https://bit.ly/2QQl1vn

This same analytical review by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, examining some aspects of events taking place in several African Union member-states during 2018, was also reprinted by allafrica.com. Azikiwe looks back at the impact of imperialist militarism and the legacy of colonialism and neo-colonialism and its impact on efforts aimed at genuine and sustainable economic reconstruction. According to its website: “AllAfrica is a voice of, by and about Africa – aggregating, producing and distributing 600 news and information items daily from over 140 African news organizations and our own reporters to an African and global public. We operate from Cape Town, Dakar, Abuja, Monrovia, Nairobi and Washington DC.”

https://bit.ly/2Fw0fQq

https://www.presstv.com/

Marzieh Hashemi, a journalist and anchor working for Iran’s English-language Press TV television news network, has been detained and imprisoned in the United States for unspecified reasons.

American-born Hashemi, most famous for anchoring news programs and presenting shows for Press TV, was detained upon arrival at St. Louis Lambert International Airport in St. Louis, Missouri, on Sunday, her family and friends said.

Press TV has learned that she was transferred by the FBI to a detention facility in Washington, DC. The US officials have so far refused to provide any reasons for her apprehension either to her or her family.

The Associated Press (AP) said a call to the FBI rang unanswered early on Wednesday morning. The bureau did not immediately respond to a written request for comment, it added.

Hashemi, born Melanie Franklin, had arrived in the US to visit her ill brother and other family members.

Her relatives were unable to contact her, and she was allowed to contact her daughter only two days after her arrest.

Mistreatment in US jail

Hashemi, who has been living in Iran for years and is a Muslim convert, has told her daughter that she was handcuffed and shackled and was being treated like a criminal.

The journalist also said that she had her hijab forcibly removed, and was photographed without her headscarf upon arrival at the prison.

Hashemi has only been allowed to wear a T-shirt, and is currently using another one to cover her head.

Furthermore, she has been offered only pork as meal – which is forbidden under Islamic law – and even denied bread and any other halal food after refusing to consume the meat.

Hashemi told her daughter that the only food she has had over the past two days has been a packet of crackers.

Hashemi’s family members and media activists have launched a social media campaign with the hashtags #FreeMarziehHashemi and #Pray4MarziehHashemi in support of the detained journalist.

Activists unite in support of Marzieh

Meanwhile, activists have launched a campaign to urge the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to request their immediate intervention in the detained journalist’s case.

The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) said it had already has written to the UN Rapporteur on Arbitrary Detention with regard to Ms. Hashemi’s imprisonment.

https://www.presstv.com/

UTLA

Across Los Angeles students are joining picket lines with their teachers. Here at Hamilton high school you can see the picketline full of students who are supporting this strike for the schools LA students deserve.#UTLAStrong #LAUSDStrong

#WeAreLA #redFored #StopStarvingOurPublicSchool #allin4respect #StopTheBillionairePrivatizers #kidsfirst #wearepublicschools #ArmMeWith #schoolslastudentsdeserve #LAUSD #HandsOffOurSchools #TeacherStrike
#StudentsDeserve #StudentsnotSuspects #union #Teacher

Look who joined us this morning on the picketline, Steven Van Zandt. Fighting for the heart of public education, fighting for our students, fighting for the schools our students deserve. #LAUSDStrike #UTLAStrong

Day 2 of Strike, January 15, 2019, Tens of Thousands of Educators, Students and Supporters Take To The Streets Of Los Angeles During UTLA Strike

MTEA Call to Action: SPB Committee Meeting

5225 W Vliet, Milwaukee, 6:30 – 9:30 P.M.

This Thursday, January 17, let’s pack the MPS Central Office auditorium as the School Board’s Strategic Planning & Budget (SPB) Committee takes up budget parameters, including raises and benefit changes.

WEAR GREEN and come show your support for a fair budget that respects students and educators.

https://bit.ly/2FxiRzM

https://fighting-words.net/

Over 200 protestors from multiple labor and community organizations gathered outside the Wisconsin state capitol in Madison on January 12 to confront about 30 members of the fascist militia grouping The Three Percent United Patriots and the right-wing propaganda entity The Free Men Report. Members from multiple socialist tendencies, including the Communist Workers League, confronted the racist scum.

Earlier this month, the International Socialist Organization – Madison called the counterprotest in response to the fascists’ plans for their recruitment and consolidation rally and in swift order organizations such as the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), the Chicago Solidarity Center, In Defense Of Our Lives, the Latin American Solidarity Committee-Milwaukee, the Detroit-based Moratorium Now Coalition and MECAWI, Thee Fond du Lac Underclass and the Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement endorsed the counterprotest.

With only days to organize the counterprotest, members of the peoples’ organizations met for two well-attended organizing meetings, distributed and posted thousands of leaflets, created and shared social media posts and engaged in other outreach that made clear the workers and oppressed of Wisconsin need jobs, education and other needs fulfilled, not racist hate.

The evening before the counterprotest, dozens of peoples’ organizers met at the Labor Temple in Madison for work and orientation sessions. The Labor Temple houses numerous union and community organizations, contains fabulous murals of workers struggles and is generally imbued with the class struggle history of working and oppressed peoples….

Jobs and education, not racist hate!

https://fighting-words.net/

Socialist Feminist Contingent: Meeting for Posters and Security

953 Jenifer Street, Wil-Mar Neighborhood Center, 7 – 9 P.M.

In late 2018, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers went on strike, fighting for a new contract that would reduce workplace injuries, end forced overtime, and gain pay equity for women workers. On November 27th, the Canadian government forced postal workers back to work, defying Canada’s Charter of Human Rights. As the Canadian postal workers and their domestic and other international allies fight back, members of the American Postal Workers Union and the National Association of Letter Carriers are rallying today at 12:30 p.m.