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2012

Yearly Archives: 2012

Nobody deserves to be tortured: a response to CDCR’s STG-SDP plan

The new “Security Threat Group Prevention, Identification, and Management Strategy” will instigate new and more aggressive attacks against prisoners and their families, friends, associates and communities, who are already being victimized by our institutionalized racist system and the prison industrial complex. It is just one of their many policies to persecute prisoners incarcerated in solitary confinement units.

Susan Rice’s defense of Kagame in Congo puts Obama State Department on the defensive

The Obama administration was on the defensive about the U.S. relationship with Rwanda and its U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice at the Dec. 11, 2012, U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Two days after the hearing, Rice withdrew her name from consideration to become secretary of state. In President Obama’s statement on Susan Rice, issued the same day, he praised her work but did not mention Rwanda, Uganda or Congo.

Cynthia McKinney, IAC Co-Director Sara Flounders travel to Pakistan in solidarity with political prisoner...

Hundreds of Siddiqui’s supporters met the two at the airport in the wee hours of the morning, carrying flowers, signs and banners, and chanting “Free Aafia!” and “Welcome!” Siddiqui is a Pakistani political prisoner who has been held in solitary confinement for years in U.S. prisons, after being abducted from Pakistan with her three young children.

Supreme Court rules cops can be filmed

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to let stand a lesser ruling that allows citizens in the state of Illinois to record police officers performing their official duties. Up until just last year, anti-eavesdropping legislation on the books across Illinois meant any person within the state could be imprisoned for as long as 15 years for recording a police officer without expressed consent.

Israel: Ethiopian Jews’ birth rate falls 50%

A Dec. 11 report from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency lends credence to long-standing charges of contraception abuse against the Ethiopian Jews, or Falash Mura, in Israel. JTA cites a report in Hebrew on Israeli Educational Television charging that coercive contraception is behind a 50 percent decline in the Ethiopian birth rate in Israel over the past decade.

Assemblymember Ammiano introduces Homeless Bill of Rights

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano has introduced a groundbreaking bill to protect some of society’s most vulnerable members. The Homeless Person’s Bill of Rights and Fairness Act (AB 5) establishes a foundation on which California can begin to build protections of the basic human rights of people who are homeless.

‘Occupy Our Homes’ protest: Wells Fargo Bayview Branch Ground Zero

The Bayview, which was once 70 percent Black, has been increasingly fighting a high rate of foreclosures that is resulting in yet another form of gentrification. Wells Fargo Bank has been responsible for many of the foreclosures in the community. Help your neighbors by joining the Stop the Wells Fargo 27 Holiday Foreclosure and Evictions campaign.

U.S. at U.N. prisoners’ rights meeting: Progress, but still wrong on solitary confinement

Yesterday I wrote about the ACLU’s efforts to ensure that the U.S. government is properly engaged at a U.N. meeting in Buenos Aires on uniform rules for the treatment of prisoners. Now that the meeting is underway, it appears that the U.S. delegation is playing a constructive role – but we’ve still got work to do.

Race, family and Down syndrome under the big lights

My youngest of two sons was diagnosed with Down syndrome. I’ve been advocating through projects for over seven years. “Then You Stand”, a play on Down syndrome starring an all-Black cast, is a production that anyone will be able to relate to. I hope people walk away with the feeling that no matter what they face in life, they can and will rise above it.

Congo, AFRICOM and the U.S. Corporate Council on Africa

The deadly conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo continues, as leaders of Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Rwandan and Ugandan M23 militia fighting in Congo gather in Uganda’s capital for peace talks, which members of the Congolese political opposition are boycotting.

7th Annual San Francisco Kwanzaa Celebration

The Village Project and the Bayview Y present San Francisco’s seventh annual Kwanzaa, featuring a special celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. This year’s event will again highlight the seven principles of Kwanzaa (Nguzo Saba), with 14 free events taking place over seven days throughout San Francisco.

Toss wasteful defense weapons programs off the cliff

As President Obama and leaders in Congress seek to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff,” any agreement must address the immense contribution that the Pentagon makes to the debt. Without defense spending reforms on the table to modernize our security budget, there is no pathway back to the budget surplus we enjoyed before the decade of unchecked defense spending took off.

Cleveland PD murders unarmed Black couple, firing 137 shots

A horrific shooting on Nov. 29 resulted in the death of two unarmed African Americans, Malissa Williams, 30, and Timothy Russell, 43. This may be the worst example of excessive use of deadly force in the history of the United States. The fact that 12 of the 13 Cleveland police officers were white and the victims were Black in a city which has an almost 70 percent minority population is a crisis. We all know that 12 Black police officers would never have fired 137 shots at Black or white citizens.

Six million dead since 1996? It’s time to break the silence on the Congo...

Congolese problems should have Congolese solutions. We ask that the United States of America and the United Kingdom immediately withdraw all forms of financial and military aid to Rwanda that is a state sponsor of terrorism in Africa. We must pledge to ourselves that we will never again betray our people and ourselves by staying quiet and passive.

Racism at its worst: The story of Kenny Zulu Whitmore

I say this is torture: Being held in this solitary confinement cage where I can stand in the middle of the floor, extend my arms, and touch both walls. For the last 34 years, 23 hours a day is by definition torture. They say it is because of my political education, affiliation with the Angola 3 – Shaka, King and Chairman Hooks – and my ties to the Black Panther Party.

We need Lynne Stewart back on the front lines

Ralph Poynter, the husband of Lynne Stewart, spoke at the National Lawyers Guild convention last month. As his speaking time was running out, well before the culmination of his remarks, he called upon convention delegates to stand as a commitment of support for Lynne’s struggle for justice and freedom. Guild members responded with a prolonged and thunderous standing ovation.

Wanda’s Picks for December 2012

Monday, Nov. 26, at the Bay Area Black Media Awards event hosted by Greg Bridges and sponsored by the San Francisco Bay View and Block Report Radio, it was so wonderful to see all the media friends and family for an evening of celebration. KPOO, KPFA, New California Media/Pacific News Service, Wanda’s Picks Radio, Oakland Post, Globe, Poor News Network, Oakland International Film Festival, Black Panther newspaper alumni and others were in the house as “Best” this and “Best” that were saluted.

Oakland’s City Girl Farmstore: an interview with owner Abeni Massey

One of the newer interesting and unique storefronts to open up in downtown Oakland within recent weeks is City Girl Farmstore, owned by Abeni Massey. The store is a new and welcome neighbor to the rebellious Bay Area, which has a very vibrant urban farming community. Read this new up and coming entrepreuner in her own words ...

Obstacles to Black economic development

I’ve noticed in Black families that if there are four adult siblings and three of them are professionals and one is a business owner, among the family, the professionals seem to be revered more than the business owner. I have seen churches, professional organizations and magazines give more credence and recognition to professionals than to business owners.

The courage to fight for love matters

The notion that emotional feelings and love interest ceases at the gates of the prison is blatantly absurd. A huge majority of individuals in prison are equipped with the same meaningful desires to embrace their heartfelt feelings in spite of their situation of being restricted and unable to express them deservingly with passion.