Democracy Now! Daily Digest: A Daily
Independent Global News Hour with Amy Goodman & Juan González – Monday, 2
December 2013
Stories:
Watching the Watch List: Landmark Case
Goes to Trial over Massive U.S. Terrorism "No-Fly" Database
With hundreds of thousands of people now
on the government’s terrorist watch lists, a closely watched trial begins today
in San Francisco. Stanford University Ph.D. student Rahinah Ibrahim is suing
the U.S. government after she was barred from flying from Malaysia back to the
United States in 2005 to complete her studies at Stanford after her name was
placed on the list. The New York Times reports that the federal government’s
terrorist watch list, officially called the "Terrorist Screening
Database," has grown to at least 700,000 people, and those on the list are
often subjected to extra scrutiny, prohibited from flying, and interrogated
while attempting to cross borders. The government refuses to divulge who is on
the list, how one can get off the list, and what criteria is used to place
someone on the list in the first place. Oftentimes, people have no idea their
name is in the database until they attempt to board a flight. We speak with
Anya Bernstein, associate professor at the SUNY Buffalo Law School and author
of the article, "The Hidden Costs of Terrorist Watch Lists."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not
be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: Thanksgiving is one of the
nation’s busiest travel days. This year, hundreds of thousands of people may
have been in for a rude awakening when they tried to board their flights. The
New York Times reports the federal government’s terrorist watch list,
officially called the "Terrorist Screening Database," has grown to at
least 700,000 people, and those on the list are often subjected to extra scrutiny,
prohibited from flying, interrogated while attempting to cross borders.
According to the article, "Who Is Watching the Watch Lists?" the
government refuses to divulge who is on the list, how one can get off the list,
and what criteria is used to place someone on the list in the first place.
Oftentimes people have no idea their name is in the database until they attempt
to board a flight.
That’s exactly what happened to former
Stanford student Rahinah Ibrahim in January of 2005 when she showed up at San
Francisco International Airport with her teenage daughter for a flight to
Malaysia. At the United Airlines ticket counter, Ibrahim was handcuffed and
detained by police without explanation. Ultimately, she was allowed to fly home
to Malaysia, but she has been unable to return to the United States because the
State Department revoked her student visa.
Today, after an eight-year-long legal
battle, Ibrahim’s case is going to trial in federal district court in San
Francisco. This is one of Ibrahim’s lawyers, Marwa Elzankaly, in 2011
explaining to federal judge what Ibrahim is seeking to accomplish with the
suit.
MARWA ELZANKALY: We sued the TSA, the
Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, the Terrorist
Screening Center and the FBI. We basically sued anyone who was involved or
could have been involved in Ms. Ibrahim’s arrest and in her—the placement of
her name on the no-fly list.
JUDGE ALEX KOZINSKI: Essentially, and
your APA claim is simply to try to get her name off the no-fly list.
MARWA ELZANKALY: Correct.
JUDGE ALEX KOZINSKI: That’s the only
relief you seek under the APA.
MARWA ELZANKALY: It’s to take her name
off of a government watch list. It’s the same list that is being used, that is
basically put together by the TSC, and is used by every government agency who
engages in any terrorist monitoring activities, including the TSA, but also
including overseas consulates issuing visas, including local law enforcement
agencies and state law enforcement agencies. And that list is distributed to
many different agencies. It’s not just used by the TSA.
AMY GOODMAN: That was attorney Marwa
Elzankaly and Alex Kozinski, a chief judge of the United States Court of
Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Elzankaly was representing Rahinah Ibrahim, whose
case goes to trial in federal district court in San Francisco today. She is
trying to get off the U.S. government’s no-fly list.
For more, we’re joined by video Skype by
Anya Bernstein. She is an associate professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School and
author of "The Hidden Costs of Terrorist Watch Lists," published by
Buffalo Law Review.
Professor Bernstein, thanks so much for
being with us. Just lay out for us what is on this—who is on the terrorist watch
list. And how has it grown?
ANYA BERNSTEIN: Well, one important thing
to realize is that there isn’t really a terrorist watch list; there are many,
many terrorist watch lists run by various agencies. In the past few years,
those have been funneled into a general database called, as you said, the
Terrorist Screening Database, run by the Terrorist Screening Center. But the
way that people are nominated—that’s the word; you’re nominated to be on the
watch list—is through the subordinate law enforcement agencies. So, an FBI
agent might think that somebody is suspicious and want to nominate them to the
Terrorist Screening Database. That’s one of the reasons that the list has grown
as much as it has in the last decade, because it’s—the names are coming in from
a lot of different places. And most of the oversight, according to the government’s
own inspector general report issued a couple years ago, is about things like
whether the paperwork is filled out correctly. There isn’t a lot of oversight
about things like whether the predictions of terrorist acts are actually
accurate. So, we don’t know who is on the list, but we do know that it’s a very
large number of people, as you said.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about when
these lists started?
ANYA BERNSTEIN: Sure. These lists
started, in some sense, in the '90s, without really that much thought about
terrorism. So, for instance, one of the lists that feeds into this master list
is a list called the Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File run by the
FBI. And that list was created as a violent gang file, so Crips and Bloods and
that sort of thing. And at the last minute, the FBI thought, "Wouldn't it
be nice to have terrorist suspects on here, too?" and included them under
the same criteria as used for the violent gangs. And many of the lists
developed in this kind of haphazard way. After 9/11, they became used a lot
more, obviously, and people were paying a lot more attention to them. And the
process by which they were consolidated was also somewhat haphazard. I think
people in the government noticed that they were tracking a lot of different
lists, that there were contradictions, the criteria are different, and they
decided to have a consolidated watch list in the early 2000s to kind of act as
an umbrella over all of these.
AMY GOODMAN: What are the hidden costs of
these—the title of your piece?
ANYA BERNSTEIN: Well, I call it "The
Hidden Costs" because some of the obvious costs are obvious. That’s what
Rahinah Ibrahim is suing about. That’s what you’ve been talking about. People
are harmed by being on these watch lists. They’re harmed by being not allowed
to fly. They’re also harmed by being subject to a lot more scrutiny from law
enforcement officers every time they run into them. So if you’re on a watch
list like this and you are stopped for speeding, the officer runs your license
through a computer system, and he’s informed that you’re on the watch list. And
then, naturally, he’s going to be paying a lot more attention to you; you’re
much more likely to be arrested and to receive a certain kind of treatment. So,
those are—those are more due process rights that may be infringed, and those
are kind of the obvious costs of the terrorist watch lists.
The hidden costs are the systemic costs
that people don’t really talk about as much, such as the effects on policy. So,
one of the striking things about these watch lists is that, as far as we know,
there is absolutely no mechanism for the agencies who run them to assess how
well they’re doing. There’s nothing built into the system for people to review
and say, "10 years ago we thought this was a bad guy. How did that turn
out? How did our prediction pan out? And if it didn’t pan out, maybe we’re
doing something wrong. What should we change?" So, one of the hidden costs
is the bloating of the watch list with lots and lots of people who are most
likely or even definitely not harmful and don’t pose a threat, and yet give us
the impression that the main danger we face today is terrorism. If there are so
many people on the watch list, must be a pretty dangerous situation. And so,
the hidden costs is the way that it affects our policy making and our attention
and our resource distribution. We want to funnel more resources to fight this
terrible threat that we face. And how do we know we face the threat? Well,
there are an awful lot of people who are threatening.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us more about
Rahinah Ibrahim’s case, this case that’s going to court in San Francisco today?
I mean, we’re talking about a case that’s been going on now for eight years.
What happened to her in 2005?
ANYA BERNSTEIN: So, what happened to her,
as you described, she showed up at the airport, she was told she couldn’t
board, and then she was arrested by the San Francisco police. The FBI told them
to let them go, and she was allowed to board a plane the next day, flew to
Malaysia, but was not allowed to go back. And later she was informed that her
student visa was revoked.
Now, one thing to realize, in a legal
sense, is that the revocation of her visa is not something that is reviewable
by a judge. There’s no oversight over visa granting or revocation whatsoever,
so she can’t sue about that. But she can sue about being on the no-fly list and
not being allowed to board aircraft, because that affects actually her ability
to travel to a lot of places and not just to the U.S. She can’t board a U.S.
aircraft, and she also can’t fly over U.S. airspace. Aside from that, we share
our terrorist database lists with at least 22 other countries, possibly more.
And it’s a fair presumption that a lot of those countries will not let her fly,
as well. So those are the harms she’s seeking to redress.
One of the reasons that the case has
taken so long is that the government has opposed her ability to try the case at
all. So, in other words, they haven’t even started arguing about the merits. So
far, they have been fighting about whether the court has jurisdiction to hear
the case in the first place. So, that went up to the 9th Circuit on appeal and
went back down to the district court. The government has also challenged her
standing to sue the case, claiming that there’s no real injury that she has
suffered and, anyway, whatever relief the court can grant her wouldn’t redress
the injuries. So those are the—that’s what "standing" means is you
have to have an injury and the judgment has to redress the injury. And that
went up to the 9th Circuit, and the 9th Circuit agreed that she had standing,
and now it’s back down before the district court.
And what she’s suing for is basically
either to have her name removed from the no-fly list or at least to have some
process by which she can contest the placement of her name on the no-fly list.
At this point, the government won’t even say whether in fact her name is on the
no-fly list.
AMY GOODMAN: In 2010, we had a chance to
speak to Adama Bah, one of the plaintiffs in the ACLU suit challenging the U.S.
government’s no-fly list. She is a citizen of Guinea and was granted political
asylum here in the U.S., where she’s lived since she was two years old. She
described what happened when she tried to fly from New York to El Paso.
ADAMA BAH: Well, the first thing that
happened is I went to check in, and they said, "See a ticket agent."
So I stepped up to the ticket agent, and immediately they got on the phone.
They called security. So many people came, but nobody told me why I was on a
list or how to get off of the list.
AMY GOODMAN: Which airport did you go to?
ADAMA BAH: LaGuardia Airport.
AMY GOODMAN: LaGuardia.
ADAMA BAH: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And what exactly happened
when you went there?
ADAMA BAH: When I went there, I just went
to the ticket agent, showed her my ID. She typed in my name and just got on the
phone. And from there on, you know, TSA was coming in, federal agents, Homeland
Security, but nobody was telling me what’s going on, why am I on a list.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Adama Bah, and she is
one of 13 American citizens who have been denied boarding on flights and have
sued the government in Latif v. Holder. Of course, Holder, Eric Holder, the
attorney general of the United States. Anya Bernstein, can you comment on this
separate case, and also, in the case of Rahinah Ibrahim, how significant it is
that it’s in a federal court today?
ANYA BERNSTEIN: Yeah. So, Latif, I’ll
start with Latif. That case is at an earlier stage. The judge has agreed that
international flight is a constitutional right. So, we’re at the point where
we’re agreed that the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights is being—right is being
impinged on. The question is: Does the government have a sufficiently good
reason to do that, and is the chance that that constitutional right is being
limited erroneously? In other words, the chance that they’re on a no-fly list
in error, is that sufficiently small to warrant such a process? And on that,
the judge has asked for more briefing. So, basically, the judge has deferred
ruling on the merits of the case until there is more briefing. So, we just have
to watch how that case is progressing. I think it’s a really hopeful sign that
that case is on at all and that the constitutional right part of it has been
determined.
In terms of Ibrahim, I think it’s huge. I
mean, this is a very hopeful sign, especially since it has gone up to the 9th
Circuit twice already. So, there have been plenty of chances to knock this case
out and basically prevent it from going forward, but I think that the courts
are sensing that these lists are getting a little out of control. There is no
internal mechanism. It doesn’t seem like the agencies are eager to construct
some sort of internal mechanism to assess how they’re doing to limit the
bloating. And I think the courts feel like maybe now it’s time for the
judiciary to step in. So I think that’s a really hopeful sign. And the fact
that they’re recognizing that—the Supreme Court has already recognized that
travel is a constitutional right, but they’re now—these courts are now
recognizing that travel by airplane specifically is a constitutional right,
mostly just because of the technological possibilities of today, that that is
how most people travel.
AMY GOODMAN: One of the people who turned
up on the no-fly list for suspected terrorists is this six-year-old girl named
Alyssa Thomas. CNN reports the Thomas family found out Alyssa was on the list
when they attempted to board a flight from Cleveland to Minneapolis.
CNN REPORTER: Six-year-old Alyssa Thomas
is like any little girl. She loves her dolls, and she’s already excited about
the first grade. But according to the U.S. government, you should be worried
about what she’s up to.
DR. SANTHOSH THOMAS: We were like
puzzled. I’m like, well, you know, she’s kind of six years old. This is not
something that should be typical. But I’m like, well, OK.
CNN REPORTER: Dr. Santhosh Thomas was
just made aware that his oldest daughter is on the list, the terror watch list
that impacts travelers who could be a threat to national security. Alyssa’s
parents found out at the Continental check-in counter during a recent trip from
Cleveland to Minneapolis.
AMY GOODMAN: That was a report from CNN
on six-year-old Alyssa Thomas, who is on the terrorist watch list. Anya
Bernstein, what about this and how people can get off?
ANYA BERNSTEIN: So, I just want to say,
first of all, that’s not the first kid that’s been on this watch list. That’s
been a recurring problem. If your name sounds like, matches, relates to
somebody who has been part of an investigation, you’re likely to end up on the
watch list. There is no way to get off the watch list. I think that’s the short
answer. The Terrorist Screening Center has set up a program called DHS TRIP,
which allows travelers—it’s the Traveler Redress Inquiry Program, so it allows
travelers to basically lodge not so much a complaint, but an inquiry into their
status and to ask DHS to review their files. And what you get at the conclusion
of that is a letter saying, "We have reviewed your files, and if you were
on a watch list incorrectly, then you have been taken off." It doesn’t
tell you whether you were. It doesn’t tell you whether you are currently on a
watch list. And it doesn’t tell you whether you have been taken off. You’ll
find out next time you try to fly. But there actually is no way to get yourself
off of one of these things. You can ask the agency to look.
AMY GOODMAN: How is the database exempt
from the Privacy Act? What does that mean?
ANYA BERNSTEIN: So, the Privacy Act, just
to back up, is the law governing how government agencies deal with information
about individuals. And one of the things that it requires is it requires
agencies to share information about you with you. You can request from any
agency the information that it has on you—except that under certain
circumstances the agencies can choose to exempt themselves from that
requirement. Something else that the Privacy Act requires is that any
information that an agency has on an individual is timely, relevant and
accurate—relevant meaning relevant to some particular government purpose. But
under certain circumstances, the agencies can choose to exempt themselves from
those requirements, as well. And the agencies involved in terrorist database
management, such as the TSC and the FBI, have chosen to exempt themselves from
those requirements. There is something else they could have done, which is to
say, "Here’s what we think relevant, timely and accurate means in the
context of an arena of high uncertainty like terrorism, about which we have
little information but which is very important. Here are the standards that we
will hold ourselves to." But instead of deciding to hold themselves to
standards, they have decided to just exempt themselves from any standards.
AMY GOODMAN: Anya Bernstein, I want to
thank you for being with us, associate professor at SUNY Buffalo Law School,
author of "The Hidden Costs of Terrorist Watch Lists," published by
Buffalo Law Review.
This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org,
The War and Peace Report. When we come back, President Obama pardoned another
two turkeys, but how is it that President Obama is at the bottom in recent
modern history of the number of pardons of people of any modern president? Stay
with us.
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Pardoning Turkeys, Not People? Obama
Urged to Reverse Lowest Clemency Rate of Modern Presidency
As President Obama continued a recent
tradition of granting a presidential pardon to a pair of turkeys just ahead of
Thanksgiving, critics pointed out that he has shown less mercy toward human
beings deserving of clemency. Despite the administration’s recent talk of
reforming the criminal justice system, Obama has granted the fewest pardons of
any modern president. During his presidency, Obama has pardoned 10 turkeys,
while he has pardoned or commuted the sentences of only 39 people. According to
an analysis last year by ProPublica, which studied applications for pardons
processed by the Justice Department, Obama has granted clemency to just 2
percent of applicants. Of the 39 pardons Obama has granted, just 11 have been
for people convicted of drug crimes. We are joined by Anthony Papa, an artist,
writer and noted advocate against the war on drugs, who was himself imprisoned
for many years until he was granted executive clemency. Papa is co-founder of
the Mothers of the New York Disappeared and is the author of "15 to Life:
How I Painted My Way to Freedom."
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not
be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org,
The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. As President Obama continued a
recent tradition of granting a presidential pardon to the holiday bird just
ahead of Thanksgiving, critics pointed out he has shown less mercy towards
prisoners deserving clemency. During his presidency, Obama has pardoned 10
turkeys, while he’s pardoned or commuted the sentences of only 39 people, the
fewest pardons of any modern president. The turkeys, Caramel and Popcorn, were
granted reprieve at a ceremony at the White House on Wednesday.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Now, before these
turkeys get away, with the power vested in me, I want to grant Popcorn a full
reprieve. Come on. I want to—Popcorn, you have a full reprieve from cranberry
sauce and stuffing. We wish you well. And we’re going to give Caramel a break,
as well. All right?
AMY GOODMAN: President Obama has pardoned
two birds each Thanksgiving for the past five years. In both 2009 and 2012, he
pardoned more turkeys than people. Overall, Obama has granted clemency to just
39 people. At the same point in his presidency, Ronald Reagan had pardoned 313
people. Harry Truman pardoned 1,537 people. According to an analysis last year
by ProPublica, which studied applications for pardons processed by the Justice
Department, Obama has granted clemency to just 2 percent of applicants.
To talk more about this, we’re joined by
Anthony Papa, artist, writer, noted advocate against the war on drugs. He
served 12 years in prison for a first-time nonviolent drug offense. He was
freed only after being granted executive clemency by then-New York Governor
George Pataki. Tony Papa is co-founder of the Mothers of the New York
Disappeared and works as the media manager at the Drug Policy Alliance. He’s
also author of 15 to Life: How I Painted My Way to Freedom_, and he just
published a Huffington Post piece headlined, "President Obama, Pardon Both
the Turkey and Drug War Prisoners for the Holidays."
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Tony. It’s
great to have you back. First, talk about your own story very briefly, if you
would.
ANTHONY PAPA: Well, I was a first-time
nonviolent drug offender, that basically in 1985 I made the biggest mistake of
my life. I brought an envelope up from the Bronx to Mount Vernon for $500. It
was an envelope containing four ounces of cocaine. I walked into a police sting
operation. I did everything I could do wrong, and eventually I was sentenced to
15 years to life under the Rockefeller drug laws of New York state, went to
prison, was lost, didn’t know what to do, discovered my talent as an artist as
I transcended the negativity of imprisonment, and basically painted a
self-portrait in 1988. One night I was sitting in my cell, picked up a mirror;
I looked in the mirror, I saw an individual who’s going to spend the most
productive years of his life in a cage; painted the self-portrait, and it
appeared at the Whitney Museum of American Art about seven years later. And I
was granted—I got a lot of publicity on my case and was granted executive
clemency by Governor George Pataki. I came out, wanted to do something about
those that I left behind, so I started a group, co-founded a group, Mothers of
the New York Disappeared, became a leading activist in New York state to fight
the draconian Rockefeller drug laws. Basically, the laws had a couple of
revisions, and then in, recently, 2009, Governor Paterson stepped up to the
plate and reformed the Rockefeller drug laws in a historic way.
AMY GOODMAN: And explain the whole
concept of mandatory minimums, which the Rockefeller drug laws were based on.
ANTHONY PAPA: Right, mandatory minimums
is, you take away the discretion of the judges to look at the totality of
facts. So, basically, the judge in my case didn’t want to sentence me to 15
years to life, but he had to because of mandatory minimum sentencing, which
dictates that he had to do it.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about your piece
that you wrote for The Huffington Post, "President Obama, Pardon Both the
Turkey and Drug War Prisoners for the Holidays."
ANTHONY PAPA: That piece—every year at
about this time, I always write a letter, a request to the sitting governor of
New York state, which is Andrew Cuomo now. And in the request, I ask if they
can use their clemency powers to address the issue of people who were sentenced
to draconian sentences under mandatory minimum sentencing that are stuck in
prison. They have no judicial relief left but to—the only way out to get their
freedom is for the governor to grant them executive clemency. And in the case
of federal prisoners, right now, Obama, with his administration, who recently
spoke out about mandatory minimum sentencing through Attorney General Holder a
couple of months ago, called for changing these mandatory minimum sentencing
laws because the system became broken because of it. I mean, 2.3 million
Americans locked up, 500,000 because of the drug war, in the federal system
over 100,000, so that there’s got to be somebody that’s eligible for executive
clemency. I mean, look, if you could give a turkey a second chance, why can’t
you give a nonviolent drug offender a second chance?
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to that speech of
Eric Holder, the attorney general, unveiling this major policy shift to help
certain low-level drug offenders avoid harsh mandatory minimum prison
sentences. This was an address to the American Bar Association. He announced a
review of the racial sentencing disparities.
ATTORNEY GENERAL ERIC HOLDER: Today a
vicious cycle of poverty, criminality and incarceration traps too many
Americans and weakens too many communities. And many aspects of our criminal
justice system may actually exacerbate these problems rather than alleviate
them. It’s clear, as we come together today, that too many Americans go to too
many prisons for far too long and for no truly good law enforcement reason.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Eric Holder.
Anthony Papa, your response?
ANTHONY PAPA: Well, look, I think I
congratulate Eric Holder and the Obama administration, and these are words. And
I don’t know how they’re going to affect people who are sentenced under the
draconian drug law sentencing and who are stuck in prison. I am hoping that he
comes through and in some way these mandatory minimum sentencings would be
revised and people would get some relief. My whole thing is, I would ask
President Obama, why not help those prisoners? In 2010, he signed into
legislation new revised crack cocaine sentencing, where the 100-and-one ratio
went away and 18-and-one came into place, and it affected people. But there’s
about 5,000 prisoners who that law didn’t affect, because it wasn’t applied
retroactively. So I would say, with a swipe of a pen, you could save these
5,000 people who are stuck in prison under old crack cocaine laws, which, if
they were made retroactive, they would be free anyway.
AMY GOODMAN: So let me ask you about the
ACLU, the American Civil Liberties Union, which found more than 3,200 people
nationwide serving terms, life terms without parole for nonviolent offenses, 80
percent of them behind bars for drug-related offenses—65 percent
African-American, 18 percent white, 16 percent Latino—evidence of what the ACLU
calls "extreme racial disparities." This is a clip from a video that
features family members of some of the more than 600 prisoners it profiles.
SARLOWER SURRY: Everything he did was to
hurt himself, not others. And it went from—from one-year sentence to two-year
sentence to natural life.
CASHAWNA TILMAN: My dad will never get
out for something so little? Natural life.
LORETTA LUMAR: For stealing a $150
jacket. And that $150 jacket got him life in prison.
SARLOWER SURRY: Here in Louisiana, they
use that habitual offender law: Three strikes, you automatically get natural
life.
CATHERINE MATTHEWS: It’s like giving him
a death sentence, because this is no life—no life for a man with his children
or his parents or anybody else, once they’re in there.
BURL CAIN: Judge should have the
discretion not to give a life sentence. I mean, that’s extreme. You tell that
to anybody, they’ll say, "Ah, nah-uh, that’s a little bit too much."
That almost gets to be the point that that’s not what the forefathers envisioned,
even with the Constitution. That’s extreme. That’s cruel and unusual
punishment, to me.
CASHAWNA TILMAN: He’s a good person, my
dad. I mean, he’s always—like I said, he’s always been there for me and my
sister and brother. He’s always done his best, until he started abusing the
drugs.
CATHERINE MATTHEWS: And a lot of times
with Patrick, with the drugs, it came down to not being able to find work.
SARLOWER SURRY: Life sentence is no way
to deal with a drug addiction.
EISIBE SNEED: My son wasn’t a menace to
society.
DELOICE LEWIS: He would give his shirt
off his back.
CATHERINE MATTHEWS: And being so
tenderhearted in a place like that, it just doesn’t fit. It’s changed him that
way, because I notice he is getting a little colder. I find that he’s not believing
and he’s not keeping his faith as much. He’s not—like, he’s like, "I’m
about ready to give up on this."
WILLIE COMBS: Oh, it’s been hard. I go
down there and see him. I can’t hardly stand to leave him, but I know I have to
go. It be hard. It be hard.
CATHERINE MATTHEWS: To tell him what I
ate for Thanksgiving, and he couldn’t eat it, you know, it’s hard. It’s little
things like that.
DELOICE LEWIS: And my birthday coming up,
and those are days I break.
BURL CAIN: But if this person can go back
and be a productive citizen and not commit crimes again, these nonviolent
crimes, then why are we keeping him here, spending all this money? Because
maybe I’ve done my job, so he should have a parole hearing.
SARLOWER SURRY: There’s too many families
that’s suffering out here.
LORETTA LUMAR: Give him a second chance.
He’s 54 years old now.
WILLIE COMBS: I’m looking for things to
change.
CATHERINE MATTHEWS: Because these boys
are just getting wasted away in these prisons for no reason.
AMY GOODMAN: That is an ACLU video of
people talking about their loved ones in prison. Yesterday, The Washington Post
had an editorial, "Obama Neglects His Power to Pardon." "At
least Mr. Obama is aware [that] he possesses the power of clemency.
Unpardonably, though," The Washington Post writes, "with the
exception of the silly Thanksgiving ritual in which he spares a turkey by
executive order, he virtually never discusses this prerogative, and [he] rarely
uses it." They end this first paragraph by saying, "In fact, no
modern president comes close to Mr. Obama in meting out mercy so rarely and so
stingily." And they go on, Anthony Papa, to cite your piece in The
Huffington Post, saying, "As Huffington Post noted, so far in his
presidency Mr. Obama has pardoned about the same number of drug offenders (11)
as turkeys (10)."
ANTHONY PAPA: Right. I guess he likes
turkeys better than drug offenders. You know, if I had to tell you—send a
message to President Obama, I would tell him that, you know, because of my
personal experience, and I received executive clemency, it saved my life. It
saves the lives of many who have fallen through the cracks of the criminal
justice system, and it wrongs the rights of laws that are very draconian in
nature. And I think the powers of clemency should be exercised more. Look,
politicians don’t get political points from giving clemencies or pardons, but
if you look at it at a humanistic view, where compassion is used by these
individuals, people make mistakes in their lives, and they need to—and
hopefully they could change their lives while inside, but they get stuck
because of these draconian mandatory minimum sentencing laws. So hopefully
President Obama will exercise his pardon powers, commutation powers more, and
also governors. Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, since he’s been in office,
he hasn’t given one clemency or pardon. So, even Andrew Cuomo is afraid to use
the pardon power, I guess because there’s no real way to score politically, and
it only could be a negative aspect, looking at it.
AMY GOODMAN: I mean, you were just
recently on a panel at the New School—
ANTHONY PAPA: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: —with governors, judges.
ANTHONY PAPA: Right, in a—it was with
former governors, and they—Governor Eldridge, Senator Kerry, and they all
talked about this issue, that these people who are—they’re not using their
pardon powers enough. There’s actually a group of ex-governors now, with Jason
Flom and his people, put together this panel of ex-governors that are trying to
influence sitting governors to use the issue of pardons and their powers of
commutation more.
AMY GOODMAN: For those who are
interested, the way The Washington Post ends is citing exactly what President
Obama’s power is, that he "can act in selected cases on his own, empowered
by Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution, which permits him the ability 'to
grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States.'" They
said, "That virtually unrestricted power has been used too sparingly for
many years." In your case, we’ll end, Anthony, by you talking about how in
prison you found art as your form of liberation, that ultimately gained you the
attention that got you out of jail.
ANTHONY PAPA: Right. I transcended the
negativity of imprisonment, that the situation where I discovered my talent as
an artist, I found meaning in my life. There are many individuals in prison
under these draconian drug laws, under mandatory minimum sentencing, who are
stuck there, and they have no other relief than to ask those who are sitting in
power, these politicians who have the power to commute, the power to give
pardons and executive clemency, and I’m asking them to look at this issue and
please help these people regain their freedom. They deserve to come home to
their families.
AMY GOODMAN: Anthony Papa, I want to
thank you being with us, artist, writer, noted advocate against the war on
drugs, co-founder of Mothers of the New York Disappeared, works at Drug Policy
Alliance, author of the book 15 to Life: How I Painted My Way to Freedom .
We’ll link to your article at The Huffington Post headlined "President
Obama, Pardon Both the Turkey and Drug War Prisoners for the Holidays."
This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org,
The War and Peace Report. When we come back, what happened in over 1,500 box
stores, particularly Wal-Mart stores, the protests that took place over
Thanksgiving. Stay with us.
---
Over 110 Arrested as Record Black Friday
Protests Challenge Wal-Mart, Major Retailers on Low Wages
At least 111 people were arrested on
Black Friday in a series of protests and acts of civil disobedience targeting
Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers. In St. Paul, Minnesota, 26 protesters
were arrested when they blocked traffic while demanding better wages for
janitors and retail employees. In Illinois, 10 people were issued citations at
a protest near a Wal-Mart in Chicago. Video posted online showed nine people
being arrested at a protest outside a Wal-Mart store in Alexandria, Virginia.
At Wal-Mart protests in California, 15 people were arrested in Roseville, 10
arrested in Ontario, and five arrested in San Leandro. Organizers said actions
took place at 1,500 Wal-Mart locations across the country, up from about 400
locations last year. Meanwhile, fast-food workers have announced plans to hold
a one-day strike in 100 cities on Thursday as part of a campaign to win a
$15-an-hour wage. We discuss the labor protests with Josh Eidelson, staff
reporter at Salon.com.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not
be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: At least 111 people were
arrested Black Friday in a series of protests and acts of civil disobedience
targeting Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers. In St. Paul, Minnesota, 26
protesters were arrested when they blocked traffic while demanding better wages
for janitors and retail employees; in Illinois, 10 people issued citations at a
protest near a Wal-Mart in Chicago. Video posted online showed nine people
being arrested at a protest outside a Wal-Mart store in Alexandria, Virginia.
PROTESTER: Nine community leaders, labor
leaders, workers were just arrested as part of a civil disobedience to bring
attention to the fact that Wal-Mart is not treating its workers right, that
it’s not respecting it, that it’s not letting workers exist with dignity. And
so, we wanted to make sure that they knew and that the workers know that
there’s a large community behind them that supports them and that’s going to
stick by them until we get right and respectful treatment, dignified work, good
salaries.
AMY GOODMAN: Protests were also held
across California. Fifteen people were arrested outside a Wal-Mart in
Roseville, another 10 arrested in Ontario, California, five more people
arrested outside a Wal-Mart in San Leandro. Organizers said actions took place
at 1,500 Wal-Mart locations across the country, up from 400 last year.
Meanwhile, fast-food workers have announced plans to hold a one-day strike in a
hundred cities Thursday as part of a campaign to win a $15-an-hour wage.
To talk more about these labor protests,
we’re joined by Josh Eidelson, staff reporter at Salon.com. His latest article,
"Tens of Thousands Protest, Over 100 Arrested in Black Friday Challenge to
Wal-Mart."
So, how significant were these protests?
JOSH EIDELSON: Well, by some measures,
these were the largest protests we’ve seen against Wal-Mart, in that you had
1,500 stores involved; you had somewhat over a hundred people arrested; you
had, certainly, once again, Wal-Mart put in an uncomfortable spotlight on what
should be the happiest day of the year for the retailer. What isn’t clear is
whether there were any more Wal-Mart employees involved than one year ago. And
organizers made a strategic shift from last year focusing on strikes to this year
putting in the spotlight civil disobedience. Many of the people in those civil
disobediences were not Wal-Mart employees. And so, the fact that it’s not clear
we saw any more than the 400-some workers who went on strike in 2012 involved
in protest in 2013, I think, speaks to the challenges of organizing at
Wal-Mart, particularly in the aftermath of the firing of 23 strikers by
Wal-Mart in the period coming after a trip to Arkansas this summer.
AMY GOODMAN: And talk about the NLRB
decision that’s very significant for them.
JOSH EIDELSON: So, the National Labor
Relations Board has announced that it’s ready to issue a complaint, roughly the
equivalent of an indictment, against Wal-Mart for a number of allegations
involving the company’s efforts to restrain people from going on strike. This
includes everything from comments made to CNN by David Tovar, a Wal-Mart
spokesperson who has since been promoted to vice president, who said that,
"Depending on the circumstances, there could be consequences if you don’t
come to work," to firings, other forms of retaliation, alleged
retaliation, various kinds of discipline against workers who stood up. And
these allegations have been made throughout the campaign. The alleged
retaliation intensified earlier this year after this several-day trip to
Arkansas, this protest at the shareholder convention. And in conversations with
workers, those actions have had a real effect. And so, there is hope expressed,
both by employees and by activists, that the labor board moving forward with
these allegations will embolden workers to stand up to this alleged
retaliation, but the labor board does not have a very successful history of
averting or avenging actions by companies that try to squash workers
organizing.
AMY GOODMAN: And talk about OUR Walmart,
the group affiliated with United Food and Commercial Workers.
JOSH EIDELSON: So, this is a group that
has very close ties to the UFCW. It is not a union. It is not seeking
collective bargaining. But it’s a group of workers who are demanding changes to
scheduling, schedules that they say are erratic and insufficient; changes to
wages, including a demand for a $25,000-a-year wage floor for full-time work;
and an end to that retaliation, the right to organize and speak up, which is
recognized under U.S. law not just for people who want a union, but for workers
who want to engage in action collectively to change their conditions.
AMY GOODMAN: The amount of public subsidy
for Wal-Mart workers because they make so little, how much does the public pay?
JOSH EIDELSON: So, depending on what one
counts, there was a study that was released by congressional Democrats looking
at Wisconsin that estimated that Wal-Mart workers at one store used nearly a
million dollars in public assistance. And this speaks to—while there are
questions about what kind of language makes sense to use—I think sometimes the
language that people use to talk about this really reinforces some of the
anti-welfare sentiment that people have—it is clear that the fact that our
largest employer, which is owned by our wealthiest family, is a company whose
employees, in tremendous numbers, depend on our very stingy poverty programs in
the United States, says a lot about the state of the U.S. economy and work.
AMY GOODMAN: And it wasn’t just protests
at Wal-Mart stores.
JOSH EIDELSON: In Minnesota, there were
also subcontracted janitors involved who clean Target buildings. These are
workers who have gone on strike previously, who are facing, as Wal-Mart
warehouse workers do, what I call the "Who’s the Boss" problem, where
they’re not legally employed by this giant corporation, but they would argue
they are subject to the business model of that company, and they’re trying to
put that company in the spotlight as a way of forcing some pressure to raise
those conditions.
AMY GOODMAN: Talk about what’s going to
happen on Thursday and how these actions, if they are, are related.
JOSH EIDELSON: So, The New York Times’
Steven Greenhouse reported that the fast-food campaign, an effort that, as I
reported first at Salon, came out last year with a strike in one city in New
York, which we’ve seen escalate since then, Greenhouse reported, is going to
involve strikes in a hundred cities on Thursday and protests in many more. So
this is a serious escalation by a campaign that is significantly backed by the
Service Employees International Union, that also represents an effort by labor,
in a time when organized labor is largely on defense, to tackle one of our
largest and increasingly representative industries. The nature of fast-food
work increasingly is the nature of work in the United States—precarious,
surveilled, involving emotional labor, involving a lack of a consistent
schedule, and poverty wages. And so, these workers, by going on strike not
against one company, but against all the big companies in the industry, and
beginning in one city and now escalating reportedly to a hundred cities, are
trying to squeeze that industry. It remains to be seen whether the end result
there, whether the best-case scenario for them, happens through some kind of
national deal with major corporations to pave the way for unionization at the
franchisees or whether the most direct effect is seen through legislative
change. But workers have been clear from the beginning that their demand is $15
an hour and the right to unionize.
AMY GOODMAN: Whole Food workers, they’re
getting involved. In New York, in some of the stores on Thanksgiving, they were
open ’til 4:00.
JOSH EIDELSON: So, I reported on the case
of Whole Foods workers in Chicago, who went on strike demanding the right to be
off on Thanksgiving. Their argument was, let people do the shopping up until
Thanksgiving, and then on Thanksgiving, this holiday that we’ve made possible
for people, we should get to be home and enjoy it. And those workers at Whole
Foods went out on strike in Chicago. This is a group that’s tied to the same
folks in the fast-food movement in Chicago, which also includes retail and
Whole Foods, and they got what they wanted. Whole Foods claimed to me and to
them that that had been their policy all along, that no one has to work on
Thanksgiving if they don’t want to. But none of the Whole Foods workers I
talked to in Chicago or elsewhere in the country said that that was how the
policy had been explained to them. And so, a rally planned by those workers for
that Wednesday turned into something of a victory rally when the company said,
"Yes, anybody can take the day off on Thanksgiving if they want to."
AMY GOODMAN: And how does this movement
tie in, for example, to the $15-an-hour victory that was won at SeaTac Airport
in Seattle?
JOSH EIDELSON: So, folks who are involved
out in Washington state have attributed the political momentum behind that $15
win, that narrow but quite significant in terms of where we go nationally
potentially win, attributed it in part to the call for $15 being made by those
fast-food workers around the country.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Josh, thanks so much
for updating us. Josh Eidelson is staff reporter at Salon.com. We’ll link to
his piece, "Tens of Thousands Protest, Over 100 Arrested in Black Friday
Challenge to Wal-Mart."
-------
HEADLINES:
4 Killed, Dozens Wounded in NY Train
Crash
Four people were killed and dozens more
were wounded in New York on Sunday when a train came off the tracks. The
early-morning derailment came in a wooded area where the Hudson and Harlem
rivers meet. A freight train derailed nearby earlier this year. A witness said
some of the passengers were on their way to work.
Andrea Levin: "Terrible. Those poor
people. I just keep thinking: 'Those poor people.' We all take this train
regularly. I live right up the block. I mean, it’s just so sad. You know, I see
the trains on Sunday morning going by; I think, 'These poor people are
working.' You know, working people, working on Sunday morning, going to their
jobs, some coming home from the holiday. And you get on a train, and look what
happens. Just awful."
Of the 63 wounded, at least 11 were in
critical condition. A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board
said the crash will be investigated.
Earl Weener: "Throughout the next
few days, our investigators will work on scene to thoroughly document the
accident scene, gathering the factual information. Our mission is to understand
not just what happened, but why it happened, with the intent of preventing it
from happening again."
Thousands of commuters on the Metro
North’s Hudson Line are expected to face delays over the next week as repair
crews and investigators work on the crash site.
---
White House Claims Progress in Health
Site Fix
The White House says it’s met its goals
for fixing the troubled federal healthcare website ahead of a weekend deadline.
The administration claims the site can now handle up to 50,000 simultaneous
users and up to 800,000 a week.
---
Dozens Arrested in Black Friday Protests;
Fast-Food Workers Plan New Strike
At least 111 people were arrested on
Black Friday in a series of protests and acts of civil disobedience targeting
Wal-Mart and other big-box retailers. Organizers say actions took place at
1,500 Wal-Mart locations across the country, up from about 400 locations last
year. The Black Friday protests follow a series of recent advances to boost the
pay of low-wage workers. Last week, voters in the Seattle suburb of SeaTac gave
final approval of a measure to impose a $15 minimum wage at Seattle’s
international airport. Lawmakers also advanced measures to increase the minimum
wage in Massachusetts and in two Maryland counties. And just days after Black
Friday, campaigners have called for a national day of action on Thursday to
continue protests for a $15 minimum wage at fast-food stores nationwide.
---
Pakistanis Continue Rallies, Blockade
Against Drone War
Rallies continued in Pakistan over the
weekend in protest of the U.S. drone war. Activists in KPK province staged the
latest in a series of blockades targeting the routes used by NATO to move
supplies into Afghanistan.
Protester: "The Americans come and
attack Pakistan, killing women and children. Everyone gets martyred. We demand
that NATO supplies should be blocked and drone attacks should be stopped."
---
Karzai: U.S. Cutting Supplies in Security
Pact Row
Afghan President Hamid Karzai is accusing
the United States of coercive measures to pressure him into signing a long-term
security pact. Karzai announced last week he wants to continue negotiations on
a deal to maintain U.S. forces beyond 2014. On Sunday, Karzai said the U.S. has
cut military supplies, including fuel, to his government in retaliation. The
United States has denied the claim. Tensions escalated last week after a U.S.
drone attack killed a child and injured two women in Helmand Province. The top
U.S. commander in Afghanistan, General Joseph Dunford, called Karzai to
apologize.
---
Dozens Killed in Iraq Violence; November
Toll Tops 600
Dozens of people were killed in Iraq over
the weekend amidst a worsening spate of violence. At least 52 people were
killed on Friday, including many kidnapped and shot dead. Ten were killed and
25 wounded on Sunday when a suicide bomber hit a funeral procession north of
Baghdad. Iraq is facing its worst violence in five years, with more than 600
killed in November and more than 6,000 killed this year.
---
Egypt Assembly Approves Draft Charter;
Hundreds Protest in Tahrir Square
Egypt’s Constituent Assembly has approved
the draft of a new constitution that would expand certain rights while also
entrenching military rule. The proposed changes guarantee freedom of religion
and women’s rights while also banning religious-based parties, such as the
Muslim Brotherhood, and making it more difficult to remove Egyptian military
leader General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. On Sunday, police fired tear gas at
hundreds of protesters rallying in Tahrir Square in support of ousted President
Mohamed Morsi. The Egyptian government has announced, meanwhile, it’s extending
the imprisonment of prominent blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah for another 15 days.
---
Thousands Protest Potential Israeli
Expulsion of Bedouin Arabs
Thousands of people rallied in Israel and
the Occupied Territories on Saturday to protest the potential mass expulsion of
Bedouin Arabs. Israeli lawmakers have advanced the so-called Prawer Plan, which
would raze Bedouin villages in the Negev desert and replace them with Israeli
settlements.
---
Over 300,000 Rally in Ukraine over EU
Ties
Estimated crowds of more than 300,000
rallied across Ukraine on Sunday in an anti-government protest. Demonstrators
have gathered for the past week to oppose the government’s refusal to sign an
agreement that would boost ties with the European Union. Thousands flocked to
Kiev’s Independence Square on Sunday in defiance of a government ban on public
rallies. Earlier today, demonstrators began blockading government buildings in
Kiev in an escalation of their protest.
---
Thousands Rally in Honduras in Recount
Call
The runner-up in the contested Honduras
election has rejected the official results, alleging fraud. Right-wing ruling
party candidate Juan Orlando Hernández was named the winner last week over
Xiomara Castro, wife of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. But on Friday, Castro
demanded a recount, citing fraud at the polls.
Xiomara Castro: "We have uncovered a
disgusting, monstrous fraud, through which the Honduran people have been robbed
of the presidency of the republic. We will not change our position until we are
allowed to enter the electoral system. We are not going to accept the results
from this electoral tribunal. We do not recognize the legitimacy of any government
that is a product of this assault."
Castro’s LIBRE party says vote tallies
from thousands of ballot boxes were falsified. Observers from the European
Union, Organization of American States and the Carter Center have called the
elections transparent. But other observers, including Spanish Judge Baltasar
Garzón and some dissenting members of the EU delegation, have said there was
fraud. On Sunday, thousands of people marched in the Honduran capital
Tegucigalpa in a show of support for a recount. The demonstrators paraded with
the coffin of Antonio Ardón, a well-known LIBRE party supporter who was shot
dead on Saturday. Activists say his killing was politically motivated.
---
Tens of Thousands Protest Peña Nieto in
Mexico
Tens of thousands of people took to the
streets of Mexico City on Sunday to protest the policies of Mexican President
Enrique Peña Nieto on the first anniversary of his inauguration. Peña Nieto’s
election marked the return of the PRI party, which ruled Mexico for more than
70 years amid accusations of corruption. On Sunday, thousands of students,
teachers, union workers and former prisoners marched to the main plaza. They
joined tens of thousands of people rallying against Peña Nieto’s plans to
privatize Mexico’s oil and gas sector. One protester described his arrest a
year ago while on his way to oppose Peña Nieto’s inauguration.
Alejandro Lugo: "I was detained
leaving my house. I was tortured. I am one of the cases most documented of
torture by city government, by riot police and prison personnel. After being
absolved of all crimes, we are going to denounce all that happened. These are
grave violations. Obviously the right to protest basically doesn’t exist
anymore here in Mexico City, nor does the right of personal integrity. The
Internet is full of videos of police assaulting protesters and people who were
nearby the protests. Freedom of expression is at risk."
A new report from Amnesty International
says Peña Nieto has failed to curb rampant human rights abuses in Mexico,
including forced disappearances, arbitrary detentions and torture.
---
Marissa Alexander Freed on Bond Ahead of
Trial
A Florida woman whose case has drawn national
attention over alleged racial bias has been freed on bail pending her upcoming
trial. Marissa Alexander, an African-American mother of three, was sentenced to
20 years in prison for firing a warning shot at a wall near her abusive
husband. Alexander’s sentence drew comparisons to George Zimmerman’s acquittal
for the killing of Trayvon Martin. A Florida appeals court ordered a new trial
earlier this year, saying the jury for her case received faulty instructions.
On Wednesday night, the eve of Thanksgiving, Alexander was released on more
than $200,000 bond. She will remain under house arrest until her new trial
begins in March.
---
Republican Tweet Mocked for Racism Claim
The Republican National Committee drew
mockery on Sunday when its Twitter account posted a picture of Rosa Parks with
the message: "Today we remember Rosa Parks’ bold stand and her role in
ending racism." The RNC later tweeted a correction, saying it meant to
honor Parks for "her role in fighting to end racism." But the
original tweet led thousands to post messages using the satirical hashtag
"#RacismEndedWhen."
---
Last Jailed Arctic 30 Member Freed on
Bail
The last jailed member of the Greenpeace
"Arctic 30" has been granted bail in Russia after over two months
behind bars. Australian activist Colin Russell was the only one to remain
jailed after the 29 others were granted bail late last month. All 30 face up to
seven years in prison for the boarding of a Russian oil platform to stop oil
drilling in the Arctic.
-------
Goodman: Talking turkey about climate
change
Another extreme weather event is
disrupting one of the most popular traditions here in the United States,
Thanksgiving. Mete-orologists at The Weather Channel have named the winter
storm “Boreas,” after the ancient Greek god of the north wind, the bringer of
winter. They report that at least 14 people have been killed so far by the
storm, and 58 million people have been impacted. Boreas is dumping snow and
freezing rain across the northeast of the country on the busiest travel days of
the years. TV weather reports follow a standard format: the intrepid crew
stands alongside a snowy highway or at an airport with stranded passengers. Why
not use these fossil-fueled backdrops as an opportunity to discuss climate
change? Why not talk about how our lifestyles, so profoundly dependent on
greenhouse gas emissions, from driving cars to flying in planes, contribute
directly to disruptive weather?
Climate science predicts that, as the
planet warms, extreme weather events of all types will increase in their
frequency and their severity. The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research is
an organization based in Britain, bringing together scientists and other
experts to research, assess and communicate the unfolding realities of global
warming. Scientists from the Tyndall Centre attended last week’s United Nations
climate summit in Warsaw, Poland. Kevin Anderson is the deputy director of the
center. While Warsaw is a two-hour flight from Manchester, he spent 23 hours in
transit, taking trains.
“The carbon dioxide emissions from flying
... it’s sort of emblematic of modern life, for the wealthy few of us, that it
symbolizes what we do, day in, day out. We don’t think twice about burning more
and more carbon,” Anderson told me. He says a radical shift is needed,
immediately, in how we live our lives, in order to avert climate-change-related
disaster. “If you sit in on the big plenary sessions, what you hear are these
ministers with sort of platitudes and ‘We must do something about it’ — all
motherhood and apple pie ... we have our cake, and we can eat it. The science
is showing this is completely misguided,” Anderson said of the U.N. climate
negotiations.
The conference grants one member of the
youth delegation time at the podium. This year, Marian Hussein Osman, a Somali
youth climate activist from Mogadishu, addressed the crowd: “Where human
existence is non-negotiable, you’ve made a 21-year wager on our future. ...
Greed and the petty interests of a minority should not rob us of what have
become inarguably inalienable human rights. With our homes, livelihoods and
even geophysical existences at risk, raised ambition on climate change is not
optional; it is vital.”
Near the end of the summit, close to 800
people walked out, declaring Warsaw the worst summit to date. They wore signs
reading, “Polluters Talk, We Walk,” since the UN process in Warsaw was, for the
first time, co-sponsored by the coal and petroleum industries. As the hundreds
of NGO representatives and activists gathered for the walkout in the atrium in
Warsaw’s National Stadium, the site of the climate summit, Kumi Naidoo, the
executive director of Greenpeace International, took the microphone: “Our
message to our political leaders: Understand that nature does not negotiate.
You cannot change the science. And we have to change political will. And it’s
within their capacity to do that, and they cannot drag their feet any longer.”
Those who walked out wore a second
message as well: the Spanish word, “Volveremos,” and its English translation,
“We Will Be Back.” Jamie Henn of 350.org captured the spirit of the walkout,
and the collective pledge among those gathered to intensify grassroots organizing,
on a global scale: “We’re beginning to figure out that to make progress on
climate, we can’t just come to these conferences and ask leaders for action; we
really need to take on the industry itself.” — Denis Moynihan contributed
research to this column.
AMY GOODMAN is the host of “Democracy
Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,000
stations in North America. She is the co-author of “The Silenced Majority,” a
New York Times best-seller.
-------
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