Poor Peoples Campaign

Corporate and financial elites have largely succeeded in seizing the current economic crisis of their own making to ram through attacks on social programs they've always despised. With Washington in their pockets they apparently believe that now is their time to contort the institutions of American society into a consortium servicing their narrow class interests. But the protests in Europe and on Wall Street are evidence that a growing number of people are on to them. The primordial moment for the pursuit of justice has begun.

On Monday, the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination in Memphis, I will be in Madison. There is a straight line from Memphis -- where Dr. King stood with striking public employees -- to Madison.

While many remember Dr. King for his civil rights activities, far less are aware of the work he did in support of the Poor People's Campaign. Dr. Ki...

Jobs should be the first order of business of the 112th Congress. But when the new, Republican-led House of Representatives goes back to work on the week of January 18 its first agenda item will be the repeal of health care reform.

Republicans who vote down unemployment insurance and try to pass more tax cuts for the rich should be scared to show up in public. It's time for progressives to rediscover their history of mass protests.

You may start by reinstating Shirley Sherrod. She deserves that much. You may go further by admitting, as the NAACP has, that you were "snookered."