http://peoplespowerassemblies.org/charlotte-uprising-solidarity-statements/

http://www.seiu.org/2016/10/seiu-statement-on-standing-rock-sioux-and-dakota-access-pipeline

Issued October 01, 2016

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, the Service Employees International Union issued the following statement in support of the Standing Rock Sioux’s efforts to prevent the Dakota Access Pipeline from disturbing their sacred lands and burial grounds and to avoid the threat of contaminating the Missouri River which provides the Tribes’ drinking water.

“The two million members of SEIU stand beside the Standing River Sioux Tribe in their fight to protect their sacred lands and burial grounds from being dug up if the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline is allowed to continue as planned.

“This instance of disregard for the Standing Rock Sioux and the potential impact to their lives and livelihoods from a potentially hazardous crude oil pipeline is unfortunately not an isolated incidence. Over the last three years there have been over 200 known pipeline leaks in the United States. We call on the government to consult with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe immediately and find a solution that will not pose risk to the Tribe, their water sources or their sacred grounds.

“The history, culture and lives of Tribal people, the first Americans, should be respected and protected. SEIU stands with them in assuring that what remains of their precious and sacred lands and resources are not be taken away from them once again.

“Historical disregard for low income communities and communities of color, including those where many SEIU members live and work, has subjected them to toxic air pollution and contaminated waterways for decades. In these communities, asthma and other respiratory ailments caused by toxic air and poisonous toxins such as lead in the water supply, affect our children’s health and ability to thrive. As the nation’s largest healthcare union, we stand with the growing movement of environmental organizations, businesses, students, parents and others demanding cleaner air and water and to address the growing threat of climate change for the health and safety of our families and communities.

“As a union of service employees deeply committed to making sure all work is valued and respected, we know that workers employed by the fossil fuel industry are caught in the middle. SEIU members recognize the importance of these jobs for these workers and their families and we demand that our government protect all workers whose lives and livelihoods are impacted by a shift away from fossil fuels. Our government must make the needed investments into building a new clean economy, including a just transition of workers from the fossil fuel workforce, by investing in clean energy and rebuilding and repairing much of our nations aging infrastructure, including existing pipelines which are in great need of repair.  We will fight for an economy and democracy in which working families can live and work in a clean environment with good jobs for all.”

https://www.newsghana.com.gh/peoples-media-looking-backward-to-move-forward/

Assessing the Pan-African News Wire, http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/, and other electronic media outlets within a historical and contemporary context

Note: This paper was prepared and delivered in part to a panel at the Union for Democratic Communications (UDC) national conference which was held at Wayne State University in Detroit during the weekend of September 30-October 1, 2016. Other panelists in this roundtable were Zenobia Jeffries of Yes! Magazine; Prof. Charles Simmons, retired from Eastern Michigan University and a former senior correspondent for the Muhammad Speaks newspaper in the 1960s and 1970s; Peter Werbe of the Fifth Estate and radio broadcaster in the city for years; and Reginald Carter, former managing editor of the South End and editor staff member of the Inner City Voice.

“…This is why the discipline of organization remains a necessity. In our view the intellectual and ideological methodology of Marxism cannot be severed from the Leninist view of revolutionary organization deriving from a clear understanding as it relates to the role of the capitalist state.

Management theorist Peter Drucker in his book of two decades ago, the Post-Capitalist Society, falsely claims that class divisions are on the wane due to the appearance of an “information age.” However, this “information age” since the 1990s has witnessed the elimination of millions of jobs, houses and housing complexes, an expanding militarization both internationally and domestically, a displacement of people not witnessed since the conclusion of World War II, the deepening of class differences within capitalist societies even in North America and the further impoverishment of the nationally oppressed, women and the working class as a whole.

Therefore, the acquisition of information and knowledge does not preclude the necessity of revolutionary social change. This task requires the direct intervention of people operating in an organized fashion with the capacity of disrupting the normal functioning of the exploitative system and the harnessing of this state and its transformation in the interests of the majority of people within society.”

By Abayomi Azikiwe
Editor, Pan-African News Wire, http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/

From Tom Kutsch, September 9, 2016:

“… Inmates from several states, who had bound together with the help of activists and organizing groups, aimed the national strikes – which had been in the making for several months – against what they said amounted to slave labor conditions amid mass incarceration in the country.

The coordinated events, which organizers targeted in as many as 24 states, occurred on the 45th anniversary of the riots at Attica prison in New York – the largest prison uprising in American history – over grievances today’s protesters say are similar, including poor sanitary conditions and prison jobs that amount to forced labor.“

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/sep/09/us-nationwide-prison-strike-alabama-south-carolina-texas

From Danny F. Quest, September 19, 2016:

“… Thousands of prisoners in over 24 states began a labor strike on September 9, the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, to demand better conditions and healthcare, the right to unionize and what one organizing group calls an “end to slavery in America.” But one would hardly know it watching major U.S. media, which has mostly ignored the largest prison labor strike in history. One week on, the New York Times, Washington Post, NBC News, ABC News, MSNBC, Fox News, CNN, and NPR have not covered the prison strikes at all.”

http://wearechange.org/largest-prison-strike-ignored/

From Aljazeera: The Stream – September 26, 2016:

“For months inmates have been using smuggled cellphones and social media to mobilise strikes that began on September 9 in prisons across the United States.  

Prisoners refused to report to their jobs, demanding better wages and safer working conditions. Some inmates make as little as 12 cents an hour in prison work programmes, while some states reportedly don’t require wages be paid at all. Strikers and activists call this “modern-day slavery”. But correction officials have a different perspective. They say it’s rehabilitation, preparing those incarcerated with skills they’ll need once they are released.

This month’s strike came on the anniversary of the 1971 Attica prison uprising, when thousands of prisoners at a New York correctional facility took over part of the prison to demand better treatment. So, 45 years on, what’s changed?”

http://stream.aljazeera.com/story/201609262257-0025288

PHONE ZAP: No Retaliation against Kinross (Michigan) Prisoners!

On September 10, over 400 prisoners protested peacefully at Kinross Correctional Facility in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, following the September 9 nationwide prison workers’ strike. While details are still emerging, we know that prisoners met with the wardens to peacefully communicate their demands. These demands included better wages, better quality and quantity of food, and no retaliation for the peaceful protest. Yet about 150 prisoners were accused of being instigators and were transferred to other facilities. In at least some cases, they were accused of “incite to riot” and placed in higher-security levels and disciplinary isolation.

***Call to Action!***

Please call Michigan Department of Corrections director Heidi Washington as well as some of the facilities where prisoners formerly at Kinross may be facing punishment (see numbers and script below). Call every day this week: Monday, October 3, through Friday, October 7.

After calling, please comment on this Facebook page to let us know what happened.

Peoples Power Assemblies: http://peoplespowerassemblies.org/

International Action Center: http://iacenter.org/2916/tues-oct-4-charlotte-uprising-national-day-of-action-solidarity-urgently-needed/

The next United National Antiwar Conference (UNAC) conference will be held in Richmond, VA on the weekend of April 21 – 23. Please join us. More information will be announced soon. https://www.unacpeace.org/

S O L I D A R I T Y   C E N T E R,