Mark Maynard | civil rights

Boots Riley of The Coup… on Communism, Corporatism, hip-hop, and the need to beat down scabs

By Mark | November 28, 2012

Last night, I had the occasion to speak with world-renowned hip-hop provocateur Boots Riley on a wide range of subjects spanning from his childhood in Detroit, spent in a household of Communist organizers, to his current work, organizing people in his neighborhood as a member Occupy Oakland. And, of course, we touched on his equally [...]

Posted in Art and Culture, Civil Liberties, Corporate Crime, Detroit, Economics, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged 21 Grams, 9/11, advertising, Alex Rivera, American Splendor, anti-capitalist, at-risk youth, Barbara Ransby, Bill Maher, Boots Riley, California, Capitalism, class, College of Ethnic Studies, Communism, Congress of Racial Equality, CORE, Danny Goldberg, dark comedy, fast food workers union, Five Million Ways to Kill a CEO, foreclosure defense, fundraisers, Greensboro, guillotine building workshop, Happiness, hip hop, ILWU, independent film, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, interviews, Japanther, Jeff Clark, K-Mart, Kev Choice, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, La Peña Cultural Center, labor history, labor movement, Led Zeppelin, Levi's, longshoremen, lunch counter sit-ins, Magic Clap, Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night, militancy, NAACP, Nirvana, North Carolina, Oakland, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Sandy, Ohio Players, Oscar Grant, Ozone House, picket lines, police brutality, political hip hop, political organizing, Politically Incorrect, Port of Oakland, Progressive Labor Party, Prop 21, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, rap, revolution, rhetoric of violent revolution, San Francisco, San Francisco State, San Francisco State strike, scabs, SDS, sit-down strikes, Sleep Dealer, social justice, Sorry to Bother You, speaking truth to power, Street Sweeper Social Club, Students for a Democratic Society, sympathy strikes, Taft–Hartley Act, Ted Hope, The Coup, The Guillotine, The Ice Storm, threat of violence, unions, United Steelworkers, USW, Walmart, Walter Riley, Washtenaw Eviction and Foreclosure Defense, we need a revolution, WEFD, Woodruff's, work stoppage, World Trade Center | 25 Comments

The New Yorker enthusiastically endorses Obama, saying his reelection is “a matter of great urgency”

By Mark | October 26, 2012

God, I love the New Yorker. Their endorsement of Obama is one of the very best things that I’ve read over the course of this past year. It’s thoughtful, comprehensive, and brilliantly written. Following are two brief clips. One pertains to Obama. The other pertains to Romney. I’d highly recommend following the link, though, and [...]

Posted in Media, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged 47%, Affordable Care Act, American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, AmeriCorps, Ayn Rand, bipartisanship, Bush, class warfare, Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Elena Kagan, equal pay for equal work, FDR, Freeloading 47, gay rights, Global Warming, Guantánamo, gun control, infrastructure, Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, marriage equality, New Deal, Obama, Obama is a Socialist, Obamacare, Pell grants, predator drones, Republican lies, Republican obstructionism, right-wing extremism, Romney, Sonia Sotomayor, stimulus, Supreme Court, women's rights | 17 Comments

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

By Mark | October 30, 2010

It’s being reported that close to a quarter million people attended today’s rally in DC. That, for those of you keeping score at home, is more than three times the number of people thought to have shown up at the nation’s capital this summer for Glenn Beck’s public reclamation of the American civil rights movement. [...]

Posted in Mark's Life, Media, Politics | Also tagged Aqua Buddha, Glenn Beck, Glenn to the Mountaintop, Jon Stewart, Keep Fear Alive, Kentucky, Rally to Restore Sanity, Rand Paul, tea party, the sad state of journalism, the shameful state of the American press, Tim Profitt | 13 Comments

Remembering Martin Luther King

By Mark | January 18, 2010

I think it’s been about three years since I swore off the terror porn of Fox’s 24, but here I am, on Martin Luther King Day of all days, thinking about crawling back for more. I’m ashamed, but I guess it could be worse. I mean, it’s not real torture, right? Before I slink off [...]

Posted in Art and Culture, Civil Liberties, Pop Culture | Also tagged 24, Archie Byron, embarrassing confessions, embarrassing revelations about Mark's television watching habits, Fellowship of Reconciliation, FOX, Jack Bauer, Kiefer Sutherland, Ku Klux Klan, Martin Luther King, MLK, Montgomery Bus Boycott, non-violence, terror porn, The Montgomery Story, violence vs non-violence | 13 Comments

The ACLU’s “Justice Denied: Voices from Guantánamo”

By Mark | November 9, 2009

The ACLU interviews five British citizens held by American forces at Guantánamo for years without charge and denied any meaningful opportunity to challenge the legality of their detention…. Discuss.

Posted in Civil Liberties, Other | Also tagged ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, being held without charge, Guantánamo, Justice Denied: Voices from Guantanamo, War on Terror | 39 Comments

Tag Archives: civil rights

The New Yorker enthusiastically endorses Obama, saying his reelection is “a matter of great urgency”

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

Remembering Martin Luther King

The ACLU’s “Justice Denied: Voices from Guantánamo”

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