Cornel West

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Cornel West and "comrade"

Cornel West is a leading U.S. Marxist academic and activist. He is an honorary chair of Democratic Socialists of America. He is the author of "The Ethical Dimensions of Marxism" (1991, Monthly Review Press).

He is currently Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. He has authored 20 books, including classics like Race Matters and Black Prophetic Fire.

Progressive International

Cornel West is a former member of the Council of the Progressive International.

David Gushee Connection

'Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies' Podcast

From the Freedom Road.us 'Defending Democracy from Its Christian Enemies' Podcast with Lisa Sharon Harper:[1],[2]

This month we are joined by one of the foremost Christian ethicists in the world, Dr. David Gushee, Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics at Mercer University, and Chair of Christian Social Ethics at Vrije Universiteit (“Free University”) Amsterdam, and Senior Research Fellow, International Baptist Theological Study Centre and he is the author of several books, most recently, Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies.
Dr. Gushee was invited to speak with us because, well—we need his wisdom and expertise right now. Not only is the Christian church a consistent foe of democracy in an age when democracy is at risk around the world and here at home—but also to hear his thoughts on the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Portion of the transcript:

Lisa Sharon Harper: "...We need some expertise right now about this. this democracy thing and about how Christianity is actually not helping across the globe and how we can counter that [00:02:00] within the church.
Lisa Sharon Harper: "...in the interest actually of transparency, I should say, and actually brag that in my upcoming PhD program at the Free University in Amsterdam, uh, David is going to be my supervisor.
Yes. So I want to say, I’m so excited to work with you and I’m also excited for this conversation. Because, um, you know, you know, my work and I know, I know your work and, um, and I know that you really are a critical, probably one of the, one of the most critical voices for the church in this moment.
David Gushee: "Well, Glen Stassen… Glen Stassen the ethics, the main ethics professor at Southern Seminary and my mentor. After I finished or as I was finishing my MDiv, uh, it was clear I needed to do a PhD. It became really clear. I wanted it to be in ethics. He said, it’s time for you to broaden.
It’s time for you to get outside this. little subculture. He knew Union. He had friends at Union. He had done some studying at Union. I applied to five different schools. The one criteria was nothing below the Mason Dixon line and nothing related to the Baptists. But the one I ended up with was Union and I mean, I got to study with James Cone and Beverly Harrison, with Larry Rasmussen with Cornel West, I didn’t have a chance to have a class with him, but he was there at that time. And so it was a mind blowing experience. It [00:07:00] was way ahead of what I was ready to process at that time, but it left its traces, I would say.

[...]

"For University Amsterdam is really especially focused on public, uh, social, um, you know, political, but, you know, human community kind of issues, right? So that was the version of Christian ethics that I was taught by Glen Stassen, by Larry Rasmussen, by, you know, James Cone, [00:08:00] Christian engagement for, for justice and righteousness, for mercy and love, for the reign of God in a broken world.
And so one way to think about it kind of autobiographically is that I grew up in a family where we, my dad worked for the government and we talked about policy issues like a lot. I would joke about how we’d be sitting around the table reading the Washington Post and talking about environmental policy when I was like 10, you know, because that’s what my dad did, energy and environment.

Black Alliance for Peace

Cornel West is on the Black Alliance for Peace Advisory Committee as of May 27, 2023:[3]

Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights

Cornel West was a signatory on a May 2022 statement issued by Rise Up 4 Abortion Rights, a Revolutionary Communist Party front group.[4] The statement called for "abortion on demand and without apology" and was issued in the wake of a leak of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which forced states to accommodate the killing of unborn children.

Advisory board

Institute for Christian Socialism Advisory Board March 2021.

Cynthia Moe-Lobeda, Alton Pollard III, Jonah Overton, Cornel West, Obery M. Hendricks, Marcus Briggs-Cloud, Gary Dorrien, Dee Dee Risher, Joerg Rieger, Raymond Pickett.

The Black Alliance for Peace

Advisory Committee Black Alliance for Peace, as of October 28 2020.

Activist and scholar Mireille Fanon, Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford, Colombian gender-rights activist Charo Mina-Rojas, Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi, public intellectual Cornel West, human-rights activist Janvieve Williams Comrie, and internationally known filmmaker and sociologist Tukufu Zuberi.[5]

Boundary2

2019 Boundary 2 Editorial Board: Charles Bernstein, John Beverley, Joseph Buttigieg, Rey Chow, Colin Dayan, Arif Dirlik, Nuruddin Farah, Margaret Ferguson, Anthony Grafton, Fredric Jameson, George Lamming, Marcia Landy, Gayatri Spivak, Wang Hui, Cornel West, Rob Wilson.

DSOC Religious Commission

In 1977, John Cort attended the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee convention in Chicago. At the convention Cort and others organized a DSOC Religion and Socialism Committee (later Commission). Cort was elected coordinator and editor of the newsletter.

Among early leaders, co-editors and contributors to the newsletter were Peter Steinfels, Sister Mary Emil, Rosemary Ruether, Harvey Cox, Cornel West, Arthur Waskow, Joe Holland, James Luther Adams, Jim Gorman, Maxine Phillips and Jim Wallis. Monsignor George Higgins was also a contributor.[6]

"Socialist theory of racism"

In the 1980s DSA issued a pamphlet[7]by Cornel West "Toward a Socialist Theory of Racism"

What is the relationship between the struggle against racism and socialist theory and practice in the United States? Why should people of color active in antiracist movements take democratic socialism seriously? And how can American socialists today learn from inadequate attempts by socialists in the past to understand the complexity of racism? In this pamphlet, I try to address these crucial questions facing the democratic socialist movement.
First, I examine past Marxist efforts to comprehend what racism is and how it operates in varying contexts. Second, I attempt to develop a new conception of racism which builds upon, yet goes beyond the Marxist tradition. Third, I examine how this new conception sheds light on the roles of racism in the American past and present. Last, I try to show that the struggle against racism is both morally and politically necessary for democratic socialists.

Union Theological Seminary

In 1983 Cornel West was at Union Theological Seminary[8].

Congress on Religion and Policies

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Theologies of Peace and Justice: A Congress on Religion and Politics. Chicago Theological Seminary May 27-30, 1988.

Plenary Speakers:

For conference information please contact: Religion & Politics Congress Rm 1201, 1608 N. Milwaukee, Chicago, IL 60647

DSA National Executive Committee

In 1987 the Democratic Socialists of America National Executive Committee consisted of Laila Atallah (Baltimore), Joanne Barkan (New York), Pat Belcon (New York), Bogdan Denitch (New York), Mary Dunn (Lexington, KY), Angie Fa (San Francisco), Gerry Hudson (New York), Nancy Kleniewski (Rochester, NY), Mark Levinson (Detroit), Joan Mandle (Philadelphia), Marshall Mayer (Helena), Harold Meyerson (Los Angele), Guy Molyneux (Boston), Jo-Ann Mort (Brooklyn, NY), Marjorie Phyfe (Peaks Island, ME), Frances Fox Piven (Millerton, NY), Skip Roberts Rockville, MD), Jan Rosenberg (Brooklyn, NY), Joseph Schwartz (Cambridge, MA), Sylvia Sepulveda (San Antonio, TX), Jim Shoch (Cambridge, MA), Bill Spencer (Washington, D.C.), Ed Vargas (Hartford, CT), Cornel West (Hamden, CT).[9]

DSA Conference delegate

In 1983 Cornel West was a New York delegate to the Democratic Socialists of America conference in New York City, October 14-16, 1983[10]

"Liberation Theology"

In late 1989, New York Democratic Socialists of America, CUNY branch hosted a talk by Cornel West on "Liberation Theology". [11]

CrossRoads

In the mid 1990s Cornel West was a contributing editor to Oakland based Institute for Social and Economic Studies- sponsor of CrossRoads magazine, which sought to promote dialogue and building new alliances among progressives and leftists... and to bring diverse Marxist and socialist traditions to bear while exploring new strategies and directions for the progressive political movements. [12]

Socialist International

Led by Bogdan Denitch, DSA's permanent representative to the Socialist International, the Democratic Socialists of America delegation to the October 1990 Socialist International meeting in New York, included DSA Honorary Chair, Cornel West, Pat Belcon, a DSA NPC member, Motl Zelmanowicz, a "DSAer active in the Jewish Labor Bund", Jo-Ann Mort, a DSA NPC member, Jack Sheinkman, president of ACTWU, NYC Commissioner of Finance, Carol O'Cleireacain, Terri Burgess, chair of the DSA youth Section, Skip Roberts, Chair of DSA's Socialist International Committee, welcomed the Council to the United States on behalf of Democratic Socialists of America.[13]

Socialist Scholars Conference

Paul Berman, Editor, Debating P.C., Ray Franklin, Michael Harrington Center, Joanne Barkan, Editorial Board, Dissent, Cornel West and Daniel Singer, European Correspondent for the Nation were speakers on the What Future for the Socialist Idea? panel sponsored by the Democratic Socialists of America and the Michael Harrington Center at the Tenth Annual Socialist Scholars Conference. The conference was held April 24-26, 1992 at the Borough of Manhattan Community College, New York City[14]

DSA Racial Diversity Task Force

West, circa 1990

In 1992 Cornel West was a member of the Democratic Socialists of America Racial Diversity Task Force - charged with finding ways of recruiting (and retaining) more "people of color" into the organization[15].

New Party builder

New Party News Fall 1994 listed over 100 New Party activists-"some of the community leaders, organizers, retirees,, scholars, artists, parents, students, doctors, writers and other activists who are building the NP" the list included Cornel West, Harvard.

"Blacks and Jews: Ambivalent Allies"

Alan Snitow's 1994,"Blacks and Jews: Ambivalent Allies" consisted of four 1 hour shows, co-Produced with Bari Scott and KPFA/Pacifica Radio

A four hour radio series looking at ethnic identity, stereotypes, racism and anti-Semitism, the Civil Rights Movement, and the potential future cooperation and conflict between the two ethnic groups. A cultural journey through music, storytelling, poetry and interviews throughout the U.S. With Cornel West, Michael Lerner, Henry Louis Gates, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Anna Deavere Smith, Steven Spielberg, and Patricia Williams.[16]

"Making Trouble"

'Making Trouble- Building a Radical Youth Movement' was held April 17-19, 1998 Berkeley, California.

"Making Trouble" is a conference for young radicals from all over California to meet, form coalitions, and get informed. We will focus on the Prison Industrial Complex and the contemporary Labor Movement, but there will also be workshops on Environmental Justice, the Unz initiative, Art and Revolution, Immigration, Third World Organizing, Economic Globalization, Affirmative Action, Reproductive Rights, and much more.

Keynote Speaker: Barbara Ehrenreich

Invited speakers included;[17]

DSA African American Commission

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In 1998 African American Commission the of the Democratic Socialists of America was led by Cornel West, chair , Shakoor Aljuwani, convenor Lynne Mosley Engelskirchen, convenor.[18]

Black Radical Congress

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In March 1998 “Endorsers of the Call” to found a Black Radical Congress included Cornel West, Cambridge, MA[19].

At the 1998 Black Radical Congress in Chicago, one session was entitled;

Faith as a Weapon: Spirituality and the Role of the Church In The Radical Movement. What are the lessons we can learn from Nat Turner, Absalom Jones, Sojourner Truth, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Black ministers as leaders in the struggle? What is the history of spiritual motivation in the radical/liberation movement?

Panelists: Michael Eric Dyson, Cornel West, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Linda Thomas, Kevin Tyson.[20]

Communist "Manifestivity"

On October 30 and 31, 1998 the Brecht Forum presented the "Communist Manifestivity to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the Communist Manifesto" at Cooper Union's Great Hall, New York.

Individual endorsers of the event included Cornel West.[21]

One of the many workshops at the Manifestivity was;

A Conversation with Maria Helena Alves, Barbara Fields, Sam Gindin, Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Levins, Cornel West and Ellen Meiksins Wood

Living wage campaign

In February 1999, the Harvard Progressive Student Labor Movement launched a four-month living wage campaign for Harvard employees. Its members based their demands on a distinction between the federal minimum wage ($5.15 per hour at the time) and a wage considered “livable” in a specific city of residence (then set in Cambridge at $10.25 per hour, plus benefits and adjustable for inflation). A report released by Harvard on Feb. 20, meant to stymie any outcry, revealed that only 2.7 percent of Harvard’s “regular employees”—those who worked more than 17.5 hours a week—made less than $10 an hour.The report had the opposite effect.

Supporters of PSLM’s campaign latched onto the data showing that 49 percent of Harvard’s “casual employees,” its part-time or temporary workers, made less than $10 an hour, often with no benefits. They also called into question Harvard’s increasing reliance on outsourced, subcontracted workers, who were not included in the data. Throughout the winter of 2000 the Harvard Living Wage Campaign continued to gain steam, bolstered by the support of prominent faculty, such as then-Du Bois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and then-Fletcher University Professor Cornel West ’74. By April, then President Neil Rudenstine promised to assemble an Ad Hoc Committee on Employment Policies.Yet, 13 months later, PSLM was less than satisfied with the Committee’s results. It recommended against increasing wages for Harvard’s workers, instead promoting the expansion of free education programs and the official launch of Harvard’s Bridge to Learning and Literacy.[22]

Bill Bradley campaign

In 2000, Cornel West, was a co-chair of the Bill Bradley primary campaign.[23]

Remembering Richard Cloward

On September 20, 2001 500 people gathered at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City to celebrate Cloward’s Life and Work. Speakers included Frances Fox Piven, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Gus Newport-(all members of Democratic Socialists of America), activists Howard Zinn, June Jordan, Joel Rogers and Tim Sampson plus long time voter registration advocate, Demos president, Miles Rapoport.[24]

Left Forum

Liza Featherstone of The Nation, Cornel West, Adolfo Gilly, Hilary Wainwright of Red Pepper and Stanley Aronowitz were speakers on the opening plenary, Forgoing a Radical Political Future at the Left Forum. The forum was held March 9 - 11, 2007 at Cooper Union College, New York City.[25]

Religious progressive

Religious Socialism

Religious Socialism is the journal of the Religion and Socialism Commission of Democratic Socialists of America.

In the late 2000s it was edited by Andrew Hammer. Contributing editors were Maxine Phillips, Harvey Cox, Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson.[26]

Sojourners

West is a contributing editor of Sojourners.[27]

Working with Michael Lerner

Cornel West, Michael Lerner

MDS Board member

On February 17, 2007, the Movement for a Democratic Society held a well attended conferenceat New York City’s New School University.[28]

The business portion of the meeting followed with each board nominee introducing themselves to the conference. The board, a very diverse group, was voted in by acclamation... Board nominees where were not able to attend the conference were included in the appointment by acclamation. The list included Elliott Adams, Panama Vicente Alba, Tariq Ali, Stanley Aronowitz, David Barsamian, Rosalyn Baxandall, John Bracey, Jr., John Brittain, Robb Burlage, Noam Chomsky, Jayne Cortez, Carl Davidson, Angela Davis, Bernardine Dohrn, Barbara Epstein, Gustavo Esteva, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Stephen Fleischman, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Tom Hayden, Gerald Horne, Florence Howe, Mike James, Robin D G Kelley, Alice Kessler Harris, Rashid Khalidi, Mike Klonsky, Betita Martinez, Ethelbert Miller, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Barbara Ransby, Patricia Rose, Michael Rossman, Studs Terkel, Charlene Teters, Jerry Tucker, Immanuel Wallerstein, Cornel West, Leonard Weinglass and Howard Zinn.

Cornel West and Barack Obama

Cornel West Introduces "comrade" Barack Obama at the Apollo Theater, November 29th, 2007

Barack Obama called on Charles Ogletree and Cornel West, during his 2008 Presidential campaign. Ogletree and West both joined Obama's Black Advisory Council[29].

Ogletree has advised Obama on reforming the criminal-justice system as well on constitutional issues. He is a member of the Obama campaign's black advisory council, which also includes Cornel West, who teaches African-American studies at Princeton University. The group formed after Obama skipped a conference on African-American issues in Hampton, Va., to announce his presidential candidacy in Illinois.

Progressives for Obama

In 2009 Cornel West Author, 'Race Matters' was listed as a signer of the Progressives for Obama website.[30]

Urban League meeting

Cornel West,Obama, Washington DC, July 2010

President Obama shook hands with Princeton University professor Cornel West after speaking at the National Urban League’s 100th Anniversary Convention in Washington in July 2010.

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

In 2008 Cornel West, Professor at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ signed a statement circulated by the Partisan Defense Committee calling for the release of convicted “cop-killer” Mumia Abu-Jamal.[31]

"Religion in a Secular City: Essays in Honor of Harvey Cox"

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"Religion in a Secular City: Essays in Honor of Harvey Cox", October 1, 2001 by Arvind Sharma (Author).

Harvey Cox burst onto the religious-publishing scene in 1962 with his provocative book, The Secular City. His assertions about the consequences of the modern secular world for religion changed forever the way that theologians and clergy approached their tasks of God-talk in late modernity. Always prescient about the religious scene, Cox virtually predicted the "turn east" that many American religious seekers took in the late '60s and early '70s. His books on world religions (Many Mansions), Pentecostalism (Fire from Heaven), and fundamentalism and liberation theology (Religion in the Secular City) have all provided trenchant commentary on the changing face of American religion. In this exciting collection of twenty essays, Sharma and his contributors honor Cox's seminal contributions to the study of religion. The first section of the book includes essays on Cox's life and work at Harvard, where he is Victor S. Thomas Professor of Divinity, and his work as a liberation theologian in the Third World.

The second section features theologians such as Leonardo Boff, James Cone, Hans Kung, Jurgen Moltmann, and Richard L. Rubenstein, who use Cox's themes of interreligious dialogue, grassroots theology, and religion and secularization as the starting points for their own essays on these themes. Contributors to the volume include: Cornel West, Harvard University; Arvind Sharma, McGill University; Robert McAfee Brown, Emeritus, Pacific School of Religion; John C. Cort, Nahant, Massachusetts; Jorge Pixley, Seminario Teológico Buatista, Managua, Nicaragua; Rodney Peterson, Boston Theological Institute; Victor Wan-Tatah, Youngstown State University; Frank D. Macchia, Southeastern College of the Assemblies of God; William Hamilton, Sarasota, Florida; Robert Bellah, Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley; Eldin Villafane, CUTEEP, Boston; Jurgen Moltmann, Tübingen; Hans Küng, Tübingen; James H. Cone, Union Theological Seminary; Leonardo Boff, Brazil; Margaret Guider, Weston Jesuit School of Theology; Arthur Green, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; [Satianathan Clarke], United Theological College, Bangalore; Richard L. Rubenstein, University of Bridgeport; Iain Maclean, James Madison University; William Martin, Rice University; Anne Foerst, MIT; and Elinor W. Gadon, Institute of Integral Studies. Arvind Sharma is Bicks Professor of Comparative Religion at McGill University in Montreal and the editor of A Dome of Many Colors, published by Trinity Press International.

Venezuela delegation

The American singer and activist Harry Belafonte called President Bush “the greatest terrorist in the world” August 2006, and said millions of Americans support the socialist revolution of Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.

Belafonte led a delegation of Americans including the actor Danny Glover and the Princeton University scholar Cornel West that met the Venezuelan president for more than six hours late Saturday. Some in the group attended Chavez’s television and radio broadcast.

“No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we’re here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people ... support your revolution,” Belafonte told Chavez during the broadcast. The 78-year-old Belafonte, famous for his calypso-inspired music, including the “Day-O” song, was a close collaborator of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and is now a UNICEF goodwill ambassador. He also has been outspoken in criticizing the U.S. embargo of Cuba.

Chavez said he believes deeply in the struggle for justice by blacks, both in the U.S. and Venezuela.

“Although we may not believe it, there continues to be great discrimination here against black people,” Chavez said, urging his government to redouble its efforts to prevent discrimination.

Belafonte accused U.S. news media of falsely painting Chavez as a “dictator,” when in fact, he said, there is democracy and citizens are “optimistic about their future.”

Dolores Huerta, a pioneer of the United Farm Workers labor union also in the delegation, called the visit a “very deep experience.”

Chavez accuses Bush of trying to overthrow him, pointing to intelligence documents released by the U.S. indicating that the CIA knew beforehand that dissident officers planned a short-lived 2002 coup. The U.S. denies involvement, but Chavez says Venezuela must be on guard. Belafonte suggested setting up a youth exchange for Venezuelans and Americans. He finished by shouting in Spanish: “Viva la revolucion!”[32]

Poverty Tour 2.0

Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary, kick off "The Poverty Tour 2.0: A Call to Conscience" in Cleveland, OH.

The co-hosts of the nationally syndicated public radio program Smiley & West, from Public Radio International (PRI), hit the road September 12-15 2012 to host six town hall events that are FREE and open to the public.

"The Poverty Tour 2.0," sponsored in part by AARP Foundation and HuffPost Live, will visit the key battleground states of Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Florida. In addition, one town hall event will be held in the state of Delaware. Smiley and West intend to push the moderators of the upcoming presidential debates to ask the candidates about America's poverty problem, and to urge legislators to support public policy and implement programs that will alleviate poverty.

"These new Census numbers will underscore what we've been saying for a long time — poverty is the new American norm," said Smiley. "The time is now to force poverty on the agenda; our leaders can't simply continue to be quiet on this issue."

Confirmed guests include: Peter Edelman, former member of the Clinton administration and co-founder of the Children's Defense Fund; Dolores Huerta, co-founder of the United Farm Workers; Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and former presidential candidate; Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH); Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (D-OH); Congressman Chaka Fattah (D-PA); Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH); and Jill Stein, Green Party USA candidate for president. All presidential and vice presidential candidates have been invited to participate.

"We're putting the spotlight on our precious fellow citizens who don't have access to a decent job, decent housing, and decent healthcare," said West. "We want to hear solutions that can be duplicated and adapted in communities across the country."[33]

"Dissent" magazine

In 2009 the Democratic Socialists of America aligned Dissent Magazine masthead. Editorial Board members were;[34]

Bernard Avishai, Joanne Barkan, David Bensman, Marshall Berman, Paul Berman , H Brand, David Bromwich, Luther Carpenter , Jean L Cohen, Mitchell Cohen, Bogdan Denitch , Jeff Faux, Cynthia Fuchs Epstein, Todd Gitlin, Murray Hausknecht, Agnes Heller, Jeffrey Isaac, Michael Kazin , Martin Kilson, Erazim Kohak, William Kornblum, Jeremy Larner, Susie Linfield, Kevin Mattson, Deborah Meier, Harold Meyerson, Nicolaus Mills , Jo-Ann Mort, Brian Morton, Carol O'Cleireacain, George Packer, Martin Peretz, Anson Rabinbach, Ruth Rosen, James Rule, Alan Ryan, Patricia Cayo Sexton, Jim Sleeper, Ann Snitow, Cornel West, Sean Wilentz, Dennis Wrong.

New Politics

As of 2009 Cornel West served as a sponsor of New Politics, magazine almost completely staffed and run by members of Democratic Socialists of America[35].

Supporting Mumia Abu-Jamal

Supporters of convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal responded to the April 2009 U.S. Supreme Court ruling by launching a campaign (freemumia.com/civilrights.html) calling for a federal civil rights investigation into Abu-Jamal’s case. The campaign’s supporters include the Riverside Church’s Prison Ministry [New York City], actress Ruby Dee, Professor Cornel West and U.S. Congressman Charles Rangel, who was then Chairman of the House Committee on Ways and Means.[36]

Campaign for Peace and Democracy

West is listed as an endorser of the Campaign for Peace and Democracy, as of March 15, 2010.[37]

"Black agenda"

Tavis Smiley organized and hosted a forum, held on Saturday, March 20, 2010 at Chicago State University on the city’s South Side. The confab offered up a provocative query: Is there room for a black agenda in the “post-racial America” of Barack Obama?

The televised event drew about 3,000 people, heard Smiley lead a four-hour conversation among 12 black intellectuals, educators and activists. The mix included longtime Smiley compatriots, academics like Cornel West, Michael Eric Dyson and Julianne Malveaux. Others were longtime black leaders like the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., and Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan. Most of them came, they said, to “lovingly” take Obama to the woodshed.

National Jobs For All Coalition

In 2010, Cornel West, Ctr for African American Studies, Princeton Univ., was listed as serving on the advisory board of the Democratic Socialists of America dominated National Jobs For All Coalition.[38]

2011 YDS Winter Conference

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On the weekend of March 18th-20th, 2011, the Young Democratic Socialists held their annual Winter outreach conference "Their Crisis, Our Pain: The Democratic Socialist Response to the Great Recession". Cornel West "will be the featured speaker on Saturday the 19th, and we will also host John Nichols, Bertha Lewis, Mark Engler, and Dan Cantor from the Working Families Party.

Other listed speakers included Komozi Woodard, Corey Walker, Fabricio Rodriguez, Christian Parenti, Stephanie Fairyington, Christine Kelly, Sheila Collins, Billy Wharton, Liz Shuler, Martin Weinstein, Michelle O'Brien, Skip Roberts, Joseph Schwartz.

Panels on race, the environment, organizing, and other topics will allow participants to learn from and communicate with fellow activists on some of the most important domestic and international issues. The event is perfect for both newcomers to Democratic Socialism/YDS, as well as activist veterans.

Add your name to the list here and you'll be notified when online registration goes live. Invite all your friends!

Location, Bayard Rustin High School 351 W 18th St New York, NY 10011.[39]

"END MASS INCARCERATION"

Friday, SEPT 14. 7PM. RIVERSIDE CHURCH NYC.

On the day following the 41st anniversary of the Attica ¬massacre of courageous prisoners rising up against intolerable oppression, we come together to fight mass ¬incarceration and to demand the closing of Attica as a symbolic commitment to this larger goal. We build on the powerful commemoration that took place last September 9, 2011 at Riverside Church.

Join with us to hear a special panel on building a movement to end mass incarceration with: Michelle Alexander, Angela Davis, Jazz Hayden, Marc Lamont Hill, and Cornel West.

Speakers: Soffiya Elijah, Pam Africa, video message from Special UN Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, and audio message from Mumia Abu-Jamal.

MC: Asha Bandele.

Panel moderator: Suzanne Ross.[40] ·

Fight Back Teach In April 5, 2011

Fight Back Teach In held in New York City, a national teach-in on austerity, debt and corporate greed featuring Frances Fox Piven and Cornel West on April 5, 2011 [41]

Occupy movement

Occupy Wall Street has been heating up in New York and around the country. DSA honorary chair Cornel West was arrested on the steps of the Supreme Court as part of an Occupy DC protest against the Supreme Court's "complicity in unfettered corporate financing of politicians".

The New York Times quoted DSA vice-chair and National Political Committee member Joseph Schwartz and Young Democratic Socialists (YDS) Northeast Regional Organizer Cecily McMillan about Occupy Philadelphia and #Occupy Wall Street respectively.[42]

YDS 2012 conference

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Cornel West was a guest speaker at the Young Democratic Socialists 2012 Winter conference.

RootsAction endorser

RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher, Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Coleen Rowley, and many others.[43]

Rally Against Israeli Violence in Gaza

August 2, 2014 Rally Against Israeli Violence in Gaza, organised by ANSWER Lafayette Park. Speakers included; Osamah Abuirshaid National Coordinator American Muslims for Palestine, Salim Adofo Vice Chair National Black United Front, Lydia Catina Amaya Community Organizer Damayan Migrant Workers Associatio, Mohsin Ansari Chair ICNA Relief USA, Nihad Awad Co-Founder and Exec. Dir. Council on American Islamic Relations, Brian Becker National Director Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), Mahdi Bray National Director AMERICAN MUSLIM ALLIANCE POLITICAL ACTION, Karina Garcia Organizer Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), Carol Gay President New Jersey Industrial Union Council, Abbas Falasteen Hamideh Member Cleveland, Tarak Kauff Board Member Veterans for Peace, Alli McCracken National Coordinator CodePink: Women for Peace, Ray McGovern Analyst (Former) Central Intelligence Agency, Carl Messineo, Co-Founder Partnership for Civil Justice, Akbar Muhammad Representative, Nation of Islam, Lucy Murphy Singer, Mike Prysner Veteran Iraq War, Eugene Puryear Member Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER), Tareq Radi Founder George Mason University->Students Against Israeli Apartheid, Khalilah Sabra Executive Director MAS Immigrant Justice Center, Cornel West Professor Emeritus Princeton University->Center for African American Studies, Ann Wright Activist, Fadi Zanayed Attorney Palestinian American Council.[44]

Peace Action Advisory Board

Peace Action Advisory Board as of 2014;

Religious Socialism

In 2015, Democratic Socialists of America founded a new version of Religious Socialism.

We invite you to join us in making it useful both to people of faith within DSA and to the wider religious left.

Contributing editors were;

Dr. Cornel West is a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual. He is Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary and Professor Emeritus at Princeton University, where he also received his PhD. He is the author of 20 books and is best known for his classics, Race Matters and Democracy Matters. He recently co-authored a book with Tavis Smiley, titled, The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto. He is also honorary chair of the Democratic Socialists of America.[46]

Arrested

August 2015, dozens of protesters were arrested Monday outside the U.S. attorney's office in downtown St. Louis during a demonstration against police brutality.

DeRay Mckesson and Johnetta Elzie -- prominent activists in the Black Lives Matter movement -- were among the 57 people detained during the sit-in. They were released after being issued a summons alleging obstruction of the courthouse doorways, U.S. Attorney Richard Callahan said in a statement.

The rally, which Callahan said included as many as 200 people, was a part of Moral Mondays, a nationwide social justice movement that began in North Carolina in response to the state legislature's conservative shift. The campaign moved to St. Louis this week, calling on the Department of Justice to take action against police violence toward black people.

This is the first time Mckesson or Elzie has been arrested during a demonstration. Cornel West and the Rev. Osagyefo Sekou were arrested as well, according.[47] 08/10/2015

Ferguson protest

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Solidarity Against Racism, October 14, 2015;

With Al Osorio, Jeremy Miller, Christopherj Woods, John Earl Boyd, Jose LaSalle, Derk Brown, La Mesha Irizarry, Osagyefo Sekou, Dr. Cornel West, Efia Nwangaza and Patrick Soby.

2016 Platform Drafting Committee

Bernie Sanders supporters Dr. Cornel West and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) will be among those on the Democratic Party's important Platform Drafting Committee after the Vermont senator won a key concession as he looks to leave his mark on the party's platform.

The roster of the drafting committee, released by the Democratic National Committee May 2016, reflects the party's agreement that Sanders would have five supporters on the committee, compared to six for Hillary Clinton.

Sanders previously panned DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who appoints all of the committee members, for failing to include enough of his supporters on an initial list. But the latest statement notes that Wasserman Schultz allocated the campaign's seats "proportionally according to the current vote tally."

Sanders supporters on the committee are author Bill McKibben, Arab American Institute head James Zogby and Native American activist Deborah Parker.

Clinton loyalists on the committee are Ambassador Wendy Sherman, former Clinton staffer and current Center for American Progress head Neera Tanden, Ohio Rep. Alicia Reece, environmentalist Carol Browner, Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez and union head Paul Booth.

The remaining four members were chosen by Wasserman Schultz.

Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, who has endorsed Clinton, will lead the committee and called Sanders's outsized role on the platform "pretty unusual" for a candidate that likely will not be the party's nominee during a Monday interview on MSNBC. And California Rep. Barbara Lee, who has not endorsed either candidate.

Former Rep. Howard Berman and philanthropist and former CEO of Claire's Stores Bonnie Schaefer were also appointed.[48]

Resigned

Cornel West resigned from the Platform Committee and didn't attend the Convention in protest against the Sanders’ campaign not filing minority reports, particularly on TPP and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

We will miss Brother West at the Socialist Caucus, but the other speakers are fantastic (and stay tuned to this page for additional speakers)! Bring your friends and fellow delegates![49]

REFUSE FASCISM

REFUSE FASCISM is an anti-Trump project of the Revolutionary Communist Party.

Initiators include (list in formation):

Sanders Institute Fellows

The Sanders Institute Fellowship is comprised of leaders dedicated to transforming our democracy through the research, education, outreach and advancement of bold, progressive ideas and values.

Dr. Jane O'Meara Sanders, Prof. Robert Reich, The Honorable Nina Turner, Harry Belafonte, Prof. Jeffrey Sachs, Dr. Cornel West, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, Bill McKibben, Danny Glover, Benjamin Jealous Dr. Stephanie Kelton, Michael Lighty, Shaun King.[51]

External links

References

Template:Reflist Template:Black Radical Congress endorsers

  1. ↑ Freedom Road Podcast / Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies with David Gushee (accessed November 19, 2023)
  2. ↑ Archive Link Freedom Road Podcast / Defending Democracy from its Christian Enemies with David Gushee (accessed November 19, 2023)
  3. ↑ Coordinating Committee (accessed May 27, 2023)
  4. ↑ https://riseup4abortionrights.org/we-refuse-to-let-the-u-s-supreme-court-deny-womens-humanity-and-decimate-their-rights/ WE REFUSE TO LET THE U.S. SUPREME COURT DENY WOMEN’S HUMANITY AND DECIMATE THEIR RIGHTS! JOIN US IN FIGHTING FOR: ABORTION ON DEMAND AND WITHOUT APOLOGY! (Accessed on June 25 2022)]
  5. ↑ [ https://blackallianceforpeace.com/coordinating-committee]
  6. ↑ Dreadful conversions: the making of a Catholic socialist, By John C. Cort, page 319
  7. ↑ http://www.chicagodsa.org/CornelWest.html
  8. ↑ DSA Conference delegate list Oct. 12 1983 update
  9. ↑ Democratic Left, Convention Election Results, Nov-Dec, 1987, page 7]
  10. ↑ DSA Conference delegate list Oct. 12 1983 update
  11. ↑ Democratic Left, Jan./Feb. 1990, page 12
  12. ↑ Crossroads March 1996
  13. ↑ Democratic Left, November/december 1990, page 7
  14. ↑ SSE Tenth Annual Conference Program, 1992
  15. ↑ Memorandum, Steve tarzynski-May 26, 1992
  16. ↑ http://www.snitow-kaufman.org/#who
  17. ↑ Dem. Left Issue 1998, page 6
  18. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/19980626082420/www.dsausa.org/rl/Race/RaceComm.html
  19. ↑ http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/45a/524.html
  20. ↑ Black Radical Congress program
  21. ↑ http://www.mail-archive.com/pen-l@galaxy.csuchico.edu/msg30144.html
  22. ↑ [Harvard Crimson. A Decade Ago, Another Occupation by VICTORIA A. BAENA Dec 1, 2011]
  23. ↑ http://www.dsausa.org/dl/fall2k.pdf
  24. ↑ http://www.dsausa.org/dl/DLFall2001.pdf
  25. ↑ http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=2744F543BE2A4B8698421B7568CB9EF3?diaryId=5918
  26. ↑ http://www.religioussocialism.com/RS.2.swf
  27. ↑ Staff
  28. ↑ http://antiauthoritarian.net/NLN/?p=179
  29. ↑ http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/080331nj1.htm
  30. ↑ Progressives for Obama
  31. ↑ Signers of Campaign to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, Now
  32. ↑ 1/8/2006 8:54:58 PM ET Belafonte: Bush greatest Terrorist in World
  33. ↑ [1]
  34. ↑ http://www.dissentmagazine.org/display.php?id=masthead
  35. ↑ http://ww3.wpunj.edu/newpol/whoweare.htm#eds
  36. ↑ WW, Mumia Abu-Jamal supporters call for civil rights investigation Published Jul 8, 2009 5:48 PM By Hans Bennett
  37. ↑ Endorsers
  38. ↑ National Jobs For All Coalition: Who We Are (accessed on Nov. 16, 2010)
  39. ↑ YDS website, Spring Conference, Their Crisis, Our Pain: The Democratic Socialist Response to the Great Recession, accessed Feb. 23, 2011
  40. ↑ SUMMER ANNOUNCES S14 ANTI-INCARCERATION/CLOSE DOWN ATTICA EVENT AT RIVERSIDE CHURCH By andrea On August 22, 2012
  41. ↑ http://www.fightbackteachin.org/ Fight Back Teach In main website, (accessed April 8, 2011)]
  42. ↑ , Sacramento DSA website, accessed Nov. 2, 2011
  43. ↑ RootsAction
  44. ↑ CSPAN AUGUST 2, 2014 Rally Against Israeli Violence in Gaza
  45. ↑ Peace Action Advisory Board
  46. ↑ Religious Socialism, about, accessed July 6, 2015
  47. ↑ [ http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ferguson-protesters-deray-mckesson-and-johnetta-elzie-arrested_55c8f42ee4b0923c12bdb0a2 HuppPo Ferguson Protesters DeRay Mckesson And Johnetta Elzie Arrested]
  48. ↑ The Hill, May 23, 2016, 04:03 pm Sanders names Cornel West, Keith Ellison to DNC platform committee By Ben Kamisar
  49. ↑ Eventbrite WED, JUL 27 AT 1:30 PM, PHILADELPHIA, PA Socialist Caucus at the DNC By: Democratic Socialist of America
  50. ↑ [2]
  51. ↑ [3]
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