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.

A bill opposing the shackling of pregnant prisoners, AB 2530, has been passed unanimously by the California State Legislature and is now on Governor Jerry Brown’s desk, with thirty days to either approve or veto it. Last year, a previous version of this bill was also passed unanimously by the Legislature, but it was ultimately vetoed by Brown. With Brown’s decision expected anytime, local activists are urgently mobilizing to stop him from vetoing this important bill once again. AB 2530 supporters have created a webpage for the public (not just California residents) to contact the Governor.

By DAVID ROVICS - Counterpunch

As someone who has personally been fairly actively attending protests since the early 1980′s...it seems difficult to put what just happened in Florida into some kind of relevant context, but I’ll just share my own story of the past week in north Florida and attempt to make sense of it, for whatever that’s worth...[The police state is] here, it’s now, not in some dystopic future...the new normal. It’s morning in America all over again.

SchNEWS - 31st August 2012

Who could possibly take a pop at the Paralympics...Well there's one group of people who don't have to tread the PC tightrope: the disabled. And thousands did just that when they turned out all over the country this week to take part in a week of actions again Atos, one of the main sponsors of the games...The French-owned company are busy profiting from £100m-a-year government contracts to assess benefit claimants and find huge numbers of them 'fit for work'.

By JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN - Counterpunch Weekend Edition

The Anne Frank’s and Rachel Corrie’s trapped in today’s US military arenas must be censored out of our consciousness. Their words threaten to expose the abominable policies of the United States and its allies...I believe that Anne Frank would have admired Rachel Corrie. She would have recognized the universal call for justice in the face of war and terror, the dangers inherent in the dehumanization of an entire people and the brutal occupation of their land.

By Yves Engler - August 30, 2012

If you're reading this you probably know that the Harper-led Conservative government has ramped up the corporate and military orientation of Canadian foreign policy. But, the extent to which they’ve done so will likely be a surprise...In effect, Harper's Conservatives have designed Canadian foreign policy to please the most reactionary, short-sighted sectors of the Conservative Party's base — evangelical Christian Zionists, extreme right-wing Jews, Islamophobes, the military-industrial-complex as well as mining and oil executives.

Breaking the Silence (BTS) is an organization comprised of Israeli combat veterans. They served since the start of the second Intifada. They refuse any longer to stay silent.

SchNEWS - 23rd August 2012 | Issue 825

A series of popular mass demonstrations brought forward horrendous repression by the Ba'athist security forces, who saw Western spies, Al Qaeda Operatives and Mossad agents behind every protest. By responding with massive brutality, the Syrian state helped make its own paranoid prophesies come true - today CIA agents and Saudi funded Salafi jihadists work side by side to overthrow the Syrian Arab Republic.

By Jared Sacks - August 24th, 2012

For those who have begun to take civil disobedience into middle class spaces, the logic goes that it is better to be vilified and taken notice of than to be given ‘lip service delivery’ from the government. In other words, the escalation of protests by poor black communities is an indication of the complete lack of democracy for anyone who can’t afford to purchase their right to a voice in the elite public sphere.

An important ruling is expected early in September from the European Court of Human Rights, regarding whether or not US prisons respect human rights enough for the UK to extradite ‘war on terror’ suspects to the US. We interview activist/journalist Aviva Stahl from CagePrisoners.com alongside Hamja Ahsan, the brother of Talha Ahsan, one of the appellants that will be affected by the September ruling.

By Kanya D’Almeida & Bret Grote - August 21, 2012

It is estimated that at least 80,000 men, women and even children are being held in solitary confinement on any given day in U.S. jails and prisons...“Given the control units’ track record in driving men crazy, it is not surprising that the majority of prisoners sent into them are either politically conscious prisoners, prison lawyers or rebellious young prisoners. It is this class of prisoners that occupies the control units in prison systems across the United States.”

By Amandla! - August 21, 2012

No event since the end of Apartheid sums up the shallowness of the transformation in this country like the Marikana massacre. What occurred will be debated for years. It is already clear the mineworkers will be blamed for being violent. The mineworkers will be painted as savages. Yet, the fact is that heavily armed police with live ammunition brutally shot and killed over 35 mineworkers. Many more are injured. Some will die of their wounds. Another 10 workers had been killed just prior to this massacre.

By Antoine Lerougetel - 16 August 2012

Violent clashes between youth and police took place on Sunday and Monday nights in the Amiens-Nord council estate in the industrial town of Amiens in northern France...Dozens of cars were torched, burning barricades of dustbins set up, a primary school partially destroyed by fire, and a local police station ransacked. This caused an estimated €1 million...in damage. Seven cars were torched on other estates in Amiens.

By Carl Bronski - WSWS

In response to Ontario Conservative party leader Tim Hudak’s proposals to rewrite the province’s labour laws, Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) president Ken Georgetti has penned an op-ed piece extolling the value of unions in increasing corporate profitability, controlling wage demands and policing the workforce...The Canadian Labour Congress’ response to [Hudak]...further illustrates the extent to which the trade unions have become junior partners in the corporate drive to reduce the living standards of the working class.

By Alex Hundert - August 11, 2012

When I write the words “Riot 2010″, the last thing I expect comes to people’s minds is the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. But shortly after I received my first bail, for the charges on which I am now incarcerated, in the same complex that first held myself and more than 16 others accused in the G20 main conspiracy group, there was a riot in Maplehurst. This too was a politically motivated riot, but of a very different kind than the one that reclaimed the streets of Toronto in June of 2010.