A system that perpetually condones the killing of people, without consequence, doesn't need to be revised, it needs to be dismantled! —Colin Kaepernick Tweet
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Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A) EVENTS, ACTIONS AND ONGOING STRUGGLES
B) ARTICLES IN FULL
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Table of Contents:
A) EVENTS, ACTIONS AND ONGOING STRUGGLES
B) ARTICLES IN FULL
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A) EVENTS, ACTIONS AND ONGOING STRUGGLES
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A) EVENTS, ACTIONS AND ONGOING STRUGGLES
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Act for Mumia’s Freedom, this Friday, July 7th, in Oakland!
Free Mumia! End the DA’s Cover-Up!
RALLY: 4 PM Friday July 7th
Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th & B’way, Oakland
Mumia Abu Jamal, former Black Panther, journalist, MOVE supporter and innocent political prisoner, may, with your help, finally have a chance for freedom!
Based on an important Supreme Court ruling, Williams v Pennsylvania, Mumia should be able to get all the appeals rulings against him in Pennsylvania courts overturned. These rulings upheld his blatantly biased frame-up conviction in a Philadelphia cop killing, a crime he did not commit.
But the rulings were made with a former prosecutor on Mumia’s case sitting in judgement against him on the PA Supreme Court! This is exactly what Williams v Pennsylvania forbids.
After massive protests, Mumia has won a “discovery” judgement, which should expose the substantial role that prosecutor Ronald Castille played in Mumia’s case prior to his election to the PA Supreme Court, where he then ruled against Mumia’s appeals. But the current DA’s office is stonewalling on releasing the evidence of Castille’s involvement in the case. This is a cover-up!
A victory in this struggle could lead to freeing Mumia, and set a precedent to help other political prisoners, and victims of racist frame-ups.
Mass movements saved Mumia from a death sentence in 1995, and longshore workers shut down all West Coast ports to free Mumia in 1999. Now, Mumia’s supporters nationwide and internationally are asking you to join us to: Stop the DA’s Cover-Up, and Free Mumia Now! The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal is asking you to join us in Oakland this Friday, July 7th:
Free Mumia! End the DA’s Cover-Up!
RALLY: 4 PM Friday July 7th
Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th & B’way, Oakland
Initial endorsers of this action include: Speak Out, Party of Socialism and Liberation, ANSWER Coalition, Freedom Socialist Party, and Socialist Viewpoint. Others: please respond to this email with your endorsement.
Here is more detailed information...
Mumia’s Struggle For Freedom is at a Crucial Stage!
Mumia Abu-Jamal has been kept alive while on the slow death row of life imprisonment without parole, by those who came out to support him worldwide in the fight to get him hepatitis-C treatment! Now, let’s act to finally free him!
“...I’m Hep C “negative”! Aint’t that a gas? I wanna thank you and the brothers in N. Cali for helping to make it happen. Without a people’s movement we would have never gotten into ct. W/out it, we never coulda won...”
- Excerpt from Mumia’s letter to the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Mumia’s Hepatitis-C infection, which came from a blood transfusion in the hospital after he was critically wounded from police shooting him on December 9, 1981, is cured due to active support by thousands of supporters who tirelessly resisted the PA prison system’s refusal to supply the needed medication. Mumia’s federal legal victory is now the precedent to provide Hep-C treatment to thousands of prisoners.
Now, Mumia has a new legal action pending in the Pennsylvania courts, and the movement of Mumia’s supporters worldwide has called for actions to free Mumia on July 7th.
Mumia’s legal action is based on the 2016 US Supreme Court ruling in the case of Williams v Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court ruled that a prosecutor who “had significant personal involvement” in a “critical decision” cannot later sit in judgment in appeals concerning the very same case. This was found to be a conflict of interest, which violates the due process right to an impartial appeal. In the Williams case, the former DA, then judge, was one Ronald Castille. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Williams now has the right to re-litigate all of his legal arguments that were previously rejected.
In Mumia’s case, the very same Ronald Castille was the Philadelphia District Attorney who argued to uphold Mumia’s frame-up conviction and death sentence in 1989 and then as a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice denied all Mumia’s post-conviction appeals from 1998-2008. Last August Mumia filed a post-conviction appeal based on the Williams decision. A legal victory in Mumia’s action will reinstate his appeal rights to assert his innocence and the wholesale denial of his due process trial rights.
On April 28, 2017 Mumia Abu-Jamal won in court against the prosecution motion to dismiss Mumia’s new appeal. The judge also ordered the District Attorney’s Office to disclose all files and information that would support Mumia’s claims that his state appeal process was corrupted because Philadelphia District Attorney Ronald Castille was involved in prosecuting Mumia’s appeals. Not surprisingly, the DA’s office did not comply. Only public documents from Mumia’s case that have Castille’s name listed as District Attorney were released. Mumia’s lawyers have demanded “full compliance” with the judge’s order and the judge issued a new order to the DA to release the files by July 7.
The DA’s office states there is no evidence of Castille’s involvement in Mumia’s case. This is a cover-up of the prosecutorial, police and judicial frame-up of Mumia. It is inconceivable that Castille as District Attorney did not make “critical decisions” on Mumia’s appeal given that he was elected to that office as a “law-and-order” and pro-death penalty candidate. When he ran for Supreme Court justice he openly bragged that he put 45 men on death row. Castille also stated publicly that he was personally responsible for all filings in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mumia’s appeals included direct challenges to the practice of racial discrimination in jury selection, as well as prosecution’s arguments that told jury’s they could ignore the responsibility for sentencing someone to death, since a defendant had “appeal after appeal.” Mumia also challenged the prosecution using his teenaged membership in the Black Panther Party to argue that Mumia had a life-long intent to kill a police officer. These issues were fought in the PA Supreme Court and then in the U.S. Supreme Court by Mumia while Castille was the District Attorney.
As DA, Castille produced a training videotape to instruct prosecutors how to evade the1986 Batson decision, a US Supreme Court ruling which banned racial discrimination in jury selection. Prosecutors were told how to keep Black people off their juries and how to conceal this discriminatory purpose.
During Mumia’s 1988 appeals to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and then to the U.S. Supreme Court, the D.A.’s office argued that Mumia could not prove the prosecution’s discriminatory motive when they removed Black people from his jury. The existence of the videotape, which was the very evidence of the discriminatory motive, was suppressed.
As a PA Supreme Court Judge, Castille sat in judgment over all the appeals of Mumia’s case since 1998, including the issues of his direct appeal—jury selection (Batson), jury integrity (appeal after appeal), membership in the Black Panther Party, as well as the new evidence of coercion of witnesses, of falsified ballistics, the confession of Arnold Beverly, who confessed to being the actual killer, and the racial bias of the trial and post-conviction hearing judge Albert Sabo, who stated, “I’m gonna help them fry the n----r”.
In 1996 and again in 2002 Mumia’s lawyers demanded that Castille recuse himself from hearing the case, on account of his earlier role as prosecutor over the same case. In each instance, Castille refused to recuse himself, stating he had no knowledge of Mumia’s case. Castille denied any knowledge of the DA/TV videotape.
Yet Castille’s alleged “non-involvement” is what the current Philadelphia DA now wants us to believe, as their office has refused the full “discovery” of evidence of Castille’s collusion (in framing Mumia), which was ordered by the Philadelphia Court earlier this year! This is why we call for action now.
We need to free Mumia now, and demand full disclosure of documents in his case! The Williams decision could lead to the throwing out of all the negative decisions on Mumia’s appeals by the PA Supreme Court, which, in turn, could lead to throwing out his original false conviction! But all of Mumia’s scant victories in court, such as the reversal of his original death sentence, have depended on the mass mobilization of his supporters worldwide.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a journalist, a former Black Panther, a MOVE supporter and an innocent political prisoner. His freedom from false murder charges is long overdue, after 36 years for a crime he did not commit. Winning Mumia’s freedom is a fight against this injustice system and paves the way for others, as did his victory to get Hep-C treatment, which is precedent for Pennsylvania prisoners as well as other thousands nationwide.
Former political prisoners such as Panther Albert Woodfox, whistle-blower Chelsea Manning, and Puerto Rican Nationalist/activist Oscar Lopez Rivera have recently achieved freedom with the help and support of masses of supporters. Now, let us move on.
In 1995 we mobilized in the thousands against the death warrant issued by the Pennsylvania governor; and in 1999 Longshore workers on the entire West Coast of the US shut down all ports to free Mumia. Also in 1999, Oakland teachers held unauthorized teach-ins in Oakland Schools on Mumia and the death penalty.
Join us at Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th & Broadway, Oakland, on Friday July 7th, at 4 pm. Rally and march to the Federal Building, with flyers to distribute on Mumia’s case. Solidarity with Mumia and all his worldwide supporters! Free Mumia Now!
-Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. July 2017
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Act for Mumia’s Freedom, this Friday, July 7th, in Oakland!
Free Mumia! End the DA’s Cover-Up!
RALLY: 4 PM Friday July 7th
Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th & B’way, Oakland
Mumia Abu Jamal, former Black Panther, journalist, MOVE supporter and innocent political prisoner, may, with your help, finally have a chance for freedom!
Based on an important Supreme Court ruling, Williams v Pennsylvania, Mumia should be able to get all the appeals rulings against him in Pennsylvania courts overturned. These rulings upheld his blatantly biased frame-up conviction in a Philadelphia cop killing, a crime he did not commit.
But the rulings were made with a former prosecutor on Mumia’s case sitting in judgement against him on the PA Supreme Court! This is exactly what Williams v Pennsylvania forbids.
After massive protests, Mumia has won a “discovery” judgement, which should expose the substantial role that prosecutor Ronald Castille played in Mumia’s case prior to his election to the PA Supreme Court, where he then ruled against Mumia’s appeals. But the current DA’s office is stonewalling on releasing the evidence of Castille’s involvement in the case. This is a cover-up!
A victory in this struggle could lead to freeing Mumia, and set a precedent to help other political prisoners, and victims of racist frame-ups.
Mass movements saved Mumia from a death sentence in 1995, and longshore workers shut down all West Coast ports to free Mumia in 1999. Now, Mumia’s supporters nationwide and internationally are asking you to join us to: Stop the DA’s Cover-Up, and Free Mumia Now! The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal is asking you to join us in Oakland this Friday, July 7th:
Free Mumia! End the DA’s Cover-Up!
RALLY: 4 PM Friday July 7th
Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th & B’way, Oakland
Initial endorsers of this action include: Speak Out, Party of Socialism and Liberation, ANSWER Coalition, Freedom Socialist Party, and Socialist Viewpoint. Others: please respond to this email with your endorsement.
Here is more detailed information...
Mumia’s Struggle For Freedom is at a Crucial Stage!
Mumia Abu-Jamal has been kept alive while on the slow death row of life imprisonment without parole, by those who came out to support him worldwide in the fight to get him hepatitis-C treatment! Now, let’s act to finally free him!
“...I’m Hep C “negative”! Aint’t that a gas? I wanna thank you and the brothers in N. Cali for helping to make it happen. Without a people’s movement we would have never gotten into ct. W/out it, we never coulda won...”
- Excerpt from Mumia’s letter to the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Mumia’s Hepatitis-C infection, which came from a blood transfusion in the hospital after he was critically wounded from police shooting him on December 9, 1981, is cured due to active support by thousands of supporters who tirelessly resisted the PA prison system’s refusal to supply the needed medication. Mumia’s federal legal victory is now the precedent to provide Hep-C treatment to thousands of prisoners.
Now, Mumia has a new legal action pending in the Pennsylvania courts, and the movement of Mumia’s supporters worldwide has called for actions to free Mumia on July 7th.
Mumia’s legal action is based on the 2016 US Supreme Court ruling in the case of Williams v Pennsylvania. The Supreme Court ruled that a prosecutor who “had significant personal involvement” in a “critical decision” cannot later sit in judgment in appeals concerning the very same case. This was found to be a conflict of interest, which violates the due process right to an impartial appeal. In the Williams case, the former DA, then judge, was one Ronald Castille. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Williams now has the right to re-litigate all of his legal arguments that were previously rejected.
In Mumia’s case, the very same Ronald Castille was the Philadelphia District Attorney who argued to uphold Mumia’s frame-up conviction and death sentence in 1989 and then as a Pennsylvania Supreme Court justice denied all Mumia’s post-conviction appeals from 1998-2008. Last August Mumia filed a post-conviction appeal based on the Williams decision. A legal victory in Mumia’s action will reinstate his appeal rights to assert his innocence and the wholesale denial of his due process trial rights.
On April 28, 2017 Mumia Abu-Jamal won in court against the prosecution motion to dismiss Mumia’s new appeal. The judge also ordered the District Attorney’s Office to disclose all files and information that would support Mumia’s claims that his state appeal process was corrupted because Philadelphia District Attorney Ronald Castille was involved in prosecuting Mumia’s appeals. Not surprisingly, the DA’s office did not comply. Only public documents from Mumia’s case that have Castille’s name listed as District Attorney were released. Mumia’s lawyers have demanded “full compliance” with the judge’s order and the judge issued a new order to the DA to release the files by July 7.
The DA’s office states there is no evidence of Castille’s involvement in Mumia’s case. This is a cover-up of the prosecutorial, police and judicial frame-up of Mumia. It is inconceivable that Castille as District Attorney did not make “critical decisions” on Mumia’s appeal given that he was elected to that office as a “law-and-order” and pro-death penalty candidate. When he ran for Supreme Court justice he openly bragged that he put 45 men on death row. Castille also stated publicly that he was personally responsible for all filings in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Mumia’s appeals included direct challenges to the practice of racial discrimination in jury selection, as well as prosecution’s arguments that told jury’s they could ignore the responsibility for sentencing someone to death, since a defendant had “appeal after appeal.” Mumia also challenged the prosecution using his teenaged membership in the Black Panther Party to argue that Mumia had a life-long intent to kill a police officer. These issues were fought in the PA Supreme Court and then in the U.S. Supreme Court by Mumia while Castille was the District Attorney.
As DA, Castille produced a training videotape to instruct prosecutors how to evade the1986 Batson decision, a US Supreme Court ruling which banned racial discrimination in jury selection. Prosecutors were told how to keep Black people off their juries and how to conceal this discriminatory purpose.
During Mumia’s 1988 appeals to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and then to the U.S. Supreme Court, the D.A.’s office argued that Mumia could not prove the prosecution’s discriminatory motive when they removed Black people from his jury. The existence of the videotape, which was the very evidence of the discriminatory motive, was suppressed.
As a PA Supreme Court Judge, Castille sat in judgment over all the appeals of Mumia’s case since 1998, including the issues of his direct appeal—jury selection (Batson), jury integrity (appeal after appeal), membership in the Black Panther Party, as well as the new evidence of coercion of witnesses, of falsified ballistics, the confession of Arnold Beverly, who confessed to being the actual killer, and the racial bias of the trial and post-conviction hearing judge Albert Sabo, who stated, “I’m gonna help them fry the n----r”.
In 1996 and again in 2002 Mumia’s lawyers demanded that Castille recuse himself from hearing the case, on account of his earlier role as prosecutor over the same case. In each instance, Castille refused to recuse himself, stating he had no knowledge of Mumia’s case. Castille denied any knowledge of the DA/TV videotape.
Yet Castille’s alleged “non-involvement” is what the current Philadelphia DA now wants us to believe, as their office has refused the full “discovery” of evidence of Castille’s collusion (in framing Mumia), which was ordered by the Philadelphia Court earlier this year! This is why we call for action now.
We need to free Mumia now, and demand full disclosure of documents in his case! The Williams decision could lead to the throwing out of all the negative decisions on Mumia’s appeals by the PA Supreme Court, which, in turn, could lead to throwing out his original false conviction! But all of Mumia’s scant victories in court, such as the reversal of his original death sentence, have depended on the mass mobilization of his supporters worldwide.
Mumia Abu-Jamal is a journalist, a former Black Panther, a MOVE supporter and an innocent political prisoner. His freedom from false murder charges is long overdue, after 36 years for a crime he did not commit. Winning Mumia’s freedom is a fight against this injustice system and paves the way for others, as did his victory to get Hep-C treatment, which is precedent for Pennsylvania prisoners as well as other thousands nationwide.
Former political prisoners such as Panther Albert Woodfox, whistle-blower Chelsea Manning, and Puerto Rican Nationalist/activist Oscar Lopez Rivera have recently achieved freedom with the help and support of masses of supporters. Now, let us move on.
In 1995 we mobilized in the thousands against the death warrant issued by the Pennsylvania governor; and in 1999 Longshore workers on the entire West Coast of the US shut down all ports to free Mumia. Also in 1999, Oakland teachers held unauthorized teach-ins in Oakland Schools on Mumia and the death penalty.
Join us at Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th & Broadway, Oakland, on Friday July 7th, at 4 pm. Rally and march to the Federal Building, with flyers to distribute on Mumia’s case. Solidarity with Mumia and all his worldwide supporters! Free Mumia Now!
-Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. July 2017
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California Alliance for Retired Americans
600 Grand Ave, Rm 410
Oakland CA 94610
510-663-4086, californiaalliance.org
Hello
Please join CARA on August 14 to celebrate Social Security's 82nd birthday, and to re-dedicate ourselves to defend Social Security and preserve, improve, and expand it. Our confirmed speakers so far are Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works and Norman Solomon, author, columnist and activist.
Monday, August 14, Noon, in Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza
Broadway and 14th St, 12th St BART Station.
Rally and Two-Block March to Federal Building
More program details to be announced.
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/yd94ezv6
Please contact
Michael Lyon, 415-215-7575, mlyon01@comcast.net, or
Jodi Reid, 415-550-0828, jreid.cara@gmail.com
CARA is sponsoring events across California in July and August to defend and expand Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, in the face of attacks from Washington. Our Oakland event will draw people from all around the San Francisco Bay Area. We are hoping you can publicize this event among your members, and bring them on August 14. We are attaching a copy of our leaflet and a petition your members can sign and return. Anyone can sign the petition, it is not official, but will be used to show support for these programs.
Over its 82 years, Social Security has provided income and dignity to hundreds of millions of retirees and people with disabilities, their spouses and children, and to deceased workers' spouses and children. For two thirds of seniors, it's been over half their income. Half of women and people with disabilities would be in poverty without Social Security. Almost 10% of children get it. We will NOT go back to the days of workhouses!
Social Security is the nation's most effective anti-poverty program, yet it is entirely funded by us, we who work for a living, through FICA deductions from our paychecks, and by our employers. Not a cent comes from the government; in fact our $2.4 Trillion Social Security Trust Fund is invested in loans to help the government run. Those loans must, and will, be repaid to Social Security. It's our program, our money! Our past, our future!
Forces for austerity want to destroy or undermine Social Security by increasing the retirement age, decreasing the benefits and cost-of-living increases, and converting Social Security from a unified government program of collectively-guaranteed economic security for everyone, to a hodge-podge of private individual accounts for each recipient, invested in the stock market, and managed by expensive Wall Street money managers.
Now, the Trump administration wants to eliminate the payroll tax that is the financial foundation of Social Security and cut $64 Billion over ten years from Social Security Disability Insurance, an integral part of Social Security, by reducing future enrollment with work requirements.
Given this adversity, it's important we remember that our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents won Social Security in the mid-1930s, the depths of the Great Depression, when everything looked stacked against us. Social Security must be preserved, improved, and expanded. In the 1930s, Roosevelt said "Make me do it!" We did. We can do it again!
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California Alliance for Retired Americans
600 Grand Ave, Rm 410
Oakland CA 94610
510-663-4086, californiaalliance.org
Hello
Please join CARA on August 14 to celebrate Social Security's 82nd birthday, and to re-dedicate ourselves to defend Social Security and preserve, improve, and expand it. Our confirmed speakers so far are Alex Lawson, Executive Director of Social Security Works and Norman Solomon, author, columnist and activist.
Monday, August 14, Noon, in Oakland's Frank Ogawa Plaza
Broadway and 14th St, 12th St BART Station.
Rally and Two-Block March to Federal Building
More program details to be announced.
Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/yd94ezv6
Please contact
Michael Lyon, 415-215-7575, mlyon01@comcast.net, or
Jodi Reid, 415-550-0828, jreid.cara@gmail.com
CARA is sponsoring events across California in July and August to defend and expand Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, in the face of attacks from Washington. Our Oakland event will draw people from all around the San Francisco Bay Area. We are hoping you can publicize this event among your members, and bring them on August 14. We are attaching a copy of our leaflet and a petition your members can sign and return. Anyone can sign the petition, it is not official, but will be used to show support for these programs.
Over its 82 years, Social Security has provided income and dignity to hundreds of millions of retirees and people with disabilities, their spouses and children, and to deceased workers' spouses and children. For two thirds of seniors, it's been over half their income. Half of women and people with disabilities would be in poverty without Social Security. Almost 10% of children get it. We will NOT go back to the days of workhouses!
Social Security is the nation's most effective anti-poverty program, yet it is entirely funded by us, we who work for a living, through FICA deductions from our paychecks, and by our employers. Not a cent comes from the government; in fact our $2.4 Trillion Social Security Trust Fund is invested in loans to help the government run. Those loans must, and will, be repaid to Social Security. It's our program, our money! Our past, our future!
Forces for austerity want to destroy or undermine Social Security by increasing the retirement age, decreasing the benefits and cost-of-living increases, and converting Social Security from a unified government program of collectively-guaranteed economic security for everyone, to a hodge-podge of private individual accounts for each recipient, invested in the stock market, and managed by expensive Wall Street money managers.
Now, the Trump administration wants to eliminate the payroll tax that is the financial foundation of Social Security and cut $64 Billion over ten years from Social Security Disability Insurance, an integral part of Social Security, by reducing future enrollment with work requirements.
Given this adversity, it's important we remember that our parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents won Social Security in the mid-1930s, the depths of the Great Depression, when everything looked stacked against us. Social Security must be preserved, improved, and expanded. In the 1930s, Roosevelt said "Make me do it!" We did. We can do it again!
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SIGN THE PETITION: DROP THE CHARGES AGAINST REALITY WINNER
https://couragetoresist.org/drop-charges-reality-winner/
Department of Justice:
Drop the changes against Ms. Reality L. Winner, the defense contractor who allegedly shared with the media evidence of attacks against US election systems by foreign agents. This information should not have been classified. Ms. Winner's prosecution appears politically motivated.
Courage to Resist will attempt to keep signers of the Reality Winners petition up-to-date with periodic news and alerts from her family and attorney. You will be able to opt out at any time.
Department of Justice:
Drop the changes against Ms. Reality L. Winner, the defense contractor who allegedly shared with the media evidence of attacks against US election systems by foreign agents. This information should not have been classified. Ms. Winner's prosecution appears politically motivated.
Courage to Resist will attempt to keep signers of the Reality Winners petition up-to-date with periodic news and alerts from her family and attorney. You will be able to opt out at any time.
WHY ALLEGED WHISTLE-BLOWER REALITY WINNER DESERVES SUPPORT
BY JEFF PATERSON, COURAGE TO RESIST. JUNE 8, 2017
Reality Winner is a 25-year-old Air Force veteran who was arrested in Augusta, Georgia on June 3rd. She allegedly released classified NSA documents to The Intercept, which were the basis for a story about Russian hacking efforts against US election systems leading up to last year's presidential election. Reality is currently in the Lincoln County Jail in Georgia, and faces up to ten years in prison.
Reality Winner—yes, that is her given legal name—did the right thing, and she should be defended.
Reality allegedly leaked information regarding attempted interference in an election, tampering that many believe assisted in Donald Trump's presidential win—despite earning nearly four million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. The documents published by The Interceptonly confirm earlier accounts of US election hacking attempts and, given the current administration's extreme antagonisms against facts, the release of these documents was clearly in the public interest. Like the vast majority of government documents that are hidden from public view, these reports should have been declassified by now anyway.
Now Trump's own Department of Justice has targeted Reality. It's a sinister move, but on the other hand, simply a continuation Obama's unprecedented zeal in prosecuting whistle-blowers. Trump inherited an atrocious War on Leaks, and Reality is the latest victim of that war. Her arrest is a signal to the world, and the four million other Americans with access to classified information: Only sanctioned leaks benefiting the government will be tolerated.
There's a striking hypocrisy to Trump's crackdown. Less than a month ago the President was criticized for carelessly leaking classified information to Russian officials during a White House meeting. We now know this information concerned a bomb that is being developed by ISIS. This is standard operating procedure: lawmakers have no issue leaking classified information if it somehow furthers their interest, but they aggressively prosecute citizens who expose actual wrongdoing.
I believe that Reality Winner's possible actions should be understood within the context of recent heroic whistleblowing. Shortly before leaving office, Barack Obama commuted the remaining sentence of US Army soldier Chelsea Manning, who was facing 27 more years in prison for exposing war crimes and corruption. Edward Snowden, who leaked information about our government's massive spying program, was granted asylum in Russia but faces espionage charges back home. Just like Manning, it seems that Reality was able to see the inner workings of the United States' war machine.
She served in the Air Force from 2013 until early this year, working as a linguist. Like Snowden, she would have had a better view than most as to how our security state works. Up until last week, she was a military defense contractor with the Pluribus International Corporation in the suburbs outside of Augusta, Georgia, and had Top Secret security clearance.
The US government has spent tens of millions of dollars in better auditing capabilities since the disclosures by Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Those that would rather keep the public in the dark as to what their government is doing with their tax dollars and in their name, have redoubled their efforts to identify whistle-blowers much more quickly. Winner's arrest was facilitated by the government's increased ability to more easily identify the relatively small number of people that recently accessed documents in question as well as the yellow-colored, nearly-invisible micro dots that most color printers today use to include a printer's serial number and time stamp on each printed page. This appears to have contributed to the focus on Reality Winner.
Reality is expected to plead not guilty to charges against her today. We don't know exactly why she allegedly released the NSA documents to the press, but we do have some insight into her views about the world. Her social media accounts show a woman who, like a clear majority of Americans, is critical of Donald Trump. She has also voiced support for Edward Snowden, and opposition to the US fabricating a reason to attack Iran.
According to The Intercept, [Winner's leak] "ratchets up the stakes of the ongoing investigations into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives . . . If collusion can ultimately be demonstrated – a big if at this point – then the assistance on Russia's part went beyond allegedly hacking email to serve a propaganda campaign, and bled into an attack on U.S. election infrastructure itself."
We are talking about a potentially monumental story that might require prosecutions, but Reality Winner shouldn't be the one who ends up in jail. While the details of the story continue to unfold, by all indications she deserves our support, and the release of these documents should be celebrated.
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Reality Winner is a 25-year-old Air Force veteran who was arrested in Augusta, Georgia on June 3rd. She allegedly released classified NSA documents to The Intercept, which were the basis for a story about Russian hacking efforts against US election systems leading up to last year's presidential election. Reality is currently in the Lincoln County Jail in Georgia, and faces up to ten years in prison.
Reality Winner—yes, that is her given legal name—did the right thing, and she should be defended.
Reality allegedly leaked information regarding attempted interference in an election, tampering that many believe assisted in Donald Trump's presidential win—despite earning nearly four million fewer votes than Hillary Clinton. The documents published by The Interceptonly confirm earlier accounts of US election hacking attempts and, given the current administration's extreme antagonisms against facts, the release of these documents was clearly in the public interest. Like the vast majority of government documents that are hidden from public view, these reports should have been declassified by now anyway.
Now Trump's own Department of Justice has targeted Reality. It's a sinister move, but on the other hand, simply a continuation Obama's unprecedented zeal in prosecuting whistle-blowers. Trump inherited an atrocious War on Leaks, and Reality is the latest victim of that war. Her arrest is a signal to the world, and the four million other Americans with access to classified information: Only sanctioned leaks benefiting the government will be tolerated.
There's a striking hypocrisy to Trump's crackdown. Less than a month ago the President was criticized for carelessly leaking classified information to Russian officials during a White House meeting. We now know this information concerned a bomb that is being developed by ISIS. This is standard operating procedure: lawmakers have no issue leaking classified information if it somehow furthers their interest, but they aggressively prosecute citizens who expose actual wrongdoing.
I believe that Reality Winner's possible actions should be understood within the context of recent heroic whistleblowing. Shortly before leaving office, Barack Obama commuted the remaining sentence of US Army soldier Chelsea Manning, who was facing 27 more years in prison for exposing war crimes and corruption. Edward Snowden, who leaked information about our government's massive spying program, was granted asylum in Russia but faces espionage charges back home. Just like Manning, it seems that Reality was able to see the inner workings of the United States' war machine.
She served in the Air Force from 2013 until early this year, working as a linguist. Like Snowden, she would have had a better view than most as to how our security state works. Up until last week, she was a military defense contractor with the Pluribus International Corporation in the suburbs outside of Augusta, Georgia, and had Top Secret security clearance.
The US government has spent tens of millions of dollars in better auditing capabilities since the disclosures by Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Those that would rather keep the public in the dark as to what their government is doing with their tax dollars and in their name, have redoubled their efforts to identify whistle-blowers much more quickly. Winner's arrest was facilitated by the government's increased ability to more easily identify the relatively small number of people that recently accessed documents in question as well as the yellow-colored, nearly-invisible micro dots that most color printers today use to include a printer's serial number and time stamp on each printed page. This appears to have contributed to the focus on Reality Winner.
Reality is expected to plead not guilty to charges against her today. We don't know exactly why she allegedly released the NSA documents to the press, but we do have some insight into her views about the world. Her social media accounts show a woman who, like a clear majority of Americans, is critical of Donald Trump. She has also voiced support for Edward Snowden, and opposition to the US fabricating a reason to attack Iran.
According to The Intercept, [Winner's leak] "ratchets up the stakes of the ongoing investigations into collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives . . . If collusion can ultimately be demonstrated – a big if at this point – then the assistance on Russia's part went beyond allegedly hacking email to serve a propaganda campaign, and bled into an attack on U.S. election infrastructure itself."
We are talking about a potentially monumental story that might require prosecutions, but Reality Winner shouldn't be the one who ends up in jail. While the details of the story continue to unfold, by all indications she deserves our support, and the release of these documents should be celebrated.
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Cuban Documentary "Between Changes"
May 19, 2017
HAVANA TIMES — "Entre cambios" (Between changes) is a documentary dedicated to a specific generation of Cubans: the one who had to live through the fragile limbo when the Soviet Union collapsed. We concentrated particularly on speaking to those who experienced these changes there, in the places where the events took place.
One of the most recurring testimonies that this documentary provides – and the research we did to carry it out – is that of people who went to COMECON (The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance) countries under the sugarcoated notion that there they had a more advanced version of socialism that the Cuban version, and instead it turned out that they would be the witnesses of its downfall.
This is where the irony lies: surely, a lot of things used to be better off there than they were in Cuba, even under the centralized State system that the Kremlin imposed on the majority of the territories under its control, but everything "went downhill" between 1988 and 1991.
In the documentary, we can hear accounts from those who were in countries such as Hungary, and in several Republics of what used to be the USSR. We tried our best for these opinions to be diverse and critical.
There wasn't always enough space for all of the material we had collected for the documentary – and we have faith that the extensive research we did will have the opportunity to be covered in other media platforms, or maybe there will even be sequels to this documentary.
However, we tried to maintain a respectful, friendly and proactive dialogue that prevails throughout the film, in order to anchor the diversity of social coexistence today.
Cuba's "post-Soviet" generation – the one which lived in situ with the geopolitical collapse that led to the Special Period disaster here, to the capitalist reforms in Europe and the "excessive '90s" in Russia and its surroundings, with quite a few localized conflicts where a lot of today's jihadist terrorism was born and awful government administrations who justified well-established authoritarian run countries today – is a very active generation nowadays.
Both inside and outside of our archipelago, it has given rise to artists, intellectuals, engineers, bloggers, doctors, scientists and social activists from all kinds of political movements.
It's no coincidence that it was a generation that experienced a great shock (whether in Eurasia, or here in Cuba, where we also experienced a great time of change – but in a different way). We believe that their experiences – which haven't been published widely in explicit terms, which are what we have tried to collect – can contribute to preventing a lot of the negativity that is taking place in Cuba today.
We have to learn our lessons from history, something which clearly wasn't done in the post-1959 period, when existing critique of the then "USSR" was dismissed in Cuba.
This documentary is the result of a co-production between the independent production company "CreActivo" and the research team "Post Soviet Cuba" which is a member of one of the teams from the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLASCO).
http://www.havanatimes.org/?p=125323
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Solidarity Statement from the California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Friends,
CCWP sent the solidarity statement below expressing support with the hunger strikers at the Northwest County Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma Washington, one of the largest immigration prisons in the country. People at NWDC, including many women, undertook the hunger strike starting at the beginning of April 2017 to protest the horrendous conditions they are facing. Although the peak of the hunger strike was a few weeks ago, the strikers set a courageous example of resistance for people in detention centers and prisons around the country.
Here is a link to a Democracy Now! interview with Maru Villalpando of Northwest Detention Center Resistance (http://www.nwdcresistance.org/) and Alexis Erickson, partner of one of the hunger strikers, Cristian Lopez.
Friends,
CCWP sent the solidarity statement below expressing support with the hunger strikers at the Northwest County Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma Washington, one of the largest immigration prisons in the country. People at NWDC, including many women, undertook the hunger strike starting at the beginning of April 2017 to protest the horrendous conditions they are facing. Although the peak of the hunger strike was a few weeks ago, the strikers set a courageous example of resistance for people in detention centers and prisons around the country.
Here is a link to a Democracy Now! interview with Maru Villalpando of Northwest Detention Center Resistance (http://www.nwdcresistance.org/) and Alexis Erickson, partner of one of the hunger strikers, Cristian Lopez.
California Coalition for Women Prisoners Statement
California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) stands in solidarity with the hunger strikers, many of them women, detained by ICE at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), a private prison operated by the GEO group contracted by ICE in Washington state. We applaud the detainees at NORCOR, a county jail in rural Oregon, who recently won their demands after sustaining six days without meals.
Since April 10th, those detained in NWDC have refused meals to demand changes to the abhorrent conditions of their detention, including poor quality food, insufficient medical care, little to no access to family visits, legal counsel or legal documents, and lack of timely court proceedings. Hunger strikes are a powerful method of resistance within prisons that require commitment and courage from prisoners and their families. We have seen this historically in California when tens-of-thousands of prisoners refused meals to protest solitary confinement in 2011 and 2013, and also currently in Palestine where over 1,500 prisoners are on hunger strike against the brutal conditions of Israeli prisons.
As the Trump administration continues to escalate its attacks on Latinx/Chicanx and Arab/Muslim communities, deportations and detentions serve as strategies to control, remove, and erase people—a violence made possible in a context of inflamed xenophobia and increasingly visible and virulent racism. We stand with the families of those detained as well as organizations and collectives on the ground in Washington State struggling to expose the situation inside these facilities as well as confront the escalating strategies of the Trump administration.
CCWP recognizes the common struggle for basic human dignity and against unconstitutional cruel and inhumane treatment that people of color and immigrants face in detention centers, jails, and prisons across the United States. We also sadly recognize from our work with people in women's prisons the retaliatory tactics such as prison transfers and solitary confinement that those who fight oppression face. Similar abuses continue to occur across California at all of its prisons and detention centers, including the GEO-run women's prison in McFarland, California.. CCWP sends love and solidarity to the hunger strikers in the Northwest. Together we can break down the walls that tear our families and communities apart. ¡ya basta! #Ni1Más #Not1More
California Coalition for Women Prisoners (CCWP) stands in solidarity with the hunger strikers, many of them women, detained by ICE at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), a private prison operated by the GEO group contracted by ICE in Washington state. We applaud the detainees at NORCOR, a county jail in rural Oregon, who recently won their demands after sustaining six days without meals.
Since April 10th, those detained in NWDC have refused meals to demand changes to the abhorrent conditions of their detention, including poor quality food, insufficient medical care, little to no access to family visits, legal counsel or legal documents, and lack of timely court proceedings. Hunger strikes are a powerful method of resistance within prisons that require commitment and courage from prisoners and their families. We have seen this historically in California when tens-of-thousands of prisoners refused meals to protest solitary confinement in 2011 and 2013, and also currently in Palestine where over 1,500 prisoners are on hunger strike against the brutal conditions of Israeli prisons.
As the Trump administration continues to escalate its attacks on Latinx/Chicanx and Arab/Muslim communities, deportations and detentions serve as strategies to control, remove, and erase people—a violence made possible in a context of inflamed xenophobia and increasingly visible and virulent racism. We stand with the families of those detained as well as organizations and collectives on the ground in Washington State struggling to expose the situation inside these facilities as well as confront the escalating strategies of the Trump administration.
CCWP recognizes the common struggle for basic human dignity and against unconstitutional cruel and inhumane treatment that people of color and immigrants face in detention centers, jails, and prisons across the United States. We also sadly recognize from our work with people in women's prisons the retaliatory tactics such as prison transfers and solitary confinement that those who fight oppression face. Similar abuses continue to occur across California at all of its prisons and detention centers, including the GEO-run women's prison in McFarland, California.. CCWP sends love and solidarity to the hunger strikers in the Northwest. Together we can break down the walls that tear our families and communities apart. ¡ya basta! #Ni1Más #Not1More
Northwest Detention Center Press Release May 4, 2017
Despite threats and retaliation, hunger strikers continue protest
ICE ignores demands for improved conditions
Tacoma, Washington/The Dalles, Oregon—Immigrants held at ICE facilities in two states—the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), run by GEO Group, and NORCOR, a rural public jail—continued their hunger strike today, despite growing weakness from lack of food. The exponential growth of immigration detention has led ICE to contract the function of detaining immigrants out to both private prison companies and to county governments, with both treating immigrants as a source of profit. ICE has been using NORCOR as "overflow" detention space for immigrants held at NWDC, and is regularly transferring people back and forth from the NWDC to NORCOR. People held at NORCOR have limited access to lawyers and to the legal documents they need to fight and win their deportation cases. They are often transferred back to NWDC only for their hearings, then shipped back to NORCOR, where they face terrible conditions. Jessica Campbell of the Rural Organizing Project affirmed, "No one deserves to endure the conditions at NORCOR—neither the immigrants ICE is paying to house there, nor the people of Oregon who end up there as part of criminal processes. It's unsafe for everyone."
The strike began on April 10th, when 750 people at the NWDC began refusing meals. The protest spread to NORCOR this past weekend. Maru Mora Villalpando of NWDC Resistance confirmed, "It's very clear from our contact with people inside the facilities and with family members of those detained that the hunger strike continues in both Oregon and Washington State." She continued, "The question for us is, how will ICE assure that the abuses that these whistle-blowing hunger strikers have brought to light are addressed?"
From the beginning of the protest, instead of using the strike as an opportunity to look into the serious concerns raised by the hunger strikers, ICE and GEO have both denied the strike is occurring and retaliated against strikers. Hunger strikers have been transferred to NORCOR in retaliation for their participation. One person who refused transfer to NORCOR was put in solitary confinement. Just this week, hunger striking women have been threatened with forced feeding—a practice that is recognized under international law to be torture. In an attempt to break their spirit, hunger strikers have been told the strike has been ineffective and that the public is ignoring it.
Hunger striker demands terrible conditions inside detention center be addressed—including the poor quality of the food, the dollar-a-day pay, and the lack of medical care. They also call for more expedited court proceedings and the end of transfers between detention facilities. Hunger strikers consistently communicate, "We are doing this for our families." Despite their incredibly oppressive conditions, locked away and facing deportation in an immigration prison in the middle of an industrial zone and in a rural county jail, hunger strikers have acted collectively and brought national attention to the terrible conditions they face and to the ongoing crisis of deportations, conditions the U.S. government must address.Latino Advocacy
Maru Mora Villalpando
News mailing list: News@womenprisoners.org
Activist Goes on Hunger Strike Outside the Northwest Detention Center
Maru Mora Villalpando Joins the Tacoma 12 and Adelanto 9 in Calling for an End to Human Rights Abuses in Immigrant Detention
Tacoma, WA - On Monday, June 19th, Maru Mora Villalpando, member of the NWDC Resistance, will begin a hunger strike to call attention to the plight of up to 1,600 immigrants held in detention suffering human rights abuses at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC). On June 15, 2017, at least a dozen detainees went on hunger strike to call attention to inhumane detention conditions, refusing to eat for multiple days. By June 18, NWDC Resistance organizers received reports that more than 25 hunger strikers are calling on GEO Group to provide edible, nutritious food, on ICE to provide fair and timely hearings, and on civil society to step up and take action for the injustices in our communities. In response, Maru Mora Villalpando is going on hunger strike, and is joined by other members of civil society who are stepping up their solidarity.
As hunger strikers on the inside are discussing ceasing their strike on the inside, Maru will keep the hunger strike continuous by holding space on the outside. A female hunger striker in detention said: "I feel more deteriorated every day, more bad, more worse, because of what we are living through and what we are seeing inside. What we are suffering is horrible, horrible. Here they don't care what conditions we are living in… they don't care about anything." To listen to her story, go to: http://bit.ly/2sIyXzZ
GEO Group's human rights abuses are not a case of "bad apples." Just this week, GEO employees have refused to complete basic maintenance, such as repairing a broken air conditioner when projected temperatures are expected to reach 78 degrees. Likewise, people in detention have noted repeated problems with incorrect medications resulting in hospital visits, suicide attempts, and inadequate access to medical treatment -- even in diagnosed cases of malignant cancers.
There are also 9 asylum seekers on hunger strike at the GEO-owned Adelanto Detention Facility in Southern California. Rather than releasing asylum seekers pending their hearing, they were subjected to further trauma -- pepper spray, beating and solitary confinement. The #Adelanto9 continue on hunger strike to call attention to these blatant human rights abuses, meaning that people inside and outside detention centers are on hunger strike throughout the West Coast.
Call to Action: Hunger strikers and solidarity supporters are holding down a 24-7 encampment outside the Northwest Detention Center. Please join them to show people held in detention that they are not alone, and the state of Washington will no longer tolerate human rights abuses!
For live updates on the #Tacoma12 and solidarity hunger strikes, visithttps://www.facebook.com/ NWDCResistance/.
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NWDC Resistance is a volunteer community group that emerged to fight deportations in 2014 at the now-infamous Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, WA. NWDC Resistance is part of the #Not1More campaign and supported people detained who organized hunger strikes asking for a halt to all deportations and better treatment and conditions.
Contact: Maru Mora Villalpando, (206) 251 6658, maru@latinoadvocacy.org
#Tacoma12 #Adelanto9 #Not1More #NoEstánSolos
Tacoma, Washington/The Dalles, Oregon—Immigrants held at ICE facilities in two states—the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC), run by GEO Group, and NORCOR, a rural public jail—continued their hunger strike today, despite growing weakness from lack of food. The exponential growth of immigration detention has led ICE to contract the function of detaining immigrants out to both private prison companies and to county governments, with both treating immigrants as a source of profit. ICE has been using NORCOR as "overflow" detention space for immigrants held at NWDC, and is regularly transferring people back and forth from the NWDC to NORCOR. People held at NORCOR have limited access to lawyers and to the legal documents they need to fight and win their deportation cases. They are often transferred back to NWDC only for their hearings, then shipped back to NORCOR, where they face terrible conditions. Jessica Campbell of the Rural Organizing Project affirmed, "No one deserves to endure the conditions at NORCOR—neither the immigrants ICE is paying to house there, nor the people of Oregon who end up there as part of criminal processes. It's unsafe for everyone."
The strike began on April 10th, when 750 people at the NWDC began refusing meals. The protest spread to NORCOR this past weekend. Maru Mora Villalpando of NWDC Resistance confirmed, "It's very clear from our contact with people inside the facilities and with family members of those detained that the hunger strike continues in both Oregon and Washington State." She continued, "The question for us is, how will ICE assure that the abuses that these whistle-blowing hunger strikers have brought to light are addressed?"
From the beginning of the protest, instead of using the strike as an opportunity to look into the serious concerns raised by the hunger strikers, ICE and GEO have both denied the strike is occurring and retaliated against strikers. Hunger strikers have been transferred to NORCOR in retaliation for their participation. One person who refused transfer to NORCOR was put in solitary confinement. Just this week, hunger striking women have been threatened with forced feeding—a practice that is recognized under international law to be torture. In an attempt to break their spirit, hunger strikers have been told the strike has been ineffective and that the public is ignoring it.
Hunger striker demands terrible conditions inside detention center be addressed—including the poor quality of the food, the dollar-a-day pay, and the lack of medical care. They also call for more expedited court proceedings and the end of transfers between detention facilities. Hunger strikers consistently communicate, "We are doing this for our families." Despite their incredibly oppressive conditions, locked away and facing deportation in an immigration prison in the middle of an industrial zone and in a rural county jail, hunger strikers have acted collectively and brought national attention to the terrible conditions they face and to the ongoing crisis of deportations, conditions the U.S. government must address.Latino Advocacy
Maru Mora Villalpando
News mailing list: News@womenprisoners.org
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Labor Studies and Radical History
4444 Geary Blvd., Suite 207, San Francisco, CA 94118
415.387.5700
http://www.holtlaborlibrary.org/mayday.html
http://www.holtlaborlibrary.org/mayday.html
Hours
(call 415.387.5700 to be sure the library is open for the hours you are interested in. We close the library sometimes to go on errands or have close early) suggested)
7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed on all major holidays and May Day
We can arrange, by request, to keep the library open longer during the day or open it on weekends. Just ask.
7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Closed on all major holidays and May Day
We can arrange, by request, to keep the library open longer during the day or open it on weekends. Just ask.
Services
- Reference Librarian On-site
- Email and Telephone Reference
- Interlibrary Loan
- Online Public Access Catalog
- Microfilm Reader/Printer
- DVD and VCR players
- Photocopier
- Quiet well-lighted place for study and research
For an appointment or further information, please email: david [at] holtlaborlibrary.org
- Reference Librarian On-site
- Email and Telephone Reference
- Interlibrary Loan
- Online Public Access Catalog
- Microfilm Reader/Printer
- DVD and VCR players
- Photocopier
- Quiet well-lighted place for study and research
For an appointment or further information, please email: david [at] holtlaborlibrary.org
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Support:
CONTRIBUTE
Thank you for being a part of this struggle.
Cuando luchamos ganamos! When we fight we win!
Noelle Hanrahan, Director
To give by check:
PO Box 411074
San Francisco, CA
94141
Stock or legacy gifts:
Noelle Hanrahan
(415) 706 - 5222
Support:
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MEDIA ADVISORYMedia contact: Morgan McLeod, (202) 628-0871
mmcleod@sentencingproject.org
NEW REPORT FINDS RECORD NUMBER OF PEOPLE SERVING
LIFE SENTENCES IN U.S. PRISONS
Washington, D.C.— Despite recent political support for criminal justice reform in most states, the number of people serving life sentences has nearly quintupled since 1984.
A new report by The Sentencing Project finds a record number of people serving life with parole, life without parole, and virtual life sentences of 50 years or more, equaling one of every seven people behind bars.
Eight states — Alabama, California, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, and Utah — have at least one of every five prisoners serving a life or de facto life sentence in prison.
The Sentencing Project will host an online press conference to discuss its report Still Life: America's Increasing Use of Life and Long-Term Sentences, on Wednesday, May 3rd at 11:00 a.m. EDT.
Press Conference Details
WHAT: Online press conference hosted by The Sentencing Project regarding the release of its new report examining life and long-term sentences in the United States. REGISTER HERE to participate. The call-in information and conference link will be sent via email.
WHEN:
Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. EDT
WHO:
- Ashley Nellis, The Sentencing Project's senior research analyst and author of Still Life: America's Increasing Use of Life and Long-Term Sentences
- Evans Ray, whose life without parole sentence was commuted in 2016 by President Obama
- Steve Zeidman, City University of New York law professor and counsel for Judith Clark—a New York prisoner who received a 75 year to life sentence in 1983
The full report will be available to press on Wednesday morning via email.
Founded in 1986, The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.
###
The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.
Sign up for our updates here. Not interested anymore? Unsubscribe.
Problems viewing this email? Click here to view as a web page.
The Sentencing Project
1705 DeSales Street NW, 8th Floor
Washington, D.C. 20036
sentencingproject.org
202.628.0871
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When they knock on your front door: Preparing for Repression
| MEDIA ADVISORYMedia contact: Morgan McLeod, (202) 628-0871 mmcleod@sentencingproject.org |
NEW REPORT FINDS RECORD NUMBER OF PEOPLE SERVING
Washington, D.C.— Despite recent political support for criminal justice reform in most states, the number of people serving life sentences has nearly quintupled since 1984. LIFE SENTENCES IN U.S. PRISONS A new report by The Sentencing Project finds a record number of people serving life with parole, life without parole, and virtual life sentences of 50 years or more, equaling one of every seven people behind bars. Eight states — Alabama, California, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New York, and Utah — have at least one of every five prisoners serving a life or de facto life sentence in prison. The Sentencing Project will host an online press conference to discuss its report Still Life: America's Increasing Use of Life and Long-Term Sentences, on Wednesday, May 3rd at 11:00 a.m. EDT.
Press Conference Details
WHAT: Online press conference hosted by The Sentencing Project regarding the release of its new report examining life and long-term sentences in the United States. REGISTER HERE to participate. The call-in information and conference link will be sent via email.
WHEN:
Wednesday, May 3, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. EDT
WHO:
The full report will be available to press on Wednesday morning via email.
Founded in 1986, The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. criminal justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration.
###
|
| The Sentencing Project works for a fair and effective U.S. justice system by promoting reforms in sentencing policy, addressing unjust racial disparities and practices, and advocating for alternatives to incarceration. Sign up for our updates here. Not interested anymore? Unsubscribe. Problems viewing this email? Click here to view as a web page. The Sentencing Project 1705 DeSales Street NW, 8th Floor Washington, D.C. 20036 sentencingproject.org 202.628.0871 |
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When they knock on your front door: Preparing for Repression
BAY AREA ANTI-REPRESSION COMMITTEE
When they knock on your front door: Preparing for Repression
BY
BY
Mothers Message to the NY/NJ Activist Community
In order to effectively combat the existing opportunism, hidden agendas and to better provide ALL genuinely good willed social justice organizations and individuals who work inside of the New York and New Jersey metropolitan areas... with more concrete guidelines;
The following "10 Point Platform and Justice Wish List" was adopted on Saturday, May 13, 2017 during the "Motherhood: Standing Strong 4 Justice" pre-mothers day gathering which was held at Hostos Community College - Bronx, New York.......
"What We Want, What We Need"
May, 2017 - NY/NJ Parents 10 Point Justice Platform and Wish List
Point #1 - Lawyers and Legal Assistance: Due to both the overwhelming case loads and impersonal nature of most public defenders, the Mothers believe that their families are receiving limited options, inadequate legal advise and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to help us in gaining access to experienced "pro-bono" and/or activist attorneys as well as the free resources provided by non-profit social justice and legal advocacy groups.
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Point #2 - First Response Teams: The Mothers felt that when their loved ones were either killed or captured by the police that they were left in the hands of the enemy and without any support, information or direction on how to best move forward and therefore; WE WANT and NEED community activists to help us develop independently community controlled & trained first response teams in every borough or county that can confirm and be on the ground within 24 hours of any future incident.
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Point #3 - Security and Support At Court Appearances: The Mothers all feel that because community activist support eventually becomes selective and minimal, that they are disrespected by both the courthouse authorities, mainstream media and therefore; WE WANT and NEED community activists to collectively promote and make a strong presence felt at all court appearances and; To always provide trained security & legal observers... when the families are traveling to, inside and from the court house.
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Point #4 - Emotional/Spiritual Healing and Grief and Loss Counseling: After the protest rallies, demonstrations, justice marches and television cameras are gone the Mothers all feel alone and abandoned and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to refer/help provide the families with clergy, professional therapy & cultural outlets needed in order to gain strength to move forward.
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Point #5 - Parents Internal Communication Network: The Mothers agreed as actual victims, that they are the very best qualified in regards to providing the needed empathy and trust for an independent hotline & contact resource for all of the parents and families who want to reach out to someone they can mutually trust that is able understand what they are going through and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to help us in providing a Parents Internal Communication Network to reach that objective.
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Point #6 - Community Offices and Meeting Spaces: The Mothers agreed that there is an extreme need for safe office spaces where community members and family victims are able to go to for both confidential crisis intervention and holding organizing meetings and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to help us in securing those safe spaces inside of our own neighborhoods.
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Point #7 - Political Education Classes and Workshop Training: The Mothers agreed in implementing the "each one, teach one" strategy and therefore; WE WANT and NEEDfor community activists to help us in being trained as educators and organizers in Know Your Rights, Cop Watch, First Response, Emergency Preparedness & Community Control over all areas of public safety & the police in their respective neighborhoods.
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Point #8 - Support From Politicians and Elected Officials: The Mothers believe that most political candidates and incumbent elected officials selectively & unfairly represent only those cases which they think to be politically advantageous to their own selfish personal success on election day and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to help us in either publicly exposing or endorsing these aforementioned political candidates and/or elected officials to their constituents solely based upon the uncompromising principles of serving the people.
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Point #9 - Research and Documentation: The Mothers believe that research/case studies, surveys, petitions, historical archives, investigative news reporting and events should be documented and made readily available in order to counter the self-serving police misinformation promoted by the system and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to help us by securing college/university students, law firms, film makers, authors, journalists and professional research firms to find, document & tell the people the truth about police terror & the pipeline to prison.
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Point #10 - Grassroots Community Outreach and Information: The Mothers believe that far too much attention is being geared towards TV camera sensationalism with the constant organizing of marches & rallies "downtown" and therefore; WE WANT and NEED for community activists to provide a fair balance by helping us to build in the schools, projects, churches and inside of the subway trains and stations of our Black, brown and oppressed communities where the majority of the police terror is actually taking place.
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100,000 protest in San Francisco, CA
Pictures From Women's
Marches on Every Continent
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My Heartfelt "Thank You!"
Several days ago I received a message from both of our lawyers, Bob Boyle and Bret Grote, informing me that the latest lab tests came in from the Discovery Requests.
And they told me that the Hepatitis C infection level is at zero and as of today I'm Hepatitis C free.
This is in part due to some fine lawyering by Bret and Bob who—remember—filed the suit while I was in the throes of a diabetic coma, unconscious and thus unable to file for myself.
But it's also due to you, the people. Brothers and sisters who supported our efforts, who contributed to this fight with money, time, protests and cramming court rooms on our behalf, who sent cards, who prayed, who loved deeply.
I can't thank you all individually but if you hear my voice or read my words know that I am thanking you, all of you. And I'm thanking you for showing once again the Power of the People.
This battle ain't over, for the State's cruelest gift is my recent diagnosis of cirrhosis of the liver. With your love we shall prevail again. I thank you all. Our noble Dr.'s Corey Weinstein, who told us what to look for, and Joseph Harris who gave me my first diagnosis and who became the star of the courtroom by making the mysteries of Hep C understandable to all. An internist working up in Harlem, Dr. Harris found few thrills better than telling his many Hep C patients that they're cured.
This struggle ain't just for me y'all.
Because of your efforts thousands of Pennsylvania prisoners now have hope of healing from the ravages of Hepatitis C. [singing] "Let us march on 'til victory is won." So goes the old Negro Spiritual, "The Black National Anthem."
We are making it a reality. I love you all.
From Prison Nation,
This is Mumia Abu-Jamal
—Prison Radio, May 27, 2017
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Court order to disclose DA files in Mumia Abu-Jamal's legal case [video]
This 9-minute video gives background on new revelations about conflict of interest -- an appeals judge who had previously been part of the prosecution team -- in upholding the 1982 conviction of journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal on charges of killing a police officer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17Tp5NlllLU
A ruling to implement a judge's recent order for "discovery" could be made on May 30.
Judge Tucker granted discovery to Mumia Abu-Jamal pursuant to his claims brought under Williams v Pennsylvania that he was denied due process because his PA Supreme Court appeals from 1998-2008 were decided by Ronald Castille, who had previously been the District Attorney during Mumia's 1988 appeal from his conviction and death sentence, as well as having been a senior assistant district attorney during Mumia's trial.
The DA is given 30 days—until May 30, 2017—to produce all records and memos regarding Mumia's case, pre-trial, trial, post-trial and direct appeal proceedings between Castille and his staff and any public statement he made about it. Then Mumia has 15 days after receiving this discovery to file amendments to his PCRA petition.
This date of this order is April 28, but it was docketed today, May 1, 2017.
This is a critical and essential step forward!
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Dear Friend,
For the first time- a court has ordered the Philadelphia DA to turn over evidence and open their files in Mumia's appeal. In a complacency shattering blow, the District Attorney's office is finally being held to account. Judge Leon Tucker of the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court ordered the DA to produce all of the documents relevant to former PA Supreme Court Justice's role in the case. Castille was first a supervisory ADA during Mumia's trial, then District Attorney, and finally as a judge he sat on Mumia's appeals to the PA Supreme Court.
This broad discovery order follows just days after the arguments in court by Christina Swarns, Esq. of the NAACP LDF, and Judith Ritter, Esq. of Widner Univ.
During that hearing, Swarns made it clear that the District Attorney's practice of lying to the appellate courts would not be tolerated and had been specifically exposed by the U.S. Supreme Court. In the Terrence Williams case, which highlights Ronald Castile's conflict, the Supreme Court in no uncertain terms excoriated the office for failing to disclose crucial evidence. Evidence the office hid for years. This is an opportunity to begin to unravel the decades long police and prosecutorial corruption that has plagued Mumia's quest for justice.
In prison for over thirty six years Mumia Abu-Jamal has maintained his innocence in the death of Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner on Dec. 9th 1981.
"The Commonwealth must produce any and all documents or records in the possession or control of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office showing former District Attorney Ronald Castille's personal involvement in the above-captioned case ... and public statements during and after his tenure as District Attorney of Philadelphia."
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Court order to disclose DA files in Mumia Abu-Jamal's legal case [video]
This 9-minute video gives background on new revelations about conflict of interest -- an appeals judge who had previously been part of the prosecution team -- in upholding the 1982 conviction of journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal on charges of killing a police officer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17Tp5NlllLU
A ruling to implement a judge's recent order for "discovery" could be made on May 30.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17Tp5NlllLU
A ruling to implement a judge's recent order for "discovery" could be made on May 30.
Judge Tucker granted discovery to Mumia Abu-Jamal pursuant to his claims brought under Williams v Pennsylvania that he was denied due process because his PA Supreme Court appeals from 1998-2008 were decided by Ronald Castille, who had previously been the District Attorney during Mumia's 1988 appeal from his conviction and death sentence, as well as having been a senior assistant district attorney during Mumia's trial.
The DA is given 30 days—until May 30, 2017—to produce all records and memos regarding Mumia's case, pre-trial, trial, post-trial and direct appeal proceedings between Castille and his staff and any public statement he made about it. Then Mumia has 15 days after receiving this discovery to file amendments to his PCRA petition.
This date of this order is April 28, but it was docketed today, May 1, 2017.
This is a critical and essential step forward!
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
For the first time- a court has ordered the Philadelphia DA to turn over evidence and open their files in Mumia's appeal. In a complacency shattering blow, the District Attorney's office is finally being held to account. Judge Leon Tucker of the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court ordered the DA to produce all of the documents relevant to former PA Supreme Court Justice's role in the case. Castille was first a supervisory ADA during Mumia's trial, then District Attorney, and finally as a judge he sat on Mumia's appeals to the PA Supreme Court.
This broad discovery order follows just days after the arguments in court by Christina Swarns, Esq. of the NAACP LDF, and Judith Ritter, Esq. of Widner Univ.
During that hearing, Swarns made it clear that the District Attorney's practice of lying to the appellate courts would not be tolerated and had been specifically exposed by the U.S. Supreme Court. In the Terrence Williams case, which highlights Ronald Castile's conflict, the Supreme Court in no uncertain terms excoriated the office for failing to disclose crucial evidence. Evidence the office hid for years. This is an opportunity to begin to unravel the decades long police and prosecutorial corruption that has plagued Mumia's quest for justice.
In prison for over thirty six years Mumia Abu-Jamal has maintained his innocence in the death of Philadelphia Police officer Daniel Faulkner on Dec. 9th 1981.
"The Commonwealth must produce any and all documents or records in the possession or control of the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office showing former District Attorney Ronald Castille's personal involvement in the above-captioned case ... and public statements during and after his tenure as District Attorney of Philadelphia."
It is important to note that the history of the District Attorney's office in delaying and appealing to prevent exposure of prosecutorial misconduct and the resulting justice. At every turn, there will be attempts to limit Mumia's access to the courts and release. it is past time for justice in this case.
Noelle Hanrahan, P.I.
Prison Radio is a 501c3 project of the Redwood Justice Fund. We record and broadcast the voices of prisoners, centering their analyses and experiences in the movements against mass incarceration and state repression. If you support our work, please join us.
Noelle Hanrahan, P.I.
Prison Radio is a 501c3 project of the Redwood Justice Fund. We record and broadcast the voices of prisoners, centering their analyses and experiences in the movements against mass incarceration and state repression. If you support our work, please join us.
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