(2020-01-14). French pension reform activists set up mobile barbecue on Nice TRAM TRACKS mid-protest (VIDEO). rt.com 
As widespread protests against pension reform in France continue, rail workers who have been on strike for the past 41 days came up with an ingenious way to both lift their spirits and make use of the out-of-order tram tracks. | At around 10: 45am local time in Nice's Place Masséna, pension protestors including rail workers, prison guards and nurses began their march through the city. It didn't take long for hunger to set in, but thankfully the rail workers had a novel solution to keep the march going: a mobile barbecue that was custom-built to fit the tram tracks. | Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. | A mobil…
(2020-01-14). The US Is Waging a Stealth War at the Mexico Border. truthout.org In recent decades, U.S. immigration policies have aggressively targeted families fleeing violence and poverty in Mexico and Central and South America, spawning a network of detention centers that now exist indefinitely along our southern border. The U.S.'s approach to tackling undocumented immigration has come under fire for its use of brutal tactics such as deliberately separating families, placing them in confinement under harsh conditions, and denying them adequate medical and legal counsel. | On today's program, Joh…
(2020-01-14). The Trump Administration Weakens Standards for ICE Detention Facilities. aclu.org Last month, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officially released a new version of its National Detention Standards (NDS), which govern the treatment of immigrant detainees held in almost 140 facilities in 44 states. These facilities include local and state jails and prisons — some operated by private prison companies — under contract with ICE. Despite being considered "civil detention," almost 20 percent of ICE detainees are held in these jails and prisons, many of which are located in remote, rural locations. | ICE describes its…
(2020-01-14). Minutes After His Release, Soldiers Abduct A Palestinian Who Spent 18 Years In Prison. imemc.org The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported that Israeli soldiers abducted, Tuesday, a Palestinian man just minutes after his release from prison, after he was held captive for 18 years. The PPS said the Palestinian political prisoner, Ismael Affana, from occupied East Jerusalem, was released from the Negev Detention Camp, …
(2020-01-14). Israel Extends Detention of Two Palestinian Prisoners, Days Before Release. imemc.org The Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) said the Israeli government renewed the administrative detention of Shorouq al-Badan, 25, for six more months, on Monday, only two days before her scheduled release, the Palestinian News and Info Agency (WAFA) reported. Badan, from Bethlehem, was arrested July 2019, and was supposed to be …
(2020-01-14). Detainee Zahran Suspends Hunger Strike. imemc.org The Palestinian Commission of Detainees' and Ex-Detainees Affairs has reported that detainee Ahmad Zahran, 42, has suspended the hunger strike, which lasted for 113 days, after reaching an agreement with the Israeli Prison Authority regarding his continued Administrative Detention without charges or trial. Lawyer Jawad Bulus, the head of the …
(2020-01-14). Iowa CCI, FWW Submit Brief to Supreme Court in Clean Water Lawsuit. commondreams.org ______________________________…
(2020-01-14). Soldiers Abduct Nineteen Palestinians In The West Bank. imemc.org Israeli soldiers abducted, on Tuesday at dawn, nineteen Palestinians, including siblings, from several parts of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Prisoners' Society (PPS) has reported. The PPS office in Jenin, in northern West Bank, said the soldiers invaded and ransacked many homes in several parts of the governorate, and …
(2020-01-14). Uighur | Muslims forced to redecorate their homes in Chinese | style. yenisafak.com Chinese oppression over the Uighur Muslim minority has been incessantly continuing, and now officials are forcing the minority to redecorate their homes to make them look "more Chinese."As part of its aim to expunge Uighur culture, China is ordering Uighurs to remove their home decor and traditional furniture, including rugs, pillows and even desks and make them more Chinese-influenced or be sent to to internment camps in the case that they don't comply, Radio Free Asia reported.Uyghurs, a Turkic ethnic group that make up 45 percent of the population of Xinjiang, accuse China of carrying out repressive policies t…
(2020-01-14). Trump Embraces Anti-LGBTQ Pastor Who Pushed "Conversion Therapy" truthout.org Evangelical pastor Robert Jeffress came under fire from civil rights groups last month after delivering a speech at the White House Hanukkah celebration because he had previously said that all Jews are destined for an afterlife in hell. Jeffress's opinions about LGBTQ people are similarly distressing — but not, apparently, to President…
(2020-01-13). Review: "To The Promised Land," King's fight for economic justice. peoplesworld.org 
As we near the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Holiday we would do well to reassess the role that economic justice played in the 1960s civil rights movements, especially for African Americans. Dr. King said in 1967, "It is the black man who to a large extent produced the wealth of this nation…the black man …
(2020-01-13). Act now: Prison activist-writer placed in solitary. workers.org 
Workers World writer and prisoner at the Pennsylvania State Correctional Institution at Albion, Jerome Coffey, was removed from his cell and placed in solitary confinement on Jan. 6. Jerome Coffey Coffey has been told he's in the hole while prison officials conduct a phony investigation for a disturbance last week . . . | Continue reading Act now: Prison activist-writer placed in solitary at Workers.org
(2020-01-13). Coercive Plea Bargaining Has Poisoned the Criminal Justice System. It's Time to Suck the Venom Out. aclu.org In 2006, George Alvarez was charged with assaulting a prison guard while awaiting trial on public intoxication. He knew he didn't do it — the guards actually jumped him — but the ten year mandatory minimum sentence at trial scared him so much that he pled guilty. Little did he know that the government had a video proving his innocence, but they buried it long enough for prosecutors to extract the plea first. George spent almost four yea…
(2020-01-13). New Consumer Lawsuit Challenges USDA's Dirty and Dangerous New Swine Inspection System. commondreams.org ______________________________…
(2020-01-13). Israel transfers 60 minor Palestinian prisoners to solitary confinement. peoplesdispatch.org Palestinian prisoners in the Ofer military camp and prison, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, are protesting the Israeli Prison Service's (IPS) decision to transfer 60 minor Palestinian prisoners to the Damon prison inside Israel, without their adult overseers who are from among the prisoners themselves. The adult prisoners are reportedly worried that minors who have been transferred are at risk of being mistreated and abused, and of having their rights taken away by the prison guards at the new prison in the absence of their adult overseers. The adult prisoners usually take care of the minors and help the…
(2020-01-13). Report: Palestinian Child Prisoners Face Further Repression and Transfer. imemc.org Palestinian child seized in Jerusalem. Older photo, illustrative. | Israeli occupation officials announced that child prisoners would be transferred away from the Ofer prison and separated into cells without the adult prisoner representatives who support them before the prison administration on Saturday, 11 January.
(2020-01-12). Mississippi prisoner deaths demand mass action. workers.org 
Atlanta Jan. 13 — For more than 100 years, Parchman Prison in Sunflower County, in Mississippi's Delta region, has been the location of brutal racism, wretched conditions and unrelenting cruelty. Six Parchman prisoners in one cell, sleeping on cold floor with no blankets. Parchman is also the site of Mississippi's . . . | Continue reading Mississippi prisoner deaths demand mass action at Workers.org
(2020-01-12). Iraq air base housing U.S. personnel struck by rockets. fightbacknews.org Washington, DC – According to widespread press reports in the Middle East, the Balad Air Base, which houses U.S. personal was struck today, January 12, by multiple rockets. | The events come in the context of the Iraqi parliament passing a resolution telling the United States to remove its forces from the country, and the country's Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi requesting the U.S. to start talks on withdrawing military forces. The Trump administration says it will not leave Iraq. | In the past, the Balad Air Base housed a U.S. facility for holding and torturing Iraqi prisoners. | In related developments, Iraq's…
(2020-01-11). The coming decade of revolution. workers.org 
In the last decade the working class — spurred into action by a destroyed economy, state violence, and national and gender oppression — rose up in a series of mass mobilizations, the scope of which had not been seen in two generations. From Occupy to Black Lives Matter to the . . . | Continue reading The coming decade of revolution at Workers.org
(2020-01-10). The Critical Role Auditing Plays in the Battle Against Police Surveillance. therealnews.com 
Auditors across the country are turning the tables on police surveillance. The Police Accountability Report spoke to an auditor who was arrested to understand how filming cops ultimately preserves our civil rights.
(2020-01-10). Pregnant Workers Are Still Fighting for the Right to Work. aclu.org In 2015, | Michelle Durham, an ACLU client, was faced with an impossible choice: | continue working and risk the health of her pregnancy or give up her paycheck. | She was working | as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for Rural/Metro Corporation, a company | in Alabama that provides emergency medical care to people living in areas that | lack basic medical services. Shortly after joining Rural/Metro Corporation in | Alabama, Michelle learned she was pregnant with her first child and was advised | by her health professional not to lift more than 50 pounds. She was confident | the company would grant her a…
(2020-01-10). Weekend Read: SPLC sues Trump administration over family separation policy. splcenter.org The SPLC and its allies have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration policy that has separated and traumatized thousands of migrant families.
(2020-01-09). International Criminal Court Prepares to Try Israelis over War Crimes. therealnews.com 
Shawan Jabarin of the Al-Haq human rights organization discusses the International Criminal Court decision to prepare a lawsuit against the state of Israel regarding war crimes committed against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israeli authorities are already panicking.
(2020-01-09). "Clemency:" Exposing the Machinery of Death. aclu.org People on death | row are the direct object of a deeply flawed system of state killing that is infected | by racial and economic disparities and riddled with fatal errors. We currently | know of at least 166 | innocent people who were wrongfully condemned to die. | "Clemency," a new film starring Alfre Woodard as a prison | warden, explores the brutalizing effect the death penalty has on everyone else | in the system — the wardens, prison guards, chaplains, defense lawyers, and | their families, as well as the families of the victims…
(2020-01-08). Iranian Americans Have Rights, Too — No Matter What's Happening Abroad. aclu.org Like most Iranian Americans, my family immigrated to the United States in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution in Iran, hoping to find safety and acceptance in a country that prides itself on diversity and freedom of expression. We learned and embraced the principles of the Constitution, including freedom of speech and religion, due process, and equal protection — protections that apply to every person, citizen and non-citizen alike. But what happened at the U.S. border this past weekend was a painful reminder that sometimes, we are still considered outsiders. | In the state of Washington this weekend,…
(2020-01-07). 'This Is a Moment to Be Really Vigilant Against All Forms of Oppression' – CounterSpin interview with Audrey Sasson on antisemitism. fair.org 
Janine Jackson interviewed Jews for Racial and Economic Justice's Audrey Sasson about antisemitism for the January 3, 2020, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript. | Media…
(2020-01-07). It Is Time for a New Way Forward. aclu.org In 1996, at the height of the "tough on crime" era, President Bill Clinton signed two laws that dramatically changed the criminal legal system and radically altered the U.S. immigration system. Just as the 1994 crime bill instituted unjust mandatory minimum sentences and ballooned the prison population, the immigration bills of that same era led to similarly disastrous consequences for immigrants — an explosion in the growth of detention and unfairly harsh punishments for immigrants, including mandatory deportations for minor…
(2020-01-06). Tulsa's Troubling Past is Not Far Removed from Its Present. aclu.org The Tulsa massacre of 1921 may have become known to many | Americans because of a fictional HBO series, but it actually happened. Is the | probable discovery of heretofore undiscovered mass graves in Tulsa enough to | propel the city to a reckoning — | an unambiguous admission of responsibility for horrific acts and a determined | mind to make right what was wrong? We are about to find out. | In a recent …
(2020-01-06). Former Head of Identity Evropa Taken Into Custody for Contempt of Court. splcenter.org Elliott Kline, the onetime leader of Identity Evropa, is in federal custody after being found in contempt of court for failing to cooperate in a civil lawsuit stemming from the violent "Unite the Right" rally.
(2020-01-06). Venezuelan Government and Opposition Fraction Announce Release of 14 'Political Prisoners'. venezuelanalysis.com The National Roundtable for Peaceful Dialogue also offered its backing to the new National Assembly president, Luis Parra.
(2020-01-03). Boston anti-prison organizers oppose $50 million project. liberationnews.org 
Liberation News reports from the final 2019 meeting of the Panel on Justice-Involved Women in Boston.
(2019-12-28). Prison gave me a greater will to fight. zcomm.org Interview on the reality that Brazil is experiencing and the social protests that have occurred in several Latin American countries…
(2019-12-24). Across the Country Harsh Sentencing Laws are Tearing Apart Families and Communities. aclu.org During the holiday season, in the picturesque town of Petoskey, Michigan, Kimiko Uyeda, and her son Marshall celebrate with an annual tradition of selecting a new ornament to add to their tree. Year after year, Kimiko and Marshall add to their collection of ornaments as a part of their tradition. | For years, however, they were separated from one another and unable to enjoy this holiday tradition together. It all began in 2013 when Kimiko was arrested for filing what the local sheriff believed to be a false police report. Because of broken sentencing laws, the prosecutor in the case was able to add four additi…
(2019-12-20). Four Lawyers. Four Projects. One Non-Stop Year. aclu.org 
It isn't news that the Trump administration has kept ACLU attorneys working at breakneck speed for the past three years. In 2019 alone, we saw historic moments and victories—from defeating the citizenship question on the 2020 census and bringing the first trans civil rights case to the Supreme Court, to blocking a wave of abortion bans and many of the administration's attempts to dismantle the asylum system. To name a few. | Here are some of our attorneys' takes on 2019 and the year ahead—what's changed for the better and for the worse, and how the outcome of the 2020 presidential election will a…
(2019-12-16). He spent 36 years in prison because he stole $100 in cash and $4 in food stamps. Now Willie Parker is free. splcenter.org It was pouring rain the day Willie Parker left William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility after 36 years in prison.
(2019-12-13). Weekend Read: Amid Alabama's prison crisis, the voices of the people living through it should be heard. splcenter.org For years, Alabama's prison system has been under a microscope. Harsh sentencing laws coupled with chronic underfunding have led to horrific conditions for people behind bars.
(2019-12-02). Civil Rights Are on the Chopping Block in New Supreme Court Term. zcomm.org Hello, A very small proportion of ZNet content is available only to Sustainers. You can become a sustainer for a small repeating donation – monthly or yearly via the links for Sustaining, or Donating, available on the top page of ZNet.