[act-ma] [UJP] The Growing Menace of FBI Repression

United for Justice with Peace ujpcoalition at gmail.com
Fri Dec 17 00:46:59 PST 2010





UJP: The Growing Menace of FBI Repression








THE GROWING MENACE OF FBI REPRESSION
============================================================



------------------------------------------------------------
BOSTON-UNAC presents a FORUM
------------------------------------------------------------

STEPHANIE WEINER  , Chicago antiwar/solidarity activist subpoenaed for grand
jury re: false aiding terrorism charges

  

CHUCK TURNER,   Roxbury community activist & City Councillor targeted by FBI

NANCY MURRAY,   Director, Bill of Rights Education Project, American
Civil Liberties Union of Mass.

LAILA MURAD,   Tarek Mehanna Support Committee. Mehanna targeted by FBI when he
refused to spy on Muslim community and now in solitary confinement 


When:   Friday, December 17, 2010, 7:30 pm 
Where:   First Parish Church • 3 Church St, Harvard Square • Cambridge  

  On September 24, the FBI raided seven Chicago and Minneapolis homes of
well-known anti-war and international solidarity activists. Their ranks included
a number of trade unionists. Also raided was the office of the Minneapolis –
St. Paul based Anti-War Committee.

The FBI took computer hard drives, cell phones, documents, newspapers and
children’s artwork. They took 28 boxes out of one Chicago home, including a
framed photo of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., shaking hands with Malcolm
X. The FBI subpoenaed 14 activists in Illinois, Minnesota and Michigan to
testify at a grand jury. According to the FBI, the goal of the raids was to show
material support for terrorism charges. It is outrageous! The U.S. government is
trying to put people in jail for anti-war and international solidarity activism.
These people have done nothing wrong. They have given money to no one. Their
freedom is at stake. 

We all need to join together as the government repression continues and
expands.  This is an attack on our movement.  Go to ww.stopfbi.net  for
latest information.   These are antiwar and social justice activists and
people who have been involved in international solidarity efforts, around
Colombia and Palestine.
  

e-mail:   BostonUNAC at gmail.com  for more info. 
Download flyer here:   http://dl.dropbox.com/u/1042836/flyer-2010-12-17.pdf  
 Map to location:   http://bit.ly/FirstParish   
  

-------------------------

  

Co-Sponsors: BOSTON  COALITION FOR PALESTINIAN RIGHTS, BOSTON MAY DAY COALITION,
BOSTON NEW SOCIALIST  PROJECT, BOSTON UNIVERSITY ANTIWAR COMMITTEE, CODE PINK
BOSTON, INTERNATIONAL  ACTION CENTER, INTERNATIONAL SOCIALIST ORGANIZATION,
MASS. GLOBAL ACTION,  MILITARY FAMILIES SPEAK OUT, NATIONAL LAWYERS
GUILD–MASS. CHAPTER, NEWTON  DIALOGUES on PEACE and WAR, SOCIALIST PARTY, STOP
THE WARS COALITION, VETERANS FOR  PEACE – SMEDLEY BUTLER BRIGADE, UNITED FOR
JUSTICE WITH PEACE, WOMEN'S  INTERNATIONAL LEAGUE FOR PEACE AND FREEDOM  

-------------------------

 Background  
 
BOSTON-UNAC is a newly formed chapter of national UNAC.  Its purpose is to
implement action campaigns and the April 9th national bi-coastal demonstrations
as voted on at the UNAC conference in Albany last July. 

Stephanie Weiner has taught English in  Chicago City Colleges for 25 years.  In
2007-2008, she was honored as Wright  College Adult Educator of the Year. She is
also the advisor to Wright College  Students for a Democratic Society and had
been the advisor to the Peace and  Justice club since 2002.

Stephanie is active with the Palestine Solidarity  Group.  One of their
campaigns is to end the Chicago Sister City relationship  with Petach Tikva, a
city near Tel Aviv.  Stephanie is a founding member of the American  Federation
of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 3506.  She had  previously
served on the executive board and on the bargaining committee. Stephanie was
active in the struggle in her  community in opposition to police brutality and
wrongful convictions.  Her work  in the Committee Exigimos Justicia helped win
freedom for a number of  people.

Chuck Turner has been a community organizer  and civil rights activist in Boston
since 1966. Referred to as one of the  best-known agitators in the city, he was
elected to the Boston City Council in  1999 where he served until an FBI
campaign resulted in his removal from council  this year. He graduated from
Harvard in 1963. He joined the  influential civil rights group, the Northern
Student Movement. In 1966, he  joined the South End Neighborhood Action Program
where he fought gentrification.  Turner worked with the community to pressure
the city to provide trash clean-up  in black neighborhoods. A leader of the
United Community Construction Workers,  he crusaded against job discrimination.
In 1991, unsatisfied with the mayor’s  enforcement of fair employment
practices, Turner led a sit-in resulting in a  number of key concessions.

His strategies and skills spearheaded other  efforts. He played a leading role
in a successful campaign to stop a highway  planned to run through predominantly
black neighborhoods. As a city council  member, Turner continued his defense of
civil and human rights. He authored an  ordinance protecting the transgendered
from discrimination. He successfully led  an effort to protect the affirmative
action when Governor Mitt Romney attacked  it.

Tarek Mehanna is a  young Muslim leader from the Boston area who was targeted
and arrested by the  FBI after he refused to become an informant against his own
community. Tarek has  been illegally held in 23-hour solitary confinement in
Plymouth, MA for over a  year pre-trial. The trial will not even begin until
October of 2011. His arrest  is part of an ongoing campaign of FBI repression
against Arab and Muslim  communities.

The Tarek Mehanna  Support committee is a grassroots group of activists and
community members  working to free Tarek, educate the public about the
conditions of prisoners, and  build a strong network to defend our communities
from FBI abuse.

Tarek  Mehanna Support Committee www.freetarek.com   freetarek at gmail.com

--------------------------------------------------------

UJP Task Force: Resisting FBI and Government raids and repression

Recently the FBI raided the homes of activists in Minneapolis and Chicago
involved in the antiwar, solidarity and labor movements.  Several people are
facing grand jury subpoenas. In Boston, the FBI decided to "bring down" Chuck
Turner.  Nationwide, ICE agents continue to victimize immigrants with
unwarranted deportations and Muslims are harrassed and arrested for no reason. 
And now the government is trying to break up Wikileaks.

UJP considers the actions of the FBI and other government agencies a dangerous
attack on free speech, dissent and the right of people to live without fear of
government intimidation.  We must defend people targeted for repression now --
who will be targeted next?  UJP is forming a task force to take up this work:
the purpose is to share information, offer mutual support, and work with the
National Committee to Oppose FBI Repression and other Boston area organizations
on educational programs and protest actions.    Contact Duncan McFarland at
mcfarland13 at gmail.com [1].

  

 






		 [2]



United for Justice with Peace [3] is a coalition of peace and justice
organizations and community peace groups in the Greater Boston region. The UJP
Coalition, formed after September 11th, seeks global peace through social and
economic justice.

Help us continue to do this critical work!   Make a donation to UJP today. [4]

             

            



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Friday Dec 17 7:30pm
The Growing Menace of FBI Repression [7]
Cambridge


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Saturday Dec 18 7:00pm
Consilience: A Community-Building Concert [8]
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Friday Jan 7 8:00pm
Ruined [9]
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US Global Strategy for the 21st Century [10]
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Massachusetts Peace Action Annual Meeting [11]
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[1] mcfarland13 at gmail.com
[2] http://justicewithpeace.org
[3] http://justicewithpeace.org
[4] http://justicewithpeace.org/donate
[5] ujpcoalition at gmail.com
[6] http://www.justicewithpeace.org
[7] http://justicewithpeace.org/node/2105
[8] http://justicewithpeace.org/node/2060
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