Build the July 25 Million People’s March Against Police Brutality, Racial Injustice

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[LFN] Urgent! Build the July 25 Million People’s March in Newark, N.J., Against Police Brutality, Racial Injustice and Economic Inequality!


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Urgent! Build the July 25 Million People’s March in Newark, N.J., Against Police Brutality, Racial Injustice and Economic Inequality!

Police brutality, especially as directed against young Black and Brown men, is one of the most pressing issues in the U.S. today. Organized labor can and must take the right stand on this issue and join with the People's Organization for Progress (POP), #Black Lives Matter, Moral Mondays, and hundreds of other organizations committed to racial and economic justice in calling for mass actions against police brutality.

The Labor Fightback Network (LFN) voted at our recent conference in Rutgers, N.J., to make building the Million People’s March Against Police Brutality, Racial Injustice and Economic Inequality in Newark, N.J. called for by POP our first priority campaign. July 25 is barely over a month away. We need to work quickly to maximize labor participation.

Why is this a priority for a labor-based network? The better question would be: Why would it not be our priority? Labor cannot stand aside when any of us are victimized. We are a multiracial movement, and as the old labor slogan says, "An injury to one is an injury to all." Police brutality endangers our members, our children, and our neighborhoods. Labor history includes many incidents of direct attacks by police on our members and supporters.

We salute ILWU Local 10 for shutting down the Oakland, Calif., port recently in solidarity with the Black community's battle against police violence. We call on all labor to follow Local 10's lead.

So what can you do right now to build the July 25th march?

1. Make it your priority, especially if you live on the East Coast, to turn out as many people as possible! We need union contingents. Invite everyone in your union and all the other organizations you or your family may belong to, such as faith communities and student, issue-based, and community groups. Help organize carpools and buses to ensure that getting there is as easy as possible.

2. Get endorsements. LFN supporters have a special role in getting endorsements from national and local unions and labor councils. While we understand that West Coast and Midwest supporters might not be able to attend, we all can seek endorsements. This may take a while, so please start now. Please use or adapt the sample resolution below.

3. Publicize the march in your union newsletter and on social media.

4. Organizing takes money -- consider asking your union to donate to POP to help build the march.

Please let LFN and POP know if you get labor or organizational endorsements and commitments to attend. Contact:

People's Organization for Progress:

Postal mail: P.O. Box 22505, Newark, NJ 07101-2505

Telephone: (973) 801-0001

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://njpop.org/wordpress/

Million People's March on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/events/418074548350082/

Labor Fightback Network:

Postal mail: P.O. Box 187, Flanders, NJ 07836

Telephone: (973) 975-9704

E-mail: [email protected]

Website: http://laborfightback.org

Labor Fightback Blog: http://laborfightback.wordpress.com

Labor Fightback Network on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/laborfightback

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Sample Resolution to Endorse and Build the July 25 Million People’s March Against Police Brutality, Racial Injustice and Economic Inequality in Newark, New Jersey!

Whereas:

Police brutality is an ongoing, growing and deadly problem in the United States of America.

It includes the unwarranted and unjustified killing of unarmed people, the use of excessive force, the violation of peoples' constitutional rights, racist and discriminatory practices, criminal activity, corruption and misconduct, increased militarization of police forces, and the failure of the criminal justice system to hold police accountable.

Police brutality is not an isolated problem. It is an historical problem with roots that are deep in the social fabric of this country. It must be seen within the broader context of racial and economic injustice and inequality.

While the victims of police brutality come from all racial groups in society, the vast majority comes from African American, Latino, Native American and other communities of color. They are overwhelmingly poor and working class.

The People's Organization for Progress (POP) is calling a MILLION PEOPLE'S MARCH Against Police Brutality, Racial Injustice, And Economic Inequality on July 25, 2015 in downtown Newark, N.J. (meeting at 12 noon at the Lincoln Monument, located at the intersection of West Market St. and Springfield Ave).

The call for the Million People's March demands an end to police brutality and justice for all of its victims, police reform, and an end to the problems of racial injustice and economic inequality, which lead to police brutality.

Therefore be it resolved that:

We [list union or organization] demand an end to police brutality, police violence, police torture and police terror.

We demand the firing and prosecution of police officers involved in unjustifiable killing of unarmed civilians, use of excessive force, and violation of citizens constitutional rights.

We demand community control of the police. We demand the establishment of Civilian Complaint Police Review Boards with subpoena and disciplinary powers over police forces.

We demand legislation at the federal, state, and local levels that will punish police that engage in the unjustifiable killing of unarmed civilians, use of excessive force, and violation of citizens’ constitutional rights.

We demand an immediate halt to all efforts to further militarize the police in this country. We demand the immediate termination of the federal government’s 1033 program that provides military equipment and hardware to local police forces.

We demand justice for all victims of police brutality. We demand justice for every person who has been unjustly abused, brutalized, and killed by the police.

We demand that the police stop the mass arrest of protestors.

We demand an immediate halt to all police actions and policies that impair, limit, attempt to control, or aim to prevent the exercise of freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, other civil liberties, and the right to protest.

We demand an immediate halt to police efforts to spy on, infiltrate, disrupt, and destroy organizations, associations, political parties, unions and dissident groups that are not involved in illegal activities.

We demand local, state, and federal legislation that will give Civilian Complaint Police Review Boards the power to discipline police officers.

Therefore, be in finally resolved that [list union or organization] endorses and will support this March.

[ckaihatsu]

Hundreds rally in Durham in solidarity with Charleston, against white supremacist terror attack

http://www.fightbacknews.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/article-lead-photo/NCprotest.JPG

By staff

Durham, NC - Over 200 people gathered in east Durham on June 20 to rally and speak out against the white supremacist terror attack in Charleston that left nine African Americans dead earlier this week. The rally, organized by the Durham Solidarity Center, included speakers from Muslims for Social Justice, Black Workers for Justice, Workers World Party, as well as other activists and organizers in the community.

"I still feel numb over what happened," said Lamont Lilly, the emcee of the event. "Every week there is a hashtag of someone in our community who's been killed." Another speaker quoted Malcom X, saying, "We are not Americans, we are victims of America."

While the overriding emotions expressed were of shock and pain, many speakers urged those in attendance to organize, defend the community and keep fighting back against racist terror and police killings. Desmera Gatewood gave an powerful speech that urged everyone attending to work every day to challenge the system of racist oppression. Qasima Wideman, speaking for Muslims for Social Justice, noted, "We call on Muslim community to join us in challenging white supremacy in all its forms, whether murders of Black and brown people by police, school-to-prison-pipeline, prison-industrial-complex, environmental racism, gentrification or the war on poor."

Read more News and Views from the Peoples Struggle at http://www.fightbacknews.org. You can write to us at [email protected]

[ckaihatsu]

Federal judge hails "historic" $2.2 mil settlement for free speech and police reforms


Partnership for Civil Justice Fund

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Federal judge hails "historic" free speech settlement between the PCJF and federal gov't

Calls settlement's police reforms "a model for other law enforcement agencies"

After nearly 13 years of litigation, a federal judge has approved an unprecedented settlement between the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) and the Justice Department and the Department of the Interior that will significantly change the handling of mass protests in the United States.

The settlement lays out policies and rules that, among other requirements, effectively prohibit the "trap and detain" kettling tactic and use of police lines to encircle demonstrations; prohibits mass sweeping arrests of protestors by emphasizing the requirement of individualized probable cause before arrests at free speech activities; and in circumstances where there is a lawful basis for a dispersal order, requires fair notice and warning to demonstrators as well as opportunity to comply with police orders to disperse, to be given three times at least two minutes apart and with avenues of exit announced through effective sound amplification.

Noting that the Department of Justice is a signatory to the "extremely significant settlement" with the PCJF and has an "active role" in "reviewing practices and procedures of local law enforcement" across the country, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan stated that the reforms embedded in the agreement should "serve as a model for other law enforcement agencies," and urged that they "take a hard look at this settlement" in an effort to comply with Constitutional standards.

The Washington Post summarized the settlement and its national implications in an article excerpted below. Please read it and share!



http://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/justiceonline/mailings/32/attachments/original/17-Washington-Post-Logo.jpg?1435083030

Judge approves settlement over U.S. Park Police’s handling of protests

By Spencer S. Hsu

Ending a 13-year legal struggle, a federal judge gave final approval Monday to a settlement in which the federal government agreed to new terms of engagement with demonstrators in the nation’s capital and agreed to pay $2.2 million to almost 400 protesters and bystanders swept up by U.S. and local police during a September 2002 demonstration against the World Bank.

The District in 2010 agreed to pay $8.25 million to the same class-action litigants, who were picked up in a mass arrest at Pershing Park, and also agreed to overhaul police practices to protect the First Amendment rights of protesters.

In approving the deal, U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan called the settlement “historic” and said it could guide police agencies nationwide.

The settlement came in the wake of unrest prompted by the injuries and deaths of unarmed black men in custody in cities such as Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore, as the Justice Department reviews whether local authorities have engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional policing.

“It is significant this agreement is with the federal government, because the Department of Justice is reviewing the practices and the policies of local law enforcement agencies,” Sullivan said. “I hope this agreement will serve as a model for local jurisdictions across the country.”

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, the nonprofit group that brought the case, said the agreement disproves the belief that the free speech and assembly rights of protesters “have to be constricted for the sake of security and order.”

“There is simply no basis by which any other jurisdiction’s police department can legitimately claim it cannot enact these procedural standards that conform to fundamental constitutional requirements,” Verheyden-Hilliard said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Marina Braswell told the court that the settlement, which concerned the U.S. Park Police and incidents involving other agencies — D.C. police in the Pershing Park case — could help shape policies for other law enforcement agencies called in to provide such inter-agency assistance.

Read the rest of the article here

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[LaborTech] New ACLU Cellphone App Automatically Preserves Video of Police Encounters


New ACLU Cellphone App Automatically Preserves Video of Police Encounters

http://www.thenation.com/blog/205889/new-aclu-cellphone-app-automatically-preserves-video-police-encounters

Jon Wiener on May 1, 2015 - 11:00 AM ET


http://www.thenation.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/main_node_view_image/enhanced-buzz-wide-2188-1428687391-272.jpg
Image courtesy Lalo Alcaraz. ©2015 (Lalo Alcaraz/Universal Uclick)

The ACLU in California today released a free smart-phone app that allows people to send cellphone videos of police encounters to the ACLU, automatically—and the ACLU will preserve the video footage, even if the cops seize the phone and delete the video or destroy the phone. The app, “Mobile Justice CA,” works for both iPhones and Android users. It’s available at Apple’s App Store and at Google Play.

The app features a large red “Record” button in the middle of the screen. When it’s pressed, the video is recorded on the phone and a duplicate copy is transmitted simultaneously to the ACLU server. When the “stop” button is pressed, a “Report” screen appears, where information about the location of the incident and the people involved can also be transmitted to the ACLU. The video and the information are treated as a request for legal assistance and reviewed by staff members. No action is taken by the ACLU, however, unless an explicit request is made, and the reports are treated as confidential and privileged legal communications. The videos, however, may be shared by the ACLU with the news media, community organizations or the general public to help call attention to police abuse.

The app is available in English and Spanish. It includes a “Know Your Rights” page.

The value of the Mobile Justice app was dramatized this month in the Los Angeles suburb of South Gate, where a bystander taped cops detaining people in her neighborhood. A second person was recording her, and in that video, a lawman rushes at the first woman, grabs her cell phone, and smashes it on the floor. The second video ended up on YouTube. (South Gate police later said the officer was not a local cop but rather a deputy US marshal.)

Meanwhile in Texas, a proposed law would make it a crime for ordinary people to videotape police actions—on the grounds that it was “interference” with police activity. In California, on the other hand, the state senate this month approved legislation providing clear legal protection to people who videotape police activity without interfering with investigations.

“People who historically have had very little power in the face of law enforcement now have this tool to reclaim their power and dignity,” said Patrisse Cullors, director of the Truth and Reinvestment Campaign at the Ella Baker Center, which is working with the ACLU of California to support the launch of the Mobile Justice CA app. “Our vision is that this app will ultimately help community members connect and organize to respond to incidents of law enforcement violence, and then share their experiences and knowledge with others.”

Please support our journalism. Get a digital subscription for just $9.50!

The Mobile Justice CA app complies with California law. ACLU affiliates in other states have developed other versions for use in those states: residents of New York should use the “Stop and Frisk Watch” app; in New Jersey, it’s the “Police Tape” app; in Oregon and Missouri it’s the “Mobile Justice” app. These work in different ways: with the New York app, shaking the phone stops the filming; the New Jersey app does not transmit the video automatically—the user must choose to send it to the ACLU-NJ for backup storage. Not all of them are available on all platforms and not all are available in Spanish, as the California app is. However, video submitted from anywhere via the California app will be stored and available to those who submitted it, an ACLU SoCal official said. (I'm a board member of the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, where the app was funded through donations by Susan Adelman and Claudio Llanos and their family foundation.)

“This app will help serve as a check on abuse,” said Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), where the app was developed. It will “allow ordinary citizens to record and document any interaction with law enforcement,” he said, including “police officers, sheriff’s deputies, border patrol, or other officials.”


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Statement by Black Workers League - "Support The Million People's March: The Black Masses and Workers' Movements Need Bases of Contending Power!


Support The Million People's March:

The Black Masses and Workers' Movements
Need Bases of Contending Power!


The Million People’s March Against Police Brutality, Racial Injustice and Economic Inequality to be held in Newark, NJ on July 25th is attracting growing numbers of long term mainly Black, Latino, working-class and poor people’s mass organizations with constituencies that are the most victimized by the injustices perpetuated by the forces of the state and the capitalist 1-percent.

More than 120 organizations have endorsed the March. And while POP is mainly a state of New Jersey based organization, it is recognized by revolutionary and progressive forces nationally as a leading organization fighting for social, economic and racial justice and fundamental systemic change.

The police are the frontline military of the U.S. imperialist national state that occupy our communities; brutalize and kill our people; break labor strikes; patrol public schools; harass the homeless; support housing evictions; attack peaceful demonstrations; and form organizations that support killer cops and put up bounties for the capture, and execution of political prisoners and exiles.

The Israeli Defense Forces training of the heads and officers of U.S. police departments further points out that the U.S. government is orienting and militarizing the police as an occupation force. This is part of the U.S. imperialist global strategy of endless war and world domination often referred to as empire.

The largely spontaneous struggles across the U.S. responding to the extrajudicial police and racist vigilante killings of unarmed Blacks and Latinos have been inspired by slogans like No More Trayvonnes! Black Lives Matter!, Stop the War on Black America!, Hands Up Don’t Shoot!, and Fists Up Fight Back!. They have created a national sentiment anchored in the struggles against African American/Black and Latino national oppression and supported by white social justice allies, labor activists and students, in need of a national program.

This is a major reason why many on the Black left are studying and discussing a Draft Manifesto for Black Liberation and promoting a call for Black revolutionary and radical organizations to work together to hold a National Assembly for the Black Liberation Movement to unite the many battlefronts around a national/international strategic program of action.

The Million Peoples March is developing as a national rallying point for revolutionaries, civil and human rights forces and militants among the masses, that see the urgent need to build a national movement for mass based power that begins to unite the many battlefronts of the Black and general working-class against the increasing repression of the U.S. imperialist state. Contending power is the consciously organized power of the masses to challenge, disrupt, weaken and eventually eliminate the repressive functions of the state and the operations of the capitalist economy that create profits for the capitalist elites.

The intensifying impacts of the U.S. and global capitalist economic crisis on all oppressed and working-class communities, has led to the development of social movements and mass struggles, that if politically organized and nationally/internationally coordinated, would represent a major threat to the U.S. and global capitalist system.

The economic restructuring taking place over the past 30 plus years – the using of technology, temporary workers and government policies to force down wages, eliminate benefits, create massive unemployment and gentrify communities have create huge profits for the capitalist elites and intensified the peoples suffering.

The attacks on basic democracy – the laws and social policies that allow the working-class, women and nationally oppressed peoples to challenge many injustices in the courts, to hold protests in the streets and by labor strikes, have been weakened, eliminated and replaced by a police state. Legislation like the Trans Pacific Partnership that further structures U.S. and global capitalism in ways that deepen the economic and social crises for working people, are being fast tracked and developed in secret without public knowledge of the specific content.

These attacks on democracy shamelessly continued and intensifyed under the administration of Barak Obama, a Black president who promised to break with the injustices of the past. Yet he filled his administration with bankers, heads of big corporations and war hawks that create the economic, social and foreign policies that cause greater suffering not only for the masses of people in the U.S., but also for working-class and oppressed nations and peoples throughout the world from U.S. imperialist led wars, economic sanctions, blockades and forced regime changes.

The racist murders of the nine Black members in prayer session at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC, grows out of a racist climate created by the capitalist ruling-class and the mainstream media that it owns and controls, and reinforced by the U.S. government, that is scapegoating Blacks, people of color and immigrants for the U.S. economic crisis.

The police killings of Blacks and Latinos every 28 hours, with the court’s ruling on the side of the police, and the militarization of the police, sends a message that Blacks are the enemy of U.S. democracy, national security and social privileges, that are shaped by the structural racism and white and male supremacy, that are deeply rooted in the capitalist and imperialist system.

POP has been a major force leading the struggles around the many issues impacting working-class Black and people of color communities. POP’s campaigns against the abuse police powers and the murders of the unarmed, has raised mass consciousness that led to the establishment of a city of Newark Community Control Board of the Police by way of an executive order issued by social justice activist and recently elected Mayor Raz Baraka.

The struggle for self-determination must be understood as a struggle for contending and transformative mass based Black, working-class and women’s power. Altering power relations that create greater levels of people’s democratic enforcement must be part of a transitional program to empower the masses over areas of the state, and over the means of production and services of the economy and the distribution of wealth, to address the needs of the masses of people.

A national campaign to establish community control of police boards with subpoena and disciplinary powers would help to build a national Black working-class led movement for contending power against the national police state. While a reform in that it does not end the capitalist system causing the oppression; it is a strategic reform that empowers the masses in struggling against the state repression that protects the capitalist ruling-class’ control over society.

The Million Peoples March should make the call for a national campaign to establish Community Control (not review) Boards of the Police with subpoena and disciplinary powers. This would represent an advance for the Newark board and would help to bring the spontaneous struggles across the U.S. under a national strategic demand and political direction.

However, it’s very important to remember, that community controlled police boards alone without a strong and well organized movement of mass based power, can become used by the state and opportunist forces of the Black political class, to bring about ineffective and unprincipled compromises that don’t serve the real interest of the people. The boards must be continuously transformed until they represent an aspect of people’s democratic control of the state as part of the struggle for self-determination and revolutionary change. It’s time to move from defensive spontaneity, to consciously organized and coordinated national and international resistance.

Black Workers League

7/15/15

[email protected]