Canto, No Llores
Inez Sunwoo and Puck Lo

Friday night: The rain pelted the almost-empty streets of San Francisco in torrents. Outside the federal building some twenty people huddled in a circle beneath umbrellas and a makeshift tent created by a tarp and some poles.

Canto, no llores, the crowd sang quietly, steadily. Underneath orange-glowing streetlights, one acoustic guitarist plays while the steady pounding of rain on plastic accompanies the chorus. The song ends, and one woman rises from her plastic seat abruptly. She shouts a song request, and as the rest of the crowd begins to sing the woman pulls one spectator out of her seat, and the two begin to dance. Soon, the cheers and handclaps emanating from underneath the tarp rival the crescendo of the intensifying rain, punctuated by the occasional splash of the automobiles driving by on the slick, empty streets. As the two women dance, others share umbrellas and blankets, blinking raindrops from their eyes and singing softly. A row of teenagers lean against a concrete wall, their faces etched dramatically by shadows cast by floodlights that line the sidewalk.

"Thirty Years Later, A Celebration
for How Europe Underdeveloped Africa"
Peter Kimani

Many independent African and Third World states were born amidst intense ideological struggles in the 1960s, and lived to the end of the 1980s through heated debates about, among other things, whether capitalism or socialism was the best path to prosperity. No single individual was at the heart of those contestations more than Dr Walter Rodney. Born in the Caribbean, Rodney was schooled in Europe and fated to work in Africa, where while at Dar es Salaam University he produced his influential work, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. His assassination in June 1980 due to his radical political views opened a troubling chapter in Guyana.

Peter Kimani attended a recent conference in Dar es Salaam that celebrated Rodney's life and reflected on his legacy.

"Walter Rodney lives!" proclaims a message beneath the image of a man in an Afro hairstyle, scraggly beard and spectacles.
The simple poster said many things: the hairstyle echoed the Black Power movement that dominated the USA of the civil rights movement, and permanently altered the history of America.

Anonymous Comrade writes:

Proposal: Freedom of Movement
A North American No Border Network

Through our work we have met some amazing sisters and brothers in struggle in Mexico, Canada, the United States and all across the world. We have begun to learn about each other and as a result, learn more about other groups and struggles emanating from what we believe to be similar and related causes...

We are therefore proposing the creation of a no border activist network between groups in Mexico, Canada and the U.S. We have taken only a few steps toward the realization of this network. This is obviously a huge and complex endeavor, so our goal is to place enough tangible information before you so that many aspects can be developed more collectively and organically...

From the office of attorney Robert Bryan, lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal...:

Mumia Abu-Jamal Gets New Judicial Review

Robert Bryan

Dear Friends and Supporters:

Today the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
issued the most important decision affecting my client, Mumia Abu-
Jamal, since the lower federal court ruling in December 2001. An
order was issued this morning that the court will accept for review
the following issues, all of which are of enormous constitutional
significance and go to the very essence of Mumia's right to a fair
trial due process of law, and equal protection of the law under the
Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution:

To Be Young, Left And Black: Priorities and Possibilities

Thursday, November 17th 7:30pm

Kimmel Center (60 Washington Sq Park South)

Room 907

In the midst of the riots in France and months after the Katrina disaster,
the Black social and political concerns are again center stage. What are
the concerns of today's young Black left?

Come hear the voices and opinons of some of todays leading young Black
activists as they read from the newly published anthology "Letters From
Young Activists" and politic about the priorities and possibilities of
Black political life in the 21st Century.

Moderated by former Black Panther Ashanti Alston

Panelists include: Kenyon Farrow, Merv Marcano, & Ella Turenne

Brought to you by NYU Womyns Center & Co-Sponsored by Left Turn

Anonymous Comrade writes:

Protest Neo Nazis in Toledo
Toledo, Ohio, Oct. 15, 2005

The National Socialist Movement, succesor to the American Nazi Party, will be having a march and rally in Toldeo, Ohio on Saturday oct. 15 in the North End on Bronson Ave. and around the area. There is a local chapter of two Nazis Ron Riehl and Mark Martin, who are trying to build their group by rallying around a local racist gun nut who allegedly has had run ins with black gangs! The World Church of the Creator and Blood And Honour Skinheads will be there too. We would appreciate anyone coming down to help get rid of these fucks, so please email me if interested for more info. solidarity & @utonomy ratboy

Bernie Roddy writes:

"Texas Execution"

Bernie Roddy

Gary Sterling, a black man scheduled to be executed in Texas on August 10, is not claiming innocence in the murder of a white man, 72-year-old John Wesley Carty. Sterling directed investigators to the site of two bodies after the 1988 crime.

What is at issue is the punishment, the presence of an overtly racist individual on the jury, the fact that the defense was aware of this jury member's views, and the defense's lackluster effort to have the jury consider an objective psychiatric evaluation of Mr. Sterling's mental condition at the time of the crime. Much turns on whether the person is considered a "future danger to society" and whether death seems to be the only adequate punishment. Here race becomes a clear factor in the final results of a given case.

In a post-trial affidavit the juror at issue used an inflammatory racist epithet directed at African Americans. During the trial, the defense requested that a psychiatric evaluation be made of the defendant, but the court appointed Dr. James Grigson, also known as "Dr. Death," to serve that function. The defense declined the offer. But there was no further effort to provide such an evaluation. This is a system that works by increments to exterminate certain segments of the population in the U.S., and operates along clearly racist lines.

Gary Sterling's execution on August 10 represents a frank admission that racism is alive and acceptable in the U.S. industry of capital punishment.

ANTI-RACIST CONVERGENCE AUG. 27 2005 AT FIRST UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CHURCH OF ESSEX COUNTY IN ORANGE, NEW JERSEY

Over the past year we have seen a number of events take place in New Jersey that has raised the concern that there are people involved with racist/white supremacist groups that want to angle themselves into some position of power. Some try to go under the radar while others are open about their agenda. An anti-racist convergence will be held August 27, 2005 starting at 11:30 at the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Essex County 35/47 Cleveland Street, Orange, New Jersey 07050. Among the discussions will be on the recent activity of racist groups in the state of New Jersey. This convergence will be an opportunity to meet with and hear from those who want to try to fight these particular elements.

This event is open to the public, and is expected to bring people from all over the state to participate. The gathering will be in two parts. The first part will be a panel discussion where invited speakers will speak and take questions about concerns such as racist activity in the state, police brutality, hatred towards Arab/Muslim members of our communities, and the campaign among the right against them, issues related to the gay community, and the fight against the anti-immigration effort that has heated up with efforts like the Minuteman Project. Speakers are to be announced shortly. The second part will be a show featuring a number of musical acts, some that were slated to perform at an anti-racist benefit show in Wayne, NJ that was shut down after pressure from white supremacists in the state.

There will be a donation asked for at the door, and proceeds from this event will be to benefit North Jersey Anti-Racist Action and One People's Project, two well-known anti-racist groups in the state. Organizations are encouraged to table during the event as well.

For more information, contact Daryle Lamont Jenkins at dlj@onepeoplesproject.com or by phone at (212) 479-7362.

Anti-Muslim backlash goes on

IRR News

A month after the London bombings, police forces across the country are reporting

rising levels of racial incidents.

EXPULSIONS TO KABUL


The first flight to Kabul from Paris departed on tuesday night (7/26). Ed.

Next Monday or Tuesday a charter plane will leave London, travel to Paris and finally land in Kabul with at least 60 young Afghans on board who have been denied asylum by France and Britain.


  The Interior Ministers of the 5 largest European countries (Germany, Spain, France, Italy and Britain) announced at the beginning of June that they would be organising joint charter flights to increase the number of deportations from their countries in disregard of international conventions and human rights.