Occupy Nigeria: Solidarity Protest Outside World Bank

Posted on January 10, 2012 by admin

LISTEN TO LARRY ADELEKE:

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Burke Stansbury, webmaster for TheFightBack, produced this video:

Yesterday, dozens of activists gathered outside the World Bank headquarters in DC for a spirited protest in solidarity with the Nigerian people who are demanding their government reverse its decision to eliminate billions of dollars in fuel subsidies. “The Nigerian people have been pushed to the very last limits,” student leader Larry Adeleke said at yesterday’s protest. “There’s nothing they can do anymore other than to fight.”

Africa’s most populous country has been rocked by mass demonstrations and strikes, and reports are that at least three protesters have been killed by police fire.

Despite being the continent’s leading producer of crude oil, fuel is expensive in Nigeria, where many rely on it for life’s necessities such as cooking and electricity. If President Goodluck Jonathan successfully removes the fuel subsidy as promised, costs will double. Continue reading →

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TheFightBack Goes On the Air: Taxi Chair Alters Petition

Posted on January 8, 2012 by admin

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Due to techinical difficulties the live program wasn’t recorded. This is a rebroadcast.

DC Taxicab Commission Chairman Ron Linton appears to have played a role in crafting and altering what was said to be an independent petition for a fare increase. Nicholas Maxwell, a DC cab driver, told TheFightBack in its inaugural broadcast on We Act Radio 1480 AM, “The entire direction [for my petition] was basically… prompted by Linton.” Maxwell said Linton instructed him to remove a sentence describing the chairman’s role in the effort. “Take that out,” Maxwell said Linton told him. “Don’t make it look to the people that we’re the ones that are pushing this out there.”

As city official push for a rapid overhaul of DC’s taxicab industry, drivers are worried they’ll be forced out of business. The proposed changes “may be costly for drivers,” Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, who’s leading the reform effort, told NewsChannel 8’s Bruce DePuyt on Friday. Cheh told the Washington Post her effort is part of a “quid pro quo,” whereby in exchange for drivers receiving substantially higher fares, they have to make changes. Continue reading →

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Was Trayon White Arrested for Standing Up for his Constituents?

Posted on December 23, 2011 by admin

LISTEN TO TRAYON WHITE:

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Trayon White speaks with ABC7's Sam Ford

“How am I unauthorized [to be here]?” Ward 8 School Board member Trayon White asked while standing at the Woodland Terrace Public Housing Project, which resides in the ward he’s elected to represent. White spoke with TheFightBack at the very spot where he was arrested Sept. 24 for violating a barring notice he says he knew nothing about.

“I only saw it after the incident occurred, after I was arrested. They said they barred me for five years for being an unauthorized person on the property, which is insane because I’ve been working here for seven years,” said the 27-year-old White, who runs a nonprofit, Helping Inner City Kids Succeed (HICKS).

In a letter to U.S. Attorney Ron Machen and D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan, several local attorneys, led by Johnny Barnes, executive director of the ACLU of the Nation’s Capital, expressed their “alarm and great concern over the manner in which ‘Barring Notices’ are being used and prosecutions undertaken in the far Southeast Area of Washington, D.C., such as the Woodland Terrace Public Housing Project.”

The letter continues, “We urge you to immediately investigate what appears to be a systematic, unfair and unjust targeting of young African American males, resulting in arrests, criminal charges and records of individuals, in many cases, who have never had a problem with the judicial apparatus.” Continue reading →

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City Officials Meet with Taxi Industry’s 1%, Not Drivers: Taxi Chair Has Credibility Problem

Posted on December 20, 2011 by admin

taxi chair Ron Linton

Listen to taxi chair Ron Linton here:

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Today, Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh introduced legislation to overhaul DC’s taxi industry. Despite the fact that the proposed changes may jeopardize the livelihood of many of the District’s 8,000-plus drivers, Cheh didn’t meet to discuss the legislation with The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers (SBA), which has approximately 3,000 members.

“We are moving along with these reforms one way or the other,” Cheh told TheFightBack shortly before her joint press conference yesterday with Mayor Gray on the taxi overhaul. Among the proposed changes is the introduction of a cash-free system, something SBA’s member-companies have already started implementing. The credit card machines Cheh and Gray hope to install will be located in the backseat, have a screen, and play ads all day long. While Cheh hasn’t met with the SBA on this issue, she’s met with unnamed others. “Conversations have been had,” she said. Continue reading →

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David Rovics on Bradley Manning and the Occupy Movement

Posted on December 17, 2011 by admin

Listen to David Rovics Here:

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“He’s one of the most heroic figures of our times,” activist and singer/songwriter David Rovics said of Private Bradley Manning, who’s charged with leaking hundreds of thousands of secret US government documents to WikiLeaks, the whistleblowing website. “Getting these documents out into the public was an absolutely heroic thing to do and he’s paying the price for it [with] the government trying to put him away for life or maybe even worse,” Rovics told TheFightBack last night after he performed at the occupation at D.C.’s Freedom Plaza.

Manning, who turns 24 today, could potentially face the death penalty, which Army officials have said they will not seek, although the final decision rests not with them but with a “convening authority.” Yesterday at Fort Meade, the pre-trial military hearing for Manning began, more than a year and a half after the US military first detained him. Manning’s pre-trial detention included ten months of solitary confinement and forced nudity, which led to an international outcry. Continue reading →

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Happy Bill of Rights Day: Celebrate It While You Still Can

Posted on December 15, 2011 by admin

Listen to Sue Udry Here:

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December 15, 1791, the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, were ratified. In 1941, 150 years later, December 15th was declared Bill of Rights Day by President Franklin Roosevelt. This year’s celebration may be muted in light of yesterday’s 283 to 136 vote in the House to approve the $662 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). Today, the Senate is expected to follow suit. Initially, President Obama said he would veto the bill, but yesterday he backed down from that pledge.

“The most pressing concern [regarding the NDAA] is a provision that allows for the president to authorize the indefinite detention of anyone that he calls a terrorist without trial, and actually even without charge,” Sue Udry, executive director of Defending Dissent Foundation, told TheFightBack yesterday after a press conference at the National Press Club. “The president just has to assert that the person is a suspected terrorist without naming those specific crimes.”  Continue reading →

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Rocky Anderson Seeks to Occupy the Oval Office

Posted on December 11, 2011 by admin

LISTEN TO ROCKY ANDERSON

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download MP3

Rocky Anderson, the former two-term mayor of Salt Lake City, is scheduled to formally announce his candidacy for president Monday morning on MSNBC’s Daily Rundown. A fierce critic of the Bush administration, Anderson’s deep disappointment with President Obama and the Democrats has led him to create a third party, the Justice Party, which will officially launch Monday at 2 p.m. at a press conference at the Daughters of the American Revolution at 1776 D St, NW.

“We need leadership that will stand up for the public interest… [and get] the corrupting influence of corporate and other concentrated wealth out of our government,” Anderson told TheFightBack yesterday. “People across the board want to see change,” he said. Standing outside in the cold at Occupy DC, just two blocks from the White House, Anderson commented on the economic and political conditions that have given rise to the movement of the 99 Percenters: Continue reading →

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Activists Arrested on K Street: Pete Talks with News Ch.8’s Bruce DePuyt

Posted on December 8, 2011 by admin

Yesterday, more than 60 protesters were arrested for blocking traffic on K Street, which is home to the country’s most influential lobby firms. As part of a day of action targeting the corporate influence on politics, activists braved the cold rain to disrupt business as usual.

This week, Occupy DC received a boost thanks to the union-led “Take Back the Capitol” effort which has brought more than a thousand people to D.C., and is scheduled to breakup its camp on the National Mall tomorrow.

(See Minute 28:24 – 36:07)

Continue reading →

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The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers Holds Its First General Meeting

Posted on December 6, 2011 by admin

Dec. 4, more than 200 drivers gathered at a church in northeast D.C. for the first general meeting of The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers. As luck would have it, the one-year-old organization was created shortly before the introduction of a taxi medallion bill which, had it passed, would have resulted in thousands of drivers being put out of work and control of the industry being consolidated into the hands of a few powerful players. As a result of the SBA’s organizing efforts, however, the medallion effort was thwarted; and D.C.’s taxi industry remains unique in that it is largely made up of independent owner/operators.

(Thanks to Seth Jackson for producing this video.)

Continue reading →

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$2.13 Is Not Enough: ROC’s Guide to Responsible Eating

Posted on December 3, 2011 by admin

LISTEN TO SARU JAYARAMAN:

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“We argue that sustainable food has to include sustainable labor practices,” Saru Jayaraman, co-director of Restaurant Opportunities Center United (ROC), told TheFightBack at the unveiling of ROC’s “National Diners’ Guide 2012.” Billed as “A Consumer Guide on the Working Conditions of America’s Restaurants,” the Guide rates national chains on their labor practices, as well as several local restaurants, including the gold-rated Eatonville, which hosted yesterday’s event.

While there is a strong food justice movement afoot, much of the attention is placed on where and how food is grown, not on the human beings who make it possible. “You can have a great organic chicken, but if the person who cooks that chicken and serves it to you is in poverty or sick, you’re going to be served organic foods by sick hands, impoverished hands,” said Jayaraman. Continue reading →

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