Harry Bellafonte continues "proud Black American tradit

by **robertdreed** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 3:01 am

BELAFONTE: Well, Mr. Blitzer, let me say this to you, perhaps, just perhaps had the Jews of Germany and people spoken out much earlier and had resisted the tyranny that was on the horizon, perhaps we would never have had... BLITZER: Well, wait a minute, wait a minute, are you blaming the Jews of Germany for what Hitler did to them? BELAFONTE: No, no. What I'm saying is that if it an awakened citizenry, begins to oppose the first inkling of the subversion of government, of the subversion of our democracy, then perhaps an early warning would have saved the world a lot of what we all experienced. I'm not accusing the Jews at all. BLITZER: Well, I just heard you say perhaps if the Jews of Germany had done something earlier then that might not have happened. That's what I thought you were getting at. BELAFONTE: Well, what I was getting at really is that if all citizens, the Jewish community, the Christian community and all else had taken a very early aggressive stand rather than somehow suggesting or thinking or feeling that this would have gone away, we might have found that Germany would have been in a far different place than it wound up in.

by **darkbeforedawn** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 12:29 pm

excerpt from article about "Hilliary's Plantation" go here to view complete article <a href="http://www.progressiveindependent.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=127&topic_id=2435&mesg_id=2435">www.progressiveindependen...sg_id=2435</a> The week before King Day, Hillary showed her true colors. She and Harry Belafonte were both guests at a Children's Defense Fund luncheon. It is a gross understatement to say that she avoided Belafonte. If he were infected with leprosy and the first case of contagious avian flu she could not have stayed further away from him. Belafonte had committed the unpardonable sin of speaking ill of the white and powerful when he quite correctly referred to Bush as a tyrant and a terrorist. The Senator went nowhere near his table, stayed at the event for only fifteen minutes and refused to comment on his presence or her failure to acknowledge it. She saw nothing wrong with the plantation system on that occasion. Bill and Hillary are the masters of their own plantation. It is called the Democratic Leadership Council. The DLC exists to make sure that anyone who dares to break free realizes their error and runs back to Tara before sundown.

by **sunny** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 1:45 pm

<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/danny-miller/you-are-the-unamericans_b_14563.html">www.huffingtonpost.com/da...14563.html</a> Paul Robeson's testimony before the HUAC: THE CHAIRMAN: The Committee will be in order. This morning the Committee resumes its series of hearings on the vital issue of the use of American passports as travel documents in furtherance of the objectives of the Communist conspiracy. . . .   MR. ARENS: Now, during the course of the process in which you were applying for this passport, in July of 1954, were you requested to submit a non-Communist affidavit?   MR. ROBESON: We had a long discussion--with my counsel, who is in the room, Mr. [Leonard B.] Boudin--with the State Department, about just such an affidavit and I was very precise not only in the application but with the State Department, headed by Mr. Henderson and Mr. McLeod, that under no conditions would I think of signing any such affidavit, that it is a complete contradiction of the rights of American citizens.   MR. ARENS: Did you comply with the requests?   MR. ROBESON: I certainly did not and I will not.   MR. ARENS: Are you now a member of the Communist Party?   MR. ROBESON: Oh please, please, please. MR. SCHERER: Please answer, will you, Mr. Robeson?   MR. ROBESON: What is the Communist Party? What do you mean by that?   MR. SCHERER: I ask that you direct the witness to answer the question.   MR. ROBESON: What do you mean by the Communist Party? As far as I know it is a legal party like the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. Do you mean a party of people who have sacrificed for my people, and for all Americans and workers, that they can live in dignity? Do you mean that party?   MR. ARENS: Are you now a member of the Communist Party?   MR. ROBESON: Would you like to come to the ballot box when I vote and take out the ballot and see?   MR. ARENS: Mr. Chairman, I respectfully suggest that the witness be ordered and directed to answer that question.   THE CHAIRMAN: You are directed to answer the question. (The witness consults with his counsel.)   MR. ROBESON: I stand upon the Fifth Amendment of the American Constitution.   MR. ARENS: Do you mean you invoke the Fifth Amendment?   MR. ROBESON: I invoke the Fifth Amendment.   MR. ARENS: Do you honestly apprehend that if you told this Committee truthfully--   MR. ROBESON: I have no desire to consider anything. I invoke the Fifth Amendment, and it is none of your business what I would like to do, and I invoke the Fifth Amendment. And forget it.   THE CHAIRMAN: You are directed to answer that question.   MR. ROBESON: I invoke the Fifth Amendment, and so I am answering it, am I not?   • • • • •   MR. ROBESON: In Russia I felt for the first time like a full human being. No color prejudice like in Mississippi, no color prejudice like in Washington. It was the first time I felt like a human being. Where I did not feel the pressure of color as I feel [it] in this Committee today.   MR. SCHERER: Why do you not stay in Russia?   MR. ROBESON: Because my father was a slave, and my people died to build this country, and I am going to stay here, and have a part of it just like you. And no Fascist-minded people will drive me from it. Is that clear? I am for peace with the Soviet Union, and I am for peace with China, and I am not for peace or friendship with the Fascist Franco, and I am not for peace with Fascist Nazi Germans. I am for peace with decent people.   MR. SCHERER: You are here because you are promoting the Communist cause.   MR. ROBESON: I am here because I am opposing the neo-Fascist cause which I see arising in these committees. You are like the Alien [and] Sedition Act, and Jefferson could be sitting here, and Frederick Douglass could be sitting here, and Eugene Debs could be here.   • • • • • MR. ARENS: Now I would invite your attention, if you please, to the Daily Worker of June 29, 1949, with reference to a get-together with you and Ben Davis. Do you know Ben Davis [New York Councilman and former secretary of the Harlem Division of the Communist Party]?   MR. ROBESON: One of my dearest friends, one of the finest Americans you can imagine, born of a fine family, who went to Amherst and was a great man.   THE CHAIRMAN: The answer is yes?   MR. ROBESON: Nothing could make me prouder than to know him.   THE CHAIRMAN: That answers the question.   MR. ARENS: Did I understand you to laud his patriotism?   MR. ROBESON: I say that he is as patriotic an American as there can be, and you gentlemen belong with the Alien and Sedition Acts, and you are the nonpatriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.   THE CHAIRMAN: Just a minute, the hearing is now adjourned.   MR. ROBESON: I should think it would be. THE CHAIRMAN: I have endured all of this that I can.   MR. ROBESON: Can I read my statement?   THE CHAIRMAN: No, you cannot read it. The meeting is adjourned.   MR. ROBESON: I think it should be, and you should adjourn this forever, that is what I would say. At a time when public lynchings were a common occurrence and racism was deeply entrenched in this country, Robeson's defiance and refusal to buckle before the committee is nothing short of miraculous. Can you imagine today if all public officials and citizens expressed and stood by their beliefs so forcefully? As far as I'm concerned, the entirety of Robeson's testimony should be as familiar to every American as the words of the Gettysburg Address. ~snip~ Throughout his life, Paul Robeson displayed a courage that is rarely seen in public life today. When the Chairman of HUAC tried to tell Robeson that with all he had achieved he must not have been a victim of prejudice, Robeson became agitated: MR. ROBESON: Just a moment. This is something that I challenge very deeply, and very sincerely: that the success of a few Negroes, including myself or Jackie Robinson can make up for seven hundred dollars a year for thousands of Negro families in the South. My father was a slave, and I have cousins who are sharecroppers, and I do not see my success in terms of myself. I am not being tried for whether I am a Communist, I am being tried for fighting for the rights of my people, who are still second-class citizens in this United States of America. My mother was born in your state, Mr. Walter, and my mother was a Quaker, and my ancestors in the time of Washington baked bread for George Washington's troops when they crossed the Delaware, and my own father was a slave. I stand here struggling for the rights of my people to be full citizens in this country. And they are not. They are not in Mississippi. And they are not in Montgomery, Alabama. And they are not in Washington. They are nowhere, and that is why I am here today. You want to shut up every Negro who has the courage to stand up and fight for the rights of his people, for the rights of workers, and I have been on many a picket line for the steelworkers too. And that is why I am here today. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=sunny@rigorousintuition>sunny</A> at: 1/27/06 10:48 am

Harry Bellafonte continues "proud Black American tradit

you really have to be trying hard to miss the point...

Hilliary Clinton snubs Bellafonte

You are the un-Americans

Who is online