(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
(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…
(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…
(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…
(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
(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
(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.
(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 …
(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/…
(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…
(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)…
(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).
(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?>
(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 …
(2021-06-21). Alex Saab Reveals New Details about his Abduction in Cape Verde (CNN). orinocotribune.com 
When repeating the grievances regarding his arbitrary, illegal and illegitimate detention, the Venezuelan diplomat Alex Saab mentioned new details about his experience in Cape Verde, where he remains incarcerated and faces the threat of extradition to the United States, a country where he is not expected to benefit from the rule of law. | In a letter sent through his team of lawyers, Saab answered some questions from US news network CNN. He asserted his rights once again amid what he considers incoherent actions from Cape Verde, a country that prides itself on its independence and sovereignty. | "If I am extradi…
(2021-06-21). Socialist Pedro Castillo Won Peru's Election, But Coup Fears Grow as Fujimori Falsely Claims Fraud. democracynow.org 
Fears are growing in Peru that supporters of right-wing presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned former dictator Alberto Fujimori, will stage a coup to prevent her rival, the socialist teacher and union leader Pedro Castillo, from taking power. With 100% of votes counted from the June 6 election, Castillo has a 44,000-vote lead, but Fujimori is claiming fraud without offering any evidence. She is calling for hundreds of thousands of votes, mostly from poor Andean regions, to be annulled. Thousands took to the streets in Lima to protest against Fujimori's claims. We speak with José Carlos…
(2021-06-21). Coup Fears Grow as Right-Wing Candidate in Peru Falsely Claims Election Fraud. truthout.org 
Fears are growing in Peru that supporters of right-wing presidential candidate Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned former dictator Alberto Fujimori, will stage a coup to prevent her rival, the socialist teacher and union leader Pedro Castillo, from taking power. With 100% of votes counted from the June 6 election, Castillo has a 44,000-vote lead, but Fujimori is claiming fraud without offering any evidence. She is calling for hundreds of thousands of votes, mostly from poor Andean region…
(2021-06-21). Prison violence like Alabama's demands a national reckoning. therealnews.com 
This story originally appeared in During the early fall of 2017, just three days before the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division would descend on the Alabama prison system to investigate reports of brutality and sexual violence, an atrocious incident occurred at the Bibb Correctional F…
(2021-06-21). Prison violence like Alabama's demands a national reckoning. therealnews.com This story originally appeared in During the early fall of 2017, just three days before the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division would descend on the Alabama prison system to investigate reports of brutality and sexual violence, an atrocious incident occurred at the Bibb Correctional Facility's Hot Bay, a dormitory "housing men in bunkbeds multiple rows deep," as the DOJ would write in its subsequent re…
(2021-06-21). "Freedom Riders" demand release of political prisoner Leonard Peltier. liberationnews.org 
This year marks 45 years since the illegal and cruel incarceration of Leonard Peltier, a political prisoner and world-renowned fighter for Native liberation. To honor Leonard's fight for freedom and his support for the struggle to save the environment, a group of supporters referring to themselves as Freedom Riders set out on a horseback journey …
(2021-06-21). How Mobsters Control U.S., UK, Netherlands. southfront.org 
Illustrative image | Written by Eric Zuesse. | "Mobsters" are whatever the law says they are, but in some countries they are, in fact, simply the nation's wealthiest people, who can and do pay whomever they have to pay ("consigliere") in order to get the law to mean what they want it to mean. In other words: sometimes a mobster is anyone who no matter how harmful to society, can become and remain enormously wealthy and never go to prison for it, nor be executed for it. They are above the law, and are therefore the real rulers i…
(2021-06-21). New Census Bureau Data Offers a Chance to Dismantle Prison Gerrymandering. aclu.org New Mexico made great strides this year toward building a more equitable electoral process when Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed the Redistricting Act into law, empowering a bipartisan
(2021-06-21). Wednesday 6/23: Protest March on Manchin and McConnell: End Filibuster & Voter Suppression Now! indybay.org Join online via livestream: www.3rdreconstruction.org/…
(2021-06-21). 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…
(2021-06-21). 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)…
(2021-06-21). 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).
(2021-06-21). 3 Palestinians on hunger strike against illegal administrative detention in Israel. peoplesdispatch.org amal al-Taweel, Khader Adnan and Ghadanfar Abu Atwan are on hunger strike in various prisons. Around 500 Palestinians are currently being held without charge or trial under the illegal Israeli administrative detention policy…
(2021-06-21). 3 Palestinians on hunger strike against illegal administrative detention in Israel. peoplesdispatch.org Jamal al-Taweel, Khader Adnan and Ghadanfar Abu Atwan are on hunger strike in various prisons. Around 500 Palestinians are currently being held without charge or trial under the illegal Israeli administrative detention policy…
(2021-06-21). Open letter calls on Biden administration to exert pressure on Israel, protect Palestinians' human rights. peoplesdispatch.org The letter emphasizes that the Biden "administration must apply concerted diplomatic pressure to help end the ever-expanding discrimination and systemic oppression and ensure accountability for Israeli authorities that violate Palestinian rights"