Monthly Archives: November 2013

Rwanda’s M23 has finally been defeated in DR Congo, but what are we to make of DR Congo negotiating with M23, not Rwanda’s Kagame and Uganda’s Museveni? M23 was commanded by Rwanda’s top military officers and officials, but its collaboration with Uganda is clear to anyone who gives the Great Lakes Region any attention, as is Rwanda and Uganda’s collaboration with the Western powers.

The child’s destination was a friend’s house on a bright sunny day. The child had a toy. But Andy Lopez Cruz didn’t see his friend that day. Andy will not ever see any of his friends again. For within 10 seconds, the cops had rolled up behind him, reported him as suspicious, called for backup and shot him seven times. He was shot twice in the back before he hit the ground; he got a chance to scream “Stop” once and then he died.

Earlier this year, President Obama asked how one might weigh the “tens of thousands who’ve been killed in Syria versus the tens of thousands who are currently being killed in the Congo.” But as tragic and devastating as the Congo conflict is, Congolese are not asking for the United States – or the international community – to militarily intervene.

Police brutality protests are being held all over California Saturday – including Santa Rosa – to protest the brutal murder Oct. 22 of 13-year-old Andy Lopez by a Santa Rosa sheriff’s deputy and the culture of killings perpetrated by law enforcement against citizens in the state. The event in Santa Rosa will focus on gathering stories and testimonials from the community about police brutality in Sonoma County.

The movement is growing and we can’t let setbacks blind us from recognizing the progress that’s been made nor keep us from being inspired by that progress as we push the final distance towards the abolition of caging humans and the freeing of Albert Woodfox, the only member of the Angola 3 still in prison, and other political prisoners from decades in solitary.

Only by reducing the amount of time inmates spend behind federal prison bars – by eliminating harsh mandatory minimum sentences and resurrecting federal parole – will much of the unnecessary suffering caused by prison overcrowding and budgetary financial strain be alleviated. There is currently a federal parole proposal pending before Congress and President Obama. Your signature as well as your support is needed.

At Legal Services for Prisoners with Children’s 35th Anniversary Celebration on Oct. 19, headlined by Dr. Angela Y. Davis and Michelle Alexander, I noticed immediately the “logo,” a phoenix rising from the ashes, the theme for California Coalition for Women Prisoners’ 15th Anniversary celebration of the Fire Inside two years ago. All of Us or None is 10 years old now, and LSPC at 35 is the parent of CCWP.

Lorenzo “Cat” Johnson continues his fight for freedom. He is an innocent man serving a sentence of life imprisonment. In Pennsylvania a life sentence means just that. There is no parole, no release until you are carried out feet first or win a reversal of your conviction. And even then the struggle is to definitively defeat the prosecution’s unceasing efforts to reconvict and re-imprison.

Here on mainline they (CDCR) have continued to oppress us by not allowing those of us who participated in the hunger strike and work stoppage to attend group yard, school or trades training or obtain work. We’re even prohibited from attending religious services and self-help groups such as Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous.

This week the Congolese army, backed by the U.N. Force Intervention Brigade, was widely reported to be driving the last of Rwanda’s M23 militia from their positions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s most war ravaged province, North Kivu, on eastern Congo’s border with Rwanda. At the same time, Western elites stepped forward to tell the world what’s best for Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo now.

Exercise your power! VOTE 100% on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Bay View publisher Dr. Willie Ratcliff recommends YES on Propositions A and D, NO on Propositions B and C.

Not all are debriefers or snitches or “stool pigeons,” as you call all SNY/PCs. Some of the dudes on this side (SNY) are participating in the hunger strike to help you! We are all in this hell-hole together. We need to fight together against the actions being put before us. Obviously these COs (correctional officers) and the warden don’t care that you’re GP and I’m SNY. We’re getting treated the same.

HELLO! Good to be back on the scene talking about MY FOLKS! For decades, traveled San Francisco’s famed Fillmore and Divisadero Streets, writing about street action and Black life! So, here I am checking out the happenings on THIRD STREET, the heart and soul of the Bayview Hunters Point community – the LAST BASTION for African Americans in this town!

As many of you know from experience, or have read before in these pages, the last decade has cut a deadly swath through Black prosperity and the viability of Black businesses in San Francisco. This is coupled with the flight of many of our neighbors, family members and friends out of the City. Yet we hang on, still determined to “make a way out of no way.” We remain, our children remain, and if we work hard enough, diligently enough, we can turn things around so that the next generation has a fighting chance.

It’s the ingenious design of prison to focus more on profit and perpetual imprisonment through antagonizing and framing inmates than on rehabilitation, human rights and community development. We get no second chances. African American youth like myself grew up in East Baltimore, never hearing about the tortuous prison structure, George Jackson, Angela Davis or Kwame Toure.