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State Repression

Threats To US Democracy Go Far Beyond Elections And Courts

April 21, 2024 Basav Sen, In These Times. , , , ,
The idea that U.S. democracy is in danger is now widely accepted among the U.S. political class and increasingly by the American public as well. ​“Not since President Lincoln and the Civil War have freedom and democracy been under assault here at home as they are today,” President Biden said during his March 7 State of the Union address. Much of the media attention on the threat has focused on our electoral system and courts. These procedural elements of democracy are of course critical. But there isn’t enough public discussion of threats to substantive democracy — the degree of government accountability to the public, as well as the protection of free speech and the right to dissent.

Hundreds Of Students Occupy Columbia University In Solidarity With Gaza

April 18, 2024 People's Dispatch. , , , , , , , , ,
At 4 am on April 17, hundreds of Columbia University students began to set up a “Gaza solidarity encampment” on the main lawn of campus, pledging to stay until the University divests from Israel. This historic occupation was coordinated by various student organizations such as the coalition Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine, and Columbia Jewish Voice for Peace. The action was inspired by the historic 1968 occupation of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall by students in protest against racism and the Vietnam War.

The War On Protest

April 17, 2024 Adam Federman, In These Times. , , , ,
Amin Chaoui had been in Atlanta less than 24 hours when things took an unexpected turn. Chaoui, then 31, drove down from Richmond, Va., to attend a March 2023 music festival organized by activists trying to stop the construction of the police training facility known as Cop City. The sprawling compound in one of Atlanta’s largest urban parks would require clearing at least 85 acres of partly forested land that abuts a predominantly Black neighborhood in DeKalb County. It faced growing opposition from racial and environmental justice advocates, including an occupation of the forest that began in November 2021.

The New Modern Day Militarized Fort!

April 4, 2024 Shaka Shakur, Black Agenda Report. , , , , ,
This week represents the first year anniversary of the State’s attack and arrest of Amin Chaoui and others who were challenging its attempt to build another kop city, this time within the Atlanta, Georgia, area. It's important to look at the creation of kop city within the larger context of State repression and the creation of an expanded police State of hyper surveillance, pushing ever greater intrusion into the private lives of the people. The repressive State relies upon the use of poor or working class folks to police and dominate other poor, oppressed and marginalized folks.

Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Uhuru 3 Put State On Trial

April 3, 2024 Penny Hess, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
In yet another political attack by the U.S. government against the African Liberation Movement, African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) Chairman Omali Yeshitela and two members of the Party’s Solidarity Front are currently under federal indictment  and facing 15 years in prison on the basis of our constitutionally protected speech advocating for freedom, reparations and justice for African people. A trial date is set for September 3, 2024 in the federal court in Tampa, FL. As part of the attack on the Chairman, Jesse Nevel, 34, Chair of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement and myself, 78, Chair of the African People’s Solidarity Committee are also under indictment as two leaders of the Party’s solidarity committee tasked with winning white solidarity with and reparations for Uhuru Movement anti-colonial economic development programs for the African community.

FBI Storms African Liberation Movement With Fabricated Charges

March 8, 2024 Solyana Bekele, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
On July 29, 2022, the FBI carried out a violent pre-dawn raid at the homes of Uhuru Movement leaders, namely Chairman Omali Yeshitela of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) , and other Uhuru Movement offices. The APSP is a political party that aims to lead the struggle of the African working class and oppressed masses against U.S. capitalist-colonialist domination and all the manifestations of oppression and exploitation that result from this relationship. These raids were followed by a bogus indictment that charged Chairman Yeshitela, Chairwoman Penny Hess of the African People’s Solidarity Committee , and Chair Jesse Nevel of the Uhuru Solidarity Movement with being agents of  Russia and acting on behalf of the Russian government.

Palestine Action US Activists Hit With Felony Charges Over Elbit Protest

February 29, 2024 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. , , , , ,
Three activists have been indicted for participating in a protest at Elbit Systems of America in Merrimack, New Hampshire last November. Elbit is Israel’s largest private arms supplier. Sophie Ross, Bridget Shergalis, and Calla Walsh are facing charges of riot, conspiracy to commit criminal mischief, burglary, and conspiracy to commit falsifying physical evidence for climbing onto the company’s roof and defacing the building with paint. Each charge is a Class B felony and could carry a three-and-a-half to seven-year prison sentence. A fourth woman, Paige Belanger, was arrested in January over her involvement in the protest.

‘Democracies’ Deny The Popular Will While Suppressing Protest And Dissent

February 18, 2024 Margaret Kimberley, Black Agenda Report. , , ,
What is democracy? Dictionaries provide a variety of meanings but in general, they define it as “rule by the people,” which includes the election of representatives in a legislature or a parliament. This simple definition is easily understood but when one takes a closer look at the nations which call themselves democracies, it is clear that the word is now little more than a “get out of jail” free card to cover for what is, in fact, oligarchic rule. No one has to look very far to see the discrepancies between democracy as advertised and how states really function.  Most people here in the United States, 61% according to one poll , want a ceasefire in Gaza.

Cop City: Federal And State Police Raid Three Homes In Atlanta

February 9, 2024 Sean Summers, Unicorn Riot. , , , , ,
Atlanta, GA — A multi-agency task force raided three homes in Atlanta early Thursday morning as part of an ongoing investigation surrounding resistance to ‘Cop City.’ At around 6:00 a.m., law enforcement agents with the Atlanta Police Department, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia State Patrol, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and FBI carried out search warrants at three separate homes across the city seeking evidence related to a July 2023 arson targeting police motorcycles at an Atlanta police precinct. One 30-year-old Atlanta local, John Mazurek, was arrested and charged with first-degree arson in connection with the 2023 sabotage.

Urgent Call To Defend The Uhuru Movement Against Imprisonment

January 26, 2024 the Hands Off Uhuru Fightback Coalition, Popular Resistance. , , , , ,
On July 29th of 2022, the FBI militarily raided seven homes and offices of the Uhuru (“Freedom”) Movement including the home of its founder and leader, Omali Yeshitela, Chairman of the African People’s Socialist Party. This video shows footage from the violent, unjustified raids.  The U.S. government has fabricated the bogus charge that Chairman Omali and the Uhuru Movement are “Russian agents” to justify putting the 82-year-old Yeshitela in prison for the rest of his life and to silence him and his lifelong fight for the liberation of Africa and African people worldwide. Chairman Omali Yeshitela’s official statement can be read here.  

Standing Together: The Peace Movement Inside Israel

January 23, 2024 Uri Weltmann, Morning Star. , , ,
On Thursday, January 18, more than 2,000 people marched through the streets of Tel-Aviv, calling for a ceasefire agreement that will end hostilities in Gaza, in the biggest peace demonstration inside Israel since the war began. The march and rally were endorsed by more than 30 organisations, and organised jointly by Standing Together and Women Wage Peace. “We are all in pain over the harsh reality we are living. The pain of the bereaved families, of those kidnapped, of the people we were uprooted and forced to leave their homes. We are all horrified when we hear about civilian casualties, including children, in the Gaza Strip and in the Gaza Envelope,” read the statement calling for the march.

Women In Pakistan Are Fighting Enforced Disappearances And Killings

January 21, 2024 Esha Mitra, Waging Nonviolence. , , ,
As hundreds took to the streets of Pakistan’s largest city, Karachi, on Jan. 12, a sea of mostly female protesters continued screaming “Balochistan wants justice,” even as they were met with a heavy police presence. Meanwhile, back in the restive but beautiful southwestern province of Balochistan, thousands more swarmed the streets. Their protest against enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in their province was just the latest mobilization for a movement that has grown exponentially over the past month. Following the November killing of 22-year-old Balaach Mola Baksh, hundreds of women — along with some of their children — began a roughly thousand-mile march from his hometown of Turbat to Islamabad on Dec. 6.

Protest Is The Tool By Which We Realize Our Democracy

January 14, 2024 Janine Jackson, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. , , ,
The last several years have provided ample reason for public protest, and many people have been doing just that, including some who never had before. This country has a much-vaunted history of vocal public dissent, but we know that that is intertwined with a sadder history of efforts by the powerful to silence those voices. As we move into 2024, and reasons to speak up and out go unabated, what should we know about our right to protest? What should concern us, or give us hope? Chip Gibbons is a journalist, researcher and activist, and policy director at Defending Rights & Dissent.

78 Palestine Solidarity Activists Face Charges For Civil Disobedience

December 24, 2023 People's Dispatch. , , , , , ,
78 Palestine solidarity activists are facing charges following a mass civil disobedience action staged on November 16, in which protesters shut down San Francisco’s Bay Bridge in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Over 150 demonstrators blocked the Bay Bridge on November 16, while US President Joe Biden was in San Francisco for the APEC Summit. Several activists blocked the bridge with cars, and, highlighting their commitment, proceeded to throw their keys into the San Francisco Bay. Protesters are facing charges ranging from unlawful public assembly, false imprisonment, refusing to comply with a peace officer, and refusing to disperse a riot and obstruction of a public street.

Argentina: The Milei Moment Has Arrived

December 16, 2023 Luis Alberto Quevedo, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , ,
Yesterday, Javier Milei’s intense life as a panelist came to an end and his new life as president of the nation begins. Now his words and diagnoses will have to become government actions. For this reason, his first speech in front of the Legislative Assembly, at the very moment this mutation was taking place, aroused so much interest. The first surprise was that he did not address the deputies and senators who were constituted as representatives of the people: the two assembled chambers embody the always heterogeneous preferences of our society. Milei preferred instead the esplanade and to speak to his followers, not to the people as a whole but to his own close followers.
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