October, 29 2010, 02:36pm EDT
Hundreds Gather in San Francisco to Tackle Pressing Human Rights Concerns; Migrant Rights, Aung San Suu Kyi Are Front and Center
Amy Goodman, Jorge Bustamante, Rebiya Kadeer Headline Amnesty International Human Rights Conference, Nov. 5-7
SAN FRANCISCO
Amnesty International
USA (AIUSA) will bring together hundreds of activists from 13 Western states
November 5-7 for the organization's annual regional conference. This
year's theme, Shine A Light: 50 Years of Activism, highlights Amnesty
International's 50th anniversary - which will be celebrated
in San Francisco in March 2011 -- and spotlights some of the most critical
human rights issues today. Open to the public, the event will take
place at the University of California's Hastings College of Law on 200
McAllister Street. The cost of attendance ranges from $15 to $35, on a
sliding scale.
"For almost 50 years, Amnesty International
members around the world have proven time and again the power of grassroots
activism," said
Rini Chakraborty, western regional director for
Amnesty International USA (AIUSA). "San Francisco is a particularly
poignant backdrop for this conference. It is the birthplace of the
U.N. Charter, which established human rights and fundamental freedoms for
all without discrimination. Given the city's rich and vibrant activist
history of fighting for civil, political, and economic rights, this is
the right place to celebrate our 50th anniversary."
The human rights conference, which features
workshops, panel discussions and interactive exhibits, opens on
Friday
with a 5:00 p.m. march and rally in solidarity with the Burmese democracy
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Burmese people. The march, which precedes
the Nov. 7 elections in Myanmar (formerly Burma), will begin on McAllister
and Hyde Streets and end at steps of San Francisco City Hall. Speakers
include Toe Lwin, a youth leader for the National League for Democracy
and a member of Aung San Suu Kyi's Security Team; Nyunt Than of
the Burmese American Democratic Alliance; Yasmin Vanya of the Burmese
American Women's Alliance and Maung Maung Latt, an exiled Minister
of Parliament. Amnesty
International is calling for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi
and the other 2,000-plus prisoners jailed for peaceful activism.
AIUSA Executive Director
Larry Cox
will open the conference at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday at Hastings College of
Law, where he will highlight a half a century of successful human rights
activism. Throughout Saturday activists will attend panels on a number
of pressing human rights issues: the death penalty in the
U.S., maternal mortality, immigrant rights, Guantanamo
and more.
At 4:15 p.m., a special plenary session,
Somos Arizona: Migrant Rights in the U.S, will feature Dr.
Jorge Bustamante, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of
Migrants, and Raquel Rubio-Goldsmith, coordinator of the Binational
Migration Institute of Mexican American Studies at the University of Arizona,
who will discuss the impact of the state's draconian law, SB
1070.
On Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m., conference
attendees will hear from
Amy Goodman, host and executive producer
of Democracy Now! and long-time human rights champion. Goodman will
also sign copies of her book, Breaking the Sound Barrier, from 10-11
a.m. At 11:45 a.m., the conference will wrap up with Rebiya Kadeer,
a Uighur human rights activist and former Amnesty International "prisoner
of conscience." Kadeer spent six years in a Chinese prison for criticizing
the government's repression of the Uighur people and abuse of their human
rights. Amnesty International publicized her case and pursued her
freedom until she was released in 2005.
Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning
grassroots activist organization with more than 2.8 million supporters,
activists and volunteers who campaign for universal human rights from more
than 150 countries. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates
and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice,
freedom, truth and dignity are denied.
Amnesty International is a global movement of millions of people demanding human rights for all people - no matter who they are or where they are. We are the world's largest grassroots human rights organization.
(212) 807-8400LATEST NEWS
Democracy Defenders Stress NY Trump Trial 'Is About Voter Deception'
"Trump engaged in criminal acts to cover up the truth just days before the 2016 election, and now he will finally face a jury of everyday Americans."
Apr 15, 2024
As former U.S. President Donald Trump's first of four potential criminal trials began in New York on Monday, progressive groups emphasized that what is often called a hush money case involving a porn star "is about voter deception."
Trump, the presumptive Republican candidate to face Democratic President Joe Biden in November, faces 91 felony charges across the four cases. For this one, he was indicted by a New York grand jury last spring with 34 counts of falsifying business records related to alleged hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 election cycle.
The payments were made by Michael Cohen, Trump's former fixer, to porn star Stormy Daniels, and by the tabloid The National Enquirer to Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model. The twice-impeached ex-president has pleaded not guilty.
"This case is about the allegation that Trump criminally hid information from voters to influence the outcome of the 2016 election," said Lisa Gilbert, executive vice president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, in a statement Monday.
"You can draw a clear pattern from this election interference behavior to his more emboldened efforts to subvert the 2020 election, which led to the January 6th insurrection, a lasting stain on American democracy," she added, referring to the 2021 U.S. Capitol attack that some critics argue makes him constitutionally ineligible to hold office again. "Accountability for criminal deception of voters is absolutely necessary to ensure future candidates and public officials know they can't get away with this sort of conduct."
Gilbert stressed that "despite what Donald Trump and his allies may claim, no one is above the law—including a former president charged with serious crimes, and today marks the start of the legal system's chance to prove this point."
Stand Up America president and founder Sean Eldridge similarly celebrated that "Donald Trump will finally face accountability for falsifying his company's business records in order to conceal damning information from voters ahead of the 2016 election."
"Concealing secret payments and then lying in official filings to cover it up is a serious crime, which is why Trump has been charged with 34 felony counts," Eldridge said. "This case is a clear example of Trump's pattern of engaging in criminal behavior to cling to power and hide the truth from the American people. No one is above the law in the United States of America, including former presidents."
"A functioning democracy depends on voters having the information they need to pick their leaders," he continued. "Trump engaged in criminal acts to cover up the truth just days before the 2016 election, and now he will finally face a jury of everyday Americans."
This is the first criminal trial of a former American president. Monday featured a series of rulings from Judge Juan Merchan—who has rejected Trump's demands that he step away from the case—and the beginning of jury selection.
The New York Timesreported that "the initial pool of prospective jurors dwindled rapidly. More than half of the first group of 96 were dismissed in short order after indicating that they did not believe they could be impartial. Court adjourned for the day roughly two hours after jury selection began, with zero jurors chosen."
In addition to the case in New York, Trump faces two federal cases—overseen by Special Counsel Jack Smith because of Trump's 2024 campaign. One is about his mishandling of classified material and the other stems from his attempt to reverse the 2020 election results. The Republican also faces a Georgia case for interfering with the last presidential contest.
It is not clear whether any of the other three cases will go to trial before the November election. Trump is trying to claim presidential immunity to get the federal election charges dismissed and the U.S. Supreme Court—to which he appointed three justices—is set to hear arguments in that case on April 25.
Public Citizen is among the groups that last week submitted briefs to the high court criticizing Trump's claims. The watchdog's president, Robert Weissman, said that "Trump's legal theory defies common sense and would enable an almost limitless tyranny. Nothing in the Constitution—which aims to prevent tyranny—supports Trump's theory."
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Palestine Allies Stage Global 'Economic Blockade' of Gaza Genocide
Organizer A15Action said the worldwide demonstrations targeted "the global economy for its complicity in Israel's ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people."
Apr 15, 2024
Pro-Palestine activists around the world on Monday executed a day of direct action protests aimed at "blocking the arteries of capitalism and jamming the wheels of production" amid Israel's ongoing genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza.
Asserting the need to "shift from symbolic actions to those that cause pain to the economy," organizer A15Action vowed ahead of Monday's demonstrations that "together we will coordinate to disrupt and blockade economic logistical hubs and the flow of capital."
Protesters taking part in the worldwide "economic blockade" flooded the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City in an afternoon action, while at least hundreds of people marched through downtown Los Angeles demanding a cease-fire in Gaza and no war against Iran.
In downtown Los Angeles several hundred people marching in a Pro-Palestinian protest, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. pic.twitter.com/BoBhFWWKat
— Sergio Olmos (@MrOlmos) April 15, 2024
Earlier in the day in the San Francisco Bay Area, thousands of protesters blocked the iconic Golden Gate Bridge and two key East Bay highways—I-880 and I-980—from morning rush hour into the early afternoon. Protesters locked themselves and their vehicles together, complicating law enforcement efforts to disperse them and clear traffic lanes. They unfurled a banner reading "Stop the World for Gaza" across all three southbound lanes of the Golden Gate Bridge. The California Highway Patrol said 15 people had been arrested by 11:30 am local time.
"In halting traffic along this route we seek to stop the movement of millions of dollars in daily capital flow, much of which, headed to and from the Port of Oakland, the Oakland Airport, and the nearby rail yards directly and indirectly supports the ongoing genocide in Gaza," A15Action explained on Facebook.
Both directions of the Golden Gate Bridge have been shut down due to a Pro-Palestinian protest. Demonstrators have blocked the southbound direction of Highway 101. This is the second protest causing major back-ups on Bay Area roadways, the demonstration has blocked northbound… pic.twitter.com/oO5dMCvqFD
— ABC7 News (@abc7newsbayarea) April 15, 2024
"Global capital is complicit in the war crimes occurring daily against Palestinians, and it also hurts us here at home," the organizers continued. "Increased cases of respiratory ailments and cancer are but some of the signs of this uneven devastation at home in Oakland."
"The genocide in Gaza is the horrible cost visited upon our comrades and brothers and sisters abroad," the group added. "We are shutting down 880 to disrupt the global flow of capital that causes so much destruction across the world. We are shutting down 880 in support of a liberated Palestine."
In Middletown, Connecticut, at least 10 people were arrested after dozens of demonstrators blockaded a road leading to Pratt & Whitney, which manufactures engines used in Israeli warplanes. The company is also a subsidiary of military-industrial complex giant RTX—formerly known as Raytheon—several of whose facilities have been previously targeted by protesters since last October.
The Middletown protesters—who said they weren't from any group but were acting in solidarity with A15Action—said Pratt & Whitney is "complicit in the arming of the Israeli military."
The activists demanded that the company—whose stock price has soared by nearly 50% since October—end exports to Israel "and begin the transition to a peace-based economy where the engines will not enable war and genocide."
(1/3) More than 50 protestors from NYC & CT shut down Pratt & Whitney Factory in Middletown, Connecticut demanding it halt its profiting from ongoing genocide in Gaza; Israel has been using planes powered by Pratt & Whitney’s engines to drop bombs on Gaza.
Demonstrators are… pic.twitter.com/SUJC3SkppN
— @TheIndypendent (@TheIndypendent) April 15, 2024
A15Action and allied actions shut down highways in Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Illinois—where 40 people were reportedly arrested after blocking the I-190 entrance to Chicago O'Hare International Airport.
"On this Tax Day, when millions are paying taxes which fund the ongoing U.S. and Israeli bombardment of Gaza, protestors seek to take dramatic action, alongside other A15Action organizers worldwide," Chicago Dissenters wrote on Instagram.
Arms giant Lockheed Martin's office in Arlington, Virginia was occupied by activists who locked themselves together while chanting "fund care, not killing."
Activists shut down the arms factory Lockheed Martin in Arlington, VA to protest its complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza by providing Israel with weapons.https://t.co/g4Lafxgrjk pic.twitter.com/IM3FqKsqdY
— Kuffiya (@Kuffiyateam) April 15, 2024
Boeing's St. Charles, Missouri facility—which demonstrators said "produces missiles and bombs sent directly to Israel"—was also targeted in a pre-dawn protest that ended with the arrest of seven activists, who are likely to face unlawful assembly and trespassing charges.
Protesters chanting "free, free Palestine" and "from the river to the sea" blockaded the Port of Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. Similar chants were heard during a shutdown of Piraeus Port in Athens, Greece.
BREAKING: Anti-Israel protesters are blockading Deltaport in the Port of Vancouver.
This is part of a global campaign by the far-left activists who say: "No business as usual during a genocide".
They ask dock workers to join in.https://t.co/kddQK47rmLÂ pic.twitter.com/l1ciRyhW1Q
— Efrain Flores Monsanto 🇨🇦🚛 (@realmonsanto) April 15, 2024
There were actions in cities including Barcelona, Spain; Dublin, Ireland; Utrecht, Netherlands; Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; and Adelaide, Australia, where Foreign Minister Penny Wong's office was the stage for an occupation and "die-in."
Demonstrations also took place targeting the Australian ports of Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne.
"As states founded on colonization and violent dispossession, so-called Australia has much in common with so-called Israel," A15Action wrote on Facebook. "The call for 'Land Back, Liberation, End Colonial Occupation' has been a consistent one since October."
"Building on a decadeslong movement for a free Palestine, and staunch Aboriginal resistance by the First Peoples of this continent, activists continue to protest at arms manufacturers that contribute essential F-35 fighter jet components to the global supply chain, complicit seats of government, universities funded by weapons dealers, and at Zionist-funded sporting and arts events," the group added.
"Land and sea blockades of the ports of Melbourne and Botany have caused major disruption to business as usual during the genocide," A15Action added. "Long live the Intifada!"
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World Bank, IMF Must Prioritize Wealth Tax and Canceling Debt to Tackle Global Inequality
While global institutions claim to want to tackle inequality, said one campaigner, "ordinary people struggle more and more every day to make up for cuts to the public funding of healthcare, education, and transportation."
Apr 15, 2024
With world leaders convening in Washington, D.C. this week for the annual Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, global anti-poverty campaigners said Monday that delegates from the world's largest economies must prioritize taxing the superrich and taking other steps to alleviate rampant inequality in the Global South.
Oxfam International revealed that based on the World Bank's analysis of worldwide inequality and poverty, 64 out of 106 low- and middle-income countries that receive grants and loans from the bank and the IMF have high or increasing rates of income inequality.
Sixty percent of countries that are eligible for grants or low-interest loans from the International Development Association (IDA) have ratings above 0.4 on the Gini coefficient scale—a warning level developed by the United Nations. The scale rates more equal countries closer to 0 and countries with high income and wealth disparities closer to 1, with rating above 0.4 signifying high levels of income inequality.
Kate Donald, head of Oxfam International's Washington, D.C. office, noted that the news comes less than a year after more than 200 worldwide economists successfully pressured the World Bank to set a new goal of reducing the number of countries with high inequality rates.
The agreement was "a landmark move," said Donald. "But if the bank is serious about tackling inequality, the first test will be making it a headline priority for its lending to the world's poorest countries, being discussed now at the Spring Meetings."
According to Oxfam's analysis, half of IDA-eligible countries are overindebted and need roughly 45% of their debt to the banks canceled in order to address surging inequality in their own communities.
The global financial institutions must prove at the Spring Meetings that "tackling inequality is a priority," said Donald.
"Ordinary people struggle more and more every day to make up for cuts to the public funding of healthcare, education, and transportation," she said. "This high stakes hypocrisy has to end."
At Inter Press Service, Jaime Atienza, equitable financing director at the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, pointed to the example of Zambia, one of 37 countries identified by Oxfam as facing rising levels of inequality.
While still struggling, Atienza wrote, through the G20 Common Framework on Debt, Zambia "secured serious debt relief and restructuring with both government and private creditors, which will help enable vital and urgent investments in health, education, and social protection."
"For too long, Zambia's plans for ending AIDS as a public health threat by 2030, and for realizing crucial development needs, have been held back by constraints in investment caused by the debt crisis," wrote Atienza. "The debt relief and restructuring that has been agreed at last gives the country a fighting chance. All those who have facilitated this agreement have saved and transformed lives."
In dozens of countries in the Global South, said Oxfam, "ballooning debt and interest repayments are diverting scarce resources from crucial areas like public education and healthcare and social safety nets."
Both Atienza and Oxfam said delegates from G20 countries, the world's largest economies, must center at the Spring Meetings Brazil's call for a global plan to require wealthy people to pay their fair share in taxes.
"Higher taxes on the income and wealth of richest could raise trillions of dollars to plug IDA funding shortfalls and to fill the huge development and climate funding gaps in low- and middle-income countries," said Oxfam, which noted that the net wealth of billionaires must by taxed more than 8% annually to help reduce inequality in the worst-affected countries.
Wealthy governments must also increase their donations to the IDA, said Donald, which have flatlined in recent years despite growing needs in African countries and throughout the Global South.
"We don't buy the excuse that 'we can't afford it,'" she said. "The money is there; it's just not flowing to where it's needed. We urgently need donor governments to step up their contributions to IDA, and for the G20 to move forward with a global deal to tax the super-rich."
"It's all part of ensuring that rich countries and rich people pay their fair share," she added, "towards tackling inequality and climate breakdown."
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