Lights for Liberty: Milwaukee, WI

200 E Wells Street, Milwaukee, 8 P.M.

Join us outside the Milwaukee City Hall to protest against these atrocities. This will be a demonstration and a candlelight vigil. We are in the process of organizing speakers and events.

At 9 pm, we will end with a candlelight vigil and a moment of silence.

***Meet outside of Milwaukee City Hall****

Photo: WI BOPM

Close the Concentration Camps Coalition – Madison Rally & March

Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps
#CloseTheCamps #LetThemAllIn

[For accessibility notes, please scroll to the bottom of the text]

We will start our rally at 222 W Washington Ave at 6:30, where ICE had a field agent office last fall and may still have an agent, then begin marching at 7pm to Brittingham Park (1 mile) to join others in Madison for a Vigil against the camps.

The horrific abuses of the US government against migrants, travelers, and refugees has escalated, with children denied basic necessities, people over-stuffed into makeshift concentration camps, women abused and forced by US agents to drink out of toilets, and so much worse that we don’t yet know about.

The Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps is joining in national calls for a day of action on July 12 to oppose these camps and to call for them to be shut down. #CloseTheCamps

These concentration camps exist as a “solution” from the US to migration across the southern border. While these concentration camps are the most barbaric (so far), the other mainstream “solutions” provide little better: either to militarize the border to prevent migration, force people to migrate across more dangerous paths so that they die, or to return to the old, less barbaric camps, detention and processing centers. We must reject all of these “solutions”, and instead fight to let all people travel wherever they need and want, without punishment or rejection. We must #LetThemAllIn.

National Coalition Page – https://www.facebook.com/CoalitiontoClosetheCamps/
Vigil in Madison that we will join at Brittingham Park – https://www.facebook.com/events/2426255384272505/

Endorsers of the July 12th National Day of Action to Close the Concentration Camps (list in progress):
Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps – San Diego, CA Chapter
Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps – Madison, WI Chapter
Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps – South Bay/Silicon Valley, CA Chapter
Coalition to Close the Concentration Camps – New York City chapter
Haitian Bridge Alliance
Building Bridges of Love
Our Revolution – Albuquerque, New Mexico
Our Revolution – McHenry County, Illinois
Democratic Socialists of America – San Diego chapter
Democratic Socialists of America – Salt Lake City chapter
Democratic Socialists of America – Memphis/Midsouth chapter
Democratic Socialists of America – Portland chapter
Immigrant Justice League
Migrant Child Watch
Three Sisters Collective (Albuquerque, NM)
People over Profit – San Diego
Western Massachusetts Anticapitalist Network
Western Massachusetts Trans Asylum Seeker Support Network
Syria Solidarity – New York City
Syria Peace Vigil Group – New York City
California Educators United
Minority Humanitarian Foundation
North County Justice Allies – San Diego County
Lake County Immigrant Advocacy – Northern California
Democratic Woman’s Club of San Diego County
Vermonters for Justice in Palestine
Party for Socialism and Liberation – San Diego Chapter
San Diego Tenants Union
International Socialist Collective – Boulder, UCB
San Diego Socialists
Denver Communists
Socialist Party USA – Bay Area
Workers’ Voice / La Voz de los Trabajadores
Socialist Alternative – Madison Chapter
MAD Madison Abortion Defense
Organizing White Men for Collective Liberation
People’s Power Assembly – Atlanta
DSA Anti-Imperialism Network
Colorado Socialists
Women’s March San Diego, And Many More….

Accessibility Notes:

The march is one mile from 222 W. Washington Ave. to Brittingham Park. Our route will be down W. Washington Ave. If you need or want to ride in a scent-free and decked-out vehicle along the same route, please text Sawyer at (715) 323-7870 to coordinate a ride.

Lights for Liberty: A Vigil to End Human Detention Camps

4777 88th Avenue, Kenosha, 8 P.M.

On July 12, a mass gathering will take place at detention centers around the country, in addition to local communities, to shed a literal light on the inhumane conditions being faced by asylum seekers and undocumented immigrants in the U.S.

According to media reports, Trump is coming to Milwaukee July 12, 2019. GOP Wisconsin spokesman Charles Nichols said the state party learned from the Republican National Committee on Monday morning that Trump is scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Milwaukee on Friday.

President Trump will tour and lie at Derco Aerospace Inc., a Lockheed Martin Company, according to a White House official. Trump also plans at least one fundraiser with his fellow racists.

Crusaders of Justicia and Wisconsin Bail Out The People Movement protest Donald Trump racist anti-worker hate rally in Green Bay April 27, 2019 / Photos: WI BOPM 

https://bit.ly/2L8U2wU

https://bit.ly/2Jx7Z4mhttps://bit.ly/2Jx7Z4m

Numerous Proud Boys, neo-Nazis, and other far-right groups marched in Washington DC yesterday (6 July). However, progressive LGBTI groups weren’t letting them get away with their hatred. There was an #AllOutDC counter-rally occurring simultaneously, featuring drag queens using their fans in unique ways….

https://bit.ly/2Xvt9d7

Following the exposure of Belgium’s mishandling of Muammar Gaddafi’s frozen funds, it turns out that the British government has been collecting taxes on the former head of state’s blocked UK assets. British and US lawmakers have discussed the legality of London’s move and shared prognoses on whether the money will ever be returned to the Libyans.

Neither the late Muammar Gaddafi nor the citizens of Libya have access to the whopping £12 billion in assets the former head of state had in the UK, but Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has collected around £17 million in taxes on the assets since 2016, according to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee’s latest report.

The disclosure has prompted some British lawmakers to demand that London use the money earned in interest on the frozen accounts to compensate the victims of the Irish Republican Army (IRA); the organisation was supplied with weapons and explosives by the Gaddafi government in the 1980s.

The question then arises: it is legal to take money in taxes from the frozen assets of another state?

‘Nothing But Old-Fashioned Bank Robbery’

Kovalik underscored that it is up to the government of Libya how the dividends from the frozen assets should be distributed.

According to the lawyer, it would be legitimate if the Libyan authorities sued the British government in court to get their money back. However, he expressed doubt that it would happen anytime soon, since Libya has been left without a unified national government.

It is not the first time that Gaddafi’s frozen assets have been mishandled. In autumn 2018, the Belgium government was accused of paying out interest and dividends on the colonel’s bank accounts. Following Gaddafi’s death in 2011, about 16 billion euros belonging to the colonel were frozen in four Belgian banks in accordance with a UN resolution. However, an investigation conducted by Politico magazine indicated “regular outflows of stock dividends, bond income and interest payments to unknown beneficiaries with bank accounts in Luxembourg and Bahrain” between 2011 and 2017.

“I think that the problem is that there is no true rule of international law,” said Kovalik, commenting on the Belgian case. “The way the world works is the more powerful countries get what they want by force or other ways. Look at Western Europe: it was all built on the backs of people from the poor countries with their resources. The museums in Western Europe hauled all the antiquities of peoples in Africa, the Middle East, everything has been stolen there is nothing new.”

‘Law Has Nothing to Do With It’

Francis Boyle, a professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, echoed Kovalik’s concerns by saying that Washington and NATO member states “have been stealing Libyan assets and oil anywhere and wherever they can since they murdered Gaddafi”. According to him, “law has nothing to do with it except for being window-dressing for their thievery”….

https://bit.ly/2Xvt9d7

U.S. Hands Off Iran Natl Webinar

CLOSEmsdf

#CLOSEmsdf Second Anniversary Event

Saturday, July 13, 3pm – 7pm

St Benedict the Moor
1015 North 9th Street
Milwaukee, WI 53233

We will gather for food and fellowship, hear testimonies from national and local leaders.

Our keynote speaker this year is Phal Sok of the Youth Justice Coalition and Justice LA.Phal came to the States as an infant child of Cambodian refugees. At 16, his father passed away and he became parentless. The school system soon pushed him out and left him without resources. He ended up in the streets, taken into the juvenile justice system, and tried as an adult.

After 16 years inside, he became one of the first and few to benefit from legislative changes and won early release. But as an immigrant, he was taken into immigration custody and forced to navigate the system without an attorney. After nearly a year of detention, he was finally released, only to be taken back in for final deportation just four months later. He again managed his return to the community; uncertain of his future, he became a leader, fighting for the marginalized, pushing his experience as a tool for those most criminalized to build a better tomorrow for all.

Through his work, the community, and many elected officials’ support, he was pardoned by Governor Brown, closing his deportation case. Today, he continues to organize with the Youth Justice Coalition and Justice LA bringing truth to the human effects of mass incarceration and mass deportation.

Join us this Saturday to hear Phal’s story, engage with our panel of local leaders, and to take part in our march to MSDF and Aurora Sinai as we honor the eighteen lives lost inside MSDF.

We can’t wait to see you there.

Best,

The #CLOSEmsdf Team, CLOSEmsdf