Tag: President Obama

“If Washington, D.C. wants to know what San Franciscans want this Christmas, we are here to say, ‘We want our jobs!’” Bay Area truckers are surrounding the Transbay Terminal and Francisco City Hall at 7 a.m. Monday demanding access to the trucking work underway right now as part of the local federal stimulus projects. By paying per load rather than per hour, the City of San Francisco is undercutting the prevailing wage and exploiting workers.

Local 10 of the ILWU is calling for a labor and community rally on Saturday, Oct. 23, 12 noon, at City Hall, near 14th & Broadway in Oakland, to demand justice for Oscar Grant and the jailing of killer cops. Bay Area ports will shut down that day to stand with the Black community. Get ready for the rally Friday, Oct. 22, 6:30 p.m., with a screening of Minister of Information JR’s film ‘Operation Small Axe’ plus revolutionary art by Black Panther Minister of Culture Emory Douglas at the Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pine St., West Oakland.

The inescapable implication of the U.N. report on the Congo is that Rwandan President Kagame could be legally proven to be a genocidaire, or perpetrator of genocide. President Obama must use the U.N. report to distance his administration from Mr. Kagame.

An M.I.T. undergraduate and Brandeis Ph.D. who spent her time researching ways to improve child behavior, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui was recently found guilty in New York City of coming from behind a curtain that hid her, stealing a U.S. soldier’s M-4 rifle, and firing the rifle at but missing and then assaulting a U.S. military team.

We with our cell phones are directly fueling the most heinous violence the world has seen in 65 years and subsidizing what one activist, Kambale Musavuli, has referred to as the wholesale rape of land and people. As the beneficiaries of this violence, each of us can and must stand in solidarity with the Congolese people.

Western imperialism continues to interfere in the governance of independent African states. We see a trend not just of neo-colonialism but one which moves towards re-colonization. And if we add to this the purchase of huge tracts of African land for agriculture by Middle East countries and China, the people of Africa are being betrayed once again.

Cynthia McKinney is kicking off her Bike4Peace cross country campaign with special events July 22 at Twinspace in San Francisco with Malcolm Shabazz, Minister of Info JR and Davey D and a potluck July 23 at the Black Dot Cafe in West Oakland. Enjoy the events and join the ride!

With Arizona’s harsh new immigration law threatening to unleash a wave of racial profiling, Bay Area African-American clergy and community leaders traveled to Phoenix late last month on a four-day solidarity mission.

On Monday, May 26, Ugandan Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, fondly known as Bishop Christopher, spoke to a circle gathered round him at San Francisco’s African American Art and Culture Complex. He explained his counseling work with LGBT youth, his advocacy for LGBT rights and his opposition to Uganda’s infamous proposed Anti Homosexuality Act.

All out to Washington, D.C., Monday, June 21, for the the Gray-Haired Witnesses Fast for Justice: 10 a.m. Department of Justice, 12 noon White House press conference, 1-9 p.m. Lafayette Square Park! We need your support in bringing national attention to the case of the Scott Sisters and all other women who have been incarcerated wrongly and egregiously over-sentenced, punishing and destroying our families and children.

Black farmer lobbyist John Boyd Jr., president of the National Black Farmers’ Association, has called for a meeting with BP. Boyd is concerned that Black and Native American farmers and fishermen are being overlooked in the search for farmers and fishermen whose lands and fishing grounds have been polluted.

President Obama delivered the eulogy Thursday for our beloved Dr. Dorothy Height. Dr. Height never did receive the mainstream recognition that she more than deserved, so I am proud that my president lifted her legacy for all America and the world to see and honor.

The Coast Guard estimates 5,000 barrels of crude oil a day, 210,000 gallons a day, are pouring out of a damaged British Petroleum well in the Gulf of Mexico. Plans to set parts of the Gulf on fire have been pushed back by bad weather. In 1975, the New Orleans group, The Meters, released their album, “Fire on the Bayou.” In 2010 the idea of a fire on the bayou may well be coming true.

Unemployment in the African-American community is double and in some places triple the national average. You know it doesn’t have to be that way.

On Monday, April 26, police detectives in Kigali, Rwanda, interrogated Didas Gasana, editor of the weekly African language newspaper Umuseso for eight hours. Gasana now fears extrajudicial abduction or a prison sentence of up to 25 years.

Not since the levees exploded in New Orleans and caused the devastation attributed to Hurricane Katrina have the people of the U.S. been so committed to relieving the suffering of Black people. So how is all this money being spent?

“Death at a Funeral,” produced by actor and comedian Chris Rock, hits theaters today with an all-star cast of actors and comedians. I had the opportunity to chop it up with comedians Chris Rock and Tracy Morgan, two of the most talented Black comedians in the game right now.

“I am pleased that my bill to cancel Haiti’s debt held by multilateral development institutions is set to become law. Debt relief is essential for Haiti’s future. However, we must also keep in mind the immediate needs of survivors who, without adequate shelter, will be further subjected to the elements and to disease during the upcoming rainy season,” said Congresswoman Waters.

Cuba’s policies of internationalism have arguably been the most politically advanced in the world – from the direct military intervention to help in the defeat of Apartheid in southern Africa in 1988 to direct medical aid and solidarity with Haiti - before the earthquake. Since the earthquake, Western media has been suspiciously silent on the exceptional role Cuba has played in support of Haiti with more than 900 health care providers on the ground, the largest and most organized contingent on the island.

In the depths of a near-Depression, the Vermont Senate on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly for health and safety over jobs and tax revenue when it chose not to renew Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant’s operating license when it expires in 2012.