Protesters said the attack was unjustified. “The US has no right to attack a sovereign nation. Especially one that's devastated by years of sanctions, that's in no position to defend itself,” said Progressive Student Organization member, Frannie Christensen. She added that there is no proof that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.

Minneapolis anti-war groups worked with the Iraq Peace Action Coalition (IPAC) to organize protests, meetings, and press conferences during each day of the conflict. The emergency response protest, held Thursday, December 17th, at the downtown Federal Building, turned out 500 people to oppose the US war on Iraq.

On Friday, CISPES (the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) and PSO organized a die-in at the Minneapolis Federal Building, and successfully blocked the public doors for two hours. A sit-in, also on Friday, won a meeting with Senator Paul Wellstone. Saturday, before the last round of bombing, 250 people marched through the Uptown shopping district with banners and chants calling for an end to the war.

For Alan Dale, from the Emergency Committee Against US Intervention in the Persian Gulf, these actions were important, “because this is how you stand up and speak out against these attacks, it strengthens the opposition.” He said, “The anti-war movement made its presence felt, not only in the Twin Cities, but all over the country.”

Christensen, who was one of the 13 protesters arrested at the Federal Building, praised civil disobedience, “We sent a strong message to government officials that we didn't agree with what the government was doing and we weren't going to sit back and let it happen without our protest being heard.” She added, “We were willing to go to jail for it because going to jail for a few hours can't compare to being bombed. And, you have to stand up for what you believe in.”

Protesters frequently criticized the US reasons for launching this attack. Layla Asamurai, from the Minnesota Alliance for Iraqi Children, pointed out that Butler's report cited no new weapons violations by Iraq. In attacking Iraq on flimsy grounds, she says, “The US gave up its rights to ever inspect for weapons. It destroyed the country, and Iraq knew it had nothing to hide. The US lost its credibility.”

According to Alan Dale, “This is all a fight about control of oil profits.” He said, “The US doesn't intervene in the interest of most people, including most people in the US. The US government intervenes in the interest of large multinational corporations.”

Long-time anti-war activists, students, the Arab community, and many concerned community members, workers and activists joined in the protests.

“We see first hand how this government doesn't care about real people,” said Linden Gawboy from the Welfare Rights Committee. “It doesn't take more than two seconds to see what they're doing to the people of Iraq is like the war they're waging on us here. It makes us sick how they kill people and think they can get away with it.”

Stefanie Yorek, who works at the Fairview-University Hospital, said she was there to protest the war because, “They're killing people just like us, for oil profits.”

Students from colleges and high schools all over the Twin Cities played a huge role: Southwest and Hopkins High Schools, the University of Minnesota, Macalester, and many others. “It's really important for students to be aware because it shapes how we'll respond to future world events,” said PSO's Christensen. “We're younger, we're still forming our ideas, and if the youth of today doesn't take action, who will!?”

Protesters believe these mobilizations made a huge impact in the Twin Cities, and will strengthen the movement as events continue to unfold between the US and Iraq.

There appears to be no end to this conflict in sight. President Clinton insists that the sanctions and weapons inspections must continue. Since the December aggression, Iraq has not allowed weapons inspections and has fired on British and American planes attempting to enforce no-fly zones over Iraqi territory.

Organizers say Iraq is correct to defend its rights as a sovereign nation. Alan Dale says, “The no-fly zones are an invention of the US and British governments, and have no basis in any UN resolutions whatsoever.” Frannie Christensen adds, “The US and Britain have no right to impose the no-fly zone on Iraq, and they can't expect their planes not to be shot at, after bombing the country.” They expect the conflict will escalate to another US military assault.

Organizers say the anti-war movement in Minneapolis is still growing stronger, and according to Asamurai, “has a lot of work ahead of it.” IPAC will continue to educate the community, with speakers who've traveled Iraq and public forums with more in-depth information.

In case of another US military attack, Frannie Christensen says, “We're not going to let any time be wasted before responding. We showed there are hundreds ready to act.”

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #News #Iraq #Imperialism #CISPES #IraqPeaceActionCoalition #Bombing

The agreement, negotiated with William Yates, national director of INS services, represents a huge victory for local organizers, whose year-long campaign mobilized thousands of immigrants and their allies. Organizers met with cheers and standing applause when they announced to a crowd of some 500 immigrants and supporters that the INS was finally willing to meet their demands.

According to event organizer, Jesse Huerta of the St. Paul Ecumenical Alliance of Churches (SPEAC), “We've been fighting for over a year and we deserved to have someone come out here and fulfill these demands. We feel positive about this, but we're still fighting discrimination from the INS.”

The February meeting was organized by the Joint Committee on Immigration, a project of Latino churches in St. Paul (SPEAC) and Minneapolis (Interfaith Action).

Last fall, Aljets refused to meet the group's demands, claiming his hands were tied by national INS policies. Working with Senator Paul Wellstone, the Joint Committee brought the national INS to Minnesota to answer community concerns.

INS concessions include: Training an employee at the Bloomington, Minnesota, INS office to speak Spanish; distributing INS forms in public locations; and setting up a national English and Spanish hotline for immigration information. Some of these services will take the INS over a year to implement.

The INS and the Joint Committee were unable to agree on other community demands and will meet again in April. In further negotiations, the Joint Committee will call on the INS to expand its office hours, to make phones available to detained immigrants, and to work with unions to ensure the rights of immigrant workers.

“This meeting is important,” said Jessica Sundin who attended as a member of Twin Cities CISPES (the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador). “After years of attacks on the basic rights of immigrants, Minnesota immigrants have turned the tables and put the INS on the defensive.” CISPES is pressuring Minnesota senators and representatives to roll back federal anti-immigrant laws.

Although the INS agreed to some short-term improvements in service, it has not stepped away from its heavy focus on enforcement. While millions of dollars are spent on deportations and patrolling immigrant communities, Congress and the INS do nothing to ensure that immigrants receive the services they are legally entitled to.

With the INS speeding up its deportation process daily, the Joint Committee is giving voice to complaints from Twin Cities immigrants. They say that the backlog of paperwork, the frustrating lack of Spanish-speaking INS workers and long lines at INS offices make it still harder to obtain and maintain a legal immigration status.

When asked what will come next for the Joint Committee, Jessie Huerta says the fight for immigrants' rights is far from over. “Our campaign is not over with these victories. We're fighting myths about undocumented immigrants. Most of them are tax-payers, hard working and deserve to be paid respect.”

#MinneapolisMN #News #CISPES #immigrantRights

“I feel like a lot of people got our message either in person or from the news coverage. I was inspired by how so many people supported our message! Minnesotans understand how important it is to support immigrant rights!” said march organizer John Till of Twin Cities CISPES, Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador.

Over twenty community organizations endorsed the rally. Jessie Huerta and Alberto Puga from SPEAC (St. Paul Ecumenical Alliance of Churches) spoke about their fight for the local director of the INS, Curtis Aljets, to meet the nine demands of the Latino community. Demands include more Spanish speaking office staff, and a Spanish accessible hotline for families of the detained.

Yee Won Chong from Women Against Military Madness spoke about her own experience as an asylee, and Barb Bordner from the Welfare Rights Committee spoke about her group’s fight for immigrants to receive the government assistance they deserve. Two elected officials also spoke in favor of immigrants’ rights: Karen Clark, a State Legislator, and Jim Niland, a member of the Minneapolis City Council.

Councilman Niland stated that imperialism and colonialism has made many developing countries unlivable. He denounced INS repression against undocumented workers. He spoke out against unjust enforcement of the new laws. He noted that the INS targets Latinos when there have always been people in this country without papers.

The INS responded to the action by claiming that CISPES was leading a “campaign of misinformation.”

Immigrants' Rights Campaign

“We are building an alliance between progressive and immigrant communities here in Minnesota. This alliance will become an important force for change!” said CISPES activist Jessica Sundin.

The Twin Cities has become a hotbed of activism against the INS. Local INS director, Curtis Aljets, has been put on notice that immigrant and non-immigrant communities do not support his agency's actions. The local struggle for immigrants’ rights has included mass meetings lead by SPEAC and Interfaith Action with the INS and the park police.

SPEAC and Interfaith are church based coalitions fighting injustice in INS enforcement. They are campaigning for more information to their community from the INS so that families will be able to call the agency if a loved one has been detained. They have already won several concessions from the INS and are in the process of increasing their pressure. They plan more public meetings this fall.

CISPES has been campaigning this year as well. They have collected over 1100 signatures on a petition to the INS to end its raids and harassment. CISPES also organized the August 8th march and rally to protest increasing raids in Minneapolis, including the raids of public parks this summer.

Immigration in Minnesota

Immigrants come to Minnesota to be with their families and to flee political repression, war, and poverty. CISPES activist Dan Palahniuk points out that immigration policy is politically motivated. “In the 1980s, Congress gave special treatment to immigrants from Cuba and Nicaragua because the US government did not support the governments in place there. At the same time, people from Guatemala and El Salvador were fleeing political violence and civil wars, and had to immigrate illegally. The INS denied legal status because our government supported the dictatorships they fled. We believe that no one is legal and that labeling people illegal doesn’t address why people come to the US,” he said.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has stepped up its deportation efforts in Minnesota. In 1996, Congress gave a mandate to the INS for stricter enforcement and increased funding to the agency. So far in 1998, deportations from Minnesota are four times the numbers in 1992. Minnesota has become number three in the nation for workplace raids. The INS has conducted raids in public parks, apartment buildings, and community centers. The INS has increased the number of people they deport through INS – police cooperation. The police assist in over 80 percent of all deportation cases in Minnesota.

These raids and deportations destroy immigrant communities. Immigrants are afraid to use public spaces and to call the police. Community fear impacts community safety and domestic violence. And parents and children are being separated brutally and suddenly by deportation.

Activists in the Twin Cities pledge to continue organizing. “Only through educating the immigrant community about their rights and educating non-immigrants about their responsibility can we pressure for real change. We are committed to doing that!” said CISPES activist Dan Palahniuk.

#MinneapolisMN #News #CISPES #WAMM

In recent months the U.S. Department of Justice has sent threatening letters to the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), which works in solidarity with grassroots social justice movements and the left in El Salvador. The government is accusing CISPES of being an 'agent of a foreign power' – specifically of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the leftist political party in El Salvador. This echoes the FBI's groundless accusations against CISPES in the 1980s, which led to a seven-year campaign of illegal U.S. government harassment against CISPES that the FBI later had to apologize for.

CISPES works to build solidarity in the U.S. with the Salvadoran popular movement and with the FMLN. CISPES has done this work since 1980, when it was formed at the start of the civil war in El Salvador, during which the FMLN led an armed struggle for liberation against the brutal U.S.-backed right wing Salvadoran military dictatorship.

The following is an interview with Cherrene Horazuk, who was Executive Director of CISPES from 1993 to 2003. She talks about the current government attack on CISPES, the history of such attacks, and some thoughts on why this is happening now.

Fight Back!: What is going on now with the U.S. Department of Justice harassing CISPES?

Cherrene Horazuk: The U.S. Department of Justice sent threatening communications to CISPES in January saying that they thought that CISPES was contracted by the FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) to run the FMLN's electoral campaign and to fundraise for the FMLN presidential campaign in the U.S. There are presidential elections in March 2009 in El Salvador and the FMLN slate of Mauricio Funes and Salvador Sanchez Ceren has a good chance to win. The Department of Justice said they read in the Washington Post and on web pages that the FMLN had contracted CISPES to do this, so they insisted that CISPES turn in all documents relating to a contract with the FMLN or presidential candidate Mauricio Funes. They wanted documentation because they said CISPES would be required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) of 1938.

Of course there is no such documentation because CISPES hasn't signed any contractual agreements or taken orders to do the solidarity work that CISPES does. CISPES organizes solidarity in the U.S. based on shared values with the Salvadoran social justice movement and the FMLN. It's a relationship of solidarity.

Fight Back!: What is the history of FBI and U.S. government harassment of CISPES and of the Latin America solidarity movement? Tell us about what happened with CISPES in the 1980s.

Horazuk: From 1981 to 1987 the FBI carried out one of the largest domestic spying endeavors in recent U.S. history. They investigated more than 100,000 individuals and more than 3000 groups. That included CISPES committees, Central America solidarity groups, church groups, student groups, social justice organizations and anyone that in any way shape or form was speaking out against human rights abuses in El Salvador and Central America. Anyone speaking out in support of grassroots progressive human rights groups and revolutionary organizations was investigated.

I think 52 out of the 59 FBI bureau offices in the U.S. were involved in the investigation. They started the investigation within months of CISPES's founding in 1980. It included surveillance, harassment, intimidation, break-ins to offices and houses. Some people lost their jobs as a result. The worst impact is that some Salvadorans were investigated that were then deported back to El Salvador, and the U.S. government turned their names over to the brutal Salvadoran military and those people were never heard from again.

In 1987 CISPES filed a lawsuit against the FBI because we got some files under the Freedom of Information Act. Congressional hearings were held, and ultimately the FBI was found to have carried out a completely illegal investigation, in which they found no proof of any wrongdoing on CISPES's part. All the wrongdoing was by the FBI in their illegal spying and harassment. As a result the FBI was ordered to cease and desist. That case also led to some law changes that curtailed domestic surveillance, made it harder for the FBI to do spying. Of course that was then later reversed under the Patriot Act. At the end of the lawsuit the FBI actually had to issue a statement saying they were wrong.

Fight Back!: Why was CISPES specifically targeted?

Horazuk: We were the largest solidarity organization in the U.S. We took a clear position against the U.S. government support for the right-wing death squad regime in El Salvador and we stood strongly in solidarity with the people of El Salvador fighting back against that regime. We were supportive not just of the grassroots movement, but also the revolutionary movement and the FMLN. The FMLN was fighting against a brutal right-wing death squad government that was propped up by millions of dollars of U.S. military aid. The right-wing government was shown to be responsible for countless massacres and torture and for the vast majority of the 75,000 deaths during the Salvadoran civil war.

CISPES stands up for the Salvadoran people's right to self-determination, and I think because of that the U.S. government saw the solidarity movement and CISPES particularly as a threat to U.S. policy in Latin America. This was in the early 1980s in the context of newly-elected President Reagan saying he was going to ‘draw the line’ in El Salvador to prevent a revolution there, after the left-wing Sandinistas had just overthrown the pro-U.S. military dictatorship in Nicaragua. The Reagan administration thought El Salvador would be next and were providing millions of dollars a day in military aid to stop a progressive victory in El Salvador.

CISPES organized delegations to El Salvador throughout the war for people from the U.S. to go see for themselves what our government was doing there. Thousands of people from the U.S. went with CISPES to El Salvador during the war and saw what was really going on. President Reagan was saying there were no massacres, no bombings, but people went and talked to survivors of bombings and massacres. People saw that our government was lying, it was a huge learning experience for a whole generation of activists.

In addition, people who went on CISPES delegations also saw that there was a resistance movement fighting back, an alternative. People traveled to the FMLN's liberated territories and saw a different vision of a better society. People came back to the U.S. and rededicated themselves to the fight against injustice and oppression, to the fight for fundamental change in El Salvador and here at home.

This is some of the context of the FBI's harassment of CISPES in the 1980s.

Fight Back!: Why do you think this harassment is happening again now? There's not an armed struggle or a war going on in El Salvador now – why do you think they're interested in CISPES again all the sudden?

Horazuk: I think what the Department of Justice is doing is a clear attempt to intimidate El Salvador and Latin America solidarity activists, who know very well the history of the FBI investigation into CISPES in the 1980s.

There's not an armed struggle in El Salvador right now, but there's a growing wave of left-wing governments in Latin America and a growing wave of support for leftist policies in the region by the people.

The Salvadoran presidential elections are coming up in March 2009 and the FMLN has a good chance of winning. The U.S. did a lot to try to manipulate the last Salvadoran elections in 2004, using scare tactics and misinformation. The U.S. told Salvadoran voters that if the FMLN won then the U.S. would cut off Salvadorans living in the U.S. from sending money back to their families in El Salvador. These 'remittances' that Salvadorans in the U.S. send to their families in El Salvador are the only thing keeping many Salvadoran families from starvation and keep the Salvadoran economy from total collapse. I think this harassment of CISPES is part of the U.S. government trying again to prevent support and visibility in the U.S. for the people's movement in El Salvador.

It's important to understand that the right wing ARENA government in El Salvador isn't just any old government. It is one of the U.S. government's closest allies in Latin America, and does whatever the U.S. government tells it to do. El Salvador is the only country in Latin America that still has troops in Iraq as part of the U.S. occupation forces, even though over 70% of the Salvadoran people oppose their troops being there. El Salvador is used as an experiment for U.S. foreign policy. The implementation of free trade, privatization, dollarization, all these policy initiatives, they use El Salvador as a testing ground.

The U.S. is opening up an international ‘police training school’ called ILEA in El Salvador. ILEA is just like the School of the Americas but for training police forces instead of military forces. The ARENA government maintains El Salvador as a subservient U.S. puppet in the region. The U.S. administration doesn't want to lose that. So they are trying to create a situation where they can guarantee that El Salvador will remain a U.S. ally. They really don't want to see a grassroots popular opposition to that, and they don't want to see a government elected in El Salvador that will put people before profits.

The FMLN is committed to creating a different society. It's a society that does not say that there should be a race to the bottom. Instead it's about making sure people have adequate food, health care, education, housing, that people in the countryside have land to grow crops on, that labor policy would not be to just open more free trade zones and pay people pennies to manufacture good to ship to the U.S. The U.S. government considers it a huge threat for people to see there's an alternative. And people in El Salvador want that alternative.

Fight Back!: What can people do?

Horazuk: I think people should follow closely what's happening in El Salvador. Presidential elections are coming up in March 2009 and the right forces are likely to commit fraud and possible violence to try to hold on to power. The ARENA party is run by the richest people in El Salvador and has been in power 19 years now. The founder of the ARENA party, Roberto D'Aubuisson, is the founder of the death squads in El Salvador and was the mastermind of the assassination in 1980 of Archbishop Romero, which sparked 12 years of civil war. ARENA is not likely to give up power willingly. And unfortunately until now they have been able to count on the full support of the U.S. government.

But the Salvadoran people are ready for a change. In the election itself there will be a need for people to be aware of right-wing fraud and violence and to denounce that. There will be a call for international election observers before and during the elections.

People should do what you can to support CISPES and to support progressive movements in El Salvador. The CISPES website, www.cispes.org, has the latest campaigns and action alerts that you can help with.

Throughout Latin America the people are showing that another model is possible besides the U.S.-imposed model. Those of us here in the U.S. have a responsibility to oppose the oppressive things our government does in our name with our tax dollars in Latin America. And we should also learn from and support those that are fighting back.

#AntiwarMovement #Interview #StateRepression #ElSalvador #Interviews #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #CISPES #FMLN #InternationalSolidarity #Americas

Soto was in El Salvador to help organize container cargo truck drivers, an economic sector that is critical in the free trade model. Truck drivers and port workers in Central America are frequently prevented from organizing unions and have almost no protections for their rights as workers. This keeps wages down, which gives the companies producing and transporting cheap clothing, food and other products from Central America to the U.S. even bigger profits. Every attempt to organize within the trucking sector has been met with mass firings and repression. Soto was in El Salvador to lend his support to an organizing effort by drivers for the Maersk Corporation, one of the largest container cargo companies in the world.

Soto was shot in the back by masked gunmen while he was making a cell phone call on the steps of his mother’s house. Nobody has been apprehended. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters and the AFL-CIO have offered a $75,000 reward for information on the killing. Several days after Soto’s assassination, the offices of CEAL, the Center for the Study of Labor, were ransacked. It’s clear that death-squad elements in El Salvador, who have been largely quiet since the war ended in 1992, believe that they also have a mandate from the U.S. elections: that they can do whatever they deem necessary to ensure the crushing of opposition to pro-corporate economic policies.

However, Francisco Soto has vowed to continue the organizing effort begun by his brother Gilberto. Santiago Flores, director of the progressive FUNDASPAD organization in El Salvador, says that Salvadorans will persist in their own popular struggles and alternatives, while resisting U.S. intervention. Once again, the Salvadoran and U.S. right wing have underestimated the will and resolve of the people in determining their own path forward.

The elites throughout Central America, who are scrambling to destroy popular opposition to their economic policies, are thrilled with the Bush victory. Nowhere was it more blatant than in El Salvador. Just days before the U.S. presidential elections, both major papers published full-page ads calling Bush “a friend of our country” and asking Salvadorans to call family members in the U.S. and urge them to vote for Bush. Salvadorian President Tony Saca called the elections “a victory for democracy and freedom and a defeat for populism” and promised the rapid approval of CAFTA. The Salvadoran ruling class has a friend in the White House for another four years and believe they can once again get away with murder.

#News #ElSalvador #BushAdministration #CISPES #FMLN #Americas