From "The Root:"
"...To be sure, we are in a period of great challenge to the very essence of democracy in this country, to which there must be a powerful civil rights response. The march 50 years ago, and the period known as the civil rights movement, has ended. But there is a difference between the historically bound "civil rights movement" and the movement for civil rights. The former was an extraordinary period in our nation's history. The latter is an ongoing effort born of the recognition that no win is permanent, that democracy must be consistently refreshed, maintained and prodded. As we prepare to commemorate the historic March on Washington, we must also reflect on new challenges we face in the post-civil rights era..."
In my opinion the greatest challenge of all is being ignored:
The fact that Obama's Wall Street agenda of wars abroad paid for with austerity measures here at home being shoved down our throats is being ignored to the point where this makes a mockery of commemorating the historic "1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" with Affirmative Action not being enforced and no way to create tens of millions of jobs without a gigantic peace dividend while the very democracy required in public dialog, discussion and debate focused on a people's agenda versus Wall Street's agenda is being snuffed out--- including being snuffed out by the "leaders" organizing this present March on Washington as they attempt to stymie and thwart the role of peace in the struggle for jobs and freedom.
This attempt to use the commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to drum up support for the Democrats who never had a political or legislative agenda for jobs and freedom further mocks the occasion as no attempt is being made to use this march as a catalyst to organizing for the kind of change required in order to win jobs and freedom.
Activists should insert these missing links in this March on Washington on August 24 and the events on August 28 with leaflets, signs, statements declaring what we seek and conversations about the need for a working class based progressive people's party as an alternative to Wall Street's two-party trap which is a dead-end alley for working people.
Anyone who thinks that without leadership a march of this nature will automatically lead to the kind of mass action required to turn this country around is living in la-la land divorced from the reality that the Democrats seek hegemony over our movements in order to manipulate and maneuver us using their partners at the helm of organized labor and the foundation-funded outfits all working in cahoots with our Wall Street enemies.
