“The revolution and women’s liberation go together. We do not talk of women’s emancipation as an act of charity or because of a surge of human compassion. It is a basic necessity for the triumph of the revolution. Women hold up the other half of the sky.”
—Thomas Sankara
April 2011
47 posts
March 2011
54 posts
Detroit Black Community Food Security Network
Since February 2006, at a time when many Detroiters have limited access to healthy food choices, the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network has worked tirelessly to raise our awareness about food, where it comes from, who controls it, and the role it plays in building healthy families and communities. We have created models of community self-determination and grassroots citizen engagement that have attracted national attention. Among our accomplishments are:
- Establishment of D-Town Farm, a four acre organic farm in Detroit’s Rouge Park.
- Selection by Will Allen as the Detroit Regional Outreach Training Center for Growing Power, Inc.
- Successfully led efforts to have Detroit City Council approve The City of Detroit Food Security Policy and to create the Detroit Food Policy Council.
- Organized the Ujamaa Food Co-op Buying Club.
- Provided leadership to the “Undoing Racism in the Detroit Food System” initiative.
Amazingly, we accomplished these things prior to getting our first grant funding just a few months ago. We have relied primarily on the resources and support of our own community.
As we approach the end of 2010, we ask that you make a generous donation to the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network to enable us to continue our groundbreaking work of establishing food security and food justice for Detroit’s African-American community in particular, and Detroiters in general. DBCFSN is a 501(c)3 organization, so all donations are tax-deductible. Please consider donating $25, $50, $100 or more. Donations should be made payable to DBCFSN. Please write fund drive in the memo on your check.
Please mail donations to:
DBCFSN
3800 Puritan
Detroit, MI 48238
“Police here for me.”
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Prominent Bahraini blogger Mahmood al-Yousif tweeted at 3am local time as he was taken by the police.
“Revolution begins with the self, in the self.”
—Toni Cade Bambara
Play
South Sudan: SPLA and Athor clashes 'kill scores' →
bbc.co.uk
Two days of fighting between the South Sudan army and rebels have killed about 70 people, officials say.
The clashes between the SPLA and fighters loyal to rebel leader George Athor have broken out in three states.
After similar clashes last week, the southern government accused the north and President Omar al-Bashir of trying to destabilise it.
South Sudan is due to declare independence in July, following decades of north-south conflict.
Some 99% of South Sudanese voters backed secession in January’s referendum, which was part of a 2005 peace deal.
“The fighting was very heavy, but the rebels are now being pursued,” said SPLA spokesman Philip Aguer, reports the AFP news agency.
He said 34 SPLA soldiers and 36 rebels had been killed.
Fighting broke out in Unity and Upper Nile states on Thursday, before continuing in Jonglei state on Friday, Col Aguer said.
The SPLA has been trying to track down the rebel forces who carried out a raid on the major town of Malakal last week.
Following that attack, the SPLA southern government said it was suspending talks with the north about secession.
It accused the northern military intelligence of arming southern militias in order to topple the SPLA.
The north denied the charges and President Bashir has repeatedly said he will accept the independence of the oil-rich south.
Gen Athor went into rebellion after losing last April’s election to be governor of Jonglei state, which he contested as an independent candidate.
His group signed a ceasefire just before the referendum but fighting resumed in February and hundreds have been killed.
His rebellion appears to be spreading, and represents a growing concern for the southern authorities as they prepare for independence, correspondents say.
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How disgraceful that President Obama, a former law professor himself, would conspire to violate international law by attempting to deprive President Aristide of his human rights. And that the secretary general of the United Nations would bend to Obama’s will and collaborate with him. As noted in a letter to the state department by prominent lawyers and law professors, this is a violation of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a treaty which the United States has ratified. It states that “[n]o one shall be arbitrarily deprived of the right to enter his own country.”
Washington and its allies would do better to take advantage of this opportunity to change course in Haiti, and accept the concept of self-determination for the Haitian people. They have denied this for decades, and especially since Aristide first was elected president in 1990. Within seven months, he was overthrown by the military and others who were later found to be paid by the US Central Intelligence Agency.
The United States has denied self-government to Haiti ever since. After Aristide was democratically elected for the second time in 2000, with more than 90% of the vote, the United States “sought … to block bilateral and multilateral aid to Haiti, having an objection to the policies and views of the administration of Jean-Bertrand Aristide … Choking off assistance for development and for the provision of basic services also choked off oxygen to the government, which was the intention all along: to dislodge the Aristide administration.” That was Paul Farmer of Harvard’s medical school, Bill Clinton’s deputy special envoy from the UN to Haiti, testifying to US Congress last summer.
” —Haiti must decide Haiti’s future(via so-treu)
