Tag: History

The Suppressed Martin Luther King Jr.

This is the first installment of the series, “Reclaiming History from the Revisionists”. In this episode we take a closer look at an often suppressed aspect of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Many throughout mainstream US society do they best, year after year, to suppress the revolutionary and radical aspects of MLK. They don’t want youth to know why the United States government vilified and targeted this man. The do this, in part, to prevent others from following in the enormous footsteps of this social justice giant. We must do our part to expose this often untaught history to as many as we can, especially the youth. A brighter and better future depend on it.

Six Thanksgiving Myths And The Wampanoag Side Of The Story

In 1621, though Pilgrims celebrated a feast, it was not repeated in the years to follow. In 1636, a murdered white man was found in his boat and the Pequot were blamed. In retaliation, settlers burned Pequot villages.

Additionally, English Major John Mason rallied his troops to further burn Pequot wigwams and then attacked and killed hundreds more men, women and children. According to Mason’s reports of the massacre, “We must burn them! Such a dreadful terror let the Almighty fall upon their spirits that they would flee from us and run into the very flames. Thus did the Lord judge the heathen, filling the place with dead bodies.”

The Governor of Plymouth William Bradford wrote: “Those that escaped the fire were slain with the sword; some hewed to pieces, others run through with their rapiers, so that they were quickly dispatched and very few escaped.

American genocide History Indigenous Rights Thanksgiving

On Contact: Teaching History For Indoctrination

“The teaching of history in our schools is not an impartial or neutral discipline. It is at its core about justifying the power of the ruling elites in the present by defining the ruling elites in the past. This means that history as it is taught in our schools is distorted and at times fabricated to achieve these ends. Racism, injustices, lies and crimes of the ruling elites are minimized or ignored. Problematic historical figures such as the overt racist and imperialist Woodrow Wilson are transformed into mythical social archetypes whose darker actions, including the decision to re-segregate the federal government, are whitewashed or ignored.”

Chris Hedges Class war Education History

How Socialists Won Our Democratic Rights

The myth of modern democracy is that it was handed down from on-high. In fact, the ruling class resisted extending the franchise at every turn – and it was socialists who fought them for the right to vote.
Since the advent of the modern state, ruling classes have tried to restrain the voting power of workers and those not “well-born.” Contrary to the mainstream story that capitalism naturally gave rise to democracy, establishment powers in nineteenth-century Europe restricted the vote for as long as they possibly could. Only when faced with mass mobilization — or when continent-wide war wiped out working-class males en masse — was it clear that the franchise could no longer be withheld.

Democracy History Socialism Working Class

An Historic Rant

We don’t need another post about “these times.” We can all pretty much agree that shit is weird – that we’re confused, bewildered and feel like we’re on a boat captained by Bond villains heading towards a waterfall, stuck in a cyclone, trying to build rafts out of shoelaces and hope.

Indeed, the discussion of where we are has hit a bit of a monotonous groove, a broken record type feel that just grates at us whenever we hear it. Someone just needs to kick the turntable and get us another round of beers.

A more interesting Pilsner pondering – one that’s at once more mysterious and more clarifying – is the future we dream of, and the past we can learn from. More than just simple cause and effect, the past is our map, and the future is our navigation plan. Without that map, how the hell can you know where you are, where you started, where the path has taken you, how the hell you got into this storm headed straight for a waterfall, and how to navigate out of it?

History Rebellion2020 storytelling West Virginia

The Roots Of Anti-Racist, Anti-Fascist Resistance In The US

“No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!” has been a popular protest chant since the New York real-estate mogul and former reality TV star became the 45th president of the United States. This was no mere rhetorical flourish. We saw a surge in the ranks of white nationalists and the “alt-right,” an escalation of domestic terrorist attacks on Black and Brown people, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, and the LGBTQ community.

Fascism History Racism

The Settler Playbook: Understanding Responses To #ShutDownCanada In Historical Context

On February 7, militarized RCMP arrested and removed Wet’suwet’en land defenders from their unceded territories, triggering demonstrations and blockades across the country. With large parts of the country’s rail traffic at a standstill, and shipping vessels unable to move goods, people are seeing that peaceful civil disobedience can #ShutDownCanada.

Canada History Indigenous Peoples RCMP

Bernie Sanders Was Right About The Cuban Literacy Campaign

The corporate media have long been looking for ways to discredit Bernie Sanders, and they settled on a surprising statement he made in the 1980s during his tenure as mayor of Burlington when he said, “We have a lot to learn from Cuba.” Now, they have latched onto a statement he made about Cuba during an interview on “60 Minutes” after winning the Nevada caucuses: “We’re very opposed to the authoritarian nature of Cuba but you know, it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad,” Sanders said.

Cuba Electoral Politics History Revisionism

The Terrorism-Industrial Complex (TIC)

A modified image of President Ronald Reagan with Afghan mujaheddins–‘freedom fighters’ against the Soviet Union in 1983. Today, against the USA, they are called ‘terrorists.’ 25 Feb 2020 – Since George W. Bush – a friend of the bin Laden family – declared the global “War On Terror” in October 2001, it has cost the American taxpayers approximately 6.6 trillion dollars and thousands of fallen sons and daughters…

Afghanistan History Inter-Imperialist Rivalry

Why US Generals Do Not Oppose The Disastrous Never Ending Wars

There once lived an odd little man — five feet nine inches tall and barely 140 pounds sopping wet — who rocked the lecture circuit and the nation itself. For all but a few activist insiders and scholars, U.S. Marine Corps Major General Smedley Darlington Butler is now lost to history. Yet more than a century ago, this strange contradiction of a man would become a national war hero, celebrated in pulp adventure novels, and then…

History Wars and Militarism

Remembrance Of Malcolm X On His 84th Birthday

I heard Malcolm speak when he came to The University of Wisconsin in 1963. He had yet to break with The Nation of Islam and was protected by several of their bodyguards. All were dressed nattily in suits and small knotted narrow neckties. Malcolm had light skin and reddish hair. “Detroit Red” they had called him when he lived there. He spoke in a cadence which was musical. I can’t remember the details of what he said.

Activist History Malcolm X

Saugeen Ojibway Nation Has Saved Lake Huron From A Nuclear Waste Dump

A major victory for Canada’s First Nations has just been won in Ontario. On January 31, the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) overwhelmingly voted down the proposed deep geological repository (DGR) for storage of low- and intermediate-level radioactive nuclear waste next to Lake Huron. The DGR had long been proposed by Ontario Power Generation (OPG), but in 2013 OPG had committed to SON that it would not build the DGR without their support.

History Money Talks Nuclear Saugeen Ojibway Waste

No Fascist USA! Lessons From A History Of Anti-Klan Organizing

Ever since fascism first crawled out of the ideological sewer, anarchists and autonomists have been there to confront, antagonize and organize against it. You need not dig deep into past history to find evidence of this. After the mayhem of Charlottesville, Cornell West, reported to Amy Goodman on Democracy Now!

Anti-Racism Fascism History KKK Racism

Freedom Rider: Prejudential: Black America And The Presidents

Ten of the first twelve presidents of the United States were slave holders. This is just one of many historical facts that this columnist discovered while researching and writing Prejudential: Black America and the Presidents . The newly published book is an exploration of black American history viewed through the prism of the presidency. Presidents appear on our currency, we live in cities named after them and attended schools called Washington…

Black America Electoral Politics History Racism

Patrice Lumumba: Revolution, Freedom, And Legacy In DR Congo

On Jan. 17 1961, the African leader and first head of government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) Patrice Lumumba was brutally murdered in a heinous crime that after almost 60 years remains unsolved; yet his legacy endures spreading across free peoples in Africa and the world.

Africa Class Struggle History

Daily movement news and resources