Category Archives: Attacks on the Working Class

Nationwide Prison Strike Called for Sept 9

Posted on by
1

prison strike

Prisoners across the United States are calling for a nationwide prisoner work stoppage against prison slavery on September 9th, 2016.

Their goal is to begin an action to shut down prisons, which are totally dependent on inmate labor, across the country. According to US Uncut, US prisoners are paid from 0 to 45 cents an hour for contract work for highly profitable corporations such as Whole Foods, Walmart, McDonald’s, Victoria’s Secret, BP and AT&T.

September 9th is the 45th anniversary of the 1971 uprising in which prisoners took over and shut down Attica, New York’s most notorious state prison.

Non-violent protests, work stoppages, hunger strikes and other refusals to participate in prison routines have greatly increased in recent years. The 2010 Georgia prison strike, the massive rolling California hunger strikes, the Free Alabama Movement’s 2014 work stoppage, have drawn the most attention. There have also been large hunger strikes at Ohio State Penitentiary, Menard Correctional in Illinois, Red Onion in Virginia and elsewhere. The growing resistance movement includes inmates at immigrant detention centers, women’s prisons and juvenile facilities.

The Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), created by the International Workers of the World (IWW), functions as a liaison to support prisoners in organizing and forging links between prisons and with fellow workers on the outside. IWOC, the only union representing prisoners, currently has 800 members.

As reported in the Nation, barriers to organizing prisoners are high. Most prisons deny inmates access to email, which makes communications between prisons difficult. Even within prisons, wardens block most prisoners’ union meetings. In 1977 the Supreme Court ruled prisoners have no First Amendment right to assemble if a warden feels a gathering threatens prison security.

In early 2015, the Free Alabama Movement published Let the Crops Rot in the Fields, laying out a new strategy –specifically tackling economic incentive – for ending mass incarceration. By refusing to work, prisoners directly attack the corporate profit motive underpinning mass incarceration. The IWOC has been sending copies of “Let the Crops Rot in the Fields” to prisoners all over the US.

According to the Nation article, the IWW were also instrumental in launching union drives at fast food restaurants in the early 2000s and the campaign for a $15 minimum wage.

For more information on IWOC and to help support the Sept 9 strike visit the IWOC Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/incarceratedworkers/

Invisible No Longer: Chicago’s Homeless

Posted on by
10

Street Life: Faces Uncovered

By Neal Karski, George Min, Tyler Dubiak and Scott Hilburn (2016)

Film Review

Street Life is a portrait of the Chicago’s homeless population. It begins by demolishing the myth that homelessness is a lifestyle choice. In addition to a wealth of statistics, the documentary includes interviews with homeless Chicagoans, social service workers, homeless advocates and random passersby. I found it intriguing that none of the women interviewed blamed the homeless for their predicament – while more than half the men did.

On any given night 750,000 Americans are homeless, and yearly 25-35 million spend some nights on the streets or in shelters. Worldwide 100 million people have no housing at all while one billion have grossly inadequate housing. Last year, over a million American children were homeless at some point.

In examining the causes of chronic homelessness, filmmakers identified the following breakdown (in Chicago):

  • 48% suffer from chronic drug or alcohol addiction
  • 32% are mentally ill
  • 25% are victims of domestic violence
  • 15% are unemployed veterans
  • 4% have HIV or AIDS

Because the homeless make huge demands on the public health system, it costs taxpayers far less to pay for their housing than to leave them on the street. After starting a Permanent Supportive Housing program two years ago, Illinois lawmakers reduced emergency room visits by 40%, nursing home days by 975%, inpatient days by 83% and psychiatric services by 66%.

 

#NoLameDuck Uprising this Novemember

Posted on by
4

The White House is planning to use the Lame Duck session of Congress after the election this November to pass legislation to ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

1nold2

Our mission is to create the environment that makes this impossible. That’s why we are starting now to plan the #NoLameDuck Uprising! Sign up now to be part of it and we’ll stay in touch with you about what we need to do. There will be actions in Washington, DC and across the country.

The Lame Duck session takes place after the election and ends with the winter break in December. It is a time when some members of Congress have lost their seats but can still vote. The Lame Duck is often used to pass unpopular legislation. This year the Lame Duck runs from Nov 14 to 18 in DC, then members will be home for 10 days for Thanksgiving break and then they will be back in DC for the first three weeks of December, concluding on Dec. 16.

Tell Congress “Don’t Duck Democracy!”

Help spread the word about the #NoLameDuck Uprising. We need thousands to join in!

Download a flyer here: NoLameDuck qtr flyer

Here is a sign up sheet that you can take to events: NoLameDuck Uprising Sign

(Please scan and email the sign up sheet to info@popularresistance.org or mail it to 402 E. Lake Ave. Baltimore, MD 21212)

OUR GOAL = 5,000 signers  by the end of August!
So far we have 3,523.

Go here to sign: http://www.flushthetpp.org/nolameduck/

The FBI War on Rap

Posted on by
5

The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black Leaders

John Potash (2008)

Review

In the video below, author John Potash uses a slideshow format to discuss his 2008 book The FBI War on Tupac Shakur and Black Leaders. The book is a compilation of years of research (based on court documents, news reports, archival photos and FOIA documents) into the FBI role in the assassination and false imprisonment of black political leaders and rock stars.

This presentation mainly focuses on the FBI assassination of Tupak Shakur in 1996, though Potash also briefly covers the FBI murder of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Fred Hampton, Huey Newton, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley and the CIA murder of Robert F Kennedy.

As background, Bishop also outlines the key strategies of Cointelpro the FBI war against the Black Panther Party.  In addition to assassinating their leaders, the FBI collaborated with police intelligence units to imprison multiple Panther leaders on false charges, as well as extensive infiltrating their groups.

The Panther 21 Trial

Both Tupac’s Black Panther parents were framed on fictitious charges in the infamous Panther 21 trial in 1971. Tupac’s mother Afeni, who handled their defense pro se, got all of them acquitted. Tupac, who had numerous Panther mentors growing up, would become president of the New African Panther Organization (NAPO) in 1989,

In 1992, he helped broker a truce between the Bloods and Crips, encouraging them to focus their anger on the white power structure. In part due to his growing fame, the FBI responded with repeated attempts to assassinate him, as well as numerous arrests on fictitious charges.

By 1995, his financial resources depleted by multiple arrests and frivolous lawsuits, Tupac was eventually framed by an FBI informant on a phony sexual assault charge. Although he was acquitted on a rape charge, he would be sentenced to four years in prison (on a $5 million bond) for “touching a woman’s buttocks without her permission.”

Death Row Records

What horrified me most about this presentation was learning about Death Row Records, a recording company run by three undercover cops from the LAPD intelligence unit. The latter used their position in the recording industry to traffic drugs (the president of Death Row was an affiliate of Freeway Ricky Ross who distributed cocaine imported to the US by the CIA Contras) and guns and to murder performers who attempted to politicize rap music.

Death Row Records was also instrumental in ending the Bloods/Crips truce by instigating a fictitious East Coast/West Coast rap war and collaborating with police “rap squads” in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere to frame truce leaders on phony charges carrying long prison sentences. They were also instrumental in breaking up Niggas wit Attitudes (N.W.A.)

Tupac was released from prison within days of signing with Death Row, which closely censored the political content of his recordings and performances. The FBI and the undercover cops at Death Row also instigated the phony feud between Tupac and rap star Biggie Small.

After Tupac left Death Row to start his own record company, the FBI organized his assassination and planted rumors in the press that Biggie Small had ordered the drive by shooting. They subsequently murdered Biggie Small to cover up the FBI role in Tupac’s murder.

Clinton Should Tell Obama To Withdraw TPP To Save Her Presidency

Posted on by
1

A new opinion piece by Tom Johnson in Common Dreams urges Hillary Clinton to ask Obama to end his push for his lame duck Congress to pass TPP.

Johnson writes

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton says she opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) but is having trouble convincing people to believe her. Imagine the trouble Hillary Clinton will have trying to build support for her effort to govern the country if TPP is ratified before her inauguration.

According to Politico’s Wednesday Morning Trade, the Obama administration is launching a “TPP blitz” push to pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP),

Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker last week said the administration is planning at least 30 trade events by the end of the month. That effort, similar to last year’s “all of Cabinet” push for trade promotion authority, is expected to shift to Capitol Hill in September when lawmakers return from their summer break.

In spite of the opposition of much of the public, both presidential candidates, all of labor, almost all Democrats, all progressive-aligned consumer, human rights, environmental and other organizations and even the Tea Party right, what is happening here is that Wall Street, the multinational corporations, most Republicans and unfortunately President Obama are preparing to insult democracy by pushing to ratify TPP. This undermine’s Clinton’s credibility while campaigning for election, and if it passes it harms her ability to govern if she is elected.

Johnson also notes that Trump is telling campaign rallies that Clinton is a closet Transpacific Partnership supporter and raising fears of a lame-duck vote on the “job-killing” TPP.

He encourages people to sign the CREDO petition: “Tell Sec. Clinton: Lead against lame-duck vote on TPP”

Read full article here: Clinton should tell Obama withdraw TPP to Save Her Presidency

Iranian TV Profiles African American Oppression

Posted on by
Reply

The Façade of the American Dream

Press TV (2013)

Film Review

This is a very troubling documentary by Iranian national TV about the present plight of America’s black community. It features a variety of African American voices, ranging from educators, lawyers and doctors to community activists. There are also four Caucasian faces – an economist, two anti-racist activists and the late assassination researcher John Judge.

The documentary is divided into four parts.

Part 1 This is Why We Have the Blues mainly addresses the problem of mental enslavement that results from being forced to adopt the culture of the dominant society. It goes on to address the plight of black youth when schools deliberately conceal their history from them and the campaign of assassination and incarceration of black leaders like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, George Jackson and Medgar Evers when they successfully mobilized black people to stand up against African American oppression.

Part 2 From School House to Jail House looks on serious drawback of public school integration, which has denied black students access to black teachers and a curriculum that endows them with pride in their history and culture. This process has been aggravated by national and state mandate for high stakes testing – which one activist compares to apartheid South Africa’s Bantu education. This was a system dedicated to preparing black South Africans for menial jobs.

Part 3 Lack of Wealth, Lack of Health focuses on the lack of access to healthy food and routine medical care in inner city communities. For many African American men, the only access to a doctor or dentist is in jail or prison. The result is a significant lower African American life expectancy (on average, black men live eight fewer years on average than white men and black women six fewer years than their white counterparts).

Part 4 You Ain’t Free explores the rise of mass black incarceration in the 1970s, which one activist views as a direct response to African Americans rising up in the 1960s to demand their rights. During the mid-sixties, the US prison population was 70% Caucasian – at present that percentage is 30%. Meanwhile the total US prison population has increased from 300,000 to 2.4 million, despite a significant reduction in violent crime. All the commentators link black mass incarceration to the War on Drugs and police policies that deliberate target African American communities with arrest quotas (see The New Jim Crow).

How Capitalism Causes Mental Illness

Posted on by
9

Capitalism and Mental Health: How the Market Makes Us Sick

Libertarian Socialist Rants (2016)

Film Review

This 22 minute documentary makes an excellent case that capitalism is the primary cause of most mental illness.

The film begins by demonstrating that capitalist bosses have no incentive whatsoever to keep their workers healthy. Ideally they want their workers to be just healthy enough to do their work. From an employer’s perspective, any excess of health is wasteful and dangerous. Workers who are too healthy generally get restive when they’re forced to work for an abusive and exploitative boss.

In general, the most docile workers are those who are moderately depressed and apathetic. If people stop being depressed, they want to either 1) quit their jobs or 2) rebel.

The film also identifies housing difficulties (homelessness and insecure or poorly maintained housing) as a major cause of anxiety disorders and alcohol and drug addiction. Margaret Thatcher’s austerity policies led to a rampant heroin epidemic, as million of Brits lost jobs and/or secure housing.

The film goes on to cite a wealth of studies linking work and accommodation stress to anxiety and addiction disorders.

Dumpster Diving 101

Posted on by
3

Dive! Living Off America’s Waste

Directed by Jeremy Seifert (2007)

Film Review

This documentary teaches the rules and techniques of dumpster diving for food. In the Los Angeles region, dumpster divers operate by a strict code of conduct:

  1. Only take what you need.
  2. The first one there has first refusal rights to any food but is expected to share.
  3. Always leave the dumpster cleaner than how you found it.

This film examines the wasteful habit many supermarkets have of discarding perfectly good food because its arbitrary “sell-by date” has expired. According to the filmmakers, 3,000 pounds of edible food is discarded every second. Meanwhile globally one billion people go hungry.

Not only is this a tremendous waste of water (it takes 147 gallons of water to produce one pound of meat) and other natural resources, but discarded food (comprising 20% of all solid waste) in produces massive amounts of the most harmful greenhouse gas – methane.

Filmmakers noticed a significant increase in dumpster diving with the 2007 global economic crash. Yet despite the 1996 Good Samaritan Food Donation Act*, supermarkets (except for Albertson’s) have been reluctant to set up programs to donate their food waste to food banks and homeless shelters.

It’s mainly been up to voluntary grassroots organizers, such as the God Provides food bank in El Monte California to take the initiative in keeping edible supermarket food out of the dumpster.

Fortunately in the nine years since this documentary was made, more supermarkets have come on board with Fresh Rescue and similar programs.

A new law France passed in February 2016 forbids food wastage by supermarkets. Its passage spurred New Zealand supermarkets to forestall a similar ban by voluntarily implementing food donation programs. It would appear the French law has had a similar effect in the US and UK.

*The Good Samaritan Food Donation Act encourages the donation of food to non-profit charitable organizations by exempting donor from liability related to food-borne illnesses.

***

This second UK film Wasted/Wanted (2014) explores the work of the charitable organization FairShare. Their volunteers are granted access to warehouses of discarded food that never reach the supermarket. They sort and deliver the food to food banks, soup kitchens and homeless shelters. In most cases, this food hasn’t reached its sell-by date and is discarded for other reasons:

  • flawed packaging
  • bar codes that don’t scan
  • damaged cartons that make the food difficult to transport
  • overproduction of supermarket brands

Involuntary Servitude: Prisoners Fight California Wildfires

Posted on by
2

Thanks to climate change, California’s wildfire season got an early start in 2016 – in February. According to the BBC, 30 percent of California’s firefighters (roughly 4,000) are state prison inmates. They make $2 a day while at fire camp, and $1 an hour while on a fire line – saving state taxpayers $80 million a year. Inmates also earn two days off their sentence for every day they’re on a fire. The work of battling a 100 foot high fire wall is incredibly dangerous, and inmate firefighters suffer a “handful” of injuries every year – usually from falling branches and debris.

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

While the BBC feature quotes inmates as being honored by the “privilege” of fighting fires, the inmate fire fighting program is taking place against the backdrop of a federal court order requiring California to reduce overcrowding. In 2011, the The Supreme Court upheld  a lower court ruling ordering California to cut their prison populations (by reducing the sentences of low level offenders).

State correction officials complied by offering an early prison-release program to all minimum security offenders – but only “so long as it proves not to deplete the numbers of inmate firefighters.” In 2014, state Attorney General Kamala Harris argued against the program, concerned it would severely impact fire camp participation “a dangerous outcome while California is in the middle of a difficult fire season and severe drought.”

The New Jim Crow

In other words, California is openly balancing the state budget on the backs of prison slave labor.

Given that low income minorities comprise the great majority of California’s prison population – for circumstances largely beyond their control – this policy clearly violates the UN Convention on Human  Rights (which forbids slavery and involuntary servitude).

In fact, it sounds a lot like southern Jim Crow laws.*

In The New Jim Crow , lawyer Michelle Alexander describes in detail how urban police deliberately target minority neighborhoods for enforcement of drug possession and other victimless crimes. She also cites numerous examples of minority arrestees forced to cop guilty pleas owing to their inability to obtain competent legal representation.

Below prisoners fight a 2014 fire in Shasta County.

*In the Jim Crow system that followed Reconstruction, most southern states passed arbitrary vagrancy laws that were used to imprison black males and force them into unpaid slave labor on plantations, on the railroads and in factories and mines. See 1941: The Year Slavery Finally Ended

 

One Million Votes Never Counted in California

Posted on by
3

Uncounted: The True Story of the California Primary

Directed by Michelle Boley and Taylor Giel (2016)

Film Review

Uncounted is about the nearly one million California voters whose votes weren’t counted in the California primary.

The documentary focuses mainly on poll workers who directly witnessed vote suppression. This took several forms. Most common were voters who were erroneously purged from voting records, long time registered Democrats who were mysteriously switched to Republican (preventing them from voting in the Democratic primary), and voting machines that were pre-set not to count No Party Preference (NPP) or Democratic Crossover votes.

Most of the voters who were denied a vote were young, Hispanic or first time voters – all independent voters who overwhelmingly supported Bernie Sanders. Because most weren’t registered Democrats, they had to request an NPP or Democratic Crossover ballot. If they didn’t spontaneously request them, poll workers were required to give them a provisional ballot (Greg Palast refers to provisional ballots as placebo ballots as they tend not to be counted – see Placebo Ballots: Stealing California from Bernie Using an Old GOP Vote-Snatching Trick). Poll workers were specifically forbidden to ask voters if they wanted an NPP ballot.

When Hillary Clinton claimed victory in California on election night, 40% of the total ballots hadn’t been counted – as they were provisional. In precincts with a lot of student voters, as many as 80% of the ballots were provisional.

The film’s most shocking revelation concerns California’s new law allowing voters to register at their polling place on election day. This law should have totally eliminated the need for provisional ballots. Any voter not appearing on the electoral role could have simply re-registered. For obvious reasons, California’s Secretary of State, an active member of Clinton’s campaign team, has chosen not to implement the law.

Internationally US elections are ranked lowest among all western democracies for fairness and transparency.