COME TO THE FINAL MARCH 20 COALITION MEETING:
THIS SATURDAY, MARCH 6, 2010, 2:00 P.M.
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
Between 16th and 15th Streets, SF)
For more information call: 415-821-6545
On Thursday, March 4, tens-of-thousands of students, teachers, parents, unions representatives and members, unemployed people and antiwar, human rights and healthcare activists culminated a day of mass-action by gathering at City Hall at Civic Center Plaza at 5:00 P.M. to protest the attack on education, and on working people in general, as the U.S. bi-partisan government continues to spend trillions on war and trillions more on corporate bailouts and bonuses for the wealthy elite!
The steps of City Hall were energetically and exuberantly occupied by high school and college students chanting and cheering and demanding to be heard. They created giant puppets that they carried to the doors of City Hall. One was a giant dinosaur skeleton about 15 feet long in obvious protest of the severe cutting of art and science classes.
Surely this outpouring of protesters proves that we are "'ona move!" This is the time when ongoing, independent antiwar organizing must continue, to plan for the future.
We must take the next step and underscore the inexorable link between all these cutbacks, foreclosures, layoffs, and the costs of lives lost and injured at home and abroad--and the wars, bailouts and corporate bonuses--by marching in unity March 20 and beyond.
Over $550 million a day is spent on the War on Iraq alone! Can you imagine what just one week of war spending could do for the San Francisco Unified School District or San Francisco City College budget?
We must ask ourselves, are we going to insist on our inalienable human right to food, jobs, housing, education and healthcare? Or are we going to allow the super-rich-less-than-one-tenth-of-one-percent of the world's population to continue to plunder all the world has to offer just to preserve their dominion over all and at the cost of all?
The plain and simple fact is, this is up to us. See ya Saturday.
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Fault Lines - Haiti: The politics of rebuilding
[Very enlightening video. The people of Haiti are thinking clearly. They are just not allowed to govern themselves. They are under US/UN corporate-sponsored military occupation to prevent them from running their own country cooperatively....bw]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuUt12usDVs&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Mine - Story of a Sacred Mountain
[This is a stunningly beautiful film. It is the story of Avatar in real life today...bw]
http://www.imdb.com/video/wab/vi888603161/
India's Supreme Court recently approved the project, and mining could begin in a matter of months.
The Dongria remain united in their determination to stop Vedanta from turning their sacred mountain into an industrial wasteland.
One of the Court's conditions is that some of the mine's profits are put towards "tribal development."
But no "development" or "compensation" package could cure the problems that mining Niyamgiri will cause: the destruction of a unique environment and culture.
The Dongria have accused Vedanta of "trying to flood us out with money" and have made it clear that:
"Mining only makes profit for the rich. We will become beggars if the company destroys our mountain and our forest so that they can make money. We don't want the mine or any help at all from the company."
Vedanta was founded by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, who owns more than half the shares.
Under Siege
Vedanta is still waiting to clear the final red tape before they are able to begin mining. Meanwhile, the Dongria are being held siege in their hill range.
Non-tribal villagers, who do not farm the land but rely on wage labor to survive, have blocked the routes into the Niyamgiri hills.
Young men, sometimes armed with axes, are refusing to allow any outsiders, including journalists, to enter Niyamgiri and visit Dongria Kondh villages.
The reason is simple: they do not want the world to hear the Dongria's voice.
Act now to help the Dongria Kondh
Your support is vital if the Dongria Kondh are to survive. There are many ways you can help.
--Write to India's Minister of Environment and Forests asking him to safeguard the Dongria Kondh's rights:
http://www.survivalinternational.org/actnow/writealetter/dongria
--Donate to the Dongria Kondh campaign (and other Survival campaigns):
http://www.survivalinternational.org/donations
--Write to your MP or MEP (UK):
http://www.writetothem.com/
or Senators and members of Congress (US):
http://www.congress.org/
--Write to your local Indian high commission or embassy:
http://www.embassiesabroad.com/
--If you want to get more involved, contact Survival:
http://www.survivalinternational.org/info/contact
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
STOP SPENDING TRILLIONS ON THE WARS! BRING THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
END US/UN MILITARY OCCUPATION OF HAITI! FOOD NOT GUNS IN HAITI!
U.S. OUT OF IRAQ & AFGHANISTAN!
FREE PALESTINE!
MONEY FOR HEALTHCARE, JOBS AND EDUCATION!
U.S. HANDS OFF LATIN AMERICA!
SAN FRANCISCO MARCH AND RALLY
SATURDAY, MARCH 20, 11:00 A.M., CIVIC CENTER
GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT MARCH 20!
Volunteers Needed!
Postering and Flyering Work Sessions every Tues. 7pm and every Sat. 2pm
Volunteers are needed to help put up posters, hand out leaflets and make alert phone calls to fellow activists. Call 415-821-6545 for more info and for office hours. Come by the office to pick up posters and flyers in English, Spanish or Chinese. Participate in an Outreach Work Session held every Tues. 7pm and Sat. 2pm, meeting at the ANSWER Coalition Office: 2489 Mission St. #24 (at 21st St.), San Francisco, near 24th St. BART/#14, #49 MUNI.
Call 415-821-6545 for leafleting and posting schedule.
DONATIONS NEEDED:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=1443&JServSessionIdr004=nou1lpg115.app202a
NEXT MARCH 20 COALITION MEETING:
SATURDAY, March 6, 2010, 2:00 P.M.
(Preceded by steering committee at 12 noon)
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
Between 16th and 15th Streets, SF)
For more information call: 415-821-6545
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
NEXT MARCH 20 COALITION MEETING:
SATURDAY, March 6, 2010, 2:00 P.M.
(Preceded by steering committee at 12 noon)
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
Between 16th and 15th Streets, SF)
For more information call: 415-821-6545
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Bay Area Latin American Solidarity Coalition presents:
The Future of Honduras
Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 7:00 P.M.
Centro del Pueblo
474 Valencia (between 15th and 16th Streets)
San Francisco
$5-25 donations
(No one will be turned away due to lack of funds.)
415-924-3227
www.mitfamericas.org, www.balasc.org
Come hear Andres Conteris tell the story of his 129 days inside the Brazillian Embassy under seige with President Mel Zelaya after the Honduran coup.
Andres was the last English speaking journalist inside the Embassy, staying until the day that Zelaya was allowed to leave.
Now returned to San Francisco, Andres will tell us about those months withi the Embassy, and inform us of the most recent developments from Honduras.
Andres Conteris is a Latin American Correspondent with Democracy Now! and Flaspoints; has lived in Honduras; and has been involved in human rights activism for many years.
Andres will also be leading a human rights delegation to Honduras later in March, organized through the Task Force on the Americas. Proceeds from the March 10th presentation will benefit the Honduras Delegation Scholarship Fund.
Endorsed by: Chiapas Support Committee; FMLN Northern California; Haiti Action Committee; Nicaragua Center for Community Action; SOA Watch West; Task Force on the Americas
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Help Support Military War Resisters!
Courage to Resist Mailing and Pizza Party
Courage to Resist workspace
55 Santa Clara Ave (map)
At W Macarthur Blvd / Harrison St / 580
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
5:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Pizza and soda provided! Help Courage to Resist support the troops who refuse to fight by stuffing, stamping, and sealing envelopes. Our national mass mail fund appeal / newsletter accounts for about half of our operating budget--so this is a great way to help out. This newsletter will highlight the courage of current and recent GI resisters, including: Marc Hall who is jailed in Kuwait awaiting court martial, Oakland-native Alexis Hutchinson who is now free from the Army, and Travis Bishop who will be free soon. Help end the war. Support the troops with the courage to resist!
More information, call Courage to Resist at 510-488-3559
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Film Showing & Discussion
"Slingshot Hip Hop"
A fundraiser for Gaza relief
Thurs. March 11, 7:30pm
ATA (Artists' Television Access), 992 Valencia St., at 21st St., SF
$6 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
With a report on the current struggle in Palestine and plans for the March 20 anti-war protest.
Slingshot Hip Hop braids together the stories of young Palestinians living in Gaza, the West Bank and inside Israel as they discover hip hop and employ it as a tool to surmount divisions imposed by occupation and poverty. From internal checkpoints and Separation Walls to gender norms and generational differences, this is the story of young people crossing the borders that separate them.
Featuring Palestinian hip hop artists DAM, PR (Palestinian Rapperz), ABEER, Arapeyat, and Mahmoud Shalabi. 2008, 83 min., Arabic, English & Hebrew with English subtitles.
For more info, call 415-821-6545.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.answersf.org
answer@answersf.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Angela Davis, Linda Evans, Susan Rosenberg & Laura Whitehorn
invite you to:
SPARKS FLY 2010 -
An evening in celebration of Marilyn Buck and Women Political Prisoners
Saturday, March 13, 2010, 7 PM
10 PM Dance Party with DJ Kuttin Kandi
Uptown Body and Fender Garage
401 26th St., Oakland (Telegraph Ave)
Art Auction, Speakers & Music including, Maisha Quint, devorah major, Phavia Kujichagulia, Kayla Marin, Yuri Kochiyama, Graciela Perez-Trevisan & Bomberas de la Bahia Afro-Puerto Rican Bomba Plena
$10-50 (no one turned away)
Sparks Fly has honored women political prisoners for 20 years. Marilyn Buck is scheduled to get out of prison later this year after serving more than 25 years. Let's welcome her home! All money raised will go to the Release Fund for Marilyn Buck.
During this evening we also pay tribute to Safiya Bukhari on publication of her posthumous book, The War Before.
For book tour dates go to http://www.feministpress.org/books/safiya-bukhari/war.
Endorsed by: AK Press, All of Us or None, Arab Resource & Organizing Center, BACORR, California Coalition of Women Prisoners, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Code Pink, East Bay Prisoners Support, East Side Arts Alliance, Freedom Archives, Free the SF 8 Comm. Friends of Marilyn Buck, Haiti Action Committee, Kevin Cooper Defense Comm, KPFA Women's Magazine, LAGAI, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Long Haul, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, National Lawyers Guild/Bay Area, Out of Control, PM Press, Prison Activist Resource Center, Prison Radio Project, QUIT, Radical Women, SF Dyke March, SF Women In Black, Speak Out!, Stanley Tookie Williams Legacy Network
wheelchair accessible
for more information: sparksfly2010@gmail.com
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
LABOR'S STAKE IN ENDING THE WARS
Why are we in Afghanistan?
San Francisco
Saturday, March 20, 10:00 A.M.-12:00 Noon*
Plumbers Hall
1621 Market Street (Near Franklin)
U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq and its consequences.
Program Includes:
--"Why Are We in Afghanistan" a short video.
--Stephen Zunes, USF Professor and Middle East specialist
--Afghanistan War Veteran
--Military Families Speak Out
--Labor Leaders
Speakers followed by Q&A and Audience Response
Followed by a Labor Contingent march to Civic Center to join antiwar rally and march in solidarity with Unite HERE Local 2 members at downtown hotels. (Bring union banners and colors)
*Coffee, bagels and music at 10:00 A.M., march to Civic Center at Noon. Park in lot next to building or exit Civic Center BART station, walk about 6 blocks west on Market to Franklin.
Sponsored by:
San Francisco Labor Council and Bay Area U.S. Labor Against the War
Endorsed by:
Alameda Labor Council; AFT Local 2121; Bay Area Labor Committee for Peace and Justice; ILWU Local 10; Oakland Education Association; OPEIU Local 3; Peralta Federation of Teachers; SEIU Local 1021; Unite HERE Local 2; United Educators of San Francisco.
This list is in formation. Additional endorsements are invited.
For more information: 510-263-5303
labor-for-peace-and-justice@igc.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
U.S. OUT OF IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN NOW!
FREE PALESTINE!
San Francisco March and Rally
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
11am, Civic Center Plaza
National March on Washington
on Saturday, March 20, 2010
Fri., March 19 Day of Action & Outreach in D.C.
People from all over the country are organizing to converge on Washington, D.C., to demand the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all U.S. and NATO forces from Afghanistan and Iraq.
On Saturday, March 20, 2010, there will be a massive National March & Rally in D.C. A day of action and outreach in Washington, D.C., will take place on Friday, March 19, preceding the Saturday march.
There will be coinciding mass marches on March 20 in San Francisco and Los Angeles.
The national actions are initiated by a large number of organizations and prominent individuals. see below)
Click here to become an endorser:
http://answer.pephost.org/site/Survey?SURVEY_ID=5940&ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&autologin=true&link=endorse-body-1
Click here to make a donation:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=2302&autologin=true&donate=body-1&JServSessionIdr002=2yzk5fh8x2.app13b
We will march together to say "No Colonial-type Wars and Occupations in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine!" We will march together to say "No War Against Iran!" We will march together to say "No War for Empire Anywhere!"
Instead of war, we will demand funds so that every person can have a job, free and universal health care, decent schools, and affordable housing.
March 20 is the seventh anniversary of the criminal war of aggression launched by Bush and Cheney against Iraq. One million or more Iraqis have died. Tens of thousands of U.S. troops have lost their lives or been maimed, and continue to suffer a whole host of enduring problems from this terrible war.
This is the time for united action. The slogans on banners may differ, but all those who carry them should be marching shoulder to shoulder.
Killing and dying to avoid the perception of defeat
Bush is gone, but the war and occupation in Iraq still go on. The Pentagon is demanding a widening of the war in Afghanistan. They project an endless war with shifting battlefields. And a "single-payer" war budget that only grows larger and larger each year. We must act.
Both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were predicated on the imperial fantasy that the U.S. could create stable, proxy colonial-type governments in both countries. They were to serve as an extension of "American" power in these strategic and resource-rich regions.
That fantasy has been destroyed. Now U.S. troops are being sent to kill or be killed so that the politicians in uniform "the generals and admirals") and those in three-piece suits "our elected officials") can avoid taking responsibility for a military setback in wars that should have never been started. Their military ambitions are now reduced to avoiding the appearance of defeat.
That is exactly what happened in Vietnam! Avoiding defeat, or the perception of defeat, was the goal Nixon and Kissinger set for themselves when they took office in 1969. For this noble cause, another 30,000 young GIs perished before the inevitable troop pullout from Vietnam in 1973. The number of Vietnamese killed between 1969 and 1973 was greater by many hundreds of thousands.
All of us can make the difference - progress and change comes from the streets and from the grassroots.
The people went to the polls in 2008, and the enthusiasm and desire for change after eight years of the Bush regime was the dominant cause that led to election of a big Democratic Party majority in both Houses of Congress and the election of Barack Obama to the White House.
But it should now be obvious to all that waiting for politicians to bring real change - on any front - is simply a prescription for passivity by progressives and an invitation to the array of corporate interests from military contractors to the banks, to big oil, to the health insurance giants that dominate the political life of the country. These corporate interests work around the clock to frustrate efforts for real change, and they are the guiding hand behind the recent street mobilizations of the ultra-right.
It is up to us to act. If people had waited for politicians to do the right thing, there would have never been a Civil Rights Act, or unions, women's rights, an end to the Vietnam war or any of the profound social achievements and basic rights that people cherish.
It is time to be back in the streets. Organizing centers are being set up in cities and towns throughout the country.
We must raise $50,000 immediately just to get started. Please make your contribution today. We need to reserve buses, which are expensive $1,800 from NYC, $5,000 from Chicago, etc.). We have to print 100,000 leaflets, posters and stickers. There will be other substantial expenses as March 20 draws closer.
Please become an endorser and active supporter of the March 20 National March on Washington.
Please make an urgently needed tax-deductible donation today. We can't do this without your active support.
The initiators of the March 20 National March on Washington preceded by the March 19 Day of Action and Outreach in D.C.) include: the ANSWER Coalition; Muslim American Society Freedom; National Council of Arab Americans; Cynthia McKinney; Malik Rahim, co-founder of Common Ground Collective; Ramsey Clark; Cindy Sheehan; Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CODEPINK; Deborah Sweet, Director, World Can't Wait; Mike Ferner, President, Veterans for Peace; Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition; Heidi Boghosian, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild; Ron Kovic, author of "Born on the 4th of July"; Juan Jose Gutierrez, Director, Latino Movement USA; Col. Ann Wright ret.); March Forward!; Partnership for Civil Justice; Palestinian American Women Association; Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines; Alliance for Global Justice; Claudia de la Cruz, Pastor, Iglesia San Romero de Las Americas-UCC; Phil Portluck, Social Justice Ministry, Covenant Baptist Church, D.C.; Blase & Theresa Bonpane, Office of the Americas; Coalition for Peace and Democracy in Honduras; Comite Pro-Democracia en Mexico; Frente Unido de los Pueblos Americanos; Comites de Base FMLN, Los Angeles; Free Palestine Alliance; GABRIELA Network; Justice for Filipino American Veterans; KmB Pro-People Youth; Students Fight Back; Jim Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild - LA Chapter; LEF Foundation; National Coalition to Free the Angola 3; Community Futures Collective; Advocates for Indigenous California Language Survival; Companeros del Barrio; Barrio Unido for Full and Unconditional Amnesty, Bay Area United Against War.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-265-1948
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Defend Holly Works!
Monday April 5th 2010, 8 AM,
Alameda County Courthouse,
12th & Oak St, Oakland
8 AM demonstrate! 9 AM, attend trial.
(from 12th Street BART Station, walk down 12th St toward Lake Merritt.
Demonstrate/enter court at 12th and Oak St)
Holly Works is the now the last remaining defendant of the Oakland 100. Her trial was to start Monday, March 1st. But a defense motion for a postponement was granted, since Holly's chief witness is out of the country at this time.
A local musician and activist, Holly was arrested before she even arrived at the protest! Walking down the street with a friend, she was detained and fraudulently charged with... assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer!
This took place at least an hour before the protest was even to have started! Originally charged with assaulting a cop with a knife, Holly had no knife, and so that had to be changed. Since she had a screw driver in her purse, the cops accused her of using this "deadly weapon" to assault an officer. Once again, a total fabrication, made up by the police to tie up protesters with time-consuming prosecutions.
DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST HOLLY WORKS!
Oscar Grant was a young black retail grocery worker and father of a young daughter. He was out with friends for New Years Eve when he was detained by BART police. He was shot in the back at point blank range by a BART cop as he lay face-down on the Fruitvale station platform early on New Years Day, 2009. Cell-phone videos taken of the incident by witnesses on the station platform were posted on the internet, and protests erupted in Oakland. Over a week later, the officer, Johannes Mehserle, was finally charged with murder. He was granted a change of venue, and is being tried in Los Angeles.
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610 • 510 763-2347
www.laboractionmumia.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The US Social Forum II
" June 22-26, 2010 "
Detroit, Michigan, USA
Another World Is Possible! Another US is Necessary!
http://www.ussf2010.org/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Check out:
Hotter than a Motherfucker!
By: Warren E. Henderson
[Warren E. Henderson has been incarcerated for many years. He is mentioned in the book, "Jailhouse Lawyers," By Mumia Abu-Jamal of one of the most effective "jailhouse lawyers." He has written two books from prison. Only this one is still available...]
ISBN: 1-4257-8463-1 (Trade Paperback 6x9 )
ISBN13: 978-1-4257-8463-8 (Trade Paperback 6x9 )
Pages : 130
Book Format :Trade Book 6x9
Subject :
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / General
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / People of Color
HISTORY / United States / General
LITERARY CRITICISM & COLLECTIONS / American
Availability
Trade Paperback 6x9 ($17.84)
Please choose book availability
https://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/bookdisplay.aspx?bookid=39510
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
I AM SEAN BELL, black boys speak
by Stacey Muhammad plus
1 year ago 1 year ago: Thu, Jan 1, 2009 6:22pm EST (Eastern Standard Time)
http://vimeo.com/2691617
I AM SEAN BELL
black boys speak
A Short Form Documentary from Wildseed Films
Directed by Stacey Muhammad
Asst. Directed by Shomari Mason
Edited by: Stacey Muhammad & R.H. Bless
Principal Photography: May 17, 2008
Brooklyn, NY
Running Time 10:30
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
A Carnival Artist Without a Carnival
A Haitian Artist Struggles to Show His Work
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/world/index.html
War veterans and resisters say "All Out for March 20th-National March on Washington!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwsLfG9JjF8
Bilin Reenacts Avatar Film 12-02-2010 By Haitham Al Katib
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chw32qG-M7E
Watch the video: "Haiti and the Devil's Curse" at:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
or
Haiti And The 'Devil's Curse' - The Truth About Haiti & Lies Of The Media PART 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWqgOe0-0xA
Haiti And The 'Devil's Curse' - The Truth About Haiti & Lies Of The Media PART 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9Qki6TrI7M&feature=related
It's a powerful and accurate history of Haiti--including historical film footage of French, U.S., Canadian, and UN invasions, mass murder and torture, exploitation and occupation of Haiti--featuring Danny Glover.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
New York Times Video: For Haitian Children, a Crisis Escalates
Front page of the Times, February 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/
This video shows the frustration of doctors that haven't the supplies or equipment to help severely wounded Haitian children. One child, the doctor explains, had her foot amputated by her family in order to free her from the rubble she was buried under. They finally got her to the hospital after two weeks. By then, of course, the wound was infected. But, not having enough antibiotics, her other foot got infected and that had to be amputated. She is still rotting away at the hospital that can't care for her properly--as hard as the doctors are trying--and they are trying hard.
As it stands now--they haven't got the antibiotics and surgical supplies and they can't get the children to a hospital in the U.S. Since the attempted kidnapping of children by the American missionaries, the children are not allowed out of the country without papers--even when accompanied by their parents. The thing is, nobody has papers in Haiti so the parents can't prove it's their child. Nobody has driver's licenses, birth cirtificates--not the parents nor the children--if such proof exists, it's buried under the rubble along with all their other belongings. So, again, the innocent suffer because of the inability/unwillingness of the wealthiest nation in the world to bring the stuff that is needed to the people who need it because they are experts at bringing bombs, daisy-cutters and white phosphorous, not humanitarian aid. ...bw
The article of the same title is:
Paperwork Hinders Airlifts of Ill Haitian Children
By IAN URBINA
February 9, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/world/americas/09airlift.html?ref=world
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Gaza in Plain Language: a video by Anthony Lawson and Joe Mowrey
Anthony Lawson and Joe Mowrey have created an amazing video. The narrative is from an article published not long ago in Dissident Voice written by Mr. Mowrey. [See article with the same name. A warning, however. This video is very graphic and very brutal but this is a truth we must see!..bw] A video that narrates just what happened, without emotion... just the facts, ma'am! Share it with those you know! Now on PTT TV so Google and YouTube can't censor this information totally.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2010/02/video-gaza-in-plain-language/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Glen Ford on Black Delusion in the Age of Obama
[A speech delivered to the Black is Back Coalition for Social Justice, Peace and Reparations conference. This is a great speech full of information.]
blackisbackcoalition.org
http://blip.tv/file/3169123
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Security in an Insecure Land
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/01/30/world/americas/1247466794033/security-in-an-insecure-land.html?hp
What the US/UN police and military are doing in Haiti -- really.
This video takes us to the poorest section of Port-au-Prince, Cité Soleil. It looks like a giant concentration camp in the middle of a desert. The UN Police caravan have nothing with them but cameras and guns! People--men, women, children, are standing alongside the road begging for help. They say they have had no help at all since the earthquake.
The UN police bring NO AID with them. No food, water--nothing! Then the police, guarded by soldiers with automatic weapons, and their camera stop among a large group of people. The UN cop, Alix Sainvil, a Haitian-American United Nations police officer who worked to secure Cité Soleil before the earthquake, is talking to the camera; he explains that since the jail collapsed and prisoners escaped after the earthquake, he worried about how the "gangs" are taking over again.
The camera pans the faces of ALL the men.
One "gang member" (synonym "male") overhears what Soleil is saying to the camera and speaks up and says, "Even if your not a looter, when you walk past a store police will just shoot you for no reason. That's the only thing you do!" That, of course, designates him a "gang member."
The cop, Soleil, says as they are driving away, "that young man is a 'troublemaker.'"
This video illustrates just what the UN has been doing in Haiti. They have been patrolling these slums with automatic weapons and targeting anyone who shows any signs of resistance to the deplorable state of poverty they live in. It is a heinous atrocity orchestrated by the U.S.!
Haiti is US/UN occupied territory now. AND THEY STILL HAVEN'T GIVEN OUT ANY MEANINGFUL AMOUNTS OF AID! They typically pull up with one-tenth of the supplies needed so that most go hungry and get nothing but their fury ignited. And who the hell wouldn't be furious? This is Katrina in powers of ten!
In another article in the Times, "Food Distribution Retooled; Americans Arrested," by DAMIEN CAVE, (number 19, below) "After two weeks of often chaotic food distribution, the United Nations announced plans on Saturday for a coupon-based system that aims to give rice to 10,000 Haitians a day at each of 16 locations around Port-au-Prince." (The article points out that the rice will be given to women only.)
AFTER TWO WEEKS THEY WILL BEGIN THIS WEEK?!?!? I guess they're thinking it'll be cheaper in the long run if more people die first. And that's the bottom line for this government! By the way, the ten Americans were arrested by the Haitian government for trying to take 33 Haitian children across into the Dominican Republic for "adoption." The thing is, they had no proof the children were orphans. I wonder how much they were going to charge for them?
--Bonnie Weinstein
Also see:
Haitian Law Enforcement Returns
The Haitian police are back on patrol in Port-au-Prince.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/world/americas/1194811622209/index.html#1247466794033
Haitians Scramble for Aid
France24 reports on desperate Haitians trying to get some aid food in the Cité Soleil district of Port-au-Prince.
http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/world/americas/1194811622209/index.html#1247466794033
HOW MANY CRIMES CAN THE U.S. COMMIT IN A CENTURY? EVIDENTLY THEIR PENCHANT FOR MORE AND MORE EGREGIOUS CRIMES ARE LIMITLESS! IT'S UP TO US TO STOP THEM! U.S. OUT OF HAITI NOW! LEAVE THE FOOD AND SUPPLIES AND GET THE HELL OUT! AND TAKE YOUR MARINES, GUNS AND TANKS WITH YOU!
U.S. Marines prevent the distribution of food to starving people due to "lack of security." They bring a truck full of supplies then, because their chain of command says they haven't enough men with guns, they drive away with the truckload of food leaving the starving Haitians running after the truck empty-handed! This is shown in detail in the video in the New York Times titled, "Confusion in Haitian Countryside." The Marines-the strong, the brave--turn tail and run! INCAPABLE, EVEN, OF DISTRIBUTING FOOD TO UNARMED, STARVING, MEN, WOMEN AND CHILDREN!
http://video.nytimes.com/video/2010/01/22/world/americas/1247466678828/confusion-in-the-haitian-countryside.html?ref=world
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Lost Generation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42E2fAWM6rA
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Please sign the petition to stop the execution of Mumia Abu-Jamal and
and forward it to all your lists.
"Mumia Abu-Jamal and The Global Abolition of the Death Penalty"
http://www.petitiononline.com/Mumialaw/petition.html
(A Life In the Balance - The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal, at 34, Amnesty Int'l, 2000; www. Amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/001/2000.)
[Note: This petition is approved by Mumia Abu-Jamal and his lead attorney, Robert R. Bryan, San Francisco (E-mail: MumiaLegalDefense@gmail.com; Website: www.MumiaLegalDefense.org).]
*********************************************************************
Alert! New Threat To Mumia's Life!
Supreme Court Set To Announce A Decision
On the State Appeal To Reinstate Mumia's Death Sentence
17 January 2010
The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 Oakland CA 94610
(510) 763-2347
Visit our newly-rebuilt and updated web site for background information on Mumia's innocence. See the "What You Can Do Now" page: www.laboractionmumia.org
- The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 Oakland CA 94610
(510) 763-2347
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Pay at the Top
The compensation research firm Equilar compiled data reflecting pay for 200 chief executives at 198 public companies that filed their annual proxies by March 27 and had revenue of at least $6.3 billion. (Two companies, Motorola and Synnex, had co-C.E.O.'s.) | See a detailed description of the methodology.
http://projects.nytimes.com/executive_compensation?ref=business
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
AMAZING SPEECH BY WAR VETERAN
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akm3nYN8aG8
The Unemployment Game Show: Are You *Really* Unemployed? - From Mint.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulu3SCAmeBA
Video: Gaza Lives On
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lU5Wi2jhnW0
ASSESSMENT - "LEFT IN THE COLD"- CROW CREEK - 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmfue_pjwho&feature=PlayList&p=217F560F18109313&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=5
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE LYNNE STEWART NOW!
Lynne Stewart in Jail!
Mail tax free contributions payable to National Lawyers Guild Foundation. Write in memo box: "Lynne Stewart Defense." Mail to: Lynne Stewart Defense, P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.
SEND RESOLUTIONS AND STATEMENTS OF SUPPORT TO DEFENSE ATTORNEY JOSHUA L. DRATEL, ESQ. FAX: 212) 571 3792 AND EMAIL: jdratel@aol.com
SEND PROTESTS TO ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER:
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Department of Justice Main Switchboard - 202-514-2000
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line - 202-353-1555
To send Lynne a letter, write:
Lynne Stewart
53504-054
MCC-NY
150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007
Lynne Stewart speaks in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOQ5_VKRf5k&feature=related
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
With a New Smile, 'Rage' Fades Away [SINGLE PAYER NOW!!!]
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/12/08/health/20091208_Clinic/index.html?ref=us
FTA [F**k The Army] Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HlkgPCgU7g
Buffy Sainte Marie - No No Keshagesh
[Keshagesh is the Cree word to describe a greedy puppy that wants to keep eating everything, a metaphor for corporate greed]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKmAb1gNN74&feature=player_embedded#
Buffy Sainte-Marie - No No Keshagesh lyrics:
http://www.lyricsmode.com/?i=print_lyrics&id=705368
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The Story of Mouseland: As told by Tommy Douglas in 1944
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqgOvzUeiAA
The Communist Manifesto illustrated by Cartoons
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KUl4yfABE4
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
HELP VFP PUT THIS BOOK IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL OR PUBLIC LIBRARY
For a donation of only $18.95, we can put a copy of the book "10 Excellent Reasons Not to Join the Military" into a public or high school library of your choice. [Reason number 1: You may be killed]
A letter and bookplate will let readers know that your donation helped make this possible.
Putting a book in either a public or school library ensures that students, parents, and members of the community will have this valuable information when they need it.
Don't have a library you would like us to put it in? We'll find one for you!
https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/826/t/9311/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=4906
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
This is a must-see video about the life of Oscar Grant, a young man who loved his family and was loved by his family. It's important to watch to understand the tremendous loss felt by his whole family as a result of his cold-blooded murder by BART police officers--Johannes Mehserle being the shooter while the others held Oscar down and handcuffed him to aid Mehserle in the murder of Oscar Grant January 1, 2009.
The family wants to share this video here with you who support justice for Oscar Grant.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/21/18611878.php
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Troy Anthony Davis is an African American man who has spent the last 18 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. New evidence and new testimony have been presented to the Georgia courts, but the justice system refuses to consider this evidence, which would prove Troy Davis' innocence once and for all.
Sign the petition and join the NAACP, Amnesty International USA, and other partners in demanding justice for Troy Davis!
http://www.iamtroy.com/
For Now, High Court Punts on Troy Davis, on Death Row for 18 Years
By Ashby Jones
Wall Street Journal Law Blog
June 30, 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/06/30/for-now-high-court-punts-on-troy-davis-on-death-row-for-18-years/
Take action now:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&aid=12361&ICID=A0906A01&tr=y&auid=5030305
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
New videos from April 24 Oakland Mumia event
http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=jlboak
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501c)3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Thousands rally on campuses, streets for schools
Nanette Asimov, Matthai Kuruvila, Justin Berton,Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, March 5, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/04/BAC41CAAM1.DTL
2) Wells Fargo Chief Earns $21 Million
By REUTERS
March 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/business/04bank.html?ref=business
3) F.D.A. Cracks Down on Nestlé and Others Over Health Claims on Labels
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
March 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/business/04food.html?ref=health
4) Soup label conundrum: Less is sometimes more
[The video of this News segment is at this site...bw]
By Michael Finney
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=7307469
5) One in Three Killed by US Drones in Pakistan Is a Civilian, Report Claims
By The Telegraph/UK
March 4, 2010
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/04-1
6) NYPD Officer claims pressure to make arrests
[Investigations video at this site...bw]
By Jim Hoffer
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=7305356&pt=print
7) A.I.G., Greece, and Who's Next?
Editorial
March 5, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/opinion/05fri1.html?hp
8) Tracking Thursday's Education Demonstrations
By ANNA BLOOM, ARMAND EMAMDJOMEH, GERRY SHIH AND RACHEL GROSS
6:50 p.m. |The Day of Action, Mostly Peaceful
March 4, 2010, 10:52 am
http://bayarea.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/tracking-thursdays-education-demonstrations/?scp=5&sq=student%20demonstrations%20March%204,%202010&st=cse
9) Haitian Singer and His Guitar Fight Urge to Weep
By SIMON ROMERO
March 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/world/americas/05haitimusic.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Thousands rally on campuses, streets for schools
Nanette Asimov, Matthai Kuruvila, Justin Berton,Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writers
Friday, March 5, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/04/BAC41CAAM1.DTL
Gathering for a series of feisty rallies on college campuses, in civic plazas and in the streets, thousands of protesters lashed out Thursday against the budget cuts and neglect that they say are breaking down the state's public education system.
The historic day of demonstrations in the Bay Area and beyond was largely peaceful, with students and others carrying signs like "Chop from the top," a reference to what they see as puffed-up executive salaries. They chanted, recited poetry and shared personal stories.
But amid an often festive atmosphere, there were also efforts to make more forceful statements during the protests, called the Day of Action to Defend Public Education.
More than 150 protesters were arrested on Interstate 880 in Oakland after using an exit ramp to walk onto the freeway and shut it down for nearly an hour. Many wore black, identified themselves as anarchists and carried a banner that read, "Occupy everything."
The action just before 5 p.m., which backed up rush-hour traffic for miles, came after a peaceful rally at Oakland City Hall. Police in riot gear chased and tackled some demonstrators. One was taken away in an ambulance after falling from the freeway onto a road below, witnesses said. Police said the man was expected to survive.
Schools of all kinds
The I-880 closure came near the end of a day that saw protests organized by students, labor unions, activist groups and others on campuses of all kinds, from elementary schools to UC Berkeley. They ripped state officials, who have cut millions of dollars from education budgets at all levels during the recession.
Hundreds rallied at the state Capitol in Sacramento, where speeches included calls to lower the two-thirds requirement in the Legislature to pass a state budget and to tax oil production and tobacco to fund higher education.
Some students at Oceana High School in Pacifica formed an "SOS" on a beach, while in San Francisco more than 50 Commodore Sloat Elementary fifth-graders boarded a Muni bus to the State Building. Each wore a handmade sandwich board sign protesting budget cuts to schools.
Students also rallied in Texas - where a day earlier regents had approved a tuition hike at state universities - as well as in Illinois and Alabama.
Many elected officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, responded with statements of support for the protesters. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said he wanted a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that higher education received more funding than the state's prison system.
Many of the day's protesters, including Jennie Lew, said the issue was personal. Wearing a "Pissed-off parent" T-shirt at San Francisco State University, the mother of three college students - one at San Francisco State, another at UC Riverside and a third at De Anza College in Cupertino - said she and her husband were struggling to keep up with rising tuition.
Seeking return on dollar
The couple are graduates of UC Berkeley and were educated on federal aid and scholarships, Lew said, becoming members of what she described as the "educated middle class." Now, she said, her sons' graduation dates have been delayed because classes have been trimmed and teachers laid off.
"I'm not getting what I'm paying for," Lew said. "My husband and I were educated by the system, and now we're able to provide for our sons - just as it is supposed to work in society. But they may be the first generation who can't afford their education, much less receive it."
California's $20 billion budget gap this year, on top of $60 billion last year, has resulted in soaring tuition at the University of California and California State University. Courses are jammed, and many students can't get in at all. Lecturers have been laid off and employees furloughed. CSU wouldn't let new students enroll at all this semester.
Students turned away
More than 20,000 students will be turned away from community colleges next fall because there won't be enough classes for them, community college Chancellor Jack Scott said. According to the California Teachers Association, school districts across the state have issued almost 19,000 pink slips to public school teachers, warning that they may lose their jobs at the end of the semester.
The idea for protest, also known as March Forth, was hatched at UC Berkeley last fall and has spread to campuses in dozens of states.
University students began protesting Sept. 24, as UC and CSU were poised to raise tuition by 32 percent. UC had just raised tuition by 9.3 percent the previous May. The protests continued during the fall semester, growing increasingly angry and occasionally violent, as students seized buildings at UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz and San Francisco State.
Thursday's protest was an effort to keep the momentum going. Students set up Web sites and Twitter and Facebook pages. They formed committees to connect with high schools, community colleges, union leaders, teachers and workers.
In the end, demonstrators had different strategies. While some preferred to chant and hold signs, others decided they should try to shut down classes by storming into them or pulling fire alarms. At times, students debated the merits of attempting to occupy buildings at UC Berkeley and San Francisco State.
Calm prevailed in San Francisco, where thousands of demonstrators marched from 24th and Mission streets, stopping traffic on blocks of Mission, Market, Van Ness and Grove during a two-hour walk that concluded with a rally in front of City Hall.
Rallies mostly peaceful
Demonstrations were generally peaceful at UC Berkeley, the site of a campus rally last week that spilled onto city streets, leading to a riot and a clash with police. Thursday morning, about 100 protesters gathered at Sather Gate - the campus' main entrance - and blocked students from entering.
At Wheeler Hall, the site of a raucous protest in November, biology lecturer David Presti wasn't talking about molecular structures. Instead, he discussed a ballot initiative crafted by UC Berkeley linguistics Professor George Lakoff that would change the way the state Legislature passes budgets and raises taxes.
Groups of protesters ran through campus buildings beating drums and shouting, "Today we strike! Tomorrow go to school!"
When they threw open the door to an Italian class in Dwinelle Hall and shouted, "Out of the classrooms, into the streets," the professor smiled. Then he shouted in Italian to get out.
A 6-mile march from UC Berkeley to Oakland City Hall was calm. White-robed, Middle Eastern shopkeepers raised their fists in solidarity and people on the stoops of old Victorians nodded as marchers went past.
Car damaged in Santa Cruz
But at UC Santa Cruz, Provost David Kliger urged students, employees and others not to come to the campus. Up to 30 protesters, police said, smashed the rear and side windows of a car with either a hammer or a rock just before 8 a.m. The male driver, who was passing by the campus, was unhurt, and no one was arrested.
At UC Davis, almost 300 protesters tried to enter and block Interstate 80 before 3 p.m., prompting officers to form a human barrier and launch pepper spray balls to hold them back, said campus Police Chief Annette Spicuzza. The highway remained open.
In Oakland, a young man who had been with the splinter group of protesters said the move to occupy I-880 happened quickly.
"It seems like at a certain point everyone panicked," said Nick Xavier, 24, who did not walk onto the freeway. "It stopped traffic. They'll get on the news. That was the point of today, so they achieved some kind of success, I guess."
Day of Action to Defend Public Education
Thursday's statewide campus protests involved all levels of public education, from elementary grades through graduate school.
The purpose: To send a message to state legislators and the governor that students are suffering because of budget cuts.
Background: The University of California, California State University and community colleges are all struggling to find ways to operate after the state, in the midst of a budget crisis, withheld hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. School districts across the state also are facing severe budget shortfalls and are expected to issue almost 19,000 pink slips to public school teachers.
Universities: Tuition has soared at both UC and CSU. Classes are overcrowded, and many students can't get in. Lecturers have been laid off and employees furloughed. CSU wouldn't let new students enroll this semester.
Community colleges: The system expects to turn away more than 20,000 students next fall because of a shortage of classes.
K-12 schools: San Francisco Unified School District, facing a $113 million budget gap over the next two years, is one example of how the crisis is hitting the classroom. Almost 900 teachers and administrators employed by the district will receive pink slips this month, although not all of them will lose their jobs. In addition, there will probably be cuts to popular programs such as summer school and increases in class size.
Chronicle staff writers Victoria Colliver, Henry K. Lee and Jill Tucker contributed to this report. E-mail the writers at nasimov@sfchronicle.com, mkuruvila@sfchronicle.com, jberton@sfchronicle.com and dbulwa@sfchronicle.com.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Wells Fargo Chief Earns $21 Million
By REUTERS
March 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/business/04bank.html?ref=business
Wells Fargo paid its chief executive, John G. Stumpf, compensation worth $21.3 million for 2009, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mr. Stumpf's compensation included a salary of $5.6 million in cash and stock, and stock awards of more than $13 million. Last year, he received total compensation of $8.8 million, according to the filing.
Other banks have yet to file preliminary proxy statements, but Goldman Sachs said in filings last month that its chief executive, Lloyd C. Blankfein, would receive a $9 million stock bonus.
JPMorgan Chase is set to give its chief executive, Jamie Dimon, a $16 million stock payout for 2009.
Wells Fargo said in December that Mr. Stumpf would receive a stock payout worth about $10 million but would not receive a cash bonus.
Wells Fargo, which reported a profit of $12.3 billion in 2009, said last month it would give shareholders a "say on pay" vote at its annual meeting on April 27. This would be only the second such vote in the company's history.
Stock in Wells Fargo, which is based in San Francisco, rose 33 cents, to $28.20 a share on Wednesday. The shares are up 4.5 percent this year, after falling 8.4 percent in 2009.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) F.D.A. Cracks Down on Nestlé and Others Over Health Claims on Labels
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
March 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/business/04food.html?ref=health
The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday released 17 warning letters to food manufacturers, making good on a vow to crack down on misleading labels on food packages.
The agency accused the companies of pumping up the nutritional claims of their products or masking contents like unhealthy fats. The letters went out to the makers of a broad array of products, including Gerber baby food, Juicy Juice, Dreyer's ice cream, POM pomegranate juice and Gorton's fish fillets.
"The F.D.A. is not merely firing a shot across the bow; it is declaring war on misleading food labeling," said Bruce A. Silverglade, director of legal affairs of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, an advocacy group that had pushed for stricter rules.
The warning letters followed commitments last fall by the F.D.A. commissioner, Margaret A. Hamburg, who has made a priority of improving information for consumers on food packages.
Asked about the warning letters, Scott Faber, vice president for federal affairs at the Grocery Manufacturers Association, pointed to an open letter from Dr. Hamburg to the industry that was also released on Wednesday. In that letter, she pledged cooperation with food manufacturers in improving labeling.
"What's significant today is that Commissioner Hamburg took the extra step of reinforcing her commitment to work with industry to develop a clear, science-based labeling system that is effective with consumers," Mr. Faber said. The letters, sent last month but just made public, addressed a range of violations.
Several products were singled out for labels that boasted prominently that they contained no trans fat, even though they had high levels of saturated fat. The products included Gorton's Fish Fillets, Spectrum Organic All Vegetable Shortening and two products from Dreyer's, the Dibs bite-size ice cream snacks and the vanilla-fudge Drumsticks.
According to Dreyer's, the Dibs contain 17 grams of saturated fat per serving. Federal guidelines recommend that a person not consume more than 20 grams in a day.
In the case of POM pomegranate juice, the agency said that the company's Web site, which is listed on its bottles, carried misleading claims that the juice could prevent or cure diseases like hypertension, diabetes and cancer.
Such claims are not allowed on food products and would require that the juice be treated, in regulatory terms, as a drug, according to the letter sent to the company.
POM said that "all statements made in connection with POM products are true" and supported by scientific research.
It added, "We are currently reviewing the F.D.A.'s concerns and, as strong advocates of honest labeling and fair advertising, we are looking forward to working with the agency to resolve this matter."
The letters also singled out some baby foods made by Gerber and Beech-Nut. The letters say that those foods make numerous health claims that are not allowed because appropriate dietary levels for the nutrients cited have not been established for children under 2 years old.
The F.D.A. said that the labels of some Nestlé Juicy Juice products implied they were primarily made of a single juice, like orange or tangerine, rather than a flavored blend of juices.
Nestlé, which owns Juicy Juice, said that it believed its labels complied with regulations but that it was working with the F.D.A. Dreyer's and Gerber, which are also owned by Nestlé, said they were cooperating with the F.D.A. and would not comment beyond that.
Efforts to reach several companies were not successful.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Soup label conundrum: Less is sometimes more
[The video of this News segment is at this site...bw]
By Michael Finney
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/7_on_your_side&id=7307469
You've seen the labels on many products that say "heart healthy" or "low sodium," but are you really getting anything more, or less, than the regular products? 7 On Your Side made a couple of surprising discoveries.
Lots of common brand names are now coming in new varieties to appeal to health conscious consumers. The healthier brands are usually a little more expensive than the regular ones. But we found two examples of a supposedly healthier product that may not be any better for you than the cheaper stuff.
Deirdre Owen loves a good bowl of soup, but she is also careful not to get too much salt or fat. That is why she was drawn to a can of her favorite Campbell's tomato soup. The green label says "25 percent less sodium than regular."
"Heart healthy or low sodium or whatever, of course it catches your eye," she said.
Before buying, she compared the less sodium soup with the regular tomato soup. What she found was astonishing.
"That's when I found out they were 100 percent identical," Owen said. "I thought I'm not going crazy, it's the same."
The label shows Campbell's regular tomato soup has 480 milligrams of sodium, and yet the soup with "less sodium" has 480 milligrams, too. The only difference seemed to be the price. The soup labeled "25 percent less sodium" cost about 50 cents more per can than the regular soup.
We asked shoppers to compare the two cans.
"Sodium: 480 milligrams. They're the same. I wonder why they're doing that," Phyllis Goodman said.
"Oh, this is exactly the same!" Kelli McLaughlin said.
"They both have the same amount of sodium even though this says 25 percent less. Who knew?" Doug Page said.
"If I was just running in and grabbing something off the shelf and I wanted less sodium, I'd grab the one that says 'less sodium,'" Ellie Suida of Phoenix, Arizona said.
That was not all we found. A can of Campbell's Healthy Request tomato soup says it is low in fat. In fact, it only has 1.5 grams of fat per serving. While the healthy soup has 1.5 grams of fat, the regular soup has no fat at all.
"This has more fat!" McLaughlin said.
"The one that's less fat, says less fat, actually has more fat in it," Suida said.
Plus, the healthy soup retails for about 50 cents more per can than the regular soup.
"I'm wondering what they've added that makes it healthier," nutritionist Toby Morris said.
Morris tried to find a reason to buy the healthier kind over the regular.
"It seems that they're essentially the same," she said. "One just has a more pronounced label."
According to Campbell's, the label saying "25 percent less sodium" is comparing that soup with the average of all varieties of Campbell's condensed soup, not just the tomato.
As for the Healthy Request soup, Campbell's says it does contain fat, but still falls within American Heart Association guidelines. The fat is added to improve flavor and help the body absorb nutrients.
Campbell's said the healthy varieties are more expensive because the recipes are different and they are made in smaller batches.
"You think, oh boy, this is good and healthy for me," Owen said. "It could lead people into thinking they're eating better, when in fact they aren't necessarily."
Campbell's says its regular tomato soup used to have twice as much sodium as it does now. The company also says it plans to reduce the salt in its less sodium variety. So eventually it will be lower in sodium than the regular kind -- just not right now.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) One in Three Killed by US Drones in Pakistan Is a Civilian, Report Claims
By The Telegraph/UK
March 4, 2010
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/03/04-1
One in three "militants" killed in US Predator Drone attacks in Pakistan's remote tribal areas is in fact a civilian, according to a report by an American think tank.
by Dean Nelson
The report, by the Washington-based New America Foundation, will fuel growing criticism of the use of unmanned drones in the fight against al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, who use Pakistan as a base for attacks on Nato forces in Afghanistan.
Critics say their use not only takes innocent lives, but amounts to unlawful extra-judicial killing of militants.
The report by Peter Bergen and Katherine Tiedemann found that 32 per cent of those killed in drone attacks since 2004 were civilians.
Their report, The Year of the Drone, studied 114 drone raids in which more than 1200 people were killed. Of those, between 549 and 849 were reliably reported to be militant fighters, while the rest were civilians.
"The true civilian fatality rate since 2004 according to our analysis is approximately 32 per cent," the foundation reported.
The number of drone attacks has increased dramatically since Barack Obama replaced George W Bush as US president early last year.
There were 45 drone attacks during Mr Bush's two terms of government, compared with 51 during the first year of Mr Obama's new administration. In the first two months of this year, up to 140 "militants" have been killed.
Despite the controversy surrounding the scale of civilian deaths, and public opposition from Pakistan's government, the Obama administration has increased its reliance on drones to target "high-value" Taliban and al-Qaeda figures.
Since last autumn, they have killed the Taliban's notorious leader Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, and more recently, it is claimed, his successor Hakimullah Mehsud.
In 2008, Pakistani intelligence sources said they had killed Rashid Rauf, the British al-Qaeda militant behind the 2006 transatlantic airliner bomb plot.
Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al Zawahiri is believed to had a lucky escape when a drone struck a compound he had recently left.
Taliban leaders this week confirmed another of their top leaders Mohammed Qari Zafar had been killed in north Waziristan.
He was believed to have organised the 2006 bombing of the American embassy in Karachi.
The report said although civilian casualty figures are high, they did not believe their study would cause American commanders to reconsider their use.
"Despite the controversy drone strikes are likely to remain a critical tool for the United States to disrupt Al Qaeda and Taliban operations and leadership structures," it concluded.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) NYPD Officer claims pressure to make arrests
[Investigations video at this site...bw]
By Jim Hoffer
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=7305356&pt=print
NEW YORK (WABC) -- An Eyewitness News investigation talks to a police officer who reveals the pressure they are under to make quotas.
When Officer Adil Polanco dreamed of becoming a cop, it was out of a desire to help people not, he says, to harass them.
"I'm not going to keep arresting innocent people, I'm not going to keep searching people for no reason, I'm not going to keep writing people for no reason, I'm tired of this," said Adil Polanco, an NYPD Officer.
Officer Polanco says One Police Plaza's obsession with keeping crime stats down has gotten out of control. He claims Precinct Commanders relentlessly pressure cops on the street to make more arrests, and give out more summonses, all to show headquarters they have a tight grip on their neighborhoods.
"Our primary job is not to help anybody, our primary job is not to assist anybody, our primary job is to get those numbers and come back with them?" said Officer Polanco.
Eyewitness News asked, "Why do it?"
"They have to meet a quota. One arrest and twenty summonses," said Officer Polanco.
This audio recording exclusively obtained by Eyewitness News seems to back up Officer Polanco's assertion of a quota. You can listen to one officer as he lectures his rank and file officers during roll call at the 41st precinct.
"Things are not going to get any better. It's going to get a lot worse," said a police officer.
He lays out clearly that they need to bring in the numbers.
"If you think 1 and 20 is breaking your balls, guess what you're going to be doing. You're gong to be doing a lot more, a lot more than what they're saying," said the officer.
In another recording, the 41st Precinct Patrol Supervisor appears to step up the pressure to write more and more summonses:
"Next week, 25 &1, 35 & 1, and until you decide to quit this job to go to work at a Pizza Hut , this is what you're going to be doing till then. Do you understand?" asked the patrol officer.
"He's being clear, the only choice that we have is to do it," said Officer Polanco.
Eyewitness News asked, "Are you telling me they're stopping people for no reason, is that what you're saying?"
"We are stopping kids walking upstairs to their house, stopping kids going to the store, young adults. In order to keep the quota," answered Officer Polanco.
"Yeah, they locked us up for nothing," said Zebulun Colbourne.
The Colbourne brothers say they and three other friends were the victims of quotas. All were arrested a few months ago after one of them had fallen while racing each other.
Eyewitness News asked, "You fell and that's how you hurt your eye?"
"Yeah, and they just wanted to arrest us. I told them I fell but that didn't matter to them," said Elijah Colbourne.
All five were accused of engaging in tumultuous and violent conduct that caused public alarm, given a summons for unlawful assembly and locked up overnight.
Eyewitness News asked, "So you're locked up waiting to see the judge, right?"
"Yeah," answered the Colbourne brothers.
Eyewitness News asked, "Then what do they do?"
"We don't see the judge, they let us out the back door after they kept us for a day and some change," said Elijah Colbourne.
The charges were dropped, but Officer Polanco says the patrolman still got 5 summonses toward their monthly quota.
"At the end of the night you have to come back with something. You have to write somebody, you have to arrest somebody, even if the crime is not committed, the number's there. So our choice is to come up with the number," said Officer Polanco.
One Police Plaza declined our requests to interview the 41st precinct commander. But, Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said, "Police Officers like others who receive compensation are provided productivity goals and they are expected to work."
Officer Polanco says if they are just goals, why are officers who fail to make them, re-assigned to different shifts or relocated far from home.
It's the consequences of not making the numbers or quotas, he says, that forces officers to give out bogus summonses.
"I cannot be more honest than I've been. There's no reason for me to lie, there's no reason for me to get into the trouble I am, cause I just could've kept quiet and made the money," said Officer Polanco.
If you have a tip about this or any other issue you'd like investigated, please give our tipline a call at 877-TIP-NEWS. You may also e-mail us at the.investigators@abc.com and follow Jim Hoffer on Twitter at twitter.com/nycinvestigates
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) A.I.G., Greece, and Who's Next?
Editorial
March 5, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/opinion/05fri1.html?hp
As Greece has tottered on the brink of fiscal chaos, threatening to drag much of Europe down with it, Wall Street's role in the fiasco has drawn well-deserved scorn.
First came the news that Greece had entered into derivatives transactions with Goldman Sachs and other banks to hide its public debt. Then came reports that some of those same banks and various hedge funds were using credit default swaps - the type of derivative that kneecapped the American International Group - to bet on the likelihood of a Greek default and using derivatives to wager on a drop in the euro.
European leaders have called for an inquiry into the Greek crisis. Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chairman, has told Congress that the Fed is "looking into" Wall Street's deals with Greece, and the Justice Department is investigating the euro bets. That is better than turning a blind eye, but it is not nearly enough.
The bigger problem is in America, where markets are supposed to be fair and transparent. These particular - and particularly complicated - instruments are traded privately among banks, their clients and other investors with virtually no regulation or oversight.
The Obama administration and Congress have been talking for a year about fixing the derivatives market. Big banks have been lobbying to block change. And the longer it takes, the weaker the proposed new rules become.
Here are some of the problems that must be fixed:
NO TRANSPARENCY Derivatives are supposed to reduce and spread risk. In a credit default swap, for instance, a bond investor pays a fee to a counterparty, usually a bank, that agrees to pay the investor if the bond defaults. But because the markets in which they trade are largely unregulated, derivatives can too easily become tools for dangerous risk-taking, vast speculation and dodgy accounting.
A big part of the problem is that derivatives are traded as private one-on-one contracts. That means big profits for banks since clients can't compare offerings. Private markets also lack the rules that prevail in regulated markets - like capital requirements, record keeping and disclosure - that are essential for regulators and investors to monitor and control risk.
That is why it is so essential to move derivative trades onto fully transparent exchanges. The administration originally embraced that idea, with exceptions only for occasional, unique contracts. But when the Treasury proposed legislation in August, it included huge loopholes, and a derivative reform bill that passed the House in December has many of the same problems. (The Senate has yet to introduce a reform bill.)
Both the administration and the House would exclude from exchange trading the estimated $50 trillion market in foreign exchange swaps - similar to the derivatives Greece used to hide its debt. The rationale for the exclusion never has been clearly explained.
The Treasury proposal and House bill also would exclude transactions that occur between big banks and many of their corporate clients from the exchange trading requirement, ostensibly because those deals are only for minimizing business risks, not for speculation or for window-dressing the books. That's debatable. But even if true, other derivatives users would almost inevitably find ways to exploit such a broad exemption.
What is clear about the exemptions is that they would help to preserve banks' profits. What is also clear is that they would defeat the goals of reform: to lower risk, increase transparency and foster efficiency.
LIMITED POWER TO STOP ABUSES When the House put out a draft of new rules in October, it sensibly gave regulators the power to ban abusive derivatives - ones that are not necessarily fraudulent, but potentially damaging to the system. Derivatives investors who stand to make huge profits if a company or country defaults, for example, might try to provoke default - a situation that regulators should be able to prevent. In the final House bill, however, the ban was replaced with a requirement that regulators simply report to Congress if they believe abuses are occurring.
NO STATE REGULATION, EITHER Current law also exempts unregulated derivatives from state antigambling laws. That means that states have no power to police their use for excessive speculation. Treasury and House reform proposals have called for maintaining the federal pre-emption of state antigambling laws. Pre-emption could be tolerable if derivatives were traded on fully regulated exchanges. But as long as many derivative products and transactions are exempted from fully regulated exchange trading, pre-emption of state antigambling laws is a license for, well, gambling.
The big banks claim that derivatives are used to hedge risk, not for excessive speculation. The best way to monitor that claim is to execute the transactions on fully regulated exchanges, pass rules and laws to ensure stability, and appoint and empower regulators with independence and good judgment to enforce compliance.
Without effective reform, the derivative-driven financial crisis in the United States that exploded in 2008, and the Greek debt crisis, circa 2010, will be mere way stations on the road to greater calamities.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Tracking Thursday's Education Demonstrations
By ANNA BLOOM, ARMAND EMAMDJOMEH, GERRY SHIH AND RACHEL GROSS
6:50 p.m. |The Day of Action, Mostly Peaceful
March 4, 2010, 10:52 am
http://bayarea.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/04/tracking-thursdays-education-demonstrations/?scp=5&sq=student%20demonstrations%20March%204,%202010&st=cse
The day of action was just that. People marching, whistling, chanting. Occasionally, the demonstrations became confrontational. At the University of California at Davis, police used tear gas to stop about 100 protesters from marching on to Interstate 80. In Oakland, group of 100 to 150 protesters approached Interstate 880 at Jackson Street. Authorities closed the freeway down in both directions. Protesters at the University of California, Santa Cruz surrounded the car while its uninjured driver was inside. Earlier, demonstrators blocked campus gate.
But mostly protesters were peaceful. Several hundred people, including 80 students, parents, teachers and volunteers from Marshall Elementary school, joined a march that began at 16th and Mission streets in San Francisco and walked to city hall where a rally began at 5 p.m. At San Francisco State University, students, faculty and administrators gathered at Malcolm X plaza for political theater and poetry readings.
In downtown Oakland, protesters from the University of California, Berkeley arrived singing "Ain't no power like the power of the people cause the power of the people don't stop! ... Say what?" Younger students from Fremont gathered on the sidewalks to watch them flow down the middle of the street.
At a noon rally at Berkeley City College, students read poetry and rapped in defense of public education, singing, "We aren't under attack only in the east but here on our streets/Why do we favor ignorance with false peace?/ Education should be free, but fair/K-12 in the hoods goes nowhere."
In Berkeley, students, parents and teachers gathered after school let out at in the afternoon and marched through the city accompanied by drummers. Nearby drivers honked in apparent approval.
"My kids are probably going to be okay," said Jill Wang of Berkeley, over the shouts of "Save our Schools!" from her two children, who attend Le Conte Elementary School down the street. "I can provide what they need, I can afford to get a tutor. But who's going to advocated for the children with two working class parents, who don't have those resources? Those are the ones who are going to slip through the cracks."
Although the Berkeley district has been somewhat buffered by a parcel tax that prevents class sizes from getting any bigger, students are seeing major cuts to counselors, special learning programs and summer school, said Bill Huyett, the superintendent of the Berkeley Unified School District.
"Students that need the most help are the ones that get hit the hardest," he said. "Our instructional materials budget has been cut to nothing this year. We can't even buy new textbooks."
Anna Bloom Protesters gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland on Thursday
2:45 p.m. |Protesters Take to the Streets
Helicopters buzzed in the air and traffic stalled in Berkeley and Oakland as about 1,000 demonstrators marched down Telegraph Avenue to their destination, Frank Ogawa Plaza in downtown Oakland, where they were to meet up with others. The rallies and protests in the Bay Area on Thursday were part of a statewide "Day of Action" over education cuts.
At the University of California, Santa Cruz, school officials warned people not to try to drive to the campus. One car reportedly had its window smashed with a driver inside. At San Francisco State University, 25 protesters pushing Dumpsters blocked people from entering the business building.
"Our students thought it was going to be a protest, not a blockage," said Nancy K. Hayes, dean of the college of business. "They are concerned for their safety. They're not M.B.A. students, they're undergrads and they're young and they're scared."
Jamal Jones, a senior who was protesting, said: "The C.S.U.'s and city colleges, institutions for working people, are becoming privatized. It's a slap in the face for working people."
Mark Yudof, president of the University of California, released a statement, saying: "My heart and my support are with everybody and anybody who wants to stand up for public education. Public education drives a society's ability to progress and to prosper."
At Frank Ogawa Plaza, high school and community college students were the first there.
Kimberly Gozman, 16, a junior at Fremont Federation of College Preparatory High, was the first student to speak. Her parents are immigrants from Guerrero, Mexico, but she was born in the United States. She is set to be the first person in her family to graduate from high school. A possible school closure will mean that instead of having 30 students per class, there will be 40, she said.
Jean Quan, a member of the Oakland City Council, took photos at the center of the demonstration near the speakers. She said her family was poor and would "never be able to afford to send me to college." She added, "Berkeley's tuition, when I went to school, was so low."
Earlier Thursday, we described the beginnings of the protest and the demonstrators' plans for the day.
Jesse Thaler Kyra Jeter and Anecia Trujillo, eighth graders at Claremont Middle School in Oakland, joined in a disaster drill on Thursday morning.
Demonstrations and rallies have begun around the state to protest budget cuts in public education.
The original plan for the protests was for caravans of people to head to Sacramento. Instead, most of the demonstrations are being held in cities around the state.
On Thursday morning, many Bay Area public schools have had disaster drills to draw attention to the "disastrous" state budget cuts. At the University of California, Santa Cruz, officials are advising employees and others to stay away from the campus with protests at the two entrances.
Some are participating in the day of protests without leaving school grounds. At the second recess at Peralta Elementary School in Oakland, the school's music teacher will lead families, students and teachers in protest songs. At Claremont Middle School, also in Oakland, Jesse Thaler, an eighth-grade English teacher, is using the demonstrations to prompt a creative-writing exercise about the future of education. "What if there were no budget cuts and you were in charge of designing a middle school, with no limits on what you could do," she wrote on the blackboard.
Check back here for updates through the day.
There will be a rally from noon to 4 p.m. at Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza. After that, some participants plan to head to San Francisco, where a rally is scheduled for 5 p.m. A rock band called the Angry Tired Teachers is scheduled to play.
Walkouts in the morning have been scheduled at most institutions, including disaster drills. On Wednesday, the University of California, Berkeley, mailed students a note on how to behave around police officers, which includes advice like, "If a police officer tells you to do something, do it - even if you think the officer shouldn't be asking."
Here are further details of plans for Thursday in the Bay Area:
San Francisco
* A march by students, parents and staff of San Francisco's El Dorado Elementary School at 70 Delta Street.
* At San Francisco State University, there will be a noon rally at Malcolm X plaza.
East Bay
* An assembly and march at 11 a.m. at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland.
* Laney College students plan to walk out of classes at 11 a.m.
* Cal State East Bay will have a "Walkout to Speak-out," encouraging students and faculty to walk out of classrooms at 11 a.m. for live performances and an open mic before handing in a letter of demands at the campus administration building and heading to San Francisco's Civic Center at 5 p.m.
* An assembly and walkout is planned at Chabot Junior College in Hayward.
* University of California, Berkeley, demonstrators plan to host a rally at noon at Bancroft Way and Telegraph Avenue before marching to Oakland.
* Berkeley Community College has scheduled a rally in the Berkeley Community College atrium, with an "anti-budget-cut" rap performance and music. The demonstrators also plan to end up at the San Francisco Civic Center rally at 5 p.m.
South Bay
* Assemblyman Joe Coto, Democrat of San Jose, is scheduled to attend a 4 p.m. rally by members of San Jose's East Side Teachers Association.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Haitian Singer and His Guitar Fight Urge to Weep
By SIMON ROMERO
March 4, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/world/americas/05haitimusic.html
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - His pack of Comme Il Faut cigarettes was almost depleted. The smell of rotting garbage on the street and fried pork from a stall next to his tent filled the air in Place St. Pierre. Some children looked at his crutch and grew silent. Beken, one of Haiti's most gifted musicians, exhaled a veil of smoke.
"I should be in Miami living off the proceeds of my records," said Beken, born here 54 years ago as Jean-Prosper Deauphin before adopting his stage name (pronounced Beck-ENN). "Instead I'm living in the filth of this place," he said, summing up a predicament unbeknown to many who revere his songs.
Haiti is astonishingly rich in music, with musicians who are more successful and famous than Beken, including the Port-au-Prince hip-hop group Barikad Crew and the protest singer Manno Charlemagne, who now lives in the United States. But few composers occupy a space quite like Beken's, whose songs of despair and redemption strongly resonate with Haitians during times of tragedy.
Peddlers sell pirated CD collections of his songs, including "Tribilasyon" ("Tribulation") and "Mizè" ("Misery"), on the streets of Port-au-Prince for about $1.30 apiece. Gritty photos of Beken, who lost his right leg at age 12 in a car accident, accompany the CDs. He sings in Haiti's troubadour tradition, playing a guitar and emphasizing contact with the audience in songs of lament, humor and sometimes politics.
"Beken usually sold best after a hurricane," said Jonas Gaspard, 25, a merchant selling bootleg music on a street near the wrecked presidential palace. "But since the earthquake, demand for his music is the strongest in years," he said. "The customers love the way he sings about suffering."
Beken knows a thing or two about life's trials. Disabled as a child, he excelled in composing music. He enjoyed some success, particularly in the 1980s, when he traveled to play for Haitians abroad in New York, Montreal and Miami, before some bad decisions with his money pushed him into penury. He described himself as a "sentimental musician," and said he had fallen in and out of love too many times to remember.
Then came the earthquake. It destroyed his home, pushing him and his wife and three children into one of the city's most squalid camps, in the Pétionville hills. They live in a tent across from the Kinam Hotel, a gingerbread-style mansion where foreign diplomats and aid workers sip rum sours on a porch overlooking a swimming pool.
Despite his reservoir of talent, Beken seemed to be on the edge of desperation in the tent camp. In a rare display of emotion among the often stoic inhabitants of this city's camps, his eyes became watery and he appeared on the verge of weeping as he described how the earthquake had affected him.
"The only thing I can do is play music, and I haven't touched my guitar since Jan. 12," he said. "I'd like to make a song about my school," he said, referring to the St. Eternité school for disabled children, where several students died in the earthquake. "But I don't think I have the strength to write songs at the moment."
At dusk in front of his small tent, Beken begged off an appeal from some admirers that he play a song or two. "Come back another day," he told them. "Maybe I'll find my guitar."
Other Haitian musicians are also having trouble finding their voices again. Richard Morse, leader of the popular group RAM, said he skipped composing a song for this year's Carnival because he thought Haiti was not ready for celebration. Mr. Morse, who also manages the bohemian Hotel Oloffson, was evacuated on a military plane for treatment in the United States after being getting a kidney stone after the earthquake. At least seven musicians in his 18-member band are living on the street, their homes destroyed.
"We'll perform again, but I'm not sure when that will be," Mr. Morse said.
Beken says he draws inspiration from other Haitian balladeers like Rodrigue Milien, part of a folk tradition that blends acoustic Cuban and Haitian influences.
"This is a beloved role in Haitian expressive culture, the honest but sometimes dissolute social commentator through music," said Gage Averill, an ethnomusicologist at the University of Toronto.
By one evening last week, Beken had found his guitar, taking it to a small open-air cafe in Pétionville called Break-Time, where people were eating bouillon tet cabrit (goat-head soup) and nursing bottles of cold Prestige beer.
Break-Time's owner welcomed Beken and got him a chair near the bar. Beken asked for a Marlboro cigarette, which he slowly smoked as he strummed his guitar. Then he began to sing, in Creole, old favorites like "Ambisyon," "Patience" and a passage from "Imiliasyon":
For you little peasant working in the fields;
The rain never falls;
Take courage;
This will change one day!
Suddenly, people in the cafe began singing with him. The lyrics seemed familiar to everyone, as if embedded in a place reserved for memories of what life was like before the earthquake wrecked the city. The crowd was singing about suffering, and perhaps forgetting about suffering at the same time.
"Beken should be a rich man but he is not," said Joseph Guyler Delva, a Haitian journalist in the audience who was one of several people to embrace Beken between songs.
Beken himself had a look of surprise, and something approaching delight, as he performed that night. He returned to his tent amid the stench of Place St. Pierre clutching his guitar. "I can sing again," he said. "Maybe that means I can write a new song."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
No comments:
Post a Comment