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Dear Progressive Reader,
Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark died April 9 at the age of 93 at his home in New York. Clark was a longtime advocate for civil rights, justice, and peace whose voice appeared three times in The Progressive during the past half century. In 1976 he wrote ([link removed]) a profile of Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas for the magazine. A strong opponent of the U.S. war in the Persian Gulf, Clark was interviewed ([link removed]) in 1991 by Claudia Dreifus following a trip he had just made to Iraq to assess civilian casualties. And in 2000, Clark spoke with ([link removed]) Dennis Bernstein about his work in defense of Lori Berenson, a U.S. activist who was at that time serving a prison term in Peru for allegedly aiding a guerrilla organization. Most recently, Ramsey Clark was remembered
([link removed]) in the 2020 Aaron Sorkin film The Trial of the Chicago 7—Clark's testimony, had it not been refused by Judge Julius Hoffman, might have put the Nixon Administration on trial in the case.
On April 16, 1963, nearly sixty years ago, the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. penned his now famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail." The Progressive was one of several publications that King chose to disseminate the important contents of that letter. Appearing ([link removed]) in our July 1963 issue under King's chosen title "Tears of Love," the powerful letter was an indictment of white liberals who, in the face of intolerable racism in the South, continued to say: "wait until a 'more convenient season.' " But, King replied, "We have waited for more than three hundred and forty years for our Constitutional and God-given rights." Today those words ring as true as ever.
Testimony has ended in the trial of Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis for the murder of George Floyd last year. But while the trial went on in the courtroom, more unarmed young people of color were killed by police – Daunte Wright was shot to death during a traffic stop just outside Minneapolis, and thirteen-year-old Adam Toledo was shot and killed by police in Chicago while holding his hands in the air. As Mark Fiore illustrates ([link removed]) this week, “The names of people whose lives were cut short and the excuses from police are piling up as a horrible testament to our country’s racist reality.”
Yohuru Willams puts these killings ([link removed]) by police in the larger context of inequality in America, and looks back to Michael Harrington’s classic 1962 book, The Other America. Our web editor, Kassidy Tarala, has been attending protests in Minneapolis following the murder of Daunte Wright and brings this portrait ([link removed]) . Meanwhile, Gina Castro reports on new laws ([link removed]) being implemented in Florida and other states that, while ostensibly written to address the January 6 Capitol insurgency, actually seem geared to further criminalize Black Lives Matter protesters. And Bill Blum writes about ([link removed]) the lessons that can be learned from the trial of Derek Chauvin.
As the Biden Administration flip-flops on its plans to raise the limitations imposed by Donald Trump on the number of refugees entering the United States, James Goodman says ([link removed]) , “What’s needed is a much different mindset about border issues, one that doesn’t treat asylum seekers as criminals, but keeps them out of detention and in communities.” After all, as he points out, “U.S. foreign policy has played no small part in this history, with U.S. support of rightwing governments, NAFTA, and climate change driving migration.” Also this week, Nicolas J.S. Davies and Medea Benjamin discuss ([link removed]) the President’s announcement that all U.S. troops would be brought back from Afghanistan by September 11 of this year.
Our very interesting and informative talk by Chuck Collins on his new book, The Wealth Hoarders: How Billionaires Pay Millions to Hide Trillions, is now available on YouTube ([link removed]) and Facebook ([link removed]) . You can also still get a signed copy of the book with a donation ([link removed]) to The Progressive.
Keep reading, and we will keep bringing you important articles on these and other issues of our time.
Sincerely,
Norman Stockwell
Publisher
P.S. – Our new April/May issue just went to press and should arrive in the mail in a week or so. If you don’t already subscribe to The Progressive in print or digital form, please consider doing so today ([link removed]) . Also, if you have a friend or relative that you feel should hear from the many voices for progressive change within our pages, please consider giving a gift subscription ([link removed]) .
P.P.P.S. –We need you now more than ever. Please take a moment to support hard-hitting, independent reporting on issues that matter to you. Your donation today will keep us on solid ground and will help us continue to grow in the coming years. You can use the wallet envelope in the current issue of the magazine, or click on the “Donate” button below to join your fellow progressives in sustaining The Progressive as a voice for peace, social justice, and the common good.
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