Global

On November 19, one of the world’s largest and longest protests achieved a major victory—farmers in North India woke up to Prime Minister Modi apologizing to them and asserting his intention to repeal the three farm laws they have been opposing. Despite Modi’s sudden declaration, farmers initially stood their ground on the outskirts of the capital of New Delhi. Americans should continue to support their movement because it is not over. 

The John Lewis and Freedom to Vote Acts have been officially stonewalled. Joe Biden must now enact them by Executive Order.

The key historic precedent is the Emancipation Proclamation, approved by Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863.

Today’s voting rights bills are essential to beat the uncivil war against democracy being waged by Donald Trump, Steve Bannon and their Jim Crow cult of autocracy.

Bannon says he’ll “take over the election process” and rob voting rights from millions of Americans of youth and color.

He leads an angry, aging cohort that’s lost its grip on the American electorate. By 2045, the US will be half non-white. Half is already born after 1981. In 2016 and again in 2020, Millennial/Zoomers under 30 rejected Donald Trump by more than 60%.

Thanks to America’s grassroots Election Protection movement, 2020 was our fairest, most reliably counted presidential contest. In the time of COVID, vote by mail, paper ballots, scanned ballot images and reliable audit/recount procedures---won by pro-democracy activism—made all the difference.

The first 911 call went out around 10:41. More than 200 local police and FBI agents responded to the scene and established telephone contact with Akram, whose responses were inconsistently coherent. The four hostages assisted with translation. Akram repeatedly said he was going to die. He also repeatedly called for the release of a US prisoner held in a nearby facility, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, whom he referred to metaphorically as his sister.

Around 5 p.m., Akram released one hostage. According to the other hostages later, the negotiations deteriorated and Akram grew more agitated. Relying on previous training in handling hostage situations, Rabbi Cytron-Walker maneuvered the group closer and closer to an exit. Around 9:30 he decided the moment had come, he threw a chair at Akram, and the three hostages ran safely out an exit door.

Long before intersectionality became a prevailing concept which helped delineate the relationship between various marginalized and oppressed groups, late South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu said it all in a few words and in a most inimitable style. “My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together,” he said.

Like other freedom and justice icons, Tutu did not merely coin the kind of language that helped many around the world rise in solidarity with the oppressed people of South Africa, who fought a most inspiring and costly war against colonialism, racism and apartheid. He was a leader, a fighter and a true engaged intellectual. 

Voting Rights Bills Under Attack On MLK DAY…and a plan to fight back 

On Martin Luther King Day we confront the horrendous blitzkrieg against voting rights and the future of American democracy.

At this GREEP ZOOM #79, we begin with the Ohio Supreme Court’s welcome overturn of a horrendous gerrymandering travesty.

We get a report from MAYOR JENNIFER ROBERTS on the battle for voter rights in North Carolina and the work of the Carter Center.

We hear about Wisconsin’s outrageous denial of drop boxes and the ability of voters to send in their ballots with family members.  

We hear from JENNIFER TANNER, TATONKA BRICCA, WENDI LIEDERMAN and RON LEONARD about the attack on solar in CA, FL and throughout the country.

We hear from MYLA RESON on the denial of democracy at the Pacifica Radio Network.

Then the great Constitutional attorney JOEL SEGAL presents the idea of a Presidential Executive Order to implement the voting rights acts.  

This extremely powerful, detailed, critically important discussion on how to preserve our democracy should not be missed.  

Part 1:

The final big legislative achievement of 2021 was a bill authorizing $768 billion in military spending for the next fiscal year. President Biden signed it two days after the Christmas holiday glorifying the Prince of Peace.

Dollar figures can look abstract on a screen, but they indicate the extent of the mania. Biden had asked for “only” $12 billion more than President Trump’s bloated military budget of the previous year -- but that wasn’t enough for the bipartisan hawkery in the House and Senate, which provided a boost of $37 billion instead.

Overall, military spending accounts for about half of the federal government’s total discretionary spending -- while programs for helping instead of killing are on short rations at many local, state, and national government agencies. It’s a nonstop trend of reinforcing the warfare state in sync with warped neoliberal priorities. While outsized profits keep benefiting the upper class and enriching the already obscenely rich, the cascading effects of extreme income inequality are drowning the hopes of the many.

We are EXTREMELY CONCERNED about the attacks and actions promulgated by Pacifica’s current leadership and attorneys, and we think you will be, too, once you know more about them.

We write as part of the majority of the Pacifica Foundation members who voted 6640 to 5216 (55% to 45%) to install new leadership and a workable set of new by-laws, but are being prevented from implementing those much needed changes by legal actions taken by current Pacifica leadership, based on their very dubious interpretations of applicable California law.

As soon as media reports emerged regarding a deal between Palestinian prisoner, Hisham Abu Hawash and the Israeli prison authorities, Israeli extremists, led by Knesset member Itamar Ben-Gvir, angrily raided the Assaf Harofeh Hospital where Abu Hawash was being held.