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Watch: Forum on The Global Crisis, Ukraine and the Fight against Nuclear War

Last month, Voices for New Democracy hosted our latest monthly political forum discussing contemporary global crises, including Ukraine and the fight against nuclear war. Hosted by Dennis Torigoe with commentary from Jerry Tung and Bob Anderson, the forum touched on the factors at play in the current war in Ukraine and the threat of nuclear…

Watch: Monthly Political Forum on China and the New World Order

On Sunday, July 17th, Voices for New Democracy hosted our latest monthly political forum on “China and the New World Order.” Moderated by Voices editor José Z. Calderón, our guest this month was attorney, educator, and civil rights leader Stewart Kwoh. Kwoh is the founding President and Executive Director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice —…

Watch: A Brief History of the American Labor Movement

Voices for New Democracy contributor and Director of the UCLA Labor Center Kent Wong recently joined Senator Bernie Sanders and special guests Dr. Cornel West, Professor Tobias Higbie, and Professor Dana Caldemeyer for an hour-long discussion of the history of the American Labor Movement. Watch the full conversation below.

Military Buildup Ain’t The Way

Military buildup is not the way to peace, climate change, or a safer, sustainable and productive earth that serves the majority of people.

A Tribute to Marty Nathan

We invite you to join us in remembering our comrade Marty Nathan and reflecting on her legacy.

Watch: Forum on Progressive Electoral Organizing with Linda Burnham & Max Elbaum

This past Sunday, Voices for New Democracy joined our comrades at Convergence Magazine for a conversation with Linda Burnham and Max Elbaum around their new book, Power Concedes Nothing: How Grassroots Organizing Wins Elections, a collection of essays exploring grassroots mobilization as the key to electoral power. Burnham and Elbaum discussed their work with Convergence, pulled…

Remembering Lani Guinier

As we mourn the passing of Lani Guinier, we remember her 1999 remarks on the Greensboro Massacre

THE US DOLLAR REGIME

In advance of our upcoming forum on Modern Monetary Theory, Dennis Torigoe builds on his recent article on MMT, “The Dollar as the World’s Reserve Currency,” and addresses responses to it.

MMT Forum: Background Reading

In advance of our upcoming forum on Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) this Sunday, October 3rd, our panelists have assembled a helpful list of background materials to ground your understanding of MMT before our discussion. While Voices for New Democracy has published a number of pieces relating to MMT (here, here, here, and here), these additional…

Political Possibilites in the South & Sun Belt

Matt Perrenod discusses his new work focusing on the intersection of grassroots and electoral organizing, and their path to political power, throughout the South and the Sun Belt.

Truth & Reconciliation in Greensboro

Nelson & Joyce Johnson, founders of Greensboro’s Beloved Community Center, sketch out some of those values, assumptions and strategic objectives to establish a North Carolina Truth, Justice and Reconciliation Commission (TJRC).

The Dollar as the World’s Reserve Currency

Dennis Torigoe explores the role of the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency and the implications of Modern Monetary Theory in shaping the global economy.

Essay: What is Economic Democracy?

In this extended essay, J. Phillip Thompson explores new possibilities for transforming our political economy through new systems under the banner of Economic Democracy.

The Deep Roots of Anti-Asian Violence

Today’s crisis is an opportunity for Asian Americans to stand with people of conscience to demand a multi-racial democracy that the U.S. has never fully embraced.

Long Live the Day Laborers!

Professor José Calderón pays homage to José Fernando Pedraza and the movement to organize day laborers.

Forum on Labor’s Future: International Solidarity

As part of our recent Forum on Labor’s Future, panelist Carolyn Kazdin discussed the importance of international solidarity work for the American labor movement and labor struggles worldwide.

“Once In A While There Are Rainbows” – Podcast on Immigrant Justice

| José Calderón | Thank you to Professor James McKeever for this interview and his podcast that is advancing new and innovative scholarly roads. Please connect with this podcast for an informative discussion on the significance of community-based scholarship and the possibilities for creating new models of racial equity and quality of life that are…

Capitol Assault, Shay’s Rebellion and the Footballs of Mass Consciousness

| Steve Clark | After 57 percent of white voters went for Trump in November and, then, a section of them stormed the Capitol this week, progressive people are asking, “What is the deal with white Americans?” It’s a good question. Obviously, Trump made it ok to stand up for white supremacy, and he made…

Event: Racism and Policing in the U.S.A.

Police stand by while white supremacist mobs run amok. Black Lives Matter and other protests by the left are attacked with impunity. Police use deadly force against ordinary citizens, disproportionately people of color. All of this is current, but none of it is new. The Oakland Greens, Bay Area System Change Not Climate Change, and the…

Commentary: Capitol Rioters and the White Working Class

| Robert Glassman | I think the evidence would show that the overwhelming base of support for the violent clown car attempted coup at the Capitol was not white working class, but the expected fascist base of petit bourgeois and lumpen elements. Almost every article I’ve read about those arrested bears this out. Their social…

What The Left Can Learn From the Story of the CWP

| Harrison Neuhaus | Racist violence with minimal intervention from a sympathetic police force is a recurring theme throughout American history. The Left has long recognized affinity between the state and white supremacy as a key obstacle to social liberation. But as today’s Left grapples with a rising far-right and historic crises of legitimacy and…

Transcending Tribalism

| Steve Clark | In this interview, Alaine Duncan looks at our nation as a “trauma survivor” and discusses how to transcend tribalism. A challenge for our nation’s tribes is learning to tolerate our own discomfort and not perceive discomfort as unsafe. Transcending Tribalism Alaine Duncan graduated from acupuncture school in 1990 and completed Somatic…

Inequality: Why Are The Rich Getting Richer?

| Steve Clark | This short video from Positive Money (a British financial reform group) explains how government borrowing and interest payments to banks syphon money from the public to build bank profit. The system works the same in the US, but there is a better way: direct government spending.

Greensboro Massacre: Remembering a 1979 Moral Moment

From slave patrols to lynchings to last week’s assault on the US Capitol, police-enabled, racist attacks are nothing new in the US. One of these was the 1979 Greensboro Massacre in which five anti-racist organizers were killed by Klan and Nazi gunmen, abetted by local police. This month, a panel of survivors previewed a 20-minute documentary…

Job Guarantee: Economic Justice Cornerstone?

| Steve Clark | The notion of a Job Guarantee is on a lot of lips these days, led by modern monetary theory (MMT) proponent Pavlina Tcherneva, whose short book (128 pages!), The Case for a Job Guarantee, has captured widespread acclaim. In my opinion, it’s must-reading for anyone trying to define a truly transformative…

we will win: An Artist Response to Injustice

| Ana Maria Alvarez | In the wake of Ahmad Arbery’s murder, Jose Cano — the drummer of Las Cafeteras, a music group that we have collaborated with over the years — reached out to me. We both felt so angry and upset, and decided to create something together as a way to channel all…

On Supporting Immigrant/Refugee Rights

“Building Multi-Racial Coalitions Against Trump’s Criminalization Policies” | Jose Calderon | The families who are coming here from Central America, Mexico, and Latin America overall are coming as a result of years of this country’s foreign policies toward those countries and the growing violence and poverty. These reasons include the economic inequalities that exist between…

The Federal Reserve Should Be a Public Utility

| Madeline Chang | In 1985, the Post-Industrial Society published by the New Democratic Movement began to articulate a new vision of an economy that will provide for and be inclusive of all people in our society. It observed at the time that “most fundamental structural problem of the U.S. economy is failure to increase…

Biden’s First 100 Days

| Steve Clark | “At the end of February (1932) we were a congeries of disorderly panic-stricken mobs and factions. In the hundred days from March to June we became again an organized nation confident of our power to provide for our own security and to control our own destiny.”Walter Lippman. For understandable reasons, many…

A Tribute To Sandi Smith

| Leola Bermanzohn | This is a portrait of Sandi Smith from my first mural Women Warriors, painted in East Flatbush, Brooklyn, NY in October-December 2001. Sandi, Sandra Neely Smith, was one of the Greensboro Five – five people shot & killed by the KKK at an anti-Klan protest in Greensboro North Carolina on November…

Commentary: Owners to Owners

| Albert Lee | Commentary: “How NYC is attacking the racial wealth gap” – J. Philip Thompson, Daily News, December 3, 2020 NYC’s Owner to Owners initiative to support business owners with employee ownership solutions is bold, timely, and strategic. It’s bold because the program will conduct outreach to 20,000 businesses in the coming months.…

An Introduction to LeftRoots

| Carl Redwood | LeftRoots is preparing cadre as liberatory strategists for the next phases of our struggle to build 21st  Century socialism. In These Times describes LeftRoots as a five-year-old social­ist group that offers a hub for on-the-ground orga­niz­ers around the coun­try to strate­gize togeth­er. Left­Roots’ mem­ber­ship includes ​“super-majori­ties both of peo­ple of col­or, and of women…

On the White Working Class

| James Bernard | I think that there is a profound lack of compassion for poor and working class white people in this country.  I believe that there is white privilege and that the original sin of this country was slavery, something that is baked into our collective DNA.  I believe that the key to…

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Voices for New Democracy is sustained by the generous support of the UCLA Labor Center.