Racism & oppression
On Dec. 9, 1981, Abu-Jamal was driving a taxi when he saw that police had stopped his brother. He got out of the car to make sure police were not
violating his brother's civil rights.In the altercation that followed, Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner was shot and killed. Witnesses saw a man flee the scene who did not look like Abu-Jamal. But when police arrived, they arrested Mumia Abu-Jamal, who had also been shot....
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Leonard Peltier will be 63 years old on September 12, 2007. It's an international day for demanding the immediate, unconditional freedom of this Native American artist, writer, and activist--one of the most widely recognized political prisoners in the world....
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Much still remains unknown about the bomb explosions
yesterday at the finish line of the Boston Marathon and what was behind this
disaster that has tragically hit so many individuals and families who were on
the scene, the majority of them spectators....
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Join young people, poor people, community and workers’ rights activists; occupy veterans and the families of police killing victims from across the region and the country that will be commemorating the 50th anniversary of the historic 1963 March for Freedom and Jobs led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by MARCHING 41 MILES FROM BALTIMORE, MD TO WASHINGTON, D.C., on Sat., May 11, 2013,
which is the 45th anniversary weekend of the Poor People’s March
Dr. King was to lead before he was assassinated....
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As the United States commemorates the 150th anniversary of the signing of
the Emancipation Proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, a document
which officially ended slavery in those states and regions that rebelled
against the Union during the Civil War, one is also reminded of a not-so-noble
1863 event in New York City....
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By the time of his death, Martin Luther King had undergone
"a radical revolution of values." ...
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Chicago — The Rahm Emanuel administration and the Chicago Public
Schools, along with politically connected corporate interests, are making a
calculated move to turn the clock back for Black and Latino/a students to the
bad old days of Jim Crow apartheid “separate but equal”
schools....
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Thousands of teachers, parents and community members rallied on March 27 in
the Chicago downtown area to protest Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to close
54 public schools — in the predominately African-American and Latino/a
communities — to erase a $1 billion deficit. The rally began in
Chicago’s Daley Plaza and was followed by a march to City Hall that ended
at the Chicago Public Schools headquarters....
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Baltimore has become the capital of police killings! Since January, 2012, 16
people have been killed by the Baltimore City Police Department and not a
single officer has been indicted. The epidemic of police terror and abuse are
not confined to our city. The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement has documented that
every 36 hours a Black person is killed by police agencies in this country.
Police repression and racism go hand in hand with the mass incarceration of
young people, mostly of color, who are locked away in prisons across this
country. We march to bring national attention to these issues and to demand
community control of police and an end to mass incarceration. On May 11, 2013
we will link arms with the families of the victims of police killings to demand
that the Justice Department charge killer police....
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Harriet Tubman was born into slavery in Maryland in 1820; her birth name was
Araminta Harriet Ross. As a child, she was beaten daily by those to whom she
was “hired out” to do domestic work. A field hand in her early teens, Tubman defied an overseer’s order to
restrain another field hand, and blocked a doorway so the man could escape.
When the overseer threw a two-pound weight at her, it broke her skull and left
her with lifetime seizures and narcolepsy. Around 1844, she married John
Tubman, a free Black man....
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A coalition of community-based
women's organizations that has organized events for the past eight years
have announced plans for women's events in Manhattan, Harlem, Brooklyn and
the Bronx to celebrate women's struggles. The events include a rally and
march on March 9th, starting at the site of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory fire in Manhattan, and tributes to Harriet Tubman on March 10 at
Harlem’s African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in Brooklyn at Boys and
Girls High on Sat. March 16 and in the Bronx at the Bronx Art Space Gallery on
Sunday, March 24. All events are open to the media and are free. There will
also be a special tribute March 9 to the late President Hugo Chávez of
Venezuela -- the leader of the ongoing Bolivarian Revolution that promotes the
rights of women especially those of African and Indigenous
descent....
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Another status conference pertaining to the Central Park 5 civil lawsuit
against New York City and the New York Police Department was held on Feb. 19.
Supporters filled the large federal courtroom in downtown Manhattan to indicate
their justifiable outrage regarding the lack of progress in bringing closure to
this horrific, racist injustice....
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It is not too late to RSVP for this important fundraiser
for the Mississippi Workers Center which fights for social justice in one of
the poorest states in the country. No one will be turned away for lack of funds
or for making a modest donation. There will also be a silent auction held
during the event....
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An important film documentary about the life of Mumia Abu-Jamal premiered in
New York City on Feb. 1. “Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with
Mumia Abu-Jamal” explores through prison interviews, archival footage and
narrations, the life of a political prisoner known as “the voice of the
voiceless.” It was written and directed by Stephen Vittoria and
co-produced by Noelle Hanrahan from Prison Radio....
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You know Mumia. You know his words, you know his voice, you know his
struggle. And you know that his life's story has been obscured by the
controversy of his case, by the vindictive and fallacious narrative told about
him by media outlets, both mainstream and right-wing. This new documentary film
is here to recast that narrative, to tell the true story of Mumia from his
childhood, to the dawn of his political consciousness (as you know at a very
young age), to his early career as a journalist, to his incredible output of
books and commentaries from Death Row and beyond....
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Philadelphia — United around the goal “Mumia, Free in 4!” — meaning his release in four years — dedicated activists from several U.S. cities, France and Germany gathered at Temple University on Jan. 26 for a conference organized by Educators for Mumia Abu-Jamal....
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On Dec. 31, outgoing North Carolina governor, Beverly Perdue, pardoned the
Wilmington 10 — the Rev. Benjamin Chavis, Connie Tindall, Marvin Patrick,
Wayne Moore, Reginald Epps, Jerry Jacobs, James McKoy, Willie Earl Vereen,
William Wright, Jr. and Ann Shepard — who had sentences ranging from 15
to 34 years following their convictions in 1972. Perdue was forced to publicly
admit that their sentences were “tainted by naked racism.” (CNN,
Jan. 1) A prolonged national and international struggle emerged in efforts to
free the nine African Americans and one white member of the 10....
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Charleston, S.C. — People from the West Coast and across the
country traveled to Charleston, S.C., to attend the ninth biannual Southern
Human Rights Organizers Conference (SHROC) on Dec. 7-9. The conference was held
in a hall belonging to Local 1422 of the International Longshoremen’s
Association, which represents thousands of dock workers on the East Coast....
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Violence and defense against violence are life-and-death social questions
for those who are oppressed and exploited....
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The FBI recently confirmed what it has stated all along: Wade Michael Page
acted alone. Page, a white supremacist associated with neofascist groups, walked into a Sikh temaple on the morning of Aug. 5 in Oak Creek, Wis., 12 miles south of Milwaukee, and opened fire as the Indian worshippers, many with children in tow, were preparing for services....
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Occupy Sandy and the massive grassroots relief
effort show that we, the people, can take matters into our own
hands...
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Under capitalism, especially here in the United States, so-called
“democracy” serves the wealthy. Whoever wins elections, the
Pentagon and weapons industry still get funding, imperialist wars and
occupations go on, the rich get tax breaks, while workers and the poor face
more layoffs, cutbacks and attacks....
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The distribution site was buzzing with activity. Carloads and even a small
U-Haul truck of aid were contributed by many volunteers. The area was so heavy
with activity that Occupy Sandy organizers had to assign traffic coordinators
to make sure donations were not blocking traffic....
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Many Native people do not celebrate the arrival of the Pilgraims and other
European settlers....
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Nearly a week after Hurricane Sandy struck, as cold weather sets in and a new nor’easter storm threatens on Nov. 7, over a million households remain without power in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Some New Jersey communities are also without natural gas as a result of storm damage and may remain so for six to eight months....
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“We know a tidal surge of about four to six feet came
into the Reservation. We still do not have electricity. We had our Tribal
burial grounds halfway covered with water. Right now it is the electricity that
is needed which is the issue. It’s getting cold and some of our elders
don’t have ways to heat their home,” said Shinnecock Chairman
Trustee Randy King describing the situation on the Shinnecock Reservation on
eastern Long Island after Hurricane Sandy. (nativestrength.com)...
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Following this join the Peoples Power Assembly in a “people to
people” relief effort. We will distribute water, do free blood pressure
screenings at the nearby Chelsea community and help in food distribution....
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“I am the proud father of Alan Blueford, murdered by the
Oakland police,” stated Adam Blueford. His spouse, Jeralynn
Blueford, added, “Alan’s murder was arbitrary, unnecessary and
racist. It’s sad to say but he was shot down because of the color
of his skin. They profiled him by saying he looked suspicious.”...
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On Oct. 15, New York’s Metropolitan Transit Authority announced the
fourth round of fare hikes in four years. During that time the MTA has also
been on a cutback frenzy. Dozens of station booths have been demolished. The
transit agency has made it harder for people with disabilities to qualify for
Access-A-Ride....
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Solidarity with the victims and their families...
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On Thursday, at 3:00 PM in front of the MTA headquarters, anti-war activists, Muslim clergy and others will hold a press conference to announce legal action to prevent the MTA from blocking ads countering war, hate and racism.
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I am dedicating the 20th-anniversary author edition of “Stone Butch
Blues” to CeCe McDonald and the ever growing struggle to free her....
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New York — The capitalist media waged a frenzied war campaign against
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejahd while the United Nations was in
session the end of September. This propaganda campaign was designed to create
popular support for “regime change” in Iran so that Wall Street can
take over that country’s oil resources....
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The autopsy report released Oct. 2 officially ruled
Anthony Anderson’s death a homicide. The report showed he died from a
ruptured spleen, severe blunt trauma injuries, six to 10 broken ribs and other
injuries. The Baltimore People’s Assembly – including
Anderson’s family – is calling for the jailing of killer
cops....
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A step forward toward building people’s power was taken in
Philadelphia when activists met on Sept. 26 in the western part of the city.
The People’s Power Assembly had been preceded by a series of speakouts
during the summer where community residents addressed the issues that concerned
them....
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The International Action Center plans to submit an ad opposed to racism,
anti-Muslim bigotry and war to the MTA on Friday morning, Sept. 28. The IAC ads
are in response to the racist ads posted in NYC subway stations — placed
by Pam Geller from Stop Islamization of America and American Freedom Defense
Initiative. Geller's ads refer to Muslim community members as being
"savages" among other offensive language....
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Racism is a weapon of war. We stand in solidarity with
victims of police, state, and racial violence and build links to people under
attack – Muslims, Sikhs, immigrant workers, death row prisoners,
African-American and Latino youth, social justice activists are all
targets in an atmosphere of escalating racism and
repression....
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The International Action Center has contracted with MTA to run 10 ads opposed to racism, anti-Muslim bigotry and war. The IAC ads will be in NYC subway stations in one week, starting Monday, Oct 8. They are in response to the racist ads posted in NYC subway stations — placed by Pam Geller from Stop Islamization of America and American Freedom Defense Initiative. Geller's ads refer to Muslim community members as being "savages" among other offensive language.
Two years ago around the 9-11 date Pamela Geller, in a well-funded media campaign, tried to whip up in NYC the same climate of bigotry and intolerance against Muslims with an ugly campaign against the building of an Islamic Center blocks from the World Trade Center. The International Action Center with a broad coalition of forces challenged this campaign to demonize Muslims. Many thousands of people responded with mass rallies and meetings. A strong, united public challenge to the racist, bigoted forces helped to turn the ugly climate around. It is essential that all those outraged by the racist, pro-violent message be able to see a different message. The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) publicly stated that in order to protect freedom of speech, they must accept extreme right-wing racist Geller's $6,000 for 10 ads in the largest mass transit system in the western hemisphere with 8.5 million daily riders. The IAC is an all volunteer organization without funding,a except many small individual donations. It has advanced the funds to undertake this campaign because we felt it was important to counter the 'hate messaging' of Geller. But we hope many people will step forward to help carry the costs....
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Following on what organizers describe as a hugely
successful community gathering of over 2000 people at Riverside Church, a
coalition of sponsoring groups is calling for a meeting with Gov. Andrew Cuomo
at his New York office on September 26 to discuss shutting down the notorious
Attica Correctional Facility....
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Charlotte, N.C. — Over 300 Southern workers, trade unionists and
community allies gathered for the Southern Workers Assembly on Sept. 3, Labor
Day, the opening day of the Democratic National Convention. The Wedgewood
Baptist Church was packed and supporters had to stand beside the pews. There
was a feeling in the air that Southern labor was uniting to forge a historic
new direction, towards rank-and-file-led social justice trade unionism,
particularly to challenge right-to-work (for less) laws and combat racism....
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As activists gear up for a Sept. 14 event in New York promoting the struggle
to free Mumia Abu-Jamal, the state of Philadelphia has lodged another attack
against him. On Aug. 15, this internationally revered political prisoner was
illegally sentenced to life imprisonment....
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On the day following the 41st anniversary of the Atticamassacre of courageous prisoners rising up against intolerable oppression, we come together to fight mass incarceration and to demand the closing of Attica as a symbolic commitment to this larger goal. We build on the powerful commemoration that took place last September 9 at Riverside Church....
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On Aug. 13, 2012, without any notice and in violation of his constitutional rights and state law, Mumia Abu-Jamal was formally sentenced by Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Pamela Dembe to life imprisonment without parole. The impact of this illegal sentencing is to prevent a possible challenge to the slow death of life imprisonment. All sentences, including "mandatory" sentences, require a formal proceeding allowing the person to be sentenced the right to be heard and to challenge his sentence....
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New York — Joseph “Jazz” Hayden, age 71, is an African-American Harlem resident. On his neighborhood “cop watch” beat, armed with his camera, he videotapes police brutality against Harlem residents, including unlawful stop-and-frisks. Hayden has been a longtime community activist and police reform advocate fighting to end the racially biased harassment of people of color....
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New York — Joseph “Jazz” Hayden, age 71, is an African-American Harlem resident. On his neighborhood “cop watch” beat, armed with his camera, he videotapes police brutality against Harlem residents, including unlawful stop-and-frisks. Hayden has been a longtime community activist and police reform advocate fighting to end the racially biased harassment of people of color. In December 2011, Hayden was stopped by police. He and his car were searched, resulting in his arrest. He was charged with two counts of felony possession of weapons. The weapons were a commemorative mini-replica of a baseball bat and a pen knife. Each count carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison....
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The city of Anaheim is about a 40- to 50-minute drive south of Los Angeles and is the home of Disneyland. Yet the terror of police repression — so familiar in the Black, Latino/a and immigrant communities of Los Angeles — was unleashed in Anaheim twice, on July 21 and 22....
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Organizing for the March on Wall Street South is going full speed ahead in Charlotte and across North Carolina and beyond....
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Black Zimbabweans lost their land during the colonial era, beginning in the late 19th century. In 1998 it became clear that the Republic of Zimbabwe in southern Africa would take action regarding long-delayed promises to distribute land to African farmers...
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For a brief moment in time, the name and fate of Trayvon Martin broke through the daily media fog and touched the lives of tens of thousands of people, motivating them, mobilizing them and moving them to take direct action against the gross inaction of the state.
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The struggle for justice for Trayvon Martin, the murdered African-American youth, recently made headlines again. The 17-year-old Martin was unarmed when he was stalked and fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a self-proclaimed neighborhood watch person, in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26....
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On June 23, activists from the International Action Center joined in solidarity with the Peoples Organization for Progress at a rally in Newark, N.J. Held in the heart of the city’s downtown shopping district, this rally was the 363nd consecutive daily protest. POP intends to continue until the number of days equals the number of days of the 1955 Montgomery, Ala. bus boycott that sparked the Civil Rights Movement....
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A special event — “Activists want Charles Barron in Congress” — was held at the Solidarity Center in New York City June 8. Barron, a city councilperson, is running for U.S. Representative for Brooklyn’s 8th Congressional District. The primary election takes place June 26....
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The Tinley Park Five — Jason W. Sutherland, Cody L. Sutherland, Dylan J. Sutherland, Alex R. Stuck and John S. Tucker — are currently imprisoned in Cook County Jail in Chicago. The Five, white anti-racist anarchists, were arrested on May 19 for allegedly physically breaking up an “economic summit” by members of the Illinois European Heritage Association at a restaurant in Tinley Park, a Chicago suburb. The Five are facing major felony charges, including “mob action, criminal damage to property and aggravated battery.”...
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On May 9 – one day before 5,000 anti-NATO protesters took to the streets of downtown Chicago – 8 anti-racist activists allegedly disrupted an “economic summit” held by members of the Illinois European Heritage Association (IEHA) at a restaurant in Tinley Park, a Chicago suburb....
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May 31 is the 91st anniversary of the “Race Riot” tragedy in Tulsa, Okla. It “was almost left out of history, not documented, passed over, wiped out!” stated Rep. Maxine Waters, of the Congressional Black Caucus....
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On May 9, President Obama held an interview with Robin Roberts [ABC-TV host], in which he expressed his “evolved” personal belief that same-sex couples should be allowed to marry....
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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People today [May 19] released a resolution supporting marriage equality. At a meeting of the 103-year-old civil rights group’s board of directors [in Miami, Fla.], the organization voted to support marriage equality as a continuation of its historic commitment to equal protection under the law....
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On May 19, one day before the 15,000-person protest against the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Summit in downtown Chicago, another kind of protest took place in a suburban community of Chicago known as Tinley Park. Eighteen anti-racists, with weapons in hand, confronted members of the Illinois European Heritage Association. Ten people were reportedly injured, mainly with head wounds....
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Movement activists are poised to protest the frame-up of veteran Chicano organizer Carlos Montes in Los Angeles. Montes’ trial is set for May 15....
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The second-degree murder trial of Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald in Minneapolis started April 30 and ended May 2. McDonald’s situation highlights the anti-transgender bigotry and racism rampant in society, as well as the inability of the “justice” system to mete out justice for the oppressed....
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All around the U.S. and the world, people are reacting with justifiable outrage and shock at the harsh prison sentence leveled against Marissa Alexander, an African-American mother of three, in Jacksonville, Fla. Alexander was sentenced to 20 years in prison on May 11 for using the “Stand Your Ground” law to protect herself from her abusive ex-spouse. This state law supposedly upholds the right to self-defense for anyone who feels threatened with bodily harm....
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he following speech was given by the late Huey P. Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, on Aug. 15, 1970, on gay and women’s rights. Shelley Ettinger, a lesbian activist, wrote on her blog, “Read Red,” about Newton’s speech: “I think it's important to remember this speech because the Black liberation movement and even the Black community as a whole are so often slandered as though they're somehow more sexist and/or homophobic than other movements or other sectors of society, and here we have a great revolutionary leader speaking out just one year after the Stonewall Rebellion, far earlier than almost anyone else.” In light of President Barack Obama’s recent announcement in support of same-sex marriage, we are reprinting in its entirety Newton’s historic speech that urged revolutionary class solidarity with these oppressed groupings. ...
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Larry Holmes and I have been visiting political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal for 16 years. We started visiting him when he was on death row at State Correctional Institution-Greene in Waynesburg, Pa., which is near the West Virginia border. Our trips there by car from New York City would take at least seven hours, and even longer by bus....
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The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke partnered with Occupy Atlanta, the International Action Center and other organizations to stage a two-prong action at the annual Coca-Cola stockholders’ meeting, held at the Cobb Galleria in suburban Atlanta on April 25....
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African-American television journalist Gil Noble leaves behind a tremendous, inspiring legacy that should continue to be deeply explored and respected. Host of the award-winning, Black-oriented show “Like It Is,” based in New York, Noble died at the age of 80 on April 5 in a New Jersey hospital. He had suffered a massive stroke last summer....
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Having a “heavy heart” and being “devastated” were the main words that Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin used when the killer of their 17-year-old son, Trayvon Martin, was released on a $150,000 bond from the Sanford, Fla., jail....
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Close to 1,000 people from around the U.S. protested in front of the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. on
April 24, the 58th birthday of political prisoner – Mumia Abu-Jamal – to demand his release. ...
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On December 9, 2011 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, over 1,100 people gathered to mark the 30th anniversary of Mumia Abu-Jamal's incarceration. Archbishop Desmond Tutu asked our nation to "rise to the challenge of reconciliation, human rights, and justice" and called for Mumia's "immediate release." And when Frances Goldin--Mumia's literary agent--called on the audience to OCCUPY the Justice Department, the call was met with a roar of excitement....
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A youngster goes out for a snack, simply something to munch on and a sweet drink to wash it down with. A man nearby sees him and suspicion arises. In a matter of moments, the unarmed teenager is dead and the shooter calmly claims self-defense. The cops come, called by people who witnessed the transaction. They chat with the shooter, perhaps exchange information in the way usually done at a traffic accident, put in a call to the court and leave. Imagine the dialogue:...
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Activists from around the world will gather in Washington, D.C., on April 24 to occupy the Justice Department and demand the full release of radical journalist and political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Their motivation stems from the historic peoples’ victory that removed Abu-Jamal from death row and stopped the state’s repeated efforts to kill him. ...
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I am going to start out with an apology. I am directing it most sincerely to Trayvon's mother who is bearing a burden no mother should ever have — the sudden, violent death of her child. But I most respectfully must disagree when she states that this is not a "white and Black thing.” It is. It is just the latest in a long series of Black and white "things" that have been happening ever since the first Black person was ripped from all he knew and loved and transported unwillingly as a chattel slave from Africa to serve the Europeans (whites) in America....
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Protests have continued around the country demanding justice for the African-American youth, Trayvon Martin, who was gunned down by vigilante George Zimmerman on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla. The following are news reports from some of those actions that helped to pressure authorities to arrest Zimmerman on April 11....
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Students and community people marched and rallied April 16 at the Pontiac Academy for Excellence in Education to demand the school rehire teacher Brooke Harris, 26, who was terminated after her students participated in an educational project related to the struggle for justice for Trayvon Martin....
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The arrest on April 11 of George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin is an important victory. Millions of people in the U.S., however, agree that the struggle for justice for Martin is far from over. Those who have come out into the streets chanting “I am Trayvon Martin” — and many of them are new to the movement — have come to understand exactly what it took to get Zimmerman charged with second-degree murder. And it wasn’t putting their confidence in the racist Florida authorities....
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Congratulations on being part of the historic victory which got Mumia off death row! The amazing 30-year-old international movement to free Mumia did it. Despite great efforts to kill Mumia by the state of Pennsylvania and all its backers -- the courts, the police, the corporate institutions and the politicians who hate him for telling the truth about who runs America -- we stopped them from killing our brother....
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On December 9, 2011 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, over 1,100 people gathered to mark the 30th anniversary of Mumia Abu-Jamal's incarceration. Archbishop Desmond Tutu asked our nation to "rise to the challenge of reconciliation, human rights, and justice" and called for Mumia's "immediate release." And when Frances Goldin--Mumia's literary agent--called on the audience to OCCUPY the Justice Department, the call was met with a roar of excitement. ...
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Black Workers for Justice held its 29th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Labor Banquet on April 7 at the North Carolina Association of Educators building in Raleigh, N.C. BWFJ has a rich history of anti-racist, pro-worker fightback in the U.S. South and especially in North Carolina, which remains the least unionized state in the country. North Carolina’s public sector workers continue to fight for the right to collective bargaining....
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George Zimmerman, the killer of the 17-year-old African American Trayvon Martin, was formally charged on April 11 with second-degree murder. It took the state of Florida 45 days to make an arrest of the wanna-be-cop Zimmerman, who fatally shot the unarmed teenager on Feb. 26 because he looked “suspicious” while wearing a hoodie. The charge was announced by Angela Corey, a special prosecutor who was assigned to the case on March 14 in order to decide whether or not to bring charges against Zimmerman. A conviction can carry anywhere from a 25-year sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole....
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As national outrage has grown against the racist murder of Trayvon Martin, protests have taken place around the country, many on a day or two’s notice in large and small cities and towns. Everyone who has participated is demanding justice in this case and the immediate arrest of George Zimmerman, the vigilante who killed the 17-year-old African-American youth in Sanford, Fla., on Feb. 26....
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Even as the failure of authorities in Florida to arrest the killer of 17-year-old African-American Trayvon Martin continues to stoke the fires of righteous anger at racism, another killing has taken place that has touched a nerve of outrage and solidarity around the U.S....
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As each day passes without an arrest of Trayvon Martin’s killer, George Zimmerman, the anger and outrage around the country among the grassroots masses increase tenfold. It has been 37 days since Martin, a 17-year-old African American, was fatally shot on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla., as he was returning home from buying iced tea and a bag of Skittles candy. A so-called neighborhood watchman, Zimmerman stalked the unarmed teenager with a 9mm gun, then shot him in the chest as Martin cried for help. Zimmerman’s “excuse” for going after Martin was that he looked “suspicious” because he was wearing a hoodie....
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“Pam Africa, Our Revolutionary Daughter of the Dust, Her Life and Work” was celebrated in her home city of Philadelphia on March 30-31 in commemoration of International Women’s Day. The tribute began March 30 with a reception at the Charles L. Blockson Collection at Temple University. Speakers featured fellow activists in MOVE and the International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, two representatives of the Black Panther Party, as well as family members, including her mother, Bessie Knighton....
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A rally and march denouncing Wall Street’s war on women took place March 31 in New York City in commemoration of International Working Women’s Day, March 8. Despite cold, windy, damp and drizzly weather, women activists and their supporters rallied at the bull, a tourist attraction on Wall Street that represents the interests of the 1% — the bankers and bosses....
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Picture the Homeless was "informed" by the NY Post on Friday, March 30, that The Post had obtained a leaked letter from the New York City Council directing the Department of Housing Preservation and Development to freeze PTH funding in the wake of a misleading and racially-charged article the Post ran last Sunday. Picture the Homeless has not received any letter or other communication from the City Council regarding this matter, though HPD officials contacted PTH on Thursday and directed PTH to turn over certain business records....
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Monica Moorehead, a March 31st organizer, states, “Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, has told the world that her son is everybody's son. It is in this spirit that our coalition encourages all mothers, grandmothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, cousins, nieces, girlfriends and spouses of all ages, nationalities, gender expressions and sexual preferences to attend along with
men.”...
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Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old Black youth killed by racist vigilante
George Zimmerman, was robbed of any opportunities that the future may have held for him. His parents were robbed of their son, his younger stepbrother a
guiding hand, his girlfriend, other family members and friends a person who
brought them immense joy, laughter, heartache — all the gifts and
frustrations that a loved one brings....
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March 26 — The Million Hoodie marches calling for justice for Trayvon
Martin and an end to institutionalized racism are spreading like wildfire, with
protests from coast to coast....
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March 26 — Exactly one month ago on Feb. 26, Trayvon Martin was just
another unknown African American whose young life was tragically and brutally
cut short. What a difference a month makes. Today Trayvon Martin’s name
has become a universal rallying cry for justice in every nook and cranny of the
unjust U.S....
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Special prosecutor, Angela Corey, stated on April 9 that a grand jury will not hear the case of vigilante, George Zimmerman, who lynched by bullet our brother and son, Trayvon Martin, on Feb. 26. Therefore, the investigation will continue without an arrest. Trayvon Martin was just another unknown African American
whose young life was tragically and brutally cut short. What a difference a
month makes. Today Trayvon Martin’s name has become a universal rallying
cry for justice in every nook and cranny of the unjust U.S.His death has come
to symbolize every young person of color’s nightmare as they rightfully
fear becoming a victim of senseless violence — be it at the hand of a
police officer, a prison guard or a racist vigilante — because of how
they look and dress. Martin was stalked by vigilante George Zimmerman as he was
returning home from picking up a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles for his
younger brother in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., where he was visiting
his father. On 911 tapes, Zimmerman said that Martin looked
“suspicious” because he was wearing a hoodie. The police dispatcher
told Zimmerman not to pursue Martin, but he did so anyway. Zimmerman later
revised this to claim that Martin was pursuing him. The armed Zimmerman
outweighed the unarmed 17-year-old Martin by 90 pounds. ...
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The People’s Power tour was launched in New York on March 11. The tour
seeks to bring working, poor and oppressed people into a nationwide discussion
to help develop a unifying fightback program of action. Its literature points
to the life-and-death social issues that are intensified by the current global
capitalist economic crisis, such as “unemployment, low wages,
foreclosures, police and ICE terror, racist incarcerations, hunger and
homelessness.”...
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March 21 — Thousands of outraged people from all walks of life gathered at Union Square in New York City tonight to protest the brutal murder of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African American, on Feb. 26. Martin was shot to death by a racist vigilante, George Zimmerman, in a gated community in Sanford, Fla., near Orlando. Zimmerman stalked Martin, claiming that he looked “suspicious” because he was wearing a hoodie....
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TRAYVON MARTIN a 17-year-old African-American youth, was shot in the chest and killed at point-blank range by a vigilante on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla. Martin was unarmed as he was returning from a store when his young life was tragically cut short. The man who shot him, George Zimmerman — who lived in a gated community — has not been arrested as of this writing...
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Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old African-American youth, was shot in the chest
and killed at point-blank range by a vigilante on Feb. 26 in Sanford, Fla.
Martin was unarmed as he was returning from a store when his young life was
tragically cut short. The man who shot him, George Zimmerman — who lived
in a gated community — has not been arrested as of this writing....
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Demonstrators chanted, “Tear down Jailhouses! Build up School Houses!” outside Heery International Inc.’s Philadelphia office as part of a national call from Occupy Oakland to Occupy for Prisoners on Feb. 20....
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Demonstrators rallied at the Alabama State Capitol on the afternoon of March 9, after completing the final leg of the 54-mile, week-long march between Selma and Montgomery. Marchers protested Alabama’s toughest-in-the-U.S. immigration law, for workers’ rights and against laws in 31 states requiring voters to show some form of identification at the polls....
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Poet, essayist, editor, teacher, radio host, political activist and union
organizer, Louis Reyes Rivera willingly served as a bridge between African- and
Latino/a-American communities. No wonder his unexpected death on March 2 in
Brooklyn, N.Y., initiated a crescendo of accolades and reminiscences from those
communities as well as many cultural and activist groups....
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On that day we will say that we are all Mumia, we are all immigrants, we are all prisoners, we are all Bradley Manning, we are all poor, we are all Palestinian, we are all Troy Davis, we are all political prisoners, we are all occupiers!!! ...
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...
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The 84th Academy Awards announcements for the acting categories held little surprise for three out of the four categories. Front-runners Octavia Spencer, Christopher Plummer and Jean Dujardin were all expected to win and did. The only other category that wasn’t a shoo-in was for best lead actress. ...
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Under capitalism — a system that puts profits before human needs — genuine support needed for developing one’s talent is generally not made available, much less encouraged. Luck, along with having influential connections, plays a central role in many instances on whether the individuals become famous or not. What usually happens is that many talented people are left to figure out on their own how best to display their creativity to others as opposed to hoping to be “discovered.”...
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Atlanta, Feb. 11 – Blustery, frigid winds buffeted the crowd gathered in support of Brandon White, a 20-year-old gay man whose videotaped beating at the hands of reputed gang members outside a corner store shocked millions of viewers nationwide. Just a week earlier, the slight youth was viciously attacked by three young men, who used anti-gay slurs as they punched and kicked him repeatedly, while two others videotaped the assault....
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THE OCCUPY WALL STREET MOVEMENT AND THE BLACK STRUGGLE...
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...
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Dr. Huey Percy Newton, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party for
Self-Defense, was born in Monroe, La., on Feb. 17, 1942, the youngest of seven
children born to Walter Newton and Armelia Johnson....
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Political prisoner and revolutionary journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal was
transferred Jan. 27 to general population in SCI-Mahanoy in Frackville, Pa. He
had spent almost 30 years on Pennsylvania death row since he was convicted of
first degree murder July 3, 1982, for the 1981 killing of a white police
officer in Philadelphia. Mumia has proclaimed his innocence since his arrest on
Dec. 9, 1981, which was followed by a sham of a trial. His state and federal
appeals for a new trial to prove his innocence have been systematically denied
by the courts. While on death row, none of his visitors could physically touch
him, an unimaginable form of torture....
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Educators for Mumia, Millions for Mumia, the
International Action Center and other grassroots organizations joined Concerned
Family and Friends at the Calvary Church in Philadelphia to discuss the next
steps to win Abu-Jamal’s release from prison. Major initiatives have been
established for local, national and international actions around the Free Mumia
Campaign....
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The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have been 83 years old on Jan. 15.
In honor of this iconic civil rights, anti-war and social justice activist, the
federal government and other public agencies close every year on the Monday
following his birthday. King was martyred in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4,
1968....
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Since December 14, Mumia has been kept in solitary in SCI Mahanoy's dungeon. Its restrictions and conditions belie its modern construction. On January 6 Mumia told us that he wants all of his supporters to broaden this call, to not just focus on his case, but to understand that all torture units must be shut down....
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Mumia is being kept in solitary in SCI Mahanoy's dungeon. Its restrictions
and conditions belie its modern construction. Mumia just told us on Friday
[Jan. 6] that he wants all of his supporters to broaden this call, to not just
focus on his case, but to understand that all torture units must be shut
down....
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Although Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams dropped the death
sentence on Dec. 7, Mumia Abu-Jamal remains in administrative custody since
being transferred from SCI Greene to SCI Mahanoy on Dec. 14. He has been kept
isolated from the general population, with limited phone access and visits with
family still conducted behind glass walls....
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The “libertarian” movement has never been friendly to the 99%.
Its members are not apologetic about wanting to abolish all social programs
that aid the people, from Medicaid to food stamps. They want to shut down every
government department that in any way limits the excesses of the 1%. These
include the Departments of Labor, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services,
among others....
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I visited Mumia Dec. 15, in the new prison that houses him, SCI Mahanoy. Even though he has been released from death row, he remains in Administrative Custody while he awaits transfer to general population. Because he is still in Administrative Custody and not yet in general population, visits still take place behind the plexiglas barrier characteristic of the no-contact visits to prisoners on death row....
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Dangerous provisions inserted into the National Defense Authorization Act for 2012 (NDAA-2012) have created great alarm among civil liberties organizations, Muslim organizations, groups that defend anti-war activists and many activists of the Occupy Wall Street movement who have recently been targeted across the country....
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The police campaign to wipe out the Occupy Wall Street movement across the
country should drive home a truth that has long been experienced by oppressed
communities, workers on strike, fighters for civil rights, immigrant workers
and many others. The regime of capitalist democracy in the United States has a
violently repressive character — side-by-side with its controlled
“democratic” institutions....
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After nearly three decades on Pennsylvania’s death
row, former Black Panther Party member and world-renowned journalist, Mumia
Abu-Jamal, was moved into transitional area at SCI Greene maximum security
prison on Dec. 11, following an announcement by Philadelphia District Attorney
Seth Williams earlier in the week that he would no longer seek
Abu-Jamal’s execution....
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"Now that it is clear that Mumia should never have been on death row in the first place, justice will not be served by relegating him to prison for the rest of his life"yet another form of death sentence. Based on even a minimal following of international human rights standards, Mumia must now be released. I therefore join the call, and ask others to follow, asking District Attorney Seth Williams to rise to the challenge of reconciliation, human rights, and justice: drop this case now, and allow Mumia Abu-Jamal to be immediately released, with full time served."...
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Having survived two execution orders and 30 years on death
row in solitary confinement, never being able to touch his dying mother or
sister, his spouse, children or grandchildren (let alone anyone else, other
than the prison guards who handcuff and shackle him), Mumia Abu-Jamal, an
innocent man, now faces the prospect of spending the rest of his life in
prison....
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Friends do not beat up on other friends. Friends do not open cans of pepper
spray into the faces and throats of their friends. Friends do not trample each
other purposely on horseback. Friends do not stab one another. Friends do not
arrest one another. Friends do not bring one another to court — or
threaten to imprison one another. Friends do not purposely injure each other so
severely that it leads to hospitalization....
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The Occupy Wall Street movement at Zuccotti Park in New York City heard the
powerful voices of women activists, the majority of them immigrants from Latin
America, at a rally organized Nov. 20 by a broad coalition led by Women Workers
for Peace and La Peña del Bronx....
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We’re sure you were relieved on October 11, 2011, as were we, when the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed several lower court rulings since 2001 that Mumia should never have been sentenced to death. That decision is a tribute to the amazing international movement that has fought all these years for justice for
Mumia. But wae write to you now calling on you to help in this critical next stage
of the struggle to gain Mumia’s final release from prison....
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...
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Calling all people of conscience: Following numerous Associated Press
reports about NYPD programs that profile, investigate and entrap American
Muslims not even suspected of committing a crime ...
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A People’s Assembly held Nov. 5 at Hostos Community College in the South Bronx launched an exciting fightback program for jobs, against racism and for the rights of workers and poor people to unions, food, healthcare, and public education....
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A public memorial and cultural tribute was held for Consuela Lee — an
African-American jazz pianist, composer, arranger and teacher — at the
historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem in New York City on Oct. 29. Lee
passed away from a long illness associated with Alzheimer’s disease at
the age of 83 on Dec. 26, 2009, in Atlanta....
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People’s Assembly Sat. Nov. 5 to be Live-Streamed from Hostos College,
12noon – ...
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The scene was a perfect storm of organized chaos. Here
were the young and old, students and workers, immigrants and oppressed, all
addressing the failures of capitalism’s current worldwide crisis,
outlining the destructive forces of global banking systems and highlighting the
lack of communal values in a place that loves to cry patriotism....
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On Tuesday, Oct. 25, a pre-dawn police raid tore up and destroyed the Occupy
Oakland camp. It was a war zone. More than 500 police from at least 12
jurisdictions took part in the paramilitary operation, arresting more than 130
by day’s end, beating many and sending one Iraqi war vet to the hospital
in critical condition....
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Nov. 1 — Like a force of nature that astonishes everyone with its
power, Occupy Oakland has inspired bold actions by youth and workers across the
United States, electrifying the political climate and forcing city officials
and police authorities to constantly revise their plans for dealing with this
broad-based people’s movement....
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Early Tuesday morning 900 police from a dozen police
agencies in the Bay Area, along with Homeland Security, brutally cracked
down on demonstrators who marched in support of Occupy Oakland....
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The chain reaction of protest occupations that has swept the United States
has already reinvigorated the struggle for equality and for participation in
decisions that affect the lives of the 300 million people the demonstrators
call the 99 percent....
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Despite all the nice words by U.S. officials in world forums about their support for “peaceful” protests, despite all the sympathy expressed by politicians, from President Barack Obama on down, regarding the dire conditions that have sparked the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations, despite all the efforts by many demonstrators to show good will to the authorities, the riot police have now been called out in many cities and the crackdown has begun....
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Will it develop a strong and
independent, working class-centered orientation with an understanding that
inequality based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation and class are
realities that must be confronted as part of the process of forging real
solidarity amongst the 99%?...
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The prisoner hunger strikers at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison
called off their protest action on Oct. 13. Two days later, prisoners at
Calipatria State Prison decided to “temporarily” end their hunger
strike....
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On Friday, October 21, the Council on American Islamic Relations New York Chapter (CAIR-NY) will be joining the Islamic Leadership Council of Metropolitan New York in hosting Friday Prayer (Jummah) at Occupy Wall Street. Jummah will begin at 1pm in Zuccotti Park. A sermon will be delivered on social justice in Islam by Imam Aiyub Abdul Baki of the Islamic Leadership Council....
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These are hard times. There doesn’t appear to be any respite coming soon. The political atmosphere has shifted in response to the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression. This crisis, because of how the changes in technology, communication and production have made the world smaller, is global in its impact....
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On Saturday, October 29, 2011, the
life and work of accomplished pianist and theatrical performer, Consuela
Edmonia Lee (aka Consuela Moorehead), will be honored at the historic
Abyssinian Baptist Church in the City of New York by an impressive list of
renowned filmmakers, musicians and artists....
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Here's a prediction: Seth Williams, the district
attorney of Philadelphia, will decide not to seek to reimpose the death penalty
on Mumia Abu-Jamal, the world-famous journalist, former Black Panther and
condemned prisoner who has spent the last almost 30 years of his life on
Pennsylvania's overcrowded death row....
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Today the United States Supreme Court rejected a request from the
Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office to overturn the most recent
federal appeals court decision declaring Mumia Abu-Jamal’s death sentence
unconstitutional. The Court’s decision brings to an end nearly thirty
years of litigation over the fairness of the sentencing hearing that resulted
in Mr. Abu-Jamal’s being condemned to death. Mr. Abu-Jamal will be
automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole
unless the District Attorney elects to seek another death sentence from a new
jury....
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Sept. 26 — The outrage over the state of Georgia’s execution of
Troy Davis at 11:08 p.m. on Sept. 21 has not abated. Rather, his name has
become a code word for resistance and struggle....
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Despite the Sept. 15 visit to Libya of British Prime Minister David Cameron
and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the struggle for control of the oil-
producing North African state of Libya is far from complete. Battles for
control of Bani Walid and Sirte illustrate that supporters of Muammar
Gadhafi’s government still represent a disciplined fighting force against
the U.S./NATO fighter jets and military operatives backing the National
Transitional Council “rebels.”...
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Stop-and-frisk, harassment, marijuana busts – all directed
disproportionately at African American and Latino youth – is a constant
feature in neighborhoods where unemployment is the highest. And when people come out to demand jobs and justice, or to protest the racist execution of Troy Davis, they get kicked, tripped, punched and pepper-sprayed....
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This year marks the 10th anniversary of the 2001 U.N. Durban (South Africa) World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. To commemorate the event there will be a high-level United Nations General Assembly meeting on racism in New York City on Sept. 22. ...
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The International Action Center strongly condemns the state-sanctioned murder of inmate, Troy Davis, by the racist state of Georgia Sept. 21 at 11:08 p.m. Davis maintained his innocence while strapped to a gurney in the 1989 killing of an off-duty police officer for which he was sentenced to death row in 1991....
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Last year there was an overwhelming response to the International Action
Center’s call for an anti-racist demonstration on Sept. 11....
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Extreme right-wing, racist forces — who last year whipped up a climate of racism against the Islamic Prayer Center at 51 Park Place — are planning to use the tenth anniversary of September 11 for another anti-Muslim hatefest....
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New York City Mayor Bloomberg has announced that in the event of a hurricane, that he will not evacuate prisoners at Rikers’ Island, claiming instead to have a “contingency plan” in place. The experience of prisoners in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina shows that city authorities will abandon the basic rights of prisoners in the face of disaster....
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Our next planning meeting for an Anti-racist Unity Rally on Sept 11, will be this Wed. August 24 at 6:30pm at 55 West 17th St, 5C. NYC(between 5th & 6th Ave).
Please make every effort to attend. ...
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On August 20, the African community of the world will register our condemnation of and resistance to the wars being made against our people and our freedom everywhere.We will oppose the heinous bombing of Libya and the violent attempt to overthrow that government....
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We are writing to you on an urgent matter. As you know, the streets of
London and other British cities erupted in rebellion earlier this week,
following the police killing of a young Black man and father of three, Mark
Duggan, in the Tottenham area on August 4....
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Wednesday's (Aug. 10) first Planning Meeting of the Emergency Mobilization Against
Racism, War and Anti-Muslem Bigotry to counter the racist, right-wing forces on
Sunday, September 11 was a tremendous step forward. We discussed plans for a
Rally, March and Cultural Exhibition....
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Extreme right wing racist forces, who last year whipped up an ugly climate
of hate against the Islamic Prayer Center at 51 Park Place, have announced new
plans for Sunday, September 11 this year at the same location....
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In the past year the British government has announced and implemented huge cuts in education and social service programs in the face of growing unemployment and poverty. Now Black and working-class youth are responding with direct action and mass rebellion.<...
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Extreme right-wing, racist forces, who last year whipped up a climate of hate against the Islamic Prayer Center at 51 Park Place, have announced ugly new plans for this year -- the 10th anniversary of 9/11 -- at the same location near the World Trade Center site. This is a very dangerous threat. Anders Breivik, the racist, right-wing Norwegian responsible for the recent mass murder of 77 mostly young people in Norway, has quoted extensively from the writings of Pamela Geller of Stop Islamization of America and Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch. These are the two organizations opposing the Islamic Prayer Space at 51 Park Place....
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RALLY for UNITY & SOLIDARITY
MANIFESTACIÓN POR LA UNIDAD Y LA SOLIDARIDAD
Sun • SEPT 11, 2011
NY City Hall • 1 pm
RALLY Broadway & Park Pl.
Dom • 11 de sept • 1 pm
La MANIFESTACIÓN
el lado oeste de la ALCALDÍA
Broadway y Park Pl.
Be there!
Volunteers & Activists needed...
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Leaders of the hunger strike in the Security Housing Unit at
California’s Pelican Bay State Prison accepted an offer July 20 from the
California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation and have ended their
weeks-long action. Members of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition
confirmed reports of the hunger strike’s end after speaking with some of
the prisoners involved. ...
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Right now there are 200 prisoners at Pelican Bay on a hunger strike. They are experiencing life-threatening health conditions according to an urgent update received by the Hunger Strike Prisoner Solidarity Coalition and from medical personnel at the prison. The California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation continues to refuse to negotiate. It is urged that phone calls be made to the following authorities immediately, demanding they enter into negotiations before they have (more) deaths on their hands: ...
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Urgent bulletin: On July 13 it is reported by the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition that 200 of the Pelican Bay hunger strikers are experiencing life-threatening health conditions according to an urgent update received by the coalition from medical personnel at the prison. The California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation continues to refuse to negotiate. It is urged that phone calls be made to the following authorities immediately, demanding they enter into negotiations before they have (more) deaths on their hands:...
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On June 28, as the New York City Council was scheduled to vote on a pro-banker, anti-people budget deal, more than 100 residents of the “Bloombergville” encampment marched around City Hall. They had been sleeping on the sidewalk nearby for 16 days trying to stop Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s impending cuts....
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June 19 — Launched on the heels of a massive public workers’
rally on June 14, and inspired by gigantic occupations of public squares in
Egypt, Tunisia, Spain, Greece and Wisconsin, the Bloombergville encampment near
New York’s City Hall has withstood police intimidation and inclement
weather to mount a spirited and sustained protest against the current onslaught
of anti-people budget cuts in New York City and state....
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Prisoners earning 23 cents an hour in U.S. federal prisons are manufacturing
high-tech electronic components for Patriot Advanced Capability 3 missiles,
launchers for TOW (Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided) anti-tank
missiles, and other guided missile systems. A March article by journalist and
financial researcher Justin Rohrlich of World in Review is worth a closer look
at the full implications of this ominous development. ...
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They couldn’t break Geronimo ji Jaga. The FBI and Los Angeles district attorney framed the Black Panther Party leader for murder and jailed him for 27 years....
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Consider these horrific facts provided by the National Organization for
Women: Every year approximately 132,000 women report they have been violently
violated by rape or attempted rape. More than half of that number knew their
attackers. It’s estimated that two to six times that many women are
raped, but do not report it. Every year 1.2 million women are raped by their
current or former male partners, some more than once....
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We, the undersigned, are alive today because some individual or small group of
individuals decided that our insistent and persistent proclamations of
innocence warranted one more look before we were sent to our death by
execution. We are among the 138 individuals who have been legally exonerated
and released from death rows in the United States since 1973. We are alive
because a few thoughtful persons – attorneys, journalists, judges,
jurists, etc. – had lingering doubts about our cases that caused them to
say "stop" at a critical moment and halt the march to the execution
chamber. When our innocence was ultimately revealed, when our lives were saved,
and when our freedom was won, we thanked God and those individuals of
conscience who took actions that allowed the truth to eventually come to
light....
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On April 26 the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia unanimously issued a ruling upholding its earlier decision calling for a new sentencing hearing for Mumia Abu-Jamal, who was convicted of killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in 1982. On Pennsylvania’s death row for almost 29 years, Abu-Jamal — a world-renowned political prisoner and former Black Panther Party member — has consistently maintained his innocence....
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The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has unanimously
declared that Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence is unconstitutional. In
today's decision, the Court of Appeals reaffirmed its 2008 finding that Mr.
Abu-Jamal's sentencing jury was misled about the process for considering
evidence supporting a life sentence. The Court found that, in violation of the
United States Supreme Court's 1988 decision in Mills v. Maryland, the jury
was improperly led to believe that that it could only consider unanimously
agreed upon evidence favoring a life verdict. This mistake rendered Mr.
Abu-Jamal's death sentence fundamentally unfair. ...
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In the early morning of March 31, the state Legislature of New York passed
an austerity budget that cuts more than $1 billion from education. Cuts to
state spending on Medicaid will lead to a loss of federal matching funds that
will total $5 billion. Hundreds of millions more were cut from other vital
social services....
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The union movement has called for “We Are
One” actions across the country to mark this important
anniversary and to call for solidarity with Wisconsin workers and the struggle
for justice every where. Thousands of actions both big and small are
being called not only by the unions but by community and student groups who are
joining on this day....
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In the most recent racist and reactionary link in the vicious chain of the politically motivated frame up of Boston African American City Councilor and community leader Chuck Turner, Federal Judge Woodlock denied Chuck's motion for a stay of execution of sentence pending the appeal of his conviction, effectively appointing himself judge jury and executioner, thus proving that Capitalist judges are always more class conscious than constitutionally minded....
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...
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In the USA we hope we are experiencing that groundswell of a time when events and history come together; that the protest against what is happening to civil service workers will result in such a wave of people power that change will start breaking out for all of us....
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...
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The following is a statement from Jason Campbell, an inmate in Ohio State Penitentiary, where Lucasville uprising prisoners Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Bomani Shakur and Jason Robb recently won significant improvements in the terms of their confinement through a 12-day hunger strike and an international campaign of support. ...
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Honor the right of Native American Prisoner Jason Campbell (Vo'kome Nahkohe) to practice his religion! All of his religious freedom hunger strike demands are just and legitimate. They must be granted immediately! His religious necklace, which was confiscated from him illegally, must be immediately returned. Remove him from isolation and restore all privileges. No reprisals for his just hunger strike action!...
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On Jan. 28, Mumia Abu-Jamal retained the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. to represent him in the ongoing appeal of his capital murder conviction and death sentence. LDF will serve as co-counsel in the case with Judy Ritter, Esq., of Widener Law School in Wilmington, Del., who has represented Mr. Abu-Jamal since 2003....
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On January 28, 2011, Mumia Abu-Jamal retained the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF) to represent him in the ongoing appeal of his capital murder conviction and death sentence. LDF will serve as co-counsel in the case with Judy Ritter, Esq., of Widener Law School in Wilmington, Delaware, who has represented Mr. Abu-Jamal since 2003....
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The Pima County Tea Party Patriots are holding a rally Jan. 28 in Tucson, Ariz., to launch a campaign to oust County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. The Tea Party and right-wingers all over the country have opened a campaign of vilification against Dupnik because he pointed the finger at the ultraright in his press conference on the day of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, an attack that claimed six lives....
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On Oct 29 a predominantly white and suburban federal jury falsely found
African-American Boston City Councilor guilty of one count of attempted
extortion and three counts of lying to the FBI. The community has shown
its unwavering support for Chuck, voting for him, packing the trial and turning
out hundreds strong at a rally on October 30 at the District 7 office in
Roxbury. saying "We Stand with Chuck Turner. Chuck is Innocent! The
verdict is the crime!"...
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“So much energy coming is from all over. I’m just trying to hang
on and ride the wave,” wrote political prisoner Bomani Shakur Jan. 6, the
third day of his hunger strike at Ohio State Penitentiary. Convicted as Keith
LaMar, Bomani and two other death-sentenced prisoners started refusing food on
Jan. 3 to demand that they be treated like other prisoners facing
execution....
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The Martin Luther King Day protest focuses on
Woodlawn management’s announced plans to outsource 23 of the remaining 38
union jobs at Woodlawn, as an act of vengeance against the workers for choosing
a fighting union to represent them. Woodlawn management told the union it has
contracted with the Brickman group, a Westchester-based firm that exploits
immigrant labor, underpaying them and then abandoning them when they stand up
and ask questions....
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The anti-racist movement celebrated an important victory when it was announced on Dec. 30 that the prison sentences of Jamie Scott and Gladys Scott would be suspended by Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour....
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Dec. 30 — Gov. Haley Barbour calls the impending release of the Scott
Sisters an “early” release. A release from 16 years of wrongful
incarceration is most certainly not an “early” release....
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On Jan. 3, four prisoners held in Ohio State Penitentiary, a supermax prison started a hunger strike to protest the highly restrictive conditions they have been subjected to since they were moved to the prison in 1998. These prisoners are Bomani Shakur aka Keith LaMar, Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Jason Robb and Namir Abdul Mateen aka James Were, all received death sentences as the result of wrongful convictions on charges related to the 1993 prison uprising in Lucasville, Ohio. Hasan and Robb helped negotiate the settlement of the Lucasville uprising, preventing a massacre such as the one in Attica in 1971 which resulted in more than forty deaths....
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Siddique Abdullah Hasan, Bomani Shakur (Keith LaMar), Jason Robb and Namir
Mateen (James Were) will start a hunger strike on Monday Jan. 3 to protest
their 23-hour a day lock down for nearly 18 years. These four death-sentenced
prisoners have been single-celled (in solitary) in conditions of confinement
significantly more severe than the coniditions experienced by the approximately
125 other death-sentenced prisoners at the supermax prison, Ohio State
Penitentiary in Youngstown....
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THEY are the government, corporate, and financial powers that
wage war, ravage the environment and the economy and trample on our democratic
rights and liberties....
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he myth of a post-racial U.S. society in light of the election of President
Barack Obama was shattered once again when the body of Frederick Jermaine
Carter, a 26-year-old Black man, was discovered Dec. 3 hanging from a tree in a
predominantly white area in the town of Greenwood, Miss....
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What conclusions or lessons can be drawn from the historic Georgia
prisoners’ strike that lasted close to a week and involved as many as 10
institutions across the state?...
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Five Somali nationals were convicted of piracy in a U.S. federal court in
Norfolk, Va., on Nov. 24, with their sentencing set for March 2011. Based on
slave-era laws and criminal statutes that have not been enforced since the
1820s, the Somalis could be sentenced to life in prison....
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For over week, since December 9, thousands of Georgia prisoners have refused
to work, stopped all activities and locked down in their cells in a peaceful
protest for their human rights. It is urgent to support this heroic act of
resistance to inhuman prison conditions and racism....
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According to reports from family members and prisoner rights advocates,
thousands of incarcerated men throughout Georgia engaged in a coordinated
strike starting Dec. 9. They refused to go to work or participate in other
assignments or activities, but stayed in their cells, calling it a
“lockdown for liberty.” Using unauthorized cell phones, the prisoners have been able to organize among themselves and to communicate with news media and supporters. What is so extraordinary about this action besides its statewide character
is its unity among the prisoners — Black, Latino, white, Muslims,
Christians, Rastafarians — to achieve their central demand to be treated
as human beings, not slaves or animals.
...
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Students and faculty at the City University of New York, in opposition to
another tuition increase, held two disruptions at meetings of the Board of
Trustees in November. The board had proposed a 5 percent tuition increase,
which would amount to $125 more per semester, to begin in the spring of 2011.
On top of that, the BOT proposed an additional increase of $500 per semester
for the Hunter College School of Social Work. CUNY tuition had already been
raised by 15 percent in 2009. Since 2003, tuition has increased 44 percent....
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In 2009, as a result of an investigation of the State of North
Carolina’s Crime Laboratory, two former FBI agents concluded that false
forensic evidence had been used, and exonerating evidence hidden from the
defense, in 280 criminal cases over 16 years. In three of those, cases men were
executed before the truth was uncovered....
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The only legal options that were considered by the Third Circuit Court of
Appeals, a federal court immediately below the US Supreme Court, at the
November 9 hearing were whether Mumia Abu-Jamal is to be executed or get life
in prison without parole. The question of Mumia's guilt or innocence and
the opportunity of a new trial was not part of this hearing. The Third Circuit
decided that issue in March 2008 in a decision made by the same three judges
who conducted this hearing....
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On Oct 29 a predominantly white and suburban federal jury falsely found African-American Boston City Councilor guilty of one count of attempted extortion and three counts of lying to the FBI. The community has shown its unwavering support for Chuck, voting for him, packing the trial and turning out hundreds strong at a rally on October 30 at the District 7 office in Roxbury. saying "We Stand with Chuck Turner. Chuck is Innocent! The verdict is the crime!"...
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A United Nations Human Rights Council gathering in Switzerland heard testimony from oppressed groups inside the United States who exposed Washington’s official state policy of gross violations against peoples of color and workers in general....
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“I voted for Obama because I felt his message and wanted to be a part of a change in America. This year it’s different. All the confusion with the Tea Party, all the negativity against the president and the Republicans who want to take back their country, all my hope is gone,” said Brian Henderson, a 22-year-old Washington, D.C., resident. “But I’m still going to vote and encourage others to do so also. It’s hard to get excited when you don’t feel like the options are any better than the devil and Satan in some places.” (finalcall.com, Nov. 1)...
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A recent decision by the Federal Reserve to provide the bankers another $600
billion in bailout funds demonstrates the government’s continuing
failure, even under Democratic Party leadership, to provide any relief for
working people and the oppressed....
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More than 500 people, mostly African Americans and
youth, mobilized for a noontime outdoor rally Nov. 9 in support of political
prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. The rally lasted through a hearing of the 3rd U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals that argued on whether the death sentence would be
reinstated against Mumia, who has maintained his innocence since being
railroaded to death row in 1982. The court’s ruling will be announced at
a later date. Supporters for Mumia included a delegation from the Transport
Workers Union Local 100; Charles Barron, the New York gubernatorial candidate
for the Freedom Party; Free Mumia Coalition (NYC), International Concerned
Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the International Action Center.
Activists traveled from as far away as California, Texas, Arizona, Germany and
France to stand with Mumia....
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On November 9, 2010, Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia Will
Consider Reinstating Death Sentence on Internationally Renowned Death Row
Political Prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal...
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Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent. He’s spent over 28 years on death row after
being unjustly convicted. Mumia was framed because he exposed police brutality
as a radio journalist and for helping to found the Philadelphia chapter of the
Black Panther Party in 1969.The real criminals are the FBI and cops, who bombed
the MOVE house on May 13, 1985, burning to death six adults and five children.
The MOVE 9 are innocent political prisoners who must be released. A “Tea
Party” majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has virtually ordered the
Federal Appeals Court to reinstate Mumia’s death sentence. Don’t
let the bigots lynch Mumia Abu-Jamal. Show the Federal Appeals Court that we
demand justice. Mumia must not die! RALLY in Philadelphia Nov 9. For more
information: Free Mumia Coalition (NYC) 212.330.8029 www.freemumia.com...
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he way ahead is uncharted. But all of history tells us that material conditions determine consciousness. It was the wretched conditions for labor in the 1800s that led to the development of Marxism, scientific socialism, the first unions and the first international organizations of the working class. It was the whip of racist reaction that led to the movements for civil rights and Black liberation. It was the oppression built into capitalism that led to the struggles for women’s rights and LGBTQ liberation....
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Most political pundits and leading corporate-oriented publications are
predicting significant gains by right-wing Republican candidates across the
United States in the midterm elections taking place Nov. 2. This possible shift
in power within ruling-class politics is attributed to two main factors: the
so-called conservative backlash as represented by the Tea Party and the lack of
enthusiasm among key constituents within the African-American and Latino/a
communities, as well as among working women, who voted overwhelming for the
Democratic Party in 2006 and 2008....
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The anniversary of the birth of a cherished freedom fighter occurred
recently. On Oct. 6, 1917, Fannie Lou Townsend was born and grew up on a
Mississippi plantation in a sharecropper family. She began picking cotton at
the age of 6. She was the youngest of 20 children and the granddaughter of an
enslaved African. After marrying, she became Fannie Lou Hamer....
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Bail Out the People is mobilizing 110% to get out the vote for the Freedom Party citywide. We could use a hand....
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Clarence Thomas, long-time ILWU Local 10 member and labor activist who
co-chaired the rally with Jack Heyman, another ILWU dockworker, proudly
announced, “All of the Bay Area ports are shut down today in honor of the
fight for justice for Oscar Grant.”...
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The Black and Latino/a-led Freedom Party is attempting to get a minimum of
50,000 votes in the Nov. 2 midterm elections in New York State in order to
secure ballot status. One of the FP’s main goals is to challenge the
decades-long, oppressive stranglehold that the big business, pro-war Republican
and Democratic parties have had, a hold that keeps workers and oppressed
peoples economically and politically powerless....
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Koch Oil Industries, Donald Trump, Rupert Murdoch, ExxonMobil and the super
rich are all telling us to hate Muslims, hate immigrants and blame them for
everything. They don’t like speaking in their own names so they get the
Tea Party to do it for them....
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he recent revelations of massive fraud in the processing of foreclosures by
major banks demonstrate the urgent necessity for activists to press the demand
for an immediate declaration of a two-year moratorium to halt all foreclosures
and evictions in the U.S....
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The 16-year struggle to free Jamie and Gladys Scott from a Mississippi
prison has caught the significant attention of a progressive African-American
journalist. Bob Herbert, who writes for the New York Times on a regular basis,
penned two op-ed pieces within three days of each other exposing the injustice
that the African-American sisters have suffered and calling for their immediate
release....
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A critical hearing is scheduled Nov. 9 in the nearly three-decade-old case
of journalist and activist Mumia Abu-Jamal, who sits on death row in
Pennsylvania. Mumia was severely wounded and arrested on Dec. 9, 1981, in
Philadelphia and was later charged, tried and convicted of the murder of police
officer Daniel Faulkner....
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The World Day Against the Death Penalty was commemorated on Oct. 10 with a
major emphasis on the United States, where more executions take place than any
other industrialized country. Since the death penalty was reinstituted by the
U.S. Supreme Court in 1976, 1,229 executions have taken place, with 41 in 2010
alone and counting. (Death Penalty Information Center, Oct. 6)...
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DeAsia Bronaugh, a Black high school student, was acquitted on all charges on Oct. 7 in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court....
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There's a great opportunity this Monday [Oct. 18, 2010] to gather friends together and support the Freedom Party's NY State campaign....
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Nearly 80 demonstrations in 25 states were organized on Oct. 7, the second
National Day of Action to Defend Education, as thousands of students and
workers took to the streets to fight back against the attacks on education
being leveled across the country in the form of devastating budget cuts,
tuition hikes and the growing threat of privatization....
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n exciting event launched the Freedom Party campaign on Oct. 3 at the
Church of the Resurrection, which also serves as home to the South Bronx
Community Congress. Charles Barron and Ramon Jimenez, candidates for governor
and attorney general, respectively, both spoke eloquently about the emerging
Black and Latino/a alliance that sees well beyond the Nov. 2 elections to a new
“people’s power bloc” that can genuinely fight for and
protect the interests of working people in the city and state of New York....
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The plans in New York are connected to the October 7th
National Day of Action to Defend Public Education, the
continuation of the national movement that began on March
4th 2010....
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The nearly 29-year struggle to free political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal faces
a critical juncture with the announcement that the U.S. Court of Appeals for
the Third Circuit will review Abu-Jamal’s death sentence on Nov. 9. It is
imperative that all who stand for justice and against racism and state
repression pack the courtroom in Philadelphia....
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At the rally on Saturday, Oct. 2, for jobs,peace and equality, many critical issues will be raised by the International Action Center and Bail Out the People Movement and other organizations, such as the need for a real WPA jobs program. However in the wake of the FBI raids and Grand Jury subpoenas against activists last week, the IAC and BOPM want to make sure that there is very visible opposition to FBI repression, with the understanding that the attack on these activists is an attack on all who are fighting against war, racism and for economic and social justice....
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On Oct. 7 there will be a citywide rally including students, educators,
workers and community activists to defend public education at 4 p.m. at the
Harlem State Office Building, followed by a march across Harlem, ending at the
City College of New York....
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Anti-war, anti-racist and left political activists in the United States have
responded with unprecedented energy and outrage against nationally coordinated
FBI raids on the homes of well-respected political organizers. Within 72 hours
of the Sept. 24 raids, protest demonstrations were held or scheduled in 32
cities across the country....
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On Thursday October 7th, 2010, students, educators, workers, and activists
from community organizations across New York City will rally
at 4pm outside the Harlem State Office Building at Adam Clayton
Powell, Jr. Blvd and 125th street before marching across Harlem,
finally ending at City College New York (CCNY)....
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The thousands who united on Sept. 11 to say no to the Tea Party and its
racist allies have given a new impetus to the anti-racist and workers’
struggle. They faced a right-wing opponent with a month’s head start, big
funding and enormous media publicity. But they stood strong to defend their
Muslim sisters and brothers and confront the hate-mongers, resisting pressure
from the government and corporate media. In the end, they outnumbered and
out-shouted the elements who follow Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich and their ilk.
Even the rightist New York Post had to admit that the anti-racists
out-organized the right-wing gang....
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A series of 85 fires struck several Detroit neighborhoods on Sept. 7. High
winds of up to 50 miles per hour hit the city that day and blew down power
lines, sparking fires that spread rapidly....
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The hullabaloo and objections to the proposed building of the Islamic
Cultural Center, also known as Cordoba House or the Park 51 project, as being
“insensitively” located in lower Manhattan near the World Trade
Center site, are not due to concern for “the feelings of the 9/11
families.” That is not the real issue at hand....
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On September 11 the Tea Party and its racist and right wing allies plan to again demonstrate at the World Trade Center site. For months these bigots have attempted to whip up hysteria against a proposed Islamic masjid (mosque) and community center several blocks from the WTC.
...
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By any estimate, the people who came out against racism and bigotry far outnumbered the Tea Party crowd.
Forced into action by a vicious anti-Muslim rally meant to stop construction of a downtown Islamic Center, on September 11 thousands of people took to the streets of New York to say no to racism....
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On September 11 the Tea Party and its racist and right wing allies plan to again demonstrate at the World Trade Center site. For months these bigots have attempted to whip up hysteria against a proposed Islamic masjid (mosque) and community center several blocks from the WTC. On September 11 right wing, Christian fundamentalist plan a “Burn the Quran” day at a Florida Masjid. These same forces targeting masjids around the country are waging a national hate campaign against all people of color and immigrants....
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On the ninth anniversary of September 11, thousands of people marched against racism in a diverse show of solidarity that far outnumbered the Tea Party-led hate rallies.“We had at least 10,000 people,” said Sara Flounders, one of the coordinators of the Unity and Solidarity Rally. “And the rally program – with speakers from the labor movement, immigrants' rights coalitions, and clergy from synagogues, churches and mosques – featured the dynamic diversity of almost every community in New York.” Once the opponents of Park51 had made September 11 into a racist attack on Muslims, the question was whether progressive forces were going to allow this poisonous hate campaign to go unchallenged.Today that question was resoundingly answered in a dynamic anti-racist rally that attracted over fifty speakers and featured noted personalities such as anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, former Congressperson Cynthia McKinney, and former U.S. Attorney Ramsey Clark....
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hursday afternoon the top media story was
racist Pastor Terry Jones in Gainesville, Florida announcing that he was
cancelling his planned 9/11 Quran burning. This came after heavy pressure from
the White House and Pentagon fearful of the response in the Muslim world. It is
also a grassroots victory based on the mass mobilization against this ugly
threat taken on in Gainesville, Florida by the local Students for a Democratic
Society – SDS....
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Wednesday night’s organizing meeting in New York City for the Saturday, September 11 march against the ugly racism & Islamophobia leveled by the right wing Tea Party against a Muslim Community Center near Ground Zero was truly amazing and inspiring.The plans for a racist rally on September 11 against an Islamic Community Center have galvanized a united anti-racist response. About 100 organizers and activists from dozens of groups attended the meeting to plan a massive show of unity and solidarity. Here are some highlights:...
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The Emergency Mobilization Against Racism and Anti-Islamic Bigotry is
organizing a rally for civil rights and religious freedom on Saturday,
September 11th. This rally is a response to the ugly and violent attacks, both
verbal and physical, which are happening more and more frequently around the
country. It is also a specific response to the hate-filled protest being called
by a coalition of racist and anti-Islamic organizations on September 11th....
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...
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Tens of thousands of teachers in Puerto Rico held a one-day work stoppage Aug. 26 to protest the neoliberal Gov. Luis Fortuño’s offensive, which has left the island’s education system in shambles. This historic stoppage shut 90 percent of the island’s schools. Teachers showed great resistance, as the recent successful student strike of the University of Puerto Rico also did....
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The French government of Nicolas Sarkozy is attacking the country’s large and diverse immigrant and foreign communities, which it calls the sources of delinquency and crime, with expulsions and deportations, loss and denial of French citizenship, and new laws imprisoning parents for the crimes their children commit, as well as increased police violence. According to many French political analysts, the Sarkozy administration is using this approach to repair its public standing, which has been battered by the worldwide recession, growing unemployment and the anger of France’s combative unions....
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Uniting under the theme, “Moving forward the militant global women’s movement in the 21st century,” more than 350 women from 32 countries participated in the Montreal International Women’s Conference, held Aug. 13-16. The conference resulted in the formation of an International Women’s Alliance. The IWA will hold its first assembly in 2011 to adopt a constitution of principles of unity and an action proposal....
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Activists here and around the country have begun mobilizing to stop cold those who promote racism and hatred of Muslims. They plan to confront a vicious demonstration and rally scheduled for the World Trade Center site on Sept. 11. A rally and counterprotest near the WTC site on Aug. 22 showed that the confrontation is gaining momentum....
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he economic crisis has hit the workers in Michigan, a state of heavy industry, especially hard, and has also brought with it an intensified struggle against racism. These brief reports cover three different areas of the state....
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On September 11 the Tea Party and its racist and right wing allies plan to again demonstrate at the World Trade Center site. For months these bigots have attempted to whip up hysteria against a proposed Islamic masjid (mosque) and community center several blocks from the WTC....
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...
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On July 29 the racist, anti-immigrant law SB1070 went into effect in
Arizona. On July 28, federal judge Susan Bolton temporarily blocked the worst
parts of the law from being implemented. Nonetheless, July 29 was a day filled
with nonstop protests and bold actions as people took to the streets to show
their outrage at this bigoted attack against immigrants and workers....
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Despite a continuous onslaught of attacks against immigrant workers,
resistance and opposition continue to grow in the U.S. — not only against
Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, but also against the entire campaign to
criminalize and drive workers born outside this country underground....
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A political firestorm erupted on July 20 when Shirley Sherrod, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s rural development director for Georgia, was
terminated as the result of a false accusation made against her by a right-wing
propagandist. A deceptively edited video of a speech, delivered by Sherrod at
an NAACP event in March, was used as the pretense for her firing and public
vilification....
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Organizations from Arizona’s three major population centers —
Tucson, Flagstaff and Phoenix — met on July 17 to prepare coordinated
activities for July 29, the date of SB 1070’s implementation. SB 1070 is
a racist, anti-immigrant state law that is opposed by immigrant rights
advocates, progressives and justice-loving people in Arizona and around the
country....
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LGBTQ organizations, Immigrant Rights
groups & progressive allied organizations are being asked to please
circulate the following email widely to their internet networks as soon as
possible. They ask that your constituents and members sign on to the online
petition in support of the boycott and circulate it widely as part
of Week of Solidarity against
the anti-immigrant attacks in Arizona & Call to Action for Human Rights
July 23-30, 2010...
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hereby demand the immediate repeal of Arizona's unconstitutional and racist anti-immigrant law SB 1070, which legalizes racial profiling by law enforcement and makes failure to carry immigration documents a crime....
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From Friday, July 23 to Sunday July 25 the International Action Center will
be joining hundreds of other anti-war and community activists at the Crowne
Plaza Hotel in Albany, NY for a National Conference to Bring the Troops Home
Now. This United National Antiwar Conference will be an intense weekend of
plenary sessions, workshops, education, resolutions and networking....
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...
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Activists supporting African-American political prisoner and revolutionary
journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal held a lively street meeting on the corner of Sixth
and Market near the Liberty Bell monument in Philadelphia on July 4....
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There are no vacations yet for the students who won a two-month strike at
the University of Puerto Rico. Instead, they have continued organizing and
demanding that the administration fulfills the agreement....
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July 3rd is the day that political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death for a killing he did not commit. This year’s July 4 theme is “ancestral uprising!” featuring dramatic presentations through performances of heroic anti-slavery fighters. The protest will also include a special presentation on the year-long struggle to demand a civil rights investigation for Mumia on the part of the U.S. Justice Department...
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To reverse the destructive changes at WBAI over the past year, it is crucial that the Justice & Unity Campaign win back its majority on the
Local Station Board....
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The heroes and heroines of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, so brutally attacked
by Israeli commandos on May 31, have transformed the struggle to break the
siege of Gaza and raised it to a higher level. They are the new Freedom
Riders....
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The matter of reparations for African Americans is one that the U.S.
government has forever refused to address. Yet the condition of second-class
status of persons of color, particularly Black people, is a matter of record in
this country, ruled and dominated by white supremacy....
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A massive march filled the streets of downtown Phoenix on May 29 as close to
200,000 people gathered to denounce the racist SB 1070 law and show their
determination to fight back against this anti-immigrant attack. The streets
were packed from curb to curb for over three miles as demonstrators made their
way along the six-mile route that began at Steele Indian School Park, snaked
its way through downtown and ended at the state Capitol building....
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At 12:35 a.m. on May 16, more than 20 Detroit police officers staged a raid
at a two-family dwelling on the east side where they said a warrant was to be
served for a suspect in a recent murder case. The police threw a flash bomb
through the front window of the frame house. It caused a fire in the bed where
7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones was sleeping alongside her grandmother,
Mertilla Jones....
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At approximately 1 p.m. on May 21, more than a dozen people occupied the
Tucson Headquarters of the U.S. Border Patrol to draw attention to impacts of
border militarization in Indigenous Communities. Six people, including Alex
Soto, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation and a volunteer with the
group O’odham Solidarity Across Borders, locked themselves together for
up to three and a half hours. “Indigenous voices have been ignored. In
our action today we say NO MORE!” said Soto....
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Momentum is growing for the national march to stop SB 1070 to be held May 29
in Phoenix. The march will demand the repeal of SB 1070, Arizona’s
“Show me your papers” law, and an end to racist immigrant-bashing
and the blaming of immigrants for economic and social problems which in reality
result from the capitalist economic crisis....
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When a supposed attempt to set off a car bomb in New York City fizzled in early May, with no one injured, a massive government investigation was launched to bring the alleged “terrorists” to justice....
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This week nationwide press conferences are being held in various
cities by leading coalitions in the immigrant rights movement to collectively
denounce attempts to criminalize immigrants, from the recent bill in Arizona to
the Schumer plan. Included in the media events are the May 1st Coalition in
Tucson, Arizona; the May 1st Coalition in New York, New York; the Miami May Day
Coalition in Miami, Florida; and here in Los Angeles the Southern California
Immigration Coalition (SCIC)....
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On Saturday May 1, 2010, a diverse coalition of immigrant rights advocates,
community and union leaders, artists and youth-based community organizations
will gather in Union Square at midday for a rally, march and Hip Hop concert in
support of immigrant and worker rights. In light of legislation passed in
Arizona last week, the Union Square event will emphasize condemning this
racially charged legislation that will terrorize not only immigrants but all
communities of color....
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Ten years ago, the International Action Center initiated a major demonstration
focused on the prison industrial complex. It was held on in front of the U.S.
Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. The march was called to take place on
April 15, the day before militant actions to oppose the criminal policies of
the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which were meeting in that
city; thousands of youth took part in those protests....
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April 23 — When the Arizona Senate passed a sweeping, racist
anti-immigrant bill on April 19, it unleashed a firestorm of outrage from
Arizona’s oppressed communities. The bill legalizes racial profiling and
criminalizes all undocumented people as “trespassers.” It also
contains provisions attacking day laborers, allows for the seizure of any
vehicle used to transport an undocumented person, and calls for the arrest of
anyone who provides assistance to an undocumented person....
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The Arizona law targeting all immigrants, and all Latinos/as, has been passed by both houses of the Arizona Legislation. The governor has three days to either veto, sign or let it pass into law without action. We must let the Arizona state government know that this racist attack will be answered by not only protests, but a full-scale tourism and convention boycott of Arizona...
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On April 17, the openly Nazi group NSM held a rally at Los Angeles City Hall. Many groups, including socialist, anti-war and anti-racist organizations, mobilized to challenge their so-called right to free speech that motivates violence, racism and genocide against non-European peoples and the LGBTQ community....
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In the early morning hours of April 15, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and other Homeland Security agencies launched a military operation against Tucson’s mostly Latino/a and Indigenous south side neighborhoods....
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In 2006, May Day was revived in the U.S., the country of its origin, as a result of the upsurge of immigrant workers. This was a great step forward for the workers' struggle....
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This is a critical moment in the long battle to save the life of world-renown
African-American political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on
Pennsylvania’s death row for almost 28 years. Millions of people
worldwide know that he has never had a fair trial or appeals process before a
jury of his peers—that he has been denied his basic legal and
constitutional rights....
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Among the many so-called “Tea Party” actions mobilizing right-wing forces on the pretext of opposing paying taxes was one called by a local New York City group, which seemed to be based in Staten Island. The Tax Day rally, however, was set at the Central Post Office across from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.<...
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April 3 was “Call to Action Day” at Columbia University —
a day to inform, mobilize and organize to save the life of political prisoner
Mumia Abu-Jamal. The theme was “Live from Death Row: Mumia at the
Crossroads in the Age of Obama.” It was organized by Educators for Mumia
Abu-Jamal....
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A visit of the “Tea Party Express” to cities in the Midwest
— a region of the country that has been most devastated by the economic
crisis of capitalism — did not go unchallenged. Rather, activists and
community members confronted them at several stops to denounce the right-wing
attempt to divide working and oppressed people and to show that the racist,
sexist, anti-lesbian-gay-bi-trans, anti-immigrant, corporate-funded Tea Party
does not speak for working people....
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The corporate media may give it a different spin, but for
Palin and Wall Street’s Tea Party, Boston was a bust....
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Writers for Mumia, an afternoon of readings and testimonials by poets, playwrights, journalists, book authors, wordsmiths and activists, will be held April 24 from 2:30 to 6 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church, 512 W. 126th St. in Harlem. The New York Chapter of the National Writers Union and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition of New York City are co-sponsoring the event, which precedes a rally in front of the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 26....
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The Boston chapter of the Bail Out the People Movement will be holding a protest against Sarah Palin and the Tea Party on April 14 at 9:30 a.m. The protest will take place at the Boston Common Bandstand, where these extreme ultraright reactionaries will be holding a rally. ...
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With 30 million unemployed or underemployed, the failure of the just-signed
health care law to meet the needs and expectations of the population, plus its
giveaway to the health care industry, is bound to add to the frustration and
alienation of the workers....
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On March 21 a multitude of immigrants and their supporters amassed in the
largest demonstration for immigrant rights in Washington, D.C., in decades, if
not ever....
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Renee Washington DeFreitas, a 51 year old state employee and mother of five
did everything she was supposed to: she worked hard long hours, volunteered for
overtime when it existed, saved her money, and bought a home with the hope that
she would have something as she grew older, both for herself and her children
and grandchildren....
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On March 4 more than 100 demonstrations were organized in 33 states
against the devastating cuts, layoffs and tuition hikes as part of the National
Day of Action to Defend Education, including campuses such as the University of
Maryland and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The following reports
are examples of some of these significant protests, which are signs pointing to
the potential of a revitalized national youth and student fight-back movement
reminiscent of the 1960s....
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Students protested cuts in education in over 100 cities across the U.S. on March 4th, 2010, a day of National Student Action. This is the first national student protest involving thousands of students and workers. These are some of the videos from that event....
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On March 4 students and workers from all around the country will take action
to defend education against increased privatization of pre-kindergarten through
12th grade schools, budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs and tuition increases at
college and universities — especially the public institutions....
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Across the country, students, teachers, faculty and other workers, along with
concerned parents, community activists and organizations, will be using the
week of March 4 to strike decisively to defend public education and the right
to pursue higher learning. The effects of the economic crisis have been felt in all sectors. Hundreds of
thousands have faced having their homes foreclosed on or being evicted.
Millions have lost their jobs and have added to the ranks of unemployed,
especially people of color. Many families face hunger on a daily basis....
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Activists from the U.S. and worldwide organized a day-long teach-in in Philadelphia and online to demand: No death penalty; No life sentence and for a Civil Rights Investigation in support of the award-winning journalist and political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal. The following videos will help to summarize the legal and political issues connected to Mumia's case along with action proposals to build a broad fightback movement to win his freedom....
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In light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that opened the door for
reinstatement of the death penalty for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal,
activists from the Philadelphia region, across the U.S. and around the globe
will take part in an important teach-in in Philadelphia on Feb. 13, to take up
the next stage in the struggle to free Mumia....
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Activists from Philadelphia, across the U.S. and around the globe will take
part in an important video streaming, video conferencing and live teach-in to
take up the next stage in the struggle to free Mumia Abu-Jamal....
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The plight of Mumia Abu-Jamal is included in this Black History Month forum
because what’s happening to him is part of the history of Black people
in the U.S. and throughout the African Diaspora. This includes a history of
oppression, repression, enslavement, apartheid, domestic terrorism, exploitation,
racial discrimination, marginalization, resistance, and a continuing struggle
for liberation, civil and human rights, social justice and equal protection
under the law....
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On Jan. 19 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that has opened the way
for the reinstatement of the death sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal. The federal
court’s ruling, which moved away from earlier rulings regarding
sentencing phase regulations, was the latest in a long history of state, local
and federal courts changing or even reversing their own legal precedents in the
case of this world-renowned journalist and political prisoner....
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Demand a Two-Year Moratorium on Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility
Shutoffs in Michigan and a State of Emergency in Detroit....
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On April 6, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal asking for a new trial for death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, based on evidence of racist prosecutorial misconduct during his original 1982 trial in Philadelphia. An important aspect of this misconduct is based on the 1986 Batson issue=97a legal decision that says that prospective jurors cannot be selected or unselected based on their race....
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Haiti has suffered a terrible natural disaster at the cost of hundreds of thousands of precious lives. This natural disaster however, has been bitterly aggravated by racism and imperialist domination....
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On January 16th at 1:45 AM three vans left the International Action
Center/Bail Out People Movement office in Los Angeles to make a 7-hour trip to
Phoenix, AZ to join with 20,000 activists protesting racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio....
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The Supreme Court has tossed out a lower court
ruling that nullified the death sentence for former Black Panther Mumia
Abu-Jamal. He has been an outspoken activist from behind bars, claiming there
were procedural errors during his capital sentencing, and that too few blacks
were on the jury....
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On March 4, students and workers from all around the country will take action to defend education against increased privatization of K-12 schools and budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs and tuition increases at the college and university level—especially the public institutions....
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All
the same, Mumia is still on death row because the prosecution filed an appeal
wit the Supreme Court in order to push through his execution. Mumia is now in
the greatest danger to be executed since his arrest on December 9, 1981....
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As Wall Street prepares to lavish its bankers and traders with billions in
year-end bonuses, the MTA is getting ready to worsen the economic crisis for
millions of New Yorkers....
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A White House Summit on Jobs is scheduled for Dec. 3. But instead of a jobs program, the president is sending tens of thousands of troops to war in Afghanistan at a cost of 50 billion more dollars on top of the fortune already wasted on war. Join us on Dec. 3 in a protest in front of the White House during the Jobs Summit to demand a real jobs program that can put the 30 million workers who are either unemployed or underemployed to work at jobs that pay a living wage....
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n Oct. 28, President Barack Obama signed the 2010 Defense Authorization
Act, the largest military budget in U.S. history....
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Why is Bloomberg, the 8th richest man in the U.S.,
spending $100 million to buy this election? Yes he’s arrogant and enjoys
controlling the lives of 9 million people in NYC....
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The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ) coalition convened an urgent meeting here on Oct. 17. Mumia supporters from Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., were in attendance. It was a fightback strategy meeting of critical importance. Mumia, who has been on death row for over 27 years, is now, more than ever, faced with having his life snuffed out by the political powers that be....
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On Oct. 3, more than 200 people attended a conference in Chicago on the
deepening economic crisis in the United States. The event, whose theme was
“They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back,” was held at the Teamster
City building on the city’s West Side....
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Over a thousand people gathered in Arsenal Park in Pittsburgh to resist the G-20 countries meeting in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center downtown. Young activists representing struggles against racism, gentrification, imperialist wars, gender oppression and environmental destruction gathered together in an effort coordinated by the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project. ...
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The International Action Center is proud to join with the following organizations that are in the forefront of community organizations of struggle and resistance in NY/NJ area and are endorsing and supporting the Justice & Unity Campaign at WBAI radio in the Local Station Board elections. Justice & Unity will UNDO THE COUP supported by the current WBAI board majority and will help save WBAI and protect community voices on the air...
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More than 1,000 protesters marched through the streets here on Sept. 20 demanding a real jobs program, like the public works program the Roosevelt administration enacted during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
It was the first demonstration related to the G-20 summit, a gathering of Treasury officials and central bankers from 20 countries that is to take place in the city later in the week. The goal of the G-20 is to protect bank profits. ...
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...
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As we write, caravans are already on the road to Pittsburgh, some
from as far away as California and Florida. Over the next few days, community
organizers, activists, students, veterans, unemployed people and trade
unionists will be arriving in Pittsburgh for the March for Jobs and Tent City.
As the G20 assembles to discuss the global financial crisis, this broad
coalition of people across the U.S. is building for this major protest to
ensure that the voiceless are heard. This will be a week-long effort, starting
on on Sunday, September 20 with a March for Jobs, and continuing with the Tent
City which will last through Friday....
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Students face a devastating new reality. Along with the usual back-to-school
jitters, students across the country must cope with massive budget cuts, higher
tuition rates and decreased financial aid. Those students who manage to scrape
together the extra funds necessary to graduate face a terribly bleak job market
when they leave their campuses....
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Over the next few days, community organizers, activists, students, veterans,
unemployed people and trade unionists will be arriving in Pittsburgh for the
March for Jobs and Tent City.? As the G20 assembles to discuss the global
financial crisis, this broad coalition of people across the U.S. is building
for this major protest to ensure that the voiceless are heard. This will be a
week-long effort, starting on on Sunday, September 20 with a March for Jobs,
and continuing with the Tent City which will last through Friday....
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As the G-20 summit prepares to descend upon Pittsburgh, the city has been
thrust into the spotlight and is being highlighted for its "commitment to
employing new and green technology to further economic recovery and
development". It has been and is being denoted as the city that got it right,
where pollution has been eroded, the rivers cleaned and the jobs in industry
have thoroughly been replaced....
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...
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...
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United Steel Workers Union and United Electrical Workers have endorsed and are mobilizing....
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Both the United Steel Workers and the United Electrical workers unions have endorsed the March for Jobs in Pittsburgh, September 20....
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New York—On Aug. 21 the Solidarity Center here was filled with five hours of inspiring sounds: music and spoken word from talented artists (photo right) brought together to support the case of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, known worldwide as the “voice of the voiceless.”...
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It's a group of Treasury officials and central bankers from 20 countries, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Its goal is to protect bank profits, whatever it costs the people of the world....
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We are excited about our upcoming Katrina Anniversary Program! We
hope you will join us and our allies for this program to honor our
volunteers, reflect on on our positive change and progress, and
share in fellowship with those that have made this possible....
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The push for meaningful health care reform is in peril. Congressional
Democrats have advanced flawed legislation that fails to live up to their
campaign pledge of universal health care reform. Republicans allied with
right-wing “Blue Dog” Democrats have worked overtime to derail any
attempt at reform....
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The arrest of Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. by a Cambridge police officer after
showing two forms of identification after he, along with a Black limo driver,
had unjammed the lock to the front door of Gates' own house in a
predominantly white, upscale neighborhood known as "Harvard Square"
has brought the struggle against racism to the front pages of newspapers
throughout the US and around the world....
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If the U.S. government was interested in supporting democracy or in building
respect for the will of the people in a democratic election, it should have
started by respecting the outcome of the 2006 Palestinian election. The
Palestinian people voted in large numbers, electing Hamas candidates to
parliament with large enough votes to form the Palestinian government. In Gaza,
Hamas had a total sweep....
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For the better part of the last 75 years, revolutionary
peoples’ artist Irving Fierstein used his immense talent to depict the
many struggles of working and oppressed people for social and economic justice
and against imperialism. In the early 1980s Fierstein created a unique genre of
art—striking full-color revolutionary banners thoughtfully composed and
painstakingly painted by hand....
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In September the eyes of the world will be on Pittsburgh, where the G20 countries will meet to consider what to do about the biggest global economic crisis since the 1930s. The heads of governments, finance ministers and central bankers that will be in Pittsburgh for the summit hear the concerns of bankers and corporate executives all the time. They need to listen to the voices of the millions of people who have lost their jobs and their homes because of the crisis. The Bail out the People Movement, a coalition of community, labor, religious, and grassroots activists, wants to help dramatize the crisis of joblessness, and the need for action both in the U.S. and worldwide to the G20 summit. It is now clear that the stimulus legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in March has done little to stop the loss of jobs. There is no recovery for the unemployed, the underemployed and the poor; and things are only getting worse. This is why we're asking you to help make the idea of a Global Week of Solidarity with the Unemployed from September 19 through September 26, the week of the G20 Summit, a reality....
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The plight and suffering of children and teenagers who are
subjected to sexual and other forms of abuse cannot be relieved by a
reactionary campaign to foment racism, anti-gay bigotry and hatred of gender
and sex variance....
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There is a war going on inside this country—a war against immigrants,
especially undocumented immigrants. This war is escalating, and like most wars,
it is taking many casualties. The casualties are innocent children, women and
men whose only crime is the need to survive, to find a way to live and work in
the United States....
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One the eve of America's Independence Day celebration, American Muslims
(with the support of concerned members of non-Muslim communities) will
spearhead a three-part initiative to draw attention to, and to educate the
public on, the enormous gulf that still exist between promise and fulfillment,
and how this socio-political deficiency within the American body-politic has
impacted the Muslim community (globally) post 9/11....
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The People’s Summit and Tent City in Detroit was by far one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. It was like going to Cuba, or Venezuela, and seeing the level of solidarity that exists among the people in those countries—solidarity that is borne of the struggle to build, in the case of Venezuela, or retain, in the case of Cuba, socialism....
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In 2004, the NAACP voted unanimously (with one "nay" vote) to "reiterate its support of the international movement for a new and fair trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal." Yet the organization has done nothing since that time to ensure justice for Mumia....
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Wells Fargo, a recipient of $25 billion in
bailout funds, has cut off financing to Quad City Die Casting, throwing over
100 out of work. This is a devestating loss to the workers, but the effect
ripples out. It's a loss of over $6.4 million a year in lost wages and tax
revenue to our community....
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June 16—Hundreds of poor and working people have gathered at the
National People’s Summit and Tent City in downtown Detroit to put forward
the people’s vision of a future with guaranteed jobs and income,
universal health care, housing and utilities, and all rights that working class
people are currently denied under the capitalist system....
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For decades, New Yorkers have relied on WBAI 99.5 FM, in the Pacifica Radio
Network, for radio broadcasting that provides real news and perspectives not
filtered by corporate media. Now, the station is under attack....
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An interview with Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke aired June 7 on the CBS
television program “60 Minutes.” The Fed head talked about the
multi-trillion-dollar bailout of the U.S. economy that has propped up financial
institutions, banks, and corporations such as insurance giant AIG. Bernanke
glibly stated he was prepared to double the amount if necessary in order to
stave off a collapse of the system....
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Home foreclosures soared in April to a record-high rate. One of every 374
homes, or 342,000 homes in the United States, received a foreclosure filing: a
notice of default, auction or sale notice, or bank repossession. Filings were
up 32 percent from April 2008. ...
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More than 100 vigils, rallies, marches and other actions were held across
the U.S. and in other countries worldwide on May 19 in support of Troy Anthony
Davis, the Georgia man facing execution for a crime he has always denied
committing....
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“Immigrant,” a bilingual community event on immigrant rights in
Syracuse, held in the Blodgett High School cafeteria, drew a
standing-room-only, multinational crowd of more than 110 people on May 14. ...
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Immigrants and their supporters have marched, rallied, picketed and even met
with the mayor’s staff to express their opposition to the enforcing of
immigration laws by Houston cops....
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Although pressure and hostility on the part of some G20 governments has
resulted in the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and
its Impact on Development being postponed from June 1 to 3 until June 24 to 26,
the People's Economic Summit this Sunday, May 31 will go on as scheduled....
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Based on the global capitalist economic crisis which is wreaking havoc on the
lives of hundreds of millions of people world wide, United Nations General
Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto-Brockman is organizing an urgent
Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on
Development, to take place on June 1-3 at the United Nations in New York City....
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Organizers of the People's Summit, including a tent city, in downtown
Detroit June 14-17 report momentum is building for the event. It's billed
as "four days of active resistance" to counter the National Business Summit held June 15-17 at the GM Renaissance Center....
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...
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On May 19, from Alaska to West Virginia and from Argentina to Uganda, high
school and college students, faith-based groups and progressive community
organizations are organizing vigils, rallies and petition drives as well as the
vital means of communication to bring worldwide pressure on Georgia Gov. Sonny
Perdue and the Pardons and Parole Board to stop the execution of Troy Anthony
Davis....
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The struggle to free death-row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is heating up in New York City. On May 8, an emergency, militant street meeting took place in front of Harlem’s Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building to demand that elected officials call upon U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to conduct a civil rights investigation into constitutional rights violations against Mumia. Congressperson Charles Rangel, who represents the Harlem community, has come out in support of the call for the investigation....
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Organizing for the June 14-17 People's Summit and Tent City in Detroit
is building fast. A planning meeting April 25 was attended by representatives
from a broad base of progressive organizations. They included the Autoworkers
Caravan, which has been in the forefront of challenging the massive attacks on
auto workers' wages and benefits; the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop
Foreclosures and Evictions; disabled activists from Warriors on Wheels; Call
'Em Out; the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization; the Detroit Coalition
Against Police Brutality; and the National Lawyers Guild. Two UAW members from
Toledo, Ohio, also attended....
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Over the last several months, a series of dramatic cases involving police killings of civilians has brought to light the essential role of law enforcement within capitalist societies. Numerous cities throughout the United States have seen a dramatic increase in the murder of African Americans by cops as well as the escalation of raids and deportations against immigrants both documented and undocumented....
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Fear of a swine flu pandemic is spreading much faster than the virus itself. While it's too soon to predict how widespread and deadly this new
variation of influenza virus will be, information about the likely
origin of the outbreak is starting to surface. A huge factory-farm pig
operation owned by U.S. corporate giant Smithfield and operated by its
Mexican subsidiary, Granjas Carroll de Mexico, may have spawned this new
threat to public health....
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Reports from Berkeley, CA where the Pacifica National
Board met this weekend are that the Interim Executive
Director, Grace Aaron has sanctioned the decision taken by the WBAI Local Station Board last Monday at its hastily called "executive session" to fire General Manager Tony Riddle and Program Director Bernard White....
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There have been two "walkouts" from the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Geneva. It is instructive to observe which countries walked out....
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In the aftermath of the April 12 sniper killings of three Somali teenagers by the U.S. Navy, several U.S. agencies met on April 17 to conduct a review of military and foreign policy toward this Horn of Africa nation. The State Department, Pentagon and Justice Department have outlined a series of options
to ostensibly fight "piracy" in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean....
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A citywide rally and sendoff were held here in mid-April for the December 12th Movement International Secretaria's delegation to the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. The conference takes place from April 20-24 in Geneva, Switzerland....
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Former congressman Tom Tancredo, a national symbol of hate, racism, sexism,
bigotry and the scapegoating of immigrants, was invited to speak at UNC Chapel Hill on April 14 by Youth for Western Civilization, a newly-formed white supremacist organization on campus....
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Following are excerpts from an e-mail campaign launched on April 15 by the New York Free Mumia Coalition, International Concerned Family and Friends
of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Millions for Mumia and the International Action Center. To date hundreds of thousands of emails have been sent to U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder, President Barack Obama, congressional leaders, and the media to demand that the Justice Department initiate a civil rights investigation addressing a 27-year history of prosecutorial and judicial violations of Mumia's constitutional rights....
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Political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal will be 55 on April 24. His family, friends and supporters are observing the day with a worldwide "Honk for
Mumia" and other displays of resistance to demand freedom for this world-famous African-American journalist held on Pennsylvania's death row....
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While May Day has historically been a day of workers solidarity and a
celebration of labor power, this is not a day or year like any other....
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Review of progress and assessment of implementation of the Durban Declaration and
Programme of Action by all stakeholders at the national, regional and international levels, including the assessment of contemporary manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance...
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We participants of the Civil Society Forum for the Durban Review Conference 2009 held in Geneva 17 to 19 April strongly welcome the holding of the Durban Review Conference and reaffirm our full and dedicated support for the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action (DDPA) adopted by the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance....
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...
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Review of progress and
assessment of implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action
by all stakeholders at the national, regional and international levels,
including the assessment of contemporary manifestations of
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance...
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We, the representatives of local, national and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other civil society groups from around the world gathered in Durban/South Africa during the week of 28 August – 3 September 2001 for the World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), guided by our
commitment in the struggle against racism and racial discrimination and inspired by the recommendations of the NGO Forums held in Strasbourg/France,
Santiago de Chile/Chile, Dakar/Senegal and Tehran/Iran and the related
sub-regional NGO meetings held in Warsaw/Poland, Kathmandu/Nepal, Cairo/Egypt
and Quito/Ecuador, in preparation for the World Conference, hereby make the
following Declaration:...
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...
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We express our full support for a strong Durban Review Conference, the NGO/Civil
Society Forum, the Conference on Palestine, and other similar activities being
held before and during the Review Conference that support the Conference and
the goals for which it stands....
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Between 20-24 April 2009 the world will take either an important step forward towards prohibiting discrimination, especially racial discrimination, or an unfortunate step backwards, if
governments are unwilling to confront or even to discuss the core issues. Which
way the international community will go will depend largely on the activities
of states, and to a lesser extent civil society, participating in the Durban
Review Conference to be held at the UN European headquarters in Geneva....
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The decision by the Obama administration to boycott
the Durban Review Conference Against Racism has raised a torrent of petitions,
protests and criticism. An actual boycott of the upcoming April 20-24 meeting
would be the first time that the United States has refused to participate in a
United Nations conference. This has come as a shock to many who expected a
fundamentally different attitude toward an international conference on racism
from the Obama administration....
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Please sign a petition to President Obama urging the
United States to participate in the Durban Review Conference and its remaining
preparatory meetings. The United States is currently refusing to participate in
the Durban Review Conference, a United Nations Conference to discuss the
elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerances....
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On April 6, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Mumia
Abu-Jamal's appeal for a new guilt-phase trial. The
Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to consider the Philadelphia DA's separate appeal, which is attempting to execute Abu-Jamal WITHOUT a new sentencing hearing. In
response to yesterday's rejection, Abu-Jamal's lead
attorney, Robert R. Bryan, will be filing a "petition for re-hearing" in the U.S. Supreme Court....
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In an early sign of what promises to be a growing movement, 1,000 people defied
a torrential downpour to rally on Wall Street on Friday, April 3 in response to
a national call from the Bail Out the People Movement. The central demands of the demonstration were: 1) a real jobs program; and 2) an immediate moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. Participants included unions,
community groups, youth and students from Detroit, Boston, Baltimore,
Philadelphia, Buffalo and dozens of organizing centers throughout the
country....
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At the Bank of America Plaza spirited demonstrators echoed chants off the towering Bank of America corporate
building calling for an end to bank bailouts and foreclosures and evictions. A
picket line of dozens of protesters rallied around a large tent set up to dramatize the epidemic of "Hoovervilles" or tent cities in California due to the housing and job crisis. ...
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Enter area at Pine and Broadway go East one SHORT block to Nassau This is just a block from the Friday Rally site. We will join United for Peace and Justice as they come by at Pine and Broadway, about 1:00pm. One block further at
Wall and Broadway the whole march will turn Left down Wall Street, turn Right at Broad Street and the NY Stock Exchange, then turn Right on
Exchange and go back to Broadway. From there the march will proceed South to Battery Park....
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It has been brought to my attention that you have issued an order today to
change the locks on the WBAI transmitter room in the Empire State Building
tomorrow. I have several questions that deserve honest answers:...
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BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE now has VERY exciting Friday and Saturday plans. We have just confirmed BOTH Friday and Saturday Rally Permits for Wall Street....
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Rally Friday, April 3:
Gather at 1:00 pm on Wall Street at Broadway. Rally on Broadway from Wall Street south to Exchange and block further South on
Broadway to the 'Bull'. There will be contingents of youth, women, worker and
immigrant rights, and more. ...
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On Friday morning, just a few hours before the Wall St. rally, the bureau of
labor statistics is going to announce that another two-thirds of a million
workers got laid off in March....
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...
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The following statement was issued by members of the December 12th Movement, who held a press conference on March 21 in Harlem on the U.S.
government's refusal to attend the United Nations World Conference against Racism-Durban Review in April....
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...
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...
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I strongly support the participation of the United States in the Global UN Conference Against Racism scheduled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland from 20 - 24 April of this year. It is an embarrassment for the Obama Administration to continue the Bush Administration's practice of refusing dialogue with others. Moreover, given the painful history of racism in the U.S. it is shameful for America to refuse to participate in a conference against racism. ...
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No event is so tragic that U.S. financiers and brokers won't look for
a way to make money from it. It's a relief when someone exposes them for
the vultures they are....
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Members of immigrant groups, unions, laborers, students, human rights
activists, and workers in general who are part of the May 1st Coalition Worker
and Immigrant Rights will announce the next steps on the path to achieve the
same success of past demonstrations of immigrants in the city of New York and
other American cities....
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The U.S. government is threatening to expel 30,000 Haitians living inside
its borders. Among the millions of undocumented workers in the U.S. who live
each day with the fearful possibility of deportation, the Department of
Homeland Security has made undocumented Haitians a special focus....
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The New York Post maligned President Barak Obama in an overtly racist cartoon
depicting two police officers, one is pointing a smoking gun at a large
chimpanzee, lying on the ground clearly shot dead.The caption reads "They'll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill."...
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In collaboration with the International Action Center, City Councilor Chuck
Turner has launched a new phase of his "Campaign for Truth, Light and
Justice," focusing national and international attention not just on
frame-up charges against Turner but also on eight years of corrupt practices by
the Bush administration's Department of "Justice."...
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The central issue in this case is racism in jury selection. The prosecution systematically removed people from sitting on the trial jury purely because of the color of their skin, that is, being black. The bigotry that killed Martin Luther King, Jr., so many years ago, has been rampant in the case of my client and is a central part of the state's quest to murder him in the name of the law....
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On July 9, 2007 City Council Speaker Christine Quinn
illegally fired Viola Plummer, who was then City Councilman Charles
Barron’s Chief of Staff. The firing was in retaliation for Mrs.
Plummer's and Mr. Barron's opposition to Speaker Quinn's
racist intervention in the City Council's naming of 4 blocks in Bedford-Stuyvesant after famed and respected Black Nationalist Sonny Abubadika Carson....
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In the early morning of the first day of the new year, as celebrations
around the country were waning and millions were clinging to a hope of change
coming soon with the first African-American president, the police of Bay Area
Rapid Transit demonstrated the brutality of the capitalist state in Oakland,
Calif....
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The International Action Center and Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST) strongly condemn the fatal shooting of 22 year-old African-American father, Oscar Grant, by BART cop Johannes Mehserle, Jan. 1 at the Fruitvale station in Oakland, Calif. Grant was forced off the train at 2 a.m. with others and forced to lie face down on the ground. While he was laying face down, Mehserle pulled his gun from its holster and shot Grant in the back....
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The more than 300 conference delegates came mainly from the South, but also traveled from other U.S. regions, representing local, state and regional labor, community, and youth and student struggles and campaigns. The social composition of the conference was Black, Latin@ and white of all ages and political experiences....
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In an investigative article released this week, a reporter who spent a year
and a half in New Orleans connects the dots on reports that have circulated
ever since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 showing that Black people were dying
from indiscriminate shootings as well as from drowning after Katrina....
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Life-long civil rights advocate Ramsey Clark, winner of the 2008 United Nations Human Rights Award and founder of the International Action Center, held a press conference in front of the JFK Federal Building here on Dec. 17 to defend Chuck Turner, an African-American community leader and five-term Boston city councilor, against racist frame-up charges from U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan....
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Mumia Abu-Jamal remains on Pennsylvania’s death row. Last week marked the 27th anniversary of his unjust imprisonment. Racism, fraud and politics have been threads that have run through the case since its inception, and continue today....
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The Bail Out the People Movement invites you to come together on Jan. 17, 2009
to talk, share and plan to fight back. If there was ever a time for us to recommit ourselves to Dr. King's struggle for economic and social justice, there can hardly be any doubt that now, 80 years after his birth, is that time....
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Hundreds of people participated in the 39th National Day of Mourning here,
organized by the United American Indians of New England, on Nov. 27. The event
is held on every U.S. "Thanksgiving" Day to tell the truth about that myth and uncover the real experience of Native peoples in this area since 1492....
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Dec. 6 will be a day of international solidarity to free Mumia Abu-Jamal. It
is sorely needed. Lynne Abraham, the Philadelphia district attorney known as
“the deadliest D.A. in the U.S.,” is calling on the U.S. Supreme
Court to reinstate Abu-Jamal's death sentence despite mounds of evidence
showing his innocence....
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The government's witch hunt and persecution of the San Francisco 8 continue unabated despite growing public support to drop the charges and release the former Black Panther Party members....
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There is a new political situation in the U.S. and in the world. Even though
Barack Obama's sweeping electoral victory was not entirely unexpected, now that it has happened -- the reality of it -- the way in which it demonstrated to the world that something big has changed about the working
class in the U.S., is so stunning that many still find it hard to believe....
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To: President Bush, Senator McCain, Governor Palen, Attorney General Mukasey,
Governors of Key States, Congressional and Republican Party leaders and members
of the media...
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There are new developments in the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on Pennsylvania's death row, that are the most significant and deadly since his 1981 arrest....
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The stock markets are crashing, the world economy is headed into a deep recession or even depression, and the U.S. government and its top bankers, along with their counterparts around the world, are giving what's going to amount to trillions of dollars to bailout the richest 1
percent of the people ...
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Click the link below to send a message directly to presiding Judge Larry Stephen, Mayor Bloomberg, Gov Paterson, Senators Clinton and Schumer, the New York State Legislature, and members of the media!...
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Foreclosure fighters took on Deutsche Bank Sept 25 in Boston, in the latest
eviction blockade organized by the City Life Tenant Organizing Program and its
supporters. Four protesters were arrested, including this writer, while trying to prevent the Boston police and a constable from evicting the Esquival family in Boston's Roslindale neighborhood....
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In the week since Bush announced plans to use $700 billion in public funds
to rescue Wall Street banks, nearly 200 demonstrations have been organized throughout the U.S. to oppose the bailout and express the righteous anger of workers and poor. Many were organized by grassroots groups taking advantage of the Internet to get the word out....
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The Jersey 4 are young African-American lesbians from Newark, N.J., who were
convicted of "gang assault" charges in June 2007 after defending themselves against a man who attacked them and three of their friends in August 2006....
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As banks fail, jobs disappear and the economy sinks deeper into a horrific crisis of poverty and misery, the television channels and political campaigns have suddenly become full of the most unlikely people denouncing "big business."...
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President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy Geithner and
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have been huddled in round-the-clock meetings,
hammering out deals. It has been done in secrecy, behind the backs of the
workers and the middle class, who will get stuck with the bill. They have been
working out these deals with the same loan sharks of high finance whose orgies
of speculation, gambling and deception in pursuit of profit led to the crisis
in the first place....
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The Senate has just voted to pass a US$700-billion financial bailout for corrupt financial institutions, while ignoring the real needs of working people. In addition to an unprecedented giveaway to Wall Street, the bill also includes $100 billion dollars in tax breaks for corporations - but no relief for working people who are facing foreclosure and who need health care, jobs, and education....
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Chanting "Bail out the people, not the banks," hundreds of poor and working people from across Michigan converged on the Capitol here on Sept. 17 demanding the State Legislature enact SB 1306, a
two-year foreclosure moratorium bill. The action was sponsored by the
Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions. Protesters were outraged that the federal government has pledged hundreds of
billions of dollars to bail out the same mortgage, banking and insurance
companies that caused the foreclosure crisis. Activists were serious and
determined to win relief by forcing the state and federal governments to pass a
moratorium to immediately halt foreclosures....
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Anti-war activists need to address the latest phase of the war - the war against working people here!...
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Labor Day weekend is always an important time in Detroit, known as the "Motor City," home to hundreds of thousands of organized and
unorganized workers....
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I have watched with keen interest and renewed hope as your campaign has mobilized millions of Americans behind your message of changing a political system that serves a small economic elite at the expense of the peoples of the
United States and the world. Your election as president of the United States, where slaves and Indians were long considered less than human under the law, will undoubtedly constitute a historic moment in race relations in the United
States....
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Foreclosures and evictions are devastating working families around the country. One in nine homeowners nationwide is either behind in their mortgage payments or their family homes are in foreclosure. Over 72,000 homeowners have lost their homes in the Detroit area alone. The vacant home rate in Detroit is 18 percent, second only to New Orleans.
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There has been extensive news attention to the ongoing federal proceedings concerning my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, on the hotly contested issue of racism in jury selection and the ordering of a new jury trial on the question of life or death. (Abu-Jamal v. Horn, 520 F.3d 272 (3rd Cir. 2008).) The massive issue of racism will be presented to the U.S. Supreme Court later this year. However, few are aware that we have been actively litigating separate issues concerning fraud and the subornation of perjury by the Philadelphia Police Department and the District Attorney of Philadelphia. We are now before the Supreme Court regarding this governmental misconduct which resulted in Mumia being convicted and sentenced to death.
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Today our Petition for Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc, submitted on behalf of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, was denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Simply put, we did not receive the needed majority vote from the nine sitting judges; at least five votes for a rehearing were necessary. However, Justice Thomas L. Ambro continues to urge the granting of relief on the issue of racism in jury selection. ...
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"For a long time, others spoke on our behalf. Now we speak for ourselves." The message was clear: the time for the voice of the grassroots migrants has come with the resounding success of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) founding assembly....
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United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia On June 27, 2008, I submitted on behalf of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Petition for Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Yesterday it was deemed "filed" by the court following rulings on related motions. The focus of the Petition is the issue of racism in jury selection. If unsuccessful, we will proceed to the United States Supreme Court...
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With the attainment of the required delegates to claim the Democratic Party's nomination for U.S. president, Sen. Barack H. Obama (D-IL) has written a new page in American history....
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When I was growing up in the U.S. South in the racially turbulent 1960s, it
would have been impossible for a Black politician to become a viable
Presidential contender. Nothing a Black candidate could have done or said would
have prevented him (or her) from being excluded on the basis of skin color
alone. Many of us never thought we would see in our lifetime a Black person
with a real possibility of becoming President of the U.S....
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There apparently is still confusion regarding the March 27 federal decision. A new jury trial was ordered on the question of whether the penalty should be life or death. The court did not rule that Mumia should receive a life sentence as some have stated. The penalty-phase was reversed because the trial judge gave misleading and unconstitutional jury instructions. Nonetheless, I expect far greater gains.
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The Dalai Lama claims that China is committing "cultural genocide" against the Tibetan people, and his claims and news of the events unfolding in the regional capital of Lhasa have captured a great deal of attention in the major media outlets in the U.S....
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A delegation of Detroit activists traveled to Washington, D.C., on April 16 to participate in the national demonstration called by the Ad Hoc Network to Stop
Foreclosures and Evictions. The action took place outside the Mortgage Bankers
Association Annual Policy Summit held in a hotel just two blocks away from Capitol Hill....
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Many hundreds of people carried out massive protests and civil disobedience today, during the afternoon of a work day, in at least six key bridge and tunnel crossroads of New York City to demand justice for Sean Bell, the 23-year-old African American who was killed in a hail of 50 New York Police Department bullets in November 2006 in Jamaica, Queens, N.Y....
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WORLD EVENTS have made May Day 2008 a turning point. AT NO OTHER TIME in our lives has it been more critical to march together and work together. WE NOW FACE AN ECONOMIC CRISIS the likes of which we have not seen in our lifetimes that is throwing millions out of their homes, jobs and making it more difficult to get healthcare, an education or even gas and food....
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Rainbow Flags for Mumia is a coalition of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people and organizations that came together in 1999 to demand a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. The following are excerpts from a call issued by RF4M
organizers Imani Henry and LeiLani Dowell to help raise awareness and solidarity with the Free Mumia rally in Philadelphia on April 19....
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In his new book, O'Connor argues that Abu-Jamal was clearly framed by police, and that the actual shooter was a man named Kenneth Freeman. O'Connor criticizes the local media, who, he says, "bought into the prosecution's story line early on and has never been able to see this case for what it is: a framing of an innocent and peace-loving man."...
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The Ad Hoc National Network to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions brought people, many facing foreclosure, from as far away as Boston, Raleigh and Miami. Sharon Black, a Baltimore organizer who chaired the rally, pointed out that the billionaire bankers were in D.C. to lobby for more tax breaks and concessions
from Congress....
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On Nov. 30, 2007 African-American police brutality and anti-war
activist Larry Hales was arrested after 10 cops illegally busted into
his home without a warrant and without permission, physically attacked him and handcuffed his partner to a chair. He is facing frame-up charges
of "interfering with the police" and faces extended jail time for being the victim of a police attack.
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The following statement was issued on March 29 by Pam Africa,
coordinator of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia
Abu-Jamal, on the March 28, 2008 court ruling by the three-judge panel of the Third
Circuit of Appeals....
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Emergency protests took place in a number of cities March 28, 2008, the day after a 2
to 1 court ruling March 27 made by the 3rd Circuit of Appeals that upheld the
guilty verdict in the case of death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and called for a resentencing hearing due to flawed jury instructions in the original trial....
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A ruling by the three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejecting Mumia Abu-Jama's appeals has left supporters outraged and
convinced that, for this internationally known political prisoner, there is no chance for a "fair trial" within the U.S. injustice system....
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The campaign demanding justice for Larry Hales is gaining momentum. People around the country are outraged at the action last Nov. 30 of the Denver police, who stormed the home of Hales, a prominent anti-police brutality and
political activist in Denver, as well as a central organizer for upcoming protests at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver....
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hareef Aleem, Larry Hales and African-American police
brutality and anti-war activist Larry Hales was arrested after 10 cops
illegally busted into his home without a warrant and without permission,physically attacked him and handcuffed his partner to a chair. He is facing
frame-up charges of interfering with the police" and faces extended jail time for being the victim of a police attack....
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On March 8, 1908, working women in the needle trade industry took to the streets of New York City demanding better working conditions, higher wages, shorter workdays and the overall improvement of women's lives in this country. These women marched through New York City demanding justice for women workers and immigrant workers; they were in fact working immigrant women. The message and militancy of these women were so inspiring to women around
the world that in 1910 the International Socialist Congress meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, officially declared March 8 International Women's Day....
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No one should be awakened by armed squads bursting into their homes in the dead of night with shotguns and automatic weapons drawn taking away parents and relatives leaving children alone....
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Workshops will coordinate with the activities of the International Action Center and Troops Out Now Coalition. Trainees will have a chance to gather footage from demonstrations, meetings and forums and will learn to edit that footage and stream it on YouTube and Facebook....
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One hundred and fifty anti-racist activists continued the legacy of Martin
Luther King Jr. on Jan. 21 as they confronted members of the white supremacist
organization, the Nationalist Movement, in Jena, La. The event took place on Martin Luther King Day in this small Louisiana town that has been the stage for what is being called the new civil rights movement....
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Reports of demonstrations against racism on Martin Luther King Day from cities around the United States. Demonstrators called for cutting the military budget and using the money for jobs, housing, education and health
care....
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A small clique of WBAI board members and their friends, led by multimillionaire marketing huckster Steve Brown and variously called "ACE" and "independents," have escalated their illegitimate efforts to take control of the station. In November, they sued Pacifica and got a judge to stop the board elections that were almost complete....
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On Monday, January 21, from coast to coast, thousands took to the streets to march against racism.The Martin Luther King March Against Racism Coalition called for nationwide actions, saying, "There is a time for celebrations and there's a time for fighting. Now is a time that we need to fight. And fight like hell. On this King Holiday we must organize and march against the forces of racism, reaction and war, not just the war abroad but the war raging here at home. To know what's happening, is to know that nothing is more important than jump starting a multi-racial movement against racism."...
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Puerto Ricans have resisted U.S. culture and the imposition of English-only
in schools, and over the years have formed liberation organizations such as the
Nationalist Party, the FALN and the Macheteros. Now the movement and its allies
are calling for the FBI and the U.S. Navy to get out of Puerto Rico. International solidarity is needed....
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Fascistic groups like the Nationalist Movement should not have the right to free speech in order to spread their vile, hateful venom especially against Black and other people of color....
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This year, let's help put the meaning back into the Martin Luther King holiday on January 21st by marching against racism, oppression, war, poverty and division. In New York, the march will assemble at 1 PM for an opening rally at 32nd Street and 7th Avenue, near the offices of radio station WABC (which recently put Don Imus back on the air!). Then we will march to Columbus Circle and rally outside of CNN's offices (located inside the Time Warner building)....
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Fighters for reproductive justice for poor women are stepping up their campaign to overturn the Hyde Amendment, a reactionary law enacted by Congress in 1976 and signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1977. The Hyde
Amendment denies women on Medicaid the right to funding for abortions. It is named for its archreactionary sponsor, Henry Hyde, a former long-term Republican congressman from Illinois. ...
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On Dec. 20th, just five days before the Christmas holiday, residents and supporters of New Orleans public housing were denied their right to speak regarding the demolition of 4,700 public housing units. The housing is to be
replaced by :mixed income housing," which really means upscale and expensive housing....
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The Coalition to Stop the Demolitions is calling for National Days of Action
on Jan. 25 and 26. The call is to rally activists around the country to show
solidarity with public-housing residents in New Orleans and to save four
public-housing developments from being demolished by private developers in
favor of more expensive luxurious developments....
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Victor Toro Ramerez fought the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Now he is fighting deportation from the U.S., and is linking his own struggle
to that of all undocumented workers....
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Monday, Jan 21, in New York City and across the nation: The International Action Center and the Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) youth group are initiating an important call to action around the U.S. for Jan. 21, 2008, the official Martin Luther King Jr. birthday holiday. The call motivates people for solidarity and unity in the struggle against racism and all forms of injustice at home and abroad. It also calls for a national march in New York City along with other mobilizations around the country on this day focusing support for the Black community and immigrant rights:...
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Resolution calls for federally-funded public works program (like WPA of the 1930s) with prevailing wages and the right to organize...the Right of Return of evacuees...and an end to state repression, racial profiling and police brutality in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast....
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Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on Pennsylvania's death row for over a quarter of a century.
His 1982 conviction for the shooting death of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel
Faulkner, has been contested by jurists, human rights organizations, and peoples
of conscience the world over. Even though he is arguably the most famous political
prisoner in the United States, his case and struggle for justice distills many
of the issues that racially stigmatized groups and others have faced in the United
States for decades: police brutality and violence, racist applications of the
death penalty, prosecutorial misconduct, suborning of witnesses, and the use of
wealth and political privilege in criminal justice systems to service the ideological
interests of groups and classes in power. ...
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Hundreds of Native people and their supporters gathered in Plymouth, Mass., on Nov. 22 to commemorate the 38th National Day of Mourning. Day of Mourning has been held annually since 1970 on U.S. thanksgiving day to provide a forum for Indigenous people to speak the truth about the history of this country and to speak out about current conditions in Indian Country. Participants, led by members of United American Indians of New England, marched to protest the lies told about thanksgiving and the European theft of the Americas and held a rally at the site of Plymouth Rock....
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The Haitian Revolution is a singular event in history. Never before or since has an enslaved people risen up, broken their chains, and established a new state. Haiti was a beacon of hope and inspiration to the enslaved Africans of the United States. Haiti's history has been turbulent, but not for the reasons given by mainstream historians. ...
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Since 1970, hundreds of other Native Americans from across the country and their non-Native allies have been converging on Plymouth Harbor to let people know that Thanksgiving is a "Day of Mourning" that marks the genocide of thousands of Native Americans, the theft of Native Lands and the assault on Native Cultures. On Thursday, November 23, 2006 despite the cold and rainy weather, hundreds of people gathered and marched on Plymouth Harbor and joined in solidarity as various tribal elders and members spoke about the hypocrisy of the current U.S. government's attack against immigrants and spoke of the importance of Unity among all Indigenous Peoples. Elder Bert Waters read the following statement from Leonard Peltier: ...
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Last fall, when two Black high school students sat under the "white" tree on their campus, white students responded by hanging nooses from the tree. When Black students protested the light punishment for the students who hung the nooses, District Attorney Reed Walters came to the school and told the students he could "take [their] lives away with a stroke of [his] pen." Racial tension continued to mount in Jena , and the District Attorney did nothing in response to several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students....
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We the undersigned--lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender-nonconforming, and other activists fighting oppression based on sexuality, gender and sex--express our support for the right of the Black community in Brooklyn to decide to rename an avenue for the late Black community activist Sonny Abubadika Carson, who some called the "Mayor of Bed-Sty" for his long-time community activism....
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There are many developments on the legal and other fronts concerning my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal. We remain in active litigation before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and also have issues pending in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Mumia has been honored by fellow writers through acceptance into a prestigious organization, a Nobel Prize winner recently visited him, an excellent new book was released in France, a leading British newspaper has published a major article on Mumia, and a superb film recently premiered in London and Rome. The following are the highlights....
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We continue to await a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, concerning my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal. This complex case was orally argued before a three-judge panel on May 17, 2007, following extensive litigation which included voluminous briefing and motions. In my experience of successfully defending a large number of murder cases involving the death penalty, it was a great day....
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