In a whirlwind news week the public has become aware that the majority, if not all, of U.S. telephone calls are monitored by the NSA (National Security Agency) and have been for seven years, that the U.S. government is monitoring emails through a secret NSA program called PRISM, and that Edward Snowden is the whistleblower that made these revelations possible. On June 9, Snowden told The Guardian to publish that he was the leak even though it puts him in the crosshairs of the U.S. government. “I'm willing to sacrifice all…because I can't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building.”
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.Justice Department Tramples on First Amendment Rights of Associated Press and Anti-war Activists
Jackson, MS – On June 4, Chokwe Lumumba won the election as mayor here, winning 87% of the vote in the general election. He had all but assured his victory by winning a stunning come-from-behind upset in the Democratic Party primary on May 21 in this 80% Black city in the heart of the Black Belt South.
On May 23, President Barrack Obama gave a major counterterrorism speech at the National Defense University about U.S. drone warfare and the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Obama’s speech was billed as a major policy speech with new reforms.
As the millionaires in the U.S. Congress debate the content of a ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ bill, immigrant rights activists around the country will send a strong message from the streets in a national week of action May 28-31. The Legalization for All Network has initiated a week of action to demand immigration reform that includes legalization for all 11 million undocumented immigrants and that stops all deportations immediately.
Early this May, UPS management, as well as Teamsters leadership, released the completed tentative agreement for a new five-year contract. The contract, which represents the largest private sector collective bargaining agreement in the U.S., is being touted by both sides as a win-win for the company and the workers, establishing raises and gains that both say they can be proud of.
The U.S. government is escalating its attacks on socialist Cuba and U.S. residents who try to travel there. These attacks have now been directed at U.S. labor union activists. Five U.S. union activists who tried to register to participate in the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange in Havana, Cuba over May Day had their funds frozen and seized without explanation by the Labor Exchange’s bank, Charter One Bank in Detroit, Michigan.
