Transcripts For LINKTV Democracy Now 20140226

The longtime civil rights activist has been described as americas most revolutionary mayor. He died of Heart Failure tuesday, less than a year after taking office. He was 66 years old. We will hear lumumba in his own words and speak to several of his close associates. Then as japan pushes to restart its dormant nuclear program, the crisis that fukushima continues. All of that and more coming up. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The Obama Administration is ramping up pressure on afghan president karzai to sign a deal to keep u. S. Troops in afghanistan beyond this year. In a phone call with karzai tuesday, obama said he has ordered the pentagon to launch new Contingency Planning for total withdrawal of u. S. Troops by the end of 2014. White House Press Secretary jay carney said karzais replacement after april elections might still sign the deal, known as the bilateral Security Agreement or bsa. The fact that president karzai has indicated it is unlikely he will sign the bsa means if he doesnt sign it, it is at least possible a successor after afghan governor my sign it, but it pushes us later into the year. The longer we go without a signed bsa, by necessity, the more narrow in size and ambition post2014 force would be. Remarks come as nato defense ministers are meeting in brussels this week to discuss afghanistan. According to the latest tally from the associated press, 2174 members of u. S. Military have died in afghanistan as a result of the u. S. Led invasion. A new report from Doctors Without Borders finds one in four people in afghanistan have lost a relative or close friend of violence in the last year alone. Currently make up the largest population of refugees in the world, but they are poised to be surpassed by syrians. According to the united nations, the number of Syrian Refugees could pass 4 million by the end of this year. Voteders in france have to indefinitely extend the countrys military intervention in Central African republic. Troops from france and the African Union so far have been unable to staunch sectarian bloodshed between muslim rebels in question vigilantes. Three months ago, france named its mission in Central African republic after a butterfly, assuming it would have a short lifespan. In the latest violence, christian fighters reportedly killed 70 people over a twoday period earlier this month while chadian troops are accused of killing three civilians in the capital bangui. In nigeria, Officials Say 59 students died in an attack by islamist militants on a boarding school in the northeast. The group reportedly shot or burned male students to death, while allowing for emails female stiffly. In venezuela, the death toll from violent opposition protests has risen to 13 amidst the countrys worst unrest in a decade. President maduro has accused rightwing opponents of fermenting a coup with u. S. Support. On tuesday, the state Department Spokesperson said the United States was expelling three venezuelan diplomats in response to the earlier expulsion of three u. S. Officials. The state department has declared three officials from the Venezuelan Embassy in as well have. C. Been allowed 48 hours to leave the United States. The convention permits the United States to declare any member of a diplomatic ocean persona non grata at any time without the necessity to state a reason. Ukraines acting government has disbanded its riot police and is set to unveil a new cabinet today as ousted president asiana code which remains in hiding with a warrant out for his arrest. He faced months of protests for strengthening ties with russia instead of europe all stopped on tuesday, the Russian Foreign minister lavrov said ukraine should not be forced to choose sides. It is dangerous and counterproductive to try to force upon ukraine a choice on the principle youre either with us or against us. Were interested in ukraine being part of a common european family in all senses of this word. But in the United States, the mayor of jackson, mississippi, Chokwe Lumumba, has died from Heart Failure at the age of 66 among less than the year after he was elected. A longtime black nationalist organizer an attorney, lumumba has been called americas most revolutionary mayor. We will discuss his legacy and hear from him in his own words after the headlines. A former guantanamo prisoner who spent nearly three years in u. S. Custody without charge has been arrested in britain on accusations related to the conflict in syria. Is lease say moazzam begg suspected of attending a terrorist Training Camp and facilitating terrorism overseas. He is director of the prisoner Advocacy Group cage. He published an article about visiting syria to probe reports of u. S. And british complicity in rendering terrorism suspects to the regime of syrian president bashar alassad. He also said his passport was seized last month, writing cage released a statement expressing outrage at moazzam beggs arrest, writing you can go to democracynow. Org to see our interviews with moazzam begg after he was released from guantanamo. Missouri has executed its fourth prisoner in four months. Michael taylor was injected with a lethal drug pentobarbital following his conviction of the rape and murder of a 15yearold girl. His attorneys had warned the drug, purchased from an unnamed compounding pharmacy, could cause immense suffering. They had also questioned his or his practice of executing prisoners before appeals are exhausted. Late last month, missouri executed Herbert Smalls just minutes before the u. S. Supreme court ruled on an appeal. A Nuclear Waste disposal site is set to reopen in new mexico following an unexplained leak of Radioactive Material. The underground waste dump was shut down earlier this month after an air monitor detected radioactive contamination. On monday, federal regulators reported slightly elevated levels of airborne radioactivity, but said they did not pose a public threat. , newine is near carlsbad mexico. The family of a man who died following an encounter with Police Outside and oklahoma Movie Theater this month has released disturbing video of the incident. Cell phone video shot by the mans wife shows the Weise Rodriguez lying facedown with five Police Officers pressing on top of him one of them holding down his head, while his wife pleads with them. Ok . Uis, are you luis . Luis, are you ok . Hes fine. Warrior you doing all of this . Why are you doing all of this . His wife said police beat her husband for he died. Police say he was uncooperative when they questioned him about reports of a domestic dispute. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Of jackson, mississippi is grieving today following the sudden death of mayor Chokwe Lumumba, less than a year after he was elected. He suffered from Heart Failure on tuesday. He was 60 six years old. A longtime black nationalist organizer an attorney, lumumba had been described as americas most revolutionary mayor. Irking with the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, he advocated for participatory democracy in the creation of new worker run cooperatives in jackson. Over the past four decades, lumumba was deeply involved in numerous political and legal campaigns. As an attorney, his clients have included former black Panther Assata Shakur as well as the late hiphop artist tupac. As a political organizer, lumumba served for years as Vice President of the republic of new afrika, an organization which advocated for an independent predominantly black government and the southeastern United States and reparations for slavery. He also helped found the National Black Human Rights Coalition and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. In june, one gonzales and i interviewed Chokwe Lumumba just after he was elected. We began by asking him how is able to win the Mayoral Election in a place like jackson, mississippi, given its history and his history as a radical activist and the black liberation struggle. And ank you for having me shout out and thank you to your listening audience. I attribute the victory that we week to theast people of jackson who were more than ready that leadership that was forwardlooking and ready to raise jackson to a different level of development and ready to embrace the ideas that all governments should do the most protect human rights of the people in that jurisdiction. And we were very pleased with the upcoming of people to vote, with their participation, and with their continued support. I am now running for the mayor have in fact won the mayor of the city of jackson because i think it is necessary. We are a population now here in the need of a lot of development will stop development is one of androads to human Rights Recognition of human rights, especially our economic human rights. And some of that development is going to take the kind of leadership and the kind of consistency that we had in the struggle for Voting Rights and other kinds of rights, which has been unique to our history. , im not suremba many people around the country understand the symbolic the symbolism of jackson, ofsissippi as a center racism and racial oppression really over centuries. The very name of the city, the city was named after Andrew Jackson by the white settlers in 1820 asn and an ending commissioner was able to basically pressure the choctaw indians to give up 13 million acres of land and moved to oklahoma. That is why the white settlers in the city after jackson because of his success that ethnic cleansing. Of course, its history throughout slavery and jim crow. How did this change occur . How are you able to put together this coalition to be elected given your history as a radical and activist in the black liberation struggle . I think it is a tribute to our consistency. It is a tribute to our refusal to say that we would bow to the oppression that was around us. It is a tremendous story of our people. You talked about medgar evers, but the continuation since medgar evers, fighting against oppression and economic oppression from a fighting against the kinds of things which have surfaced in our decades, which are similar to the kinds of things you cite in the distant history of jackson. We have been persistent. With that persistency, our people now are ready to move to different level of development. And i should say that people should take note of jackson, because we have suffered some of the worst kinds of abuses in history. But we are about to make some advances and some strides in the development of human rights and the protection of human rights that i think have not been seen in other parts of the country. And i want to caution folks that we have got to be careful now on we talk about any one particular place in the United States. All over we have seen intense oppression. I am initially from detroit. We have seen a lot of oppression their historically as well as currently. New york has seen its share, washington, d. C. Has seen its share. Peoplet want to be like on different plantations arguing about which plantation is worse. We have to correct the whole problem. We are about correcting the problem here in jackson, and were going to be inviting people to come here and people want to come here in order to participate in the struggle forward. This is not a phony struggle. Were not just putting a false face. We tell you we have had real problems and we still have real problems. But we are solving these problems and we will try to solve a lot of them through Economic Development from a which is going to involve the masses of the people, not just a few folks. Can you tell us about your platform and the jackson cush plan . The platform is to advance the ideas of development and the it ideas of empowerment of the populations which exists in the city of jackson specifically. Ofhave a population demographic here, 80 of the population is black, about 20 is white, and we have brothers and sisters were east Indian Origin as well as some asian and some hispanic folks, in. Our slogan was one city, one aim, one destiny. The idea is to blend these populations into a struggle forward. There are some people historically have always tried to separate the populations and to have certain portion of the population oppressed the rest of the population. Were not going to tolerate that. We are going to move ahead and let everyone participate in this Movement Forward. We will invite everyone to participate in this Movement Forward will stop we have formed the Peoples Assembly that is key to what we have done here monthse have every three the population can come out and purchase a paid in an open forum to say what is on their mind. They can come out and learn some of the problems the city is facing and some of the solutions and some of the problem solvers are supposed to be offering. And this will bring about more Public Education and political education to the population of the city, make our population were prepared to be motivated and organized in order to participate in the changes which must occur in the city of jackson in order to move it forward. We say the people must decide. Educate, motivate, organize. That is the slogan we use. The late Chokwe Lumumba speaking on democracy now june 6, elected mayor on june five. The mayor of jackson, mississippi. Were joined right now by three guests to talk about his shocking death, but also his life and his legacy. We will begin with an associate professor and chair of the department of africanamerican studies at Georgia State university, a Founding Member like Chokwe Lumumba of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement and the new African Peoples organization. He is author of the book, we will shoot back armed resistance in the mississippi Freedom Movement. Usnyele umoja is joining from los angeles. We will also speak with the former head of the naacp ben jealous on the phone. Lets first go to his longtime ally. Were joined right now by akinyele umoja. Can you talk about his life and what you understand happened yesterday, his death . I am in los angeles right now, so i cant give you a lot of details about his death, but in terms of his life, Chokwe Lumumba was born in 1948 in detroit, michigan. He grew up in a workingclass family. He was the second oldest child in the family. When he was a child, his mother was involved in civil rights activities. They were raising money to go to mississippi, interesting enough, to support the student of nonviolent cordoning committee and other groups in mississippi. He became a student athlete. Chokwe lumumba was a gifted athlete and with two kalamazoo college. He became a Student Activist there. The blackracted to Power Movement, particularly after the assassination of Martin Luther king. Event occurred after the assassination of king and many black people join the black Power Movement and Chokwe Lumumba was attracted to a group. Hat was raised in detroit it was about creating a society for black people, were there would be diversity, a society that would have cooperative economic and socialistic principles. And those are things that show quite terry gou with him chok we carried with them. He believed like people and other folks he was definitely an internationalist. He believed there should be a new Economic System that was more humanistic than the system we live in today. 1984, he helped found the new African Peoples organization, which would be more activist than the provisional government of the republic of africa than in a campaigning with that in 1990 form the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement. Actuallymumba was drafted to run for mayor for jackson, mississippi. Jackson in the late 1980s. He had been engaged as an attorney, an advocate for people for workers rights, being an advocate for victims of police brutality. He challenged activity of the ku klux klan and otherwise to premises organizations in this is it be. Because of his consistency at work in the state, many people said he should run for mayor. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement agreed with that and encouraged chokwe to run. Decided to organize a different type of black politics there. We felt the traditional black politics were not really working for us at this time. So chokwe, before he ran for mayor, in his ward when he ran for city councilman in 2009, the Peoples Assembly was organized. When you heard the clip of him saying the people will decide, that slogan was put into practice by organizing assembly that would develop his platform. His platform actually came from the community and not out of his head or out of our organization. Chokwe they form this Peoples Assembly to help him get elected, formed this platform, but also state organized while he was serving provide himncil to with direction on how he should proceed on policy. It was a different form of politics at was being pursued, as you mentioned earlier, encouraging participatory democracy, encouraging people to get active, and also to become politically educated. Thatope was and still is after his election for mayor, that we would organize a Peoples Assembly. In jackson, 24 mississippi, there will be a new economy conference for jackson rising conference, that will look and new economies, cooperative Economic Developments, things of that nature and the legacy of Chokwe Lumumba, we have to continue these initiatives, even though his untimely death. He died of a sudden heart attack. Our prayers go out to his family. Were talking to akinyele statefrom georgia university, longtime friend and , who diedokwe lumumba suddenly yesterday, the mayor of jackson, mississippi. When we come back, we will go to jackson, mississippi and speak to people around the country. We will be back in a moment. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We are talking about the sudden death of Chokwe Lumumba yesterday in jackson, mississippi. He was voted the mayor or was elected mayor in june 2013. Edwin lumumba was born finley. He told Jackson Free Press why he chose the name. He said, i picked it because im african history class i learned the chokwe tribe was one of the last tribes to resist the slave trade successfully northeast angola. I want to go back to akinyele umoja, associate professor and chair department of africanamerican studies at Georgia State university and Founding Member like Chokwe Lumumba was of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movements. The significance of the mayors name, the late mayors name . Well, chokwe, as you mentioned, was a black nationalist. He was inspired by malcolm x and malcolm x talk to us about the legacy of the names that we were born with in this country, having a legacy that was connected to slavery. Embraced theuch havingty of black people a culture that was liberating. In that context, in many people who are part of the new African Movement with chokwe, began to change their names, like myself, to african names, to try to embrace their heritage. Not only looking back, but looking forward to try to develop new societies and new communities and to be able to give our children a legacy that is connected to a Liberation Movement as opposed to a legacy that was connected to slavery. Forery much believed instance, one of the major issues as we talked about jackson, he felt the curriculum needed to be changed in schools to be able to give our children more knowledge of their history and heritage. He thought that was connected to low academic achievement in mississippi, which you know generally rates and one of the lowest achieving School Systems in the country. He believed in that. I also want to point out that chokwe was an internationalist. One of the last times we spent extensive time together, we were in haiti. I know, amy, you have covered the fight for democracy in haiti. We went there in 2010 to examine what was going on after the earthquake. Chokwe and i both held a press conference in portauprince, looking at many of the funds that have been collected for people who were victims of the earthquake and had not been distributed to them. We also called for the return of president aristeade. This just as one example of issues around the world that chokwe began to speak about as well as his support for human who hador people emigrated to jackson and other parts of the United States. He was very much opposed to the legislation that was occurring in arizona and georgia that racially approach ash profiled immigrants. Whoas also an International Campaign for the human rights of all people. Were also joined by Bill Chandler, close ally of mayor lumumba, was a member of his transition team. He is also a veteran of the civil rights struggles in mississippi and is founding executive director of Mississippi Immigrant Rights Alliance where lumumba served as Legal Counsel before he became mayor. I know jackson, mississippi is mourning right now. Our condolences to all of you. What mayork about lumumba was pushing for before his unexpected death yesterday . Camell, i think both of us to jackson, mississippi with the same goal in mind and that is the realization that in the south, this is where change is going to occur that will affect our country. And move it in a more progressive direction. I started with organizing public workers. Chokwe was involved in supporting that effort in mississippi. There is now as state employees union and also workers for the city of jackson have organized and are in the process of renegotiating a new contract for the city of jackson. With thewe recognize migration of immigrants from africa, from asia, from latin america, and mexico into mississippi that it would create a possibility of significant lyrical change here political change your. Many of the things that chokwe was fighting for the same things that we are fighting for. So 13 years ago when we form the us is that the immigrant rights alliance, we did with unions and churches and civil rights organizations coming together and chokwe became our counsel. We worked together on many issues related to the human rights struggle. For example, the effort to free the scott sisters, two young woman who were arrested and sent up with life sentences for allegedly stealing 11. We worked together on other issues as well when he was attacked by white supremacist judge in toronto, mississippi. We join in the effort for him to not to be disbarred. He was a strong supporter of immigrant rights and i think almost everybody in fact, every conference that we had in terms of unity, trying to build unity between immigrants, brown folks and africanamericans, he was part of the effort to demonstrate the need for unity. So it was a natural thing when he announced he was running for city council that we would join with them in that effort. It was very successful. It was very much a Grassroots Movement here in jackson. We spent a lot of time going doortodoor. We had house meetings in communities. It was a very successful campaign. Of the first things basically, following the example of the city of detroit, where a councilman had initiated an ordinance to prevent racial profiling by public officials, idea in jackson. And together with the legal , who is also ar native of detroit, we crafted in ordinance that prohibited in the public official in the city of jackson from profiling racially or people that were immigrants in the city. And that really has created a foundation for an effort to make the city of jackson more welcoming community for immigrants as they come into mississippi seeking refuge and seeking work here. We have worked together many times, really in a constant relationship. When the community, basically, encouraged him to run for mayor and in effect draft did him for mayor, drafted him for we join his campaign enthusiastically from the beginning. It was a peoples campaign. Were the Peoples Assembly that developed and work in ward 2 began spreading throughout the city. As a matter of fact, this saturday we have plans to have a Peoples Assembly for the whole city to talk about the issues that people face here. Wasloss of Chokwe Lumumba very shocking to us here. I heard about it shortly after he had passed. You know, something that is very hard to take. We extend our thoughts and our , who isto his family very close in the community here. We look forward to continuing his vision for the city of jackson. The want to talk more about scott sisters. In mississippi in january 20 11, 2 africanamerican sisters were freed from life sentences in jail for 11 armed robbery. And jamies, gladys scott, had spent 16 years in prison. The naacp and other civil Rights Groups had campaigned for years for their freedom. Mississippi Governor Haley barbour suspended their sentences on condition that gladys donate a kidney to her sister who is on dialysis. Know, i am praying to god i am a match because i dont want to have no one elses kidney. Because iwas released had to give her a kidney, i was going to give it to her anyway. Nobody had to release me. If they would have let me give it to her, i would have done without a shadow of a doubt. I love my sister. That was gladys scott. Scott,ter, 36 euro jamie reflected on how much the world had changed his they were sent to prison in 1994. I did not sleep at all last night. I seen pictures of stuff in magazines, Different Things as the world has changed and everything, cell phones, and all these things. And today, ive used most mostly everybody cell phones. Ive been playing with them. It is so amazing how the world has changed since 1994. It is so amazing. I am still trying to soak it in. That was jamie scott, before that, gladys scott, released from jail after 16 years in prison for an 11 robbery. Standing next to them was Chokwe Lumumba, their attorney at the time, mayor until yesterday after his sudden death from a which is why we are talking about them today, though we interviewed him the day after he was elected. Also standing there was ben jealous, former president and ceo of the naacp who recently wrote a piece called remembering Chokwe Lumumba. Remember him for us. That was the fourth or fifth time we have students to people we had worked together to free from prison over the last 20 years. What was so remarkable about aokwe, he was a man who was true man, if you will. He was active in his church. He had a great marriage to his wife. He had two wonderful kids that he poured all of his love into. He was a wellrespected coach will stop he was an incredible lawyer. He was also someone with very strong ideals. He chose to live and practice those ideals on the ground in one of the poorest places in our country. He brought all of those things with them into the courtroom, all of the compassion and insight, skill as a lawyer on behalf of the poorest people in the state. Why so manymately would say he was drafted to run for mayor. Everybody had basically an overwhelming majority of jackson , black and white, had fallen in love with chokwe over the years because he was just such a good person. , whenu knew in your heart you live in jackson, the toughest thing in mississippi is to be poor and black and in Court Without good counsel. At ae would often times risk to his own financial stability, defend anyone who he thought he could help, who he thought needed help, and most importantly, the was convinced that nobody else would help. I want to go back to our interview with Chokwe Lumumba on democracy now the day after he was elected. I asked him about the fbis decision last are to place his former client, Assata Shakur, on the most wanted terrorist list. But before we play that clip, i want to ask you about the media sverage, he Chokwe Lumumba election, and some who call the most revolutionary man in america mayor in america, and a lack of coverage. I was watching the networks last night and open the New York Times paper edition today and i did not see a reference. For night watching msnbc hours. I did not watch every single second son may have missed something, but i did not see a reference. As Bill Chandler said, he died late yesterday afternoon. I saw something in the times this morning online, yes. Chokwe is somebody you have to give this much time to really talk about. This is a man who lived, if you will, multiple journeys in his life. And he was quixotic to people because on the one hand, you could easily stereotype him as being some sort of radical he would say he was a radical because he did not see that as being a bad thing. He thought, frankly, having ideals and practicing them in this country filled with so much hypocrisy was a radical thing. He was an extremely committed mayor. He was very good at working across the aisle with people in the business community, in the most conservative corners of the city, if you will. He stood up for black people, but was ultimately committed to fairness for everyone in our country. I think many in the media who sort of deal in soundbites, theres just too much there to quickly understand in 30 seconds, so they move on. He is ultimately the type of person we need to understand better in our country. Because our country is racist, if you will, because of the contributions of idealists over the years who, he yes, may have staked a far out position at times in their lives, but ultimately, served to pull our country closer to its own closely held ideals of fairness and equality and justice and universal dignity of all humanity. So lets go to that clip right now when Chokwe Lumumba came on democracy now and Juan Gonzalez and i interviewed him and i asked him about the fbis decision to place his former on theAssata Shakur most wanted terrorist list. Ive always felt Assata Shakur was wrongfully convicted and associate should not be on the wanted list at all. She never should have been in prison. She was actually shot herself and wounded and paralyzed at the time the person who she was convicted of killing was shot. She ominously could not have shot him. She also was arrested, which alls the incident for about different charges, which later she was found not guilty of warwick dismissed. So i think it is unfortunate Assata Shakur, i believe historically will be proven to be a hero of our times. That was Chokwe Lumumba on democracy now june 6. Akinyele umoja, can you talk more about the significance of this man, this radical attorney from a black nationalist, mississippi and now his loss as we wrap up . Chokwe was an excellent attorney. In fact, he went to law school inspired by the need for attorneys for people who had been illegal prisoners such as Assata Shakur. After he went to wayne state law school, he successfully sued wayne state for discrimination against africanamerican students there. Then he began to dedicate only asto defending not was mentioned before the poorest of our community, victims of the se recalibrate, Victims Police brutality, victims people who had been fighting for their rights as workers and been unjustly fired or whatever, but he also took on the cases of victims who have been targeted by j edgar hoovers counterinsurgency program, a war against the black Freedom Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. Assata shakur was one of those people. In the case he had with Assata Shakur, the case was dismissed. He was also cocounsel in the , anothereronimo pratt person targeted by cointelpro. He handled the cases that maybe others would shy away from. He definitely believed even though chokwe did believe in humanity and love all humanity, he did believe that the United States government was an unjust government, was a government that had a legacy of committing crimes against life people and other people of color and other oppressed people in the United States. So he was committed as an attorney and as an activist to try and have selfdetermination and a new system of social justice. Chokwe, even though he ran for mayor and believed in using every opportunity you had within the system to try and govern ourselves and use whatever influence we had inside of government to improve the lives of people, he did still believe we needed more fundamental change, that we needed more systemic change. Of where the city of jackson goes right now, were are going to end with a guest who just showed up in jackson, mississippi in the studio. He did not just show up in jackson, though he did travel there to be with Chokwe Lumumba as he became mayor of the city. The former Detroit City Councilman who moved to jackson last year to serve as mayor lumumbas contract Compliance Officer joins us. My condolences to the city of jackson. This is a loss to the country. We as we wrap up on the segment, tell the significance of your colleague, your friend Chokwe Lumumba and what this loss means for the direction of the city of jackson. Loss fora tremendous the city of jackson, the state of mississippi, indeed, the country and the world. As you know, brother chokwe was a human rights activist attorney who fought for the liberation of all people, but definitely fought for the liberation of people of african descent here and around the world. He had developed a strategy to bring the city back. Not just jackson, but mississippi as a whole, who has a history it is not a very good history of treating people in the right manner. We had just won a 1 sales tax that would build up our infrastructure. The president is talking about building infrastructure. Rather chokwe had moved to do just that brother chokwe had moved to do just that. With the sales tax, he intended to build new homes and businesses, new institutions that would help the people. We live in a state that is amazing, actually. He increased the taxes and have the support of the city to do that. It is a lesson the people all over the country about what is possible if that money is going back into shoring up the city. Raise the water rates as well is the taxes. And people understood that it was necessary. That was because they had faith in his vision. They had faith in what he stood for all of his life and what he stands for now. So with that, they were willing to bite the bullet to make this place a better place to live. You said youre just or just about to say this is a city with the highest and i cut you off. We have a state that is the poorest state in the country will stop it is the most obese state in the country. Just recently, found to be on the bottom when it comes to education. All of these things was in the mind of brother Chokwe Lumumba as to how we can improve the quality of life here in jackson. He could have lived anywhere, but he believed in the vision that the movement put forth years ago in the malcolm x doctrine that we must organize upon the land and organize the people upon that land, and he did just that. He gave up his home in detroit to come here, to one of the five states to begin to organize. He never wavered on that. He was committed to that to the end. His last call was a call about a meeting that i was in, anyone of you know what the outcome of that meeting was. And so even in his hospital room , minutes before he died, he was working and doing the work of the people. Thank you for being with us as well of all of our guest, the former Detroit City Council member who moved to jackson to be with the new mayor at the lumumba. Une, chokwe thank you for being with us Bill Chandler, akinyele umoja, and ben jealous. The shocking news that the mayor of jackson, mississippi has died. He died late yesterday afternoon. It was reported of Heart Failure. We will be back in a moment. [music break] this is democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. We ended today show with nuclear news from japan and the United States. Japan has Just Announced a major push to revive its Nuclear Energy program, just weeks before the third anniversary of the fukushima day tea nuclear meltdown. This comes just a week after was revealed about 100 tons of highly radioactive water had leaked from one of the hundreds of storage tanks at the Fukushima Nuclear power plant. In the west, the Obama Administration announced last week it approved 6. 5 billion dollars in loan guarantees to back construction of the countrys first new Nuclear Power plant in more than 30 years. This comes as the Nuclear Waste disposal site is set to reopen your carlsbad, new mexico following an unexplained leak of Radioactive Material that occurred on february 14. The underground waste dump was shut down after an air monitor detected reactive contamination. Didral regulators said they not pose a threat to the public. For more were joined by the coauthors of the new book, fukushima the story of a nuclear disaster. Edwin lyman is one of the leading experts and senior Global Security scientist with the union of concerned scientists. Susan stranahan is with this. She has covered Nuclear Energy since she was the lead reporter for the philadelphia inquirers coverage of the three mile island accident. Talk about these parallel nuclear developments, japan with ,ts conservative Prime Minister despite the polls showing overwhelming opposition to antinuclear threat growth of Nuclear Power reliance is announcing up in this, and the United States is also moving this direction. I think these are both symptoms of the same phenomenon, which is the complacency about the Nuclear Industry and its dangers that was prevalent and stillushima exists today. We have japan, the new government, which is helping the people will eventually forget about the crisis they went through so they can restart the Nuclear Power plants that were shut down after the accident, and he United States. We have the governments all of the above energy policy, which includes more government subsidies for Nuclear Power. We are very concerned if these efforts go forward without taking lessons of fukushima into account, that we are setting up a potential disaster. What lessons . The main lesson is you have to accept any Nuclear Power plant is going to be vulnerable to a large Natural Disaster and there is no way to completely eliminate the dangers of Nuclear Power. There are steps you can take to reduce the risk, but we are afraid here in the junta states the nuclear Rogatory Commission and the industry are not going as far as they need to go to really reduce the risks to the American People. What are the stories, susan stranahan, that this country is missing . You were the lead reporter on the coverage of three mile island. Young people who are watching or listening to the show were even born. They might not even know what threemile island is. The parallels are that the industry regulators and the American Public were not prepared for what happened. What we point out in the book is between it is been 35 years since three mile, and the fundamental lessons remain unlearned and fundamental mindsets exist that were prevalent in 1970 and are prevalent today. As he said, we have not learned the lessons from the regime of. We need to learn those and then move forward. Explain what the lessons from threemile island and fukushima are. I think is what we point out in the book, that there is just a general assumption that Nuclear Power is safe and we dont need to add on an extra layer for the unexpected. As we say in the book, they have set the safety bar at x, but refuse to ask what if x plus 1 happens . What mostyman, shocked you when youre doing research for the book . Shocks me after being in washington for a long time, but i could say while the government the u. S. Government was telling the American People there were starting to fear from fukushima and that u. S. Plans are not vulnerable to the same problems, internally, they were there was a much different story. We have learned from a lot of freedom of information act documents that the Nuclear Regulatory commission at the white house were actually very concerned about the potential impact of radiation from fukushima affecting not only americans in tokyo, which was more than 100 miles away from the plant, but also americans on the west coast. They were furiously running calculations to try to figure out how bad it could get. There was no sense of this in what they were telling the public. U. S. Ericans government was telling americans in japan to leave much quicker than the japanese government was. We just came from tokyo and broadcast three days from japan. Were going to play the interview i did with the former Prime Minister naoto kan who said it was extremely difficult to get an answer from tepco that ran the plans. He had to fly in. He figured the only place you could get a straight, nonpolitical answer, he flew in the middle of the night to the plant to talk to the workers to figure out whether he had to evacuate 50 Million People in tokyo. Yes. There was the general panic because the utility Nuclear Power was a huge part of its profile and they wanted to do everything they could to stabilize the accident so they did not have to tell the rest of the world they were failing. So there was a lack of transparency, which is persistent to this day and hampering cleanup efforts. The human stories you followed . I think what we have always missed in the Nuclear Debate is the human side, the face of a disaster. And that is what i hope to portray by my contribution. Or safety coauthor experts and im a journalist. I tended to see the opportunity to put a human face on a nuclear disaster. We portray what happened to the people in japan, the disruptions in their lives, the economic consequences, and a lot of the political back story into how we got where we are today. This week that took place in day,exico on valentines february 14, this is right near carlsbad, new mexico. Explain what it is and why your concern. It is the only operating geologic repository for Nuclear Waste in the u. S. And were the department of energy since waste that is contaminated with isotopes of plutonium that have very long half and are very toxic. So theres a lot of garbage from the legacy of making Nuclear Weapons contaminated with plutonium analysis initially put into 55 gallon waste drums and loaded into this salt mine. And the leak, no one really knows the origin, but they detected with tony him they detected plutonium outside the facility. They have to figure out exactly where it came from and no one knows. This has been touted as such is safe facility, that this area could become a depository for whichore Nuclear Waste, might alarm any in new mexico. If local boosters want to keep it going, theyre searching the country for more waste to put into it. At this issue, depending on how it plays out, could put her Monkey Wrench in his plans. I want to thank you both for being with us. Congratulations for your new book, fukushima the story of a nuclear disaster. Coauthors edwin lyman and susan stranahan. Democracy now is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. Email your comments to outreach democracynow. Org or mail them to democracy now p. O. Box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now ]