Workers Resistance

Category: Political prisoners

  • Anti-war leader hails release of Lynne Stewart

    Minneapolis, MN – Jess Sundin, a spokesperson of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression and an anti-war leader, hailed the Dec. 31 release of jailed attorney Lynne Stewart. Sundin stated, “People’s attorney, Lynne Stewart, is a hero who was imprisoned for doing the right thing. She has always stood up for the oppressed and this is why people around the world have been speaking up to demand her freedom. After countless letters, phone calls and protests, we are overjoyed that Lynne’s freedom has finally been won. I am so happy she’s finally home with her family today. May this be the first of many freedoms in 2014.”

    Stewart had been serving a ten-year sentence on bogus ‘material support for terrorism’ charges. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl ordered her let go on the grounds of “compassionate release.” The release order, signed by Judge Koeltl, states that Stewart has less than 18 months to live.

  • Anti-war leader hails release of Lynne Stewart

    Minneapolis, MN – Jess Sundin, a spokesperson of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression and an anti-war leader, hailed the Dec. 31 release of jailed attorney Lynne Stewart. Sundin stated, “People’s attorney, Lynne Stewart, is a hero who was imprisoned for doing the right thing. She has always stood up for the oppressed and this is why people around the world have been speaking up to demand her freedom. After countless letters, phone calls and protests, we are overjoyed that Lynne’s freedom has finally been won. I am so happy she’s finally home with her family today. May this be the first of many freedoms in 2014.”

    Stewart had been serving a ten-year sentence on bogus ‘material support for terrorism’ charges. U.S. District Judge John Koeltl ordered her let go on the grounds of “compassionate release.” The release order, signed by Judge Koeltl, states that Stewart has less than 18 months to live.

  • Palestinian activist Rasmea Odeh given Nelson Mandela Award

    Chicago, IL – Despite being the target of a major political attack by the U.S. government, Rasmea Odeh continues to work for the Palestinian people. This is why the 22nd Annual People’s Thanksgiving Dinner, held in Chicago Dec. 8, honored her with the “Nelson Mandela Award: Opposing Israeli Apartheid is not a Crime.” 70 people gathered to recognize her and a number of other important activists. They met at the Trinity Episcopal Church in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, despite an early blizzard that made getting to the church hazardous. In presenting the award, Muhammad Sunkari of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network referred to the late leader of the national liberation movement in South Africa. “When Ted Koppel interviewed him after his release from prison, Mandela defended the ANC’s [African National Congress] ties to the Palestine Liberation Organization. He called the Palestinians, ‘comrades in arms.’ I would say that a great example of a comrade of Mandela is Rasmea Odeh.” In accepting the award, Odeh was in good spirits. She thanked everyone, saying, “I need your support, and we all need each other’s support to stand strong and continue.” The event is held annually by Fight Back! news and Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO). The dinner raised over $3000 for Odeh’s defense campaign, as well as $1000 to help continue the work of Fight Back! news. Another emotional moment in the dinner was an award presented to Pete Camarata. Camarata was a co-founder of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). His award, entitled the “Big Bill Haywood: Class Struggle Award” was presented to him by Richard Berg. Berg, a long time reformer in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), has known Camarata for 25 years. The framed award, reading, “For his lifelong dedication to the liberation of the working class,” was accepted by Camarata’s stepson, Jackson Potter. Potter is the staff coordinator of the Chicago Teachers Union. He explained that Camarata couldn’t attend the dinner because he is fighting cancer. A statement from Camarata read in part, “I thank FRSO for the award, and I accept it with the knowledge that my activism belongs to the movement and the brave people who built TDU, the movement in this country and around the world.” Awards were also presented to Sarah Simmons and Newland Smith, both activists in the Anti-War Committee-Chicago and to Michael Sampson, a Dream Defender from Tallahassee, Florida. Joe Iosbaker of FRSO spoke to the crowd. He noted that last year’s event celebrated the successful defense of Carlos Montes. “Next year, we plan to be back here to celebrate with Rasmea for a victory over this new attack!” Iosbaker put the defense of Odeh in a broader context, including the ongoing investigation of 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists by the U.S. attorney. “Our advances can be quickly taken from us by the likes of Mayor Emmanuel or President Obama or Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas.” Citing the many crimes of the U.S. empire at home and abroad Iosbaker continued, “We in FRSO have come to the conclusion that the existing order of things is unacceptable. For that reason we have decided to build a revolutionary organization.” Summing up, Iosbaker said, “Whenever we celebrate the advances made in the struggles we are part of, FRSO always names the way of life that is better than capitalism – that way of life is called socialism. We know a big change will take a lot of work, but we do think it will happen.”

  • Salt Lake City stands with Rasmea Odeh

    Salt Lake City, UT – On Nov. 13, the October 7th Anti-War Committee hosted a rally joined by Workers World Party and the Revolutionary Students Union to demand the U.S. government drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh. Rasmea Odeh is a Palestinian-American community organizer and international solidarity activist who has held U.S. citizenship for over 20 years. The U.S. government charged Odeh with an immigration violation, alleging she violated the law by not identifying her arrest by the Israeli army more than 40 years ago. The U.S. government is engaging in clear political repression.

    The Committee’s protest brought together people to stand with Rasmea Odeh and received support from numerous people on the street. They held signs in front of Salt Lake’s federal building that read, “Stop FBI repression” and “Support Rasmea Odeh.” Ian de Oliveria of the October 7th Committee said, “Rasema’s story touches a lot of people personally because of her
    struggle as a woman and an immigrant.”

    The October 7th Committee Anti-War Committee has promised to join with activists locally and around the country in support of Rasmea Odeh and demand a stop to political repression.

  • We must support Rasmea Odeh!

    Los Angeles, CA – Rasmea Odeh is a Palestinian American activist who is a target of repression. She was arrested on Oct. 22 by U.S. Homeland Security.

    I am in full support of Rasmea and demand that the charges be dropped. Like me, she is a longtime activist in the immigrant rights movement, a community leader and a supporter of the struggle to free Palestine. She needs our backing and solidarity.

    It was the solidarity of thousands of people that was important to my victory against repression following my arrest of May of 2011, and my year long struggle to stay free and active. It was the mobilizing with protests, call-in days, petitions, letters of support and packing the courtroom during the legal proceedings against me that led to our win against the state.

    Each case is different but what is the same is the repressive state is using the police and courts to try to stop our struggle for Chicano or Palestinian self-determination.

    We cannot let this real injustice happen to Rasmea. She has committed her life to making her community a better place. We need to stand with her.

    I call on allies, supporters, organizations and activists in the immigrant rights, anti-war, labor and solidarity movements to show solidarity for Rasmea Odeh. Participate in the various activities and show your support at her Detroit court hearing on Nov. 13. Sign the petition and have your organization send a letter of support. Drop the charges now!

  • ILPS-US Stands in Solidarity with Rasmea Odeh

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the International League of Peoples’ Struggles-U.S.

    The International League of Peoples’ Struggles-US chapter condemns the cowardly arrest of 65 year-old Palestinian leader, Rasmea Yousef Odeh. Odeh, Associate Director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), was arrested at her home by agents from the Department of Homeland Security on October 22, 2013. Odeh was charged with an alleged immigration violation on a decades-old application.

    This latest attack against Odeh, a deeply respected elder and community leader in both the Palestinian and Arab-American communities in Illinois, is part and parcel to the brutal US-Zionist occupation and assault against the Palestinian people (both in Palestine and in the diaspora). Being a Palestinian immigrant Odeh has called many places home but no matter where she lived she always dedicated her life to serving the people.

    Over the last decade her advocacy had a special emphasis on the empowerment of immigrant Arab women in Chicago. Having survived years of persecution and torture as a political prisoner in the hands of the US-Zionist state in occupied Palestine, Odeh shines as a beacon of strength and hope for millions of Palestinians and freedom-loving people around the world who dare to dream and struggle for self-determination.

    The persecution of Rasmea Odeh and other Palestinian activists here shows the hypocrisy of the US administration’s sweet words about peace in the Middle East and recognizing Palestinian self-determination. On the ground in Palestine, the Zionist-Israeli terror forces murder people daily with the weapons they get from the United States. The so-called US budget crisis has interfered with neither the FBI’s attack on free speech and civil liberties of Palestinians and Arab Americans here nor the endless flow of US weapons to the Israeli apartheid state.

    This arrest is part of the on-going political witch hunt targeting all peoples standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and other oppressed peoples around the world fighting for self-determination. Just like the US government’s coordinated FBI-raids targeting 23 international solidarity activists in 2010, her arrest and persecution is nothing less than a violation of civil, political and human rights. It is also a maneuver intended to silence activism and pre-empt people from seeking justice.

    In both situations, the US-government criminalizes both our inalienable and collective human right to self-determination and international covenants that guarantee civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The right to self-determination is a fundamental right, enshrined in both the United Nation Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The ILPS-US recognizes that is not merely a right, but a necessity, that peoples assert their collective rights to wage struggles for self-determination and national liberation in order to defeat free themselves from oppression by imperialist-backed and-financed tyranny.

    The ILPS-US recognizes that one of our most powerful actions against political repression in the United States is solidarity. Solidarity that is seen and heard in the streets. We stand in solidarity with just struggles for peace and freedom around the world, and we stand in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh.

    ILPS-US calls on all its member organizations and allies to defend Rasmea Odeh.
    The ILPS-US stands in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh and demands that the charges be dropped immediately!

    The ILPS-US supports the call to action of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression for mass mobilizations on November 1.

    Hands Off Rasmea Odeh and all Palestinian activists!

    Drop the Charges Against Rasmea Odeh Now!

    End All US Aid to the Racist State if Israel!

    Stop the Repression against all activists!

  • Drop the Charges against Rasmea Odeh

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 23 statement from the Arab American Action Network. We urge all our readers to participate in the national call in day.

    Statement from the Arab American Action Network

    The Arab American Action Network (AAAN) condemns the politically-motivated arrest and indictment of Rasmea Yousef Odeh, our beloved Associate Director. The sixty-five year old was arrested at her home yesterday by agents from the Department of Homeland Security, alleging an immigration violation on a 20-year-old application. Rasmea, who has made it her life’s work to serve and help empower Palestinian and Arab families, is the victim of another witch-hunt by our federal law enforcement agencies, which continue to violate the civil rights of Arabs and Muslims with impunity, particularly those who are critical of U.S. support for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.

    Rasmea is a leading member of Chicago’s Arab and Muslim communities, and her decade of service here has changed the lives of thousands of people, particularly disenfranchised Arab women and their families. She has been with the AAAN since 2004, and as Associate Director, is responsible for the management of day-to-day operations and the coordination of our Arab Women’s Committee, which has a membership of close to 600 and leads our work in the areas of defending civil liberties and immigrant rights. She is a mentor to hundreds of immigrant women, as well as many members of our staff and board, and is a well-known and respected organizer throughout Chicagoland, the U.S., and the world.

    Earlier this year, Rasmea received the “Outstanding Community Leader Award” from the Chicago Cultural Alliance, which described her as a woman who has “dedicated over 40 years of her life to the empowerment of Arab women, first in her homes of Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon, where she was an activist and practicing attorney, and then the past 10 years in Chicago.”

    Rasmea is a community icon who recently completed a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Governors State University. She overcame vicious torture by Israeli authorities while imprisoned in Palestine in the 70s, and is a proud reminder of the millions of Palestinians who have not given up organizing for their rights of liberation, equality, and return.

    It is appalling that our government is now attempting to imprison her once again. We condemn this attack on our friend and colleague Rasmea, as well as the broader pattern of persecuting Arabs and Muslims who are outstanding and outspoken leaders in their communities in the U.S.

    We ask all of our supporters to call Barbara McQuade, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, at 313.226.9501 or 313.226.9100, on Friday, October 25th, from 8 AM to 4 PM CST, to demand that she Drop the Charges Now!

    We will also be mobilizing to support Rasmea at her next hearing in Detroit on November 1st. Details coming soon.

    And for more information, email the Coalition to Protect People’s Rights at cppr@aaan.org

  • Outrageous arrest of Palestinian activist in Chicago

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following important statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR). We urge all of our readers to share this statement as broadly as possible.

    Outrageous arrest in Chicago
    Stop the repression of Palestinian activists

    A Palestinian woman, Rasmieh Odeh, was arrested at her home this morning, Oct. 22, by agents of the Department of Homeland Security.

    She is charged with immigration fraud. Allegedly, in her application for citizenship, she didn’t mention that she was arrested in Palestine 45 years ago by an Israeli military court that detains Palestinians without charge – a court that has over 200 children in prison today and does not recognize the rights of Palestinians to due process.

    The arrest today appears to be related to the case of the 23 anti-war activists subpoenaed to a grand jury in 2010. Well-known labor, community and international solidarity activists around the Midwest had their homes raided by the FBI when the U.S. attorney alleged that they had provided material support to foreign terrorist organizations in Palestine and Colombia.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas is leading the investigation against the 23. He was at the courtroom in Chicago this morning, consulting with the assistant U.S. attorney who was presenting the indictment to the judge. Jonas was also the prosecutor in the case of the Holy Land Five, the heads of the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. before 9/11. He was successful in getting prison sentences for as long as 65 years for the five men, who provided charity to children in Gaza.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) denounces this attack as another example of the continuing repression of Palestinians and people who stand in solidarity with them. Homeland Security, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s office now are carrying out enforcement of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

    Odeh will appear in court in Detroit on Nov. 1, where she will be represented by Jim Fennerty of the National Lawyers Guild. CSFR urges people to attend the proceedings at the Federal Court in Detroit in her defense.

    Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR)
    http://www.stopfbi.net/

  • Outrageous arrest of Palestinian activist in Chicago

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following important statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR). We urge all of our readers to share this statement as broadly as possible.

    Outrageous arrest in Chicago
    Stop the repression of Palestinian activists

    A Palestinian woman, Rasmieh Odeh, was arrested at her home this morning, Oct. 22, by agents of the Department of Homeland Security.

    She is charged with immigration fraud. Allegedly, in her application for citizenship, she didn’t mention that she was arrested in Palestine 45 years ago by an Israeli military court that detains Palestinians without charge – a court that has over 200 children in prison today and does not recognize the rights of Palestinians to due process.

    The arrest today appears to be related to the case of the 23 anti-war activists subpoenaed to a grand jury in 2010. Well-known labor, community and international solidarity activists around the Midwest had their homes raided by the FBI when the U.S. attorney alleged that they had provided material support to foreign terrorist organizations in Palestine and Colombia.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas is leading the investigation against the 23. He was at the courtroom in Chicago this morning, consulting with the assistant U.S. attorney who was presenting the indictment to the judge. Jonas was also the prosecutor in the case of the Holy Land Five, the heads of the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. before 9/11. He was successful in getting prison sentences for as long as 65 years for the five men, who provided charity to children in Gaza.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) denounces this attack as another example of the continuing repression of Palestinians and people who stand in solidarity with them. Homeland Security, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s office now are carrying out enforcement of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

    Odeh will appear in court in Detroit on Nov. 1, where she will be represented by Jim Fennerty of the National Lawyers Guild. CSFR urges people to attend the proceedings at the Federal Court in Detroit in her defense.

    Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR)
    http://www.stopfbi.net/

  • FBI infiltrator in anti-war movement

    Minneapolis, MN – With the third anniversary of the FBI raids on anti-war and international solidarity activists approaching on Sept. 24, we are reprinting the above photo of “Karen Sullivan” (right) with her associate, “Daniela Cardenas.” These agents are dangerous to progressive activists. If you see them or are in contact with them, make their presence known to others in the peace and justice movements.

    Starting a few months before the protests against the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota, a law enforcement officer going by the name “Karen Sullivan” infiltrated the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee (AWC). She joined the AWC in April 2008 and about a year later she joined the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Her associate “Daniela Cardenas” then appeared on the scene.

    Conversations between attorneys for the raided anti-war and international solidarity activists and the U.S. Attorneys Office in Chicago have confirmed that these professional liars did their best to put a criminal cast on protected political activity.

    These two, along with their higher-ups, are responsible for causing the raids on the homes of anti-war and international solidarity activists in the Twin Cities and Chicago and for the wave of grand jury subpoenas – 23 in all – that were served on progressive activists. Using their lies, the government is attempting to manufacture a case alleging “material support of terrorism.” These two posed as friends and political colleagues, while working full time to destroy progressive and revolutionary organizations.

    All of the activists involved refused to testify in these McCarthyite grand jury proceedings and have continued to build resistance to these attacks on civil liberties.

    On Sept. 24, the Minnesota Committee to Stop FBI Repression will be holding a rally under the slogan, “Three Years Too Many! End the Investigation of Anti-War and International Solidarity Activists Now!” The rally will take place at the Minneapolis Federal Building, 300 South 4th Street, at 4:30 pm.

    In a statement promoting the rally, organizers say, “Since 9/11 national security has been used to justify wars abroad and attacks on civil liberties at home. In September 2010, FBI agents raided the homes and offices of Minneapolis and Chicago peace activists, investigating them for ‘material support for terrorism.’ Demand an end to the bogus investigation and unite against the growing wave of political repression. Stand with the anti-war 23, targeted Arabs and Muslims like the Holy Land 5, jailed people’s attorney Lynne Stewart and whistleblowers Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.”