Sep 27 2010

The Holder Raids: The Reaction Begins

(11AM EST – promoted by Nightprowlkitty)

I’ve been reading around the Left web for the past couple of hours, and it is heartening to see the quick solidarity toward the Freedom Road Socialist Organization comrades being subjected to police raids and the confiscation of vast quantities of their personal papers, records, mementos, and even money.  

Left activists from across the spectrum are organizing a series of emergency protest rallies around the country over the next few days, using Facebook and other social media to spread the word.  A list of those rallies and various related items on the flip.

Rallies scheduled as of this moment:

Monday 9/27:

Minneapolis, MN – 4:30, FBI Office Monday, 111 Washington Ave. S.

Chicago, IL – 4:30 Fedeeral Building, Federal Plaza.

Kalamazoo, MI – 4:30 Federal Building, 410 W Michigan Ave

Salt Lake City, Utah – 9 AM at Federal Building

Durham, NC – 12 noon Federal Building, 323 E Chapel Hill St

Buffalo, NY- 4:30 pm at FBI Building – Corner of So. Elmwood Ave. & Niagara St.

Gainesville, FL – Monday, 4:30 PM at FBI Building



Tuesday 9/28:

NYC, NY – 4:30 to 6pm Federal Building, 26 Federal Plaza,

Newark, NJ – 5 to 6pm Federal Building Broad Street

Philadelphia, PA – 4:30pm Federal Building, 6th & Market,

Washington DC – 4:30 – 5:30 FBI Building, 935 Pennsylvania Ave NW.

Boston, MA – 5 pm, JFK Federal Building

Detroit, MI – 4:30 pm McNamara Federal Building, Michigan Ave. at Cass

Raleigh, NC – 9 am. Federal Building, 310 New Bern Ave

Asheville, NC – 1 pm Federal Building,

Atlanta, GA – Noon, FBI Building

Los Angeles, CA – 5 pm, Downtown Federal Building, 300 N Los Angeles St

Tucson, AZ – 5 pm Federal Building

Columbus, OH – 5pm Federal Building, 200 N High

Wednesday 9/29:

Albany, NY – 5 to 6 pm Federal Building

_________________________________________________________________________

Here’s the community solidarity statement from the Twin Cities emergency meeting the night of the raids:

Statement of Solidarity with Activists Raided and Subpoenaed on 9/24/10

The raids and grand jury subpoenas against antiwar and international solidarity activists on the morning of Friday, September 24, 2010 are not just an attack on particular activists, but on our movements for social justice as a whole. With a united voice, we condemn this repression; we demand the federal government cease its investigation and withdraw the subpoenas immediately; and we vow to continue our work for true justice.

We reject the allegation that the government’s investigation into our movements is based on “material support for terrorism” in any form. This allegation is particularly ludicrous considering the terror tactics the U.S. government engages in on a daily basis, both globally and domestically. Aimed against valued members of our community, the raids against activists on Friday morning were particularly offensive to us. However, we recognize that they are unexceptional instances of repression when compared to the daily crimes against humanity carried out by U.S. imperialism.

We refuse to let the accusations of a notoriously untruthful, repressive government divide us in any way. Because an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us, we resolve to set any ideological or other political differences aside and respond in solidarity with one another. Our struggle will continue.

_________________________________________________________________________________

The publication that some of those raided are participants in:

http://www.fightbacknews.org/2…

______________________________________________________________________________

“What to do if an agent knocks”:

http://www.ccrjustice.org/if-a…

Statement of a personal acquaintance of the people raided:

I have had the pleasure of knowing these people. Not only do they seem to me to lack the desire to materially support foreign terrorist organizations, but they lack the means to provide what I would consider material support. I suspect most people would consider significant sums of money, weapons, refuge and the like to be material support. We’re talking about a guy who gets his income from cooking part-time at a college pub, a school teacher, some sort of office worker at the U of M and a part-time auto mechanic (maybe apprentice would be a more apt description). These are not exactly people of great means, let alone people with the means to provide what most would consider material support. I don’t think any of them would know where to go to buy a gun. I’ve been to the homes of two of them, and they don’t have a lot of room for out of town guests (ruling out the refuge thing). They mostly help organize little protests where most of the time 20 people showing up is a good turnout. They hold press conferences mostly attended by independent (as opposed to corporate) media types. One serves as an editor for a newspaper with not what most would consider a large readership. They’re good people with good hearts and more tenacity than I’ll ever have. They’re not providing anybody with material support, though. And they’re definitely not a threat to anybody. Once again, though, paranoia needs to be created. Let’s convince people there are dangerous people in their midst. Let’s do everything possible to keep the public’s attention focused on anyone but those who are actually harming them.

http://twincities.indymedia.or…

14 comments

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    • banger on September 27, 2010 at 16:43
    • #

    The Obama agenda is to repress all dissent other than right-wing dissent. Does this tell us something?

    Well it tells us either that Obama has no power over security issues (which is what I believe) or he actively believes it is essential to undermine the radical left through repression and the moderate left through verbal abuse (that’s enough to keep them at bay).

    So what next? There is no constituency in the United States for civil liberties–both the media, the power structure and the majority of Americans want to live in a repressive neo-feudal world. There’s realy no “what’s next” is there. Or is there?

  2. Meteor Blades tells us that Obama is the one thing standing between us and fascism…

  3. to the event in DC tomorrow. Will post footage here.

    • ANKOSS on September 27, 2010 at 18:40
    • #

    Does Obama have to go to Guantanamo and personally execute one of the prisoners before the KOS kids get a clue? Holder’s FBI is now harassing the same antiwar movement that helped elect Obama.

    Have we done nothing more than replace the cult of Bush with the cult of Obama?

  5. … administration is demanding the power to monitor every private communication in any medium, except (so far) in-person face-to-face. Warrants? Charges? Probable cause? Out the window.

    http://www.salon.com/news/opin…

  6. **EMERGENCY SF PROTEST AGAINST FRIDAY’S FBI RAIDS ON ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS IN CHICAGO AND MINNEAPOLIS**

    When: Tuesday, Sept. 28, 5pm

    Where: New Federal Building, 7th & Mission, San Francisco

    Who: Everyone who cares about police repression of nonviolent anti-war activists!

    Why: This is a terrifying moment for activists of all stripes in the U.S. This series of FBI raids – which also included intimidation of activists and issuance of federal grand jury subpoenas in other cities as well – is a clear sign from the Feds that they have every intention of continuing (or even amplifying) the Bush-era police-state tactics. People from all activist communities are at risk from this threat – and we all need to stand together, speaking with a unified voice, to resist it.

    —-from a ‘takedirectaction’ e-mail

  7. all in, no holds barred, in your face, kiss my ass I’m numero uno on a new script that calls for the creation and elimination of dangerous terrorist organizations within the U.S.—Seriously scary Halloween stuff–

    A mental meltdown of desperation? A calculated strategy to

    strengthen the corporate, warrior state?

    IMHO, we’re merely witnessing the age old crisis of ideological incest of royalty: They’ve convinced themselves of their own, delusional reality within an

    exclusive echo chamber. It’s simply madness, a hall of mirrors turnstyle parade in a postmodern political march to nowhere.

    If I wasn’t already way way out of the loop, I’d be caught off guard. Look at recent history, I mean just the last couple hundred years up to today. The same friggin actors popping up like in an arcade game with big grins on their

    faces tempting you to throw balls at them before they duck.

    They stick their tongues out at you and then hope you buy another ticket to try your luck again. Personally, I don’t like crowds anyhow. I’d rather hang out by myself. Yet, we have termites and I don’t like fumigating. The good new is that this madness will pass. Beyond that who the fletcher parkway knows?

    In my old age, I’d rather hang out in my library and doodle.

  8. …of citizens without due process.  Sherwood Ross writes in OEN:

    The travails of Mick Kelly increasingly are being repeated across the U.S. against many others in a variety of unconstitutional ways, according to a review of President Obama’s first 18 months in office by the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU), which fears Obama is “normalizing” some of the egregious practices of predecessor George W. (“The Invader”) Bush. There is a very “real danger,” the ACLU says, Obama “will enshrine permanently within the law policies and practices that were widely considered extreme and unlawful” during the Bush regime. These include denying the very rights of torture victims to bring suit in the U.S. Court, the refusal to release torture photos and refusing to prosecute the torturers, plus keeping secret the records of his predecessor’s policies on rendition, detention and interrogation. Like any odious dictator of the past, Obama claims he can hold 48 Guantanamo detainees indefinitely without charge or trial; and that, like Russia’s Joseph Stalin who had rival Leon Trotsky assassinated in Mexico, he can reach out and kill any of his citizens anywhere in the world without trial.

    Read the whole OEN article

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