The Digital Dispatch

From a Young MLK

Brian K. Noe · January 20, 2014 ·

This is from a letter to Coretta Scott, written in 1952.

“I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic. And yet I am not so opposed to capitalism that I have failed to see its relative merits. It started out with a noble and high motive, viz, to block the trade monopolies of nobles, but like most human systems it fell victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has outlived its usefulness. It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes.”

– Martin Luther King, Jr.

10 NSA Myths Debunked

Brian K. Noe · January 17, 2014 ·

Peter Van Buren unpacks ten myths about NSA surveillance that need debunking.

Read here: You Can’t Opt Out: 10 NSA Myths Debunked | The Dissenter.

Remembering MLK

Brian K. Noe · January 15, 2014 ·

From Gar Alperovitz:

Martin Luther King Jr. was a great civil rights leader, but to remember him only in this way is to diminish what he was about and what we can learn from him. What stands out—as lessons for our own day and to each of us now—is his growing understanding of the importance of confronting ever-more-fundamental issues, even in the face of challenges from the press, the establishment, and his own religious constituency, to say nothing of those on the Right.

The Bi-Partisan War Against the Poor

Brian K. Noe · January 15, 2014 ·

DSA Vice Chairman Joseph Schwartz reviews the recent MSNBC special commemorating the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, noting that discussion of the thirty year bi-partian assault on working people received little attention.

The biggest change in the face of poverty in the U.S. from the initiation of the War on Poverty to today is that poverty is now a problem of working families; it was not in 1962. Today, one half of families living in official poverty have a full-time worker in the household. In 1962, a fully employed worker guaranteed that the family would live above the poverty line. Why this change? In part, this is due to the conscious corporate assault on union strength.

Trish Kahle on the Elk River Spill

Brian K. Noe · January 13, 2014 ·

“IMAGINE YOURSELF in the rugged countryside of the Appalachian Mountains, where you and your neighbors have lived with a history of poverty and lack of economic development–and you learn that the water piped into your home has been poisoned and can’t be used, even after it is boiled, until further notice.”

Read the article: They poisoned the river for a “clean coal” lie | I Can’t Believe We Still Have to Protest This Shit.