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2012 March

Monthly Archives: March 2012

Cynthia McKinney: Justice for Trayvon Martin also means joining the international struggle against U.S....

As the mother of a young Black man whom I pray for nightly and worry daily about his life being violently ended senselessly either by someone marginalized by the unjust social structure of U.S. life or by some rogue officer of the law or one pretending to be a policeman, I offer my sincerest condolences to the Martin family and friends over the loss of their son Trayvon.

Japan’s ‘Throwaway People’ and the fallout from Fukushima

Japan of old did not have a captive Black population to use and abuse. So the Burakumin were created to fill that economic and social vacuum at the bottom of society. They are still there, a permanent “untouchable” class, cleaning up Fukushima.

Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement presents counter-proposal opposing CDCR ‘Security Threat Group Strategy’

Top CDCR administrators admitted several times during our negotiations that the five core demands made by 12,000 hunger striking prisoners were reasonable and would all be addressed via meaningful, substantive changes. Our rejection of CDCR's March 1 proposal is based upon its failure to act in good faith. CDCR is asking lawmakers and taxpayers to allow it to continue to violate thousands of prisoners’ human rights, torturing us with impunity. Our counter-proposal will bring this illegal torture to an end.

Black sounds silenced at KPFA?

Just when I thought I could almost start to trust KPFA, I hear that the Morning Mix may be snatched off the airwaves. I gave my first donation to KPFA ever because of the Morning Mix. To be real – I gave to the Morning Mix because of Block Report Radio on Wednesday mornings, 8-9 a.m.

The feeling of rebellion: #MillionHoodies reflections from NYC

The #MillionHoodieMarch for Trayvon Martin was a big success. But it isn’t enough to institute police reforms and make the cops do their job – which is to terrorize Black, Brown and working class people – more nicely. We have to build resistance on our own blocks and in our own hoods!

Rallying for Trayvon Martin is fighting for justice, not ‘skipping school’

Hundreds of students walked out of Mount Zion High School just after 2 p.m. on Monday in a show of solidarity with local college students and civil rights activists taking part in an ‘I Am Trayvon’ rally and march at the Georgia state capitol. We know we can be punished for “skipping school.”

What KPFA should be

To increase revenue, KPFA is considering some major changes in the morning programming lineup. If you are a KPFA listener, you are welcome to join the debate. If not, why not give KPFA a listen today? KPFA aspires to be real free speech radio and its mission is to bring warring factions together.

Two reviews: Sieh Samura’s ‘Block Reportin’ 101’ will be featured at the 10th Oakland...

Reminiscent of Tupac in his heyday, Valrey speaks expressively, exercising his freedom of speech and bringing prominence to real Black issues that we face on a day-to-day basis. When he speaks, people listen. He educates the masses on police terrorism, a cause that he is well informed and passionate about.

NCTT Corcoran SHU responds to new Security Threat Group management proposal

For decades the CDCR has operated a domestic torture program in California SHUs whereby men are consigned to indefinite solitary confinement, sensory deprivation and constant illumination with the sole intent of compelling these state victims to become state informants.

Hunger strike analysis: Thinking outside the concrete box

If we can do a mass hunger strike, can we not gain support to pursue a mass boycott of the canteen for three-six months. What can prisoncrats do about a collective will to not buy canteen or have family and friends send money when the state takes over half of off the top anyway? What rule have we broken or what prison order has been disrupted?

The economics of a work stoppage

In that same spirit of stubborn resistance that the Occupy Movement is showing, we here in Pelican Bay State Prison who initiated a hunger strike were protesting the torturous and inhumane conditions of these isolation units in U.S. prisons. I want to stress that our struggle is not over – not by a long shot.

Oscar Grant, Trayvon Martin and the protection of ‘police murder’ in Amerikkka

Once again another young Black man has been shot and killed, under highly questionable circumstances, by a representative of law enforcement. Also once again, African Americans and our allies fear that justice will not be served on the perpetrator. Unfortunately, this fear is neither imagined nor an overreaction; it is grounded in concrete reality.

Trayvon Martin murdered twice, first by a racist criminal, then by a racist criminal...

Zimmerman, who had made 46 wanna-be cop assist calls to the Sanford police during the past 14 months, had such a bad reputation among neighbors at the complex where he killed Trayvon that they had filed complaints. In fact, he was known to go door-to-door asking residents to “be on the look-out,” primarily for “young Black men.”

CDCR Security Threat Group Strategy is designed to retain prisoners indefinitely in these torture...

California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s “Security Threat Group Prevention, Identification and Management Strategy” targets the underprivileged prisoners and their communities to retain them in solitary confinement indefinitely. The Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement rejects this document.

We’ve taken their power away by uniting as one

I am glad that the four principle groups behind these prison walls have agreed to the fundamental principles of “each one, teach one” with the open hand of natural humanity from the north to the south to the east to the west. We are united as one, a Prison Movement of the 21st century.

Stop Wells Fargo from foreclosing, evicting Kathryn Galves

The Occupy the Auctions and Evictions Campaign has put out an urgent action alert to the public to help stop Wells Fargo’s eviction of 63-year-old African American foreclosure and eviction fighter Kathryn Galves, her elderly sister and their dog from her San Francisco Noe Valley home at 1164 Church St.

Prisoners in solitary confinement petition United Nations: ‘CDCR destroys our minds, souls and spirits’

Comparing their conditions to a “living coffin,” 400 California prisoners held in long-term or indefinite solitary confinement petitioned the United Nations Tuesday to intervene on behalf of all of the more than 4,000 prisoners similarly situated. California holds more prisoners in solitary confinement than any other state in the United States or any other nation on earth. Conditions inside California’s SHUs and ASUs were at the center of two massive waves of hunger strikes last year that saw the participation of thousands of prisoners in at least a third of California’s 33 prisons.

Bay Area unites to fight foreclosures, as Supervisor Avalos calls for foreclosure moratorium in...

Supervisor John Avalos is calling for suspension of foreclosure activities in San Francisco. Rally to support Avalos’ resolution Tuesday, March 20, 12 noon, on the City Hall steps, Van Ness side, where foreclosure sales are held. “We have to do everything in our power to stop any more foreclosure fast-tracking,” he said.

Trayvon Martin: Justice Department to investigate fatal shooting of unarmed Florida teen

The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI have opened an investigation into the killing of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed teenager shot and killed by a white Neighborhood Watch captain in an Orlando suburb. Rally Monday, March 26, 12-1 p.m., 850 Bryant, San Francisco, for justice for Trayvon Martin.

Pelican Bay SHU representatives respond to CDCR’s proposed gang management strategy

The Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit Short Corridor representatives have read and carefully considered and hereby reject CDCR’s gang management proposal of March 2012. Prisoners designated Security Threat Group Members – including the majority of us – will not receive any meaningful change.