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Experiencing Police Brutality Made Me An Activist

July 29, 2015 Monica Raye Simpson, www.huffingtonpost.com , , , , , ,
By Monica Raye Simpson in The Huffington Post - This past weekend, I joined over 1500 other activists from across the country in Cleveland, Ohio for the Movement For Black Lives Convening. We were all together -- black cis-gendered women and men, black queer women and men, trans women and trans men, black elders, black young people, black babies -- from across all movements learning, strategizing, resisting, creating and healing together. For me, it was a truly spiritual experience. I was sad that I had to return to Atlanta early, especially when I realized that this powerful and historic weekend took an unfortunate turn when Cleveland law enforcement arrested a 14-year-old boy and used pepper spray on protestors who fought to protect him. As I watched this ordeal unfold on social media, I wanted so desperately to be on the front lines with my sisters and brothers. I thought to myself, How could this weekend -- one full of so much love and brilliance -- end like this?

Honduras Breaks The Silence: Protests Persist Against Corruption

July 27, 2015 Brianne Berry and Laura Valentina Natera, www.coha.org , , ,
By Brianne Berry and Laura Valentina Natera in Council On Hemispheric Affairs - Since the coup against the democratically elected President of Honduras in 2009, Honduras has been experiencing a period of continuous crises. Despite deteriorating conditions, there had been only a limited organized outcry against the corruption, impunity, and lack of employment facing the country until two months ago, when weekly protests began crowding the streets of the nation’s capital, Tegucigalpa. The last straw for Honduran citizens came in May, when it was revealed that private businesses had embezzled $330 million USD from the country’s social security institute, the Instituto Hondureno de Seguirdad Social (IHSS). Ninety four million USD of the embezzled funds had been funneled directly into the campaign of Juan Orlando Hernandez, who, though he admits to receiving the funds, claims to have been unaware of their source.

Protests Shine Light On ALEC Conference In San Diego

July 27, 2015 Ashoka Jegroo, www.wagingnonviolence.org , ,
By Ashoka Jegroo in Waging Non-Violence - More than a thousand protesters took to the streets of San Diego on July 22 to demonstrate against a conservative nonprofit’s annual meeting of politicians and corporate lobbyists. “Today we refused to allow the actions of a group of anti-worker billionaires that push laws to make the rich richer on the backs of hardworking families go unnoticed,” Jesse Torres, a home care provider with the United Domestic Workers of America said in a statement by the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. Demonstrators were protesting against the yearly meeting by the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, a conservative nonprofit organization known for drafting and sharing legislation amongst politicians, thus facilitating the collusion between corporations and government.

Heart, Heart, Heart: The Life Lessons Of Jerry Berrigan

July 27, 2015 Sean Kirst, www.syracuse.com , ,
By Sean Kirst in Syracuse - For years, Jerry taught composition, literature and Shakespeare at Onondaga Community College. He and Carol were close to Rev. Ray McVey, a selfless Catholic priest who embodied the Dorothy Day philosophy. They joined McVey in visiting prisoners in jail. They helped him establish Unity Acres, a place of respite for homeless men. Jerry was arrested and jailed so often for taking part in peaceful protests that he's lost count, he said, of how many times he wore handcuffs. From all of it, this treasury of stories, he said the greatest moment in his life occurred in that back yard in East Syracuse. For years, Jerry and Phil studied to join the Josephites, an order of Catholic priests dedicated to the African-American community. Eventually, Jerry decided to step away.

Zapatistas’ Last Word On Elections: Organize

July 24, 2015 The Zapatista Army For National Liberation, www.rabble.ca , , ,
By The Zapatista Army For National Liberation in Rabble - These days, every time that this thing they call the "electoral process" happens, we hear and see the stuff that comes out saying that the EZLN calls for abstention, that the EZLN says that people shouldn't vote. They say this and other idiocies, these big-headed people who don't study history or even try to understand. And they even put these absurdities into history books and biographies, and then charge for them. That is to say, they charge for these lies. Like politicians. Of course, you know that we're not interested in these things that those above make up in order to try to convince those below that they’re concerned about them. As Zapatistas, we don't call for people not to vote, nor do we call for them to vote. As Zapatistas, every time we get the chance we tell people that they should organize to resist and to struggle for what they need.

Argentina: Columbus Statue Replaced By Female Freedom Fighter

July 24, 2015 TeleSurTV, www.telesurtv.net , , , ,
By TeleSurTV - Juana Azurduy was a South America guerrilla military leader and critical figure in the South American struggle for independence. Bolivian President Evo Morales' visit to his Argentina counterpart Cristina Fernandez Wednesday will focus not only on bilateral agreements between the two nations, but also South America's independence history, Cuban news agency Prensa Latina reported. The two South American leaders will inaugurate a monument to independence heroine and South American guerrilla military leader Juana Azurduy. The 15-meter high (52 feet) bronze statue has been erected outside the presidential palace in Buenos Aires in the place that a monument to Christopher Columbus once stood. “Bye Columbus, see you never. Hello Juana Azurduy, UNTIL VICTORY, ALWAYS… Long live Patria Grande.”

The Problem With The Fight For 15

July 22, 2015 Boots Riley, www.creativetimereports.org , , ,
By Boots Riley in Creative Time Reports - Is the best way to achieve higher wages really legislation? Many think so. Across the country, working people are eagerly waiting to feel the effects of new laws that raise the minimum wage. Seattle will see an increase to $15 by 2021, and Los Angeles will see the same increase by 2020. But this strategy detracts from the only power dynamic that can actually overturn economic inequality: class struggle. Legislative wage hikes fade fast into inflated prices. Worse, they teach folks that ultimately we need not organize – except to ask the state to change things for us. That’s a losing battle on all fronts and one that obscures class analysis. This analysis says that there are two classes under capitalism, whose economically ordained conflict propels the system: the working class, who creates the surplus value in commodities, and the ruling class, who receives most of the wealth of commodities.

Why I Interrupted The Netroots Presidential Town Hall

July 22, 2015 Tia Oso, www.mic.com , , , , , , ,
By Tia Oso in Mic - I am Tia Oso, the black woman who took to the stage and demanded a microphone on July 18 at the Netroots Nation Presidential Town Hall in Phoenix, Arizona. I did this to focus the attention of the nation's largest gathering of progressive leaders and presidential hopefuls on the death of Sandra Bland and other black women killed while in police custody, because the most important and urgent issue of our day is structural violence and systemic racism that is oppressing and killing black women, men and children. This is an emergency. Sandra Bland and I had a lot in common. We were both black women, active in our communities and the Movement for Black Lives. We both pledged sororities: I'm a Delta, Bland was a member of Sigma Gamma Rho. I have also been harshly confronted by police during "routine" traffic stops and feared for my safety and my life.

Occupy Wall Street Just Won

July 18, 2015 Tom Toles, www.washingtonpost.com , ,
By Tom Toles in Washington Post - The leaderless, agenda-less, amorphous blob that camped out in New York and Washington and various other cities before disappearing without a trace had become a symbol of how not to achieve political change. Until it won. It was a movement born out of frustration and idealism and eventually wore out and was swept out of its soggy civic encampments by the municipal broom. There it was, and then there it wasn’t. It was criticized for its lack of agenda items, and if you visited it while it was around, it was all a little vague as to what was going on. It was essentially there as a witness, to an idea. The idea was that economic and social inequality were getting out of hand, and that financial and corporate power were running away with the game. They did achieve one thing in their not-all-that-brief moment in the sun and not-so-sunny, and that was to put the idea of the 99% into the public discussion.

Neoliberal Globalization, Austerity, Resistance And Reaction

July 13, 2015 Harry Targ, www.heartlandradical.blogspot.com , , ,
By Harry Targ in Heartland Radical - The movements of global resistance have grown enormously, particularly since the recession of 2008, as has reaction. Violent reaction from rightwing movements, in some places in the form of fascist and white racist campaigns, has spread. With a few more degrees of respectability rightwing populist parties such as the Tea Party in the United States have mobilized to pressure their more dignified neoconservatives and Wall Street liberals to support austerity and state repression of resistance. State violence against public campaigns has increased. In the United States police killings of African Americans have increased. Police agencies and vigilante groups have engaged in terrorism against so-called “illegal” immigrants. And governments have passed laws limiting mobilizations in public spaces.

15 Things Your City Can Do Right Now to End Police Brutality

July 9, 2015 Zak Cheney-Rice, www.mic.com , ,
By Zak Cheney-Rice in Mic - There's a strong case that the problem with policing isn't actually the police, but us — the police are merely enforcing our democratic will. Yet the real-life benefits of this umbrella term we've dubbed "police reform" — decriminalization, commitment to reducing prison populations and community oversight, to name a few — can still be impactful, if not quite a cure-all. To that end, the Center for Popular Democracy and Policy Link, two nonprofit advocacy organizations, have partnered with various protesters and street-level organizers to find some concrete solutions to this problem. The result is a 15-point report, titled Building From the Ground Up: A Toolkit for Promoting Justice in Policing, whichMic has synthesized below to identify the concrete steps citizens and local governments can take to affect change.

Protest Is The New Terror: Law Enforcement Criminalizing Dissent

July 1, 2015 Derek Royden, www.occupy.com , , , ,
By Derek Royden in Occupy - The unique moment created by anti-police brutality protests throughout the U.S. last year – and coming on the heels of a federally coordinated effort to dismantle Occupy encampments in 2011 – revealed that federal police agencies, especially the FBI, working with local police have directed their resources as much against protesters, dissenters and those practicing and civil disobedience as they have against the threat represented by terrorists, whether homegrown “lone wolves" or organized outside groups. While the recent NSA reform bill passed in Congress represents a victory for civil liberties and privacy advocates, there's still a ways to go. Because while the right to dissent remains a fundamental American freedom, the fear of terrorism being openly exploited by law enforcement has allowed police to resurrect COINTELPRO in all but name.

Bree Newsome Took A Stand, Will You?

June 30, 2015 Jennifer Farmer, www.alternet.org , , ,
By Jennifer Farmer in Alternet - Newsome bravely scaled a pole at the South Carolina State Capitol and removed the confederate flag from state grounds. While many of us bemoaned the display of the racist symbol of oppression and white supremacy, Newsome took action. As she was led away in cuffs, she stoically recited biblical scripture. This was not the first, and I suspect it will not be the last time, Bree took a stand for something in which she believed. In 2013, she protested North Carolina's voter suppression law during the Moral Monday protests organized by the Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II and the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP. Newsome exhibits the brand of bravery we should all aspire to gain ourselves.

‘This Is Not A Revival’: Detroiters Reclaiming City’s Image

June 30, 2015 Derrick Broze, www.mintpressnews.com , ,
By Derrick Broze in Mint Press News - Detroiters have always taken care of themselves, Caprice Wood told MintPress. She added: “It might be new for the younger generation but the older generations have been doing this their whole life.” Jaleel Muhammad, the education assistant with Earthworks, agrees, but goes a step further. He told MintPress, “There is a synergistic relationship that forms around having a garden in the center of the community.” Muhammad develops urban farming- and gardening-related curriculum for young learners at the James and Grace Lee Boggs Educational Center. He also works with a parent committee that is attempting to get healthier foods into school cafeterias. While there are legitimate criticisms to be levied against Detroit, Muhammad says more people should dig a bit further beneath the surface.

Greek Referendum: Euro Crisis Explodes Into Dramatic Climax

June 29, 2015 Jerome Roos, www.roarmag.org , , , ,
By Jerome Roos in Roarmag - Tsipras’ spectacular decision late on Friday to fly back to Athens and put the Eurogroup’s final bailout offer to a referendum — with the government advising voters to reject the deal — has stunned friends and foes alike. Now, with depositors lining up at ATMs to withdraw cash, the Eurogroup refusing to extend the current bailout program, the ECB capping its emergency liquidity assistance for Greek banks, and Greece set to miss a €1.5 billion IMF payment on Tuesday, the long-awaited endgame is finally upon us. After five long and exhausting years, the euro crisis has exploded into its dramatic climax. Those who now lambast the Greek government for its supposed “recklessness” in calling the referendum are profoundly mistaken. Yes, as I have argued many times before, Tsipras’ and Varoufakis’ belief that they could somehow extract an “honorable compromise” from the creditors was always extremely naive.
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