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George Jackson: Forty years ago they shot him down
August 21, 2011
The 21st of August marks the 40th anniversary of the execution of George Lester Jackson. Many of the strategies and tactics that he and his fellow comrades employed in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s were used by prisoners at Pelican Bay, Corcoran and other California prisons in the recent hunger strikes.
Wanted! Black leaders for California prisoner release court order
November 4, 2010
Allen Jones, a prison reformer in San Francisco, is calling out all so-called Black leaders for being silent on the recent court order by three federal judges to release 44,000 inmates from California’s overcrowded prison system.
Stealing from the poor to give to the rich
November 2, 2010
With the elimination of the Calworks Stage 3 child care program, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made it clear that he cares nothing about the struggling working families of California. Without child care, parents of over 8,000 children in the Bay Area may lose their jobs. TAKE ACTION NOW! Flood the governor’s offices with calls, faxes and email. Demand that he reverse his decision to eliminate Stage 3. Call the State Capitol at (916) 445-2841 or fax (916) 558-3160. His San Francisco office can be reached by phone at (415) 703-2218 and by fax at (415) 703-2218 or (415) 703-2803.
Wanda’s Picks for October 2010
October 3, 2010
October is Maafa Awareness Month, a time to reflect on recovery from the residual impact slavery had on the Black community and how the centuries of free labor benefited everyone else. The ritual this year is Sunday, Oct. 10, 5:30 a.m., at Ocean Beach, Fulton at the Great Highway, in San Francisco. Maafa is Kiswahili for “great calamity, reoccurring disaster,” a term used to describe the Black Holocaust of the European Slave Trade and how the post traumatic stress syndrome shows up in our thoughts and behavior unwittingly.
Republican candidates ignore the Black vote while the Democrats continue to take it for granted
September 6, 2010
Very little if any advertising has been done in Black newspapers or with Black radio stations in an attempt to reach Black voters via the Black media. The Black press connects Blacks around the world. Their power and influence is unmatched, unchallenged and unquestioned.
Murder in the neighborhood: Arnieville
July 18, 2010
Arnieville is a continuous protest led by people with disabilities alarmed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed state budget with its juggernaut of draconian cuts to California’s In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), Medi-Cal and other critical supports for California’s most vulnerable people.
Campaign to Save Child Care! Parents, providers fight back in Sacramento and D.C.
May 24, 2010
On Tuesday, May 25, over 150 California child care supporters will speak out against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposal for a massive dismantling of the state’s child care system by July 1, throwing hundreds of thousands of parents who depend on child care and child care providers out of work and denying 200,000 children the learning and nurturing and joy of good child care.
Privatizing California: Senate Bill 792
August 28, 2009
In their fight against the push to privatize their state park, Bayview Hunters Point activists are fighting the privatization of California as hard as anyone I know. They’re fighting for all of us, so I hope that other Californians who don’t want to see the whole state on the auction block will contact their Assembly representatives and ask them to vote against Senate Bill 792.
Thousands of California elders losing long-term care
August 14, 2009
Renowned bassist Ortiz Walton was once the youngest person and first African American to play in the Boston Symphony. But at 75, not only can’t Walton play his bass, but he cannot bathe, dress, eat or move in his wheelchair without the help of his wife, Carol, and assistance from state-subsidized services designed to keep him in their Berkeley, Calif., home and out of a nursing institution.
The California Foreclosure Prevention Fraud of 2009
July 29, 2009
The California Legislature is now actively collaborating in the bankers’ coup d’état led by Government Sachs. Here are the details:
Caravan for Justice III brings the heat to the lawmakers
May 28, 2009
Signs reading “Justice for Oscar Grant,” “Abolish the Three Strikes Law” and “Demandamos Justicia Ya!” floated above a sea of ralliers of different ages, religious beliefs, genders and ethnicities. From Bakersfield up to Sacramento, activists, teachers and family members came together to rally against laws that have failed to serve the betterment of their communities.
The ambivalent silences of the left: Lovelle Mixon, police and the politics of race and rape
April 21, 2009
Many TV channels broadcast live the entire funeral for four Oakland police officers killed March 21, news anchors calling them “heroes” and “angels.” Police funerals are intended to legitimize past and future police violence and tell the public to shut up. The spineless left complies – no mention of Oscar Grant … or Lovelle Mixon.
Shooting at OPD officers’ funeral goes unreported
April 5, 2009
The Oakland Police Department suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the foot when it further racialized the March 21 shootings by rescinding Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums’ invitation to speak at the public funeral of the four officers who were gunned down.
Federal judges tentatively order release of 37,000 to 58,000 California prisoners
February 9, 2009
A federal three-judge panel ruled today, Feb. 9, that overcrowding in California prisons is indeed the root cause of health care inadequacy so severe that it amounts to unconstitutional cruel and unusual punishment.
Homelessness on the rise in San Francisco
January 1, 2009
“A guy was lying on the sidewalk. I leaned down and asked him if he wanted something to eat. He pulled the blanket down and there was a 5-year-old little boy lying with him.”
SF County Jail’s cruel and unusual punishment of Herman Bell of the San Francisco 8
October 24, 2008
Herman Bell arrived from New York in late May 2007 to face this extremely unjust prosecution of eight former Black Panthers and community activists. Confinement in the San Francisco County Jail has been devastating to what little quality of life Herman and Jalil Muntaqim have experienced in New York prisons for three decades.
Prison bill AB 900: a view from inside
August 22, 2007
California’s adoption of mandatory minimums, drive for three-strikes laws and participation in the nationwide “War on Drugs” campaign of the 1980s has created a burgeoning prison system fractured along racial, humanitarian and economic lines.
