who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!
For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video
Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.
Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.
"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.
Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.
Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.
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Interview with Kevin Alexander Gray, writer and activist Kevin Alexander Gray, conducted by Scott Harris
Observers of the issues discussed in countless speeches and demographic groups targeted at the Democratic and Republican national conventions easily could conclude that the primary focus of both parties' presidential election campaigns through November will be an all-out effort to appeal to middle-class voters. While politicians from both parties addressed the anemic economic recovery that has created a sense of uncertainty among many working families across the nation, little was said at either convention about the deepening poverty that is undermining the fabric of many of the nation’s poorest communities. Double-digit unemployment rates afflict both African Americans and Latinos.
Census Bureau statistics for 2011, due to be released in mid-September, are predicted to show that the nation's poverty rate has reached its highest level in 46 years, with up to 15.7 percent of the population now living below the official poverty line. Although the worst recession since the Great Depression has exacerbated the nation’s poverty level, a general trend toward greater income inequality across the country in recent decades has seen the poverty rate steadily rise since 2000. Alarmingly, child poverty rates have increased from 15 percent in 1970 to 22 percent in 2010.
While a relatively small number of protesters at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C. demonstrated in the streets to draw attention to the plight of the poor, continuing record numbers of home foreclosures and the lack of attention by either party, their message was largely ignored by the nation’s news media. Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with writer and activist Kevin Alexander Gray, author of “The Decline of Black Politics: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama.” He examines the Democratic Party’s aversion to confronting the nation's rising levels of poverty.
KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY: Well, you know, we're in the era of the idea where the poor are poor because they want to be poor. And of, course, people talk about "why aren't the poor organized?" Or "why don't the poor demand more?" Well, when you're poor, it's really hard to get to go to meetings, it's really hard to even pay for membership in meetings. You're trying to survive day to day. And there are not many organizations that take on the political organization of the poor.
And also, we're looking at a campaign season where race and racism are the primary weapons used to diminish candidates – and we're talking about Obama in particular. Obama's going to stay away from this idea of taking on the issues of the poor, because Republicans are running ads on welfare in some of the swing states.
And this whole strategy of the Republican party from Gingrich talking about the food stamp president, to Santorum talking about the blacks wanting to get something for nothing, to Romney going to the NAACP and kind of regurgitating Santorum's slander – it's all about race and appealing to a particular group of voters, and that's white voters. In particular, it's white male voters with both parties.
BETWEEN THE LINES: In exploring the whole issue of President Obama and the Democrats generally avoiding issues of discussion of poverty, and how this country should address it, part of the equation there is the political strategy saying that the constituencies, the poor people in this country, working families who are struggling, really have nowhere else to go. So they target all the political advertising and attention to white, working class voters and so-called independent, on-the-fence voters, leaving those issues off the table. It seems very cynical, of course, that you're just going to ignore your base voters because they've got nowhere to go, but that's in essence what's been going on.
KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY: Well, there's always another choice, it's just not a good one. You can not vote, which a lot of people have made that choice. They've decided that it really doesn't matter who's in office. And if you look at the unemployment rate for African Americans, you know the Democrats want to run this message that we are better off now with Obama in office as compared to four years ago, and maybe we don't have a war in Iraq that we see every day, although people are still dying every day. And we're still spending an untold amount of money on contractors in Iraq every day. Maybe we don't have that. But, you know, on the domestic front, unemployment in the black community is probably somewhere between 15-20 percent. It keeps increasing. And we're still facing a whole mortgage foreclosure crisis. And the wealth gap is growing for a lot of people, but for black people in particular.
But with this idea of racial solidarity and with this attack on Obama because of his race, black folk in particular take racist attacks on Obama as an attack on black competency. So you're almost forced to vote for or defend him, because you're defending his competence.
BETWEEN THE LINES: After the election, Kevin Gray, there's something called "sequestration" and a lot of discretionary domestic spending on the chopping block. There has been some discussion before between Obama and the Republicans about some kind of grand bargain where the targets are set on diminishing our social safety net programs and bipartisan effort where an agreement like that – although it failed before – where it could be reached after the election. What concerns do you have if Obama is re-elected, and he moves to that place he was at a bunch of months ago, trying to make compromise with the Republicans?
KEVIN ALEXANDER GRAY: You know what has to happen if Obama should win re-election and knowing that he would have nothing to lose. He is a privatizer and a corporatist. You would need to understand that. This idea of charter schools and privatizing the public schools. That's the big issue. And that's something we got to be mindful of and people kind of went along with Obama for the first term because of the optics who he was – racial solidarity – had no place else to go, want to see him get to that second term. But now, the threat or the stick, "moving forward", would have to be waved at those legislators that would vote for any grand bargain that wouldn't be in our interest. So it's about us organizing to educate people about the threat and some of the proposed suggestions in Simpson-Bowles (deficit reduction via austerity measures), such as raising the retirement age to 69 ... we've got to educate people on the threats to their future security.
Read more of Kevin Alexander Gray's articles on his blog at "The New Liberator.
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