https://peoplesclimate.org/?source=350
Join the Peoples Climate Movement this April 29th in Washington, D.C. and across the country to stand up for our communities and climate.
Everything we have struggled to move forward in the United States is in peril. Our loved ones feel under siege, and those in power in Washington are advancing a dark and dangerous vision of America that we know is untrue. To change everything, we need everyone.
April 13, 2017 – The Jacksonville Five are a group of anti-war protesters in Florida beaten and arrested by police at a “No War in Syria” rally held on Friday April 7, 2017. A right-wing provocateur appeared with a Trump flag, and then harassed and shoved anti-war activists, while police did nothing to him. Then the Jacksonville Sheriffs Office (JSO) physically attacked the anti-war protesters who did nothing wrong.
The police descended upon Connell Crooms, a deaf African American man, who had been leading chants. The police savagely beat, kicked and tased Crooms until he was unconscious and had to be taken to the hospital. Crooms is a well-known Teamster and a Black Lives Matter leader.
The police also punched Vietnam veteran Willie Wilder in the face and arrested the 74-year-old peace activist. Christina Kittle, the leader of the Jacksonville Coalition for Consent was thrown to the ground and arrested. Transgender activist Toma Beckwith was also tackled and arrested.
As protesters were leaving the park to do jail support, the police arrested union activist and anti-war speaker Dave Schneider, charging him with “felony inciting a riot” for organizing the anti-war protest. Police never arrested the right-wing provocateur. In fact, there are many photos on social media of him posing with JSO police, including Sheriff Mike Williams.
Jacksonville quickly rallied to the defense of the Jacksonville Five. The next day, April 8, over 200 people rallied to demand all charges be dropped. Leaders of the labor, African American, and progressive movements chanted, “Drop the charges!” The mother of Connell Crooms gave a tearful testament to her son’s good character and denounced the police attack on her son, “JSO should not be allowed to get away with this type of behavior.”
The rally demanded a full independent investigation into the police misconduct of April 7. Protesters are also demanding an independent investigation into a police spying program. Just weeks earlier the Florida Times Union newspaper reported the Sheriff’s Office was spying on activists, including the Jacksonville Five, with photos of Dave Schneider, Connell Crooms and Christina Kittle appearing.
Jacksonville Sheriffs are lying and denying, claiming the protesters “incited a riot.” Fortunately, dozens of people took video of the police brutality. The social media pages of the provocateur contain ties to white supremacist groups and to Sheriff Mike Williams who denies he knows him, despite their photo together at a Trump rally.
To add insult to injury, the total bail amount issued by the court for all five arrestees came out to over $157,000. They are outrageously charging the people who were beaten and arrested by the police with serious felony charges. We need to mobilize national support and raise enough money to cover this and pay for the defense.
There is a continuing campaign to drop the trumped-up charges and investigate the abuses by the JSO.
Please call the State Attorney for the Florida 4th Circuit, Melissa Nelson at 904-255-2500, and demand she drop the charges against the Jax5.
Please share this link to donate to the Jacksonville Five legal defense fund:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=2AZF4Y85S9L54
Listen to the Thurs. April 13, 2017 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 statement by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that the allegations of a chemical weapons attack by his government are a total fabrication; the Chinese envoy to Zimbabwe has reemphasized the strength of the bond between the two countries; President Jacob Zuma of South Africa is saying he is not fazed at all by the harsh criticism of his administration policies; and fighting is continuing between rival factions of the SPLA in South Sudan. In the second hour we are extending our tribute to Paul Robeson with an audio documentary on his life and contributions. Our final segment reviews an address delivered by Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois on the state of race relations in the United States during 1960.
By Prof. Jose Maria Sison, Chairperson
International Coordinating Committee
International League of Peoples’ Struggle
April 8, 2017
The International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS) strongly condemns the missile attack launched by the US against a Syrian airbase based on the lie that Syria used chemical weapons to attack ISIS positions in Idlib. This action is a gross and grievous war crime, an act of aggression against a sovereign nation without any justification whatsoever.
The Shayrat airbase that was attacked with dozens of Tomahawk missiles launched from a US ship based in the Mediterranean Sea is being heavily used by Syria in fighting ISIS and Al Nusra. According to the governor of Homs province, the US missile attack was actually seized as an opportunity by ISIS to launch attempts at retaking control over rich oil fields near Palmyra which had earlier been liberated from the terrorists by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).
Without showing any shred of evidence, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, condemned the Syrian government for allegedly using chemical weapons in Idlib and justified the US unilateral action. And in a fit of overweening arrogance, she warned that if the UN did not act according to US caprices the US was fully prepared to take matters into its own hands and undertake more unilateral action.
In another show as to what length they have morally degraded themselves, western “leaders” from the United Kingdom, France and Germany joined in another shameless chorus echoing the American line. They endorse, support and assist the US in unleashing wars and devastation of lives and property in the Middle East and North Africa. But they refuse to receive millions of refugees displaced by the wars.
The Syrian government and Russia have already explained what actually happened in Idlib. A Syrian airstrike had hit a building that was storing chemical weapons that are being used by the terrorists in the war. If indeed there were civilian casualties from the airstrike, it would have come about from the release of toxic gases from the chemical weapons hit by the airstrike. But guilt must be squarely put on the terrorists for producing and storing such weapons and not on the Syrian Government.
When Aleppo was liberated from Al Nusra and other western-backed terrorists, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Kurdish fighters fighting alongside the SAA came upon a warehouse where chemical weapons were being manufactured and stored.
It was proven in 2013, that the US-NATO backed terrorists are not only capable of producing chemical weapons but they had actually used them repeatedly in Syria and Iraq. UN officials have confirmed that Al-Qaeda terrorists were responsible for the sarin gas attack in Ghouta which was prematurely blamed on Assad by the same countries now joining in a chorus blaming Assad and now calling for his ouster through escalation of foreign intervention and ouright aggression by the US against Syria as a sovereign state.
In 2014, it was proven that the terrorists were being supplied such chemical weapons by Saudi Arabia and Turkey. On the other hand, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) confirmed in 2016 that all Syrian government chemical weapons had been destroyed under their supervision upon Assad’s affirmation of the International Chemical Weapons Convention in 2013.
The US claim is bereft of any logic. Why would Assad use chemical weapons to discredit himself when he is winning the war, liberating territory after territory from the western-backed terrorists? He had also gained from the track of peaceful negotiations. Even Trump
had declared that there was nothing to gain from a war with Russia over Syria.
But the Trump administration has reversed itself and has excalated acts of military intervention and aggression. If Trump continues on this path, the US can bring about more dangerous confrontations between the US and Russia, two nuclear powers. It is veritably trying to start a nuclear World War III Russia has suspended the Memorandum of Understanding on Prevention of Flight Safety Incidents it signed with the US. It means Russia may shoot down any US aircraft entering Syrian airspace without authorization from the Syrian government.
Despite his electoral campaign line of avoiding a war with Russia, Trump is now conspicuously in the pocket of the criminal “deep state” in the US, the neoconservative gangs in the US National Security Council, State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and Pentagon, the military industrial complex that wishes to keep up war production and superprofits and the US oil and gas monopolies that wish to prevent the oil and gas pipelines going through Syria from Iran to Europe. In the meantime, Israel is accelerating its exploration of oil and gas in the Golan Heights and benefitting from the escalation of war against Syria.
The ILPS calls on all-freedom loving peoples of the world to condemn this latest war crime of US imperialism and its collaborators against the people of Syria. The ILPS calls on all its member organizations and allies to issue statements of condemnation and carry out mass actions against this latest US act of aggression which is creating more tension and disorder in the world.
The “Solidarity and Fightback: Building Resistance to US-led War, Militarism and Neo-fascism” conference is a gathering of anti-war and social justice activists, organizations, networks and movements from different countries who oppose wars, militarism and foreign intervention by the U.S. and other imperialist powers, and assert or support the right of oppressed peoples to self-determination, justice, liberation and peace.
Hosted by: International League of Peoples’ Struggle – ILPS and International Women’s Alliance (IWA)
Contact Info: antiwarconf.inquiriesto@gmail.com
www.ilpsusinfo.wordpress.com
The 3-day Conference will include:
– Women’s Forum
– people’s art, film festival and cultural performances
– Self-organized workshops/ teach-ins / trainings on various themes and topics
– books and crafts fair
– mass actions for awareness raising
– support for local people’s struggles in the host city
– livestreaming and social media
– Commemoration of US bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
http://nepajac.org/syriabombing.html
The need for a united and massive U.S. antiwar movement in the streets of cities across the country has never been greater. Trump’s dangerous and murderous escalation, despite his “assurance” that it is measured and “proportional,” will prove to be the beginning of renewed and intensified U.S. imperialist war in Syria and the region and not the end.
We are witness to a major shift in U.S. policy wherein Democrats and Republicans alike, cannot brook a defeat in a war that they have fueled and promoted for almost seven years. Today’s crisis-ridden world economy ruled by the one percent is compelled to pursue and intensify its wars against working people at home and abroad.
The days ahead will prove to be a critical measure of our capacity to unite and stay the hand of the world’s most dangerous super power.
Stop the U.S. war on #Afghanistan
A violent, racist hate crime against one of our neighbors right here in Milwaukee.
We stand with the ISM and the Muslim community. Milwaukee Coalition Against Trump
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WI BOPM is also in solidarity with the Islamic Society of Milwaukee: ISM Milwaukee
A report from ISM about the attack:
Assalamu Alaikum Brothers and Sisters.
A number of you have probably heard about the incident that happened several blocks from the Islamic Center on South 13th Street yesterday afternoon. The news media has broadcast a story this evening. A number of Board Members and administrators of the ISM were present during the interview.
The following is what happened:
Yesterday following Fajr prayer, a sister from our community (a former employee of the ISM) was walking to her home which is a few blocks away from the Masjid. As she was walking south on 13th Street, she crossed Barnard Avenue (which is across the street from the remote ISM parking lot). She was alone and no one was around. Unfortunately, people had not yet left the Masjid after Fajr prayer, so she was alone. She has been making this same walk for many, many years without incident.
As our sister crossed Barnard Avenue, a young, average sized, possibly male came out of his car, yelled out at her and approached her. He then grabbed her head and removed her hijab and began to attack her. She is a petite woman in her late 50’s. She tried to resist. Her nose began to bleed from the hits she suffered. Besides punching and kicking our sister in the head and back while she was on the ground, he also had a knife. The jacket she was wearing has a long vertical cut in the back and also a cut on the arm of the jacket. Our sister suffered a cut on her arm that, alhamdulillah, was not serious. As expected, she was terrified. The attacker did not ask for money nor did he take her phone. The attacker then returned to his car and sped off.
Somehow, our sister was able to make it home. She tried calling someone but was not able to reach that person. At this point, it appears she may have suffered a seizure (she had been recently hospitalized for seizures) and passed out in her home. Fortunately, some time later, our sister received a call from another sister in our community to remind her of an appointment she had later that morning. She informed this sister that she had been attacked. The sister came down to see her and she called 9-11. Our sister was transported to St. Luke’s hospital. When the police arrived at the hospital, they were not able to speak to her because she was sedated (given medication to sleep). She was released from the hospital today. The police interviewed her at her home and there will be additional interviews and investigations in coming days.
The ISM has remained on top of this issue and is in communication with law enforcement agencies. We consider this to be a hate crime and an attack against our entire community. Although the ISM has a security system and security procedures in place at the Islamic Center, this incident reminds us all that we must be very careful wherever we are, especially if we are in areas where there are no people or when it is dark.
Although this is the first very serious incident that we have experienced in the Milwaukee area in over a decade, we ask all people, especially our sisters, to be careful in public.
… we must remain cautious and vigilant.
We will keep you informed of any important updates.
Jazakum Allah Khair.
ISM Shura and Administration
