Home Closed by Dept. of Licensing & Inspections, Property Seized by PA State Police

Press Conference: Tuesday, June 17th, 1 pm, Outside West Side of City Hall

On Tuesday, June 17th, at 1pm, the owners and residents of 1652 Ridge Avenue will hold a press conference on the western steps of City Hall to inform reporters and interested parties about the June 13th police action seizing their property and sealing off their home. Please read the release below for more details.

Alert from emergencyresponse.cc:

New Afrikan POW Russell Maroon Shoats has been suffering from chest pains.

He has repeatedly been ignored by guards when requesting the medical attention he urgently needs. On May 13th he filed a grievance to address the situation. Only after receiving calls from his family did they move him to the medical department.

Now he is in medical but has yet to receive an X-ray or any treatment.

Press release from the Stolen Land Committee :

Today on international workers day, a group calling itself the Stolen Land Committee hung a banner off the east face of an abandoned building at 12th and Pearl streets reading “No One Is Illegal.”

The group took this action in solidarity with workers throughout the world who march and rally today in commemoration of those who lost their lives during the struggle for the 8 hour day here in the United States. In particular the group seeks to highlight the struggles of undocumented immigrant workers here in the united states who risk their lives on dangerous border crossings to come to the United States and work. 2 years ago in 2006, Immigrant workers lead the largest demonstrations in the history of the United States on mayday.

By Andalusia Knoll

When State Troopers in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, killed 12-year-old Michael Ellerbe in 2002, his family along with neighbors and members of People against Police Violence, launched a campaign to bring those responsible for his death to justice. They demanded answers; why was an unarmed 12-year-old black boy shot in the back as he was running away from state troopers?

Despite strong community pressure a state inquest found the officers innocent. If the case ended there, Ellerbe would have joined the ranks of the 2000+ others whose lives were cut short by U.S. law enforcement officers who are rarely held responsible for their deaths.

Michael Hickenbottom, Ellerbe’s father, unsatisfied with a ruling of innocence, filed a civil suit against the troopers. On March 11 2008, more than five years after Ellerbe’s death, a Jury in federal court ruled that Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Samuel Nassan and Corporal Juan Curry used excessive force and intentionally shot Michael Ellerbe. The jury awarded more than $28 million dollars in punitive and compensatory damages.

by Bronwyn Lepore

“The stuff we’re made of never goes away, with or without monuments. Because the bastards will never cease their evil, and the decent human beings will never stop their struggle.”

Postmortem:

Abe Osheroff, carpenter and leftist provocateur, one of three thousand (900 were killed fighting) to join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade to fight Franco and his fascists during the Spanish Civil War, died of a heart attack at the age of 92 on April 6, 2008.

The Philly Childcare Collective is currently forming and is looking for enthusiastic, amazing, and committed organizers and volunteers!

We are individuals who see childcare as a political act and are excited about working to support the leadership and involvement of families and parents in movement building towards racial and economic justice, by providing free childcare at ongoing meetings and events!

Questions or information? You can email us at phillychildcarecollective@gmail.com or call Ash at 610.256.1774

Angela Davis at U of Ps Women’s Week – 2/15/08 the 21st Century

by Bronwyn Lepore

Angela Davis, of the beautiful gap-toothed smile and uncompromising spirit – and she smiles often, in the face of (or in solidarity with) the struggles she speaks to, and readily – shakes her shaggy fro as she warms to the audience of students, academics and activists tightly packed into College Hall for her Women’s Week keynote address on “Social Change in the 21st Century.” Despite the crowd – even after moving the talk to a larger venue to accommodate demand, many had to wait patiently outside the hall for a promised short after chat – she manages to create a sense of warmth and familiarity, as if we were all crowded into someone’s living room and she’d just popped in for a brief, but intense, chat. “Who’s here?” she asked. Recognizing the privileged status of many in the predominately Penn associated crowd, Davis challenged the audience to put such formally acquired knowledge to good use, as she herself has done, “so that it might make a difference, not for ourselves, but for others,” and to recognize and respect the intellect of those less privileged outside the academy who typically form the core of grassroots movements.

On Sunday April 6th, Movement for Justice in El Barrio took the struggle against gentrification in NYC to an international level. Through the new International Campaign in Defense of El Barrio, Movement for Justice in El Barrio is organizing on a transnational level to combat displacement in El Barrio (East Harlem) by building a multi-national network to go after one of their main targets, the multi-national corporation Dawnay, Day Group at their central headquarters in London and on multiple continents where they hold property. Movement for Justice in El Barrio and their supporters from around the city and nation gathered on the steps of city hall to launch their “International Campaign in Defense of El Barrio.”

by mk

April 17 is commemorated in Palestine as Prisoner’s Day. On that day, family members and friends of the more than 11,000 Palestinians currently imprisoned by the Israeli occupation government gather in cities throughout Palestine to demand their release. Around 800 of these prisoners are held without trial in what’s called “Administrative Detention.”