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If Hillary Clinton remains the uncontested voice of her party, what next for progressives who say they know too well where Wall Street-friendly economics and a hawkish foreign policy will take the nation? (Photo: Shutterstock)Bernie is "seriously considering" it.

Warren says, "I'm not running."

A few Democratic governors are reportedly dabbling.

But with progressives nationwide yearning for a bold populist movement, is there any chance their hopes will be met in the upcoming midterm elections or on the 2016 presidential battlefield?

At the 'New Populism Conference' hosted by the Campaign for America's Future on Thursday, a number of progressive thinkers and activistsnot to mention Senators Warren and Sanders themselvesspoke to the idea of the "new populism" they say is desperately needed to release the nation from the stranglehold of corporate interests and a politics dominated by big money.

"So we must to have an independent movement which says, 'It doesn't matter who's in power! There are some things that are just right and we demand that they be done!'" Rev. William Barber

Striking a resolute and outside message at the conference was Rev. William Barberhead of the North Carolina NAACP and leader of the Moral Monday protests in his statewho rejected the idea that hope should come from Washington, DC or the establishment of either major party.

During his remarks at the conference poduim, Barber pointed to the lessons of the Civil Rights movement more than a generation ago and thundered: "They built a movement in spite of the odds," and cited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who said: "There comes a time when you have to stop being a thermometer and instead change the temperature of the situation in which you exist!"

Barber said a truly populist and progressive movement must face off against both parties. "I'm sorry to tell you, if no one did," said Barber, "but sometimes Democrats don't do what they should even when they have the power. And Republicans do what they shouldn't do when they have the power."

The real solution, Barber declared, is "to have an independent movement which says, 'It doesn't matter who's in power! There are some things that are just right and we demand that they be done!'"

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Can a New Populist Movement Fight Off American Oligarchy?

The All Progressives Congress has raised the alarm over alleged systematic arrest, harassment and intimidation of its members and supporters in Gombe State by the Peoples Democratic Party-led government in the state and the police.

In a statement in Lagos on Friday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the clampdown on the APC in Gombe was similar to what obtained in Bayelsa State, over which the party had cause to raise the alarm on May 14, and was sure to extend to other states as the 2015 general elections approach.

The party said this trend was because of the desperation and anti-democratic credentials of the PDP.

It said the situation in Gombe State was marked by the continuous destruction of APC property, including offices, flags, posters, banners and billboards in most of the local government areas and party headquarters.

APC added, Sadly, the police, who are maintained by taxpayers funds and are expected to be non-partisan, have been providing cover for the PDP agents who engage in this destructive spree, while being quick to arrest our members and supporters who try to resist the destruction of our partys property.

In addition, the police engage in frequent arrest and detention of our youths and supporters, who are then charged to court in an action that is clearly aimed at weakening their resolve to exercise their constitutional rights of free association, and ultimately to destabilize our party.

Such arrests and intimidation of our youth and other supporters have occurred in Dukku, Balanga, Kaltungo, Akko, Nafada and Gombe, and the latest occurred a few days ago involving the mass arrest of our members, especially youths.

The party expressed concern that the arrests and other acts of intimidation might increase, as the police in Gombe Division had allegedly been tacitly empowered with a fleet of Hilux vans to destabilize the APC in the state.

It reminded the police that the destabilisation of opposition political parties, arrest and intimidation of opposition members and supporters and the provision of cover for thugs to destroy the property of opposition political parties were not part of the constitutional duties of the police.

On our part, we will continue to monitor and document these acts of brigandage and the role of the police, with a view to ensuring that they are lawfully challenged in due course. We also call on the police hierarchy to caution their officers and men in Gombe, it said.

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APC condemns arrest, harassment of members in Gombe

USH Progressives
ush.

By: Emma Anderson

Original post:
USH Progressives - Video

FOLK wisdom tells us that if at first you dont succeed, then create a furor and try again. When it comes to getting people riled up, our omnipotent angels as they are euphemistically referred to these days are second to none. Unable to secure the desired result in the wake of the Hamid Mir allegations, the angels happened to chance on a dramatic case of religious slander aired on the same channel that had earlier invoked their ire.

It is thus that the countrys biggest media group is reportedly on the verge of being shut down after a rapid mobilisation campaign featuring the religious establishment and the formers media competitors. There are many aspects of this series of events that should be discussed. Most glaring is the shameless manner in which rival media houses rip into one another, confirming that liberal capitalism, with all its pretensions of civility, is an essentially no-holds-barred survival of the fittest.

At a more general level, contradictions within the corridors of power are becoming increasingly visible. In theory, the sharpening of contradictions should not worry progressives because it is when systems of domination start to dysfunction that the possibilities of substantive change increase.

Yet I have come across many progressives who are profoundly concerned about what they believe is a tilt in the balance of power back in favour of the men in khaki and reactionary political forces. Leaving aside the question of when the balance of power ever tilted decisively against the right, I want to suggest that we try and understand the nature of evolving contradictions from a different perspective.

Compare the sensibilities engendered by the images beamed out by television these days with those of the arch-conservatives that are the most mobilised constituency in the country.

On the one hand are the glitz and glamour of globalised capitalist culture, with its uninhibited titillation. Otherwise sacrosanct taboos are unashamedly challenged on the screen. That tens of millions keep tuning in every day to see more confirms that TVs appeal is growing rapidly.

On the other hand are the stringent rules and regulations of public religiosity, enforced by institutions and ordinary people alike in all realms of social life. Moral standards are firmly established and challenging them leads at best to excommunication from the community of believers and at worst to severe punishments, even death.

Which is the real world that the majority of Pakistanis inhabit? Both, insofar as most ordinary people participate in each consciously. Yes, they adopt different dispositions in either case, but this does not mean that one set of dispositions is real while the other is false.

While the future cannot be mapped out seamlessly by social scientific inquiry, the rapidity with which TV and by this I mean all information technologies is shaping social life in the present century means that everything that comes in the way is likely to be transformed. Which means that the reality of globalised capitalism is going impose itself more and more on the reality of public religiosity.

This is important to bear in mind if only because it confirms that the media houses rejoicing at the misfortunes of their rival are as much bearers of infidel cultural symbols and could tomorrow be just as easily accused of religious impropriety. In the big, bad world of Pakistani politics, there are no friends, only interests.

Originally posted here:
The silent majority must be mobilised by progressives.

OK, so it might be a bit premature to get that "New Pittsburgh" tattoo after all.

That's one of the nagging doubts some progressives went to bed with last night, after Tuesday's Democratic primary resulted in defeats for both Tom Michalow and state Rep. Erin Molchany. Both candidates were running in city/suburb hybrid districts, against familiar Democratic names. Molchany was squaring off against Harry Readshaw, a 10-term incumbent into whose South Hills district Molchany was drawn; Michalow was battling North Side Rep. Adam Ravenstahl, a two-term rep and brother of Pittsburgh's former mayor.

And for progressives, what may be most worrisome is not whether they lost, but how:

It was enough to make some know-it-all Wednesday morning quarterbacks wonder: Could progressives have won Michalow's race if they'd invested a bit more of the energy they put into Molchany's? (There's an even darker possibility, of course: What if Michalow did better because he didn't have as much progressive "help"?)

It's not that everyone was blindsided by Tuesday's results. I've been told by various sources that Molchany's campaign had internal polling which showed that she faced a steep uphill climb: Her drubbing on Tuesday was actually not quite as bad as her own polling predicted it could be. Campaign consultant Matt Merriman-Preston, who worked on both the Molchany and Michalow campaigns, says that while no such poll was carried out for Michalow, he had field reports -- "which turned out to be fairly accurate" -- that the race would be tight.

But Merriman-Preston, a celebrated architect of Peduto's political strategy, was wary of drawing too many lessons from yesterday's primary.

"There's only a big-picture takeaway when I win," jokes Merriman-Preston, with a somewhat rueful laugh. "When I lose, it's all just minutiae."

Or in Molchany's case, cartography. Redistricting forced Molchany into a district -- made up of city South Hills neighborhoods as well as Brentwood and Baldwin -- that was mostly Readshaw's home turf. Molchany did well in the portion of the new district she brought with her: In the city's 19th ward of Beechview, for example, she trounced Readshaw 75-25. But Readshaw beat her by a similar margin in his base of Carrick, and in the suburbs he steamrolled her by three-to-one.

"I'm still parsing the numbers, but it was definitely geography," Merriman-Preston said this morning. "When you lose by 20 points instead of 20 votes, there's more going into it at the beginning."

And while Molchany became a cause clbre for Peduto and like-minded allies, it's not always clear how much that support helped in the heavily white, working-class district. Take, for example, Peduto's ad endorsing Molchany. While Peduto's backing may have inspired progressives, it also prominently mentions Molchany's work with Planned Parenthood, which took a strong role in her campaign . But among political insiders there is speculation that, in a socially conservative district, name-dropping an abortion-rights group may have been a double-edged sword.

Excerpt from:
In cross-town legislative races, a combination punch for city progressives (UPDATED)