Monthly Archives: November 2011

The 10 Women Campaign, to be held this year on Thursday, Nov. 17, 7:30 p.m. – come at 6:30 for the reception – at ODC Theater, 3153 17th St., San Francisco, is a biennial celebration of women whose risk-taking work in law, politics, activism, business, philanthropy and the arts empowers women.

Imagine if you were on trial for crimes punishable with up to 30 years in prison. Imagine if the judges then told your lawyers that they have no right to cross-examine the state’s so-called witnesses. This is what happened last week in the capital city of Kigali, Rwanda, where opposition leader Mrs. Victoire Ingabire is on trial.

About two weeks ago, the IGI (Institutional Gang Investigator) searched my cell in SHU and confiscated my Bay View newspapers, saying they are contraband if any articles speak on George Jackson or Black August. They said that the newspaper with said articles would be used to re-validate me at my six-year review. I should not be penalized for a newspaper article.

I was validated as a prison gang member on one source of false information, even though CDCR regulations require “three (3) independent sources of information that is proven to be reliable.” Being falsely accused of prison gang membership and consequently being housed in SHU/CMU indefinitely amounts to state sponsored persecution for our political beliefs.

In San Francisco this year, we’re blessed with great candidates for mayor: Jeff Adachi, John Avalos and Terry Baum. If we unite behind them in this city that endows the mayor with an amazing amount of power, we’ll make San Francisco the land of opportunity that lives up to its reputation. And if we VOTE 100% like we used to, Black San Franciscans can once again be a force to be reckoned with. We can even elect leaders who love us!

Sitting here on my 17th day of a hunger strike in protest of the inhumane and torturous treatment of our confinement in the SHU of Pelican Bay State Prison, my heart races at 126 beats per minute – at rest! This morning I was dozing in and out of a dream. I usually don’t remember my dreams any more, but this is what I remember:

Join me in creating a San Francisco for all of us, not just the privileged few. Let’s work together to rebuild our communities, revitalize our economy and renew the hope in our youth. We can create thousands of living wage jobs for San Franciscans, expand local hire, create a city-owned bank, close corporate tax loopholes, provide free Muni for students and more.

Though we have witnessed our leaders and family members being killed, tortured and brutalized as they fought for their civil liberties, we cannot give up the fight by not voting. People have died so you could do so. Of the 16 running mates for mayor, only Public Defender Jeff Adachi has placed his money where his mouth is.

People say, “I’m not into politics.” Well, I say you may not be into politics, but politics is into YOU! People say, “They’re all a bunch of crooks, and I say to hell with them!” But I say, all these positions that exist will be filled by SOMEBODY! The question is: Who will those somebodies be, and what will they do?

To save money, San Francisco needs to cap salaries and pensions. One hundred thousand dollars is a nice round number for any city manager. Pensions should be a small percentage of the $100,000.

Revealing evidence of a fabricated police report, excessive force against a blameless merchant and police theft, San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi called Thursday on the SFPD to: 1) launch an immediate investigation into new reports of police misconduct, and 2) to institute a zero tolerance policy for officers who steal or who lie in police reports.

Mrs. Bowie said she had been attacked by a white supremacist faction of Occupiers and then subsequently attacked by the police. I asked if there had been white power issues at the camp and was met by a reluctance to broach the topic that was echoed by the next half dozen people I would speak to. A few made silent or cryptic affirmations that this phenomenon was occurring.

At 92 years of age, Katherine Smith of 993 54th St. is a frail elderly woman who lives alone in North Oakland, in a house that currently does not have any hot water. She is struggling against an eviction by a wealthy Danville man named Robert Rasheed, who is trying to evict her from her long-time home onto the cold, mean streets of Oakland.

Six thousand six hundred California prisoners participated in a three-week-long hunger strike in July, seeking relief from unjust and inhumane conditions. In the face of California Department of Corrections (CDC) officials failing to honor settlement negotiations, the hunger strike resumed on Sept. 26, with nearly 12,000 prisoners participating in 13 of that state’s prisons.

On Nov. 5, thousands have vowed to close their accounts at big banks and transfer their money to credit unions — banking institutions owned by their customers and known to provide more personalized customer service. How about you? If you have an account at a mega bank, are you planning to take your business elsewhere on Nov. 5? To find a credit union in the U.S., go to http://www.findacreditunion.com/. It's time to pool our money and invest in creating a thriving, self-sufficient community in every hood!

Last weekend, in a letter to California Secretary of State Debra Bowen and to the U.S. Justice Department, seven of the San Francisco mayoral candidates asked the Justice Department to send election observers and monitors and federal investigators to protect San Franciscans’ voting rights.

“Everyone to the streets! No work! No school! Converge on downtown Oakland.” The General Strike demands are: 1) Solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Movement; 2) End police attacks on our communities; 3) Defend Oakland schools and libraries; 4) Oppose an economic system built on inequality and corporate power that perpetuates racism, sexism and destruction of the environment.

San Francisco District 11 Supervisor and mayoral candidate John Avalos held a hearing about creating a San Francisco municipal bank. He says, the municipal bank idea is one that has been in the making for a long time, and now people are greatly suspicious and frustrated with our banks, that they serve the 1 percent and not the everyday people, the 99 percent.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame will be traveling to Sacramento to give a keynote speech at a conference on genocide. Many leading scholars, human rights investigators, genocide survivors and now Kagame’s own former Chief of Staff Theogene Rudasingwa hold him most responsible for the Rwanda Genocide of the 1990s, for the ensuing Congo Wars and Congo conflict, and for the plunder of Eastern Congo’s vast natural resource wealth.Join the protest Thursday, Nov. 3, 9 a.m., outside the Redwood Room, Sacramento State University campus, 6000 J St., Sacramento.

On July 16, 1934, the four-day San Francisco General Strike began as strikers and National Guard battled for control of the shut-down city. Longshore strike leader Harry Bridges went to Black churches on both sides of San Francisco Bay to beg the congregation to join the strikers on the picket line and promised that when the strike ended, Blacks would work on every dock on the West Coast.