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LOCAL FIGHTS AGAINST AUSTERITY ARE GROWING ACROSS THE U.S.

BY MARK VORPAHL Between sequestration, with its damaging impact on workers and the economy, and the billions of dollars in cuts to Social Security, Medicare and other necessary social programs that President Obama is pushing, it is evident that the economic policies of both major parties are not intended to promote a recovery for working people. You cannot lift up a nation’s economy while slashing away at its consumers’ pocketbooks. [...]

 

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LAPD Officer Allegedly Publishes Manifesto : Blue Line Broken

7 February 2013 This cover photo is of Christopher Dorner w/ Chief William Bratton, who was recently hired for a few months of ‘consulting’ for the OPD by the city of Oakland, for $250,000. Bratton’s history includes implementing racial profiling in the form of what has recently been judged as the unconstitutional policy of ‘stop and frisk.’ He was also instrumental in making it appear that crime in NYC was [...]

 

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I Feel Dirty

I feel dirty.  He touched me tonight.  I did not want him to.  She stood there watching as he touched me.  She said they had the right.  She also said I was lucky that I did not end up on the ground, face down. Yes, I got lucky tonight. I shut down my computer at 7pm after 10 hours at work; put on my cool black jacket, gray beanie cap, [...]

 

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A. F. James MacArthur before his March 2009 trial. Image source: MacArthur International Media.
 

Informed and Dangerous: Why is A. F. James MacArthur in jail?

By Leo Zimmermann This article was originally published on Indyreader.org. Beth Emmerling and Bruce Emmerling contributed research to this article. Journalist A. F. James MacArthur has been in jail since December 1, 2012. Known for reporting on crime and politics as The Baltimore Spectator, MacArthur is currently being held without bail or access to visitors. He was initially arrested at his home for allegedly violating an expired probation, but is [...]

 

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Closeted in the 21st Century

It still happens and not just in junior high school. LGBT people live double lives even today. My sister called me the other night so I could watch Jody Foster come out publicly at the Golden Globe Awards. Anderson Cooper declared his gayness just last year. If it is still difficult for actors and media people to live proudly in the open, there must be a high degree of prejudice [...]

 

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Fred Hampton Jr. Harassed & Detained by OPD

On Monday, January 21, 2013, at approximately 4:30 p.m.,Chairman Fred Hampton Jr., son of slain deputy chairman Fred Hampton Sr. of the Illinois Black Panther Party, as well as three additional passengers, fell victim to the abuse and harassment many Black and Brown Oaklanders experience on a regular basis. After leaving the Berkeley marina, the group noticed a police car following them in route to the Emeryville Target shopping store. [...]

 

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City of Oakland Offering New Criminalization Opportunity : Graffiti

It’s Friday night. Elected public servants at this coming Tuesday’s Oakland City Council meeting will be discussing a drastic rewriting of legislation regarding graffiti. In an admitted attempt to control protestors, the authors of this legislation have effectively designed a new method of imprisoning residents and visitors to Oakland, especially youth, for what has been until now legally defined as an infraction. At twenty three pages long, there is much [...]

 

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Unions: Safety and Discrimination Protection

The tragic fires that killed workers in Bangladesh remind us of labor’s history in the early years of the twentieth century when the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire killed 146 garment workers most of them Jewish and Italian immigrant women. Capitalism actively condones the murder of dispensable commodities like people who provide unskilled or semi-skilled labor. Now even the sweatshops of China are moving to even cheaper, less-regulated Bangladesh. American companies [...]

 

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Where the Sustainability Movement Falters...

Of late, I have been participating in a resilience circle. These groups are organized offshoots of the “sustainability” movement whose goal is to create a local, independent economy which can but does not necessarily use currency as a standard of exchange. Theirs is a noble and idealistic vision. But alone, it is not viable for scattered people and communities. The struggle is as unattainable as trying to bring socialism in [...]

 

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Israel Was Created on the Ruins of Palestine

The title of this article is a direct quote from Miko Peled, author of “The General’s Son” and a peace activist. His father ‘was a war hero turned peacemaker.’ Explanation by Miko Peled regarding the creation of the State of Israel at the expense of Palestinian Arabs in the region refers to many myths perpetrated by Zionist Jews of Israel and the United States. He shines a light on the [...]