http://www.facebook.com/events/298467196976692/
This year we have more reason to celebrate the SF Pride 2014 parade in San
Francisco: Heroic WikiLeaks whistle-blower Chelsea Manning is being honored
as an official Grand Marshal! March with us to show your pride in Chelsea!
Organized by the Chelsea Manning Support Network and Courage to Resist.
Endorsing organizations include War Resisters League-West, CODEPINK Women
for Peace, CivSol, and the Brass Liberation Orchestra.
Please contact us to include your organization as an endorser!
A motorized cable car will be available for participants with mobility
limitations.
For further details, please contact farah@couragetoresist.org
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FAST FOOD WORKERS ANNOUNCE
BIGGEST EVER STRIKE 5-15-14
IN 150 U.S. CITIES JOINED BY
PROTESTS IN 30 COUNTRIES
Statement in Support of Gloibal Fast Food Workers Strike
by Eugene E Ruye, Peace and Freedom Candidate
for California Assembly, 15th District
Every worker deserves fair wages and the right to organize, so please join me in supporting striking fast food workers and allies from 36 countries and 150 U.S. cities, calling out some of the world’s worst corporate behavior and exposing widespread wage theft. In the wake of new reports showing an industry with the largest pay gaps between CEOs and workers, the fast food workers are demanding change: $15 an hour for workers and a union.
Here’s their schedule in Oakland for this Thursday, May 15, 2-014:
5:30 AM Meet at ACCE Oakland Offices 2501 International Blvd
10:30 AM Meet at the Library in Downtown Oakland, 135 14th St.
(check for latest updates at: occupyoakland.org)
As a working class, socialist, and feminist party, Peace and Freedom has always supported the rights of working folks to organize and strike for better pay and working conditions. Here's what our PLatform has to say:
FROM THE PEACE AND FREEDOM PARTY PLATFORM
Double the minimum wage, and index it to the cost of living
Guarantee the right of all workers to organize and to strike
Forbid striker replacement
Socially useful jobs for all at union pay levels
Equal pay for equal work, and for work of comparable worth
A 30-hour workweek with no cut in weekly pay - Longer paid vacations
A Universal Basic Income with full social benefits as a basic human right
Tax the income and assets of the rich to meet human needs.
As a retired union member (my dues are still taken out of my pension check), I am proud to see my brothers and sisters uniting in dozens of countries across six continuents. For me, it brings to mind the words of the Wobblies:
From the Preamble to the Consitution of the
Industrial Workers of the World (1905)
The working class and the employing class have nothing in common. There can be no peace so long as hunger and want are found among millions of the working people while the few who make up the employing class have all the good things of life.
Between these two classes a struggle must go on until the workers of the world organize as a class, take possession of the Earth and the machinery of production, and abolish the wage system.
Abolition of the wage system, of course, means abolition of capitalism. Under capitalism, workers are wage slaves, lucky if they can find work to support themselves and their families. With socialism, workers are guaranteed jobs and decent incomes, with affordable housing, pensions, free health care, and free education.
So, let's join with the fast food workers of the world, and in Oakland, our slogan should be,
HELLA YES ON 15 BUCKS!
May 12, 2014
For more info, go to
ru4peace.wordpress.com
www.peaceandfreedom.org
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No Copyright for Marx Engels Collected Works
Petition by
Ammar Aziz, Lahore, Pakistan
http://www.change.org/petitions/lawrence-wishart-no-copyright-for-marx-engels-collected-works?recruiter=91032950&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition
It is immensely ironic that a private publishIng company is claiming the copyright of the collected works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the philosophers who wrote against the monopoly of capitalism and its origin, private property, all their lives.
Marxists Internet Archieve is an internatioanl, public archieve which gives free access to a wide range of academic and historical writings about Marxism in multiple langauges. Lawrence & Wishart is a private publishing house in Britain which claims to hold the copyright of Marx Engels Collected Works. During the last several years, the Marx Engels Collected Works have been read by the millions of people on the Marxists Internet Archeive (MIA). However, now the private publishing company, Lawrence & Wishart - which loves to position itself as a 'radical company', claiming historical links with the Britain's Communist Party - has directed MIA to delete all texts originating from Marx Engels Collected Works (MECW).
If this happens, MECW would not be accessible on the internet for free, from 30th April, 2014, and that would be a huge loss for the students and political activists who continue to utilize this free academic source.
You cannot privatize their writings -- they are the collective property of the people they wrote for. Privatization of Marx and Engels' writings is like getting a trademark for the words 'socialism' or 'communism'.
Say NO to the copyright law for the founders of scientific socialism. Let's protest against Lawrence & Wishart for this ironic monopoly.
The petition:
http://www.change.org/petitions/lawrence-wishart-no-copyright-for-marx-engels-collected-works?recruiter=91032950&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition
To: Lawrence & Wishart, 99a Wallis Road London E9 5LN
Sally Davison, Managing Editor
Lawrence & Wishar
It is a matter of a serious concern for us that you have directed the Marxists Internet Archive to delete all the writings from Marx Engels Collected Works. As an organization which has been affiliated with the Britain's Communist Party in the past and which is known for publishing progressive literature, that's low!
We urgently demand you to take back this nasty, capitalistic decision and let the collected works remain a collective source of knowledge.
No Copyright for Marx Engels Collected Works!
Sincerely,
[Your name]
[Your name]
Bay
Area United Against War Newsletter
Table
of Contents:
A.
ARTICLES IN FULL
B.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.
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A.
ARTICLES IN FULL
(Unless
otherwise noted)
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1) We Need Al Capone Drug Laws
EDINA, Minn. — AFTER a ruinous 30-year experiment in harsh sentences for narcotics trafficking resulting in mass incarceration, policy makers are having second thoughts. Many states, including Texas, have reformed their laws to shorten sentences. Congress is giving serious consideration to the Smarter Sentencing Act, which would do the same. The United States Sentencing Commission has just adopted a proposal to revise federal guidelines.
And most recently, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced that President Obama intends to use his executive pardon power to release hundreds or even thousands of federal prisoners with narcotics convictions (I am on a committee to train lawyers for the project). Something like that hasn’t happened since President John F. Kennedy granted clemency to more than 200 prisoners convicted of drug crimes.
Unfortunately, none of this addresses a very basic underlying problem: We continue to use the weight of narcotics as a proxy for the culpability of an individual defendant, despite this policy’s utter failure. If a kingpin imports 15 kilograms of cocaine into the country and pays a trucker $400 to carry it, they both face the same potential sentence. That’s because the laws peg minimum and maximum sentences to the weight of the drugs at issue rather than to the actual role and responsibility of the defendant. It’s a lousy system, and one that has produced unjust sentences for too many low-level offenders, created racial disparities and crowded our prisons.
We should have learned our lesson about this from Al Capone, who thrived during a previous era of prohibition and violence. He didn’t drive a beer truck or stand guard over the whiskey, and that made him hard to prosecute. Yet we haven’t changed the structure of the laws even now to properly prioritize the incarceration of those most responsible for drug trafficking. Instead, weight-based statutes and sentencing guidelines allow law enforcement to arrest mules and street dealers and claim they are kingpins.
Some laws create remarkably low thresholds for the highest penalties. For example, my home state of Minnesota categorizes someone who sells just 10 grams of powder cocaine (the equivalent of 10 sugar packets) as guilty of a first-degree controlled-substance crime — the most serious of five felony categories. There is no real differentiation between the most culpable wholesaler and an occasional street dealer.
The problem with recent legal reforms is that they don’t dispose of this rotten infrastructure. In 2010, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which changed the ratio between crack and powder cocaine for sentencing purposes from 100-to-1 (meaning the same sentence applied to 100 grams of powder cocaine and to 1 gram of crack) to 18-to-1.What the Fair Sentencing Act didn’t do is change the basic weight-centric focus that has filled our prisons with narcotics convicts. There were 4,749 such prisoners serving federal time in 1980, before the harshest weight-based standards were implemented. As of 2013, that number was 100,026. As for the drugs themselves, they’re still here.The law compounds this problem by considering all members of a supposed conspiracy to be equally responsible. Imagine a group of four people who agree to buy and distribute methamphetamine pills from Mexico. The leader knows how to get the methamphetamine wholesale, and has the capital to buy it. He arranges with one friend to smuggle it into the country, and two others to sell it at a profit. The leader will get 80 percent of the profit, the smuggler will get 10 percent and each seller will get 5 percent. If they are caught, it is likely they will all face the same sentence — despite their very different roles.
A better measure of culpability would be the amount of profit that any individual took from the operation of a narcotics ring. Because narcotics conspiracies are nothing more or less than a business, they operate like any other business. The people who have the most important skills, capital at risk or entrepreneurial abilities take the most money. Statutes and guidelines should be rewritten so that profit thresholds replace narcotic weight thresholds. Only then will mules and street sellers properly face much shorter sentences than real kingpins.
This would, of course, create a new challenge for prosecutors and investigators, who would have to prove the amount of profit made by an individual defendant. It wouldn’t be as easy as snatching up mules and street dealers. But then “easy” and “justice” rarely rest comfortably with each other.
Mark Osler is a former federal prosecutor and a professor of law at the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota.
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2) Antibiotic Resistance Is Now Rife across the Entire Globe
A first-ever World Health Organization assessment of the growing problem calls for rapid changes to avoid the misery and deaths of a potential "post-antibiotic era"
Apr 30, 2014 |By Dina Fine Maron
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antibiotic-resistance-is-now-rife-across-the-globe/?&WT.mc_id=SA_EVO_20140505
Dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria and other pathogens have now emerged in every part of the world and threaten to roll back a century of medical advances. That’s the message from the World Health Organization in its first global report on this growing problem, which draws on drug-resistance data in 114 countries.
“A post antibiotic-era—in which common infections and minor injuries can kill—far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century,” wrote Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s assistant director general for Health Security, in an introduction to the report. The crisis is the fruit of several decades of overreliance on the drugs and careless prescribing practices as well as routine use of the medicines in the rearing of livestock, the report noted.
Antibiotic resistance is putting patients in peril in both developing and developed countries, as bacteria responsible for an array of dangerous infections evolve resistance to the drugs that once vanquished them.
Gonorrhea, once well treated by antibiotics, is once again a major public health threat due to the emergence of new, resistant strains. Drugs that were once a last resort treatment for the sexually transmitted disease—which can lead to infertility, blindness and increased odds of HIV transmission if left untreated—are now the first-line treatment and are sometimes ineffective among patients in countries such as the U.K., Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Norway, South Africa, Slovenia and Sweden.
Drugs to treat Klebsiella pneumoniae—a common intestinal bacteria that can cause life-threatening infections in intensive care unit patients and newborns—no longer work in more than half of patients in some countries. And fluoroquinolones, drugs used to treat urinary tract infections, are also ineffective in more than half of sufferers in many parts of the world. Efforts to limit the spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria and HIV are also all under threat due to increasing bacterial resistance.
Although the development of resistance is to be expected over time, overuse of the drugs has accelerated the process by supplying additional selective pressure, noted the report, which was authored by an extensive team of researchers with WHO. And there are few drugs to replace the ones that are now ineffective: The last entirely new class of antibacterial drugs was discovered 27 years ago, according to the report.
WHO warns that the situation could have sweeping effects on global medicine, economics and societies unless global actions are taken swiftly. A dearth of effective antibiotics will mean that infected patients will need more extensive care, require longer hospital stays and die in greater numbers.
To tackle the problem, the report calls for global, coordinated actions on the scale of those that nations are taking to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
The report recommends a multipronged approach. In many cases, WHO noted, available diagnostic tests can already be used to help identify the bacteria that fueled an infection—allowing doctors to select more targeted drug treatments instead of resorting to broad-spectrum medications that exacerbate drug resistance. The problem is that such tests take time to run and thus prescribers often forgo the tests and migrate toward those broad-spectrum drugs. Developing faster tests is therefore crucial, according to the report. The agency also proposes renewed focus—and standardized methods—to track resistant strains across the globe. There is currently no global consensus on methodology and data collection in this area.
There are also essential everyday solutions that communities and clinicians should adopt—including better hygiene practices by health care workers, such as washing hands more frequently and vaccinating populations against key diseases to reduce the need for antibiotics in the first place. Patients, too, have a vital part to play by using antibiotics only when they are prescribed, WHO said.
The assessment, collected information on nine particularly troublesome bacteria from 114 countries that track data on at least one of the microorganisms and the antibiotics used to treat them.
Although limited by significant data gaps, the report noted that in the case of many of these bacteria, resistance levels to first-line drugs have reached 50 percent or more in at least half of the countries analyzed. As a result, health care providers must frequently rely on last-resort drugs. “It is terrifying in scope. This is a massive public health problem that is just starting to bubble to the surface,” says Brad Spellberg, associate professor of medicine at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor–U.C.L.A. Medical Center. As the global usage of last-resort drugs grows, resistance to these drugs also accelerates, compounding the crisis. With fewer drug options, the WHO report points out, patients who live in poverty or lack health insurance have nowhere to turn for effective treatments.
“We are already seeing this,” says Stuart Levy, director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University School of Medicine, who assisted with the WHO report. “For respiratory diseases in Uganda, we had a multidrug-resistant pneumococcus being treated with recommended drugs—but the bacteria were already 90 percent resistant.” Alternative drugs, in that setting, were not readily available.
2) Antibiotic Resistance Is Now Rife across the Entire Globe
A first-ever World Health Organization assessment of the growing problem calls for rapid changes to avoid the misery and deaths of a potential "post-antibiotic era"
Apr 30, 2014 |By Dina Fine Maron
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/antibiotic-resistance-is-now-rife-across-the-globe/?&WT.mc_id=SA_EVO_20140505
Dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria and other pathogens have now emerged in every part of the world and threaten to roll back a century of medical advances. That’s the message from the World Health Organization in its first global report on this growing problem, which draws on drug-resistance data in 114 countries.
“A post antibiotic-era—in which common infections and minor injuries can kill—far from being an apocalyptic fantasy, is instead a very real possibility for the 21st century,” wrote Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s assistant director general for Health Security, in an introduction to the report. The crisis is the fruit of several decades of overreliance on the drugs and careless prescribing practices as well as routine use of the medicines in the rearing of livestock, the report noted.
Antibiotic resistance is putting patients in peril in both developing and developed countries, as bacteria responsible for an array of dangerous infections evolve resistance to the drugs that once vanquished them.
Gonorrhea, once well treated by antibiotics, is once again a major public health threat due to the emergence of new, resistant strains. Drugs that were once a last resort treatment for the sexually transmitted disease—which can lead to infertility, blindness and increased odds of HIV transmission if left untreated—are now the first-line treatment and are sometimes ineffective among patients in countries such as the U.K., Canada, Australia, France, Japan, Norway, South Africa, Slovenia and Sweden.
Drugs to treat Klebsiella pneumoniae—a common intestinal bacteria that can cause life-threatening infections in intensive care unit patients and newborns—no longer work in more than half of patients in some countries. And fluoroquinolones, drugs used to treat urinary tract infections, are also ineffective in more than half of sufferers in many parts of the world. Efforts to limit the spread of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, malaria and HIV are also all under threat due to increasing bacterial resistance.
Although the development of resistance is to be expected over time, overuse of the drugs has accelerated the process by supplying additional selective pressure, noted the report, which was authored by an extensive team of researchers with WHO. And there are few drugs to replace the ones that are now ineffective: The last entirely new class of antibacterial drugs was discovered 27 years ago, according to the report.
WHO warns that the situation could have sweeping effects on global medicine, economics and societies unless global actions are taken swiftly. A dearth of effective antibiotics will mean that infected patients will need more extensive care, require longer hospital stays and die in greater numbers.
To tackle the problem, the report calls for global, coordinated actions on the scale of those that nations are taking to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
The report recommends a multipronged approach. In many cases, WHO noted, available diagnostic tests can already be used to help identify the bacteria that fueled an infection—allowing doctors to select more targeted drug treatments instead of resorting to broad-spectrum medications that exacerbate drug resistance. The problem is that such tests take time to run and thus prescribers often forgo the tests and migrate toward those broad-spectrum drugs. Developing faster tests is therefore crucial, according to the report. The agency also proposes renewed focus—and standardized methods—to track resistant strains across the globe. There is currently no global consensus on methodology and data collection in this area.
There are also essential everyday solutions that communities and clinicians should adopt—including better hygiene practices by health care workers, such as washing hands more frequently and vaccinating populations against key diseases to reduce the need for antibiotics in the first place. Patients, too, have a vital part to play by using antibiotics only when they are prescribed, WHO said.
The assessment, collected information on nine particularly troublesome bacteria from 114 countries that track data on at least one of the microorganisms and the antibiotics used to treat them.
Although limited by significant data gaps, the report noted that in the case of many of these bacteria, resistance levels to first-line drugs have reached 50 percent or more in at least half of the countries analyzed. As a result, health care providers must frequently rely on last-resort drugs. “It is terrifying in scope. This is a massive public health problem that is just starting to bubble to the surface,” says Brad Spellberg, associate professor of medicine at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor–U.C.L.A. Medical Center. As the global usage of last-resort drugs grows, resistance to these drugs also accelerates, compounding the crisis. With fewer drug options, the WHO report points out, patients who live in poverty or lack health insurance have nowhere to turn for effective treatments.
“We are already seeing this,” says Stuart Levy, director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University School of Medicine, who assisted with the WHO report. “For respiratory diseases in Uganda, we had a multidrug-resistant pneumococcus being treated with recommended drugs—but the bacteria were already 90 percent resistant.” Alternative drugs, in that setting, were not readily available.
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3) In South Africa, A.N.C. Is Counting on the Past
3) In South Africa, A.N.C. Is Counting on the Past
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4) Three Are Exonerated of Murder in Cases Tied to a Discredited Detective
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5) As South Africa votes, this shanty town explains anger at the ANC
With elections today, Bekkersdal is a no-go zone for politicians from the African National Congress. Residents say they are not part of the 'good story' the ANC claims for the nation.
Bekkersdal, South Africa
In this shanty town one hour outside Johannesburg, everything is filthy.
Water taps are shared between 20 blocks of cramped housing. The most popular game for young children is seeing who makes the biggest splash with rocks thrown in open sewers. Large rats scamper through the piles of rubbish that seem constantly banked up at the end of every unpaved lane.
Today South Africans across the country go to the polls to elect their national and provincial governments.
But while the ruling African National Congress will doubtless retain its 20-year grip on power, disaffection is building. Anger is rising over the ANC's failure to tackle poverty or to stamp out corruption in its ranks after being so long in power. And few places represent this anger and failure more than the town of Bekkersdal.
The town has all the problems associated with "service delivery," as it is known -- of delivering basics like decent electricity, water and plumbing. The town has crime problems, much of it petty theft to fund drug habits.
“Even when you hang your clothes out to dry, you have to watch them," says Boitumelo Nkuna, a local community leader. Otherwise, "they will be [stolen] to sell and buy nyaope [a cocktail of marijuana, low-grade heroin and ground-up HIV pills].
For weeks in the South African election run up, Bekkersdal’s citizens have, like others around the country, been bombarded with party pamphlets and visits by beaming politicians.
But there’s one party that residents won’t tolerate – the ruling ANC. The ANC is the party legitimized and championed by South African hero Nelson Mandela. Yet the ANC brand has deteriorated to such a degree that when ANC provincial leaders risked campaigning here in March, they were greeted with brickbats and burning tires, prompting their bodyguards to open fire with live ammunition.
Bekkersdal citizens considered that event, according to Mr. Nkuna, as their own “Marikana,” a reference to the shooting by troops of 34 striking miners in August 2012 in the town of Marikana, a case where the ANC appeared to be involved. However, in the Bekkersdal instance, no one was killed.
No-go zone
Since then, Bekkersdal has become a virtual no-go zone for the ANC ruling party. Its premier in the region, Nomvula Mokonyane, has responded that she doesn’t even want the community's “dirty votes.”
Nkuna says that with unemployment in the community at 80 per cent, and with few basic amenities like running water, rubbish collection or electricity, the ANC has no right to complain about the reception it gets.
“The ANC says on its election posters it has ‘a good story to tell.’ But what about us? Are we part of that good story? We have been abandoned,” says the articulate young man, who trained to be an accountant but has no prospect of work.
Nkuna is not alone in his disillusionment. While there’s little doubt the ANC will be voted back into office for its fifth straight term on May 7, few within the monolithic party dispute that its share of the vote will drop. They even admit they could lose control of the powerhouse Gauteng province that is home to Johannesburg and Pretoria, the capital.
To some extent, the waning support is inevitable for one of Africa’s longest-serving liberation parties. ANC president Jacob Zuma argues that it could never have reversed apartheid’s legacy quickly enough for its impatient population.
Even so, the noisy optimism of the ANC in this campaign season is not eclipsing a widespread frustration at the slow pace of change in South Africa, which has one of the biggest wealth gaps in the world.
The ANC government has rolled out social grants to 15 million people. But with half of young 18- to- 24 year-olds absent from education, employment or training, a "lost generation" has been created that will never pay the taxes needed to fund a growing social security bill.
The ANC has had genuine success in getting children into school, in boosting access to power and running water in some places, and of maintaining economic growth and providing drugs to slow the progression of HIV to Aids. It has built millions of apartments and houses.
Crime, corruption
But the number of informal shack dwellings in the country has increased. The notoriously violent crime rates have turned upwards after years of decline. And chronic and largely unchallenged government corruption has seen public funds that might have changed lives siphoned off to elites.
Since November 2013, support for the ANC has dropped by a fifth -- to as low as 53 percent of voters. The polling firm Ipsos blames the drop on factors including fury about the police shooting at Marikana and the recent $19 million in taxpayers’ money spent on President Zuma’s private home in Nkandla, in the KwaZulu Natal region.
Although the ANC's share of the vote has improved slightly in polls this month, it is still thought that it could dip below 60 per cent for the first since 1994 when the ANC came to power.
This will be the first election in which the so-called “born free” generation -- that never knew apartheid -- are eligible to vote. But a lack of inspiring choices means that just over a third of them have bothered to register.
Instead, ordinary born-frees are joining a growing number of violent protests that operate in a destructive cycle -- where police often respond with a level of force that results in deaths and serious injuries, and that makes local folks even angrier.
In Bekkersdal, home to 150,000 people, the government pledged about $100 million for social projects including a brick factory, a sports stadium and an information center that served also as job-search agency.
Large amounts of that allocated money seems to have disappeared from the public coffers. The brick factory never opened. The only sign of a new stadium is two rusting goal posts and a roofless clubhouse sitting on a patch of open land.
Last year, the partly built information center was burned to the ground by angry locals during riots.
Volunteer carer
Among those let down by the collapse of the ANC’s investment in Bekkersdal is Antonia Makereke, a trained nurse who scrapes a living as a volunteer community care worker whose only compensation is paid expenses.
Each evening, Ms. Makereke arranges a torn pink mattress on the floor of her two-roomed tin shack before helping her elderly mother to the makeshift bed.
She kisses her children and grandchildren sleeping on sofas nearby goodnight, fastens a small padlock to her door to deter the local drug addicts, and snuffs out her paraffin lamp.
Cooking in the Makereke home takes place on a Primus or paraffin stove that is illuminated by rays of sun that pierce both chinks in the walls and bedsheets hung up to keep out the cold as winter approaches in this part of the planet.
On the wall is a 2014 calendar featuring a South African flag and a picture of Nelson Mandela. Next to it is pasted a tattered photograph of Makereke in her nursing graduation gown.
In another corner is an old television projecting a fuzzy image of a popular soap opera and a bare light bulb plugged into a dangling, sooty socket.
Asked if she has power, Makereke looks shamefaced and says a “kind neighbor” tapped her in to an illegal connection he rigged up via cables that trail over the nearby road.
Twenty years ago, Makereke remembers, she joined the joyful queues that formed across South Africa before sunrise to cast her first vote as a black citizen of a new, full democracy that included her.
Like more than 12 million of her fellow countrymen, she excitedly put her cross in the box of Nelson Mandela’s ANC which pledged to build a “better life for all” after the inhumane treatment of blacks by whites during apartheid.
But today, as she goes to the polls again, she plans to abandon the party that carried her dreams, and will vote instead for the opposition Democratic Alliance.
“Democracy came but nothing changed here,” says Makereke. “I’m voting DA but I’m not sure it will make a difference. These people promise us things when they want us to vote for them. But the ANC made the promises too and did nothing."
But in Bekkersdal, it appears to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Each person recites exactly how much was spent on the president’s cattle pens, swimming pool, private school and health clinic.
Thuli Madonsela, the official public watchdog who exposed Zuma and his cronies’ profligacy in a recent, damning report, is a hero here.
“I can’t say the name of that place, it makes me crazy,” says Sylvia Mantshupi, who holds a carpentry diploma she can find no use for. “I don’t have a job so I can’t afford to buy my son shoes.”
She points to an unsmiling, dusty little boy who clutches her lower leg. “We paid for a playground for Zuma's kids, but our kids play among rats and rubbish.”
Far from going to their local ANC representative to complain about the squalid conditions, locals stay away. They are afraid of the two security guards paid to guard his home, which is hidden behind high, whitewashed walls topped with razor wire and plastered with ANC posters.
They refuse to point out the house by foot, saying the party official would arrange for them and their families to be “shot.”
“He’s the biggest tsotsi (gangster) here,” one said. “He isn’t from here. The ANC put him here but we never see him. Most of them have big houses elsewhere and only come here from time to time.”
5) As South Africa votes, this shanty town explains anger at the ANC
With elections today, Bekkersdal is a no-go zone for politicians from the African National Congress. Residents say they are not part of the 'good story' the ANC claims for the nation.
Bekkersdal, South Africa
In this shanty town one hour outside Johannesburg, everything is filthy.
Water taps are shared between 20 blocks of cramped housing. The most popular game for young children is seeing who makes the biggest splash with rocks thrown in open sewers. Large rats scamper through the piles of rubbish that seem constantly banked up at the end of every unpaved lane.
Today South Africans across the country go to the polls to elect their national and provincial governments.
But while the ruling African National Congress will doubtless retain its 20-year grip on power, disaffection is building. Anger is rising over the ANC's failure to tackle poverty or to stamp out corruption in its ranks after being so long in power. And few places represent this anger and failure more than the town of Bekkersdal.
The town has all the problems associated with "service delivery," as it is known -- of delivering basics like decent electricity, water and plumbing. The town has crime problems, much of it petty theft to fund drug habits.
“Even when you hang your clothes out to dry, you have to watch them," says Boitumelo Nkuna, a local community leader. Otherwise, "they will be [stolen] to sell and buy nyaope [a cocktail of marijuana, low-grade heroin and ground-up HIV pills].
For weeks in the South African election run up, Bekkersdal’s citizens have, like others around the country, been bombarded with party pamphlets and visits by beaming politicians.
But there’s one party that residents won’t tolerate – the ruling ANC. The ANC is the party legitimized and championed by South African hero Nelson Mandela. Yet the ANC brand has deteriorated to such a degree that when ANC provincial leaders risked campaigning here in March, they were greeted with brickbats and burning tires, prompting their bodyguards to open fire with live ammunition.
Bekkersdal citizens considered that event, according to Mr. Nkuna, as their own “Marikana,” a reference to the shooting by troops of 34 striking miners in August 2012 in the town of Marikana, a case where the ANC appeared to be involved. However, in the Bekkersdal instance, no one was killed.
No-go zone
Since then, Bekkersdal has become a virtual no-go zone for the ANC ruling party. Its premier in the region, Nomvula Mokonyane, has responded that she doesn’t even want the community's “dirty votes.”
Nkuna says that with unemployment in the community at 80 per cent, and with few basic amenities like running water, rubbish collection or electricity, the ANC has no right to complain about the reception it gets.
“The ANC says on its election posters it has ‘a good story to tell.’ But what about us? Are we part of that good story? We have been abandoned,” says the articulate young man, who trained to be an accountant but has no prospect of work.
Nkuna is not alone in his disillusionment. While there’s little doubt the ANC will be voted back into office for its fifth straight term on May 7, few within the monolithic party dispute that its share of the vote will drop. They even admit they could lose control of the powerhouse Gauteng province that is home to Johannesburg and Pretoria, the capital.
To some extent, the waning support is inevitable for one of Africa’s longest-serving liberation parties. ANC president Jacob Zuma argues that it could never have reversed apartheid’s legacy quickly enough for its impatient population.
Even so, the noisy optimism of the ANC in this campaign season is not eclipsing a widespread frustration at the slow pace of change in South Africa, which has one of the biggest wealth gaps in the world.
The ANC government has rolled out social grants to 15 million people. But with half of young 18- to- 24 year-olds absent from education, employment or training, a "lost generation" has been created that will never pay the taxes needed to fund a growing social security bill.
The ANC has had genuine success in getting children into school, in boosting access to power and running water in some places, and of maintaining economic growth and providing drugs to slow the progression of HIV to Aids. It has built millions of apartments and houses.
Crime, corruption
But the number of informal shack dwellings in the country has increased. The notoriously violent crime rates have turned upwards after years of decline. And chronic and largely unchallenged government corruption has seen public funds that might have changed lives siphoned off to elites.
Since November 2013, support for the ANC has dropped by a fifth -- to as low as 53 percent of voters. The polling firm Ipsos blames the drop on factors including fury about the police shooting at Marikana and the recent $19 million in taxpayers’ money spent on President Zuma’s private home in Nkandla, in the KwaZulu Natal region.
Although the ANC's share of the vote has improved slightly in polls this month, it is still thought that it could dip below 60 per cent for the first since 1994 when the ANC came to power.
This will be the first election in which the so-called “born free” generation -- that never knew apartheid -- are eligible to vote. But a lack of inspiring choices means that just over a third of them have bothered to register.
Instead, ordinary born-frees are joining a growing number of violent protests that operate in a destructive cycle -- where police often respond with a level of force that results in deaths and serious injuries, and that makes local folks even angrier.
In Bekkersdal, home to 150,000 people, the government pledged about $100 million for social projects including a brick factory, a sports stadium and an information center that served also as job-search agency.
Large amounts of that allocated money seems to have disappeared from the public coffers. The brick factory never opened. The only sign of a new stadium is two rusting goal posts and a roofless clubhouse sitting on a patch of open land.
Last year, the partly built information center was burned to the ground by angry locals during riots.
Volunteer carer
Among those let down by the collapse of the ANC’s investment in Bekkersdal is Antonia Makereke, a trained nurse who scrapes a living as a volunteer community care worker whose only compensation is paid expenses.
Each evening, Ms. Makereke arranges a torn pink mattress on the floor of her two-roomed tin shack before helping her elderly mother to the makeshift bed.
She kisses her children and grandchildren sleeping on sofas nearby goodnight, fastens a small padlock to her door to deter the local drug addicts, and snuffs out her paraffin lamp.
Cooking in the Makereke home takes place on a Primus or paraffin stove that is illuminated by rays of sun that pierce both chinks in the walls and bedsheets hung up to keep out the cold as winter approaches in this part of the planet.
On the wall is a 2014 calendar featuring a South African flag and a picture of Nelson Mandela. Next to it is pasted a tattered photograph of Makereke in her nursing graduation gown.
In another corner is an old television projecting a fuzzy image of a popular soap opera and a bare light bulb plugged into a dangling, sooty socket.
Asked if she has power, Makereke looks shamefaced and says a “kind neighbor” tapped her in to an illegal connection he rigged up via cables that trail over the nearby road.
Twenty years ago, Makereke remembers, she joined the joyful queues that formed across South Africa before sunrise to cast her first vote as a black citizen of a new, full democracy that included her.
Like more than 12 million of her fellow countrymen, she excitedly put her cross in the box of Nelson Mandela’s ANC which pledged to build a “better life for all” after the inhumane treatment of blacks by whites during apartheid.
But today, as she goes to the polls again, she plans to abandon the party that carried her dreams, and will vote instead for the opposition Democratic Alliance.
“Democracy came but nothing changed here,” says Makereke. “I’m voting DA but I’m not sure it will make a difference. These people promise us things when they want us to vote for them. But the ANC made the promises too and did nothing."
Presidential spending
Gwede Mantashe, the ANC national Secretary General, said recently that the spending on Zuma’s home in Nkandla was simply a media obsession that meant little to ordinary people.But in Bekkersdal, it appears to have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Each person recites exactly how much was spent on the president’s cattle pens, swimming pool, private school and health clinic.
Thuli Madonsela, the official public watchdog who exposed Zuma and his cronies’ profligacy in a recent, damning report, is a hero here.
“I can’t say the name of that place, it makes me crazy,” says Sylvia Mantshupi, who holds a carpentry diploma she can find no use for. “I don’t have a job so I can’t afford to buy my son shoes.”
She points to an unsmiling, dusty little boy who clutches her lower leg. “We paid for a playground for Zuma's kids, but our kids play among rats and rubbish.”
Far from going to their local ANC representative to complain about the squalid conditions, locals stay away. They are afraid of the two security guards paid to guard his home, which is hidden behind high, whitewashed walls topped with razor wire and plastered with ANC posters.
They refuse to point out the house by foot, saying the party official would arrange for them and their families to be “shot.”
“He’s the biggest tsotsi (gangster) here,” one said. “He isn’t from here. The ANC put him here but we never see him. Most of them have big houses elsewhere and only come here from time to time.”
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6) South Africans Vote as Zuma Seeks Second Term as President
6) South Africans Vote as Zuma Seeks Second Term as President
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7) Panel Urges One-Drug Lethal Injections
7) Panel Urges One-Drug Lethal Injections
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8) U.S. Climate Has Already Changed, Study Finds, Citing Heat and Floods
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/07/science/earth/climate-change-report.html?ref=us
Rising Temperatures
1991-2012 average temperature compared with 1901-1960 average
“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present,” the scientists declared in a major new report assessing the situation in the United States.“Summers are longer and hotter, and extended periods of unusual heat last longer than any living American has ever experienced,” the report continued. “Winters are generally shorter and warmer. Rain comes in heavier downpours. People are seeing changes in the length and severity of seasonal allergies, the plant varieties that thrive in their gardens, and the kinds of birds they see in any particular month in their neighborhoods.”
The report is the latest in a series of dire warnings about how the effects of global warming that had been long foreseen by climate scientists are already affecting the planet. Its region-by-region documentation of changes occurring in the United States, and of future risks, makes clear that few places will be unscathed — and some, like northerly areas, are feeling the effects at a swifter pace than had been expected.
Alaska in particular is hard hit. Glaciers and frozen ground in that state are melting, storms are eating away at fragile coastlines no longer protected by winter sea ice, and entire communities are having to flee inland — a precursor of the large-scale changes the report foresees for the rest of the United States.
The study, known as the National Climate Assessment, was prepared by a large scientific panel overseen by the government and received final approval at a meeting Tuesday.
The White House, which released the report, wants to maximize its impact to drum up a sense of urgency among Americans about climate change — and thus to build political support for a contentious new climate change regulation that President Obama plans to issue in June.
But instead of giving a Rose Garden speech, President Obama spent Tuesday giving interviews to local and national weather broadcasters on climate change and extreme weather. The goal was to help Americans connect the vast planetary problem of global warming caused by carbon emissions from cars and coal plants to the changing conditions in their own backyards. It was a strategic decision that senior White House staff members had been planning for months.Speaking to Al Roker of NBC News, in an interview scheduled to be shown Wednesday morning on the “Today” show, Mr. Obama said “This is not some distant problem of the future. This is a problem that is affecting Americans right now. Whether it means increased flooding, greater vulnerability to drought, more severe wildfires — all these things are having an impact on Americans as we speak.”
In the Northeast, the report found a big increase in torrential rains and risks from a rising sea that could lead to a repeat of the kind of flooding seen in Hurricane Sandy. In the Southwest, the water shortages seen to date are likely just a foretaste of the changes to come, the report found. In that region, the report warned, “severe and sustained drought will stress water sources, already overutilized in many areas, forcing increasing competition among farmers, energy producers, urban dwellers and plant and animal life for the region’s most precious resource.”
The report did find some benefits from climate change in the short run, particularly for the Midwest, such as a longer growing season for crops and a longer shipping season on the Great Lakes. But it warned that these were likely to be countered in the long run by escalating damages, particularly to agriculture.
“Yes, climate change is already here,” said Richard B. Alley, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University who was not involved in writing the report. “But the costs so far are still on the low side compared to what will be coming under business as usual by late in this century.”
The report was supervised and approved by a large committee representing a cross section of American society, including representatives of two oil companies. It is the third national report in 14 years, and by far the most urgent in tone, leaving little doubt that the scientists consider climate change an incipient crisis. It is also the most slickly produced, with an elaborate package of interactive graphics on the Internet.
One of the report’s most striking findings concerned the rising frequency of torrential rains. Scientists have expected this effect for decades because more water is evaporating from a warming ocean surface, and the warmer atmosphere is able to hold the excess vapor, which then falls as rain or snow. But even the leading experts have been surprised by the scope of the change.
The report found that the eastern half of the country is receiving more precipitation in general. And over the past half-century, the proportion of precipitation that is falling in very heavy rain events has jumped by 71 percent in the Northeast, by 37 percent in the Midwest and by 27 percent in the South, the report found.
“It’s a big change,” said Radley M. Horton, a climate scientist at Columbia University in New York who helped write the report. He added that scientists do not fully understand the regional variations.
In recent years, sudden intense rains have caused extensive damage.
For instance, large parts of Nashville were devastated by floods in 2010 after nearly 20 inches of rain fell in two days. Last year, parts of Colorado flooded after getting as much rain in a week as normally falls in a year. Just last week, widespread devastation occurred in the Florida Panhandle from rains that may have exceeded two feet in 24 hours.
The new report emphasized that people should not expect global warming to happen at a steady pace, nor at the same rate throughout the country. Bitterly cold winters will continue to occur, the report said, even as they become somewhat less likely. Warming, too, will vary. While most of the country has warmed sharply over the past century, the Southeast has barely warmed at all, and a section of southern Alabama has even cooled slightly.
The report cited the likely role of climate change in causing an outbreak of mountain pine beetles that has devastated millions of acres of pine forest across the American West and the Canadian province of British Columbia; warmer winters and longer summers have let more of the beetles survive and reproduce at an exponential rate. And the report warned of severe, long-lasting heat waves. For instance, it cited research saying the type of record-breaking heat that scorched Texas and Oklahoma in 2011 had become substantially more likely because of the human release of greenhouse gases.
On rising sea levels, the new report went beyond warnings issued in September by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which said that by the end of the century, sea levels could rise by as much as three feet globally if emissions continue at a rapid pace. The American scientists said the rise could be anywhere from one to four feet, and added that six feet could not be ruled out. Along much of the East Coast, the situation will be worse than the global average because the land there is sinking, the scientists said.
Historically, the United States was responsible for more emissions than any other country. Lately, China has become the largest emitter over all, though its emissions per person are still far below those of the United States.
The report pointed out that while the country as a whole still had no comprehensive climate legislation, many states and cities had begun to take steps to limit emissions and to adapt to climatic changes that can no longer be avoided. But the report found that these efforts were inadequate.
“There is mounting evidence that harm to the nation will increase substantially in the future unless global emissions of heat-trapping gases are greatly reduced,” the report warned.
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9) Climate Disruptions, Close to Home
9) Climate Disruptions, Close to Home
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10) Life, Death and the Bottom Line
http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/mayjun_14/mayjun_14_06.html
It
is certainly disconcerting to learn that when you or your loved one is
being seen by doctors in capitalism’s command center, the good old USA,
that decisions concerning patient care are based upon the cost of that
care, and not it’s effectiveness. In other words, in medical care too,
you get what you pay for, and profits come first.
In an April 17, 2014 article in the New York Times by Andrew Pollack titled, “Cost of Treatment May Influence Doctors,”
“Saying they can no longer ignore the rising prices of healthcare, some of the most influential medical groups in the nation are recommending that doctors weigh the costs, not just the effectiveness of treatments, as they make decisions about patient care….
“In practical terms, new guidelines being developed by the medical groups could result in doctors choosing one drug over another for cost reasons or even deciding that a particular treatment—at the end of life, for example—is too expensive. In the extreme, some critics have said that making treatment decisions based on cost is a form of rationing….
“A review last year of clinical guidelines issued by 30 of the largest physician specialty societies found that 17 of them explicitly integrated costs….
“The cardiology societies say that the idea that doctors should ignore costs is unrealistic because they already have to consider the financial burden placed on the patient, if not society. ‘Protecting patients from financial ruin is fundamental to the precept of ‘do no harm,’’ the societies wrote in their paper outlining the new policy.”
The “Hypocrite-ic Oath”
In simple terms what they are saying is that if the most effective treatment turns out to be too expensive, let the patient die if they can’t afford it, or if it cuts into profits. And they rationalize this inhumanity by determining that the exorbitant cost for treatment that the patient may have to bear is, in and of itself, detrimental to her or his health and, therefore, against the Hippocratic Oath of, fundamentally, “do no harm!” What hypocrisy!
At no point does the article question the fundamental connection between the profit-driven, multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical and healthcare industries and the cost of treatment to the patient.
At no point does the article challenge the gluttony of the CEOs of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries!
Just to give one example, Richard M. Bracken, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hospital Corporation of America earned $1,387,474 in salary; a $3,358,320 bonus; $21,989,866 in perks; and $11,824,290 in options, for a total of a 49.9-million-dollar income in 2012.1
At no point does the article demand that the multi-trillion-dollar oil, gas, manufacturing, food, tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical, etc. industries, “do no harm!”
At no point does the article challenge the right of industries to make decisions about life and death based upon the bottom line of profit above all else—profits which rightly belong to those who actually do the work.
“Good and Evil”
If there is “good” and “evil,” then “good” is the potential to nurture each other and protect our environment. Above all to make democratic and rational decisions based upon need, want and the health of our planet and not on the accumulation of private profits for the few.
“Evil” is the system of capitalism itself, whereby the private ownership of the means of production, and the profits produced by our labor, are owned and ruled by the commanders of capital—a tiny minority of individuals, who are not only constantly at war with one another—but are universally at war against us, in order to get more of the profits we produce.
The common good
I am an optimist. I truly believe that humanity is fundamentally good because it’s in the best interests of all to live peacefully and cooperatively on this planet. I believe we are naturally, organically and materially destined to create a Paradise on Earth. Nothing is impossible and we have nothing to lose, and a Paradise to gain. That’s socialism in a nutshell.
In an April 17, 2014 article in the New York Times by Andrew Pollack titled, “Cost of Treatment May Influence Doctors,”
“Saying they can no longer ignore the rising prices of healthcare, some of the most influential medical groups in the nation are recommending that doctors weigh the costs, not just the effectiveness of treatments, as they make decisions about patient care….
“In practical terms, new guidelines being developed by the medical groups could result in doctors choosing one drug over another for cost reasons or even deciding that a particular treatment—at the end of life, for example—is too expensive. In the extreme, some critics have said that making treatment decisions based on cost is a form of rationing….
“A review last year of clinical guidelines issued by 30 of the largest physician specialty societies found that 17 of them explicitly integrated costs….
“The cardiology societies say that the idea that doctors should ignore costs is unrealistic because they already have to consider the financial burden placed on the patient, if not society. ‘Protecting patients from financial ruin is fundamental to the precept of ‘do no harm,’’ the societies wrote in their paper outlining the new policy.”
The “Hypocrite-ic Oath”
In simple terms what they are saying is that if the most effective treatment turns out to be too expensive, let the patient die if they can’t afford it, or if it cuts into profits. And they rationalize this inhumanity by determining that the exorbitant cost for treatment that the patient may have to bear is, in and of itself, detrimental to her or his health and, therefore, against the Hippocratic Oath of, fundamentally, “do no harm!” What hypocrisy!
At no point does the article question the fundamental connection between the profit-driven, multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical and healthcare industries and the cost of treatment to the patient.
At no point does the article challenge the gluttony of the CEOs of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries!
Just to give one example, Richard M. Bracken, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Hospital Corporation of America earned $1,387,474 in salary; a $3,358,320 bonus; $21,989,866 in perks; and $11,824,290 in options, for a total of a 49.9-million-dollar income in 2012.1
At no point does the article demand that the multi-trillion-dollar oil, gas, manufacturing, food, tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical, etc. industries, “do no harm!”
At no point does the article challenge the right of industries to make decisions about life and death based upon the bottom line of profit above all else—profits which rightly belong to those who actually do the work.
“Good and Evil”
If there is “good” and “evil,” then “good” is the potential to nurture each other and protect our environment. Above all to make democratic and rational decisions based upon need, want and the health of our planet and not on the accumulation of private profits for the few.
“Evil” is the system of capitalism itself, whereby the private ownership of the means of production, and the profits produced by our labor, are owned and ruled by the commanders of capital—a tiny minority of individuals, who are not only constantly at war with one another—but are universally at war against us, in order to get more of the profits we produce.
The common good
I am an optimist. I truly believe that humanity is fundamentally good because it’s in the best interests of all to live peacefully and cooperatively on this planet. I believe we are naturally, organically and materially destined to create a Paradise on Earth. Nothing is impossible and we have nothing to lose, and a Paradise to gain. That’s socialism in a nutshell.
1 “Executive Pay by the Numbers”
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11) Pelican Bay Censorship
New proposed censorship rules mean more torture for California prisoners in solitary confinement
Editor’s note: The nudity—“obscenity”—language seems to be a smokescreen for flat-out political censorship and banning as contraband of publications like the Bay View that enable prisoners to hold discussions and organize efforts to improve their situation. Typical of the Corrections officials’ excuse for the crackdown is this passage: “Subsection 3006(c)(19) is adopted to establish that inmates shall not possess or have under their control written material or photographs that indicate an association with a validated member or associate of a Security Threat Group (‘validated’ prisoners are the most prolific writers whose letters appear in the targeted publications), as described in Subsections 3378(c)(8)(C)-(D). This change is necessary to ensure the safety and security of the institutions by disallowing publications that indicate an association with groups that are oppositional to authority and society.” What’s oppositional is, of course, in the mind of the censor.
On April 7, 2014, the unit floor officer distributed a California Department of Correction (CDCr) Notice of Rule Change to Regulations Sections 3006, 3134, and 3135, titled “Obscene Material Regulations.” (Links to relevant documents are listed below.)[1] If these changes are approved, publications mailed to prisoners and considered to be in violation of the new regulations “shall be disallowed into the institution and included on the Department’s Centralized List of Disapproved Publications”—permanently banned.
The public comment period ends June 17, 2014, at 5:00 P.M. Written comments can be mailed to: Regulation and Policy Management Branch (RPMB), P.O. Box 942883, Sacramento CA 94283-0001. The contact person is Timothy M. Lockwood, chief of RPMB. If you have inquiries regarding the subject matter of the proposed regulations, call Christopher Abshire at 916-327-5305.
Prisoners would no longer be able to write to the media outlets that allow us to speak to our suffering.
A public hearing will be held on June 17, 10-11:00 A.M., in the Kern Room, located at 1515 S St., North Building, Sacramento, CA 95811. The hearing is for the people to deliver oral comments, but your written comments are just as significant.
We must never forget that laws, rules, regulations and policies are established to systematically harm the people by creating deprivations that subject them to further oppressive conditions to which they are rendered helpless, as in the case with the ongoing torture and abuse of authority by CDCr officials.
The CDCr, with its cunning, conniving, manipulative, insidious, malicious, authoritative and incorrigible acts, is seeking approval of new regulations that are clearly geared toward taking away all prisoners’ First Amendment constitutional rights by proposing changes to the California Code of Regulations, Title 15, Crime Prevention and Corrections Division 3, Rules and Regulations of Adult Institutions, Programs and Parole Department, in Corrections and Rehabilitation—in two words, the “Rule Book.” These proposed changes will trump citizens’ and prisoners’—our—constitutional rights and are an abomination of justice.
Our torture would be magnified under these new proposed rules that Stainer and his cronies are introducing by attempting to silence prisoners and publishers whose voices have been prominent in waging struggle against our perpetual suffering. CDCr wants to stifle our truths and disconnect us from society at large.
Our torture would be magnified under these new proposed rules that Stainer and his cronies are introducing by attempting to silence prisoners and publishers whose voices have been prominent in waging struggle against our perpetual suffering. CDCr wants to stifle our truths and disconnect us from society at large.
Prisoners would no longer be able to write to the media outlets that allow us to speak to our suffering, because CDCr is using their old, tired, worn-out line, “threat to safety and security of the penological interests.” Inventing a false security threat is their way to hide behind rules written to do away with our First Amendment rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
The PHSS News, Rock, Prison Focus, SF Bay View, Abolitionist, Prison Legal News, Turning The Tide, Final Call and countless other political literature will all be targeted under these proposed new regulations.
For example, the CDCr proposes, under the initial Statement of Reasons, Page 1, paragraphs 1 and 2: “The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) proposes to amend Sections 3006, 3141.1 and 3135 of the California Code of Regulations (CCR), Title 15, Division 3, concerning obscene material disallowed from the institution as contraband. These amendments clarify Department regulations, in accordance with statute, concerning obscene material.”
An expert stipulates, “This amendment allows prison authorities to exclude obscene publications or writings and mail containing information concerning where, how or from whom this matter may be obtained.” The key word here is “exclude.” Any publication the Division of Adult Institutions (DAI) considers “obscene material” (which inexplicably includes political material, probably including all letters from or photographs of prisoners—ed.) could be excluded permanently from any California prison if these regulations are approved.
These new proposed regulations are designed to serve one purpose and that is to censor any writings, mailings and publications that educate the public to what is actually occurring in these prisons. Subsection 3134.1(d) as amended rules that “disallowance of the publication shall become permanent if DAI affirms the inclusion of the publication on the centralized list. If the DAI denies the request for inclusion, the institution shall deliver the publication to the inmate within 15 calendar days upon notification from DAI.”
These new proposed regulations are designed to serve one purpose and that is to censor any writings, mailings and publications that educate the public to what is actually occurring in these prisons.
Allowing these proposed regulations to be implemented will literally deny prisoners access to the publications they subscribe to, censor their writings and deny them their incoming and outgoing mail. The culture of the CDCr is already biased, prejudiced and racist against prisoners.
Bestowing on these prison officials the latitude to exercise their authority so arbitrarily speaks to their disregard for our constitutional rights. Withholding our publications, writings and mail while CDCr officials submit a request that said material be included on the Centralized List of Disapproved Publications—books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters etc.—is a mere pretext to censor our mail.
A publication’s value is based upon the timeliness of its delivery to its subscribers. Old news often loses all but its historical value. The CDCr know this very well; to propose a rule that allows them to withhold prisoners’ mail based on its content is an effort to make it irrelevant.
[Editor’s note: Even temporary “disallowance” can severely threaten First Amendment rights. In 2013, every month’s issue of the Bay View from January to June except February’s was “disallowed” at Pelican Bay State Prison and withheld until well after the hunger strike began on July 8. Those issues were packed with letters from prisoners explaining and discussing the reasons for the upcoming strike. Nevertheless, 30,000 prisoners across the state participated because other prisons did not withhold the paper from most Bay View subscribers. These regulations would expand Pelican Bay censorship to all prisons in an apparent effort to prevent another peaceful protest.]
Allowing CDCr to censor the content of our mail would violate not only the First Amendment but also CCR Title 15, Section 3135(b): “Disagreement with the sender’s or receiver’s morals, values, attitudes, veracity or choice of words will not be cause for correctional staff to disallow mail. Correctional staff shall not challenge or confront the sender or receiver with such value judgments.”
Allowing CDCr to censor the content of our mail would violate not only the First Amendment but also CCR Title 15, Section 3135(b): “Disagreement with the sender’s or receiver’s morals, values, attitudes, veracity or choice of words will not be cause for correctional staff to disallow mail. Correctional staff shall not challenge or confront the sender or receiver with such value judgments.”
If approved, CDCr’s proposed new regulations will nullify this section of Title 15 that protects prisoners’ rights to receive and send mail, including publications.
These new proposals will be very costly to the state, and CDCr is being deliberately deceptive, not only to prisoners in this regard, but to the business sector of society, especially publishers. Taxpayers will be footing the bill for the many First Amendment lawsuits that will be filed against CDCr for the constitutional violations that will occur if these changes are approved. Prison-oriented publications, if banned, may not survive.
The CDCr has literally been sucking the economic life out of California with an already bloated annual budget that may rise to $10 billion in the next few years and is currently steady at $.95 billion today—money that California taxpayers cannot afford.
CDCr has been an economic failure for California citizens. It’s a money laundering scheme that filters taxpayer money to the prison industrial slave complex. These proposals are very costly, and the bill will be paid by the citizens of this state.
CDCr has been an economic failure for California citizens. It’s a money laundering scheme that filters taxpayer money to the prison industrial slave complex. These proposals are very costly, and the bill will be paid by the citizens of this state.
The only reason CDCr is proposing these draconian measures is so that they can censor prisoner’s publications, mail and writings, which a reasonable mind can easily see is an arbitrary and deliberate abuse of authority, exposing its indifference to the rights of prisoners and taxpayers. It should be obvious that CDCr officials, with their propensity for retaliation against prisoners, are trying to disguise their attacks under the cover of these new proposals, which, if approved, will harm prisoners and destroy small businesses. Is this even legal?
If ever there’s been a time that the people are in need of pro bono representation, the time is now! We call on the National Lawyers Guild and any attorney or law firm that believes in the First Amendment rights of the U.S. Constitution to challenge this blatant and retaliatory attack by the CDCR to silence all prisoners throughout the state.
11) Pelican Bay Censorship
New proposed censorship rules mean more torture for California prisoners in solitary confinement
http://sfbayview.com/2014/new-proposed-censorship-rules-mean-more-torture-for-california-prisoners-in-solitary-confinement/
Editor’s note: The nudity—“obscenity”—language seems to be a smokescreen for flat-out political censorship and banning as contraband of publications like the Bay View that enable prisoners to hold discussions and organize efforts to improve their situation. Typical of the Corrections officials’ excuse for the crackdown is this passage: “Subsection 3006(c)(19) is adopted to establish that inmates shall not possess or have under their control written material or photographs that indicate an association with a validated member or associate of a Security Threat Group (‘validated’ prisoners are the most prolific writers whose letters appear in the targeted publications), as described in Subsections 3378(c)(8)(C)-(D). This change is necessary to ensure the safety and security of the institutions by disallowing publications that indicate an association with groups that are oppositional to authority and society.” What’s oppositional is, of course, in the mind of the censor.
On April 7, 2014, the unit floor officer distributed a California Department of Correction (CDCr) Notice of Rule Change to Regulations Sections 3006, 3134, and 3135, titled “Obscene Material Regulations.” (Links to relevant documents are listed below.)[1] If these changes are approved, publications mailed to prisoners and considered to be in violation of the new regulations “shall be disallowed into the institution and included on the Department’s Centralized List of Disapproved Publications”—permanently banned.
The public comment period ends June 17, 2014, at 5:00 P.M. Written comments can be mailed to: Regulation and Policy Management Branch (RPMB), P.O. Box 942883, Sacramento CA 94283-0001. The contact person is Timothy M. Lockwood, chief of RPMB. If you have inquiries regarding the subject matter of the proposed regulations, call Christopher Abshire at 916-327-5305.
Prisoners would no longer be able to write to the media outlets that allow us to speak to our suffering.
A public hearing will be held on June 17, 10-11:00 A.M., in the Kern Room, located at 1515 S St., North Building, Sacramento, CA 95811. The hearing is for the people to deliver oral comments, but your written comments are just as significant.
We must never forget that laws, rules, regulations and policies are established to systematically harm the people by creating deprivations that subject them to further oppressive conditions to which they are rendered helpless, as in the case with the ongoing torture and abuse of authority by CDCr officials.
The CDCr, with its cunning, conniving, manipulative, insidious, malicious, authoritative and incorrigible acts, is seeking approval of new regulations that are clearly geared toward taking away all prisoners’ First Amendment constitutional rights by proposing changes to the California Code of Regulations, Title 15, Crime Prevention and Corrections Division 3, Rules and Regulations of Adult Institutions, Programs and Parole Department, in Corrections and Rehabilitation—in two words, the “Rule Book.” These proposed changes will trump citizens’ and prisoners’—our—constitutional rights and are an abomination of justice.
Where is the outrage?
We have to vigorously challenge this new attempt by the CDCr to confiscate books, magazines, newspapers and newsletters simply because Adult Institutions Division Director Michael Stainer and his cronies are retaliating against all who participated in the three hunger strikes held in order to put an end to the torture we all continue to suffer.Our torture would be magnified under these new proposed rules that Stainer and his cronies are introducing by attempting to silence prisoners and publishers whose voices have been prominent in waging struggle against our perpetual suffering. CDCr wants to stifle our truths and disconnect us from society at large.
Our torture would be magnified under these new proposed rules that Stainer and his cronies are introducing by attempting to silence prisoners and publishers whose voices have been prominent in waging struggle against our perpetual suffering. CDCr wants to stifle our truths and disconnect us from society at large.
Prisoners would no longer be able to write to the media outlets that allow us to speak to our suffering, because CDCr is using their old, tired, worn-out line, “threat to safety and security of the penological interests.” Inventing a false security threat is their way to hide behind rules written to do away with our First Amendment rights guaranteed by the Constitution.
The PHSS News, Rock, Prison Focus, SF Bay View, Abolitionist, Prison Legal News, Turning The Tide, Final Call and countless other political literature will all be targeted under these proposed new regulations.
For example, the CDCr proposes, under the initial Statement of Reasons, Page 1, paragraphs 1 and 2: “The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) proposes to amend Sections 3006, 3141.1 and 3135 of the California Code of Regulations (CCR), Title 15, Division 3, concerning obscene material disallowed from the institution as contraband. These amendments clarify Department regulations, in accordance with statute, concerning obscene material.”
An expert stipulates, “This amendment allows prison authorities to exclude obscene publications or writings and mail containing information concerning where, how or from whom this matter may be obtained.” The key word here is “exclude.” Any publication the Division of Adult Institutions (DAI) considers “obscene material” (which inexplicably includes political material, probably including all letters from or photographs of prisoners—ed.) could be excluded permanently from any California prison if these regulations are approved.
These new proposed regulations are designed to serve one purpose and that is to censor any writings, mailings and publications that educate the public to what is actually occurring in these prisons. Subsection 3134.1(d) as amended rules that “disallowance of the publication shall become permanent if DAI affirms the inclusion of the publication on the centralized list. If the DAI denies the request for inclusion, the institution shall deliver the publication to the inmate within 15 calendar days upon notification from DAI.”
These new proposed regulations are designed to serve one purpose and that is to censor any writings, mailings and publications that educate the public to what is actually occurring in these prisons.
Allowing these proposed regulations to be implemented will literally deny prisoners access to the publications they subscribe to, censor their writings and deny them their incoming and outgoing mail. The culture of the CDCr is already biased, prejudiced and racist against prisoners.
Bestowing on these prison officials the latitude to exercise their authority so arbitrarily speaks to their disregard for our constitutional rights. Withholding our publications, writings and mail while CDCr officials submit a request that said material be included on the Centralized List of Disapproved Publications—books, magazines, newspapers, newsletters etc.—is a mere pretext to censor our mail.
A publication’s value is based upon the timeliness of its delivery to its subscribers. Old news often loses all but its historical value. The CDCr know this very well; to propose a rule that allows them to withhold prisoners’ mail based on its content is an effort to make it irrelevant.
[Editor’s note: Even temporary “disallowance” can severely threaten First Amendment rights. In 2013, every month’s issue of the Bay View from January to June except February’s was “disallowed” at Pelican Bay State Prison and withheld until well after the hunger strike began on July 8. Those issues were packed with letters from prisoners explaining and discussing the reasons for the upcoming strike. Nevertheless, 30,000 prisoners across the state participated because other prisons did not withhold the paper from most Bay View subscribers. These regulations would expand Pelican Bay censorship to all prisons in an apparent effort to prevent another peaceful protest.]
Allowing CDCr to censor the content of our mail would violate not only the First Amendment but also CCR Title 15, Section 3135(b): “Disagreement with the sender’s or receiver’s morals, values, attitudes, veracity or choice of words will not be cause for correctional staff to disallow mail. Correctional staff shall not challenge or confront the sender or receiver with such value judgments.”
Allowing CDCr to censor the content of our mail would violate not only the First Amendment but also CCR Title 15, Section 3135(b): “Disagreement with the sender’s or receiver’s morals, values, attitudes, veracity or choice of words will not be cause for correctional staff to disallow mail. Correctional staff shall not challenge or confront the sender or receiver with such value judgments.”
If approved, CDCr’s proposed new regulations will nullify this section of Title 15 that protects prisoners’ rights to receive and send mail, including publications.
These new proposals will be very costly to the state, and CDCr is being deliberately deceptive, not only to prisoners in this regard, but to the business sector of society, especially publishers. Taxpayers will be footing the bill for the many First Amendment lawsuits that will be filed against CDCr for the constitutional violations that will occur if these changes are approved. Prison-oriented publications, if banned, may not survive.
The CDCr has literally been sucking the economic life out of California with an already bloated annual budget that may rise to $10 billion in the next few years and is currently steady at $.95 billion today—money that California taxpayers cannot afford.
CDCr has been an economic failure for California citizens. It’s a money laundering scheme that filters taxpayer money to the prison industrial slave complex. These proposals are very costly, and the bill will be paid by the citizens of this state.
CDCr has been an economic failure for California citizens. It’s a money laundering scheme that filters taxpayer money to the prison industrial slave complex. These proposals are very costly, and the bill will be paid by the citizens of this state.
The only reason CDCr is proposing these draconian measures is so that they can censor prisoner’s publications, mail and writings, which a reasonable mind can easily see is an arbitrary and deliberate abuse of authority, exposing its indifference to the rights of prisoners and taxpayers. It should be obvious that CDCr officials, with their propensity for retaliation against prisoners, are trying to disguise their attacks under the cover of these new proposals, which, if approved, will harm prisoners and destroy small businesses. Is this even legal?
If ever there’s been a time that the people are in need of pro bono representation, the time is now! We call on the National Lawyers Guild and any attorney or law firm that believes in the First Amendment rights of the U.S. Constitution to challenge this blatant and retaliatory attack by the CDCR to silence all prisoners throughout the state.
Publishers and media businesses that report and print
prisoners’ horror stories, contact:
Mutope Duguma, s/n James Crawford, D-05996
PBSP SHU D2-107Up
P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532
[1]
The following list
comes from CDCr, at:
Title: Obscene Material
Section(s): 3006, 3134.1 and 3135
Notification Date: April 4, 2014
Public Hearing Date: June 17, 2014
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12) U.S. Officers Kill Armed Civilians in Yemen Capital
12) U.S. Officers Kill Armed Civilians in Yemen Capital
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13) African National Congress Draws 62 Percent of the Vote in South Africa
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14) Hardship Makes a New Home in the Suburbs
14) Hardship Makes a New Home in the Suburbs
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15) Like-Minded Russians Visit Occupy Wall Street Inmate at Rikers Island
15) Like-Minded Russians Visit Occupy Wall Street Inmate at Rikers Island
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16) Protect Our Bats
16) Protect Our Bats
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17) Trying to Salvage Remains of Blackwater Case
17) Trying to Salvage Remains of Blackwater Case
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18) Facing Challenge to Execution, Texas Calls Its Process the Gold Standard
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19) Agent Orange’s Long Legacy, for Vietnam and Veterans
By
19) Agent Orange’s Long Legacy, for Vietnam and Veterans
By
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B.
EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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C.
SPECIAL APPEALS AND
ONGOING
CAMPAIGNS
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AN URGENT FUNDRAISER FOR LYNNE STEWART'S MEDICAL NEEDS CONTINUES
http://lynnestewart.org/
LYNNE STEWART HAS JUST BEEN DENIED MEDICAL BENEFITS. SHE CAN'T RE-APPLY UNTIL JULY! SHE IS IN URGENT NEED OF OUR HELP NOW!
Because of a determined people’s movement, Lynne is finally home with her family. But she has urgent medical needs and costs. Lynne’s Stage 4 breast cancer spread a year ago to both lungs, back, bones and lymph nodes. Now 74, she has lost weight and has trouble breathing; doctors estimate her lifespan at 12 months. Lynne will soon begin treatment requiring her to pay deductibles and co-payments. To boost the odds, she’ll use a special diet, vitamins, and other healing methods – some costly and none covered by insurance.
Lynne’s spirit is indomitable – help her fight to survive!
“I fought lions, I fought tigers, and I’m not going to let cancer get me,” Stewart said.
Lynne has always come to the aid of those who needed her. Now it’s our turn to stand by Lynne.
SEND LYNNE A DONATION TO:
On line at:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lynne-stewart-s-medical-fund
Or by USPS to:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street?
Brooklyn, New York 11216
Tell Maj. Gen. Buchanan why Chelsea
PVT Chelsea Manning has served nearly four years in prison, yet she’s
showing a remarkable spirit of persistence. She is unjustly imprisoned,
but not defeated. With plans to enroll in a prelaw/political science
university program, and a legal name change underway, she continues
planning for her future and working to fulfill her dreams. She is
determined to make the best of her situation. However, we know she could
contribute more to the world if she was free.
Please write a letter to Convening Authority Major General Buchanan today urging him to reduce Chelsea’s sentence!
We began collecting letters to include in PVT Manning’s clemency packet last fall. We expected that the military would finalize her record of trial last December, and that she could then submit her application to Maj. Gen. Buchanan by the end of 2013. Just like so many times before, however, the military’s process has slowed Chelsea’s ability to defend her rights. Defense attorney David Coombs now estimates that it will be at least another month before the clemency application can be submitted.
Want to make sure decision-makers know why you believe Chelsea deserves to go free? If you haven’t done so yet, please write a short letter to Maj. Gen. Buchanan. Hundreds of people have already submitted letters for us to use, including Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and award-winning author Alice Walker.
As Alice Walker wrote:
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
AN URGENT FUNDRAISER FOR LYNNE STEWART'S MEDICAL NEEDS CONTINUES
http://lynnestewart.org/
LYNNE STEWART HAS JUST BEEN DENIED MEDICAL BENEFITS. SHE CAN'T RE-APPLY UNTIL JULY! SHE IS IN URGENT NEED OF OUR HELP NOW!
Because of a determined people’s movement, Lynne is finally home with her family. But she has urgent medical needs and costs. Lynne’s Stage 4 breast cancer spread a year ago to both lungs, back, bones and lymph nodes. Now 74, she has lost weight and has trouble breathing; doctors estimate her lifespan at 12 months. Lynne will soon begin treatment requiring her to pay deductibles and co-payments. To boost the odds, she’ll use a special diet, vitamins, and other healing methods – some costly and none covered by insurance.
Lynne’s spirit is indomitable – help her fight to survive!
“I fought lions, I fought tigers, and I’m not going to let cancer get me,” Stewart said.
Lynne has always come to the aid of those who needed her. Now it’s our turn to stand by Lynne.
SEND LYNNE A DONATION TO:
On line at:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/lynne-stewart-s-medical-fund
Or by USPS to:
Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
1070 Dean Street?
Brooklyn, New York 11216
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Tell Maj. Gen. Buchanan why Chelsea
deserves to be free!
 |
Please write a letter to Convening Authority Major General Buchanan today urging him to reduce Chelsea’s sentence!
We began collecting letters to include in PVT Manning’s clemency packet last fall. We expected that the military would finalize her record of trial last December, and that she could then submit her application to Maj. Gen. Buchanan by the end of 2013. Just like so many times before, however, the military’s process has slowed Chelsea’s ability to defend her rights. Defense attorney David Coombs now estimates that it will be at least another month before the clemency application can be submitted.
Want to make sure decision-makers know why you believe Chelsea deserves to go free? If you haven’t done so yet, please write a short letter to Maj. Gen. Buchanan. Hundreds of people have already submitted letters for us to use, including Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and award-winning author Alice Walker.
As Alice Walker wrote:
Private Manning was the one soldier willing to speak out against what he thought was wrong. When others silently followed orders, Manning could not. Pvt. Manning is a humanist, meaning he sees humanity before nationality, and values human life above all else. When he released documents to WikiLeaks in 2010, he wanted the American people, and the world, to judge for themselves if the U.S. military was properly valuing human life in Iraq and Afghanistan. As taxpayers who fund that military, we deserve that opportunity.Learn now how you can write a letter to be included in Chelsea Manning’s official application for clemency!
Please share this information to friends and community leaders, urging them to add their voice to this important effort before it's too late.
http://www.privatemanning.org/pardonpetition
Help
us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591
COURAGE
TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
Only an Innocent Man Would Voluntarily Return
to Prison to Fight Against his Life Sentence
and For Exoneration —
That Courageous Man is Lorenzo Johnson.
The PA Attorney General’s Office Agrees to Investigate New Facts and Witnesses —
Send Your Message Now to PA AG
Kathleen Kane: Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson!
On January 29, 2014 Lorenzo Johnson’s attorney, Michael Wiseman, met with representatives of PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane to discuss the new evidence of Lorenzo Johnson’s innocence contained in legal filings now pending in the Pennsylvania courts. This includes affidavits confirming Johnson’s presence in New York City at the time of the Harrisburg murder and the identity of the actual killers, as well as police and prosecutorial misconduct.
Attorney Wiseman said Kane’s office promised to investigate these new facts in order to assess whether they merit the relief that Lorenzo Johnson seeks in his PCRA petition.
Speaking to AP reporter Mary Claire Dale on February 11, 2014 Wiseman said, “We believe the witnesses we presented to them are credible, and give a coherent version of the events. I take them at their word, that they’re going to do a straightforward, honest review.” Kane spokesman Joe Peters confirmed the meeting to AP “but said the office won’t comment on the new evidence until the court filing,” (referring to the March 31, 2014 date for the AG’s response to Johnson’s October 2013 court filing).
It is the Office of the PA Attorney General that is responsible for the false prosecution of Lorenzo Johnson from trial through appeals. And just a few months ago, the Attorney General’s office opposed a federal petition based on this new evidence saying there was no prima facie claim for relief. This resulted in the denial of Lorenzo Johnson’s Motion to File a Second Writ of Habeas Corpus in the federal court.
On December 18, 2013 a press conference called by the Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson protested these actions of the PA Attorney General and delivered petitions demanding dismissal of the charges and immediate freedom for Lorenzo. Tazza, Lorenzo’s wife, declared, “1,000 signatures means we are not in this alone…I won't stop until he’s home. There is nothing and no one that can stop me from fighting for what’s right.”
This is Lorenzo Johnson’s second fight for his innocence and freedom. In January 2012, after 16 years of court battles to prove his innocence, a federal appeals court held his sentence was based on insufficient evidence – a judicial acquittal. Lorenzo was freed from prison. But after a petition filed by the PA Attorney General the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated Lorenzo Johnson’s conviction and he was re-incarcerated to continue serving a life sentence without parole for a murder he did not commit.
This innocent man drove himself back to prison in June 2012—after less than five months of freedom—leaving his new wife and family, construction job and advocacy on behalf of others wrongfully convicted. The reason Lorenzo Johnson voluntarily returned to prison? Because he is innocent and fighting for full vindication.
In the words of Lorenzo Johnson, “A second is too long to be in prison when you are Innocent, so eighteen years … is Intolerable.”
Add your voices and demand again: Dismiss the charges against Lorenzo Johnson. Free Lorenzo NOW!
SIGN LORENZO JOHNSON'S FREEDOM PETITION
CONTRIBUTE TO HELP TAZZA AND THE OTHER FAMILY MEMBERS VISIT LORENZO AND STAY IN CONTACT!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Lorenzo Johnson through JPAY.com code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org
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End Drone Killing, Drone Surveillance and Global
Militarization
United National Antiwar Coalition Call for Spring Days of
Action 2014
Today we issue an international call for Spring Days of Action—2014, a coordinated campaign in April and May to end drone killings, drone surveillance and global militarization.
The campaign will focus on drone bases, drone research facilities and test sites and drone manufacturers.
The campaign will provide information on:
1. The suffering of tens-of-thousands of people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza who are under drone attack, documenting the killing, the wounding and the devastating impact of constant drone surveillance on community life.
2. How attack and surveillance drones have become a key element in a massive wave of surveillance, clandestine military attacks and militarization generated by the United States to protect a global system of manufacture and oil and mineral exploitation that is creating unemployment and poverty, accelerating the waste of nonrenewable resources and contributing to environmental destruction and global warming.
In addition to cases in the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia, we will examine President Obama’s “pivot” into the Asia-Pacific, where the United States has already sold and deployed drones in the vanguard of a shift of 60 percent of its military forces to try to control China and to enforce the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership. We will show, among other things, how this surge of “pivot” forces, greatly enabled by drones, and supported by the U.S. military-industrial complex, will hit every American community with even deeper cuts in the already fragile social programs on which people rely for survival. In short, we will connect drones and militarization with “austerity” in America.
3. How drone attacks have effectively destroyed international and domestic legal protection of the rights to life, privacy, freedom of assembly and free speech and have opened the way for new levels of surveillance and repression around the world, and how, in the United States, increasing drone surveillance, added to surveillance by the National Security Agency and police, provides a new weapon to repress black, Hispanic, immigrant and low-income communities and to intimidate Americans who are increasingly unsettled by lack of jobs, economic inequality, corporate control of politics and the prospect of endless war.
We will discuss how the United States government and corporations conspire secretly to monitor U.S. citizens and particularly how the Administration is accelerating drone surveillance operations and surveillance inside the United States with the same disregard for transparency and law that it applies to other countries, all with the cooperation of the Congress.
The campaign will encourage activists around the world to win passage of local laws that prohibit weaponized drones and drone surveillance from being used in their communities as well as seeking national laws to bar the use of weaponized drones and drone surveillance.
The campaign will draw attention to the call for a ban on weaponized drones by RootsAction.org that has generated a petition with over 80,000 signers:
http://act.rootsaction.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6180
And to efforts by the Granny Peace Brigade (New York City), KnowDrones.org and others to achieve an international ban on both weaponized drones and drone surveillance.
The campaign will also urge participation in the World Beyond War movement.
The following individuals and organizations endorse
this Call:
Lyn Adamson, Co-chair, Canadian Voice of Women for
Peace; Dennis Apel, Guadalupe Catholic Worker, California; Judy Bello, Upstate
NY Coalition to Ground the Drones & End the Wars; Medea Benjamin, Code Pink;
Leah Bolger, Former National President, Veterans for Peace; Canadian Voice of
Women for Peace; Sung-Hee Choi, Gangjeong Village International Team, Jeju,
Korea; Chelsea C. Faria, Graduate student, Yale Divinity School; Promoting
Enduring Peace; Sandy Fessler, Rochester (NY) Against War; Joy First; Bruce K.
Gagnon, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space; Holly
Gwinn Graham, Singer/songwriter, Olympia, WA; Regina Hagen, Darmstaedter
Friedensforum, Germany; Kathy Kelly, Voices for Creative Nonviolence; Malachy
Kilbride; Marilyn Levin and Joe Lombardo, Co-Coordinators, United National
Antiwar Coalition; Tamara Lorincz, Halifax Peace Coalition, Canada; Nick
Mottern, KnowDrones.org; Agneta
Norberg, Swedish Peace Council; Pepperwolf, Director, Women Against Military
Madness; Lindis Percy, Coordinator, Campaign for the Accountability of American;
Bases CAAB UK; Mathias Quackenbush, San Francisco, CA; Lisa Savage, Code
Pink, State of Maine; Janice Sevre-Duszynska; Wolfgang Schlupp-Hauck, Friedenswerkstatt
Mutlangen, Germany; Cindy Sheehan; Lucia Wilkes Smith, Convener, Women Against
Military Madness (WAMM), Ground; Military
Drones Committee; David Soumis, Veterans for Peace; No Drones Wisconsin; Debra
Sweet, World Can’t Wait; David Swanson, WarisACrime.org;
Brian Terrell, Voices for Creative Nonviolence; United National Antiwar
Coalition; Veterans for Peace; Dave Webb, Chair, Campaign for Nuclear
Disarmament (UK); Curt Wechsler, Fire John Paki Wieland, Northampton (MA)
Committee to Stop War(s); Loring Wirbel, Citizens for Peace in Space (Colorado
Springs, CO); Women Against Military Madness; Ann Wright, Retired U.S. Army
colonel and former diplomat; Leila Zand, Fellowship of Reconciliation.
United National Antiwar Coalition
UNACpeace@gmail.com
UNAC
P.O. Box 123
Delmar, NY 12054
518-227-6947
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Sireen Khudairy Appeal Update.
Sireen
Khudairy was arrested again at 4am on Tuesday 7th January 2014. According to
reports she has been taken to Huwwara military point. When the Israeli army
took her from her home they didn't show any papers to her or the person she was
with.
This
follows eight months of harassment of this 24-year-old Palestinian woman who is
a teacher, activist and supporter of the non-violent action against the Israeli
occupation. She was previously imprisoned from May to July 2013, and has been
subjected to frequent harassment ever since. See further details at:
http://freesireen.wordpress.com
Please
help by contacting your Embassies urgently to demand her release and spread her
appeal widely. Follow updates on:
https://www.facebook.com/FreeSireenKhudiri?ref=hl
Please
contact us to let us know any action you take. We will pass this information on
to her family. Thanks for your solidarity and support.
Steven Katsineris, January 2014
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U.S.
Court of Appeals Rules Against Lorenzo Johnson’s
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
New Legal Challenge to His Frame-up Conviction!
Demand the PA Attorney General Dismiss the Charges!
Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
The
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit denied Lorenzo Johnson’s motion to
file a Second Habeas Corpus Petition. The order contained the outrageous
declaration that Johnson hadn’t made a “prima facie case” that he had new
evidence of his innocence. This not only puts a legal obstacle in Johnson’s
path as his fight for freedom makes its way (again) through the state and
federal courts—but it undermines the newly filed Pennsylvania state appeal that
is pending in the Court of Common Pleas.
Stripped
of “legalese,” the court’s October 15, 2013 order says Johnson’s new
evidence was not brought into court soon enough—although it was the prosecution
and police who withheld evidence and coerced witnesses into lying or not coming
forward with the truth! This, despite over fifteen years and rounds of legal
battles to uncover the evidence of government misconduct. This is a set-back
for Lorenzo Johnson’s renewed fight for his freedom, but Johnson is even more
determined as his PA state court appeal continues.
Increased
public support and protest is needed. The fight for Lorenzo Johnson’s freedom
is not only a fight for this courageous man and family. The fight for Lorenzo
Johnson is also a fight for all the innocent others who have been framed and
are sitting in the slow death of prison. The PA Attorney General is directly
pursuing the charges against Lorenzo, despite the evidence of his innocence and
the corruption of the police. Free Lorenzo Johnson, Now!
—Rachel
Wolkenstein, Esq.
October 25, 2013
For
more on the federal court and PA state court legal filings.
Hear
Mumia’s latest commentary, “Cat Cries”
Go
to: www.FreeLorenzoJohnson.org for more information, to sign the petition, and
how to help.
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PUSH
CHELSEA'S JAILERS TO RESPECT HER IDENTITY
Call
and write Ft Leavenworth today and tell them to honor Manning's wishes around
her name and gender:
Call:
(913) 758-3600
Write
to:
Col.
Sioban Ledwith, Commander
U.S.
Detention Barracks
1301
N Warehouse Rd
Ft.
Leavenworth KS 66027
Private
Manning has been an icon both for the government transparency movement and
LGBTQ activists because of her fearlessness and acts of conscience. Now, as she
begins serving her sentence, Chelsea has asked for help with legal appeals,
family visits, education, and support for undergoing gender transition. The
latter is a decision she’s made following years of experiencing gender
dysphoria and examining her options. At a difficult time in her life, she
joined the military out of hope–the hope that she could use her service to save
lives, and also the hope that it would help to suppress her feelings of gender
dysphoria. But after serving time in Iraq, Private Manning realized what
mattered to her most was the truth, personal as well as political, even when it
proved challenging.
Now
she wants the Fort Leavenworth military prison to allow her access to hormone
replacement therapy which she has offered to pay for herself, as she pursues
the process to have her name legally changed to ‘Chelsea Elizabeth Manning.’
To
encourage the prison to honor her transgender identity, we’re calling on
progressive supporters and allies to contact Fort Leavenworth officials
demanding they acknowledge her requested name change immediately. Currently,
prison officials are not required to respect Chelsea’s identity, and can even
refuse to deliver mail addressed to the name ‘Chelsea Manning.’ However, it’s
within prison administrators’ power to begin using the name ‘Chelsea Manning’
now, in advance of the legal name change which will most likely be approved
sometime next year. It’s also up to these officials to approve Private
Manning’s request for hormone therapy.
Call:
(913) 758-3600
Write
to:
Col.
Sioban Ledwith, Commander
U.S.
Detention Barracks
1301
N Warehouse Rd
Ft.
Leavenworth KS 66027
Tell
them: “Transgender rights are human rights! Respect Private Manning’s identity
by acknowledging the name ‘Chelsea Manning’ whenever possible, including in
mail addressed to her, and by allowing her access to appropriate medical
treatment for gender dysphoria, including hormone replacement therapy (HRT).”
While
openly transgender individuals are allowed to serve in many other militaries
around the world, the US military continues to deny their existence. Now, by
speaking up for Chelsea’s right to treatment, you can support one brave
whistleblower in her personal struggle, and help set an important benchmark for
the rights of transgender individuals everywhere. (Remember that letters
written with focus and a respectful tone are more likely to be effective.) Feel
free to copy this sample letter.
Earlier
this year, the Private Manning Support Network won the title of most
“absolutely fabulous overall contingent” at the San Francisco Pride Parade, the
largest celebration of its kind for LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgender
and Questioning) people nationwide. Over one thousand people marched for
Private Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning in that parade, to show LGBTQ
community pride for the Iraq War’s most well-known whistleblower.
Help
us continue to cover 100%
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
of Pvt. Manning's legal fees! Donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38591
COURAGE
TO RESIST
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
http://couragetoresist.org
484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610
510-488-3559
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SAVE
CCSF!
Posted
on August 25, 2013
Cartoon
by Anthonty Mata for CCSF Guardsman
DOE
CAMPAIGN
We
are working to ensure that the ACCJC’s authority is not renewed by the
Department of Education this December when they are up for their 5-year
renewal. Our campaign made it possible for over 50 Third Party Comments to be
sent to the DOE re: the ACCJC. Our next step in this campaign is to send a
delegation from CCSF to Washington, D.C. to give oral comments at the hearing
on December 12th. We expect to have an array of forces aligned on the other
side who have much more money and resources than we do.
So
please support this effort to get ACCJC authority revoked!
LEGAL
CAMPAIGN
Save
CCSF members have been meeting with Attorney Dan Siegel since last May to
explore legal avenues to fight the ACCJC. After much consideration, and
consultation with AFT 2121’s attorney as well as the SF City Attorney’s office,
Dan has come up with a legal strategy that is complimentary to what is already
being pursued. In fact, AFT 2121’s attorney is encouraging us to go forward.
The
total costs of pursuing this (depositions, etc.) will be substantially more
than $15,000. However, Dan is willing to do it for a fixed fee of $15,000. He
will not expect a retainer, i.e. payment in advance, but we should start
payments ASAP. If we win the ACCJC will have to pay our costs.
PLEASE
HELP BOTH OF THESE IMPORTANT EFFORTS!
Checks
can be made out to Save CCSF Coalition with “legal” in the memo line and sent
to:
Save
CCSF Coalition
2132
Prince St.
Berkeley, CA 94705
Or
you may donate online: http://www.gofundme.com/4841ns
http://www.saveccsf.org/
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16 Years in Solitary Confinement Is Like a "Living Tomb"
American
Civil Liberties Union petition to end long-term solitary confinement:
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard: We stand with the prisoners on hunger
strike. We urge you to comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in
America’s Prisons 2006 recommendations regarding an end to long-term solitary
confinement.
In
California, hundreds of prisoners have been held in solitary for more than a
decade – some for infractions as trivial as reading Machiavelli's "The
Prince."
Gabriel
Reyes describes the pain of being isolated for at least 22 hours a day for the
last 16 years:
“Unless
you have lived it, you cannot imagine what it feels like to be by yourself,
between four cold walls, with little concept of time…. It is a living tomb …’ I
have not been allowed physical contact with any of my loved ones since 1995…I
feel helpless and hopeless. In short, I am being psychologically tortured.”
That’s
why over 30,000 prisoners in California began a hunger strike – the biggest the
state has ever seen. They’re refusing food to protest prisoners being held for
decades in solitary and to push for other changes to improve their basic
conditions.
California
Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard has tried to dismiss the strikers and
refuses to negotiate, but the media pressure is building through the strike. If
tens of thousands of us take action, we can help keep this issue in the
spotlight so that Secretary Beard can’t ignore the inhumane treatment of
prisoners.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Solitary
is such an extreme form of punishment that a United Nations torture rapporteur
called for an international ban on the practice except in rare occasions.
Here’s why:
The
majority of the 80,000 people held in solitary in this country are severely
mentally ill or because of a minor infraction (it’s a myth that it’s only for
violent prisoners)
Even
for people with stable mental health, solitary causes severe psychological
reactions, often leading people to attempt suicide
It
jeopardizes public safety because prisoners held in solitary have a harder time
reintegrating into society.
And
to add insult to injury, the hunger strikers are now facing retaliation – their
lawyers are being restricted from visiting and the strikers are being punished.
But the media continues to write about the hunger strike and we can help keep
the pressure on Secretary Beard by signing this petition.
Sign
the petition urging Corrections Secretary Beard to end the use of long-term
solitary confinement.
Our
criminal justice system should keep communities safe and treat people fairly.
The use of solitary confinement undermines both of these goals – but little by
little, we can help put a stop to such cruelty.
Thank
you,
Anthony
for the ACLU Action team
P.S.
The hunger strikers have developed five core demands to address their basic
conditions, the main one being an end to long-term solitary confinement. They
are:
-End
group punishment – prisoners say that officials often punish groups to address
individual rule violations
-Abolish
the debriefing policy, which is often demanded in return for better food or
release from solitary
-End
long-term solitary confinement
-Provide
adequate and nutritious food
-Expand
or provide constructive programming and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates
Sources
“Solitary
- and anger - in California's prisons.” Los Angeles Times July 13, 2013
“Pelican
Bay Prison Hunger-Strikers' Stories: Gabriel Reyes.” TruthOut July 9, 2013
“Solitary
confinement should be banned in most cases, UN expert says.” UN News October
18, 2011
"Stop
Solitary - Two Pager" ACLU.org
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What
you Didn't know about NYPD's Stop and Frisk program !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rfJHx0Gj6ys#at=990
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Egypt:
The Next President -- a little Egyptian boy speaks his remarkable mind!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeDm2PrNV1I
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Wealth
Inequality in America
[This
is a must see to believe video...bw]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QPKKQnijnsM
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Read
the transcription of hero Bradley Manning's 35-page statement explaining why he
leaked "state secrets" to WikiLeaks.
March
1, 2013
Alternet
The
statement was read by Pfc. Bradley Manning at a providence inquiry for his
formal plea of guilty to one specification as charged and nine specifications
for lesser included offenses. He pled not guilty to 12 other specifications.
This rush transcript was taken by journalist Alexa O'Brien at Thursday's
pretrial hearing and first appeared on Salon.com.
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/bradley-mannings-surprising-statement-court-details-why-he-made-his-historic?akid=10129.229473.UZvQfK&rd=1&src=newsletter802922&t=7
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You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: NLG Guide to Law Enforcement Encounters
Posted
1 day ago on July 27, 2012, 10:28 p.m. EST by OccupyWallSt
Occupy
Wall Street is a nonviolent movement for social and economic justice, but in
recent days disturbing reports have emerged of Occupy-affiliated activists
being targeted by US law enforcement, including agents from the FBI and
Department of Homeland Security. To help ensure Occupiers and allied activists
know their rights when encountering law enforcement, we are publishing in full
the National Lawyers Guild's booklet: You Have the Right to Remain Silent. The
NLG provides invaluable support to the Occupy movement and other activists –
please click here to support the NLG.
We
strongly encourage all Occupiers to read and share the information provided
below. We also recommend you enter the NLG's national hotline number
(888-654-3265) into your cellphone (if you have one) and keep a copy handy.
This information is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact the
NLG or a criminal defense attorney immediately if you have been visited by the
FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should also alert your relatives,
friends, co-workers and others so that they will be prepared if they are
contacted as well.
You
Have the Right to Remain Silent: A Know Your Rights Guide for Law Enforcement
Encounters
What
Rights Do I Have?
Whether
or not you're a citizen, you have rights under the United States Constitution.
The Fifth Amendment gives every person the right to remain silent: not to
answer questions asked by a police officer or government agent. The Fourth
Amendment restricts the government's power to enter and search your home or
workplace, although there are many exceptions and new laws have expanded the
government's power to conduct surveillance. The First Amendment protects your
right to speak freely and to advocate for social change. However, if you are a
non-citizen, the Department of Homeland Security may target you based on your
political activities.
Standing
Up For Free Speech
The
government's crusade against politically-active individuals is intended to
disrupt and suppress the exercise of time-honored free speech activities, such
as boycotts, protests, grassroots organizing and solidarity work. Remember that
you have the right to stand up to the intimidation tactics of FBI agents and
other law enforcement officials who, with political motives, are targeting
organizing and free speech activities. Informed resistance to these tactics and
steadfast defense of your and others' rights can bring positive results. Each
person who takes a courageous stand makes future resistance to government oppression
easier for all. The National Lawyers Guild has a long tradition of standing up
to government repression. The organization itself was labeled a
"subversive" group during the McCarthy Era and was subject to FBI
surveillance and infiltration for many years. Guild attorneys have defended
FBI-targeted members of the Black Panther Party, the American Indian Movement,
and the Puerto Rican independence movement. The NLG exposed FBI surveillance,
infiltration and disruption tactics that were detailed during the 1975-76
COINTELPRO hearings. In 1989 the NLG prevailed in a lawsuit on behalf of
several activist organizations, including the Guild, that forced the FBI to
expose the extent to which it had been spying on activist movements. Under the
settlement, the FBI turned over roughly 400,000 pages of its files on the
Guild, which are now available at the Tamiment Library at New York University.
What
if FBI Agents or Police Contact Me?
What
if an agent or police officer comes to the door?
Do
not invite the agents or police into your home. Do not answer any questions.
Tell the agent that you do not wish to talk with him or her. You can state that
your lawyer will contact them on your behalf. You can do this by stepping
outside and pulling the door behind you so that the interior of your home or
office is not visible, getting their contact information or business cards and
then returning inside. They should cease questioning after this. If the agent
or officer gives a reason for contacting you, take notes and give the
information to your attorney. Anything you say, no matter how seemingly
harmless or insignificant, may be used against you or others in the future.
Lying to or misleading a federal agent is a crime. The more you speak, the more
opportunity for federal law enforcement to find something you said (even if not
intentionally) false and assert that you lied to a federal officer.
Do
I have to answer questions?
You
have the constitutional right to remain silent. It is not a crime to refuse to
answer questions. You do not have to talk to anyone, even if you have been
arrested or are in jail. You should affirmatively and unambiguously state that
you wish to remain silent and that you wish to consult an attorney. Once you
make the request to speak to a lawyer, do not say anything else. The Supreme
Court recently ruled that answering law enforcement questions may be taken as a
waiver of your right to remain silent, so it is important that you assert your
rights and maintain them. Only a judge can order you to answer questions. There
is one exception: some states have "stop and identify" statutes which
require you to provide identity information or your name if you have been
detained on reasonable suspicion that you may have committed a crime. A lawyer
in your state can advise you of the status of these requirements where you
reside.
Do
I have to give my name?
As
above, in some states you can be detained or arrested for merely refusing to
give your name. And in any state, police do not always follow the law, and
refusing to give your name may make them suspicious or more hostile and lead to
your arrest, even without just cause, so use your judgment. Giving a false name
could in some circumstances be a crime.
Do
I need a lawyer?
You
have the right to talk to a lawyer before you decide whether to answer
questions from law enforcement. It is a good idea to talk to a lawyer if you
are considering answering any questions. You have the right to have a lawyer
present during any interview. The lawyer's job is to protect your rights. Once
you tell the agent that you want to talk to a lawyer, he or she should stop
trying to question you and should make any further contact through your lawyer.
If you do not have a lawyer, you can still tell the officer you want to speak to
one before answering questions. Remember to get the name, agency and telephone
number of any investigator who visits you, and give that information to your
lawyer. The government does not have to provide you with a free lawyer unless
you are charged with a crime, but the NLG or another organization may be able
to help you find a lawyer for free or at a reduced rate.
If
I refuse to answer questions or say I want a lawyer, won't it seem like I have
something to hide?
Anything
you say to law enforcement can be used against you and others. You can never
tell how a seemingly harmless bit of information might be used or manipulated
to hurt you or someone else. That is why the right not to talk is a fundamental
right under the Constitution. Keep in mind that although law enforcement agents
are allowed to lie to you, lying to a government agent is a crime. Remaining
silent is not. The safest things to say are "I am going to remain
silent," "I want to speak to my lawyer," and "I do not consent
to a search." It is a common practice for law enforcement agents to try to
get you to waive your rights by telling you that if you have nothing to hide
you would talk or that talking would "just clear things up." The fact
is, if they are questioning you, they are looking to incriminate you or someone
you may know, or they are engaged in political intelligence gathering. You
should feel comfortable standing firm in protection and defense of your rights
and refusing to answer questions.
Can
agents search my home or office?
You
do not have to let police or agents into your home or office unless they have
and produce a valid search warrant. A search warrant is a written court order
that allows the police to conduct a specified search. Interfering with a
warrantless search probably will not stop it and you might get arrested. But
you should say "I do not consent to a search," and call a criminal
defense lawyer or the NLG. You should be aware that a roommate or guest can
legally consent to a search of your house if the police believe that person has
the authority to give consent, and your employer can consent to a search of
your workspace without your permission.
What
if agents have a search warrant?
If
you are present when agents come for the search, you can ask to see the
warrant. The warrant must specify in detail the places to be searched and the
people or things to be taken away. Tell the agents you do not consent to the
search so that they cannot go beyond what the warrant authorizes. Ask if you
are allowed to watch the search; if you are allowed to, you should. Take notes,
including names, badge numbers, what agency each officer is from, where they
searched and what they took. If others are present, have them act as witnesses
to watch carefully what is happening. If the agents ask you to give them
documents, your computer, or anything else, look to see if the item is listed
in the warrant. If it is not, do not consent to them taking it without talking
to a lawyer. You do not have to answer questions. Talk to a lawyer first.
(Note: If agents present an arrest warrant, they may only perform a cursory
visual search of the premises to see if the person named in the arrest warrant
is present.)
Do
I have to answer questions if I have been arrested?
No.
If you are arrested, you do not have to answer any questions. You should
affirmatively and unambiguously state that you wish to assert your right to
remain silent. Ask for a lawyer right away. Do not say anything else. Repeat to
every officer who tries to talk to or question you that you wish to remain
silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer. You should always talk to a
lawyer before you decide to answer any questions.
What
if I speak to government agents anyway?
Even
if you have already answered some questions, you can refuse to answer other
questions until you have a lawyer. If you find yourself talking, stop. Assert
that you wish to remain silent and that you wish to speak to a lawyer.
What
if the police stop me on the street?
Ask
if you are free to go. If the answer is yes, consider just walking away. If the
police say you are not under arrest, but are not free to go, then you are being
detained. The police can pat down the outside of your clothing if they have
reason to suspect you might be armed and dangerous. If they search any more
than this, say clearly, "I do not consent to a search." They may keep
searching anyway. If this happens, do not resist because you can be charged
with assault or resisting arrest. You do not have to answer any questions. You
do not have to open bags or any closed container. Tell the officers you do not
consent to a search of your bags or other property.
What
if police or agents stop me in my car?
Keep
your hands where the police can see them. If you are driving a vehicle, you
must show your license, registration and, in some states, proof of insurance.
You do not have to consent to a search. But the police may have legal grounds
to search your car anyway. Clearly state that you do not consent. Officers may
separate passengers and drivers from each other to question them, but no one
has to answer any questions.
What
if I am treated badly by the police or the FBI?
Write
down the officer's badge number, name or other identifying information. You
have a right to ask the officer for this information. Try to find witnesses and
their names and phone numbers. If you are injured, seek medical attention and
take pictures of the injuries as soon as you can. Call a lawyer as soon as
possible.
What
if the police or FBI threaten me with a grand jury subpoena if I don't answer
their questions?
A
grand jury subpoena is a written order for you to go to court and testify about
information you may have. It is common for the FBI to threaten you with a
subpoena to get you to talk to them. If they are going to subpoena you, they
will do so anyway. You should not volunteer to speak just because you are
threatened with a subpoena. You should consult a lawyer.
What
if I receive a grand jury subpoena?
Grand
jury proceedings are not the same as testifying at an open court trial. You are
not allowed to have a lawyer present (although one may wait in the hallway and
you may ask to consult with him or her after each question) and you may be asked
to answer questions about your activities and associations. Because of the
witness's limited rights in this situation, the government has frequently used
grand jury subpoenas to gather information about activists and political
organizations. It is common for the FBI to threaten activists with a subpoena
in order to elicit information about their political views and activities and
those of their associates. There are legal grounds for stopping
("quashing") subpoenas, and receiving one does not necessarily mean
that you are suspected of a crime. If you do receive a subpoena, call the NLG
National Hotline at 888-NLG-ECOL (888-654-3265) or call a criminal defense
attorney immediately.
The
government regularly uses grand jury subpoena power to investigate and seek
evidence related to politically-active individuals and social movements. This
practice is aimed at prosecuting activists and, through intimidation and
disruption, discouraging continued activism.
Federal
grand jury subpoenas are served in person. If you receive one, it is critically
important that you retain the services of an attorney, preferably one who
understands your goals and, if applicable, understands the nature of your
political work, and has experience with these issues. Most lawyers are trained
to provide the best legal defense for their client, often at the expense of
others. Beware lawyers who summarily advise you to cooperate with grand juries,
testify against friends, or cut off contact with your friends and political
activists. Cooperation usually leads to others being subpoenaed and
investigated. You also run the risk of being charged with perjury, a felony,
should you omit any pertinent information or should there be inconsistencies in
your testimony.
Frequently
prosecutors will offer "use immunity," meaning that the prosecutor is
prohibited from using your testimony or any leads from it to bring charges
against you. If a subsequent prosecution is brought, the prosecutor bears the
burden of proving that all of its evidence was obtained independent of the
immunized testimony. You should be aware, however, that they will use anything
you say to manipulate associates into sharing more information about you by
suggesting that you have betrayed confidences.
In
front of a grand jury you can "take the Fifth" (exercise your right
to remain silent). However, the prosecutor may impose immunity on you, which
strips you of Fifth Amendment protection and subjects you to the possibility of
being cited for contempt and jailed if you refuse to answer further. In front
of a grand jury you have no Sixth Amendment right to counsel, although you can
consult with a lawyer outside the grand jury room after each question.
What
if I don't cooperate with the grand jury?
If
you receive a grand jury subpoena and elect to not cooperate, you may be held
in civil contempt. There is a chance that you may be jailed or imprisoned for
the length of the grand jury in an effort to coerce you to cooperate. Regular
grand juries sit for a basic term of 18 months, which can be extended up to a
total of 24 months. It is lawful to hold you in order to coerce your
cooperation, but unlawful to hold you as a means of punishment. In rare
instances you may face criminal contempt charges.
What
If I Am Not a Citizen and the DHS Contacts Me?
The
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is now part of the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) and has been renamed and reorganized into: 1. The
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS); 2. The Bureau of Customs
and Border Protection (CBP); and 3. The Bureau of Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE). All three bureaus will be referred to as DHS for the
purposes of this pamphlet.
?
Assert your rights. If you do not demand your rights or if you sign papers
waiving your rights, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may deport you
before you see a lawyer or an immigration judge. Never sign anything without
reading, understanding and knowing the consequences of signing it.
?
Talk to a lawyer. If possible, carry with you the name and telephone number of
an immigration lawyer who will take your calls. The immigration laws are hard
to understand and there have been many recent changes. DHS will not explain
your options to you. As soon as you encounter a DHS agent, call your attorney.
If you can't do it right away, keep trying. Always talk to an immigration
lawyer before leaving the U.S. Even some legal permanent residents can be
barred from returning.
Based
on today's laws, regulations and DHS guidelines, non-citizens usually have the
following rights, no matter what their immigration status. This information may
change, so it is important to contact a lawyer. The following rights apply to
non-citizens who are inside the U.S. Non-citizens at the border who are trying
to enter the U.S. do not have all the same rights.
Do
I have the right to talk to a lawyer before answering any DHS questions or
signing any DHS papers?
Yes.
You have the right to call a lawyer or your family if you are detained, and you
have the right to be visited by a lawyer in detention. You have the right to
have your attorney with you at any hearing before an immigration judge. You do
not have the right to a government-appointed attorney for immigration
proceedings, but if you have been arrested, immigration officials must show you
a list of free or low cost legal service providers.
Should
I carry my green card or other immigration papers with me?
If
you have documents authorizing you to stay in the U.S., you must carry them
with you. Presenting false or expired papers to DHS may lead to deportation or
criminal prosecution. An unexpired green card, I-94, Employment Authorization
Card, Border Crossing Card or other papers that prove you are in legal status
will satisfy this requirement. If you do not carry these papers with you, you
could be charged with a crime. Always keep a copy of your immigration papers
with a trusted family member or friend who can fax them to you, if need be.
Check with your immigration lawyer about your specific case.
Am
I required to talk to government officers about my immigration history?
If
you are undocumented, out of status, a legal permanent resident (green card
holder), or a citizen, you do not have to answer any questions about your
immigration history. (You may want to consider giving your name; see above for
more information about this.) If you are not in any of these categories, and
you are being questioned by a DHS or FBI agent, then you may create problems
with your immigration status if you refuse to provide information requested by
the agent. If you have a lawyer, you can tell the agent that your lawyer will
answer questions on your behalf. If answering questions could lead the agent to
information that connects you with criminal activity, you should consider
refusing to talk to the agent at all.
If
I am arrested for immigration violations, do I have the right to a hearing
before an immigration judge to defend myself against deportation charges?
Yes.
In most cases only an immigration judge can order you deported. But if you
waive your rights or take "voluntary departure," agreeing to leave
the country, you could be deported without a hearing. If you have criminal
convictions, were arrested at the border, came to the U.S. through the visa
waiver program or have been ordered deported in the past, you could be deported
without a hearing. Contact a lawyer immediately to see if there is any relief
for you.
Can
I call my consulate if I am arrested?
Yes.
Non-citizens arrested in the U.S. have the right to call their consulate or to
have the police tell the consulate of your arrest. The police must let your
consulate visit or speak with you if consular officials decide to do so. Your
consulate might help you find a lawyer or offer other help. You also have the
right to refuse help from your consulate.
What
happens if I give up my right to a hearing or leave the U.S. before the hearing
is over?
You
could lose your eligibility for certain immigration benefits, and you could be
barred from returning to the U.S. for a number of years. You should always talk
to an immigration lawyer before you decide to give up your right to a hearing.
What
should I do if I want to contact DHS?
Always
talk to a lawyer before contacting DHS, even on the phone. Many DHS officers
view "enforcement" as their primary job and will not explain all of
your options to you.
What
Are My Rights at Airports?
IMPORTANT
NOTE: It is illegal for law enforcement to perform any stops, searches,
detentions or removals based solely on your race, national origin, religion,
sex or ethnicity.
If
I am entering the U.S. with valid travel papers can a U.S. customs agent stop
and search me?
Yes.
Customs agents have the right to stop, detain and search every person and item.
Can
my bags or I be searched after going through metal detectors with no problem or
after security sees that my bags do not contain a weapon?
Yes.
Even if the initial screen of your bags reveals nothing suspicious, the
screeners have the authority to conduct a further search of you or your bags.
If
I am on an airplane, can an airline employee interrogate me or ask me to get
off the plane?
The
pilot of an airplane has the right to refuse to fly a passenger if he or she
believes the passenger is a threat to the safety of the flight. The pilot's decision
must be reasonable and based on observations of you, not stereotypes.
What
If I Am Under 18?
Do
I have to answer questions?
No.
Minors too have the right to remain silent. You cannot be arrested for refusing
to talk to the police, probation officers, or school officials, except in some
states you may have to give your name if you have been detained.
What
if I am detained?
If
you are detained at a community detention facility or Juvenile Hall, you
normally must be released to a parent or guardian. If charges are filed against
you, in most states you are entitled to counsel (just like an adult) at no
cost.
Do
I have the right to express political views at school?
Public
school students generally have a First Amendment right to politically organize
at school by passing out leaflets, holding meetings, etc., as long as those
activities are not disruptive and do not violate legitimate school rules. You
may not be singled out based on your politics, ethnicity or religion.
Can
my backpack or locker be searched?
School
officials can search students' backpacks and lockers without a warrant if they
reasonably suspect that you are involved in criminal activity or carrying drugs
or weapons. Do not consent to the police or school officials searching your property,
but do not physically resist or you may face criminal charges.
Disclaimer
This
booklet is not a substitute for legal advice. You should contact an attorney if
you have been visited by the FBI or other law enforcement officials. You should
also alert your relatives, friends, co-workers and others so that they will be
prepared if they are contacted as well.
NLG
National Hotline for Activists Contacted by the FBI
888-NLG-ECOL
(888-654-3265)
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*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Free
Mumia NOW!
Prisonradio.org
Write
to Mumia:
Mumia
Abu-Jamal AM 8335
SCI
Mahanoy
301
Morea Road
Frackville,
PA 17932
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Rachel Wolkenstein
August
21, 2011 (917) 689-4009
MUMIA
ABU-JAMAL ILLEGALLY SENTENCED TO
LIFE
IMPRISONMENT WITHOUT PAROLE!
FREE
MUMIA NOW!
www.FreeMumia.com
http://blacktalkradionetwork.com/profiles/blogs/mumia-is-formally-sentenced-to-life-in-prison-w-out-hearing-he-s
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*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
"A
Child's View from Gaza: Palestinian Children's Art and the Fight Against
Censorship"
book
https://www.mecaforpeace.org/civicrm/contribute/transact?reset=1&id=25
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Justice
for Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace: Decades of isolation in Louisiana
state
prisons must end
Take
Action -- Sign Petition Here:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/appeals-for-action/justice-for-albert-woodfox-and-herm\
an-wallace
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WITNESS
GAZA
http://www.witnessgaza.com/
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*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Write
to Bradley
http://bradleymanning.org/donate
View
the new 90 second "I am Bradley Manning" video:
I
am Bradley Manning
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-P3OXML00s
Courage
to Resist
484
Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland,
CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
"A
Fort Leavenworth mailing address has been released for Bradley Manning:
Bradley
Manning 89289
830
Sabalu Road
Fort
Leavenworth, KS 66027
The
receptionist at the military barracks confirmed that if someone sends
Bradley
Manning a letter to that address, it will be delivered to him."
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/update-42811
This
is also a Facebook event
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=207100509321891#!/event.php?eid=2071005093\
21891
Courage
to Resist needs your support
Please
donate today:
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
"Soldiers
sworn oath is to defend and support the Constitution. Bradley Manning
has
been defending and supporting our Constitution." --Dan Ellsberg, Pentagon
Papers
whistle-blower
Jeff
Paterson
Project
Director, Courage to Resist
First
US military service member to refuse to fight in Iraq
Please
donate today.
https://co.clickandpledge.com/sp/d1/default.aspx?wid=38590
P.S.
I'm asking that you consider a contribution of $50 or more, or possibly
becoming
a sustainer at $15 a month. Of course, now is also a perfect time to
make
a end of year tax-deductible donation. Thanks again for your support!
Please
click here to forward this to a friend who might also be interested in
supporting
GI resisters.
http://ymlp.com/forward.php?id=lS3tR&e=bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Battle Is Still On To
FREE
MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
The
Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO
Box 16222 • Oakland CA 94610
www.laboractionmumia.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
KEVIN
COOPER IS INNOCENT! FREE KEVIN COOPER!
Reasonable
doubts about executing Kevin Cooper
Chronicle
Editorial
Monday,
December 13, 2010
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/13/EDG81GP0I7.DTL
Death
penalty -- Kevin Cooper is Innocent! Help save his life from San Quentin's
death
row!
http://www.savekevincooper.org/
http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/essays_content.html?ID=255
URGENT
ACTION APPEAL
-
From Amnesty International USA
17
December 2010
Click
here to take action online:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&\
b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=15084
To
learn about recent Urgent Action successes and updates, go to
http://www.amnestyusa.org/iar/success
For
a print-friendly version of this Urgent Action (PDF):
http://www.amnestyusa.org/actioncenter/actions/uaa25910.pdf
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
D.
VIDEO, FILM, AUDIO. ART, POETRY, ETC.:
[Some
of these videos are embeded on the BAUAW website:
http://bauaw.blogspot.com/
or bauaw.org ...bw]
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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Published on Jan 28, 2014
"Checkpoint" is based on the
oppression and discrimination Jasiri X witnessed firsthand during his
recent trip to Palestine and Israel "Checkpoint" is produced by Agent of
Change, and directed by Haute Muslim. Download "Checkpoint" at https://jasirix.bandcamp.com/track/ch....
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
Follow Jasiri X at https://twitter.com/jasiri_x
LYRICS
Journal of the hard times tales from the dark side
Evidence of the settlements on my hard drive
Man I swear my heart died at the end of that car ride
When I saw that checkpoint welcome to apartheid
Soldiers wear military green at the checkpoint
Automatic guns that's machine at the checkpoint
Tavors not m16s at the checkpoint
Fingers on the trigger you'll get leaned at the checkpoint
Little children grown adults or teens at the checkpoint
All ya papers better be clean at the checkpoint
You gotta but your finger on the screen at the checkpoint
And pray that red light turns green at the check point
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
Separation walls that's surrounding the checkpoint
On top is barbwire like a crown on the checkpoint
Better have ya permits if your found at the checkpoint
Gunmen on the tower aiming down at the checkpoint
The idea is to keep you in fear of the checkpoint
You enter through the cage in the rear of the checkpoint
It feels like prison on a tier at the check point
I'd rather be anywhere but here at this checkpoint
Nelson Mandela wasn't blind to the check point
He stood for free Palestine not a check point
Support BDS don't give a dime to the checkpoint
This is international crime at the checkpoint
Arabs get treated like dogs at the checkpoint
Cause discrimination is the law at the checkpoint
Criminalized without a cause at the checkpoint
I'm just telling you what I saw at the checkpoint
Soldiers got bad attitudes at the checkpoint
Condescending and real rude at the checkpoint
Don't look em in they eyes when they move at the checkpoint
They might strip a man or woman nude at the checkpoint
Soldiers might blow you out of ya shoes at the checkpoint
Gas you up and then light the fuse at the checkpoint
Everyday you stand to be accused at the checkpoint
Each time your life you could lose at the checkpoint
If Martin Luther King had a dream of the checkpoint
He wake with loud screams from the scenes at the checkpoint
It's Malcolm X by any means at the check point
Imagine if you daily routine was the checkpoint
At the airport in Tel Aviv is a checkpoint
They pulled over our taxi at the checkpoint
Passport visa ID at the checkpoint
Soldiers going all through my things at the checkpoint
Said I was high risk security at the checkpoint
Because of the oppression I see at the checkpoint
Occupation in the 3rd degree at the checkpoint
All a nigga wanna do is leave fuck a checkpoint
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Exceptional
art from the streets of Oakland:
Oakland
Street Dancing
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
NYC
RESTAURANT WORKERS DANCE & SING FOR A WAGE HIKE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_s8e1R6rG8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
On
Gun Control, Martin Luther King, the Deacons of Defense and the history of
Black Liberation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzYKisvBN1o&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Fukushima
Never Again
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU-Z4VLDGxU
"Fukushima,
Never Again" tells the story of the Fukushima nuclear plant meltdowns in
north east Japan in March of 2011 and exposes the cover-up by Tepco and the
Japanese government.
This
is the first film that interviews the Mothers Of Fukushima, nuclear power
experts and trade unionists who are fighting for justice and the protection of
the children and the people of Japan and the world. The residents and citizens
were forced to buy their own geiger counters and radiation dosimeters in order
to test their communities to find out if they were in danger.
The
government said contaminated soil in children's school grounds was safe and
then
when
the people found out it was contaminated and removed the top soil, the
government and TEPCO refused to remove it from the school grounds.
It
also relays how the nuclear energy program for "peaceful atoms" was brought
to Japan under the auspices of the US military occupation and also the criminal
cover-up of the safety dangers of the plant by TEPCO and GE management which
built the plant in Fukushima. It also interviews Kei Sugaoka, the GE nulcear
plant inspector from the bay area who exposed cover-ups in the safety at the
Fukushima plant and was retaliated against by GE. This documentary allows the
voices of the people and workers to speak out about the reality of the disaster
and what this means not only for the people of Japan but the people of the
world as the US government and nuclear industry continue to push for more new
plants and government subsidies. This film breaks
the
information blockade story line of the corporate media in Japan, the US and
around the world that Fukushima is over.
Production
Of Labor Video Project
P.O.
Box 720027
San
Francisco, CA 94172
www.laborvideo.org
lvpsf@laborvideo.org
For
information on obtaining the video go to:
www.fukushimaneveragain.com
(415)282-1908
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1000
year of war through the world
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiG8neU4_bs&feature=share
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Anatomy
of a Massacre - Afganistan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6BnRc11aug&feature=player_embedded
Afghans
accuse multiple soldiers of pre-meditated murder
To
see more go to http://www.youtube.com/user/journeymanpictures
Follow
us on Facebook (http://goo.gl/YRw42) or Twitter
(http://www.twitter.com/journeymanvod)
The
recent massacre of 17 civilians by a rogue US soldier has been shrouded in
mystery.
But through unprecedented access to those involved, this report
confronts
the accusations that Bales didn't act alone.
"They
came into my room and they killed my family". Stories like this are common
amongst
the survivors in Aklozai and Najiban. As are the shocking accusations
that
Sergeant Bales was not acting alone. Even President Karzai has announced
"one
man can not do that". Chief investigator, General Karimi, is suspicious
that
despite being fully armed, Bales freely left his base without raising
alarm.
"How come he leaves at night and nobody is aware? Every time we have
weapon
accountability and personal accountability." These are just a few of the
questions
the American army and government are yet to answer. One thing however
is
very clear, the massacre has unleashed a wave of grief and outrage which
means
relations in Kandahar will be tense for years to come: "If I could lay my
hands
on those infidels, I would rip them apart with my bare hands."
A
Film By SBS
Distributed
By Journeyman Pictures
April
2012
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Photo
of George Zimmerman, in 2005 photo, left, and in a more recent photo.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/02/us/the-events-leading-to-the-sooti\
ng-of-trayvon-martin.html?hp
SPD
Security Cams.wmv
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WWDNbQUgm4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Kids
being put on buses and transported from school to "alternate
locations" in
Terror
Drills
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFia_w8adWQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Private
prisons,
a
recession resistant investment opportunity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIGLDOxx9Vg
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Attack
Dogs used on a High School Walkout in MD, Four Students Charged With
"Thought
Crimes"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wafMaML17w
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Common
forms of misconduct by Law Enforcement Officials and Prosecutors
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViSpM4K276w&feature=related
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Organizing
and Instigating: OCCUPY - Ronnie Goodman
http://arthazelwood.com/instigator/occupy/occupy-birth-video.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Rep
News 12: Yes We Kony
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68GbzIkYdc8
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
New Black by The Mavrix - Official Music Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4rLfja8488
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan
One Year Later
http://www.onlineschools.org/japan-one-year-later/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
CIA's Heart Attack Gun
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/assassination-studies/the-cias-heart-attack-g\
un-.html
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Invisible American Workforce
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/8/5/new_expos_tracks_alec_private_prison
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: NATO vs The 1st Amendment
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbQxnb4so3U
For
more detailed information, send us a request at mail@laborbeat.org.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
The
Battle of Oakland
by
brandon jourdan plus
http://vimeo.com/36256273
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Officers
Pulled Off Street After Tape of Beating Surfaces
By
ANDY NEWMAN
February
1, 2012, 10:56 am
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/officers-pulled-off-street-after-ta\
pe-of-beating-surfaces/?ref=nyregion
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
This
is excellent! Michelle Alexander pulls no punches!
Michelle
Alexander, Author of The New Jim Crow, speaks about the political
strategy
behind
the War on Drugs and its connection to the mass incarceration of Black
and
Brown people in the United States.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P75cbEdNo2U&feature=player_embedded
If
you think Bill Clinton was "the first black President" you need to
watch this
video
and see how much damage his administration caused for the black community
as
a result of his get tough attitude on crime that appealed to white swing
voters.
This
speech took place at Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem on January 12,
2012.
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
BRADLEY MANNING
http://www.bradleymanning.org/news/national-call-in-for-bradley
I
received the following reply from the White House November 18, 2011 regarding
the
Bradley Manning petition I signed:
"Why
We Can't Comment on Bradley Manning
"Thank
you for signing the petition 'Free PFC Bradley Manning, the accused
WikiLeaks
whistleblower.' We appreciate your participation in the We the People
platform
on WhiteHouse.gov.
The
We the People Terms of Participation explain that 'the White House may
decline
to address certain procurement, law enforcement, adjudicatory, or
similar
matters properly within the jurisdiction of federal departments or
agencies,
federal courts, or state and local government.' The military justice
system
is charged with enforcing the Uniform Code of
Military
Justice. Accordingly, the White House declines to comment on the
specific
case raised in this petition...
That's
funny! I guess Obama didn't get this memo. Here's what Obama said about
Bradley:
BRADLEY
MANNING "BROKE THE LAW" SAYS OBAMA!
"He
broke the law!" says Obama about Bradley Manning who has yet to even be
charged,
let alone, gone to trial and found guilty. How horrendous is it for the
President
to declare someone guilty before going to trial or being charged with
a
crime! Justice in the U.S.A.!
Obama
on FREE BRADLEY MANNING protest... San Francisco, CA. April 21, 2011-
Presidential
remarks on interrupt/interaction/performance art happening at
fundraiser.
Logan Price queries Barack after org. FRESH JUICE PARTY political
action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfmtUpd4id0&feature=youtu.be
Release
Bradley Manning
Almost
Gone (The Ballad Of Bradley Manning)
Written
by Graham Nash and James Raymond (son of David Crosby)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAYG7yJpBbQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Julian
Assange: Why the world needs WikiLeaks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVGqE726OAo&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
School
police increasingly arresting American students?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl-efNBvjUU&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FYI:
Nuclear
Detonation Timeline "1945-1998"
The
2053 nuclear tests and explosions that took place between 1945 and 1998 are
plotted
visually and audibly on a world map.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9lquok4Pdk&feature=share&mid=5408
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are the 99 Percent
We
are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to
choose
between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are
suffering
from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay
and
no rights, if we're working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1
percent
is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.
Brought
to you by the people who occupy wall street. Why will YOU occupy?
OccupyWallSt.org
Occupytogether.org
wearethe99percentuk.tumblr.com
http://wearethe99percent.tumblr.com/
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
We
Are The People Who Will Save Our Schools
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFAOJsBxAxY
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
In
honor of the 75th Anniversary of the 44-Day Flint Michigan sit-down strike at
GM
that began December 30, 1936:
According
to Michael Moore, (Although he has done some good things, this clip
isn't
one of them) in this clip from his film, "Capitalism a Love Story,"
it was
Roosevelt
who saved the day!):
"After
a bloody battle one evening, the Governor of Michigan, with the support
of
the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt, sent in the National
Guard.
But the guns and the soldiers weren't used on the workers; they were
pointed
at the police and the hired goons warning them to leave these workers
alone.
For Mr. Roosevelt believed that the men inside had a right to a redress
of
their grievances." -Michael Moore's 'Capitalism: A Love Story'
-
Flint Sit-Down Strike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h8x1_q9wg58
But
those cannons were not aimed at the goons and cops! They were aimed straight
at
the factory filled with strikers! Watch what REALLY happened and how the
strike
was really won!
'With
babies & banners' -- 75 years since the 44-day Flint sit-down strike
http://links.org.au/node/2681
--Inspiring
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
HALLELUJAH
CORPORATIONS (revised edition).mov
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ONE
OF THE GREATEST POSTS ON YOUTUBE SO FAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8C-qIgbP9o&feature=share&mid=552
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ILWU
Local 10 Longshore Workers Speak-Out At Oakland Port Shutdown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JUpBpZYwms
Uploaded
by laborvideo on Dec 13, 2011
ILWU
Local 10 longshore workers speak out during a blockade of the Port of
Oakland
called for by Occupy Oakland. Anthony Levieges and Clarence Thomas rank
and
file members of the union. The action took place on December 12, 2011 and
the
interview took place at Pier 30 on the Oakland docks.
For
more information on the ILWU Local 21 Longview EGT struggle go to
http://www.facebook.com/groups/256313837734192/
For
further info on the action and the press conferernce go to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz3fE-Vhrw8&feature=youtu.be
Production
of Labor Video Project www.laborvideo.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
UC
Davis Police Violence Adds Fuel to Fire
By
Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News
19
November 11
http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/275-42/8485-uc-davis-police-violence-add\
s-fuel-to-fire
UC
Davis Protestors Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdDLhPwpp4&feature=player_embedded
Police
PEPPER SPRAY UC Davis STUDENT PROTESTERS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuWEx6Cfn-I&feature=player_embedded
Police
pepper spraying and arresting students at UC Davis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmJmmnMkuEM&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
UC
Davis Chancellor Katehi walks to her car
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CZ0t9ez_EGI#!
Occupy
Seattle - 84 Year Old Woman Dorli Rainey Pepper Sprayed
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTIyE_JlJzw&feature=related
*---------*
THE
BEST VIDEO ON "OCCUPY THE WORLD"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S880UldxB1o
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Shot
by police with rubber bullet at Occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0pX9LeE-g8&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Copwatch@Occupy
Oakland: Beware of Police Infiltrators and Provocateurs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrvMzqopHH0
*---------*
Occupy
Oakland 11-2 Strike: Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tu_D8SFYck&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admitted that, in 2007, thugs carrying rocks to a peaceful protest
were
actually undercover Quebec police officers:
POLICE
STATE Criminal Cops EXPOSED As Agent Provocateurs @ SPP Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoiisMMCFT0&feature=player_embedded
*----*
Quebec
police admit going undercover at montebello protests
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAfzUOx53Rg&feature=player_embedded
G20:
Epic Undercover Police Fail
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrJ7aU-n1L8&feature=player_embedded
*----*
WHAT
HAPPENED IN OAKLAND TUESDAY NIGHT, OCTOBER 25:
Occupy
Oakland Protest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wlPs-REyl-0&feature=player_embedded
Cops
make mass arrests at occupy Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R27kD2_7PwU&feature=player_embedded
Raw
Video: Protesters Clash With Oakland Police
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpO-lJr2BQY&feature=player_embedded
Occupy
Oakland - Flashbangs USED on protesters OPD LIES
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqNOPZLw03Q&feature=player_embedded
KTVU
TV Video of Police violence
http://www.ktvu.com/video/29587714/index.html
Marine
Vet wounded, tear gas & flash-bang grenades thrown in downtown
Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMUgPTCgwcQ&feature=player_embedded
Tear
Gas billowing through 14th & Broadway in Downtown Oakland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OU4Y0pwJtWE&feature=player_embedded
Arrests
at Occupy Atlanta -- This is what a police state looks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YStWz6jbeZA&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
Labor
Beat: Hey You Billionaire, Pay Your Fair Share
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PY8isD33f-I
*---------*
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA48gmfGB6U&feature=youtu.be
Voices
of Occupy Boston 2011 - Kwame Somburu (Paul Boutelle) Part II
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjKZpOk7TyM&feature=related
*---------*
#Occupy
Wall Street In Washington Square: Mohammed Ezzeldin, former occupier of
Egypt's
Tahrir Square Speaks at Washington Square!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziodsFWEb5Y&feature=player_embedded
*---------*
#OccupyTheHood,
Occupy Wall Street
By
adele pham
http://vimeo.com/30146870
*---------*
Live
arrest at brooklyn bridge #occupywallstreet by We are Change
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yULSI-31Pto&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
FREE
THE CUBAN FIVE!
http://www.thecuban5.org/wordpress/index.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmS4kHC_OlY&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
One
World One Revolution -- MUST SEE VIDEO -- Powerful and beautiful...bw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE3R1BQrYCw&feature=player_embedded
"When
injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty." Thomas Jefferson
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Japan:
angry Fukushima citizens confront government (video)
Posted
by Xeni Jardin on Monday, Jul 25th at 11:36am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVuGwc9dlhQ&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Labor
Beat: Labor Stands with Subpoenaed Activists Against FBI Raids and Grand
Jury
Investigation of antiwar and social justice activists.
"If
trouble is not at your door. It's on it's way, or it just left."
"Investigate
the Billionaires...Full investigation into Wall Street..." Jesse
Sharkey,
Vice
President,
Chicago Teachers Union
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSNUSIGZCMQ
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Coal
Ash: One Valley's Tale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6E7h-DNvwx4&feature=player_embedded
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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