thepeoplesrecord:
“We have suffered unnumbered ills and crimes in the name of the Law of the Land. Our men, women and children have suffered not only the basic brutality of stoop labor, and the most obvious injustices of the system; they have also suffered the desperation of knowing that the system caters to the greed of callous men and not to our needs.
Now we will suffer for the purpose of ending the poverty, the misery, and the injustice, with the hope that our children will not be exploited as we have been. They have imposed hungers on us, and now we hunger for justice.” - César E. Chávez, civil rights activist, farm worker organizer & co-founder of the National Farm Workers Association (March 31, 1927 - April 23, 1993)
Today is the anniversary of the birth of activist César Chávez.
11:49 pm • 31 March 2013 • 110 notes
Bananas on Grove
fanrva:
… is an installation by Rachel McGovern:
THE BANANA REPUBLIC. INSTALLATION. 2013.
1970: VCU student activist closed the 1100 block of Grove Ave. in Richmond, VA. Proclaiming it, “The Banana Republic” a student run government, in an act again the Vietnam War. The blockade last a whole week until the Richmond Police, armed with police dogs, shut down the blockade with ten students being arrested and incarcerated.
VIA: Fan of the Fan
http://fanofthefan.com/2013/03/bananas-on-grove/
Filing away to do more research later. Never even heard of a week-long 1970 anti-war street occupation here in Richmond.
3:03 pm • 31 March 2013 • 11 notes
VCU Friends of Richmond
Virginia Commonwealth University students looking to be involved in the Richmond community in a positive way- and Richmond residents and social justice organizations who want VCU students to act differently and with consciousness of the city- check out this organization. VCU students, you can join with MyOrgs.
Everyone else, meetings will be posted here with as much lead time as possible.
12:55 pm • 1 March 2013 • 4 notes
thepeoplesrecord:
Join The People’s Record: A Collective Info-Activism Project
This project is aimed at providing information and news pertinent to activism, capitalism (and the philosophies that oppose it), the police-state, imperialism, civil liberties, social justice, colonialism and systemic societal problems. We’re gathering a group of interested parties and are actively working toward growing this project into something much larger than its current incarnation.
In January, we had our one-year project anniversary. By the end of our second year we’d like to have:
- Several topically-focused columns written from a regular columnists who write semi-regularly: anti-austerity, environmental justice, LGBTQ, student movements, indigenous struggles, racial justice & beyond.
- A team of active enthusiastic graphic-image creators and Facebook page managers.
- At least one person on Twitter posting breaking news & blog posts.
- At least one regularly recurring political podcast or vlog.
We believe that large-scale movements that target sources of systemic-oppression (in the vein of Occupy & many other movements) need to be supported, covered, understood, thought about, and discussed. We believe that we have the best chance of breaking into the cultural ethos when we work together – sharing information, promoting events, movements and ideas in a coordinated and strategic way.
We don’t think people digest information in only one way or through only one medium, but rather that people learn from exposure to multiple mediums, in innumerable ways. We know that info-activists sharing their perspective about systemic problems have the capacity to reach a variety of audiences, resonating with different but often-overlapping groups of people and we believe that by growing this project we will be able to qualitatively improve the perspective represented by The People’s Record and also quantitatively increase our audience.
This isn’t intended to be antagonistic or mean-spirited, but our perspective is not in-line with an anarcho-capitalist or libertarian perspective. Although we appreciate the ally in opposing state violence and oppression, disappearing civil liberties, drone strikes, and fighting for freedom of information, etc., we also could not justify leaving space in our project for an ideology that allows for unchecked, rampant oppression and one that celebrates, rather than criticizes the destructive force of capitalism. We know that capitalism is problematic and this is central to the world-view we hope to inject into the cultural ethos with this project.
We aren’t looking for experts (necessarily, although if you are an expert and want to join this project, great), but rather for passionate people who understand the potential of using the tools available to us (because of increased connectivity to information and each other through the internet) to contribute as best we can to the conversations & debates essential to shaping our future global culture.
If that’s you, and you think you could contribute in one of the above mentioned ways (or another way that you’ve thought of not-mentioned) or if you just want to learn more about the project, email us @: thepeoplesrec@gmail.com
If it won’t cramp your blog’s style and you appreciate what we’re trying to do, please reblog to help us reach more people.
- Robert & Graciela
9:50 pm • 11 February 2013 • 146 notes
GSEX: Second Official Meeting
vcuqueeraction:
Greetings!
Don’t forget to come to tomorrow’s (Thursday’s) meeting at 8:00pm in the Commons Forum Room! We will be discussing activism and future QA social events, as well as forming committees that will be active for the rest of the semester.
To all prospective members,…
6:02 pm • 31 January 2013 • 7 notes
Claire Tuite on HB 1989, a bill to amend Virginia’s Earned Sentence Credit system
Below is a message from Richmonder Claire Tuite, who, by her persistence and conviction, got a bill sponsored and introduced to the 2013 Virginia General Assembly. HB 1989 is designed to reform Virginia’s system of determining how much of a felony sentence must be served. Virginia abolished parole for felons in 1995- now we have the Earned Sentence Credit system, which requires a minimum of 85% of the total sentence be served, regardless of good behavior or mitigating factors.
I posted Claire’s page of talking points on the bill a moment ago, which you can see here. Please share this widely.
Here is her message:
“Hi. My name is Claire. I may know some of you and others I look forward to meeting soon. I wanted to let you know about a bill that I have asked to be carried this session and is currently on its way to a House committee. The bill is HB 1989 and it serves to increase the number of sentence credits that incarcerated people can earn from 4.5 days out of every 30 days to 15 days out of every 30.
In other words, this would mean that people that were incarcerated for a non-violent felony could be released after serving no less than 50% of their sentence. It is currently required that felons serve no less than 85% of their total sentence, and the toll this takes on these people, their families, their friends, their careers, their communities and the Virginian economy is enormous. It does not mean that ALL would be released at 50% of their total sentence, but only that they could be, which is a MAJOR change.
Virginia’s current policies are quite sad and regressive at this point, especially when looking at the costs associated with the current lack of a reasonable early release policy. This is just ANOTHER serious consequence of the war on drugs and our modern incarceration implementation. I did not intend to make this a non violent only bill, but it is unfortunately the only way it could be carried in the current legislative climate. I want to be honest- this bill has very little possibility of passing, but it is time to apply pressure and energize by any tactic possible.
I am personally rather uncomfortable with the reform/legislative process, as I question reform as a revolutionary tactic. It is an internal struggle for me, so I am sharing that with you going forward, and I am assuming that many of you struggle with this as well. I don’t like this process as I am not trying to legitimize any form of imprisonment. I am not suggesting that a few tweaks solves anything. I do believe that any pressure adds to a much needed momentum and ALL tactics should be supported and pushed. If this bill was to pass by a miracle than it would cut down on our prison population tremendously.
I am including the information of the committee members that this bill will go to first, the Project Sunlight page so that the bill can be seen in full text (amendment for retroactivity not included yet, though it does exist), and the talking points that we are focusing on. This is going before the Police and Militia Committee, which is VERY conservative and not a good sign. However, they still take contact seriously. We need to email them and call them as much as possible before Friday. I need your help on this.
The committee is at 9am on Friday (01/18). It has not yet been assigned to a sub-committee, so please pay attention for alerts in case it does. Contact is best sooner than later for this reason. I ask that when calling that economic points (over social justice) be stressed, and the reason for this is purely tactical. The same goes for anyone that wants to speak to this bill. When speaking in person to the bill, members of organizations and people that have been personally affected (especially by economic strain on the family) will be best heeded. It helps a lot to have people speak, so if you can be there, please come. Also, if you want to stop by their offices’ this week, if time permits, in-person visits are very helpful. I appreciate your continued work and any support on this going forward.
Thank you so much! -Claire
Please review these links!
Full text of bill. Committee Members and their e-mails. Talking points.
Members and their phone numbers:
Chair: Del. Scott Lingamfelter (R-Woodbridge): 804-698-1031
Del. Ben Cline (R-Amherst): 804-698-1024
Del. James Edmunds (R-South Boston): 804-698-1060
Del. Matt Fariss (R-Rustburg): 804-698-1059
Del. Eileen Filler-Corn (D-Fairfax Station): 804-698-1041
Del. Todd Gilbert (R-Woodstock): 804-698-1015
Del. Chris Head (R-Roanoke): 804-698-1017
Sponsor: Del. Patrick Hope (D-Arlington): 804-698-1047
Del. Kaye Kory (D-Falls Church): 804-698-1038
Del. Lynwood Lewis (D-Accomac): 804-698-1000
Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-Arlington): 804-698-1049
Del. Don Merricks (R-Danville): 804-698-1016
Del. Will Morefield (R-North Tazewell): 804-698-1003
Del. Rick Morris (R-Carrollton): 804-698-1064
Del. Israel O’Quinn (R-Bristol): 804-698-1005
Del. Nick Rush (R-Christiansburg): 804-698-1007
Del. Beverly Sherwood (R-Winchester): 804-698-1029
Del. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax): 804-698-1044
Del. Roslyn Tyler (D-Jarratt): 804-698-1075
Del. Michael Webert (R-Marshall): 804-698-1018
Del. Tony Wilt (R-Harrisonburg: 804-698-1026
Del. Tommy Wright (R-Victoria): 804-698-1061”
11:50 pm • 14 January 2013 • 11 notes
Virginia 2013 People's Assembly
On Saturday January 5th, from 8:30am-9:30pm, at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church (1720 Mechanicsville Turnpike, Richmond, VA 23223), the 2013 People’s Assembly will convene.
This is a yearly event that coincides roughly with the beginning of the Virginia General Assembly legislative season. From the event description: “For the fifth year in a row, union members, community activists, prisoner advocates, immigrants, students, women, antiwar organizers, veterans, members of the Occupy Wall Street movement and the LBGTQ community from across Virginia will gather together in Richmond on the Saturday before the opening session of the Virginia General Assembly. We will network, educate each other about our different struggles, build alliances in the fight for social change in our communities and further the movement to create a society that is truly “of, by and for the people!””
RSVP through the title link, and see the day’s schedule there.
10:35 pm • 18 December 2012 • 3 notes
