In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Kenia Alcocer, organizer with Union de Vecinos and the Los Angeles Tenants Union to discuss the upcoming People’s Summit, a counter-summit to the Summit of the Americas which will likely exclude countries such as Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Cuba, the counter-summit’s focus on mass movements and liberation for all working and poor people in the Americas, how the counter-summit will make connections between the local struggles of Los Angeles and broader national and international struggles and foster transnational solidarity, and the attempts at repression waged by the US State Department and the LAPD aimed to disrupt dissent.
In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Dr. Dave Ragland, the Co-Executive Director of the Truth Telling Project, and Director of the Grassroots Reparations Campaign to discuss a recent report issued by the California Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans detailing the harm that California has done to black Californians from slavery to today, the controvery around eligibility requirement imposed by the task force to receive reparations, why the struggle for reparations must address both slavery and the dynamics of slavery that have been recreated since its supposed abolition, and the importance of grassroots movements to define the shape that reparations take.
In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Nate Wallace, co-host of Red Spin Sports to discuss the sudden death of former Dallas Cowboys running back Marion “The Barbarian” Barber III and the looming questions of the role of CTE and other damages from football in his death, another lawsuit filed against Deshaun Watson alleging sexual misconduct, bringing the total number of lawsuits to twenty-three, the ongoing transphobic attacks against University of Pennslyvania swimmer Lia Thomas, and how her recent interview illuminates the political and social implications of sports.
Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by James Early, Former Director of Cultural Heritage Policy at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution and board member of the Institute for Policy Studies to discuss the Russia's special operation in Ukraine and the shifting narratives that Joe Biden is crafting as the Ukrainian crisis threatens food prices and other resources, the shallowness of the diversion of Kamala Harris as the Biden administration fails to carry out its strategy of identity politics and representation in place of reforms for poor and working people, the response from Latin America to the Summit of the Americas that threatens to make it a flop, and the trajectory of Latin America and the US efforts to resurrect the Monroe Doctrine as Colombia looks to elect a progressive president.
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