if the united kingdomm and the united statates decided tomorrow morning not to buy south african goods, not to buy south african gold, to put an embargo on oil, if our investors and capitalists would withdraw their support for that racial tyranny that we find there, then apartheid wowould be brought to an endn. today, dr. king's cicity temple address, decembmber 7th, 1964, in londo. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. and those are some of the headlines this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war r and pepeace report. i'm amamy goodman. amy odmaman: today iss the federal holiday honoriring dr. martin luther king. he was bororn january 15th, 192. he was assassinated april 4th, 1968, at the lorraine motel in memphis, tennessee. he was just 39 years old. while dr. king is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause ofof the poor, organizing the poor people's campaign to address issues of economic justice. dr. king was also a fierce critic of u.s. foreign policy and the vi

so r this year,r, meaning there has been nearly one school shooting every her day acacross the united statates. on monday, there were two separatete school shootings. one inside a school cafeteria outside dallas, texas, and another in the parking lot of a charter school in new orleans. new york city y mayor bill de blasio hasas announced the c cis suing major pharmaceutical manufaurers and d distributors over the opipioid crisis. among the companies being sued are purdue pharma, which is the maker of oxycontin, and johnson & johnson. the opioid crisis killed 64,000 americans in 2016. meanwhile, photographer nan goldin, who is a recovered opioid addict, and a group of her fellow artists and activists has launched a campaign shaming the secretive sackler family -- which owns purdue pharma -- over their profiting off the opioid crisis. "i don't know how they liveve wh themselves congo she said. in libya, a double car bombing in the city of benghazi has killed at least 33 people. the first explosion hit a mosque asas worshipers were leaeaving evening prayers. the second bomb exploded only minutes

many people feel that racial segregation has been a reality in the united statates a long, long time, but the fact is that this was a rather recenent phenomenon in our country, just a little better than 60 years old. and it had its legal beginning with a decision known as the plessy v. ferguson decision, which said, in substance, that separate but equal facilities could exist, and it made the doctrine of separate but equal the law of the land. we all know what happened as a result of the old plessy doctrine: there was always the strict enforcement of the separate, without the slightest intention to abide by the equal. and the negro ended up being plunged into the abyss of exploitation, where he experienced the bleakness of nagging injustice. and then something marvelous happened. the supreme court of our nation in 1954 examined the legal body of segregation, and on may 17th of that year pronounced it constitutionally dead. it said, in substance, that the old plessy doctrine must go, that separate facilities are inherently unequal, and that the segregated child on the basis of his race

alliance-- i'll use their words--ththe forl aalliance betweeeen the steelworkers union of the united statates, which-h--i don'tt know many members it has, but in the hundreds of thousands, big union--with mondragon, the corporate--that huge, successful worker's self-directed enterprise in spain. and i remember many of us were taken aback. "what an interesting idea. an alliance." what did it mean? well, the details were hard to come by. it seems asas though there was discussion, obviously, between them. they issued a joint press release anand had a press conference. but it's hard to tell, so i'm now going to imagine where this might go. i'm not saying that's where they're taking it. i don't know exactly where they're going to take it, or even whether they're going to take it somewhere, but here's what i would do. imagine a trade union movement with a completely different strategic idea from what it has typically been. unions h have typically been organizations who make it possible for workers, instead of bargaining individually with the employer, , to get particucular conditions of work. the u