[act-ma] Thursday 2/18: "Malcolm X, Make it Plain" - Free UPandOUT film screening

[pf soto]

    "/The survival of the myth of spontaneous popular revolution is
    depressing in view of the ample literature on the coup d’état, and
    on the main factors and tactics by which to bring one about. /.../it
    was wrong to say that pre-conditions were necessary for a revolution
    to occur. For/ [Curzio] /Malaparte, regime change could be promoted
    in any country... providing that there was a sufficiently determined
    body of men determined to achieve it. //This brings us onto a second
    body of literature, concerning the manipulation of the media.  
    ...Control of this reality is itself an instrument of power, which
    is why in classic coups in a banana republic the first thing that
    the revolutionaries seize is the radio station. People experience a
    strong psychological reluctance to accept that *political events
    today are deliberately manipulated*. This reluctance is itself a
    product of the ideology of the information age, which flatters
    people’s vanity and encourages them to believe that they have access
    to huge amounts of information. In fact, the apparent multifarious
    nature of modern media information hides an extreme paucity of
    original sources, rather as a street of restaurants on a Greek
    waterfront can hide the reality of a single kitchen at the back.
    ...~ /John Laughland,  excerpted from */The Technique of a Coup
    d’État/* <voltairenet.org/article163453.html>

*<http://rule19.org/films-2016/160218-MalcolmX-Make%20it%20Plain.pdf>**Malcolm 
X: Make it Plain
A biography
***


[short clip: Malcolm, a week before he was assassinated 
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUp61yFaF0g>]

Showing Thursday, February 18, in Cambridge
[please download & distribute flyer 
<http://rule19.org/films-2016/160218-MalcolmX-Make%20it%20Plain.pdf>]


Malcolm X rose from the streets to become one of the most influential 
leaders of the civil rights movement. His adventure-filled path to 
public service is detailed in the documentary/*Malcolm X: Make It Plain*/.

This film chronicles Malcolm X's remarkable journey from his birth on 
May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska, to his assassination at the Audubon 
Ballroom in NYC on February 21, 1965. His compelling story is told 
through the memories of people who had close personal and working 
relationships with him: prominent figures such as Maya Angelou, Ossie 
Davis and Alex Haley; Nation of Islam associates, including Wallace D. 
Muhammad, the son of Elijah Muhammad; and family members, including his 
wife, Betty Shabazz, and his oldest daughter, Attallah Shabazz.

Included is extensive archival footage of Malcolm X, speaking in his own 
words at meetings and rallies, and in media interviews.

"/Vintage clips of the man throughout his public life. Anyone who is not 
moved by this-- especially during the last section, where Malcolm knows 
that his days are numbered--had better check back into the human race."/ 
~Bacchus, at IMBD

*Malcolm X:
*
/"Look at yourselves. Some of you teenagers, students. How do you think 
I feel and I belong to a generation ahead of you - how do you think I 
feel to have to tell you, 'We, my generation, sat around like a knot on 
a wall while the whole world was fighting for its human rights - and 
you've got to be born into a society where you still have that same 
fight.' What did we do, who preceded you? I'll tell you what we did. 
Nothing. And don't you make the same mistake we made...."/

"/Who ever heard of angry revolutionists all harmonizing 'We shall 
overcome ... Suum Day...' while tripping and swaying along arm-in-arm 
with the very people they were supposed to be angrily revolting against? 
Who ever heard of angry revolutionists swinging their bare feet together 
with their oppressor in lily-pad park pools, with gospels and guitars 
and 'I have a dream' speeches? And the black masses in America were--and 
still are--having a nightmare/."

/"A ballot is like a bullet. You don't throw your ballots until you see 
a target, and if that target is not in reach, keep your ballot in your 
pocket.**...
Both parties (Democrat and Republican) are controlled by the same people 
who have abused our rights, and who have deceived us with false promises 
every time an election rolls around./*"

*"/Usually when people are sad, they don't do anything. They just cry 
over their condition. But when they get angry, they bring about a change."

/"/If you give people a thorough understanding of what confronts them 
and the basic causes that produce it, they’ll create their own program, 
and when the people create a program, you get action./"

/"I think that an objective analysis of events that are taking place on 
this earth today points towards some type of ultimate showdown. You can 
call it political showdown, or even a showdown between the economic 
systems that exist on this earth ...I believe that there will ultimately 
be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I 
believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, 
justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the 
systems of exploitation."/

"/He (MLK) got the peace prize, we got the problem.... If I'm following 
a general  and he's leading me into a battle, and the enemy tends to 
give him rewards, or awards, I get suspicious of him. //Especially if he 
gets a peace award before the war is over/."

"/If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is 
wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black 
babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us, and make 
us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to 
draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is 
right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own 
people right here in this country/.”
------------------

*When/where*
doors open 6:40; film starts promptly 7pm
243 Broadway, Cambridge - corner of Broadway and Windsor,
entrance on Windsor
rule19.org/videos <http://rule19.org/videos>

Please join us for a stimulating night out; bring your friends!
*free film & free door prizes
****[donations are encouraged]
*feel free to bring your own snacks and soft drinks - no alcohol allowed

"/You can't legislate good will - that comes through education/." ~ 
Malcolm X

*UPandOUT film series* - see rule19.org/videos <http://rule19.org/videos>

Why should YOU care? It's YOUR money that pays for US/Israeli wars - on 
Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, Libya. Syria, Iran, So America, etc 
etc - for billionaire bailouts, for ever more ubiquitous US prisons, for 
the loss of liberty and civil rights...