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Stand up! Fight back! Surviving police attack on Occupy Oakland

Mary — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 07:57:42 +0000

A statement from Occupy Oakland’s Move-In Assembly

To the Occupy Oakland family and all supporters of Occupy Oakland:

Over a thousand celebratory marchers expecting to move in and make a home out of the shuttered convention center were protected from hostile militarized police only by the homemade shields carried by those at the head of the march. – Photo: Lucy Kafanov

We are writing in regards to any misconceptions you may have regarding last Saturday’s (Jan. 28) Move-In Day to reclaim the unused Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center. We have had to brave a heavy campaign launched by the city and the mainstream media to discredit us, and unfortunately some within our ranks have taken such misrepresentations at face value. We hope that this statement can help clear things up.

We remember how beautiful we all were on our march, a diverse crowd of thousands coming together to turn an unused building into a social center and a new home for Occupy Oakland. We had a children’s brigade at the back and a line of shields in the front, and a celebratory crew of comrades in between. We should be emboldened that there are so many of us out there who are willing to take such action together and, like the General Strike and the Port Shutdown, see it as sign of what we can do when united in purpose and solidarity.

Yes, we were met with the heavy hand of the police state when OPD chose to turn our peaceful march into a war zone. But one fact that should not go unnoticed is the courage and resiliency we demonstrated on the streets that day. Whether it was advancing behind our shields towards a militarized police force, tearing down fences to escape a police kettle while being tear gassed, escaping through the YMCA to avoid arrest (thank you to whoever it was who let us in!), using a fire extinguisher as a smoke screen to assist the escape of those who were in City Hall, or attempting to free our comrades being transferred to the Glen Dyer Detention Facility, the people of Oakland showed what we are capable of and what we can become. Above all, we demonstrated to the city and its rogue police force that we will not be intimidated or scared by their tactics, when we know that we have each other’s backs.

Let it be clear: We are not victims of police brutality but survivors of it. There is no question that we demonstrated militant resistance to the police last Saturday. It is only natural to do so when our best intentions of creating a new world our met with such hostility. This time, the chant “When Oakland is under attack, what do you do? Stand up! Fight back!” was not an empty one. At the same time, it should also be clear that there is nothing preventing those who want to from organizing non-violent direct actions autonomously with clear guidelines as such. This is what we mean by diversity of tactics.

We recognize that there are communities who were affected in the neighborhoods where the conflicts with the police took place. We did outreach all over Oakland before the action and will continue to offer support and solidarity to those who might have been negatively affected or traumatized by the OPD’s inexcusable actions. What we saw in the streets of Oakland on the 28th was overwhelming support, whether it was bystanders bringing us water to wash off tear gas, waving and cheering us on, honking from their cars, or coming down from their apartments to join us. We experienced solidarity first hand rather than percentage points in a poll.

The OPD and the city claim that we are outsiders and that we are not from Oakland – even as 93 percent of OPD officers live outside Oakland. These lies are transparent to anyone who comes to our marches and assemblies and sees their friends and neighbors next to them. And those who came in solidarity last Saturday, from across and all around the Bay, from Dallas to Los Angeles, they are us and we are them. They are our comrades and no city press release can come between us. Our heart goes out to them and all the Occupies – over 26 at last count – who organized solidarity protests within 24 hours of the mass arrests on the 28th. We love you in the deepest meaning of the word.

The OPD and the city claim that we are outsiders and that we are not from Oakland – even as 93 percent of OPD officers live outside Oakland.

From its inception, Occupy Oakland has been about taking direct action and defending ourselves and what we reclaim to the best of our abilities. It has always been about people providing for each other and working to build radical alternatives to the patriarchal capitalist system, and it is in this spirit that we move forward together. No one comes from some “outside” in order to mess with our Oakland, other than the suburbanite riot police. We come from here and everywhere, and in our movement those who join us are all insiders, agitating together towards a better Oakland, a better world.

To be sure, many of us are frustrated about the tactical mistakes made throughout the day, and we have to learn from these as we advance. There are many questions and criticisms coming from our broader community, and we welcome your help in transforming these into better strategies for future actions. We have to learn how to take over buildings in an effective and intelligent manner. We have to learn how to move cohesively through the streets, to take offensive and defensive initiatives, to improve communication in highly charged situations.

Critiques are important but we want everyone to understand the difficulty in undertaking such an initiative in the face of such forceful police response. The state fears that one successful building takeover will lead to another. It has nightmares of whole blocks of vacant buildings put to use as social centers and nodes of resistance, inspiring those in other cities to do the same. Despite the knee-deep shit that the OPD is in right now, when it comes to challenging property relations, all bets are off and the leashes are cut.

The state fears that one successful building takeover will lead to another. It has nightmares of whole blocks of vacant buildings put to use as social centers and nodes of resistance, inspiring those in other cities to do the same.

We are dumbfounded by those who accuse us of working solely to create a spectacle, a confrontation with the police, or not being genuine in our stated goals. We are the same people who through the course of a month planned a two-day festival to launch our new home, collected and wheeled the many supplies to make it a comfortable and safe space, crafted well thought out guidelines of behavior and exclusion for inside the building to address the gendered violence we saw at the camp, and drew up defense strategies against police raids.

Occupiers eye their goal, the empty Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center, and the line of militarized police preventing them from moving into it. – Photo: Dave Id, Indybay

Was it a gamble? Of course it was, just like setting up our camp at Oscar Grant Plaza on Oct. 10 or calling for a general strike with a week’s notice or shutting down the ports. Most every action we plan is filled with risks and unknown factors. Accuse us of naiveté if you must – and then join us in forging better actions – but do not accuse us of malice or hidden motivations.

As we continue to reflect on the actions of last Saturday, we need also to remember that many in our community are in pain and trauma, and we need each other’s support and care. More than 400 of us were imprisoned last weekend. Some of us have yet to be released, are facing trumped-up felony charges, or have been given unconstitutional stay-away orders.

The abuse we faced behind bars needs to be told and retold, as it not only shows yet another side of the repression of dissent but the everyday brutality of the prison industrial complex on all prisoners. What has not been sufficiently recounted is the solidarity we experienced with each other within the walls and cells designed to separate and isolate us. When we came out of Santa Rita, we did not want to go home but joined the dozens of comrades outside waiting for the rest of us, cheering each releasee, feeding them and nourishing them with food and comfort.

But much more importantly, the time we spent on the inside was a stark reminder of what and why we are fighting. Across the world millions of prisoners languish in prison; in California alone there are nearly 200,000 prisoners, overwhelmingly people of color, as a result of the institutionalized racism of the justice system. In Santa Rita we met some of these inmates who gave us words of support and encouragement. When we converge outside of San Quentin on Feb. 20 for our Occupy in Support of Prisoners action, we will have those prisoners in our hearts.

The time we spent on the inside was a stark reminder of what and why we are fighting. In California there are nearly 200,000 prisoners, overwhelmingly people of color, as a result of the institutionalized racism of the justice system. In Santa Rita we met some of these inmates who gave us words of support and encouragement. When we converge outside of San Quentin on Feb. 20 for our Occupy in Support of Prisoners action, we will have those prisoners in our hearts.

The broader Occupy Oakland community needs to know that we are not finished and that we continue to plan for future building reclamations and other actions. We realize that we have a way to go and need to continue outreach, build and repair bridges, and expand our movement, which after all is always a beautiful work in progress. We welcome your feedback and constructive criticisms as we learn from our missteps and move forward together. Please come and join us!

With love, vigilance, and solidarity,

The Occupy Oakland Move-in Assembly

The Move-In Assembly was created on Dec. 24, following a proposal passed at Occupy Oakland’s General Assembly. It has been holding open assemblies of approximately 80 people twice a week since Dec. 28. Learn more at Occupy Oakland Move-In Day, where this story first appeared.

Right outside this stadium, police are killing our children

Mary — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 02:22:21 +0000

Interview with Denika Chatman, mother of SFPD murder victim Kenneth Harding, broadcast on KPFA’s Morning Mix/ Block Report on Wednesday, Jan. 18, 8 a.m.

The Morning Mix with JR – January 18, 2012 at 8:00am

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by Minister of Information JR

Minister of Information JR describes this very special concert as a Winter Jam. Don't miss it. Doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets $12.

Today, we will be talking about the unjustified murder of unarmed young Black man Kenneth Harding in San Francisco and the upcoming protest in San Francisco this Sunday [Jan. 22]. We need to address these unjustified police murders of unarmed people in Black communities all over the United States.

Our next guest is the mother of Kenneth Harding, 19-year-old unarmed Black man who was shot in mid-July [2011] over a $2 dollar bus transfer by the San Francisco Police Department. We have his mother live in the studio today. Her name is Denika Chatman.

M.O.I. JR: How are you, Miss Denika?

Denika Chatman: I’m good. Thank you for asking.

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell the people a little bit about your son, Kenneth Harding? Who was Kenneth Harding before he was murdered by the San Francisco Police Department in such an atrocious way?

Denika Chatman: My son was very filled with life. He was the life of the party. He could go anywhere and fit in. He loved life. And he was a college student, set to start college last fall. He was an entertainer. He was out here [in the S.F. Bay Area] trying to get his music out. And he was very family oriented. He loved his mother. He loved his brother. He loved his sister. And he loved the Lord.

M.O.I. JR: Can you tell the people a little bit about what happened in the middle of July.

Denika Chatman: Yes. My son, Kenny, he was on a T-train in San Francisco, Muni transit. And the police pretty much racially profiled him, approached him, asked him to supply proof of purchase of transfer for being on the train. And when he didn’t supply it, they removed him from the train where at that time he just had sat for a moment and then he took off running. And while he was running, he was running with his hands up.

And they still shot him down and allowed him to lay in the streets for over 28 minutes while he bled out and died. They wouldn’t allow the paramedics through to try to help him.

And, basically, I feel like he was ambushed because they came at him from two different directions over a $2 transit fare.

M.O.I. JR: I just want to put it out there that this is on YouTube. They can put Kenneth Harding into YouTube and this will come up.

Denika Chatman: That is correct. There was over 150 people out there that day. So, everybody pulled out their phones and started recording. And that’s why there are so many videos of my son’s death on there.

To raise awareness of police murders and demand justice for Kenneth Harding Jr., murdered by SFPD on July 16, 2011, protesters braved the rain Jan. 22, 2012, to march from the heart of Hunters Point at Third Street and Oakdale, where Kenny bled to death, to Candlestick Park as fans were arriving for the 49ers’ playoff with the New York Giants. – Photo: Kilo G Perry

And I’ve never seen it. I don’t want to see it. But I do get the sympathy calls and support from everyone else who has seen them.

M.O.I. JR: What’s been going on since in the community of Hunters Point where this occurred? What’s been going on since with people, such as Fly Benzo and Kilo and different people who support you?

Denika Chatman: That’s where the majority of my support comes from. As far as Fly, him and his brother Pladee have been assaulted, hospitalized, incarcerated for speaking openly about what they witnessed on that day and for still speaking out in regards to it, which I don’t understand because there’s also a YouTube of what happened to Fly Benzo. And I don’t understand why the courts won’t just use that as evidence and see what actually occurred on that day and that the police provoked all of this and just drop the charges.

And that’s why I endorse his campaign. Free Fly Benzo. His brother Pladee he was assaulted as well.

Kilo Perry, the police have harassed him on several occasions; he has been incarcerated for speaking out for the murder of my son, for what he saw the police do.

M.O.I. JR: Isn’t the San Francisco Police Department pushing charges that could result in Fly Benzo, otherwise known as DeBray Carpenter, where he could be facing years in prison?

Denika Chatman: That is correct. And I carry a lot of the guilt behind that because the battle he’s fighting is because he stood up for what he felt wasn’t right, the injustice done to my son. And because of that he is looking at a lot of prison time. And that’s why I’m fighting so hard for him on his side in solidarity because something has to be done. And he shouldn’t have to go through this behind speaking out against injustice.

M.O.I. JR: Can you talk a little bit about what you guys have going on Jan. 22?

Denika Chatman: Yeah. On Jan. 22, we are having a peaceful protest march and rally starting at Third Street and Oakdale, my son’s murder spot. That is San Francisco.

At Candlestick on Jan. 22, Fly Benzo (DeBray Carpenter) and other protesters handed out fliers calling for justice for Kenneth Harding Jr. to the fans tailgating before the playoff. – Photo: Kilo G Perry

And we are marching over to Candlestick Stadium to surround it. It’s the NFC playoff championship game and we know that the 49ers are going to make it there. So, we’re just trying to bring awareness to the game-goers that we don’t have no problem with you enjoying your game. We’re not even trying to disrupt the game. We just want to bring awareness that right outside of this stadium, the police are killing our children.

M.O.I. JR: Right. Can you also talk a little bit about this concert that you have comin’ up?

Denika Chatman: Yes. I can touch on it. We’re having a big benefit concert for my son on Feb. 10. And I’ll just list a couple of the artists who will be there: The Jacka, J-Diggs, Mac Mall, Turf Talk, Beeda Weeda.

M.O.I. JR: And this is at 330 Ritch in San Francisco.

Denika Chatman: Yes. Everything is still being collaborated, put together, so we’re just waiting on finalization right now. But everything is approved to go.

M.O.I. JR: How has the police been responding to you and your family since this murder occurred?

Denika Chatman: Well, I went down to the Office of Citizen Complaints in San Francisco to turn in my complaint. At that time, I had only been in my new home for not even 10 days. And at that time they were the only ones who had my address, my physical address, because I had to put it on the paperwork. And within three to five days my home address was listed under Google with step-by-step directions on how to get to my home.

And I haven’t had any interactions with the police. However, they still haven’t been forthcoming with any of the evidence, or the videotapes, or anything to prove that they did a righteous kill.

M.O.I. JR: If people would like to help you and your supporters and would like to help fight police terrorism in aiding the people who are supporting Kenneth Harding, where can they do that and how can they do that?

Denika Chatman: Well, we just established the Kenneth Harding Jr. Foundation. If you would like to support, you can come to our meetings. You can also follow me on Facebook at Justice 4 Kenneth Harding Jr. And you can actually see everything that we’ve done up until this point as well as find out all the upcoming events. And also posted on the page, anything that’s needed or anything that has to do with the foundation, we post it up there, so that if people want to participate or become part of his committee, they are welcome to do so.

M.O.I. JR: Well, Denika, I just want to salute you for standing on the front line when you’ve faced such an atrocity to your own family, the atrocious murder of your own son by somebody who was a so-called public servant.

As 70,000 fans arrived at Candlestick for the playoff, they saw this banner, calling for justice for Kenneth Harding Jr., as they approached the overpass. – Photo: Kilo G Perry

Do we know the name of the police officer that killed your son?

Denika Chatman: There were actually four of them. And all their names are listed on the Justice 4 Kenneth Harding Jr. site as well.

M.O.I. JR: Well, thank you for standing on that front line. We appreciate your strength and your commitment and dedication. And you know the Block Report is behind you.

Denika Chatman: Bless you, JR. I also want to thank you for being a part of my son’s board, being part of our foundation.

And one thing that a lot of people don’t know: They can go get the [January] issue of the Bay View newspaper and read my story. It’s called “Picking up the pieces.” And on there, I’m actually giving shoutout to you for coming to Seattle to see about me and my family after all of this occurred, to you for being on the front line with me in supporting me throughout all of this, to all my front-runners who are still standing on the front line, who didn’t allow the police to get to them and silence them: Kilo Perry, Fly Benzo, Pladee Clayton, all o’ y’all. I just want to thank my true soldiers.

M.O.I. JR: Well, right on. Salute. Thank you for coming in.

Denika Chatman: Thank you for having me.

The People’s Minister of Information JR is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’“ and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe,” both available, along with many more interviews, at www.blockreportradio.com. He also hosts two weekly shows on KPFA 94.1 FM and kpfa.org: The Morning Mix every Wednesday, 8-9 a.m., and The Block Report every Friday night-Saturday morning, midnight-2 a.m. He can be reached at blockreportradio@gmail.com.

‘We don’t work, nobody works’

Adrian — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:02:01 +0000

Pack the courtroom (850 Bryant, Dept. 27) to free Fly Benzo Tuesday, Feb. 7, 1:30 p.m., and in the days following; Fly faces four years in prison for copwatching and for fighting for justice for Kenneth Harding, murdered by SFPD last July!

by TaLea Monet and DeBray “Fly Benzo” Carpenter

“After the contractor agreed to give B&C Painting and Decorating a piece of the contact, we celebrated with the Black Power salute,” says Fly Benzo. From left are Terrance Carpenter, Barbara Banks, DeBray “Fly Benzo” Carpenter, Lawrence Williams Jr. wearing a hard hat, little Angel Perry in front, with other jobseekers and a couple of Unity Homes residents standing in solidarity on Jan. 17. – Photo: Kilo G Perry

Bayview Hunters Point has been a “blighted” community for some time; in fact, unemployment has been high since the closure of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard in 1976. Many costly attempts have been made to curb the high unemployment rate; however, the organizations set in place have been compromised and serve more as a neutralizer of the restless natives and as yet another obstacle between the people of the neighborhood and the construction companies working in their own backyards and between community-based businesses and the people in charge of awarding contracts.

California’s Health and Safety Code Section 33422.1 reads as follows: “To the greatest extent feasible, contracts for work to be performed in connection with any redevelopment project shall be awarded to business concerns which are located in, or owned in the substantial part by persons residing in the project area.”

Section 33422.3 reads: “To insure training and employment opportunities for lower-income project area residents, the agency may specify in the call for bids for any contract over one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) for work to be performed in connection with any redevelopment project that project area residents, if available, shall be employed for a specified percentage of each craft or type of workmen needed to execute the craft or work.”

In their first attempt to win justice on the Unity Homes project, Fly Benzo and the Black Star Coalition shut down the job, stopping the crew and the equipment, like this heavy duty forklift used for construction projects. – Photo: Kilo G Perry

B&C Painting and Decorating, a company based in the community for over 20 years, recently bid on a project at Unity Homes Apartments. Despite the fact that the contract was worth approximately $230,000, well over the minimum requiring that contractors from the community receive all feasible aid on contracts that are paid for by tax increment dollars, B&C received no aid nor were they notified why they had not been rightfully awarded the contract.

The Unity Homes contract was instead awarded to a non-union out-of-town contractor – clearly in violation of California law. B&C has been in business in Hunters Point since 1984 and has played a key role in the development and maintenance of numerous residential and commercial complexes in the community, such as Northridge Cooperative Homes and Bayview Plaza.

On Friday, Jan. 13, DeBray “Fly Benzo” Carpenter, Kilo G and Claude Carpenter – along with the rest of the Black Star Coalition and unemployed Bayview residents – marched to the job site, bringing the contractor’s work to a screeching halt by standing unmoved in front of the heavy construction equipment. They demanded that they be given the same opportunity to work the site and would not budge to let the workers continue.

DeBray “Fly Benzo” Carpenter and TaLea Monet

“We don’t work, nobody works” was DeBray’s response when asked what brought about this action. With few options available to remove the group from the site, the contractor made an attempt to involve the authorities, but the only thing they could do was have the parties facilitate a meeting to further discuss the issue at hand. The contractor refused to talk or negotiate.

To show that they meant business, the group made yet another trip to the work site on Tuesday, Jan. 17. Apparently the first shutdown was effective, because this time around the contractors agreed to give Barbara Banks, lifetime resident of Bayview and owner of B&C, a piece of the contract in an attempt to stop the protesting and keep the peace.

The Black Star Coalition vows to remain firm when dealing with the malpractice involved in tax increment financing, a scheme used by redevelopment agencies, which, by the will of the voters, are shutting down as of Feb. 3, 2012. “We’re not going anywhere,” says DeBray. “We’re going to continue to stand rooted and exercise our First Amendment right to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Next stop … West Point!

Bayview Hunters Point community advocate DeBray “Fly Benzo” Carpenter can be reached on Facebook or at flybenzo@gmail.com.

‘Skin deep’ in more ways than one

Mary — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:29:19 +0000

by Thandisizwe Chimurenga

Part 1

A page from "Techniques to Achieve Naturally Healthy Hair"

Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), refused to allow advertisements for products to lighten the skin and straighten the hair of African Americans in The Negro World, the UNIA’s newspaper. That was “back in the day” – between 1918 and 1933 – when the paper had a circulation estimated at close to 200,000 per week.

During the 1960s, Black Power and Black Pride proponents ushered in “naturals” and “afro” hair styles. In between shouts of “Right on” and “Power to the people,” many of these proponents declared that the hair straightening process was damaging to the brains of African Americans. These proponents were more than likely speaking figuratively about the psyche of Blacks; but from a literal standpoint, they may have actually been on to something.

The 1970s saw the environmental movement in the U.S. creating unprecedented awareness of the damage that humans were doing to planet Earth and various measures to cease or slow that damage. The majority of media attention regarding toxic chemicals since that time has focused on the possibly adverse effects of household chemicals on the environment or industrial chemicals’ possibly adverse effects on the environment and/or human, animal and plant life.

Very little if any media attention or research has looked at the possible connections between African American beauty salons, the personal care products utilized primarily by Black women and adverse health outcomes, specifically in the area of reproductive health. But that has begun to change.

In May of 2011, Dr. Mary Beth Terry and others authored a study which found that African-American and African-Caribbean women were more likely to be exposed to hormonally-active chemicals in hair products.

Terry’s study, “Racial/Ethnic Differences in Hormonally-Active Hair Product Use: A Plausible Risk Factor for Health Disparities,” published in the Journal of Immigrant Health, found that the African-American and African-Caribbean women surveyed used products that contained chemicals that are commonly referred to as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which have been linked to various reproductive effects and birth defects, breast cancer and heart disease.

Most recently, a team of researchers led by Dr. Lauren Wise of Boston University’s Slone Epidemiology Center found strong evidence which indicates that African-American women’s hair relaxer use increases the risk for uterine fibroid tumors by exposing Black women to various chemicals through scalp lesions and burns from the products.

Fibroids are non-cancerous growths that develop in or just outside a woman’s uterus (womb) from normal uterine cells that begin to grow abnormally. Although fibroids tend to be extremely common, African-American women tend to get them two to three times as often as white women and tend to experience more symptoms from them, such as prolonged and heavy menstrual flow, difficulty conceiving a child, and instances of pain during menses and also during intercourse.

Wise’s team also found that women who got their first menstrual period before the age of 10 were more likely to have uterine fibroids. The researchers followed more than 23,000 pre-menopausal African-American women from 1997 to 2009 and published their study, “Hair Relaxer Use and Risk of Uterine Leiomyomata in African-American Women,” onlined in the Jan. 10, 2012, edition of the Journal of American Epidemiology.

Researchers have also posited that a link exists between the early onset of puberty in Black girls and Black hair care products. In a study of 300 African-American, African-Caribbean, Hispanic and white women in New York City, the reported age when these women experienced their first menstrual period (menarche) varied from age 8 to age 19; however, the African-Americans were more likely to use hair products and reached menarche earlier than other racial or ethnic groups.

Dr. Tamarra James-Todd of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital is the lead author of “Childhood Hair Product Use and Earlier Age at Menarche in a Racially Diverse Study Population,” published online in the June 2011 Annals of Epidemiology. The study specifically cited the use of hair oils and hair straightening (“perm”) products and the onset of early menarche in the women.

According to figures from the Black-Owned Beauty Supply Association, African-Americans are estimated to spend between $7 billion and $9 billion dollars per year on hair and beauty products. The potential costs to our health, however, have yet to be adequately quantified.

Part 2

“Take the kinks out of your mind, instead of out of your hair.” – Marcus Mosiah Garvey, founder, Universal Negro Improvement Association

Black women today who strive to take Marcus Garvey’s admonition to heart are in a better position than their sisters of the past. Research focusing on the products used in African-American beauty salons – and homes – is increasing; and while the findings are showing links to adverse health outcomes primarily amongst Black women, there exists an increased motivation for natural, less toxic beauty products, as well as calls to more stringently regulate the personal care product industry.

In Los Angeles, Black Women for Wellness (BWW), a Leimert Park-based, grassroots health and wellness advocacy organization, has produced a “green chemistry” booklet entitled “Black Going Green,” which is a part of their “Green Chemistry Initiative.”

The 28-page booklet, which is geared toward African American women and girls, lists many chemical ingredients and the possible health risks of everyday household and personal beauty products, and provides many healthy and environmentally-friendly alternatives.

Readers will find information on products and chemicals such as relaxers, detanglers, shampoo and conditioner, nail polish and lipstick.

“In order to make better choices and be more critical consumers, we understood that arming Black women – the primary caretakers in our communities – with reliable information was key,” said Nourbese Flint, program director at Black Women for Wellness and project coordinator for the booklet. “This is one small step to help Black women make the kinds of choices that are critical to increasing our community’s health and well-being,” said Flint.

Also as part of its Green Chemistry Initiative, the organization has organized a “Beauty Salon Campaign” to conduct research amongst African American beauty salons to explore possible connections between products utilized primarily by Black women and possible reproductive health disparities.

According to BWW Executive Director Jan Robinson-Flint, the project, which is still in the data-gathering stage, is doing a survey of beauty supply stores, beauty salons, barber shops and wig shops within a one-mile radius of the organization’s Leimert Park-based headquarters – approximately 60 stores in all.

“We asked the owners and the stylists what were the products that they were using? And from those products what we did was create a list of the top 10 chemicals … and then looked at the impact of those chemicals – because they’re toxins – on our health and well-being. Anytime you look at any statistics for Black women, you’ll find that we are at the top,” said Robinson-Flint.

BWW plans to rate the chemicals in terms of how toxic they are once the results of their research are made public.

Another component of BWW’s Green Chemistry Initiative is an Activist and Advocate Academy organized with the goal of “developing a cadre of women and youth working with the African American and Black community to increase information and education on Green Chemistry issues as they impact health and wellbeing, and increase the voices of African American women and girls with environmental justice issues as they impact our health and wellbeing.”

Dera Baskin, a midwife and health educator, attended the academy in 2011 with the purpose of learning how reproductive and environmental justice intersect and to find out what the common citizen can do to change personal and community environments.

As a “birth worker,” Baskin said that many of the families she works with are not aware of the exposure to chemicals in their home environments and how they can reduce or remove them. “All in the name of beauty and looking cute … we are damaging our bodies and [our] ability to bring forth healthy babies … we often buy products because of the brand, smell, what it will do aesthetically without thinking about what it will do long term. I wanted to be able to learn and share accurate information with people who look like me,” she said.

Black Women for Wellness is a member of the National Healthy Nail and Beauty Salon Alliance which works to raise the profile of salon worker health and safety issues primarily in the Asian/Pacific Islander community. Along with the Bay Area-based California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, the group has provided testimony before congressional committees in Washington, D.C., regarding concerns of African-American salons and their clients.

Saffiyah Edley, the owner of Los Angeles-based Luv Mi Kinks told the Salon Worker Health and Safety Congressional Briefing in Washington, D.C., last May that a truly “natural hair care industry” is needed “where hair product manufacturers can’t hide behind harmful ingredients.” Edley said, “Awareness is needed for stylists and clients around the harm that may be caused by using certain products. But what’s needed the most is that manufacturers must take responsibility for products on the market today that they are making and take out harmful chemicals.”

In addition to helping to organize the congressional briefing, the Oakland-based California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, along with the Environmental Finance Center (EFC), has also produced a “Techniques to Achieve Naturally Healthy Hair” to highlight sustainable alternatives for hair care.

The multicultural, multiethnic publication gives an explanation of five basic hair textures: wavy, tightly coiled, straight, very curly and grey hair, which is included because of its different growth pattern and occasional difficulty in managing.

The guide also provides tips on natural hair styles for men, women and children such as braids and pony tails, natural curls and crimps, and the use of a flat iron for straightening. Natural care techniques mentioned in the guide include avocado or olive oil hair conditioners, using witch hazel for dandruff and sunflower oil for moisturizing and tips for “greening” hair salons.

A project of the Environmental Protection Agency, the EFC seeks to build green economies and foster sustainable communities in the U.S. by working with government and industry, communities and Native American Tribes.

The partnership between grassroots groups, business and government will be necessary for success.

Says Saffiyah Edley, “There are safer alternatives, but we need regulation in order to really push them forward.”

Fact box

The chemicals found in common African-American hair products are known as estrogen and endocrine-disrupting chemicals or EDCs. Although comprehensive research is ongoing, many of these chemicals are believed to be linked to reproductive effects and birth defects, breast cancer, heart disease, cognitive disorders, premature puberty and altered immune function, to name a few.

Chemicals found in Common African American Hair Products such as straighteners/relaxers (perms), detanglers, colorants, shampoos and conditioners

Estrogen and endocrine-disrupting chemicals or EDCs, compiled primarily from the booklet, “Techniques to Achieve Naturally Healthy Hair”:

• Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) and Calcium Hydroxide (No Lye)

• Diazolidinyl Urea

• DMDM Hydantoin

• Propylene Glycol

• Diethanolamine

• Monoethanolamine

• Triethanolamine

• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate or Sodium Laureth Sulfate

• Hydroquinone

• Colorants and Synthetic Colors labeled as D&C and/or FD&C

Thandisizwe Chimurenga is a Los Angeles-based writer and a 2011-2012 New America Media Environmental Health Justice Fellow. Thandi is also the conductor of the CyberGround Railroad, “Black Los Angeles’ News and Views Source,” a community journalist and a founder and host of Some of Us Are Brave, a Black women’s public affairs show on KPFK-Pacifica Los Angeles. She has reported for the L.A. Watts Times newspaper, KPFK Evening News and Free Speech Radio News. She covered the trial of Johannes Mehserle, who murdered Oscar Grant, for the Bay View and several other Bay Area news organizations and is the author of a forthcoming book on the trial. She can be reached at tchimurenga@gmail.com.

Community benefits win big: Construction contracts and jobs for Oaklanders

Mary — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:41:02 +0000

Pack the Oakland City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 7, regarding local hire and a Jobs Center

by Joseph Debro

A 2006 billboard urges the re-election of City Councilwoman Desley Brooks. – Photo: Jakub Mosur, SF Chronicle

We finally have legislation that benefits the taxpayers of Oakland. Desley Brooks took a giant step to bring economic parity to the community of the poor. She introduced and passed legislation that challenged the history of construction companies that make promises inconsistent with their past performances. What she has done will slow down the Oakland process of importing labor and exporting capital.

Descendants of former slaves have a lot to overcome in this country. We are injured by self-inflicted wounds. We are crippled by wounds inflicted by others. Politicians who represent descendants of former slaves often think that a handout helps us more than a hand up. We should all remember that if you give a fish to a hungry person, you feed that person for a day. If you teach a hungry person how to fish, you feed that person for life.

What she has done will slow down the Oakland process of importing labor and exporting capital.

Councilwoman Desley Brooks, the vice mayor of Oakland, was able to help a friend because she had a relationship with an Oakland developer. Both the friend and the developer were limited in their growth potential. She helped two people, both of whom thought that they got over.

The 8(a) program was started by a descendant of a former slave: Joe Conrad, who worked for SBA (Small Business Administration) in Washington, D.C. This program was designed to bring community benefits to the community of the descendants of former slaves. It has since been corrupted to bring advantage only to white men.

Transbay Engineering, under the leadership of the late Ray Dones and Joe Debro, trained more Black workers for union membership than any other construction company in the country. Workers were trained by OJT (on-the-job training), not by apprenticeship. Transbay would not sign a hiring hall agreement unless their workers were admitted into the unions. – Photo: Eric Luse, SF Chronicle

A racist senator from Mississippi used a provision of the U.S. procurement code to give Mississippians contracts without bid. The work was in areas that had been devastated by floods. The people were disadvantaged. Joe thought about how disadvantaged the descendants of former slaves were. He got help, and the 8(a) program was born.

For reasons which are too complex to discuss, Ms. Brooks took a different approach. Her new approach compelled her to formulate a new city policy which will feed the unemployed of Oakland and other urban cities for life. Her legislation is limited to the Oakland Army Base. That limitation will be removed when it is demonstrated how well her legislation works.

Desley, who is not known for her ability to put together four votes on the Oakland City Council, was able to get eight votes for her new powerful economic development tool. What Desley has done deserves a Nobel Prize.

The legislation that she has passed into Oakland law is a great start in the right direction. Building contractors will not be granted a contract if they have no history of constructing while adding community benefits. Desley uses the geography of Oakland, as we all should, to describe where the benefits must be bestowed.

Her legislation forces all contractors to demonstrate their history of delivering community benefits to a local community in which they work. If they have no such history, they must joint venture with a contractor who has such a history. Joint ventures are the most effective way to build capacity, increase local employment and training and retain a fraction of the profits generated by local projects.

Her legislation forces all contractors to demonstrate their history of delivering community benefits to a local community in which they work. If they have no such history, they must joint venture with a contractor who has such a history.

Ms. Brooks worked with local contractors and with community groups in developing this plan. She is to be commended. This is an idea whose time has come. It will spread all over the United States. One of the contractors with whom she worked will win the demolition contract at the Oakland Army Base. He deserves it.

Joseph Debro is president of Bay Area Black Builders, co-founder of the National Association of Minority Contractors, president of Transbay Engineering and a bio-chemical engineer. He can be reached at transbay@netzero.com.

Desley Brooks on KPFA’s Education Today

Oakland City Councilwoman and Vice Mayor Desley Brooks appeared on Education Today, hosted by Kitty Kelly Epstein, on KPFA Jan. 27 to discuss this historic legislation: “I worked with a group of community folks who were engaged in the construction industry. You see all the time that the prime contractor on a construction job is always a firm, it seems like, that’s not from Oakland. And we know that when they’re not from Oakland, they’re not likely to hire Oakland people. …

Oakland City Councilwoman and Vice Mayor Desley Brooks

“The legislation we put through would have the Oakland firm be the prime. And for them to even compete to get that job, 33 percent of their core workforce would have to be Oakland residents. It’s a first in the history of the city of Oakland. … Oakland residents have to be the core people who are going to stay on that job through completion, and it can’t be somebody hired for this single job. …

For them to even compete to get that job, 33 percent of their core workforce would have to be Oakland residents.

“When I drive down the street, what I hear consistently from Oakland people is, ‘I need a job.’ One of the things that cities can do with the money that they have – we give millions and millions of dollars for (construction) contracts – is recirculate the dollars in our communities. I’ve always advocated for that and tried to figure out ways that we can create jobs. …

“We’re doing the legislation on a pilot basis, so we’re testing it out. We’re testing it on the remediation work that’s to be done on the Oakland Army Base (in West Oakland). There’s approximately $9 million worth of work, and the ordinance I had pass applies only to that $9 million. If it works well, we’ll have an opportunity to consider extending it. …

Oakland spends millions and millions of dollars for construction contracts and should recirculate those dollars in our communities.

“Oakland’s unemployment rate is somewhere around 17-20 percent officially …; in our community, it’s much higher than that. … The hope is that with this ordinance, we’ll start to grow our minority contracting companies. … There are very few minority contracting firms because they are always having to compete with the major firms and they don’t get the jobs. …

“A major contractor sent me an email saying, ‘We won’t be able to bid on that work because of your 33 percent requirements. And I thought, ‘Really!’ They have probably more than $40 million in construction work with the City of Oakland already. …

“We said (when the proposed ordinance was before the City Council), ‘Put Oaklanders first! Put Oaklanders first! … Who on the Council would vote against their own residents? So it passed unanimously. …

Put Oaklanders first!

“We increased our contracting requirements (for hiring on all construction contracts) from 20 percent to 50 percent. It’s not just jobs that we’re interested in; we’re interested in contracts, because when Oakland contractors have the ability to get a contract with the city, they usually hire people who live in the neighborhoods. So again, it’s that proper distribution of wealth; it’s that recirculation of the dollars that’s so important.”

Host Kitty Kelly Epstein said: “When we looked at the number of hours on construction jobs that were going to African Americans in particular a few months ago, we found it’s about 27 percent of the population is African American and about 5 percent of the construction hours on journeyman jobs. … A minority firm is more likely to hire non-white people than a white majority firm is.”

Brooks added: “The way our contracting process has always worked is (the contractor) promises to do the local hires …, but with this new ordinance, you have to show that up front you have 33 percent (Oakland residents in your core workforce), so there’s more likelihood that an Oaklander will actually get a job. …

“I started talking about this to everyday people who needed a job. They came consistently down to the Council. They came to all the committee meetings; they came to the Council meetings – and kept pushing, because they know that when their voiced aren’t down here, they may not be heard. … I worked with some everyday folks who made a big impact in this city; it’s the first time that happened – ever.”

Education Today is broadcast at 2:30 p.m. on alternate Fridays on KPFA 94.1FM. Host Kitty Kelly Epstein can be reached at kkepstein@gmail.com. Councilwoman Desley Brooks, who represents District 6 in East Oakland, can be reached at dbrooks@oaklandnet.com.

How you can get involved

When they learned in 2010 that 8,000 new jobs would be created through the redevelopment of the Oakland Army Base, eight organizations came together, forming the OaklandWORKS Alliance to ensure residents of the flatlands would have full access to those jobs. It was their research that revealed that African-Americans were obtaining only 5 percent of the journeyman hours on city-funded construction jobs, even though African-Americans make up 27 percent of the city’s population.

The upcoming Tuesday, Feb. 7, Oakland City Council meeting will review a number of proposals: local employment on both construction and permanent jobs, a Jobs Center to ensure that there is more fair access to employment and other provisions. The Alliance will work to ensure that the community stays involved, so that the parts of the policy which reflect the community’s interests are enforced.

OaklandWORKS also campaigned for Oakland-based contractors to be able to obtain contracts for the Army base work. Local and minority contractors have shown themselves to be much more likely to hire Oakland workers.

The OaklandWORKS Alliance includes Oakland Black Caucus, Oakland Parents Together, John George Democratic Club, The West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, PUEBLO, Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA), Concerned Black Men of Oakland and Oakland Natives Give Back. For more information, contact Robyn Hodges at rehher123@gmail.com.

Standing up for Survivors Village and housing justice

Adrian — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:44:31 +0000

Survivors Village joined forces with Occupy NOLA to successfully disrupt a sheriff’s sale of foreclosed properties in New Orleans, shouting their demands in Occupy mic check style.

On Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, we took a stand. Survivors Village, a community group of former St. Bernard public housing residents and their allies, joined forces with recently evicted Occupy NOLA protestors to successfully disrupt a sheriff’s sale of foreclosed properties. Delaying the sale for two hours, the protestors chanted:

“This auction is illegal and immoral. It is a way to steal homes, redistribute wealth and prevent the right to return. The sale of blighted property is the city’s attempt to remove poor homeowners who have already suffered tremendously from economic and natural disaster. Blight has become an excuse to gentrify. Charging poor homeowners outrageous fees in order to steal their homes is an underhanded way to keep people displaced. Stop capitalizing off of crisis! This process is corrupt! You are stealing homes! STOP NOW!”

We took a stand against stealing people’s property in the name of recovery. We also took a stand to save a space we care enough about to rebuild with our own hands. This is a space that was active before I arrived in New Orleans, but I am determined to work with my family of comrades to get it back in fighting shape.

Survivors Village isn’t just community space; it is a home base for those who understand the radical transformation necessary for us all to achieve liberation. And in this realization and the impending detriment that a loss of this space could be to realizing our vision and bringing it into the everyday reality bit by bit, we knew we had to stand up and shout, “Stop!”

Sometimes a battle is dropped at your front door and demands that you are the one(s) to make change happen, you are called as the one(s) to start, finish or progress this fight. Well, that is what happened when we were told that the City of New Orleans was trying to sell New Day Survivors Village through a sheriff’s sale. Not only was a piece of our livelihood being threatened, but we were also alerted to the injustice that is being illegally perpetrated against homeowners.

Survivors Village was not served notice that it was one of the properties to be auctioned at a forthcoming sheriff’s sale until less than a month before it was to be held. A $575 blight fine that had ballooned to over $9,000 after daily penalties were tacked on was what put the sale into motion – the amount of the daily penalties being greater than half of the initial fine, per day.

Months before the decision to put the property up for auction, the initial blight cited had been remedied and improvements on the rest of the property were constantly being planned and carried out. We had not been notified that there was an ever increasing fee being lobbed against the property, nor were we aware that they decided to sell it.

Does the city really believe this is the best way to deal with blight? It appears to be an easy way to remove property from the hands of those who are poor and limited in their resources and ability to finish the necessary work on their homes. And with the lack of due process in getting a judge’s order – a law has been implemented making this obsolete – or hiring a non-affiliated curator to receive court documents on behalf of the defendant, who never receives them, the city is making it apparent that they are not concerned with reconnecting homeowners and displaced New Orleanians with their homes.

Instead they are satisfied being a huge obstacle for poor and displaced homeowners while placing advantage in the hands of the privileged, who can buy, renovate and make a profit on these homes, further gentrifying New Orleans in the process.

Survivors Village began as a tent city erected in June 2006 by residents of the St. Bernard Public Housing Development who like other public housing residents had been locked out of their homes since the flooding of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Since that time and after years of resistance by public housing residents and their allies, over 4,000 units of public housing, including the St. Bernard Development, have been demolished. On the day of this march, Jan. 15, 2007, displaced St. Bernard residents reclaimed the development, cleaned their apartments, which had been minimally damaged, but were soon driven out again.

As this picture became clearer, we knew that the issue wasn’t just Survivors Village; it was this whole corrupt process. In a serendipitous fashion, Occupy Wall Street declared Dec. 6 a day of action against foreclosures. And since the city decided it was a creditor that was going to perform code lien seizures and then auction off these foreclosed homes after subsequent nonpayment of unfair fines, the sheriff’s sale was a perfect platform from which to decry the way this lopsided process favors the city. Many of the volunteers working to restore Survivors Village had been in some way or at some time engaged with the Occupy NOLA encampment, so reaching out to link our actions was the natural next step.

There was immediacy in the planning due to the impending sale, so we congregated together with a crew of dedicated activists that were willing to sit through long meetings and democratically come up with a strategy to stop this sale. It can be difficult to achieve consensus and a unified vision for how things should be done. We didn’t always agree on what we were hoping to realistically achieve, how confrontational we should be with the bidders or the wording of our message, but in the end consensus was reached, which is necessary reinforcement to further our fight for the reclamation of true democracy and must be practiced as a pinnacle radical value.

As a group we thought that our action to disrupt and possibly prevent the sheriff’s stolen property sale could be disbanded quickly and we would be threatened with arrest, so we prioritized the language that needed to be delivered first. We had decided that this was not the most strategic time to take arrests, so we would get in there, say our piece while holding up the sale for as long as possible and then either be off or stay in a silent protest with signage, depending on the level of police suppression: a guerilla strategy for the initial incitement.

Every time the auctioneer spoke through his microphone to begin the auction, our mic check illuminating and vilifying the process leading up to and including the auction would begin. The auctioneer would try to speak over us, but “the people united will never be defeated.” We mic checked, sang and chanted intermittently and rotating, deciding that if he wasn’t trying to proceed then we could save our voices and just be present in protest.

We also distributed flyers educating the crowd about the realities of the auction. The flyers declared: “This is an auction of stolen properties. When a property in New Orleans is declared ‘blighted’ it is because homeowners are unable to complete the necessary work on their properties to comply with the city’s codes. The city gives the homeowner a fine of $575 and orders the homeowner to finish renovation or demolition of the property within 30 days and pay the fine or face additional fees of up to $500 per day. When poor homeowners are charged thousands of dollars each week – money they would put into their homes if they had it – the city leaves them no choice but to go bankrupt or hand over their properties. This is state sanctioned theft under the guise of ‘recovery.’”

After an hour and a half of this back and forth, start and stop, the police finally gave us a warning. We overestimated how long we would be tolerated and perhaps they overestimated how long we were willing to stay, which was longer than many of the potential bidders did. We gave two collective speeches after the first warning and then remained silent throughout the rest of the auction.

The auction did go on after two hours’ delay, but we felt successful. Our will was felt and our home base was spared, it being virtually unsalable due to taxes placed on it, which are not even applicable to the New Day nonprofit which owns Survivors Village – sometimes not doing paperwork on time is a benefit.

Another success was in connecting with people who are directly affected by this practice and these sales. A man at the auction asked for our help in stopping his house from being sold, so his property was included in the mic check: “Do not bid on property…” was the demand. And even though his house opened at a low price, it too was not bid on.

He was basically in the same position we were in, and the city refused to waive the extra outrageous daily fees and have him just pay the $575 even though he had complied with blight removal. It’s these people who don’t have the resources that we have, limited as they are, to fight the city who are the most vulnerable and need to be represented; it’s for these people that we stand up and shout, “STOP NOW!” It is for them and with all of those struggling with housing injustice that we will continue to fight until it is acknowledged and purported that housing is a human right.

To learn more, go to http://communitiesrising.wordpress.com/, the website for Survivors Village, where this story first appeared.

Why all the robo-signing?

Mary — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:17:19 +0000

Securitization and the shadow banking system

by Ellen Brown

(Extensively revised and updated Jan. 25) – The Wall Street Journal reported on Jan. 19 that the Obama administration was pushing heavily to get the 50 state attorneys general to agree to a settlement with five major banks in the “robo-signing” scandal. The scandal involves employees signing names not their own, under titles they did not really have, attesting to the veracity of documents they had not really reviewed. Investigation reveals that it did not just happen occasionally but was an industry-wide practice, dating back to the late 1990s, and that it may have clouded the titles of millions of homes. If the settlement is agreed to, it will let Wall Street bankers off the hook for crimes that would land the rest of us in jail – fraud, forgery, securities violations and tax evasion.

To the president’s credit, however, he seems to have shifted his position on the settlement in response to protests before his State of the Union address. In his speech on Jan. 24, President Obama did not mention the settlement but announced instead that he would be creating a mortgage crisis unit to investigate wrongdoing related to real estate lending. “This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans,” he said.

The deeper question is why

Whether massive robo-signing occurred is no longer at issue. The question that still needs to be investigated is why it was being done. The alleged justification – that they were so busy they cut corners – hardly seems credible given the extent of the practice.

The robo-signing largely involved assignments of mortgage notes to mortgage servicers or trusts representing the investors who put up the loan money. Assignment was necessary to give the trusts legal title to the loans. But according to consumer attorneys April Charney and O. Max Gardner III, who have reviewed large numbers of these cases, the banks that originally signed the notes with the homeowners virtually never assigned them over to the trusts, as required by governing law and the terms of the trust documents. Robo-signing occurred long after the fact, and it was done routinely across the industry. That means it must have served some industry purpose. But what?

Here is a working hypothesis, suggested by Martin Andelman: Securitized mortgages are the “pawns” used in the pawn shop known as the “repo market.” “Repos” are overnight sales and repurchases of collateral. Yale economist Gary Gorton explains that repos are the “deposit insurance” for the shadow banking system, which is now larger than the conventional banking system and is necessary for the conventional system to operate. The problem is that repos require “sales,” which means the mortgage notes have to remain free to be bought and sold. The mortgages are left unendorsed so they can be used in this repo market.

The evolution of the shadow banking system

Gorton observes that there is a massive and growing demand for banking by large institutional investors – pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds – which have millions of dollars to park somewhere between investments. But FDIC insurance covers only up to $250,000. FDIC insurance was resisted in the 1930s by bankers and government officials and was pushed through as a populist movement: the people demanded it. What they got was enough insurance to cover the deposits of individuals and no more. Today, the large institutional investors want similar coverage. They want an investment that is secure, that provides them with a little interest, and that is liquid like a traditional deposit account, allowing quick withdrawal.

The shadow banking system evolved in response to this need, operating largely through the repo market. “Repos” are sales and repurchases of highly liquid collateral, typically Treasury debt or mortgage-backed securities – the securitized units into which American real estate has been ground up and packaged, sausage-fashion. The collateral is bought by a “special purpose vehicle” (SPV), which acts as the shadow bank. The investors put their money in the SPV and keep the securities, which substitute for FDIC insurance in a traditional bank. (If the SPV fails to pay up, the investors can foreclose on the securities.) To satisfy the demand for liquidity, the repos are one-day or short-term deals, continually rolled over until the money is withdrawn.

This money is used by the banks for other lending, investing or speculating. Gorton writes: “This banking system (the “shadow” or “parallel” banking system) – repo based on securitization – is a genuine banking system, as large as the traditional, regulated banking system. It is of critical importance to the economy because it is the funding basis for the traditional banking system. Without it, traditional banks will not lend, and credit, which is essential for job creation, will not be created.”

All behind the curtain of MERS

The housing shell game was made possible because it was all concealed behind an electronic smokescreen called MERS (an acronym for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.). MERS allowed houses to be shuffled around among multiple, rapidly changing owners while circumventing local recording laws. Title would be recorded in the name of MERS as a place holder for the investors, and MERS would foreclose on behalf of the investors. Payments would be received by the mortgage servicer, which was typically the bank that signed the mortgage with the homeowner. The homeowner usually thinks the servicer is the lender, but in fact it is an amorphous group of investors.

This all worked until courts started questioning whether MERS, which admitted that it was a mere conduit without title, had standing to foreclose. Courts have increasingly held that it does not.

Making matters worse for the servicing banks, Fannie Mae sent out a memo telling servicers that in order to be reimbursed under HAMP – a government loan modification program designed to help at-risk homeowners meet their mortgage payments – the servicers would have to produce the paperwork showing the loan had been assigned to the trust.

The hasty solution was a rash of assignments signed by an army of “robosigners,” to be filed in the public records. But the documents are patent forgeries, making a shambles of county title records.

Four thousand marched in Oakland Nov. 19, 2011, to protest fallout from the banking collapse – foreclosures, school closures and police attacks on dissent. – Photo: ©David Bacon

Complicating all this are tax issues. Since 1986, mortgage-backed securities have been issued to investors through SPVs called REMICs (Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits). REMICs are designed as tax shelters; but to qualify for that status, they must be “static.” Mortgages can’t be transferred in and out once the closing date has occurred. The REMIC Pooling and Servicing Agreement typically states that any transfer significantly after the closing date is invalid.

Yet the newly robo-signed documents, which are required to begin foreclosure proceedings, are almost always executed long after the trust’s closing date. The whole business is quite complicated, but the bottom line is that title has been clouded not only by MERS but because the trusts purporting to foreclose do not own the properties by the terms of their own documents.

John O’Brien, register of deeds for the Southern Essex District of Massachusetts, calls it a “criminal enterprise.” On Jan. 18, he called for a full scale criminal investigation, including a grand jury to look into the evidence. He sent to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz over 30,000 documents recorded in the Salem Registry that he says are fraudulent.

From lending machines to borrowing machines

The bankers have engaged in what amounts to a massive fraud, not necessarily because they started out with criminal intent, but because they have been required to in order to come up with the collateral – in this case real estate – to back their loans. It is the way our system is set up: The banks are not really creating credit and advancing it to us, counting on our future productivity to pay it off, the way they once did under the deceptive but functional façade of fractional reserve lending. Instead, they are vacuuming up our money and lending it back to us at higher rates.

The banks are not really creating credit and advancing it to us, counting on our future productivity to pay it off, the way they once did. Instead, they are vacuuming up our money and lending it back to us at higher rates.

“Instead of lending into the economy,” says British money reformer Ann Pettifor, “bankers are borrowing from the real economy.” She wrote in the Huffington Post in October 2010: “[T]he crazy facts are these: Bankers now borrow from their customers and from taxpayers. They are effectively draining funds from household bank accounts, small businesses, corporations, government treasuries and from, e.g., the Federal Reserve. They do so by charging high rates of interest and fees, by demanding early repayment of loans, by illegally foreclosing on homeowners, and by appropriating and then speculating with trillions of dollars of taxpayer-backed resources.”

Not only has the system destroyed county title records, but it is highly vulnerable to bank runs and systemic collapse. In the shadow banking system, as in the old fractional reserve banking system, the collateral is being double-counted: It is owed to the borrowers and the depositors at the same time. This allows for expansion of the money supply, but bank runs can occur when the borrowers and the depositors demand their money at the same time. And unlike the conventional banking system, the shadow banking system is largely unregulated. It doesn’t have the backup of FDIC insurance to prevent bank runs.

That is what happened in September 2008 following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, a major investment bank. Gary Gorton explains that it was a run on the shadow banking system that caused the credit collapse that followed. Investors rushed to pull their money out overnight. LIBOR – the London interbank lending rate for short-term loans – shot up to around 5 percent. Since the cost of borrowing the money to cover loans was too high for banks to turn a profit, lending abruptly came to a halt.

Fixing the system

The question is how to eliminate this systemic risk. As noted by The Business Insider: “Regulate shadow banking more tightly, and you probably have to also provide government backstops. Shudder. Try to shut the thing down or restrict it and you suck credit out of the system, credit which much of the non-financial ‘real’ economy uses and needs.”

Banco do Brasil, a public-owned bank that operates as a commercial venture, is Latin America’s biggest bank by assets. It is doing so well it is eying possible acquisition targets and opening branches in the United States.

Interestingly, countries with strong public sector banking systems largely escaped the 2008 credit crisis. These include the BRIC countries – Brazil Russia, India and China – which contain 40 percent of the global population and are today’s fastest growing economies. They escaped because their public sector banks do not need to rely on repos and securitizations to back their loans. The banks are owned and operated by the ultimate guarantor – the government itself. The public sector banking model deserves further study.

A system that requires the slicing and dicing of mortgages behind an electronic smokescreen so they can be bought and sold as collateral for the pawn shop of the repo market is fraught with perils and is unsustainable.

Whatever the solution, a system that requires the slicing and dicing of mortgages behind an electronic smokescreen so they can be bought and sold as collateral for the pawn shop of the repo market is obviously fraught with perils and is unsustainable. Please contact your state attorney general and urge him or her not to go through with the robo-signing settlement, which will be granting immunity for crimes that are not yet fully known. Phone numbers are here. The surface of this great shadowy second banking system has barely been scratched. It needs a very thorough investigation.

Ellen Brown is an attorney in Los Angeles and president of the Public Banking Institute. In “Web of Debt,” her latest of 11 books, she shows how a private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves and how we the people can get it back. Her websites are WebofDebt.com and EllenBrown.com. She can be reached at ellenhbrown@gmail.com. The Bay View contributed some of the citations in this story.

Congolese say South Africa’s Congolese immigrant sweep targeted anti-Kabila refugees

Mary — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:26:17 +0000

by Ann Garrison

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila shook hands with South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma in Lumumbashi, the capital of Congo’s Katanga Province, on June 21, 2011, five months before Congo’s presidential and parliamentary elections. On Nov. 12, five months later and only two weeks before the election, Zuma witnessed as the energy ministers of South Africa and the DRC inked the two countries’ hydroelectricity deal in Johannesburg. In December, in his capacity as chair of the Southern African Development Community organ on politics, defense and security cooperation, Zuma declared that Kabila’s re-election was valid, even though the EU, the Carter Center, the International Crisis Group and Congo’s Catholic Church had all declared it massively fraudulent.

South Africa is home to African political refugees and migrants seeking work from all over the African continent and, as in Europe and North America, immigrants are targets of xenophobia, harassment, intimidation, immigrant police sweeps and even geopolitically motivated attacks. On Friday, Dec. 20, members of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s immigrant community in Johannesburg contacted KPFA Radio to say that South Africa’s African National Congress government had instructed their police to arrest Congolese immigrants in Yeoville and other Johannesburg suburbs.

On Sunday, Jan. 22, South Africa’s Amandla! Alternative Media Collective put out a release calling on activists to appear at a Johannesburg magistrate’s court the next morning to support 200 Congolese immigrants who were, they said, “hounded out of their shops and homes by scores of South African police, then summarily arrested on ludicrous, trumped up charges of ‘public violence.’”

Amandla! Media also said that many of those arrested are activists opposed to the Kabila regime in their home country. They had gathered in front of the ruling African National Congress Party’s headquarters in December to protest South African President Jacob Zuma’s collaboration with Congolese President Joseph Kabila in stealing the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s presidential and parliamentary elections at the end of November. International observers, including the EU and the Carter Center, and Congo’s Catholic Church, agreed that the election was not only chaotic but also massively fraudulent.

Two hundred Congolese immigrants, especially activists opposed to the Kabila regime, were, they said, “hounded out of their shops and homes by scores of South African police, then summarily arrested on ludicrous, trumped up charges of ‘public violence.’”

After the mass arrests on Thursday, the South Africa Police Service publicly stated that their operation had been an illegal immigrant sweep, but they later said, instead, that they had arrested Congolese factions supporting Kabila and his leading challenger, Étienne Tshisikedi, for fighting with one another in Johannesburg streets. Amandla! Media said that both explanations were preposterous.

Protestors with a Congolese flag and a sign accuse South African President Jacob Zuma of supporting apartheid. Congolese immigrants said that the president’s African National Congress Party government harasses, intimidates and violates the civil rights of immigrants, most of all African immigrants. They say the ANC is thus repeating the discriminatory policies of apartheid. South African-born critics of the ANC government say that economic apartheid still exists and that the ANC is a government of, by and for the elites, who are still predominantly white, though they now include the ANC elite.

Jean-Pierre Lukamba, chair of the African Diaspora Forum, Amnesty International activist and Congolese refugee in South Africa, has been in hiding since Thursday, but available to press by phone. He said that there are roughly half a million Congolese refugees in the country and that the majority are political refugees who fled for their lives. He also said that although Thursday’s arrests were far more than an immigrant sweep, the ANC government is indeed guilty of mistreating immigrants, most of all those from other parts of Africa.

“The background of that arrest,” he said, “is that there is an organization here in South Africa called Congolese Democracy and Justice Campaign. They are campaigning for democracy and justice in Congo and last time they went to Capetown, they were doing a march. They went to the head office of the ANC to protest because there is evidence that President Jacob Zuma is supporting Joseph Kabila to stay in power by frauding the election.”

Kimbi Mayimona of the Forum of Congolese Organizations in South Africa said that no Kabila supporters had been arrested and that a leader of a pro-Kabila organization had been at the police station identifying those to be held and those to be released.

One Congolese protestor scooped up another, who had been injured when police fired rubber bullets at the crowd outside the African National Congress’s Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg on Dec. 6, 2011. They were there to protest South African President Jacob Zuma’s official declaration that incumbent Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila had been honestly re-elected, despite reports of massive election fraud. They also alleged that Zuma had collaborated with Kabila by flying ballots already marked for him from South Africa to Congo and by sending mercenaries to help Kabila control the Congolese population. Zuma’s public promise to send Kabila “logistical and security forces” had been reported on News 24-Cape Town in November.

Shortly before the Democratic Republic of Congo’s November election, Jacob Zuma announced his support for Kabila and their agreement on a deal to transmit hydroelectricity from the extension of Congo’s Grand Inga Dam to South Africa. The power had previously been promised to Australian mining corporation BHP Billiton to power an aluminum smelter in Congo’s Bas Congo Province.

News24-Cape Town reported on Nov. 12 that Zuma publicly promised Kabila “logistical and security support to help the DRC during its forthcoming elections” at the signing of the deal to transmit hydroelectric power from Congo to South Africa.

Monday’s news from South Africa:

1) Two of 22 Congolese immigrants still in custody have been released.

2) Twenty will remain in custody until a bail hearing on Jan. 31, 2012. This will give the arresting officers time to check with the Department of Homeland Affairs to see if their papers are in order.

3) Congolese began to share this video of Zuma at COP17, the climate change conference, in December lecturing that Congolese must not blame other people for their problems and protest in South Africa. In the same speech, he bragged of South Africa’s involvement in the First and Second Congo Wars and its critical role in “saving democracy” in Congolese elections, including the November election declared hugely fraudulent by even the most conservative establishment observers.

San Francisco writer Ann Garrison writes for the San Francisco Bay View, Global Research, Colored Opinions, Black Star News, the Newsline EA (East Africa) and her own website, Ann Garrison, and produces for AfrobeatRadio on WBAI-NYC, Weekend News on KPFA and her own YouTube Channel, AnnieGetYourGang. She can be reached at ann@afrobeatradio.com.

Jailhouse snitch used against Aiyana’s dad

Adrian — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:57:36 +0000

by Diane Bukowski

Charles Jones and his daughter, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, before she was killed by police

Detroit – Mertilla Jones, grandmother of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, the 7-year-old killed by Detroit police last year in a SWAT-style assault on her home, held Aiyana’s mother Dominika Stanley tightly in her arms as both wept uncontrollably in an elevator at 36th District Court in downtown Detroit Dec. 22.

They had just left the third session of the preliminary exam for Aiyana’s father, Charles Jones, 27, who faces first-degree murder and other charges in the killing of Je’Rean Blake two days before the police raid that killed Aiyana. They had hoped her father would be able to be home with his six little boys for Christmas.

“It will be another Christmas without Aiyana, and now it will be a Christmas without my son,” Jones said. “My sister is sick, I am sick, my family is suffering, but Officer Weekley, who killed Aiyana, is home for the holidays with his family on personal bond. It’s a total conflict of interest that Moran, the same prosecutor against my son, is also the prosecutor against Weekley.”

Charles Jones and Aiyana's mother Dominika Stanley at her funeral; some of Jones' little sons are at left.

The prosecution appears to be pulling out all stops to convict Jones, whose family believes it is a veiled attempt to get Weekley exonerated of charges of manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm.

Weekley shot Aiyana to death on May 16, 2010, in the course of the Special Response Team raid that included tossing a “flash-bang” grenade through the window under which she was sleeping with her grandmother. An insider who saw the initial film taken by A & E’s “First 48” camera crew of the raid said it shows without a doubt that Weekley aimed and shot deliberately into the house from its doorway within seconds after the grenade was thrown.

However, he said, the cameraman took the first film out after he saw police rushing out with Aiyana’s body, and replaced it with a second tape.

Police officer Joseph Weekley, who killed 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones

Detroit police said they were looking for Chauncey Owens, the fiancé of Aiyana’s aunt, who lived in the flat upstairs from Mertilla Jones and her family, in a poor neighborhood on Detroit’s East Side. They said they had a warrant charging him in the Blake killing.

There was a heavier than usual police presence in the court due to expectations that 36th District Court Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes might dismiss charges against Aiyana’s father this time. Owens, who had confessed to shooting Blake, refused for the third time to testify that Jones gave him the gun. His attorney, David Cripps, speaking for him, said the immunity agreement offered by the prosecution did not provide immunity against a charge of perjury.

Chauncey Owens listens to his attorney at an earlier exam.

Owens pled guilty to second-degree murder with a provision that he would “tell the truth” about the incident that occured in April of this year. This time, Moran told Owens he would face first-degree murder charges if he did not testify. Owens, however, remained calm, collected and silent.

Cripps and Jones’ attorney, Leon Weiss, of the law firm of Fieger, Fieger, Kenney, Giroux and Danzig, objected that only the presiding judge in the case, Wayne County Circuit Court Richard Skutt, could vacate the plea agreement. Judge Bryant-Weekes agreed.

Assistant Prosecutor Robert Moran

Moran has appeared to have no other case against Jones. He has not introduced the gun involved into evidence. He has produced no forensic testimony regarding fingerprints on the gun or other proof it belonged to Jones, or witnesses who said they saw Jones give Owens the gun to shoot Blake.

But at the 11th hour, Moran offered testimony from what Jones’ defense attorney Leon Weiss called a “jailhouse snitch,” Jay Schlenkerman, 49.

Moran said Schlenkerman gave a statement Nov. 26, 2011, that Owens bragged about the Blake killing to him and said Jones provided the gun, while both were incarcerated in Wayne County Jail.

Cripps earlier said that Owens was being held “in high-security protection at Wayne County Jail, separate from other inmates,” after Owens’ sentencing in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Skutt was adjourned for the fourth time Dec. 2.

36th District Court Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes

At Weiss’ request, Bryant-Weekes adjourned the preliminary exam until Thursday, Jan. 28, at 1:30 p.m. so that he could prepare a brief arguing that Schlenkerman’s testimony should be excluded, in response to a brief filed that morning by Moran to allow it.

Despite Weiss’ passionate plea to allow his client a “reasonable bond” on a tether over the holidays, Bryant-Weekes remanded Jones back to Wayne County Jail. Weiss said Jones, who appears to have lost a significant amount of weight, is still grieving for his daughter.

Jay Schlenkerman – photo from Facebook

According to jail, court and Michigan State Police records, Schlenkerman has a lengthy criminal record. He is Caucasian, has resided in various downriver suburbs, and runs a business called Comet Floor Coverings, based both in Rockwood and Brownstown Township, according to Wayne County Clerk assumed names records. It has a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Comet-Floor-Covering/202555589776866?v=info.

Schlenkerman was briefly brought into the courtroom by sheriffs, but through the courtroom door instead of the holding cells in back. A call to Wayne County Jail Dec. 24, however, revealed that he is still incarcerated. As he waited, expecting to testify that day, he appeared friendly and jocular with one police officer accompanying him.

Schlenkerman was most recently detained May 28, 2011, by Brownstown Township Police, who alleged felony kidnapping in their request for a warrant.

The charges were reduced in 33rd District Court to aggravated domestic violence, a misdemeanor. Schlenkerman was also charged with violating a personal protection order and contempt of court. He pled “no contest” and was sentenced to six months in jail with 34 days credit for time served, on July 1. That means his release date should have been approximately Nov. 26, the date of his alleged statement.

Schlenkerman also received 18 months probation, during which he is to have his driving privileges revoked for 36 weeks, cannot use alcohol or drugs, or have any contact with the victim.

In chronological order, Schlenkerman’s prior criminal record is as follows:

July 24, 1999: One count misdemeanor domestic violence, after arrest by the Southgate police; sentenced to 93 days in jail.
May 26, 2000: One count misdemeanor operating while intoxicated and one count felony operating while impaired, third offense notice, after arrest by Melvindale police; 90 days Wayne County Jail, two years probation.
Aug. 29, 2000: Misdemeanor driving with license suspended, revoked, denied, arrested by Dearborn Heights police; 90 days in jail.
March 14, 2001: Misdemeanor driving with suspended license, misdemeanor alcohol open container in vehicle, arrested by Taylor Police; 60 days in jail, 12 months probation.
Nov. 27, 2001: Misdemeanor driving with suspended license, arrested by Michigan State Police in Lenawee County; 35 days in jail.
April 4, 2002: Misdemeanor driving with suspended license, second or subsequent charge, arrested by Monroe County Sheriffs, fines and costs.
Oct. 17, 2002: Misdemeanor driving with suspended license, second or subsequent charge, arrested by Blissfield police; 93 days in jail, six months probation.
Dec. 13, 2003: Misdemeanor operating while intoxicated, third offense notice, arrested by Rockwood police; 60 days in jail, two years probation.
Aug. 9, 2005: Assaulting, resisting, obstructing police officer under MCL 750,81D1, a two year felony, arrested by Northville Township police; 60 days in jail.
Sept. 29, 2005: Misdemeanor driving with suspended license, second or subsequent offense, arrested by Lenawee County Sheriff; one year in jail.

Mertilla Jones, left, at candlelight vigil for Aiyana, with her father Charles Jones and mother Dominika Stanley at right

In many of the cases, Schlenkerman had numerous instances of “capias,” or failure to appear for a hearing, including sentencing hearings. There is no record that bench warrants were issued for his arrest in these instances.

According to Michigan law, a third or subsequent offense of drunk driving carries a term of up to five years in prison, no matter how long ago the previous offense occurred. A second or subsequent offense of operating with a suspended or revoked license carries up to one year in prison.

Wayne County records show that Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Maggie Drake sentenced Schlenkerman to two days to five years in state prison for probation violations in February of 2006, the most severe sentence he received. But State Police records do not show that sentence was carried out and he is not listed on the Michigan Department of Corrections Offender Tracking Information website.

Detroit-based journalist Diane Bukowski is the publisher of The Voice of Detroit, “the city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought,” where this story first appeared. She was an investigative reporter for the past decade for the Michigan Citizen newspaper and has been an activist in union and people’s struggles for 40 years. She can be reached at diane_bukowski@hotmail.com.

Cynthia McKinney: U.S. war machine pervades Africa

Mary — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:55:22 +0000

by Cynthia McKinney

Most people know about being “sleepless in Seattle.” Well, I am “snowed in in Seattle!” But even 6 inches of snow in Seattle don’t keep me from becoming steamed when I read the latest news reports on the activities of the U.S. war machine:

A U.S. commando special operations team deployed near Iran “is to mentor military units belonging to the U.S.’ oil-rich Arab allies, who … consider Iran to be their primary foreign threat,” according to wired.com’s Danger Room. – Photo: Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ashley Myers, U.S. Navy

At a time when U.S.-Iran tensions are the highest I have experienced in my lifetime, Danger Room of wired.com breaks a news story on Jan. 19, 2012, that a new United States commando special operations team is operating near Iran. Meanwhile, a columnist in Lebanon’s The Daily Star newspaper writes that Syria increasingly looks like Libya.

And at the same time, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta admits in a press conference that he believes that the annual number of sexual assaults in the U.S. military could number as high as 19,000. This is from the administration that shamefully accused the Libyan Jamahiriya military of issuing Viagra to its soldiers and using rape as a weapon.

And finally, coming hot on the heels of an Algeria-ISP report that the Obama administration offered to reconstitute the Libyan military, forming desert troops, special forces and a Libyan air force, tunisiefocus.com reports that U.S. troops are already in Libya – in Brega, Ras Lanouf and Sirte – in order to secure Libyan oil for Western markets at a very cheap price. Further, these reports indicate that U.S. troops are at Mitiga Air Base east of Tripoli and that NATO helicopters and war planes fly over Libyan towns, surveilling everything, including parties held by Libyans and that drones launched from a secret base in the Libyan desert surveille Libya and neighboring countries.

Cynthia McKinney’s smile suggests that being snowed in isn’t all misery.

Last week, I discussed numerous reports that I had read indicating that U.S. troops were on the island of Malta waiting for the word to deploy to Libya. If the above reports are correct, then it would appear that that word has been given. [In a Jan. 22 email, Cynthia McKinney points to a Jan. 21 story by Press TV, “US deploys 12,000 troops in Libya.”]

Interestingly, the presence of U.S. troops was reported in several African, Libyan and Russian online sites, yet there was no response from either Malta or the U.S. In fact, the Russian site za-afriku.ru as late as Jan. 19, 2012, wrote, “The administration of the United States still has not refuted a lot of messages in various media for the transfer of 12,000 troops on Malta as a preliminary step to the further redeployment in Libya in order to control the deteriorating situation in the country.”

I am pleased to report that both Malta and the U.S. embassy in Malta, while neglecting the many reports out there describing U.S. and NATO activities in Libya, felt compelled to respond to my report of this information in apparently coordinated responses. The government of Malta stated in its one line response, “The allegations are completely false.” The U.S. embassy in Malta followed suit.

Both Malta and the U.S. embassy in Malta, while neglecting the many reports out there describing U.S. and NATO activities in Libya, felt compelled to respond to my report.

However, I want to stress that while the responses are welcome and appreciated, given events of the recent past, it is U.S. activities in Libya that are of utmost concern at this moment. All U.S. troops must be brought home, yet the following video was posted today of the U.S. war machine on the roll, destination unknown:

As you watched that video (one of four YouTube videos of the same train, this one made by Andrew Tuckman, who wrote: “I began filming this after a dozen or so train cars went by on a stretch of track south of Santa Cruz, California. Where are the military vehicles going? Why are they being shipped? What could this possibly be for? Barack Obama, what are you up to?”), I hope you thought about the number of teachers or nurses or solar heating systems that could be procured with the money wasted on this massive number of tanks, going where?

TunisieFocus.com uses this photo to illustrate its Jan. 18, 2012, story, “Les américains débarquent en Libye” (“Americans debark in Libya”).

Well, right now, the U.S. admittedly has special forces in Uganda and South Sudan, 9,000 troops in Kuwait, radar and, for the first time ever, U.S. troops in Israel. Drone bases across the African continent are in Djibouti, Seychelles, Ethiopia and Kenya. On drones, Human Rights Watch says, “CIA drone strikes have become an almost daily occurrence around the world, but little is known about who is killed and under what circumstances.”

Drone strikes occur in Somalia and bases are expanding to the Arabian Peninsula. Even worse, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an adjunct to the U.S. war machine, has affiliates all over the world – just ask Nicaragua and Venezuela about their experiences with the NED

This photo, illustrating the Jan. 19 story, “Hundreds of American troops landed on the coast of Libya,” on za-afriku.ru, has no caption in the English translation, but the file is called “USA-jokes.”

Nigerian military sources have confirmed for African news outlets that U.S. troops are scheduled to be deployed to Nigeria after AFRICOM’s 2008 war game scenario that saw 20,000 U.S. troops maintaining “security” of the Niger Delta oil fields within a dissolved and anarchistic Nigeria. That war game setting was 2013. This is Plan Colombia.

Does the Obama administration plan an African continent-wide Plan Colombia? Why such a militarization of U.S. relationships all over the world – and even here at home? Will chaos and wars – like what is happening in Libya today – be created all over Africa and the rest of Asia?

Does the Obama administration plan an African continent-wide Plan Colombia? Will chaos and wars – like what is happening in Libya today – be created all over Africa and the rest of Asia?

Last week, I sent a video of Amnesty International admitting that the allegation of “African mercenaries” in Libya was a lie; at the time, it was the U.S. and NATO that had employed mercenaries – not only the Qataris, U.S. contractors, Italians, French and British special forces, but also including the members of the National Transitional Council. That message also included a video of an African beaten to death by these Libyan U.S./NATO allies.

In a position paper for the National Defense University authored by Gen. William E. “Kip” Ward, commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), this photo is captioned: “Marine teaches Ghanaian soldier to use compass during military-to-military familiarization event.” – Photo: Nicole Teat, U.S. Marine Corps

That message went viral and forced a response from the authorities. Please circulate this message widely so that maybe we can get some more responses from the administration about its policy direction. Contact the White House; tell them to bring our young men and women home, keep the tanks home and don’t use them.

Tell the White House that you will cast your vote for peace – to stop the drones and bring our troops home.

Cynthia McKinney, former congresswoman and presidential candidate, is the people’s peace ambassador to the world.

Finally, a sad day in journalism continues. I just received word that the owner of the Atlanta Jewish Times, Andrew Adler, apologized for saying that the Israeli government ought to consider killing Barack Obama. This is outrageous. I have been “deconstructed” by this very same publication, so I am doubly saddened by this kind of loose talk by someone of authority and responsibility at the Atlanta Jewish Times indicating that assassinating President Obama should be an option that remains on the table for Israel to carry out. Enuff said.

For news from, by and about Cynthia McKinney, former Georgia congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, subscribe to her Updates at http://lists.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/listinfo.cgi/updates-allthingscynthiamckinney.com. She can be reached at Cynthia@runcynthiarun.org.

Martin Luther King Day Special on KPFA Jan. 16, 2012, 8 a.m., featuring an interview with Cynthia McKinney by host Minister of Information JR Valrey

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Restoring hope for Black farmers and a healthy Black community

Mary — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 04:14:11 +0000

by Kenneth Hill for the Food Guardians

Kenneth Hill in the Bridgeview Community Garden – Photo: Christopher D. Cook

Throughout American history, African-Americans have landed on the short end of discrimination. So, as I surfed through the website of the National Black Farmers Association, an organization dedicated to the advancement of African-American farmers, my attention was immediately captured by a glaring banner stating, “Black Farmers Awarded $1.15 Billion in Settlement.” As I processed the statement, my curiosity began to grow and my computer mouse raced to “click to read more.”

As I sat and waited for my computer to load the next page, my mind began to explore the different possibilities as to why Black farmers were being paid $1.15 in settlements. As I began to read, my eyes and mind consumed the article, reading every word, as it excited my curiosity. As I read further, a sense of gratitude came over me as I learned that the U.S. government had awarded Black farmers $1.15 billion on the basis of discrimination.

My sense of gratitude stemmed from the always controversial topic of reparations for African-Americans. As an African-American who supports the idea of reparations, I believe that the U.S. government’s actions are just, timely and needed. In this case, the government has recognized its faults in a reasonable time, provided more than an apology for their unethical actions, and is giving Black famers that which is overdue to them.

This historic civil rights class-action suit has validated the claims made by Black farmers for decades: that Black farmers were systematically denied USDA loans and farm subsidies that were made available to white farmers with similar credit histories. USDA farm loans and subsidies are an essential part of a farmer’s operating budget and safety net, and this systematic denial of equal rights has resulted in a decline of Black farmers at more than three times the rate of white farmers. Black farmers now make up only 1 percent of the nation’s farmers.

In 1999, Timothy Pigford made a claim of discrimination against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, stating that he was denied U.S. farming money because he is Black. After being denied U.S. Agricultural funds, he joined with other Black farmers in a class action suit, Pigford v. Glickman. The suit claimed that the U.S. Department of Agriculture discriminated against Black farmers and failed to properly investigate the claims of discrimination.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture only owned up to their faults through an approved settlement agreement and consent decree in Pigford v. Glickman on April 14, 1999, by Judge Paul L. Friedman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Judge Friedman’s actions were just; however, his just actions were cut short. Not all Black farmers were granted money in this settlement.

These African-American farmers kept fighting until they eventually got justice. Thousands of African-American farmers claimed they did not receive adequate representation, which resulted in delays while filing their claims. The settlement agreement imposed by Judge Friedman on behalf of the U.S. government deemed 22,721 farmers eligible and set the deadline of Sept. 12, 2000, for submitting applications.

By November 2010, 15,642 of the 22,721 eligible class members had received an approval from the courts to be paid. The other 7,079 eligible class members were those who claimed inadequate representation, in addition to thousands of farmers deemed ineligible and others who were unaware of the proceedings in the initial Pigford claim.

But in due time, as America was preparing to elect the nation’s first African-American president, the U.S. government approved a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill that set aside money for African-American farmers who “Farmed or attempted to farm between January 1, 1981, and December 31, 1996; Applied to the USDA during that time period for participating in a federal farm credit or benefit program and believe that they were discriminated against on the basis of race in the USDA’s response to that application; or Filed a discrimination complaint on or before July 1, 1997, regarding the USDA’s treatment of such farm credit or benefit application.” An early estimate from the U.S. government expects more than 70,000 Black farmers to be eligible for funds under the 2008 Farm Bill provision.

“Black people have been bullied out of their way of life for many years, and to see my friends and family made whole is a blessing,” said Isaiah Young. Though some will be made whole, we can’t shy away from reality. The high number of African American communities across the nation impacted by the decline of African American farmers seems to go hand in hand with the lack of access to fruits and vegetables within African American communities.

“Black people have been bullied out of their way of life for many years, and to see my friends and family made whole is a blessing.”

San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point, a largely African American district, has deep farming roots, and once played a critical role in the city’s foodshed, according to a report on agriculture and the Bayview by Quesada Gardens Initiative. The Quesada Garden Initiative has compiled a detailed report of Bayview’s history with food and farming, which contrasts with the current lack of access to fruits and vegetables.

The report states that “Bayview Hunters Point is a neighborhood where fresh, healthy food is hard to find, but liquor, fast food and highly processed food and beverages abound.” A lack of fruits and vegetables was not always an issue in Bayview; this report states that “ocean and bay fishing, slaughter houses, rail lines, ‘truck farms,’ pastures for grazing animals and family farms all proliferated here, [in addition to] immigrant families raising animals, vegetables and fruit as part of the community’s daily life.”

But due to many factors, including the redevelopment of the district and the U.S. government’s discrimination against African American farmers, the Bayview, once a farming district, is now saturated with liquor stores and fast food chains. These convenience food outlets sell cheap foods and beverages that are high in salt and sugar, which is a catalyst for the disproportionate rates of diabetes and hypertension that Bayview residents suffer.

In contrast to the fast food chains and liquor stores, the SEFA Food Guardians have been raising awareness by promoting nutrition education and advocating for change, in addition to gathering community input to assuring a lasting change. The Food Guardians raise awareness by educating the community about healthier food options and the importance of eating healthier, as well as linking oppression to these food issues.

The high number of African American communities across the nation impacted by the decline of African American farmers seems to go hand in hand with the lack of access to fruits and vegetables within African American communities.

The Food Guardians also advocate for change by attending many health fairs and meetings, advocating for progressive public policy and utilizing community input to create sustainable change. Creating sustainable change is important to the Food Guardians and essential to the growth of the African-American community.

In an attempt to insure sustainable change, on Dec. 8, 2010, President Obama signed legislation that renders $1.15 billion in damages to African American farmers on the basis of discrimination. On Sept. 1, 2011, the litigation came to an end and the $1.15 billion was approved for payout. U.S. District Court Judge Paul Friedman deemed this settlement to be “fair, adequate, and reasonable.” We now need to work together to fight for access to healthier foods and healthier neighborhoods that are fair, adequate and reasonable for all.

Contact the Food Guardians through Tracey Patterson, Food Guardian project coordinator, at tpatterson@southeastsf.org or (415) 581-2444.

The way to occupy a bank is to own one

Mary — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 06:05:38 +0000

by Ellen Hodgson Brown

Supervisor John Avalos, who is leading the movement for a municipal bank in San Francisco, speaks at a SF Occupy rally against predatory private banks. – Photo: Steve Rhodes

The campaign to “move your money” has gotten a groundswell of support. Having greater impact would be to “move our money” — move our local government revenues out of Wall Street banks into our own publicly-owned banks.

Occupy Wall Street has been both criticized and applauded for not endorsing any official platform. But there are unofficial platforms, including one titled the “99% Declaration” which calls for a “National General Assembly” to convene on July 4, 2012, in Philadelphia. The “99% Declaration” seeks everything from reining in the corporate state to ending the Fed to eliminating censorship of the Internet.

But none of these demands seems to go to the heart of what prompted Occupiers to camp out on Wall Street in the first place – a corrupt banking system that serves the 1 percent at the expense of the 99 percent. To redress that, we need a banking system that serves the 99 percent.

Occupy San Francisco has now endorsed a plan aimed at doing just that. In a Dec. 1 Wall Street Journal article titled “Occupy Shocker: A Realistic, Actionable Idea,” David Weidner writes:

“[P]rotesters in the Bay Area, especially Occupy San Francisco, have something their East Coast neighbors don’t: a realistic plan aimed at the heart of banks. The idea could be expanded nationwide to send a message to a compromised Washington and the financial industry.

“It’s called a municipal bank. Simply put, it would transfer the City and County of San Francisco’s bank accounts – about $2 billion now spread between such banks as Bank of America Corp., UnionBanCal Corp. and Wells Fargo & Co. – into a public bank. That bank would use small local banks to lend to the community.”

The public bank concept is not new. It has been proposed before in San Francisco and has a successful 90-year track record in North Dakota. Weidner notes that the state-owned Bank of North Dakota earned taxpayers more than $61 million last year and reported a profit of $57 million in 2008, when Bank of America had a $1.2 billion net loss. The San Francisco bank proposal is sponsored by city Supervisor John Avalos, who has been thinking about a municipal bank for several years.

Weidner calls the proposal “the boldest institutional stroke yet against banks targeted by the Occupy movement.”

Responding to the critics

He acknowledges that it will be an uphill climb. In a follow-up article on Dec. 6, Weidner wrote:

“Of course, there are critics. … They argue that public banks would put public money at risk. Would you be surprised to know that most of the critics are bankers?

“That’s why you don’t hear them talking about the $100 billion they lost for the California pension funds in 2008. They don’t talk about the foreclosures that have wrought havoc on communities and tax revenues. They don’t talk about liar loans and what kind of impact that’s had on the economy, employment and the real estate market – not to mention local and state budgets.”

Risk to the taxpayers remains the chief objection of banker opponents. “There is no need for such lending,” they say. “We already provide loans to any creditworthy applicant who comes to us. Why put taxpayer money at risk, lending for every crackpot scheme that some politician wants to waste taxpayer money on?”

Tom Hagan, who pays taxes in Maine, has a response to that argument. In a Dec. 3 letter to the editor in the Press Herald (Portland), he maintained there is no need to invest public bank money in risky retail ventures. The money could be saved for infrastructure projects, at least while the public banking model is being proven. The salubrious result could be to cut local infrastructure costs in half. Making his case in conjunction with a Maine turnpike project, he wrote:

“Why does Maine pay double for turnpike improvements?

“Improvements are funded by bonds issued by the Maine Turnpike Authority, which collects the principal amounts, then pays the bonds back with interest.

“Over time, interest payments add up to about the original principal, doubling the cost of turnpike improvements and the tolls that must be collected to pay for them. The interest money is shipped out of state to Wall Street banks.

“Why not keep the interest money here in Maine, to the benefit of all Mainers? This could be done by creating a state-owned bank. State funds now deposited in low- or no-interest checking accounts would instead be deposited in the state bank.

“Those funds would be used to buy up the authority bonds and municipal bonds issued by the Maine Bond Bank. All of them. Since all interest payments would flow into the state treasury, we would end up paying half what we now pay for our roads, bridges and schools.

“North Dakota has profited from a state-owned bank for 90 years. Why not Maine?”

The state bank could generate “bank credit” on its books, as all chartered banks are authorized to do. This credit could then be used to buy the bonds. The government’s deposits would not be “spent” but would remain in the government’s account, as safe as they are in Bank of America – arguably more so, since the solvency of the public bank would be guaranteed by the local government.

Critics worry about the profligate risk-taking of politicians, but the trusty civil servants at the Bank of North Dakota insist that they are not politicians; they are bankers. Unlike the Wall Street banks that had to be bailed out by the taxpayers, the Bank of North Dakota invests conservatively. It avoided the derivatives and toxic mortgage-backed securities that precipitated the credit crisis, and it helped the state avoid the crisis by partnering with local banks, helping them with capital and liquidity requirements. As a result, the state has had no bank failures in at least a decade.

With intelligent use of the ever-evolving Internet, truly effective public oversight can minimize any cronyism. California’s pension funds might have avoided losing $100 billion if, instead of gambling in the Wall Street casino, they had invested in infrastructure through the state’s own state bank.

The constitutional challenge

In Weidner’s Wall Street Journal article, he raises another argument of opponents – that California law forbids using taxpayer money to make private loans. That, he said, would have to be changed.

The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has held otherwise. In 1920, the constitutional objection was raised in conjunction with the Bank of North Dakota and was rejected both by the Supreme Court of North Dakota and the U.S. Supreme Court. See Green v. Frazier, 253 U. S. 233 (1920) and fuller discussion here.

A municipal bank would be doing with the public’s funds only what Bank of America does now: It would be lending “bank credit” backed by the bank’s capital and deposits. The difference would be that the local community, not Florida or Europe, would get the loans; and the City and County of San Francisco, not Bank of America, would get the profits.

California and many other states already own infrastructure banks that use the states’ funds to back loans. If that use of public monies is legal and if public funds can be deposited in Bank of America and used as the basis for loans to multinational corporations, they can be deposited in the Bank of San Francisco and used as the basis for loans to the local community.

Better yet, they can be used to buy municipal bonds. Investing in municipal bonds would avoid the constitutional issue with “private loans” altogether, since the loans would be to local government.

Sending a message to Wall Street

The campaign to “move your money” has gotten a groundswell of support, but move your money into what? Weidner repeats the complaint of critics that private credit unions have gotten too big and threaten commercial banking. Having greater impact would be to “move our money” – move our local government revenues out of Wall Street banks into our own publicly-owned banks, which could then generate credit for the local economy and public works.

Ellen Brown is an attorney in Los Angeles and president of the Public Banking Institute. In “Web of Debt,” her latest of 11 books, she shows how a private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves and how we the people can get it back. Her websites are WebofDebt.com, where this story first appeared, and EllenBrown.com. She can be reached at ellenhbrown@gmail.com.

Picking up the pieces: Kenneth Harding’s mother calls on community to march for justice this Sunday

Adrian — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:55:36 +0000

Surround Candlestick Stadium during NFC championship game; gather at Third & Palou at noon Sunday, Jan. 22, to march to Candlestick

by Denika Chatman

Hi, my name is Denika Chatman and I am the mother of Kenneth Harding Jr. Many of you know that my son was brutally murdered by the San Francisco police on July 16, 2011, over a $2 Muni transit fare. Since the murder of my son, my life has drastically changed. I have left my hometown of Seattle, Washington, and my livelihood and relocated here with my 4-year-old daughter Mi’Neika to stand for righteousness while seeking justice for the murder of my son.

It has been almost six months since my son was killed and there are still unanswered questions. The City and County of San Francisco is not trying to help me find out why the police murdered my son. There were video cameras located on the city property where my son was murdered. The police confiscated them and have not released any evidence that their officers committed a justifiable homicide. There have also been many videos released on YouTube showing in full detail the murder of my son. The city will not help me for being a victim of a violent crime. I haven’t even grieved the loss of my son because I’m out on the front line with my frontrunners forcing the issue of justice.

Kenneth, Ondrell Harding as children with mom Denika Chatman

It has been extremely hard trying to pick up the pieces in my life. My life is no longer about me. Since relocating here, I have become an activist, an active protester and a public speaker. My life purpose now is to prevent any other child from experiencing such a heinous death. I have been active within the Bayview Hunters Point community. I have been going into the high schools, colleges and universities reaching out to the youth and building awareness that this is happening and trying to create prevention so that no other parent has to experience this. I have spoken out against police brutality at several events including the 44th annual Black Panther Party reunion.

Since relocating here, I have become an activist, an active protester and a public speaker. My life purpose now is to prevent any other child from experiencing such a heinous death.

It was extremely hard getting through the holidays without my son. I don’t have a mother, father or grandmother; everyone has passed away. All I have is my kids and grandkids, who are still in Seattle except for my baby. The community has supported me and adopted me; however, I also needed help from different organizations and agencies and was turned away. Why won’t they help me? Everyone who came out in the beginning while the cameras were rolling offering their help and support disappeared when the cameras shut off. The community, however, remained on the front line in solidarity with me.

Kenneth Harding Jr.

We have started the Kenneth Harding Jr. Foundation and we need donations. I need transportation to remain in my son’s movement. I have to travel back and forth to the city and I need help. It’s cold and I have a baby and it makes it difficult to get around. The foundation also needs startup money so that we can obtain the materials that we need to be effective to the youth of the community. I’m personally seeking financial help to help me within this new life. We need T-shirts, venues and a vehicle donated to help us with this movement.

I would like you to know that this fight for justice is not just about what happened to my son. This is about standing up and fighting back against police brutality and other injustices committed by the police and the 1 percent alike. Many people, such as DeBray Carpenter (aka Fly Benzo), Pladee Clayton and Kilo Perry have had their rights violated, have been assaulted and incarcerated for openly speaking out against the police and the murder of my son. Witnesses have been pulled over and threatened by the police that their parole or probation will be violated if they say anything. Kilo Perry went to jail for being in the community collecting witnesses. DeBray and Pladee are fighting bogus charges in court for attending a press conference and openly speaking out about what they witnessed the police do to my child.

This fight for justice is not just about what happened to my son. Many people, such as DeBray Carpenter (aka Fly Benzo), Pladee Clayton and Kilo Perry have had their rights violated, have been assaulted and incarcerated for openly speaking out against the police and the murder of my son.

We have to fight back, but it takes more than me; it takes a community. These brothers need help so that they don’t face any more jail time for standing up for what’s right. We need to continue to support them. DeBray needs donations to help pay off his bail. I need you to continue to support me and this movement. The power is in the people, not in politics; the power is in numbers.

Activists Fly Benzo (DeBray Carpenter) and Kilo Perry have stayed the course after pledging here, following the big press conference last July 18, two days after the police murder of Kenneth Harding, to fight for justice. – Photo: Malaika Kambon

We are the majority; we can’t let history repeat itself. We have to move forward, and that starts with us standing as one for a righteous change. We need to teach one another; what if it was your child? Many have come before me and it’s time for the killing, brutality, terrorizing and occupation of our communities by the police to stop.

What if it was your child? Many have come before me and it’s time for the killing, brutality, terrorizing and occupation of our communities by the police to stop.

I would like to thank Minister Christopher and the Nation of Islam for the continued support spiritually, financially and mentally. I would like to thank Rev. Brown and the NAACP for their contribution and getting me through the midnight hour. I also would like to thank Bishop Lee for allowing me to call upon him every time I needed to leave my burdens at the altar. Mr. Willie Ratcliff and Mary, you guys are great and I really appreciate you. JR, the minister of information, I need you to know that we ride together. You all should know that when my son was killed, JR travelled to Seattle to make sure me and my children were all right. He also brought Malcolm X’ grandson with him, and that’s a life experience I will always be grateful for.

Since they murdered Kenneth Harding Jr. on July 16, 2011, SFPD has intensified its repression and terrorism in Bayview Hunters Point, repeatedly brutalizing anyone who speaks out for justice, especially Fly Benzo, a leader of the resistance and a hero to the community. Following this police assault in November – in broad daylight in front of many witnesses in Mendell Plaza near where Kenneth bled to death – he was arrested and still faces four years in prison for the ridiculous charge of assaulting the police.

To my surviving children and grandchildren, I love you dearly and always. To the family of Oscar Grant, I will never be able to thank you enough for helping me get through the hurt and pain and for being here for me and my family. To my board members, we all ride together and thank you for still being on the front line and not allowing me to go through this alone. Larry Felson, I want to thank you for being a true blessing in my life. To everyone who supports this movement, all my new family, and all the organizations that I stand in solidarity with, I appreciate you and want to personally thank you.

If you would like to submit a donation, you can contact me personally at (323) 519-4177; you can also email me at neikneek@gmail.com. If you would like to be a part of this movement or see everything that we have accomplished, you can log on to Justice 4 Kenneth Wade Harding Jr. on Facebook. For those who don’t know what happened, you can watch the video yourself (see Why should you die for a transfer?) and make your own informed opinion. Kenneth Harding Jr. will live forever in us.

Dear Denika, the Bay View salutes your courage, your dignity and your diligence and persistence and stands ready to help you win justice for your son. As you so eloquently say, “It’s time for the killing, brutality, terrorizing and occupation of our communities by the police to stop.”

Since relocating here, I have become an activist, an active protester and a public speaker. My life purpose now is to prevent any other child from experiencing such a heinous death.

Lumumba is an idea

Mary — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:38:15 +0000

by Lubangi Muniania

Patrice Lumumba

In the 1960s, many African countries acquired independence from colonial powers. The name that gave meaning to the struggle for independence, the right to claim a national identity and to be a human being in Congo was Patrice Emery Lumumba, the founding father of a political order in Congo. He was the first legally elected prime minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from the Kingdom of Belgium in June 1960.

Patrice Emery Lumumba’s party won 41 seats out of 137. After the failure of every maneuver to delay the democratic process, Mr. Lumumba was elected prime minister while Joseph Kasa-Vubu became the president. The Congo became an independent nation on June 30, 1960.

Mr. Lumumba marked the day with a powerful speech before the Belgian king and the newly elected Congolese Parliament. In it he came back to what he had often proclaimed to African audiences, to what was in reality the continent of his childhood memories: the miserable poverty of the colonized peasants and the violence of the colonizer.

In Leopoldville, Belgian Congo, Patrice Lumumba, shown speaking before Parliament on June 17, 1960, won approval to form a government four days later. On June 30, the Congo won its independence from Belgium. – Photo: © Bettmann/CORBIS

A few months before his assassination, Lumumba prophetically declared, “For the people, I have no past, no parents, no family. I am an idea” (Legum 1966:xi). The statement was meant to exonerate him of various ethnic and racial grievances.

His very short period of office as prime minister was an endless calvary. On a daily basis he faced multiple Western manipulations – the incursion of Belgian troops, the rupture of the country’s diplomatic relations with the former colonial power, the mutiny of the national army, the secession of two strategically important mining provinces, Katanga and South Kasai, ethnic and regional tensions all over the country, economic and administrative disasters, the inefficient and improper intervention of United Nations troops – in short, conflicts resulting from the cold war.

Congo Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, shown here under arrest in December 1960, wrote in his last letter to his wife before his assassination: “We are not alone. Africa, Asia, and free and liberated people from every corner of the world will always be found at the side of the Congolese. They will not abandon the light until the day comes when there are no more colonizers and their mercenaries in our country. … History will one day have its say, but it will not be the history that Brussels, Paris, Washington or the United Nations will teach … Do not weep for me, my dear companion. I know that my country, which suffers so much, will know how to defend its independence and its liberty. Long live the Congo! Long live Africa!”

After winning the confidence of all the nationalist parties and their leaders, he was condemned to face numerous internal and external enemies. Lumumba was accused of compromising sacred Western interests in the Congo, and he was abandoned by powerful national friends and allies. He became at odds with the U.N. representatives in Leopoldville and in New York. Even some of his few defenders, such as President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana and other African leaders, accused him of extremism.

Contrary to popular belief, Lumumba cultivated simplicity and humility more than even legitimate ambition and pride. He was convinced of his mission in the Congo and in Africa generally, and he embraced his fate with an awareness of being a hero – martyr of both the Congolese and the African causes.

“I am in a bad position,” he told journalist P. Scholl-Latour, while already under house arrest. “I will maybe have to die for the unity and the independence of my nation. I will maybe have to render a last and great service to the Congo by sacrificing my life. Africa needs martyrs.”

In his last conversation with his minister of foreign affairs Thomas Kanza, he seemed haunted by the same premonitory idea of death and sacrifice: “One of us must sacrifice himself if the Congolese people are to understand and accept the ideal for which we are fighting. My death will hasten the Congo’s liberation and will help us get rid of the imperialist and colonial yoke” (William 1990:437).

This is the last photo taken of Patrice Lumumba. It was taken by a 22-year-old photographer who bribed Congolese soldiers with Polaroid snapshots to gain access. After having led the Congo to independence in June 1960, Lumumba was arrested only a few months later and beaten and humiliated in front of diplomats and journalists. This photo shows him on the truck that would carry him to his execution. A month later, on Jan. 17, 1961, he was executed by a firing squad. His body, which was buried on the spot, was later dug up and dissolved in acid. The bones were ground up and scattered to the winds to make sure there was nothing left of him. The colonel who deposed Lumumba, Joseph Mobutu – later Mobutu Sese Seko – would rule the country despotically until 1997. – Photo: Horst Faas, AP

Patrice Emery Lumumba had a strong personality and a keen sense of pride in his social, political and intellectual successes. He was committed to his ideals; his courage and determination pushed him irresistibly to the battlefield.

Needless to say, since Lumumba was assassinated Jan. 17, 1961, history has spoken, even when intertwined with passions and myths: The son of Africa, Lumumba, is an “idea.” INGETA, INGETA, INGETA!

Lubangi Muniania is an art educator, specializing in the visual and performing arts of Africa. He has worked as director of education at the Museum for African Art in New York, as African art education consultant for the Art Institute of Chicago, and at the Saint Louis Museum of Arts, other museums, festivals and cultural centers. Muniania is currently the president of Tabilulu Productions. He has also produced documentaries and educational events for Harvard, Yale and Columbia universities, City College of New York, United Nations, Africa-America Institute, Session at West 54 for Sony, Africa One for AT&T, African Portrait for NBC, Memories of Lumumba for the Museum for African Art, radio programs and a documentary on the Democratic Republic of Congo for Bill Moyers Journal at PBS. Muniania can be reached at tabiluluproductions@hotmail.com.

Break the silence! Become a friend of the Congo; go to http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/action.

MLK: Amerikkka’s Most Wanted

Mary — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:23:30 +0000

by Truth Minista Paul Scott

“I said it before and I’ll still taunt it. Every young brotha with a color is most wanted.” – Ice Cube, “Amerikkka’s Most Wanted”

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He was considered by some the most dangerous man in America. He spent many nights locked up in jail cells. There were constant attempts made on his life. During his last years, he was constantly harassed by law enforcement. The real reason for his untimely demise before the age of 40 still remains a mystery.

I’m not talking about Grammy nominated rapper Russell “Ol’ Dirty Bastard” Jones; I’m talking about Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Recently, the website Gun.io posted FBI documents suggesting that ODB and the Wu Tang Clan were under surveillance for alleged illegal activities. It must be noted that the late Dr. Martin Luther King was also under surveillance, as documented in Kenneth O’Reilly’s book “Black Americans: The FBI Files,” proving that if you are an outspoken Black man in America, you don’t have to be a criminal for the Feds to watch you.

If you are an outspoken Black man in America, you don’t have to be a criminal for the Feds to watch you.

Although many people today celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King as one of the greatest American heroes, that was not always the case. According to historian Taylor Branch in his book “Pillar of Fire,” former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover referred to King as not only a “tom cat with obsessive degenerate sexual urges” but a “notorious liar” and “one of the lowest characters in the country” – in the Hip Hop vernacular “an ol’ dirty bastard.”

Martin Luther King with Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) and Willie “Mukasa” Ricks, who coined the term Black Power

For most people who are only familiar with King via the overplayed “I Have a Dream Speech,” this may come as quite a shock. How could a man of peace who only wanted “this nation to rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed” become Public Enemy No. 1?

In reality, King was a lot closer to the ideologies of “militants” such as Malcolm X and Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael), especially in his later years, than many people would like to admit. This fact, however, has not been lost on Hip Hop, as even the most revolutionary rappers such as Public Enemy, Immortal Technique and Rakim have all paid homage to him in their songs.

The real Martin Luther King Jr. is captured in the parts of his speeches and writings that have been whited-out of high school history books. Most people don’t know that in his last speech, “I See the Promised Land,” delivered in Memphis the night before he was assassinated, he called for a boycott of Coca Cola, Sealtest Milk and Wonder Bread and also asked that Black people transfer their money from white banks to a Black one.

The legendary meeting of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X

Nor do they know that, although he is portrayed as the great integrationist, King was as just a strong of an advocate of Black Pride as ODB was of “Knowledge of Self.” In his work “Where Do We Go from Here,” King defines Black Power as “a psychological reaction to the psychological indoctrination that led to the creation of the perfect slave.”

Also, although some only associate Dr. King with songs like “We Shall Overcome,” Dead Prez once sampled one of his “missing” speeches where he proclaimed, “Yes I’m Black … I’m proud of it … I’m Black and beautiful!”

Most people don’t know that in his last speech, “I See the Promised Land,” delivered in Memphis the night before he was assassinated, he called for a boycott of Coca Cola, Sealtest Milk and Wonder Bread and also asked that Black people transfer their money from white banks to a Black one.

This is the King that many hated; the one who dissed President Lyndon Johnson’s war in Vietnam by saying that “we have been wrong from the beginning in Vietnam; we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people” – which was just a nicer way of putting Muhammad Ali’s statement that no Vietcong ever called him the N word.

These are the types of voices that many in this country have always wanted silenced.

Now does that mean that at some point, ODB might have stopped a Wu Tang concert and spoken out against George Bush’s “War on Terror?” We will never know, but wild boys do wild things.

Dr. King emerges from a meeting with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in 1964. – Photo: Corbis Bettmann

Remember, in an AllHipHop interview conducted shortly after his release from prison, ODB accused George Bush and the government of trying to kill him. While most people wrote this off as the paranoid ramblings of someone suffering from too many years of drug abuse, history makes us take another look. As they say in Greek mythology, “Those who the gods wish to destroy, they first drive mad.”

It is no secret that the FBI bugged Dr. King’s hotel rooms and, allegedly, had tapes of him gettin’ his freak on with women which they delivered to his wife in an effort to push him to commit suicide.

Also, according to Clay Risen in his book “A Nation on Fire,” before his assassination in Memphis, “the 111th Military Intelligence Group had been keeping tabs on King and the SCLC for signs of an impending riot.” Also Risen states that on the day of King’s murder, anti-riot operations were already put in place by the Army Operations Center “before his death was even confirmed.”

Even Rev. Jesse Jackson wrote in the forward of the book by King’s “alleged” assassin, James Earl Ray, “Who Killed Martin Luther King,” “I have always believed that the government was part of a conspiracy, either directly or indirectly, to assassinate him.”

Dr. King delivers his last sermon, known as “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” in Memphis on April 3, 1968, the night before his assassination.

So what is the connection between the ODBs, Tupac Shakurs and even the Soulja Slims of the world and MLK? Every Black man with a microphone is a potential threat. Whether that threat is realized or not, they all had the potential to incite the youth to revolutionary action.

Every Black man with a microphone is a potential threat.

After all, law enforcement has always paid an inordinate amount of attention to rappers. Recently, it was even reported that the DC police and the ATF set up a fake Hip Hop record label in Washington, D.C.

What if Russell Jones had lived long enough to become more political? What if his ideologies were expanding in the same manner as Dr. King’s? Remember the purpose of J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO was to “prevent the long range growth of militant Black organizations especially among youth.”

Maybe the truth lies in ODB’s haunting words when he bum-rushed the stage at the 1998 Grammy awards, “Wu Tang is for the children. We teach the children!”

And this is America’s greatest fear.

Article courtesy of “This Ain’t Hip Hop,” a column for intelligent Hip Hop headz. TRUTH Minista Paul Scott represents the Militant Mind Militia. He can be reached at (919) 451-8283, militantmindmilitia@gmail.com, http://www.militantmindmilitia.com or Twitter @truthminista.

Rwanda will never be the same, after Victoire Ingabire’s return

Mary — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 06:02:22 +0000

by Ambrose Nzeyimana

“As with the path that the U.S. Civil Rights Movement took after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, nothing in Rwanda will ever be the same after Victoire Ingabire’s defiance of the Rwandan government’s unjust laws. She sparked a spirit of resistance,” writes Ambrose Nzeyimana.

The U.S. Congress called Rosa Parks “the first lady of civil rights” and ”the mother of the freedom movement.” What made her an icon for the American Civil Rights Movement was not mainly her act of defiance of white authority, but the impact it had by prompting the Montgomery Bus Boycott and its transformation of the racial scenery in America. In fact, before her there had been many acts of disobedience against unjust and racist laws of the U.S. government.

On Dec. 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Parks refused to obey bus driver James F. Blake’s order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger. Her defiance was thereafter an important symbol of the movement. Parks became an international icon of resistance to racial segregation.

Victoire Ingabire, as leader of opposition political party FDU-Inkingi, went back to Rwanda two years ago, on Jan. 16, 2010. Upon her arrival, she paid a visit to the Genocide Memorial in Kigali at Gisozi. At the memorial she made the following statement to journalists and the general public:

Rosa Parks is booked into jail Dec. 1, 1955.

“I would like to say that today I came back to my country after 16 years, and there was a tragedy that took place in this country. We know very well that there was a genocide, extermination. Therefore, I could not have returned after 16 years to the same country after such actions took place. They took place when I was not in the country. I could not have fallen asleep without first passing by the place where those actions took place. I had to see the place. I had to visit the place.

“The flowers I brought with me are a sign of remembrance from the members of my party, FDU, and its executive committee. They gave me a message to pass by here and tell Rwandans that what we wish for is for us to work together, to make sure that such a tragedy will never take place again. That is one of the reasons why the FDU Party made a decision to return to the country peacefully, without resorting to violence. Some think that the solution to Rwanda’s problems is to resort to armed struggle. We do not believe that shedding blood resolves problems. When you shed blood, the blood comes back to haunt you.

Victoire Ingabire – her shaved head and pink uniform typical for prisoners in Rwanda – is escorted from prison to court on March 10, 2011.

“Therefore, we in FDU wish that all we Rwandans can work together, join our different ideas so that the tragedy that befell our nation will never happen again. It is clear that the path of reconciliation has a long way to go. It has a long way to go because if you look at the number of people who died in this country, it is not something that you can get over quickly. But then again, if you look around you realize that there is no real political policy to help Rwandans achieve reconciliation. For example, if we look at this memorial, it only stops at people who died during the Tutsi genocide. It does not look at the other side – at the Hutus who died during the genocide. Hutus who lost their people are also sad and they think about their lost ones and wonder, ‘When will our dead ones be remembered?’

“For us to reach reconciliation, we need to empathize with everyone’s sadness. It is necessary that for the Tutsis who were killed, those Hutus who killed them understand that they need to be punished for it. It is also necessary that for the Hutus who were killed, those people who killed them understand that they need to be punished for it too. Furthermore, it is important that all of us, Rwandans from different ethnic groups, understand that we need to unite, respect each other and build our country in peace.

“What brought us back to the country is for us to start that path of reconciliation together and find a way to stop injustices so that all of us Rwandans can live together with basic freedoms in our country.”

“It is important that all of us, Rwandans from different ethnic groups, understand that we need to unite, respect each other and build our country in peace.” – Victoire Ingabire

Immediately after making this public statement, Ingabire was subjected to intimidation and her movements were restricted. She was finally put in prison on Oct. 14, 2010. Despite her imprisonment, her stand and determination have irrevocably shaken the foundations of Paul Kagame’s autocratic military regime.

Belgian Colonel Luc Marchal, center, joined Rwandans demonstrating Nov. 19, 2011, for the release of Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire and other political prisoners. Marchal was second in command at the U.N. Assistance Mission in Rwanda (UNAMIR) in 1994, under Commander Romeo Dallaire. – Photo: FDU-Inkingi

Just as the American Civil Rights Movement wanted to end segregation and discrimination, Ingabire and her coalition of Rwandan opposition parties want to end discrimination against Rwandan Hutus and against Rwandan Tutsis who were not in Uganda prior to 1994. For the sake of all Rwandan people, she has faced Paul Kagame and his government of core Tutsi extremists, calling for freedom and democracy, and for almost a year and a half now, she has been in prison. Her courage and unrelenting will have immensely inspired many of her compatriots to seek peaceful political change in their country, more than at any other time of its recent history.

As with the path that the U.S. Civil Rights Movement took after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus, nothing in Rwanda will ever be the same after Victoire Ingabire’s defiance of the Rwandan government’s unjust laws. She sparked a spirit of resistance.

Nothing in Rwanda will ever be the same after Victoire Ingabire’s defiance of the Rwandan government’s unjust laws. She sparked a spirit of resistance.

On Jan. 16, Rwandans will from now on remember Ingabire’s homecoming. They, in Rwanda and in the Rwandan Diaspora, must now help her carry out the peaceful revolution she started on that day, Jan. 16, 2010, until all Rwandan citizens share the same rights, including freedom of association and speech and the right to elect their leaders and until political prisoners are released.

Rwandan exile, writer and social justice advocate Ambrose Nzeyimana lives in London. His 72-year-old sister has been in prison for years in Rwanda, without charges or any other explanation why.

Ambrose Nzeyimana, coordinator of Organizing for Africa, can be reached at theblogaboutafrica@gmail.com. His website is The Rising Continent: Lions on the Move, where this story first appeared.

Victoire Ingabire engages Rwandan Senate on the plight of political prisoners

by Boniface Twagirimana

On Friday, Jan. 6, 2012, some members of Rwanda’s Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Security accepted a few live questions from prisoners inside the Kigali Central Prison. Political prisoner Victoire Ingabire, chair of the FDU-Inkingi coalition of parties, engaged the senators on the plight of political prisoners in Rwanda and urged them to promote laws granting more freedoms and democracy in the country before they finish their term in the Senate.

This banner, calling on Rwanda to free all political prisoners, led the Sept. 12, 2011, march in Paris.

“What do you think about the issue of political prisoners here? My visitation right has been restricted. I don’t have rights to attend church service or pray with others and was told that no change is to be seen until Easter. You have been appointed for eight years. Rwandans expect your mandate to abolish vague laws that generate political prisoners. People need more freedoms and democracy in this country. Otherwise, there will be no real reconciliation, no sustainable development and no political stability,” she stated, inspiring a wave of applause through the crowd of prisoners.

“People need more freedoms and democracy in this country. Otherwise, there will be no real reconciliation, no sustainable development and no political stability,” Ingabire told the senators.

“She is a bad influence here,” murmured a security officer to a member of the delegation, who whispered, “They are just prisoners.” The visiting members of the Senate promised to discuss the issue.

The delegation was chaired by Sen. Jean Damascene Bizimana, head of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Security. This is no special event, as the committee has been touring various prisons. On Nov. 29, 2011, they visited Nyagatare Prison and the Gabiro community service program for prisoners (TIG).

This banner led the Brussels march Nov. 19, 2011.

Before his appointment to the Senate, Dr. Bizimana, a former minister of infrastructure, held other positions in the government, including executive secretary of the so-called Travaux d’Interêts Générales (TIG), a controversial post-genocide institution that acknowledged that the whereabouts of 27,000 prisoners remain a mystery (Igihe.com, Jan. 4, 2012).

In 2010, a study commissioned by the Rwandan Senate on political pluralism and power sharing in Rwanda revealed that 69 percent of those surveyed believe the fear of authority is the major obstacle to freedom of speech and political space, followed closely by nepotism and the legacy of genocide.

FDU-Inkingi, the coalition of Rwandan political parties led by Victoire Ingabire, welcomes the liberation of an executive member of the party, Gratien Nsabiyaremye, who was abducted and beaten by Capt. Rutaburingoga of the marine unit in Gisenyi on Jan. 2, 2012. Prosecutor Chantal Uwamahoro issued a release order, but Nsabiyaremye is required to report to the local police station every Tuesday.

Boniface Twagirimana, FDU-Inkingi vice president

The impunity granted to Capt. Rutaburingoga, even after he has raided the homes of innocent civilians in the night and beaten people in public, contributes to a climate of terror and uncertainty among the population. This is one of the faces of the current judiciary in Rwanda.

Boniface Twagirimana, interim vice president of the FDU-Inkingi coalition of Rwandan political parties, can be reached at fdu.inkingi.rwa@gmail.com. He concludes this dispatch with a quotation by Victoire Ingabire: “Don’t give up; he will never jail a whole nation.”

Let us honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Mary — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 06:07:36 +0000

by Anh Lê

At the time of his assassination – and likely one of the main reasons for it – Dr. King was shifting his attention to economic rights, having won passage of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

As we celebrate the commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 83rd birthday, let us remember that he not only fought for racial justice and equality, but also called on us to end poverty and eliminate war.

U.S. Census data show that over 20 percent of children in the U.S. live in abject poverty. Studies show that the number of American children going to bed hungry at night is at its highest. This is occurring in this vast land of plenty, a country blessed with rich agricultural production.

The numbers of Americans and families living in poverty have risen to their highest levels since 1993.

The number of unemployed and laid-off Americans, including the long term unemployed, remains high, with the unemployment rates in California and the San Francisco Bay Area higher than the national average.

The U.S. military excursion in Iraq and its war in Afghanistan have cost thousands of Americans’ lives and the lives of tens of thousands of children, women and men in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tens of billions of U.S. taxpayers’ dollars have been spent to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the ongoing war expenditures continue to drain our nation’s budget.

In his lecture when awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, Dr. King stated, “(T)he poor in America know that they live in the richest nation in the world, and that even though they are perishing on a lonely island of poverty they are surrounded by a vast ocean of material prosperity.”

“Just as nonviolence exposed the ugliness of racial injustice, so must the infection and sickness of poverty be exposed and healed – not only its symptoms but its basic causes. This, too, will be a fierce struggle, but we must not be afraid to pursue the remedy no matter how formidable the task.”

Dr. King urged us to affirm peace: “(W)isdom born of experience should tell us that war is obsolete … If we assume that life is worth living and that man has a right to survive, then we must find an alternative to war.”

Let us honor Dr. King in word and in deed.

Editor’s note: All quotations come from Dr. King’s Nobel Lecture, which can be read in full here; a recording of the first portion of that speech can be heard here. According the Nobel Foundation, Nobel Laureates are required “to give a lecture on a subject connected with the work for which the prize has been awarded” in addition to their acceptance speeches. Dr. King’s lecture was delivered Dec. 11, 1964, the day after the award.

Anh Lê is a San Francisco writer and activist born in Vietnam who has worked in the Black community for decades, especially with seniors and young people. He can be reached at anhle213@sbcglobal.net.

MLK Day takes on added significance for 2012

Occupy upsurge and the fight for economic justice continues amid imperialist war threats

by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor, Pan-African News Wire

It was to support these brave sanitation workers, marching here on March 29, 1968, that Dr. King came to Memphis, where, on April 4, 1968, he was assassinated. - Photo: Bettmann/CORBIS

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 83 years old on Jan. 15. His birthday is celebrated every year on the following Monday, when the federal government and other public agencies close down in honor of the iconic civil rights, anti-war and social justice activist who was martyred in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968.

This year the King Day holiday will take on profound significance in light of the political and social developments that have occurred over the last year. Millions have taken to the streets around the world in the fight against poverty, the increased attacks on working people and the oppressed and the need to end imperialist wars.

Since January of last year revolutionary movements have emerged from Tunisia and Egypt to Bahrain and Yemen. The rebellions and general strikes in Tunisia led to the resignation of long-time Western-backed puppet Ben Ali as well as the forced removal of Mubarak in Egypt.

In Morocco, the monarchy was shaken in the midst of mass demonstrations that were largely unprecedented in recent times. Other states throughout the Middle East, Africa and Europe saw popular movements erupt in opposition to rising food prices, the imposition of austerity and the intervention of United States imperialism along with their NATO allies.

British cops arrest and photograph a young man during the rebellion in August 2011.

Workers in European capitalist countries, especially Greece, Spain and Portugal, suffered tremendously from the ongoing world economic crisis. In Britain, Black and working class youth rose up in rebellion in response to the blatant police murder of a Caribbean-British man who was followed and shot to death in cold blood in London.

In Britain, Black and working class youth rose up in rebellion in response to the blatant police murder of a Caribbean-British man who was followed and shot to death in cold blood in London.

Inside the United States, the people’s uprising in Wisconsin was a direct response to the intensifying attacks on public sector workers and their right to collective bargaining. The workers and youth occupied the state capital in Madison for weeks and drew the attention of people throughout the world.

Mississippi cops manhandle Martin Luther King.

The struggle in Wisconsin paid direct tribute to their class brothers and sisters in Egypt. The progressive forces in Egypt, during the same time period, expressed their solidarity with the people in Wisconsin.

This movement of workers and youth, aimed at defending their right to organize and for quality education and a decent wage, spread to other states around the Midwest and nationally. In Ohio, legislative actions that were just as draconian as those passed in Wisconsin prompted mass action by trade unions and their supporters.

In Michigan, the conservative-dominated legislature wasted no time, after securing a majority in Lansing, to enact bills that cut public spending drastically. These cuts resulted in salary reductions, massive layoffs of public sector employees and the obliteration of city services.

The passage of Public Act 4 in Michigan superseded the former Public Act 72 that allowed for the imposition of emergency management of school systems and municipalities. Public Act 4, popularly known now as the “dictator law,” provides for the nullification of the authority of elected officials, the abrogation of labor and vending contracts and the forced payment to the banks of debt-service irrespective of the desires of the electorates or the unions.

Public Act 4, popularly known now as the “dictator law,” provides for the nullification of the authority of elected officials, the abrogation of labor and vending contracts and the forced payment to the banks of debt-service irrespective of the desires of the electorates or the unions.

Public Act 4 has been implemented in several majority African American populated cities, such as Flint and Benton Harbor. Detroit, the largest African American dominated city in the U.S., is under threat of takeover by Gov. Rick Snyder, who has recently appointed a financial review panel in an effort to justify the forcing of the city to accept a consent agreement that could ultimately lead to installation of an emergency manager.

Election years: From 1968 to 2012

The year that Dr. King was killed represented a watershed of mass struggle and urban rebellion. The previous year, 1967, saw over 160 instances of civil unrest throughout the U.S. as well as the emergence of a mass youth movement in opposition to the war in Vietnam.

Although Dr. King was a proponent of nonviolent direct action, he did not condemn the rebellions that swept the country between 1964 and 1968. The civil rights leader viewed the unrest within the urban areas as a result of the failure of the U.S. system to provide adequate living conditions, decent jobs and incomes to the majority of African Americans.

Dr. King did not condemn the rebellions that swept the country between 1964 and 1968 but viewed the unrest as a result of the failure of the U.S. system to provide adequate living conditions, decent jobs and incomes to the majority of African Americans.

In a “Face to Face” television interview conducted on July 28, 1967, just one day after President Lyndon Johnson had announced the appointment of a National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorder,” Dr. King said that “I am not calling for a guaranteed annual wage as a substitute for a guaranteed job. I think that ought to be the first thing, that we guarantee every person capable of working a job” (from “Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr.,” 2001).

Dr. King’s nonviolence was rejected by the Black Power movement, personified by Stokely Carmichael (later Kwame Ture) and Willie “Mukasa” Ricks, shown here, but there was great mutual admiration among them.

Dr. King continued by pointing out that “this can be done in many, many ways. There are many things that we need to be done that could be done that’s not being done now. And this could provide jobs.”

In 1968, Dr. King and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the organization that he founded in 1957 in the aftermath of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, set out to wage a real “war on poverty” by taking thousands of poor people to Washington, D.C., to demand jobs and a guaranteed annual income. In March of 1968, he was invited to Memphis to support a sanitation workers strike that was representative of both the class struggle and the national question.

1968 was an election year just like 2012. Despite the fact that the Democratic and Republican parties have different constituencies, both organizations are controlled by the ruling class of bankers and industrialists.

The failure of the Democratic Party between 1961-68 to effectively resolve the problems of national oppression, discrimination, economic exploitation, poverty and war played a large part in their losing the elections in 1968. Today, even though the Democratic Party commanded a majority in both houses of Congress from 2006 to 2010 and has controlled the White House since 2009, rates of poverty and exploitation are continuing to rise.

The 2010 election results were a reflection of the lack of motivation on the part of working class people and the nationally oppressed to once again support Democratic candidates absent any real improvement in the concrete conditions under which they live. 2011 saw an acceleration of attacks against workers and the oppressed, and the only real defense against these assaults has emanated from the unions, the youth and the oppressed communities themselves.

This is why there needs to be a concerted effort outside the established ruling class parties to address the crises now facing the majority of people inside the U.S. The response of the Department of Homeland Security, operating through local municipal administrations, many of whom are led by Democrats, to the Occupy Wall Street Movement across the country, demonstrates that both of the capitalist-controlled parties do not want to see a real grassroots revolutionary struggle emerge that focuses on the role of the banks and the corporations as the fundamental cause of the economic crisis.

Both of the capitalist-controlled parties do not want to see a real grassroots revolutionary struggle emerge that focuses on the role of the banks and the corporations as the fundamental cause of the economic crisis.

It was the political repression carried out under a democratic administration in 1968 that created the conditions for the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. During that same year, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover declared the Black Panther Party as the leading threat to the national security of the U.S.

After 1967, during the height of the rebellions, the FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) sought to crush the Black Liberation Movement and the anti-war struggle. Scores of activists were killed and imprisoned as the National Guard and conventional military forces were deployed into the cities to smash the rebellions.

Since 2010, the FBI and other branches of the Department of Homeland Security have targeted immigrants, the nationally oppressed, Muslims, anti-war and solidarity activists for deportation, raids, targeted assassination and grand jury subpoenas. In the final days of 2011, President Obama signed into law the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that provides further ammunition for the ruling class to crack down on activists and organizations deemed to be a threat to the status-quo.

2012: Another year of momentous struggle

In all likelihood this year will also be one of protracted struggle and resistance. Signs of this are already developing with the Jan. 16 MLK Day actions in New York City under the banner of Occupy for Jobs. There will be rallies in Union Square in NYC, preceded by a march from Baltimore to Washington, D.C., beginning on Jan. 14, along with other actions in Boston.

Detroit is the focus of a growing mass struggle against the imposition of emergency management. On Jan. 2, over 2,000 people rallied at Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church to say no to the appointment of an emergency manager.

In a statement issued for the Detroit rally on Jan. 2, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs stressed, “The same banks which caused the economic crisis and destroyed the City of Detroit’s tax base with their fraudulent and racist predatory loans resulting in approximately 150,000 foreclosures in the past five years now get first lien on city tax dollars for debt service payments.”

The same banks which caused the economic crisis and destroyed the City of Detroit’s tax base with their fraudulent and racist predatory loans resulting in approximately 150,000 foreclosures in the past five years now get first lien on city tax dollars for debt service payments.

Detroit’s Ninth Annual MLK Day Rally and March will be held under the theme of “Escalating the Struggle for Jobs, Peace and Justice.” Featured speakers will include contributors to the groundbreaking first-person account, “Hands on the Freedom Plow,” which examined the role of women in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the vanguard organization within the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

The emphasis at Detroit’s MLK Day rally, which is always held at Central United Methodist Church downtown, will drive home the need for a cadre-developing organization, a working class orientation, the important role of women and the oppressed and the need to build a movement outside the ruling class-dominated political parties.

Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of Pan-African News Wire, where this story first appeared, can be reached at panafnewswire@gmail.com. Pan-African News Wire, the world’s only international daily pan-African news source, is designed to foster intelligent discussion on the affairs of African people throughout the continent and the world.

Cynthia McKinney: 12,000 U.S. troops bound for Libya

Mary — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 23:23:44 +0000

Thousands of war prisoners under threat of imminent death

by Cynthia McKinney

It is with great disappointment that I receive the news from foreign media publications and Libyan sources that our president now has 12,000 U.S. troops stationed in Malta and they are about to make their descent into Libya.

Ever since war broke out in Libya, the false rumor, given credibility by Amnesty International, that Col. Qaddafi had recruited Black mercenaries to fight the rebels, has made life hell for Blacks in Libya, where nearly half the population is Black. Latent racism, discouraged by Qaddafi, has led to an ethnic cleansing. Right now, thousands in a Misrata prison face imminent death; readers are urged to contact the Red Cross (contact information below).

For those of you who have not followed closely the situation in Libya, the resistance to rule of the National Transitional Council is strong. The National Transitional Council (NTC) cast of characters has about as much support on the ground as did Mahmoud Abbas before the United Nations’ request for Palestinian statehood or Afghanistan’s regal-looking but politically impotent Hamid Karzai or, for that matter, George W. Bush after eight years.

The NTC not only has to contend with a vibrant, well-financed, grassroots-supported resistance, but the various militias of the NTC are now also fighting each other. I believe this “sociocide” of Libyan society, as we previously witnessed in Iraq and Afghanistan before it, is part of a carefully crafted plan of destabilization that ultimately serves U.S. imperial interests and those of a Zionist state and its U.S. agents who are bent on Greater Israel’s suzerainty over huge swaths of Arabic-speaking populations. Pakistan is also on the list for neutering in Muslim and world affairs, saddled with its own unpopular civilian leadership that finds itself in the hip pocket of the United States for survival, often getting sat upon by its fiscal guarantor.

The “Arab Spring” has sprung and the indelible fingerprints of malignant foreign financed operations must be erased if the people are to have a chance to truly govern themselves. Unfortunately, these foreign-inspired organizations are present and operating in just about every country in the world. The threat is ever-present like sleeping cells – all that is needed is that the right word to “activate” be given. Both Daniel Ortega and Hugo Chavez can write tomes on the impact of the National Endowment for Democracy in the political life of their countries.

Handcuffed Blacks executed in Libya are left to lie where they fell. “Libyan war is Black genocide,” said one commentator.

In other words, those who create the chaos have a plan and, in the midst of chaos, they usually are the ones who will win. Those who wrote the plan of this chaos were affiliated with the Project for a New American Century – read A Clean Break if you already haven’t. Gen. Wesley Clark told us of the plan to invade and destroy the governments of seven countries in five years: Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.

“These people took control of the policy in the United States,” Clark continues. He concludes, “This country was taken over by a group of people with a policy coup: Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and … collaborators from the Project for a New American Century: they wanted us to destabilize the Middle East.” Richard Perle, Bill Kristol publicize these plans and “could hardly wait to finish Iraq so they could go into Syria,” Clark goes on. “The root of the problem is the strategy of the United States in this region. Why are Americans dying in this region? That is the issue,” he finishes.

Now, from Libya, reports are that even while the Misrata rebels – NATO allies responsible for the murder of hundreds of Libyans, including Moatessem Qaddafi – attempted to scale the petroleum platforms in Brega, an important oil town in Libya, they were annihilated by the Apache helicopters of their own NATO allies. A resistance Libyan doctor-become-journalist reported Thursday that all of the petroleum platforms are occupied by NATO and that warships occupy Libya’s ports.

Photographs show Italian encampments in the desert with an announcement that the French are to follow. Another news outlet reports that Qataris and Emiratees are the engineers now at the oil plants, turning away desperate Libyan workers. While long lines exist for Libyan drivers to get their gas, foreign troops ensure the black gold’s export. Libyans lack enough food and the basics, the country has been turned upside down and contaminated with uranium while the true number of dead and unaccounted for remains high and unknown.

Tawergha, an agricultural town of about 10,000 that had been nearly all Black for centuries, was destroyed last summer by rebels from neighboring Misrata and its population disappeared. This photo shows men from Tawergha rounded up; they may be some of the thousands in the Misrata prison that the rebels want to execute. As early as June, Misrata rebels began openly talking about “cleansing” the region of Blacks, saying that Black Libyans might as well pack up because “Tawergha no longer exists, only Misrata.”

Thousands of young Libyans, supporters of the Jamahiriya, languish under torture and assassination in a Misrata prison where a humanitarian disaster is about to unfold because Misrata rebels want to kill them all and have already attacked the prison once to do so. An urgent appeal to contact the International Red Cross was issued yesterday to help save the lives of the prisoners.

And finally, Black Libyans continue to be targeted for harassment and murder in Libya by U.S.-NATO allies on the ground. Teaching hate, given the images of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan released yesterday urinating on Afghani dead bodies, is not a difficult thing to do, it would seem. Videos are posted of Black Libyans being beaten, whipped, threatened, harassed and humiliated. These videos remind me of the antebellum South – reminiscent of the days of slavery and the Confederacy.

So, when I use the word “descend” to describe U.S. anticipated actions, I mean just that: U.S. troops are about to descend into the hell on Earth created by their president and the leaders of other countries who approved of, aided or participated in the death of Libyan-owned society. A report from last night indicates that one militia, fearing other militias, even invited foreigners in to protect them.

I hope the report that I’m reading from Jan. 12, 2012, is not true. I hope our president has not sent 12,000 troops of occupation to Malta destined for Libya. Lucy Grider-Bradley of our DIGNITY Delegation just yesterday reminded me of the words of a high-ranking Libyan Jamahiriya Foreign Ministry representative who just happened to be at the Tunisia-Libya border office at the same time we were waiting there. He said, “Let the Americans come. We want them to taste our sandwiches. We will give them the same serving they got in Vietnam.”

Blacks overload a truck, desperate to escape Misrata, on April 18, 2011. – Photo: Chris Hondros

Please write to our president by clicking here and ask him not to send troops of occupation – or whatever “euphemism de jour” this administration chooses to use – to Libya.

To save the lives of the young men in prison, please e-mail the International Red Cross at any or all of the e-mail addresses given below:

in Tripoli 218213409262 / Croix rouge
218919418066 / 218925236582
والبريد اللاكتروني : tri_tripoli@icrc.org

هذا اراقام المكتب الرئيسي للصليب الاحمرLe président de la croix rouge
في جنيفا 41227346001/ فاكس 41227332057
webmaster@icrc.org

منظمة حقوق الانسان: Organisation de protection des droits de l’homme
في مقره لندن : à London
David Mepham
UK Director

Taxi driver Ibrahim Med Khaled, 24, shows wounds caused by anti-Gaddafi fighters who beat him with an electrical cable at the displaced persons camp in Benghazi Oct. 15, 2011.

Eleanor Blatchley
Associate
Tel: +44 (0) 20-7713-2788
blatche@hrw.org

او مقره في سويسرا : En Suisse
Geneva
Switzerland
Tel: +41-22-738-0481
Fax: +41-22-738-1791

الهلال الاحمر الليبي: http://www.lrc.org.ly/contactus.html

And then please view the most recent addition to the extremely valuable work of a young documentarian, Julien Teil, who caught Amnesty International red-handed in proselytizing the lies in the lead-up to this Libya debacle that they tried to take back. In short, Amnesty admits that the “African mercenaries” was just a rumor from the start. How many Black Libyans are suffering and have died because this woman and others like her, safely ensconced in their seats of authority, used them to proffer lies instead of protect the truth? The video is in both French and English and can be viewed here:

Lastly, there is one thing you can do: Refuse to vote for war. Your vote is your most precious political asset. When you vote for congressional representatives who, in turn, vote for war, you allow the people who made the coup – the people that Gen. Wesley Clark talked about – you allow them to win. Overturn the coup by voting for peace. Cast your vote for peace. Ignore the pundits on the Sunday morning talk shows and vote for peace. Turn off the crap TV and vote for peace. Don’t even listen to your friends who think you’ve gone crazy; just vote for peace.

Cindy Piester, a documentarian who hosted the last event that I attended with my aunt in Ventura, California, just finished a film, “On the Dark Side in Al Doura: A Soldier in the Shadows,” in which Dick Cheney says that the United States has to “work toward the dark side, spend time in the shadows, in the intelligence world.” He goes on to say, “A lot of what needs to be done will have to be done quietly without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies.” View her extremely well-done and sad film here.

And please, don’t let this gang of coup plotters take you and this country into the shadows where we don’t need or want to be.

Vote peace.

For news from, by and about Cynthia McKinney, former Georgia congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, check these websites: http://dignity.ning.com/, http://www.enduswars.org, http://www.livestream.com/dignity, http://www.twitter.com/dignityaction, http://www.myspace.com/dignityaction, http://www.myspace.com/runcynthiarun, http://www.twitter.com/cynthiamckinney, http://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinney and http://www.youtube.com/runcynthiarun.

Urgent message from South Africa: Free Ayanda Kota

Mary — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 06:17:09 +0000

Ayanda Kota, Occupy South Africa activist and Chair of the Grahamstown, South Africa Unemployed Peoples’ Movement led protesters demanding proper sanitation into the Makana Municipal Building in Grahamstown, where they emptied the buckets that the government distributes to shack dwellers as a substitute for toilets, saying, “This is not our shit!”

Ayanda Kota, chairperson of the Grahamstown, South Africa, Unemployed Peoples’ Movement, has been brutally beaten and arrested by the police. On Monday, Jan. 8, 2012, he had published “ANC centenary a display of elite power,” republished below.

Wuyi Jacobs and I were going to talk to him about the African National Congress (ANC) centenary for WBAI AfrobeatRadio, on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012, but now he’s in jail and injured, though there’s no word yet on how badly. I spoke to him briefly for KPFA on Nov. 13, 2011, about Occupy South Africa:

KPFA Weekend News, Nov. 13, 2011

And on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2012, KPFA Weekend News broadcast a critical report on the ANC centenary with his help:

KPFA Weekend News, Jan. 8, 2011

Voices like Ayanda Kota’s speak loudly and clearly, even from a great distance. I hate to imagine that he might suffer the same fate as South Africa’s Steve Biko, the anti-apartheid leader and founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, who died in 1977 at age 31 in police custody, or like that of Andries Tatane, a mathematics teacher, activist and community newspaper publisher who collapsed and died April 13, 2011, after the police beat and shot him in the chest with rubber bullets during a protest about the lack of basic services in his community.

This is the statement issued by the Grahamstown Unemployed People’s Movement on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012. – Ann Garrison

Ayanda Kota assaulted in the Grahamstown, South Africa, police station – under arrest

by Xola Mali

About 40 minutes ago Ayanda Kota was seriously assaulted by a group of police officers in the Grahamstown police station. He was dragged, bleeding from at least two wounds, and with his clothes torn from his body, to the holding cells.

In the South African town of Ficksburg during a march of over 4,000 people demanding decent housing, access to water and electricity, and jobs, Andries Tatane, math teacher, activist and community newspaper publisher, husband and father, was murdered by six police officers on April 13, 2011. They attacked him when he asked why they were firing a water cannon at an elderly person who clearly was not a threat. The video images of the police smashing his body with batons and repeatedly firing rubber bullets into his chest shocked the nation. In 2010 alone 1,769 people died as a result of police action or in police custody.

For some months he has been under open police surveillance and at times has been threatened and insulted by the police. The police have been watching his mother’s house and have searched it looking for him. Their behavior has been very rude, threatening and aggressive. Today Ayanda was summoned to the police station.

He popped out of a meeting organized by Masifunde and the Rural People’s Movement with his 6-year-old son and a comrade. He was called to the police station because a lecturer at Rhodes, who has publicly engaged in strange and aggressive behavior on a number of occasions, laid a charge of theft against Ayanda after he misplaced a book that she had loaned him. Ayanda did not steal the book – he mislaid it. This is something that happens all the time to people who share books.

Perhaps another comrade picked it up and forgot to return it. Perhaps it was left in a taxi. These things happen. Ayanda has made it quite clear that he is willing to replace the book.

As soon as Ayanda met Constable Zulu, the officer who had summoned him to the station, Constable Zulu said that he was taking him straight to the cells. Ayanda said that he wanted to show the officer text messages on his cellphone to the lecturer at Rhodes offering to replace the book, but the officer insisted that Ayanda was going straight to the cells.

Ayanda then asked to be able to take his son home first. At that point Constable Zulu lunged at Ayanda very aggressively. Ayanda raised his arm in an instinctive gesture of defense following which Zulu began to assault him with blows to the head. Three or four other police offices then joined the assault. Ayanda was on the floor for most of the duration of the assault, which went on for some minutes.

This happened in the presence of his 6-year-old son, who of course was traumatized. The assault was brutal, entirely unnecessary and accompanied by, in Constable Zulu’s case, an obvious sadistic delight. A police secretary who witnessed it all burst into tears. One of the police officers made a sarcastic remark about Ayanda being the newsmaker of the year in the local paper.

This was plainly no ordinary arrest. This is a bogus charge that most certainly does not justify arrest. There was nothing to justify the assault. This is a simple attempt on the part of the police to misuse a ridiculous charge laid by someone well known for strange and erratic behavior in order to intimidate an activist and the movement that he represents.

The police are not here to protect society. They are here to protect the ruling party from popular dissent. This is not an isolated incident. Poor people’s movements have been constantly subject to this sort of behavior at the hands of the police for many years now.

This was plainly no ordinary arrest. This is a simple attempt to intimidate an activist and the movement that he represents. The police are here to protect the ruling party from popular dissent.

UPM will try to visit Ayanda in the holding cells and will mobilize to get him medical attention tonight and to support him in court tomorrow. The movement is currently looking for a lawyer. Of course civil and criminal charges will be laid against Constable Zulu and all the other police officers who joined this assault.

Xola Mali, spokesperson for the Unemployed People’s Movement, can be reached at 072 299 5253.

ANC centenary a display of elite power

by Ayanda Kota, Unemployed People’s Movement

Ayanda Kota speaks during the COP 17 climate change conference in December in Durban, South Africa, on his One Million Climate Jobs Campaign.

The centenary celebrations of the African National Congress (ANC) are being used to persuade the people that a movement that has betrayed the people is our government, a government that obeys the people, instead of a government of the elites, for the elites and by the elites. It is a hugely expensive spectacular designed to drug us against our own oppression and disempowerment.

In his “Communist Manifesto,” Karl Marx wrote: “Each step in the development of the bourgeoisie was accompanied by a corresponding political advance of that class … The executive of the modern state is but a committee for managing the affairs of the bourgeoisie.” Here Marx is referring to the ability of the bourgeois to translate economic power into state power, thus reducing our governments to mere managers acting in the interests of capital and not the people.

This has happened to governments around the world. But here our politicians are not mere managers. They are, like in Russia or India, a predatory elite with their own class interests and they support capital and repress the people as long as they can get their own share.

Since 1994 there hasn’t been a reorganization of the economy. The commanding heights of the economy continue to reside in the hands of a tiny elite, most of which is white. Unemployment is skyrocketing. Most young people have never worked.

Anyone can see that there is an excessive amount of poverty in South Africa. There are shacks everywhere. In fact, poverty reigns supreme in our country. Every year Jacob Zuma promises to create new jobs and every year unemployment grows.

The commanding heights of the economy continue to reside in the hands of a tiny elite, most of which is white. Unemployment is skyrocketing. Most young people have never worked.

If things were getting better, even if they were getting better slowly, people might be willing to be patient. But things are getting worse every year. Poverty and inequality are getting worse. The government is increasingly criminalizing poverty instead of treating it as a political problem. When people try to organize, they are always presented as a third force being used to undermine democracy and bring back racism.

But it is the ANC that has failed to develop any plans to democratize the economy. It is the ANC that has failed to develop any plans to democratize the media. It is the ANC that disciplines the people for the bourgeoisie – a role that they are very comfortable to play! It is the ANC that follows the line of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It is our local leaders who taking the leap from their old bosses, stealing from us, treating us with contempt, acting like the former colonial government and oppressing us.

During the struggle, our leaders embodied the aspirations of the people. But once they took state power, they didn’t need us any more. We were sent home. We are only called out to vote or attend rallies. But all the time our people are evicted from farms, paving the way for animals, as farms are turned into game reserves under the pretext of tourism.

It is our local leaders who taking the leap from their old bosses, stealing from us, treating us with contempt, acting like the former colonial government and oppressing us.

Our people are evicted from cities. Our people are denied decent education. The party has become a mixture of what Marx would call an instrument of power in the hands of bourgeoisie and what Fanon would call a means of private advancement.

Biko wrote: “This is one country where it would be possible to create a capitalist Black society, if whites were intelligent, if the nationalists were intelligent. And that capitalist Black society, Black middle class, would be very effective … South Africa could succeed in putting across to the world a pretty convincing, integrated picture, with still 70 percent of the population being underdogs.”

We, as the unemployed, belong to the 70 percent that Biko was talking about. We were happy to see the end of apartheid and we will always fight racism wherever we see it. But we are not free. There has only been freedom for the 30 percent. How can a person be free with no work, no house and no hope for their life?

R100 million is being spent on the celebration – spent to entertain elites, through playing golf and drinking the most expensive whiskey. Golf players are even receiving massages from young women sponsored by SAB (South African Breweries).

How can a person be free with no work, no house and no hope for their life?

This is not a people’s celebration. We are absent! How some of us wish that all that money could have been used to build houses, create employment, build sport facilities or schools for kids who continue to learn under trees! Biko was right. As the world celebrates with the ANC today, they put across a pretty convincing picture of freedom while everywhere people are broken by the burdens of poverty.

Community activists Xola Mali, spokesperson for the Unemployed Peoples’ Movement (UPM), Ntombentsha Budaza, UPM deputy chairperson, Nombulelo Yami, member of the Women’s Social Forum, and Ayanda Kota, UPM chairperson, tell the press outside the courthouse in March 2011 that they expect the charges against them of “public violence” will be dismissed. After further postponements designed, the activists believe, to prevent them from organizing prior to the April 29 municipal election, all charges were eventually dropped in August.

In his “Wretched of the Earth,” in the chapter called “The Pitfalls of the National Consciousness,” Frantz Fanon wrote:

“The leader pacifies the people. For years on end after independence has been won, we see him, incapable of urging on the people to a concrete task, unable really to open the future to them or of flinging them into the path of national reconstruction, that is to say, of their own reconstruction; we see him reassessing the history of independence and recalling the sacred unity of the struggle for liberation. The leader, because he refuses to break up the national bourgeoisie, asks the people to fall back into the past and to become drunk on the remembrance of the epoch which led up to independence. The leader, seen objectively, brings the people to a halt and persists in either expelling them from history or preventing them from taking root in it. During the struggle for liberation the leader awakened the people and promised them a forward march, heroic and unmitigated. Today, he uses every means to put them to sleep, and three or four times a year asks them to remember the colonial period and to look back on the long way they have come since then.”

I am not opposed to the centenary celebration of the ANC. But if the ANC was a progressive movement, they would have organized a celebration in a way that includes the people and supports us to build our power. They could have, for instance, asked people to meet all over the country, discuss how far we have come and how far we still have to go and draw up demands for a new freedom charter for the new era.

If the ANC was a progressive movement, they would have organized a celebration in a way that includes the people and supports us to build our power.

But this celebration is just a spectacle that we are supposed to watch on TV. It is exactly what Fanon talks about. It is designed to keep us drunk on the memory of the past struggle, so that we must stop struggling and remain in the caves.

Ayanda Kota, in his earlier activist days, holds a photo of Steve Biko, founder of the Black Consciousness Movement and author of “I Write What I Like,” who died in police custody in 1977, at age 31.

In a recent protest in Bloemfontein, police were there in numbers to flush the demonstrators. This has happened in many other demonstrations. The message is very clear: “Go back to your caves!” It is backed up by state violence. As Fanon says, a party that can’t marry national consciousness with social consciousness will disintegrate; nothing will be left but the shell of a party – the name, the emblem and the motto.

He says: “The living party, which ought to make possible the free exchange of ideas which have been elaborated according to the real needs of the mass of the people, has been transformed into a trade union of individual interests.”

This is exactly what the party has become. Institutions such as parliament and local municipalities have been severely compromised because of individual interests. Corruption is rampant. The Protection of Information Bill (Secrecy Bill) is another illustration of how the selfish interests of individuals have taken over the party.

A true liberation movement would never have killed Andries Tatane, attacked and jailed activists of social movements. It would never send people to lull – it would encourage people to continue organizing and mobilizing against injustices and oppression.

Progressive leaders would know that they cannot substitute themselves for the will of the people. A progressive party would never help the government in holding the people down through fascist attacks on the media by the likes of Nceba Faku, Blade Nzimande and Julius Malema, to mention but a few. A democratic party would never engage in attacks on protests as we saw most recently with the ANC and ANCYL (ANC Youth League) fascism against the Democratic Left Front in Durban during the COP17 (17th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change) conference.

A true liberation movement would never have killed Andries Tatane; it would encourage people to continue organizing and mobilizing against injustices and oppression.

In the Congo, in Nigeria and across the Arab world people are deserting celebrations of the flag and political leaders as if they really do represent the nation. Some are turning to a politics of religious or ethnic chauvinism. Others are turning to the politics of mass democratic rebellion or a democracy that is truly owned by the people. This is a free exchange of ideas backed up with popular force.

We are also seeing this in Europe and North America. Latin America has been in rebellion for many years. Across South Africa more and more people are deserting the party that spends so much money to keep them drunk on the memory of the past struggle, their own struggle, the same struggle that the ruling party has privatized and betrayed. There are occupations, road blockades and protests and the message is loud and clear: Sekwanele! Genoeg! Enough!

The only way to truly honor the struggles of the past is to stand up for what is right now. The struggle continues and will continue until we are all free.

Ayanda Kota is chairperson of the Unemployed People’s Movement in Grahamstown, South Africa. He can be reached at 078 625 6462. This story was published Jan. 8 on Anarkismo.

Update

On Jan. 13, Grocott’s Mail Online reported that Ayanda Kota had just been charged with theft, resisting arrest and assault on the police arresting him and released on bail and that his trial will begin on Feb. 29. Grocott’s Mail also reported that he appeared to be in pain during his court hearing.

Outside the Grahamstown magistrate’s court Jan. 13, Unemployed Peoples Movement leader Ayanda Kota demonstrated today how he was attacked by police yesterday. His aunt, Ntombizodwa Kota, and fellow UPM member Sithe Mbiso watch with concern. – Photo: Desiree Schirlinger

According to Rhodes University lecturer Richard Pithouse, who witnessed the police attack: “When Ayanda was on the ground being beaten by the police, one of them said, ‘Come and see the newsmaker of the year now.’ It looked like they [the police] were enjoying the attack – it was plainly about vengeance and intimidation, and the charges are completely bogus,” he added.

Kota was named Grocott’s Mail Newsmaker of the Year for 2011 on Dec. 19. Grocott’s Mail is South Africa’s oldest independent newspaper.

To learn more

South Africa on the global Occupy map by Ann Garrison, an interview with Ayanda Kota

Taking Back South Africa! 2011: Worldwide Revolution on Facebook

CNN: Andries Tatane dies following police beating, an excellent report; unfortunately, reposting is prohibited, so watch it on YouTube

South African Day of Rage- Will you be there-… by windsofchangersa

Haiti: Seven places where the earthquake money did and did not go

Mary — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 02:21:43 +0000

by Bill Quigley and Amber Ramanauskas

Haitians protesting for jobs and housing in Port au Prince on the eve of the second anniversary of the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake, are barred from Parliament. – Photo: Carl Juste, Miami Herald

Haiti, a close neighbor of the U.S. with over 9 million people, was devastated by earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010. Hundreds of thousands were killed and many more wounded.

The U.N. estimated international donors gave Haiti over $1.6 billion in relief aid since the earthquake – about $155 per Haitian – and over $2 billion in recovery aid – about $173 per Haitian – over the last two years.

Yet Haiti looks like the earthquake happened two months ago, not two years. Over half a million people remain homeless in hundreds of informal camps, most of the tons of debris from destroyed buildings still lies where it fell, and cholera, a preventable disease, was introduced into the country and is now an epidemic killing thousands and sickening hundreds of thousands more.

It turns out that almost none of the money that the general public thought was going to Haiti actually went directly to Haiti. The international community chose to bypass the Haitian people, Haitian non-governmental organizations and the government of Haiti. Funds were instead diverted to other governments, international NGOs and private companies.

Almost none of the money that the general public thought was going to Haiti actually went directly to Haiti.

Despite this near total lack of control of the money by Haitians, if history is an indication, it is quite likely that the failures will ultimately be blamed on the Haitians themselves in a “blame the victim” reaction.

Haitians ask the same question as many around the world: “Where did the money go?”

Here are seven places where the earthquake money did and did not go.

One: The largest single recipient of U.S. earthquake money was the U.S. government. The same holds true for donations by other countries.

Right after the earthquake, the U.S. allocated $379 million in aid and sent in 5,000 troops. The Associated Press discovered that of the $379 million in initial U.S. money promised for Haiti, most was not really money going directly, or in some cases even indirectly, to Haiti. They documented in January 2010 that 33 cents of each of these U.S. dollars for Haiti was actually given directly back to the U.S. to reimburse ourselves for sending in our military. Forty-two cents of each dollar went to private and public non-governmental organizations like Save the Children, the U.N. World Food Program and the Pan American Health Organization. Hardly any went directly to Haitians or their government.

They documented in January 2010 that 33 cents of each of these U.S. dollars for Haiti was actually given directly back to the U.S. to reimburse ourselves for sending in our military.

The overall $1.6 billion allocated for relief by the U.S. was spent much the same way, according to an August 2010 report by the U.S. Congressional Research Office: $655 million was reimbursed to the Department of Defense; $220 million to the Department of Health and Human Services to provide grants to individual U.S. states to cover services for Haitian evacuees; $350 million to USAID disaster assistance; $150 million to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for emergency food assistance; $15 million to the Department of Homeland Security for immigration fees and so on.

International assistance followed the same pattern. The U.N. Special Envoy for Haiti reported that of the $2.4 billion in humanitarian funding, 34 percent was provided back to the donors’ own civil and military entities for disaster response, 28 percent was given to U.N. agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) for specific U.N. projects, 26 percent was given to private contractors and other NGOs, 6 percent was provided as in-kind services to recipients, 5 percent to the international and national Red Cross societies, 1 percent was provided to the government of Haiti, four tenths of 1 percent of the funds went to Haitian NGOs.

Two. Only 1 percent of the money went to the Haitian government.

Less than a penny of each dollar of U.S. aid went to the government of Haiti, according to the Associated Press. The same is true with other international donors. The Haitian government was completely bypassed in the relief effort by the U.S. and the international community.

Three. Extremely little went to Haitian companies or Haitian non-governmental organizations.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research, the absolute best source for accurate information on this issue, analyzed all the 1,490 contracts awarded by the U.S. government after the January 2010 earthquake until April 2011 and found only 23 contracts went to Haitian companies. Overall the U.S. had awarded $194 million to contractors, $4.8 million to the 23 Haitian companies, about 2.5 percent of the total. On the other hand, contractors from the Washington, D.C., area received $76 million or 39.4 percent of the total. As noted above, the U.N. documented that only four tenths of 1 percent of international aid went to Haitian NGOs.

Overall the U.S. had awarded $194 million to contractors, $4.8 million to the 23 Haitian companies, about 2.5 percent of the total. The U.N. documented that only four tenths of 1 percent of international aid went to Haitian NGOs.

In fact, Haitians had a hard time even getting into international aid meetings. Refugees International reported that locals were having a hard time even getting access to the international aid operational meetings inside the U.N. compound. “Haitian groups are either unaware of the meetings, do not have proper photo-ID passes for entry, or do not have the staff capacity to spend long hours at the compound.” Others reported that most of these international aid coordination meetings were not even being translated into Creole, the language of the majority of the people of Haiti!

Four. A large percentage of the money went to international aid agencies and big well-connected non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

The American Red Cross received over $486 million in donations for Haiti. It says two-thirds of the money has been contracted to relief and recovery efforts, though specific details are difficult to come by. The CEO of American Red Cross has a salary of over $500,000 per year.

A woman prays on the steps of the Notre Dame National Cathedral on the second anniversary of the earthquake, which killed 316,000. Many Haitians visited the still heavily damaged cathedral to pray and honor the lives of loved ones lost two years ago. – Photo: Carl Juste, Miami Herald

Look at the $8.6 million joint contract between the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) with the private company CHF for debris removal in Port au Prince. CHF is a politically well-connected international development company with an annual budget of over $200 million whose CEO was paid $451,813 in 2009. CHF’s connection to Republicans and Democrats is illustrated by its board secretary, Lauri Fitz-Pegado, a partner with the Livingston Group LLC. The Livingston Group is headed by the former Republican speaker-designate for the 106th Congress, Bob Livingston, doing lobbying and government relations. Ms. Fitz-Pegado, who apparently works the other side of the aisle, was appointed by President Clinton to serve in the Department of Commerce and served as a member of the foreign policy expert advisor team on the Obama for president campaign. CHF “works in Haiti out of two spacious mansions in Port au Prince and maintains a fleet of brand new vehicles,” according to Rolling Stone.

Rolling Stone, in an excellent article by Janet Reitman, reported on another earthquake contract, a $1.5 million contract to the New York-based consulting firm Dalberg Global Development Advisors. The article found Dalberg’s team “had never lived overseas, didn’t have any disaster experience or background in urban planning … never carried out any program activities on the ground …” and only one of them spoke French. USAID reviewed their work and found that “it became clear that these people may not have even gotten out of their SUVs.”

Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton announced a fundraising venture for Haiti on Jan. 16, 2010. As of October 2011, the fund had received $54 million in donations. It has partnered with several Haitian and international organizations. Though most of its work appears to be admirable, it has donated $2 million to the construction of a Haitian $29 million for-profit luxury hotel.

“The NGOs still have something to respond to about their accountability, because there is a lot of cash out there,” according to Nigel Fisher, the U.N.’s chief humanitarian officer in Haiti. “What about the $1.5 to $2 billion that the Red Cross and NGOs got from ordinary people and matched by governments? What’s happened to that? And that’s where it’s very difficult to trace those funds.”

Five. Some money went to for-profit companies whose business is disasters.

Less than a month after the quake hit, U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten sent a cable titled “THE GOLD RUSH IS ON” as part of his situation report to Washington. In this Feb. 1, 2010, document, made public by The Nation, Haiti Liberte and Wikileaks, Ambassador Merten reported the president of Haiti met with former Gen. Wesley Clark for a sales presentation for a Miami-based company that builds foam core houses.

Less than a month after the quake hit, U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Merten sent a cable titled “THE GOLD RUSH IS ON” as part of his situation report to Washington.

Capitalizing on the disaster, Lewis Lucke, a high ranking USAID relief coordinator, met twice in his USAID capacity with the Haitian prime minister immediately after the quake. He then quit the agency and was hired for $30,000 a month by a Florida corporation, Ashbritt – known already for its big no-bid Katrina grants – and a prosperous Haitian partner to lobby for disaster contracts. Locke said, “It became clear to us that if it was handled correctly, the earthquake represented as much an opportunity as it did a calamity.” Ashbritt and its Haitian partner were soon granted a $10 million no-bid contract. Lucke said he was instrumental in securing another $10 million contract from the World Bank and another smaller one from CHF International before their relationship ended.

Six. A fair amount of the pledged money has never been actually put up.

The international community decided it was not going to allow the Haiti government to direct the relief and recovery funds and insisted that two institutions be set up to approve plans and spending for the reconstruction funds going to Haiti. The first was the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) and the second is the Haiti Reconstruction Fund (HRF).

In March 2010, U.N. countries pledged $5.3 billion over two years and a total of $9.9 billion over three years in a conference March 2010. The money was to be deposited with the World Bank and distributed by the IHRC. The IHRC was co-chaired by Bill Clinton and the Haitian prime minister. By July 2010, Bill Clinton reported only 10 percent of the pledges had been given to the IHRC.

Seven. A lot of the money which was put up has not yet been spent.

Nearly two years after the quake, less than 1 percent of the $412 million in U.S. funds specifically allocated for infrastructure reconstruction activities in Haiti had been spent by USAID and the U.S. State Department and only 12 percent has even been obligated, according to a November 2011 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).

Nearly two years after the quake, less than 1 percent of the $412 million in U.S. funds specifically allocated for infrastructure reconstruction activities in Haiti had been spent.

The performance of the two international commissions, the IHRC and the HRF, has also been poor. The Miami Herald noted that as of July 2011, of the $3.2 billion in projects approved by the IHRC, only five had been completed for a total of $84 million. The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), which was severely criticized by Haitians and others from its beginning, has been effectively suspended since its mandate ended at the end of October 2011. The Haiti Reconstruction Fund was set up to work in tandem with the IHRC, so while its partner is suspended, it is not clear how it can move forward.

What to do

The effort so far has not been based on a respectful partnership between Haitians and the international community. The actions of the donor countries and the NGOs and international agencies have not been transparent so that Haitians or others can track the money and see how it has been spent. Without transparency and a respectful partnership, the Haitian people cannot hold anyone accountable for what has happened in their country. That has to change.

The U.N. Special Envoy to Haiti suggests the generous instincts of people around the world must be channeled by international actors and institutions in a way that assists in the creation of a “robust public sector and a healthy private sector.” Instead of giving the money to intermediaries, funds should be directed as much as possible to Haitian public and private institutions. A “Haiti First” policy could strengthen public systems, promote accountability, and create jobs and build skills among the Haitian people.

A “Haiti First” policy could strengthen public systems, promote accountability, and create jobs and build skills among the Haitian people.

Respect, transparency and accountability are the building blocks for human rights. Haitians deserve to know where the money has gone, what the plans are for the money still left, and to be partners in the decision-making for what is to come.

After all, these are the people who will be solving the problems when the post-earthquake relief money is gone.

Bill Quigley teaches at Loyola University New Orleans, is the associate legal director at the Center for Constitutional Rights and volunteers with the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti. Amber Ramanauskas is a lawyer and human rights researcher. A more detailed version of this article with full sources is available. Bill can be reached at quigley77@gmail.com. Amber can be reached at gintarerama@gmail.com.

San Francisco Bay View » News and Views

Stand up! Fight back! Surviving police attack on Occupy Oakland

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