Detroit activists gather at the McNamara Building to demand a halt to attacks by the federal government against anti-war and solidarity organizations. The FBI staged raids in numerous cities targeting several organizations. (Photo: Abayomi Azikiwe)
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Local peace activists protest national FBI raids
By Zenobia Jeffries
The Michigan Citizen
DETROIT — Free speech, constitutional protections and liberty are all at stake for the protestors who gathered outside the McNamara Federal Building in downtown Detroit Sept. 28.
They were part of a national protest against FBI raids of the homes and offices of anti-war and solidarity activists in six cities across the country.
“There are 31 cities demonstrating today from Los Angeles to New York,” attorney and spokesperson for Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI) and Moratorium NOW! Jerry Goldberg told the Michigan Citizen.
In the early morning of Sept. 24, in “coordinated raids” FBI agents subpoenaed and raided homes of anti-war, trade union and “progressive” activists in six cities: Grand Rapids, Mich.; Chicago, Ill.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Minneapolis, Minn.; and Durham, N.C. It’s been reported that activists in California were also victims of the raids.
“Computers, books, documents, notebooks, cell phones, passports, videos, photos, items belonging to the victims’ children and other personal belongings” were confiscated from eight homes and offices.
Protestors have been denouncing the raids through demonstrations and protests since Sept. 27.
Goldberg said all the demonstrations were being held at approximately the same time in front of federal buildings around the nation to send a message to the federal government. The groups are calling on the government to disband the grand jury scheduled to hear testimony from those subpoenaed beginning Oct. 5 in Chicago.
“A grand jury is being set up to meet Oct. 5 to indict people without lawyers,” Goldberg said. “We demand [it] be disbanded.”
Goldberg likened the raids to the [anti-communist] hearings that took place during the McCarthy era.
“This is nothing but a witch hunt,” he said. “Like McCarthyism. These so-called investigations need to stop.”
Tom Burke of Grand Rapids says his home was not raided, but he and his wife both received subpoenas the day of the raids to appear before a grand jury in Chicago Oct. 19.
Burke, who speaks out publicly in support of Colombia, says he doesn’t know how it was determined whose home or office would be raided and whose would only be subpoenaed.
“As of today, 14 people have been subpoenaed,” Burke said, the morning following the Detroit protest. “This is a repression of the antiwar movement … Most of us care a lot about Palestine and Colombia … We try to bring peace and be good neighbors instead of making war on people,” Burke said.
Burke is a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) and Columbia Action Network.
Burke’s subpoena requires him to submit “all materials, photographs, e-mails, any type of information or communication concerning work with interaction with Colombian trade unionist.”
“People had boxes and boxes of their files, hard drives and children’s artwork taken away,” he said.
“It’s not a crime to say you support people of Colombia, Palestine, Afghanistan, or Iraq. It’s not a crime to say you’re opposed to U.S. militarism and imperialism. It’s not a crime to say you support the oppressed all over the world,” said Abayomi Azikiwe of MECAWI. “It’s not a crime to say you support independence and justice.”
Azikiwe, who’s also an organizer with the Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, says MECAWI and Moratorium NOW! have joined the International Action Center in condemning the Sept. 24 FBI raids on the anti-war and solidarity activists.
“We’re in total solidarity with those raided,” Azikiwe told the M.C.
Azikiwe says the raids are a diversion to deflect the growing unemployment, poverty, feuds with school closures and healthcare in the United States, and their [the U.S.] losing war in Colombia and Afghanistan.
“It’s a mechanism to divert people’s attention on liberation movements across the world because they [the movements] are making progress,” says Azikiwe. “There’s no future in U.S. imperialism. The U.S. stands naked before the world.”
Azikiwe says all around the world people are seeing the bankruptcy of U.S. imperialism being exposed.
“We condemn the FBI, the U.S. Justice Department, and the Obama Administration,” says Azikiwe. “If he [Obama] doesn’t change this course, he’ll definitely be a one-term president.”
Goldberg says the raids are an extension of a legal case [Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project] in the Obama Administration that continues from the Bush Administration.
In Holder v. HLP the court made it a crime to provide support, including humanitarian aid, literature distribution and political advocacy to any foreign entity that the government has designated as a “terrorist” group.
“They got the Supreme Court to redefine the definition of material aide,” Goldberg said. “[Obama] is continuing the Bush Administration policy to attack free speech.
“[The organizations experiencing FBI harrassment] haven’t given money to [these] liberation movements,” said Goldberg.
Burke says the agent serving him told him the goal was to bring charges of material support for groups on the U.S. terrorist list.
Burke believes the charges are false.
“We don’t send money or material to any groups … we publish interviews, do analysis of what’s happening in Colombia and Palestine and many other places,” said Burke. “Any money or funds go to publishing the newspapers.”
Burke says the networking organizations’ goal is to bring awareness to those in the United States and support to those in war-ridden countries.
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) issued a statement in support of the peace activists.
“The Guild denounces the attacks on free speech, freedom of association, and the right to dissent that these actions represent. The raids and summonses reflect escalating hostility toward individuals and groups working in solidarity with the Palestinian and Colombian people and are blatant political attacks on peaceful activists.”
The NLG is coordinating defense of the raids.
The San Franciso Labor Council Union adopted a resolution Sept. 27 also condemning the raids.
They wrote in the resolution that the raids, “marks [sic] a new and dangerous chapter in the protracted assault on the First Amendment rights of every union fighter, solidarity activist or anti-war campaigner, which began with 9/11 and the USA Patriot Act.”
All groups, organizations, unions, etc. affiliated with the protests and demonstrations are demanding the government:
- Stop the repression against trade union, anti-war and international solidarity activists.
- Immediately return all confiscated materials.
- End the Grand Jury proceedings and FBI raids against trade union, anti-war and international solidarity activists.
A coalition of progressive organizations in metro Detroit participated in the Detroit protest, including Solidarity, the Green Party, UAW members, AFT members, National Lawyer’s Guild members, MECAWI, Moratorium NOW! Coalition, Bail Out the People Movement, UAW Pride at Work member, Peace Action Michigan, Detroit People’s Task Force, Workers World Party, Labor Notes, International Action Center, and Labor Exchange.
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