http://hondurasresists.blogspot.com/

6 Months since the Assassination: COPINH puts out Call to Action

Call to Action

The Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH) calls on its communities and social movements, organizations and civil society to join us in the “Justice for Berta NOW” Days of Artistic, Cultural and Spiritual Mobilization that will take place September 1st-3rd in La Esperanza, Intibucá, Honduras.

The objective of this action is to share through mobilization, art and spirituality our cry for justice for the assassination of our compañera and sister Berta Cáceres Flores and to continue camping together in actions to denounce the participation of Honduran institutions, private enterprise and international banks in this crime.

During this action we will continue to demand that the state accept an Independent Investigatory Commission and the immediate and definitive cancellation of the deadly DESA-Agua Zarca project.

We also call on the international community to join in this action with public actions that show support for these demands.

Below is a table of activities:

In support of existing efforts happening across Milwaukee this Saturday and through the rest of summer, the 300 Strong Movement is RESCHEDULING it’s 2nd Annual 300+ Strong Community Rally on Saturday afternoon.

Recent events have moved us to work more closely with already existing efforts underway to demonstrate functional unity among those who live and work in Milwaukee’s hardest hit neighborhoods. In-lieu of the 30O Strong Rally this Saturday, we invite you to join us in supporting the following organized events:

We are a resilient and vibrant community full of resources and ideas. We will use this rest of the summer to COMPLETE and not COMPETE with those who like us and others have been working to do all they can to reclaim, revive, and restore a sense of hope, safety, and community across Milwaukee. We invite you to connect with the following efforts and join ranks with us.

Upcoming events:

JUSTICE OR ELSE L.O.C. BLOCK PARTY & MINISTRY FAIR- Saturday Sep 3rd @Richards & Hadley

PEACE IN THE STREETS FEST – Saturday Sep 3rd @4700 N 39th https://www.facebook.com/events/1815933861984441/

CLUBKIDS414 LABOR DAY FAMILY FEST – Monday Sep 5th @23rd & North Avenue https://www.facebook.com/events/507656269425526/

MEN WHO COOK – Saturday Sep 10th @Parklawn YMCA http://www.menwhocookwi.com/

300 STRONG COMMUNITY RALLY Saturday Sep 10th @Sherman Park https://www.facebook.com/events/1638936159754783/

SANKOFA MKE FESTIVAL @Washington Park https://www.facebook.com/events/321730878216682/

The 300+ Strong Movement aims to bring us ALL TOGETHER on Saturday, September 10th at Sherman Park, connecting with and lifting up those those who have been and will continue to be on the ground in that area. We will come together to Reunite Our Community.

We are ONE community working toward the same goal. Help us connect the dots.

300+ STRONG COMMUNITY RALLY RESCHEDULE DATE: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH, 2016

LOCATION: SHERMAN PARK, 12-3PM

“When Black Men and Women lock arms as Brothers and Sisters, there’s nothing we can’t accomplish” #300Strong

https://freealabamamovement.wordpress.com/2015/02/26/let-the-crops-rot-in-the-fields/

LET THE CROPS ROT IN THE FIELDS:
A Call For New Strategy in The National Movement Against Mass Incarceration and Prison Slavery – Short Version
By FREE ALABAMA MOVEMENT

“…In 2014, Alabama has a 400 million dollar budget to run its prisons, which is paid by the sale of the products and services that are manufactured by the slave labor from the people incarcerated.

All told, Alabama is making anywhere from 2 to 3 billion dollars each year from our labor, fines, fees, canteen, phone calls, etc. while over $500,000,000,000 dollars is made nationwide off of prison slave labor.

If we are to end Mass Incarceration and Prison Slavery, which only those caught up in the slave system can do, then we must Unify nationwide from inside of these prisons and we must stop our labor and LET THE CROPS ROT IN THE FIELD.”

https://freealabamamovement.wordpress.com/2015/02/26/let-the-crops-rot-in-the-fields/

OPEN LETTER BY RUPA MARYA, MD OF THE DO NO HARM COALITION

Dear Colin Kaepernick,

I am writing to you to express deep respect, as a person born and raised in the Bay Area and a physician on faculty at UCSF who has been caring for the people of SF since 2002. I am also writing on behalf of the Do No Harm Coalition, a group of over 300 doctors, nurses, students and staff at UCSF who are organizing to address racism and police violence as the critical public health emergencies they are.

In medicine, we know that sometimes to help ease something that is suffering, a degree of discomfort is required to shift the status quo. When there is an abscess that must be drained or a cancer that must be removed, a sore throat that must be swabbed or a lesion that must be excised, there is often discomfort that must be endured in order to achieve the desired outcome—healing, wellness, a restoration of the body’s balance.

You have created great discomfort by your action, which I believe history will ultimately see as an action to alleviate the suffering you are witnessing in the social body. We do not need any more reports, inquiries or investigations to recognize there is a horrific epidemic of police violence towards people of color throughout the USA. Your silent protest, by refusing to stand up and respect a flag that does not symbolize respect for you and other people of color, was a brave and remarkable action. Your action will empower other young people to find their own voices. Your action is one of many drops of rain that foreshadow an upcoming deluge that will forever change the historic face of the deeply racist structures in our society.

The pressure to toe the line and not say or do anything that creates the slight discomfort that occurs when we to draw into sharp focus deep suffering we see around us is intense. I felt this back in May, when I stuck my own neck out to ensure the people who went on hunger strike in SF to protest police killings—the Frisco5—were safe and cared for during their peaceful manifestation of outrage and grief. We are not trained to speak out against the status quo, especially when it is so deeply entrenched in our society, as racism and state-sanctioned violence against people of color are. These are, in truth, part of the very foundation of this society—through the attempted erasure of indigenous peoples and cultures and through slavery, and until we reckon with these facts open-eyed, we will continue to live in blindness, lashing out against one another instead of at the very structures that degrade us as a society.

Calling out the clearly demonstrable facts around disproportionate police violence towards brown and black lives makes people uncomfortable. But not as uncomfortable as the 59 bullets shot at Alex Nieto while he was holding a burrito in the very neighborhood where he was born and raised, wearing a 49ers jacket. That’s the kind of discomfort we need to stop immediately. And everyone needs to find the courage to get involved. Every single person in every layer of society. And when each person finds their voice and engages with the discomfort, grasping it with their own lived experience, they become a healer of the ailing social body. You are doing your part. And for this, we thank you and express our deepest respect.

We welcome an opportunity to meet with you at UCSF in our coalition. We would like to welcome you into our ranks as a healer with a mission to end police violence and racism.

With Respect,
Rupa Marya, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine—UCSF
Do No Harm Coalition

Margaret Stafford, MD
Josh Connor, MD
J. Nwando Olayiwola, MD, MPH, FAAFP
Lily Barnard, MD candidate
Micha Y. Zheng, MPH and MD candidate
Roberto Vargas
Ezekiel Adigun
Elaine Hsiang, MD candidate
Asha Choudhury, MPH; MD candidate
Camille Rogine, MD candidate
Emilia De Marchis MD
Olivia Park, MD candidate
Nathan Kim, MD candidate
Daniel Bernard, MD candidate
Chris Ahlbach, MD candidate
Emily Larimer, MD candidate
Joseph R. Domingo, MPH, CHES
Sonja Swenson, MD candidate
Marion Pellegrini, RN and NP candidate
Michael Deng, MD Candidate
Jayme Mejia, FNP-C, MS
Simon Ma, MD Candidate
Nicole Person-Rennell MD, MPhilPH
Daniela Kantorova, PsyD, The Wright Institute
Sagar Desai, MD Candidate
Madhavi Dandu, MD
Seth Holmes, MD, PhD
Sharad Jain, MD
Sriram Shamasunder, MD
Kenji Taylor, MD MSc
Elise Cabral, MD Candidate
Deanna Dawson, MD Candidate
Anna Loeb, MD MPH
Sarah Fine
Fabian Fernandez, MPH and MD/PhD Candidate
Rebecca Nessel, MD
Anne Donjacour, PhD

Dear friend:

Many of us will come together this weekend to celebrate Labor Day. Gathering with family and friends, we’ll fire up the grill and lay out spreads of fruits and vegetables.

Yet, ironically, the workers who harvest the food we will eat lack basic labor rights in New York state.

Our 60,000 farmworkers drive a $6.36 billion industry, but because of a holdover Jim Crowe-era law, they cannot organize for better conditions.

So factory farm bosses intimidate them into working under shocking and inhumane conditions. Their risk of dying on the job is 20 times higher than the average worker and women farmworkers face one of the highest rates of sexual abuse across industries.

“They treat us like slaves and worse than the cows.” – Crispin Hernandez

“You are housed in deplorable conditions, sometimes with no heating in upstate New York winters.” – Antonio Salinas Guzman

“I have … suffered discrimination, racism and verbal abuse from my bosses.” – Jose Garcia

Despite the intimidation, some farmworkers have risked everything to take a stand. Tell the farmworkers you’re with them and thank them for speaking out.

Thanks to the Workers’ Center of Central New York and the Worker Justice Center of New York, the NYCLU is now suing the state for failing to protect farmworkers’ right to organize. This Labor Day, Crispin, Antonio, Jose, Dolores and the rest of the workers who have stood up to make our state a more just place deserve to know they are not alone and New Yorkers are grateful for their sacrifices.

Please add your name to the letter of solidarity we look forward to giving them.

Thank you for all you do,

Donna Lieberman
Executive Director
New York Civil Liberties Union

http://iscenter.or.kr/english/2016/08/31/letters-home-connecting-with-korean-american-families-on-black-lives-matter/

“Mom, Dad, Uncle, Auntie, Grandfather, Grandmother: We need to talk.”

So begins an open letter that was drafted by hundreds of Asian Americans and addressed to their families to explain the importance of the Black Lives Matter movement. It was a crowd-sourced effort that took place in July completely online through a Google document, and the letter has so far been translated to over 20 languages including Korean.

“I support the Black Lives Matter movement,” the letter reads. “Part of that support means speaking up when I see people in my community — or even my own family — say or do things that diminish the humanity of Black Americans in this country.

“I am telling you this out of love,” the letter continues, “because I don’t want this issue to divide us. I’m asking that you try to empathize with the anger and grief of the fathers, mothers, and children who have lost their loved ones to police violence…”

https://venezuelanalysis.com/

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/

http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/mumia/theater-absurd-204-mumia-abu-jamal