Calendar
Join Haiti Action Committee to commemorate the 25th anniversary of a coup that continues to inform the present struggle of the Haitian people for democracy and justice.
SEPTEMBER 30th – 4:30 PM DEMONSTRATION meets at 14th & Broadway in Oakland
OCTOBER 2nd – 3PM EVENT at Eastside Arts, 2277 International Blvd, Oakland
Why is it important to remember September 30, 1991?
It is a battle of memory against forgetfulness, because we think that we cannot build the democracy we want for this country if we continue to erase what happened. It is impossible. – Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine
September 30, 2016 marks the 25th anniversary of the coup that overthrew Haiti’s first democratically-elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was the candidate of Haiti’s popular movement Lavalas in the 1990 presidential election; he won with 67% of the vote.
Aristide’s Feb. 7, 1991 inauguration marked a huge victory for Haiti’s poor majority after decades living under the Duvalier family dictatorship and military rule. The inauguration signaled the participation of the poor in a new social order. This radical change was represented by Aristide’s first act as President when he invited several hundred street children and homeless to join him for the inaugural breakfast at the National Palace.
A brave young democracy set out to reverse centuries of exclusion of Haiti’s poor majority in the country’s political, economic and social life against the backdrop of right wing death squads and a corrupt Haitian military tied to former dictators and Haiti’s wealthy elite. Just four days before the inauguration, an orphanage founded by Aristide – Lafanmi Selavi – was torched, killing four street children.
The new administration began to implement programs in adult literacy, health care, and land redistribution; lobbied for a minimum wage hike; proposed new roads and infrastructure to create jobs. Aristide renounced his $10,000 a month salary. He enforced taxes on the wealthy and dissolved the rural section chief infrastructure that empowered the Ton Ton Macoute. He denounced the treatment (akin to slavery) of Haitian sugar cane workers in the Dominican Republic, and called for improved working conditions.
After the September 30th coup, Lavalas supporters turned out by the hundreds of thousands to defend the constitutional government. They were brutally suppressed, starting on the eve of Sept. 30th when National Police chief Lt. Col. Michel Francois led busloads of soldiers to the Champs de Mars where they machine gunned hundreds of protesters gathered in front of the National Palace. Francois would later be convicted in absentia for the 1993 murder of Antoine Izmery, a prominent businessman and supporter of Aristide who was dragged from a church in broad daylight and executed. Aristide’s Justice Minister Guy Malary was murdered one month later.
Between the years 1991-1994, during the military regime headed by General Raoul Cedras, four to seven thousand supporters and activists of Lavalaswould be killed; others savagely tortured; rape as a political weapon was widespread; thousands fled or were driven into hiding. Poor neighborhoods were particularly targeted, as was the Ti Legliz (little church) – an important sector of the grassroots movement. Anti-coup journalists and radio stations were attacked. Haitian elites and the coup regime, with the support of US intelligence agencies, backed the formation of a violent paramilitary organization known as FRAPH, which emerged in August 1993. FRAPH operated as a death squad, and was responsible for thousands of deaths and human rights violations. Its leaders like Louis-Jodel Chamblain, associate of Guy Philippe, still operate freely in Haiti.
No commemoration of September 30th would be complete without remembering Lovinsky Pierre-Antoine, a psychologist and leading spokesperson for Lavalas, who was kidnapped and disappeared in Port-au-Prince in 2007. Lovinsky founded the Fondasyon Trant Septanm organization dedicated to justice for the victims of the September 30th coup and the release of political prisoners. He remains forever present at the forefront of Haiti’s struggle for justice and democracy.
Sources:
Stop the Political Witch-Hunt Against Ms. Yvette Felarca
Protest and Speak Out at the Berkeley School Board Meeting
7pm Rally outside
7:30 pm Speak Out inside
Community members, parents, teachers and students plan to rally and speak at the the Berkeley School Board Meeting to defend Yvette Felarca, an anti-fascist middle school teacher in Berkeley under attack by the school district.
After Ms. Felarca helped prevent the neo-Nazi/KKK rally on the steps of the capitol in Sacramento last June where she and 8 other anti-fascists were stabbed by the Nazis, racist threats were made against the school if she was not fired. Instead of defending the entire school, including Yvette, the Berkeley Unified School District turned on her, docked 17 days of her pay, and on Wed. Sept. 21, abruptly suspended her. Yvette is now the target of a witch-hunt. She has been disciplined on unfounded accusations of “unsatisfactory performance” and “unprofessional conduct” and was given no reason for her suspension.
ON SEPTEMBER 9TH, inmates at the county jail in Merced, California, located in the Central Valley, in conjunction with the nationwide prison strike that began on the 45th anniversary of the Attica Uprising, issued a set of demands to jail staff. Inmates were demanding the firing of a brutal sheriff, Lt. Moore, access to baseline calories per day and proper legal resources, an end to forced dress out in gang colors and classifications, an end to solitary confinement, and much more.
Inmates at Merced county have long had to live with brutal staff and horrible conditions. Almost monthly, guards have carried out raids which have left various inmates injured from projectile weapons. Many inmates at the county jail haven’t even been found guilty of a crime and are simply waiting for court and cannot afford to bail out. For many locked up in Merced, their only crime was being poor.
The response to the historic hunger strike, which quickly spread throughout the facility, from jail staff was more repression, lockdowns, and cutting off access to phones. When asked for a comment on the hunger strike, Sheriff Vern Warnke replied to people standing up to his department’s attacks on basic humans rights, “This isn’t a country club. If they don’t like being here then quit getting arrested!”
After a series of negotiations with prison staff that went no where and was designed to end the strike ended, inmates again went back out on hunger strike in early October. Some inmates have also remained on strike since mid-September.
As people on the outside, we need to show solidarity with those on hunger strike in Merced. Towards this end, people across Northern California will converge in Merced on Saturday, October 15th at 12 Noon, at the downtown Merced Jail located at 700 W 22nd St to show support with the hunger strikers and connect with friends and family of those locked inside.
For people in the bay area, a carpool is being organized at the West Oakland BART station starting at 8:30 AM and will be leaving at 9 AM for Merced.
Support the #PrisonStrike, victory to the hunger strikers in Merced!
More actions across the country.
Jail The Bankers At Wells Fargo
Fellow Occupiers: Does the absence of real consequences for Wells Fargo – when caught in the act make you feel “tents”??
Wells Fargo, one of OccupySF’s favorite Bankster targets, is just waiting for our response to its massive criminal enterprise.
They Are Not Too Big To Nail!
Expropriate the Bank and Make It A Public Bank
For working people
and the public, and not the profiteers
The massive criminal enterprise of Wells Fargo Executives and owners to bully workers to illegally open up accounts for their customers, and then bilk them of fees, has been exposed in hearings,
yet the US Justice Department refuses to file criminal charges. Coercing workers to commit criminal fraud is a crime that could not only be prosecuted by the US Justice Department but Attorney General Kamala Harris and District Attorney Gascon, yet all these enforcement officials are conspicuously MIA.
At the same time US Secretary of Labor Tom Perez and Federal OSHA chief David
Michaels refused to investigate complaints about retaliation against Wells Fargo workers who refused to violate the banking laws and illegally open accounts. They went to OSHA and the
Department of Labor and the managers refused to allow investigation and prosecutions, and/or referrals to other agencies for prosecution. This was a further example that these government agencies, which are supposed to protect workers and the public, have been captured by the companies like Wells Fargo which they are supposed to regulate.
Former US attorney general Eric Holder said that some companies are too big to nail and apparently that applies to Wells Fargo which is the 4th largest bank in the United States. At the same time the State of California, as well as other governments around the state, has broken financial ties to Wells Fargo, yet Mayor Ed Lee, the SF Supervisors and the San Francisco Pension Board continue to do business with Wells Fargo bank despite it’s criminal activity.
The people of San Francisco and California deserve a public bank run by working people and the community. The bank should be seized, the executives jailed and it should be made a public bank that will work for the people and not profits for the billionaires.
BRING SIGNS!
Initial Sponsor
United Public Workers For Action
www.upwa.info
For more information (415)282-1908
To:
OccupySF
It’s Time to Escalate!
For folks who can make a lunchtime demonstration in SF:
Noon rally in SF, please share widely.
#NoDAPL #MniWiconi #StandingRock
Join AIM-WEST and others in an urgent call for a NOON RALLY IN SAN FRANCISCO
When rubber bullets, tasers, bean bags and pepper spray fired, (dogs unleashed in the recent past), continued violation of treaties and human rights, protectors being jailed, media communications being jammed, it is time we stand together in the BAY AREA in solidarity with the Peoples of Standing Rock Reservation
in North Dakota, and against the Dakota Access Pipeline project.
Today, a large militarized police force raided the Treaty Camp on the banks of the Missouri River in North Dakota which has held a strong line against the Dakota Access Pipeline threatening the water of the Standing Rock Sioux and millions of other people downstream. Hundreds of police using armored personnel carriers, LRAD sound weapons, automatic weapons have begun to break up the camp that lay directly in the route of construction.
The message is clear and urgent. Oil companies, politicians and the police state have no regard for the health and safety of peaceful people standing in the route of power and profit. We urgently need you to join this struggle and organize bold and effective actions in solidarity with Indigenous people and allies on the ground in North Dakota.
We must continue to support those at Standing Rock who fight back every day. Thank you to those that have already hosted rallies, vigils and protests. We have raised the profile of the fight on Standing Rock across the world. But now we need friends and allies across the world to step up and continue to fight with Standing Rock.
The Red Warrior Camp has called for more action in solidarity with water protectors in North Dakota.
The asks are simple:
1. Go to North Dakota as resistance will continue through the winter. Email Organizer@nodaplsolidarity.org for more information.
2. Organize a solidarity action against a bank, oil company or politician profiting from this horrid pipeline. Sign up here.
3. Donate to the legal fund. Details here.
Please join the fight to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.
Thanks for all you do.
In solidarity, Rising Tide North America
. On Sunday, October 30th at 8pm EST/7pm CST/6pm MST/5pm PST, we’ll have a briefing and coordinating conference call to discuss our response to the police raids in North Dakota. Click here to register
People are also calling the White House to protest the illegal draconian crackdown on the peaceful protesters. White House: The public comment line (202-456-1111) is manned by volunteers recruited by the current administration. The White House switchboard (202-456-1414) is manned by professional White House operators.
Bay Area Stands for No Dakota Access Pipeline
Host: Idle No More SF Bay, Diablo Rising Tide, 350.org
National Day of Action called by Indigenous Environmental Network and 350.org
Sunrise Ceremony at San Francisco Civic Center Plaza followed by solidarity action and rally at the Army Corps of Engineers office, demanding they revoke the permits to bore under the Missouri River and complete a full Environmental Impact Statement.
March to 455 Market St. @ 11th St. (just south of Van Ness), San Francisco
“I am Jess Jakus, an artist and Oakland resident since 2005. I am asking you to help free a transsexual mixed-race war veteran who is being held in San Francisco County Jail.
Athena Cadence is not a threat to herself or others and is in compliance with all of Judge Jeffrey Ross’ court orders. However, she is being housed in the male unit of the jail, along with other transsexual, transgender, and intersex individuals. This is in direct violation of the Sheriff’s policy to house transgender inmates in the units appropriate to their genders. Athena has been on hunger strike since November 15th to protest this unsafe violation of trans rights. Every day, Athena and other trans inmates are under threat of sexual assault, violence, and degradation.
Friends of Athena are asking your help in demanding that transgender, transsexual, and intersex inmates be housed appropriately and safely. To that end we are asking that you call Judge Ross and Sheriff Vicki Hennessy on Monday, November 21–we are going to flood their offices with phone calls. In your call:
-Demand that Athena and all transgender, transsexual, and intersex inmates immediately be housed in units appropriate to their gender
-Demand that Athena be freed from custody
Below is an example transcript, but feel free to say what is on your mind when you call:
“Hello, this is _________. I am calling regarding Athena Cadence, who is a transsexual inmate at San Francisco County Jail. As you know, the sheriff’s office has made a commitment to house transgender, transsexual, and intersex inmates in units appropriate to their gender. Athena is a woman and it is unsafe to jail her in the men’s unit. It is a violation of the Sheriff’s department policy to house her in the men’s unit. We ask that you immediately house Athena and all transgender, transsexual, and intersex inmates in the units appropriate to their genders. Furthermore, Ms. Cadence is in compliance with all court orders, and is not a threat to herself or others. Given this, we ask that you release her from custody.”
Here are the phone numbers to call:
Judge Jeffrey Ross: (415) 551-0321
Sheriff Vicki Hennessy: (415) 554-7225
Additionally, if you can make it to Athena’s next court date, your presence would be very helpful. Athena’s next court date is Tuesday, November 22, 9:00 AM in dept 21 (third floor) of the San Francisco Hall of Justice (850 Bryant St, San Francisco, CA 94103). Please be quiet and respectful in the courtroom; no signs are allowed in the courtroom.
I and all of Athena’s friends appreciate your help. Please forward this message to any interested parties. Together we can hold our (in)justice system accountable and prevent the ongoing abuse of transsexual, transgender, and intersex people and all inmates.
We need to keep the momentum going! We cannot normalize this! We refuse to accept a Trump presidency and the indoctrination of hate and discrimination that comes with it.
We will meet at 555 California Street (Trump owns 30% of this building) and have an hour-long sit in. We will then march through the city.
Because we want to make our presence felt and we want to address concerns of speed, we will be stopping in many intersections during the march.
At each stop we will hear from a speaker or performer or poet or singer etc. If you would like to have your voice highlighted, please message Fuck Trump SF (the org hosting this event) and let us know how you would like to contribute. We will be prioritizing marginalized voices.
Urban Shield is a regional, national and global weapons exposition and SWAT training. It is funded by the Department of Homeland Security via the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department. Every year, local police, fire and health departments from cities all over the Bay Area (and a few foreign countries) come together to perform drills and practices throughout the region, all mandated to have a nexus to terrorism.
By focusing the majority of the training given to local departments on extremely violent responses, Urban Shield immerses local SWAT teams in war-like practices and encourages disproportionately violent responses. Urban Shield events are filled with disturbing themes including macho t-shirts disparaging social justice movements (the best-selling one a few years ago was called “Black Rifles Matter”), glorification of hi-tech military-style equipment flowing into local police departments including tanks and drones, and scenarios triggered almost inevitably by people of color as the villains.
For a video of an Urban Shield SWAT training – click here.
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors will be reviewing the 2017 funding request to Homeland Security on December 20 on January 10th.
Send an email to them now saying that you want them NOT TO APPROVE funding for a 2017 Urban Shield exposition in the Bay Area.
On 12/20, the fight to #StopUrbanShield continues. Use our easy two-click alert to send an email saying no more. https://t.co/R2friNCzm5 pic.twitter.com/vTPoGggXc4
— Media Alliance (@twrling) November 26, 2016
Urban Shield is a regional, national and global weapons exposition and SWAT training. It is funded by the Department of Homeland Security via the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department. Every year, local police, fire and health departments from cities all over the Bay Area (and a few foreign countries) come together to perform drills and practices throughout the region, all mandated to have a nexus to terrorism.
By focusing the majority of the training given to local departments on extremely violent responses, Urban Shield immerses local SWAT teams in war-like practices and encourages disproportionately violent responses. Urban Shield events are filled with disturbing themes including macho t-shirts disparaging social justice movements (the best-selling one a few years ago was called “Black Rifles Matter”), glorification of hi-tech military-style equipment flowing into local police departments including tanks and drones, and scenarios triggered almost inevitably by people of color as the villains.
For a video of an Urban Shield SWAT training – click here.
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors will be reviewing the 2017 funding request to Homeland Security on December 20 on January 10th.
Send an email to them now saying that you want them NOT TO APPROVE funding for a 2017 Urban Shield exposition in the Bay Area.
On 12/20, the fight to #StopUrbanShield continues. Use our easy two-click alert to send an email saying no more. https://t.co/R2friNCzm5 pic.twitter.com/vTPoGggXc4
— Media Alliance (@twrling) November 26, 2016
Urban Shield is a regional, national and global weapons exposition and SWAT training. It is funded by the Department of Homeland Security via the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department. Every year, local police, fire and health departments from cities all over the Bay Area (and a few foreign countries) come together to perform drills and practices throughout the region, all mandated to have a nexus to terrorism.
By focusing the majority of the training given to local departments on extremely violent responses, Urban Shield immerses local SWAT teams in war-like practices and encourages disproportionately violent responses. Urban Shield events are filled with disturbing themes including macho t-shirts disparaging social justice movements (the best-selling one a few years ago was called “Black Rifles Matter”), glorification of hi-tech military-style equipment flowing into local police departments including tanks and drones, and scenarios triggered almost inevitably by people of color as the villains.
For a video of an Urban Shield SWAT training – click here.
The Alameda County Board of Supervisors will be reviewing the 2017 funding request to Homeland Security on December 20 on January 10th.
Send an email to them now saying that you want them NOT TO APPROVE funding for a 2017 Urban Shield exposition in the Bay Area.
On 12/20, the fight to #StopUrbanShield continues. Use our easy two-click alert to send an email saying no more. https://t.co/R2friNCzm5 pic.twitter.com/vTPoGggXc4
— Media Alliance (@twrling) November 26, 2016
NO! In the name of humanity, We REFUSE to Accept a Fascist America! Donald Trump, the President-elect, is assembling a regime of grave danger.
New Year’s Eve must be marked by outdoor protests and candlelight vigils, gatherings of defiance.
No Fascist New Year! We Say NO to Trump and Pence!”
From there, waves of decentralized protests must spread across the country, different organizations and communities acting in their own ways but with the unified theme of “No!
The word must appear on walls, on shirts, on social media, on television, in artistic ways and ways that inspire others to act.
https://www.facebook.com/HuffPostPolitics/…
Join AROC in Taking Action to Stop Urban Shield!
On Tuesday, January 10th, the Stop Urban Shield Coalition will be rallying to the Alameda County Board of Supervisors meeting, where the Sheriff is set to present on the militarized policing program and weapons expo Urban Shield. At the last meeting, the Sheriff’s department flat out lied to both the Supervisors and the general public, claiming that they were not applying for the federal funding that they use to hold Urban Shield. We knew otherwise, and a public records request proved us right.
With a Trump presidency right around the corner, stopping Urban Shield in Alameda County is a key local step to resisting the threats posed by him and his administration. Alameda County must stop sponsoring the racist, xenophobic, and lethal strategies, tactics, and technologies being spread by Urban Shield. We hope that you will join us in this fight, as it is now more important than ever.
- Come out on Tuesday, January 10th for our rally and press conference at the Alameda County Board of Supervisors Meeting. We want to pack the room to show that our communities reject Urban Shield and everything it represents. 10am, Alameda County Administration Building, 1221 Oak St, Oakland, CA 94612. [Facebook]
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Call the Board of Supervisors on Monday, January 9th. Click here for contact info and a script that you can use.
- Are you an Alameda County Resident? Sign our petition, and share it with your networks.
NO WORK! NO SCHOOL!
#oaklandJ20 #GeneralStrike #DumpTrump #InaugurationDay
http://www.carlsjr.com/locations
On #J20 shut down Carl’s Jr, Hardee’s, Green Burrito stores wherever you are. Let Trump and Puzder know we won’t go back! The fight is on! Respond on Facebook with locations you will be holding down on #J20
