Monthly Archives: February 2011

Past and present members of the Green Bay Packers, the “People’s Team,” are girding up for one more fight and this time, it’s against their own governor, Scott Walker.

On Feb. 28-March 2, 2011, a group of activists who have first-hand experience regarding inhumanities of the American prison industrial complex will convene in Alabama to lay the groundwork for a national civil rights movement.

Once again, the world is rising up against oppression. In the U.S., our time will come. Remember the kind of commitment we saw in Malcolm X, who was murdered 46 years ago this month. On the morning of Feb. 21, Malcolm received a phone call saying, “Today is the day.” He showed up anyway, knowing that that day could be his very last day on this Earth. Malcolm did not let fear control his commitment to the cause of freedom and justice. That is the real stuff we all are made of. Deep inside every one of us is a Revolution waiting to happen.

We care for him so much that it now shows in every way possible. Trion is now top in his class, just made the final of the Center Unified School District Spelling Bee. He had never played on a football or basketball team; now he has excelled in both sports in the community.

One of Uganda’s three leading opposition presidential candidates and others predict that Uganda could become the next Egypt or Tunisia after Friday’s presidential and parliamentary elections, which few expect to be free or fair.

Lucy Parsons is the Haymarket Square widow who internationalized the struggle for the eight-hour day and whose work led to the May Day rallies held around the world, except in the U.S., to celebrate International Workers Day.

“Cuba has the lowest [infant] mortality rate in the Americas, in spite of the economic blockade imposed against it by the U.S. for more than five decades,” announced Granma newspaper on Jan. 3.

“I hope that this story will introduce children to music, specifically jazz music, jazz musicians past and present, and to instruments and the many different sounds of music they can create.” - Carmen Rubin, author of “Ashti and Birdman Al”

The uprising in Egypt has been widely attributed to the youth primarily because of their Jan. 25 Internet initiative to rally against police brutality using their "We are all Khaled Said" Facebook page that commemorates a young man beaten to death by police.

The Egyptian revolution was successful because it had no leaders, only coordinators of bottom-up energy. This new form of leadership among Egypt’s – and ultimately the world’s – young people suggests there will be many more such surprises in the future, both at home and abroad.

Jazz Hudson is one of the new up and coming poets out of the Bay who has been making a name for herself at poetry readings - one of the most loquacious and passionate young sistas to come out of the concrete jungle of Oakland in a long time.

Celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Bay View by sending its love and light to a prisoner behind enemy lines. One prisoner writes, “The Bay View has been a source of inspiration and life for me. It enables me to see people still care and Blacks are still fighting for justice.”

This people’s victory in North Africa, first in Tunisia and now in Egypt, is OUR VICTORY TOO. We, the people of the world, must move forward toward global revolution that will liberate the entire global community.

Assemblymember Hill today unveiled legislation that attacks local hiring by banning state-funded construction in any city with a local hiring law, even shutting down Bay Area projects that residents of his own district work on.

Join your voice with the roar of the crowds in Egypt and Haiti to demand that President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton end support for Mubarak and support the Egyptian people’s will and allow Aristide to return and allow real democracy in Haiti.

Oakland City Attorney John Russo’s proposed gang injunction is draconian and does not sufficiently address the root causes of crime, according to legal scholars. Attend the hearing Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2 p.m., in Dept. 20 of the Courthouse at 1225 Fallon St., Oakland

On Feb. 18, 7 p.m., at Modern Times Bookstore, Krip-Hop Nation will present an author panel of new books by Black disabled writers and friends, including Toni Hickman of Texas, Adarro Minton of New York, Allen Jones of San Francisco and friends of Krip-Hop Nation, DC Curtis and Bones Kendall of Los Angeles.

The People’s Human Rights and Hip Hop Film Festival is a four-day event that will be kicking off on Friday, Feb. 11, at the Twinspace, 2111 Mission St. in San Francisco, that captures the aura of the Bay, politics and young people’s art.

The Punany Poets, who do AIDS awareness through erotic poetry and are going on a nationwide tour, will bring the interactive, adult dinner theater show, “Aphrodisiac,” to the El Rincon Restaurant in San Francisco on Saturday, Feb. 12.

A Black, hard-working, college attending, single mother with no criminal record was sent to jail simply for trying to provide a quality education for her 12- and 16-year-old daughters.