Monthly Archives: September 2019

Youth Led Climate Strikes Across Wisconsin September 20, 2019!

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Global Climate Strike: Wisconsin

This September, millions of us will walk out of our workplaces, schools, and homes to join you climate strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels.

Our house is one fire — let’s act like it. It’s now time to rebel.

Both adults and young people alike need to take to the streets on September 20 to demand climate justice.

Can’t strike? Protest in solidarity by disrupting the status quo and striking for 11 minutes on September 20 to symbolize our looming deadline.

Flagship Strikes:
Madison: https://www.facebook.com/events/444295093093779/
Milwaukee: https://www.facebook.com/events/693776687701388/
La Crosse: https://www.facebook.com/events/361147151227652/
Appleton: https://www.facebook.com/events/473243190128356/
Ashland: https://www.facebook.com/events/400269883939953/

See ycatwi.org/sep20 for other strikes & more info on 11 minute strikes!

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Detroit, September 20, 2019: Global Climate Strike!

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Gather at Grand Circus Park
Woodward and Adams, Detroit
3 pm

March to Hart Plaza
4 pm for a Youth-led Rally

On September 20, three days before the UN Climate Action Summit in New York City, and continuing on September 27, millions of youth and adults from across the world will strike to demand that transformative action to address the growing climate crisis and environmental degradation.

Much of the greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. from the burning of oil, coal, and natural gas, with the U.S. military producing about 80% of the federal government’s share of these emissions.

These greenhouse gas emissions, and the fossil fuel billionaires responsible for them, are pushing our climate to the brink of collapse and hurting our communities in real time. Sea levels are rising, coral reefs are dying, and we are starting to see the life-threatening impact of climate change on health, through air pollution, heatwaves and risks to food security. This is especially true for those of us who are poor, people of color, and otherwise marginalized.

All forms of inequality get magnified by climate change. From housing to healthcare, everything gets worse when a wildfire or hurricane is at your doorstep, or when oil and gas billionaires come to town to build a pipeline or a refinery in your backyard. While we suffer, our elected officials keep pandering to the billionaires responsible for this crisis.

In Detroit, a growing portion of our water bills ($30 – $40 per month or more) covers the treatment of rain water, especially the surge that accompanies a heavy rainfall. According to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, this charge will grow because of climate change as storms dump increasing amounts of rain in a short period of time. It’s the poorest people who bear the brunt of this when we get our water service terminated because we can’t afford to pay to treat Mother Nature’s rain.  The storms are also causing basement flooding on a regular basis now.

The poorest neighborhoods in Detroit, particularly in southwest Detroit, experience very high levels of industrial pollution from facilities such as the Marathon oil refinery, resulting in the highest asthma rates in the state, and other adverse health effects.

Even the City of Detroit’s approach to blighted neighborhoods makes climate change worse. Instead of carefully deconstructing the abandoned homes and recycling the lumber, windows, doors, and bricks, Mayor Duggan opts to dump these materials into a landfill were the wood will eventually decay and produce greenhouse gases. Duggan chooses to do this despite a successful program under Mayor Bing that deconstructed homes using the labor of appropriately trained persons returning from prison.

 

Chelsea Manning Needs Legal Funds to Resist a Grand Jury Subpoena

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https://bit.ly/2kOYwgo

Chelsea Manning has been summoned to appear and give testimony before a federal grand jury. The grand jury is related to her 2010 disclosures of information about the nature of asymmetric warfare to the public. Following in the footsteps of scores of other activists, Chelsea refused to testify in front of the grand jury, and is currently incarcerated for civil contempt. She may be held until she “purges”- which she won’t- or until the grand jury is released.

Chelsea risked so much for public good, and has been through a lot of hardship. Let’s show her solidarity together and let the State know their punitive harassment won’t be tolerated.

What are grand juries?

Grand juries are used to establish “probable cause” that a felony offense has been committed. Prosecutors run the proceedings behind closed doors, without a judge or defense attorney present. Basically, the whole process is rigged to favor indictment of the individual accused of a crime. They have also been used historically to oppress and frighten targeted groups, in particular, people perceived as dissidents and activists.

Why Resist a grand jury?

Due to their secretive nature and limitless subpoena power, the government has utilized grand jury processes as tools for garnering information about movements by questioning witnesses behind closed doors. Since testimony before grand juries is secret, grand juries can create fear by suggesting that some members of a political community may be secretly cooperating with the government. In this way, grand juries can seed suspicion and fear in activist communities.

What will funds go toward specifically?

We will need legal funds for Chelsea’s legal fees, and legal costs such as court transcripts and travel, and commissary.

Thank you so much for your support! #WeGotThis

Chelsea Resists

@ResistsChelsea

https://bit.ly/2kOYwgo

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“PLEASE SAVE MY LIFE”: JULIAN ASSANGE IN PRISON

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By Annissa Warsame, European Centre for Press and Media Freedom.

| ORGANIZE!

Cell Number 37, ‘Britain’s Guantanamo Bay’ – A Single Occupancy Cell, Furnished Sparsely With A Plastic Chair, Metal Bed And Steel Toilet.

For over 150 days this has been Julian Assange’s residence, whether he likes it or not. And a judge has ruled today, he is to remain there even after his jail sentence is over. 

Swiftly after his asylum status was stripped by the Ecuadorian government, the British authorities sentenced Assange to fifty weeks in prison, for violating his bail. The maximum sentence being fifty-two weeks and the typical sentence being none and a fine.

With his arrest, Assange was moved to HMP Belmarsh, a maximum-security prison in South London. Belmarsh during the early millennium was known as ‘Britain’s Guantanamo Bay’ for its foreign detainees, held without trial.

When you visit the prison, you are immediately struck by its fortress-like exterior. With its water-stained concrete perimeter walls, enumerable CCTV cameras and floodlights.

In Two Exclusive Interviews With The European Centre For Press And Media Freedom (ECPMF), Julian Assange’s Most Notable Visitors Paint A Harrowing Picture Of His Current Condition….

Assange: Reality Winner 'Accused of Courage in Trying to ...

 

US blame game on Saudi oil attack won’t stop Yemenis’ response: Iran FM

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https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/09/17/606452/Zarif-US-Saudi-oil-refineries-Yemen-tweet

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has lashed out at the United States for playing a blame game over the recent Yemeni drone attacks on Saudi oil facilities, saying this will never stop Yemeni victims from giving a response.

The US “is in denial if it thinks that Yemeni victims of 4.5 yrs of the worst war crimes wouldn’t do all to strike back. Perhaps it’s embarrassed that $100s of blns of its arms didn’t intercept Yemeni fire,” Zarif said in a post on his Twitter account on Tuesday.

He added, “But blaming Iran won’t change that.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

Milwaukee, September 26, 2019: CLOSEmsdf Picket

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CLOSEmsdf September Picket

901 N 9th Street, Milwaukee County Courthouse, 11:30 A.M. – 1 P.M.

Why do we picket?
1. To educate people on the inhumane conditions at MSDF.
2. To memorialize the 18 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 costs us $100.84 vs $40 to treat that person in the community where their job, housing & support systems stay secure.
4. To hold Governor Tony Evers to his campaign promises. He told the Journal Sentinel he thinks MSDF should close “as soon as possible”. It is possible right now, and he can do it himself, with a few just and necessary policy changes.

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Please join us during the lunch hour on Thurs Aug 22 out front of the courthouse. If enough people turn out, we may expand the picket to the state office building on 6th and Wells, where the DOC has community supervision 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 take this action in solidarity with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, who has called for monthly actions on (or near) 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

Janesville, October 17, 2019: Voces de la Frontera Janesville Forum / Foro de Janesville

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Janesville Forum / Foro de Janesville

ENGLISH BELOW

Foro de Janesville: Defendiendo Familias, Restaurando Licencias de Conducir
Thursday, 17 de Octubre, 6:30 pm
Joseph A. Craig High School
401 S Randall Ave| Janesville, WI 53545

Voces de la Frontera está organizando una gira estatal se llama “Defendiendo Familias, Restaurando Licencias de Conducir para Inmigrantes” para fortalecer el apoyo a través de Wisconsin para la restauración de las licencias de conducir para la gente inmigrante. Favor de venir para aprender más sobre la necesidad de restaurar las licencias y aprender como usted puede apoyar la lucha.

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Janesville Forum: Defending Families, Restoring Driver’s Licenses
Thursday, October 17, 6:30 pm
Joseph A. Craig High School
401 S Randall Ave| Janesville, WI 53545

Voces de la Frontera is organizing a statewide tour called “Defending Families, Restoring Driver’s Licenses for Immigrants” to strengthen support through Wisconsin for the restoration of access to driver’s licenses for immigrants. Join us to learn more about the need to restore licenses and to learn how you can support the fight.