The Stein-Ware campaign on ranked choice voting

I haven't seen much reason for ranked choice voting ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranked-choice_voting_in_the_United_States ), but this November 4th Stein-Ware campaign email distinguishes between RCV and “limited-choice voting” being pushed by the Democratic Party in recent years.  The Green Party's Jill Stein and several other presidential candidates are on the ballot in North Carolina and others, such as the Party of Socialism and Liberation's Claudia De la Cruz, have official write-in status.

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If you’re like us, you’re probably sick and tired of hearing the propaganda that voting for Jill Stein and other Green candidates means you’re “spoiling the election” or “wasting your vote.” The political and media establishment promotes “spoiler” hysteria to scare people away from voting for what they actually want, and to keep people voting for a two-party system that doesn’t serve their interests. But what they don’t want people to know is that there’s a simple upgrade to our voting system that would make “spoiler” hysteria obsolete: Ranked-Choice Voting.

For years now, polls have shown that a huge majority - roughly 60% - of Americans believe the two-party system doesn’t represent them, and we need a new major party. Yet despite their unpopularity, the same two parties maintain a stranglehold on power by campaigning on the same message: “The other party is worse, so you have to vote for us as the lesser evil.” Instead of earning votes by working to improve voters’ lives, they can extort votes by threatening that the other side will be worse.

This two-party trap has led our country to a bad place: endless war and genocide, social and economic breakdown, climate collapse, and a democracy on life support. But it doesn’t have to be this way, and ranked-choice voting can change the game.

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With ranked-choice voting (RCV) you can vote for your favorite candidates without any worry about "wasting your vote," "splitting the vote" or "spoiling" an election. It’s simple: You can rank your 1st choice, 2nd choice, and so on, and if your 1st choice doesn't win, your vote goes to your 2nd choice. This process continues until one candidate wins a majority - and they can't win with less than 50%, which has happened in 4 of the last 8 Presidential elections.

Decade after decade of lesser-evil voting has enabled both establishment parties to do less and less for the people and cater to the demands of their wealthy elite donors. RCV can break this vicious cycle by freeing people to vote FOR what they actually want, rather than AGAINST what they fear. That would give voters real choice and real power.

In the Green Party, we’ve been fighting for ranked-choice voting for decades, but the politicians in power refuse to pass it because they don’t want you to have a real choice. And that’s one more reason they don’t deserve your vote. In fact, there’s been a concerted effort to suppress RCV by politicians like CA governor Gavin Newsom, who in 2019 vetoed a popular bill to expand use of RCV in California.

Despite establishment opposition, the movement for RCV has made steady progress, passing forms of RCV in over 50 cities and counties across the country, as well as the state of Maine. Communities that use RCV have higher turnout and happier voters. That's because RCV is a win-win-win for voters: it promotes majority rule, discourages negative campaigning, and means voters don't have to worry about "splitting the vote."

RCV is a gamechanger, but it’s also just a first step towards revitalizing our democracy to empower the people. Another critically-needed reform is proportional representation for legislative elections, a type of system used in most democracies around the world where if a party gets 25% of the vote, they take 25% of the seats. Proportional representation produces governments that are more representative and responsive, and allows for healthy multi-party democracy where the true diversity of a society can be fairly represented.

As the movement for RCV gains momentum, however, we have to be careful about attempts to co-opt voters’ enthusiasm for changing the broken system. In recent years, we’ve seen a well-funded effort to conflate RCV with “Top 4” primaries, which began in CA and WA as “Top 2” primaries. Now there are ballot measures in several states that include variants of “Top 4,” which are marketed as “open primaries,” along with a distorted and diluted form of RCV.

The problem is, similar to “Top 2,” the “Top 4” system requires “jungle primaries” that put candidates of all parties together and eliminates all but the top 4 vote-getters, which massively tilts the playing field towards well-funded, establishment-backed candidates with the resources to turn out a large primary vote. To make things worse, these primaries don’t even use RCV, making them no better than elections under the existing broken system.

A better name for “Top 4” primaries would be “limited-choice voting,” when what we need is the opposite: more voices and more choices. But this well-funded “reform” appears to be aimed at co-opting the movement for RCV to further entrench the two-party system and pay-to-play politics. And while genuine RCV can be a stepping stone to proportional representation, “Top 4” would perpetuate the system of single-seat elections, which would be an obstacle to enacting proportional representation.

For all these reasons, in 2024 we fully support ballot measures for genuine ranked-choice voting in Oregon (Measure 117) and multiple cities including Washington DC (Initiative 83), Richmond CA (Measure L), Oak Park IL and Peoria IL; and we oppose measures for “Top 4” primaries in Colorado (Proposition 131) and Idaho (Proposition 1), and “Top 5” in Nevada (Question 3).

It’s clearer than ever that we urgently need a voting system that frees us all to vote for what we want, not just against what we fear. Democracy needs a moral compass, and that compass is our values. If we can't vote our values, we're lost at sea.

It's time to break free from the 2-party trap and bring real democracy to America with ranked-choice voting. Every vote for our campaign helps to build the demand for a world where we can all forget the “lesser evil,” and vote for the greater good like our lives depend on it - because they do.

Thank you for everything you do to power up this movement for real democracy!

In solidarity and gratitude,

The Stein/Ware 2024 Team

UNAC: End the attacks on Samidoun and all Palestinian rights supporters + petition, webinars, and news

Originally posted by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) around October 26th (?) at:  unac.notowar.net/end-the-attacks-on-samidoun-and-all-palestinian-rights-supporters/  There were 186 signatures on the UNAC petition just now (see the link), up from earlier overnight.

[I plan to post more on the blacklisting Samidoun and statements during November and see also (though there was a problem with the coding):  durhamspark.blogspot.com/2024/11/on-blacklisting-of-samidoun-palestinian.html ]

Webinars:

There will be a webinar -- "The Elections:  US Citizens Denied a Choice for Peace, People or Planet" with a panel of Margaret Kimberley, Sara Flounders, Ajamu Baraka, and Wilmer Leon III and moderated by Radhika Desai today Sunday, November 3rd at 11am EST  It was organized by the International Manifesto Group and co-sponsored by the Black Agenda Report, Black Alliance for Peace, and UNAC:

"Regardless of which candidate makes it to the White House, the real winner will once again be the one or another section of the imperialist, neoliberal, financialised, warmongering, pro-genocide US ruling class. Both appear set to keep the conflagrations raging in West Asia and Ukraine going, while provoking China and Russia and pushing the world ever closer to nuclear war. Both will keep increasing the burdens of working people in the US while favouring a few dozen big corporations. Our panel asks whether and how the duopoly’s stranglehold on the political system may be broken."

Registration at:  umanitoba.zoom.us/meeting/register/u5wucOCsqjorGdIU5uGiuEyXX04MtwDu-had#/registration

A previous webinar is now on YouTube:

"Report back from activists who attended a peace conference in St. Petersburg, Russia on 'Peace, Nature [and] Cooperation in the Baltic [and] Arctic Regions' organized by the Global Women for Peace United Against NATO:"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9neLeVQZsU&t=311s

On the recent near-unanimous UN General Assembly condemnation of the US government's anti-Cuba blockade:

Sara Flounders of UNAC and SanctionsKill spoke at press conference sponsored by Venezuela "at the UN on Unilateral Coercive Measures as a critical impediment to the realization of the Right to Development" -- to read her remarks:  nepajac.org/unpressconfsara.htm

Video:  webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1x/k1xzdz0rzx

Richie Merino of UNAC and the Bronx Antiwar Coalition spoke at a rally against the blockade held elsewhere in New York City:  nepajac.org/richietalk.htm

End the Attacks on Samidoun and all Palestinian Rights Supporters

Please endorse this statement in support of the Work of Samidoun and all those who have been suppressed for raising their voices on behalf of the Palestinian people

We condemn the US and Canadian attack on Samidoun, an organization that fights for the rights of Palestinian political prisoners.  They have been declared a “sham charity” that serves terrorist organizations, and have accused one of its Palestinian-Canadian supporters, Khaled Barakat to be “associated with terrorism.”  These allegations are untrue and are simply an attempt by the US and Canada to stop the growing movement for Palestinian Rights and against the Zionist genocide in Gaza.  It is Israel and the United States who are the real terrorists.

This attack comes in the context of attempts to punish Palestinian Rights activists for their protests.  Many have been arrested or excluded from their campuses and the corporate media enforces a blackout of the horrors of the Zionist genocide in Gaza.  Other Palestinian rights activists and organizations have been deplatformed or censored on social media and still other people have been arrested or have had their homes invaded by the FBI.  This attack on Samidoun is an attack on all who fight for human rights and against genocide and has been especially aimed at Palestinians and Muslims, thousands of whom have been arrested since the US phony “War on Terror.”

The US and Canadian support for the Zionist genocide has exposed both countries and their Zionist client as criminal violators of human rights.  Despite the attempts to shape the narrative about the genocide in Palestine in favor of Israel in the corporate media, social media has been ablaze with their crimes and millions around the world see their true nature and have been moved to build a movement that threatens their entire Zionist and imperialist system. So, they are now trying to stop all organizations that tell the truth about this genocide and the attack on Samidoun should be seen in this light.

UNAC demands:

Hands off Samidoun!
End the Censorship and repression!
End the Genocide in Palestine!
Free Palestine!

ADC: Know Your Rights at the Ballot Box

The NC State Board of Elections:  ncsbe.gov/

The Durham County Board of Elections:  www.dcovotes.dconc.gov

Today, Saturday, November 2nd, might be the last day to register to vote for November 5th in North Carolina and early voting might end in mid-afternoon, but check the above links for information.  

Know Your Rights at the Ballot Box

For Immediate Release

ADC Contact: media [at adc org]

 

Washington, DC | www.adc.org | October 31, 2024 – Election day is less than a week away, and many states have already begun accepting ballots. To help assist voters ADC launched arab.vote, a centralized resource for all your election needs. In addition to letting you check your voter registration status, arab.vote will help you identify your polling place, who is on your ballot, and, most importantly, make a plan to vote by November 5. As more and more Americans go cast their ballots, ADC wants to ensure that you know your voting rights. Find more information and some tips below.

 

Nationwide Rights

• All voters have the right not to be discriminated against on the basis of race, national origin, or disability.
• All voters have the right to vote free of intimidation.
• All voters who need assistance by reason of disability or inability to read and write in the language of the ballot may choose someone to assist them to vote, as long as the person is not the judge of elections or an agent/representative of the voter’s employer or union.

Registration

 

States have different voter registration deadlines and requirements, so check what you need to do to register in your state in advance of Election Day. Voter registration deadlines vary and some states allow individuals to register for the first time and cast ballots on Election Day.  

• Check your registration status at arab.vote
• If you are not registered to vote, arab.vote will provide information about your registration options, which may include online registration.

Election Day Rights and Tips

• If the polls close while you’re still in line, stay in line – you have the right to vote.
• If you make a mistake on your ballot, ask for a new one.
• If the machines are down at your polling place, ask for a paper ballot.

What to do if the poll worker says you are not on the list of registered voters

• Voters are entitled to a provisional ballot, even if they aren’t in the poll book.
• After Election Day, election officials must investigate whether you are qualified to vote and registered. If you are qualified and registered, they will count your provisional ballot.
• Ask the poll worker to double check for your name on the list of registered voters. Make sure to spell your name out for the poll worker.
• If the poll worker still cannot find your name, confirm that you are at the correct polling place using arab.vote.

Speak English less than “very well”?

 

Under federal law, voters who have difficulty reading or writing English may receive in-person assistance at the polls from the person of their choice.

• You can bring a family member, friend, or other person of your choice to assist you at the polls.

Voter Intimidation

 

Examples of voter intimidation:

• Aggressively questioning voters about their citizenship, criminal record, or other qualifications to vote.
• Falsely representing oneself as an elections official.
• Displaying false or misleading signs about voter fraud and related criminal penalties.
• Other forms of harassment, particularly harassment targeting non-English speakers and voters of color.
• Spreading false information about voter requirements.
• You do not need to speak English to vote, in any state.
• You do not need to pass a test to vote, in any state.

What to do if you experience voter intimidation:

• In many states, you can give a sworn statement to the poll worker that you satisfy the qualifications to vote in your state, and then proceed to cast a ballot.

About the ADC

 

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is the largest Arab American grassroots organization in the U.S., founded in 1980 by former Senator James Abourezk.  ADC’s mission is to defend and promote the human rights, civil rights, and liberties of at least 3.7 million Arab Americans residing in the United States. Through its work, the ADC fights discrimination in the U.S., enhances public understanding of Arab history and culture, and partners with marginalized communities globally to advance social justice.

[This is the 850th post on Durham Spark.]

On the blacklisting of Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network

Canada and the US simultaneously banned Samidoun: Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network October 15, 2024 as a front for the Palestinian Marxist-Leninist national liberation organization PFLP.  The US government listed Samidoun as "Specially Designated National" or a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" under the Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control.  The parliament in the Netherlands apparently recommended that Samidoun be banned as a terrorist group October 1st; it has not been so listed, but is facing government repression anyway (see below).  Germany banned the organization by November 2, 2023 and Israel did so in 2021.  Apparently the FRG banned the organization just for having allegedly passed out candy, somewhere, in celebration of Operation al Aqsa Flood.  If I'm not mistaken, senior US and maybe EU diplomatic staff gave sweets to demonstrators during the violent 2014 Euromaidan coup in Ukraine (Wikipedia: November 21, 2013-February 22, 2014:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromaidan ; and there is:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolution_of_Dignity )  Apparently I briefly met people named on Wikipedia as leaders of the organization -- dangerous to say in the USA under Biden, Harris, and Trump? -- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samidoun ,  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popular_Front_for_the_Liberation_of_Palestine , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Specially_Designated_Global_Terrorist , en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Foreign_Assets_Control , and samidoun.net -- which worked, but might have been very slow, October 17th or 18th, and worked today.  When the ban was first imposed I thought that the website might be in danger of removal.  I haven't heard anything about this in the media, etc., other than something from NBC News.  I wondered about the whereabouts of the leadership, were they people languishing in a Canadian jail, for anti-war speech, as in the WWI era?  But there was a talk by Charlotte Kates at the Institute for the Critical Study of Society at 10:30am Pacific Time on October 27th:

"Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network International Coordinator Charlotte Kates was arrested and charged by the Vancouver Police Department for a speech she gave on April 26 expressing support for the Palestinian resistance and calling for the Palestinian and Arab resistance – Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Hezbollah – to be removed from so-called ‘terrorist lists’ in Canada and elsewhere.

VPD officers arrested Kates while she was on the bus riding home after attending the establishment of the Palestine solidarity encampment at the University of British Columbia, and charged her with “public incitement of hatred” and “willful promotion of hatred”.  After two hours of questioning she was released with the condition “not to attend any protests, demonstrations and assemblies”.

The attack on Kates is an attack on Samidoun and our work in solidarity with Palestinian prisoners and the Palestinian struggle for liberation. The attack on Kates is an attack on the Palestinian people, part of a longstanding effort by Israel and its imperialist allies to criminalize and de-legitimize Palestinian people, their political organizations and their allies. The attack on Kates is an attack on working class and oppressed people in Canada, signalling that our ‘liberal democratic rights’ will only be tolerated so long as they don’t present any meaningful challenge to the establishment. The attack on Kates is an attack on the people of the world who everywhere are rising up and demanding an end to the Israeli genocide and an end to imperialism and colonialism and are being met with criminalization, repression, expulsion and slander!

Charlotte Kates is the co-founder of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network. (https://samidoun.net/)"

Posted on YouTube:  icssmarx.org/increasing-repression-of-and-resistance-by-the-palestine-liberation-and-solidarity-movement-charlotte-kates-october-27-2024-1030-am-pacific-time/

More information and solidarity links will be put in a future post and/or added here, but a technical problem has cropped up.

This was originally posted October 16th at:  samidoun.net/2024/10/we-keep-resisting-us-and-canada-sanction-samidoun/ 

We keep resisting: US and Canada sanction Samidoun 

Samidoun October 16, 2024 image

On October 15, the United States and Canada sanctioned Samidoun in an attempt to repress political organizing in support of the Palestinian people’s struggle against genocide, colonialism and occupation, and the more than 10.000 Palestinian political prisoners that are being tortured and killed by the Zionist entity. In the US, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced the sanctions, while the Canadian governmenthas listed Samidoun as a “terrorist entity” under its criminal code.

These decisions come at a time when the Zionist entity continues its genocide and massacres in Gaza, all of Palestine and Lebanon with full support from the US, Canada and the European Union. It is a coordinated attempt by the enemies of the Palestinian people to stop every form of solidarity with the Palestinian people and political organizing efforts to end Israel’s genocide, crimes against humanity and occupation.

Our response to this designation is clear: we will keep struggling to stop the genocide, stop imperialist support for Israel, until the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea.

Besides sending weapons and money to the Zionist entity, imperialist powers are repressing the Palestinian diaspora, Arab community and international activists for Palestine that are resisting these countries’ support for the occupation. Thousands of activists in North-America and Europe have been arrested, their houses raided or imprisoned. Palestinians in various countries have received deportation orders for their political activism. In Germany, a ban has been implemented against the slogan “from the river to sea, Palestine will be free”. 

This designation and sanctions should be of serious concern to all who carry out political work, especially for Palestinian liberation, just like the banning of Samidoun in Germany in November 2023. It is meant to introduce a norm in which organizations may be designated as “terrorist” for organizing demonstrations, lectures, publishing posters and engaging in entirely public and political work that challenges imperialist states’ complicity in Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ongoing genocide in Gaza. It comes at a time when more people than ever are speaking out for justice and liberation in Palestine and is meant as an attack on the movement as a whole. 

We also express our strongest solidarity with Khaled Barakat, Palestinian writer and executive committee member of the Masar Badil, the Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement, who was targeted by the US in the same order as a “specially designated global terrorist.” This is meant to silence his effective work and activity in organizing Palestinians in exile and diaspora in the struggle for return and liberation for Palestine.

The repression of Samidoun is part of a larger attack against the Palestinian diaspora, the Arab community and all internationalists that struggle for Palestine. All mainstream political parties, from Democrats to Republicans, and from social democrats to the extreme right-wing, have used the past year to propagate more racist, Islamophobic and repressive measures against the Palestinian people, Arabs, Muslims, refugees, migrants and activists. This repression reflects the interests of the US and Canada, themselves settler-colonial states built on genocide, ethnic cleansing and continued oppression of the Indigenous peoples, and Europe, the birthplace of the Zionist movement. 

It is part of the global struggle against colonialism and imperialism that will continue until the liberation of Palestine from the river to the sea, the right of return for all Palestinian refugees and the liberation of all oppressed peoples and nations. 

Like the Zionist entity fears the Palestinian resistance, so do the imperialist powers fear the Palestinian diaspora and their supporters that have been rising up again and again, especially since the start of operation Al-Aqsa Flood and the Zionist genocide. They fear a strong, popular movement that threatens their economic and political interests in Palestine and the region. 

The repression is a sign of strength for the Palestinian movement and the international solidarity movement. This movement has mobilized the largest demonstrations for Palestine in history, has costed Israeli and Zionist companies billions of dollars in losses, it has united millions of people from across the world, and it has united virtually all social movements in every country for the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Samidoun is particularly targeted because of our political and vocal support for the Palestinian prisoners movement and the Palestinian people’s right to resistance. While the US and Canada are two of Israel’s biggest material supporters with weapons and money and repress the Palestinian movement in their own countries, their official outposts abroad have frequently sought to influence and direct Palestinian politics through conditional funding and similar colonial enterprises. Through these sanctions, the US and Canada wish not only to support genocide but to criminalize even verbal resistance to that genocide. The Palestinian people, like all colonized and oppressed peoples, have the right to resist to liberate themselves and their land from colonialism and occupation, from the river to the sea. Those who resist occupation and oppression — the Palestinian resistance — are not only heroes of the Palestinian people, they are defenders of all of humanity.

As Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, we reiterate our support for the Palestinian people, the prisoners and the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic resistance, who are confronting the genocide and occupation on a daily basis. 

At the same time, we want to stress that Samidoun does not have any material or organizational ties to entities listed on the terrorist lists of the United States, Canada or the European Union.

We reiterate our words upon German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ announcement of the demand to ban Samidoun: In Arabic, the word “Samidoun,” means those who are steadfast. We use this name to refer to the Palestinian prisoners, who remain behind bars, struggling for freedom. Today we affirm that we shall remain steadfast and committed to the Palestinian people, until victory, return and liberation.

[Join the @samidounnetwork channel on Telegram]

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Sent out by email October 22nd:

NLG Condemns the US Government Attack on Samidoun and the Palestinian Solidarity Movement, Calls for an End to Resurgent McCarthyism

The National Lawyers Guild strongly condemns the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designation of Samidoun as “a sham charity
that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization,” and the listing of long-time Palestinian-
Canadian activist Khaled Barakat “as associated with terrorism.” 

Done in coordination with the government of Canada, this designation will have a broad
chilling effect on Palestine solidarity work in North America.  Above all, it is designed to
disrupt the unprecedented global tidal wave of support for the liberation of Palestine. 
The crack down on our constitutionally protected speech is a worrisome development at
any moment in time but in particular right now as social movements confront the US-
backed Israeli genocide in Gaza, the Israeli war on Lebanon, and the general global
trend toward fascism. 

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) has a proud legacy of defending first amendment
rights, standing against the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) and Cold
War repression during the McCarthy era. From representing the Hollywood Ten and the
Rosenbergs to supporting the Black Liberation Movement and Landback struggles
waged by Indigenous peoples, the NLG has fought tirelessly against government
repression—an effort we continue today as we confront the latest iteration of
McCarthyism with claims of terrorism being the new anti-communism. Established in
1937, the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) is the nation’s oldest and largest progressive
bar association and was the first one in the US to be racially integrated. Our mission is
to use law for the people, uniting lawyers, law students, legal workers, and jailhouse
lawyers to function as an effective force in the service of the people by valuing human
rights and the rights of ecosystems over property interests.

As the beating heart of the international anti-colonial and anti-imperial struggle, the
Palestine solidarity movement has faced violent repression in North America since its
inception. A recent report by the Center for Constitutional Rights demonstrates how
U.S. antiterrorism legislation evolved to oppose Palestinian liberation struggles, as early
as the 1960s. The first U.S. federal mention of “terrorism” in 1969 specifically targeted
humanitarian aid to Palestinians, establishing a pattern of associating Palestinian life
and Palestinian existence with terrorism. Subsequent laws and policies, including the
first terrorism blacklist and the unique congressional designation of the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) as a terrorist group in 1987 reinforced this connection.
Financial sanctions against Palestinian factions were instituted in response to Israeli
demands, and Palestinians were a major focus of post-1995 anti-terrorism provisions.
This historical context highlights pre-existing bias against Palestine solidarity
organizations within U.S. anti-terrorism legislation.  It also reflects ongoing anti-
Palestinian racism on the part of the U.S. government and its allies, which is used to
drum up support for the genocide of Palestinians; we reject this racist genocidal project
and stand in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation movement.

The unjust targeting of Samidoun mirrors the Los Angeles 8 case, litigated by NLG and
other organizations.  In 1987, eight Palestinian and Palestine solidarity activists were
brutally arrested by the FBI in Los Angeles and held in jail for three weeks before being
released.  They too were wrongly accused of association with the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine, and their so-called crimes were distributing Palestinian
magazines and fundraising for humanitarian relief.  Mainstream media relentlessly
called them terrorists, causing a chilling effect across left social movements throughout
North America.  Shortly thereafter, the National Lawyers Guild and other organizations
filed a lawsuit against the US government for its unconstitutional arrests and bogus
charges.  Twenty years later, Judge Bruce Einhorn dismissed the lawsuit, calling the
government’s actions in the prolonged case “an embarrassment to the rule of law.”

The use of the law to criminalize and delegitimize freedom fighters from Indigenous,
Black, Puerto Rican and other liberation struggles has a long history in this country. In
the years following 9/11, US anti-terrorism and related laws have increasingly targeted
not just Palestinian solidarity organizing, but all social movements in the US. The US
government is now using anti-terrorism legislation to target the Indigenous landback
movement and environmental justice movements, and following the George Floyd and
Breonna Taylor uprisings, anti-police brutality activists challenging Cop City in Atlanta
face RICO charges. In 2021, Jessica Reznicek, an environmental activist, was
imprisoned for “sabotaging” construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline. She received
an eight-year sentence, which included a terrorism enhancement. 

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network is an international coalition of
activists dedicated to supporting Palestinian prisoners in their fight for freedom,
stemming from the 2011 hunger strike of prisoners in Israeli jails, and has no ties to any
so-called designated terrorists. The organization aims to raise awareness of the
conditions, rights and demands of Palestinian political prisoners. Palestinian prisoners
are at the heart of the broader struggle for Palestinian national liberation, confronting
Israeli oppression daily and leading the movement for justice. The number of
Palestinian held captive in colonial jails has expanded exponentially during the ongoing
genocide, with close to 11,000 Palestinian imprisoned since October 7th, highlighting
the importance of Samidoun’s work. 

The National Lawyers Guild is outraged by the expanded use of anti-terrorism laws to
attack social movements. Like the L.A. 8, this targeting of Samidoun, Khaled Barakat
and the Palestinian liberation movement is also an embarrassment to the rule of law,
and we call on all peoples of conscience to stand with us as we defend human rights
advocates and social movements that practice their constitutional right to freedom of
speech, against the genocide of the Palestinian people. We must fight back before it is

too late. An attack on one is an attack on all!

NLG image

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This was originally posted October 26th at:  samidoun.net/2024/10/hands-off-palestinian-activists-netherlands-imposes-entry-ban-on-samidouns-europe-coordinator-mohammed-khatib/

Hands off Palestinian activists: Netherlands imposes entry ban on Samidoun’s Europe coordinator Mohammed Khatib

[Mohammed Khatib image]

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network strongly condemns the Dutch state decision to ban Samidoun’s European Coordinator Mohammed Khatib from entering the Netherlands for a period of two years. We believe this decision has no legal ground, just like civil servants of Dutch anti-terror and immigration institutions who advised against issuing this ban.We are fighting this ban on a legal and political level and we call upon the Palestinian people and their friends and supporters in the Netherlands to continue and intensify the struggle to end the genocide, end the occupation and liberate Palestine from the river to the sea. 

The entry ban issued against Mohammed comes while the Zionist genocide in Gaza is killing tens of thousands of Palestinians with unlimited support from the Dutch government. This repression is another form of support for the genocide and an attempt to shut down every voice of opposition to Dutch complicity with the occupation. Furthermore, the ban is a racist and colonial tool used to limit the freedom of movement of a Palestinian refugee who already cannot enter his homeland. It is also intended as an attack on the Palestinian liberation movement as a whole and specifically on the thousands of Palestinian prisoners struggling and organizing under torture and severe abuse from the Zionist regime inside its colonial jails.

The Dutch Minister of Asylum and Migration, Marjolein Faber, belongs to the PVV, the most outspoken Zionist party in the Netherlands and the largest party in the current governing coalition. The PVV is a supporter of implementing occupation-style administrative detention, meaning imprisonment without charge or trial, in the Netherlands. The party has close ties with the most extreme “Israeli” political parties.

The decision to bar Mohammed Khatib from entering the Netherlands is not only an attack against him personally, but against the Palestinian diaspora and people as a whole. It is an attack on refugees and immigrants that speak out against the colonial and imperialist interventions in their home countries. Amid a time that millions of Palestinians, Arabs and internationals around the world are confronting the genocide, the imperialist states feel the need to not only support Israel with money and weapons, but to actively repress any dissenting voice. The repressive attacks on the movement around the world, especially in the imperial core, are part and parcel of the full imperialist participation in the genocide in the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Britain, the Netherlands and elsewhere.

Mohammed Khatib was invited to speak at Radboud University Nijmegen this Monday, 28 October, about “Criminalisation, Diaspora & Starvation,” ironically made even more relevant by the decision to deny him entry to the Netherlands. As Samidoun, we reiterate our support to the Student Intifada and all those who are standing up against genocide, Zionism, colonialism and imperialism. We invite everyone to come to Radboud University this Monday 28 October at 12:15 pm. 

From Nijmegen to Palestine: resistance is not a crime!

Hands off Palestinian Activists! Defend Palestinian Resistance!

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This was originally posted October 31st at: samidoun.net/2024/10/take-action-follow-our-new-telegram-channel-after-imperialist-censorship/

Take action: Follow our new Telegram channel after imperialist censorship!

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On Tuesday, 29 October, the primary Telegram channel of Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network has been banned in the US, Canada, and some European countries, following the sanctions imposed on Samidoun by the United States and Canada.

We urge all to follow our NEW CHANNEL:
https://t.me/samidoun_network

Follow in Spanish:
https://t.me/solidaridadpresaspoliticas

The attempt to silence Samidoun on Telegram is part and parcel of the attack on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian resistance. It comes hand in hand with attacks that aim to suppress Resistance News Network, media outlets and all organizations confronting Zionist/imperialist genocide and upholding the resistance!

This ban comes after baseless sham accusations by the US, Canada, Netherlands, and zionist entity, all aimed at silencing the liberation movement and scaring other organizers. Framing Samidoun’s activities in support of Palestinian prisoners for the last 13 years “terrorism” is part of an increasingly aggressive stance that seeks to criminalize Palestinian solidarity, undermine grassroots mobilization, and obscure the injustices and genocide faced by the Palestinian and Arab peoples, especially the prisoners’ movement.

We urge all to resist censorship and silencing of the movement for Palestinian liberation! Join our new channel and also follow the channels below for important information and updates on the Palestinian prisoners’ movement.

We urge all to follow our NEW CHANNEL:
https://t.me/samidoun_network

• Dismantle Damon – t.me/dismantle_damon
• Free Palestinian Students – t.me/freepalestinianstudents
• RNN Prisoners – t.me/RNN_Prisoners
• Qadeyah (Arabic) – t.me/qadeyah
• Asra Media (Arabic) – t.me/asramediia
• Prisoners Are Not Numbers (Arabic) – t.me/freethemall6

A second article posted October 28th:  samidoun.net/2024/10/far-right-spanish-party-vox-tries-to-silence-activists-for-palestine-in-the-spanish-high-court/

This was originally posted October 28th at:  samidoun.net/2024/10/from-spain-liberate-palestine-confront-repression-samidoun-is-under-attack/

From Spain — Liberate Palestine, confront repression: Samidoun is under attack

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One year after the launch of the intensified new phase of genocide against the Palestinian people, we see how people of conscience within the Spanish State continue to stand up against injustice and barbarism. The escalating violence and oppression by the Zionist entity towards the Palestinian people and other peoples in the region runs parallel to the alarming escalation of repressive measures against the international solidarity movement with Palestine, in which Spain is no exception.

Toa dvance and protect its colonial project in Palestine, the Israeli entity not only seeks to exterminate the Palestinian people in Gaza and throughout Palestine, but also to silence the voices of millions everywhere who continue to believe in and fight for a free Palestine. To that end, the occupation regime has, through Zionist lobbying organizations and its alliances with reactionary governments and political forces, deployed all available resources to silence, demobilize, marginalize, and eradicate the voices of the people’s movement.

Alongside many Palestinian and pro-Palestinian collectives and individuals worldwide who have been subjected to some or all of these repressive tactics, Samidoun is currently a direct target of the Zionist-reactionary alliance. On 15 October, Canada and the United States launched a coordinated campaign to sanction Samidoun, following the example of Germany or the French Ministry of the Interior’s attempt in 2022 to dissolve the Collectif Palestine Vaincra. In all cases, these bans have stemmed from political decisions that have not bothered to substantiate their accusations through legal processes that require meaningful evidence.

It is ironic that the imperialist countries and reactionary forces most supportive of Israel’s genocidal military machinery would list grassroots Palestinian groups like Samidoun, which oppose Israeli terror and that of its allies, as “terrorists.” This is part of a strategy to criminalize political opposition and weaken the growing social movements that not only oppose Israel’s genocidal project in Palestine and across the Arab Levant but also the Atlantic imperialist axis’s project to impose a new world order, whose first victims will be the peoples of the region.

This repressive context has already reached Spain, where state institutions, together with reactionary movements, have taken a further step by targeting Samidoun activists. In collaboration with reactionary political forces and the Israeli lobby, they seek to prosecute us simply for explaining to society why anticolonial resistance is legitimate, even under current international law, and for defending the rights of all Palestinian political prisoners. Alongside these investigations, other repressive strategies we have seen in international settings are also being implemented, such as:

• Using legal frameworks and opening procedures to restrict freedom of expression and political action in the name of counterterrorism, public security risks, or combating antisemitism.
• Instrumentalizing bureaucratic repression and economic violence to stifle activists, imposing administrative sanctions during protests to demobilize and financially exhaust them.
• Smearing activists and media pressure as a form of collective and individual targeting and creating false narratives, through massive dissemination and distortion by the Zionist lobby and the far right.
• Monitoring and tracking activists in their political activities and private lives as a form of psychological pressure and intimidation.
• Censoring the organization’s communication channels and the closure of Samidoun’s social media accounts.

In the face of this unprecedented offensive in the recent history of the Palestine solidarity movement, we reiterate that Samidoun is an independent, self-managed collective rooted in social movements and based on building grassroots solidarity with Palestine. Samidoun receives no public funding of any kind and is not part of the structure of any Palestinian or international party or faction. From this position, we speak of the Palestinian people’s cause, their political prisoners, and the right to defend, resist, and liberate themselves from occupation and colonialism.

Now more than ever, we call for solidarity and unity among social movements, specifically Palestinian and pro-Palestinian organizations, against repression.

The attacks on any group working for the liberation of Palestine should be a concern for all those engaged in emancipatory political work. Beyond slogans, history has forcefully shown us that, indeed, when they come for one of us, they come for all of us. Therefore, we encourage all friendly and supportive organizations of the Palestinian cause to endorse this statement, to express their rejection of this wave of repression aimed at silencing anti-Zionist political action.

In Arabic, the word Samidoun means “those who stand steadfast.” We use this idea to refer to Palestinian political prisoners, who are fighting for freedom from behind bars. Today we affirm that we must stand firm and committed to the Palestinian people until victory, return, and liberation.

Long live Free Palestine!

We are gathering endorsements from organizations. If you support this statement, please leave your signature: https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/IqglaCBU9l2Kg0S1QI9Gg1vO1byFY49+7WhfEpXfaUE/

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