#freeoscarlopez
Flood The White House With Calls/Messages for Oscar Lopez Rivera January 6 and 13: Bring Him Home
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Madison, January 9-10: Community Information Sessions on Sanctuary
January 9 and 10 – Community Information Sessions on Sanctuary, presented by Voces de la Frontera with co-hosts Wisconsin Faith Voices for Justice and Madison-Area Urban Ministry. What is sanctuary, who might need it, and who might provide it? What’s the process, and what are the legal implications? Clergy and lay leaders of all faith communities are invited to come learn about the Sanctuary Movement at this free, multi-faith informational meeting. The same presentation will be offered twice. Please join us on Monday, January 9 OR Tuesday, January 10 at 7 pm.
Monday, January 9 – First Baptist Church, 518 N. Franklin Avenue, Madison
Tuesday, January 10 – Christ of Solid Rock Baptist Church, 1502 Parkside Drive, Madison
Please also join Voces de la Frontera for this important event:
January 14 – National Day of Resistance for Immigrant Refugee Rights. Voces de la Frontera is organizing a march at 11am from 1027 S. 5th St. in Milwaukee. No to mass deportation, yes to DACA, Refugees Welcome, no Muslim registry, Keep Families Together!
Milwaukee, January 10: Impressions From Havana
Michigan Peoples Defense Network (MPDN) Resisting white supremacy and fascism everywhere!
The next meeting of the Michigan Peoples Defense network will be on Saturday, Jan. 7, 2017, at 5920 Second Ave., Detroit, MI, from 1-3 pm.
The Trump election has emboldened the most right-wing, racist elements and encouraged a culture of hate. Reports around the country and here in Michigan indicate an upsurge in threats and attacks against many sectors of our population including African Americans, Latinx, Muslims, the LGBTQ communities, migrants, people with disabilities, women and others. We need to respond with more than messages of unity and solidarity.
It is necessary to come out in defense of anyone under attack by racists and fascists. We are prepared to physically defend any victim of such threats or attacks. We are also dedicated to the rejection of institutionalized racism. That may mean defending a mosque, church, synagogue, home, organization or individual who asks for our help and solidarity – with our voices and our bodies. We will not allow the KKK, Nazis and their kind to run rampant and unopposed.
The Michigan Peoples Defense Network was founded December 10, 2016. We have set ourselves the serious work of organization, planning and coordination to show that white supremacy, racism, sexism, anti-LGBTQ bigotry, anti-migrant attacks, anti-Muslim, anti-Semitism and fascism have no place in society.
GET INVOLVED!
We welcome you to join us:
Michigan Peoples Defense Network (MPDN)
www.mipeoplesdefense.net
Phone: (313)288-2754
Email: PeoplesDefenseNetwork.MI@gmail .com
Michigan Peoples Defense Network (MPDN)
www.mipeoplesdefense.net
Phone: (313)288-2754
Email: PeoplesDefenseNetwork.MI@gmail .com
Facebook: facebook.com/Michi ganPeoplesDefenseNetwork/.
If you and/or your organization endorses this statement of the Michigan Peoples Defense Network, please email the endorsement to PeoplesDefenseNetwork.MI@gmail .com.
NAACP Stages Sit-In at Jeff Sessions Office / Tell your senators: Sessions is a threat to our rights
Senate hearing scheduled for January 10: Tell your senators they must reject Jeff Sessions for Attorney General >>
I’ll be blunt:
Senator Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is among the worst people who could serve as our nation’s Attorney General.
His records on voting rights, criminal justice reform, and the civil rights we’ve fought for over the last century are unreliable at best. He is actively hostile to protecting our voting rights, and has a record of racially offensive remarks so bad that he was denied a federal judgeship because of them.
Today, we took a stand in his home state of Alabama: we organized demonstrations in Mobile, Birmingham, Montgomery, Dothan, and Huntsville to protest his nomination and demand he withdraw from the confirmation process.
How can a man like this be trusted to uphold justice for all of us — especially now, at a time when we’re facing some of the worst civil rights crises of our lifetime?
The Attorney General is the chief law enforcement officer of the United States. That means they have the last word on police brutality and voter suppression — two issues Senator Sessions has refused to admit exist. Our lives truly hang in the balance.
For nearly 20 years, every single year, Senator Sessions has received an F on our federal legislative civil rights report cards. He has voted against our policy positions nearly 90 percent of the time. He cheered when the Voting Rights Act was gutted and has shamelessly voted against federal hate crime legislation four times between 2000 to 2009.
We only have a few days left to change the course of our nation’s history. Please make sure your senators hear from you today.
In solidarity,
Cornell William Brooks
President and CEO
NAACP
#J20 Labor Call: DON’T GIVE RACIST, FASCIST, UNION-HATING TRUMP “A CHANCE”
http://www.workers.org/j20/labor/
“…All of the working class must unite. Organized labor, the first line of defense for the workers and oppressed, must see itself as part of the broader working-class movement. Low-wage and precarious workers are a part of this movement. Unemployed and underemployed workers are a part. Prisoners are a part. Workers around the globe — superexploited, often by the same bosses we work for — are a part. Migrant workers, risking their lives to escape war or austerity, are a part. All of us, together, are unstoppable!
We must show Trump, all the politicians and the one-percenters they serve: We refuse to be divided! Build a united front, with local protests and a mass turnout in DC, and make January 20 a sea of working class unity! Continue that broad resistance by organizing People’s Assemblies, defense groups, occupations, general strikes and whatever is necessary. It’s time to make the situation ungovernable!”
To sign onto this #J20Resist Labor Call, contact clupjs@gmail.com (Se habla español)
To download this statement in PDF format, click here (español aqui)
To download a draft sample resolution in protest of the inauguration of Donald Trump, click here.
This is Your Victory- Court Orders Hep C Treatment for Mumia Abu-Jamal
Late this afternoon January 3, Federal Judge Robert Mariani ordered the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections to immediately give Mumia Abu-Jamal the life-saving latest direct-acting antiviral medications that have a 95% cure rate!
After a year and a half of constant legal battling, near death hospitalization, and agonizing chronic sickness, Bret Grote of the Abolitionist Law Center and attorney Robert Boyle, and thousands of activists, on behalf of Mumia, have prevailed. It took two lawsuits hundreds of hours of motions and your calls, letters and demands.
Winning a preliminary injunction is a tall order and requires proving there will be irreversible harm in delaying the order. This is a tremendous victory. It will pave the way for all incarcerated people who seek hepatitis C treatment.
“This is the first case in the country in which a federal court has ordered prison officials to provide an incarcerated patient with the new medications that came on the market in 2013” -Bret Grote Esq., Abolitionist Law Center
This victory is yours. I want to take a moment to let this sink in: nearly two years ago when Mumia fell into diabetic shock and was near death, you fought with us through the many phone calls, action alerts, fundraising campaigns, and the continuous struggle to keep Mumia alive, stabilize his health, and get him treatment. When Judge Mariani denied our preliminary injunction in August on a technicality, you stuck with us again to raise funds, re-file, and persist onwards. In 2015 and 2016, we raised over $130,000 for Mumia’s Medical and Legal Defense because of your support.
Now we need to turn up the pressure more than ever. We expect that the DOC will quickly appeal Mariani’s ruling in the coming days.
As Robert Boyle, Esq. said, “The struggle is far from over: the DOC will no doubt appeal this ruling. But a victory! Thanks Pam Africa and all the Mumia supporters and all of you.”
“Everyone has to get on board to keep the pressure on. We have an opportunity here that we have never had before. We are going to do it as a unified community, everyone together.” – Pam Africa
Mumia Abu-Jamal commentaries: http://www.prisonradio.org/media/audio/mumia
Africa in Review 2016, Part III: Neo-colonialism, Economic Sovereignty and the Imperatives of Socialist Development
The continent requires a clean break with western domination
“…In Africa there is the dire need for continental integration based on socialist planning. The merging of economic projects and political unity provides the only real solution for the perpetual ebbs and flows of global capitalist economic viability.
With the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump pressure is mounting from the Pentagon and the intelligence apparatus to continue the renewed Cold War against both Russia Federation and the People’s Republic of China. Such a policy orientation on an international level will have profoundly negative consequences for the African continent.
To foster socialist development in Africa would require the mass mobilization and organization of the workers, youth and farmers. It necessitates the disruption of dependence upon foreign direct investment as the primary mode of economic growth. The emphasis must be placed upon political education with the objective of creating a unified continent under socialist relations of production.
Moreover, the collaboration between the imperialist states and the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) should be halted. These military joint ventures has further destabilized the continent as in Mali, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Kenya, Niger, Nigeria and other states.
A continental military force should be independent of the imperialist states. As Dr. Kwame Nkrumah said over five decades ago, the creation of an All-African High Command will serve as a defense against neo-colonialist intervention and not a gateway for its proliferation.
2017 will be an important year for the African continent. It is up to the governmental leaders, workers, youth and popular movements to decide on the correct path to the realization of revolutionary liberation and unification.”
Mr. Abayomi Azikiwe of the Pan African Newswire and the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (mecawi.org).
Chicago, January 20: Resist Trump: Occupy Inauguration Chicago
Donald Trump and the reactionary core of the Republican Party are coming to power in 2017 on a platform of racism, sexism, xenophobia, and pro-corporate policies. We must build a independent, working-class mass movement that vows to use every ounce of our collective body and spirit to stand against Trump’s reactionary agenda from Day 1.
Mass protests have been an indispensable part of every progressive struggle in history, from winning the eight-hour day to smashing Jim Crow.
Mass protests can also send a warning to the new administration. We want Trump to worry that if he proceeds with his agenda against immigrants, women, Muslims, and workers rights that he will provoke even further struggle. Moreover, we want him and the entire establishment to worry that working people are gaining the confidence to take even further independent and radical action.
Join Movement for the 99% in organizing resistance in Chicago and in cities across the country on Inauguration Day January 20, 2017. This can be a shot across the bow of Trump’s right wing agenda. And most importantly, it can set in motion what we desperately need: the building of a mass movement that militantly fights racism, sexism, and xenophobia and that lays the groundwork for new, radical political institutions that will fight the right tooth and nail and for a decent world for the 99%.
