San Francisco Bay View

‘Skin deep’ in more ways than one

Mary — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 05:29:19 +0000

by Thandisizwe Chimurenga

Part 1

A page from "Techniques to Achieve Naturally Healthy Hair"

Marcus Garvey, founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), refused to allow advertisements for products to lighten the skin and straighten the hair of African Americans in The Negro World, the UNIA’s newspaper. That was “back in the day” – between 1918 and 1933 – when the paper had a circulation estimated at close to 200,000 per week.

During the 1960s, Black Power and Black Pride proponents ushered in “naturals” and “afro” hair styles. In between shouts of “Right on” and “Power to the people,” many of these proponents declared that the hair straightening process was damaging to the brains of African Americans. These proponents were more than likely speaking figuratively about the psyche of Blacks; but from a literal standpoint, they may have actually been on to something.

The 1970s saw the environmental movement in the U.S. creating unprecedented awareness of the damage that humans were doing to planet Earth and various measures to cease or slow that damage. The majority of media attention regarding toxic chemicals since that time has focused on the possibly adverse effects of household chemicals on the environment or industrial chemicals’ possibly adverse effects on the environment and/or human, animal and plant life.

Very little if any media attention or research has looked at the possible connections between African American beauty salons, the personal care products utilized primarily by Black women and adverse health outcomes, specifically in the area of reproductive health. But that has begun to change.

In May of 2011, Dr. Mary Beth Terry and others authored a study which found that African-American and African-Caribbean women were more likely to be exposed to hormonally-active chemicals in hair products.

Terry’s study, “Racial/Ethnic Differences in Hormonally-Active Hair Product Use: A Plausible Risk Factor for Health Disparities,” published in the Journal of Immigrant Health, found that the African-American and African-Caribbean women surveyed used products that contained chemicals that are commonly referred to as endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), which have been linked to various reproductive effects and birth defects, breast cancer and heart disease.

Most recently, a team of researchers led by Dr. Lauren Wise of Boston University’s Slone Epidemiology Center found strong evidence which indicates that African-American women’s hair relaxer use increases the risk for uterine fibroid tumors by exposing Black women to various chemicals through scalp lesions and burns from the products.

Fibroids are non-cancerous growths that develop in or just outside a woman’s uterus (womb) from normal uterine cells that begin to grow abnormally. Although fibroids tend to be extremely common, African-American women tend to get them two to three times as often as white women and tend to experience more symptoms from them, such as prolonged and heavy menstrual flow, difficulty conceiving a child, and instances of pain during menses and also during intercourse.

Wise’s team also found that women who got their first menstrual period before the age of 10 were more likely to have uterine fibroids. The researchers followed more than 23,000 pre-menopausal African-American women from 1997 to 2009 and published their study, “Hair Relaxer Use and Risk of Uterine Leiomyomata in African-American Women,” onlined in the Jan. 10, 2012, edition of the Journal of American Epidemiology.

Researchers have also posited that a link exists between the early onset of puberty in Black girls and Black hair care products. In a study of 300 African-American, African-Caribbean, Hispanic and white women in New York City, the reported age when these women experienced their first menstrual period (menarche) varied from age 8 to age 19; however, the African-Americans were more likely to use hair products and reached menarche earlier than other racial or ethnic groups.

Dr. Tamarra James-Todd of Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital is the lead author of “Childhood Hair Product Use and Earlier Age at Menarche in a Racially Diverse Study Population,” published online in the June 2011 Annals of Epidemiology. The study specifically cited the use of hair oils and hair straightening (“perm”) products and the onset of early menarche in the women.

According to figures from the Black-Owned Beauty Supply Association, African-Americans are estimated to spend between $7 billion and $9 billion dollars per year on hair and beauty products. The potential costs to our health, however, have yet to be adequately quantified.

Part 2

“Take the kinks out of your mind, instead of out of your hair.” – Marcus Mosiah Garvey, founder, Universal Negro Improvement Association

Black women today who strive to take Marcus Garvey’s admonition to heart are in a better position than their sisters of the past. Research focusing on the products used in African-American beauty salons – and homes – is increasing; and while the findings are showing links to adverse health outcomes primarily amongst Black women, there exists an increased motivation for natural, less toxic beauty products, as well as calls to more stringently regulate the personal care product industry.

In Los Angeles, Black Women for Wellness (BWW), a Leimert Park-based, grassroots health and wellness advocacy organization, has produced a “green chemistry” booklet entitled “Black Going Green,” which is a part of their “Green Chemistry Initiative.”

The 28-page booklet, which is geared toward African American women and girls, lists many chemical ingredients and the possible health risks of everyday household and personal beauty products, and provides many healthy and environmentally-friendly alternatives.

Readers will find information on products and chemicals such as relaxers, detanglers, shampoo and conditioner, nail polish and lipstick.

“In order to make better choices and be more critical consumers, we understood that arming Black women – the primary caretakers in our communities – with reliable information was key,” said Nourbese Flint, program director at Black Women for Wellness and project coordinator for the booklet. “This is one small step to help Black women make the kinds of choices that are critical to increasing our community’s health and well-being,” said Flint.

Also as part of its Green Chemistry Initiative, the organization has organized a “Beauty Salon Campaign” to conduct research amongst African American beauty salons to explore possible connections between products utilized primarily by Black women and possible reproductive health disparities.

According to BWW Executive Director Jan Robinson-Flint, the project, which is still in the data-gathering stage, is doing a survey of beauty supply stores, beauty salons, barber shops and wig shops within a one-mile radius of the organization’s Leimert Park-based headquarters – approximately 60 stores in all.

“We asked the owners and the stylists what were the products that they were using? And from those products what we did was create a list of the top 10 chemicals … and then looked at the impact of those chemicals – because they’re toxins – on our health and well-being. Anytime you look at any statistics for Black women, you’ll find that we are at the top,” said Robinson-Flint.

BWW plans to rate the chemicals in terms of how toxic they are once the results of their research are made public.

Another component of BWW’s Green Chemistry Initiative is an Activist and Advocate Academy organized with the goal of “developing a cadre of women and youth working with the African American and Black community to increase information and education on Green Chemistry issues as they impact health and wellbeing, and increase the voices of African American women and girls with environmental justice issues as they impact our health and wellbeing.”

Dera Baskin, a midwife and health educator, attended the academy in 2011 with the purpose of learning how reproductive and environmental justice intersect and to find out what the common citizen can do to change personal and community environments.

As a “birth worker,” Baskin said that many of the families she works with are not aware of the exposure to chemicals in their home environments and how they can reduce or remove them. “All in the name of beauty and looking cute … we are damaging our bodies and [our] ability to bring forth healthy babies … we often buy products because of the brand, smell, what it will do aesthetically without thinking about what it will do long term. I wanted to be able to learn and share accurate information with people who look like me,” she said.

Black Women for Wellness is a member of the National Healthy Nail and Beauty Salon Alliance which works to raise the profile of salon worker health and safety issues primarily in the Asian/Pacific Islander community. Along with the Bay Area-based California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, the group has provided testimony before congressional committees in Washington, D.C., regarding concerns of African-American salons and their clients.

Saffiyah Edley, the owner of Los Angeles-based Luv Mi Kinks told the Salon Worker Health and Safety Congressional Briefing in Washington, D.C., last May that a truly “natural hair care industry” is needed “where hair product manufacturers can’t hide behind harmful ingredients.” Edley said, “Awareness is needed for stylists and clients around the harm that may be caused by using certain products. But what’s needed the most is that manufacturers must take responsibility for products on the market today that they are making and take out harmful chemicals.”

In addition to helping to organize the congressional briefing, the Oakland-based California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, along with the Environmental Finance Center (EFC), has also produced a “Techniques to Achieve Naturally Healthy Hair” to highlight sustainable alternatives for hair care.

The multicultural, multiethnic publication gives an explanation of five basic hair textures: wavy, tightly coiled, straight, very curly and grey hair, which is included because of its different growth pattern and occasional difficulty in managing.

The guide also provides tips on natural hair styles for men, women and children such as braids and pony tails, natural curls and crimps, and the use of a flat iron for straightening. Natural care techniques mentioned in the guide include avocado or olive oil hair conditioners, using witch hazel for dandruff and sunflower oil for moisturizing and tips for “greening” hair salons.

A project of the Environmental Protection Agency, the EFC seeks to build green economies and foster sustainable communities in the U.S. by working with government and industry, communities and Native American Tribes.

The partnership between grassroots groups, business and government will be necessary for success.

Says Saffiyah Edley, “There are safer alternatives, but we need regulation in order to really push them forward.”

Fact box

The chemicals found in common African-American hair products are known as estrogen and endocrine-disrupting chemicals or EDCs. Although comprehensive research is ongoing, many of these chemicals are believed to be linked to reproductive effects and birth defects, breast cancer, heart disease, cognitive disorders, premature puberty and altered immune function, to name a few.

Chemicals found in Common African American Hair Products such as straighteners/relaxers (perms), detanglers, colorants, shampoos and conditioners

Estrogen and endocrine-disrupting chemicals or EDCs, compiled primarily from the booklet, “Techniques to Achieve Naturally Healthy Hair”:

• Sodium Hydroxide (Lye) and Calcium Hydroxide (No Lye)

• Diazolidinyl Urea

• DMDM Hydantoin

• Propylene Glycol

• Diethanolamine

• Monoethanolamine

• Triethanolamine

• Sodium Lauryl Sulfate or Sodium Laureth Sulfate

• Hydroquinone

• Colorants and Synthetic Colors labeled as D&C and/or FD&C

Thandisizwe Chimurenga is a Los Angeles-based writer and a 2011-2012 New America Media Environmental Health Justice Fellow. Thandi is also the conductor of the CyberGround Railroad, “Black Los Angeles’ News and Views Source,” a community journalist and a founder and host of Some of Us Are Brave, a Black women’s public affairs show on KPFK-Pacifica Los Angeles. She has reported for the L.A. Watts Times newspaper, KPFK Evening News and Free Speech Radio News. She covered the trial of Johannes Mehserle, who murdered Oscar Grant, for the Bay View and several other Bay Area news organizations and is the author of a forthcoming book on the trial. She can be reached at tchimurenga@gmail.com.

Ripple effects of Corcoran ASU hunger strike

Mary — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 02:35:03 +0000

by William E. Brown Jr.

William E. Brown Jr. and his family

Written Jan. 16, 2012 – We here at Corcoran State Prison, prisoners in ASU (Administrative Segregation Unit), went on a united hunger strike, aimed straight at the beast: injustice and negligence. As a named petitioner, I was targeted for being a litigant and a spokesman for myself and the other Afrikans who are seeking justice and equal protection.

While we are going through the “due process” of Corcoran’s imperial domination, here are the ripple effects of our strike. The first slap in the face arose when they made the biased and discriminatory decision to send the ASU1 sergeant to move me and my young KAGE brother [another Black prisoner] away from our ASU cell F169 to a mental health building that’s used only for CCCMS (Correctional Clinical Case Management System) mentally ill inmates.

Since our protest was presented peacefully, we refused to partake in any violent resistance after being threatened with possible cell extraction, then an additional 115 citation for rule violations. As an older brother wise to CDC(R)’s trickery, I felt more than responsible not to lose control of the incident, which could have aggravated me and my young Black brotha’s present circumstances.

After allowing others alike involved to know that we will carry on strong and keep the revolt lit in honor of our united front, we agreed to move straight ahead.

The next slap in the face arose when an email came on Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, 6:42 p.m., to [prison officials] Arnold Cruz and Vincent Marmolejo in hopes to use this coercion to end our civil rights to a peaceful protest. The email read:

“Can you speak to inmates Ryoo and Brown [the Corcoran ASU hunger strike petition was signed by Pyung Hwa Ryoo, Juan Jaimes and William E. Brown]? Please let them know the hunger strike is over and resolutions to some of the issues they presented (in the petition) are forthcoming, as I had discussed with Ryoo last week. The inmates in ASU-1 ate tonight and declared hunger strike over. Let me know what happens. Thanks.”

On Dec. 31, 2011, the prison officials came and pulled us from our cell and took our personal property based on illegal grounds. We continued our peaceful protest! After threats and more coercion, we both pondered our wellbeing and the odds were stacked against us, meaning harsher retaliation. We came to an adult understanding with Lt. Rush, who in exchange personally walked an emergency copy of our 602 inmate appeal (complaint) to the warden’s office.

The third slap in the face came when I was served an additional CDC 115 (Rules Violation Report) charging a violation of CCR Sec. 3005(a) and citing the specific act of “inciting and leading a hunger strike.” I’m like “Wow!” Under “Circumstances,” the 115 reads:

“On Friday, December 30, 2011, the Southern Hispanic, Black, and Other inmates in ASU1 participated in a mass hunger strike to address grievances in ASU1. Due to the ‘Hunger Strike,’ there was a disruption in the ASU1 program. A list of demands was sent to staff, and you inmate BROWN T-58106 (ASU1-169) were listed as one of the instigators of the Hunger Strike. Your actions caused a disruption to the normal operations of ASU1, and possible health concerns for the inmates involved. Your actions created additional work for staff, and time delays in which it was necessary for staff to address your issues. Attached is a list of demands with inmate RYOO F-88924, inmate JAIMES V-08644 (ASU1-165), and inmate BROWN T-58106 (ASU1-169), listed as the signers for the inmate grievance. Based on this information you are deemed as leading the Hunger Strike and causing the disruption in ASU1.”

Prior to this whole incident, all we had done was submit a peaceful civil rights/human rights group petition reflecting the colorful complaints of all races, and all we got is retaliation. CDC(R) fails and refuses to comply with our demands, which are protected by case law as well as federal and state law, California Code of Regulations Title 15 and CDC(R) Department Operations Manual (DOM).

For many years, we’ve been dirt under the rug, left for dead by those in society who turn a blind eye, only to be cast as outlaws and black, brown, yellow and white trash. Even now as I humbly await my next 115 hearing to be conducted, I’m preparing a civil suit.

For many years, we’ve been dirt under the rug, left for dead by those in society who turn a blind eye, only to be cast as outlaws and black, brown, yellow and white trash.

Those same biased prison officials continue to violate many more inmates’ due process by failing or refusing to allow certain evidence or documents or even answer relevant questions pertaining to our defense. Many times we are refused access to witnesses who could possibly assist with our defense in hopes of a much greater outcome than the guilty verdict.

Just because the official has the power, there’s never a preponderance of the evidence standard considered when a hearing officer is labeled as being unlisted as having gone “through the procedure of the State Bar.” How could it not be determined that a hearing officer hadn’t made an impartial decision in his or her fact finding when he has not been through the training of the State Bar to legally enforce an order without a predetermined belief system.

These underground rules are being used as a gateway to target certain inmates who CDC(R) considers too active, or to later validate them as alleged gang members for inciting or leading certain racial groups. This is to discourage further litigation, advocacy – standing against the very injustice that Martin Luther King and others alike marched for. As King stood against genocidal environments, me and my brothers will continue to rattle the KAGE.

These underground rules are being used as a gateway to target certain inmates who CDC(R) considers too active, or to later validate them as alleged gang members for inciting or leading certain racial groups.

There are three possible aims of punishment: restraint, revenge or reform. Capitalism only seems to succeed at the first two. As we the prisoner advocates for justice know, the retributive and vengeful “justice” of the present system has been a total and utter failure.

Attempting to reform people through coercion and force can never succeed. Arguments based on fear and terror are never convincing. The institutionalized murder – the death penalty – has never had the slightest effect on violent crime figures. It amounts to no more than revenge.

If prison achieves anything, it tends to perpetuate crime with minor offenders who often go on to commit greater crimes. The motto then goes, Why not re-offend if nothing has changed?

Capitalism cannot solve the problem. It creates the very conditions which lead to most crimes. The supposed system of justice amounts to a closed cast of judges and legal professionals who are initiated into a tangled web of complex rules and regulations, where any concept of justice or fair play intrudes purely at random.

Because the beast is on its knees, because the moment is ripe, I’m approaching the oppressor’s gates with unity like the ants, the heart of a lion and the rage of a bull to liberate my people. I won’t lose ambition so long as I’m still breathing. Mandela stayed strong for 28 years. Huey P. told us we bear rights. “Wait” sounds too much like never.

GLJ [George Lester Jackson] was a Soledad brother who made the jailhouse rock, saying, “You’ve got to find a way to make people know you’re there.” That’s crucial, whether in terms of making career gains, letting our families know we care or, like Malcolm, sending a message to our elected officials. I recommend that everyone read “Stride Toward Freedom,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s first published book.

Send our brother some love and light: William E. Brown Jr., T-58106, P.O. Box 8800, Corcoran CA 93212. See his FriendsWithPens.com page.

‘People Power’ pries Abu-Jamal from punitive administrative custody

Mary — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 22:32:10 +0000

by Linn Washington Jr.

He’s out!

Public pressure to release Mumia Abu-Jamal from the “hole” trumped the pressure from those trying to keep torturing him. – Photo: Linn Washington

Credit “people power” for getting internationally known inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal sprung from his apparently punitive, seven-week placement in “The Hole.”

For the first time since receiving a controversial death sentence in 1982 for killing a Philadelphia policeman, the widely acclaimed author-activist finds himself in general population, a prison housing status far less restrictive than the solitary confinement of death row.

Inmates in general population have full privileges to visitation, telephone and commissary, along with access to all prison programs and services, all things denied or severely limited to convicts on death row waiting to be killed by the state.

In early December 2011, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections officials, after the federal courts had removed his death penalty and the Philadelphia district attorney opted not to attempt to re-try the penalty phase in hopes of winning a new death sentence, placed Abu-Jamal in administrative custody (aka “The Hole”).

Administrative custody is confinement in a Spartan isolation cell where conditions are more draconian than even death row.

The release of Abu-Jamal from administrative custody into general population on Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, followed a multi-layered protest campaign by his supporters worldwide that included flooding Pennsylvania prison authorities with telephone calls, collecting petitions containing over 5,000 signatures and a complaint filed with United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.

Supporters condemned the administrative custody placement, calling it retaliation for Abu-Jamal’s having successfully defeated the state’s efforts to execute him. Abu-Jamal, a model prisoner, did not meet any of the 11 specific circumstances listed in Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DoC) regulations dictating administrative custody placement.

The release of Abu-Jamal from administrative custody into general population on Friday, Jan. 27, 2012, followed a multi-layered protest campaign by his supporters worldwide that included flooding Pennsylvania prison authorities with telephone calls, collecting petitions containing over 5,000 signatures and a complaint filed with United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture.

Prison staff evaluations of Abu-Jamal since his December death row removal, sources said, listed him as “polite [and] respectful.” Those positive evaluations did not evidence any of the incorrigibility or other serious misbehaviors that usually trigger AC placement.

“When people are united around an issue, they have power. This is the power of the people – all races in many places,” said Pam Africa, director of the Philadelphia-based International Concerned Friends and Family of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

Abu-Jamal, in a statement released through his wife Wadiya Jamal, thanked his supporters for their hard work. “I am no longer on death row, no longer in the hole, I’m in population,” Abu-Jamal’s statement noted. “This is only Part One and I thank you for the work you’ve done. But the struggle is for freedom!”

Media reports quoted Pennsylvania DoC spokespersons confirming Abu-Jamal’s placement in general population at Mahanoy Prison, a medium security facility about 100 miles from Philadelphia in central Pennsylvania where he was transferred last December from another prison in western Pennsylvania that houses the state’s death row.

DoC spokespersons had previously declined comment on Abu-Jamal’s administrative custody placement, citing regulations covering inmate privacy.

Prison officials advanced ever-changing rationales for keeping Abu-Jamal in AC at Mahanoy, including the curious claim that they were waiting for legal clarification that the courts had formally replaced Abu-Jamal’s death sentence with life in prison.

That Kafkaesque claim contradicted the DoC’s own documents specifically acknowledging that federal courts had vacated the death sentence – thus requiring a default life sentence – and Philadelphia’s DA having dropped appeals to reinstate the death sentence.

Typical of the way that Abu-Jamal’s long-running case has shone a bright light on grievous abuses within the criminal justice system, his AC placement exposed what independent prison monitors have long contended is a dirty secret of Pennsylvania’s prison system: authorities using administrative custody isolation to maliciously penalize inmates who are not violating prison rules.

Bret Grote, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Human Rights Coalition, said during a media interview that prison authorities misuse administrative custody as repression against inmates for their political activism, their complaining about poor conditions in prison, their roles as jailhouse lawyers and often for racist reasons.

Grote said Pennsylvania’s DoC holds approximately 2,500 of its 50,000-plus prisoners in solitary confinement on any given day. That’s 5 percent of the total.

Prison authorities misuse administrative custody as repression against inmates for their political activism, their complaining about poor conditions in prison, their roles as jailhouse lawyers and often for racist reasons.

“Andre Jacobs and Carrington Keys, two members of a group of prisoners known as the Dallas 6 [Dallas is a Pennsylvania prison] have been held in solitary for approximately 11 and nine years respectively as a result of their speaking out against torture and other human rights violations inside the state’s control units,” Grote said during an interview with Prison Radio.

Philadelphian Russell “Maroon” Shoats, a former Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army member, has spent 30 of his 40 years in prison inside an isolation cell despite not having any prison infractions, said his daughter Theresa Shoats during a press conference in Philadelphia held one day before Abu-Jamal’s release.

“Prison officials keep my Dad in solitary instead of releasing him into general population because they say he is a leader. My Dad turns 70 this year and he has medical problems, some from being in solitary for so long. Keeping him in solitary is unfair,” Shoats said about her father, who was convicted of killing a Philadelphia policeman.

“My Dad says he encourages young inmates to read to stay sane. Why does that make him too dangerous for general population? He told me that 15 young men hung themselves in SCI Greene during a one-year period.”

King Downing, director of the American Friends Service Center’s Healing Justice Program, said prison authorities nationwide misuse solitary confinement to “silence political prisoners.” Downing hosted the press conference where Shoats spoke alongside other speakers representing Abu-Jamal.

Prison authorities nationwide misuse solitary confinement to “silence political prisoners.”

Last October, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez called on all countries worldwide to ban the use of solitary confinement of inmates as punishment and/or an extortion technique, except in very exceptional circumstances.

Mendez cited scientific studies establishing the mental and medical damage arising from prolonged isolation. His report stated that an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 persons regularly occupy solitary confinement cells across America.

Last October, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez called on all countries worldwide to ban the use of solitary confinement of inmates as punishment and/or an extortion technique, except in very exceptional circumstances.

Recently a federal jury awarded a New Mexico man $22 million for violations of his constitutional rights arising from his having spent two years in solitary confinement in a county jail in Albuquerque following a drunk driving arrest. Although during that entire time he was never even charged or brought to trial, authorities in Dona Ana County New Mexico vow to appeal that verdict, one of the largest damage judgments in history for illegal incarceration.

Linn Washington, a professor of journalism at Temple University and award-winning columnist for the Philadelphia Tribune, has covered Mumia Abu-Jamal’s fight for freedom from the beginning, in December 1981. This story first appeared on This Can’t Be Happening, the website featuring the work of a news collective comprising Linn Washington and three other renowned journalists. They can be reached at thiscantbehappeningmail@yahoo.com.

Message from Wadiya A. Jamal, wife of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Saturday, July 28, 7:30 p.m. – I just received a call from my beloved husband who is now out of administrative custody and in general population at SCI Mahanoy. He is relieved after being in these solitary torture chambers for over 30 years. He can’t wait to face and embrace me, his wife, and his children and grandchildren. The next moment is for him to be released from the belly of the beast. He is surprised at how many men are in these prison cells – Black, white, Hispanic. He said he’s been shown a lot of love from the others in population. We need to bring Mumia and all the other men home!

Mumia said he wanted to see me as soon as possible, to come up tomorrow, Sunday, a visiting day. But the prison won’t let me visit until Monday.

Wadiya A Jamal, with BIG pride

Political persecution at Pelikkkan Bay State Prison

Mary — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:21:16 +0000

by Addul Olugbala Shakar, Coorindator, Pelikkkan Bay Political Prisoners Coalition (PBPPC)

Besides the Bay View, these prisoners in Georgia are openly reading and discussing in their study group the two books by George Jackson, “Soledad Brother” and “Blood in My Eye.” In California, prison authorities are terrified of the inspirational effect Jackson’s writings have on prisoners.

In 2007, after serving 24 years in the Security Housing Unit (SHU), I became eligible for release, but the Office of Correctional Safety (OCS) and the Institutional Gang Investigation Unit (IGI) denied my release solely based on my political writings and activities. I am now going on my 30th year in solitary confinement – isolation – the last 22 years in Pelikkkan Bay Prison. I recently received a disciplinary report for participating in both hunger strikes. I suspect I will receive more of these: Resistance to the Death!

I would like to briefly expound upon a subject that Brotha David Johnson had briefly touched on in the October issue of the Bay View. He spoke briefly on the political prisoner issue. At present only a handful of us at Pelikkkan Bay are recognized as political prisoners, myself and Hugo Pinell in particular, but contrary to popular misconception there are at least 30 New Afrikan political prisoners being unjustly held in solitary confinement here at Pelikkkan Bay. These New Afrikan revoluntionary brothas have been denied parole and release from SHU solely based on their political beliefs and activities, and the last time I checked this qualifies them as political prisoners and they are all active within the New Afrikan Independence Movement (NAIM).

When a prisoners transforms his criminal mentality into a revolutionary mentality and then commits himself to fighting racism, fascism, oppression, imperialism and pig brutality and he is persecuted for his political activities and belief, placed in solitary confinement and or denied parole, he becomes a tortured prisoner and legal combatant for his political beliefs, thus a “political prisoner.” He meets all the criteria supported by the United Nations and global community, and every time the Prison Rights Movement, Jericho Movement, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, New Afrikan Independence Movement and the Anarchist Movement fail to support these New Afrikan political prisoners and POWs and/or recognize their status as political prisoners and POWs, it only facilitates their political torture, persecution and isolation and fortifies their suffering and, unbeknownst to many, some of these brothas came to prison for their service to the revolution.

We are the only class of New Afrikan/Black prisoners in the entire country who are forbidden to speak the name of the author of the book “Soledad Brother” and are punished for doing so. We can’t even mention the title of his other book. We can’t quote none of his writings. It is considered gang activity and material and used as a gang validation source for prison gang membership. His books, writings and image are banned in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) here at Pelikkkan Bay State Prison. Many of us have been denied release from SHU for possessing his books and writings; some have even received indeterminate SHU sentences for this.

We are the only class of New Afrikan/Black prisoners in the entire country who are forbidden to speak the name of the author of the book “Soledad Brother” and are punished for doing so. It is considered gang activity.

No class of prisoner in this country is being subjected to this level of political persecution and political censorship. Combined we have close to 1,000 years in solitary confinement. The CDC is using our persecution as a warning for the Black prison population. If they dare to struggle, they will end up like us. Unfortunately, it has worked.

In 2007 the OCS and IGI raided our cells and confiscated our political and Black history literature. They confiscated my pictures, political drawings by Comrade Kevin Rashid Johnson, pamphlets and proposals that I wrote, over 50 of my poems, my books, such as Malcolm X speeches and Kwame Nkrumah revolutionary handbook, all material that had Comrade’s name in it, as well as my Black Liberation Army literature and Cointelpro documents. They claim it was all gang related.

Combined we have close to 1,000 years in solitary confinement. The CDC is using our persecution as a warning for the Black prison population.

People, you will be surprised at the degree of our censorship. This very article was confiscated the first time I attempted to send it to the Bay View. I also received a serious disciplinary report for writing this article and it will be used to deny my release from the SHU when I become eligible in 2014.

When I initially attempted to send this article to Sista Mary [Bay View editor], I had seven pages of printed documents that contained statements from the warden, OCS and IGI, and I had instructed Sista Mary to print an underlined portion that would both expose and validate our political persecution. IGI and ISU confiscated everything and accused me of promoting gang activity when I suggested that the warden’s statement be printed along with my article. Now as a result of this I will not be eligible for release from SHU until 2020. I guess this is supposed to discourage me. Do they not realize I am prepared to die for our revolutionary cause – Allahu-Akbar!

This very article was confiscated the first time I attempted to send it to the Bay View. I also received a serious disciplinary report for writing this article and it will be used to deny my release from the SHU when I become eligible in 2014.

The PBPPC is designed to mobilize a grassroots effort to specifically address our political persecution and censorship. The Bay View has supported us for many years and has provided us with a medium to share our stories. People, I am a New Afrikan revolutionary combatant, so I am not looking for your sympathy. Don’t cry for me. I am your first responder. I suffer so you can live in a world free of racial oppression. I relish the sacrifice.

Over 20 years I have slept on concrete floors, without mattress or blanket, determined never to be comfortable in this man-made hell. I allow the constant pain to fuel my Black rage. Is this insanity? No! I am but a soldier expressing a profound love for my people. I realize I am often misunderstood and many have accused me of being too extreme, on the brink of insanity.

I ask, is it too crazy to want an end to the suffering of our people and global community? Before you condemn me, look outside your front door and tell me what do you see? We as Black people are being persecuted on every continent, but we find time to murder each other, sell drugs to each other, abandon our parental responsibilities. We don’t even have the will to stop using the word “Nigger” – but yet I am insane? I love you, my people, and I will bid you my unconditional love.

Send our brother some love and light: Abdul Olugbala Shakur (s/n J. Harvey), C-48884, PBSP SHU, D-4-112, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532.

Pelican Bay State Prison Second Level Review: Warden’s Level Decision

With his letter, Brother Shakur sent the warden’s decision on his appeal protesting IGI, which had “stopped and retained one outgoing mailing on October 20, 2011. HARVEY feels that this was an effort to censor his political views and it was not promoting gang activity.”

In the section headed “Findings,” the warden writes: “HARVEY is a validated member of the Black Guerrilla Family (BGF) prison gang with the alias of ‘Abdul Shakur.’ The BGF views themselves as political prisoners and utilizes literature as a means of spreading their ideology to other African Americans.

“The mailing in question had the address of ‘Bay View Attn. Mary Ratcliff, 4917 Third Street, San Francisco , CA. 94124.’ HARVEY speaks of censorship he feels he is under by correctional staff at PBSP. HARVEY also includes a copy of an inmate Appeal he filed in 2009. HARVEY gives Ms. Ratcliff the instruction to add the underlined portions of the Appeal to his article.

“A review of the underlined portion in the Appeal, outlines the history and ideologies of the BGF, as well as subsidiaries of the BGF. HARVEY utilizes the Appeal response in an attempt to have BGF ideologies and history published in his article.”

Under “Determination of Issue,” the warden rules: “The Second Level Reviewer examined all the pertinent documents, including all information received during the Second Level Interview. This Appeal is DENIED. By HARVEY attempting to have the history and ideologies of the BGF printed in his article, HARVEY is promoting and attempting to further the BGF by educating other individuals who would read his article. HARVEY was issued a Rules Violation Report and given an opportunity to plead his case to a staff member outside of the IGI and was found guilty of promoting gang activity through the mailing in question. Sergeant Frisk reviewed all the available information and determined the IGI staff acted in accordance with institutional policy, thus warranting the mail stoppage.”

From bad to worse

Mary — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 18:43:25 +0000

Transferred from Red Onion to Wallens Ridge State Prison

by Kevin “Rashid” Johnson

Rashid Johnson

On Jan. 20, 2012, I was transferred from Virginia’s Red Onion to Wallens Ridge State Prison. This transfer came on the heels of a Dec. 12, 2011, incident where a large portion of my hair was ripped out by a Red Onion guard; an investigation was staged by Virginia Department of Corrections Internal Affairs agent Johnny Acosta, and I sent out an article and report on it all. Obviously, no coincidence.

From one set-up to another

On the morning of Jan. 20, I was confronted at my cell by Red Onion C-Building Unit Manager Michael Younce and Lt. Delmer Tate, who both lied telling me that agent Johnny Acosta wanted to speak with me in the prison’s video-court area. I was, upon being handcuffed and leg shackled, “escorted” by them to the prison’s transport area, put into a cell and told to strip down to be searched by security chief Kevin McCoy because I was “taking a trip.”

Numerous guards entered the area, including one Joseph Ely, a prior Red Onion guard who’d transferred to Wallens Ridge to be promoted to lieutenant. Ely was carrying transportation restraints and a 50,000 volt electric stun belt, which prisoners are made to wear when taken on road trips. I instantly realized I was being transferred to Wallens Ridge.

I asked McCoy several times about my property. He assured it’d be right behind me. It wasn’t. It was all left at Red Onion, where much of it will likely be destroyed, “lost” and taken.

McCoy attempted to provoke a situation by having me given a pair of pants to wear that were too small. I refused to wear them. After a standoff, I was given a pair in the correct size, restrained, belted and taken to a transport van. Inside the van, I was crushed and locked inside a tiny steel cage measuring about 5 feet high and 2 by 2 feet square, in which I could barely move.

Once on the road, Ely asked if I knew where I was going. I answered, “Obviously to Wallens Ridge.” He then asked did I really not know I was being transferred? I told him no, that I was told I was going to see someone. He added, “You know why you’re going back, don’t you?” “Not really,” I answered. He then stated, “Well, you know a lot of people don’t like you. You probably won’t leave walking.” I was to receive numerous similar threats by guards that I was being sent to Wallens Ridge to be set up for violence.

Upon reaching Wallens Ridge, I was met by numerous guards, especially ranking guards, whom I’d known from my 2000-2003 confinement at Wallens Ridge. All displayed openly hostile attitudes. One of the guards, who was holding one of my arms and “escorting” me from the van to the intake area, Dixon, repeatedly dug his fingers into my right arm. I was also accompanied during this walk by two large dogs barking loudly and straining wildly against their leashes.

I went through the strip search and endured another standoff over too-small clothes, by Sgt. Cochrane and Lt. Swiney, both obviously trying to provoke a situation to “justify” using violence. So I relented and wore the clothes for the brief walk to the unit.

I was leg-shackled, cuffed from behind and “escorted” by a mob of guards to the D-3 housing unit. Every cell in the unit was empty. I was put into D-301, one of only two cells in the block with a steel box approximately 8 by 12 by 18 inches with a Plexiglas cover, welded to the outside of a cell door and around the opening in the door through which food and other items are passed and handcuffs applied and removed. I was made to kneel to have the leg shackles removed and to put my hands outside the slot into the box where the handcuffs were removed. I then removed my hands from the box and a steel plate was slid in place across the door opening, closing off access to the box.

Rashid was assaulted by staff at Red Onion on Dec. 12. He has a dislocated shoulder and is yet to receive proper medical attention. He had a 3 by 7 inch swath of hair pulled out by the roots. This occurred when he refused to turn his back on an officer as he came out of the exercise cage. Please contact VDOC Director Harold Clarke at (804) 674-3000.

Cochrane and Swiney came to the door in turns, repeating the same threats Ely had made, adding that “this time there won’t be any witnesses,” indirectly referring to my placement in a completely empty unit. Major Combs then came to the cell asking if I’d changed, commenting that I’d gotten grey hair since last he’d seen me and was “getting old.” Every guard I’ve encountered from then to now has been invariably hostile, and verbally insulting. I’ve been called a “nigger” no less than 15 times and subjected to numerous homosexual taunts in efforts to provoke and enrage me, which I pay no mind to. One guard, R. Ricketts has gone out of his way to repeatedly verbally taunt and threaten me with abuses to come.

I’ve had my meals and beverages dropped into the visibly filthy box on the door which is never cleaned, indeed it can’t be where it contains rust, peeling paint, fermented food and beverages residue, and one must place dirty clothes, shoes, toilet cleaning items, etc. into the box to be searched by or exchanged with guards. Using the box for meal service is a per se health hazard. Not only is my food contaminated by being placed into direct contact with the box’s surfaces, but I’ve found paint particles, dirt, lint, etc. in my food and beverages from the box.

I was also brought clothes by Swiney that had been sprayed with mace or gas. I’ve been kept incommunicado – denied phone use, all property and kept in a completely empty unit.

I’ve also received two trays with foods containing broken pieces of metal and rocks. Guards, including Cochrane, refuse to provide me with or to accept for filing forms needed to pursue emergency and other grievances and complaints. I had to go through a Lt. Bergan to obtain complaint forms from Cochrane, who then gave me only two out of five requested by me.

The Dec. 12, 2011, assault where my hair was ripped out was preceded by threats by the assaulting guard, in that I’m now being faced with a consistent series of threats by a staff known to abuse and even kill prisoners – which I’ll elaborate on below. It is important that this situation be made known as broadly as possible. I believe outside exposure, support and pressure has kept many of the more serious, violent official intentions at bay. These threats under the circumstances must be taken very seriously.

Wallens Ridge: A nest of vipers

Several of the threats here have been accompanied by guards making disparaging remarks about me being a “protester,” “Black Panther” etc., often accompanied by racial slurs. It is well known that Black prisoners known to challenge or protest abuses or who are politically active are abuse targets at Wallens Ridge. John Gaskins, aka Mac, who was recently released from Wallens Ridge, has been both witness and victim. While at the prison, he witnessed prisoners inclined to protest being set up by guards, beaten and thrown into segregation. He was himself, for this reason, set up on a false infraction and thrown in segregation until he was released from Virginia’s prisons. He expected to be beaten by the guards himself at any time.

Rashid explains: “This method of ‘escorting’ segregation prisoners is used ostensibly so guards can maintain complete control while remaining behind the prisoner so he cannot butt, spit or otherwise assault them and can be easily maneuvered to place and pinned against a wall. During such escorts, guards are to remain behind and to the side of the prisoner.”

A—-, aka Outlaw, the prisoner with whom I engaged in written political exchanges in my book, “Defying the Tomb,” was also brutally beaten and hospitalized at Wallens Ridge a couple years ago.

In my prior update/article, I discussed a 2001 beating by three ranking Wallens Ridge guards of a Black prisoner, last name Plummer, which resulted in the guards being prosecuted. The charges were circumvented by the entire prison’s staff coming together to stage a scene at the prison to sway the jury to acquit the guards, and the investigator – Johnny Acosta – who found the guards to have assaulted Plummer, was in turn sued by them. Many of the guards involved in that coverup still work at Wallens Ridge, including Major Combs, Cochrane, Swiney etc.

Prisoners have also been killed by Wallens Ridge officials or at their prompting. Most recent was the controversial killing of Harvey Lee Watson by his cellmate, Robert Gleason, who pled guilty to the killing and implicated Wallens Ridge staff as complicit and responsible. Several were fired after the fact, when autopsies found Watson had been dead for half a day when discovered by guards inside the cell.

The guards had falsified records, claiming they’d been making routine checks of the prisoners. However, those who caused his death were passed over. Gleason personally told me numerous times that he only realized after killing Watson that Wallens Ridge officials had used him, set him up to kill Watson to remove a thorn from their side. He vowed to plead guilty to the killing and to use the case to expose what they’d done. Which he did, to no avail.

In that case, they wanted to silence Watson, who kept protesting that officials had knowingly transported him from Sussex One State Prison in Waverly, Virginia, to Wallens Ridge with a dead prisoner sitting with him in the van. Watson had also just set his cell on fire the night before being transferred and had recently set another prisoner on fire.

He had outstanding punitive segregation sentences to serve and was not supposed to have been released to population. He also was supposed at all times to have been housed in cells alone, even in population, due to his mental health status. However, ranking Wallens Ridge officials and the counselor, wife of Lt. A. Gallihar, conspired to put Watson in Gleason’s cell in population. Gleason was known to have been convicted, suspected and charged with numerous killings. Officials felt he was their man for the job.

In the cell, Gleason complained to staff counselor Gallihar, ranking officials, the warden, even people on the outside that Watson was sick and needed to be moved out of his cell before he was forced into a drastic reaction. Watson would drink urine, masturbate in the open, talk loudly to himself all times of night etc. Lt. Gallihar, his wife and others told Gleason, “You know how to deal with it,” refusing to move Watson.

Gleason admittedly snapped and killed Watson. The scandal has been widely reported in the media and Gleason is open about what happened and why. The day after the killing, A. Gallihar, who wasn’t at the prison the day of the killing, fabricated an incident report as though he was, on his wife’s behalf to cover for her.

During or about 2003, a white Connecticut prisoner was strangled to death by Wallens Ridge guards who claimed the death a suicide hanging. A similar attack was attempted against another white prisoner, Michael Austin, now confined at Red Onion, during or about 2010. The guards disliked Austin because he’d grown up around and embraced Black urban culture and clashed with the prison’s rural white guards who’d ridicule him and try to influence him with racist values.

In his case, guards premeditatedly rushed into his cell, claiming falsely he was attempting to hang himself, put a thick string around his neck and began choking him. Their designs to strangle him to death were foiled only because the string broke.

During 2003, another Connecticut prisoner, a Black man named Lawrence Frazier, was electrocuted to death by numerous Wallens Ridge guards while he was restrained to a steel bed frame by his extremities. The death was dismissed as caused by insulin shock, however an examining doctor found the electrocutions contributed to, if not caused, his death.

A documentary, “Up the Ridge,” was filmed by a local radio group exposing the racism and abuses surrounding the prison and reporting on Frazier’s killing.

During 2001, I was myself the victim of a brutal assault by a mob of Wallens Ridge guards, including two who beat Plummer just months later. In my case, I was drawn out of my segregation cell while fully unrestrained by a guard G. Sexton, inviting me to an off-the-record one-on-one fight – what we call “a fair one” in prison. His intentions, however, weren’t to fight but to set me up for a mob attack.

Sexton never once put up a fight, but was knocked down almost immediately and began screaming for backup. I was subdued without resisting and upon being handcuffed and shackled was repeatedly kicked in the face and head, electrocuted with multiple 50,000 volt stun weapons, had all but three of my then almost 2-foot-long dreadlocks systematically ripped out, and was left with multiple facial lacerations that had to be stitched closed, burns across my upper body and arms, and blood red and purple contusions covering the entire whites of my eyes across their front halves.

The attack was covered up by Wallens Ridge officials at all levels and Internal Affairs agents who destroyed pod surveillance camera footage of the attack, moved all vocal prisoner witnesses to other units and colluded on reports claiming all my injuries were inflicted by Sexton defending himself against an unanticipated attack by me when the cell “accidentally” opened. At first they’d claimed I opened it, whereas Sexton himself told guards in the control booth to open it.

What’s more, Wallens Ridge’s present warden, Gregory Halloway, has subjected me to extensive past torture while a unit manager at Greensville Correctional Center, during 1998. At that time he kept me on an illegal status, called “white cell status,” when I was left for eight months, even during winter, with nothing inside the cell but one pair of boxer shorts. No property was permitted. I could not even brush my teeth and ended up having to have several filled for cavities as a result. I was only allowed a mattress and bedding from 10 p.m. through 6 a.m. I contracted the flu, sinus infections and colds. Throughout the white cell confinement, my cell window to the outside was broken, letting in freezing cold outside temperatures.

While on white cell status, Holloway accused me of knocking him unconscious in the medical department while my blood pressure was being taken with my hands cuffed, supposedly in response to his torturing me. I remained on white cell status until I was transferred to Red Onion in 1998 from Greensville.

Therefore not only is Holloway an official who’s known to illegally torture and abuse – and will admit having me on that illegal status – but one who has cause for vengeance against me. It is highly unlikely I can expect to receive any semblance of just treatment under him, nor that he would act to prevent threatened abuses. Indeed it is probable that he is privy to such abuses.

Furthermore, Holloway is but a token Black figurehead, recently appointed to Wallens Ridge to counter a widespread image and reputation for racism like at Red Onion. Similarly, at Red Onion, a token Black warden was appointed in the early 2000s, under whose supervision racism and abuse escalated. Indeed, he went out of his way to avoid making waves with the local entrenched white supremacist status quo that de facto ran Red Onion, as it does Wallens Ridge.

Dark faces in high places is today’s chief tactic for masking institutionalized racism.

Conclusion

If officials did not send me to Wallens Ridge with deviant designs, then this admits I qualify to be housed at any other Virginia Department of Corrections prison of the same Level 5 security classification, such as Sussex One or Two State Prisons, where a more racially diverse and tolerant staff exists. At Wallens Ridge and Red Onion, I and other politically active prisoners and those who challenge abuses have been targeted in a clear pattern with official violence and abuse.

This icon of the California hunger strikes, now recognized around the world, was drawn by brilliant artist and writer Rashid Johnson. It inspired 12,000 prisoners in California and more across the U.S. and as far away as Palestine and Australia to defy the state by starving themselves.

It’s my request to supporters and readers to raise as much protest and awareness about this situation as possible and press for my reassignment to a less volatile and more racially diverse and tolerant environment, such as the Sussex prisons. And to also be aware of the foul conditions that we live under on these razor wire plantations. For me, it just went from bad to worse.

Dare to struggle! Dare to win!

All Power to the People!

About Rashid and how you can help

Kevin “Rashid” Johnson is a long-time revolutionary prison organizer, accomplished artist, Marxist theoretician and the Minister of Defense of the New Afrikan Black Panther Party-Prison Chapter (NABPP-PC). He has been held in segregation for the past 19 years, since 1993. Some of his writings have been published in the book “Defying the Tomb” (Kersplebedeb, 2010), available from leftwingbooks.net and AK Press. Its foreword is by Russell “Maroon” Shoats, introduction by Tom Big Warrior and afterword by Sundiata Acoli.

More of his writings and artwork are featured on his website, rashidmod.com. In 2011, from Virginia, Rashid added his voice to those of thousands supporting the demands of California prisoners hunger-striking against isolation torture; his writings have been banned in many California prisons.

To read Rashid’s account of deteriorating conditions at Red Onion State Prison and the assault by guards on Dec., 12, 2011, see rashidmod.com. Rashid can be contacted at: Kevin Johnson, 1007485, Wallens Ridge State Prison, P.O. Box 759, Big Stone Gap, VA 24219.

Supporting Prisoners and Acting for Radical Change (SPARC) is a non-sectarian revolutionary mass organization based in Virginia and Washington, D.C., focused on building effective opposition to the prison-industrial complex. SPARC is demanding that the staff of Red Onion and Virginia Department of Corrections (VDOC) cease their consistent campaign of targeted physical violence, harassment and administrative repression against the cadre of the NABPP-PC, which is clearly being carried out with the intention of suppressing the basic human and democratic rights of prisoners in VDOC facilities. Furthermore, SPARC supports Rashid’s request to be transferred to a less hostile environment, for instance one of the Sussex prisons.

Sign the petition: A petition to support an end to political repression against the NABPP can be downloaded from http://www.kersplebedeb.com/vdoc_petition.pdf. It is also posted as an online petition at Change.org. Spread the word!

Protest to the director of corrections: People are also encouraged to contact VDOC Director Harold Clarke in support of these demands: Harold W. Clarke, Director, Department of Corrections, P.O. Box 26963, Richmond, VA 23261-6963. His phone is (804) 674-3119, fax (804) 674-3509 and email harold.clarke@vadoc.virginia.gov.

Please send copies of all correspondence to SPARC, P.O. Box 345, Floyd VA, 24091.

SPARC can also reached by email at sparcdc@hush.com or sparc@signalfire.org or search “Supporting Prisoners and Acting for Radical Change” on Facebook for regular updates and news.

Meet Rashid’s comrade Feb. 11 in NYC: Those in the New York City area who wish to learn more about Rashid and conditions in Virginia’s prisons are encouraged to attend the book event, “Defying the Tomb: Struggle, Education, Survival and Liberation in Lock-Down,” to be held at Bluestockings Bookstore, 172 Allen St., New York, NY 10002, on Saturday, Feb. 11, at 7 p.m. The featured speaker is Rashid’s comrade, John “Mac” Gaskins, who was in a neighboring cell with Rashid while at Red Onion and was recently released from the tombs of Wallens Ridge. It promises to be an evening where words will not be minced!

The Bay View thanks Kersplebedeb for typing and transmitting this letter with afterword. Kersplebedeb can be reached at info@kersplebedeb.com.

Please click to enlarge this petition, print it out, gather signatures and return them, or download the petition at http://www.kersplebedeb.com/vdoc_petition.pdf.

Community benefits win big: Construction contracts and jobs for Oaklanders

Mary — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 06:41:02 +0000

Pack the Oakland City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 7, regarding local hire and a Jobs Center

by Joseph Debro

A 2006 billboard urges the re-election of City Councilwoman Desley Brooks. – Photo: Jakub Mosur, SF Chronicle

We finally have legislation that benefits the taxpayers of Oakland. Desley Brooks took a giant step to bring economic parity to the community of the poor. She introduced and passed legislation that challenged the history of construction companies that make promises inconsistent with their past performances. What she has done will slow down the Oakland process of importing labor and exporting capital.

Descendants of former slaves have a lot to overcome in this country. We are injured by self-inflicted wounds. We are crippled by wounds inflicted by others. Politicians who represent descendants of former slaves often think that a handout helps us more than a hand up. We should all remember that if you give a fish to a hungry person, you feed that person for a day. If you teach a hungry person how to fish, you feed that person for life.

What she has done will slow down the Oakland process of importing labor and exporting capital.

Councilwoman Desley Brooks, the vice mayor of Oakland, was able to help a friend because she had a relationship with an Oakland developer. Both the friend and the developer were limited in their growth potential. She helped two people, both of whom thought that they got over.

The 8(a) program was started by a descendant of a former slave: Joe Conrad, who worked for SBA (Small Business Administration) in Washington, D.C. This program was designed to bring community benefits to the community of the descendants of former slaves. It has since been corrupted to bring advantage only to white men.

Transbay Engineering, under the leadership of the late Ray Dones and Joe Debro, trained more Black workers for union membership than any other construction company in the country. Workers were trained by OJT (on-the-job training), not by apprenticeship. Transbay would not sign a hiring hall agreement unless their workers were admitted into the unions. – Photo: Eric Luse, SF Chronicle

A racist senator from Mississippi used a provision of the U.S. procurement code to give Mississippians contracts without bid. The work was in areas that had been devastated by floods. The people were disadvantaged. Joe thought about how disadvantaged the descendants of former slaves were. He got help, and the 8(a) program was born.

For reasons which are too complex to discuss, Ms. Brooks took a different approach. Her new approach compelled her to formulate a new city policy which will feed the unemployed of Oakland and other urban cities for life. Her legislation is limited to the Oakland Army Base. That limitation will be removed when it is demonstrated how well her legislation works.

Desley, who is not known for her ability to put together four votes on the Oakland City Council, was able to get eight votes for her new powerful economic development tool. What Desley has done deserves a Nobel Prize.

The legislation that she has passed into Oakland law is a great start in the right direction. Building contractors will not be granted a contract if they have no history of constructing while adding community benefits. Desley uses the geography of Oakland, as we all should, to describe where the benefits must be bestowed.

Her legislation forces all contractors to demonstrate their history of delivering community benefits to a local community in which they work. If they have no such history, they must joint venture with a contractor who has such a history. Joint ventures are the most effective way to build capacity, increase local employment and training and retain a fraction of the profits generated by local projects.

Her legislation forces all contractors to demonstrate their history of delivering community benefits to a local community in which they work. If they have no such history, they must joint venture with a contractor who has such a history.

Ms. Brooks worked with local contractors and with community groups in developing this plan. She is to be commended. This is an idea whose time has come. It will spread all over the United States. One of the contractors with whom she worked will win the demolition contract at the Oakland Army Base. He deserves it.

Joseph Debro is president of Bay Area Black Builders, co-founder of the National Association of Minority Contractors, president of Transbay Engineering and a bio-chemical engineer. He can be reached at transbay@netzero.com.

Desley Brooks on KPFA’s Education Today

Oakland City Councilwoman and Vice Mayor Desley Brooks appeared on Education Today, hosted by Kitty Kelly Epstein, on KPFA Jan. 27 to discuss this historic legislation: “I worked with a group of community folks who were engaged in the construction industry. You see all the time that the prime contractor on a construction job is always a firm, it seems like, that’s not from Oakland. And we know that when they’re not from Oakland, they’re not likely to hire Oakland people. …

Oakland City Councilwoman and Vice Mayor Desley Brooks

“The legislation we put through would have the Oakland firm be the prime. And for them to even compete to get that job, 33 percent of their core workforce would have to be Oakland residents. It’s a first in the history of the city of Oakland. … Oakland residents have to be the core people who are going to stay on that job through completion, and it can’t be somebody hired for this single job. …

For them to even compete to get that job, 33 percent of their core workforce would have to be Oakland residents.

“When I drive down the street, what I hear consistently from Oakland people is, ‘I need a job.’ One of the things that cities can do with the money that they have – we give millions and millions of dollars for (construction) contracts – is recirculate the dollars in our communities. I’ve always advocated for that and tried to figure out ways that we can create jobs. …

“We’re doing the legislation on a pilot basis, so we’re testing it out. We’re testing it on the remediation work that’s to be done on the Oakland Army Base (in West Oakland). There’s approximately $9 million worth of work, and the ordinance I had pass applies only to that $9 million. If it works well, we’ll have an opportunity to consider extending it. …

Oakland spends millions and millions of dollars for construction contracts and should recirculate those dollars in our communities.

“Oakland’s unemployment rate is somewhere around 17-20 percent officially …; in our community, it’s much higher than that. … The hope is that with this ordinance, we’ll start to grow our minority contracting companies. … There are very few minority contracting firms because they are always having to compete with the major firms and they don’t get the jobs. …

“A major contractor sent me an email saying, ‘We won’t be able to bid on that work because of your 33 percent requirements. And I thought, ‘Really!’ They have probably more than $40 million in construction work with the City of Oakland already. …

“We said (when the proposed ordinance was before the City Council), ‘Put Oaklanders first! Put Oaklanders first! … Who on the Council would vote against their own residents? So it passed unanimously. …

Put Oaklanders first!

“We increased our contracting requirements (for hiring on all construction contracts) from 20 percent to 50 percent. It’s not just jobs that we’re interested in; we’re interested in contracts, because when Oakland contractors have the ability to get a contract with the city, they usually hire people who live in the neighborhoods. So again, it’s that proper distribution of wealth; it’s that recirculation of the dollars that’s so important.”

Host Kitty Kelly Epstein said: “When we looked at the number of hours on construction jobs that were going to African Americans in particular a few months ago, we found it’s about 27 percent of the population is African American and about 5 percent of the construction hours on journeyman jobs. … A minority firm is more likely to hire non-white people than a white majority firm is.”

Brooks added: “The way our contracting process has always worked is (the contractor) promises to do the local hires …, but with this new ordinance, you have to show that up front you have 33 percent (Oakland residents in your core workforce), so there’s more likelihood that an Oaklander will actually get a job. …

“I started talking about this to everyday people who needed a job. They came consistently down to the Council. They came to all the committee meetings; they came to the Council meetings – and kept pushing, because they know that when their voiced aren’t down here, they may not be heard. … I worked with some everyday folks who made a big impact in this city; it’s the first time that happened – ever.”

Education Today is broadcast at 2:30 p.m. on alternate Fridays on KPFA 94.1FM. Host Kitty Kelly Epstein can be reached at kkepstein@gmail.com. Councilwoman Desley Brooks, who represents District 6 in East Oakland, can be reached at dbrooks@oaklandnet.com.

How you can get involved

When they learned in 2010 that 8,000 new jobs would be created through the redevelopment of the Oakland Army Base, eight organizations came together, forming the OaklandWORKS Alliance to ensure residents of the flatlands would have full access to those jobs. It was their research that revealed that African-Americans were obtaining only 5 percent of the journeyman hours on city-funded construction jobs, even though African-Americans make up 27 percent of the city’s population.

The upcoming Tuesday, Feb. 7, Oakland City Council meeting will review a number of proposals: local employment on both construction and permanent jobs, a Jobs Center to ensure that there is more fair access to employment and other provisions. The Alliance will work to ensure that the community stays involved, so that the parts of the policy which reflect the community’s interests are enforced.

OaklandWORKS also campaigned for Oakland-based contractors to be able to obtain contracts for the Army base work. Local and minority contractors have shown themselves to be much more likely to hire Oakland workers.

The OaklandWORKS Alliance includes Oakland Black Caucus, Oakland Parents Together, John George Democratic Club, The West Oakland Environmental Indicators Project, PUEBLO, Black Women Organized for Political Action (BWOPA), Concerned Black Men of Oakland and Oakland Natives Give Back. For more information, contact Robyn Hodges at rehher123@gmail.com.

Notorious prison gang investigator under investigation

Mary — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:07:30 +0000

by Kendra Castaneda

California’s state prisons, especially those built in the most recent prison construction boom, are located in remote, isolated parts of the state. Far off the beaten path, they get little or no news coverage, and visitors must travel for hours from even the closest city.

Jan. 28 update: Court gives green light

Many inmates at Calipatria State Prison have agreed to come forward and testify in court against Calipatria Institutional Gang Investigator (IGI) E. Duarte, for the courts have officially granted a trial. Not only will it be for the Velarde case, but the United States District Court will be hearing from inmates who have either been victims or witnesses to IGI Duarte using excessive force on an inmate, falsifying documentation on an inmate or planting evidence on an inmate to “validate” him as a “gang member.”

Testimony will limited to misconduct by Duarte that prisoners have witnessed; no other testimony will be allowed. Yes, there will be media attention, but none will focus directly on the inmates – only on the information they make public.

Again, if anyone wants to come forward about IGI E. Duarte’s misconduct and expose him, not only will it help expose the false charges, false validations and false segregation many men have endured at Calipatria ASU (Administrative Segregation Unit), but it could also help expose for the first time an IGI purposely planting evidence and falsifying documentation to get an inmate validated and sent to the SHU. It could possibly open the doors toward ending the corrupt CDCR validation process and help many more men in the SHUs and AdSegs throughout California. Contact me at kendracastaneda55@gmail.com.

*****

Original article, posted Jan. 17: Calipatria State Prison Institutional Gang Investigator (IGI) E. Duarte is currently under investigation by the United States District Court due to a complaint of excessive force on an inmate and complaints of falsifying legal documentation and planting evidence on inmates.

After IGI Duarte broke his leg, Harold Velarde had the courage to file a complaint with the United States District Court for the Southern District of California. It was originally denied, but in October 2011, the court ordered the case to be investigated.

Another prisoner, Jesus Macias, reports he has proof that IGI Duarte “fabricated evidence and lied in every report.” We are now calling for more evidence of Duarte’s wrongdoing.

If you know anybody who has witnessed Institutional Gang Investigator E. Duarte at Calipatria State Prison use excessive force, falsify documentation or plant evidence on an inmate, especially if it resulted in the prisoner being “validated” as a “prison gang member,” or if you know an inmate who has been targeted by IGI Duarte, please contact me as soon as possible at kendracastaneda55@gmail.com.

Jesus Macias: IGI Duarte fabricated evidence that ‘validated’ me as a gang member

This letter from Jesus Macias, currently in Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) at Calipatria State Prison, describes his experience with IGI Duarte. It was written to me on Sept. 25, 2011, one day before the California statewide hunger strike called by prisoners in the Pelican Bay State Prison SHU resumed. Prisoners at Calipatria joined in that hunger strike, and continued to strike after nearly all the 12,000 prisoners participating had stopped.

Calipatria is a four-hour drive from Los Angeles. The scorching heat of the Mojave Desert is too much for many older cars. This makes the trip dangerous for visitors, who are mostly women, many with children eager to visit daddy.

“Dear Kendra,

“I first like to thank you and all the good people helping us out to bring our situation here in Calipatria ASU (Administrative Segregation Unit) and all SHUs (Security Housing Units) in California to light!

“My name is Jesus Macias, CDC E-14338. I am currently housed in Calipatria ASU and I’ve been serving a life-plus-five-year sentence for attempted murder in 1988. I was 18 years old at the time. I came into the prison system at a young age, so I was young, dumb and got myself into a lot of trouble.

“After my last SHU term in 2000, I realized this is not a life for me. I started programing, going to school, picking up my grades and getting a job, picking up a trade, and I’ve been programming ever since with NO ‘115 disciplinary actions’ at all! I am what an official would call a model inmate.

“I had been going to my board hearings and they told me I had a chance to go home to my family. Well, now that dream is shattered.

“On Jan. 11, 2011, at 1:00 a.m., I was awakened by institutional gang investigator officers yelling at me not to move and to follow their directions. After being cuffed, I was left in the shower while the IGI officers searched my cell.

“After two hours I asked IGI Officer E. Duarte, ‘Why are you searching my cell?’ He said it was routine. I asked him, ‘Did you leave a cell search slip?’ Looking upset at me, he said, ‘I’ll give it to you right now. Wait!’

“When he gave it to me, he said, ‘I’m going to get you!’ I asked him, ‘What do you mean?’ He didn’t answer me and left. Then, on Jan. 25, 2011, I was picked up by who else but IGI Officer E. Duarte for a validation package. All the so-called evidence they had on me was found that day, on Jan. 11, 2011.

“But I have that cell search slip IGI E. Duarte gave me, and there was no contraband or gang material ever found in my cell that morning! I wrote my rebuttal and 602 appeal telling them this IGI Officer E. Duarte fabricated evidence and lied in every report. I have his own cell search slip with his signature.

“They didn’t care and rubber stamped me all the way through OCS/SSU (Office of Correctional Safety Special Services Unit) and validated me! Since being back here in Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU), I found more inmates with similar situations with IGI E. Duarte. The sad thing about all this is nothing’s being done about it by their own supervisor, Warden Leland McEwen, who overlooks them.

“But I have that cell search slip IGI E. Duarte gave me, and there was no contraband or gang material ever found in my cell that morning! They didn’t care and rubber stamped me all the way through OCS/SSU (Office of Correctional Safety Special Services Unit) and validated me!”

“As for the conditions here in Calipatria ASU, they are the worst I have ever experienced within these 23 years in prison. Most of the time our food is cold and small portions, the staff does not clean the tier and it gets so nasty that we have to purposely flood the tier with water and shampoo just to try and keep it clean.

“As for clothes exchange, it’s rare if we get that. As for your basic supplies – toothpaste, toothbrush or simple things like a spoon – they are always short or they say they just don’t have any! There are boxes on all the exit doors blocking all the exits!

Calipatria State Prison covers 1,227.5 acres lying 184 feet below sea level in the Mojave Desert near the Salton Sea and the Mexican border, the hottest area in North America.

“There are people here waiting for transfers going on three years and some have been back here going on four years in “temporary” administrative segregation waiting to go to the SHU. The things that we are asking for is for someone to really look at our false validations and receiving our TVs etc.

“That’s why I am hunger striking for my freedom out of isolation and being treated humanely, not tortured!

“Thank you for hearing me and giving me a minute of your time. God bless. – Jesus Macias

“P.S. Here is a copy of my cell search slip. There was nothing ever found, no contraband or gang material, which IGI E. Duarte says he found. I am just lucky I kept my receipt; it’s the only proof I have that he fabricated evidence and lied in every report. He says he found gang material that morning, Jan. 11, 2011, when my cell search slip says different.

“I would really like if you could post my letter out to the media so they can have a brief idea of what has been going on in Calipatria State Prison Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU).”

Harold Velarde: IGI Duarte broke my leg

Harold Anthony Velarde filed his complaint, Case No. 11-CV-0287-AJB-CAB, against IGI Duarte on Feb. 10, 2011. Initially denied, the judge has now ordered that Duarte be investigated.

Families with loved ones locked up in Calipatria are often given inadequate or inaccurate information when they call in preparation for a visit. After the 10-hour drive to Calipatria from the Bay Area, families have been turned away – told only after they arrived that visiting was cancelled.

Velarde filed his complaint under Civil Rights Act 42 U.S.C. 1983. Known as the Civil Rights Act of 1871, passed to protect the rights of enslaved Africans who had won their freedom during the Civil War only a few years earlier, it states in full:

“Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.”

Velarde asserts in his complaint that defendant E. Duarte, who resides in Imperial, was acting under color of law “while performing his duties as security and investigations at Calipatria State Prison.” Velarde says Duarte “violated my Eighth Amendment rights [by] use of excessive force.”

Under “Supporting Facts,” Velarde, who is representing himself in this case, wrote:

“On Oct. 6, 2009, at Calipatria State Prison a riot occurred between Mexican inmates and some C/Os [correctional officers]. After the incident was contained and all inmates were restrained, from my cell door, inside my cell I saw C/O Magdaleno hitting a prone, restrained inmate in the back of the head with a pepper spray can. I yelled for the C/O to stop and my door was approached and I was told they’d be back for me. About two hours later two C/Os came to my door and ordered me to cuff up. The one with the spray pointed was Black and Duarte was the one who cuffed me.

“I comply with the C/O and cuff through the food porthole. After I’m cuffed, behind my back, my door opens and I’m ordered to back out and face the wall. C/O Duarte grabs my neck while I’m facing the wall and slams my face into it. I turn away from the wall ‘cause of the surprise and C/O Duarte puts his hands on my shoulders and pushes down with all his weight.

“My femur then snaps due to mobility issues from an old gunshot wound. I jump to the ground on my backside and tell the C/O, ‘You broke my leg.’ He responds, ‘I don’t give a fu-k.’ As soon as medical came, I was escorted to the hospital for surgery. They placed a steel plate aside my femur.

“C/O Duarte grabs my neck while I’m facing the wall and slams my face into it. I turn away from the wall ‘cause of the surprise and C/O Duarte puts his hands on my shoulders and pushes down with all his weight. My femur then snaps … They placed a steel plate aside my femur.”

“C/O Duarte never explains the gash under my eye from slamming my face into the wall in his reports. My injuries were documented by a lieutenant and sergeant with a video recorder. There are also so many witnesses.”

Velarde is requesting damages in the amount of $250,000 and punitive damages in the sum of $150,000. He wants a trial by jury.

Kendra Castaneda is a prisoner human rights activist with a loved one currently incarcerated in the Calipatria State Prison ASU (Administrative Segregation Unit). She can be reached at kendracastaneda55@gmail.com. She asks anyone with information about Institutional Gang Investigator (IGI) E. Duarte to contact her right away.

Etta James: Two tributes

Mary — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 06:47:38 +0000

A political obituary of Etta James

by Kenyon Farrow

Etta James, 1960

It’s a damn shame that many people were introduced to Etta James in the years before her death last week through Beyonce’s portrayal of her in the 2008 biopic “Cadillac Records.”

No one understood the awkwardness of that casting choice better than James herself, who told The New York Post’s Page Six in 2007, when she learned the film was already in production, that “she is going to have a hill to climb, because Etta James ain’t been no angel! … I wasn’t as bourgie as she is, she’s bourgeois. She knows how to be a lady; she’s like a model. I wasn’t like that … I smoked in the bathroom in school, I was kinda arrogant.”

The woman born Jamesetta Hawkins on Jan. 25, 1938, was far more than just a torch song singer and was not at all the tragic mulatto with a white daddy complex that “Cadillac Records” constructed. In many ways, James’ personal and artistic journey, as opposed to the film’s caricature, has a lot to teach us about the shifting politics of race, class and feminist politics over the course of the last half century.

Etta James was born in Los Angeles, when many African Americans were moving due West to escape the brutality of the Jim Crow South and chase the promise of manufacturing jobs. She was raised by a handful of caregivers, as her mother was often running the streets chasing a good time. Her mother was a woman James sometimes despised and at the same time desperately wanted to please. Her father’s identity was not really known to her, though it has been rumored her father was white. In fact, James learned late in life during an argument with her mother that he was likely legendary pool shark Rudolf “Minnesota Fats” Wanderone, whom James met in 1987.

At age 5, James developed two relationships that would remain with her throughout her life: one relationship with singing and one with Black gay men and the LGBT community as a whole. In her 2003 autobiography, “Rage to Survive,” James describes her first vocal coach, James Earl Hines – musical director at L.A.’s St. Paul Baptist Church and one of the early gospel superstars – as “married, acted gay as a goose, and I was crazy about him…. Truth is, all the gay guys in the choir sang like angels and acted so different…. I loved their little underground talk, their gossiping about the sisters.”

Though James’ formative years were spent singing in the church, she turned to the streets and street life for inspiration. She moved to San Francisco’s Fillmore district as an early teen, where she sang in the doo-wop group, the Creolettes (which later become The Peaches), and recorded on Modern Records before leaving in 1960 to sign with the legendary Chess Records, which the film “Cadillac Records” attempts to profile. Her debut album “At Last!” was released the same year, when she was 22 years old.

Unlike most artists who work for many years before writing or recording their “definitive” work, James is most remembered for songs from this debut album, including “At Last” (though it was not a crossover single) and “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and “A Sunday Kind of Love.”

“At Last” has become arguably the most popular song in the U.S. for weddings, Valentine’s Day or other kinds of bourgeois events calling for cheap sentimentality – despite the fact that James’s powerhouse vocals and phrasing actively work against the sentimentality of the song’s arrangement, as it does in most of her work covering jazz standards during that period.

But her vocals weren’t the only place James was working decidedly against a safe “jazz singer” image. She worked in her personal life and her styling to embody the kind of Black urban street culture in which she was immersing herself:

“I [was] serious about turning little churchgoing Jamesetta into a tough bitch called Etta James…. I wanted to look like a great big high-yellow ho’. I wanted to be nasty.”

James ascribes the blonde-yellow hair and black eyebrows that she adopted early in her career to being closely associated with street-based sex workers and drag queens at the time. That’s who she was emulating.

She also says the beginning of her addiction to heroin was not a way to cope with the abandonment issues or physical abuse she suffered as a child. She started shooting drugs because she thought that’s what bad girls do and because she saw Billie Holiday, her idol, as the ultimate bad girl. She lost many friends to issues related to substance addiction – Billie Holiday, Destiny, a Black drag queen and best friend to James, even Janis Joplin, who emulated James and for whose overdose James felt personally responsible. She was able to kick heroin in the 1970s, but she struggled with addiction much of her adult life, and she was pretty open about that fact.

“In 1950,” according to African American Registry, “James’ real mother took her to the Fillmore district in San Francisco (where her next door neighbor was Bay View publisher Willie Ratcliff). Within a couple of years, James began listening to doo-wop and was inspired to form a girl group, called the Creolettes. The 14-year-old girls met musician Johnny Otis. Otis took the group under his wing, helping them sign to Modern Records and changing their name to the Peaches, and he gave the singer her stage name, reversing Jamesetta into Etta James.”

While James was touring the country, getting high and running the streets with gangsters, street walkers, gays and drag queens and likely some folks we’d now call transgender, she also became friends with Muhammad Ali – they met when he was still Cassius Clay – and Malcolm X, both of whom she says she spent a lot of time with. At one point she joined the Nation of Islam and gained her “X.”

But James in many ways was exactly the kind of convert the Nation of Islam sought – Black people from urban areas involved in various forms of street culture. “My religious practices might have been erratic, and my wildness surely overwhelmed my piety, but for 10 years I called myself a Muslim,” said James.

As the 1960s moved on, James’ music also began to shift from doo-wop and jazz to more R&B, blues, rock and even country over the course of the 1960s and 70s. Though James began doing the kind of gospel-influenced R&B, which later got described as “soul” music, in the early 1960s, it was Aretha Franklin who got credit for ushering in the soul era, along with James Brown, whom James toured with and sometimes sang for in the 1960s.

James really capitalized on the blues resurgence of the 1970s to make a living touring the world. She got frustrated by the fact that people constructed a blues identity for her work and deeply resented the “Earth Mama” trap she felt that put her in. It’s a trap many other Black women artists find difficult to escape as well. In the end, though, she went with it, as she saw it as the easiest way to make money to support herself and her two young sons.

By the end of the 1970s when Chess Records folded, James was on hard times, still struggling with an addiction, and trying to make a living in the disco era, without a record label and doing her own bookings. James said that without the gay community, she would have starved in the late 1970s early 1980s, when she performed in a lot of gay bars across the country. Her 1994 release, “Life from San Francisco,” was actually recorded in March 1981 in a gay bar. In her memoir, Etta recounts a harrowing premonition at the time about the onset of the AIDS epidemic.

James eventually began to record again. With her two adult sons serving as bandmates and co-producers, she recorded and toured from the 1990s up through 2011, mostly recording in the jazz and blues genres.

Is it any wonder that a woman who struggled to define herself, her sound and her career over the span of 50 years would be a little suspicious of a Hollywood portrayal of her in a film on which she was not consulted?

James was not happy about her portrayal in “Cadillac Records,” for which Beyonce served not only as actress but also as producer. Contrary to the portrayal of James in the film, she was not romantically involved with Chess Records founder Leonard Chess. Nor did she use drugs because she was distraught over not knowing the identity of her biological father – James knew this was a possibility, but clearly saw herself as Black and never tried to identify as mixed or biracial.

The film tries to suggest James was sexually attracted to Chess because he represented the white daddy she never had. Marshall Chess, the surviving son of Leonard Chess, said of the Chess-James relationship, “Now, my father was no angel, but (he) was never caught in an affair. It never happened.” Marshall reported that he asked James about it, and she said, “He kissed me on the cheek once.”

To add insult to injury, after the film, Beyonce performed Etta’s signature song, “At Last” at President Obama’s inauguration in 2009, laying claim to the tune James was still singing professionally and which she relied on to make a living. James told an audience shortly after that that Obama “is not my president” and “that woman he had singing for him, singing my song … she’s going to get her ass whipped.”

James (or likely her publicist) later released a statement saying James was “kidding” about the comment. But the conflict between James and Beyonce is not as simple as divas behaving badly. It really represents an artist angered by the attempts made without her consent to control the public’s understanding of her life and legacy. Audiences will hopefully be willing to go beyond “At Last” and beyond “Cadillac Records” to find a woman whose talent and legacy went beyond both.

Kenyon Farrow, an organizer, communications strategist, and writer on issues at the intersection of HIV/AIDS, prisons and homophobia, was one of Black Entertainment Television’s “Modern Black History Heroes” for 2011. He can be reached at kenyon@kenyonfarrow.com. This story first appeared on Colorlines.

Etta James: Rebel until the end

by Norman (Otis) Richmond aka Jalali

In April 2003, Etta exults on receiving her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Six men are locked into a Hollywood hotel suite. One is the marvelous Marvin Gaye. The other is the suave, cosmopolitan and debonair Harvey Fugua, the legendary founder of the vocal group the Moonglows and record executive for both Chess and Motown Records. At this moment in history, they are a part of Motown royalty, both having married Gordy sisters

Rhongea Southern (now Daar Malik El-Bey), Carl Dyce (the late Sigidi Abdullah), the late Harold Clayton and myself were there auditioning for Motown. Gaye and Fugua are the talent scouts.

Our audition is interrupted by a long distance call from Etta James, who is calling all the way from Chicago. In the mid-‘60s this was the equivalent of receiving a call from Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, as far as we were concerned. We were impressed to say the least. All the guys in the group loved Ms. James. We were all from the same bowl of grits. Like us, she was from Angel Town.

James lost her battle with leukemia on Jan. 20, 2012. She was born Jamesetta Hawkins on Jan. 25, 1938. The Los Angeles-born James is regarded as having bridged the gap between rhythm and blues and rock and roll, is the winner of six Grammys and 17 Blues Music Awards. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993, the Blues Hall of Fame in 2001 and the Grammy Hall of Fame both in 1999 and 2008. Rolling Stone ranked James No. 22 on the list of the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time and number 62 on the list of the 100 Greatest Artists.

The outspoken James said she was of two minds about being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She made her views known in her autobiography, “Rage to Survive: The Etta James Story,” which she wrote along with David Ritz.

Says James: “Part of me is thrilled to be recognized, but another part resents the lily-white institution that sends down its proclamations from on high. They decide who is rock and rock and who isn’t, they decide who is important and who isn’t. Man, I grew up with some cats who should have been inducted years ago – Jesse Belvin and Johnny “Guitar” Watson to name two.” It must be mentioned that Johnny Otis, the man who introduced her when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, died days before her, on Jan. 17.

James attended Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles along with Belvin and Watson. “Jeff,” as it is called by Angelenos, has a heavyweight cast of graduates: Noble Peace Prize Winner Ralph Bunche, Dorothy Dandridge, Alvin Ailey , Roy Ayers and Richard “Louie Louie” Berry also went there.

Etta James’ life was surrounded by controversy. It was widely reported that she wanted to sing “At Last” at President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Beyonce ended up serenading President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

I saw her only one time in Toronto. Unfortunately, I never interviewed her. However, I have read and enjoyed “Rage to Survive.” The book reveals many little known things about Soul Sister James. She was once Jamesetta X when she joined the Nation of Islam at Temple No. 15 in Atlanta, Georgia. She says her mother used to know members of Temple 27 in Los Angeles. Sam Cooke, Hank Barry White and others came to Temple 27 to hear Minister John Shabazz, who today is Abdul Allah Muhammad.

James’ life is Africa history at its best and worst – she witnessed many major historical developments. One example: She was staying at the Hotel Theresa in Harlem when El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X) met with Cuban President Fidel Castro in September 1960. Says James, “Fidel Castro was living up in the Theresa Hotel the same time as us. They blocked off the top six floors for him – this was in 1960 – and had coops on the roof with live chickens so he could prepare his own food. Fidel worried about being poisoned.” This is probably why he is still in the land of the living.”

After she parted company with the Nation of Islam, she became part of the Ahmadiyya branch of Islam. She was influenced by her partner at the time, John Lewis. “John became pious, praying five times a day. He was also urging me to become more serious. I tried and for a while I was. At the same time, running around with characters like James Brown, I got distracted.”

She was so distracted by Soul Brother No. 1 that she along with Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Kwame Ture, aka Stokely Carmichael, B.B. King, Sister Sledge and Bill Withers ended up in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) for the “Rumble in the Jungle” between Muhammad Ali and George Forman. James points out, “In fact, it was a singer, Lloyd Price, who had first introduced (Muhammad) Ali to (Don) King.”

However. James ended up not performing. She returned to the USA because of the treatment she received from Mobutu Sese Seko, aka Joseph Mobutu , the man who played a role in the assassination of the great African patriot Patrice Emery Lumumba on Jan. 17, 1961.

Unlike many of her contemporaries, she did not write off the current crop of Black music makers as untalented. “I don’t subscribe to the school that says great soul music is dead. That’s usually some old fart talking, remembering his youth while forgetting that new generations are entitled to cultures of their own.”

James, like all human beings, had merits and demerits. However, the world will remember Etta James for vocal renditions of songs like “At Last,” “I’d Rather Go Blind,” “Sunday Kind of Love,” “I Just Want to Make Love to You” and “All I Could Do Was Cry.”

Norman (Otis) Richmond aka Jalali can be heard on Diasporic Music on Uhuru Radio, www.uhururadio.com, on Sundays 2-4 p.m. and Saturday Morning Live on Regent Radio, www.radioregent.com, 10 a.m.-1 p,m. every Saturday. He can be reached at norman.o.richmond@gmail.com. The co-host of SML is Malinda Francis, @docuvixen, Toronto filmmaker.

Live at Ebony Showcase Theatre in Los Angeles, April 15, 1987

Update on Neli Latson and his mom: I’m home and soon my son will be free!

Mary — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:24:33 +0000

Krip-Hop Nation releases new CD, ‘Broken Bodies: A Cultural Revolution,’ about police brutality against people with disabilities by hip-hop artists and poets with disabilities, featuring the case of Neli Latson, on Sunday, Feb. 19, 1-3:30 p.m., San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin St., Koret Auditorium, Lower Level

by Leroy F. Moore Jr.

Neli Latson

I just got off the phone with Lisa Guthrie Alexander of Virginia and was so happy to hear her voice. Lisa, the mother of a young man with autism, Reginald Latson, known as Neli Latson, has been fighting for justice and her son’s freedom from wrongful incarceration since May 24, 2010.

Neli loved to go to the library; everybody in the program he attended there knew him. Early in the morning on May 24, 2010, in Stafford, Virginia, Neli, who was 18 at the time, was sitting on the library lawn waiting for it to open. Somebody called the police saying they saw a strange Black man with a gun. A deputy searched Neli and found that he didn’t have a gun. The deputy asked for his name.

But Neli knew his rights and knew he hadn’t done anything wrong, so he didn’t answer the deputy’s question. Then the deputy grabbed him, and Neli protected himself. He was tried and sentenced to 10 years for assaulting a police officer; however, the judge suspended eight of the 10 years.

Krip-Hop Nation, an international project of musicians with disabilities, and I got involved in Neli’s case almost a year and half ago. Since that time I’ve been in contact with Lisa daily. Krip-Hop Nation has pulled together four songs, videos and radio shows on Neli’s case.

When Krip-Hop Nation and I found out that Lisa had been convicted on Jan. 10, 2012, of misdemeanor charges that for many would have resulted in little to no jail time, we were pissed off but not surprised. The same district attorney prosecuted both Neli and Lisa. Krip-Hop Nation, Poor Magazine, Lisa’s family and other supporters were stunned that the trial concluded with Lisa being taken away as a prisoner to be incarcerated for one year, which was later shortened to six months. Now her legal team, family and friends have raised the bail to get her out.

For Neli, Lisa’s freedom is critical. She has been tirelessly advocating for Neli, and the only constant throughout his terrifying ordeal has been his mother’s voice by telephone each day and their weekly visits. She is her son’s coping mechanism and is absolutely vital to him.

I think why many of us were not surprised by the county’s action is that we believe it is in direct retaliation for her efforts to speak out against the corruption in Stafford County and her fight to have her son released to a facility capable of addressing his autism. Her Internet campaign to win supporters to her son’s cause was even mentioned by the prosecution during the course of the trial!

Lisa Alexander

Lisa has been under such extreme stress since Neli’s arrest that she has suffered severe vision loss, rendering her barely able to read. Family and friends are greatly concerned for her health and wellbeing.

On the phone Wednesday, Jan. 25, Lisa gave me the following update on her son’s case: “Neli is going to be released from the Department of Corrections in three weeks, by Feb. 20; however, he is not coming home but will be escorted to a residential program for young adults with developmental disabilities with an opportunity to finish high school and reach his goal – and that is to go to college.

“The family had requested this residential program, not a jail sentence, on May 31 of last year; however, the judge gave Neli another year in jail. The program was researched and brought to the court’s attention again by Neli’s family. Now the court agreed that Neli should go to this residential program, but the family has to pay for it. So Neli will attend this program and will finish his last year of high school and will go on to college. The family gets visitation rights while Neli is in this residential program.

“However, the fight is still not over because Neli should not have been incarcerated in the first place. So a petition that needs more signatures is still going to the governor asking him to drop all the charges and give Neli a pardon so he can continue with his life and go on to college. The judge also stated in Neli’s release papers that he should be in a residential program until he is 22 years old, another two years. The family and friends are asking the governor of Virginia for a pardon to clear Neli’s record and also to drop any probation, period.”

In response to Krip-Hop Nation’s cultural activism to win freedom and justice for Neli Latson, Kounterclockwise, a husband and wife hip-hop duo – the husband, Deacon Burns, is a wheelchair user – has recorded one of the strongest songs about this case entitled “Free Neli Latson,” and a Black disabled retired New York police officer, Emmitt Thrower, now a poet, playwright and filmmaker, has produced this powerful video for the song.

Krip-Hop Nation and Emmitt Thrower are now teaming up to make a documentary on police brutality against people with disabilities, using Neli’s case as a central theme.

How you can help

Krip-Hop Nation CD Release: “Broken Bodies PB: Police Brutality & Profiling Mixtape” is the name of Krip-Hop Nation’s new CD, which will be released at an event on Sunday, Feb. 19, 1-3:30 p.m., at the San Francisco Main Library, 100 Larkin St., in the Koret Auditorium on the Lower Level. The event is headlined “Broken Bodies: A Cultural Revolution.” Join local advocates like Mesha Irizarry, and Lisa, Neli’s mother, will be Skyped in to talk about her son’s case. This is one of the first hip-hop CDs on the topic of police brutality against people with disabilities by hip-hop artists and poets with disabilities. Many of the tracks are about Neli Latson’s case.

Seeking governor’s pardon: Lisa asks you to call Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell to ask for a full pardon for Neli. His phone is (804) 786-2211 and his fax is (804) 371-6351.

Remember to sign the petition calling on Gov. McDonnell to pardon Neli.

Leroy Moore Jr., Black disabled artist, activist, columnist at Poor Magazine and founder of Krip-Hop Nation, can be reached at kriphopproject@yahoo.com.

Justice makes a nation great

Mary — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 03:54:54 +0000

by Michael Zaharibu Dorrough

Zaharibu, who has been in isolation for 23½ years, was “validated” as a “gang member” and condemned to solitary confinement for having this classic and four other books by renowned authors in his cell and sharing them with other prisoners. Prison authorities labeled these books “gang material.”

I read once that whereupon meeting a poor man who had been falsely accused, Jesus went with him before the magistrate and, having been granted special permission to appear in his behalf, made this address: “Justice makes a nation great, and the greater a nation the more solicitous will it be to see that injustice shall not befall even its most humble citizen. Woe upon any nation when only those who possess money and influence can secure ready justice before its courts! It is the sacred duty of a magistrate to acquit the innocent as well as to punish the guilty.

“Upon the impartiality, fairness and integrity of its courts the endurance of a nation depends. Civil government is founded on justice, even as true religion is founded on mercy.”

This is my 23rd year in isolation, and regardless of how some might try to define what isolation is, I can assure you that after 23 years and in light of the almost constant, non-stop assault on the senses and your humanity, this is isolation. And at least part of what constitutes isolation must be defined according to what it takes and tries to take from you – the suicides, past and present, the surrender of one’s humanity and integrity, qualities that play a large role in becoming informants. It’s not only that people become like Judas when they do so, they become factors, major factors in the continued efforts at destroying and trying to destroy the humanity of us all.

But like many of those of us who have been buried in isolation for decades, I consider myself to be a student and I love democracy. During the hunger strike of Sept. 26-Oct. 12, I had an opportunity to speak to an officer here who stated that treating the humanity of citizens who are in prison with respect is a liberal idea whose time had passed and the people have spoken. Obviously, he considered “the people” to be those who think just as he does and even those citizens who have remained silent on the issue of democracy and justice.

I was not offended by his thinking. I understood it to be that 500-year-old process in which the elitist minority has convinced much of the middle class and working poor majority that their interests are one and the same. The conversation actually reminded me of conversations that Nelson Mandela had with his captors in a South African prison.

Hate and indifference – and it goes by many names: racism, sexism, homophobia, poverty, to name just a few – are powerful tools that the ruling class minority has used to keep the majority competing against one another, from jobs to housing to education, even on how we should love and worship. You can see the pathology that it has created in some basic areas.

Hate and indifference – and it goes by many names: racism, sexism, homophobia, poverty, to name just a few – are powerful tools that the ruling class minority has used to keep the majority competing against one another.

If you were to ask 5,000 people if they felt that the criminal justice system is biased, 50 percent or more would probably say yes. If you ask those same people if they believed in the death penalty, that same number of people would say yes. Even if you ask that question as it relates to life without parole, as many now do, you are still talking about a system that is biased.

We actually believe that 1) somehow the system has developed separately from the hate and indifference that the country has developed under and 2) that somehow we can leave our own hate and indifference at the front door and be fair and just in how we treat each other. Nothing could be further from the truth, and the historical record clearly bears this out. Hate and indifference is what has robbed us of our ability to look at each other and see a reflection of ourselves.

The only reason why the nation, at least many of us, have failed to see and understand how we have and continue to be affected by the legacy of hate and indifference and the pathology created by it is because it is who and what we are. Movements are crucial to overcoming this pathology.

Movements consist of citizens from different schools of thought – be it cultural, gender, political, economic, spiritual, educational. The thing that brings us all together is that everyone is being subjected to some form of oppression. The actual and spiritual poverty that results from the unequal distribution of wealth is a form of oppression. Movements are supposed to afford us with that crucial opportunity to relate to one another as fellow citizens.

The actual and spiritual poverty that results from the unequal distribution of wealth is a form of oppression.

Hate and indifference is the greatest threat to democracy. Democracy is and can be tolerant of much, but it cannot be subordinate to anything. It is the greater good. We have historically subordinated democracy to our hate and indifference: the unequal distribution of wealth, maintaining wage systems that are shamefully inconsistent with the standard of living, subjecting citizens to long-term isolation – and for many of us it is as a result of our ideas.

My retention in isolation is based on my allegedly being in possession of gang material and providing that material to other prisoners. That gang material was the following books: 1) “A People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn, 2) “Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880” by W.E.B. Dubois, 3) “Egypt Revisited” by Ivan Van Sertima, 4) “Democracy in Mexico” by Han La Borz, 5) “Democracy Matters” by Cornel West.

The wrongful incarceration of citizens – and a lot of times this too is politically motivated – and the death penalty are all anti-democratic. And when we subordinate democracy and justice to us, as opposed to subordinating ourselves to democracy and justice, believe me, it stops being democracy and justice and it becomes exactly what it has been. These are forms of totalitarianism.

We mentioned in the previous statement that victory will require sacrifice, tenacity and, most importantly, competent strategic insight. That strategic insight must consist of our not only understanding what hate and indifference is, but also how we, individually and collectively, as well as our institutions, have been and continue to be affected psychologically by the legacy of hate and indifference.

The democratic abolitionist struggle demands it of us, and those of us here and in the Pelican Bay SHU, the NCTT, are committed to contributing to meaningful and lasting change. And this is part of what keeps us amongst the sane. We understand, and always have, that the price that we will pay for this is the efforts to silence us, to isolate and destroy us!

We are committed to contributing to meaningful and lasting change. And this is part of what keeps us amongst the sane. We understand, and always have, that the price that we will pay for this is the efforts to silence us, to isolate and destroy us!

But just as we understand this, we also understand that this struggle will also connect us to the Mary Ratcliffs of the world and the other inspiring and courageous citizens and soldiers that we have had the pleasure of meeting. When the officer said that the people have spoken, he was not talking about the Mary Ratcliffs and Sally Bystroffs, the Gabi Pinars and Nakisah Rices, the Ed Meads and Dorsey Nunns, Marilyn McMahons, Carol Strickmans, Penny Schoners, Critical Resistance and Shaka at-Thinnins, the thousands of citizens who comprise the Occupy Wall Street Movement, the People! You are all proof that beauty does exist and you are most appreciated.

Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing. It never has and never will. Those who want to be free must strike the blow!”

Send our brother some love and light: Michael Zaharibu Dorrough, D-83611, 4B-IL-53, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran, CA 93212. This letter was typed by Adrian McKinney.

Feeling death at our heels: An update from the frontlines of the struggle

Mary — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 06:37:39 +0000

from the NCTT Corcoran SHU

“Death is impossible for us to fathom; it is so immense, so frightening that we will do almost anything to keep from thinking about it. Society is organized to make death invisible, to keep it several steps removed. That distance may seem necessary for our comfort, but it comes with a terrible price: the illusion of limitless time, and a consequent lack of seriousness about daily life. As a warrior in life, you must turn this dynamic around: Make the thought of death something not to escape but to embrace. Your days are numbered. Will you pass them halfhearted or will you live with a sense of urgency? Cruel theaters staged by a czar are unnecessary; death will come to you without them. Imagine it pressing in on you, leaving you no escape, for there is no escape. Feeling death at your heels will make all your actions more certain, more forceful. This could be your last throw of the dice: Make it count.” – Robert Greene, bestselling author of “The 48 Laws of Power”

“This photo was taken a few days after the first hunger strike ended. I was about 178 pounds; I’d lost 42 pounds,” Heshima Denham wrote on the back. He added these wise words: “Progress requires sacrifice; give up your life for the people.”

Written Jan. 8, postmarked Jan. 18, 2012 – Greetings, brothers and sisters: A firm, warm and solid embrace of revolutionary love and solidarity is extended to each of you from each of us.

Since the last hunger strike ended, we have weathered wave after wave of retaliation from the state’s prison administrators that continues unabated to this day. But before I catalog these manifestations of weakness on the part of state prison administrators, we feel it’s necessary to recount why this struggle began and the nature of our resolve to see the five core demands realized.

We have been consigned to ever more aggressive sensory deprivation torture units for 10, 20, 30 and in some cases 40 years, based on an administrative determination that we are members or associates of a “gang” – a term that encompasses leftist ideologies, political and politicized prisoners, jailhouse lawyers and most anyone who in the opinion of Institutional Gang Investigations (IGI) is not passively accepting his role as a commodity in the prison industrial complex.

“Gang” is a term that encompasses leftist ideologies, political and politicized prisoners, jailhouse lawyers and most anyone who in the opinion of Institutional Gang Investigations (IGI) is not passively accepting his role as a commodity in the prison industrial complex.

These administrative determinations are not due to some overt act of misconduct or pattern of rules violations. No, these “validations” are based most often on the reports, words or accounts of debriefers, rats, informants and other broken men who will say and do ‘most anything their IGI and ISU (Investigative Services Unit) handlers instruct them to, to avoid confinement in the SHU (Security Housing Unit) or carry some other favor from their masters.

After decades of fruitless legal challenges, after years of suffering the deprivations of conditions so inherently evil, inhumane and psychologically torturous that most of you simply cannot comprehend the reality behind these words, most of us came to realize an immutable truth: that the state’s mantra of “the only way out of the SHU is to parole, debrief or die” was something that they not only meant, but was in fact a key feature in developing a subservient and passive pool of prisoner commodities upon which the orderly fleecing of taxpayer dollars could be based.

Thirty years of successful propaganda, of dehumanizing underclass communities and the imprisoned, of lobbying that’s led to the dominance of the CCPOA (California Correctional Peace Officers Association) in judicial and political elections and appointments – all to mislead an ill-informed public into submitting greater control of their lives and society to an industrial interest that runs counter to the public safety concerns they were vested to protect. Many of us watched this state of affairs progress unchallenged as our protestations fell on deaf ears, year after year, decade after decade, until advanced age and the decimation of our communities forced us onto “death ground,” where you may survive if you can resist, but you will most surely perish if you do not.

We took up a strategy which would pull back the curtain on the state’s practice of domestic torture which has been so well hidden from the people for so long, a strategy in which some of us may yet die: THE HUNGER STRIKE. We would rather starve ourselves, to risk inevitable death, than to be indefinitely subjected to the deprivations of the torture unit.

We took up a strategy which would pull back the curtain on the state’s practice of domestic torture which has been so well hidden from the people for so long, a strategy in which some of us may yet die: THE HUNGER STRIKE.

What must be understood is that existence here is, in many ways, a fate worse than death; and when advancing age brings that mortality into stark focus, the words of Napoleon Bonaparte, “Death is nothing, but to live defeated is to die every day,” resonate. This simple observation defines our resolve in realizing our five core demands.

To say this is a protracted struggle is an understatement; this is a struggle in which we will win or we will die in the effort. Our actions thus far, and the awareness of this international community of their inherent righteousness, has made this adamantine resolve clear, so why then would CDCR (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) officials resort to petty retaliatory actions? The answer lies in the very nature of the tyranny and authoritarian power they represent.

Aggression is deceptive; it inherently hides weakness. Aggressors possess poor emotional control and little patience for challenges to their interests. The first waves of retaliation from these types of aggressors may seem strong to some; this is why so many non-SHU general population prisoners dropped out of the second hunger strike as those waves struck them. But, of course, we were unmoved; and the longer such attacks go on, the clearer their underlying weaknesses and insecurity become. It is an act of irrational desperation, but one they pursue out of sheer rote.

Since the second hunger strike ended, we have experienced perpetual retaliation – some overt, some carefully disguised – all designed to erode the minds and wills of those committed to resist. We were denied any medical treatment for our starvation and when we filed emergency 602s to receive renutrition treatment and hunger strike-related injuries, they were not responded to until some 40 days later.

For example, during the first hunger strike, I (Heshima) passed out due to malnutrition and dehydration; the account was detailed in a previous statement. But simply put, their own guilt and fear caused them to assemble some 26 officers before opening my cell and piling on top of my unconscious form in order to shackle my arms and legs in chains and put me in an ambulance.

Their own guilt and fear caused them to assemble some 26 officers before opening my cell and piling on top of my unconscious form in order to shackle my arms and legs in chains and put me in an ambulance.

Mind you, according to witnesses, they casually, even jokingly, left me lying on my cell floor for 35 minutes before jumping on my body. Since then I’ve had a sharp, constant pain in my right side at the base of my ribcage. Though I’ve filed two medical appeals, as of this writing I have still not been treated or even diagnosed for this.

Zaharibu’s cholesterol, blood oxygen levels and blood pressure are so far outside of normal range he is at chronic risk for stroke, heart attack and diabetes – the nurses routinely “forgetting” to bring or administer his insulin when indicated.

Shortly after the second hunger strike ended, we were told, “One of the two pumps that delivers hot water to the institution is broken and we should have the part to fix it in two days.” That was over 50 days ago and we’ve had hot water for a total of three of those 50-plus days. In that intervening time, “due to the lack of hot water” we’ve been fed on paper trays, which ensures all meals arrive cold and grossly under-portioned. Because all we have to wash or shower with in these freezing cells is cold or lukewarm water, 80 percent of us housed in this 4BIL-C-Section short corridor have contracted a cold, upper respiratory tract infection or flu.

Because all we have to wash or shower with in these freezing cells is cold or lukewarm water, 80 percent of us housed in this 4BIL-C-Section short corridor have contracted a cold, upper respiratory tract infection or flu.

Despite numerous appeals and motions to the court, they have not run law library for any of us since August, making it impossible to access legal research, copying service or verified legal mailing, thus jeopardizing the viability of numerous legal pleadings in the courts.

We have often expounded upon the fundamental unreliability of reforms as nothing more than temporary pacification measures that can be repealed at the whim of administrators, and this analysis was again proven only weeks after the second hunger strike ended. Former Undersecretary of Corrections Scott Kernan made a big to-do about the concessions being made to improve the material conditions in SHU, including giving us action at a single special purchase order to purchase newly approved cold weather items by Dec. 31 – or those items would have to be included in annual packages.

Things like watch caps, thermals, tennis shoes etc. were all “approved” for SHU. Memos trumpeting this and Operational Procedure (OP) update chronos were issued to us all, only to be followed by a memo stating the warden of CSP-Corcoran-SHU was effectively repealing the single special purchase order for cold weather items without explanation. This was soon followed by another memo stating tennis shoes orders to SHU would not be allowed until after “Sacramento” made changes to the property matrix, something that was done by Scott Kernan back in October via emergency memo.

The warden of CSP-Corcoran-SHU was effectively repealing the single special purchase order for cold weather items without explanation.

Rolling power outages have suddenly become routine here. The mailroom suddenly devised new regulations directing any phony orders to be directed to one post office box, while letters go to another, making it more difficult and confusing for those who care to see to the welfare of their loved ones here. Not to be left out, CDCR trust account officials have raised processing fees on electronic trust deposits called “J-Pays,” some 500 percent, from $1 to $5, increasing the financial burden on underclass families while maximizing their own profiteering.

All of those things are designed to fuse with the daily mental struggles of the reality of indefinite sensory deprivation confinement to have the cumulative effect of eroding the psychology of resistance, and if this were a situation where there was some psychological threshold to breach, they may well have found some here who capitulate. But that simply is not the reality.

This is not a situation where multi-spectrum retaliation – or coercive force of any kind – will somehow diminish the resolve of those of us committed to ending the perpetual torture inherent in these indeterminate SHU units. In fact, quite the opposite is true; such actions only serve to crystallize in our minds the simple fact that we cannot lose. The alternative is simply more unpleasant than the relatively quick sacrifice of death by starvation. They can ratchet up the intensity on these petulant retaliation moves a hundredfold and it will have no other effect than increasing our resolve a thousandfold.

This is not a situation where multi-spectrum retaliation – or coercive force of any kind – will somehow diminish the resolve of those of us committed to ending the perpetual torture inherent in these indeterminate SHU units. In fact, quite the opposite is true; such actions only serve to crystallize in our minds the simple fact that we cannot lose.

We must win this struggle not simply because it is morally correct, upholds international standards of humanity, opposes governmental collusion in corporate exploitation of underclass people, and serves the interests – social, political and economic – of society as a whole, but also because it’s necessarily our survival. We are men in earnest; consequences have little meaning in the face of such conditions.

Some of you reading these words are no doubt grappling with the reality behind them, attempting to find some point of relatability, some common experience from which to draw a correlation. Unless you’ve experienced this firsthand, such an attempt is an effort in futility. But for the sake of this discussion, I challenge you to run an experiment: Go to your bathroom and close the door. Imagine that you will never leave that room. Your tub and shower, that’s your bed. Yes, your toilet is only a step or two away from where you lay your head. Your food will be brought to you here twice a day.

Stay there as long as you can. How long do you last? Twenty minutes? An hour? Six hours? Imagine you sit in that bathroom for a year, 10 years, 24 years, 40 years. You will never leave that bathroom unless you are released from prison, agree to be an agent for the same people who stuck you in that bathroom, or you die of old age and infirmity. How long would you last? How strong is your will?

Would you submit to snitchery, kowtow to your torturers and become a tool to condemn others to that same fate? Or would you fight, resist to the bitter end, give your life to expose such evil, greedy, draconian hypocrites for what they really are? Hold the mirror of social reality up to the face of every man and woman in U.S. society and force them to confront the human misery being carried to sicker and more depraved depths every day in their names? What would you do?

Would you submit to snitchery, kowtow to your torturers and become a tool to condemn others to that same fate? Or would you fight, resist to the bitter end, give your life to expose such evil, greedy, draconian hypocrites for what they really are?

Some would characterize our effort as insane, as crazy. In “Hagakure: The door of the Samurai,” Yamamoto Tsunetomo quotes Lord Naoshige as saying the way of the warrior (samurai) is in desperateness. Ten or more cannot kill such a man. Common sense will not accomplish great things. Simply become insane and desperate.

None of us want to die, but all of us are prepared to do so to realize these five core demands. History dictates no less.

So we wait. We have been told the revisions and changes to the status quo in these torture units will be done this month or by February, but the relentless retaliatory blows we are absorbing as the sobering reminder of what we are dealing with: An entrenched labor aristocracy and political patronage of corporate speculators, who’ve grown rich and powerful off extorting billions from hapless taxpayers and criminalizing underclass people and communities, will resist any effort to curtail their wealth, privilege and socio-political status quo.

These vile and greedy people are extracting more of your tax dollars for their exclusive use than many nations’ gross national product by using us as scapegoats to frighten the people – when in fact many of us are servants of the people, political progressives who would willingly lay down our lives to advance the cause of freedom, social justice and economic equality in the nation.

In the case of the NCTT and those of like mind, ironically that’s why we were validated and consigned to these torture units in the first place. A common practice of corrupt political interests is to criminalize dissent and criticism. Who will care? We are prisoners; who will know these truths? They have already succeeded in lobbying to have media access to prisoners banned unless they consent to who will be interviewed. Again, who will care, who will know?

A common practice of corrupt political interests is to criminalize dissent and criticism. Who will care? We are prisoners; who will know these truths?

If you’re reading these words, you now know the only question that remains is: Do you care? Do you care that the very people who you’ve entrusted with ensuring public safety are in fact intentionally working against that interest to maintain a bloated prison industrial complex on your tax dollars and our souls? Do you care that the U.S., which is so vocally condemning other nations, is ignoring its U.N. treaty obligations and maintaining its own expansive domestic torture program in U.S. Supermax SHU prisons across this nation? Do you care that these evils, this blatant hypocrisy is being carried out in your name? Do you care? And if you don’t, exactly what type of society is this we’ve allowed to emerge?

If you are reading these words, you can no longer claim ignorance; to stand idly by now would be complicity. A wise man once said, “All that is necessary for evil men to prevail is for good men to do nothing.” We are under no illusions. The ultimate arbiter of our fate – and this society’s fate – is the people. YOU. YOU must rise up against this injustice and inhumanity. YOU must let the state know that substantive change at every level of society is something the people demand.

The ultimate arbiter of our fate – and this society’s fate – is the people. YOU.

We have supported, and will continue to support, progressive people’s movements, from the Dream Act to the Occupy Movement, because we recognize the inherent unity of purpose in this single political motive force, the reality that we do not represent disparate social interests but a single determined democratic imperative to put an end to the stranglehold that this greedy elite and its tools currently have on every area of people’s activity in the U.S., to put an end to these exploitive relationships that diminish and impoverish the many for the aggrandizement of the few.

To treat us this way is wrong, evil and unsustainable socially. Stand with us. Lend your voices, your labor, and your ideas to this historical work. We can win, but only with you all by our sides. In the final analysis, this is a struggle to determine the nature of humanity itself. We are on the right side of history; we encourage you all to stand on this same side with us. Our love, loyalty and solidarity to all those who cherish freedom, justice and human rights and fear only failure. Until we win or don’t lose.

For more information on the California prison hunger strikes or the NCTT, contact:

• Zaharibu Dorrough, D-83611, CSP-COR-SHU, 4BIL-53, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran, CA 93212

• J. Heshima Denham, J-38283, CSP-COR-SHU, 4BIL-46, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran, CA 93212

• Kambui Robinson, C-82830, CSP-COR-SHU, 4BIL-49, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran, CA 93212.

Read these brothers’ previous stories: “California prison hunger strikers propose ‘10 core demands’ for the national Occupy Wall Street Movement,” “A brief hunger strike update from the front lines of the struggle: Corcoran-SHU 4B 1L C-section Isolation Unit” (second story in that post), “From the front lines of the struggle,”and “We dare to win: The reality and impact of SHU torture units.” This story was typed by Adrian McKinney.

Standing up for Survivors Village and housing justice

Adrian — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:44:31 +0000

Survivors Village joined forces with Occupy NOLA to successfully disrupt a sheriff’s sale of foreclosed properties in New Orleans, shouting their demands in Occupy mic check style.

On Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, we took a stand. Survivors Village, a community group of former St. Bernard public housing residents and their allies, joined forces with recently evicted Occupy NOLA protestors to successfully disrupt a sheriff’s sale of foreclosed properties. Delaying the sale for two hours, the protestors chanted:

“This auction is illegal and immoral. It is a way to steal homes, redistribute wealth and prevent the right to return. The sale of blighted property is the city’s attempt to remove poor homeowners who have already suffered tremendously from economic and natural disaster. Blight has become an excuse to gentrify. Charging poor homeowners outrageous fees in order to steal their homes is an underhanded way to keep people displaced. Stop capitalizing off of crisis! This process is corrupt! You are stealing homes! STOP NOW!”

We took a stand against stealing people’s property in the name of recovery. We also took a stand to save a space we care enough about to rebuild with our own hands. This is a space that was active before I arrived in New Orleans, but I am determined to work with my family of comrades to get it back in fighting shape.

Survivors Village isn’t just community space; it is a home base for those who understand the radical transformation necessary for us all to achieve liberation. And in this realization and the impending detriment that a loss of this space could be to realizing our vision and bringing it into the everyday reality bit by bit, we knew we had to stand up and shout, “Stop!”

Sometimes a battle is dropped at your front door and demands that you are the one(s) to make change happen, you are called as the one(s) to start, finish or progress this fight. Well, that is what happened when we were told that the City of New Orleans was trying to sell New Day Survivors Village through a sheriff’s sale. Not only was a piece of our livelihood being threatened, but we were also alerted to the injustice that is being illegally perpetrated against homeowners.

Survivors Village was not served notice that it was one of the properties to be auctioned at a forthcoming sheriff’s sale until less than a month before it was to be held. A $575 blight fine that had ballooned to over $9,000 after daily penalties were tacked on was what put the sale into motion – the amount of the daily penalties being greater than half of the initial fine, per day.

Months before the decision to put the property up for auction, the initial blight cited had been remedied and improvements on the rest of the property were constantly being planned and carried out. We had not been notified that there was an ever increasing fee being lobbed against the property, nor were we aware that they decided to sell it.

Does the city really believe this is the best way to deal with blight? It appears to be an easy way to remove property from the hands of those who are poor and limited in their resources and ability to finish the necessary work on their homes. And with the lack of due process in getting a judge’s order – a law has been implemented making this obsolete – or hiring a non-affiliated curator to receive court documents on behalf of the defendant, who never receives them, the city is making it apparent that they are not concerned with reconnecting homeowners and displaced New Orleanians with their homes.

Instead they are satisfied being a huge obstacle for poor and displaced homeowners while placing advantage in the hands of the privileged, who can buy, renovate and make a profit on these homes, further gentrifying New Orleans in the process.

Survivors Village began as a tent city erected in June 2006 by residents of the St. Bernard Public Housing Development who like other public housing residents had been locked out of their homes since the flooding of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. Since that time and after years of resistance by public housing residents and their allies, over 4,000 units of public housing, including the St. Bernard Development, have been demolished. On the day of this march, Jan. 15, 2007, displaced St. Bernard residents reclaimed the development, cleaned their apartments, which had been minimally damaged, but were soon driven out again.

As this picture became clearer, we knew that the issue wasn’t just Survivors Village; it was this whole corrupt process. In a serendipitous fashion, Occupy Wall Street declared Dec. 6 a day of action against foreclosures. And since the city decided it was a creditor that was going to perform code lien seizures and then auction off these foreclosed homes after subsequent nonpayment of unfair fines, the sheriff’s sale was a perfect platform from which to decry the way this lopsided process favors the city. Many of the volunteers working to restore Survivors Village had been in some way or at some time engaged with the Occupy NOLA encampment, so reaching out to link our actions was the natural next step.

There was immediacy in the planning due to the impending sale, so we congregated together with a crew of dedicated activists that were willing to sit through long meetings and democratically come up with a strategy to stop this sale. It can be difficult to achieve consensus and a unified vision for how things should be done. We didn’t always agree on what we were hoping to realistically achieve, how confrontational we should be with the bidders or the wording of our message, but in the end consensus was reached, which is necessary reinforcement to further our fight for the reclamation of true democracy and must be practiced as a pinnacle radical value.

As a group we thought that our action to disrupt and possibly prevent the sheriff’s stolen property sale could be disbanded quickly and we would be threatened with arrest, so we prioritized the language that needed to be delivered first. We had decided that this was not the most strategic time to take arrests, so we would get in there, say our piece while holding up the sale for as long as possible and then either be off or stay in a silent protest with signage, depending on the level of police suppression: a guerilla strategy for the initial incitement.

Every time the auctioneer spoke through his microphone to begin the auction, our mic check illuminating and vilifying the process leading up to and including the auction would begin. The auctioneer would try to speak over us, but “the people united will never be defeated.” We mic checked, sang and chanted intermittently and rotating, deciding that if he wasn’t trying to proceed then we could save our voices and just be present in protest.

We also distributed flyers educating the crowd about the realities of the auction. The flyers declared: “This is an auction of stolen properties. When a property in New Orleans is declared ‘blighted’ it is because homeowners are unable to complete the necessary work on their properties to comply with the city’s codes. The city gives the homeowner a fine of $575 and orders the homeowner to finish renovation or demolition of the property within 30 days and pay the fine or face additional fees of up to $500 per day. When poor homeowners are charged thousands of dollars each week – money they would put into their homes if they had it – the city leaves them no choice but to go bankrupt or hand over their properties. This is state sanctioned theft under the guise of ‘recovery.’”

After an hour and a half of this back and forth, start and stop, the police finally gave us a warning. We overestimated how long we would be tolerated and perhaps they overestimated how long we were willing to stay, which was longer than many of the potential bidders did. We gave two collective speeches after the first warning and then remained silent throughout the rest of the auction.

The auction did go on after two hours’ delay, but we felt successful. Our will was felt and our home base was spared, it being virtually unsalable due to taxes placed on it, which are not even applicable to the New Day nonprofit which owns Survivors Village – sometimes not doing paperwork on time is a benefit.

Another success was in connecting with people who are directly affected by this practice and these sales. A man at the auction asked for our help in stopping his house from being sold, so his property was included in the mic check: “Do not bid on property…” was the demand. And even though his house opened at a low price, it too was not bid on.

He was basically in the same position we were in, and the city refused to waive the extra outrageous daily fees and have him just pay the $575 even though he had complied with blight removal. It’s these people who don’t have the resources that we have, limited as they are, to fight the city who are the most vulnerable and need to be represented; it’s for these people that we stand up and shout, “STOP NOW!” It is for them and with all of those struggling with housing injustice that we will continue to fight until it is acknowledged and purported that housing is a human right.

To learn more, go to http://communitiesrising.wordpress.com/, the website for Survivors Village, where this story first appeared.

Georgia prison strike, one year later: Activists outside the walls have failed those inside the walls

Adrian — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:00:10 +0000

by Bruce A. Dixon

A year ago this month, Black, White and Brown inmates in a dozen Georgia prisons staged a brief strike. They put forward a set of simple and basic demands – wages for work, decent food and medical care, access to educational and self-improvement programs, fairness and transparency in the way the state handles grievances, inmate funds and release decisions, and more opportunities to connect with their families and loved ones.

A short-lived formation calling itself the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights came together and met with the Georgia Department of Corrections. In the last weeks of 2010 teams of community observers were allowed to visit Macon State and Smith prisons, where they examined facilities and interviewed staff and prisoners.

The Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights was supposed to issue public reports of its fact-finding prison visits. That never happened. It was to have initiated a long-term dialog with state officials in pursuit of the inmates’ eminently just and reasonable demands. That never happened either.

It should have called public meetings and begun to organize a lasting campaign to educate the public on the meaning of Georgia’s and the nation’s prison state and the possibilities for radical reform. These are the things the prisoners expected of their allies and spokespeople on the outside.

But compromised and undermined from within and without, the coalition was unable to make any of these things happen. Thus the trust that Georgia prisoners placed in activists outside the walls to organize in support of their demands was betrayed.

From the beginning, members of the coalition uncritically deferred to a single one of their number with extremely limited local availability. That leading person vetoed public meetings, the establishment of an interactive web site or even a steering committee listserve, insisting that nobody else could be trusted to manage or access the coalition’s contacts.

The trust that Georgia prisoners placed in activists outside the walls to organize in support of their demands was betrayed.

So apart from the limited interactivity of a seldom updated Facebook page, the coalition maintained no easily found point of public contact. This leading person, in sole charge of calling meetings, simply stopped emailing or telephoning this reporter and others who contributed significantly to the cause of the prisoners.

State authorities did their part to gut the coalition as well. Georgia got a new governor at the beginning of 2011, who took a keen interest in his own right wing vision of “criminal justice reform.” Taking his cues from an ultraconservative think tank called “Right On Crime,” Gov. Deal is one of those who believes the main thing wrong with mass incarceration is that it’s too expensive.

Aided by the Pew Foundation and a major state contractor, Deal created a commission on “criminal justice reform” composed of judges, prosecutors and state legislators to approve what his consultants cooked up – a hodgepodge of recommendations to shrink the state’s maximum and medium security institutions while greatly expanding probation, home monitoring, workfare, closely supervised “diversion” and misnamed “re-entry” programs, all under the profitable guidance of well-connected “not for profit” entrepreneurs.

True to his name, Deal reportedly made a deal with some leading figures in the Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights, who bolted the coalition with the expectation that if they help line up Black Democrats behind the white Republican governor’s “criminal justice reform” proposals, they’d get some of the state’s new “re-entry” money. A senior national civil rights leader quietly flew in and out of Atlanta the same day to quietly meet with Gov. Deal about his deal. So the Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoner Rights withered and died.

And so, a year out from the December 2010 prison strike, it is clear that activists outside the walls have largely failed to honor their commitment to those inside the walls. In the past year, not much has changed. Scores of prisoners alleged to be strike leaders were punitively transferred and locked down in the wake of the strike.

Dozens more who were not strike leaders were savagely beaten, as exemplary reprisals for the strike, and denied medical attention afterward. State officials conspired to hide from his family and the public the whereabouts of one man they beat into a coma for nearly two weeks as he hung between life and death.

Scores of prisoners alleged to be strike leaders were punitively transferred and locked down in the wake of the strike. Dozens more who were not strike leaders were savagely beaten, as exemplary reprisals for the strike, and denied medical attention afterward.

A handful of guards were charged, but local prosecutors and grand juries refused to indict. The federal Justice Department, under its first Black attorney general and president, has thus far expressed no interest in protecting prisoners from the arbitrary and brutal retaliation inflicted upon them by Georgia officials.

Inmates with debilitating and life threatening conditions are still mostly untreated. Educational programs are available to less than 5 percent of prisoners, and thousands of Georgia’s prisoners as young as 14, 15 and 16 years old continue to be confined in adult institutions with adults.

Bank of America still has the exclusive contract to handle inmate accounts and levies a parasitic fee each and every time a family member sends an inmate a few dollars and deducts another monthly charge as long as any funds remain in an inmate account. This year as last, thousands of prisoners who speak mainly Spanish are not afforded interpreters at disciplinary hearings, and with no transparency at any level it’s impossible to know whether there is any hint of fairness in these proceedings.

Inmates with debilitating and life threatening conditions are still mostly untreated. Educational programs are available to less than 5 percent of prisoners, and thousands of Georgia’s prisoners as young as 14, 15 and 16 years old continue to be confined in adult institutions with adults.

Politically connected companies like J-Pay and Global TelLink are still allowed to siphon millions each month from the families of inmates by collecting tolls on the money transfers going into and phone calls coming out of prison. Food ranges from bad to merely inadequate, vermin infestations abound and of course Georgia inmates still work every day without pay.

On Wednesday, Dec. 14, a year after the strike, Rev. Kenneth Glasgow of TOPS, The Ordinary Peoples Society, showed up at the Georgia state capitol with some of the families and supporters of prisoners savagely beaten by wardens and correctional officers in Georgia after the strike.

“We are here to reaffirm our commitment to the prisoners who made a principled stand for their own and each other’s human rights a year ago this week. We know the ball was dropped. TOPS and the National Organization of Formerly Incarcerated Persons, along with some others, are picking it up.

We are here to reaffirm our commitment to the prisoners who made a principled stand for their own and each other’s human rights a year ago.

“Over the past year we’ve worked to secure legal and other assistance to the families of some of the prisoners who suffered beat downs in retaliation for the December 2010 strike, and we’ve expanded our work with the National Organization of Formerly Incarcerated Persons. But we know that much more has to be done to fulfill the promise of last year’s coalition.

“For our part, we can promise that the next 12 months out here won’t be like the last 12. Decent food and medical care, wages for work, educational opportunities and the like are ordinary human rights to which everybody is entitled. The Ordinary Peoples Society is ready to work with whoever is willing to advance the human rights of Georgia’s prisoners.”

The question is what will that work look like? How do activists in Georgia bring the questions of the prison state and the rights of prisoners to the front burner as a public and political issue? With the corporate media determined to twist and ignore the issue, and prominent sections of the Black establishment lining up in bipartisan endorsement of a phony “criminal justice reform” package in return for a share of “re-entry program” money, how can this be done?

Hugh Esco, secretary of the Georgia Green Party, thinks he knows: “We’ve worked with people in Georgia communities to come up with 13 demands for the governor and his phony Commission on Criminal Justice Reform. Demands like ending the lifelong discrimination in housing, employment and other areas against persons convicted of felonies, automatically restoring the vote to everyone, including inmates currently in prisons and jails, decent food, health care and education behind the walls, stopping the incarceration of juveniles in adult prisons, decriminalizing homelessness, mental illness, drug use and more. Beginning this week we’ve got persons on the courthouse steps every day courts are in session, first in Cobb and Fulton counties, and within a few weeks in half a dozen other Georgia counties.

“Our volunteers will be petitioning, gathering signatures on these demands. The Georgia Green Party will be sending letters, postcards, phone calls and emails to those who sign the petitions inviting them to phone conferences and face to face public meetings beginning in January and going throughout the year. That’s what a campaign of grassroots public education looks like, and that’s how our party is going to pick up the ball that the coalition dropped last year. Our campaign even has its own website at www.endmassincarceration.org. We are also helping the families of prisoners build their own network of mutual aid and support.

2012 is an election year, so we expect that some of the friends and families of prisoners will join with us to run for seats in Georgia’s state legislature, using their 13 demands as the core of their platform. In this way we will use the elections to educate our neighbors on Georgia’s and the nation’s prison state.

“Using these methods we expect to be able to call well-attended public meetings on the prison state in many parts of Georgia this spring and summer. And 2012 is an election year, so we expect that some of the friends and families of prisoners will join with us to run for seats in Georgia’s state legislature, using their 13 demands as the core of their platform. In this way we will use the elections to educate our neighbors on Georgia’s and the nation’s prison state. Anybody who wants to help in this campaign can contact us at info@endmassincarceration.org. We’re here, we’re serious, and we aren’t going anywhere.”

The 13 demands of the Georgia Green Party’s Campaign to End Mass Incarceration can be found here.

Bruce A. Dixon is managing editor at Black Agenda Report, where this story first appeared, and a member of the state committee of the Georgia Green Party. He can be reached at bruce.dixon@blackagendareport.com.

How easily we forget

Mary — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 06:34:39 +0000

by Mutope Duguma

Mutope writes, “I insist that all New Afrikans in this country read “The Melancholy History of Soledad Prison” by Min S. Yee.”

Written Dec. 29, 2011 – In 1619 when the first 20 slaves out of Africa were brought to the shores of North America and our New Afrikan struggle began, yes, we as a people coming from the African continent, captured by brutal force, speaking many African languages, sharing in many different socio-culture, economic and political systems, were all forced to coalesce under the torturous brutal hand of slavery and learn a new language, socio-culture, economic and political system, structured around the suppression, oppression and exploitation of our New Afrikan nation (NAN). Here we would be slaves – and chattel slaves at that – meaning we were the commodity (something of commercial value), bought and sold to the highest bidder.

We were devalued and stripped of our African heritage. Our lifestyle was stolen away from us and our ideology – all of our social practices, and even our identity. Yes, we lost it all – our names too. Some of us have realized the importance of names. Therefore we have taken steps to re-name ourselves while dropping our slave names inherited many generations ago by our enslaved ancestors, names that can literally be traced to our New Afrikan enslaved ancestors’ slave masters. At the same time we rejected the general names placed on us to dehumanize us as a New Afrikan people, such as the “N” word, Negro, Colored, Black, Afro-American and Afrikan American, because we have always been New Afrikans here in North America.

Our struggle is one of resistance against that which has been forced upon us. Do we easily forget our struggle for freedom? If so, then let’s refresh our memories by reading these books in this order: 1) “The Destruction of Black Civilization” by Chancellor Williams; 2) “There’s a River: The Black Struggle for Freedom in America” by Vincent Harding; 3) “Slavery: The African American Psychic Trauma” by Sultan A. Latif and Naimah Latif; and 4) “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander.

Our struggle is one of resistance against that which has been forced upon us. The whole system conspired against New Afrikans, subjecting many of us to outright torture at the hands of those overseeing the prison industrial complex.

“The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander speaks to how the judicial process toward the New Afrikan people has not changed from 1619 to now. This New Afrikan sister laid out how the whole system conspired against New Afrikans, subjecting many of us to outright torture at the hands of those overseeing the prison industrial complex (PIC).

How easily we forget “what began to happen in the South, particularly after federal troops were removed in 1877. … (T)he state legislatures of every state passed laws which began to effectively criminalize Black life and to create a situation in which African American men found it almost impossible not to be in violation of some misdemeanor statute at almost all times. And the most broadly applied of those was that it was against the law if you were unable to prove at any given moment that you were employed. So vagrancy statutes were used to arrest thousands of Black men, even though thousands of White men could have been arrested on the same charges but they hardly ever were. And then once arrested, the judicial system had been re-tooled in such a way as to coerce huge numbers of men into commercial enterprises as forced workers through the judicial system,” explained Douglas Blackmon, author of “Slavery by Another Name,” in a KPFK interview.

There’s no question that our New Afrikan ancestors were tortured and murdered under the system of chattel slavery, where they suffered every heinous act known to mankind under the sun by the hand of their slave master – enduring a life of misery and terror.

How easily we forget – in California, prisoners being murdered in cold blood at the hand of prison guards who enjoyed and celebrated the kill, like hunting wild animals.

How easily we forget – in California, prisoners being murdered in cold blood at the hand of prison guards. Learn about how your fathers, sons, brothers, uncles and cousins were tortured and murdered at the hands of CDCR prison guards who enjoyed and celebrated the kill, like hunting wild animals. We must not forget there has not been much change since 1619, just a more functional way to cover up neo-chattel slavery.

Do we forget Weusi, who was shot to death with a mini 14 assault rifle by a gun-ho prison guard who openly fired on a melee of defenseless prisoners, shooting nine consecutive rounds. And when he was done, there was two dead and several wounded – at San Quentin in 1987. None of the prisoners seen it coming. This was cold-blooded murder – with impunity.

Do we forget the Corcoran prison guards who set up gladiator-staged fights where 50 prisoners were wounded and seven fatally wounded between 1989 and 1995?

Do we forget the Corcoran prison guards who set up gladiator-staged fights where 50 prisoners were wounded and seven fatally wounded:

1. William Martinez on April 8, 1989,

2. Randall on June 23, 1989,

3. Andres Cortez Romero on Feb. 6, 1990, one month before his release date,

4. Michael Mullins on April 9, 1993,

5. Henry Noriega on Sept. 11, 1993,

6. Preston Tate on April 2, 1994,

7. Donald Creasy on June 1, 1994.

All 50 shootings happened between the years of 1989 and 1995.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported in “Accusations of prison coverup: Agency hid staged fights at Corcoran, guards say” on Oct. 28, 1996, that Correctional Officer Richard Caruso in 1994 provided documents to the FBI which showed the prison guards were setting up gladiator-staged fights by matching prisoners up against one another. Correctional Lt. Steve Rigg in 1994 says he learned that some prison officers were “stacking the tiers” to stage fights among inmates. “One guard, Pio Cruz, liked to call the fights like a sports announcer – before grabbing a rifle and shooting the brawling inmates with wooden projectiles, officers testified in a disciplinary hearing against Cruz, who was ultimately fired.” Not prosecuted, FIRED – with impunity.

Mark Arax and Mark Gladstone wrote in the July 5, 1998, Los Angeles Times, in an article titled “State Thwarted Brutality Probe at Corcoran Prison, Investigators Say”: “Sacramento knew the level of violence,” said Steve Rigg, a former lieutenant who also cooperated with the FBI. “We assumed that they would read the numbers and say something is terribly wrong here and take appropriate corrective action. Instead, we continued to bait inmates into fights and then shoot them for throwing punches” – with impunity.

“From the day Corcoran opened in 1988, the escalating violence failed to set off any alarms” – not at the local district attorney’s office, not at the State Department of Corrections, not at the Attorney General’s Office or at the Governor’s Office.

I was personally involved in this manufactured violence from 1991 to 1995 in Corcoran SHU. I was transferred to Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) in 1992, when a PBSP prison guard shot and killed a New Afrikan mentally ill prisoner – with impunity. Three more were shot and killed, in 1993, 1994 and 2000.

I was personally involved in this manufactured violence from 1991 to 1995 in Corcoran SHU. I was transferred to Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) in 1992.

• In 1992, a PBSP prison guard shot and killed a New Afrikan mentally ill prisoner – with impunity.

• In 1993, a PBSP prison guard shot and killed a Mexican prisoner who was to be released soon – with impunity.

• In 1994, a PBSP prison guard shot and killed a New Afrikan prisoner – brain matter splattered everywhere – with impunity.

• In 2000, a PBSP prison guard shot and killed a Mexican prisoner.

Now I personally grew up where there was many fisticuffs and the loser would grab a 2 by 4 or a knife and not no one trying to break it up, in order to prevent the unarmed opponent from being murdered by using a mini 14 assault rifle to do so.

By working in solitary confinement guards are able to continue to exercise their insidious, malicious, racist and prejudiced attacks on prisoners with impunity.

Many of these cold-blooded murderers come from the general population (GP) gun towers to work in solitary confinement, i.e., SHU and Ad-Seg units, or officers who do not have the nerve to work around prisoners they have a deep hate for where their own paranoia consumes them to the point they can’t work around free prisoners on GP. By working in solitary confinement they’re able to continue to exercise their insidious, malicious, racist and prejudiced attacks on prisoners with impunity.

Mr. Vaughn Dortch, a New Afrikan prisoner who was tortured into insanity after being housed in solitary confinement – yes, mentally ill – was removed from his cell by force and taken to the prison infirmary where Pelican Bay prison guards boiled him in scalding hot water and held him down in this boiling water until he fainted. The skin on his body peeled off his flesh, while at the same time prison guards scrubbed his body with a hard scrub brush. Prison guards were making fun, saying, “We going to have us a white boy before it’s through, because his skin is so dirty and rotten it’s falling off.” This was a sadistic act carried out by racist prison guards.

Pelican Bay prison guards boiled him in scalding hot water, saying, “We going to have us a white boy before it’s through, because his skin is so dirty and rotten it’s falling off.”

Now, Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, s/n R.N. Dewberry, C-35671, D1-117L, had been in the solitary confinement unit since 1983 and this incident happened in 1990 with Vaughn Dortch, so Sitawa was in eight years and counting. He and two other prisoners was in the infirmary when V. Dortch was brought in, so they witnessed this whole incident and they cursed to the top of their lungs at these savages (i.e., prison guards) and when they realized that all these prisoners just witnessed this horrible act the prison guards went straight into action.

Lt. Brittle walked up to Sitawa and said “Aw fuck, Dewberry, did you see anything?” Dewberry replied, “I seen everything and where did you all take him,” referring to how they rushed V. Dortch out of the infirmary when he fainted. Lt. Brittle then said, “Dewberry, are you still trying to get transferred closer to the Bay Area, near your family?” Reply: “Yes.” Lt. Brittle then said, “Then maybe we can work something out, if you didn’t see anything.” Reply: “Expletive, expletive and more expletives.”

Later Sitawa would be interviewed by federal agents of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department concerning V. Dortch, who would go on to win close to $1 million and all medical expenses paid – a bill taxpayers would once again pay due to the criminal acts of so-called prison guards. As usual there will be no prosecution. And sadly these criminals in this particular case was promoted in many respects for a job well done. Again with impunity!

How easily we forget: During slavery the slaves would be dropped in a black scalding hot kettle being and boiled alive until they were dead. Some were pulled out after they fainted as well and considered amusement for the sick audience.

Here at Pelican Bay State Prison, we have had two prisoners allegedly commit suicide, but how is it suicide if someone is torturing you every day of your life in order to get you to debrief or to reduce you to an emasculated state?

Here at Pelican Bay State Prison, we have had two prisoners allegedly commit suicide, but how is it suicide if someone is torturing you every day of your life in order to get you to debrief or to reduce you to an emasculated state? This is not suicide; this is the CDCR-PBSP using its power against helpless individuals until their spirit has been broken and their lives are no longer worth living. These men were murdered because they were stripped of everything that makes life worth living.

How easily we forget

We are New Afrikans for three primary reasons:

1. The name gives recognition to our historical heritage.

2. When we use the name, it is a rejection of the attempts by the U.S. government, our colonizers, to Amerikanize us to the rest of the world.

3. When we call ourselves New Afrikans, we identify ourselves as a historically evolved and legitimate nation of people in the community of Afrikan nations.

Generation after generation throughout our history, from 1619 to 2012, when we find ourselves struggling for our New Afrikan survival, it’s not by accident that Amerika as 2.3 million prisoners and 1 million-plus of those prisoners are New Afrikans.

In order for us to survive as a people, we must definitely be free to lead our own lives as a New African Nation.

One love, one struggle!

Mutope Duguma, aka James Crawford, has been reporting to Bay View readers on the hunger strike from the beginning. He is the writer of “The Call,” the formal announcement that alerted the world to this massive hunger strike, “SHU prisoners sentenced to civil death begin hunger strike,” “This hunger strike is far from over,” “Pelican Bay SHU prisoners plan to resume hunger strike Sept. 26,” “Greed drives solitary confinement torture,” “Hip hop community, support our hunger strike!” “Retaliation at Pelican Bay: Letters from the SHU,” “We are willing to sacrifice ourselves to change our conditions” and “They took the 15 of us hunger strikers to ASU-Hell-Row.” Send our brother some love and light: Mutope Duguma, s/n James D. Crawford, D-05996, PBSP-SHU, D1-117U, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532.

Why all the robo-signing?

Mary — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 01:17:19 +0000

Securitization and the shadow banking system

by Ellen Brown

(Extensively revised and updated Jan. 25) – The Wall Street Journal reported on Jan. 19 that the Obama administration was pushing heavily to get the 50 state attorneys general to agree to a settlement with five major banks in the “robo-signing” scandal. The scandal involves employees signing names not their own, under titles they did not really have, attesting to the veracity of documents they had not really reviewed. Investigation reveals that it did not just happen occasionally but was an industry-wide practice, dating back to the late 1990s, and that it may have clouded the titles of millions of homes. If the settlement is agreed to, it will let Wall Street bankers off the hook for crimes that would land the rest of us in jail – fraud, forgery, securities violations and tax evasion.

To the president’s credit, however, he seems to have shifted his position on the settlement in response to protests before his State of the Union address. In his speech on Jan. 24, President Obama did not mention the settlement but announced instead that he would be creating a mortgage crisis unit to investigate wrongdoing related to real estate lending. “This new unit will hold accountable those who broke the law, speed assistance to homeowners and help turn the page on an era of recklessness that hurt so many Americans,” he said.

The deeper question is why

Whether massive robo-signing occurred is no longer at issue. The question that still needs to be investigated is why it was being done. The alleged justification – that they were so busy they cut corners – hardly seems credible given the extent of the practice.

The robo-signing largely involved assignments of mortgage notes to mortgage servicers or trusts representing the investors who put up the loan money. Assignment was necessary to give the trusts legal title to the loans. But according to consumer attorneys April Charney and O. Max Gardner III, who have reviewed large numbers of these cases, the banks that originally signed the notes with the homeowners virtually never assigned them over to the trusts, as required by governing law and the terms of the trust documents. Robo-signing occurred long after the fact, and it was done routinely across the industry. That means it must have served some industry purpose. But what?

Here is a working hypothesis, suggested by Martin Andelman: Securitized mortgages are the “pawns” used in the pawn shop known as the “repo market.” “Repos” are overnight sales and repurchases of collateral. Yale economist Gary Gorton explains that repos are the “deposit insurance” for the shadow banking system, which is now larger than the conventional banking system and is necessary for the conventional system to operate. The problem is that repos require “sales,” which means the mortgage notes have to remain free to be bought and sold. The mortgages are left unendorsed so they can be used in this repo market.

The evolution of the shadow banking system

Gorton observes that there is a massive and growing demand for banking by large institutional investors – pension funds, mutual funds, hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds – which have millions of dollars to park somewhere between investments. But FDIC insurance covers only up to $250,000. FDIC insurance was resisted in the 1930s by bankers and government officials and was pushed through as a populist movement: the people demanded it. What they got was enough insurance to cover the deposits of individuals and no more. Today, the large institutional investors want similar coverage. They want an investment that is secure, that provides them with a little interest, and that is liquid like a traditional deposit account, allowing quick withdrawal.

The shadow banking system evolved in response to this need, operating largely through the repo market. “Repos” are sales and repurchases of highly liquid collateral, typically Treasury debt or mortgage-backed securities – the securitized units into which American real estate has been ground up and packaged, sausage-fashion. The collateral is bought by a “special purpose vehicle” (SPV), which acts as the shadow bank. The investors put their money in the SPV and keep the securities, which substitute for FDIC insurance in a traditional bank. (If the SPV fails to pay up, the investors can foreclose on the securities.) To satisfy the demand for liquidity, the repos are one-day or short-term deals, continually rolled over until the money is withdrawn.

This money is used by the banks for other lending, investing or speculating. Gorton writes: “This banking system (the “shadow” or “parallel” banking system) – repo based on securitization – is a genuine banking system, as large as the traditional, regulated banking system. It is of critical importance to the economy because it is the funding basis for the traditional banking system. Without it, traditional banks will not lend, and credit, which is essential for job creation, will not be created.”

All behind the curtain of MERS

The housing shell game was made possible because it was all concealed behind an electronic smokescreen called MERS (an acronym for Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, Inc.). MERS allowed houses to be shuffled around among multiple, rapidly changing owners while circumventing local recording laws. Title would be recorded in the name of MERS as a place holder for the investors, and MERS would foreclose on behalf of the investors. Payments would be received by the mortgage servicer, which was typically the bank that signed the mortgage with the homeowner. The homeowner usually thinks the servicer is the lender, but in fact it is an amorphous group of investors.

This all worked until courts started questioning whether MERS, which admitted that it was a mere conduit without title, had standing to foreclose. Courts have increasingly held that it does not.

Making matters worse for the servicing banks, Fannie Mae sent out a memo telling servicers that in order to be reimbursed under HAMP – a government loan modification program designed to help at-risk homeowners meet their mortgage payments – the servicers would have to produce the paperwork showing the loan had been assigned to the trust.

The hasty solution was a rash of assignments signed by an army of “robosigners,” to be filed in the public records. But the documents are patent forgeries, making a shambles of county title records.

Four thousand marched in Oakland Nov. 19, 2011, to protest fallout from the banking collapse – foreclosures, school closures and police attacks on dissent. – Photo: ©David Bacon

Complicating all this are tax issues. Since 1986, mortgage-backed securities have been issued to investors through SPVs called REMICs (Real Estate Mortgage Investment Conduits). REMICs are designed as tax shelters; but to qualify for that status, they must be “static.” Mortgages can’t be transferred in and out once the closing date has occurred. The REMIC Pooling and Servicing Agreement typically states that any transfer significantly after the closing date is invalid.

Yet the newly robo-signed documents, which are required to begin foreclosure proceedings, are almost always executed long after the trust’s closing date. The whole business is quite complicated, but the bottom line is that title has been clouded not only by MERS but because the trusts purporting to foreclose do not own the properties by the terms of their own documents.

John O’Brien, register of deeds for the Southern Essex District of Massachusetts, calls it a “criminal enterprise.” On Jan. 18, he called for a full scale criminal investigation, including a grand jury to look into the evidence. He sent to Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz over 30,000 documents recorded in the Salem Registry that he says are fraudulent.

From lending machines to borrowing machines

The bankers have engaged in what amounts to a massive fraud, not necessarily because they started out with criminal intent, but because they have been required to in order to come up with the collateral – in this case real estate – to back their loans. It is the way our system is set up: The banks are not really creating credit and advancing it to us, counting on our future productivity to pay it off, the way they once did under the deceptive but functional façade of fractional reserve lending. Instead, they are vacuuming up our money and lending it back to us at higher rates.

The banks are not really creating credit and advancing it to us, counting on our future productivity to pay it off, the way they once did. Instead, they are vacuuming up our money and lending it back to us at higher rates.

“Instead of lending into the economy,” says British money reformer Ann Pettifor, “bankers are borrowing from the real economy.” She wrote in the Huffington Post in October 2010: “[T]he crazy facts are these: Bankers now borrow from their customers and from taxpayers. They are effectively draining funds from household bank accounts, small businesses, corporations, government treasuries and from, e.g., the Federal Reserve. They do so by charging high rates of interest and fees, by demanding early repayment of loans, by illegally foreclosing on homeowners, and by appropriating and then speculating with trillions of dollars of taxpayer-backed resources.”

Not only has the system destroyed county title records, but it is highly vulnerable to bank runs and systemic collapse. In the shadow banking system, as in the old fractional reserve banking system, the collateral is being double-counted: It is owed to the borrowers and the depositors at the same time. This allows for expansion of the money supply, but bank runs can occur when the borrowers and the depositors demand their money at the same time. And unlike the conventional banking system, the shadow banking system is largely unregulated. It doesn’t have the backup of FDIC insurance to prevent bank runs.

That is what happened in September 2008 following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, a major investment bank. Gary Gorton explains that it was a run on the shadow banking system that caused the credit collapse that followed. Investors rushed to pull their money out overnight. LIBOR – the London interbank lending rate for short-term loans – shot up to around 5 percent. Since the cost of borrowing the money to cover loans was too high for banks to turn a profit, lending abruptly came to a halt.

Fixing the system

The question is how to eliminate this systemic risk. As noted by The Business Insider: “Regulate shadow banking more tightly, and you probably have to also provide government backstops. Shudder. Try to shut the thing down or restrict it and you suck credit out of the system, credit which much of the non-financial ‘real’ economy uses and needs.”

Banco do Brasil, a public-owned bank that operates as a commercial venture, is Latin America’s biggest bank by assets. It is doing so well it is eying possible acquisition targets and opening branches in the United States.

Interestingly, countries with strong public sector banking systems largely escaped the 2008 credit crisis. These include the BRIC countries – Brazil Russia, India and China – which contain 40 percent of the global population and are today’s fastest growing economies. They escaped because their public sector banks do not need to rely on repos and securitizations to back their loans. The banks are owned and operated by the ultimate guarantor – the government itself. The public sector banking model deserves further study.

A system that requires the slicing and dicing of mortgages behind an electronic smokescreen so they can be bought and sold as collateral for the pawn shop of the repo market is fraught with perils and is unsustainable.

Whatever the solution, a system that requires the slicing and dicing of mortgages behind an electronic smokescreen so they can be bought and sold as collateral for the pawn shop of the repo market is obviously fraught with perils and is unsustainable. Please contact your state attorney general and urge him or her not to go through with the robo-signing settlement, which will be granting immunity for crimes that are not yet fully known. Phone numbers are here. The surface of this great shadowy second banking system has barely been scratched. It needs a very thorough investigation.

Ellen Brown is an attorney in Los Angeles and president of the Public Banking Institute. In “Web of Debt,” her latest of 11 books, she shows how a private cartel has usurped the power to create money from the people themselves and how we the people can get it back. Her websites are WebofDebt.com and EllenBrown.com. She can be reached at ellenhbrown@gmail.com. The Bay View contributed some of the citations in this story.

Revolutionary stories: The POOR Press 2012 collection

Adrian — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 06:35:34 +0000

by Tony Robles, POOR Magazine co-editor

POOR Press authors for 2012 are, in the back row from left, Terrilyn Woodfin, Ruyate Akio McGloughlin, Dee Allen, Bruce Allison, Joe Bolden; front row: co-teachers Martin Figueroa, Sandra Estafan and author and teacher Tiny aka Lisa Gray-Garcia.

To write with laughter, heart, fire and humility – to get those words down and draw the reader in – to make the reader warm with the fire of poetry, wet with the tears of memory, full with the soup of experience – leaving the reader satisfied and inspired to change the world – that is what the writer does. The latest offering from POOR Press is a down-home, humble, timely and inspiring collection of books written by poverty skolahs from POOR Magazine’s People Skool, aka Escuela de la Gente. People in academia spend lots of money to be able to learn how to articulate what is real, what is humble – to be able to express what comes so naturally to poverty skolahs who don’t have money to access the statuary world of academia.

This new collection is written with passion, with stories gleaned from the experiences of poverty skolahs who have lived through and survived houselessness, the criminal (in)justice system and isolation in Amerikkka. POOR Press provides publishing access to poverty skolahs whose important stories go untold in the classist and exclusionary world of book publishing. Poverty skolahs conceive their books – poetry, memoir or short stories – write the text and work on overall design.

Poverty skolah and mother of two Terrilyn Woodfin articulates houselessness and landlessness with passion in her book, “I am Homeless: The new face of Homelessness.” Her story begins in Knoxville where she sets off for San Francisco. She ends up in Santa Ana for two years, facing innumerable obstacles to housing and food. During hard times, which included her being ostracized unjustly from her church, she recalled the words of her spiritual mother who said she was going to go through a “great deal of heartache and the rollercoaster ride of her life before she would see the real blessings manifesting.”

Uprooted and not knowing where her family would sleep, Terrilyn felt the guilt of being a poor woman of color – guilty that she had let her kids down. But her faith remained strong with the knowledge that God never lets you down. Her writing is reminiscent of Filipino American author Carlos Bulosan, whose seminal novel, “America Is in the Heart,” published in 1946, painted a portrait of individuals who behaved in heroic yet unheralded ways – in contradiction to the ubiquitous racism and classism in society – to aid their neighbor. Similarly, Terrilyn’s experience shows that God looks out for us by working through people.

Dee Allen is an important poet, articulating the struggle of the workers, police brutality victims, migrants and houseless folks. “Unwritten Law” is the second volume of poems by Dee published by POOR Press. This moving collection of poems rises like fire. Dee eloquently decries the police state in “Requiescat,” a poem with a haunting refrain, “Let them rest,” that envisions a world without “enforcers of hate.”

“Unwritten Law” draws upon the history and presence of native peoples, the overlooked and those whose stories have been erased from history. Dee asks, who is the migrant in Amerikkka today? Dee’s poetic vision is the shared breath and heartbeat of the workers, the builders of civilization – the Zapotec day laborer, the Salvadorean youth, the Lebanese woman, the Senegalese taxi driver. How are these people terrorists? he asks. How are they criminals?

Dee Allen is a poet who continually puts himself on the line for the community, participating in civil disobedience – refusing to be intimidated when issues of justice are at the forefront. He is truly one of the best poets I know.

In the world of Joseph Bolden, real or imagined, all roads lead home – although he has been known to lose his way. Joe’s “Lost in Amerikkka” is anecdotal, weaving irony and humor into the quilt of struggle in connecting with loved ones and the important choices we make on our life’s journey. Well-travelled shoes adorn the cover of Joe’s book – perfect metaphor for the chaotic pace of society. Joe gets lost, his shoes covering the landscape from San Francisco to New York to Colorado to Hawaii. His stories of sweat lodges, the search for love, his neighborhood, his shoes, glasses, hat etc. make his book a journey not to be missed without a pair of well-worn shoes.

Lisa Gray-Garcia, aka Tiny, has bestowed on us a beautifully written and illustrated inter-generational book – as Tiny says, it’s for both parents and children – called “The Man in the Moon” (“El hombre en la luna”). The story is allegory at its finest, with indigenous farmers who thrive with their animals until the rains no longer come. At the top of a hill lives a man with a plentitude of food and water so the villagers ask for help, which he repeatedly refuses. When the man is confronted by what appears to be a mother and child appealing to his humanity and later transforms into the Orisha Yemoja, he finds that he is accountable for his self-centeredness and faces a fate that will allow him to make amends.

These books make for great reading. You can purchase any of these beautiful books on-line at http://www.poormag.info/static/. If you would like to publish your own book with POOR Press, you can enroll in POOR Magazine’s PeopleSkool revolutionary media program, which begins on Jan. 31. More info can be found at http://www.racepovertymediajustice.org/ or by calling POOR at (415) 863-6306.

Tony Robles, co-editor of POOR Magazine, can be reached at tonyrobles1964@hotmail.com.

Congolese say South Africa’s Congolese immigrant sweep targeted anti-Kabila refugees

Mary — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 01:26:17 +0000

by Ann Garrison

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Joseph Kabila shook hands with South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma in Lumumbashi, the capital of Congo’s Katanga Province, on June 21, 2011, five months before Congo’s presidential and parliamentary elections. On Nov. 12, five months later and only two weeks before the election, Zuma witnessed as the energy ministers of South Africa and the DRC inked the two countries’ hydroelectricity deal in Johannesburg. In December, in his capacity as chair of the Southern African Development Community organ on politics, defense and security cooperation, Zuma declared that Kabila’s re-election was valid, even though the EU, the Carter Center, the International Crisis Group and Congo’s Catholic Church had all declared it massively fraudulent.

South Africa is home to African political refugees and migrants seeking work from all over the African continent and, as in Europe and North America, immigrants are targets of xenophobia, harassment, intimidation, immigrant police sweeps and even geopolitically motivated attacks. On Friday, Dec. 20, members of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s immigrant community in Johannesburg contacted KPFA Radio to say that South Africa’s African National Congress government had instructed their police to arrest Congolese immigrants in Yeoville and other Johannesburg suburbs.

On Sunday, Jan. 22, South Africa’s Amandla! Alternative Media Collective put out a release calling on activists to appear at a Johannesburg magistrate’s court the next morning to support 200 Congolese immigrants who were, they said, “hounded out of their shops and homes by scores of South African police, then summarily arrested on ludicrous, trumped up charges of ‘public violence.’”

Amandla! Media also said that many of those arrested are activists opposed to the Kabila regime in their home country. They had gathered in front of the ruling African National Congress Party’s headquarters in December to protest South African President Jacob Zuma’s collaboration with Congolese President Joseph Kabila in stealing the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s presidential and parliamentary elections at the end of November. International observers, including the EU and the Carter Center, and Congo’s Catholic Church, agreed that the election was not only chaotic but also massively fraudulent.

Two hundred Congolese immigrants, especially activists opposed to the Kabila regime, were, they said, “hounded out of their shops and homes by scores of South African police, then summarily arrested on ludicrous, trumped up charges of ‘public violence.’”

After the mass arrests on Thursday, the South Africa Police Service publicly stated that their operation had been an illegal immigrant sweep, but they later said, instead, that they had arrested Congolese factions supporting Kabila and his leading challenger, Étienne Tshisikedi, for fighting with one another in Johannesburg streets. Amandla! Media said that both explanations were preposterous.

Protestors with a Congolese flag and a sign accuse South African President Jacob Zuma of supporting apartheid. Congolese immigrants said that the president’s African National Congress Party government harasses, intimidates and violates the civil rights of immigrants, most of all African immigrants. They say the ANC is thus repeating the discriminatory policies of apartheid. South African-born critics of the ANC government say that economic apartheid still exists and that the ANC is a government of, by and for the elites, who are still predominantly white, though they now include the ANC elite.

Jean-Pierre Lukamba, chair of the African Diaspora Forum, Amnesty International activist and Congolese refugee in South Africa, has been in hiding since Thursday, but available to press by phone. He said that there are roughly half a million Congolese refugees in the country and that the majority are political refugees who fled for their lives. He also said that although Thursday’s arrests were far more than an immigrant sweep, the ANC government is indeed guilty of mistreating immigrants, most of all those from other parts of Africa.

“The background of that arrest,” he said, “is that there is an organization here in South Africa called Congolese Democracy and Justice Campaign. They are campaigning for democracy and justice in Congo and last time they went to Capetown, they were doing a march. They went to the head office of the ANC to protest because there is evidence that President Jacob Zuma is supporting Joseph Kabila to stay in power by frauding the election.”

Kimbi Mayimona of the Forum of Congolese Organizations in South Africa said that no Kabila supporters had been arrested and that a leader of a pro-Kabila organization had been at the police station identifying those to be held and those to be released.

One Congolese protestor scooped up another, who had been injured when police fired rubber bullets at the crowd outside the African National Congress’s Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg on Dec. 6, 2011. They were there to protest South African President Jacob Zuma’s official declaration that incumbent Democratic Republic of the Congo President Joseph Kabila had been honestly re-elected, despite reports of massive election fraud. They also alleged that Zuma had collaborated with Kabila by flying ballots already marked for him from South Africa to Congo and by sending mercenaries to help Kabila control the Congolese population. Zuma’s public promise to send Kabila “logistical and security forces” had been reported on News 24-Cape Town in November.

Shortly before the Democratic Republic of Congo’s November election, Jacob Zuma announced his support for Kabila and their agreement on a deal to transmit hydroelectricity from the extension of Congo’s Grand Inga Dam to South Africa. The power had previously been promised to Australian mining corporation BHP Billiton to power an aluminum smelter in Congo’s Bas Congo Province.

News24-Cape Town reported on Nov. 12 that Zuma publicly promised Kabila “logistical and security support to help the DRC during its forthcoming elections” at the signing of the deal to transmit hydroelectric power from Congo to South Africa.

Monday’s news from South Africa:

1) Two of 22 Congolese immigrants still in custody have been released.

2) Twenty will remain in custody until a bail hearing on Jan. 31, 2012. This will give the arresting officers time to check with the Department of Homeland Affairs to see if their papers are in order.

3) Congolese began to share this video of Zuma at COP17, the climate change conference, in December lecturing that Congolese must not blame other people for their problems and protest in South Africa. In the same speech, he bragged of South Africa’s involvement in the First and Second Congo Wars and its critical role in “saving democracy” in Congolese elections, including the November election declared hugely fraudulent by even the most conservative establishment observers.

San Francisco writer Ann Garrison writes for the San Francisco Bay View, Global Research, Colored Opinions, Black Star News, the Newsline EA (East Africa) and her own website, Ann Garrison, and produces for AfrobeatRadio on WBAI-NYC, Weekend News on KPFA and her own YouTube Channel, AnnieGetYourGang. She can be reached at ann@afrobeatradio.com.

Jailhouse snitch used against Aiyana’s dad

Adrian — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:57:36 +0000

by Diane Bukowski

Charles Jones and his daughter, Aiyana Stanley-Jones, before she was killed by police

Detroit – Mertilla Jones, grandmother of Aiyana Stanley-Jones, the 7-year-old killed by Detroit police last year in a SWAT-style assault on her home, held Aiyana’s mother Dominika Stanley tightly in her arms as both wept uncontrollably in an elevator at 36th District Court in downtown Detroit Dec. 22.

They had just left the third session of the preliminary exam for Aiyana’s father, Charles Jones, 27, who faces first-degree murder and other charges in the killing of Je’Rean Blake two days before the police raid that killed Aiyana. They had hoped her father would be able to be home with his six little boys for Christmas.

“It will be another Christmas without Aiyana, and now it will be a Christmas without my son,” Jones said. “My sister is sick, I am sick, my family is suffering, but Officer Weekley, who killed Aiyana, is home for the holidays with his family on personal bond. It’s a total conflict of interest that Moran, the same prosecutor against my son, is also the prosecutor against Weekley.”

Charles Jones and Aiyana's mother Dominika Stanley at her funeral; some of Jones' little sons are at left.

The prosecution appears to be pulling out all stops to convict Jones, whose family believes it is a veiled attempt to get Weekley exonerated of charges of manslaughter and reckless use of a firearm.

Weekley shot Aiyana to death on May 16, 2010, in the course of the Special Response Team raid that included tossing a “flash-bang” grenade through the window under which she was sleeping with her grandmother. An insider who saw the initial film taken by A & E’s “First 48” camera crew of the raid said it shows without a doubt that Weekley aimed and shot deliberately into the house from its doorway within seconds after the grenade was thrown.

However, he said, the cameraman took the first film out after he saw police rushing out with Aiyana’s body, and replaced it with a second tape.

Police officer Joseph Weekley, who killed 7-year-old Aiyana Stanley-Jones

Detroit police said they were looking for Chauncey Owens, the fiancé of Aiyana’s aunt, who lived in the flat upstairs from Mertilla Jones and her family, in a poor neighborhood on Detroit’s East Side. They said they had a warrant charging him in the Blake killing.

There was a heavier than usual police presence in the court due to expectations that 36th District Court Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes might dismiss charges against Aiyana’s father this time. Owens, who had confessed to shooting Blake, refused for the third time to testify that Jones gave him the gun. His attorney, David Cripps, speaking for him, said the immunity agreement offered by the prosecution did not provide immunity against a charge of perjury.

Chauncey Owens listens to his attorney at an earlier exam.

Owens pled guilty to second-degree murder with a provision that he would “tell the truth” about the incident that occured in April of this year. This time, Moran told Owens he would face first-degree murder charges if he did not testify. Owens, however, remained calm, collected and silent.

Cripps and Jones’ attorney, Leon Weiss, of the law firm of Fieger, Fieger, Kenney, Giroux and Danzig, objected that only the presiding judge in the case, Wayne County Circuit Court Richard Skutt, could vacate the plea agreement. Judge Bryant-Weekes agreed.

Assistant Prosecutor Robert Moran

Moran has appeared to have no other case against Jones. He has not introduced the gun involved into evidence. He has produced no forensic testimony regarding fingerprints on the gun or other proof it belonged to Jones, or witnesses who said they saw Jones give Owens the gun to shoot Blake.

But at the 11th hour, Moran offered testimony from what Jones’ defense attorney Leon Weiss called a “jailhouse snitch,” Jay Schlenkerman, 49.

Moran said Schlenkerman gave a statement Nov. 26, 2011, that Owens bragged about the Blake killing to him and said Jones provided the gun, while both were incarcerated in Wayne County Jail.

Cripps earlier said that Owens was being held “in high-security protection at Wayne County Jail, separate from other inmates,” after Owens’ sentencing in front of Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Richard Skutt was adjourned for the fourth time Dec. 2.

36th District Court Judge E. Lynise Bryant-Weekes

At Weiss’ request, Bryant-Weekes adjourned the preliminary exam until Thursday, Jan. 28, at 1:30 p.m. so that he could prepare a brief arguing that Schlenkerman’s testimony should be excluded, in response to a brief filed that morning by Moran to allow it.

Despite Weiss’ passionate plea to allow his client a “reasonable bond” on a tether over the holidays, Bryant-Weekes remanded Jones back to Wayne County Jail. Weiss said Jones, who appears to have lost a significant amount of weight, is still grieving for his daughter.

Jay Schlenkerman – photo from Facebook

According to jail, court and Michigan State Police records, Schlenkerman has a lengthy criminal record. He is Caucasian, has resided in various downriver suburbs, and runs a business called Comet Floor Coverings, based both in Rockwood and Brownstown Township, according to Wayne County Clerk assumed names records. It has a Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Comet-Floor-Covering/202555589776866?v=info.

Schlenkerman was briefly brought into the courtroom by sheriffs, but through the courtroom door instead of the holding cells in back. A call to Wayne County Jail Dec. 24, however, revealed that he is still incarcerated. As he waited, expecting to testify that day, he appeared friendly and jocular with one police officer accompanying him.

Schlenkerman was most recently detained May 28, 2011, by Brownstown Township Police, who alleged felony kidnapping in their request for a warrant.

The charges were reduced in 33rd District Court to aggravated domestic violence, a misdemeanor. Schlenkerman was also charged with violating a personal protection order and contempt of court. He pled “no contest” and was sentenced to six months in jail with 34 days credit for time served, on July 1. That means his release date should have been approximately Nov. 26, the date of his alleged statement.

Schlenkerman also received 18 months probation, during which he is to have his driving privileges revoked for 36 weeks, cannot use alcohol or drugs, or have any contact with the victim.

In chronological order, Schlenkerman’s prior criminal record is as follows:

July 24, 1999: One count misdemeanor domestic violence, after arrest by the Southgate police; sentenced to 93 days in jail.
May 26, 2000: One count misdemeanor operating while intoxicated and one count felony operating while impaired, third offense notice, after arrest by Melvindale police; 90 days Wayne County Jail, two years probation.
Aug. 29, 2000: Misdemeanor driving with license suspended, revoked, denied, arrested by Dearborn Heights police; 90 days in jail.
March 14, 2001: Misdemeanor driving with suspended license, misdemeanor alcohol open container in vehicle, arrested by Taylor Police; 60 days in jail, 12 months probation.
Nov. 27, 2001: Misdemeanor driving with suspended license, arrested by Michigan State Police in Lenawee County; 35 days in jail.
April 4, 2002: Misdemeanor driving with suspended license, second or subsequent charge, arrested by Monroe County Sheriffs, fines and costs.
Oct. 17, 2002: Misdemeanor driving with suspended license, second or subsequent charge, arrested by Blissfield police; 93 days in jail, six months probation.
Dec. 13, 2003: Misdemeanor operating while intoxicated, third offense notice, arrested by Rockwood police; 60 days in jail, two years probation.
Aug. 9, 2005: Assaulting, resisting, obstructing police officer under MCL 750,81D1, a two year felony, arrested by Northville Township police; 60 days in jail.
Sept. 29, 2005: Misdemeanor driving with suspended license, second or subsequent offense, arrested by Lenawee County Sheriff; one year in jail.

Mertilla Jones, left, at candlelight vigil for Aiyana, with her father Charles Jones and mother Dominika Stanley at right

In many of the cases, Schlenkerman had numerous instances of “capias,” or failure to appear for a hearing, including sentencing hearings. There is no record that bench warrants were issued for his arrest in these instances.

According to Michigan law, a third or subsequent offense of drunk driving carries a term of up to five years in prison, no matter how long ago the previous offense occurred. A second or subsequent offense of operating with a suspended or revoked license carries up to one year in prison.

Wayne County records show that Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Maggie Drake sentenced Schlenkerman to two days to five years in state prison for probation violations in February of 2006, the most severe sentence he received. But State Police records do not show that sentence was carried out and he is not listed on the Michigan Department of Corrections Offender Tracking Information website.

Detroit-based journalist Diane Bukowski is the publisher of The Voice of Detroit, “the city’s independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought,” where this story first appeared. She was an investigative reporter for the past decade for the Michigan Citizen newspaper and has been an activist in union and people’s struggles for 40 years. She can be reached at diane_bukowski@hotmail.com.

A sourcebook for the media revolution

Mary — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:56:17 +0000

Book review of Project Censored’s ‘Censored 2012’ (New York: Seven Stories Press, October 2011, $19.95)

by Dr. Paul W. Rea

Even more than its predecessors, “Censored 2012” makes for highly engaging and informative reading. This collection is a well-mixed bag containing much that we need to know but typically don’t.

In part, this deficit occurs because many Americans are, in Neil Postman’s memorable phrase, “amusing ourselves to death” and also because many exhibit an aversion to discussing issues. But above all, this deficit results from increased media malpractice and censorship. When a study shows that regular viewers of Fox News are less informed – and likely more misinformed – than those who don’t follow the news, something is seriously amiss.

According to Project Censored director Mickey Huff, the corporate media are serving up a diet of “junk-food news to avoid telling the public what is really going on at home and abroad” (p. 12). If this strikes many readers as obvious, fewer seem fully aware of just how pervasive this censorship has become – how very little coverage many significant issues receive.

As a result, even Americans who consider themselves informed don’t understand how their government attempts to minimize or even eliminate public awareness. On Dec. 9, 2011, the climactic final day of the Durban Conference on Climate Change, NPR’s “Science Friday” featured a long segment on bedbugs. “Censored 2012” reveals that even less coverage – none at all, in fact – is afforded to ongoing federal preparations to use a real or contrived state of emergency as a pretext to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law and herd “dissidents” into mass holding camps (p. 85).

Both the book and the process that produces it are highly educational: As former director Peter Phillips observes, the democratized and educational nature of Project Censored invites faculty and students “to speak the truth to power with news and stories of the abuses of empire and the successes of our resistance” (p. 30). Under the guidance of present director Mickey Huff, this year’s volume delivers exceptional contributions, especially from students and faculty at San Francisco State University, Sonoma State University and Diablo Valley College in California. In all, close to 20 universities participated this year, with over 100 professors and several hundred students.

Dave Lindorff writes in “Toxic Intervention: Are NATO Forces Poisoning Libya with Depleted Uranium as They ‘Protect’ Civilians?” “Images of Libyan civilians and rebels celebrating around the burning hulks of the Libyan army’s tanks and armored personnel carriers, which had been hit by US, French and British aircraft ordnance … could well have been unknowingly inhaling the deadly dust of the uranium weapons favored by Western military forces for anti-tank warfare.”

As in previous volumes, this one includes the 25 “Top Censored Stories” of the year. Topping this year’s list is “More U.S. Soldiers Committed Suicide than Died in Combat”; the shocking significance, however, hardly declines at the other end: the massive disposal of toxic waste in Afghanistan and the use of depleted uranium weapons in Iraq, Afghanistan and possibly Libya (pp. 52-53). Since the early 1990s, the U.S. press has paid some attention to Gulf War Syndrome among American veterans exposed to the “toxic soup” but much less attention to the medical fallout within Iraq, where the population lives amid carcinogenic radioactivity.

This year’s volume is organized around “clusters,” key areas of related issues. These include “Health and the Environment,” “Media Distortion of Nonviolent Struggles,” and Peter Phillips and Craig Cekala’s “Human Cost of War and Violence”; all present readable, concise treatments of topics that are, of course, the subjects of many current books.

As its title suggests, “Censored 2012” features two essential topics: the mechanisms of media censorship and the key issues they’ve censored. Censorship, defined as one type of propaganda, itself takes many forms: skewed “framing, slight of content and appealing to emotion over logic, among other tactics of media manipulation ….” These methods involve de facto “conspiracies to manipulate or withhold information” (p. 37). Canadian scholar Randal Marlin presents an excellent overview of traditional propaganda techniques, including the more recent (and most useful) concept of “state crimes against democracy,” or SCADs.

Equally insightful is Jacob Van Vleet’s reprise of French sociologist Jacques Ellul (“The Technological Society,” 1964). In it, Professor Van Vleet notes that “propagandists often use a combination of true and false statements in their appeals,” thereby creating “the illusion of objectivity when in fact only one side of the issue at hand is being presented.”

In addition, Van Vleet indicates that much propaganda is “social,” aiming to influence a society’s lifestyle. Such propaganda, often in the form of advertising, not only promotes consumption and an uncritical belief in technology; it also encourages “individuals to believe that their society … holds the best way of life.” This leads to what Marx described as “false consciousness.” Van Vleet also rightly points to “conditioned reflex and myth,” paying particular attention to the societal rituals such as reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. These, according to Ellul, reinforce conditioned reflexes that impart excessive and exclusive “pride, patriotism and even awe” (pp. 316-19).

A Predator drone fires a missile. On April 21, 2011, Pentagon chief Robert Gates announced that President Barack Obama had approved the use of armed Predator drone aircraft in Libya.

Representing the category of censored issues, Ann Garrison’s “U.S. in Africa: Velvet Glove on a Military Fist” is especially revealing. Garrison makes points that will surprise many readers: that U.S. foreign aid to Africa, like that to Israel and Pakistan, is based on power projection: that conventional media claims notwithstanding, it often involves “covering a military fist with a velvet glove of humanitarian and development aid” (p. 388).

Ann Garrison makes points that will surprise many readers: that U.S. foreign aid to Africa … often involves “covering a military fist with a velvet glove of humanitarian and development aid.”

Citing well-known interventions, Garrison shows how U.N. peacekeepers paid by the Security Council are often combatants dispatched at the behest of the U.S. In Somalia, under the guise of fighting terrorism, these African “peacekeepers” actually expanded areas of armed conflict. In addition to having Africans do the dying, these “peacekeepers” have commonly consumed funds previously used for humanitarian aid, aggravating problems with agricultural production, famine and refugees. Garrison also reveals how, especially in Congo, the U.N. enabled the World Bank to facilitate massive plunder of natural resources by neighboring Uganda and Rwanda (pp. 389-403).

On April 22, 2011, a missile fired by a Predator drone hit Qaddafi’s residence in the Tripoli suburb of Tajura. – Photo: Mahmud Turkia, AFP/Getty Images

But the real clincher is her disclosure about pilotless drones, which are fast becoming the dominant means of delivering explosives from the air. It’s well known that since 2000 the CIA has made extensive use of Predator drones over Pakistan. In 2008, however, General Atomic unveiled its new Reaper drones, which can carry far more missiles than its Predators. Since the company makes both planes, it needed new markets for the Predator. Its marketing campaign, abetted by WIRED magazine, proposed using the older drones to “stop the genocide” in “the next Darfur.” Following this script, Obama’s “humanitarian hawk” Samantha Power persuaded the president that Predators could be deployed to fire Hellfire missiles at Libyans (pp. 397-399).

Other outstanding chapters include Mickey Huff, Abby Martin and Adam Bessie’s feisty “Framing the Messengers: Junk Food News and News Abuse for Dummies” and Kenn Burrows and Tom Altee’s meditative “Collaboration and the Common Good.”

Despite this diversity, the book does present unifying themes. Much as Occupiers unite around the idea that “the capital of government has succumbed to government by capital,” “Censored 2012” shows us that, to an increasingly shocking degree, freedom of information has succumbed to the corporatocracy.

Fortunately, this book goes a long way toward telling us what we need to know.

Paul W. Rea, PhD, is the author of “Mounting Evidence: Why We Need a New Investigation into 9/11” (2011). He can be reached at paulrea@mountingevidence.org. This review first appeared on Global Research.

Cynthia McKinney: U.S. war machine pervades Africa

Mary — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:55:22 +0000

by Cynthia McKinney

Most people know about being “sleepless in Seattle.” Well, I am “snowed in in Seattle!” But even 6 inches of snow in Seattle don’t keep me from becoming steamed when I read the latest news reports on the activities of the U.S. war machine:

A U.S. commando special operations team deployed near Iran “is to mentor military units belonging to the U.S.’ oil-rich Arab allies, who … consider Iran to be their primary foreign threat,” according to wired.com’s Danger Room. – Photo: Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Ashley Myers, U.S. Navy

At a time when U.S.-Iran tensions are the highest I have experienced in my lifetime, Danger Room of wired.com breaks a news story on Jan. 19, 2012, that a new United States commando special operations team is operating near Iran. Meanwhile, a columnist in Lebanon’s The Daily Star newspaper writes that Syria increasingly looks like Libya.

And at the same time, U.S. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta admits in a press conference that he believes that the annual number of sexual assaults in the U.S. military could number as high as 19,000. This is from the administration that shamefully accused the Libyan Jamahiriya military of issuing Viagra to its soldiers and using rape as a weapon.

And finally, coming hot on the heels of an Algeria-ISP report that the Obama administration offered to reconstitute the Libyan military, forming desert troops, special forces and a Libyan air force, tunisiefocus.com reports that U.S. troops are already in Libya – in Brega, Ras Lanouf and Sirte – in order to secure Libyan oil for Western markets at a very cheap price. Further, these reports indicate that U.S. troops are at Mitiga Air Base east of Tripoli and that NATO helicopters and war planes fly over Libyan towns, surveilling everything, including parties held by Libyans and that drones launched from a secret base in the Libyan desert surveille Libya and neighboring countries.

Cynthia McKinney’s smile suggests that being snowed in isn’t all misery.

Last week, I discussed numerous reports that I had read indicating that U.S. troops were on the island of Malta waiting for the word to deploy to Libya. If the above reports are correct, then it would appear that that word has been given. [In a Jan. 22 email, Cynthia McKinney points to a Jan. 21 story by Press TV, “US deploys 12,000 troops in Libya.”]

Interestingly, the presence of U.S. troops was reported in several African, Libyan and Russian online sites, yet there was no response from either Malta or the U.S. In fact, the Russian site za-afriku.ru as late as Jan. 19, 2012, wrote, “The administration of the United States still has not refuted a lot of messages in various media for the transfer of 12,000 troops on Malta as a preliminary step to the further redeployment in Libya in order to control the deteriorating situation in the country.”

I am pleased to report that both Malta and the U.S. embassy in Malta, while neglecting the many reports out there describing U.S. and NATO activities in Libya, felt compelled to respond to my report of this information in apparently coordinated responses. The government of Malta stated in its one line response, “The allegations are completely false.” The U.S. embassy in Malta followed suit.

Both Malta and the U.S. embassy in Malta, while neglecting the many reports out there describing U.S. and NATO activities in Libya, felt compelled to respond to my report.

However, I want to stress that while the responses are welcome and appreciated, given events of the recent past, it is U.S. activities in Libya that are of utmost concern at this moment. All U.S. troops must be brought home, yet the following video was posted today of the U.S. war machine on the roll, destination unknown:

As you watched that video (one of four YouTube videos of the same train, this one made by Andrew Tuckman, who wrote: “I began filming this after a dozen or so train cars went by on a stretch of track south of Santa Cruz, California. Where are the military vehicles going? Why are they being shipped? What could this possibly be for? Barack Obama, what are you up to?”), I hope you thought about the number of teachers or nurses or solar heating systems that could be procured with the money wasted on this massive number of tanks, going where?

TunisieFocus.com uses this photo to illustrate its Jan. 18, 2012, story, “Les américains débarquent en Libye” (“Americans debark in Libya”).

Well, right now, the U.S. admittedly has special forces in Uganda and South Sudan, 9,000 troops in Kuwait, radar and, for the first time ever, U.S. troops in Israel. Drone bases across the African continent are in Djibouti, Seychelles, Ethiopia and Kenya. On drones, Human Rights Watch says, “CIA drone strikes have become an almost daily occurrence around the world, but little is known about who is killed and under what circumstances.”

Drone strikes occur in Somalia and bases are expanding to the Arabian Peninsula. Even worse, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), an adjunct to the U.S. war machine, has affiliates all over the world – just ask Nicaragua and Venezuela about their experiences with the NED

This photo, illustrating the Jan. 19 story, “Hundreds of American troops landed on the coast of Libya,” on za-afriku.ru, has no caption in the English translation, but the file is called “USA-jokes.”

Nigerian military sources have confirmed for African news outlets that U.S. troops are scheduled to be deployed to Nigeria after AFRICOM’s 2008 war game scenario that saw 20,000 U.S. troops maintaining “security” of the Niger Delta oil fields within a dissolved and anarchistic Nigeria. That war game setting was 2013. This is Plan Colombia.

Does the Obama administration plan an African continent-wide Plan Colombia? Why such a militarization of U.S. relationships all over the world – and even here at home? Will chaos and wars – like what is happening in Libya today – be created all over Africa and the rest of Asia?

Does the Obama administration plan an African continent-wide Plan Colombia? Will chaos and wars – like what is happening in Libya today – be created all over Africa and the rest of Asia?

Last week, I sent a video of Amnesty International admitting that the allegation of “African mercenaries” in Libya was a lie; at the time, it was the U.S. and NATO that had employed mercenaries – not only the Qataris, U.S. contractors, Italians, French and British special forces, but also including the members of the National Transitional Council. That message also included a video of an African beaten to death by these Libyan U.S./NATO allies.

In a position paper for the National Defense University authored by Gen. William E. “Kip” Ward, commander of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), this photo is captioned: “Marine teaches Ghanaian soldier to use compass during military-to-military familiarization event.” – Photo: Nicole Teat, U.S. Marine Corps

That message went viral and forced a response from the authorities. Please circulate this message widely so that maybe we can get some more responses from the administration about its policy direction. Contact the White House; tell them to bring our young men and women home, keep the tanks home and don’t use them.

Tell the White House that you will cast your vote for peace – to stop the drones and bring our troops home.

Cynthia McKinney, former congresswoman and presidential candidate, is the people’s peace ambassador to the world.

Finally, a sad day in journalism continues. I just received word that the owner of the Atlanta Jewish Times, Andrew Adler, apologized for saying that the Israeli government ought to consider killing Barack Obama. This is outrageous. I have been “deconstructed” by this very same publication, so I am doubly saddened by this kind of loose talk by someone of authority and responsibility at the Atlanta Jewish Times indicating that assassinating President Obama should be an option that remains on the table for Israel to carry out. Enuff said.

For news from, by and about Cynthia McKinney, former Georgia congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, subscribe to her Updates at http://lists.allthingscynthiamckinney.com/listinfo.cgi/updates-allthingscynthiamckinney.com. She can be reached at Cynthia@runcynthiarun.org.

Martin Luther King Day Special on KPFA Jan. 16, 2012, 8 a.m., featuring an interview with Cynthia McKinney by host Minister of Information JR Valrey

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

San Francisco Bay View

‘Skin deep’ in more ways than one

Part 1

Part 2

Fact box

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Ripple effects of Corcoran ASU hunger strike

For many years, we’ve been dirt under the rug, left for dead by those in society who turn a blind eye, only to be cast as outlaws and black, brown, yellow and white trash.

These underground rules are being used as a gateway to target certain inmates who CDC(R) considers too active, or to later validate them as alleged gang members for inciting or leading certain racial groups.

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‘People Power’ pries Abu-Jamal from punitive administrative custody

Prison authorities misuse administrative custody as repression against inmates for their political activism, their complaining about poor conditions in prison, their roles as jailhouse lawyers and often for racist reasons.

Prison authorities nationwide misuse solitary confinement to “silence political prisoners.”

Last October, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture Juan Mendez called on all countries worldwide to ban the use of solitary confinement of inmates as punishment and/or an extortion technique, except in very exceptional circumstances.

Message from Wadiya A. Jamal, wife of Mumia Abu-Jamal

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Political persecution at Pelikkkan Bay State Prison

We are the only class of New Afrikan/Black prisoners in the entire country who are forbidden to speak the name of the author of the book “Soledad Brother” and are punished for doing so. It is considered gang activity.

Combined we have close to 1,000 years in solitary confinement. The CDC is using our persecution as a warning for the Black prison population.

This very article was confiscated the first time I attempted to send it to the Bay View. I also received a serious disciplinary report for writing this article and it will be used to deny my release from the SHU when I become eligible in 2014.

Pelican Bay State Prison Second Level Review: Warden’s Level Decision

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Community benefits win big: Construction contracts and jobs for Oaklanders

Pack the Oakland City Council meeting Tuesday, Feb. 7, regarding local hire and a Jobs Center

What she has done will slow down the Oakland process of importing labor and exporting capital.

Her legislation forces all contractors to demonstrate their history of delivering community benefits to a local community in which they work. If they have no such history, they must joint venture with a contractor who has such a history.

Desley Brooks on KPFA’s Education Today

For them to even compete to get that job, 33 percent of their core workforce would have to be Oakland residents.

Oakland spends millions and millions of dollars for construction contracts and should recirculate those dollars in our communities.

Put Oaklanders first!

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Jesus Macias: IGI Duarte fabricated evidence that ‘validated’ me as a gang member

“But I have that cell search slip IGI E. Duarte gave me, and there was no contraband or gang material ever found in my cell that morning! They didn’t care and rubber stamped me all the way through OCS/SSU (Office of Correctional Safety Special Services Unit) and validated me!”

Harold Velarde: IGI Duarte broke my leg

“C/O Duarte grabs my neck while I’m facing the wall and slams my face into it. I turn away from the wall ‘cause of the surprise and C/O Duarte puts his hands on my shoulders and pushes down with all his weight. My femur then snaps … They placed a steel plate aside my femur.”

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A political obituary of Etta James

Etta James: Rebel until the end

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How you can help

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Justice makes a nation great

Hate and indifference – and it goes by many names: racism, sexism, homophobia, poverty, to name just a few – are powerful tools that the ruling class minority has used to keep the majority competing against one another.

The actual and spiritual poverty that results from the unequal distribution of wealth is a form of oppression.

We are committed to contributing to meaningful and lasting change. And this is part of what keeps us amongst the sane. We understand, and always have, that the price that we will pay for this is the efforts to silence us, to isolate and destroy us!

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Feeling death at our heels: An update from the frontlines of the struggle

“Gang” is a term that encompasses leftist ideologies, political and politicized prisoners, jailhouse lawyers and most anyone who in the opinion of Institutional Gang Investigations (IGI) is not passively accepting his role as a commodity in the prison industrial complex.

We took up a strategy which would pull back the curtain on the state’s practice of domestic torture which has been so well hidden from the people for so long, a strategy in which some of us may yet die: THE HUNGER STRIKE.

Their own guilt and fear caused them to assemble some 26 officers before opening my cell and piling on top of my unconscious form in order to shackle my arms and legs in chains and put me in an ambulance.

Because all we have to wash or shower with in these freezing cells is cold or lukewarm water, 80 percent of us housed in this 4BIL-C-Section short corridor have contracted a cold, upper respiratory tract infection or flu.

The warden of CSP-Corcoran-SHU was effectively repealing the single special purchase order for cold weather items without explanation.

Would you submit to snitchery, kowtow to your torturers and become a tool to condemn others to that same fate? Or would you fight, resist to the bitter end, give your life to expose such evil, greedy, draconian hypocrites for what they really are?

A common practice of corrupt political interests is to criminalize dissent and criticism. Who will care? We are prisoners; who will know these truths?

The ultimate arbiter of our fate – and this society’s fate – is the people. YOU.

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The trust that Georgia prisoners placed in activists outside the walls to organize in support of their demands was betrayed.

Scores of prisoners alleged to be strike leaders were punitively transferred and locked down in the wake of the strike. Dozens more who were not strike leaders were savagely beaten, as exemplary reprisals for the strike, and denied medical attention afterward.

Inmates with debilitating and life threatening conditions are still mostly untreated. Educational programs are available to less than 5 percent of prisoners, and thousands of Georgia’s prisoners as young as 14, 15 and 16 years old continue to be confined in adult institutions with adults.

We are here to reaffirm our commitment to the prisoners who made a principled stand for their own and each other’s human rights a year ago.

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How easily we forget

Our struggle is one of resistance against that which has been forced upon us. The whole system conspired against New Afrikans, subjecting many of us to outright torture at the hands of those overseeing the prison industrial complex.

How easily we forget – in California, prisoners being murdered in cold blood at the hand of prison guards who enjoyed and celebrated the kill, like hunting wild animals.

Do we forget the Corcoran prison guards who set up gladiator-staged fights where 50 prisoners were wounded and seven fatally wounded between 1989 and 1995?