Benefit for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Monday 29th May 2017, Benefit for Mumia Abu-Jamal, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.
On Monday, April 24, 2017, Mumia Abu-Jamal’s 63rd birthday and 36th year of torturous wrongful incarceration, there will be a hearing on his Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) petition in Pennsylvania state court. The hearing is expected to begin at 9:00AM at the Criminal Justice Center, Room 1101, 1303 Filbert Street in Philadelphia, PA. This hearing is being held to determine whether all of the PA Supreme Court decisions from 1995-2008 that denied Abu-Jamal his freedom should be overturned.
Abu-Jamal was convicted in 1981 for the murder of police officer Daniel Faulkner despite evidence demonstrating the police and prosecution manufactured proof of his guilt and suppressed evidence of his innocence. He was prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to death because of political reasons: his former membership in the Black Panther Party and his support for the MOVE organization.
Beginning at 8am and continuing while the court hearing is in progress, there will be a spirited live-streamed rally and demonstration around the Criminal Justice Center and City Hall, calling for the release of Abu-Jamal on signs and banners. The International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal and the Mobilization for Mumia are also urging supporters to attend an evening program “Resistance Matters – Legal and Medical Justice for Mumia and all Prisoners” at Arch Street United Methodist Church, 55 North Broad Street, from 6-9PM for the most up-to the-minute update.
This legal challenge is based on the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Terry Williams’ case, which ruled that an appellate judge cannot participate in a case in which he had a former role in significant prosecutorial decisions. Ronald Castille was the District Attorney responsible for opposing Abu-Jamal’s 1989 appeal of his trial conviction and death sentence. Former Philadelphia DA Castille ran for election to the PA Supreme Court bragging that 45 men (including Abu-Jamal) had been convicted and sentenced to death by his DA’s office. After being elected to the PA Supreme Court in 1994, Castille ruled against Abu-Jamal in every appeal brought before him critical of the actions of his former DA’s office. Castille had also been financed and named “Man of the Year” by the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). This is the same right wing organization who endorsed Donald Trump for president in 2016.
In the meantime, the Mobilization for Mumia won an important victory for Mumia Abu-Jamal, and thousands of other similarly infected individuals suffering from hepatitis C in PA prisons. After a two year long campaign in the courts and the streets, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (DOC), paving the way for Abu-Jamal to get the cure for his hepatitis C infection which had already led to the scarring of his liver. He is now in the second week of receiving the life saving medication and his victory will clear the way for the other 7,000 inmates suffering from untreated hepatitis C to also get treated. Legal actions continue in fighting for compensation for damages due to the DOC’s negligence in refusing to treat Mumia and other prisoners in a timely and humane manner.
Our ultimate goal is to win Abu-Jamal’s release as well as freedom for other politically targeted political prisoners, virtually invisible in the modern day concentration camps we call prisons.
For more information look at: http://www.freemumia.com […Lees verder]
Screening: The Strange World of Gurney Slade (1960)
Sunday 28th May 2017, Screening: The Strange World of Gurney Slade (1960). Written by Sid Green and Dick Hills.. We’ll be screening three episodes at 9pm.
The bizarre adventures of a frustrated actor, who walks off a tired family sitcom into a world of talking dogs, and dancing advertisements. One of television’s genuine oddities, The Strange World of Gurney Slade was a whimsical ‘comedy of thought’ following one ex- (or so he thinks) actor’s meandering journey through a fantasy world. On the back of a burgeoning pop career, Anthony Newley was offered free reign to create of a six-part comedy series in collaboration with comedy scriptwriters Sid Green and Dick Hills (who would later write for Morecambe and Wise). The result, to the bemusement of ATV’s Lew Grade, was not a series of pop shows, but an off-beat, stream-of-consciousness comedy.
Unusually, the series was shot on film, marking it out from the largely studio-bound, live, theatrical drama of its time. The first episode sees actor Gurney Slade, in protest against a hackneyed sitcom script, abandoning the studio set for the streets of London. What follows is a fantastical journey unlike anything on television by 1960: Lewis Carroll-style linguistic invention, conversations with dustbins and dances with Hoovers, culminating in Gurney’s entering a home to find an average TV viewing family (his former acting colleagues) watching his show. […Lees verder]
“Cinema Perpetuum Mobile” Short Films
Thursday 25th May 2017, “Cinema Perpetuum Mobile” Short Films. Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm. Short films from 9pm.
Cinema Perpetuum Mobile (CPM) is an annual international short film festival. Founded in 2011 in Minsk (Belarus) by a cinephile community Kinaklub.org. CPM sticks to its goals:
– promoting films by young and independent Belarusian authors in Belarus and internationally
– searching for new forms and tendencies in cinema on the edge of amateur and professional film-making;
– exploring social issues via cinematographic language
– develop and strengthen connections between film-makers and film-making communities all around the world
Cinema Perpetuum Mobile reaches the audience not only in Belarusian regions and cities, but in other countries as well. It is you who help us bring independent cinema to more and more people, and our community is growing due to the principles we incorporate in our mission: decentralization (horizontal structure of the festival), self-organization (volunteer basis, grassroot initiative), transparency (possibility to join the community at any time, and contribute to festival organization).
At the 6th festival of Cinema Perpetuum Mobile will show 12 programs of short films from around the world. The main Belarusian program includes 3 documentary and 6 gaming works created by young independent authors over the past year. In addition to the traditional genre competition sections (game, documentary, experimental cinema, animation), the organizers prepared two sets of works at the junction of various types of art: multimedia, social networks, video blogging and computer technologies.
For the second time at the festival there will be a Visual Music show devoted to audiovisual works from around the world. This year the organizers decided to experiment and collected a selection of Belarusian works synthesizing video, photography, blogging and clip culture and performance.
Cinema Perpetuum Mobile: http://filmfest.by/en/ […Lees verder]
Benefit for the political prisoners in Greece. With Rebet guitarS and Tassos
Monday 22nd May 2017, Solidarity fund for prisoners and persecuted fighters. Volkseten Vegazulu at 7pm. Music from 9pm with With Rebet guitarS (Charis Konstantinou and Jaap Faber) and Tassos (violin).
The Solidarity Fund for prisoners or persecuted militants is a nationwide structure in Greece consisting of individual assemblies in various towns. The structure of the Solidarity Fund supports people who struggle and are persecuted and imprisoned for their involvement in the social and class struggles, for their subversive action within the spectrum of the multiform revolutionary struggle.
We support the imprisoned militants MATERIALLY-ETHICALLY-POLITICALLY
Up until the demolition of the last prison…
Rebet guitarS (Charis Konstantinou and Jaap Faber) and Tassos (violin):
Music from the 30’s, composed A. Kostis, Spyros Peristeris, Kostas Skarvelis, Stelios Chrisynis.
Rebetiko, the music crossroad between middle east and west from the early 1900’s. Songs about love, joy and sorrow. A musical sub-culture, a music of the lower classes.
“The womb of rebetiko was the jail and the hash den. It was there that the early rebetes created their songs. They sang in quiet, harsh voices, unforced, one after the other, each singer adding a verse which often bore no relation to the previous verse, and a song often went on for hours. There was no refrain, and the melody was simple and easy.” Ilias Petropoulos. […Lees verder]
Benefit the court costs of the evicted squat at Ruijterkade 110
Thursday 17 May 2017, Benefit the court costs of the evicted squat at Ruijterkade 110, Volkseten Vegazulu, 7pm.
The building on the Ruijterkade 110 was squatted 26th March. On monday 27th March Oscar Stradmann and his workers broke in, thus breaking house peace. On wednesday 29th March Oscar Stradmann with more workers broke in with a bulldozer, this was stopped thanks to solidarity from comrades.
On monday 10th April, the crew was filmed illegally by Oscar Stradmann’s main B Cees van Schawedijk himself, bringing a conflict inside the court house. Two persons were arrested under false premises. They were released later on. On tuesday 11th April Cees van Schawedijk (Oscar’s main B) walked in the private soil of the NS rail system, and shied away when being filmed.
After the negative court case, we shielded the building, it took 3 days to evict Ruijterkade 110. We are facing legal costs from the court. Support the struggle, come to the best skipping voku, we out do ourselves! […Lees verder]
Benefit for the political prisoners in Turkey. Show with Troy Faid (Scunthorpe, UK)
Monday 15 May 2017, Benefit for the political prisoners in Turkey. Show with Troy Faid (duo guitar, double bass from Scunthorpe, UK). Volkseten Vegazulu, people’s kitchen at 7pm. Music from 9pm till 10pm.
Troy Faid (Scunthorpe, UK), guitar, banjo, stomp box & vocals. Folk musician and songwriter, political and poetic lyrics played with furious intensity. His fingerstyle jazz guitar and earlyold voice communicate a desirous music – appreciated by many and influenced by a myriad of musicians and thinkers: from Elliot Smith to Django Reinhardt… Karl Jung to Erich Fromm. http://www.troyfaid.co.uk/
Volkseten Vegazulu is a people’s kitchen, every monday and thursday, all year long. Door opens at 7pm. Vegan food for 4€ or donation. All benefits go for social & political struggles. No reservation. In July and August, the people’s kitchen is closed on thursday.
We’re always looking for cooks. Any help is welcome in the kitchen. Experience not required. Enjoying it is a must. If you want to know which days are still available in the schedule, send an email to joe [at] squat [dot] net and book yourself the night. You can, of course, also participate by rolling up your sleeves and doing the dishes.
Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema: El Pico (Eloy de la Iglesia, 1983)
Sunday May 14th 2017, Can Dialectics Break Bricks Cinema. El Pico (1983) by Eloy de la Iglesia. 105 minutes. In Spanish and Basque, with custom-made English subtitles. Door opens at 8pm, film begin at 9pm. Free admission.
This is the key movie of a much discussed genre called /cine quinqui/, which dealt mostly with heroin-use and small-time criminality. While Europe seemingly only produced a handful of heroin dramas like Christiane F., in Spain the genre caught on like wildfire. Most of the films were low budget, rough and gritty in a wonderful Blaxploitation kind of way.
El pico is the culmination of the quinqui movement, but it is also much more than that. No longer a low-budget affair, this movie is a full-fledged political thriller set in the Basque country. At the time, Eloy de la Iglesia’s denunciation of the Guardia Civil’s involvement in the heroin trade sounded like a crazy conspiracy theory. It would take another fifteen years for the Supreme Court to endorse the accusations made in this movie (Caso UCIFA, 1997). Much like the CIA’s involvement in the Cointelpro heroin deals to hush down, frame or kill the ‘black power’ communities, the Guardia Civil worked hand in hand with drugdealers to stifle a rebellious unemployed Basque youth, who were still joining the ranks of ETA and nationalist parties.
If this wasn’t enough, El pico is also a film about homosexual emancipation. Quique San Francisco plays a brave, politically engaged, deeply humane gay character, and in the role of the beautiful young junkie we find Eloy de la Iglesia’s long-time lover Jose Luis Manzano, one of the many heroin celebrities of the time. As a teenager, Manzano had tried to mug the film director, but ended up starring in several of his films. Like many cine quinqui stars, the talented non-actor spent his life going from rehab to filmshoot to court-hearing, and he died of a bad heroin dose just a decade after this movie was shot.
The movie was a massive box-office success, despite the horrendous reviews by film critics in Spain. it was soon followed up with El pico 2, which presented drug use in a slightly more realistic way.
Film night at Joe’s Garage, cozy cinema! Doors open at 8pm, film begins at 9pm, free entrance. You want to play a movie, let us know: joe [at] squat [dot] net
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