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Search words: tree walk
Express Solidarity with Anti-War Resisters in the U.S.
 international |
anti-war / imperialism |
news report
 Monday September 06, 2004 10:56 by Charles NYC, USA
They're in the Courts & Jails for Us! We're on the Loose for Them!
Nonviolent direct resistance to the war is growing inside and outside the U.S. military. The 1700 arrests at the Republican Convention in New York City was a hight tide this year. The discipline and solidarity of the movement not to walk into a Bush teev trap was outstanding. Now is the time for solidarity! August 31
Day of Direct Action and Civil Disobedience
On Tuesday, August 31, direct actions and civil disobedience protests swept Manhattan -- using street theatre, disrupting Republican National Convention parties and events, reclaiming the site of the World Trade Center attacks from co-option by Bush, and targeting government offices, monopoly headquarters and other symbols of the agenda of repression and war. The day was marked by the undaunted defiance of the youth and other participants in the face of increasingly violent and arbitrary police attacks.
Police showed their plans for the day by erecting a double-barricade four-blocks around the convention site in all directions and making early-morning "pre-emptive" arrests of two costumed street theatre groups. Protesters countered by floating "intelligence" that there would be an action at the New York Stock Exchange. Hundreds of police were sent to surround it while no protesters showed up.
A powerful noon-time demonstration against the U.S.'s inhuman torture systems and detention and deportation policies set the tone for the politically-focused resistance actions that followed throughout the day. Hundreds converged at Columbus Park in Chinatown for a spirited rally targeting the unjust racist profiling and "disappeared in America" perpetrated by the government's Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE, formerly the INS). The action was mainly organized by the Philadelphia Cluster.
The action also honoured the life of Palestinian activist Farouk Abdul-Muhti, who represented the growing resistance of the peoples at home and abroad. Abdul-Muhti was imprisoned by BICE for 718 days as one of the thousands of illegal and unjust detentions by BICE. He died in Philadelphia July 21, hours after speaking at a panel entitled "Detentions and Torture: Building Resistance." His fiancée, son and lawyer were among the speakers at Columbus Park. "We have to remember all the martyrs -- in Palestine, the U.S. and the world -- who have given their lives to fight against oppression and for human rights. I think that Farouk can only be remembered if we continue this fight," his fiancée said.
Following the speeches, a street theatre piece depicted the brutal U.S. torture system as seen in Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, with activists depicting prisoners remaining defiant despite being hooded and berated by a U.S. military "general." With the crowd now swelling to 600 people, participants embarked on an unpermitted march to Thomas Paine Park near the BICE headquarters in Federal Plaza. Chants of "Stop the detentions! No one is illegal!" "Open the borders! Close the RNC!" and "Ya basta! Enough is enough!" rang out through the streets as the energetic march refused to be intimidated by the massive police presence. One participant was arrested for climbing a tree in the park.
Between 3 and 4pm in the afternoon, major actions simultaneously took place across Manhattan. Police attempted to block them with a large show of force and use of pens and netting of protesters and hundreds of arrests. But repeatedly, it was the demonstrators, with determination and defiance, who won out.
At the World Trade Center site, more than a thousand people gathered for a vigil called by the War Resisters League, School of Americas Watch and others. "Our aim is to confront the administration with the death and suffering for which they are responsible: more than 10,000 Iraqis and Afghanis, as many as 1,000 Americans killed, thousands more wounded and scarred, as well as the economic victims of Bush policies -- the unemployed, the uninsured, the undereducated," the call for the action said. "The Republicans have chosen to hold their convention in New York City to link George Bush and 'Ground Zero.' Bush's policies have created 'ground zeros' of death and suffering throughout the world and we hold him accountable for that." Organizers then negotiated with police to march single-file on the sidewalk to Madison Square Garden, where participants planned to stage a "die-in" to symbolize the countless victims of the U.S. "war on terror."
As participants organized to march, police swept in with orange netting and began encircling protestors, arbitrarily arresting 100. As one participant put it, they were arrested for the "crime" of walking on the sidewalk, without impeding foot or vehicle traffic, but having "dissenting thoughts" in their heads. Hundreds continued toward the convention site, successfully carrying out their act of civil disobedience at 28th and Broadway, blocking traffic for several hours.
Twenty blocks away, hundreds gathered outside the headquarters of Fox News, targeting the network as a symbol of the disinformation and unending lies of the monopolies and their media in service to the agenda of war and repression. "Shut up Fox!" echoed off the buildings for hours.
Banner refers to Folsom Prison in North Carolina;
singer Johnny Cash wrote about and performed at the prison.
Uptown, a "guitar and pompadour bloc" and a "men in black bloc" were quickly joined by more than a thousand people at Sotheby's Auction House where an RNC event featured the auctioning of Johnny Cash memorabilia. With numerous references to the late performer's rebel image, and frequently mimicking his well-known photo "giving the finger," the protest remained a boisterous and spirited convergence for several hours. "No Cash for the rich!" was a frequent chant as RNC delegates and others made their way in and out of Sotheby's.
At the New York Public Library, an action which began as two women attempting a banner drop over one of the building's lion statues erupted into a fierce display of defiance and rejection of impunity for police repression. Police officers violently arrested the two women, throwing them to the ground. Within minutes, they were surrounded by hundreds of youth, other activists and passers-by. Police attempted to pen-in and arrest protestors and onlookers alike, at one point throwing everyone emerging from the subway station to the ground. This once again showed that the militarization of New York had nothing to do with the security of the people.
Throughout the day, Union Square remained a centre of activity, with marches setting off for Madison Square Garden on at least three separate occasions. The Bike Bloc, declaring "Still We Ride" after being targeted by some of the most violent police attacks on Friday and Sunday, made a spirited pass through the square. The largest group of riders withstood both the new flexible-orange netting tactic and pepper-spray and large numbers of arrests to re-converge with thousands of others at Herald Square in the evening.
For hours at Herald Square, police attempted to contain the youth and others, only to be continuously met with non-compliance and resistance to being penned in. Participants report that police began targeting individuals not based on any action on their part, but apparently based on "intelligence" that they played leading roles in the protests. Yet each time police moved in to make arrests, they were swarmed by hundreds of protestors.
Throughout the day, other affinity groups organized disruptions and direct actions around the city targeting, among others, the Westin Hotel (housing an RNC delegation), the headquarters of the Carlyle Group, Rand Corp. and Lockheed Martin Corp., and a banner drop at the Port Authority.
Into the night, another 3,000 people gathered at the historic Riverside Church in Harlem to "call attention to the real moral, social and economic issues of this election," as Senior Minister Rev. James A. Forbes put it. At 8:30pm, places of worship throughout the city rang their bells, while members gathered in the streets for an "interfaith ring of hope around Manhattan" in support of social justice.
According to news reports, more than 1,500 protesters were arrested between Friday and Tuesday. Police violence and arrests were characterized by their arbitrariness throughout the Days of Action. Some reported that it was as though a switch was being turned on and off, as police claimed to "allow" whatever actions they determined were "peaceful" and then attack, often the same demonstration or action, whenever they determined to do so. Over the course of the several days' events, it became clear that various police efforts to divide protesters on the basis of their tactics and labeling some violent and others peaceful had not succeeded. Protesters rallied together to defend and protect each other from the police violence and repeatedly affirmed their rights to freedom of speech and assembly. Into the night Tuesday, activists organized to ensure everyone's safety and the safety of their arrested comrades, and began summing up the day's experiences so as to utilize them to further develop their methods and tactics of resistance.
[Return]
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September 1
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Comments (16 of 16)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16Political prisoners in prisons and jails for their witness for peace:
Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares
Jackie Hudson 08808-039 (30 months – out 7/05 or with good time 3/05)
Federal Prison Camp, Victorville
P.O. Box 5100
Adelanto, CA 92301
Carol Gilbert 10856-039 (33 months – out 10/05 or with good time, 5/05))
Alderson FPC
Box A
Alderson, WV 24910
Ardeth Platte 10857-039 (41 months – out 6/06 or with goodtime, 12/05)
Federal Correction Institution
331/2 Pembroke Station
Danbury, CT 06811
Nuclear Resister
Helen Woodson 03231-045
c/o Bates County Jail
P.O. Box 60
Butler, MO 64730
(Protest at federal courthouse, Kansas City, Missouri, 3/11/04 violates parole following 3/9/04 release from prison.)
Carl Kabat 03230-045
Federal Detention Center
9595 W. Quincy
Littleton, CO 80123
Native American Political Prisoner
Leonard Peltier 89637-132
POB 1000
Leavenworth, KS 66048
Overseas, These Nuclear Resisters Are Known To Be In Prison:
Yuri I. Bandazhevsky (8 years – in 6/01)
Valiuk for Bandazhevsky Y.I.
231318 Grodnenskaya oblast
Lidski raion
Peskovtsy, ul, Oktiabrskaya 2
Belarus
(Chernobyl researcher and whistleblower fraudulently convicted of corruption, 6/01)
Igor Sutyagin (15 years)
c/o Irina Petrovna Manammikova (wife of prisoner)
Zvezdnaya, d, 1A, kv. 82
Obninsk, Kaluga region 249039
Russia
(imprisoned since 10/27/99, now convicted of espionage for researching public nuclear weapons information for disarmament research)
The Following People Are Now In Prison For Anti-War Related Activities
Vieques
José Vélez Acosta 23883-069 (33 months – in 9/5/03)
USP POB 1033
Coleman, Florida 33521
José Pérez González 21519-069 (5 years – in 9/05/03)
Montgomery FPC
Maxwell Air Force Base
Montgomery, AL 36112
Néstor de Jesús Guishard 21716-069 (14 months – in 12/04/03)
and
José Montañez Sanes 26317-069 (18 months – in 1/30/04)
MDC Guaynabo
P.O. Box 2147
San Juan, PR 00922-2147
Jorge Cruz 26318-069 (18 months – in 2/28/04)
FCI Edgefield
501 Gary Hill Road
P.O. Box 723
Edgefield, SC 29824
School Of The Americas:
Donald Beisswenger (six months out 10/04)
# 92091-020
Manchester FCI
PO Box 4000
Manchester, KY 40962
Cynthia Brinkman (six months out 10/04)
# 92092-020
FPC Pekin
PO Box 5000
Pekin, IL 61555-5000
David L. Corcoran (six months out 10/04)
# 90282-020
FPC Oxford
PO Box 1085
Oxford, WI 53952
Frances E. Lamb ( out 10/04)
# 92100-020
Danbury FCI
33 1/2 Pembroke St.
Rt. 37
Danbury, CT. 06811
Richard J. Wekerle ( out 10/04)
# 92109-020
Sheridan FPC
PO Box 6000
Sheridan, OR 97378
Fr. Jerry Zawada ( out 11/04 )
# 04995-045
FPC Oxford
PO Box 1085
Oxford, WI 53952
Military Refusers
Camilo Mejia
Building 1490
Randolph Rd.
Fort Sill, Ok 73503
(National Guard member went AWOL after 2003 Iraq duty, turned self in as conscientious objector, 3/15/04, sentenced to one year)
Sgt. First Class Abdulla Webster (14 months, in 6/04)
we don't know address yet.
(refused Iraq dity convicted after CO petition rejected)
"symbol of the disinformation and unending lies"??
Look whos talking........
I believe this sentence should rather be used to describe Indymedia than any of the major "capitalist" news networks.
My objective estimate is:
Fox News 90% news, 10% propaganda
Indymedia 10% news, 90% propaganda
BBC 100% news, 0% propaganda
Maybe you should look at your own media first, and use some self-criticism, before you accuse some else to distribute lies and disinformation.
There is no sense at all in differentiating news from propaganda. Some news contains basic factual inaccuracies and this devalues it. But beyond this, all news is written from a certain point of view and is propagandising that point of view in a more or less honest way. Corporate media attempts to disguise this as best it can, consciously and dishonestly attempting to create the impression that it is 'objective' and 'balanced'. What really differentiates news sources is the range of points of view that are premitted. In this we can say that:
indymedia - accuracy 99% (coz we have comments!) range of points of view - everything except the far right.
fox - accuracy 50% (facts are often not important) range of points of view - exclusively right wing and pro US imperialism
BBC - accuracy 95% (they sort of pride themselves on this) range of points of view - generally centre-right (95%) but occassional centre/centre-left points of view (5%).
It is important to differentiate news from propaganda.
Propaganda is written to serve someones interest. Propagandists do not care credibility of their sources and they dont care if information they publish is correct or not. Propagandists also often "forget" some important details from their article.
This is the case with most Indymedia writers. Their enemy is USA, Bush, Israel and capitalism. Anything that slander these is being published, no matter truth or not.
For example: if someone who is known to be left wing anti-USA activist will break shop windows during demonstration and is being arrested, Indymedia propagandists will write that this person is political prisoner and is in prison only because of his opinions.
The fact that this person broke those windows is completely being ignored and not even being mentioned in the article even thou the one who writes this article knows all the facts.
I think that people should even try to be honest.
What are ye on about? Who has broken what windows? Anyway broken windows are nothing compared to what the US have done, and continue to do in other peoples countries.
Cop yerself on.
You are putting forward an example of inaccurate reporting, which I said does devalue the news source.
On the other hand, if the report on this fictional action had said that the person was a political prisoner, in jail for political _acts_ then it would not be inaccurate, merely reporting from a particular point of view, a corporate media source that reported that the person was in prison for hooliganism could similarly be presenting the information accurately, but from a different point of view.
It is crime to break window that you do not own. It is crime and everybody knows it. There can not be any other point of view on this.
It is deliberate misrepresentation to say that it could be political act or trying to take the attention away from the crime itself by saying something like "broken windows are nothing compared to what the US have done".
You could even justify murder by using similar arguments.
"I shot him because i didnt like what he said. So it was political act and i am political prisoner, innocent humanbeing and victim of this society"
"Committing one murder is nothing compared to what US have done. Why should i feel sorry, i only shot one person!"
You merely reveal your own closed mind by insisting that there is only one way of seeing a particular act. You are provably wrong as many people can see the act of breaking a window of a multinational corporation, for example, as a political act. I can clearly see that there are different ways of viewing such acts, you can't. By just saying it is a 'crime' and nothing else, you merely reveal your incapacity for thought outside very narrow confines.
A window is an inanimate piece of material that is deemed the private property of an individual.
A person is a living,breathing creature with emotions,family,opinions and a future.
Unless that is you are unlucky enough to be an innocent victim of one of the many conflicts around the world,in which case these gifts are taken from you.
Thousands upon thousands of people have had their LIVES shattered by people like George W Bush and their families have been left with pain and suffering in their futures.
I dont condone random acts of vandalism but where the target is one who is complicit in the terrible,gruesome slaughter of fellow human beings (for example the Irish Aviation Authority) i will smash that window myself and feel no guilt whatsoever.
As regards graffiti,there are some messages which our leaders do not want to be communicated and thus are excluded from the public domain.
This is a form of censorship which can be combatted in sevral ways,one of which is street art.
I've heard of at least one Irish person arrested over in NYC. A J1er one had gone along to take photographs and ended up spending two days in an awful holding facility by Chelsea Pier.
His J1 is up so he is coming home but he has to return to the states in a month for his hearing. Pretty shitty.
Any other info on Irish heads returning home from NYC that might need some help/advice/solidarity?
This conversation is getting away from my original point because you got stuck in that imaginary window and whether or not it is political act to brake it. My point was that Indymedia should stop spreading lies and disinformation first before you can start criticizing "corporate media" doing so. How can you built better world if you cant even be honest? Socialism in eastern Europe failed mainly because everything was a big lie from the start. Lenin was nothing but liar and a cheat. Now when i look Indymedias around the world i see nothing has changed. Lies, disinformation, badly written propaganda. I take one thing back, something has changed. People have changed, they do not trust anything they are being fed anymore. Everybody knows what kind of man G W Bush is and what he represents. Mainstream corporate media in USA and especially in Europe are crizicing him too. The only difference is that their articles are based on facts, not disinformation and exaggeration. However in indymedia world seems very black and white, all bad things happening in the world are result of capitalism, George W Bush, Israel or USA. If is "forbidden" to find anything wrong with muslim terrorists, palestinians or left wing. This is just like with nazis, everything bad is jews fault. as stupid and as fanatic. Left wing activism is like a religion, there are some things you do not question. Indymedia is a manifestation of this stupidy. I am sorry if i was bit hard, but this is how i see things are.
Shalom, your statements are nothing more than blind prejudice. You claim it is "forbidden to find anything wrong with muslim terrorists, palestinians or left wing." You are just wrong.
I think that islamicism is an incredibly reactionary ideology. I think that the tactic of suicide bombings against civilian targets is barbaric and incredibly counter-productive.
You see, it is not forbidden. I just wrote it there. In fact, if you look around indymedia you will see that it is peppered with such statements. What's more, you eejit, you are writing here and nobody is fobidding your opinions. How you can make such claims when they are so obviously contradicted by reality shocks me. You have obviously convinced yourself it is so and just closed your mind to the reality that is staring you in the face.
And as for finding things wrong with the left, are you serious? A disproportionate amount of the content on indymedia.ie consists of people picking holes in the ideas and practices of various left wing groups over the most miniscule of issues. FFS, if a left wing group misplaces a comma, there will be 50 comments mocking them for it within the day.
Open your eyes and stop just regurgitating blind prejudices.
An Irish contingent marched as well, and found themselves so crowded and tightly packed that it took some time for protesters to unfurl their banner, reading, "We serve neither Bush nor Mobil." http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=15146 re irish returning maybe the su's might know
Harry Brown will report back on the demonstrations at the Republican National Convention in New York City during the anti-war presence at the U.S. Embassy this Saturday 10am-12noon. The vigil will mark the anniversary and casualties of the S11 attack on NYC & the U.S. attacks on Afghanistabn & Iraq.
Also arrested in New York were Irish-Americans from the Catholic Worker movement (the Grady's from Ithaca, Frieda Berrigan daughter of the late Phil Berrigan). Starhawk who was with us in Dublin on May Day and has given quite a few workshops on nvda in Ireland over the past few years was also arrested www.starhawk.org
dear all
tireless anti-du activist and gulf veteran dennis
kyne, was many of those being arrested in the
anti-bush protests in New York. He has to reappear in
court in new york, like so many vets he is on the
breadline, if anyone can help either with legal costs
etc or support then magic. Read his letter below
cheers
davey
(pandora du research project)
this just in from Dennis Kyne
Hello All,
I was arrested in New York during the massive sweeps
of the RNC.
I am scheduled to reappear in court on October 25th
to
challenge 8 different counts and I promise all, I was
the
loudest person there, but I surely didn't need to be
cited
for acting violently, they buried me into the system
and
kept me locked up in the TOMBS, the Manhattan
Detention
Center.
This system has no white people incarcerated, however
the
African Americans in the system loved what was
happening
on the streets and taught me how to use the phones and
got
my ass back out of jail as fast as the MAN tried to
put me in.
Inmates said they appreciated the work of the
protesters, fed
me anything around that didn't have meat and said that
because
of the work we had done, the Jail system was free of
cockroaches
and the dehumanization that we all know goes on in the
prisons
of America, I experienced no racism in this facility
after being
warned by police my number was up. So, I currently
need to
raise money for travel expenses back to New York and
private
counsel since I am represented by over worked Legal
Aid Society
attorneys. Below is a list of the work I Have done in
the past
couple of months, I have taken a vow of non violence
and am
insulted that the police are insinuating that because
I am a combat
Veteran I MUST be violent, that is the stigma we
veterans live
with for our entire post combat lives, and it is not
only unfair, as
most of you know it is untrue. I fight for equality
and justice,
and most of all truth, and as a lot of you know, I
operate as
somewhat of a Lone Wolf because of the intensity under
which
I function.
I watched as police were ordered to drop young women,
detain
16 year old boys, and round up chinese food delivery
people
with the only qualification for detention "being on a
bike" while
the critical mass folks rode by. It was Martial Law,
it is not
what I almost died in Combat for.
I watched as people became unhealthy in a bus terminal
used
to detain people, and I stayed with an oppressed
majority in the
TOMBS and learned that we are all in this together. I
hope you
consider yourself in this with us. I am asking anyone
who can
help me with a donation of any amount so I can fly to
New York
and contest this inappropriate madness, as you can see
my court
date is one week before the election, and I am hoping
New York
remembers why we were there.
If you see it as within your means
please use
PO Box 720254
San Jose, CA 95172
Dennis Kyne
Please forward this to anyone or all
In Peace and gratitude
Dennis
AP PHOTO IN NEW YORK OF DENNIS KYNE
http://it.news.yahoo.com/040829/38/2x3ra.html
DENNIS' ARTICLE ON DEPLETED URANIUM
http://www.ncmonthly.com/My2Cents.html#anchor800227
September 10, 2004
Ithaca, NY
Dear Friends,
We are happy to report that we have finally come to the end of the case of the four youthful offenders.(They participated with 9 adults in a "die-in" at the local military recruiting station in Ithaca, on Dec. 22, 2002 in protest of the impending war in Iraq) On September 3rd, 2004 Judge M. John Sherman made his decision on our appeal. Here are the three points that we raised in our appeal: 1) that the elements of the crime of Criminal Trespass in the Third Degree were not proven beyond a reasonable doubt; 2) that our conduct was justified under international law; and 3) that the Youthful Offender statute was improperly utilized to deny us a jury trial. Judge Sherman agreed with us on the 1st point.
“Relative to the claim that the People failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt all of the elements of the crime of Criminal Trespass in the Third Degree, an examination of the record on appeal fails to show any factual basis for the trial court's finding that the area in which defendants were arrested were ‘fenced or otherwise enclosed in a manner designed to exclude intruders’ as required under Penal Law 140.10(a). Mere proof of remaining within a building without permission, without additional proof of the manner in which the building is enclosed to exclude intruders, merely establishes the violation of Trespass under Penal Law 140.05, and is insufficient to establish the crime of Criminal Trespass in the Third Degree.”
“Accordingly, the judgments are modified with respect to all defendants from an underlying conviction of Criminal Trespass in the Third Degree to a conviction of the violation of Trespass under Penal Law 140.05.”
“Given the lack of any prior criminal involvement by the defendants, and the non-violent nature of the violation committed, as a matter of discretion in the interest of justice, the judgments are also modified by reducing the sentence from a sentence of four weekends of incarceration to a sentence of unconditional discharge pursuant to Penal Law 65.20.”
We are pleased with the outcome of Judge Sherman's decision though we are disappointed that he didn't feel that the other two points were valid enough to address. The idea that we presented insufficient basis for the court to consider international law seems to us a little far fetched.
It is easy now to be tempted to go back to life as usual and forget what we did and why..... but let us not forget. Let us remember the U.S. troops who have died in Iraq whose number is now over 1,000 and steadily continues to rise; the people of Iraq who have suffered and died at the hand of our government; and the people of this country, especially the poor who are the ones most affected when our money and resources (most importantly being our young people) are squandered on war making. And let us not just remember them but let us continue to take concrete actions that affirm peace and justice in this world.
Thank you for all of you support, encouragement and enthusiasm. We are very grateful for the wonderful community that we are a part of. We would love to hear of any actions/projects that you are involved in. Thank you!
Sincerely,
Anna Ritter, Ana Grady Flores, Oona GradyDeFlaun and Marie de Mott Grady
Contact Information:
Oona: oonathetuna@yahoo.com