Racism & oppression
Leonard Peltier will be 63 years old on September 12, 2007. It's an international day for demanding the immediate, unconditional freedom of this Native American artist, writer, and activist--one of the most widely recognized political prisoners in the world....
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Wednesday night’s organizing meeting in New York City for the Saturday, September 11 march against the ugly racism & Islamophobia leveled by the right wing Tea Party against a Muslim Community Center near Ground Zero was truly amazing and inspiring.The plans for a racist rally on September 11 against an Islamic Community Center have galvanized a united anti-racist response. About 100 organizers and activists from dozens of groups attended the meeting to plan a massive show of unity and solidarity. Here are some highlights:...
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The Emergency Mobilization Against Racism and Anti-Islamic Bigotry is
organizing a rally for civil rights and religious freedom on Saturday,
September 11th. This rally is a response to the ugly and violent attacks, both
verbal and physical, which are happening more and more frequently around the
country. It is also a specific response to the hate-filled protest being called
by a coalition of racist and anti-Islamic organizations on September 11th....
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Tens of thousands of teachers in Puerto Rico held a one-day work stoppage Aug. 26 to protest the neoliberal Gov. Luis Fortuño’s offensive, which has left the island’s education system in shambles. This historic stoppage shut 90 percent of the island’s schools. Teachers showed great resistance, as the recent successful student strike of the University of Puerto Rico also did....
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The French government of Nicolas Sarkozy is attacking the country’s large and diverse immigrant and foreign communities, which it calls the sources of delinquency and crime, with expulsions and deportations, loss and denial of French citizenship, and new laws imprisoning parents for the crimes their children commit, as well as increased police violence. According to many French political analysts, the Sarkozy administration is using this approach to repair its public standing, which has been battered by the worldwide recession, growing unemployment and the anger of France’s combative unions....
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Uniting under the theme, “Moving forward the militant global women’s movement in the 21st century,” more than 350 women from 32 countries participated in the Montreal International Women’s Conference, held Aug. 13-16. The conference resulted in the formation of an International Women’s Alliance. The IWA will hold its first assembly in 2011 to adopt a constitution of principles of unity and an action proposal....
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Activists here and around the country have begun mobilizing to stop cold those who promote racism and hatred of Muslims. They plan to confront a vicious demonstration and rally scheduled for the World Trade Center site on Sept. 11. A rally and counterprotest near the WTC site on Aug. 22 showed that the confrontation is gaining momentum....
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On September 11 the Tea Party and its racist and right wing allies plan to again demonstrate at the World Trade Center site. For months these bigots have attempted to whip up hysteria against a proposed Islamic masjid (mosque) and community center several blocks from the WTC.
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he economic crisis has hit the workers in Michigan, a state of heavy industry, especially hard, and has also brought with it an intensified struggle against racism. These brief reports cover three different areas of the state....
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On September 11 the Tea Party and its racist and right wing allies plan to again demonstrate at the World Trade Center site. For months these bigots have attempted to whip up hysteria against a proposed Islamic masjid (mosque) and community center several blocks from the WTC....
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On July 29 the racist, anti-immigrant law SB1070 went into effect in
Arizona. On July 28, federal judge Susan Bolton temporarily blocked the worst
parts of the law from being implemented. Nonetheless, July 29 was a day filled
with nonstop protests and bold actions as people took to the streets to show
their outrage at this bigoted attack against immigrants and workers....
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Despite a continuous onslaught of attacks against immigrant workers,
resistance and opposition continue to grow in the U.S. — not only against
Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, but also against the entire campaign to
criminalize and drive workers born outside this country underground....
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A political firestorm erupted on July 20 when Shirley Sherrod, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s rural development director for Georgia, was
terminated as the result of a false accusation made against her by a right-wing
propagandist. A deceptively edited video of a speech, delivered by Sherrod at
an NAACP event in March, was used as the pretense for her firing and public
vilification....
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Organizations from Arizona’s three major population centers —
Tucson, Flagstaff and Phoenix — met on July 17 to prepare coordinated
activities for July 29, the date of SB 1070’s implementation. SB 1070 is
a racist, anti-immigrant state law that is opposed by immigrant rights
advocates, progressives and justice-loving people in Arizona and around the
country....
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LGBTQ organizations, Immigrant Rights
groups & progressive allied organizations are being asked to please
circulate the following email widely to their internet networks as soon as
possible. They ask that your constituents and members sign on to the online
petition in support of the boycott and circulate it widely as part
of Week of Solidarity against
the anti-immigrant attacks in Arizona & Call to Action for Human Rights
July 23-30, 2010...
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hereby demand the immediate repeal of Arizona's unconstitutional and racist anti-immigrant law SB 1070, which legalizes racial profiling by law enforcement and makes failure to carry immigration documents a crime....
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From Friday, July 23 to Sunday July 25 the International Action Center will
be joining hundreds of other anti-war and community activists at the Crowne
Plaza Hotel in Albany, NY for a National Conference to Bring the Troops Home
Now. This United National Antiwar Conference will be an intense weekend of
plenary sessions, workshops, education, resolutions and networking....
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Activists supporting African-American political prisoner and revolutionary
journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal held a lively street meeting on the corner of Sixth
and Market near the Liberty Bell monument in Philadelphia on July 4....
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There are no vacations yet for the students who won a two-month strike at
the University of Puerto Rico. Instead, they have continued organizing and
demanding that the administration fulfills the agreement....
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July 3rd is the day that political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal was sentenced to death for a killing he did not commit. This year’s July 4 theme is “ancestral uprising!” featuring dramatic presentations through performances of heroic anti-slavery fighters. The protest will also include a special presentation on the year-long struggle to demand a civil rights investigation for Mumia on the part of the U.S. Justice Department...
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To reverse the destructive changes at WBAI over the past year, it is crucial that the Justice & Unity Campaign win back its majority on the
Local Station Board....
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The heroes and heroines of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, so brutally attacked
by Israeli commandos on May 31, have transformed the struggle to break the
siege of Gaza and raised it to a higher level. They are the new Freedom
Riders....
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The matter of reparations for African Americans is one that the U.S.
government has forever refused to address. Yet the condition of second-class
status of persons of color, particularly Black people, is a matter of record in
this country, ruled and dominated by white supremacy....
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A massive march filled the streets of downtown Phoenix on May 29 as close to
200,000 people gathered to denounce the racist SB 1070 law and show their
determination to fight back against this anti-immigrant attack. The streets
were packed from curb to curb for over three miles as demonstrators made their
way along the six-mile route that began at Steele Indian School Park, snaked
its way through downtown and ended at the state Capitol building....
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At 12:35 a.m. on May 16, more than 20 Detroit police officers staged a raid
at a two-family dwelling on the east side where they said a warrant was to be
served for a suspect in a recent murder case. The police threw a flash bomb
through the front window of the frame house. It caused a fire in the bed where
7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones was sleeping alongside her grandmother,
Mertilla Jones....
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At approximately 1 p.m. on May 21, more than a dozen people occupied the
Tucson Headquarters of the U.S. Border Patrol to draw attention to impacts of
border militarization in Indigenous Communities. Six people, including Alex
Soto, a member of the Tohono O’odham Nation and a volunteer with the
group O’odham Solidarity Across Borders, locked themselves together for
up to three and a half hours. “Indigenous voices have been ignored. In
our action today we say NO MORE!” said Soto....
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Momentum is growing for the national march to stop SB 1070 to be held May 29
in Phoenix. The march will demand the repeal of SB 1070, Arizona’s
“Show me your papers” law, and an end to racist immigrant-bashing
and the blaming of immigrants for economic and social problems which in reality
result from the capitalist economic crisis....
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When a supposed attempt to set off a car bomb in New York City fizzled in early May, with no one injured, a massive government investigation was launched to bring the alleged “terrorists” to justice....
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This week nationwide press conferences are being held in various
cities by leading coalitions in the immigrant rights movement to collectively
denounce attempts to criminalize immigrants, from the recent bill in Arizona to
the Schumer plan. Included in the media events are the May 1st Coalition in
Tucson, Arizona; the May 1st Coalition in New York, New York; the Miami May Day
Coalition in Miami, Florida; and here in Los Angeles the Southern California
Immigration Coalition (SCIC)....
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On Saturday May 1, 2010, a diverse coalition of immigrant rights advocates,
community and union leaders, artists and youth-based community organizations
will gather in Union Square at midday for a rally, march and Hip Hop concert in
support of immigrant and worker rights. In light of legislation passed in
Arizona last week, the Union Square event will emphasize condemning this
racially charged legislation that will terrorize not only immigrants but all
communities of color....
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Ten years ago, the International Action Center initiated a major demonstration
focused on the prison industrial complex. It was held on in front of the U.S.
Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. The march was called to take place on
April 15, the day before militant actions to oppose the criminal policies of
the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which were meeting in that
city; thousands of youth took part in those protests....
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April 23 — When the Arizona Senate passed a sweeping, racist
anti-immigrant bill on April 19, it unleashed a firestorm of outrage from
Arizona’s oppressed communities. The bill legalizes racial profiling and
criminalizes all undocumented people as “trespassers.” It also
contains provisions attacking day laborers, allows for the seizure of any
vehicle used to transport an undocumented person, and calls for the arrest of
anyone who provides assistance to an undocumented person....
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The Arizona law targeting all immigrants, and all Latinos/as, has been passed by both houses of the Arizona Legislation. The governor has three days to either veto, sign or let it pass into law without action. We must let the Arizona state government know that this racist attack will be answered by not only protests, but a full-scale tourism and convention boycott of Arizona...
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On April 17, the openly Nazi group NSM held a rally at Los Angeles City Hall. Many groups, including socialist, anti-war and anti-racist organizations, mobilized to challenge their so-called right to free speech that motivates violence, racism and genocide against non-European peoples and the LGBTQ community....
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In the early morning hours of April 15, agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the FBI and other Homeland Security agencies launched a military operation against Tucson’s mostly Latino/a and Indigenous south side neighborhoods....
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In 2006, May Day was revived in the U.S., the country of its origin, as a result of the upsurge of immigrant workers. This was a great step forward for the workers' struggle....
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This is a critical moment in the long battle to save the life of world-renown
African-American political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, who has been on
Pennsylvania’s death row for almost 28 years. Millions of people
worldwide know that he has never had a fair trial or appeals process before a
jury of his peers—that he has been denied his basic legal and
constitutional rights....
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Among the many so-called “Tea Party” actions mobilizing right-wing forces on the pretext of opposing paying taxes was one called by a local New York City group, which seemed to be based in Staten Island. The Tax Day rally, however, was set at the Central Post Office across from Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.<...
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April 3 was “Call to Action Day” at Columbia University —
a day to inform, mobilize and organize to save the life of political prisoner
Mumia Abu-Jamal. The theme was “Live from Death Row: Mumia at the
Crossroads in the Age of Obama.” It was organized by Educators for Mumia
Abu-Jamal....
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A visit of the “Tea Party Express” to cities in the Midwest
— a region of the country that has been most devastated by the economic
crisis of capitalism — did not go unchallenged. Rather, activists and
community members confronted them at several stops to denounce the right-wing
attempt to divide working and oppressed people and to show that the racist,
sexist, anti-lesbian-gay-bi-trans, anti-immigrant, corporate-funded Tea Party
does not speak for working people....
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The corporate media may give it a different spin, but for
Palin and Wall Street’s Tea Party, Boston was a bust....
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Writers for Mumia, an afternoon of readings and testimonials by poets, playwrights, journalists, book authors, wordsmiths and activists, will be held April 24 from 2:30 to 6 p.m. at St. Mary’s Church, 512 W. 126th St. in Harlem. The New York Chapter of the National Writers Union and the Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition of New York City are co-sponsoring the event, which precedes a rally in front of the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., on April 26....
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The Boston chapter of the Bail Out the People Movement will be holding a protest against Sarah Palin and the Tea Party on April 14 at 9:30 a.m. The protest will take place at the Boston Common Bandstand, where these extreme ultraright reactionaries will be holding a rally. ...
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With 30 million unemployed or underemployed, the failure of the just-signed
health care law to meet the needs and expectations of the population, plus its
giveaway to the health care industry, is bound to add to the frustration and
alienation of the workers....
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On March 21 a multitude of immigrants and their supporters amassed in the
largest demonstration for immigrant rights in Washington, D.C., in decades, if
not ever....
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Renee Washington DeFreitas, a 51 year old state employee and mother of five
did everything she was supposed to: she worked hard long hours, volunteered for
overtime when it existed, saved her money, and bought a home with the hope that
she would have something as she grew older, both for herself and her children
and grandchildren....
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On March 4 more than 100 demonstrations were organized in 33 states
against the devastating cuts, layoffs and tuition hikes as part of the National
Day of Action to Defend Education, including campuses such as the University of
Maryland and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The following reports
are examples of some of these significant protests, which are signs pointing to
the potential of a revitalized national youth and student fight-back movement
reminiscent of the 1960s....
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Students protested cuts in education in over 100 cities across the U.S. on March 4th, 2010, a day of National Student Action. This is the first national student protest involving thousands of students and workers. These are some of the videos from that event....
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On March 4 students and workers from all around the country will take action
to defend education against increased privatization of pre-kindergarten through
12th grade schools, budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs and tuition increases at
college and universities — especially the public institutions....
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Across the country, students, teachers, faculty and other workers, along with
concerned parents, community activists and organizations, will be using the
week of March 4 to strike decisively to defend public education and the right
to pursue higher learning. The effects of the economic crisis have been felt in all sectors. Hundreds of
thousands have faced having their homes foreclosed on or being evicted.
Millions have lost their jobs and have added to the ranks of unemployed,
especially people of color. Many families face hunger on a daily basis....
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Activists from the U.S. and worldwide organized a day-long teach-in in Philadelphia and online to demand: No death penalty; No life sentence and for a Civil Rights Investigation in support of the award-winning journalist and political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal. The following videos will help to summarize the legal and political issues connected to Mumia's case along with action proposals to build a broad fightback movement to win his freedom....
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In light of the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that opened the door for
reinstatement of the death penalty for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal,
activists from the Philadelphia region, across the U.S. and around the globe
will take part in an important teach-in in Philadelphia on Feb. 13, to take up
the next stage in the struggle to free Mumia....
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Activists from Philadelphia, across the U.S. and around the globe will take
part in an important video streaming, video conferencing and live teach-in to
take up the next stage in the struggle to free Mumia Abu-Jamal....
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The plight of Mumia Abu-Jamal is included in this Black History Month forum
because what’s happening to him is part of the history of Black people
in the U.S. and throughout the African Diaspora. This includes a history of
oppression, repression, enslavement, apartheid, domestic terrorism, exploitation,
racial discrimination, marginalization, resistance, and a continuing struggle
for liberation, civil and human rights, social justice and equal protection
under the law....
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On Jan. 19 the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that has opened the way
for the reinstatement of the death sentence for Mumia Abu-Jamal. The federal
court’s ruling, which moved away from earlier rulings regarding
sentencing phase regulations, was the latest in a long history of state, local
and federal courts changing or even reversing their own legal precedents in the
case of this world-renowned journalist and political prisoner....
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Demand a Two-Year Moratorium on Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility
Shutoffs in Michigan and a State of Emergency in Detroit....
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On April 6, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal asking for a new trial for death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, based on evidence of racist prosecutorial misconduct during his original 1982 trial in Philadelphia. An important aspect of this misconduct is based on the 1986 Batson issue=97a legal decision that says that prospective jurors cannot be selected or unselected based on their race....
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Haiti has suffered a terrible natural disaster at the cost of hundreds of thousands of precious lives. This natural disaster however, has been bitterly aggravated by racism and imperialist domination....
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On January 16th at 1:45 AM three vans left the International Action
Center/Bail Out People Movement office in Los Angeles to make a 7-hour trip to
Phoenix, AZ to join with 20,000 activists protesting racist Sheriff Joe Arpaio....
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The Supreme Court has tossed out a lower court
ruling that nullified the death sentence for former Black Panther Mumia
Abu-Jamal. He has been an outspoken activist from behind bars, claiming there
were procedural errors during his capital sentencing, and that too few blacks
were on the jury....
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On March 4, students and workers from all around the country will take action to defend education against increased privatization of K-12 schools and budget cuts, layoffs, furloughs and tuition increases at the college and university level—especially the public institutions....
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All
the same, Mumia is still on death row because the prosecution filed an appeal
wit the Supreme Court in order to push through his execution. Mumia is now in
the greatest danger to be executed since his arrest on December 9, 1981....
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As Wall Street prepares to lavish its bankers and traders with billions in
year-end bonuses, the MTA is getting ready to worsen the economic crisis for
millions of New Yorkers....
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A White House Summit on Jobs is scheduled for Dec. 3. But instead of a jobs program, the president is sending tens of thousands of troops to war in Afghanistan at a cost of 50 billion more dollars on top of the fortune already wasted on war. Join us on Dec. 3 in a protest in front of the White House during the Jobs Summit to demand a real jobs program that can put the 30 million workers who are either unemployed or underemployed to work at jobs that pay a living wage....
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n Oct. 28, President Barack Obama signed the 2010 Defense Authorization
Act, the largest military budget in U.S. history....
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Why is Bloomberg, the 8th richest man in the U.S.,
spending $100 million to buy this election? Yes he’s arrogant and enjoys
controlling the lives of 9 million people in NYC....
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The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal (ICFFMAJ) coalition convened an urgent meeting here on Oct. 17. Mumia supporters from Philadelphia, New York and Washington, D.C., were in attendance. It was a fightback strategy meeting of critical importance. Mumia, who has been on death row for over 27 years, is now, more than ever, faced with having his life snuffed out by the political powers that be....
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On Oct. 3, more than 200 people attended a conference in Chicago on the
deepening economic crisis in the United States. The event, whose theme was
“They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back,” was held at the Teamster
City building on the city’s West Side....
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Over a thousand people gathered in Arsenal Park in Pittsburgh to resist the G-20 countries meeting in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center downtown. Young activists representing struggles against racism, gentrification, imperialist wars, gender oppression and environmental destruction gathered together in an effort coordinated by the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project. ...
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The International Action Center is proud to join with the following organizations that are in the forefront of community organizations of struggle and resistance in NY/NJ area and are endorsing and supporting the Justice & Unity Campaign at WBAI radio in the Local Station Board elections. Justice & Unity will UNDO THE COUP supported by the current WBAI board majority and will help save WBAI and protect community voices on the air...
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More than 1,000 protesters marched through the streets here on Sept. 20 demanding a real jobs program, like the public works program the Roosevelt administration enacted during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
It was the first demonstration related to the G-20 summit, a gathering of Treasury officials and central bankers from 20 countries that is to take place in the city later in the week. The goal of the G-20 is to protect bank profits. ...
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As we write, caravans are already on the road to Pittsburgh, some
from as far away as California and Florida. Over the next few days, community
organizers, activists, students, veterans, unemployed people and trade
unionists will be arriving in Pittsburgh for the March for Jobs and Tent City.
As the G20 assembles to discuss the global financial crisis, this broad
coalition of people across the U.S. is building for this major protest to
ensure that the voiceless are heard. This will be a week-long effort, starting
on on Sunday, September 20 with a March for Jobs, and continuing with the Tent
City which will last through Friday....
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Students face a devastating new reality. Along with the usual back-to-school
jitters, students across the country must cope with massive budget cuts, higher
tuition rates and decreased financial aid. Those students who manage to scrape
together the extra funds necessary to graduate face a terribly bleak job market
when they leave their campuses....
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Over the next few days, community organizers, activists, students, veterans,
unemployed people and trade unionists will be arriving in Pittsburgh for the
March for Jobs and Tent City.? As the G20 assembles to discuss the global
financial crisis, this broad coalition of people across the U.S. is building
for this major protest to ensure that the voiceless are heard. This will be a
week-long effort, starting on on Sunday, September 20 with a March for Jobs,
and continuing with the Tent City which will last through Friday....
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As the G-20 summit prepares to descend upon Pittsburgh, the city has been
thrust into the spotlight and is being highlighted for its "commitment to
employing new and green technology to further economic recovery and
development". It has been and is being denoted as the city that got it right,
where pollution has been eroded, the rivers cleaned and the jobs in industry
have thoroughly been replaced....
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United Steel Workers Union and United Electrical Workers have endorsed and are mobilizing....
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Both the United Steel Workers and the United Electrical workers unions have endorsed the March for Jobs in Pittsburgh, September 20....
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New York—On Aug. 21 the Solidarity Center here was filled with five hours of inspiring sounds: music and spoken word from talented artists (photo right) brought together to support the case of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal, known worldwide as the “voice of the voiceless.”...
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It's a group of Treasury officials and central bankers from 20 countries, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Its goal is to protect bank profits, whatever it costs the people of the world....
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We are excited about our upcoming Katrina Anniversary Program! We
hope you will join us and our allies for this program to honor our
volunteers, reflect on on our positive change and progress, and
share in fellowship with those that have made this possible....
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The push for meaningful health care reform is in peril. Congressional
Democrats have advanced flawed legislation that fails to live up to their
campaign pledge of universal health care reform. Republicans allied with
right-wing “Blue Dog” Democrats have worked overtime to derail any
attempt at reform....
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The arrest of Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. by a Cambridge police officer after
showing two forms of identification after he, along with a Black limo driver,
had unjammed the lock to the front door of Gates' own house in a
predominantly white, upscale neighborhood known as "Harvard Square"
has brought the struggle against racism to the front pages of newspapers
throughout the US and around the world....
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If the U.S. government was interested in supporting democracy or in building
respect for the will of the people in a democratic election, it should have
started by respecting the outcome of the 2006 Palestinian election. The
Palestinian people voted in large numbers, electing Hamas candidates to
parliament with large enough votes to form the Palestinian government. In Gaza,
Hamas had a total sweep....
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For the better part of the last 75 years, revolutionary
peoples’ artist Irving Fierstein used his immense talent to depict the
many struggles of working and oppressed people for social and economic justice
and against imperialism. In the early 1980s Fierstein created a unique genre of
art—striking full-color revolutionary banners thoughtfully composed and
painstakingly painted by hand....
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In September the eyes of the world will be on Pittsburgh, where the G20 countries will meet to consider what to do about the biggest global economic crisis since the 1930s. The heads of governments, finance ministers and central bankers that will be in Pittsburgh for the summit hear the concerns of bankers and corporate executives all the time. They need to listen to the voices of the millions of people who have lost their jobs and their homes because of the crisis. The Bail out the People Movement, a coalition of community, labor, religious, and grassroots activists, wants to help dramatize the crisis of joblessness, and the need for action both in the U.S. and worldwide to the G20 summit. It is now clear that the stimulus legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in March has done little to stop the loss of jobs. There is no recovery for the unemployed, the underemployed and the poor; and things are only getting worse. This is why we're asking you to help make the idea of a Global Week of Solidarity with the Unemployed from September 19 through September 26, the week of the G20 Summit, a reality....
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The plight and suffering of children and teenagers who are
subjected to sexual and other forms of abuse cannot be relieved by a
reactionary campaign to foment racism, anti-gay bigotry and hatred of gender
and sex variance....
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There is a war going on inside this country—a war against immigrants,
especially undocumented immigrants. This war is escalating, and like most wars,
it is taking many casualties. The casualties are innocent children, women and
men whose only crime is the need to survive, to find a way to live and work in
the United States....
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One the eve of America's Independence Day celebration, American Muslims
(with the support of concerned members of non-Muslim communities) will
spearhead a three-part initiative to draw attention to, and to educate the
public on, the enormous gulf that still exist between promise and fulfillment,
and how this socio-political deficiency within the American body-politic has
impacted the Muslim community (globally) post 9/11....
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The People’s Summit and Tent City in Detroit was by far one of the most amazing experiences I’ve ever had. It was like going to Cuba, or Venezuela, and seeing the level of solidarity that exists among the people in those countries—solidarity that is borne of the struggle to build, in the case of Venezuela, or retain, in the case of Cuba, socialism....
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In 2004, the NAACP voted unanimously (with one "nay" vote) to "reiterate its support of the international movement for a new and fair trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal." Yet the organization has done nothing since that time to ensure justice for Mumia....
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Wells Fargo, a recipient of $25 billion in
bailout funds, has cut off financing to Quad City Die Casting, throwing over
100 out of work. This is a devestating loss to the workers, but the effect
ripples out. It's a loss of over $6.4 million a year in lost wages and tax
revenue to our community....
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June 16—Hundreds of poor and working people have gathered at the
National People’s Summit and Tent City in downtown Detroit to put forward
the people’s vision of a future with guaranteed jobs and income,
universal health care, housing and utilities, and all rights that working class
people are currently denied under the capitalist system....
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For decades, New Yorkers have relied on WBAI 99.5 FM, in the Pacifica Radio
Network, for radio broadcasting that provides real news and perspectives not
filtered by corporate media. Now, the station is under attack....
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An interview with Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke aired June 7 on the CBS
television program “60 Minutes.” The Fed head talked about the
multi-trillion-dollar bailout of the U.S. economy that has propped up financial
institutions, banks, and corporations such as insurance giant AIG. Bernanke
glibly stated he was prepared to double the amount if necessary in order to
stave off a collapse of the system....
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Home foreclosures soared in April to a record-high rate. One of every 374
homes, or 342,000 homes in the United States, received a foreclosure filing: a
notice of default, auction or sale notice, or bank repossession. Filings were
up 32 percent from April 2008. ...
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More than 100 vigils, rallies, marches and other actions were held across
the U.S. and in other countries worldwide on May 19 in support of Troy Anthony
Davis, the Georgia man facing execution for a crime he has always denied
committing....
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“Immigrant,” a bilingual community event on immigrant rights in
Syracuse, held in the Blodgett High School cafeteria, drew a
standing-room-only, multinational crowd of more than 110 people on May 14. ...
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Immigrants and their supporters have marched, rallied, picketed and even met
with the mayor’s staff to express their opposition to the enforcing of
immigration laws by Houston cops....
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Although pressure and hostility on the part of some G20 governments has
resulted in the UN Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and
its Impact on Development being postponed from June 1 to 3 until June 24 to 26,
the People's Economic Summit this Sunday, May 31 will go on as scheduled....
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Based on the global capitalist economic crisis which is wreaking havoc on the
lives of hundreds of millions of people world wide, United Nations General
Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto-Brockman is organizing an urgent
Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis and its Impact on
Development, to take place on June 1-3 at the United Nations in New York City....
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Organizers of the People's Summit, including a tent city, in downtown
Detroit June 14-17 report momentum is building for the event. It's billed
as "four days of active resistance" to counter the National Business Summit held June 15-17 at the GM Renaissance Center....
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On May 19, from Alaska to West Virginia and from Argentina to Uganda, high
school and college students, faith-based groups and progressive community
organizations are organizing vigils, rallies and petition drives as well as the
vital means of communication to bring worldwide pressure on Georgia Gov. Sonny
Perdue and the Pardons and Parole Board to stop the execution of Troy Anthony
Davis....
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The struggle to free death-row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal is heating up in New York City. On May 8, an emergency, militant street meeting took place in front of Harlem’s Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building to demand that elected officials call upon U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and the Justice Department to conduct a civil rights investigation into constitutional rights violations against Mumia. Congressperson Charles Rangel, who represents the Harlem community, has come out in support of the call for the investigation....
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Organizing for the June 14-17 People's Summit and Tent City in Detroit
is building fast. A planning meeting April 25 was attended by representatives
from a broad base of progressive organizations. They included the Autoworkers
Caravan, which has been in the forefront of challenging the massive attacks on
auto workers' wages and benefits; the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop
Foreclosures and Evictions; disabled activists from Warriors on Wheels; Call
'Em Out; the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization; the Detroit Coalition
Against Police Brutality; and the National Lawyers Guild. Two UAW members from
Toledo, Ohio, also attended....
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Over the last several months, a series of dramatic cases involving police killings of civilians has brought to light the essential role of law enforcement within capitalist societies. Numerous cities throughout the United States have seen a dramatic increase in the murder of African Americans by cops as well as the escalation of raids and deportations against immigrants both documented and undocumented....
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Fear of a swine flu pandemic is spreading much faster than the virus itself. While it's too soon to predict how widespread and deadly this new
variation of influenza virus will be, information about the likely
origin of the outbreak is starting to surface. A huge factory-farm pig
operation owned by U.S. corporate giant Smithfield and operated by its
Mexican subsidiary, Granjas Carroll de Mexico, may have spawned this new
threat to public health....
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Reports from Berkeley, CA where the Pacifica National
Board met this weekend are that the Interim Executive
Director, Grace Aaron has sanctioned the decision taken by the WBAI Local Station Board last Monday at its hastily called "executive session" to fire General Manager Tony Riddle and Program Director Bernard White....
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There have been two "walkouts" from the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Geneva. It is instructive to observe which countries walked out....
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In the aftermath of the April 12 sniper killings of three Somali teenagers by the U.S. Navy, several U.S. agencies met on April 17 to conduct a review of military and foreign policy toward this Horn of Africa nation. The State Department, Pentagon and Justice Department have outlined a series of options
to ostensibly fight "piracy" in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean....
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A citywide rally and sendoff were held here in mid-April for the December 12th Movement International Secretaria's delegation to the World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. The conference takes place from April 20-24 in Geneva, Switzerland....
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Former congressman Tom Tancredo, a national symbol of hate, racism, sexism,
bigotry and the scapegoating of immigrants, was invited to speak at UNC Chapel Hill on April 14 by Youth for Western Civilization, a newly-formed white supremacist organization on campus....
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Following are excerpts from an e-mail campaign launched on April 15 by the New York Free Mumia Coalition, International Concerned Family and Friends
of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Millions for Mumia and the International Action Center. To date hundreds of thousands of emails have been sent to U.S. Attorney General
Eric Holder, President Barack Obama, congressional leaders, and the media to demand that the Justice Department initiate a civil rights investigation addressing a 27-year history of prosecutorial and judicial violations of Mumia's constitutional rights....
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Political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal will be 55 on April 24. His family, friends and supporters are observing the day with a worldwide "Honk for
Mumia" and other displays of resistance to demand freedom for this world-famous African-American journalist held on Pennsylvania's death row....
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While May Day has historically been a day of workers solidarity and a
celebration of labor power, this is not a day or year like any other....
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Review of progress and assessment of implementation of the Durban Declaration and
Programme of Action by all stakeholders at the national, regional and international levels, including the assessment of contemporary manifestations of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance...
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We participants of the Civil Society Forum for the Durban Review Conference 2009 held in Geneva 17 to 19 April strongly welcome the holding of the Durban Review Conference and reaffirm our full and dedicated support for the Durban Declaration and Plan of Action (DDPA) adopted by the 2001 World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related
Intolerance....
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...
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Review of progress and
assessment of implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action
by all stakeholders at the national, regional and international levels,
including the assessment of contemporary manifestations of
racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance...
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We, the representatives of local, national and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other civil society groups from around the world gathered in Durban/South Africa during the week of 28 August – 3 September 2001 for the World Conference against Racism, Racial
Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance (WCAR), guided by our
commitment in the struggle against racism and racial discrimination and inspired by the recommendations of the NGO Forums held in Strasbourg/France,
Santiago de Chile/Chile, Dakar/Senegal and Tehran/Iran and the related
sub-regional NGO meetings held in Warsaw/Poland, Kathmandu/Nepal, Cairo/Egypt
and Quito/Ecuador, in preparation for the World Conference, hereby make the
following Declaration:...
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...
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We express our full support for a strong Durban Review Conference, the NGO/Civil
Society Forum, the Conference on Palestine, and other similar activities being
held before and during the Review Conference that support the Conference and
the goals for which it stands....
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Between 20-24 April 2009 the world will take either an important step forward towards prohibiting discrimination, especially racial discrimination, or an unfortunate step backwards, if
governments are unwilling to confront or even to discuss the core issues. Which
way the international community will go will depend largely on the activities
of states, and to a lesser extent civil society, participating in the Durban
Review Conference to be held at the UN European headquarters in Geneva....
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The decision by the Obama administration to boycott
the Durban Review Conference Against Racism has raised a torrent of petitions,
protests and criticism. An actual boycott of the upcoming April 20-24 meeting
would be the first time that the United States has refused to participate in a
United Nations conference. This has come as a shock to many who expected a
fundamentally different attitude toward an international conference on racism
from the Obama administration....
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Please sign a petition to President Obama urging the
United States to participate in the Durban Review Conference and its remaining
preparatory meetings. The United States is currently refusing to participate in
the Durban Review Conference, a United Nations Conference to discuss the
elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related
intolerances....
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On April 6, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Mumia
Abu-Jamal's appeal for a new guilt-phase trial. The
Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to consider the Philadelphia DA's separate appeal, which is attempting to execute Abu-Jamal WITHOUT a new sentencing hearing. In
response to yesterday's rejection, Abu-Jamal's lead
attorney, Robert R. Bryan, will be filing a "petition for re-hearing" in the U.S. Supreme Court....
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In an early sign of what promises to be a growing movement, 1,000 people defied
a torrential downpour to rally on Wall Street on Friday, April 3 in response to
a national call from the Bail Out the People Movement. The central demands of the demonstration were: 1) a real jobs program; and 2) an immediate moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. Participants included unions,
community groups, youth and students from Detroit, Boston, Baltimore,
Philadelphia, Buffalo and dozens of organizing centers throughout the
country....
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At the Bank of America Plaza spirited demonstrators echoed chants off the towering Bank of America corporate
building calling for an end to bank bailouts and foreclosures and evictions. A
picket line of dozens of protesters rallied around a large tent set up to dramatize the epidemic of "Hoovervilles" or tent cities in California due to the housing and job crisis. ...
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Enter area at Pine and Broadway go East one SHORT block to Nassau This is just a block from the Friday Rally site. We will join United for Peace and Justice as they come by at Pine and Broadway, about 1:00pm. One block further at
Wall and Broadway the whole march will turn Left down Wall Street, turn Right at Broad Street and the NY Stock Exchange, then turn Right on
Exchange and go back to Broadway. From there the march will proceed South to Battery Park....
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It has been brought to my attention that you have issued an order today to
change the locks on the WBAI transmitter room in the Empire State Building
tomorrow. I have several questions that deserve honest answers:...
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BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE now has VERY exciting Friday and Saturday plans. We have just confirmed BOTH Friday and Saturday Rally Permits for Wall Street....
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Rally Friday, April 3:
Gather at 1:00 pm on Wall Street at Broadway. Rally on Broadway from Wall Street south to Exchange and block further South on
Broadway to the 'Bull'. There will be contingents of youth, women, worker and
immigrant rights, and more. ...
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On Friday morning, just a few hours before the Wall St. rally, the bureau of
labor statistics is going to announce that another two-thirds of a million
workers got laid off in March....
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...
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The following statement was issued by members of the December 12th Movement, who held a press conference on March 21 in Harlem on the U.S.
government's refusal to attend the United Nations World Conference against Racism-Durban Review in April....
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...
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...
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I strongly support the participation of the United States in the Global UN Conference Against Racism scheduled to be held in Geneva, Switzerland from 20 - 24 April of this year. It is an embarrassment for the Obama Administration to continue the Bush Administration's practice of refusing dialogue with others. Moreover, given the painful history of racism in the U.S. it is shameful for America to refuse to participate in a conference against racism. ...
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No event is so tragic that U.S. financiers and brokers won't look for
a way to make money from it. It's a relief when someone exposes them for
the vultures they are....
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Members of immigrant groups, unions, laborers, students, human rights
activists, and workers in general who are part of the May 1st Coalition Worker
and Immigrant Rights will announce the next steps on the path to achieve the
same success of past demonstrations of immigrants in the city of New York and
other American cities....
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The U.S. government is threatening to expel 30,000 Haitians living inside
its borders. Among the millions of undocumented workers in the U.S. who live
each day with the fearful possibility of deportation, the Department of
Homeland Security has made undocumented Haitians a special focus....
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The New York Post maligned President Barak Obama in an overtly racist cartoon
depicting two police officers, one is pointing a smoking gun at a large
chimpanzee, lying on the ground clearly shot dead.The caption reads "They'll have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill."...
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In collaboration with the International Action Center, City Councilor Chuck
Turner has launched a new phase of his "Campaign for Truth, Light and
Justice," focusing national and international attention not just on
frame-up charges against Turner but also on eight years of corrupt practices by
the Bush administration's Department of "Justice."...
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The central issue in this case is racism in jury selection. The prosecution systematically removed people from sitting on the trial jury purely because of the color of their skin, that is, being black. The bigotry that killed Martin Luther King, Jr., so many years ago, has been rampant in the case of my client and is a central part of the state's quest to murder him in the name of the law....
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On July 9, 2007 City Council Speaker Christine Quinn
illegally fired Viola Plummer, who was then City Councilman Charles
Barron’s Chief of Staff. The firing was in retaliation for Mrs.
Plummer's and Mr. Barron's opposition to Speaker Quinn's
racist intervention in the City Council's naming of 4 blocks in Bedford-Stuyvesant after famed and respected Black Nationalist Sonny Abubadika Carson....
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In the early morning of the first day of the new year, as celebrations
around the country were waning and millions were clinging to a hope of change
coming soon with the first African-American president, the police of Bay Area
Rapid Transit demonstrated the brutality of the capitalist state in Oakland,
Calif....
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The International Action Center and Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST) strongly condemn the fatal shooting of 22 year-old African-American father, Oscar Grant, by BART cop Johannes Mehserle, Jan. 1 at the Fruitvale station in Oakland, Calif. Grant was forced off the train at 2 a.m. with others and forced to lie face down on the ground. While he was laying face down, Mehserle pulled his gun from its holster and shot Grant in the back....
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The more than 300 conference delegates came mainly from the South, but also traveled from other U.S. regions, representing local, state and regional labor, community, and youth and student struggles and campaigns. The social composition of the conference was Black, Latin@ and white of all ages and political experiences....
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In an investigative article released this week, a reporter who spent a year
and a half in New Orleans connects the dots on reports that have circulated
ever since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 showing that Black people were dying
from indiscriminate shootings as well as from drowning after Katrina....
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Life-long civil rights advocate Ramsey Clark, winner of the 2008 United Nations Human Rights Award and founder of the International Action Center, held a press conference in front of the JFK Federal Building here on Dec. 17 to defend Chuck Turner, an African-American community leader and five-term Boston city councilor, against racist frame-up charges from U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan....
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Mumia Abu-Jamal remains on Pennsylvania’s death row. Last week marked the 27th anniversary of his unjust imprisonment. Racism, fraud and politics have been threads that have run through the case since its inception, and continue today....
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The Bail Out the People Movement invites you to come together on Jan. 17, 2009
to talk, share and plan to fight back. If there was ever a time for us to recommit ourselves to Dr. King's struggle for economic and social justice, there can hardly be any doubt that now, 80 years after his birth, is that time....
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Hundreds of people participated in the 39th National Day of Mourning here,
organized by the United American Indians of New England, on Nov. 27. The event
is held on every U.S. "Thanksgiving" Day to tell the truth about that myth and uncover the real experience of Native peoples in this area since 1492....
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Dec. 6 will be a day of international solidarity to free Mumia Abu-Jamal. It
is sorely needed. Lynne Abraham, the Philadelphia district attorney known as
“the deadliest D.A. in the U.S.,” is calling on the U.S. Supreme
Court to reinstate Abu-Jamal's death sentence despite mounds of evidence
showing his innocence....
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The government's witch hunt and persecution of the San Francisco 8 continue unabated despite growing public support to drop the charges and release the former Black Panther Party members....
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There is a new political situation in the U.S. and in the world. Even though
Barack Obama's sweeping electoral victory was not entirely unexpected, now that it has happened -- the reality of it -- the way in which it demonstrated to the world that something big has changed about the working
class in the U.S., is so stunning that many still find it hard to believe....
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To: President Bush, Senator McCain, Governor Palen, Attorney General Mukasey,
Governors of Key States, Congressional and Republican Party leaders and members
of the media...
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There are new developments in the case of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on Pennsylvania's death row, that are the most significant and deadly since his 1981 arrest....
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The stock markets are crashing, the world economy is headed into a deep recession or even depression, and the U.S. government and its top bankers, along with their counterparts around the world, are giving what's going to amount to trillions of dollars to bailout the richest 1
percent of the people ...
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Click the link below to send a message directly to presiding Judge Larry Stephen, Mayor Bloomberg, Gov Paterson, Senators Clinton and Schumer, the New York State Legislature, and members of the media!...
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Foreclosure fighters took on Deutsche Bank Sept 25 in Boston, in the latest
eviction blockade organized by the City Life Tenant Organizing Program and its
supporters. Four protesters were arrested, including this writer, while trying to prevent the Boston police and a constable from evicting the Esquival family in Boston's Roslindale neighborhood....
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In the week since Bush announced plans to use $700 billion in public funds
to rescue Wall Street banks, nearly 200 demonstrations have been organized throughout the U.S. to oppose the bailout and express the righteous anger of workers and poor. Many were organized by grassroots groups taking advantage of the Internet to get the word out....
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The Jersey 4 are young African-American lesbians from Newark, N.J., who were
convicted of "gang assault" charges in June 2007 after defending themselves against a man who attacked them and three of their friends in August 2006....
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As banks fail, jobs disappear and the economy sinks deeper into a horrific crisis of poverty and misery, the television channels and political campaigns have suddenly become full of the most unlikely people denouncing "big business."...
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President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Timothy Geithner and
Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have been huddled in round-the-clock meetings,
hammering out deals. It has been done in secrecy, behind the backs of the
workers and the middle class, who will get stuck with the bill. They have been
working out these deals with the same loan sharks of high finance whose orgies
of speculation, gambling and deception in pursuit of profit led to the crisis
in the first place....
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The Senate has just voted to pass a US$700-billion financial bailout for corrupt financial institutions, while ignoring the real needs of working people. In addition to an unprecedented giveaway to Wall Street, the bill also includes $100 billion dollars in tax breaks for corporations - but no relief for working people who are facing foreclosure and who need health care, jobs, and education....
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Chanting "Bail out the people, not the banks," hundreds of poor and working people from across Michigan converged on the Capitol here on Sept. 17 demanding the State Legislature enact SB 1306, a
two-year foreclosure moratorium bill. The action was sponsored by the
Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions. Protesters were outraged that the federal government has pledged hundreds of
billions of dollars to bail out the same mortgage, banking and insurance
companies that caused the foreclosure crisis. Activists were serious and
determined to win relief by forcing the state and federal governments to pass a
moratorium to immediately halt foreclosures....
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Anti-war activists need to address the latest phase of the war - the war against working people here!...
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Labor Day weekend is always an important time in Detroit, known as the "Motor City," home to hundreds of thousands of organized and
unorganized workers....
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I have watched with keen interest and renewed hope as your campaign has mobilized millions of Americans behind your message of changing a political system that serves a small economic elite at the expense of the peoples of the
United States and the world. Your election as president of the United States, where slaves and Indians were long considered less than human under the law, will undoubtedly constitute a historic moment in race relations in the United
States....
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Foreclosures and evictions are devastating working families around the country. One in nine homeowners nationwide is either behind in their mortgage payments or their family homes are in foreclosure. Over 72,000 homeowners have lost their homes in the Detroit area alone. The vacant home rate in Detroit is 18 percent, second only to New Orleans.
...
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There has been extensive news attention to the ongoing federal proceedings concerning my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, on the hotly contested issue of racism in jury selection and the ordering of a new jury trial on the question of life or death. (Abu-Jamal v. Horn, 520 F.3d 272 (3rd Cir. 2008).) The massive issue of racism will be presented to the U.S. Supreme Court later this year. However, few are aware that we have been actively litigating separate issues concerning fraud and the subornation of perjury by the Philadelphia Police Department and the District Attorney of Philadelphia. We are now before the Supreme Court regarding this governmental misconduct which resulted in Mumia being convicted and sentenced to death.
...
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Today our Petition for Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc, submitted on behalf of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, was denied by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Simply put, we did not receive the needed majority vote from the nine sitting judges; at least five votes for a rehearing were necessary. However, Justice Thomas L. Ambro continues to urge the granting of relief on the issue of racism in jury selection. ...
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"For a long time, others spoke on our behalf. Now we speak for ourselves." The message was clear: the time for the voice of the grassroots migrants has come with the resounding success of the International Migrants Alliance (IMA) founding assembly....
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United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia On June 27, 2008, I submitted on behalf of my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Petition for Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Yesterday it was deemed "filed" by the court following rulings on related motions. The focus of the Petition is the issue of racism in jury selection. If unsuccessful, we will proceed to the United States Supreme Court...
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With the attainment of the required delegates to claim the Democratic Party's nomination for U.S. president, Sen. Barack H. Obama (D-IL) has written a new page in American history....
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When I was growing up in the U.S. South in the racially turbulent 1960s, it
would have been impossible for a Black politician to become a viable
Presidential contender. Nothing a Black candidate could have done or said would
have prevented him (or her) from being excluded on the basis of skin color
alone. Many of us never thought we would see in our lifetime a Black person
with a real possibility of becoming President of the U.S....
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There apparently is still confusion regarding the March 27 federal decision. A new jury trial was ordered on the question of whether the penalty should be life or death. The court did not rule that Mumia should receive a life sentence as some have stated. The penalty-phase was reversed because the trial judge gave misleading and unconstitutional jury instructions. Nonetheless, I expect far greater gains.
...
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The Dalai Lama claims that China is committing "cultural genocide" against the Tibetan people, and his claims and news of the events unfolding in the regional capital of Lhasa have captured a great deal of attention in the major media outlets in the U.S....
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A delegation of Detroit activists traveled to Washington, D.C., on April 16 to participate in the national demonstration called by the Ad Hoc Network to Stop
Foreclosures and Evictions. The action took place outside the Mortgage Bankers
Association Annual Policy Summit held in a hotel just two blocks away from Capitol Hill....
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Many hundreds of people carried out massive protests and civil disobedience today, during the afternoon of a work day, in at least six key bridge and tunnel crossroads of New York City to demand justice for Sean Bell, the 23-year-old African American who was killed in a hail of 50 New York Police Department bullets in November 2006 in Jamaica, Queens, N.Y....
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...
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WORLD EVENTS have made May Day 2008 a turning point. AT NO OTHER TIME in our lives has it been more critical to march together and work together. WE NOW FACE AN ECONOMIC CRISIS the likes of which we have not seen in our lifetimes that is throwing millions out of their homes, jobs and making it more difficult to get healthcare, an education or even gas and food....
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Rainbow Flags for Mumia is a coalition of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people and organizations that came together in 1999 to demand a new trial for Mumia Abu-Jamal. The following are excerpts from a call issued by RF4M
organizers Imani Henry and LeiLani Dowell to help raise awareness and solidarity with the Free Mumia rally in Philadelphia on April 19....
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In his new book, O'Connor argues that Abu-Jamal was clearly framed by police, and that the actual shooter was a man named Kenneth Freeman. O'Connor criticizes the local media, who, he says, "bought into the prosecution's story line early on and has never been able to see this case for what it is: a framing of an innocent and peace-loving man."...
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The Ad Hoc National Network to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions brought people, many facing foreclosure, from as far away as Boston, Raleigh and Miami. Sharon Black, a Baltimore organizer who chaired the rally, pointed out that the billionaire bankers were in D.C. to lobby for more tax breaks and concessions
from Congress....
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On Nov. 30, 2007 African-American police brutality and anti-war
activist Larry Hales was arrested after 10 cops illegally busted into
his home without a warrant and without permission, physically attacked him and handcuffed his partner to a chair. He is facing frame-up charges
of "interfering with the police" and faces extended jail time for being the victim of a police attack.
...
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The following statement was issued on March 29 by Pam Africa,
coordinator of the International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia
Abu-Jamal, on the March 28, 2008 court ruling by the three-judge panel of the Third
Circuit of Appeals....
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Emergency protests took place in a number of cities March 28, 2008, the day after a 2
to 1 court ruling March 27 made by the 3rd Circuit of Appeals that upheld the
guilty verdict in the case of death row political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and called for a resentencing hearing due to flawed jury instructions in the original trial....
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A ruling by the three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rejecting Mumia Abu-Jama's appeals has left supporters outraged and
convinced that, for this internationally known political prisoner, there is no chance for a "fair trial" within the U.S. injustice system....
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The campaign demanding justice for Larry Hales is gaining momentum. People around the country are outraged at the action last Nov. 30 of the Denver police, who stormed the home of Hales, a prominent anti-police brutality and
political activist in Denver, as well as a central organizer for upcoming protests at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver....
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hareef Aleem, Larry Hales and African-American police
brutality and anti-war activist Larry Hales was arrested after 10 cops
illegally busted into his home without a warrant and without permission,physically attacked him and handcuffed his partner to a chair. He is facing
frame-up charges of interfering with the police" and faces extended jail time for being the victim of a police attack....
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On March 8, 1908, working women in the needle trade industry took to the streets of New York City demanding better working conditions, higher wages, shorter workdays and the overall improvement of women's lives in this country. These women marched through New York City demanding justice for women workers and immigrant workers; they were in fact working immigrant women. The message and militancy of these women were so inspiring to women around
the world that in 1910 the International Socialist Congress meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, officially declared March 8 International Women's Day....
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No one should be awakened by armed squads bursting into their homes in the dead of night with shotguns and automatic weapons drawn taking away parents and relatives leaving children alone....
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Workshops will coordinate with the activities of the International Action Center and Troops Out Now Coalition. Trainees will have a chance to gather footage from demonstrations, meetings and forums and will learn to edit that footage and stream it on YouTube and Facebook....
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One hundred and fifty anti-racist activists continued the legacy of Martin
Luther King Jr. on Jan. 21 as they confronted members of the white supremacist
organization, the Nationalist Movement, in Jena, La. The event took place on Martin Luther King Day in this small Louisiana town that has been the stage for what is being called the new civil rights movement....
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Reports of demonstrations against racism on Martin Luther King Day from cities around the United States. Demonstrators called for cutting the military budget and using the money for jobs, housing, education and health
care....
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On Monday, January 21, from coast to coast, thousands took to the streets to march against racism.The Martin Luther King March Against Racism Coalition called for nationwide actions, saying, "There is a time for celebrations and there's a time for fighting. Now is a time that we need to fight. And fight like hell. On this King Holiday we must organize and march against the forces of racism, reaction and war, not just the war abroad but the war raging here at home. To know what's happening, is to know that nothing is more important than jump starting a multi-racial movement against racism."...
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Puerto Ricans have resisted U.S. culture and the imposition of English-only
in schools, and over the years have formed liberation organizations such as the
Nationalist Party, the FALN and the Macheteros. Now the movement and its allies
are calling for the FBI and the U.S. Navy to get out of Puerto Rico. International solidarity is needed....
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Fascistic groups like the Nationalist Movement should not have the right to free speech in order to spread their vile, hateful venom especially against Black and other people of color....
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This year, let's help put the meaning back into the Martin Luther King holiday on January 21st by marching against racism, oppression, war, poverty and division. In New York, the march will assemble at 1 PM for an opening rally at 32nd Street and 7th Avenue, near the offices of radio station WABC (which recently put Don Imus back on the air!). Then we will march to Columbus Circle and rally outside of CNN's offices (located inside the Time Warner building)....
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Fighters for reproductive justice for poor women are stepping up their campaign to overturn the Hyde Amendment, a reactionary law enacted by Congress in 1976 and signed by Democratic President Jimmy Carter in 1977. The Hyde
Amendment denies women on Medicaid the right to funding for abortions. It is named for its archreactionary sponsor, Henry Hyde, a former long-term Republican congressman from Illinois. ...
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On Dec. 20th, just five days before the Christmas holiday, residents and supporters of New Orleans public housing were denied their right to speak regarding the demolition of 4,700 public housing units. The housing is to be
replaced by :mixed income housing," which really means upscale and expensive housing....
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The Coalition to Stop the Demolitions is calling for National Days of Action
on Jan. 25 and 26. The call is to rally activists around the country to show
solidarity with public-housing residents in New Orleans and to save four
public-housing developments from being demolished by private developers in
favor of more expensive luxurious developments....
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Victor Toro Ramerez fought the Pinochet dictatorship in Chile. Now he is fighting deportation from the U.S., and is linking his own struggle
to that of all undocumented workers....
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Monday, Jan 21, in New York City and across the nation: The International Action Center and the Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) youth group are initiating an important call to action around the U.S. for Jan. 21, 2008, the official Martin Luther King Jr. birthday holiday. The call motivates people for solidarity and unity in the struggle against racism and all forms of injustice at home and abroad. It also calls for a national march in New York City along with other mobilizations around the country on this day focusing support for the Black community and immigrant rights:...
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Resolution calls for federally-funded public works program (like WPA of the 1930s) with prevailing wages and the right to organize...the Right of Return of evacuees...and an end to state repression, racial profiling and police brutality in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast....
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Mumia Abu-Jamal has been on Pennsylvania's death row for over a quarter of a century.
His 1982 conviction for the shooting death of Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel
Faulkner, has been contested by jurists, human rights organizations, and peoples
of conscience the world over. Even though he is arguably the most famous political
prisoner in the United States, his case and struggle for justice distills many
of the issues that racially stigmatized groups and others have faced in the United
States for decades: police brutality and violence, racist applications of the
death penalty, prosecutorial misconduct, suborning of witnesses, and the use of
wealth and political privilege in criminal justice systems to service the ideological
interests of groups and classes in power. ...
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Hundreds of Native people and their supporters gathered in Plymouth, Mass., on Nov. 22 to commemorate the 38th National Day of Mourning. Day of Mourning has been held annually since 1970 on U.S. thanksgiving day to provide a forum for Indigenous people to speak the truth about the history of this country and to speak out about current conditions in Indian Country. Participants, led by members of United American Indians of New England, marched to protest the lies told about thanksgiving and the European theft of the Americas and held a rally at the site of Plymouth Rock....
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The Haitian Revolution is a singular event in history. Never before or since has an enslaved people risen up, broken their chains, and established a new state. Haiti was a beacon of hope and inspiration to the enslaved Africans of the United States. Haiti's history has been turbulent, but not for the reasons given by mainstream historians. ...
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Since 1970, hundreds of other Native Americans from across the country and their non-Native allies have been converging on Plymouth Harbor to let people know that Thanksgiving is a "Day of Mourning" that marks the genocide of thousands of Native Americans, the theft of Native Lands and the assault on Native Cultures. On Thursday, November 23, 2006 despite the cold and rainy weather, hundreds of people gathered and marched on Plymouth Harbor and joined in solidarity as various tribal elders and members spoke about the hypocrisy of the current U.S. government's attack against immigrants and spoke of the importance of Unity among all Indigenous Peoples. Elder Bert Waters read the following statement from Leonard Peltier: ...
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Last fall, when two Black high school students sat under the "white" tree on their campus, white students responded by hanging nooses from the tree. When Black students protested the light punishment for the students who hung the nooses, District Attorney Reed Walters came to the school and told the students he could "take [their] lives away with a stroke of [his] pen." Racial tension continued to mount in Jena , and the District Attorney did nothing in response to several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students....
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We the undersigned--lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender-nonconforming, and other activists fighting oppression based on sexuality, gender and sex--express our support for the right of the Black community in Brooklyn to decide to rename an avenue for the late Black community activist Sonny Abubadika Carson, who some called the "Mayor of Bed-Sty" for his long-time community activism....
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There are many developments on the legal and other fronts concerning my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal. We remain in active litigation before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, and also have issues pending in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Mumia has been honored by fellow writers through acceptance into a prestigious organization, a Nobel Prize winner recently visited him, an excellent new book was released in France, a leading British newspaper has published a major article on Mumia, and a superb film recently premiered in London and Rome. The following are the highlights....
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We continue to await a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia, concerning my client, Mumia Abu-Jamal. This complex case was orally argued before a three-judge panel on May 17, 2007, following extensive litigation which included voluminous briefing and motions. In my experience of successfully defending a large number of murder cases involving the death penalty, it was a great day....
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