One injustice follows another
 

Marlene Martin of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty tells the story of Santos Reyes, who has suffered multiple injustices as an immigrant in America.

THE STATISTICS don't lie: Barack Obama has become the deportation president.

The number of people thrown out of the U.S. for lacking proper immigration documentation started growing from the late 1990s through the 2000s, but it hit a peak during the Obama years. As the New York Times reported:

In four years, Mr. Obama's administration has deported as many illegal immigrants as the administration of George W. Bush did in his two terms, largely by embracing, expanding and refining Bush-era programs to find people and send them home. By the end of this year, deportations under Mr. Obama are on track to reach two million, or nearly the same number of deportations in the United States from 1892 to 1997.

The Obama White House defends its record, claiming that rather than a general crackdown, the Department of Homeland Security under Obama has just been highly successful in making "[deportation] of criminal aliens the top priority," according to the Times. The message is that the federal government is focused on getting rid of the "bad guys."

In fact, immigrant rights activists point to studies showing that the government is still deporting huge numbers of people whose only "crime" was to enter the country without documentation. Even among deportees with a criminal record, the offense was minor in many cases. In a report last year, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency admitted that over one-quarter of "criminal immigrants" deported from the U.S. in fiscal year 2011 had been convicted of traffic violations.

But the case of Santos Reyes shows why the Obama's administration deportation injustices extend even to immigrants with felony convictions.

Join the Eco-Socialist Contingent on the March Against Monsanto in SF
 

 

Saturday, May 25th @ 11 am
Union Square - Look for the Eco-Socialist Contingent's Banner
 
On Saturday, May 25th, protests will be held in over 36 countries against Monsanto.  In the US, activists will be shedding light on the recently passed "Monsanto Protection Act" which allows the sale of GMO's without gaining federal permission.  Monsanto generates billions of profits every year without the passage of this act and on top of the sale of GMO's, theirr factories are among the worst contaminated and deemed for clean up by the EPA.  It's clear that corporations like Monsanto are only after profits and not the interests of the working class or the environment.  As environmental scientists have recently declared that we have officially reached concentration of carbon dioxide of 400 parts per million, it's becoming imperative that we need a different type of system that puts our needs and the environment's needs before profit.  As the theme of the Eco-Socialism conference puts forward, "system change, not climate change."  Join the Eco-Socialist contingent this Saturday at the March Against Monsanto in SF!  
 
Saturday, May 25, 2013 - 11:00am

Union Square

Powell St. and Geary St.
San Francisco, CA

Berkeley: Israel is an apartheid state: the case for boycott, divestment and sanctions
 

Imprisoned behind hundreds of miles of border walls, subjected to indiscriminate killings, deprived of adequate food and water, prevented from earning a living, demonized as terrorists, and left to stew in a soup of filth and rubble, Palestinians are asking for our solidarity.

Eight years ago, 170 Palestinian civil society organizations called for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel for its defiance of international law. Join a discussion about how we can advance the BDS campaign at UC Berkeley.

Featuring Sherry Wolf, author and public speaker; International Socialist Organization; Adalah-NY; she blogs at Sherry Talks Back.

Co-sponsored by UC Berkeley Students for Justice in Palestine.

>>> Invite your friends on Facebook!

UC Berkeley, Evans Hall, room 60

Berkeley, CA

Pinkwashing apartheid
 

Apologists for Israel push a “pinkwashing” public relations campaign that promotes a supposedly progressive record of LGBT rights to divert attention away from apartheid conditions and to conjure an image of Israel as a democratic “light unto the nations.”

This ignores both Israeli homophobia/transphobia and Palestinian struggles for LGBT rights. No amount of “pinkwashing” can justify apartheid or the genocidal violence faced by Palestinians.
 
In Sherry Wolf's words: “It is up to activists — Jewish lesbians like myself, straight gentiles, everyone who cares about social justice — to stand up to Israel’s racist policies and those who help to veil them.”
 
Featuring Sherry Wolf, author and public speaker; International Socialist Organization; Adalah-NY; she blogs at sherrytalksback.wordpress.com
 
Thursday, April 18, 2013

Tour Stops: