Heads Up Collective

Change of Blog!

2007-03-09T18:10:00.000-08:00

For a variety of reasons, mosty level of user friendliness, the Heads Up Collective BLOG has been moved.

You can now find us at

http://hupcollective.livejournal.com/

thanks!

Defend Edward Said Mural Aat SF State!

2007-02-25T17:24:00.000-08:00

from:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mural/petition.html

The General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) would like to ask for your support in our project to unveil a Palestinian cultural mural commemorating the late Dr. Edward Said on the Cesar Chavez Student Center building at San Francisco State University. We have been working hard to finalize the mural and have reached a roadblock that we cannot overcome without your help.

The petition attached will give you a better understanding of our difficulty in dealing with the President of San Francisco State University, Robert Corrigan. Also, to read more about the situation, see www.sfgups.org

We would like to ask of you two things:

1. Please sign the following letter we plan to send to the President after receiving valued signatures of concurrence.

2. Please forward it to as many people as possible.

3. Please write a personal or group letter to President Corrigan in favor of the Palestinian cultural mural honoring Dr. Edward Said. The President’s contact information is: corrigan@sfsu.edu, cortez@sfsu.edu, gups@sfsu.edu

President Robert Corrigan
1600 Holloway Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94132
corrigan@sfsu.edu)

PLEASE CC:

General Union of Palestine Students
1650 Holloway Ave
Business Office, M100B
San Francisco, CA 94132
(gups@sfsu.edu)

and

Maria Liliana Cortez
1650 Holloway Ave.
Business Office, C-134
San Francisco, CA 94132
(cortez@sfsu.edu)

For more information you can visit: www.sfgups.org

Thank you for all of your help. It is greatly appreciated!

In Peace and Solidarity,

The General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS)

To: San Francisco State University President, Robert A. Corrigan

We are writing to express our concern regarding your refusal of the mural celebrating Palestinian culture and commemorating the late Dr. Edward Said at San Francisco State University. In addition to blocking the Palestinian mural before it was officially submitted to you for your approval, you have placed an indefinite moratorium on all future artwork on the Cesar Chavez Student Center building.

This ban has come in the wake of more than a year of painstaking efforts by the mural committee to follow the established process. The Palestinian Cultural Mural Committee, which is composed of faculty, staff, administrators and students, from a wide array of ethnic and religious backgrounds. The committee had choosen two artists, a Palestinian Muslim male and a American Jewish female. The committee held more then a year of meetings open to the public, held two town hall meetings concerning the elements to be included in the mural artwork before beginning the actual design. The outcome of the meetings resulted in over two hundred responses, the highest level of feedback on any proposed mural to date, with only two negative responses towards the tentative elements. Following these meetings were mural meetings open to the public where the mural design was finalized. The mural has been supported by a resolution passed unanimously by Associated Students Incorporated (ASI) and has been approved, by a vote of 6 (for) and 2 (against), by the Student Center Governing Board (SCGB). This vast approval reflects the overwhelming support that San Francisco State University’s elected student body representatives have for this mural. In spite of this, only an hour and a half after the SCGB vote, you sent a letter stating your deep disappointment that the Board had approved a mural that you considered "unsatisfactory."

In your letters, and in subsequent meetings with student representatives, You claimed that the mural is "conflict centered", represents a "culture of violence", and that you “won’t allow hatred towards Jews on these walls.” You have given no evidence to justify these claims, only pointing to the mural’s portrayal of Handala and a Palestinian house key with ‘Al-Awda’ (the return) written in Arabic calligraphy. Handala is a widely popular cultural icon created by the late Palestinian cartoonist, Naji Salim al-Ali. Handala depicts a poor, barefoot, Palestinian child, who represents a unified identity for millions of Palestinians struggling to gain dignity and human rights. The Palestinian key, in conjunction with the word ‘Al-Awda,’ represents how Palestinians have adapted to different cultures without forgetting where they came from. The Palestinian house key is the symbol that represents a collective memory, culture and identity of the Palestinian Diaspora whose families still carry keys to the only homes they knew.

By asking for the removal of Handala and the Palestinian house key you are effectively redefining Palestinian identity and culture, which is something that only Palestinians have the right to do. It is unjust and undemocratic to demand that the students exclude these items from the mural, as they are legitimate cultural and historical icons of the Palestinian experience.

Additionally, it seems you wish to deny the long history of San Francisco State University by claiming that this mural "runs counter to the core values of The University." San Francisco State University has pioneered the study and representation of oppressed people around the world through its College of Ethnic Studies. The Palestinian mural stands proudly in this tradition by representing the history, accomplishments, and the current struggle of the Palestinian people. Your denial of the mural is further a rejection of everything that is enshrined in the 'Cesar Chavez Student Center.' Rosa Parks, Richard Oaks, and Malcolm X, all commemorated in the student center, represent leaders who fought against injustice and for the rights of oppressed minorities. Dr. Edward Said certainly stands in this tradition through his lifelong dedication to causes of peace and justice as well as the struggle of the Palestinian people. Dr. Edward Said's famous treatise Orientalism, taught at San Francisco State University, is an attempt to debunk the largely negative and inaccurate portrayal of Arab people in the history of Western culture. Instead of standing with San Francisco State University's proud tradition, you have placed yourself in opposition to it.

As members of the community, we are disappointed that a President of one of the most ethnically diverse universities in the nation would make such belittling statements. As members of the community, we hope you will stand with San Francisco State University's proud tradition of being culturally open-minded. We also hope that you will deplore racist stereotypes of Arabs and Arab culture as Edward Said critiques in Orientalism and that you will allow Palestinians to be treated as equal humans, with dignity and respect.

We expect you to stand on the side of respect, justice, and democracy by lifting the ban on murals and approving the Palestinian mural as it is submitted to you by the Student Center Governing Board.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

go to http://www.petitiononline.com/mural/petition.html to view current signatures and add your own.

US Psych torture on trial

2007-02-22T23:20:00.000-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2019580,00.html

The US psychological torture system is finally on trial

America has deliberately driven hundreds, perhaps thousands, of prisoners
insane. Now it is being held to account in a Miami court

Naomi Klein
Friday February 23, 2007
The Guardian

Something remarkable is going on in a Miami courtroom. The cruel methods US
interrogators have used since September 11 to "break" prisoners are finally
being put on trial. This was not supposed to happen. The Bush
administration's plan was to put José Padilla on trial for allegedly being
part of a network linked to international terrorists. But Padilla's lawyers
are arguing that he is not fit to stand trial because he has been driven
insane by the government.

Arrested in May 2002 at Chicago's O'Hare airport, Padilla, a Brooklyn-born
former gang member, was classified as an "enemy combatant" and taken to a
navy prison in Charleston, South Carolina. He was kept in a cell 9ft by 7ft,
with no natural light, no clock and no calendar. Whenever Padilla left the
cell, he was shackled and suited in heavy goggles and headphones. Padilla
was kept under these conditions for 1,307 days. He was forbidden contact
with anyone but his interrogators, who punctured the extreme sensory
deprivation with sensory overload, blasting him with harsh lights and
pounding sounds. Padilla also says he was injected with a "truth serum", a
substance his lawyers believe was LSD or PCP.

According to his lawyers and two mental health specialists who examined him,
Padilla has been so shattered that he lacks the ability to assist in his own
defence. He is convinced that his lawyers are "part of a continuing
interrogation program" and sees his captors as protectors. In order to prove
that "the extended torture visited upon Mr Padilla has left him damaged",
his lawyers want to tell the court what happened during those years in the
navy brig. The prosecution strenuously objects, maintaining that "Padilla is
competent" and that his treatment is irrelevant.

The US district judge Marcia Cooke disagrees. "It's not like Mr Padilla was
living in a box. He was at a place. Things happened to him at that place."
The judge has ordered several prison employees to testify on Padilla's
mental state at the hearings, which began yesterday. They will be asked how
a man who is alleged to have engaged in elaborate anti-government plots now
acts, in the words of brig staff, "like a piece of furniture".

It's difficult to overstate the significance of these hearings. The
techniques used to break Padilla have been standard operating procedure at
Guantánamo Bay since the first prisoners arrived five years ago. They wore
blackout goggles and sound-blocking headphones and were placed in extended
isolation, interrupted by strobe lights and heavy metal music. These same
practices have been documented in dozens of cases of "extraordinary
rendition" carried out by the CIA, as well as in prisons in Iraq and
Afghanistan.

Many have suffered the same symptoms as Padilla. According to James Yee, a
former army Muslim chaplain at Guantánamo, there is an entire section of the
prison called Delta Block for detainees who have been reduced to a
delusional state. "They would respond to me in a childlike voice, talking
complete nonsense. Many of them would loudly sing childish songs, repeating
the song over and over." All the inmates of Delta Block were on 24-hour
suicide watch.

Human Rights Watch has exposed a US-run detention facility near Kabul known
as the "prison of darkness" - tiny pitch-black cells, strange blaring
sounds. "Plenty lost their minds," one former inmate recalled. "I could hear
people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors."

These standard mind-breaking techniques have never faced scrutiny in an
American court because the prisoners in the jails are foreigners and have
been stripped of the right of habeas corpus - a denial that, scandalously,
was just upheld by a federal appeals court in Washington DC. There is only
one reason Padilla's case is different - he is a US citizen. The
administration did not originally intend to bring Padilla to trial, but when
his status as an enemy combatant faced a supreme court challenge, the
administration abruptly changed course, charging Padilla and transferring
him to civilian custody. That makes Padilla's case unique - he is the only
victim of the post-9/11 legal netherworld to face an ordinary US trial.

Now that Padilla's mental state is the central issue in the case, the
government prosecutors are presented with a problem. The CIA and the
military have known since the early 1960s that extreme sensory deprivation
and sensory overload cause personality disintegration - that's the whole
point. "The deprivation of stimuli induces regression by depriving the
subject's mind of contact with an outer world and thus forcing it in upon
itself. At the same time, the calculated provision of stimuli during
interrogation tends to make the regressed subject view the interrogator as a
father-figure." That comes from Kubark Counterintelligence Interrogation, a
declassified 1963 CIA manual for interrogating "resistant sources".

The manual was based on the findings of the agency's notorious MK-ULTRA
programme, which in the 1950s funnelled about $25m to scientists to carry
out research into "unusual techniques of interrogation". One of the
psychiatrists who received CIA funding was the infamous Ewen Cameron, of
Montreal's McGill University. Cameron subjected hundreds of psychiatric
patients to large doses of electroshock and total sensory isolation, and
drugged them with LSD and PCP. In 1960 Cameron gave a lecture at the Brooks
air force base in Texas, in which he stated that sensory deprivation
"produces the primary symptoms of schizophrenia".

There is no need to go so far back to prove that the US military knew full
well that it was driving Padilla mad. The army's field manual, reissued just
last year, states: "Sensory deprivation may result in extreme anxiety,
hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, depression, and antisocial behaviour" - as
well as "significant psychological distress".

If these techniques drove Padilla insane, that means the US government has
been deliberately driving hundreds, possibly thousands, of prisoners insane
around the world. What is on trial in Florida is not one man's mental state.
It is the whole system of US psychological torture.

· Naomi Klein's book on disaster capitalism will be published this spring; a
version of this article appears in the Nation www.nologo.org

Prefigurative Parenting

2007-02-19T15:51:00.000-08:00

(this essay was published in the last issue of Left Turn magazine, and is written by a Heads Up Collective member.)

Collective Parenting for Collective Liberation
By Rahula Janowski

Although outright hostility towards parents and children in radical left spaces is uncommon, there is an undercurrent of hostility or at least ambivalence about parents and children in many radical movements in the US. Meanwhile, the radical left in the US is small, fractured, and struggling, and our communities of resistance are largely racially segregated, mono-generational, and unsustainable. One important way to build the strength of our communities of resistance, and through that build the strength of our movements for radical social change, is to develop multi-generational movement cultures that embrace and support parents, all kinds of families, and folks of all ages.

My daughter was born in November of 2002, and before that, I had been looking closely at how mothering and radical political activism and organizing intersected for several years. Growing up in a working class, counter-cultural community in rural Vermont, there was always a wide age-range of kids and youth running around at every event, every roof-raising, and every party. When I became involved in West coast anarchist communities in the early 1990’s, my experiences stood in stark contrast; children were rarely present in radical spaces, be it meetings, parties, or even demonstrations.

For almost a decade, I lived and engaged in political work in communities that were mostly white folks in our twenties, with an occasional teenager, a few folks of color, and a handful of people over 30. In these communities, it was assumed that when activists and organizers had children or got older, they dropped out of the movement because something about parenthood and aging made people less radical and less willing to step up.

Carrying lessons

In the years since the birth of my kid, I’ve managed to stay politically engaged as a result of a supportive partner and household, and as time goes on I’m meeting more politically radical folks with kids. In spite of that, one thing I’ve realized is that although becoming a parent doesn’t make people less radical, in many cases, the radical communities with which I am familiar are unintentionally pushing people with children out.

Since my experience is limited to the predominately white sectors of the anti-authoritarian, global justice/anti-war communities, my observations and conclusions may not be reflective of experiences in other communities. I know that around the world, parents and mothers in particular are often the driving force behind grassroots popular resistance campaigns and movements within cultures that are far more embracing of children than the dominant US culture. However, in the political communities I have been a part of, parents and mothers are hard pressed to be involved in radical change work. And when mothers are involved, often we must leave our children at home along with our identity as mothers.
I hear stories, mostly from mothers, over and over, stories of how difficult it is to get out of the house, never mind to a meeting. How demoralizing it is to not be able to do nearly as much political work as before parenthood, and then to experience the varying levels of hostility encountered in movement spaces when we do venture out with our kids, along with the level of incomprehension most of our activist/organizer friends have about the realities of parenting. Often, these stories are related in an apologetic tone, as if our inability to juggle the intense demands of parenting, often alongside paying work, with the demands of being a deeply involved member of a community of resistance is a personal flaw, rather than a failure of our communities.

This dynamic needs to change drastically, not only so that the movement isn’t constantly losing experienced, skilled, and committed people as they become parents, but also because mono-generational movements that do not include people in all stages of life will neither move nor win. We need communities that are strong, that can withstand difficult times and challenges, and that can nurture and support its members to continue the work. A community of resistance that is multi-generational will have a continuum of memory, will carry lessons from one generation to the next, and will be a base for strong multi-generational movements.

Long-term view

Everyone brings different things to movements. We each arrive at the work with our own individual history, which is shaped by our personal experience as well as by our communities’ collective histories. When people who are engaged in political work become parents, we find ourselves with less time to engage in the work. But for many of us, that comes along with an increased sense of the urgency and necessity for doing the work and some new perspectives.

Becoming a parent shook me from short-term thinking to a much longer-term orientation to the work and the world. I find myself thinking not only about how to raise my child so that she’ll be prepared for the world she is going to inherit, but also how to engage in social change work so that world will be a better place than it is now, and how to build movements that will be stronger as she and her cohorts become old enough to join them.

My housemate, Clare Bayard, who is deeply invested in Natasha’s life, speaks to how involvement with kids can have a similar effect for people who aren’t parents: “I have always appreciated the wisdom of a seven generations framework coming from First Nations people, but never truly internalized what it meant until Natasha was born.” Clare continues, “She gives me a real investment in the future of this world beyond my lifetime, and because I care what world her life will trace through, I am constantly pushed to unstick from short term fixes and think deeply about how the work we do today will impact the world for generations to come.”

Interaction with the next generation brings a sense of continuity and dynamic longevity to the struggle. Playing with and caring for young children inspires hope for the future. Having relationships with youth keeps us in touch with their fire and inspiration. There is also a consistent pattern of youth pushing the struggle forward—helping movements and organizations evolve, by bringing their energy and particular insights to the work.

When we involve parents and children in our activist and organizing spaces, when we incorporate the children as part of the fabric of our communities of resistance, we are raising the next generation of revolutionaries. There is an idea that the children of radicals will always rebel and grow up to be interminably right-wing, but there are many examples that show this idea to be false.

One example of children carrying forward their parents’ revolutionary politics is the story of Camillo Mejia. After serving 6 months in combat in Iraq, in 2004, Mejia applied for Conscientious Objector status, which was denied, and he was eventually court-martialed. In a March 2005 interview on Democracy Now!, Mejia discussed growing up in the Sandanista Revolution. He says, about the pressure to follow in his father’s revolutionary footsteps, “I just turned my back on it, because I wanted to find my own way, and I guess joining the military was the culmination of that.” He continues “…the state of rebellion was there somewhere, but you know, the right conditions were not given until I went to Iraq for me to actually hear that voice and say, ‘No’… So … that family background has finally kicked in and, you know, given me a new conscience.” Camilo Mejia continues to be a strong leader among soldiers and former soldiers speaking out against the war on Iraq, and is also raising a child of his own.

Prefigurative parenting

Many folks involved in social justice movements, whether they use this terminology or not, engage in the theory and practice of prefigurative politics—the idea that how we engage in our work for social change prefigures what the world we hope to create will look like. If we seek a world in which all people have equal access to the workings of society; where parents, children, elders, people of all generations are integrated into society and communities; where all children are safe, nurtured, able to live free of violence and oppression; and everyone is given all they need to grow into the fullest version possible of themselves, then a necessary step toward building that world is working to make these things true within our communities of resistance.

What we need within our communities of resistance is an approach to raising children that is also “prefigurative.” How we treat kids is a powerful force in shaping society. This idea should not be used as an excuse to blame society’s woes on individual parents or on individual parenting choices. Obviously, no one parents in a vacuum. A politicized prefigurative parenting involves moving our lens back, broadening our focus from placing sole responsibility for children on individual parents or individual families, to a community level, and even further, to a societal level. In addition to the various systems of oppression including white supremacy, patriarchy, and capitalism, each parent must function in the context of their dominant society’s approach to children—educational access or lack thereof, current thinking about child psychology, medical practices, and the influences of teachers, caregivers, and extended families.

Because beliefs and practices of the dominant culture are often carried over into communities committed to changing society, we must change our values and practices within our communities of resistance as we push outwards. It is not unusual or surprising that the attitudes toward children within our communities of resistance reflect the attitudes of the dominant society. This means that while there are many specific acts that folks can undertake to truly include families and kids, the larger need is for a different framework of beliefs and assumptions about families within our communities—a framework that assumes the involvement of parents, elders, youth, and children, and sees their absence as an indication of something seriously wrong that needs to be addressed. Many specific acts of support for parents and children within communities of resistance can play the dual role of offering concrete support while laying the groundwork for this shift in frameworks.

In order for this to happen, people who are not parents need to actively work to become aware of the parents in their midst, and also to examine closely their own feelings about kids and about kids in movement space. Parents can also be more assertive about finding allies within our movements and asking for what we need. Parents and non-parents need to learn more about what it can look like to be a multi-generational movement, and to look to movements outside of the dominant US culture for examples and leadership.
Shared responsibility
Although the predominant approach to children and families within white-dominated movements in the US is a hands off, slightly hostile approach, this is not true globally, or within some communities within the US, in particular communities of color. Mijo, a Korean American friend tells me of her experiences working with a large group of farmers from Korea in Seattle. “When the Koreans were here,” she said, “everyone—including people I’d just met, whose names I didn’t even know—felt equally free to swoop [her son] up and kiss him, run off out of my sight and play with him, yell at him if he was about to get run over by a bicycle, or swat his hand if he reached for something like a candle. This kind of thing doesn’t happen in US white culture.”

The approach to community hinted at in Mijo’s experience can and should be a goal for our communities of resistance—where taking responsibility for entertaining and protecting kids is assumed by everybody, where interacting with the younger members of the community is just as important as with senior members, and where kids are made to feel part of the space. As people in our communities have children, we should interact with the kids as though they are the people who will be carrying our struggles forward when we are no longer able to, and in that way, include them as part of the movement right from the start.

When a parent knows that her child is safe in political spaces, and knows that her comrades will look after the child, she is free to more actively engage in the work. When a child feels that they are part of the community and part of the work, their commitment to the community and to the work will stay with them into adulthood.

Providing formal childcare at political events has an enormous impact. Knowing that not only is your child welcome to attend the event, but that there will be something for them to do easily makes the difference between a parent attending or not attending. Childcare collectives discussed below are one model for providing childcare and organizations with a budget should consider paying someone to hang out with the kids. There does need to be a level of accountability around how the people who provide the childcare are chosen and supervised, because our communities are no safer than any other communities when it comes to adults who act inappropriately with children.

Sometimes, even if no childcare can be provided, having a basket of toys and an area set aside for parents and kids to hang out in is a great help. The desired shift in thinking is for organizers to make the assumption that some of the people who want to come to your event (or meeting, or demonstration, or conference) are parents, and that you want to actively encourage their participation. And when parents do show up with children, it makes a huge difference if they are greeted with warmth and welcome, rather than the frosty assumption that “that kid will disrupt the meeting.”

Childcare collectives

Recently there have been some efforts that are shifting community approaches to kids within movement spaces, such as childcare collectives, which are formations of political activists who provide childcare as an act of solidarity. The Bay Area Childcare Collective mission states: “We are committed to providing grassroots organizations and movements composed of and led by immigrant women, low-income women, and women of color with trained, competent, patient and politicized childcare providers for one-time events or ongoing meetings.” Believing that the people who are most directly affected by systems of oppression must be in the leadership of movements attempting to undo those systems, the Childcare Collective takes care of the children so the parents can do the work.

Participation in or developing a childcare collective is not only a way to provide direct support to parents in the movement, but also offers a lot to childcare providers. Josh Connor, one of the Bay Area Childcare Collective organizers explains, “Children and young people bring vitality and life to all of our movements and they are a reminder of what we are fighting for. They are often able to offer the most insightful perspectives that cut to the heart of important issues. Their questions challenge us to develop our own abilities to describe the world around us.”

Another option for sharing responsibility for child-raising is the childcare team model developed by Prairie Fire Organizing Committee (PFOC), an anti-imperialist organization from the 1970’s and 1980’s with links to the Weather Underground organization. PFOC had a strong feminist analysis and understood that valuing the participation and leadership of women meant that providing childcare on a consistent, regular basis was crucial. PFOC in the San Francisco Bay Area expected every member who was not a parent to be part of a childcare team for a parent in the organization who had kids, and these childcare teams in many cases continued to operate after the end of PFOC.

Currently some families with young children in the Bay Area have taken on an adaptation of this model, gathering a crew of adults from our political community who regularly spend time with our kids, forming relationships with them over time. Having this level of support is crucial for parents who remain engaged in political work, and it also works to weave the children more tightly into the community. When children at a political event know not only their parents, but have close relationships with other adults there, they will feel more a part of the community, other non-parents will see them as involved in the community, and we can begin to move away from the idea of children as distractions and nuisances.
All of these efforts, along with many other actions, support the building of a community of resistance that is inclusive of people of all ages and in all stages of life, contributing in part to the development of strong multi-racial, cross class, and multi-tendency movements that are strong and sustainable for the long-haul.

Rahula Janowski does anti-racism and anti-imperialist work with the Heads Up Collective in San Francisco, and is a mother to an amazing 4 year old.
This article was deeply influenced by the feedback from participants in the prefigurative parenting workshop, as well as the support of Praxis House and the Heads Up Collective, and through the deep and sometimes challenging conversations with the wise women at http://hellakittens.com.

Anti-war events this week

2007-02-19T11:10:00.001-08:00

Youth Anti-War Rally-SF Federal Building
Thursday, Feb 22, 4:30
SF Federal Building
Students from 55 schools across the Bay Area have collected thousands of
signatures on a petition to Nancy Pelosi demanding that she and Congress cut
the military funding for the illegal and immoral occupation of Iraq. Join us
at the rally on Thursday February 22 to tell Pelosi to respect the mandate
of the people. (More info below -- All ages welcome). Also, if you'd know
students who might want to sign or distribute the petition, please get back
to us!
Eric Blanc, for the ad-hoc coalition of bay area youth against war
, 415-646-6469

War Tax Resistance Workshops
Are you ready to stop paying for war?
More than half of our federal income taxes are used to wage war.
Come find out about your options for conscientious objection.
Berkeley: Saturday February 24, 2-4:30pm
3122 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA
(1 block East of Ashby BART)
San Francisco: Sunday, March 4, 2-4:30pm
San Francisco Friends Meeting
65 9th Street
Between Market and Mission
Near Civic Center BART
All events are free and wheelchair accessible.
For more information: Northern California War Tax Resistance
(510) 843-9877 € http://www.nowartax.org

COMMUNITY FUNDRAISER DINNER WITH HELGA AGUAYO
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2007
6:30 PM to 8:30 PM
War Memorial Veterans Building, 2nd Floor
401 Van Ness Avenue (across from City Hall), San Francisco
Please join us for a community dinner with Agustin¹s wife Helga Aguayo
to raise funds for the Aguayo family¹s legal and travel expenses. Agustin
faces a military court martial in Germany, and seven year¹s in prison, on
March 6 for refusing to return to Iraq. For nearly three years, he has
unsuccessfully fought the Army for a conscientious objector discharge.
For more information about the Aguayo¹s, including leaflets, videos, etc.:
and

SPEAKING FIERCE-Celebrate International Women's Day
An Evening of Art, Poetry, Music and Dance
Thursday, March 8, 2007
6:30-9:00pm
First Congregational Church- Reidenbach Hall
2501 Harrison Street (@ 27th), Oakland
Tickets $5-15, No one turned away for lack of funds
FEATURING
Eli Painted Crow, Retired Army Veteran
Anuradha Bhagwati, Former Marine Captain
JamaeSori, Korean Women's Drumming Group
Aimee Suzara, Powerful Spoken Word
Kaylah Marin, Singer/Songwriter
Art in Action Women
Aimee Allison, Conscientious Objector
For more info, call 510-444-2700 x305
www.coloredgirls.org

Update and appeal for Sami Al-Arian

2007-02-16T21:02:00.000-08:00

Sent: Fri 2/16/2007 11:53 am
Subject: Urgent - Write Letters in Support of Sami Al-Arian

Dear Friends,

I'm not sure if you've heard of Dr.Sami Al-Arian's latest conditions, but he
collapsed on the 23rd day of his hunger strike and has been moved from
Virginia to a medical facility in North Carolina. He has been on a hunger
strike since Jan. 22 for being "held in contempt" as a result of his refusal
to testify against other Muslim organizations before the Grand Jury in VA.

As you all know, Dr. Al-Arian was acquitted in December 2005 of 8 of 17
federal charges against him. The jury deadlocked on the rest, due to just
one or two individuals on the jury. Nevertheless, Dr. Al-Arian agreed to
plea guilty to one charge in agreement that he would then be deported to
leave the country. *During plea agreements, Dr. Al-Arian blatantly refused
the government's attempt to add a "cooperation provision," which would force
him to cooperate with the government on other cases. *

Nevertheless, in COMPLETE VIOLATION of the plea agreement, the government is
now forcing him to testify before the grand jury in VA on pre-trial cases
that are investigating other Muslim groups and individuals in VA. This is a
dirty tactic that the government has been using against Muslim prisoners
throughout the country ( i.e. the VA-11 case, Abdulhaleem
Al-Ashqar,
etc.). They're trying to psychologically intimidate prisoners, like Dr.
Al-Arian, into testifying against each other on dubious charges. Dr.
Al-Arian is refusing to testify out of principle. Thus, the judge is holding
him "in contempt," which prolongs his suffering and imprisonment for up to
18 months, whereas Dr. Al-Arian should be released by April, according to
the sentence (which was the maximum sentence the judge had the option of
imposing).

*Please send a letter, fax or email to the following four individuals: *

**

- *Honorable Judge Gerald Lee** **
**U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia **
**401 Courthouse Square**,** Alexandria, VA 22314*

- *Attorney General Alberto Gonzales** *
*Department of Justice *
*U.S.** Department of Justice*
*950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW*
*Washington**, DC 20530-0001*
*Fax Number: (202) 307-6777** *
*AskDOJ@usdoj.gov** *

- *The Honorable John Conyers, Jr** *
*2426 Rayburn Building *
*Washington** , DC 20515*
*(202) 225-5126*
*(202) 225-0072 Fax*
*John.Conyers@mail.house.gov*

- *Senator Patrick Leahy** *
*433 Russell Senate Office Building *
*United States** Senate*
*Washington** , DC 20510*
*(299029)224-4242 *
*senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov *

Heads Up presents: Occupation 101

2007-02-15T19:08:00.000-08:00

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge"

With this quote from Steven Hawking, the makers of Occupation 101 lay out a basic premise...that there is a dangerous amount of misinformation about the current situation in what they call the Holy Land and what many call Israel and Palestine, hand in hand with misinformation about the history that has lead to the current situation. When Occupation 101 screened in San Francisco as part of the Arab Film Fest, the filmmakers were available for Q&A following the film, and they said that they made the film with the USA and Europe particularly in mind, because it is in these places that the misinformation about the Holy Land is at it's worst.

Occupation 101 is a disturbing, gripping, and important film that presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions. The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the United States' role, and sheds light on the major obstacles which stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace.

On Tuesday, February 27, 2007, the Heads Up Collective is excited to screen Occupation 101 as part of our Televising the Revolution Radical Film series. The screening is a benefit forLeft Turn , an international network of activists committed to exposing and fighting the local and global consequences of capitalism and imperialism by amplifying voices of those on the frontlines of radical struggles for social justice and providing resources for strategy-building and reflection through Left Turn magazine, www.leftturn.org, and face-to-face forums.

You can view a trailer for the film at You Tube

And there’s a lot of information, including profiles of people interviewed, on the film’s website

Please join us on january 27, 2007, at 8 p.m. to watch this intense and incredible film, and to support the amazing, inspiring, and informative work of Left Turn. The film will be shown at El Rio, 3158 Mission St. @ Cesar Chavez, San Francisco. (the film is usually shown on the back patio, but in case of rain we move inside, so the event is rain or shine.)

Event is free, but it's a fundraiser so of course, donations accepted. Space is wheelchair accessible, but bathrooms are not. 21 and over. For more information, please contact radfilms@lycos.com

Racial and Economic Justice Calendar

2007-02-15T14:33:00.000-08:00

Short Calendar Items:

2/15: ACCC and Zawaya present "Out of Place: Memories of Edward Said" 6:30 pm; Arab Community and Cultural Center – 2 Plaza St. San Francisco, CA, 94116

2/21: A Day of Action across the country to stop stop TXU and their dirty financiers; 12:30-1:30; meet at the RAN offices at 221 Pine St and have a (loud) procession down two blocks to Merrill Lynch's corporate offices at 101 California St on the corner of California & Beale

2/20: Woodfin Town Hall Meeting 7-9pm; Emeryville Senior Center, 4321 Salem St., Emeryville, CA

2/21: press conference at 16TH AND MISSION STREETS, 12 NOON, to announce a resolution introduced by Supervisor Chris Daly to the SF Board of Supervisors denouncing the recent immigration raids

2/22: Debate at USF! Is the Pro Israel lobby a dominant factor in determining US Middle East policy? 7pm University of San Francisco, McLaren Conference Center, Room 250, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco

Yes: Dr. Hatem Bazian, Jeffrey Blankfort
No: As`ad AbuKhalil, aka: "The Angry Arab," Stephen Zunes

2/23: 7:00 PM WHO IS BOZO TEXINO? The Secret History of Hobo and Railworker Graffiti, Film Screening with film-maker, Bill Daniel, AK Press Warehouse / 674A 23rd Street, Oakland, Admission $5 (no one turned away for lack of funds)

2/25: Berkeley Screening "Legacy of Torture" Benefit for the SF 8 Black Panthers & Eric McDavid; Screening "Legacy of Torture" & "Battle of Algiers", 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM; The Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA (@Woolsey St.) $5-up sliding scale (no one turned away)

2/25 – 2/28: Grassroots, Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine, with Mohammed Khatib from Bil'in and Feryal Abu Haikal from Tel Rumeida Bay Area Tour, For more information visit www.norcalism.org

2/26: Report Back from the World Social Forum in Nairobi Kenya, 6:30-9pm
522 Valencia St. in the Mission District, San Francisco

2/27: Televising the Revolution Radical Film Series at El Rio, 3158 Mission St. @ Cesar Chavez, San Francisco, 8pm Showing the film "Occupation 101"; a benefit for Left Turn

3/17-3/18: 12th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair, March 17; This event is FREE. San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park, near Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way, San Francisco

4/28: sign up now to participate in SFWAR’s Walk Against Rape: see details at the end of the calendar.

**********
**********

**********
2/15:
ACCC and Zawaya present "Out of Place: Memories of Edward Said"
Thursday, February 15, 6:30 pm
Arab Community and Cultural Center – 2 Plaza St. San Francisco, CA, 94116

"Out of Place" traces the life and work of Edward Said (1935-2003), the Palestinian intellectual who wrote widely on history, literature, music, philosophy and politics. Filmed in Palestine, Lebanon, Egypt and the U.S., Out of Place is a fascinating biographical film on one of the most acclaimed cultural critics of the postwar world.

For more information call (415) 664-2200 ext. 19 or info@zawaya.org
**********

2/20:
Woodfin Town Hall Meeting
Tuesday, February 20th, 7-9pm
Emeryville Senior Center
4321 Salem St., Emeryville, CA

Six months ago, the housekeepers at the Woodfin Suites demanded their rights under Emeryville's living wage ordinance - Measure C. They were met with intimidation, and mass firings of worker leaders, putting the Woodfin at the local center of the national immigrant rights movement. Thanks you to all of you who walked the picket line, called city council, and sent in donations. Because of your actions workers are temporarily back at work!

However, workers continue to face harassment and disrespect on the job, and are owed over $160,000 in back pay. We need to continue to stand by the workers to improve working conditions at the Woodfin. The court injunction protecting workers' jobs will expire soon, and without community action, workers could again face mass firings.

Please join us for a Town Hall Meeting to:
Celebrate our recent victories
Hear housekeepers' testimony about current working conditions
Learn about the city's plans to investigate worker complaints and issue operating permits to compliant hotels.
Hear from immigration experts about the importance of the Woodfin struggle to the national campaign for comprehensive immigration reform.
Find out how you can be part of one of the most dynamic local movements for worker justice and immigrant rights.

For more information, or to RSVP, please contact Claire Haas at (510)
893-7106, ext. 27 or email chaas@workingeastbay.org.

**********
2/21

A Day of Action across the country to stop stop TXU and their dirty financiers.
Stop funding dirty coal!

*Please forward far and wide*

When: Wed, February 21st 12:30-1:30

Where: We will meet at the RAN offices at 221 Pine St and have a (loud) procession down two blocks to Merrill Lynch's corporate offices at 101 California St on the corner of California & Beale, just up from the Embarcadero Bart.

What: Billionaires of Coal will convene to show their enthusiastic support for Merrill Lynch's lead funding of TXU's coal-fired power plants, and to spread the message that if coal was good enough for the industrial revolution it's good enough for us now. Some coal (coal dust even better) deliveries to our fine financiers at Merrill Lynch, and maybe even some pretty flyering of the parking garage of 101 California.

Who: Anyone and everyone.

Contact: Nick at Education@ran.org; cell-419-283-2728

On Wednesday February 21st, activists with Rainforest Action Network are holding a day of action across the country to stop TXU and their dirty financiers.

Dallas-based utilities company TXU is proposing to build 11 new pulverized coal-fired power plants in the country's leading carbon polluter, Texas. TXU is seeking $11 billion in financing from the world's largest banks to build its polluting coal power plants. RAN's Global Finance Campaign is making sure that the bankers on Wall Street and around the world know that they should consider TXU a "No Go Project."

We'll be targeting the lead financial arrangers of dirty coal development - telling the banks "Stop Funding TXU's Dirty Energy" and "No New Coal Plants". We can stop Merrill Lynch and others from funding TXU's dirty coal plants and push them to support clean, renewable energy.

In San Francisco, we'll be targeting Merrill Lynch's offices in the financial district. Please come out and join us!!

For more info on the TXU project, check out http://dirtymoney.org/txu/

Thanks, Scott Parkin
Rainforest Action Network
Organizer, Global Finance Campaign
sparkin@ran.org

**********
2/21:

ICE (Immigration customs Enforcement, formerly known as the INS) has been conducting raids in San Francisco. Please join Deporten A La Migra, Supervisor Chris Daly, and many others at a press conference on WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, AT 16TH AND MISSION STREETS, 12 NOON, to announce a resolution introduced by Supervisor Chris Daly to the SF Board of Supervisors denouncing the recent immigration raids, and the week of protest February 26 to March 2 at the Immigration building in San Francisco.

Friends and allies,

Join the various immigrant rights organizations and coalitions to respond to, and resist, the recent immigration raids! No to the proposed guestworker program! Legalization for all! SEE ATTACHED FLYERS.

*WHAT: Week of protest against the raids, against guestworker programs, in support of legalization! Rallies, vigils, marches, etc. are planned! Immigrant communities coming from all over the Bay Area.

--Monday: Opening rally, community of faith.
--Tuesday: Regional Labor Councils, Labor leaders, day laborer centers of Northern California—immigrant rights are worker rights!
--Wednesday: We are families! Teachers, youth and children speak out!
--Thursday: We will not be criminalized!
--Friday: Closing rally, march to Congresswoman Pelosi’s office.

(Please come out as many days as you can, and bring people with you!)

*WHEN: February 26 – March 2; 11-1 everyday that week.

*WHERE: Homeland Security/ICE Building, 630 Sansome St., downtown San Francisco.

For more info, please feel free to call Renee at (415) 553-3404, or St. Peter’s Housing Committee at (415) 487-9203

**********

2/22: Debate at USF!

Is the Pro Israel lobby a dominant factor in determining US Middle East policy?

Yes:

Dr. Hatem Bazian is a senior lecturer in the Departments of Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies, and an adjunct professor of law at Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California at Berkeley.

Jeffrey Blankfort hosts public affairs programs, Connecting the Dots on KPOO in San Francisco and Takes on the World, on KZYX, the public radio station for Mendocino County. Also a long time observer of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the pro-Israel lobby.

No:

As`ad AbuKhalil, aka: "The Angry Arab," is a professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus.

Stephen Zunes is a professor of Politics at the University of San Francisco and the Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus."

Moderator: Khalil Bendib is a Berkeley-based political cartoonist and commentator as well as a producer and host of KPFA-94.1 FM radio's weekly show Voices of the Middle East and North Africa.

7 PM, February 22, 2007

University of San Francisco, McLaren Conference Center, Room 250, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco

Admission $20

For advance tickets, mail and make check payable to Global Information Services, 336 Bon Air Center, Suite 441, Greenbrae, CA 94904. Include your email address for your E-Ticket and confirmation. Contact Fred Shepherd at 415-459-8738 or altencon@aol.com. Due to extraordinary interest and limited capacity, advance ticketing
is recommended.

Sponsors: Global Information Services and Alternate Focus

**********
2/23
Friday, Feb. 23 at 7:00 PM
WHO IS BOZO TEXINO? The Secret History of Hobo and Railworker Graffiti
Film Screening with film-maker, Bill Daniel
AK Press Warehouse / 674A 23rd Street, Oakland, CA 94612
Admission $5 (no one turned away for lack of funds)

Shooting this film over a period of 16 years, Bill Daniel rode freights across the west gathering interviews and clues to the identities of many of the most legendary boxcar artists while discovering a vast underground folkloric practice that has existed for over a century. This spectacular travel adventure, faithfully photographed in realistic black and white film at considerable risk from speeding freight trains and in secret hobo jungles
in the dogged pursuit of the impossibly convoluted and heretofore untold history of the century-old folkloric practice known as hobo and railworker graffiti, will likely amuse and confound you in its sincere attempt to understand and preserve this mysterious art form.

For more information on the film, see:
http://www.akpress.org/2006/items/whoisbozotexinodvd

Also Screening:
BRITTON S. DAKOTA (9 mins.) by Portland-based filmmaker Vanessa Renwick.
Depression-era children are hypnotized by the camera in this re-discovered imagery from 1938.

SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM STORY (7 mins.) by Bill Daniel.
A video about SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM, a brutally honest protest film on
the Vietnam War made by a film student in 1970.

For more info:
AK Press
674 A 23rd Street
Oakland, CA 94612

Phone: (510) 208-1700
Fax: (510) 208-1701
**********

2/25

Berkeley Benefit for SF 8- 2/25 Screening "Legacy of Torture"
Benefit for the SF 8 Black Panthers & Eric McDavid; Screening "Legacy of Torture" & "Battle of Algiers"
Sunday February 25
6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
The Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA (@Woolsey St.)
$5-up sliding scale (no one turned away)

A screening of the new video about the SF 8 Black Panther grand jury resistors/arrestees. (see below for details.) This will be followed by the classic- Battle of Algiers. People will be on hand to answer questions on the SF 8, as well as offer an update Eric McDavid. There will be food, wine, & dessert. All proceeds will be split between the SF 8 & Eric McDAvid. Please show your support!

Legacy of Torture: The War Against The Black Liberation Movement

The same people who tried to kill me in 1973 are the same people who are here today, trying to destroy me. I mean it literally. I mean there were people from the forces of the San Francisco Police Department who participated in harassment, torture and my interrogation in 1973 ... none of these people have ever been brought to trial. None of these people have ever been charged with anything. None of these people have ever been
questioned about that. -- John Bowman, former Black Panther

In 2005 several former members of the Black Panther were held in contempt and jailed for refusing to testify before a San Francisco Grand Jury investigating a police shooting that took place in 1971. The government alleged that Black radical groups were involved in the 34-year old case in which two men armed with shotguns attacked the Ingleside Police Station resulting in the death of a police sergeant and the injuring of a civilian
clerk.

In 1973, thirteen alleged "Black militants" were arrested in New Orleans, purportedly in connection with the San Francisco events. Some of them were tortured for several days by law enforcement authorities, in striking similarity to the horrors visited upon detainees in Guant?namo and Abu Ghraib.

In 1975, a Federal Court in San Francisco threw out all of the evidence obtained in New Orleans.

The two lead San Francisco Police Department investigators from over 30 years ago, along with FBI agents, have re-opened the case. Rather than submit to proceedings they felt were abusive of the law and the Constitution, five men chose to stand in contempt of court and were sent to jail. They were released when the Grand Jury term expired, but have been told by prosecutors that "it isn't over yet."

For more information on their case, visit http://www.cdhrsupport.org
***********
2/25 – 2/28
Grassroots, Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine
with Mohammed Khatib from Bil'in and Feryal Abu Haikal from Tel Rumeida
Bay Area Tour - February 25th-28th
For more information visit www.norcalism.org

Feryal Abu Haikal and Mohammed Khatib live in communities that are immediately threatened with destruction and expulsion by the Israeli military and settlers. They will speak of their personal experiences mobilizing their communities to nonviolently resist these measures. Largely unreported by the media, thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis wage a grassroots, nonviolent campaign of resistance to Israel's apartheid system of military occupation and discrimination against Palestinians.

MOHAMMED KHATIB is a leading member of the Bil'in Village Popular Committee Against the Wall and the Secretary of the Bil'in Village Council in the West Bank. He has been a principle organizer of the two-year, creative nonviolent struggle in Bil'in to prevent the construction of Israel's Wall on Bil'in land and to block the expansion of neighboring Israeli settlements

FERYAL ABU HAIKAL recently retired after 11 years as the headmistress at Qurtuba School in the ancient heart of the West Bank city of Hebron. Despite settler attacks on students and staff, the Qurtuba School continues to function, serving as a model of nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation. A lifelong resident of Tel Rumeida,
Feryal remains in her home with her family despite continual Israeli settler attacks.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25TH, 2007, 2-5PM
Where: At the home of Alice and Frank Fried, 742 Palmora Court in Alameda Sponsored by: The Labor Committee for Peace and Justice & The Northern California Support Group for the International Solidarity Movement. Donations will be solicited. Generosity will be honored. For more information: 510.436.6125

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25TH, 2007, 2-5PM
Where: At the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Marin, 240 Channing Way in San Rafael Sponsored by: Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, Peaceworkers, the Peace and Social Concerns Committee of Marin Quakers, and the Social Concerns Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Marin Suggested donation: $5-7. No one turned away due to lack of funds. This event is wheelchair accessible.
For more information: 415.721.0703

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26TH, 2007, 7-9PM
Where: St. Mary's College Soda Center, Orinda Room, 1928 St. Mary's Road in Moraga
Sponsored by: St. Mary's College Department of Politics, the Department of Sociology, the Department of History, and Women's Studies
This event is free and open to the community and is wheel chair accessible.
For more information: plongo@stmarys-ca.edu, 925.631.4140

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH, 2007, 2-4PM
Where: At San Jose State University Student Union, Ohlone Room, 10th St. and San Antonio St. in San Jose Sponsored by: San Jose State University Students for Change, Justice for Palestinians
This event is free and open to the community and is wheel chair accessible.
For more information: studentsforchange@sbcglobal.net, 408.509.0488

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH, 2007, 7-9PM
Where: St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 405 South 10th St. in San Jose
Sponsored by: Northern California ISM, Justice for Palestinians
Suggested donation: $5-10. No one turned away due to lack of funds.
For more information: dbwall@earthlink.net , 408.293.4664 or 408.569.6608

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28TH, 2007, 7-9PM
Where: 145 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley in Berkeley
Sponsored by: UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine
This event is free and open to the community and is wheel chair accessible.
For more information: 510.236.4250
**********
2/26:
Report Back from the World Social Forum in Nairobi Kenya
Monday, February 26th 6:30-9pm
522 Valencia St. in the Mission District, San Francisco

This January over 60,000 social justice activists converged in Kenya for the 2007 World Social Forum. The WSF, initiated in 2001 in Porto Alegre, Brazil, brings together the global justice and solidarity movements in the name of "Another World Is Possible."

The Center for Political Education and Catalyst Project invite you to hear reflections, lessons, and analysis from:

*Teresa Almaguer from PODER (People Organized to Demand Environmental and Economic Rights)
*Clare Bayard from the Catalyst Project
*Colin Rajah from the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights
*Alicia Schwartz from POWER (People Organized to Win Employment Rights)

The Center for Political Education and Catalyst Project work to support and build vibrant, powerful left movements for justice.

The Center for Political Education is a resource for political organizations on the left, progressive movements, the working class and people of color. It is anchored by a collective of individuals active in day-to-day struggles in the Bay Area. Our political approach is non-sectarian, democratic, and committed to a critical analysis of local, regional, national and global politics.

Catalyst Project is a center for political education and movement building based in the San Francisco Bay Area. We do anti-racist work in majority white sections of left social movements with the goal of deepening anti-racist commitment in white communities and building multiracial left movements for liberation. We are committed to creating spaces for activists and organizers to collectively develop relevant theory, vision and strategy to build our movements. Catalyst programs prioritize leadership development, supporting grassroots fighting organizations and multiracial alliance building.

**********
2/27:
The Heads Up Collective presents
Televising the Revolution
a Radical Film Series
at El Rio, 3158 Mission St. @ Cesar Chavez, San Francisco

Tuesday, February 27th 8pm

Showing the film "Occupation 101"

'Occupation 101' is a disturbing, gripping, and important film that presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions. The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the United States' role, and sheds light on the major obstacles which stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. www.occupation101.com/

A Benefit for Left Turn

Left Turn is an international network of activists committed to exposing and fighting the local and global consequences of capitalism and imperialism by amplifying voices of those on the frontlines of radical struggles for social justice and providing resources for strategy-building and reflection through Left Turn magazine,
www.leftturn. org, and face-to-face forums.

Part of an ongoing monthly series showcasing radical films and supporting
local organizing. Films are shown on the patio at El Rio every month.

Event is free, but donations accepted. Space is wheelchair accessible, but
bathrooms are not. 21 and over. For more information, please contact
radfilms@lycos.com
**********
Robert Quihuis

Intertribal Friendship House
523 International Blvd.
Oakland, CA 94606

February 12, 2007

Dear Friends,

I am writing you this letter because Intertribal Friendship House, IFH, in facing being placed on the auction block in March of this year. IFH is the oldest American Indian Urban community center in this country. IFH started out as a place for American Indians from all over the country to meet and see one another after they were relocated to the Bay Area during the 1940's through the 1960's as a way of having American Indians leave the reservation and assimilate. This effort by the United States government did not work. The American Friends Service Committee was instrumental in working with
the Native community in the Bay Area and were the ones that gave IFH its original home. Over the last 50 years Intertribal Friendship House has continued to provide services to the Native population in the Bay Area. All of the Native agency's in the Bay Area have had its roots at IFH, before spinning off and starting off on their own. IFH
continues to be a place that all Natives are welcome, whether it's a place to sit and have a cup of coffee to find out about the latest community events, attend a celebration or funeral or to have ceremonies. IFH continues to be the heartbeat of the community.
Weekly dance and drumming classes continue to take place, as well as beading classes and community dinners and meetings. We need to have this place continue to be open for our future generations.

Intertribal Friendship House is in need of your financial support. We have the daunting task of raising $30,000 by March 23rd. The money is for current and back taxes. Although the community has a need to keep our house open, we do not have the finances to do so without your help. We are asking for you to send a donation and to send this
letter forward to at least 10 of your friends. If we have 300 people contribute $100 dollars we will have met our goal. We understand if you are unable to contribute this amount, but we will literally take any amount that you are able to give at this time. Please assist us in being able to have a place in the community where our children can
have a place that they are safe and have the ability to learn about their traditions.

Donations can be made to Intertribal Friendship House
523 International Blvd.
Oakland, CA 94606

We are a non-profit organization so all donations tax exempt. 501 (c) 3 C0345166

If you would prefer, you can send your donation to IFH c/o Community
Bank of the Bay, 1750 Broadway Oakland, CA 94612 IFH tax acct # 0160004867
**********
3/17-18
12th Annual Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair
March 17 (10am-6pm) & March 18 (11am-5pm), 2007
This event is FREE.
San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate
Park, near Ninth Avenue and Lincoln Way, San Francisco

http://www.bayareaanarchistbookfair.org for directions
and more information.

The Anarchist Bookfair has been a San Francisco tradition for over a decade, and has become one of the largest annual gatherings of anarchists and radical books in the world. With so much to do and see, the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair has expanded into two days for 2007.
Over 50 vendors from the bay area and throughout the US will be selling radical books, DVDs, t-shirts, artwork and other items you won’t find anywhere else.
Speakers throughout the day include revolutionary feminist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, poet and author Michelle Tea, Native American activist and historian Ward Churchill, radical love advocate Wendy-o Matik, James Kelman speaking on "Uhmerka: Identity and the Radical Tradition, speaking as a Furrnir," street artist Josh Macphee, award winning filmmaker Saul Landau, and community activists Chris Carlsson, who helped launch Critical Mass, Stephen Dunifer, founder of Free Radio Berkely, and Keith McHenry, co-founder of Food Not Bombs. There will also be panel discussions on issues ranging from
community organizing to radical book publishing.
Last year, during the 11th Annual Anarchist Bookfair in March 2006, over four thousand people–from every walk of life, locals from San Francisco and visitors from around the world–enjoyed good conversation, speakers, art, and of course..books!
The plans for the event also include a cafe, spoken word presentations, kid & family space, free bike valet and an art gallery.
**********
4/28:

San Francisco Walk Against Rape
A Tribute to Sexual Assault Awareness Month
Saturday, April 28, 2007 10 AM
Start: Justin Herman Plaza
Finish: Mission Dolores Park

Dear Friends!

I am writing to invite you to San Francisco Women Against Rape's
Second Annual Walk Against Rape.

Walk Against Rape 2006 was an amazing success with a walker turnout of over 300 people. We hope this event will grow every year as more folks become involved in San Francisco's primary way of raising awareness around issues of sexual violence. As part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, Walk Against Rape is a 5 K walk starting at 10 AM at Justin Herman Plaza and culminating in the after Walk event at Mission Dolores Park. In the park there will be a wealth of art and performances, the clothesline project on display, food and drinks, music, community organizations and speakers. It will be a day that you will never forget! It will also be chance for you to meet SFWAR board, staff and volunteers and learn more about the work that you make possible by your support.

Please join the communities of San Francisco to raise awareness around sexual assault and support San Francisco Women Against Rape, the city's only community based rape crisis center. Let's walk together towards a world without rape!

How you can participate in this incredible community event:

1) Register to walk individually or with your friends- Gather your friends together and walk as a team! Set a high collective fundraising goal and motivate each other to reach it. Use the enclosed brochure to ask people to sponsor you. If you need more brochures for friends or family, just call or email Janet Upadhye at janetupadhye@sfwar.org, 415-861-2024.

2) Walk with your co-workers- We encourage you to spread the word at work and enjoy the walk with your co-workers! Represent your company and walk as a team. Ask your employer if they will match the funds you raise for the Walk. The enclosed brochure will help you get started, and don't forget, we will proudly display your team name on our banner!

With registration you will receive a t-shirt and be eligible for prizes. Registration takes place the morning of the Walk. Just bring your sponsorship form and the donations you have collected. Coffee, bagels, and snacks will be provided in the morning during registration. If you would like more information or sponsorship forms, please do not hesitate to contact us at 415-861-2024 or email us at janetupadhye@sfwar.org. We hope
to see you there!

Build Community! End Rape!
Thank you for your time and support,

Janet Upadhye

Development Director
San Francisco Women Against Rape

Appeal for support for Oakland's Intertribal Friendship House

2007-02-15T13:50:00.000-08:00

Intertribal Friendship House
523 International Blvd.
Oakland, CA 94606

February 12, 2007

Dear Friends,

I am writing you this letter because Intertribal Friendship House,
IFH, in facing being placed on the auction block in March of this
year. IFH is the oldest American Indian Urban community center in
this country. IFH started out as a place for American Indians from
all over the country to meet and see one another after they were
relocated to the Bay Area during the 1940's through the 1960's as a
way of having American Indians leave the reservation and assimilate.
This effort by the United States government did not work. The
American Friends Service Committee was instrumental in working with
the Native community in the Bay Area and were the ones that gave IFH
its original home. Over the last 50 years Intertribal Friendship
House has continued to provide services to the Native population in
the Bay Area. All of the Native agency's in the Bay Area have had its
roots at IFH, before spinning off and starting off on their own. IFH
continues to be a place that all Natives are welcome, whether it's a
place to sit and have a cup of coffee to find out about the latest
community events, attend a celebration or funeral or to have
ceremonies. IFH continues to be the heartbeat of the community.
Weekly dance and drumming classes continue to take place, as well as
beading classes and community dinners and meetings. We need to have
this place continue to be open for our future generations.

Intertribal Friendship House is in need of your financial support. We
have the daunting task of raising $30,000 by March 23rd. The money is
for current and back taxes. Although the community has a need to keep
our house open, we do not have the finances to do so without your
help. We are asking for you to send a donation and to send this
letter forward to at least 10 of your friends. If we have 300 people
contribute $100 dollars we will have met our goal. We understand if
you are unable to contribute this amount, but we will literally take
any amount that you are able to give at this time. Please assist us
in being able to have a place in the community where our children can
have a place that they are safe and have the ability to learn about
their traditions.

Donations can be made to Intertribal Friendship House
523 International Blvd.
Oakland, CA 94606

We are a non-profit organization so all donations tax exempt.
501 (c) 3 C0345166

If you would prefer, you can send your donation to IFH c/o Community
Bank of the Bay,
1750 Broadway Oakland, CA 94612 IFH tax acct # 0160004867

Update on SF 8 court appearance

2007-02-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

San Francisco 8 strong in court appearance
February 15 - SF Bayview

by Claude Marks and Cynthia Nelson

In a significant showing of support, family and
friends of four of the San Francisco 8 packed the
San Francisco courtroom of Judge Little on
Wednesday. The Healing Circle, a group of Black
parents who have lost loved ones to violence,
were the most visible assembly. They carried
signs bearing the names of those they had lost,
questioning the City?s pursuit of these ancient
cases ? against men who worked with youngsters to
stop the violence ? while it closes the
investigations into their children?s killings.

Many people were unable to get into the
overflowing courtroom. And despite the usual
metal detectors and bag searches at the entrance
to the building, those entering the courtroom
were again scanned with metal detector wands.
As the four ? Ray Boudreaux, Richard Brown, Hank
Jones and Richard O?Neal ? were brought into the
courtroom in shackles, supporters burst into
applause, long and loud. The judge immediately
halted the proceedings, and the large showing of
sheriff?s and SWAT officers cleared the
courtroom. Supporters filled the hallway outside
Department 12 chanting, ?No justice, no peace.?
Defense attorneys objected to closing a public
hearing and the judge agreed to let people back
into court if they agreed not to be noisy, but
only after every individual was again searched by
sheriff?s deputies and wanded.

Unlike their previous court appearances since the
arrests in January, the men were shackled in
court, and close to a dozen sheriff?s deputies
and SWAT officers were inside the courtroom. The
hearing opened with defense attorneys arguing
against the redundant wanding at the courtroom
entrance and for the unshackling of the brothers
as ?they represent no threat to the court or the public.?

They pointed out that the men had appeared
voluntarily and without need of such extensive
police presence during the 2005 San Francisco
Grand Jury and that the shackling and heavy
security were prejudicial ? especially feeding
the sensationalist coverage of the corporate
media. The court agreed to hear security issues
in a future meeting with the sheriff and lawyers.

None of the men have yet entered pleas in the
conspiracy and murder case stemming from the
killing of a San Francisco police officer at the
Ingleside Police Station in August of 1971. The
defense called for full disclosure of government
documents, some of which were described as
inaccurate and inflammatory. Some government
documents had been presented to the court in
secret hearings outside the presence of defense
attorneys, where they could not be contested.
Although there has yet to be a formal bail
hearing, Judge Little did lower the outrageous
bail for Ray Boudreaux and Hank Jones from $5
million to $3 million ? still outrageous ?
equalized to the bail for Richard Brown and
Richard O?Neal. A formal hearing on their bail as
well as other motions was scheduled for Tuesday, March 13.

?Today?s court appearance was significant in a
number of ways,? explained attorney Stuart
Hanlon. ?The strong public support for the four
men in court was a powerful reminder that these
men are part of their communities and are not criminals.

?The attorney general?s comments made clear that
they (the state prosecutors) want to keep these
men in jail on high bail and that they will make
excuses to explain the 35-year delay in bringing
this case.? California?s attorney general is now
Jerry Brown, former governor, who was until last month mayor of Oakland.

?It was made clear to us that this is the
beginning skirmish of a legal war with high
stakes ? the freedom of these eight former
Panthers and the rewriting of political history
by the government criminalizing the Black Panther
Party and African American freedom fighters from
the ?60s and ?70s. It is a war we will win and
that we have to win. And it is a war where the
support of the community, in and out of court, is crucial.?
The brothers seemed strong and in good spirits.

Claude Marks, founder and director of Freedom
Archives, can be reached at
claude@freedomarchives.org.
Cynthia Nelson, journalism graduate student at
New College and intern at the Bay View, can be
reached at cynthianellie@gmail.com.

Corporate media coverage of SF 8 2/14/07
http://www.ktvu.com/news/11013294/detail.html
http://cbs5.com/video/?id=20798@kpix.dayport.com
http://www.kron.com/global/video/popup/pop_player.asp?clipid1=1238673&at1=News&vt1=v&h1=Judge+Clears+Courtroom+for+Police+Murder+Hearing&d1=128700&redirUrl=www.kron.com&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&playerVersion=1&hostPageUrl=http%3A//www.kron.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp%3Fclipid1%3D1238673%26at1%3DNews%26vt1%3Dv%26h1%3DJudge+Clears+Courtroom+for+Police+Murder+Hearing%26d1%3D128700%26redirUrl%3Dwww.kron.com%26activePane%3Dinfo%26LaunchPageAdTag%3Dhomepage&rnd=62457749

Berkeley Benefit for SF 8- 2/25 Screening "Legacy of Torture"
Benefit for the SF 8 Black Panthers & Eric
McDavid; Screening "Legacy of Torture" & "Battle of Algiers"
Sunday February 25
6:00 PM - 10:00 PM
The Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley, CA (@Woolsey St.)
$5-up sliding scale (no one turned away)

A screening of the new video about the SF 8 Black Panther grand jury
resistors/arrestees. (see below for details.) This will be followed by the
classic- Battle of Algiers. People will be on hand to answer questions on
the SF 8, as well as offer an update Eric McDavid. There will be food,
wine, & dessert. All proceeds will be split between the SF 8 & Eric McDAvid.
Please show your support!

Legacy of Torture:
The War Against The Black Liberation Movement

The same people who tried to kill me in 1973 are the same people who are
here today, trying to destroy me. I mean it literally. I mean there were
people from the forces of the San Francisco Police Department who
participated in harassment, torture and my interrogation in 1973 ... none
of these people have ever been brought to trial. None of these people have
ever been charged with anything. None of these people have ever been
questioned about that. -- John Bowman, former Black Panther

In 2005 several former members of the Black Panther were held in contempt
and jailed for refusing to testify before a San Francisco Grand Jury
investigating a police shooting that took place in 1971. The government
alleged that Black radical groups were involved in the 34-year old case in
which two men armed with shotguns attacked the Ingleside Police Station
resulting in the death of a police sergeant and the injuring of a civilian
clerk.

In 1973, thirteen alleged "Black militants" were arrested in New Orleans,
purportedly in connection with the San Francisco events. Some of them were
tortured for several days by law enforcement authorities, in striking
similarity to the horrors visited upon detainees in Guant?namo and Abu
Ghraib.

In 1975, a Federal Court in San Francisco threw out all of the evidence
obtained in New Orleans.

The two lead San Francisco Police Department investigators from over 30
years ago, along with FBI agents, have re-opened the case. Rather than
submit to proceedings they felt were abusive of the law and the
Constitution, five men chose to stand in contempt of court and were sent
to jail. They were released when the Grand Jury term expired, but have
been told by prosecutors that "it isn't over yet."

For more information on their case, visit http://www.cdhrsupport.org

Week of Action in protest of ICE raids in SF and to oppose guest worker legislation

2007-02-15T13:18:00.000-08:00

**please repost**

ICE (Immigration customs Enforcement, formerly known as the INS) has been conducting raids in San Francisco. Please join Deporten A La Migra, Supervisor Chris Daly, and many others at a
press conference on WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, AT 16TH AND MISSION STREETS, 12 NOON, to announce a resolution introduced by Supervisor Chris Daly to the SF Board of Supervisors denouncing the recent immigration raids, and the week of protest February 26 to March 2 at the Immigration building in San Francisco.

Friends and allies,

Join the various immigrant rights organizations and coalitions to respond to, and resist, the recent immigration raids! No to the proposed guestworker program! Legalization for all! SEE ATTACHED FLYERS.

*WHAT: Week of protest against the raids, against guestworker programs, in support of legalization! Rallies, vigils, marches, etc. are planned! Immigrant communities coming from all over the Bay Area.

--Monday: Opening rally, community of faith.
--Tuesday: Regional Labor Councils, Labor leaders, day laborer centers of Northern California—immigrant rights are worker rights!
--Wednesday: We are families! Teachers, youth and children speak out!
--Thursday: We will not be criminalized!
--Friday: Closing rally, march to Congresswoman Pelosi’s office.

(Please come out as many days as you can, and bring people with you!)

*WHEN: February 26 – March 2; 11-1 everyday that week.

*WHERE: Homeland Security/ICE Building, 630 Sansome St., downtown San Francisco.

For more info, please feel free to call me at (415) 553-3404, or St. Peter’s Housing Committee at (415) 487-9203

Renee Saucedo

Grassroots Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine tour

2007-02-14T07:32:00.000-08:00

***Please repost***

Grassroots, Nonviolent Resistance in Palestine
with Mohammed Khatib from Bil'in and Feryal Abu Haikal from Tel Rumeida
Bay Area Tour - February 25th-28th
For more information visit www.norcalism.org

Feryal Abu Haikal and Mohammed Khatib live in communities that are immediately threatened with destruction and expulsion by the Israeli military and settlers. They will speak of their personal experiences mobilizing their communities to nonviolently resist these measures. Largely unreported by the media, thousands of Palestinians and hundreds of Israelis wage a grassroots, nonviolent campaign of resistance to Israel's apartheid system of military occupation and discrimination against Palestinians.

MOHAMMED KHATIB is a leading member of the Bil'in Village Popular Committee Against the Wall and the Secretary of the Bil'in Village Council in the West Bank. He has been a principle organizer of the two-year, creative nonviolent struggle in Bil'in to prevent the construction of Israel's Wall on Bil'in land and to block the expansion of neighboring Israeli settlements

FERYAL ABU HAIKAL recently retired after 11 years as the headmistress at Qurtuba School in the ancient heart of the West Bank city of Hebron. Despite settler attacks on students and staff, the Qurtuba School continues to function, serving as a model of nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation. A lifelong resident of Tel Rumeida, Feryal remains in her home with her family despite continual Israeli settler attacks.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25TH, 2007, 2-5PM
Where: At the home of Alice and Frank Fried, 742 Palmora Court in Alameda
Sponsored by: The Labor Committee for Peace and Justice & The Northern
California Support Group for the International Solidarity Movement.
Donations will be solicited. Generosity will be honored.
For more information: 510.436.6125

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 25TH, 2007, 2-5PM
Where: At the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Marin, 240
Channing Way in San Rafael
Sponsored by: Dominican Sisters of San Rafael, Peaceworkers, the Peace
and Social Concerns Committee of Marin Quakers, and the Social
Concerns Committee of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Marin
Suggested donation: $5-7. No one turned away due to lack of funds.
This event is wheelchair accessible.
For more information: 415.721.0703

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 26TH, 2007, 7-9PM
Where: St. Mary's College Soda Center, Orinda Room, 1928 St. Mary's
Road in Moraga
Sponsored by: St. Mary's College Department of Politics, the
Department of Sociology, the Department of History, and Women's
Studies
This event is free and open to the community and is wheel chair accessible.
For more information: plongo@stmarys-ca.edu, 925.631.4140

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH, 2007, 2-4PM
Where: At San Jose State University Student Union, Ohlone Room, 10th
St. and San Antonio St. in San Jose
Sponsored by: San Jose State University Students for Change, Justice
for Palestinians
This event is free and open to the community and is wheel chair accessible.
For more information: studentsforchange@sbcglobal.net, 408.509.0488

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27TH, 2007, 7-9PM
Where: St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 405 South 10th St. in San Jose
Sponsored by: Northern California ISM, Justice for Palestinians
Suggested donation: $5-10. No one turned away due to lack of funds.
For more information: dbwall@earthlink.net , 408.293.4664 or 408.569.6608

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28TH, 2007, 7-9PM
Where: 145 Dwinelle Hall, UC Berkeley in Berkeley
Sponsored by: UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine
This event is free and open to the community and is wheel chair accessible.
For more information: 510.236.4250

Hedges on Dr. Sami al-Arian

2007-02-14T07:29:00.000-08:00

"In George Bush's America there is no place for activists or dissidents. And when they finish with those on the margins of our society they will turn, if we let them, on the rest of us. " (from below article)

Chris Hedges, the article's author is a former NY Times Middle East correspondent:

The Road Map to Despotism

By Chris Hedges | 02.11.2007
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070211_the_roadmap_to_despotism/

Editor's note: Despite spending an estimated $80 million, the government was unable to prove that Dr. Sami Al-Arian was a terrorist, yet he remains in prison and his sentence will likely be extended. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges warns that the abusive imprisonment of this nonviolent Palestinian dissenter does not bode well for the rest of us.

Professor Sami Al-Arian, whose persecution and show trial are parts of a long string of egregious acts of injustice perpetrated by the Bush administration, has been on a hunger strike since Jan. 22 to protest the prolongation of his imprisonment.

Al-Arian's travels through the halls of American justice, and now the subterranean corridors of the nation's Stygian prison system, reads like a bad rip-off of Kafka. Al-Arian was acquitted on eight of the 17 counts against him by a Florida jury, which deadlocked on the rest. He agreed to plead guilty to one of the remaining charges four months later in exchange for being released and deported. The judge gave Al-Arian as much prison time as possible under a plea deal—57 months at his sentencing. He was set to be released this April, something that now appears unlikely.

The trial was a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration's drive to turn the American judicial system into kangaroo courts. Over the six-month trial a parade of 80 witnesses, including 21 from Israel, attempted to brand the Florida professor as a terrorist. The government submitted thousands of documents, phone interceptions and physical surveillance culled from 12 years of investigations. The trial cost taxpayers an estimated $80 million. The 94 charges against Al-Arian and his co-defendants resulted in no convictions. But because Al-Arian has twice refused to testify before a grand jury in Virginia in a case involving a Muslim think tank, he has now been charged with contempt of court. The date of his release could be extended by as much as 18 months.

Al-Arian, who is a diabetic, began a hunger strike in response.

"I believe that freedom and human dignity are more precious than life itself," he said in a telephone interview from Northern Neck Regional Jail in Warsaw, Va. "In, essence I am taking a principled stand that I am willing to endure whatever it takes to win my freedom.

"I am still OK," he said. "I have lost 26 pounds by today. It's definitely not easy, but I am determined to continue. It's not a decision you make haphazardly or something that you take lightly. In the end, you have to make difficult decisions because of the larger cause. I drink four large cups of water a day, about 12 ounces each."

Dr. Al-Arian said he will remain on a hunger strike until the government ends its campaign against him and allows him to return to his wife and children.

The case and continued harassment sets a dangerous precedent for American Muslims, who since 9/11 have been monitored, detained and deported in large numbers. But it bodes ill for the rest of us as well. The new legislation suspending habeas corpus and creating the possibility of legally stripping U.S. citizens of their right to a fair and timely trial is a taste of what awaits us all should we enter a period of instability or national crisis. In many ways the assault against Al-Arian is an assault against the judicial system that lies like a barrier between us and despotism.

"Much of the government's evidence against me were speeches I gave, lectures I presented, articles I wrote, magazines I edited, books I owned, conferences I convened, rallies I attended, interviews I conducted, news I heard and websites no one accessed...In one instance, the evidence consisted of a conversation that one of my co-defendants had with me in his dream," he said. "It was reminiscent of the thought crime of Orwell's ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four.' The scary part was not that these were offered into evidence, but that a federal judge admitted them. That's why I am so proud of the jury, who acted as the free people that they were and saw through Big Brother's tactics.

"I've been to nine prisons in nine months," he explained. "I spent the first 23 months in Coleman Federal Penitentiary, where the conditions were Guantanamo-plus, that is they were like those of the detainees in Guantanamo Bay ‘plus' one phone call a month and visits with my family behind glass. I was in a nine-foot-by-eight-foot cell, where I was held under 23-hour lockdown. During the first few months, they wouldn't even allow me to exercise unless I was strip-searched, which I refused to submit to, so I was inside 24 hours. During the first month, I was allowed only one 15-minute phone call, and for six months after that I was not allowed to make any calls.

"I was shackled and handcuffed every single time I left my cell for any reason," he said. "When I needed to take my legal papers for meetings with my attorney, the guards would not carry them for me, even though they did for other prisoners. Though I was shackled, they forced me to carry them on my back, as I was bent over. I had to walk like that for half a mile. I should also mention the use of fire alarms in trying to disrupt life. In the Special Housing Unit [SHU], a punitive section of the prison where I was the only pretrial detainee, alarms and emergency sirens would go off 15 to 20 times every single day, at 12 a.m., 2 p.m., any time of the day. It was a deafening noise that would continue for five to 10 minutes. It was clearly deliberate. In the SHU, commissary was almost nonexistent. All they offered was potato chips, whereas in the general compound everything was available. The SHU was designed for disciplinary purposes, not for housing a pretrial detainee.

"Not only did they place me in the SHU, but they imposed additional restrictions on me," he went on. "For instance, everybody else was granted contact visits, while I had to see my family behind glass. They also insisted on strip-searching me before and after these behind-the-glass visits. In May 2003, my wife drove two hours to see me, but they denied her the visit when I would not submit to a strip search."

Al-Arian is a Palestinian. The injustice meted out to him in America is writ large in the Middle East. He has no passport, no home, no country. He must live on the charity of others, stateless, as most Palestinians are, and without the rights of the citizens around him. He once thought America would be his home. He was, before this charade, in the process of gaining citizenship. All this is over. In George Bush's America there is no place for activists or dissidents. And when they finish with those on the margins of our society they will turn, if we let them, on the rest of us.

First Post!

2007-02-12T12:29:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Heads Up blog! We will post the Racial and Economic Justice Calendars that we email to our outreach list here, as well as the list of recomended articles and analysis that we email out once a month.

In addition, we'll be using this space for additional articles and news, for emergency alerts and calendar items that don't make it onto the claendar, and for other items relevant to our collective work.

comments welcome!