In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Ryan Cooper, managing editor of The American Prospect to discuss the Supreme Court’s waning legitimacy following its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and the prospects for reform of the court, the challenge that faces Democrats to make a real promise to protect abortion rights and follow through on that promise, and what else is at stake in the upcoming midterm elections and whether Democrats will be able to follow through on the promises made on the campaign trail.
In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Natalia Marques, writer and organizer from New York City to discuss the over-policing of New York City’s West Indian day celebrations and how it relates to the gentrification of Brooklyn, how gentrification is pushing longtime residents out of their neighborhoods in New York, New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ support for the developers who are responsible for this gentrification and for the use of the police to enforce it, and how the history of resistance in West Indian day celebrations can be a source of inspiration to resist the racist police terror that comes with gentrification.
In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Rachel Thunder, lead organizer though the American Indian Movement for the Walk to Justice for Leonard Peltier to discuss a walk for justice for indigenous political prisoner Leonard Peltier to demand that the Biden administration grant him clemency, the importance of Leonard Peltier’s resistance to the broader legacy of the resistance of indigenous people to colonization, and how people can get involved with the walk for justice and with the broader movement to free Leonard Peltier.
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 what lessons can be learned from the defeat of the constitutional referendum in Chile and the legacy of the 1973 coup which overthrew Salvador Allende and installed the neoliberal dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, the media’s wall-to-wall coverage of the death of Queen Elizabeth II and why her legacy as an individual cannot be separated from the broader legacy of the monarchy, and the reopening of the border between Colombia and Venezuela and the broader fight against neoliberalism in Latin America exemplified in the rise of progressive movements.
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