From Black Power to Green Scare: The Criminalization of Dissent

Thursday, June 5, 2008 6:30 p.m.

FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Join the Center for Constitutional Rights and the National Lawyers Guild - San Francisco Chapter for an engaging and important discussion exploring the criminalization of dissent both historically and in today's era of the so-called "war on terror."

The government has a long and sordid history of criminalizing and targeting oppressed communities and social justice activists and organizations that challenge its abuse of power - from the "Red Scare" of the 1920s, to the internment of Japanese Americans, to the targeting of the Black liberation struggle and other movements.

And today, under the guise of "anti-terrorist" legislation, the government is again attempting to target and intimidate a wide range of communities and movements, from former Black Panthers to environmental and animal rights groups to Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities.

On Thursday, June 5, hear from directly impacted communities as well as attorneys and grassroots organizers struggling against repression.

Featured speakers:

SHAYANA KADIDAL, Center for Constitutional Rights, Managing attorney of the Guantànamo Global Justice Initiative.

RICHARD BROWN, Committee for the Defense of Human Rights and one of the "San Francisco 8," former Black Panthers facing renewed charges based on torture evidence

MICHEL SHEHADEH, Palestinian activist and one of the "Los Angeles 8," Palestinian and Kenyan immigrants targeted for their political activity who won a historic victory in November 2007 after a 20-year struggle

ANDREA LINDSAY, SHAC 7 Support Committee and an activist involved in combating the "Green Scare" against environmental and animal rights activists

LAUREN ORNELAS, Food Empowerment Project and an environmental and animal rights

Location:
The Women's Building
Audre Lorde Room
3543 18th St., #8
San Francisco, CA 94110

Contact 212-614-6466 with any questions. No RSVPs are required.

Marilyn Buck - Book Release Celebration!

Marilyn Buck, political prisoner at FCI Dublin, has translated and written an introduction to a book of poetry by Uruguayan poet Cristina Peri Rossi. Come celebrate this achievement and hear excerpts from this beautiful book at one of the book release parties happening in May. See below for full information.

Book Release Celebration! STATE OF EXILE By Cristina Peri Rossi Translated and with an introduction by Marilyn Buck “State of Exile is a haunting work that sat for decades, awaiting, like cicadas, its proper season. That time is now.” --Mumia Abu-Jamal In the first years of her exile from Uruguay, lesbian poet, author, journalist and social activist Cristina Peri Rossi penned an extraordinary collection of poems – spare, beautiful poems fueled by the experiences of forced migration, poems so personal, she didn’t publish them for almost 30 years. Now, in a collaboration across prison walls, continents and states of exile, U.S. political prisoner and poet Marilyn Buck has translated Peri Rossi’s poems into English. The poems are accompanied by two brilliant essays on exile, one by Peri Rossi, written for Spanish publication in 2003, and the other by Marilyn Buck for this bi-lingual City Lights edition. http://www.prisonactivist.org/pps+pows/marilynbuck/

Book Release Celebration! City Lights Bookstore Wednesday, May 14 7pm 261 Columbus, San Francisco

Readers:
Devorah Majors, David Meltzer, Graciela Trevisan

La Pena Cultural Center
Tuesday, May 20 7pm
3105 Shattuck Ave, Berkeley
Maisha Quint, MC
Readers: Cherrie Moraga, Mitsuye Yamada, Graciela Trevisan
$10 donation

Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863-9977 www.Freedomarchives.org