for those who want to participate in the procession, we are going to walk down to the lawn of the newly renovated pin point.

.. i just want to frame up how the evening is going to go. essentially professor cornel west and carl dix will speak for 30 minutes. thereafter they will engage in a

dialogue for 15 or 20 minutes. after that we will open up the floor for question and answers and we think that should come as a q&a should be about 45 minutes. we are going to have a roaming mike for mike for q&a as well as those index cards that are in your program. if you could write out your questions and i'm going to sit and try to consolidate them wherein you know the majority of people's questions will be address. we do want to give priority to student questions i must say because this space in this moment is for them particularly. [applause] i am going to quickly read the intros that are in your program that people on c-span don't have access to. brother cornel west is one of the most provocative public intellectuals and has been a champion for racial justice since his childhood. his writings, his speaking, his

teaching weaves together the traditions of the black baptist church, aggressive politics and jazz. "the new york times" has praised his quote ferocious moral vision. dr. wes is currently a professor at princeton university. brother carl dix is a longtime revolutionary and a founding member of the revolutionary communist party usa. in 1970, carl was one of, excuse me in 1970 carl was one of the fort lewis six, six gis who refused orders to go to vietnam. pc or two years in leavenworth penitentiary for this stand. [applause] in 1985,, carl initiated the draw the line statement, a powerful combination of the bombing of the -- in philadelphia. in 1996, carl was a founder of

the october 22 coalition to stop police brutality. [applause] carl also were dated katrina hearings of the 2006 bush crimes commission. [applause] both of these men are joyful, our generous spirits, are filled with love for humanity and it's truly because of their commitment to justice for everybody to the possibilities of a better future that they are with us this evening. so now it is my pleasure to bring to the mic, brother carl. [applause] >> alright. revolutionary greetings berkley. [applause] now for me, it's always good to be in berkeley because berkeley,

the home of the free speech movement back in the 1960s and is right next to oakland where huey and bobby founded the black panther party back in the day. [applause] a group that put revolution on the map for my generation. then there is another part to the importance of berkeley for me and that is the fact that the chairman of the revolutionary communist party, his roots are here in berkeley. he went to berkeley high. he was part of the free speech movement and he worked very closely with the black panther party, so all of this comes together for the specialness of berkeley to me, but today is an especially great time to be in berkeley because it's a time when young people are standing up. they are resisting things that they used to go along with and they are questioning why things are the way that they are and

what could be done about it. this is very very important sisters and brothers and i'm very glad to be out here in berkeley. you while look real good from up here and i understand that there are some other rooms where there are some other people who look pretty good bet but i can see them right now. you all in the house do. so all of this comes together around the importance of being at berkeley. look, i saw the video of folks out there in sprawl plaza standing up to the police, standing up to the administration and got a real sense of inspiration for this sentiment that people have had to not go along with business as usual, to not knuckle under to the powers that be, to stand up against inequality and injustice. this movement that is spreading, this occupy movement, points to the potential to bring forward and seized a different future for our youth, because the future that this system offers

our youth comes down to nothing better than being functionaries serving a global empire that is raining death and destruction on the planet. [applause] right on,. but we can and must find a different future out of this madness and in fact i was talking to dawn as we are planning on this and i said maybe we should change up the title, just put a little handwritten occupy up there so it says, in the age of obama and occupied, what future for our youth? [applause] because this is the new situation we are talking in. now to seize this potential can bring a different kind of future. we have to address some important questions. we have to address questions like what is the -- up against? what kind of future society and world could we bring into being?

and what is it we have got to be doing now to be working on doing that? i want to go at some of that in my talk here today and to do it i'm going to start out by reading from reflections on the occupy movement, a statement by rob avakian. and an excerpt from it goes like this. to uproot and transform a society and indeed a world marked by an grounded in profound inequality and relations of oppression and exploitation requires nothing less than an unprecedented revolution, a radical overturning of the entrenched and violent leave repressive ruling sources and imperial powers who now dominate human social existence and the deep-seated economic, social and political relations of exploitation and oppression of which they are the embodiment and enforcers. and to achieve such a radical

overturning and transforming, requires a scientific approach to the strategic orientation, program and organization that is actually required for the revolution that is really needed. this revolution is necessary not only in order to deal with the basic and antagonistic relation in which the masses of people are held over by an exploding class representing a small part of society, but also in order to transform the relation between different sections of people themselves. that is avakian on the occupy movement. what i'm going to do from here as i'm going to take two parts of what he says here. one is the thing that is going to require nothing short of revolution, to deal with all of this madness that we are up against and i'm going to walk through that. then i'm going to step to what kind of revolution we are talking about and what kind of leadership is needed today. so what is it that we are up against? i mean if we could just get a --

appearance bennett and put her finger to wherever it stops, let's put our finger on central africa. what would we find there? we would find millions of people living on the edge of starvation we did find women facing mass rape. we would find horrific numbers of people being maimed and killed. now what is the cause of all of this madness? is it human nature? is it the fact that these primitive africans have descended into tribalism? no and no. the cause of all this mayhem going on in central africa today is a new 21st century scramble amongst rival imperialist powers vying for control over their natural resources and mineral wealth in that part of the world. that is what is responsible for those horrors. we could spin that globe again. let's.their fingers to at two places this time.

south asia and eastern europe. what do we find that ties those two together? what ties them together is 2.5 million women who are being trafficked as sex slaves. i am not exaggerating here. this is reality. women are being kidnapped. they are being deceived by people who promise them legitimate employment. they are being sold by boyfriends and even family to brothels and two men who use them for sex. cm this is a horror that could not go down without actual collaboration from government officials in different parts of the world. again, horror is woven into the fabric of capitalist. we could spin that globe again and come down to the u.s., the so-called best of all possible societies. this is the place where women

are told they have achieved their equality yet for millions of women, life is replete with being battered, with facing rape, with facing being treated as if they are nothing but sex objects available for any man who wants to talk about them or even worse. we can see even more here. we could look at people being demonized by right-wing politicians and preachers, being bullied, being beaten and even killed all for no other reason that they dare to have intimate relations with someone of the same sex. we could look at immigrants, people who afcom to this country in search of work and survival. but who find here nazi-like laws that drive them to the horrors of society and separate families and disappear people.

and we would also find the brutal oppression that black people have faced since the time of the first africans were dragged to these shores in slavery chains. i'm going to talk about that a little bit. first off i want to read another quote from bob avakian called three strikes against the historical perspective on this. the book via michelle alexander, the new jim crow, mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness, has shined a bright and much-needed light on the reality of profound injustice at the very core of this country, and this brings me to a very basic point. this system in this country, in the whole history of its treatment of black people, what has it been? for slavery, then jim crow, segregation and ku klux klan terror, and now the new jim

crow, police brutality and murder, criminalization and mass incarceration and legalize discrimination yet again. that is it for the system. three strikes and you are out. now i want to focus on and talk a little bit about that last part that he talked about, the new jim crow, police brutality, legalize discrimination. wholesale criminalization. but i want to get at what is behind thatact, which creates a situation out of which that came. you have to go back to the post world war ii. back when large numbers of black people left the world's south migrating into cities across the country, looking for better opportunities for themselves and their families. now what they found was continued discrimination and employment in factories in the lowest paying, dirtiest and most

dangerous jobs. but then you come up today and even that has disappeared. those factors have been mostly closed down, shipped halfway around the world by capitalists in search of greater profits who are subjecting the workers with more vicious exploitation than they could do to people here. that means that you have got people in these inner cities who are facing deprivation and punishment. government economists project that fully half of inner-city youth will never find legitimate employment. what does this mean? it means that a lot of our youth face futures of looking for some hustler in order to get by, fighting and killing each other, going in and out of prison or maybe joining the military and becoming a killing machine for the system.

that is the kind of future that our youth are up against. now, we know a lot of our youth are into some bad stuff. we are clear on that but we have got to get clear on what is the source of this. what is responsible for this? the reason we have got to get clear on this is we have a lot of people telling us it's the youth's own fault. we have bill cosby. he said the poor black people are their own worst enemies. he says they have too many children out of wedlock. they don't speak proper english. the men wear their pants sagging down too far and the women give their children ridiculous names. we also have today moore more have to give into this blame the poor by president barack obama and especially through his father's father's day speeches where he says that absent dads are responsible for the problems that our youth face or where he

says that the reason that our youth don't get good education is because the parents won't turn off the tv and make them do their homework. so we have got to get clear. is that our youth's fault? is that the parents fault? are poor black people at fault for this? well, i see this all a different a different way of the best way for me to get at it, i want to read a quote from you from basics, a book of quotations and short essays from bob avakian and something i encourage people to check out. the black people, the youth with their pants hanging down around their knees, their hats on backwards, their swagger, much of which i admire, weren't the ones who picked the jobs up and took them out of the ghetto. the people pulling the prisons, the people in the gangs were the ones who took the jobs and move them away. they were not the ones who black people workplace -- chasing jobs relocated them over the decades,

discriminated against them, brought the police out to harass them and made it very difficult for them to get a job and keep a job under those circumstances. none of that was done by the masses whom bill cosby so cheaply chooses to attack in this way. these were conditions that were caused by the dynamics of capitalistic accumulation and its international dimension as well as within the country and by conscious policies of ruling class politicians in line with this. that his brother of a kim on who is responsible and this is important because our youth are responding to situations that they had no control over and they had no complicity and putting into place. but at the same time i acknowledge this than i have to put a challenge to our youth. you didn't create the situation but you have the responsibility to be part of the solution. you need to stand up. you need to resist these conditions that they rake down and you need to fight the power

around them and as you fight you need to get out of some of that bad stuff you are in and get with the movement for revolution and joined the emancipated of humanity because you have got responsibility to help us get all of our people out of this madness all around the world. and i think that is an important point that we have got to take two people. [applause] and i have been talking some about the way in which the functioning of the capitalist system has brought the situation about but there is also a mention in this book about conscious policies of the ruling class. what are those policies. and my lying up here? no i am not. let's go through some of them. there is the 100 to one ratio for crack-cocaine and powder. our congress, somebody else's congress because it ain't mine, passed a law that says that

somebody who gets convicted of possession of 5 grams of crack-cocaine, a drug which is widely used in the ghettos across this country, would get the same penalty as somebody convicted of possessing 500 grams of powdered cocaine, a drug bit that more well-off people use. what are they telling you there? they are telling you that we are criminalizing people in the ghettos. we are going to throw the book at them. we are going to set the loss of so that works that way. we can stop -- talk about stopping for "stop and frisk" an official policy of the new york police department police departments and a few other cities. this policy empowers the police to stop, demand identification from and to search people for any reason or no reason at all and in new york, they are on track on pace right now to stop

700,000 people this year under "stop and frisk." five out of six of the people they stop are black or latino and more than 90% of them were doing nothing wrong when the cops steps to them and subjected them to harassment and humiliation and maybe a beat down and arrest and maybe even stole their life. this is what you could face through this and again it's targeted specifically at blacks and latinos youth. we also could talk about just the way that discrimination against blacks and latinos is rife in the criminal justice system. the sentencing project did a nationwide study of the racial composition of people involved in drug cases and here is what they found. they found that 60%, more than 60% of the people who get arrested for possession of illegal drugs are white, but

then they track those cases that they went through the criminal justice system and they found that when you got to who ended up in prison, 75% of the people who end up in prison for drug possession are lack or latino. we are just talking drug possessions. were not talking about other kinds of violence. drug possession is almost half of the people who are in jail with a 2.4 million people in jail in this country and less than 25% of the people who go to jail for drugs are white so you start out with a majority white but then you end up with a majority black or latino. the way you end up there is discrimination that operates within the criminal justice system. this is how you end up with racially targeted incarceration. 2.4 million people, most of them black or latino, the warehouse in prisons across the country. that is how you get there. but then we also have got to talk about how people are treated when they are in prison.

they are treated like less than human beings. they are fed food that is barely edible. subjected to arbitrary authority by the guards. then you have the people who are in the segregation units, what california called special housing units. these people are held in conditions that fit the international legal definition of torture, because if you are held in one of the special housing units, or shoes you are in conditions where you are tonight human contact for days, weeks, sometimes months at a time. c., and years. and i've not just saying you don't get to have your own caller visits from your families or your lawyers or something like that. they have it set up so you don't even see the person who brings you the food every day. you don't have contact with any other human being and

international law has defined that as torture and bandit were being employed against people who are in prison but there are tens of thousands of people in prisons in this country who are being treated exactly like that, being tortured exactly like that. if conditions like that that sparked the to hunger strikes that prisoners here in california it in the special housing units waged over the summer. [applause] you have got to give it up for that. [applause] this with some heroic action. people who had no other way to stand up and resist, who starve themselves to stand up and say we will not be treated like this anymore and that was a very important thing and something we should take note of and something i will come back to later. then we have to pull on top of

this the way the people get treated when they are released from prison after they have served their sentence. what does that come down to? you get discriminated against when you go looking for employment. they have got a box you have to check that you have been in jail and a check in a box usually means you don't get the job. if you try to get by and don't check the box and they found out that you have been in jail, then it's grounds for firing you. you are denied access to public housing, denied access to government loans. they don't even let you vote. that is what this comes down to. now when you put all of that together and link that to the overall discrimination that blacks and latinos face in the society, it adds up to me, like a picture of a slow genocide, and then when you figure the way things are going in this country and the way in which they are whipping up people to get behind

even more stringent and vicious forms of punishment, i mean i'm sure a lot of you saw the republican debate where the moderator happened to mention that governor perry from texas had presided over 134 executions and the audience interrupted the thing by cheering. well, people who are going to cheer when they hear that somebody is executed 134 human beings are people who would form a social base for even worse crimes and atrocities carried out against people and my point in bringing this up is that slow genocide that i talked about could easily become a vast one. this is what we are up against. this is seriously what we are dealing with here and we have to understand that the conscious policies that the ruling class of this country has developed in targeting black people and latino people come from something. comes from them remembering the

1960s. they remembered that back then it was the rising black people against the conditions that they faced that sparked a broader revolutionary movement that rocked this whole system back on its heels. they remember that and they also realize that there were conditions in the inner cities across this country that are if anything worse than those in the 1960s. so they are moving to head off any potential rising up, trying to trap as many of our youth in the criminal justice system as they can. in a certain sense they are carrying out a counterinsurgency in advance of the insurgency aimed at heading this insurgency off. c. so this is what we are up against and what it comes down to is that there ain't no way you are going to deal with this short of making revolution and getting rid of the system once and for all. that is what it comes down to, sisters and brothers.

that is what we are up against and that is the way we have to move on it. [applause] i know a lot of people felt like, when they elected a rock obama, that they were doing something to deal with all of this. what black people were up against was going to be dealt with. immigrants were going to get a decent shake out of this. the wars would be stopped. people thought all of that would go down. but they were wrong. obama was stepping up to be the main representative, the commander-in-chief of the u.s. global empire. he said he was the best man to keep it in check, keep it in effect and keep it working and see if he is going to represent the u.s. global empire and everything that it does in this country and around the world, he cannot represent the interests and the needs of the oppressed people here and around the world. [applause]

and that is an important lesson that people have to get and then based upon getting it, need to act on it. but you see here is what it comes down to sisters and brothers and if you get nothing else out of what i say tonight i want you to get this. yes the world is a series of never-ending horrors but things don't have to be this way. through revolution, communist revolution, you can change all of this. we get and all of these horrors, all of this brutality i've been talking about here and around the world. that is a fact. we could do that. [applause] these kinds of revolutions have been made before in china and in the soviet union before that and they achieved many great things. most of these revolution had been overgrown and now capitalism is back in effect in those societies. but the leader of the

revolutionary communist party, bob avakian has done a deep study of the previous resolution very expensive those previous revolutionary societies and through doing that he is brought forward a new understanding of how to make revolution and through those revolutionaries -- to that revolution to bring into being a socialist society that is both viable and is a transition to a world where exploitation and oppression is ended once and for all, i class of communist war. now, when i say this, i know that for some people it's like, did i hear that right? is that man up there talking about a communist revolution and saying it's a good thing? yes, i am. [applause] look, and before you say, he must be crazy, doesn't he know the communist fails, that it was

a disaster everywhere was tried? i would ask you to do this. consider what is the source of that conventional wisdom that communism has failed. and that it is the same people who don't tell you the truth about history, past the current state of society here in this country and around the world and don't tell you about how it got that way. those are the people who tell you communism has failed and they are lying to you about that too sisters and brothers. [applause] look, i want to get into what could be accomplished through revolution and i want to get into the concrete on it but it's a big topic. i don't have time to go through all of it so what i'm going to do is i'm going to take just one part of it. i'm going to talk about education, how education is handled in this society and how it could be handled totally

different in a revolutionary society. now for the rest of this i'm going to suggest a web site. a web site called this is communism.org. and it will get you into the history of communist revolutions and how it has dealt with things, of what has been achievements but also what has been its shortcomings because that is an important part of what has brought forward this to understanding. he is fearlessly look at where those previous revolutions went wrong or where they made errors and why they made errors and based upon that come forward with a new understanding. let's talk about education. education should be about teaching people how to think critically, giving them the ability to understand reality and to act to change it and it also should be about instilling in you values and orientation that will inspire them to wants

to devote their lives to understanding reality and trying to change it. you look at education in the society it is veering in the exact opposite direction. in the society, education is crafted and twisted to serve the dictates of capitalism. is used to justify and to perpetuate the oppressive and exploitative relations in society and to keep in effect a dominating positions of those already wealthy and power. now let me break down how some of this comes and the place i have got to start is with the content, because here is the first thing about it. education in the in the end the society doesn't give people the true history of the world, how it developed, what it's like today, how it got that way. you will learn it. let me just give you a little example because i was talking to somebody about the earthquake that happened in haiti about two years ago. now, when you look on tv about

that, you saw the devastation of the earthquake but also the grinding intense poverty that haitian people faced. one thing you never learned and the society is why his haiti poor? the unspoken implication is, the haitian people don't have their stuff together and then there are racial implications to that as well. all the black people, no wonder they can't do nothing right. that is what you get out of that but what you don't get is that when haiti made its revolution more than 200 years ago it chased colonial masters from france out. [applause] yeah so that was a very important revolution. but here is what happened. right after that revolution, france put a stranglehold on haiti through at the naval blockade. the united states helped enforce the naval blockade and they said, until you take reparations to france, you are going to be blockaded. we are going to strangle your

economy. now why should haiti have paid reparations to france? well, because they had deprived france of their human robert e.. the enslaved african people who rose up and revolution. and, they had deprived france of the wealth it had gotten from stealing the labor of those enslaved africans in haiti because haiti was responsible for 80% of the wealth of the worldwide french empire. they squeezed haiti, force them to pay those reparations, millions of dollars at that point, which would be billions and trillions of dollars today that put haiti's economy in debt, debt that it never got out of. but they never tell you that. they don't tell you that thomas jefferson was way behind the u.s. helping france to strangle the revolution in haiti. that is reality but it's reality

that you don't learn. we can go beyond that, because the other thing you don't learn about is the true significance of the twin original sin in the development of this country and if i can borrow a little bit of terminology from some other sources on that. what do i mean by these true original sins? we are talking about the genocide carried out against the native people and the enslavement of africa's people. [applause] okay, now, they have put that into the history books. in fact when i was young, it's hard to find that in history but they have with the fact that those things happened in the report but you don't actually get the true significance. you don't find out that those twin original sins or by the foundation for all the wealth and power of this country. they don't bring that to you. and then here is one other

telling thing about this country. the simple basic scientific fact of evolution is something that is very controversial to teach people in this society. that is a telling exposure. now in some elite schools there is encouragement for people to think and nonconformist ways, but even that is limited to things that don't challenge directly the fundamental interests of the capitalist rulers in this country. and when you come to education for those on the bottom of society, it's an even more cruel insult to those used. you have got millions of people in the inner cities of this country who go to schools that are more like prisons. every morning when they going to school they have got to go through a metal detector and then once they go through that metal detector, they see the halls of their schools controlled by actual police and acting up in class in the schools, back in my day, weiss

to do that you know and they would send us to detention for an hour. they would give us a note to take home to our parents. this never happened to me of course. [laughter] but i saw it happen to other people and that is why i can tell you that. but in school today, acting up in class can get you beat down and arrested by the cops who are patrolling the schools. this is what it comes down to and despite the intention, the good intentions of many of the teachers, the schools are set up to fail, to push them out the door onto the streets. and to send them out with a message that it's their own fault that they are in those situations. this is what education comes down to in this society. now, education could be totally different and a revolutionary society, and here is how i want to go at this. we in the revolutionary communist party have produced a

draft constitution for the new socialist republic in north america. this is a document that talks about what society would be like a the day after the revolution. now we want to put this out, one because we want people to know that society doesn't have to be organized this way. but two we want to go on record for what kind of society we are bringing into being and how it will function and how it would work so that people could look at what we are doing and say, the stuff you are doing out don't seem in line with the constitution put out so we want people to engage in some of that stuff. that is the part about, we feel that we can stay on the road to what we are trying to pull off. now, i can't give you everything and i encourage people to check this out but i want to read some excerpts on this but we will talk about how we will approach this education. here is one of them. education while valuing and giving expression to the circumstances and atmosphere that are favorable and conducive to learning and intellectual

pursuit shall ovoid and combat and ivory tower environment of mentality. education at all levels shall combine intellectual of us physical labor is part of working in transforming the relation between intellectual and physical work so that there's no longer constitutes the basis for social antagonism. another excerpt. one of the most important purposes of the education system in the new socialist republic in north america is to enable students and the people broadly to learn deeply about the reality of and the basis for the oppression of old people and the domination and oppression of women and the former imperialist usa and throughout the world. and just one more point i wanted to read. the educational system and the new socialist republic in north america must enable people to pursue the truth wherever it

leads, with a spirit of critical thinking and scientific curiosity and in this way, to continually learn about the world and be better able to contribute to changing it in accordance with the fundamental interests of humanity. and these aren't just some good ideas about how to do education different. this is based upon the actual difference that a socialist society has in relation to a capitalist society. and a socialist society, people are working together in common for the common good. they are trying to transform reality, trying to deal with contradictions left over from capitalism. they are not trying to protect private property and private holdings and wealth and power for minority of people. to do this, you are going to need people to consciously and

voluntarily change the world and themselves in the process, so we need an educational system that teaches people to think critically, so that they can understand reality as deep as possible and on that races contribute to transforming it. that is why a socialist society, a revolution of society could go at this question of education differently than a capitalist society. the other point i wanted to make is that the framework from which the approach to education but everything that's in this constitution comes from the work that above a key and has done to re-envisioned revolution and communism and how to bring it about. and that is an important thing that i wanted to get into here with people. now, i have been talking about revolution and i feel like i need to get to what is revolution and to me the best way to do it, i want to read a

short quote from avakian again from basics. is important first in a clear what in basic terms we mean when we say the goal is revolution and in particular communist revolution. revolution means nothing less than the defeat and dismantling of the existing oppressive serving the capitalist imperialist system and in particular an institution of organized violence and repression including its armed forces, police, courts, prisons bureaucracy and administrative power and the replacement of those reactionary institutions. concentrations of reactionary corrosion and violence with revolutionary political power and other revolutionary institutions and governmental structures whose basis has been laid for the whole process of building the movement for revolution and then carrying out the seizure of power when the conditions for that have been brought into being which in a country like the u.s. will require a qualitative change in

the objective situation, resulting in a crisis in society and the emergence of a revolutionary people in the millions and millions who have the leadership of a revolutionary congress -- vanguard and are conscious of the need for revolutionary change in determined to fight for it. now, we are not at that point yet, but how would you get from where we are now to the point where such a revolution is possible or such a red -- revolution could be made? this is something we have addressed and we have got a strategy statement. i also encourage people to check it out. it's one of the essays in the book basics that i was talking about before. this statement says some things about why revolution could be possible in a society like this but that it also poses, what is it that people who see the need for revolution need to be doing right now. and then it goes on to answer that question by saying,

fighting the power in transforming the people for revolution is indeed part of the answer. now what this means is building resistance in a way that enables people to raise their heads, to get a better sense of what they are up against, who the enemy is but also who their potential friends and allies are and what kind of struggle needs to be waged in order to win. this also has a lot of implications today in the midst of occupied everywhere spreading across the country. because you saw in this people standing up and resisting some of the economic deprivation that is being brought down on the great majority of people here but as it developed, you also saw people connecting with other struggles like earlier this week, there was a conference in arizona, where some reactionary

forces were getting together to plot even further attacks on the immigration movement and what the occupied forces in arizona did is they laid siege to this conference. the police were there trying to defend these people, trying to come up with more cruel ways to combat immigrants but the occupied people were like we ain't stepping back because this is part of what we have to deal with. i'm going to talk and a little bit about the relationship between occupy wall street and the movement to stop and risk in new york but again, people have seen links between the different struggles, connecting the dots is what people have said. this is an important part of what big 10 accomplished through fighting the power in transforming the people for revolution. there is another thing it talks about in the strategy for revolution piece that needs to be done by people who see the need for revolution, and that is that you need to spread revolution everywhere and you need to spread the leadership

and work and vision of father avakian the leader of the revolutionary communist party. i already talked about the new synthesis that chairman avakian has developed but why my, why do we talk about getting this everywhere? what is the significance of this? just think about this. people are standing out. people are resisting. people are questioning, why are things like this? do they have to be this way? could they be some other way? here you have the leader who has developed a framework and a guide that goes to that question and an all-around conference of way that brings to you in basic sense and understanding of why the world is like this, but also a vision of how it could be totally different and far better. now, think about the impact that this has for people who are standing up and questioning

stuff that have this framework, that they could bounce off of. that they can debate with, that they can develop points of agreement and points of disagreement with. think of how this can spur forward that resistance and that question because it will go with the sense that too many people have been suffocated with that things have to be this way, that there is no other way fundamentally that they can be so the best you can do is make service changes in the already existing setup. you see, and in light of what we see as the importance of getting a fish vision ever wear the revolutionary communist party has embarked on a campaign to raise big money, the money that is needed to get that work and that vision everywhere. and we encourage people to check this out. i just want to read a short excerpt from a piece that we wrote on this. you can love and agree with most

of what father avakian has to say or you can disagree with a lot of it. you can just feel like you don't know enough yet to be sure one way or another. even as you find yourself drawn and had attracted by different elements. but if you are decent thinking person, a person with a conscience, someone who just can't go along with the notion that it's acceptable for great social injustices to repeatedly be tolerated or swept under the rug, then this campaign is for you. you see, so this is all part of what people who see the need for revolution need to be doing right now. now i want to step in closing, i want to step towards getting into again racially targeted mass incarceration. i already painted for you a picture of what it's like. this is a great injustice that needs to be stopped and we are doing something to stop it right now. when i say we, i can start with

me and brother cornel. because he and i issued a call for a campaign of civil disobedience to stop, "stop and frisk." [applause] we did this because of the pipeline to mass incarceration and because it's illegitimate, illegal and unconstitutional. [applause] people should not have to put up with their rights being revoked because their skin happens to be black or brown. now when we did this, we were like well if it is just me and you brother, we are going to go out there and do this but we are going to call on other people to get with us and when we issued the call for it, and take it a lot of places including places as some people thought we

shouldn't, a lot of folk came together to take this thing up. we ended up with one thing that is has developed around this movement of against "stop and "d frisk" is the core of younger people for taking this up as their mission and they are debating right now whether they should call themselves the new freedom fighters or are the new freedom riders and we have a lively internet debate going on around this and talk to me later if you want to get, get in on it, but you know young folks are like, we have got to do what they did in the 1960s. we have to put our bodies on the line. joining together with these young folks, we have got ministers, we have got professors, we have a professional comedian. we even have one of the actors from the wire who went and got arrested with us. also a bunch of other people. i made this point about taking at places where people thought we shouldn't because we said we should take it to occupy wall street and some folks said,

folks on occupy wall street don't know nothing about "stop and frisk." i was like yeah they don't but that is why we have to go down there. [applause] and then we went back again and we went back again and through the force of this, some of those way people who knew nothing about "stop and frisk" learned about it and decided like, this is horrible. i have to do something about it. there were also a couple of black and latino folks who said, until we started bringing this kind of felt like well, i can bring what happens to me down here because nobody will want to relate to that. but then when they saw people who are saying, let's stand up and do something about it, they joined in bradley and them joining it helped to bring others so that is how the score of core of younger people came together. people are grappling with, where does this come from, how do we

stop in and what is the got to do with the revolution and that is a very important part of what has developed. another port and part of what is developed through this is that folks in the projects, black and brown high school kids who are just tired of being jacked up and harassed by the police thought there was nothing that could be done about it, when they saw these folks coming and going to the police precinct and doing civil disobedience and getting arrested, they were like, stunned and then gladdened. they rely, did you see it? there was even a jewish guy up there. they were high-fiving in the projects and when the revolutionaries came back by, they were hugging them, because they are beginning to dare to hope that something could be done about this that they are up against. they are not certain yet but they are beginning to dare to hope and that is an important part of what has got to happen if you are going to bring forward a movement for

revolution, movement that can transform all of this. so you have that happening from one end and you have the people who didn't know about this injustice but who are learning about it, and acting to stop it and see, this is what i'm talking about when i talk about fight the power and transform the people for revolution. with to bring people forward to stand up and resist. we have also got to bring to them that are at the foot they are up against. that it isn't just if you want to talk about the 99%, what happens to all of them is all you can deal with because you have to deal with the oppression of women. you have to deal of what happens with gay people and have to deal with the brutality coming down in the ghettos. if you're really going to represent the interests of the overwhelming majority people in this country and around the world. so, this is what i'm talking about and just on this mass incarceration tip, this is a fight that you almost join in and take up. this is not just a the thing for

new york. it is not just a thing for the people in prison. this is for anybody who sees injustice in the way that people are warehoused in prisons, the pipelines that they used to get them there and the less inhuman treatment that they get in prison and once they get out of prison. student here have to join this fight. you have got to link up with people on campus and off-campus to build it. and get with us on this because we want to see this develop and we want to see determined resistance throughout this movement. it is very important. we have got to stop the slow genocide. don't even think about how it can become a fast one. let's stop it where it is now. that's something we have got to do. [applause] and let me say this. for my part i'm going to be approaching it as part of building a movement for revolution, fighting the power and transforming the people for

revolution. and you have got to get with his fight against mass incarceration, whether you agree with me on revolution or not. if you don't agree with revolution you have to agree with me that this is an injustice and must be stopped but of course if you do agree with me on revolution you have even more reason to get into this because building a revolutionary movement is something that this can contribute quite a bit too. now i am really at the end and i debated as to whether i should do this or not but. something that we have been doing in new york on the "stop and frisk" thing. i'm going to try to hear and see if it works. are you already? you are all involved in this too. no more generations of our youth. here and all around the world. whose life is over, whose fate

has been sealed. who had been condemned to an early death. or a life of misery and brutality. who in the system has destined for oppression and oblivion, even before they are born. i say no more of that. and having said no more of that, we must act to make it real. thank you, sisters and brothers. [applause] [applause]

>> brother carl dix, brother carl dix, it is good to see a revolutionary communist in the flesh, isn't it? i want to say that i'm blessed to be here. coming to uc berkeley as like i'm coming home. i grew up in sacramento california, right down the road. my brother cliff d. wells held the mile record for freshman 30 years, part of the 1972 ncaa track championship team with brothers like eddie hart and isaac curtis and when i come to berkeley i'm fired up before again and to a lectern. and i want to thank my dear brother carl dix. a lot of people ask me, why do you spend so much time on revolutionary communism, and prophetic and prophetic buddhas and at nokia's and atheist.

you're nothing but a holy ghost black baptist brother. i say yeah, i am a jesus loving man. and they come from a tradition that says let every voice, and if you have the courage to ask for truth you're going to have to listen to every voice because no individual, no group has a monopoly on truth. when you to listen to one another and learn from one another. we have got to organize and mobilize together. [applause] i work with prophetic mormons if they want to talk about corporate greed and wealth inequality in the role of big money in politics and arbitrary, military power and arbitrary police power having to do with human beings. what are you willing to sacrifice for, so if you are permitted to the truth and the condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak.

and if you're concerned about justice, and justice is what love looks like in public, so if you love poor people, if you love the chocolate side of town, if you loved latino side of town are hairy on the other side of town or the asian side of town, then you will talk about justice because when you love folk, you stand the fact that they are being treated unjustly. ..

committed teachers, got a smile on her face. we love you, we love you, we love you. yes we do. love every voice. i want to acknowledge that, but i told him he could read his poem. i don't know if he made it here tonight. he is a student at mohammed, police and i can ask, transformer gangster called malcolm little in to the malcolm x. the lift every voice. i disagree here. i disagree there.

we disagree with most of our professors. we disagree with most of our politicians until he keep track of the element of truth. can you keep track of the element of justice and a witness? that's the challenge. i don't care for palestinian. i don't care if you're israeli or ethiopian. i'm not care if your guatemalan. if you have the courage to allow suffering to speak and your concern about the social misery and you see the connection between unjust social structure, domination generating unnecessary social misery than you already have the love train. [applause] and the doj's comment away? you already on the love. john's soul train is team.

baby genius brandish down the road and implies down in the layout. [cheers and applause] what did he say? stand. you've been sitting next to the. there's a permanent crease. stand here. they know what you're saying makes sense and all. and there's a midget standing tall and about to fall. stand. there is a cross for you to bear. things to go through if you're going anywhere. those are not just growth. to have young folk art tied into the superficial physical where they're told to be human, to be so they become addicted and self educated to keep them sleep walking. it is about the awakening. it's about the deep democratic

awakening. they are called everyday. they are called ordinary folk. if you're fundamentally committed to the preciousness and the priceless mess of ordinary and everyday people. i don't care what color. i don't care culture, what civilization, what orientation. it begins with those catching, those called the wretched of the earth. and the problem of the framework to those who love poor people and of working people, that is then pushed without we have been living and its fashion although import people. can you imagine 42 pairs of a fall colors live in or near policy in the richest nation in the history of the word?

that bar obscenity. that's an ethical abomination. every american not to be ashamed to live in a nation with the youth or whatever color has to deal with a level of socially but good economic abandonment and is tied to create, especially corporate greed at the top. so we need to talk about all of that is power. billions of dollars at the top, chileans given to those at the top because they do. is this our precious young people are too little. i don't know about you, but i'm tired of that hypocrisy. investment at risk in a trouble call for welfare, get chileans of dollars in our brothers and sisters call for help and are told to be responsible for the

reaction. nothing that hypocrisy and in mass deceit. [applause] so, the brother of the coroner, years ago on wall street come involving criminal behavior. inside the treating market, that one has been investigated or prosecuted. the arbitrary rule of law. if you don't come to terms of arbitrary rule and not. our young folks see a face on in the 1980s to move in. that's how they came out to gangster rap. but this gangster rap coming in and out the gangster life? the selections rather than elections. they looked at the population

and said the site of legalized bribery normal life with six lobbyists for every congressman or congresswoman. everybody on the 11th amendment that's what our young folks say. they look at our churches and sell ceos rather than jay arthur simpson. but i think. used to be a time where somebody was can turn the out nonmarket values like justice and fairness and fidelity and integrity and magnanimity. but now come in at the time by the time to get to the early part of the 21st century. everybody is for sale. everybody is for sale. just give them big money. thank god for my dear sister alice walker. where is she? down my distance. there she is. we love you, we love you for

taking a stand. from mississippi to this very day. zero yes. i believe and i refuse to move forward without looking backward and seeing the freedom fighters of the past who held a high standards. the toni miro's, the amir baraka's, all of them in their own way. you fully agree with any of them? no. imh at man. i don't want anybody to imitate me. i want them to find their own voices. imitation is suicide, a sign of an immature mind. do yourself how the coverage to be yourself and then we overlap. that's the best come in the

history of black people in america. people don't like to talk about blacks these days, especially in the age of obama. everybody is colorblind. might be a brother. stand up. stand up this pathetic islamic rather. i did know you're in the audience, man. i did not doubt. we were just in san francisco together. how do you reckon i'll pathetic islam with radical democracy? by the name now, in the grand tradition says that retail a deep enough and is mainly because we are free, we are scared of being taken seriously

the contribution of black people in this nation. it has nothing to do with that. it has to occur each, presenting an alternative word. poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world. what did he mean by that? he wasn't talking about versus buyers. but that reimburses the same verse as to be a poet in the most profound and to have the carriage to unleash your imagination and your empathy so it's connected to your roots and the rows for which you go. and to keep your roots consolidated in a row, they keep socratic energy there for self-criticism, then you can put any corner of the club and go to

any neck and cranny of the nation. put a crack, white house, your mama's house, steal that integrity can still back dignity. you still want to tell the truth. and people are hungry and thirsty for truth and justice. they are tired of the lies they've been bar bartered with. the tie with the dominant culture of mass weapons of destruction. you see, brother vincent there. james brown, george clinton, bootsy collins, to 100 street rhythm band. [applause] a nice player to be a funk master. because the funk is about the

truth tied to a single packet called the mass, but it is the time and space, the rules of cars that others have as human beings and the fact we all emerge in the from. but all that lead down there and some stank and stench. then one day our bodies will be the culinary delight to rest as worms. in that move from bombers went to tim, what person are you going to be quite do it to come to terms with forms of suffering and social misery and willingly the street your backs and everyday people straighten their backs up, they go somewhere and let it then. and that's what is happening today. folks are straightening out. tired of wearing the mask. i want to be me. tired of laughing when it ain't funny and scratching words on

stage. for the last 35 years and was told young will to do what? be successful, what does success mean? material toys, title, wealth, power and being well adjusted to injustice. well-adjusted to injustice. why let that be to indifference. is that success? i'm old-school. my tradition told me to be great and he or she is greatest among you to deal with the quality of service to others and depth of your love for others beginning with her great gift of our jewish brothers and sisters to the world. pathetic tradition. yes, it's in egypt. is there an africa. if they are in asia, but the

whole tradition of a set of conversational partners like michael and msn, isaiah and so many others they to be human is to engage in loving kindness, the fatherless, motherless, poor, weak, that is a profound contribution. and there is no that black people in this particular democratic experiment and empire because it simultaneously both, isn't it for indigenous brothers and sisters 1492 and not. it one is going on every sense. let us never lose sight of the indigenous brothers and sisters. but you have an intake imperialist. but the question of principle. how can we don't get behind politician? i get behind principles. i evaluate politicians in light of the principles.

the black and i need to look for it because and. i'm very, very excited when i see black and brown and yellow folk breaking white supremacist terriers, based on principle because i hate is a panacea, just like any hate mail supremacy. i hate anti-semitism. i hate antimissile on. i hate, but at the same time, even when they break those barriers, i want to know what they are doing, what their policies look like. does it reflect what amos is talking about when he said that justice roll down like waters of righteousness. are you concerned about working here and around the world and especially concerned about the poor children and voices who really get a chance to surface.

thank god for mayor wright edelman who has been struggling for the last 45 years for children. for future for our youth. they are 100% of the future. so what are you calling for? i am excited about the occupied movement. brother david t. would. standard here when of the great freedom fighters here. love this, brother. and why am i excited? because it led to young people. no more about lupe fiasco than they do donnie hathaway. need to know both. they know it or come by due more than enough amount. they need to know both.

peter seeker, have a sense of history even as these make history and the present. and it's a beautiful thing for what old-school brother like me to see young people disproportionally straighten up their backs and standing and not poetic way of exercising your imagination and fade like me to your brother we refuse to accept the notion that it is no alternative to the present. we will not defer to the truncated public discourse that there is the only limit of our politics between a means. it, and mendacious republican party and they spend less we refuse to spite ourselves to the limits.

we want something else. we want another world. we want more imagination. we want more empathy. vicious ito ian. what's wrong with dreaming? chino nail, one of the greatest playwrights, or greatest playwrights and son used to say oftentimes the question is either you train or you die. i'm not talking about some kind of cheek utopia son. i'm talking about how you generate hope. and again, i come from a people, black folk, where for so long, hope is a crime can you imagine what it's like? 244 years of slavery with the very notion of dreaming executed

later on under jim crow swinging from a tree. or even in the 1960s when you train like the fbi keeps track of you every day from january 10 and you discover the very photographer with you every day with the fbi in permit. dream or die. it has to do with the depth of your love. if you're willing to love, you can't help but treat them alternative visions a night mare present. it may be confined solely to your side of town, that sooner or later it going to hit the other suburb, to. we started with the condition. it's magnificent, but it must start with the resignation. what do you think?

about recession? they say, what recession? well, you've only got 9.1 unemployment. lord, we cut 40 decade after decade after decade. go with her latino brothers and sisters. they say it's very that they will not tell the truth. count the folk are working part-time. go to the black section of town. but recessionary talking about because it's affecting disproportionally i preciously others and sisters. let's be honest about it. if we're really in it together, then when it affects one of us, it it affects all of us. i don't care what color you are. i don't care which are commitments are. that's what it's magnificent about this movement. no one predicted that people

would be talking about the raping brothers and sisters. fox news -- [laughter] brother bill o'reilly has to somehow defend wall street now. i haven't seen any criminal behavior whatsoever. as the justice department to do it. from the last administration. they want to investigate the wiretaps from the past. and you know the wiretaps caught us. i turn on a little looser when i hear it and things going on. i believe in spreading the good stuff. [laughter] but it's also important to laugh, isn't it? that sways tragicomic

incongruity. it's the first time that that person never spoke to large numbers of free but people. he stepped out. he said never confuse the situation of black people or hebrew scripture for black people, fares on both sides of the bloody red seas. got to be tragicomic. had to sing a song, but keep on pushing the way curtis talked about. just sing a song to keep the spirit going. the occupied movement now is in a stage where it's getting used like because the attacks are becoming more vicious scum of the are becoming thicker. you have to learn something from the blues people. you have to learn how to preserve hope and keep up your cheap optimism. hope and optimism are quantitatively different. it's going to have something to do with the depths of your end.

it cannot something to do with the very young people brother carl dix was talking about, the ones locked into the military-industrial complex. we spent $300 billion in the last 28 years. it's called the marshall plan, but tino carso marshall plan. didn't have a marshall plan for housing, didn't have a marshall plan for jobs at a decent wage, the country hundreds of dollars per parser lapine or for jails, prisons and the criminal justice system. thank god for angela davis for highlighting this issue. often times voices in the wilderness, are now coming to the center. we've got to make that connection than the military-industrial complex highly racialized to the poor white brothers and sisters. one of the fastest groups

undergoing incarceration, poor white and sisters who are poor. absolutely. black and brown sisters. though we got to connect that military conduct with the military-industrial complex. because the military budget also is a major rarity. we have no money, but here comes iraq. we have no money, but your concept in his hand. always find the money. not for the children, not for the workers, not for the poor. more priorities. [applause] then the jones human acts. dropping bombs on innocent people. they're trying to kill terrorists. why you killed her daughter quirks that little daughter is precious. the daughter of a terrorist of whatever color is precious.

four years old, five years old. she's not responsible for the shirts said her father. she ought not ever to be killed. i don't care which government does it. once you move down the path to collective punishment, the next thing you become so callous from your shoulders becomes a chili in your conscious of coors on your heart has become so hardened that you start talking about then in terms of collateral damage rather than precious human beings. as part of the policy, we've got to talk about that. sometimes they're young folks only major choice they make us in the military. then we connected to the corporate oligarchy complex on wall street and corporate elites, where the wealth and hemorrhage at the top. the top 400 america have equipment to the bottom 150

alien. now that for me for me is that keith sweat moment. something just ain't right. just like the job rasco and the others. and i keep pointing out to others because you have to play a fundamental role in this movement. got to play a fundamental role in this movement. when you talk about what we're up against, you better hedgers. fortified. you have to have your soul so determined that nothing can turn you around and you want to be focusing on the love, the occupied movement is a love movement. it is not hating anybody. when i given oligarchy, i'm not

talking about hating oligarchs. i'm talking about the use of oligarchy power, which is a choice. it is a decision. we are not demonizing anybody. we are demonizing systems. that is why none of us are purely part of the solution. we all shot through with contradictions. there's white supremacy inside of me. there's male supremacy inside of me. beyers inside of me. i've got to work it through. i got to wrestle with it. that's what the emphasized a fundamental role. so don't let anybody tell you the occupied movement is about hatred and revenge is of a qualitative difference between justice and revenge and you don't have to read shakespeare to know the difference. but it's a nice text to read. [laughter] text for the distinction. powerful text. i'll bring this i'll bring this

to a close, but you can see where you're headed. namely in is the beginning of a new day. the conservative era is coming to a close. free-market fundamentalism has failed. neoliberal policies here in rod are morally bankrupt. they have no future if they're concerned about poor and working people and the challenges first two shadows of sleepwalking. that is the first thing we have to do. that's what the occupied movement of 30 victorious because of a shutter sleepwalking. everybody's got to talk about corporate greed. i don't care where you come from. i don't care who you are. you could be a right wing crypto centric neoliberal revolutionary. that is a beautiful thing in america. america is a place that often is afraid of the truth when it comes to allowing the fringes peek. it's true. look at the u.s. constitution.

22% happens in the 13 colonies. they are very labor producing the well. no reference to the constitution. that's about in your constitution. you reap what you sow. there wasn't for frederick douglass, harriet tubman, william lloyd garrison, so many others that you know what, given all of this raise that's everything, just like in occupying the land, a fork in the road go towards anger, revenge, picardy or goes to a love, justice and equality. that has been a fundamental role of the plot prophetic tradition from frederick douglass toa philip randolph to ida b. wells

or penny lou hammond or alice baker two might make king junior, to stevie wonder. i knew it was his plan it was his plan when they came in. how is it that when this by people who have been terrorizing and chama ties and stigmatize for so long, hated for so long keep dishing out all of this love. but the fundamental question or that's what i love about carl dix. you all might look and see just the communists. i see a black man who has poor people and working people in a smirking at his alternative vision and he's been true to it for the last 45 years. even if i disagree, i can keep track of the love that's what we need to do to each and everyone of us because if you have courage coming to manifest some of that of tight digestives.

the same way. i brothers sisters shot them out of the burning of your. how do you talk about a love for precious brothers and sisters on the one hand, what been hated for so long, hungry for security and at the same time they know their prophetic tradition leads them to talk about justice. yes, justice for precious palace tinian brothers and sisters. let's be honest about it. at the same time you can check out love on both sides, but keep lists of life on both sides. that's what we're talking about. that's what made this movement so beautiful. i want to come to a close on this note of hope because it is precisely when we lift our voices and engage the weekend directly and directly empower each other and the empowerment

it's unsettling. it's like the first line of camera raw, what can i do to wake the neighbors from the sleep walking. that's what lifting the voices all about. but his apology of socrates that the cause of my unpopularity with my parisien, my plain speech, my unintimidated speech, by frank speech that have to do with that which is calling into question the positions that it blinded people for so long, generated deliberate ignorance for so long. the ones that suffering began to haunt them, and they need to empowerment and start looking for folks who've been so pathetic. thank god for the occupied movement.

[applause] >> wow, that's nice. we're talking about artists. get a young brother a hand. where are you, brother james? perry is right there. but the camera on brother james. >> i've got to take that picture home and show it to my granddaughter.

yours is more handsome than mine because you are my hands on the night. >> auto show it to my granddaughter. >> is not beautiful. brother james, we love you, man. >> your wonderful wife would agree. you've got that d+ india. >> most of the time, yes you would. but i was thinking about a few things. there was the question of love and i was also inking about dreaming and revenge. and on the streaming peas, one thing that folks used to always say about me busy or just a dreamer. i was kind of like, what's wrong

here? am i not accomplishing things? are my head in the clouds? but then i ran across a piece from vladimir lenin, leader of the russian revolution, where he talked about dreaming. and he basically said ain't nothing wrong with training, as long as your dreams come from a basis of reality and they are big dreams, but then you're constantly measuring the difference between your dream than reality and working to narrow that distance by bringing reality in line with what you're doing, but also bring your dreams back in line with reality because if you dream company might cut to readjusts the strings because what you think about can be realized. once i came across that i said hey, dreaming a so bad.

>> the fascist dreams. >> yes. you know what i'm saying. [laughter] but for me, the love and hatred type two the power because pregnant cherries to say hatred is their revenge against those who intimidate you. so it's always this b.c.'s, always with a beautiful person. at the same time, if you hate injustice and go with martin and the other state that had to do with love. part of the problem these days is we don't have enough people, especially for young people who embody that. you see, when i was coming on in the 60s, and martin and mary

read lmn and the others is very clear that they had such a debt of integrity that they would never sell out to the highest bidder, and never. whereas the market society we have for young people, assets are your heroes are, they go through the most visible at the biggest monies. how much political code today have? well, hadn't really thought about that. and there's nothing wrong with it, having a certain kind of genius. oprah winfrey has an entrepreneurial genius. i can celebrate her entrepreneurial genius and i will until the day i die. but when you dress up old herbert allen baker, you see that there's a lot of kurds outwork and the market calculations. same for all those folks on television. you can do see them all cramped. they really won't tell the truth

as they have limits after in danger of putting all these folks. they put an acre on tv. you know what they mean? you are talking about three years. they've got a job on the corporate media. i said lord have mercy, would have been? it's too truncated. we've got to provide examples to young people of free human beings, of whatever color. and we need more of it. >> i'm glad you said this piece distinguish between 80 and injustice and hating it depo because i think there is a real difference there. because there may come in the hatred of this is tied in the love of the people who are being

unjustly treated. i actually like the way you out me because that is where i am coming from. i think people need to get a period and then we need to grapple with this thing about revenge because from one end, there are people who have been horribly abused in this society and in this world and they should be angry about that. but then i fall that takes you to is i want to strike back, i want my chance, then you aren't going to be able to fundamentally uproot all of the madness i talked about in that quote about what this society is light, the explicative relations of everything that goes around with it. so you've got to hit the abuse it's coming down. but you also have to hate it enough and not the people enough for being abused to want to get scientific about it.

where is this coming from? how can we understand that? and how can we move to deal with it? who are the allies we can bring forward in the struggle? so i think that's important. sometimes some people hear me say it's not our youths followed, they didn't create this situation. they think i'm giving them a pass, that they can stay in the ship they're into. that's it at all. and understand the situation they are faced with and what they are in. the other thing i got to say if now we know why you're faced with a situation. we've got to say, what are we going to do about it? are you going to go out the way they put it there for you to go out, or are we going to stand up and say no, we ain't going out like that. we are not less than human and we will not be dehumanized and become inhuman. in fact, we are going to bring -- we are going to be

emancipator set humanity. for not just looking to get it off of us. we are looking to overturn the structure better way down heaviest en masse, but also laying down on people all around the world quite heavily, too. >> what about the distinction between resentment on the one hand and the righteousness nation on the other is that mail magazine jerusalem is that mail magazine jerusalem is that mail magazine jerusalem is that mail magazine jerusalem -- a few engage in a righteous indignation in this society, people want to reduce that down. in the same way that when different groups come together, let's say people like the black community, all the black community has an interest.

that's not true. that's the way the dominant puts me to push this forward. and never allow anybody, any group to reduce u.s. an individual just for your interest. it may not be in your interest to senior chad, but shall try to do it anyways because you got principles. it may not be your interest to save someone to violate her, but you love her so you do some things because you have principles. without an last 40 years. it's just a matter of our special interest group. martin luther king jr. didn't need a special interest group. he led a group of black people. because to be so scared and afraid and intimidate you don't want to do anything. my kind of folks.

what else did you say to them? but are put on your cemetery clothes. american apartheid can get to you quick. but it is based on principle. it wasn't just like interest. and we need to get back to talking about ideals as well as just injuries. is it in my interest to help poor people? what kind of human being do you want to be? if it's just a matter of your individual interests come you can join a crib to a fascist movement. oligarchs can be freedom fighters if they so choose. they just have to commit a certain kind of class suicided. but as individuals, they can choose based on that principles. we need to get back to talking. that's what i love. not the envy of resentment, but

the principles. and you see that throughout a work of love. on that point, we're in deep solidarity. i do and if anything about the god question? >> at two places i was thinking about taking it. one was coming off of time because you keep doing things like you can designate the indignation and wrath descends where you're coming from any data there earlier. and i could come from another way i'm not the case when the thing that marks socialism and communism, socialism being from each according to their ability to each according to their work and communism being from each according to their ability to each according to their need is actually drawn from a biblical rules. >> yes, exactly. so you know, there is a way in

which what he was getting out there ways you can draw a knowledge in a lot of different places, but he was getting at the kind of world that could be brought into being. and then, you know, when we talked the last time, i got into the point of a lot of people focus communism and marxism and the opiate of the people. but i remember, a red mark for the first time for a college writing course. and i read him because the teachers said, all right, you've got to do an essay and hear the different authors you could take to write the essay on. but i must tell you if anybody takes karl marx i will fill them. [laughter] okay, now this teacher, she doesn't know me very well because i got to take karl marx. you know, i read him and i was

like, vista nixon's sense. one of the things i remembered reading with his point about religion being the heart of a heartless world. and at that point, i had earlier been raised up in the church and folks are like, this is going to be the new head of the church. this is going to be like to pass because at the age of 10 out of two other school, all the church plays in the nativity things than i would know all the rules and people would forget their lines. he's going to go fire at this. but then i was at the guns questions that it could not do within the context of religion. and then i read marx thing and and got out of church, but i didn't go to the dsm. i was just like i don't know about it. but then i read this thing about the heart of the heartless world end up it needs to be done is we

need to the heart in the world to getting rid of capitalism and all that it needs. and in a world with heart, what would be the role of the religion? you know, that is a marxist approach for that. now i know you guys take on that, but i'm sure you've run into this before. so i just wanted to put that out there in terms of we are actually working to put hard in the world by ending the heartlessness of the oppression, the excitation of capitalism imperialism. and through the course of that, people will still be able to practice religion on their own. you know, that would be around approach to try to suppress that. but that heart in a heartless world could no longer be necessitated as part of where we see. >> i see the power that claim.

i mean, there's no doubt that the history of religious institution has spent exceptionally accommodating, the imperialism of white supremacy, male supremacy and so forth. but i understand and the christian faith i understand is talking about those pathetic voices and conversational partners to go alongside the margins of all these different religious institution. most of christianity and constant christianity, which is so accommodated to the presidents of the world, that people use as they coping mechanism generating courage. most of it is constitutional judaism. moving into the upper middle class. calling them up with respect

ability, never thinking that you actually could be a mainstream given the business history of anti-semitism. now, have a critical suspicion of that. it's right there in the text. every yom kippur red has a suspicion is that. that's very difficult. the constant stream buddhism, but they are pathetic and suspicious in that in the saddling institutions. liberalism accommodation through vicious works of imperialism. nsa know, the failure of marxism in terms of the gangster like communist regimes of stalin and a whole host of others, killing millions and millions of people, but there's a pathetic element in a marxist analysis but said the precious humanity of poor working people not be accented, even in the face as the gangster

like communist reserves. so you would accept that, though? >> i want to talk about this gangster like regime. >> stalin was a gangster come you agree with that? be immaculate to first resolution after the death of landon and he was trying to descend and it's never been done before. and there were shortcomings in the understanding of the communist movement at that point. and yet to visit this. yet to say, all right, we socialize the means of production, but there's a lot of disagreements here. where are they coming from? and at that point, communist movement had no understanding of where you at it that kind of resistance with the means of production socialized. >> you know it's not right. and now, you don't need it.

>> i'm not sure why they got in seminary. now, but it was -- >> he was dealing with contradictions under socialism that he didn't know where they are coming from. now, mao was able to look at what they did in the soviet union and say okay kind of his greatest contradictions are coming from. it's not enough to make a farm collect profit from it the factory collective property. you actually have to deal with relations between people left over from the old society, those who work with their minds. you have to deal with the fact that you have to have exchanged between the firings and the fact. and those are differences that

contain this seat of antagonize them if you don't handle them right and mao was able to work with that. but see, part of what we have done a good this is actually look at what were those societies tried to do? how did they go about it? >> and what did they achieve because in both russia and china come you are talking about societies are the people were poor, illiterate, and beaten down. in both of those societies, people's material conditions were transformed. literacy brought to them. in china they would even further. they started with 70 million drug addicts and wiped out drug addiction is a social problem and not by punishing the people who are on drugs, but by giving them a source of hope and the new societies they forged and they treating addiction as a medical problem. so those are things you can learn from that. on the basis of learning that, here is where they went wrong.

stalin on not be handed to get the difference between contradictions of the enemy and contradictions among the people. mao by getting mad, but still going up against things like begin there should be an official ideology for the society. >> now, there shouldn't be an official ideology. ashby contention between a lot of different imports. a lot of elasticity that we need a set up where there is diversity, debate discussion and may sounds, but in the people who say liberalism. many two year from now because they will know some things can understand some things that the people are with you don't care. and if you don't hear from them, that means you don't know enough about reality to transform into the desired direction. >> there's another reason why you and i resonate so much in terms of that could treat of not

just unfettered market, but does relations in which these asymmetric power in the work place. in terms of the alternative come at the larger discussion. i know we want to open it up. but once we get to talking about stalin and mao and so forth, we part company. that's exactly it. because i think we have to be very clear in our language a matter what the historical conditions are, no matter what the difficulties our, it is just wrong to kill folk. you know what i mean? is an arbitrary use of power. [applause] we see arbitrary use of power in capitalist societies. a lot of people in america don't like to see it. whether grid shut down as

arbitrary power. executed. that's arbitrary power. >> of course we are going to be highlighting and will be in philly together. be a free man on death row. but the arbitrary powers at the top, anytime you have centralized power that unaccountable -- i don't care if it's in the public set care, private care, civil society and so on. and that is where our discussion if we had a whole lot of time would wrestle with. do you think we should open it up? >> we should open it up. it's exactly because we understand that's a contradiction between the leadership and a revolutionary society and parties how utility at information that diversity and dissent that the leadership is not unchecked.

but it's also why we want to publish a constitution for the future socialist republic now so people can say this is what they say they go into. let's see how the buildup they build up to it and then let's see how they have. >> the right to dissent. the right to express dissent, the right to cut against the grain. >> that's on the constitution. if it ain't going down. another thing in their it's not doing the death. >> we know how that is. the death penalty in the nationstate had the capacity to take a human life. is there an element of doubt? .com and. [applause] >> were going to follow your instructions. >> you ain't got no sound over there, man.

you want that when there? >> there you go. >> all right. give those of our brothers a big huge hand. [applause] >> so those of you watching that right now come you could hold on for a second just to hear this message. you know, we really pieced together these events up until a couple of hours ago, trying to get support to add this facility, have the overflowed rooms, everything you see here and to have our wonderful speakers come. so there's going to be some shares at the end of the room. is that right?

okay at the end of the room. so when you walk out, whatever you feel, you know you can contribute to this effort because we are still in deficit. and you know, both of the brothers here said regardless we are going to do it. we're going to make it happen. but we still got to pay the bills. [applause] so whatever you feel to leave, whatever you can do will be really grateful and home phone. and let's get the q&a going. >> how are we going to do it? i.d. imac >> the english department. let me just tell you why.

[laughter] .. there's no doubt that when the sun comes up in february in california and april in new york the occupied movement will be

stronger than ever. [applause] stronger than ever. but it will go different phases as it moves into the winter and they only go for a few. it's not guinn to be in a mass movement out there but there are some who will stay out there and i will be with them in the afternoon. [laughter] i've got to get home when it's like that but in april the important thing is the idea the conviction, the commitment that will not die with the movement to winter. >> let me just say this quickly. there was an attempt nationwide to slam the door on the occupied movement. >> the nationally coordinated the fictions and then also

trying to coopted to turn it into detail on the donaghey in the electoral arena and people have to resist that but to me the key is the resistance to inequality and injustice and the deeply questioning why things are like this because even if you can't get together in the park or wherever it is people are occupying you can still resist. you can still get dig into those questions and figure out ways to do that collectively and continue to connect the dots between the different kinds of injustice the resistance developing and you can come out with a stronger movement, one that sees more clearly what its against and has brought together allies from different experiences. there's tension in that process and it's also important to take up.

>> we are willing to take questions as well so we want to go back and forth we are going to shift to a mic question. >> jeff brooks i would like to see a show of hands. over the last ten years there's been a lot of the u.s. occupying the middle east and there were millions of people that stood behind bin laden and wanted to kill americans. i'm thinking that the those are maybe less likely to attack us because america is getting occupied. so i'm thinking that the occupied movement is a citizen diplomat movement that it's avoiding this tension trying to get revenge on america because now america is occupied.

>> i didn't fully follow that. >> the occupiers are citizen diplomats. the march 16th 2004 poll of the middle eastern countries found huge percentages of people that sought to justify the killing of americans was a good idea. so, are those 300 middle easterners today? >> i see the point that you're raising and here's how i look at. you've still got the u.s. firing drones into pakistan, you know, killing people. they say they are shooting at terrorists but you should a drone it's going to destroy a whole village. so you might hit somebody mad at you but you had a whole bunch of other folks and as long as that is coming to keep going down people are going to be angry and

a challenge for people in this country including in the occupied movement is to go global with this question of the 99% that there are people all around the world we relate to and span with perot and it's going to be on that basis people should developer of the world of different views toward the country here's why you will take nothing less than a revolution because as long as the u.s. is shooting off those drones and sending troops into africa about a month or so ago in addition to the least there are going to be people who hate being invaded and all like that and we have to actually stand up and struggle against that and resist that in this country in addition to resisting the equality and justice in this country and like i say we have to make revolution so that these folks, this ruling class that firing of these drums

to keep their global thing in fact are no longer in position to do so. >> we are taught to be a change of our past of our poverty ashamed of not being successful but you dr. cornell west, think you. the question is how do we define success? >> i appreciate a kind word but no one individual can fully the shame that when you look at me you see the people who love me, the people who sacrifice for me, the people who care for me. i am just one moment and a rich

tradition so all you are getting is just the wisdom. they had huge rocks in the past because the levels of catastrophe of slavery and james crow and self violation and destruction i couldn't even conceive of but still won't be connected with them and i try to get all the wisdom i can so if i just dropped a nugget that isn't me. that's my grandmother speaking to me. >> the musician speaking to me so in that sense we always want to count the tradition, which tradition. then the question of the miss education. there's a qualitative difference between schooling and education. if all you are going to do is just to get schooled then you

are going to end up with a skill with the same empty seóul hello orientation and moral backwardness malnutrition but you will be very smart. and the one thing that has happened to young people, we told young people to be the smartest in the room just like on the social network. the smartest in the room, not someone, the american apartheid, the had a ph.d. from harvard, but you know what, they were thugs when it came to the humanity of people of color and there's no monopoly so when we talk about the shaming all we are saying is we want a holistic deep education that goes beyond schooling so you connect courage, compassion, my dear brother calls revolution i call

it bearing witness. i mean christian. [applause] all in going to do before i die is bear witness and go to the coffin. working with revolutionaries and being critical to revolutionaries in light of the loved that. witness and bearing witness is a beautiful thing. the jury in serving others and never confuse that with pleasure. the [applause] and education becomes schooling and miss education when it's just about your own narcissistic pleasure. but in chile is something else. don't get caught in the pleasure. get some joy in there so that you have some soul the body stimulators of the bubble gum music these days among young

folk. but we won't get into that right now. [laughter] >> i just want to add a story from my own past on this thing of redefining success and greatness because when i got the order to go to vietnam, i really felt i should not go and practically it wouldn't be such a good idea. [laughter] i would be shooting at people and they would be shooting at me and i saw some of those that came back from vietnam and they had lost their minds. they were just off. but the last thing i had to deal with was i knew my parents wanted me to be successful. how could i go to them and say mom, dad, i'm going to jail because i think this is wrong? and even more than that i think the whole country is wrong and i think i need to be a revolutionary. i thought about that and i went

on leave before it was time to go and i said well i've got to tell them and i told my mother and father. my mother was worried for my safety. there was always my mother's take. but my father's thing was to you think this is right? and i said i know it's right. and then he said well if it's right, then you should do it as well as you can. >> that's beautiful. [applause] if you don't stand up this way go all the way to go as far as you can with and that's what people need to do today. the need to get to the truth of something and then act on that truth and act as well as they can taking it as far as they can and then also be open to the new sources of information and analysis which might let you know that you were off in one way or another because you can't proceed like you have 100% knowledge that would be

objectively not true the only way you can get a deep understanding of reality is to be open to other viewpoints including ones that disagree with you. >> so my question in regards to the talks on the occupied of that that you've referenced earlier and it seems to be a very pro occupy stance but i feel like some of the other issues we have been speaking about tonight raise gender, the prison industrial complex, homophobia, all these other issues don't tie into what i see going on with the occupied movement and who is out there and who is protesting and what they are standing for because from what i see is a middle class white college graduates out there who are upset because

there are no jobs. and we see the media paying attention almost as if it was vietnam again, and so the power dynamics are still very existence even within this movement and we look at film from the occupied atlanta where john lewis went to speak and he wasn't allowed to speak and he was shot down by a white male who had a megaphone and took several votes and there was a lot of confusion in the crowd and so we see this power dynamic with race again even within the movement. so i am questioning whether this is a movement of social justice or if it's about white middle class people who can't get a job. and where were they six years ago when middle class income was on the rise by 6%?

these are issues that people have been facing since the beginning of time. we look at the native americans, latinos, blacks, these are issues that have been going on. where were they? [applause] >> that's a very important question we had magnificent discussion just a few weeks ago on precisely that issue. i think one, we have to be very careful where we get our information from. if you look as opposed to amy goodman you want to get a very different perspective of who's there. you know what i mean? msnbc, fox news, so forth. the corporate media tends to be truncated in its representation of the variety and diversity of the occupied movement.

there's a whole lot of different folks out there. a number of them precious homeless brothers and sisters right there. now you are right that a disproportionately young is disproportionately vanilla and 43% of them have been through college a year or two or three so is tilted in that way. but you see when you talk about truth and justice if it's true and it's just no matter who says it is the issue, you see what i mean? [applause] so if you're talking about corporate greed and corporate greed is pushing the nation to the brink of catastrophe. whoever says it is true. it's true. students concerned about their loans and so forth the that that's just one element. you've got anarchists out there organizing. seattle, 12 years ago.

you've got communists out there. democratic of america. a whole lot of folks. you've got some christian evangelicals. the seminary where i headed as you all know i'm going back to the seminary in new york. we got a union theological seminary acting on a 45 pastors and they are not just the student loans. you know what i mean. but i hear what you're saying. the movement must deal with these issues. there's plenty of racism in the movement. this is america. [applause] all white folks aren't going to become john brown overnight. it's not going to happen. it's not going to happen overnight. [laughter] but if they try against racism you have to help them fight against. come together. let's fight against this patriarchy. let's fight against. make sure of our brothers and

sisters feel open if they are willing to be critical about the state of israel and the occupation. [applause] see what i mean? that's very important. palestinians. they have to keep track of the humanity of the jewish brothers and sisters because if we are talking about love, justice and so forth, it is a higher standard for all of us. all of us who fall short. each and every one of us. and that is where we would learn what martin was talking about in the 60's. we need martin king so bad and if we can put a smile on his face from the grave that would be a major fan. because he had been waiting for 30 some years. every day. every day. even with black presidents he's still crying. he is. so he loves the symbolism but when he looks on the ground and sees the precious human beings with the deplorable conditions

and circumstances, he is on another train. he's a week. we've got to put a smile on that face. but he is just a moment in the tradition that goes all the way back down through the course of time. the was a long answer to that question. i appreciate that. >> let me get a little shorter i hope. six years ago the people in the movement were sleepwalking past the graveyard and everything that was going around them because things seem to be going well. frankly three years ago a lot of them were swept into the obama mania but at this point you're standing up to something, in justice, and my approach to that is i'm not going to be mad at you because you were not there six years ago or three years ago. i'm going to go to you right now and say you are onto something

but you are not seeing the whole picture. here is what it looks like. i'm going to go to you with what's happening around the world that this 99 per cent has to be seen on a global level. i'm going to go to you with what's happening in the south bronx. this is going down every day. and if you want to talk about the 99%, you've got to say that this section over here in the ghetto are dealing with some things and if you see that outside of your issues you are not related to the 99%. i'm going to challenge people to not only be true to their principles but take those principles and on that basis dig deeper into reality. i'm going to challenge them to engage this thing of what i have to say about nothing short of revolution can deal with all of this and then get into all of the political and ideological questions that come up around that. can we organize this horizontal

lee, can we organize at a distance from the state. well, you tried that in the park and the state came down and sprayed pepper spray in your face. you can't organize at a distance from the state especially if you are going to look at everything that's going on. the pakistanis have been hit with these attacks. they were not trying to get up close to the state. the american global state intruded into their lives and we have to actively in the that. like i say i'm not going to be mad at them about where they were six years ago or even last year. i'm going to be like here is where you need to be looking now. here is where you need to be going on here are some principles you need to act on and i think that is the approach [applause] >> as we take questions from the microphone i want to encourage everyone to be very concise in their questions.

that is isn't necessary to get a lot of context, just ask the question. and with that said i'm going to ask the next question which is as a student it's hard to find a balance between social justice issues and maintaining scholarly duties. so what are some of your tips for student activists who want to graduate? [applause] i added the revolution part. secure brother told us he spent a good time in the library. there was a very important lesson that he was here to exercise a love of wisdom and love of learning and knowledge. you won't stop there but that is one of the forms of love that you ought to take seriously. so you want to be a full-time activist than become a full-time

activist. but if you want to be a student who is activist who in the long run wants to be able to not only follow your own heart because you need to find your voice you don't have anybody permission as to what you want for. you might as for your mother's concentration but not permissions and you have to decide what is your calling not just your career. don't tell me about your job, want to know about your life. once you define that you go to the laboratory and say i want to be a doctor, i want to be a poet, musician, a pharmacist, and then find time within your location for your activism. if you are calling to be a full-time activist like his brother right here, it's a beautiful thing. but as we sit imitation is suicide. isn't that right? >> not everybody, no.

>> i've got other things. the laboratory to hit the church and the club. i got one life, one life to live. [laughter] [applause] all in the name of jesus, too. [laughter] >> okay. i mean not be the best one to ask that question because i never graduated. but there was actually a story to that. i got drafted about halfway through, and then by the time i got out, i could have gone back and got some funding to do that because even though they convicted me and sent me to jail they fought off the conviction after i had on the time.

but at that point, changing the world was my vocation. but i do value what i study before i came out and it's my surprise and people because i was an engineering student who mainly studied mathematics. but one thing i think i was able to draw from that is a certain scientific approach trying to draw from reality, which i tried to use in terms of going to the question of social justice. what i would say to people is you do have to decide what is it that you are moved to do and you've got t that you are moved to do and you've got to do that based upon understanding reality and why it is the way it is and also what could be done about and if that

moved you to do like i did and pass on the opportunity to graduate than flowing to changing the world come at -- like i said, do that as well as you can. but if you are trying to balance the to, then go ahead and balance the two. but i would say to you so is to not allow degradation and career to blunt you on this question of the truth and acting on that truth because if that is part of what is required to obtain a career that ended that is a bargain then you don't want to make. that is like a deal -- i will say it, a deal with the devil. i knew you would get literary about. >> we have the next question on this site, a very concise

question. >> concise. okay. my question is may i or can someone give you a gift i have for you here. [laughter] >> basically this is a music project where there are interviews and conversations with people like michele alexander when she was on democracy now and you had naomi klein and noam chomsky and you are on that project. did you bring to? >> one of my people has it. >> the conversation that you had in 2009, the obama ascendancy. >> that's nice.

appreciate that. >> the next question is as a 10-year-old what can i do to help the revolution? [applause] >> it's never too early to start. >> again, this thing is -- [laughter] because there is injustice out there. you don't have to be -- there is no minimum age to recognize that in justice and to reach out to others and help involve them and that energy that that ten year old has got can be put into working at things. it can help reach out to others. i talked about this thing on the mass incarceration. i don't know what your skills, are there may be ways in which you could do some drawings to help dramatize that from a very useful perspective, you know,

posing a listing of family members disappearing, why are the disappearing, why is it always happening to certain kinds of people? you can pose a lot of questions that would have broad parts of society including older folks like eat-in-year-old is getting this is the way in which this could have big impact. so i would say get at that injustice you see in society. did as deep as you can to see why it's like that and then look for others including some other 10-year-olds in there. i mean, no, that was an important thing like back in the day there were the paynter cubs and things like cut, organizations that were active, an active part of the revolutionary movement and i think that would be important. >> that's a very profound question. i've got an 11-year-old daughter myself, and we have deep

dialogue. she raises questions that i oftentimes cannot answer. she asked me a question like that i would say i want you to continue to learn how to love, learn how to receive love because there will be no revolution of inequality unless we have high capacity to love others and have a hypersensitivity to the panda mothers so they don't need to look like you, they don't even need to live in your hood or neighborhood. but try to somehow have some deep bond in connection to other people suffering so that it has wheat in your life and you can get that from reading the children's book. you can get that from music, you can get that from learning how to love your mother and father better and listening to your grandparents. you can learn about the right

text in the synagogue or temple or church or trade union. but we live in a society where there is a systematic attempt to marginalize if not rendered impotent generosity, compassion, love and service to others. you can almost act to the crest of the psychologist who has a cyber to become hypersensitive to lead to the others they are abnormal because we are producing not to become narcissists, hedonists' as they get on television every day. somebody is loving everybody so much there must be something wrong with them. no, the society has a sickness. it's not the young folks. of course they can't do that on the road. they have to do that in a connected we said it isn't an answer, that is an attempt, a gesture at an answer but that's something that i would push. izzie tin-year-old here, who had that question?

where? give a hand raising a profound question like that. [applause] from the mouths of babes shall we learn. >> indeed. we want to remind you to fill out the questionnaire that was on your seat in your program. we really need the questionnaires and as you submit the questionnaire we also want to encourage you to donate if you have not in terms of supporting our efforts to this program. so now we are going to have a concise question on this end. >> first off i want to say thank you for giving us instructions for the better society we really appreciate that. but my question is the theme of the night focused around youth and education and also

revolutionary activism, i know you spoke about being jazz and i myself am a hip-hop listener and i was listening to an artist who said he attacked himself as a revolutionary and said his faith as inevitable talking about basically with the 1% sees that a revolutionary is there their mission is to knock them down before the mission gets out. my question to you is why aren't we as a community building schools in the elementary schools and high schools and keeping our youth in and instilling methodologies and the real truth because we say we don't learn the real truth why don't we have educators and people who know and are willing to spread that seed keeping the schools together and then pumping the not the life he leads and things of that nature so why aren't we on that track and is there any initiative that people like us aren't going to stand up and say that we can do? [cheering] but it definitely.

so is there any type of initiative that we can do to try to get the ball rolling? >> i can start on it. one thing that everybody can do and it's important for college students is they can reach to the under youth and you don't have to have a school to do that. you could actually figure out how to connect with some high school students and say to them some of what you've learned and not just what you've learned in college but what you appear to have learned living life you can bring to them some of what they are not getting in terms of where the situation they are against comes from and how they can begin to deal with it. and out of those discussions this can spread because i remember back when i was young if folks from college, you know, came to talk with us about stuff, we wanted to hear that

because we knew that they had gone through this before us and they were coming back with some knowledge. we wanted to grapple with that and that was actually an important role of college students who started getting into the revolutionary movement plagued by bringing stuff back to the under youth who were in high school and they had some ideas about and some challenges because when we saw them doing things like getting with the student nonviolent coordinating committee, getting involved in that, doing this since opposing the war in vietnam it was like can we do that? i think we could. and that kind of spurred some of this and i know my brother did his first actions when i got sent to jail for refusing to go to vietnam. he organized students they're not directly in relation to my

case, but he said i've got to do something, too. my brother was doing that i've got to do something to back so they did a walkout at his high school. so i would say that in relation to that there are definitely steps that can be taken including right now to reach back to the other youth not only organizing at your college but reaching back to other youth in the community and in the high schools. >> one thing is all these people who care. the of freedom schools across the country. the money that these charter schools have. but she has freedom school. we need more young people to be part of those kind of schools. you say with our musicians your brother lyrical genius, kanye

west, minor genius. [laughter] the technique see i want them to be themselves i don't want them to be a morrill technique but if they are influenced by all of that attention, all of that influence, all of that visibility, all of that publicity and celebrity would be put to use to something grand than the effect it has when it comes to justice. you see what i mean? we are talking about a courageous artists who affect young people who when you listen to their great artists they also speak to your soul and courage that's required. that's what we have in the 60's and they do not have that today. if they are growing up right now, there was a brother when i was growing up and don't get me

wrong but if he was a dominant faith rather than curtis mayfield aretha franklin i would have been a different kind of person because what he was talking about was that fin stuff body stimulation, sexual conquest. that's the brother was talking about. he's got a right to do that. it's not the most healthy way, but that's fine. every minute of the day and say what happens to the deeper hit pop artist we have to see him friday night at the poetry jam, underground taking the deal not visible because the recording in the the retial industry and video industry want to keep that bubble gum stuff visible so people won't make up.

so it's a pretty. -- priority. hip-hop was one of the great cultures of the last 45 years and we've gone to where we are now. this is what we're talking about tonight. >> it's good to see you. >> time is not on our side, so we are only going to have time for one question from each side and then we are going to put closure so the next question, please. >> so, i don't know if you know in this room in 2010 there was a debate about divesting this university funds from israel for its occupation three [applause] and i appreciate a lot of the remarks tonight and also including the ones on palestine and i wonder of the tactics a lot of people say it's wrong

occupation with a south african case we are not so sure so i wonder if you personally would support the investment and if not what distinguishes the divestment efforts against racism with south african racism and if so what lessons can be learned especially on the university campuses and from the efforts to fight apartheid with the wartime divestment. [applause] >> what i would say is i would support an effort at the investment from israel. one thing you have to remember about the south african divestment is that the movement around that started well before it was successful, you know, because the african liberation coordinating committee started in 1972. i happen to have been at the founding conference where they did that. that's why i know when it was formed, and it was really in the

80's that it took hold. so some people had to work at that for about a decade to bring it out. and what was very important in relation to that was the exposure of exactly what was happening to people in south africa and the connection between the united states and all that going down. it is true that the movement was brought forward where there were young people in this country who felt like they had to take a stand on a. but there was at least a decade that went on before it really took hold of and you've got to work with that. you have to bring out to people here's the reality and understand you will be going up against some stuff because they are not going to get this in the mainstream media. they are not going to get this more broadly in the society say you have to see you out how to bring it out in ways that it

touches people and moves them to one act. >> i would just want to salute you. talking about the israeli-palestinian issues in america one of the most difficult things you can do and it takes courage to do that, but we have to do it there is no doubt that u.s. foreign policy has been predicated on the notion that a palestinian life does not have the same value as an israeli. that's wrong. that's wrong. [applause] they're all humans. they have the same value, same dignity, same sanctity as the christians. the question then becomes how does one proceed in such a way that you make very clear these are universal principles so people don't think that somehow you are just highlighting the state of israel given the long

history of the anti-jewish hatred we know has been to the modern world of christianity and other religious formations. so for example, you said this would be my view. the aim is the in that occupation. in the occupation of in the people, any people with palestinians were dominating the shoes it is immoral. it's wrong, it's unjust and you say that it is the end of occupation and we want to do all we can to in that occupation making it clear the universal universal principles then we have a very strong case for the divestment and so on. but it's a very treacherous to brained as you can imagine and one has to be very clear about the universal was among the principles of the one hand, and at the scene had, just how difficult it is for the history

of the anti-jewish hatred in this country which is not to don ewing the lives of the palestinians the way we value of their lives especially in america. [applause] >> our last question. >> earlier we said something about what can we do to weaken our brothers and sisters who are still sleepwalking so i would like to ask what would you say to those people of color or anyone who was hesitating to fully engage in the occupied movement? [applause] >> participation in the occupied movement is not the only criteria of people who are away. occupy movement is a good thing but it has no monopoly on the struggle for justice. no monopoly on the struggle for freedom and so forth.

there's a lot of other context and the can do magnificent things. i'm praying for you. i have other things i'm doing. you know what i mean? we are dealing with domestic violence, dealing with abuse from women. this will be my context i know you all are concerned you are not making a pretty so i will see you once every two weeks by focusing on this issue. that's beautiful. the movement is like a jazz orchestra lifting all these voices but everyone can't be in the band. [applause] henderson got a band. the natural floor got a grooved group. everybody can't sing in the same group. the occupied movement can't just sucked the air out of the whole room to just because they are miserable. they are just doing magnificent things that some of us are

spending a lot of time but there's different context. you see what i mean that we should also note this is a point that my good friend reminded me that people wake up at different times. brother made the same point. [inaudible] remember the time you hadn't woke up? probably now. it's a beautiful thing. it's a process. might end up being on the cutting edge of the struggle for justice. give him time. that proves it all. you don't know. [laughter] might be on the cutting edge. you just don't know.

you've got to love them no matter what. >> we want to first of all show our speakers extra love for all of their energy and effort. [applause] professor taylor, we loved you professor taylor. [applause] professor clark, the late professor barber princeton, we will never forget you, never. never. [applause] >> dix has encouraged us to help and dr. cornell west to let justice looks like. on behalf of studies and a host of other people, thank you for coming out tonight. make sure you turn in the questionnaire along with financial support for this evening. we appreciate it.

[inaudible conversations]

now writer can this millard discusses the assassination of james garfield. she is a former writer and editor for the national geographic magazine. she spoke of the james a. garfield national historic site in ohio for about 50 minutes. >> it's a pleasure to introduce to you tonight our speaker. candice millard is an excellent writer formerly national geographic magazine and we are glad to have her here to talk about her second book. first was the river of doubt about theodore roosevelt's journey down the amazon after his presidency and we are very pleased that she has chosen to tackle another interesting presidential subject that being the assassination of james a. garfield. i believe this is referred or

fourth trip to the site between research and other things she has done for us and with us and it is a great pleasure to welcome them tonight. please make her feel welcome. candice millard. [applause] >> -- thank you. thank you for the introduction and to all of you for coming. it is a real pleasure to be here, and it is a great honor to be able to speak at the james a. garfield national historic site. and i also wanted to say a particular thing to to the garfield family as well which has been incredibly kind and generous and helpful to me throughout this whole process. so thank you so much. at heart this book is not about politics or science or even the shooting of president. it's about an extraordinary trauma that took place inside the white house over more than

two months. in the 130 years since garfield's death, his story has been largely forgotten. but even that claim, even though the entire nation, the entire world was watching, no one really understood what was happening. what began as a shooting became an incredible struggle for power and ambition. the result was the brutal death of one of our most promising leaders at the hands of his own physicians. this is an intimate heartbreaking story of ignorance verses scions, agreed versus heroism. james garfield was not as he has often been remembered to be just

a bland 19th century politician. on the contrary, that's the wrong picture. i'm not sure what went up, but on the contrary, he was one of the most extraordinary man ever elected president. although he was born into desperate poverty, he became a professor of literature, mathematics and ancient languages when he was just a sophomore in college. by the time he was 26-years-old he was a college president. he knew the entire by heart in latin. will he was in congress he wrote an original proof of a fear on to the to -- serum. to me what is more inspirational and more astonishing even than garfield's brilliance was his

decency. i wrote a book about the roosevelt and i have great admiration for him. he was a firebrand, garfield was the calmest wisest man in the room. he was a good, kind, honest man trying his best he's a real person not consumed by ego and ambition. someone who is simply trying to do the right thing. even after 17 years in congress and one of the most ruthless officious era's of machine politics, garfield never changed. his friends used to marvel at his patience and forbearance even in the face of the most brutal attack but garfield was incapable of holding a grudge. he used to just say i am hater.

although he took his presidency very seriously, he had never had what he called presidential fever. in fact she never really ran for any office. people ask them to run and he did, but he would never even campaign. he always made it clear that he was going to follow his own conscience and convictions and less people didn't agree with him they shouldn't vote for him. when garfield went to the republican convention in the summer of 1880 only was he not a candidate, he didn't even want to be one. he had gone there to give a speech and he was kicking himself because he wasn't prepared. he wrote a letter home telling his wife that he was just sick about the fact he hadn't written the speech before the convention and now he wouldn't have time. the convention was an enormous hall in chicago.

there were 15,000 people there and the favorite to win by far was ulysses s. grant who was trying for a third term in the white house. and then this was his chaos and malae is. thousands of people garfield got up to speak and his speech was so powerful and so eloquent, and again, largely extemporaneous that the hall slowly fell silent until the only thing you could hear was garfield's for voice and everyone was just riveted. at one point, garfield said and so, gentlemen, i ask you what do we want, and someone shouted we want garfield. and the entire house went crazy and when it began the delegates began casting their ballot for garfield even though again he wasn't even a candidate and he stood up and objected but the

vote kept coming and he couldn't stop what was happening and what was a trickle became a stream became a river and then finally a flooding of votes and before garfield knew it, he was the republican nominee for president of the united states. what i found again and again and again while i was researching this book was that not only was his life and nomination and reef presidency fallujah incredible stories, but the people who surrounded him also unbelievable. you just couldn't make them up. first of course is the charles atoka garfield's would-be assassin. guiteau was very intelligent and highly articulate. if you read nearly any other account of garfield's

assassination, guiteau is described as a disgruntled office seeker. but that doesn't cover the small part of it. he was a uniquely american character to get he was a product of this country at that time. a time there was a lot play and there wasn't anyone to really understand what he was up two and hold him account for it. guiteau was a self-made madman. he was smart and scrappy, he was a clever opportunist and he would probably have been very successful if he hadn't been in same. guiteau had tried everything and he had failed at everything. he tried law, and vandalism, even a free love commune in the 1800's. and he failed even at that. the women in the commune nicknamed him charles get out.

laughter could he succeeded on audacity. he trembled all over the country by train and never bought a ticket. he took pride in moving from boarding house to boarding house slipping out when the rent was due. and even when he occasionally worked as a bill collector he would just keep whenever he managed to collect. after the republican convention, guiteau became obsessed with garfield and immediately after the election he began to stock the president. he went to the white house nearly every day. at one point he even walked into the president's office while the president was in it. he even attended a reception and introduced himself to garfield's wife. he shook her hand, he gave her his card and he slowly pronounced his name so she wouldn't forget him. it's like a hitchcock movie. it's incredibly creepy and absolutely terrifying.

finally guiteau had what he believed was a divine inspiration. god wanted him to kill the president. it was nothing personal, he would later say. simply god's will. as strangely fascinating and strange as guiteau is, conkling is a vein at berkeley powerful machine politician who appointed himself garfield's enemy. he were a canary yellow waistcoat, used lavender ink, he had a great curl in the middle of his forehead and it quickly with the slightest touch. his vanity was so outsized she was famously ridiculed for it by another congressman on the floor of congress.

but conkling was no joke. he was dangerously powerful. as a senior center from new york he controlled the new york customs house which was the largest federal office in the united states and controlled 70% of the country's customs revenue. conkling tight control patronage within his state, and he expected complete and unquestioning loyalty. in fact, his apartment in new york was known as "the morgue." ..