BAUAW NEWSLETTER, MONDAY, MAY 18, 2020

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Resolution for Funding for the Undocumented

Whereas, Governor Newsom recently announced the creation of a $125 million emergency relief fund for undocumented workers, none of whom are eligible for the federal stimulus, the centerpiece being a one-time payment of $500 to 150,000 individuals;

Whereas, the undocumented pay $3 billion in state and local taxes every year;[1]

Whereas, California's cost-of-living is extraordinarily high;[2]

Resolved:  Adult School Teachers United considers the one-time $500 grant to undocumented workers at best, token.  It is barely 25 percent of the weekly wage or six percent of the monthly wage the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) considers necessary to lift a family of four in the Bay Area above the poverty line. This is approximately $47.50-an-hour total per household before taxes extrapolating from figures provided by HUD.

As the fifth largest economy in the world, and with Silicon Valley, agribusiness, defense contractors and Hollywood sitting on huge capital reserves, California must provide a living wage to all. Instead it has failed to even match the $600 a week Unemployment Insurance (UI) boost provided by the federal government which itself is grossly inadequate.

We will attempt to circulate our position widely in the labor movement and in the immigrants' rights community, and we call for united labor actions to fight for the necessary level of financial support.”

Contact: 

Kristen Pursley, President,

Adult School Teachers United (ASTU)

(510)-741-8359

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[1] https://www.kqed.org/news/11809657/new-covid-19-relief-benefits-leaves-out-some-undocumented-immigrants

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-44725026

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/10/americas-10-most-expensive-states-to-live-in-2019.html

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Take action for the Week of Palestinian Struggle!  View web version

Share Tweet Forward Share Call to Action! Week of Palestinian Struggle, 15-22 May 2020 The call for the week of action is below - but at our website, we have a list of themes for actions, scheduled events, ideas for what you can do, and a form for you to submit your endorsement. Check those out at these links: Days of Action: See the Schedule of Events  Action Ideas: What You Can Do Endorse or Submit Your Activity  On 15-22 May 2020 Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network urges all organizations, activists and movements to join us in a collective Week of Palestinian Struggle.  On these days, we remember the Nakba, the theft of Palestinian land and the dispossession of the Palestinian people. At the same time, we celebrate, affirm and pledge to continue over 72 years of Palestinian resistance for liberation and return.  For decades, the Palestinian people’s  movement has commemorated 15 May and the week that follows as a week of solidarity, resistance and struggle, affirming a revolution that will continue until victory. This week marks the Palestinian, Arab and international struggle for justice and liberation, a struggle that has continued for 72 years and continues every day. As the Nakba continues, the resistance continues! Join us in a week of virtual and in-person actions to stand with the Palestinian people through 72 years of struggle confronting Zionism, imperialism and reaction and for the liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea!  Click here to endorse the week of action or send us your activities.  We know that the Zionist ethnic cleansing project did not begin on 15 May 1948 – it was mostly completed by this point throughout 78% of historic Palestine after its launch the previous December. More than that, it was built upon decades of military escalation and European colonization in Palestine and throughout the region more broadly, particularly the British colonial mandate and its Balfour declaration. This week of struggle requires confronting the racist, imperial ideology of Zionism on which the colonial regime in Palestine has been constructed. There are over seven million Palestinian refugees and over 13 million Palestinians in exile and diaspora. The implementation of the right of return to Palestine is a collective and individual right that is at the core of the liberation of Palestine. In recent years, the attempts to liquidate the right of return have intensified, culminating in the so-called “deal of the century.” This week of action pledges to intensify the struggle everywhere for the right to return to Palestine.  This struggle for return and liberation has meant that Palestinians have been on the front lines fighting imperialism for over 72 years, fighting alongside comrades in Ireland, the Philippines, Turkey, South Africa, the indigenous Americas and elsewhere. This week of Palestinian struggle is also a week of struggle against imperialism, especially as the U.S. attempts to impose its “deal of the century” and liquidate the Palestinian cause. Imperialist powers use “anti-terror” laws and repressive measures to repress the struggle for Palestine within their borders as well, from the imprisonment of Georges Abdallah in France to the Holy Land Five in the US, to the targeting of Palestinian activists like Khaled Barakat in Germany for political bans. Every victory that is achieved for people’s struggles around the world is a victory for Palestine, and every attack on those movements – such as the attempts to foment a coup in Venezuela or blockade Cuba – is also an attack on the Palestinian people. The siege on Gaza is not simply an Israeli siege but also a U.S. and European siege in which Arab reactionary regimes are complicit. During this week of action, we struggle to break the siege on Gaza, bring an end to imperialist sanctions and fight all forms of repression. Of course, Israel is not the only racist settler colony built on dispossession of indigenous peoples and extraction of their resources; the sponsors of Zionist policy in the United States, Canada and elsewhere. We stand with all oppressed peoples and indigenous movements defending their land from the ravages of settler colonial capitalism.  Just as the Palestinian cause is an international struggle, it is also deeply linked to the fight against imperialism throughout the Arab world and the region more broadly. Arab reactionary regimes like those in Saudi Arabia and Egypt work hand in hand with Israel and the United States to promote normalization, besiege the Palestinian people and squander an independent future for the peoples of the region – and this is reflected in their attacks on the Palestinian movement. We stand with the Arab people and the peoples of the region who continue to fight back and defend their sovereignty and their future against imperialism and reaction.  The Palestinian Authority continues to engage in “security coordination” with the Israeli occupier on a routine basis, attacking the Palestinian resistance. This week of action stands unconditionally with the Palestinian people’s right to resist occupation and oppression and against all forms of normalization and complicity with the liquidation of Palestine.  As we fight these attempts to normalize colonialism, the Week of Palestinian Struggle aims to intensify the boycott of Israel and the complicit corporations that profit from the oppression, dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The boycott movement and BDS campaign has faced escalated repression because it poses a material challenge to Israel and its corporate partners. During this week of action, we will expand the movement to isolate and boycott Israel. Palestinian youth and students are fighting back against imprisonment and for the future of a liberated Palestine .Resisting suppression and imprisonment inside and outside Palestine, they fight – generation after generation until total liberation.  Palestinian women have been on the front lines of struggle for over 72 years, defending the land, educating generations of strugglers and participating fully in leadership of the Palestinian struggle, political organization and armed and popular struggle.  From inside the prisons, Palestinian prisoners stand on the front lines of confrontation for the freedom of their land and people. The imprisonment of Palestinians has always been a tool of the colonial project in Palestine, meant to maintain occupation, apartheid and oppression and criminalize the existence and resistance of Palestinians. From the martial law imposed in 1948 on the Palestinians who remained in the 78% of historic Palestine occupied at that time, to the imprisonment of 5,000 Palestinian political leaders, journalists, and freedom fighters today, the imprisonment of Palestinians and their leaders has always been part and parcel of the Nakba – and the Palestinian prisoners behind bars continue to stand at the heart of the resistance. We salute the struggle of the workers and farmers of Palestine, fighting to defend their land and resist exploitation and oppression in all of its forms. Labor organizers are locked inside prisons and fishermen in Gaza are targeted for Israeli gunfire and assault. The popular classes of Palestine have always been the leaders of the revolution and those who have propelled the national liberation movement forward:  the farmers, the workers, the refugees in the camps.  Join this week of action to highlight the voices and struggles of the Palestinian people, inside and outside Palestine, from Haifa, Nazareth and Safad to Gaza, Ramallah and Nablus, from Cairo, Amman and Beirut to Berlin, Brussels, Santiago and New York.  Remember the Nakba: Long live the resistance! Victory for Palestine!  Days of Action: See the Schedule of Events  Action Ideas: What You Can Do Endorse or Submit Your Activity  Donate here to support Samidoun's work organizing for justice! Palestinian youth and student organizations: It is time for the “Palestinian leadership” to go! Statement for endorsement and circulation All Palestinian, Arab and international organizations are invited to endorse the statement below, which will be reissued with all additional signatories. To add the signature of your group or youth organization, please email bayanyouth.students@gmail.com. The statement will be re-released with all signatories attached. Read the Arabic text online We, the undersigned Palestinian youth and student organizations, and with us the associations, organizations and institutions that have signed this statement, call on the masses of Palestinian youth and students throughout occupied Palestine and in exile to join us in a popular initiative for the advancement and initiation of national development for the restoration of the revolutionary democratic approach for a new stage of struggle. The core of this initiative is the objectives of our Palestinian people: return, liberation, and continuing struggle to achieve all of their legitimate national goals and aspirations, no matter how long it may take. The cause of Palestine, the sacred cause of our people, the cause of the exploited popular classes in our Arab homeland and the forces of freedom in the world, is today intended for liquidation, to be uprooted from the awareness and memory of our people and our nation. The rights of our people everywhere are subjected to all forms of distortion and confiscation. Nothing will protect this great cause from the ravages of liquidation and destruction except for the minds and arms of our people, the will of the committed, patriotic and revolutionary youth, and the steadfastness of women, workers and peasants. Therefore, today, we call on our Palestinian people, especially the young Palestinian generations, to reject and repudiate the policies and positions represented in the approach of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his cohort, and to affirm that the leadership of the Palestinian Authority does not represent our people and is outside the ranks of our national struggle. We also call upon our great people to embody this popular will on the ground by organizing the widest, unified popular framework to overcome the disastrous phase of Oslo and all of its accompanying effects. We invite you to participate broadly in the overthrow of the program of the so-called “Palestinian leadership,” which is based on a path of surrender and abandonment. This corrupt approach has come to its last days after over 40 years of marketing the project of a phantom state. This political class that has brought only shame and disaster to our people seeks today to convert the administrative autonomy in the occupied West Bank into the end of our liberation projects. The money of this class is mortgaged to the agents of the occupation, to “economic peace” and normalization projects. It has become imperative for our people to isolate this sector and defeat its program in the squares, streets, factories, farms, universities and schools inside and outside occupied Palestine. And as we confront the U.S., Zionist and reactionary policies that today target the rights of our people to life and existence, in the face of the acceleration of the hostile liquidation project that aims to demolish the horizons of the national liberation project and abort all possibilities for renewal, in front of the daily brutal attack on the prisoners’ movement in the occupation prisons, and amid the confiscation of all of the natural and human rights of our people in the camps, silence becomes complicity, betrayal, a form of submission and failure. The time has come for these leaders of surrender to depart from the Muqata’ headquarters in Ramallah and to isolate this defeated sector that holds itself close to the Zionist entity and the CIA, participating in the collective punishment of our people in Gaza, depriving the families of martyrs and prisoners of their rights, suppressing the resistance and coordinating with the occupation forces to target the fundamentals of our society, its national resistance and its youth and student vanguard. The defeat of the Oslo project and the isolation of Mahmoud Abbas and his cronies are more achievable and realistic than ever, despite all of the capacities and resources that the forces hostile to the Palestinian people use to support the leadership of the Authority. However, the crucial element in this lengthy historical battle is the role of the popular masses and their ability to generate the revolutionary approach from the grassroots and bring it into the light, from the depths of our history and our militant legacies of struggle and from the womb of our Palestinian societies in every popular community, every neighborhood, camp, city and village. We call on all Palestinian resistance forces, with their various political and intellectual currents and paths, to end the state of disintegration and fragmentation by forming a unified national front. This will be a support and sustenance for our people everywhere, and it sword and shield will protect our people as they continue on their historical road of great sacrifice and struggle in order to obtain their rights and break their chains, achieving our collective and complete liberation from the clutches of Zionism. We call on you to broad popular engagement and to intensify popular national activities during the Week of Palestinian Struggle, May 15-22, 2020, as our first stage in announcing a new phase of struggle under the slogan: Palestine Day – the Day of Return and Liberation. Let history bear witness to the crime, the ongoing Nakba that has continued since 1947-48 and, at the same time, testifies to the ongoing Palestinian resistance that continues until victory, despite all of the sacrifices and lengthy years of struggle. No to the path of surrender and liquidation! No to the project of the “self-rule government” and “administrative autonomy!” Yes to the path of return and liberation. Yes to the resistance and intifada until victory! To add the signature of your group or organization, please email bayanyouth.students@gmail.com. Initial Signatories: Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network HIRAK: Palestinian Youth Mobilization – Germany Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) “Sada” Movement – Jerusalem- occupied Palestine  Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition / North America Palestinian Arab Cultural Center Rio Grande de Sol, Brazil المركز الثقافي العربي- الفلسطيني/ ساو بولو، البرازيل  Unione Democratica Arabo-Palestinese (UDAP)- Italy  الاتحاد الديمقراطي العربي الفلسطيني- إيطاليا  Democratic Palestine Committees Brazil لجان فلسطين الديموقراطية- البرازيل مركز النّقب للأنشطة الشبابيّة – ِAl Naqab Center for Youth Activities Palestinian Chess Forum- Shatila refugee camp الملتقى الفلسطيني للشطرنج- مخيم شاتيلا AlKarama-Palestinian Women Movement in Spain حركة نساء فلسطين الكرامة في إسبانيا Centro Cultural e Politico Al JaniahBrazil  مركز الجانية الثقافي والسياسيالبرازيل Brazilian Arab Palestinian Society – Corumba Brazil  Students for Justice in Palestine at John Jay College  Students for Justice in Palestine at Butler University GUPS SFSU Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine Canada Palestine Association Palestinian Student Association at Wilfrid Laurier University/ Canada Palestine Solidarity Collective at York University Palestine Solidarity Group at University of Windsor Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights at McMaster University Midwest Students for Justice in Palestine Handala Coalition of Michigan Palestinian Cultural Club – Beirut / Lebanon Palestinian Arab Cultural Club Lebanon  Join the Samidoun Webinar for the Week of Palestinian Struggle on May 16: with Khaled Barakat!  Saturday, 16 May 10 am Pacific/1 pm Eastern/7 pm central Europe/8 pm Palestine Register online: https://bit.ly/liberatepalestine Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/252840772507550/ Join Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network for the Week of Palestinian Struggle, 15-22 May 2020! On Saturday, 16 May, join us for a webinar with Palestinian writer Khaled Barakat on the illegitimacy of Israel and the defense of Palestine, Liberate Palestine: From the River to the Sea. Register online to join us on ZOOM: https://bit.ly/liberatepalestine Event will also be livestreamed on the Samidoun facebook page at https://facebook.com/SamidounPrisonerSolidarity More News and Actions around the world for Palestinian freedom: Khaled Barakat: The “Modern Marx” – by Thomas Hofland Palestinian refugees protesting in Sweden confront police repression Samidoun salutes the martyr, revolutionary Grup Yorum musician Ibrahim Gökçek Donate to Samidoun's work to free Palestinian prisoners. Click here! Samidoun chapters, affiliates and links around the world: Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network Samidoun Gothenburg (Sweden) Collectif Palestine Vaincra (France) Samidoun Netherlands Samidoun Greece Samidoun Occupied Palestine HIRAK: Palestinian Youth Mobilization (Germany) Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has chapters and affiliates in the United States, Canada, Germany, Britain, France, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Spain, Palestine and Lebanon and we work with groups around the world. Would you like to form a local chapter or become an affiliate? Contact us at samidoun@samidoun.net.

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New Orleans Sanitation Workers Strike for Safety, Dignity, Higher Wages

Reposted from New Orleans Workers Group, who have been on the frontlines supporting the strike since it began on May 5 Here are TWO ways (funds & calls) to demonstrate support in solidarity with the New Orleans Sanitation Workers on STRIKE! Hoppers, the Black men who risk lives and bodies to do the essential work of trash collection, stood up on May 5th (rightfully so!!!) and stopped work to demand PPE and hazard pay during this global pandemic of COVID-19 that is decimating the lives of Black people. Last year, employer Metro Services Group ordered all workers to now work for the temp agency PeopleReady or be fired. On May 6, these workers were fired for refusing to risk their lives for Metro Services Group. Metro is now contracting with PeopleReady to bring in prisoners on work release who have no training and no say in their work conditions on penalty of being locked up full time. Metro and PeopleReady are joint employers who receive all their money from city funds. On May 7, the strike continues. They are demanding that their HUMAN rights and dignity be honored. They are demanding: 1. Protective gear & safe conditions to do their work safely. 2. Higher wages for their labor 3. Hazard pay for working during a global health pandemic 4. REHIRE of any worker fired for fighting for their rights! Therefore, ALSO, join us in calling the following to make sure that the demands are known, and that the workers have your support! Call Metro Services Group (504) 520-8331 Call Mayor Cantrell (504) 658-4900 Contact Joseph Giarrusso, City Council Member, Chair Public Works, Sanitation Committee (504) 658-1010, Joseph.Giarrusso@nola.gov Contact Helena Moreno, City Council Member (504) 658-1060, Helena.Moreno@nola.gov Contact Jason Williams, City Council Member (504) 658-1070, JarWilliams@nola.gov => Make a donation to the strike fund here! <=

Meatpacking Workers in the South Need to Unite, Organize and Struggle! Join the Southern Workers Assembly’s Safe Jobs Save Lives Campaign: Don’t Go to Work without a solid agreement that guarantees testing, monitoring, PPE, separation of work stations, 100% health care family coverage for virus treatment. If you don’t have a union, form a workers committee right away and open up discussions with management on these issues and depending what they say and do, move to take protective collective actions We call upon other workers and the general public to support packing workers with a Boycott of brands that refuse to abide by Safe Jobs-Saves Lives mutual agreements. Connect with other workers in industries and employment sectors in the Safe Jobs Save Lives Campaign by contacting info@southernworker.org Read the full statement The Southern Workers Assembly “Safe Jobs Save Lives” campaigns released this statement after the April 28 presidential “get back to work” order was issued.

Worker Struggle Across the South - Important Articles + Updates! Virus Lays Bare Inequality on Buses, Trains with Deadly Results Striking Bus Drivers Steer the Way to a Better World Giant Hospital Takes Advantage of Coronavirus to Fight Nurses' Union Drive From the article: THE LARGEST HOSPITAL CO HOSPITAL corporation in America, HCA Healthcare, is using the coronavirus pandemic to delay and undermine a union election for 1,600 nurses in North Carolina. After nurses filed in March to hold an election, HCA Healthcare petitioned the National Labor Relations Board, or the NLRB, to delay the vote because of the pandemic. In the meantime, it hired professional union busters costing $400 an hour to conduct meetings inside Mission Hospital in Asheville, urging nurses to oppose joining a union. And while the corporation stands to rake in $4.7 billion in CARES Act benefits, the number of coronavirus cases in North Carolina is steadily growing, and nurses say they had to fight for basic personal protective equipment, or PPE. “Instead of HCA using those resources and money and effort to prepare for Covid-19 and have proper PPE, they chose to put it into union busting instead,” said Sarah Kuhl, a registered nurse with Mission’s oncology research department. Read in full here

Support the Southern Workers Assembly - click here to make a donation today! Your donation goes directly to support building local workers assemblies, building the Safe Jobs Save Lives campaign, producing materials for workers across the South, and more. We don't receive any money from foundations - we're completely supported by workers like you and contributions from unions and workers organizations. Donate today!

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Copyright © 2020 Southern Workers Assembly, All rights reserved. You either attended an event hosted by the Southern Workers Assembly or have signed one of our online petitions. Our mailing address is: Southern Workers Assembly PO Box 934 Rocky Mount, NC  27802 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list

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Bus Riders Union Sindicato de Pasajeros
Black Los Angeles Community Leaders United for COVID 19 Demands and Beyond
	The Bus Riders Union is proud to be a part of a coalition of more than 44 Black Leaders and Civil Rights groups in Los Angeles raising 55 demands in light of the impact of Covid 19 infections and deaths in the Black Community. We appreciate the leadership of Dr. Melina Abdullah, co-founder of Black Lives matter, in organizing this important initiative. We fully support all 55 demand and we're excited to have included core demands from our Free Public Transportation Campaign:
Free public transportation after the stay in place orders are lifted at least until December 31 Cancellation of fare evasion citations on public transportation--no racial profiling of Black riders. Free public transportation for all, beginning with K-12 youth and seniors. Double MTA schedule and make service available 24-hours-per-day and 7-days-per-week. Double the MTA fleet with zero emission buses
Take a look at the full list of demands  and all signatories  See The Demands  https://thestrategycenter.org/black-los-angeles-los-angeles-community-leaders-stand-united/
Bus Riders Union Powered by the Labor Community Strategy Center 3546 w Martin Luther King Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90008 Find us at Facebook.com/Fight for the Soul of the Cities, Twitter.com/FightSoulCities (213) 387-2800 info@thestrategycenter.org

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1506 Crenshaw Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019

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View this email in your browser Tweet Share Pin Share Read Later Sign the petition Mayor Breed: City of SF Essential Workers Deserve Safety! Please read, sign, and share this petition calling for safety protections for SF essential workers! San Francisco is being touted as a leader in the fight to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Yet, San Francisco Water Department employees’ concerns about their safety are minimized, or worse, ignored. They are expected to work as if this pandemic is not even happening. They serve the residents of San Francisco with pride, but are being asked to put routine and non-essential work before their health and well-being. Elected officials and health experts have repeatedly underscored that social distancing is the best weapon we have to protect ourselves from contracting – or unwittingly spreading – the coronavirus. However, it is not possible to maintain social distancing for a crew of several people installing a water service or carrying out strenuous physical work in various Water Department shops. SFWD, a revenue-generating department, has not scaled back work. Mayor Breed has ordered virtually all construction within San Francisco to be stopped, with those crews sent home to shelter in place. But Water Department employees are still out in public, installing water services for these same buildings that have been shut down due to COVID-19. On the other hand, employees in SF’s Sewer Department have been working one week on, two weeks off, with no reduction in pay, in order to reduce their exposure. Another issue is the lack of sufficient personal protective equipment.Workers are allotted one face mask per day which becomes unusable early in their shifts. There has not been training or guidance, nor physical tools, for employees to do their work safely, although much of the work they are doing simply cannot be done safely during these times. Additionally, there is the issue of vulnerability for at-will (known as Category-18) and “as needed” staff, who can be laid off at any time with no reason. They work side by side with permanent employees, but are often prevented from speaking out because they have to weigh their own lives against the potential repercussions of speaking up when they are instructed to put themselves in jeopardy. We cannot help but wonder if the reason SFWD workers feel disposable, rather than “essential,” is because the City is putting Water Department revenue above the very life and health of its workforce. In spite of government leaders’ claims to the contrary, this does not seem like “we are all in this together.” We, the undersigned SFWD (City Distribution Division) employees, their families, ratepayers and concerned community members call on City and PUC leaders to meet the following demands. Sign the petition here to demand: 1. Reduce the scope of SFWD operations to truly essential work.Institute a one week on/two weeks off schedule with no loss of pay, similar to staff in the Sewer Department. Social distancing is at the very heart of the strategy to combat the virus so minimizing the number of people reporting to work decreases their exposure rate. 2. Provide sufficient personal protective equipment in order to do every job safely, whether in the field, shops or offices. If such PPE is not available, SFWD employees should not be asked to compromise their lives and the health and safety of their families, especially for routine work. Enhanced training to address these unprecedented working conditions, backed up by the supplies and infrastructure to carry it out, is necessary for the most vulnerable workers. If personal vehicles are used to get to job sites and maintain social distancing, the City should assume the related liability. 3. Provide equal and safe working conditions for every employee.Eliminate Category-18 and other vulnerable hiring statuses, and make these workers permanent employees. San Francisco should be leading the way on equality for all, not promoting second class citizenship for some. No retaliation against any employee. We call on City and PUC leaders to take these necessary measures to protect City workers, their families, and their communities! Sign and share today! www.socialism.com Subscribe to our mailing list | Update subscription preferences | Unsubscribe from this list

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View this email in your browser The Red Nation in partnership with the Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC) and the Center for Political Education is hosting a series of critical conversations on settler colonialism, US imperialism, and decolonization. The COVID-19 pandemic is global, and so our response to it must also be global. Friday Night Forums feature anti-imperialist perspectives and lessons on organizing from around the world, with an eye toward decolonizing Turtle Island. Check out our facebook page and  Youtube channel for live stream. Don't forget to subscribe! PREVIOUS FORUM: ORGANIZING WORKERS:INTERNATIONAL LESSONS Thank you to all who attended our May Day Special and to our amazing speakers Zenei Cortez of National Nurses United, Kali Akuno of Cooperation Jackson and Vijay Prashad of Tricontinental : Institute for Social Research. Learn more about the Global Nurses United network Zenei discussed. Visit the National Nurses United resource page to know more about how the union is responding to COVID-19 Kali Akuno discussed mutual aid efforts and addressing food scarcity. More about the Jackson Kush Plan can be  read here. Checkout updates on Cooperation Jackson's mask production Vijay Prashad discussed Corona Shock and the four dividing lines between International and U.S responses to COVID-19. Read the first article in The Tricontinental's series on Corona Shock here The International Assembly of the Peoples and Tricontinental's declaration and 16 point program can be found here Learn more about the International Week of Anti-Imperialist Struggle Read "Hunger Gnawing at the Edges of the World" by Richard Pitthouse and Vijay Prashad from New Frame. UPCOMING FRIDAY NIGHT FORUMS, 5PM PST, 6 PM MST, 8PM EST May 15: Palestine & the Blockade on Gaza Register Osama Tanous, Noura Erakat and Ziad Abbas May 22: China and US Relations Register May 29: Abolition & the COVID-19 Crisis Register Help further Native liberation by clicking below Donate to TRN

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The United States government tried again to conduct a coup in Venezuela this past weekend and failed. On Sunday, May 3, US and Venezuelan mercenaries left their training camps in Colombia and tried to invade in La Guaira. The Venezuelan Navy intercepted and stopped them, killing 8 and arresting the rest. They found a large cache of weapons and equipment including trucks with mounted machine guns. The US and Juan Guaido are claiming that they were not involved, but this fails the smell test as one of the leaders of the coup attempt made the contract signed by Juan Guaido public. You'll find suggested reading below. Popular Resistance condemns the ongoing economic and military attacks on Venezuela and urges everyone to take action in whatever way you can. Here are some suggestions. Here is some suggested reading: Bay of Pigs Type Terrorist Assault Neutralized by Venezuela by Orinoco Tribune Defeat of a Dirty Military Incursion into Venezuela by Vijay Prashad A New Frustrated Chapter In The Violent War Against Venezuela by Mision Verdad Venezuela Foils Mercenary Incursion by Jorge Martin Guaidó And The Failed Military Operation Against Venezuela by Patricio Zamorano Venezuela: More Mercenaries Arrested by Jorge Martin New Details Emerge Linking US To Latest Coup Attempt In Venezuela by Alan Macleod  follow on Twitter | like on Facebook | forward to a friend  Our mailing address is: PopularResistance.org 402 East Lake Ave. Baltimore, MD 21212 CLICK HERE TO DONATE.  "Because a sustainable future depends on the people willing to see the truth for what it is, and for those to stand up in unison in order to make a difference." — Jake Edwards Keli'i Eakin  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

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Veterans Join Call for a Global Ceasefire, The Lasting Effects of War Book Discussion, Sir, No Sir Viewing, VFP's Online Convention, Workshop Proposals, Convention FAQ, No More COVID-19 Money For the Pentagon, Repeal the AUMF, Community Conversation on Hybrid Warfare, St Louis VFP Delivers VA Lunch, In the News and Calendar

Veterans Join Call for a Global Ceasefire 

Veterans For Peace, as a United Nations Department of Global Communication affiliated NGO, is most gratified to see UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres make his plea for a worldwide ceasefire during this global pandemic. 

The first line of the Preamble of the UN's Charter says that they originated to save “succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. But sadly, because the UN was created by the victors of WW2 who remain the powers of the world, and because the UN depends for funding on those same militarily and economically dominant nation-states, primarily the U.S., much more often than not the UN is very quiet on war. 

Please join Veterans For Peace in appealing to U.S. Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft to support the Secretary General's call for a GLOBAL CEASEFIRE! 

Sign now!

For more information about events go to:

https://www.veteransforpeace.org/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=fa5082af-9325-47a7-901c-710e85091ee1

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Courage to Resist Newsletter May 1, 2020 Congress leaning towards drafting women for next war Update and gratitude from Chelsea Manning Podcast: "That's me -- I AM the enemy" - Howard Morland Podcast: Congress leaning towards drafting women for next war Rivera Sun and Edward Hasbrouck on upcoming changes to military draft registration laws, and the history of resistance by men and women. Listen to Rivera and Edward's update Update from Chelsea Manning "Thank you, truly, for your unwavering love and support during this entire ordeal. You enabled Chelsea to maintain her principled stance," shared Team Chelsea. "Chelsea was released on March 12, 2020. She has been resting and trying to recover from being held in jail for almost a full year for resisting a grand jury subpoena ... [Chelsea] is staying indoors and safe and is hoping you do the same." Read more Podcast: "That's me -- I AM the enemy" - Howard Morland Air force pilot Howard Morland's exposure to the atrocities in Vietnam and extreme military training led him to question what the war was really about. Listen to Howard's story The above Courage to Resist podcast was produced in collaboration with the Vietnam Full Disclosure effort of Veterans For Peace — “Towards an honest commemoration of the American war in Vietnam.” This year marks 50 years of GI resistance, in and out of uniform, for many of the courageous individuals featured. If you believe this history is important, please ... DONATE NOW to support these podcasts

COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT!

484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559

www.couragetoresist.org ~ facebook.com/couragetoresist

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From Business Insider 2018

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The biggest block from having society in harmony with the universe is the belief in a lie that says it’s not realistic or humanly possible. —Johnny Gould (Follow @tandino415 on Instagram)

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When faced with the opportunity to do good, I really think it’s the instinct of humanity to do so. It’s in our genetic memory from our earliest ancestors. It’s the altered perception of the reality of what being human truly is that’s been indoctrinated in to every generation for the last 2000 years or more that makes us believe that we are born sinners. I can’t get behind that one. We all struggle with certain things, but I really think that all the “sinful” behavior is learned and wisdom and goodwill is innate at birth.  —Johnny Gould (Follow @tandino415 on Instagram)

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COVID-19 PRISON UPDATE  

By: Shakaboona, Wednesday, April 29, 2020

I just heard on the prison grapevine that PA prisons SCI-Huntingdon and SCI-Houtzdale has coronavirus infections. SCI-Huntingdon is suppose to have 12 incarcerated persons infected and SCI-Houtzdale suppose to have 3 incarcerated persons infected. This information has not been confirmed by reliable & legitimate sources, but I'm placing this info on the wire for folks to look into and confirm themselves. Ask questions people. Don't depend on government officials to tell u the truth; they hardly ever do, and when they do manage to tell what may appear to be some truth it is always mixed with a lie, which is still falsehood. They r media "Spin Artists", and poor ones at that. Investigate things for yourselves.

More on Secret Mass Prison Transfers @ SCI-Rockview - Beginning on Sunday (4-26-2020) incarcerated persons had there personal property packed up in preparation for transfer from SCI-Rockview to other far away prisons across the state. From Monday to Friday, SCI-Rockview has shipped out for transfer about 60 incarcerated persons per day. Rumors by Prison Officials are saying they must transfer 250 prisoners from SCI-Rockview to thin down this prison's population in case the coronavirus hits here. Secretary Wetzel and PADOC Central Office Officials has absolutely no concern, consideration, or respect for the Families of incarcerated people, b/c they didn't tell families about it to give them any input on the matter whatsoever. Families of prisoners get No R-E-S-P-E-C-T! Don't the Families of incarcerated people want that for themselves? The only way for Families to get respect, is to get power (People Power!), and the only way to get both is to form into a UNION of Family members. Well, that is but one reason why we founded the HUMAN RIGHTS COALITION (HRC). So come join the HRC that we may become such a force, that in unity (as a Families of Prisoners UNION), we can fight back. Take care & be safe.

Write to Shakaboona:

Smart Communications/PA DOC

Kerry Shakaboona Marshall #BE7826

SCI Rockview

P.O. Box 33028

St. Petersburg, FL 33733

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Mumia Abu-Jamal Update

Mumia Abu-Jamal

Mobilization4Mumia

215-724-1618

Mobilization4Mumia.com

mobilization4mumia@gmail.com

PRESS ALERT

Contact: Sophia Williams 917-806-0521, Pam Africa 267-760-7344 or Joe Piette 610-931-2615

PA DOC cruel hoax

that Abu-Jamal was ill with COVID19

Breaking News: At 5:04pm on Wednesday, April 15th, a prison official inside the SCI Mahanoy Superintendents’ Office told a concerned advocate for Mumia on an official DOC phone that Mumia was being transported by ambulance for evaluation of COVID 19 symptoms and had trouble breathing. After hours of supporters repeatedly calling prison officials to demand an opportunity to speak with Mumia, they allowed him a call at almost 9PM.  Mumia confirmed that the official report was false. “I am fine,” he said, “What I need is freedom.”

This is of grave concern because the COVID-19 pandemic imposes a death sentence on the incarcerated, including 66 year-old Mumia, who already suffers from cirrhosis of the liver.   More striking is this whole incident points to how the Pennsylvania DOC response to the COVID 19 pandemic is doomed to failure. As of April 15th there have been a total of 53 tests out of 45,000 inmates with a 17% positivity rate and already we have seen one death. There simply are not enough tests to understand the full transmission of the virus. The prison reduction mitigation efforts are not at all commensurate with the epidemic.  In the last month there has only been a reduction of 474 out of 45,000 prisoners. 

It is time to release thousands of prisoners, especially the elderly and immunocompromised, like respected journalist and internationally recognized political prisoner, Mumia Abu Jamal, that have homes, and caring families and are no risk to the community.

--

Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/

Questions and comments may be sent to info@freedomarchives.org

To unsubscribe contact: http://freedomarchives.org/mailman/options/ppnews_freedomarchives.org

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Mumia Abu-Jamal: New Chance for Freedom

Police and State Frame-Up Must Be Fully Exposed!

Mumia Abu-Jamal is innocent. Courts have ignored and suppressed evidence of his innocence for decades.... But now, one court has thrown out all the decisions of the PA Supreme Court that denied Mumia's appeals against his unjust conviction during the years of 1998 to 2012! 

This ruling, by Judge Leon Tucker, was made because one judge on the PA Supreme Court during those years, Ronald Castille, was lacking the "appearance of impartiality." In plain English, he was clearly biased against Mumia. Before sitting on the PA Supreme Court, Castille had been District Attorney (or assistant DA) during the time of Mumia's frame-up and conviction, and had used his office to express a special interest in pursuing the death penalty for "cop-killers." Mumia was in the cross-hairs. Soon he was wrongly convicted and sent to death row for killing a police officer.....

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Mumia Abu-Jamal is an award-winning and intrepid journalist, a former Black Panther, MOVE supporter, and a critic of police brutality and murder.  Mumia was framed by police, prosecutors, and leading elements of both Democratic and Republican parties, for the shooting of a police officer.. The US Justice Department targeted him as well... A racist judge helped convict him, and corrupt courts have kept him locked up despite much evidence that should have freed him. He continues his commentary and journalism from behind bars. As of 2019, he has been imprisoned for 37 years for a crime he did not commit. 

Time is up! FREE MUMIA NOW!

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DA's Hidden Files Show Frame-Up of Mumia

In the midst of Mumia's fight for his right to challenge the state Supreme Court's negative rulings, a new twist was revealed: six boxes of files on Mumia's case--with many more still hidden--were surreptitiously concealed for decades in a back room at the District Attorney's office in Philadelphia. The very fact that these files on Mumia's case were hidden away for decades is damning in the extreme, and their revelations confirm what we have known for decades: Mumia was framed for a crime he did not commit!

So far, the newly revealed evidence confirms that, at the time of Mumia's 1982 trial, chief prosecutor Joe McGill illegally removed black jurors from the jury, violating the Batson decision. Also revealed: The prosecution bribed witnesses into testifying that they saw Mumia shoot the slain police officer when they hadn't seen any such thing.... Taxi driver Robert Chobert, who was on probation for fire-bombing a school yard at the time, had sent a letter demanding his money for lying on the stand....... Very important, but the newly revealed evidence is just the tip of the iceberg! 

All Evidence of Mumia's Innocence Must Be Brought Forward Now!

Mumia Abu-Jamal's trial for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner was rigged against him from beginning to end........ All of the evidence of Mumia's innocence--which was earlier suppressed or rejected--must now be heard:

• Mumia was framed - The judge at Mumia's trial, Albert Sabo, was overheard to say, "I'm gonna help 'em fry the n____r." And he proceeded to do just that.... Mumia was thrown out of his own trial for defending himself! Prosecution "witnesses" were coerced or bribed at trial to lie against Mumia.. In addition to Chobert, this included key witness Cynthia White, a prostitute who testified that she saw Mumia shoot Faulkner... White's statements had to be rewritten under intense pressure from the cops, because she was around the corner and out of sight of the shooting at the time! Police bribed her with promises of being allowed to work her corner, and not sent to state prison for her many prostitution charges.

• Mumia only arrived on the scene after Officer Faulkner was shot - William Singletary, a tow-truck business owner who had no reason to lie against the police, said he had been on the scene the whole time, that Mumia was not the shooter, and that Mumia had arrived only after the shooting of Faulkner. Singletary's statements were torn up, his business was wrecked, and he was threatened by police to be out of town for the trial (which, unfortunately, he was)...

• There is no evidence that Mumia fired a gun - Mumia was shot on the scene by an arriving police officer and arrested. But the cops did not test his hands for gun-powder residue--a standard procedure in shootings! They also did not test Faulkner's hands. The prosecution nevertheless claimed Mumia was the shooter, and that he was shot by Faulkner as the officer fell to the ground. Ballistics evidence was corrupted to falsely show that Mumia's gun was the murder weapon, when his gun was reportedly still in his taxi cab, which was in police custody days after the shooting!

• The real shooter fled the scene and was never charged - Veronica Jones was a witness who said that after hearing the shots from a block away, she had seen two people fleeing the scene of the shooting.... This could not have included Mumia, who had been shot and almost killed at the scene. Jones was threatened by the police with arrest and loss of custody of her children. She then lied on the stand at trial to say she had seen no one running away. 

• Abu-Jamal never made a confession - Mumia has always maintained his innocence. But police twice concocted confessions that Mumia never made. Inspector Alfonso Giordano, the senior officer at the crime scene, made up a confession for Mumia. But Giordano was not allowed to testify at trial, because he was top on the FBI's list of corrupt cops in the Philadelphia police force... At the DA's request, another cop handily provided a second "confession," allegedly heard by a security guard in the hospital......... But at neither time was Mumia--almost fatally shot--able to speak.. And an earlier police report by cops in the hospital said that, referring to Mumia: "the negro male made no comment"!

• The crime scene was tampered with by police - Police officers at the scene rearranged some evidence, and handled what was alleged to be Mumia's gun with their bare hands... A journalist's photos revealed this misconduct. The cops then left the scene unattended for hours.. All of this indicates a frame-up in progress....

• The real shooter confessed, and revealed the reason for the crime - Arnold Beverly came forward in the 1990s. He said in a sworn statement, under penalty of perjury, that he, not Mumia, had been the actual shooter. He said that he, along with "another guy," had been hired to do the hit, because Faulkner was "a problem for the mob and corrupt policemen because he interfered with the graft and payoffs made to allow illegal activity including prostitution, gambling, drugs without prosecution in the center city area"! (affidavit of Arnold Beverly).

• The corruption of Philadelphia police is documented and well known - This includes that of Giordano, who was the first cop to manufacture a "confession" by Mumia... Meanwhile, Faulkner's cooperation with the federal anti-corruption investigations of Philadelphia police is strongly suggested by his lengthy and heavily redacted FBI file......

• Do cops kill other cops? There are other cases in Philadelphia that look that way. Frank Serpico, an NYC cop who investigated and reported on police corruption, was abandoned by fellow cops after being shot in a drug bust. Mumia was clearly made a scape-goat for the crimes of corrupt Philadelphia cops who were protecting their ill-gotten gains.

• Politicians and US DOJ helped the frame-up - Ed Rendell, former DA, PA governor, and head of the Democratic National Committee--and now a senior advisor to crime-bill author Joe Biden--is complicit in the frame-up of Mumia. The US Justice Department targeted Mumia for his anti-racist activities when he was a teenager, and later secretly warned then-prosecutor Rendell not to use Giordano as a witness against Mumia because he was an FBI target for corruption..

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All this should lead to an immediate freeing of Mumia! But we are still a ways away from that, and we have no confidence in the capitalist courts to finish the job. We must act! This victory in local court allowing new appeals must now lead to a full-court press on all the rejected and suppressed evidence of Mumia's innocence!

Mass Movement Needed To Free Mumia! 

Mumia's persecution by local, state and federal authorities of both political parties has been on-going, and has generated a world-wide movement in his defense... This movement has seen that Mumia, as a radio journalist who exposed the brutal attacks on the black community by the police in Philadelphia, has spoken out as a defender of working people of all colors and all nationalities in his ongoing commentaries (now on KPFA/Pacifica radio), despite being on death row, and now while serving life without the possibility of parole (LWOP)...

In 1999, Oakland Teachers for Mumia held unauthorized teach-ins in Oakland schools on Mumia and the death penalty, despite the rabid hysteria in the bourgeois media. Teachers in Rio de Janeiro held similar actions. Letters of support came in from maritime workers and trade unions around the world.. Later in 1999, longshore workers shut down all the ports on the West Coast to free Mumia, and led a mass march of 25,000 Mumia supporters in San Francisco................ 

A year later, a federal court lifted Mumia's death sentence, based on improper instructions to the jury by trial judge Albert Sabo.. The federal court ordered the local court to hold a new sentencing hearing... Fearing their frame-up of Mumia could be revealed in any new hearing, even if only on sentencing, state officials passed. Much to the chagrin of the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP)--which still seeks Mumia's death--this left Mumia with LWOP, death by life in prison.. 

Mumia supporters waged a struggle to get him the cure for the deadly Hepatitis-C virus, which he had likely contracted through a blood transfusion in hospital after he was shot by a cop at the 1981 crime scene. The Labor Action Committee conducted demonstrations against Gilead Sciences, the Foster City CA corporation that owns the cure, and charged $1,000 per pill! The Metalworkers Union of South Africa wrote a letter excoriating Governor Wolf for allowing untreated sick freedom fighters to die in prison as the apartheid government had done. Finally, Mumia did get the cure.. Now, more than ever, struggle is needed to free Mumia!

Now is the Time: Mobilize Again for Mumia's Freedom!

Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal

www.laboractionmumia...........org

Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal | Mumia Abu-Jamal is an I.....

November 2019

"There is no time for despair, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language.. This is how civilizations heal." -Toni Morrison Follow on Twitter | Friend on Facebook  unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences

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Message to the People

A voice from inside Pennsylvania’s gulag

By Kerry “Shakaboona” Marshall 

I trust everyone is well, healthy, and safe. I just got news that the federal judge denied my appeal to modify my federal sentence. I don’t classify the news of denial as either good or bad; it simply is what it is, a denial. It neither sets me back or pushes me forward. I am at the same spot that I’ve been at before that federal appeal, and that is, very close to being released from prison. Remember, we were simply trying to “expedite” release from prison. And that hasn’t change not one bit. The judge’s denial of my appeal is just a reminder of how most of the status quo view us—as less than—less than human, less than citizens, less than themselves, less than...you  can fill in the rest.

People may be wondering how I’m feeling, so let me tell you all how I pretty much always feel and view situations like this one. I always have momentary mixed feelings of disappointment, anger, and sadness, but as quick as it comes it goes. Because my view in life is 1) they can’t keep a good person down for long, 2) be thankful for what you have, 3) always look at the positive in things that appear bad and take that positive position, and 4) have faith in the universal laws at play in the world. So, the way I see this situation is that I’m a good brother; I’m thankful for being near release from prison and for even getting the opportunity to have my federal appeal heard before a court because that rarely happens. I see the positives as being heard, meeting new friends, bringing family closer to me, and new paths revealing themselves to me; and I have unwavering faith in the law of cause and effect—that what we put into the world is what we get out of the world. Well I put in good works.

So, keep your eyes on the prize and fight like hell to get it! I know I will. And know of a surety, that in the end, we will win freedom, justice, equality, peace, happiness, family, good homes, health, and heaven on earth while we live. Stay safe.

Write to Shakaboona:

Smart Communications/PA DOC

Kerry Shakaboona Marshall #BE7826

SCI Rockview

P.O. Box 33028

St. Petersburg, FL 33733

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You can watch the film here:

iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/gb/movie/we-are-many/id1118498978

Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/We-Are-Many-Damon-Albarn/dp/B01IFW0WX4

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https://gem.godaddy.com/p/8813801?pact=1217503-157698117-7790601629-9b91dd92b638c231143896a170db2b4ac53d507c

URGENT ACTION ALERT COVID 

LETTERS NEEDED FOR 

LEONARD PELTIER

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Dear Friends, Supporters, and Family,

In light of the provisions of the CARES Act meant to decrease the risk to prisoner heath, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Attorney General has delegated to the Director of the Bureau of Prisons the authority to release certain vulnerable prisoners to home confinement. Currently, the process for identifying appropriate candidates for home confinement have not been solidified but we believe it may help to write to the BOP Director and Southeast Regional Director and ask that Leonard be immediately considered and transitioned to his home on the Turtle Mountain Reservation.

Your letters should be addressed to:

Michael Carvajal

Director

320 First Street NW

Washington, DC 20534

J.A. Keller

Southeast Regional Director

Federal Bureau of

3800 Camp Crk Prk SW, Building 2000

Atlanta, GA 30331

We have not drafted a form letter or correspondence. Your pleas should come from your heart as an individual who has supported Leonard for so many years. Say what you would like but we have put together some talking points that will assist you in your letter writing. Below are some helpful guidelines so your letter touches on the requirements of the Attorney General’s criteria for releasing inmates like Leonard to home confinement

OPENING:

• Point out that Leonard is an elder and is at risk for example.” Mr. Peltier is 75 years old and in very poor health; his only desire is to go home to the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation and live out the remainder of his years surrounded by his family.”

MEDICAL:

The AG and CDC guidelines for releasing inmates requires the health concerns cause greater risk of getting the virus. Leonard has the following conditions you can list in your letter

• Diabetes

• Spots on lung

• Heart Condition (has had triple by-pass surgery)

• Leonard Peltier suffers from a kidney disease that cannot be treated at the Coleman1facility and impacts as an underlying condition if contracting the virus.

RISK TO COMMUNITY:

To qualify for release to home confinement we must show that Leonard poses no risk to the community.

COMMUNITY SUPPORT/RENTRY PLAN:

To qualify for release to home confinement we must show that Leonard has a reentry plan. Leonard has support from the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Band and has family land on the reservation where he can live.

RISK OF COVID 19:

To qualify for the release to home confinement must show that Leonard is at reduced risk to exposure of COVID 19 by release than he is at Coleman 1. Currently Rolette County, ND has no cases of COVID 19, Sumter County has at least 33 cases.

Questions and comments may be sent to info@freedomarchives.org

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Dear Readers, this is a very important list of demands crafted by the group, Socialist Resurgence, that appears at the end of their statement on the COVID-19 pandemic. The article itself is quite long but the most comprehensive statement I've seen and well worth reading at the URL below. Please circulate widely.

—Bonnie Weinstein

STATEMENT BY SOCIALIST RESURGENCE 

ON COVID-19

https://socialistresurgence.org/2020/03/24/statement-by-socialist-resurgence-on-covid-19/

A program of action and solidarity

Capitalism stands totally disgraced. Even amidst a global pandemic and the coming ecological collapse, the ruling class in every country is trying to save its own profits at the expense of humanity. Workers have nothing at all to gain from supporting the capitalists, their programs, or their parties. Instead, working people must put forward our own solutions to the crisis and struggle with every weapon we have to achieve them. We call for:

• Centralized, international commissions of doctors and engineers to coordinate a global response to the pandemic!
• Retool all non-essential production to provide medical and safety equipment and begin a massive build-out of green infrastructure!
• No bans, no walls, amnesty for all immigrants and refugees, with full citizenship rights now!
• Democratic decision-making carried out through public discussion on all restrictions of movement!
• Free housing, food, and medical care throughout the crisis! Pay for it through the military budgets, with 100% tax on all income over $250,000!
• Hazard pay of at least 200% for all workers and full implementation of workplace safety measures! Completely free child care now! Stop all foreclosures, freeze all rents and mortgages, and stop all evictions for the duration of this crisis!
• Evacuate the prisons! Free all non-violent, immuno-compromised, and elderly prisoners, and provide quality housing!
• Drastically increase funding for domestic violence resources and education! No one stuck in quarantine with an abuser!
• Decrease hours without a decrease in pay for all who must work! All the necessities for those who are not working!
• Abortion is an essential service! Free and safe access for all who need it!
• Aid, not sanctions! Reparations for colonized countries now! Cancel all imperialist debt!
• Removal of all imperialist troops from the neo-colonial world; re-assign them for immediate use in aid efforts!
• No bailouts for big business or the banks! Nationalize production and finance under democratic workers’ control!

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COVID Newsletter #2020-2 March 25, 2020

Migrants on Hunger Strike at the Laval Immigration Detention Centre: Act Now in Solidarity Solidarity Across Borders, March 25, 2020 – Stay in touch! Look here for updates and renewed calls for support Migrants detained at the Laval Immigration Detention Centre have launched an indefinite hunger strike to demand their release in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Around 30 men are currently being held on the men’s side of the detention centre. The ten hunger-strikers are refusing all meals, despite pressure from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) to desist. Like other prisoners across Canada and around the world, they are demanding to be released for their own safety. Read their statement here. We are joining the detainees to demand the immediate release of everyone currently detained, safe and decent housing for everyone released, and an end to new detentions! Free them all! Support the prisoners (see details and more background info below) In Canada, call Ministers of Health and Public Safety (contacts and script below) Everywhere, echo their demands on social media, alternative media and mainstream media by passing this message on, or by posting or writing articles demanding their release (background on migrant detention in Canada). Background The 34 detainees are inmates of the Laval Immigration Prevention Centre, a prison where migrants are held if they don’t have identity documents, or if Canada wants to deport them and does not think they will comply. Detention is an important tool that Canada uses to keep its borders closed to colonized and racialized people from the global south, while continuing to exploit their labour and natural resources. Afraid for their health, the prisoners in the migrant prison in Laval point out in their petition the high risks of being kept in a confined space. They are exposed to hundreds of guards, food workers, and health staff entering and leaving the facility every day. Their demand comes as urgent calls for the release of prisoners multiply – in Quebec, across Canada and elsewhere – as a public health imperative. The pandemic has exposed how interrelated we all are in society, within and across borders, within and outside prison. It calls for solidarity with those who will be hit hardest – those already in the most precarious situations, such as detention. Meanwhile, visits to the prison for migrants have been cancelled, leaving prisoners even more isolated. Detention is already a major source of psychological distress, especially for trauma survivors, in addition to poor nutrition and sleep, and limited access to healthcare. The lack of visits also poses a significant barrier to legal advice. Mandatory detention review hearings now take place by phone. Last week, CBSA announced that it was halting deportations for at least three weeks, but failed to address detention. On Thursday, March 19th, the detainees issued a call in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Their hand-written petition was sent to the Federal Minister of Public Safety, Federal Minister of Immigration, Prime Minister of Canada, the Federal and Quebec Ministers of Health, and international bodies such as the UNHCR. After a week of inaction on the part of government officials, detainees launched an indefinite hunger strike to demand their release. Contacts Federal Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair Bill.Blair@parl.gc.ca Telephone: 613-995-0284 Fax: 613-996-6309 Federal Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Marco Mendocino Minister@cic.gc.ca Telephone: 613-954-1064 Fax: 613-952-5533 What to say – Ten migrant detainees at the Laval Immigration Detention Centre are on hunger strike to demand their release. The situation is urgent and demands immediate action to ensure their safety. – Locking people inside this facility and taking away their freedom is unjustifiable to begin with, but to force people to remain inside in the midst of a pandemic is beyond unjust, it’s dangerous for everyone – I am asking for the immediate release of everyone currently detained and decent and safe housing for all of the people who are released. – I am also asking for an end to new detentions

Communiqué From Prisoners In The Laval Immigration Holding Centre: Hunger-Strike Until We Are Free (Laval, 24 March 2020) Following the petition we wrote , which had little impact on our situation of detention, we have decided to move to the second phase of our plan. This is to go on an indefinite hunger strike, starting today. This will be done in the most peaceful way and we are not breaking any detention centre rules. Thank you for your support and all help is welcome. *Petition to free the detainees, sent to Ministers of Immigration and Public Safety on 19 March 2020: We are currently detained at the Laval Immigration Holding Centre. Given the urgent situation of the propagation of the coronavirus, we believe that we are at high risk of contamination. Here in the detention centre we are in a confined space, every day we see the arrival of people, of immigrants, from everywhere, who have had no medical appointment nor any test to determine whether they are potential carriers of the virus. There is also the presence of security staff who are in contact with the external world every day and also have not had any testing. For these reasons we are writing this petition, to ask to be released." #HungerStrikeLaval #FreeThemAll

Dear Folks, This is the Kersplebedeb email list, normally devoted to telling you where and when you can buy books i distribute (and sometimes publish); only, all my tabling plans are obviously postponed indefinitely now. I’m trying something new. This list will be used proactively to share information about the current unfolding COVID-19 catastrophe, and the resulting political and economic turmoil. These won’t all be articles i agree with, but they will all be articles that i think are worth reading. Good luck everyone, and stay safe K p.s. You can also see previous newsletters or other documents on COVID-19 on the Kersplebedeb website *---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* *---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* Kiah Morris May 7 at 6:44 AM So, in MY lifetime.... Black people are so tired. 😓 We can’t go jogging (#AhmaudArbery). We can’t relax in the comfort of our own homes (#BothemJean and #AtatianaJefferson). We can't ask for help after being in a car crash (#JonathanFerrell and #RenishaMcBride). We can't have a cellphone (#StephonClark). We can't leave a party to get to safety (#JordanEdwards). We can't play loud music (#JordanDavis). We can’t sell CD's (#AltonSterling). We can’t sleep (#AiyanaJones) We can’t walk from the corner store (#MikeBrown). We can’t play cops and robbers (#TamirRice). We can’t go to church (#Charleston9). We can’t walk home with Skittles (#TrayvonMartin). We can’t hold a hair brush while leaving our own bachelor party (#SeanBell). We can’t party on New Years (#OscarGrant). We can’t get a normal traffic ticket (#SandraBland). We can’t lawfully carry a weapon (#PhilandoCastile). We can't break down on a public road with car problems (#CoreyJones). We can’t shop at Walmart (#JohnCrawford)p^p. We can’t have a disabled vehicle (#TerrenceCrutcher). We can’t read a book in our own car (#KeithScott). We can’t be a 10yr old walking with our grandfather (#CliffordGlover). We can’t decorate for a party (#ClaudeReese). We can’t ask a cop a question (#RandyEvans). We can’t cash our check in peace (#YvonneSmallwood). We can’t take out our wallet (#AmadouDiallo). We can’t run (#WalterScott). We can’t breathe (#EricGarner). We can’t live (#FreddieGray). We’re tired. Tired of making hashtags. Tired of trying to convince you that our #BlackLivesMatter too. Tired of dying. Tired. Tired. Tired. So very tired. (I don’t know who created this. I just know there are so many more names to be added and names we may never hear of.) *---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* *---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*

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Coronavirus, Epidemics and Capitalism: The Bugs Are in the System Radical Women supports and recommends this thoughtful analysis of the novel coronavirus by our sister organization, the Freedom Socialist Party. The statement raises excellent demands to protect workers, women, the poor, and people of color being scapegoated for the crisis.  Governments around the globe have had since December to prepare for the novel coronavirus. And while some countries have done better than others with their response, here in the U.S. the for-profit medical industry is practically ensuring that more people catch the virus and more die from it. As with other disasters and emergencies, capitalism makes things worse. Billionaire White House occupant Donald Trump shot us all in the foot when he fired his pandemic response team in 2018. A year later, his administration scaled back the Centers for Disease Control’s pandemic prevention teams in several countries, including China. His 2021 budget proposal includes a 16% cut in the CDC’s budget, this after the department endured over a decade of budget cuts going back to the Obama administration. Now in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., Trump visited the CDC and asked, “Who would have thought?” (New York Times, 3/8/20). Coronavirus has so far claimed more than 4,600 lives worldwide. Cases of people with COVID-19 have been confirmed in 114 countries, including the United States, with the disease reported in 42 states so far. Washington state is the initial epicenter with over 330 cases confirmed and possibly 1,000 or more undetected. On one hand, there is a constant drumbeat from corporate media outlets that invites panic. On the other, elected leaders are too concerned with the economic disruption to take this threat seriously enough. Testing for the virus is a good example of this. Initial kits from the CDC were faulty and the agency was slow to remove senseless restrictions on who could be tested. In Washington state, the insurance commissioner directed insurance companies not to charge any co-pays for the tests — but those without insurance still have to pay. This guarantees greater suffering for homeless people and the lowest-paid and most marginalized workers, meaning women, immigrants and people of color. And there are still shortages of test kits, letting the virus continue to spread. Congress passed an $8.3 billion anti-coronavirus spending package on March 4, which should buy more testing kits. But if a tenth of that money had been spent years ago developing a coordinated, international strategy of prevention we might not be in this fix. Not to mention Trump’s ridiculous revolving-door Cabinet that has included four different Secretaries of Health and Human Services and his appointment of Vice President Mike Pence as his coronavirus czar. Pence is famous for his slow response to an outbreak of the AIDS virus as governor of Indiana, a delay that caused it to spread far and wide. Trump and his fellow far-right world leaders are using the virus as an excuse to double down on xenophobic nationalism, upping the rhetoric and shutting down borders. Racist bigots everywhere are following their example. Violence against Asian people has escalated, as witnessed in London and on a New York City subway last month. Asian-owned businesses across the U.S. have been shunned and hotels have turned away customers because of their race. It doesn’t help matters that 24% of all U.S. workers and 58% of those in the service industry receive no paid sick leave. That leaves them to choose between being getting fired or potentially causing their co-workers and customers to fall ill. The Healthy Families Act would give everyone at least a week’s sick leave, but even if it becomes law it won’t be enough. Many serious illnesses are contagious for more than a week and many workers, especially women, need to care for sick family members. Like other epidemics before it, coronavirus is a threat compounded by capitalist greed and callousness. As disease ecologist Peter Daszak recently put it, “Unprecedented road-building, deforestation, land clearing and agricultural development, as well as globalized travel and trade” make pandemics likelier than ever, especially when “between outbreaks, the will to spend money on prevention wanes.” Global warming and nuclear proliferation have shown that capitalists will always trade tomorrow’s welfare for today’s dollar if we let them. Now is the time to mobilize our unions and community organizations, along with small businesses to insist on immediate and effective action to protect public health. To address this crisis, the Freedom Socialist Party raises these demands: A universal, free, nonprofit, nationalized medical industry, including pharmaceuticals, managed by healthcare workers and patients Free testing, treatment and vaccines International cooperation on the virus treatment and vaccine research; outlaw profit-making from the crisis Unlimited paid sick leave for all workers, with government assistance as necessary plus full compensation for lost wages due to closures or quarantines Free laptops and Wi-Fi at home and free lunch programs for all students when schools close; free childcare for parents who have to work Emergency financial assistance for small businesses hurt by the epidemic, including subsidies for paid sick leave Increase public and private staffing levels to perform the intensified cleaning required Train all at-risk workers and provide proper protective equipment Stop the racist scapegoating of Chinese and all Asian and immigrant communities No abridgement of civil liberties Redirect military spending and border wall funding to coronavirus response, prevention and cure You can find fiery Radical Women writings on the RW webpage. Learn more about RW through The Radical Women Manifesto, an exhilarating exploration of Marxist feminist theory and organizing methods. Buy a copy or read it on Google Books. Donations are appreciated! As a grassroots group, Radical Women is sustained by support from people like you. Please contribute online or mail a check, payable to Radical Women, National Office 5018 Rainier Ave S Seattle, WA 98118 USA. Check out the Freedom Socialist newspaper, a bi-monthly socialist feminist newspaper with news and analysis from around the globe. It also features book reviews, irreverent political cartoons, movement news and letters-to-the-editor. You can read or listen to articles online. Subscribe online or send $10 for one year or $17 for two to Freedom Socialist, 5018 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle WA 98118. (Students $8 for one year, strikers and unemployed $5.)

Mailing Address: Radical Women, National Office 5018 Rainier Ave. S. Seattle, WA  98118 Add us to your address book For more information Phone: 206-722-6057 RadicalWomenus@gmail.com www.RadicalWomen.org Forward to a friend | Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe to RW emails. Change email address | Unsubscribe from this list

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Friday post   

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The American way of life was designed by white supremacists in favor patriarchal white supremacy, who have had at least a 400 year head start accumulating wealth, out of generations filled with blood sweat and tears of oppressed people. The same people who are still on the front lines and in the crosshairs of patriarchal white-supremacist capitalism today. There's no such thing as equality without a united revolutionary front to dismantle capitalism and design a worldwide socialist society.

—Johnny Gould

(Follow @tandino415 on Instagram)

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View in your browser Want to learn more about sanctions? Visit sanctionskill.org/resources-2 for fact sheets, articles, books, videos, chant sheets, press releases, placards, banners, union resolutions, social media campaigns, translations and more! Unsubscribe 147 W 24th St. 2nd Floor New York City, NY 10011 

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

National Solidarity Events to Amplify Prisoners Human Rights 

AUGUST 21 - SEPTEMBER 9th

To all in solidarity with the Prisoners Human Rights Movement:

We are reaching out to those that have been amplifying our voices in these state, federal, or immigration jails and prisons, and to allies that uplifted the national prison strike demands in 2018. We call on you again to organize the communities from August 21st - September 9th, 2020, by hosting actions, events, and demonstrations that call for prisoner human rights and the end to prison slavery.

We must remind the people and legal powers in this nation that prisoners' human rights are a priority. If we aren't moving forward, we're moving backward. For those of us in chains, backward is not an option. We have nothing to lose but our chains.

Some people claim that prisoners' human rights have advanced since the last national prison strike in 2018. We strongly disagree. But due to prisoners organizing inside and allies organizing beyond the walls, solidarity with our movement has increased. The only reason we hear conversations referencing prison reforms in every political campaign today is because of the work of prison organizers and our allies! But as organizers in prisons, we understand this is not enough. Just as quickly as we've gained ground, others are already funding projects and talking points to set back those advances. Our only way to hold our ground while moving forward is to remind people where we are and where we are headed.

On August 21 - September 9, we call on everyone in solidarity with us to organize an action, a panel discussion, a rally, an art event, a film screening, or another kind of demonstration to promote prisoners' human rights. Whatever is within your ability, we ask that you shake the nation out of any fog they may be in about prisoners' human rights and the criminal legal system (legalized enslavement).

During these solidarity events, we request that organizers amplify immediate issues prisoners in your state face, the demands from the National Prison Strike of 2018, and uplift Jailhouse Lawyers Speak new International Law Project.

We've started the International Law Project to engage the international community with a formal complaint about human rights abuses in U.S. prisons. This project will seek prisoners' testimonials from across the country to establish a case against the United States Prison Industrial Slave Complex on international human rights grounds.

Presently working on this legally is the National Lawyers Guild's Prisoners Rights Committee, and another attorney, Anne Labarbera. Members of the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), Fight Toxic Prisons (FTP), and I am We Prisoners Advocacy Network/Millions For Prisoners are also working to support these efforts. The National Lawyers Guild Prisoners' Rights Committee (Jenipher R. Jones, Esq. and Audrey Bomse) will be taking the lead on this project.

The National Prison Strike Demands of 2018 have not changed.. As reflected publicly by the recent deaths of Mississippi prisoners, the crisis in this nation's prisons persist. Mississippi prisons are on national display at the moment of this writing, and we know shortly afterward there will be another Parchman in another state with the same issues. The U.S. has demonstrated a reckless disregard for human lives in cages.

The prison strike demands were drafted as a path to alleviate the dehumanizing process and conditions people are subjected to while going through this nation's judicial system. Following up on these demands communicates to the world that prisoners are heard and that prisoners' human rights are a priority.

In the spirit of Attica, will you be in the fight to dismantle the prison industrial slave complex by pushing agendas that will shut down jails and prisons like Rikers Island or Attica? Read the Attica Rebellion demands and read the National Prison Strike 2018 demands. Ask yourself what can you do to see the 2018 National Prison Strike demands through.

SHARE THIS RELEASE FAR AND WIDE WITH ALL YOUR CONTACTS!

We rage with George Jackson's "Blood in my eyes" and move in the spirit of the Attica Rebellion!

August 21st - September 9th, 2020

AGITATE, EDUCATE, ORGANIZE

Dare to struggle, Dare to win!

We are--

"Jailhouse Lawyers Speak"  

NLG EMAIL CONTACT FOR LAWYERS AND LAW STUDENTS INTERESTED IN JOINING THE INTERNATIONAL LAW PROJECT: micjlsnlg@gmail.com

PRISON STRIKE DEMANDS:  https://jailhouselawyerspeak.wordpress.com/2020/02/11/prisoners-national-demands-for-human-rights/  

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Meet the Candidates                Sign Up                Endorse                Presidential candidate Gloria La Riva denounces Trump's new Iran sanctions Campaign tweet of La Riva at anti-war protest speaking on the human impact of U..S. sanctions "Sanctions are a silent killer that have already had devastating effects in Iraq and Iran. I denounce Mike Pompeo's and Steven Mnuchin's announcement of more sanctions on Iran, which are solely intended to create suffering on the Iranian people," said Gloria La Riva, 2020 presidential candidate and longtime anti-war activist. "It is clear that the Trump administration is not backing down from its belligerence. In fact, Trump is forcefully pursuing further confrontation, and is all the more reason for us to remain mobilized against a new war on Iran." Join the Sat. Jan. 25 – Global Day of Protest – No War On Iran! "Sanctions are an act of war," she continued, "I traveled three times to Iraq during the 1990's when the United States government imposed a total blockade of the country for more than 12 years. I witnessed the human toll, thousands of people dying every month from the blocking of food, medicine, and infrastructure materials after the 78-day U.S... military bombing of 1991." La Riva produced the 1998 award-winning documentary, Genocide by Sanctions: The Case of Iraq, based on her investigative work there... "And now President Trump, via executive order, is virtually tightening a noose on Iran." In the Friday address Treasury Secretary Mnuchin announced that Trump's sanctions included penalties that would be applied to any individual or governments trading with or involved with Iranian construction, manufacturing, textiles or mining industries. "Sanctions are designed to destabilize a country's society, they are part of a larger war drive," La Riva said. "They hit the most vulnerable people first, the sick, young children, elderly and the poor because they lose access to necessary items. In Iran the prices of potatoes have already increased over 300% from previous sanctions. The costs of rice and chicken and many other goods have gone up.......... The point of sanctions is to create suffering—with these kinds of acts it is no wonder Iran and the Iraqi Parliament have called for the expulsion of the U..S. military from the region. "There is no justification for these sanctions. In fact United Nations resolutions state that there is no justification for policies that target a whole population.... Such an act of aggression is recognized as genocide." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo claimed that Iranian general Qassem Soleimani was behind imminent threats to Americans but when asked for specifics, he only cited the death of a U.S.. contractor killed in Iraq. However, that was weeks prior to the killing of Soleimani. La Riva said, "by logic and definition a past occurrence does not constitute not an imminent threat. What we know instead is that with Trump's abrogation of the JCPOA, he embarked a while ago on an offensive that the people of the United States and worldwide are extremely worried about.." La Riva has been in the streets of San Francisco with thousands of other people demanding No New War on Iran.... She is running nationally for the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and in California she is seeking the Peace and Freedom Party nomination. Her vice-presidential candidate is Leonard Peltier, Native political prisoner unjustly held in federal prison now for 43 years. Point five of La Riva's Presidential 10 Point Program reads, "Shut down all U.S. military bases around the world—bring all the troops, planes & ships home... U...S. foreign policy uses the pretext of national security to enforce the imperialist interests of the biggest banks and corporations... That is what is behind the endless wars and occupations. Use the $1 trillion military budget instead to provide for people's needs here and worldwide. Abolish nuclear weapons... Stop U.S. aid to Israel. Self-determination for the Palestinian people, including the right of return. End the U.S.. blockade of Cuba and sanctions against Venezuela, Iran and all countries...... Independence for Puerto Rico and cancel its debt!" Questions? Comments? Contact us. This email was sent to caroleseligman@sbcglobal.net. To stop receiving emails, click here. Created with NationBuilder, the essential toolkit for leaders.

Meet the Candidates                Sign Up                Endorse                La Riva / Peltier 2020 Campaign 10-Point Program The 10-Point Program of the La Riva/Peltier 2020 Campaign is a fighting program that represents the interests and needs of the vast majority of people of the United States and extends international solidarity to the peoples of the world. Our campaign will reach to every corner of the U.S. with the message that only socialism can solve the crises of climate change, racism, poverty and war. It will take a people's movement for real, lasting and sustainable change. We hope you will join us! Donate to our campaign today! ★ 1 | Make the essentials of life constitutional rights The U.....S. has more than enough so that all the essentials of life — food, housing, water, education, health care and a job or basic income can be guaranteed rights — rather than distributed only for profit. Create a completely free and public healthcare system.. Make education free—cancel all student debt. Fully fund rebuilding of the infrastructure in transport, water and utility systems... Stop all foreclosures and evictions. End all discrimination based on ability/disability. ★ 2 | For the Earth to live, capitalism must be replaced by a socialist system Global warming, pollution, acidified and depleted oceans, fracking, critical drought, plastics choking the seas, nuclear weapons and waste — it is clear that capitalism and production for profit are destroying the planet and threatening all life.. The crisis is already here, with the most vulnerable and oppressed areas of the U.S.. and Global South bearing the brunt. Using truly sustainable energy and seizing the oil and coal companies to stop fossil fuel pollution, are urgent steps needed to reverse climate change.. Ultimately, only the socialist reorganization of society can assure the future of the people and the planet. ★ 3 | End racism, police brutality, mass incarceration. Pay reparations to the African American community Mass incarceration and racist policing are symptomatic of the 400 years of brutal repression meted out to African-descended peoples in the U.S. Reparations must be paid! More than 2....2 million people are behind bars in the largest prison complex in the world. End mass incarceration of all oppressed and working-class people. Fully prosecute all acts of police brutality and violence. Free Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners! ★ 4 | Full rights for all immigrants Abolish all anti-immigrant laws. Stop the raids and deportations and demonization of immigrants......... Shut down ICE and the concentration camps and reunite families.. The government's war on immigrants must end. The border wall must be dismantled. Amnesty and citizenship for those without documents... Full rights for all! ★ 5 | Shut down all U.S.. military bases around the world—bring all the troops, planes & ships home U.S. foreign policy uses the pretext of national security to enforce the imperialist interests of the biggest banks and corporations... That is what is behind the endless wars and occupations. Use the $1 trillion military budget instead to provide for people's needs here and worldwide. Abolish nuclear weapons... Stop U....S... aid to Israel.. Self-determination for the Palestinian people, including the right of return. End the U.S. blockade of Cuba and sanctions against Venezuela, Iran and all countries.. Independence for Puerto Rico and cancel its debt! ★ 6 | Honor Native treaties... Free Leonard Peltier now Both major parties have continued to allow the destruction and theft of Native lands by mining and corporate agricultural interests in blatant disregard of indigenous sovereign rights.. 33% of Native children live in poverty and many of the poorest U..S... counties are reservations..... The crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and the over-incarceration of Native peoples shows the bankruptcy of capitalism from its earliest inception in the Americas until today.. ★ 7 | Full equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people Fight back against anti-LGBTQ discrimination and violence.... Defend marriage equality. Full equality in all matters governed by civil law, including employment, housing, healthcare and education.. No to "religious exemption" laws that allow discrimination against LGBTQ people! ★ 8 | Equality for women and free, safe, legal abortion on demand Stop the attack on women's reproductive rights and defend Roe v. Wade... Women must have the fundamental right to choose and to control their own bodies. Women still earn 22 percent less than men, and the gap is even more severe for Black and Latina women.. Close the wage gap and end the gender division of labor...... ★ 9 | Defend and expand our unions Support the right of all workers to have a union. Fight back against the attacks on collective bargaining...... Require employers to recognize card check union votes. Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act. Focusing on low-wage worker organizing, rebuild a fighting labor movement. ★ 10 | Take over the stolen wealth of the giant banks and corporations – Jail Wall St.. criminals The vast wealth of the giant banks and corporations is created by workers labor and the exploitation of the world's diminishing natural resources. The billionaires looted and destroyed the economy. It is time to seize their assets and use those resources in the interests of the vast majority. Power must be taken out of the hands of the super rich, and Wall Street criminals must be jailed.

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Stop Kevin Cooper's Abuse by San Quentin Prison Guards!

https://www.change.org/p/san-quentin-warden-ronald-davis-stop-kevin-cooper-s-abuse-by-san-quentin-prison-guards-2ace89a7-a13e-44ab-b70c-c18acbbfeb59?recruiter=747387046&recruited_by_id=3ea6ecd0-69ba-11e7-b7ef-51d8e2da53ef&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=petition_dashboard&use_react=false  On Wednesday, September 25, Kevin Cooper's cell at San Quentin Prison was thrown into disarray and his personal food dumped into the toilet by a prison guard, A. Young. The cells on East Block Bayside, where Kevin's cell is, were all searched on September 25 during Mandatory Yard. Kevin spent the day out in the yard with other inmates.. In a letter, Kevin described what he found when he returned: "This cage was hit hard, like a hurricane was in here .. .... . little by little I started to clean up and put my personal items back inside the boxes that were not taken .... .. .. I go over to the toilet, lift up the seatcover and to my surprise and shock the toilet was completely filled up with my refried beans, and my brown rice. Both were in two separate cereal bags and both cereal bags were full. The raisin bran cereal bags were gone, and my food was in the toilet!" A bucket was eventually brought over and: "I had to get down on my knees and dig my food out of the toilet with my hands so that I could flush the toilet. The food, which was dried refried beans and dried brown rice had absorbed the water in the toilet and had become cement hard. It took me about 45 minutes to get enough of my food out of the toilet before it would flush." Even the guard working the tier at the time told Kevin, "K.C.., that is f_cked up!" A receipt was left in Kevin's cell identifying the guard who did this as A... Young. Kevin has never met Officer A...... Young, and has had no contact with him besides Officer Young's unprovoked act of harassment and psychological abuse... Kevin Cooper has served over 34 years at San Quentin, fighting for exoneration from the conviction for murders he did not commit. It is unconscionable for him to be treated so disrespectfully by prison staff on top of the years of his incarceration. No guard should work at San Quentin if they cannot treat prisoners and their personal belongings with basic courtesy and respect................. Kevin has filed a grievance against A. Young.. Please: 1) Sign this petition calling on San Quentin Warden Ronald Davis to grant Kevin's grievance and discipline "Officer" A. Young.. 2) Call Warden Ronald Davis at: (415) 454-1460 Ext. 5000. Tell him that Officer Young's behaviour was inexcusable, and should not be tolerated........ 3) Call Yasir Samar, Associate Warden of Specialized Housing, at (415) 455-5037 4) Write Warden Davis and Lt. Sam Robinson (separately) at: Main Street San Quentin, CA 94964 5) Email Lt. Sam Robinson at: samuel.robinson2@cdcr.......................ca.gov

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Eddie Conway's Update on Forgotten Political Prisoners

November 19, 2019

https://therealnews........com/stories/eddie-conway-update-forgotten-political-prisoners

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EDDIE CONWAY: I'm Eddie Conway, host of Rattling the Bars. As many well-known political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal continue to suffer in prison…

MUMIA ABU JAMAL: In an area where there is corporate downsizing and there are no jobs and there is only a service economy and education is being cut, which is the only rung by which people can climb, the only growth industry in this part of Pennsylvania, in the Eastern United States, in the Southern United States, in the Western United States is "corrections," for want of a better word. The corrections industry is booming. I mean, this joint here ain't five years old.

EDDIE CONWAY: …The media brings their stories to the masses.. But there are many lesser-known activists that have dropped out of the spotlight, grown old in prison, or just been forgotten.............. For Rattling the Bars, we are spotlighting a few of their stories........ There was a thriving Black Panther party in Omaha, Nebraska, headed by David Rice and Ed Poindexter...... By 1968, the FBI had began plans to eliminate the Omaha Black Panthers by making an example of Rice and Poindexter. It would take a couple of years, but the FBI would frame them for murder..

KIETRYN ZYCHAL: In the 90s, Ed and Mondo both applied to the parole board. There are two different things you do in Nebraska, the parole board would grant you parole, but because they have life sentences, they were told that they have to apply to the pardons board, which is the governor, the attorney general, and the secretary of state, and ask that their life sentences be commuted to a specific number of years before they would be eligible for parole.

And so there was a movement in the 90s to try to get them out on parole...... The parole board would recommend them for parole because they were exemplary prisoners, and then the pardons board would not give them a hearing. They wouldn't even meet to determine whether they would commute their sentence..

EDDIE CONWAY: They served 45 years before Rice died in the Nebraska State Penitentiary. After several appeals, earning a master's degree, writing several books and helping other inmates, Poindexter is still serving time at the age of 75.

KEITRYN ZYCHAL: Ed Poindexter has been in jail or prison since August of 1970. He was accused of making a suitcase bomb and giving it to a 16-year-old boy named Duane Peak, and Duane Peak was supposed to take the bomb to a vacant house and call 911, and report that a woman was dragged screaming into a vacant house, and when police officers showed up, one of those police officers was killed when the suitcase bomb exploded............

Ed and his late co-defendant, Mondo we Langa, who was David Rice at the time of the trial, they have always insisted that they had absolutely nothing to do with this murderous plot, and they tried to get back into court for 50 years, and they have never been able to get back into court to prove their innocence. Mondo died in March of 2016 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and Ed is going to turn 75 this year, I think............. And he has spent the majority of his life in prison... It will be 50 years in 2020 that he will be in prison..

EDDIE CONWAY: There are at least 20 Black Panthers still in prison across the United States.. One is one of the most revered is H. Rap Brown, known by his Islamic name, Jamil Al-Amin.

KAIRI AL-AMIN: My father has been a target for many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many years of the federal government, and I think him being housed these last 10 years in federal penitentiaries without federal charges show that the vendetta is still strong. The federal government has not forgotten who he was as H.. Rap Brown, or who he is as Imam Jamil Al-Amin...

JAMIL AL-AMIN: See, it's no in between.. You are either free or you're a slave. There's no such thing as second-class citizenship.

EDDIE CONWAY: Most people don't realize he's still in prison. He's serving a life sentence at the United States Penitentiary in Tucson...

KAIRI AL-AMIN: Our campaign is twofold.. One, how can egregious constitutional rights violations not warrant a new trial, especially when they were done by the prosecution........ And two, my father is innocent. The facts point to him being innocent, which is why we're pushing for a new trial.. We know that they can't win this trial twice... The reason they won the first time was because of the gag order that was placed on my father which didn't allow us to fight in the court of public opinion as well as the court of law... And so when you don't have anyone watching, anything can be done without any repercussion..

EDDIE CONWAY: Another well-known political prisoner that has been forgotten in the media and in the public arena is Leonard Peltier. Leonard Peltier was a member of the American Indian Movement and has been in prison for over 40 years and is now 75 years old..

SPEAKER: Leonard Peltier represents, in a very real sense, the effort, the struggle by indigenous peoples within the United States to exercise their rights as sovereign nations, recognized as such in treaties with the United States.. For the government of the United States, which has colonized all indigenous peoples to claim boundaries, keeping Leonard in prison demonstrates the costs and consequences of asserting those rights.

EDDIE CONWAY: Leonard Peltier suffers from a host of medical issues including suffering from a stroke... And if he is not released, he will die in prison...

LEONARD PELTIER: I'll be an old man when I get out, if I get out.

PAULETTE D'AUTEUIL: His wellbeing is that he rarely gets a family visit. His children live in California and North Dakota. Both places are a good 2000 miles from where he's at in Florida, so it makes it time consuming as well as expensive to come and see him. He is, health-wise, we are still working on trying to get some help for his prostate, and there has been some development of some spots on his lungs, which we are trying to get resolved....... There's an incredible mold issue in the prison, especially because in Florida it's so humid and it builds up. So we're also dealing with that...

EDDIE CONWAY: These are just a few of the almost 20 political prisoners that has remained in American prisons for 30 and 40 years, some even longer. Mutulu Shakur has been in jail for long, long decades.... Assata Shakur has been hiding and forced into exile in Cuba......... Sundiata has been in prison for decades; Veronza Bower, The Move Nine........... And there's just a number of political prisoners that's done 30 or 40 years.

They need to be released and they need to have an opportunity to be back with their family, their children, their grandchildren, whoever is still alive. Any other prisoners in the United States that have the same sort of charges as those people that are being held has been released up to 15 or 20 years ago. That same justice system should work for the political prisoners also.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of Rattling the Bars. I'm Eddie Conway.....

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Letters of support for clemency needed for Reality Winner  Reality Winner, a whistleblower who helped expose foreign hacking of US election systems leading up to the 2016 presidential election, has been behind bars since June 2017. Supporters are preparing to file a petition of clemency in hopes of an early release... Reality's five year prison sentence is by far the longest ever given for leaking information to the media about a matter of public interest.............. Stand with Reality shirts, stickers, and more available. Please take a moment to sign the letter SIGN THE LETTER  Support Reality Podcast: "Veterans need to tell their stories" – Dan Shea Vietnam War combat veteran Daniel Shea on his time in Vietnam and the impact that Agent Orange and post traumatic stress had on him and his family since...  Listen now This Courage to Resist podcast was produced in collaboration with the Vietnam Full Disclosure effort of Veterans For Peace — "Towards an honest commemoration of the American war in Vietnam." This year marks 50 years of GI resistance, in and out of uniform, for many of the courageous individuals featured.. If you believe this history is important, please ... DONATE NOW  to support these podcasts

COURAGE TO RESIST ~ SUPPORT THE TROOPS WHO REFUSE TO FIGHT! 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, California 94610 ~ 510-488-3559 www.....................couragetoresist..org ~ facebook.com/couragetoresist 

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Board Game

https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/race-for-solidarity

Solidarity against racism has existed from the 1600's and continues until today

An exciting board game of chance, empathy and wisdom, that entertains and educates as it builds solidarity through learning about the destructive history of American racism and those who always fought back. Appreciate the anti-racist solidarity of working people, who built and are still building, the great progressive movements of history.. There are over 200 questions, with answers and references.

Spread the word!!

By Dr.... Nayvin Gordon

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50 years in prison:  ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!! FREE Chip Fitzgerald  Grandfather, Father, Elder, Friend former Black Panther                

Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald has been in prison since he was locked up 50 years ago...... A former member of the Black Panther Party, Chip is now 70 years old, and suffering the consequences of a serious stroke. He depends on a wheelchair for his mobility. He has appeared before the parole board 17 times, but they refuse to release him.. NOW is the time for Chip to come home! In September 1969, Chip and two other Panthers were stopped by a highway patrolman..... During the traffic stop, a shooting broke out, leaving Chip and a police officer both wounded. Chip was arrested a month later and charged with attempted murder of the police and an unrelated murder of a security guard. Though the evidence against him was weak and Chip denied any involvement, he was convicted and sentenced to death. In 1972, the California Supreme Court outlawed the death penalty.......... Chip and others on Death Row had their sentences commuted to Life imprisonment with the possibility of parole. All of them became eligible for parole after serving 7 more years...... But Chip was rejected for parole, as he has been ever since.  Parole for Lifers basically stopped under Governors Deukmajian, Wilson, and Davis (1983-2003), resulting in increasing numbers of people in prison and 23 new prisons. People in prison filed lawsuits in federal courts: people were dying as a result of the overcrowding.. To rapidly reduce the number of people in prison, the court mandated new parole hearings: ·        for anyone 60 years or older who had served 25 years or more; ·        for anyone convicted before they were 23 years old; ·        for anyone with disabilities  Chip qualified for a new parole hearing by meeting all three criteria. But the California Board of Parole Hearings has used other methods to keep Chip locked up. Although the courts ordered that prison rule infractions should not be used in parole considerations, Chip has been denied parole because he had a cellphone.......... Throughout his 50 years in prison, Chip has been denied his right to due process – a new parole hearing as ordered by Federal courts. He is now 70, and addressing the challenges of a stroke victim. His recent rules violation of cellphone possession were non-violent and posed no threat to anyone. He has never been found likely to commit any crimes if released to the community – a community of his children, grandchildren, friends and colleagues who are ready to support him and welcome him home. The California Board of Parole Hearings is holding Chip hostage..... We call on Governor Newsom to release Chip immediately. What YOU can do to support this campaign to FREE CHIP: 1)   Sign and circulate the petition to FREE Chip. Download it at https://www.change.org/p/california-free-chip-fitzgerald Print out the petition and get signatures at your workplace, community meeting, or next social gathering. 2)   Write an email to Governor Newsom's office (sample message at:https://docs..google.com/document/d/1iwbP_eQEg2J1T2h-tLKE-Dn2ZfpuLx9MuNv2z605DMc/edit?usp=sharing 3)   Write to Chip:   Romaine "Chip" Fitzgerald #B27527, CSP-LAC P.O. Box 4490 B-4-150 Lancaster, CA 93539 -- Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 863...................9977 https://freedomarchives.org/

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On Abortion: From Facebook

Best explanation I've heard so far......., Copied from a friend who copied from a friend who copied..................., "Last night, I was in a debate about these new abortion laws being passed in red states. My son stepped in with this comment which was a show stopper. One of the best explanations I have read:, , 'Reasonable people can disagree about when a zygote becomes a "human life" - that's a philosophical question.... However, regardless of whether or not one believes a fetus is ethically equivalent to an adult, it doesn't obligate a mother to sacrifice her body autonomy for another, innocent or not..., , Body autonomy is a critical component of the right to privacy protected by the Constitution, as decided in Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), McFall v.. Shimp (1978), and of course Roe v. Wade (1973).. Consider a scenario where you are a perfect bone marrow match for a child with severe aplastic anemia; no other person on earth is a close enough match to save the child's life, and the child will certainly die without a bone marrow transplant from you.. If you decided that you did not want to donate your marrow to save the child, for whatever reason, the state cannot demand the use of any part of your body for something to which you do not consent..... It doesn't matter if the procedure required to complete the donation is trivial, or if the rationale for refusing is flimsy and arbitrary, or if the procedure is the only hope the child has to survive, or if the child is a genius or a saint or anything else - the decision to donate must be voluntary to be constitutional.... This right is even extended to a person's body after they die; if they did not voluntarily commit to donate their organs while alive, their organs cannot be harvested after death, regardless of how useless those organs are to the deceased or how many lives they would save...., , That's the law.., , Use of a woman's uterus to save a life is no different from use of her bone marrow to save a life - it must be offered voluntarily.............. By all means, profess your belief that providing one's uterus to save the child is morally just, and refusing is morally wrong............ That is a defensible philosophical position, regardless of who agrees and who disagrees....... But legally, it must be the woman's choice to carry out the pregnancy..., , She may choose to carry the baby to term..... She may choose not to. Either decision could be made for all the right reasons, all the wrong reasons, or anything in between... But it must be her choice, and protecting the right of body autonomy means the law is on her side... Supporting that precedent is what being pro-choice means....", , Feel free to copy/paste and re-post., y Sent from my iPhone

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Celebrating the release of Janet and Janine Africa  

Take action now to support Jalil A. Muntaqim's release

 Jalil A...... Muntaqim was a member of the Black Panther Party and has been a political prisoner for 48 years since he was arrested at the age of 19 in 1971. He has been denied parole 11 times since he was first eligible in 2002, and is now scheduled for his 12th parole hearing... Additionally, Jalil has filed to have his sentence commuted to time served by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Visit Jalil's support page, check out his writing and poetry, and Join Critical Resistance in supporting a vibrant intergenerational movement of freedom fighters in demanding his release. 48 years is enough. Write, email, call, and tweet at Governor Cuomo in support of Jalil's commutation and sign this petition demanding his release. 
http://freedomarchives.org/Support...Jalil/Campaign.html

Write: The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo Governor of the State of New York Executive Chamber State Capital Building Albany, New York 12224 Michelle Alexander – Author, The New Jim Crow; Ed Asner - Actor and Activist; Charles Barron - New York Assemblyman, 60th District; Inez Barron - Counci member, 42nd District, New York City Council; Rosa Clemente - Scholar Activist and 2008 Green Party Vice-Presidential candidate; Patrisse Cullors – Co-Founder Black Lives Matter, Author, Activist; Elena Cohen - President, National Lawyers Guild; "Davey D" Cook - KPFA Hard Knock Radio; Angela Davis - Professor Emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz; Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz - Native American historian, writer and feminist; Mike Farrell - Actor and activist; Danny Glover – Actor and activist; Linda Gordon - New York University; Marc Lamont Hill - Temple University; Jamal Joseph - Columbia University; Robin D.G. Kelley - University of California, Los Angeles; Tom Morello - Rage Against the Machine; Imani Perry - Princeton University; Barbara Ransby - University of Illinois, Chicago; Boots Riley - Musician, Filmmaker; Walter Riley - Civil rights attorney; Dylan Rodriguez - University of California, Riverside, President American Studies Association; Maggie Siff, Actor; Heather Ann Thompson - University of Michigan; Cornel West - Harvard University; Institutional affiliations listed for identification purposes only. Call: 1-518-474-8390 Email Gov.Cuomo with this form Tweet at @NYGovCuomo

Any advocacy or communications to Gov. Cuomo must refer to Jalil as: ANTHONY JALIL BOTTOM, 77A4283, Sullivan Correctional Facility, P.O. Box 116, Fallsburg, New York 12733-0116

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Funds for Kevin Cooper

https://www.gofundme.....com/funds-for-kevin-cooper?member=1994108 For 34 years, an innocent man has been on death row in California..  Kevin Cooper was wrongfully convicted of the brutal 1983 murders of the Ryen family and houseguest. The case has a long history of police and prosecutorial misconduct, evidence tampering, and numerous constitutional violations including many incidences of the prosecution withholding evidence of innocence from the defense. You can learn more here .....  In December 2018 Gov. Brown ordered  limited DNA testing and in February 2019, Gov..... Newsom ordered additional DNA testing. Meanwhile, Kevin remains on Death Row at San Quentin Prison..  The funds raised will be used to help Kevin purchase art supplies for his paintings ......... Additionally, being in prison is expensive, and this money would help Kevin pay for stamps, paper, toiletries, supplementary food, and/or phone calls........ Please help ease the daily struggle of an innocent man on death row!

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Don't extradite Assange!

To the government of the UK Julian Assange, through Wikileaks, has done the world a great service in documenting American war crimes, its spying on allies and other dirty secrets of the world's most powerful regimes, organisations and corporations. This has not endeared him to the American deep state.......... Both Obama, Clinton and Trump have declared that arresting Julian Assange should be a priority... We have recently received confirmation [1] that he has been charged in secret so as to have him extradited to the USA as soon as he can be arrested.  Assange's persecution, the persecution of a publisher for publishing information [2] that was truthful and clearly in the interest of the public - and which has been republished in major newspapers around the world - is a danger to freedom of the press everywhere, especially as the USA is asserting a right to arrest and try a non-American who neither is nor was then on American soil. The sentence is already clear: if not the death penalty then life in a supermax prison and ill treatment like Chelsea Manning... The very extradition of Julian Assange to the United States would at the same time mean the final death of freedom of the press in the West.....  Sign now! The courageous nation of Ecuador has offered Assange political asylum within its London embassy for several years until now. However, under pressure by the USA, the new government has made it clear that they want to drive Assange out of the embassy and into the arms of the waiting police as soon as possible... They have already curtailed his internet and his visitors and turned the heating off, leaving him freezing in a desolate state for the past few months and leading to the rapid decline of his health, breaching UK obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights. Therefore, our demand both to the government of Ecuador and the government of the UK is: don't extradite Assange to the US! Guarantee his human rights, make his stay at the embassy as bearable as possible and enable him to leave the embassy towards a secure country as soon as there are guarantees not to arrest and extradite him........... Furthermore, we, as EU voters, encourage European nations to take proactive steps to protect a journalist in danger... The world is still watching. Sign now! [1] https://www..nytimes.com/2018/11/16/us/politics/julian-assange-indictment-wikileaks.....html [2] https://theintercept.com/2018/11/16/as-the-obama-doj-concluded-prosecution-of-julian-assange-for-publishing-documents-poses-grave-threats-to-press-freedom/ Sign this petition: https://internal.diem25.....org/en/petitions/1 

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Words of Wisdom  

Louis Robinson Jr., 77 Recording secretary for Local 1714 of the United Auto Workers from 1999 to 2018, with the minutes from a meeting of his union's retirees' chapter.

"One mistake the international unions in the United States made was when Ronald Reagan fired the air traffic controllers. When he did that, the unions could have brought this country to a standstill...... All they had to do was shut down the truck drivers for a month, because then people would not have been able to get the goods they needed. So that was one of the mistakes they made. They didn't come together as organized labor and say: "No.... We aren't going for this......... Shut the country down." That's what made them weak. They let Reagan get away with what he did. A little while after that, I read an article that said labor is losing its clout, and I noticed over the years that it did.. It happened... It doesn't feel good..." [On the occasion of the shut-down of the Lordstown, Ohio GM plant March 6, 2019.........] https://www.......nytimes.com/interactive/2019/05/01/magazine/lordstown-general-motors-plant...html

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Get Malik Out of Ad-Seg  Keith "Malik" Washington is an incarcerated activist who has spoken out on conditions of confinement in Texas prison and beyond:  from issues of toxic water and extreme heat, to physical and sexual abuse of imprisoned people, to religious discrimination and more...  Malik has also been a tireless leader in the movement to #EndPrisonSlavery which gained visibility during nationwide prison strikes in 2016 and 2018..  View his work at comrademalik.com or write him at: Keith H. Washington TDC# 1487958 McConnell Unit 3001 S............ Emily Drive Beeville, TX 78102 Friends, it's time to get Malik out of solitary confinement. Malik has experienced intense, targeted harassment ever since he dared to start speaking against brutal conditions faced by incarcerated people in Texas and nationwide--but over the past few months, prison officials have stepped up their retaliation even more. In Administrative Segregation (solitary confinement) at McConnell Unit, Malik has experienced frequent humiliating strip searches, medical neglect, mail tampering and censorship, confinement 23 hours a day to a cell that often reached 100+ degrees in the summer, and other daily abuses too numerous to name..  It could not be more clear that they are trying to make an example of him because he is a committed freedom fighter.  So we have to step up.  Who to contact: TDCJ Executive Director Bryan Collier Phone: (936)295-6371 Email:  exec.director@tdcj.texas.....gov Senior Warden Philip Sinfuentes (McConnell Unit) Phone: (361) 362-2300

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Articles:

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1) The Women’s Jail at Rikers Island Is Named for My Grandmother. She Would Not Be Proud.

The inmates at “Rosie’s” are subjected to abuse and, now, exposed to the coronavirus.

By Suzanne Singer, May 12, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/opinion/womens-jail-rikers-island-covid.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

The Singer Center on Rikers Island houses female inmates.Credit...Bryan Thomas for The New York Times

In 1988, my family and I were honored when New York City named the new women’s jail on Rikers Island for my grandmother, Rose M. Singer, a longtime jail reform activist. The Rose M. Singer Center was supposed to be a beacon to the world, a place where women caught up in the criminal justice system would be treated humanely and kept safe.

The jail has not lived up to that vision, however. Instead, it has devolved into a torture chamber, where women are routinely abused, housed in unsanitary conditions, and denied medical and mental health services. They are treated as less than human, not as our grandmothers, mothers, daughters and sisters.

The conditions at the jail are an affront to the good name and legacy of my grandmother, who fought tirelessly for criminal justice reform. I applaud the mayor and the City Council for voting to close Rikers Island, which includes Rosie’s, as it is commonly known, but this will not take place until 2026. Women should not be forced to live in these abject conditions for a day longer.

Covid-19 has made the release of women who pose no threat to society even more urgent. Right now, as the virus continues to sweep through the city, we are witnessing the virus’ ferocity in close-packed jails and prisons, with at least 1,200 reported cases of Covid-19 among inmates and officers in city jails as of late April. Social distancing is next to impossible in crowded detention centers.

Women at Rikers have not been given sufficient personal protective gear, such as gloves, masks and goggles, nor have they received hand sanitizer, according to inmates and public defenders. Those who have been exposed to someone who contracted Covid-19 are not properly quarantined. Inmates have fallen ill and died, and will continue to.

Many of the women incarcerated at Rosie’s should never have been committed there. Eighty-five percent of them are mothers; a similar percentage have substance abuse disorders. Most have suffered trauma and violence at the hands of men, and two-thirds report having a mental illness, according to a 2017 report by the Independent Commission on New York City Criminal Justice and Incarceration Reform.

Seventy percent of the women at Rikers are awaiting trial. Pretrial detention should be eliminated for low-level, nonviolent crimes. Rather, these women should be sent to community-based alternative programs. The city should be expanding funding for drug treatment and behavioral health programs that would better serve these women.

Pregnant women should be diverted into specialized facilities. Even with the city budget deficit, deepened by the coronavirus, such alternative programs should not be cut.

The Singer Center was designed to reflect the work of my grandmother who served for decades on the Board of Correction, a watchdog group, and was an ardent activist for jail reform. It is always a tragedy when women must be detained. But it was my grandmother’s wish to provide these women with an environment conducive to their returning as productive and responsible members of society. The city has failed in that.

As now operated, the Singer Center does not offer women and gender-nonconforming New Yorkers the safety and dignity they deserve. I am sure my grandmother, who died in 1991, would not want her name associated with such a place. I call on the Department of Correction to immediately ensure the health and well-being of every woman held on Rikers Island. Do not tarnish my grandmother’s good name any longer.

Suzanne Singer is rabbi at Temple Beth El in Riverside, Calif.

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2) Tribal Nations Face Most Severe Crisis in Decades as the Coronavirus Closes Casinos

Nearly 500 tribal casinos remain shut down during the pandemic, causing job losses to spike. The economic damage is spreading quickly, wreaking havoc on fragile tribal finances.

By Simon Romero and Jack Healy, May 12, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/11/us/coronavirus-native-americans-indian-country.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

The Emerald Queen Casino & Hotel in Tacoma, Wash. The closure of hundreds of tribal casinos in response to the coronavirus outbreak is eviscerating the revenues many Native American nations use to provide basic services.Credit...Ted S. Warren/Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE — Tribal nations around the United States are facing their most severe crisis in decades as they grapple simultaneously with some of the deadliest coronavirus outbreaks in rural America and the economic devastation caused by the protracted shutdown of nearly 500 tribally owned casinos.

The Navajo Nation, the country’s largest Indian reservation, now has a higher death rate than any U.S. state except New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Across Indian Country, more than 5,200 cases have been confirmed in communities from Arizona to Minnesota — a number that might seem small compared with those in major urban centers in New York and Los Angeles, but which in many cases represents significant local clusters that are challenging the limited resources of tribal clinics and rural hospitals.

On reservations in the Dakotas and Montana where good housing is scarce, extended families have been forced to shelter together in tiny homes with no clean water and no internet. On the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming, the Northern Arapaho Tribe opened its casino as a quarantine site.

The collective perils — fragile health care systems, large numbers of people with pre-existing conditions and the collapse of tribal economies — have prompted Native American leaders to warn that serious havoc may be ahead, especially if closed casinos prevent tribes from battling to recover on their own.

“Life and death,” said Bryan Newland, tribal chairman of the Bay Mills Indian Community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, who estimated that about two-thirds of tribal employees were out of work. “We’re just going to write off 2020. There’s no sense in trying to work under the delusion that we’ll be able to claw back to normal life this year.”

The closure of the tribal casinos, which have emerged as one of the largest new sources of employment of any economic sector in the United States in recent decades, is eviscerating the revenues many tribal nations use to provide basic services. In one of the most important shifts toward increasing self-determination since the start of the century, more than 40 percent of the 574 federally recognized tribes in the United States now operate casinos.

Now these operations are hemorrhaging jobs. After the entire industry shut down in the early days of social-distancing measures, more than 700,000 people were left out of work, according to Meister Economic Consulting, which specializes in the tribal gaming industry.

In Michigan and Indiana, almost 1,500 workers were laid off at casinos owned by the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. Up and down California, tribal nations have laid off or furloughed casino workers. In Connecticut, the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan tribal nations announced last week that they were laying off the majority of their nearly 5,000 workers.

Non-Native Americans account for about 70 percent of workers in tribally owned casinos, reflecting the economic importance of such operations in many rural parts of the country. Altogether, tribal gaming enterprises generated $17.7 billion in local, state and federal tax revenue in 2019, according to a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in April by members of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

In an interview, the Harvard scholar Joseph Kalt likened the far-reaching devastation caused by shutdowns of tribal businesses around the country this year to the demise of the bison herds in the 19th century and the contentious attempt in the 1950s to disband tribes and relocate Native Americans to cities.

“You’d have to go back to the ’50s for something of this magnitude,” said Mr. Kalt, a co-director of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.

“What you’re seeing right now is simply a symptom of a much deeper problem facing tribal nations for over a century,” said Fawn R. Sharp, president of the National Congress of American Indians. “The failure to fund us has left us incredibly vulnerable.”

It was not until the beginning of the 21st century that tribal gaming began to gather considerable momentum, providing tribal nations a crucial source of funding that could not collect taxes.

Some tribes have continued paying their employees despite the closures, in attempts to stave off the economic pain. But after federal authorities delayed providing tribes with their portion of $8 billion in assistance from federal stimulus measures, the losses are accumulating.

But the Treasury Department has been slow to disperse the aid, and tribal leaders have expressed exasperation over the delays at a time when the virus is hitting them hard.

In Michigan, the closure of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community’s casino has already produced monthly losses of about $2 million, depleting funds for police patrols and the health clinic serving the 3,600-member tribe. As a result, fewer people are receiving basic health care and authorities have had to cancel daily lunches for tribal elders.

In the meantime, tribes are trying to plan for the uncertain weeks ahead.

In Oklahoma, where Gov. Kevin Stitt was already demanding more money from tribal casinos before the pandemic as part of a simmering feud, the Cherokee Nation, the largest tribal nation in the United States, is still paying its employees and planning to open parts of their gaming operations in early June.

But what that will look like remains unclear, said Brandon Scott, director of communications for the tribe. “I think it would be irresponsible of us to open the doors and go back to exactly the way we were,” he said.

“Tomorrow if we saw a huge spike in incidents in the state of Oklahoma, our plan would change dramatically.”

Already, the Navajo Nation has seen a serious spike, with a rate of 62 coronavirus deaths per 100,000 people. In New Mexico, which includes part of the Navajo reservation, Native Americans account for 57 percent of confirmed cases in the state, though they comprise only about 11 percent of the population.

A lack of basic infrastructure has further complicated thoughts of reopening. A business incubator on the Navajo Nation once offered internet access, tax-education seminars and work space to dozens of tiny start-ups before being forced to shut down in March. Now, the lack of plumbing or running water in the group’s shared work space poses a huge obstacle to its future.

“The virus is really showing years and years of neglect,” said Jessica Stago, a director of the incubator Change Labs. “Everything’s sort of collapsing at this point.”

Meanwhile, unemployment rates on some reservations that were 50 percent or higher during normal times have now soared to catastrophic levels, and tribal leaders worry that their budgets will be the last places in America to recover economically.

Scott Russell, a former tribal secretary of the Crow in eastern Montana, said the throngs of summertime tourists who come to boat and watch re-enactments of the Battle of Little Bighorn were a critical source of revenue and jobs on the reservation. He said the tribe was preparing to open up, but it was unclear whether people would return.

“It’s a ripple effect we feel right down to our cafe,” Mr. Russell said.

The economic pain has been getting worse as people lose even the odd jobs and piecework that helped them pay bills. Cedar Rose Bulltail survived by selling handmade beadwork at indigenous art fairs, cooking fry bread for neighbors and making yarrow balm in the kitchen of her tiny rural home with no running water on the Crow Reservation.

Now, the festivals and fashion shows that were an economic lifeline have been canceled. Her 18-year-old daughter is back home from boarding school and straining to keep up with her schoolwork without any reliable internet connection. And with hand washing now an urgent health need, Ms. Bulltail’s hopes of saving enough money this summer to buy a new well pump to bring reliable, clean water into her house have been dashed.

“I just feel robbed,” Ms. Bulltail said.

As tribes measure the economic fallout, some leaders are hitting back at pressure from state and federal authorities to reopen. The demand by Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota, that tribes remove checkpoints on roads has flared tempers around the country, showcasing how tension is building over what happens next in many tribal nations.

“Heads would roll if that kind of discussion were to happen in New Mexico,” said Rep. Derrick Lente, a Democratic state legislator and member of Sandia Pueblo, which operates a large casino and hotel complex on the outskirts of Albuquerque that has been closed for weeks.

“Tribal sovereignty needs to be respected if we’re to get back on our footing,” Mr. Lente said, citing the reach of tribal gaming operations. “You don’t do that by disrespecting tribal nations that have created thousands of jobs.”

Simon Romero reported from Albuquerque and Jack Healy from Denver. Reporting was contributed by Graham Lee Brewer from Norman, Okla., Mitch Smith from Overland Park, Kan., and Alex Schwartz from Sarasota, Fla.

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3) Sentenced for Three Strikes, Then Freed. Now Comes a Pushback.

Measures that softened California’s sentencing laws are headed for the ballot again.

By Maria Cramer, May 12, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/us/california-prison-three-strikes-law.html?action=click&module=News&pgtype=Homepage

Brian Beinlich is one of an estimated 6,000 inmates sentenced under California’s Three Strikes law who have been freed early or had their sentences reduced since the 1990s-era law was softened in 2012.Credit...David Walter Banks for The New York TimesCredit...David Walter Banks for The New York Times

and went to the beach for the first time in 24 years, free of a life sentence for breaking into a car. He stopped for a hamburger, french fries and a milkshake at a Wendy’s before arriving at his re-entry program in downtown Los Angeles.

Edwin Hutchison left San Quentin State Prison last month and boarded a nearly empty Amtrak train to Los Angeles. He had served 21 years before a judge agreed that he should not have to serve the remainder of his sentence, 30 years to life, for robbing a Taco Bell and a Domino’s Pizza in Long Beach, Calif., in 1999.

On the train, Mr. Hutchison ate an orange, his first piece of fresh fruit in decades.

Both men were sentenced under California’s Three Strikes law, a 1990s-era measure that made it mandatory for anyone convicted of three felonies to serve 25 years to life as long as two of the prior crimes were considered serious or violent.

Now they are among an estimated 6,000 people sentenced under Three Strikes who have been freed or had their sentences reduced since 2012, when Californians first voted to soften the law. In November, the state’s residents will be asked to vote on whether to go in the other direction and toughen some of the measures that have made many inmates eligible to be considered for an early parole.

Even amid the coronavirus pandemic, judges have continued to preside over cases like Mr. Garcia’s and Mr. Hutchison’s in hearings conducted by telephone. In some instances the judge has asked to see the prisoners seeking relief, bringing them into a courtroom empty but for the judge and court officers, while lawyers listen on the phone.

“Before they do something as dramatic as vacate a life sentence, they want to take a measure of a client in person,” said Michael Romano, director of Stanford Law School’s Three Strikes Project, a three-person office aided by law students that estimates it has helped free about 150 inmates sentenced under the law.

“But they also want to congratulate them and look them in the face and say you’ve earned your chance at freedom,” he said.

Californians’ first push to reform Three Strikes came in 2012, when they passed a measure requiring that all three offenses be violent or serious. A series of legal challenges and new policies in the years that followed made thousands more inmates eligible for release.

But as California continues to try to reduce its prison population, law enforcement officials and victims’ rights advocates question whether the state has gone too far. Motivated by high-profile killings, they have pointed to increases in the rate of some property and violent crimes, even though the overall number of crimes in California remains historically low.

“There has been a systematic dumbing down of our crime laws,” said Michael Reynolds, whose 18-year-old daughter, Kimber, was fatally shot in 1992 as she fought two men trying to snatch her purse. After Mr. Reynolds learned both men had long records that included drug offenses and theft, he worked with a team of former judges to draft the Three Strikes law.

The subsequent changes to the law “certainly have been very damaging to its intent,” Mr. Reynolds said. “It is disappointing because everybody has a right to be able to walk our streets without being assaulted, robbed or raped.”

Supporters of the measures that softened Three Strikes said a vast majority of inmates remain incarcerated even though many of them qualify to have their cases heard by a judge or the parole board.

There are people still in prison whose third offense was as minor as stealing a bicycle or shoplifting, said Mr. Romano, who has been working on Three Strikes cases since 2007 and whose program spearheaded the changes and litigation that freed many sentenced under the law.

“We are not the Innocence Project,” Mr. Romano said. “Our clients have committed these crimes. They’re crimes of poverty and desperation and they were essentially thrown away.”

In July 2002, Brian Beinlich went into a Costco in Fountain Valley, Calif., grabbed two bottles of Hennessy and tucked them under his jacket.

He says he had not stolen since 1994, when he was arrested after committing a series of robberies over a 12-day period to pay for cocaine. He served four years for those crimes.

After he was released, he found a job, got married and kept away from drugs. But in 2001, he was laid off and his marriage began to fall apart. He fell into a deep depression and relapsed. Twice he tried to kill himself.

He entered the Costco intending to steal the liquor and sell it for drugs. Minutes later, he was tackled to the ground in the parking lot by security guards and charged with robbery for wielding a box cutter.

The next year, he received three consecutive life sentences under the Three Strikes law. At his sentencing, the Orange County judge said that he would not be eligible for parole for 81 years.

Mr. Beinlich turned around to see his mother weeping in the courtroom.

“I came really close to just wanting to end it,” Mr. Beinlich said. “I came really close to suicide, just because I was so overwhelmed by the amount of time I got.”

In prison, Mr. Beinlich became sober, completed dozens of rehabilitation programs, and showed such exemplary behavior that prison officials recommended a reduced sentence, according to court documents.

In December, at 59 years old, Mr. Beinlich was released. Since then, he said, he has taken courses to become a machinist, become active in his church and started attending 12-step group meetings.

A 2014 study found that the recidivism rate of inmates sentenced under Three Strikes and then released was 1.3 percent after 18 months, compared with 30 percent for all inmates over the same period.

Critics of some of the changes that softened Three Strikes often note the killing of Officer Keith Boyer, who was fatally shot in Whittier, Calif., by an ex-convict who repeatedly violated the terms of his probation but remained free.

Mr. Boyer’s killer was not sentenced under Three Strikes, and he was not released under any of the changes in the law, but his case has still been held up as an example of what can go wrong when dangerous people are released to the streets.

In November, voters will be asked to vote on a proposal called the “Reducing Crime and Keeping California Safe Act of 2020,” which aims to roll back some of the changes that reduced certain crimes from felonies to misdemeanors and allowed for offenders considered nonviolent to be eligible for early parole. The changes gave thousands of Three Strikers a chance at early release.

Supporters of the Safe Act say the proposal would designate crimes like rape of an unconscious person, child trafficking, and assault of a law enforcement officer as violent. They are now designated as nonviolent crimes, which has allowed felons convicted of them to be eligible for early release, said Assemblyman Jim Cooper, a Democrat and former county sheriff’s captain who supports the Safe Act.

“We’re not talking about theft or drug crimes,” he said. “We’re talking about rapes, sexually trafficking children, hate crimes.”

Felons convicted of these crimes “will still have a chance at parole, but they won’t be able to apply for early release,” Mr. Cooper said. “It doesn’t put one new person back in jail.”

Dan Newman, a political strategist who worked on the measures that would be rolled back, said the felonies Mr. Cooper cited already carry severe sentences.

The proposal on the ballot would eliminate “even the opportunity to start the rigorous parole application process for people convicted of minor drug possession or petty shoplifting,” he said.

Mr. Newman said supporters of the Safe Act were using high-profile crimes to scare people into chipping away at changes that have helped free inmates ready to start new lives.

“If 100 people turn their lives around and become productive taxpayers and good citizens, that’s not going to make TV news,” he said. “If one person commits a crime, then you’ve got the potential for a bunch of Willie Horton commercials.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom has not yet staked an official position on the proposal, but he has indicated he would not back it, given his past support for the measures the Safe Act seeks to roll back.

“You can imagine where I may end up,” he told reporters in January.

Mr. Beinlich said he began his rehabilitation long before the legal changes that gave him a chance of release were enacted.

“I decided that even if I had to spend the rest of my life in prison, I needed to change because I didn’t like who I’d become,” he said. “I’ve seen people brutally assaulted, murdered. I’ve seen horrible things in prison but I was not going to be a part of it.”

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4) Cuba doubles down on testing as coronavirus cases decline

Marc Frank, May 12, 2020

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-cuba-testing/cuba-doubles-down-on-testing-as-coronavirus-cases-decline-idUSKBN22O2VL?fbclid=IwAR3pDRa2j1mCN07HOsG9qUsmorPVfe3QXPdQ1Wo4abty0_hLIq1g-x-RexQ

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba began mass testing for the new coronavirus this week even as it appeared to have contained infections, and residents struggled to move around amid a partial shutdown in search of scarce basic goods.

New cases have fallen to less than 20 per day from a peak of around 50 in April.

Since the first COVID-19 illness was reported two months ago there have been 1,804 confirmed cases, of which 70.7% have recovered and 78 people have died.

Cuba has closed its borders and the tourism industry, schools and public transportation. Masks are mandatory and eating at restaurants, bars and social gatherings prohibited. Cubans have been urged to stay at home and practice social distancing.

But the public has not been confined to quarters and has taken to trudging about in search of basic supplies, waiting in long lines and even dusting off bicycles from the dark days following the fall of the Soviet Union.

    “I had to fix this bicycle up because I hadn’t used it in 25 years,” 49-year-old Alfredo Fonseca said, as he prepared to peddle to work in Havana. “I had to start using it again because of the pandemic and closing of public transportation.”

Tania Castro had fewer options. “I am walking and walking a lot because I don’t have a bicycle, a motorcycle, or a car and the buses are not working,” she said.

While Communist-run Cuba’s universal and free healthcare system has proved key in containing COVID-19, the pandemic has exacerbated shortages of basic goods and a chaotic retail system caused largely by U.S. sanctions and the centralized, state-dominated economy.

Cuba’s top epidemiologist, Francisco Durán said on Monday that mass testing would help better define the prevalence of the coronavirus as many people found to be infected showed no symptoms.

“The objective is to find new cases and then intervene, isolate, seek contacts, and take all possible measures to ensure that Cuba continues as it is now,” he said during his daily virus update broadcast to the nation.

Many experts believe Cuba has managed to control the outbreak better than many countries in the region due to its well-staffed preventive healthcare system, mobilization of activists through mass organizations to track cases, a centralized system that allows a better focus, and willingness to quarantine large numbers of people.

Cuban scientists announced last week they had adapted SUMA, a computerized system developed locally, to quickly detect antibodies of the new virus, allowing for mass testing in hospitals and clinics at little cost.

“That is a big advance,” Havana doctor Marta Martinez said.

To date, the Caribbean island nation has used expensive and often donated tests that take days to process, old-fashioned door knocking by health personnel and medical students to trace contacts, and isolation.

Thousands of patients, suspected cases, close contacts and persons considered at risk have been hospitalized or quarantined in makeshift institutions while in other countries they may have been told to simply stay home.

“The neighborhood family doctor office is notified about anyone at home with symptoms and must take immediate action,” said Yosian Diago, a nurse in central Havana supervising medical students going door to door.

“The same students help the population understand what they can do to help, and well, this is how many cases have been detected.”

Reporting by Marc Frank; Additional reporting by Mario Fuentes and Nelson Acosta; Editing by Richard Chang

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5) We Must Not Forget The Jackson State Massacre

Fifty years ago, the police fired into a crowd at the historically black college, killing two.

By Robert Luckett, May 14, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/opinion/Jackson-state-shooting-police.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Bullet holes at Alexander Hall, a women’s dormitory at Jackson State College in Mississippi. On May 4, 1970, police officers fired into a crowd around the dormitory, killing two and wounding 15 students.Credit...Bettmann Archive, via Getty Images

JACKSON, Miss. — In the 1960s, white motorists driving along John R. Lynch Street, which cut through the middle of the historically black campus of what was then called Jackson State College, would often taunt students along the way with racist epithets, throw objects at them and threaten to hit pedestrians.

On Feb. 3, 1964, a white driver slammed into a Jackson State student named Mamie Ballard, sending her to the hospital. This incident began a yearslong push to close Lynch Street to traffic, which in turn helped propel the already potent local civil rights movement.

Jackson State may have been majority black, but it was in the capital of a state dominated by white supremacists, who governed the college. Informed by the civil rights and Black Power movements, students naturally saw the fight to close Lynch Street as a cornerstone of their broader push for justice and equality in Mississippi. With an increasingly aggressive tenor, the ensuing student demonstrations, which peaked each spring, demanded justice for Ms. Ballard, who survived, and that Lynch Street be closed.

On May 14, 1970, someone set fire to a dump truck parked in the middle of Lynch Street a few blocks from campus. While there was no evidence that student protesters had been involved, white authorities cited the vandalism to justify the use of force.

Late that evening officers from the Jackson Police Department and the Mississippi Highway Patrol marched onto campus, accompanied by the so-called Thompson Tank, an armored personnel carrier that Mayor Allen Thompson, the city’s segregationist mayor, had purchased in 1964, ahead of what he termed the civil rights “invasion” of Freedom Summer. That same year the Mississippi Legislature gave the Highway Patrol broad authority to intervene in protests, even if local authorities hadn’t requested them. The patrol still held that power in 1970.

The phalanx of officers proceeded to Alexander Hall, a women’s dormitory, arriving close to midnight. But instead of facing a mass of angry protesters, they found scores of students enjoying a Thursday evening relaxing outside as graduation neared. Later asserting that a sniper had shot at them from a window in Alexander Hall — an absurd claim with no evidence — the police fired more than 400 rounds of ammunition over 28 seconds in every direction.

In the chaos that spilled into the early morning hours of May 15, two men, Phillip Lafayette Gibbs and James Earl Green, were left dead; a dozen other young people were wounded in the gunfire. Hundreds of others bear physical and psychological scars to this day. Gibbs was a junior political science major at Jackson State. He had married his high school sweetheart, and they had one son. Unbeknown to Gibbs and his wife, Dale, she was pregnant with their second son.

Green was a senior at nearby Jim Hill High School. He had been walking home from his after-school job on the opposite side of the street from Alexander Hall, which meant the police had turned to fire in the opposite direction from the supposed sniper.

Graduation was canceled, and the Class of 1970 received their diplomas in the mail. A number of injured students and the families of Gibbs and Green sued the city and state, represented by the renowned civil rights attorney Constance Slaughter. The plaintiffs lost; no one was ever charged in the killings. The section of Lynch Street through campus was finally closed, and the Gibbs-Green Memorial Plaza now stands in front of Alexander Hall. But those concessions did nothing to lessen the trauma for those who survived.

The 50th anniversary of the police attack at Jackson State comes at a moment when America is struggling with a pandemic, the impacts of which have weighed heavily, and unjustly, on black bodies. Thanks to the insufficient and belated response of national and state leaders that has inflamed the pandemic, people of color are disproportionately represented among Covid-19 cases, and they bear the brunt of the government’s aggressive enforcement of quarantine rules.

Then came the video showing the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery, an unarmed black man out for a jog in Georgia. Although he was killed in February, only last week were the men shown on a video confronting Mr. Arbery arrested. As the survivors of the May 1970 attack at Jackson State and modern proponents of Black Lives Matter understand, justice remains elusive.

Through it all, we must be reminded that state-sanctioned violence aimed at the marginalized remains a systemic part of American life. That ever-present threat continues to prop up white supremacy in this country.

This spring, Jackson State’s Class of 2020 was supposed to graduate in a special ceremony: The Class of 1970 was prepared to walk across the stage for its 50th reunion and be handed their diplomas for the first time, while relatives of Phillip Gibbs and James Green were to accept honorary doctorates on their behalf. While the administration at Jackson State and our community hold out hope that we will be able to safely gather for these events at some unknown date, there is a real prospect that this modern catastrophe, 50 years later, will prevent us from doing so.

Whatever happens, the moment must not go unrecognized. The students, alumni and community at Jackson State must demand an honest dialogue around our white-supremacist history and its present-day manifestations. As the civil-rights demonstrators in Jackson demanded a half century ago, white Americans in particular must take responsibility and action if our society is to begin rooting out racist power and all its implications.

Robert Luckett (@robbyjsu) is an associate professor of history and the director of the Margaret Walker Center at Jackson State University.

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6) The Utter Unfairness of Educational Geography

Changing the borders of school districts would go a long way toward getting public school money where it most needs to go.

By Rebecca Sibilia, May 14, 2020

"The average predominantly nonwhite district in the United States starts with a local wealth deficit of almost $2,500. State aid is so limited that on average, state legislatures are able to contribute only $260 toward closing the gap. As a result, predominantly nonwhite school districts receive a collective $23 billion less in school funding than their predominantly white counterparts, even though these districts serve the same number of students."

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/opinion/school-districts-funding-inequality.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage.

A teacher helping an eighth-grade student in a school in Camden, N.J., in 2018.Credit...Michelle Gustafson for The New York Times

If we really want to balance school budgets in the wake of the coronavirus — and create more long-term equity in our public school system — we need to come to terms with the idea that we need far fewer than the 13,000 school districts that are currently in operation in the United States.

Today, the lines that define school district borders are largely arbitrary. They’re zigzagging areas of local control, a term that conflates two separate concepts: the ability to oversee a group of neighborhood schools and the right to keep the proceeds from property wealth in narrow jurisdictions. The more exclusively these borders are drawn, the more advantage accrues to wealthy districts, each of which has an independent financial structure, at the expense of the students next door.

This structure may explain the educational geography of Camden County in southern New Jersey, which contains 35 school districts, 23 of which are within a five-mile radius of the city of Camden. Half of these districts serve fewer than 1,000 students apiece, with wide wealth disparities. The median property in Gloucester City School District is worth about $120,000, but four miles away in Haddonfield Borough a median home sells for $500,000. From this wealthy tax base, Haddonfield can raise $13,500 per student, four times higher than what can be collected in Gloucester City.

Camden County is not an anomaly. There are four times as many school districts as there are counties in the United States, over 250 of which contain more than 10 districts each. Almost two-thirds of our district borders nationwide create local revenue disparities of at least $1,000 per pupil across an invisible line between similar school systems in the same neighborhood.

This localism with regard to schools has been challenged legally many times, and state courts have repeatedly ruled that funding based on property taxes is unconstitutional. In all but a handful, they have ordered states to remedy the financial difference, but not to fix the borders that create the root inequity. So every year, legislatures use state money to try to fill in the gaps between what low-wealth communities can raise from confined property tax areas and what they actually need to operate.

This approach has not done the job. The average predominantly nonwhite district in the United States starts with a local wealth deficit of almost $2,500. State aid is so limited that on average, state legislatures are able to contribute only $260 toward closing the gap. As a result, predominantly nonwhite school districts receive a collective $23 billion less in school funding than their predominantly white counterparts, even though these districts serve the same number of students.

It is clear that this approach wasn’t working before the coronavirus hit, and the economic fallout from the pandemic will demonstrate exactly how flawed this system is. Sales, energy and income taxes are plummeting, and these are the receipts that states use to close the property tax gap across school district borders. Without intervention, we will soon watch education budgets for middle- and lower-income communities unravel.

But if we envision a new map of property taxation for schools — one in which district borders no longer define “local” for the purposes of education dollars, we can tap into funding that is already in the system and offset this challenge. Because larger borders encompass more communities, they can smooth out the major differences in neighborhood wealth that we see across the country.

If a typical U.S. county like Berrien County, Michigan were to combine all of its local taxes into one pool instead of independent collection among 15 different school districts, we could flatten the tax disparity between the highest local tax district at $25,000 per student, and the lowest-wealth district in the same county that generates just $750. According to analysis for an upcoming EdBuild report, sharing taxes across Berrien County would increase funding for 79 percent of all students (and 87 percent of low-income children). If we adopted this plan, the lowest income areas could withstand a state-funding reduction of upward of $3,332 in the next year without seeing an overall decline in available resources.

We know that these kinds of state cuts are coming, but pooling the wealth that already exists in the community means that we can buffer the impact for the majority of children in Berrien County, and those nationwide. This solution isn’t unique to Michigan. State after state turn in positive results under this model. County pooling around Fayetteville, Ark., would deliver more money to 84 percent of low-income students. In the Kansas City suburbs, more than three quarters of all students would benefit. In Johnstown, Pa., 86 percent of nonwhite students could access the money that is already in their neighborhood. And back in Camden, 69 percent of low-income students would benefit from this change.

Reimagining school-funding geography would bring two distinct benefits. In the short term, we could find the money to buffer the impact of impending state cuts. On a longer-term basis, we could start to truly balance cross-border funding inequities and take on the racial and socioeconomic segregation that these borders enable and protect.

By expanding the definition of “local” just a bit, without finding any new state revenue or increasing any local tax rates, we can immediately get more money to a significant majority of all children. Under this kind of new nationwide map, 69 percent of all of the country’s children — and 73 percent of minority and 76 percent of low-income students — would get access to about $1,000 more in local property tax funding.

This money is not insignificant. It would enable distance learning by covering the cost of a Chromebook and home internet access for every student who stands to gain funding. Alternately, the average district could use this new money to hire five mental health counselors and five remedial education coaches for every school in the district. In essence, we can find the money that districts currently and urgently need to address the impact of the pandemic within our own education budgets. The money is already there.

The borders that determine the jurisdiction of local school taxes are not ordained by nature. We draw them, and we can change them whenever we decide. The coronavirus era is a good time for us to think more broadly about school district geographies — in terms of funding, but also how we define schools, taxes and community.

Some of us may see this financial proposal as a quiet first step toward income and race-based integration. Others will see it merely as an urgent financial fix. Either way, this proposal won’t lead to an immediate overhaul that satisfies either group fully, nor will it solve all of our education problems. There are so many challenges to overcome to achieve an equally accessible future for all of our children. But if we take the first step of broadening the definition of local to pool money more equitably, we may be able to look back at all the good that came from that redefinition — and see the enormous step forward that this was.

Rebecca Sibilia (@rebeccasibilia) is the chief executive of EdBuild, a school funding advocacy organization.

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7) States Keep Failing Black People

The great racial imbalance in Covid-19’s effect and the violent killings of black people are related.

By Charles M. Blow, May 13, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/13/opinion/black-people-states.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Bebeto Matthews/Associated Press

The racially disproportionate effect of the Covid-19 crisis in this country and a recent rash of high-profile senseless killings of black people by the police and vigilantes may seem on their face unrelated.

But, in fact, they are related. The two phenomena have collided as a tragic reminder of how consistently and continuously states have failed black people in this country.

It is state policy — both criminal and health — that leaves black people exposed and vulnerable and with little recourse for safety or justice.

To be sure, the federal government has played a premier role in black oppression and discrimination from the beginning. The Constitution as originally written is a thoroughly racist document, with its three-fifths rule and the effective establishment of the Electoral College, a move to placate slave owners.

It was the federal government that allowed the Freedman’s Bank to fail and allowed Reconstruction to fail.

But during the civil rights movement, the federal government also became black people’s greatest guard against their greatest oppressors: the states.

Slavery was an issue specific to colonies that would eventually become states. Even some states that didn’t want slavery also didn’t want black residents. Oregon was an antislavery state but also passed a law in the 1840s excluding even free black people from living in the state. Any black person who refused to leave was subject to lashing.

When California was drafting its Constitution in the 1850s, some delegates, inspired by the Oregon example, also tried to include a provision excluding black people from the state. It ultimately failed.

After Emancipation and the end of the Civil War, there was an epidemic of disease and severe starvation among newly freed slaves. They had nothing and no way to care for themselves. As Martin Luther King lamented in a 1967 speech at Stanford: “This is why Frederick Douglass could say that Emancipation for the Negro was freedom to hunger, freedom to the winds and rains of heaven, freedom without roofs to cover their heads. He went on to say that it was freedom without bread to eat, freedom without land to cultivate. It was freedom and famine at the same time.”

The federal government implored the states to take care of these formerly enslaved. The states refused, insisting that their resources were already stretched by injured white soldiers returning from the war. No one filled the void. Jim Downs, history professor and author, estimates that a full quarter of the four million former slaves got sick or died between 1862 and 1870.

It was the states that rushed to call constitutional conventions after Reconstruction was allowed to fail in an effort to forever establish white supremacy.

It was the states that established and upheld Jim Crow.

States manage voting, and by extension, also manage voter suppression, often meant to disenfranchise black voters. They also draw congressional districts and are responsible for gerrymandering, which often weakens the power of the black vote.

Mass incarceration is largely a state and local issue. Only a small fraction of people incarcerated in America are federal prisoners. States also manage state criminal codes. It was a state criminal code that one of the prosecutors in the Ahmaud Arbery case used to defend not taking action.

These state laws are a large part of why there are few arrests, prosecutions or convictions in these cases.

Donald Trump’s horrendous failures in dealing with the Covid-19 crisis are clear and painful. But one of the reasons the crisis is doing so much harm to black populations is that many of these black people have pre-existing health conditions, conditions that predate Trump. Many of these conditions are a direct result of racially discriminatory housing, employment and public health policies, either as a causal factor or an exacerbating factor.

When the Affordable Care Act was passed, many states with the highest percentages of black residents refused to expand Medicaid under the plan. Most of those states were in the South. But the neglect and oppression of black people on matters affecting their health is hardly a Southern-only phenomenon.

As John C. Austin recently wrote for the Brookings Institution:

“The pandemic is blowing away the illusion that racism in the North — manifested in practices such as redlining, deeded covenants and shifting public school boundaries when black children began to mingle with white children — was at least not as violent as the lynchings, fire hoses and fire bombings that characterized Southern racism. Almost overnight, the Covid-19 pandemic has turned historically institutionalized racism in the Midwest’s industrial cities into a murder weapon.”

Even when local mayors want to be more cautious to protect black populations, they are often overridden like the mayor of Atlanta was by the governor of Georgia.

People like to talk about “the system” at times like these, as if it is one unit with equal power to inflict pain. But it isn’t. Some levels have far more impact than others. The states in these United States are now the primary instruments of black pain and oppression.

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8) Months After Louisville Police Kill Woman in Her Home, Governor Calls for Review

The police said officers shot and killed Breonna Taylor, 26, in a March raid after her boyfriend shot an officer in the leg.

By Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs, May 14, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/us/breonna-taylor-louisville-shooting.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=US%20News

Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency medical technician, was killed when the police raided her apartment in Louisville, Ky., in March. She was not a target of their investigation.Credit...via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Two months after Louisville police officers fatally shot a woman as they raided her home, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said on Wednesday that local, state and federal prosecutors should review the police investigation into the shooting.

Officers killed the woman, Breonna Taylor, 26, just after midnight on March 13 during a confrontation in which her boyfriend shot an officer in the leg, the Louisville police said. But only recently has nationwide attention been drawn to the case. Neither Ms. Taylor nor her boyfriend was a target of the police investigation that led to the drug raid.

Ms. Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, filed a lawsuit in late April against three officers with the Louisville Metro Police Department, accusing them of wrongfully causing her daughter’s death.

Among the lawyers representing Ms. Palmer is Benjamin Crump, who also represents the family of Ahmaud Arbery, whose February shooting death in Georgia led to murder charges against two men last week.

On Wednesday, Governor Beshear called reports about Ms. Taylor’s death “troubling” and said the public deserved to know everything about the March raid. He asked the state attorney general, the local prosecutor and the federal prosecutor assigned to the region to review the results of the Louisville police’s initial investigation “to ensure justice is done at a time when many are concerned that justice is not blind.”

The Louisville police, who declined to comment for this article, have said little about the raid since a news conference on the day it happened.

The Louisville Courier-Journal reported this week that the police had been targeting two men who they believed were selling drugs out of a house more than 10 miles from Ms. Taylor’s apartment. However, a judge had signed a warrant allowing officers to search Ms. Taylor’s home — and to enter without warning — in part because a detective said one of the men had used Ms. Taylor’s apartment to receive a package.

In the lawsuit, Ms. Palmer’s lawyers say that the man had already been apprehended before police officers entered Ms. Taylor’s home.

“They executed this innocent woman because they botched the search warrant execution,” Mr. Crump said in an interview. “They had the main person that they were trying to get in their custody, so why use a battering ram to bust her door down and then go in there and execute her?”

Mr. Crump said that while there were many differences between the cases of Mr. Arbery and Ms. Taylor, both of whom were black, they were connected by the fact that neither case immediately attracted widespread attention, despite the efforts of local activists and family members.

Ms. Palmer has said that her daughter, who worked as an emergency medical technician at local hospitals, had planned to become a nurse and buy a house, and that she had stayed out of trouble.

“I’m not sure that they understand what they took from my family,” Ms. Palmer told The Courier-Journal, referring to the police.

At a news conference hours after the raid, Chief Steve Conrad of the Louisville police said the officers involved had not been wearing body cameras. Lt. Ted Eidem, who leads the agency’s Public Integrity Unit, said the officers had announced their presence and knocked on the door before forcing entry.

A police spokeswoman told The Courier-Journal this week that the investigation into the shooting was continuing and that the police had disclosed everything they could at the original news conference.

The police have said that they returned fire after Ms. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot an officer in the leg. He later surrendered and has been charged with the attempted murder of a police officer.

Mr. Walker’s lawyer, Rob Eggert, has said that Mr. Walker did not know that the people entering the apartment were police officers, and that he fired one shot.

Mr. Crump said that neighbors had not heard the police officers announce themselves, and that Mr. Walker thought the officers — who he said were in unmarked cars and plain clothes — were intruders. He said Mr. Walker had called 911, believing that he and Ms. Taylor, who had been in bed together, “were in significant, imminent danger.”

The lawyers for Ms. Taylor’s mother said that Mr. Walker was licensed to have a gun and that the police officers had fired at least 20 shots into the apartment and a neighboring home.

Although whether the Louisville police knocked before entering is disputed, the use of “no-knock” warrants has led to disastrous results in the past,  The Houston Police Department said last year that it would largely end the practice after two civilians were killed — and four police officers were injured — in one such raid, which the police had justified based on an officer’s lie about a supposed confidential informant.

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9)  Why Does California Need an Innocence Commission?

By Kevin Cooper

Kevin Cooper

Throughout the very tortured history of the Divided States of America, the so-called criminal justice system within it has been anything but just to its minority peoples.  

It has, however, always been more than just to its majority people who called themselves white. Even before the 1857 Dred Scott decision where Roger B. Taney, Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court wrote in part that: “Negroes were beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations; and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect.”

We African/African American people, Native American people, and all other non-white people had to not just live under those realities but had to die by them as well. This is especially true when it came to this country’s use of the death penalty in all of its various and horrific forms.

Its use of prisons/penitentiaries/plantations by way of the criminal justice system and its Roger B. Taney variety judges in every courthouse across this country led to a country that not only believed in, but also practiced locking up and executing its minority peoples, no matter why, or what for.

This happened even before any political divide in this country as we know it today. Back then, it was the right of the white race to do what they wanted to with non-white people. This mindset went on for centuries and then one day it went political. But nothing really changed for non-white people unless you call more oppression or more and harsher punishment a change.

There is nothing written in the United States Constitution about it being unconstitutional to execute or imprison for decades an innocent person. Not as long as that person had what is called a “fair trial” meaning, a trial free from constitutional error. A fair process or proceeding.

This is how this country’s courts and legal proceeding rolled—and rolled they did. Picking up and locking up minority people for anything or nothing and sentencing them to prison, or death with a fair process, free from constitutional error. But these so called “fair processes” weren't fair at all, especially when district attorneys and police withhold material exculpatory evidence from the defense attorney, jury, judge and everyone else, as we now know that they do on a regular basis in this country, and state.

In 2015, former ninth circuit court of appeals Chief Justice Alex Kozinski, a Ronald Reagan appointee stated that there is an “epidemic of prosecutorial misconduct” in this state concerning district attorneys withholding material exculpatory evidence from the defense attorneys in order to gain and hold on to convictions that they would not have gotten or maintained if that exculpatory evidence was known about by the defense, or court. 

To a large degree DNA testing has proven that this criminal justice system is not as just as it claims to be. Throughout the history of this country we Black people know this truth from experience. The late poet Langston Hughes says more than anyone else can say about the unjust treatment and brutality of Black people in the United States criminal justice system in his poem called Justice:

That Justice is a blind goddess

Is a thing to which we Black are wise: 

Her bandage hides two festering sores 

That once perhaps were eyes. 

Many victims of America's unjust criminal justice system have learned that “Justice Is Not Blind” as we are led to believe, but, blind folk are the ones who are dispensing justice. People who are blinded by their isms—racism, classism, sexism, religious prejudice, political ideology, and power, among other things that have all come together to work to the detriment of Black and Brown and damn near all poor people.

This is a historical truth and a present-day reality in this country and there must be new avenues opened to combat these injustices. While DNA has most definitely shown this criminal justice system is broken, and it has exonerated many a non-guilty person from prison and death row. More people have been exonerated by other ways than DNA.

The vast majority of the people who have been exonerated by DNA or non-DNA factors had their cases denied throughout the criminal justice court system. The appeals court, and all the judges who looked at their appeals denied them for one reason or another. All the while those people are innocent, and many of whom have spent decades in prison for crimes, including murder that they did not commit. 

This is true in the state of California in death penalty or Capital Cases as they are called, and non-Capital cases. The only thing at this point in time that an inmate in a California prison can do if they are innocent, but their appeals have run out because the courts denied them relief is to file a writ of habeas corpus using California Senate Bill 1134, a state law that was enacted in 2016. This allows a habeas corpus writ to be filed as a judicial remedy on the basis of “new evidence” that is credible material and presented without substantial delay. It must be of such force and value that it would have more likely than not changed the outcome at trial! That is too high of a standard for the vast majority of any inmate to meet.

In my case, ninth circuit court of appeals Justice M. McKeown stated that she could not grant me relief and not because the claims I raised and proved weren't true, but because of the 1996 Anti-Terrorism Effective Death Penalty Act and its high standard of proof required by it that an inmate must meet.

These types of U.S. Congress passed and President Clinton signed procedural bars and made to uphold convictions despite constitutional violations, and to make it harder for inmates to prove that they have been wrongly convicted of crimes that they did not do.

Whenever criminal cases of any kind are rubberstamped through the criminal justice system just to maintain a conviction, this is an injustice. This is how this system has been allowed to proceed. 

And proceed this way it has. This system is not designed to fix itself from within, no system is. It has to be fixed, if fixed is the right word, from without. If this system could fix itself, it would have long ago, if only to show and try to prove that it is not as bad and unjust as statistics have revealed. Experts such as Professor Samuel Gross (University of Michigan, National Registry of Exonerations,) Professor Lara Bazelon (Director of the University of San Francisco Racial Justice Clinic,) Rob Warden and John Seasly (Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy, Unrequited Innocence in U.S. Capital Cases: Unintended Consequences of the Fourth Kind,) Robert Dunham (Executive Director, The Death Penalty Information Center,) and many others have said and have proven that the system is unjust. 

There must be a better way, and part of that better way is the creation of a state Innocence Commission in California to look at any criminal case where there is a real claim of innocence. 

An Innocence Commission should be made up of people from California who are qualified to sit on such a commission. People who are fair-minded, honest, and willing to correct a wrong that may have happened to a human being who was tried, convicted and sent to prison, even to death row, but whose conviction is in doubt, and whose innocence can be proven if given the chance.

It would be up to the Governor to appoint qualified people to this commission, and not just ex-prosecutors or police like who were once only and always appointed to the board or pardons and parole where for a very long time with people like that on the parole board very few if any inmates got parole even though they had clean prison records and did all they could to reform themselves. No, we do not want a or need a rubberstamp of the criminal justice system and its failures to acknowledge or address its wrongdoings.

We need a progressive Innocence Commission with progressive people on it from all walks of life, including defense attorneys as well as prosecutors, non-police as well as ex-police, democrats, republicans, independents and other type of political party that is willing to admit that wrongful convictions do take place, as do frame ups by the police, the withholding of material exculpatory evidence by district attorneys and police and every other type of wrong doing that has been proven to have happened by and at the hands of law enforcement and the court system by certain Judges whose political ideology will never let them admit a wrongdoing in their courtroom, or change a wrongful conviction no matter how wrong it is.

The State of California, and the people who live and work within California all deserve, no matter who they are, or their political party, a criminal justice system that will finally live up to its words that justice is blind and truth and justice will be fairly delivered to all.

Asking for, and even demanding for an Innocence Commission in the State of California should not be too much to ask for, when knowing the history of the criminal justice system and its unfairness and unwillingness to fix itself.

Now is the time for us to come together and get an Innocence Commission in California so that we can do our part to fight against wrongful convictions that do happen, and to have a remedy for it when we find out it has happened in a certain case. 

Please get involved and make this happen as only you can do!

Kevin Cooper is an innocent man on San Quentin’s Death Row in California. He continues to struggle for exoneration and to abolish the death penalty in the whole U.S. Learn more about his case at: www.kevincooper.org.

Write to:

Kevin Cooper #C-65304 4-EB-82         

San Quentin State Prison

San Quentin, CA 94974

www.freekevincooper.org

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10) America’s Cities Could House Everyone, if They Chose To

Our housing crisis is a symptom of America’s wealth, and its indifference.

"Without a significant expansion in the supply of housing, adding vouchers would be like adding players to a game of musical chairs without increasing the number of chairs.

By Binyamin Appelbaum, May 15, 2020"

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/opinion/homeless-crisis-affordable-housing-cities.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

A homeless man in Times Square in April.Credit...Johannes Eisele/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Homelessness in the United States is the most extreme manifestation of a broader housing crisis. Even in the fat years before the coronavirus plunged the economy into recession, millions of Americans struggled to pay the rent, particularly in prospering coastal cities.

The federal government could render homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring. The cure for homelessness is housing, and, as it happens, the money is available: Congress could shift billions in annual federal subsidies from rich homeowners to people who don’t have homes.

Instead, Americans have taken to treating homelessness as a sad fact of life, as if it were perfectly normal that many thousands of adults and children in the wealthiest nation on earth cannot afford a place to live. Government programs focus on palliative care: Annual spending on shelters has reached $12 billion a year, according to Dennis Culhane, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on homelessness. Rather than provide housing for the homeless, cities offer showers, day care centers and bag checks.

Collectively, we are choosing to avert our eyes from the people who sleep where we walk. We have decided to live with the fact that some of our fellow Americans will die on the streets.

“There’s a cruelty here that I don’t think I’ve seen,” Leilani Farha, then the United Nations special rapporteur on adequate housing, said after a 2018 visit to Northern California. She compared conditions there to those in countries that, unlike the United States, lack the money to care for their citizens.

“I’ve never seen anything like it, and I’ve done outreach on every continent,” Dame Louise Casey, who directed homeless policy for several British prime ministers, said after touring homeless encampments in San Francisco, Los Angeles and other American cities.

And homelessness is poised to increase. More than 36 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits in the last two months; almost 40 percent of workers in households making less than $40,000 a year have lost work. Women in Need NYC, which runs shelters, warned this week that New York faces a “mass increase” in homelessness.

In the decades after World War II, some experts predicted that prosperity would eliminate homelessness in America. Instead, in recent decades, wealth and homelessness have both increased — a stark illustration of the inequalities that pervade American life.

The rise of homelessness is often portrayed as a collection of personal tragedies, the result of bad choices or bad luck. But the first law of real estate applies to homelessness, too: Location, location, location. The nation’s homeless population is concentrated in New York, the cities of coastal California and a few other islands of prosperity. Well-educated, well-paid professionals have flocked to those places, driving up housing prices. And crucially, those cities and their suburbs have made it virtually impossible to build enough housing to keep up.

The government calculates $600 is the most a family living at the poverty line can afford to pay in monthly rent while still having enough money for food, health care and other needs. From 1990 to 2017, the number of housing units available below that price shrank by four million.

Most hard-pressed people manage to stave off homelessness. While there are roughly 80,000 homeless people in New York on any given night, more than 800,000 New Yorkers — more than 10 times as many people — are scraping by, spending more than half their income on rent.

Those who do end up homeless are often those with additional burdens. They are disproportionately graduates of foster care or the prison system; victims of domestic abuse or discrimination; veterans; and people with mental and physical disabilities. Some end up on the street because of addictions; some develop addictions because they are on the street. Whatever problems they face, however, they are much more likely to become homeless in places without enough affordable housing. According to one analysis, a $100 increase in the average monthly rent in a large metro area is associated with a 15 percent increase in homelessness.

Consider a simple comparison: In 2018, eight out of every 10,000 Michigan residents were homeless. In California, it was 33 per 10,000. In New York, it was 46 per 10,000.

Countries confronting homelessness with greater success than the United States, including Finland and Japan, begin by treating housing as a human right. In the United States, by contrast, politicians decry the problem but aim for more modest goals. Mayor Bill de Blasio’s promise to New York last December “to end long-term street homelessness as we know it” is a classic of the genre; most homeless people in the city live in shelters, not on the street.

Reframing the debate — asking what is necessary to end homelessness — is an important first step for New York and for other places that are failing this basic test of civic responsibility.

The next step is simple but expensive. The federal government already provides housing vouchers to help some lower-income families. The families pay 30 percent of their monthly income toward rent; the government pays the rest. But instead of giving vouchers to every needy family, the government imposes an arbitrary cap. Three in four eligible families don’t get vouchers.

The program costs about $19 billion a year. Vouchers for all eligible households would cost another $41 billion a year, the Congressional Budget Office estimated in 2015. Where to get the money? Well, the government annually provides more than $70 billion in tax breaks to homeowners, including a deduction for mortgage interest payments and a free pass on some capital gains from home sales. Let’s end homelessness instead of subsidizing mansions.

Vouchers alone, however, won’t be enough. We also need more affordable housing.

Without a significant expansion in the supply of housing, adding vouchers would be like adding players to a game of musical chairs without increasing the number of chairs.

Market-rate construction can help: More housing would slow the upward march of housing prices. New York and San Francisco are the nation’s most tightly regulated markets for housing construction, and it is not a coincidence that they also are the most expensive. Tokyo, often cited as an international model for its permissive development policies, has expanded its supply of homes by roughly 2 percent a year in recent years, while New York’s housing supply has expanded by roughly 0.5 percent a year. Over the last two decades, housing prices in Tokyo held steady as New York prices soared.

But in the parts of the country that need affordable housing most desperately, construction will require significant public subsidies: land, tax credits, direct government spending. In California, for example, construction of a five-story apartment building that meets minimum standards costs an average of $425,000 per unit, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. Without public aid, the apartments would need to be rented for several times more than the $600 a month affordable to a family living at the poverty line.

Proposals for a big increase in affordable housing construction inevitably call to mind the troubled public housing projects of the mid-20th century. They offer one clear lesson: Avoid housing that concentrates poverty. And there is a solution — to build subsidized housing as part of mixed-income developments and to spread the developments out, putting them not just in cities but also in the surrounding suburbs. Helsinki, Finland, a city of just 600,000 people, builds about 7,000 units of mixed-income housing a year. That’s a big reason Finland is the rare European country where homelessness is in decline.

The government still will need to help those who fall into homelessness. Fortunately, we already know how to do that. Over the last decade, the federal government has conducted a highly successful campaign to reduce homelessness among veterans. The government reported in January that it had reduced the number of homeless veterans by 50 percent — from about 75,000 in 2010 to about 37,000 at the end of 2019. Three states and several dozen cities have provided housing for their entire veteran populations.

As Ben Carson, secretary of housing and urban development, told Congress in May 2019, the success shows “that homelessness is not an intractable problem — we can end homelessness.”

The program uses a triage approach, calibrating aid to need. The government provides up to $4,000 in cash for those who need just a little help, for example to pay a security deposit. For those who need continuing help, there are housing vouchers. And for veterans whose economic problems are compounded by other issues, such as disabilities or substance abuse, the government provides “supportive housing” — a place to live, plus counseling and care.

This is cheaper than leaving people to remain homeless and then intervening intermittently. One study found that in the two years after a person entered supportive housing in New York, he or she spent, on average, 83 fewer days in shelters, 28 fewer days in psychiatric hospitals and four fewer days in prison.

Extending this approach to the entire homeless population would be expensive. To take one example, King County, which encompasses Seattle, would need to increase annual spending on homelessness to roughly $410 million from $196 million to help each of the county’s 22,000 homeless families, according to a study by McKinsey. That’s about $19,000 per family.

For King County, that’s a lot of money — about 5 percent of its annual budget. For the federal government, it’s a rounding error. Even if the cost per person were twice as high, the nation’s homeless population could be housed for $10 billion a year — less than the price of one aircraft carrier.

The coronavirus pandemic has prompted a surge in spending on homelessness, thanks in part to $4 billion in emergency federal funding. Cities have converted convention centers into shelters and rented out hotel rooms to house the homeless. In Seattle, the city accelerated construction of a project to provide “tiny houses” for some homeless people.

But there is worse to come. Homelessness rises during recessions, the federal funding is temporary and state and local governments face huge drops in tax revenue.

Having failed to address homelessness during the longest economic expansion in American history, the nation now faces a greater challenge under more difficult circumstances. Yet the imperative remains: Everyone needs a home. No one should be left to die on the street.

Americans must decide whether we are willing to let elementary school students spend nights in guarded parking lots, like ones I saw proliferating across the Western United States. We must decide whether it’s worth spending just a little of this nation’s vast wealth to ensure that no 60-year-old woman needs to sleep on the same bench in downtown Santa Monica, night after night, because, as she explained to me, it’s relatively flat and easy for the police to see her from their cars. We must decide whether it’s tolerable for people to live in tents on the scraps of green space along a highway in Washington, D.C., just a short walk from the block where the richest man in America combined two mansions to create the city’s largest.

Addressing homelessness is within our power. The question is whether we are ready to act.

Binyamin Appelbaum (@BCAppelbaum) is a member of the editorial board.

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11) Race and the Quarantined City

White people are protesting against being trapped at home. Black people know what it feels like to really be trapped.

"Under the quarantine, much has been made of Americans’ regulated lack of mobility. But our cities have long kept their black residents contained and at the margins. Populations trapped in place are easier to price-gouge and police. Capitalism and immobility work hand in hand.

By Brandi T. Summers, May 15, 2020"

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/opinion/coronavirus-ahmaud-arbery-race.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Detroit residents lined up to be tested for the coronavirus in April.Credit...Rebecca Cook/Reuters

On Feb. 23, a 25-year-old black man named Ahmaud Arbery left his home in Brunswick, Ga., to go for a Sunday afternoon run. As he entered a nearby subdivision, he was followed and later shot dead by a father and son while their neighbor recorded the incident on his phone.

Mr. Arbery’s crime of running while black speaks to a history of racial surveillance and containment enforced by the American state and supported by white people with the means and opportunity to cause great harm.

Lately, the coronavirus has got me thinking a lot about the racial dynamics of containment. Under the quarantine, much has been made of Americans’ regulated lack of mobility. But our cities have long kept their black residents contained and at the margins. Populations trapped in place are easier to price-gouge and police. Capitalism and immobility work hand in hand.

The American state has restricted black people’s mobility at least since the time of slavery. These regulations included convict leasing, Black Codes, loitering laws, redlining, racial zoning, redistricting (legal and illegal), the prison-industrial complex and increased surveillance. This history has given us entire cities built to shepherd black labor and presence.

One might even consider the black experience as a kind of never-ending quarantine — and indeed Jim Crow laws that grew partly out of concerns that black people spread “contagion,” like tuberculosis and malaria, affirmed as much. The eugenics movement, popular in the early 20th century, led many doctors and scientists to attribute the precarious state of black health to physiological, biological and moral inferiority, instead of structural causes like poverty and racism.

Nearly a century ago, my grandparents fled the Jim Crow South, joining the millions of black families that moved north and west as part of the Great Migration. No matter how many thousands of miles they crossed, they met the same thing: not freedom, but constraint. Even in some of America’s most “progressive” cities like San Francisco, where my family ended up, black people were relegated to parts of town with limited housing, overcrowded schools and low-paying jobs. The police were everywhere.

So black folks have been educated in a kind of quarantine since Day 1.

Yet mobility remains a big part of America’s narrative about freedom. The tone and complexion of the anti-quarantine protests shouldn’t surprise us when white people have been accustomed to boundless freedom of movement.

Consider the glaring contrasts between the architecture and development of the large-scale public housing units and suburban bedroom communities of the 1950s. Two very different outcomes — one black, one white — from one ostensibly shared aim of creating affordable housing.

Black people were trapped in poorly maintained towers, like the notorious Pruitt-Igoe homes in St. Louis, that kept them far away from the city’s arteries and public transportation. The 33 buildings of the complex were so uninhabitable that they had to be destroyed after only two decades.

Meanwhile, all-white suburbs like Levittown, N.Y., which also received government subsidies, were designed expansively with front lawns, public parks and wide sidewalks.

The same freeways and boulevards that made it easy for suburbanites like those from Levittown to zoom in and out of cities destroyed black neighborhoods, either by cutting them off or by bulldozing them entirely.

Now many of these roads are being retooled in the spirit of “new urbanism” to make way for more bike lanes and wider sidewalks. But who will these benefit the most? A wealthier and whiter population that wants better access to a walkable, gentrified city.

When black people can move freely about the city, that movement is often controlled by housing location, surveilled by the police and private security measures and allowed only in the service of providing cheap labor.

Today cities are asking, demanding and even coercing black people to shoulder the burden of work that is fundamental to their functioning, but without protecting those people in return. Whatever mobility people have is largely for executing low-wage jobs, which are now recognized as “essential” because they directly benefit white infrastructures.

This, in addition to the crowding in black neighborhoods, is one reason we see an overrepresentation of black people among the Covid-19 dead in places like Detroit; Chicago; St. Louis; Richmond, Va.; and Washington, D.C. Another reason is racial disparities in testing and treatment. In Illinois, just under 10 percent of those tested for the coronavirus are black. But among those who test positive, 18 percent are black. And among those who die, a stunning 32 percent are black.

Furthering the problem, some hospitals have turned black residents away, only for them to die, despite their showing the same symptoms as white people who receive testing and treatment. This suggests that bias is playing a role. If cities were to test all residents, treatment would not depend on any preconceived notions about who is deserving of care and who is not.

The historian Nikhil Pal Singh recently observed that the “pandemic will not create the social transformation we need, but it will set the terms for it.” The history of black quarantine provides us with our plan in reverse. Colorblind responses only make the problems worse.

Rather than corporate bailouts, we need a public bailout, one that involves an increase in public spending to support equal access to education, affordable housing and transportation. One that provides paid sick leave and health insurance for all.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has declared a temporary moratorium on foreclosures of Federal Housing Administration-insured mortgages and evictions from public housing units. Several cities have offered similar solutions for their most vulnerable residents, and more should follow. Evictions disproportionately burden black people, especially black women, who experience homelessness at alarming rates.

Cities and the federal government should also come up with a plan for comprehensive debt forgiveness. This will make it easier for essential workers to pay for the increasing costs of education, food and transportation. Measures like these would actually contribute to the growth of our economy by freeing up capital for people to lead healthy lives.

We ask our cities to be smart, but are we asking them to be just? We talk about access in symbolic ways, but don’t think about the core geographies of inequality that emerge in the making of a mobile, technologically driven city. The creative, progressive city — with its fine dining, bike shares and crowded parks — relies on the same workers of color that it relegates to the margins.

We can even take a lesson from the protesters demanding, wrongly, an end to the quarantine. We can fight for opening our cities — politically, economically and racially — with the same energy they are putting toward opening our streets. We must create solutions that benefit the masses, not a select few. A true end to quarantine demands ending the quarantining city. It may not be the best we can do, but it’s the least we can ask.

Brandi T. Summers, an assistant professor of geography and global metropolitan studies at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of “Black in Place: The Spatial Aesthetics of Race in a Post-Chocolate City.”

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12) E.P.A. Opts Against Limits on Water Contaminant Tied to Fetal Damage

A new E.P.A. policy on perchlorate, which is used in rocket fuel, would revoke a 2011 finding that the chemical should be regulated.

By Lisa Friedman, May 14, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/climate/trump-drinking-water-perchlorate.html?searchResultPosition=1

Volunteers distributed bottled water in Barstow, Calif., where perchlorate was found in the water supply in 2010. 

Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times, via Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will not impose any limits on perchlorate, a toxic chemical compound that contaminates water and has been linked to fetal and infant brain damage, according to two Environmental Protection Agency staff members familiar with the decision.

The decision by Andrew Wheeler, the administrator of the E.P.A., appears to defy a court order that required the agency to establish a safe drinking-water standard for the chemical by the end of June. The policy, which acknowledges that exposure to high levels of perchlorate can cause I.Q. damage but opts nevertheless not to limit it, could also set a precedent for the regulation of other chemicals, people familiar with the matter said.

The chemical — which is used in rocket fuel, among other applications — has been under study for more than a decade, but because contamination is widespread, regulations have been difficult.

In 2011, the Obama administration announced that it planned to regulate perchlorate for the first time, reversing a decision by the George W. Bush administration not to control it. But the Defense Department and military contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman have waged aggressive efforts to block controls, and the fight has dragged on.

According to the staff members, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak about agency decisions, the E.P.A. intends in the coming days to send a federal register notice to the White House for review that will declare it is “not in the public interest” to regulate the chemical.

Andrea Woods, a spokeswoman for the E.P.A., said in a statement that the agency had not yet made a final decision on perchlorate. “Any information that is shared or reported now would be premature, inappropriate and would be prejudging the formal rulemaking process,” she said.

Ms. Woods said the final rule would be sent to the Office of Management and Budget for interagency review, adding “the agency expects to complete this step shortly.” She did not answer questions about the court order.

Perchlorate can occur naturally, but high concentrations have been found in at least 26 states, often near military installations where it has been used as an additive in rocket fuel, making propellants more reliable. Research has shown that by interfering with the thyroid gland’s iodine uptake, perchlorate can stunt the production of hormones essential to the development of fetuses, infants and children.

The new policy will revoke the 2011 E.P.A. finding that perchlorate presents serious health risks to between 5 million and 16 million people and should be regulated. To justify doing so, the Trump administration will cite more recent analyses claiming concentrations of the chemical in water must be at higher levels than previously thought in order to be considered unsafe.

In addition, because states like California and Massachusetts regulated the chemical in the absence of federal action, the E.P.A. will say few public water systems now contain perchlorate at high levels, so the costs of nationwide monitoring would outweigh the benefits, the people who have viewed the rule said.

“The agency has determined that perchlorate does not occur with a frequency and at levels of public health concern, and that regulation of perchlorate does not present a meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public water systems,” the draft policy reads, according to the staff members.

In public comments, the Perchlorate Study Group, a coalition made up of aerospace contractors including Aerojet Rocketdyne, American Pacific Corporation, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, had strongly urged the E.P.A. to withdraw its 2011 determination because “perchlorate does not occur with a frequency and at levels of public health concern” in public water systems.

The decision is the latest in a string of Trump administration regulatory actions that weaken toxic chemical regulations, often against the advice of E.P.A.’s own experts, in ways favored by the chemical industry.

Last year the administration announced it would not ban chlorpyrifos, a widely used pesticide that its own experts linked to serious health problems in children. It also opted to restrict, rather than ban, asbestos, a known carcinogen, despite urging by E.P.A. scientists and lawyers to ban it outright like most other industrialized nations.

“This is all of a piece,” said Rena Steinzor, a law professor at the University of Maryland. “You can draw a line between denial of science on climate change, denial of science on coronavirus, and denial of science in the drinking water context. It’s all the same issue. They’re saying ‘We don’t care what the research says.’”

The regulation of perchlorate has been a political football since the 1990s when testing found the presence of the chemical in hundreds of wells.

In 2008, the Bush administration said it would not set limits on the chemical. One year later, the Obama administration moved to reverse course. It issued a recommendation to states that 15 micrograms per liter is the highest concentration of perchlorate in water that the most sensitive populations, like pregnant women, should ingest.

In 2011, the Obama administration issued an official finding that worrisome levels of perchlorate had been detected in enough public water systems to warrant regulation, and the E.P.A. announced the agency’s intention to set limits.

The Obama administration dragged its feet, though, and the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group, sued. Moving ahead with regulation ultimately fell to the Trump administration and, in 2018, the E.P.A. agreed to a court settlement requiring a final standard on perchlorate. The court granted the administration extensions, and a final standard must be issued by June.

Last year the E.P.A. did propose federal regulation of perchlorate but it suggested a limit of 56 micrograms per liter, more than three times higher than what the E.P.A. had previously determined to be safe.

It also asked for comments from the public on an even higher threshold of 90 micrograms per liter, as well as whether to abandon plans for regulations altogether.

The final rule described by the staff members shows that the administration chose the most extreme option.

In doing so, the policy notes that the idea of setting a limit for 56 micrograms per liter was based on studies showing that it could avoid an average I.Q. loss of two points among babies of iodine-deficient pregnant women.

Even an exposure of 18 micrograms per liter, slightly above the current federal recommendation, would amount to an average I.Q. loss of one point. Critics of the policy said the E.P.A. was implicitly accepting that those health outcomes are not considered adverse health effects, and that the decision could affect the future regulation of other chemicals.

“Not only is E.P.A. acting in defiance of a court order and the law, it’s setting a terrible precedent by ignoring much of the science and allowing such a high level of perchlorate in tap water that it acknowledges is associated with an average 2-point I.Q. loss in exposed kids,” said Erik Olson, senior strategic director of health and food at the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Ms. Woods, the E.P.A. spokeswoman, declined to respond to a question about I.Q. damage from perchlorate.

Chemical industry representatives did not respond immediately to a request to discuss the E.P.A. policy. But in public comments to the agency, they, along with some state water districts and military contractors, urged the E.P.A. to not regulate perchlorate.

Lisa Friedman reports on federal climate and environmental policy from Washington. She has broken multiple stories about the Trump administration’s efforts to repeal climate change regulations and limit the use of science in policymaking. @LFFriedman

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13) America’s Killer Lawns

Homeowners use up 10 times more pesticide per acre than farmers do. But we can change what we do in our own yards.

By Margaret Renki, May 18, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/18/opinion/lawn-pesticides-insect-extinction.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

The eastern swallowtail butterfly that the author’s 91-year-old father-in-law found on the sidewalk.Credit...William DeShazer for The New York Times

NASHVILLE — One day last fall, deep in the middle of a devastating drought, I was walking the dog when a van bearing the logo of a mosquito-control company blew past me and parked in front of a neighbor’s house. The whole vehicle stank of chemicals, even going 40 miles an hour.

The man who emerged from the truck donned a massive backpack carrying a tank full of insecticide and proceeded to spray every bush and plant in the yard. Then he got in his truck, drove two doors down, and sprayed that yard, too, before continuing his route all around the block.

Here’s the most heartbreaking thing about the whole episode: He was spraying for mosquitoes that didn’t even exist: Last year’s extreme drought ended mosquito-breeding season long before the first freeze. Nevertheless, the mosquito vans arrived every three weeks, right on schedule, drenching the yards with poison for no reason but the schedule itself.

And spraying for mosquitoes isn’t the half of it, as any walk through the lawn-care department of a big-box store will attest. People want the outdoors to work like an extension of their homes — fashionable, tidy, predictable. Above all, comfortable. So weedy yards filled with tiny wildflowers get bulldozed end to end and replaced with sod cared for by homeowners spraying from a bottle marked “backyard bug control” or by lawn services that leave behind tiny signs warning, “Lawn care application; keep off the grass.”

If only songbirds could read.

Most people don’t seem to know that in this context “application” and “control” are simply euphemisms for “poison.” A friend once mentioned to me that she’d love to put up a nest box for bluebirds, and I offered to help her choose a good box and a safe spot for it in her yard, explaining that she would also need to tell her yard service to stop spraying. “I had no idea those guys were spraying,” she said.

To enjoy a lush green lawn or to sit on your patio without being eaten alive by mosquitoes doesn’t seem like too much to ask unless you actually know that insecticides designed to kill mosquitoes will also kill every other kind of insect: earthworms and caterpillars, spiders and mites, honeybees and butterflies, native bees and lightning bugs. Unless you actually know that herbicides also kill insects when they ingest the poisoned plants.

The global insect die-off is so precipitous that, if the trend continues, there will be no insects left a hundred years from now. That’s a problem for more than the bugs themselves: Insects are responsible for pollinating roughly 75 percent of all flowering plants, including one-third of the human world’s food supply.

They form the basis of much of the animal world’s food supply, as well. When we poison the bugs and the weeds, we are also poisoning the turtles and tree frogs, the bats and screech owls, the songbirds and skinks.

“If insect species losses cannot be halted, this will have catastrophic consequences for both the planet’s ecosystems and for the survival of mankind,” Francisco Sánchez-Bayo of the University of Sydney, Australia, told The Guardian last year.

Lawn chemicals are not, by themselves, the cause of the insect apocalypse, of course. Heat waves can render male insects sterile; loss of habitat can cause precipitous population declines; agricultural pesticides kill land insects and, by way of runoff into the nation’s waterways, aquatic insects, as well.

As individuals, we can help to slow such trends, but we don’t have the power to reverse them. Changing the way we think about our own yards is the only thing we have complete control over. And since homeowners use up 10 times more pesticide per acre than farmers do, changing the way we think about our yards can make a huge difference to our fellow creatures.

It can make a huge difference to our own health, too: As the Garden Club of America notes in its Great Healthy Yard Project, synthetic pesticides are endocrine disrupters linked to an array of human health problems, including autism, A.D.H.D., diabetes and cancer. So many people have invested so completely in the chemical control of the outdoors that every subdivision in this country might as well be declared a Superfund site.

Changing our relationship to our yards is simple: Just don’t spray. Let the tiny wildflowers take root within the grass. Use an oscillating fan to keep the mosquitoes away. Tug the weeds out of the flower bed with your own hands and feel the benefit of a natural antidepressant at the same time. Trust the natural world to perform its own insect control, and watch the songbirds and the tree frogs and the box turtles and the friendly garter snakes return to their homes among us.

Because butterflies and bluebirds don’t respect property lines, our best hope is to make this simple change a community effort. For 25 years, my husband and I have been trying to create a wildlife sanctuary of this half-acre lot, planting native flowers for the bees and the butterflies, leaving the garden messy as a safe place for overwintering insects.

Despite our best efforts, our yard is being visibly changed anyway. Fewer birds. Fewer insects. Fewer everything. Half an acre, it turns out, is not enough to sustain wildlife unless the other half-acre lots are nature-friendly, too.

It’s spring now, and nearly every day I get a flier in the mail advertising a yard service or a mosquito-control company. I will never poison this yard, but I save the fliers anyway, as a reminder of what we’re up against. I keep them next to an eastern swallowtail butterfly that my 91-year-old father-in-law found dead on the sidewalk. He saved it for me because he knows how many flowers I’ve planted over the years to feed the pollinators.

I keep that poor dead butterfly, even though it breaks my heart, because I know what it cost my father-in-law to bring it to me. How he had to lock the brakes on his walker, hold onto one of the handles and stoop on arthritic knees to get to the ground. How gently he had to pick up the butterfly to keep from crumbling its wings into powder. How carefully he set it in the basket of the walker to protect it.

My father-in-law didn’t know that the time for protection had passed. The butterfly he found is perfect, unbattered by age or struggle. It was healthy and strong until someone sprayed for mosquitoes, or weeds, and killed it, too.

Margaret Renkl is a contributing opinion writer who covers flora, fauna, politics and culture in the American South. She is the author of “Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and Loss.”

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Posted by: Bonnie Weinstein <bonnieweinstein@yahoo.com>

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