Thursday at 7pm - Join the Committee to Defend the Freeway 9 and UCLA 5!

Received by email: Join the Committee to Defend the Freeway 9 and UCLA 5! Meeting: Thursday, November 29, 2018 at 7 p.m. Trinity Episcopal Church, 650 N. Berendo, LA CA 90004 LA City Attorney Mike Feuer has criminally charged 11 activists from Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club for engaging in and/or supporting non-violent civil disobedience and political protests against the Trump Pence regime which took place between September 2017 and March of 2018. These protests were to sound the alarm against the crimes of the Trump/Pence fascist regime and the need for millions to fill the streets - in the name of humanity - in a nonviolent mass movement aimed at driving this regime from power. The arrests and the prosecution of criminal charges against these 11 courageous protesters are unjust and illegitimate! It is NOT illegal to shout fire in a crowded theater IF THERE IS A FIRE!  What we are facing, by analogy, is a fire of such extreme proportions that it demands that people go beyond protest as usual! The prosecution of these courageous protesters comes at a time when millions are both outraged and agonized by the actions and threats of the Trump/Pence regime. This is a time for people to act with courage and conviction, commensurate with the grave danger and existential threat posed to the planet by this regime. Demanding these criminal charges be dropped is a crucial battle which can contribute to stopping the consolidation of fascism on key fronts, including the tearing up of protected civil and legal rights – especially the constitutionally protected right to political protest. Will Los Angeles, which has declared itself a sanctuary city, be allowed to violate the basic right of people to dissent and protest, thereby contributing to the overall consolidation of fascism?  For all those who care about the future - you are needed to build support amongst all sections of people who are outraged by the crimes of the Trump Pence regime and their attempts to silence and punish dissent. Join the Committee to Defend the Freeway 9 and UCLA 5. Whether you have little or no experience, little or lots of time: you are needed!  Be part of getting this out in a big way throughout society! Spread the word in your community, at your church, and among friends and family. Be part of the team to develop flyers, posters, and to get the word out everywhere with this demand: DROP THE CHARGES! Spread and circulate the Public Statement (read below): We Demand: Drop The Charges Against Members of Refuse Fascism and Revolution Club! Call the LA City Attorney’s office at 213.978.8100 to demand the LA City Attorney Michael Feuer drop ALL the charges against ALL those charged.  Send demand letters by email to the LA City Attorney, mike.n.feuer@lacity.org. (Please send copies of letters to Refuse Fascism LA at socal@RefuseFascism.org.) Pack the courtroom at upcoming court dates.  Call 323-946-1742 for up-to-date info. Set up speaking engagements for the defendants. These are inspiring voices of conscience from Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club.  Invite them to speak in your classes, at your church, with your union, professional, and social justice organizations.  Plan a gathering with your friends, colleagues, and family.  These engagements can also help raise much needed funds for legal costs and publicity.  Reach out to radio show hosts, journalists and reporters to interview defendants. DONATE and RAISE FUNDS! $10,000 is urgently needed for legal representation and for publicity flyers and posters. Go http://donate.refusefascism.org/RefuseFascismSoCal to donate. Design flyers, pamphlets, signs, posters and other creative forms (skits, artwork...) to build support. –––––––––––––– WE DEMAND: Drop The Charges Against Members of Refuse Fascism and Revolution Club! The Los Angeles City Attorney has criminally charged 11 members of Refuse Fascism for stepping forward to oppose the Trump/Pence regime in acts of conscience. The charges stem from significant public events as follows: Two actions on the 101 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles (unfurling banners demanding that the Trump/Pence Regime Must Go);  A range of protest actions at UCLA, including a controversial public challenge to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin at UCLA.   We oppose these unjust and outrageous criminal charges by the LA City Attorney, which represent an effort by the state to silence dissent against the Trump/Pence regime.  They specifically target members of Refuse Fascism – including members of the Revolution Club in LA, an Iraq War vet, a Ph.D student and college instructor, and a noted artist and USC professor – for being unwavering in their pledge not to stand aside while there is still a chance to stop a regime that imperils humanity and the earth itself.  The prosecution of these 11 activists and revolutionaries involves an escalation of the criminalization of political protests and a leap in state repression. The arrests and subsequent charges for these acts of political protests are unjust and illegitimate. The Trump/Pence regime is tearing up what are supposed to be protected civil and legal rights.  In the face of open terror and violence unleashed and condoned by this regime (including the violent targeting of political demonstrations supposedly protected by the 1st Amendment, such as in Charlottesville), these protests were not just needed, they were right. They include meaningful forms of nonviolent civil disobedience and, on a changing political and legal ground, forms of protected speech.  It is NOT illegal to shout fire in a crowded theater IF THERE IS A FIRE. To say the least, what we are facing is, by analogy, a fire of such extreme proportions, humanity and the earth’s future hang in the balance. Charges associated with the 101 Freeway actions include: “Conspiracy to commit a crime, obstruction of free movement of people, disobeying a police officer, and refusal to disperse."  Charges resulting from actions at UCLA include: “Disturbing the peace, trespassing, resisting arrest, and failure to leave the UCLA campus for 7 days” after being illegally arrested.  Strikingly, the ‘conspiracy’ charge targets just two of the eleven defendants:  Michelle Xai and Perry Hoberman; both leading organizers and spokespeople for Refuse Fascism’s So-Cal chapter.  Even more outrageous (and ominous) is the fact that Xai wasn’t even arrested at the 101 Freeway actions; yet, she's still being charged!   Further, police reports in these cases reveal the LAPD’s “Major Crimes/Anti-Terrorism Division” involvement, a department which has a history of targeting progressive and radical social movements.  The LAPD admits that they sent in a “confidential informant” to public Refuse Fascism meetings to spy on and secretly record members of Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club - an egregious violation of people’s constitutionally protected right to assemble and protest.  Police reports also reveal the UC Police have illegally stalked and surveilled defendants while on campus.  All this is taking place at a time in which the legal rights to political protest and speech are being rapidly foreclosed by the Trump/Pence regime which has unleashed a wave of new state laws, gutting basic civil liberties and a movement of storm troopers carrying out mob violence, and violent threats, in order to intimidate and silence people.  There are great stakes in these cases.  The 101 Freeway actions and the political challenge to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin by three brave women have been viewed online by millions of people in the U.S. and around the world.  All these individuals are now facing prosecution for their acts of courage and conscience.  Defendants with multiple charges face fines and penalties of up to 5 years jail time and all defendants could be locked in jail if convicted, meaning that these fellow freedom fighters could be locked up merely for acts of principled resistance, while the true criminals in Washington remain free to continue their dangerous and deadly policies of racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and planetary destruction.     As longtime activist Isabel Cardenas writes: “If more Germans and Jews in Nazi Germany had done what these defendants have done (and are doing), millions of lives could have been saved.  This country needs people such as those who have been criminally charged so that those who have no voice may have someone with the courage to defend them.  They are striving to save us all from THE TRUMP-PENCE NIGHTMARE so that we - billions of us on the planet earth, including millions of Immigrants who helped to build this country - may stop enduring the madness that goes on in the White House.” –––––––––––––– We encourage you to read the Revolution newspaper article: Greasing the Skids for Fascism…Ominous and Illegitimate Persecution of 11 Members of Refuse Fascism, LA and the Revolution Club, LA https://revcom.us/a/562/greasing-the-skids-for-fascism-en.html