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In This Issue ▪ Thursday, Dec 17, 9 AM -- Court Support for October 23 Freedom Fighters, and Letter from Clark Kissinger▪ Thursday, Dec 17, 7 PM - a
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In This Issue
▪ Thursday, Dec 17, 9 AM -- Court Support for October 23 Freedom Fighters, and Letter from Clark Kissinger
▪ Thursday, Dec 17, 7 PM - a discussion with Carl Dix on summing up the strengths and weaknesses of #RiseUpOctober
▪ Friday, Dec 18 -- Mobilization for Political Prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal
▪ This Weekend: You Are Needed: Volunteers for street outreach and tabling this weekend with Carl Dix's new statement on the mistrial in Baltimore; for phone banking, and fund raising mailings. To volunteer, call (929) 249-7996 or (646) 709-1961.
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Support the Freedom Fighters Arrested for Direct Action at Rikers Island! Come Out for Court Support Thursday, December 17, 9 AM
Queens Criminal Court, 125-01 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens
Check the court docket for "Clark Kissinger." |
 Clark Kissinger | |  Miles Solay |
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17 people were arrested for nonviolent civil resistance at the entrance to Rikers Island prison complex on October 23 as part of #RiseUpOctober. At least five freedom fighters will be in court. Two of those arrested -- Clark Kissinger, manager of Revolution Books, and Miles Solay of the rock band Outernational -- have been targeted for heavier charges.
You are needed to come out. This provides moral support to those who put themselves on the line. Building court support is a part of building the movement of resistance to police terror and mass incarceration; it is not a distraction! |
 October 23 civil disobedience action at Rikers Island where 17 were arrested. |
The following is from an email from Clark Kissinger, the manager of Revolution Books NYC:
I wrote to many of you in October to invite you to join me in a non-violent direct action to shut down Rikers Island, New York City's municipal torture chamber and debtors prison (85% of the prisoners there are simply people too poor to make bail). This action was part of a larger three-day mobilization in New York called #RiseUpOctober, that brought thousands of people into the streets against the horrific epidemic of police murders has already taken over 1100 lives this year - disproportionately unarmed young people of color. This is a situation in which we are all asked WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?
The action on October 23 at Rikers Island was very successful, and all traffic in and out was shut down for an hour, drawing further public attention to prisoners being beaten, killed or left to die after unconscionable neglect, and a culture of brutality by guards that remains the norm. It is truly "Abu Ghraib-on-the-Hudson."
Seventeen people were arrested on October 23, most charged with disorderly conduct. But two people, myself and Miles Solay, frontman for the revolution rock band Outernational, were singled out for more serious charges. Our court appearance is tomorrow, December 17, 9 am, at the Queens Criminal Court, 125-01 Queens Blvd, Queens, NY (you are welcome to join us!).
As I wrote you before, over 50 years of political activism have taught me that there is nothing inevitable about the way society is organized. It results neither from human nature nor the will of a non-existent god. It is the outcome of an economic and social system that came into existence for material reasons and can, in the right conditions, be defeated through an actual revolution and lifted off the backs of all of humanity. Those who have applied science to this question, from Marx, to Mao, to Avakian today, have given me an optimism that is based on material reality. The very conditions which torment humanity can provide the basis for putting an end to the long dark nightmare of class society and all oppression. |
Thursday Dec 17: Come to a Discussion with Carl Dix, co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, and representative of the Revolutionary Communist Party, on #RiseUpOctober
On the Significance of #RiseUpOctober: Building on Strengths, Overcoming Weaknesses... And Fighting to Actually Put an End to Police Terror and White Supremacy Through Revolution
When: Thursday December 17, 7:00 PM
Where: Asian American Writers Workshop, 112 West 27th Street (btwn 6th & 7th Avenues)
(trains: F/M to 23rd Street; N/R to 28th Street; #1 to 28th Street)
RSVP: 929-249-7996 or 646-709-1961
From the article:
RiseUpOctober, RUO—the mass demonstrations against police murder that took place in New York in October—represented a significant advance in the fight against this terror, and the overall fight against the oppression of Black, Latino. and Native American people of which it is a key part. The three days of action—the march and rallies on the 24th, the nonviolent direct action to shut down Rikers Island prison on the 23rd, and the reading at Times Square on the 22nd of the Stolen Lives, those killed by the police—each in its own right and taken together had a powerful impact on public opinion. The controversy that raged afterward in the media, mainly with the filmmaker Quentin Tarantino’s comments at the march and the defense of Tarantino by others, kept the issue squarely in the public mind, with people representing the action making the point to millions: murder by police must stop—Which Side Are You On? More... |
December 18. Long time political prisoner and writer, and former death row inmate, Mumia Abu-Jamal has been suffering from medical neglect during his confinement, suffering from Hepatitis C. He will give testimony of prison medical neglect in federal court in Scranton, PA on Friday, December 18. This is an advance in the legal battle to demand Mumia the Hepatitis C treatment he needs! Fact Sheet here. Who is Mumia? |
This Weekend: Join the Stop Mass Incarceration Network for Street Outreach and Tabling
To volunteer, call (929) 249-7996 or (646) 709-1961.
▪ Saturday, Dec 19, 12:12 PM -- #D19 Billion People March, Union Square
▪ Sunday, Dec 20, 2 PM -- Ad hoc coalition anti-Trump mobilization, Trump Tower 5th Avenue between 56th & 57th Streets.
You Are Needed: Volunteers for street outreach and tabling this weekend with Carl Dix's statement on the mistrial in Baltimore; for phone banking, and fund raising mailings. To volunteer, call (929) 249-7996 or (646) 709-1961. |
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