(2019-06-22). "Never Again" Means Act Now. indybay.org As the national conversation escalates around what to appropriately call the detention centers at the southern border, the humanitarian crisis continues. | Here are tangible actions the local Santa Cruz community can take to protest America's immigration policies and support relief efforts at the border.
(2019-06-22). A Brief History of US Concentration Camps. globalresearch.ca Concentration camp (noun): a place in which large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution. …
(2019-06-22). Free Hiroji Yamashiro-Political Prisoner In Okinawa. indybay.org The Japanese government has jailed anti-war activist Hiroji Yamashiro who has been protesting the construction of a new base in Okinawa at Henoko. He has been imprisoned for over 70 days.
(2019-06-22). Et tu, Ilhan? Twitter goes bananas as Omar explains why detention centers are 'concentration camps'. rt.com 
Rep. Ilhan Omar has argued that US immigrant detention centers fit the definition of concentration camps, eliciting both applause and eye-rolling on social media as debate over immigration continues to polarize the country.
(2019-06-21). NAACP Invites Detroit and Surrounding Cities Residents to 110th National Convention Events. naacp.org 
NAACP Experience Hall, Health Pavilion and Career Fair to headline free events at Convention. BALTIMORE‚ÄØ— Families, students, professionals and residents of Detroit, MI and surrounding areas are invited to attend the NAACP Experience taking place Saturday, July 20 through Tuesday, July 23. Hosted at the COBO Center, hundreds of partners, companies, civic organizations, and vendors …
(2019-06-21). A Brief History of US Concentration Camps. counterpunch.org Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has ignited a firestorm of criticism, from both the left and the right as well as the mainstream media, for calling US immigrant detention centers "concentration camps." To her credit, Ocasio-Cortez has refused to back down, citing academic experts and blasting the Trump administration for forcibly holding undocumented migrants "where they are brutalized with dehumanizing conditions and dying." She also cited history. "The US ran concentration camps before, when we rounded up Japanese people during World War II," she tweeted. "It is such a shameful history that we largely igno…
(2019-06-21). Human Rights Lawyer Condemns Canada's Support For Honduras's Repressive Regime (2/2). therealnews.com 
Prisilla Alvarado, a lawyer acting for imprisoned human rights defender Edwin Espinal, condemns Canadian support for the regime of Juan Orlando Hernandez…
(2019-06-21). Slamming 'Corruption' That Has Allowed Rampant Abuse, Warren Releases Plan to Ban Private Prisons. commondreams.org Calling out the federal government's close ties with for-profit prison operators as "corruption," Sen. Elizabeth Warren released her plan to ban private prisons should she win the presidency in 2020. | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/criminal-law-reform_0_0.jpg…
(2019-06-21). Free Hiroji Yamashiro-Political Prisoner In Okinawa. indybay.org The Japanese government has jailed anti-war activist Hiroji Yamashiro who has been protesting the construction of a new base in Okinawa at Henoko. He has been imprisoned for over 70 days.
(2019-06-21). Chelsea Manning Is a Political Prisoner. Release Her Right Now. commondreams.org ______________________________…
(2019-06-21). Brazil: Attorney General Rejects Dropping Charges Against Lula. telesurenglish.net Brazil's Attorney General Raquel Dodge upheld her opposition to the possible nullification of ex-President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's prison sentence for alleged corruption after new information arising from leaked conversations of former judge Sergio Moro admitting his political biases in the case. | RELATED | Brazil: Moro Testifies to Senate to Discredit Intercept Exposé | In a document sent to the Supreme Federal Tribunal (SFT), Dodge expressed her "refusal of the petition t…
(2019-06-21). 'Like a debtors' prison': American who fled to CHINA from $30k in student loans. rt.com 
Millions of Americans are struggling under the weight of student loans, but the government would rather bomb Iran than fix it, the graduate who packed his bags for China to escape his own crippling college debt tells RT.
(2019-06-21). A Brief History of US Concentration Camps. commondreams.org After the attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, under which all people of Japanese ancestry living on the West Coast were rounded up and imprisoned in dozens of civilian assembly centers (where they were often forced to sleep in crowded, manure-covered horse stables), relocation centers, military bases, and "citizen isolation centers." (Photo: Japanese-American internment camp/Hulton Archive/Getty Images) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/gettyimages-3244987.jpg…
(2019-06-21). Human Rights Lawyer Condemns Canada's Support For Honduras's Repressive Regime (2/2). therealnews.com Prisilla Alvarado, a lawyer acting for imprisoned human rights defender Edwin Aspinal, condemns Canadian support for the regime of Juan Orlando Hernandez…
(2019-06-21). Crackdown on Christians in Eritrea spurs UN expert to press Government 'to live up to its international commitments'. un.org Cracking down on Catholic Church activities, arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of Orthodox and Christian congregation members in Eritrea, prompted a call from a UN independent rights expert on Friday for the Government to respect citizens' freedom of religion and to "release those who have been imprisoned for their religious beliefs".
(2019-06-21). My Grandmother's 20-Year Fight for Prison Phone Justice. truthout.org Imagine having to choose between purchasing groceries or making a phone call to speak with your incarcerated loved one this week. That's the dilemma facing thousands of families across the country bearing the burden of high-cost prison phone calls. | In states like Arkansas, according to the Prison Policy Initiative, it can still cost up to $24 for a 15-minute phone call with someone detained at a jail — a plight po…
(2019-06-21). Migrant Children Imprisoned in Texas Detail Border Patrol's "Level of Inhumanity" commondreams.org "We've seen the worst conditions that we've seen in the last three years of conducting these visits." | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/headline/thumbs/border_1.jpg…
(2019-06-21). A Brief History of US Concentration Camps. counterpunch.org concentration camp (noun): a place in which large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities, sometimes to provide forced labor or to await mass execution. — Oxford English Dictionary Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has ignited a firestorm of criticism, from both More
(2019-06-21). Brian Mier on Brazilian Political Scandal. fair.org 
The Brazilian anti-corruption crusade, called Car Wash or Lava Jato, that put popular ex-president Lula da Silva in prison and paved the way for fascist president Jair Bolsanaro—all while being celebrated in the US corporate press—was actually, as critics contended, less interested in corruption than in keeping Lula's Workers Party out of power.
(2019-06-21). Billionaires Can Buy Sex and Not Go to Jail. Why Can't You? therealnews.com 
A new law introduced in New York state would decriminalize all sex work, but it faces pushback from the NY National Organization of Women and others groups. The law follows in the wake of last year's FOSTA SESTA, which has negatively impacted sex workers and online free speech advocates…
(2019-06-21). Biden under fire over comments about working with segregationist senators. wsws.org The controversy has put the spotlight on the role of Southern Democrats in defending racial discrimination well into the 1970s.
(2019-06-21). San Francisco City Workers Hold Juneteenth Protest at City Hall. indybay.org Photos: Leon Kunstenaar | Say Discrimination is Pervasive in Supposedly Progressive City…
(2019-06-21). UN Labor Org's Workplace Abuse Pact Passes, #MeToo Cited. telesurenglish.net The United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) in a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland Friday adopted a new "convention concerning the elimination of violence and harassment at work" (EVHW), a multilateral binding instrument, which won with 439 votes of yes, 7 no, and 30 abstentions. | RELATED: | Swiss Women Rally Against Labor Discrimination, Wage Gaps
(2019-06-21). Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women's inquiry issues final report. wsws.org The report the blame for the oppression of the native people from Canadian capitalism and its state to a racist "colonialist" mindset and "white society."
(2019-06-21). New lawsuit seeks to hold the Trump Administration accountable for eliminating environmental grades. nationofchange.org A new lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity demands that the Environmental Protection Agency release "any and all records" in connection with the recent changes to the EPA environmental review rating process, namely the sudden elimination of issuing public grades on environmental reviews. | The EPA is calling the process of environmental grading "antiquated" and believes that by eliminating them it will simplify the federal permitting process. The grades were…
(2019-06-21). Using Democratic institutions to smash Democratic aspirations (the Brazil model). mronline.org 
Brazil's former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has now been in prison since April 2018. More than four hundred Brazilian lawyers have signed a statement that expresses alarm at what they see as procedural irregularities in the case against him. | Source
(2019-06-21). As Trump Tweets Hateful Threats, States are Protecting Immigrant Rights. commondreams.org The wave of pro-immigrant legislation in the states — and the recent passage in the House of Representatives of the American Dream and Promise Act — represents a powerful cross-current to the Trump administration's increasingly anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy. (Photo: via ACLU) | www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/styles/cd_special_coverage/public/views-article/thumbs/screen_shot_2019-06-21_at_5.02.31_pm.png…
(2019-06-20). Israeli Holocaust museum schools AOC on concentration camps after comparison to migrant facilities. rt.com 
The Israeli Holocaust memorial center Yad Vashem lit up US Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez online for comparing US migrant detention centers to fascistic concentration camps, even offering to help educate her. |
(2019-06-20). Ilhan Omar re-tweets video of CNN contributor claiming US could be on the road to 'death camps'. rt.com 
Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar appears to be supporting fellow representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, after AOC sparked uproar for comparing detention centers at the US border to Nazi concentration camps.
(2019-06-20). Nicaragua Set To Build Largest Hospital in the Country. telesurenglish.net Nicaragua's government, amidst United States' (U.S.) sanctions, has begun plans to build the largest hospital in the country in the western city of Leon. | RELATED: Nicaraguan Gov't Fulfills Prisoner Release Agreements | Vice president and first lady Rosario Murillo said that the ceremony is to take place Thursday and will coincide with the 40th anniversary of…
(2019-06-20). They Are Concentration Camps — and They Are Also Prisons. truthout.org The words "Holocaust" and "concentration camp" were trending on Twitter on Tuesday. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had referred to the prison camps that migrant children are being kept in as "concentration camps," and a virtual war erupted. The feigned outrage of conservatives was loud. Some argued that the Holocaust was a singular event, to which no parallel should be claimed. Meanwhile, many historians and people personally connected to the Holocaust insisted that the comparison was valid. | As a Native writer and a Jewish writer, respective…
(2019-06-20). Trump's America and Egypt's Dictatorship Deserve Each Other. truthdig.com He was the first duly elected president in the Arab world and the first in Egyptian history. Now Mohammed Morsi is dead, collapsing on June 17 in his glass cage during his show trial in Cairo—a victim, it seems, of criminal negligence during a brutal six-year stint in prison. His death only highlights the distinct malevolence of a military junta that (illegally) overthrew Morsi in a coup. He languished in an Egyptian prison system that's incarcerated thousands of others—critics of the regime, mostly—in a co…
(2019-06-20). Italy: Captain in court for saving people in distress at sea. wsws.org Pia Klemp, who has rescued about 5,000 people in distress in a total of six missions, faces up to 20 years imprisonment and heavy fines.
(2019-06-20). Ecuador: Ola Bini Released as Court Grants Habeas Corpus. telesurenglish.net Swedish programmer and digital privacy activist Ola Bini was released from jail on Thursday evening after Ecuador's Provincial Court of Pichincha granted him the habeas corpus request. | RELATED: | Swedish Programmer Ola Bini Denied Bail by Ecuadorean Court | "I'm not free yet, I'll be out of prison tomorrow but I won't be free as long as this illegitimate investigation is going on, as long as this illegal persecution continues I won't be free. But we will prove my innocence," Bini said after the he…
(2019-06-20). Morsi's Legacy: Unlikely Democrat, Reluctant Martyr. dissidentvoice.org 
Morsi surrounded by his minders Mohamed Morsi (1951—2019) was the fifth President of Egypt (30 June 2012 to 3 July 2013), deposed by General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in a coup d'état July 3, 2013. In his last words, Morsi accused the government of "assassinating" him through years of poor prison conditions. Morsi is survived by …
(2019-06-20). Professor Stuart Rees to speak at SEP rally to defend Julian Assange. wsws.org "The rally must increase public awareness of the outrageous injustice if Julian is extradited to the US to face a possible 170 years in prison."
(2019-06-20). Supreme Court Undermines Religious Neutrality In Permitting Giant Governmental Cross. aclu.org The decision ignores our constitutional commitment to official religious neutrality. | Today, the Supreme Court announced that a governmental display of a 40-foot-tall Latin cross as a war memorial for all veterans does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment. The decision ignores our constitutional commitment to official religious neutrality and is a slap in the face to non-Christian veterans.
(2019-06-20). Shady contractors jailed in Bay area and on Long Island. peoplesworld.org 
Minnesota isn't the only state that's cracking down on construction wage theft. New York is, too, and the feds did in Northern California. The two cases from opposite ends of the country illustrate the prevalence of cut-rate contractors who routinely exploit their workers, especially immigrant workers, shorting them of pay and overtime, all to line …
(2019-06-20). Floridians Are Suing a Cop Fired for Planting Drugs in Their Vehicles. truthout.org In October 2017, Derek Benefield was driving in the Florida Panhandle's Jackson County when he was pulled over for allegedly swerving into the opposite lane. Once at the car, sheriff's deputy Zachary Wester claimed to smell marijuana and conducted a search of the vehicle, which, he reported, turned up methamphetamine and marijuana. Despite insisting the drugs weren't his, Benefield, who was already on probation, was arrested, charged $1,100 in fines and court fees, and sentenced to one year in county jail. | Benefield was seven months into his sentence when, in September 2018, the state attorney's office dropp…
(2019-06-20). San Fancisco City Workers Hold Juneteenth Protest at City Hall. indybay.org Photos: Leon Kunstenaar | Say Discrimination is Pervasive in Supposedly Progressive City…
(2019-06-20). New York Passes Historic Farmworker Fair Labor Law. blackstarnews.com 
New law ends 80 Years of Exclusion and Discrimination in State Labor Law… | The National Employment Law Project applauds New York State for passing the Farmworkers Fair Labor Practices Act, which redresses longstanding discrimination against the workers who plant, harvest, and produce our most basic sustenance. By closing a racially motivated loophole in New York's labor laws, farmworkers will at last be paid overtime wages, have safe housing, and be protected when forming a union. | "While the farming workforce may have shifted from Black workers to Latinx workers, the Jim Crow practice of denying them basic…
(2019-06-20). The US Must Repair Historic and Current Racism. dissidentvoice.org 
On this Juneteenth, we must confront the impacts of racism dating back to the founding of the United States with the slave trade of Black people brought from Africa, Jim Crow segregation, and policies that continue to this day that cause wealth inequality, disinvestment in Black communities, police violence, mass incarceration, and white nationalist violence. …
(2019-06-20). 87yo woman tasered by Georgia police, excessive force lawsuit pending (VIDEO). rt.com 
Harrowing footage has been released showing the arrest of an 87-year-old Syrian woman who was tasered by Georgia police, despite their dispatcher being made aware that she could not speak English.
(2019-06-20). Punk band files lawsuit against surveillance by German intelligence agency. wsws.org The injunction seeks to ensure that the 2018 intelligence agency report, which lists the band in the category "left-wing extremist music scene," should no longer be published.
(2019-06-20). US: Ta-Nehisi Coates Talks Slavery Reparations at Historic 'Juneteenth' Hearing. telesurenglish.net The United States House Judiciary Committee held a historic hearing Wednesday in Washington D.C. on the divisive question of slave reparations for Black Americans. | RELATED: | Lawsuit Accuses Harvard of 'Shamelessly Capitalizing' From Exploitative Photos of Slaves | The hearing coincided with "Juneteenth," a day commemorating the abolition of slavery in the U.S. state of Texas that occurred on June 19,1865, and which today marks the emancipation of ens…
(2019-06-20). Ocasio-Cortez Is Right—We Are Running Concentration Camps. truthdig.com 
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been under fire for an Instagram message she sent out in which she characterized the holding facilities for refugees and other undocumented entrants into the US run by ICE and by private companies (for which it is a $2 billion a year industry) as "concentration camps." | Human rights groups are speaking of a systematic violation of basic human rights of these immigrants. Note that it is perfectly legal for people to seek refugee status in the United States, and that the court system determ…
(2019-06-19). Stacey Abrams to Speak at Clarence Mitchell Luncheon during NAACP's 110th National Convention. naacp.org The Honorable Stacey Abrams will speak on the importance of ending voter suppression during the annual NAACP Convention in Detroit BALTIMORE — The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the nation's foremost civil rights organization, has announced that politician, lawyer and author Stacey Abrams will be speaking at the prestigious Clarence Mitchell …
(2019-06-19). Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's husband insists Johnson's comments impacted on her. thecanary.co 
The husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has insisted that comments made by Boris Johnson when he was foreign secretary "enabled a propaganda campaign" against her by Iran.Richard Ratcliffe directly contradicted claims by Mr Johnson in the Tory leadership TV debate that his remarks as foreign secretary had no bearing on the fate of the mother-of-one, who is in prison in Iran on spying charges.Apology: Mr Johnson was forced to apologise in 2017 after wrongly stating to a House of Commons committee that Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been in Iran to teach journalists.Referring to the remarks, Mr Ratcliffe told BB…
(2019-06-19). Headlines for June 19, 2019. democracynow.org Shanahan Withdraws from Defense Sec. Consideration over Domestic Violence Past, U.N. Finds "Credible Evidence" of MBS's Responsibility in Khashoggi Murder, U.S. Excludes Saudi Arabia from List of Countries Using Child Soldiers, DOJ Intervenes to Keep Paul Manafort Out of Rikers, Trump Taps Anti-Muslim Katharine Gorka for CBP Press Sec., Acting Head of USCIS Tells Agency Staff to Crack Down on "Frivolous" Asylum Claims, AOC Calls Immigration Prisons "Concentration Camps", AOC Calls Out Amazon's Poor Labor Practices, Gunmen Kill At Least 40 People in Mali Amid Mounting Ethnic Conflict, Trump Launches 2020 President…
(2019-06-19). It's Bad Journalism to Take Cops at Their Word. truthout.org When mainstream news outlets fail to fact-check the police, they fail their readers and they fail our society. | Time and time again, by uncritically presenting claims made by police as truths, mainstream news outlets condone and enable the scourges of police violence, racism and mass incarceration in our communities. | This is true throughout the country, but a closer look at recent newspaper articles in Chicago, where I live and take part in anti-prison organizing, illustrates the dynamics of these journalistic failures. | Misleading Coverage of Bail Reform in Chicago: | Just last week, Superintenden…