Protest U.S. Government Retaliation Against "No More Deaths"
Monday, January 29th, 3:45 - 6 PM
No Human Being Is Illegal! This Protest/Speak Out/Street Theatre is in response to the federal government’s retaliation against No More Deaths border activists and the recent multi-pronged attacks on immigrants nationwide by the Trump/Pence Regime.
The No More Deaths humanitarian aid group, based in Tucson AZ, recently released videos that show U.S. Border Patrol agents kicking and pouring out water bottles left in the desert for migrant border crossers. These heartless actions by the U.S. Border Patrol are deliberate efforts to cause unbearable suffering and even death of people trying to cross the border. Trump’s Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Border Patrol, is carrying out stepped up terror of immigrants at the border, hiring thousands of new agents with plans to build the border wall. Over 7,000 people have lost their lives trying to cross the border over the past two decades - a largely unknown catastrophe - and the number may be significantly higher.
The footage of U.S. Border Patrol agents kicking and pouring out water bottles left in the desert for border crossers was posted last week, at the same time No More Deaths and La Coalición de Derechos Humanos released a report documenting abuses by the U.S. Border Patrol. Then, hours later, a volunteer from that group was arrested by federal authorities in obvious retaliation for this exposure! He faces up to five years in prison for allegedly harboring two people suspected of being in the country without authorization, after he gave them food and water. Altogether, nine members of the No More Deaths have been charged with federal crimes and misdemeanors in recent months. No More Deaths have been leaving water out in the desert west of Tucson for many years at a place called "The Devil's Highway" where so many border crossers have died of thirst and exposure. Their humanitarian work should be celebrated and defended by all people of conscience. Instead, they are under attack by the Trump/Pence regime, and make no mistake, these arrests are meant to threaten anyone who would stand with immigrants, and give them life-saving assistance and shelter.
The U.S. Border Patrol’s cruel actions, and the targeting of these activists by federal authorities, represents the Trump/Pence regime’s unconscionable policy of death and disappearance in the desert at the U.S. Mexico border. It is also part of a multi-pronged assault on immigrants nationwide which includes attacks on Haitian, Salvadoran and Nicaraguan TPS holders, rescinding DACA for 800,00 Dreamers, nationwide 7/Eleven ICE raids, and more. These outrages are at the core of their ethnic cleansing plan to consolidate a fascist government in the U.S. This must not be allowed to happen and standing with our immigrant brothers and sisters, and those who support them, are critical to stopping and driving out this regime. The Trump/Pence Regime Must Go!
Initiated by Refuse Fascism. Organizations and individuals encouraged to co-sponser and reach out to their support networks. Bring noisemakers. Street theatre will be a part of the protest.
Student Task Force Social
Thursday, Feb. 1st, 6:30 - 9 PM
Come hang out this Thursday and engage in an important discussion on how to strengthen the role of students in this critical moment we're in and to figure out the ways we can work together on the campuses and beyond to drive this fascist regime from power. Bring your friends, questions, and creativity. From the National Student Task Force of RefuseFascism.org: "AS YOU READ THIS they are kidnapping immigrants from their homes and workplaces, and forcing them into the shadows in fear of deportation. They are demonizing and unleashing violence against Muslims and leaving refugees to the mercy of the oceans and the imperialist countries that see them as human waste. They are denying health care, food assistance, and the basic right to live to millions of children, poor people, and elderly people. They are propelling women back into the dark ages with their male supremacist agenda, stripping women of the access to control their bodies, reducing them to sex objects and breeders. They are denouncing the humanity of LGBT people, labeling transgender people as “burdens” to society. They are giving the green light to the police to continue to murder Black and Latino people at an escalating rate, with genocidal implications in their white supremacist agenda. They are bombing the people of the world with chemical weapons and threatening all of civilization with a nuclear holocaust in the name of “America First.” They are putting the whole planet in peril by pouring gasoline all over global warming and gutting all environmental protections. They are trying to eliminate the critical investigation of reality and the scientific method, and it is no exaggeration to say that this could lead to the very extinction of humanity if not through the utter devastation of the planet, then through nuclear war. As part of forcing society to accept the normalization of these horrific crimes, they are going after the universities to crush the concept of truth, critical thinking, and any form of opposition to their program. They play the victims and falsely uphold the banner of free speech, as if it is intellectually productive to debate the legitimacy of their not-so-subtle white supremacy, patriarchy, xenophobia, etc., as if they don’t have the power of the state to back up their pseudoscience with policy and brute force. Just look at what is happening in Berkeley. The fascists are targeting Berkeley specifically because it is a beacon of progressivism and radical thought. As the fascist pseudo-intellectuals come spew their hateful poison on the campus, the city and the administration are shamefully collaborating with them by implementing a police-state approach to trample on students’ ability to oppose this. And this must be opposed! We must uphold the legacy of Berkeley by taking up the role that students have played historically in movements of resistance like they did in the 1960s. We must stand with the people of the world and have the audacity to challenge the lies of this regime in the face of repression, to defy the attempts of these fascists to warp reality in their image and confuse people into believing these monsters are the victims. We hope that by now it is clear that the concept of “apolitical” is but a parasitic illusion. This masked complicity will count for nothing when the impending storm finalizes the destruction of whole sections of people here and around the world. It should also be clear by just looking at the collaborations on the part of the democrats and others that we cannot rely on the channels of this system which put us in this situation in the first place. So this begs the question, what are we going to do in the face of this? Get organized: the responsibility before all of us is to put an end to this in the only way it can be done – by putting our lives on the line and to mobilize millions throughout society to drive out this fascist regime." |
