News & Views

The 10 Black members of the powerful House Finance Committee are still being applauded this week by the Black press and Black leaders nationally for boldly boycotting a committee meeting in order to force a $4 billion allocation to benefit the Black community. They plan to escalate protests if lawmakers continue to ignore the suffering of their constituents, including advertising discrimination against Black newspapers.

We are too big to fail! Call President Barack Obama to remind him that a bold reinvestment in, recovery for and restoration of our environment is even more critical, and less expensive, than the trillions he has given to prop up Wall Street, the military contractors, capitalist for-profit corporations and now the insurance industry that stands to benefit so greatly from his health care “reform.”

In this conversation between two young Black men who are passionate about the potential role of radio in the Black community, Minister of Information JR begins: "Rob Redding is one of few Black program directors at a mainstream talk radio station: KMLB in Monroe, Louisiana. He is also syndicated on XM Radio and on Green 960 AM in the Bay Area."

Stand with the residents of Bayview Hunters Point Thursday, Dec. 17, 6:30-10 p.m., at the SF Planning Commission hearing on Lennar's Environmental Impact Report in San Francisco City Hall Room 400. Tell the commissioners: No to bricks on Jello! No building on top of liquefaction! No nuclear stadiums! No capping over toxic landfills! And YES to true complete cleanup of the ENTIRE SHIPYARD.

December 4th, International Revolutionary Day, was a historic day, not just because it was the 40th commemoration of the assassination of Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton and Defense Captain Mark Clark of the Black Panther Party, but because of the way the people responded to remember these freedom fighters after such time.

Recently the cold war against Cuba was ratcheted up when an acrimonious debate broke out over the issue of racism in Cuba and for the first time the issue of Brazil was thrown into the mix. The brouhaha began when scores of prominent African Americans, many of whom should have known better, put their names to a petition calling upon the Cuban government to release a dissident from prison.

The U.N. Climate Change Conference entered its final week under a cloud of uncertainty as the Africa Group led a protest of the developing world against a perceived attempt to abandon the Kyoto Protocol. By the middle of the day, the Africa Group’s displeasure had brought official talks to a halt.

Here in the frigid capital of Denmark, we continue our long and difficult work to achieve REPARATIONS NOW! for Afrikan and Indigenous nations and ascendants, women and girls, and everyone in our sacred earth.

With the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) engulfed in bloodshed and terrorism due to the secretive occupation and expansion by the Rwandan regime of Paul Kagame, Congo’s President Joseph Kabila has reportedly requested an immediate emergency military intervention from Belgium to crush a growing rebellion sparked by resistance forces in the far Western Congo.

KPFA has been actively trying to restrain Flashpoints’ success for years now, but most of all during Rijio’s tenure as general manager. We take on the stories that make the establishment nervous, whether it’s police beatings and injustice inside the station – Nadra Foster – or outside the station. We report from the ground, whether it’s from Haiti or the West Bank or at the frontlines of the Native American struggle. Our Palestine coverage in particular has garnered intense scrutiny, to use a euphemism, from the pro-Zionist crowd.

The Olympic torch, a flamed staff that represents white supremacy, is running through Indigenous nations and territories, symbolizing their theft and dominance of our lands and ways. For 106 days every Indigenous nation in these lands has the opportunity to talk to the world about your issues and show unity between all nations here who have a common oppressor and common invader, KKKlanada (“Canada”). Let us unite voices and show the world we are a proud and independent people who will never surrender our lands.

The leak of a so-called “Danish text” that would sideline the U.N. in future climate deals is reverberating around the Copenhagen negotiations. Today I witnessed an unexpected and extraordinary outburst of candor from one of the key players in these negotiations – Lumumba Di-Aping, chief negotiator of the G77 bloc of mostly poor countries.

A leader in the movement for justice for Oscar Grant, Minister of Information JR is headed to Los Angeles for a screening of his new film, “Operation Small Axe,” focusing on resistance to police terror in occupied communities, and a discussion of the Oscar Grant case and its implications. It’s this Saturday, Dec. 12, 6:30 p.m., at Leimert Park’s Kaos Network, 4343 Leimert Blvd. Let’s support this brotha!

As San Francisco grapples with a looming budget crisis, Public Defender Jeff Adachi is seeking $2 million in state reimbursement to the City for its defense of eight men charged in a 1971 homicide case involving a police officer. The city’s right to reimbursement is based on the fact that the California Attorney General took on the 36-year-old case after the San Francisco District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute.

Thousands of people from around our world – grassroots activists, government delegations, scholars, artists, media and, yes, representatives of capitalist corporations and the national and international police forces who serve them – have assembled in this large, Critical Mass-like 24/7, bicycle-friendly metropolis of Copenhagen. It is said that this Conference of Parties 15th year climate change meeting (COP-15) is the largest United Nations’ gathering ever!

As African American members of Congress, we are keenly aware of the extreme economic crisis in our communities, and we are responsible for confronting the issues threatening the survival of the people and institutions we represent. We are here to reaffirm our commitment to be forceful advocates for the voiceless, and insist that all of the resources of the government, whether they be through financial assistance programs or federal contracting, exhibit a basic fairness and equality that historically has not existed.

The Bay Area is rallying around Minister of Information JR, facing three years in prison for covering the Oakland Rebellion that demanded justice for Oscar Grant and for his courageous coverage of police terrorism known throughout the country. Influential organizations are calling an 8 a.m. rally on Monday, Dec. 7, then to pack Courtroom 11, 1225 Fallon St., Oakland, the courthouse made famous by the many rallies the Black Panther Party held there.

African-American joblessness – nearly twice the national rate – is quickly becoming the first showdown between Black leaders and the nation’s first Black president as national Black and civil right leaders raise their voices telling the Obama administration it’s time to end the jobs crisis in the Black community.

On Dec. 4, 1969, 40 years ago, Chicago police led by Cook County prosecutor Edward Hanrahan as part of an FBI Counter Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) operation stormed into Illinois Black Panther Party Chairman Fred Hampton’s apartment at 4:30 a.m. Commemorate the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Chairman Fred Hampton and Defense Captain Mark Clark on Friday, Dec. 4, 2009, in Chicago, San Francisco or your city.

The Clean Slate Program, one of San Francisco’s first reentry programs, was started by Public Defender Jeff Adachi in 1999. Over the past 10 years, Clean Slate has helped thousands of individuals overcome barriers to obtaining employment, housing, professional licenses, certifications and government aid.