Whitney Houston Remembered for Unprecedented Crossover …
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In the wake of the successful pushback against the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure’s decision to defund Planned Parenthood, the Obama administration should listen to the majority of Americans: The United States, including Catholics, is strongly pro-choice.
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Part 2: "Who Killed Che? How the CIA Got Away with Murder": New Book Ties Johnson Admin to Che Death
In an extended interview, co-authors Michael Ratner and Michael Steven Smith discuss the life of Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara and the chilling story behind his murder by the Bolivian military. In their book, "Who Killed Che?" Ratner and Smith draw on previously unpublished U.S. government documents to argue the CIA played a critical role in the killing. [includes rush transcript]
Watch a 2011 interview with Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzón, who is on trial in Spain after right-wing groups objected to his investigation of atrocities committed by supporters of the dictator Francisco Franco. Garzón is known for seeking to indict members of the Bush administration for their role in torturing prisoners.
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Start 2012 off right with a contribution to Democracy Now!
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More than 10,000 citizens, activists and organizers gathered in Detroit in June for the second-ever US Social Forum. The theme was "Another World Is Possible. Another US Is Necessary. Another Detroit is Happening." Democracy Now! was in Detroit to broadcast during the conference and to take a closer look at the city of Detroit. Detroit was highlighted by conference organizers both for its example of the stark failures of capitalism as well as for its growing reputation as a model for renewal as a "movement city."
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Michigan Residents File Lawsuit Challenging Emergency Law Installing Unelected City Managers
June 23, 2011 | StoryA group of Michigan residents have filed a suit challenging a controversial new state law that allows the governor to appoint an unelected emergency manager or corporation to take over financially distressed towns and cities and effectively fire elected officials. The law empowers these unelected managers to sell off public property, shred union contracts, and privatize government services, without any input from local voters. Michigan now has unelected emergency managers running the schools in Detroit, as well as the cities of Pontiac, Ecorse and Benton Harbor. We speak to longtime Detroit resident, Edith Lee-Payne, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, and John Philo, legal director of the Maurice & Jane Sugar Law Center for Economic and Social Justice, which filed the lawsuit against the state of Michigan. [includes rush transcript]
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Grace Lee Boggs on Detroit and "The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Century"
April 14, 2011 | StoryWe discuss the state of the economy in Detroit, "ground zero" for the economic downturn in the United States, with civil rights activist and author, Grace Lee Boggs. "I think it’s very difficult for someone who doesn’t live in Detroit to say you can look at a vacant lot and, instead of seeing devastation, see hope," says Boggs, "see the opportunity to grow your own food, see an opportunity to give young people a sense of process, that’s very difficult in the city, that the vacant lot represents the possibilities for a cultural revolution." [includes rush transcript]
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Detroit Poet Jessica Care Moore at the U.S. Social Forum
June 28, 2010 | Blog PostJessica Care Moore is an acclaimed Detroit poet. Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke caught up with Jessica at the U.S. Social Forum.
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Detroit Urban Agriculture Movement Looks to Reclaim Motor City
June 24, 2010 | StoryIn Detroit, demolition crews are planning to tear down 10,000 residential buildings over the next four years that the city has deemed dangerous. But as old structures are coming down, the city is redefining itself in other ways. An estimated 20 to 30 percent of the city’s lots are vacant, and there is a growing urban agriculture movement that community groups are using to reclaim the city. Malik Yakini, chairman of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, gives us a tour of D-Town Farm, one of the biggest urban farms in Detroit. [includes rush transcript]
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Detroit Summer: The Youth Program that Inspired Many Activists to Make Detroit a Movement City
June 24, 2010 | StoryTo many longtime Detroit-based activists, urban farming and other community-based programs are a prime example of why they see Detroit not as Ground Zero for the recession but as a movement city — a place that uses crisis as an opportunity to nurture sustainability and community-building. When many of the Detroit-based activists and organizers are asked how they first got involved in their communities, they often mention Detroit Summer, a youth program started in 1992. We speak with Michelle Brown, who is sometimes called "the mother of Detroit Summer," and a member of the Detroit Summer mural project. [includes rush transcript]
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Detroit Hip-Hop Artist and Activist Invincible: Another Detroit Is Happening
June 24, 2010 | StoryInvincible performs an a capella version of her new "Detroit Summer" and talks about how youth organizing is transforming Detroit. She is releasing the song this summer on her own label Emergence, which is based on cooperative economics. The website TheTop13.com recently named Invincible the fifth best female MC ever, behind Jean Grae, MC Lyte, Lauryn Hill and Queen Latifah. [includes rush transcript]
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Over 10,000 March in Detroit to Open US Social Forum
June 23, 2010 | StoryThousands of people from across the country marched through Detroit Tuesday afternoon to kick off the opening ceremony of the US Social Forum. The colorful, joyous, and sometimes raucous procession down Detroit’s Woodward Avenue included social movements and community organizations struggling for justice on everything from healthcare, the environment, fair trade, labor solidarity, immigrant rights, and racial profiling to Palestine solidarity, ending the wars, police brutality, and the devastating impact of the recession on people’s lives and sense of security. [includes rush transcript]
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47 Years Ago in Detroit: Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Delivers First "I Have a Dream" Speech
June 23, 2010 | StoryWe turn now to another historic march down Woodward Avenue in Detroit. It was June 23rd, 1963, when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led a civil rights march of thousands and delivered a speech with what would become his most famous words: "I have a dream." The speech came two months before the historic March on Washington. We play an excerpt of the speech and talk to Grace Lee Boggs, who helped organize the march. [includes rush transcript]
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Adrienne Maree Brown on the US Social Forum, Detroit and Octavia Butler
June 23, 2010 | StoryThousands of activists and organizers have come from around the world for the US Social Forum for four days of workshops, meetings and marches to strengthen social movements and advance a progressive agenda. Democracy Now!’s Mike Burke was at Cobo Hall for the opening ceremony. He spoke with one of the national coordinators of the US Social Forum, Adrienne Maree Brown. [includes rush transcript]
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Disability Justice Activists Look at "Ways to Maintain Ablism" and Counter "How Our Bodies Experience Trauma in the Medical-Industrial Complex"
June 23, 2010 | StoryDisability justice activists gathered in Detroit to take part in the US Social Forum and the Allied Media Conference. "There is a growing framework about how disability connects with other issues," says Stacey Milbern. "It’s a way to maintain ablism and not look at the way disability connects in with how our bodies are policed or experience trauma in the medical-industrial complex." [includes rush transcript]
