New York, NY – For working New Yorkers, taking the subway is an essential part of their day-to-day life. Having a car in New York is incredibly difficult and expensive, which means unless you are rich enough to take a cab to work every day, the subway is basically the only viable option. So for the many New Yorkers with working-class jobs that do not allow them to show up late without risk of getting fired, it is very important that the subway runs smoothly and remains affordable.

However, the reality is that New York’s Metro Transit Authority (MTA) struggles to maintain a dilapidated subway system that faces constant delays. Only about 25% of stations are fully accessible, and the MTA estimates it will be $426 billion in debt by 2023. How does the MTA propose to solve these problems? Their ‘solution’ is to ruthlessly police the poor and the homeless in a new crackdown on fare evasion, and to further exploit transit workers, putting more money into the pockets of MTA officials and higher ups.

The MTA announced in late 2019 that they will hire 500 new cops to patrol the subway stations and stop people from evading the subway fare. This comes as part of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s push for so-called ‘quality of life policing.’ In other words, Cuomo and the MTA want to police the poor and the homeless out of the subways, which will in their minds improve the ‘quality of life’ for those who can afford the subway fare.

Since the MTA announcement of crackdown, New Yorkers have released videos of officers using excessive force against people for evading the fare, or even just for selling churros in the subway station. The MTA claims the new policing effort against fare evasion will save them $200 million over the next four years. This is a ridiculous claim on multiple fronts. For one thing, people aren’t all of a sudden going to roll over and pay if they literally cannot afford the subway fare. Secondly, the expansion of police forces will cost $249 million over the next four years – much more than the MTA plans to save.

All of this shows how out of touch with reality the MTA leadership and Governor Cuomo are. Rather than pushing for, say, increased taxes on the rich to help fund the transit system, their logic says, let’s squeeze more money out of poor and working people, despite the fact that New York is one of the richest cities in the world. Clearly, Cuomo and the MTA do not value the lives of the poor, and are only motivated by ways to save and make more money.

The MTA is also attempting to save money off the backs of working people through the exploitation of transit workers. In May 2019, when the transit workers’ contract was up for renewal, the MTA made an insulting first offer that would have resulted in major concessions on the part of transit workers. The MTA’s stubbornness in pushing their agenda forced the Transport Workers Union (TWU) Local 100 to go through six months of contract negotiations to fight for workers’ rights. While the TWU Local 100 was able to secure wage increases and other wins for workers in the new contract that got approved in January 2020, the MTA forced through increases in workers’ healthcare costs, adding higher charges for emergency room visits and brand-name prescription drugs.

The MTA is also now pushing for workers to act as a kind of secondary police force in helping to stop fare evasion – something that is not in transit workers’ job training, and that puts them at risk of potentially dangerous and violent situations. The MTA boasts that it will save millions of dollars as a result of their new contract and budget plan. If the employer is saving so much money, this means that they plan to find whatever ways they can to further undermine the rights and wellbeing of transit workers.

Most resistance to the MTA’s new attacks on poor and working people has come in the form of demonstrations against the crackdown on fare evasion and the hiring of 500 new cops. Forces on the ground have mobilized around these issues, and two well-attended actions were held in late 2019, with a third held at the end of January.

In spite of this mass pushback and disapproval, Governor Cuomo and the MTA have chosen to spend the city’s money on hiring more cops rather than actually paying transit workers living wages and fixing the broken down subway system. This decision is an attack on poor and working people on many levels. First, the cops are literally attacking poor people who cannot afford the subway fare by brutally harassing them with excessive force. Second, the neglect to actually fix the broken down subway system is an attack on poor and working people who need to get to work on time to avoid facing unemployment, which could of course, for some, lead to homelessness. Third, the MTA’s incompetence is also an attack on transit workers.

When transit workers are forced to fix urgent problems with the subways that happen on a daily basis, their lives and health are put directly in danger as they work in the subway tunnels while subway service continues to operate. So by not setting aside greater resources to actually pay transit workers a living wage, give them sufficient healthcare benefits, and fix problems more proactively, the MTA is directly attacking the health and wellbeing of transit workers, which of course, in turn, results in a less functional subway system that continues to put poor and working people at risk of losing their jobs.

Bearing all of this in mind, when Cuomo and the MTA decide not to invest the resources (resources which they clearly have if they can afford to hire so many cops) in fixing a broken subway system, they are not just causing an inconvenience for people – they are actually putting poor and working people’s lives directly in danger.

The situation with New York’s subway system is yet another example of how capitalism time and again fails working people. The problem is, Cuomo and the MTA only see the subway system through the eyes of the bosses and the rich. If New York’s leaders and those in charge of the MTA acted from a working-class perspective, they would understand why the transit system is broken; they would understand that the system will remain broken until it actually pays transit workers living wages, and puts resources into ensuring that poor and working people can get to their jobs on time, rather than attacking them over a $2.75 subway fare. But such sensible thinking will never come out of a capitalist system because capitalism is all about more profit for the employers, no matter how much that means exploiting workers and neglecting the needs of the working class and poor.

Only under socialism can we imagine a system where transit workers get a living wage along with the healthcare and other benefits they need; where the transit authorities prioritize fixing broken subway equipment and infrastructure because they actually value the lives of working people who rely on the subway to get to work; and where there is no need for cops in the subway stations because there is no need for a constantly increasing subway fare in the first place. Only under socialism can we have a transit system that truly works for all and reflects the needs of poor and working people.

#NYCNY #CapitalismAndEconomy #Editorials #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #NewYork #NYPD #Antiracism #MTA #Subway #FTP

New York, NY – Over 300 people gathered in the heart of the Flatiron District to stand up for trans rights. The call to action was made by several different organizations that belong to the Rapid Feminist Response network, which responded to the Trump administration memo that was uncovered by the New York Times. The memo, put out last spring by the Department of Human Health and Services, was adamantly proposing that all governmental agencies narrowly define gender by the biological sex organ a person was born with.

The protest began at 5:30 p.m. right in front of the Flatiron building. There were speeches that ranged from speakers offering words of love and support to trans and gender non-conforming people, to militant speeches demanding at end to capitalism.

A mother of two gender non-conforming children gave a rousing and emotional speech about what it takes to defend her children. She said, “I keep hearing how brave I am for supporting my children. Well I’m here to tell you, it takes zero courage to love my own children! The courage is for those who stand up what’s right! Those who resist!”

The crowd began marching uptown with rousing chants, such as “Not only for the cis and the white, health care is a human right!”, and “We have power! We have rights! LGBT fight! Fight! Fight!”

The Strategic Response Group, the New York Police Department’s violently repressive crowd-control unit, followed the protesters the whole route, with a van ready to arrest anyone they deemed “troublesome.”

The rally ended in Grand Central Station as the hundreds of voices echoed throughout the hall. Several more speakers urged the attendees to continue protesting and not to give up the fight.

#NewYork #NY #LGBTQ #TransRights #DepartmentOfHumanHealthAndServices #RapidFeministResponseNetwork

New York, NY – The Committee to Stop FBI Repression-NYC held its first general meeting, Sept. 10, at Project Reach, addressing political repression in New York after 9/11, leading up to the creation of the Strategic Response Group (SRG) within the New York Police Department.

The purpose of the meeting was to educate attendees on political repression, and specifically the SRG’s role in promoting it. The various topics discussed included the history of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression’s (CSFR) work on cases such as the Anti-war 23, Carlos Montes, and Rasmea Odeh; the political atmosphere after 9/11; the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (which funds the SRG); the Bureau of Special Services (a defunct unit within the NYPD that infiltrated anti-war, Black liberation, and communist organizations in the 1960s and 70s, setting a precedent for NYPD repression of activists), and the SRG’s practices of targeting, using surveillance against, and arresting people at protests.

The meeting ended with a list of demands and CSFR’s campaign statement against the Strategic Response Group, as seen below. CSFR will be having its next meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 18 at 6:30 p.m. to continue strategizing on how to disband the SRG. Visit their Facebook page (facebook.com/csfrny) for more information.

If you are part of an organization that would like to sign on as an endorser of the campaign, please read the statement and follow the instructions below.

Disband the Strategic Response Group

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression NYC and the endorsing organizations call on the New York Police Department (NYPD) to stop deploying the Strategic Response Group (SRG) to protests.

The SRG started developing in 2014 when Police Commissioner William Bratton determined that New York City needed a “special force” of rapid response police officers, and was formally introduced in 2015. By the end of 2015, the amount of officers within the SRG expanded to 800.

The criteria for when the SRG can be deployed include cases of civil unrest, disorderly conduct, and large-scale terrorist attacks. In practice, SRG officers have targeted and arrested activists peacefully exercising their right to protest. They come equipped with military-grade weapons and surveillance tools to intimidate and threaten protesters. The SRG will also target known leaders of movements for arrest, especially people of color.

The SRG’s purpose locally is connected to a larger system that represses activists and human rights. Along with receiving funding from the city, the SRG also receives funds from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The DHS was founded in response to the 9/11 attacks, repressing people’s rights in the name of counter-terrorism. Both treat those who speak out against war and human rights abuses as terrorists. It is the same system that invades sovereign nations and bombs countries abroad that wants to silence those who speak out against injustices in the U.S.

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression NYC and the endorsing organizations demand the following:

-- Disband the SRG.

-- Stop targeting known activists and organizers.

-- Stop using surveillance technology and military grade weapons, such as long range rifles, machine guns, and Sting Rays on protestors.

Organizing is not terrorism and activism is not a crime. To get involved with the Committee to Stop FBI Repression’s campaign to Disband the SRG, contact us at facebook.com/csfrny or csfrny@gmail.com. If you witness the SRG targeting and harassing people at events, record video and photos and send them to us. If your organization would like to endorse this campaign, sign on and share this statement.

#NewYork #PoliceBrutality #politicalRepression #NYPD #CommitteeToStopFBIRepressionNYC #StrategicResponseGroupSRG

New York, NY – Almost 100 activists and community members gathered in Brooklyn on July 29 to mourn the murders of Black women. The vigil was held after the murder of Nia Wilson, who was recently stabbed to death by a white man in Oakland, California. The vigil also brought attention to the violence that Black trans women face.

Various speakers came up to talk about different issues relating to violence against Black women and gender non-conforming people. Zila Renfro from Gabriela NY addressed imperialism as the root of Black women’s and gender non-conforming people’s oppression in the U.S.

“Imperialism was built on the backs of our enslaved ancestors. We are being violently displaced, impoverished, murdered, just for being so that the dominance of those wealthy few at the top can continue,” said Renfro.

Along with speeches, the event also included singing and altar offerings. The emcees read off the names of Black women wo have been killed, with the crowd chanting back “Say her name!” The night ended with an Assata Shakur chant.

The vigil was organized by the Audre Lorde Project, Gabriela NY, Black Youth Project 100, and Sige.

#NewYorkNY #NewYork #PeoplesStruggles #Racism #womensMovement #Antiracism #Brooklyn

Vaun L. Mayes is a leading activist in Milwaukee’s African American community facing serious felony charges in what many consider a frame-up by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (the ATF) and Milwaukee Police Department (MPD).

On June 5, 60 supporters applauded in federal court as Mayes was released from custody after a hearing. Mayes is facing three charges, including attempted arson. While federal prosecutors claim Mayes tried to organize people to throw rocks at police and firebomb a police station, they also say he never acted on the plans. It was also revealed in court there are at least two government informants involved.

Mayes alleged crimes took place after the MPD shooting of Sylville Smith, a 23-year-old African American man who was running away from police. Smith’s murder by police sparked the Sherman Park uprising, in which a BP gas station was burned to the ground and police lost control for three days, starting on August 13, 2016.

At the time, the MPD said Smith pointed a gun at officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown. Protesters demanded the release of police body camera footage and it revealed that Milwaukee police lied to the public. It showed that Smith had thrown a weapon to the ground before officer Heaggan-Brown shot him in the arm, and then the officer fatally shot Smith on the ground.

Officer Heaggan-Brown was charged, but then acquitted, in the murder of Smith.

In the two years since the Sherman Park uprising, the MPD and federal agencies have had little success in filing charges against people involved in the protests. So the U.S. government is resorting to a frame up.

Mayes is a well-respected activist and youth mentor. He is targeted because he is an unapologetic fighter against police crimes and the oppression of African Americans. Mayes was one of the leaders in the high profile movement to hold MPD accountable for the killing of Dontre Hamilton in 2014. Mayes works tirelessly for the residents in Milwaukee’s African American community, which suffers from some of the highest poverty and incarceration rates of any major U.S. city.

The charges against Vaun Mayes are an attempt to target activist leaders who speak out and organize people against the Milwaukee Police and their crimes. We need your help to defend Vaun Mayes and to hold police accountable, to end there lies, cover-ups and crimes.

The CSFR is asking you to stand in solidarity with Vaun L. Mayes and demand “Drop the charges now!”

Be ready for future calls to action in the campaign to “Drop the charges now!”

#NewYork #AfricanAmerican #Antiracism #Milwaukee #SylvilleSmith #VaunLMayes #MilwaukeePoliceDepartmentMPD

Chelsea Manning is a hero of mine. Not because she’s Trans but because she sacrificed her freedom and exposed the uglier sides of the war on terror. She was deeply in the closet but very aware of her transness and despite this she exposed the crimes of the U.S. war machine knowing she could be arrested and imprisoned for the rest of her life in a men’s prison.

And when we talk about Chelsea Manning and her struggles I have to reflect on the wider dynamics of mental health issues in the LGBT communities and in the Trans community in gender non-conforming communities in particular.

In my own life, I've known four women who killed themselves three of them were Trans. Two years ago, when a prominent Trans activist, friend and former coworker took her own life I felt myself going into a deep depression. I was drinking to numb myself. I was eating to forget.

Nearing 50 years old I realized I had no higher education. I'm a climbing guide and part-time day laborer on a construction site. Being a climbing guide is cool but I'm hardly an exceptional one. I started climbing when I was 38 years old. Far past any kind of peak that your average climbers going to have. And the lack of testosterone in my body means I often find myself taking a long time to recover from injuries. I often times have a lower level of energy than I think I should at my age.

I now work two, sometimes three jobs, often six or seven days a week. I work three jobs to keep myself busy, keep myself distracted but also because I almost lost my apartment due to failure to pay taxes. The state threatened to seize my apartment and start foreclosure procedures unless I signed a contract that requires me to work day after day in heat and cold, through injury and exhaustion to pay my bills. I am not alone.

The threat of foreclosure. Suicides in my community. My taste for self-destructive behaviors nearly dragged me down to a place with no return. I thought, no one’s really going to miss me. I’ve tried my best; I’ve been out for nearly 30 years and I am bone tired. Maybe I can be done and just rest now. And I feel such shame that I struggle to hold my shit together. That I can’t take care of my basic needs. That because of past abuse, transphobia, violence trauma and PTSD I am still a fucking hot mess.

I came out in 1989. My coming out was layered. I came out as dyke. I came out as a woman of Trans experience and I came out as leftist. These identities were and are intertwined within me. The AIDS crisis. Attacks on abortion clinics. Homophobia and transphobia in my home and community. The racist murder of Black men like Yusef Hawkins in Bensonhurst Brooklyn. These weren’t abstract struggles that I latched onto as I adopted the identity of a Trans social justice warrior. I felt this was a vision of a new me as I expressed my corner gender identity.

It was hard. It was so scary and I felt so alone. I had lost my community. The blue collar south Brooklyn Irish Italian stoops and street corners family-owned bars and broken down parks I grew up in were gone for me. I was effectively homeless at times – without job skills, without an education.

I remember being at Brooklyn College's library in early 1990s trying to learn about the French Revolution, feminism and Trans stuff for the first time ever, and honestly, this was also the first time I was trying to read – like really read (which says some stuff about my class education background).

And that’s when I learned about transphobia in feminism and it was this new pain and sadness. Another weight dragging me down. Then coming out and meeting a young stone butch who'd already been to some regional East Coast lesbian folk events that barred Trans women. Then trying to find out if it was okay for me to go to Lesbian Avengers meetings or WHAM (Women's Health Action Mobilization) meetings or bookstores and parties and social events. In sum I didn’t know if I was allowed to go anywhere in a community I desperately wanted to be a part of.

So when we talk about TERFs [trans-exclusionary radical feminists] today we need understand how transphobia was and is woven into our legacies. We need to understand the role of transphobia in Second Wave feminism, in much of the new left, in much of the lesbian and gay community.

But it was also such an important time in our community’s struggles. In particular AIDS. And in 1991 there was an AIDS forum held in New York where there were doctors, intellectuals, political operatives, and members of the gay community who would come together to discuss the state of the AIDS crisis. We were ten years into the crisis and 150,000 gay men – well side note here, they weren't all gay men, many of them, tens of thousands of them were Trans women – died. This is undocumented, this is not in the history books, but this is a fact 150,000 had died, and hundreds of thousands more were affected.

And the president of the U.S. refused to utter the word AIDS in public. We were year 12 into the third presidential term of right-wing Christian fascist Republicans running the government. And we were deep in the AIDS crisis.

At this meeting people spoke with absolute seriousness about fundraising strategies, medical developments and voting the Republicans out of office. For sure. But despite the urgency that everyone in the room felt it wasn't until Larry Kramer, the founder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis and the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), spoke that I think it was clarified what was truly happening in America. Larry Kramer was the last speaker. After they announced his name he took a long pause, perhaps thinking of the 18 of his closest friends who had already died of AIDS.

And then he said, “Plague. We are in the middle of a fucking plague, 40 million infected people is a fucking plague, and nobody acts as if it is. Nobody in this hospital, nobody in this city, nobody in this world. 40 million people is a fucking plague. Nobody knows what to do next. Nobody knows what to do next.”

It's without a doubt that if it wasn't for the sacrifices of a generation of gay men who died of the AIDS crisis that we wouldn't be all sitting in this room today. It is without a doubt that if it wasn’t for the Trans women, cis women and men and Trans men who shut down Saint Patrick’s cathedral, broke into the FDA building and stole vital incriminating files, got arrested, protested, and staged die-ins that I would be here today.

All of the political activism that emerged in the 1990s and in the 2000s are rooted in the second wave of our modern Civil Rights Movement and that movement is fundamentally linked to our sexual liberation or need for healthcare and our willingness to put our bodies on the line and do whatever it takes direct up and to fight AIDS.

Today, in the first six months of 2018, more than ten Trans women have been murdered. Each year we mourn our dead in November on the Trans Day Of Remembrance. And it feels insufficient. Nobody knows what to do except mourn the dead.

It feels like we are still under siege and we are one Craig’s List date away from being dead. We are one Tinder date away from being dead. One paycheck away from being homeless. We are one more heartbreak away from breaking. Each year we lose so many to suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, depression and feeling lost and without love. I know these feelingss they often nip at me at night after I turn off the lights before I fall asleep.

After Chelsea Manning announced on Twitter that she was thinking of taking her own life, the Maryland police went to her home to do an alleged ‘wellness check.’ Four cops broke into her apartment, with their guns unholstered, in Bethesda, Maryland. Four cops. Guns drawn. Three of them were female officers. It’s on video. You can watch it. It is without a doubt that they were looking to kill her. Her freedom is a spit in the eye to imperialism and you can draw your own conclusions about the motivations of four Maryland police officers who are called to do a wellness check. What their values and morality are. Likely, it’s the same values as ICE separating families and disappearing immigrants. It’s the same ICE that killed Roxana Hernández, a Honduran Trans woman who died after five days in U.S. custody in facilities notorious for their freezing temperatures. Like the morality of the Supreme Court who side with the bigoted baker in Colorado. Let’s be clear – even Caitlyn Jenner now understands the stakes. But what do we do next?

And there is a through line of transphobia in our communities that needs to be understood. It leaves Trans women particularly, Trans women of color vulnerable to violence, unemployment, depression and drug addiction. And suicide. The LGBTQ communities are stratified by race and class. It’s not simply that cops and corporations march at Pride. It’s that across the U.S., in small towns and cities, our Trans communities are being left to fend for ourselves without any support save charity. Without any struggle except lighting a candle at a Trans Day of Remembreace event in November and without any love but a “you look fabulous” when we pass each other on the street. We need more. We need material support and survival institutions. We desperately need access to mental health care that is gender affirming. We need jobs and job training. And we need fighting organizations.

Our responses are going to be varied. There needs to be some trial and error. We need to stand together and we need to ready ourselves for what may be coming but we cannot throw out empathy and love for the entire LGBTQ community. We’ve been through so much. We have to take care of each other. Some of us are going to go all in on the midterm elections. Some may want to consider building the next ACT UP. I'm long past the point of suggesting that I know the answers to any of this but I really want to argue the fact that we need a multi-tactical approach to dealing with the crisis that we are facing today. And having a multi-tactical approach means not having all our eggs in one basket.

I don’t want to lose any more of my community. Thank you.

This article is a modified version of a speech given at the “State of Trans 2018” Kingston LGBTQ Center in Kingston, NY in early June.

#NewYork #NewYorkNY #LGBTQ #Editorials #queerLiberation #LGBTQRights #transgender #workingPoor

New York, NY – On Jan. 28, the day after President Trump signed the executive order to restrict Muslims from seven countries from entering the U.S., reports came from the John F. Kennedy International airport saying that 12 people, including an Iranian Ph.D. student and two Iraqi refugees, were being detained under Trump’s new rule.

Protesters began calling for action early that morning and a Facebook event went up calling for an event from noon until 6 p.m. at JFK Terminal 4. By 3 p.m. several hundred had already gathered at Terminal 4, with streams of protesters pouring in through the Airtrain every 15 to 20 minutes.

By 5 p.m. the numbers had swelled to over 700 protesters in the sidewalks and parking garage opposite the Terminal 4 entrance. Police began corralling protesters behind barricades and tried to jostle new protesters in an attempt to keep them from joining in. The crowd kept swelling so that every single floor of the adjacent parking garage was crowded with protesters holding signs such as “Refugees are welcome here,” or “First they came for the Muslims, and I said not this time, motherfucker!”

When the crowds reached into the thousands, the NYPD barricades could no longer hold the protesters in and they took over the streets, blocking any car from leaving Terminal 4. Chants, such as “Let them in!” and “This shit is Illegal! I.L.L.E.G.A.L!” rang throughout the crowd and the few drivers that remained in their cars honked and cheered with the chanters.

At 6 p.m. the New York Taxi Workers Alliance tweeted that they would hold a one-hour work stoppage from 6 until 7 p.m. to protest the #MuslimBan ordered by President Trump. Many taxi drivers came and joined the huge crowd in Terminal 4 and stood in solidarity against Trump’s agenda. On the other hand, the private ride-sharing company, Uber broke picket lines by dropping prices to and from JFK airport to accommodate the demand for riders.

At the same time, there were reports that protesters were being stopped from getting onto the Airtrain. Sara Flounders, an organizer with the International Action Center, was one of the protesters blocked and she said, “When we switched from the subway to the AirTrain to get out to JFK airport police formed a line to try to stop us. Only people with airline tickets would be permitted through the turnstiles. Our chants of ‘When Muslim lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back!’ was picked up by hundreds of people who were stopped. They finally backed down as we all chanted non-stop, ‘Shut it down! Shut it down!’”

Flounders continued, “This is when we suddenly realized that we would not just be a few hundred people at the airport. Many thousands were on their way and were refusing to be stopped. With chants, cheers and raw determination they just swept past the police.”

At 7:30 p.m., lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) began calling for protesters who couldn’t get to Terminal 4 to go to Cadman’s Plaza, in Brooklyn, to demand that a federal judge grant a stay to the detainees being held in JFK. The lawsuit was being brought forth by ACLU lawyers and two of the detainees being held at the airport. A large crowd gathered outside of Cadman’s Plaza and rallied and chanted as more and more people gathered.

John Fletcher, an organizer with the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoners Solidarity Network, was there and said, “A crowd of mostly young middle-class youth chanted in support of open immigration and an immediate end to Trumps's right-wing recklessness towards immigrants and people of color. Noticeably absent was more radical voices and organizations. Many of the protesters embraced patriotism with a liberal face. Signs like ‘dissent is patriotic’ [were present] and protesters [were] singing Woody Guthrie's This Land is Your Land.

At 8:45 p.m. ACLU lawyers were announcing that the federal judge granted an emergency stay for all the detainees who were held, and would halt President’s Trump executive order on a national level, meaning all those detained will be released from airport security.

In New York, the momentum continues, with a protest and march to End the Muslim Ban happening later on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 29.

#QueensNY #AntiwarMovement #ImmigrantRights #InJusticeSystem #NewYork #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #Trump #MuslimBan #JFK #Airport

Jacksonville, FL – On Dec. 15, the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office returned some of the phones they seized from the 19 protesters who shut down the Hart Bridge last week.

The protesters, dubbed the Jacksonville 19 by local activists and media, stopped traffic on the bridge on Dec. 8 to demand justice for Eric Garner. Garner was the African American man who the NYPD choked, leading to his death. A New York grand jury refused to indict the white police officer Daniel Pantaleo, adding fuel to the flames of a nationwide protest movement against racism and police brutality.

Sheriff’s office staff called several protesters to let them know that they could pick up their phones from evidence. As of Dec. 15, police were still holding cameras belonging to protesters, and many phones and electronic storage devices remained in custody.

Police seized every phone, camera and other storage device from protesters after arresting them for obstructing traffic. Officers claimed they were seizing these personal belongings to use as evidence against the protesters and to identify the people who attended another protest earlier on the same day.

The Jacksonville Sheriff Office sergeant at the scene originally told protesters that they would receive verbal warnings and written citations for the offense, which is a misdemeanor in Florida. Activists say that the protesters were arrested after a communication from Jacksonville Sheriff John Rutherford, who gave the order to arrest everyone.

Immediately after the arrests on Dec. 8, the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition called an emergency jailhouse protest outside the John E. Goode Pre-trial Detention Facility, where police held the protesters for several hours. More than 30 people assembled outside chanting “Jail killer cops, not justice protesters!” and “Free the Jax justice fighters!”

With support from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, all 19 protesters were released or bonded out on Dec. 9.

One of the 19, Siddie Friar, was charged with two felonies. Police claim that Friar resisted arrest with violence and assaulted an officer. At a separate bond hearing for Friar on Dec. 9, State Attorney Angela Corey's office asked the judge to raise Friar's bond, using Facebook posts as evidence of her political activity. According to activists present at the bond hearing, some of the Facebook posts presented by prosecutors were obtained through Friar's phone. Friar was eventually released with the same bond as the others.

Police are still holding Friar's phone, along with many other devices.

The court appearance dates for the Jacksonville 19 are set for late December and early January. The Jacksonville Progressive Coalition, along with several other organizations, is calling on State Attorney Angela Corey to return all seized belongings to the protesters immediately and to drop all charges on the Jacksonville 19.

#JacksonvilleFl #PeoplesStruggles #NewYork #Florida #EricGarner #Ferguson #MikeBrown

Gainesville, FL- 350 people, mostly students, marched from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in downtown Gainesville to the intersection of University Avenue and 13th Street. In a dramatic action on Dec. 8, they marched through busy streets and then shut down the important intersection for 11 minutes in solidarity with Eric Garner.

Protesters began gathering at 4:00 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial statue near City Hall. People were asked to show up wearing black and to bring black signs. Nailah Summers, coordinator of the Civic Media Center, began the event by inspiring the crowd with a variation of an Assata Shakur quote, “We have a duty to fight. We have a duty to win. We have the duty to love each other and protect each other. We have nothing to lose but our chains!” The crowds repeated after her as they filed into the heavy traffic of University Avenue.

The march took up two lanes, completely blocking the cars on one side of the road, while protesters chanted, “Black lives matter!” and “If we don’t get no justice, then you don’t get no peace!” Three police cars tailed the protesters closely. Onlookers took pictures, put their fists up in solidarity and a couple even joined the march.

The protesters arrived at University and 13th, one of the busiest intersections in Gainesville, at the height of rush hour. The crowds formed a giant circle, ensuring that no cars could get past them. At the center of the circle two protesters held a silver coffin while a Dream Defender activist gave a eulogy and spoke, “You tell us to fear ISIS, and yet every time I pass the police, I hold my breath!”

Protesters stood in the intersection for 11 minutes. This symbolized the 11 times Eric Garner said, “I can’t breathe”, as NYPD officer Daniel Pantaleo strangled him. At the end of the 11 minutes, everyone turned to face the cars and yelled, “What side are you on?”

Eric Brown, with Students for a Democratic Society, said “I think we're at a tipping point where people are tired of the status quo and are willing to literally put their bodies on the line to ensure that the systematic killings of Black bodies in America stops. The number of people who came out today is promising for future organizing around issues of national oppression. Ferguson is everywhere, and we have an obligation to use the air that Eric Garner can no longer inhale to fight for liberation.”

Brittany King, an organizer with University of Florida Dream Defenders, spoke about future plans in Gainesville, “We want Gainesville to wake up and realize that just because it doesn’t happen in Gainesville, it doesn’t mean it’s not happening everywhere else. While people are sleeping, more people are dying. Today was a testament that Gainesville is prepared to wake up and prepared to join the movement!”

People left the intersection and gathered into an empty lot where the event ended on a high note with plans for future action and chants of “I believe that we will win!”

#GainesvilleFl #GainesvilleFL #NewYork #Florida #EricGarner #Ferguson #MikeBrown #ShutItDown #BlackLivesMatter

Eric Garner was an African American man who was murdered by a white cop with the New York City Police Department. The medical examiner ruled the killing a homicide. The video that shows Eric Garner being choked to death in the street – strangled as a gang of police jumped him – has been viewed by tens of millions. You can hear his last words, “I can’t breathe.” Still, on Dec 3, a white-majority grand jury let the killer cop and his accomplices walk free.

What happened to Eric Garner is like what happened to Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri: the U.S. ‘justice’ system once again demonstrated that it is about the opposite of justice. Killer cops are allowed to roam the streets and mass incarceration is the order of the day for Black, Chicano/Latino, Native American and other oppressed nationality youth. In fact, the ‘justice’ system not only reflects the inequality and racist discrimination that is part and parcel of U.S. society – it is an instrument of it.

In response, we are now seeing a tide of struggle against police terror across the country. In Utah, Florida, New York, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and many other places, people are standing up to injustice, and the heroic struggle in Ferguson, Missouri has helped to light the way. The rebellions in Ferguson signaled the start of a truly nationwide movement against the epidemic of racist police violence and this movement is without precedent in recent decades.

In the days and weeks ahead, everything possible should be done to build the movement against police terror. In light of the Eric Garner slaying, it should be clear that things like police body cameras are not going to change anything for the better. Nor will polite conversations with the powers-that-be. We need to be in the streets demanding justice and an end to inequity and racist discrimination.

While the ‘justice’ system failed to indict the killers of Mike Brown, Eric Garner and so many others, it did an excellent job at indicting those who run this country, as being unfit to rule. The elite will do anything that they think they need to do to defend their power and privilege. So we need to be about achieving real change by any means necessary.

Justice for Eric Garner! Jail Killer Cops!

#UnitedStates #PoliceBrutality #Protest #NewYork #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #frso #Antiracism #EricGarner

New York, NY – After news of an impending store closure, workers at the 63rd Street location of Hot and Crusty Bakery called for a 24-hour picket and store occupation, saying the company deliberately withheld rent payments following a hard-fought and successful unionization drive in May 2012. The company, owned by private equity partner Mark Samson, gave the Hot and Crusty Workers Association 11 days notice of eviction from the property, informing employees that August 31 would be their last day.

The union, led by a grassroots labor organization, the Laundry Workers Center and a contingent from Occupy Wall Street, students, faith and community members are occupying the workplace and holding an around-the-clock picket, demanding the company to discontinue its union-busting tactics, pay its rent immediately and continue to negotiate a fair contract with its workers. The company has used several bait-and-switch tactics during negotiations, threatening workers’ immigration status to deter their commitment to continuing the fight.

The August 31 closure will mean the loss of 23 jobs – including those of employees with as many as twelve years of employment with the company. Workers allege owners, including Mark Samson, Evangelos Gavalas and Nick Glendis, have a demonstrated history of wage and hour violations, intimidation, retaliation and harassment of workers in several of their businesses, as well as a pattern of closing down shops and opening under different aliases to avoid legal and economic liability. Workers have filed charges at the National Labor Relations Board alleging that the company is closing the 63rd Street shop to intimidate workers organizing at other Hot and Crusty locations.

Mahoma Lopez, a leader in the campaign who has worked at Hot and Crusty for over seven years said, “I want to send a message that we have to change the way immigrants are treated in this country. We have to show the bosses that we can’t be treated like animals any longer. We need to take radical action like people did in the civil rights movement, so that our voices can be heard. We are so happy to have the community here with us.”

Diego Ibanez, a member of Occupy Wall Street, emphasized the connection between Wall Street and workers, saying, “We’re sending a clear message to greedy bosses that we are watching and will not allow our people in the community to be oppressed any longer.”

#NewYorkNY #NewYork #picket #OccupyWallStreet #HotAndCrustyWorkersAssociation