This week on Capitalism, Race, & Democracy:
The UN Security Council recently held a hearing to consider threats to international peace and security, specifically threats caused by massive weapons flows into the Ukraine War. The Russian Federation requested the meeting and asked journalist and Grayzone Editor Max Blumenthal to speak about US expenditures and weapons flows into Ukraine.
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On August 1, 340,000 Teamsters working for United Parcel Service may go on strike and, according to Philadelphia IBT 623 Executive Officer Richard Hooker, they are still not being told what the union is demanding from the company. Hooker spoke with Pacifica’s Steve Zeltzer.
UPS Contract Struggle At Crossroads, Union Democracy & Workers Power With Philly IBT623 Pres Hooker
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On June 8, 2023 in Houston, TX a coalition of organizations held a news conference and rally prior to the first meeting of the unelected Houston Independent School Board appointed by the State of Texas. The Texas Education Agency first attempted to seize control of the Houston Independent School District in 2019. After a long legal battle, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in January 2023 that State appointed managers could replace elected school board members in the largest school district in Texas. The justices overruled an appellate court’s decision that had barred the Texas Education Agency from taking over a mostly Black and Latino school district in Houston.
The Houston Independent School District had ONE underperforming school last year, out of a total of 276. Recently a newly appointed board approved a $2.2 billion budget that included cuts to the central office and contractor services. The number of jobs that are expected to be cut was not announced.
Mayor Sylvester Turner posted online that the TEA takeover of the Houston Independent School District could last at least seven years.
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Frederick Douglass delivered a speech on July 5, 1852 to a group of abolitionists, reminding them that for enslaved and formerly enslaved Africans, the Declaration of Independence represented the unfulfilled promise of liberty for all. Here is Phil Darius Wallace, reading excerpts from the speech at a program organized by the U. S. National Archives and Records.
Host: Akua Holt
Produced by the CRD Collective
Music:
Jimi Hendrix – National Anthem U.S.A (Woodstock 1969)
Def Poetry – Amiri Baraka – Why is We Americans
