http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/ Organizers of the Bay Area gather here. Post your events, local news, and things of that nature here also. en Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:21:41 GMT vBulletin 60 http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/images/misc_2/rss.jpg http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/ http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40306-two-women-front-lines-struggle-haiti.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 15:26:38 GMT Two women from the front lines of the struggle in Haiti

Two Haitian women active in the struggle for democracy in Haiti will be here in the Bay for a short visit. Don't miss this opportunity to learn what's going on and "What's Next for Haiti."


What Next for Haiti?
With: Rea Dol and Euvonie Georges Auguste

Saturday, November 21st
4-6PM

La Pena Cultural Center
3105 Shattuck Avenue
Berkeley, CA

$7-25 no one turned away for lack of funds

For more information, (510) 483-7481 or Haiti Solidarity*:*Index
Contact: action.haiti@gmail.com

Join Haiti Action Committee for a rare opportunity to hear from two courageous women who are at the center of the struggle for democracy in Haiti. Rea Dol and Euvonie Auguste are Haitian women educators who have devoted their lives to empowering the poorest communities in Haiti, fighting for a society where discrimination and injustice will be banished forever. They are leaders in the movement for literacy among women.

They will speak about their work, and about the current situation in Haiti, the impact of the US/UN occupation, and the popular demands and ongoing resistance of the grassroots movement.

SPEAKER BIOS:

EUVONIE GEORGES AUGUSTE

Euvonie Georges Auguste is a leading fighter for human rights, the rights of women, and literacy in Haiti. She has also been in the forefront of the battle for recognition and respect for Vodou, the indigenous religion of the Haitian people.

Euvonie is a member of Fanmi Lavalas, the largest grassroots movement in Haiti. Throughout her life as a militant, Euvonie Georges Auguste has always fought on the side of the dispossessed, for a just society where discrimination and injustice will be banished forever. From 2001 to 2004, she took an active part in the literacy campaign launched by the Aristide government on September 7, 2001.

After the U.S.-orchestrated coup against the democratically elected government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Euvonie continued to organize for democracy and women’s rights. She spoke at the World Social Forum in Venezuela in 2006, focusing on the movement for popular education in Haiti and its connection with similar efforts in Venezuela.

When Euvonie talks about her experiences in promoting literacy among the poor in Haiti, she speaks not only as a theoretician but as a practitioner, someone who has never stopped believing in the power of education, even in the midst of terrible repression.

REA DOL

Rea is the founder and director of SOPUDEP school. Located in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, SOPUDEP is a comprehensive public school serving the poorest residents of the city. Founded in 2002, the school has grown to over 480 students, many of whom receive their only regular meal through the school's hot lunch program.

Not only is Rea the founder and director of SOPUDEP; she also is a community organizer and a grassroots leader. She has headed up an adult literacy program, a women's economic empowerment organization, HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention program, and many more. She coordinates a federation of grassroots women's organizations fighting for survival in Haiti's harsh economy.

Rea is determined to improve the lives of the poorest people in her community through education. Most of all she wants her people to have a sense of pride and hope.


Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

Freedom Archives Home ]]> Bay Area, Ca Moorbey http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40306-two-women-front-lines-struggle-haiti.html http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40296-mumia-abu-jamal-faces-new-execution-threat-sf-event-nov-8-a.html Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:27:30 GMT Mumia Abu-Jamal faces new execution threat -- SF Event Nov. 8 Mumia Abu-Jamal faces new execution threat -- SF Event Nov. 8 : Indybay (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/11/05/18627908.php) by Jeff Mackler Thursday Nov 5th, 2009 12:03 PM Pennsylvania prosecutors, twice rejected in... Mumia Abu-Jamal faces new execution threat -- SF Event Nov. 8

Mumia Abu-Jamal faces new execution threat -- SF Event Nov. 8 : Indybay

by Jeff Mackler
Thursday Nov 5th, 2009 12:03 PM

Pennsylvania prosecutors, twice rejected in their efforts to impose the death penalty on Mumia (in 2001 and 2008), may have found new support in the U.S. Supreme Court.

SF EVENT FOR MUMIA, KEVIN COOPER, AND TROY DAVIS -- Sunday, NOVEMBER 8TH AT 2PM: Centro Del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street (between 15th and 16th Streets) San Francisco (read more at bottom of article)

After almost 28 years on Pennsylvania’s death row and innumerable battles in the U.S. criminal injustice system, innocent political prisoner, journalist and world renowned “Voice of the Voiceless” Mumia Abu-Jamal lost his final appeal on April 6, 2009. Ignoring it’s own precedents and those of the Third Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals below it, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to affirm what had been the “law of the land” for decades, that the systematic and racist exclusion of Blacks from juries voids all guilty verdicts and mandates a new trial.

In Mumia’s 1982 trial presided over by the notorious “hanging judge” Albert Sabo, the prosecutor Joseph McGill used 10 or perhaps 11 of his 15 peremptory strikes against Black jurors. But as with virtually all court decisions over the past decades in Mumia’s case, the “Mumia Exception,” the contorted interpretation of the “law” to reach a predetermined result, was once again applied, with the high court refusing to review the twisted logic of its subordinate bodies thereby allowing Mumia’s frame-up murder conviction to stand.

But what has caught the attention of both legal observers and human rights activists even more is the fact that the same court, while refusing to hear Mumia’s appeal, chose to delay a ruling on a cross appeal filed by the State of Pennsylvania that seeks Mumia’s execution. Pennsylvania prosecutors, twice rejected in their efforts to impose the death penalty on Mumia (in 2001 and 2008), may have found new support in the U.S. Supreme Court.

It appears that the court’s delay in ruling on the validity of Mumia’s original execution sentence was due to its decision to grant oral arguments in the Ohio case of Smith v. Spisak, a case that might re-write or reinterpret the nation’s laws to make it easier to obtain jury verdicts calling for execution. The Court heard Ohio prosecutor’s arguments for Spisak’s execution on October 13, 2009. A ruling is expected in the year ahead.

Frank Spisak, a neo-Nazis who wore a Hitler mustache to his trial, denounced Jews, and Blacks and confessed in court to three hate crime murders in Ohio, saw his jury-imposed death sentence reversed in the federal courts when his attorney’s successfully invoked a 1988 Supreme Court decision in the famous Mills v. Maryland case. Mills requires that in order to find mitigating circumstances sufficient to impose a sentence of life imprisonment without parole, as opposed to the death penalty, the jury’s majority decision (as opposed to unanimous decision) on each mitigating circumstance is sufficient. In both Spisak and Mumia’s case the presiding trial court judge violated Mills and in essence instructed the juries that unanimity, not a majority vote on each mitigating circumstance was required. In both cases the prosecution’s appeal was rejected and Mills was upheld, thus staying the imposed death sentences and ordering a new trial or sentencing hearing with the proper jury instructions. In both cases the prosecution, seeking to avoid a new trial in any form, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court demanding execution.

An April 7, 2009 article in the Legal Intelligencer, the oldest law journal in the country, had this to say about the Supreme Court’s decision to delay a ruling on Pennsylvania’s request to re-impose the death penalty on Mumia.

“In both cases, [Spisak and Abu-Jamal] the federal courts' decisions to overturn the death sentences hinged on Mills v. Maryland -- a 1988 U.S. Supreme Court decision that governs how juries should deliberate during the penalty phase of a capital trial.

“The Mills ruling struck down a Maryland statute that said juries in capital cases must be unanimous on any aggravating or mitigating factor. [Emphasis added].

“The justices declared that unanimity was properly required for any aggravating factor, but that mitigating factors -- those that weigh against imposing a death sentence -- must be handled more liberally, with each juror free to find on his or her own.”

The effect of Mills was to make it harder for prosecutors to obtain death sentences in capital cases. The Intelligencer concludes, “The question now before the courts is whether Mills requires that death sentences in other states be overturned if the juries in those states are misled by faulty instructions or sufficiently vague verdict forms to believe that mitigating factors require unanimity.” [Emphasis added].

I emphasize the words “other states” because prior to this unexpected turn of events the legal community appeared to agree that Mills applied to all states. That is, if a jury was orally mis-instructed and/or received faulty or unclear verdict forms that implied it needed to be unanimous with regard to mitigating circumstances sufficient to not impose the death penalty, the death penalty was set aside and a new sentencing hearing was ordered.

This is what happened in Mumia’s case when Federal District Court Judge William H. Yohn in 2001 employed Mills to set aside the jury’s death penalty decision. Yohn gave the State of Pennsylvania 180 days to decide whether or not to retry Mumia at a new sentencing hearing where new evidence of innocence can be presented by Mumia, but where the jury can only decide between execution and life in prison without parole. At this hearing, the jury cannot make a decision regarding guilt. Since then, Pennsylvania officials have effectively stayed Yohn’s order by appealing to the higher federal courts.

In deciding to hear Ohio prosecutors’ arguments in the Spisak case with regard to Mills the Supreme Court has implied that one of the key issues they will consider centers on the interpretation of the concept of federalism, that is, that the exercise of power in the U.S. is shared in some measure between the federal government and the states. The political pendulum has swung back and forth on this issue. In past decades, the “states’ rights” interpretation was employed to justify racist state laws that denied Blacks access to public institutions and facilities. With the rise of the Civil Rights movement federal power was used to compel the elimination of the same racist laws. Justice has been far from blind in racist America. It is applied to the advantage of the working class and the oppressed only to the extent that the relationship of forces, that is, the struggles of the masses, demand it.

Since Mills was decided in the State of Maryland, the would-be Ohio and Pennsylvania executioners argue that based on the laws of their states, Mills cannot be automatically applied to the situation in Ohio where a different set of jury instructions and therefore jury deliberations were involved. Indeed, Ohio prosecutors argued before the Supreme Court on October 13 that Ohio and Pennsylvania were the exception and not the rule and that the norm in other states was to essentially reject a strict interpretation of Mills in favor of various state guidelines regarding jury instructions.

Should this “states’ rights” argument be accepted and Mills be effectively constricted, the Supreme Court could then uphold Spisak’s death sentence and, with a mere citation to Spisak and the new interpretation of Mills, uphold the Pennsylvania’s appeal seeking Mumia’s execution.

While most legal observers previously considered a Supreme Court Mills re-interpretation a virtual impossibility, the stage has now been set for such an outcome. The state’s longstanding effort o execute Mumia has been given new legal avenues for success with the top court’s decision to re-consider the Spisak case.

What the Supreme Court will do, however, is far from clear. It will also consider Spisak’s new attorney’s argument that his jury trial lawyers were incompetent in essentially arguing during their trial summation that Spisak was essentially an extreme and horrific nut case who barely understood what he was doing. Should the Supreme Court chose to ignore or side-step Pennsylvania’s Mills arguments and rule only on the issue of ineffective assistance of counsel, the chances of Mumia’s execution recede considerably. The court could also chose to remand the case back to the lower courts to reconsider their previous Mills interpretation in light of the Supreme Court’s possible new instructions on this issue. Second guessing the courts in Mumia’s 28-year legal sojourn has stumped virtually the entire legal community, or at least those who believe that the laws of the land should be implemented without prejudice to the individual concerned. In virtually every instance, however, this has not been the case; an unending series of legal atrocities have been perpetrated against Mumia that expose the criminal “justice” system for the fraud it is in racist and classist America.

Mumia is far from out of danger, especially when his very life, in legal terms, presently hinges on the whims of the Supreme Court, the institution that has already denied his request for a hearing before them on another issue, the systematic and racist exclusion of Black jurors. Such exclusion is explicitly prohibited in the historic 1986 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Batson v. Kentucky. But the court once again ignored its own rulings and even decisions that strengthened Batson claims to hasten Mumia's demise. In every sense Mumia’s life is on the line as never before. Pennsylvania’s Governor Ed Rendell is pledged to sign what could be the third and final warrant for Mumia’s execution, a warrant that would likely order that his life be taken by lethal injection.

Mumia's supporters around the world and Mumia himself have long known that the battle for his life and freedom would be qualitatively more advanced by the construction of a powerful mass movement in the streets that won the hearts and minds of millions and more than reliance on a court system permeated by its very nature with class and race bias.

The state power's march for Mumia’s execution has not been limited to the courts. The 2007 “Murdered by Mumia” book co-authored by Maureen Faulkner, the wife of police officer Daniel Faulkner, who Mumia was falsely convicted of murdering, and rightwing talk radio host, Michael Smerconish, presents an outrageous account of Faulkner’s murder. While having little or no basis in the facts of the case the book has nevertheless been used to advance the Fraternal Order of Police’s longstanding campaign to execute the “cop killer.”

More recently, filmmaker Tigre Hill has produced a work scheduled for a debut in Philadelphia in December and later international distribution entitled, “The Barrel of a Gun,” wherein ex-Black Panther leader Bobby Seal’s rhetoric about “offing the pig,” is coupled with rightwinger David Horowitz’s assertions that Mumia was merely carrying out Panther policy. The three-minute preview or trailer to “The Barrel of a Gun” theorizes, without a shred of evidence, that Mumia and his brother Billy Cook, literally planned the Faulkner murder, ambush style.

Those unfamiliar with Mumia’s background and the facts of the case could only conclude that Mumia was guilty without question. That Mumia had left the disintegrating Panthers more than a decade before his frame-up trial, that he was an award-winning journalist and president of the Association of Black Journalists, a leading reporter/critic of the Philadelphia Police Department, dozens of whose officers were indicted and convicted on Justice Department charges of involvement in drug-running, prostitution, planting and falsification evidence and intimidation of witnesses, was not mentioned.

Today, having exhausted most all legal remedies, Mumia’s supporters are engaged in an important campaign to demand a Justice Department civil rights investigation into charges presented by his supporters that demonstrate illegal collusion between Pennsylvania prosecutors and the judiciary. A delegation of Mumia’s defenders across the country has planned a November 12 visit to Washington, D.C. where a meeting with Attorney General Eric Holder will be sought for this purpose. Thousands of petitions demanding Mumia’s freedom obtained across the world will also be presented Holder and to officials of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Similarly, a mass antiwar protest in Washington, D.C.’s Malcolm X Park is set for Saturday, November 7. In addition to the immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from the Middle East the sponsoring Black is Back Coalition is demanding Mumia’s freedom.

In the San Francisco Bay Area the Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal is sponsoring a tour with Amnesty International’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign leader Laura Moye. Entitled “Innocent but Facing Execution,” the tour will focus on the cases of Mumia, Troy Davis and Kevin Cooper, three innocent frame-up victims of America's racist criminal “justice” system.

For information in Philadelphia call: 215-476-8812. In San Francisco: 510-268-9429.

BAY AREA EVENTS FOR MUMIA:

Sunday, NOVEMBER 8TH AT 2PM: Centro Del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street (between 15th and 16th Streets) San Francisco

Admission: $5.00 - $20 sliding scale. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Hear:

Laura Moye, Director, Amnesty International’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign; actively
working for several years with Troy Davis and his family in Georgia

Hans Bennett, Founder, Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal; Editor, Free Mumia News; Author,
The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal: Innocent Man on Death Row

Rebecca Doran, leading activist in Kevin Cooper’s defense
Sunday, November 8, 2009 2:00 pm

Sponsor: Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, 510-268-9429 freemumia.org [Note: If you can't attend send your check payable to: "Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal," P.O. Box 10328, Oakland, CA 94610.]

[Also in Palo Alto, Fri., Nov. 6, 7:30 pm, Fellowship Hall, First Baptist Church, 305 N. California
Ave, 650-326-8837, peaceandjustice.org] labor donated
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

Freedom Archives Home ]]> Bay Area, Ca Moorbey http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40296-mumia-abu-jamal-faces-new-execution-threat-sf-event-nov-8-a.html http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40266-40th-anniv-assassination-ch-fred-hampton-defense-capt-mark-clark.html Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:01:33 GMT Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. Speaking Tour "You Can Kill a Revolutionary But You Can't Kill the Revolution!"

STARTS: Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 7:00pm
ENDS: Friday, November 13, 2009 at 9:00pm
Locations: Oakland, Sonoma, Stanford, Diablo Valley College, Santa Cruz, San Francisco
Description:
At each of seven events commemorating the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Black Panther leaders Chairman Fred Hampton and Defense Captain Mark Clark, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. will bring to life the legend of his father, who, at age 21, had organized the nation's largest chapter of the Black Panther Party and the original "rainbow coalition" and was perceived as such a threat to the government that on Dec. 4, 1969, his home was raided at 4 a.m. by the FBI and Chicago police, who shot him dead in his bed as he lay sleeping beside his wife, Akua Njeri, who would give birth to their son, Fred Jr., on Dec. 29.

Today, Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. heads the Prisoners of Conscience Committee, carrying on much of his father's work. The tour is headlined "YOU CAN KILL A REVOLUTIONARY BUT YOU CAN'T KILL THE REVOLUTION!"

The seven stops on this historic tour are:
*Saturday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m., Black Dot Cafe, 1195 Pine St., West Oakland
*Monday, Nov. 9, 7 p.m., Sonoma State University, Stevenson Hall 1002
*Tuesday, Nov. 10, 6:30 p.m., Black Community Services Center, 418 Santa Teresa St., Stanford
*Wednesday, Nov. 11, 12:30 p.m., Diablo Valley College, 321 Golf Club Rd, Pleasant Hill
*Wednesday, Nov. 11, 7:30 p.m., Barrios Unidos, 1817 Soquel Ave., Santa Cruz
*Thursday, Nov. 12, 6:30 p.m., Poor Magazine 2nd Floor Theater, Redstone Building, 2940 16th St., near 16th St. BART, San Francisco
*Friday, Nov. 13, 7 p.m., Niebyl Proctor Library, 6501 Telegraph Ave., Oakland

The tour is a fundraiser for BlockReportRadio. com and SFBayView.com and is endorsed by 393 Films, Brown Berets, Barrios Unidos, NAACP and Black New World. Also appearing at various stops on the tour will be former Minister of Culture Emory Douglas and Elbert "Big Man" Howard, formerly of the Black Panther Party, Boots from the Street Sweepers Social Club and the rap group the Coup, Hip Hop journalist Davey D, and Queen Nandi from Poor News Network. Donation: $10-$10,000

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC
P.O. Box 16, College Station, NY, NY 10030
212-330-8029, [http://www.FreeMumia.com]Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC info@FreeMumia.com ]]> Bay Area, Ca Moorbey http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40266-40th-anniv-assassination-ch-fred-hampton-defense-capt-mark-clark.html http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40202-aoki-premiere-documentary-nov-12-oakland.html Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:58:35 GMT Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 8:48 PM To all educators, On November 12, AOKI, a documentary film on the life of Richard Aoki, a third-generation Japanese American who became one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party, will premiere at the Grand Lake Theater in... Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 8:48 PM

To all educators,

On November 12, AOKI, a documentary film on the life of Richard Aoki, a third-generation Japanese American who became one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party, will premiere at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. We encourage you to spread the word to your students about this important event. It's a great opportunity to educate on issues of social justice, solidarity and community activism. Making announcements in class, providing extra credit to your students and/or using this as a time to teach about the life and legacy of Richard Aoki and the work of the Black Panthers, are all ways you can help take part in this effort.

Tickets are currently on sale at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/87178. Information on the film along with how to purchase tickets are below. Please feel free to pass this message along to other educators and community.

Thanks in advance,

Ben Wang & Mike Cheng, Filmmakers

----------------------


World premiere of the documentary film
AOKI
November 12
8PM
Grand Lake Theater
3200 Grand Ave., Oakland
A 30 minute Q&A panel with the filmmakers will follow

Tickets:

Online pre-sale tickets can be purchased for $8.50 (general admission) or $7 (students) at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/87178. A small service fee will be added by Brown Paper Tickets.

Tickets can also be purchased the night of the premiere at the Grand Lake Theater's box office for $10 (general admission) or $9 (students).

Film description:

AOKI is a documentary film chronicling the life of Richard Aoki (1938-2009), a third-generation Japanese American who became one of the founding members of the Black Panther Party. Filmed over the last five years of Richard's life, this documentary features extensive footage with Richard and exclusive interviews with his comrades, friends, and former students. Viewers will learn about Richard’s childhood in a WWII Japanese American concentration camp, growing up in West Oakland, and serving eight years in the U.S. military. The film explores previously unknown facts about the formation of the Black Panther Party such as how Richard became intimately involved in its founding and contributed the first two firearms to the Party. AOKI highlights how Richard's leadership also made a significant impact on individuals and groups in the contemporary Asian American Movement. Richard's contributions to the groundbreaking organization Asian American Political Alliance (AAPA) and its involvement in the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF) student strike led to the formation of ethnic studies at U.C. Berkeley. Above all else, AOKI is a film that demonstrates the incredible dedication to justice that one man's life has had and how the lessons of solidarity, commitment, and discipline can carry on from one generation to the next.

Check the Aoki Film for more details, trailers, and excerpts from the film.





Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

http://www.Freedomarchives.org ]]> Bay Area, Ca Moorbey http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40202-aoki-premiere-documentary-nov-12-oakland.html http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40180-three-major-oscar-grant-related-events-wed-thurs-fri.html Wed, 28 Oct 2009 23:54:00 GMT Three major Oscar Grant-related events Oct. 28, 29, 30 - Details below from our allies:

Wednesday Evening: See JR Valrey's film "OPERATION: SMALL AXE" in Berkeley
http://www.indybay. org/newsitems/ 2009/10/23/ 18626442. php

Thursday Evening: Community Organizing Meeting in West Oakland
http://www.indybay. org/newsitems/ 2009/10/26/ 18626798. php

Friday Morning: Come Support JR Valrey in court in Downtown Oakland.
http://www.facebook .com/event. php?eid=15781994 1957&ref=ts

Quick update on the situation

1. The Mehserle trial is being moved. They court will decide where on Friday.

2. Bits and pieces of the secret (independent) Meyers Nave report have been leaked and they seem to confirmed everything we said from the start. Including that ALL OF THE COPS are responsible for the murder, not just Mehserle.

3. BART still won't do the right thing.
* Killer cops Tony Pirone and Marysol Domenici are on paid leave and still on the job.
* The other 4 killer cops (Noel Flores, Jonathan Guerra, Emery Knudtson and Jon Woffinden) have returned to work. REMEMBER THEIR NAMES AND KEEP AN EYE OUT FOR THESE CREEPS. If you see them working, send us an email about when and where you saw them!
* Chief Gee will resign in December, but he is still on the job for now.
* GM Dorothy Dugger is still on the job.
* The Board of Directors is still spineless and refuses to take on these murderers and the people who are protecting them.

Wednesday & Friday events


Please post and distribute widely:

The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal urges you to attend a public meeting

Defend JR Valrey!

JAIL KILLER COPS! FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!

Justice for Oscar Grant! Drop All Charges Against JR Valrey!

For Labor Action To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal! End the Racist Death Penalty!

Wednesday, 28 October 2009, 7 PM -- at the Niebyl Proctor Marxist Library

6501 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley CA

VIDEO: "OPERATION SMALL AXE," narrated by JR Valrey, a short film that shows "the occupation of Black and Brown neighborhoods by a militarized local law enforcement apparatus that parallels, in many ways, the current experiences of neighborhoods of color in post-apartheid South Africa and of Palestinians on their own occupied land." -- Cynthia McKinney

SPEAKERS: JR Valrey – Minister of Information for the Prisoners of Conscience Committee (POCC), host of Block Report Radio, a producer at KPFA and associate editor of the SF Bay View,

Gerald Sanders - Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal,

Jack Bryson - father of two friends of Oscar Grant, who were with him on the BART platform the night he was murdered, and

Richard Brown - former SF 8 defendant.


JR Valrey was arrested by Oakland Police on the night of January 7th, 2009, and had his camera confiscated, for covering the street uprising following the police murder of Oscar Grant. JR has consistently covered police brutality and terrorism. The bogus charge he faces: felony arson!

The BART cop who put a bullet in the back of the young Oscar Grant--while Grant was lying face down on a BART platform--is Johannes Mehserle.

With 45 police killings in Oakland in the past 5 years, Mehserle is the only cop to be charged with murder while on duty. But the cops are pulling out all the stops to avoid a conviction. With a starkly racist argument, Mehserle's lawyer has succeeded in getting the trial moved out of Oakland!

The next hearing date for JR is October 30th. Come out to show your opposition to this vindictive prosecution on trumped up felony charges!


Defend JR Valrey!
9 AM Friday Oct. 30th Room 11, Superior Court
1225 Fallon St, Oakland



MUMIA ABU-JAMAL is an award-winning journalist, and an innocent man on death row for 27 years! Mumia's appeals have been exhausted, and he faces renewed danger of execution. The Supreme Court will rule soon on a petition by the State of Pennsylvania to reinstate Mumia’s death sentence. The courts will not free him--we must organize mass and labor actions to FREE MUMIA!


-- The Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
PO Box 16222 Oakland CA 94610
INFO: 510 763-2347


Thursday event

Johannes Mehserle and lawyer Michael Rains have convinced the courts that a well-informed public is a danger to the police state!

Where will the trial be moved?
What can we do now?

Please join us at a COMMUNITY MEETING to Strategize and Organize!

Thursday, October 29th, 2009, 7pm

The Continental Club, 1658 12th St, West Oakland

Accessible by BART and AC Transit #13 bus
Organize and Strategize Justice for Oscar Grant!
Justice Transferred is Justice Denied!
No Solace for Mehserle the Murderer! ]]> Bay Area, Ca Moorbey http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40180-three-major-oscar-grant-related-events-wed-thurs-fri.html http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40171-innocent-but-facing-execution.html Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:47:07 GMT Innocent! BUT FACING EXECUTION Kevin Cooper Troy Davis Mumia Abu-Jamal Hear: Laura Moye, Director, Amnesty International’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign; actively working for several years with Troy Davis and his family in Georgia Hans Bennett, Founder, Journalists for... Innocent! BUT FACING EXECUTION

Kevin Cooper Troy Davis Mumia Abu-Jamal

Hear:
Laura Moye, Director, Amnesty International’s Death Penalty Abolition Campaign; actively
working for several years with Troy Davis and his family in Georgia

Hans Bennett, Founder, Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal; Editor, Free Mumia News; Author,
The Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal: Innocent Man on Death Row

Rebecca Doran, leading activist in Kevin Cooper’s defense

Sunday, November 8, 2009 2:00 pm

Centro Del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street (between 15th and 16th Streets) San Francisco
Admission: $5.00 - $20 sliding scale. No one turned away for lack of funds.

Sponsor: Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal, 510-268-9429 freemumia.org
[Also in Palo Alto, Fri., Nov. 6, 7:30 pm, Fellowship Hall, First Baptist Church, 305 N. California
Ave, 650-326-8837, peaceandjustice.org] labor donated


Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

Freedom Archives Home ]]> Bay Area, Ca Moorbey http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40171-innocent-but-facing-execution.html http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40155-honduras-haiti-vigil-thurs-oct-29-4-30-oakland.html Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:47:27 GMT Honduras/Haiti Vigil: Thurs. Oct. 29 - 4:30-5:30 Oakland Federal Building - 1301 Clay St (12th St. BART) Hondurans and Haitians are still in the streets protesting political kidnappings and coups. ** Haitian President Aristide and Honduran President Zelaya - both kidnapped from their... Honduras/Haiti Vigil: Thurs. Oct. 29 - 4:30-5:30

Oakland Federal Building - 1301 Clay St (12th St. BART)


Hondurans and Haitians are still in the streets protesting political kidnappings and coups.

** Haitian President Aristide and Honduran President Zelaya - both kidnapped from their homes in the middle of the night and flown into exile in military coups. US involvement in both abductions is clear. This is intolerable.


** Aristide was abducted by US Special Forces in 2004 and flown to Africa on a US military plane. He is still in exile in Africa.


** Zelaya was seized in his pajamas -- by troops under the command of a general trained at the US School of the Americas -- and flown to the US military base at Soto Cano, then to Costa Rica.


** It has been over 2 years since the kidnapping and disappearance of Haitian human rights leader Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine. Yet the authorities have sat on their hands.
President Aristide, a liberation theology priest with a 91.8% mandate (2000 election), was removed because he fought to eliminate poverty. His policies angered the Haitian elite and the US which profit from sweatshops, privatisation and the import of [US] rice which has destroyed the local agriculture and contributed to starvation. Like Zelaya in Honduras and Chávez in Venezuela (who also faced a coup in 2002), Aristide increased the minimum wage, and invested in food, health and education.

Return Zelaya to the Presidency!

Return Aristide to Haiti!

Return Lovinsky!

Sponsored by Global Women's Strike, Haiti Action Committee and Women of Color in the Global Women's Strike. Endorsed by Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition.

Haiti Solidarity*:*Index Huelga Mundial de Mujeres



Thurs. Oct. 29,
7-10pm

Presentation about the Military Coup in Honduras
with Dr. Luther Castillo

Centro del Pueblo, 474
Valencia St., at 16th St., SF



Dr. Luther Castillo is a young Garifuna
doctor and community organizer who is the

founder and director of the hospital that is bears the name "For the
Health of Our

People" (Luaga Hatuadi Waduheno in the Garifuna language). On
October 7th at 6am

three army patrols broke down the doors and stormed the Garifuna
hospital.



The hospital and clinic is dedicated to providing the most important
health services

to the indigenous communities isolated on the Atlantic Coast. After
graduating from

the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba in 2005, Dr. Castillo
returned to the

coast of Honduras and led the construction of the first "Garifuna
hospital" which

now serves 20,000 people in the area. The hospital opened in December
2007 and Dr.

Castillo was named "Honduran Doctor of the Year" for 2007 by
the International

Rotary Clubs of Tegucigalpa.



Since the military coup on June 28, 2009, Dr. Castillo

and the hospital have been subject to many threats of closure and other
attacks by

the military.



The event is a fundraiser for the National Resistance Front against the
military

coup in Honduras.



Sponsored by Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition, of which
the ANSWER

Coalition is a member. Call 415-821-6545 or visit


Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition | COALICIÓN DE SOLIDARIDAD CON AMERICA LATINA DEL AREA DE LA BAHIA.. for more
info.



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977

Freedom Archives Home ]]> Bay Area, Ca Moorbey http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40155-honduras-haiti-vigil-thurs-oct-29-4-30-oakland.html http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40023-oct-22nd-protest-against-police-abuse.html Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:04:33 GMT One More Reason for a Powerful October 22nd Protestþ
by Otis ( oct22bayarea [at] gmail.com )
Sunday Oct 18th, 2009 6:45 PM
People are outraged, and they should be!

The rally and march on Thursday, October 22nd must be a powerful political expression of our anger and determination to stop a system which sets the police on the people, and then defends them from punishment.

First the police murder Oscar Grant in Cold Blood! Now, the the judge has agreed with the murderer's attorney, that killer-cop Johannes Mehserle cannot get a fair trial in Oakland. A screaming irony, considering the "fair trial" that Oscar recieved at the hands of judge-jury-executio ner Mehserle. Justice for Oscar Grant!
The system looks like they're fixing to let Killer cop Johannes Mehserle walk free. We've seen this before. The cop/killers of Amadou Diallo were acqitted when the trial was moved from NY City (where Amadou was shot 19 times) to conservative and cop-friendly upstate New York. And we remember the innocent verdict that was given to the cops who mercilessly beat Rodney King, after the venue was changed from L.A. to Ronald Regan-land and cop city, Simi Valley. That one was also on video!

The Judge and Mehserle's attorney, Michael Rains agree. Too many people have heard about the case. Too many people have protested. And, incredibly, Rains argued that so many Black people in Oakland have been brutalized by the police, that they would be incapable of rendering a "fair" judgement!

No, the problem is not that people know too much about police brutality. Except for those millions whose daily lives are under the heel of police 24/7, most people from other sections of society know too little - choose to ignore or are kept ignorant - of the exploding national epidemic of Police Brutality and murder, growing Repression, and the Criminalization of a whole Generation of Youth. And hardly anyone knows the extent of this brutality, with thousands having been killed at the hands of Law Enforcement.

This has to change, and it can. By building a powerful rally and march on October 22nd, encouraging people from many sections of society to step out that day, crossing the divides that separate us, standing with the people who are the targets of police violence - we can send a loud message that says:
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH, NO MORE STOLEN LIVES!

Spread the word! Forward this email. Twitter and tweet. Print up leaflets (attached) and distribute far and wide. Endorse the day and encourage others to do the same (teachers, lawyers, ministers and communities of faith, schools). Drop whatever you're doing that day. Walk out of work and school - it's that important! AND, don't forget, WEAR BLACK!

RALLY OCTOBER 22, 12PM AT 14TH AND BROADWAY, FRANK OGAWA PLAZA, IN OAKLAND
http://www.october2 2.org ]]> Bay Area, Ca Moorbey http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/40023-oct-22nd-protest-against-police-abuse.html http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/39947-join-us-november-19th-nourishing-abolition.html Fri, 16 Oct 2009 14:02:11 GMT please join us at a special benefit for Critical Resistance: Nourishing Abolition a celebration to benefit the work of Critical Resistance - Oakland dinner performances art show please join us at a special benefit for
Critical Resistance:

Nourishing Abolition
a celebration to benefit the work of
Critical Resistance - Oakland

dinner
performances
art show

featuring:

Angela Y. Davis
Sparlha Swa
Destiny Arts
and more...

Thursday, November 19th
6:30 pm
First Unitarian Church of Oakland
685 14th St
Oakland CA 94612

for more info:
www.criticalresista nce.org
(510) 444 0484 ext 1
croakland@criticalr esistance. org

NA invite front
tickets are $40 to $80
click here to get yours online,
or to make a donation to our Community Ticket Fund

The Community Ticket Fund
Critical Resistance is dedicating to making sure everyone is a part of the movement to abolish the prison industrial complex. We are trying to raise $2,000 for our Community Ticket Fund to make sure we can provide low- and no-cost tickets to this event. If you can make a donation to the Community Ticket Fund or want a Community Ticket, please let us know.

Sponsorships
We're also looking to sponsorships to help make sure this event is a financial and organizing success. If you think you have a little more to give to help us bring people together and move our shared work ahead, please let us know!

Our Work
CR-Oakland is working to build. Right now, we're working to support statewide efforts to get people home from prison and shrink the system overall; create alternatives to policing; train new leaders; and connect organizing projects all over the Bay Area and United States.

We are a volunteer-led organzation, which means we need your help! if you think you might want to give some of your time, connect us with another organization you're a part of, or plan an internship, please reach out and tell us.

Join Our Mailing List!
Critical Resistance
1904 Franklin St #504
Oakland, California 94612
www.criticalresista nce.org
Forward email ]]> Bay Area, Ca Moorbey http://www.assatashakur.org/forum/bay-area-ca/39947-join-us-november-19th-nourishing-abolition.html