Friday, June 12, 2020 at 2:00 PM – 3:00 PM PDT

Ronald Reagan State Bldg
300 S Spring St, Los Angeles, California 90013

AIM So Cal has been working on removing racist symbols for years and helped to successfully remove the Columbus statue here in LA as well as change Columbus Day to Indigenous peoples day. It is time to go to the state capitol!

As a racial reckoning occurs across the country we must not forget the many racist symbols of America’s dark legacy of oppression, slavery and colonialism that still stand.

Statues of Christopher Columbus are finally being taken down. There have been reports of Christopher Columbus statues being tampered with, one thrown into a lake, one beheaded, and another pulled to the ground.

The time to take down the Columbus statue inside the state capital is long overdue. We are mobilizing to take down ALL symbols of oppression starting at the CA State Capitol!!

Join us Friday June 12th at the Ronald Reagan State Building at 2pm as a coalition of grassroots groups join us in our efforts to take down the statue that stands in the middle of the state capitol.

THE TIME IS NOW!

On Facebook

Friday, June 12, 2020 at 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM EDT

Baltimore City Hall
100 Holliday St, Baltimore, Maryland 21202

Defund the Baltimore Police Department/ Fund the People!

We will be holding a rally and protest at City Hall Friday June 12, 4 pm to demand defund the Baltimore Police Department. We say not one penny!

The 2020 budget was over 509 million and the proposed increase for 2021 is 3 million.

We see defunding the police as a step toward full community control of the Baltimore Police Department. Right now the City is mandated by the State to fund the police department but there is no requirement on how much. The City has the ability to cut their budget and can fund the BPD 1 cent rather than the 509 million for 2021.

If Baltimore City chooses to stop the funding of the BPD; it paves the way to disbanding and rebuilding. We would then have approximately 6 months for the City to enact community control and address the issue of providing real safety for people.

The City is facing serious budget cuts and austerity. Every penny that is divested from the BPD can be spent on healthcare, education, jobs, sanitation and other numerous needs.”

What’s not acceptable is delaying moving on an urgent crisis and implementing band aid and ineffective reforms. Since the Freddie Gray rebellion we have seen very little change and instead what has been uncovered, but known by many in the community for years, is a police department riddled with corruption and abuse.

On Facebook

By Roger Wareham

On Friday, June 19t h , the December 12t h Movement is holding a 12 p.m. Black Power rally at City Hall to demand “Defunding of the New York City Police.” Defunding is one of the key concrete demands that have arisen from the ongoing nationwide uprisings against police terror and structural racism catalysed by the brutal murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

D12 member Iman Essiet stated, “ We are having this rally on Juneteenth to remind our community that the modern police department has its origin in the “Slave Catcher Patrols that were set up to capture and return enslaved Blacks who had escaped their captivity. It is that racist mentality that allows them to still kill us with impunity.”

She went on to say that, “The idea of defunding the police comes out of Black people’s frustration with the failures of reforms put in place to pacify the community every time the police murder an unarmed Black person over the years.

“It is time to redirect the billions of dollars budgeted to the police to community-based organizations and social agencies which are equipped to address issues such as drug abuse, domestic violence, children’s behavior in schools, mental health, homelessness, unemployment and poverty.” She was skeptical of Mayor DeBlasio’s promise to cut the budget of the police and stated. “Only a mass demonstration by the people of New York City can bring enough pressure to ensure that the Mayor and the City Council will meet the community’s demands to take a step towards ending police terror by “defunding the New York City Police Department.”

She said anyone who wanted further information should call (718) 398-1766 or check out the website www.d12m.com .

June 7 — For the ninth day in a row, people in Atlanta, as well as many other cities, continue to put pressure on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Demands include dismantling of the racist and fascist police institutional structures that continue to escalate violence even as we march to end police brutality. The police terrorized our activists with rubber bullets, tear gas and batons for seven days in a row, until finally the powerful protests forced the governor and mayor to flee their homes and go into hiding.

In late May and early June, over 30,000 protesters from the greater Denver metropolitan area descended upon the Colorado State Capitol, Civic Center Park and the surrounding streets to demand accountability for killer cops and vigilantes in light of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

The mostly young, diverse and Black-led crowds surrounded the State Capitol building starting May 28. Chants of “Say their names!” and “No justice, no peace! No racist police!” filled the Capitol Hill neighborhood as several different groups of protesters marched to block off I-25 near Colfax Avenue.

The protesters faced violence and threats from both fascist cops and white supremacists. On May 29, a woman drove into three peaceful protesters and fled from the scene, while the Denver police began tear gassing and shooting pepper balls in an attempt to disperse the protesters. They also gassed several residential neighborhoods.

The protests caused fear to the Colorado State Assembly, still in session at the Capitol building, which announced that it would not be in session through the weekend.

Following another day of peaceful protests, police-protecting Denver Mayor Michael Hancock launched a curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m., affecting residents’ ability to get food, shelter or medical supplies.

On Saturday, May 30, despite the incoming curfew and several nights of unprovoked police attacks against civilians, 10,000 Coloradans took to the streets demanding justice. Signs reading “I Can’t Breathe,” the last words of George Floyd, and “Solidarity with Minneapolis, Louisville and Georgia” could be seen for blocks as a march went through the downtown area.

At the State Capitol, several thousand people laid on the ground for nine minutes, echoing the time during which police choked George Floyd. At the nearby amphitheater in Civic Center Park, speeches by several Black community leaders demanded a stop to the racist police killings of people of color.

“Say his name!” yelled a chant leader at the end of the speeches, followed by the crowd’s fervent response of “George Floyd!” Then, “Say her name!” “Breonna Taylor!” “Say his name!” “Ahmaud Arbery!”

The curfew was eventually extended to last the entire week, and the National Guard was deployed. However, angered protesters continue to occupy Civic Center Park and march nightly. This comes despite the continued insistence of the police on attacking the crowd unprovoked with tear gas and pepper bullets, causing several severe injuries and hospitalizations.

Similar gassings of peaceful protesters also happened in nearby Colorado Springs.

The people of Denver have had enough of killer cops and are demanding justice be brought to the murderers of Black lives. The Colorado Calvary statue in front of the Capitol, dedicated to the soldiers who committed the genocidal Sand Creek Massacre against innocent Arapaho and Cheyenne Indians during the Civil War, has been liberated with paint saying “ACAB” (“All Cops Are Bastards”), “F*ck racists” and “Stop Killing Us” on the pedestal and statue itself.

Denver stands in solidarity with other cities that believe the system does not work for us and must be thrown out completely. Black Lives Matter! 

“The Basque Country? How come I’ve never heard of it?”

Someone in this country asked me that question several years ago after she detected my foreign accent and I told her where I came from. 

I answered, “Maybe because we don’t have oil.” It was 2003, when the U.S. invaded Iraq.

The Basque Country (“Euskal Herria” in the Basque language) is a land occupied by two colonialist states: France and Spain. Geographically, the Basque Country is where the Pyrenees mountain range meets the Bay of Biscay.

We have many political prisoners as a consequence of a long struggle for freedom and socialism. Basque political prisoners are sent by the Spanish and French prison systems as far as possible from the Basque Country, to the farthest corners of Spain and France. Since the coronavirus hit Europe, our prisoners, like all prisoners everywhere, have been mistreated. The Spanish prison system made it an objective to punish them even further.

In the case of Basque political prisoner Patxi Ruiz, there were some altercations and threats to his life from guards and the director of the prison in Murcia, where he is incarcerated. This was because he asked for the proper personal protective equipment (PPE) to keep the prisoners safe from COVID-19. Not only did they not listen to him, but they continued to threaten his life. 

So a month ago he started a hunger and thirst strike. After the first 12 days, he is continuing only the hunger strike, but his health is deteriorating rapidly. And, of course, Spain and its prison system could not care less if he dies. 

Nevertheless, there is a strong feeling of solidarity with Patxi Ruiz among other Basque political prisoners who followed his hunger strike, and outside the prison, in the Basque Country, where people are on hunger strikes in solidarity. On Ahotsa.info’s YouTube channel, you can see some of the actions in solidarity with Patxi Ruiz.

Justice for George Floyd and Elhadji Ndiaye

People in the Basque city of Iruñea (also known by the Spanish name Pamplona) have been holding solidarity actions with George Floyd and Elhadji Ndiaye, who was killed by Spanish occupation forces in October 2016 in a very similar manner. Iruñea is the capital city of Nafarroa, also the birthplace of Patxi Ruiz.

The Spanish police never answered the popular demand to explain why the young Senegalese Elhadji Ndiaye was first arrested for no reason and soon afterwards was dead in police headquarters in Iruñea. To this day, nobody knows the true facts and people are demanding answers.

As Basque activist Ainhoa Urrutia said: “We are prepared to defend them [oppressed peoples and prisoners] and fight for them against the oligarchical powers that pull the strings of fascism to perpetuate their privilege at the expense of our lives.” And the truth is that Spain remains a fascist state under a monarchy that signed the principles of a fascist dictator in 1975.  

From the Basque Country, we have always demonstrated our solidarity with the Black community in the U.S., the Palestinian people, the Saharawi people and all people worldwide living under occupation. And that solidarity is stronger than ever these days.

I happened to hear comedian and activist Lee Camp say something like this: “As long as you hate other people and other countries, you are distracted from placing your anger in what your government is doing to you.” That is how governments use racism to divide people. We need to do the opposite and show solidarity with each other. We are many. They are few.

Free Patxi Ruiz and all political prisoners!

Free them all!

Put killer cops in prison!

On June 4, the socialist organizations Devrimci Parti (Revolutionary Party), Ezilenlerin Sosyalist Partisi – ESP (Socialist Party of the Oppressed), Halkların Demokratik Partisi – HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party), Mücadele Birliği (Struggle Union) and Proleter Devrimci Duruş (Proletarian Revolutionary Stance) made a statement to the media in front of the U.S. Embassy in Istanbul, Turkey, to condemn police violence and the killing of George Floyd, to greet the uprising and show solidarity with the people of the U.S. 

After coming together, each organization raised their banner and chanted together, “Shoulder to shoulder against fascism!” and ”Long live international solidarity!” Then the statement was read out.

To the press and the public:

The uprising that started with the killing of George Floyd by the police in the United States has been going on for 10 days. Floyd was strangled by a racist policeman and his last words were “I can’t breathe!” The uprising that started in Minneapolis, spreading to all the other states of the U.S., reached to the gates of the White House. 

Floyd’s murder by the police was the last straw of the bloody history which started with Europeans enslaving and killing hundreds of thousands of Indigenous people to accumulate more capital from the moment they stepped onto the continent. George Floyd became the symbol of the racist violence of the police in the U.S. towards anyone who is not white, including immigrants. The uprising, which started as anti-racist, has deepened and turned against the capitalist system that produces and nurtures racism. 

With the expropriation actions for the people’s vital needs and ensuring their equal distribution to the public, the people fighting on the streets also show that the target is not “revenge” but the system itself, by turning on the symbols of capitalism and the buildings belonging to the police which protect those symbols.

The ruling parties in Turkey, the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), attack the people, workers and women with their police and their army and the watchmen under their command, and even suppress people, intervene in their lives and don’t even let people breathe. As a result of the deepening government crisis during the pandemic, many people have been subjected to violence and fines have been filed against them during the curfews and limitations, and it has become more common in order to prevent the social mobilization of the people to confront the contradictions all around us. 

Ali Hemdan, a Syrian who was displaced by the AKP’s war policies and was trying to work to support his family, was shot in the chest by the police in Adana Province. Despite the fact that it was said he was “shot while fleeing,” the truth turned out to be extrajudicial execution. A 16-year-old Kurdish teenager was shot in the chest in the Kurdish province of Batman. Both of them were killed because it was after curfew and they were in the restricted group under the age of 20. Despite all this, the only action the police are supposed to take is to fine people, but they did not hesitate to shoot two young men.

The images of torture dished out by the policemen in Diyarbakır (also a Kurdish province) and the murder of Barış Cakan in Ankara for listening to Kurdish music are reflections of state policies. Just being a Kurd or an Arab, living in the suburbs of the city, being a worker, being a woman, means that their killer will remain unpunished. While the workers were thrown into hunger and death during the pandemic, law enforcement worked for the peace and the security of the capitalists. Those who sit in parks are either fined or subjected to violence, while the shopping malls are open.

In a process where workers under the age of 20 are subjected to curfew and workers are employed during the pandemic with precarious and special permits given by the bosses, those who attack people in the streets and fine them claim that they are fighting the pandemic.

In the face of this situation, the police attack against youth organizations marching on the streets of Kadıkoy, Istanbul, with the slogan “Your normal is your police violence!” reveals the state policy against those who put their words into deeds. While 29 young revolutionaries were tortured and detained, they raised the flag of struggle instead of surrender. (As of June 1 almost all COVID-19 safety measures have been abolished by the state, which disregards human life in order to keep the economy alive, under the name “Normalization Process,” despite the pandemic continuing.) 

The rise of the struggle against inequality and oppression in the uprisings has revealed the people’s longing for life. People’s aspirations for equality and justice can only be realized through socialism. As revolutionaries, we fight against inequality and oppression all over the world. With all our international feelings, we greet the struggle against the lifeblood of capitalism, which started with the struggle against racism in the U.S. and the unity and solidarity created by the American people in this uprising. Imperialist capitalists: Fear the rebellion of the peoples! This fire surrounds the world!

Long live revolutionary solidarity!

Long live international solidarity!

Devrimci Parti (Revolutionary Party)
Ezilenlerin Sosyalist Partisi – ESP (Socialist Party of the Oppressed)
Halkların Demokratik Partisi – HDP (Peoples’ Democratic Party)
Mücadele Birliği (Struggle Union)
Proleter Devrimci Duruş (Proletarian Revolutionary Stance)

Saturday, June 13, 2020 at 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM EDT

Orleans & Bond St, Baltimore, MD 21202

Baltimore Joins National Protests to Stop Police Terror, Racism, and Repression

The Peoples Power Assembly, Ujima People’s Progress Party, Prisoners Solidarity Committee, Struggle – La Lucha for Socialism, Women In Struggle – Mujeres En Lucha, Youth Against War and Racism and many others are joining with the (NAARPR) National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression for national protests this Saturday
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We will be focusing this week’s protest at Johns Hopkins and it’s present day and historical racism and continue the call to end their private police.

We demand:
Divest & Disband the police; Community control now! Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities must have the rights and resources to create and control their own entities to keep them safe!
Cops and National Guard out of our streets!
Release all those arrested!
End the violent attacks, including the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and concussion grenades!
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Saturday’s March will include people on foot and a car caravan will follow our March. This way everyone will be able to participate on Saturday regardless of ability or health issues.

We will have a printed route at the site.
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We will post more information ASAP. Please RSVP to the event for updates.
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If you would like to help support the fight against police terror, please also consider donating to the struggle!
Venmo: @ solidaritycenter (last 4 digits 4835)
Paypal.me/Food4People

#DefundThePolice #DisbandThePolice #CommunityControl #BaltimoreProtest #BlackLivesMatter #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #JusticeForBreonnaTaylor #JusticeForAhmaudArbery #SandraBland #TonyMcDade #TrayvonMartin #TamirRice

The ProLibertad Freedom Campaign, a long time member of the Jericho Movements, is proud to create this FB Event on Jericho’s behalf:

Join NYC Jericho in this panel discussion where we’ll hear first person narratives from the children of current and former Political Prisoners. We’ll learn about their experiences and relationships with their parents, their fight to free their loved ones and how they continue to support the struggle for a more just world.

Saturday, June 13, 2020, 3:00pm-4:30pm
Joining in at https://www.facebook.com/jerichoamnestymovement/

Panelists
Mike Africa, Jr. is a member of The MOVE Organization and President of the Seed of Wisdom Foundation. Mike is the son of Mike and Debbie Africa, two political prisoners who were each sentenced to 100 years in prison.

Russell Shoatz III and Theresa Shoats are children of Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, a Black Panther Party member and co-founder of the Black Unity Council, who has been in jail for over 40 years.

K’sisay Sadiki-Torres is a filmmaker, performance artist and Panther Cub. Her father is Kamau Sadiki, a political prisoner currently imprisoned at Augusta State Medical Prison in Georgia.

Talib “Tyrone” Shakur is the second son of Dr. Mutulu Shakur. Talib is the executive director of “Truth & Reconciliation: Dr. Mutulu Shakur,” a film about Dr. Shakur, the healer, educator, mentor, the family man, community leader and so much more.

Presented by the Jericho Amnesty Movement to Free All Political Prisoners NYC Chapter, Dare to Struggle Series

Samidoun Network in occupied Palestine and in the diaspora has issued the following call, originally in Arabic. As an international network, we fully join in this call and urge all supporters and friends of Palestine to take action on 1 July in support of the mobilization taking place in Ramallah, occupied Palestine, to confront Israel’s declared plans for the annexation of much of the occupied West Bank of Palestine.

We know that many Palestinians in exile and supporters of Palestine are, like Samidoun’s members, engaged in the uprisings and mass mobilizations taking to the streets to confront anti-Black racism and demand the defunding and dismantling of police and other structures of oppression. Confronting Israel’s annexation plans – fully backed by U.S. imperialism and inspired by Zionist racism – also comes as part of the global fightback against racism, colonialism and imperialism. Israel’s crimes are backed by $3.8 million in military aid from the U.S. each year as well as unlimited diplomatic, political and “security” support from Canada, the European Union, Britain, Australia and other imperialist powers.

Join us on 1 July to stand with the Palestinian people against Israeli annexation and for justice, return and liberation in Palestine. If you are organizing an event, a contingent or an action of any kind, please let us know – email us at samidoun@samidoun.net or message us on Facebook to ensure we publicize it!

Read the full statement and call to action below:

A call to the struggling Palestinian people throughout occupied Palestine and to the masses of our people struggling in exile and diaspora…

A call to Palestinians, Arabs and the people of the world….

Israel, the Zionist project fully supported by the United States of America and the reactionary forces in the region, is continuing upon the path of attempting to liquidate the Palestinian cause and Palestinian rights. It aims to impose its racist colonial regime through armed force, through repressive systems, prisons and detention center, and by spreading systematic destruction targeting the Palestinian people. Israel not only denies the national rights of the Palestinian people but also violates the most basic and natural rights of people and the land.

Our struggling Palestinian people, along with the Arab nation, the peoples of the region, and the progressive forces and liberation movements around the world, are aware of the true face of the racist, Zionist colonial entity and its expansionist nature and aims, now more than ever. They also see with full clarity how the occupation continues to implement its ongoing crimes and daily attacks against the Palestinian people. These crimes and violations do not subside for one hour, from killing, siege, mass arrests, home demolitions and the confiscation of Palestinian land through annexation and displacement projects. These daily crimes committed by the occupation forces take place in full sight and sound of the world, with no accountability, meaningful response or even a minimal international legal response.

The policies of the Zionist state and of the Trump administration standing together with Netanyahu and Gantz are the natural continuation of the ongoing history of each successive Israeli government and leadership from before the establishment of the Zionist state on our Palestinian homeland in 1948 until the present day. This right-wing alliance and the deeply, fundamentally racist structures propping it up are convinced that it may impose its will by force upon the Palestinian people because of the state of disintegration, weakness and disorganization on the Palestinian and Arab internal fronts. They target the homes and the very existence of the Palestinian people with impunity, from demolishing our homes in the Negev, Qalansuwa, Jerusalem and throughout the West Bank, to continuing the devastating siege upon our people in the struggling Gaza Strip, to denying our right to return and self-determination throughout the entire land of Palestine.

Today, the Zionist right-wing alliance prepares to plunder all of the Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank, creating a system of ghettos, cantons, strangulation and impoverishment, what it calls “facts on the ground” that target, first and foremost, the rights and interests of the Palestinian popular classes throughout all of occupied Palestine.

On the other hand, these Israeli policies are also acting to accelerate the resounding fall of all of the projects of surrender and illusion, the path of negotiations that began with the 1991 Madrid conference and the disastrous and devastating Oslo accords that destroyed the Palestinian people’s institutions and organizations. This current dragged the Palestinian national movement into a state of defeat, internal conflict and disintegration, confiscating the role of the Palestine Liberation Organization and emptying it of its popular and democratic role.

Today, the peoples of the world, and friendly and hostile forces alike, look toward the Palestinian response, not only to this latest Zionist crime but to this entire stage of destruction. Their eyes point to the critical importance of a popular Palestinian and Arab response to the annexation project and the imposition of the so-called “Israeli laws and sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.”

Accordingly, we call upon all national and Islamic forces, popular organizations inside Palestine and in exile and diaspora, as well as our labor unions, women’s organizations and student movement to participate widely and lead the popular march that will begin on 1 July 2020 in the city of Ramallah, as we march on the path of a unified Palestinian people and a unified Palestinian struggle, standing for the rights and dignity of our people – always and only, the rights and dignity of the Palestinian people.

We call upon the Palestinian people throughout occupied Palestine, everywhere in exile and diaspora, and all those who stand for justice in Palestine – all of the national forces, youth groups, civil society institutions and popular movements – to organize direct actions and popular mobilizations in the refugee camps, cities and villages and to formulate plans for joint action and mass organization. Together, we can mobilize the power and potential of the Palestinian people, the Arab people and the international movement for justice to confront the schemes of the occupier and its collaborators. The time has come to take a qualitative step to protect the Palestinian people and rebuild the foundations of the national liberation movement.

Our Palestinian people everywhere and the national liberation movement march on the path to liberation and return.

With loyalty to the martyrs and the struggling prisoners’ movement, the leadership of the Palestinian struggle.

Down with the occupation! The annexation, colonization and settlement projects will be defeated. Victory is with the Palestinian people and the Palestinian cause!

6 June 2020