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Cynthia McKinney tours Cali wit’ her new book ‘Ain’t Nothing Like Freedom’
April 16, 2013
Six term congresswoman, ‘08 Green Party presidential candidate and international peace activist Cynthia McKinney has been willing to risk her life to represent for Black people, fearlessly investigating such hot issues as Katrina, Haiti, the Congo, Libya and more. Currently she is writing her Ph.D. dissertation on President Hugo Chavez and attended his recent funeral in Caracas. Meet this warm and courageous woman at Bay View fundraisers Wednesday, April 24, at the Laney College Forum, 900 Fallon St., Oakland, at 6:30 p.m., and on Thursday, April 25, at the Arlene Francis Center, 99 Sixth St., Santa Rosa, at 7 p.m.
A lil’ bit ‘bout Leo’s legacy …
April 2, 2013
Leo lives in every navy blue or ash T-shirt with brown, beige, Tan, ivory, hands circled in solidarity, In every fiery speech during San Francisco strikes and Port Of Oakland shutdowns, in fights for health care, cradle To grave, in housing, library, post office and school struggles, In good fights against fracking and in the Occupy Movement …
Gang rape: The South African death of Thandiswa Qubuda
March 5, 2013
Grahamstown Unemployed People’s Union spokesperson Ayanda Kota had much more to say about this tragedy and its post-apartheid South African context than we were able to report on the KPFA Evening News on Sunday, March 3, 2013. He said that the Black Consciousness Movement founded by Steve Biko, with his call for the restoration of humanity shattered by apartheid, offers the best hope of healing.
Dear Mandela: The dream you went to prison for has never been achieved
February 26, 2013
South African President Jacob Zuma, in his State of the Nation address, promised to speed the pace of land redistribution and housing construction to replace the country’s urban shantytowns, but nearly 20 years after the end of apartheid, the number of people living in shantytowns has doubled and the state violence to evict the residents has increased.
Zimbabwe delayed land reform to save South Africa from prolonged Apartheid
January 6, 2013
Zimbabwe is a sovereign African nation exercising its right to self-determination. Is that wrong? I’m calling on U.S. President Barack Obama and the United States Congress to remove the illegal sanctions the U.S. has imposed on Zimbabwe. Take a minute to sign my petition and get your friends to also, and together we will STOP THE SUFFERING NOW!
South Africa’s strikes are growing and spreading
October 1, 2012
“On Aug. 16, police opened fire on striking Marikana workers, killing 34 and wounding 78. The bitter struggle was called off only after the strikers had secured a 22 percent wage increase. The strike wave is now engulfing South Africa’s platinum, gold and coal mining industries and has spread to other sectors. There are more than 100,000 workers on strike across South Africa.”
Fists of freedom, an Olympic story not taught in school
July 29, 2012
It has been almost 44 years since Tommie Smith and John Carlos took the medal stand following the 200-meter dash at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and created what must be considered the most enduring, riveting image in the history of either sports or protest. But while the image has stood the test of time, the struggle that led to that moment has been cast aside.
The making of Geronimo ji Jaga
July 15, 2011
In the Louisiana bayou, a descendent of slaves was born into the Pratt clan, whose entire community suffered under racial apartheid. Since Pratt was a strong and thoughtful boy, his community encouraged him to shoulder the task of working to help defend the downtrodden who surrounded him.
Letter of support for the hunger strikers from Bomani Shakur of the Lucasville 5 – and other strike updates
July 3, 2011
Ask anyone who has ever been on a hunger strike; the process of intentionally starving oneself is a very painful ordeal. And yet, there are places on this planet where the idea of death is preferable to continuing down a path that offers no hope or relief from suffering. I live in such a place; I know.
Alice Walker: Why I’m joining the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza
June 30, 2011
Why am I going on the Freedom Flotilla II to Gaza? It seems to me that during this period of eldering it is good to reap the harvest of one’s understanding of what is important, and to share this, especially with the young. How are they to learn, otherwise?
Racial imprisonment
May 16, 2011
“We must call for, agitate for and, if all else fails, create a new popular movement that struggles to break this caste system once and for all.” Mumia Abu-Jamal addresses the “Imprisonment of a Race” Conference at Princeton University.
Police training exchange compounds US, Israeli racism
May 6, 2011
The racism of the American “war on drugs,” especially in the South, is notorious. So is the racism faced daily by Palestinians. In Atlanta, a university program allows these two manifestations of racism to feed off each other and community activists are organizing to shut the program down.
Africa for the Africans: U.S.-Euro forces out of Libya and Cote d’Ivoire
April 23, 2011
“All of our institutions have failed us if they do not use their power and act against this crime against humanity being carried out in Africa today. I received a call this morning from an Ivorian friend who calls it genocide what Sarkozy’s troops are doing there. Blood, blood, everywhere. Depleted uranium in Libya. Generations to come will suffer the health effects. We must try to stop President Obama. He has the power to say no. So far, he is good at saying yes to all the wrong people. So we must do more than we think we can. Anything less places more blood on everyone’s hands.” – Cynthia McKinney
Help Aristide return: Forced exile and democracy are incompatible
March 16, 2011
We, grassroots organizations located in the south of Haiti, call on all people who believe in democracy to help President Aristide return promptly – to make President Titid come back to us healthy and able this week as expected by us.
‘The New Jim Crow’
November 2, 2010
Michelle Alexander’s most salient point in her book “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” is her finding that America’s Black population constitutes a “racial caste” that feeds and perpetuates mass incarceration.
Good Americans: The dark side of the Pullman Porters Union
September 6, 2010
As we celebrate the 85th anniversary of the founding of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, America’s first African America labor union, let us not forget that African American rail workers were instrumental in organizing not only the sleeping and chair car porters, but the dining car workers as well.
Avatar’s Pandora: A modern day battle in the Congo
June 1, 2010
“Avatar,” the highest-grossing film of all time, may be more real and current than the average person knows. The battle of Pandora is taking place right now in the Congo! The central question in the Congo, as in “Avatar,” is who is going to control the resources and for whose benefit? Congolese youth have initiated a worldwide mobilization campaign in partnership with young people around the world.
The big lies against Cuba
March 13, 2010
Cuba’s policies of internationalism have arguably been the most politically advanced in the world – from the direct military intervention to help in the defeat of Apartheid in southern Africa in 1988 to direct medical aid and solidarity with Haiti – before the earthquake. Since the earthquake, Western media has been suspiciously silent on the exceptional role Cuba has played in support of Haiti with more than 900 health care providers on the ground, the largest and most organized contingent on the island.
Minister JR from Haiti, Part 1: Starvation and Jim Crow racism
February 12, 2010
Today, on the one month anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, I went all over Port au Prince and saw the devastation firsthand and the occupation by Brazil under the guise of the U.N., and of course the U.S.A. I rode through Port au Prince all day and didn’t see one act of recovery going on. I don’t see where the millions of dollars that have been raised for Haiti are going. Everywhere people are starving.
On the anniversary of Mandela’s release, South Africans still struggle for liberation
February 11, 2010
Twenty years ago, on Feb. 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela walked out of his prison cell and, four years later, a huge majority elected him president. Now, after 16 years of ANC rule, the majority of South Africans are worse off than they were under the white minority regime.