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Ten years ago thousands of activists gathered in Berkeley, CA and founded a movement to end the prison industrial complex. On Sept. 26-28, thousands will converge at Laney College in Oakland for Critical Resistance (CR10) for workshops, performances, action, reflection and celebration. For more info, visit criticalresistance.org. •H•
–Marlene C. Hurd
Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label justice. Show all posts
Aug 21, 2008
Aug 12, 2008
Is Obama's victory ours?
By Mumia Abu Jamal
With the attainment of the required delegates to claim the Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. president, Sen. Barack H. Obama (D. ILL.) has written a new page in American history.
For by so doing he succeeds where Channing Phillips, Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, Sr., and Al Sharpton could not–by gaining the necessary delegates to demand nomination.
Of course, there have been numerous Black candidates for president, but these have been third party efforts designed more to raise issues, to organize or protest than to actually win elections. Some of the best known have been Eldridge Cleaver (former Black Panther Minister of Information), Dick Gregory, Dr. Lenora Fulani, and the former congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney.
But this is a different kettle of fish, for Obama’s candidacy is the closest to make it to the winner’s circle.
What also distinguishes Obama from his predecessors is he doesn’t come from civil rights, Black liberation, socialist or anti war movements. (He often remarks at speeches, “I’m not against all wars, I’m just against dumb wars”)
Indeed, although his detractors may try to paint him as a leftist liberal this is hardly true.
On issues both foreign and domestic he would’ve been more at home in the Republican Party of his senatorial forebear, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts.
For though he is Black by dint of his African father, he has studiously avoided Black political groups in his long, harrowing climb to the rim of the White House.
He has studiously avoided the very real and long standing grievances of Black America. In fact, he tried to run a ‘post-racial’ campaign until Sen. Hillary R. Clinton (D.N.Y.) (and her rambunctious husband, former Pres. Bill), brought race front and center during the Super Tuesday February primaries, by trying to pigeonhole him as ‘the Black candidate’.
This primary wounded Obama, and as he won in the delegate count, he also lost a number of primary states, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, which are necessary for a win in November.
Politics is the art of making people believe that they are in power when in fact, they have none.
It is a measure of how dire is the hour that they’ve passed the keys to the kingdom to a Black man.
As in many American cities, Black Mayors were let in when the treasuries were almost barren, and tax bases were almost at rock-bottom.
With the nation’s manufacturing base also a thing of history, amidst the socioeconomic wreckage of globalization, with foreign affairs in shambles, the rulers reach for a pretty, brown face to front for the Empire.
‘Real change that you could believe in’ would be an end to Empire, and an end to wars for corporate greed, not just a change of the shade of the political managers.
That change, I’m afraid, is still to come. •H•
Mumia Abu Jamal is an award-winning journalist, author, and political prisoner being held captive in Pennsylvania. His case has garnered international attention. He has been held captive since the 1982. For more information about Mumia Abu Jamal, visit prisonradio.org.
With the attainment of the required delegates to claim the Democratic Party’s nomination for U.S. president, Sen. Barack H. Obama (D. ILL.) has written a new page in American history.
For by so doing he succeeds where Channing Phillips, Shirley Chisholm, Jesse Jackson, Sr., and Al Sharpton could not–by gaining the necessary delegates to demand nomination.
Of course, there have been numerous Black candidates for president, but these have been third party efforts designed more to raise issues, to organize or protest than to actually win elections. Some of the best known have been Eldridge Cleaver (former Black Panther Minister of Information), Dick Gregory, Dr. Lenora Fulani, and the former congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney.
But this is a different kettle of fish, for Obama’s candidacy is the closest to make it to the winner’s circle.
What also distinguishes Obama from his predecessors is he doesn’t come from civil rights, Black liberation, socialist or anti war movements. (He often remarks at speeches, “I’m not against all wars, I’m just against dumb wars”)
Indeed, although his detractors may try to paint him as a leftist liberal this is hardly true.
On issues both foreign and domestic he would’ve been more at home in the Republican Party of his senatorial forebear, Edward Brooke of Massachusetts.
For though he is Black by dint of his African father, he has studiously avoided Black political groups in his long, harrowing climb to the rim of the White House.
He has studiously avoided the very real and long standing grievances of Black America. In fact, he tried to run a ‘post-racial’ campaign until Sen. Hillary R. Clinton (D.N.Y.) (and her rambunctious husband, former Pres. Bill), brought race front and center during the Super Tuesday February primaries, by trying to pigeonhole him as ‘the Black candidate’.
This primary wounded Obama, and as he won in the delegate count, he also lost a number of primary states, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, which are necessary for a win in November.
Politics is the art of making people believe that they are in power when in fact, they have none.
It is a measure of how dire is the hour that they’ve passed the keys to the kingdom to a Black man.
As in many American cities, Black Mayors were let in when the treasuries were almost barren, and tax bases were almost at rock-bottom.
With the nation’s manufacturing base also a thing of history, amidst the socioeconomic wreckage of globalization, with foreign affairs in shambles, the rulers reach for a pretty, brown face to front for the Empire.
‘Real change that you could believe in’ would be an end to Empire, and an end to wars for corporate greed, not just a change of the shade of the political managers.
That change, I’m afraid, is still to come. •H•
Mumia Abu Jamal is an award-winning journalist, author, and political prisoner being held captive in Pennsylvania. His case has garnered international attention. He has been held captive since the 1982. For more information about Mumia Abu Jamal, visit prisonradio.org.
Jun 15, 2008
Sean Bell's Second Slaying
By Mumia Abu Jamal
SPECIAL TO HARAMBEE
It was a classic ‘Only in America’ moment.
The bench trial of three killer cops in New York City, charged with firing some 50 shots into a car, killing one man, Sean Bell, and wounding two others (all unarmed).
The case rushed across America, spreading outrage in each city.
Initially, the cops moved to have the trial transferred to a site upstate, to the rural, northern tiers. This motion denied, they opted for a bench trial (or trial by a single judge), not trusting their fates to a so-called jury of”citizens” they are sworn to serve and protect.
Time, it seems, has proven that they made the right decision -- for, predictably, the judge acquitted them of all charges, arguing that the witnesses gave conflicting testimony.
By so doing, the court essentially ruled that Bell’s killing was justified; no crime was committed.
The defense utilized the “bad company” argument: that Bell was shot and killed because he was among “the wrong crowd.”
That such an argument swayed Supreme Court justice Arthur Cooperman (in New York state, unlike most other states, the trial court is termed the Supreme Court, and the state’s highest court is their Court of Appeals.) is a measure of how devalued Black life is, and how easy Black men are to demonize and disparage.
If none of the cops knew the men, what does it matter what their backgrounds were? They could’ve been lawyers, basketball stars, or -- cops.
That they were Black men -- even unarmed Black men -- was deemed sufficient to unload on them, because in America, their color was crime enough.
So, 22 year old Sean Bell joins Amadou Diallo, and others guilty of the capital offense of WWB- Walking While Black.
And while millions of Black and white Americans thrill at political illusions of “post-racialism”, Sean Bell’s case proves how deeply deadly race can still be.
Even rumors of a weapon were enough to unleash 50 shots -- or should we say “alleged rumors”, for there were no guns found in Bell’s car. In the past, wallets, candy bars, keys, and packs of cigarettes were deemed sufficient to provoke such malicious responses.
Now, nothing is required.
Sean Bell was shot to death, and his friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benerfield were seriously wounded.
Shot and killed for being ‘the wrong crowd.’
SPECIAL TO HARAMBEE
It was a classic ‘Only in America’ moment.
The bench trial of three killer cops in New York City, charged with firing some 50 shots into a car, killing one man, Sean Bell, and wounding two others (all unarmed).
The case rushed across America, spreading outrage in each city.
Initially, the cops moved to have the trial transferred to a site upstate, to the rural, northern tiers. This motion denied, they opted for a bench trial (or trial by a single judge), not trusting their fates to a so-called jury of”citizens” they are sworn to serve and protect.
Time, it seems, has proven that they made the right decision -- for, predictably, the judge acquitted them of all charges, arguing that the witnesses gave conflicting testimony.
By so doing, the court essentially ruled that Bell’s killing was justified; no crime was committed.
The defense utilized the “bad company” argument: that Bell was shot and killed because he was among “the wrong crowd.”
That such an argument swayed Supreme Court justice Arthur Cooperman (in New York state, unlike most other states, the trial court is termed the Supreme Court, and the state’s highest court is their Court of Appeals.) is a measure of how devalued Black life is, and how easy Black men are to demonize and disparage.
If none of the cops knew the men, what does it matter what their backgrounds were? They could’ve been lawyers, basketball stars, or -- cops.
That they were Black men -- even unarmed Black men -- was deemed sufficient to unload on them, because in America, their color was crime enough.
So, 22 year old Sean Bell joins Amadou Diallo, and others guilty of the capital offense of WWB- Walking While Black.
And while millions of Black and white Americans thrill at political illusions of “post-racialism”, Sean Bell’s case proves how deeply deadly race can still be.
Even rumors of a weapon were enough to unleash 50 shots -- or should we say “alleged rumors”, for there were no guns found in Bell’s car. In the past, wallets, candy bars, keys, and packs of cigarettes were deemed sufficient to provoke such malicious responses.
Now, nothing is required.
Sean Bell was shot to death, and his friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benerfield were seriously wounded.
Shot and killed for being ‘the wrong crowd.’
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