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SEE EVENTS 

CLOSEmsdf and Prison Strike Day of Visibility

1015 N 10th Street, MSDF, 11:30 A.M. – 11:30 P.M. 

We will make the torture and inhumanity of the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility impossible to ignore!

We will fight slavery by standing up for and celebrating the resistance of those striking against it from the inside!

Starting at 11:30 am and ending before midnight, on the first day of the Wisconsin State Fair we will take a variety of actions at and around MSDF that increase the visibility of these fights, strengthens relationships among organizers, and sends messages of love and support to community members trapped inside this and other prisons in Wisconsin and the United States.

Family friendly and accessible. Food and entertainment will be available. Volunteers needed! Please sign up by filling out this form: https://goo.gl/forms/QXUkPPrsuMlKrnNq2

Summary schedule and locations:

11:30 West side of County Courthouse- Courthouse Picket
1:00 MSDF- Speeches from Coalition Member Organizations
2:00 MSDF to 6th & Wells- March Against Mass Supervision
2:30 6th and Wells- Community Supervision Picket
4:00 6th and Wells to MSDF- March Against MSDF
4:30 MSDF- Community Cook Out
5:30 MSDF- Prisoner Strike General Assembly
7:00 MSDF- Testimonials and Entertainment
8:30 MSDF- Noise Demo / Overpass Light Brigade Action

Detailed Schedule:
11:30-12:45 Courthouse Picket (10th street side of County Courthouse, between State and Wells). We will gather outside the west entrance of the county courthouse a block south of MSDF to collect signatures and engage the public about conditions inside MSDF and the use of crimeless revocations by DOC parole and probation authorities. We have been maintaining a monthly picket at this location for over a year and a half.

1:00-2:00 Coalition Member Organizations (south side of MSDF at 10th and State).There are over 40 organizations endorsing the CLOSEmsdf campaign, representatives from the most active among them will speak about their involvement, motivation and other work they do in pursuit of racial and social justice in Milwaukee.

2:00-2:30 March Against Mass Supervision (from MSDF to State Office Building at 6th and Wells). We will narrow our focus onto the issue of crimeless revocations and the many unfair challenges faced by people on probation and parole. Then, the rally will turn into a march traveling four blocks to the State Office Building at 6th and Wells. There we will confront Department of Corrections staff who fill MSDF with people for petty rule violations or unfounded accusations.

2:30-4:00 Community Supervision Picket (at 6th and Wells). Outside the State Office Building, we will continue to gather petition signatures and also share and solicit stories from people currently and formerly on parole or probation for our Community Supervision of Community Supervision archive project.

4:00-4:30 March Against MSDF (from 6th and Wells to MSDF, 10th and State). We will again shift focus, this time to conditions and medical neglect as we march back to MSDF along the same route. With no sunlight, no fresh air, triple bunking for 20+ hours day, and rampant medical negligence, MSDF is a incubator for disease and severe psychological trauma. At least 17 people have died since the facility opened 17 years ago.

4:30-5:30 Community cook out (south side of MSDF at 10th and State). Some food will be provided, but everyone is welcome to also bring a dish to share.

5:30-6:45 Prisoner Strike General Assembly (south side of MSDF at 10th and State). Using the General Assembly, a non-hierarchical decision-making and information sharing model, we will create space for people to learn more about the August 21-September 9 prisoner strike and to brainstorm ways to coordinate support and stage solidarity actions here in Milwaukee.

7:00- Testimonials and Entertainment (south side of MSDF at 10th and State). People who have been impacted by the prison system here in Wisconsin will speak about their experiences, interspersed with music and spoken word poetry from local artists. Details TBA.

8:30- Noise Demo and Overpass Light Brigade Action (south side of MSDF at 10th and State). We’ll break out noisemakers and a 750 Watt spotlight to shine light and raise a racket in hopes that we’ll be heard through MSDFs walls, letting the captives inside know they are not forgotten and they are not alone. Overpass Light Brigade will hold their illuminated sign over the freeway.

More about #CLOSEmsdf:
We will shut down the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility. MSDF is a special kind of dungeon. Built to accommodate Milwaukee’s extraordinary incarceration rate and aggressive, racist probation and parole system, MSDF holds people on crimeless revocations in excruciating conditions. Captives held in MSDF get no sunlight, no fresh air, no rehabilitative programming. They are held 3 to a cell for 23 hours a day. Thousands have been tortured there, hundreds made sick, and seventeen have died.
We must close this facility, and end the practice of crimeless revocations which fills it. More information: CLOSEmsdf.org

Hosted by Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association

Celebrate Labor Day with MTEA!

301 West Michigan Avenue, Milwaukee, Zeidler Union-Square, 10 A.M. – 6 P.M. 

Wear your MTEA green and meet at Zeidler Park at 10:30am on Monday, September 3. We will march to Summerfest grounds for Laborfest 2018 at 11:00am. Free food and drink tickets will be provided for the first 100 MTEA members who RSVP below. You must be present at Zeidler Park before the parade to receive your food and drink tickets.

RSVP here: https://t.e2ma.net/click/0iu2q/cwget/wjglff

SEIU Wisconsin State Council‎Milwaukee Justice for Janitors Rally for a Fair Contract!

Hosted by Freedom Inc

Freedom Inc.’s 17th Annual BBQ, 5k & Sports tournament

2101 Fisher Street, Madison, 10 A.M. – 6 P.M. 

SAVE THE DATE! On August 11th of 2018, Freedom Inc. will be hosting our Annual BBQ at Penn Park! There will be sports tournament and a dance battle & many more.. Information on 5k and sports will be out shortly

Prisoner Resistance Then and Now

1034 N 4th Street, Turner’s Hall, Milwaukee, 6-8 P.M. 

Less than a week before the planned start of a nationwide strike in prisons across the United States, several groups working to challenge racism and mass incarceration will host an educational program by racial justice advocates Reggie Jackson and Ben Turk.

Strike organizers are calling for peaceful actions like workstoppages, hunger strikes, sit ins and commissary boycotts and demanding basic human rights, rehabilitation and voting rights for prisoners. The strike is planned from August 21st, the anniversary of both Nat Turner’s slave revolt and Soledad Brother George Jackson’s fatal shooting by prison guards, to September 9, the anniversary of the Attica uprising.

At this educational event, Reggie Jackson, the head griot at America’s Black Holocaust Museum (ABHM) and Ben Turk, an organizer with the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) will explore the historical roots and the recent resurgence of organizing within prisons to provide a context for the upcoming strike.

The program is co-sponsored by Rid Racism Milwaukee, IWOC, ABHM and the Milwaukee Turners’ Confronting Mass Incarceration (CMI) initiative.

Sunday August 12, 6-8 PM
Turner Hall 1034 N 4th Street, at Gestern Hall
Open to the public, wheelchair accessible and free of charge

Milwaukee Turners’ Confronting Mass Incarceration initiative has hosted authors and lecturers on issues relating to Mass Incarceration in Milwaukee, including Heather Ann Thompson’s presentation on her award winning history & expose’ of the Attica prison uprising, which can be seen on the Milwaukee Turners YouTube channel.

Reggie Jackson is ABHM’s Head Griot (docent and docent trainer) leading hundreds of museum tours since 2002. He is an independent scholar presenting dozens of lectures and workshops on African American history locally, regionally and nationally. Expert on the life and work of unsung civil rights hero, Dr. James Cameron.

Ben Turk has been working to support prisoner organizers in various capacities since the 2010 Georgia Prison Strike. He’s the co-founder of LucasvilleAmnesty.org and SupportPrisonerResistance.net, and a volunteer organizer with Milwaukee IWOC. He has traveled the US and abroad lecturing, screening films, performing plays and holding workshops on prisoner resistance and abolition.

Rid Racism Milwaukee’s mission is to educate and empower Milwaukee communities to dismantle individual and systemic racism.

America’s Black Holocaust Museum educates the public about the ongoing injustices endured by people of African heritage in America and provides visitors with opportunities to rethink their assumptions about race and racism.

The Incarcerated Worker’s Organizing Committee (IWOC) is a committee of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), one big union for all workers. IWOC focuses on building a prisoner’s union–following the vision of George Jackson–and seeks the abolition of prison and slavery.

https://www.facebook.com/DaysofAction4Cuba

http://sorrytobotheryou.movie/

Hosted by Voces de la Frontera and Madison Christian Community

ICE Must Stop Threatening Wisc. Mom & Domestic Violence Survivor

Rally & Press Conference: ICE Threatens to Separate Wisconsin Survivor of Domestic Violence from Her Kids

Who: María Portgual, families under threat of separation by ICE, Voces de la Frontera, Dane Sanctuary Coalition, Latino Consortium for Action, supporters
When: Tuesday, July 24th, 5pm
Where: Madison Christian Community, 7118 Old Sauk Rd, Madison, WI 53717

MADISON, WISCONSIN — On Tuesday, Voces de la Frontera will hold a press conference with María Portugal, a Wisconsin mother and survivor of domestic violence who is bravely speaking out against threats by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to separate her from her five children if her estranged husband does not turn himself in to ICE.

On July 9th, María’s lawyer informed her that ICE had called him threatening to detain her for deportation if her estranged husband did not turn himself in to ICE. Maria and her husband have been separated for over a year. ICE threatened María despite the fact that she has a three-year-old open application for a U Visa, which is intended to protect victims of crime from deportation after they come forward to work with law enforcement. She has lived in Wisconsin for over 20 years.

On Tuesday, Voces de la Frontera will hold a press conference in Madison with allied organizations and other Wisconsin families facing separation by ICE to stand in solidarity with María and her children. One of the speakers will be Alysha Ferreyra, a Waukesha mother-of-3 whose ex-husband, Franco Ferreyra, has been detained by ICE since June, despite qualifying for DACA.

ICE Must Stop Threatening Wisc. Mom & Domestic Violence Survivor