By Guest Contributor, on September 5th, 2013 
Cross-Posted from the DC Independent Media Center by Luke
Petitions for LRAA (living wage) act delivered to Mayor after press conference
On the 3rd of September, DC Councilmember Vincent Orange held a press conference in front of the Wilson Building along with supporters of the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA).
They were demanding that Mayor Gray sign the LRAA instead of bowing to Wal-Mart’s brazen threats to leave the city if the bill is signed into law. Speakers pointed out that in 1963 during the Jobs and Freedom March, Dr Martin Luther King demanded a minimum wage of $2 an hour. In 2013 dollars, that is over $15 an hour, yet the LRAA only mandates $12.50 an hour inclusive of benefits.
Several speakers also pointed out that longtime District residents, who held out through the Crack Wars and the lean years to stay in the city, requires more than $8 and change an hour now that all those condos are going up.
At the conclusion of the press conference, a box containing 36,917 (according to speakers) signed petitions asking the Mayor to sign the LRAA were taken inside and delivered to his office.
Town Hall meeting in Anacostia demands that Mayor Gray sign Living Wage bill
On the evening of the 27th of August, community members and activists packed into the Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church to demand that Mayor Gray sign the Large Retailer Accountability Act.
DC Councilmembers Phil Mendelson and Vincent Orange both spoke to support the LRAA. Both Mendelson and Reverend Curry (senior pastor at the Church) held up pens and demanded that the Mayor sign the bill.
Phil Mendelson bluntly condemned the Mayor’s hypocrisy in appearing at the Martin Luther King and Statehood events on Saturday, yet leaning towards vetoing the LRAA.
Other speakers debunked the lies Wal-Mart has been spreading with facts about how states and cities that raised their minimum wages over the past 20 years have not had higher unemployment than those that did not.
One of the speakers pointed out that the $2 minimum wage demanded by organizers of the original 1963 March for Jobs and Freedom would be worth $15 an hour today, and the LRAA is only asking for $12.50 an hour.
Near the end, Reverend Hagler condemned Mayor Gray for taking “30 pieces of silver” from Wal-Mart. Those 30 pieces of silver will drag Mr Gray out of office and right into the gutter, ending his career if he vetoes a living wage for workers at Wal-Mart, Target, and Home Depot!
By Ben King, on September 3rd, 2013 
This post is part of a series of report-back posts from the 15th annual Allied Media Conference held in Detroit in June.
The title of this post is borrowed from a session at this year’s Allied Media Conference. The workshop was timely when it was conducted on June 21 because Google had just been implicated in the NSA’s spying scandal, known as the PRISM Program. Apparently, Google could not live up to its mandate, “Don’t be evil.” Also taking place that weekend in Detroit was a commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech.” (MLK gave a version of that speech in Detroit in the summer of 1963 before bringing it to DC for the March on Washington in August.) One wonders what Dr. King would have said about our information freedom fighters today, like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.
So what is the cloud and why should we care?
According to the workshop presenters, the “cloud” simply means your software or data living on another machine. A great example of a cloud service is Gmail. Google keeps your emails on its own machines. That means you can access these files from any computer. Additionally, Gmail is convenient because it gives you a web-based interface (software) that allows you to view, sort, or search your emails.
For activists in the information age, trusting Google to keep our information 100% secure is delusional at best. The company is ultimately accountable to its shareholders and its advertisers, and it does not have the best interests of people (i.e. human beings) in mind. There are already a few alternatives to the services you get through Google (see below), although they might not be as convenient at the moment. However, if we want to envision a future where people are free from information tyrrany, we have to imagine a future where we don’t keep everything on Google Drive or the iCloud. We have to start coming up with our own, more complex networks that will strengthen our internet backbone as a whole, rather than forcing a centralized system.
Freedom in the 21st century means freedom of information. For our information to be free, it must be decentralized, copied, and reproduced from a variety of locations, available for a variety of uses, at a variety of times. Small cloud networks can start with wireless mesh networking. Communities could build their own servers, hosting data for neighbors and friends. A co-operative model might be used to administrate such a cloud. Community cloud computing isn’t really that crazy an idea.
What is crazy is that Verizon, Comcast and a variety of other companies, want to charge us for accessing the internet as individuals. The private sector is poised to make billions off of expanding cloud services. Our collective energy is what makes the web awe-inspiring. Though we might not all be connected directly, our participation in networks, social and technological, makes us part of something bigger than ourselves. Hence, we cannot resist the flow of truth, freedom of information, and transparency. With Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and other digital service providers (i.e. Google) as the gatekeepers, it is our responsibility to make sure that we develop alternatives that can keep the web free. As businesses continue to colonize online space, we have to think even more about what freedom really means when so much of our lives are online.
Alternatives to Google
May First/People Link – “May First/People Link is a politically progressive member-run and controlled organization that redefines the concept of “Internet Service Provider” in a collective and collaborative way.”
Electric Embers – “EE is a worker cooperative providing Internet hosting services and support to nonprofits, cooperatives, artists, and others contributing to the common good. We’re here to help you create a more just, sustainable, and beautiful world.”
RiseUp.net – “Riseup provides online communication tools for people and groups working on liberatory social change. We are a project to create democratic alternatives and practice self-determination by controlling our own secure means of communications.”
By Brenda Hayes, on August 29th, 2013 
I spent a little time with a few of our Potomac Gardens neighbors talking about the 50th anniversary of The March On Washington; it was a time to reflect on experiences of the past, take stock of the present, and consider the possibilities of the future. Thank you Annie Ferguson, Carlton Moxley, Enoch Pratt, Potomac Gardens Greeter Claudia, David, Gary Anderson, Ms. Teasley and Wilson Senior High School student Levi.
Pianist Carleton Moxley talks about growing up in Washington, DC when it was still segregated
[audio:http://www. grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/CarltonMoxleymow.mp3]
Enoch Pratt talks about the importance of education.
[audio: http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/enochmow.mp3]
Wilson High School Student Levi wants to attend North Carolina University.
[audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/levi.mp3]
Ms. Teasley, talks about the history of the March on Washington, the important changes that have taken place but admits that racism is still our biggest problem.
[audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/MsTeasley.mp3]
Annie Ferguson is in her 70s. She has relatives who were able to march in 1963 but she didn’t attend. If it weren’t for her recent stroke, she would have gone to the anniversary march herself.
[audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Annie-FergusonMOW.mp3]
Claudia says talks about recent set backs in civil rights.
[audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/claudia.mp3]
David talks about the importance of honoring the sacrifices of the past.
[audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/david.mp3]
Gary Anderson, a computer technician, believes we should not have to recognize color. We are all part of one race, the human race.
[audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/garyanderson.mp3]
By Liane Scott, on August 27th, 2013 
Cross-Posted from Free Speech Radio News (audio for this piece was provided by Grassroots DC Contributor Noelle Galos)
[audio:http://www.grassrootsdc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/racial_profiling_feeder_to_march_on_washington.mp3]
Events marking the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington are taking place across the country. Illinois State University students are organizing a series of performances to pay tribute to Bayard Rustin, an organizer of the 1963 march. In Detroit, where Martin Luther King, Jr. originally delivered a version of his “I Have a Dream” speech, thousands gathered for a march earlier this summer. Now, that energy is coming to Washington, DC, site of the historic march and rally. Several days of events kick off this weekend. Marchers will gather Saturday at the Lincoln Memorial to protest against a number of civil rights issues that persist: the attack on voter rights, racial profiling, poverty and discrimination. Local activists are organizing to have a share in the weekend’s events, and they hope to address racial profiling within DC law enforcement, which they say is part of the “New Jim Crow.” They are planning two feeder marches from opposite ends of the city, and hope to bring national attention to racial inequalities in the Nation’s Capital. Laura Lising, one of the group’s organizers, explained to FSRN why the group was formed and how they are plugging in their campaign to the March:
LISING: Well I think there has been a new life breathed into the march by the anger around Trayvon Martin’s murder and the acquittal of Zimmerman, despite the clear fact that he was the murderer. And so people are going to be going down there, not to just celebrate this event that happened 50 years ago, but to demand an end to continuing racist practices. And so we see ourselves in that spirit. Most of us, all of us who are involved in organizing were out for Trayvon, night after night after the Zimmerman acquittal happened… But we want to address local issues as well, and we bring the issue of racial profiling in DC to the national stage, and this is an amazing opportunity to do so.
The group of activists are united behind putting an “end to racial profiling.” They have been holding public meetings in neighborhoods across DC to share the findings of two studies published in July, one by the Washington Lawyers Committee and another by the American Civil Liberties Union. Both reports show a pattern of racial profiling by DC law enforcement. The reports look at overall arrest rates, and the ACLU’s study focuses on racial disparities for non-violent offenses, particularly marijuana arrests. The study revealed that African Americans in Washington, DC are eight times more likely to be arrested for a marijuana offense, despite near equal usage among black and white communities. Stuart Anderson, founder of the non-profit organization Family and Friends of Incarcerated People (FFOIP) said he began organizing when he himself was imprisoned.
ANDERSON: I started working with fathers in 1993, inside Lorton. When they closed Lorton, the onus of incarceration, the cost of incarceration was shifted from the city, from the state, or from the federal onto the backs of families.
Anderson said that creates a vicious cycle that weakens families and communities. His organization provides support and training to the children of those behind bars; children that Anderson says are at a higher risk of being incarcerated themselves.
ANDERSON: There are over 1.7 million children of people who are incarcerated in the United States right now today. And of those children, approximately half of them are under the age of 10.
Anderson’s group and other local organizations, are planning a rally for this evening, and will join the larger national contingent on Saturday to highlight ongoing problems with racial profiling. Other local leaders expressed skepticism that their voices would be included in the national program of events. Damian Smith, a DC artist and activist, echoed recent remarks by Cornel West that someone as outspoken as Dr. King would not be invited to speak at the march today.
SMITH: Martin Luther King would talk about extra-judicial assassinations. You know why I know Martin Luther King would talk about drones and extra-judicial assassinations? Because in his time when the war of his time was taking place he spoke at great risk to his own personal reputation about that war.
Like the organizers behind the original March in 1963, the coalition of local groups demands concrete policy change, including oversight of DC’s police department practices that criminalize African American youth. They plan to hold . . . → Read More: Local DC activists draw attention to racial profiling, incarceration ahead of March on Washington anniversary
By Guest Contributor, on August 26th, 2013 
Cross-Posted from the DC Independent Media Center by H.
On the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington, we gathered and marched to draw attention to racial profiling in DC. We marched to the Lincoln Memorial where we joined tens of thousands from across the country.
Fifty years ago, people demanded an end to Jim Crow and equal rights for all people of color. Today, the struggle continues. Though the old Jim Crow policies of the South are gone, we now see a prison industrial complex that feeds off Black men and women and a “justice” system that denies them basic rights before, during, and after their incarceration.
Racial profiling by police remains one of the worst problems of this system. A new study by the Washington Lawyers’ Committee has provided statistical evidence for what Black and Brown residents of D.C. have learned through bitter experience: extreme racial disparities exist in the pattern of arrests by police.
This study, and the systemic racism it uncovers, is igniting a larger fight against racism in the District. Town-hall meetings are happening around the city to publicize the results of the study and the reactions of the community. As the George Zimmermans of this world continue to get away with murder, it’s our job to fight back against the racist justice system.
No to racial profiling! No to mass incarceration! No to racism!
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