Georgia Prison Strike: Prisoner Advocate Elaine Brown on Georgia Prison Strike: “Repression Breeds Resistance”

And I remain that person. So it isn’t complicated to draw the line from that struggle to the struggle of the most oppressed group in America: the prisoner class. The prisoners in this country, as you know, make up the largest prisoner group in the world. America confines more people than any single country at a higher rate and a higher—and the largest number. Fifty percent of those prisoners, or nearly 50 percent of them, are black men. And so, we have to ask the question, how did that come to be? Either the black men are the only people—when we consider that we black people make up approximately 12 to 13 percent of the overall population and yet almost 50 percent of the prison population, we have to ask the question, is this the result of some genetic flaw in black people? Are we obviously some sort of criminally minded? Or is there something wrong in the scheme of things? Obviously, the latter is what I would say. And so, I’ve committed myself to bringing people out of prison.

France Urged to Repay $40 Billion "Independence Debt" to Haiti

A group of prominent academics and activists, including Noam Chomsky and Naomi Klein, have published an open letter in the French newspaper Libération calling on France to repay an "independence debt" it imposed nearly 200 years ago after Haiti successfully won independence from France. The appeal to the French president Nicolas Sarkozy says the debt could help cover the rebuilding of the country after a devastating earthquake that killed more than 250,000 people seven months ago. The Montreal-based journalist Isabel Macdonald helped draft the letter.

Isabel Macdonald: "With 1.6 million Haitians still homeless seven months after the earthquake, it’s really vital that we recognize that not only are Haitians owed aid money by the West, they are also owed tens of billions of dollars in restitution. This is because Haitians were forced to pay the French government 90 million gold francs, a sum that amounts, according to some analysts, to $40 billion US today, adjusting for inflation and a minimal interest rate, as compensation for the lost property of former French slave owners."

The letter is being published at a time when the international community is coming under increasing criticism for failing to send aid money pledged at the international donors’ conference in March. According to the UN-sponsored Haiti Reconstruction Fund, only two countries—Brazil and Estonia—have paid the fully pledged amount, while the United States, France, Canada and others have failed to send their pledged aid to Haiti.

An open letter to French President Nicolas Sarkozy

The French government has indicated that it is pursuing possible legal action against the Committee for the Reimbursement of the Indemnity Money Extorted from Haiti (CRIME) over a Yes Men-inspired announcement last Bastille Day pledging that France would pay Haiti restitution. 

Intro to Human Trafficking

WHAT IS HUMAN TRAFFICKING?

Human trafficking is the modern day practice of slavery. Also known as trafficking in persons, human trafficking comprises the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, based on the recruitment, harboring, and transportation of people solely for the purpose of exploitation. Every year traffickers generate billions of dollars in profits at the expense of victimizing millions of people around the world.

"Holy" Wars

Howard Zinn:

"Holy Wars"

University of Boston

Nov. 11, 2009

Howard Zinn makes a persuasive case for questioning even the good wars, such as the “three holy wars” of US history. Zinn argues in light of Obama’s Nobel Prize lecture, in which Obama said “Still, we are at war, and I am responsible for the deployment of thousands of young Americans to battle in a distant land. Some will kill. Some will be killed.” is that the American Revolution, the Civil War or The Second War may not be the one-sided moral 'victories' that conventional history teaches. Zinn in his enigmatic manner...spiced with jocularity, compelling logic,and passion leaves doubt that there is ever a 'just war'.

Lecture Available Here