Monthly Archives: May 2019

Call-In for Kanautica Zayre Brown! Wed, May 15, 2019

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Please call North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Director of Prisons, Kenneth Lassiter, and Attorney General Josh Stein to get Kanautica transferred to a women’s facility! Share the Facebook event or IWOC zap page with your people.

The grassroots pressure is working and we’ve got to keep it up!

WE NEED YOU TO CALL, EMAIL and FAX to show your solidarity with Kanautica as she continues to suffer from the systematic denial of her personhood. The goal of a call-in is to overwhelm an office with communications. Share this invite widely!

Our friend Kanautica Zayre-Brown (#0618705) is a trans woman currently incarcerated at Warren Correctional Institute, a men’s prison. The North Carolina Department of Public Safety has refused to meet her demand to be transferred to a women’s facility.

Kanautica’s request for a transfer has been met with cruel retaliation, including 25 days in solitary confinement at Harnett Correctional Institute, and half-measures, such as her transfer to another men’s facility.

Due to on-going pressure from Kanautica and supporters on the outside, the NC Department of Justice has ordered DPS to transfer Kanautica to a women’s facility, but DPS is yet to set a timeline and continues to stall. Her transfer cannot wait another day. Kanautica has made it clear that she will continue to fight until she is transferred to a women’s facility, and she asks that we continue our demand to #TransferKanauticaNow

For more background information on Kanautica’s case go to https://transferkanauticanow.weebly.com/

Suggested Call Script:
Hello, my name is…and I’m calling from… I am calling in support of Kanautica Zayre-Brown, #0618705, a woman currently held at Warren Correctional Institute, a men’s prison. I am very concerned about her health and safety at Warren and the lack of proper treatment she is receiving. We have no confidence that the staff at Warren nor officials up the chain at DPS have Kanautica’s safety in mind, and I demand that you immediately follow through on the North Carolina Department of Justice’s demand to transfer Kanautica to a women’s facility.

Additional line for Governor Cooper’s office: Governor Cooper’s silence on this issue is shameful. Where does he stand? Is he on Kanatuica’s side or not?

Phone Numbers (in order of priority)
1. Governor Roy Cooper, 919-814-2000
2. Kenneth Lassiter, Director of Prisons, 984-255-6031
3. Josh Stein, Attorney General of North Carolina, 919-716-6400

Email
Governor Roy Cooper: https://governor.nc.gov/contact/contact-governor-cooper
Kenneth Lassiter, Director of Prisons: kenneth.lassiter@ncdps.gov
Josh Stein, Attorney General of North Carolina jstein@ncdoj.gov
NC DPS: https://www.ncdps.gov/Contact/Contact-Us 

Fax
Kenneth Lassiter, Director of Prisons 919-733-8272
Governor Roy Cooper 919-733-2120
Attorney General Josh Stein 919-716-6750
To send a free fax via email: https://faxzero.com/

We’ve posted images and infographics in the discussion section of the Facebook event that you can send. https://www.facebook.com/events/301973120732920/

Note: Be stern with the individual who answers the phone. Insist to speak to who you call for. Give no more information to the secretary other than your name. Record calls if possible. To share information on the results of the call, fill out the form below: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfn2yieboTNT8V0l8nP1JVYzdVKSDPlaoks60kqMxebiJntA/viewform?usp=pp_url

Call to Demand People’s Venezuela Embassy Protectors in D.C. Be Allowed Food, Water & Medicine! #HandsOffVenezuela

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More than 1100 people have signed their commitment to make calls and mobilize to defend the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the group of activists who have been protecting the Embassy for one month, as of May 10.

Now, the Secret Service, other police and U.S. government agencies, along with the right-wing coup supporters outside the Embassy, have not only blocked food, medicines, and other supplies, but they have now cut the power and water to the Embassy – just as the U.S. did in Venezuela.

TAKE ACTION:

  1. Daily demonstrations will take place outside the Embassy each day from 4 – 7pm. There is also a call for a mass mobilization this Saturday, May 11, at 1pm.
  2. Sign + share the petition
  3. Make the calls
    1. DC Mayor Muriel Bowser: 202-727-2643
    2. State Dept Office of Foreign Missions: 202-895-3500
    3. Secret Service DC Field Office: 202-406-8800

SIGN your support for the Venezuelan Embassy Protectors, deliver their message to US State Department Offices and US Embassies world wide. We will also deliver all signed statements to US State Department.

The International Action Center and No War On Venezuela are circulating the following statement from the Embassy Protection Collective currently defending the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, D.C. They are facing increasing attacks both from right-wing coup supporters and U.S. police agencies. Please sign and circulate this urgent appeal for solidarity.

We are asking our allies to surround the embassy with love and resistance to quell the hatred and violence coming from occupying right-wing extremists. Bring supplies for the protectors such as coffee, food, hygiene and cleaning products, socks and T shirts.

We are asking everyone to contact your member of Congress to demand that they:

  1. Respect the Vienna Convention of 1961 and protect the integrity of the embassy.
  2. Obey DC law by not evicting us from the premises without due process.
  3. Recognize that the elected and legitimate government of Venezuela is the administration of Nicolas Maduro as have the United Nations and over 140 countries.

The Embassy Protection Collective, a group of organizations and individuals, is residing and working in the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC at the invitation of the elected Venezuelan government as an interim protectorate. We have taken on the responsibility for maintaining, cleaning, and caring for the building until a permanent protectorate for the embassy, in the form of a mutual formal agreement to find third-party host countries to safeguard the Venezuelan and U.S. embassies in Washington and Caracas, respectively is established. We have received innumerable messages of support and love from around the world. We are safe in the building, and our will is strong.

The right-wing group occupying the exterior of the building is violently harassing and attacking individuals who are outside protesting U.S. intervention. They are also blocking entrances to the building, and have caused extensive damage to the building’s exterior—including destroying security cameras, drilling into doors and hitting the garage door with a sledgehammer.

Many of the members of this group of Pan-American Trump supporters outside the building are white supremacists, shouting the most vulgar racist, misogynistic and homophobic insults and death threats imaginable at Embassy Protectors and our supporters. Numerous videotaped examples of this behavior have been published online.

The Secret Service has witnessed the violence of this right wing hate group against Embassy Protectors and our supporters and against the Embassy building, and has done nothing to discourage them. While the right-wing protestors have perpetrated numerous acts of violence against us, we have maintained a consistently disciplined and peaceful presence. Nonetheless, in all but one particularly egregious case of battery, the Secret Service has only detained individuals protesting U.S. intervention in Venezuela. Examples of charges leveled against us include “Tossing Missiles”—the offense listed on Ariel Gold’s arrest warrant for trying to throw lettuce to Embassy Protectors, as the right-wing group has been blocking people and supplies from coming in the building.

Allowing unelected, failed Venezuelan coup mongers—who are taking their orders from war criminal and genocide abettor Elliott Abrams and others in the Trump administration—to take the embassy would be an escalation of international aggression. It would also be a violation of Article 22 of the 1961 Vienna Conventions, on Diplomatic Relations, which is explicit that foreign embassies should be protected by the host government and their space should not be violated even when countries are at war or have severed diplomatic relations. Specifically, international law requires:

  1. The premises of the mission shall be inviolable. The agents of the receiving State may not enter them, except with the consent of the head of the mission.
  2. The receiving State is under a special duty to take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion or damage and to prevent any disturbance of the peace of the mission or impairment of its dignity.
  3. The premises of the mission, their furnishings and other property thereon and the means of transport of the mission shall be immune from search, requisition, attachment or execution.
Sign the Petition

Fond du Lac, June 1, 2019: Juneteenth

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EBONY VISION

Juneteenth 2019

753 S Park Avenue, Fond du Lac, WI, 11-5 P.M.

Ebony Vision is excited as we are planning our 11th annual Juneteenth Celebration in the Fond du Lac community on Sat. June 1, 2019. This festival is not only historical, but stands for the dignity and equality of all. It is a day of reflection, a day of renewal and it is inclusive of all races – as nothing is more comforting than the hand of a friend.
This family day is filled with food, music from UNITY the Band and DJ Afrekete, a basketball tournament, and activities for the kids. Come stand with us in this CELEBRATION OF FREEDOM! You will find all information on our website: http://www.ebonyvisionfdl.org /juneteenth.html

Want to be a vendor- https://goo.gl/forms/iYEu0OoEc51KStRr1

National Lawyers Guild International – Statement on the Venezuelan Embassy in DC and US Sanctions

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https://bit.ly/2VHwiWt

The National Lawyers Guild International Committee unequivocally condemns the threats posed by the government of the United States and Washington D.C. Police Department to the Embassy of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. We also condemn the unilateral financial sanctions imposed by the U.S. government intended to force “regime change” in Venezuela by limiting people’s access to basic goods necessary for survival.

As a legal organization committed to the promotion and defense of international law and human rights, the NLG demands that federal and local law enforcement abide by all applicable legal standards governing diplomatic protections, sovereignty and freedom of assembly. This includes the provisions of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations which requires the U.S. to recognize the inviolability of embassies and to “take all appropriate steps to protect the premises of the mission against any intrusion.” The Vienna Convention was ratified by the United States in 1972 and thus is a part of federal law.

RELATED CONTENT: Venezuelan Embassy: Water Shut Off, Police Block Entry of Food

The legitimacy of the Maduro presidency should be left to the Venezuelan people to decide via their own electoral processes, and it is entirely unjustified for members of the United States government to openly call for or support a military coup, including Senator Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor John Bolton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Special Ambassador Elliott Abrams. Self-proclaimed president Juan Guaidó has no legitimate claim under the Bolivarian Constitution (Sections 233 and 234).

Since 2006, the NLG has sent multiple delegations to observe local and national Venezuelan elections. We have observed the process noted by the Carter Center as one of the best electoral processes in the world, with its paper receipts, open source software and the public audit to compare paper and digital votes at close of polls. Even the opposition has admitted the Venezuelan election system is “fraud-proof.”

RELATED CONTENT: Arresting Members of the Embassy Protection Collective Would Be Unlawful

Both the proposed takeover of the Venezuelan Embassy by the Guaidó agents and the criminal unilateral economic sanctions imposed on Venezuela by the U.S. to bring about regime change by crippling the Venezuelan economy and thwarting the basic needs of the Venezuelan people constitute a clear violation of international law.

The National Lawyers Guild condemns the on-going attempted coup d’etat organized by the United States and evocation of the ignominious Monroe Doctrine in clear violation of the basic sovereignty provisions of the UN and OAS Charters.

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“Stand For Peace,” Milwaukee, WI January 26, 2019

Thought Police: US, Israel Increasingly Banning & Deporting Ideological Enemies

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TEL AVIV/WASHINGTON — Israel and the U.S. are simultaneously stepping up repression in the form of travel restrictions against critics of the apartheid state.

A Palestinian activist has been barred from entering the U.S. while an advocate with a leading human rights NGO – Human Rights Watch (HRW) – faced a ruling on Tuesday in Israeli courts which upheld the government’s deportation order against him.

Last week, the U.S. banned a founder of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, one Omar Barghouti, from entering its soil. Though the government’s official explanation was “immigration reasons,” there is plentiful evidence to suspect the ban was meant as a reprisal for his non-violent advocacy.

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, or popularly, BDS, is a campaign to economically pressure apartheid Israel into compliance with international law through boycotts of the government and Israeli companies… https://bit.ly/30ntDQr

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Milwaukee June 8, 2019: Bicycle RIDE with Pride & RALLY

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Bicycle RIDE with Pride & RALLY

RESERVE YOUR FREE TICKETS NOW!

PRIDE RIDE LGBT+/QUEER COMMUNITY AND THOSE WHO SUPPORT ARE WELCOME!

It’s that time of year again! Join us on the morning of Saturday, June 8th just outside of COMPANY BREWING for our third annual Bicycle Pride Ride!

Our ride this year will end at the Harley-Davidson Museum! This year we’ve teamed up with Pride Fest and they have invited us to RALLY with another two-wheeled gaggle of queers! That’s right, the lgbtq+ MOTORCYCLE community!

The ride will include historical points of interest, great comradery, and of course a bangin’ soundtrack!

We’ll see you there!

Things to remember for ‘Rolling with PRIDE’

-Children are welcome but must be able to confidently ride in the road or be someone’s cargo. Youth ages 16 and under must be accompanied by an adult.

-We have a waiver for you to sign!

-This is an on-street route and you will be riding with trained group ride leaders!

-Looking shamazing is a priority YES, but remember this is a five-mile bike ride. Both comfort AND style are recommended!

-Your bicycle is working when..your tires hold air and your tire feels hard not soft like a peach! Your hand or pedal brakes safely bring you to a complete stop, and your chain doesn’t look straight up rusty (a healthy chain is usually black or silver…)
-helmets are good but they’re not the law
-LAYER it may be cool out at first but you’ll work up a sweat biking

*If you have questions, please feel free to DM us and we’ll try to get you set up!

Map of the Route

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1LMSNVb7tsBMm4Ih2z1CrmHK99eupGPEd&usp=sharing

263334-big-rainbow-flag-in-blue-sky

China Delivers 71 Tons of Humanitarian Aid to Venezuela

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“With this second shipment, as well as that which we already received from the Russian Federation, the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent” some 166 tons of medicines and supplies have arrived in the country, Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said.

The People’s Republic of China delivered a large amount of humanitarian aid to Venezuela on Monday, completing their second long haul of cargo to the Bolivarian Republic since March.

According to the Venezuelan Health Ministry, a Chinese Boeing 747 carrying 71 tons of medicine and surgical material arrived in Caracas on Monday, May 13. The Venezuelan Government said the delivery included supplies for pregnant women and medicine to treat respiratory conditions.

“With this second shipment, as well as that which we already received from the Russian Federation, the International Red Cross and the Red Crescent” some 166 tons of medicines and supplies have arrived in the country, Health Minister Carlos Alvarado said.

China previously shipped 65 tons of humanitarian aid to Venezuela on March 29; this delivery was mislabeled as ‘military’ support to the Government of the Bolivarian Republic.

Both Venezuela and China maintain close political and economic ties and have so for several years. China, along with Russia, have defended Venezuela at many U.N. Security Council meetings in which the U.S. and its allies attempt to pass resolutions against the Bolivarian Republic.

A man stands on bags of rice in the Hugo Chavez rice plant in Tucupita

A man stands on bags of rice in the Hugo Chavez rice plant in Tucupita | Photo: Reuters