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2016 June

Monthly Archives: June 2016

Wisconsin DOC is force feeding prisoners who are on hunger strike to end solitary...

Using a practice which has been condemned by the American Medical Association and the Red Cross as a form of torture and “never ethically acceptable,” Wisconsin Department of Corrections personnel have been forcing a feeding tube through the nose and down the throat of their restrained and struggling captives three times a day since last weekend.

Chican@ Prisoners Day

If we look to any uprising in world history we will see that such rebellions, although they may have included various nationalities, are usually attributed to the dominant force in that rebellion. Rebellions take on the oppression, and those who arise lend their voice in the struggle. The dominant force in an event shapes the event and shapes the character of the struggle. The same can be said of prison struggles.

Bernie Sanders: Here’s what we want

As we head toward the Democratic National Convention, I often hear the question, “What does Bernie want?” Wrong question. The right question is what the 12 million Americans who voted for a political revolution want. And the answer is: They want real change in this country, they want it now and they are prepared to take on the political cowardice and powerful special interests which have prevented that change from happening.

City Council President McElhaney speaks on West Oakland conflict between developer and neighbors

There are concerns cited by the 2015-2016 Grand Jury report about my representation of the community’s concerns with a proposed development adjacent to my home. Prior to my election to office, an out of town investor purchased a historic Victorian house next to my home with the stated intention to rehabilitate it. The neighbors welcomed the promised renovation of the home and volunteered to keep watch over the site.

Hunger strike at Wisconsin’s Waupun state prison against conditions of a ‘living hell’

An estimated half dozen or more prisoners locked away in solitary confinement at Wisconsin’s maximum security facility in Waupun, announced last week they would begin a hunger strike in opposition to what one inmate has described as a “living hell” in the institution’s “hole.” Waupun is located 55 miles northeast of Madison. It is notoriously known as “the Prison City,” with three state prisons inside the city limits.

Wisconsin prisoner hunger strike enters second week, spreads to multiple facilities – you can...

On June 10, Wisconsin prisoners held in long term solitary confinement at Waupun Correctional Institution started a “food refusal campaign.” They wish to bring the horror of administrative confinement (AC) to the public’s attention and end this torturous practice. Solitary confinement for more than 15 days has been deemed “torture” by the United Nations, but in Wisconsin, the Department of Corrections has held many prisoners in isolation for decades.

‘Between Me and the World,’ M1’s new album

M1 of the revolutionary hip hop empire Dead Prez has done it again with some conscious and political lyrics to feed the soul of the people. “Between Me and the World” is produced by none other than the talented Italian producer Bonnot and is filled with an array of political soul food, which will keep you full from start to finish. M1 begins the album with a fire song titled, “Number One with a Bullet,” featuring Prodigy.

Prison rules must abide by human rights standards

International law regarding the right to personal integrity prohibits physical as well as mental torture and that prohibition is absolute: It recognizes no exception based on an emergency or other circumstance. Equally absolute is the prohibition on any form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, which covers pain or suffering – also of either physical or mental nature – that is less severe than torture and not necessarily inflicted with intent.

Yog been through hell and was not burnt

The SHU, the wars, the times and obviously the love and hate he experienced made Yog who he was. When I met him in 2001, I of course had read about him and heard the stories, but I was definitely not prepared to meet anyone like that. One of the letters in the Bay View said Yog taught him how to “time travel”; that sounds about right. Yog was a hot mess in that regard; his mind was not always grounded but that also was one of his strengths. He had his own world in there.

Clinton e-mail on Libyan conquest: We came, we saw, we got oil

Less than a month after Col. Qaddafi’s assassination, in a Nov. 16, 2011, “Tripoli Situation Report” in Hillary Clinton’s e-mail archive, “country managers of the three U.S. firms comprising the Waha Group (Marathon, Conoco Phillips and Amerada Hess) said meetings with its Libyan joint venture partner and the National Oil Company [NOC] this week were ‘extremely positive’ and that they were encouraged by an apparent sea change in the NOC’s attitude toward its U.S. partners.”

Explosive Trinidadian film ‘Trafficked’ screens Sunday at SF Black Film Fest

Trinidadian filmmakers Garth St. Clair and his wife, Natasha Nunez, are two of the many cinematic junkies who have traveled to San Francisco from far and wide to attend the 18th Annual San Francisco Black Film Festival, which is taking place at a number of theaters around the city this weekend. Their documentary, “Trafficked,” screens at the festival at the African American Art and Culture Complex in San Francisco on Sunday from 4 to 6 p.m.

Oakland’s Prosperity Movement fights gentrification by supporting local culture

Prosperity Movement, an Oakland-based group of artists and activists, is using its platform to promote peace and prosperity in a changing Oakland landscape. The group’s founder and front man, Adimu Madyun, makes it his mission to use art as a way of educating local youth and adults, who he says are bearing the brunt of gentrification in their native city.

Black Power, Black Lives and Pan-Africanism Conference underway now in Jackson, Mississippi

Fifty years ago, on June 16, 1966, in Greenwood, Mississippi, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Chair Kwame Ture, then known as Stokely Carmichael, addressed a crowd of youthful demonstrators and the media covering the militant March Against Fear and forcefully re-echoed our millennial and generational demand for “Black Power.”

Oakland City Council President Lynette McElhaney speaks on OPD pedophile scandal – now with...

Oakland City Council President Lynette McElhaney discusses the most recent sex scandal sweeping OPD and other Bay Area law enforcement agencies, where over two dozen officers and agents had sex or inappropriate dealings with the same underage girl. Councilwoman McElhaney equates sex work with slavery. She also stresses the need for the community to help organizations that support women and girls who have been abused by the sex industry.

Support free and fair elections in Haiti; stop the attacks on Fanmi Lavalas

On June 7, the office of Dr. Maryse Narcisse, the presidential candidate of Fanmi Lavalas, the party of former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, who publicly endorsed her, was sprayed with gunfire. This blatant violence against the movement that has long represented Haiti’s poor majority sparked outrage in Haiti but was met by silence in the mainstream media in the U.S.

‘Codigo Color’ at SF Black Film Fest: Cuban doc explores colorism and cultural ignorance...

This year at the San Francisco Black Film Festival, “Codigo Color, Memorias” is one of the internationally made jewels that will be exposing the Bay Area to the issue of colorism in Cuba. “Codigo Color, Memorias” will screen on Saturday, June 18, at the African American Art and Culture Complex. I sat down with the filmmaker, William Sabourin, for an exclusive Q&A about his informative and perfectly timed film. Check him out in his own words.

Frisco 5’s Sellassie interviews Bobby Seale publicly on Friday

This upcoming Friday, activist and rapper Sellassie of the Frisco 5 will be interviewing Bobby Seale, the co-founder and chairman of the Black Panther Party, in front of an audience. I hooked up this Q&A with Sellassie so he could talk about his experiences with the Frisco 5’s hunger strike as well as his upcoming event with Bobby Seale. Stay tuned.

Jalal ‘Lightnin Rod’ Nuraddin of The Last Poets Speaks on ‘Hustlers Convention,’ screening Saturday...

BlockReportRadio.com interviews the father of Gangsta Rap, Jalal “Lightening Rod” Nuriddin of the Last Poets, about his classic piece, “The Hustlers’ Convention.” He speaks all around the world, with some of his answers touching street knowledge, the history of the ‘60s poets, Rap history and more. “Hustlers’ Convention,” the documentary, screens Saturday, June 18, 6 p.m., at the African American Art and Culture Complex.

Parliament Funkadelic documentary screens at SF Black Film Fest this Sunday – SFBFF kicks...

Parliament Funkadelic was the cultural symbol for Black music in the ‘70s – genre-bending, fun, cool, sexy, futuristic and political. Filmmaker Bobby Brown captured their epic history in his documentary “Tear the Roof Off the Mother,” screening Sunday, June 19, at the Boom Boom Room as a part of the San Francisco Black Film Festival. For a lineup of the films and events in this year’s festival, Thursday through Sunday, June 16-19, go to sfbff.org, and read about many of them here on sfbayview.com. Check out Bobby Brown as we discuss his film in this exclusive Q&A.

Jeff Adachi’s ‘America Needs a Racial Facial’ screens Saturday, June 18, as San Francisco...

The San Francisco Black Film Festival joins with sponsor The Unity Group of Congregation Emanu-El on Saturday, June 18, 2 p.m., to screen Jeff Adachi’s film, “America Needs a Racial Facial,” at Congregation Emanu-El, 2 Lake St. in San Francisco. The film, a short documentary, will be followed by a panel discussion on “Implicit Bias and Racial Profiling.” The film will also screen on Sunday without a panel discussion at the African American Arts and Culture Complex.