Reminder - Action and Call-in day Tues. Oct 19 to stop FBI repression

[annm4peace]

Tuesdays Actions! Please forward widely.

1. NATIONAL call-in day October 19:
Call President Obama at (202)-456-1111 and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at (202)-353-1555
Demand:
**End repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists!
**Return all materials seized in the raid!
**Call off the Grand Jury!

2. Action at Sen. Klobuchar’s Mpls. office Oct. 19
1200 Washington Ave. S., Mpls
Tuesday, October 19
4:00 until 5:00
Delegation to Senator’s office at 4:00
Bannering from 4 til 5pm

3. Call Senator Klobuchar - Oct. 19 though Oct. 22
612-727-5220
Tell her to go public, speak out and
-- Denounce the repression of anti-war and international solidarity activists!
-- Demand that the administration stop the Grand Jury Subpoenas of activists!


More info on National Call-in Day:
The 3rd National Call In Day to stop FBI repression and stand in solidarity with anti-war activists targeted by the September 24 FBI raids and Grand Jury subpoenas is this Tuesday, October 19. This is the third group of activists scheduled to appear at the Grand Jury. All of the activists are refusing to testify, so the Assistant U.S. Attorney Brand Fox has withdrawn the subpoenas thus far. The Grand Jury continues however, and arrests, or subpoenas offering immunity—forcing activists to talk under the threat of imprisonment–are possibilities. We need your support. Please circulate this national call widely.

More info on Klobuchar action:
U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is on the Judiciary Committee. She is a lawyer and a former prosecutor. She knows stomping on free speech is wrong. She should be fighting to change whatever laws these federal goon sqads think they are working under. Why isn’t she denouncing this witch hunt? She hasn’t said a word about the raids. She should be speaking out to stop the harassment of our activists.

--
National: StopFBI.net
MN: mnstopfbi.wordpress.com
Petition: stopfbi.net/sign-the-petition

[leftstreet]

1. K&R

[annm4peace]

2. we need you to call, especially the whitehouse. Obama will be in MN on Saturday

we do plan to protest at the event. They spying, arrests, harassment of peace and social justice activists have got to stop.

Trade Unionists Speak Out Against FBI Attacks on Civil Liberties
Here is what The Trade Unionists, AFSCME, have to say:

By Joe Burns
AFSCME says the recent FBI raids are reminiscent of the1950s McCarthy hearings and other historic First Amendment assaults. U.S. Sen.



Joseph McCarthy is pictured here in 1950, holding a picture of British Prime Minister Clement Richard Attlee making a communist salute. (Photo from AFP/Getty Images)

Important labor groups are speaking out against the recent spate of federal attacks on the civil liberties of U.S. peace and labor activists.

On October 1, 2010, the convention of AFSCME Council 5, representing 46,000 public employees in Minnesota, passed a resolution objecting to recent FBI raids of prominent peace and labor rights activists in Minneapolis and Chicago. On October 14, delegates to the Duluth Central Labor Body (DCLB) unanimously adopted a similar resolution opposing the raids. The Duluth resolution “resolved that the DCLB forward this resolution to Midwest-area labor councils and the AFL-CIO and urge these organizations to similarly condemn FBI and DOJ attempts to intimidate and disrupt grassroots social movements.” Likewise, the San Francisco Central Labor Council delegates meeting voted on September 27 to denounce the raids and “participate in the ongoing movement to defend our civil rights and civil liberties from FBI infringement.”

On September 24, the FBI raided the homes of seven activists, seizing computers, cell phones and documents. The FBI also raided the offices of the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee, seizing their computer containing a database of supporters. The peace movement nationally has roundly condemned the FBI for attempting to silence dissent. In the weeks following the raids, demonstrators protested in dozens of US cities.

The FBI also issued subpoenas requiring the activists to testify before a grand jury in Chicago. Many of those subpoenaed are trade unionists. The AFSCME Council 5 resolution noted that four of the subpoenaed activists were members in good standing of ASCME Council 5. The San Francisco CLC resolution made note that among the Chicago activists subpoenaed was Joe Losbaker, a longtime SEIU chief steward at the University of Illinois Chicago and a stalwart in the Chicago labor solidarity scene.

The FBI raids came the same week the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General criticized the FBI (PDF link) for engaging in surveillance of domestic peace groups, including the pacifist Merton Center. The report found no compelling reason for the FBI infiltrating and conducting surveillance of these domestic groups.

Why this a trade union issue

Both the AFSCME resolution and the San Francisco Central Labor Council noted the importance of trade unionists speaking out on the issue. The AFSCME Council convention expressed

its grave concern that the recent FBI raids are reminiscent of the Palmer Raids of the 1920s, the McCarthy hearings of the 1950’s, and the FBI’s harassment of the civil rights movement, and our grave concern that these raids be the beginning of a new and dangerous assault on the First Amendment rights of every union fighter, international solidarity activist or anti-war campaigner.

From the Industrial Workers of the World’s (IWW) fight for free speech in the 1910s to the major labor-inspired civil liberties court decisions of the 1930s, the labor movement has often been in the forefront of defending the right to speak and protest. Trade unionists understood that without the ability to speak out, union efforts would be crushed. Of necessity, the fight for civil liberties went hand in hand with the fight for workers’ rights.

In 1909, when the city of Spokane, Wash., outlawed speaking on street corners, IWW members, known as Wobblies, put out a call to protect free speech. Hundreds of Wobblies rode the rails into town and filled the jails, forcing city officials to retract the law. In 1914, when a Federal Court seized the homes of 140 union members, intending to auction them off and turn the proceeds over to their former employer, Samuel Gompers asked every member of the AFL to donate an hour’s pay to a fund to buy those homes and return them to their rightful owners.

Many of the key Supreme Court decisions regarding the right to protest grew out of the labor struggles of the 1930s. When the CIO tried to organize unions in Jersey City, New Jersey, the notoriously corrupt mayor, “Boss” Hague, suppressed union meetings and had CIO leafleters arrested. The CIO obtained a federal injunction against Hague, and the case eventually reached the United States Supreme Court. In the landmark decision, Hague v. CIO, the Supreme Court in 1939 upheld the view that parks and streets were public spaces where activity protected by the First Amendment was permissible.

Trade unionists continually faced government repression. During World War I, labor organizers were prosecuted under state “criminal syndicalism” laws, which made it a felony to “advocate damaging an employer’s business.” After the war, the trade union movement was decimated by harassment and raids by the federal government, known as the Palmer raids.

In the late 1940s, the CIO’s campaign to organize workers in the South, “Operation Dixie,” was plagued by local authorities’ harassment and arrest of organizers. Likewise, during the 1950s some of the best labor organizers were hounded by the FBI, fired from their jobs, and driven from the labor movement.

Confronting power and privilege has never been popular in the United States. Anyone who has gone through a bitter strike knows all too well how the courts, the media and the government line up against striking workers. That’s why, as it has historically, the trade union movement must be at the forefront of defending the right to dissent. For more information, please go here or here.

This post has been updated to note the October 14 DCLB resolution adoption.

[annm4peace]

3. Letter to MN Senator Klobuchar from the Minnesota Peace Project

Dear Senator Klobuchar:

On Friday, September 24th, the office of the Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee, and six homes in Chicago and Minneapolis were raided by the FBI. The Anti-War Committee’s database, as well as individuals’ personal computers, cell phones, and political papers were seized in order to investigate alleged “material support for terrorism.” Fourteen anti-war activists have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in Chicago, including members of the Anti-War Committee and the Co-chair of Twin-Cities-based Women Against Military Madness.

These actions appear to have been designed to intimidate the peace community. When MPP met with Joe Campbell on September 28 to express our grave concern about these actions, we were told that Tom Sullivan was working on the matter but that there wasn’t really anything that your office could do at the time. We hope that you and your staff are reconsidering this perspective now that you’ve had time to reflect and further consider the options. We ask you to take the following actions to honor the Constitution and protect law-abiding Americans from FBI over-reach:

1) Propose a revision to the Patriot Act to restore U.S. citizens’ First Amendments rights. The Patriot Act, passed shortly after 9/11, strengthened the 1996 Material Aid to Terrorism Act by adding “advice and assistance” to the previous understanding of material aid such as giving weapons or money to terrorist organizations. The June 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Humanitarian Law Project case allowed this provision to stand. Congress could easily repeal these few words from the Act on the basis that it was never the intent of Congress in 2001 to interfere with First Amendment rights.

2) Call for more comprehensive Church Committee-type hearings in light of the various failures and abusive actions that have been uncovered by Department of Justice IG Glenn Fine since greater legal authorities were given to the FBI after 9/11. Examples include:

* the reckless serving of hundreds of thousands of “national security letters” that contained errors,
* the unlawful post-9/11 detentions of immigrants as terrorist suspects – none of whom were proved to have terrorism connections,
* the high percentage of compliance failure in opening and handling of confidential sources,
* improper targeting of various advocacy groups from 2002 through 2006, and
* the most recent discovery of FBI agents cheating on internal tests regarding their own standards for targeting domestic groups.

Your role on the Senate Judiciary Committee gives you great opportunity and responsibility to protect the Constitution and American Citizens. We will follow-up with Marian Grove and Joe Campbell to learn of your intended course of action.

Best regards,

Omid Mohseni and Roxanne Abbas

MPP Klobuchar Team

[annm4peace]

4. Letter to MN Senator Klobuchar from the Minnesota Peace Project

http://stopfbi.net/

Posted on October 18

Letter to MN Senator Klobuchar from the Minnesota Peace Project

Dear Senator Klobuchar:

On Friday, September 24th, the office of the Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee, and six homes in Chicago and Minneapolis were raided by the FBI. The Anti-War Committee’s database, as well as individuals’ personal computers, cell phones, and political papers were seized in order to investigate alleged “material support for terrorism.” Fourteen anti-war activists have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in Chicago, including members of the Anti-War Committee and the Co-chair of Twin-Cities-based Women Against Military Madness.

These actions appear to have been designed to intimidate the peace community. When MPP met with Joe Campbell on September 28 to express our grave concern about these actions, we were told that Tom Sullivan was working on the matter but that there wasn’t really anything that your office could do at the time. We hope that you and your staff are reconsidering this perspective now that you’ve had time to reflect and further consider the options. We ask you to take the following actions to honor the Constitution and protect law-abiding Americans from FBI over-reach:

1) Propose a revision to the Patriot Act to restore U.S. citizens’ First Amendments rights. The Patriot Act, passed shortly after 9/11, strengthened the 1996 Material Aid to Terrorism Act by adding “advice and assistance” to the previous understanding of material aid such as giving weapons or money to terrorist organizations. The June 2010 Supreme Court decision in the Humanitarian Law Project case allowed this provision to stand. Congress could easily repeal these few words from the Act on the basis that it was never the intent of Congress in 2001 to interfere with First Amendment rights.

2) Call for more comprehensive Church Committee-type hearings in light of the various failures and abusive actions that have been uncovered by Department of Justice IG Glenn Fine since greater legal authorities were given to the FBI after 9/11. Examples include:

* the reckless serving of hundreds of thousands of “national security letters” that contained errors,
* the unlawful post-9/11 detentions of immigrants as terrorist suspects – none of whom were proved to have terrorism connections,
* the high percentage of compliance failure in opening and handling of confidential sources,
* improper targeting of various advocacy groups from 2002 through 2006, and
* the most recent discovery of FBI agents cheating on internal tests regarding their own standards for targeting domestic groups.

Your role on the Senate Judiciary Committee gives you great opportunity and responsibility to protect the Constitution and American Citizens. We will follow-up with Marian Grove and Joe Campbell to learn of your intended course of action.

Best regards,

Omid Mohseni and Roxanne Abbas

MPP Klobuchar Team