Monthly Archives: November 2015

Keith LaMar (Bomani Shakur) is an innocent man on death row in Ohio who began a hunger strike Monday, Nov. 9. His execution date could be set as early as January. Ohio built a special prison for Bomani and their other scapegoats from the 1993 11-day Lucasville prison rebellion, the longest in U.S. history. They call Bomani the worst of the worst, and they can’t wait to exterminate him. Now more prisoners are joining the strike. Call prison officials to support their demands.

Stone Ramsey is one of the businessmen behind the curtain who has aided and assisted everybody from Dru Down and Yukmouth to the Gov and Pac. Now he has transformed his relationship in music with ghetto wordsmiths Keak Da Sneak and Mistah Fab into literature, and Stone Ramsey is writing street lit with these rappers. Check him out, as you think about what you and yours will be reading next year.

Jesse Perez, a young man buried alive in the Pelican Bay SHU, began advocating for a Prisoner Political Action Committee after the hunger strikes, when attention had turned to legislative action. Now he's suing his jailers for their retaliation, and the judge denied defendants’ summary judgment motion. The trial began Nov. 9 and is expected to continue to Friday, Nov. 20. Pack the courtroom daily (except no court Thursday): Courtroom 4, 17th floor, Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate Ave., San Francisco.

Tim Wolfe makes $459,000 a year and the school would have to forfeit $1 million just for missing this weekend’s game against BYU. Black football players in particular have a social power often unseen and not commented upon. It’s there all the same. These athletes are a sleeping giant. At Mizzou, just 7 percent of the students are Black but a whopping 69 percent of the football players are.

On Thursday, the majority of the 3,000 students at Berkeley High School marched from their school to rally on the UC Berkeley campus. In a statement, the BHS Black Student Union wrote: “Tonight the BSU was made aware of a hateful message that was posted on the Berkeley High website. The words ‘Fuck all the niggers in the world,’ ‘KKK forever public lynching Decmber 9th 2015,” and “I hung a n*gger by his neck in my backyard’ were left on the library homepage.” This is the third racist attack at BHS in the past 13 months.

It was in early Iraq where the largest African slave rebellions occurred. Here, well over a millennium ago, were gathered tens of thousands of East African slave laborers called Zanj. Conscious of their large numbers and oppressive working conditions, the Zanj rebelled, inflicting defeat after defeat upon the Arab armies sent to suppress their revolt.

The Block Report speaks with our correspondent Claude Gatebuke, also of the African Great Lakes Action Network, about the politics in the African Great Lakes region. We discuss Rwandan President Kagame attempting to extend his reign for a total of 40 years, Rwanda working for Western powers, tension between Burundi and Rwanda, political prisoner Victoire Ingabire, the role Tanzania has played as a stabilizing factor and more.

Charles Kambanda told KPFA that the West is trying to create a failed state whose resources will then be easier to control. “Burundi borders with Congo, and Congo, the other side, is so rich in minerals. So we have these corporations fighting to control Burundi, to create a failed state in Burundi, so that they can get involved in illegal business in that region,” he says.

The 20th anniversary of the San Francisco Bay Area’s Maafa Commemoration, Sunday, Oct. 11, was really lovely. The day was slightly overcast, and when I arrived there was a drumming circle, with Afrikans dancing and singing. The lit walkway leading to the Doors of No Return and the shrine before the ocean was inviting, yet no one seemed anxious to make that journey – we knew where that path lay and were not looking forward to the turmoil – so the children of the children of the children of that time long ago stayed on the shores and watched the sea. We are looking for 20th anniversary reflections to publish on maafasfbayarea.com.

Dia de los Muertos is a cultural celebration that had no significance for me until this year. I don’t knowingly want what I create or do to capitalize on a lost human life. But one thing that struck me was that in the last photo taken of Sandra Bland, she was wearing the color orange. The garment was an orange jumpsuit; her last representation was one of “criminality.”

In an era when the 9-to-5 is being replaced by on-demand jobs and the costs of living are rising, Opus for Work empowers people to find flexible work that best fits their individual schedules and needs. New companies in this space have nearly tripled within the last five years, creating tremendous room for new on-demand jobs and employees.

“This plan is workable if enough Black Amerikans still remember how we have fought our way through the greatest ‘ holocaust’ in the history of mankind; still, we are not full of hatred for any other people, though there is justification. Therefore, let us work this plan and continue to love this land; our blood, sweat and tears are not yet dry where we stand across our beautiful land,” says the visionary Dr. Evans.

“Twenty Years of Speaking Truth to Power” is the theme for CCWP’s 20th anniversary gala, on Saturday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m., at the Women’s Building 3543 18th St., San Francisco. For information, call 415-255-7036, ext. 4, and if you’d like to volunteer at the event, visit womenprisoners.org. Featured guests include Patrisse Cullors, co-founder of Black Lives Matter; Jayda Rasberry, organizer with Dignity and Power Now; Thao Nguyen, Thao & The Get Down Stay Down; and the Heiwa Taiko Drummers.

Filmmaker N’Jeri Eaton hooked up with film cinematographer Mario Furloni to tell the story of the monthly “First Friday” festival in downtown Oakland in a documentary that includes the Oakland police murder of Alan Blueford on May 6, 2012, weeks before his high school graduation and the “First Friday” shooting in 2013 that claimed the life of victim Kiante Campbell. Check out filmmakers N’Jeri Eaton and Mario Furloni in their own words ...

All Of Us Or None applauds President Obama and his administration for “Banning the Box” for federal agencies on Nov. 2. In issuing a federal personnel memorandum, the president directed that the federal government delay inquiries into a job applicant’s conviction history until later on in the hiring process. The president’s memorandum – issued after years of advocacy by All Of Us Or None – marks a historic victory for the campaign.

“Beasts of No Nation” is a Netflix film that crudely exposes the face of the wars in Africa and the false poverty that has been created by U.S. and other Western imperialist governments spearheading a corporate plan to rob the richest continent on earth of its natural resources. I would not have been thrilled if I’d had to pay to watch the disturbing drama. For free, it’s still disturbing, but well written otherwise and beautifully shot as well.

MY GOODNESS, here we are in November, and WORLD SERIES PLAY! There was a time when the game was played in early October! NY METS vs KANSAS CITY ROYALS – BACK TO BACK FOR THEM! – GIANTS BEAT THEM LAST YEAR! Before one can hardly catch their breath, the WARRIORS have kicked off their 2015-16 season; seems 2017 their NEW home will bring them BACK to the City, Mission Rock, 16th and Third, 40 blocks away from my corner of town!

Although I have not yet been able to make my way back to my father’s house, I do know that he will welcome me because during my self-destructive ordeals he has been my beacon and never once waivered in being my refuge. To my fellow confined men, I encourage you to think about your fatherly journey if you have children. You must strive to dignify your father by living in the light of his integrity, personified by the things he did to be colored a father.

Which presidents will remain in power in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and its neighbors, Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the Republic of the Congo? In Burundi, Rwanda’s neighbor and another of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s neighbors to the east, President Nkurunziza claimed the right to be elected twice by universal suffrage and won the election, as Rwanda’s President Kagame did in 2010 and DR Congo’s President Kabila did in 2011, and that right was confirmed by Burundi’s highest court.