Listen to the Sun. June 30, 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 mass demonstrations held today in Sudan demanding the resignation of the Transitional Military Council (TMC); the situation in Ethiopia following an attempted coup last week has been discussed in neighboring East African states; the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is planning a military offensive in the northeast of the country in the aftermath of a series of criminal attacks; and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has agreed to establish a single currency for the region. In the second and third hours we conclude our commemoration of Black Music Month where we will honor the life, times and contributions of Langston Hughes, John Sellers, James Cotton, Otis Spann and Bessie Smith.
Chrystul Kizer Birthday Gathering
310 Locust Street, MLK Library, 5-7 P.M.
All ages event, children welcome, wheelchair accessible, FREE!
Join us as we celebrate Chrystul’s 19th birthday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library on 3rd and Locust Street Monday July 1st. We will be sharing cake, updating folks on how to get involved with Chrytsul’s self-defense campaign and contextualize her story in the larger historical narrative of the criminalization of self-defense in the United States.
Before heading over to the library, we will be engaging in a visibility demonstration on the intersection of 3rd street and Locust Avenue by caring signs of support and passing out literature about Chrystul’s story.
More information about Chrystul’s story may be found here:
Chrystul Kizer is a black teenage survivor of violence. At only 17-years old, she was charged with multiple felonies for defending herself from an older white man who has been accused of ongoing physical and sexual abuse of not only Chrystul, but multiple other young girls. A resident of Milwaukee, WI, Chrystul spent her 18th birthday incarcerated in the Kenosha County Jail, where she remains confined. If convicted, Chrystul could face a sentence of life in prison. Chrystul needs the opportunity to be supported in safe, healing spaces in the community – not the prospect of additional trauma, assault, and solitary confinement in a Wisconsin penitentiary.
Recent campaigns to free criminalized survivors have highlighted how gender-based violence such as sexual assault is linked to the prison industrial complex. Survived and Punished cites ACLU figures in reporting that almost 60% of people confined in women’s prisons across the United States and up to 94% of some women’s prison populations have a history of physical or sexual abuse prior to incarceration. In addition, we know that policing and prisons disproportionately impacts communities of color. However, these campaigns have illustrated the power of people to raise awareness, make demands, and free survivors.
Two IWW members will be at Milwaukee Central Library, 814 W. Wisconsin, meeting room 2A, on Monday, July 1, 5:00-6:30 PM. They will be working on some of the activity they regularly do for the Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee, supporting the campaign against arbitrary regulations at Columbia Correctional, support for hunger strikers, coalition efforts to shutdown the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, and connecting different networks inside prison walls. Our work includes research, writing letters, data entry, and developing ideas for disrupting the horror that is the Wisconsin prison system. Come by if you want to see what’s involved with this organizing, ask questions, and maybe get involved in this. Free coffee and snacks are provided. Let us know if you need a ride to be able to attend. This gathering will be followed by our strategy meeting at 6:30, visitors are welcome to attend this as well.
If you are interested in this event and can’t make this time or location, please post in this event, message us or send an email at iwoc.milwaukee@gmail.com We will schedule the next event to work for your schedule, or followup one-on-one. Also contact us if you would need childcare, translation or other accommodations to be able to attend this event. You can also fill out this online survey to volunteer for specific tasks: https://bit.ly/2vyZam9 You can get more information on Wisconsin prison conditions and resistance to them at our website: https://wisconsinprisonvoices.org/
12 NOON, 517 E Wisconsin Avenue, Federal Courthouse
Children denied soap and toothbrushes, crowded into unsafe conditions. Separated from their families, subject to cruel treatment that leads to lasting traumas. And some dying in custody—or dying with parents as they cross the Rio Grande. We’ve seen the images and heard the stories coming out of child detention centers. Horrifically, these conditions aren’t an accident. They are the byproduct of an intentional strategy by the Trump administration to terrorize immigrant communities and criminalize immigration—from imprisoning children in inhumane conditions to threatening widespread raids to break up families to covering up reports of immigrants dying in U.S. custody and abuses by ICE and CBP agents. It’s going to take all of us to close the camps. This Tuesday, July 2, while members of Congress are home for the Fourth of July holiday, we will gather at 12 p.m. noon local time at their local offices and other relevant locations in protest. Our demands: Close the camps Not one dollar for family detention Bear witness and reunite families.
No Borders In The Workers’ Struggle! / Photo: WI BOPM
