Sundin stated, “Against the advice of scientists, he's opening up before infection rates have dropped. Against his own promises, he's opening up when there are still widespread reports of PPE shortages for healthcare workers. Minnesota is still behind with testing, and contact tracing is unheard of. Grimly, the only benchmark the governor has met is expanding the number of ICU beds available for those who get the sickest.

“Governor Walz's decision endangers us all, but especially frontline workers, Black, indigenous and other people of color, our seniors and loved ones with underlying health conditions. His new “Stay Safe MN” order does nothing to guarantee the safety of workers forced to return to work, does nothing to provide childcare for those whose children are studying at home, and nothing to ensure that unemployment benefits get into the hands of those still waiting, nothing to expand access to housing and food and health care. His new order is a do-it-yourself project for working and oppressed peoples, and a plan to ensure the flow of profits to hospitals and malls and others,” Sundin continued.

Sundin concluded, “Workers and unions are already fighting for workplace closures or PPE and other safety precautions. Communities are organizing themselves to get cloth masks and other resources to our neighbors. The governor's plan puts profits before people. Now more than ever, we need to organize together to demand policies that put people first. The Coalition to Advance a People's Agenda is coming together to do just that.”

#MinneapolisMN #Healthcare #JessSundin #GovernorTimWalz #CoalitionToAdvanceAPeoplesAgenda

Minneapolis, MN – The following speech was given by Freedom Road Socialist Organization Twin Cites District Organizer Jess Sundin at a Minneapolis International Women’s Day rally, which was held on March 9.

Comrades and friends,

I’m so happy to be here with you to celebrate this important holiday, our holiday, International Women’s Day. Because it’s not taught in schools, I don’t assume everyone here knows where this holiday comes from, so let’s start there.

It goes back more than 150 years, when the first recorded organized action by working women anywhere in the world took place in New York on March 8, 1857. Hundreds of women in the garment and textile factories staged a strike in protest of low wages, long working hours, inadequate pay, inhumane working conditions and the lack of the right to vote. Many were beaten by police. Two years later, again in March, they formed their own union.

U.S. women continued to struggle for decades for economic and political rights. Marches of 10,000 and 20,000, strikes for months, including women at New York’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Tragedy brought the attention of the world to the struggles of working class women in the U.S. in 1911, when 146 young women either burned to death or died desperately trying to escape the heat and flames by leaping from the ninth floor windows of the factory to the pavement below. The factory’s only fire escape, a flimsy contraption, collapsed under the weight of the fleeing, terrified young women.

Socialists were some of the leading fighters in these struggles the U.S., just as they were in other countries. Inspired by the New York women garment workers’ struggles and the strong role of women socialists, German communist Clara Zetkin proposed designating International Women’s Day at an International Socialist Congress in Copenhagen in 1910. Women delegates from 17 countries unanimously concurred.

And so, more than a hundred years later, here we are.

We have in the White House today, a president that shows no respect for anyone, and open contempt for many, including women. His attacks aren’t from his own imagination, but part of an agenda much bigger and older than his time in politics.

Roe v. Wade was a 1973 Supreme Court decision to protect women’s reproductive rights. With his successful appointment of drunken misogynist Brett Kavanaugh, along with conservative Neil Gorsuch, and dozens of other federal court judges, the door is wide open for rolling back women’s rights 46 years. Civil rights, workers’ rights, native sovereignty, LGBTQ rights, environmental protections and so much more are also up for grabs.

The high court isn’t the only battlefield. The administration has directed its Department of Homeland Security in the outrageous policy of placing immigrants in detention, where many women’s charges of sexual abuse at the hands of their captors are ignored. The Department of Education is trying to undermine the undermine the rights of rape survivors. And the Trump administration is aggressively working to erode transgender rights, many that have only recently been recognized.

Meanwhile, Trump is notorious for speaking of women as sexual objects (the pussy grabbing video), for sexually assaulting women (with 19 accusations), and openly supported buddies like Congressman Roy Moore, accused of molesting and sexually assaulting teenage girls. Not content to fueling a climate of disrespect and misogyny, his Education Department changed Title IX standards to now favor the accused over the victim in college sexual assault cases.

These are just a few examples. We’d be here all week, if we wanted to cite all the ways Trump and company have harmed women since he took office. In considering all of this, keep in mind that the inequality and oppression that falls on women in the Black, Chicano and Latino, Native, Asian and Pacific Islander community’s hits extra hard. Statistics on unemployment, wage disparities, lack of services, or just about anything else that can be measured, bear this out.

The White House, Pentagon, and Wall Street have globalized the attacks on women – creating an empire that is marked by inequality and discrimination. Women are among those hit hardest by imperialism, and that can be seen in the caravans of refugees fleeing the ‘made in the USA’ poverty and violence that has engulfed Central America and so many other places, or in the faces of the families starved by the U.S. and their Saudi allies in Yemen.

What I am describing is an ever-growing storm of attacks by the ruling class of this country. Just like we came in here for shelter from today’s coming snowstorm, our movements are our defense against patriarchy, white supremacy, and the entire capitalist system that keeps us from our liberation as women, as oppressed people, and as the working class.

So let’s talk about the kind of movement are we trying to build.

This day was born out of the struggle of immigrant working women in this country, and now, across the world, millions upon millions of women, including trans women and non-binary people, are leading actions for our freedom and dignity. This day is important, but as you know, it’s not just about one day. International Women’s Day is about building a movement that can change the world we live in.

We could certainly use more Ilhan Omars in Congress, but that alone won’t do it. If you think the ruling class will be talked into change, just look at how she has been attacked, simply for speaking out against U.S. aid to the murderous apartheid government of Israel. What our local congresswoman is doing is helpful – it makes a crack in the monolith. But she is there because for years, Palestinians are fighting for their own liberation there, and because Palestinians here have worked with solidarity and student activists for years to oppose U.S. support for Zionism. And it was an outpouring of support that pushed back condemnations of Omar by the other politicians in Washington.

We know that it is not individual politicians or other leaders that make history. It’s the masses of people in motion, fighting for ourselves and our own freedom, that will make the changes we deserve, the changes we need. I look forward to hearing from the other speakers today talk about the fights they are leading. At the same time, I will be thinking about what it will take to put an end, once and for all, to the system of capitalism that stands in our way.

A woman’s place is not only in the struggle, but at the front of it. And not only in the struggle for today, but the struggle for tomorrow. A woman’s place is in the revolution!

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #InternationalWomensDay #JessSundin #frso #Socialism

New York, New York – Every year in New York, leftists gather for the Left Forum. This year, the Left Forum took place May 20-22 and included several hundred workshops on an array of topics – from Venezuela to the current electoral climate.

Jess Sundin, a longtime member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression spoke on a panel regarding political prisoners called, “What Has Happened to Leftist Theology and What Has This Got to Do With Political Prisoners in the Day of the & 'trumpocalipse’?” and another panel entitled “The Trump/Clinton/Obama Triumpherate?” She was joined by important speakers, such as Lynn Stewart and Pam Africa.

Sundin spoke about her experience facing political repression and the ongoing case of Rasmea Odeh. Odeh is a Palestinian American leader who is challenging her unjust convicted on a trumped-up immigration charge. Sundin stated, “When the government arrested Rasmea, you know their plan was to have her locked up or deported by now. But they failed. We made them fail. And each day that Rasmea is running around free in Chicago, they fail again. And again we turn their repression into a stage, where we stand with Rasmea, waving the Palestinian flag, advancing the struggle for a free Palestine.”

Sundin speaking about Odeh couldn’t have come at a better time. Odeh’s next day in court will be June 13 in Detroit, Michigan. The Committee to Stop FBI Repression has put out a call to action for folks to go to Detroit and stand in solidarity with Odeh. In New York, there will be a rally around that date.

The facebook event for the New York rally is at https://www.facebook.com/events/1047337341987172/

Also at the Left Forum, Freedom Road Socialist Organization had a table that featured books, buttons and pamphlets.

#NewYorkNewYork #AntiwarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #JessSundin #PoliticalPrisoners #politicalRepression #LeftForum #RasmeaOdeh

Minneapolis, MN – About 90 workers, community members and students came together here, April 26, for an enthusiastic celebration of International Workers’ Day. The May Day event was organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

Labor leaders who spoke at the international workers day celebration included Kas Schwerdtfeger, a key figure in Defeat Right to Work in Wisconsin and member of Teamsters Local 344, Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME Local 3800 and Jigme Ugen, executive vice president of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota.

Jess Sundin of Freedom Road Socialist Organization told the crowd that revolution and socialism was needed to eliminate exploitation and oppression, stating, “We are not looking for kinder politicians, bosses and cops, but overthrowing the capitalist system that is organized to oppress and steal from working people. We need a revolution, to get rid of capitalism, and we need to build something new. We need socialism. Socialism is a system that puts power in the hands of working people and our class. Under socialism, no one is skimming profits for private gain, and instead, we all benefit from the work that we all do.”

Sundin also addressed the issue of the repression that has been unleashed against FRSO and others in the anti-war movement, stating, “I want to turn to the question of repression, which has been directly leveled against Freedom Road, and our friends organizing around Colombia and Palestine. Many of you stood by us when the FBI raided my home and several others four-and-a-half years ago, along with the office of the Anti-War Committee. They attempted to manufacture a case against us, claiming we were supporting terrorism – while they dropped tons of explosives over Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and more.” Sundin told the crowd, “We’ve been told the investigation remains ‘ongoing.’”

Sundin recounted battles arising from the FBI raids. “First, there was Chicano leader Carlos Montes, in Los Angeles. They tried to imprison him, but we stopped them.” The crowd cheered.

“Then it was Rasmea Odeh, a long-time Arab and Palestinian community leader. I spent a month in Detroit last fall, and many of you came out for the trial in November and her sentencing in March. Because of our work, Rasmea is at home in Chicago, organizing hundreds of Arab immigrant women today. But the fight is not over. She was convicted of immigration fraud and her continued freedom depends on an appeal. We continue to demand justice for Rasmea, and I invite any of you to join me in Cincinnati for her next court date in September.”

Cherrene Horazuk, the president of AFSCME Local 3800 told the audience, “The big picture is that capitalism is a system that will never work for workers. The work we do every day is merely enriching somebody else. We need to get beyond our narrow struggles and join together as the working class and fight for the world that we want.”

Horazuk went on to say, “I know that when we fight, we don't always win, but if we don't fight, we will always lose.”

Awards of recognition for ongoing fight backs were presented to the Welfare Rights Committee, the One State One License Coalition, and Black Lives Matters-Minneapolis.

The event ended with a children’s program, followed by the singing of The International.

#MinneapolisMN #MayDay #PeoplesStruggles #JessSundin #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #internationalWorkersDay #Socialism

Chicago, IL – Rasmea Odeh, the well-known activist in the Palestinian community of Chicago and target of persecution by the U.S. government, goes on trial Nov. 4.

Charged with immigration fraud, the case against her is based on the grounds that, in her application for citizenship ten years ago, she didn’t mention that she was arrested in Palestine 45 years ago. Her arrest was at the hands of the Israeli defense forces, which had illegally seized Palestinian territory. She was raped and tortured by her captors, and forced to sign a confession to stop the abuse. Then an Israeli military court found her guilty without due process and gave her a life sentence. She was released after ten years in a prisoner exchange.

Why does the Department of Justice uphold decisions made by Israel’s military court? The U.S. has a history of condemning military courts in other countries. And when President Obama recently spoke at the U.N., he lectured other world leaders that it was unacceptable today to occupy another nation’s land. Why doesn’t that apply to Israel’s occupation of Palestine?

U.S. backing of Israeli occupation

The U.S. government has always spoken out of both sides of its mouth. U.S. presidents tell the Palestinians they deserve their own state, but refuse to stop Israel’s thousands of illegal settlements in Palestinian areas. The Obama administration warns against countries that defy the ‘international community,’ but has vetoed almost every single United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.

There’s no denying what is happening: Israel serves the interests of the U.S. elites in the Middle East. The Israeli regime couldn’t exist without the $3 billion a year in military aid it receives from the U.S. It serves the Pentagon as a landlocked aircraft carrier. The aid – and the unjust occupation of Palestine – are the price the U.S. is willing to pay to hold down the Arab and other peoples of the Middle East.

Standing with Israel is a constant refrain from every politician in Washington. For Rasmea Odeh, this means that U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade’s office accepts the stance of the kangaroo court in Israel that convicted her.

Defeat of Judge Borman

The first judge assigned to hear her case was Paul Borman. Borman had many ties to Israel, having helped raise millions to support the apartheid government there. A campaign by the Rasmea Defense Committee called for Borman to recuse himself. At first refusing, he gave in when it was exposed that his family had partial ownership of the grocery store that was the target of the bombing that Rasmea was forced to confess to. This was a huge embarrassment for the federal court, which always denies that decisions are affected one way or the other by politics.

Borman’s recusal was a victory which rallied the spirits of Rasmea and her many supporters. It proved to the movement for justice for Rasmea and for Palestine that if we fight, we can win. It shows us that a great legal defense is required, but so is a group of supporters packing the courtroom each time Rasmea is there.

Judge Gershwin Drain

On Oct. 2, Rasmea appeared before the new judge, Gershwin Drain, where attorneys presented numerous motions. The first decision by Drain was not good. Attorney Michael Deutsch argued that the charges against Rasmea should be dismissed, showing how the case against her began with the illegal investigation of the group of 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists who were subpoenaed to a federal grand jury in 2010. Drain agreed with the prosecution’s counter-argument, that the defense hadn’t proven its case.

Tom Burke of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) commented, “The U.S. government doesn’t want to admit its own crimes. It’s a fact that hundreds of Arabs and Muslims have been targeted by successive administrations only for being Arab or Muslim, or for loving their own people. The raids and subpoenas of the anti-war and international solidarity activists in 2010 were violations of our First Amendment rights.”

Although that decision went against Odeh, Hatem Abudayyeh of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) said, “Rasmea, her lawyers and her supporters sent a message to the court that there is a pattern of the Department of Justice abusing those involved in Palestine support work.”

Latest twist: Attack on our right to fight back

In early October, Prosecutor Jonathan Tukel launched an attack on the Rasmea Defense Committee and Hatem Abudayyeh. Tukel accused Rasmea’s supporters of jury tampering. He alleged that the rallies involving members of the Palestinian community and anti-war activists are “almost certainly criminal.” Tukel is asking for an “anonymous jury” – keeping the names of the jury secret from the public and from Rasmea’s defense attorneys. Tukel used an anonymous jury for the trial of the Underwear Bomber in 2009. The meaning of his motion could not be more clear: Odeh and her supporters are dangerous to the members of the jury.

This would be laughable if the impact wasn’t so terrible. In fact, this is an effort by the prosecution to tamper with the jury. Making jurors and prospective jurors operate in secret makes them think that they are in danger.

There is nothing violent in the efforts of her defense campaign. The only violence that impacts this trial is the inhumane brutality with which the Israeli military treated Odeh in 1969. With each passing day, more people and organizations that support civil liberties are adding their voices to oppose this latest move.

‘I believe that we will win’

This attack by the office of U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade points to one other thing: the movement that supports Rasmea is putting Israel on trial. Especially after the international outcry that responded to the massacres in Gaza this summer, Israel is seen worldwide as the brutal, apartheid regime that it is. Most people hear the ring of truth when they are told that Rasmea was viciously abused at the hands of Israel.

On Oct. 2, in front of the court house in Detroit, Muhammad Sankari of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network led Rasmea’s friends and neighbors in chanting, “I believe we will win.” One of the Palestinian women supporters raised her voice louder and said, “I believe we are winning.” It appears that McQuade and Tukel fear that to be true, and are acting to put an end to the trial in the court of public opinion, and are attempting to rig the outcome of the legal proceeding as well. The rising movement of support for Palestine – the Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaign, the efforts for an arms embargo to stop companies like Boeing that provide the killing tools to Israel, the campus movement to defend critics of Israel like Professor Steven Salaita at the University of Illinois and the massive marches like those in Chicago that mobilized to halt the slaughter in Gaza – is in fact winning.

All out for Detroit

A major mobilization Is underway to pack the courtroom during Odeh’s Nov. 4 trial. “People from around the country will be coming to Detroit to support Rasmea. We will stand with her at her trial and demand Justice,” stated Jess Sundin of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

#ChicagoIL #Chicago #JessSundin #TomBurke #politicalRepression #RasmeaOdeh #StevenSalaita

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.

#MinneapolisMN #PoliticalPrisoners #JessSundin #LynneStewart #InjusticeSystem #compassionateRelease

St. Paul, MN – Two prominent anti-war and international solidarity activists, Jess Sundin and Mick Kelly, were in federal court here, Nov. 1, in a bid to pull back the curtain of government secrecy that surrounds the FBI raids on their homes on Sept. 24, 2010. In the hearing presided over by Judge Steven E. Rau, Bruce Nestor, attorney for the plaintiffs, made a passionate argument for a motion to unseal the affidavits used to obtain the search warrants for the FBI raids.

Nestor told the court that the government cannot raid the homes of political activists without providing an explanation. He also spoke of the chilling effect the raids had on those exercising their First Amendment rights.

The Sept. 24, 2010 FBI raids struck seven homes in Minneapolis and Chicago and the office of the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee. A total of 23 activists were summoned to a Chicago grand jury investigating “material support for terrorism.” No one testified.

At the Nov. 1 hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Winter cited the ongoing investigation into the anti-war and Palestine solidarity activists as the “compelling government interest” in continuing to keep the documents under seal. Judge Rau stated that he will hold a closed ‘in camera’ hearing with Assistant U.S. Attorney Winter in 120 days, where Winter will report on the status and scope of the investigation. After that the judge will make periodic reviews (possibly every 90 days) of the order to keep the documents sealed.

Commenting on the Nov. 1 proceedings, Jess Sundin stated, “I came to court today hoping to hear that the investigation of myself and fellow activists was coming to a close and that the veil of secrecy and suspicion around us would be lifted. Instead, the government said the investigation is ongoing. While Assistant U.S. Attorney Winter didn't openly threaten indictments, he expressed that things could develop in our case any day. Given that the government is fighting to keep its secrets hidden, I think he was saying that one or more indictments may still be coming. Or perhaps he expects the investigation will widen, and other activists will be caught up in this shameful witch hunt.”

Sundin continued, “I left the courtroom with a sense of foreboding. We need to be prepared, in the event of indictments, possibly within the next few months. We need to defend others who are persecuted for their political ideas or who they are – such as Chicago’s Palestinian community leader Rasmea Odeh. Three years ago, many of us made arrangements for family members to put up their homes, in the event that we would need to make bail. It was a sobering moment after court today, when we were reminded that all of these preparations should be reviewed again today.”

Sundin and Kelly have long spoken out against U.S. wars and in support of oppressed people. Mick Kelly said, “This case is all about criminalizing those of us who stand with the struggles in Palestine and Colombia, those of us who work against U.S. wars. There is no doubt that the affidavits used to obtain the search warrants on our homes are full of lies and are an attack on protected political activity. We want to drag them into the light of day.”

#SaintPaulMN #JessSundin #MickKelly #September24FBIRaids #AntiWar23 #InjusticeSystem #FBIRepression

Their attorney will present arguments for a motion to unseal the affidavits used to obtain the search warrants for their homes more than three years ago.

Jess Sundin, a plaintiff in the case, said, “The government launched its vicious attack on anti-war and international solidarity activists with two years of surveillance by undercover agents, then carried out FBI raids on a dozen homes and offices and attempted to force our testimony to a grand jury in Chicago. Every step of the way, the government acted under a cloak of secrecy and has insisted on guarding those secrets to this day. On Friday, Nov. 1, we will have our day in court, as our attorney argues for our motion to unseal the affidavits that were used to obtain the search warrants for those FBI raids.”

Bruce Nestor, attorney for the plaintiffs, writes in a document filed with the court, “Over three years ago, based upon the submission of secret evidence, the United States government convinced Magistrate Judge Susan R. Nelson to seal the search supporting affidavits at issue in this matter. Over three years after the applications and affidavits were ordered sealed, there are no public signs that the government is continuing its investigations related to these warrants or of the individuals named in the warrants. Indeed, while turning the constitutional presumption of innocence on its head by stating that the Petitioners in this matter remain subject to prosecution and therefore under ‘suspicion.’”

Nestor continues, “The government’s position in this matter also raises the question, ‘What is the prosecution trying to hide?’ [This also] … prevents undersigned counsel from effectively challenging the government’s claims.”

The hearing will take place in courtroom 3C at the United States Courthouse in Saint Paul (316 N Robert Street) at 9:00 a.m.

#SaintPaulMN #JessSundin #MickKelly #grandJury #AntiWar23 #InjusticeSystem #FBIRepression

Fight Back! is circulating a speech delivered by anti war leader Jess Sundin, at the Sept 24 protest in front of the Federal Building in Minneapolis. About 100 demonstrators demanded an end to the federal investigation of anti war and international solidarity activists.

First, I want to say how much it means to me that you are all here today. It reminds me of the morning my home was raided by the FBI: When Garrett was the first friend to arrive, and then so many of you gathered outside all of our homes. There was the press conference on our lawn that afternoon – Marie, you were there; and the solidarity meeting that same night at the old Walker Church. Thank you all for standing with us that day, and every day, against political repression.

Three years ago, they busted through our front doors, armed with battering rams, search warrants and grand jury subpoenas, and they turned our lives upside-down. They treated us like terrorists, and the entire anti-war movement like some kind of criminal enterprise. The government set out to silence all of us, and to clear the way for war. Thanks to 23 grand jury resisters, and thousands of supporters, they failed. We are walking around free, speaking out against the agenda of war for empire, and standing here united against political repression.

When they raided our homes, they took books, photographs, computers, political papers, sign-up sheets – “evidence” of who we know and what we think. None of us talked to the FBI that day, but we later learned about the McCarthy-era questions they had planned to ask us. They wanted to know about the political groups we’re involved in, and the people we’ve worked with here and abroad. Who are your leaders? When are your meetings? Who takes the notes? How do you indoctrinate people? Are you now, or have you ever been…? Well, I didn’t tell them, but I’m telling you: I am now, and I have been for quite a long time been! Everything they took that day, they kept copies of, no doubt catalogued in some FBI/NSA/fusion center database. In the case of our Chicago friend, Hatem Abudayyeh, much of his property was never returned – held for evidence in this on-going investigation.

Now how many of you share my misfortune, of having met the undercover agent, the spy who called herself Karen Sullivan? I won’t say on this microphone what I call her now, but I think you can imagine. For two years, every word she ever said to me was a lie. Every word she said to you was a lie. She came to our meetings and our protests, our hospital rooms and our birthday parties. For two years, she worked full-time to destroy the Anti-War Committee, Freedom Road, and every organization or community we ever worked with. She sabotaged a solidarity trip to Palestine, and she used her key to let the FBI into the Anti-War Committee office three years ago today. The raids on our homes and office were based on her word. I have no doubt that the only case they could have against me and my friends is one that this professional liar manufactured.

From the outset, U.S. Attorneys said they were pursuing “multiple indictments of multiple people.” When prosecutor Barry Jonas was confronted by protesters in Chicago earlier this year, he said he couldn’t comment on “ongoing investigations” and that he has 8 years to bring charges in our case. Back in 2010, when I refused to testify in secret before the grand jury, I believed I might be jailed for that decision. Thanks to all of you, that didn’t happen.

But, I never imagined that I would live for three years under a cloud of suspicion, as a subject of an endlessly ongoing investigation. In its latest statement, the U.S. attorney’s office says, “there are no public criminal cases stemming from the investigation.” It seems clear enough that criminal indictments might already be there in secret, under seal, just waiting for the right political moment to bring them out. We are here today to show that the right political moment will never come. There will never be an easy time to take us. Our friends in the people’s movements will never stand by quietly while we are locked away like criminals for opposing the crimes of U.S. wars.

We have already proven that we are stronger than them, that we can prevail.

We beat the grand jury, and its McCarthyite witch hunt. Not one of us testified. And not one of us was jailed for refusing. Why? Because we stood together, and you stood behind us. It was solidarity.

And with solidarity, we beat back the attack on Carlos Montes. The FBI agents investigating us cooked up new charges related to an old COINTELPRO case against our friend, a Chicano leader and anti-war activist from Los Angeles. They wanted to put him away for years, but thanks to pressure by people like you and me, he wasn’t sentenced to a single day in prison!

Time and again, they tried to raise the specters of Joe McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover, but we refused to be haunted by those old ghosts. Instead, through solidarity, we set an example of how to respond in the face of attacks: No one betrays their friends and political colleagues by testifying at a grand jury. And rather than hide in the shadows, we took the streets to say no to the attacks on us, and no to every attack on the people’s movements.

We’ve spent the last three years building unity with others fighting against repression, from anarchists, occupiers and environmentalists, to those facing terrorism charges like ours. We were here at this very courthouse when Amina Ali and Hawo Hassan were shamefully sentenced to years for sending charity home to war-torn Somalia. We rallied right here on this sidewalk for the Holy Land Five, who seek freedom from long sentences won by the same prosecutor we’re up against in our case. And we’re standing by Lynne Stewart, in her just demand for compassionate release, so that she won’t die of cancer in prison for her work defending another target of the bogus war on terror.

None of these people have done anything wrong, and neither have any of us. Was it wrong to march on the RNC against war and occupation? No! Was it wrong to travel to warzones like Palestine and Colombia, befriending those most-impacted by US policies of war? No! And to this day, is it wrong to believe in a better world – where there is no war and no want, but lasting peace built on a foundation of justice? No!

The FBI raids three years ago and the grand jury, in some ways, they changed everything. But in the ways that matter, they changed nothing. Every one of us who was targeted on September 24 has remained committed to building the people’s movements. We have not been silenced, but instead, we have used our defense campaign as a platform for speaking out against empire and all the wrong it does in this world.

All of us know more today than we did when the FBI arrived on our doorsteps. Of course, some of us learned that they’re watching us, personally. But now we also understand that the government has come to view every American as a suspect, and every activist or community leader as a target. While the government operates behind a shroud of secrecy, our right to privacy is gone. Grand juries, spying and warrantless phone and email monitoring have become standard operating procedure for the government. And the whistleblowers – from Chelsea Manning to Edward Snowden – are putting their freedom on the line, so that we can know the truth. We are witnessing a broad attack on democratic rights in this country today, and our case is part of that.

Freedom fighters are called terrorists, and war criminals receive Nobel peace prizes. We say enough is enough. We don’t want to live one more day in this upside-down Bizarro World.

For three years, we’ve stood by our activism, and insisted we’ve done nothing wrong. Today, on the three-year anniversary, and on the eve of a new war, we recommit ourselves to building the people’s movements. We defeated the grand jury, we defeated the attack on Carlos Montes, and now, we must demonstrate their complete failure in silencing activism, opposition to war, and international solidarity.

Solidarity is under attack! What do we do? Stand up, fight back!

#MinneapolisMN #JessSundin #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #AntiWar23 #FBIRepression

New York, NY – Jess Sundin, of the Committee to Stop FBI repression, spoke on a panel at the Left Forum here, June 8. Entitled the “Targeted killings of Americans on American soil: the story of Lynne Stewart, political prisoners and all progressive struggles in America.” The panel included Ralph Poynter, husband of jailed people’s lawyer Lynn Stewart and a leader of her defense committee. Also speaking was Ricardo Jimenez and Luis Rosa, fighters for Puerto Rico’s independence who served long prison sentences, Sue Udry of the Defending Dissent Foundation, Reverend Pinkney, Pam Africa, and others.

Sundin’s speech follows:

Greetings comrades and friends. It's an honor and humbling to speak with you today, and especially to appear on such an esteemed panel – you represent some of the most important movements of our time. Many of you have been invaluable allies to myself and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression. Thank you for all of your work.

As Ralph [Poynter] says, the clock is ticking for our brothers and sisters, political prisoners behind bars. These men and women, freedom fighters, were targeted by a government that has no interest in justice.

We are talking about a government that is in the hands of vampires who have no shame. They built a country on stolen land, on the backs of stolen people, by exploiting the labor of working people – especially African slaves, and now super-exploited immigrant workers. They wage brutal wars to seize control of other nations' wealth, and they protect banksters and bosses who steal the jobs, homes and safety net that thousands of working people need for our survival. They pass laws to limit our rights to organize and pave the way for environmental destruction. We must bear in mind that those in power have no interest in justice. In fact, their interests run counter to justice at every turn. They thirst for profit and domination and it is no surprise that they act out against those who see that another world is possible, and who dare to fight for it.

In preparing for today, I thought back to when I first met Lynne [Stewart] and Ralph, in the summer of 2008 at an anti-war conference in Ohio. This was after her conviction for material support to terrorism and related charges, but before her sentencing. I had stars in my eyes when I met the famous people's attorney, Lynne Stewart. I was charmed by her warmth and openness, when she signed on in support of the anti-war march I was organizing at the RNC in Saint Paul the following September. At that time, I had no idea that organizing would send me down a similar path to Lynne. Undercover agents surveilled myself and other protest organizers and began to manufacture a case against us, also on charges of material support to terrorism.

In 2010, the FBI carried out coordinated raids at the homes of anti-war and international solidarity activists. When they arrived at our home at 7:00 a.m. on Sept. 24, we did not understand the scope of these events. We were focused on the battering ram poised at the door when my partner and our 6-year-old daughter opened it. It soon became clear that the government was targeting us, just as it had Lynne, as well as so many Arabs and Muslims before us, in an effort to silence dissent and clear the way for imperialist wars abroad. In all, nine homes were raided, 23 people were subpoenaed to the grand jury, and another brother, Carlos Montes, was targeted with felony charges going back to an old COINTELPRO-era case against him as a leader in the Chicano movement. We had to fight back.

We made several important decisions:

First, we refused to cooperate with the prosecution. Not one of us testified at that grand jury, even with the threat of imprisonment for refusing. We would not help the government make a case against our colleagues in the U.S., nor would we give them information that could endanger the lives and work of our comrades abroad.

Our resolve won the support of thousands, who protested, made phone calls, signed petitions, and hosted speakers around our case.

Our second important decision was to build a public campaign in defense of ourselves and our work. I was giving press interviews on my front lawn, while FBI agents carried boxes of my belongings out the front door behind me. We never apologized for our organizing; we stood by liberation movements from Palestine to Colombia, even those unjustly termed ‘terrorist’ by the U.S. government.

Our third important decision was to unite with others fighting repression, starting with other targets of the bogus ‘war on terror.’ We have worked in support of the Holy Land 5, directors of the largest Muslim charity in the U.S., targeted because they are Palestinian and stand with their people against the Zionist occupation. The men of the Holy Land 5 are currently serving sentences as long as 65 years, after the same prosecutor from our case won a conviction on material support for terrorism. Amina Ali and Hawo Hassan, Somali women from Minnesota, were just sentenced last month to 20 and 10 years, for sending a few thousand dollars to support the orphans and widows of the civil conflict in their homeland – material support for terrorism. These are just a few cases, there are hundreds, everyone of them a shameful miscarriage of justice. Defending them is a key part of our strategy to defend ourselves.

Earlier this year, our efforts to unite against repression brought me to the shadow of Carswell, the prison that holds Lynne today. There were two important rallies for Aafia Siddiqui. She is a Pakistani woman about my age, mother of three, who on Sept. 23, 2010, the day before the FBI raided my home, was sentenced to 86 years for a bogus charge of attempted murder of a U.S. soldier holding her captive in Afghanistan, five years after she had been kidnapped from the streets of Karachi.

Unless people of conscience can win her freedom, Aafia will die in Carswell. Shamefully, the same is true for Lynne Stewart, and many people at the protest for Aafia carried signs for Lynne. As I stood outside of Carswell, it struck me that I could die there too. I have significant medical problems, and would likely be imprisoned there if the government made its terrorism case against me. Truth be told, the same could happen to anyone who stands up and organizes against this criminal system run by corporate gangsters and thug politicians.

We have revealing news reports every day, like the idea that the NSA is conducting warrantless phone and Internet surveillance against all of us, all the time. You know, I had a young activist friend, just last night ask on Facebook, why should she care if the government knows who she's calling or what she's writing in her emails, because she's not doing anything wrong. Of course, I wasn't doing anything wrong either, but an undercover agent spied on me for two years, posing as a friend and comrade, recording and reporting on our conversations and meetings. We need to understand that when the powerful are not openly repressing us, they are gathering information to use to repress us later. Now we are all treated like criminals. We are all Lynne Stewart.

The latest attack on sister Assata [Shakur], like the one on Carlos Montes in our case, shows us that the enemy never forgets. Both of them are heroes. They were attacked during the COINTELPRO era for their work, but they couldn't catch them then. Now, 40 years later, the government is trying to bring back those old cases, and call them terrorists. But they are heroes.

I want to close by urging everyone here to take real action to win freedom for Lynne Stewart, Mumia Abu Jamal, Oscar Lopez Rivera, and all political prisoners. I'll begin with my own pledge: The CSFR will stand with you. We've won real victories in our case – no one was jailed for refusing to cooperate with the grand jury, and Carlos Montes beat back charges that could have landed him 18 years, to resolve his case with not one day in jail. It's time for more victories, bigger victories. Let's bring Lynne home.

#NewYorkNY #PoliticalPrisoners #JessSundin #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #LynneStewart #InjusticeSystem #FBIRepression #HolyLand5 #NationalSecurityAgency

Fight Back News Service is reprinting the speech of Jess Sundin, a leader of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, delivered at the FRSO-organized May Day celebration, May 3.

Greetings! And happy May Day, to all the sisters and brothers, comrades and friends gathered here.

This day, International Workers Day, is celebrated by the working class in every corner of the world. This great holiday, a communist holiday, is marked with protests and marches, and also with meetings and celebrations. It’s been more than 125 years since May Day began, and struggles by U.S. workers and our unions have won the eight-hour work day, the 40-hour work week, health and safety rules at work, the right to unionization, unemployment insurance, welfare and social security, minimum wage, and much more. These things are threatened in workplaces and government halls every day. The people you will hear from tonight are, like you, at the forefront of defending our class against these attacks.

Before all of that, let us begin tonight by remembering that first May Day. It was 1886, a time of great protests and strikes by workers; and also a time of great violence and repression against our class and its leaders.

A general strike was being carried out in Chicago, and many other US cities, to demand an 8-hour work day. At that time, most people worked 12 to 14 hours a day, 6 days a week. Half a million workers joined the strike, with Chicago being one of the most successful places. A public demonstration was called for at Haymarket Square, to stand up to police brutality against striking workers. At the end of the speeches, police moved in to disperse the crowd. A bomb exploded in their path, and police began firing on the demonstrators. Within a few minutes, dozens of people were killed or wounded, and the police had an excuse to unleash a campaign of repression against the good people of Chicago that lasted for months, and led to the legal lynching of four men who were killed by the state of Illinois for their role in organizing that first May Day protest in Chicago.

I think we grow up imagining that the ruling class gave us Labor Day, which they have in September, as an act of kindness or generosity. Just like maybe we think it was the bosses’ idea to make the work day last 8 hours. It was not until fifty years after the Haymarket massacre that the 8-hour day became the law of the land. We’re here today, because we know the truth, our day, International Workers Day, is May 1st. And it was the labor movement that brought us the 8-hour day. We know “that power concedes nothing without demand – it never has and it never will!”

The immigrant rights mega-marches of 2006 reignited May Day, with marches in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and beyond. Millions of Chicano, Mexicano and Central American protesters took to the streets to fight for legalization and full equality. Last year, tens of thousands joined together around the country for immigrant rights marches, and with unions as a part of the upsurge around Occupy Wall Street. And earlier this week, on May 1st, many of us joined MIRAC (the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee) and Mesa Latina in St. Paul for another great march to demand immigrant rights.

We are still marching now because the people’s movements are as needed as much today as they were in 1886. We aren’t looking to just make a few changes here and there. We are up against a real monster: A system called capitalism.We all know that capitalism is the system that we live under, but just like we don’t learn our history, most of us don’t learn what capitalism is or how it works. Capitalism is a political and economic system that is designed to be unfair. It’s set up so that a few people will own the factories, the trucks, the banks and all the rest. They get their money not by working, but by making other people work hard for them. Those few people are very rich, and I don’t mean like lottery winners. Some of them have more wealth than whole countries! And all of them have more to say about who will be the next president than all the voters in this country put together. They are the capitalist class – sometimes called the 1%, but really, they’re just a fraction of a percent of 1% of the people in this world.

While those guys live in the lap of luxury and call all the shots, the rest of us, the vast majority, we work hard just to get by. We cut coupons to feed our families. We live in apartments and pay rent to a landlord; or if we have a house, it’s the bank that owns most of it. I always say that I own the first floor half-bath at my house. Under capitalism, you can work every day of your adult life, and still go to your grave owing money to banks and hospitals, and even the undertaker.

Our role in the system of capitalism is not to own, but to work. Or to raise children who will grow up to be workers. Or if we’re unemployed, our role is to make those with a job feel so lucky to have a job, that they won’t demand self-respect, decent wages, safe working conditions, or anything else. All of us together, we are the working class.

At the same time, this country was founded on racism, slavery, theft and the super-exploitation of oppressed peoples. That is the key to the super-rich in this country: Native lands were stolen, African Americans built the Southern half of this country and still have no real political or economic power as a people; the Southwest was stolen from Mexico, but the Chicano people who have always lived on that land are treated as second class citizens. They stole whole countries, like Puerto Rico and Hawaii.

So when we talk about the working class, we mean a truly multinational working class, and one which makes real alliances with all oppressed peoples. That’s just here within the U.S. We also embrace the international working class. With all these people we have a shared interest in overthrowing capitalism, and imperialism (the global and highest stage of capitalism).

Of course, people don’t want to live like this, with the vast majority under the boot of a handful of greedy fat cats. And so we fight back. In fact, the history of our class is a history of struggle – of doing the work that makes society run, and then fighting the owning class for our livelihoods, and sometimes for our very lives.

Today, workers in the U.S. are resisting cutbacks to public services and attacks on our wages, pensions and rights. Even here in Minnesota, land of the Democratic Farmer Labor party, there was an attempt to take away the union rights of public employees. They call it “right to work,” but we know they mean the right to work for less wages, less job security, and less dignity.

Public school teachers have always been kicked around by the right-wing, but in Chicago, it was Democratic Mayor Rahm Emmanuel who pushed the Chicago Teachers Union to a strike – not just defending their jobs, but fighting against school closures and privatization. Their example inspired people across the country. Just like past strikes by University clerical workers, the Chicago teachers showed that workers can – and should – stand up in the face of attacks.

When we speak of working class struggles, no one stands above Minnesota’s own Welfare Rights Committee in the fight to defend the social safety net that we absolutely need to survive. I don’t know of any other state that has an organization of low income people fighting not only to poor-bashing, but also to win INCREASES in benefits that our families absolutely need. Let’s hear it for WRC!

Also this past year African Americans and their allies boldly confront