protest

State Response during COVID-19 Reflects Entrenched Racism and Repression in the US

State Response during COVID-19 Reflects Entrenched Racism and Repression in the US

It’s been well established that the US response to the coronavirus pandemic has resulted in tens of thousands of preventable and unnecessary deaths. From its initial indifference to the seriousness of COVID-19 to the lack of public health infrastructure and testing, the federal government’s negligence and incompetence is staggering and has had tragic consequences for hundreds of thousands of people.

To make matters worse, the virus has disproportionately impacted people of color in the US, further underscoring the structural racism and economic injustice that was in place long before COVID-19 and which has only worsened during the pandemic. With people of color incarcerated at far higher rates than White people, the rapid spread of the virus throughout US jails, prisons, and detention centers has predominantly affected prisoners of color. Police have also enforced social distancing and other public health measures in uneven and violent ways.

Police infiltration—a tactic of political repression—is on the rise in the twenty-first century

Police infiltration—a tactic of political repression—is on the rise in the twenty-first century

Police infiltration of political dissidents—one indicator of society’s failure to adhere to basic democratic principles—is on the rise in the twenty-first century and shows no signs of letting up.

Infiltration of political movements like Black Lives Matter and Occupy Wall Street illustrates the extent to which law enforcement will go in their efforts not just to seek information, but also to aggressively disrupt political organizing.

Rather than look to Tampa, Cleveland should throw away the repressive policing playbook for the RNC in 2016

Rather than look to Tampa, Cleveland should throw away the repressive policing playbook for the RNC in 2016

Last week, a Cleveland.com article asked if Tampa’s approach to policing the RNC 2012 protests would “provide a blueprint for Cleveland as it prepares to host the next Republican National Convention a year from now?”

However, that may be the wrong question to ask.

Dissidents cautiously applaud historic settlement agreement

Activists who take their message to the streets should be pleased with an historic settlement agreement reached last week between the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) and the federal government with national implications. After nearly 13 years of litigation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of the Interior agreed to “significantly change the handling of mass protests in the United States,” according to PCJF.

"You will never make as much money as you will in a crisis."

These words were a reflection by Ezra Berkley Nepon, fundraiser extraordinaire who led a drive in the summer of 2000 to quickly raise bail and legal defense funds for more than four hundred activists who were arrested, overcharged, and many of whom in that moment were being abused in jail.

Nepon and others raised $200,000 in total, most of which happened during the “crisis” of people being abused in jail and held on bails as high as $1 million, unprecedented at the time for political protest arrests.

Now you can find out how Nepon and others did it!

Mass Arrests to Mass Resistance: From the RNC 2000 to Today

Over the last year, people across the country have taken to the streets in numbers unseen for decades to demand an end to police killings of unarmed people of color.

Meanwhile, the corporate media has forced the public to turn to the spectacle of presidential elections and all of its inanity. Inevitably, the movements seeking justice for those murdered by police and the media circus of presidential politics will meet in the streets of Philadelphia and Cleveland, the host cities of the 2016 Democratic and Republican National Conventions, making it a good time to reflect on the history and lessons learned from past political mobilizations.