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Solidarity and solitary: When unions clash with prison reform
March 7, 2013
The battle over the future of Tamms became the most visible and contentious example of a phenomenon seen around the country: Otherwise progressive unions are taking reactionary positions when it comes to prisons, supporting addiction to mass incarceration. And when it comes to issues of prisoners’ rights in general, and solitary confinement in particular, they are seen as a major obstacle to reform.
Occupy Sandy, from relief to resistance
November 15, 2012
Welcome to the climate crisis. There’s nothing abstract about it. It isn’t some apocalypse decades away or an event that comes down like one big hurricane to wipe us all out. It’s Hurricane Sandy. It’s all the economic, political and social conditions that were already in place. And it’s the opportunity for forces of profit and repression to push their agenda forward in the aftermath. But guess what: The climate justice movement isn’t so abstract either. This is it. It’s dedicated organizers recognizing how their work can be aligned across issues. It’s relief providers and hard-working volunteers transforming into activists and community leaders.
The 1966 Hunters Point rebellion: The fight must go on
September 2, 2011
With the current wave of uprisings across England … and the insurgence of flash mobs across the United States … it is appropriate to call on the history of rebellions by our people. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stated, riot is the language of the unheard; and so it comes as no surprise that the language of our underclass is of the same dialect that it has been for decades and even centuries …
Hunger strikes and national protests continue
July 22, 2011
The historic prisoner hunger strike led by 11 now “shrunken” but alive Pelican Bay Prison inmates advocating human rights, peace and justice continues at several prisons, according to officials, prisoners’ families and prisoner attorney Marilyn McMahon. Hunger strikers’ families and supporters will rally in Sacramento again Monday, noon-4 p.m.
Repression breeds resistance!
July 20, 2011
Reaching at least 6,600 prisoners across 13 prisons, this massive and inspiring act of solidarity and people power across prison-manufactured and exacerbated racial and geographic lines has dumb-founded the CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation).
An interview with Kevin Cooper: We may be sending an innocent man to his death
July 19, 2011
Kevin Cooper has been locked down on death row in San Quentin for the past 26 years. He was convicted of the 1983 murder of the Ryen family, although no reliable evidence showed him to be guilty. On the contrary, the case has overwhelming evidence suggesting that he is in fact an innocent man.
Letters from Hugo Pinell and other hunger strikers – Rally to support the hunger strikers
July 15, 2011
I got a letter today from Yogi Bear, Hugo Antonio Lyons Pinell. As most of you know, Yogi has been tortured in the Pelican Bay SHU since 1990 and in other California gulags since the early 1970s. He began his incarceration in 1964 at age 19. He has joined the hunger strike and writes …
Strike updates: Stop prison torture at Pelican Bay
July 12, 2011
Support for the hunger strike grows with solidarity actions across the U.S. and Canada this past weekend.
A series of noise demonstrations outside jails, detention centers and prisons occurred internationally in St. Louis, New York City, Oakland, Los Angeles, Montreal and Kitchener, Ontario.
Make some noise: International solidarity for Pelican Bay Hunger Strike!
July 4, 2011
Support for the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike is strong and expanding as people inside and outside prison all over the world are connecting the Pelican Bay hunger strike to local struggles against powerlessness and inequality.
No justice, no food, no 4th of July celebration
July 4, 2011
It has been 83 hours since I last chewed on anything. I stand with all my brothers still on hunger strike inside the SHUs at Pelican Bay and Corcoran and on the mainlines in Centinela and Folsom and all other prisoners throughout California and the nation in solidarity with the hunger strike.
Solidarity and commitment
June 30, 2011
The Black August Organizing Committee stands in full solidarity with those of our brothers and sisters persecuted and tormented daily within the confines of America’s concentration camps.
Corcoran SHU prisoners join Pelican Bay hunger strike
June 30, 2011
Greetings to all who support freedom, justice and equality. We here of the NCTT SHU stand in solidarity with and in full support of the July 1 hunger strike and the five major action points and sub-points as laid out by the Pelican Bay Collective in the policy statements.
Tens of thousands liberate state Capitol in Madison
February 19, 2011
Chants such as “Kill the bill,” “Hands off workers! Make the banks pay,” “Who’s got the power: We’ve got the power” and many others are echoing off the walls inside and outside the Capitol. Since Feb. 14, tens of thousands of students, workers and other community members have liberated the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison in response to Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair” bill, which would eliminate collective bargaining rights for 175,000 public sector union workers statewide.
Justice for Oscar Grant Rally: Rain falls but does not end the call to rein in injustice
October 27, 2010
The threat of impending rainfall did not deter hundreds of people from showing up and calling out for justice for Oscar Grant on Saturday, Oct. 23 in downtown Oakland.
Riot at Ely State Prison: It was a battle!
February 14, 2010
This is not my first riot but it was definitely the best. It’s so good to see solidarity in action, to see prisoners of different races and factions coming together like this. We need more of this before we can really start making positive changes in this system!
Hope rising from the ashes
February 11, 2010
People have found an inner fortitude, a reserve of compassion and dedication that was released by the quake, a river of courage that spills from their hearts, and every day people traumatized by loss are engaging in extraordinary acts of kindness.
Kouraj cherie: Dispatches from Port au Prince, Haiti
January 28, 2010
Reports of violence in Haiti are largely disinformation. For centuries Haiti has been portrayed as a dangerous country filled with volatile and threatening people, unsafe for foreigners. This supposition, this fear and misunderstanding, has very deep implications for foreign aid and cross-cultural understanding.
‘We should be there, in Haiti’: Statement by Dr. Jean-Bertand Aristide
January 15, 2010
In the spirit of solidarity President Aristide invokes and guided by Pierre Labossiere of the Haiti Action Committee, the SF Bay View and Block Report Radio are preparing to send a media-medical team to Haiti to serve the people most in need. Come to the fundraiser Sunday, Jan. 24, 6:30 p.m., at the Black Dot Café, 1195 Pine St. in West Oakland. Bring medical supplies. Spread the word!
Watching the murder trial of Mehserle: an interview with Cop Watch Oakland cofounder Rekia Mohammed Jabrin
July 22, 2009
Rekia Mohammed Jabrin has been involved in the Justice for Oscar Grant Movement in more than one way. She has been a consistent spectator at the Johannes Mehserle indictment hearings, taking notes, as well as one of the cofounders of Oakland Cop Watch. We are talking to her to get our audience prepared for the July 24 hearings in Oakland’s Superior Court, where Mehserle’s lawyer will be arguing to get the murder trial taken out of Alameda County.