Women’s March in Wisconsin (Official Chapter)

10 A.M. – 12 NOON, State Capitol, Madison

We are outraged. We are organized. They forgot that millions of women and allies lit the world on fire two years ago and again this past January. This past midterm women won in record numbers.

On January 19, 2019, we will be back on the steps of the Capitol – with a legislative agenda – to remind our legislators we have had ENOUGH of sexist, racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic, ableist, homophobic and transphobic policies and actions! We will continue to resist and put an end to oppression and white supremacy in all its forms.

#WOMENSWAVE

https://www.afge.org/

Rally to End the Government Shutdown

Rally – Unite Against Fascism

CLOSEmsdf

CLOSEmsdf Picket (January)

Why do we picket?
1. To educate people on the inhumane conditions at MSDF
2. To memorialize the 17 people who have died in MSDF since it opened.
3. To let WI taxpayers know that each day someone spends in MSDF for a crimeless rule violation it costs us $100.84 vs $40 to treat that person in the community where their job, housing & support systems stay secure.
4. Former Governer Tommy Thompson has said building MSDF was a mistake. Its time the state corrects that error.

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Please join us during the lunch hour on January 15 on the 10th Street side of the courthouse. Partway through the picket we might march over to the state office building on 6th and Wells, where the DOC has offices.

Parking is metered or nearby public lots. If you don’t mind walking a couple blocks, its often easier to find free parking on the other side of the freeway.

We’ve been holding down this monthly picket since the spring of 2017. A coalition of Milwaukee organizations have joined up to shut down MSDF. This facility is a building within a building, where captives have no access to fresh air or sunlight. They are triple bunked in lockdown cells for over 20 hours a day. There is no outdoor rec. The facility was built and is run using funds that should be used for diversionary programs to keep people out of jail, instead it’s being used to keep them on supervision under arbitrary and vindictive probation and parole officers.

We are organizing this protest on every 23rd (unless that lands on a weekend, when there’s less foot traffic). The National Religious Campaign Against Torture has called for actions on the 23rd of every month (to bring attention to 23 hour a day lockdowns). http://www.nrcat.org/about-us/take-action-current-legislation/563-together-to-end-solitary

Can’t come?

SIGN THE PETITION!!!!

If you haven’t signed the petition yet yourself, please do here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/its-time-to-close-milwaukee-secure-detention-facility-msdf

CLOSEmsdf Picket (January)

DEQ Hearing

http://no2nato2019.org

April 4, 2019, will mark the 51st anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the internationally revered leader in struggles against racism, poverty and war.

And yet, in a grotesque desecration of Rev. King’s lifelong dedication to peace, this is the date that the military leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have chosen to celebrate NATO’s 70th anniversary by holding its annual summit meeting in Washington, D.C. This is a deliberate insult to Rev. King and a clear message that Black lives and the lives of non-European humanity, and indeed the lives of the vast majority, really do not matter.

Since its founding, the U.S.-led NATO has been the world’s deadliest military alliance, causing untold suffering and devastation throughout Northern Africa, the Middle East and beyond. Hundreds of thousands have died in U.S./NATO wars in Iraq, Libya, Somalia and Yugoslavia. Millions of refugees are now risking their lives trying to escape the carnage that these wars have brought to their homelands, while workers in the 29 NATO member-countries are told they must abandon hard-won social programs in order to meet U.S. demands for even more military spending.

Dr. King’s words linking the three evils of American society: Militarism, Racism and Poverty, and his deeply profound remark that every bomb that falls on other countries is a bomb dropped on our inner cities, reveal the deep-rooted relationship between militarism and the social, racial, economic and environmental injustices that now impoverish whole cities and rural communities and have plagued our society and the world for a long time. It was exactly one year before he was murdered that Rev. King gave his famous speech opposing the U.S. war in Vietnam, calling the U.S. government “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world” and declaring that he could not be silent.

We cannot be silent either. As Rev. King taught us, “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Every year NATO has held its summits, people around the world have organized massive protests against it: in Chicago (2012), Wales (2014), Warsaw (2016), Brussels (2017 & 2018) — and 2019 will be no exception.

We are calling for a peaceful mass mobilization against this year’s NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, March 30. Additional actions will take place at the opening of the NATO meeting on April 4. We ask you to make every effort to join with us in Washington DC, or, if not possible, organize a rally or demonstration in your area. We need to show, in the strongest possible way, our opposition to NATO’s destructive wars and its racist military policies around the world.

We also invite you to add your, and/or your organization’s name to the list of supporters of the anti-NATO, Anti-War and Anti-Racism mass actions in Washington DC. Please go to the web site at http://no2nato2019.org to add your organizational or individual endorsement of the action or to make a donation to build the action.

You can also contact us by email: Contact@No2NATO2019.org.

Thank You.

Steering Committee for the March 30^th Anti-NATO Mobilization:

• Bahman Azad, Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases • Ajamu Baraka, Black Alliance for Peace • Leah Bolger, World Beyond War • Alison Bodine, Mobilization Against War and Occupation • Gerry Condon, Veterans For Peace • Miguel Figueroa, Canadian Peace Congress • Sara Flounders, International Action Center • Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance • Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ • Madelyn Hoffman, U.S. Peace Council • Tarak Kauff, Coalition Against U.S. Foreign Military Bases, Veterans For Peace • Marilyn Levin, UNAC • Joe Lombardo, UNAC • Tamara Lorincz, Canadian Voice of Women for Peace • Jeff Mackler, West Coast UNAC • Alfred L. Marder, U.S. Peace Council • Sarah Martin, Women Against Military Madness • Nancy Price, WILPF-US Section • Paul Pumphrey, Friends of the Congo • Cindy Sheehan, March on the Pentagon • Paki Wieland, CODEPINK • Phil Wilayto, Virginia Defenders • Ann Wright, Veterans For Peace, CODEPINK • Rev. Bruce Wright, Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign and Refuge Ministries • Kevin Zeese, Popular Resistance

https://bit.ly/2RbJmku

Listen to the Sun. Jan. 6, 2019 special edition of the Pan-African Journal: Worldwide Radio Broadcast hosted by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire. The program features our regular PANW report with dispatches on the delayed election results in the Democratic Republic of Congo; Cuba is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the triumph of the Revolution in Jan. 1959; the Syrian government is still battling the remnants of terrorists inside their country; and there are conflicting reports over the status of the doctors’ strike in the Southern African state of Zimbabwe. In the second hour we probe deeper into the character of the national elections in the DRC through an interview with President Joseph Kabila and other commentators. In the final hour we continue our focus on the history of the Cuban Revolution.

Rally – Madison United Against the Far Right

2 E Main Street, Wisconsin State Capitol, State Street Side, 11 A.M.

On January 12, far-right groups are planning a “We the People” rally to be held at the Wisconsin state capitol. The organizers of this rally include the 3% United Patriots and The Free Men Report.

The 3% United Patriots is a right-wing militia group that has been organizing armed vigilante squads at the US-Mexico border for years. They detain people crossing the border, handcuffing them and delivering them to US Border Patrol. They’ve since spread across the country.

The Free Men Report is a Madison-based far-right group. They organize against the rights of immigrants and against women. They harassed a group of UW students marching against the Kavanaugh appointment, screaming at people as they walked past.

The far right has been exploding in growth since the election of Donald Trump. The murder in Charlottesville at the “Unite the Right” rally and the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue are two of the most visible attacks, but they are not the only ones. Hate crimes have skyrocketed, pipe bombs were sent through the mail, and others were stabbed to death on a train in Portland and at a bus stop in Boston. Far right groups like Patriot Prayer, the Proud Boys, and the 3%ers have grown in membership and influence.

On Dec 29, dozens of us, from many different political organizations and backgrounds, met to discuss the rise of fascism across the world and in Wisconsin and to organize a response to it. At that meeting, we agreed to hold a counter-rally at the time and location of the far-right rally, where we will gather in large numbers to show that anti-immigrant, racist, and sexist groups have no place in Madison.

We will be rallying at the State Capitol on Jan 12 at 11:30am, on the State Street side, to counter this far-right rally.

We are also having a second organizing meeting on Saturday Jan 5 from 2pm-3:30pm. This meeting is open to the public, even if you can’t attend the rally. Find the Facebook event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/398912914181868/.

If you are a part of an organization or group that would like to sponsor, endorse, or help organize, please reach out to the hosts to get in touch.