We Charge Genocide: From Gaza to Ferguson

  The Campaign to Bring Mumia Home

& The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal

A Message of Solidarity

From Ferguson to Gaza We Charge Genocide

Those standing up against police brutality and state repression in Ferguson, Missouri are leading one of the most important human right struggles of our time. 

In the context of the history of Sundown Towns in that region, which legislated that people of color had to leave white towns by sundown, the imposition of a curfew and deployment of the National Guard by the governor represents a racist suppression of the right to self-defense and a gross violation of the freedom of assembly. Its message is clear: the people most likely to rebel against injustice have to be controlled, their right to protest quashed, and the absolute power of the police state restored. 

The militarized repression on display in Ferguson is a reflection of a world in crisis. Although separated by thousands of miles, the plight of the people of Ferguson and the Gaza Strip share too much in common for people of conscience to ignore.  Michael Brown, an African American youth, could just have easily been a Palestinian youth mercilessly shot by an Israeli soldier.

We understand that in both cases a long history of colonialism and racism justified land dispossession in Palestine and slavery in the US.  That history is alive today with the continued gross economic deprivation of these communities and their isolation through universally enforced discrimination in housing. This pattern of ghettoization has been inflicted on both of these communities since the founding of the US and Israel.  The systematic exploitation, repression and targeting of these populations by the state has led and continues to lead to genocide. According to a 2012 study, a black person is killed every 28 hours by the police, other security agency, or individuals acting as the police. In Gaza, as of today, there have been more than 2,000 civilians killed from recent Israeli bombing attacks. If we take Gaza’s small population into account this killing is proportional to double the entire population of Providence, Rhode Island.

The same U.S. government policies that arm the State of Israel have also turned police departments across the nation into localized military garrisons armed with sophisticated weapons aimed at citizens.  As one Palestinian youth tweetedrecently, "Made in USA teargas canister was shot at us a few days ago in #Palestine by Israel, now they are used in#Ferguson."

This police onslaught in Ferguson is reminiscent of what occurred in Philadelphia in 1985 when the police dropped a military grade, fire-bomb from a helicopter on the MOVE house. That police attack of black people killed 11 MOVE members, including 5 children and burned down 61 homes, destroying an entire African American neighborhood.

Political Prisoner and black journalist Mumia Abu-Jamal is imprisoned today because during his youth he exposed this kind of systematic police terror against the black community. He stands in solidarity with Ferguson and Palestine and we call for his immediate release.

At a moment's notice any of us could face the terror experienced in Ferguson or Palestine. A people subjugated by racist oppression have a moral right to resist.

In solidarity with the people of Ferguson, We Call For:

1.     The Immediate Arrest of Officer Darren Wilson and an Investigation for Justice with Full Community Oversight

2.     Just Reparation for the Brown Family 

3.     The Withdrawal of the National Guard, the Removal of the Curfew and No Fly Zones and Full Media Access to the Area

4.     The Disbanding of Ferguson’s Racist Police Department and the Re-Appropriation of Police Funds for a Massive Jobs, Housing, & Schools Program for the Residents of Ferguson

In Solidarity with the people of Palestine, We Call For:

1.     The Right of Return, the Right to Self Determination, and the Right to Self Defense

2.     A Free and Independent Palestine

3.     A Re-Appropriation of US Supplied Israeli Military Funds for an Economic Reparations Program for Palestine

 Join us:

@bringmumiahome     ****     www.bringmumiahome.com

https://www.facebook.com/cbmhome  *****    bringmumiahome@gmail.com

Freedom Archives Benefit with Dead Prez, Kev Choice, Sellassie

Ankh Marketing Presents

THE FREEDOM ARCHIVES BENEFIT CONCERT

DEAD PREZ

Kev Choice, Jennifer Johns, Jahi As PE 2.0, Sellassie, DJ Leydis

Thursday 8/21

Doors: 8:00 pm / Show: 9:00 pm

$15 Early Bird - $25 DOS

TICKETS

THIS EVENT IS ALL AGES

Under 21 must buy $5 drink ticket at the door.

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Blowback in Ferguson

Blowback in Ferguson 

By Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich

August 15, 2014 "ICH" - The fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager and the ensuing protests in Ferguson, Missouri has rocked America. Even the mainstream media with its aversion to the truth, has been forced to address the militarization of the police in America – albeit years too late.

This is a short call from informing the mainstream media that the country has been living under pseudo martial law for decades.

On April 13, 2013, the ACLU (Shasta Chapter) invited me to be their keynote speaker to talk about government secrecy, drones and militarization of America. The Ferguson shooting and its coverage it the media prompted me to highlight some of the points made during that talk as they relate to today’s events.

Historians and political scientists have warned about dangerous war fever sweeping the United States. America’s entanglements overseas, its imperial ambitions, and the more recent “global war on terror”, a war of indefinite duration against an ill-defined shifting enemy, with no specific definition of victory, poses a grave danger to the very character of American government and society, unraveling the fabric of the Constitution.

The framers of the Constitution recognized such dangers when they carefully subordinated the military to civilian authority and attempted to limit the power of the President to initiate war.Gregory Foster, a former Army officer and West Point graduate who now teaches national security studies at the National Defense University in Washington said that the principle of civilian control of the military—an early building block of American democracy- has been reversed and become the civilian subjugation to the military.

Over half a century ago, Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson concluded "by giving way to the passion, intolerance and suspicions of wartime, it is easy to reduce our liberties to a shadow, often in answer to exaggerated claims of security."

That day is here. Aside from constant surveillance, and the notorious “kill list”, war has been internalized and the militarization of the police force has put every American in danger. The biggest threat to Americans now comes from those who are paid to protect them. A threat which has been building for decades.

During the Clinton administration Congress passed what's now known as the "1033 Program. The 1033 Progam formalized Reagan administration's directive to the Pentagon to share surplus military gear with domestic police agencies. Since then, millions of pieces of military equipment designed for use on a battlefield have been transferred to local cops -- SWAT teams and others -- including machine guns, tanks, and armored personnel carriers. The Pentagon's 1033 program has exploded under Obama.

Clinton also created the "Troops to Cops" program, which offered grants to police departments who hired soldiers returning from battle, contributing even further to the militarization of the police force. But what is most alarming about the militarize police their training.

Although the role of the police is to ‘protect and to serve’, they are being taught to kill. Lt. Col David Grossman (retired U.S. Army) is one such teacher. Grossman, unapologetically, told Front Line:

“Prior preparation is the heart of what I do. I teach law enforcement. Today I just came from a conference where I trained 700 SWAT cops. And most of what I do is I train military and law enforcement in what I call the bulletproof mind. Just as today we have body armor that the guys in World War II didn't have, the same way we can have mental preparation that they didn't have. And this bulletproof mind is vital. Prior preparation is that one variable in the equation that we can control ahead of time, and one of the key things is embracing the responsibility to kill.”

“I tell my soldiers, I tell my cops: "You've got the most difficult decision any human being will ever face. You have to decide whether or not to kill another human being."

Well equipped, trained, and encouraged by the likes of [now former] Mayor Michael Bloombergand New York City police commissioner Raymond Kel who proudly brag of “hav(ing) my own army in the NYPD” and who used that army to spy on peaceful Occupy Wall Street protestors.”, it should come as no surprise that a SWAT team should blow a hole in a 2-year old, or the police kill an unarmed teenager, and all other horrific acts of violence we witness every day being committed by the cops.

So why has the media been silent on the militarization of police up to this point? Well, they are the watchdogs of acceptable ideological messages, responsible for manufacturing consent - Their goal is to control the news and information available to society by using censorship and propaganda. Big media is not designed to serve the welfare of the public. 

So why break the silence now? The internet has made it virtually impossible to hide facts, and quite possibly, mainstream media has decided to do some damage control and take over the reins in order to control the flow of information. Regardless of what big media wants us to believe, what we witness is a blowback. Our wars have come home to roost.

Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich is a Public Diplomacy Scholar and Independent Researcher. 
 

Long live the teachings of the Most Honorable Marcus Garvey

AFRICAN FUNDAMENTALISM
         by
         The Hon. Marcus Mosiah Garvey
(August 17, 1887 - June 10, 1940)

The time has come for the Blackman to forget and cast behind
him his hero worship and adoration of other races, and to start
out immediately to create and emulate heroes of his own. We must
canonize our own martyrs and elevate to positions of fame and honor
Black men and women who have made their distinct contributions to
our racial history.

Sojourner Truth is worthy of sainthood alongside of Joan of Arc.
Crispus Attuck and George William Gordon are entitled to the halo
of martyrdom with no less glory than that of the martyrs of any
other race. Jacques Deselines' and Moshesh's brilliancy as
soldiers and statesmen outshone that of a Cromwell, Napoleon, or
Washington: hence they are entitled to the highest place as heroes
among men.

Africa has produced countless numbers of men and women, in war and
in peace, whose lustre and bravery outshines that of any other
people. Then why not see good and perfection in ourselves? We
must inspire a literature and promulgate a doctrine of our own
without any apologies to the powers that be. The right is the
Blackman's and Africa's. Let contrary sentiments and cross
opinions go to the winds. Oppositions to Race Independence is the
weapon of the enemy to defeat the hopes of an unfortunate people.

We are entitled to our own opinions and not obligated to or bound
by the opinions of others. If others laugh at you return the
laughter to them; if they mimic you return the compliment with
equal force. They have no more right to dishonor, disrespect or
disregard your feelings and manhood than you have in dealing with
them. Honor them when they honor you; disregard them when they
vilely treat you. Their arrogance is but skin deep and an
assumption that has no foundation in morals or in Law.

They have sprung from the same family tree of obscurity as
we have; their history is as rude in its primitiveness as ours,
their ancestors ran wild and naked, lived in caves and in branches
of trees like monkeys as ours; they made sacrifices, ate the flesh
of their own dead and the raw meat of wild beasts for centuries
even as they accuse us of doing. Their cannibalism was more
prolonged than ours; when we were embracing the Arts and Sciences
on the banks of the Nile, their ancestors were still drinking
human blood and eating out of the skulls of their conquered dead.

When our civilization had reached the noon-day of progress, they
were still running naked and sleeping in holes and caves with
rats, bats, and other insects and animals. After we had already
unfathomed the mystery of the Stars and reduced the Heavenly
Constellations to minute and regular calculus they were still
backwoodsmen, living in ignorance and blatant darkness.

The world today is indebted to us for the benefits of civilization.
They stole our Arts and Sciences from Africa. Then why should we
be ashamed of ourselves? Their modern improvements are but
duplicates of a grander civilization that we reflected thousands of
years ago; without the advantage of what is buried and still
hidden, to be resurrected and reintroduced by the intelligence of
our generation and our posterity.

Why should we be discouraged because somebody laughs at us today?
Who can tell what tomorrow will bring forth? Did they not laugh at
Moses, Christ, and Mohammed? Was there not a CARTHAGE, GREECE
and ROME? We see and have changes everyday; so plan, work, be
steadfast and do not be dismayed. As the Jew is held together by
his religion, the white races by the assumption and the unwritten
law of superiority, and the Mongolian by the precious tie of blood;
so likewise the Blackman must be UNITED in one grand RACIAL
HIERARCHY. Our union must know no climate, boundary or
nationality.

BLACK MEN THE WORLD OVER MUST PRACTICE ONE FAITH,
THAT OF CONFIDENCE IN THEMSELVES, WITH: *ONE CAUSE.

ONE GOAL. ONE DESTINY.

Let no religious scruples, no political machination divide us,
but let us hold together under all climates and in every country;
making among ourselves a RACIAL EMPIRE upon which, "The Sun shall
never set."

Let no voice but your own speak to you from the depths; let no
influence but your own rouse you in time of peace and time of war.
Hear all but attend only to that which concerns you, your
allegiance shall be to your Race, then to your family and your
Country. Remember always that the Jew in his political and
economic urge is always first a Jew, the white is first a white man
under all circumstances; and you can do no less than being first
and always a Blackman; then all else will take care of itself.
Let no one inoculate you with evil doctrines to suit their
conveniences. There's no humanity before that which starts with
yourself, "CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME." First to thyself be true and
thou canst not then be false to any man.

NATURE first made us what we are and then out of our own
creative genius we make ourselves what we want to be. Follow
always that GREAT LAW. Let the SKY be your limit, and Eternity our
Measurement. There's no height to which we cannot climb by using
the active intelligence of our own mind. Mind creates, and as much
as we desire in NATURE, we can have through the creation of our own
minds. Being at present the scientifically weaker Race, you shall
treat others only as they treat you, but in your homes and
everywhere possible you must teach the higher development of
science to your children; and be sure to develop a RACE of
SCIENTISTS par excellence, for in Science and NATIONALISM lie our
only hope to withstand the evil designs of modern materialism.

Never forget your Cause. REMEMBER! We live, work and plan for
the establishment of a great and binding RACIAL HIERARCHY;
the founding of a RACIAL EMPIRE whose only natural, spiritual
and political limits shall be: LIBERTY FOR AFRICANS, AT HOME
AND ABROAD.

Black the Boat--3pm West Oakland BART, Saturday, August 16

 

Change to 3 pm

Although this isn't great for the people who got up at the crack of dawn to get to Oakland by 5 am, it does mean that more of you who could NOT have been there at that time have a chance to also make your presence felt. Tell your friends and anyone you know who cares about the  slaughter in Gaza and wants to let the world know that not all Americans approve of Washington spending our money and giving our votes to support Israel.

Urgent Time Change: Block The Boat For Gaza - Update For This Saturday's Event

Our Organizing Is Working! The Zim Ship Is Delaying It's Scheduled Unloading. The Ship Won't Be Unloaded in the Morning. So We Now Ask You to Come to West Oakland BART at 3pm Tomorrow (8/16), Not 5am as previously announced.

Bring more people! Come louder and stronger and let's stop Israel at the Port of Oakland! Zionism isn't welcome in our town!

 There's going to be a beautiful, massive and powerful Boat Blockade on Saturday, August 16 to block the Israeli Zim ship from unloading in Oakland! It's a huge coalition led by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (see bottom for endorsers). Meet at 3pm at the West Oakland BART  We are marching and carpooling to the Port of Oakland to show up for Palestine and stand down Israeli apartheid!

 ---  the International Action Center

Facebook event link:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1447374682195857

 

Here's some logistical information. Also, we need your support to make this happen, not only by showing up to make your voice heard but also by helping to ensure that all folks are able to get to the Port.

 

Updates

For updates on the day's events, please sign up for our text message system we are using: text the word "join" to (510) 346-5951 to receive updates.

Donations

Please consider making a donation to Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC), which will help cover the numerous costs of this event, all of which goes directly to AROC to continue building movements for justice in Palestine.

Transportation and Carpools

If you can provide transportation support, PLEASE FILL OUT THIS FORM to let us know, and we will follow up with you to confirm. If you'd like to email us instead of filling out the online form, that works too! 

• Do you have a bike cart for transporting stuff around the Port?
• Would you like to help as a bike messenger or runner during the event?
• Do you have a car, van or wheelchair-accessible vehicle you can use to drive people to the Port at 5am from West Oakland BART?
• Are you able to pick up people from other locations, i.e. homes, and drive them to West Oakland BART starting at 4:45am?

If you cannot arrange transportation to West Oakland BART, please let us know and we can help you find a ride. 

Looking for a bus from outside Oakland to get you there? Early morning AC Transit Night Owl Bus

Greeters

We are also looking for greeters who can help greet people at West Oakland BART between 5am-6am, as well as make sure that people find rides to the Port. We will be gathering at the Blue "Dancing Lights" on 7th St. and Center St. right outside of the main entrance to West Oakland BART at 5am.

Food and water

Please bring your own food and water to the event if you are able. If you can contribute larger portions of food or have large containers for water, please contact us.

Contact

Email Josh at jhcadji at gmail.com if you can offer a ride, have donations or have any questions.

 

 

 

Endorsed by:

AF3IRM

All African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP)

American Friends Service Committee

American Muslims for Palestine

ANSWER Coalition

Arab Youth Organizing (AYO)

AROC: Arab Resource & Organizing Center

ASATA: Alliance of South Asians Taking Action

BAYAN-USA

Bay Area CodePink

Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition

Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists Social Justice Committee

Black Organizing Leadership and Dignity (BOLD)

Catalyst Project

CodePink Washington

Communist Party of San Francisco

Critical Resistance – LA

Critical Resistance – Oakland

Descoloniza a Oakland/Decolonize Oakland

Free Palestine Movement

Freedom Archives

Friends of Deir Ibzi’a

Fuerza Mundial/Pueblos en Movimiento

General Union of Palestine Students – SFSU

Global Women’s Strike

Gray Panthers of San Francisco

Green Party of Alameda County

Haiti Action Committee

International Action Center

International Jewish Anti Zionist Network

International Socialist Organization

International Tribunal of Conscience for Camilo

ISM-Nor Cal

IWW Bay Area Branch

Jews for Palestinian Right of Return

Justice for Palestinians

La Voz de l@s trabajadores /Worker’s Voice

Labor for Palestine

Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace

Malcolm X Grassroots Movement

Marcha Patriotica (Colombia) – California chapter

Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA)

Movement Generation

National Lawyers Guild SFBA Chapter

Noam Chomsky

NorCal Friends of Sabeel

OccupySF Action Council

ONYX Organizing Committee

Palestinian Youth Movement

Queers Undermining Israeli Terror

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

San Francisco Green Party

Socialist Organizer

SOUL: School of Unity and Liberation

Stanford Students for Justice in Palestine

Students for Justice in Palestine – Cal

Totally Radical Muslims

Transport Workers Solidarity Committee

US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott

US Palestinian Community Network

World Can’t Wait Bay Area

Workers World Party

Xicana Moratorium

From Seattle to Oakland to Los Angeles – turn the Israeli ship around!

We encourage all of our allies on the West Coast to join us in ensuring that Zim ships are not welcome anywhere.

Long Beach:
https://www.facebook.com/ events/435461866594072/

Tacoma and Seattle:
https://www.facebook.com/ events/678819478876975/

New York:
https://www.facebook.com/ events/429725363832321/

 

 

Block the Boat--End Israeli Apartheid

PALESTINEBy Marvin X

(Imam Maalik El Muhajir)

I am not an Arab, I am not a Jew

Abraham is not my father

Palestine is not my home

But I would fight any man

Who kicked me out of my house

To dwell in a tent

I would fight

To the ends of the earth

Someone who said to me

I want your house

Because my father lived here

Two thousand years ago

I want your land

Because my father lived here

Two thousand years ago.

Jets would not stop me

From returning to my home

Uncle Toms would not stop me

Cluster bombs would not stop me

Bullets I would defy.

No man can take the house of another

And expect to live in peace

There is no peace for thieves

There is no peace for those who murder

For myths and ancient rituals

Wail at the wall

Settle in "Judea" and "Samaria"

But fate awaits you

You will never sleep with peace

You will never walk without listening.

I shall cross the River Jordan

With Justice in my hand

I shall return to Jerusalem

And establish my house of peace,

Thus said the Lord.

Palestine was first published in Black Scholar Magazine, circa 1972. Marvin X is one of the founders of the Black Arts Movement and considered the father of Muslim American literature, along with other BAM poets inspired by the teachings of Elijah Muhammad and Malcolm X, such as Askia Toure, Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez. Bob Holman calls Marvin X the USA's Rumi. Ishmael Reed says he is Plato teaching on the streets of Oakland. His Academy of da Corner is at 14th and Broadway, downtown Oakland.  FYI, his academy is located wherever he sets up shop from coast to coast.