2012

I am here on behalf of The Native Youth Sexual Health Network, an organization that works across the United States and Canada on all issues of sexual and reproductive health, rights, and justice by and for Indigenous youth.

We would like to congratulate Chief Ed John on his appointment as Chair to the Permanent
Forum on Indigenous Issues and look forward to working with you for the advancement of the
rights of Indigenous youth and women. We thank you and all the Permanent Forum members as well as our allies, brothers, and sisters in this room for the support you have shown towards us and other Indigenous youth for our participation during this 11th session.

The Native Youth Sexual Health Network affirms the importance of taking a culturally safe,
rights-based approach of sexual and reproductive health as an integral part of ending violence
against Indigenous women and girls. We reclaim healthy sexuality as a central part of ending
sexual violence, as well as all other forms of violence. As taught by Mohawk midwife Katsi
Cook; “Woman Is The First Environment”.

We wish to remind those present that the ongoing, widespread shaming and blaming of sexuality today is directly linked to the underlying philosophy and legal framework of the Doctrine of Discovery, which in turn creates the structural conditions that lead to violence against Indigenous women and girls. Instead, we call for the reclamation of Indigenous understandings of gender and sexuality fluidity. Such understandings are rooted in self-determination and cultural practices; including coming of age ceremonies and rites of passage, which affirm the traditional knowledge of Indigenous peoples over our own bodies and related control of our own reproductive health.

In accordance with article 7 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and as
recommended by the Report of the Expert Group Meeting on combating Violence against
Indigenous Women and Girls, we call for greater investigation of the links between increasing
rates of suicide and inadequate supports given to young women facing situations of violence. Supporting self-determination in experiences of violence means empowering women
to make their own decisions. We also recommend particular focus be given to the high rates of
suicide among young Two-Spirit and transgendered women as forms of violence that are
currently being overlooked. The self-determined gender expression of Indigenous Peoples, for
example, the freedom to identify as Two-Spirit, is something to be celebrated - not criminalized.

Incarceration of Indigenous women in the prison system is a particular threat to the foundation
of reproductive health and justice for Indigenous women and girls. The incarceration of our
bodies is the incarceration of our reproductive health, such as the unacceptable practice of
shackling women who are incarcerated during pregnancy, labor and birth. Such control sets the stage for the further violations of the rights of Indigenous women.

The increasing rates of incarceration require immediate action as they are a continued form of
institutional and structural violence from the state. We agree with the findings of the EGM report that highlight the need for increased support of Indigenous systems of justice. However we are concerned with the over policing and under protection of Indigenous peoples when state police systems and criminal justice are involved, and often directly responsible for violence.

Therefore, we support the submission to the Committee on All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) from Indigenous women from the Vancouver Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre and the Native Women’s Association of Canada which highlights the over 800 missing and murdered Indigenous women across Canada and calls for a UN inquiry under CEDAW’s optional protocol into these cases, which have gone under- or un-investigated for far too long. Furthermore, we denounce the provincial Missing Women’s Inquiry in British Columbia which denied the full, equal, and effective participation of Indigenous women who experience violence while allowing authorities responsible for the lack of due process to be overrepresented.

Similarly we support the Violence Against Women Re-Authorization Act (VAWA) currently
before Congress in the United States, and that it be passed with the full inclusion of tribal
provisions, which calls for the self-determination of Indigenous communities over the decisions
of justice on violence that happens on tribal lands. In this regard, we support the attached joint
submission to the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Prof. James Anaya, entitled, “Self-Determination and Self-Government: Using the UN Declaration to End Violence Against Native Women” by the Indian Law Resource Center, the National Congress of American Indians Task Force on Violence Against Women, the National Indigenous Women’s Resources Centre, Inc. and Clan Star, Inc. The enactment of tribal provisions in VAWA is sound practice that supports self-determination through restoring of Tribal jurisdiction including over non-Indigenous peoples and the rights of Indigenous women through implementation of the UN Declaration.

We also call for recognition of the need for a broader definition of the expansion of what is
considered ‘violence’ pertaining to Indigenous peoples.

For example, a central driving force of the HIV epidemic for Indigenous women includes new
forms of colonial manifestations of violence. As identified in paragraph 25 of the Expert Group
Meeting, there is a need to address disproportionately higher rates of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections in women and girls. In fact, there is minimal culturally specific
HIV/AIDS support and resources for Indigenous women and youth that supports a harm
reduction approach. There is still a need to reduce stigma and fear; while the global epidemic of HIV/AIDS rates are decreasing, these rates are increasing for Indigenous peoples, specifically Indigenous women.

As read by our sister Andrea Carmen and submitted by the International Indian Treaty Council, we affirm the 2nd report and declaration of “Our Health, Life and Defense of Our Lands, Rights and Future Generations” from the 2nd Indigenous Women’s Reproductive and Environmental Health gathering in Alaska in April 2012 in which we were also a participating organization.

This report includes particular concerns around environmental violence and how it relates to
increased sexual violence and the overall assault to our Mother Earth through resource extractive industries.

One particular aspect of environmental violence that affects the overall health and well-being of Indigenous women and future generations is inadequate access and culturally unsafe
reproductive health services and resources for Indigenous women. Due to the lack of appropriate options, conditions are created for increased experiences of violence within the industrialized medical system. This can include a lack of access to traditional and ceremonial services such as traditional midwifery.

In closing, we recommend that the Permanent Forum work with other UN bodies and
mechanisms that work on sexual and reproductive rights and health to apply this set of rights
specifically to Indigenous peoples, with particular attention to young Indigenous women and
girls. We call upon UN agencies, states and Indigenous peoples to advance the sexual and
reproductive health, rights, and justice of Indigenous peoples – this is not an issue that is the sole responsibility of Indigenous women and girls. If woman is indeed the first environment, then this is everyone’s responsibility.

Thank you.

This Statement was written on behalf of The Native Youth Sexual Health Network, on 10 May 2012 at the Eleventh Session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 7-18 May 2012 regarding Agenda Item 4: Report on the expert group meeting: combating violence against indigenous women and girls, article 22 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Space is limited--Please register at www.sfhealthyaging.org, or call 415-355-6775 

Espanol sigue/ Scroll down for English

30 Abril, 2012

Mi nombre es Ingrid de leon
Madre hija y hermana, tia sobrina
Sobre viviendo de las injusticias y
El sufrimiento de la vida por el hecho de ser mujer.

Yo recuerdo de niña recibiendo patadas, cachetadas, gritos y
un lazo golpeando me en la espalda. Una vara se quebraba en mis canillas y en voz fuerte gritando me: “Yo no soy tu padre pendeja para mantenerte”
Mis papas me vestían bien, puedo decir, siempre use zapatos de cuero y calcetas para proteger mis pies, por que mi salud era muy delicada…todo estaba bien cuando mi padre vivía.

Pero el sufrimiento empezó cuando mi padre falleció

El maltrato cada dia era mas y mas por los celos de mi hermano porque pensaba que yo era la hija preferida de mi papa, todos mis hermanos usaban zapatos y botas de plástico.
Pasaron unos años y yo quería salir de mi pobreza. Queriendo hacer algo por mi propia cuenta me fui a la Capital de la Ciudad de Guatemala y estaba contenta por el trabajo que tenia, que era limpiar la casa, cocinar, y yo vivía en esta casa ‘tranquila’.

Hasta que me encontré con lo peor de la vida, quien iba pensar que estando en una casa correría peligro? Pero a veces la casa se convierte en una jaula donde no te puedes escapar por ser mujer. Un Viejo abuso de mi, violándome como si yo hubiese sido un animal, me amarro las manos y la boca. Desde ese dia lloré por haber nacido mujer y por no ser pobre, y por eso me fui de esa casa. No salía a la calle por miedo de que alguien me hiciera mas daño. Era horrible sentirme como un papel de baño que se usa y se tira ya manchado al basurero.
Llore y me dije no debí haber nacido y sentía que ya no tenia sentido seguir con vida. Pensaba que hubiera sido mejor no tener alma ni corazón para no sentir dolor ni culpa por ser mujer. Necesitaba desahogarme y decir lo que me atormentaba pero por vergüenza de lo que diría la gente no me atrevía a decir nada. Si le digo a mi mama, que va pensar de mi? Era la pregunta dentro de mi Corazon dia a dia. Después de un tiempo me case con un hombre mayor que yo, pensando que me trataría bien, pero me equivoqué, el maltrato fue mas que cuando me quede sin mi padre. Seguía sufriendo el maltrato de mi esposo(ahora ex) y el abuso de el porque el decía, “con Dios no existe el divorcio”

Regrese a la casa de mi madre y las cosas empeoraron pues ya no estava sola. Segun mi cultura la mujer pierde su valor cuando tiene hijos sin estar casada o si se queda sin esposo .
Solo valemos y merecemos respeto de la gente si tenemos a un hombre a nuestro lado. Por eso seguí llorando por el echo de ser mujer y sin valor y sin futuro.
Yo no savia que hacer solo agarraba mas coraje con migo, yo no quería ser yo. Mas coraje me daba por no poder cambiar el ver nacido. Todos los díaz renunciaba a la vida, no solo por eso, también porque mi hermana siempre me hacía quedar mal con mi mama diciendo mentiras de mi, me dolía porque paresia que nadie me amaba. Empecé a golpearme yo sola, cada dia mas y mas. Quería cortar mi cuerpo, sacar mi Corazon y enseñarle a mi familia y a la gente que yo no era mala persona. Me mordía los brazos me arrancaba el cabello y muchas cosas mas me hice.

Me vine a este país, gracias a Dios el me cuido todo el viaje ningún coyote me hizo daño no me paso nada. Al llegar a este país me sonreía, pensé que me había escapado de tanta maldad y empecé a sentir libre y feliz. Empecé a amarme por lo que era, una mujer. Podia trabajar y decidir que hacer con mí dinero.

Pero una mañana, Las malas cosa empezaron a llegar y mi vida, se convirtió en un tormento que muchas veces pensaba tirarme del puente o debajo de un carro.
Muchas veces le pedía a Dios que me enfermara para que mi familia me amara, pero no pasaba nada. Me odiaba mas y mas, tanto que cuando me veia en un espejo me enojaba mas y me golpeaba diciendo “Ingrid por que naciste, estupida! si nadie te quiere” decía llorando. Pensaba que yo era mala y mas ahora que estoy aqui.

Un dia alguien me dijo, “tienes que quererte a ti para poder querer a los demas, piensa en tus hijos si te mueres quien va ver por ellos si no estas tu, No seas egoísta” me dijo
muy enojada. Le conteste “yo no soy egoísta”, ella se sonrió y me dijo “claro que si nunca piensas en ellos tu ya no te perteneces tu perteneces a tus hijos trabajas para ellos vives para ellos piensa si as vivido toda tu vida tratando de agradar a tu familia
y no lo as logrado no lo aras nunca. Mejor disfruta cada día de vida que tienes y disfruta a tus hijos y deja de llorar y deja de culparte” dijo mi amiga, entonces me di cuenta que tenia razón.
Fui a la Iglesia y el pastor predico diciendo “usted tal vez vino hoy con el corazón roto y pensando ¿que ase en este mundo? alo mejor le han dicho que no sirve para nada.
No les crea usted vale mucho porque Dios le ama y usted es hermosa porque Dios lo a hecho a su imagen y semejanza de el, somos sus hijos” dijo el pastor “además y si tiene problemas y a pensado asta quitarse la vida !No lo haga! El problema no es mas grande que Dios nunca. DIOS es mas grande que el problema” dijo el pastor. Desde que escuche eso me di cuenta que era verdad y ahora amo la vida y estoy feliz de ser mujer. Dios me bendijo con 4 hermosos hijos y es una bendición decir que soy madre, hoy mas que nunca me amo y amo a mis hijos, también a mis hermanos. Ya no lloro como antes porque se que los amo y si ellos no sienten lo miso yo no los puedo cambiar, yo se que Dios me ama. Mi deseo es que las personas que están pasando por problemas se lo dejen a Dios y que se amen y se acepten tal y como son, porque todos somos hijos de Dios, blancos, negros, altos y bajos, gordos o flacos el nos ama.

Ingles Sigue/English Follows

April 30, 2012

My name is Ingrid de leon
Mother, daughter and sister, aunt, niece
Surviving on the injustices and
The suffering of life for the act of being a woman.

I remember as girl getting kicked, slapped, and screamed at,
A rope hitting me in the back. A rod broke in my shins while screaming loudly at me: "I'm not your father, dumb ass, to provide for you!"
My parents dressed me well, I can say, always wore leather shoes and socks to protect my feet, my health being very delicate ... everything was fine when my father was alive.

But the suffering began when my father died.

The abuse increased every day more and more from jealousy of my brother because he thought I was my father’s favorite—all my brothers wore plastic shoes and rubber boots.
I wanted to get out of my poverty. Wanting to do something on my own I went to the capital of Guatemala City and was glad for the work I had found. I did house cleaning, cooking, and I lived in a house that was ‘tranquil'.

Until I was exposed to the worst thing in life...who would have thought that being in this house would put me in danger? But sometimes the house becomes a cage and you can not escape for being a woman. An older man violated me, raped me as if I were an animal. He tied my hands and covered my mouth. From that day I cried for being born a woman and for being poor. I had to leave that house. The news didn’t leave the house for fear that someone would do more damage to me. It was horrible to feel like used toilet paper and get thrown away in the trash for being used.

I cried and told myself I should not have been born and that it no longer made sense to stay alive. I thought it would have been better to have no soul or heart to not feel pain or guilt for being a woman. I needed to vent and say what tormented me, but was ashamed of what people would say. I did not dare say anything. If I would have told my mother, what will she think of me? That was the question in my heart every day.

After a while, I married a man older than me, thinking I would be treated better, but I was wrong. The abuse was more than when my father passed away. I suffered because I was abused by my husband (now ex) and later he would say, "With God there is no divorce.”

I returned to my mother’s home and things got worse, for I was no longer alone. According to my culture, women lose their value when they have children without a husband. We are only worthy and deserve respect from people if we have a man at our side. So I cried for the fact that I was a woman without value, without future. I didn’t know what to do. I would just grow angrier at myself. I did not want to be me. I would get more angry for not having a choice of being born. Every day I renounced life, not only because of that but because my sister always made me look bad in front of my mom, telling her lies about me. It hurt because it seemed as though nobody loved me. I started beating myself every day more and more. I wanted to cut my body up, take my heart out and show my family and the people that I was not bad person. I would bite my arms, tear my hair, and many other things I did to myself.

I came to this country. Thank God no coyote hurt me, nothing bad happened to me at the hands of the coyote. Arriving in this country I smiled, I thought I had escaped from so much evil and began to feel free and happy. I started loving myself as a woman. I could work and I could decide what to do with my money.

But one morning, the bad things began to happen in my life, it became such a torment that I often thought of jumping off the bridge or throwing myself under a car.
Many times I asked God to get me sick so my family would love me, but nothing happened. I hated myself more and more, at this time when I looked in a mirror I would get angry and beat myself saying "Ingrid, why were you born, stupid! no one loves you.” I would say this crying. I thought I was a bad person, especially here in the US.

One day someone told me angrily, "You have to love yourself to love others, think of your children. If you die, who will look after your children if its not you? Don’t be selfish." I answered, "I am not selfish." She smiled and said, "Clearly, you never think about your children, you do not belong to yourself. You belong to your kids. Work for them, and all your life work trying to please your family to no avail—you will never please them. Better enjoy every day of life and enjoy your children and stop blaming and mourning.” I realized that she was right.

I went to the church and the pastor preached, "You may come today with a broken heart thinking, what good is this world? Maybe they have told you, you are no good.
Do not believe them, because you are worth a lot. God loves you and you are beautiful because God has made you in his own likeness. You are his children." The pastor said, "If you have had problems and are thinking of suicide, do not do it! The problem is not ever bigger than God. God is bigger than the problem." Since I heard that, I realized it was true and now I love life and am happy to be a woman. God blessed me with 4 beautiful children and the blessing to be a mother. Now more than ever I love and I love my children—my brothers also. I do not cry like before because I love them and if they do not feel the commitment to love me I can not change me. I know God loves me. My hope is that people who are experiencing problems leave their faith to God and to love and accept each other as we are, because we are all God's children: black, white, tall, short, fat or thin, He loves us.
 

(En Espanol)

Este Poema es en honor a las madres

Este Poema es en honor a las madres...
Madres Desamparadas y madres pobres
Madres con bajos salarios y sin salarios
Madres de Bienestares
y madres que trabajan tress jales
Madres Migrantes
y madres encarceladas

en otras palabras
este poema es en honor a
MIGRA- nisadas
(CPS) molestadas
y mas que nada
madres
attakadas por el systema

Este poema es en honor a todos esos hombres y mujeres
y si, dije hombres tambien porque no me cantes esa vieja cancion
sobre genero otravez
Quien pelean y luchan
y roban y ruegan
en cada brecha
Y esquina para mantener a sus hijos en una cama
quienes visten y dan de comer con manos cansadas
Quienes responded gritos una y otra vez

Este poema es en honor para esas
madres quienes se merecen un apapacho
y amor
 Alimentacion y protecsion
En vez de ser criminalizadas
Marginadas
y rara la vez respetadas

Quienes apenas pueden sobrevivir pero siempre lo hacen
y todavia crean toda la gente de el mundo
Como yo, tu y tu.

Quien puede ser testigo?
Este poema es en Honor pa’ las Madres
Quienes apenas pueden sobrevivir y aveses pueden
y crean toda la gente de este mundo
como yo y tu y tu.

Indigenous Peoples Media Project of POOR Magazine interviews Jose Malvido about the Native American spiritual run, Peace and Dignity Journeys 2012.

Thanks Jane Hash for having Krip-Hop Nation on KUSF-IN-Exile. The link is below. Jane will also write a blog about Krip-Hop Nation. Music by Kounterclockwise aka Deacon Burns,Kaya Carine Gabriel, Jesse Djquad Morin and more. Listen! Mentioned Rob Da' Noize Temple, our New CD on police brutality against with people with disabilities, DADA DaInt Fest, R.e. Spect,Poor Magazine, Lisa Tiny Gray-Garcia

http://www.kusf-archives.com/2012/03/kusf-in-exile-032212-630-7-pm-hash-...

March 13, 2012

Reprinted from the San Francisco Bay View (March 9, 2012)

Bilingualism in schools is an interesting and controversial topic. For Asian- and Latino-Americans, there are classes such as ESL (English as a Second Language), ELL (English Language Learner) and LEP (Limited English Proficiency), yet and still, Dr. Taiwanna D. Anthony and Dr. William A. Kritsonis, in their doctoral forum, “Bilingualism and How it Impacts the African American Child,” note, “Literacy has been on the decline in the African American culture for many years,” and the issue has gone overlooked.

One attempt to address the issue was Oakland School Board’s 1996 Ebonics Resolution, which proposed similar literacy programs for African American students who primarily speak Ebonics at home. The Los Angeles Times reported, “The Oakland resolution calls on the district to provide teacher training in so-called Ebonics, recognize it as distinct from standard English, and help black students who use Ebonics to master standard English.”

However, the attempt was highly controversial, primarily due to the fact that many misunderstood the resolution to mean abandoning standard English and teaching students only Ebonics. If African Americans are struggling to learn English, they should be given the same liberties as a native Spanish speaker or someone who speaks Mandarin; however, there are many conflicting opinions on this topic from both the African American community and from the government.

Another time there was a similar debate was in 1974, when a civil rights case was brought by Chinese American students from San Francisco with limited English proficiency. The name of the case was Lau v. Nichols, in which, according to Wikipedia, the students claimed that they were not receiving special help in school due to their inability to speak English. They argued they were entitled to special help under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because of its ban on educational discrimination on the basis of national origin.

Consequentially, ELL classes were developed. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was an 11-title act enacted July 2, 1964, which outlawed major forms of discrimination against Blacks and women. The act ended unequal voter registration requirements and segregation in schools and in “public accommodations.”

Dr. Theresa Perry and eminent scholar and author Lisa D. Delpit in their book, “The Real Ebonics Debate: Power, Language, and the Education of African-American Students,” argue in favor of the Oakland resolution to legitimize Ebonics due to the fact that African American students were underachieving. They provided the following statistics.

“Comprising 53 percent of the students enrolled in the only predominantly Black school district in the state of California, African-American children accounted for 80 percent of the school system’s suspensions and 71 percent of students classified as having special needs. Their average grade point average was a D+.”

A sociolinguist from the Department of Linguistics at Stanford University endorsed the resolution and actually fought to get a resolution passed by the Linguistic Society of America legitimizing the language, as he explains in his essay, “The Ebonics Controversy in My Backyard: A sociolinguist’s experiences and reflections.”

“Comprising 53 percent of the students enrolled in the only predominantly Black school district in the state of California, African-American children accounted for 80 percent of the school system’s suspensions and 71 percent of students classified as having special needs. Their average grade point average was a D+.” – Dr. Theresa Perry and Lisa D. Delpit

Dr. Geneva Smitherman, professor and director of the African American Language and Literacy Program at Michigan State University as well as a native speaker of the “African American Language,” in her book, “Talkin that talk: Language, culture, and education in African America,” clarifies that “‘Ebonics’ was coined by a group of African American scholars, chief among them clinical psychologist Robert L. Williams, at a conference, ‘Language and the Urban Child,’ convened in St. Louis, Missouri, in January of 1973.”

“Ebonics” is a combination of “ebony” and “phonics” – “ebony” meaning black and “phonics” for sounds; however, when it comes to defining Ebonics, many contradictory attempts have been made. According to Smitherman, Dr. Robert L. Williams in his 1975 book, “Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks,” defined the term as the “linguistic and paralinguistic features which on a concentric continuum represent the communicative competence of the West African, Caribbean and United States slave descendants of African origin.”
Dr. Robert L. Williams in his 1975 book, “Ebonics: The True Language of Black Folks,” defined the term as the “linguistic and paralinguistic features which on a concentric continuum represent the communicative competence of the West African, Caribbean and United States slave descendants of African origin.”

Nevertheless, Washington Post writer John F. Harris in his article, “U.S. Bilingual Education Funds Ruled Out for Ebonics Speakers,” emphasizes that on Dec. 24, 1996, less than a week after the controversial Oakland School Board Ebonics Resolution, the Clinton administration denounced it stating that “Black English” was a form of slang, had no place in the classroom, and that no federal funds allocated to the school district for bilingual education can be used for students who predominantly speak Ebonics.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a prominent African American civil rights activist, Jesse Jackson, had a similar opinion of the resolution, stating that “I understand the attempt to reach out to these children, but this is an unacceptable surrender borderlining on disgrace … It’s teaching down to our children and it must never happen.” African American legend author Maya Angelou agreed and refuted the idea, stating, according to the Los Angeles Times, “The very idea that African American language is a language separate and apart is very threatening, because it can encourage young men and women not to learn standard English.”

According to CNN in the article “Jackson, Oakland School Board Discuss Ebonics,” teacher Patricia Jensen argues, “All the attention has been focused on the sections that say … instruction will be imparted in the primary language; that’s where the confusion has come.” She then adds, “If that had been amended or clearly written down, I think this would die down.”

Jesse Jackson, however, in that same article, recanted his statement in a Dec. 30, 1996, interview with CNN claiming, “The intent is to teach these children standard American, competitive English, because if they cannot read, they cannot reason.” He then reasons, “Just as you go from Spanish to English, go from improper grammar to English.”

Contrary to the initial thoughts of Jesse Jackson, Maya Angelou and the Clinton administration, York College Honors Program graduate Stacey Thomas, in her scholarly article, “Ebonics and the African American Student: Why Ebonics Has a Place in the Classroom,” insists that it is a worthwhile program and documents its success. For this purpose, she confirms Regina Wilder’s article on the subject, “Ebonics is Working: Three Years Later,” stating that “the article notes that ‘the students have tested above district averages’ in reading and writing skills.”

Thomas also quoted Courtland Milloy’s article, “Nothing’s Funny About Ebonics,” in which he noted, “Once students see and comprehend the differences between Standard English and Ebonics in terms of structure and syntax, they display a greater understanding in Standard English, and as a result, decrease their use of Ebonics, which has transpired in the Oakland School District.” Thomas then declares the Oakland School District proved that Ebonics can help African American students learn and communicate in standard English.

In spite of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Lau v. Nichols, African Americans continue to be held at a disadvantage when it comes to learning English, partially due to their natural disposition to Ebonics and partially due to the discrimination and the indifference of America’s public school system. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred discrimination, specifically against Blacks and women in schools and in “public accommodations”; however, Blacks have been yet to benefit from Title IV, which prevents discrimination by government agencies that receive federal funds.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred discrimination, specifically against Blacks and women in schools and in “public accommodations”; however, Blacks have been yet to benefit from Title IV, which prevents discrimination by government agencies that receive federal funds.

This is made evident by the fact that in Lau v. Nichols, which was won on these grounds by some 1,800 Chinese-American students with limited English proficiency who claimed that they were not receiving special help to learn English and charged the SFUSD with discrimination. ELL classes were then developed; however, African American students are barred from the benefits of such instruction for the reason that their language is not recognized by the American government. This is a disparity, especially with so many African American students being placed in special needs classes, being held back grades and dropping out of school. Ebonics in schools has proven successful, and by no means should struggling African American students be denied the help they are entitled to, unless, as African Americans, we are entitled to less.

Bayview Hunters Point community advocate and straight-A City College student DeBray “Fly Benzo” Carpenter can be reached on Facebook, at Fly Benzo’s Blog, where this story first appeared, or at flybenzo@gmail.com. For the latest developments in the police effort to silence Fly by sending him to prison, see “City College student ‘Fly Benzo’ put on trial after heated confrontation with SFPD.”

I am not Deaf but I’m disabled
I ride a bike more like a trike
I could have been shot by police
Like Roger Anthony

Thought he was drunk
Same excuse different person
Didn’t have time to explain
Shot not in the leg but in his brain

I was only stopped by police
On my three wheel bike
Poepoes tried to snatch me off
Black & Disabled while ridding

I could be dead like Roger Anthony
Would people take a stand in my community?
Or would it be another online story
Here today gone tomorrow

Listen to Krip-Hop’s Broken Bodies PBP Mixtape
Then you will found there are many Roger Anthony
With all kinds of disabilities
Killed, profiled and abused under police brutality
Disabled brown bodies outlined in red police tape

2012 Black History month
Started with a shooting of an autistic youth
Spring has sprung with the shooting of Trayvon
In 2002 it was Donovan
Years go by but this shit goes on

I am many Black disabled young men
Who fills up funnel homes every Sunday?
While preachers beg for an amen
Wiping away family’s tears
But inside lies fear

Shouting but he can’t hear
Parents call police for safety
Ends up in tragedy
Flavor Flav
911 is no joke
They got young boys in chokeholds

Every morning as I get on my trike
Roger Antony cross my mind
Thinking could this be my time
As I peddle to my nine to five
Living in the shoes of many Roger Anthony

By Leroy Moore
3/24/12

March 13, 2012

All material Copyright Devorah Major

"Emergency Alert and
the Republic For Which It Stands"

security alert
threat level red
flashing red
siren red
dripping blood red
hot exploding blazing red

the threat has never been higher

since we became a republic
of the meek
the complacent
the afraid
the corrupt
and the greedy

the threat to freedom and liberty
has never been higher

since we became
a secured homeland
of the searched and caged
the examined and interrogated
the disappeared and tortured
the reviled and exploited

land of the shell-shocked many
and home of the resisting few

security threat level red
the threat to the bill of rights
has never been higher
since we became a national homeland
that worships at the church of corporate greed
prostrates itself at the alter of military indulgence
and takes communion from the chalice of stolen oil

this land is your land
this land is my land
and this secured homeland
has become a private trust
where democracy
is turned to a strangled voice
unable to utter without stutter
often forgetting its point
afraid to speak out
clearly and loudly
for liberty
for justice
for freedom
for all

emergency alert
emergency alert
security threat level red

the threat
has never been higher

"Pelican Bay Notes- SHU Unit"

cell slightly wider
than a lead coffin

sometimes only darkness
or weeks of light bulb glare
days have no rhythm

twenty three hours
every day alone

one hour to breath wind

will a cloud drift by
a patch of summer blue sky
will a bird’s feather fall

torture knows no clocks
it’s a punishment
for celebrating
so many shades of black

"A Rose By Any Other Name..."

when you think
of the american institution
of slavery
do you think of history
black history
do you think of
slave ships
bodies pressed together
head to toe
death and misery
stories of long ago
auction blocks
flesh groped and pushed
weighed in
people renamed
chained, beaten and confined
turned from human into commodity

when you think of slavery
do you think of then

well then
what should we call it now
when men and women
chained
ankle to ankle
wrist to wrist
neck to waist
are taken
to a place
where they are
confined
in quarters
in blocks
in cells

strike one

what do you call it
when you take these
sometimes chained
and very confined people
and then give them a new name
be it toby or B253476
be it mammy or G714280

strike two

what should we call it
when these
renamed confined
chained humans

these sons
these fathers
these mothers
these daughters
these brothers
these sisters
are told that they
will never again be free

and that they will have to work
for the room they are locked in
the clothes they are made to wear

the food they eat

and for you

what should we call it
when we know
that the constitution's
13th amendment outlaws
involuntary servitude

"except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been
duly convicted"

strike three

what should we call it

if you asks me
it sounds too much like
a different brand of slavery

"Snap"

just like that
cat says it’ll

snap

reminds me how
when we were teens
we were negro
and then

snap

we were black and proud
and moving forward
claiming victories every day
on our streets
in our schools
in our souls

we’ve always been
an elastic people able to
snap ourselves
back to ourselves
time and time again

cat says she can feel it
smells it in the air
sweet and sour like it was then
only with more love this time
and a sharper even more dangerous edge

then like now
things were seething
people were hungry and
unjustly imprisoned
and mis-educated
and drugged
but then as civil rights’ long pull was bearing fruit
we snapped into a revolutionary force
climbed inside our ancestral core
snap
made our music sing change
snap
made our dances say now
snap
locked arms and spirits
snap
became a dark
snap moving
snap
tide of purpose
snap

we sharpening the rhythm again
bringing out the drums
snap
tightening up
even though we been
tossed by storm
and cracked in the wind
we coming back together
snap
we’ve got to
snap
we got to just pull in
and believe it and
snap this mutha’ back
into place

.
"How many of you like skittles and iced tea?", Rudy Corpus called out to a beautiful group of children and adults of all colors, generations and sizes who were part of a crowd of over 100 people stood together on the steps of the plantation (Po' Lice Dept) @ 850 Bryant st

in SF as part of a "Scream-Out" for justice (cuz sometimes speaking up aint enuf) for Trayvon Martin and Ramarley Graham which took place on Monday, March 26th @ 12:00 noon, co-sponsored by POOR Magazine/Prensa POBRE and the Idriss Stelley Foundation

Trayvon Martin is the 17 yr young African descendent man who was killed by George Zimmerman, a "neighborhood watch captain"  because of the lie of racism, gated communities, private security and Jim Crow southern hate in Sanford, Florida when going to the store for some skittles and ice tea, Ramarley Graham is the 17 year young African Descendent male who was sot in back and killed by Bronx Police officers. Both young men were innocent, both were considered "suspicious" by a white supremacist-biased culture who has demonized young peoples of color as "suspicious" for the sole reason of the melanin in their skin . This vague notion of "suspicion" fits nicely into a narrative that enables the mass incarceration of poor, black and brown people and a flagrantly unequal (un) justice system.

It must also be stated that George Zimmerman himself is a man of color who is so filled with the lie of internalized race hatred that he has become the tool of his oppressor, the overseer, the hitman for the white hoods.

"We got to stop profiling people,"  said Marco Scott, the uncle of young Kenneth Harding Jr, brutally gunned down by po'lice officers for not having a $2.00 Muni bus transfer. As more and more disgusting, photo-shopped, Fox news images are shown of Trayvon and fake witnesses come out of the woodwork claiming that George Zimmerman was the one calling out for help, it is important to remember  Kenneth Harding Jr, was demonized in the corporate media, after his shooting with disgusting accusations about his supposed "bad" character.

"This is not just about Trayvon, this is about all the young black and brown men like Oscar Grant and Asa Sullivan and Rahiem Brown and my son, Idriss Stelley, killed by po'lice in the US, these po'lice are modern day slave-catchers," said powerful warrior and freedom fighter, Mesha Irizarry, founder of the Idriss Stelley Foundation.

"
"We must stand up, not be complacent," said Queenandi of the welfareQUEENs and writer of POOR Magazine

"Trayvon's murderer must be prosecuted for just that, murder,"  said Vivien Thorp, welfareQUEEN and mama scholar from POOR Magazine

From the welfareQUEEN's of POOR Magazine to Kevin Epps and Jeff Adachi from the The Revolutionary Communist Party to Labor Black and Brown, we all stood on the steps of that plantation, in solidarity with families in Florida marching today, and all of us refusing to take the hate, the lies and the brutality of this  unequal UNjustice anymore.

Click here to join 900,000 people who have already signed our petition calling for justice for our son Trayvon.

March 13. 2012

"Slavery 400 years ago, slavery today. It's the same, but with a new name. They're practicing slavery under color of law." (Ruchell Cinque Magee)

One of the newest forms of slave labor is the U.S. Army's "Civilian Inmate Labor Program" to "benefit both the Army and corrections systems" by providing "a convenient source of labor at no direct cost to Army installations," additional space to alleviate prison overcrowding, and cost-effective use of land and facilities otherwise not being utilized.

"With a few exceptions," this program is currently limited to prisoners under the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) which allows the Attorney General to provide the services of federal prisoners to other federal agencies, defining the types of services they can perform. The Program stipulates that the "Army is not interested in, nor can afford, any relationship with a corrections facility if that relationship stipulates payment for civilian inmate labor. Installation civilian inmate labor program operating costs must not exceed the cost avoidance generated from using inmate labor." In other words the prison labor must be free of charge.

The three "exceptions" to exclusive Federal contracting are as follows: (1) "a demonstration project" providing "prerelease employment training to nonviolent offenders in a State correctional facility" [CF]. (2) Army National Guard units "may use inmates from an off-post State and/or local CF." (3) Civil Works projects. Services provided might include constructing or repairing roads, maintaining or reforesting public land; building levees, landscaping, painting, carpentry, trash pickup, etc.

This Civilian Inmate Labor Program document includes in its countless specifications such caveats as "Inmates must not be referred to as employees." A prisoner would not qualify if he/she is a "person in whom there is a significant public interest," who has been a "significant management problem," "a principal organized crime figure," any "inmate convicted of a violent crime," a sex offense, involvement with drugs within the last three years, an escape risk, "a threat to the general public." Makes one wonder why such a prisoner isn't just released or paroled. In fact, the "hiring qualifications" -- makes me suspect the "Civilian Inmate Labor Program" is a backdoor draft, especially in lieu of the Bush Administration's plan to increase troop levels in Iraq with a military already stretched to its limit.

The 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (It needed a lot of amending.) retained the right to enslave within the confines of prison. Nearly 400 years of chattel slavery was secured and perpetuated by Amendment XIII. Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Dec. 6, 1865

Even before the so-called abolition of slavery, America's history of prisoner labor had already begun in New York's State Prison at Auburn soon after it opened in 1817. Auburn became the first prison that contracted with a private business to operate a factory within its walls. Later, in the post Civil War period, the "contract and lease" system proliferated, allowing private companies to employ prisoners and sell their products for profit.

In Southern states, Slave Codes were rewritten as Black Codes, a series of laws criminalizing the law-abiding activities of Black people, such as standing around, "loitering," or walking at night, "breaking curfew." The enforcement of these Codes dramatically increased the number of Blacks in Southern prisons. E.g., in 1878, Georgia leased out 1,239 convicts, 1,124 of whom were Black.

The lease system provided slave labor for plantation owners or private industries as well as revenue for the state, since incarcerated workers were entirely in the custody of the contractors who paid a set annual fee to the state (about $25,000), Entire prisons were leased out to private contractors who literally worked hundreds of prisoners to death. Prisons became the new plantations; Angola State Prison in Louisiana actually was a plantation. It still is except the slaves are now called convicts and the prison is known as "The Farm." (A documentary of that title is available on DVD.)

The loss of outside jobs and the inherent brutality and cruelty of the lease system sparked resistance which eventually brought about its demise. One of the most famous battles was the Coal Creek Rebellion of 1891. When the Tennessee coal, Iron and Railroad locked out their workers and replaced them with convicts, the miners stormed the prison and freed 400 captives; and when the company continued to contract prisoners, the miners burned the prison down. The Tennessee leasing system was disbanded shortly thereafter. But it remained in many states until the rise of resistance in the 1930s.

Strikes by prisoners and union workers together were organized by then radical CIO and other labor unions. They pressured Congress to pass the 1935 Ashurst-Sumners Act making it illegal to transport prison-made goods across state lines. But under President Jimmy Carter, Congress granted exemptions to the Act by passing the Justice System Improvement Act of 1979, which produced the Prison Industries Enhancement program, or PIE, that eventually spread to all 50 states. This lifted the ban on interstate transportation and sale of prison-made products, permitting a for-profit relationship between prisons and the private sector, and prompting a dramatic increase in prison labor which continues to escalate.

As the leasing system phased out, a new, even more brutal exploitation emerged -- the chain gang. An extremely dehumanizing cruelty that chained men, and later women, together in groups of five, it was originated to build extensive roads and highways. The first state to institute chain gangs was Alabama, followed by Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Montana, and Oklahoma.

Georgia's chain-gang conditions were particularly brutal. Men were put out to work swinging 12 lb. sledge hammers for 16 hours a day, malnourished and shackled together, unable to move their legs a full stride. Wounds from metal shackles often became infected, leading to illness and death. Prisoners who could not keep up with the grueling pace were whipped or shut in a sweat box or tied to a hitching post, a stationary metal rail. Chained to the post with hands raised high over his head, the prisoner remained tethered in that position in the Alabama heat for many hours without water or bathroom breaks. (Human Rights Watch World Report 1998).

Thanks to a lawsuit settled by the Southern Poverty Law Center, Alabama's Department of Corrections agreed in 1996 to stop chaining prisoners together. A few years later, the Center won a Court ruling that ended use of the hitching post as a violation of the 8th Amendment's ban on "cruel and unusual punishment."

A report by Timothy Dodge in "Alabama Review" noted, When the convict-lease system was abolished in 1928, most of the white convicts, who had been leased to coal mines and lumber camps, were sent to the cotton mills and metal workshops at Kilby and Speigner prisons, whereas most of the black convicts ended up in chain gangs. In effect, the black chain gang was a continuation of racist slave labor.

In response to the demands of World War II, the number of both free and captive road workers declined significantly. In 1941, there were 1,750 prisoners slaving in 28 active road camps for all types of construction and maintenance. The numbers bottomed out by war's end at 540 captives in seventeen camps.

Although chain gangs were phased out in1955, Alabama reinstituted chain gangs in 1995 followed by Arizona, Florida, Iowa, and Maine. Arizona's first female chain gang was instituted in 1996. Complete with striped uniforms, the women of a Phoenix jail (to this day) spend four to six hours a day chained together in groups of 30, clearing roadsides of weeds.

In the 1940s, California Governor Earl Warren conducted secret investigations into the State's only prisons, San Quentin and Folsom. The depravity, squalor, sadism, and torture he found led the governor to initiate the building of Soledad Prison in 1951. Prisoners were put to work in educational and vocational programs that taught basic courses in English and math, and provided training in trades ranging from gardening to meat cutting. At wages of 7 to 25 cents an hour, California prisoners used their acquired skills to turn out institutional clothing and furniture, license plates and stickers, seed new crops, slaughter pigs, produce and sell dairy products to a nearby mental institution,

Within a decade this "model prison" at Soledad had become another torture chamber of filthy dungeons, literal "holes," virulently racist guards, officially sanctioned brutality, torture, and murder.

Though prison jobs are supposed to be voluntary, if prisoners refuse to work they're often given longer sentences, denied privileges, or thrown into solitary confinement.

Prisoners were brutalized and forced to work long hours under miserable conditions. In the 1960s, "Soledad Brother," George Jackson, organized a work strike that turned into a riot after white strikebreakers tried to lynch one of the Black strikers.

The Black Movement's resistance, led by Jackson, W. L. Nolen, and Hugo "Yogi" Pinell, eventually brought Congressional oversight and overhaul of California's prison system. (The Melancholy History of Soledad Prison, by Min S. Yee.).

Yet, little has changed except for an incredible expansion that now has the state system bursting at the seams with 174,000 prisoners (The L.A. Times reported 12/23/06 a 1,000 prisoner increase in a matter of weeks!) crammed into 90 penitentiaries, small prisons and camps stretched across 900 miles of the fifth-largest economy in the world, as Ruth Gilmore's new book, "Golden Gulag" reports. Since 1984, the state has erected 43 penal institutions, making it a global leader in prison construction. Most of the new prisons have been built in rural areas far from family and friends, and most captives are Black or Brown men, unemployed or working poor. Suicide and recidivism rates approach twice the national average, and the State spends as much or more on prisons as on higher education.

In fact, Governor Schwarzenazi 's solution to prison overcrowding is sending prisoners out of state, and adding 78,000 more beds, spending $11 billion more of your taxes on a failed prison system. For Fiscal Year 2005-2006, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) was allocated a total of $7,398,743,000. ("and Rehabilitation" was added to the CDC by the new Governor sans rehab.)

In 1985, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Warren Burger lauded China's prison labor program: "1,000 inmates in one prison I visited comprised a complete factory unit producing hosiery and what we would call casual or sport shoes... Indeed it had been a factory and was taken over to make a prison." Burger called for the conversion of prisons into factories, the repeal of laws limiting prison industry production and sales, and the active participation of business and organized labor.

Heeding the judge's call, California voters passed Prop 139 in 1990, establishing the Joint Venture Program allowing California businesses to cash in on prison labor.

"This is the new jobs program for California, so we can compete on a Third World basis with countries like Bangladesh," observed Richard Holober with the California Federation of Labor.

Businesses in Joint Venture must pay at least minimum wage (although the State takes back 80 percent of prisoners' pay checks) and promise they're not taking jobs away from people on the outside. But in reality. they have. For example, Lockhard Technologies, Inc. closed its plant in Austin, Texas, laying off 150 employees, and reopened its shop in a State Prison. ("Prison Labor on the Rise in US," Whyte & Baker, 2000).

In 1994, Oregon voters passed a constitutional amendment establishing a mandatory 40-hour work week for the State's prisoners, resulting in the loss of thousands of civil service and private sector jobs. Outside construction workers lost jobs when prisoners were assigned to build more units -- literally building their own cages.

Currently, California's Prison Industrial Authority (PIA) employs 5,900 captives and operates over 60 service, manufacturing, and agricultural industries at 22 prisons throughout the state. It produces over 1,400 goods and services including office furniture, clothing, food products, shoes, printing services, signs, binders, eye wear, gloves, license plates, cell equipment, and much more. Wages are $.30 to $.95 per hour before deductions, according to the PIA's latest figures on its website. When I need new glasses, they have to be sent to Donovan State Prison, San Diego, where prisoners fill prescriptions for Medi-Cal patients.

For the State's highest wage, $1 hour, prisoners provide the "backbone of the state's wildland fire fighting crews," according to an unpublished CDC report. The State Department of Forestry saves more than $70 million annually using prison labor. California's Department of Forestry has 198 Fire Crews comprised of CDC and CYA (California Youth Authority) minimum-security captives housed in 41 Conservation Camps throughout the state.

"Their primary function is to construct fire line by hand in areas where heavy machinery cannot be used because of steep topography, rocky terrain, or areas that may be considered environmentally sensitive." (I.e., the most dangerous fire lines).

CYA juveniles are also working for TWA as ticket agents, assembling computer circuit boards, doing sheet metal work, photo copying, and packaging plastic eating utensils for fast-food restaurants.

Now at least 37 states have similar programs wherein prisoners manufacture everything from blue jeans to auto parts, electronics and toys. Clothing made in Oregon and California is exported to other countries, competing successfully with apparel made in Asia and Latin America.

The Federal Prison Industries (FPI), a nonprofit Justice Department subsidiary, that does business as UNICOR, was created in 1935. and began supplying the Pentagon on a broad scale in the 1980s.

In 1985, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, FPI had 71 factories enslaving 9,995 captives generating sales of $239.9 million. By 2003, there were 100 FPI factories working 20,274 slaves with sales totaling $666.8 million. And currently FPI employs about 19,000 captives, slightly less than 20 percent of the federal prison population, in 106 prison factories around the country. Profits totaled nearly $40 million!

In 2005, FPI sold more than $750,000,000 worth of goods to the federal government. Sales to the Army alone put UNICOR on the Army's list of top 50 suppliers, ahead of well-known corporations like Dell Computer, according to Wayne Woolley, Newhouse News Service.

Over the past three years, thousands of federal prisoners have been working overtime filling Pentagon contracts for everything from radio components to body armor.

Since the beginning of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, the Army's Communication and Electronics Command at Fort Monmouth, N.J., has shipped more than 200,000 radios to combat zones, most with at least some components manufactured by federal inmates working in 11 prison electronics factories around the country. Under current law, UNICOR enjoys a contracting preference known as "mandatory source," which obligates government agencies to try to buy certain goods from the prisons before allowing private companies to bid on the work. This same contracting restriction applies to state agencies.

The demand for defense products from FPI became so great that "national exigency" provisions were invoked so the 20 percent limit on goods provided in each category could be exceeded. The rules were waived during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Private manufacturers say they've been hurt by such practice, as they are unable to bid on various products.

According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces 100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts, pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply 98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.

By 2007, the overall sales figures and profits for federal and state prison industries had skyrocketed into the billions.

Apparently, the military industrial complex and the prison industrial complex (PIC) have joined forces.

This PIC is a network of public and private prisons, of military personnel, politicians, business contacts, prison guard unions, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers all making big profits at the expense of poor people who comprise the overwhelming majority of captives. The fastest growing industry in the country, it has its own trade exhibitions, conventions, websites, and mail-order/Internet catalogs and direct advertising campaigns. Corporate stockholders who make money off prisoners' labor lobby for longer sentences, in order to expand their workforce.

Replacing the "contract and lease" system of the 19th Century, private companies that have contracted prison labor include Microsoft, Boeing, Honeywell, IBM, Revlon, Pierre Cardin, Compaq, Victoria Secret, and Nordstrom.

In 1995, there were only five private prisons in the country, with a population of 2,000 inmates; now, there are at least 100, with some 62,000 inmates. That number is expected to hit 360,000 within a decade.

The two largest private prison corporations in the US, Wackenhut and Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), are transnationals, managing prisons and detention centers in at least 13 states, Australia, Canada, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. A top performer on the New York Stock Exchange, CCA called California its "new frontier," and boasts of investors such as Wal-Mart, Exxon, General Motors, Ford, Chevrolet, Texaco, Hewlett-Packard, Verizon, and UPS.

Employers (Read: slave masters) don't have to pay health or unemployment insurance, vacation time, sick leave or overtime. They can hire, fire or reassign inmates as they so desire, and can pay the workers as little as 21 cents an hour. The inmates cannot respond with a strike, file a grievance, or threaten to leave and get a better job.

Mass roundups of immigrants and non-citizens, currently about half of all federal prisoners, and dragnets in low-income 'hoods have increased the prison population to unprecedented levels. Andrea Hornbein points out in Profit Motive: "The majority of these arrests are for low level offenses or outstanding warrants, and impact the taxpayer far more than the offense. For example, a $300 robbery resulting in a 5 year sentence, at the Massachusetts average of $43,000 per year, will cost $215,000. That doesn't even include law enforcement and court costs."

Nearly 75% of all prisoners are drug war captives. A criminal record today practically forces an ex-con into illegal employment since they don't qualify for legitimate jobs or subsidized housing. Minor parole violations, unaffordable bail, parole denials, longer mandatory sentencing and three strikes laws, slashing of welfare rolls, overburdened court systems, shortage of public defenders, massive closings of mental hospitals, and high unemployment (about 50% for Black men) -- all contribute to the high rates of incarceration and recidivism. Thus, the slave labor pool continues to expand.

"In order to please shareholders, corporations must achieve growth. Empty cells do not generate profits." (Hornbein)

Unions have been virtually silent about the huge growth of prison labor in the U.S., reports Alan Whyte and Jamie Baker ("Prison Labor on the Rise in U.S.,2000). The Tennessee AFL-CIO supported privatization of the state's prison system and struck a deal with CCA in 1997. For the most part, unions have bought into the prison system's propaganda blaming prisoners for job losses and pitting them against organized labor. In fact, two Republicans have competing bills in Congress: One would expand the PIC and give prisoners a raise from 21 cents to $1.15 an hour; the other would compel prison industry to compete with private enterprise with support from the AFL-CIO.

Honda paid inmates $2 an hour for the same work an auto worker would get paid, $20 to $30 an hour. But in this instance, the United Auto Workers raised hell pressuring Honda to cancel its prison labor contract.

Among the most powerful unions today are the guards' unions. The California Corrections Peace Officers Association (CCPOA) wields so much political power it practically decides who governs the state. Moreover, its members get the State's biggest payouts, according to the L.A. Times. "More than 1600 officers' earnings exceeded legislators' 2007 salaries of $113,098." Base pay for 6,000 guards earning $100,000 or more totaled $453 million with overtime adding another $220 million to wages. One lieutenant guard earned more than any other state official, including the Governor, or $252,570.

The Progressive Labor Party accuses the prison industry of being "an imitation of Nazi Germany with respect to forced slave labor and concentration camps."

The National Correctional Industries Association (NCIA) is an international nonprofit professional association, whose mission is to promote excellence and credibility in correctional industries through professional development and innovative business solutions. NCIA's members include all 50 state correctional industry agencies, Federal Prison Industries, foreign correctional industry agencies, city and county jail industry programs, and private sector companies working in partnership with correctional industries.

In summary, we must remember that the emancipation of Black people from chattel slavery resulted from prolonged guerrilla warfare between the slaves and the slaveowners, led by the revolutionary General Harriet Tubman. More than 50,000 slaves fled from the South to the North and Canada, 50,000 acts of rebellion.

As George Jackson noted in a KPFA interview with Karen Wald (Spring 1971), "I'm saying that it's impossible, impossible, to concentration-camp resisters....We have to prove that this thing won't work here. And the only way to prove it is resistance...and then that resistance has to be supported, of course, from the street....We can fight, but the results are...not conducive to proving our point...that this thing won't work on us. From inside, we fight and we die....the point is -- in the new face of war -- to fight and win."

December 9, 2010

Everyone knows the U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, higher than China’s with 4 – 5 times our population, and it continues to spiral. One in 100 adults is locked up in this police state (now totaling 2.4 million), while 1 in 31 is under some other form of penal control (over 7 million).

Few people in America, especially the underfunded, don’t have a friend, relative, classmate or colleague in prison. We also know that most prisoners are there for non-violent, often drug related issues. Yet we keep silent.

“Your silence becomes approval,” wrote our brilliant journalist and revolutionary, Mumia Abu-Jamal, held under threat of death 29 years to this date for a crime he didn’t commit.

Just as chattel slavery produced abolitionists, this new form of slavery must generate prison abolitionists.

Studies have long proven that punishment (not to be confused with consequences) produces negative results more often than not. While rehabilitation and/or appropriate therapy/treatment usually works. “Cure the sickness to save the patient.”

Ancestral societies had no prisons. Offensive behavior brought social consequences, ostracizing, or banishment from the community. Often the offender was made to serve the people (the community) in a menial job.

Raj Patel recently investigated the justice system of the Zapatistas in Chiapas, Mex. and learned they had devised a system much like the one described above.

Please bear in mind that the worst of the worst criminals in this nation are in the White House, Wall Street, and the Pentagon. The solution to a corrupt, fascist government has to be revolution. The 1% replaced by the 99%.

Today’s news reported still more draconian sentencing for California prisoners has been proposed. Up to 15 years can be added to a person’s sentence between parole hearings that used to be annual before being raised to a maximum of five years. Now parole board hearings will in fact be resentencing courts in many cases. E.g., Hugo Pinell (Yogi) has been in supermax solitary for most of 46 years. If he goes to Board next month, he could be told his next hearing for parole would be 2026! At which time he’d be 80 years old. Sundiata Acoli was just denied 10 years after 37, and he’ll be 83 at his next hearing. Cruel and unusual?

U.S. prisons are grossly overcrowded with prisoners living in deplorable conditions suffering inadequate or no medical care, bad food, no access to education or skills training, endemic guard brutality, torture, and provocation of prisoner conflicts for their sadistic amusement, sexual assaults, excessive use of lockup (solitary), and generally inhumane treatment.

“The latest edition of the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund’s “Death Row USA,” shows that the number of people on death row in the United States is continuing to slowly decline, falling to 3,261 as of January 1, 2010…. California (697) continues to have the largest death row population, followed by Florida (398) and Texas (337). Pennsylvania (222) and Alabama (201) complete the list of the five largest death rows in the nation.”

The U.S. is the only Western nation that still imposes capital punishment that is blatantly racist in its execution.

The Georgia Prison Strike

In protest of the inhumane living and working conditions in Georgia’s prison system (the nation’s 4th largest) staged a one-day strike on December 9, 2010.

Bruce Dixon reported, “In an action which is unprecedented on several levels, black, brown and white inmates of Georgia’s notorious state prison system are standing together for a historic one day peaceful strike today, during which they are remaining in their cells, refusing work and other assignments and activities. This is a groundbreaking event not only because inmates are standing up for themselves and their own human rights, but because prisoners are setting an example by reaching across racial boundaries which, in prisons, have historically been used to pit oppressed communities against each other.”

According to the Black Agenda Report, Prisoners are refusing to come out of their cells or do work. One in every thirteen adults in the state of Georgia is in prison, on parole or probation or some form of court or correctional supervision. According to reports, the state is dispatching special units and the BAR recommends calls to facilities the next few days to ensure the safety of the prisoners. Here are some numbers:

Macon State Prison is 978-472-3900.
Hays State Prison is at (706) 857-0400
Telfair State prison is 229-868-7721
Baldwin State Prison is at (478) 445- 5218
Valdosta State Prison is 229-333-7900
Smith State Prison is at (912) 654-5000

Pacific Radio just reported that Georgia’s prisons are under lockdown and guards are forcing prisoners out of their cells and beating them.

I salute the courage and international solidarity of the Georgia prison strikers.

We should act promptly to prevent another Attica!
The struggle continues!
Long live the spirit of George and Jonathan Jackson!

Inspirado por el son de los pollos

Vinieron por nosotros como alas 4:00am de la mañana

antes que cantara

el gallo

para llegar, y sonprendernos…..

Pero se les olvido que la gallina que pone los guevos

y cria a los pollitos

también tiene pico.

aunque no cante

cuando sale

El sol…

si Canta cuando sale el opresor.....

Y el caldo de pollo que hacia con

Nosotros,

le avisamos, a su mero mero, que aprenda a comer puercos,

porque nosotros ni los huevos les vamos a dar a los

culeros

Y siguiran siendo reveldes, insurgentes algunos los llaman zapatistas

Porque la Resistencia y la perra hambre, es la que pario a estos indigenas

Ha estos reveldes

Que sean tapado el rostro,

Para que nosotros

Podramos verlos

Y dejaron de pedir y rogar con palabras

Y dejaron que las armas Hablen por ellos, por que las palabras y los dialectos

Se los ha llevado el viento…

Muteado Silencio

This Medicine Wheel is located in the Big Horn National Forest on the Wyoming and Montana border. The medicine wheel is said to be thousands of years old. Used by the Native people who reside in the state of Wyoming and Montana. Many other neighboring tribes have traveled here to utilize the Medicine Wheel for healing of their people, or come to worship. How the medicine wheel true usage is unknown today by using the spokes seen in the picture is unknown today by many tribes. Although a good idea of how the wheel is entered by those who are gifted as medicine people or spiritual leader on how to use this wheel. The fact this medicine wheel has been used by many Indian tribes many of the stories are kept by certain individuals of those tribes.

I will only tell of a story or my experience while using this wheel for the sake of healing. Many other people might have various versions or experience related to this. This is my story.

One day, I received a phone call from a dear friend in the east. She explains to me over the phone and on the internet her dealings with her vision as she is going blind. I had explained to her of the magical powers of the medicine wheel. It was agreed to save her vision she make a trip to Wyoming via Denver International airport. Upon arriving in Denver, we are having a meal in downtown Denver. She advises me, she had night blindness. As we were walking the streets of darkness has arrived. After eating our meal for the night, we were walking the shops for window shopping. She stopped momentarily, as I checked out a store window. Calling her to see what I’m looking at. She hears my voice and starts walking toward me. Well, unbecoming to me. Bam! She walked into a street light. I walked towards her and asked if she was ok. She is rubbing her head and says, yes. Then, I tell her to grab a hold of my arm as I show her what was inside the store window.

We arrive in Cody, Wyoming and a friend of mine comes with us to the medicine wheel. Arriving bright and early in the morning were met by a US Forest Service employee at the base of the medicine wheel. Forest service employee advises us that the Wheel is open and at the top of the hill is another US Forest Service employee who will close off the Medicine Wheel for the ceremony to be conducted.

Upon arriving at the top of the mesa, the vista was clear as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. There birds were flying along the cliff. A fence protected the medicine wheel to prevent people from moving or gathering the rocks of the spoke of the wheel. This was to protect the integrity of the ancient wheel to insure the physically appearance of a bike spoke of a wheel.

Walking through a gate to enter inside the wheel, I ask my friend to sit on the west side of the wheel facing east. I began the ceremony. As I’m singing sun dance songs while my pipe is on the ground as I stopped at each cardinal direction 4-times around the wheel as birds fly up and over us as we’re inside the fence area of the wheel. I ask my friend to pray for help from the Creator as I come back to the point of beginning in the west. I bless her with my eagle fan to bring her back into harmony and balance. I tell her and our other friend the ceremony is over. What seem to be 45 minutes in ceremony was actually 4 hours. It seemed time had stopped while in the medicine wheel.

As we’re walking down the hill back to my war pony; my friend who is from New York expresses out loud she see pine needles on a pine tree, some birds flying off in the distance and see rocks on the ground. Just then! I ask her, “Wait and let’s hold the horses? How far can you actually see?” She raises up her hand. Placing it up to her face which is about 6 inches from her nose and as she did this. I told her, “You’re kidding.” She says, “No I’m not kidding. I can see things now. I’m legally blind in the State of New York.” I asked my friend, “If you’re legally blind how you can see. How have you come to this condition?” She explains how her sight works or our sight works. When we see light through your eyes; the light comes into our eyes. Goes through our eyes to the back of our eyeball and at the back there is a point where the light refract which causes images for us to see. In her care, the back is missing for the light not to refract. Due to this condition in her eye; she can’t see images and hence is blind.

Driving back to Denver for her flight back to New York, I asked her, “I wonder how far it was to Denver as it was now dark on the freeway?” A directional sign was off in the distance. She read it and said, “Denver about 185 miles or so.” I looked at her. I said, “What did you say?” She said the mileage once again. I said, “What!” Then, I told her “You just read the sign and you’re supposed to have night blindness.” She then broke out in tear and said, “I can see.”

At the Denver International airport, I asked her to make an appointment with her eye doctor to explain what is happening as far as the healing goes and to call me back to let me know what is going on with her vision. She calls me back approximately 3 weeks later. Telling me her doctor can not explain what just occur and called this a miracle. She had better then 20/20 vision. I told her to take it easy and just enjoy the healing that brings back her vision.

It is important we always protect our sacred places. We treasure these places as this is where our ancestors of long ago have gone for healing. Healing the most serious of illnesses, we can not take our most powerful places for granted. We must not play with them as well but to hold these places in high regard as being powerful and can perform such things as miracles in healing of our people.

As, I stated this is only one story of a visit to Medicine Wheel. There are many other stories as with other sacred places I’ve been to other sacred places such as Bear Butte and Devil Tower called by non-Natives but to Native people it is known as Bear Tower.

I hope this will give hope to those who are sick. If we can look at a picture of these places and utilized the power radiating from these places it can heal us if we believe. We must believe in our sacred and powerful places.

Kenny Frost ~ Ute ~
Sun Dance Chief
March 13, 2012 ~ © ~

BENEATH

Sisters in Solidarity/Hermanas en solidaridad was held in Richmond, California to celebrate Intl Wombyns Day. It was a powerful event that celebrated multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-generational wombyn from all over Richmond.

The event included dancing, sharing, dialogue, poetry and speakers. POOR Magazine's own Lisa "Tiny Gray-Garcia was the keynote speaker.

The PNN-TV video shows only an excerpt from this beautiful day in resistance.

March 29, 2012

Image: Plans for the Vallejo waterfront

At the worst time of Chris Bennett's life, he “just needed the right medication and someone to make [him] feel like a human being.” At that moment he was houseless in Vallejo, recently released from nearly thirteen years in the criminal punishment system, addicted to methamphetamine, and torn apart as a survivor of police abuse and childhood abuse. He had been sleeping in a friend's storage facility, working to find income. He says his parents would “feed me under the garage door like a dog.” Going through an ordeal like that was the worst time of his parents' lives, too—wanting to help their emotional and volatile son, but not able to work through all the layers of systemic problems just by themselves. In Vallejo, it seemed like there wasn't anywhere for Chris to get in safe relationships: with friends, family, state health institutions...

Now, over a decade later, Chris does have people in his life that make him feel like a human being: his wife and kids. Chris' wife Sue, with unstoppable determination and wisdom, helped Chris get back on his feet and raise their family together. “He was self-medicating. He didn't know what was wrong and he didn't know how to get help. So we needed to find different things that could help ourselves,” says Sue.

He, like a lot of other folks without access to reliable mental health resources, had suffered a lifetime of being blamed for the strong emotions he felt, teachers calling him too crazy or too unstable to function, a lifetime of limited options for understanding his strong emotions. Without support, he floundered in school and at home, becoming a survivor of neuro-normative oppression and trauma. So he worked on the street, creating underground economic strategies to support himself, but getting criminalized for doing what he needed to do to survive.

The City of Vallejo not only lacks basic resources for poor and houseless folks, but also keeps the cycle of trauma active by regularly bulldozing houseless camps, illegally sorting through people's tents and carts, throwing their stuff on the ground, and actively seeking to criminalize and incarcerate people in the name of "cleaning up the waterfront." Meanwhile, there is only a single temporary housing facility in Vallejo: a hundred beds administered by a private Christian organization with strict rules. People who choose to sleep there must also cook and clean, attend various meetings, wake up by a certain time, and be back in the facility by curfew. In addition, folks are not allowed to bring in animals, many of whom are the closest family people have. People are often deterred from staying there for that reason.

Now that Chris and Sue have figured out a mental health plan that works for them and their kids, they are working to help other people who experience houselessness in Vallejo. Doing something about the cyclical and systemic abuse of poor people with emotional or mental “irregularities” has become Chris' life mission. Out of a house inherited from Sue's parents, they have built a vast operation to respond to requests from folks living in houseless camps by the waterfront and other parts of town. Their efforts are amazing: healing, humanizing, and fierce.

When Chris was locked up, “I wanted to help troubled teens,” Chris recalls. “But it's a lot bigger than that.” After being released from prison eighteen months ago, when he had been clean for four months, he was driving down the street and noticed all the houseless people down by the water. “I started walking to the camps, talking to people, a lot of them I knew from when I was homeless. I wanted to start making them meals, especially when it was cold and rainy.”

When he did start cooking, Chris says “the way it made me feel in my heart” kept him going. “Cause in my past, I was a very violent addict. Of course my medication helps a lot, but [this work] has opened my heart up and I think I am a better father and husband, and it makes you realize how lucky we are.” Sue and his daughter Kelsey started helping, too. The family agreed to cut back on expenses and use some of the disability benefits that Chris gets so they could take food and other necessities to people living in the camp.

Now they buy or collect donations of necessities from the community, enough to bring everyone two meals a day, seven days a week. “I can do a lot with pinto beans,” jokes Chris.

In their visit to POOR Magazine's Community Newsroom, Chris and Sue reiterated that it's about making human connection and poor people claiming our humanity for ourselves. “These are people, and sometimes they just need an extra hand,” observes Chris. They need basic stuff like socks, shoes, feminine hygiene products, hand sanitizer, and tooth paste. It makes a difference, to afffirm that people's bodies still matter—their survival and health still matter.

Chris and Sue want to take their food and supply donation further—to challenge the po'lice abuse of houseless people in Vallejo, and to push the City to provide better health resources for those who can't afford them. Chris asserts that the abuse (the bulldozing, the tent searches) “is illegal and it's bullshit. It needs to go public so it can be stopped.” It's especially unjust and irresponsible of the city “to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on beautifying the waterfront with palm trees, but we can't do nothing for the homeless?”

An understanding of how the system abuses houseless people and addicts, makes them feel like their bodies are not worthy of care and keeps them houseless on the margins of survival, drives Chris to share the blessings that have met him lately in life—the support and interdependence of Sue and his kids, as well as the house they inherited. At it's heart, this project is about sharing resources as an act of reasserting and celebrating our collective right to survive. If they hadn't inherited the house, they “wouldn't have the finances to do what we do today. Something so horrendous like a death in the family has turned out to be a godsend to so many other people...Life has blessed me in so many ways, and that's why I say this is my calling. I got shot four different times, and did thirteen years in the state penitentiary, and survived. Because all along I've had a higher power that has me doing what I'm doing today.” Chris brings the beautiful interdependence that his family has shown him, back to the houseless community he is still connected to, even after finding stable housing.

Chris and Sue are looking for support to get the city to provide physical and mental health resources for poor and houseless people. They need basic advice and information about how to get this project going. They will also accept supplies to be used by houseless people in Vallejo. Call this number for questions about donations: (707) 384-1399.