Tallahassee, FL – On July 13 Tallahassee community organizers and experts gave presentations at the Mayor's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council at City Hall. The presentation's focus was the demand to transform Tallahassee into an LGBTQ sanctuary city.

The Tallahassee Community Action Committee (TCAC), represented by its president, Delilah Pierre, and communications director, Regina Joseph, led the program.

The presentation was created in response to the anti-LGBTQ policies enacted under Governor Ron DeSantis' administration. These laws include the anti-trans law that forces people to use the bathroom associated with their assigned sex at birth and the ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

TCAC is fighting to make Tallahassee a sanctuary city that provides legal protections and support for LGBTQ individuals. Similar initiatives have already been implemented in cities like Kansas City, Missouri, and West Hollywood, California.

According to one of the presentation slides, “TCAC's campaign centers around a resolution that seeks commitments from various entities, including the City of Tallahassee, Leon County, Leon County Schools, and social service organizations. The primary goal is to establish safeguards that prevent law enforcement agencies and the judiciary from targeting LGBTQ+ individuals based on their identities.”

During the presentation, TCAC expressed concerns about the Tallahassee Police Department. Delilah Pierre stated, “Chief Lawrence Revell attended the Billy Graham Evangelical Conference. This is heinous because of Billy Graham's anti-gay and anti-women stance and his organization's significant contributions to anti-gay and trans causes worldwide.”

Reflecting on the meeting, Regina Joseph seemed satisfied with the advisory council's response, stating that they appeared receptive to TCAC's suggestions and open to making an internal policy recommendation to the mayor.

TCAC plans to actively engage with the Mayor's LGBTQ+ Advisory Council by participating in the council's upcoming meeting on September 21.

Regina Joseph says, “TCAC has already taken initial steps, such as working with a lawyer to draft policy language for the resolution. Additionally, the organization is actively seeking a city commissioner to sponsor the resolution, which would bring them closer to their goal of making Tallahassee an LGBTQ sanctuary city.”

#TallahasseeFL #humanRights

Minneapolis, MN – Nearly 100 cars stretched for over a half mile, honking horns in unison and shouting protest chants from rolled-down windows as they slowly drove through the Cedar-Riverside and Seward neighborhoods on December 12. The occasion was Human Rights Day, with car-caravanning protesters demanding respect for human rights at home and abroad from the U.S. government.

The action was organized by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), which has held annual Human Rights Day events for decades. This year it took place during a dramatic spike in infections of the COVID-19 pandemic. A short-range FM radio broadcast allowed participants to listen to the program and honk along with protest chants from the safety of their cars.

Misty Rowan spoke on behalf of the AWC. “I know that we are all ready to leave 2020 behind, but let’s not pretend that our current predicament is some kind of fluke, or random bad luck. Our leaders are bought and paid for by the 1%, and our communities are left without resources or recourse in the face of injustice. It is up to us, regardless of who is president, to continue to struggle for better conditions for all.”

“The truth is, the U.S. is shit when it comes to human rights,” Rowan continued. “It’s hard to believe that some people can still uphold a version of this country as the ‘leaders of the free world’ when we don’t even have basic health care in this country.”

The car caravan started at May Day Plaza, which one month earlier, on November 4, was the starting point of a large Black Lives Matter protest at which over 646 protesters were kettled by police for hours on Interstate 94 before being mass-arrested.

One of those arrestees, Jae Yates of Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J), connected the mass arrests to the struggle for human rights, demanding charges dropped and “a future where we don’t have to worry about being murdered by police.”

Yates added, “That’s a future where the absolutely insane amount of money spent on kettling us on a highway – that we were already going to leave within five minutes – can go to actual programs that help people. It can go to giving people houses. For free! It’s a human right! People deserve to have homes. People deserve to have healthcare. This shouldn’t be a debate anymore.”

Speakers connected other movement issues to human rights as well. “Climate justice runs through all kinds of different struggles,” said Austin Dewey of the Climate Justice Committee (CJC). “The global climate crisis is an existential threat to us as individuals, as a community, and as a species. Both the Democrats and Republicans want to shift blame for this climate crisis onto anyone and anything but the system that created this mess. Rather than shifting blame, we need to start here at home.”

In addition to AWC, TCC4J and CJC, participating organizations included the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Students for a Democratic Society at UMN, Women Against Military Madness, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and the local Veterans for Peace chapter. Demands included stopping U.S. wars, especially recent U.S. aggression on Iran; an end to U.S. aid to Israel; legalization for all people in the U.S. regardless of immigration status; community control over police, and respect for environmental and treaty rights as human rights.

The AWC will next be holding an online book club discussing The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance by Rashid Khalidi, on January 14, 2021 at 7 p.m.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #humanRights #MinnesotaAntiWarCommittee #TheHundredYearsWarOnPalestineAHistoryOfSettlerColonialConquestAndResistance

The action was organized by the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), which has held annual Human Rights Day events for decades. This year it took place during a dramatic spike in infections of the COVID-19 pandemic. A short-range FM radio broadcast allowed participants to listen to the program and honk along with protest chants from the safety of their cars.

Misty Rowan spoke on behalf of the AWC. “I know that we are all ready to leave 2020 behind, but let’s not pretend that our current predicament is some kind of fluke, or random bad luck. Our leaders are bought and paid for by the 1%, and our communities are left without resources or recourse in the face of injustice. It is up to us, regardless of who is president, to continue to struggle for better conditions for all.”

“The truth is, the U.S. is shit when it comes to human rights,” Rowan continued. “It’s hard to believe that some people can still uphold a version of this country as the ‘leaders of the free world’ when we don’t even have basic health care in this country.”

The car caravan started at May Day Plaza, which one month earlier, on November 4, was the starting point of a large Black Lives Matter protest at which over 646 protesters were kettled by police for hours on Interstate 94 before being mass-arrested.

One of those arrestees, Jae Yates of Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J), connected the mass arrests to the struggle for human rights, demanding charges dropped and “a future where we don’t have to worry about being murdered by police.”

Yates added, “That’s a future where the absolutely insane amount of money spent on kettling us on a highway – that we were already going to leave within five minutes – can go to actual programs that help people. It can go to giving people houses. For free! It’s a human right! People deserve to have homes. People deserve to have healthcare. This shouldn’t be a debate anymore.”

Speakers connected other movement issues to human rights as well. “Climate justice runs through all kinds of different struggles,” said Austin Dewey of the Climate Justice Committee (CJC). “The global climate crisis is an existential threat to us as individuals, as a community, and as a species. Both the Democrats and Republicans want to shift blame for this climate crisis onto anyone and anything but the system that created this mess. Rather than shifting blame, we need to start here at home.”

In addition to AWC, TCC4J and CJC, participating organizations included the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Students for a Democratic Society at UMN, Women Against Military Madness, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and the local Veterans for Peace chapter. Demands included stopping U.S. wars, especially recent U.S. aggression on Iran; an end to U.S. aid to Israel; legalization for all people in the U.S. regardless of immigration status; community control over police, and respect for environmental and treaty rights as human rights.

The AWC will next be holding an online book club discussing The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest and Resistance by Rashid Khalidi, on January 14, 2021 at 7 p.m.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #humanRights #MinnesotaAntiWarCommittee #TheHundredYearsWarOnPalestineAHistoryOfSettlerColonialConquestAndResistance

New York, NY – On April 26, a tour called “Stop the Killings Speaking Tour: The People’s Caravan for Peace and Justice in the Philippines” made a stop in New York City. The tour, hosted by International Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP US) and the MALAYA Movement, exposes the gross human rights violations that occur daily in the Philippines under the U.S.-backed Rodrigo Duterte regime. The tour is comprised of human rights experts and survivors of acts of repression. These speakers will visit seven major U.S. cities from coast to coast.

The evening in a crowded room of over 100 people who were taking pictures with posters of slogans that read, “Stop the killings” and other anti-Duterte signs, followed by speakers from the Philippines, cultural performances and an update on the case of Jerome Succor Aba.

The first speaker from the Philippines was Raymond “Mong” Palatino, a two-term congressman who represents the Kabataan (Youth) Partylist and a political affairs analyst. His presentation covered the rise of Duterte, why his presidency initially seemed positive, and Duterte’s three wars – the wars on drugs, terrorism, and communists. His presentation expertly covered how the war on drugs is connected to the government’s clearing of an area of people that is ripe for development. Palatino finished by saying, “Where there is great injustice, there is always great resistance.”

The next speaker from the Philippines was Fritzi Junance Magbanua, an indigenous educator and administrator at the Mindanao Interfaith Services Inc. (MISIFI). Magbanua touched upon Duterte’s comment that he would bomb Lumad schools. She explained how the regime followed up on that promise and how one of her students was brutally murdered by troops who ‘mistook’ him for one of the rebels. She explained how the resistance grew by students and what they were doing to fight back. A ripple of hushed exclamations were heard throughout the room when she showed a picture of a wooden microscope that the teachers built because their schools didn’t have enough funds.

The evening ended with Bernadette Ellorin, from BAYAN USA and the International League of Peoples’ Struggle, who gave an update on the case of Jerome Succor Aba, a 25-year-old peace activist from Mindanao. Originally, Aba was supposed to join the tour, but when he flew into the San Francisco airport on April 18, he was barred from entry. Regardless of the visa approved by the U.S. government, Aba was interrogated and tortured for 28 hours. He had no access to a lawyer, was given pork to eat, which goes against his religion as a Muslim, and was denied access to the phone. He was ordered to strip down naked and stand in front of an industrial cooling fan, called names, and taunted with a gun and grenade. After the harrowing ordeal, Aba was deported to the Philippines.

The next moves by Aba and his team is to follow up and pursue an avenue to fight back against the horrendous events that transpired. They will continue fighting for justice.

The evening ended with a group picture and the chant, “No justice, no peace! Stop the killings in the Philippines!”

#NewYorkNY #AntiwarMovement #Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #humanRights #Duterte #Asia

Chicago, IL – Maya Arcilla was angry as she opened the protest rally at the Federal Plaza in Chicago. A human rights activist from the Philippines, Jerome Succor Aba, had been held by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and then subject to psychological torture during a 28-hour period inside the San Francisco airport.

Arcilla is the chairperson of AnakBayan Chicago, a progressive Filipino youth organization. She explained to the crowd of 40 what she had learned about the abuses Jerome had suffered. In the 28 hours in which he was not allowed to sleep, he was questioned almost constantly by agents of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They threatened to shoot him; they placed a gun and a hand grenade in the room and left him alone with them; they made him strip naked and questioned him with an industrial fan flowing on him in a cold interrogation room.

At times holding back tears, Arcilla reported that Jerome was asked multiple questions that revealed authorities’ knowledge of details of his family, his education, and his activism in the Philippines. He had secured a visa from the U.S. embassy in the Philippines in order to visit the U.S. He had been invited by a coalition mainly of churches here to speak to them about human rights violations of the indigenous people of Mindanao, the southernmost large island in the Philippines.

Later that evening, in a livestream broadcast from Manila, Jerome identified his main abuser as a DHS agent named Lopez. Lopez repeatedly accused Jerome of being a communist and a terrorist. Jerome was denied anything to eat, but was then offered ham, even though he stated to his torturers that he is a Muslim.

Speakers at the rally included Nataki Rhodes of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Rhodes expressed solidarity with Jerome, and the struggle of the people in the Philippines. She stated, “They’re calling us terrorists, when they’ve built a whole system of terrorism.”

#ChicagoIL #InJusticeSystem #Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #humanRights #PoliticalRepression #Antifascism #Activism #IL

New York, NY – Activists gathered in front of the Philippine Consulate General on Fifth Avenue Dec. 9 to demand that Presidential Advisor on the Peace Process, Jess Dureza, uphold peace and justice in the Philippines.

The protest was called for by International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines (ICHRP) and several organizations attended to stand in solidarity with the Philippines. Groups attending included NYC Students for Justice in Palestine, Committee to Stop FBI Repression, the Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, Anakbayan, and Bayan USA.

The protesters gathered and loudly chanted, “Brick by brick, wall by wall, free the prisoners, free them all!” as people walked past.

A series of speakers communicated the demands of ICHRP. Ana Robelo of NJ Anakbayan listed them, “the release of all political prisoners, to end militarization and counter-insurgency that terrorizes communities and activists defending their rights, and to support the ongoing peace talks between the government Republic of the Philippines and the National Democratic Front to address the root causes of oppression and inequality that resulting in armed conflict in the Philippines.”

Robelo also touched upon Filipino political prisoners and urged listeners to learn from their experience, stating, “Take the example of political prisoners of Gerald Salonga and Guillermo Carano who were released this week, to use our skills and talents to fight fascism and defend our communities.”

Michela Martinazzi from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, made the connection between Rasmea Odeh’s case and the need to fight for political prisoners, “If Israel and the U.S. had gotten their way, Odeh would have been in prison and deported. But we did not rest! We packed the courtrooms and we rallied in solidarity! And today she's facing retrial after a successful appeals process. The truth is that when the empire strikes against us it reveals their fear of the people. It reveals the terror of our power. That's why we must demand the release of all political prisoners, because as long as we keep taking the streets and tearing down imperialism, the state will keep trying to push us down.”

After the speeches, the protesters were invited to speak to the Presidential Advisor Dureza and waited for an hour before finally being able to meet with him and his delegation. The protesters asked him what the future plans were and if he was able to at least ensure some of their demands, but Dureza kept giving contradictory answers.

However, the protesters will continue to demand justice, the freedom of all political prisoners and that the peace process be seen all the way through.

#NewYorkNY #AntiwarMovement #Philippines #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #humanRights #PoliticalRepression #Peace

Iligan City, Mindanao, Philippines – Starting July 16, there will be hundreds of activists from the U.S., Canada, Europe and around the world in the Philippines in a show of international solidarity. Organized by the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines, this is taking place as developments in the international and national economy have seen a rising level of attacks on Filipino working people and the environment. There is also a growing level of imperialist intervention in the Philippines as the U.S. steps up its war preparations in the Pacific.

The solidarity mission will spread out across the country to visit areas where indigenous peoples such as the Lumad and the Subanen are standing up to multinational mining companies. Then they will gather in Davao City in Mindanao for a conference on human rights, the second one being held here in recent years.

Among the organizers, there is a definite sense of accomplishment as the U.S. contingent expanded from 80 to 114 people in the last weeks of preparation. This growth in solidarity efforts is in response to the growing level of violence faced by Filipino peasants, the Muslim people of Mindanao, as well as the indigenous communities here. The most recent example of repression was the massacre of starving farmers in the city of Kidapawan in Mindanao on April 1.

Large scale mining: A known evil

There is a broad level of awareness of the ongoing crises in the country. For example, on the topic of imperialist globalization, Iligan City was a bustling success story 30 years ago, and now has seen the closing of its major steel mill and a general decline in the economy under the impact of the free market, neoliberal policies of successive governments in Manila. Locals express their anger that the National Steel company, in which they took pride, was bought by a Malaysian steel company and then closed.

The economic policies associated with ‘free trade’ deals like the Trans Pacific Partnership also bring with them the rising level of human rights abuses, damage to the environment and violations of the rights of indigenous peoples.

A local businessman named Jowe told a story that revealed that large scale mining in Mindanao is already a social question here. “A Catholic priest in Zamboanga [in southern Mindanao] was asked to bless the funeral of a man involved in mining. The priest refused because of the terrible effects against the people by the mining companies such as the Canadian corporation, Toronto Ventures Incorporated. This was unexpected, but the real surprise came next. The dead man’s family then appealed to the bishop, with whom they had some influence, but he, too refused to intervene because of the controversy.”

#IliganCityMindanao #Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #humanRights #JoeIsobaker #Mining #Asia

Minneapolis, MN – On Oct. 2 through Oct. 4, the U.S. government will be put on trial for “malfeasance in Indian Country,” according to a statement released at a press conference Sept. 4. Witnesses are being subpoenaed to appear in Oneida, Wisconsin for the three-day tribunal entitled “The Leonard Peltier International Tribunal on the Abuse of Indigenous Human Rights.”

After three days of testimony, a panel of judges will rule on the conduct of the U.S. around the case of Leonard Peltier in particular and about the oppression meted out by the government to Native peoples in general. Organizers are exploring, bringing the findings of the tribunal to the World Court in the Netherlands after the tribunal.

“The Leonard Peltier International Tribunal on the Abuse of Indigenous Human Rights will tell our stories with a focus on the last 40 years,” said Dorothy Ninham – a former Oneida Nation judge and founder and director of Wind Chases the Sun.

Leaders from many Native struggles will be there to witness about “fishing rights, the sterilization of Indigenous women, extreme poverty, theft of tribes' natural resources, environmental issues and their impact on Indian reservations, the horrific rate of suicides among Native children, and the wrongful conviction of Leonard Peltier (specifically the events that led up to the June 26, 1975, incident at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and the effects on survivors of this period),” the organizers state.

It has been nearly 40 years since the uprising at Pine Ridge in South Dakota. Leonard Peltier, a leading member of the American Indian Movement, was unjustly convicted of killing two FBI agents in a battle that took place there. Amnesty International and many international figures have denounced Peltier’s two life sentences as a gross miscarriage of justice.

“This isn’t just about one day in Pine Ridge. It’s a culmination of everything that has been done to that led up the Indian people saying we won’t take it anymore,” said Ninham.

“We will show overall government policies that affected our people and the American Indian Movement,” said Clyde Bellecourt, of the American Indian Movement Grand Governing Council. Other speakers at the Sept. 4 press conference included Bill Means of AIM and Gina Buentostro of Wind Chases the Sun.

The Leonard Peltier International Tribunal on the Abuse of Indigenous Human Rights will take place Oct. 2 – 4, at the Radisson Hotel and Conference center near Green Bay, Wisconsin. The public is encouraged to attend to learn about the last 40 years of the fight backs in Indian Country against U.S. government repression.

#MinneapolisMN #IndigenousPeoples #humanRights #PoliticalPrisoner #AmericanIndianMovement #FBIRepression #LeonardPeltier #WindChasesTheSun

On Mar. 9, the five Cubans – Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, René González, and Fernando González – unjustly imprisoned in various federal prisons across the United States on charges of terrorism and espionage, challenged the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva to break the wall of silence that surrounds their case.

“It has been a year since, in this forum dedicated to the defense of human rights, we denounced the attack perpetrated against ourselves and our families, by a government who will not forgive the fact that we would protect our own people from the terrorism which such government and allies have subjected us for 46 years,” stated the letter read on behalf of the Cuban Five by Olga Salanueva, wife of René González.

Although no evidence of espionage was introduced at the trial held in Miami, the Cuban Five were given sentences ranging from 15 years to two life terms for defending their country from terrorist acts by right-wing groups of Cubans based in the United States. The 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta has not yet made a decision regarding the appeal presented by the defense in March of last year for a change of venue and a new trial. In the meantime, the Cuban Five and their families continue being, “victims and hostages of the injustices of the great empire,” according to Salanueva. For the past seven years, the U.S. government has denied visas to travel to the United States to Adriana Pérez O’Connor, wife of Gerado Hernández. Five-year old Ivette González – a U.S. citizen and the daughter of René González and Salanueva, was also denied a visa. The denial is based on ‘national security grounds.’

In contrast to the silence in mainstream U.S. media, the case of the Cuban Five continues receiving support from a total of 242 committees for their liberation in 80 countries. Prominent intellectuals and activists such as James Petras have proposed that the Five be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize because they, “risked their freedom for the principles of the United Nations Charter, the right of a country to self-determination, the right of the people to decide their own form of government, and the universal right to defend themselves against external aggressors who want to impose their government by force and terror.”

For more information about the case of the Cuban Five visit www.antiterroristas.cu and www.ain.cubaweb.cu

#Cuba #PoliticalPrisoners #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #humanRights #Miami5 #Cuban5

Concerned and disappointed that Martin Luther King’s dream is far from realized, the People’s March for Peace, Equality, Jobs and Justice will draw connections between the funds and resources being used to conduct a war abroad and the problems in our communities here at home. The Coalition will demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq – as a vital first step toward ending the war on our communities – and redirecting war funds to programs that address human needs.

“Everyone who wants peace in Iraq and social and economic justice at home should participate in this march on August 25 in Newark,” said Lawrence Hamm, chairman of the People’s Organization for Progress, a member group of the Peace and Justice Coalition.

The People’s March will start off from Lincoln Park at Broad Street at noon, march down Broad and return to Lincoln Park for a peace and justice festival. Organizers chose Newark as the center of this national march to draw attention to the impact of the war in Iraq on cities here at home and to help make visible the anti-war opposition most strongly felt in the African-American community ever since the war began. The march will show what happens when people take the initiative to make changes by organizing in their own communities. Organizers also note that the march marks the second anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe and the 40th anniversary of the 1967 Newark rebellion, “A major event in the struggle for racial justice…[which] helps to highlight the needs of our cities and the need for local organizing.”

After two well-received events – a conference that attracted 600 people from 115 different organizations and a major rally in March, on the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq – the multi-issue, multi-racial group formed in January of this year issued a call to join the People’s March for Peace, Equality, Jobs and Justice.

At the March 24, rally, Newark resident and Gold Star Parent James Kelly spoke about what it was like to lose his stepson, Staff Sergeant. Clarence Floyd, Jr., to the war in Iraq. A grief-stricken and angry Mr. Kelly noted that Floyd signed up after not being able to find a job to support his family, despite being a National Guard veteran. Decrying the circumstances that led to his stepson’s death, Kelly told the crowd of 400, “We are all prisoners of this war…and I’m tired of being collateral damage!”

In what organizers call a historic document because of its ability to outline a peace and justice agenda similar to the seven-point plan advocated for by Dr. King in 1963, the coalition urges groups nationally to converge on Newark to march for peace, human rights, equality, jobs, racial, social and environmental justice, an end to violence and justice for Katrina survivors.

More information on the coalition and the march is available by calling 801-457-4998, e-mailing or visiting the group’s web site: www.peaceandjusticecoalition.org.

#NewarkNJ #AntiwarMovement #News #Iraq #humanRights #GoldStarFamily #racialJustice #justiceForKatrinaSurvivors

Senior Ben Zabel explained what happened, “We chose to put on an informative display concerning the human rights abuses taking place in Guantanamo Bay. The main feature of the demonstration was me dressing up as a Guantanamo Bay prisoner in the schools cafeteria. Midway through the demonstration, Jefferson’s principal, Mr. Hill, demanded that we stop the demonstration immediately. I refused and was suspended for insubordination. This is an abuse of the school’s administrative authority and this is a blatant example of censorship of political dissent.”

Zabel asked principal Hill to discuss the issue in front of the other Youth Against War and Racism students and to have a public dialogue about what their rights to speech are at school, instead of having a private discussion in Hill’s office. Another student, senior Nick Groenke, photographed Zabel and Hill’s interaction and the guerrilla theatre. Principal Hill demanded Groenke’s BlackBerry. Hill threatened that if Groenke refused to turn over his BlackBerry he would be suspended. After Groenke gave the BlackBerry to the principal, the principal erased the photographs.

“This is just another incident in the administration’s ongoing campaign of intimidation, but we won’t be silenced. We have the right to talk about and organize against human rights abuses and the war on Iraq,” explained Groenke. Students have repeatedly been threatened with suspension for their efforts to pass out flyers and to organize participation in several city-wide walk outs. This is the first actual suspension of a Jefferson YAWR activist for organizing efforts.

#BloomingtonMN #AntiwarMovement #News #Cuba #Iraq #GuantanamoBay #humanRights #torture