Wednesday, April 30, 2014

May 1st Northbay Uprising radio news

Tune in Thursdays 4 to 5pm (PST), with our online webstream [link], and in the San Pablo Bay Area at 89.5FM KZCT [link]. Hosted by Dr.G., Minister of Information of the Northbay Movement for a Democratic Society, with a California-wide network of journalists, organizers, and entertainers, breaking the blockade of censorship, with research archives and verified sources! View past headlines [link]. Join the Community Journalist program, send news & info to [NorthbayMDS@gmail.com]. Know more with the Community Journalist's Notebook [link]!

The managers of 89.5FM KZCT, their associates, and sponsors, are not to be held liable for the information and commentary provided by the Northbay Uprising Radio News, produced by the Northbay Movement for a Democratic Society, as a non-partisan research and education project.

ACTION HEADLINES!
Stories are reviewed and provided by Northbay MDS Committees.

from the Committee to Free 'em All! [link], weekly spotlight on political prisoners in the USA:
Kijana Tashiri Askari of California [link]

Hands Off Our Homes! [link]
* Justice for Sabrina Carter's family! (2014-04) [link]

Bay Area Solidarity Committee [link]
* M.E.ChX.A de CCSF [link]

Liaison group to the Solano Peace, Justice & Freedom Coalition [link],
* "Veterans Oppose US Troop Deployments near Ukraine" [link]

Peace and Justice on Good Friday...
* at Livermore Lab [link]
* at Beale AFB [link]

Committee for the Investigation of Civil & Human Rights abuse:
* Cook Middle School in Santa Rosa retaliates against students seeking justice for Andy Lopez
[link]
*
"UN Human Rights Committee finds US in violation on 25 counts", from the San Francisco Bay View newspaper [link]
* "Memphis leads nation in use of deadly force by police, activists charge" [link], 2014-04-16 by JoNina Ervin from Memphis Black Autonomy Federation [facebook.com/BlackAutonomyFederation]

Defend Nubia
[youtube.com/watch?v=21czrNVTJXs], posted 2014-04-29 at the "Defend Nubia!" Campaign video channel [youtube.com/channel/UCGG8nKOaUBgEG3ftNf_2q8Q]. This video contains testimony describing a video showing BART Police and Santa Rita Sheriffs holding a tag-team assault of Nubia Bowe, a 19-year-old New African woman who exhibited no violent behavior prior to the assault! Produced by the One Shot Away Coalition (Bay Area) [facebook.com/oneshotawayba]

One might think that based on the sordid history and negative press surrounding Oakland's law enforcement activity, officers would think twice before using excessive force on unarmed citizens.
Unfortunately, this is not the case for many black and brown youth who are overly scrutinized and policed simply for existing in the skin in which they were born, nor was it the case for Nubia Bowe on Friday, March 21, 2014. On this evening, officers responded to a complaint of two young performers soliciting for money on the train. Two male passengers, and friends of Bowe, were approached by officers at the Lake Merritt station, with a witness who identified the two young men as the guilty suspects. The men were instructed by the officers to get off the train for questioning. Some of the train's passengers stood up for the youth, telling the officers that young people they were looking for had already gotten off the train at the West Oakland station and that these three riders had not been engaged in the solicitation of passengers.
Bowe, a 19-year-old African American female and full-time student of a local security-training program, repeatedly iterated the group's innocence, telling the officers that they were in violation of the young men's rights. This "challenge", as well as mounting vocal pressure from other BART riders, agitated the officers who forcibly removed Bowe from the train. One officer threw the 5'0" tall, 105 pound teen into the platform and repeatedly "roughed her up" according to one passenger. "They kept slamming her around..her mouth was full of blood" as she was ushered by her attackers to the Lake Merritt station holding cell in preparation for transport to Santa Rita County Jail on one felony and three misdemeanor charges.
Bowe's first experience with the law quickly intensified at Santa Rita where she was taunted, battered, and denied serious medical care, as well as the usage of phone privileges by deputies at the County Jail; a jail whose condition is reported to be torturous in-and-of itself. "Three male guards and one female guard came in my cell and beat me up. They hit me then said that I assaulted one of them..they chained my wrists to my ankles and tipped me over onto the urine-soaked ground so I couldn't get up. I could tell they were trying to break my spirit" says Bowe about the four-night stay that resulted in two additional arrest charges being tacked to her quickly growing rap sheet.
Nubia is not yet out of the woods. As a result of the felony arrest, she was kicked out of her training program at the Treasure Island Job Corp where she was only 2 months away from graduation; she is facing criminal charges that can potentially impact the rest of her life, and she will forever have to deal with the trauma of her experiences.
Defend Black youth from the prison industrial complex! Please share this video far and wide! They're trying to throw Nubia BACK in jail. The campaigns for Peace and Justice are connected. The police, the courts and the jails are always messing with our Black sisters and brothers. Justice for Alan, Justice for Nubia, and all Black youth! Justice for ALL Victims of State and racist terrorism!


Committee to Defend Workers' Rights! [link], archive [link]
* "BART Union Busting Politician Funded By Chamber Of Commerce" [link]
* SA Labor Speaker to spotlight struggle of South Africa's workers on May Day 2014 [www.transportworkers.org/node/1210],

Mayday!
Defend the Human Rights of All Workers, across the world!

Photograph showing South African police during the 2012 massacre of labor union members at Lonmin's Marikana Mine in South Africa. Learn about the "Marikana Massacre" [link].

The "Marikana Massascre" is being seen across the so-called "free world", and the amount of repression being seen across the world is currently reminiscent of the extreme fascism seen of the 1980s against labor organizers in the so-called Third World, especially in Latin America and Africa.
A Mayday call to unions for international solidarity was initiated by the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee, part of a campaign to welcome Brother Mphumzi Maqungo of South Africa to the Bay Area with a series of events and media coverage [TransportWorkers.org/node/1200], and to honor the victims of the Marikana Massascre and the ongoing campaign of repression against labor unions, generally. Committee members organized personal outreach with flyers to labor unions and workers calling for labor solidarity from the Bay Area to Africa, containing a biography of Mphumzi Maqungo, Political Prisoner Mumia's transcribed audio message of solidarity, and a list of endorsers. with outreach at a recent ILWU Local 10 meeting, at the AC Transit barns in Alameda County, and with workers and members of the community at the West Oakland BART station. The Solidarity Committee offered reimbursements and help to anybody up for the cause of solidarity outreach. Fellow community member Isis posted info up on IndyBay, and Carole Seligman put out information on Prison Radio, and Bay Area United Against War got the word out, too. Union endorsements include the ILWU Local 10 Executive Board, Oakland Education Association and Local 510 Sign and Display Workers Union. This is the power of independent labor organizing, the power of community media, and the power of the People!
Building towards Workers Power on May Day!


Info from the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee:
FROM MARIKANA, SOUTH AFRICA TO OAKLAND, CA: THE STRUGGLE FOR WORKERS POWER -
We are privileged to present Brother Mphumzi Maqungo, the national treasurer of NUMSA and past chair of NUMSA’s autoworker shop steward network, to discuss these developments.
* Thursday, May 1st, 7:00 p.m. at the ILWU Hall, Henry Schmidt Room 400 N. Point St./Mason, San Francisco.
* Friday, May 2, 12 Noon at UC Berkeley, McCone Hall (Room 575).
* Saturday, May 3rd, 2pm. Black Repertory Theater; 3201 Adeline, Berkeley (one block south of Ashby BART).

The fall of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 was a watershed victory. It culminated decades of struggle by the Black and Colored South African masses, a struggle supported by millions in the U.S. and around the world. The victory brought to power the Tripartite government of the African National Congress (ANC), the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). Now, two decades later, the ANC-led Tripartite government represents big business’s interests -- especially the interests of U.S. and European-based banks and corporations. This has led the government to brutally attack workers who fight back against austerity. Indeed, in 2012, at the Marikana mine, this government massacred 34 striking miners at the behest of the mine owners. Black poverty has worsened. Inequality has worsened. Trade union officials collaborate with employers against workers, youth, and unemployed. Does this sound familiar? Isn’t the situation similar in the US, with union officials not fighting employer and government attacks on workers, like the machinists at Boeing corp. in Washington State? But in South Africa, there’s an exciting new development: for the first time since the fall of Apartheid, there’s a serious challenge to the Tripartite government’s rule, and it comes from the largest and most militant union in Africa. The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) has broken with the COSATU leadership and called for South Africans not to support the ANC in this year’s elections. It is currently building a workers’party and united front to lead the struggle against the capitalist onslaught of deregulation, privatization, and strike breaking.
Mphumzi Maqungo is the National Treasurer of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa).  He was elected into this position at the June 2012 elective conference of the union.  Before this, at different times, he served as both a Treasurer and as Chairperson of the Eastern Cape region of Numsa and for a short while served as the Regional Secretary in an acting capacity.
Comrade Mphumzi hails from South Africa’s sixth largest City, Port Elizabeth, which forms part of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality and is situated on the coast in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. Aside from being the birthplace of Comrade Mphumzi the Eastern Cape is also the birthplace of many other prominent South Africans, including Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki, Steve Biko and the unions General Secretaries both past and present. The province is one of the poorest in South Africa. The City is also commonly known as the Friendly City, which provides an apt mimicry for the Mphumzi Maqungo the union loves and knows.
Comrade Mphumzi was born in one of Port Elizabeth’s best known and oldest townships, New Brighton, a township known for its strong politics (the first cell of the African National Congress's military wing Umkhonto We Sizwe was formed in New Brighton), its high levels of poverty (with an unemployment rate of around 80%) and high rate of HIV/Aids infections (about 30% rate of infection among its approximate 40, 000 local community).  He was a keen sports enthusiast, playing as a striker in his local football team, while also being active in the student movement and later in his life in the African National Congress (ANC) youth league and local branch.
The automotive industry plays a major economic role in Port Elizabeth, with General Motors and Volkswagen both having plants in the City. It is therefore not surprising that Comrade Mphumzi found employment at General Motors in Port Elizabeth in 1996 when he was just 21 years old. It was in 1999 that he was first elected as a shopsteward and very quickly rose to becoming a plant secretary at his workplace and a negotiator in the National Bargaining Forum for the auto manufacturing industry.  From part time to full time shopsteward, Comrade Mphumzi was soon entrusted with leading over 30 000 auto workers within Numsa when he became the Chairperson of the Auto National Shopsteward Council in 2007. Since 2005 he has also represented Numsa in the General Motors world company council where representatives of all General Motor workplaces meet annually. While an excellent football striker, he is also known and admired among comrades for his ability to mobilise workers around industrial strike action.
As treasurer he is known for his sound financial judgement and unwavering commitment to protecting workers hard earned money.  The Numsa staff see him as a comrade of principle, who is incorruptible. While being a serious and formidable treasurer his is also fondly known as the union’s “Mr. Cool” and is well known for being the liveliest and most fun and engaging master of ceremonies at union social events.

On April 28th, 2014, WorkWeek Radio on KPFA Pacifica [soundcloud.com/workweek-radio], honoring Workers Memorial Day which is celebrated around the world every April 28, with an interview with National Union Of Metal Workers of South Africa (SA NUMSA), and an exploration of a genuine Workers Party! [soundcloud.com/workweek-radio/ww4-28-14-workers-memorial-day-100th-anniversary-of-ludlow-sa-numsa-and-workers-party]. This event  remembers workers who are killed on the job and the fight for health and safety of all workers. We interview Richmond City worker Stacie Plummer and UESF SF school worker Tobias Cain. Next we will look at the 100th anniversary memorial of the Ludlow massacre which took place on April 20, 2014 in southern Colorado, a vicious act of privatized terrorism by a corporation against workers organizing for a union Twenty workers and their wives and children were shot or burned to death. It was determined in an investigation that kerosene had intentionally been poured on the tents to set them ablaze and burn the miners and their families out. 34 minutes into the show, we look at the struggle in South Africa with Mphumzi Maqungo, who is the national treasurer of the SA NUMSA, and who has been the representative of General Motor workers in South Africa. NUMSA has called for the formation of a workers party with a socialist program since the Marikana mine massacre when 34 striking Lonmin miners were massacred by the ANC government. He will be speaking on May Day in San Francisco at ILWU Local 10 and other events in the East Bay.


"Workers Memorial Day: SEIU 1021 joins labor community to remember -- and keep fighting",
2014-04-29 from "1021 Newswire":
When a worker is killed, it's called a “tragic accident” even when there were plenty of warning signs, even when the death could easily have been prevented.
There was plenty of warning about the safety hazards that caused the deaths of two BART workers last year. Our Local 1021 and ATU 1555 both spoke up long ago -- and were ignored. BART had been cited by Cal/OSHA not once but twice before for the exact same hazard. Two weeks ago, the agency fined BART $210,000 for three "willful" workplace safety violations responsible for last year's deaths.
Every year, April 28 is Workers' Memorial Day, the labor movement's annual tribute and call to action in the name of those who have died trying to earn a living. The event marks the date -- April 28, 1971 -- that the federal Occupational Health and Safety Act (OSHA) went into effect. The AFL-CIO’s theme this year is "Safe Jobs -- Save Lives; Make Your Voice be Heard."
The day is commemorated around the world and recognized by the International Trade Union Confederation and the International Labour Organization, a part of the UN, where it was declared World Day for Safety and Health at Work in 2002.

A day to remember -
SEIU 1021 took part in a ceremony Monday where union members marched from the Concord BART station to a downtown park where union leaders, injured workers and local electeds remembered the dead and promised to keep fighting for the living and a voice on the job.
"Management and unions must come together and keep workers safe before accidents happen, not after," said John Arantes, president of SEIU 1021's BART chapter, who spoke at the rally.
Dan Jameyson (pictured), vice president of SEIU 1021's Contra Costa County Rank and File chapter, said it is important for public employees to realize workplace safety isn't just about industrial accidents.

"In the public sector we often don't pay enough attention to safety, whether it's building safety or ergonomics," he said, especially people like eligibility workers, voter registration workers, hospital workers and others who deal directly with the public. "The verbal abuse they take on a weekly or even daily basis is a health hazard too."

The need -- and right -- to speak up -
Many workers across the country face employer retaliation if they speak up about hazardous workplace conditions, and for a simple reason: More than wage and hour issues, resolving health and safety issues can challenge the employers’ power to make basic decision about production -- the organization and pace of work, and whether to bring in contingent or outsourced labor.
The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and our state counterpart Cal/OSHA were established more than 40 years ago not just to make and enforce regulations but to ensure workers have a right to play a central role in ensuring employers live up to their legal obligations.
The laws and agencies have made a difference. Workplace fatalities have dropped by 82 percent nationwide. But this progress didn’t happen just because laws were passed.
Those key workplace safety milestones didn’t just happen. They came about because workers and their unions organized, fought and demanded action from employers and their government. Virtually every safety and health protection on the books today is there because of working men and women who joined together in unions. Much more still needs to be done.

California: Better than most -
This is particularly true here in California, where we have some of the most protective laws on the books -- including better right-to-know laws and stronger protections from chemicals, heat stress and other hazards.
Still, far too many die. More than 340 California workers died on the job last year -- nearly one per day. More than 400,000 are seriously injured each year. A new report by Worksafe gives all the numbers but also tells the personal stories -- including those of the two BART workers -- behind the facts and figures. The costs are personal, not just economic.
As in years past, the stories and statistics in the report are sobering reminders of the real human consequences of unabated hazards, the prioritizing of profit over safety and health, and the dangers workers face every day. They also serve to bear witness to the lives lost, allow us take stock of all that still needs to be done, and spur us to action as citizens, stakeholders, and fellow workers.
"That's why I'm here today," said an aerospace worker whose left hand was nearly torn off in a machine, "to be a voice for those who cannot be here to speak for themselves." As a result of the accident, his co-workers called up the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers a week later and said, "We want a union."
* Download "Dying at Work in California: The Stories Behind the Numbers" [http://www.worksafe.org/Dying_at_Work_California_2014.pdf]
* Also see AFL-CIO Blog: "Workers Memorial Day: Honor the Dead, Fight Like Hell for the Living" [http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Political-Action-Legislation/Workers-Memorial-Day-Honor-the-Dead-Fight-Like-Hell-for-the-Living]


"Transit Irony: The More You Rely on It, the More They Cut",
2014-05-01 by Samantha Winslow from "Labor Notes" [http://labornotes.org/blogs/2014/05/transit-irony-more-you-rely-it-more-they-cut]:
Pittsburghers for Public Transit rally at the Pennsylvania state Capitol in Harrisburg. Photo: PPT.
On one side of town, tourists and young professionals head downtown on light rail: clean, air-conditioned, fast. If there’s a problem with service, the city diverts buses to help.
On the other side of town, workers wait at bus stops. The buses that carry them to work come less and less frequently, thanks to service cuts. Drivers struggle to get through their routes in less time.
Both scenarios are part of a promising trend: transit ridership is at its highest since 1956, with 10.7 million trips in 2013, according to the American Public Transportation Association [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/10/us/use-of-public-transit-in-us-reaches-highest-level-since-1956-advocates-report.html?_r=0].
This is despite widespread cuts to bus and rail service—and rising fares. The 2008 economic crisis started the pinch, but federal and local officials have continued to squeeze.
Yet “young people are rejecting cars in record numbers; they are moving to urban America,” Amalgamated Transit Union President Larry Hanley said at the recent Labor Notes Conference.
Whether the spike in rider numbers is caused by environmental consciousness, urbanization, or belt-tightening, clearly it calls for more transit funds, both for more frequent service and for infrastructure—not for cutbacks.
And the spending needs to be spread across our communities—not target one area at the expense of another.

CUT THE CAPTIVES -
Transit authorities often push cuts onto the people most dependent on public transportation, sometimes frankly called “captive riders.” They focus resources instead on luring tourists and “choice riders” out of their cars.
The latter goal is a good one, but it shouldn't come at the expense of people who have no transportation option.
In Pittsburgh, for example, bus riders are still feeling the cuts begun during the crisis, while the city’s seen a boost in light rail, which caters to tourists and people with cars.
In 2011 the transit authority cut its budget by 15 percent, eliminating 29 bus routes. It laid off 180 workers and reduced hours for more. The cuts continued the following year, and the region lost tens of thousands of bus riders [http://www.apta.com/resources/statistics/Documents/2013-q4-ridership-APTA.pdf]. Some switched to cars, if they had one, or carpooling. Others walk now.
“We have whole segments of our community that don’t have any transit at all,” driver Mike Harms said. In neighborhoods where service was slashed, “people have to walk a mile to a bus stop.”

HIT THE GAS -
As cities cut corners on traditional transit routes, bus drivers are pushed to do more with less. They feel the pressure to serve the same populations, but with fewer routes and in less time.
“As funding decreases, they cut the running time,” Harms said. “Most people want to keep the bus on time.
“In order to keep the schedule, you are going as fast as that bus will go.”
Management and political leaders are sheltered from the impact—they don’t ride the buses or trains themselves. “If there are roaches on the bus, it bothers us, it bothers our passengers,” Hanley said. “It doesn’t bother the boss.”
So transit locals are looking for new ways to pressure transit authorities, declaring May “Transit Action Month.” Bus riders are obvious partners, Hanley said. “We have a hundred people who ride our buses and trains for every active member.”
Now that Pittsburgh has restored some transit funding, the community-union coalition Pittsburghers for Public Transit is working to make sure service is restored to all parts of the region. “Transit is not just for the affluent,” Harms said.


"La Clinica de la Raza: Workers take action, march on Board of Directors", 2014-04-29 from "1021 Newswire":
At La Clinica de La Raza, SEIU 1021 members are leading the way for long-term changes to secure a brighter future for the nonprofit and to improve services to the communities it serves, starting with a call for greater transparency and accountability from Kaiser. Kaiser insures most La Clinica workers and -- without explanation -- is demanding more money from workers and La Clinica in order to protect its profits.
On April 21 healthcare workers hit the streets and flooded the Board of Directors meeting in a sea of purple. CEO Jane Garcia, La Clinica management and the entire Board heard powerful testimony from workers, as more than 100 workers joined by their families and members of the community could be heard chanting “enough is enough” in the streets below.
At the meeting, workers called on the healthcare nonprofit’s leadership to remain true to La Clinica’s mission of providing accessible and affordable healthcare for everyone -- including its own workers, who are dedicated to providing quality, accessible care for our communities.
Because workers were willing to stand up and speak out, La Clinica management has agreed to continue contract talks regarding the containment of healthcare costs for workers and their families, in addition to discussing a number of remaining open issues. The next bargaining session is April 30.



MAY DAY
a definition from the Revolution Books collective of Berkeley:
May Day is the revolutionary internationalist holiday of the exploited and oppressed and all those who hate the world as it is and who are fighting for a different future. We live in a horrific world where the imperialist drive for profit forces people into poverty and squalor... where children in the thousands are kidnapped and enslaved... where wars have killed and displaced hundreds of thousands of people... where the lives of women from one end of the planet to the other are lives of brutality, domination, and degradation... where whole nationalities suffer from brutal oppression... where the destruction of the environment threatens the very existence of life on the planet.
May Day, 2014-a time to raise your voice and fight to end this modern day horror billions around the world live every day.
May Day, 2014-a time when our aspirations for the emancipation of all humanity are put front and center.
May Day, 2014-a day when revolutionaries and broad numbers of people the world look to the future and fight for revolution and a radically different and far better world
FIGHT THE POWER, AND TRANSFORM THE PEOPLE, FOR REVOLUTION!
WE REFUSE TO ACCEPT SLAVERY IN ANY FORM -  HERE AND AROUND THE WORLD!
Three Outrages in Four Days in AmeriKKKa in April reveal how tightly white supremacy is woven into the essential fabric of AmeriKKKa... Supreme Court decision upholding ban on affirmative action, FASCIST 'folk hero' Cliven Bundy, racism displayed by NBA basketball team owner Donald Sterling...
 


Special message from Vic Sadot [vic.bfuu.sjc@gmail.com]:
Breaking News! The SJC has set up a YouTube Channel titled
SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE HEART OF BERKELEY! Here are but a few of the video playlists offered. Share with friends!
* “Rise Up Singing! Songs For Peace Through Justice!” Playlist [youtube.com/playlist?list=PLF6vlpoPDpR592Pu_nxZMcReTc_SNEzim]
* "Thomas Paine", an invocation by Social Justice Committee activist Ben Burch at the 3rd annual Tom Paine Courageous Spirit Awards event on January 30, 2014, one day after Paine's actual 277th Birthday on January 29, 1737. [youtube.com/watch?v=JoYf9I4xgS8&feature=share&list=PLF6vlpoPDpR7aGBoH3VRuu3eAJ3IupVhJ&index=2]
* "Save our Post Office, Mr. Postman!", with Hali Hammer singing at the Berkeley Post Office [youtube.com/watch?v=8L4aDHIYpUA&list=PLF6vlpoPDpR592Pu_nxZMcReTc_SNEzim&feature=share&index=2]
* "Great Speeches for Peace and Justice", including JFK's famous “Peace Speech” at American University in 1964, a speech by Mario Savio at UC Berkeley in 1968, a speech by Muamar Qaddafi at the United Nations in 2009 on the failure of the institution to stop 65 wars since its founding and what must be done to reform it so that it truly serves peace and justice... plus more historical speeches, all at [youtube.com/watch?v=Qr1ouM9d-xc&list=PLF6vlpoPDpR5Hs2EqgZiu5uSaaRYpjylI]
* “Defending the Constitution & Bill of Rights Against All Enemies Foreign & Domestic” playlist
[youtube.com/watch?v=8o47zQXikvk&feature=share&list=PLF6vlpoPDpR5F0wHwMsX_XzfgsBm1ZwoV]
* "Take Back Your Power", with information about the hazards of modern surveillance technology [youtube.com/watch?v=RGiefr6z4fk&list=PLF6vlpoPDpR690MqnJ-ksI_4ieEP3XNTw]
---
Vic Sadot is the current Chair of the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee (BFUU SJC), which meets on the First & Third Sundays of the month at 12:30 pm in the Fireside Room on the second floor at 1606 Bonita Ave [www.bfuu.org/events/social-justice].  Vic also serves as one of the rotating hosts for the Berkeley Fellowship Monthly Open Mic every Second Friday of Every Month. Sign-up for performers is at 6:30 pm and the show begins at 7 pm. We have 20 ten minute spots available. Featured Artist are selected about two months in advance by our rotating Hosts. Somewhere between 8 and 8:30 pm the Host will call on the Featured Artist.


A special message in solidarity with an acclaimed independent newspaper,
The San Francisco Bay View newspaper needs YOU! It’s always nip and tuck when our biggest expense, the printer’s bill, comes due, and this month, simultaneously, a larger-than-usual insurance payment is due too. We just received a generous donation from a beloved supporter, and another $2,000 would put us over the top. But even a much, much smaller donation would be most welcome.
The option to make your donation tax-deductible is back! The 501(c)(3) status of our nonprofit arm, the Hurricane Relief Information Network, has been reinstated by the IRS retroactive to our temporary suspension (for being unaware of the need to file a little form). I’ll send the IRS paperwork to all donors to HRIN. Donations, tax-deductible or not, can be made online at [sfbayview.com/support] or mailed to 4917 Third St., San Francisco CA 94124-2309. Call me at (415) 671-0789 with any questions or concerns.


ACTION CALENDER!

SACRAMENTO MAY DAY GENERAL STRIKE 
Thursday at 10:00am
Crocker Park, 3rd and O Streets, Sacramento, California 95814
[https://www.facebook.com/events/1427423797512504/]
It is a day for solidarity - when differences between left political factions are set aside and we recognize our shared goals + collective power. A day for specific demands, such as the end of police brutality + racist immigration policies and the beginning of respect for the earth and control over our working lives. But also a day to articulate our broader visions of how the world should + can be:It is a day to celebrate our power, our history, and our future.Facts and information for the General Strike on May Day (May 1st every year), International Worker's Day, can be found here [http://www.iww.org/history/library/misc/]




San Francisco May Day Action
More info: 415-821-6545 or www.ANSWERsf.org
Today, as workers are facing poverty wages, evictions and foreclosures, deportations, police brutality and countless other forms of oppression, the date is an important one which can unite these issues that affect all workers.
The following is a list of demands under the slogan "The Community Fights Back! ¡La Comunidad a Pie de Lucha!"
* Full Rights for All Immigrants! Stop the Deportations!
* End the Evictions and Gentrification! Housing is a Right!
* Stop Police Brutality!
* Stop the Privatization of Public Services! Living Wage Now!
* Halt and Reverse Environmental Destruction!
* No to wars and occupation!
In San Francisco, there will be a May 1st action at 24th and Mission at 4pm. Join community groups and activists to plan the march for this important date by attending a planning meeting this Sat., April 19, 3pm at the Mission Cultural Center, 2nd Floor, 2868 Mission St. at 25th St. There will be a short update on outreach and discussion about the day-of activities followed by a work session on developing the list of demands in order to present them on May 1st to the public.
Supporting organizations: ALIADI, ANSWER Coalition, BALASC, Center for Political Education, FMLN-NorCA, Party for Socialism and Liberation, SOA-Watch, Station 40, Yo Soy 132-Bay Area, Talleres Populares de Junio



May Day Celebration
Saturday, May 3rd, 6pm
at Revolution Books in Berkeley
with a Pot-luck Dinner and Culture




Use Your Heels to Heal Our Community!
[https://www.facebook.com/events/740497942649754/]
On Saturday May 3rd the Blueford family invites the community to join them in a walk around Lake Merritt to celebrate Alan Blueford's life which was cut short by a violent, racist, out of control OPD officer.
This walk is not a protest, it is a time for community unity as we celebrate & honor Alan's life. This walk is also a message to the Blueford's & to the community the Alan's life matters, all lives matter, including black & brown ones. We want to unite to send that message as we celebrate the life of one of Oakland's lost sons, and along with Alan, all of our children lost to violence.
In true Oakland celebratory fashion, this walk will be complete with a sound truck & rappers up on the truck....details are unfolding as I type....please stay tuned!!**
In the meantime, please "join" & then "invite" all your friends & also "share" the event page EVERYWHERE!!! TOGETHER, we can make this event HUGE!!!
Please bring home made signs and banners honoring Alan and opposing police brutality.
Initiated by Alan Blueford’s family. If your community, political group, church, or union, would like to endorse, please contact: abc4justice@gmail.com
We encourage you to please spread the word via social media and word of mouth. #H2H4ALAN #CommunityUnity 2 #EndPoliceTerror
**confirmed performers:
* Ras Ceylon, check out his track "Trayvon" [youtube.com/watch?v=YKaJoEyYXyI]
* Zar Tha Dip
* Phanom Iso, check out his freestyle "I'm Different" [youtube.com/watch?v=Q3JVcqUrzQw]
* Kev Choice,
* Moe Green,
* S.O.N. (Somethin Outta Nothin)
...more will be joining the line-up, please stayed tuned here & you can also "like" The Alan Blueford Center For Justice for updates [facebook.com/groups/justice4AlanBlueford/692752494122193].


A Video Showing and Discussion:
"Negroes With Guns", a book by Robert F. Williams
Sunday, May 4, 12noon – 3pm
At Qilombo 2313 San Pablo Ave.  Oakland
Sponsored by Labor Black & Brown, labor donated
A Chronicle of a Militant Pioneer of Self-Defense.  “Backed by a jazz score by Terence Blanchard (Barbershop and the films of Spike Lee), NEGROES WITH GUNS uses interviews, rare archival footage and searing photographs to chronicle Williams’ rise to notoriety, his eight-year exile in Cuba and Mao Zedong’s China and his much-publicized return home in 1969. Voices include historians, members of Williams’ Black Guard—armed men committed to the protection of Monroe’s black community—and Williams’ widow, Mabel.” –Independent Lens
Following the video will be a discussion about the right of armed self-defense, and its application in the U.S. in the fight for Black, Brown and working class rights.
Of particular interest is:
1.       The recent history in the Bay Area, connected to the Oscar Grant events involving the ILWU.
2.       A view of Bay Area Self-Defense organizations


Carwash to Support Comrade Jihad
Sunday, May 4 at 10:00am - 4:00pm
3268 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, Ca
Fight the filth of fascism, bring your ride down to the Black Riders! Show solidarity and keep Comrade Jihad on the streets doing revolutionary work for the people by bringing your car in for a thorough clean.
Music, snacks, raffle (need not be present to win), and more.
Carwash by donation, $5-20
The carwash will be in the parking lot of Just Cause/Causa Justa, 3268 San Pablo Ave, Oakland, CA.


A Celebration of Life and Struggle: Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! Welcome Home Lynne Stewart!
Free all political prisoners! End racist mass incarceration! Abolish the death penalty! Stop police brutality and murder!
Join Lynne Stewart and Pam Africa, Sunday, May 4, 6 pm reception; 7pm rally
at the Humanist Hall, 390 27th Street, between Broadway and Telegraph, Oakland
Donation $10
Initial Bay Area Tour Schedule:
* Friday, May 2: San Francisco, Host: National Lawyers Guild, 6 pm 518 Valencia St., SF
* Saturday, May 3, Palo Alto, Host: Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, afternoon
* Saturday, May 3, San Jose, Host, San Jose Peace and Justice Center & NLG South Bat, evening
* Sunday, May 4, Oakland, Host: Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal & Lynne Stewart Defense Committee
* Monday, May 5: Marin, evening
* Tuesday, May 6: Sacramento, evening
Sponsors: Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal & Lynne Stewart Defense Committee [510-268-9429]   [jmackler@lmi.net]
Tour endorsers (initial list): SF Bay Area National Lawyers Guild • Middle East Children’s Alliance • United National Antiwar Coalition • Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal • World Can’t Wait • Freedom Socialist Party • Marin Peace and Justice Center • Peninsula Peace and Justice Center • Sacramento Area Peace Council • WILPF • SF Gray Panthers • Socialist Action • International Action Center • Freedom Archives
— This message sent to you by: The Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal --
Lynne Stewart's release from prison was the result of great public support, an international petition campaign, and persistence by her husband. This victory for a political prisoner, as well as the release of political prisoner Marshall Eddie Conway after 44 years in prison; political prisoner Maroon Shoatz's transfer from solitary confinement to general prison population, inspires our efforts to free all political prisoners.
The exoneration of innocent death row prisoner, Glen Ford, just before the state of Louisiana was set to execute him, is another blow to the existence of the racist death penalty. And the massive hunger strikes organized by prisoners, including undocumented detainees, in California, Washington, Texas and Georgia are an example of resistance to prisoners and workers everywhere.

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

South Africa Labor Speaker to spotlight struggle of South Africa's workers on May Day 2014

by Jack Heyman, a retired Oakland longshoreman and one of the organizers of the 1984 longshore anti-apartheid strike, chairs the Transport Workers Solidarity Committee [http://www.transportworkers.org]:
In 1990, Nelson Mandela, speaking at a mass rally at the Oakland Coliseum, lauded San Francisco longshoremen for striking a ship from South Africa to protest apartheid.
Just released from prison, Mandela recognized the union for igniting the anti-apartheid movement here. That 1984 dock action, organized by Oakland longshoremen Howard Keylor and Leo Robinson, occurred two years before Cal students erected their shantytown protesting squalid living conditions for blacks in South Africa.
Ten years later, after continuous worldwide protests, the walls of apartheid came down.
April 27 of this year marked the 20th year of Mandela's party, the African National Congress, coming to power in the first multiracial election, ending government-imposed racial separation known as apartheid. The black masses' exuberance and hope yearned for a more egalitarian society.
That train hasn't arrived. On the ANC's 100-year anniversary in August 2012, police killed 44 striking mineworkers. Sharp criticism was directed at the ANC and allies of the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
A glimpse of this pervasive social discontent was seen at Mandela's funeral when ANC President Jacob Zuma was roundly booed.
South Africa has earned the imprimatur of protest capital of the world. In one 90-day period, about 3,000 demonstrations and strikes of more than a million people protested a 25 percent unemployment rate (50 percent for youth), wretched housing conditions, and the lack of basic services like water and electricity.
The watershed protest was the bloody platinum miners' strike two years ago -- the Marikana Massacre. A government inquiry spotlighted blatant corruption personified in Cyril Ramaphosa, the former head of the mineworkers' union during the apartheid years, now a big shareholder of Lonmin, owner of the Marikana mine.
One of the wealthiest men in South Africa, he was elected ANC deputy president after he directed police to end the "criminal" strike.
In this context, the largest and most militant union, the National Metalworkers Union of South Africa, has broken with the ANC and, in a historic decision, proclaimed no support in the upcoming elections to any party.
Instead, NUMSA has issued a clarion call for building a workers party and united front to eradicate the social ills caused by austerity, deregulation, privatization and strike breaking.
How could this take place? During anti-apartheid protests in the 1980s and 1990s, the leadership of the governing National Party saw the writing on the wall. A transition was negotiated in secret meetings in London between the National Party and ANC heads, like Thabo Mbeki, a self-declared Thatcherite. Whites would cede political power but maintain control of the commanding heights of the capitalist economy, mining and finance.
The ANC agreed to renounce a central component of its Freedom Charter: "The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole; All other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the well-being of the people."
The Faustian Compromise was completed.
The Metalworkers' call for a workers party to lead the struggle to implement the Freedom Charter and beyond may resonate amid the discontented working class and shack dwellers and change the political landscape in South Africa permanently.
The longshore union honors May Day by hosting Mphumzi Maqungo, international officer of NUMSA, speaking about the dynamic developments in South Africa today.
He will speak at 7 p.m. Thursday at ILWU Local 10; 400 North Point St., San Francisco; Noon on Friday UC Berkeley, McCone Hall; 2 p.m. Saturday at Black Repertory Theater; 3201 Adeline, Berkeley.
All working people are invited. It will also be streamed live on [http://www.kpfa.org]

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

April 22nd Northbay Uprising radio news

Tune in Thursdays 4 to 5pm (PST), online [link], and in the San Pablo Bay Area at 89.5FM KZCT [link], hosted by Dr.G., Minister of Information of the Northbay Movement for a Democratic Society, with a California-wide network of journalists, organizers, and entertainers, breaking the blockade of censorship, with research archives and verified sources! View past headlines [link]. Join the Community Journalist program, send news & info to [NorthbayMDS@gmail.com]. Know more with the Community Journalist's Notebook [link]!

The managers of 89.5FM KZCT, their associates, and sponsors, are not liable for the information and commentary provided by the Northbay Uprising Radio News, produced by the Northbay Movement for a Democratic Society, as a non-partisan research and education project.

Interview, with E. da Ref, for the campaign to...
Free Jihad!

"Bein a Black Rider has changed my life and gave me a way to reconstruct my communities that I once took part in the destruction of. If it wasnt for this revolutionary lifestyle im livin, I prolly woulda been died a meaningless death already like so many of my peers. We gon end this cycle of self genocide. We gon get free! ride wit us or collide wit us."
More info about the Black Rider Liberation Party (BRLP) at [link] and [link] and at their official website  [2ServeThaPeople.wix.com/brlp]. Their works include community gardens, music shows, defense of worker-rights and human-rights advocates, self-defense classes, holistic healthcare, literacy classes, de-escalation of gang turf warfare, and more. Comrade Jihad Mujahid Muhammad, Minister of Spiritual Affairs for the Black Riders Liberation Party, while acting as eyes and ears against Pig violence and human-rights abuse in deep East Oakland, was attacked by domestic security agencies during what appears to have been a set-up for state-murder on Lovelle Mixon day, March 21st, 2013. Disciplined and capable, Comrade Jihad did not back down, and remained steadfast to not give-in to the set-up which could have ended in his death. Instead, Jihad was kidnapped by the local pigs under a faulty pretext, and charged with a convenient offense, for which the fascist prison-state took one year of his life. On March 21st, 2013, this well-known and revered Comrade of the People was set to be released, but was instead turned over to Santa Clara prison-state authorities for a new trial based on secret evidence and secret charges designed as 2nd and 3rd offenses which, under KKKalifornia's inhumane three-strikes sentencing laws, threaten to incarcerate a good man for near the rest of his life... and now, the community demands NOT ONE MORE DAY! FREE COMRADE JIHAD! He has endured, and suffered, enough! Please Support with Donations to get Comrade Jihad out on Bail! [www.youcaring.com/other/free-jihad-/156844]
Photo © Scott Braley, 2014, showing E. da Ref at the Memorial/Coming Home for Chokwe Lumumba, New Afrikan Revolutionary, and mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.

Free Jihad! Hands off Etana and Mecca Shakur, BRLP organizers in Los Angeles! Defend the Black Riders!
There is ANOTHER side to the stories and rumors! It's called the Pig-Police and COINTELPRO (State operations of Counter-Intelligence against community liberation groups)! Here's a memo sent to the BRLP founder General T.A.C.O (Taking All Capitalists Out) by the Chief of L.A.P.D.
T.A.C.O. says, " Here's proof of the pig chief trying to stop us from helping Black People stop police brutality! Imagine all the undercover agents that came along with this memo..."
This is good documentation of the flat-out lies faced by the BRLP. The "assault" mentioned here is discounted by all reliable eye-witnesses. Yet, for all the security agencies on the local and state level, the only version of the lie is being provided by the LAPD, which omits all contrary evidence against an "assault".
(download image for full resolution)



ACTION HEADLINES!

The Peace & Justice Center is working for justice for Andy Lopez. Our particular focus is the creation of a Citizens' Review Board that really means something and a change in the militarized mindset of local law enforcement.
Keep up with what's happening in the effort to get justice for Andy Lopez! You won't find much about Andy Lopez in the news, but a lot has been going on. In addition to a park on Moorland - complete with the campaign manager of some of your elected representatives also representing the owner of the property! - the annexation of Roseland, but not of Moorland, there are legal struggles for targeted activists, a great deal of activity around community oversight of law enforcement, and a birthday party and march for Andy on June 7th (save the date - more details coming). To keep up on everything that's happening, you can check in to the website for the Justice Coalition for Andy Lopez - justicecoalitionforandylopez.com - and maybe you'll just want to become involved in this local issue which has national ramifications.

"AC Transit executive charged with stealing $560,000 from church funds" [link]

* Oil by Rail cargo transport being done in secrecy despite safety risk [link]
* Homes built atop toxic waste disposal sites by Lennar Corp., USA Navy et al at Treasure Island [link]
* Forest Defense Sing Along With The Humboldt Board of Supervisors  [link]

AC Transit's chief financial officer, Lewis Green Clinton Jr., has been charged with ripping off $560,000 from the Allen Temple Baptist Church located at 8501 International Boulevard, in Oakland, for his own personal gain, according to charges filed by Inspector James Taranto, of the Alameda County District Attorney's office! Funds that were meant to assist seniors and the disabled for their housing needs.

United Farm Workers campaign to hold Walmart accountable for human-rights abuse against workers by Prima brand products [action.ufw.org/page/speakout/walmart_prima]

"Strengthening the walls between public housing and affordable housing", 2014-04-14 by Lynda Carson [link]

Private HMO "Death Panels" expand coverage denials [link]

"San Jose City Council Moves to Criminalize Those Who Feed the Homeless", 2014-04-14 by Robert Norse from "Homeless United for Friendship and Freedom - Santa Cruz (HUFF)" [HUFFSantaCruz.org/]: Keith McHenry of Food Not Bombs has spoken recently and written on his website about growing pressure against Food Not Bombs (FNB) chapters across the country in the gentrification/criminalization attack on homeless folks. See [FoodNotBombs.net/FNB_Resists.html]. In Santa Cruz a cranky postal worker has repeatedly harassed Food Not Bombs workers when they feed on the steps of the (publicly owned) federal post office downtown, but local police have not responded to his complaints with any citations or arrests.  The Santa Cruz FNB meal happens every Saturday and Sunday at 4 PM on the sidewalk near the main post office at Front and Water Streets. Chow down and volunteer to cook! [SantaCruzFoodNotBombs.org]


Sandy Perry of the Community Homeless Outreach Ministry in San Jose is seeking both organizational and personal opposition.  He can be contacted at 408-691-6153 for more information about which bigwigs to contact and what the nature of the protest will be. 
SHOW SOLIDARITY WITH THE HOMELESS APRIL 22
On April 22 at 1:30 pm the San Jose City Council will consider a new Special Events Ordinance that will have the effect of banning churches, ministries, and volunteer groups from feeding and assisting the homeless in parks and public spaces. It would require a burdensome City special event permit and County health permit every time a group wants to share food with the poor on City property.
Some Councilmembers say they support this ban because they believe feeding the homeless encourages them to live outside. However, the homeless do not need any encouragement. They have no choice but to live outside due to the unavailability of affordable rents, affordable housing, or even shelter beds.         
San Jose’s “ten year plan” to end chronic homelessness recently ended with more homeless on the streets than when it started.
City Councilmembers have so far failed to advance proposals to obtain the revenue necessary to end the affordable housing crisis. Silicon Valley clearly has the resources to house its people. The only question is who will exercise the visionary political leadership necessary to make it happen.
The new Special Events Ordinance is unfortunately a step in the wrong direction. We should be encouraging more compassion, empathy, and empowerment, not less. Apparently the idea is to ban food distribution in the misguided hope that the homeless will then not use public parks and ultimately just leave San Jose.
Many of us have been working to house the homeless for years and some of us for decades. Our groups include Vietnamese, Latino, Indians, technology professionals, college students, and people of all backgrounds, colors, and beliefs. We are willing to cooperate with County officials to guarantee that our food is safely prepared in approved kitchens. Churches are not trying to poison the people we serve. We are also committed to ensuring that the areas we use are always left cleaner than when we got there.
What we will not do is cooperate with City attempts to segregate the homeless, push them out of sight, and criminalize the people that are trying to help them.
[signed]
* RAD (Regeneration Against Destruction)
* C.A.R.E. Outreach Program
* CHAM Deliverance Ministry
* Silicon Valley DeBug

* Benton Harbor: Retaliation against supporters of Mayor Candidate who is against economic domination of community by Whirlpool Corp. (2014-04-20) [link]

Cooperative Economics being implemented in Jackson, Mississippi [link]

Comprehensive Disobedience: Occupying the Sharing Economy in Spain [link]

Anthony Robinson Jr., "Inside a CCA private prison: Two slaves for the price of one", published by "San Francisco Bayview" newspaper [link]

In prisons, both private and public sector, across the USA, political prisoners are segregated into torture chambers known as the SHU, or solitary confinement, based on "evidence of terrorist persuasion" like a subscription to a "Black Panther" type newspaper, or a family member's association with a "Black Muslim" mosque. This segregation is used against incarcerated community liberation organizers to "break their will".
How torture is inflicted on prisoners in solitary confinement [link].
“Solitary Confinement Is Torture” art by Michael D. Russell, C-90473, D7-217, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532


Roger Christie and the THC Ministry [link]


CALL TO ACTION – MAY 1, INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY: United Rank & File Construction Workers Take A Stand on May Day

Join us as we return to a proud history of direct action to fight to protect our own livelihoods, to raise up and organize all workers and against laws that restrict us.
On May 1, International Workers Day, we will be gathering at 16th and Mission at 5am to protest the 2 Gate System. This is a system that contractors and developers have created in order to impose the restrictive, discriminatory and repressive anti-worker laws of the Taft-Hartley act on construction unions.
San Francisco appears, on the surface, to be recovering from the economic disasters of recent years. There are cranes all over town and buildings are popping up everywhere. The people building these buildings are unable to afford the luxuries that many supposedly offer. We are also growing further and further from the chance of ever living a reasonable distance from the city in which we work. Most of us have long been unable to afford to live within the limits of the city we built. We see new wealth coming into SF all the time and yet we have gotten modest or no raises.
Many of us are lucky to have collective bargaining. We look forward to contracts coming up during this building boom. It seems the time has finally come for us to get the raises that we have lacked in the last few years while the cost of living has skyrocketed. We are looking forward to the opportunity to dig out of the financial holes we are in after years of unemployment, losing insurance for our families, losing houses and having to raid our retirement accounts to make ends meet. Now, contractors and developers need us badly and will have to give us a decent raise next contract, right? Maybe not…
Historically in San Francisco a vast majority of building has been done by workers who together, through their unions, bargain with all of their employers for a fair and equal wage rate for all of the labor done by their craft. This is still the case but we see other employers winning work contracts in SF at an alarming rate. Building has increased suddenly in San Francisco but it has disproportionately increased for the non-signatory contractors. There is an unprecedented amount of building being done by contractors who do not agree to the standards of pay and conditions that workers have fought for.
This gives signatory employers (those who employ workers under collective agreements) a powerful bargaining chip as we go into negotiations during this boom. They will argue that they need to stay competitive or the “union contractors” (and therefore workers) will all lose jobs. “Staying competitive” they argue, means that they cannot give raises, may even need some back, in order to compete. Suddenly, the snowball that has killed all the reasonably livable jobs across the country is being rolled around in San Francisco, the last bastion of hope for a decent living for those of us with blue collars.
Ideally, to stop this snowball, we would organize all workers who are not yet in our organizations. We would use the power of withholding all labor on a jobsite until all employers were forced to enter the same collectively bargained agreement. We would like to make it perfectly clear that we see non-union workers as our sisters and brothers in the trade. We want them to have the same wages and conditions that we have. We do not want to compete with them but rather join them into our ranks so that we might work together to raise the living standards of all working people. We want all workers to rise together, as opposed to the arguments made by employers about being “competitive”.
Historically, organized labor has caused economic hardships for entities that take advantage of an unorganized labor force. They did this by standing in solidarity with any group of workers in dispute with their employer and withholding all of our labor until the problem is resolved. The 2 Gate System is one of a host of anti-worker laws that make the tactics that the unions were built on illegal. As yet, the Unions have been mostly unwilling to challenge or disobey these laws. However, through well-organized disobedience and subversion of these laws using the power of united labor action, these laws can be eradicated. We are working toward a day when our unions will do this. Do not be surprised that the leadership of the unions is officially unsupportive, they are not sure the working members want or are ready for the struggle that it will entail, we must show them by taking up the charge as workers.
Until then, the laws do not and cannot forbid you and me, rank and file workers, from going to these jobs and protesting them.
At this time in history, the future of the working class hangs in the balance and we in the stronghold of San Francisco must hold the line for ourselves and fight to turn the tide against the attacks against all working people.
Together, we will build solidarity and power, bring an end to unjust laws, and have a society that meets our needs.
WE ARE NOT AGAINST THE NON UNION WORKER -
* WE ARE AGAINST THE EMPLOYERS, DEVELOPERS AND CONTRACTORS THAT EXPLOIT THEM
* WE ARE AGAINST THE DOWNWARD PUSH THAT EXPLOITATION HAS ON ALL OF US
* WE ARE AGAINST LAWS THAT RESTRICT OUR ABILITY TO FIGHT
* WE FIGHT TO ERADICATE ALL ANTI-WORKER LAWS AND SYSTEMS
* SMASH THE 2 GATE SYSTEM – SMASH TAFT-HARTLEY
* 1 GATE, 2 GATES, or 10 GATES- PICKET LINES MEAN DO NOT CROSS
[signed] UNITED RANK & FILE, Workers fighting for our future!
[UnitedRankAndFile.com/2014/04/19/call-to-action-may-1]


"DeGentrification Zones (DGZ)- a poor people-led plan to take back this stolen land" 2014-04-16 by tiny, daughter of Dee, mama of Tiburcio [PoorMagazine.org/node/5097]:
(Image of a young sista-mama from the Black Riders Liberation Party at the 1st Anti-gentriFUKation DGZ bbq in Oakland)

Cuz if we don’t De-Gentrify, if we don’t Decolonize – Our hoods will die-If we don’t De-Gentrify, if we don’t Decolonize –Our Hoods will die..
 DGZ is fo U & Me- its for us Po’ Black, Brown, Red, its fo  mamaz, daddys, abuelas, y tias, its fo da babies & its for dese streetz….excerpt from the DGZ plan-poem
Gentrification has a short-term memory loss. Few people or organizations look further back behind the high –speed evictions, re-devil-opment plans or endless influx of newer, richer, witer people that we see in front of our faces, ripping communities apart, evicting families and elders, to see what came before it.  For us Po peoples from Oakland to the Bronx caught in the struggle of survival economies we rarely if ever have the time, energy or resources to stop and examine the system that is criminalizing, incarcerating and gentrifying us out of our own neighborhoods, barrios and communities.
But we must, cause if we don’t de-gentrify, if we don’t decolonize, our hoods will die. And we can’t de-colonize without understanding the beast we have been forced to be a part of.
After years of wite-supremacist capitalist gentrification at full throttle in San Francisco we have extreme evictions now, and like extreme sports and other wite-people activities, the numbers of evictions are insane, scores of people a week being given eviction notices, most of them are disabledelders and families of color with young children [sfbayview.com/2014/the-crime-of-ellis-act-evictions], while most activists, operating defensively, endlessly fighting to keep the few people still housed, and the horrible laws up-turned, have no time or space to connect the dots.
And yet as flagrantly evil as all of this is, I must ask why does it rate as shocking at all? GentriFUKation is built into capitalism, it is an integral part of the roots, values and laws of this Amerikkkan capitalist system which is rooted in old colonizer laws from England. The place where the word “gentry” was birthed. It is how this stolen indigenous land was stolen, it is embedded in colonization.
And sadly some of the downest organizers and so-called activists of color don’t speak upon the inherent in-human-ness of capitalism because long ago our families were taught to become part of it to survive. Making money from capitalist philanthro-pimps and off the industry of poverty. Getting degrees from institutions that by their very existence, perpetuate the industry and its harm. It’s true that we all exist in this highly urbanized lie of civilization and we have been stolen, lied to and separated from our lands of origins so that we only have the option of taking  corporate crafted jobs, institutional educations and pay rent or a mortgage if we are lucky enough to get a home and therefore have to make more and more blood-stained dollars just to survive.
But gentriFUkation is built into every City charter.
For capitalism to exist, thrive and continue it must always feed off, find a “new” market. Which means that capitalism operates in a change for change sake model. In this model there is no space for history, archive, preservation, honor and even more frightening, there is no room for people who are not producing or consuming, children, elders, ancestors, sacred places, sacred sites are all “burdens’ on a capitalist system unless they can somehow be profited off of. Elder ghettos or old peoples homes functions in two ways – it separates our elders wisdom, love and resources away from our young people, which keeps people in a vacuum of hyper immediacy and in no way connected to the roots of our spirits and love and knowledge that came before us. And as well, and probably more importantly it allows corporations and government entities to make money off the care and housing of our elders. Similiarily with age-grade, institutional schools it allows for separation of our young peoples from us, there growing un-knowing and eventual disrespect of us and older people as well as the easy criminalization, productization  and ghettoizaiton of our young people without our clear supervision or intervention.
And by us collectively not always talking about gentriFUKation’s relationship to capitalism, it is a tacit and dangerous form of approval of the framework of the system that supports it, relies on it and demands it.
In San Francisco, this looks like many of the same people who vehemently fought the circa  1999 Dot com evictions in the Mission signing off on the 2010-12 devil-opment plans to gentriFUK the mission district of San Francisco, because their paycheck comes from the Poltrickster- Government bodies who are invested in the gentriFUKing.
Now we have exactly the same thing going on in Oakland. Never-really progressive Mayor Quan and many non-profiteers shuttling in devil-opers, real estate snakkkes and land-stealers to slice and dice the entire town of majority working-class communities of color. This is already resulting in the evictions of poor elders, poor Black, Brown and migrant/immigrant families with Cracker codewords used like “beautify” and “clean-up” when describing our peoples hoods, our barrios, our gardens and our bodies.
In addition to the building of plantation prisons and the leeching of our public school systems, another logical progression of the brutality of wite-spuremacist capitalism is the privatization of public housing, which is being sanctioned, supported and underwritten not just by the corporate devil-opers but by the non-profiteers and non-profit housing devil-opers.
So where do we as poor and gentriFUKed people really need to take this fight. We first need to take it out of the fog of daily life. The blur of “I’ve got mines” cult of independence. Where only my survival and “happiness” matters. My ability to attain more and more things, newer and newer things means I have “made it”  because as long as conscious peoples continue to take part, if even partially in the very system that is profiting off of so many peoples destruction it will continue.
The next place we have to take it is what I call the De-Gentrification Zone (DGZ) a pro-active movement, led by us Po’ peoples, landless peoples that uses the man’s plans and codes and laws and lines to seize back what used to be ours, Cause if we don’t de-gentrify our hoods will die….
The DGZ is a 10 point plan for liberation-barrio to barrio- hood to hood, calle to street—An offensive move to take back stolen, colonized streets, devil-oped & privatized indigenous lands, scam-lorded buildings. We intentionally use the colonizers words and ridiculously confusing acronyms all throughout the “plan” cause its the same words and terms and papers and laws the colonizers has used for centuries to kill, jail and most importantly confuse us, not to mention colonize our indigenous spirits and steal and profit off the theft of Mama Earth and our indigenous bodies communities.
The DGZ is a four prong strategy that includes collective, poor people-led media framing, street-based outreach and community organizing, pre-IMF-ed savings circles and middle-class allies in humble solidarity working to become conscious revolutionary donors. Us poor folks, working in solidarity with humble non-profit allies who aren’t trying to own and claim and profit off anti-gentrification work to jam politrickster moves – like creating a moratorium on devil-opment, gentrification and removal and finally man-plan-jamming, from Research to WeSearch, from preservation to landmarks, from real estate snakkkes to land trusts, from codes to maps. We Can preserve what’s still left and do our best to take some of this colonizer theft back.
Sadly, a DGZ is almost impossible in San Francisco and many other already deeply gentriFUKed neighborhoods across this stolen land the colonizers call Amerikkka. But many cities and towns like Oakland still have a chance.
Cause if we don’t de-GentriFY, if we don’t organize, Our hoods Will Die…
DGZ is fo U & Me- its for us Po’ Black, Brown, Red, its fo  mamaz, daddys, abuelas, y tias, its fo da babies & its for dese streetz.
This is how Homefulness was and is being built- a landless peoples land liberation movement in Deep East Oakland [poormagazine.org/homefulness]. Us humble poor mamaz, daddyz, brothers and sistaz from POOR Magazine, Healthy Hoods, Black Riders Liberation Party, Peoples Community Medics and more aren’t trying to lead this fight, we are merely trying to make sure more of us folx aren’t erased from our hoods, like we were never there.
Please contact us by email at deeandtiny@ poormagazine.org if you want us to visit you and do a DGZ assessment and help you launch a DGZ in your barrio, hood or street , become a wite or middle-class solidarity donor or supporter or visit our DGZ weekly talk-circle at Street Newsroom on Thursdays from 2-3p at the sacred land we call Homefulness on the streets in front of 8032 Macarthur bl in Deep East Oakland. You can also join our DGZ page on Facebook [facebook.com/DeGentrificationZones].

ACTION CALENDER!

Activist Lounge with Mike Roselle,
Co-founder of Earth First!, Rainforest Network and Ruckus Society
Friday, Apr. 25, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Come learn about all the groups that Mike has been part of forming and hear about his current focus - mountain-top removal. Music and poetry, too!
$5 minimum purchase - beer, wine, tea, chai, and other non-alcoholic beverages available
Come early for dinner and enjoy a wonderful vegetarian buffet - reserve a table at 707-544-2491.
Sponsored by the Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County and Gaia's Garden Restaurant


Health Care Should Be A Right! Abolish the Insurance Companies!
Healthcare rally, Friday, April 25, 7pm
At 2969 Mission St., in San Francisco
Shouldn’t the wealthiest country on the planet be able to provide health care to all residents? Why are so many countries with fewer resources able to provide such care? The Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare") has proven to be a band-aid applied to a gushing wound because it prioritizes the profits of the insurance and health industries. What role do the insurance companies play in actually providing care?
Meet, hear and discuss with Nathalie Hrizi, Peace & Freedom Party and Party for Socialism & Liberation candidate for California Insurance Commissioner. Nathalie is running on a platform that calls for universal health care and abolishing the insurance companies. Join the campaign in supporting the movement for health care for all.
2969 Mission St., btwn 25th and 26th Sts. Near 24th St. BART, #14, 49 MUNI
$3 - $5 donation requested, no one turned away for lack of funds.
Refreshments served. Wheelchair accessible.


April 25 // Show in Oakland:
High Functioning Flesh, Red Red Red, Zanna Nera, Circuit Slave, Obsidian Blade 8pm - 12:30am
At the Qilombo, 2313 San Pablo Ave Oakland CA 94612. [info@qilombo.org] [510-338-7933] [qilombo.org/events-calendar/]


Earth Day Festival, Sonoma County
Saturday, April 26, 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Healdsburg Plaza, downtown Healdsburg
Healdsburg High School Progressive Club presents the 15th Annual Earth Day Festival with speakers, music, food, and information booths - Project Censored, Andy's Youth, Fukushima Response, Sonoma County Label GMOs, Hoytus and One Heart, de Colores, the Unite Dance Crew, and so much more.


Spirit and Revolution: Rudolf Steiner on Social Transformation
Saturday, Apr. 26, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Arlene Francis Center, 99 6th St., Santa Rosa
Abraham Entin will lead a one-day workshop on Rudolf Steiner's proposals for reorganizing our society to make it freer, more equitable and sustainable.
Free will donation to the AFC


Justice for Antoine Thomas
April 26 // 6pm - 9pm
At the Qilombo, 2313 San Pablo Ave Oakland CA 94612. [info@qilombo.org] [510-338-7933] [qilombo.org/events-calendar/]
This is a continuation of the fundraising efforts for Antoine. Come show some love and support for Antione Thomas who was brutalized by pigs and is now serving 65 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Antoine was stopped while driving with a friend and was subject to a cavity search. He filed a complaint against the pigs who did it and two years later he was convicted of a robbery he didn’t commit. There is evidence to exonerate him and he needs our support to be able to fight this case.


Lafayette's 9th Annual Earth Day Festival
Sunday, April 27, 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM
Lafayette Library and Learning Center, 3491 Mt Diablo Blvd, Lafayette
Sustainable Lafayette, the Lafayette Library and Learning Center, the City of Lafayette, and the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce invite you to Lafayette's 9th annual Earth Day Picnic & Festival! For over 40 years, Earth Day has inspired and mobilized individuals and organizations worldwide to demonstrated their commitment to environment protection and sustainability. In Lafayette we will be celebrating our efforts to protect our environment with a community celebration at the beautiful Lafayette Library.
The Lafayette Library and Learning Center will transform into a giant, family-friendly venue that celebrates learning about the environment. Bring the entire family. Great Local Food! Family Fun and Entertainment! Live music from local musicians in the outdoor amphitheater!
For more information email earthday@sustainablelafayette.org


EcoHouse Tour: Climate Action and Adaptation, a demonstration of sustainable living
Sunday, April 27, 2014 11:00 am to 1:00 pm
Address: [1305 Hopkins Street, Berkeley, CA, 94702]
Cost: Free
Event Phone: (510) 548-2220 ext. 239
Event e-mail: [register@ecologycenter.org]
Event URL: [ecologycenter.org/ecohouse/]
EcoHouse Tour: Climate Action and Adaptation will provide inspiration to reduce your climate impact and climate change's impact on you. We'll present ideas for do-it-yourself projects, and the tour will also include a general overview of the water-saving features of the EcoHouse.
Space is limited. Pre-registration by email or phone required.
Join us for an exciting and informative walking tour of our eco-demonstration home and garden. Draw inspiration to reduce your climate impact and climate change’s impact on you. We’ll present ideas for do-it-yourself projects.
How can using recycled cardboard boxes restore the soil in your yard and allow you to grow a thriving, toxin-free garden? What is a food forest and how can you create one? How can you get your roof to filter air pollution, help prevent flooding, and reduce your need for heating and air conditioning?
This introductory tour features our toolshed built with four different natural building methods – strawbale, rammed earth, clay, cob – all topped with a living roof; our constructed wetlands and simple laundry greywater system; an 1100 gallon rainwater cistern; a native raingarden; three kinds of compost; and a lot more.
We’ll give you an idea of what’s possible for an urban home, and provide useful resources and referrals to help you take the next steps.


JOIN a national conference call about a
LIVING WAGE to eliminate poverty in the USA.
SUNDAY, APRIL 27, 5-7pmPDT, 6-8pmMDT, 7-9pmCDT, 8-10pmEDT
A panel of distinguished activists, including Peace and Freedom Party's gubernatorial candidate Cindy Sheehan, will speak for the first hour with interaction of call participants in the second hour. 
Call number: 1-857-232-0157
Access code: 353711 #
See [www.unitingpeopleworks4us.blogspot.com] or [www.facebook/USliveablewage], sponsored by UP [Uniting People for Peace, Equality, Full Employment, Universal Health Care and Environmental Protection] email [unitingpeople1@gmail.com].


Community Breakfast, and Mutual Aid Food Program (Oakland)
April 27, every Sunday // Breakfast served 11 am - 12:30pm (recurring weekly), Feeding ourselves and the neighborhood! Free! Followed by our Food program until 3:30pm, where you can come volunteer and/or come take a bag of produce for free! Rice and beans are also available for .50c-$1.00 per pound donation!
At the Qilombo, 2313 San Pablo Ave Oakland CA 94612. [info@qilombo.org] [510-338-7933] [qilombo.org/events-calendar/]


Ruckus Society Nonviolent Direct Action Training Sunday, Apr. 27, 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Mike Roselle, co-founder of Earth First!, Rainforest Action Network and the Ruckus Society, will lead a nonviolent direction training. This is of particular importance to those in the XL pipeline resistance and to those seeking justice for Andy Lopez.
Sponsored by the Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County
Arlene Francis Center, 99 6th St., Santa Rosa


Occupy Sonoma County GMO Campaign
Monday, Apr. 28, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Unitarian Church, 547 Mendocino Ave., Santa Rosa.
Monthly meeting working together to stop GMOs.
[OcSoCo.org] or call [707-338-3791]
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Dorothy Day Working Group of Occupy
Monday, Apr. 28, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
Discussion and action around issues relating to homelessness, mental health, and social services in Sonoma County.
The Peace & Justice Center of Sonoma County, 467 Sebastopol Ave., Santa Rosa


Genocide Beneath Our Feet
Tuesday, Apr. 29, 4:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Warren Auditorium, Ives Hall, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park
Professor Greg Sarris will speak on the genocide of indigenous people in Sonoma County as part of Sonoma State’s Holocaust and Genocide Lecture Series.


Radley Balko on Militarization of the Police
Tuesday, Apr. 29, 5:00 to 6:30 p.m.
Newman Auditorium, Santa Rosa Jr. College, Santa Rosa
Balko will speak on the militarization of law enforcement. He is the author of 2013’s "Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces" and 2006’s "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America." He is an investigative journalist for Huffington Post.


Graffiti Skillshare (Oakland)
April 30 // Noon - 4pm (recurring weekly)
Come learn graffiti skills from one of our compas, and help bring art onto the walls of Qilombo!
At the Qilombo, 2313 San Pablo Ave Oakland CA 94612. [info@qilombo.org] [510-338-7933] [qilombo.org/events-calendar/]


Prisoner Letter Writing Night (Oakland)
April 30 // 5pm - 7pm
At the Qilombo, 2313 San Pablo Ave Oakland CA 94612. [info@qilombo.org] [510-338-7933] [qilombo.org/events-calendar/]
Join us as we write to comrades who are being abused and locked in cages by the Mexican state, as well as Antoine Thomas, who needs support as he fights the enemy here at home. All supplies will be provided for the writing and sending of letters, but feel free to bring a snack to share!

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Private HMO "Death Panels" expand coverage denials

"Cost of Treatment May Influence Doctors: 'We couldn’t go on just ignoring costs'"
2014-04-17 by Andrew Pollack from "New York Times" [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/18/business/treatment-cost-could-influence-doctors-advice.html?hp]:
Saying they can no longer ignore the rising prices of health care, some of the most influential medical groups in the nation are recommending that doctors weigh the costs, not just the effectiveness of treatments, as they make decisions about patient care.
The shift, little noticed outside the medical establishment but already controversial inside it, suggests that doctors are starting to redefine their roles, from being concerned exclusively about individual patients to exerting influence on how health care dollars are spent.
“We understand that we doctors should be and are stewards of the larger society as well as of the patient in our examination room,” said Dr. Lowell E. Schnipper, the chairman of a task force on value in cancer care at the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
In practical terms, new guidelines being developed by the medical groups could result in doctors choosing one drug over another for cost reasons or even deciding that a particular treatment — at the end of life, for example — is too expensive. In the extreme, some critics have said that making treatment decisions based on cost is a form of rationing.
Traditionally, guidelines have heavily influenced the practice of medicine, and the latest ones are expected to make doctors more conscious of the economic consequences of their decisions — even though there is no obligation to follow them. Medical society guidelines are also used by insurance companies to help determine reimbursement policies.
The society of oncologists, alarmed by the escalating prices of cancer medicines, is developing a scorecard to evaluate drugs based on their cost and value, as well as their efficacy and side effects. It is expected to be ready by this fall.
And the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association recently announced that they would begin to use cost data to rate the value of treatments in their joint clinical practice guidelines and performance standards.
Some doctors see a potential conflict in trying to be both providers of patient care and financial overseers.
“There should be forces in society who should be concerned about the budget, about how many M.R.I.s we do, but they shouldn’t be functioning simultaneously as doctors,” said Dr. Martin A. Samuels, the chairman of the neurology department at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He said doctors risked losing the trust of patients if they told patients, “I’m not going to do what I think is best for you because I think it’s bad for the health care budget in Massachusetts.”
Doctors can face some stark trade-offs. Studies have shown, for example, that two drugs are about equally effective in treating an eye disease, macular degeneration. But one costs $50 a dose and the other close to $2,000. Medicare could save hundreds of millions of dollars a year if everyone used the cheaper drug, Avastin, instead of the costlier one, Lucentis.
But the Food and Drug Administration has not approved Avastin for use in the eye, and using it rather than the alternative, Lucentis, might carry an additional, albeit slight, safety risk. Should doctors consider Medicare’s budget in deciding what to use?
Some insurers and state Medicaid programs are now also saying that a highly effective new drug for hepatitis C, Sovaldi, from Gilead Sciences, could lead to an immense increase in spending because so many patients will want to use it, at a cost of $84,000 per course of treatment.Some of them are hoping that, to save money, only more seriously ill patients will be treated. But Dr. Donald M. Jensen, director of the center for liver diseases at the University of Chicago, said some patients with earlier disease have symptoms like fatigue and would benefit from the drug. “I think ethically we are just worried about the patient in front of us and not trying to save money for the insurance industry per se, or society as a whole,” he said.
Still, some analysts say that there is a role for doctors to play in cost analysis because not many others are doing so.
“In some ways, it represents a failure of wider society to take up the issue,” said Dr. Daniel P. Sulmasy, professor of medicine and ethics at the University of Chicago.
Generally, Medicare is not supposed to consider cost effectiveness in coverage decisions, and other government attempts to do so are susceptible to criticism as rationing. Insurers do perform cost analyses, but they also risk ire from patients and doctors.
The cancer and oncology societies are not the only ones considering costs. A review last year of clinical guidelines issued by 30 of the largest physician specialty societies found that 17 of them explicitly integrated costs. That appeared to be an increase from 2002, when a different review had found more limited use of economic analysis.
Also, in recent years, as part of a campaign called Choosing Wisely, many medical societies have submitted lists of the top five procedures, tests or products to be questioned because they are considered wasteful.
The cardiology societies say that the idea that doctors should ignore costs is unrealistic because they already have to consider the financial burden placed on the patient, if not society. “Protecting patients from financial ruin is fundamental to the precept of ‘do no harm,’ ” the societies wrote in their paper outlining the new policy.Still, the groups said that value and resource use had been explicitly excluded from formal consideration in their practice guidelines. And that has been true of some other guidelines as well.
Dr. Schnipper, who is also chief of hematology and oncology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, pointed to guidelines that the oncology society issued in 2011 on preventing vomiting caused by chemotherapy. For certain patients, the guidelines recommend the drug palonosetron, sold by Eisai as Aloxi, which is more effective but also much more expensive than similar drugs. While the full guidelines contain a table listing the prices of various drugs, there is no explicit discussion about the cost trade-offs in the recommendations.
Hepatitis C guidelines issued in January by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the Infectious Diseases Society of America recommend the new drug Sovaldi with no mention of its cost.
Dr. Steven D. Pearson, a visiting scientist in the ethics department at the National Institutes of Health, said the move by some societies to incorporate economic analysis “heralds an important shift in the way doctors in America are talking about cost and value.”
He said that having societies do such evaluations was better than having a doctor make such trade-offs while treating an individual patient, which is sometimes called bedside rationing.
Still, it is unclear if medical societies are the best ones to make cost assessments. Doctors can have financial conflicts of interest and lack economic expertise.
The cardiology societies, for instance, plan for now to rely on published literature, not commission their own cost-effectiveness studies, said Dr. Paul A. Heidenreich, a professor at Stanford and co-chairman of the committee that wrote the new policy.
They plan to rate the value of treatments based on the cost per quality-adjusted life-year, or QALY — a method used in Britain and by many health economists.
The societies say that treatments costing less than about $50,000 a QALY would be rated as high value, while those costing more than $150,000 a QALY would be low value.
“We couldn’t go on just ignoring costs,” Dr. Heidenreich said.