International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity
AN EVENING OF SOLIDARITY WITH THE CUBAN PEOPLE
Featuring Kenia Serrano Puig, President of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP)
Friday November 13, 7:30pm
East Bay Center for the Performing Arts
339 11th Street, Richmond CA 94801-3105
Doors Open 6:30pm
$10-20 Donation at the Door
(nobody turned away for lack of funds)
Students and children free admission
This
will be a unique opportunity to hear from the Cuban perspective about
the new stage of U.S.-Cuba relations and the role that the U.S. Cuba
solidarity movement can play in ending the U.S. blockade.
PROGRAM:
Keynote Speaker, Kenia Serrano Puig, President of ICAP
Welcome by Gayle McLaughlin, Richmond City Council Member
Dr. Laura Gomez, recently graduated from the Latin America School of Medicine (ELAM)
Leima Martinez, ICAP North America Division
Walter Turner, KPFA Host of Africa Today
Musical performance by a local group
ICAP
is a social organization founded on December 30, 1960 for the purpose
of promoting and explaining to the peoples of the world the relations of
solidarity that sparked the Cuban Revolution. ICAP is the vehicle to
reach around the globe to people who are in solidarity with Cuba. ICAP
is that interface that strengthens the network of solidarity, while
representing the Cuban people, and delivering a strong message that
solidarity not only benefits Cuba but the peoples of the world who are
aspiring to promote the idea that a better world is possible for all.
Initiated by the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity
Co-sponsors: Global Exchange, Richmond-Regla Sister City Association, Berkeley-Palma Soriano Sister City Association.
On November 15 and 16 the
heads of governments of the G20 — the world’s 20 largest economies —
along with the heads of their central banks, as well as the top bankers
of the world, will be holding their annual summit meeting, which is
taking place this year in Turkey.
Please support this call to make November 15, the first day of the G20 Summit – A SAY NO TO CAPITALISM AND RACISM DAY. Endorse this call and help to build the protest in NYC (and elsewhere)
The
next G20 summit will be the most important G20 meeting since the global
financial crash of 2008. The current volatility in global financial
markets is a sign that the world capitalist system is entering a new,
more intractable and more violent crisis.
No
matter what the official G20 meeting agenda says, the question on the
next G20 summit’s agenda (which in reality is dominated by the
super-rich of the U.S. and the West) will be: What must be done to
rescue world capitalism and the 1% that profit from its perpetuation?
Ultimately,
this means that the people of the world will be subjected to more
unbearable inequality, poverty, hunger, homelessness, gentrification,
neo-liberalism, austerity, more joblessness, more low wages, more war
and occupation and the even greater prospect of a planet that is rapidly
exhausting its capacity to sustain life.
JUST
AS OMINOUS AND DANGEROUS, the deepening world economic and political
crisis will create an even greater opportunity for the manifestation of
racism and fascism.
The
police war against Black people in the United States that has given
rise to the powerful Black Lives Matter movement, as well as the war
against Arab, African, Asian, Muslim, Indigenous and Latino/a migrants
from the borders of Europe to the U.S.-Mexican border are examples of
the intersection between capitalism and racism.
The
time has come for progressive forces across the world to stand up and
say that capitalism can’t be reformed and should not be saved.
We
will no longer tolerate the system killing, oppressing, marginalizing,
or scapegoating people of Color, migrants, poor people, women, lesbian,
gay, bi, trans and queer people, people with disabilities, young people
and all working people.
10:30 am - Gather at Lake Merritt Amphitheatre
12:00 noon - March
1:00 pm - Rally at Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant Plaza in Oakland, CA
Edit This event is part of the Global Climate March.
On November 30th, world leaders meet in Paris to start negotiating the
next global climate deal. That’s why, the day before, people around the
world will take to the streets and push leaders at every level of
government to commit to 100% clean energy. Together, we can push the
world towards a climate deal that gets us off dirty energy and unleashes
clean energy for all. Let's make history -- RSVP on the right for this Global Climate March event!
Sign the Petition: http://www.savekevincooper.org/pages/petition.php
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
For
Immediate Release – Thursday, October 29, 2015
Solitary Prisoners’ Lawyers Slam CDCR
for Sleep
Deprivation
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition
SAN FRANCISCO
– Yesterday, lawyers for prisoners in the class action case Ashker v.
Brown submitted a letter condemning Pelican Bay prison guards’ “wellness
checks,” which have widely been viewed as sleep deprivation. The letter
was submitted to United States Magistrate Judge Nandor Vadas, and calls
on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)
to put an end to the checks.
Last month, prisoners achieved a
historic victory in the settlement of Ashker v. Brown where the
indefinite long term solitary confinement was effectively ended in
California, with Magistrate Judge Vadas currently monitoring
implementation of the settlement terms.
The guards at Pelican bay
Security Housing Units have been conducting disruptive cell checks
every 30 minutes around the clock for three months, causing prisoners
widespread sleep disruption. The process is loud and according to
prisoners, “the method and noise from the checks is torture.”
Attorneys
representing Pelican Bay SHU prisoners have just completed extensive
interviews with prisoners who demand that “the every 30-minute checks
have to be stopped or people are going to get sick or worse.” In
addition, they report that regular prison programs have been negatively
impacted.
“To sleep is a fundamental human right,” said Anne
Weills, a member of the prisoners’ legal team and one of the attorneys
who conducted the interviews with prisoners in Pelican Bay. “To take
away such a basic human right amounts to severe torture, adding to the
already torturous conditions of being in solitary confinement.”
Most
prisoners report low energy, exhaustion and fatigue. Most state that
they have trouble concentrating. They try to read, but they nod off
and/or can’t remember what they have read. Their writing is much slower
(“I can’t think to write”), and describe the constant welfare checks as
having a negative impact on their mental state.
While this
recent attorney survey was specifically focusing on sleep deprivation
and its effects, prisoners volunteered information about the negative
impact of these frequent checks: yard policy and practice has reduced
access to recreation, access to showers has been reduced, programs and
meals are being delayed, and property for those newly transferred to
Pelican Bay is still being delayed and withheld.
Sleep
deprivation constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. Prisoners and
their attorneys are demanding that these checks be halted.
--
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
www.freedomarchives.org
Albert Woodfox, Angola Inmate, Can Be Tried 3rd Time, Court Rules
By ASHLEY SOUTHALL
Free Albert Woodfox!
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
Sometime
yesterday Major Tillery, a 65 year-old man, was rushed to the hospital
from SCI Frackville. Since hearing this yesterday evening through the
prison grapevine, family and attorney have tried to learn more.
Today,
the only thing we have been told by Superintendent Brenda Tritt is that
this was “a routine admission” and Major is “receiving the appropriate
medical attention.” Nothing more to to Major Tillery’s daughter, Kamilah
Iddeen--not the hospital, the reason for rushing Major to the hospital,
no agreement for family and legal visits.
Major Tillery has liver
disease and a liver shunt, arthritis with chronic back and hip pain,
and a festering skin rash and open sores. Major Tillery has filed
grievance after grievance objecting to the lack of medical treatment and
refusal to renew needed medical devices.
Major Tillery
has been imprisoned for 30 years, 25 in the hole and in the most severe
super max prisons in the country. For prison officials his crime is his
advocacy for other prisoners and leadership capabilities, including
challenging abusive prison conditions and inadequate medical treatment.
He has been subject to retaliation by prison authorities since he began
his successful legal effort to stop the overcrowding and curb the
inhumane conditions in SCI Pittsburgh over 25 years ago. See, Tillery v.
Owens (1990)
In early 2015, Major complained about the
spreading skin disease at SCI Mahanoy, where he was then imprisoned. He
stood up for Mumia Abu-Jamal and other prisoners who were suffering
from this. For his acts of solidarity, Major Tillery was transferred to
SCI Frackville and then put in the hole on falsified charges. After four
months with limited food rations, deprived of commissary, contact
visits and allowed less than one-hour a day of exercise, Major was
released into general population. This was two months less than his
prison sentence of six months in the hole – the prison’s response to an
international campaign for Major!
Now Major is in the
hospital. He is not being allowed contact with his family or attorney.
They are not being given any real information on his condition.
Call prison officials and demand:
Visits
with Major Tillery by his family and lawyer. Full medical information
and treatment should be provided to his family and lawyer.
Stop
the Retaliation Against Major Tillery. He should be exonerated for the
false charges of drug possession and this misconduct removed from his
record.
Transfer Major Tillery from SCI Frackville back to SCI
Mahanoy or to another facility in eastern Pennsylvania to remain near
his family.
Dept. Of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel (717) 728-4109
Superintendent Brenda Tritt, SCI Frackville (570) 874-4516
Write to
Major Tillery AM 9786
SCI Frackville
1111 Altamont Blvd.
Frackville, Pa. 17931
For More Information, Go To: Justice4MajorTillery/blogspot
Call/Write:
Kamilah Iddeen (Major Tillery’s daughter) (717) 379-9009, Kamilah29@yahoo.com
Nancy Lockhart (843) 412-2035, thewrongfulconviction@gmail.com
Rachel Wolkenstein, Esq. (917) 689-4009, RachelWolkenstein@gmail.com
Last
night Mumia got notice that the final appeal of his PA Department of
Corrections grievance was denied. Listen to his reaction here.
This denial comes on top of the magistrate Judge’s proposal to deny Mumia's right to treatment last week.
Remember--
one of the reasons the Judge gave was her claim that Mumia had not
"exhausted his administrative remedies" or received a final denial of
his request for care. Now he has received that denial.
We
know that withholding Mumia’s care is immoral and illegal. We are
confident that we will win this battle in court- but we can’t do it
alone.
We have 3 days left to raise $2,948 to support Mumia’s legal team in securing his right to hepatitis C treatment!
If
you have already joined us, we’re inviting you to ask one friend to
match your gift. We need about 50 more freedom fighters to join us to
reach our goal— and we want you to make that happen with us!
If you haven’t given yet- now is the time to make a contribution for Mumia. Will you join us?
Health care is a human right- for Mumia, and for all prisoners. Let's prove it. #freemumia #fight4mumia
Reply
directly to this email to respond to the campaign owner, Prison Radio .
Visit the campaign page to view all comments and updates for this
project.
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
The news out of Columbia, Mo., this weekend is disturbing yet also exhilarating.Dozens of black University of Missouri football players said Saturday
that they would boycott all football-related activities — including
games — until the university’s president, Timothy M. Wolfe, steps down
or is removed. At issue, the players and other student activists say,
are recent instances of racism directed at black students and a lack of
action from administrators that the students contend have combined to
create an intolerable atmosphere on campus.
The reports of racial
episodes are disturbing. But the players’ protest is exhilarating
because it is the most high-profile example to date in a continuing
revolution in which the athletes who drive the multibillion-dollar
college sports machine have begun to use their visibility to demand
change.What makes the Missouri team’s protest stand out even more is
that it is not about the business of sports: compensation, image rights,
labor issues or N.C.A.A. rules. It was initiated by black players
showing solidarity with fellow black students who felt their concerns
had not been adequately addressed by university administrators. It was
athletes lending their standing to a fight that, on its face, did not
involve them.Football teams have stood their ground before and paid the
consequences. Two seasons ago, Grambling football players forfeited a
game at Jackson State after they refused to travel in protest over poor
facilities, transportation problems and other things they considered
examples of mistreatment at their university.
Although Grambling,
a member of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, would never be
confused with a major conference athletic program like Missouri, the
Grambling players showed the power of athletes at any level to get an
administration’s attention. Missouri’s players, who competed in one of
the so-called Power 5 conferences, the Southeastern Conference, are
positioned to do even more.
Their white teammates, and their
coaches, completed the circle of support by joining the protest Sunday.
It’s unclear if other Missouri athletes, notably the basketball team,
scheduled to open its season Friday, will follow suit. But even if it
does not, it is important — essential, in fact — to point out that the
athletes on the football team, by lending their support to what might
have been an easily marginalized campus protest, are breaking out of a
cocoon that in the past has separated African-American athletes on
campus from their less visible peers.
At the top of the college
sports ladder, black athletes, especially those who work in the football
and basketball factories, are often seduced and coddled but also
isolated — intellectually if not physically — from “ordinary” black
students who lack visibility and voice.
The Missouri players have declared, “We are one,” and it is hard to overstate the significance of that.
The
athletes are displaying a newfound understanding of their power in a
system that relies on their gratitude and their unquestioning labor, but
they are also demonstrating their willingness to bring that leverage to
bear.
At the country’s most prominent football and basketball
programs, the ones that bring in a majority of the revenue in college
sports, the largest percentage of star athletes are African-American.
At Missouri, 60 of the 124 football players are black, The Columbia Missourian reported. About 7 percent of the student population of 35,000 is African-American.
In
the past, the ability of mostly white head coaches and administrators
to get their mostly black athletes to see themselves as separate from
the larger university community often kept wider issues that affect
black Americans from disrupting the system.
But from time to time, black athletes have broken out of the bubble to take social stands.
The image
of the sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos demonstrating on the
victory stand, fists raised high, at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico
City is an icon of athletic protest. As a student at U.C.L.A., Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar (then Lew Alcindor) joined black student protests on
campus.More recently, on the professional level, black players on the
St. Louis Rams and the Cleveland Browns showed solidarity with
protesters in their communities after separate shootings by the police,
and N.B.A. players lent their voices to the campaigns for the ouster of
Donald Sterling, the former Los Angeles Clippers owner, after he was
recorded making racist comments.
Derrick Rose was the first
N.B.A. player to wear an “I Can’t Breathe” shirt during warm-ups last
season, a reference to the words spoken by Eric Garner, who died after
police officers on Staten Island used a chokehold to subdue him. LeBron
James, Kyrie Irving and other players around the league followed suit.
During
a recent conversation, Abdul-Jabbar suggested that many contemporary
black athletes now recognized that they were protected from the vagaries
of racism that earlier generations had to face. That, he said, has
emboldened them to respond to incidents affecting the black public at
large.
“They had something to say about it because they were
parents of boys, and they realized that their sons can get killed just
like that in the same circumstances,” Abdul-Jabbar said.
There
are complicating issues at Missouri that will come into play. Are the
athletes violating their scholarships’ terms by refusing to practice and
play? And what discipline could await Coach Gary Pinkel, who wrote on Twitter in support of the players, effectively backing them in a stand against the university?
I
am not ready to say that this will catch on. With a 4-5 record and not
about to play in any of the most prominent bowls, Missouri’s football
team has little to lose this season.
But the players there have
made it clear that they believe this is a human rights issue, and that
they are in a position to affect the outcome. Therein lies their power.
Pre-election
polls in numerous countries this year have widely missed their marks,
often by underestimating support for candidates on the ideological
fringes. The polling failures in countries like Britain, Poland and
Israel point to technical issues that could well foreshadow polling
problems in the United States, many analysts believe.
“The
industry has a collective failure problem,” said John Curtice, the
president of the British Polling Council and a professor of politics at
the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. Partly this is the result of
changing methodologies. “It’s now a mix of random-digit dialing — that
is, telephone polls — and Internet-based polls based on recruited
panels,” he said. Both modes present potential problems.
Opinion
polls in advance of Britain’s general election in May severely
underestimated the number of seats that Prime Minister David Cameron’s
Conservative Party would win. After the election, the polling council
called for an independent inquiry into what had caused the error. The
council plans to release its findings in mid-January, a report that will
be closely read by pollsters in Britain and around the globe.
Days
after the British election, Polish voters elected Andrzej Duda of the
far-right Law and Justice Party as president; no major poll had given
him a lead. Poland’s Association of Market and Opinion Research
Organizations is investigating what led to the collective flop. Similar
slip-ups occurred in the Greek referendum on austerity, the national
elections in Israel and Turkey, and elsewhere.
The British and
Polish post-mortems are unlikely to yield a satisfactory answer, said
Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the Pew Research Center.
“It’s not clear that there’s any single, consistent story running
through this,” he said.
To some degree, conventional method
explanations can help understand what has gone wrong in Europe.
Frustration with the political process has recently given rise to more
populist and anti-establishment candidates — and survey respondents
sometimes shy away from acknowledging support for candidates seen as
outside the mainstream. In addition, as people grow more distrustful of
the political process, predicting turnout has grown increasingly
difficult.
“The people who refuse to tell you what they’re going
to do are disproportionately likely to vote Conservative,” Mr. Curtice
said.
Most of the flubbed European polls seemed to misconstrue
voters’ allegiances within conservative voting blocs. Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party won decisively in March’s legislative
election in Israel, despite polls showing a dead heat with the
center-left Zionist Union — largely because Mr. Netanyahu was able to
draw voters expected to go to other right-wing parties. And in Poland in
May, the hard-line Mr. Duda pulled votes away from the center-right
incumbent Bronislaw Komorowski, finishing ahead of him in the
preliminary election and edging him out in a runoff.
General
election polling in the United States typically doesn’t fall victim to
factional conflicts, because in most cases only two major candidates and
parties are represented on the ballot. But in the Republican nominating
contest, where turnout is uncertain and a dozen candidates are vying
for conservatives’ hearts, strong parallels abound.
“I think
it’s like it is in Israel: It’s a within-the-bloc primary,” said Stanley
Greenberg, who runs the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner. At the
moment, Ben Carson is the candidate with the most appeal among
evangelical voters, “but it has all the makings of being able to shift
to Cruz,” he said, referring to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. “And I do
think it can break late.”
Another issue has been turnout. In the
British election, Labour Party supporters proved “markedly less likely
to turn out and vote” than they had suggested in polls, Mr. Curtice
said. In the United States, the 2014 election saw the lowest voting
percentage since World War II, favoring the Republican Party.
Unexpectedly
low turnout only compounds creeping methodological issues that are bred
by changes in communications technology and causing consternation
across the polling world. Random-sample telephone polls have become
increasingly fallible, partly because finding cellphone users willing to
answer lengthy political surveys is difficult and costly.
After
years of rejecting online polls as inherently nonscientific,
researchers are beginning to embrace so-called panel surveys, which have
produced some of the more accurate results in recent years. These
studies rely on a large swath of voters who participate repeatedly over a
course of months or years, allowing pollsters to read trends and
predict voter likelihood based on respondents’ personal histories.
This could be particularly promising among young people, whose voting habits are notoriously capricious.
In
2016, “the uncertainty will be with the millennials,” Mr. Greenberg
said. “Compared to young people at an earlier time, they marry later,
they have fewer kids, they’re living on their own, fewer are attending
church — the things that are correlated with voting.”
12) Los Angeles Police Urged to Review Use of Force After ‘Alarming’ Rise in Shootings
"Police departments across the country are facing increased scrutiny of
their use of force. Just Tuesday, Southern California Public Radio, a
local radio station, published an investigation detailing nearly 400 police shootings in Los Angeles in recent years, none of which have been prosecuted as homicides."
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.
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