Drop the charges against Carlos Montes!
Fight Back News is circulating the following statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, as Committee member Carlos Montes goes to court Sept. 29.
Drop the charges against Carlos Montes!
Join the national call-in day on September 29 to President Obama at 202-456-1111 and Attorney General Holder at 202-514-2001. Demand: “Drop the charges against Carlos Montes.”
Across the country, activists and defenders of human rights are mobilizing to support Carlos Montes as he appears for a Preliminary hearing at the LA County Superior Courthouse Dept. 56
210 West Temple St. Los Angeles on Thursday, September 29 at 8:00 am. Contact us and let us know how your calls went: [email protected]
On May 17, under the direction of the FBI, LA Sheriffs brandishing automatic weapons broke down Montes’ door at 5:00am and ransacked his home, seizing meeting notes and writings covering over 40 years of activism in the Chicano, immigrant rights, labor and anti-war movements. Carlos Montes is charged with 6 felony counts for weapons possession, threatening 18 years in prison – essentially a life sentence.
Carlos Montes is directly connected to the Midwest 23 through working to organize the mass protest at the 2008 Republican National Convention. Montes’ name appeared on the FBI search warrant for the Anti-War Committee office in Minneapolis one year ago on September 24 during the raids. While under arrest, the FBI attempted to question Carlos about his political activism and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. We demand all charges be dropped and the political repression end now.
Please take the following steps to the support Carlos Montes and the 23 Midwest activists facing FBI repression:
- Sign the national petition supporting Carlos Montes
- Sign the Pledge to Resist FBI and Grand Jury Repression
- Join a local support committee of the CSFR or organize one in your town
- Donate to the legal defense fund
Join us for a national conference in November
We invite you to a one-day conference with the Committee to Stop FBI Repression in Chicago on Saturday, November 5, featuring Carlos Montes, the 23 Midwest anti-war and international solidarity activists and legal and civil liberties experts. Other speakers will include Arabs, Muslims, and other people being targeted by the U.S. government for repression.
People will travel from across the country to attend the conference to discuss how to further build the broad movement opposed to FBI repression of activists.
Our movement is growing: tens of thousands of attended CSFR events and signed our petitions; ten Congressional representatives wrote letters to President Obama and Attorney General Holder; hundreds of organizations issued statements of solidarity, including labor unions representing over 800,000 workers.
Now we need to work to make the movement stronger and end the repression and attacks on the peace and international solidarity movements.
To get involved please visit www.StopFBI.net, write to [email protected] or call 612-379-3585.