Food Justice Event This Thursday in New Orleans

From our friends at Survivors Village and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement:

Join Survivors Village, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, the Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle, and the New Orleans Consulate of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela for this critical program about the struggle for food sovereignty in Venezuela and lessons that can be learned and applied in the struggle for food sovereignty in oppressed and exploited communities within the United States.

Growing Change is a documentary that looks at one of the most exciting experiments in the world to grow a fair and sustainable food system. In Venezuela, from fishing villages to cacao plantations to urban gardens, a growing social movement is showing what’s possible when communities, not corporations, start to take control of food.



Guest Speakers include:
Kali Akuno, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
William Camacaro, Alberto Lovera Bolivarian Circle
Jorge Guerrero Veloz, Consul General of New Orleans

Growing Change: the Struggle for Food Sovereignty in Venezuela
Thursday, November 15th, 7:00pm
St. Bernard Community Baptist Church
3938 St. Bernard Ave.

Local Artists Truth Universal and Mos Def Among Contributors To New CD Raising Awareness of Extrajudical Killings of Black People in US

From a press release from Malcolm X Grassroots Movement:

In 2012 the police kill a Black man, woman, or child every 36 hours!

In July, the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM) and the Malcolm X Solidarity Committee (MXSC), issued “Every 36 Hours: Report on the Extrajudicial Killing of 120 Black people”, that documented this tragic and disturbing fact. The report can be found at www.mxgm.org.

To reach a broader audience and further inform and educate the public about the findings and implications of this report, MXGM and Nu Afrika Entertainment produced the “Every 36 Hours CD Project”. The CD project features artists Jasiri X, Zayd Malik, Dead Prez, Immortal Technique, Chuck D, Killer Mike, Ife Jai, Truth Universal, Tongo Eisen-Martin and more! The project can be found at bandcamp.com, or iTunes.

"Hip Hop is our biggest and best means of communication with our people and we intend to use it as a weapon to defend ourselves, when in the immediate past, it has been used to destroy our community”, states Zayd Malik, who is a member of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement Executive Producer of the CD Project. “The Malcolm X grassroots movement has allowed for the opportunity to make this fact a reality in the eyes of our community, and as artists' we must paint a picture of revolution in an effort to save lives in the face of authoritative figures such as police officers, security guards, and neighborhood watchmen”.

The Every 36 Hours CD Project is a promotional tool for the No More Trayvon Martins Campaign for a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice and Self-Determination that MXGM is advancing. Some of the demands of this campaign include an immediate end to police brutality, the end to racial profiling, the redirecting of resources from the police and military to essential social services, and the institutionalization of local police control boards.

Kali Akuno, of the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement states, “These extrajudicial killings must stop. The government has to address the crisis being confronted by Black and Latino people. A national plan of action to address racism and issues like police brutality and murders would be a good place to start”.

For information on the petition visit ushrnetwork.org.

Gulf Coast Community Members Question US Government On Human Rights Record

For the first time, the US government is participating in a process that allows the United Nations to review the human rights records of all member states. The first step of that process began today at Xavier University when representatives from the Obama Administration came to listen to, and answer questions from, people from the Gulf Coast.

The purpose of these consultations by government officials is to assist the government in developing its US Human Rights Report. Similar consultations will take place around the country for the next few months in order to prepare for the United Nations' first Universal Periodic Review in November of 2010. The UN Human Rights Council is expected to review the US report in December and issue a report in early 2011.

The Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process was introduced with the formation of the reformed UN Human Rights Council in 2006. Each UN member state’s human rights record will be reviewed by three of their peers who will review all human rights obligations and commitments to which the member state is a party, as well as any voluntary pledges and commitments made by that country. Last year, the US formally joined the Human Rights Council and pledged to respect human rights at home and abroad.

According to Kali Akuno of the US Human Rights Network, "The UPR process offers an important opportunity to address how the United States is meeting its human rights obligations under the UN charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to pressure the government to live up to its obligations, and to provide concrete and constructive recommendations about steps the US can take to ensure the protection and promotion of rights and dignity for all."

In other words, this is an important opportunity to hold the US government to international human rights standards. International agreements that guarantee rights to housing and protect against racial discrimination often offer more protection than US laws. As Malcolm X observed, "As long as you’re fighting on the level of civil rights, you’re under Uncle Sam’s jurisdiction. You’re going to his court expecting him to correct the problem. He created the problem. He’s the criminal. You don’t take your case to the criminal; you take your criminal to court.”

Addressing the Obama Administration officials at Xavier today, Norris Henderson of Voice Of The Ex-offender (VOTE) laid out the problems in New Orleans' criminal justice system, asking why a city of this size is planning to build a jail with the capacity to hold 8,000 prisoners. "We are the first to tell other countries what to do," Henderson said. "But, like Michael Jackson, we need to look at the Man in the Mirror."

Today's consultation is another step forward in holding the US government accountable. But there is still a long way to go. "We need to do something dramatic," said Henderson, after describing some of the human rights abuses he's seen and struggled to fight. "We need to shake this system to it's core."