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Monthly Archives: January 2017
Big Pharma prices soar
Article: http://bit.ly/2jzgga5
“…As of this writing, one of two people being vetted as the next Food and Drug Administration commissioner is Jim O’Neill, a managing director at Mithril Capital Management, run by one of Donald Trump’s billionaire donors and advisors. O’Neill has suggested that the FDA let drug companies put products on the market before proving they work. They just have to be “safe” before being sold. O’Neill’s take on new drugs: “Let’s prove efficacy after they’ve been legalized.”
This is after passage of the 21st Century Cures Act under the Obama administration, which has already undermined patient safety by requiring less restrictive testing before drugs are marketed.
Whether Trump appoints O’Neill or another billionaire, it’s clear that the end game won’t be to improve conditions for working and poor people. Untested and potentially unsafe new drugs are not the solution to the health crisis caused by exorbitant prices. The prescription called for is to eliminate the capitalist profit drive behind this crucial industry.” http://bit.ly/2jzgga5
Reproductive justice takes on the Trump-Pence agenda
Article: http://bit.ly/2jofD5J
“Organizing for the Women’s March on Washington on Jan. 21 has been deep and massive. As of this writing, over 150 “partners” are listed on womensmarch.com. Local marches are planned in multiple cities in 48 states and 26 countries. There is at least one march on every continent, with many in Europe and some in Central and South America.
After the defeat of a woman running for U.S. president by a man who boasted of his coarse sexism and blatant misogyny, many women felt compelled to assert their rights. While the J21 march theme is very general — affirming women’s human rights — the diversity of issues represented by march partners reflects the broad scope of religious, educational, health, social justice, legal and economic action groups in this country…
What’s most important is that the march is calling into the streets thousands of women of all nationalities, ages, range of physical abilities, gender expressions and identities. Many will be marching for the first time. Millions of women in the U.S. and worldwide will be inspired by this solidarity and determination. Millions will be energized to continue fighting for women’s social and economic rights — for full women’s liberation.”
Update On J20
Why Women are Mobilizing for J21 March vs Trumpism
ACTION ALERT; CALL, TEXT, EMAIL WHITE HOUSE TO ASK PRESIDENT OBAMA TO ISSUE CLEMENCY FOR CHELSEA MANNING, LEONARD PELTIER, OSCAR LOPEZ RIVERA
In four days, 18 hours (at time of this writing), President Obama will leave office.
Supporters of federal political prisoners Chelsea Manning, Leonard Peltier and Oscar Lopez Rivera are asking that individuals and organizations CALL, TEXT and EMAIL the White House asking Obama to issue clemency for them. (Petitions were
completed and sent to the White House already.)
Please call, text and email the White House asking that President Obama issue clemency for them — in separate calls, texts and emails for each person.
Call the White House at 202-456-1111 between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Texts can be sent there, too.
Fill out a form at this website to send an urgent email to President Obama:
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Our brother, Mumia Abu-Jamal, is not a federal prisoner, and is held in
a Pennsylvania state prison. However, action is needed on his behalf. The
PA Department of Corrections is appealing Judge Mariana’s ruling that the
state should give him the curative hepatitis C drugs. So, please contact
Secretary John Wetzel, head of the PA DOC, at 717-728-2573; 717-728-4109; ra-crpa-docsecretary@pa.gov or @johnewetzel and ask that Mumia and all prisoners with hep C be given this life-saving medication.
Minneapolis, January 20: Historic Strike against Trump & Poverty Wages
On January 20, Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day, janitors who clean Home Depot stores in the Twin Cities will go on strike against their cleaning contractor to protest their poverty wages and Donald Trump’s anti-worker agenda – the first strike against Donald Trump in the country since his election.
The two founders of Home Depot have donated millions of dollars to Trump and one of Home Depot’s major investors supports Trump. Home Depot uses the Trump model of business for its janitorial services: using subcontractors that hire immigrant workers and sometimes face lawsuits for wage theft.
Janitors who clean Home Depot are paid poverty wages by their subcontractor and have been organizing for years to win fair wages and the right to form a union without retaliation. If Trump has his way, these worker’s wages will go even lower – as Trump told the country in November 2016, “wages are too high.”
You can stand with striking janitors at 5:30am at The Quarry, 1520 New Brighton Blvd, Minneapolis, MN 55413.
Protests Across Wisconsin to Demand Healthcare
J20 Resist! Port Huron, MI
1-4 P.M., Erie Street and McMorran Blvd., Port Huron, MI
On January 20th, hundreds of thousands of people will be storming the streets across the US against Trump’s accelerated assault on migrants, LGBTQ people, women, unions, people of color, and the entire working class.
Now more than ever, we need massive resistance in the streets to shut down Trump’s agenda of racism, sexism, migrant-bashing, cutbacks and war. With capitalism in decline, this agenda can be a recipe for fascism.
While both the Democrats and the Republicans are telling us now to accept the results of the election and look to “work with” President Trump, we completely refuse to accept this racist billionaire as the leader of this country. Trump has no solutions for the real issues faced by billions of workers across the world.
Capitalism, imperialism and the racist cops occupying our communities are the real problem. We, the millions of people ready to take direct action against the attacks of a Trump administration, are the solution.
Only mass action can push back this racist, sexist agenda. We are entering a new era of historic resistance, led by the struggles of Black Lives Matter and the water protectors at Standing Rock. We stand ready to put our bodies in front of deportation busses, bulldozers, tanks and other war machines. The working class and oppressed must join together in this historic moment with the full understanding that real power is in the streets, not in the White House and not the Pentagon.
Let’s show on January 20th that another world is possible. There is an alternative to racist terror, sexist oppression, homophobia, transphobia, migrant-bashing and bigotry. There is an alternative to capitalism and fascism.
Thousands protest in Baltimore November 10, 2016.
Former FBI agent asks Obama to free Native American activist Leonard Peltier
MEDIA ADVISORY
January 09, 2017
Contact: Peter Clark, Co-Director, International Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, (505) 217-3612 or contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
Former FBI agent asks Obama to free Native American activist Leonard Peltier
In a letter dated January 3, former agent and charter member of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association (FBIAA) John C. “Jack” Ryan wrote to President Obama to request a grant of clemency to Native American activist Leonard Peltier. Leonard Peltier should receive clemency, Ryan said, “…in the interest of the system of justice for which my two fellow agents died, and in the interest of reconciliation and compassion.”
In 1977, Peltier was sentenced to two consecutive life terms for the shooting deaths of FBI agents Jack Coler and Ron Williams on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota.
“… the circumstances surrounding the case in combination with the passage of 4 decades of time served support [Peltier’s] request to live his final years at home… When Agents Coler and Williams lost their lives it was a devastating loss to us agents. Emotion ruled the decision-making process and likely clouded the judgment of the massive team of whom were driven to hold someone responsible for our loss,” Ryan wrote. “If the government could do it all over again, it would respond differently. Through today’s lens, Leonard Peltier was not treated fairly and did not get a fair trial.”
In 2000, Congressman Don Edwards (also a former agent) stated: “The FBI continues to deny its improper conduct on Pine Ridge during the 1970s and in the trial of Leonard Peltier. The FBI used Mr. Peltier as a scapegoat and they continue to do so today. At every step of the way, FBI agents and leadership have opposed any admission of wrongdoing by the government, and they have sought to misrepresent and politicize the meaning of clemency for Leonard Peltier. The killing of FBI agents at Pine Ridge was reprehensible, but the government now admits that it cannot prove that Mr. Peltier killed the agents.”
Edwards’ words ring true today. Last week, the FBIAA succeeded in pressuring American University to remove a statue of Peltier that was exhibited there, and when former U.S. Attorney James Reynolds’ letter to the President to request that he grant clemency to Peltier was publicized, some sought to discredit Reynolds stating that he falsely claimed involvement with the Peltier case.
“The FBI’s perpetual demonization of Leonard Peltier is an effort to poison public opinion and avoid self-reflection. Mr. Peltier’s clemency petition is not a referendum on federal law enforcement; it presents a moral imperative which President Obama can address,” said Peltier attorney Cynthia Dunne, herself a former federal prosecutor. “By reckoning with the past and moving forward in the best interests of justice, reconciliation and compassion, we can become a stronger nation. It is time to free Leonard Peltier.”
Currently imprisoned in a maximum-security facility in Coleman, Florida, Peltier is far away from his reservation in North Dakota. Maintaining strong family ties has been difficult. He has never even met some of his grandchildren or great-grandchildren. In December, Peltier’s younger son passed away while in Washington, DC, advocating for his father’s release. Prison authorities refused to allow Peltier to attend his son’s funeral.
At 72 years, Peltier suffers from serious medical problems that impair his ability to walk, see, and conduct normal life activities. He suffers from severe diabetes, hypertension and a heart condition, and has been diagnosed with an abdominal aortic aneurysm. Recently, he was told he needs prostate surgery.
Imprisoned for 41 years, Peltier has long been eligible for release, but federal authorities have yielded to the objections of the FBI in denying Peltier’s applications for parole—most recently in 2009 when he was told he will not receive another full parole hearing until 2024 when, if he survives, he will have reached nearly the age of 80 years. Peltier says he’s eligible for mandatory release, but the government has failed to apply its 30 -year rule (after 30 years served, all sentences are to be aggregated and the prisoner released) or consider the good-time credit he has earned (20 years, to date).
Peltier’s release from prison now depends on a grant of clemency by President Obama who leaves office on January 20.
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Download Attachments: goo.gl/i5i8ks
January 3, 2017 Letter of former FBI agent John C. Ryan
December 14, 2000 Statement by former U.S. Congressman Don Edwards
December 21, 2016 Letter of former U.S. Attorney James Reynoldshere
