Earlier this week, on Wednesday, May 8, lawyers for Russell ‘Maroon’ Shoatz filed a federal lawsuit regarding his placement in solitary confinement for over 22 consecutive years. The written complaint is directed at Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel and the Superintendents of SCI-Greene, where Shoatz was last held, and SCI-Mahanoy, where he was transferred to on March 28, 2013.

This month, a 30-day action campaign was launched demanding the release of Russell ‘Maroon’ Shoatz from solitary confinement, where he has been held for over 23 consecutive years, and 28 of the last 30 years, in Pennsylvania prisons. On April 8, when the campaign began, Maroon’s legal team sent a letter to the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC), demanding his release from solitary confinement and promising litigation against the PA DOC if he is not transferred to general population by May 8.

By TARIQ ALI - Counterpunch Weekend Edition

[Thatcher's] legacy is clearly visible in the state of Britain today. It is essentially a story of decay and ruin: A small, post-imperial vassal state dependent on nostalgia and, more importantly, the United States to keep itself afloat. On the economy the Thatcherite model...was effectively the deindustrialization of the country...and laying the foundations for a financialised economic model that exploded with the Wall Street crash of 2008.

By John Pilger and Michael Albert - February 16, 2013

"I grew up in Sydney, in what was then quite a poor industrial city, in a family that was considered 'political': that is, we were 'on the side of the underdog', as my mother would say. Australia was a society divided deeply by class, religion and silence, as Mark Twain recognized on one his visits. He described our colonial history as 'like the most beautiful of lies'. The indigenous people, the oldest continuous culture on earth, about whom almost no one spoke, did not exist; the likeness with South Africa was too disturbing."

- John Pilger

February 19, 2013

I had the honor of conducting this conversation with a Syrian in Syria. Aref Hamdoush has many interesting things to say about Syria, the US, and the world.

By Ramsey Hart - February 23, 2013

Inspired by their own traditions and teachings...members of Neskonlith have drafted a water declaration stating the importance and sanctity of their watersheds and their opposition to mining in the territory. The Secwepemc women who spearheaded drafting the declaration are now circulating it throughout the community to build grassroots support.

Author and longtime activist Nancy Kurshan’s new book, entitled Out of Control: A Fifteen Year Battle Against Control Unit Prisons, has just been released by the Freedom Archives. Kurshan’s book documents the work of The Committee to End the Marion Lockdown (CEML), which she co-founded in 1985 as a response to the lockdown at the federal prison in Marion, Illinois. It quickly turned into a broader campaign against control unit prisons and human rights violations in US prisons that lasted fifteen years, until 2000.

NNC's Iman Soleimani conducted this and earlier interviews. Each raised major world issues.

By Noam Chomsky - December 23, 2012

"The idea of imposing austerity during a recession makes no sense whatsoever...Europe’s policies make sense only on one assumption: that the goal is to try and undermine and unravel the welfare state...[T]he President of the European Central Bank, had an interview with the Wall Street Journal where he said that the social contract in Europe is dead. He wasn’t advocating it, he was describing it, but that’s essentially what the policies lead to."

- Noam Chomsky

By ERIC BAILEY - Counterpunch

"Obama’s policies have been approximately the same as Bush’s...The Democrats supported Bush’s policies. There were some objections on mostly partisan grounds, but for the most part, they supported his policies and it’s not surprising that they have continued to do so. In some respects Obama has gone even beyond Bush."

NNC's Iman Soleimani conducted the interview. He did another last October. US foreign policy, its phony war on terror, its human rights record, imperial wars, belligerent diplomacy, and anti-Iranian agenda were discussed.

By Peter Boyle & Patrick Harrison - Green Left Weekly

We’ve seen charred bodies of dead and injured children pouring in to Al Shifa hospital of Gaza City and the other depleted hospitals around the Gaza Strip. There have been at least 50 air strikes all over the Gaza Strip so far. Deafening explosions shook us all as bombs landed close to us in the streets near the Universities -- the windows of my house were broken as a result of Israeli bombing.

NNC's Iman Soleimani conducted the interview. Occupy Wall Street, America's sham electoral process, the so-called Arab Spring, Zionism, and money power were discussed.

Two weeks after the release of Amnesty Intl’s new report on the use of prolonged solitary confinement inside California’s ‘Security Housing Units’ (SHUs), entitled "The Edge of Endurance: Conditions in California’s Security Housing Units," prisoners initiated another hunger strike, with 500 participants statewide. In this new interview, Tessa Murphy speaks about her visit to California SHUs and Amnesty's report based on the visit.

On October 6, the new documentary film entitled Long Distance Revolutionary: A Journey with Mumia Abu-Jamal, will be making its world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival, just north of San Francisco.