http://www.workers.org/j20/

Join us at the large meeting room of the Center Street Library on Monday, January 23 The first part of the event is introduction to abuses and organizing inside the Wisconsin prison system, and the activity the Incarcerated Worker Organizing Committee is doing to assist. Part two involves writing to incarcerated people, participating in mass mailings, penpal writing and brief letters of support. Please join us if you’re interested in opposing guards’ violence, wage theft, sexual assault and exploitation, providing emotional support and strategic assistance to people behind bars.

Food and drinks are provided, childcare is available upon request.

To get more involved, respond to this survey form, to identify activity you are able and interested in doing, we will connect you to specific tasks that can help the work along:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jIToClitl8JErcqDRPNdOB_FY2jwgXlNncV8nVI_81E/
If you are interested in helping but are unable to make this event then fill out this survey, and we can followup with you.

Milwaukee Coalition Against Trump

Make a Contribution: https://www.gofundme.com/mkedumptrump

“Our mission is to build a broad and organized resistance led by a coalition of grassroots organizations to stop Trump and his hateful agenda.

We will organize to prevent attacks on women, immigrants, African Americans, Arabs, Muslims, Jews, Native Americans, LGBTQ people, poor and working people, refugees, people with disabilities, all other oppressed people, and our planet.”

In order for us to continue organizing against white supremacy and protecting our communities, we will use these funds for future event planning, artwork, and potential legal expenses.

Solidarity!

Endorsing organizations: Young People’s Resistance Committee, United Workers Organization, Students for Justice in Palestine at UWM, Jewish Voice For Peace, Students for a Democratic Society, Showing Up for Racial Justice, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Industrial Workers of the World, Milwaukee Immigrants in Action, Solidarity, Student Union Movement at MATC, Wisconsin Bailout the People Movement, Workers World Party, Casa Maria Catholic Worker, AFSCME Local 526.

Contact: @MilwaukeeCoalitionAgainstTrump

Help spread the word! https://www.gofundme.com/mkedumptrump

January 20: Inauguration Day Protest Against Trump – Milwaukee

Dear friends,

On Friday, January 13, 2017, President Obama renewed the so-called “national emergency”  on Venezuela, which allows for current sanctions over our country to be extended for one more year.

Foreign Minister, Delcy Rodríguez rejected the measure by indicating it was founded on “arrogance and imperial irrationality”.  Nations from the Non-Aligned Movement have rejected this unilateral action, which constitutes a breach of international law (see attachment).

Measures of this sort only exacerbate the financial blockade on our country and hurt attempts at improving bilateral relations between Venezuela and the United States. Once again, we thank you for your support in rejecting these unjustified measures and for expressing your solidarity with the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian Revolution.

In solidarity,

Carlos Ron

Minister Counselor

Embassy of Venezuela

Workers World Party (WWP), a revolutionary socialist organization founded in 1959, will be gathering with a number of different organizations at Anti-Columbus Circle, outside of Union Station, starting at 6:00am on Friday, January 20th. There will be a rally and march from Anti-Columbus Circle to the White House around 10:00am. After the march, WWP and J20 Resist will have a presence with other left groups at McPherson Square.

Hundreds of national and international actions are being planned to counter the inauguration.

WWP launched http://j20resist.org in December as a coordination toolkit for mass action against Donald Trump’s Inauguration. The website lists different actions taking place across the country, and offers a way for organizations and individuals to connect, even as far away as the Philippines and Germany. J20resist.org also hosts various info sheets to help people prepare for the protests, whether they are in Washington D.C. or planning their own action in another location.

Dozens of buses and vans coordinated by WWP are coming from as far away as Detroit, Boston, Rochester and cities in North Carolina to help assist in this historic mobilization against the system that gave the working class and oppressed Donald Trump as president.

“We are seeing an incredible, militant interest in countering Trump’s racism and misogyny. We expect working class folks of all nationalities to join us in the streets. Youth, seniors, women, people with disabilities and LGBTQ people will turn out to unite and fight against every rotten form of class oppression. We are sending a message to the world that we refuse to be governed by a ‘profit-before-people system’ that gives us killer cops, poisoned water, no jobs, rape culture and endless war.” said Monica Moorehead, who was WWP’s candidate for US president in 2016.

“It was so beautiful seeing millions of people in the United States support the idea of Socialism during the Bernie Sanders campaign – free education and healthcare, an end to state violence and more rights for low-wage workers. But now, the masses are seeing it for themselves. The entire system is rigged, particularly against the poor. These same millions are waking up to the fact that neither the Republicans nor Democrats serve the people. They serve the banks, Wall Street and the corporations. We are not going to sit back while conditions get worse. We must place our bodies on the frontline, and our hands and feet in the street. We must organize now, harder than ever before,” said Lamont Lilly, who ran as Monica Moorehead’s Vice Presidential candidate in the last election.

ADDENDUM ON ALT-RIGHT ATTACKS ON #J20 PROTEST ORGANIZERS (AKA, THE PROJECT VERITAS HIT JOB)

It’s right to resist! We stand together against state violence
In the face of the vicious media attacks on the planned protests against Trump’s inauguration, Workers World Party reaffirms its solidarity to those targeted and its commitment to the St. Paul Principles of Organizing.
This latest smear campaign and conspiracy mongering is a page from an old playbook that is used in every mass gathering of opposition to capitalism and state repression. These attacks are intended to divide mass opposition to Trump. The state seeks to target one group of militants in order to create fear and paranoia among all opposition.
Our unity and solidarity are the most powerful weapons we have against capitalist state repression.
We support the spirit of direct action and mass resistance, knowing that this is one of the most powerful tools to deploy against racism, sexism, police brutality, deportations, imperialist wars and the capitalist system that gave us Trump.
These sleazy tactics are meant to justify massive police presence, raids, surveillance, infiltration and repression of activists.
The best way to fight this is to stick together, be in solidarity with one another, respect a diversity of tactics and condemn repression of all who oppose the Trump agenda.
http://j20resist.org
#J20resist
#DisruptJ20

For more information, please contact:

j20resist@gmail.com or visit http://j20resist.org

LIST OF COORDINATING PARTNERS:

BAYAN Philippine Coalition
Committee to Stop FBI Repression
DisruptJ20
Freedom Road Socialist Organization
International Action Center
Michigan Emergency Coalition Against War & Injustice
Moratorium Now
Pakistan USA Freedom Forum
Peoples Power Assembly
Peoples Power Assembly – Baltimore
Philly Coalition for R.E.A.L. Justice
Samidoun Palestine Prisoners Network
Solidarity Center
Solidarity Iran
Southern Christian Leadership Conference – Baltimore Chapter
Students for a Democratic Society
Team Solidarity
United American Indians of New England
United National Antiwar Coalition
USW Local 8751 Boston School Bus Drivers Union
WI Bail Out The People Movement, Why Accountability
Women’s Fightback Network
Workers World Party

Dear supporter of Palestinian rights,

We in the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the widest coalition of Palestinian organisations that leads and supports the BDS movement, recently took some time to take stock the BDS movement’s most important moments during 2016. You can can read our thoughts in our new blog post where we explain how despite the pain, 2016 witnessed impressive gains for BDS.

There are eight really significant signs that the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality took important steps forward during 2016:

1. Three more multinationals, Orange, CRH and G4S were compelled under BDS pressure to end involvement in illegal Israeli projects, indicating a start of a domino effect.
2. Israel’s global legal war on BDS suffered fatal setbacks after the EU upheld the right to boycott Israel under freedom of speech.
3. Israeli Apartheid Free Zones or settlement-free zones were declared by dozens of municipal councils across Europe.
4. Israel’s global isolation intensified as the logic of appeasing its regime of oppression started to give way to the logic of sustained international pressure, including at the UN.

   Can you help us make sure that we achieve even more during 2017? 

5. More mainstream churches, from the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa (UCCSA) to the United Methodist Church in the US, adopted BDS-related measures in support of Palestinian human rights.
6. Our BDS campaign against apartheid profiteer Hewlett Packard (HP) went viral globally. There were actions and events in more than 100 cities as part of our recent week of action.
7. BDS reached the Oscars and the Olympics, as the academic and cultural boycott of Israel spread even further among student unions, academics, artists and writers, especially in the global South.
8. International trade unions intensified support for BDS measures in solidarity with the Palestinian people and Palestinian workers.

You can read more about all of the things we achieved together during 2016 at our blog post.

Since we published our blog post, it has emerged that the Israeli embassy in the UK has been working to smear and undermine politicians and civil society leaders that support Palestinian rights. A main theme in the subversive efforts of Israel’s lobby, it is now confirmed, is targeting BDS and measures aimed at holding Israel accountable for its oppression of Palestinians.

Recognizing the strategic impact of the BDS movement in the struggle for Palestinian rights, Israel is pouring tens of millions of dollars into its war of propaganda, legal attacks, and defamation tactics.

We can’t compete with Israel financially. But the impressive things our movement has achieved show that we don’t have to.

In recent years, public donations have allowed us to launch a new website for the BDS movement, enlarge our small staff team, and successfully expand BDS activism in Latin America and the Arab world.

Before we bring our current fundraising appeal to a close, we wanted to make sure that everyone knows that we’re asking supporters of Palestinian rights to consider making a small donation to the Palestinian leadership of the BDS movement. Can you help us with a donation today?

Kind regards,

Palestinian BDS National Committee

The Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC) is the largest coalition in Palestinian civil society that leads and supports the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Visit www.bdsmovement.net and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.