Author: Fight Back

Minneapolis, MN – A Valentine’s Day protest here called on Hennepin County Sheriff Stanek to stop cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in deporting immigrants via the Hennepin County jail. Protesters gathered at noon outside the jail and then marched to Sheriff Stanek’s office inside City Hall. The protest was organized by MIRAc’s No More Deportations campaign and endorsed by several other organizations.

In the Valentine’s Day spirit, protesters sang songs to the tune of Heartbreaker by Pat Benetar and Don’t Go Breaking My Heart by Elton John and Kiki Dee, with lyrics reworded to make Sheriff Stanek the ‘heartbreaker’ for deporting people and separating families.

Speakers included Jeff Carlson, who spoke of community mobilization in the face of several recent deportations in the Whittier neighborhood of Minneapolis; Eder Alarcon of the No More Deportations campaign who spoke of his ongoing struggle against deportation; David Cruz of Occupy Homes and Katie Hatt, who is running for a Hennepin County Commissioner seat and who expressed her support for stopping deportations.

Protesters left a large Valentine’s Day heart at Sheriff Stanek’s office with messages calling on him to stop breaking our hearts by stopping deportations and the separation of families.

Jacksonville, FL – Protests continue to grow outside the murder trial of Michael Dunn. Dunn is the racist vigilante who shot and killed 17 year old African American youth Jordan Davis for playing loud music. Forty people chanted, “Turn up for Jordan Davis” and “Murder is a crime, Michael Dunn should do the time” outside the Duval County Courthouse on February 14.

Members of the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference are leading the protests.

The atmosphere outside the courthouse was tense as the majority-white jury deliberated on the first-degree murder and attempted murder charges faced by Dunn. Many protesters discussed the disturbing similarities with the George Zimmerman trial, in which the killer of Trayvon Martin received a not-guilty verdict. State Attorney Angela Corey’s office failed in its prosecution of Zimmerman and now their case against Dunn seems shaky.

“The only way we can be counted and heard is to speak up loudly when injustices are happening,” said Estefania Galvis, an organizer with the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition. Galvis was one of the lead organizers of the Justice for Trayvon Martin protests after the Zimmerman verdict in Sanford, FL last year.

Critics of State Attorney Corey point out that she did not charge Dunn with hate crimes, despite letters Dunn wrote from jail that contain explicitly racist messages, referring to young African Americans as “thugs”.

“Michael Dunn has shown a supremacist attitude, not only towards the young African American man he murdered, but also toward the woman in his life,” said Galvis. “He denies that the word ‘thug’ is part of his vocabulary, and calling his partner ’emotionally incapable of remembering’ his mentioning a gun, are examples of his racism and sexism.” Dunn’s fiancé, who was in the car with him when he killed Davis, testified that Dunn never mentioned seeing a gun the entire day after the shooting took place.

After the jury deliberations ended for the day, Jordan Davis’ father, Ron Davis, gave a short statement to the press on the steps of the court. He thanked the media and people of Jacksonville for supporting his family and his son throughout the trial.

Activists outside the trial are holding a press conference at 9:15 am on Saturday, shortly after jury deliberations resume. Courthouse demonstrators will hold vigil throughout the day, and organizers plan a large rally after the verdict. Many are dismayed that the jury is deliberating such a clear-cut case of cold-blooded murder. They are worried the result will be a hung jury, or even worse “not guilty”. Turnout for the Saturday protest is likely to be bigger.

Before the protesters dispersed for the night, Galvis added, “It is important for the people of Jacksonville to come out and demonstrate given the fact that it’s the only way we can truly be represented – by raising our voices and taking a stand for justice for Jordan Davis. We need justice for all Black and other oppressed nationalities that are being imprisoned and murdered every day.”

Rally organizers are asking people on social media websites, like Twitter and Facebook, to show their support using the hashtag, #Justice4Jordan.

During a visit to Capitol Hill, Feb. 3, the leadership of United We Dream (UWD), the largest network of Dreamer (undocumented youth) organizations in the U.S., announced that they might be willing to support the Republican Party’s new “Principles for Immigration Reform,” if it meant that a bill would pass.

No, this does not mean that the Republicans have suddenly changed their colors when it comes to immigration. In fact, the Principles for Immigration Reform that they released last month reveal that the Republicans have not budged an inch from their reactionary stance. In fact, a week later the Republican congressional leadership announced that there is little chance of immigration reform this year.

Congressional Republicans versions of immigration reform stick to the same reactionary policies: the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and a “zero tolerance policy” to anyone attempting to cross in the future; the nationalization of e-verify (employment verification), with the purpose of making it nearly impossible for an undocumented immigrant to find work; the creation of a guest worker program; and a denial of citizenship to the undocumented – unless they arrived as children and complete a complicated and costly process.

Republican immigration reform is not reform at all – it is an overhaul of our system in a way that serves the interests of the wealthy and chokes the interests of undocumented workers. If e-verify were to exist in every workplace in the country, tens of millions of undocumented workers in this country would have to go to incredible extremes simply to put food on the table. The status quo is better than Republican ‘reform.’

There is nothing progressive about Republican plans to force undocumented workers further into the shadows. These are the millions who filled the streets of America’s cities on May Day 2006–the Day Without Latinos. These same workers are fighting workplace raids and play an integral role in the movement for immigrant rights. A guest worker program will only add to the woes of immigrant workers, putting workers and families in the hands of big businesses that only seek to work them for all the labor they can get (at the cheapest costs) before sending them back to their home country.

So why are some student Dreamers voicing cautious support for these principles? It is not because of some rightward swing in the leadership of our movement. Rather, it is a move made from a position of practicality and desperation, and a move only too well understood by many organizers in a movement that has suffered numerous setbacks.

In 2010, the DREAM Act failed by five votes in Congress, never to be resurrected.

Then last year, the Senate immigration reform bill passed – and it contained many of the evils proposed by Republicans, but also offered a path to citizenship for all undocumented immigrants. It died in the House of Representatives.

In response to pressure from the movement, President Obama issued an executive order offering Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) for undocumented youth who meet strict parameters. DACA offers work relief and suspension of deportations for a chunk of the 11 million undocumented. While the DACA is a step forward, we want President Obama to expand this program to include all parents and adults–“Deferred Action for All”. When President Obama signs Deferred Action for All, he will be signing to keep families together and halt their pain and suffering.

While Congress plays political games, 1100 people are deported from the U.S. every day. Since Obama took office in 2009, nearly 2 million families were forced to suffer the traumatic pain of deportation. This reality is nothing short of criminal and creates a cloud of brutal repression over every immigrant community in the country.

Mass deportations are a national tragedy for us; but they are a major victory for the 1%. Looking at it strategically, deportations hold back one of our generation’s most dynamic and militant mass movements from achieving advances in social justice and equality. One cannot argue that the country’s rich and powerful do not benefited from the panic and chaos that these deportations cause. So long as 1100 people are deported daily from the U.S., immigrant communities will continue to live in fear and undocumented workers will fear to demand higher wages. 1100 daily deportations means the immigrant rights movement is stuck in the mud, in a daily struggle to respond to the latest atrocity. Every time the movement tries to take a step forward – the DREAM Act, DACA, elements of CIR [Comprehensive Immigration Reform] – we are hit over the head with the reality that more than a thousand of our people just left us. It is a daily beat down that nags at the hearts and minds of every organizer in the movement.

But we cannot despair, for now is the time to advance our struggle. Deportations need to end, and any attempt made by the movement to halt individual or mass deportations is a worthy fight. Time and time again, the movement performs civil disobediences outside ICE offices and in front of buses filled to the brim with people on their way to the Mexican border. The movement sends organizers into detention centers across the country to organize hunger strikes and gather information on conditions within these privately owned prisons. These actions need to continue and be amped up. Militancy is not simply a tactic anymore – it is a necessity if we are to survive.

With one arm of the movement defending our people, the other arm must advance the struggle locally. The government does not represent our interests, nor do the agendas of the Republicans and the Democrats, both parties of the 1%. We must return to the roots, work from where our communities are at, and lead them to new levels of struggle with clear demands.

Families cannot continue to be separated, so we must make it harder for this to happen. Drivers licenses for all can keep the undocumented a step ahead of the police, ensuring that they will not be deported simply for driving to work or trying to pick up their children from school. Racist discriminatory laws such as SB-1070 in Arizona need to be resisted, turned back, and a stake driven through their heart, never to rise again.

Undocumented workers need to be defended – they deserve the right to work, the right to organize, and the right to live without fear of deportation.

Undocumented college students need in-state tuition, a basic demand for equality. In short, we need to fight for freedom, an immediate freedom that is both liberating and empowering. Whatever can be gained on the local level must be gained without haste.

The Legalization for All Network, one of the newest national networks to emerge in the movement, is growing rapidly as it calls for an end to the militarization of the border, the defense of undocumented workers, and an end to all deportations. Legalization is the basic demand of the masses. It allows those who want citizenship to achieve it, while everyone with residency can live with equality and security. Remember how powerful the 2006 mega-marches were? Let’s make the politicians and Wall Street respond to us. If we as a movement advocate for these positions, and defend them and advance them through the people’s struggles, then we will have firm footing from which we can carry the struggle forward to levels we cannot even imagine today.

Jacksonville, FL – On February 12, the prosecution and defense attorneys in the trial of Michael Dunn made closing arguments. Dunn is the racist vigilante who shot and killed 17 year old African American youth Jordan Davis. The jury began deliberations at 5:02 p.m. and met for several hours before agreeing to reconvene on February 13.

Before the jury ended deliberations for the night, they asked to review a key piece of evidence for the defense: surveillance videotape from the Gate gas station. This is where Dunn fired at least eight shots at a Dodge Durango, killing Davis and wounding three other young passengers. The SUV then drove to get away before Dunn could fire again. The defense alleges that Dunn opened fire on the SUV after he was threatened with a gun. There is no evidence that Davis or the other passengers had a weapon.

Over 20 protesters gathered outside of the Duval County Courthouse starting at 10:00 a.m. demanding ‘Justice for Jordan Davis’. Carrying signs that read, “Will this be another Trayvon?” and “Thou Shalt Not Kill,” the protesters drew a large crowd of people passing by the courthouse. Members from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition, and several labor unions in Jacksonville attended the event. Marching around the courthouse, the crowd chanted, “Turn up your music for Jordan Davis,” a reference to the loud music coming from Davis’ vehicle that Dunn complained about before shooting him.

Everyone outside the courthouse voiced strong concerns for State Attorney Angela Corey’s handling of the trial.

According to protesters, Corey deliberately downplayed Dunn’s long history of racism and his violently anti-Black views expressed in letters he wrote to friends and family from jail. Rather than additional charges for hate crimes, Corey’s office limited it to first-degree murder charges against Dunn. Corey never entered Dunn’s racist letters and rants into evidence for the jury. Many people assembled outside the courthouse fear that Corey’s deliberate negligence in the case weakens the
prosecution and opens opportunities for the defense to make bogus arguments to the jury.

Dunn’s fiancé, who was in the car with him when he killed Davis, testified that Dunn never mentioned seeing a gun the entire day after the shooting took place. Instead, the couple drove to a bed and breakfast suite in St. Augustine and casually ordered a pizza, just hours after killing Davis and injuring the other passengers. Evidence brought out in the trial shows that Dunn did not mention seeing a gun until police questioned him more than a day after the shooting. This strongly suggests that he lied about the entire story to protect himself.

Dunn wrote letters to family members from prison exposing the racist attitudes that led to Davis’ murder. In one letter, he said of African Americans, “The more time I am exposed to these people, the more prejudiced against them I become.” Other letters from Dunn included an open call for genocide, in which he said to his girlfriend, “This may sound a bit radical, but if more people would arm themselves and kill these f—ing idiots when they’re threatening you, eventually they may take the hint and change their behavior.” None of this was introduced by Corey’s prosecution team into evidence or presented to the jury.

Legal analysts and leaders from Jacksonville’s activist community believe the jury will reach a verdict on Thursday, February 13. The trial looks like a horrifying case of deja vu for those outraged at the not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman. Zimmerman is the racist vigilante who murdered Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Protesters say Corey mishandled and botched the prosecution of Zimmerman, including withholding key pieces of evidence from that trial.

Others draw contrast with Corey’s prosecution of Marissa Alexander, the 33-year-old African American mother given 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot above her head to fend off her abusive husband. Corey personally prosecuted Alexander’s case and pursued the highest possible sentence. The jury deliberated Alexander’s case for only 12 minutes before handing down a guilty verdict. An appeals court granted Alexander a re-trial late last year, which is currently scheduled for the summer 2014.

Activists are planning marches, protests, and civil disobedience in the event of a not guilty verdict or a hung jury. People in Jacksonville interested in demanding justice for Jordan Davis are encouraged to come to the courthouse on February 13 at around 10:00 a.m.

Do I remember when I met Pete Camarata? Yeah, I remember. It was in Pittsburgh in the late 1980s before the national convention of our reform caucus, Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). All the Teamster reformers were there.

We were excited because we had just won the right for rank-and-file Teamster members to elect the top national officers of our union. Many TDU leaders were busy trying to build a consensus around Ron Carey’s candidacy for General President of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters (IBT). But Pete Camarata had some tough questions that needed answering before he would support Carey or anyone else.

Pete Camarata was always the guy in the Teamsters with the tough questions. If this guy Carey is really a reformer why isn’t he in TDU? How do we know that he won’t turn into the same as the rest of our so called leaders? He is a UPS [United Parcel Service] guy, what’s he going to do to stop the erosion of the Master Freight Agreement? Is he going to put TDU members on his slate? What about those who have been excluded from leadership like Blacks, Latinos or women? Eventually the questions got answered and in 1991 Ron Carey was elected with Pete’s support, the only reform International President in Teamster history.

Pete always had the tough questions, whether it was in the TDU caucus, his local union or just hanging out. Everyone at the convention knew Pete. How could you not know him? Pete was a founding member and one the co-chairs of TDU. He saw the need for a strong national caucus that could challenge the mob controlled IBT that was selling out its members. And the night before the TDU convention his hotel room was always buzzing with debate.

As a young Teamster I looked up to Pete. In 1976, as the lone reform delegate at the Las Vegas Teamster convention he spoke out against preposterously high salaries for officers. Pete was the lone voice from the convention floor objecting to the election of International President Frank Fitzimmons by unanimous consent. He then went on to remind the delegates of the mob hit on Jimmy Hoffa less than one year earlier. Trying to run him out of Las Vegas, the mob beat him up and left him for dead.

Pete had the courage of ten thousand Teamsters. Unafraid, after the 1976 convention he testified about mob control in the Teamsters before the U.S. Senate. He then ran for president of the IBT at their next convention in 1981.

Like most Teamsters, Pete was a worker. He worked on the dock and then later he drove a truck. He also worked as staff at Teamsters Local 722 and my old Local 743. But unlike most, he could talk to any worker like he grew up next door to them. He was a real leader.

Once I asked Pete if he could talk to some of my coworkers about TDU. The housekeepers and food service workers from the University of Chicago Hospitals, overwhelmingly African American, at first wondered about the big Italian American truck driver from Detroit. But, in no time Pete had them discussing plans for petitions, rallies and other activities to fight their oppression on the job.

Pete was always there when you needed him. He didn’t care what neighborhood or what time of day. If there were workers fighting the boss, Pete wanted to be there.

Peter Camarata was a great friend, but also he inspired me to fight for justice. Pete understood that unions are the organizations of the working class. His life continues to be an example for those who believe in class struggle unionism.

Pete was this year’s recipient of the Big Bill Haywood Award at Fight Back!’s annual People’s Thanksgiving in Chicago.

Richard Berg is the past President of Teamsters Local 743 and currently works as a staff representative for AFSCME Council 31.