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2013 June

Monthly Archives: June 2013

Youth prisoners in Washington state will join the California prison strike on July 8

Prisoners at Green Hill juvenile prison in Chehalis have announced that they will go on strike on July 8. Their strike in solidarity with prisoners in California and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may take the form of a work stoppage, although a planned hunger strike was previously reported. The Green Hill prisoners have also issued their own demands; some of their demands focus on conditions inside the prison, while some seek justice for ex-prisoners on the outside.

Chela Simone speaks on her new album ‘Death of a Mermaid’ and more

Chela aka Holly Saucy recently released her new album, “Death of a Mermaid,” which definitely has a different sound from her usual 16 bars of rhymes and a sing song hook. It has a ‘80s pop/’90s alternative sound that whets the palette of a real music connoisseur and has you examining the beats as well as words that are coming out of your speakers.

Mexico demands justice for Malcolm Latif Shabazz

One month after the brutal murder of Malcolm Latif Shabazz in Mexico City, about 30 people gathered at the Angel of Independence to demand justice in the case. The demonstrators carried banners and placards on a march through several blocks from Paseo de la Reforma around the U.S. Embassy before returning to El Ángel to place a floral offering there.

Why Black people understand Rachel Jeantel

If ever I thought myself objective and unbiased, the George Zimmerman trial is definitely not that moment. So let’s cut to the chase. Any attorney, jury member, judge or white person in that courtroom is not going to understand Rachel Jeantel. And I don’t expect them to. In fact, I certainly, like my fellow writer Rachel Samara, understand why white people wouldn’t like Rachel.

In the wake of the Supreme Court voting rights ruling

“Now more than ever, we, as citizens of this great nation, regardless of your age, gender or skin color must get engaged on issues that are vital to move this country forward. We must pull together and encourage elected officials from the state level to the highest levels of government to enfranchise voters rather than disenfranchise them. The work begins anew, for the future of this country.”

CDCR to prisoners: Submit to force-feeding to get demands met

Enough is enough. We are tired of CDCR officials, CCPOA, IGI, ISU and SSU continuing all this manipulation, deception with word games, lying to politicians to secure funding, lying to the media and the public in order to cover up the truth. The outcome of the two hunger strikes only exposed a little of their lies but enough to shock the world.

Wanda in Africa

Wanda flew from the Bay Area on June 5 and landed in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, two days later. She sends these commentaries on the rather rare occasions she has internet access. Enjoy! June 13 – I am in Gondar, Ethiopia, left Lalibela this morning. It was a short flight. It is entering the rainy season, so I walked into a storm. I didn’t have my coat and got drenched to the core.

Sabotage

On Jan. 29, 2013, I wrote an article called “The Lying Game: CDCR, Inc.” I wrote this article because I wanted the public, our legal team and mediation team and anyone else who’s willing to listen to know that it is not the prisoners who are lying; instead, it is the prison officials at the very top who are doing all the lying. They lied to our representatives about promising to implement our Five Core Demands.

Flawed justice: the wrongful conviction of Kerry Baxter Sr.

The Constitution guarantees every American the right to a fair trial and to face his or her accusers. This right has been denied to African Americans, who make up a larger and larger part of the prison population under America’s “New Jim Crow.” In the case of Kerry Baxter Sr., the California Superior Court system here in Alameda County blatantly ignored his rights.

Treating us like slaves: an analysis of the Security Threat Group Step Down Program

For the past two years we’ve heard the state claim it’s reforming its long term segregation policies and practices by implementing a Security Threat Group (STG) Step Down Program (SDP). Officials claim the program is a significant move towards a more behavior-based system, yet they remain extraordinarily vague about the “ultimate conclusion.” What exactly is “gang activity”?

10 Black child geniuses you should know

If you only watched the evening news or depended on pop culture, you would probably think that the majority of Black youngsters were only ambitious about sports and music. The face of Black success isn’t limited to those fields. There are a multitude of young Blacks who are achieving at a high level in science, math, classical music, chess and other knowledge-based areas and preparing to change society.

The 15th annual SF Black Film Fest and the 2nd annual Tupac Birthday Celebration...

The 15th Annual San Francisco Black Film Festival was a huge success with hundreds in attendance. Some of the headlining films included documentaries on Iceberg Slim and Sly from the Family Stone. Tupac Shakur’s 42nd birthday was celebrated in style with a number of revolutionary and reality rap legends in the Fillmore celebrating him 17 years after his assassination in Las Vegas in ‘96.

Berkeley Housing Authority is crushed by sequestration budget cuts

It’s hard times for Berkeley’s poor in the Section 8 (Housing Choice) voucher program, and it’s been very difficult for the low-income households that have recently been pushed out of public housing and out of town. Their homes in public housing are being sold to out-of-state billionaires Stephen M. Ross and Jorge M. Perez.

Jasiri X on his new album ‘Ascension’ and other assorted topics

Jasiri X is a political MC from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who has been making his music known all over the country independently for some time now. This former minister in the Nation of Islam has traded mics on songs or on panels wit’ Hip-Hop giants like M1 of dead prez, Wize Intelligent, The Grand Verbalizer, Brotha J and more.

Prisoners in Washington state to join July 8 strike called by California prisoners

Prisoners in the state of Washington will go on strike on July 8, 2013, refusing to work on that day. Some prisoners in Washington, including some in juvenile facilities, have vowed to join the nonviolent strike. The strike’s aim is two-fold: to show support for the hunger strikers in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and to join California prisoners in protesting long-term solitary confinement and other human rights abuses in U.S. prisons.

‘Cat’ returns to the cage

Lorenzo “Cat” Johnson’s story is an excruciatingly clear example of an innocent man caught in a corrupt process. The state has worked overtime to keep him locked up for life. Evidence was falsified by the police and prosecution. And when a federal appeals court ruled this so-called evidence was legally insufficient to convict, the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in and reinstated his conviction.

Hunger strike logo artist transferred again – to Texas – for vicious beatings and...

I was flown here to Texas on June 14. This is a bit more dire than the February ordeal, so it calls for at least as much sustained and broad help. (Rashid was abruptly transferred from Virginia, where he’d been held, mostly in solitary confinement, since 1990, to Oregon in February 2012, where he was placed in Oregon’s Orwellian Snake River Correctional Unit, an unvarnished behavior modification program.)

Editing Black films for 40 years: an interview wit’ film editor Sam Pollard

Sam Pollard is one of the unsung heroes of Black films in Amerikkka. He has been in the cinema industry for over 40 years and is one of the editors of some of Spike Lee’s greatest work, including “Malcolm X,” “Bamboozled,” “4 Little Girls” and “When the Levees Broke.” He will be coming to the Bay Area to do a series of talks on his work at the Pacific Film Archives in Berkeley on June 27 and 29.

Artist work spaces available on Hunters Point Shipyard

    Artist "non-live-in" work spaces on the Hunters Point Shipyard. Call Deborah @ The Point, 415-822-9675    

Congo: The UN Combat Intervention Brigade is not there to combat resource theft

Friends of the Congo’s Executive Director Maurice Carney told KPFA that the U.N. Combat Intervention Brigade is really just the U.S., U.K., and other Western powers’ excuse for continuing to support African dictators – Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni and Congo’s Joseph Kabila. All three, he says, collaborate with foreign interests to drain Congo of its vast resource wealth.