Groundwork

As Desmond Tutu famously said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” If you’re looking for a way for your family to leave the ranks of the neutral and to join the urgency of this historic moment, please join us on September 13 for a Kids’ March for Black Lives. There is a rich history of children playing important roles in racial justice activism. Join us while we uplift that history as well as the demands of the Movement for Black Lives to defund police and invest in Black people. Several of Madison’s child-centered organizations are collaborating to host this event and to show a unified front of support for movement demands.

We will have several fun stations where kids can do chalking, decorate a banner, make signs and noisemakers and record a video. We will disburse books that have been purchased for the Little Free Libraries as part of the “Little Free Library Racial Justice Takeover.”The march will be short and we will end at Orton Park where we’ll get to hear Ali Muldrow speak about the importance of educating our children about race. Included in the agenda will be a short but poignant teach-in about movement demands.

We echo those demands as our own and will be highlighting the need for our community to move with expediency to defund the Madison Police Department and invest in Black communities. This event is hosted by allies in the Movement for Black Lives and is geared towards children who, like most of us, will benefit from some unpacking of what “safety” really means. As allies we understand the importance of centering the voices of those most impacted by racism, capitalism, and state violence and we are thrilled to be creating an event that attempts to do this and to push our city’s analysis beyond platitudes and abstract intentions to concrete action that will change the conditions that create and are created by white supremacy. Safety (in its authentic form) is our utmost priority.

While part of the journey of allyship is pushing the limits of our comfort zone, preventing the transmission of Covid is a priority of this event. While this event does not fall in line with public health standards regulating the number of attendees at a given event, we would like to highlight research showing that protests are not where Covid-19 is generally being transmitted. We ask that all attendees take social distance measures and bring masks if they have them. We will have extra masks, hand sanitizer, and strict safety protocol at stations and involving any shared materials.

What: Kids’ March for Black Lives
Where: McPike (Central) Park to Orton Park
When: September 13 from 3-5:15pm

UW Oshkosh Women’s Center

Join us for a dynamic conversation on the connections between the Black Lives Matter and #MeToo movements. Black women’s voices and experiences will be centered in this conversation. Panelists include:
-Dr. Veronica Warren, Associate Director of the UW Oshkosh Counseling Center and Co-Adviser of the Sisterhood
-Nestic Morris, Outreach Coordinator at the Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault
-Dr. Teysha Bowser, Assistant Professor in the UW Oshkosh Professional Counseling Department
-Robin Tinnon, Executive Director of the We All Rise: African American Resource CenterLink to join event: https://bit.ly/3gqEKPa. Up to 250 people will be able to join the live event. The discussion will be recorded and made available for later viewing.This event is part of UWO’s Red Zone programming.

March will start at 2 pm at the Water Tower Park on E North Ave to Whitefish Bay

This moment is about us, the people, making a change. Its time for our voices to be heard. Time for our most essential needs to be met. We live in one of the most segregated cities in America; We need to show Milwaukee we can break the mold. This is our moment for change and to rewrite history. Lets keep up the fight, the hard work, the blood, sweat, tears, and the vigor that everyone has given in these last weeks- Lets Keep fighting, Lets Keep marching until we are finally heard. March for Breonna Taylor,George Floyd, Jacob Blake and all the injustices Black People face in America. We have to let our voices be heard by our city and Kenosha.

March will start at 2 pm at the Water Tower Park on E North Ave to Whitefish Bay

#SpeakUp4Pascal

#StopTheDeportation

Free Pascual Shakoure Charpentier

On Monday, July 6th, 2020, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers pounded on Pascal Shakoure Charpentier’s door, arrested him and placed him in handcuffs in full view of the neighborhood. He remains imprisoned while court proceedings continue.Pascal is currently being held as a result of the Executive Order called Enhancing Public Safety issued by President Donald J. Trump on January 25th, 2017. Trump’s extremely broad Executive Order expands the priority list of people subject to deportation to include anyone who has “committed acts that constitute a chargeable criminal offense.”The felony that triggered the arrest is more than 30 years old.

Pascal had been caught joyriding in a car that belonged to a friend, but had been reported stolen. Also at 18 years old, Pascal’s life would take an unfortunate turn. He was convicted and imprisoned for 24-and-a-half-years for his association with a group involved in the 1990 New York City subway robbery and murder of Utah tourist Brian Watkins. Pascal was unaware that any violence was about to occur and was not present when it occurred. He was sentenced to 25 years-to-life for his non-violent unarmed association.

Free Pascual Shakoure Charpentier

The parole board released him early due to his excellent record while incarcerated. The film 23 Reasons Why 23 Years is Enough details the case.After Pascal’s 2015 release, he emerged with two Bachelor of Science degrees and a Master’s from the New York Theological Seminary. Since that time he has been building a production company and forming and running From Bars II Beyond, a non-profit for at-risk youth media training with a focus on preventing their own incarceration.Judge Dara F. Reid acknowledged that although he is neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community that he was ineligible for release on bond.

Of his present situation Pascal said, “I have been in this country for my entire life, short a couple of months due to the fact that my father was serving in the United States Air Force. If it hadn’t been for his service to this country, I probably would have been born in Queens, New York. At the core of this case is a very large family of American citizens who are suffering. I can’t even fathom how my family is able to continue bearing us being torn apart as this case proceeds. This unlawful arrest is why I am in an orange jumpsuit at a N. J. County jail, and not in my office doing intake of a client, or meeting with my volunteer team on our next program cycle for at-risk kids, or picking up my fiancée from a hard day’s work at the hospital, or installing a new partition in the backyard of our home.

”If Charpentier is judged to not have U. S. citizenship, he might be deported to a country where he has never lived and has no present family ties. No one should have to go through this fight from a jail cell.This page will provide updates and organizing information to help Free Pascal Shakoure Charpentier. Please like and join this page and invite your friends to help spread information so that he can end his unlawful detention and stop any deportation proceedings.

Free Pascual Shakoure Charpentier

Free Pascual Shakoure Charpentier

American Muslims for Palestine

We write to inform you that AMP has decided to postpone our “in-person” Palestine Advocacy Day (PAD) until next March due to the Coronavirus pandemic. The good news though is that we are holding a Virtual PAD from September 14-18, 2020.So far, we have record-breaking registrations this year. We were so excited to welcome you to our nation’s capital for what would have been the best Palestine Advocacy Day yet!

We are postponing the event but we promise you to do our best to make it a better experience for you and a more effective one for Palestine on the new dates on March 21-23, 2021.Register for our first-ever Virtual Palestine Advocacy Day! It’s only $10 to register for an entire week of activities: a training session on Monday, September 13; a plenary session with Members of Congress on Tuesday, September 14; and one-on-one phone calls with your congressional offices later that week. We will set up the calls and we’ll send you talking points — all that you’ve got to do is dial in!

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Reprinted by: https://geopoliticsalert.com/

By: teleSUR On: September 9, 2020

Beijing (TSN) – “We hope to see the high commissioner pay a visit to China including a trip to Xinjiang to see by herself … Seeing is believing,” Chen Xu, China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told a news conference hosted by the U.N. correspondents’ association, ACANU.

The Chinese envoy to the United Nations has formally welcomed U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet to visit China, including Xinjiang, where Beijing has been accused of putting more than one million ethnic Uyghurs in mass detention centers.

According to the Chinese envoy, the U.N. human rights chief is more than welcome to visit their “education training centers”, which Beijing claims is helping stamp out extremism and give people new skills.

“We hope to see the high commissioner pay a visit to China including a trip to Xinjiang to see by herself … Seeing is believing,” Chen Xu, China’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, told a news conference hosted by the U.N. correspondents’ association, ACANU.

Related: Breaking Down the BBC’s Visit to Hotan, Xinjiang

“The invitation to the high commissioner is always there, we hope to define a time which is convenient to both sides”, he said. “What is happening in Xinjiang is education training centers help young people, especially young people, to get skills, to be well-equipped for their reintegration into society,” Chen said, adding that “there are no so-called re-education camps”.

Bachelet’s approach was one of “dialogue and cooperation”, he said, contrasting this with that of her predecessor Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein. “I think this is the right direction.”

A spokeswoman for Bachelet’s office had no immediate comment.

Bachelet, a former president of Chile who has been U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights since August, has repeatedly pushed China to grant the United Nations access to investigate reports of disappearances and arbitrary detentions, particularly of Muslims in Xinjiang. China has previously said it would welcome U.N. officials if they avoided “interfering in domestic matters”.

Related: Uyghur Genocide: The “Muslim Holocaust” in China?

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng, addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council last March, defended the complexes in Xinjiang and said the “campuses” would be closed down gradually as an extremist ideology was vanquished in the region.

This post was originally written for and published by teleSUR English and appears here with permission.

#YouthOrganizing #BuildingSolidarity

In partnership with 18 Million Rising, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance AFL-CIO, Asian Pacific Islander Community Actions, Asian Solidarity Collective, Black Swan Academy, The Bulosan Center and Can’t Stop! Won’t Stop! Consulting, Freedom Inc., Southeast Asian Coalition of Central Massachusetts, VietAID and Youth Justice Coalition, the People’s Collective for Justice and Liberation will host the next in the #BuildingSolidarity series, a Town Hall on Youth Organizing and Justice: In Our Homes, Schools and Communities on Thursday, September 10 from 12pm-2pm HST/3pm-5pm PST/5pm-7pm CST/6pm-8pm EST.

Young people have long been at the forefront of numerous social movements and the urgency of the present moment calls for bold ways of reimagining radically inclusive futurities in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. At this town hall, a group of youth organizers will share their experiences working to redefine safety and security by centering the needs of the most impacted communities. By featuring the voices of young people, this town hall seeks to deepen our understanding of the possibilities of intergenerational social justice and our collective path forward.