https://bit.ly/2Th87b0

Sue Ruggles Photography

Voces de la Frontera

March 14, 2019 Madison, WI at the State Capitol / Photos: Sue Ruggles

https://vb4cuba.com/

Join the 50th Brigade:

Cuba is the only country on earth that US citizens can’t travel to freely. In the 50 year tradition of the Venceremos Brigade, this July (2019), we will travel to Cuba to practice solidarity with the Cuban People and their struggles, many of which are due U.S. policy. We do this through voluntary labor, donations of material aid, relationships building and dialogue between our peoples. We have much to learn from each other about building a more just and equitable world. During the 50th brigade, more Americans than ever will have the opportunity to travel to Cuba within these values.

APPLY NOW to Participate in the 50th Anniversary Contingent of the Venceremos Brigade!

We invite you to join the brigade in ethical travel to Cuba this summer, as part of an intentional community of revolutionary practice, to celebrate a half-century of international solidarity and struggle, to see Cuba with your own eyes, to transform your perspective and our movement work!

https://vb4cuba.com/

SIGN PETITION: https://bit.ly/2F9qU2X

Chelsea Manning is again acting heroically in the name of press freedom, and it’s a travesty that she has been sent back to jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury.

An investigation into WikiLeaks for publishing is a grave threat to all journalists’ rights, and Chelsea is doing us all a service for fighting it.

She has already been tortured, spent years in jail, and has suffered more than enough. She should be released immediately.

—Daniel Ellsberg

We are completing what became more than a week-long peace delegation to Venezuela organized by the US Peace Council and the Committee for International Solidarity in Venezuela (COSI). The trip was complicated by American Airlines cancelling all flights in and out of the country, leaving us scrambling for ways to get there and get home. We also arrived in the midst of the attack on Venezuela’s electrical system, which caused further complications.

Our delegation met with community groups, political parties and members of the government, including a private meeting with President Maduro. One theme that became obvious during the visit is that the United States’ imperialism is fundamentally weak. It relies on lies and bullying threats to get its way. So far, Venezuelans are resisting everything the US and its allies are throwing at it, but they remain vigilant and concerned about an escalation of attacks….

Pro-Bolivarian Process rally on Saturday, March 16, 2019 in Caracas.

https://www.veteransforpeace.org/

President Donald Trump has called on Venezuelan soldiers to disobey orders and join coup perpetrators headed by U.S.-backed opposition leader, Juan Guaidó. If they do not do this, President Trump threatened: “You will find no safe harbor, no easy exit and no way out. You will lose everything.”

While President Trump speaks of supporting democracy in Venezuela and Latin America, the real purpose of the U.S. assault on the Venezuelan government is to fully open the vast Venezuelan oil reserves to U.S. and other Western oil corporations as well as to destroy progressive governments in Latin America that put their own peoples’ needs above the profits of foreign corporations.

The Veterans For Peace Statement of Purpose states that, “we will work, with others both nationally and internationally:

1. To increase public awareness of the causes and costs of war
2. To restrain our governments from intervening, overtly and covertly, in the internal affairs of other nations
3. To end the arms race and to reduce and eventually eliminate nuclear weapons
4. To seek justice for veterans and victims of war
5. To abolish war as an instrument of national policy.”

In this spirit, Veterans For Peace (VFP) calls on all members of the U.S. military to refuse illegal orders to intervene in Venezuela. Furthermore, VFP urges all U.S. military leaders to inform the president that they will order their units to stand down from preparations to invade Venezuela.

Illegal, immoral and irresponsible U.S. actions, including “sanctions” (economic war) have already taken a great toll on the people Venezuela. Nonetheless, the vast majority of Venezuelan people and military are standing firm against foreign intervention. Now there is a very real possibility that President Trump will order U.S. troops to intervene in Venezuela, whether through a direct invasion and occupation, or through support for irregular counter-revolutionary forces. This would likely lead to a widening war that could spread to other Latin American countries and the Caribbean, bringing increasing suffering to the peoples of Latin America and the U.S.

It is illegal under both U.S. and international law to launch a military attack against another nation unless it is clearly in self-defense, and is approved by the United Nations. There are a number of options for GI’s who do not wish to follow illegal orders. Veterans For Peace wants service-members to be fully informed as they make profound choices with possibly serious consequences. We urge GI’s facing possible deployment to contact the National Lawyers Guild Military Law Task Force at (619) 463-2369 and/or help@militarylawhelp.com for referral to a civilian attorney to discuss your options. Many of their member lawyers are willing to do an initial pro-bono (free) consultation.

Refuse to be used in an illegal war. Follow your conscience and be on the right side of history.

“Stand For Peace!” Milwaukee, WI January 26, 2019

Joe Lombardo of the United National Antiwar Coalition: “Today, March 16, 2019,  we had the opportunity to join one of the massive pro-Maduro demonstrations that take place regularly in Caracas and throughout the country. It packed a large avenue for as far as the eye could see in both directions. It is so strange that millions of people come out on a regular basis to support a “dictator.” The opposition was supposed to have a demonstration too, but it appears to have not happened. The US media never reports these demonstrations, they only report the opposition demonstrations.”

People’s Offensive March and Rally

SHEBOYGAN

To start the day off in the spirit of unity, we will join together with the Menominee Nation Community for a water ceremony.
10 am at Deland Park Beach Sheboygan
Para empesar el dia en el espiritu de unidad vamos a tener una ceremonia de agua con La Comunidad de los Indigena de Menominee.
10 am Deland Park Beach en Sheboygan

An estimated 1.4 million young people in 123 countries skipped school Friday to demand stronger climate policies in what may be one of the largest environmental protests in history.

“This movement had to happen, we didn’t have a choice,” wrote the Swedish activist and strike leader Greta Thunberg with other young climate activists in the Guardian Friday. “We knew there was a climate crisis … We knew, because everything we read and watched screamed out to us that something was very wrong.”

CLOSEmsdf March Pickett

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

Why do we picket?
1. To educate people on the inhumane conditions at MSDF
2. To memorialize the 17 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 it costs us $100.84 vs $40 to treat that person in the community where their job, housing & support systems stay secure.
4. Former Governer Tommy Thompson has said building MSDF was a mistake. Its time the state corrects that error.

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Please join us during the lunch hour on March 21st on the 10th Street side of the courthouse. Partway through the picket we might march over to the state office building on 6th and Wells, where the DOC has 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 are organizing this protest on every 23rd (unless that lands on a weekend, when there’s less foot traffic). The National Religious Campaign Against Torture has called for actions on 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