Welcome to the Empire Files podcast. This is Abby Martin. This is the audio version of each episode of the Empire Files hosted on Telesaur English. You can watch every episode at the Empire Files. TV.

Rosa Clemente is a leading scholar on Afro-Latinex identity and the anti-racist struggles of the 60s and 70s.

Also an activist and political organizer, she's led political tours, built radical organizations, and much more.

Among many accolades, she was selected for Ebony Magazine's list of top 100 most inspiring African Americans,

and was the 2008 Green Party candidate for vice president.

I sat down with Rosa at the People's Congress of Resistance in Washington, D.C. to talk about

third-party politics and organizing in the Trump era.

Rosa, you worked as an aide in the Democratic Party for years up until 2000, if I'm not mistaken.

What made you leave the Democratic Party and embrace more revolutionary politics?

So I was part of that radical, black, Latino left of colleges that was every day having a protest or rally demanding something.

So I knew the flaws as the Democratic Party.

So I was never like, you know, I would obviously vote and was voting as a Democrat.

But then I saw Ralph Nader speak in upstate New York.

And at that time he was with the Green Party.

And I was like, oh, how don't I know that there's another party? Like, how am I in

any way involved in electoral politics and don't know that there's more than two parties? But really,

the turning point for me was in 2005 when I went down to report on what's happening right after Hurricane Katrina, the levee breach in New Orleans.

And the minute I saw what was going on,

I was obviously mad at George Bush

and the response from the government,

but began to talk to a lot of people

and how they felt the Democratic Party

...