NEWS
California prison hunger strikers propose ‘10 core demands’ for the national Occupy Wall Street Movement December 6, 2011
by Heshima Denham, Zaharibu Dorrough and Kambui Robinson
“The Constitution, then, illustrates the complexity of this American system: that it serves the interests of a wealthy elite, but also does enough for small property owners, for middle-income mechanics and farmers to build a broad base of support. The slightly prosperous people who make up this base of support are buffers against the Blacks, the Natives, the very poor Whites. They enable the elite to keep control with a minimum of coercion, a maximum of law – all made palatable by this fanfare of patriotism and unity.” – Howard Zinn Occupy Miami and the Miami Workers Center occupy a Bank of America branch. – Photo: Miami Workers Center Greetings, Brothers and Sisters. A firm, warm and solid embrace of revolutionary love is extended to you all. These words by Brother Howard Zinn are particularly relevant to the survival of the evolving Occupy Wall Street Movement, as these truths have been integral to the success of populist organizing in the U.S. historically and are central to the proposal we’re putting forward here. Most of you, at this point, are familiar with the NARN Collective Think Tank (NCTT) from the many progressive programs and ideas that have come out of this body from both Pelican Bay SHU and here in Corcoran SHU, most recently our work in the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition. Like the Arab Spring, which is still rocking the Middle East, and our own struggle to abolish indefinite confinement in sensory deprivation SHU torture units (see the five core demands from Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity), the Occupy Wall Street Movement expresses a fundamental rule of materialist dialectics as they apply to social development – i.e., the transformation of quantity into quality – expressed eloquently by the Honorable Comrade George Lester Jackson some 40 years ago: “(C)onsciousness is directly proportional to oppression.” read more... Social workers to be first responders to mental health crises
By Anna Canzano KATU News and KATU.com Staff Published: Dec 2, 2011 PORTLAND, Ore. – Starting next year people who call 911 about mental health issues may be put on the phone with a social worker instead of having a police officer show up at their door.
Portland police Chief Mike Reese said sending a police officer into a situation like that can be enough to set someone off, especially if they’re in the midst of a mental health crisis. Police hope the calls can be handled by mental health professionals like Mark Cameron, who answers the phone at the Multnomah County mental health crisis line. He speaks with people who are suicidal or having breakdowns. read more... The Pentagon Is Offering Free Military Hardware To Every Police Department In The US
The U.S. military has some of the most advanced killing equipment in the world that allows it to invade almost wherever it likes at will. We produce so much military equipment that inventories of military robots, M-16 assault rifles, helicopters, armored vehicles, and grenade launchers eventually start to pile up and it turns out a lot of these weapons are going straight to American police forces to be used against US citizens.
Benjamin Carlson at The Daily reports on a little known endeavor called the "1033 Program" that gave more than $500 million of military gear to U.S. police forces in 2011 alone. Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/program-1033-military-equipment-police-2011-12#ixzz1hN8cqXNq Important Message from Left Turn Magazine
Dear friends and allies,
We're writing you today with major news about the future of Left Turn. We have published the final issue of our print publication. This decision did not come easily, but in the end we felt we had no choice. Like many other independent magazines and newspapers, Left Turn has struggled with continuing to publish a print magazine in the digital age. Over the past two years, we set out to make some significant changes to the magazine in the hopes of reinvigorating this project and filling some of the vacuum left by other print publications closing or moving online. We cut down the size of the magazine, moved to using a union printer, better quality paper, a glossy cover and a new design. We also revamped our website and updated it more regularly. However, despite all these changes and improvements, we found ourselves at the end of the summer unsure of how we would pay for the next issue. While the number of subscribers and sustainers have been steady, incomes from distribution and fundraising events have declined significantly over the last two years. Moreover, the cost of printing and mailing has continued to increase. We also faced a crisis of capacity to do the work. Left Turn has been an all-volunteer project from the beginning, and several of our long-term editors needed to step down. This has been a difficult decision, and it did not come without months of strategizing around ways of maintaining a print publication. We want to give special thanks to our subscribers, distributors, sustainers, and supporters who have kept this project alive for all of these years. We would not exist without you. And we would not have succeeded without the numerous writers and guest editors who have contributed to the magazine. We are aware that we owe more than just thanks to our subscribers and sustainers. Many of you have issues remaining on your subscription. We have contacted friends and allies from various print publications who have agreed to fulfill your subscription. You will have a choice of several publications to fulfill the issues we owe you. Please see below for more details. You can also contact us with any questions regarding this at [email protected]. read more... _
DHS Cuts Off Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Access To ICE Programs _
The Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement just cut off the Maricopa County’s Sheriff’s Office’s access to the Secure Communities program and terminated an agreement which lets them detain individuals in the country illegally after their initial arrest. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a statement that the decision was based on the Justice Department’s findings of discriminatory policing practices by MCSO and Sheriff Joe Arpaio. “Discrimination undermines law enforcement and erodes the public trust. DHS will not be a party to such practices,” Napolitano said. “Accordingly, and effective immediately, DHS is terminating MCSO’s 287(g) jail model agreement and is restricting the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office access to the Secure Communities program.” read more... _
'Dismal' prospects: 1 in 2 Americans are now poor or low income _
By Associated PressWASHINGTON - Squeezed by rising living costs, a record number of Americans — nearly 1 in 2 — have fallen into poverty or are scraping by on earnings that classify them as low income. The latest census data depict a middle class that's shrinking as unemployment stays high and the government's safety net frays. The new numbers follow years of stagnating wages for the middle class that have hurt millions of workers and families. "Safety net programs such as food stamps and tax credits kept poverty from rising even higher in 2010, but for many low-income families with work-related and medical expenses, they are considered too 'rich' to qualify," said Sheldon Danziger, a University of Michigan public policy professor who specializes in poverty."The reality is that prospects for the poor and the near poor are dismal," he said. "If Congress and the states make further cuts, we can expect the number of poor and low-income families to rise for the next several years."
Robert Rector, a senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, questioned whether some people classified as poor or low-income actually suffer material hardship. He said that while safety-net programs have helped many Americans, they have gone too far, citing poor people who live in decent-size homes, drive cars and own wide-screen TVs. read more... Alabama May Use Inmates To Fill Immigrant Labor Void
Agriculture officials in Alabama are looking into using prisoners to fill a labor shortage that the agency blames on the state's controversial new law targeting undocumented immigrants.
The Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries is meeting with south Alabama farmers and businesses in Mobile on Tuesday. Deputy commissioner Brett Hall says the agenda includes a presentation on whether work-release inmates could help fill jobs once held by immigrants. Hall says planting season is coming up, and some growers fear most of their workers are gone. The agriculture agency says the new law has caused a chronic labor shortage on Alabama farms. Prison spokesman Brian Corbett says the state has about 2,000 work-release prisoners, and most already have jobs. Corbett says the prison system isn't the solution to worker shortages caused by the law. Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/12/06/alabama-may-use-inmates-to-fill-immigrant-labor-void/#ixzz1hN72VaDW Alabama Immigration Law Ruling: Key Parts Of Measure Stand
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A federal judge refused Wednesday to block key parts of a closely watched Alabama law that is considered the strictest state effort to clamp down on illegal immigration, including a measure that requires immigration checks of public school students. U.S. District Judge Sharon Blackburn wrote in a 115-page opinion finding some parts of the law that conflict with federal statutes, but others that don't. Left standing at least temporarily are several key elements that help make the Alabama law stricter than similar laws passed in Arizona, Utah, Indiana and Georgia. Other federal judges already have blocked all or parts of those. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said most of the law was still intact and the state will enforce it. He planned to work with the state attorney general's office to appeal those parts that the judge blocked. The judge's previous order blocking the entire law expires Thursday. "With those parts that were upheld, we have the strongest immigration law in the country," he said. "I believe that all sections of our law will be upheld." There are three separate lawsuits against the Alabama law, including the main challenge from President Barack Obama's administration. In all, Blackburn's orders temporarily blocked several parts of the law until she can issue a final ruling. Those measures would: _ Make it a crime for an illegal immigrant to solicit work. _ Make it a crime to transport or harbor an illegal immigrant. _ Allow discrimination lawsuits against companies that dismiss legal workers while hiring illegal immigrants. _ Forbid businesses from taking tax deductions for wages paid to workers who are in the country illegally. _ Bar illegal immigrants from attending public colleges. _ Bar drivers from stopping along a road to hire temporary workers. _ Make federal verification the only way in court to determine if someone is here legally. The judge could still allow any or allow of those sections to take effect after further litigation. Read more... Study: Incarcerating Hordes of Youth is Costly and Ineffective
It doesn’t pay to aggressively put children who commit crimes behind bars. That’s the conclusion of a new report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The study is titled “No Place for Kids” and uses national data to reinforce a growing consensus among experts that the current model of incarceration doesn’t do much in the way of public safety. Though juvenile violent crime arrest rates are only marginally higher in the United States, we rely heavily on incarcerating kids. In total, 336 of every 100,000 of the world’s incarcerated youth is locked away in a U.S. prison facility. That’s nearly five times the rate of the next country on list, which is South Africa. Even the Justice Department Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention recommends a series of alternatives to traditional incarceration. Sill, the largest share of incarcerated youth— about 40 percent in total — are held in long-term youth correctional facilities operated primarily by state governments or by private firms who contract with the state. “We have to recognize that incarceration of youth per se is toxic,” Dr. Barry Krisberg says in the report. Krisberg is the former president of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency and a faculty member at the University of California-Berkeley. “So we need to reduce incarceration of young people to the very small dangerous few. And we’ve got to recognize that if we lock up a lot of kids, it’s going to increase crime.” For example, researchers found that since 2007, when Texas authorities began to decrease the jailed youth population, juvenile crime fell by ten percent. Juvenile arrests fell by another nine percent. The report concludes that there is now overwhelming evidence that the wholesale incarceration of juvenile offenders is a failed strategy for combating youth crime. The arguments are that incarceration:
Article is found HERE 15 Years of Giving Voice to Women and Transgender Prisoners in California
--An interview with Diana Block, Pam Fadem, and Deirdre Wilson of the California Coalition for Women Prisoners By Angola 3 News On Sept. 26, the statewide prisoner hunger strike resumed after a postponement of almost two months to give the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) time to implement policy changes. The CDCR has reported that as of Sept. 28, almost 12,000 prisoners were striking and public support is needed in order for the strike to be most effective. An update posted October 7 at the “Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity” website stated that “medical conditions are also worsening for strikers throughout the state. We’ve received reports that after 12 days of no food, prisoners are once again losing severe weight and fainting. One hunger striker at Pelican Bay was denied his medication and consequently suffered from a heart attack and is now is an outside hospital in Oregon.” The current hunger strike demonstrates once again that injustice fuels resistance, and California has a rich history of prisoners, former prisoners, and their supporters taking a stand. Among these freedom fighters is the California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP), self-publishers of a newsletter entitled The Fire Inside (archived here). CCWP will be celebrating its 15th year anniversary on October 14, with an event in San Francisco featuring longtime anti-prison activist and former political prisoner Angela Davis along with other speakers and performers. Our previous coverage of the statewide hunger strike focused on the issue of solitary confinement, as well as statewide grassroots organizing against California’s prison system. In this interview with three members of CCWP, we examine the treatment of women and transgender prisoners in California and discuss how CCWP is fighting back. Diana Block is a founding member of CCWP and has been working on The Fire Inside newsletter since it was started. She is a mother and the author of a memoir entitled Arm the Spirit – A Woman’s Journey Underground and Back (AK Press, 2009). Pam Fadem is a long time member of CCWP and has worked on the Fire Inside for over 10 years. She is a mom, a health educator and a disability rights activist as well. Pam had her own experience with the criminal injustice system when she refused to cooperate with a federal grand jury targeting the Puerto Rican Independence Movement. Deirdre Wilson is a former prisoner, a program coordinator for CCWP and a mother. She began to work with Free Battered Women/CCWP shortly after she got out of prison because “the whole FBW/CCWP community made me feel honored for surviving my experiences and accepted me just as I was—a rare feeling for people released from prison!” read interview HERE About this project
"New York 21":The Black Panther Party - New York Chapter & Struggles of Sundiata Acoli is a documentary exploring the Black Panther Party (herein BPP) Movement and the climate in New York (herein NY), including the states’ most expensive trial in its history, commonly known as the New York 21 (herein NY 21). The jury acquitted all defendants on all 156 collective counts. After their release, many of the activists were forced underground by the acts of law enforcement agencies and the COINTELPRO. This film pays homage to the cadre and introduces the Liberation Movement. This exploration is highlighted using the struggles of Sundiata Acoli, New York's Lt. of Finance. Acoli shares his story through the depths of hell and back in the Liberation Movement in America; and brings into focus blatant cover-ups by a government who turned its back on justice. The plot is navigated by the conversation between a grandmother, played by Irma P. Hall (Meet the Browns, Soul Food) and grandson, played by Omar Wiseman (Disney Channel), as she teaches him about the BPP NY Chapter in a game of chess. An exploration of Acoli's life is revisted. Mutulu "M1" Olugbala (Dead Prez) portrays Sundiata Acoli. Through the narratives, the film shares diverse and independent voices that have never been heard, but written about in many books and periodicals. All monies raised using Kickstarter will go towards the last production expenses, which includes, but not limited to; filming, props, actors, editing, stock footage, color corrections, audio, fees, marketing, etc. Although we set our minimum at $5,000, there is no maximum amount of resources pledged that we won't use in this production. Since this is a SAG film, it is eligible for awards not typical of standard films and can be distributed through a major network. Our efforts will ensure every door is knocked on to give a major network an opportunity to showcase this never-seen before footage. "We decided to use Kickstarter because of its impeccable reputation of fundraising and promotions." - Jamal Joseph "Every dollar pledged will be used for end-of-production and post-production expenses." - Pamela Hanna "This film is a one-of-a-kind. It's been in the making for 10 years. We must support this film and have it released NOW!" - Bonnie Kerness "I am honored to donate my time and celebrity for this film." - Irma P. Hall Locked Up and Left Behind: Hurricane Irene and the Prisoners on New York’s Rikers Island
August 26, 2011 by Jean Casella and James We are not evacuating Rikers Island,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a news conference this afternoon. Bloomberg annouced a host of extreme measures being taken by New York City in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, including a shutdown of the public transit system and the unprecedented mandatory evacuation of some 250,000 people from low-lying areas. But in response to a reporter’s question, the mayor stated in no uncertain terms (and with more than a hint of annoyance) that one group of New Yorkers on vulnerable ground will be staying put. New York City is surrounded by small islands and barrier beaches, and a glance at the city’s evacuation map reveals all of them to be in Zone A (already under a mandatory evacuation order) or Zone B–all, that is, save one. Rikers Island, which lies in the waters between Queens and the Bronx, is not highlighted at all, meaning it is not to be evacuated under any circumstances.
According to the New York City Department of Corrections’ own website, more than three-quarters of Rikers Island’s 400 acres are built on landfill–which is generally thought to be more vulnerable to natural disasters. Its ten jails have a capacity of close to 17,000 inmates, and normally house at least 12,000, including juveniles and large numbers of prisoners with mental illness–not to mention pre-trial detainees who have yet to be convicted of any crime. There are also hundreds of corrections officers at work on the island. We were not able to reach anyone at the NYC DOC for comment–but the New York Times‘s City Room blog reported: “According to the city’s Department of Correction, no hypothetical evacuation plan for the roughly 12,000 inmates that the facility may house on a given day even exists. Contingencies do exist for smaller-scale relocations from one facility to another.” read more... Chicago Police Shooting Spree? 43 Shot Already in 2011; 16 Dead
by Asraa Mustufa Tuesday, August 2 2011
Chicago CBS Affiliate Makes 4-Yr.-Old Sound Like Thug Late on the night of July 25, 13-year-old Jimmell Cannon was out playing in the West Humboldt Park neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago, celebrating a cousin’s birthday with other family members. Cannon’s family said that the boy and a few other kids had wandered a bit away from the park area near Piccolo Specialty School where they were gathered. Around 11 p.m., he was shot multiple times by a police officer. According to a Chicago Police Department statement, officers were responding to a call of shots fired in the area, and Cannon matched the description of the gunman. When officers tried to stop him, he fled. Police say that Cannon was shot after producing a weapon and pointing it at them, ignoring orders to drop it. The weapon turned out to be a BB gun, cops say. Cannon’s family members and a witness say there was no BB gun, that Cannon had run away because he got scared, and that his hands were in the air when he was struck in the shoulders, hand and leg. The incident is one of 43 police-involved shootings in Chicago so far this year, according to the Independent Police Review Authority. That’s nearly as many as in all of 2010. At least 16 people have been killed in police shootings already this year, more than the 13 total fatal shootings all last year. Explanations vary among law enforcement officials and community advocates on what may be behind the uptick in police violence. read more... Portland Banner Drop
for West Coast Solidarity At 10:45 am this morning (8/20/11) a large [8x24ft] Anti-Police/Anti-Oppression banner was dropped from the Grand St. freeway overpass in NE Portland. Hanging next to the N I-84W---Easily viewed by crawling traffic, this was a waving expression of West Coast and Worldwide Solidarity with all of those who struggle against police oppression everywhere. Here is what it reads: K[NO]W OPPRESSION, K[NO]W POLICE! In Solidarity West Coast & Worldwide England riots: pair jailed for four years for using Facebook to incite disorder
Two men – whose posts did not result in riot-related event – sentenced at Chester crown court after arrests last week Two men have been jailed for four years for using Facebook to incite disorder.
Jordan Blackshaw, 20, from Marston near Northwich, and Perry Sutcliffe-Keenan, 22, from Warrington, appeared at Chester crown court on Tuesday. They were arrested last week following incidents of violent disorder in London and other cities across the UK. Neither of their Facebook posts resulted in a riot-related event. During the sentencing, the recorder of Chester, Elgan Edwards, praised the swift actions of Cheshire police and said he hoped the sentences would act as a deterrent to others. Assistant Chief Constable Phil Thompson said: "If we cast our minds back just a few days to last week and recall the way in which technology was used to spread incitement and bring people together to commit acts of criminality, it is easy to understand the four year sentences that were handed down in court today. read more... Boff Whalley:
'In defence of anarchy' It's the catch-all term that's being used to describe this week's riots. But is this really anarchy? Not even close, says Chumbawumba's Boff Whalley, a self-professed anarchist "ANARCHY SPREADS!" So ran the front-page headlines of The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail this week. Add in the Daily Star's "ANARCHY IN THE UK" and The Sun's "ANARCHY" and you have the print media's current (and ongoing) favourite catch-all word: anarchy. Just the ticket for a spot of lazy demonising. I became an anarchist, gradually, after seeing the Sex Pistols on our black-and-white TV in Burnley in 1976. Thirty-five years later, I still label myself an anarchist, albeit with various philosophical explanations and political definitions. For most of those 35 years I've played in a band – Chumbawamba – whose crowning moment (according to the demonising press) was chucking a bucket of water over the deputy prime minister John Prescott at an awards ceremony.
Chumbawamba began life in 1982 as an anarchist collective; it remains so to this day. Our working principle, inspired less by theoretical posturing than by the practicalities of working together as a group, was (and is) "equal pay, equal say". Unlike most pop groups – which appear to wallow in the bad-vibes hierarchy of songwriter-as-boss, drummer-as-slave – we choose to put equal value on our separate roles in the band. And not just in the band – lead singers have to wash the dishes and drive the van, too. Anarchy – or, to be more precise, anarchism – gives me, and gives the band, a framework for working respectfully and equally with each other. We manage ourselves, we don't vote on decisions (in an eight-piece group, that might mean three disgruntled people bent to the will of the other five). Instead, we discuss, compromise and eventually reach an agreement we're all relatively happy with. Yes, it sometimes takes a long time. read more... Chicago: Protests called for NATO and G8 Summits, May 15 - 22, 2012
Dear friends, An alliance of Chicago area peace and justice organizations, together with the United National Antiwar Committee (UNAC), are jointly calling for a united mass mobilization to protest the NATO and G8 Summits to be held in Chicago May 15 to 22. Permit applications were submitted for:
Tuesday, May 15 – a national assembly to put the warmakers on trial. Saturday, May 19 – a major international demonstration to express broad outrage at the gathering of war makers wasting trillions of dollars on war and devastation during a time of enormous economic hardship and crisis for millions. Several Chicago area groups have co-sponsored this call. The initial list is below. To add your group to the list of endorsers, email [email protected]. NATO is the US-commanded and financed 28-nation military alliance. There will also be a summit of the G-8 world powers. The meetings are expected to draw heads of state, generals, and countless others. At a day-long meeting in New York City on Saturday, June 18, the United National Antiwar Committee’s national coordinating committee of 69 participants, representing 47 organizations, unanimously passed a resolution to call for action at the NATO meeting. UNAC will mount a massive united outpouring in Chicago during the NATO gathering to put forth demands opposing endless wars and calling for billions spent on war and destruction be spent instead on people’s needs for jobs, health care, housing and education. Initial List of Chicago Area Endorsers Hatem Abudayyeh, *US Palestinian Community Network, Chicago Bill Chambers, Committee Against Political Repression Sarah Chambers, Executive Board Member, Chicago Teachers Union Mark Clements, Campaign to End the Death Penalty Vince Emmanuelle, *Iraq Veterans Against the War Randy Evans, Global Reach, Inc. Chris Geovanis, Hammerhard Media Works Pat Hunt, Chicago Area Code Pink, Chicago Area Peace Action Joe Iosbaker, Committee to Stop FBI Repression Dennis Kosuth, *National Nurses United, union steward Kait McIntyre, Students for a Democratic Society, University of Illinois – Chicago Jorge Mujica, March 10th Immigrant Rights Activist Eric Ruder, *Chicago Network to Send US Boat to Gaza Newland Smith, Episcopalian Peace Fellowship Sarah Smith, Committee to Stop FBI Repression Students for Justice in Palestine at School of the Art Institute of Chicago Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, *Chicago Anti-Eviction Campaign Andy Thayer, Gay Liberation Network and Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism *for identification purposes only UNAC RESOLUTION TO CHALLENGE THE NATO WAR MAKERS Whereas, the U.S. is the major and pre-eminent military, economic and political power behind NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and Whereas, the U.S. will be hosting a major NATO gathering in the spring of 2012, and Whereas, U.S. and NATO-allied forces are actively engaged in the monstrous wars, occupations and military attacks on Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, the Middle East and elsewhere, Be it resolved that: UNAC, in conjunction with a broad range of groups and organizations that share general agreement with the major demands adopted at our 2010 Albany, NY national conference, initiate a mass demonstration at the site of the NATO gathering, and UNAC welcomes and encourages the participation of all groups interested in mobilizing against war and for social justice in planning a broad range of other NATO meeting protests including teach-ins, alternative conferences and activities organized on the basis of direct action/civil resistance, and UNAC will seek to make the NATO conference the occasion for internationally coordinated protests, and UNAC will convene a meeting of all of the above forces to discuss and prepare initial plans to begin work on this spring action. Passed unanimously by the National Coordinating Committee of UNAC on June 18, 2011 The following groups were at the UNAC meeting that endorsed this resolution: Action for a Progressive Pakistan Al-Awda Palestine Right to Return Coalition – NY Bayan-USA Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace Bail Out the People Movement Black Agenda Report Black is Back Boston Stop the Wars Code Pink Committee to Stop FBI Repression Ct. United for Peace Fellowship of Reconciliation Freedom Road Socialist Organization Green Party Haiti Liberte' Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine Honduras Resistencia - USA International Action Center International Support Haiti Network International League of People’s Struggle International Socialist Organization Islamic Leadership Council of Metropolitan NY Jersey City Peace Movement May 1st Workers and Immigrant Rights Coalition Mobilization Against War and Occupation – Canada Metro West Peace Action Middle East Crisis Committee Muslim Peace Coalition New England United Nodutdol Korean Community Development Pakistan Solidarity Network Philly Against War Project Salam Rhode Island Mobilization Committee Rochester Against War SI – Solidarity with Iran Socialist Action Socialist Party USA Thomas Merton Center Pittsburgh United for Justice and Peace Veterans for Peace Voices for Creative Nonviolence West Hartford Citizens for Peace WESPAC Women's International League for Peace and Freedom Workers World World Can’t Wait For more information: Joe Lombardo, 518-281-1968, [email protected] Joe Iosbaker, 773-301-0109, [email protected] |
ARTICLES
Not long ago people all over the world stood up in protest against the racist execution of innocent Georgia state death row inmate Troy Davis. While Occupy Wall Street was in its first days, before it was all over the news and before they had yet faced attacks by the police, hundreds of people marched in NYC in memory of our just-murdered brother. Two days after this event was when OWS was first attacked by the police, with 80 people mass arrested. Images of white women being pepper sprayed at point blank range caught the medias headlines. Several days later the NYPD led 700 to be arrested on the Brooklyn Bridge. Since then, the media has covered countless incidents of police violence against protestors from Oakland to Philadelphia, but the legal lynching that swept the world was quickly subsumed by the media frenzy around the Occupy movement. Looking back now, the day after Troy Davis’ execution should rightfully be recognized as the storm before the storm.
This protest caught police and protesters alike by surprise, both in its size and militancy. It began with a relatively small speak out which spontaneously grew into a 4 hour roving confrontation with the NYPD which followed us around like an army, bumping people with their cars and motorcycles, as well as attacking protesters with batons and punches on various occasions. The police’s thuggish attempt to stifle our voices highlighted quite clearly that they exist to defend the white supremacist power structure of the Amerikkkan Empire, the same power structure responsible for the murder of Davis. In the face of this violence, the crowd only grew more militant, chanting “the system is racist, they lynched Troy Davis” and continuing to take the streets and block traffic. The march had no planned route or destination, just boundless energy and righteous anger against such a straightforwardly racist attack by the U.S. state. read more... Georgia Prison Strike, One Year Later: Activists Outside the Walls Have Failed Those Inside the Walls Wed, 12/21/2011 - 12:51 — Bruce A. Dixon
The Concerned Coalition To Respect Prisoner Rights was supposed to issue public reports of its fact-finding prison visits. That never happened.
A year ago this month, black, white and brown inmates in a dozen Georgia prisons staged a brief strike. They put forward a set of simple and basic demands --- wages for work, decent food and medical care, access to educational and self-improvement programs, fairness and transparency in the way the state handles grievances, inmate funds and release decisions, and more opportunities to connect with their families and loved ones. A short-lived formation calling itself the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights came together, and met with the Georgia Department of Corrections. In the last weeks of 2010 teams of community observers were allowed to visit Macon State and Smith prisons, where they examined facilities and interviewed staff and prisoners. The Concerned Coalition To Respect Prisoner Rights was supposed to issue public reports of its fact-finding prison visits. That never happened. It was to have initiated a long-term dialog with state officials in pursuit of the inmates' eminently just and reasonable demands. That never happened either. It should have called public meetings and begun to organize a lasting campaign to educate the public on the meaning of Georgia's and the nation's prison state, and the possibilities for radical reform. These are the things the prisoners expected of their allies and spokespeople on the outside. But compromised and undermined from within and without, the coalition was unable to make any of these things happen. Thus the trust that Georgia prisoners placed in activists outside the walls to organize in support of their demands was betrayed. read more... Occupy Janus Youth? Social service industrial complex and its betrayal of street-based youth
Date: November 15, 2011
The City of Portland shut down the Occupy Portland encampment in Chapman and Lownsdale Squares across the street from the City Hall this past weekend. It was part of the nationwide takedown of Occupy demonstrations. In an interview with PBS, Mayor Sam Adams explained his decision: Police said the sites have been plagued by a series of problems, including multiple assaults and two fatal drug overdoses. And on Wednesday, a man was arrested on suspicion of throwing a Molotov cocktail the night before, doing minor damage at the city’s World Trade Center. [...] Well, you know, when the details of the drug overdoses, the details surrounding the individual that ignited the Molotov cocktail, when I have homeless and homeless youth advocates telling me that this is a very unsafe situation, you know, I listen to that. I felt that it was disingenuous that the Mayor is citing overdoses and safety concern for youth as reasons for shutting down Occupy Portland. Occupy does not cause drug overdoses: they happen all the time across the city. If anything, the presence of the camp can save lives because people experiencing overdose are far more likely to survive when they are surrounded by many other people. read more... Popular Culture and Revolutionary Theory: Understanding Punk Rock
Introduction
The socialist left in the United States has developed an extremely limited response to popular culture. Without a general theoretical framework, the dominant view on the left has seen popular culture as primarily a means of manipulation for capitalist ideologues to control the great mass of working people. But while we must acknowledge the fact of manipulation in popular culture, to stop there leaves us unarmed in the process of cultural and ideological class struggle. Such an approach tends to ignore the complexities of popular culture, concentrating on it as mere commodities to be consumed, and not as an aspect of the production and reproduction of daily life. The notion that reduces popular culture to simply a means of manipulation tends to assume that people work in order to enjoy life through culture and entertainment. But the materialist conception that Marx outlined indicates that under capitalism people must relax and find pleasure in their leisure time in order to prepare their bodies and minds for work. Thus, the possibilities and limitations of cultural entertainment and leisure activity, and their function under capitalism, ultimately “are determined by relations of production.”[1] This article is an attempt to situate the cultural process, and specifically its expression in rock and roll music, within the realm of the relations of production and reproduction of daily life. As such, it is an attempt to deepen the theoretical discussion of ideology and culture begun in Theoretical Review No. 10 by Paul Costello and Suzanne Rivers in their discussions of movies and cultural criticism. We will begin by attempting to articulate the complex relationship that exists between culture and ideology. Such a discussion first necessitates generally defining ideology and its function in society. We will then discuss certain tendencies within the general realm of popular culture that have been categorized as youth culture. Within this broad and contradictory category we will explore the development of youth subcultures. This will lay the basis for analyzing the recent developments in popular music that have been categorized as punk rock. In the process of this discussion we will discuss the form and role of class struggle in ideology, and attempt to define revolutionary cultural practice. We will finally outline the ways in which we feel that elements of punk rock fulfill a revolutionary cultural function. read more... Prairie Fire: Rock Maoists The brief resurgence of energy that was punk rock simply could not and did not prevail against the larger, global forces at work.
I’m sitting in a recording studio as I write this. I’m mixing an album of my own music, proof positive that I continued making music after the demise of Prairie Fire. There are two problems with writing about that experience: It was a long time ago, and it was not simply a band or musical project but inextricably bound up with political questions worthy of lengthy exposition in their own right. What I can say now is that what I experienced between International Women’s Day 1971 when Prairie Fire first performed, and the last half of 1980 when the whole thing unraveled, was extraordinary by any measure.
The backdrop, of course, was “the ’60s,” the struggles against the Vietnam War, for Black Liberation and the reemergence of Marxist politics amongst a new generation. I was born and raised in San Francisco, and it was rock ’n’ roll that got me into music that included the Grateful Dead, Sly and the Family Stone, and Tower of Power. Just out of high school I met the woman who would become my wife and the other half of Prairie Fire. We got involved in radical politics through the Black Panther Party and were subsequently invited by members of the San Francisco Mime Troupe to help form a band that would function as an adjunct to the Mime Troupe’s own musical accompaniment, a sort of musician’s auxiliary. Thus began Red Rock, a large, unwieldy ensemble that practiced at the Mime Troupe’s warehouse and became wrapped up in all the political debates raging at the time, within the Mime Troupe as well as society at large. For numerous reasons Red Rock ended after six months but even after that my partner Sandy and I continued singing together. I was a musician when I met Sandy but it is important to note that by the time we began what was to become Prairie Fire we were full-time revolutionaries; music was a weapon and we were among those with skills to wield it. This means that no ideas of “career” or having to get a gig were ever involved. They were simply not thought of or discussed at all. We sang some original songs I’d written and old pop tunes at a couple of parties. Sandy and I had listened to more soul and rock like War and Delaney and Bonnie than to Joan Baez and Pete Seeger folk songs. We were asked by members of an organization called the Revolutionary Union to sing at International Women’s Day. I wrote a song for the event, “What Have Women Done.” We went to the gathering with lyrics in hand and only one rehearsal under our belts, and performed the tune to a couple hundred like-minded folks. We finished and left the stage as quickly as we could, not even stopping to realize that there was bedlam in the audience. People were stomping and shouting, and it took us a few moments to realize that it was all for our performance. The political leaders came to us afterwards and said we had to take this task of revolutionary rock ’n’ roll seriously, and thus Prairie Fire came into being. read more... _
99% Declaration Receives a Vote of “No Support” from OP GA _
Representatives from the 99% Declaration group were hoping to have a discussion which would lead to an endorsement from Occupy Philly for plans to hold a National General Assembly in Philadelphia on July 4th of 2012. Instead, in an unusual display of collective assertiveness, the GA voted to unaffiliate themselves with the group and any of its future events. On Tuesday’s General Assembly, representatives from the group, the 99% Declaration presented plans to organize a National General Assembly in Philadelphia and hold an online election of 890 delegates from all over the US who would vote on a list of grievances the current government would be asked to redress. During the questions and concerns part of the conversation, OP members presented information detailing the backgrounds and comments of three board members of the organization. In addition to these concerns, OP General Assembly attendees raised issues surrounding the selection of delegates and the current efforts to plan the national gathering. OP quickly weighed the evidence, and as a result of the overwhelming concerns raised by the group, the GA voted “We do not support the 99% Declaration, its group, its website, its National GA and anything else associated with it.” read more... _
Chomsky to Occupy: move to the next stage _Noam Chomsky has advice for the Occupy
movement, whose encampments all over the country are being swept away by
police. The occupations were a "brilliant" idea, he says, but now it's
time to "move on to the next stage" in tactics. He suggests political
organizing in the neighborhoods.
The Occupy camps have shown people how "to break out of this conception that we're isolated." But "just occupying" has "lived its life," says the man who is the most revered radical critic of American politics and capitalist economics. Chomsky gave his counsel answering questions in a small group after a speech Monday evening, December 12, in the 1000-seat Westbrook Middle School auditorium (a/k/a Westbrook Performing Arts Center), which was filled to capacity. The speech was sponsored by the University of New England's Center for Global Humanities. The Occupy movement's repression, which Chomsky decried, has a saving grace, he said: the opportunity for it to expand more into "the 99 percent" by engaging people "face to face." "Don't be obsessed with tactics but with purpose," he suggested. "Tactics have a half life." Read more: http://portland.thephoenix.com/news/131298-chomsky-to-occupy-move-to-the-next-stage/#ixzz1h71JTC2J _
A Gnawing Hunger For Justice _
Oscar Lopez River is a US held Puerto Rican Political Prisoner and Prisoner Of War. He has been in prison since 1981 serving a 70 year sentence for seditious conspiracy to overthrow the United States government. Over twelve of those years have been spent in a solitary confinement in a cell specifically designed for sensory depravation. Oscar was a member of the FALN – Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacíon Nacional – Armed Forces Of National Liberation a clandestine armed organization that fought to free the island nation of Puerto Rico from US colonial rule. The FALN took the position that the US has no jurisdictional rights or power over Puerto Rico and under UN Declaration 1514 a colonized people have to right to use whatever means they choose to extricate themselves from colonization, including the use of armed force. Despite the nature of his conditions Oscar has remained steadfast to his ideals and has remained both politically and artistically active behind the walls. So it’s no surprise to many of us who know about Oscar that he has been keeping up with the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s no surprise that he sent this message just yesterday about his decision to begin a hunger strike in support of the occupy movement… It’s no surprise that all these years in prison have not broken him, it’s no surprise that he remains defiant “from the urns of hell”… “I’ll be fasting on the 10th of December – International Human Rights Day. i’ll start it the evening of the 9th. i’m inviting every person who loves freedom and justice and believes that a better and more just world is possible to join me. The person can fast for as long as s/he can. The fast is in solidarity with the OWS movement and the celebration of international human rights day. If we are indignados, who believe in the power of righteous indignation, we should be supportive of the OWS movement. This movement has been able to galvanize the people’s righteous indignation and has successfully activated and mobilized a mass force that has shaken the foundation (Wall St. and Washington) of the one per cent that controls the wealth and the political power at the expense of the 99 percent that doesn’t have any wealth or any control of the political power. The one percent is already using its muscle to try to repress the OWS movement and to disorganize it. Our solidarity is crucial. If you aren’t an indignado or occupier there is no good reason why you shouldn’t share your solidarity with the OWS. If you want a better and more just world then you have to dare to struggle to make sure it becomes a reality. At this particular juncture OWS represents the possibility of a movement for a better and more just world in the usa. Show your solidarity and use the power of your righteous indignation to struggle for a better and more just world. Join the fast or be an indignado/occupier. En resistencia y lucha, OLR.” Join the Campaign To Help Free Oscar Lopez Rivera Coordinating Committee National Boricua Human Rights Network 2739 W. Division Street Chicago IL 60622 www.boricuahumanrights.org Follow us on Twitter: olrcat Comité Pro-Derechos Humanos www.presospoliticospuertorriquenos.org A warning: Rise to the defense of the revolutionary by Mike Ely Here is the deal: The smell of sulfur is upon the land. Satan himself is coming now… Of course we don’t believe in Satan. It is a metaphor. What I mean is this: The real and difficult struggle within this movement and for this movement is now starting. The media is turning on the machinery. The unions officials will now come as “supporters” but broker for the liberal establishment. “Advisers” will show up. People (who are pliant and acceptable) will now be declared leaders and spokespeople in the media. Demands will be announced or promoted or demanded that correspond to the program of the Democratic Party…. and much more. We see it on every side: The Democratic Party (through many instrumentalities) is coming to convert the Occupy XXX movement into a liberal version of the Tea Party (their personal reserve to whipping up their social base for the coming elections). It is, to put it bluntly, what death looks like for this new movement. They are coming in disguise, with honeyed words, with promises and seductions. As they have come for previous generations. The liberal establishment themselves will now try to shape and coopt. And i mean those who currently dominate an empire and wage wars to maintain it.They are the confidants of the bankers, the guardians of the status quo. They will whisper the language of populist rage and reform — while offering a servile place in their election machinery. Those who are coming have money, agents, foot soldiers, spotlights, avenues to fame, perfumes of power and the weight of their system’s deadening political logic. Look at Wisconsin — where a righteous resistance was funneled into a lame recall campaign… the way cattle are funneled toward the zapper. The system is broken. We don’t want a way back in. Obama is the president from Goldman Sachs. He serves as commander in chief of an empire and its wars. We don’t want a seat in his campaign table. And we don’t want tactical advice on how to help his campaign appeal to “Middle Americans.” We will reach the people ourselves (especially the youth of ghettos and barrios and Middle America) with a subversive message that won’t compute in the calculators of this system. What will they do: The Republicans sent in a steel backbone of trained operatives (led by Dick Army) to simply take over and shape the Tea Party — replacing the rightwing grassroots with a flogging of mailing lists using Fox News. The Democrats will now try the equivalent with the Occupy movement — if we allow it. Can we allow ourselves to become a house-broken leftwing chorus within an oppressive and corrupt status quo? No. READ FULL ARTICLE AND MORE ABOUT HOW WE WILL DEFEAT THIS An Open Letter from Black Women to SlutWalk Organizers
I endorse and post this letter in solidarity with -- and with the permission of -- the original signers: An Open Letter from Black Women to the SlutWalk September 23, 2011 We, the undersigned women of African descent and anti-violence advocates, activists, scholars, organizational and spiritual leaders wish to address the SlutWalk. First, we commend the organizers on their bold and vast mobilization to end the shaming and blaming of sexual assault victims for violence committed against them by other members of society. We are proud to be living in this moment in time where girls and boys have the opportunity to witness the acts of extraordinary women resisting oppression and challenging the myths that feed rape culture everywhere. The police officer's comments in Toronto that ignited the organizing of the first SlutWalk and served to trivialize, omit and dismiss women's continuous experiences of sexual exploitation, assault, and oppression are an attack upon our collective spirits. Whether the dismissal of rape and other violations of a woman's body be driven by her mode of dress, line of work, level of intoxication, her class, and in cases of Black and brown bodies -- her race, we are in full agreement that no one deserves to be raped. The Issue At Hand We are deeply concerned. As Black women and girls we find no space in SlutWalk, no space for participation and to unequivocally denounce rape and sexual assault as we have experienced it. We are perplexed by the use of the term "slut" and by any implication that this word, much like the word "Ho" or the "N" word should be re-appropriated. The way in which we are perceived and what happens to us before, during and after sexual assault crosses the boundaries of our mode of dress. Much of this is tied to our particular history. In the United States, where slavery constructed Black female sexualities, Jim Crow kidnappings, rape and lynchings, gender misrepresentations, and more recently, where the Black female immigrant struggle combine, "slut" has different associations for Black women. We do not recognize ourselves nor do we see our lived experiences reflected within SlutWalk and especially not in its brand and its label. read more... More anti-racist analysis around SlutWalk : More Thoughts on SlutWalk: No Attention is Better Than Bad Attention Women of Color Respond to SlutWalk: “The Women’s Movement Is Not Monochromatic” Dogmatism in the Left
Due to a number of conversations, debates, and arguments I've had over the years with comrades and not-so-much-comrades, and due to the fact that I often use the term dogmatism in reference to other leftists with barely any explanation, I felt that it was necessary to post something about how dogmatism functions within the left as it should be understood by critical leftists. All of us, whatever our shade of red or black, have probably been guilty of acting dogmatically at some point of our lives. And sometimes, even if our entire approach is not in itself dogmatic, we can occasionally come across as dogmatic, uncritically fail to realize that some of our practices are dogmatic, and then fail to self-criticize and assess our behaviour. Sometimes I catch myself, when pressed into unexpected arguments and confrontations, making statements that seem more religious than critical––I'm sure that all of us have had the experience of being forced into denouncing conservative family members with slogans! More importantly, however, I often find myself repeating practices that I know do not work (because they have never worked) but still, for some reason, want to believe in these practices because my activist training has taught me to have faith in what has never been proven. Generally speaking, dogmatism is a religious (broadly understood) worldview that is in direct contrast with a scientific (broadly understood) worldview. Whereas the latter accepts as a general law that motion is a general law of nature, that we can only come to an understanding of universals through particular investigations of a concrete reality, the former imagines a static universal order, like Platonic forms, that are not subject to change. Being a left dogmatist means to abandon critical investigation, to fail to involve oneself in a concrete investigation of one's concrete circumstances, and to default unto a past order of beautiful and unchangeable theory––to misunderstand the universal axioms of past practice as universal religious rules that are perfect and pure. Like conspiracy theorists and religious zealots, leftwing dogmatists exist within a hermetically sealed echo chamber that is always reinforced by fellow adherents; they can ignore all counter-evidence that disproves their commitments, they will accept a distorted rather than critical view of history and society in order to remain within their vacuum. It is often impossible to argue with dogmatists who are committed to their particular type of dogmatism because they will rely on citing their holy texts, they will fall-back on their historical distortions, and in some cases they might even (as I will argue below) pretend they aren't dogmatic by inaccurately accusing others of dogmatism. In any case, I want to briefly look at three general categories of dogmatism that affect the broad leftist movement. Categories that, even if we understand and reject them, still possess enough ideological clout to affect our practice and way of seeing the world. So this is partially an act of self-criticism because, though I understand and reject the categories I will describe as below, there are always moments of my behaviour and practice that are similar to the behaviour and practice promoted by the following types of left dogmatism. read more... Portland Gentrification: The North Williams Avenue That Was – 1956 The Skanner News this week unveils our special tribute to the families who lost their homes and businesses over the years Lisa Loving Of The Skanner News North Williams Avenue with the Citizens' Fountain Lunch Doctors’ offices, bike shops, groceries, churches and an ice cream store. Manufacturing, greenspace, boutiques, salons and plenty of affordable housing.
If ever the City of Portland wanted a model for a 20-minute urban neighborhood, Albina in 1956 was it. Until city leaders opted to bulldoze it for “urban renewal.” The current debate about North Williams Avenue – once the heart of Albina’s business district -- is only the latest chapter in a long story of development and redevelopment. The Skanner News this week unveils our special tribute to the families who lost their homes and businesses over the years with this interactive Google map feature listing every business along North Williams Avenue in 1956 – including Dr. DeNorval Unthank’s medical office -- paired with a street view of what is on North Williams now. (Go to “Portland, Or., Gentrification Map: The North Williams Avenue That Was – 1956”) Click on the "+" icon in the map's upper left corner and wait for the street-level view to load. We left out private homes, of which there were many, to link our historical account of gentrification there on the impact of city policies on small businesses. read more... by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action
I met the rapper Chuck D at the Measuring the Movement forum, hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton. I sat next to Chuck for a good 30 minutes during the panel discussion and got to appreciate his humility and intelligence as it pertains to the plight of black people. What I also noticed was that Chuck stands a far cry away from his peers regarding whether or not they give a damn about the people who are buying their albums. In a spin-off to the new song, "Otis," written by Kanye West and Jay-Z, Chuck engages in a lyrical assault like no other, highlighting the fact that it’s not cool for West and Jay-Z to brag about how much money they waste when African Americans are in the middle of one of the most devastating periods in economic history. With 16 percent unemployment and the near complete decimation of black wealth, Chuck speaks directly to the public backlash toward artists who remain ignorant enough to believe that rapping about private jets and half-million dollar cars is preferable to discussing our collective plight. In fact, I’ll never forget when the artist Diddy gave his 16-year old son a half-million dollar car, and then turned around and gave a mere $10,000 to the entire country of Haiti. Chuck also speaks on the prison industrial complex, which is something that neither Kanye nor Jay-Z seems to have noticed. I met another (nameless) artist who works with West on a regular basis. I asked him if Kanye is in tune with the social issues that plague the black community. To my disappointment, the artist simply said, "Kanye’s on some other sh*t." I would hate to believe that the man who had the courage to speak up on behalf of the victims of Hurricane Katrina has turned himself into just another highly talented corporate monkey. read more... What is Planet of the Apes in a World without Black Power?
I must admit, I ran out to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes the day it came out. I've been a life long fan of Planet of the Apes, but I honestly can't remember what initially drew me to the movies as a teenager. Maybe it was the Philip K. Dick-like pretzel of time travel and alternate reality shifts, maybe it was simply the irresistible combination of science fiction and old-school primitive fantasy with loin clothes and sword fights (a la Conan), but I've had a deep affection for the whole thing ever since. It's amazing to me that a 1963 French sci-fi book originally translated as Monkey Planet could turn into 7 feature films, a TV series, an animated cartoon, dozens of spin-off serial novels and comic books, as well as lines of toys and other merchandise tie-ins. It wasn't until I went back and watched all the films again later that I realized what makes them so interesting and compelling is not the hokey special effects (yeah, yeah, I know they were miles ahead of their time…) or Charlton Heston's terrible acting, but the strange Hollywood channeling of white fear about Black Power.
Think about it, Planet of the Apes is a world run by violent, rage-filled, and seemingly irrational dark-skinned apes (clearly men in ape costumes), who have created a slave trade of (almost entirely) white humans, who are not simply silenced by their oppression, but ignorant, brutal, and literally mute, unable to speak! Apparently Black people in power leads to white people becoming completely stupid. I suppose in some ways that prediction has come true. Obama being elected—hardly Black Power!—has created an army of white nut jobs babbling incoherently about birth certificates. read more... HISTORIC HUINGER STRIKE LAUNCHES A MOVEMENT
by Laura Magnani, American Friends Service Committee
The strike’s magnitude was historic, with 6,600 prisoners fasting in 13 prisons. Many prisoners around the world, and many people on the outside, fasted in solidarity. The movement to end the tortuous conditions of long-term solitary confinement was revitalized. For most people, it is nearly impossible to imagine what it is like to be held in permanent solitary confinement, with no contact with other prisoners, and only minimal contact with guards through a slot in the solid metal door of a prison cell. Yet, in these conditions of extreme isolation, prisoners joined together to organize a hunger strike that spread from Pelican Bay State Prison to 13 other California prisons, ultimately inspiring more than 6,600 prisoners to join a hunger strike of historic magnitude. Not only did prisoners at Pelican Bay “come together” to choose a nonviolent strategy and agree on concrete, reasonable demands, they also managed to work across all the racial identity groups within the prison system. They formed a leadership team that consisted of three Anglos, four New Afrikans, two people identified with the Norteños, and two identified with Sureños. These alleged gang members are considered sworn enemies. read more... During the last decade, the growing movement toward prison abolition, coupled with mounting recognition of the need for community responses to gender violence, has led to increased interest in developing alternatives to government policing. Moving away from the notion of women as victims in need of police protection, grassroots groups, and activists are organizing community alternatives to calling 911. Such initiatives, however, are not new. Throughout the twentieth century, women have organized alter- native models of self-protection. This piece examines past and present models of women’s community self-defense practices against violence. By exploring the wide-ranging methods women across the globe have employed to protect themselves, their loved ones, and communities, this piece seeks to contribute to current conversations on promoting safety and account- ability without resorting to state-based policing and prisons.
read more... 67 Sueños: Undocumented Youth Tell Their Stories to Change Perceptions
by 67 Sueños Collective
Lourdez, a 17 year-old student at Metwest High School, cares deeply about immigrant justice. “Some undocumented youth live in fear and are scared to speak out because of fear of being harassed or being deported. I want to change that,” says Lourdez. A daughter to undocumented parents herself, Lourdez believes what drives the fear is a misrepresentation of undocumented people in the media and a lack of pending legislation for a path towards citizenship. “The only thing happening in Washington DC to address undocumented youth and our needs for the last decade does not even include two-thirds of us—that’s unacceptable,” says Lourdez. Lourdez is among the sixty seven (67) percent of undocumented high school-aged youth that are living in the United States who would not benefit from the proposed legislation known as the D.R.E.A.M. Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act). (DREAM Vs. Reality a report from the Migration Policy Institute) Under the D.R.E.A.M. Act, undocumented youth would be eligible for a path to citizenship after completion of a college degree or two years of military service. “Most of us struggle to graduate high school. Most of us can’t afford college. Many of us have to work in the fields and can’t finish school. Others are forced to work as day laborers as early as 14 years old.” says Javier. Javier is a 15 year-old student who is also undocumented. The struggles facing migrant youth who want to continue their education post high school are present and real for Javier. This summer his sister is migrating back to Mexico because she cannot afford college without federal financial aid. Undocumented students living in the U.S. are not eligible for financial aid. Last year, Lourdez and a handful of other migrant youth from Oakland, California’s public school system began organizing to learn about, and take action on, migrant justice issues. “We were gathering and learning about the immigrants’ rights struggle and watching the way it was handled on TV and news media. We quickly asked ourselves, where are we in this discussion? Where are our friends? Where are [the] young day-laborers and young farm workers?” They formed the 67 Sueños (Dreams) Collective, a media activist group of high-school-aged undocumented youth. 67 Sueños aims to give voice to the undocumented youth community and address the needs of the sixty seven percent of migrant youth not being met by current legislation. “When we realized the media was not telling our stories, we decided to tell our own stories,” says Lourdez. read more... George Lester Jackson, known as Comrade, spent 11 years in California prisons, mostly in solitary confinement. After plea-bargaining a $70 gas station robbery in 1960, he got one to life. “I met Marx, Lenin, Trotsky, Engels and Mao when I entered prison and they redeemed me. For the first four years I studied nothing but economics and military ideas,” he wrote. (All the quotations are from Jackson’s two books, “Soledad Brother: the Prison Letters of George Jackson” and “Blood in My Eye,” published posthumously.)
It’s ironic, if not planned, that this 40th anniversary coincides with California prisoners going on hunger strike beginning July 1 and continuing to press time. Comrade had been an effective organizer: In 1962, he organized a strike at Tracy in protest of bad food that united all the prisoners on the tier, regardless of color. The current strike has done the same. George Jackson, pictured here in San Quentin, wrote two books while behind enemy lines, “Soledad Brother” and “Blood in My Eye,” that remain wildly popular, especially with prisoners. The prison population of the nation has skyrocketed to a whopping 2.4 million. California has transferred at least 10,000 prisoners out of state to private prisons – no visits − leaving at least 160,000 prisoners overcrowding this very profitable system. A lucrative product: In 2010, revenues for the top private prison companies – Corrections Corporation of America and GEO Group – exceeded $2.9 billion. California prison guards alone can sock away $300,000 a year with overtime pay according to Forbes 2009 (www.forbes.com) and its chief psychiatrist was paid $838,706 – more than any other state employee in 2010. California’s total budget is now approximately $9.5 billion. George Jackson flashes his trademark smile, despite the chains. “Prisons were not institutionalized on such a massive scale by the people. Most people realize that crime is simply the result of a grossly disproportionate distribution of wealth and privilege, a reflection of the present state of property relations. There are no wealthy men on death row, and so few in the general prison population that we can discount them altogether. “Imprisonment is an aspect of class struggle from the outset. It is the creation of a closed society which attempts to isolate those individuals who disregard the structures of a hypocritical establishment, as well as those who attempt to challenge it on a mass basis.” Comrade must be turning over in his grave at the news that the NAACP has joined with the Tea Party, the California Prison Guards Union and Newt Gingrich in addressing, in the words of NAACP President Ben Jealous, “the urgent need to reform our nation’s criminal justice system.” “That will be your main source of opposition – the Black running dog.” Comrade couldn’t have known how right he was: Add Obama! George and Jonathan Jackson the last time George was home – Photo courtesy It’s About Time, Black Panther Party Archives “The ‘good white people’ who own things will always give them a few inches in their papers or other media. That’s how fascism works, influencing the masses and institutions through elites.” “The U.S. has established itself as the mortal enemy of all people’s government, all scientific-socialist mobilization of consciousness everywhere on the globe, all anti-imperialist activity on earth.” “Despite presence of political parties, there is only one legal politics in the U.S. – the politics of corporativism. The hierarchy commands all state power. There are thousands of ways, however, to attack it and place that power in the hands of the people.” “[T]he old guard must not fail to understand that circumstances change in time and space, that there can be nothing dogmatic about revolutionary theory. It is to be born out of each popular struggle … [that] must be analyzed historically to discover new ideas.” Ruchell Magee, George and Jonathan Jackson – Drawing: Kiilu Nyasha Eavesdropping laws are taking away one of our best defenses against police brutality. A new category of crime: “Felony Terrorist Videotaping of Police Brutality.” At least three states have made it illegal to record any on-duty police officer; conviction can result in 15 years in prison. The wealth gaps between whites and the colored majority have grown to their widest levels in a quarter-century with ratios roughly 20-to-1for Blacks and 18-to-1for Latinos. Asians lost their top ranking to whites in median household wealth, dropping from $168,103 in 2005 to $78,066 in 2009. According to the analysis released in July 2011 by the Pew Research Center, the U.S. poverty rate currently stands at 14.3 percent, with the ranks of the working-age poor at the highest level since the ‘60s, and it will likely climb higher when new figures are released in September. “Freedom means warmth and protection against harsh exposure to the elements. It means food, not garbage. It means truth, harmony, and the social relations that spring from these. It means the best medical attention whenever it’s needed. It means employment that is reasonable, that coincides with the individual necessities and feelings. We will have this freedom even at the cost of total war.” George Jackson – Painting: Political Prisoner Sundiata Acoli “Reformism is an old story in Amerika. There have been depressions and socio-economic political crises throughout the period that marked the formation of the present upper-class ruling circle and their controlling elites. But the parties of the left were too committed to reformism to exploit their revolutionary potential.” “Fascism has temporarily succeeded under the guise of reform.” On Aug. 21, 1971, after numerous failed attempts on his life, the state finally succeeded in assassinating Comrade, field marshal of the Black Panther Party. Prison officials claimed Jackson smuggled a gun into San Quentin in a wig in an aborted prison escape. That feat was proven impossible and evidence suggested a setup by prison officials to eliminate Jackson once and for all. George Jackson’s funeral in Oakland – Photo: Stephen Shames However, they didn’t count on losing any of their own in the process, namely, three notoriously racist prison guards and two inmate turnkeys. The odds had changed and they went mad. Twenty-six prisoners signed an affidavit written by jailhouse lawyer Ruchell Cinque Magee, detailing the egregious tortures they suffered at the hands of the racist goons. Subsequently, six prisoners were singled out for what became the longest trial in California history. Wearing 30 pounds of chains in Marin Courthouse, facing charges of murder and assault, Fleeta Drumgo, David Johnson, Hugo “Yogi Bear” Pinell, Luis Talamantez, Johnny Spain and Willie Sundiata Tate were tried. Only one, Spain, was convicted of murder. The others were either acquitted or convicted of assault. Hugo Pinell, the only one of the six remaining in prison, has suffered prolonged isolation in lockups since 1969 − the last 20 years in Pelican Bay’s SHU, a torture chamber if ever there was one. A true warrior, like Comrade, Yogi would put his life on the line to defend his fellow captives against sadistic guard attacks. He has just come off the hunger strike initiated in Pelican Bay. As Mumia Abu-Jamal stated, “Their sacrifice, their despair, their determination and their blood has painted the month Black for all time.” This Black August, let us honor our martyred freedom fighter, Comrade George, as well as those who recently joined the ancestors: Donald Cox, Michael Cetawayo Tabor and geronimo ji Jaga. And let us not forget all those who remain captive after many decades: Mumia Abu-Jamal, Sundiata Acoli, Herman Bell, Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, Ruchell Cinque Magee − sole survivor of the Marin Courthouse Rebellion of Aug. 7, 1970 − Jalil Muntaqim, Albert Woodfox, Herman Wallace, Leonard Peltier, Oscar Lopez-Rivera and exiled freedom fighter Assata Shakur, to name just a few. “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved, that generations more will live poor butchered half-lives if you fail to act. Do what must be done; discover your humanity and your love in revolution.” Kiilu Nyasha, Black Panther veteran, revolutionary journalist and Bay View columnist, blogs at The Official Website of Kiilu Nyasha, where episodes of her TV talk show, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle, along with her essays are posted. She can be reached at [email protected]. |
2011 California Prisoner Hunger Strike
OVERVIEW Prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison (California) went on hunger strike on July 1, 2011 to protest the cruel and inhumane conditions of their imprisonment. The Hunger Strike spread to several other California prisons. The hunger strike was organized by prisoners in an unusual show of racial unity. The hunger strikers developed five core demands. Briefly they are:
1. Eliminate group punishments. Instead, practice individual accountability. When an individual prisoner breaks a rule, the prison often punishes a whole group of prisoners of the same race. This policy has been applied to keep prisoners in the SHU indefinitely and to make conditions increasingly harsh. 2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria. Prisoners are accused of being active or inactive participants of prison gangs using false or highly dubious evidence, and are then sent to longterm isolation (SHU). They can escape these tortuous conditions only if they "debrief," that is, provide information on gang activity. Debriefing produces false information (wrongly landing other prisoners in SHU, in an endless cycle) and can endanger the lives of debriefing prisoners and their families. 3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to longterm solitary confinement. This bipartisan commission specifically recommended to "make segregation a last resort" and "end conditions of isolation." Yet as of May 18, 2011, California kept 3,259 prisoners in SHUs and hundreds more in Administrative Segregation waiting for a SHU cell to open up. Some prisoners have been kept in isolation for more than thirty years. |
4. Provide adequate food. Prisoners report unsanitary conditions and small quantities of food that do not conform to prison regulations. There is no accountability or independent quality control of meals.
5. Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates. The hunger strikers are pressing for opportunities “to engage in self-help treatment, education, religious and other productive activities..." Currently these opportunities are routinely denied, even if the prisoners want to pay for correspondence courses themselves. Examples of privileges the prisoners want are: one phone call per week, and permission to have sweatsuits and watch caps. (Often warm clothing is denied, though the cells and exercise cage can be bitterly cold.) All of the privileges mentioned in the demands are already allowed at other SuperMax prisons (in the federal prison system and other states). |
For more information and continuing updates, visit
www.prisons.org/hungerstrike.htm
http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
www.prisons.org/hungerstrike.htm
http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
NEWS
Keaton Otis Memorial
Submitted by Erin Yanke on Tue, 05/03/2011 program: Circle A Radio program date: Fri, 05/06/2011
Keaton Otis was shot and killed by Portland police on May 12, 2010, after a routine traffic stop at Northeast 6th and Halsey in Portland. He was 25. Tonight on Circle A Radio we’ll talk with Fred Bryant, father of Keaton Otis, and Geoff, part of Fred’s support network, about the upcoming anniversary of Keaton’s death, and the memorial to celebrate his life. Stay tuned. click HERE to hear the interview Amelia Nicol had her first court date on Monday May 16th in Denver County Court. At this court date, her lawyer made a formal appearance. Amelia declined to have her charges publicly read in court. But as of the date of this writing, the charges she is being held under continue to include several major felonies, including two counts of attempted murder of a police officer, a single count of pocession of an explosive device, a single count of arson, and criminal destruction of property.
The judge declined a any hearing on reducing her bond, instead scheduling bond arguments for June 9. Her bond remains at $50,000. read more... Court Rules Mumia Abu-Jamal’s Death Sentence is Unconstitutional, Grants New Sentencing Hearing
The case of Pennsylvania death row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal took a surprising turn Tuesday when the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously declared his death sentence unconstitutional. It is the second time the court has agreed with a lower court judge who set aside Abu-Jamal’s death sentence after finding jurors were given confusing instructions that encouraged them to choose death rather than a life sentence. Now Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther and journalist, could get a new sentencing hearing in court. We speak with his co-counsel, Judith Ritter, and Linn Washington, an award-winning journalist who has followed Abu-Jamal’s case for almost three decades. [includes rush transcript] read more and democracy now video HERE UPDATE from Six Nations Youth Centre Reclamation
Sacred Fire still going strong.
Had good (long)youth meeting on site. About 30 youth were there. People coming going all day. Rained a bit, teyethinonwaraton ne kahneki:yo ne ki ne etho entewe tayotennyonhatye tsi yonhwentsya:te (We give thanks for the good waters for it is this where it comes from the continual change on Mother earth). Support has come in the form of tents, teepees, water, food, tobacco, wood and friendship (among other things). Tekwanonwaratons tsi she:kon takwahretya:ron. (We thank those who continue to show their support) The youth at the new reclaimed youth center space respectfully ask for continued support. Here are some things we are asking for: flash/flood lights, cell phone minutes (VIRGIN mobile), Healthy Home-Cooked food (mostly chips and cookies right now), flags (kahswentha, unity etc), folding tables, Letters of Support, blankets/sleeping bags, umbrellas, tarps, bugspray, sunscreen(NOTE: Check sunscreen has no Retinyl palmitate or Vitamin A palmitate as studies have shown it to cause cancer in sunlight, in case you are unaware), projector for movie nite, megaphone, and SOLIDARITY ACTION skennen akenhakh (it will be the peacefullness) The youth would like to thank all who have contributed so far. There have been donations of water, food, tobacco, medicine, drum/singing, audio equipment usage, gas, tents, blankets, wood, teepee, picnic tables, time and friendship (among other things) and for this we the Youth @Six Nations thank you. tekwanonhwaratons tsi she:kon takwahretsya:ron. skennen akenhakh. ta’ ne’e etho. (we give our thanks/respects/and minds for your continued support. it will become the peace. and that is it.) MORE... Elmer 'Geronimo' Pratt, a former Black Panther leader, dies in Tanzania
Elmer G. "Geronimo" Pratt, a former Los Angeles Black Panther Party leader who spent 27 years in prison for a murder he says he did not commit and whose case became a symbol of racial injustice during the turbulent 1960s, has died. He was 63.
read more... Angola 3 Mark 39 Years in Solitary Confinement
by Break the Chains on Wednesday, May 18, 2011 at 2:33pm May 17, 2011 Solitary Watch
by James Ridgeway and Jean Casella Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox have entered their 40th year in solitary confinement in the Louisiana prison system. A series of events in New Orleans last month marked the 39th “anniversary” of their placement in solitary, following the murder of Angola prison guard Brent Miller–a murder for which Wallace and Woodfox were later convicted on highly dubious evidence. The third member of the Angola 3, Robert King, was convicted of a separate prison murder, and released after 29 years in solitary when his conviction was overturned. King was among the 39 people who paid homage to Wallace and Woodfox’s four-decade ordeal by spending one hour inside a 6 x 9-foot replica “cell,” constructed by artist Jackie Sumell. The anniversary events, which took place at the headquarters of the organization Resurrection After Exoneration in New Orleans. Other events included the screening of the film In the Land of the Free, in which Brent Miller’s widow, Teenie Vernet, expresses her belief that her husband’s killers have not yet been caught. Of Wallace and Woodfox she says: “If they did not do it–and I believe they didn’t–they have been living a nighmare.” The three men believe they were originally targeted because they were Black Panthers, organizing against conditions at Angola, and Wallace and Woodfox believe they remain in solitary for the same reason. In a 2008 deposition, Angola Warden Burl Cain said Woodfox “wants to demonstrate. He wants to organize. He wants to be defiant…He is still trying to practice Black Pantherism, and I still would not want him walking around my prison because he would organize the young new inmates. I would have me all kind of problems, more than I could stand, and I would have the blacks chasing after them.” Wallace and Woodfox were recently separated from the prison that made them famous–and from one another–and moved separately to other maximum security prisons. Wallace is now in the Hunt Correctional Center, down the river in St. Gabriel, while Woodfox is in the Wade Correctional Center in Homer, in the far northwest reaches of the state. Both remain in “Closed Cell Restricted” housing, or round-the-clock solitary confinement, with brief excursions for showers and solitary exercise in a “dog pen.” Woodfox is now in his mid-60s, and Wallace is nearing 70. Both depend upon mail to relieve their isolation; they can be reached at the following addresses: Herman Wallace #76759 Elayn Hunt Correctional Center CCR – D – #11 PO Box 174 St Gabriel, LA 70776 Albert Woodfox #72148 David Wade Correctional Center, N1A 670 Bell Hill Rd. Homer, LA 71040 Robert King in replica cell. Photo by Chris Granger, The New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Puerto Rican Independista Held Without Bond for 1983 Robbery
by Denver Anarchist Black Cross on Saturday, May 14, 2011 at 3:14pmA judge ordered Norberto Gonzalez Claudio to be held without bond Friday for his alleged role in one of the largest cash heists in U.S. history. He said Gonzalez was an “overwhelming” risk of flight given his more than 25 years as a fugitive. Norberto Gonzalez is the older brother of Puerto Rican political prisoner Avelino Gonzalez Claudio. Norberto has been fighting for Puerto Rico’s freedom from colonial rule for decades. He is accused of being part of the Macheteros, a Puerto Rican independence group, has claimed responsibility for numerous bombings, attacks against the United States armed forces, and armed robberies since 1978. Puerto Rican nationalist facing charges in 1983 heist pleads not guilty
in Hartfordby Break the Chains on Friday, May 20, 2011 at 9:20pmPAT EATON-ROBB Associated Press May 20, 2011
HARTFORD, Conn. A Puerto Rican nationalist sought by U.S. authorities for more than 25 years has pleaded not guilty to charges in connection with one of the nation's largest bank robberies. Sixty-five-year-old Norberto Gonzalez Claudio faces 15 counts, including bank robbery, conspiracy and transportation of stolen money for his alleged role in the 1983 robbery of $7 million at a Wells Fargo armored car depot in West Hartford, Conn. Gonzalez was originally charged in 1985. He is suspected of helping smuggle the cash out of the U.S. mainland with the Los Macheteros militant independence group. Gonzalez appeared Friday in U.S. District Court in Hartford, where he was ordered held without bond. Victor Manuel Gerena, the Wells Fargo driver who allegedly stole the money, remains the only suspect still at large. FBI and Los Angeles County Sheriff raid veteran Chicano activist
Carlos Montes Posted on May 19, 2011 by The Marxist-Leninist| Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.
Los Angeles, CA – On May 17, 2011 at 5:00 AM the SWAT Team of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and members of the FBI raided the home of Carlos Montes, a long time Chicano activist and active member of theCommittee to Stop FBI Repression. The SWAT Team smashed the front door and rushed in with automatic weapons as Carlos slept. The team of Sheriffs and FBI proceeded to ransack his house, taking his computer, cell phones and hundreds of documents, photos, diskettes and mementos of his current political activities in the pro-immigrant rights and Chicano civil rights movement. Also taken were hundreds of historical documents related to Carlos Montes’ involvement in the Chicano movement for the past 44 years. read more... Parole Board denies Oscar López Rivera parole - ignores own guidelines
Break the Chains on Tuesday, May 10, 2011 at 11:20pmMay 10, 2011
Today, on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the arrest of Puerto Rican political prisoner Oscar López Rivera, the U.S. Parole Commission issued a decision denying his petition to reconsider the February 18 ruling denying parole. The Commission justified its decision by assigning him responsibility for conduct he was never accused or convicted of. The decision, erroneously asserting that his release would promote disrespect for the law, ignores the express will of the Puerto Rican people and those who believe in justice and human rights, counting tens of thousands of voices across the political spectrum supporting his immediate release. The Commission ignored the evidence establishing that Oscar met all the criteria for parole, and also ignored its own rules in the process. Among these many ignored voices are members of legislatures including the United States Congress; the state legislatures of New York, Illinois, Ohio and Pennsylvania; the city councils and county boards of many locales in the U.S. and Puerto Rico; the mayors of many towns in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, including the Association of Mayors of Puerto Rico; bar associations including the Puerto Rico Bar Association, the National Lawyers Guild and the American Association of Jurists; clergy and religious organizations, including the Ecumenical Coalition representing every religious denomination in Puerto Rico; the National Latino Congreso, human rights advocates, academics, students, artists, community organizations, and workers. The Commission did not ignore President Clinton's determination in 1999 that Oscar's sentence was disproportionately lengthy and that Oscar should be released in September of 2009. Instead, it held "the Commission is not required to share that assessment." However, the Commission did ignore that Oscar's co-defendants released as a result of the 1999 Clinton clemency are productive, law-abiding citizens, fully integrated into civil society. The Commission also ignored its own July 2010 order to release Oscar's last remaining imprisoned co-defendant Carlos Alberto Torres. The White House has recently proposed to initiate a process of to resolve the status of Puerto Rico. A true process of self-determination under international law would be accompanied by the release of political prisoners. The Commission's adverse decision is at odds with such an undertaking. The United States government consistently demands that other governments, in order to establish their democratic credentials, release political prisoners in their custody. The Commission's adverse decision today demonstrates conduct inconsistent with what the U.S. demands of other governments. Oscar, his family, his attorney, National Boricua Human Rights Network in the U.S. and the Comité Pro Derechos Humanos in Puerto Rico want to express our deepest gratitude for the vast support for his release. We will count on ongoing support as we continue to press for Oscar's release. http://boricuahumanrights.org/ Jeff Hall, Neo-Nazi Leader of 'National Socialist Movement,' Shot Dead in Riverside Home; 10-Year-Old Son in Police Custody
Updated after the jump with Hall's son booked at juvenile hall on suspicion of murder. The National Socialist Movement lost its SoCal chapter's fearless leader today in a bizarre at-home shooting that Riverside Police Department investigators seem to be blaming on Jeff Hall's 10-year-old son. His wife and four other children were likewise at the house when he was killed.
The New York Times reports that the 10-year-old was detained after cops responded to neighbors' reports of gunfire at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning. A neighbor also told the Times she "saw several guns being removed from the home." In his role as leading white supremacist of the neo-nazi group NSM, Hall has been known to make his point while armed and dangerous. From the Southern Poverty Law Center: On June 19, 2010, NSM members J.T. Ready, Jeff Hall and about eight other individuals (some of whom were not NSM members) congregated in Arizona's Vekol Valley. Hall described the goal of their operation as to "fight the [Mexican drug] cartels and reclaim the land." Armed with pistols and high-powered rifles, the group led patrols through the desert and "secured" an abandoned building. They claimed to have apprehended three illegal immigrants attempting a border crossing, although this has not been independently confirmed. read more... ACLU: Puerto Rico has pattern of police brutality
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – A celebrity-enhanced ACLU delegation
criticized Puerto Rico's government Tuesday for using police to keep the
island's main university system open during a strike over a new fee,
with members saying they found clear evidence in which officers abused
students during the protests.
The delegation, which included Oscar-nominated actress Rosie Perez and former major league baseball player Carlos Delgado, said the initial findings of a fact-finding mission found a pattern of excessive police force over the past 18 months involving students, union leaders and journalists. Their final report, which will be presented to the U.S. Justice Department, is expected by September. read more... _ New Jersey Reportback: The Battle of Pemberton: ARA vs NSM _
PLEASE DONATE TO LEGAL DEFENSE FUND FOR ANTIFA ARRESTED IN NJ!
Friends, We are writing to request your aid for the legal defense fund of two Antifa activists who were arrested in Burlington County, New Jersey after a confrontation that ended an annual neo-Nazi conference. The activists are members of New Jersey and New York chapters of Anti-Racist Actionamong whose activities are tracking down white supremacist groups, publicizing them and confronting them in order to shut down their ability to recruit and plan. Any donations can be sent via Paypal to [email protected]. From the Anti-Racist Action Network: The Battle of Pemberton: ARA vs NSM The National Socialist Movement (NSM), a group that tries to dance around the fact that they are Nazis while sporting swastikas on their uniforms and sieg heiling, had been planning to host their annual conference along with a rally, redneck horse shoe and band spectacle for several months. The dates were set for April 15th and 16th in Trenton, New Jersey. Of course we can assume they expected some unhappy spectators at the rally but what they didn’t predict was an all out battle that left 4 of their “SS security” force in the hospital with multiple staples. The NSM went through quite a bit of trouble keeping their event and sleeping locations private. This was nothing but a waste of time for the NSM considering the turncoats within their organization leaked the information to anti-fascists weeks in advance. READ MORE... U.S. CEO pay jumps 11 percent: survey
By Agence France-Presse
Monday, May 9th, 2011 -- 8:23 am WASHINGTON — Compensation received by chief executives of the biggest US companies surged 11 percent over the past 12 months -- to $9.3 million on average, The Wall Street Journal reported. Citing a study conducted for the newspaper by management consultancy Hay Group, The Journal said the increase was largely due to decisions by company boards to reward CEOs for strong profit and share-price growth with bigger bonuses and stock grants. The survey covered the 350 biggest companies that filed their statement between May 1, 2010, and April 30, 2011. Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman topped the list after receiving compensation valued at $84.3 million, more than double his 2009 pay, the report said. Larry Ellison, the billionaire founder of Oracle, took second place, according to The Journal. Long ranked among the highest-paid chiefs, he received compensation valued at $68.6 million for the year ended last May 31. CBS CEO Leslie Moonves landed the number three spot with compensation valued at $53.9 million. Overall, the CEOs of media companies claimed four of the top 10 spots, the paper noted. Bangladesh woman cuts off 'attacker's' penis
Police in southern Bangladesh say a woman cut off a man's penis during an alleged attempt to rape her and took it to a police station as evidence.
read more... Nepal census recognizes 'third gender'
By Manesh Shrestha, CNNMay 31, 2011 10:06 a.m. EDT Members of the third gender community march in a gay parade in Kathmandu last year. STORY HIGHLIGHTS
In what is believed to be a world first, Nepal's Central Bureau of Statistics is giving official recognition to gay and transgender people -- a move seen as major victory for equality in a country that only decriminalized homosexual relationships three years ago. read more... Protesters take to the streets of 100+ European citiesby
Jérôme E. Roos on May 29, 2011 From Athens to Paris, tens of thousands of Europeans heed the online call for a #europeanrevolution. An online call for a European Revolution was heeded en masse today as over 100 cities throughout the continent witnessed tens (if not hundreds) of thousands ‘indignants‘ mobilizing to demand real democracy now. Thousands gathered in Madrid for a peaceful assembly on the 15th straight day of protests and occupations there, belying the false idea of skeptics that the Spanish protest movement would fizzle out in due course. At the same time, the people of Greece took to the street for the fifth consecutive day, eclipsing previous protests with “tens of thousands” of people in Syntagma square alone (see live stream).The protests also spread to Paris, where over 5,000 protesters took the Bastille earlier, putting up a Madrid-style tent camp before being forcefully removed by riot police. Authorities in France are understandably getting anxious.Also in London hundreds of people assembled on Trafalgar Square to show solidarity with the Spanish.Throughout Europe, people are outraged at a lack of economic opportunity, social justice and political representation. An already bleak outlook for many in Europe — especially those in the South — has been worsened recently by austerity measures that have only further aggravated the recession and unemployment rates. Videos and more HERE CNT statement on the Spanish Uprisings
A statement by the anarchosyndicalist CNT of Spain on the May protests and occupations which have swept the country.
The countless demonstrations and occupations that are taking root in the main squares of cities and villages since the 15th are a clear example of the organizational capacity of the people when they decide to be the protagonists of their own lives; overcoming apathy, resignation, and the absence of a self-awareness with which to articulate solutions to take on and construct alternatives to the many problems that today face all of us: workers, the unemployed, students, immigrants, retirees, the precarious… MORE... FBI steps up
anti-communist witch-hunt By Michael Martinez
Los Angeles Published May 26, 2011 10:22 PM The sun had not dawned yet on the cold, crisp morning of May 17 in Alhambra, a neighborhood east of Los Angeles. It was hard to believe spring had arrived that morning when at 5 a.m. the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team assembled in front of Carlos Montes’ driveway and front yard. The silence was shattered along with Montes’ door as the officers rammed it down and then sprang into his home bearing automatic rifles. May 20 protest at Federal Building in Los Angeles. WW photo: John Parker Montes is a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization. He has been a long-time activist for immigrant rights and Chicano liberation in southern California. He was a founder of the Brown Berets and a fighter with Chicano Moratorium. A leader in the Southern California Immigration Coalition, Montes has led the big May 1 immigrant marches in Los Angeles since 2006, along with many other fighters like BAYAN USA, Union del Barrio and the International Action Center. Although the LASD claimed they raided Montes’ residence over an illegal weapon’s charge, the true nature of the raid was revealed when they ransacked his house and took historical political documents dealing with more than 40 years of his activism, photos, his computers and his cell phones. MORE... BREAKING: FBI plans, interview questions discovered in raided activist’s home
Submitted by maureen on Wed, 05/18/2011 - 16:52 Activists in the Twin Cities today announced at a press conference that they were releasing a recently-found document that was left behind by federal agents when they raided Mick Kelly and Linden Gawboy’s Minneapolis home on 24 September 2010.
The FBI confirmed to the Associated Press that the documents appear to be authentic and were accidentally left behind during the raid. The Committee to Stop FBI Repression said in a statement: FBI agents, who raided the home of Mick Kelly and Linden Gawboy, took with them thousands of pages of documents and books, along with computers, cell phones and a passport. By mistake, they also left something behind; the operation plans for the raid, “Interview questions” for anti-war and international solidarity activists, duplicate evidence collection forms, etc. The file of secret FBI documents was accidently mixed in with Gawboy’s files, and was found in a filing cabinet on April 30. We are now releasing them to the public. MORE... Mother sets fire to her daughter's gloating rapist
By Peter Upton in Alicante
12:01AM BST 26 Jun 2005 A Spanish mother has taken revenge on the man who raped her 13-year-old daughter at knifepoint by dousing him in petrol and setting him alight. He died of his injuries in hospital on Friday. Antonio Cosme Velasco Soriano, 69, had been sent to jail for nine years in 1998, but was let out on a three-day pass and returned to his home town of Benejúzar, 30 miles south of Alicante, on the Costa Blanca. While there, he passed his victim's mother in the street and allegedly taunted her about the attack. He is said to have called out "How's your daughter?", before heading into a crowded bar. Shortly after, the woman walked into the bar, poured a bottle of petrol over Soriano and lit a match. She watched as the flames engulfed him, before walking out. The woman fled to Alicante, where she was arrested the same evening. When she appeared in court the next day in the town of Orihuela, she was cheered and clapped by a crowd, who shouted "Bravo!" and "Well done!" MORE... Portland Mayor Wants City to Pay for Gender Reassignment
PORTLAND, Ore. -- The mayor of Portland wants the city to pay for "sex reassignment" surgery for transgender employees but not all city leaders are in favor of the move.
Mayor Sam Adams says it's important to attract and retain the best and brightest employees citing that Microsoft, Google and Nike offer these non-discriminatory benefits even if they are private companies. Opponents say that this undermines confidence in city leaders to spend money where it belongs. The cost for the benefit is $32,000 a year. The issue will go before the city council June 8th. On Strike: Ethnic Studies 1969-1999
ON STRIKE makes an encapsulated, incisive study of the context and events that led up to the Ethnic Studies demonstrations, hunger strikes, and student arrests that surprisingly roiled the UC Berkeley campus in May 1999. Opening with a quick historical study of the struggle that established Ethnic Studies in the late sixties, this record of modern-day activism soon moves into the urgent present-time, detailing the nineties' TWLF (Third World Liberation Front) movement and their pitched battle against the university administration.
Directed by: Irum Shiekh Runtime: 35 minutes Police shooting protest in Montreal turns violent
Anti-police brutality demonstrators in Montreal marched to the site of a tragic shooting Wednesday night where two people, including an innocent bystander, were killed by officers' bullets.
Then they began smashing windows. Members of the crowd picked up materials from a construction site and hurled them as projectiles. They pelted bricks and chunks of broken concrete at about a dozen commercial windows, including restaurants and coffee shops. Several of the windows shattered. read more... U.S. Justice Department launches civil rights review of Portland police
From The Oregonian, by Maxine Bernstein. June 8, 2011 Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez today announced a federal investigation into whether the Portland police are engaged in a “pattern or practice” of civil rights violations relating to officers’ use of force. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas E. Perez (center) flanked by Portland Mayor Sam Adams (left) and U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton, announces a federal review of the Portland Police Bureau today. The Civil Rights Divisions Special Litigation section will conduct the review with the U.S. attorney’s office. It will examine if there’s a pattern or practice of excessive force used by Portland police, particularly against people with mental illness. Perez, speaking at a news conference in the U.S. Attorney’s office at the federal courthouse, said the review was prompted by the significant increase in police shooting over the last 18 months, the majority which involved people with mental illness. Perez was joined today by Oregon U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton, Portland’s mayor and police chief. Marva Davis, whose son Aaron Campbell was fatally shot by Portland police in January 2010, and James P. Chasse Sr., whose son James Chasse Jr. died in police custody in September 2006, were among those who attended the news conference, with their lawyer, Tom Steenson. READ – The James Chasse Archives. READ – The Aaron Campbell Archives. READ – Perez Notice Letter notifying Portland of DOJ investigation. READ – Portland police face federal investigation, AP.com READ – Federal Probe of Portland Police: What It Means and What Advocates Are Saying, Portland Mercury READ – Justice launches investigation on Portland police, Washington Times READ – U.S. probes use of force by Portland, Oregon police, Reuters READ – Let justice roll, like a dialogue?, op ed from The Oregonian READ – Justice department investigates Portland police, Portland Tribune READ – Feds Announce ‘Collaborative’ Investigation Of Portland Police Bureau, Willamette Week READ – Justice Department to investigate Portland cops, The Columbian READ – Officer not down: Police keep it safe, Portland Tribune [click on the above title link to go check out the SLC Brown Berets]
The Brown Berets 8 Point Program WE WANT FREEDOM All oppressed people have the right to fully and unconditionally determine their own destiny. We believe that the people will not be free until we are able to determine our own destinies. WE DEMAND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY TO SELF-SUSTAINABILITY We believe the people have a right to full employment without discriminatory policies and practices, fair treatment, and fair living wages. WE DEMAND AN END TO PATRIARCHY We believe that all people have the right to control their lives, bodies and destinies. We believe that the patriarchal system has created an environment of discrimination against women and LGBTQ people. We believe that balance between male and female forces should exist in order to help everyone reach their full potential. WE DEMAND JUSTICE We believe that people should be tried by a court of their own peers based on age, race, gender, class, and/or migratory status. We believe in the right of people to have a public defender assigned to the defendant at the defendants own discretion. We believe that every tier of the justice system should be based on rehabilitation and not incarceration. WE DEMAND AN END TO ABUSE OF AUTHORITY BY POLICE We believe that the police is currently acting as an occupying force in our communities as opposed to being members of the community. We believe that the police force legitimizes abuse, racial profiling, harassment, terror, and provocation because of its position of authority. WE DEMAND AN EDUCATION SYSTEM THAT ALLOWS EVERYONE TO REACH THEIR FULL POTENTIAL We believe that every individual has the right to a free education until that individual decides that they have reached their full potential. We believe that an educated society is beneficial to its overall welfare. We believe that the mainstream education system and structure should be multicultural and should educate people on the different cultures equally to allow for knowledge of self. WE DEMAND AN END TO THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ENVIRONMENT We believe that the capitalist system has opened the doors to the destruction of environment for the benefit of profit and not the benefit of the earth and its inhabitants. We believe that all measures must be taken by government and individuals to meet the needs of all people without taking the ability from future generations to also meet their needs. WE DEMAND FULL LEGALIZATION FOR ALL IMMIGRANTS We believe that as long as there is an economic demand for immigrant labor, and as long as there is a survival need by immigrants, there will be no border security, border fence, or border wall strong enough to stop immigration. WE DEMAND AN END TO OVERT AND COVERT RACISM IN GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS We know that racism exists. We believe that institutionalized racism is the cause for many modern forms of the oppression. We believe that ignoring the racist character of these institutions only allows for the continuation of discriminatory practices towards people of color. We believe in the right for everybody, regardless of race, to be given the same opportunities to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown that mankind are most disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of abuses and usurpation, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. Formerly Incarcerated Activists Spearheading a New Civil Rights Movement
By Wendy Jason
From February 28th -- March 2nd, Alabama will play host to formerly incarcerated activists from across the country as they convene in an effort to organize what may well be our nation's next major civil rights movement. The conference, which is being organized by a steering committee comprised of prisoner rights and criminal justice reform activist leaders, will draft a campaign platform calling for the restoration of civil rights, a halt to prison expansion, the elimination of excessive punishments, and the protection of the rights and dignity of family members of the incarcerated. Conference events, which are slated to occur in Montgomery, Dothan, and Selma, will include a backwards march over Edmund Pettis Bridge. Who better to lead this movement than those who have first-hand experience of the dehumanizing, unjust nature of our prison system? They know all too well the inequities that exist within the system, the abuses that occur behind prison walls, the suffering that families of prisoners must endure, and the struggle that those returning from prison face in the search for housing, jobs, and a sense of belonging. In this incarceration nation, where more than 2.3 million people wake up each morning behind bars, and another 10 million are on some form of court supervision, few of us remain untouched by the demolition caused by the system's wrath, but none are more equipped to spearhead the fight for reform than those whose lives have been most directly affected. The recent prisoner strike in Georgia has been integral in building the critical mass necessary for a successful campaign. Thousands of people have demonstrated solidarity with Georgia's prisoners - and their demands for decent living conditions, fair wages for work, access to families, vocational and self-improvement programs, educational opportunities, access to health care, and an end to cruel and unusual punishment - through signing online letters of support, like this one. The convention in Alabama is yet another step towards the formation of a strong, determined leadership core for the movement - one that will demand the attention of decision makers and inspire others to act. A number of grassroots prisoner rights, criminal justice reform, and service organizations are rallying in support of this movement. Among them are All of Us or None, World Conference of Mayors, Drug Policy Alliance, Equal Justice Initiative, Prodigal Child Project, National Justice Coalition, A New Way of Life, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Women on the Rise Telling HerStory (WORTH), Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), MN Second Chance Coalition, and The Ordinary People Society. Contact these organizations, or join Supporting Civil Rights of the Formerly Incarcerated if you would like to participate in the campaign. The convention in Alabama will be followed by another gathering in Los Angeles, slated for November 11, 2011. Portland Police Told Aaron Campbell's Mother That Her Son Committed Suicide Though Police Shot Him, Court Records Say
Marva Davis, who lost two sons on Jan. 29, 2010, said in court documents
filed this week that her grief was compounded when two Portland
officers came to her house that night and told her that Aaron Campbell had committed suicide --when in fact her 25-year-old son had been fatally shot in the back by a Portland officer.
"I could not and cannot understand why the police would misrepresent the facts of my son's death," Davis wrote in an affidavit filed in U.S. District Court. Holding the religious belief that committing suicide condemned the soul, Davis suffered heart palpitations and was taken to the hospital that night. That morning she had lost her 23-year-son to heart and kidney failure. She further alleges that Portland police engaged in harassing, hostile and deceptive behavior that included surveillance of other relatives for over two months after the shooting. read more... Anger Erupts at Seattle Police Accountability Forum
by LINDA BYRON / KING 5 News
KING5.com SEATTLE – A public forum on accountability by the Seattle Police Department erupted in angry words, finger-pointing and demands for the police chief to step down Thursday night. read more... Brown Riders Liberation Party Organizes
In the spirit of the Black Panthers and the Brown Berets, a new
revolutionary group for the people has been born, the Brown Riders
Liberation Party. In full alliance with the Black Riders Liberation
Party, we have come together to unify our Brown and Black brothers and
sisters during this urgent time in which the fascist state is attacking
from every corner. With the resurgence of White Nationalism and White
Supremacist groups, coupled with the support of the state’s
anti-migrant, antibrown stance, and unparalleled police brutality, we
must come together to defeat this monster.
read more... Still No News of 37 Missing Georgia Prison Strikers
We still haven’t heard of who and where are those 37 Georgia prisoners
who were labeled the leaders and organizers of the sit-down strike that
began Dec. 9. But we do know that there are some prisoners from Smith
State Prison here being harassed for participating in the protest. I
haven’t been able to get to the lock-down unit where they are being
held.
read more... BC Prison Inmates attempt to form first Prison Labor Union in Canada
Inmates at a B.C. prison are in the final stages of applying to
create a labour union, saying the historic event would be a first in
Canada.
Their lawyer Natalie Dunbar says organizers at Mountain Institution in Agassiz are trying to sign up members for ConFederation, Canadian Prisoners' Labour Union, Local 001. But Ms. Dunbar says prisoners are facing resistance from administrators. read more... Examiner: No Parole for Puerto Rican Nationalist
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A hearing examiner said Wednesday he doesn't believe a Puerto Rican nationalist who once turned down a clemency offer from President Clinton should be paroled after nearly 30 years in prison, the inmate's lawyer said.
Jan Susler, the lawyer for Oscar Lopez Rivera, said she will ask the U.S. Parole Commission to overrule the examiner's recommendation, which came after a closed hearing at a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. "We are extremely disappointed," Susler said in a phone interview after the hearing. "There was no justice today." read more... Brutal Reprisals Against Peaceful GA Inmate Strikers Confirmed.
By BAR Managing Editor Bruce A. Dixon
Black, brown and white inmates in 6 Georgia prisons nonviolently locked themselves in their cells for several days beginning December 9, demanding wages for work, educational opportunities, adequate food and medical care, just parole decisions and access to their families. The peaceful inmate strikers, as we reported the following day, were already victims of brutal retaliation on the part of correctional officials, ranging from cutoffs of heat and hot water to unprovoked assaults by correctional employees upon prisoners. read more... Portland Police Officers Kill Homeless Man in Standoff
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ARTICLES
Fomenting nationalism with murder While nationalism sweeps the US with the death of Bin Laden, Muslim Americans worry bigotry against them will persist.
reews of Osama bin Laden's death has brought a surge of nationalism throughout much of the United States, and the Obama administration is using the event to justify its foreign policy in the Middle East. Given that al-Qaeda has claimed the lives of far more Arab Muslims than Westerners, many Muslims and Arabs living in the US are relieved that he is gone. Yet that relief is tempered by the knowledge that bigotry they face is most likely going to remain. "I hope that his death helps reduce the stereotyping we all face here at times," Said Alani, an Arab and Muslim who is a college student in New York told Al Jazeera, "But even though the symbol [Osama bin Laden] is dead, and that chapter is closed, I imagine there will still be some people who carry the stereotype on against Muslims in the United States. Osama bin Laden was the symbol of the stereotype, but the stereotype will still exist. I even see people here that call Japanese 'Japs' and think that they should be in concentration camps. So even that stereotype is still alive." U-S-A! U-S-A! read more.... 50 Ways to Prepare for Revolution Posted by Mike E on May 9, 2011
Photo: JB Connors by Stephanie McMillan The people of the United States are currently unprepared to seize a revolutionary moment. We must fix that. How can we raise our levels of revolutionary consciousness, organization and struggle? READ 50 Ways to Prepare for Revolution HERE Global capitalism and 21st century fascism
The global economic crisis and the attack on immigrant rights are bound together in a web of 21st century fascism. The crisis of global capitalism is unprecedented, given its magnitude, its global reach, the extent of ecological degradation and social deterioration, and the scale of the means of violence. We truly face a crisis of humanity. The stakes have never been higher; our very survival is at risk. We have entered into a period of great upheavals and uncertainties, of momentous changes, fraught with dangers - if also opportunities.
I want to discuss here the crisis of global capitalism and the notion of distinct political responses to the crisis, with a focus on the far-right response and the danger of what I refer to as 21st century fascism, particularly in the United States. Facing the crisis calls for an analysis of the capitalist system, which has undergone restructuring and transformation in recent decades. The current moment involves a qualitatively new transnational or global phase of world capitalism that can be traced back to the 1970s, and is characterised by the rise of truly transnational capital and a transnational capitalist class, or TCC. Transnational capital has been able to break free of nation-state constraints to accumulation beyond the previous epoch, and with it, to shift the correlation of class and social forces worldwide sharply in its favour - and to undercut the strength of popular and working class movements around the world, in the wake of the global rebellions of the 1960s and the 1970s. Emergent transnational capital underwent a major expansion in the 1980s and 1990s, involving hyper-accumulation through new technologies such as computers and informatics, through neo-liberal policies, and through new modalities of mobilising and exploiting the global labour force - including a massive new round of primitive accumulation, uprooting, and displacing hundreds of millions of people - especially in the third world countryside, who have become internal and transnational migrants. We face a system that is now much more integrated, and dominant groups that have accumulated an extraordinary amount of transnational power and control over global resources and institutions. read more... We might ask ourselves how we would be reacting if Iraqi commandos landed at George W. Bush’s compound, assassinated him, and dumped his body in the Atlantic.
By Noam Chomsky It’s increasingly clear that the operation was a planned assassination, multiply violating elementary norms of international law. There appears to have been no attempt to apprehend the unarmed victim, as presumably could have been done by 80 commandos facing virtually no opposition—except, they claim, from his wife, who lunged towards them. In societies that profess some respect for law, suspects are apprehended and brought to fair trial. I stress “suspects.” In April 2002, the head of the FBI, Robert Mueller, informed the press that after the most intensive investigation in history, the FBI could say no more than that it “believed” that the plot was hatched in Afghanistan, though implemented in the UAE and Germany. What they only believed in April 2002, they obviously didn’t know 8 months earlier, when Washington dismissed tentative offers by the Taliban (how serious, we do not know, because they were instantly dismissed) to extradite bin Laden if they were presented with evidence—which, as we soon learned, Washington didn’t have. Thus Obama was simply lying when he said, in his White House statement, that “we quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda.” read more... OPINION: Ron Paul Is A White Supremacist
Originally, when I began reporting on the Neo-Nazis and conspiracy theory driven right wing extremists and their associations with Ron Paul, I assumed they were a fringe group who jumped on to the Ron Paul bandwagon. Then after doing extensive research, I realized that not only did the Neo-Nazis and the John Birch/Timothy McVeigh based conspiracy theorists support Ron Paul, but Ron Paul supports the views of the Neo-Nazis and the conspiracy theorists.
There are several pieces of evidence tying Paul to both white supremacists and right wing conspiracy theorists. One connection that ties Paul to both Neo-Nazis and conspiracy theorists, is his close connection to the John Birch society. The John Birch Society is a group that has been called, paranoid, radical, racist, and extremist, and believes in a Jewish/Freemason conspiracy to transform the world into a communist “New World Order.” read more... The Resistance in Obama Time: Over 2,600 Activists Arrested in the US Since Election
May 24, 2011
By BILL QUIGLEY http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley05242011.html Since President Obama was inaugurated, there have been over two thousand six hundred arrests of activists protesting in the US. Research shows over 670 people have been arrested in protests inside the US already in 2011, over 1290 were arrested in 2010, and 665 arrested in 2009. These figures certainly underestimate the number actually arrested as arrests in US protests are rarely covered by the mainstream media outlets which focus so intently on arrests of protestors in other countries. Arrests at protest have been increasing each year since 2009. Those arrested include people protesting US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Guantanamo, strip mining, home foreclosures, nuclear weapons, immigration policies, police brutality, mistreatment of hotel workers, budget cutbacks, Blackwater, the mistreatment of Bradley Manning, and right wing efforts to cut back collective bargaining. These arrests illustrate that resistance to the injustices in and committed by the US is alive and well. Certainly there could and should be more, but it is important to recognize that people are fighting back against injustice. Information on these arrests has been taken primarily from the newsletter The Nuclear Resister, which has been publishing reports of anti-nuclear resistance arrests since 1980, and anti-war actions since 1990. Jack Cohen-Joppa, who with his partner Felice, edits The Nuclear Resister, told me “Over the last three decades, in the course of chronicling more than 100,000 arrests for nonviolent protest and resistance to nuclear power, nuclear weapons, torture, and war, we’ve noted a quadrennial decline as support for protest and resistance gets swallowed up by Presidential politicking. It has taken a couple of years, but the Hopeian addicts of 2008 are finally getting into recovery. We’re again reporting a steady if slow rise in the numbers willing to risk arrest and imprisonment for acts of civil resistance. Today, for instance, there are more Americans serving time in prison for nuclear weapons protest than at any time in more than a decade.” See the list and read more HERE Inside the FARC: Colombia's guerilla fighters
Despite many of their leaders being killed in recent years, armed rebels show no sign of giving up their fight. Leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas and Colombian counterinsurgency troops trade shots across a gorge. On a nearby plateau, 100 metres of thick brush separate two other rebel squads from their adversaries. Grenades echo as they explode. "It's tough fighting in all this mud," said a guerrilla named "Adrian", who flinched with every shot he or his comrades fired. " This is to slow the army's advance. Within two or three days they'll take up new positions and we'll fight them," he added. The battleground that day was an insignificant hilltop in El Porvenir, a tiny hamlet in eastern Meta province. The firefight lasted close to an hour - another skirmish in a string of anonymous battles that, these days, rarely make the media headlines. Another testimony, too, to the cat-and-mouse nature of this, Colombia's almost five-decade-old conflict. Read more and video HERE Se-lah: “Queering The Cause”: On Gay Men’s Violence Against Women
I am a Queer man who works to address gender based violence in the mainstream “movement to end male violence against women.” In this movement, I have experienced some very troubling things. I have witnessed how this movement operates with a theoretical lens that dramatically under-complicates the nuances of gender, race and power and often erases the realities of sexual orientation.* I have witnessed how homophobia, heterosexism, able-ism, age-ism and much more have been dramatically ignored in the context of creating an organizational and collaborative agenda. I have seen firsthand the horrors of what happens when these agencies get in bed with the criminal legal system, which often leads to them cycling the same conditions they seek to eradicate.
As a very visible and vocal queer man my very presence has often been disruptive in these spaces. It has been disruptive because, among many other things, the “violence against women” dialogue is intrinsically heterosexist and homophobic, not to mention virulently sexist. Through my work with numerous organizations that fall under this canon “of violence against women” I have been taken aback at how the generational analysis coupled with a “second wave” narrative of power and gender have produced an enviroment that does very little to acknowledge the deeply rooted relationship between heterosexism, homophobia and sexism. It has also been intriguing to me how many of the organizations who cling to this ideological perspective claim to be unaware of or are dissonant from organizations like Incite who have explored the complexities of these challenges in detail. Throughout the next month, I will be addressing many of these issues and much more through the blog series: “Queering The Cause: Ending Male Violence Against Women.” Some of the issues I will be addressing include: 1) How the intersection of male privilege and the non-profit industrial complex inhibits male leaders from being held accountable to their actions. 2) How the “violence against women” discourse continually robs women of their agency making women objects that violence happens “to” as opossed to individuals who make choices, have power and enact violence; which erases and minimizes the subsequent violence of women against their children, women against their partners (heterosexual, queer, lesbian and otherwise defined) and violence in non- romantic relationships between each other. 3) How the “violence against women” narrative concretizes and supports the mutual combat discourse between men (In other words, you shouldn’t hit a woman, but it’s okay to hit a man) a discourse which justifies violence against queer men, boys and in the mainstream trans-phobic mind: trans women. 4) The lack of accountability and exploration of queer men’s male privilege; which is directly linked to the heterosexism of a movement that subconsciously argues “Only “real” “straight” men hit women or are violent” See the Sweet Tea: Southern Queer Men’S Proclamation For more on this. 5) The lack of investigation and exploration into how queer and lesbian women uniquely experience male violence which is directly linked to the erasure of women’s sexuality when it is not in service to patriarchy and the minimization of women’s sexuality as a marker of women’s experience. 6) The silence of the mainstream “movement to end male violence against women” as it relates to the very public continuing murders of trans women. And much more. It is my hopes that in exploring these issues a dialogue can be created that can lead to education and understanding. As always, I invite your comments, feedback, feelings and thoughts. This blog series will kick off tomorrow, so check back here tomorrow morn! If you have topic idea/questions or would like to submit a guest blog based on these or similair experiences in this work, email me at [email protected] Until next time, Yolo This entry was posted in Blog, Se-lah. Bookmark the permalink. Its primary base is among employees of the Departamento de Educación Pública de Puerto Rico.
The FMPR was formed in 1960s by radical union activists. It currently has 32,000 members, making it one of the largest unions in Puerto Rico. The FMPR has recently disaffiliated from the American Federation of Teachers. A referendum within the union decided on a majority vote to disaffiliate with the AFT and the AFL-CIO. The details of the referendum were published on their website and the votes were counted by the teachers themselves according to official reports. The conflict between the two unions remained in limbo through January 2005, when hundreds of FMPR officers opposed to disaffiliation formally asked AFT to investigate the disaffiliation vote and the governing practices of President Feliciano. Though the AFT investigation alleged numerous violations of the democratic rights of FMPR members, the whole matter of who controlled the FMPR wound up in court in Puerto Rico. FMPR prevailed in the court proceedings. In April 2003 some of the union leadership including the president of the union were involved in violent protests which resulted in arrests and jail time for members of the union. On February 21, 2008, the FMPR officially declared a strike. Exactly nine days after it began, the FMPR declared the strike over. External linksFMPR facebook page Arundhati Roy: I’m a Maoist Sympathizer, Not Ideologue
This piece comes from the Guardian (UK) and highlights the experiences of author Arundhati Roy and her time with Indian Maoists known as Naxalites, and in this piece she describes herself as a Maoist sympathizer, but not an ideologue. This is profoundly brave for this author to side with the oppressed of India — while the Indian state continues its murderous acts under the guise of fighting terrorism which they call ‘Operation Greenhunt.’
Arundhati Roy authored Walking with the Comrades, an essay describing her time with the Indian Maoists. Arundhati Roy: ‘They are trying to keep me destabilised. Anybody who says anything is in danger’ read more... "As immigrants, we are also sick of this shit"
We are Movement for Justice in El Barrio, an organization of Mexican immigrants that fights for human dignity and against neoliberal displacement in East Harlem, New York. We fight for the liberation of women, people of color, lesbians, gays, the transgender community, and immigrants. We, too, as immigrants are sick of this shit (estamos hasta la madre)... as are all those from below in our beloved Mexico.
Our pain and solidarity indignation is with all the people who, due to the bad government’s war – deceitfully disguised as a “war against narco-trafficking”—, have lost their sons, daughters, sisters, brothers, mothers, fathers, relatives, and friends. read more... White Privilege Diary Series #1 - White Feminist Privilege in Organizations
Over the last thirty years I've worked with a variety of white-dominated feminist organizations that have expressed a wish to "diversify." While feminist organizations differ in structure and intent, the reasons these various organizations gave for bringing me in as a consultant or to hold workshops were strikingly similar. "Why," they wanted to know, "can't we attract women of color to our organization? And when they do show up, why don't they stay?" Sometimes I worked alone, but often I worked with an African American feminist partner. We found, over time, a depressing similarity of pattern as, one after another, the organizations we counseled decided that our suggestions would be "too difficult" to implement. This diary describes my experiences in the world of white feminist organizations and NGOs, and offers an analysis of the key problems of white privilege and the investment of many white feminist institutions in racist practices.
read more... Press Communique of the Revolutionary Action Cells (RAZ): March 17 2011
(rough translation)
I would like to thank JMP at M-L-M Mayhem! for telling me about this and the good folks at Signalfire for making this translation of a press communique by the Revolutionary Action Cells, who several weeks ago mailed bullets to several high profile German leaders, available. Apparently since their first action in December 2009 (a bombing of an employment agency in Wedding), the cells have conducted at least two other attacks besides this latest one. The second attack in February 2010 was a bombing, using a gas canister, of the Economy Ministry in Charlottenburg and a fire bombing of the Federal Office of Administration in November the same year. German newspapers report that CSU-Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich did in fact receive the bullet. The group is interesting because it feels like a throwback to the 1970′s, especially because of the name of the organization which seems to be a play on the Revolutionary Cells (an urban guerrilla organization that coordinated attacks from 1973-1993) and the consistent references to the RAF and June 2nd Movement (indeed the cell that sent the bullets bears the name of Georg von Rauch, the founder of the June 2nd Movement). Even the language and style used seems very retro, however, since I don’t know German I cannot gauge whether the original text itself shares in this stylistic choice. It is difficult to grasp what the ideology is of these new cells, however, it can be assumed that it probably concurs with the anti-imperialist, anti-capitalist, feminist, anti-racist and anti-Zionist politics of its forbearers. Furthermore, I would speculate that they are most likely much closer to an autonomist politics, rather than a more traditionally established Marxist-Leninist(-Maoist) politics because of their use the term “construction of a revolutionary process” rather, than “construction of a revolutionary party” towards communism. Also, it is interesting that the statement makes no mention of an accompanying mass movement which they an armed wing of, rather they seem to be provoked by a generalized state repression of the working class and the revolutionary left. It is difficult to say much else about the organization, but the German left just got a little more interesting to say the least. READ COMMUNIQUE HERE Sundiata Acoli: “Why You Should Support Black PP/POWs and How”
by Denver Anarchist Black Cross on Tuesday, April 19, 2011 at 11:03am
Why you should support back PP/POWs and HOW* Greetings Everyone, My name is Sundiata Acoli (Soon-dee-AH’-tah Ah-COH’-lee). I’m a former member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army (BPP/BLA) who was captured on the New Jersey Turnpike in 1973 and am now a Black Political Prisoner and Prisoner of War (PP/POW) who’s been held by the government for the last 37 years. So why should you care about any of this or particularly, why should you support Black PP/POWs? Well, maybe you shouldn’t. If you’re happy with the way the US, and the world is going ~ and if you want to see the US, and the West continue to dominate and oppress the rest of the world ~ then you shouldn’t support Black PP/POWs. If you want to see one country, or one race or the capitalist system continue to dominate other countries, other races and the world, then you shouldn’t support Black PP/POWs. And if you, yourself, are about trying to dominate, manipulate or exploit other peoples, and organizations for personal benefit then you definitely shouldn’t support black PP/POWs, or any other revolutionary PP/POWs, because we’re about ending racism in all its forms and wherever it exists, plus we’re about ending capitalism, sexism and all unjust oppressions of people and life in general on earth and throughout the universe. Now if you can relate to that ~ and are about freedom, equality, human rights and self-determination for all people; creating a non-exploitative, non-oppressive society and economic system; making the world a better place and living in harmony with other people, the environment and the universe ~ then you should support Black PP/POWs cause that’s what we’re about and have been about for generations, centuries and millenniums. But mostly you should support Black PP/POWs, and all revolutionary PP/POWs, because it’s the right thing to do. And last, how should you support them? Well, you should support Black and all PP/POWs by supporting organizations that support them and by contacting PP/POWs individually to ask how you can best support them. How you can support Sundiata Acoli Contact the Sundiata Acoli Freedom Campaign at [email protected], http://www.sundiataacoli.org/ Contact Sundiata: Acoli, Sundiata #39794-066 FCI Otisville, P.O. Box 1000, Otisville, NY 10963 Birthday: January 14, 1937 Wisconsin and the State of Kasama
“Political subtlety is necessary precisely because of the stark implications of being overly simplistic:
“Some people see Wisconsin as proof that one can more or less equate “the labor movement” (or the defense of the remaining trade union centers) with “the class struggle.” Others see it as proof that an economic fightback will naturally be at the center of our work and prospects (as socialists and revolutionaries). And because some (and it is more than a few) see the political allignments of Wisconsin as something to encourage (and ride) all the way to Obama’s reelection in 2012.” by Mike Ely I have been thinking off-and-on for days about a recent comment by Thomas, where he implied that gaps in our site coverage can be traced to damning political indifference: “It is interesting to me that Kasama has ceased to publish any content whatsoever about the amazing political situation in Wisconsin…. What does it say about the Kasama Project if it is incapable of mustering even a repost of a news story to spark conversation, especially given how frequently it has done so in the past? I think this returns us to some of the sharp questions raised about this blog and its affiliated organizational form and its relevance in the US American revolutionary milieu. Is there really just nothing to say?” On one level, I’m grateful for the criticism, and on another level, I think there is an unfair implication made. It is true that Kasama was not able to be on top of the Wisconsin events the way a communist project would want to be, and in a way our many readers actually expect. I don’t mean just reprinting reports on events (which is easy enough) in ways that objectively ends up simply cheerleading various forces in the field. But we were not able to be on top of it — in a penetrating way that succeeded in opening a discussion of the conflicting interests that are colliding, and what it means both for the people and for those who want to build a revolutionary movement. read more... Workers Control and the Revolutions in North Africa
By a comrade on the struggles in North Africa, this isn’t an “AS
line” on these inspiring but far-away events; what it is, is a gutsy
opening to discussion of the tasks of the revolutionary working class.
read more... Bring the Ruckus: Neither Party Nor Network
This comes from bringtheruckus.org
“A revolutionary organization for the 21st century needs to forge a path between the Leninist vanguard party favored by traditional Marxist parties and the loose ‘network’ model of organizing favored by many anarchists and activists today. “The purpose of a revolutionary organization is to act as a cadre group that develops politics and strategies that contribute to mass movements toward a free society.” read more with comments at Kasama All Power to the Peoples Court: The Struggle for Community Control of the Police in West Philly by Arturo Castillon, Iladelph Liberation | 01.14.2011
The black working class is currently leading the way in the development of new forms of revolutionary organization in Philadelphia. This is reflected in the community based People’s Courts that formed in response to the near death beating of Askia Sabur in West Philadelphia on September 3rd, 2010. Askia had not complied with police orders to leave a street corner as he was waiting for his food at a Chinese store in his community, on 55th and Lansdowne. Several people recorded with their cell phones and camcorders the brutal gang of cops as they proceeded to viciously attack Askia. The video clearly shows how his skull was cracked and his arm broken by the blows of the steel baton delivered by officer Jimmy Leocal. As the cops assaulted Askia people in the community steadily surrounded the police, loudly demanding that they stop. This intervention of the community in the unlawful arrest of Askia so threatened the official legitimacy of police violence that one officer felt compelled to reinforce it by hysterically pointing and waving his gun at the growing crowd. Immediately after the cop puts his gun down a person can be heard asking him “yo did you just brandish a fire arm?!” while the officer then resumes to bash Askia over the head with the baton. Someone else in the video can be heard saying, “he’s got one more time to point that gun at me” and “your gona fuck around and kill him.”[1] One wonders what the police would have gotten away with if the people weren’t there. After the camera cuts out, several observers were ruffed up while Askia was arrested and charged with assault, resisting arrest, and attempted robbery (for grabbing the cop's baton). This incident is of course a regular occurrence for the mostly black working class of Philadelphia. City programs such as “stop-and-frisk,” under the leadership of Mayor Nutter and Police Commissioner Ramsey, have given free rein to police harassment and intimidation and have sparked an ACLU lawsuit. With this routine violence faced by poor people the police are fulfilling their duty to discipline the working class, especially its most revolutionary segments. But the people responded, without any one telling them to, by encircling the police and documenting their crimes. read more... What Do You Mean, After the Revolution?
As someone who has recently broken with anarchism, and as someone who
had till then been an anarchist for the better part of a decade (almost
since I first became interested in politics), it has been instructive
for me to read for the first time what Marxists say about revolutionary
struggle after the overthrow of the old, capitalist state has been
successful. It is not often talked about by anarchists, who nowadays
shun anything that might sound the least bit authoritarian, and when it
does come up, the Marxists are abused with lies and strawmen of all
kinds. I’ve come to find, in the few weeks since my deconversion from
anarchocommunism, that the anarchists and the Marxists have radically
different understandings of what revolution is, its purpose, and how it
is carried out. Whereas anarchists see revolution as a struggle
primarily focused on overthrowing the state, Marxists see revolution as a
constant, living process, devoted to the destruction of the old,
oppressive ways of life that does not simply end when the first military
seizing of power has been achieved. I now recognize that the Marxist
approach is the only practical and informed method of achieving a free
communist society.
read more... Cruel and Unusual: US Solitary Confinement
As incarceration rates explode in the US, thousands are placed in solitary confinement, often without cause.
The spectre of Bradley Manning lying naked and alone in a tiny cell at the Quantico Marine Base, less than 50 miles from Washington, DC, conjures up images of an American Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, where isolation and deprivation have been raised to the level of torture. In fact, the accused Wikileaker, now in his tenth month of solitary confinement, is far from alone in his plight. Every day in the US, tens of thousands of prisoners languish in "the hole". A few of them are prison murderers or rapists who present a threat to others. Far more have committed minor disciplinary infractions within prison or otherwise run afoul of corrections staff. Many of them suffer from mental illness, and are isolated for want of needed treatment; others are children, segregated for their own "protection"; a growing number are elderly and have spent half their lives or more in utter solitude. No one knows for sure what their true numbers are. Many states, as well as the federal government, flatly declare that solitary confinement does not exist in their prison systems. As for their euphemistically named "Secure Housing Units" or "Special Management Units", most states do not report occupancy data, nor do wardens report on the inmates sent to "administrative segregation". read more... We’ll Ride Until the Wheels Fall Off: Prisoners as Proletarian Actors GeorgiaOn December 9, 2010, thousands of Georgia prisoners struck – making it the biggest prisoner protest in the history of the United States. What does this mean? Prisoners across the Georgia penitentiary system collectively refused to cooperate with the system incarcerating them, to leave their cells, to work for free for the government. They organized to exert direct control over their bodies, their lives and their circumstances, something they could only do by acting in concert in the thousands. Since December 9, the initial strike day, thousands have continued their struggle against brutal, punitive, unjust conditions, standing up against extreme violence from the prison guard forces.
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By Nicole Dungca, The Oregonian
A man was fatally shot by two Portland police officers Sunday afternoon after he approached officers with a "large knife" in Southeast Portland, according to the Portland Police Bureau. The incident occurred at an abandoned Lucky Car Wash lot near Southeast 82nd Avenue and Powell Boulevard. read more... Richmond Cops Mistakenly Handover Protest Guides to Anarchist
After filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the Richmond Police Department for police training documents, Mo Karn received much more than expected in return: homeland security and crowd control guides that show how the police target protests. The police filed for an emergency court order yesterday to prohibit Karn from publicizing any of the documents, which should never have been released. The cops’ reasoning? “Defendant Mo Karn is a known and admitted anarchist.”
read more... Portland Police Officers on Leave After Man With Knife Is Shot and Killed
from Katu.com news
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Portland Police officers were involved in an officer-involved shooting in southeast Portland off of Southeast 82nd Avenue near Southeast Division Street and Powell Boulevard on Sunday. Some eye witnesses say a homeless person began arguing with a local security officer in the Food for Less lot. read more... Political Battle on Illegal Immigration Shifts to States
By JULIA PRESTON Published: December 31, 2010 Legislative leaders in at least half a dozen states say they will propose bills similar to a controversial law to fight illegal immigration that was adopted by Arizona last spring, even though a federal court has suspended central provisions of that statute.
The efforts, led by Republicans, are part of a wave of state measures coming this year aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration. Legislators have also announced measures to limit access to public colleges and other benefits for illegal immigrants and to punish employers who hire them. read more... Arizona Bans Ethnic Studies and, Along With it, Reason and Justice
Tuesday 28 December 2010
by: Randall Amster J.D., Ph.D., t r u t h o u t | News Analysis Ceremonial sounding of the conch shell to welcome participants to the Tucson conference organized by Professor Roberto Rodriquez at the University of Arizona December 2-4, 2010, devoted to addressing issues related to Combating Hate, Censorship and Forbidden Curriculum. (Photo: Leslie Thatcher) While much condemnation has rightly been expressed toward Arizona's anti-immigrant law, SB 1070, a less-reported and potentially more sinister measure is set to take effect on January 1, 2011. This new law, which was passed by the conservative state legislature at the behest of then-School Superintendent (and now Attorney General-elect) Tom Horne, is designated HB 2281 and is colloquially referred to as a measure to ban ethnic studies programs in the state. As with SB 1070, the implications of this law are problematic, wide-ranging and decidedly hate filled. read more... |
How Can we Advance the Anti-Police Brutality Struggle
Reflections by Nightwolf and Mamos from Seattle Unity and Struggle John T. Williams, slain by Seattle cops
The week of August 30th, 2010 saw five people murdered by police throughout Washington State, including John T. Williams. Williams was a First Nations carver who was shot four times by police officer Ian Birk while walking with a closed carving knife and a block of wood. Birk gave Williams only four seconds warning before opening fire, and Williams, who is partially deaf, may not have heard his commands. This murder, along with several other recent cases of police brutality against Black and Latino folks in Seattle has sparked a small but vibrant movement against police terrorism. Here we will analyze the potentials and the limitations of this movement. While we are very critical of some of the players in this movement, our goal is not to hate on folks- it is to open a rigorous and honest discussion about how we can advance the struggle beyond its current limitations. We need to advance the struggle because we don’t want more people in our communities to die at the hands of killer cops. Every day we are struggling and organizing against the effects of the economic crisis in our workplaces , schools, and neighborhoods and we need to organize citywide and country-wide networks of resistance and solidarity to make sure these small embryonic struggles are not shut down through joint repression by the bosses, landlords, and cops. This reflection is broken into two essays. In the first one, “The Rainbow Coalition stomps the flames”, Nightwolf analyzes how liberal people of color leaders worked with the cops to try and dampen the explosion of anger in communities of color following John T. Williams’ death; he puts this in historical context, showing how it relates to the successes and failures of the 1960s and 70s movements against white supremacy. In the second piece, “Workers spread the embers”, Mamos analyzes some of the small but promising actions against police brutality that have emerged in Seattle the past few months and asks how these actions can deepen and how they can connect to other forms of working class organizing going on in Seattle now. He explores the role that militant worker networks like Seattle Solidarity Network and International Workers and Students for Justice could play in challenging state violence. While these essays reflect on anti-police brutality struggles, they raise much broader questions that are really relevant for a number of different struggles in Seattle and in other cities. While these essays may not present a full answer to the question of how to stop police brutality, they are an attempt to prompt discussion about the current political impasse our movements are in and to think creatively about how to move beyond it. read more... Thinking About Organization: Between Mass and Revolutionary Activity
Defining Practice: the intermediate level of organization and struggle
by S. Nappalos There is a left tradition of thinking about and taking action within two realms of activity: the mass level and the revolutionary political level. There are different ways to cash out these concepts, but they are distinguished basically by levels of unity and content. The mass level is where people come together based on common interests to take action in some form, with unions being the most obvious and traditional example. A higher level of unity is the revolutionary political level where people take action based on common ideas and practices. These concepts are tools or instruments that can help us make sense of the world, and better act to change it. In so far as they do that, they work. If they don’t, we get new ones. At the level of reality, this division is not so clear and in fact we see mixtures of unity and action everywhere. That being said, these concepts help us parse out how as revolutionaries we can relate to social groupings, and how we can intervene. read more... Beyond Gay Marriage and Queer Separatists - The Call for a Working-Class Queer Movement
The gay marriage debate has taken over all the attention from the queer movement left and right. The right wing is consistently and stubbornly denying the existence of queer folks by saying that it’s an immoral choice of lifestyle. The liberal gay and lesbian organizations are continually pulling millions and millions of dollars to appeal to the state for marriage equality under the rhetoric of “we are all the same.” On the other hand, queer separatists are fiercely combating the liberals with the slogan: “we are totally and absolutely different from the heteros,” and have made good points on criticizing the oppressive patriarchal nature of the institution of marriage and how queers should not seek this type of inclusion (see: against equality). However, these critiques have not necessarily been able to generate an alternative grassroots movement which can seriously take on the demands of those queers who are marginalized–queer people of color, trans folks, working-class queers, queers with disabilities, and third world and immigrant queers–from all of the above approaches.
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