FIST Will Continue to Protest Injustice and Build People Power! Capitol Police Will Know That Race-Baiting, Red-Baiting, Violence-Baiting and Surveillance of Protesters Will Not Stand and Must Not Divide Us

During the 2013 N.C. legislative session, nearly 1,000 people were arrested and tens of thousands more mobilized for the Moral Monday demonstrations in opposition to the racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ, anti-worker, and pro-big business agenda of the Tea Party extremists that took power. The actions taken by the N.C. General Assembly should be viewed as nothing short of a criminal and wholesale attack on the people of our state.

The Moral Monday/Forward Together Movement is a mighty force of resistance to the Jim Crow politics and shows the power of building unity across the barriers that are meant to divide us – race, gender, and sexual orientation – especially in this reactionary period.

In recent weeks, many of those arrested have begun to stand trial. The state knows that its case is hollow while the support for the Moral Monday movement is overwhelming. The conviction of the first Moral Monday arrestee to stand trial – Saladin Muhammad – is a dangerous attack on the basic democratic right to protest. Muhammad’s conviction must be fought and overturned, and the charges dropped against all Moral Monday protesters.

Capitol Police Chief Jeff Weaver has used the Moral Monday trials as a stage from which to red-bait, violence-bait, attack, and single out our organization and two members of our organization. This is a conscious effort to remove the focus from the real issues at hand– the criminal policies of the N.C. legislature and the massive resistance that has been awoken. It is also an attempt to criminalize protest, to normalize police surveillance, and to create cracks in the unity that has been the bedrock of the Moral Monday/Forward Together movement.

Listening to Weaver’s testimony, one would think it is now a crime to be a Marxist, an anarchist, or to simply attend demonstrations against the backwards agenda of the N.C. Legislature. He stumbled through 30 minutes of testimony about previous actions that FIST had organized. Weaver also revealed that the Raleigh Police Department’s Threat Assessment Unit has been conducting surveillance on our group and other groups.

Youth & Students Resist Tuition Hikes in the UNC system – March 2010

As the N.C. legislature was set to vote on massive tuition hikes, and after organizing with students across the state to oppose the hikes, FIST helped organize a demonstration of young people and students at the legislature. We held a rally outside and entered the committee meeting where members were voting on the hikes and then requested to speak. When we were denied, youth and students began speaking out about the impact these hikes would have on their ability to attend the UNC system – that education should be a right for all and not a privilege for the rich, and that it would saddle students with more and more debt just to get an education.

High School Students Oppose the Worst Education Budget in Over a Decade – May 2011

Raleigh FIST worked with other organizations to hold a demonstration of 200 young people who marched from North Carolina State University (NCSU) to join more than 8,000 N.C. teachers who were rallying at the legislature. As we rallied outside, the legislature prepared to vote on a draconian budget with massive across the board cuts to education and other vital public services. Members of NC HEAT (Heroes Emerging Among Teens), a high school student-led organization and FIST wanted to speak out and take action in the face of the worst budget in the past decade. They unfurled a banner that read: “Tax Corporations – Bail Out the People – Defend the Public Sector” and disrupted the session as the vote on the budget was being taken, resulting in five arrests.

Since 2004, FIST has organized demonstrations in opposition to U.S. wars abroad, campaigned to kick military recruiters off high school and university campuses, fought against police brutality, demonstrated in solidarity with revolutionary Cuba and other peoples movements across the globe, for immigrant rights, for freedom for political prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal and CeCe McDonald, and much more.

Throughout our history, FIST has unapologetically stood on the side of all people in the U.S. and across the globe who are exploited, disenfranchised, and oppressed by the capitalist system. We are not ashamed of being Marxists and believe that fighting for socialism – a system where the people have the power and the vast wealth of society is not monopolized by the 1%, but used to meet the needs of all people – is the only way to put an end to war, poverty, and all forms of oppression and injustice. We stand shoulder to shoulder with all our sisters and brothers, who want to fight back and create a better world – no matter how one identifies politically.

It is not a crime to oppose the policies of the Tea Party legislature or any form of injustice. The real criminals are Governor Pat McCrory, Art Pope, Thom Tillis, and Phil Berger, who have launched an all out assault on the people of this state. They want to bring back Jim Crow, turn back the clock on gains that have been fought and died for throughout our history, and deprive people of the most basic rights. The real criminals are on Wall Street and in corporate boardrooms, the militarists who drop bombs on people across the globe, and the 1% who will do anything to preserve the decaying capitalist system that serves only their interests.

The dirty tricks that Weaver and the state are using to divide our movement have been tried before. These attempts to cause confusion and division demonstrate that those in power are terrified of the movement from below that is being built across this state – which is part of a growing global resistance.

They are scared of working class people, youth, people of color, women, LGBTQ, and all people moving forward together. They want nothing more than to break the solidarity that has been built through our struggles. But we won’t let them. Solidarity Forever! Onwards!

Stop the criminalization of the right to protest!

Drop the charges against Saladin Muhammad and all Moral Monday arrestees!

Build the Moral Monday movement and fight back against Tea Party legislature!

All Power to the People!

2 Durham Events: Free CeCe/End Transphobia Friday, Pastors for Peace/Cuba Caravan on Tuesday‏

Friday, July 6 at 6pm: Free CeCe! The Fight to End Transphobia & the Criminalization of LGBTQ People! w/ guest speaker Imani Henry

Tuesday, July 10 at 7pm: Defend the Cuban Revolution! Pastors for Peace Cuba Caravan Comes to Durham!

Free CeCe! The Fight to End Transphobia & the Criminalization of LGBTQ People w/ Imani Henry

Friday, July 6 at the Durham Solidarity Center (331 W Main St, Durham)

Potluck @ 6pm
Forum @ 7pm

Fight to End Transphobia & The Criminilization of LGBTQ People!
Overturn North Carolina’s Anti-LGBTQ Marriage Amendment 1 Now!
Free our LGBTQ political prisoners CeCe McDonald & Bradley Manning!

Join FIST and Workers World Party as we discuss the case of CeCe McDonald and the LGBTQ movement in North Carolina and the US South. We’ve invited prominent New York City-based LGBTQ activist, organizer, and performer Imani Henry to speak on the nationwide movement for equality. LGBTQ people are targeted for violence, discriminated against in housing searches, and paid less as workers. We’ll hear from local activists about the movement in North Carolina, and its ties to the continuing fight against racism, xenophobia, and sexism.

CeCe McDonald is a young African-American transgender woman from Minnesota. After defending herself against unprovoked racist and transphobic slurs and violent street harassment from white onlookers, she has sustained injuries and also been falsely accused of murder. Cece had been into solitary confinement at a Minnesota prison for men, and had to wait almost two months for a much-needed follow up appointment with a doctor. Her supporters are calling for the Minnesota District Attorney to label the case as a hate crime, reducing the charges against Cece.

FIST will join over 70 other organizations in a March on Wall Street South in Charlotte, NC during the Democratic National Convention on Sat. Sept 2. Brief discussion about how to build an LGBTQ and international solidarity contingents in the march. This June marks the 43rd anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion, which was also led by trans women of color. Workers World Party joins together to celebrate the struggles that women like Cece have led for decades.

RSVP on Facebook!

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Defend the Cuban Revolution! Pastors for Peace Caravan comes to Durham!

Tuesday, July 10 at 7pm

Shephard’s House United Methodist Church (107 N Driver St, Durham)

Defend the Cuban Revolution! The IFCO/Pastors for Peace Cuba Caravan will be challenging US laws and attacks on Cuba.

Potluck dinner and discussion! Bring some food!

This year we will be commemorating the 20th Anniversary of the Friendshipment caravans to Cuba. We will also continue to lift up the life of Rev Lucius Walker, Jr., the founding director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace, who for 18 years gave prophetic and visionary leadership to our caravans to Cuba in defiance of the US blockade, and who died peacefully in September 2010.

Despite some steps taken by President Obama to allow Cuban-Americans to more freely visit their families, and to allow colleges, churches and others to more easily get licenses to go to Cuba, the travel ban remains for most US citizens and the economic blockade remains in full vigor. The work started by Rev Walker must therefore continue!

So in July we will visit cities across the US and Canada, challenging the US government to revoke the blockade and establish a foreign policy based on mutual respect between the two countries. Over 100 people will travel to Cuba with construction, medical, school and other supplies collected from groups across the US, refusing US Treasury Department licenses, as a collective challenge to the blockade and travel ban.

Hear the voices of these young folks talk about why they are traveling to Cuba!

FIST will join over 70 other organizations in a March on Wall Street South in Charlotte, NC during the Democratic National Convention on Sat. Sept 2. Brief discussion about how to build an international solidarity contingent in the march. See http://wallstsouth.org for more info

Bring your questions about the Cuban revolution!

RSVP on Facebook

NAACP says: ‘Demand pardon for Wilmington 10’

The NAACP National Board of Directors has unanimously passed a resolution calling on Gov. Beverly Perdue of North Carolina to grant full pardons to 10 young people wrongfully imprisoned in Wilmington, N.C., in 1972.

The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II, president of the state’s NAACP, says that “the National NAACP’s support for full pardons for the Wilmington 10 adds great weight to the growing movement for some measure of justice for these 10 freedom fighters and their families. They were locked up for the best years of their lives because they stood up for the oppressed and marginalized portions of our society.”

In 1970, Wilmington’s Black community was still feeling the pain caused by the coup d’etat of 1898, when the White Citizens’ Committee and the Ku Klux Klan declared “White Independence.”

During Reconstruction, North Carolina had one of the most successful fusion governments in the South. Black officials were elected to both local and state governments, including nine city offices in Wilmington. But the white supremacists were outraged at losing their complete economic, political and social power over Wilmington.

A mob of whites, led by a former Confederate general, invaded Wilmington’s Black section and firebombed many buildings, including the only Black-owned newspaper in the state. They killed at least 11 Black people, wounded 25 more, and chased hundreds of families out of town.

The struggle in Wilmington today is also a continuation of the Black freedom struggle of the late 1960s. After the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the uprising in Wil­mington was reportedly the largest in the South. Then came demands to end racist suspensions and expulsions of Black students and the closing of majority Black public schools. The community struggled for the creation of Black studies programs, Black political power and democratic rights.

Many of the state’s Black schools were closed, including Second Ward High School in Charlotte, Mary Potter High School in Oxford and Williston High School in Wilmington.

According to “The True Story Behind the Wilmington 10” by Larry Reni Thomas, a former New Hanover High School student in Wilmington, “We had almost daily mini-riots in 1970.” One such incident involved an altercation between a white woman and student Roderick Kirby, now known as the Rev. Kojo Nantambu, the current president of the Charlotte NAACP. This ignited more student unrest, resulting in more repression and arrests of Black students.

Black students organized a boycott of the public schools to begin on Dr. King’s birthday in January 1971. Another student rebellion happened on Jan. 22, 1971.

The early 1970s also saw the re-emergence of the Ku Klux Klan, which often operated in collusion with local police and federal agents. The KKK and a white supremacist group called Rights of White People sent members to Wilmington “to intimidate the moderate white school superintendent — cutting his phone line and hanging him in effigy in his front yard — and to send armed patrols through black neighborhoods.” (News and Observer, May 19)

At this point, student and church leaders called on Ben Chavis Jr. of Oxford, N.C., who had led a mass campaign after the racist murder of a young Black Vietnam War veteran.

Chavis, then 24, arrived in Wilmington on Feb. 1, 1971, and began organizing high school students. After violent attacks on the protesters by white supremacists, many sought shelter in Gregory Congregational Church. When a white-owned store was firebombed, firefighters who attempted to put out the fire were shot at. Many police returned fire on the church, resulting in over 5,000 bullet holes in its façade.

This resulted in a full-on rebellion across Wilmington. Two people were killed and several injured during the battle that night and the next day. On Feb. 8, National Guard troops forced their way into the church, only to find it empty.

The Wilmington 10 were young African Americans, all under age 24 and mostly teenagers, and one white woman. All had been active in the movement for racial justice. They were framed up and convicted of conspiracy and arson.

A judge sentenced them to a combined 242 years in prison, but they were released on bail as the case went through state and federal appeals courts. Their case garnered worldwide attention. The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the case after a key prosecution witness was deemed mentally unstable: he changed his statements to prosecutors at least 15 times before the trial began. (News and Observer, May 19)

Fast forward to 2010, when local governments in North Carolina continued their pursuit of segregated schools and began attacking all public services, attacks which disproportionately affect Black and poor people. These issues and many more highlight the need for a massive movement that can challenge the root causes of all these racist, anti-worker practices. Such a movement is being forged by the NAACP in building the Historic Thousands on Jones Street Coalition. The Rev. Kojo Nantambu and the Charlotte NAACP recently challenged the closing of Black schools, resulting in civil disobedience and arrests that slowed down this racist attack.

Young people, workers, civil rights leaders, immigrants and others across the state, the U.S. South and the entire country will be marching on Wall Street South in Charlotte prior to the Democratic National Convention, to put a spotlight on this history and the current situation. They are calling on the movement to “Join us in Charlotte on September 2! Join us to demand: Pardon the Wilmington 10! Free all political prisoners! Defend public education and make the banks pay for their crisis!”

People’s Victory in Charlotte as March on Wall Street South Wins Permits

The Coalition to March on Wall Street South announced a major victory on May 29. The city of Charlotte granted conditional approval for permits for the Sept. 2 March on Wall Street South — after more than eight months of march and parks permit requests, a national petition campaign and threats of legal action. The march will take place one day prior to the Democratic National Convention.

While coalition organizers must still meet and negotiate with officials, the march route passes the major targets in uptown Charlotte: Bank of America’s world headquarters, Wells Fargo’s eastern headquarters, the Bank of America Stadium and the Time Warner Cable Arena, site of the DNC.

With permits won, the stage is now set for the Sept. 2 demonstration. Thousands of activists are expected to flood the streets of Charlotte to raise a people’s agenda to the big banks and Democratic Party delegates. Their program calls for jobs, human needs, workers’ rights, justice and equality for Black, Latino/a and Native peoples, women, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer communities. The Call to Action also raises the need to fight for economic and environmental justice, while opposing wars, anti-immigrant repression, racial and political profiling, incarcerations and foreclosures.

Mass campaign key to victory

The coalition launched a national petition campaign in May, after numerous delays and administrative runarounds, unreturned phone calls and being put through bureaucratic hoops. Petitions demanded that the city grant the permits, repeal newly passed repressive protest ordinances and immediately make public the permitting process for actions during the DNC.

More than 1,500 people across the country signed the petition, including prominent leaders from unions and community organizations. Every signature triggered emails to city, county and national officials.

Coalition organizers planned to deliver the petitions to the May 29 Charlotte City Council meeting. Just two hours before the meeting was to start, officials called coalition organizers to inform them that the permits had been granted. Even with this major victory, plans to pack the meeting and speak out moved forward. More than three dozen activists from Occupy Charlotte; Occupy Winston-Salem; United Electrical Workers Local 150; Raleigh Fight Imperialism, Stand Together; Students for a Democratic Society; and other organizations turned out.

“This is a huge victory for democracy,” said Scottie Wingfield, of Occupy Charlotte. “We want to thank the more than 1,500 people from across the country who signed the petition. The eyes of the world are on Charlotte and on how the city will treat those who do not have lobbyists to represent their interests. Our work goes on, and we will continue to call on the city of Charlotte to repeal the repressive protest ordinances they passed earlier this year that grant police extreme power and endanger people’s rights to freely demonstrate.”

The coalition was also preparing to take legal action to secure the permits for the right to demonstrate in Charlotte. Affidavits had been collected from nearly two dozen leaders of organizations from across the U.S., including Marilyn Levin, co-coordinator of the United National Antiwar Coalition; John Parker of the Southern California Immigration Coalition; George Friday of Move to Amend; the Rev. Cortly C.D. Witherspoon, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Baltimore chapter; Steve Gillis, vice president of Steelworkers Local 8751, the Boston School Bus Drivers Union; and Sara Flounders, International Action Center co-director.

Alissa Elliss of Occupy Durham stressed: “This is a great success. We want to thank the legal team for the amount of work they put in, not only in preparation for the petitions, but also all the preparation that went into facing likely litigation. It was only through the legal team’s hard work and the mass support of petition signers that we were finally able to make the city and county of Charlotte recognize the power of the 99% and give us our right to protest.”

Stage set for March on Wall Street South

March organizers have issued an all-out call for this major demonstration and others during the DNC:

“We welcome all working people who have suffered during this economic crisis to come down to Charlotte on Sunday, September 2,” said Matt Hickson of University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill Students for a Democratic Society. He emphasized: “Bank of America and Wells Fargo are responsible for kicking people out of their homes, plunging students and families deep into debt, funding the prison-industrial complex and destroying the environment.

“The Democrats and the Republicans have not addressed the dire situation faced by working people and families in this country. We need jobs, an end to deportations and money for housing, education, health care and people’s needs, not for wars and jails. These are some of the issues we’ll be raising at the March on Wall Street South on September 2 and throughout the week of actions during the DNC.”

For information, see wallstsouth.org, Twitter: @wallstsouth or call 1-704-266-0362.

All out to protest the KKK! Saturday, May 26 @ 1pm

Raleigh FIST is working with organizations from across NC to organize this counter-demonstration to oppose the KKK rally that is being planned for this Saturday, May 26 in Harmony NC. Please help to spread the word as far and wide as possible so we can build broad solidarity to stand against the violent racism and white supremacy espoused by the KKK, especially now during this time of severe economic crisis.

 

NC Against the KKK–Unity in Harmony, NC

Gather at 103 Jackson St in Yadkinville, NC to caravan to Harmony, NC

The KKK has begun holding publicized meetings throughout NC this spring, including May 8 in Eden, NC.  The next scheduled cross burning is set for tomorrow, May 26, in Harmony, NC and a coalition of groups and individuals will protest the event.

In the spirit on nonviolent, anti-racist protest, NC Against the KKK: Unity in Harmony will hold a peaceful rally against racism and hate tomorrow.  Activists have organized caravans from a meeting point in Yadkinville, NC, which will leave from 103 Jackson Street at 1 PM.

We will not allow the Klan to further divide the people of North Carolina.  Instead, we will show them we stand together against racism and bigotry.  Our peaceful demonstration will focus on bringing a diverse and multiracial group of North Carolinians together as part of the continuing struggle against racism and injustice in this state.

Anti-gay Amendment spurs solidarity

By Andy Koch

Progressive-minded people across the United States watched with dismay on May 8 as North Carolina became the 30th state to pass a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. However, the feeling here in North Carolina is not one of defeat, but of power and hope. The struggle against the amendment was one of the broadest and most dynamic the state has seen in years, involving hundreds of community and faith-based groups and more than 16,000 volunteers.

“Our win is humongous,” said Kai Lumumba Barrow, Southerners On New Ground organizer, in a video the group released on May 9, “because our dialogue is not just about gay marriage. It’s moving toward a dialogue about what does it mean for poor people, people of color, queer people coming together to fight for each other’s liberation. This amendment made that possible.”

North Carolina already had a statute on the books prohibiting gay marriage. So why pass this new constitutional amendment?

For one thing, the wording of the amendment not only bans same-sex marriage, but would wipe out legal protections for women and children in physically abusive unmarried partnerships, as well as numerous other rights that such couples currently hold.

The amendment’s right-wing authors in the state Legislature would tell you that a constitutional amendment ensures that the conservative definition of marriage is protected from being altered in the future. Such reactionary beliefs were a motivator for legislators and supporters of the amendment.

Building solidarity is key

But in order to understand these kinds of oppressive attacks as a social phenomenon, we have to look at the class forces at work. The capitalist ruling class is in some serious hot water right now. Their system is in crisis. They’ve had to pull out every trick in their book to keep profits up — like starting new wars and the huge bank bailouts — yet they are still struggling. Importantly, the people of the U.S. are fighting back against their rulers on a scale not seen in decades. This is what scares the capitalist ruling class most of all.

So what does the ruling class do? Everything they can to put the working class and oppressed people on the defensive. They take back welfare protections that people won through mass struggle. They slash state budgets for public services and education. They smash unions and collective bargaining rights.

Intensifying the oppression of lesbian/gay/bi/trans/queer people by putting discrimination into the state constitution is also part of their strategy. Capitalists across the country and in North Carolina hope the people will be too busy defending themselves against new attacks on their human rights to wage an offensive struggle against the ruling class. They hope that the working class and oppressed people will be further divided by LGBTQ oppression.

And this division is a very real danger — the U.S. South has had a historically weak labor movement due to the divisive effects of white supremacy. The only way that this division can be overcome is through unconditional solidarity among the working class and all oppressed people. The progressive people of North Carolina don’t feel defeated at the passage of this anti-­LGBTQ amendment because the struggle against it has been a shining example of this kind of solidarity.

99% Spring Targets Wall Street South

By Dante Strobino
More than 1,000 people defied police threats and arrests to protest the Bank of America shareholders’ meeting here May 9. Their three main demands were to end home foreclosures, end the financing of dirty coal, and assert workers’ rights against banks’ control of politicians and the electoral system.

The action showed that a fighting movement is brewing across the United States. This movement is passionately fighting for people’s needs to be placed before the needs of private profits of the banks and corporations.

Protesters in Charlotte included domestic workers from Atlanta, migrant workers from New Orleans, state workers from across North Carolina, and public housing residents from New York City to Durham, N.C. Students, workers, the structurally unemployed, immigrants and many others joined. Three issue-based feeder marches joining the protesters symbolized the three main demands of the protest.

This action was part of the “99% Spring” protests against shareholder meetings of such major corporations and banks as General Electric, Wells Fargo, Walmart, RJ Reynolds Tobacco and others all across the country. The recently formed North Carolina Coalition Against Corporate Power coordinated the Charlotte protest.

Charlotte’s city government used the May 9 protest to trigger a new repressive ordinance that restricted people’s ability to assemble and speak freely. The ordinance was passed in response to Occupy Charlotte and in preparation for the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

Raul Jimenez Arce, member of Raleigh-Durham Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST), told Workers World, “I joined the protest against Bank of America because I am tired of big corporations deciding our future, buying politicians and creating their own agenda at the expense of the working class.”

Despite the new restrictions, protesters bravely marched into the streets without permits and occupied two different intersections for a few hours, shutting down traffic to stop business as usual. Since Bank of America and Wells Fargo own most uptown buildings, this was truly a bold step.

Demand end to foreclosures

By 9 a.m., the marchers had taken over the intersection at 5th and College streets in uptown Charlotte, directly in front of where the rich shareholders were meeting and where they had just passed a pay package of $7 million for CEO Bryan “Big Banks” Moynihan.

The occupiers assembled behind a 10-foot-tall ball and chain marked “debt.” This symbolized all the debt that state and city governments, students, homeowners and others are strapped to because of the Bank of America’s capitalist, predatory practices. Trapped also by long-term unemployment, many marchers will never be able to pay back their debt.

Bonita Johnson, a low-wage kitchen worker in a state mental health facility in Butner, N.C., and member of the North Carolina Public Service Workers Union, Electrical Workers (UE) Local 150, told WW: “These big banks are making mega money and not paying any taxes. We, as state employees, are struggling, working two and three jobs and paying taxes even on the little that we do have. I knew I had to join this protest.”

Sylvia Sanchez was the first speaker at the rally. A member of a community group, Action NC, Sanchez is a Latina mother of a disabled child. Bank of America is about to foreclose on her Charlotte house.

Marchers demanded that Sanchez’s home be saved and that principal loan costs be written down on all “underwater” loans to help keep families in their homes. Some demanded the federal government put a moratorium on foreclosures altogether, so families can stay in their homes while payment terms are negotiated.

“Let Johnny in, let Johnny in!” chanted the marchers in support of Johnny Rosa, an African-American man whose home BOA was foreclosing on. Rosa was simply asking for a voice at the table to be heard by the bank’s top executives. Cops swarmed Rosa, threw him to the ground and quickly arrested him, but not without the crowd standing up for him.

Four other courageous protesters were also arrested throughout the course of the day, most in planned civil disobedience.

Many other movement leaders spoke, including members of All of Us NC, a lesbian, gay, bi, transgender, queer organization that led a grassroots fight against a state constitutional amendment that banned all civil unions and rights of domestic partners. This reactionary amendment passed during the May 8 primary ballot.

Protesters take the streets

Protesters then began marching up Trade Street and south on Tryon Street, completely blocking one direction of traffic as they marched toward the Bank of America stadium, where President Barack Obama will give his acceptance speech during the September Democratic National Convention. Environmental activists, who draped a huge banner over its facade days before the protest, now call this arena “Bank of Coal stadium.”

Yen Acala, member of Occupy Charlotte and leader in the Coalition to March on Wall Street South, underlined the significance of the May 9 event, saying it will help spark people’s enthusiasm to demonstrate an even bigger challenge to the big banks, corporations and both corporate parties during the DNC.

All regions of the country will have their own face, their own struggles. That such a struggle movement is now brewing in the U.S. South has epic potential, especially since this region is home to well over 60 percent of all foreign direct economic investment — the construction of industrial productive factories — and a vast unorganized, non-union, low-wage work force who offer a vast potential for organization.

The time is ripe for a mass, militant march on Wall Street South — Charlotte — that can truly unite all sectors of the working class from across the region. This will be the next giant step forward for full democratic rights and ownership over all the factories, the schools, the banks and all institutions that make society run. It can truly challenge the ownership and property rights of the 1% and begin to leverage power and democratic control of these institutions in the hands of the 99%.

Organizers call on people from all over the U.S. to join them in the streets of Charlotte from Sept. 2-6 during the Democratic National Convention. You won’t want to miss it!

For more information, visit wallstsouth.org.

Get on the bus! Protest Bank of America Shareholder’s Meeting in Charlotte on May 9

Join the 99% to Fightback at the Bank of America Shareholder’s Meeting in Charlotte

Converge for Justice — Occupy Wall Street South

Demand a Moratorium on Business as Usual!

May 6-9, Charlotte, NC 

GET ON THE BUS MAY 9

GET YOUR TICKETS FOR THE SHOW DOWN IN CROWN TOWN! Only $5

Tickets going fast, sign up today!

 

On May 6-9 people from across the country and world will be converging in Charlotte, NC, home of Bank of America’s Headquarters and their annual Shareholder meeting, to demand an end to their practices that are bankrupting our economy and wrecking our climate.

Homeowners, students, immigrants, environmentalists, workers, women’s groups, peace activists and more will be in Charlotte, bringing their stories, hearts and communities to the fight against Bank of America and the economic inequality, racial injustice and environmental destruction they have wrought.
Not only is Bank of America and the other big banks responsible for the crash of the entire world capitalist economy, but they also are:

• #1 forecloser of homes in the US,
• #1 funder of the US coal industry,
• Job killer by letting go of nearly 100,000 workers over the past several years,
• Bonus Buster paying its top five executives over $500 million in bonuses,
• Saddling students with a lifetime of debt, and
• Financing the war machine.

Bank of America, and its profits-over-people-and-planet business model, is drowning our democracy through huge financial contributions to lobbyists that are serving the interests of the 1% and are participating in corporate-funded groups like American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and the Financial Services Roundtable.

As a global community united for real economic and racial justice, it is time that BoA is held accountable, invest in public needs and services, or face being broken up to achieve the justice we need. Whether you are a community member, homeowner, worker or student, we need to come together to challenge corporate power and create an economy and democracy that works for all of us.

Get on the Bus with FIST in Durham!  One Day trip to Charlotte to join the Show Down on May 9!

Members of Raleigh-Durham FIST are helping to organize a bus from Durham!  We are loading buses at 4:30am sharp at the Main Library at 300 N. Roxboro Street Durham, North Carolina 27701.  We will be expecting to arrive back in Durham before 7pm. Please RSVP by emailing RaleighFIST@gmail.com and calling 919-539-2051 to get a ticket!

Sign up for tickets from Durham here !

May 9^th BOA Shareholder Meeting Action Plan:

On the morning of May 9 at 8 am, people from around the state, country and world will converge on the “Wall Street of the South” to participate in creative, mass non-violent direct action to “Break Up Business As Usual for Bank of America.” Our marches will carry our call for justice to the doors of the Shareholder meeting and surrounding areas.  On the day of the Shareholder meeting, people will have the opportunity to engage in a variety of creative educational, cultural, theatrical, visibility, and nonviolent direct action activities.

There are also other buses coming from cities across the state:

Asheville bus: jim brown,  Jim@P-e-a-c-e.org

Raleigh bus: Adam Orlovich” <adam@aflcionc.org>  + nick wood: nickwood1979@gmail.com

Fayetteville bus: bryan conlon,  bryan.p.conlon@gmail.com

Wilmington van: keenen,  keenen25@gmail.com

Greensboro bus: todd warren, toddafwarren@gmail.com

Chapel Hill bus: tait chandler, tait.chandler@gmail.com

March Assembly Sites:

Housing Justice Now! — Bank of America, N. Tryon @ 9^th St.
Stop Funding Coal and the Militarization of Our Communities! — The Green, Tryon @ Levine Ave of the Arts
Worker’s Rights! Corporations Out of Politics:  Pay Your Taxes Not Your Lobbyists! — Old City Hall, Davidson @ 4^thSt

For more information on how to get involved in organizing for the Bank of America Shareholder’s protest, visit www.ncagainstcorporatepower.org

Facebook event: Protest the Bank of America Shareholder Meeting
https://www.facebook.com/events/283287288413972/

Twitter: #MakeBoAPay

May 3: March on Reynolds Shareholder Meeting in Winston Salem

Join us in Winston Salem on May 3 as we rally and march for justice for tobacco farmworkers! For over 4 years the Farm Labor Organizing Committee has asked Reynolds American to meet with the farmworkers who harvest their tobacco to discuss how to put an end to the human rights abuses occurring in NC tobacco fields. While Reynolds continues business as usual, farmworkers continue to suffer from sub minimum wages, pesticide and nicotine poisoning, uninhabitable housing, lack of water and breaks at work, and fatalities.
10:00am Meet at Lloyd Presbyterian Church
748 N Chestnut St., Winston Salem, NC 27101

Free parking is available at Lloyd, or pay lots are available 
downtown. Nearest lot to Reynolds is across from the front 
entrance on Main St. between 4th and 5th.

10:30 Demonstration at Reynolds Headquarters
401 N Main St, Winston-Salem, NC 27101

Followed by Rally at 4th and Trade St. and march through downtown Winston Salem, ending back at Lloyd Presbyterian. Lunch will be provided.

Did you know?

Reynolds is also a corporate sponsor of ALEC, and Reynolds exec David Powers sits on ALEC’s corporate board.

Reynolds made nearly 1.5 billion dollars a year in profits last year while most farmworkers continue to live in poverty. Last year, Reynolds CEO Daniel Delen made 8.5 million dollars.

At the same time the company was raking in billions, it also slashed thousands of jobs from it’s processing plants in Winston Salem, leaving thousands of hard working families without a paycheck.

Tell Reynolds it’s time to take responsibility for it’s actions and it’s supply chain. We will not stand by as Reynolds turns a blind eye to human rights abuses, puts profit over people, and supports anti-worker, anti-immigrant corporations like ALEC.

RSVP ON FACEBOOK 

May Day March for Workers and Immigrants Rights, Durham, Tues May 1

May Day Triangle 2012 Invitation

(Para español lea abajo)

WHAT:  March for Workers and Immigrants Rights
WHEN: International Workers Day, Tues, May 1  6pm – 8pm 
(cultural events and food start at 3pm)
WHERE:  CCB Plaza, corner of Chapel Hill St and Corcoran St (Near Marriot and the bronze bull), downtown Durham

We invite everyone to participate in a May Day 2012 mobilization together. 

 

May 1 is celebrated around the world as international workers day and originated in Chicago after the 1886 Haymarket Massacre, in which police fired on workers during a general strike for the eight-hour workday.

 

On May 1, 2006, in the largest single day protest in the history of the United States, massive migrant marches re-ignited May Day as a day of resistance, a near-lost tradition in the US. May Day is important this year as a day of action for economic justice and equality.

 

Over the past year, we have been inspired by people’s movements, resistance and actions around the globe. We have experienced an awakening over the past year that has created a new political movement and a focus on economic justice, and we believe that May Day 2012 is an opportunity for us to cultivate a broad and potent coalition of communities, organizations, and others seeking to build a different city and a different world. We believe that it can be not only a moment to demonstrate our discontent, but to begin to think together toward building self-determination for and from our communities.

 

Join us on May 1 (in Durham’s People’s Plaza) as we rally for:

• Good jobs and living wages
• The right to join a union, the right to organize for all workers, and the right to collective bargaining
• Justice for immigrants, including amnesty and an end to deportations
• An end to police brutality, mass incarceration of communities of color, and all forms of oppression and discrimination
• Public sector jobs and services and public budgets that meet human needs

Organizations with speakers include: Black Workers for Justice, Compassion Ministry, Durham City Worker’s Union-UE150,  National Association of Letter Carriers local 382, El Kilombo, FLOC (Farm Labor Organizing Committee)-AFL-CIO, NC AFL-CIO, NC Dream Team, NC Justice Center, Student Action with Farmworkers, UNC Student Action with Workers.

 

Some of the organizations that have signed on as supporters: The Human Rights Center of Carrboro and Chapel Hill; UE150, Durham City Workers Union chapter; Raleigh-Durham Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST), Workers World Party, Durham branch; Freedom Road Socialist Organization; People’s Durham; Durham National Association of Letter Carriers Union, local 328; American Postal Workers Union, local 24; Immigrants and Allies United for Justice

  

Schedule:

3 p.m. Arts and Cultural Festival at People’s Plaza (CCB Plaza) in Durham

5 p.m. Potluck

6 p.m. March through downtown Durham starting at People’s Plaza

7 p.m. Rally and speeches at People’s Plaza

More information at http://maydaytriangle2012.blogspot.com/

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Invitamos a todos para que participen en la movilización de May Day.

El 1 de mayo se celebra al nivel mundial como el Día Internacional de los Trabajadores, día conmemorativo que se originó en Chicago después de la Masacre Haymarket en 1886, durante la cual la policía disparó a trabajadores que realizaban una huelga general a favor del día laboral de ocho horas.

El 1 de mayo de 2006, en la mayor manifestación de un solo día en la historia de los Estados Unidos, las protestas masivas de los inmigrantes resucitaron a May Day como un día de resistencia, una tradición que estaba al punto de la desaparición en los EEUU. May Day supone un día importante este año para actuar a favor de la justicia económica y la igualdad.

Dentro del ultimo año, nos han inspirado los movimientos, la resistencia y las acciones populares que se han visto alrededor del mundo. Hemos experimentado un nuevo amanecer, lo cual ha creado un nuevo movimiento político enfocado en la justicia económica. Creemos que May Day 2012 servirá como una oportunidad para cultivar una colaboración de comunidades, organizaciones e individuos que buscan construir una ciudad nueva, y un mundo diferente. Creemos que este movimiento no solo demostrará nuestro descontento, sino que ayudará a que pensemos en cómo cultivar la autodeterminación desde y para nuestra comunidad.

Únase con nosotros el 1 de mayo a favor de:

• Por los empleos y salarios adecuados
• Por el derecho de pertenecer a un sindicato, de organización y negociación colectiva
• A favor de la justicia para los inmigrantes, por la amnistía y la abolición de la política de deportación
• Contra todas las formas de opresión y discriminación, incluso la violencia realizada por la policía y el encarcelamiento masivo de las comunidades de color
• Por el establecimiento de empleos, servicios y fondos dentro del sector público que alcancen las necesidades de la comunidad 

Agenda:
3pm Festival de artes y cultura en People’s Plaza (CCB Plaza) en Durham
5pm Cena colectiva (todo el mundo llevará un plato)
6pm Marcha por el centro de Durham, comenzando en People’s Plaza
7pm Reunión y discursos en People’s Plaza

Mas informacion por http://maydaytriangle2012.blogspot.com/