Free Speech

Free Speech As A Barrier To Trade? The Latest Anti-BDS Scheme

March 3, 2015 Chip Gibbons, www.defendingdissent.org Educate! BDS, Free Speech, Free Trade

Reps. Peter Roskam (R-Ill.) and Juan Vargas (D-Calif.) have introduced the United States-Israel Trade and Commercial Enhancement Act into Congress. This bill, according to Roskam’s press release, would “counter the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel and strengthen the U.S.-Israel economic relationship.” The bill cites its raison d’être not as a political defense of Israel, but as concern over “politically motivated actions” that would constitute barriers of trade in violation of the General Agreement on Trades and Tariffs (GATT). It would tie U.S. trade policy, most notably the pending trade deal with the European Union, to opposing BDS.

This Man Faces Life In Prison For Rapping

February 5, 2015 David Loy, www.aclu.org Educate! Free Speech, Law, Music, Racial Justice

I've heard free speech isn't free, and Brandon Duncan, who raps as Tiny Doo, has learned that the hard way. Until recently, Mr. Duncan spent eight months in jail on "gang conspiracy" charges arising from several shootings in San Diego from May 2013 to February 2014. Prosecutors admit he wasn't at the scene of the crimes, and they have no evidence linking him to the shootings. Mr. Duncan, who has no criminal record, also says he had no knowledge of the crimes. But the district attorney charged him all the same because he raps about shootings. That's not only absurd; it's a blatant violation of the First Amendment.

Update From Prison Radio

January 22, 2015 Prison Radio, www.popularresistance.org Organize! Criminal Justice and Prisons, Free Speech, Racism

As many of us are out in the streets taking back the radical legacy of King, here at Prison Radio we are at full speed on the path toward freedom and justice. Right now, seven of us are working in the San Francisco office. Over 630 people joined the campaign to Defeat the "Silencing of Our Prisoners Law SB508" and gave to our successful IndieGogo campaign. On February 26th, Prison Radio attorneys Bret Grote from the Abolitionist Law Center & Nikki Grant and Ashley Henderson from the Amistad Law Project will be advocating that Judge Conner issue a preliminary injunction prohibiting Pennsylvania's Attorney General and Philadelphia's District Attorney from using the Silencing Act to censor Plaintiffs' speech. We want to put an end to this illegal statute before it can be used to intimidate, silence, and punish those who raise their voices against this system.

BREAKING: Net Neutrality Activists Blockade FCC Chairman’s House

November 10, 2014 Staff, target="_blank" >www.popularresistance.org Resist! Activism, FCC, Free Speech, Internet, Net Neutrality, Tom Wheeler

Advocates for net neutrality who oppose the tiered Internet proposed by FCC Chairman, Tom Wheeler, blockaded his driveway this morning, Monday, November 10, 2014, just as the Chairman was getting into his car. Six people participated in the blockade with a large banner that read “Save the Internet.” They also held signs demanding that Wheeler listen to the people. They chanted “Hey Hey, Ho Ho, Tom Wheeler has got to go” and sang “Which side are you on Tom? Are you with the people or with the Telecoms?” The protest, which kicked off at 6:55am, is organized by PopularResistance.org, the same group that Occupied the FCC from May 7 to May 15. They are demanding that Wheeler drop plans to advance so-called “hybrid” rules that fail to protect free speech, and fully reclassify the Internet as a common carrier under Title II.

Jeremy Hammond Announced As Second Courage Beneficiary

September 17, 2014 Free Jeremy, www.freejeremy.net Organize! Free Speech, Human Rights, Political Prisoner, Surveillance

Jeremy was sentenced to ten years in prison for being the alleged media source for documents from the private US intelligence firm Strategic Forecasting, Inc. (Stratfor), which included revelations that they had been spying on human rights defenders, for example Bhopal activists and members of PETA, at the behest of corporations and governments. WikiLeaks published these documents in partnership with 29 media organisations worldwide as the Global Intelligence Files, which are still being used for news stories around the world. Despite hundreds of pleas, including a letter submitted by WikiLeaks from itself and its media partners – “newspapers, TV networks, and magazines with a combined audience of 500 million” – asking for leniency for Jeremy, the maximum possible sentence was given.

Kicked Out After Refusing To Stand For Pledge

September 9, 2014 Justin King, www.theantimedia.org Resist! Civil Rights, First Amendment, Free Speech, Nationalism, Police the Police

Winter Garden, FL – Mayor John Rees ordered a man to stand first for a prayer, then for the Pledge of Allegiance at the beginning of a City Commission meeting last Thursday. When the man refused, the Mayor ordered the Chief of Police to use force and “escort” him from the room. Chief of Police George A. Brennan just followed orders and violated the man’s civil rights. The whole incident was captured on the victim’s cellular phone. Joseph Richardson is reported to have repeatedly asked the city to change its invocation and documents the prayer. Mayor John Rees does not seem to fully grasp the severity of his actions. After the incident he said “Life will go on.” Constitutional watchdog group, the American Civil Liberties Union, has a page dedicated to the question of the Pledge of Allegiance. It states: The Pledge being recited in the early years. “Can I be made to recite the Pledge of Allegiance? No. The Supreme Court has ruled that just as the First Amendment protects an individual’s right to say what he or she wants, it also protects his or her right not to say something. Almost 60 years ago the court determined that compulsory flag salutes are a violation of an individual’s right to free speech. So, students in public schools may refuse to participate in the Pledge of Allegiance and choose to remain quietly seated instead. Note, however, that if you decline to say the pledge that you do not have the right to disrupt the proceedings.”

14 Journalists Have Been Arrested In Ferguson

August 21, 2014 Runa A. Sandvik, www.pressfreedomfoundation.org Educate! Ferguson, Free Speech, Journalism, Police

On Aug. 13, 2014, police in Ferguson, Missouri, assaulted and arrested two journalists for allegedly failing to exit a McDonald's quickly enough while on a break from covering the protests. Since then, police actions against journalists in Ferguson have escalated in severity and frequency. Many have been tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets and at least nine more have been arrested. It should go without saying that these arrests are a gross violation of the reporters' First Amendment rights, and attempts to prevent journalists from lawfully doing their job on the streets of Ferguson are downright illegal. We will be documenting each journalist arrest below and are filing public records requests for the arrest records of the journalists who have been assaulted, detained, and arrested in Ferguson. All requests are publicly available on MuckRock. We insist that the St. Louis County Police Department, Ferguson Police Department, and Missouri Highway Patrol cease and desist from violating the Constiutional rights of reporters covering the protests, and respect the court document they all signed agreeing that the media and members of the public have a right to record public events without abridgement.

Daniel McGowan, Jailed For HuffPost Blog

August 21, 2014 Matt Sledge, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Environment, Free Speech, Journalism, Prison

Daniel McGowan may have been the first person thrown in solitary confinement for writing a HuffPost blog. Now he'll be the first person to sue the Bureau of Prisons over it. The environmental activist and former prisoner filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against the prison system over an April 2013 incident in which U.S. Marshals threw him in a Brooklyn federal jail -- ironically, for criticizing earlier violations of his free speech. "The Bureau of Prisons does not like criticism and their reaction was unsurprisingly to try and crush someone who stepped out of line," McGowan told HuffPost Tuesday in an email. After a federal judge labeled him a terrorist in 2007 for arson committed with the Earth Liberation Front, McGowan spent years in some of the federal prison system's most restrictive prisons, the communication management units (CMUs). The Bureau of Prisons denies it, but internal prison files strongly suggest McGowan was placed there because of his continued outspoken association with the environmental movement.

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