Labor,Anti-war&Civil Liberties Groups to Protest Tom Ridge, Chief of US Secret Police 7/23

Labor, Anti-war & Civil Liberties Groups to Protest
Tom Ridge, Chief of the U.S. Secret Police
(Sec. Homeland Security) On Visit to Bay Area
Wed. July 23

11:30am at the Mark Hopkins Hotel (California St. at Mason, SF)


Tom Ridge, Chief of U.S. Secret Police (Sec. of Homeland Security) will be greeted by a protest rally when he visits San Francisco next Wednesday July 23. The demonstration initiated by The ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) is also being called for by Mike Casey, President of Local 2, Hotel Restaurant Employees Union; Walter Johnson, Secretary Treasurer, San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO; Tony Gallardo, President of the Letter Carriers Union Local 214; Gloria La Riva, President of Typographical Sector of the Northern California Communication Workers; Connie Ford, Secretary Treasurer Office and Professional Employees Union Local 3; Howard Wallace of Pride at Work and other local labor leaders.

Tom Ridge directly intervened in the 2002 dockworkers lockout on the side of the Pacific Maritime Association, threatening the International Longshore Workers Union with using troops to unload ships under the auspices of “homeland security.” The Oakland Tribune reported on June 23rd that religious and political organizations were being spied on under the auspices of “homeland security”

Wednesday’s protest will also call for the freedom of political prisoners from world renowned political prisoners held in the U.S., writer Mumia Abu-Jamal, to immigrants who have been rounded up by the INS and are being held without a trial, access to legal representation or family. Ridge built his career persecuting political prisoners. As Pennsylvania’s governor Ridge signed Jamal’s death warrant twice to the outrage of thousands who protested the attempt to kill Jamal. The mass outpouring of opposition resulted in a stay of execution twice. Nelson Mandela, Bishop Desmond Tutu, National Black Police Officers Association along with thousands of other prominent organizations and individuals have called for a new trial for Abu Jamal.

“Ridge is the epitome of the racist police state attack on civil rights and civil liberties and the militarization of our society. He symbolizes the attempt to overturn the rights of all people who oppose Bush’s endless war. The cost of the war is leading to the lethal cuts to social services and education we’re feeling in this country. Ridge is the head of the new Secret Police,” said Tahnee Stair an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). ANSWER was the organizer of the mass peace marches throughout the last year and a half, which were illegally surveilled under the auspices of “homeland security” (Oakland Tribune June 23).

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