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2011 November

Monthly Archives: November 2011

Dregs One debuts ‘The Wake Up Call’

Dregs One says that his new album, “The Wake Up Call,” is something like a rap documentary because it is packed with facts and reports on topics that are prevalent in today’s political and social climate. Dregs One works with disenfranchised communities in the Bay Area.

The other 1 percent

The last 30 years have led to an unprecedented concentration of wealth and power in the hands of the 1 percent – as well as the creation of another 1 percent: the 1 in 100 people currently locked in U.S. prisons and jails. Can we imagine what it would look like for imprisoned people to participate in General Assemblies?

We are willing to sacrifice ourselves to change our conditions

We all were willing to die in a hunger strike to get attention and changes to a flawed validation policy, where prisoners are kept in solitary confinement indefinitely by fabricated tales by prison informants and officers. So we are truly committed to seeing this out and sacrificing ourselves.

Carnegie Mellon University and President Kagame: A venture capital romance

Rwandan President Kagame and Carnegie Mellon University’s new relationship has the whiff of a celebrity marriage. An African war criminal in possession of a presidency must be in want of a Western institution whose reputation can lend him international credibility.

Police turn Occupy Oakland’s Thanksgiving into potty riot

Occupy Oakland’s Thanksgiving gathering turned violent Thursday after police orchestrated the removal of portable toilets from Frank H. Ogawa Plaza, which the protesters have renamed Oscar Grant Plaza. Occupy Oakland is one of the most assertive and appreciated of all of America’s Occupy groups.

Police critic Fly Benzo keeps catching hell since police murder of Kenneth Harding

We get criminalized in Bayview Hunters Point on the T-Train, and the police chase people down because they don’t have a transfer. I spoke before the Board of Supervisors, and a couple of days later Kenneth Harding was shot down over a $2 transfer. African American youth in San Francisco have a 70 percent unemployment rate, so our population is rapidly decreasing. It’s going to continue to decrease when the police are criminalizing our poverty. When I tried to videotape a cop, they put me under arrest, they beat me up. I was hospitalized, and I was put in jail. They gave me $95,000 bail.

Congratulations to San Francisco NAACP honorees, ‘Red Tails’ lifts off

The Tuskegee Airmen William “Bill” Campbell San Francisco Bay Area Chapter was honored with the San Francisco NAACP Presidential Medal of Freedom Award at the San Francisco NAACP Freedom Fund Gala. “Red Tails,” the George Lucas film on the Airmen is coming out Jan. 20, 2012.

To occupy or be occupied – a bird’s eye view

While the current near collapse of U.S. capitalism has been ugly for so many millions, what biased media and political elites suggest with rhetoric turning more critical of Occupy Wall Street is that the tent cities, rather than what caused them, have to be made to disappear.

The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and the Democratic Republic of the Congo

One ponders the obligation of the international community in a horrific situation like the Democratic Republic of the Congo where more than 6 million Congolese have died, half of them children, since 1996, with over 400,000 women raped as a weapon of war.

Local hiring pushes Prop. B Road Bond to success

Local hiring is a job creation tool. A guaranteed 20 to 30 percent of these jobs for taxpayers in our local communities over the next couple years was enough to win. This is just the beginning of the opportunities that the local hiring law has created.

Occupy the Hood’s national effort coordinated by Ife Johari Uhuru, Detroit single mom

“I think that we’ve decided that the twinkling fingers and all of that may not be for us,” said Uhuru. “We remain in solidarity. But we want to be able to speak and then act autonomously and really get involved in grassroots causes.”

Hunger striker dies mysteriously at Calipatria, family reports funeral is Tuesday, Nov. 22, in...

Evidence indicates Hozel Blanchard's death wasn’t a suicide. J. Turner, Hozel's brother, saw this article and reports that services will be held Tuesday, Nov. 22, 11 a.m., at the Miraculous Word Christian Center, 2723 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. The family seeks “any information or advice you can provide for us to get justice for my brother. We also have an email set up solely for this purpose: hozelblanchard@gmail.com. Any information would be greatly appreciated ... to get to the bottom of this tragedy.”

Youth homelessness on the rise in Richmond

Continuously over the last four years, Jessica Comstock, 22, has been homeless, relying on a network of local emergency shelters for her survival. She is just one of a growing number of young people between the ages of 18-24 who are slipping into homelessness in the city of Richmond.

A chance for redemption

If it is true that this major state institutions’ aim is to rehabilitate, then we must pass SB 9. If not, then it is time to dismantle the entire institution altogether because it is failing miserably by keeping these youth locked up with no possibility of ever tasting freedom again.

Buy Black Wednesdays 8: Occupy Black Wall Street!

Join the Occupy movement. But join with caution and ask yourselves of any movement: Does this group have a collective goal or game plan to work on which assures that we, Black people, are making progress for our people every day, if not every hour?

Three prisoners die in hunger strike related incidents: CDCR withholds information from family members,...

Prisoners who participated in the hunger strike are being severely retaliated against with disciplinary actions and threats. Hozel Blanchard’s family said that he felt that his life was threatened and had two emergency appeals pending with the California Supreme Court at the time of his death.

Worse than Penn State

Universities and school officials that partner closely with major criminals, especially those who kill, rape and molest children, would do well to heed LaVar Arrington’s advice. Let today be a start to protect the victims, instead of the perpetrators.

Protestors gather for Ingabire, the woman who challenged Kagame

Supporters of Rwandan opposition leader Victoire Ingabire gathered to celebrate her 43rd birthday. Ingabire has been in jail for over a year and her trial continues with almost no attention from the international press, even though she’s charged with challenging the received history of the Rwanda Genocide.

Reflections on organizing towards collective liberation at Occupy NOLA

I have been invigorated and moved by the energy surrounding Occupy NOLA. Yet I’ve been faced with the tensions being articulated by so many folks on the Left: How can this energy be connected to and further long-standing organizing work for social and economic justice?

Racism, white privilege in the 99%: If not now, when do we address it?

Is the Occupy Movement against slavery, or is it that some people are just mad because they never get to hold the whip? Do you not see racism? Can you see it in this movement? Where is the support for justice for Raheim Brown in Oakland and Kenneth Harding in San Francisco?