radicalism

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• 9/20/2020
  

  Woody Guthrie's Communism and "This Land Is Your Land"

  by Aaron J. Leonard

  The author of a new book on the FBI's surveillance of folk musicians argues that Woody Guthrie did join the Communist Party, though he was at odds with leadership over discipline. The affiliation is reflected in the lyrics of his most famous song. 

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• SOURCE: Orange County Register
  8/9/2020
  

  There’s Nothing New About Federal Meddling In Protest Movements

  by Brian Bensimon

  The FBI has a long history of acting more as a "national security" agency than a law enforcement body, targeting racial and ethnic minorities and leftist activists. 

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• 7/26/2020
  

  One of the Chicago 7 Reflects on Dissident Politics Then and Now

  by Lee Weiner

  A veteran of dissident politics in the 1960s warns that while today's broad coalition of activists for a more just and democratic America are on the right track, they must learn from the mistakes of an older generation and find ways to keep united despite difference. 

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• SOURCE: The Intercept
  7/15/2020
  

  The Revolutionary Life of Paul Robeson: Scholar Gerald Horne on the Great Anti-Fascist Singer, Artist, and Rebel (Podcast)

  Historian and Robeson biographer Gerald Horne discusses the singer and activist's legacy and politics. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/obituaries/vale
  

  Overlooked No More: Valerie Solanas, Radical Feminist Who Shot Andy Warhol

  Solanas was a radical feminist (though she would say she loathed most feminists), a pioneering queer theorist (at least according to some) and the author of “SCUM Manifesto,” in which she argued for the wholesale extermination of men.

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• SOURCE: The Intercept
  6/27/2020
  

  Scholar Robin D.G. Kelley on how Today’s Abolitionist Movement can Fundamentally Change the Country

  "Part of defunding the police is a recognition that the police, as constituted, make life more dangerous for vulnerable populations even as it creates a sense of false safety for white people."

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• SOURCE: Boston Review
  6/11/2020
  

  Protest, Passion, Politics (Review Essay)

  "As protests work to remake the world, the reissue of Vivian Gornick’s The Romance of American Communism invites a new generation to reflect on what it means to live a life of political commitment—where the passionate pursuit of justice meets organized political action," writes Alan Wald, a reviewer of classic work of left political activism.

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• SOURCE: National Security Archive
  

  Documents Chart U.S. Embassy’s Effort to Answer Questions About the 1980 Death of an Acclaimed Scholar and Political Activist

  Recently declassified documents suggest the U.S. Embassy in Guyana harbored and concealed strong suspicions that the Guyanese government arranged the assassination of activist Walter Rodney.

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• Respectability and Remembrance: The Continued Condemnation of Black Resistance

  by Anne Stokes

  Addressing the full depth of racism and white supremacy in America requires understanding the limits of the non-violent civil rights movements, and the necessity of armed self-defense for African Americans against the violence perpetrated or instigated by whites — including the police — throughout American history.

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• SOURCE: The Nation
  3/24/2020
  

  The Roots of Organizing: The Young Lords' Revolution

  by Ed Morales

  In her new book historian Johanna Fernández makes the case for the Young Lords' influence as profound thinkers as well as highly capable street activists.

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• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  3/17/2020
  

  When “Fake News” Was Banned: An America Trump Might Have Loved

  by Adam Hochschild

  Exactly 100 years ago, this country’s media was laboring under the kind of official censorship that would undoubtedly thrill both Donald Trump and Mike Pompeo.

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• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  2/22/19
  

  Timothy Thomas Fortune: A Great, Forgotten Black Radical

  by Adam Sewer

  Timothy Thomas Fortune isn’t a household name, but he had a profound influence on the struggle for civil rights.

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• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  Accessed 2/12/19
  

  "Black Perspectives" Features Online Roundtable on Chris Tinson’s Radical Intellect

  Featuring articles from Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Kim Gallon, and Fred Carroll.

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• SOURCE: Pacific Standard
  1/16/19
  

  Jessica Wilkerson: If We Forget Appalachia's Radical History, We Will Misunderstand Its Future

  In her new book, Jessica Wilkerson tells the stories of the radical mountain women who fought against bosses and laid the groundwork for ensuing generations of Appalachian resistance.

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• SOURCE: Washington Post
  1/8/19
  

  Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says ‘call me a radical,’ a loaded word with a long history

  The word, used throughout history as both a pejorative and a badge of honor, has deep roots in American political rhetoric.

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• The Politics of Mother's Day

  by Rebecca Jo Plant

  Credit: Wiki Commons.Growing up in the 1970s in suburban Kansas City, Mother’s Day meant rising early with my father and sister to make breakfast and speaking in hushed voices as we crept upstairs with a carefully prepared tray.  Or it meant being allowed to use a paring knife to gather a bouquet of tulips from the backyard garden.