Angela Davis and Assata Shakur’s Lawyer Denounce FBI’s Adding of Exiled Activist to Terrorists List
May 3 2013
One day after the exiled former Black Panther Assata Shakur became the first woman named to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists list, we’re joined by another legendary African-American activist, Angela Davis, as well as Shakur’s longtime attorney, Lennox Hinds. Davis, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz, is the subject of the recent film, “Free Angela and All Political Prisoners.” She argues that the FBI’s latest move, much like its initial targeting of Shakur and other Black Panthers four decades ago, is politically motivated. “It seems to me that this act incorporates or reflects the very logic of terrorism,” Davis says. “I can’t help but think that it’s designed to frighten people who are involved in struggles today. Forty years ago seems like it was a long time ago. In the beginning of the 21st century, we’re still fighting around the very same issues — police violence, healthcare, education, people in prison.” A professor of criminal justice at Rutgers University, Hinds has represented Shakur since 1973. “This is a political act pushed by the state of New Jersey, by some members of Congress from Miami, and with the intent of putting pressure on the Cuban government and to inflame public opinion,” Hinds says. “There is no way to appeal someone being put on the terrorists list.”
Survivor of Bangladesh’s Tazreen Factory Fire Urges U.S. Retailers to Stop Blocking Worker Safety (by democracynow)
Bangladesh factory building collapse ends nearly 100 human lives, injures hundreds more
April 24, 2013An eight-storey block housing garment factories and a shopping center collapsed on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital on Wednesday, killing nearly 100 people and injuring hundreds more, officials said. Television showed young women workers, some apparently semi-conscious, being pulled from the debris.
One fireman told Reuters that about 2,000 people were in the building when the upper floors jolted down on top of each other.
Bangladesh’s booming garment industry has been plagued by fires and other accidents for years, despite a drive to improve safety standards. In November last year, 112 workers were killed in a blaze at the Tazreen factory in a nearby industrial suburb.
“It looks like an earthquake has struck here,” said one resident as he looked on at the chaotic scene of smashed concrete and ambulances making their way through the crowds of workers and wailing relatives.
“I was at work on the third floor, and then suddenly I heard a deafening sound, but couldn’t understand what was happening. I ran and was hit by something on my head,” said Zohra Begum a worker at one of the factories. An official at a control room set up to provide information about the missing and injured said that 96 people were confirmed dead and more than 700 were injured.
CRACKS IN THE BUILDING
Mohammad Asaduzzaman, in charge of the area’s police station, said factory owners appeared to have ignored a warning not to allow their workers into the building after a crack was detected in the block on Tuesday.
Five garment factories - employing mostly women - were housed in the building, including Ether Tex Ltd., whose chairman told Reuters he was unaware of any warnings not to open the workshops.
“There were some crack at the second floor, but my factory was on the fifth floor,” said Muhammad Anisur Rahman. “The owner of the building told our floor manager that it is not a problem and so you can open the factory.” He said that his firm had been sub-contracted to supply Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world’s largest retailer, and Europe’s C&A.
Last November’s factory fire put a spotlight on global retailers that source clothes from Bangladesh, where low wages - as little as $37 a month for some workers - have helped propel the country to no. 2 in the ranks of apparel exporters.
It emerged later that a Wal-Mart supplier had subcontracted work to the Tazreen factory without authorization.
Buildings in the crowded city of Dhaka are sometimes erected without permission and many do not comply with construction regulations. Dozens died when a garment factory collapsed in the same area eight years ago.
Sorry, Killer Robots: Campaign Aims to Stop You
So you thought a Terminator-like future of metal machines mowing each other down on battlefields sounded pretty cool, did you?
Well, wipe that smile off your face, fleshy one. Killer robots are a real threat to our future and must be outlawed now, according to a campaign launched in London on Tuesday by five international NGOs, led by Human Rights Watch.
The Campaign to Stop Killer Robots — yes, that is its real name, and you can find its websitehere — calls for a comprehensive ban on the development, production, and use of fully autonomous weapons. The launch event came a month in advance of a UN report on the subject, set to be delivered to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on May 27.
“Killer robots would cross moral and legal boundaries, and should be rejected as repugnant to the public conscience,” said Human Rights Watch’s Arms Division Director Steve Goose. “Lethal armed robots that could target and kill without any human intervention should never be built.”
The campaign brought out its big guns for a press event at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster: Jody Williams, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate from the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, and Dr. Noel Sharkey, an artificial intelligence expert from Sheffield University.
Undermining the message slightly, they also brought the cute-looking 1950s-style sci-fi robot pictured above. What, no T-1000?
Still, the campaign is in earnest, and Sharkey ticked off many reasons why he fears killer robots in our future: the fact that the Pentagon is currently hiring more drone operators than actual pilots, for example, and the building of its X47B unmanned plane, which works like a drone on steroids.
But Sharkey didn’t single out U.S. research efforts; he fears this is a global problem. “There are a lot of people very excited about this technology in China, Russia, Israel,” he told the Guardian, “very excited at what is set to become a multibillion-dollar industry. This is going to be big, big money … We won’t hear about it until China has sold theirs to Iran.”
“I think we are already there,” Sharkey told reporters at the event. “If you asked me to go and make an autonomous killer robot today, I could do it. I could have you one here in a few days.”
A slightly bemused UK government spokesman told Reuters that “there are no plans to replace skilled military personnel with fully autonomous systems.”
For a little light reading, try the Human Rights Watch 50-page report on the subject, Losing Humanity: the Case Against Killer Robots.
Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images
Check out our work mentioned on Mashable!
Treat Chicago gangs as terrorists
Last month, city officials announced the closure of 54 “under-resourced” schools, which will force some kids to walk across warring gang territory to get to school. For example, in the seven blocks between George Manierre Elementary and Jenner Elementary there are three gangs fighting over territory: Black P Stones, Conservative Vice Lords and Gangster Disciples.
If it all sounds scary, it’s only because it is.
And if the name attached to all of this violence were al-Qaeda instead of Gangster Disciples; or if instead of “gang violence” the bloodshed were called “terrorism;” or if instead of calling the people spreading fear and mayhem gangs we were to call them what they really are — terrorists — the nation would demand more be done.
After all, if children are afraid to walk to school because they might get killed or if residents are afraid to identify perpetrators for fear of retaliation, I think it’s safe to say they are being terrorized.
What seems like a linguistic shell game is really an exercise in empathy. The thought of elementary school kids walking across areas of a city controlled by three terrorist groups becomes unacceptable to everyone, not just their parents. Hearing that 25 Chicagoans were shot in one weekend becomes a threat to national security, and not just the mayor’s problem.
You want us to start labeling Black folks living in the hood as terrorists.
Instead of addressing the problems in the hood, addressing the issues that make these Black kids feel the need to resort to gang life, you simply want to write the gangs off as “terrorist organizations” and label the members “terrorists.”
Do you know what America does to terrorists? Especially ones of the Black and Brown variety? Do you know how many innocent people America has killed in pursuit of terrorists? Have you looked up an article or two on drone strikes?
This is not a good idea. It’s not a good idea at all. I can’t get behind this. I don’t know if I can trust anyone who can.
“linguistic shell game” my ass. how much of a giant piece of shit do you have to be to suggest we label black street gangs as terrorists, thereby justifying more brutality against already victimized communities, whilst simultaneously ignoring the root problems of poverty? welp
Capitalism doesn’t work!
Want to stand up in the fight against capitalism?
We need to agitate, educate and organise in our workplaces, our communities and our everyday lives.
Join an organisation!
The Industrial Workers of the World
The International Socialist Organisation
The Party for Socialism and Liberation
The Freedom Road Socialist Organisation
And of course there are many other local organisations and ones I haven’t mentioned here.
Some local groups include:
Capitalism needs poverty and unemployment in order to be healthy. Therefore, it’s not democratic.
Capitalism doesn’t need poverty and unemployment to be healthy. If people are in a state of mass poverty, then capitalism comes to a halt (please refer to the Great Depression in the 1930s). That’s not to say capitalism isn’t laced with corruption, because it is corrupt in many respects. HOWEVER the actual problem is that almost all governments (capitalist and not capitalist), and therefore their economic systems, have members who work for their own benefit, not considering the effects their actions will have on others, which leads their economic system to reflect their corruption. The problem here isn’t the system, but rather the people who are implementing it.
I have to argue the opposite. It is the system. Capitalism has periodic crises of overproduction, which are based in its very workings as a society. Governments, yes help out, but they are given far too much credence. They are merely representatives of the capitalist class, with little agency beyond serving that role. That is their primary function and everything they do is geared towards that.
The problem is the system. A system that is driven by profit is bound to act anti-socially at its core. A system based on exploitation, even more so. The two are combined in capitalism, where profiteering meets daily exploitation of the working class.
Any of the long list of links I posted could explain this better than me though, thats partly why they are there.
I know what it’s like to feel like your life is spiraling out of control, and to feel like it will never get better. I wanted to share my story, because I once was a very lost and lonely human being; but I am the happiest I have ever been now. So if you feel like you’re alone, please know that you’re not. This is definitely a video to watch late at night when you’re pondering life because it is in fact very long.
I hope my story helps you. Even if it’s only a tiny bit.
Also, life is filled with enough negativity, so please don’t write anything mean or negative!
Maybe you can find the courage to share your story as well :)
A peaceful demonstration will be held in front of police headquarters to demand justice for the Parsons family following the death of their 17-year-old daughter Rehtaeh.
Where: Halifax District RCMP, 1975 Gottingen Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 2H1
When: Sunday, April 14th (2PM ADT)
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.” - Groucho Marx
Anonymous: Obama Betrays Americans Again…with the Monsanto Protection Act
Of course, it’s hard to honestly expect President Barack Obama to do the right thing, but many people held out hope that he would veto the most dangerous food act ever to pass the US Congress. After all, one of his campaign promises the first time around was to enforce the labeling of GMOs….
