State Repression Conference--April 24th-Syracuse University-Free!

HOW FREE IS AMERICA?

There are already 2 million people in U.S. prisons. 2/3's of the people in prison are latino/a and African-American. Under the USA PATRIOT Act the FBI need not have a probable cause to conduct secret searches or surveillance on civilians, and the President can establish military tribunals for any person in the United States on the basis of secret evidence and hearsay.

A free conference discussing state repression and what can be done about it.
State your Response to State Repression
April 24th
Syracuse University
FREE!

HOW FREE IS AMERICA?

There are already 2 million people in U.S. prisons. 2/3's of the people in prison are latino/a and African-American. Under the USA PATRIOT Act the FBI need not have a probable cause to conduct secret searches or surveillance on civilians, and the President can establish military tribunals for any person in the United States on the basis of secret evidence and hearsay.

On September 11, 2001, the political landscape changed dramatically. Instantaneously, it became unpatriotic to criticize President Bush, the government, or US policy on any front. Activist groups like the Sierra Club announced that they were indefinitely suspending all criticism against Bush’s pro-corporate agenda as the nation tried to pull together.” (Best and Nocella, 2004, p. 9). The depletion of civil rights and freedoms are nowhere more obvious than with the October 26, 2001 passage of the USA PATRIOT Act, which gave the green light to the government to have unlimited mobility of their powers of surveillance, search and seizure, detention, and suppression of dissent. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) believes,

Many parts of this sweeping legislation [PATRIOT Act] take away checks on law enforcement and threaten the very rights and freedoms that we are struggling to protect. For example, without a warrant and without probable cause, the FBI now has the power to access your most private medical records, your library records, and your student records... and can prevent anyone from telling you it was done.

Neo-McCarthyism is upon us and the United States citizens are dumbfounded. All one needs to do is look around. The Mass arrest of nearly 500 nonviolent activists at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York city, which the judge (State Supreme Court Justice John Cataldo) ordered the immediate release of just hours before President Bush's speech at the Republican National Convention. Were not denied release by the city. The city was later fined in the refusal to comply with the judge’s order. Or look at the witch-hunt after animal rights activists that are involved in the international campaign Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty. “The government has issued a five-count federal indictment that charges each activist, and SHAC USA, with violations of the 1992 Animal Enterprise Protection Act, the first law that explicitly seeks to protect animal exploitation industries from animal rights protests.” The committee's minority leader, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), refused to partake in a meeting to talk about the denial of these aboveground nonviolent animal rights activists as a serious threat. It was a “… corporate conspiracy masked as a Senate hearing. Instead, Leahy wrote a statement for the public record that vilified the proceedings, wherein he remarked that , “most Americans would not consider the harassment of animal testing facilities to be 'terrorism,' any more than they would consider anti-globalization protestors or anti-war protestors or women's health activists to be terrorists.”

Of course in this age of Neo-McCarthyism the landscape in the United States has changed dramatically from the 1950s, but the blueprint is still is the same. Communists are replaced with terrorists. Attorney General John Ashcroft played the role of Senator Joseph McCarthy (and it remains to be seen whether or not Alberto Gonzalez will continue to fill those shoes), and the Congressional Meetings on Eco-Terrorism stand in for the House Un-American Activities Committee. Similar to the past, the government is convincing the public that the enemy lurks not only outside our borders, but within them as well. The Administration might even say, “There are those in this country that are not with us.” The danger is said to be catastrophic, a demand for immediate measures, with no questioning of implementation of counter-action with no limitations.

Please join us April 24th, 2005 at Syracuse University to begin to question U.S. policies. On April 24th, 2005, Syracuse University will be the site of a timely and highly important forum on civil liberties, the Bill of Rights, and freedom of expression, thought, and speech, at the State Your Re-Action to State Repression Conference. This conference is free and open to anyone who wishes to attend.

For information and inquiries, contact the Conference Committe
staterepression (at) gmail.com

Welcoming Opening Remarks (9:00-9:20)
Facilitator: Alyson Newquist, Conference Commitee Member
Professor Winston Grady-Willis, African American Studies at Syracuse University
Different Political Campaigns Against Repression (9:30-11:10)
Facilitator: Dr. Maxwell Schnurer, Marist College

1. Speaking in Defense of Lynne Stewart
Laura Raymond, National Lawyers Guild

2. Speaking in Defense of Dr. Rafil Dhafir Madis Senner, Dr. Rafil Dhafir Defense Committee

3. Speaking in Defense of Jeffrey "Free" Luers, Jamie Moran, Friends of Jeffrey Luers

Freedom of Speech and Action (11:20-12:50)
Facilitator: Joel Capolongo, Conference Committee Member

1. SHAC7
Andy Stepanian, Animal Defense League

2. Can the USA PATRIOT Act Be Patriotic?
Dr. John D. Brule, Professor Emeritus, College of Engineering, Syracuse University

3. Mark Spadafore, Central New York Labor Federation, Union Organizing
Lunch (12:50-1:40)
Nationalism, Racism, and Identity (1:50-3:20)
Facilitator: Diane Swords

1. Speaking in Support of Revolution is the U.S.
Leslie James Pickering, Arissa Press

2. From Fighting Terrorism Since 1492 to Ward Churchill
Scott Richard Lyons, Native American Studies, Syracuse University

3. International Foreign Imperialism
Professor Horace Campbell, Political Science and African American Studies, Syracuse University
Alternatives to Repression (3:30-5:00)
Facilitator: Jessica Maxwell, Syracuse Peace Council

1. Former Political Prisoner from the Jericho Movement

2. Abolish of Prisons
Ashanti Alston, Critical Resistance

3. Prisonization of Communities: What are the Alternatives?
Marsha Weissman, Director, Center for Community Alternatives and Alan Rosenthal, Director, Justice Strategies, Center for Community Alternatives Center for Community Alternatives (CCA)

Community Dialogue on Creative Responses to Repression (5:00-5:40)
Facilitators: Conflict Management Center (CMC), Maxwell School, Syracuse University

Group Break Out
Keynote Speaker (5:40-6:20)
Facilitator: pattrice jones, Coordinator, Eastern Shore Sanctuary

Terrorism: A Word Used to Repress
Ann Hansen
Closing Comments (6:20-6:40)
Facilitator: Eli Moore, Conference Committee Member

Professor Micere M. Githae Mugo Syracuse University, African American Studies
See also:
http://www.cala-online.org/events/State_Your_Reaction.htm