[act-ma] A Conference in Defense of Civil Liberties and to End Indefinite Detention - Dec. 8

[Marilyn Levin]

An Injury to One is An Injury to All:

A Conference in Defense of Civil Liberties and to End Indefinite Detention

Saturday December 8, 2012 

Featuring:

Glen Greenwald - Author and Guardian Columnist

 Sahar F. Aziz - Civil Rights Legal Scholar

 Shahid Buttar - Executive Director, Bill of Rights Defense Committee

 Steve Downs - Executive Director, National Coalition to Protect Civil
Freedoms

 Nancy Murray - Director of Education, ACLU of Massachusetts

Ruth Wilson Glimore - Scholar, Activist and Prison Abolitionist

 John Woodruff - International Representative of United Electrical, Radio
and Machine Workers of America (UE)

 Muneer Awad-NYC Council on American Islamic Relations and the NYPD/CIA
Spying Campaign

 And many others!

Semesters Hall, Student Center

Central Connecticut State University

New Britain, CT

 Dear Friends,

 Our movements and our communities are under assault.  Rarely a week goes by
without the passage of a new repressive law, grand jury subpoena, raid,
sentencing, or court ruling targeting our movements.  No minute goes by
without new deportations, arrests, illegal frisks, frame-ups and prison
sentences that divide and repress immigrant, African American, Latino,
Muslim, Arab, South Asian and other communities targeted by our government.
The repressive apparatus is strengthened daily. "Secure Communities" or
S-Comm, which connects local police forces to federal immigration
authorities, has been implemented in nearly every state and will be
universal by 2013.  The right of the president to detain anyone (including
U.S. citizens) without trial has been codified into law, and is now being
defended in the courts.  The NSA's right to spy on our e-mails and
phone-calls without even suspicion of wrong-doing was just approved once
again by the House.  

 Deportations have grown to roughly 400,000 a year - between 1.5 and 2 times
the rate during 2001-2008.  1 out of every 8 people in prison on planet
earth is African American. (about one in four is American)  In the last four
years double the number of whistle-blowers have been prosecuted under the
WWI Espionage act than in all previous years combined.

 The last few months alone are stunning:

.               In April, 2012 Tarek Mehanna began serving a 17 and one half
year sentence for writings he placed online and a trip to Yemen.

.               Between August and October, 2012 federal courts jailed three
young Pacific Northwest anarchists for refusing to testify in grand-jury
fishing operations.  All three have spent significant time in solitary
confinement.  One of them - Leah Plante - was told she would be in solitary
for her entire sentence of 18 months.  

.               On August 28, 2012 Dr. Shakir Hamoodi, an Iraqi-American
engineer who spoke out against the invasion of Iraq, began serving a three
year sentence for sending money to his family in Iraq which they needed for
food and medicine during the U.S. sanctions regime.

.               On Monday, October 29, 2012 the Supreme Court declined to
hear the case of the Holy Land Five - five leaders of what had been the
largest Muslim charitable organization in the U.S. - who are serving
sentences ranging between 15 and 65 years for giving charity to
Palestinians.

But on December 8th residents and activists from Connecticut and the region
will meet in New Britain to learn about each others struggles and make
connections necessary to mount a serious response to this many-sided
offensive.  December 8th can be a critical step in building a movement
capable of defending our brothers and sisters when they are targeted for
their speech, their political activity, race, religion, or nation of origin;
that can prevent deportations; that can expose and challenge racial
profiling and the mass-incarceration of generations; that can defend workers
organizing in their work-places; that can overturn reactionary laws that
restrict our basic civil freedoms.  

We are now two weeks from the conference. This is an ideal time to get the
word out far and wide.  Please contact us if you can contribute financially
or in any other way. 

To endorse, contribute, help out, or for more information contact Dan at
<file:///\\localhost\tel\860-985-4576> 860-985-4576 or
<mailto:daniel.adam.piper at gmail.com> daniel.adam.piper at gmail.com

Send advanced registration fee, lit table fees or contributions to: 

C/O of Dan Piper

103 Elizabeth street

Hartford, CT 06105

 

Make checks payable to: "CT Coalition to Stop Indefinite Detention"

 For more information see:

 <http://ctstopindefinitedetention.wordpress.com/>
http://ctstopindefinitedetention.wordpress.com/

or  <http://www.facebook.com/StopIndefiniteDetention?fref=ts>
http://www.facebook.com/StopIndefiniteDetention?fref=ts

 Endorsing organizations (in formation):

Bill of Rights Defense Committee; National Coalition to Protect Civil
Freedoms; Project SALAM; New England United; Committee to Stop FBI
Repression; Islamic Circle of North America-New London CT; United National
Anti-war Coalition; Connecticut Green Party; American Friends Service
Committee, Western MA; United Action; National Lawyers Guild--CT; American
Civil Liberties Union-CT; Muslim Student Association of CCSU; Stop the
Raids, Trinity College; We Refuse to Be Enemies; Unidad Latina en Accion;
West Hartford Citizens for Peace and Justice; CT United for Peace; Hartford
Catholic Workers; Latin American Students Organization of CCSU; Connecticut
Coalition for Peace and Justice-Hartford; Middle East Crisis Committee;
Central Connecticut Chapter of Veterans for Peace; Occupy Hartford;
Manchester Peace Coalition; Greater Hartford Coalition on Cuba; Bethlehem
Neighbors for Peace; Greater New Haven Peace Council; Boston United for
Justice with Peace; Reclaiming the Prophetic Voice.

 Initiated by the Connecticut Coalition to Stop Indefinite Detention

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