>The camp was started by the student coalition United Front for Palestinian Liberation, composed of Palestinians and other anti-imperialist protest groups. The students regularly engage with chants, speeches, political education talks, dancing and music, as well as organizing the logistics of food donations and other supplies. > >The camp has three demands: Divest from [Zionism], cut ties with Boeing and end all anti-Palestinian oppression. > >On May 12, Pursuit NW, a pro-imperialist Zionist group, threatened to stage a march and “cut a buzz-saw” through the Popular University camp. With a day’s notice, the camp was able to stop the Zionist threat. Hundreds of militant camp defenders staged a rally at the entrance and Pursuit NW members were prevented from entering and had to march somewhere else.

>Rural post offices are being hit with “Local Transportation Optimization.” This occurs in locations over 50 miles from a processing plant with a population of less than 30,000. Instead of there being two mail trucks a day, the evening truck, which picks up the day’s outgoing mail, is being eliminated. This adds an extra day in delivery time to much of the area’s mail. Nearly half of Oregon’s post offices, and 10,000 across the U.S., are being affected. > >The USPS has refused to answer concerns by Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, and Representatives Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici, who have called on the postal service to hold a local “Listening Session.” > >The Postal Board of Governors has also refused to attend a local community hearing called by the Portland City Council and U.S. Postal Service representatives. The meeting was to give elected officials, including senators and House representatives, a chance to raise concerns about the impact of these recent changes in the USPS on jobs and quality of service. > >Rallies to demand improved postal services and to protect good, living-wage union jobs were held during the week of May 6 in more than 85 cities in 36 states.

>When the encampment opened on April 29, 21 participants were detained in the morning but released without charge. Since then Kaler has repeatedly attempted to intimidate students and supporters. But emails accusing Palestine backers of illegal activity and posted signs reading “No trespassing, private property” and “No encampments” were ignored or defaced. > >Now a number of students are facing academic discipline for participating in the encampment. > >When students painted a pro-Palestine mural on the “Spirit Rock” — on which students have painted graffiti for years — on May 7, CWRU hired contractors to paint over it at 5:00 a.m. The contractors spray-painted the campers who defended the mural, which the contractors destroyed. CWRU’s suspension in March of the campus Students for Justice in Palestine chapter was for “gluing” leaflets in unauthorized locations, including the Spirit Rock. > >On the last day of the encampment, students moved their protest to the university administration building, where they held a sit-in to demand CWRU divest from companies doing business with [Zionism]. The day before, hundreds of people attended a nearby “All Out for Rafah” demonstration. > >Encampment participants spoke during the public comment section at the Cuyahoga County Council meeting on May 14, where local activists pressed the Council to fully divest from […] apartheid.

>Overdose deaths have surpassed 100,000 for the third straight year, according to federal data released Wednesday, a reminder that the nation remains mired in an intractable epidemic fueled by the potent drug fentanyl.

>According to provisional data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 107,543 people died in 2023, a slight decrease from the previous year. The agency described it as the first annual decrease in deaths since 2018, although experts cautioned that the numbers could rise in ensuing years and that the toll remains unacceptably high.

All of this happens while Amerikkka is bullying the global south with more wars. OH, and this is not all! Check the following cope:

>The CDC on Wednesday described the decrease as a sign that federal efforts to help prevent deaths and treat addiction in states are paying off. It could boost President Biden as he seeks reelection and Republicans rip him over border security and the flow of fentanyl synthesized by Mexican criminal groups.

!copium

>On May 11, in downtown Seattle, 2,000 demonstrators marched and rallied to remember Nakba Day, chanting: “From the River to the Sea, Palestine is almost Free!” > >At the rally, Indigenous speakers and performers made statements in solidarity with Palestine. A “No Tech for Apartheid” spokesperson condemned Google, Microsoft and Boeing as all standing next to each other in spying and invading Palestine. > >A speaker from Samidoun, the Palestinian prisoners organization, affirmed their dedication to support and gain strength from Palestinian prisoners. She said, “They keep our struggle alive.”

>Far exceeding the accumulated endowments are funds directly pumped into universities by the Department of Defense. These research and development grants dominate the budget of entire departments, especially in STEM — science, technology, engineering, mathematics — fields. > >The threat to withdraw government funding is all-powerful. The majority of science research projects are dependent on the Pentagon’s earmarked funding. > >Solving planetary problems of food, health and climate are not on the Pentagon’s agenda. Its focus is on research and development of deadly, high-tech weapons. > >A clear demand has arisen out of a living struggle that is embraced by millions who are in motion, who have learned the bitter truth that it is decades of U.S. political support, infusions of weapons and massive funding that is responsible for the Zionist war machine. This one word “Divest” challenges and exposes the whole corrupt edifice of collaboration with Zionism and with expanding U.S. wars around the globe. > >The students, faculty, staff and their supporters are courageously raising a revolutionary demand that challenges the whole underpinning of education in the U.S. today. What is at stake? > >The billionaire Alex Karp, CEO of Palantir, a CIA-backed surveillance and data mining-tech company tied to U.S. intelligence cartels and to Israel, summed up the debate from the viewpoint of the U.S. ruling class: “We think these things that are happening across college campuses are a sideshow. No, they are the show. If we lose the intellectual debate, you will not be able to deploy any army in the West, ever.” (Palantir on X, May 8)

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2024/05/14/fact-sheet-president-biden-takes-action-to-protect-american-workers-and-businesses-from-chinas-unfair-trade-practices/

>Linda Gomaa, with Amazonians United, described Jeff Bezos and Amazon’s ties with the U.S. [neo]imperialist system, the military-industrial complex, and the CIA. Gomaa said: “Jeff Bezos gets rich off all our pain. Amazon workers are barely able to make it through the day without constantly needing to take pain killers and are barely able to pay their rent. One of our co-workers died inside a warehouse on the floor. Management didn’t want to stop production for the day, so they put boxes around his dead body. > >Gomma continued: “We are in solidarity with the UPenn encampment and those around the world in solidarity with Palestine. Corporate media is doing everything they possibly can to convince you that the public is against you. It’s corporate media that is against you, the elites are against you, our boss is against you. But working people — and we are constantly having conversations with our co-workers about Palestine and the world, about politics — we are with you. > >“The people who make this country and the world run are with you. Workers are the driving economic force in this country, we have the power to stop the funding of this genocide in Palestine when we organize in the belly of the beast.”

>The second part took place when the activists and health care workers marched to Fordham Plaza for a rally, where they were joined by Neturei Karta, an anti-Zionist Jewish organization, which has been a regular presence at Palestine solidarity protests in this city. A Fordham University student who was arrested at a student encampment also spoke. > >The protesters then took the streets on Fordham Road and marched to the Grand Concourse, where they took public transportation to New York University in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village to show solidarity to the encampment there in the third part of their day’s actions. > >New York Police Department cops followed the protesters onto the train and instructed the train conductor to not move until the protesters got off the train. After shutting the entire D-line down for about 15 minutes, the demonstrators changed cars and kept moving forward. When they reached NYU, the organizers there opened the front of the march to their banners.

>Also speaking were representatives of Workers World Party and Party for Socialism and Liberation. Jesus Sanchez, with PSL, said; “[Zionism’s neocolony] caused much destruction in Central America in the 1980’s, especially toward Indigenous tribes such as the Mayan population in Guatemala. Along with the U.S., they trained forces in the genocide of the Mayans under the Ríos Montt régime.” > >Speaking for Workers World Party, this writer stated: “Look at the photo of this beautiful 11-year-old girl from Guatemala. We must understand why she and her family were even here in Houston. It is because of U.S. imperialism destroying the economies and overthrowing the leadership of Central American countries that people are forced to leave their homes. > >“It is the U.S. that is responsible for little Maria’s death. She and her family should never have been forced to be here.”

https://archive.ph/E0JUs

>Across the state, reproductive rights activists have been mobilizing, marching, rallying and petitioning since the ban was first proposed. The “Rally to Stop the Six-Week Abortion Ban” drew 2,000 people to Lake Eola Park in Orlando on April 13 to kick off the “Yes on 4” campaign geared to getting passage of Amendment 4 in November. > >At the same time, abortion access organizations are dispensing information about how to obtain abortifacient pills by mail, which can be administered at home – and telling abortion seekers about the nearest states that permit the procedure and their requirements. Abortion funders are scrambling to raise funds to help pregnant people travel out of state for this essential health care. > >The main point is that there is organized resistance to this reactionary attack. The slogans “Abortion is health care!” and “Abortion rights are human rights!” could not be more appropriate.

>The emphasis this May Day was the fight against Zionist apartheid and the genocide against Palestinians. The crowd paid close attention to the over 15 speakers and cultural performances, including music and poetry. > >Nzinga from the All African People’s Revolutionary Party (AAPRP) conveyed the anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist sentiment of the action perfectly with a militant denunciation of U.S. imperialism and [Zionism’s] settler state. The coalition intends to continue to meet and plan actions together as the struggle continues and new alliances bring anti-imperialist forces closer to this goal in the overall war against capitalism.

>There are several House members who have serious reservations about H.R. 6090, especially some progressive Democrats. Jerry Nadler is one of the most outspoken critics of the new bill. Nadler, who is Jewish and represents a district in New York City with one of the largest Jewish populations in the U.S., called out the hypocrisy of the bill and its supporters. > >Nadler publicly commented: “If my Republican colleagues were serious about antisemitism, they would have spoken up after neo-Nazis in Charlottesville chanted: ‘Jews will not replace us,’ If my Republican colleagues were serious about antisemitism, they would have spoken up when President Trump declared that there were ‘very fine people on both sides’ of that rally.” (The Nation, May 3) > >[…] > >Many activists at the encampments, including many among the thousands who have been arrested, are Jewish. One of the leading organizations to participate in the encampments is Jewish Voice for Peace. Passover was celebrated at many, if not all, of the pro-Palestinian encampments, and Seder dinners were also prepared. Seder dinners at encampments featured grape juice in lieu of wine, to respectfully honor the demand that the encampments remain alcohol-free. Jewish students at Columbia and other encampments invited non-Jewish participants to join them. > >As an expression of solidarity with their Palestinian siblings, many Jewish activists have sported keffiyehs, while images on social media have shown Jewish activists wearing kippahs (skull caps, also called yarmulkes) with watermelon designs. Watermelons are symbolic of Palestinian solidarity, because they feature the colors of the Palestinian flag. > >During a Seder dinner at Yale University, one of the event organizers, 22-year-old Yale student Miriam Levine, proudly told the crowd: “Tonight, we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people, not in spite of our Judaism but because of it. Tonight we proclaim that our liberation is intertwined.” (New York Times, April 22) > >The bourgeois media have been silent about the presence of Jewish activists at the encampments. Instead, they falsely claim that pro-Palestinian protesters at the encampments are “attacking” Jewish students. There have been reports of pro-[Zionist] provocateurs making racist and anti-Jewish statements, but once again, the corporate press does not find those stories to be newsworthy.

>Chief Ron Thomas refused to dismantle the demonstration, which he said was very peaceful, for a second time. He said “there is no legal way” for officers to dismantle the demonstration “unless they do something that creates an unlawful assembly. We are absolutely not going to go in and sweep out this peaceful protest just because they are occupying a space on your campus that you would like to use for something else right now and because of your fears that maybe this could grow to the point where it interferes with other campus activities.” > >In 2020, following police assaults on demonstrations protesting the police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the city was ordered to pay millions of dollars to demonstrators after a decision was made that the assault amounted to an unconstitutional response and excessive use of force. > >Thomas noted that since these payouts were made, there have been changes in the Denver police’s approach to crowd control. (Denver Post, May 4). His statement, however, provides no guarantee that the university administration or the police will find no pretext for police intervention.

>Tacked to the stage was a huge banner with the slogan “Long live the spirit of Kent and Jackson State!” — the slogan chanted in 1977 during the movement to try to stop KSU from building a gym on the site of the shootings. Earlier in the day, “Move the gym” had been chalked on the gym wall. > >Student speakers Sophia Swengel and Juliana Buonaiuto received applause when they drew parallels between the events at Kent State in 1970 and the wave of campus encampments now in solidarity with Palestine. Hundreds of pro-Palestine activists, who are demanding KSU divest from [neocolonial] bonds and companies that do business with the Zionist state, turned their backs on University President Todd Diacon when he spoke. > >After the university-sponsored memorial ended, divestment activists held a militant rally for Palestine, tying together the student movements of 1970 and today.

"These terrorist acts are the direct result of the policy and aggressive speech of the United States government against Cuba, of the permanent instigation of violence and hatred".

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba (MINREX), declared in a statement, the concern regarding the decision of the Court for the District of Columbia of the United States, issued on May 1, 2024, that acquitted Alexander Alazo Baró of the four charges against him, as a result of the terrorist attack perpetrated by him against the Cuban Embassy in the United States in the early hours of April 30, 2020.

https://archive.ph/wYcfe

>In the next few hours, the entire sidewalk was covered with chalked slogans, voicing solidarity with Palestine and demanding CWRU divest from […] apartheid. Other comments drew links with “Stop Cop City!” in Atlanta and the fight against capitalism in general. > >Kaler’s threats have so far not been carried out — a third victory for the occupation — and the presence of campus police outside Hind’s Oval has been subdued. On May 4, around 9 p.m., students again expanded the encampment to the edge of the sidewalk on Euclid Avenue, the main thoroughfare on Cleveland’s East Side. There have been no arrests or incidents of police brutality since the first day. > >Supporters have provided the occupiers with food, water, ice, first aid supplies, tents, tarps, blankets and storage bins — and whatever the organizers say is most needed on a given day.

See also: Campus encampments — challenging global imperialism

Late last week, US President Joe Biden announced so-called “The Safer America Plan” - which calls on US Congress to deliver $37 billion to law enforcement across the country.

Interestingly enough, this announcement came immediately after another announcement earlier that the Biden administration has delivered a “record decrease in crime.”