SHUT DOWN ICE!!!

I.
IT HAS BEGUN. Last week we saw government officials blow open people's doors in the middle of the night to kidnap so called "gang members." They came for us.
Each night we wait in panic, waiting to see who next of our friends and family will be disappeared. But today is something else.
Today, a day when we celebrate the dead and disappeared-- a day when we don masks to make the real monsters tremble in their empty coffers-- it begins.

Some say it began 516 years ago with the arrival of European colonizers-- but how do we trace the beginning of domination? First we will try to offer you, in the language of numbers,
what they will call "evident." We are told we must begin with what is evident:
ICE disappeared 4,956 people in the past 11 months, from Oct 1, 2007 to Aug 31, 2008.
Last week over 20 ICE disappearances were carried out in the Bay.

How do we explain to our neighbors that what is evident for us began so many years ago? How do we explain that so many of our grievances stem from the way
wealth is organized, exchanged, and stolen? The North American Free Trade Agreement of 1994 brought many of us here, into this country, following the wealth
as the working conditions in our own countries were degraded, as our farm lands were stolen. The rich in our countries lined their pockets while we found that our best option
was to leave behind our communities, loved ones. That, we suppose, is our first disappearance.
For us, it began there, in our leaving.

Our Dear San Francisco,
All Hollow’s Eve, 2008.
II.
AND HERE, IN THE US, WE DISAPPEAR. Our schools disappear us from their histories so our young people fight each semester to recognize themselves in the books they study.
We are disappeared into the dark corners of streets— for a breath of cold SF air, or to catch up with the block, the cops maddoggin us. Restaurants disappear us into the back
rooms of kitchens. We walk babies of the wealthy; our own motherhood disappeared behind a 1200-dollar stroller. We clean their homes. We are disappeared in the hour between
check in and check out, folding new bed sheets, replenishing the toilet paper for businessmen. We are disappeared into the gulf’s economic disasters. We are disappeared into labor
camps under firearms. We are disappeared in the brush behind manicured lawns. We are disappeared inside of sewing lairs and strung between trunks of new fall fashion. We disappear
in the drowned out steam of spas and massaged into other people’s pleasure. We are disappeared behind filter masks to hide our gagging from the feet we touch and clean every day.
We are disappeared into homeless and women’s shelters, SRO’s, public housing high rises. We are disappeared into their marriages. We are disappeared into their ballot boxes.
And finally, we are disappeared in the middle of the night, shoved into black vans, brought to the labyrinth of cells in the ICE building downtown. We are disappeared to Guantanamo,
into the industry of terror, or we are disappeared into the city, state, or federal prison industry so they can turn millions of dollars each year—so they can disperse our communities.
But today is something else.
III.
FOR US, We who laugh in the face of this absurd situation, We who are not so much in awe of the enormity of oppression as we are freedom fighters, mothers, rebel workers,
rebel students-- those of us who with our feet walk today towards their terrible theaters of power and dominance, with our arms push back harder, and with our hands build new worlds--
Today, we do not only denounce at our late night kitchen tables, we do not speak quietly, wounded, overwhelmed by the federal police.
Today we do not vanish into this terrible era of disappearances, today we become more than our enemies, more than their workforce, more than their electoral base--
today we become more than our own private traumas, today we learn to trust one another more than we trust the politicians, the bosses and their police--
we take a confident step towards a world where we meet our own needs with dignity, where we make justice real, malleable, palatable.
Last week, they came for us and today we come for them.
TODAY, IN SAN FRANCISCO, WE SHUTDOWN I.C.E. to help create a culture that will shut down every last one of their sick institutions, finally, and for good.
It is always beginning.
It was our backs you saw on the cover of the Examiner being hauled away by ICE agents,

countless numbers of your "criminal" kin in San Francisco,
Russel Khan
inez sunwoo
days in april collective

STOP THE RAIDS NOW!

dear comrades, dear family

i know you have gotten this email already, but i cannot stress the importance of doing what you can to show your support and/or presence, as well as turn out your people.

IN CASE you have not yet heard of the escalation of the 'low intensity war" on immigrants and people of color and their allies, it is critical that you take note of the recent activities in the bay area that have claimed more lives. in san francisco alone, 17 coordinated raids at 3 in the morning were launched by feds in a so called "sanctuary" zone, with information undoubtedly gathered by sfpd gang units, and charges carried out by sf DA kamala harris. the raids involved the use of explosives, tear gas, and military insurgency. they pulled this shit in the middle of the night when people were asleep. the police and feds have enjoyed much support in the form of funding, weaponry, training, intelligence gathering, racist ignorant vigilante factions, complicit media, sweeping legislation that criminalizes goddamn near everyone, and the fear instilled under homeland security. they heralded this attack to be a great victory. to us, it is nothing more that the same bullshit treatment that people who already who do all the shit work, for shit pay (if it is even paid or acknowledged at all) under shit conditions, live under. this has got to stop. you all know this.

for this reason, the youth came together to organize this demonstration. to wake us up. so come on. let's hit the streets, and take serious action, and back up the students who have organized to get one back. and not just the scenario where we march, go home, and read about another raid the next day. let's take it to another level.

if you have not already made arrangements to do so, please mobilize, and urge action on a broad level.

POC, and especially my Korean comrades, i'll see you there.

love,
inez

STOP THE RAIDS NOW!!!
PARTICIPATE IN THE YOUTH-LED RESISTANCE AGAINST THE IMMIGRATION RAIDS AND
DEPORTATIONS!
This 2008 year marks the 40th anniversary of the mass mobilizations that were going on globally in 1968. Looking back at the various liberation struggles within the U.S. during that time, we as youth take pride in the organizing efforts of our elders—our communities that paved the way for the present youth to continue that same resistance. We are inspired by the works of freedom fighters from the Black Liberation Movement, the Chicano Movement, the American Indian Movement, in their fight for land, education, justice, peace and self-determination.
Today, we continue fighting to keep what we have won and fight harder for our collective liberation. Giving honor to all those who fought not only for their communities, but for the generations to follow, we have to ask ourselves—Are we justly following in their footsteps? Most of the struggles that our elders fought for are still going on today!!

Through out the history of oppression, from slavery to incarceration, from Japanese internment camps of the 1940s, to the current immigration detention centers, from the Chinese Exclusion Act of the 1920s, to Prop 187, HR4437, SB2611, Patriot Act and other recent bills, the U.S.
government has reinvented waves of hate and discrimination that have scapegoated people of color, the poor and working-class immigrant communities.
We have the power and the opportunity to do something about it! We cannot sit back and watch as the discrimination and racism continues to affect our people right before our very eyes. Think about it…
Will the future generations look up to us, as we do the freedom fighters of the ‘60s?
Will we be an inspiration, or a disappointment?
Since the nationwide mobilizations of May 1st 2006, the conditions in our communities have worsened. The repercussions of mobilizing have resulted in more I.C.E. raids than ever before, to instill fear and to prevent us from speaking up against these injustices. In 2007 alone, 276,912 U.S. residents were deported. Families continue to be separated and our communities targeted.
Free trade agreements and foreign policies are still in place as more walls continue to be built to define and secure borders. Natural resources continue to be extracted from our countries while the flow of money crosses borders. Our people are prevented from following work opportunities that have been taken from them in their country of origin.
As a society, we all benefit from the fruits of exploited immigrant labor. More importantly, as youth with the privilege to speak up and in comparison to those who risk everything, we have nothing to lose, therefore it is our duty to do something about these injustices. We cannot go on during our life time without standing up and taking action!

We must stop the persecution and criminalization of our people! End the attacks on economic and political refugees!
We cannot allow this government to continue to divide and conquer. We must break down the borders that were set up to divide us.
Young people…our time is NOW! Search deep within your soul and ask yourself—What Am I going to do? With the types of injustices going on in society today, nobody should be at peace or oblivious to the suffering of our communities.
We will not let them intimidate us into silence!
NO ONE IS ILLEGAL!!!

To get involved, please contact: stoptheraidsnow@gmail.com

grassroots media tour!

Aid and Abet Media Strategy, Publicity, and Tour Management


Presenter Schedule:

October 2 - 6 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jen Angel
October 7 - 8 Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jen Angel, Jordan Flaherty
October 9 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jordan Flaherty
October 10 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Puck Lo, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
October 11 - 13 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
October 14 - 15 - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
October 17 - 23 - Hadassah Hill, Jordan Flaherty, Jesse Muhammad
–

October 2 – Chapel Hill, NC
Internationalist Books
405 W Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516
7 p.m.
For more info: 919-942-1740 / Internationalist Books

October 3 – Greensboro, NC
The HIVE, 1214 Grove St.
(Near the Coliseum, Glenwood Library and UNCG)
7:30pm-9:30pm
More info: Isabell or 336.209.4641

October 4 & 5 – Asheville, NC
Firestorm Cafe & Books, 48 Commerce St. (next to the purple building), Downtown Asheville, NC
More info: 828-255-8115 or Kila
Oct 4: 7 p.m. Presentation
Oct 5: 12 noon “Pressed for Knowledge” workshop
Oct 5: 2 p.m.: “From Oral History to Radio Documentary” Workshop

October 7 – Atlanta, GA
Charis Books & More, 7 p.m.
More info: Kerrie

October 9 – Valdosta, GA
More info: Zachary
Hildegard’s, 101 E. Central Ave, 7 p.m.

October 10-11 – Miami, FL
The Workers Center, 6127 NW 7th Ave, Miami, fl, 33127
Oct 10: 7 to 9 p.m., Oct 11: Workshops, 1 to 5 p.m.
More info: Joseph or 305-759-8717 ext 1029

October 12 – Gainesville, FL
Civic Media Center, 1021 W. University Ave
For more info: Civic Media Center or (352) 373-0010
Workshops at 3 and 5, Presentation at 7 p.m.

October 13 – Pensacola FL
More info: Open Books
3 p.m. “Pressed for Knowledge” Workshop: University of West Florida, Room 191 in Building 36, the Communication Arts building, 11000 University Pkwy, Pensacola, FL 32514, Sponsored by The Voyager
7 p.m. Presentation, Center for Social Justice, 1603 N. Davis Hwy., Pensacola, sponsored by Movement for Change

October 14 – New Orleans, LA
7pm
Seventh Ward Neighborhood Center, 1943 Pauger St (at Urquhart), New Orleans, LA
Co-Sponsored by New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival and Mondo Bizarro
More info: Jordan

October 16 & 17 - San Antonio, TX
Details TBA
More info: Graciela or DeAnne

October 18 – Houston, TX
Rice Cinema on the Rice University Campus, entrance #8, University and Stockton Drive
Workshops: 2 p.m., Presentation: 7:30 p.m.
Sponsors: Houston Media and Sedition Books
More info: Tish

October 19-21 – Austin, TX
Sponsored by Skillshare Austin
Oct 19: doors at 1, workshops 2-7:30 with dinner break. , 3121 E 12th, Austin, TX, 78702
Oct 20: 7 p.m. Monkeywrench Books, 110 E. North Loop, Austin, Texas 78751

October 22 – Denton, TX
8 to 10 p.m., J&J’s Pizza, 118 West Oak Street, on the square
Web Presence workshop, 2-3:30 pm, Texas Woman’s University library

STAND AND EVACUATED NEW ORLEANS RESIDENTS RELEASE SHELTER CONDITIONS REPORT AND GAIN CITY SUPPORT FOR RESIDENT DEMANDS

CONTACT: SAKET SONI 504 8816610

STAND / NEW ORLEANS WORKERS' CENTER FOR RACIAL JUSTICE


STAND AND EVACUATED NEW ORLEANS RESIDENTS RELEASE SHELTER CONDITIONS REPORT AND GAIN CITY SUPPORT FOR RESIDENT DEMANDS

Never Again: Lessons from Louisiana's Gustav Evacuation

On a rainy Monday morning, less than one week since returning home from state-run warehouse shelters, over fifty evacuees with STAND and The New Orleans Workers' Center for Racial Justice exposed Louisiana's differential shelter policy and the sub-human condition in press conference on the door step of City Hall. Upon the release of a comprehensive reports on Louisiana's warehouse shelters, entitled "Never Again: Lesson from Louisiana's Gustav Evacuation," STAND and residents demanded an end to the inhuman shelters condition and state policy that forces mother to bath their newborn in dirty portable toilet using bottle water.

As resident marched into city hall to delivering over 1500 petition signatures and the report, they demand their city Leaders Mayor Ray and Council Member Fielkow to take a public stance. What residents discovered where two different responses. Upon arrival to Mayor Ray Nagin office, residents and supporters were immediately met with close doors and arm security guards. While the mayoral staffs agreed to set up meeting with evacuees, Mayor Ray Nagin continued to avoid taking a public position by choosing to dine out at "Little Dizzy" instead of receiving New Orleans evacuees in a meeting. Still determined, Stand and New Orleans residents immediately met with City Council Member Arnold Fielkow and asked that he take a public stand on whether he support residents' demands to revoke the state differential treatment policy that forced the most vulnerable New Orleans' residents into inhumane shelter conditions.

As evacuated New Orleans residents took their demands to City Hall, they saw the beginnings of public recognition of the state's failures. Louisiana Department of Social Services Secretary Ann Williamson resigned and Governor Jindal finally publicly stated his disappointment with aspects of the Gustav Evacuation. They continue to put pressure on local and state elected officials to revoke the differential treatment sheltering policy, apologize, and involve affected residents.

The newly released report, Never Again: Lessons from Louisiana's Gustav Evacuation exposes Louisiana's differential treatment sheltering policy which directs that in disasters, the state shall segregate evacuees relying on city/ state transportation in state-run warehouse shelters separate from evacuees using their own cars. Pursuant to this policy, the state advisory system directs self-transporting evacuees to separate parish, Red Cross, and church shelters with better conditions. Those who evacuate by bus are primarily the residents who do not have the economic means (or the cars) to self-evacuate, including homeless residents, public housing residents, low-wage workers, low-income renters, and their families – almost all African American.

This report's findings are based on assessments of the state-run warehouse shelters and extensive interviews of hundreds of affected residents. The findings expose startling inequity. In the Gustav evacuation, the state's differential treatment policy subjected the most vulnerable state residents to extremely inhumane shelter conditions. In each of the four state-run warehouse shelters, over a thousand evacuees were housed in a single large one-room space. Women, infants, children, the elderly, the sick, and the disabled were all using the same space, without privacy, and sharing the same bathrooms – outdoor portable toilets. They had no access to running water inside the facilities. The only showers-- until close to the end of the evacuations-- were the portable toilets outside, in which mothers were washing themselves and their babies with bottled water. Residents had limited access to medical care, and no access to counselors or to news from the state about the hurricane and its aftermath.

KEY FINDINGS OF THE REPORT:

• As Gustav approached, the poorest communities had no choice but to place themselves in the hands of the state at their most vulnerable moment. They trusted that Louisiana's plan for evacuation, sheltering, and return was designed for their safety. Communities counted on the state for access to humanitarian relief in a time of disaster.

• The state's plan achieved the very opposite result. The Department of Social Services sheltering policy had profoundly inequitable impacts on the poorest evacuees – blocking them from humanitarian relief. The policy forced those who were worst off into the worst shelter conditions.

• The inequitable impacts persisted well beyond the disaster. The state policy drove residents into cumulative disadvantage: over the course of seven days, residents became poorer and sicker as a direct result of shelter treatment and conditions. As a result, residents returned home to New Orleans in greater economic disadvantage and more vulnerable that when they left.

• In large part these were residents who were already disadvantaged as a result of Hurricane Katrina. Three years after the breach of the levees, these residents were still profoundly experiencing displacement and poverty as the result of the failed governmental response to Katrina and its aftermath.

• These residents are now deeply unwilling to trust the state or to participate in future evacuations. Almost without exception, residents expressed their preference to risk staying even as a hurricane approaches rather than to evacuate into the deplorable and humiliating conditions they had to face during Gustav.


CONCLUSIONS:

• Louisiana Governor Jindal and DSS Sec. Williamson should revoke the differential treatment sheltering policy, apologize for the suffering it caused vulnerable residents, and direct DSS to work with directly affected communities and their representatives to develop a new sheltering policy.

• The state's new shelter plan must be based on principles of inclusion, access, and equity for poor and working class African Americans and for all communities in Louisiana.

• The state must include the directly affected communities-- those who have the hardest time evacuating-- in creating the plan for shelters during disaster.

• A state shelter plan must give the hardest-hit communities equal access to humanitarian relief during every phase of disaster-- because they need it the most.

• The state must ensure that the policy is equitable. The present differential treatment shelter policy plays out to proactively disadvantage poor and working class African Americans – whether by intention, or by impact. The state must instead adopt an equitable disaster policy that proactively advantages the poor by prioritizing them at the precise time that they are most vulnerable.