Monthly Archives: April 2011

Hundreds of people gathered in Benton Harbor Wednesday, April 27, to protest the emergency manager law that has stripped power from the local government. Leading the march and rally, Rev. Pinkney decried the hostile takeover of Benton Harbor by the emergency financial manager, intensifying the racist influence by Whirlpool that has grabbed much of the city’s priceless lakefront, including a large portion of Jean Klock Park, dedicated in perpetuity to the children of Benton Harbor. He invites everyone to Benton Harbor Saturday, May 7, to protest Gov. Snyder when he comes to town as grand marshall of the Blossomtime Parade.

A sea of overwhelming opposition in cities from the San Francisco Bay Area to Los Angeles has risen against San Mateo Assemblymember Jerry Hill and his anti-local hiring measure, Assembly Bill 356, which threatens state funding for any California city with a local hiring policy.

Nuclear fallout knows no state or national boundaries and will contribute to increase in illnesses, decrease in intelligence and in instability throughout the world. No country can maintain itself if its citizens are economically, intellectually, politically and socially impoverished. Given the continuing and known problems caused by the Chernobyl catastrophe, we must ask ourselves: Before we commit ourselves to economic and technological support of nuclear energy, who, what and where are we willing to sacrifice and for how long?

Law professor and legal scholar Charles Kambanda and Rwanda Genocide survivor, writer and activist Aimable Mugara spoke about the truth of the Rwanda Genocide story, as more and more lobbying groups push for Pentagon campaigns to stop genocide, even with Predator drones.

The federal 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, in a stunning smack at the U.S. Supreme Court, has issued a ruling upholding its earlier decision backing a new sentencing hearing in the controversial case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

The United States Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit has unanimously declared that Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence is unconstitutional. In today’s decision, the Court of Appeals reaffirmed its 2008 finding that the jury was improperly instructed.

It is a measure of how powerful the U.S. military is – and how poor the media is – that the nation wages war against peoples and countries it knows nothing about. How many of us know that many of the rebels in Libya don’t want democracy but the old kingdom restored?

Growing evidence suggests the West, led by France, engineered a political and military coup in Cote d’Ivoire to re-colonize that country. The president of Gambia says, "Western neo-colonialist sponsored agents in Africa ... are ready to walk on thousands of dead bodies to the presidency."

"My latest release, 'In the Studio with Augusta Collins,' is produced by Emmy award-winning producer Anita S. Woodley. On this album, I am channeling Leadbelly. I am performing my music with something to say about each song." - Oakland blues man Augusta Collins

Jean Leonard Teganya was recently found to be a war criminal by the Canadian Federal Court simply because he survived an attack on a Rwandan hospital where he was a medical student intern in 1994. This is such an assault on war victims all over the world.

From it's inception, the juvenile justice system has treated youth of color unfairly: When the first detention facility established a "colored section" in 1834, Black children were excluded from rehabilitation because it would be a "waste" of resources.

“All of our institutions have failed us if they do not use their power and act against this crime against humanity being carried out in Africa today. I received a call this morning from an Ivorian friend who calls it genocide what Sarkozy’s troops are doing there. Blood, blood, everywhere. Depleted uranium in Libya. Generations to come will suffer the health effects. We must try to stop President Obama. He has the power to say no. So far, he is good at saying yes to all the wrong people. So we must do more than we think we can. Anything less places more blood on everyone’s hands.” - Cynthia McKinney

The Obama regime’s invasion and bombing of Libya is a continuation of a longstanding imperial practice designed to enhance U.S. power via the installation of client regimes, the establishment of military bases and the training and indoctrination of African mercenary forces dubbed “collaborative partners.”

The various countries in Africa that have been targeted for destabilization and regime-change are large scale producers of oil and other valuable resources and commodities. Libya accepted the African Union peace proposal, but the rebels and their Western allies rejected it.

Bonds said nearly a decade ago: "I don’t need a headline that says, ‘Bonds says there’s racism in the game of baseball.’ We all know it. It’s just that some people don’t want to admit it." This is the story of the Black athlete today: Die a hero or live long enough to be a villain.

Glen Cove is acknowledged by the Greater Vallejo Recreational District and the City of Vallejo to contain many burials and to be important culturally, yet as of Thursday night they were still were planning to move forward with plans to build a toilet and parking lot on this sacred site.

Law professor Peter Erlinder’s case against Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his official history of the Rwanda Genocide continues in the court of public opinion. Erlinder has published an 80-page analysis of documents he says prove Kagame’s culpability for the genocide and ensuing Congo Wars.

While thousands of miles and 25 years separate the sites and the events that led to the catastrophes at Fukushima and Chernobyl, the effects will be very similar – and will remain so for years to decades to centuries.

'Block Reportin' is a collection of captured conversations, continuing the rich African oral tradition, passing on stories and information to us in the format of an interactive dialogue. The next book signings are April 16, 4 p.m., at Marcus Books and April 22, 12:30 p.m., at Alexander Books, both in San Francisco.

"I been through it all, and I know what I don’t want anymore: the murders, the poverty and the depression. Because of what I’ve gone through, I know how to fight for the needs of my people." - Jiwe