86 the Violence Against Sex Workers!

Take direct action to support sex worker rights today!

Stop the Violence. Stop the Fear.

See us Here.

Mothers and daughters and
Teachers and lawyers and
Songs within our souls.
Brothers with dreams, and
Trans with means,
And a light inside us that grows.

Each have a story
With sadness and glory
Trying to make our way through

When the judgment fades,
And the hate abates,
We'll be standing right beside you.
Will you be standing beside us too?

Stop the Violence. Stop the Fear.

See us Here.

WHAT IS 86 THE VIOLENCE ALL ABOUT AND WHY ARE WE DOING IT?

This year, the United States participated in a Universal Periodic Review (UPR) – a process set up by the Human Rights Council at the United Nations to assess the level of human rights in each country. The U.S. received more than 200 recommendations and must now decide to accept or reject each recommendation. Recommendation 86 called on the Obama Administration to “…ensure access to public services paying attention to the special vulnerability of sexual workers to violence and human rights abuses.” This is the first time the US has been internationally called upon to address its insensitivity to the long-neglected issues faced by sex workers.


To capitalize on this momentous opportunity, sex worker support and advocacy organizations from all across the country have organized to move government officials to agree to accept the recommendation. As a part of our organizing efforts we have reached out to sex worker groups, academics, policy makers, community organizations, funders and NGO’s around the globe and received unprecendented levels of support. (See the amazing list of folks who have signed our call to action below.)


On March 18th, the U.S. will go to Geneva to announce to the U.N. which recommendations they will accept and which they will reject. "86 THE VIOLENCE," a multi-city performance art action represents the culmination of sex worker advocacy efforts. We believe we have an opportunity to achieve high levels of media attention, which opens the door for us to let the world know in one solid, united voice, that violence and human rights abuses will no longer be tolerated in our community.


If the government accepts the recommendation, this action will serve as a celebration for having our nation’s first major political promise to address the needs of sex workers. If they do not accept the recommendation, then this action will serve to spark a fire of outrage that will be fueled by media and all of the supporters that have come out to champion the cause. Either way, we believe the more sex workers and allies we can motivate to participate in this action, the more media attention we will receive, and the greater the likelihood that we can alter the conversation and public perception about sex worki in this country.


HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?

Join us in this public action performance on March 18th!

SWOP, Sex workers and allied organizations all over the country will be standing up and stripping down for recommendation 86!

Here's what you do:

1. Check if there is already a key organizer in your city. If there is no key organizer, email us, and we'll list YOU as the key organizer!

Key organizers will be contacted by our media team to help you identify media outlets in your area, and follow up.

If you are a key organizer, pick a location for the action that we can list on the website, and a contact name, number, and email address

"86 the violence" will take place at noon PST, 1pm MST, 2pm CST, and 3pm EST on March 18th, 2011 for 86 minutes!

2. Enact "86 the violence."

-You need AT LEAST one person to be a TARGET and one person to be SUPPORT/ INFORMATION. More people are better, 3 TARGETS and a few SUPPORTS are best to protect everyone involved.

-TARGETS dress up as shown in the video here . Draw a red bullseye somewhere on your body. Be as close to naked as is legally allowed on the street in your city, or that you are comfortable with. Tie red fabric around your eyes, your mouth or your hands. These three ties are symbolic and can mean many things about lack of access, silence, and invisibility. Infuse them with your own meaning.

Install the TARGETS on the street, in a park, or in any public place. TARGETS symbolically or verbally ask passerby to help us “86 the violence.” this can be done by silently holding out a cloth that passerby can use to wipe the target off your body, or verbally asking.

-SUPPORT may dress in any manner classic to the sex worker rights movement. Wear red, carry red umbrellas, and have at least one or 2 umbrellas with the number 86 painted on the top. Print out the information we have HERE: literature to hand out to passersby and lyrics to our song. Perhaps keep the information to hand out in an upturned red umbrella.

3. The final action of the performance is to remove or cut off the red cloth, wipe off the targets, and leave the red cloth in the shape of the number 86 on the ground.

4. Take photos. Document the hell out of it, and send your documentation to us. We'll be making a montage of videos and photos to take to press as well.


notes: if staying installed in one place becomes and issue (a cop tells you to leave, or threatens you) make sure your group knows what it wants to do. We recommend taking the whole production on a walk. You can simply walk down the street slowly, to avoid loitering. The 86 minutes need not be in one place. We recommend wearing the smallest amount of legally allowed clothing (in many places, this is a thong, underwear or T-Strap and nipple covering). We recommend that ALL TARGETS wear the same amount of clothing/covering for continuity and gender alliance.

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Organizations that have come out in support of accepting the recommendation:

Action pour la lutte Contre L'ignorance du SIDA (Democratic Republic of Congo)
AIDS Action Baltimore
AIDS Foundation of Chicago
AIDS Project Los Angeles
American Medical Students Association
Americans for Informed Democracy
Amnesty for Women
American Jewish World Service
Aniz, Inc.
Asocijacija za Borbu Protiv Side (Association against AIDS, JAZAS, Yugoslavia)
Association of Nurses in AIDS Care
Bay Area Sex Worker Advocacy Network
Best Practices Policy Project
Black Communities' Process (PCN)
Center for Anti-Violence Education
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)
Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)
Civil Liberties and Public Policy Program (CLPP), Hampshire College
Collectif pour le Developpement Economique, Social et Culturel Integre (Democratic Republic of Congo)
Desiree Alliance
Different Avenues
Erotic Service Providers’ Legal, Education and Research Project
Four Freedoms Forum
Harm Reduction Coalition
Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS)
HIV Prevention Justice Alliance
HIVictorious, Inc.
Housing Works
Human Rights Watch
International Community of Women Living with HIV and AIDS Global (ICW Global)
International Committee for the Rights of Sex Workers in Europe
International Rectal Microbicide Advocates
International Women’s Health Coalition
Ipas
JJJ Association (Hong Kong)
Madonna e.V. (Germany)
MADRE
Malcolm X Center for Self Determination
Nashville CARES
National Minority AIDS Council
Nigerian Diversity Network
Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project
Public Interest Project, US Human Rights Fund
Population & Development Program, Hampshire College
Religious Institute
Sexuality Information and Education Council of the U.S. (SIECUS)
Scarlet Alliance (Austraila)
Sex Worker Forum (Botswana)
Sex Workers Action New York (SWANK)
Sex Workers Outreach Project (Chicago Chapter)
Sex Workers Outreach Project (Las Vegas Chapter)
Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP National)
Sex Workers Outreach Project (NYC Chapter),
Sex Workers Outreach Project (Seattle Chapter)
Sex Workers Outreach Project (Tucson Chapter)
Sex Workers Project, at the Urban Justice Center
Sexuality and Gender Working Group, Human Rights Network
SisterLove
St. James’ Infirmary
Syndicat du Travail Sexuel (STRASS) (France)
Tais Plus (Kirgizstan)
TAMPEP (European Network for HIV/STI Prevention & Health Promotion among Migrant Sex Workers)
U.S. Positive Women's Network (PWN) a project of WORLD (Women Organized to Respond to Life-threatening Disease)
Women of Color United
Women’s Network for Unity
Women’s Network for Unity (Cambodia)
Women's Organization Network for Human Rights Advocacy
Women’s Re-Entry Network
Women with a Vision
x:talk (London)

Academics who have come out in support of the recommendation:

*Laura Augustin, Ph.D.; Author, Sex at the Margins
*M. Jocelyn Elders, M.D.; 15th U.S. Surgeon General
*Elizabeth Bernstein, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Womens’ Studies & Sociology, Barnard College, New York, New York
*Barb Brents, Ph.D.; Professor of Sociology, University of Las Vegas, Nevada
*Wendy Chapkis, Ph.D.; Professor of Sociology, Director of Women and Gender Studies, University of Southern Maine
*Deborah Cohan, MD, MPH; Associate Professor
Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, University of California, San Francisco; Medical Director, Bay Area Perinatal AIDS Center; Associate Director, National Perinatal HIV Hotline
*Melissa Ditmore, Ph.D.; Consultant, Research and Rights-Based Programming
*Shari L. Dworkin, Ph.D., M.S.; Associate Professor, Dept. of Social & Behavioral Sciences; Director, Sociology Doctoral Studies Program; Affiliated Faculty, Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS); Affiliated Faculty, Global Health Sciences, University of California, San Francisco
*Smarajit Jana, MD; Principal, Sonagachi Research and Training Institute, Kolkata, India
*Jessica Fields, Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Sociology,Research Faculty, Center for Research on Gender and Sexuality
*Valerie Jenness, Ph.D.; Dean, School of Social Ecology, Professor, Department of Criminology, Law and Society, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of California, Irvine
*Kamala Kempadoo, Ph.D.; Professor, Department of Social Science, York University, Toronto, Canada
*Gail Kligman, Ph.D.; Professor of Sociology, UCLA, Director, Center for European and Eurasian Studies
*Kari Lerum, Ph.D.; Associate Professor, Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, Adjunct Professor, Women Studies, University of Washington, Bothell
*Jill McCracken, Ph.D.; Assistant Professor, Rhetoric, Department of Languages, Literature, and Writing, University of South Florida St. Petersburg
*Alice M. Miller, J.D; Visiting Senior Research Scholar, Robina Foundation Fellow, Yale Law School
*Penelope Saunders, Ph.D.; Director, Best Practices Policy Project
*Svati P. Shah, Ph.D., MPH; Assistant Professor, Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
*Kate Shannon, Ph.D., MPH; Assistant Professor, Dept of Medicine, University of British Columbia; Director of Gender & Sexual Health Initiative, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Vancouver, Canada
*Lara Stemple; Director, Graduate Studies, Director, Health and Human Rights Law Project, UCLA School of Law
*Dallas Swendeman, Ph.D., MPH; Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA; Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior; Center for Community Health; Global Center for Children and Families; Center for HIV Identification, Prevention & Treatment Services
*Juhu Thukral, Esq.; Co-Founder and Former Director, Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center New York, New York
*Stephanie Wahab, Ph.D.; Associate Professor of Social Work, Portland State University, Portland, OR
*Carole S. Vance, PhD, MPH; Assoc. Clinical Professor, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, New York
*Ronald Weitzer, Ph.D.; Professor of Sociology, George Washington University, Washington, DC

Ron Coronado returning to prison :(

This is a real perversion of "justice"...don't the feds have anything better to do than browse our facebook friend lists for loose associations?

We're in solidarity with you in Phoenix, Ron.

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Update on Ron Coronado

Earth First! News

by Ben Rosenfeld

On August 3, 2010, Rod Coronado was sentenced to four months in federal prison for allegedly violating the terms of his probation, i.e., for “associating” with Earth First! cofounder and former Greenpeace U.S.A. Director Mike Roselle, by accepting his “friendship” on Facebook, and for accessing an unauthorized computer outside his home. (There is no current evidence that the FBI surreptitiously surveiled Mr. Coronado’s Facebook account. Mike Roselle is a prominent environmental organizer and author, active most recently in the campaign to ban mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia.)

The probation terms Mr. Coronado is said to have violated were not related to his most recent case, which resulted in a hung jury and a plea deal in 2008. In that case, a San Diego jury declined to convict Coronado for answering a question after a talk in which an audience member asked him how incendiary devices were made. (Coronado answered generally while holding up a jug of apple juice from the concession table; the government’s own presentation at trial contained far more detailed and accurate information.)

One probation term Mr. Coronado was accused of violating (the association term) was left over from his federal conviction in Arizona in 2005 for trying to disrupt a mountain lion hunt through peaceful means. The other (the computer monitoring term) was added by a federal judge in Michigan after Coronado moved there to help raise is son. The San Diego judge did not impose any computer conditions on Coronado, and had also told him he was free to associate with Earth First!ers, in part to spread the message that his views on activism had changed.

In August 2006, Mr. Coronado wrote a Statement from Prison renouncing property damage as a tactic and advocating social change through other means. He wrote, in part: “What our world needs now is a whole lot more love and a lot less violence. Nothing in this world will change overnight. But if we live peace and teach our children well, they might still inherit a world better than ours.”

Mr. Coronado has not veered from this message. He is not accused of any crime. He has been allowed to self-surrender to begin serving the four month sentence locked away from his children, his partner, and his community. His three year term of probation will begin anew upon his release.

Ben Rosenfeld is a San Francisco Civil Rights Attorney and Board Member of the Civil Liberties Defense Center based in Eugene, OR (www.cldc.org).

Indictment of AETA 4 unconstitutional. YAY!

Note that state charges can still be brought, though...

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Animal Rights Activists Win Dissent Victory

Monday 19 July 2010

by: Bill Quigley and Rachel Meeropol, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed

(Photo: TimWilson; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t)

Police reports state that on October 21, 2007, a group of about 20 people trespassed onto the front lawn of the home of a Berkeley professor involved in bio-medical research on animals. According to the US government, some of the protesters had bandanas covering the lower half of their faces and they made "a lot of noise, chanting animal rights slogans" like "1,2,3,4, open up the cage door; 5,6,7,8, smash the locks and liberate, 9,10,11,12, vivisectors go to hell."

A year and a half later, four young activists were indicted in California federal court under the little known and rarely used "Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act" (AETA) for their alleged involvement in this and others pickets.

The federal criminal indictment charged Joseph Buddenberg, Maryam Khajavi, Nathan Pope and Adriana Stumpo (now the AETA 4) with one count of "animal enterprise terrorism," and one count of conspiracy. They each would face 10 years in prison if convicted.

Strangely, the criminal indictment against them doesn't actually say anything about their chants or leaflets, or what else they are supposed to have done to violate the law.

There is some good news here. On July 12, 2010, a federal judge threw out that indictment, explaining that is was so general and vague it failed to provide the defendants with notice of what criminal act they are accused of committing, a constitutional requirement.

In his order, Judge Ronald M. Whyte described the indictment as "quite generic." For "an indictment to fulfill its constitutional purposes," he explained, "it must allege facts that sufficiently inform each defendant of what it is he or she is alleged to have done that constitutes a crime. This is particularly important where the species of behavior in question spans a wide spectrum from criminal conduct to constitutionally protected political protest." According to the judge's ruling, the government can re-indict these activists if it makes the charges much more specific.

AETA prosecutions are not your average criminal cases. Trespass, threats, harassment -- these are all activities that violate state law and carry criminal penalties. And any violence by activists, of course, can also be punished under state law.

The animal rights and radical environmental movements aren't violent against people. The alleged illegal action that has occurred within those groups has primarily been the type of time-honored nonviolent civil disobedience Martin Luther King Jr. made famous, although there has been some property destruction.

If no one is hurt, how can the government prosecute these kinds of acts as terrorism? Simple. First reward rapacious corporate interests with an incredibly broad federal law that equates any action that hurts the bottom line of a corporation with "terrorism." Then issue generic indictments calling picketers terrorists, without explaining what they actually did. That is what happened to the AETA 4.

This governmental tactic can drive those few activists who actually commit serious illegal acts far underground, while terrifying the mainstream movements into silence.

The AETA 4 ruling is a rare victory for animal rights and environmental activists, whose communities are under a Cointelpro-style attack in what has come to be known as the "green scare."

Recent victims of this kind of governmental prosecution include the "SHAC7," activists who ran a website documenting both lawful and unlawful protest activities undertaken in the campaign against animal testing by Huntington Life Sciences.

The SHAC 7 were convicted of "terrorism" under the precursor to the AETA, the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, (AEPA) despite the fact that none of them was accused, much less convicted, of doing anything other than commenting on others' legal and illegal actions.

Also threatened with jail time under the AEPA is Scott Demuth, a young activist who defied an Iowa grand jury subpoena and was promptly charged with animal enterprise terrorism. His indictment is so vague and far-reaching that it seems designed to hold him accountable for every act of property destruction attributed to animal rights activists over two years and across several states.

While animal rights and environmental activists are the main targets of these new laws equating protest with terrorism, the law could potentially be applied to anyone who protests anything, and does it effectively.

The AETA defines an "animal enterprise" to include any business that deals in animal research or uses or sells animal products. You can be accused of violating the law by traveling across state lines (or using the internet) to purposefully cause economic damage (like lost profits) to an animal enterprise. That is why CCR and other activist organizations are challenging these laws.

Environmental and animal rights groups are organizing against this law and against the green scare in general. Activists from other movements need to join them.

Attacks by government on our human and civil rights are always first directed at people on the margins who do not have widespread popular support. Animal and environmental activists are the ones under attack today. Unless we stand up and vigorously protect their rights to dissent, others, including us, will be certainly be next.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is involved in several of these battles, and updates are always available on our web site, at www.ccrjustice.org; or learn about the latest prosecutions by visiting the Civil Liberties Defense Center's web site, at www.cldc.org.

End the War. End all war.

The End the War Coalition in Phoenix is still meeting every week to organize peace events. They’ve been at this for nine years, now - they’re good people, and often show up to support other groups’ actions protesting state and corporate violence across the valley. They make for good comrades and allies. Find them here every week - they will make you feel welcome:

Grace Lutheran Church
1124 N. 3rd Street
(N. of Roosevelt)
Every Tuesday
7pm - 9pm

End the War Coalition: Code Pink Phoenix, Progressive Democrats of America, Phoenix Women in Black, Arizona Alliance for Peace & Justice, Phoenix Chapter Veterans for Peace, Arizona Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Arizona Green Party, Grandmothers for Peace and Arizona Christian Peacemakers, Arizona Democratic Progressive Caucus

Hey All:

Smash EDO: Activists found not guilty for decommissioning weapons factory.

This awesome story comes out of the UK, and was forwarded by the Freedom Archives' Anti-imperialist list-serve. Check out their link at the bottom.

In the US these folks would be tried as terrorists and coerced into plea deals that send them to prison...in fact, the US did send our Plowshares activists to prison when they hammered in the top of a missle silo (among other things)...

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http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11367.shtml
Chloe Marsh, The Electronic Intifada, 7 July 2010


Seven anti-war activists on trial for entering a Brighton weapons factory and "decommissioning" it were found unanimously "not guilty" last week.

On 16 January 2009, in the midst of Israel's relentless bombing of Gaza, six of the defendants broke into the premises of EDO MBM, a supplier of weapons components. According to one of the defendants, Elijah Smith, they "set out to smash it up to the best of our abilities." Two activists who supported them outside the factory gates were also put on trial for "conspiracy to cause criminal damage"

It was an entirely accountable action which was always intended to end in a trial and each decommissioner had pre-recorded a video in which they stated the reasons for their participation -- to help dismantle the war machine from the factory floor.

Once inside the building, the six barricaded themselves in and set to work; equipment used to make weapon components was trashed and computers, filing cabinets and office furnishings were thrown out of the windows. Once they were done they calmly waited for the police to arrest them. All of the defendants have argued that what they did was not only morally necessary but crucially, that it was legal. UK law allows the commission of damage of property to prevent greater crimes.

Two of the accused, Simon Levin and Chris Osmond, have extensive experience of working in Palestine with the International Solidarity Movement. Chris Osmond told the court that "the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza at that time meant it was imperative to act." He cited the words of Rachel Corrie, the US activist who was killed in 2003 by an Israeli soldier operating a bulldozer in Gaza, as an inspiration. The court heard a passage of Corrie's diary in which she wrote: "I'm witnessing this chronic insidious genocide and I'm really scared. This has to stop; I think it is a good idea idea for all of us to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop."

During the trial the court heard not only from the defendants themselves but from Sharyn Lock, a human rights volunteer who was in Gaza during the winter 2008-09 attacks. She was inside al-Quds hospital in Gaza City when it was attacked with white phosphorus. She concluded her evidence by saying that she had no doubt that those who armed the Israeli Air Force "had the blood of children on their hands." The jury saw footage of the air attacks on the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) compound where civilians were sheltering and have been given an edited version of the Goldstone report.

Recently-elected member of parliament for the local area, Caroline Lucas also gave evidence supporting the activists, saying that the democratic process "had been exhausted" as far as the factory was concerned.

On 17 January 2009 the bombs had already fallen relentlessly on Gaza for three weeks. Massive, passionate demonstrations and pickets had been held in many cities around the country and the world in protest against Israel's war crimes, but to no avail. A growing sense of helplessness was grabbing hold of the movement as the Palestinian body count stood at more than 1,400 and counting. Three hundred of the dead were children. It was in this context that the "citizens' decommissioning" of EDO MBM/ITT took place.

The arms manufacturer EDO/ITT has been based in Brighton since 1946. Acquired along with the rest of EDO Corporation by the multinational arms conglomerate ITT in December 2007, the company's primary business is the manufacture of weapons systems such as bomb release mechanisms and bomb racks. Crucially, this includes the manufacture of the VER-2 Zero Retention Force Arming Unit for the Israeli Air Force's F16 war planes.

Over the years EDO has consistently denied supplying Israel, and despite more than fifty court cases campaigners have not been able to properly expose the links between the factory and the IAF. However the serious nature of the charges against the eight activists (the factory sustained nearly £200,000 -- or $301,600 -- of damage and may not have recommenced production for weeks) means that for the first time courts are taking seriously the argument that EDO's business is fundamentally illegal.

Paul Hills, the managing director of EDO MBM, spent his five days on the witness stand at the beginning of the trial being confronted with all the evidence gathered by campaigners over the years exposing a complex network of collaboration between British, American and Israeli arms companies and the way in which their deals are clouded in secrecy. The activists on trial were able to present Hills, for the first time, with a dossier of evidence showing how EDO MBM uses a front company in the US to indirectly supply components for F-16 aircraft to Israel. Under UK law the supply of weapons components that might be used in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip is actually a crime.

After hearing Hills' explanations of his company's business practices, Judge George Bathurst-Norman said that despite Hill's denials of dealing with Israel, it was clear that there was enough evidence to justify a genuinely-held belief that they did. He also offered the opinion that End User Certificates required for arms export licenses were "not worth the paper they are written on" as they can be easily manipulated.

There is a history of juries in British courts finding anti-war activists not guilty when they attack machinery used in war crimes. In 1996 four women from Trident Ploughshares decommissioned a Hawk jet that was about to be shipped to Indonesia -- they were found not guilty. In 2008 the Raytheon 9, who damaged a factory in Derry supplying weapons to Israel during the 2006 Lebanon war, were acquitted by a jury and only two weeks ago a group of nine women carrying out a similar action at Raytheon during the Gaza attacks were also found not guilty by an unanimous jury.

The not guilty verdicts handed down by a jury of randomly selected members of the public, will make it clear to companies like EDO that not only is there a growing number of people who are willing to risk their own liberty to stand up for the people of Gaza and to challenge Israel's war crimes through whatever means possible, but that public opinion in the UK is hardening against Israel.

Chloe Marsh is a long-term peace campaigner and activist. She has been involved in campaigning against the arms trade for many years and opposing the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and she's also worked with the International Solidarity Movement in Palestine. Smash EDO has been campaigning for the closure of EDO MBM/ITT for six years. To get involved, visit: www.smashedo.org.uk


Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org

SB 1070: We will resist this police state.

Call to Action for Human Rights!

Join us in Arizona July 23-30, 2010!

Summer of Human Rights
Alto Arizona

National Week Against Criminalization!

Stop SB1070! Stop 287g! Stop Arpaio!

From Selma to Phoenix, From Civil Rights to Human Rights, and the Rights of Mother Earth!

Resistance has sparked across the state of Arizona and the country to defeat SB1070 and all racist policies that further criminalize our people and separate families. Knowing that if SB1070 is not stopped now similar laws will spread throughout the country:

We demand that the Obama Administration take decisive action and not comply with Arizona’s SB1070. It can only terrorize our communities if the federal government cooperates with it.

We demand that all ICE ACCESS programs such as 287(g), Secure Communities, and the CAP programs be suspended.

We demand Arizona institutions such as Cities, Towns, Police Jurisdictions, Universities, Colleges, K-12 Schools, School Districts and Businesses to publically state that they will not comply and will not cooperate with SB1070.

We call on people from around the country to come to Phoenix and stand in solidarity with the communities of Arizona to stop the implementation of SB1070!

We call that all those in that cannot come to Arizona, have solidarity actions in their home communities.

July 29th 2010

Don’t Work! Don’t buy! Don’t comply!

If individuals or groups are planning Non-violent civil disobedience or direct action against the racist laws targeting migrant communities in Arizona, below are suggestions on how to best direct your energy.

Suggested Areas include:

• ICE Headquarters

• Wells Fargo building/Joe Arpaio's office

• Detention Centers

• Jails

• Arizona State Capitol

• Areas related to Russell Pearce, Joe Arpaio and Jan Brewer

• Boycott Targets:
o Diamondbacks
o Fiesta Bowl

• School Districts who have not publically stated that they will not comply

• Police Jurisdictions who have not publically stated that they will not comply

• Cities and towns who have not publically stated that they will not comply

In recognition of the past and on going organizing and resistance happening in Arizona we ask that groups or individuals coming to please respect the following guidelines.

Guidelines:

• Participants will not inflict harm/injury to persons

• Participants will not inflict harm/damage to property

• We encourage people to think about how their actions can communicate to a broad audience and invite people to learn more about what is going on

• We encourage people to use creative and positive tactics

• Participants will not carry drugs/weapons

• Participants to not carry ID on July 29th and moving forward.

• Participants will come as self-organized action teams and affinity groups.

Please contact: actionforhumanrights@gmail.com.

G20 activists and SB 1070 protests: be careful out there.

Guess Canada's not as laid back as they claim to be - this might as well have been in Maricopa County. Listen and learn, folks. And be careful out there - the people can be even scarier than the cops. My politics helped get me assaulted in my home and have my car vandalized after that candlelight vigil in May. From the ADC to the nativists and everyday racists, these are not nice folks we're pissing off.

See you in the streets.

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Activist surrenders to face G20 charges

July 06, 2010

Antonia Zerbisias

Social justice activist Jaggi Singh surrendered to Toronto police early Tuesday morning to comply with a warrant following June’s G20 protests.

The Montreal-based community organizer faces several counts of criminal conspiracy, including alleged conspiracies to commit mischief to property, assault police, and obstruct justice.

Singh, 39, joins 16 other people known to be in detention 10 days after 1,090 were arrested during the G20 weekend.

Just a few hours before he voluntary walked into custody in the company of his lawyer, Singh told the Star that he could not comment on the charges because he had not yet seen what evidence police have against him.

But he did dismiss the notion of any criminal conspiracy.

“I helped people find housing and get transportation to come to a demonstration. That’s my conspiracy,” he said. “But give the police enough money and resources and they’ll transform protesters and organizers into criminals.’’

Currently a fulltime staffer of the Quebec Public Interest Research Group at Concordia University, Singh has also worked with activist organizations Solidarity Across Borders and Anti-Capitalist Convergence.

Because he was not picked up from the streets like hundreds of other citizens were, he feels that he is speaking from a “position of relative privilege.”

“I don’t even know everybody else (arrested), but I want to at least strike a note of caution that there should be an extreme amount of vigilance, vis-à-vis what the Crown and the police are putting out, especially given the misinformation the police put out in the aftermath of the G20,” he said.

According to a statement by No One is Illegal, which represents refugee claimants and is one of the community organizations with which Singh is affiliated, “He is currently in custody along with other G20 political prisoners who are awaiting bail hearings.

“Jaggi’s situation is still unclear. We hope he’ll be released immediately. He could remain in custody for some time.”

It would not be the first time.

Singh’s Wiki entry reads like a long rap sheet of incarcerations during summit protests. Charges are always dropped or he is later acquitted.

“I’m notorious for this whether I like it or not – and I don’t like it,” he laughed.

Singh first came to national prominence during the1997 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference in Vancouver, where he was arrested even before the summit began. A subsequent formal inquiry into RCMP actions found that he “was arrested on a warrant based on a spurious charge; the manner of his arrest was inappropriate in the circumstances; the timing of the arrest was calculated to prevent him from attending protests on ... the bail conditions sought were overly restrictive.”

Singh insists that such pre-emptive police moves are designed to stifle dissent – and that what happened at the G20 in Toronto was no different. Pre-dawn police raids into private homes, during which protest organizers were dragged from their beds, are just one example he named.

“You charge people for what they do, not what they look like or what they might do, right?’’ he said.

“I have sort of been through this story before in other ways, facing charges, been taken off the streets. It’s the escalation of the legal apparatus against protesters and it’s a criminalization of protest basically.’’

At least 14 G20-related prisoners are expected to appear in court Tuesday.

It’s not known if Singh will be one of them.

ON DIRECT ACTIONS, CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE, ETC.

The timing for this seems appropriate, though I think I originally wrote it for the Friends of Marcia Powell and stuck it in a widget soon after the anarchists were accosted by the PPD...anyway, it's in quotes, but it's me, just at a different point in time than today...

If anything should happen to me, by the way, just keep up the “Free Marcia Powell” campaign. I can take care of myself - Marcia will cover everyone. We still need to have that memorial in May.

Anyway, before moving on, since I have everyone's attention: I understand that the former Deputy Warden from Lumley Yard at Perryville prison was the kind of person who often took the time to ask the women what they thought, how they were doing, what they needed – and responded. Bailey, I believe. She's retired now; she was one of the ones who cared, according to a few prisoners I've heard from in recent months.

I don't know what went down with all the ADC folks after Marcia died - I can only imagine what a weight some people still carry. It is not my intention to exploit that tragedy to trouble those who are already haunted. In fact, it is Marcia's Friends, not her ghost, that have been summoned to help us here. Anyone can still be her friend and help us change the world.

Anyone.

I don't know that Marcia will "rest in peace," regardless of whether or not anyone else makes theirs. I do believe she would be forgiving, that she would lend us her name and memory generously if we hadn't just taken it (though I did ask...), that her spirit dances at every direct action we plan and follow through on, and that from wherever she is she smiles at every sidewalk - from Phoenix to Amsterdam - bathed in the pastels of children's giant chalk and urging Arizona to Free Marcia Powell...

she's gotta love that photo we found of her in Phoenix, too. That was thanks to the Alaskan blogger at Frozen Justice. Kick ass up there, my friend. Blogging women rock!

Anyway, I don't think it was "God's mysterious ways" that led to Marcia's death even if we make good come from it somehow - they were all our ways, collectively, as a community, in the years leading up to her final hours in a cage. We neglect and abuse our sisters on the street and inside still daily.

But, I also know it's possible to exaggerate the personal sense of responsibility one may have when something like that ultimately happens. So, it seems worth mentioning that I also believe that Love's capacity for understanding and reconciliation is beyond our own imagining, and that She is fully capable of responding to anyone burdened by Marcia's death - or a similar such trauma - who asks for help.

I survived the suicide of a loved one nine years ago Easter Sunday. I know something of which I speak.

------------------on direct actions, etc...-------------------

see widget to the left for this text, which concludes:

"...Be true to yourself and the cause regardless.

If you have any questions about the legality of any direct action you are considering, we encourage everyone receiving this (or the) action alert(s) to check your local laws and ordinances and think about the possible consequences before proceeding to do anything. Not that you'd be on your own, but most of us are too poor to bail you out, and too politically disenfranchised to otherwise wrest you free."

Hey Pearce: SB1097 is Child Abuse.

This is absolutely criminal, what Russ Pearce has been doing to this state. THIS is child abuse. We need a massive direct action/counter-demonstration at the Capitol to stop this corrupt business from proceeding one of these days. How can people NOT stop everything they're doing and look at these men for the frauds they are? They might as well be running around in pink boxers, given what they're trying to sell us.

The women who vote party lines have no excuse for going along. We expect them to be smarter and tougher than the men, actually. Brutal takes neither brains nor perseverance - just willingness to use violence or the threat of it.

The legislation that's come out of the Capitol in Phoenix this past year is nothing less than racist, classist, and brutal - no one is hurting from these budget cuts but those whose voices are diminished by your politics to begin with...those are the voices of The People. You politicians are making out just fine, as far as we can tell - at our expense.

Go tax yourselves, AZ LEGS. Pearce is going to take you right off a cliff if you don't listen to the people you keep hurting. You can't lock us all up at once. Not yet, anyway.

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BORDER ACTION NETWORK:

URGENT STATE LEGISLATIVE ALERT!

It's another Russell Pearce effort that will drive the future of Arizona into the ground but this time targeting school children. If this bill sounds familiar, a House version was heard last week.

Tomorrow, Monday, March 29th, the Senate Committee of the Whole will vote on SB1097 -- a bill that threatens to cut state funding from schools unless they report on children's immigration status.

Click Here to Take Action

SB1097 Schools; Data; Noncitizen Students
Sponsor: Senator Russell Pearce (R- 18)

This bill seeks to undermine a 1982 Supreme Court decision, Plyer v. Doe that clearly stated that the 14th amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the rights of all children, regardless of their immigration status in the U.S., to K-12 education. HB2382 threatens to revoke state funding to schools if they do not report on the immigration status of the children at their schools. While the bill falls short of actually denying children access to education, the impact of the intimidation and threat to parents would result in children not being enrolled.

To view the bill's full text: http://www.azleg.gov/FormatDocument.asp?inDoc=/legtext/49leg/2r/bills/sb1097p.htm


SB1097 ESCUELAS, INFORMACION, ESTUDIANTES NO CIODADANOS


Patrocinadores principales: el senador Russell Pearce (R-18)

HB2382 exigiría el Departamento de Estado de Educación, los distritos escolares y las escuelas para recoger y compilar datos sobre el estatus de inmigración de los estudiantes. Se le podría requerir al departamento de Educación que produjera un informe que analiza los costos de proporcionar educación a los niños indocumentados. Cualquiera persona que proporcione un informe fraudulento sería culpable de un delito menor de Clase 1. Este proyecto de ley tiene por objeto intimidar a las familias inmigrantes para evitar que matriculen a sus hijos en la educación pública, un derecho que está garantizado para todos los residentes en los Estados Unidos, independientemente de su situación jurídica.

Please take 30 seconds to tell YOUR SENATOR to keep schools focused on education, not on legislators' hate-filled agendas targeting children!

Black Women's Defense League Unit Rallies for Scotts.

Here's the latest on the Scott Sisters: these women rock! This is what we've been needing so much...

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Subject: MWM/BWDL Action/Radio for Scott Sisters ~ via Sis. Marpessa

From: nationalmwm@aol.com
=====================

Official Report from the Million Woman Movement/Black Women's Defense League Unit
IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT
For more information contact: nationalmwm@aol.com

February 12, 2010

The Black Women's Defense League one of the official ACTION cadre's of the International Million Woman Movement will be presenting the case of the Scott Sisters  to the participants of the 2010 Black Nation Day gathering that will take place in Jackson Mississippi at the end of March (which will also be end of Women's History Month).

Along with a "Teach In" on the case of the Scott Sisters and other cases of injustices infringed upon Black women (women of African descent) in the US, a People's Rally in front of the Capitol State Building is being planned to be held on Fri. March 26, 2010 to demand the release of Jamie and Gladys Scott and a federal investigation into racist, prejudicial, and/or judiciary misconduct.

This, a pre-requisite assembly that will lead up to a more extensive campaign and mass Rally that will take place later in the Fall will serve as the first phase in the  People's Demand and Complaint  that is being logged and against the Government of Mississippi  (Jackson & Pearl Judiciaries and Law Enforcement).  Additionally, the Rally and Teach-In will  provide an abundance of  information, facilitate the workings for much needed awareness,create and spark motivation for "action", while demonstrating and building Unity amongst the masses (the community at large).

The March 26, 2010  "FREE THE SCOTT SISTERS" Protest Demonstration and Rally will also help to further the building of the "FREE THE SCOTT SISTERS" DIRECT ACTION TASK FORCE that is being coordinated by the BWDL  To get involved with the FTSS-Task Force or for more information call 267-636-3802  or e-mail:nationalmwm@aol.com  or BWDL7@aol.com

Tune in to the Feb. 13, 2010 segment of "NU Day Resurrection and Liberation" 10:30 PM - 12midnight EST to hear important updates on the Scott Sisters and action steps when we talk LIVE with Sis. Attorney Jaribu Hill  who is the grassroots organizer, human rights fighter, and  legal adviser to Mrs Evelyn Rasco, mother of the Scott Sisters.  Hear about the new campaign that is geared to the ministers etc.  Tune in on line (internet) at:  http://www.facebook.com/l/39aa6;www.blogtalkradio.com/empresschi; or podcast at:  646-652-2232

Sis. Attorney Jaribu Hill

Executive Director,

Mississippi Workers’ Center For Human Rights
Greenville, Mississippi
Sis. Jaribu Hill
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