Stop the War Coalition
Newsletter 07.09.15
Is dropping more bombs on Syria way to solve refugee crisis?
Refugees welcome here
Refugees Welcome Here
National Day of Action
Saturday 12 September
Assemble 12 Noon
Marble Arch, London
Details »
Organise events where you live
Facebook Event »
David
Cameron's attempt to exploit the refugee crisis as a pretext for UK
bombing of Syria is staggering in its cynicism and callousness.
Especially considering the fact that Isis militants mostly congregate in
heavily populated cities, UK bombing of Syria will inevitably lead to
massive civilian casualties and many more refugees. The government is
already killing people in Syria, despite having lost the parliamentary
mandate to do this following the vote in the House of Commons in 2012.
More
than any other European country, Britain bears direct culpability for
the current refugee crisis. It has, along with the United States, been
the chief architect of the current Middle Eastern inferno of increasing
hatred and endless war. Most of the refugees are fleeing from countries
Britain has invaded or otherwise militarily destabilised in recent
years: Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Yet Britain is also among the
EU countries with the lowest intake of refugees, and it imposes
numerous restrictions and obstacles on people seeking refuge, breaking
Article 14 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights which states that
“everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum
from persecution”. In August 2013 The Migrants' Files project by
European Press found that 30,000 refugees and migrants had died in their
attempt to reach Europe since 2000.
Our humanity is
bound up with the humanity of the refugees from UK wars. Please do
everything you can to support this day of solidarity with refugees. If
you want any help or further information, please contact the Stop the
War national office. Email: office@stopwar.org.uk | Tel: 020 7561 4830
Don't Bomb Syria public meeting
Thursday 10 September, 6.30pm
Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church
235 Shaftsbury Avenue
London WC2H 8EP
Details and free booking »
Speakers include:
Diane Abbott MP
Seamus Milne, journalist
Andrew Murray, UNITE Union chief-of-staff
The
experience of almost a decade and a half of "war on terror" has shown
that violent UK meddling in other countries creates immense misery and
bitterness. It creates conditions for fundamentalism to thrive and it
perpetuates the cycle of violence. A number of studies (including those
by institutions close to the US government such as Freedom House and
event the World Bank) have found that Western military intervention in
civil wars tends to greatly exacerbate and prolong these conflicts.
Savage US bombing already taking place in Syria (and in Iraq, helped by
the British) is argued by many to be helping Isis recruitment. More
bombing will only add fuel on the flames of the war in the Middle East,
leading to more hatred, more misery, death and destruction.
We must act now to stop this new military campaign, as we successfully prevented the bombing campaign in 2013.
Build pressure against a new war
Lobby your MP now. Use our model letter to write to your MP. It takes two minutes.
Participate in the debate by phoning local radio stations.
The topic of bombing Syria is likely to loom large this week, especially in radio prime time (around 8-9 am and 5-6 pm).
LBC
(Leading Britain's Conversation) is a prominent example of a talk radio
station (97.3 FM, its telephone number is 0345 60 60 973).
BBC
Radio 5 Live (AM: 693 kHz, 909 kHz, 990 kHz ) is another major national
talk radio station. Its telephone number is 0500 909693.
For a list of local BBC radio stations, click here.
Campaigning costs money Please make a donation to support our work.
For London Supporters: Protest when Netanyahu visits London
War criminals not wecome here
Protest against Benjamin Netanyahu UK visit
Wednesday 9 September | 11am-1pm
Downing Street, London. More details »
Israeli
prime minister Netanyahu is visiting London next week for talks with
David Cameron. The petition calling for him to be arrested when he is
here has passed 100,000, making it elligible for a possible
parliamentary debate.
A protest has been called by
Palestine Solidarity Campaign, supported by Stop the War, on Wednesday 9
September, 11am, Downing Street. Please join us if you can.
Stop the War Annual National Conference 2015
AGM for members and delegates
19 September | 10am - 5pm
University of London Union
Malet Street | London WC1E 7HY
Full details »
The
Stop the War national conference is where we discuss current political
issues, how to counter the spread of war and our campaigning priorities.
The conference is open to members and group delegates.
Please book early to secure your place »
Not a member? Join Stop the War now to attend and participate.
Jeremy #Corbyn4leader
Jeremy
Corbyn is national chair of Stop the War Coalition. We have supported
his candidacy for the leadership of the Labour Party because of his
anti-war policies, including oppositon to Nato, call for the scrapping
of Trident, long-time campaigning against Israeli occupation of
Palestinians and much more besides.
Jeremy is the
frontrunner in the leadership campaign, but we will not know if he has
been successful until 11. 30 this Saturday 12 September, when the result
is declared at the QE2 Centre in Westminster.
Why we need your support
Stop
the War has no wealthy backers. Since our founding in 2001, our
campaigns and small office have been funded entirely by our members,
supporters and affiliated organisations. We need your support.
In
the words of writer and broadcaster Michael Rosen: Stop the War has
been the consistent voice of sanity throughout these last years of war
and mass death carried out in our name. We cannot let our leaders go on
and on claiming that more invasions and more bombings are 'solutions'
and Stop the War gives us a voice to say this.
Please help sustain our our vital work opposing the UK government war policies.
• Join Stop the War »
• Make a Donation »
Follow Stop the War on Social media
Stop the War Coalition | office@stopwar.org.uk | 020 7561 4830
to unsubscribe from this mailing list send a blank email to stwc-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
Wednesday, October 7, 7pm
First Congregational Church of Berkeley
2345 Channing Way
(near downtown Berkeley Bart) Facebook event
Vijay Prashad is a prominent & charismatic scholar and critic of US
foreign policy. Two of his 17 books have been named “Books of the Year”
by the Village Voice. Currently Professor of International Studies at
Trinity College in Connecticut, he was previously Edward Said Chair at
the American University of Beirut.
In addition to speaking about his new book, Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War & Occupation, Vijay Prashad will give an overview of ever-changing events in the Middle East – not to be missed
“WHAT WE DO IS TO CREATE A SHORT-CIRCUIT BETWEEN THE HEART AND THE HEAD.” - Vijay Prashad
$15 Tickets also available in bookstores East Bay: Books Inc./Berkeley, Moe's, Diesel, Walden Pond San Francisco: Modern Times.
You can also get tickets directly from MECA (no service charge!) -- call
or email Sue or Nawal weekdays, 510-548-0542, susan@mecaforpeace.org
Vijay Prashad edited Letters to Palestine,
tracing the “swelling American recognition of Palestinian suffering,
struggle, and hope, in writing that is personal, lyrical, anguished, and
inspiring.” For example, after the 2014 Gaza assault, polls revealed
that a majority of Americans under thirty found Israel’s actions
unjustified.
Letters to Palestine: Writers Respond to War & Occupation includes
contributions by Mumia Abu Jamal, Naomi Shihab Nye, Robin D.G. Kelley,
Teju Cole, Junot Diaz (who wrote the Introduction), Noura Erekat,
Huwaida Araf, Remi Kanazi, Sarah Schulman, Nora Barrows-Friedman, Alex
Lubin, and more! (Note: these writers will not be speaking at this
event.)
Benefit for aid to Palestinian children, cosponsored by KPFA, Arab
Resource & Organizing Center, Jewish Voice for Peace/Bay Area,
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.
Wheelchair accessible. ASL interpreted.
One
year ago, thousands of activists flooded Wall Street in New York,
taking mass direct action in the heart of a global financial system
that’s fueling the climate crisis.
Now, a year later, people
across the continent are preparing and organizing for #FloodTheSystem, a
sustained campaign of direct action and civil disobedience targeting
the political and corporate elites that profit off of climate change.
To
kick off #FloodTheSystem, on Monday, September 28, we’re going to Flood
Wall Street West: San Francisco’s financial district. Flood Wall Street
West will consist of a tour of shame of some of the worst corporate and
political bad actors in downtown San Francisco.
We will take
mass direct action to shut down business as usual and emphasize the
connections between the climate crisis, capitalism, exploitation and
oppression. Here are the details:
What: Flood Wall Street West
When: Monday, September 28, 8 am
Where: Justin Herman Plaza, San Francisco, CA
Click here to sign up for more details, and to sign up to attend Flood Wall St. West.
Come
dressed in blue. The march organizers will have everything else you
need, including chant sheets, banners, signs, props and art.
This
is direct action for everybody. While many attendees will risk arrest,
everyone can participate safely, whether or not you’re willing to go to
jail. There will be a legal briefing and nonviolent direct action
training before the march to make sure that everyone is prepared to
participate.
The march organizers will need lots of extra hands
to make this march a success. If you’d like to volunteer to help out
before or during the march, RSVP and indicate that you’d like to take on
a volunteer role. Click here to sign up.
#FloodTheSystem is
timed to coincide with the Paris climate talks. Instead of hoping that
yet another round of negotiations will finally yield a solution to the
climate crisis, activists across North America will shut down business
as usual and demand real, transformative solutions to the climate
crisis.
We hope you’ll join us to kick off this mass mobilization with Flood Wall Street West. Click here to RSVP.
Sign the Petition: https://act.amnestyusa.org/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1839&ea.campaign.id=40574&ea.tracking.id=Country_USA~MessagingCategory_DeathPenalty~MessagingCategory_PrisonersandPeopleatRisk&ac=W1507EADP1&ea.url.id=432762&forwarded=true
Urge
Gov. Jerry Brown to commute Kevin Cooper's death sentence. Cooper has
always maintained his innocence of the 1983 quadruple murder of which he
was convicted. In 2009, five federal judges signed a dissenting opinion
warning that the State of California "may be about to execute an
innocent man." Having exhausted his appeals in the US courts, Kevin
Cooper's lawyers have turned to the Inter American Commission on Human
Rights to seek remedy for what they maintain is his wrongful conviction,
and the inadequate trial representation, prosecutorial misconduct and
racial discrimination which have marked the case. Amnesty International
opposes all executions, unconditionally.
"The
State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." - Judge
William A. Fletcher, 2009 dissenting opinion on Kevin Cooper's case
Kevin Cooper has been on death row in California for more than thirty years.
In
1985, Cooper was convicted of the murder of a family and their house
guest in Chino Hills. Sentenced to death, Cooper's trial took place in
an atmosphere of racial hatred — for example, an effigy of a monkey in a
noose with a sign reading "Hang the N*****!" was hung outside the venue
of his preliminary hearing.
Take action to see that Kevin Cooper's death sentence is commuted immediately.
Cooper has consistently maintained his innocence.
Following
his trial, five federal judges said: "There is no way to say this
politely. The district court failed to provide Cooper a fair hearing."
Since 2004, a dozen federal appellate judges have indicated their doubts about his guilt.
Tell California authorities: The death penalty carries the risk of irrevocable error. Kevin Cooper's sentence must be commuted.
In
2009, Cooper came just eight hours shy of being executed for a crime
that he may not have committed. Stand with me today in reminding the
state of California that the death penalty is irreversible — Kevin
Cooper's sentence must be commuted immediately.
In solidarity,
James Clark Senior Death Penalty Campaigner Amnesty International USA
Kevin
Cooper's case will be the subject of a new episode of CNN's "Death Row
Stories" airing on Sunday, July 26 at 7 p.m. PDT. The program will be
repeated at 10 p.m. PDT. The episode, created by executive producers
Robert Redford and Alex Gibney, will explore how Kevin Cooper was framed
by the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department and District
Attorney.Viewers on the east coast can see the program at 10 p.m. EDT
and it will be rebroadcast at 1 a.m. EDT on July 27. Viewers in the
Central Time zone can see it at 9 p.m. and midnight CDT. Viewers in the
Mountain Time zone can see it at 8 p.m. and ll p.m MDT. It will be aired
on CNN again during the following week and will also be able to be
viewed on CNN's "Death Row Stories" website.
Kevin Cooper: An Innocent Victim of Racist Frame-Up - from the Fact Sheet at: www.freekevincooper.org
Kevin
Cooper is an African-American man who was wrongly convicted and
sentenced to death in 1985 for the gruesome murders of a white family in
Chino Hills, California: Doug and Peggy Ryen and their daughter Jessica
and their house- guest Christopher Hughes. The Ryens' 8 year old son
Josh, also attacked, was left for dead but survived.
Convicted
in an atmosphere of racial hatred in San Bernardino County CA, Kevin
Cooper remains under a threat of imminent execution in San Quentin. He
has never received a fair hearing on his claim of innocence. In a
dissenting opinion in 2009, five federal judges of the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals signed a 82 page dissenting opinion that begins: "The
State of California may be about to execute an innocent man." 565 F.3d
581.
There is significant evidence that exonerates Mr. Cooper and points toward other suspects:
The coroner who investigated the Ryen murders concluded that the
murders took four minutes at most and that the murder weapons were a
hatchet, a long knife, an ice pick and perhaps a second knife. How could
a single person, in four or fewer minutes, wield three or four weapons,
and inflict over 140 wounds on five people, two of whom were adults
(including a 200 pound ex-marine) who had loaded weapons near their
bedsides?
The sole surviving victim of the murders,
Josh Ryen, told police and hospital staff within hours of the murders
that the culprits were "three white men." Josh Ryen repeated this
statement in the days following the crimes. When he twice saw Mr.
Cooper's picture on TV as the suspected attacker, Josh Ryen said "that's
not the man who did it."
Josh Ryen's description of
the killers was corroborated by two witnesses who were driving near the
Ryens' home the night of the murders. They reported seeing three white
men in a station wagon matching the description of the Ryens' car
speeding away from the direction of the Ryens' home.
These descriptions were corroborated by testimony of several employees
and patrons of a bar close to the Ryens' home, who saw three white men
enter the bar around midnight the night of the murders, two of whom were
covered in blood, and one of whom was wearing coveralls.
The identity of the real killers was further corroborated by a woman
who, shortly after the murders were discovered, alerted the sheriff's
department that her boyfriend, a convicted murderer, left
blood-spattered coveralls at her home the night of the murders. She also
reported that her boyfriend had been wearing a tan t-shirt matching a
tan t-shirt with Doug Ryen's blood on it recovered near the bar. She
also reported that her boyfriend owned a hatchet matching the one
recovered near the scene of the crime, which she noted was missing in
the days following the murders; it never reappeared; further, her sister
saw that boyfriend and two other white men in a vehicle that could have
been the Ryens' car on the night of the murders.
Lacking
a motive to ascribe to Mr. Cooper for the crimes, the prosecution
claimed that Mr. Cooper, who had earlier walked away from custody at a
minimum security prison, stole the Ryens' car to escape to Mexico. But
the Ryens had left the keys in both their cars (which were parked in the
driveway), so there was no need to kill them to steal their car. The
prosecution also claimed that Mr. Cooper needed money, but money and
credit cards were found untouched and in plain sight at the murder
scene.
The jury in 1985 deliberated for seven days
before finding Mr. Cooper guilty. One juror later said that if there had
been one less piece of evidence, the jury would not have voted to
convict.
The evidence the prosecution presented at
trial tying Mr. Cooper to the crime scene has all been
discredited… (Continue reading this document at:
http://www.savekevincooper.org/_new_freekevincooperdotorg/TEST/Scripts/DataLibraries/upload/KC_FactSheet_2014.pdf)
This message from the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal. July 2015
On
June 8, 2015 a federal judge granted Louisiana prisoner Albert Woodfox
unconditional release. Albert's conviction had already been overturned
three times - most recently in 2013 - yet every time the state has
appealed.
Today, Albert is still behind
bars after spending four decades in cruel, unjust solitary confinement.
He believes that he and fellow prisoners, Herman Wallace and Robert
King, were first placed in solitary confinement in retaliation for their
activism. All three men were members of the Black Panther Party.
Together, they came to be known as the Angola 3.
It is
time for the State of Louisiana to stop standing in the way of justice.
Call on Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to ensure Albert's cruel and
unjust confinement is not his legacy. Learn more
Amnesty for all those arrested demanding justice for Freddie Gray!
Amnesty for ALL those arrested demanding justice for Freddie Gray!
Sign and distribute the petition to drop the charges! Spread this effort with #Amnesty4Baltimore
"A riot is the language of the unheard" — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
An
estimated 300 people have been arrested in Baltimore in the last two
weeks. Many have been brutalized, beaten and pepper-sprayed by police in
the streets, and held for days in inhumane conditions. Those arrested
include journalists, medics and legal observers.
One
individual arrested for property destruction of a police vehicle is now
facing life in prison and is being held on $500,000 bail. That's
$150,000 more than the officer charged with the murder of Freddie Gray.
The
legal system has made it clear that they care more about broken windows
than broken necks; more about a CVS than the lives of Baltimore's Black
residents.
They showed no hesitation in arresting Baltimore's
protesters and rebels, and sending in the National Guard, but took 19
days to put a single one of the killer cops in handcuffs. This was the
outrageous double standard that led to the Baltimore Uprising.
Sign the petition to drop the charges on all who have been arrested.
Petition to Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake
Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake
City Hall, Room 250,
100 North Holliday St.,
Baltimore, MD 21202
Dear Mayor Rawlings-Blake:
I
stand in solidarity with those in Baltimore who are demanding that all
charges be dropped against those who rose up against racism, police
brutality, oppressive social conditions and delay of justice in the case
of Freddie Gray. The whole world now recognizes that were it not for
this powerful grassroots movement, in all its forms, there would be no
indictment.
It is an outrage that peaceful
protesters have been brutalized, beaten and pepper-sprayed by police in
the streets, and held for days in inhumane conditions. Those arrested
include journalists and legal observers.
Even the youth
who are charged with property destruction and looting should be given
an amnesty. There is no reason a teenager -- provoked by racists and
justifiably angry -- should be facing life in prison for breaking the
windows of a police car.
The City of Baltimore should
work to rectify the conditions that led to this Uprising, rather than
criminalizing those who took action in response to those conditions.
Drop the charges now!
Dear President Obama, Senators, and Members of Congress:
Americans
now owe $1.3 trillion in student debt. Eighty-six percent of that money
is owed to the United States government. This is a crushing burden for
more than 40 million Americans and their families.
I urge you to take immediate action to forgive all student debt, public and private.
American Federation of Teachers
Campaign for America's Future
Courage Campaign
Daily Kos
Democracy for America
LeftAction
Project Springboard
RH Reality Check
RootsAction
Student Debt Crisis
The Nation
Working Families
Listen to Mumia tell this story. Major
Tillery stood up to the prison administration: he confronted them in no
uncertain terms, noting that Mumia must get to the hospital in
time- before he dies. SCI Mahanory Superintendent Kerestes told Major to mind his own business, to which Major replied 'Mumia is my business'.
Please join us in standing in solidarity with Major Tillery, who has been transferred and put in solitary confinement as punishment for demanding that Mumia receive medical care.
"Major
is in the hole, not because of drugs, but because of something prison
administrators hate and fear among all things: prisoner unity, prisoner
solidarity."
- Mumia Abu-Jamal
1. Call prison officials to demand that Major Tillery be released from solitary confinement!
Superintendent Brenda Tritt, SCI Frackville (570) 874-4516
Dept. Of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel
(717) 728-4109
State that you are calling about Major Tillery #AM9786, to demand he be released from the RHU and placed back in general population.
Inform them that you aware that he is in the hole and being denied medication in retaliation for speaking up for another prisoner.
2. Write Major a letter of solidarity:
Dear Major Tillery,
We
honor your brave act of solidarity on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal. You
urged him to seek medical care and challenged the Prison Superintendent
to protect his life. You helped save the life of a fellow prisoner and
for that act of solidarity they are trying to bury you in the bowels of
SCI Frackville under false charges. No matter how hard they try they
cannot hide you under the weight of lies and intimidation. The power of
the truth must come to light. Thank you Major Tillery for your
courageous service. We salute you!
Major George Tillery AM 9786
SCI Frackville, 1111 Altamont Blvd,
Frackville, PA 17931
"Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will." -Frederick Douglass
Mumia continues
to transcend the prison walls, reaching out to us with his profound
commentaries. Prison Radio is committed to amplifying Mumia's voice, getting him the medical care he needs to survive, and winning his freedom.
Mumia Abu-Jamal Has Hepatitis C: Demand Treatment Now!
Mumia
Abu-Jamal has Hepatitis C-- and the prison is refusing treatment. We
are going back to court to demand critical care, and we can't do it
without you. Will you support Mumia getting immediate treatment by
giving $250, $100 or even $25 today? Every gift and action makes the
difference for Mumia getting the care he needs. Thank you, Noelle. The time to act is now.
Five
months after being rushed to the hospital, new medical tests show that
Mumia has active Hepatitis C. But prison officials are refusing to treat
him for it.
With your help, that changes- today.
Mumia Abu-Jamal remains weak, ill, and in the prison infirmary.
Five
months after being admitted to the hospital with lethal blood sugar
levels and in renal failure, he continues to have a debilitating skin
rashes, open wounds and swelling across his lower extremities. Because
of our relentless demands for medical testing and treatment, we finally
know the likely cause of his severe ailments: Hepatitis C.
But
what is news to us is not news to his jailers. Prison officials have
known that Mumia was Hep. C positive since 2012-- and have done nothing.
Even
now that prison doctors know that Mumia's Hep. C is active -from
testing they performed solely because we demanded it- they are refusing
to provide treatment.
Today, we are going back to court to demand justice for our brother. Mumia's
legal team (Bret Grote of Abolitionist Law Center and Robert Boyle of
New York) is filing an amended lawsuit today, 'Abu-Jamal v. Kerestes',
to include medical neglect and demand immediate treatment.
Meanwhile,
Prison Radio is working tirelessly to make sure Mumia's legal and
medical team have the necessary resources to get Mumia the critical care
he needs.
And we can't do it without you.
We need your help today to ensure that the prison treats Mumia's Hepatitis C now!
The
world came together for Mumia when he fell unconscious five months ago.
Because of our international outcry for justice and the critical steps
we took, Mumia is alive today.
Now, we need your help to get
Mumia a treatment plan. Can you fight for Mumia's right to medical care
by giving $100, $25 or $250 today? Your donation will: File an amended lawsuit 'Abu-Jamal v. Kerestes' to include medical neglect Get Mumia a full Hepatitis C work up and treatment plan Grant Mumia's consulting physicians access to directly examine Mumia Fuel a public campaign to bring Mumia back to health Support the demand for treatment of Hepatitis C for all Pennsylvania prisoners Please join us in demanding immediate medical treatment by giving $25, $100 or even $1,000 now. Every gift and action matters.
bit.ly/fight4mumia I Demand Treatment NOW! Luchando por la justicia y la libertad, Noelle Hanrahan Director, Prison Radio To give by check: PO Box 411074 San Francisco, CA 94141 Stock or legacy gifts: Noelle Hanrahan (415) 706 - 5222
Prison
Radio has recorded Mumia and other political prisoners for over 25
years, and we are pulling out all the stops to keep these voices on the
air.
Please donate today to amplify prisoners' voices far and wide beyond the bars:
Support Prison Radio: prisonradio.org/donate
Defeat SB 508: bit.ly/defendfreespeech
The Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Mobilizes Support Internationally:
No Execution by Medical Neglect!
International Unions Demand Decent Medical Treatment for Mumia Abu-Jamal
June 2, 2015
Mumia
Abu-Jamal was recently sent back to prison after having been
hospitalized for the second time. There are some reports that his health
is improving. He said to Suzanne Ross of the International Concerned
Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal that "if there had not been an
international outcry about the lack of appropriate treatment, in fact
AGAINST the 'treatment' that was bringing him so close to death, he was
sure he would not be alive today".
In some good news, he was also told by the prison doctor that his biopsy results came back negative.
However,
neither Mumia nor his wife, lawyers or consulting doctors have been
seen the actual medical reports detailing his condition. The Department
of Corrections refuses to hand over his medical records, claiming that
they don't have to hand them over because there is litigation to have
them released! Denying Mumia and his family his medical records is an
outrage!
We would like to inform you about some recent actions taken by unions around the world on behalf of Mumia.
- Unite,
the largest union in the UK, representing over 1.4 million members,
wrote letters to Governor Tom Wolf, Department of Corrections Secretary
John Wetzel and Legal Counsel Theron Perez protesting Mumia's treatment.
- The International Dockworkers Council,
representing 90,000 dockworkers from affiliated unions around the
world, wrote an appeal to the labor movement calling for action on
behalf of Mumia.
- The Inlandboatmen's Union of the Pacificsent a protest letter to Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel.
We
hope that you will continue to take action on behalf of Mumia. Please
call and email Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel and
demand the following:
1) Mumia Abu-Jamal is an innocent man! He should be freed immediatel
2) Confirm what Mumia's medical condition is. Release his medical records to his family and lawyers!
3)
Allow Mumia to be given medical treatment from a doctor of his choice.
His doctor should be allowed to conduct an on-site medical examination,
to communicate by phone with Mumia, and to communicate freely with
prison medical staff.
4) Allow Mumia daily visits from his family, friends and lawyers!
5) Conduct an independent investigation of healthcare treatment inside the Pennsylvania prison system!DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS, SECRETARY JOHN WETZEL 717 728 4109
We
are also attaching a sample union resolution for you to use as a
template. Please consider submitting it to your union and asking them to
take action on behalf of Mumia. We would also be happy to work with you
and make a presentation to your union or community group about his
condition.
Campaign to Free Lorenzo Johnson
Updates from the New "Team Free Lorenzo Johnson":
Thank
you all for your relentless effort in the fight against wrongful
convictions and your determination to stand behind Lorenzo.
To
garner even more support for Lorenzo Johnson, we have been hard at work
updating the website and developing an even more formidable and
dedicated team. Please take a moment to visit the new site here.
During
the month of July, Lorenzo wrote two new articles for The Huffington
Post titled "When Prosecutors Deny Justice for the Innocent," and "Hurry
Up and Wait for Justice: The Struggle of Innocent Prisoners." In these
articles, Lorenzo discusses the flaws in the criminal justice system,
which he deems is a "serious problem in this country."
Lastly, Lorenzo has a message to you all.
A Letter from Lorenzo:
July 23, 2015
Dauphin County Prison
Harrisburg, PA
Dear Supporters,
I
hope all is well with everyone and your families. As for myself, I'm
still on my journey in pursuit of my vindication. Sorry for my website
being shut down for a couple of weeks. It was being transferred to a new
provider and management. I'm back and will do my best to keep
everything up to speed with what's taking place.
I
would like to thank ALL of my loyal supporters in the U.S. and in the
MANY different counties that have signed on to support my innocence.
Thanks for all of the letters, emails, photos, etc. Like I always say, I
get energy to carry on and inspiration hearing form you, please stay
engaged in my struggle.
As of this moment, nothing has
changed, but – the continued delay tactics are constantly being used by
my prosecutor, Deputy Attorney General William Stoycos. With the
mounting of evidence that supports my innocence and police and
prosecution misconduct claims that is steadily piling up, you would
think that I would be having a couple of evidentiary hearings on my
actual innocence appeal that have been pending since August 5, 2013.
At
the time of this writing, I've been moved from SCI-Mahanoy to Dauphin
County Prison and locked down for 23 hours and 40 minutes a day. In the
20 minutes I get to come out, I get to take a shower and make a short
call. Prosecutor Stoycos had me moved so I can be a witness in his
attempt to have my codefendant Corey Walker's attorney removed from
representing him. How dare he call into question an attorney who is
seeking justice for her client, when prosecutor Stoycos himself violated
multiple constitutional rights of mine and Mr. Walker, that led to us
being in prison for 20 years and counting.
Prosecutor
Stoycos is continuously abusing his power and his endless resources he
has at his disposal. He is not tough on crime, he's tough on Innocent
Prisoners. Prosecutor Stoycos is doing everything in his power to
prevent justice from taking place. I encourage everyone to continue to
speak out against my nightmare, invite others to get involved by going
to my website and signing my Freedom Petition and whatever else they're
willing to do.
On a positive note, I just enrolled in
warehouse management trade and started on July 13th. Unfortunately,
you're only allowed to miss a couple of days and Prosecutor Stoycos had
me temporarily transferred on July 14th … It's extremely hard on Lifers
to get into these trades due to the fact that Lifers are placed at the
back of the list of ALL vocational classes. I try to further my
education every chance I get, so when I do come home, I will be
certified in different work.
The month of the hearing
has come and left, without me being brought to the courthouse … I'm one
of MANY innocent prisoners who endures this non-stop madness in our
pursuit of Justice and Freedom. Now that my webpage is almost caught up
to speed, I promise prompt updates and as everyone knows that contacted
me directly, I personally reply to those in the states and out of the
country. For those who can make a financial contribution, everything
counts. Take care and let's continue to fight until we achieve Freedom,
Justice, and Equality for all innocent prisoners.
"The Pain Within"
Free the Innocent
Lorenzo "Cat" Johnson
[Note: Lorenzo has since been transferred back to SCI Mahanoy and can be reached at his usual address.]
Thank
you all for reading this message and please take the time to visit the
new website and contribute to Lorenzo's campaign for freedom!
Write: Lorenzo Johnson
DF 1036
SCI Mahanoy
301 Morea Rd.
Frackville, PA 17932
Email: Through JPay using the code:
Lorenzo Johnson DF 1036 PA DOC
or
Directly at LorenzoJohnson17932@gmail.com
Have a wonderful day!
- The Team to Free Lorenzo Johnson
freelorenzojohnson.org
*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* Join the Fight to Free Rev. Pinkney!
On
December 15, 2014 the Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan
was thrown into prison for 2.5 to 10 years. This 66-year-old leading
African American activist was tried and convicted in front of an
all-white jury and racist white judge and prosecutor for supposedly
altering 5 dates on a recall petition against the mayor of Benton
Harbor.
The prosecutor, with the judge's approval,
repeatedly told the jury "you don't need evidence to convict Mr.
Pinkney." And ABSOLUTELY NO EVIDENCE WAS EVER PRESENTED THAT TIED REV.
PINKNEY TO THE 'ALTERED' PETITIONS. Rev. Pinkney was immediately led
away in handcuffs and thrown into Jackson Prison.
This is an outrageous charge. It is an outrageous conviction. It is an even more outrageous sentence! It must be appealed.
With your help supporters need to raise $20,000 for Rev. Pinkney's appeal.
Checks
can be made out to BANCO (Black Autonomy Network Community
Organization). This is the organization founded by Rev. Pinkney. Mail
them to: Mrs. Dorothy Pinkney, 1940 Union Street, Benton Harbor, MI
49022.
Donations can be accepted on-line at bhbanco.org – press the donate button.
For information on the decade long campaign to destroy Rev. Pinkney go to bhbanco.org and workers.org(search "Pinkney").
We urge your support to the efforts to Free Rev. Pinkney!Ramsey Clark – Former U.S. attorney general,
Cynthia McKinney – Former member of U.S. Congress,
Lynne Stewart – Former political prisoner and human rights attorney
Ralph Poynter – New Abolitionist Movement,
Abayomi Azikiwe – Editor, Pan-African News Wire<
Larry Holmes – Peoples Power Assembly,
David Sole – Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice
Sara Flounders – International Action Center
MESSAGE FROM REV. PINKNEY
I
am now in Marquette prison over 15 hours from wife and family, sitting
in prison for a crime that was never committed. Judge Schrock and Mike
Sepic both admitted there was no evidence against me but now I sit in
prison facing 30 months. Schrock actually stated that he wanted to make
an example out of me. (to scare Benton Harbor residents even more...)
ONLY IN AMERICA. I now have an army to help fight Berrien County. When I
arrived at Jackson state prison on Dec. 15, I met several hundred
people from Detroit, Flint, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids. Some people
recognized me. There was an outstanding amount of support given by the
prison inmates. When I was transported to Marquette Prison it took 2
days. The prisoners knew who I was. One of the guards looked me up on
the internet and said, "who would believe Berrien County is this
racist."
Background to Campaign to free Rev. Pinkney
Michigan
political prisoner the Rev. Edward Pinkney is a victim of racist
injustice. He was sentenced to 30 months to 10 years for supposedly
changing the dates on 5 signatures on a petition to recall Benton Harbor
Mayor James Hightower.
No material or circumstantial
evidence was presented at the trial that would implicate Pinkney in the
purported5 felonies. Many believe that Pinkney, a Berrien County
activist and leader of the Black Autonomy Network Community Organization
(BANCO), is being punished by local authorities for opposing the
corporate plans of Whirlpool Corp, headquartered in Benton Harbor,
Michigan.
In 2012, Pinkney and BANCO led an "Occupy the
PGA [Professional Golfers' Association of America]" demonstration
against a world-renowned golf tournament held at the newly created Jack
Nicklaus Signature Golf Course on the shoreline of Lake Michigan. The
course was carved out of Jean Klock Park, which had been donated to the
city of Benton Harbor decades ago.
Berrien County
officials were determined to defeat the recall campaign against Mayor
Hightower, who opposed a program that would have taxed local
corporations in order to create jobs and improve conditions in Benton
Harbor, a majority African-American municipality. Like other Michigan
cities, it has been devastated by widespread poverty and unemployment.
The
Benton Harbor corporate power structure has used similar fraudulent
charges to stop past efforts to recall or vote out of office the racist
white officials, from mayor, judges, prosecutors in a majority Black
city. Rev Pinkney who always quotes scripture, as many Christian
ministers do, was even convicted for quoting scripture in a newspaper
column. This outrageous conviction was overturned on appeal. We must do
this again!
To sign the petition in support of the Rev. Edward Pinkney, log on to: tinyurl.com/ps4lwyn.
Contributions for Rev. Pinkney's defense can be sent to BANCO at Mrs Dorothy Pinkney, 1940 Union St., Benton Harbor, MI 49022
New Action--write letters to DoD officials requesting clemency for Chelsea!
Secretary of the Army John McHugh
President Obama has delegated review of Chelsea Manning's clemency appeal to individuals within the Department of Defense.
Please
write them to express your support for heroic WikiLeaks' whistle-blower
former US Army intelligence analyst PFC Chelsea Manning's release from
military prison.
It is important that each of these
authorities realize the wide support that Chelsea (formerly Bradley)
Manning enjoys worldwide. They need to be reminded that millions
understand that Manning is a political prisoner, imprisoned for
following her conscience. While it is highly unlikely that any of these
individuals would independently move to release Manning, a reduction in
Manning's outrageous 35-year prison sentence is a possibility at this
stage.
Take action TODAY – Write letters supporting Chelsea's clemency petition to the following DoD authorities:
Secretary of the Army John McHugh
101 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20310-0101
The Judge Advocate General
2200 Army Pentagon
Washington, DC 20310-2200
Army Clemency and Parole Board
251 18th St, Suite 385
Arlington, VA 22202-3532
Directorate of Inmate Administration
Attn: Boards Branch
U.S. Disciplinary Barracks
1301 N. Warehouse Road
Fort Leavenworth, KS 66027-2304
Suggestions for letters send to DoD officials:
The
letter should focus on your support for Chelsea Manning, and especially
why you believe justice will be served if Chelsea Manning's sentence is
reduced. The letter should NOT be anti-military as this will be
unlikely to help.
A suggested message: "Chelsea Manning
has been punished enough for violating military regulations in the
course of being true to her conscience. I urge you to use your
authorityto reduce Pvt. Manning's sentence to time served." Beyond that
general message, feel free to personalize the details as to why you
believe Chelsea deserves clemency.
Consider composing
your letter on personalized letterhead -you can create this yourself
(here are templates and some tips for doing that).
A comment on this post will NOT be seen by DoD authorities–please send your letters to the addresses above
This
clemency petition is separate from Chelsea Manning's upcoming appeal
before the US Army Court of Criminal Appeals next year, where Manning's
new attorney Nancy Hollander will have an opportunity to highlight the
prosecution's—and the trial judge's—misconduct during last year's trial
at Ft. Meade, Maryland.
Help us continue to cover 100% of Chelsea's legal fees at this critical stage!
Courage to Resist
484 Lake Park Ave. #41
Oakland, CA 94610
510-488-3559
couragetoresist.org
1) Britain ‘Wouldn’t Hesitate’ to Carry Out More Drone Strikes in Syria, Minister Says
"Undeterred by criticism of a lethal drone strike against terrorism suspects in Syria,
the British defense secretary said on Tuesday that his country would
not hesitate to carry out similar raids against militants suspected of
plotting attacks against Britain
and its allies. ...Mr. Cameron said that Britain had conducted an armed
drone strike inside
Syria for the first time on Aug. 21, killing three people suspected of
being Islamic State members, including two British citizens. ...Asked
whether Britain had identified more than two or three people
suspected of being terrorists, Mr. Fallon replied “yes,” but he declined
to say whether there was a British “kill list” of drone targets."
ATHENS — Since the beginning of Greece’s financial crisis
in 2010, two prime ministers have been swept from office after they
were forced to adopt an unfeasible package of austerity measures in
exchange for a bailout from the troika, as the eurozone authorities —
the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International
Monetary Fund — are known. It pains me to watch the same fate befall a third prime minister, my friend and comrade Alexis Tsipras.
In July, when Mr. Tspiras was forced
to capitulate to the troika’s latest “program,” it spelled the end of
our government. It also caused a split in our party, Syriza, between
those who reluctantly agreed to implement the program and the rest of us
(approximately 40 Syriza members of Parliament, out of a total of 149) who did not. The general election set for Sept. 20 is a result of this crisis.
For my part, having resigned
as finance minister over the troika’s ruthless, humiliating imposition,
I plan to sit this one out. I will not contest my parliamentary seat in
a sad election that will not produce a Parliament capable of endorsing a
realistic reform agenda for Greece.
Nor can I support the
adoption of a troika program that everyone knows is destined to fail.
There was a clear consensus, shared not only by myself and Mr. Tsipras,
but also by Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, and officials
at the International Monetary Fund, that the new bailout deal was not
viable.
I will not, however, join those who think that exiting
the eurozone, to bring about a major devaluation with a reintroduced
drachma, is in itself a program for Greece’s recovery.
The cause
of this continuing trouble for Greece lies in the eurozone’s existential
crisis. The pioneers of the single currency, of whom Mr. Schäuble is
the last active member, were undecided whether the euro should be
modeled on the international gold standard of the interwar period or on a
sovereign currency, like the dollar.
The gold standard relied on
strict rules that were unenforceable during a crisis. In a severe
downturn, these imposed the greatest burden on the worst-hit economies
and thus made exit the only alternative to a humanitarian crisis. This
is the reason that President Franklin D. Roosevelt took the United
States off the gold standard in 1933, expanded the money supply and
helped pull America out of the Depression.
A sovereign currency,
or state money, demands a different, more flexible set of responses
based on political union, as the French government and others have
recently proposed.
The great questions that Europe must answer are: What kind of political
union do we want? And are we prepared to act quickly enough to prevent
the fragmentation of the eurozone?
Europe’s indecision is a result of a deep rift between Berlin and Paris. Berlin has traditionally backed a rules-based eurozone
in which every member state is responsible for its own finances,
including bank bailouts, with political union limited to a fiscal
overlord’s possessing veto power over national budgets that violate the
rules. Paris and Rome, cognizant that their deficit position would
condemn them to a slow-burning recession under such a rules-based
political union, see things differently.
It was in the context of
this standoff that Mr. Schäuble felt that accepting an alternative plan
for Greece’s recovery, in place of the troika’s program, would weaken
Germany’s hand vis-Ã -vis the French. Thus little Greece was crushed
while the elephants tussled.
We had such a plan.
In March, I undertook the task of compiling an alternative program for
Greece’s recovery, with advice from the economist Jeffrey Sachs and
input from a host of experts, including the former American Treasury
Secretary Larry Summers, and the former British chancellor of the
Exchequer Norman Lamont.
Our proposals began with a strategy for
debt swaps to reduce the public debt’s burden on state finances. This
measure would allow for sustainable budget surpluses (net of debt and
interest repayments) from 2018 onward. We set a target for those
surpluses of no more than 2 percent of national income (the troika
program’s target is 3.5 percent). With less pressure on the government
to depress demand in the economy by cutting public spending, the Greek
economy would attract investors of productive capital.As well as making
this possible, the debt swaps would also render Greek sovereign debt
eligible for the European Central Bank’s quantitative easing
program. This in turn would speed up Greece’s return to the money
markets, reducing its reliance on loans from European institutions.
To generate homegrown investment, we proposed a development bank
to take over public assets from the state, collateralize them and so
create an income stream for reinvestment. We also planned to set up a
“bad bank” that would use financial engineering techniques to clear the
Greek commercial banks’ mountain of nonperforming loans. A series of
other reforms, including a new, independent I.R.S.-like tax authority,
rounded out our proposals.
The document was ready on May 11.
Although I presented it to key European finance ministers, including Mr.
Schäuble, as the Greek Finance Ministry’s official plan, it never
received the endorsement of our own prime minister. The reason? Because
the troika made it abundantly clear to Mr. Tsipras that any such
document would be seen as a hostile attempt to backtrack from the
conditions of the troika’s existing program. That program, of course,
had made no provision for debt restructuring and therefore demanded
cripplingly high budget surpluses.
The fact that few people ever
got to hear about the Greek plan is a testament to the eurozone’s deep
failures of governance. If the “Athens Spring” — when the Greek people
courageously rejected the catastrophic austerity conditions of the
previous bailouts — has one lesson to teach, it is that Greece will
recover only when the European Union makes the transition from “We the
states” to “We the European people.”
Across the Continent, people
are fed up with a monetary union that is inefficient because it is so
profoundly undemocratic. This is why the battle for rescuing Greece has
now turned into a battle for Europe’s integrity, soul, rationality and
democracy. I plan to concentrate on helping set up a Pan-European
political movement, inspired by the Athens Spring, that will work toward
Europe’s democratization.
Naturally, this will take years to
bear fruit — years that Greece cannot afford. In the meantime, I shall
continue to promote our plan for Greece’s recovery as a true, viable
alternative to the troika’s impossible program.
Yanis
Varoufakis, a former finance minister of Greece, is an outgoing member
of Parliament for Syriza and a professor of economics at the University
of Athens.
4) Students in South Africa Protest Slow Pace of Change
"Black South Africans make up less than a quarter of the university’s student body, and they account for just 5 percent of members of the faculty."
6) How an Area’s Union Membership Can Predict Children’s Advancement
Photo
A minimum wage protest at Columbus Circle in New York City in April.Credit
Earl Wilson/The New York Times
It is well established that unions provide benefits to workers — that they raise wages for their members (and even for nonmembers). They can help reduce inequality.
A new study suggests that unions may also help children move up the economic ladder.
Researchers at Harvard, Wellesley and the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, released a paper
Wednesday showing that children born to low-income families typically
ascend to higher incomes in metropolitan areas where union membership is
higher.The size of the effect is small, but there aren’t many other
factors that are as strongly correlated with mobility. Raj Chetty of
Stanford and Nathaniel Hendren of Harvard, who pioneered this method of examining economic mobility,
established five factors that are strongly correlated with a low-income
child’s likelihood of making it into the middle class: the rate of
single motherhood in an area, the degree of inequality, the high school
dropout rate, the degree of residential segregation, and the amount of
social capital, as measured by indicators like voter turnout and
participation in community organizations.
Single motherhood is
the most strongly correlated factor with mobility. The latest study,
which relied on the Chetty/Hendren data, says union membership is
roughly as strongly correlated with mobility as the other four factors.
“It’s
a striking relationship,” said Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury
secretary and Obama economic adviser, who is participating in a
discussion with some of the study’s authors on Wednesday. “It’s further
grounds for concern about the decline of unionism in the United States.”
The
authors posit a variety of reasons for why higher rates of unionization
tend to coincide with greater mobility, beyond the effect on parents’
wages, which would seem to be the most obvious way unionization could
matter.
Their most interesting explanation is that unions are
effective at pushing the political system to deliver policies — like a
higher minimum wage and greater spending on schools and other government
programs — that broadly benefit workers. Perhaps not surprisingly,
three cities that appear to reflect the union effect — San Francisco,
Seattle and New York — are all jurisdictions where the minimum wage is
rising substantially (though for New York it is only for workers in
fast-food chains.).
The researchers looked at the expected income
of people ages 29 to 32 whose parents were at the 25th percentile of
income nationally when they were teenagers. They found that a
10-percentage-point increase in the rate of unionization in an area
coincided with a rise of an additional 1.3 points on the income
distribution as the average child becomes an adult.
Let’s take
the example of the average metro area where about 16 percent of workers
were unionized, and children whose parents were in the 25th percentile
of income earners nationally ended up at the 40.7 percentile on average
as adults. A simple application of the author’s finding implies that, in
a metro area where 26 percent of workers were unionized, the average
child from the same place in the income ladder would end up in the 42nd
percentile.
The correlation remains statistically significant
even when the researchers controlled for a variety of other social and
economic variables, like the child poverty rate and median house value.
“I
would have thought we could have found things that might have killed
off the effects,” said Richard B. Freeman, a labor economist at Harvard
who was one of the study’s authors. “And we basically didn’t.”
Moreover,
the benefits aren’t exclusive to low-income children. The researchers
also find that a 10-percentage- point increase in the rate of union
membership is associated with a 3 percent to 4.5 percent increase in the
incomes of all children — regardless of their parents’ income. (The
differences in the 3 percent and 4.5 percent arise from the number of
demographic variables the researchers control for.)
Because there
is more upward mobility in areas with greater unionization generally,
the researchers concluded that the result was not because the children
of union members seized opportunities from other children.
It’s
important to emphasize that the study does not establish causality — the
authors can’t prove that unions are driving the improvement in
mobility. For that matter, they don’t attempt to. The finding
establishes only that, in their words, “mobility thrives in areas where
unions thrive.”
As Scott Winship, a fellow at the conservative
Manhattan Institute points out, this is not a minor limitation. It’s
entirely possible that unobserved features of a given metro area cause
both the increase in unionization and the increase in mobility.
Mr.
Winship notes, for example, that both unionization and mobility tend to
be relatively low in Southern cities like Atlanta and Charlotte. “There
may be a regional difference” that explains both, he said.
To
help pin down causality, he said, it would be helpful to look at
variations across geographically similar areas, like cities that have
different rates of unionization and variations in mobility on either
side of a state border.
Still, the result is especially telling
given a common critique of unions — that they may raise wages for
workers in an area, but they lower employment by making marginal workers
unaffordable. Even if that’s the case, the current study suggests that
the benefits of greater unionization are outweighing the costs: Children
are doing better on average when unionization for their parents’
generation is higher, even if the higher rates of unionization could
theoretically lower employment.
If unions were doing more harm
than good, we wouldn’t expect to see mobility rise as the rate of
unionization does. (For what it’s worth, Mr. Freeman notes, most studies
find that unions have little negative effect on employment.)
An
intriguing question is whether there might be something unique about
the way unions affect mobility, independent of their effect on
inequality or dropout rates. Is it possible that there’s a union special
sauce? The authors don’t grapple with this question directly, but
buried deep in the study is a potential clue.
It comes when the
authors use a second, more detailed data set to analyze whether parents’
union membership tends to increase the wages of their children. (The
second data set pairs specific individuals with their parents, rather
than relying on metro-area averages, and controls for a variety of
demographic characteristics that might also affect wages — like race,
ethnicity, marital status and education — so they can isolate the effect
of union membership.)
The authors find that children with
fathers who belong to a union have significantly higher wages than
children who don’t. But when it’s the mother who belongs to a union,
only the wages of daughters rise.
What might be going on here?
It’s possible that the explanation is sociological: Daughters with a
mother who belongs to a union may be more likely to work themselves,
which means they’re more likely to have higher wages. Or, put
differently, union membership is helping to change social norms.
“I
like to think it’s the role model effect,” said Brendan V. Duke,
another one of the study’s authors at the Center for American Progress,
who concedes that the explanation is speculative. (Eunice Han of
Wellesley and David Madland of the Center for American Progress were the
other authors.)
And that, in turn, suggests something
potentially important, though equally speculative, about the effects of
unions more broadly: Higher rates of unionization may give rise to
certain norms that instill a greater sense of agency in workers.
For
example, people who belong to unions are generally aware that they have
certain rights in the workplace and are encouraged to speak up if they
believe they’ve been mistreated. It’s the kind of norm that could leach
out into a broader population — to both union members and their nonunion
peers — if unions are sufficiently visible and active, which could in
turn help boost economic mobility.
Mr. Freeman believes there may
be something to this, but notes that the study did not explicitly
pursue this line of inquiry. “I’m thinking of which student might we get
to do an undergraduate thesis on this,” he said.
Whatever the
possible mechanism, the study highlights the potential of policies and
institutions that are important both to the individuals directly
affected by them and to those affected only indirectly. Union membership
can lead to a virtuous cycle, Mr. Summers asserts, improving outcomes
for union members who then positively affect their peers, who then
positively affect the union members, who then positively affect their
peers, and on and on.
“When you work all that out, things that
have a small effect at the individual level can have a larger aggregate
effect,” he said. “Freeman et al have demonstrated that one of those
things is the incidence of unionism.”
Alan Pean is a 26-year-old biology student with no criminal
record or history of violence. But on August 27th, he was shot in the
chest by an off-duty Houston police officer working as a security guard
at the St. Joseph Medical Center. The police are claiming that Alan
became combative and that they followed standard operating procedure.
It’s Alan, they say, who is as fault, and they have charged with two
counts of aggravated assault against a public servant. He was arraigned
today.
According to the Houston Police Department’s statement,
Officers
Ortega and Law were working extra jobs as security at St. Joseph
Medical Center at the above address when they were summoned to the
eighth floor to help nurses subdue a combative patient. Once the
officers arrived, the patient continued to refuse to comply with the
nurses and officers’ demands. The patient suddenly physically assaulted
Officer Ortega, striking him in the head, causing a laceration. At
that time, Officer Law deployed his conducted energy device, which had
no apparent effect on the suspect who continued to assault the officers.
Officer Ortega, fearing for his and his partner’s safety, then
discharged his duty weapon, striking the suspect one time.
But
the family and medical professionals are disturbed by the handling of
Alan’s case and what looks like a failure on many levels. Alan had
driven himself to the hospital the night of August 26, during an acute
mental health crisis. When he got there, he crashed his car and was
treated for those injuries. But the mental health issues, which were
what brought Alan to the hospital in the first place, were ignored,
according to the Pean family. Alan’s father, himself a physician, begged
the hospital to get his son a psychiatric evaluation given that Alan
had suffered a similar episode in 2009. But the hospital decided he was
ready to be discharged, clearing him a mere minutes before the shooting.
How did he go from being cleared to leave to so combative that only a
bullet could protect two officers?
Medical neglect
followed by the use of excessive force led to what could have very
easily been a fatal shooting. Health care professionals have started a petition
condemning the presence of guns in hospitals and the criminalization of
patients and mental health patients in particular. It reads
Personally,
we stand in outrage for every time he is referred to as “combative”
without sub-clause or context, we stand in outrage for every time he is
called a “suspect” instead of a patient, we stand in outrage for every
time he, one empty-handed, help-seeking man, is painted as a threat to
two officers, able bodied and armed, in a hospital. Professionally, we have been trained in truth seeking and healing. As
doctors and medical students, as nurses and care partners, we are
trained in how to safely restrain and tranquilize patients, no matter
how aggressive, or irritable, or anxious, or threatening they may be.
Never is it appropriate or warranted for a patient to be tazed, never
is it appropriate for a patient to be struck, never, never, never is it
appropriate for a patient seeking care, to have their life threatened in
our arms. Personally and professionally, we are shaken
by the reality of this epidemic of police brutality, in which no one– no
son of a doctor, no college student, no tender-hearted soul of color
remains immune. We stand with shaken hearts and rooted conviction, to
speak our collective outrage for Alan Christopher Pean, our gentle
friend, a 26 year old who was inexcusably shot in the chest by a police
officer, while seeking care as a patient.”
Alan’s
family is focusing on making sure this never happens again. Alan’s
attitude is particularly inspiring and generous. He wrote on his
Facebook page,
The anguish caused by trying to
understand why (according to the hospital) this had to happen to me has
only started. Is it because I look a bit different that I had to be shot
without a second thought about my life or my personhood?
I try not to think that’s the case, but I seem to find myself at that
conclusion as I delve deeper into my case, as well as those similar to
mine. I pray with all my heart that people change, and I have faith that
we can for the better. I love myself, and I love humanity, but I don’t
believe that humanity or American society willfully wants things to be
this way… So I will fight
until I know every person seeking medical help will have his or her
right to pursue a better life protected. Keep guns out of places of
healing. Help stop this madness, and let’s make our society a better
place. Where love and understanding falters, confusion and hate breeds.
Alan’s
older brother, Christian, a 27-year old in his last year of year
medical student at New York’s Mt Sinai School of Medicine, is concerned
about Alan’s suffering and at the same time determined to protect others
from a similar neglect and abuse. I spoke to him today after his
brother was arraigned and he said,
This entire ordeal
has been an absolute nightmare for Alan and our family. We’re trying to
trust the system and hope that truth prevails, though the reality is
that the system has failed us miserably at every conceivable juncture in
this matter thus far. Our main focus is just making sure Alan doesn’t
go to prison right now. From my perspective and my father’s perspective
as healthcare professionals, the entire thing still has us completely
beside ourselves.
However,
at this time, all we can do is hope that Alan’s supporters continue to
send love and compassion his way, and that we have more answers to how
this could have happened, and how it can be considered appropriate in
anyone’s eyes. We are of the belief that this should never happen to
anyone again.
Wednesday, October 7, 7pm
Urge
Gov. Jerry Brown to commute Kevin Cooper's death sentence. Cooper has
always maintained his innocence of the 1983 quadruple murder of which he
was convicted. In 2009, five federal judges signed a dissenting opinion
warning that the State of California "may be about to execute an
innocent man." Having exhausted his appeals in the US courts, Kevin
Cooper's lawyers have turned to the Inter American Commission on Human
Rights to seek remedy for what they maintain is his wrongful conviction,
and the inadequate trial representation, prosecutorial misconduct and
racial discrimination which have marked the case. Amnesty International
opposes all executions, unconditionally.
On
June 8, 2015 a federal judge granted Louisiana prisoner Albert Woodfox
unconditional release. Albert's conviction had already been overturned
three times - most recently in 2013 - yet every time the state has
appealed.
Mayor Stephanie C. Rawlings-Blake
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