Policy

Now More Than Ever, It Is Imperative That Local Elected Officials Step Up To Defend Our Communities.

September 24, 2018 Staff, Reformtransform.org Resist! Abuse, Police, Policy

For too long, communities across the country have lived with the reality of harmful policing practices and a punitive legal system that relies heavily on criminalization, rather than on crime prevention, restorative practices, and investment. The criminalization of marginalized communities is a cornerstone of our nation’s justice system—from the systemic divestment of social services from communities of color, to “War on Drugs” and “tough on crime” policies of the 1990s, to the proliferation of policing practices targeting minor infractions.[1] This reality is enduring. Indeed, under the Trump administration, communities now find themselves in an era of even more heightened attack.

Prison Contracts Regularly Come Up For Reconsideration

July 23, 2018 By Beryl Lipton, Muckrock.com Organize! Detention Centers, Immigration, Policy, Prison Industrial Complex

Today’s immigration policies won’t necessarily keep detention centers in your community tomorrow. Over 200 privately-owned or privately-managed correctional facilities - jails, prisons, and immigrant detention centers - currently operate in the United States. They’re the sites of an ongoing argument between capitalist-backed “practicality” and public principles opposed to “prison for profit,” and they’re tethered to their government employers through a series of contracts of varying terms and frequent reconsideration. According to GEO Group’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, in the year 2018, 51 of their facilities are scheduled to hit the end of their current contracts...

Knesset’s New Nation State Law Codifies Israel As An Apartheid State

July 20, 2018 By Miko Peled, Mintpressnews.com Educate! Israel, Nationalism, Policy, Racism

Now, with the haggling and the opposition members’ delay tactics over, the final version of the bill has been approved by the Knesset. This law, which has been described as the legislative “Flagship” of the current government, is officially named “Basic Law – Israel as The Nation State of the Jewish People” has become one of Israel’s Basic Laws — laws that, in the absence of a Constitution, have constitutional standing. This law has been discussed for several years now; it has evolved, however, and has become extreme to a degree that even right-wing politicians like Benny Begin, the son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, and former Likud Defense Minister Moshe Arens, who originally supported the bill, now oppose it.

Money Matters! Why Monetary Theory And Policy Is A Critical Terrain For The Left

July 19, 2018 Staff, Thenextsystem.org Create! Capitalism, Left Politics, Liberals, New Economy, Policy

As our demands grow bolder—true full employment, the rebuilding of the social safety net starting with Medicare for All, an overdue green and just transition—so will the naysayers’ inevitable refrain: “How will you pay for it?” This Left Forum panel on June 5, 2018 moderated by Gar Alperovitz brought together a combination of innovative thinkers and practitioners who together present a different understanding of monetary policy and the money system. They show a way out of the austerity trap and reveal that the obstacles to bold action at a national scale on jobs, healthcare, and climate are political, not economic. This is a partial, edited transcript.

Petition Calls On Hopkins To End Partnership With ICE, Citing Agency’s ‘Brutal’ Immigration Policies

July 16, 2018 By Ethan McLeod, Baltimorefishbowl.com Resist! ICE, Immigration, Policy

For the last nine years, Johns Hopkins University has partnered with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other public agencies and associations on training programs within the School of Education, in a program called the Division of Public Safety Leadership. Now, citing ICE’s deportation and detention policies under the Trump administration, students, faculty, alumni and community members are calling on Hopkins to end the partnership immediately. A petition calling for an end to their agreement began circulating last week, weeks after a flurry of reports that ICE separated thousands of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border over the spring and was holding some of them in cages.

Donald Trump’s Immigration Policy Forces Children To Defend Themselves Before A Judge

July 11, 2018 Staff, Granma.cu Educate! Children, Courts, Immigration, Policy, Trump Administration

As a result of the immigration policy of Donald Trump, immigrant minors are being summoned in the courts without lawyers, that is, they must defend themselves. The newspaper USA Today explains the story of a child under three years of age who appeared before the judge and had to defend himself only to avoid deportation. He tried to enter with his father, but separated them for illegally crossing to EE. UU. A video of the NGO Unaccompanied Children, which works with immigrant communities since 1978, has gone viral in the last hours in social networks, for sharing a recreation of these trials to minors, reports the Catalan newspaper El Periódico. "When children appear in immigration court alone, nine out of ten are deported. When they appear with a lawyer, the immigration courts have allowed almost half of the children to stay in the United States, "the video points out.

Will Mexico’s New Leader Reshape Its Drug Policies?

July 10, 2018 Julia Barajas, Cannabiswire.com Create! Drug Policy, Drugs, Mexico, Policy

Mexico’s next president will take office at the end of 2018, and among the many big puzzles he must solve is how to deal with the nation’s dangerous and powerful illegal drug trade. He has been careful not to say much about what policies he will pursue, but there have been strong hints. Back in 2006, more than half a million people took to the already-crowded streets of Mexico City to protest the defeat of presidential candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador, often referred to by his initials, AMLO. According to widely reported accounts, the protesters hailed from throughout the country, and they demanded a recount, as López Obrador reportedly lost to right-wing candidate Felipe Calderón by just 0.57%.

‘Zero-Tolerance’ Immigration Policy Is Big Money For Contractors, Nonprofits

June 26, 2018 By Geoff West and Alex Baumgart, Opensecrets.org Educate! Immigration, Nonprofits, Policy

President Trump’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy under the direction of Attorney General Jeff Sessions is big business for U.S. companies — from private prison and tech firms to defense and security contractors — as well as nonprofits. Under bipartisan pressure, Trump signed an executive order Wednesday ending the administration’s controversial child-separation policy. But Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy, in which individuals who enter the U.S. illegally are prosecuted, will continue. All this comes as the country grapples with harrowing images of babies stripped from their mothers’ arms and children playing soccer on the grounds of abandoned Walmart stores along the Southwest border. Trump defended his policy in a campaign speech Wednesday in Minnesota. That came a day after the raid of an Ohio meat plant in which Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested 146 employees accused of being in the country illegally. It was the largest workforce raid in recent history, according to the agency.

US Policy In Honduras Set The Stage for Today’s Mass Migration

June 23, 2018 Joseph Nevins, Consortiumnews.com Educate! Honduras, Immigration, Policy, US Imperialism

U.S. policy in Honduras, particularly during the Obama administration, is directly responsible for part of the immigration crisis now gripping the U.S., argues Joseph Nevins. Central American migrants – particularly unaccompanied minors – are again crossing the U.S.-Mexico boundary in large numbers. Under the Obama administration In 2014, more than 68,000 unaccompanied Central American children were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico boundary. There were more than 60,000 in 2016. The mainstream narrative often reduces the causes of migration to factors unfolding in migrants’ home countries. In reality, migration is often a manifestation of a profoundly unequal and exploitative relationship between migrant-sending countries and countries of destination. Understanding this is vital to making immigration policy more effective and ethical.

People’s Movements Protest Neoliberal Policies In Haiti

June 7, 2018 Lautaro Rivara, Thedawn-news.org Resist! Capitalism, Haiti, Policy, Protests, Social Movements

On the morning of May 25th, a large group of people’s organizations of Haiti mobilized in the capital, Puerto Principe, demanding the fulfillment of an extension agenda of demands from the State and the president Jovenel Moïse. The mobilization was called by an platform known as “January 22nd Movement”, that unites various sectors such as unions, peasants, students and urban fringes. The organizations also participate in the continental and global platforms: ALBA Movimientos and Vía Campesina. The gathering took place in Chal Sounè, the central point of the city, where the ministries of Finance, Justice and Social Issues, and the Car Insurance Office against Third Parties (OAVCT) are situated. The protesters exhibited posters of rejection to International Monetary Fund (IMF) and protested against the government’s attempt to increase fuel prices.

Inequality Made Worse By Cruel Economic Policies In US

June 4, 2018 Ed Pilkington, Theguardian.com Educate! Economics, Inequality, Policy, US Imperialism

Donald Trump is deliberately forcing millions of Americans into financial ruin, cruelly depriving them of food and other basic protections while lavishing vast riches on the super-wealthy, the United Nations monitor on poverty has warned. Philip Alston, the UN special rapporteur who acts as a watchdog on extreme poverty around the world, has issued a withering critique of the state of America today. Trump is steering the country towards a “dramatic change of direction” that is rewarding the rich and punishing the poor by blocking access even to the most meager necessities. “This is a systematic attack on America’s welfare program that is undermining the social safety net for those who can’t cope on their own. Once you start removing any sense of government commitment, you quickly move into cruelty,” Alston told the Guardian.

The Surprising Popularity Of ‘Far Left’ Policies

May 21, 2018 Jim Naureckas, Fair.org Educate! Electoral Politics, Policy

There were a couple of other candidates who were categorized as “far left” by affiliation. In the Pittsburgh area, Summer Lee and an unnamed Sara Innamorato were described as “card-carrying members of the Democratic Socialists of America”—using a phrase popularized by Sen. Joe McCarthy’s claim that he had the names of “57 card-carrying members of the Communist Party.” Scott Wallace in Pennsylvania was described as “the grandson of Henry Wallace, who was Franklin Roosevelt’s vice president for a term, and then ran against Harry Truman, who FDR dumped him for, from the far left in 1948.” Aside from Scott Wallace’s self-description as a “proud progressive” and his promise to “make America sane again,” genealogy was all the Post presented to tie him to the “far left.”

Food Policy Action Plans Broad-Based Opposition To Draft Farm Bill

May 4, 2018 Staff, Foodtank.com Resist! Farms, Food and Agriculture, Legislation, Policy

On May 8-9th, 2018, Food Policy Action (FPA) is mobilizing stakeholders from across the United States to voice their united opposition to the draft 2018 Farm Bill released by the House Agriculture Committee. Advocates have a narrow window in which to convince House members that supporting a Farm Bill that cuts support for SNAP, small farmers, and the working class is not only irresponsible but will lose them support at the ballot box, says FPA executive director Monica Mills. “We are already doing a dismal job providing support for new, young, and small farmers, and this bill is going to be incredibly harmful to rural economies if it eliminates what programs we do have. And the changes to SNAP feel like we’re waging war on the poor,” she told Food Tank.

Economists Warn Trump Of Depression From His Trade Policies

May 4, 2018 By Kevin Glass, Ntu.org Resist! New Economy, Policy, Trade Deal, Trump Administration

NTU’s Free Trade Initiative director Bryan Riley said, “very few policy areas generate as much consensus among professional economists like free trade does. Protectionism is flat-earther economics.” NTU is holding an event to unveil the letter and submit it to the White House and Congress on Thursday, May 3 at the National Press Club. This letter to Congress and the White House comes on May 3, the anniversary of the economists’ letter in 1930 warning against the Smoot-Hawley tariffs. The Smoot-Hawley tariffs were intended to protect American jobs, but the consensus among economists is that they prolonged and worsened the Great Depression. “Tariffs are never good, and a necessary evil to be used as sparingly as possible,” said founding signatory Douglas Holtz-Eakin, President of the American Action Forum and former director of the Congressional Budget Office.

Border Militarism: An Old Failed Policy, Tried Again

April 26, 2018 By Todd Miller, Tomdispatch.com Educate! Border, Immigration, Militarization, Policy

At first, I thought I had inadvertently entered an active war zone. I was on a lonely two-lane road in southern New Mexico heading for El Paso, Texas. Off to the side of the road, hardly concealed behind some desert shrubs, I suddenly noticed what seemed to be a tank. For a second, I thought I might be seeing an apparition. When I stopped to take a picture, a soldier wearing a camouflage helmet emerged from the top of the Stryker, a 19-ton, eight-wheeled combat vehicle that was regularly used in military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He looked my way and I offered a pathetic wave. To my relief, he waved back, then settled behind what seemed to be a large surveillance display mounted atop the vehicle. With high-tech binoculars, he began to monitor the mountainous desert that stretched toward Mexico, 20 miles away, as if the enemy might appear at any moment.

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