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OPINION: Ease state budget woes by closing more prisons November 12, 2009 By ROBERT GANGI Newsday Robert Gangi is executive director of the Correctional Association of New York. Gov. David A. Paterson has proposed severe spending reductions to close New...

From Dialogues Against Militarism , "On Saturday, November 7, About 25 of us trudged towards military prison 400, just outside of Tel Aviv, coils of razor wire and lookout towers looming above us, fields of mud and dry grass to our right. we began setting up the sound system and preparing for the day’s goal of reaching earshot of Or Ben-David, a young Israeli being held in prison for refusing the army draft."

"Our gathering consisted predominantly of young Israelis who had themselves been conscientious objectors, some of whom had been held in that same prison quite recently, some of whom had just refused and were scheduled to report to prison in a few months. The crowd also included some older radicals, a smattering of internationals, and of course us �" U.S. War resisters, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and anti-militarist organizers, here to lend our support to Israeli and Palestinian movements against occupation.

"Israeli youth find themselves situated in the middle of one of the world’s most contested occupations. With mandatory conscription for all graduating high school seniors, their bodies are used to enforce Israeli occupation and war: 18 and 19 year-olds become the arms of an apartheid state. In the United States, young people, often from low income or marginalized communities, are sent off to die in the deserts of Iraq and Afghanistan, with sharper distinctions maintained between military and civilian life. Here, the war is in your face, with every city, town, bus station, and beach crawling with teenagers with machine guns slung over their shoulders.

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Dialogues Against Militarism | Dialogues Against Militarism writings from Palestine

Christine Lewis, an organizer with Domestic Workers United, speaks about the working conditions that domestic workers face on a daily basis and shares a political analysis of the role that domestic work plays in our economy.

This interview was conducted by Kistine Carolan, and produced by Milena Velis.

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Issue #9 of Upping the Anti is being launched in Toronto at the
Concord Cafe, 937 Bloor St. West (at Bloor and Ossington) on Thursday Nov 19th, 2009.

If you would like to receive a hard copy of the journal or to distribute the journal in your community or through organizations that you are involved with, please email uppingtheanti@gmail.com so that we can add you to our list of local distributors. We are selling single copies for $10 including postage. If you want 5 or more copies for distribution, the journal is $5 per copy, and we'll cover the postage. Journal articles and PDF files will be uploaded to the website in a staggered process over the next few months.

Our mailing address where you can send your $10 in well concealed envelope for a copy of the journal is: Upping the Anti, 998 Bloor St. West, P.O. Box 10571, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6H 4H9. You can also pay via PayPal or credit card. If you live in the US or elsewhere, please order our journal through AK Press as it costs us too much to mail it to you from Canada. Please continue reading this post for the full table of contents of this issue and the introduction to this issue.

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By Brenda Norrell

TUCSON -- Racism in America did not disappear when Barack Obama became president. Native American homelands are still targeted by corporations and some tribal governments, targeting the land for coal mining, power plants, oil drilling and toxic dumps.

The Four Corners region, homelands of the Navajo, Ute and Apache, and Lakota lands in South Dakota, were selected by the United States as National Sacrifice Zones, where the US poisoned the people, land, water and air, leaving behind strewn radioactive waste, poisoned rivers, cancer alleys and trails of deaths and broken hearts.

At the border, Indigenous Peoples in their homelands are still oppressed, harassed, detained and abused by the US Border Patrol and the Native American tribal governments who have been coopted by Homeland Security. Here, too, on Tohono O'odham land is a cancer alley from copper mining that released radioactive uranium into the groundwater.

There is a rising anger, heard across America in coffeehouses and small town cafes, about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. People of color, including American Indians, Hispanics and Afro-Americans, are still considered "expendables" and targeted in TV commercials, and by recruiters, to enlist and die.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are based on the lies of politicians. These are wars where mercenaries killed without consequence. Torture and secret renditions were carried out in violation of the Geneva Conventions, crimes which Obama must aid in holding Bush and Cheney accountable for.

Splitting the Sky, Mohawk, attempted a citizens arrest of war criminal George Bush in Canada.

Still, in America as American Indians and persons of conscience prepare for a month of actions in November, there is a "shhhh" hush in the US over the continued CIA kidnappings, secret renditions and US-sponsored torture. People of color continue to be recruited and sent to die in a war that, in the end, will only profit US war profiteers and the politicians they bankroll.

Listen to Martin Luther King, when he spoke out against the Vietnam War. Listen to Buffy Sainte Marie tell how she was censored and driven out of the music industry in the US because of her songs during the Vietnam War.

What is happening now is not new, it is what happens when all good men and women become complacent.

The world is watching and it does not like what it sees.

November events, see details at Censored News: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

TODAY: Protest in Gallup, N.M., to halt new uranium mining in Navajo homelands

Nov. 13 (Friday) Tucson: O'odham Solidarity Event 'Apartheid in America' with Ofelia Rivas, O'odham living on the border, and Ward Churchill. Concert by Resistant Culture. (Live broadcast www.livestream.com/earthcycles )

Nov. 13 -- 15: Santa Barbara AIM: Symposium on Race and Racism, keynote speaker John Trudell

Nov. 14 --15: Tucson: Southwest Weekend to End Torture, with protest at Fort Huachuca to halt US torture training

Nov. 11 -- 23: UK/Ireland: Indigenous Environmental Network: United Kingdom Tar Sands Tour: Bloody oil: the struggle against the Tar Sands

Nov. 23 --27: San Francisco/Alcatraz: AIM West: West Coast Third Annual Conference, speakers and more (Live broadcast: http://www.livestream.com/earthcycles )

Government Allows Misleading and False Information to Spread in the Corporate Media

On October 24, Chiapan state police arrested Rocelio de la Cruz Gonzalez and Jose Manuel de la Torre Hernandez, both leaders of the Emiliano Zapata Peasant Organization (OCEZ).  Narco News' Fernando Leon reports that the men say police tortured them during interrogation.  De la Torre Hernandez said in a statement: "Multiple times they put a nylon bag over my head, suffocating me, so that I would answer affirmatively to a list of questions.  [The questions included] if our organization OCEZ has weapons and a relationship with the church and with former and current Carranza mayors.  They also shot mineral water up my nose until I passed out."  De la Torre told his lawyer that police made him sign papers without reading them during the torture session.  Police tortured him until he passed out, then they woke him up to sign papers while he was still groggy.

On October 25, a contact sent this reporter an email with the subject "Official Communique."  The email was written in the style of a government press release, but it contained no media contact information nor was it signed by a government agency.  The contact believed the email was the government's official press release regarding the de la Torre Hernandez and de la Cruz Gonzalez arrests.  The contact had received the email from a local reporter who also seemed to believe the email was the government's official press release.  However, this "Official Communique" did not appear on the Chiapas state government's "Public Relations Institute" website, where all official state government press releases are posted, nor did it appear on the Chiapas State Attorney General's Office website, where press releases regarding arrests are posted. 

The "Official Communique's" absence from the websites where all official government communiques are posted is particularly noteworthy due to the wild claims made in the "communique." 

First, the "communique" claims that de la Cruz Gonzalez and de la Torre Hernandez belong to "Los Pelones," which the communique reports is a gang that is "known for its strong activity in trafficking weapons and drugs and is responsible for multiple homicides, including the 2007 murder of state police...in Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacan."

The "communique" also claims that de la Cruz Gonzalez and de la Torre Hernandez paid the Carranza mayor MX$300,000 in order to purchase weapons.  The Carranza mayor, Amín Coutiño Villanueva, is from the President's National Action Party (PAN).  The Chiapas governor is from the opposition Democratic Revolution Party (PRD).

The "communique" claims that de la Cruz Gonzalez and de la Torre Hernandez, acting as members of Los Pelones, "also bought and distributed 9mm pistols, for which they paid MX$8,000 per gun, and the social organization [OCEZ] supported them in this."  The "communique" also claims that the detained men engaged in "human trafficking as well as migrant extortion.  Their lands have served as a collection site for hiding weapons and drugs.  The social organization mask has impeded civilian and military authorities' access to the area surrounding the 28 de Junio community [where OCEZ operates].  That is why they had so-called 'international observers': to cover up their criminal activity."

Normally, Narco News wouldn't classify an email of this sort as "news" without verifying the source:  it makes wild claims, and no government agency has verified its authenticity.  This reporter thought the email was a hoax. 

However, local and national corporate media seem to have also received the "Official Communique" email, and they don't seem to think it is a hoax.  Articles have appeared in papers across Mexico that quote lines that appear word-for-word in the "Official Communique" email this reporter received.   Mexico's national daily El Universal, for example, ran a wire article by the Spanish news agency EFE that credited the quotes from the "Official Communique" to a statement by the Chiapas State Attorney General's Office (the State Attorney General's Office is prominently mentioned in the "communique").  The EFE article's quotes only come from the "Official Communique," the defendants' lawyer, and the OCEZ.  No government official confirms or denies the statements.  As previously mentioned, the State Attorney General's Office has not posted any information on its website about the arrests of de la Cruz Gonzalez and de la Torre Hernandez.

The "Official Communique's" unorthodox distribution method (unsigned and not posted to a government website) aside, the email contains other inconsistencies and red flags.  Narco News spoke with Marcos López Pérez, the lawyer who represents de la Cruz Gonzalez, de la Torre Hernandez, and Jose Manuel Hernandez Martinez, a third OCEZ leader who was arrested one month before the other two men.

Lopez Perez informed Narco News that the arrest warrants for the three OCEZ leaders are all part of the same case: a 2003 land occupation in Chiapas that successfully pressured the Chiapas government to legally turn the land over to peasants who are OCEZ members.  That case dossier only covers the 2003 land occupation and alleged crimes related to that takeover; arms trafficking, migrant extortion, human trafficking, and other crimes are mentioned nowhere in the dossier.

Lopez Perez says that he is not aware of any other official investigation against the men that involves those crimes.  He assured Narco News that the government has not charged the men with any sort of trafficking; they have only been charged with crimes related to the 2003 land occupation, which are all state-level crimes.

The crimes the "Official Communique" and the corporate media accuse the men of committing are federal crimes.  The federal government has made no comment on the arrests, nor do the men have any federal investigations or charges pending, says their lawyer.

However, Lopez Perez does not rule out the possibility that the federal government could initiate an investigation.  He says that he has reviewed every paper in the dossier against his clients, and he can't find the papers de la Torre claims he signed under torture.  Neither de la Torre nor his lawyer know what the papers say because de la Torre wasn't able to read them before signing.  Lopez Perez says it's possible that the papers could appear in a future investigation as part of a case file.

The "Official Communique" smelled like a whisper campaign even before this reporter spoke to the men's lawyer.  The "communique" accuses de la Cruz Gonzalez and de la Torre Hernandez of belonging to "Los Pelones," which is a criminal group associated with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera's Sinaloa-based drug trafficking organization.  However, when the government reportedly seized a massive weapons stockpile in October, the Chiapas government claimed the weapons belonged to the OCEZ, and the federal government claimed the weapons belong to Loz Zetas.  Los Zetas are the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, and are also reported to work for the Beltran Leyva criminal organization.  Both the Gulf cartel and the Beltran Leyvas are reportedly enemies of El Chapo.  It is highly unlikely that a small peasant organization would be working for or with the armed factions of opposing drug trafficking organizations. 

When the Chiapas government arrested de la Cruz and de la Torre, between 20 and 40 trucks full of state police carried out house-to-house searches of two Carranza County communities that belong to the OCEZ: 28 de Junio and Laguna Verde.  Two helicopters participated in the operation.  The police ransacked dozens of homes in those communities, terrorizing residents and reportedly beating some.  The police were looking for suspects, and they reportedly threatened bodily harm to residents if they didn't tell them "where they were hiding the guns."  The police did not find a single piece of contraband in either community.  For all of the claims the government makes about the OCEZ's alleged use of the communities to hide drugs and weapons, the government didn't find a single weapon.  Its Merida Initiative-style ion scanners and drug dogs didn't find a trace of illegal substances.

Casting further doubt on the "Official Communique's" claims, the Carranza mayor that allegedly received MX$300,000 from the detainees in order to illegally purchase weapons has not been arrested, nor has the government brought any formal charges against him.  Of course, the mayor adamantly denies the accusations and reportedly told press that "it's about time the authorities did something about Roselio de la Cruz and Jose Manuel de la Torre."

Reforma Steps In

On November 9, Reforma, a Mexico City-based daily and one of Mexico's largest newspapers, ran an article by Martin Morita that claimed the reporter obtained an "intelligence report" about arms trafficking in Chiapas. The article does not disclose if the report is from the state or federal government. The only person the article quotes is a "high-ranking state government official" who is "participating in the team that's carrying out the investigation" that is outlined in the report.

In the article, the high-ranking state government official mentions a case in which two fragmentation grenades were found wrapped in cloth in a plastic bag in the government agency parking lot in Tuxtla, the Chiapas state capital.  The grenades did not explode.  In an interview, the state official accuses leaders of the OCEZ and the National Front for Socialist Struggle (FNLS, an unarmed civil society organization with a strong presence in Chiapas) of having "orchestrated that terrorist act."  No charges have been filed; currently this baseless anonymous statement is the only accusation linking the two organizations with the grenades.

The Reforma article doesn't limit its accusations to the OCEZ.  It says that the intelligence report claims that the Popular Revolutionary Army (EPR), the People's Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARP), and the Insurgent People's Revolutionary Army (ERPI) are "connected" to "subversive armed cells" that are "receiving support from organized crime groups such as Los Zetas, the Gulf cartel's armed wing, and the Sinaloa Cartel, headed by Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, in order to obtain firearms."  The report claims, "It is confirmed that organizations that call themselves civilian have strong ties to these subversive groups [who are gathering arms] and are trying to carry out violent acts, particularly during the 2010 Bicentennial celebrations."

The Reforma article reprints the following quote from the report:

"It is noted that, based on the detention of people involved in said groups and through testimonies obtained by intelligence networks, there is evidence that establishes a relationship between those groups and people and criminal organizations that are dedicated to drug trafficking, such as the so-called Zetas and the organization led by Joaquin Guzman Loera, aka El Chapo.  This complicity stems from the distribution of weapons to subversive groups."

The Reforma article mentions de la Cruz, de la Torre, and Hernandez Martinez: "The three are accused of using the [OCEZ] organization to distribute weapons and drugs."  Reforma fails to mention that it is only the press, not the government, that is officially accusing the OCEZ of trafficking arms and drugs. 

Reporter Martin Morita filed a similar article on TabascoHOY.com.  In that article, he says that Hernandez Martinez "is linked to the seizure of an arms arsenal on October 11."  It also claims that "the official investigation points to Hernandez Martinez as the leader of the EPR in Chiapas and of having links to Los Zetas."  Again, no charges have been filed against Hernandez Martinez that link him to arms trafficking, Los Zetas, or the EPR.  Morita does not specify which "official investigation" he is referring to in the article.  However, Hernandez Martinez's lawyer only knows of one official investigation--the one related to the 2003 land takeover--and it does not mention any trafficking allegations.

War on Social Movements

In a letter to Tabasco HOY's editor, the OCEZ writes, "This type of stigmatization in the corporate media doesn't only have negative political consequences for those who suffer [the stigmatization].  Rather, frequently they are orchestrated by government agencies in order to sway public opinion to help justify arbitrary judicial actions."

As the government intelligence report mentions, authorities are growing increasingly concerned about the possibility that armed groups will take action in 2010 to commemorate the bicentennial and centennial of two Mexican revolutions.  According the Reforma, the report states that "the groups are trying to carry out actions aimed at destabilizing, through armed struggle, the PRD member Juan Sabines' administration in 2010, in particular during the Bicentennial celebrations."

The government may be trying to preemptively smear social organizations in the media by alleging links to drug trafficking organizations.  This may prevent insurgent organizations from enjoying the sort of national and international support that protected the Zapatistas when they staged an uprising in Chiapas in 1994.  It may also serve to justify judicial or military actions against civil society, which always seems to get caught in any war's crossfire.  The smear campaign even includes a preemptive strike against international human rights observers, who have played a key role in human rights defense in Chiapas since 1994.  In accusing human rights observers of preventing the military and police from carrying out their anti-trafficking work, the corporate media places them directly in the drug war's line of fire.

Thanks to the war on drugs, in 2010 Mexico will be more militarized than it was in 1994.  The military will be better prepared and better armed than it was in 1994 during the Zapatista uprising.  And now, thanks to the media smear campaign against social organizations, it may have more public approval to use its drug war military might against non-drug war targets.

Narco News has warned that the increasing militarization under the guise of the drug war could have negative consequences for insurgent and social organizations.  The Merida Initiative's counterpart in Colombia, Plan Colombia, targeted insurgent organizations as a matter of official policy.  In Mexico, both the US and the Mexican governments have predicted "links" between insurgent and drug trafficking organizations.  In December 2008, Narco News reported:

In an official DEA PowerPoint presentation recently leaked to Narco News correspondent Bill Conroy, the DEA argued that the possibility exists that drug cartels will seek allies in insurgent organizations: “DTOs [Drug Trafficking Organizations] will further reach out to the Mexican military and foreign paramilitary and possible insurgent organizations in order to acquire much needed human and material support to fend off advances by competing Cartels.”  Similarly, in a report obtained by the Mexican daily Milenio entitled “The National Defense Department in Combat Against Drug Trafficking,” Mexico's National Defense Department says "a symbiosis between [drug cartels and] armed groups who are hostile to the government is forseeable."

The OCEZ may be a test case, to see how far civil society will allow the government to go in its war on social movements. As Jaime Ramírez Yáñez writes in an editorial in Milenio,"The detention of these two indigenous men [de la Cruz and de la Torre], who are visibly opposed to the government, was carried out with only the alleged testimony of a 'protected witness,' and without the bother of a formal criminal investigation."  A protected witness is often a suspect himself, and the government offers leniency or immunity in exchange for testimony against other people.

 

Using that one protected witness and the media, the government has linked the OCEZ, an unarmed organization, to the armed EPR and nearly every major drug trafficking organization in the country.  The media has accused the OCEZ of human trafficking, arms trafficking, migrant extortion, and drug trafficking.  It also stigmatized human rights observers who are in OCEZ communities to assure that human rights are respected.  In turn, the government has been able to stage one of the largest raids in recent memory on two peasant communities, and no one seemed concerned that the raids produced no contraband.  State police continue to occupy the area around Laguna Verde.  The state government has been able to hunt down and allegedly torture the OCEZ's leadership.  The government has executed three of fourteen warrants stemming from the 2003 OCEZ land takeover, leaving the communities terrified that police will carry out another violent raid at any moment.

Not particularly surprising for those who’ve been paying attention to oil reserve estimates, but it’s now official that the International Energy Agency (IEA) has been deliberately distorting their estimates to make it appear that peak oil is much further away than in reality. Also interesting that the US govt has been pressuring the agency to [...]

Letter from Felipe Álvarez to La Jornada

Monday, November 9, 2009

Eight years after we began our resistance struggle against the invading, oppressive, killer system, I urge people to keep up the struggle. There’s no torture that can change the course of our ideals. They can chain my body but never my consciousness. And they can’t chain the dignity and spirit of our peoples who are struggling for what belongs to them either.

The government is still determined to dispossess us of what is ours and put all this at the service of empire, grabbing our lands, our water, oil, light and the little bit of wealth we have left.

On September 15, they hypocritically shout: “Long live Independence! Long live the heroes who gave us our homeland!” What independence are they, the very ones who’ve turned over the country to be looted and exploited, talking about? How dare they use the word “heroes” when it’s clear they’re offending their memory?

In the situation we’re now facing, we must have a higher level of consciousness and resistance. Forgetting what’s been won is like forgetting about Hidalgo, Morelos, the Magón brothers; it’s like turning our backs on Villa. Bowing down to repression or being afraid of captivity is like forgetting the great spirit of struggle left to us by Zapata.

Only those of us who struggle for land, natural resources, and freedom can win independence, sovereignty, and the homeland that the very people now looting the country talk so much about.

Brothers and sisters, you exist in my heart! Not one step backward! Zapata lives, the Front continues!

Felipe Álvarez Hernández, known as “Finini”, Atenco political prisoner sentenced to 67 ½ years in prison. Member of the Peoples’ Front in Defense of the Land.

While news headlines declared the the US House of Representatives' healthcare legislation "historic" and a cause for great joy, many in the San Francisco bay area are asking: Who is celebrating whose healthcare coverage?

Women reacted to a national plan that will not provide insurance for undocumented immigrants or extend federal funds for abortions, saying that it echoes the right-wing’s racist and sexist agenda. They expressed disappointment that the House Bill also repeals the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by 2013. Many children now covered by CHIP would be moved into programs largely driven by insurance companies.

The morning following the passage of the bill, women in San Francisco led the rallying cry for "healthcare not warfare" in demonstrations on the steps of City Hall and in front of Speaker Pelosi's and Senator Feinstein's respective homes.

On November 12th, the San Francisco branch of Radical Women will hold a roundtable discussion to address the question: "What will it take to achieve affordable quality healthcare for all?" Featured speakers will be Barbara Commins, a nurse from Single Payer Now, Tiffany Ng, a youth organizer with Chinese Progressive Association and Andrea Weever, a disabled rights activist.

Event Announcement | Photos: 1 | 2 | San Francisco Radical Women

Latin America may soon become the next front in Washington's so-called War on Terror. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY)...

This essay, written following a listening tour across the US, asks some of the most important questions facing social movements today, including “How Do We Build Intergenerational Movements?”, “What About Multiracial Movement Building?” and “How Do We Develop Strategy?” I read this when it first came out in the summer of 2006 and it pretty much [...]

Yesterday, Sunday November 8th, one hundred people rallied, marched, and held a vigil at the US Southern Command in Doral, Florida. To date this was the largest such rally at South Com. Participants, including members of the Coalition Of Immokalee Workers, local peace and anti-war activists, religious leaders, and SOA Watch supporters heard speeches, sang, and responded to the names of victims with "PRESENTE!"

As part of the ongoing campaign for the freedom of our comrade Victor Herrera and other political prisoners of this fascist state in Mexico, we invite you to the actions listed below.

We would also like to inform you that Victor was transferred to a dormitory. He called us yesterday and he’s staying strong. He sends his greetings to all the comrades who’re concerned about his situation and sends special greetings to everybody from Oaxaca who’s sent their support from that rebellious land. He’s asked us for a show of solidarity in the form of phone cards and cigarettes to help him out economically inside. For further information about this, you can write directly to his family at this address: libertadavictor@gmail.com . International comrades who’ve asked us for a bank account number can also find out about this by writing to the same email address.

Meanwhile, we’re not letting this get us down. We have the firm conviction that our comrade is innocent and we won’t stop until we see him free, struggling here with us outside.

We would also like to inform you that yesterday, during a protest related to several different issues that have come to the fore in our society, there was yet another mobilization in which a street was blocked in front of the high school known as CCH Azcapotzalco. Many comrades who are students, some comrades from our collective and others were demanding the cancellation of the presidential decree doing away with the public power and light company; the freedom of all political prisoners, including Victor and the other prisoners arrested on October 2, both here and in Oaxaca; and an end to the construction of the new “golden” subway line in Mexico City. Once again though, groups of hired thugs were ordered to attack all of us who were protesting, including the students.

One of the members of our GRC collective was wounded deeply enough in the calf to require stitches, and several other people participating in the protest were also wounded.

We also denounce the judicial police who violently attacked three of the comrades from our collective on their way home, beating them badly and holding them at gunpoint.

We’re aware that university authorities know about these attacks and have done nothing to deactivate these groups of thugs at the schools, and furthermore, that these groups are paid by the Mexico City government to tear apart movements made up of social activists and rebellious youth in general. We hold them responsible for what happened yesterday at CCH Azcapotzalco and call on all conscious and freedom-loving people to join forces to defeat the fascist, oppressive system imposed on us and to stay tuned for further activities planned to show that there are more of us than there are of them who are struggling for public education, freedom, and justice.

Please spread the word about the activities and attend as many as possible.

BLOQUE G.R.C.

 

Wednesday, November 11, 2009.

Rally to inform and protest against Victor’s imprisonment at 11:00 A. M. in front of City Hall.

Friday, November 13, 2009.

Rally in support of the Oaxaca prisoners in front of the Torre Mayor on Reforma at 10:00 A. M.

On November 14 there will also be a gathering of Mujeres y la sexta to receive Gloria Arenas at the intersection of 5 de Febrero and Lucas de Lasaga near the San Antonio Abad subway station behind the Miguel Galas print shop.

Monday and Tuesday November 23 and 24

Informational work about Victor’s case from 8:30a.m to 5:00 P. M. at the San Lorenzo Tezongo campus of the UACM.

Sunday and Monday, November 29 and 30

A rally will be held at 3:00 in the afternoon on Sunday, November 29, after which everyone will spend the night outside the Reclusorio Sur to be on hand for Victor’s court appearance on Monday, November 30.

30 Tuesday, December 1

Week of actions for the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal, the African-American writer sentenced to death for his activity with the Black Panthers in the 60s, for defending the MOVE organization against the Philadelphia police in the 70s and early 80s as a journalist, and for his continuing combative journalism.

Saturday, December 5, 2009.

Forum of family members and friends of political prisoners at the Oventic Caracol.

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Rally outside the United States Embassy for the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal at 4:00 in the afternoon. Victor’s family members are invited to speak at the rally.

Malcolm X Park
NYC Council Member Charles Barron
Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah
Pam Africa
Glen Ford Black Agenda Report
Cindy Sheehan A coalition of black radicals and their allies gathered in Washington DC to assert the continued need for the Black Nationalist and anti-war agendas in the era of Barack Obama.

After a marathon rally in Malcolm X Park lasting over 5 hours, the Black Is Back Coalition led a march to the White House.

Speaker after speaker lambasted Barack Obama (as well as other members of the black political elite) as nothing more than a new black face on the same old white capitalist imperialism.

“Sure Obama is better than George Bush,” anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan said. “The corn on my big toe is better than George W. Bush. That doesn’t mean we should elect him president.” “The amount of money Obama is giving to the banks is reaching Alice in Wonderland numbers,” journalist Glenn Ford maintained. Pam Africa of the Move Coalition was harshest of all, referring to Obama as a “punk”.

A number of issues were addressed in addition to the Obama administration. The connection between attacks on Muslim immigrants and racism against African Americans was a constant theme, and a poster of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah was in prominent display at the front of the rally. Speakers stressed the continued need for reparations for slavery as well as for solidarity with the Palestinians against the Israeli State. Obama’s refusal to support Durban II was mentioned briefly as well as gentrification, the sub-prime housing crisis and the difficulty of mobilizing anti-war forces in the age of Obama.

Friday, November 13 from 5:30 – 7:00pm at UPenn’s Huntsman Hall Room 345 (3730 Walnut St)

Featuring human rights activist Ala Jaradat of Addameer – Prisoners’ Support and Human Rights Association in the Occupied West Bank city of Ramallah. Mr. Jaradat, program manager for Addameer and a former political prisoner, will be sharing his experiences campaigning against political prosecution, for the rights of political detainees, and actively working against the use of torture, arbitrary detention, isolation, and other forms of political repression.

The $3 billion dollars of annual U.S. aid to Israel helps fund Israeli prisons and detention centers where 8,100 Palestinian prisoners — including 60 women, 390 children, and 550 administrative detainees held without charge — are imprisoned in substandard conditions, subject to torture and denied legal counsel, medical treatment and family visitations.

Endorsements:
Bubbies and Zaydes (grandparents) for Peace in the Middle East, SUSTAIN, Philadelphia Jews for a Just Peace, Palestine Solidarity Group-Philadelphia, International Action Center, Philadelphia Against War and Socialist Action

Cities:

Chicago, Milwaukee, Detroit, San Francisco, Columbus, OH, Youngstown, OH, College Park, MD, Washington D.C., and New York

By Brenda Norrell

Photo of Hopi imprisoned at Alcatraz

KYKOTSMOVI, Ariz. -- Hopi gathered at the 'Water is Life' conference in Kykotsmovi on Friday, Nov. 6, 2009, to protect their aquifer and waters from mining and contamination from Peabody Coal on Black Mesa. It is also a time to remember the 19 Hopi imprisoned at Alcatraz who refused to allow their children to be indoctrinated in US colonial boarding schools.
"John Martini described the prisoner's cells at Alcatraz as 'tiny wooden cells ... worlds removed from the western desert and plains.' Indeed, a description of Alcatraz in 1902, just seven years after the Hopi prisoners were jailed there, suggests that the cells were in poor condition: 'The old cell blocks were `rotten and unsafe; the sanitary condition very dangerous to health. They are dark and damp, and are fire traps of the most approved (sic) kind," according to a history compiled by the Hopi Cultural Preservation Office.
"In a series of letters between H.R. Voth, a Mennonite missionary at Orayvi, and Guruther, the Commanding Officer at Alcatraz, family members at Hopi were extremely worried about the prisoners. There were rumors that some of them had died. In August, Voth wrote to the Guruther that the pictures of the prisoners were 'very much appreciated by relatives and friends/ because rumors had circulated that they were "poorly fed, clothed, worked hard, some had died, etc. were perhaps killed.
"In September, Voth wrote to Lomahongiwma to report on the prisoners' families and the crops. These reports must have caused considerable anguish among the prisoners, especially those who were separated from their families during important ceremonies and planting and harvesting. In addition, two of the prisoners' wives gave birth to children who died while the men were at Alcatraz."

 
In Memory of the 19 Hopi who resisted and were imprisoned at Alcatraz:
Aqawsi (Kwaa/Eagle)
Heevi'yma (Kookop/Fire)
Kuywisa (Kookop/Fire)
Lomahongiwma (Kookyangw/Spider)
Lomayawma (Is/Coyote)
Lomayestiwa (Kookyangw/Spider)
Masaatiwa (Kuukuts or Tep/Lizard or Greasewood)
Nasingayniwa (Kwaa/Eagle) Patupha(Kookop/Fire)
Piphongva (Masihonan/Grey Badger)
Polingyawma (Kyar/Parrot)
Qotsventiwa (Aawat/Bow)
Qotsyawma (Paa'is/Water Coyote)
Sikyaheptiwa (Piikyas or Patki/Young Corn or Water)
Talangayniwa (Kookop/Fire)
Talasyawma (Masihonan/Grey Badger)
Tawaletstiwa (Tasaphonan/Navajo Badger)
Tuvehoyiwma (Hon/Bear)
Yukiwma (Kookop/Fire)

A Public Forum On Water & Energy
"Water is Life"

Veterans Memorial Center, Kykotsmovi
Agenda
November 6, 2009
8:00 a.m. Registration
9:00 a.m. Welcome & Prayer - Alph Secakuku, Sipaulovi Village
President of H.O.P.I
9:00 a.m. Purpose of the Forum: Ben Nuvamsa, Moderator

• Recognition and Honoring of the Late (Former Hopi Tribal Chairman)

Chairman Ferrell Secakuku and the Late
Nat Nutongla (Advocates of the
Preservation of our sacred water)
9:15 a.m. History of Peabody Coal Company Ben Nuvamsa and
on the Black Mesa Mine Vernon Masayesva (former Hopi Tribal
(An Historical Chronicle of Peabody Coal leases Chairman)
from the 1960's to Present Day and the Role
of Hopi Tribal Attorneys).
10:00 a.m. Presentations by Invited Guest Speakers Moderated by Ben Nuvamsa
11:00 a.m. Collaboration with Hopi and Navajo Tribes; Roger Clark (Executive Director - Grand
Alternative Energy Projects; and Impacts of Canyon Trust)
Black Mesa, Mohave and Desert Rock Power
Plants: Showing of "Power Path" A Documentary
12:00 p.m. Lunch Break
Video: "Burning the Future: Coal in
America" - A documentary on open pit
mining and impacts on the environment".
1:00 p.m. - Track A: Black Mesa Environmental Impact Sean Gnant (CM Brewer, LLP)
2:00 p.m. Statement (What it is and its long term impacts
on Hopi)
1:00 p.m. - Track B: Life of Mine Permit Vernon Masayesva, Ben Nuvamsa
2:00 p.m. (What it is and what it means to you)
2:00 p.m. - Track C: Black Mesa Lease Reopener Vernon Masayesva & Ben Nuvamsa
2:30 p.m. (What is this and what it means to you)
2:00 p.m. - Track D: Alternative Energy Resources Shannon Francis
2:30 p.m.
2:30 p.m. Environmental, Cultural & Economic Impacts Open Microphone:
of Mining on Black Mesa & Kayenta Mines Testimony Offered by Forum Participants
(effects of pumping on the Navajo Aquifer
on our life ways, our ceremonies, our
economy).
4:00 p.m. Prayer and Adjournment

'Water is Life' conference information:
http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2009/11/hopi-water-forum-water-is-life.html