In this week’s episode of teleSUR’s “Days of Revolt,” Truthdig contributor Chris Hedges sits down with guests Lynne Stewart and Ralph Poynter, both veterans of the 1960s civil rights movement. Stewart, a former civil rights attorney, and Poynter, a human rights activist and Stewart’s husband, have a long history of community organizing.

The two met while working at a school in Harlem in the early 1960s — she as a librarian and he as a teacher. Hedges interviews them about their role in the civil rights and anti-war movements, before moving on to ask them whether our society has lost the political consciousness it had in the  60s and  70s.

“We don’t have any jobs. They just cut a million people off of welfare. Things are arguably worse,” Hedges says. “What happened?”

“Lynne and I had this discussion as to whether there was democracy in America or not,” Poynter says. “And we agreed that there was never democracy in America … but white people could better afford no democracy.”

Watch the two-part discussion below:

—Posted by Emma Niles

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#activism#civil rights#community organizing#democracy#human rights#lynne stewart#national#politics#radicalism#ralph poynter#usa