Honoring MLK Means Recognizing Him as an Organizer, Political Figure

Patrice Lumumba and Pan-African Solidarity, Media Recycles Talking Points On Venezuela, Study Disputes Russiagate Narrative

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by Kambale Musavuli, activist, writer, & analyst with the Center for Research on the Congo-Kinshasa to discuss the anniversary of the assassination of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and his legacy for the Congo and the continent of Africa, the struggle for sovereignty and liberation in the Congo that Lumumba embodied and why western powers were interested in suppressing that idea, and why Pan-African solidarity is necessary for the liberation of the Congo and of the African continent.

In the second segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by Ricardo Vaz, political analyst & editor at Venezuelanalysis.com to discuss how media coverage of Juan Guaido’s official ouster as “interim president” of Venezuela recycled the same talking points used to justify him as the rightful president in 2019, why those talking points had no place in Venezuelan law and what the media excluded about the Venezuelan constitution when it characterized President Nicolas Maduro as a “dictator,” and the pleas for military intervention and hiring of mercenaries by Guaido that were left out of most mainstream coverage of Guaido’s time as so-called interim president.

In the third segment, Sean and Jacquie are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa, co-host of the CovertAction Bulletin podcast to discuss a recent study which found that so-called Russian disinformation on Twitter had little to no effect on the 2016 presidential election, the far-reaching impacts of Russiagate and accusations of election meddling that have contributed to the hostility between the US and Russia today, a new lawsuit filed by Meta* about data scraping and the privacy concerns about the practice highlighted by the lawsuit, and recent advertising regulations which make it harder for consumers to know which companies are selling email addresses to advertising firms.

Later in the show, Sean and Jacquie are joined by James Early, Former Director of Cultural Heritage Policy at the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage at the Smithsonian Institution and board member of the Institute for Policy Studies to discuss the continuing fallout from the classified documents found at sites associated with Joe Biden and the political questions it raises as the 2024 presidential election draws nearer, what lessons about citizenship and culture Martin Luther King Jr. imparts on organizers today, and why honoring Martin Luther King Jr. requires organizing and a recognition of his status as a political figure.

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*Meta is banned in Russia over extremist activity.