“The wolf and the fox are both enemies of humanity, both are canine, both humiliate and mutilate their victims. Both have the same objectives, but differ only in methods.”—Malcolm X [el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz]
The above words by Malcolm X, wherein he cited the example of the pernicious “methods” and “objectives” on the part of the euphemistic “wolf and the fox” against everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and throughout the world are morerelevant today than ever before. Both the Democratic Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves in this nation utilize every conceivable method to co-opt, neutralize, and crush genuine people’s movements for systemic change.
In a recent article by Glen Ford of the online publication Black Agenda Report (BAR), the timely and extremely urgent question is posed pertaining to the purported joining of Occupy Wall Street with Occupy the Dream: Is It Co-Optation, Or Growing the Movement? The points that Mr. Ford elucidates in his aforementioned article are crucial and right on the mark.
It is important to be cognizant of the fact that the de facto ‘leadership’ of Occupy Dream are in fact ardentsupporters of the rhetorically obfuscating and warmongering U.S. President Barack Obama—the very same Barack Obama who, on December 31, 2011, signed into law the most unconstitutional and draconian act [i.e. the so-called National Defense Authorization Act] which provides for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charge, trial, jury, or the right to legal representation. Yes, the very same Barack Obama who has also extended and expanded the odious and unconsitutional ‘PATRIOT Act’ as well as the U.S. policy of international kidnapping and torture known as ‘Extraordinary Rendition.’ This is the same Barack Obama who has refused to shut down the outrageous U.S. scourge of torture and imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay. Obama’s many military adventures, including the bombing of North Africa, and his ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, etc., are apparently of little or no concern to Occupy the Dream’s leadership, as they have yet to unequivocally hold Barack Obama publicly accountable for his actions.
The Occupy the Dream leadership supports the very same Barack Obama who facilitated the trillion dollar criminal ‘bailout’ of Wall Street’s corporate robber barons—the economic and social bloodsuckers of the everyday ordinary struggling people of this nation. Where is the single payer universal health care that 70% of ‘Americans’ supported and which Barack Obama himself removed from discussion, as his gift to the giant corporate pharmaceutical and insurance companies? How can Occupy the Dream seriously claim to be adherents to the “dream” of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who opposed warmongering and repeatedly and unequivocally called for social and economic justice beginning with the U.S. governmentitself? Their hypocrisy is self-evident. Their support for Barack Obama, who is drunk with power and who is moving this planet of Mother Earth ever closer to the brink of annihilation makes a pungent mockery and grotesque disfigurement of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy.
As is crystal clear in his ‘Beyond Vietnan—A Time To Break Silence’ speech of April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was about so much more than a “dream.” He was about taking action, standing up to those in power (from the president on down), and exposing the U.S. government as being what he correctly termed “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” Dr. King paid the ultimate price for speaking truth to power on April 4, 1968, when he was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had traveled to support the economic rights of sanitary public works employees. This government under the auspices of U.S. President Barack Obama, remains the greatest purveyor of both subterfuge and violence, and it is everyday people of all colors, nationally and internationally, who are its victims. This cannot possibly have escaped the notice of Occupy the Dream, even as it hypocritically supports Barack Obama. One cannot genuinely support the Occupy Movement while simultaneously supporting the chief executive (and his many political operatives) of a government that is busily dismantling human and constitutional rights while serving the interests of the avaricious corporate/military elite. To do such a thing is not pragmatism—it is disingenuous and crass opportunism. Either one supports real systemic change or one does not.
The ordinary people of this nation are experiencing a very real, prolonged and active nightmare,not a “dream.” The poignant words of Malcolm X applied not only to himself, but in varying degrees apply to the masses of everyday people of all colors today, when he said, “I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream—I see an American nightmare.”
The Occupy Movement, and indeed the collective struggle for serious systemic change as awhole, must be increasingly and continually vigilant, particularly as pertains to those who in actuality are systemicgate-keepers—functioning under the guise of some kind of nebulous “dream”—even as they simultaneously support and/or rationalize forthe very political powerbrokers who are incessantly and insidiously pimping the pain of the people in this nation and around the world.
The struggle continues. Onward, then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!
Intrepid Report Associate Editor Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil / political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, the San Francisco BayView newspaper, the Black Commentator,Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)
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Occupy Wall Street and Occupy the Dream: A contradiction in terms
Posted on January 17, 2012 by Larry Pinkney
The above words by Malcolm X, wherein he cited the example of the pernicious “methods” and “objectives” on the part of the euphemistic “wolf and the fox” against everyday Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people in this nation and throughout the world are more relevant today than ever before. Both the Democratic Party foxes and the Republican Party wolves in this nation utilize every conceivable method to co-opt, neutralize, and crush genuine people’s movements for systemic change.
In a recent article by Glen Ford of the online publication Black Agenda Report (BAR), the timely and extremely urgent question is posed pertaining to the purported joining of Occupy Wall Street with Occupy the Dream: Is It Co-Optation, Or Growing the Movement? The points that Mr. Ford elucidates in his aforementioned article are crucial and right on the mark.
It is important to be cognizant of the fact that the de facto ‘leadership’ of Occupy Dream are in fact ardent supporters of the rhetorically obfuscating and warmongering U.S. President Barack Obama—the very same Barack Obama who, on December 31, 2011, signed into law the most unconstitutional and draconian act [i.e. the so-called National Defense Authorization Act] which provides for the indefinite detention of U.S. citizens without charge, trial, jury, or the right to legal representation. Yes, the very same Barack Obama who has also extended and expanded the odious and unconsitutional ‘PATRIOT Act’ as well as the U.S. policy of international kidnapping and torture known as ‘Extraordinary Rendition.’ This is the same Barack Obama who has refused to shut down the outrageous U.S. scourge of torture and imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay. Obama’s many military adventures, including the bombing of North Africa, and his ongoing wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan, etc., are apparently of little or no concern to Occupy the Dream’s leadership, as they have yet to unequivocally hold Barack Obama publicly accountable for his actions.
The Occupy the Dream leadership supports the very same Barack Obama who facilitated the trillion dollar criminal ‘bailout’ of Wall Street’s corporate robber barons—the economic and social bloodsuckers of the everyday ordinary struggling people of this nation. Where is the single payer universal health care that 70% of ‘Americans’ supported and which Barack Obama himself removed from discussion, as his gift to the giant corporate pharmaceutical and insurance companies? How can Occupy the Dream seriously claim to be adherents to the “dream” of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who opposed warmongering and repeatedly and unequivocally called for social and economic justice beginning with the U.S. government itself? Their hypocrisy is self-evident. Their support for Barack Obama, who is drunk with power and who is moving this planet of Mother Earth ever closer to the brink of annihilation makes a pungent mockery and grotesque disfigurement of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy.
As is crystal clear in his ‘Beyond Vietnan—A Time To Break Silence’ speech of April 4, 1967, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was about so much more than a “dream.” He was about taking action, standing up to those in power (from the president on down), and exposing the U.S. government as being what he correctly termed “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today.” Dr. King paid the ultimate price for speaking truth to power on April 4, 1968, when he was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee, where he had traveled to support the economic rights of sanitary public works employees. This government under the auspices of U.S. President Barack Obama, remains the greatest purveyor of both subterfuge and violence, and it is everyday people of all colors, nationally and internationally, who are its victims. This cannot possibly have escaped the notice of Occupy the Dream, even as it hypocritically supports Barack Obama. One cannot genuinely support the Occupy Movement while simultaneously supporting the chief executive (and his many political operatives) of a government that is busily dismantling human and constitutional rights while serving the interests of the avaricious corporate/military elite. To do such a thing is not pragmatism—it is disingenuous and crass opportunism. Either one supports real systemic change or one does not.
The ordinary people of this nation are experiencing a very real, prolonged and active nightmare, not a “dream.” The poignant words of Malcolm X applied not only to himself, but in varying degrees apply to the masses of everyday people of all colors today, when he said, “I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream—I see an American nightmare.”
The Occupy Movement, and indeed the collective struggle for serious systemic change as a whole, must be increasingly and continually vigilant, particularly as pertains to those who in actuality are systemic gate-keepers—functioning under the guise of some kind of nebulous “dream”—even as they simultaneously support and/or rationalize for the very political power brokers who are incessantly and insidiously pimping the pain of the people in this nation and around the world.
The struggle continues. Onward, then, my sisters and brothers! Onward!
Intrepid Report Associate Editor Larry Pinkney is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil / political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities, Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. Pinkney is a former university instructor of political science and international relations, and his writings have been published in various places, including The Boston Globe, the San Francisco BayView newspaper, the Black Commentator, Global Research (Canada), LINKE ZEITUNG (Germany), and Mayihlome News (Azania/South Africa). For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.)