Haley Pessin - The Radical Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer

[AR Upcoming] Haley Pessin - The Radical Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer Fannie Lou Hamer was a fighter for equality and justice who said, “If I fall, I’ll fall five feet four inches forward in the fight for freedom.” Going against entrenched racism she was able to accomplish much in gaining voting rights for African Americans. She died in 1977 at the age of 59. Voting rights remain under attack. In the old days, it was poll taxes, literacy tests and KKK terror. Today, racist legislatures suppress voter turnout, gerrymander districts, limit places where you can cast your ballot and crucially impose voter ID laws. A driver’s license is often required. Blacks are the main target of these new restrictions. According to one study, 37 percent of African Americans do not have a valid driver’s license compared to 16 percent of whites. The struggles that Fannie Lou Hamer faced have taken on new shapes and forms. Haley Pessin is a member of the International Socialist Organization in Upstate NY, and organizes with the Rockland Coalition to End the New Jim Crow. Feed Date & Time: Tuesday, October 30, 1400-1459ET Terms: Free of Charge to All Stations Contact Phone: (303) 473-0972 Email: info@alternativeradio.org Web: http://www.alternativeradio.org © 2018 Alternative Radio | info@alternativeradio.com | (800) 444-1977

Susan Collins’s Declaration of Cowardice as She Will Be Remembered as being on the Wrong side of History

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) speaks on the Senate floor on Friday about her vote in support of Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh. (Senate TV/AP)

By Dana Milbank

Columnist

October 6 at 4:24 PM

After Sen. Susan Collins announced on the Senate floor Friday that she would cast her deciding vote to confirm Brett M. Kavanaugh, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) rose to liken her to another Republican from Maine, Margaret Chase Smith, “the first member of the United States Senate to take on Joseph McCarthy . . . this demagogue and the tactics that he employed.”

If the Republican leader was too subtle, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), speaking next, left no doubt: “This is as close to McCarthyism as I hope we get in my lifetime,” Graham said of the Democrats, whom he accused of “mob rule.”

It was an insult to the memory of Margaret Chase Smith, whose heroic and patriotic 1950 speech, a “Declaration of Conscience,” was a lonely denunciation of the demagogue who dominated her Republican Party. Collins’s speech, ignoring the new demagoguery that has overtaken her party while criticizing the other side, was the very opposite. Hers was a Declaration of Convenience, a Declaration of Capitulation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/susan-collinss-declaration-of-cowardice/2018/10/06/ee262620-c991-11e8-b1ed-1d2d65b86d0c_story.html?utm_term=.bc59c1a40d14