SOA Watch Labor Caucus: SE Michigan - 2015 Yearly Report

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SOA Watch Labor Caucus: SE Michigan Chapter 2015 UAW LABOR AND FRIENDS OF SOA WATCH LABOR DELEGATION TO SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS VIGIL "Resisting Oppression" The mission of our grassroots work in the community that climaxes with a recruitment drive to fill a bus for our yearly delegation to Ft. Benning, Georgia is to educate, inspire and activate union members and community around the struggles created by militarism at home and abroad; issues associated with police accountability, the need for immigration reform and the impacts of failed so called free trade agreements. Left photo taken outside Inkster Police Station during the protest about the brutality inflected against Floyd Dent, Center left photo taken during Women Creating Caring Communities International Women’s day event, Center right photo taken during march lead by Detroit’s Coalition Against Police Brutality to Attorney General’s office to protest the Killing by an ICE Agent of Terrence Kellum . Right photo taken supporting Michigan United’s fight against deportation During the year we look for opportunities to partner with other local groups to further common causes we drive awareness of our mission through social media, leafleting and literature tables. This year we supported these local organizations: Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, D15, South Eastern JWJ, Detroit Eviction Defense, Women Creating Caring Communities and Michigan United with boots on the ground and support for their local events. Reflecting on Our Communities a Global and Local Perspective Building awareness for the 2015 delegation started with a local discussion on the militarization in Latin America and right here at home, in our own police departments. During a mobilization and recruitment meeting at UAW Local 140, October 7 th we discussed the “War on Drugs”, mass incarceration, forced migration and their devastating impacts on families right here in Metropolitan Detroit and the parallels of these policies throughout the world. Guest speaker: Abayomi Azikiwe gave us a local perspective on these issues. Abayomi Azikiwe is the editor of the Pan-African News Wire, an electronic press agency that was founded in 1998. He has worked for decades in solidarity with the liberation movements and progressive governments on the African continent and the Caribbean. Azikiwe is a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Political Science/Public Administration and Educational and Administrative Studies. He is the co-founder of several Detroit-area organizations including: The Pan-African Students Union, Pan-African Union, Africa 2000, the Wayne State University Black Caucus, The Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, and the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut offs. During 2007-2011 Azikiwe served as the chairperson of the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights (MCHR) Link to Abayomi Azikiwe speech deliverd at UAW local 140 http://www.globalresearch.ca/militarization-of-the-police-a-reflection-of-united-states-foreign-policy/5480672 Guest speaker: María Luisa Rosal, Field Organizer SOA Watch gave us a global perspective on these issues. Born in Guatemala during the worst intensification of the internal armed conflict, she and her family fled into exile to the United States, where they received political asylum. Her father was disappeared by the Guatemalan state on August 12, 1983. Prior to joining the national office as the movement's Field Organizer, María Luisa had worked on issues regarding torture, enforced disappearances, historical memory, and human rights in Guatemala. María Luisa holds a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia and

Transcript of SOA Watch Labor Caucus: SE Michigan - 2015 Yearly Report

Page 1: SOA Watch Labor Caucus: SE Michigan - 2015 Yearly Report

SOA Watch Labor Caucus: SE Michigan Chapter

2015 UAW LABOR AND FRIENDS OF SOA WATCH LABOR DELEGATION TO

SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS VIGIL

"Resisting Oppression" The mission of our grassroots work in the community that

climaxes with a recruitment drive to fill a bus for our yearly delegation to Ft. Benning, Georgia

is to educate, inspire and activate union members and community around the struggles created

by militarism at home and abroad; issues associated with police accountability, the need for immigration reform and the impacts

of failed so called “free trade agreements”.

Left photo taken outside Inkster Police Station during the protest about the brutality inflected against Floyd Dent, Center left photo taken during Women Creating Caring Communities International Women’s day event, Center right photo taken during march lead by Detroit’s Coalition Against Police Brutality to Attorney General’s office to protest the Killing by an ICE Agent of Terrence Kellum . Right photo taken supporting Michigan United’s fight against deportation

During the year we look for opportunities to partner with other local groups to further common causes we drive awareness of

our mission through social media, leafleting and literature tables. This year we supported these local organizations: Detroit

Coalition Against Police Brutality, D15, South Eastern JWJ, Detroit Eviction Defense, Women Creating Caring Communities

and Michigan United with boots on the ground and support for their local events.

Reflecting on Our Communities a Global and Local Perspective

Building awareness for the 2015 delegation started with a local discussion on the militarization in Latin America and right

here at home, in our own police departments. During a mobilization and recruitment meeting at UAW Local 140, October

7th we discussed the “War on Drugs”, mass incarceration, forced migration and their devastating impacts on families right here

in Metropolitan Detroit and the parallels of these policies throughout the world.

Guest speaker: Abayomi Azikiwe gave us a local perspective on these issues. Abayomi Azikiwe is the

editor of the Pan-African News Wire, an electronic press agency that was founded in 1998. He has

worked for decades in solidarity with the liberation movements and progressive governments on the

African continent and the Caribbean. Azikiwe is a graduate of Wayne State University in Detroit

where he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in Political Science/Public Administration and

Educational and Administrative Studies. He is the co-founder of several Detroit-area organizations

including: The Pan-African Students Union, Pan-African Union, Africa 2000, the Wayne State

University Black Caucus, The Detroit Coalition Against Police Brutality, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War &

Injustice, and the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut offs. During 2007-2011

Azikiwe served as the chairperson of the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights (MCHR) Link to Abayomi Azikiwe speech deliverd at

UAW local 140 http://www.globalresearch.ca/militarization-of-the-police-a-reflection-of-united-states-foreign-policy/5480672

Guest speaker: María Luisa Rosal, Field Organizer SOA Watch gave us a global perspective on these

issues. Born in Guatemala during the worst intensification of the internal armed conflict, she and her

family fled into exile to the United States, where they received political asylum. Her father was

disappeared by the Guatemalan state on August 12, 1983. Prior to joining the national office as the

movement's Field Organizer, María Luisa had worked on issues regarding torture, enforced

disappearances, historical memory, and human rights in Guatemala. María Luisa holds a Bachelor's

Degree in Political Science from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia and

Page 2: SOA Watch Labor Caucus: SE Michigan - 2015 Yearly Report

Master's Degree in Human Rights and Democratization in Latin America and the Caribbean from the Universidad Nacional de

San Martín in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Under the conviction that without truth, there is no justice, she is enthusiastically

committed to contributing to the growth and mobilization of this continental movement! Video link to Maria Luisa Rosal Speech at local

140 www.facebook.com/461620897378061/videos/vb.461620897378061/489503141256503/?type=2&theater

.

The Mobilization

Our mobilization to Fort Benning consisted of over 40 Activists. During the bus ride we watched documentaries that connected

us to the struggles of forced migration , immigration reform , School to Prison Pipeline and Mass Incarceration we watched

documentaries that taught us about many other struggles and their relationship to our communities (We Are Not GHOST, I Do

Mind Dying, Incarceration Nation-Moyers & Company, HARVEST OF EMPIRE, ELEMENTARY GENOCIDE-The School

To Prison Pipeline, HEIST-WHO STOLE THE AMERICAN DREAM?, MCHR-Freedom Tour 2013, Through the Same Door-

Inclusion Includes College and the AMERICAN REVOLUTIONARY: THE EVOLUTION OF GRACE LEE BOGGS).

We joined approximately 2,500-3,500 people from across the US and Latin American to Say:

1. Close the School of the Assassins

2. End Militarization at Home and Abroad

3. Say Yes to Immigration

A Bus from Detroit with Local UAW members from Region’s 1, 1A, 9 (LU 140, 160, 228, 869, 1264, 1248, 174, 686, 3000

, 2030) marched in the sun as we heard stories about immigrants being detained for 18 months in the privatized Detention

Center in Lumpkin, Georgia.

There are more 3.4 million people in prisons, jails, detention centers across our country because of a War on Drugs, a School to

Prison Pipeline Industrial Complex and the total barbarism of government polices trying to make people invisible, calling them

predators, illegal, parasites but we all know that this is a result of a long history of racism that attempts to make people invisible

and silence their stories and voices.

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Labor Caucus

Charlie King got the Labor Caucus started. Charlie King is a musical storyteller and political

satirist. He has been at the heart of American folk music for half a century. He sings and writes

passionately about the extraordinary lives of ordinary people.

His songs have been sung by Pete Seeger, Holly Near, Ronnie Gilbert, John McCutcheon, Arlo

Guthrie, Peggy Seeger, Chad Mitchell and Judy Small. His political musical influences are the folk

music revival of the 1960’s, and the protest songs of the Civil Rights and Vietnam War era.

During our labor caucus our guest speaker was from Mary's Pence: Sister

Pat Rogucki, SFCC Baltimore, MD. Sister Pat Rogucki Shared her

eyewitness accounts of state violence in Latin America and the causes of

forced migration. For more than 25 years she has spent her summers in El Salvador in a local parish,

Mary Mother of the Pool, in San Salvador. She served on the board of Salvadoran Enterprises for

Women from 2003 to 2010. In addition she has been active in supporting her parish’s sister parish in

Guatemala. In Baltimore, she works with CASA of Maryland, writes articles, and advocates for

immigrants' rights.

Mary's Pence invests in women across the Americas

by funding community initiatives and fostering

collaborations to create social change.

They envision a world where empowered women and their communities

flourish in solidarity and justice. For over 25 years Mary’s Pence has been

giving grants to women’s organizations. They supported the initial stages of

many small women’s organizations.

Grants totaling over $1,500,000, funding over 500 projects, in 15

countries.

Sponsored 9 ESPERA Funds – lending pools owned and managed

by a women’s network - in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti.

Provided opportunity for people of faith to support social change.

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THE GATES OF FORT

BENNING

We demonstrated because we need to

break the silence on the Evil Triplets

that MLK spoke about in 1967- The

Evil triplets of racism, materialism and

militarism. We need a radical revolution

in values that places the dignity and

human worth of all human beings above

profits, trade agreements, continued

forcing of people off their land, and the

continued destruction for the planet and

the limited resources.

The delegation of union members was

joined by the Boggs Center, Ann Arbor Peace and Justice Center, Kalamazoo Peace Center and family members. Our youngest

participant was 16 and our eldest was 66.

Some were first timers and they all said they would continue to work to end the militarization of our foreign policy in Latin

America (since the Monroe Doctrine) as well as the militarization that we most recently have been exposed to in Ferguson, MO.

The fundamental principles of SOAW are based upon the commitment to non-violence, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Casar

Chavez, Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day and so many individuals who have said: Enough is Enough!

SOA Watch Labor Caucus: SE Michigan Chapter would like thank UAW Vice President Cindy Estrada & the Estrada Fund,

THE BUCK DINNER, MCHR, UAW Local 140 Civil and Human Rights Committee and all that contributed to the cost of a

seat on the bus for your support, We hope to continue to build strong community relationships through our involvement and

support of Social and Economic Activism!

SOA Watch Labor Caucus: SE Michigan Chapter

[email protected]

SOAW.ORG

LABOR DONATED