Monthly Archives: June 2021

2021-06-24: News Headlines

WSWS (2021-06-24). Migrant children speak of horrifying conditions in detention centers set up by the Biden administration. wsws.org Children detained in federal custody face horrifying conditions including being deprived of edible food, clean drinking water, access to health care, education and legal support.

Staff (2021-06-24). Venezuela's Attorney General Labels Alex Saab's Illegal Detention as an Abduction. orinocotribune.com The Attorney General of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, Tarek William Saab, described the illegal detention of the Venezuelan special envoy and Alternate Ambassador to the African Union, Alex Saab, as an "abduction." The case constitutes an example of a flagrant disregard of the right to a legal defense and to due process, and a clear violation of Alex Saab's human rights. | When inaugurating his new Twitter Space, #twitterspacesdelfiscaltarek, on the popular social media platform, the highest representative of the Venezuelan Public Ministry stressed that this illegal process against Alex Saab "has been use…

James O'Neill (2021-06-24). The United States Continues to Play its Geopolitical Games but the Rest of the World Moves On. dissidentvoice.org One has to seriously wonder what game Joe Biden thinks he is playing. Fresh from what appears to have been an amiable meeting with Vladimir Putin in Geneva, the United States promptly announced a new range of sanctions upon Russia. The ostensible reason for the latest sanctions was the imprisonment of minor Russian dissident Alexei …

Staff (2021-06-24). Demand Justice for assassinated Palestinian Nizar Banat: Down with Oslo! samidoun.net Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network condemns in the strongest terms the assassination of Palestinian organizer Nizar Banat, a stalwart fighter against corruption who worked tirelessly to end "security coordination" between Palestinian Authority security forces and the Israeli occupation regime, the framework underlying the Oslo Accords. Before his assassination early this morning, 24 June, by Palestinian Authority security forces, coming once again to detain him as a political prisoner, Banat has been repeatedly jailed, interrogated and tried by the Palestinian Authority. We urge Palestinians, Arabs…

Staff (2021-06-24). Biden Admin Urged to Release Trans and HIV+ Asylum Seekers Following Deaths. truthout.org Image Credit: Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement | Ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris's visit to the U.S.-Mexico border, immigrant rights activists marched on the White House to call on the Biden administration to stop detaining trans asylum seekers, who often face severe abuse, discrimination and medical neglect in custody. Their actions included a service honoring and mourning the deaths of several trans people who died due to ICE negligence. Eight immigrant rights groups also sent a le…

Shaw Drake (2021-06-24). Unaccompanied Children's Well-Being Must Come First at Fort Bliss and Across Texas. aclu.org "A Border Patrol facility is no place for a child," We could not agree more. | Border Patrol facilities hav…

Editor (2021-06-24). Assange is still in jail. mronline.org Julian Assange remains in a maximum security jail, despite never being sentenced for anything but a long ago served spell for bail-jumping, and despite the U.S. Government's request for extradition having been refused. | June 24, 2021…

Moderator (2021-06-24). It's Long Past Time to End the 50-Year 'War on Drugs'. scheerpost.com Office of Public Affairs / CC BY 2.0] By Ellen Glover / OtherWords Fifty years ago this month, on June 17, 1971, President Richard Nixon declared a "full scale attack" on drug use. It was the beginning of the War on Drugs. Nixon — and many presidents since — promised the War on Drugs would save lives. Trillions of dollars later, incarceration and preventable overdose deaths have skyrocketed and… |

Thomas Meyer (2021-06-24). Alternatives to capitalism: Buen Vivir. indybay.org Capitalism is seen primarily as a system of institutional and racist oppression, and it implies a way of life that sees nature only as a raw material to be exploited. The claim is thus to break with the capitalist mode of production and life in order to create "other forms of life that are not determined by capital accumulation" (ibid., 37). The aim is a "return to use values" (ibid., 39).

Dick Nichols (2021-06-24). Spain: Behind the 'pardons' of Catalan political prisoners. greenleft.org.au By releasing the Catalans leaders, the Spanish government is hoping to rebuild bridges with those alienated by their imprisonment, even as it insists on the impossibility of having a indepedence referendum, writes Dick Nichols.

LaLa B Holston-Zannell (2021-06-23). PayPal and Venmo are Shutting Out Sex Workers, Putting Lives and Livelihoods at Risk. aclu.org Everyone should have access to financial services. Using financial intermediaries such as PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo can make or break one's ability to work or survive in our increasingly virtual society. In spite of this, platforms like PayPal and Venmo continue to boot sex workers and other users off their platforms with little due process. The ACLU has joined 22 other civil rights groups in Polic…

Staff (2021-06-23). Ex-Cop Eric Adams Takes Lead in New York City Mayoral Race. truthout.org We look at the early results from New York's highly anticipated primary election Tuesday. In the heated mayoral race, Brooklyn borough president and former New York police officer Eric Adams is leading, but it will likely take several weeks to announce a winner with the new ranked-choice voting system. Civil rights attorney Maya Wiley is currently in second place, followed closely by former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang has conceded after receiving less than 12% o…

Staff (2021-06-23). Ex-Cop Eric Adams Takes Lead in NYC Mayoral Race in City's First Election with Ranked-Choice Voting. democracynow.org We look at the early results from New York's highly anticipated primary election Tuesday. In the heated mayoral race, Brooklyn borough president and former New York police officer Eric Adams is leading, but it will likely take several weeks to announce a winner with the new ranked-choice voting system. Civil rights attorney Maya Wiley is currently in second place, followed closely by former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang has conceded after receiving less than 12% of the tallied vote even after the media covered him as a front-runner. "My sense is that Adams will pr…

José Luis Granados Ceja (2021-06-23). Venezuela: Maduro Promises a 'Revolution' of Justice and Prison System. venezuelanalysis.com Human rights collective Surgentes told Venezuelanalysis that the reforms must eradicate the class-based character of the administration of justice in the country.

Jerome Coffey (2021-06-23). How Maroon influenced me. workers.org Jerome Coffey has been wrongly incarcerated for 28 years, currently at Pennsylvania's SCI Pine Grove. He is an exceptional pro se litigant, that is, he represents himself in legal actions. He filed and won a lawsuit against the Department of Corrections and a civil suit. In both these cases, he . . . |

Michael Kramer (2021-06-23). Palestinian resistance forces changes in Zionist regime ‚àí WW commentary. workers.org Rally in front of the Israeli Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, May 15. The U.S./NATO-backed Israeli settler state has been forced into a change in leadership by the steadfast unity and resistance of the Palestinian people to their occupation and oppression. Another factor has been the explosion of international solidarity worldwide . . . |

Staff (2021-06-23). McConnell Is Stacking the Courts and Using Voter Suppression to Maintain Power. truthout.org Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued what surely must rank among the most hypocritical statements ever uttered by a senior senator. Were he to become majority leader again after the 2022 midterms he would, the Kentuckian stated, be McConnell is no stranger to hypocrisy. Rememb…

Dianne Mathiowetz (2021-06-23). Atlanta: 'No Pride in Detention'. workers.org Members of several trans and Latinx organizations assembled at the Atlanta ICE headquarters June 15 to declare "No Pride in Detention." Initiated by Community Estrella and its founder, Li An (Estrella) Sanchez, the main demand was to end the detention of trans people. As the group marched around the heavily . . . |

teleSUR (2021-06-23). Catalan Pro-Independence Leaders Are Released From Jail. telesurenglish.net On Wednesday, Spain's Supreme Court ordered the release of nine Catalan pro-independence leaders who had been imprisoned for more than three years. | RELATED: | Catalan regional government's former Vice President Oriol Junqueras and his comrades left prison waving a pro-independence flag and carrying a banner reading "Freedom for Catalonia." | On Monday, they received a pardon from Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who re…

_____ (2021-06-23). Graduate Student Researchers Seek Union Representation. popularresistance.org In one of the largest public employee organizing drives California has seen in over a decade, some 17,000 graduate student researchers at the University of California may soon become union members. | Student Researchers United, a committee of graduate student researchers, filed a petition for union certification with the California Public Employment Relations Board May 24. Organizers say they are seeking better wages and healthcare benefits, written protections against harassment and discrimination and a formal grievance procedure. They're also calling for more legal and political support for international studen…

Santa Cruz Police News (2021-06-23). Santa Cruz Grand Jury Finds Board of Supervisors Has Failed to Properly Oversee County Jail. indybay.org Due to a number of disturbing incidents occurring in the Santa Cruz County Main Jail over the past four years, the Santa Cruz Civil Grand Jury has found that the County Board of Supervisors has, "failed to assert and exercise proper oversight within their purview of the Main jail." This week, the Grand Jury released its new report titled, "Justice in the Jail," which cites a number of incidents, including inmate deaths. The report concludes: "we have a problem." (Photo: Summary of the Santa Cruz Civil Grand Jury report "Justice in the Jail." Read the full report below)…

Thomas Meyer (2021-06-23). Alternatives to capitalism: Buen Vivir. indybay.org Capitalism is seen primarily as a system of institutional and racist oppression, and it implies a way of life that sees nature only as a raw material to be exploited. The claim is thus to break with the capitalist mode of production and life in order to create "other forms of life that are not determined by capital accumulation" (ibid., 37). The aim is a "return to use values" (ibid., 39).

Paul Chavez, Fred Ross Jr. (2021-06-23). Our Fathers Fought GOP Voter Suppression 70 Years Ago. thenation.com Our Fathers Fought GOP Voter Suppression 70 Years Ago…

Peoples Dispatch (2021-06-23). Fatiha Briki is the latest Algerian human rights activist under detention. peoplesdispatch.org According to Fatiha Briki's family and the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees, of which she was a member, the activist was taken into custody on June 17. No reason has been provided by the authorities…

WSWS (2021-06-23). With support of Biden, federal court backs Trump's police-state assault on peaceful protests in Lafayette Square. wsws.org On Monday, a federal judge dismissed lawsuits alleging former president Donald Trump directed police to violate the constitutional rights of peaceful protesters who were violently attacked in Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020.

WSWS (2021-06-23). Senate Republicans block watered-down Democratic voting rights bill. wsws.org In the run-up to the vote, Biden and the Democratic leadership shamelessly courted West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who put forward a "compromise" proposal incorporating voter suppression measures supported by the Republicans.

2021-06-25 00:57 | 20:57 EST | 26 | 0 | 17 | 10 | 0

2021-06-23: News Headlines

LaLa B Holston-Zannell (2021-06-23). PayPal and Venmo are Shutting Out Sex Workers, Putting Lives and Livelihoods at Risk. aclu.org Everyone should have access to financial services. Using financial intermediaries such as PayPal and its subsidiary Venmo can make or break one's ability to work or survive in our increasingly virtual society. In spite of this, platforms like PayPal and Venmo continue to boot sex workers and other users off their platforms with little due process. The ACLU has joined 22 other civil rights groups in Polic…

Staff (2021-06-23). Ex-Cop Eric Adams Takes Lead in New York City Mayoral Race. truthout.org We look at the early results from New York's highly anticipated primary election Tuesday. In the heated mayoral race, Brooklyn borough president and former New York police officer Eric Adams is leading, but it will likely take several weeks to announce a winner with the new ranked-choice voting system. Civil rights attorney Maya Wiley is currently in second place, followed closely by former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang has conceded after receiving less than 12% o…

Staff (2021-06-23). Ex-Cop Eric Adams Takes Lead in NYC Mayoral Race in City's First Election with Ranked-Choice Voting. democracynow.org We look at the early results from New York's highly anticipated primary election Tuesday. In the heated mayoral race, Brooklyn borough president and former New York police officer Eric Adams is leading, but it will likely take several weeks to announce a winner with the new ranked-choice voting system. Civil rights attorney Maya Wiley is currently in second place, followed closely by former Sanitation Commissioner Kathryn Garcia. 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang has conceded after receiving less than 12% of the tallied vote even after the media covered him as a front-runner. "My sense is that Adams will pr…

_____ (2021-06-23). Graduate Student Researchers Seek Union Representation. popularresistance.org In one of the largest public employee organizing drives California has seen in over a decade, some 17,000 graduate student researchers at the University of California may soon become union members. | Student Researchers United, a committee of graduate student researchers, filed a petition for union certification with the California Public Employment Relations Board May 24. Organizers say they are seeking better wages and healthcare benefits, written protections against harassment and discrimination and a formal grievance procedure. They're also calling for more legal and political support for international studen…

Staff (2021-06-23). McConnell Is Stacking the Courts and Using Voter Suppression to Maintain Power. truthout.org Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell issued what surely must rank among the most hypocritical statements ever uttered by a senior senator. Were he to become majority leader again after the 2022 midterms he would, the Kentuckian stated, be McConnell is no stranger to hypocrisy. Rememb…

Dianne Mathiowetz (2021-06-23). Atlanta: 'No Pride in Detention'. workers.org Members of several trans and Latinx organizations assembled at the Atlanta ICE headquarters June 15 to declare "No Pride in Detention." Initiated by Community Estrella and its founder, Li An (Estrella) Sanchez, the main demand was to end the detention of trans people. As the group marched around the heavily . . . |

Peoples Dispatch (2021-06-23). Fatiha Briki is the latest Algerian human rights activist under detention. peoplesdispatch.org According to Fatiha Briki's family and the National Committee for the Liberation of Detainees, of which she was a member, the activist was taken into custody on June 17. No reason has been provided by the authorities…

WSWS (2021-06-23). With support of Biden, federal court backs Trump's police-state assault on peaceful protests in Lafayette Square. wsws.org On Monday, a federal judge dismissed lawsuits alleging former president Donald Trump directed police to violate the constitutional rights of peaceful protesters who were violently attacked in Lafayette Square on June 1, 2020.

WSWS (2021-06-23). Senate Republicans block watered-down Democratic voting rights bill. wsws.org In the run-up to the vote, Biden and the Democratic leadership shamelessly courted West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who put forward a "compromise" proposal incorporating voter suppression measures supported by the Republicans.

Santa Cruz Police News (2021-06-23). Santa Cruz Grand Jury Finds Board of Supervisors Has Failed to Properly Oversee County Jail. indybay.org Due to a number of disturbing incidents occurring in the Santa Cruz County Main Jail over the past four years, the Santa Cruz Civil Grand Jury has found that the County Board of Supervisors has, "failed to assert and exercise proper oversight within their purview of the Main jail." This week, the Grand Jury released its new report titled, "Justice in the Jail," which cites a number of incidents, including inmate deaths. The report concludes: "we have a problem." (Photo: Summary of the Santa Cruz Civil Grand Jury report "Justice in the Jail." Read the full report below)…

Thomas Meyer (2021-06-23). Alternatives to capitalism: Buen Vivir. indybay.org Capitalism is seen primarily as a system of institutional and racist oppression, and it implies a way of life that sees nature only as a raw material to be exploited. The claim is thus to break with the capitalist mode of production and life in order to create "other forms of life that are not determined by capital accumulation" (ibid., 37). The aim is a "return to use values" (ibid., 39).

Paul Chavez, Fred Ross Jr. (2021-06-23). Our Fathers Fought GOP Voter Suppression 70 Years Ago. thenation.com Our Fathers Fought GOP Voter Suppression 70 Years Ago…

Ines Santos (2021-06-22). On the Podcast: Defending Speech We Hate. aclu.org The ACLU's role in defending freedom of speech has been hotly contested by some critics recently — but these conversations are far from new. Throughout its history, the organization has had to balance its dedication to advancing civil rights for marginalized people and

Staff (2021-06-22). Georges Abdallah's statement for week of action salutes Palestinian resistance, urges solidarity. samidoun.net Georges Abdallah, the Lebanese Communist revolutionary and struggler for Palestine who has been imprisoned in France since 1984, delivered the following statement for the International Week of Action for the Liberation of Georges Abdallah, marked at demonstrations and events around the world between 12 and 19 June. Georges Abdallah is now the longest-held political prisoner in Europe. His story is chronicled in the new film, Fedayin: The Struggle of Georges Abdallah, screened in cities across France, Switzerland, Italy and Tunisia as part of the Week of Action. Fedayin is available in French, English, Arabic, Spa…

Staff (2021-06-22). 30 June, Cluj-Napoca (Romania): Film Screening — Fedayin: The Struggle of Georges Abdallah. samidoun.net Friday, 30 June 7: 45 pm Strada RƒÉzboieni 60 400260 Cluj-Napoca, România Facebook: www.facebook.com/events/183670633741312 [EN] Fedayin, Georges Abdallah's Fight reconstitutes the journey of a tireless Arab warrior for Palestine. From the camps for Palestinian refugees where he developed his political conscience, to the international mobilization for his release, we will discover the man who became one of the oldest political prisoners in Europe. More than just a story of Abdallah's life, the documentary reconstructs the complicated history of the struggle for the liberation of Palestine, a ba…

Staff (2021-06-22). Republicans Won't Even Debate "For the People Act" as They Flood States with Voter Suppression Bills. democracynow.org Senate Republicans are expected to use the filibuster to block debate on the For the People Act, a sweeping bill that would protect voting rights across the United States and improve ballot access. The Senate vote comes as Republican state lawmakers are passing sweeping measures to suppress the vote. According to the Voting Rights Lab, 18 states have enacted more than 30 laws to restrict voting since the November election. The For the People Act is "the most important voting rights bill since the Voting Rights Act of 1965," says Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman. "It just goes to show you how afraid the Republican…

Staff (2021-06-22). Democrats Introduce Bill to Combat Republican Voter Suppression Efforts. truthout.org As part of their push to combat Republican voter suppression efforts sweeping the country, Democrats introduced bicameral legislation on Tuesday aimed at preventing Republicans from allowing local election officials to be removed or appointed through partisan efforts. | In states like

Kristen Lee (2021-06-22). D.C. Statehood is Constitutional. Robert Kennedy Never Said Otherwise. aclu.org The movement for D.C. statehood has gained remarkable momentum in recent years. A bill to admit the district as the 51st state passed the House with unanimous Democratic support in April, and a hearing before the Senate is slated for June 22. As the hearing approaches, opponents of statehood are reaching back into history to bolster their agenda — but their interpretation may be misguided. | The movement's adversaries have misleadingly cited a

OtherWords (2021-06-22). Jim Crow was Never Dead, but the Black Church can Lead the Way in Banishing Voter Suppression. juancole.com By Rev. Susan K. Smith and Rev. Levon C. Manzie | ( Otherwords.org) — We suspected it for years, and now we know it: Jim Crow was never dead. You might even say he was too mean to die. We know this because in too many places, the forces of racism are raging as laws …

CA Poor People's Campaign (2021-06-22). Wednesday 6/23: Protest March on Manchin and McConnell: End Filibuster & Voter Suppression Now! indybay.org Join online via livestream: www.3rdreconstruction.org/

ACLU of Northern California Santa Cruz County (2021-06-22). Wednesday 6/30: Sheriff Oversight Commission: Establishing a Commission in Santa Cruz County under AB 1185. indybay.org Online Event, Register Here: | us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__zOjW8c0SFi3J7Defp-5BA

Santa Cruz Police News (2021-06-22). Santa Cruz Grand Jury Finds Board of Supervisors Has Failed to Properly Oversee County Jail. indybay.org Due to a number of disturbing incidents occurring in the Santa Cruz County Main Jail over the past four years, the Santa Cruz Civil Grand Jury has found that the County Board of Supervisors has, "failed to assert and exercise proper oversight within their purview of the Main jail." This week, the Grand Jury released its new report titled, "Justice in the Jail," which cites a number of incidents, including inmate deaths. The report concludes: "we have a problem." (Photo: Summary of the Santa Cruz Civil Grand Jury report "Justice in the Jail." Read the full report below)…

Thomas Meyer (2021-06-22). Alternatives to capitalism: Buen Vivir. indybay.org Capitalism is seen primarily as a system of institutional and racist oppression, and it implies a way of life that sees nature only as a raw material to be exploited. The claim is thus to break with the capitalist mode of production and life in order to create "other forms of life that are not determined by capital accumulation" (ibid., 37). The aim is a "return to use values" (ibid., 39).

WSWS (2021-06-22). Gilbert Poole Jr. exonerated after 32 years in Michigan prison. wsws.org Poole's conviction was vacated after years of work by the WMU-Cooley Innocence Project to throw out unscientific "bite mark analysis" and to bring to light DNA evidence proving he did not kill Robert Mejia in Pontiac, Michigan, in 1988.

Tom H. Hastings (2021-06-22). Juneteenth for white folk. nationofchange.org Is Juneteenth the national holiday going to fix the disparate outcomes for black people in education, health, income, wealth, home ownership, death by police, imprisonment, unemployment, and other inequities?>

Paul Benedikt Glatz, Jeremy Kuzmarov, Steve Brown (2021-06-22). New Evidence Reveals That Senator John McCain and Other High-Ranking Vietnam War POWs May Have Lied to the American Public About Being Tortured. covertactionmagazine.com Collusion by the White House, the Pentagon, and the mainstream media resulted in disparagement, denial, and suppression of eyewitness testimony confirming that most POWs were actually well-treated by their North Vietnamese captors (in contrast to the brutal torture and death often meted out to North Vietnamese POWs by U.S. forces). When numerous U.S. POWs began …

Paul Benedikt Glatz (2021-06-22). New Evidence Reveals That Senator John McCain and Other High-Ranking Vietnam War POWs May Have Lied to the American Public About Being Tortured. covertactionmagazine.com Collusion by the White House, the Pentagon, and the mainstream media resulted in disparagement, denial, and suppression of eyewitness testimony confirming that most POWs were actually well-treated by their North Vietnamese captors (in contrast to the brutal torture and death often meted out to North Vietnamese POWs by U.S. forces). When numerous U.S. POWs began …

2021-06-24 04:19 | 00:19 EST | 27 | 0 | 15 | 12 | 0