Monthly Archives: August 2010

KPFA 94.1 FM, your Bay Area progressive radio station, began its local board election cycle June 1 that will end Sept. 30 when ballots need to be returned. As the voice of the progressive left, KPFA is an example of "‘citizens’ media" that enables the powerless to shape media and make it a new social force.

The 16th of June 2010 saw Andre Ward, WBA super middleweight champion of the world, and Oklahoman-born Allan “Sweetness” Green at a pre-fight press conference in Oakland’s Oracle Arena. On June 19, they fought. Andre Ward won all 12 rounds. Green was hospitalized after the fight.

We with our cell phones are directly fueling the most heinous violence the world has seen in 65 years and subsidizing what one activist, Kambale Musavuli, has referred to as the wholesale rape of land and people. As the beneficiaries of this violence, each of us can and must stand in solidarity with the Congolese people.

Two things we know for sure: Hollywood and hip hop get media attention. And for Haiti, that translates into big media hype for actor Sean Penn and rapper-turned-presidential candidate, Wyclef Jean. How may we use this media glare to help the 2 million Haitians made homeless by the earthquake?

Monday nights, 7-10 p.m., on KPFA are a treat for Black listeners and people who like Black programming, but now Walter Turner’s Africa Today and Greg Bridges’ Transitions on Traditions are on the chopping block. Join other defenders of Black radio for the screening of ‘Disappearing Voices: The Decline of Black Voices on the Radio’ on Tuesday, Aug. 17, 6:30 p.m., at the Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pine St., West Oakland.

In a region where nine out of 10 residents are white, the cleanup workers are almost exclusively Black men. NAACP President Ben Jealous wrote to BP CEO Tony Hayward demanding to know why Black people were over-represented in “the most physically difficult, lowest paying jobs, with the most significant exposure to toxins.”

I’m a powerful Black conscious man, so I yell out Black Power and I fully support my Latino comrades in struggle and solidarity. And we demand justice or there will be no peace!

Half a year following the earthquake, conditions in Haiti are worse than ever. Still, there is “a lot to be hopeful for,” according to Robert Roth of the activist network Haiti Action Committee who recently visited the Caribbean island. An interview.

Joan Armatrading’s statement calling on leaders of Israel and Palestine to “take that step” to solve “the problem” is a backwards way of acknowledging protests of her recent concert in Tel Aviv, Israel. When she plays San Francisco at the Palace of Fine Arts on Tuesday, Aug. 10, let her know that to disregard the Palestinian cultural boycott is to take a stand with racism and apartheid.

Supporters of killer cop Johannes Mehserle rallied in San Jose Aug. 2 with no counter-demonstrators. KTVU was there and last week presented two features on Mehserle’s life story, presumably intended to soften his public image and engender sympathy for him as the Nov. 5 sentencing date approaches. Justice for Oscar Grant supporters will protest in the parking lot outside KTVU on Thursday, Aug. 12, 12:30 p.m., at 2 Jack London Square, Oakland. Be there to honor Black August! And Oscar Grant supporters are asked to demand the maximum sentence for Mehserle.

"There was no ethics violation." - Joseph Debro, president of Bay Area Black Builders. "Rep. Waters is far too valuable to our community to give up without a fight!" - Danny Bakewell Sr., chairman of the National Newspaper Publishers Association. "This is a political witch-hunt that singles out advocacy for the poor." - Len Canty, chairman of the Black Economic Council

“I have not violated any House rules," declares Congresswoman Maxine Waters. "No benefit, no improper action, no failure to disclose, no one influenced: no case."

President Barack Obama's decisions could free millions of Africans from bondage – the one imposed for decades now by African dictators often with Western collusion – save millions of lives in avoided bloodshed and help unleash the great reservoir wherein Africa’s vast potential has been condemned.

Milton Allimadi, in his investigative news journal, the Black Star News, offers an unusual forum for reporting on Africa, which is so little known to most Americans, including even African Americans, because there’s so little coverage of Africa in the dominant American press, and what little there is superficial or misleading.

It will be five years since Katrina on Aug. 29. The impact of Katrina is quite painful for regular people in the area. This article looks at what has happened since Katrina not from the perspective of the higher ups looking down from their offices but from the street level view of the people.

It was cowardly and wrong for the U.S. government to force Ms. Sherrod to resign without hearing her side, without understanding the whole story, without showing the slightest interest in fairness or due process. Here was Baker County rearing its ugly history all over again, 70 years later.

Marilyn Buck was a former political prisoner and prisoner of war. Along with Mutulu Shakur, she was responsible for the liberation of Assata Shakur from prison in 1979. She later went underground and spent 25 years in prison. She was released July 15, 2010. Then suddenly, only 19 days later, she was gone.

The liberation of Congo requires that people in countries that profit from Congo’s wealth stand in solidarity with those who rightfully own it. As Lumumba once famously said, “Free and liberated people from every corner of the world will always be found at the side of the Congolese.”

Who will fight for the people? Who will stand with them on tough issues? Nyese Joshua. Why is Bayview Hunters Point at the center of my focus? Because it is the political boiling point; Bayview, as they say, is San Francisco’s future.

“This bill preserves public housing, strengthens neighborhoods and creates jobs,” said Congresswoman Waters. “The legislation would reverse decades of neglect of America’s public housing units."