for more information: https://peoplesmobe.org/

Around the weekend of July 13 and 14, actions took place in many cities across the country.  Additionally, events took place in three other countries in response to the call from UNAC.  The actions were organized around the demands of Hands off Iran and Venezuela, End the Sanctions and Bring all US Troops Home Now.  As the date of the actions approached, Trump announced raids against immigrants and refugees in many US cities and UNAC added the demand of Stop the Raids and Deportations.  For a list of cities where actions took place, please go here.

As the US moves closer to a military conflict with Iran and continues its crippling sanctions against Iran and Venezuela, it is very important that the antiwar movement stay in the streets and show a visible opposition from the people of this country as our government and both major political parties push for war and ever increasing military spending.

For more than a month, people stayed at the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, DC to protect it from right-wing forces who have been trying to orchestrate a coup in Venezuela with the aid of the US.  While people occupied the embassy, others supported them from outside where they were confronted by a right-wing mob and police. The electricity was shut off, they tried to deny them food and used severe intimidation.

After 37 days, and in violation of international law, the police entered the embassy and arrested Kevin Zeese, Margaret Flowers, Adrienne Pine and David Paul.  They all now face large fines and the possibility of a year in prison.  Our movement must come together to defend them from these charges and help deter such criminal behavior by the United States government in the future.  A movement-wide defense committee has been established to raise funds, to get out the truth about why the courageous embassy protectors were there, and to expose the government’s lies and abuses.  The web site of the defense committee can be found here: https://defendembassyprotectors.org/.

The defense committee estimates that the legal costs will be about $50,000, so our movement needs to raise this.  Of course, the government has unlimited amounts of your tax money to prosecute them.  On the right-side of the web site you and your organization can endorse the campaign and make a much-needed donation. Also, you can download the flyer from the web site.

Here is a song written for the Collective by Cuban singer Landy Silverio.

By WI BOPM

On August 10 a diverse array of union, community and student activists are hosting a protest and vigil in Appleton and similar actions will take place in locations nationally. This date marks the 2nd anniversary of the white supremacist attacks in Charlottesville.

The August 10 protests also will come just days after the latest mass shooting massacres in Dayton, El Paso and Gilroy. The majority of the mass shootings in the United States have been conducted by white supremacists. Much of the current climate has been stoked by right-wing think tanks and related organizations either “legal” or extra-legal and has been escalated to extreme degrees by United States President Donald Trump.

Eugenics & Capitalism With The Gloves Off

Appleton is the home base of the right-wing John Birch Society which for decades has pushed an agenda of anti-communism, opposes anarchists, socialism and pushes racism, an anti-union agenda and bigoted attacks on women and LGBTQ people.

The John Birch Society – with a history of working with white supremacist organizations such as the “White Citizens Council” – works directly or indirectly with many other right-wing organizations. Collectively by and large (although there might be factional differences) they generally have a “capitalism with the gloves off” program that is rooted in eugenics and is fundamentally anti-environment due to its program of making profits for the rich at all costs.

Some of these right-wing organizations that the John Birch Society is affiliated with include: the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation (see its all white board and its 990 Forms available at website: https://www.bradleyfdn.org/), ALEC, WILL, the Heritage Foundation, Americans for Prosperity, the Mackinac Institute et. al. All – for decades – have been behind the unrelenting racist, Jim Crow anti-union and other attacks on working class and oppressed peoples in Wisconsin. (Note: These are some of the reasons why Wisconsin is the worst place for people of African descent to live or work in the United States.)

Since 2011 the attacks on working class and oppressed people’s in Wisconsin have increased rapidly and a short list includes: Continued attacks on TANF (formerly AFDC) and unemployment benefits, Act 10, de-regulation, increasing (billions more) debt service to the banks, attacks on Civil Service and prevailing wage, de-funding public education (supporting voucher/charter) schools), attacks on the healthcare and pensions of public sector workers, eliminating student rights in state statutes and many other horrific “legal” attacks which are now being used as models federally. These are just a few of the reasons former Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was recently chosen to be the Executive Director of the neo-fascist Young American’s Foundation (Ronald Reagan is their hero). And why Mike Pence was chosen to be Vice President of the U.S. Indiana, like Wisconsin was used by Pence as an austerity model similar to Michigan with DeVos along with Puerto Rico, Greece et. al).

Besides tens of billions in profits for Wall Street banks, hedge funds and corporations etc., a major goal of these right-wing thinks was to have their political servants such as Pence, Walker et. al. destroy if possible and/or reduce to a non-threat INDEPENDENT working class and oppressed peoples’ organizations. In Wisconsin for example this has included: the reduction of union resources including union halls, student resource centers, women/LGBTQ resource centers, getting unions such as AFSCME off virtually all of the UW System campuses through Act 10 measures, eliminating state statutes such as 39.05 that reduces and/or eliminates students controlling their own resources on public campuses, eliminating or reducing civil service protections, city residency laws for public sector workers and prevailing wage laws. These are severe attacks on all workers but especially historically oppressed peoples such as people of color, women and the LGBTQ community, historically the most militant fighters within unions and community organizations.

Another major goal of these right-wing capitalists and their servants is to eviscerate or reduce to virtually nothing what they term “the administrative state” or i.e. local, state and federal agencies responsible for safety, regulation, civil rights etc. In Wisconsin an example of this is the severe reduction of workers and attacks on scientific inquiry in the Department of Natural Resources under the Walker administration.

Although the majority of right-wing organizations are “legal”, of course, the Wall Street vultures are also careful to ensure funding and/or other resources to extra-legal white supremacist organizations as well. The extra-legal measures are to ensure that just in case the workers and oppressed peoples are able to effectively combat the “legal” attacks that there are organizations such as the Klan, Nazi’s and related white supremacists in place that the ruling class can keep on leashes to use as needed.

Both the “legal” and extra-legal are employed by right-wing politicians, the police, the FBI etc. whose real jobs are to ensure that profits for the capitalists keep flowing and private property/the means of production are kept in place. And that the means of production are kept in the hands of Wall Street vultures – as opposed to in the hands of the people such as in People’s Cuba.

Sources:

https://www.unkochmycampus.org/los-ch3-part-2-kochs-roots-the-john-birch-society?fbclid=IwAR3n3jvHAsrGNE9gezK3IFixdPyWkgx2-ayP24YVu2xMquf7k4xlaCTB

http://www.pfaw.org/

https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Lynde_and_Harry_Bradley_Foundation

For Immediate Release: Monday, 8/5/19

Contacts:

Abayomi Azikiwe,  MECAWI, Detroit, 313-671-3715

Tova Fry, Peoples Alliance, Bay Area, 510-600-5800

Wisconsin Bail Out the People Movement, 414-395-0665

Sharon Black, People’s Power Assembly, Baltimore, 410-218-4835

__________

On the 2nd Anniversary of Charlottesville, a National Call for Actions on Saturday, 8/10, to Smash White Supremacy and Impeach Trump for Hate Crimes!

What: Events to Smash White Supremacy in Detroit, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Appleton, WI

When: Saturday, August 10, 2019, Various times per below

Nationally we hold in our hearts the memory of anti-racist activist Heather Heyer and the dozens injured by the fascists in Charlottesville, including Deandre Harris, a 20-year-old Black man, who was beaten with metal poles in a parking lot by a fascist gang, putting him in the hospital. While it was a Nazi thug who murdered  Heather, it is the bigot-in-chief Donald Trump, endorser of the “very fine” Nazi and Klan scum, who has enshrined their genocidal ideology as his national policy against the disabled, the LGBTQ+ community, and all People of Color.

Appleton, WI, Saturday, 8/10, Protest 2pm CDT at 111 W College Ave, Houdini Plaza, Vigil 7pm CDT, Houdini Plaza          

Baltimore, MD, Saturday, 8/10, 6-8 pm EDT at McKeldin Square, Light and Pratt St, downtown Baltimore             

Detroit, MI, Saturday, 8/10, 1-3 pm EDT at Campus Martius, 800 Woodward Ave, Detroit          

San Francisco, CA, 8/10, 1-2:30 pm PDT, Nancy Pelosi’s office, Federal Bldg, 90 7th St, San Francisco

Trumps unchallenged bigoted, racist, anti-immigrant, white supremacist rhetoric has most recently incited unspeakable violence against the people of Gilroy, CA, El Paso, TX, and Dayton, OH.

Migrants at our southern border, who are “engaged in a federally protected activity” of seeking asylum, are having their babies ripped from their parents arms,  their children kidnapped and placed in cages, with women forced to drink out of toilets. Cages are so crowded that no one can even lie on the floor. Food, soap, even toothbrushes are denied them, all on the orders from Trump because of their “race” and “national origin.” This meets the very definition of a federal hate crime multiplied thousands of times.

Trump is showing off his brutality “stripes” to his rich friends on Wall Street, to show them how tough he’ll be to those who oppose their cutbacks , like the dismantling of Obamacare. We’re supposed to fight over the scraps that they grant us. That’s why they’ve poured more than $100 million into Trump’s re-election campaign. We demand that Congress immediately impeach Trump for hate crimes and dump his whole gang of racist rich bigots!

Sponsored by:

Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI), Moratorium NOW! Coalition, Wisconsin Bail Out The People Movement, Peoples Alliance – Bay Area, In Defense of Our Lives, Peoples Power Assembly, Youth Against War and Racism, Communist Workers League, Struggle – La Lucha for Socialism, Socialist Unity Party, Labor Against Racist Terror, Colectiva Brown Berets de la Bahia, Fox AntiFa, CODEPINK San Francisco, Workers World Party, Anti Police-Terror Project, Xochipilli Latino Men’s Circle (of San Francisco Bay)

Trump & Hate Crimes

Trump can be impeached for violations of federal hate crimes now! It’s all in the public record, from his tweets to his public speeches and racist policies. The U.S. Constitution provides that the president may be impeached for “high crimes and misdemeanors”.

Federal hate crime statutes state that a hate crime consists of two parts: 1) a violent act, such as kidnapping a child from her/his parent(s), and 2) the motive for such an act being, among others, the victim being “such person being an alien or by reason of his/her color or race.”

The following constitute some federal hate crime statutes that Trump has openly violated and with his policies directing ICE and the Border Patrol, has conspired to violate:

Title 18, U.S.C., Section 241 – Conspiracy Against Rights

This statute makes it unlawful for two or more persons to conspire to injure, oppress, threaten, or intimidate any person of any state, territory or district in the free exercise or enjoyment of any right or privilege secured to him/her by the Constitution or the laws of the United States, (or because of his/her having exercised the same).

It further makes it unlawful for two or more persons to go in disguise on the highway or on the premises of another with the intent to prevent or hinder his/her free exercise or enjoyment of any rights so secured.

Title 18, U.S.C., Section 242 – Deprivation of Rights Under Color of Law

This statute makes it a crime for any person acting under color of law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to willfully deprive or cause to be deprived from any person those rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution and laws of the U.S.

This law further prohibits a person acting under color of law, statute, ordinance, regulation or custom to willfully subject or cause to be subjected any person to different punishments, pains, or penalties, than those prescribed for punishment of citizens on account of such person being an alien or by reason of his/her color or race.

Acts under “color of any law” include acts not only done by federal, state, or local officials within the bounds or limits of their lawful authority, but also acts done without and beyond the bounds of their lawful authority; provided that, in order for unlawful acts of any official to be done under “color of any law,” the unlawful acts must be done while such official is purporting or pretending to act in the performance of his/her official duties. This definition includes, in addition to law enforcement officials, individuals such as Mayors, Council persons, Judges, Nursing Home Proprietors, Security Guards, etc., persons who are bound by laws, statutes ordinances, or customs.

Title 42, U.S.C., Section 14141 – Pattern and Practice

This civil statute was a provision within the Crime Control Act of 1994 and makes it unlawful for any governmental authority, or agent thereof, or any person acting on behalf of a governmental authority, to engage in a pattern or practice of conduct by law enforcement officers or by officials or employees of any governmental agency with responsibility for the administration of juvenile justice or the incarceration of juveniles that deprives persons of rights, privileges, or immunities secured or protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

Types of misconduct covered include, among other things:

1. Excessive Force
2. Discriminatory Harassment
3. False Arrest
4. Coercive Sexual Conduct
5. Unlawful Stops, Searches, or Arrests

Rally for the VA and AFGE Local 3

Vigil Against Hate: We are Oak Creek, Gilroy, El Paso & Dayton

1301 S 9th Street, Milwaukee, 7-8:30 P.M., Walker Square Park 

Southeastern Wisconsin will come together to join our voices in prayer for those lost and wounded in the recent tragedies in Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton. We will also remember those lost to hate at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin as it is the anniversary of the tragedy. Together we will call for an end to hate, hate speech and other attacks on human dignity. Make your voice heard and join us for this impactful event!