San Jose, CA – More than 30 people gathered at the First Unitarian Church here, June 27, to participate in the Legalization for All Network (L4A Network) workshop. The workshop was one of many that took place at the U.S. Social Forum.

Before the workshop, members of the L4A Network attended a solidarity rally for Driscoll's berries farmworker strikers. Holding signs and chanting in front of the Costco store in San Jose, over 40 activists pushed Costco to meet the demands of the farmworkers. The demands include: stopping the abuse against workers, higher wages and legal benefits. A group of five protesters brought out Costco membership cards and notified the Costco staff they would be destroying their cards if Costco's management did not address the farmworkers’ demands.

“The cops at this point, walked in and attempted to intimidate us. But in the end, the list of demands from the Driscoll's berries farmworkers was received by the management of the store,” said Patrick Morales, a longtime activist is from Arizona.

After the rally, the L4A Network began setting up inside of the First Unitarian Church. In the audience were activists, teachers, students and community members from around the country.

One of the presenters at the Legalization for All Network workshop titled, “Perspectives on the Immigrant Rights Movement” was Maria Belen Sisa of Phoenix, Arizona. Sisa talked about the work she is doing with her organization, the Arizona Dream Act Coalition (ADAC).

“It was great to be able to share with others, not only the injustices we face in Arizona, but reach everyone on a more personal level through my own story, the risks we are willing to take, and how having to fight for basic rights – like education and drivers licenses continues to be an source of insecurity in our lives. Overall, I hope everyone was left with inspiration to keep fighting because the battle does not end here for immigrant liberation,” said Sisa.

The other two presenters were Masao Suzuki, who is an economics professor at Skyline College and Sol Márquez, who is from Tampa, Florida, a member of Raíces en Tampa and Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

“I felt really inspired by seeing the work that FRSO has been doing. I wanted to bring it home and apply it to the groups that I'm part of,” said Adrian Romero, who traveled from Salt Lake City, Utah and who is a member of Revolutionary Students Union and Familia: TQLM/Stand For Queer Lives.

#SanJoseCA #immigrantRights #USSocialForumUSSF #legalizationForAll #LegalizationForAllNetwork

San Jose , CA – The U.S. Social Forum begins today, June 24, here in San Jose with a concurrent site in Philadelphia. The event is bringing together many different sections of the people’s movement under the slogan “Another World is Possible, Another System is Necessary.”

Steff Yorek, a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization states, “I am excited to be traveling to San Jose for the U.S. Social Forum to participate in a Peoples Movement Assembly on Political Repression with the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, Carlos Montes, Lara Kiswani and Scott Braley on how we come together to oppose and resist political attacks on our movement.”

The assembly, called “From East L.A. to Palestine, Solidarity is Not a Crime,” is sponsored by Freedom Road Socialist Organization and starts 6:00 p.m. on June 26 in Engineering 189, at San Jose State University.

Yorek is one of the anti-war and international solidarity activists raided by the FBI in late 2010. She refused to testify before a grand jury investigating material support for terrorism.

Immigrant rights activist Masao Suzuki will also be attending the Social Forum and he encourages people to attend the workshop called “Legalization for All: Perspectives on the Immigrant Rights Movement.”

Sponsored by the Legalization for All Network, that workshop will happen on June 27 at 1:00 p.m., at First Unitarian Church of San Jose, 160 North 3rd Street.

#SanJoseCA #ImmigrantRights #USSocialForumUSSF #PoliticalRepression

Ahmad Sa'adat – Letter to the US Social Forum

June 2010

Ramon Prison – Isolation Section

To the US Social Forum:

I greet you from inside the walls of the prisons of the occupation, with the voice of thousands of Palestinian and Arab political prisoners. On behalf of the Palestinian prisoners' movement, the Palestinian national movement, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, I carry our salutes to the US Social Forum, this coming together of movements of oppressed peoples to organize and stand together against racism, colonialism, oppression and imperialism.

The Palestinian struggle for national liberation is part and parcel of the international movement of peoples for national liberation, international racial and economic justice, and an end to occupation, colonialism and imperialism. We salute all of the oppressed groups, nations and communities who have come together to build this social forum, including our sisters and brothers in the Palestinian and Arab community in the US and the indigenous peoples of the Americas on whose land the US empire of today was built, and who have remained a constant presence of resistance for over 400 years.

As we struggle to end apartheid, racism and occupation in Palestine, we recognize that we face not only the enemy immediately before us – Israel – but the full force and muscle of the U.S. government behind it. We view the US Social Forum as an expression of the popular movements inside the United States, working inside the empire to achieve justice for all, and join our hands in solidarity with yours. Our struggle is your struggle, and your struggle is ours.

The power of the U.S. empire in a unipolar world is being shaken by resistance and popular movements, from those inside the U.S., to the rising strength of the Left in Latin America, in Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua and elsewhere, to the development of alternative and regional powers around the world who are forming a strong counterweight to the empire. It is a necessity that the US empire and the unipolar world upon which it thrives is upended, and we greet the USSF's commitment that “another U.S. is necessary” with resounding agreement and solidarity.

A global front of the Left, of popular movements, of those who struggle for liberation and against imperialism and oppression, is necessary today, and the US Social Forum – and the entire Social Forum movement – is integral in building that global Left Front.

As you know, our struggle in Palestine is deeply linked to the struggle in the United States. There are two camps – the camp of empire and its allies, headed by the U.S. and Israel and, in our region, the complicit Arab regimes, and the camp of resistance. We see you as part of the resistance camp. The U.S. government is responsible for the Israeli crimes against our people – the thousands of political prisoners behind bars, the millions of refugees prohibited from returning home, the ethnic cleansing and home demolitions, the ongoing occupation, the apartheid wall tearing through our land, the apartheid and entrenched racism. For over 62 years, the U.S. government has been the sponsor of the racist Israeli state.

Today it is more critical than ever that you escalate your campaigns in solidarity with Palestine, that you internationally isolate Israel and all of its products, that you make it clear that the people of the United States stand alongside the people of Palestine to achieve our full national and human rights – to self determination, return for our refugees, an end to occupation, and national liberation.

We have heard news recently of the massacre of the Freedom Flotilla to Gaza, and that the seas have carried a great message of courage and shouldered a great burden of blood; that the prisons that hold our prisoners of freedom have held the prisoners of freedom of the world; and that the international movement for justice has new martyrs who will inspire us all to struggle in their path of courage, strength, indomitable solidarity and commitment to justice in the face of brutal oppression. Their example is an example to us all, and the Flotilla martyrs, prisoners, organizers and participants are part of the long line of heroes of our Palestinian people's struggle, and all of our global people's struggles for justice and liberation.

Towards a global left front – for socialism, equality, justice and liberation!

We join in your call: Another World is Possible! Another U.S. is Necessary!

Ahmad Sa'adat General Secretary Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

#Palestine #PopularFrontForTheLiberationOfPalestine #USSocialForumUSSF #MiddleEast

The workshop was organized in partnership between Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST). Students told their stories from the historic protests of the March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education, which led to protests in 39 states and on well over 100 campuses around the country.

“The university should be a place for education, not capitalist growth,” said SDS organizer and Milwaukee 16 arrestee Rachel Matteson, “Education is a right for all.”

The workshop led to plans for a new day of action on October 7, where the push for education rights will continue with a new round of national protests. A resolution supporting the October 7 date was adopted unanimously.

Chop from the top! No cuts, no fees, education will be free!

#DetroitMI #USSocialForumUSSF

“Students continue to oppose the violent and unjust occupations of the Middle East,” said Daniel Ginsberg-Jaeckle, member of the SDS Anti-war Working Group. “We have a duty to support those struggling for free and independent nations in Iraq and Afghanistan, without U.S. influence and military bases.”

The workshop pushed for students to link the anti-war struggle with the National Day of Action to Defend Education on October 7, which is also the anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Their main slogan will be, “Fund education, not occupation!”

#DetroitMI #AntiwarMovement #StudentsForADemocraticSocietySDS #USSocialForumUSSF

Detroit, MI – Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) has an exciting presence here at the U.S. Social Forum (USSF). FRSO members from around the country have helped to organize and are participating in workshops. In Cobo Hall, Freedom Road has tables of revolutionary literature, clothing and merchandise.

Stephanie Weiner, who organized the table, says, “We got to have many great conversations in front of the table about what kind of political work people are doing.”

Steff Yorek, political secretary of FRSO remarked, “It’s great to be here at the USSF with so many activists in the social movements, progressives and revolutionaries. It means real opportunities to learn from one another.”

Yorek will be speaking at the workshop “Talkin’ Bout a Revolution” Friday June 25 1:00 pm in Cobo D3-26. Join the discussion with the Los Angeles Labor Community Strategy Center and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization about building social movements and the need for revolution in the U.S.

#DetroitMI #USSocialForumUSSF #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganizationFRSO #LaborCommunityStrategyCenter

Jordan will be among the speakers at Social Forum workshop called “No to U.S. bases in Colombia. No to U.S. intervention” that will held June 24 at Wayne State University, Old Main 1115, at 4841 Cass Ave.

#DetroitMI #Colombia #PoliticalPrisoners #USSocialForumUSSF #InternationalCommitteeInSolidarityWithColombianPoliticalPrisoners

Detroit, MI – Fight Back! interviewed Tom Burke, spokesperson for the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera, at the U.S. Social Forum.

Fight Back!: Tom, can you tell us about Ricardo Palmera and why he is in jail in the U.S.?

Tom Burke: Ricardo Palmera is a Colombian revolutionary imprisoned by the U.S. empire because he is fighting for the freedom for his own country. He has done nothing wrong, only opposed the U.S. war and exploitation in Colombia. He dedicates his life to ending the poverty and misery of peasants and workers.

Professor Palmera was a leading peace negotiator of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People’s Army (FARC-EP). The FARC is the largest and most well-organized revolutionary insurgent group in Latin America. They fight for justice, to end corruption and poverty and for freedom from U.S. domination. They want a new Colombia. The rich people who run the U.S. and Colombia fear Ricardo Palmera and the FARC.

So the U.S. makes a dirty war and directs the Colombian military, backing a corrupt death-squad government, what they call Plan Colombia. Instead of waiting for the pro-government death squads to kill him like they did most of his friends, Palmera joined the FARC. Now the U.S. outrageously treats him as a criminal. There is also a brave woman named Anayibe “Sonia” Valderrama, another FARC leader, who is held in a U.S. prison in Fort Worth, Texas. Their trials were corrupt and unfair. Judge Hogan was forced to step down after the first Palmera trial because he was caught cheating with the prosecutor. These U.S. State Department-sponsored trials were designed to criminalize the Colombian struggle for national liberation. It backfired on them.

Fight Back!: You are the spokesperson for the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera. When did you establish the committee and what is your aim?

Tom Burke: We formed the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera following a Colombia Action Network conference at DePaul University in Chicago, summer of 2005. The conference leaders met and discussed Ricardo Palmera’s extradition and imprisonment by the Bush State Department. There were dozens of activists from the U.S. and Colombia with as many views as there are flowers in Colombia. We decided to organize protests against U.S. extradition of Colombians and U.S. trials of revolutionaries – especially Ricardo Palmera.

The trials are a violation of Colombia’s sovereignty and the U.S. has no right to judge revolutionaries in other countries who are fighting for their freedom, whether it is Colombia, the Philippines or Palestine. There is no court in the U.S. that can deliver justice to a Colombian freedom fighter.

Fight Back!: What makes Palmera so important for the U.S. government? In what way is his imprisonment connected with U.S. national and foreign policies?

Tom Burke: Ricardo Palmera was on a peace mission to meet an envoy of the UN Secretary General when the U.S. intelligence and Colombian agents in Ecuador kidnapped him. In Palmera’s four court cases, the U.S. judges would not allow a UN official to testify. The UN official witnessed a peace negotiation between the Colombian government and the FARC where Ricardo Palmera’s safe passage was agreed to. The U.S. did not want to see a peace process in Colombia, – the White House wanted more war.

While most Colombians and Americans want peace, the wealthy few that rule our countries want more profits and will pursue wars to that end. The U.S. government did not and does not want a peace process in Colombia.

Now under Obama, the U.S. is occupying seven military bases in Colombia. Many Europeans, like many Americans hoped Obama would turn towards peace. That is not what is happening, instead, Obama is escalating the war in Colombia.

Fight Back!: Can you tell us where Ricardo is currently and about his situation and prison sentence?

Tom Burke: Ricardo Palmera is in solitary confinement in the Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado. These prisons are inhuman and designed to break the human spirit. The U.S. government holds him under ‘Special Administrative Measures.’ Ricardo Palmera is not allowed to read the letters we write to him; the press cannot interview him; when he is moved out of his cell he is shackled head to toe and hooked to a machine that will shock him if he moves too quickly. The U.S. government is abusing this Colombian freedom fighter. It is sickening.

We continue demanding the U.S. government release this brave revolutionary and allow him to travel to a country of his choice. We are organizing a petition drive to target Attorney General Holder.

The petition to free Palmera can be found here.

#DetroitMI #Colombia #RicardoPalmera #PoliticalPrisoners #RevolutionaryArmedForcesOfColombiaPeoplesArmyFARCEP #USSocialForumUSSF #Americas