News

Liz Roberts

November 18, 2015

East Harlem Residents Flood Community Board Meeting to Protest Rezoning Plan

Last night, members of Movement for Justice in El Barrio marched into a meeting of Manhattan’s Community Board 11 making a powerful public stand against the Mayor’s proposed rezoning of their East Harlem community. Movement for Justice in El Barrio shared their opposition as well as community-generated proposals to preserve rent-stabilized housing in East Harlem. Community members argued that Mayor De Blasio’s rezoning plan is...

November 17, 2015

Protesters Denounce Gov. Ducey’s Effort to Stop the Resettlement of Refugees in Arizona

Protesters at the Capitol building called on Gov. Doug Ducey to reverse his effort to stop accepting refugees in Arizona. “Ducey, we reject your racism,” the crowd chanted while holding signs that read “welcome refugees.” The Republican governor, in a statement Monday, invoked the state’s right “to receive immediate consultation by federal authorities per the United States Refugee Act, and that the federal government take...

Marcus Harrison Green

November 12, 2015

Can Cities End the School-to-Prison Pipeline? Relentless Organizers Are Tallying Wins

More than two decades have passed since Ardell Shaw was imprisoned in a King County juvenile detention facility. But the memories of the musty air, the harsh winter cold, and the sludge in the facility’s basement are ever present—as is the memory of the isolation, the feeling that detention staff cared more about “caging” him than addressing the internal turmoil that had brought him there...

Liz Tufts

November 12, 2015

Fast Food Workers Protest Nationwide for More Money

Tens of thousands of fast food workers in close to 300 cities across the country are striking for more money and better working conditions. They're kicking off a year-long campaign demanding $15.00 an hour by next year's presidential election. Workers were out in full force at a local Wendy's in Rhode Island, hoping for change. From the Wendy's in Warwick to the streets of New...

November 10, 2015

Allegations of Hunger Strike at Taylor Detention Facility

TAYLOR, Texas -- An Austin-based immigrant rights organization claims detainees at a facility in Taylor are on a hunger strike to protest unfair treatment. About a dozen members of Texans United for Families (TUFF) met Friday afternoon at the T. Don Hutto Residential Center to ask for the release of detainee Insis Bernardez. The center is a privately owned facility used to house women in...

Jose Serrano

November 5, 2015

Here‘s Why Detainees at Immigration Detention Centers Across the US are Starting Hunger Strikes

Last Friday, detainees at California's Adelanto Detention Facility protested meager living conditions by calling a hunger strike; the fourth nationwide since October. A handwritten letter from one of the men , sent to immigration advocacy group Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement (CIVIC), begins by saying "detainees are not prisoners" before expressing numerous misgivings for thousands of individuals awaiting their fate, including poor health...

Sara Brown

November 5, 2015

Black and Pink Celebrates 10: Helping Incarcerated LGBTQs

BOSTON, Mass.—A Boston non-profit organization that supports LGBTQ prisoners’ rights recently celebrated their 10th anniversary. Black and Pink is an open family of LGBTQ prisoners and “free world” allies who support each other. Their work toward the abolition of the prison industrial complex is rooted in the experience of current and formerly incarcerated people. According to the organization, they are “outraged” by the specific violence...

Blue Skies Campaign

November 4, 2015

Missoulians Stop Coal Train

On Thursday, September 17th, members of Northern Rockies Rising Tide and Blue Skies Campaign staged a peaceful blockade in order to prevent a coal train from entering the Missoula rail yard in an act of nonviolent protest against Montana coal export projects that threaten the health of rail line communities and the global climate. The action is part of a wider nationwide movement called Flood...

Kristian Hernandez

November 3, 2015

Remembering the Dead: Local human rights advocates join pilgrimage in memory of migrants who died in Brooks County

ALFURRIAS — A torch lit from the flame kept inside the shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City, where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to Saint Juan Diego in 1531, made its way through South Texas this weekend. Alejandro Zuniga, who carried the torch across the border from Nuevo Laredo on Thursday, was welcomed by dozens of human rights advocates...

Kanya D'Almeida

November 3, 2015

Obama Calls on Congress to ‘Ban the Box’ on Criminal Records

Criminal justice advocates scored a big win Monday with President Obama’s announcement of new measures aimed at easing reintegration of returning citizens—individuals released from state and federal prisons — who number more than 600,000 annually. As part of a broader plan to tackle mass incarceration, Obama ordered federal agencies to delay inquiries into criminal backgrounds in a bid to prevent employment discrimination against formerly incarcerated...

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