Jun
12
Here’s an issue we can safely assume the candidates will conveniently ignore: the massive recruitment efforts of the U.S. Pentagon. This video doc by Jorge Mariscal and my friends at Project Yano details the machinations of the U.S. war machine in its efforts to not just survive to fight another day, but to simply survive.
As I’ve said previously, given the vastness of the U.S. military presence abroad, we can expect the Pentagon’s multi-billion (yes BILLION) dollar effort to recruit young bodies to intensify at home. Because of the rapid decline in the number of young blacks and women opting out of military service, the Pentagon has taken an unprecedented and very expensive interest in young Latinos.
So, if you want to destroy the Empire, you can do so non-violently by supporting anti-military recruitment efforts like those of Project Yano, the AFSC and a growing galaxy of organizations doing their part to bring down Sauron’s tower by bringing down the number of our kids doing Sauron’s bidding.
Check out this video by project Yano. Those of you who are teachers or those who work in community organizations can use it with young people to counteract the effects of the seamless system of war consciousness created by private-public partnerships like those documented in James Derderian’s book about what he calls the “military-industrial-media-entertainment network”.
So, Project Yano’s kind of media work previews what must be the future tactics of any effort to destroy the workings of militarism in the minds of our young.
By Roberto Lovato, Of America
Jun
08
When we launched The Brave Nation Young Activist Award, I wasn’t quite sure what type of submissions we’d get. Would we get moms nominating their sons for making honor roll, teachers nominating their students for doing a great job at Model UN, Bob nominating his roommate Jordan for remembering to recycle? I have to admit, I knew there were young people out there making change, but I was skeptical. Would we hear about them? Would their friends and loved ones write to us? Would they let us know about the people that are putting themselves on the line every day?
Boy are they ever!
Consuelo Andrade is the most hard-core 18-year-old I know. Consuelo has been at the front doorstep of our school district’s school board president’s house (with 20 followers) demanding that she take time to meet with students to discuss the ways lesbian and gay students are discriminated in schools.
Davida Douglas works very, very hard for a pittance that would not keep a kitten alive. She runs an organic Farmers Market food stand in an inner-city downtown neighborhood where the working poor live. The inner-city “Food Desert” exists because transnational corporate agribusiness cartels who own supermarkets “red line” and refuse to build grocery stores in the inner city. As a result, there is no place to buy healthy food in the ghetto. Davida organizes all the purchasing of organic food and deals directly with the organic farmers here in the San Joaquin Central Valley of Sacramento. Without a car, she uses her bike trailer to manually deliver huge amounts of organic produce. She runs the stand single handedly by herself — with volunteers floating in and out. Davida packs up all the unsold organic food — puts it on her bike trailer and pedals over to Alkalai Flats Boys and Girls club to donate the unsold organic produce. Because of Davida’s devotion, the kids get fresh organic produce on a regular basis.
Aria Everts is an inspirational leader for labor justice. As a member of SOLE (Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality), she is a leader in organizing students to stand in solidarity with garment workers and other low-income workers across the world. She has organized a sit-in for labor rights, screenings around Latin America solidarity, and created partnerships between campus purchasers and fair trade apparel producers.
Just prior to the beginning of the war against Iraq, when Sydney Weddleton was just 7 years old, she passionately worked to organize a children’s rally and parade for peace. From the steps of the State Capitol Building, Sydney delivered her own speech about how frightened the children in Iraq must be, offering empathy as a fellow child, and leading the other rally children in songs of peace and chants, encouraging money for schools, not for war and demanding peace now.
Tyler is an 11-year-old boy who started raising money for the trafficked fishing children in Ghana Africa. He wanted to save just 1 child which would cost $240.00. To date, together with his friends and the community, he has raised over $38,000.00! Together, we have organized car washes, lemonade stands, garage sales, ice cream stands all to raise money to save these children.
Nominations are open until June 22! Nominate a local young activist at http://bravenation.com
by Erikka Yancy
Jun
06
By Jeff Chang, Huffington Post
Eight months after 40,000 people converged on Jena, Louisiana, justice still awaits the six young men whose cases inspired one of the biggest civil rights marches in recent history.
This Friday, special judge Thomas Yeager will consider a motion made on behalf of the Jena 6 to remove Judge J.P. Mauffray from their cases. Mauffray had previously denied motions by 5 of the defendants to recuse him from their cases. But last week, the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeals appointed Yeager to preside over this unusual hearing in Mauffray’s own courtroom.
Supporters of the Jena 6 say that the motion to recuse Mauffray is part of an effort to give them a fair trial. “Judge Mauffray is the man at the center of Jena’s broken justice system and now he is forced to justify his bias in a court of law with the entire nation watching,” said James Rucker, Executive Director of Color of Change, the 400,000 member group that served as the key organizing body of last September’s protests.
Flashpoint For Racial Justice
Last summer, the Jena 6 cases became a flashpoint in the national discussion over racial justice, and more disturbingly, a catalyst for further hate incidents.
On August 31, 2006, two nooses were found on an oak tree at Jena High School, an event that polarized the student body along racial lines. The school principal recommended that the three white noose-hangers be expelled. But the LaSalle Parish School Board — advised by attorney J. Reed Walters, who as District Attorney would later prosecute the Jena 6 — voted 7-1 instead to suspend the students. The only African American board member offered the dissenting vote.
After months of racial tensions, including incidents in which white Jena High student Justin Barker and others made racial insults at African American students, Barker was beaten by the boys who would become known as the “Jena 6″. Barker went home hours after the fight and participated in an evening public ceremony.
But DA Walters charged the 6 African Americans with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit attempted second-degree murder. The disparity in the sentencing spurred calls for a massive September march in Jena.
In the two months following the demonstrations, at least 50 noose incidents were reported nationally, including one found on the door of a Black professor’s office at the Teacher’s College of Columbia University. New York Governor David Patterson recently signed a law making displaying a noose a felony crime.
Judicial Bias
In the first Jena 6 case to come to trial, an all-white jury convicted one of the Jena 6 defendants, Mychal Bell, in adult court. After Bell spent 10 months behind bars, an appeals court threw out the conviction saying Bell could not be tried as an adult and remanded the case to juvenile court. Bell was freed on $45,000 bail.
But just two weeks later, Judge Mauffray agreed with DA Walters’ motion to send Bell back to jail, on the grounds that Bell’s involvement in the beating of Justin Barker had violated his probation for prior convictions. Mauffray then sentenced Bell to 18 months in a juvenile facility, where he is now serving his time.
Supporters of the Jena 6 say this was only one of the ways Mauffray demonstrated bias against the young Black men.
In his motion to recuse Mauffray, David Utter of the Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana and attorney for Jena defendant Jesse Ray Beard, outlined a pattern of judicial bias.
Before Utter took Beard’s case, he writes in his motion, Mauffray told him that white beating victim Justin Barker was lucky that he did not “bleed to death”. Mauffray also called the Jena 6 “real troublemakers”, and discussed alleged incidents involving the defendants. Utter and others later investigated the rumored incidents and found them to be false.
In March, Mauffray told Beard’s lawyers, “Does anyone know when [Jesse Ray Beard] started his career? His first participation in a crime of violence? It was December 25, 2005.” Utter writes that, in response to a discussion about potential alternatives to incarceration, Mauffray scoffed and said, “Jesse Ray needs severe consequences, short term.”
A similar motion to recuse District Attorney Reed Walters, on the grounds of racial bias and conflict of interest, is pending.
