Monthly Archives: March 2011

The corporatist media is shilling the lie that the battle in Wisconsin between the governor and the unions is about cutting deficits, saving money and fiscal sanity. In reality it is more about gutting unions and undermining the rights of workers than fiscal solvency.

State legislatures in many states have used redistricting to minimize and/or deny racial and ethnic minorities their right to representation. Given the systematic inequalities and racism that still exist today it is crucial that people of color get involved in this process.

Open letter to San Francisco officials from the San Francisco Gray Panthers: Tasers do not belong in any police force.

In “Block Reportin’,” Oakland journalist and filmmaker JR Valrey lays bare stories of struggle and resistance through a collection of nearly a decade of interviews with local political leaders, national Black resistance leaders, artists and family members who’ve suddenly seen themselves cast into the spotlight.

On Feb. 3 the New Orleans City Council voted unanimously to pass an ordinance authorizing the construction of a new jail that’s much smaller than what had previously been planned, marking a major effort to downsize the city’s swelling prison population.

Washington (Bob) Burnsis a retired pathologist. Unlike most retired doctors, he has spent the past 15 years trying to aid those who have been dealt a hand of poverty and desperation.

Black newspapers were left off Toyota’s latest marketing campaign, sending a clear and direct message that the Black consumer is still being taken for granted and Black people are still being disrespected and undervalued.

Black History Month was very exciting at the Bayview Opera House, featuring such major local talents as Mastamind filmmaker Kevin Epps with two screenings, musicians Unidentified Flying Objects with Doc Smith and BVOH drum instructor Akinyele with his Troublemakers Union, Mary Booker’s Actors Workshop and the Providence Church Gospel Choir.

Banners reading “Get Your Free Fast Pass” will cover the BART station at 16th and Mission Thursday, March 10, 3-5 p.m., for the first in a series of community bus pass clinics planned in coming weeks in BVHP and Chinatown as well as the Mission

Georgia State Prison, identified by its dwellers as “The Bottom” (i.e., The End), due to its life-negating atmosphere, is once again living up to its sadistic name by fostering and maintaining an atmosphere that produces death.

We will be paying with our health for generations for this greenwashing program which will actually benefit only PG&E and major electronics manufacturers. The media tell us that any health concerns are groundless, but the truth is very different.

Pricipal Tamitrice Rice-Mitchell and the teachers and staff at Dr. Charles Drew College Preparatory Academy have asked the surrounding Bayview community not merely what the community can do to help improve the school, but what the school can do to help improve the community.

Parkmerced is one of the last affordable neighborhoods in San Francisco. It’s sad to see such a beautiful neighborhood demolished due to capitalist greed, but this is what the feature holds for Parkmerced if tenants don’t fight to stop this project.

There is no possibility of understanding what is happening in Libya within a Eurocentric framework. Libya’s system and the battle now taking place on its soil stands completely outside of the Western imagination. The battle that is being waged in Libya is fundamentally a battle between pan-African forces on the one hand, who are dedicated to the realization of Qaddafi’s vision of a united Africa, and Libyan Arab forces who look toward Europe and the Arab world for Libya’s future.

Activists are calling on Oakland residents and all who love justice to come to the Oakland City Council meeting at 7 p.m. tonight, Tuesday, March 8, at City Hall to demand that Officer Jimenez, killer of Jody Woodfox and Andrew Moppin, not be returned to duty.

William Wright, a prisoner on San Quentin’s death row, began a hunger strike on Monday, Jan. 17, to protest a myriad of discriminatory actions aimed at him.

A crowd of over 200 community advocates, elected officials, labor leaders, community contractors and City department heads came together on Feb. 23 to celebrate the passage of the historic local hiring ordinance.

On Jan. 22, 20-year-old Raheim Brown was shot and killed by the Oakland Unified School District’s police force outside Skyline High School. Calling the killing an “assassination,” Raheim's mother, Lori Davis, was horrified by the excessive use of force.

A Somali blogger writes, “Many angry mobs are targeting Black Africans after reports that the government was using ‘African mercenaries’ to repress the revolt was transmitted by Western media.” “Just being a Black face in Libya is very dangerous at the moment,” said a UNHCR spokeswoman.

I highly recommend “Jar the Floor.” It illustrates the Sankofa concept that permeates African Diaspora culture. Shows are 8 p.m. tonight and 3 p.m. tomorrow, March 5 and 6, at the Mexican Heritage Plaza Pavilion, 1700 Alum Rock Ave., San Jose.