MARCH 12 AT 11 AM EST – 1 PM EST

Mumia has COVID, Congestive heart disease — RELEASE HIM NOW!

Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, 3 S. Penn Sq, Philadelphia

Rally at Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office to demand the release of political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal and other ill and elderly incarcerated people in Pennsylvania prisons.

Mumia, who had been hospitalized to remove excessive fluid from his lungs on March 3, was found to have COVID-19 and was also diagnosed with congestive heart disease (CHD). He had already been diagnosed with cirrhosis of the liver five years ago. Dr Ricardo Alvarez, who serves as Mumia’s medical consultant, says of people diagnosed with congestive heart disease, 50% don’t live past 5 years.

CHD patients who live past five years require proper meds, physical therapy and other life-altering changes. The PA DOC’s anti-humane policies make it hard on anyone to change their diet, to exercise more, to get fresh air, to reduce stress or to receive the right medicines.

That is why Mumia and other incarcerated people who suffer from similar life-threatening ailments must be released.
Mumia is also innocent and is in the middle of legal challenges that could finally prove his innocence and win his freedom but Krasner and the F.O.P have purposely contested and delayed the process. Justice delayed is justice denied!
DA Krasner, Gov. Tom Wolf and PA DOC Secretary John Wolf are responsible for the healthcare for Mumia and all those incarcerated. Their refusal to release Mumia and to deny him and other ill and elderly incarcerated people proper healthcare amounts to nothing less a death sentence.

Bring Mumia home now!
Community meeting and rally to DA Boudin’s office

Friday, March 12
Gathering at 1 p.m.
March to DA’s office at 3 p.m.
Jackson Playground, San Francisco

New York City: Rally – No more wars

Sunday, March 21 from 12 noon to 4 p.m.

Intersection of 42^nd St. and Broadway, Manhattan

Walk to Herald Square, 34^th St. and Broadway

·       No more wars
·       No more sanctions
·       No more bombs
·       No more regime change

Call for a nationwide protest

On Friday, March 19, it will be 18 years since George W. Bush invaded and occupied Iraq, and it has continued through 8 years of Obama and 4 years of Trump. Now Biden is continuing it. #CallForNationwideProtest

For more information: 516-457-5839

E-mail: AmericansOfPakistaniHeritage [at] gmail [dot] com

On March 6, community leaders held a news conference announcing the formation of the Baltimore Saving Lives Campaign. They called for an end to vaccine apartheid in Baltimore, and for concrete remedies to the disparity in Maryland’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout. 

Participants included the Rev. Annie Chambers, Peoples Power Assembly and Douglas Homes advocate; Dr. “Doc” Marvin Cheatham, president, Matthew Henson Neighborhood Association (West Baltimore); Leon Purnell, director, Men’s and Family Center (East Baltimore); Joyce Butler, Prisoners Solidarity Committee; and Sharon Black, retired RN and Peoples Power Assembly.

The press conference took place on a blustery cold day in front of Dallas Court at Douglas Homes. Rev. Chambers explained: “In this small housing court, three people have died from COVID-19 and a fourth has developed serious COVID illness. I have also lost a family member to COVID.”

“We are asking for a minute of silence for the lives lost to COVID-19,” Sharon Black announced. “You can see that this is not an abstract question for us. We will not rest until every person who wants a vaccine gets one and we beat COVID in Baltimore.”

“Give Baltimore the damn vaccine!” proclaimed Doc Cheatham. His organization has been actively engaged with neighborhood outreach since the pandemic began. Cheatham stressed that Coppin State University should become a site for vaccination. “It sits in the heart of West Baltimore, and it enables residents to easily access the vaccine.”

Leon Purnell stated, “Our residents don’t have internet access and the ability to navigate the complex systems, and they are being left behind.” He exclaimed, “We already have the vans that can do work in the Eastside.”  

“Our prisoners must get the vaccine! They are our relatives and loved ones. We are continually getting reports that there is inadequate PPE and they are getting sick,” stated Joyce Butler.

The Baltimore Saving Lives Campaign is seeking meetings with city officials, the Baltimore Health Department, the state government and National Guard representatives to discuss concrete steps.

Following is the group’s statement and list of demands:

Statement from the Baltimore Saving Lives Campaign

Ending vaccine apartheid

As community leaders and organizations, we have come together to form a Baltimore Saving Lives Campaign. We both seek to expose and highlight the disparity in vaccine distribution and put forward solutions.  

Black, Brown and poor communities of Baltimore have been left behind. The facts are there, and the urgency is real. In the last year, Black people’s life expectancy has dropped a full 2.7 years due to COVID-19. This is the first time in U.S. history that we have seen such a sharp decline.

Those most in need have been pushed to the back of the line. This is due to the methods that have been used to roll out the vaccines. Complex, confusing and impossible internet sign-ups, phone lines that people cannot get through, and lack of transportation have created barriers.

Our most vulnerable elders, those without digital access and transportation, must get the vaccine. So must low-wage essential workers, those living in public housing and on the streets, and those who are being forgotten in the patchwork of confusing delivery systems.

Our goal is to see that everyone who wants a vaccine gets a vaccine. Our goal is to beat COVID in Baltimore.  

Our proposals are based on that larger goal. We must be proactive and think beyond the initial rollout, which has been a failure — a failure that has obviously left out the people of Baltimore. We need to prepare now, not wait!

These are our initial proposals:

Include M&T Bank Stadium site for Baltimore residents first.

Allocate more vaccines to close the disparity.

One dedicated 24-hour city hotline to schedule vaccines, based on the 311 model and with adequate staffing.

Plan to extend hours for all vaccination sites.

Door-to-door vaccinations. 

Accessible community vaccination centers

• Churches and closed recreation centers
• Coppin State University – West Baltimore
• Men’s and Family Center – East Baltimore

Housing projects 

• The zip code priorities set at the Convention Center site have left off many housing projects, including Douglas Homes. With the detection of the virus at Latrobe Homes, setting up mobile units to cover each area is urgent. 

Free Uber transportation

• Baltimore County is already providing free Uber transportation.

Expand categories based on need

• The City of Baltimore can use its own guidelines based on the fact that many of our residents are at greater risk. For instance, the COVID death rate for Black, Latinx, and low-wage and essential workers is higher, regardless of age. In Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Browser lowered the age for vaccinations in heavily Black wards. This is because the Black population’s death rates were higher, and life expectancy was shorter. We must think out of the box, including exploring other vaccine sources if needed. 

Homeless people and people with addictions

• Plans must be made to immediately go into action when one-shot vaccines are delivered. Many states have already begun using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Prisoners

• While the prison system is run primarily by the state government, many of the incarcerated population are from Baltimore City. We must strongly advocate that all prisoners be vaccinated and have adequate PPE. 

Low-wage and essential workers not formerly covered 

• Many of these workers suffer from underlying health conditions, yet they are forced to work with no protection. This includes grocery workers, retail clerks, fast food and restaurant workers, bus drivers, etc. Let’s get them vaccinated as soon as possible.
• Involve the unions in making plans to protect their workers.

Listen to our teachers: No return to classrooms until it’s safe.

Weekly briefings with community leaders on progress and problems

• We are urging weekly briefings for the Saving Lives Campaign and others with city and state representatives, including the Baltimore City Health Department, representatives of the mayor’s office, the governor and the National Guard.  

We are developing a volunteer network of students, doctors, nurses, nursing assistants, EMTs and firefighters willing to roll up their sleeves and get the work done now. Please text us at (410) 218-4835 to get involved.

A rally was held in Baltimore March 7 to demand justice for George Floyd on the eve of killer cop Derek Chauvin’s trial in Minneapolis. The protest was part of a call to action from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR). Peoples Power Assembly member Joyce Butler recited this piece at the rally.

Keep Our Eyes on Minneapolis

Monday begins the trial of a racist coward
(I refuse to say his name)
Let’s call him “The Murderer in Blue”
The “Neck Rider”…
The Aggressive Bigot who has had many a run-in with Blacks.

Let’s keep our eyes on Minneapolis!
Let’s keep our eyes on Minneapolis.
We need to watch the trial —
Jury selection begins on Monday.
Let’s keep our eyes on Minneapolis!

First Degree Murder!
Let’s keep our eyes on Minneapolis —
We cannot fall asleep.
We cannot be lulled into quietness … we cannot nod off.

Remember the words of George Floyd —
“I CAN’T BREATHE!”
Remember the racial & very hurtful jokes.
Let’s keep our eyes on Minneapolis —

KARMA IS COMING KILLER —
YOU ARE INVITED TO THE KARMA CAFE
BEGINNING ON MONDAY —
THERE ARE NO MENUS …
YOU WILL GET EXACTLY WHAT YOUR ASS DESERVES!

KEEP YOUR EYES ON MINNEAPOLIS!

The day begins the night before. The cadre of hope dodge sleep and the police. Under the cover of night and the ancestors, they spray-paint the walls of Port-au-Prince to encourage communities to unite and rise up: “Aba enperyalis, Aba Jovenel!” (Down with imperialism! Down with Jovenel.) “PHTK, Bann volè.” (The PHTK – Haitian Bald Headed Party – is a bunch of thieves.) “Kote kòb PetroCaribe?” (Where is the PetroCaribe money?)

The young writers of the People, Poetry, Revolution collective go deeper, emblazoning the walls of alleyways and main boulevards with short poems. “Powèt, ekri chante k ap ede nou rete debou sou miray lavi sa k ap disparèt.” (Poets, write songs, which help us to stay standing up, on this wall of life which is disappearing.) That poem was spray-painted in black by its author Ricardo Boucher on an alleyway wall in the hilltop Port-au-Prince shantytown of Fort National.

It is Sun., Feb. 28 or Sun., Mar. 7. Sundays are when the showdowns take place between David versus Goliath, the most forgotten versus the empire. There are national mobilizations against the emerging dictator Jovenel Moïse, whose constitutional mandate (if he ever had one) ended three weeks ago on Feb. 7.

As the indefatigable sun rises over Port-au-Prince, families boil akasan (cornmeal) and chokola cho (hot chocolate) in massive pots. They dip their fresh bread into the delicious, scalding, sweet concoctions, focused on the long day ahead.

This is a family affair. They gather in the alleyways (koridò) to make hundreds of signs. “Sison + La Lime = Corruption in Haiti” says one, referring to U.S. Ambassador Michele Sison and Helen La Lime, head of United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH). “Hands off Haiti’s Democracy,” says another. Haitians are polyglots. They know who the enemy is, and they speak directly to them. “U.S., UN and OAS: Hands Off Haiti” and “Haiti Can’t Breathe” say two others. The battle of ideas plays out in Port-au-Prince in many languages because Haitians know what many of us perhaps do not: this is an international and anti-imperialist struggle.

This latest democratic struggle is now in its fourth decade. “AYITI PA POU VANN NI AN GWO NI AN DETAY” (Haiti is not for sale, either wholesale or retail) is a slogan often written and chanted since Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier fled Haiti on Feb. 7, 1986, the date marking the start of this historical chapter. It is a slogan again today.

At 11 a.m., the protestors start to gather on the Champs de Mars, the capital’s main square. The mobilization’s leaders make their rounds, pumping up the people. The march takes form.

They soak tires in gasoline, and, wufff , the lines are drawn, and the march is off.

Young men take a shot of Barbancourt rum to stave off hunger. There is no fear or anxiety to stave off. No such luxuries. This is a people born into struggle.

The rolling mass picks up momentum and members as they go. Suddenly 1,000 is 5,000. As they roll down Avenue John Brown (it’s telling that Haiti’s most important thoroughfare is named after the militant abolitionist), there are now tens of thousands. The crowd swells and blankets dozens of city blocks.

Delmas is a crucial intersection. South spells trouble where paramilitary kidnapping gangs battle social movements for hegemony. North is the move.

Will this be the day that chodyè chavire (the pot spills over) and the masses again overthrow a petty, second-rate, foreign-sponsored tyrant like they did in 1986?

The police are more careful with mass marches. They are far outnumbered. The neocolonial boomerang can swing back around.

At Delmas 32, the police make their move and attack the front of the march. Tear gas and plastic bullets send everyone sprinting for cover. Stampedes threaten to leave some behind but a helpful hand scoops them back up. Men anpil, chay pa lou. (Many hands lighten the load.)

Who is covering the story? History is in motion. Where is the BBC? CNN? The New York Times?

“This is not Hong Kong or Taiwan,” one marcher reminds us. “We are a neocolony,” chimes in another.

The Haitian National Police do not discriminate. They pounce upon massive marches or smaller youth-led marches. Their job is to discourage, disrupt, disburse, and dismantle. Tear gas, bullets. The masses are in retreat. Depending on the angles and specific terrain, the bravest throw back the tear gas, rocks, and whatever other makeshift weapons the streets provide.

This is when it gets dangerous. The policemen’s faces are covered and not because they fear COVID. They display no badge numbers nor license plates. They attack without fear, with impunity.

The united march has now scattered in different directions. Contingents play cat-and-mouse with the police trying to outmaneuver them. Anti-imperialist organizations whisk away their top leadership. It is too easy for them to be kidnapped or assassinated. The cadre of hope must live to fight another day.

At 4:30 p.m., a young 25-year-old community leader, Jean Réné “Chata” Laporte, is shot with a bullet. His comrades encircle him and evacuate him to safety. They rush him to the hospital but are careful lest the police take a second shot at him.

The popular organizations reassemble in their neighborhoods. Here they are safe. The police and kidnappers do not run these alleyways. The popular educators check in on one another. Who is injured? Who is caring for Chata? At 7 p.m., they debrief. They debate. They plan. They yell. The passion of centuries of resistance fills the humid air. “Who was responsible for the security breach?” asks someone. “We can’t afford any more dead.”

The struggle against dictatorship and neocolonialism continues…

Danny Shaw, a CUNY professor, slept, ate, and marched with militants from the Fort National neighborhood’s popular organization MOLEGHAF in late February and early March. He tweeted his experiences and reflections at @dannyshawcuny.

Source: Haiti Liberté

THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 2021 AT 8 PM EST

Stop the Attacks on Activists in the Philippines! Defend Southern Tagalog!

Online Event

MONDAY, MARCH 15, 2021 AT 12 PM EDT

STOP THE KILLINGS IN THE PH! Emergency protest rally vs crackdown on activists in the Philippines!

556 5th Ave, New York, NY 10036

Join us in front of the Philippine Consulate General of New York this Monday, March 15, 12pm onwards for an emergency protest against crackdown on activists in the Philippines.

On March 5, Duterte was quoted saying “kill them all” and “disregard human rights.” This was an order to the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines to kill “communist terrorist groups,” a term the Duterte government uses to label all critics, cause oriented groups and human rights defenders.

On March 6, Philippine Ambassador to the United States confirmed that the Philippines will be receiving additional aid from the U.S. government. That same day, the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines launched a synchronized raid across the Cavite, Laguna, Batangas and Rizal against activists leaving 9 activists dead and 6 arrested.
We call on everyone to join us in demanding an end to the killings against Filipino activists. Join us in demanding an end to U.S. support for the Duterte government.

*COVID-19 safety protocols will be followed at this event. Physical distancing and other safety protocols will be ensured.
For more info or if your organization would like to co-sponsor contact: bayanusa.ne@gmail.com and malayamovement.ne@gmail.com

Join us for a planning meeting this Wednesday, March 10, 7:30pm. Register here: www.tinyurl.com/stk-ne-planning

March 6 — As the Trump administration’s profits-first approach to COVID-19 was unfolding in the early months of the deadly pandemic, a slanderous campaign against China was rolled out. That campaign aimed to cover up the fact that the Communist Party of China led the world in its successful fight against the deadly virus, and helped many impoverished countries that have been abandoned by rich capitalist countries. 

The U.S. slanders dovetail with the general hostility and aggression emanating from Washington in the form of the “Pivot to Asia” — a revival of the Cold War directed against China. But this new body of slander has a distinct goal — to deflect from the horrors that have occurred in the U.S.

The anti-science, murderous, racist neglect in response to the pandemic led to the deaths of more than 500,000 people so far in the U.S. The disease has taken its heaviest toll on Black, Brown and Indigenous peoples. 

The Biden administration has presented its pandemic agenda to the world as a departure from all of that, promising an aggressive, science-based, full-court press against COVID-19. But nearly two months into the new administration, corporate interests are still a brake on progress against the virus at home, and the reactionary and counter-productive campaign against China is still being employed to distract from the crisis.

Trump pushes false theory

Early in January an investigative team of 10 scientists from the World Health Organization (WHO) arrived in China on a second trip to look into the origin of the COVID-19 virus. Searching for viral origins is a crucial component of epidemiology and it would be normal for these studies to continue for many years.

The U.S. has been pushing a false theory that the virus “leaked” from a laboratory in Wuhan, where the first cases were detected, and that there is a cover-up by China’s leadership. 

The “lab leak theory” was discredited in April 2020 after the first WHO trip. Leading scientists who study viral samples from animals cast doubt on the theory and agreed that it would have required a “remarkable series of coincidences and deviations from well-established experimental protocols,” according to an April 23 National Public Radio report. 

The consensus among scientists then was that the most logical theory of the origin of the virus is from bats, and that the virus jumped to humans, possibly through a second species, at an open-air market in Wuhan. 

Soon after these findings were made public, the Trump administration pulled U.S. funding from the WHO. That funding is the United Nations entity’s largest source of income. This was meant as a warning to the U.N. Although the funding has been reinstated under Biden, the message still stands. 

The U.S. doesn’t pay WHO for objectivity. It pays for information that serves its interests.

No official reports from January’s trip have been made public at the time of this writing. But initial comments that were made public seemed to indicate that the investigators were satisfied they had been provided needed information. 

“All questions asked and answered,” according to Peter Daszak, one of the team’s investigators and an expert on disease ecology. But without the official report having been issued, the Biden administration has begun propagating a different message altogether. 

Biden continues anti-China campaign

Another WHO team member, Dominic Dwyer of Australia, had complained that a request for raw data on the path of the disease in Wuhan during the beginning of the outbreak only resulted in summary data being turned over by China. His complaints were in spite of the fact that Chinese officials stated clearly that they quite simply could not compile the detailed information within the limited time that the WHO requested. 

Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has latched onto Dwyer’s remarks to imply a cover-up by China. “We have deep concerns about the way in which the early findings of the COVID-19 investigation were communicated and questions about the process used to reach them,” Sullivan said in a statement. 

Many corporate news media have picked up on and faithfully carried forward the White House tone.

WHO team members had reported that to the extent there was any tension during the investigation, it was par for the course, and there was a consensus among them that there was “enough good will that talks and studies will continue,” according to a Feb. 12 New York Times article.

Twitter messages between Daszak and a Danish team member lamented the distortion by the White House and the mainstream media of how team members felt about the trip. “It’s disappointing to spend time w/ journalists explaining key findings of our exhausting month-long work in China, to see our colleagues selectively misquoted to fit a narrative that was prescribed before the work began. Shame on you @nytimes!” tweeted Daszak to Thea Fischer.

Leading White House figures, including Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin, and National Intelligence Director Avril Haines, have all made initial comments indicating that aggression against China will not diminish under Biden. Maybe the clearest sign of the path the White House is taking is the creation of the new role of “Indo-Pacific coordinator” for former Obama official Kurt Campbell — the architect of the “Pivot to Asia.”

It would be hard to point to a time in history when the misery wrought by capitalism has been more widespread. Tens of millions lost their livelihoods, hundreds of thousands have died, and most of it was unnecessary. 

China and other countries that are striving to build a socialist world, like Cuba and Vietnam, put human life first, and the proof is in the pudding. Fewer than 10,000 people have died from COVID-19 in those three countries combined. 

Although the pandemic is far from over, that reality is not something that any U.S. Cold War propaganda blitz can ever diminish or tarnish.