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SF Bay View Newspaper Fights for Human Rights

Message Hans Bennett
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Bay View fights for human rights
 
The tantalizing promise of human rights for all was made 60 years ago today, when by unanimous vote the United Nations passed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Dec. 10, 1948. Is it time we demand, fight for and win its fulfillment? You bet! And the Bay View seeks to arm you for the struggle. For inspiration, watch ‘The Price of Silence’: Fulfill the promise of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
 
Here are a few of the new stories posted to www.sfbayview.com since the December Bay View – our second monthly print edition – hit the streets Nov. 28. And don’t miss the exciting new videos, the calendar of great events and a whole host of new pen pal requests from men and women behind enemy lines all over the country hoping for a word of holiday hope from you.
 
But first a word from our sponsor … Oops, that’s the problem: We need sponsors – i.e. advertisers! Without more ads, we simply can’t print another paper. Please help spread the word. The Bay View is as popular as ever, a great way to tell the world about your event, your cause, your business or service. Talk it up where you shop, at your meeting and among your friends. We take ads on our website, too, where new stories are posted daily and more people are visiting every day.
 
Have you seen the pretty new (refurbished) apple green Bay View news racks? Even after streamlining distribution of the printed Bay Views – putting more papers in fewer places – they still disappeared in no time. If you didn’t get yours or to make sure you do next month (if we get enough ads to pay the printer), here’s where you’ll find the new racks in Oakland: Coliseum BART, San Leandro Boulevard & 73rd Avenue; International & 65th; International & 73rd; International & 98th; International & 84th; Bancroft & 77th; Bancroft & Havenscourt; and Seminary & MacArthur Boulevard. There are only two racks in San Francisco, at Fillmore & O’Farrell – Safeway east entrance; and Mission & 24th Street BART. Big stacks of papers were also dropped at Glide Memorial Church, 330 Ellis in the Tenderloin; and the Longshoremen’s Hall, 400 N. Point St. at Taylor on the waterfront.
 
If you’ve been getting the Bay View by mail but didn’t get the December paper, please re-subscribe; the cost is now $24 a year or $2 a month. The belt-tightening task of trimming the mailing list was painful. Not only do I hate deleting anyone but I hate finding errors in our records, and I found too many. If you have a problem or question, call Mary at (415) 671-0789. And please, if you know any of these people who paid for a subscription but weren’t put on the mailing list, please contact them or me: They are Richard Ayers, Arlene Scully, Allen Wilson, Khadija Thomas and Chris Carlsson.
 
With that business out of the way, here’s a sampling of new stories. When time permits, I’m also reposting older stories, many at the request of writers. If you’d like a story reposted, email the headline and date it was published to editor@sfbayview.com. Come January, SF State students with the Black Students Union have volunteered to post stories – hurray!
 
When you read a story you like, use the icons at the end of the story to “Digg it” and “Buzz it up” and ask your lists and friends to do the same. Bringing more readers to www.sfbayview.com is the way we can make enough from web ads to help pay to print the monthly paper. Add your comments too. It’s fun!
 
The December editorial: Now that all things are possible, it’s our turn
Says Bay View publisher Willie Ratcliff: “We elected a Black president. Now tell me what we can’t do. I want to see us use that muscle to prove to ourselves and the world once again that Black people are master builders. We built the White House. We built the South and much of the North. And nobody’s going to lock us out of construction any longer. We’re demanding our piece of the pie. Will you back me up on that?”
 
Doctors call on Obama and Congress to ‘do the right thing’ on health reform
A group of over 15,000 U.S. physicians has called on President-elect Barack Obama and the new Congress to “do the right thing” and enact a single-payer national health insurance plan, “an improved Medicare for all.”
 
COINTELPRO plot against ‘Omaha 2’ included a cadre of top FBI officials
In Omaha, Nebraska, the leaders of a Black Panther group, Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice), were the targets of a clandestine operation of the Federal Bureau of Investigation code-named COINTELPRO.
 
Chicago workers occupy their factory
A factory occupation in Chicago that began as a show of defiance by 250 workers has been transformed into a focus of international labor solidarity. Suddenly, something usually relegated to dusty labor history books about the 1930s is a reality.
 
Four San Francisco labor activists arrested at BofA in support of Chicago factory occupation
A sit-in and protest was held in San Francisco on Dec. 9 as an act of solidarity with workers who have been sitting in since Dec. 5 at the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago. Four people were arrested at a downtown San Francisco office of Bank of America.
 
New York Times getting closer to the truth on the resource war in the Congo
The New York Times piece, “Rwanda Stirs Deadly Brew of Trouble in the Congo,” laid the foundation for a more honest dialogue about the resource war in the Congo, which has resulted in dying and suffering of holocaust proportions.
 
Freedom is cream corn and sausage
I recall listening to a recording of Albert Woodfox describing how it felt after 15 years or something crazy long like that to finally get a contact visit from his mom and feel her hug. Now, after nearly 36 years in solitary confinement, Woodfox could soon be released on bail.
 
Herman Wallace in trouble, hospitalized
Robert H. King, Angola 3 activist, former political prisoner, called to tell me that Herman Wallace, while visiting with Jackie Sumell and her friend, had what appeared to be a heart attack or stroke. Alarmed, Jackie banged on the door of the locked visiting room to get guards’ attention. 

In Bowoto v. Chevron, Nigerians lose first round but prove corporations can be held liable in U.S. courts for human rights abuses committed overseas
The case of Bowoto v. Chevron pitted Chevron and its relationship with the notoriously violent Nigerian police and military against Nigerians who peacefully protested the destruction of their environment and livelihood by Chevron’s oil production activities. 

Dignified Entertainment: an interview wit’ veteran actor and director Delroy Lindo
Veteran actor and director Delroy Lindo is currently directing the August Wilson play, “Joe Turner’s Come and Gone,” at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre through Dec. 14. Lindo is best known in the Black community for his role in the classic film “Malcolm X,” where he played West Indian Archie.
 
Democratic socialism moves forward in Venezuela
Democracy from the bottom is evolving as a 10-year social revolution in Venezuela. Led by President Hugo Chavez, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) gained over 1.5 million voters in the most recent elections Nov. 23.
 
Blame the takers, not the makers
“Recently we’ve seen a profound political distaste for the auto companies, with a special vehemence for the United Auto Workers (UAW), who are portrayed as greedy, lazy ‘ne’er-do-wells,’ who are paid far more than they’re worth,” writes Mumia Abu-Jamal.
 
Mumia on Barack
There’s still millions of people living in hells in Amerikkka right now, living far worse now than they were a year ago. The hardest hit communities for foreclosures were African Americans and Latinos. Look at the incarceration rate; then look at education.
 
What happened to freedom?
“I have been constantly pushing for liberation quite vigorously and many of you inspire me to push harder and remember the words of a great freedom fighter, Sis. Harriet Tubman, who said: ‘I started with this idea in my head. There’s two things I have a right to: death or liberty,’” writes Mumia’s son, Jamal Hart.
 
Holiday events and gifts to uplift
Traditionally, the holiday season is a time of good will, great food, community, family and gift exchanges. But for some, the holidays are just another reminder of the people who are missing from our communities, our loved ones who are in jails and prisons.
 
New Black Caucus chair signals more progressive agenda
In selecting Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., as its new chair, the Congressional Black Caucus chose one of its most progressive members who, days after Sept. 11, 2001, was the only person in Congress to vote against authorizing the use of force in Iraq.
 
What the same-gender-loving African American can learn from the Prop 8 issue
Being homosexual compromises or revokes the entitlement that most white gays and lesbians are born and raised into. Many feel they must make a choice between their full entitlement - by abstaining or by remaining in the closet - and expressing their sexuality.
 
Democratic socialism moves forward in Venezuela
Democracy from the bottom is evolving as a 10-year social revolution in Venezuela. Led by President Hugo Chavez, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) gained over 1.5 million voters in the most recent elections Nov. 23.
 
Free Haiti’s political prisoners! Free Ronald Dauphin!
Grassroots activist Ronald Dauphin, a supporter of President Aristide, was arrested by armed paramilitary troops on March 1, 2004 - the day after U.S. officials forced Aristide into exile. Mr. Dauphin has spent five years in jail without having been convicted of any crime.
 
Israeli gunboats kidnap Gaza fishermen, peaceworkers
While Adham and the more than 3,500 professional fishermen who scour Gaza’s waters for needed sustenance and sources of income are accustomed to Israeli navy harassment, Tuesday’s encounter was different, heightened.
 
Dispatches from Donna in Gaza
All of us in the Free Gaza Movement, whether passengers on the boats or part of the support teams, are outraged that 1.5 million Palestinians are being collectively punished by the apartheid policies of the Israeli state.
 
All-out war, the deadliest war on the planet, in Congo
The war in Congo is a U.S. proxy war; the U.S. uses Kagame, the Rwandan army and terrorist Gen. Laurent Nkunda as their African proxy force in Congo, but this is war. It has been the deadliest, though barely reported, war on the planet for years.
 
Three years and 69 days: Obama’s victory as seen from New Orleans
Three years and 69 days was a lifetime ago in political terms. There are still many Americans living today who grew up in an apartheid America where the concept of even allowing Blacks to vote in many states and counties was considered impossible.
 
Wanda’s Picks for Dec. 5
It’s first Friday and the holiday season is in full swing. The usual first Friday haunts are hosting late night events: the Oakland Museum of California on 10th and Oak Street, Joyce Gordon Gallery on 14th Street near Broadway. Sister Souljah is in town.
 
Today’s Black woman
The 2008 presidential race provides an opportunity to redefine traditional views of beauty. When the child in the projects of New Orleans can look at the first lady and see herself, that iconography alone works as a powerful antidote towards curing what ails America.
 
Police, prosecutor retaliate against journalist covering police chase fatality
Community outrage and support are building over the arrest of people’s journalist Diane Bukowski. Many view this as a political attack on the entire progressive movement in metro Detroit.
 
Oh, the videos … most of them suggested by readers. Send us the link when you find – or make – a great one.
Welcome to the Congo
Fred Hampton
Assassination of Chairman Fred Hampton
Resist Africom!
KPFK breaks the silence on Congo
Odetta joins the ancestors
Mining for bling
Chauncey Bailey on ethnic media
In loving memory of Mama Africa, Miriam Makeba
N’Kosi Sikeleli Africa - with Miriam Makeba
 
It’s the season for loving and sharing … time to say “I love you” to someone hungry to hear it, to show we care to someone who’s hurting, to reach out to someone we’ve kept at a distance. Despite the catastrophes, have hopes ever been higher? What better gift can we give our children than the will to make their dreams reality, to fight for their future?
 
Mary Ratcliff, editor@sfbayview.com
 
To reach the Bay View, email editor@sfbayview.com.
To subscribe to this list, email sfbayview-subscribe@lists.riseup.net.
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Hans Bennett is a multi-media journalist mostly focusing on the movement to free Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners. An archive of his work is available at insubordination.blogspot.com and he is also co-founder of "Journalists for Mumia," (more...)
 
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