Hosted by March on Milwaukee: 50th Anniversary

The March on Milwaukee: 50th Anniversary Coordinating Committee is hosting the 200 Nights of Freedom Kick-Off in the Rotunda at City Hall (200 East Wells Street) on August 28, 2017, from 5:30-8:00pm.

This event kicks off 200 Nights of Freedom, an initiative recognizing our local civil rights heroes and re-igniting Milwaukee’s simmering spirit of activism through 200 nights of public events, policy initiatives, digital dialogue, and other programming.

Networking and socializing begins at 5:30pm and the evening’s program will run from 6:00-7:30pm. Refreshments will be provided.

The March on Milwaukee 50th Coordinating Committee is an intergenerational mix of artists, activists, professionals, academics, and elders who participated in the original marches.

Historical context:
Beginning on August 28, 1967, the Milwaukee NAACP Youth Council/Commandos, Father James Groppi, Alderperson Vel Phillips and a host of activists and community members marched for over 200 consecutive nights to demand an end to housing segregation. The marches signified Milwaukee’s contribution to the Black Freedom Movement in America and helped inspire federal fair housing legislation. This moment was indeed the pinnacle of civil rights activism in Milwaukee.

Visit our website at http://200nightsoffreedom.org/

For more details about 200 Nights of Freedom and the celebratory kickoff, contact the March on Milwaukee 50th Coordinating Committee at info@200nightsoffreedom.org

http://www.internationalist.org/ilwulocal10movestostopfascists1708.html

“…In today’s radio interview, ILWU Local 10 President Ferris discussed the union’s efforts to bring in the Labor Councils of both San Francisco and Alameda county. San Francisco and Oakland, California are union towns. The workers movement, taking action together with those targeted by every kind of racism, bigotry and oppression, can point the way for workers everywhere.

That can open a path for all the exploited and oppressed, at a time when large numbers of people are seeing the threat that the irrational and bankrupt system of capitalism poses here and around the world. In recent days and weeks, the Internationalist Group has highlighted calls for labor/black/immigrant mobilizations to smash racist terror; for the disciplined, organized preparation of workers defense guards to stop the kind of fascist attacks seen in Portland and Charlottesville; and for the workers movement to unchain its power from the Democrats and all bosses’ parties by forging a class-struggle workers party.

At this time, a big step forward for the whole working class can be taken by the Bay Area longshore workers, by shutting down the port and leading a mass march that brings out the power of labor and opponents of racist terror to stop the fascists on August 26.

650 State Street, Madison, Espresso Royale (Lower), 6-7:30 P.M.

Workers World Party (Wisconsin) members and supporters are meeting to talk about the continued fight against the far right, for national liberation and socialism! We’ll have reports back from comrades in Charlottesville and Durham on the active struggle in the South. We’ll also do some canvassing on Library Mall.

http://www.workers.org/2017/08/19/defenddurham-update-on-battle-to-end-white-supremacy/

Hundreds say ‘Arrest me too’ for toppling white supremacy statue, 1,000 march next day to squelch Klan rally

A planned march by the Ku Klux Klan was shut down on Aug. 18 in Durham, N.C., by a tremendous and thoroughly multinational outpouring of the community. Upwards of a thousand people gathered downtown after the news of the KKK’s planned march broke earlier that morning.

On Aug. 14, a Durham demonstration against white supremacy and in solidarity with Charlottesville, Va., had heroically toppled a Confederate monument. Eight people charged with being participants were later arrested. The Klan then announced they would march at the site where the monument once stood.

But because of the solidarity and overwhelming response from the local community, the Klan never showed during the day. There were reports that KKK people showed in the evening at an unannounced area, defended by the police.

The Aug. 18 demonstration had the character of an uprising. For nearly seven hours, people held the streets at the site of the toppled monument. They later marched to the jail and faced off with riot cops. People burned Confederate flags, redecorated the former monument with messages such as “Death to the Klan,” and danced and celebrated this momentous victory.

‘Arrest me too’

The day before, on Aug. 17, in a magnificent display of solidarity, about 200 people showed up at the sheriff’s office in downtown Durham. Scores of them volunteered to “confess” to helping topple the statue on Aug. 14. Progressive sportswriter and political analyst David Zirin tweeted that this was a “I am Spartacus,” moment, referring to the film about the leader of the slave revolt in ancient Rome.

In this case the group was collectively accepting responsibility for the action three days earlier. The Durham prosecutor turned down the offer and abstained from arresting the volunteers.

The first person arrested because of the action was Takiyah Thompson, a student at North Carolina Central University and a member of Workers World Party Durham. On Aug. 14 Thompson had climbed up a ladder to the top of the monument and placed a rope around the neck of the statue — people on the ground took it from there. She was arrested the next day after giving a press conference after her first court appearance.

Arrested at or soon after Thompson’s court appearance on Aug. 15 were Dante Strobino, Ngoc Loan Tran, and Peter Gull Gilbert, also WWP members. By Friday, Aug. 18, Aaron Caldwell, Raul Jimenez, Elena Everett and Taylor Jun Cook had been arrested.

Thompson is charged with disorderly conduct, damage to real property, participation in a riot with property damage in excess of $1,500, and inciting others to riot where there is property damage in excess of $1,500. All the defendants face similar charges and have been released with the next court date set — for all — on Sept. 12 in Durham.

The big turnout on Aug. 17 of people in solidarity with those arrested and the next day for the anti-Klan march shows the extent and enthusiasm of the support for ridding the town, and the country, of racist monuments.

Supporters of Thompson and the other defendants ask that you

• call on the District Attorney’s office to drop all charges against Thompson and all protesters: 919-808-3010
• donate at to a Freedom Fighter bail/defense fund at Durhamsolidaritycenter.org/bondfund
• sign the petition at tinyurl.com/y9j4ya4x
• support Takiyah Henderson at venmo.com/solidarity-takiyah or paypal.me/unrulybabyhair.

More Photos: Workers World Party-Boston

Hosted by Chicago Workers World Party

Freedom fighters in Charlottesville & Durham have inspired people across the country to take action against white supremacist monuments. We are in solidarity with R3 Against White Supremacy in Bronzeville and the growing momentum to remove the fascist Balbo Monument.

Confederate Monument in Oak Woods Cemetary in Hyde Park was built during the Jim Crow era to reinforce racism. It goes far beyond commemorating the 4,000 dead soldiers buried there – it glorifies the Confederacy.

Chicago-born Emmett Till was tortured and lynched by whites in 1955, at age 14. The only memorial to him here is the honorary Emmett Till Rd (71st St), which borders Oak Woods Cemetary.

Smash White Supremacy – Chicago is a coalition of anti-racist individuals and organizations working for the removal of Confederate Monument. We also demand an Emmett Till Memorial in Chicago. Join us!

HONOR EMMETT TILL, NOT SLAVERY!

To endorse, email chicagowwp@gmail or text/call 312.620.2305

Endorsed by: Anakayan Chicago, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Trans Liberation Collective, Workers World Party Chicago

Hosted by Milwaukee IWW

949 N 9th Street, Milwaukee, 12-2 P.M.

Come contribte to the continuous visible opposition to MSDF. We will be out front of the courthouse, and if we have enough people also the back door and MSDF enterence. Help us spread information to and collect petition signatures from people targeted by and doing business with Milwaukee’s criminal legal system.

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

A coaltion 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 in solidarity with the National Religious Campaign Against Torture call 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

Hosted by Milwaukee General Defense Committee

315 E Wisconsin Avenue, Federal Courthouse, 8 A.M.

The Anti-Muslim organization “ACT for America” wants to have a rally on the steps of the Federal Courthouse called “America First. They say they are concerned with National Security but we know they just want to stir up hate.

Let’s show them that Milwaukee rejects their hateful message.

[Please promote this event to your networks and donate at youcaring.com/fightsupremacy]

On Saturday, August 19th, White Nationalists are converging on Boston Common to reinforce their white supremacist ideology and attempt to intimidate queer and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, POC) communities.

As we have seen with the events in Charlottesville and around the country, white nationalists are emboldened by the current political administration and growing police state. Rallies and marches organized by white supremacists are more prevalent than in recent years, and—as always—it is the most marginalized who are left vulnerable.

Walk with us as we march from the Reggie Lewis Track and Athletic Center to Boston Common (1.9 miles) and Rally for Black Lives, LGBTQI Lives, Indigenous Lives, Palestinian Lives, Cape Verde Lives, Latinx Lives, Jewish Lives, and all who are marginalized! We will meet in front of the Reggie Lewis Athletic Center at 10am before marching to Boston Commons to demand justice and stand in defiance of white supremacy.