"Defending the Rights of the People in the Age of Ashcroft"

"Defending the Rights of the People in the Age of Ashcroft," featuring Clark Kissinger.
Saturday, December 6th, 7 pm
First Congregational Church of Oakland
2501 Harrison Street, Oakland

see also: http://www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/bayarea.html

Amerikkka is a racist, fascist police state. Still don't believe it? Refuse & Resist! invites you to come to an organizing meeting and discussion on "Defending the Rights of the People in the Age of Ashcroft" featuring Clark Kissinger. Learn how the massive attack on civil liberties and the right to dissent in this country is situated in and flows from the U.S. grab for total global power - Bush's War on the World. Since 9/11, we have seen

-attacks, roundups, and detentions of Arab, Muslim, and South Asian immigrants
-restrictions on dissent
-erosion of civil liberties
-increased government secrecy

We have also seen an outrageous explosion of police brutality, accompanied sadly by less media coverage of the police brutality epidemic.

Learn about what has changed, why it has changed, and why it is so important that we build a movement, community, and culture of resistance: There is a crying need today for resistance to be raised on a whole new level. Only a powerful resistance movement can stop this repression! We need to build off the noncompliance of librarians and hundreds of city council resolutions against the Patriot Act! Come and be part of building a resistance movement against Ashcroft and Bush's reactionary agenda!

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Who is Clark Kissinger :

Clark is a member of the National Council of Refuse & Resist! He has been a
radical activist, writer and speaker for over 40 years.

-Former national secretary of Students for a Democratic Society
-In the 60s worked closely with Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party in Chicago
-Organized a major conference in 1983 on the nature of the Soviet Union
-Working journalist whose articles have appeared in The Nation, NY Times Magazine, NY Times Book Review and the Revolutionary Worker newspaper.
-In 1992-to 1993 - in Los Angeles he was defending the LA4 and other prisoners
of the LA Rebellion
-Known for his analysis and writings around the case of revolutionary death row journalist Mumia Abu Jamal. After an arrest at the Liberty Bell for Mumia, his passport was seized and he was confined to NYC for a year to keep him from organizing. During the Republican National Convention in 2000, he defied the court order to give a speech against the death penalty and in support of Mumia and subsequently served 90 days in jail.
-For the past 2 years, he has been a organizer of the Not in Our Name statement of conscience in opposition to the current climate of war and repression.

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For more information contact:
Refuse & Resist!
510-704-5293

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About Refuse & Resist!:

http://www.refuseandresist.org/

Refuse & Resist is a national membership organization, founded in 1987 by artists, activists, lawyers and others. If you want to say no to the Patriot Act, no to the roundups and detentions; to police brutality and police state measures, to attacks on women, gays & lesbians, and abortion providers because without them there be no choice - then you need to come to this meeting.

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From J. A. L.:

Most of the above was copied from a flier I received about this event, with a few additions/amendments of my own. I would like to add a bit of commentary here.

As an anarchist, I would like to see a stronger anti-authoritarian influence on this movement. I am always disappointed to see so few anarchists/anti-authorians/anti-capitalists at these kinds of events dealing with civil liberties. We as anarchists need to preserve our ability to speak out freely. We need to be present in the resistance against repression, the roll-back of civil liberties, and police brutality. These are important issues of the here and now , and we have the opportunity and the obligation to shape the response to them. We can help maintain the egalitarian, anti-authoritarian spirit of this movement by actively participating in it. This is a movement with the potential to unite millions of people. It is also an opportunity to put common-sense, non-hierarchical principles to work. Let's learn to cooperate and we can really get things done.

So here's my special call to all anarchists/anti-authorians/anti-capitalists: SHOW UP for this meeting! And get involved in this movement. You help is desperately needed.

Sat, Dec 6, 2003 7:00 pm
Discussion: "Defending the Rights of the People in the Age of Ashcroft"
First Congregational Church of Oakland
2501 Harrison Street, Oakland

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cool site: http://www.tao.ca/~lemming/abr/
Anarchism and the Black Revolution by Lorenzo Komboa Ervin