To make the Convergence at the Border a success, we need you to mobilize your communities to take a stand for justice and against militarization from October 7-10, 2016 at the border wall in Nogales, Sonora / Arizona. The convergence will include workshops and events on both sides of the U.S./ Mexico border, as well as art, music, and resistance. To learn more about why SOA Watch is moving from the gates of Fort Benning to the border, read the article From the School of the Americas to the Border, and watch the documentary The Empire’s War on the Border.

This page includes hotel and travel information. Sign up to receive updates.

Download and distribute the Border Convergence fliers, and post information and images on your social media networks (click here for sample tweets). Get your group or organization to endorse the convergence and to spread the word.

By Abayomi Azikiwe

UNAC Administrative Committee

Rev. Edward Pinkney of Benton Harbor, Michigan, considered by many as a political prisoner, phoned into the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) weekly meeting on Mon. June 6. Pinkney is currently being held at Marquette Branch Prison in the Upper Peninsula of the state, a day’s drive from his home and family in the southwest region.

Pinkney reported on the resistance by inmates at Marquette against the conditions prevailing in the food system. 700 people refused to attend chow on May 24.

The civil rights leader is serving a 30-120 month sentence on charges of felony forgery involving petitions collected to recall the-then mayor of Benton Harbor James Hightower. This case was heard by an all-white jury which convicted Pinkney without any material or circumstantial evidence.

Pinkney encourages people to write to him. His address is: Marquette Branch Prison, Rev. Edward Pinkney N-E-93 #294671, 1960 US Hwy 41 South, Marquette, MI 49855.

For more information on his case and how you can support the national movement for his release, just visit the following website: B A N C O

As you know, UNAC has been increasingly involved with supporting the anti-fascist movement in Odessa, Ukraine. (See http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/13/eyewitness-odessa-anti-fascist-resistance-in-ukraine/)

The situation in Odessa is getting more difficult as the right-wing federal government and the growing fascist movement try to suppress progressive voices. In response, we are now formalizing our work as the Odessa Solidarity Campaign, which will be an ongoing UNAC project.

This campaign, which has been endorsed by Odessa’s Council of Mothers of May 2, will continue to support the Mothers and their call for an international investigation into the massacre of scores of progressives on May 2, 2014, as well as educating the public about the role of the U.S. in the developing economic and political crisis in Ukraine as a whole. This crisis must be seen in the context of the continuing U.S.-led NATO expansion into Eastern Europe, which violates an agreement the U.S. made with Russia at the time of the fall of the Soviet Union The result has been the military encirclement of Russia, creating a dangerous situation with a major nuclear power.

Please visit the new OSC website at www.odessasolidaritycampaign.org, sign the Council of Mothers’ petition for an international

investigation and sign up to receive updates from the campaign. If you’re interested in being more active in this effort, please send an email to contact@odessasolidaritycampaign.org or UNACpeace@gmail.com and we will help you get involved.

Starting Friday, June 10, at least six prisoners in longterm solitary confinement at Waupun Correctional Institute and Columbia Correctional Institute will begin a hunger strike to demanding an end to solitary confinement in Wisconsin Department of Corrections. Please take a minute to call, and put pressure on officials to listen to them and stop torture of prisoners in Wisconsin. For day one of the hunger strike, prisoners are asking that you call 608-742-9100 for Columbia Correctional Institute Warden Michael Dittman and 920-324-5571 for Waupon Correctional Institute Warden Brian Foster.

Sample script: “I am calling in support of the food refusal being done by prisoners in longterm solitary confinement in W…(tharr be more)aupun and Columbia. They are taking this action because of the abusive and extended use of isolation at your facility, and across the Department of Corrections. Resistance from inside prisons and outside support will continue as long as these conditions do. This food refusal has six humanitarian demands, several of which you can immediately address. You need to use your influence to immediately move prisoners who have been in longterm solitary confinement for more than a year. You should also institute proper mental health treatment of these people, and comply with the U.N. Mandela Rules on the use of solitary confinement. This is day one of the hunger strike.”

There will be updates and further calls to action as the situation develops.

From a letter by one of the inmates organizing the food refusal:
“In the state of Wisconsin hundreds of prisoners are in the long term solitary confinement unit aka Administrative Confinement (A.C.). Some been on this status from 18 to 20 years concurrents. We are planning a hunger strike for June 10, 2016 and we need all the help we can get to get this to the media, put pressure on the D. O.C and politicians, etc. When calling and/or emailing any of the above be persistent. Do it a minimum of two of two or three times per day. You may also call Waupun Correctional Institution to check on our well being at 920-324-5571 ”

Here is a “How-To” video for calling prisons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=251DPVDQ17A (the example used is a lot longer than what’s expected for this call, but it shows how the process can often look like)

If you’re participating internationally, you can make an international voice call to the US very cheaply using google voice / hangouts

If you wish to write to participating prisoners to make message of support, please write to: Cesar Deleon #322800, Lamar Larry #293906, Rayshun Woods #390831, LaRon McKinley #42642, at:
Waupon Correctional Institute
P.O. Box 351
Waupon, WI 53963

Ras Atum-Ra Uhuru Mutawakkil (s/n Green) #228971 has recently been transferred to Columbia, and can be written at
Columbia Correctional Institute
P.O. Box 900
Portage, WI 53901

When writing, keep statements of support vague, language including “hunger strike” will most likely be blocked. People who wish to write can use the Milwaukee IWW PO Box as a return address, at PO Box 342294, Milwaukee, WI, 53234.

More information on the incarcerated workers participating in this action and their writings can be found at: solitarytorture.blogspot.com

Washington DC today, June 7, 2016, became the latest city to pass a $15 minimum wage.

Washington, D.C. joins Seattle, California, and New York in passing a $15 minimum wage. Another huge win for working families in the #FightFor15.

Read more: http://wapo.st/215MfNS

Monica Moorehead & Lamont Lilly 2016

http://www.workersworldparty.org

Workers World Party is participating in the 2016 presidential election. Not because we believe the election means anything. We are running to expose the election.

The WWP candidates will be talking about the real issues facing workers and oppressed people—and organizing for the real solutions. Revolutionary solutions. We believe that the kind of socialism Bernie Sanders talks about only provides more cosmetic changes, a softer kinder of capitalism. But Sanders change means the capitalist system still stands.

Mass struggle, not elections, is the way forward.

The elections that take place every four years bring only cosmetic change: different faces administering the government on behalf of the same billionaire masters. Who really runs
society? It is the capitalist class that exploits the working class and the oppressed. The great mass of people have no real representation because the government, whether headed by Democrats or Republicans, exists to serve the interests of the bosses and warmakers.

The Workers World Moorehead-Lilly campaign declares: Elections will matter when Black Lives matter.

http://www.prideparademke.org/#!-parade/cjg9