https://youtu.be/95-tNoSSxXk?si=_VuhVETUwylZIg35
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TRANSCRIPT:
it's time for the moment though that we've all been waiting for our next guest is not only an intellectual Powerhouse but also a passionate advocate for justice and equality he's a distinguished academic and influential activist I first met him at the in the first weeks of Occupy Wall Street and yes he's also a jazz man and he's now throwing his hat into the ring for the highest office in the land ladies and Gentlemen please join me in welcoming the incomparable Dr Cornell West my dear brother Lee my dear brother Lee Camp give it up brother Lee Camp brings together sophisticated comedy with a heart full of gold and an analytical mind we thank you we thank you we thank each and every one of you who are able to spend this time with us because we are not launching we have been moving doing a variety of different things in different context from Mississippi to Detroit to New York to Los Los Angeles but what we're doing now is ensuring that we have direct connection with our volunteers so I want to First say it's a blessing to be here it's an honor to be here because we're here to serve the people to keep the focus on the suffering tell the truth about the Injustice and make sure that we have wind at our back in order to fight against Justice and of course we do this on first a very personal and assisten level and I start with my beloved magnificent wife who is the distinguished professor of psychology Long Beach and would you like to just say a few words sure hi everyone thank you so much for being here thank you for your support it's great to be amongst a group of a group of people that care about justice for all that care about Humanity Mother Earth our future and so I just want all of you to know that I absolutely appreciate your support and can't wait to see all of you in person soon and uh God bless you all indeed indeed and then I got my blood brother here Cliff West I don't know if he could just wave but I don't exist without him I'm only onethird of the human being that he actually is and he and I of course represent the spirits of Irene and Clifton West mom and dad who who have passed C and Cheryl our sister uh I want to salute the high quality quartet and it's a quintet in part because Sister Amy but we've got magnificent co- campaign managers in Anthony and madin and brother Edwin and Kiana as well and we've got a core team we meet constantly every every morning very very early working pushing Ensure in that when we get a chance to hit ballot access and we can't do that for the most part until January even though I'll be in Utah one of the few States we can do it prior to January we want you volunteers that we have been working I mean I've done over 350 interviews but we won't go into all of that because the Press has been very very kind but we want to connect that high visibility on the press to grass root activity on the ground and we've got a vast array of fundraisers that were we already in place we're not just planning is already in place so that our cash flow will go hand in hand with our grassroot organizer and why do we do this now this question because I know each and every one of you feeling down and overwhelming God the hit us every day but there's a connection between Gaza on hand Congo on the other souths side of Chicago Harlem our poor white brothers and sisters in Appalachia indigenous reservation working class peoples of all colors all genders all sexual orientations 64% of the population in the American Empire living paycheck to paycheck knowing that the elites are corrupt and out of control how do we moral the spiritual the political and the institutional strength and capacity to continue to intensify and escalate what we're trying to do that's what this process where there has to be coming together solidarity without unanimity a community without wholesale agreement but headed in a direction that highlights poor people and working abroad this campaign from the very beginning has been one in which we've the Quest for truth and Justice at the center and the campaign is subordinate to that quest for truth and Justice and we know the condition of Truth is always speak we know the justice is what love looks like in public which which is to say that we have a genuine compassion for folk who in the language of Malcolm X are catching hell and that's why we work so very hard to put together a platform and we've got all of the different pillars we talk about Justice got economic Justice abolition of poverty abolition of homelessness ensuring that working people gain access to a living wage we applaud the UAW workers with their recent contracts we acknowledge the fact that the strikes that have been in place in regard to our Hollywood U uh brothers and sisters of brothers and sisters of all colors who work in Hollywood are standing up we're now where things are so grim and so dim Trump Neo fascist leading the country leading the world toward a third world war be it Russia and the Ukraine be it Taiwan or be it in the Middle machine expansion of the military adventurism military itself contributing catastrophe Greenhouse effects emitted consuming a fossil determination that's what this campaign about to shatter this claim that there is no alternative there is an alternative to the corporate Monopoly there is an alternative to the two parties of War Wall Street Silicon Tech intimate relations to corporate Elites there is an alternative to the escalating child poverty there is an alternative to the or organized greed there's an alternative to the institutionalized hatred polarizing us and and this I I do want to Accent this moral and spiritual Dimension when it leadership because so many of our precious fellow citizens feel as if transcend the hatred and revenge and and for me there's nothing wrong with hatred if you're hating oppression if domination but we have to get Beyond this hating of persons demonizing of persons and rendering them static as if they cannot change they cannot transform leadership of Integrity honesty decency that is shot through with the morality spirituality and in a moment of barbarity a very very difficult thing to do and yet this campaign a moment in a movement is an attempt to do precisely that that's why I forever invoke the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr the legacy of Fanny Lou hyon the legacy of Dorothy Day the legacy of Edward Z the legacy of Rabbi Abraham Joshua hesel all of those who call for what Justice not Revenge who talked about compassion rather than hatred that is the terrain upon which we're trying to sustain this movement this campaign and it begins by masses the masses of people here in this country and around the world that's why Global Justus ice goes hand in hand with economic Justice goes hand in hand with racial Justice fighting the vicious Legacy of white supremacy which of course has always set at the very center of my own black Freedom tradition is something that I I carry with me every day but it allows me to have deep solidarity with my indigenous brothers and sisters my white workers it allows me to engage in serious critiques of patriarchy that's why Reproductive Rights when we go to Omaha is going to be at the center of what we are highlighting to have deep deep sympathy with our precious gay brothers and lesbian sisters and queer and by trans why because they as human beings as precious creatures brothers sisters and moovment and you can imagine the naysayers well he done heav us ballot assets watch us move from zero to 25 from 25 to 35 from 35 to 45 from 45 to 50 people saying this country is not ready for this kind of more radical and even revolutionary project well 40% of our fellow citizens do not vote 62% of those who vote for third real party of independent C candidates will never ever ever ever vote for the Democrats and before the polls began to reveal over 75% of fellow citizens don't want to vote for either party what a opportunity that's what we're trying to pain environmental justice oh so crucial so very very crucial educational justice so very very crucial I won't go through all of the different items and details of the platform but it is there and of course we've got magnificent spokespersons not just here but people with able to hammer these things out in much more concrete details right now what we're trying to do is to sustain momentum that's why volunteers are crucial we cannot do it without you we together we've got to be able to sustain our vision for poor and working people our analysis of structures of domination and oppression and on the ground be able create communal and Collective end hope is as much a verb as a virtue it's not just a disposition to act but it's a disposition to act that momentum and that momentum can create a movement and it's got to be in the end mass-based movement it's got to be in end a movement that keeps the focus on the suffering that's why Gaza has been such a fundamental Focus for so long in my own life not just this week not just this year but for 40 years working closely with my dear brother Edward Z Stanley AR witz and a host of others of course you know the great nor CHP and Trump and yes even my dear brother RFK Jr are enabling genocidal attacks on our Palestinians I have no patience for it not because I'm so good but because I am committed to fighting every form of Oppression every form of domination and exceptions and for too long Palestinians have been the exception you can be Progressive on every issue but Palestinians no we want moral consistency it takes political courage not self-righteousness political courage and you shall see this day in day out out we've got a whole year in this campaign to tell these kind of truths promote this kind of justice and in the end surprise the world because we gonna shake up the world come join world let me stop there and open it up definitely thank you so much Dr Cornell West always powerful and and thank you a as a Jew myself thank you for using the word genocide because I think if it's not being used right now in with what's being done in Gaza then the word has lost all meaning so thank you for that uh and thank you for all your all your
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