eighty two tom hayden and a small number of university michigan students issued a political manifesto called the port huron statement that galvanized captivated and radicalized many young people and the country in the hundred sixty s it boldly stated that the imperative task for publicly disinherited and disenfranchised groups was to demand a democratic party responsible to their interests the peace and civil rights movements challenge the so called peace and civil rights credentials of otherwise liberals threatening and running candidates against them in short they consciously built a base for challenging the low side of power the two part two aapl lead that the major parties of the time both represented and perpetuated the policies of militarism excessive materialism structural racism and poverty the apathy felt by so many young people in particular in those days was it first subjective a felt powerlessness of resignation and says and before the enorm events their participation in the political process and electoral vote in campaigns didn't really matter the result and policies would be similar whatever party got in office the subject of apathy of millions of workers ordinary people students and others was encouraged by their objective situation they were structurally separated as people from work from relevant knowledge from pinnacles of decision making the american political system was not the democratic model which is core fires wanted people to trust and believe in in fact the plug in system frustrated democracy confused individual citizens paralyzed policy discussion and consolidated irresponsible power for military and business interests the power elite the prison military industrial complex today fifty six years after port huron we again have a campaign of resistance movements and independent campaigns challenging the militarism structural violence racism patriarchy poverty and greed of an america grappling more than ever with many of the same issues and concerns pour here identified yes of course there are differences in the parties but the overall trajectory is obvious both major parties have initiated and perpetuated wars and military adventures around the world increase profound levels of economic inequality unleashed  ecological disasters and create a society of moral bankruptcy and spiritual and me zero non accountability loss of trust and integrity to any objective observer the all  war and the fear mongers that cater to a culture of greed and milk and militarism continue to exert their profound influences on both parties as they've done to policies of the past several decades the crucial question today is where and what form will all of this political and moral energy take resistance mobilization and intensity of protest to the trump regime have been unprecedented the apathy that port huron spoke of has not materialized the discussion continues among the great majority of american populace who find their voices and aspirations stifled by the traditional politics as usual debate what structures organizations and parties will evolve as we see the links in our various struggles are aligned interests and shared values go beyond single issue campaigns as naomi klein has put it we need to lay out our yes how can the progressive movement build independent power through a people's party the answer to this question could well determine the success of the most important and inclusive progressive movement of our time a new port huron statement in the making we're really excited to have on the radical magination today a new friend and comrade who is it a love form panel i chaired this past weekend on independent power towards a power towards a party for working people he's l g r hawkins a  grassroots organizer writer and speaker on issues of race criminal justice and the stuart black freedom struggle he's a long time member of socials alternative and activists with black lives matter and tours internationally discussing systemic just wanted you to be on the show and tell us more about your own activism and how it relates to the topic of the panel and the need for radical change and so glad you're here it's wonderful thank you for having me  i think for me when i became political a number of years ago first and foremost i was born and raised in this area of the harlem so i know barrio fireplace firehouse five six blocks away ye between second and third avenue and growing up there i was able to really be in a community where people took care of them to care for each other in fact it was the area with the young lords were doing their politically active activities very late sixt early seventy's and so i just grew up in a mill you were people that knew the struggle of just trying to put food on the table to keep a roof over their heads this was the preen worn drugs era and that's as an aside as a young young child when i became political in the mid ninety's and being a member of social turn of one the first activities i was engaged in was helping to bring about a labor party tell us a years old social turn of when i joined it was called labor militant back in the back in the ninety's where national organization and we stand in solidarity with international organization called the committee for workers international that's doing work all around the world on every continent except antarctica and basically what we have done we've been part of massive workers campaigns from very strikes to community struggles around housing and education have had students within our organization so when i joined in the mid ninety's i was really looking for an organization to help me not be good just be a good activists and would be thinking activists to look at history to link it to international events and how that feeds into our struggle here on the national level but also how it feeds the work locally and you were going to judge a college at that time right  liberal my mother was born in one thousand fifty so she she was fourteen years old when michael next was assassinated and she was eighteen when dr king was assassinated in one hundred sixty eight and so he can't speak however i think exposes you picked up marx yourself for school classes and friends it is primarily within the movement just within the movement itself a young lady asked me a question i remember at that time i would consider myself a black nationalists and she asked me a question what's your programme for after the revolution take place and i really can answer i was stuck there and at that point i began to kind of look at to this into the well the original publication one hundred fifty years ago so in many ways when we think of marxism it has had it in print on multiple movements but particularly within the black freedom struggle it's had a very particular role that i think new generation started to to recaptures resuscitate some of those ideas and concepts because what's interesting marx supported actually the lincoln and the north winning the war the american civil war the second sizing the community organizing workers around critical issues yes that you had seen in your own right upbringing yes yes raising consciousness raising consciousness being involved in the living breathing struggle of people either organizing in the workplace fighting against slum lords or being in the university and organizing and fighting back against wishing hikes on cops to keep funding for progr students and so for me it was very important to understand what it really meant to be activists but also to be activists they could think internationally nationally and locally and within the larger marketing tradition of a shop steward and i had one hundred eighty workers i was representing on the shop floor and we had a very abusive boss and we were able through a petition and through organizing to get rid of our use of was in that early victory in my political life said to me that these methods of struggle the organizing of agitation really works and you saw it in real life sort of realizing that's exactly what marx was taught that's right at the workplace absolute could see young people to help people in general learn they learn by kind of putting their hands on a situation and have to experience it themselves to draw out the lessons and to raise their own consciousness the books reading is important absolutely but the actual life experiences and what you make of that that's raising the consciousness now i want to skip a whole bunch of years here where we ended up on this panel yes new left independent parties yes and strateg so but let me not leave out those years of what i and so what what else happened during your growth here are we social turn of was active in really because the attempt to construct a labor party historically that has been the missing element for the working class that has never had it in the city in the city in and around the russian right never had its own political party when there were attempts to reform the democratic party right now there were attempts to form would have gone or could have gone to your vision yes yes and so how do you ok go ahead and so when people felt betrayed by that there was a segment of the labor movement that wanted to make it very clear that they would not be taken advantage of in this in this way what now after represented for the american working class for the mexican working class and internationally and so the labor party began as labor party labor party advocates and of course clinton was very very popular very very far away even after the attempt to teach him so yes so you're up against this this wave of right popular right in your right one hand you know also understanding the conditions on the ground was different than what wright was talking about actually but then the clinton model because he was able to do things that even a republican cannot do so if not just of what was actually happening on the ground right away that when the nobody else was doing the real puts but if you are right to do that sadly and these are young young people that are standing up is pretty respectfully but still right so he right right what is what's your problem here and exactly exactly you know this was a generation that lived through the government but also how the state really acted to super predator term they treated this generation of young people of black and brown right like super predators and yes that's a fake exactly you know line by hillary clinton in order and her cosigning of the crime bill you know and a great many of the black is is certainly concrete and is there for the for the reaping if you will i mean because as you know majority of young people today are willing to accept or willing to entertain the notion of a right and that's again the topic here is how do we take that energy and what sort of structures can we build work can we have any channel in ways that are another self destructive as some of the movements and some of the things that were happening in the sixty's right right but accept any form of oppression of subjugation any denial of a people's humanity and i think that's a very important step forward capitalism is now the dirty word not so much socialism and people are investigating what is egalitarian society with resources share with all your basic necessities a man and that the the possibilities of your own human growth as individual but as a collective i think i think is very  attractive for young people because they've seen capitalism for the last thirty forty years they've seen the individual isn't they've seen the greed we've seen the massive amounts of wealth who didn't want it in the black and the spanish community so so it's still somewhat in the sixty's we saw the counterculture as were more of the white middle class although that began to diversify as well as the but do you see that seem sort of use the when the winds are blowing that that they kind of indicate what is taking place occupy was the tops of the trees and it was that generation that that believed in elements of the american dream that if i but the roots are being strengthen prestigious influence of the zero point one percent the ruling class the billionaire class you know can maintain their power in the influence and so you have these forces banging up against each other i think the capture that we're going to have to form a organization that we build i strongly believe that you have to be an organization can speak to the interests ordinary working people black brown white asian has to speak not just on a national level but international level that i think will be coming up many of them are going on this kind of national tour certainly to drum up support for elements of democratic party of but they will also be speaking out against trump the republicans and n r a i think that's a very that's an indicator that  are the the the trauma of that day was just a springboard for them to become politically engaged they're searching intensely yes and that's good as back to them reclines argument right we need to be able to present the yes yes and the independent political parties yes i think i think that's on the agenda i think twenty sixteen the standards for the phenomenon of within the democratic party and certainly we saw the dirty tricks and i will put democracy there speaks of opportunity for everyone and what he was pointing out what occupy was pointing out occupy was to was pointing out was that in fact we have we have this new gilded age and all the troubles and you're seeing on a daily basis it's not because of your own individual adequacy but in fact it is from those in power condition truck through conditions and so i think based on the census phenomenon but also other factors in seattle washington in two thousand and thirteen social turn of ramshaw most to want for the city council we won in twenty thirteen but we had lost in two thousand and twelve again and running as independent socialist could that happen in new york city i think you can i think i think again too i think it the question is and this i think is the key element to this that campaign has to be linked to social struggle to social movements have to be linked and have a program that speaks to the interests absolutely and those campaigns will have to speak to the interests and organize in between election cycles and if a political party is to be born it will have to not worry so much about every two or four years but actually do the work on the ground to advance into extract reforms in victories tangible victories so working people get more confidence that says hey if we organize and we stick together we fight back we  was able to get the first fifteen past six months into her time in office actually and go beyond that and go beyond that but again do we don't have that that that political structure here in the city yet or or do  we we don't i mean we don't we don't i mean still evolving and it is we need that it is charismatic leadership does play a part i mean obviously the message is there and i think what today is a different organization you know with various different strands of political thought and activity you have a new generation as i point out earlier that socialism is not a dirty word they may not know before extent what that actually means but they are investigating it and many of them are drawn conclusion i want to be like bernie i want to run somewhere using the democratic party as a platform to run in i would not agree i would disagree with this group i want to do it we've got to be a complete the marriage is yes yes one way you can stop is by saying declaring yourself independent and to take it take that energy and say you know what let's build our social movements if it's so toxic and we're still working with it that toxicity becomes part of you absolutely and you get your taken over absolutely and people i think this new activist layer if you look at it they're not they're not the they're they are working class folks who are i think were very genuine actually who are clear about what we want to do and building building our movement that should be able to move the conversation in a forward thinking manner unless we believe it as we did in the panel that's right and a lot of campaign and of this more integrity that that he is now espousing and shows every every action that is being taken so he's combining the political and what about this overall moral vision  travels through watts in one thousand sixty five following the watts rebellion something called a riot of color rebellion uprising the social explosion he began to see the northern reality of of american society of american jim crow but in a northern context this is even if in a sense more destructive yes it's more hidden perhaps but even harder to yes work with absolutely we understood that he in this is this is going to be a monumental absolute into this but go ahead you know what do you make of this fusion independent fusion politics right i think for example and i know we're jumping back and forth from in many different things but around the debate around trump here for example when bernie sanders goes into appalachian and discusses the folks many of them probably voted for trump and also many of the private for him during the primaries but you start talking about obamacare the affordable care act and trump care in the attempt to destroy that white poor whites really hurt most absolutely and by the end of this kind of of this televised event this town hall you could see that the crowd because the way he engaged the questions the way he talked about the questions of health care democracy while your society has over fifty million people out people without any form of health care coverage that has homelessness you know in every major city rural and urban the united nations at the end of this month will give rip or about the conditions of u s society and what they say is very scathing to be the most advance industrial complex nation on the planet in history basically if you look at it its infrastructure to to demand of all colors of oil inclusive absolutely absolutely i think that's crucial i think that's going to be very important the greatest fear that the ruling elite or the zero point one percent this is the united movement of working people walk all this because they can't use their divide and conquer tactics of racism and sexism of homophobia even elements of classism and so that to me is the one most powerful things that we can do in building our movement you open up with the question of s d s in the poor her on platform you know there was something else that was going on sixty eight and sixty nine and al is the chicago black panther party under the leadership of fred hampton put forward the idea of a rap of a radical rainbow coalition of street gangs like the blackstone rangers or the puerto rican young lords the young patriots youth that their friends have migrated out of the south and lived in uptown chicago and chicano organizations to come together to oppose not just vietnam but to support each other and in each of the struggle against the ruling elite and the political establishment international yes movement of those first seeing the need for the first sort of soul darry long blacks absolutely black nationalism in a sense or would you would you call it the same sort of thing that you grew up i would say an element of solidarity politics but with socialist ideas the social side yes which i think was very unique of the chicago  gangs at that time was very threatening and to talk about what you're referring to and barber too and the prisoner rights movement or ending mass incarceration or barber talking about how jesus then if i would the poor the poor and disenfranchised and the criminals in a sense right if you will so we learn more from them what is going on in the prisons and the need to understand th beast have solidarity with their struggles and understand that again it's they are victims of a larger racist structure absolutely that we need to pass and we've all we've got only this is flew by here we've got a couple minutes what i want to make sure you've got you've got so many you are an incredible spokesman and it doesn't really in your short number of years here and this in this earth had brought together so many powerful strains of political working people young people the most oppressed or fighting for way forward looking for alternatives and i think there are number of embryonic developments taking place if it's people running for office remember who  never run before if it's the parkland youth organizing if it's young folks in the urban centers of of our society i think the ideas of socialism internationalism the solidarity from the teachers strikes you know are presiding bishop of the u s episcopal church michael curry took a star turn at the royal wedding last week and this week he's back to agitating for progressive social policy in the united states staging a protest with other faith leaders on thursday outside the white house and joining me now are the most reverend michael curry presiding bishop of the episcopal church and our good friend bishop william barber co chair of the poor people's campaign bishops both gentleman thank you for being here th speech your sermon at the royal wedding was so moving and so inspiring and so unexpected did you give them any sense of what you were going to say before you took to that p yes yes i actually submitted a manuscript a week before and now anybody who knows a preacher knows that a manuscript is a wonderful outline but i spoke to the basics of the outline but i did i submitted they were very gracious and very kind and gave me the freedom to say what god would want me to say and one of the things that did strike me about it is that your your meditation on the importance of caring for the poor sounded very familiar to me because of the gentleman sitting next to you when barbara has been talking about you is entering poverty and centering the poor and that's been the core of the message of the moral mondays campaign in the current poor people's campaign why do you think it is important at this time to reset of the poor and why i take that message to the white house well it's important for a variety of reasons one as dr king once said we will leave to learn to live together as brothers and sisters or perish together as foods and those of us who are christian believe in following the way of jesus and jesus was the one who said blessed and all the poor and less about the poor in spirit that the way we show and live love in a practical way is through our compassion and through our works of justice through our work of taking care of each other when jesus was asked about judgment day which was a way of asking what does god care about he said did you feed me when i was hungry did you clothed me when i was naked all of that parable in matthew twenty five all is about human beings taking started out his public ministry saying the spirit of the lord is upon me to preach good news to the poor and the word poor the greek talk cause it means those who have been made poor about policies so the real question is with one hundred forty million people in america that are  say what would jesus do in the congress not just as a matter of personal charity thirty seven million people without health care what would jesus say what would jesus do seventy three million women and children in power thirteen million children  in poverty two hundred fifty thousand people dying every year from thousands of people dying without health care in the wealthiest country in the world what would jesus say what would jesus do with the two thousand scripts in the bible that says he would be talking a statement that was put out bishop curry and other christian leaders asserting that the u s is in port of moral crisis called reclaiming teach someone to read one line from it says we believe jesus when he tells us to go into all the nations making disciples therefore we reject america outright reject it because you've done that well in all honesty we hope that all people of goodwill and religious traditions and they will will be in conversation with us because it is our hope that for those of us who are christian as an example we believe that jesus is lord we believe that only god is god the ten commandments i am below about god so have no other gods but me and if god is god and if jesus is lord then no ruler no political authority no nation no empire are ever in history is lord only god that's a fundamental truth of our faith and that we love our country i love this country but i love god first and that's what we were saying that we must never be confused about that order because if we truly love our country we will love god first and follow the ways and teachings of the ways of rome and you know bishop harbor it's there is this irony that you know donald trump's among his strongest supporters are white evangelical christians who profess to believe the same thing that you gentlemen believe how can there be that much of a disconnect between two groups of people both calling themselves followers of the same god the same bible well that is a big question and i would a whole lot that are not and some of the leadership the fact of the matter we've always had this strange reality in america you know you had some who believed in slavery and some who didn't that's why frederick douglass on independence day said the religion of