Academic Freedom, CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Iraq War, Military Tribunal, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Victory: West Virginia Teachers’ Strike
After nine days on strike, the West Virginia governor and the state legislature caved, granting the teachers and all school staff a 5% wage increase. The pay raise also covers all state employees.
In an attempt to save face the Republicans talked about funding the pay increase by cutting social services and Medicaid. But there is no such wording in the agreement that was signed by the West Virginia Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers , the two workers organizations.
One strike supporter in West Virginia stated that “At this point the teachers and school staff have all the momentum and they can fight to make sure the funds for the raise come from the rich, not working people when the budget is eventually passed. Strikers here are ecstatic, people are literally hugging strangers, and whipping enjoy. It’s in a stark victory for the working class. Hopefully it will be the first of many to come.”
The strike was caused by decades of stagnating pay and rising health costs. 3/4 of the teachers are women.They played leading roles in the strike. West Virginia, especially its southern counties, have a history of militancy, Especially in the coal mines. Teacher job actions and walkouts spread from these very same southern counties.
The West Virginia teachers have shown Americans what it takes to win a strike. This is especially important when the anticipated Supreme Court ruling in the Janus case comes down. That ruling will likely reduce the power of public employee unions by taking away their right to collect dues.
Guest – Dale Lee is a graduate of Clinch Valley College (Wise, VA) and obtained his special education certification through the West Virginia College of Graduate Studies (WV COGS). He is completing his Master’s degree through Salem International University. A veteran teacher of 22 years, Dale’s assignment was teaching special education at Princeton Senior High School
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Law Firm Files 911 Terror Lawsuit Against Saudi Arabia
Nearly sixteen years have passed since the 911 attacks. The truth of who was behind the attacks has allegedly come out in a class action lawsuit brought by over 6500 victims and survivors. The lawsuit alleges that it was elements of the Saudi Arabian government that attacked the United States on 9/11. The Defendant in the lawsuit is Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian government hired 15 public relations firms to help them deny responsibility. They hired several Washington white shoe high powered connected law firms They hid behind the law of sovereign immunity, which had to be overturned by an act of Congress in order for the lawsuit to proceed. They were helped by the US government in the cover-up by the Bush and Obama administrations.
After more than sixteen years the case is now proceeding rapidly through the Federal courts and will either be dismissed, settled or tried. The object of the lawsuit is to obtain money explained Sharon Pemboli, one of the plaintiffs and leaders of a group of women from New Jersey known as “the Jersey girls” who lobbied to win passage of the law which made the lawsuit possible. She believes that if the Saudi Arabian government is deprived of funds it will not be able to fund Al Qaeda and the extremist Wahhabi clergy responsible for supporting the terrorism of Al Qaeda.
The American public has been led to believe mistakenly that Saddam Hussein and Iraq were behind 911. The attack on Iraq was a war of aggression. At the end of World War II, the United States set up the Nuremberg trials to try Nazi war criminals. They wanted to set forth principles that were not merely “victor’s justice.“ At the Nuremberg trials the Germans were found guilty of starting a war of aggression, which was called the greatest of all crimes because it has contained within it all other crimes.
Guest – Attorney Justin Green, Justin has successfully represented families in many major aviation cases. These include airline disasters, corporate airplane and helicopter accidents, and civil airplane and helicopter accidents. His practice has also included personal injury and wrongful death cases arising from other transportation accidents.
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Lynne Stewart Anniversary 2018
Hosts remember fearless activist and attorney Lynne Stewart. Heidi reads an excerpt from Michael’s yet to be published Lawyers You’ll Like. We’ll also hear a powerful speech by Chris Hedges delivered at Lynne’s memorial.
Civil Liberties, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, War Resister
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The Granny Peace Brigade
If you’ve attended NYC protests over the past few years you might have seen a group of women that stand out from the crowd. A lot of credit is given to younger generations for their increasing presence in marches and protests, but this group is made up of women who have been protesting for decades. They call themselves the Granny Peace Brigade. The name is fitting in every way as the group is comprised of all older women who have been at the forefront of many anti-war, anti-military and counter recruitment movements.
After a group of them were arrested at the Times Square recruitment center in 2005, they made their official debut as the Granny Peace Brigade to defend their civil rights in court. In the next 13 years as new members joined, their message only grew louder. In conjunction with other groups over time, such as Code Pink and the Raging Grannies, the Granny Peace Brigade has worked to denounce and resist both local and global militarism, war and endless devastation to civilian life. Granny Peace Brigade Blog
Guests – Joan Plune and Barbara Harris, two longstanding members of the Granny Peace Brigade.
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Social Justice Sewing Academy
In 1989, an exhibition at the American Craft Museum offered a new appraisal of quilts in this country suggesting that quilting derives from African design, and even reflects the improvisational nature of the music of Africa.
Historians Jacqueline Tobin and Raymond Dobard claim that African American slaves may have used a quilt code to navigate the Underground Railroad. Such patterns as the “wagon wheel,” “tumbling blocks,” and “bear’s paw” were passed down from one generation to another, and seem to have held secret messages to assist in guiding slaves to freedom.
Sara Trail began sewing at age four and by 11 she was teaching others to sew. In 2012, Treyvon Martin was murdered in Florida. They were the same age, 17, and his death stirred in her a need to do something on behalf of social justice. She created an oversize portrait quilt of Treyvon and gave it to his mother at a Black Lives Matters event.
Sara began to study ways to apply her talent at sewing to social justice given its importance as a tradition during slavery. She saw the potential in quilting to encourage discussions about current social issues.
A grant from UC Berkeley for a 6-week summer program serving high school students of color from the Bay Area, helped her create the Social Justice Sewing Academy.
Guest – Sara Trail, Sara dedicates her art practice to social justice reform and created SJSA in efforts to engage students and activists across the United States who share a common vision of equity and justice. She uses art as a vehicle for motivation and awareness while providing people a platform to create activist art through fabric textiles. She encourages people to become artivists [art + activist] and designs community social justice quilts as a tool for social critique and action.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Human Rights, NSA Spying, Political Prisoner, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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The Freedom Fast and Time’s Up Wendy’s March
Immokalee, Florida was the site of some of the most brutal human rights atrocities in the United States. One third of all the nation’s tomatoes are grown there. Since 1997, the Justice Department has prosecuted seven slavery cases in Florida, four involving tomato harvesters. More than 1,200 persons have been freed from agricultural slavery rings in Florida during the last 10 to 15 years.
Workers report brutal beatings, being shackled in chains at night, not receiving regular pay, and having to share small quarters with dozens of others in a mobile home for $200.00 a month. They work without breaks, in the beating sun for 10 to 12 hours a day, seven days a week.
In 1993 a small group of workers who had been meeting in a church founded the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. Their mission was to improve the lives of tomato pickers in Southern Florida. After years of organizing in Immokalee, the Coalition launched its first boycott of a national of a fast food company—Taco Bell—in 2001. Four years later, the company agreed to support wage increases and workplace protections for tomato pickers. Since then, food corporations, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Whole Foods, Subway, and Walmart have followed suit. Today, 14 of the world’s largest food retailers and restaurants have signed fair food agreements with the CIW.
In May the Coalition will receive the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives and/Puffin Award for Human Rights Activism for their continued efforts to protect the rights of agricultural workers, prevent involuntary servitude, and create a food supply chain that is fair from bottom to top.
Guest – Lupe Gonzalo is a senior staff member and leader of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). She has worked in the agricultural fields of the United States for the last 12 years as a migrant farmworker, including in the harvesting of tomatoes, citrus, peppers, and many other vegetables and fruits. As part of the Fair Food Program education team, Lupe and her colleagues conduct workers’ rights education in seven states along the East Coast throughout the year
Guest – Patricia Cipollitti, Patricia organizes alongside faith communities as part of her staff role within the Alliance for Fair Food. The Alliance for Fair Food is a national network of people working in partnership with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers for farmworker justice.
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The Prometheus Radio Project And LPFM
Where do you turn on your radio dial to hear diverse viewpoints, community voices, or even local musicians? If you’re like thousands across the country you might tune into Low Power FM or LPFM noncommercial broadcast stations. They operate at a lower transmission power and serve smaller areas than full power stations.
In 1999, the Federal Communications Commission launched the low power FM radio service, opening up an opportunity for community radio broadcasting in more than two decades. LPFM’s broadcast from 10 to 100 watts and are run by non-profit organizations, unions, schools, churches, and other local, non-commercial organizations. Today there are more than 800 low power radio stations on the air, committing to giving 8 hours a day of air time to local voices.
Law and Disorder is thrilled to be carried on several LPFM stations but it hasn’t been an easy road. Early on, corporate sponsored big broadcasters have pushed Congress to limit low power radio as soon as it started. Fortunately, The Prometheus Radio Project fought for years to support the Local Community Radio Act that would return authority to the FCC, and allow them to license low power stations in cities for the first time.
Guest – Paul Bane got hooked on Grassroots Radio by listening to Boulder’s KGNU in the mid 90’s. That also led him into activism for global economic dignity in the “Seattle-era” street movement. Along the way he also stood against police brutality, for an end of racism toward Native Americans and others, an end of media bias including that at NPR, of discrimination and dehumanization aimed at women, LGBT, and undocumented immigrants. When he co-founded Grassroots Radio station KRFC between 1997 and 2003, he also co-founded its news collective. After chatting with Prometheus at Grassroots Radio Coalition conferences for a decade or so and leaving his Fortune 100 R&D job, Paul volunteered at Prometheus in 2010 and is currently our nerdiest engineer. His electrical engineering degree and ham radio experience comes in handy for FCC application engineering, station design, construction and troubleshooting. Paul also created and maintains the free-to-use RFree software to make application engineering easier.
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CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Guantanamo, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Torture, Uncategorized, War Resister
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Nuclear Posture Review
Not since 1953 when the United States and the Soviet Union exploded thermonuclear bombs has the world been such a powder keg. Last week the Pentagon released its Nuclear Posture Review. It seeks to make use of nuclear weapons more acceptable and plausible. It recommends the spending of $1 trillion to upgrade America’s nuclear arsenal and it appears to end the United State’s commitment to pursue nuclear disarmament.
Last November Senator Bob Corker, a Republican from Tennessee, convened a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the limits of presidential authority to use nuclear weapons. President Trump had been making incendiary comments about North Korea, threatening to totally destroy the country and to unleash fire and fury like the world has never seen.
There are no reliable limits on the president‘s power to order use of nuclear weapons. The International Court of Justice declared in 1996 ruled that the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons is illegal under international law. The United States is not legally bound by the ICJ opinion. Moreover, the United Nations last summer adopted a Treaty On the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. It states that the use of nuclear weapons would be against the principles of humanity in the dictates of public conscience. The United States is not legally bound by the new UN treaty either. The United States under President Obama and now Trump has vowed to increase the size of America’s nuclear arsenal. The United States will not agree to simply declare that it is against the first use nuclear weapons.
Guest – Attorney John Burroughs, Executive Director of the Lawyers Committee for Nuclear Policy. John Burroughs represents LCNP and IALANA in Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty review proceedings, the United Nations, and other international forums. Dr. Burroughs is contributor, Unspeakable suffering – the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons (2013) (available here); contributor, Assuring Destruction Forever: Nuclear Weapon Modernization Around the World (2012) (available here); co-editor and contributor, Nuclear Disorder or Cooperative Security? U.S. Weapons of Terror, the Global Proliferation Crisis, and Paths to Peace (2007) (available here); co-editor and contributor, Rule of Power or Rule of Law? An Assessment of U.S. Policies and Actions Regarding Security-Related Treaties (2003); and author of The Legality of Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons: A Guide to the Historic Opinion of the International Court of Justice (1998). He has additionally published articles and op-eds in journals and newspapers including the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the World Policy Journal, and Newsday. Dr. Burroughs has taught international law as an adjunct professor at Rutgers Law School, Newark. He has a J.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley and a B.A. from Harvard University.
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Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Five Foundation
In July 2004 federal agents raided the homes of five Palestinian-American families, arresting the five dads. The first trial of the Holy Land Foundation Five ended in a hung jury. The second, marked by highly questionable procedures, resulted in very lengthy sentences for supporting terrorism by donating to charities with whom the US government itself and several respected international agencies work.
Capitalizing on post 911 Islamaphobic hysteria, the US government used secret evidence and conflated charity with terrorism to convict the five men of providing material support for terrorism.
The destruction of the Holy Land Foundation, the largest Muslim charity in the United States, constitutes one of the great judicial injustices in the so called war on terror
of which there have been many. The US government, relying on the testimony of anonymous Israeli security experts, convicted the five men of the crime of providing humanitarian aid to Palestinians suffering under an illegal and punishing occupation.
This case is one of several repressive post 911 US prosecutions that have been brought with the assistance of Israeli security police, targeting US-based Palestinian Muslim activists.
Guest – Miko Peled is an Israeli writer and activist living in the US. He was born and raised in Jerusalem. His father was the late Israeli General Matti Peled. Driven by a personal family tragedy to explore Palestine, its people and their narrative. He has written a book about his journey from the sphere of the privileged Israeli to that of the oppressed Palestinians. Peled speaks nationally and internationally on the issue of Palestine. He supports the creation of a single democratic state in all of Palestine, and a firm supporter of BDS. Author of Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Five Foundation and The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine.
CIA Sponsored Terror, Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, FBI Intrusion, Human Rights, NSA Spying, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Surveillance, Targeting Muslims, Truth to Power, War Resister
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Attorney Prevails Against CFAA Charges In Click Fraud Trial
In a trial that was closely watched by cybersecurity experts, Italian citizen Fabio Gasperini was charged for allegedly violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or CFAA. Computer experts claimed it was the first so-called “click fraud” trial and would test the U.S. government’s ability to link individuals to complex cybercrimes.
As covered before on Law and Disorder, the CFAA is an antiquated law passed in 1986 before personal computers and smart devices were omnipresent in all aspects of our lives. It affords law enforcement extremely wide latitude to prosecute virtually any computer-related activity, including violations of Terms of Service agreements. Each offense can bring up to 20 years in prison, and when multiple counts are charged individuals can face decades behind bars.
In 2017 Simone Bertollini became the first known attorney to prevail against CFAA charges. His 34-year-old client, Mr. Gasperini, was found not guilty on several felony counts of wire fraud, computer intrusion and money laundering for which he faced 70 years in prison; he was convicted on only one count of computer intrusion, a misdemeanor, which is current being appealed. Mr. Bertollini disputed prosecutors’ version of events and noted that none of the expert witnesses had ever seen the botnet that Gasperini allegedly used. He also questioned how he could be charged with conspiracy when no conspirators were named or charged. Cross Examination Transcript
Guest – Attorney Simone Bertollini – After graduating from law school in Rome, Italy, Simone moved to the United States where he graduated with a Juris Doctor degree, becoming one of the very few Italian lawyers in New York with full academic qualifications in both Italy and the United States. Simone first came to the United States with an F-1 student Visa to attend law school. After, he started his own legal practice, and obtained E-2 Treaty Investor Visa status. Later, Simone became a Lawful Permanent Resident, and now he is a proud American citizen. In the course of his career, Simone handled hundreds of immigration cases, including removal proceedings and federal appellate matters. Simone has also substantial criminal jury trial experience.
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Electronic Frontier Foundation on NSA Spying Extension
A few weeks ago the U.S. Congress voted to pass a bill extending, for another six years, the NSA’s practice of Internet surveillance. Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called this “a significant blow against the basic human right to read, write, learn, and associate free of government’s prying eyes.” The vote happened without public debate on a matter of great public concern.
The legislation in question allowing warrantless surveillance is Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act. The Act is intended to target foreigners abroad. In practice it puts a great deal of our internet activities to government scrutiny, as they pass through key internet checkpoints, and as they are stored by providers like Google and Facebook. The NSA is thus able to gather and store private communications of countless non-suspect Americans.
Guest – Cindy Cohn, Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. From 2000-2015 she served as EFF’s Legal Director as well as its General Counsel. Ms. Cohn first became involved with EFF in 1993, when EFF asked her to serve as the outside lead attorney in Bernstein v. Dept. of Justice, the successful First Amendment challenge to the U.S. export restrictions on cryptography.
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Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Prison Industry, Surveillance, Truth to Power
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The End Of Policing
The recent book The End of Policing by New York professor Alex Vitale feels especially timely right now. Burgeoning grassroots movements responding to police violence in Ferguson, Missouri have drawn attention to the increased militarization of law enforcement in the treatment of civilians, and helped to raise public awareness of failed policies. Yet, no amount of media exposure seemed to result in any workable solutions to systemic violence.
Vitale has written an immensely readable and thorough chronology of the origins of modern policing as a tool of social control. He reveals how increased policy authority is incompatible with social justice and community empowerment. Kirkus Reviews calls the book a “tightly constructed monograph filled with reform suggestions” that is “a clearly argued, sure-to-be-controversial book.”
He cites research internationally to show how law enforcement, rather than help an array of social problems, is actually making things worse.
Guest – Alex S. Vitale is associate professor of sociology at Brooklyn College and author of City of Disorder: How the Quality of Life Campaign Transformed New York Politics. He is senior adviser to the Police reform Organizing Project and serves on the New York State Advisory Committee to the US Civil Right Commission.
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Lawyers You’ll Like: Attorney Michelle Lewin
In response to requests from people at Otisville Correctional Facility in upstate New York, nearly five years ago the National Lawyers Guild held a training for volunteers interested in participating in a Parole Preparation Project. The Project’s goals were to pair volunteers (law students, social workers, family and friends of incarcerated persons among others) with individuals who face long prison sentences and have been repeatedly denied parole.
Today the Parole Preparation Project is a flourishing nonprofit organization, in large part to the efforts of its executive director Michelle Lewin. Volunteers collaborate with parole applicants in New York State to gather necessary documentation for upcoming parole hearings, and work with them on practicing for the actual interview. Volunteers also support volunteers in soliciting meaningful letters of support from friends, family, co-workers, and the Project writes letters of support as well.
Guest – Attorney Michelle Lewin. Prior to co-founding and heading the Parole Preparation Project, Michelle was a Court Advocate at the Fortune Society; she also co-directed the “Right to Write” Program at the Westchester County Correctional Center.
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Poet Raymond Nat Turner
We welcome back to Law and Disorder political poet to start the new year. Turner is the poet in residence of the internet site and radio show Black Agenda Report.
Guest – Raymond Nat Turner, currently Poet-in-Residence at Black Agenda Report, Turner has been the opening act for such people as James Baldwin, Cynthia McKinney, radical sportswriter Dave Zirin and Congresswoman Barbara Lee after her lone vote against attacking Afghanistan.
