March 27, 1944: Birthday of Comrade Miguel Enríquez, founder and General Secretary of Chile’s Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR). He was murdered by the U.S.-backed Pinochet regime in 1974.

Free Pavel Grigorchuk – Освободить Павла Григорчука

Join Jose Maria Sison, Berta Joubert-Ceci, Gloria Verdieu, Alexey Albu, Stanislav Retinsky, the United Communist Party of Russia and many more to demand freedom for Pavel Grigorchuk, courageous fighter against oligarchy and fascism, currently jailed in dangerous conditions in Moldova.

Welcome once more to Umm Akram and Amena ElAshkar! Our guests have arrived, and the first event for the 2019 North America Nakba Tour will take place Monday, March 4 in Bethesda, Maryland.

Check out our schedule for the first week of the Tour:

• March 4, Bethesda, Maryland: The Exiled Palestinians: Voices from Stateless Women
• March 7, Chapel Hill: Direct from the Refugee Camps – Stateless Palestinians from Lebanon Tell Their Story
• March 9, UNCC: The Exiled Palestinians – North America Nakba Tour
• March 10, Charlotte: The Exiled Palestinians – North America Nakba Tour
• March 12, Atlanta: Nakba Tour – The Exiled Palestinians

Events are being organized in more cities throughout the South and Midwest – but we still have gaps in our schedule. You can help to make sure the critically important voices of these stateless Palestinian refugee women are heard in your community! 

In 2016 the Nakba Tour brought 21-year-old Amena ElAshkar and 86-year-old Nakba survivor Mariam Fathalla to 26 venues in North America.  In 2017, Amena journeyed with 85-year-old Khawla Ibrahim to another 29 venues. This year, Amena is returning with Umm Akram (Mariam Fathalla), now 89, to share her personal story of the most tragic event in Palestinian history.

On May 14, 1948, as Zionist leader David Ben Gurion was proclaiming a Jewish state in Palestine, his troops drove out the inhabitants of the ancient Palestinian town of al-Zeeb. 18-year-old Mariam Fathalla (Umm Akram) was one of them. She and her young husband fled to Lebanon. By year’s end the 4,000-year-old community had been leveled. More than half of all Palestinians were killed or expelled and more than half the cities, towns and villages disappeared, a crime that Palestinians call al-Nakba (the Catastrophe). Now 89 years old, Mariam has spent the last 71 years in crowded, makeshift refugee camps in Lebanon. She has raised three generations, all waiting to return to Palestine. She has seen five Israeli invasions of Lebanon, as well as the 1976 Tel al-Zaatar camp massacre that killed more than 2000 refugees there.

Amena ElAshkar, 24, is a Palestinian journalist and translator. the granddaughter and great granddaughter of Nakba survivors and has known no home other than a refugee camp.

Invite these two stateless Palestinian refugees to speak in your community.

The tour will begin in Washington DC on March 3, 2019, and will travel by car south toward New Orleans, then north through the Midwest to Minnesota before ending in Chicago and Southern California in early May.

We need your help to tell their story.

• Book a spot along the Nakba Tour route (included below). 

The local sponsors of the event will be the primary organizers, but we will help and advise you with protocol, advice, logistics and outreach, including advertising. We will make sure the speakers and field coordinator / tour driver / videographer Samir Salem are able to travel to your venue.

• If you do not see your city or town on the route, but are interested
  in sponsoring an event please contact us to see if we can find a way to
  reach your destination.
• If you do not live along the route, contact us about hosting a live-streaming event.
• Donate!
• Contact us to help organize! We are always in need of volunteers.
• And, most importantly: forward this announcement to all of your lists and follow us on Facebook!

Projected 2019 Nakba Tour approximate event dates (to be filled with your events)

March 4-5      Washington, DC
March 7-8      Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill
March 9         Charlotte
March 12       Atlanta
March 14       Tupelo/Birmingham/Tuscaloosa
March 16       Mobile
March 17       New Orleans
March 20       Houston
March 22-23  Austin/San Antonio/College Station
March 25        Dallas
March 26-27 Tulsa/Oklahoma City/Norman/Stillwater
March 28        Arkansas Ozarks
March 30-31  Memphis/Nashville
April 3-4         Louisville/Indianapolis
April 5-6         Champaign/University of Illinois
April 7-8          Midwest college towns
April 10-11      St. Louis
April 13           Columbia, MO
April 15-16      Lawrence/Kansas City
April 17           Omaha/Des Moines
April 18-19      Sioux City/Sioux Falls
April 20-21      Minneapolis
April 22-24      Madison/Milwaukee
April 26-27      Chicago
April 29-May 3 Southern California

SIGN PETITION: https://bit.ly/2OuIPW0

Conditions at Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility (MSDF) are out of step with Wisconsin values. Not only have conditions at the prison been deplorable for years, but the very notion of locking up people struggling with parole and mental health issues is at odds with common sense approaches to justice.

Crimeless revocation – the practice of re-incarcerating people on probation, parole, and extended supervision for minor rule violations – is more than significant. It is a failed policy, a waste of money, and an embarrassment to Wisconsin.

A recent Health Impact Assessment demonstrates that Wisconsin incarcerated 3,000 people for crimeless revocations in 2015. This study suggests that incarcerating people for crimeless rule violations does not improve public safety, is associated with a wide range of detrimental effects on children and families, and can damage the health of people on supervision.

SIGN PETITION: https://bit.ly/2OuIPW0

In 2001, the state of Wisconsin built MSDF to house people who have allegedly violated rules of probation, parole, and extended supervision. The state uses this facility to unnecessarily incarcerate thousands of people who have not been convicted of new crimes.

In the last 16 years, thousands of individuals, convicted of no new crime, have been re-incarcerated at MSDF—over sixty percent of them black men. This practice of incarceration for alleged crimeless rule violations exacerbates racial inequities in Milwaukee and Wisconsin, and the inhumane conditions at MSDF violate basic human rights and defy our notions of justice and freedom.

James Wilborn, who was an EXPO leader, died in Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility during the summer of 2015. The extreme heat at MSDF was a factor in his death, as was his inability to obtain medications that he needed there. He should have never been incarcerated there.

SIGN PETITION: https://bit.ly/2OuIPW0

Saudi airstrike on Yemen. | Photo: Reuters

https://bit.ly/2JK2pz8

https://www.telesurenglish.net/

38th Annual Conference – Wisconsin Labor History Society

1602 S Park Street, Madison Labor Temple, 8:30 A.M. – 3 P.M. 

Wisconsin Labor History Society—38th Annual Conference
How Labor Can Win Again: ‘Direct Action’ strategies of history offer promise for the future

Join in the discussion about “Direct Actions,” such as mass general strikes, mass rallies and other innovative tactics have helped workers win better working conditions in past history AND whether such tactics can be effective in the future.

Opening speaker: Dan Kaufman, author of “The Fall of Wisconsin: The Conservative Conquest of a Progressive Bastion and the Future of American Politics.” A Wisconsin native, Kaufman is a contributor to the New York Times and has written extensively about the state’s political history and occurrences since the 2011 Wisconsin Uprising.

Union activists and labor historians will also discuss recent actions taken in Wisconsin that have been winners; the conference will end with a discussion as to what will work in the future.

There will be time for open discussion.

Lunch served. If you desire either a vegatarian or gluten free lunch, please email your desires to info@wisconsinlaborhistory.org and put “Lunch” in your subject line.

http://mmfilmfest.com/

The Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival is committed to discovering and sharing some of the most exciting and thought provoking films from around the world. Our aim is to use film as a means for presenting topics and issues that are timely, relevant and generate meaningful discussion about Muslims and the Muslim world.

Our dedicated team carefully selects films from across the globe that transcend countries, languages and cultures while highlighting the common humanity among people of all races, ethnicities and religious beliefs.

The Milwaukee Muslim Film Festival aims to pave the way for award-winning films to be discovered and for creative filmmakers to receive the attention they deserve.

Junta comunitaria: El 1ro de mayo y licencias para todxs

ENGLISH BELOW

Junta comunitaria: El 1ro de mayo y licencias para todxs
Sábado 6 de abril, 1:30pm
South Division High School (1515 W Lapham Blvd)
Información: 414-643-1620
Abierta al público

Para restaurar las licencias de conducir para todxs en Wisconsin, tenemos que mostrar el poder económico de la gente inmigrante. Acompáñanos para planear el Día sin Latinx e Inmigrantes para el 1ro de mayo en el Capitolio en Madison para las licencias de conducir. Tendremos foros así a través del estado. Si vive afuera de Milwaukee, manténgase alerta para ver cuando será el foro en su área.
———
Community Meeting: May 1st and Driver Licenses for All
Saturday, April 6, 1:30pm
Preparatoria South Division (1515 W Lapham Blvd)
Info: 414-643-1620
Open to the public

To restore driver’s licenses for all in Wisconsin, we need to show our collective economic power. Join us to plan the May 1st Day without Latinx and Immigrants for driver licenses, which will be at the Capitol in Madison.

We will hold forums like this throughout the state. If you live outside of Milwaukee, stay alert to see when the community meeting in your area will be.