For today’s edition of “LFS Finals Music Break”, we’d like to bring you another one of our former members, Joal Vargas aka J.O.A.L. (Jumping Off Analytical Lyricism). By day, he is a high school English teacher at Westmoor High School in Daly City. The rest of the day and night, he is an emcee bringing you good music. Check out his bandcamp site and support a dope homie!
Oh and we should note this song became quite popular among our kasmas in the Philippines. How about a Philippines tour, Joal?
For Immediate Release
Reference: Michael Luat, Chairperson, SFCHRP
E-mail: mic1artivista@gmail.com
Reference: Yoko Liriano, Coordinator, NYCHRP
E-mail: ytliriano@gmail.com
Photo Credit: Shine Velasco
New York and San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines Call For Human Rights For the 99%
Advance the Struggle for Human rights in the Philippines, U.S. , and all over the World!
New York and San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines commemorated the 63rd annual International Human Rights Day on December 10, 2011. With the skyrocketing statistics of human rights violations in the Philippines, Latin America, and even in the United States, NYCHRP and SFCHRP see the need to take the stand for human rights, not just for the privileged few, but for the 99% who are politically and socially oppressed due to the increase of state repression.
The Occupy movement in the U.S. and around the world sharply articulates the financial inequities and mobilizes across class lines of the 99%. In return these inequities cause oppression and give rise to human rights abuses both in the U.S. and abroad. The rise in state political repression and human rights violations is a result of a global monopoly capitalist corporate system that protects the interests of a 1% financial oligarchy.
While SFSU students are hitting the books or writing those papers, we would like to offer some quality music for you to listen to this week. This first one comes from progressive rock group, From Monument to Masses. Feed your brain with good thinking music!
P.S.: our LFS former member, Sergio Robledo-Maderazo is in the group!
good luck again on finals week!
Press Statement
December 09, 2011
Contact:
Terry Valen, President National Alliance for Filipino Concerns
415.333.6267, info@nafconusa.org
NAFCON: Prevent Indefinite Military Detention of Fil-Ams
The rights and welfare of Filipinos in America, especially those of immigrants and the undocumented, are in jeopardy.
The U.S. Senate has just approved a bill that allows the U.S. military to imprison any person indefinitely, including U.S. citizens, without charge or trial.
Now, both houses of congress are preparing a joint bill to be approved by President Obama within the next two weeks.
“We need to improve the laws which would prevent the frequent unjust detention and deportation of so many Filipinos forced to work hard abroad to feed their families,” said Terrence Valen, President of the National Alliance for Filipino Concern (NAFCON).
“This law does the opposite. It erodes a basic human right to due process (or of habeas corpus)and further puts our community at risk,” continued Valen.
NAFCON is urging all Filipinos to tell Congress to vote NO on this bill entitled the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) containing these provisions that violate constitutional rights of people in America.
NAFCON encourages the community to take action now by signing the American Civil Liberties Union petition below or at www.tinyURL.com/notoindefinitedetention .###
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LFS-SFSU is alarmed at this declaration and the implications it has for those who criticize the government and the Freedom of Speech and Press the US Constitution says we have.We must stay vigilant and defend our democratic rights at all times. We cannot allow the government turn this country into a fascist state. As the children of Martial Law in the Philippines, we know how brutal and destructive these kind of laws can be. We cannot allow our government to have such sweeping and unchecked power.NO TO THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT!———————————————————————————-US Senate declares the entire USA to be a ”battleground”
2 december, 2011 By Mike Adams 112 CommentsIn a stunning move that has civil libertarians stuttering with disbelief, the U.S. Senate has just passed a bill that effectively ends the Bill of Rights in America.The National Defense Authorization Act is being called the most traitorous act ever witnessed in the Senate, and the language of the bill is cleverly designed to make you think it doesn’t apply to Americans, but toward the end of the bill it essentially says it can apply to Americans ”if we want it to.”
Bill Summary & Status, 112th Congress (2011 – 2012) | S.1867 | Latest Title: National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 | Sponsor: Sen Levin, Carl [MI] (introduced 11/15/2011) | Related Bills: H.R.1540 | Latest Major Action: 12/1/2011 Passed/agreed to in Senate. | Status: Passed Senate with amendments by Yea-Nay. 93 – 7. | Record Vote Number: 218. | Latest Action: 12/1/2011
This bill, passed late last night in a 93-7 vote, declares the entire USA to be a ”battleground” upon which U.S. military forces can operate with impunity, overriding Posse Comitatus and granting the military the unchecked power to arrest, detain, interrogate and even assassinate U.S. citizens with impunity.Even WIRED magazine was outraged at this bill, reporting:Senate Wants the Military to Lock You Up Without Trial
…the detention mandate to use indefinite military detention in terrorism cases isn’t limited to foreigners. It’s confusing, because two different sections of the bill seem to contradict each other, but in the judgment of the University of Texas’ Robert Chesney — a nonpartisan authority on military detention — “U.S. citizens are included in the grant of detention authority.” SourceThe passage of this law is nothing less than an outright declaration of WAR against the American People by the military-connected power elite. If this is signed into law, it will shred the remaining tenants of the Bill of Rights and unleash upon America a total military dictatorship, complete with secret arrests, secret prisons, unlawful interrogations, indefinite detainment without ever being charged with a crime, the torture of Americans and even the ”legitimate assassination” of U.S. citizens on right here on American soil!If you have not yet woken up to the reality of the police state we’ve been warning you about, I hope you realize we are fast running out of time. Once this becomes law, you have no rights whatsoever in America — no due process, no First Amendment speech rights, no right to remain silent, nothing.Also watch this video: The US Constitution is gone
FILIPINOS & COMMUNITY SUPPORTERS DEMAND HUMAN RIGHTS FOR THE 99% IN THE U.S. AND ABROAD
Statement of Solidarity and Support for OCCUPY
December 10, 2011
To all Occupy participants and supporters, we express our gratitude for your efforts and guidance and we applaud your courage and determination.
This December 10th, known as International Human Rights Day, marks the 63rd Anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. As progressive Filipino organizations and supporters of Human Rights for the 99%, we stand in solidarity with and we support the Occupy Wall Street movement taking place across this nation and elsewhere. We also stand as witness that Occupy is an extension of historical resistance movements throughout the world. The Occupy movement successfully articulates the existing financial inequities and mobilizes across class lines the 99% who continue to feel the economic depression first hand.
These inequities are the cause of suffering and oppression that not only breach constitutional protections guaranteed in the U.S. but give rise to human rights abuses both in the U.S. and abroad. The “Human Rights for the 99%” committee strongly believes that the rise in state political repression and human rights violations here in the U.S., particularly in the wake of the OWS movement, is a result of the same global monopoly financial-capital corporate system that protects the interests of the 1% whom have continuously exploited the land and people around the world.
In the Philippines, human rights violations have worsened with the implementation of Counterinsurgency programs modeled after the U.S. government’s Counter Intelligence program (COINTELPRO). The Philippine Oplan Bantay Laya I & II and now the Oplan Bayanihan are responsible for over 1,250 political killings and 206 disappearances over the last 10 years, due to the corrupt Philippine government controlled by the 1% of the U.S. While the U.S. government continues to send our tax dollars to the Philippines–$32 Million, annually–to fund the “War on Terror” and military training for counter-terrorist activities, peaceful protests on our school campuses and on our streets are increasingly ending in police initiated brutality and violence blamed on U.S. citizens exercising their constitutional rights.
In the Philippines, any kind of “activism” can be dangerous, including legitimate political activities, political organizing, awareness-building and community-based education. Even service-oriented institutions and workers are targets for human rights violations, as is evidenced by the case of the “Morong 43,” community health care workers who were brutally and unjustly imprisoned for months before being released. The military and local police are constantly implicated in severe human rights abuses, with little or no accountability. Patterns of abuse are ongoing from one administration to the next, including the present Aquino administration, which attempts to silence political opposition through: intimidation of ordinary citizens, threats, kidnapping, disappearances, false imprisonment, torture and beatings, assassinations and extra-judicial killings, of both lay and clergy community leaders and members of peoples’ organizations.
The priorities of our governments, both in the Philippines and in the U.S., are skewed to fit the demands of the few, the 1%, including the bailing out of big banks and corporations. Local governments across the U.S. have allocated funds to clear Occupy encampments, but in contrast deny funding to keep public schools open, for affordable housing, and for much needed social programs and health care. The 1%, including large corporate owners and shareholders and our elected representatives, enjoy above six-figure salaries, guaranteed pensions, and order in lunches on tax payer’s money, but are unable to reach an agreement on how to reduce the economic deficit and budget for—our social security, Medicare and other social safety nets that provide access to basic human needs. Furthermore, this dysfunctional economic system and institutionalized abuses are discernible in forms of legislation, such as SB (Senate Bill) 1070, the anti-immigrant and racist law, and other copy-cat laws that blame and criminalize immigrants and migrants for the failing capitalist system.
In the U.S., we further stand as witnesses to the failure of the government and all elected representatives, including President Obama, to protect and serve the people by providing the necessary opportunities to contribute to society. These inequities have not only been ignored, but institutionalized and protected in order to perpetuate the class divide. Yet they continue to cripple the economic and social fabric of this country, causing undue suffering and hardship for the greater majority of its citizens. We are the 99% and we demand accountability.
In closing, we declare our solidarity and pledge our continuing support for the Occupy movement for systemic change. We know the truest intention of this movement is not to recreate the status quo by replacing current players with new ones, but to mend the fabric of our society by making our political processes responsive to the needs of the majority of the people. By healing the 99%, we heal the 100%. The peoples’ resistance movements around the world and the Occupy movement in the US must continue to unite and strengthen its opposition against the claws and fangs of the global monopoly financial-capital oligarchs. Together, the 99% of the world must unite against the 1% in order to participate in transforming our society to reflect the needs of the majority.
Human Rights and Dignity to the 99%!
Long Live the Occupy Wall Street!
Long Live the Occupy Movement in the US and all over the world!
Long Live the peoples’ opposition against the onslaught of the monopoly financial- capital oligarchy!
Advance the Struggle for Human rights in the Philippines, in the US, and all over the World!
Join the “Human Rights for the 99%” mobilization near you on December 10th:
San Francisco
2:30pm Gather at Market & Drumm St. (Hyatt side, near cable cars)
3-3:30 Program at Justin Herman Plaza
3:30-4 March to Market & Powell
4-5pm Program @ Market
San Jose
1:30pm Panel Discussion on International Human Rights Day!
@ the Peace & Justice Center
(48 – South 7th Street)
This statement and events are sponsored by community organizations and members of the alliances of Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN USA), National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON), and Ecumenical Forum for Filipino Concerns (EFFCON).
For more information please visit:
NAFCON urges the entire community to continue calling DHS, Senator Feinstein, Assemblywoman Fiona Ma and ICE to allow JB to stay indefinitely, and implement the June 17 Morton Memorandum immediately for all similar cases.
