Remembering those whose courage, suffering and sacrifice has awakened our consciousness and propelled us to work for transformation.

December 17, 2011 — One year ago today, Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in response to his mistreatment by the Tunisian police, setting off a chain reaction worldwide. Let no one forget that the wave of uprisings still sweeping the globe did not simply spring from the hard work of activists, however long some labored to pave the way. It did not begin with people setting out to better themselves or the world. It began with the ultimate gesture of despair and self-destruction. [Read More | Pictured: Tunisian Government Stamp depicting Mohamed Bouazizi]

December 29, 2011 — Today marks the thirteen-year anniversary of the police murder of Tyisha Miller, a nineteen-year-old African-American woman shot by the police department [in Riverside, CA]. The murder caused an outcry, particularly among the city's black community, and led to some of the most militant and long-reaching organizaing the region had seen in years, including a shutdown of the 91 freeway and the establishment of numerous bureaucratic apparatuses put in place to prevent such tragedies. [Read More]

December 31, 2011 — I learned from William Singletary's wife, Jeannette, that he died this morning. Bill was a courageous man who lived fighting to make the truth known — that Mumia [Abu-Jamal] is innocent in the shooting death of police officer Daniel Faulkner. For that Bill suffered severe personal and financial consequences. I've known Bill since June 1990 when he came forward with his eyewitness testimony for Mumia and as a witness at the PCRA hearing in 1995, when I was co-counsel for Mumia. [Read More]

Related Coverage: Sean Bell Case is Not Over | Oscar Grant: Gone But Not Forgotten | from Rafu Shimpo: Civil Rights Icon Gordon Hirabayashi Dies at 93 | from Facing South: Top 5 of 2011 - #3: The fight to save Troy Davis | from AllHipHop.com: 2011 Playback: The Year In Memoriam

PASADENA - Occupy joined this year's New Year celebrations by marching at the end of the Rose Parade. They carried float-sized props of the Constitution, the "corporate Constitution," and the Occupy Octopus, made entirely of recycled material rather than the plant material the Tournament of Roses requires. [...] Despite recent setbacks for the economic justice movement, including the breakup of all the major encampments, occupiers in the US and the outraged worldwide are hopeful that 2012 is the year of great change.From the newswire: Occupy the Rose Parade by Rockero

More New Year's Coverage: Atlanta, GA: NYE Noise Demonstration (video) | Boston, MA: Anti-War New Year's Eve | Portland, OR: jail solidarity noise demo | Santa Cruz, CA: The 7th Annual Last Night DIY Parade

Related: 2011's Big Wins--Brought to You by Women | New Year Remembrances

EAST HARLEM community leaders are furious about the proposed expansion of a $19 million private tennis center at Randall’s Island that is connected to tennis legend John McEnroe. Those leaders want to know why Mayor Bloomberg keeps handing barrels of money to the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation, the public-private group that manages the 256-acre park. Read More | Randalls Island Bulletin

Previous Features: Dec6: Tennis pro John McEnroe Confronted for Privatizing Randall's Island | Dec18: Randall’s Island Tennis Expansion FCRC Hearing Abruptly Canceled

With Chicago slated to host the 2012 NATO/G8 summit in May 2012, Chicago officials are engaging in sabre-rattling against grassroots activists, first with wanton arrests admitted as "just practice for G8/NATO", and now with a proposed draconian rewrite of local Chicago laws involving public protest.

While the rewrite did get attention in Chicago's corporate media, aspects of it went little reported — like redefining "resisting arrest" to include passive resistance (like going limp), increasing the ranges of fines for violations, requiring $1 million dollars of liability insurance per protest, registering with the city at least a week in advance, and even imposing stringent requirements against protests on Chicago sidewalks.

Activists have raised the call to oppose this rewrite, with a forthcoming city council vote slated for January 18th. Read more

January 3, 2012: IN THE same week that Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), sending it to Barack Obama to enshrine into law a provision allowing indefinite military detention of U.S. citizens, a federal jury in Boston delivered a guilty verdict against Dr. Tarek Mehanna, a Muslim American pharmacist charged with material support for terrorism. Coming in the wake of other Muslims around the country who have been arrested, accused of supporting terrorism, and locked up for long sentences, the December 20 guilty verdict against Mehanna on seven counts was a shocking and chilling reminder to his growing number of supporters and advocates that the "war on terror" has been putting Islam on trial for years.

Tarek's trial lasted nine weeks, but was the culmination of four years of FBI harassment, surveillance and intimidation against Mehanna from his days in pharmacy school. Islam was on trial from the first day, when the government aired the video of bin Laden. Judge George O'Toole's bias in favor of the government was evident. He allowed hundreds of photos and al-Qaeda videos into evidence that had nothing to do with Tarek, but rejected the defense's attempt to submit video clips of former President Ronald Reagan praising as freedom fighters the mujahideen who fought against the USSR invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s and were funded by the CIA. [read more | photo from socialistworker.org]

Labor Board Prohibits Employers from Engaging in Discriminatory 'Fishing Expeditions'

Washington, DC — Immigrant workers organizing for justice at a Brooklyn-based producer and distributor of kosher food products have taken a big step forward in their campaign and achieved a legal victory for workers around the country. Using discriminatory allegations about workers' immigration status, Flaum Appetizing has been resisting compliance with a 2009 trial decision that found the company illegally fired employees who came together seeking dignified working conditions.

The movement to physically stop evictions and foreclosures made its debut in Baltimore on Tuesday, January 10th outside of the West Baltimore home of Lila Kara. Nearly 100 people associated with Occupy Baltimore assembled early in the morning to stop a Deutsch Bank foreclosure order against her house. Those assembled included neighbors, some facing foreclosure themselves, and participants from Occupy Our Homes, a working group of Occupy Baltimore.

Though initially proclaiming victory after a no-show, Sheriff’s officers and a representative assumed to be with Deutsch Bank who refused to identify herself proceeded with the eviction process on Wednesday morning, arriving unannounced. Workers changed the locks on the property and took inventory of Kara’s belongings, while about 20 people assembled in protest. Read Full Indyreader report. | DC Indymedia report on day one.

Chris Hedges is an American journalist, author, and war correspondent, specializing in American and Middle Eastern politics and societies. He discusses his book "Death of the Liberal Class" and the destruction of critical culture, which flourished before World War One but destroyed soon afterwards. Video

Last month, following the Philadelphia DA's decision to not hold a new sentencing hearing, Mumia Abu-Jamal was transferred to SCI Mahanoy, in Frackville, PA, where he as since been held in "Administrative Custody." His present conditions are actually worse than they were on death row at SCI Greene. Please join us in our call for Mumia to be immediately transferred into general population.

For more information, please visit prisonradio.org and freemumia.com.

More Coverage: Sadism in the Cell by Linn Washington, Jr., Counterpunch | The Torture of Mumia Abu-Jamal Continues off Death Row by Hans Bennett, Prison Radio

Last week marked the tenth anniversary of foreign nationals being held at Guantanamo Bay, the US military base in Cuba. On the anniversary, activists organized the largest protest as of yet to demand its closing and and to bring attention to its human rights violations. Largest ever Gitmo protest demands Gitmo be CLOSED | Guantanamo Bay Turns Ten: Former Soldier Discusses the “Detention Camps” | In the Shadow of Indefinite Detention - Guantanamo Year 10.

At about 7PM on the 17th of January, Occupy Congress did something I have never seen a protest accomplish before: They took over the iconic steps of the Supreme Court building, with one report saying some reached the doors. There were no reports of anyone getting inside. Read More & Pics Coverage Links: Video of the Supreme Court and White House actions | WSQT Occupy Congress (Jan 17) Audio report | Second occupation of Supreme Court steps Jan 20 smokes out undercovers after fight | Video | WSQT Radio Report on Jan 20 second storming of Supreme Court steps

Past Feature: Occupy Congress blockades steps of Rayburn Building, enters Longworth building

The crisis in foreclosures promises to get even worse in the near future, with up to 3.6 million people losing their homes over the next two years, as estimated by the New York Federal Reserve.

Up until August 2011, all 50 State Attorney Generals were negotiating with five banks that were accused of “robo-signing” documents and conducting illegal home seizures. That month, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman decided to oppose what he felt was Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's undue haste in trying to get a settlement and to instead pursue criminal charges against the five banks. Over the next four months, as evidence of blatant illegality mounted, seven other State Attorney Generals followed Schneiderman's lead and left the settlement group.

Read Full Analysis & News Roundup by Rich Gardner, PhillyIMC | Related Indymedia Reports from East New York, Baltimore, and the December 6 National Day of Action | occupyourhomes.org

Gary Johnson, the homeless activist doing the nightly protest against the Sleeping Ban, the Lodging Ban, and the curfew at the Santa Cruz County Courthouse from late December until earlier this month, has been incarcerated since January 6 in what amounts to indefinite detention for the crime of sleeping. Johnson has received the bail amount of $5000 after having been arrested four times for "lodging" 647(e) and "trespassing" 602(o) during his protests. Read More

As Johnson waits until February 3 for a demurrer hearing before Judge John Gallagher, community members have expressed concerns over the legal attack on him. Occupy Santa Cruz members held their second noise demonstration on January 18 at the Santa Cruz County Jail in what the newly formed Jail Solidarity working group hopes will be a regular weekly event until Johnson is freed. RELATED VIDEO: Sleep is a Human Right - Metal at City Hall Homeless Vigil 1.5.12

RIVERSIDE (CA) January 19, 2012 - Thousands of students, workers, and community members gathered to participate in the governance of the UC system. When their participation was limited and ultimately shut off, they took direct action to ensure their voices were heard. For this, they were confronted by police from numerous agencies. Police violence broke out, and three arrests were made

Preparations for the event have been going on for months, and have included on-campus general assemblies and discussions of occupation. The camp began Tuesday night and immediately drew support from students and campers from Occupy Riverside and Occupy LA. By Wednesday, a food table was set up, as was an outreach table and a people's library. Students and faculty held many teach-ins and teach-outs to raise the consciousness of students.

But the action really began Thursday morning, when groups of students and unions members spoke to the regents during the public comment section of the meeting. Full Story: UCR Occupied in Defense of Education By Rockero

;January 16th, 2011 was Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Day in Atlanta and around the country. Atlanta had it's usual parade and speakers, all of which was very nice. But Atlanta Indy Media was interested in what the people had on their mind. What is the current satus of the African American community, is King's Dream still alive, what are the problems African American's are dealing with, and what are their victories? Is life improving for African American's in the age of Obama? This film is a series of interviews with people on Auburn Ave and asks is life getting better for African American's since Obama came into office, what needs to improve and who are the new leaders on the horizon. It runs 45 minutes. VIDEO

From russellmaroonshoats.wordpress.com:

Interviewer: How would you define democracy?

Maroon: In it’s broadest sense – to me – democracy is the ability of the individual to exercise self-determination in the core areas of economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex, war and peace; taking under consideration the need to both support and guide children until they can responsibly exercise those things on their own... [Read More | Image from the National Jericho Movement]

43 arrested, but is it the system that abandoned the neighborhood and the people to blame.

On Thursday, 43 people were rounded up from off the streets of Brownsville and indicted with gang related charges in a mega sweep of two gangs the ‘Hood Starz’ & ‘Wave Gang’. A wave of murders hit the high-crime low-income neighborhood of Brooklyn when the rival gangs spun out of control for territory of public housing blocks. When you look at the mugshots of these 43, your immediately struck by how young these kids are.... [Read More | Image from original article at newyorkcityrevolution.wordpress.com]

Internet group Anonymous has leaked information from October and November 2011 suggesting that private intelligence firm STRATFOR has been working with Texas law enforcement to infiltrate the Occupy movement and spy on the Deep Green Resistance movement.

In December 2011, Anonymous attacked the STRATFOR website, allegedly stealing 200 gigabytes of data and shutting the site down for weeks. [...] The information released by Anonymous is a partial “teaser” of the information taken from STRATFOR. It consists of emails in which STRATFOR employees discuss Occupy Austin and Deep Green Resistance. STRATFOR “Watch Officer” Marc Lanthemann writes about receiving information on Occupy Austin and DGR from a “Texas DPS agent.” The Texas Department of Public Safety is a statewide law enforcement agency that includes the Texas Rangers, Highway Patrol, and an Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division. [...]read more | View documents released by Anonymous HERE | Photo: STRATFOR employee Marc Lanthemann (from a social networking profile that is not longer online) Marc-Lanthemann

On Friday, January 20th, thousands of people participated in a national day of decentralized actions aimed at highlighting the cancerous problem of money in politics. The event was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the January 20, 2010, Supreme Court ruling in favor of Citizens United, which effectively granted corporations and the rich the ability to buy elections.

In Washington, DC, youth and elders of all races gathered at the marble steps of the Supreme Court and displayed a massive banner with text from a proposed constitutional amendment put forward by Move to Amend: "28th Amendment: Corporations are not people, nor are they protected under the Constitution; Money is property, not free speech" [Read More]

In San Francisco, thousands of people participated in direct actions, bank blockades, flashmobs, cultural interventions, picketlines, office takeovers, a foreclosure auction disruption and a building takeover to Occupy Wall St. West -- the San Francisco Financial District. [Read More]

More Reports: Portland, OR (pictured) | San Diego, CA | Call to Action from Move to Ammend | occupythecourts.org

On the 28th of January, roads around 16th and K sts were barricaded by the cops to secure the "Alfalfa Club" a hard-drinking party for the ultra rich. The party is named for the crop's heavy water consumption. Attendees included most of the Bush family, and yet Obama also attended in spite of that. Occupy DC marched on the barricades, making it difficult for the wealthy to pass if they picked the wrong entry checkpoint. Read More | Vidio of the protest featuring more of the high points and some of the police violence

From ThisCantBeHappening.Net: He’s out! Credit ‘people power’ for getting internationally known inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal sprung from his apparently punitive, seven-week placement in ‘The Hole.’ For the first time since receiving a controversial death sentence in 1982 for killing a Philadelphia policeman, the widely acclaimed author-activist finds himself in general population, a prison housing status far less restrictive than the solitary confinement of death row.

Pictured: Public pressure to release Mumia Abu-Jamal from the "Hole" trumped the pressure from those trying to keep torturing him (photo by Linn Washington)

More Coverage: Mumia Abu-Jamal Transferred to General Population, Following Global Campaign | Breaking: Mumia out of Solitary