San Francisco Bay View

Palestinian prisoners’ mass hunger strike concludes after agreement is reached

Mary — Wed, 16 May 2012 05:55:25 +0000

by Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

Ramallah, May 15, 2012 – After nearly a full month of fasting, around 2,000 Palestinian political prisoners ended last night their mass hunger strike upon reaching an agreement with the Israeli Prison Service (IPS) to attain certain core demands. Addameer lauds these achievements of the prisoners’ movement and can only hope that Israel will implement any policy changes in good faith. Addameer especially commends those individuals who engaged in open hunger strike for over two months, displaying remarkable steadfastness in the struggle for their most basic rights.

Prisoners in Palestine, inspired by the 12,000 California prisoners who joined the hunger strike last September called by prisoners in solitary confinement in the Pelican Bay SHU, started hunger striking on Sept. 27, declaring, “Across the world, prisoners stand on hunger strike, demanding dignity and justice,” and have continued on and off ever since until the settlement last night. This rally Ramallah, with family members displaying photos of their imprisoned loved ones, marked the first week of last fall’s strike. – Photo: Raquel Rivas

The demands raised in the collective hunger strike, which was launched on April 17, included an end to the IPS’ abusive use of isolation for “security” reasons, which currently affects 19 prisoners, some of whom have spent 10 years in isolation, and a repeal of a series of punitive measures taken against Palestinian prisoners following the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, including the denial of family visits for all Gaza prisoners since 2007 and denial of access to university education since June 2011.

Prisoners also called for an end to Israel’s practice of detaining Palestinians without charge or trial in administrative detention. Eight prisoners, including five administrative detainees, had already begun their hunger strikes as early as the end of February.

The details of the agreement signed last night by the prisoners’ committee representing the hunger strikers was recounted today to Addameer lawyer Fares Ziad in his visit to Ahed Abu Gholmeh, who is a member of the committee, and to Addameer lawyer Mahmoud Hassan during his visit to Ahmad Sa’adat in Ramleh prison medical clinic, who conveyed what he was told last night when members of the committee came to Ramleh to announce the end of the hunger strike.

There will be an end to the use of long-term isolation of prisoners for “security” reasons. Family visits that have been denied based on vague “security reasons” will be reinstated.

According to Ahed Abu Gholmeh, the nine members of the hunger strike committee met yesterday with a committee consisting of IPS officials and Israeli intelligence officers and determined the stipulations of their agreement. The written agreement contained five main provisions: The prisoners would end their hunger strike following the signing of the agreement; there will be an end to the use of long-term isolation of prisoners for “security” reasons, and the 19 prisoners will be moved out of isolation within 72 hours; family visits for first degree relatives to prisoners from the Gaza Strip and for families from the West Bank who have been denied visits based on vague “security reasons” will be reinstated within one month; the Israeli intelligence agency guarantees that there will be a committee formed to facilitate meetings between the IPS and prisoners in order to improve their daily conditions; there will be no new administrative detention orders or renewals of administrative detention orders for the 308 Palestinians currently in administrative detention, unless the secret files, upon which administrative detention is based, contains “very serious” information.

For the five administrative detainees on protracted hunger strikes, including Bilal Diab and Thaer Halahleh, who engaged in hunger strike for a miraculous 77 days, their administrative detention orders will not be renewed and they will be released upon the expiration of their current orders. These five have been transferred to public hospitals to receive adequate healthcare during their fragile recovery periods. In regards to Israel’s practice of administrative detention as a whole, Ahmad Sa’adat further noted that the agreement includes limitations to its widespread use in general. Addameer is concerned that these provisions of the agreement will not explicitly solve Israel’s lenient and problematic application of administrative detention, which as it stands is in stark violation of international law.

Addameer has observed that Israel has consistently failed to respect the agreements it executes with Palestinians regarding prisoners’ issues. For this reason, it will be essential for all supporters of Palestinian political prisoners to actively monitor the events of the next few months to ensure that this agreement is fully implemented. As a human rights organization committed to the international standards of the rights of prisoners, Addameer will also continue to monitor closely the conditions inside Israeli prisons in order to assure that conditions meet compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law.

On the day commemorating 64 years since the Palestinian Nakba, it is regrettable that it has taken the near-starvation of Palestinian political prisoners en masse to call attention to their plight; it is therefore imperative to take this opportunity to not only applaud their achievements but also to push forward lobbying efforts on their behalf and demand a just and permanent resolution for their cause.

On the day commemorating 64 years since the Palestinian Nakba, it is regrettable that it has taken the near-starvation of Palestinian political prisoners en masse to call attention to their plight; it is therefore imperative to take this opportunity to not only applaud their achievements but also to push forward lobbying efforts on their behalf and demand a just and permanent resolution for their cause. Addameer extends its utmost gratitude to the dedicated activists and institutions, including members of civil society and the diplomatic community, who have supported the Palestinian prisoners in their campaign for dignity.

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association can be reached at P.O. Box 17338, Jerusalem, phone +972 (0)2 296 0446 / 297 0136, fax +972 (0)2 296 0447, email info@addameer.ps, website www.addameer.org. This story first appeared at http://www.addameer.org/etemplate.php?id=481. See “Palestinian prison hunger strikers declare solidarity with California prison hunger strikers,” “3,500 Palestinian prisoners in Israel on hunger strike on Prisoners’ Day” and “1,600 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike since April 17.”

Poor little rich Haiti to be fleeced of copper-silver-gold via Caracol deep-water port

Mary — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:54:02 +0000

by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery

A turtle swims in the pristine waters of Caracol Bay, one of the world's most beautiful bays, set to become a deep water port to facilitate the plundering of northeastern Haiti’s plentiful mineral riches. President Martelly says the port will be “built with the U.S. government’s help.”

Show me a corporate boss who calls Haiti the “poorest country in the Western Hemisphere,” and I’ll show you a con artist preparing to fleece Haiti. Likewise, show me a Western technocrat who bemoans Haiti’s “dramatic deforestation due to charcoal production,” and I’ll show a bio-pirate or vandal preparing to wreck Haiti’s remaining cloud-forest and mangrove-forest ecosystems.

It turns out that the real plan for Haiti’s northeastern region – especially the Caracol Bay area – is one that was hatched by Canadian mining corporations, with the U.S. and South Korean sweatshop zone being a side project and distraction. If this mining plan is given a green light while Haiti is under foreign occupation, it will permanently strip the country of much of its mineral, cultural and ecological wealth.

If this mining plan is given a green light while Haiti is under foreign occupation, it will permanently strip the country of much of its mineral, cultural and ecological wealth.

In a recent interview with Canada’s Financial Post, Majescor Resources Inc. CEO Dan Hachey was effusive about Michel Martelly’s installment as president because he expects Martelly’s policy of mimicking the Dominican Republic (DR) to be a boon to the mining sector.

Hachey enthusiastically noted that “30 years ago, there was no mining sector to speak of in the Dominican Republic ….

Dominican Republic Pueblo Viejo mine on Aug. 7, 2009; one would be hard put to find deforestation due to charcoal production that looks quite as bad as this. – Photo: Mining Journal

“In that short period of time they’ve seen the development of the Pueblo Viejo Project [by Barrick and Goldcorp], which is one of the world’s largest gold deposits – and is pretty much a neighbor of ours.

“They’re going to be coming on with production this year.”

This glowing picture omits the fact that Barrick and Goldcorp have come under strong popular opposition in the DR. In a country where 20 percent of the population lacks access to drinking water, these companies are accused of polluting 2,500 cubic meters of water per hour with the vast quantities of cyanide needed to process 24,000 tons of ore a day by opencast – or open-pit – mining. Open-pit mining is banned by the European Union. Activists in the DR have joined forces with a broader group called Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros de América Latina (OCMAL) that has launched a campaign to end this practice in the region.

There is great concern that the DR’s biggest water reservoir, which is close to the mining operations, is continuously at risk of cyanide contamination, since stories of spills and massive fish die offs caused by mining companies are legion. Barrick and Goldcorp have also been accused of dynamiting mountains and destroying Taino Indian archaelogical sites.

In this April 10, 2012 photo, Haitians watch as workers build a road through the mountains that will lead to an exploratory drill site in the department of Trou Du Nord, Haiti. Two mining companies are drilling around the clock to determine how to get the gold, silver and copper out. – Photo: Dieu Nalio Chery, AP

Like the Pueblo Viejo region of the DR currently under exploitation, the spot being eyed for mining by Majescor in Haiti – a 50-square-kilometer area called the SOMINE property – is part of broader region, replete with archeological sites, situated along a metal-rich mountain ridge running from southeast DR to northern Haiti. This was formerly known simply as the Massif du Nord but has become the “Massif du Nord Metallogenic (or Mineralization) Belt.”

SOMINE is an acronym for Société Minière du Nord-Est S.A. and is described in the mineral trade sheets as a “Haitian affiliate mining company.” It is 66.4 percent owned by Majescor, with the rest being owned by Haiti’s elite. Majescor is still a relatively small company that conducts mineral surveys.

The SOMINE property is surrounded by other mining properties owned jointly by Majescor and much larger concerns like Eurasian Minerals and Newmont Mining. Once Majescor’s surveys are complete, it plans to find a big partner, like Barrick, Eurasian or Newmont to handle the extractive part of the project.

Curiously, the area of the SOMINE property was initially surveyed as early as “the 1970s by the U.N. Development Program, with some very good results [but the project was not pursued, then] there was a feasibility study done by the Germans [Bundesanstalt fur Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR)] in 1980, and there was further drilling done in the 1990s by Canadian junior [mining companies],” recalled Hachey.

During the 1980s, the area was explored again by the UNDP and also surveyed by the French Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minière (BRGM), both of which reported finding only copper.

The metal-rich mountain ridge running from southeast DR to northern Haiti was formerly known simply as the Massif du Nord but has become the “Massif du Nord Metallogenic (or Mineralization) Belt.”

The official story is that an abundance of copper had until recently obscured the fact that the area’s ore is also rich in silver and gold, and this was discovered from Majescor’s recent prospects of Douvray, Blondin and Faille-B. However, the story could just as well be that the mining executives were biding their time and waiting for a “stable” non-nationalistic government to take effect before initiating their projects.

The mineral rights to the area were assigned to SOMINE under a Mining Convention executed on May 5, 2005 – valid until March 9, 2020 – between this company and the post-Aristide coup government. After this, it did not take long for Haiti’s mountains to start to glitter. For example, an exploration of the Faille-B prospect in 2007 found a gold vein that averaged 42.7 grams of gold per ton of ore (g/t) over 6 meters, including values of 107.5 g/t of gold over one meter.

According to Hachey, April 11, 2012, assays from Blondin found:

0.45 percent copper over 96.5 meters;
0.3 percent copper over 12 meters, including 0.61 percent copper over 1.5 meters; 154 grams of silver per ton (g/t) over 12 meters, including 869 g/t silver over 1.5 meters.

March 13, 2012, results from Blondin discovered:

72.4 g/t silver over 15 meters;
16.9 g/t silver over 113 meters, including 6.2 g/t silver over 1.5 meters; 0.43 percent copper over 113 meters, including 4.44 percent copper over 1.5 meters.

In April 2012 an EMX-Newmont joint venture and the Haitian government signed a Memorandum of Understanding that allows exploration drilling while a Mining Convention is being ratified to permit development. Under this new MOU, the Savane La Place gold prospect is the first project selected for drilling. – Source: http://www.eurasianminerals.com/new/Haiti.asp

Feb. 1, 2012, results from Douvray discovered:

255 g/t silver over 13.5 meters, including 2,069 g/t silver over 1.5 meters; 0.35 percent copper over 13.5 meters, including 0.52 percent copper over 1.5 meters; 0.02 g/t gold over 13.5 meters, including 0.04 g/t gold over 1.5 meters;
277 g/t silver over 13.5 meters, including 1,428 g/t silver over 1.5 meters; 0.18 percent copper over 13.5 meters, including 0.52 percent copper over 1.5 meters; 0.04 g/t gold over 13.5 meters, including 0.04 g/t gold over 1.5 meters.

These highly concentrated deposits of copper, silver and gold should reasonably represent a new found wealth for Haiti at a time of dire need of resources for the country’s reconstruction. But if the DR is to serve as an example, Haiti will not benefit from its minerals.

These highly concentrated deposits of copper, silver and gold should reasonably represent a new found wealth for Haiti at a time of dire need of resources for the country’s reconstruction. But if the DR is to serve as an example, Haiti will not benefit from its minerals.

In the DR, Barrick owns 60 percent of the Pueblo Viejo gold mine and Goldcorp Inc. owns the remaining 40 percent. To get a sense of the scale of the greed, one need only consider that currently the Pueblo Viejo mine is slated to produce 1 million ounces of gold per year at a cost of only US$20-$50 per ounce, making it one of the lowest-cost gold mines in the world.

Hachey comments with evident enthusiasm, “What we’re most excited about is that we found some silver, which was never really realized before. It’s the first silver discovery in Haiti.

Majescor has found fabulous riches in the 50-square-kilometer SOMINE property in Haiti’s Massif du Nord Mineralization Belt.

“Part of the reason why it was never really discovered was that historically there was so much copper prevalent – there’s a lot of outcropping at surface. The people who did the work before did not do much testing, even for gold.

“The geology is a little complex for a copper porphyry, but in a good way. The surprises that we’re getting are all good ones.”

As major draws for a big mining partner to this next phase of the project, Hachey is advertising that, unlike Port au Prince, which was destroyed by the earthquake, Cap Haïtien is a pleasant place for a Canadian mining executive and his family to come to. In addition he notes that there are plans for “the construction of a deep-water port at Caracol,” only 15 kilometres from the SOMINE property and near Cap Haïtien.

The textile factories’ contributions to the degradation of Caracol Bay should be trivial compared to the damage from opencast gold mining and construction of a deep-water port.

This first official announcement of a deep-water port for Caracol explains in part why there has been no effort to mitigate the ecological effects of the massive free-trade (sweatshop) zone inaugurated in March 2012 in that area: The textile factories’ contributions to the degradation of Caracol Bay should be trivial compared to the damage from opencast gold mining and construction of a deep-water port.

Update

Monday, May 7, 2012, Le Matin – Martelly announces that the construction of a port will soon start in Fort-Liberte [near Caracol], in the Northeast. The port will cost US$179 million and is supposed to be “built with the U.S. government’s help,” but it will likely be entirely owned by U.S. concerns.

Recommendations from Haiti Chery

Dady Chery grew up at the heart of an extended working-class family in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She emigrated to New York when she was 14 and since then has traveled throughout the world, living in Europe and several North American cities. She writes in English, French and her native Créole and holds a doctorate. She can be reached at dc@dadychery.org. This story first appeared on her blog, Haiti Chery.

Gov. Brown increases prison budget, cuts basic services

Mary — Tue, 15 May 2012 01:29:18 +0000

by Isaac Ontiveros, Californians United for a Responsible Budget

Gov. Jerry Brown could eliminate or reduce solitary confinement with the stroke of a pen, a decision that would cut in half the cost of housing nearly 5,000 California prisoners in solitary confinement – and one that 12,000 California prisoners called on him to make when they simultaneously starved themselves during last year’s hunger strikes. His decision today to expand prison spending instead, while cutting essential services, calls into question whether his Corrections Department is negotiating in good faith with the hunger strike representatives. Stated Peter Schey, who heads the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, at the March 20 release of a petition to the United Nations requesting an investigation: “California holds more prisoners in solitary confinement than any other state in the United States or any other nation on earth. The treatment of these prisoners is barbaric and, numerous experts agree, amounts to torture.” Gov. Brown’s decision comes on the same day Israel is conceding to the demands of nearly 1,600 Palestinian hunger strikers by emptying all solitary confinement cells and allowing families to visit their imprisoned loved ones.

Predicting a $16 billion budget shortfall, Gov. Jerry Brown today proposed an additional $8 billion in spending cuts. Yet his May Revise budget shows that the governor and the Department of Corrections hope to make as few changes as possible to the bloated CDCR in order to come into compliance with the Supreme Court’s Plata ruling to reduce overcrowding, advocates charged today.

“Of course we applaud the goal of reducing corrections spending; however, the way to do that isn’t to increase the corrections budget,” comments Debbie Reyes of the California Prison Moratorium Project. The governor’s plan includes increasing Corrections spending from $8.082 billion up to $8.889 billion in this budget year, an increase of $807 million. “Why are we increasing General Fund spending on Corrections by 10 percent while we’re cutting In Home Supportive Services, cutting funds for our public colleges, cutting Workforce Development and cutting Health and Human Services?” asks Reyes.

Despite the court ruling and Gov. Brown’s criminal justice realignment plan, the May Revise calls for expanding California’s prison system.

“Building more prisons that we don’t need and can’t afford is the policy that got us into this mess in the first place,” commented Emily Harris of Californians United for a Responsible Budget. “CDCR’s approach to the intertwined budget and prison crises has been to hit the pause button, but now they’re ready to fast forward more prison and jail cells. It is past time to reverse a failed policy that has made California poorer at the expense of our most vulnerable residents.”

The savings proposed by closing the California Rehabilitation Center (CRC) are eliminated by plans to expand new infill beds at three existing prisons, convert the closed DeWitt Nelson Youth Facility to an adult prison, expand the Folsom Transitional Treatment Facility to house women, and open and operate the new California Health Facility.

“We’re very disappointed that Gov. Brown has turned from the opportunity to continue to reduce the number of people in prison. Now is the time for a real overhaul of the sentencing and parole laws that fueled the growth of the system over the past three decades,” said Gail Brown of Life Support Alliance. Today’s proposal suggests returning to the courts to increase the population reduction benchmark from 137.5 percent to 145 percent.

Gail Brown continues, “If we implemented the Alternative Custody Program and compassionate release, expanded medical parole, developed a geriatric parole process and actually released life-term prisoners who are being held way past their minimum release date as prescribed by law, we wouldn’t be trying to build all these expensive new prison beds.”

The budget proposes slashing authorization to borrow over $4.1 billion from AB900 prison construction funds but allocates an additional $500 million to counties to expand jail capacity, adding to the $1.2 billion awarded to counties earlier this year. “The governor is not solving the prison crisis by encouraging a bigger jail crisis,” said Kevin Michael Key of Critical Resistance. “If more state money is to flow to the counties as a part of realignment, Sacramento should be encouraging counties to spend that money on social services.”

“Let’s invest our scarce tax dollars in Californians rather than sink it into building more jails,” added Key.

California Prison Moratorium Project, Life Support Alliance and Critical Resistance are all members of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, a statewide coalition of more than 50 organizations working to CURB prison spending by reducing the number of prisons and prisoners in California. CURB’s detailed response to the Corrections provisions of the May Revise and CDCR’s “Future of California Corrections” report can be found at http://curbprisonspending.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CURB-response-to-CDCR-Future-of-California-Corrections-Final-1.pdf. Bay View staff contributed to this story.

Congressman John Lewis in Oakland: Civil rights legend takes center stage

Mosi — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:53:23 +0000

by Toni Renee Battle

Then SNCC leader, now Congressman John Lewis led the first Selma-to-Montgomery march for voting rights on March 7, 1965, when 600 marchers were attacked by police in riot gear, who fractured Lewis’ skull on a day remembered as Bloody Sunday. Before going to the hospital, Lewis appeared before television cameras demanding intervention by President Johnson, who, eight days later, appeared before a joint session of Congress to demand passage of the Voting Rights Act. It was passed Aug. 3, 1965.

Excitement filled the sanctuary as five generations sat in the audience waiting to hear a legend speak. Oakland’s Beebe Memorial Cathedral was packed from the main floor to the church balcony filled with residents of all races, sexual orientations and faiths. They were all here to hear the legend speak.

Applause broke out and necks craned to see over church hats and fans wagging throughout the burgundy pews. The legend entered the sanctuary and climbed the stairs to the pulpit. The congregation jumped to their feet and clapped for over five minutes. The moderator stated, “No introductions are needed. Ladies and gentlemen, with great honor tonight we are in the presence of greatness. Tonight we will hear from Congressman John Lewis!” Her announcement was met with more thunderous applause.

The city of Oakland was all abuzz about the Barbara Lee and Elihu Harris Lecture Series, which was featuring Congressman John Lewis of Georgia’s 5^th District in conjunction with the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom Center. The lecture series discussion title was: “Where Do We Go From Here? Chaos or Community; Find a Way to Get in the Way!”

Congressman John Lewis was enthusiastically introduced by former Oakland Mayor Elihu Harris and Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California’s 9^th District. Harris spoke to the crowd about why social justice was still so important in the 21^st century and how despite some historical gains there is still work to be done. He shared a story about trying to get state legislative support in California to make Martin Luther King’s birthday a holiday in the early 1980s.

Harris said a state legislator told him, with good intentions of course, “I’d like to support it (the King Holiday). But if we have a holiday for a nigger, the next thing you know, they’ll want one for a Mexican.” The audience gasped, some nodding their heads in understanding. Harris continued, “Some people still feel that way today and smile in your face. This is why the social justice fight is still significant today!”

Following Harris, Congresswoman Barbara Lee was met with applause and “Amens!” As she took the floor, she paid homage to Congressman Lewis for paving the way for her and others. She stated, “We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go! We owe you a debt of gratitude … to pick up the baton and fight the good fight.”

Congressman John Lewis speaks April 21 at Beebe Memorial Church in Oakland. – Photo: Toni Battle

Hundreds of hands went up in the air and began shouting and applauding, “Amen! Thank you! God Bless!” Waves of love and appreciation rippled through the audience as the legend finally stood to speak. Congressman Lewis thanked the audience and then immediately began the Black oral tradition of sacred story telling. He told the story his parents told him during the era of Jim Crow, “Don’t get in the way; don’t get into trouble.” He shared how their warnings came from a place of fear of what could happen to a Black boy in the South who caused trouble to the structure of segregation.

Congressman Lewis commented on the status of Civil Rights today: “Here today we are too quiet! Find a way to get into trouble if we are going to create a real America! For more than 50 years I’ve been getting in trouble and I plan to get in some more trouble!” Speaking of the sacrifices he and others in the movement made, he said, “Through our actions we reformed and liberated a society!”

As he continued to take those gathered on the journey of struggle, loss and triumph, he urged: “We have to vote like we’ve never voted before.” He said, “Over and over again throughout this country, I am asked, ‘Is President Obama the fulfillment of the Martin Luther King Jr. dream?’ I say, ‘No, he is the down payment. Too many are still being left behind – Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans, gay and straight. Don’t get weary! Don’t get tired! Maybe our forefathers came in different ships, but we all in the same boat now. We must continue until no one is left out or left behind and respect the dignity of every human being.”

As the legend held his fist in the air, the crowd erupted in applause and stood to their feet.

Many San Francisco residents were in attendance. Bayview Hunters Point resident and Southeast Commissioner Bobbrie Brown said: “What a blessing! I lived through segregation and to hear the power of Congressman Lewis’ words was truly amazing.”

Another long term Bayview Hunters Point resident, Carol Tatum, stated: “I loved his story about Bloody Sunday. I just took a Civil Rights tour in March of this year in Alabama, and the guide spoke of the sheriff wearing the ‘Never’ button Congressman Lewis spoke of. What an honor to hear him speak tonight!”

Toni Renee Battle is a consultant, journalist, educator, speaker and a lifelong Bayview Hunters Point resident. She is a small business owner of “Embrace Diversity … Embrace Success” Consulting Services and also founder of The Legacy Project, an educational program which emphasizes the teachings of Black and Native American culture, traditions and histories for youth from seventh through 12^th grades. She may be reached at tonirbattle@yahoo.com.

Paramilitary gangs join UN force in preying on Haitian population

junya — Sun, 13 May 2012 06:15:14 +0000

by Dady Chery, Haiti Chery

Members of the dissolved Haitian army parade at Camp Lamantin, a former military base in Port-au-Prince. – Photo: Ramon Espinosa, AP

For several weeks, armed groups of young Black men, presumably Haitian and too young to be veterans of the Haitian Armed Forces (Forces Armees d’Haiti, FAd’H) disbanded in 1995, have been parading in military fatigues through Haitian towns. Some politicians and the Haitian press have been calling these men “former soldiers.”

For the sake of accuracy, let us forgo this awkward and unfounded label and call them “men” or “gangs.” These marching men claim they want to enforce respect for the national sovereignty and get their back pay. One suspects their priorities are reversed.

These gangs have been around for months, but their more public appearances immediately followed massive demonstrations on Feb. 29 to commemorate the 2004 coup against Aristide. The march had been organized by a new party of Lavalas supporters called “Ghettos-Unis” (United Ghettos). Over 10,000 people marched through Port-au-Prince chanting, “Yes to democracy, no to reinstatement of dictatorship!” and proclaiming, “Intimidations will not make us back down! We don’t need your motorcycles; give your passport instead!” with reference to Martelly’s refusal to deliver his passport to a Senate committee investigating the citizenship of various government officials.

The appearance of the armed gangs has coincided with a rash of murders by gunfire. At least three members of the Haitian National Police (PNH), one lawyer and a well-known painter were killed in March 2012, but the most famous victims of the crime spree have been Jean Liphete (Ti Lifet) Nelson and Jean-Baptiste Jean-Philippe (Samba Boukman), both politically outspoken Fanmi Lavalas members and accomplished individuals who could probably have qualified for political office if this had been their ambition.

Jean Liphète Nelson (Ti Lifèt)

Unlike many of Haiti’s top politicians of dubious citizenship, Ti Lifet was born in Cite Soleil in 1974 and lived there all his life. He initiated, among many things, Cite Soleil’s Radio Boukman, which he was running, along with other projects that provided schooling for children, hot meals for the elderly poor and mobile clinics for the sick. He was loved and widely respected.

Samba Boukman was a charismatic musician and militant who is best known for having helped to broker a truce between the poor neighborhood of Bel-Air’s armed Lavalas partisans and the U.N., when MINUSTAH was randomly blasting these neighborhoods with gunfire from tanks and helicopters after Aristide’s removal.

In addition, Reginald Antoine, a labor leader and director of Platform for Workers Unjustly Fired from Public Administration (Plateforme des Employés Injustement Révoqués de l’Administration Publique, PEVEP) had his entire family – sister and brother in law, and two children, 2 and 10 – killed by explosives on March 13, according to AHP. Members of PEVEP had been protesting and demanding the benefits associated with their severance.

Jean-Baptiste Jean-Philippe (Samba Boukman)

Understandably, Haitians have focused on the terrible loss of life this month, but sadly, cries of “insecurity” play into the hands of MINUSTAH, which now exists merely to continue itself as part of the growing cancer of the U.N. “peacekeepers” and wants, more than anything, to renew its mandate. Despite the U.N.’s record of rapes, child prostitution, trading of food for sex, and killings by gunfire and cholera, this organization still claims to be indispensable for safety and democracy in Haiti.

It is worthwhile to consider how the new armed gangs are supported. Their training camps have been photographed in the Haitian countryside by the Western press since before Martelly’s inauguration. The sources of weapons and training may be reasonably guessed because, after all, the U.S. publicly promised to sell arms to Haiti for its presumed drug war, and France formally pledged to train Haiti’s new army right after Haiti promised to relax its adoption policy.

Both of these “friends” of Haiti also wield considerable influence in the U.N. So it is hardly worthwhile to entertain some notion that MINUSTAH and the new gangs might somehow be at odds with each other. In fact they reinforce each other: The presence of MINUSTAH is proffered as the reason a “Haitian army” is needed to protect the national sovereignty, and the threat of paramilitaries is used to justify MINUSTAH’s continued stay in Haiti.

Despite the U.N.’s record of rapes, child prostitution, trading of food for sex, and killings by gunfire and cholera, this organization still claims to be indispensable for safety and democracy in Haiti.

Leaving MINUSTAH aside for now, a more productive line of thinking is to consider that, although weapons and uniforms make for a good show, these are not all an army needs. Given that even in the best cases, armies are parasitic on a population, how does this mysteriously emergent paramilitary force get its meals, water, board and clean clothes? After all, back when the army was disbanded in 1995, its 7,000 soldiers had been consuming 40 percent of Haiti’s national budget.

Reports of appropriations of government buildings by the armed gangs have become common. Their speaker, a man called Larose Aubain, circulates freely and communicates with officials of the executive branch. For example, in an AHP report of Feb. 27, Aubain claimed that he and his colleagues had conferred with the minister of defense. In the same report, Aubain vowed that the gangs would occupy all the former FAd’H bases until the army’s restoration.

Paramilitaries are attractive to Haitians unable to find any other way to support their families. – Photo: Isabeau Doucet

On the evening of Monday, March 19, about 50 armed men in military fatigues took over Cap Haitien’s Northern Province Agriculture Department building, a structure that had been vacated by the FAd’H and replaced by government offices since 1995, AHP reported March 20. In the fashion of Duvalier’s Tontons Macoutes, who were formally known as the Volunteers for National Security (Les Volontaires de la Securite Nationale, VSN), the new gang of armed men are getting their livelihood, including food, entirely by extortion from the city’s municipal authorities. Other groups are likewise getting supported elsewhere in the country as they occupy government buildings that were once FAd’H bases.

Asked how he would rid the city of the gangs, Yvon Alteon, the presidentially appointed delegate for the Northern Region, replied that the problem must be handled at the highest level, and anyway the men should not be feared because they’ve promised to “behave themselves.”

A week earlier Martelly had responded to similar questions by saying that there would come a more propitious time for the armed men to serve their country and advising them to be patient, get out of their uniforms and put down their weapons within a week. After this “ultimatum” expired, Secretary of State for Public Safety Reginald Delva reported, according to a March 16 AHP report, “Following an agreement with the authorities, these citizens will not be forced to vacate the premises, but will not, for now, circulate in military uniform and with weapons.”

Again, the repetition that these are merely young Haitians who have an inordinate zeal to serve their country and are in need of a change of clothing. Mr. Delva added that negotiations were continuing as the government inventories “the human resources” at the camps.

For its part, MINUSTAH announced, through Information Officer Eliane Nabaa, that U.N. “peacekeepers” are ready and able to disarm and dislodge the paramilitaries but will not do so without first getting a request from the Haitian National Police (PNH), according to AHP March 20.

Haitian paramilitary recruits train weekly on the outskirts of Port au Prince. This militia is called the Organization of Demobilized Soldiers for the Reconstruction of Haiti. – Photo: Andres Martinez Casares, New York Times

Thus the PNH, which is hardly perfect but nevertheless the only legitimate armed force currently on Haitian soil, finds itself in a quandary. On one hand, it lacks the resources to oppose the armed gangs that are fanning themselves throughout the country; on the other hand, MINUSTAH is the last organization from which the Haitian police would seek assistance. MINUSTAH soldiers, who earn over U.S. $6,000 per month, are deeply resented by the poorly-paid Haitian police officers. Moreover, MINUSTAH troops have preyed on Haitian police – particularly those in the poor neighborhoods – as they have the rest of the population. For example,

On May 29, 2008, police officer Jacques Luckner, assigned to the Cite Soleil police station, was molested by MINUSTAH soldiers;
On Aug. 6, 2008, police officers Donson Bien-Aimee and Ronald Denis, both assigned to the Cite Soleil police station, were beaten by MINUSTAH soldiers although they had clearly identified themselves as policemen.

By far the most serious consequence of inviting MINUSTAH to help confront “the insecurity problem” would be to buttress the U.N.’s arguments for renewal of this force, although the great majority of the population despises it, and the Haitian Senate has formally approved a resolution calling for the U.N. soldiers to depart by October 2012.

Member of the Lower House of Parliament Ronald Lareche, who sits on the Justice and Public Safety Committee, commented that MINUSTAH ought to fulfill its supposed mandate of strengthening democracy, rather than do nothing but watch paramilitary gangs, which are an obvious departure from democracy, train in the country in full view of everyone.

In addition, Mr. Lareche called for National Police Director Mario Andresol to take drastic action against any member of the police who disregards his orders. This apparently had the effect of immediately causing rumors to start to fly about heads rolling at the NPH.

In late March, Port-au-Prince was calm, with a single buglary as its most serious crime in one 72-hour span. Suspects in the assassination of Ti Lifet and the killing of a police officer have been arrested. Departmental Director of Western Police Michel Ange Gideon attributes this turnaround to the implementation of “Boukle Port-au-Prince” (Buckle Port-au-Prince), a program that combines a heavy police presence together with roadblocks of the city’s major arteries, where random searches are conducted. There is now talk of extending this program for a month.

However long Boukle Port-au-Prince lasts, it is unlikely to bring relief to cities like Cap Haitian that are under predation. But our Haiti is another place with a bad case of post-colonialitis: a disease that causes people to believe that their capital city is the only place that matters, though it is merely a port from which wealth is removed. Those who neglect to treat this disease do so at their own risk.

The Haiti Press Network (HPN) reported April 6 that police had successfully dislodged a paramilitary gang from the city of Saint Marc. Recall that Saint Marc, according to reports by HPN on March 23 and AHP on March 28, is also the place where the population recently refused to allow Martelly’s unelected appointees to the city government into the municipal buildings.

On April 25, according to HPN, “ex-soldiers” responded to a call by Haitian Minister of the Interior and National Defense Thierry Mayard-Paul to appear at the old premises of the Academy of Brothers to register themselves. Mr. Mayard-Paul announced that the government has put 107 million gourdes (U.S. $5 million) at the disposal of the “ex-soldiers.”

Background

For more information, see Harvest of Hope: Kevin Pina Documentary on Haitian Army, With Review by Dady Chery.

Feb. 29 protest – Video: PalechoTV

Community protests OPD murder of Alan Blueford, 18

Mary — Sun, 13 May 2012 01:50:35 +0000

Davey D begins his Morning Mix show, broadcast 8-9 a.m. on May 15, with powerful testimony on the police murder of Alan Blueford by his cousin Tanisha, his mother and Jack Bryson of the Oscar Grant Committee. (Show begins after the news digest, at about five minutes in.)

Video by TomVeeTV

Alan Blueford's Facebook profile picture

A vigil for Alan Blueford drew a passionate crowd, including Hammer, on Friday, May 11, 5 p.m., at Oakland Police Department headquarters, 455 Seventh St.

On Saturday, May 12, 3 p.m., protesters marched from 9200 Birch St., where OPD left Alan to bleed to death for four hours, to the Eastmont Mall Police Sub-Station, 2652 73rd Ave., Oakland, chanting “Jail killer cops!” and “No justice, no peace, no racist police!” See the videos by Earl Black below of the march and rally.

All who demand justice for Alan Blueford will Occupy the Oakland City Council in City Hall, Oscar Grant Plaza, 14th & Broadway, at 6 p.m. Tuesday, May 15.

Statement by the Blueford family

Alan DeWayne Blueford was an 18-year-old senior at Skyline High School, preparing to graduate in June. He was the youngest son of Adam Blueford Sr. and Jeralynn Brown Blueford.

During the early morning hours of May 6, 2012, Alan was murdered by an officer – whose name has yet to be released – with the Oakland Police Department. His family is now seeking justice for his death.

Here is what we know:

• At or about midnight, May 6, Alan and two friends were standing on the corner of 90th and Birch Street waiting for “some girls in a white Chevy,” Alan told his father during a phone call.

• After the phone call, police officers approached Alan and his friends, with guns drawn. The police officers were called to respond to another incident, but decided to stop Alan and his friends when they saw them because they “believed the young men had a concealed weapon.”

• Alan ran down Birch Street from the police officers.

• Approximately two blocks down Birch Street on the 9200 block the officer chasing Alan murdered him by shooting him three times. The officer also shot himself.

• Although Alan had his brown wallet with his ID, Oakland Police Department never called to tell his parents he was shot and killed.

• Alan’s two friends were detained for over six hours. After their release, one of the young men had the traumatic task of calling Alan’s parents and telling them Alan was shot and killed by an Oakland police officer.

• Initial reports put out by OPD, stated that “a suspect” (Alan) and a police officer exchanged gun fire and the officer was shot in the stomach by the suspect and the suspect was shot by the officer. Both were said to have been rushed to Highland Hospital where Alan died and the police officer was expected to recover. OPD also included in their reports witness statements who said they saw Alan shooting. OPD reported that they retrieved Alan’s firearm at the scene.

• Later OPD changed their story to state that the officer was shot in the leg and an investigation was in process to determine whether the officer was wounded by “friendly fire.” Only one of the officers chased Alan.

• What we now know is that Alan Blueford never shot the police officer, at the police officer, or anyone else. OPD changed their story yet again, admitting and confirming that THE OFFICER SHOT HIMSELF.

• We also know that Alan was never rushed to Highland Hospital. Only the police officer. Alan’s body lay in the streets for approximately 4 hours.

• Alan was shot multiple times by the police officer.

• The family has reason to believe that Alan never had a firearm.

• The family has reason to believe that Alan never caused the officer to be threatened. Alan’s body can be described as a shorter stature – approximately 5 feet 6 ½ inches – and thin build, 140 pounds.

When Alan’s family learned of the claimed circumstances surrounding Alan’s death, we all knew that the facts were not true! Additionally, because they never called to confirm his death, we were sadly left with hope that the unnamed “suspect” was not Alan. He was a joy to many people. We are suffering a great loss.

Now OPD claims that the “victim” – no longer suspect – was a convicted felon on probation. His family will simply respond by saying felony probation does not describe Alan’s character. To describe Alan, you have to share that he 1) was a Christian; 2) worked with the disabled children at Skyline, one of whom described “Al” as his “best friend”; 3) began his mornings at Skyline High School by praying with his godmother and supervisor; 4) passed out candy at his grandmother’s every Halloween; and 5) was well known by his family and friends as a respectful young man.

But even more important is the fact that when the police officers decided not to respond to the call, but rather to bother Alan and his friends, all they knew is that they were three African-American young men. That’s why Alan was murdered.

Alan’s family is seeking justice for his death. We are determined to have this “incident” thoroughly investigated and all wrongful parties prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. We ask that all of you support us by calling District 7 City Councilman Larry Reid, at (510) 238-7007.

As we embark upon this long journey, we rely on the grace and mercy of our Father God, through faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. We find peace in scripture, specifically Genesis 50:20 (NIV): “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant if for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Hammer demands justice for his friend, Alan Blueford

Video by missmollie33

Hammer was one of the people who spoke yesterday in front of the Oakland Police Department headquarters on Seventh Street. Hammer knew Alan Blueford, who was a close friend of his children. Hammer’s words are beautiful, strong, loving and true.

There is still an ongoing investigation, but one thing is clear: OPD is up to their old corrupt tricks. They claimed Alan Blueford shot at them, yet Alan’s family has now been told that there were four shots fired – three were fired into Alan’s back, and the fourth was the cop shooting himself/herself in the foot.

Alan Blueford was unarmed when he was running away from the cops. The identity of the cop has not been released and the cop is on paid administrative leave at this point pending an Internal Affairs investigation.

Protest march for Alan Blueford, killed by Oakland Police during a pedestrian stop

Protesters marched from 9200 Birch St., where OPD left Alan to bleed to death for four hours, to the Eastmont Mall Police Sub-Station, chanting “Jail killer cops!” and “No justice, no peace, no racist police!”

Videos by Earl Black

Alan Blueford’s cousin speaks on the facts in the Oakland police murder of Alan and the police cover-up. The rally was held Saturday afternoon, May 12, in front of the Eastmont Mall Police Sub-Station. She addresses the lies the police presented to the family and, along with other family members, expresses their anger and outrage, not only over the death of their beloved, but also because of the way the police continued to excuse their own criminal behavior in obvious and blatant disregard for the family’s feelings and rights.

This report was updated May 13.

Prisoners’ families constitute a powerful voice

Mary — Sat, 12 May 2012 06:02:39 +0000

by Michael Zaharibu Dorrough

Hello Kendra,

Families of prisoners rally on Occupy 4 Prisoners Day Feb. 20 in Los Angeles. Note that the unity across racial divides evident at the rally reflects the unity forged by prisoners doing the hardest time in California in the Security Housing Units (SHUs) and other segregation units who led last year’s hunger strikes. The same unity is evident in this letter: It is written by Michael Zaharibu Dorrough, a New Afrikan political prisoner in the Corcoran SHU, saying he’s inspired by Todd Ashker, a white prisoner in the Pelican Bay SHU labeled a white supremacist. And it’s written to Kendra Castaneda, the wife of a Latino prisoner labeled a "Southern Hispanic" in Calipatria ASU. – Photo: Kendra Castaneda

I trust that you continue to be of sound health and spirit upon receiving this. You should have received a couple of my letters since March. It is possible that you may have heard from a couple of guys here whom I shared your April 14 letter with. You really do have the respect and support of us all.

I also had the opportunity to read a couple of published letters by Todd Ashker to you that was really inspiring. The families and loved ones of us all constitute a very powerful voice and matter tremendously in any change that is coming.

The families and loved ones of us all constitute a very powerful voice and matter tremendously in any change that is coming.

Todd is really correct in stating that we, the prisoner class, should no longer comply with anything that contributes in any way to the inhumanities that we are subjected to and within the context in which we are defined by the dominant class.

Our best to Todd and everyone should the opportunity present itself. Please know that you continue to inspire. Take good care.

Michael

Send our brother some love and light: Michael Zaharibu Dorrough, D-83611, Cor-SHU 4B-1L-53. This letter was written to Kendra Castaneda May 6, 2012, and postmarked May 8. Kendra is a prisoner human rights activist whose husband is currently incarcerated in the notorious Calipatria State Prison ASU (Administrative Segregation Unit). She can be reached at kendracastaneda55@gmail.com.

Standing on righteousness

Mosi — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:50:42 +0000

by Jamal Ortiz, aka Brotha Jamah

Pelican Bay SHU guards search a cell. Brotha Jamah is Ad/Seg, not the SHU, but it is almost as restrictive. - Photo: Laura Sullivan, NPR

Thank you for the continuous Bay View newspapers. The strength, courage and determination displayed by the prisoners who report from behind enemy lines and our outside support is a motivating factor in us keeping the line moving.

I’m still being held at Pelican Bay Ad Seg A1 Unit. Within the last 60 days, I’ve been through some fire with these racist pigs. I was pepper-sprayed for refusing to comply with a cell search that did not comply with cell searching procedures because I felt I was and am right. I stood firm on my position and attempted to take this officer’s can of pepper spray. I was charged with battery on a peace officer.

My cell and another brotha’s cell out of Oakland had been searched five times that week. Sheets, books, newspapers and other items were taken. I was left in the cell with no underwear, no T-shirt or socks. I had to tear open the mattress and sleep between the cotton to keep warm – naked! As the searches continued, the mattress was taken and I was given two blankets and a sheet.

Myself and the brotha from Oakland have been separated. I was moved from A1-118 to A1-131. He is double R from Oakland, s/n T. Wolfe, F-11442, in A1-117.

I am now in the presence of another strong comrade from San Francisco, Fillmore. He is Oba Lee Frelimo, J-25506, A1-126. He also subscribes to the Bay View newspaper.

I was unable to write the Bay View for some time due to all of my property and two phone books being taken from me until I recently received a Bay View newspaper. I was not able to write my mother for over a month until I got three letters from her two days ago and I still cannot write my father in San Leandro until he writes me.

I’ve filed a habeas corpus requesting a restraining order and to be re-housed away from specified officers. Nevertheless, I am firm in my position that I will no longer comply with orders that are outside of CDC Section R policies and procedures. I’d prefer to die a man standing on righteousness than to live as a weak coward bowing and being comfortable in oppression.

I’d prefer to die a man standing on righteousness than to live as a weak coward bowing and being comfortable in oppression.

Please don’t assume because you don’t hear from me that I’m not being prevented from writing. It means a lot to me that you continue to send the Bay View newspaper. Some just read it, but when you are at war with alligators up to your neck, realizing there’s no turning back, it becomes a tool and it’s all about how you use and apply it.

I’m asking the Bay View newspaper to please print this open letter so that California Prison Focus, MIM Distributors, Rising Son Press, Anti-Racist Action and the Black Riders Liberation Party will know why they have not heard from me – also Shaka of the Black August Organizing Committee and Brotha Secretary Yawo at the Oakland Uhuru House. I have no addresses, so at this point I cannot contact them unless they contact me.

Thank you again for continuing to send the Bay View newspaper.

In pure bullet-proof Black-on-Black love and unity.

Send our brother some love and light: Brotha Jamah D. Ortiz, K-94544, A1-131, PBSP, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95531.

Yes on Proposition 29!

Adrian — Fri, 11 May 2012 06:22:27 +0000

An open letter to Dr. LaDonna Porter

by Carol McGruder

Supporters of Proposition 29, including Carol McGruder at far right, demonstrate April 24 in front of San Joaquin General Hospital to protest Dr. LaDonna Porter’s opposition to the tobacco tax initiative. Porter appears in anti-Prop. 29 ads statewide, funded by the tobacco companies. – Photo: Craig Sanders, The Record

My mother died from breast cancer in 1998. She was an extraordinarily healthy woman who just months before her death at the age of 70 routinely walked two to three miles a day. She ate a healthy diet, exercised, did all things in moderation; she was a wheat grass devotee a decade before most folks knew what it was. While no one expects to get cancer, we were all more than shocked when this woman who did everything right was given that diagnosis.

Though my mother worked all of her life, like many Black women of her generation, she was a woman of modest means, a woman who had invested all of her worldly goods into her children. She was diagnosed with breast cancer through a free screening program at a community clinic in San Francisco; she received the best care at San Francisco General Hospital from a team of top notch University of California, San Francisco, doctors. She survived 10 years from her initial diagnosis and enjoyed a great quality of life until her end.

Dr. Porter, I was shocked and angered, as were many across the state, when I saw and heard your “No on Prop 29, No on the California Cancer Research Act” radio and television commercials that have been flooding California’s airwaves. I assumed that an African American woman and a physician, though not an oncologist, would appreciate the disproportionate rates of cancer affecting the Black community.

Carol McGruder, director of the San Francisco African American Tobacco Free Project

How could you make such blatant falsehoods against this June ballot initiative? An initiative that will generate over $550 million a year for cancer research, advancing cancer research a quantum leap, a leap that will without a doubt improve cancer prevention and treatment for all Californians.

The script of your commercial says that Prop 29 does not provide any funding for treatment. As you may know, Dr. Porter, effective treatments are developed through research; there can be no treatment without RESEARCH. I am sure that I speak for all cancer victims, cancer survivors and their families in voicing our wholehearted support for Prop 29. We want to unleash the power and creativity of California’s best and brightest researchers. Contrary to your comments, Dr. Porter, this funding will stay in California, but hopefully all Americans will one day benefit from the discoveries made in our great state.

I am sure that I speak for all cancer victims, cancer survivors and their families in voicing our wholehearted support for Prop 29. We want to unleash the power and creativity of California’s best and brightest researchers.

Dr. Porter, those of us profoundly touched by cancer want to eliminate it; to do that our state needs research – research that can help us find ways to prevent cancer, help us find ways to design culturally specific programs that will get Black folks into care earlier, research that can help us find out why African American women under the age of 45 are at greater risk for triple negative breast cancer – which is the most aggressive type of breast cancer and the hardest to cure – can help us find out why, though more White women get breast cancer, more Black women die from it. These questions can only be answered through research. Dr. Porter, rather than working against progress, perhaps you would you lend your voice to helping us set that research agenda and making sure it includes the needs of the African American community.

Dr. Porter, rather than working against progress, perhaps you would you lend your voice to helping us set that research agenda and making sure it includes the needs of the African American community.

Though there were many falsehoods in your commercial, one that I took particular umbrage with was the one stating how much this tax will cost Californians. The tax will add one dollar to each package of cigarettes sold in California. In addition to cancer research, $156 million will go to California’s underfunded tobacco control program.

The savings that will be generated from preventing our young people from starting to smoke and helping smokers – of whom one out of two will die from smoking – to stop is estimated at $5.1 billion. That’s $5.1 billion in long term health care costs saved for all California taxpayers, because though the majority of us don’t smoke, we all pay the cost and bear the burden of smoking.

We cannot put a price on the savings in human life and suffering. Proposition 29 is a true win-win for everyone – everyone except the tobacco industry. It is the only entity that reaps huge profits at our expense. Big tobacco is dumping tens of millions of dollars into California in the hopes of confusing voters and defeating this life-saving initiative.

Big tobacco is dumping tens of millions of dollars into California in the hopes of confusing voters and defeating this life-saving initiative.

Dr. Porter, as co-chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council, we ask you, did you or will you receive any compensation for your stance on Prop 29? We have a hard time believing that with all of the issues facing our community you would pick this one to volunteer your time on. If you have received compensation, we ask that you give it back. In this year alone, over 160,000 African Americans will be diagnosed with cancer. It is difficult to believe that you knowingly participated in this disinformation campaign mounted by the tobacco industry, an industry that has preyed on our community for far too long.

The African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council has over 150 years of combined expertise in research, smoking cessation, community capacity building, advocacy and public policy. We are working diligently to save the lives of Black people. Dr. Porter, we sincerely invite you to dialogue with us. We will pray for you. It is not too late to “do the right thing” and stand with us in our fight against Big Tobacco, standing as David stood against Goliath.

We are working diligently to save the lives of Black people. Dr. Porter, we sincerely invite you to dialogue with us. We will pray for you. It is not too late to “do the right thing” and stand with us in our fight against Big Tobacco, standing as David stood against Goliath.

But for those who continue to choose Big Tobacco over the health of their own people, we say shame, shame, shame. In the name of my mother, Ruth J. McGruder, shame, shame, shame. In the name of Marie Evans, who was given free Newport cigarettes at age 9 in Boston, later dying at 54 from lung cancer due to her lifelong addiction to nicotine, shame, shame, shame. In the name of the 47,300 Black people who die every year from tobacco-related diseases, shame, shame, shame.

We urge all Californians to vote June 5 YES, YES, YES on Prop 29!

Carol McGruder, co-chair of the African American Tobacco Control Leadership Council and award-winning advocate, can be reached at cmcgruder@usa.net.

Ohio hunger strike ends

Mary — Fri, 11 May 2012 05:36:46 +0000

Youngstown, Ohio, May 9, 2012 – After long negotiations with Warden David Bobby on Monday, May 7, the hunger-striking prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) began eating again. Two of the men held out through Tuesday, unsatisfied with the agreement. The warden met with them separately, and they agreed to come off the strike. Warden Bobby reported that “by lunch time today, everyone was eating.” This was confirmed by two prisoner sources.

Warden David Bobby surveys the yards of Ohio State Penitentiary in August 2010. – Photo: Geoffrey Hauschild

At this point, details on agreements are unclear, but sources inside say that the hunger strikers are satisfied and feel they achieved results. One source described the demands and the warden’s response as “reasonable.” Without going into detail, the main concerns were in regards to commissary costs, state pay rates, phone costs, length of stay and harsh penalties for petty conduct reports. The warden said that he discussed “many things” at Monday’s meeting with strike representatives, “many things beyond the main demands,” but he would not share any of the details.

The strikers are resting and recovering but have mailed detailed information to outside supporters at RedBird Prison Abolition, which will be released to the public as soon as possible. The warden admitted that one of the hunger strikers was transferred to disciplinary segregation for an unrelated rule infraction but stated that there were no reprisals or punishments for participating. One prisoner source agreed with this statement.

The hunger strike began on April 30 and was timed to align with May Day protests outside. Prisoners have stated an interest in “joining hands in struggle toward common goals” with protest and resistance movements like Occupy Wall Street.

Ben Turk can be reached at insurgent.ben@gmail.com.

Justice for the Congolese people, an attainable goal in 2012

Adrian — Thu, 10 May 2012 06:20:34 +0000

by Kambale Musavuli

In recognition of Genocide Prevention Month, the permanent mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations and United to End Genocide organized an event titled “Justice in 2012,” bringing justice seekers from Uganda, Sudan and Congo to share experience as human rights activists in their respective countries, the role of the International Criminal Court, its arrest warrants and the importance of justice for the victims.

Kambale Musavuli, spokesperson of Friends of the Congo, served as one of the speakers and shared why it is important to support justice in the Congo. The event took place at the Bohemian National Hall in New York City on April 30, 2012.

Distinguished guests, diplomats, activists and justice seekers, Good evening.

Kambale Musavuli

Thank you for inviting Friends of the Congo to participate in the “Justice in 2012” panel in recognition of Genocide Prevention Month.

I’d like to thank the permanent mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations and United to End Genocide for hosting this panel discussion. I also would like to thank Staci Alziebler-Perkins, an amazing human rights activist and the New York City Genocide Prevention Coalition Convener, for uniting justice seekers on this last day of Genocide Prevention Month.

I’m delighted to be joined by Mr. Magid Kabash of the Nuba Mountains International Association, who has just returned from the Nuba Mountains and shared with us his personal eyewitness account of what is unfolding there. It is also an honor to be joined by Stephen Lamony of Uganda who also has been a justice seeker at the Coalition for the International Criminal Court.

We are convening tonight to share with you our experience as human rights activists on issues related to our countries. We have been asked to recommend how the ICC can be engaged in our countries, from issuing arrest warrants to providing justice for the victims in our homeland.

This is a daunting task to do in 15 minutes for a Congolese human rights activist such as myself, yet I stand here to share with you the optimum way of supporting the Congolese people who have been fighting to get justice since the beginning of the war in their country in 1996.

My talk will be organized into four sections: the case of Bosco Ntaganda, the United Nations Mapping Exercise Report, Equitable Justice and Recommendations to the ICC.

1. The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda (ICC-01/04-02/06 – Pre-trial)

According to the ICC arrest warrant, Bosco Ntaganda is allegedly criminally responsible under article 25 (3) (a) of the Rome Statute for three counts of war crimes: enlistment of children under the age of 15; conscription of children under the age of 15; and using children under the age of 15 to participate actively in hostilities. As a deputy chief of the General Staff of the Forces Patriotiques pour la Libération du Congo (FPLC, the military wing of the Union des Patriotes Congolais of Thomas Lubanga), Bosco Ntaganda is accused of having used his authority to implement the FPLC’s policy regarding the enlistment and conscription of children under 15 and of having involved them actively in the hostilities in Ituri from July 2002 to December 2003.

Bosco Ntaganda wore his national army uniform to attend the 50th anniversary celebration of Congo’s independence in Goma in eastern Congo on June 30, 2010. Since 1996, he has alternated between the roles of rebel and soldier in both Rwanda and DR Congo. – Photo: Alain Wandimoyi, AP

Ntaganda is further accused of having exercised de jure and de facto authority in the Bule, Centrale, Mandro, Rwampara, Irumu, Bogoro and Sota child soldier training camps. Finally, he is also accused of having taken part in FPLC attacks in which child soldiers were involved. As you know, Ntaganda’s colleague in FPLC, Thomas Lubanga, has been found guilty by the ICC of recruiting and using child soldiers in the Congo between 2002 and 2003.

So who is Bosco exactly, and why is he important to understanding what’s happening in DRC?

According to the ICC, Bosco Ntaganda was born in Kiningi, Rwanda, in 1973 and came to the Congo in the 1980s. At age 17 he joined the Rwandan Patriotic Front rebels in southern Uganda. After the RPF rebels successfully toppled the regime in Rwanda in 1994, Bosco began alternating between playing the roles of a rebel and a soldier, in both Rwanda and DR Congo, starting in 1996.

In 2006, he was indicted by the ICC for allegedly recruiting child soldiers but has not been turned over to the ICC by the Congolese government. Since the unsealing of his arrest warrant, he has continued to commit crimes in the Congo and maintained a mafia network for the illegal exploitation of Congo’s resources, arms trade and illegal levies and taxation of local communities.

One of his highest-profile killings took place when he was in charge of CNDP rebel soldiers who carried out the 2008 Kiwanja massacre. The CNDP (Congrès National pour la Défense du Peuple) is an armed militia established in the Kivu region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in December 2006 by Laurent Nkunda, another war lord we hope will be indicted by the ICC.

According to Human Rights Watch, “At least 150 people were killed on Nov. 4 and 5, 2008, in Kiwanja. Most victims had bullet wounds to the head or wounds caused by machete, spear or club, indicating they had been summarily executed rather than killed in the cross fire or by rocket and mortar shells. At least 14 of the victims were children, eight were women and seven were elderly.” HRW adds that “International humanitarian law prohibits the summary execution or mistreatment of any person in custody, whether civilians or captured combatants. When committed deliberately or recklessly, such acts are war crimes.”

In 2009, Ntaganda and his troops from the CNDP were integrated into the Congolese national army. Since March 2012, he and a few of his loyal troops appear to have deserted the army and today are battling the Congolese forces in the town of Mweso and Mushake, causing the displacement of hundreds of Congolese in surrounding towns.

Victims of the 2008 Kiwanja massacre killed by CNDP rebel soldiers led by Bosco Ntaganda lie on the floor of a home. – Photo: Benedicte Kurzen, VII Mentor Program

On April 11, 2012, Congolese president Joseph Kabila made a public statement indicating that Ntaganda should be arrested, yet he has shied away from turning him over to the ICC and says that he believes the Congolese justice system will be able to try him.

The United Nations tried to bring attention to the issue of impunity when it released the Mapping Exercise Report, showing that making systematic changes will ultimately be more impactful to improve the situation than trying individuals responsible for war crimes.

While Congolese applaud the fact that Bosco Ntaganda has been indicted by the ICC, we urge you to look beyond Ntaganda to concentrate on ending the impunity rampant in the Congo, where the warlords of yesterday and frequent human rights abusers are promoted to government positions or army ranks. The United Nations tried to bring attention to this issue when it released the Mapping Exercise Report, showing that making systematic changes will ultimately be more impactful to improve the situation than trying individuals responsible for war crimes.

2. United Nations Mapping Exercise report

On Oct. 1, 2010, The U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights released a 550-page report called “Mapping Exercise,” documenting 617 alleged violent incidents of “the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law committed within the territory of the Democratic Republic of the Congo between March 1993 and June 2003.” The report also identifies countries “that could be held responsible for serious violations of human rights committed by their national armies during the period under consideration in the DRC, and in particular Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Angola.”

It singled out the crimes committed by the Rwanda army by noting that “the apparent systematic and widespread attacks described in this report reveal a number of inculpatory elements that, if proven before a competent court, could be characterized as crimes of genocide.”

Why did the United Nations decide to produce yet another report on human rights violations in the Congo? The discovery of three mass graves in North Kivu in 2005 was a stark reminder to the United Nations that the past human rights violations in the Congo remained largely uninvestigated. This prompted the U.N. to reactivate earlier U.N. investigative efforts but on a much larger scale.

The Mapping Report notes that the ICC is the only judicial mechanism that has the capacity, the integrity and the independence required to prosecute those who bear the greatest responsibility for the crimes – as defined by international law – committed on DRC territory. It adds that “charges filed and the proceedings [at the ICC] neither do justice to the hundreds or even thousands of victims, nor reflect the true scale of the criminal activities of the accused, documented in numerous prior inquiries.”

“(C)harges filed and the proceedings [at the ICC] neither do justice to the hundreds or even thousands of victims, nor reflect the true scale of the criminal activities of the accused, documented in numerous prior inquiries.”

The report also brings attention to the fact that there are few or no charges relating to acts of sexual violence in the arrest warrants issued by the ICC. It states that this “only contributes to minimizing the importance of these crimes and to confirming a culture of impunity that the Court was intended to overcome.” It also points to the contradiction that, in the Bosco Ntaganda and Thomas Lubanga’s cases, there are no charges for sex crimes whilst those against Germain Katanga and Mathieu Ngudjolo Chui do include such charges.

Understanding the role the ICC can play in supporting justice for the many victims of the political conflict in the Congo, we believe that an equitable application of justice will help to enhance the legitimacy of the court and create better cooperation from member countries throughout the world.

3. Equitable application of justice

Some of the major drivers of the conflict and atrocities in the Congo have not been held to account. There is no indication that the ICC has any intentions of holding neighboring countries responsible for the crimes they have committed or sponsored in the Congo per the U.N. Mapping Exercise Report. Take the case of Thomas Lubanga, for example. He was supported by both Rwanda and Uganda as he recruited child soldiers and committed atrocities in the Congo, but neither the leaders of Rwanda or Uganda have been held accountable for being sponsors and accessories to the crimes committed by Lubanga.

Thomas Lubanga was supported by both Rwanda and Uganda as he recruited child soldiers and committed atrocities in the Congo, but neither the leaders of Rwanda or Uganda have been held accountable for being sponsors and accessories to the crimes committed by Lubanga.

The leaders of nations who are in the good graces with the West and serve Western interests are often given a pass. The current prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, gave Congolese victims hope when they found out that “at a July 2003 news conference, Mr. Moreno-Ocampo announced out of the blue that he ‘believed’ atrocities in Congo, a member state formerly known as Zaire, could qualify for an ICC investigation.” This hope was lost when, in a June 8, 2006, article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Justice Delayed – For Global Court, Ugandan Rebels Prove Tough Test,” it was reported that “an agreement emerged” for Uganda not to be tried for crimes committed in the Congo.

On March 14, 2012, the ICC handed down its first verdict since its founding a decade ago, finding Thomas Lubanga guilty of enlisting child soldiers. But Rwanda and Uganda have not been held accountable for being sponsors and accessories to his crimes. – Photo: Antony Njuguna, Reuters

It is also important to note that, in 2005, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) found Uganda liable for what amounted to war crimes – plunder, mass rapes and massacres – when Uganda occupied parts of Congo from 1997 to 2003. Because of this, the court awarded Congo $10 billion to be paid by Uganda for reparations and damages. The ICJ case has been referred to the ICC, and it has yet to be reviewed so that investigations may begin.

4. Prescriptions

In order to enhance the legitimacy of the court, the ICC has to deal with those who are culpable in a more equitable fashion. Our hope is that the ICC and international bodies support the U.N. Mapping Exercise Report and the 2005 ICJ ruling. They represent efforts to end the culture of impunity, to provide justice for the victims, and to create a framework for accountability for mass crimes committed and still being committed in the Congo. We believe it is imperative to implement the recommendations listed on the U.N. Mapping Report as a means to deliver justice for the Congolese people and support a more equitable and just process for indictment of individuals and multinationals aiding, abetting or committing the crimes in the Congo.

Over 200 Congolese organizations and human rights groups have called for the United Nations to establish an international tribunal to prosecute the crimes against humanity, war crimes and possible genocide committed in the Congo. They recommend that we:

1. Establish new general policies of justice that would build on the creation of several complementary mechanisms, judicial and non-judicial;

2. Establish accountability measures in public institutions that would result in the removal from management of people such as Gen. John Bosco Tanganda and Gen. Numbi, who are accused of serious violations or attacks against human rights defenders, so that they can face prosecution;

3. Institute appropriate mechanisms to ensure justice and shed light on crimes and massive violations of human rights denounced in the report, including:

(i) The creation of special courts or special chambers within the Congolese courts;

(ii) The creation of a new Truth and Reconciliation Commission,

(iii) The establishment of compensation programs for victims, and

(iv) True and thorough reforms of the entire security sector – army, police and justice system.

On Dec. 13, 2011, Justice Julia Sebutinde of Uganda was elected as the fifth judge of the U.N. International Court of Justice (ICJ), joining Hisashi Owada of Japan, Xue Hanqin of China, Peter Tomka of Slovakia and Giorgio Gaja of Italy. She is the first African woman on the court and brings to three the number of women ICJ judges. Sebutinde conducted judicial inquiries into high-profile corruption cases in Uganda and, in 2005, presided over the trial of Charles Taylor, former President of Liberia, in the United Nations-backed Special Court for Sierra Leone.

4. Create a regional reconciliation mechanism of the peoples of the Great Lakes region, which will accelerate the free movement of people in the region, facilitate cross-border trade, strengthen judicial cooperation and demilitarize public services at the borders;

5. Support a regional accountability and reconciliation mechanism to address issues of impunity and lack of justice.

Given what I have shared with you, I want to now tell you a bit about me and why I am a justice seeker for the Congolese people. I came to the United States in the late ‘90s when my family was granted political asylum as the second Congo war began. I rarely speak about my family and what we experienced while living in the Congo, but I’d like to share with you a nightmare that I’ve had almost every week since probably 2008.

The dream always starts as I am walking down the side of the road with thousands of people carrying their belongings heading toward what I presume to be a safer place. The road is familiar and I’m surrounded with people who seem to be displaced from their homes. On my left, there is a little stream down a short hill. Across the stream, there are trees all along the path. People are conversing, moving slowly and calmly.

Then I hear a scream from somewhere in the crowd. I can’t tell if it is coming from the front or the back. I look around and I see people running toward me. The screams intensify and now everyone is running. I see people trying to run with their belongings and then decide to drop them to run faster.

I look back as I run and I see blood splash and people in military uniform just cutting people with machetes. I pass a few people … I’m scared … I’m sweating. I’m also feeling guilty about people I’ve passed as I look back and see them lying in blood and their limbs all over.

I run over a hill to hide. Someone follows me to hide where I am. As I look up to see what is happening on the road, I can see the fear in people’s faces. I see that fear where you know it’s pointless to run but you are running anyway in hopes that you will survive. I hide again and move closer to the stream and the person hiding with me gets closer to me as if he knows we both will be safe.

In May 2012, residents of the town of Kibumba walk some 30 kms (20 miles) to the eastern Congo city of Goma, capital of North Kivu, as they flee fighting between Congolese army deserters led by ex-Gen. Bosco Ntaganda and the regular Congolese army (FARDC) near the Virunga National Park on the border with Rwanda. – Photo: AFP

Suddenly a man in uniform somehow sees us, comes over to where we are, raises his machete and hacks the helpless guy with the weapon over and over again. I can see the assailant’s face. He is determined … calm … and he has this look as if he is on a mission … as if he is trying to pass a test … yes … he has a face of someone taking a test.

I hope you can visualize how when students are taking a test in a classroom they are so determined to pass the test that they have a very serious look on their faces and there is a complete silence in the room. The look of the assailant is comparable to the look of these students in the classroom. He is determined … to kill.

As I watch him, all I can think about is that I am … next. Then the guy looks up to where I am sitting in total fear and it seems that he can’t see me even though he is looking straight at me. He climbs up the hill and keeps going and hacking more people with his machete. I look up, and I see people I know just being cut into pieces. I start saying to myself, “Oh God … Oh God … Oh God!” Then, I wake up.

This dream is the burden of my conscience because of the ongoing realities in Congo. This is what thousands have experienced, according to the U.N. Mapping Exercise Report. The killings haven’t stopped. Today we still have people running for their lives so they won’t be killed. It is our responsibility to support the Congolese victims in their pursuit of justice so that the dreams of the Congolese will be ones of peace and justice, not of fear and atrocity.

With the new commitment of the United States government to prevent mass atrocities and genocide around the world, there needs to be a serious and unified push to raise the profile of the Congo. Congolese people have seen an estimated 6 million of their citizens perish in an unjust war. They have witnessed how the perpetrators of these crimes still roam the streets of their country or are given humanitarian awards and accolades.

Congolese people have seen an estimated 6 million of their citizens perish in an unjust war. They have witnessed how the perpetrators of these crimes still roam the streets of their country or are given humanitarian awards and accolades.

It is absolutely necessary that when we talk about “Never again,” we not only reference the Jewish Holocaust or the Rwandan Genocide but the continued instabilities that make broad-scale violence possible and seed the conditions leading to genocide. The Congolese people deserve justice for the millions they have lost. We hope that all justice seekers around the world will join us in working to deliver justice to the Congolese people.

To learn more about the situation in the Congo, visit http://congojustice.org to view “Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering the Truth.”

Kambale Musavuli, a Congolese native, is spokesperson and student coordinator for Friends of the Congo. He can be reached at kambale@friendsofthecongo.org. You can follow him on twitter @kambale and like his Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/kambalemusavuli.

In-Home Support Services enable families to care for each other

Mary — Tue, 08 May 2012 20:55:25 +0000

by Savannah Kilner and Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams is a poverty, disability and race scholar at POOR Magazine. In February 2011, Michelle’s mother had a stroke. Despite Michelle’s disabilities and living almost an hour away from her mother’s home in Vallejo, she had to take on primary caretaking duties when her mother was released from the emergency room Feb. 27 of this year.

According to a Kaiser social worker, Michelle’s mother was mandated by law to receive in-home care 24 hours a day, and the social worker threatened Michelle with getting Adult Protective Services (APS) involved. In a climate of proposed cuts to an already slashed social services budget, Michelle was receiving payment for only eight IHSS hours a day, with no help on Sundays, and she risked losing more.

If Michelle was not caring for her mother 16 hours a day and all of Sunday, APS – like CPS (Child Protective Services, an arm of the police – could charge her with neglect or abandonment. “I feel like I am under house arrest. At this time I have no other family to help out. If I leave, APS gets involved … This has emotionally, physically and mentally drained me. I feel imprisoned in my mother’s home.”

Michelle was being surveilled by Kaiser social workers and county workers and had to seek other counsel. “They don’t sit down and explain the logistics of the medical industry. They use classism, racism, ageism and ableism to bank on people not understanding, not caring, not knowing our rights … First, like some commodity, they wanted to institutionalize her. Now I can’t get help.” Michelle was under extreme duress. “It’s breaking me down,” she said. “I’m physically in a lot of pain. It’s affecting my disabilities and I fear losing my own home.”

Michelle fought Kaiser and the county and demanded that emergency respite care be provided for her mother. After many trials, she is now back in her own home.

Budgets created by capitalist colonial governments have never been set up to serve poor people’s needs. So when we talk about reform, social services are still part of a system that kills us. And yet, many of us rely on the few social services that are out there. Over the last couple years especially, the attack on social services in California and the inflation of the prison-building budget have accelerated in a frightening way.

Recent cuts to In-Home Support Services (IHSS) have impacted hundreds of thousands of families in California. IHSS allows poor elders and people with disabilities to stay in their homes and communities with their families and children.

Last Thursday, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed reducing state spending on the IHSS program by $210 million – over $420 million if federal matching funds are lost. This would eliminate In-Home Supportive Services for about 245,000 elders and people with disabilities and mental health needs. According to the state, over 440,000 people are receiving IHSS services.

Gov. Jerry Brown proposes to eliminate In-Home Supportive Services for about 245,000 elders and people with disabilities and mental health needs, putting them at risk for institutionalization.

In 2009, Gov. Schwarzenegger began an all-out attack on IHSS. He cut the program and implemented background checks, barring formerly incarcerated people from employment. IHSS has historically been a way for poor people to make some money caretaking for their extended families and neighbors – providing employment to folks who may not be able to find it elsewhere and supporting families staying together in their homes.

Since about three years ago, applicants are required to undergo fingerprinting and background checks at their own cost. Anyone with certain “job-related” felonies is immediately banned – Schwarzenneger expanded that list of convictions from four to 50. The new application says: “If you ever had a felony or serious misdemeanor conviction, you are ineligible to be a caregiver,” which is inaccurate and makes many people with any record think they are ineligible.

The program was by no means perfect – IHSS workers only make $8-$12 an hour in California. Michelle never intended to be a paid IHSS worker, but it was one way for family members to remain caretakers and for elders and people with disabilities to stay in their homes.

Jerry Brown continues the dismantling of IHSS in Schwarzenegger’s wake, which puts poor families and families of color at risk for criminalization via APS. It also puts about 250,000 elders and people with disabilities living in California at risk for institutionalization.

Elders and people with disabilities, family members and IHSS unions and workers are fighting the further cuts to the IHSS program. Budget genocide systematically withholds basic necessities from poor and people of color communities as it beefs up prisons and policing and the criminalization of poverty.

How can we create true models of interdependence and caretaking that do not rely on the state and that value the beauty and brilliance of intergenerational family and community? POOR’s Homefulness Project is one attempt to answer this question.

Read more about issues of poverty and race written by the people who face them daily at POOR Magazine/POOR News Network, www.poormagazine.org.

A day in the life of an imprisoned revolutionary

Adrian — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:03:11 +0000

by J. Heshima Denham

“The purpose of the … control unit is to control revolutionary attitudes in the prison system and in the society at large.” – Former Marion Supermax Prison Warden Ralph Aron

“In several instances (the control unit) has been used to silence religious leaders. It has been used to silence economic and philosophical dissidents.” – Federal Judge James Foreman, U.S. District Court, East St. Louis, Illinois, 1980

“This type of struggle gives us the opportunity to become revolutionaries, the highest form of the human species, and it also allows us to emerge fully as men; those who are unable to achieve either of those two states should say so now and abandon the struggle.” – Che Guevara, Bolivia, 1967

Heshima wrote on the back of this photo - a rarity, as prisoners in isolation often go decades without being photographed: "This photo was taken a few days after the first hunger strike ended (last July). I was only 178 pounds; I'd lost 42 pounds."

Greetings, brothers and sisters. Perpetual existence in the sensory deprivation torture units of Amerika, like any form of socio-political violence, is virtually impossible to understand if you’ve not personally experienced it or some other form of coercive force over a prolonged period. Though the human imagination is infinitely capable of conjuring fantasies of such horrors, what appears equally shocking to many is how can some not only resist such systematic psychological torture, but actually improve themselves under such conditions of extreme duress.

Ironically, the answer lies in the motivation of the torture itself. The origin of our resistance lies in the very nature of the core contradictions of capitalist society in conflict with the advanced elements of its most oppressed strata: the bourgeois state’s attempt to stamp out revolutionary sentiment amongst the lumpen-proletariat in hopes of maintaining and expanding its reactionary character, in contrast with the struggle of political and politicized prisoners to raise the consciousness and revolutionary character of the entire underclass, all while resisting the fascist state’s attempts to silence our dissent, crush our will to struggle and foment defection.

We have consistently sought to expose the objective reality of our collective exploitation, of what society’s ills are, their origins in the arrangement of the productive system, and how to change them in the interests of the vast majority of the world’s people. We have consistently been tossed in control units for doing so.

Prison is a socially hostile microcosm of society at large.

Prison is a socially hostile microcosm of society at large. The same structures and relationships – political, social and economic – that make up U.S. society are reflected on any prison yard, stripped of the pretense of patriotism and unity. Those social forces who dictate society’s guidelines – i.e., the ruling class, bourgeois state, the 1 percent etc. – have ensured “the rule of law” is structured to sanction those who would disturb the maintenance of the core contradictions upon which capitalist society is based – i.e., social production leading to private appropriation, the economic class structure, the race card system etc.

Should critics or dissenters rock the boat too far outside the bourgeois prescribed course, they invariably find themselves ostracized or imprisoned. Once in prison nothing is different. Abuses of imprisoned revolutionaries dates back centuries in the U.S. The legacies of John Brown, Eugene V. Debs, Melvin B. Tolsen, Clifford James, W.L. Nolan and George L. Jackson continue today in the indefinite sensory deprivation isolation of Leonard Peltier, P. Sangu Jones, Mumia Abu Jamal, Sondai Ellis, Zaharibu Dorrough, Sitawa Dewberry, Jarvis Masters, D. Mutope Crawford, L. Powell, Wembe Johnson, F.Y. Carter and so many more principled servants of the people and champions of humanity, all daily subjected to indefinite psychological torture solely because they will never renounce the struggle against the oppression of man by man … and neither will I. I am a product of this unbroken legacy of revolutionary thought, action and eternal commitment and have shared the same torturous fate for 12 years, and will continue to do so until we win or don’t lose, until victory or death.

But I’ve been asked, “What is it really like, a day in your life?” We share a functional collective consciousness, so sharing a single day from my life should give you a glimpse into the “lives” – the existence – of all these examples of humanity’s most noble spirit: the revolutionary in perpetual resistance to indefinite torture.

I’ve been asked, “What is it really like, a day in your life?” We share a functional collective consciousness, so sharing a single day from my life should give you a glimpse into the “lives” – the existence – of all these examples of humanity’s most noble spirit: the revolutionary in perpetual resistance to indefinite torture.

I wake to darkness and cold. It’s 4:30 a.m. and I’m in my small cell in Corcoran SHU (Security Housing Unit). I turn my head slightly to see the photos of my children and grandson on my wall and close my eyes to thank the creator for giving me another day of life in which to make some contribution to the cause of freedom, justice, equality and human rights. I ask that my comrades, my children and my siblings be watched over, their health preserved.

I then open my eyes and rise. It’s particularly cold this morning as I lace up my shoes, fold my linen, and roll my mattress back. After attending to my morning ablutions, clean the sink and sweep my floor, I turn on my TV to the news and enjoy a cup of coffee in preparation for my routine.

I have to be extra careful as I change the channel since the last power surge fried my TV cord and if I move my TV it’ll blow out again. The c/o (correctional officer) walks past flashing his light into my cell. I have the cell light that glares 24/7 blocked using a piece of string and sheet so I can stave off the migraines that accompany the constant illumination we endure daily.

I watch the various stories engaging bourgeois state-controlled media today: Multinational and domestic corporations, sitting on trillions in cash reserves, are refusing to hire because they claim a combination of “regulatory uncertainty and adverse consumer sentiment” has them sitting on the sidelines of the labor market. I see through this blatant gambit to manipulate the working class into opposing greater financial regulation and health care reform in seconds.

In an economy fueled by consumption, which is directly proportional to wage labor payrolls, corporations are intentionally prolonging the depressed economic cycle by not hiring, thus creating a self-fulfilling prophesy of reduced consumption creating the perception amongst the exploited workers that re-establishing the deregulated free market – which is what caused this current recessionary-recovery cycle – and repealing the petty bourgeois policies of the Obama administration in favor of more industrial bourgeois policies that are championed by Republicans is their only course to broader employment.

I shake my head in a combination of pity, anger and disgust as I hear these deluded patsies parroting the ideas of the ruling class as they languish “trapped in the matrix,” their desperate conditions blinding them to their own interests. They continue to grasp and flail ineffectually to realize their immediate interests, seemingly oblivious to any conscious aspirations of changing the system itself, of seizing power and structuring society so the ownership of the means of production and distribution actually reflects the reality of social production and human need.

I immediately berate myself for the direction of my frustrated thought: I remind myself, as I rise and begin my warm-up routine of jumping jacks, that it’s not the people’s fault when the revolution fails; it is the fault of the vanguard party, our fault … MY fault. I/we must redouble my/our efforts, I think. We must combine our ideas, analyses and efforts in a more effective and efficient form to get our words heard, these ideas understood, these theories tested in the vital arena of social practice.

It’s not the people’s fault when the revolution fails; it is the fault of the vanguard party, our fault … MY fault. We must combine our ideas, analyses and efforts in a more effective and efficient form to get our words heard.

I did weight work yesterday, filling my laundry bag with stacks of transcripts and old magazines, then lashing them down with pieces of sheet and string to make a weight bag. So today I’ll do circuit training. I settle on 10 circuits of five exercises: 50 pushups, 40 crunches, 50 split-lunges, 20 dips (between the dunks) and 50 three-count squats.

The pain in my right side, which has been there since the first hunger strike, is like a piece of shrapnel in my side and by the sixth circuit I’m feeling my age, my body wanting to quit. “No one’s here but me,” I think. “I’m sweating, I’ve pushed my body, why continue to endure this pain?” Almost instantly a more insistent voice answers: “What if you were in the field of battle and the lives of your comrades and the people depended on you fighting on? What is pain to the future survival of the people, the party and the revolution? Nothing at all.”

All life is suffering; it is the nature of your existence, the price of your unwavering commitment to what is right. I heed this second voice. I ignore the pain and exhaustion and push on. I feel the cold stone under my palms and the sweat flowing from my pores, but none of it registers in my mind. I am fueled by images of combating the sick bastards on this TV who are dragging an old woman away in cuffs, her head bloodied, from an Occupy Movement protest line.

I strive to control the fire, to channel it into my exercises, and just as the rage against all the injustice I’ve witnessed and endured at the hands of this sick system seeks to overwhelm my reason, my discipline clamps down on it, I detach from my emotions, and finish my last set. I pace my small cell and drink a cup of warm water, re-asserting greater control of my breathing and heart rate in preparation for the next half of my morning regimen, cataloguing the work I have before me today and prioritizing it.

The c/o’s walk by for morning count and unlock the barbox – the sound of the metal gears falling into place, of tray slots being unlocked in preparation for chow signaling the start of another day in the torture unit. When they leave the section, I put up my window blockers and do 45 minutes to an hour of kata and martial arts training.

Here in the 4B1L-C section short corridor, the windows in the gun tower are mirror-tinted and the section windows blacked out. They can watch you, but if they’re staging a raid or monitoring your in-cell activities, you can’t see them. You thus live in a state between perpetual uncertainty and hyper-vigilance, never knowing when you’ll have your cell torn up and property destroyed or confiscated.

They are aware most imprisoned New Afrikan revolutionary nationalists practice some form of self-defense, and they believe they have sufficient documentation as to the extent of my decades of attention to these sciences in my C-file and elsewhere, but they really don’t, so I prefer to train in conditions of privacy to keep the extent of my expertise to myself. I end with some light moving meditation and then take my bird bath.

Around this time they are coming through the section door with chow. It’s scrambled eggs and potatoes today; it’s Tuesday. The menu never changes. You know the meal by the day of the week. We’re being served on paper trays, the food is grossly under-proportioned and ice cold. I go to the door and accept my small tray of food and sack lunch, looking at these c/o’s laugh and joke about the game they enjoyed over the weekend.

Through hooded eyes, I speak politely, thanking them for the cold food and wishing them a good morning. Startled by this response, they offer a nervous pleasantry in reply. I deposit my meal in a white paper cup, place the 2 slices of bread over it and scoop the 3-½ spoonfuls of cold cracked wheat cereal into my mouth and wash them down with some warm water.

I see this for the subtle psychological attack it is, reminding myself provocation and/or mental degradation is its intent. I form the opposite reaction, remembering there are men and women right now in some CIA blacksite prison in Uzbekistan being raped with a cattle-prod for breakfast yet maintaining their ideological integrity. I’ll do no less. The fact that they’ve been feeding me this way for 12 years and counting only strengthens my resolve. I’m desensitized by this point. I eat only to survive. I stopped eating for taste, texture or temperature years ago.

The food is grossly under-proportioned and ice cold. I see this for the subtle psychological attack it is and form the opposite reaction, remembering there are men and women right now in some CIA blacksite prison in Uzbekistan being raped with a cattle-prod for breakfast yet maintaining their ideological integrity. I’ll do no less.

I finish my “bird bath,” clean my sink, toilet, walls and floor, then sit down and eat half of my eggs and potatoes, saving the rest to eat with my lunch. My sack lunch – one slice of bread, two thin slices of bologna, a pack of two graham crackers and a small pack of almonds (12 almonds in a pack) – needs these extra calories to hold me till chow at 5 p.m.

I make my coffee pack, sit down and open my “office.” I intentionally maintain a massive workload so all of my time is consumed with activity. I am very conscious of time, of the quantity and quality of my daily service to the revolutionary cause.

I’m doing a portrait of a family who’s befriended my comrade Kambui in hopes of strengthening those social ties and displaying the quality of my/our work to a broader public audience; I’m designing new pieces for my/our greeting card line in hopes of raising funds for our progressive community development programs; I’m litigating a medical civil rights claim on behalf of a prisoner here with diabetes where I’ve been forced to file four different motions for extension of time because we’ve not been given law library access since August.

We’re supposed to get law library access today. I have several chapters and papers I have to review in various texts on economics, politics and mass psychology for a new piece we’re writing on the practice application of revolutionary scientific socialism in the U.S. today. I’m helping some good comrades gain a broader understanding of the ideas of Fanon, Marx, Engels, Mao, Trotsky and Ho Chi Minh as they relate to the ever-evolving conditions in modern society, trying to finish some work for our brothers and sisters in the progressive media and the Occupy Movement and putting the finishing touches on a Japanese cultural piece I/we initially intended to donate to the Fresno Museum of Art to auction off for the Japanese Tsunami Relief Fund but can only assume the museum director never wrote back because we are prisoners and she could not see past the propaganda of the state and its corresponding social stigma.

I take on all these projects, and more, intentionally. Enforced idleness is a key element of the sensory deprivation torture unit. The isolation is designed to concentrate the psychological impact of this endless idleness. The mind is supposed to turn in upon itself, warping reality. It is structured to re-enforce the concept that you have nothing to look forward to but the same nothing … forever. Its purpose is to break the minds of weak men, to transform them into craven informants, agents of the state, rats, debriefers.

The mind of the developed and committed revolutionary cannot be broken. Whenever it encounters such adverse conditions, it changes those conditions. I/we have no “idle time.” From the lowest, most oppressive conditions in this society, the SHU, we struggle daily to advance the progress of humanity itself.

We must work 10 times harder than any other segment of society to have the most miniscule influence on human affairs because we have such overwhelming power arrayed against us with the sole purpose of repressing our ideas – i.e., IGI (Institutional Gang Investigations), ISU (Investigations Services Unit), prison administrators, state officials, the U.S. federal government, decades of false propaganda and entrenched social stigmas which have created an aversion and irrational skepticism of anything positive and progressive originating here.

I/we have no “idle time.” From the lowest, most oppressive conditions in this society, the SHU, we struggle daily to advance the progress of humanity itself. We must work 10 times harder than any other segment of society to have the most miniscule influence on human affairs because we have such overwhelming power arrayed against us with the sole purpose of repressing our ideas.

We have a monumental task just overcoming the obstacles to communicate with you all. We have far too much work to do by writ of our chosen lifestyle to ever fall prey to such an innovation in psychological coercion. We are not simply immune, but where the truly committed are concerned, such attempts have the opposite effect: The fact that they would even attempt such attacks on dedicated servants of the people only hardens our resolve to resist. It makes us more revolutionary, better servants of the people and better men.

So I sit here for the first half of my day and work on this portrait. As I work, my thoughts tend to drift to my regrets. I’ve been imprisoned for most of my children’s lives and thoughts of their welfare and safety consume me: What are their interests and views, what do they value, what do they love? I look at the photo of my daughter Jawanda. I’ve never seen her face in real life or heard her laughter. I write them all (I have five children) at least once a month or more, but it’s been years since I’ve heard from most of them. I’m convinced my daughter Jawanda hates me for not being there for her and her brother as they grew up.

I push the thoughts away, comforted in the knowledge that my daily efforts in the cause are the greatest gift I could give them: a world where the interests of the many actually govern its direction and nature, democracy in form and not simply in word. Though I will not live to see the victorious revolutionary change for which I have labored all their lives, and will continue to for the remainder of my own, their children just might usher in this new social order on the heels of our contributions.

I hear keys as the section door opens and IGI officers enter the section wearing their arrogance and warped perceptions literally on their sleeves. They’re here to escort someone to ACH (hospital clinic). As they do so, the nurse and escort officer walk the tier dispensing medication. I accept and take my own meds, treatment for the inescapable damage done to my own mind which has manifested itself in an actual imbalance in my brain chemistry. I ask the officer, “Are they going to run law library?” They haven’t called with a list yet. But “doubt it,” he says.

I leave the door and return to my work, suppressing the sharp spike of anger at their continued refusal to allow us to access the courts to redress these inhumane violations of our rights. Another log on the pyre of the daily usurpations of our basic rights. Before I know it, it’s noon and I set my artwork aside and prepare my lunch while the news plays in the background.

I pick up the book Zamarabu sent down to me, “New Theories of Revolution” by Jack Woddis, and I pick up where I left off as I finish my meal. Most of the texts and concepts Brother Woddis is critiquing are close at hand and by the time my meal is finished and sufficiently digested, I have several tomes opened, cross-referencing ideas and concepts while I simultaneously view them through the prism of current social conditions and my own dialectical analysis.

I save two slices of bread, my apple and a slice of bologna from my lunch so I’ll have something to work forward to this evening. With that done, I turn my attention to addressing a question one of my comrades had on whether the practice of several small businesses trading among themselves to keep their overheads low equated a form of socialism, having seen the same story on PBS. I explained to the comrade his question underscores the importance of ideological development and a firm grasp of historical materialism when analyzing socio-economic phenomena.

What he had observed was a barter system amongst petty-bourgeois proprietors in an intra-class conflict with the more powerful industrial bourgeois interest – in this case Wal-Mart; this was not socialism. Those small businesses continue to offer their goods and services to consumers at a profit mark-up, continue to appropriate the surplus value of their workers’ labor, continue to support this system of white male privilege, race-class divide and rule, and labor exploitation. They are not socialist or revolutionary; quite the opposite, they are reactionary as they seek to turn back the wheel of history to the point where their mode of small production was the dominant segment of the bourgeois class base, where now they seek to bank together against the ruling bourgeois strata to keep from being cast back down into the working class because they can’t compete with the ruling bourgeois’ industrial scale mode of production and labor exploitation.

Socialism does not seek to “reform” capitalist property relations amongst the bourgeois elements; no, socialism seeks to abolish bourgeois property relations altogether. I went in depth on the question as did other comrades. Mind you, because we are in a sensory deprivation torture unit, these discussions cannot be held verbally, no. We must write them on paper, then shoot our lines and “fish” them to and fro amongst each other, sharing ideas, lending moral, emotional, psychological, material and spiritual support to one another via a piece of string and a weighted item tossed down the tier from one cell to another.

Because of blockers welded to the base of the doors and c/o’s who will snatch and break your line, this is of course difficult. But again none will deter us from exercising our fundamental human rights. We are here only because we believe the oppression of man by man should be opposed.

Because we are in a sensory deprivation torture unit, discussions cannot be held verbally. We must write them on paper, then shoot our lines and “fish” them to and fro amongst each other, sharing ideas, lending moral, emotional, psychological, material and spiritual support to one another via a piece of string and a weighted item tossed down the tier from one cell to another. Because of blockers welded to the base of the doors and c/o’s who will snatch and break your line, this is of course difficult. But again none will deter us from exercising our fundamental human rights. We are here only because we believe the oppression of man by man should be opposed.

By the time I finish, evening chow has come. I set my cake aside as a special treat for later and watch “Nightly Business Report” as I finish my meal, assessing and analyzing the daily permutations of global capitalism; then I watch BBC News and PBS Newshour. I then get back in “the office” and work on political pieces for various media interests, until I run out of gas around 8 p.m.

But I have one more thing to do. Today is special to me, and as I’ve done for the past 17 years of my imprisonment – this is now my 18th – I write a letter to my son giving him the benefit of my life’s experiences for the year, summing it up by recounting a story of children in India who are sent in bulk by labor firms to plantation factories as young as 9, 10 and 11 to pick cotton and work the gins in conditions as deplorable as those we experienced in the chattel slave epoch to develop textiles for a mega-rich British multinational. I explain to him that this was evil and how all that was necessary for such evil to continually prevail was for good people to do nothing.

I end my letter, slide it into the tray slot and sit down to enjoy a comedy program on TV while I eat the items I’ve saved from my earlier meals. Conscious of the pain in my side and health benefits of laughter, both chemically and psychologically, I release my emotional control and allow myself again to feel. I let go of the melancholy which is my constant companion and allow the mirth to strike me in the belly as the underclass antics of “Raising Hope” play across my TV.

Conscious of the pain in my side and health benefits of laughter, both chemically and psychologically, I release my emotional control and allow myself again to feel. I let go of the melancholy which is my constant companion and allow the mirth to strike me in the belly as the underclass antics of “Raising Hope” play across my TV.

I hear the section door pop, the bar box being opened and the gears being locked back in place as the other c/o passes out mail. It’s a special day, I’m expecting some mail and hoping to hear from my son. I receive a card wishing me holiday greetings from the beautiful brothers and sisters from a Pasadena community parish in solidarity with the prisoner hunger strike coalition. It fills me with gratitude and warmth. It’s 29 days old and postmarked, meaning IGI held this meager card for at least 26 days. I also get a ducat for blood draw in the morning.

I leave my door and laugh away the disappointment of not hearing from my family on this day, as I enjoy the 10 o’clock news. I see a wonderful story in honor of Muhammad Ali’s birthday, on how he defied the U.S. war machine by refusing to submit to coercion into their imperialist adventure in Vietnam. I suddenly feel even better, knowing I’m in such good company.

I look at my children’s photos and the images of Chairman Mao, Bob Marley, Jonathan Jackson and Buddha that are the only other images on my wall. I again close my eyes and ask the creator to watch over and bless my comrades, my children, my siblings, parents and all the people languishing under the yoke of this global Moloch of greed we call the capitalist “free market.” I close my eyes wondering why I heard from no one. I cut off my TV. I have an early start in the morning. I’m not as young as I used to be. Today was my birthday: Jan. 17, 2012.

Our existence here is one of struggle, of constant, ever present, inescapable daily struggle. I/we have attempted to convey this reality to you in many ways, but these are words, only valid if they serve to influence you positively in some way. What must be understood in the final analysis is we here are not “gang members” when speaking of adherents of NARN (New Afrikan Revolutionary Nation) Scientific Socialism; we are revolutionaries. We think, act and communicate differently than those who have not given their lives to the people.

I say this not to disparage anyone; it is simply a statement of fact. The Honorable Comrade George Lester Jackson stated, “Revolution is a war for the minds of the masses.” The state has buried us in these torture units specifically to ensure we cannot effectively communicate the reality of the collective subjugation of 99 percent of those in this society to the whims of an avaricious ruling elite. They seek to criminalize legitimate political discourse, to disparage the truth in favor of an ever-evolving lie. The truth of the matter is you and I both are nothing but commodities to these people, our values being exploited or intentionally suppressed as the interests of their profit margins dictate.

Saul D. Alinsky in his book “Rules for Radicals” said, “When you are trying to communicate and can’t find the point in the experience of the other party at which he can receive and understand, then you must create the experience for him.” I have tried to do that here without horrifying you. What must be understood is some of the greatest political, social, economic, cultural, scientific and military minds of our time are languishing in the short corridors and cell blocks of Pelican Bay and Corcoran SHUs. Many of you in progressive circles are familiar with my writing, but I am merely a product of the phenomenal principled men I mentioned at the beginning of this discussion and the unfinished legacy of democratic change and equalitarian struggle that is the hallmark of the evolution of civilization.

The state has buried us in these torture units specifically to ensure we cannot effectively communicate the reality of the collective subjugation of 99 percent of those in this society to the whims of an avaricious ruling elite. They seek to criminalize legitimate political discourse. Some of the greatest political, social, economic, cultural, scientific and military minds of our time are languishing in the short corridors and cell blocks of Pelican Bay and Corcoran SHUs.

Under these conditions – indeterminate SHU confinement – we have the full weight of the state arrayed against us. Our words in some instances are our only effective tools. If I/we write or say something I/we consider revolutionary, that I hope will alter the nature and structure of society and improve mankind, but in the final analysis fails to move anyone in a substantive way, it is not revolutionary or progressive. Communication that fails to effect its intent is so much idle chatter.

The concrete analysis of such concrete conditions would be nothing has been changed. The reason we commit so much time and effort into understanding the history and present interconnections of all human activity in our world is the ability to change people’s minds, to alter their perspectives so a previously hidden truth becomes self-evident. It’s a serious matter, as serious and strategic as war, because revolution is a war.

As you read this I’m waging that war now, against entrenched biases and artificial social stigmas manufactured by a specific socio-economic interest. This is why we are so hard on ourselves, why we intentionally expose ourselves to conditions that would crush most men’s minds and subsume their wills: Failure to communicate these ideas to you effectively is to fail you.

We are speaking of the future evolution of the world, of forging a society more reflective of human decency than human misery. We cannot fail. Our cause is just because our cause is you – serving the people.

It is my sincerest hope that you leave this brief discussion with not simply a greater grasp of this injustice, but more centrally with a determination to insist the state end this hidden hypocrisy. The U.S. – and the state of California – cannot continue criticizing Syria, China, Burma and Russia for their alleged repressive measures against dissent and maltreatment of political prisoners, yet continue to maintain its own domestic program of torture against political prisoners. It is inhumane, illegal, hypocritical and just plain wrong.

Our imprisonment has no bearing on the truth and validity of our ideas. If this is truly a nation which values democracy, equality, human rights and fundamental fairness as its social imperatives, surely its people cannot allow this practice of political repression to continue unchallenged. Surely you will challenge it.

Our imprisonment has no bearing on the truth and validity of our ideas. If this is truly a nation which values democracy, equality, human rights and fundamental fairness as its social imperatives, surely its people cannot allow this practice of political repression to continue unchallenged.

If nothing else, I hope sharing a day in my life will compel you to value your own a little more and cherish that of your fellow man or woman as you do your own. My/our love, loyalty and solidarity to you all … until we win or don’t lose.

Send our brother some love and light: J. Heshima Denham, J-38283, CSP-COR-SHU, 4B1L-40, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran, CA 93212.

25 Ohio supermax prisoners start a hunger strike

Mary — Tue, 08 May 2012 07:02:04 +0000

by Ben Turk

The successful conclusion of the Lucasville prisoners’ hunger strike in January 2011, which inspired the California hunger strike in July, was celebrated with a march and rally on Martin Luther King Day.

On Monday, April 30, at least 25 prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) began a hunger strike. They are demanding that the warden meet and negotiate with them for improved conditions in Ohio’s supermax prison. These hunger strikers say they intend to continue to refuse food until their demands are met. Another larger group of prisoners will show symbolic solidarity with the hunger strikers and workers outside of prison by also refusing food on a one-day fast for May Day, the international day of worker solidarity and resistance.

Information about the hunger strike is limited at this time, because supermax prisoners have very constrained access to communication with the outside world. The hunger strikers are asking supporters of their cause to participate by calling Warden David Bobby at (330) 743-0700 and ODRC Director Gary Mohr at (614) 752-1164. The hunger strikers are asking people to encourage Warden Bobby to meet with the prisoners and take their demands seriously.

This is the second hunger strike at OSP this year. The first occurred on Feb. 20-23 in solidarity with the Occupy Movement’s call for an “Occupy for Prisoners” day of action. That hunger strike ended with Warden Bobby, as well as officials from Central Office in Columbus, promising to increase recreation time to the court-mandated minimum as well as improve enrichment programming, food quality and commissary practices. At this time, it is unclear if that promise was kept and what relationship, if any, the current hunger strike has with February’s Occupy for Prisoners hunger strike.

Ohio State Penitentiary opened in 1998. It houses over 270 level 4 and 5 maximum security prisoners and until recently also housed 116 of Ohio’s death row prisoners. OSP was built in response to the 1993 uprising at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville.

OSP hunger strike enters second week

Monday, May 7, 2012, Youngstown, Ohio – Prisoners at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) continue the hunger strike they started on Monday, April 30, in solidarity with May Day.

The number of prisoners refusing food has fluctuated from 24 to 48 over the last week, as some prisoners joined late. Communication with the supermax prisoners has been limited since the beginning of the strike, but a clear list of grievances and demands has emerged from at least two sources.

The two primary demands are:

1. Improved commissary practices and increased state pay. The prison commissary can set prices at up to 35 percent mark-up on basic necessities like shampoo, food and soap. These prices fluctuate unexpectedly and are often prohibitive to prisoners without outside support, as state pay is only $9 a month.

2. A transparent and accountable security level classification process. OSP houses level 4 and 5 prisoners, the highest security level in Ohio. Once prisoners are classified at these levels and transferred to OSP, there is no clear process for how they can reduce their level and get transferred out of the facility. Prisoners can spend years in OSP without any negative conduct reports and still have no hope of their level being reduced.

Other grievances include:

1. Food portions and quality have been reduced due to austerity measures.

2. Inadequate medical care. Also due to austerity cuts, prison officials have stopped sending prisoners to outside treatment centers for MRIs and EEGs unless their conditions are considered life threatening. They also often ignore doctor recommendations for pain medications.

3. Lack of enrichment programming. There are strict bans on many books and movies, and the institutional television channel has little variety. One prisoner said they run the same programs on a loop every six months.

The two sources for these demands are an open letter written to the local Youngstown paper by prisoner Marcus Harris and phone conversations with a trusted anonymous source inside the prison. This source also stated that at least one hunger striker has been punished for his participation, sprayed with mace in his cell and sent to disciplinary isolation. This report has not yet been confirmed.

Warden David Bobby met with hunger strike representatives for three hours on Wednesday, May 2. He says he will “continue to communicate with the inmates and listen to their concerns.” Thus far, the warden has called a committee to review commissary practices, comparing them with other Ohio institutions.

He says that the security level classification system is not uniform because it takes the reasons a prisoner was transferred to OSP into account. One prisoner source was familiar with this argument. He described a situation where someone got sentenced to Level 5 at OSP for 48 months or less. He got no negative reports for those 48 months but was still denied a security transfer because of “the reasons he was originally classified Level 5, but they already knew that when the brought him in and told him it’d be 48 months or less.”

This prisoner also said that consequences for petty conduct reports, like refusing to cuff up or return a food tray, have recently increased. “Someone who used to be sent to the hole for 16 days now might be dropped a level from 4 to 5.” He considers these changes an attempt to keep OSP full of prisoners as “job security” for the warden and officers.

The warden said OSP currently has the most prisoners it has since it opened in 1996. He also said the current hunger strike is the biggest hunger strike since he became warden four years ago. It is also the second hunger strike this year.

In February, 25 prisoners went on hunger strike for three days. Two major demands from that hunger strike were increased recreation time, to the court required minimum of five hours a week, and improved commissary practices. The recreation time demand was met, but the prisoners say the current hunger strike “follows directly” from the neglected commissary demand from February. The warden says he does not remember what the demands in February were and that the recreation schedule has changed repeatedly since the transfer of death row from OSP to Chillicothe last December.

Prisoner Mark Harris’ letter ends: “In short, we are sensory deprived, underfed, isolated with little to no movement, unable to hug our children, family and friends, and we are stuck for an overly extended period of time with limited programming.” He requests that people use “whatever resources [they] have to help spread the word of our cause, to call and check up on us and our health and also to look into these matters.”

To reach Warden David Bobby, call (330) 743-0700. ODRC Director Gary Mohr can be reached at (614) 752-1164.

Ben Turk can be reached at insurgent.ben@gmail.com.

Swedes revive ridicule of Black beauty Hottentot Venus

Adrian — Tue, 08 May 2012 05:27:43 +0000

The role of Sara Baartman in world history and herstory

by Paradise Free Jahlove

Swedish Minister of Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth performs a clitoridectomy on a cake styled as the voluptuous body of “Hottentot Venus” Sara Baartman as the designer, African-Swedish performance artist Makode Aj Linde, in blackface, screams in mock pain. This photo brings flashbacks of that infamous picture of a brother lynched and burnt at the stake with an amused white audience in the background. – Photo: Marianne Lindberg de Geer, Facebook

Recently I was working on an article about Sara Baartman and her role in world history when I heard via the internet about what took place in early April in good ol’ Sweden. While attending a tax-funded party for the Stockholm cultural elite, Swedish Minister of Culture Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, a self-proclaimed “anti-racist,” declared the party officially started by slicing a piece of a cake depicting a stereotypical African woman – in the area of the genitalia.

The shocking photos that went viral on the net show several established left-wing members of the Stockholm cultural elite watching and laughing as Minister Liljeroth slices a cake depicting a black African woman with minstrel-esque face. The video has been viewed more than 3 million times.

Liljeroth was invited to open the festivities by performing a clitoridectomy on the cake, which she did by slicing off the part of the cake in the crotch area. The inside of the cake appears to be colored red. The minister then proceeded to feed that part of the cake to its designer, African-Swedish performance artist Makode Aj Linde. He was done up in blackface, his head protruding through the table. Whenever the cake was cut in the area of the genitalia, Linde would cry out in mock agony.

What makes this story interesting, beside the cake being modeled after some art work by a brother who was trying to draw attention to female castration in Afrika, was that the cake was modeled after Sara Baartman, who some 200 years earlier had been paraded around Europe as a freak because of her Afrikan voluptuousness. After only five years, she died; they had used her up. Then they dislodged her brain and genitalia with its elongated and extraordinary labia and preserved them in bottles for public viewing in French and other European museums.

Below is the story as it was originally intended with a few modifications because of recent happenings:

Sara Baartman was the forerunner to the video vixen, go go girl, cage and pole dancer – although not by choice. She was a member of the Hottentot tribe, whose people had a unique feature: Their body fat was predominantly stored in the buttocks, instead of the belly or thighs.

And so when this voluptuous woman, who lived in Capetown, South Afrika, was spotted by Europeans in the early 1800s, they flipped out when they saw her unusually ample bosom, ample behind and thick, full lips! Soon thereafter they invited her to Europe, promising wealth, fortune and fame. But when Sara – the English name she was given – arrived in Europe in 1810, they locked her in a cage on wheels – buck naked! They paraded her all over Europe as a freak and said, “Look, Black people have tails!”

They called her Hottentot Venus, the Black goddess of lust (Hottentot) and love (Venus).

From Hottentot voluptuousness to Victorian bustle to today’s Booty Pops

But this clever ruse would backfire in a way because soon the women of Europe were wearing a newfangled fashion embellishing their Victorian dresses called a “bustle,” which made European women appear to have “junk in the trunk” like Black women. And the French would invent the high heeled shoe, today often called a pump, to give the booties of white women a lift to compete with the Black rump.

Almost a century later, Europeans would try and revisit the Sara Baartman scenerio with Josephine Baker, who was above and beyond it all. “What savage beauty! She’s so magnificently primitive!” they exclaimed.

And later, in the 1960s, someone came up with the idea to create an anti-voluptuous Black madonna goddess image named Twiggy, who was so frail and thin and puny she looked like a twig. And this image was pushed so ubiquitously that thin became in – so that 50 years later thousands, if not millions of women still suffer from anorexia, bulimia and low self-esteem today.

And believe it or not, here in the 21st century, Jim Crow laws still stand against the magnificently diverse and oftentimes amble Black and Brown behind in beauty pageants worldwide; there seems to be an unwritten rule that no woman can enter a Miss America or Miss Universe contest with hips larger than 36 inches or have a behind with too much personality.

And yet the madness doesn’t end there. Today because of modern day technology it is possible to get lip implants, breast implants and implants for your behind! You can also buy padded underwear products, including the cleverly titled “Booty Pops,” which give a little bit of that Hottentot Venus look that was supposed to be inferior.

One moral to this story is that we have to do for self and create our own standards and public images of beauty, which we will be able to do by keeping more of our dollars in the community and supporting Black businesses! Buy Black Wednesday!

Sara Baartman died after only five years in Europe at the tender age of 21. She was born in 1789 and buried in 2002, 213 years later. And now this latest indecency in Sweden … May the world finally let Sara Baartman rest in peace.

Paradise is president of the International Black Writers & Artists Local 5 in Oakland and was recently honored by the City of Oakland with “Paradise Day,” on Oct. 6! He may be reached at oaklandworldsfair@yahoo.com. Paradise also facilitates the Buy Black Wednesdays Facebook page and group, hosts the Black Wednesday Show every Wednesday at 6 p.m. on www.harambeeradio.com and blogs at www.blackwednesdays.blogspot.com.

Editor’s note: Ann Garrison suggests calling the Swedish Embassy in the U.S. as she did: (202) 467-2652.

SF local hiring law is changing lives

Adrian — Tue, 08 May 2012 04:54:46 +0000

City’s jobs legislation is already working and can work even better

by Ruben Santana

San Francisco’s local hiring law is successfully increasing diversity and opportunity for local residents on City-funded construction. Local community contractors such as Rubecon and Liberty Builders can work with the City to expand upon these early success stories as local hiring requirements under the law increase this year.

As a union carpenter and general contractor with over 30 years of experience, I can safely say that the first year under San Francisco’s landmark new local hiring law exceeded even my hopeful expectations.

Last month, Mayor Ed Lee and Supervisor John Avalos announced that although the local hiring policy required only 20 percent local participation on construction in its first year, local residents performed 34 percent of all the job hours on covered projects. The legislation increased the diversity of the City’s construction workforce and boosted opportunities for local workers of color and women.

We have even seen local working families on the verge of departing San Francisco during this time of economic crisis stay in the city by securing employment through the new local hiring law.

There is no better time to promote inclusion of San Francisco’s communities on public works projects. Look around the city and one can view at least 16 cranes that have gone up around town with even more work breaking ground this year.

Thanks to this law, some longtime blue-collar workers who have been squeezed out of San Francisco have even moved back to the city for the chance to go back to work.

What is most exciting is that more youth are becoming interested in blue-collar careers and enjoying the quality of life that high-paying union construction jobs provide. To meet this demand, the City has invested in programs such as CityBuild and our community-based organizations that are at the ready to prepare them to excel in a union construction apprenticeship.

When I started out as a carpenter, these programs were not in place and there was less support for local workers starting out in the trades. My experience began during a period of longstanding barriers for workers of color and women and I had to work even harder to prove myself. Today, I am glad to see future potential workers benefit from my experience in supporting a local hiring policy that guarantees opportunities for a new generation of local craftsmen and craftswomen.

Our local hiring law is a continuation of the process of breaking down barriers to maintaining a blue-collar middle class in San Francisco.

The next step in making local hiring work as its employment requirements increase is to identify and support the unique role that local community contractors play. The City can help increase these early local hiring success stories by partnering with local contractors who actively recruit and employ local residents.

The Local Business Enterprise (LBE) ordinance alone does not accomplish that, as we have seen how non-local firms are sometimes able to hang a shingle in San Francisco, make minimal payroll and property tax contributions to the local economy, and claim the bidding preferences designed to promote and expand truly San Francisco-based contractors. The City should target opportunities for LBEs that also have a strong track record of consistently employing local residents.

The first year of local hiring has been more successful than most people imagined. To expand upon its success, we need to continue cultivating our local contractor community base and engaging the unique experiences of those of us who have been fortunate to make the transition from worker to business owner, giving back to the community by regularly employing San Franciscans to help rebuild this great city.

Ruben Santana is the owner of Rubecon Builders, Inc., a union general contractor based in Bayview Hunters Point with over 100 years of combined experience in the construction industry. Rubecon regularly employs in excess of 50 percent local workers on construction jobs and is a committed supporter of San Francisco’s Local Hiring Policy for Construction.

Legendary prisoner ‘Mousy Brown’ perishes

Adrian — Tue, 08 May 2012 04:42:01 +0000

by Kenneth G. Keel

Folsom Prison, California’s second oldest prison next to San Quentin, opened in 1880.

On March 24, 2012, Leonard “Mousy Brown” Fulgham passed away while in the custody and care of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

On April 9, 2012, a memorial service for Mousy Brown was held at the Folsom State Prison Greystone Chapel. Everyone in attendance would agree that the event was a dignified tribute for a legendary man. The obituary pointed out in part: “Mousy’s formative years occurred during the period known as the Black Power Struggle and the Civil Rights Movement … Moreover, it should be noted that this brother never forgot his identity or obligation to our ethnic culture or its youth. This man’s presence will forever be felt, missed and recognized by the masses!”

During his prime, body-building was at the top of Mousy Brown’s long list of accomplishments. Before becoming California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with Franco Colombo, filmed a documentary about inmate body-building routines behind prison walls. Mousy Brown was a major part of that documentary.

During the past few years, Mousy Brown waged a tireless battle to regain his good health, to no avail. Despite knowing the nature and extent of Mousy’s medical condition, CDCR officials refused to grant him a compassionate early release to spend his final hours with his loved ones.

Rick James in 1996, the year he left prison

Following is an excerpt from an interview conducted at Old Folsom Prison. Interviewer Johnny Echols: “Question: What was your relationship with Rick James? Were you his protector or just a real friend?” Mousy Brown’s response: “I walked the Folsom prison yard with Rick James from the very first day I met him. Among all of the other prison inmates, Rick James took a special interest in me from day one. He noticed right away that I was a visionary, an advanced thinker with repartee communication who handled myself much better than most of the other prison inmates.

“Next, I am the founder of the Kumi African Nation Organization (also known as 415). … During all of the time that Rick James and I spent together conversing, I became his combination of things. I was his confidant, body-building trainer, right-hand supporter and very close friend. As far as protector goes, since I was a well-known convict throughout the California prison system, it came with the territory of Rick James and I hanging together each day of prison life.”

Rest in Peace, Mousy Brown! And our deepest condolences are expressed to his family members, friends and associates.

Send our brother some love and light: Kenneth Keel, D-12127, FSP 5-C1-38, P.O. Box 715071, Represa CA 95671-5071.

1,600 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike since April 17

Adrian — Mon, 07 May 2012 23:29:45 +0000

by the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat

On Palestinian Prisoners Day April 17, 500 students marched in Glasgow to occupy BBC Scotland headquarters, demanding full coverage of Palestinian prisoners’ mass hunger strike. – Photo: WeAreAllHanaShalabi

Over 1,600 Palestinian prisoners are currently engaged in a steadfast and open-ended hunger strike that launched on April 17, 2012, Palestinian Prisoners’ Day. Ahmad Sa’adat, Palestinian national leader and general secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, is among these prisoners, once again taking up the “Battle of the Empty Stomachs” to demand justice and dignity, and has now been on hunger strike for 14 days.

Palestinian hunger strikers are demanding an end to isolation and solitary confinement; an end to administrative detention; access to family visits for all prisoners, including those from Gaza; and access to education and media. Sa’adat has been held in isolation for over three years, since March 2009.

Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike are demanding international solidarity. Actions you can take are listed below.

Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike are demanding international solidarity.

In a breaking news report, Palestinian political prisoners from the PFLP have rejected an occupation offer to end Sa’adat’s isolation if they would break the hunger strike. They refused; the hunger strike includes prisoners from all Palestinian factions, united in their demands.

The following letter from Ahmad Sa’adat to his family, the Palestinian and Arab people and the world was released April 24, the eighth day of his hunger strike, smuggled from his isolation cell. It calls for support for the hunger strike on Palestinian, Arab and international levels:

“Do not worry; my health is much better than in the previous hunger strike, and I am confident it will remain so. Thank you for your continual support of my position in this hunger strike. As is the case in every strike, they took all of our electrical appliances, canteen, clothing … We only have left prison clothes, some change of underwear, pajamas, towels, soap and toothpaste.

“All of us have lost about 5-7 kilograms (11-15 pounds) in weight, but everyone is in good health and, most importantly, in high morale and determined to continue the strike. We are confident of victory, relying on the justice of our cause and our demands and the support of the masses of our people, our nation and the free world – individuals, organizations and institutions – standing, as always alongside our just struggle.

“These demands include a number of legitimate human rights under international law, including abolition of solitary confinement as a dangerous form of torture with no security or legal justification and contrary to international humanitarian law and all international conventions that prohibit torture. We are also demanding an end to the prohibition of family visits to the prisoners from Gaza for more than seven years, as well as interference with family visitors from the West Bank under the pretext of ‘security reasons’ and demanding that such visits be allowed for extended as well as immediate family.

“These demands include a number of legitimate human rights under international law, including abolition of solitary confinement as a dangerous form of torture with no security or legal justification and contrary to international humanitarian law and all international conventions that prohibit torture,” writes Ahmad Sa’adat to his family.

“What we need from the masses of the people, political forces and institutions is to raise the voices and the call of our just demands of the prisoners with a unified voice and not subject the cause of the prisoners to internal disputes or the management of division.

“This strike includes participation from all political forces and factions, without exception, and the best gift from the political forces supporting us is to implement agreements for unity on which the ink is not yet dry. Such unity is an essential foundation, the most important pillar to achieve our just national goals.

“In conclusion, I salute and thank all of the Palestinian, Arab and international forces standing beside our just struggle. Forward to victory!”

This story originally appeared on the website of the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat. Email the campaign at info@freeahmadsaadat.org.

Statement from strike leadership: We will continue until our demands are met

by the Higher National Leadership Committee of the Prisoners’ Struggle

This is the moment of truth, where hunger grips our bleeding wounds. This is a call of duty and we cannot be weak or cowardly. We are facing a real massacre committed by the Zionist jailers against our individual and collective rights, where we are confronted by torture and abuse on a daily basis, around the clock, in an attempt to force all of the hunger strikers to break the strike.

Outside Ofer Prison in Ramallah May 1, the Israeli Occupying Force fired tear gas, rubber coated steel bullets and stun grenades at protesters supporting hunger strikers. At least two were injured. Since 1967, over 700,000 Palestinians, 20 percent of the population of the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, have been detained. This number represents approximately 40 percent of the total male Palestinian population in the occupied territories. – Photo: Palestine News Network

We are at a crucial and dangerous stage and, inspired by our hunger and our pain, speak to your conscience and affirm the following:

First, we will continue our strike. We will not go back, except by achieving our demands. We will not be defeated by their crimes and cruelty as we draft a vision for a decent life.

Second, we will take qualitative and unprecedented steps if the Prison Service continues to refuse our demands, and we will not announce these steps until the moment of implementation.

Third, we call on the masses of our people in the beseiged Gaza Strip, the brave West Bank and all of Palestine, and our families at home, to organize mass rallies and marches toward Israeli checkpoints in order to confront the occupation.

Fourth, we expect our Arab brothers and sisters in Egypt and Jordan to encircle the embassies of the Zionist entity in order to force it to respond to our demands.

Fifth, we call upon the free people of the world and the Arab and Muslim communities in all countries of the world to implement rallies, protests, occupations and sit-ins at Israeli embassies as an expression of solidarity with the prisoners’ cause and to expose the crimes of the Zionists.

Sixth, we value highly the reporting of Palestinian and Arab satellite channels in their coverage of our strike, including Al-Jazeera, that is consistent with the pulse of our nation and its identity, as well as al-Aqsa TV, al-Quds TV, and call upon the Arab and Palestinian media to exercise their duty to our just and humanitarian cause.

Seventh, we are looking forward to an important and active Egyptian role in support of our cause and we appeal to the ruling power in sister Egypt to do all in its power to compel the Zionist entity to commit to our demands, including ending the policy of solitary confinement and isolation and the abolition of the “Shalit law.”

We swear to continue to strike until our demands are met, no matter what the cost. We believe in our right to a dignified life even if we fall as martyrs. We must live with dignity or die.

Finally, we swear to continue to strike until our demands are met, no matter what the cost. We believe in our right to a dignified life even if we fall as martyrs. Our dignity is the greatest cost; we are committed before God; we must live with dignity or die.

This statement originally appeared on the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

Palestinians organize hunger tents in support of detainees

Thousands of Palestinians around the West Bank and Gaza have joined in solidarity by setting up tents outside the Red Cross in Gaza and in areas around Ramallah and the West Bank, where the local communities are staging hunger strikes in support of the Palestinian prisoners held in administrative detention by the Israeli Prison Service. …

On Palestine Prisoners’ Day, 160 prisoners began an open hunger strike while 2,000 people marched towards the Red Cross in Gaza City in solidarity, alongside thousands protesting around the West Bank. The 160 detained prisoners began an open hunger strike with a further 2,300 prisoners who refused food for one day and 1,200 prisoners who said they would begin a hunger strike. This added to three quarters of the 4,700 Palestinians being held in Israeli prisons.

This story originally appeared on the Palestine News Network.

Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike: Repression and solidarity escalate

Repression against prisoners continues: Numerous prisoners have been moved from prison to prison, prisoners are fined 250-500 New Israeli Shekels daily and Addameer lawyers are barred from the prisons, according to an April 30 report from the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

“Nonetheless, the resistance continues. … Calls are echoing throughout Palestine and on social media around the world for a general strike May 1, for International Workers’ Day and the prisoners. A protest will take place outside Ramleh prison hospital, where hunger strikers are held, on Thursday, May 3, while daily pickets will take place in London in solidarity with the prisoners,” Samidoun reports.

“Successful and growing protests are taking place around the world and throughout Palestine – but more action is urgently needed as the prisoners’ lives, health and bodies are on the line for their rights, dignity, and their cause and people.”

Students occupy BBC for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike

More than 500 student protesters marched from George Square in Glasgow to occupy BBC Scotland headquarters on Palestinian Prisoners’ Day April 17 to demand mainstream media coverage of the prisoners’ hunger strike, reports WeAreAllHanaShalabi. The students want BBC’s worldwide audience to know what led to the prisoners’ decision to call for a mass hunger strike, and they question BBC’s impartiality.

As in the U.S., Scottish police treated the student marchers with more hostility than protection and arrested several. – Photo: WeAreAllHanaShalabi

Many of those marching participated in the global hunger strike from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. that day in solidarity with the prisoners. More demonstrations have been called across Scotland in Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

According to the report, “The demonstrators entered the building before midday and are currently holding the main lobby, chanting ‘BBC, shame on you; put the prisoners on the news’ and ‘Hunger strikers will not bow; free the political prisoners now. …

“The actions today take place two days after thousands of international activists attempted to fly into Ben Gurion Airport demanding the right to travel to the West Bank on invitation of the mayor of Bethlehem. There are currently around 50 activists being held in detention, including four Scottish nationals, who are refusing food and water in solidarity with the Karamah Hunger Strike.

“The demonstrations around the issue of the hunger strikers are being organized by student Palestine societies in Scotland, with the support of various organizations, uniting under the banner of ‘We Are All Hana Shalabi.’ …

“One of the occupiers said, ‘The Karamah Hunger Strike represents a potentially significant moment in the history of the Palestinian struggle. The fact that 2400 Palestinian prisoners are on hunger strike against the apartheid policies of the Israeli occupation shows the desire of Palestinians to have their freedom from prison and freedom from occupation. The BBC is complicit through their silence on the ongoing situation in Palestine, and we are occupying today to highlight that the magnitude of this issue and this injustice demands that the media cover it.”

Gaza child launches hunger strike for imprisoned father; Prison Services attempt to bargain with prisoners’ healthcare

Former prisoner Samer Abu Sir reported that Israeli prison administration forces attempted to bargain with imprisoned patient Akram Rakhawi in Ramle hospital, saying they would provide him with inhalers and oxygen if he broke his hunger strike. Rakhawi refused, saying that despite his heart disease, shortness of breath and diabetes, he would not break his strike.

Hamas militants stage a mock prison break during a rally April 13 in Jabalya, northern Gaza Strip, calling for the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. – Photo: Mohammed Salem, Reuters

He also reported that Jumana Abu Jazar, 11, has launched a hunger strike in solidarity with her imprisoned father, the Fateh representative in the strike’s leadership. Jumana has spoken to Palestinian and Arab media in the past about her situation – her mother is dead, and she lives with her grandfather in Rafah. Her father is serving a 19-year sentence in occupation prisons, and she is one of the victims of the Israeli policy of denying family visits to prisoners in the Gaza Strip. Abu Sir noted that the leadership of the prisoners rejected a proposal by the Israeli prison officials for Gaza families to see their imprisoned relatives via video conferencing, demanding ordinary visits like all other prisoners.

Abu Sir also called to expand the activities on April 17 for the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners, noting that of course it is not enough to have one day, the 17th of April, as the only day for Palestinian prisoner solidarity and to stand alongside the captives behind the bars of the occupation every day. He said that this day of action is a strong support for international solidarity mobilization and engagement with the issue of prisoners, and a tool to put pressure on international institutions, in particular the United Nations.

This story originally appeared on the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network.

Take action!

1. Sign a letter demanding the Israeli state implement all of the demands of hunger striking Palestinian prisoners. Tell the Israeli Prison Services that the world is watching! Sign at http://samidoun.ca/2012/04/prisoners-hunger-strike-enters-12th-day-take-action-now-60-days-of-hunger-for-bilal-diab-and-thaer-halahleh/#letter.

2. Join a protest or demonstration for Palestinian prisoners. Organizing an event, action or forum on Palestinian prisoners on your city or campus? Use the form at http://samidoun.ca/2012/04/submit-your-palestinian-prisoner-solidarity-activities-here/ to contact us and we will post the event widely. If you need suggestions, materials or speakers for your event, please contact us at samidoun@samidoun.ca.

World renowned artists Carlos Latuff designed this graphic for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike, #Palhunger.

3. Contact your government officials and demand an end to international silence and complicity with the repression of Palestinian political prisoners. In the U.S., call the office of Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffrey Feltman, at (202) 647-7209. Demand that Feltman bring this issue urgently to his counterparts in Israel.

4. Write to the International Committee of the Red Cross and demand they uphold their duties to protect the rights of Palestinian political prisoners. Go to http://samidoun.ca/2012/04/palestinian-prisoners-day-take-action-to-call-for-freedom-for-palestinian-prisoners/#letter to sign a one-minute letter and make your voice heard.

5. Distribute materials, including factsheets (http://samidoun.ca/2012/04/new-factsheets-for-distribution-on-palestinian-prisoners-day/) and videos (http://samidoun.ca/2012/04/videos-the-testimony-of-palestinian-prisoner-dr-abdul-aziz-omar/), telling the story of Palestinian prisoners.

All these stories were relayed by the ever-vigilant Political Prisoner News, ppnews@freedomarchives.org. The Bay View thanks them for keeping the people informed.

California prisoners may resume hunger strike July 1

by Bato Talamantez

We need to somehow let Pelican Bay and other prisoners know that hunger strikes in Palestine are for basically the same human rights as their own here and let our prisoners derive strength and solidarity for their own upcoming ordeal, now scheduled for the first of July.

I’m afraid more prisoners are about to die of starvation, as they are as determined as any prisoners anywhere to put an end to their own suffering – or die trying to correct this gross injustice within Amerikkka’s gulags.

In the spirit of solidarity.

Bato Talamantez, a member of the legendary San Quentin 6, can be reached at batowato@gmail.com.

A young Palestinian woman raises the Palestinian flag on an Israeli armored vehicle. She was sprayed in the face with burning chemicals.

Two years after the BP drilling disaster, Gulf residents fear for the future

Adrian — Mon, 07 May 2012 22:45:20 +0000

by Jordan Flaherty

Art Rocker, who chairs Operation People for Peace, and Dr. E. Faye Williams, chair of the National Congress of Black Women, lead a march with hundreds of protestors in front of the Washington, D.C., office of BP claims fund czar Ken Feinberg. Rocker’s group represents over 400 churches, 100 pastors and 10,000 underserved and underrepresented claimants. “Finally,” Rocker said, “over $773 million will be paid to these claimants. This group represents over 10 percent of all oil spill claims that have been received by Judge Barbier at the federal district court in New Orleans. After Dick Gregory and I protested and went to jail several times over Ken Feinberg’s hundreds of promises, finally we can see some daylight.”

On April 20, 2010, a reckless attitude towards the safety of the Gulf Coast by BP, as well as Transocean and Halliburton, caused a well to blow out 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. As the world watched in horror, underwater cameras showed a seemingly endless flow of oil – hundreds of millions of gallons – and a series of failed efforts to stop it, over a period of nearly three months. Two years later, that horror has not ended for many on the Gulf.

“People should be aware that the oil is still there,” says Wilma Subra, a chemist who travels widely across the Gulf meeting with fishers and testing seafood and sediment samples for contamination.

Subra says that the reality she is seeing on the ground contrasts sharply with the image painted by BP. “I’m extremely concerned on the impact it’s having on all these sick individuals,” she says. Subra believes we may be just at the beginning of this disaster. In every community she visits, fishers show her shrimp born without eyes, fish with lesions, and crabs with holes in their shells. She says tarballs are still washing up on beaches across the region.

While it’s too early to assess the long-term environmental impact, a host of recent studies published by the National Academy of Sciences and other respected institutions have shown troubling results. They describe mass deaths of deepwater coral, dolphins and killifish, a small animal at the base of the Gulf food chain. “If you add them all up, it’s clear the oil is still in the ecosystem; it’s still having an effect,” says Aaron Viles, deputy director of Gulf Restoration Network, an environmental organization active in the region.

The major class action lawsuit on behalf of communities affected by the spill has reached a proposed $7.8 billion settlement, subject to approval by a judge. While this seems to have brought a certain amount of closure to the saga, environmentalists worry that any settlement is premature, saying they fear that the worst is yet to come. Pointing to the 1989 Exxon spill off the coast of Alaska, previously the largest oil spill in U.S. waters, Viles said that it was several years before the full effect of that disaster was felt. “Four seasons after Exxon Valdez is when the herring fisheries collapsed,” says Viles. “The Gulf has been a neglected ecosystem for decades. We need to be monitoring it closely.”

In the aftermath of the spill, BP flooded the Gulf with nearly 2 million gallons of chemical dispersants. While BP says these chemicals broke up the oil, some scientists have said this just made it less visible and sent the poisons deeper into the food chain.

It is widely agreed that environmental problems on the coast date back to long before the well blew open. The massive catastrophe brought into focus problems that have existed for a generation. Land loss caused by oil company drilling has already displaced many who lived by the coast, and the pollution from treatment plants has poisoned communities across the state – especially in “cancer alley,” the corridor of industrial facilities along the Mississippi River south of Baton Rouge.

“The Gulf is a robust ecosystem and it’s been dying the death of a thousand cuts for a long time,” says Viles. “BP is legally obligated to fix what they screwed up. But if you’re only obligated to put the ecosystem back to where it was April 19, 2010, why would we?”

Fishing is a huge part of the economy for the Gulf Coast. Around 40 percent of the seafood caught in the continental U.S. comes from here. Many area fishermen were still recovering from Hurricane Katrina when the spill closed a third of Gulf waters to fishing for months. George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fisherman’s Association, a group that supports Gulf Coast fishers, says many fishers still had not recovered from Hurricane Katrina when the oil started flowing from the BP spill. Now, he says, many are facing losing their homes. “Production is down at least 70 percent,” compared to the year before the spill, he says. “And prices are still depressed 30, 40, 60 percent.”

In a video statement on BP’s website, Geir Robinson, vice president of Economic Restoration for BP’s Gulf Coast Restoration Organization, says that the company believes the legal settlement will resolve most legitimate economic claims. “We do have critics,” adds Robinson. “And we’re working hard every day to show them that we will meet our responsibilities.”

Environmentalists and scientists also complain the Obama administration has let down the Gulf Coast. Viles is critical of the role the U.S. government has played, saying that by inaction they seemed to protect BP more than coastal communities or the environment. “The Coast Guard seems to empower the worst instincts of BP,” Viles says. “I don’t know if it’s Stockholm Syndrome or what.”

International environmental groups have also joined in the criticism. Oceana, a conservation group with offices in Europe and the Americas, released a report April 17 criticizing the U.S. government’s reforms as being either ineffective or nonexistent, saying “offshore drilling remains as risky and dangerous as it was two years ago, and that the risk of a major spill has not been effectively reduced.”

Theresa Dardar lives in Bayou Pointe-au-Chien, a Native American fishing community on Louisiana’s Gulf Coast. Dardar and her neighbors have seen their land vanish from under their feet within their lifetimes due to canals built by the oil companies to access wells. The canals brought salt water into freshwater marshes, helping cause the coastal erosion that sees Louisiana lose a football field of land every 45 minutes. The main street that runs through the community now disappears into the swamps, with telephone poles sticking out of the water.

Now, in addition to worries about disappearing land and increasing risk of hurricanes, she fears that her family’s livelihood is gone for good. “It’s not going to be over for years,” she says, expressing a widely held concern among fishers here. “We’re just a small Native American fishing community. That’s all they’ve done their whole lives. Some of them are over 60. What are they going to do? If BP gives them money for the rest of their lives, that’s one thing. But if not, then what can they do?”

Jordan Flaherty is a journalist based in New Orleans and author of the book “Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six.” He can be reached at jordan@floodlines.org. This story previously appeared in CounterPunch.

James Beasley: Ex-drug kingpin determined to gain redemption

Adrian — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:54:54 +0000

by Dennis Haywood

San Francisco – The name Beasley has rung true in the streets of Bayview Hunters Point since before the Double Rock housing projects were built in the 1950s. Of all of the Beasleys, there was none who controlled the streets like James Beasley Jr. As told to his daughter Monet, James tells his amazing story in the soon-to-be-released autobiography and documentary entitled “Deep Rooted,” both of which are being developed into reality by Concrete Jungle Publishing.

James describes how he rose from the mean streets of Hunters Point to become possibly the largest cocaine dealer in the history of California. At his peak, $3 million drug deals were common and there were no luxuries unobtainable. He had luxury homes in different cities and was buying and developing real estate before the housing boom. James Beasley Jr. attended the Grammys with the Jacksons as a guest and he ran a criminal organization that made him a millionaire 20 times over.

By gaining that wealth in an illegal manner, James was made to suffer the consequences of unexplainable wealth, because in the end, the federal government arrested him on drug and tax charges through a joint investigation with the DEA and the Internal Revenue Service.

He was called a menace to society and in 1991 he was sentenced to 30 years under bogus cocaine laws and for tax evasion, which has given him plenty of time to reflect on his past mistakes. A man who could easily be filled with regret and anger over receiving such a long sentence for a non-violent crime, James is reaching out and thinking of ways to restore pride and dignity in Bayview Hunters Point through existing youth organizations, and he plans to start his own non-profit organization when he returns to the streets of San Francisco shortly.

Darryl Reed and James Beasley Jr. celebrate Lil D’s 20th birthday.

There are many community and city governmental leaders who are ready to assist James Beasley Jr. in any way, because some view him as the only reputable person who can get the attention of at-risk youth. He wants to create a place for them to come to and feel safe and comfortable enough to want to be educated without being ridiculed. James wants to make sure all of the kids in Bayview Hunters Point have the opportunity to learn how to invest in the stock market and learn how to build generational wealth through his partnership with Journey 2 Wealth, a non-profit organization.

Through his autobiography “Deep Rooted,” James wants kids and young adults that have already been or are on the fence about getting into the illegal drug business to take a step back and look at what happened to him. He wants young African-American males from his old neighborhood to fear the results and revere the bright future that waits if they strive to be great in an effective way.

James Beasley Jr. understands the destruction he caused in the 1980s and in no way does he feel he can make up for it all, but he is certainly heading in the right direction towards redemption.

Dennis Haywood is the CEO of Concrete Jungle Publishing Co., www.concretejunglebooks.com, and can be reached at dhaywood@concretejunglebooks.com.

Video streaming by Ustream

San Francisco Bay View

Palestinian prisoners’ mass hunger strike concludes after agreement is reached

There will be an end to the use of long-term isolation of prisoners for “security” reasons. Family visits that have been denied based on vague “security reasons” will be reinstated.

Related Posts

Poor little rich Haiti to be fleeced of copper-silver-gold via Caracol deep-water port

If this mining plan is given a green light while Haiti is under foreign occupation, it will permanently strip the country of much of its mineral, cultural and ecological wealth.

These highly concentrated deposits of copper, silver and gold should reasonably represent a new found wealth for Haiti at a time of dire need of resources for the country’s reconstruction. But if the DR is to serve as an example, Haiti will not benefit from its minerals.

The textile factories’ contributions to the degradation of Caracol Bay should be trivial compared to the damage from opencast gold mining and construction of a deep-water port.

Update

Recommendations from Haiti Chery

Related Posts

Gov. Brown increases prison budget, cuts basic services

Related Posts

Congressman John Lewis in Oakland: Civil rights legend takes center stage

Related Posts

Paramilitary gangs join UN force in preying on Haitian population

Despite the U.N.’s record of rapes, child prostitution, trading of food for sex, and killings by gunfire and cholera, this organization still claims to be indispensable for safety and democracy in Haiti.

Background

Related Posts

Community protests OPD murder of Alan Blueford, 18

Statement by the Blueford family

Hammer demands justice for his friend, Alan Blueford

Protest march for Alan Blueford, killed by Oakland Police during a pedestrian stop

Related Posts

Prisoners’ families constitute a powerful voice

The families and loved ones of us all constitute a very powerful voice and matter tremendously in any change that is coming.

Related Posts

Standing on righteousness

I’d prefer to die a man standing on righteousness than to live as a weak coward bowing and being comfortable in oppression.

Related Posts

Yes on Proposition 29!

An open letter to Dr. LaDonna Porter

I am sure that I speak for all cancer victims, cancer survivors and their families in voicing our wholehearted support for Prop 29. We want to unleash the power and creativity of California’s best and brightest researchers.

Dr. Porter, rather than working against progress, perhaps you would you lend your voice to helping us set that research agenda and making sure it includes the needs of the African American community.

Big tobacco is dumping tens of millions of dollars into California in the hopes of confusing voters and defeating this life-saving initiative.

We are working diligently to save the lives of Black people. Dr. Porter, we sincerely invite you to dialogue with us. We will pray for you. It is not too late to “do the right thing” and stand with us in our fight against Big Tobacco, standing as David stood against Goliath.

Related Posts

Ohio hunger strike ends

Related Posts

Justice for the Congolese people, an attainable goal in 2012

1. The Prosecutor v. Bosco Ntaganda (ICC-01/04-02/06 – Pre-trial)

The United Nations tried to bring attention to the issue of impunity when it released the Mapping Exercise Report, showing that making systematic changes will ultimately be more impactful to improve the situation than trying individuals responsible for war crimes.

2. United Nations Mapping Exercise report

“(C)harges filed and the proceedings [at the ICC] neither do justice to the hundreds or even thousands of victims, nor reflect the true scale of the criminal activities of the accused, documented in numerous prior inquiries.”

3. Equitable application of justice

Thomas Lubanga was supported by both Rwanda and Uganda as he recruited child soldiers and committed atrocities in the Congo, but neither the leaders of Rwanda or Uganda have been held accountable for being sponsors and accessories to the crimes committed by Lubanga.

4. Prescriptions

Congolese people have seen an estimated 6 million of their citizens perish in an unjust war. They have witnessed how the perpetrators of these crimes still roam the streets of their country or are given humanitarian awards and accolades.

Related Posts

In-Home Support Services enable families to care for each other

Gov. Jerry Brown proposes to eliminate In-Home Supportive Services for about 245,000 elders and people with disabilities and mental health needs, putting them at risk for institutionalization.

Related Posts

A day in the life of an imprisoned revolutionary

Prison is a socially hostile microcosm of society at large.

It’s not the people’s fault when the revolution fails; it is the fault of the vanguard party, our fault … MY fault. We must combine our ideas, analyses and efforts in a more effective and efficient form to get our words heard.

Our imprisonment has no bearing on the truth and validity of our ideas. If this is truly a nation which values democracy, equality, human rights and fundamental fairness as its social imperatives, surely its people cannot allow this practice of political repression to continue unchallenged.

Related Posts

25 Ohio supermax prisoners start a hunger strike

OSP hunger strike enters second week

Related Posts

Swedes revive ridicule of Black beauty Hottentot Venus

The role of Sara Baartman in world history and herstory

Related Posts

SF local hiring law is changing lives

City’s jobs legislation is already working and can work even better

Related Posts

Legendary prisoner ‘Mousy Brown’ perishes

Related Posts

1,600 Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike since April 17

Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike are demanding international solidarity.

Statement from strike leadership: We will continue until our demands are met

We swear to continue to strike until our demands are met, no matter what the cost. We believe in our right to a dignified life even if we fall as martyrs. We must live with dignity or die.

Palestinians organize hunger tents in support of detainees

Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike: Repression and solidarity escalate

Students occupy BBC for Palestinian prisoners on hunger strike

Gaza child launches hunger strike for imprisoned father; Prison Services attempt to bargain with prisoners’ healthcare

Take action!

California prisoners may resume hunger strike July 1

Related Posts

Two years after the BP drilling disaster, Gulf residents fear for the future