FBI Try to Intimidate Activists with Raids

The FBI raided several homes of activists in the Twin Cities and in Chicago, and also included the offices of the Anti-War Committee of Minneapolis. The goal was to find evidence that these certain activists were in some form connected with groups like the militant Muslim group Hezbollah of Lebanon, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) or the guerrillas of the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia).The activists targeted worked with various different groups including, The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), the Palestine Solidarity Group, Students for a Democratic Society, the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee, the Colombia Action Network, and the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera (a Colombian political prisoner).

These raids are a clear violation of our democratic rights to free speech and right to organize. Furthermore, the U.S. government is no position to tell us who we can and cannot support. After all, any group or organization that is against U.S. hegemony is labeled "terrorist". The U.S. record of demonizing certain groups and individuals is long, think Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC). A united response from progressives, activists and socialists is crucial. We will not allow FBI intimidation tactics to scare us. The struggle lives on, here is what we can do to fight back,

Contact U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder at 202-353-1555 or askdoj@usdoj.gov to demand an end to the repression of antiwar and international solidarity activists.
You can join protests planned for the coming days around the country:
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27
Minneapolis, 4:30 p.m., FBI office, 111 Washington Ave. S.
Chicago, 4:30 p.m., FBI office, 2111 W. Roosevelt Road
Kalamazoo, Mich., 4:30 p.m., Federal Building, 410 W. Michigan Ave.
Salt Lake City, 9 a.m., Federal Building
Durham, N.C., 12 Noon, Federal Building, 323 E. Chapel Hill St.
Buffalo, N.Y., 4:30 p.m., FBI office, corner of S. Elmwood Avenue and Niagra Street
Gainesville, Fla., 4:30 p.m., FBI office
Boston, 4 p.m., JFK Federal Building, Government Center
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28
New York City, 4:30 p.m., Federal Building, 26 Federal Plaza
Newark, N.J., 5 p.m., Federal Building, Broad Street
Philadelphia, 4:30 p.m., Federal Building, 6th and Market
Washington, D.C., 4:30 p.m., FBI Building, 935 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Boston, 5 p.m., JFK Federal Building
Detroit, 4:30 p.m., McNamara Federal Building, Michigan Avenue at Cass
Raleigh, N.C., 9 a.m., Federal Building, 310 New Bern Ave.
Asheville, N.C., 5 p.m., Federal Building
Atlanta, 12 Noon, FBI Building
Los Angeles, 5 p.m., Downtown Federal Building, 300 N. Los Angeles St.
Tucson, Ariz., 5 p.m., Federal Building
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29
Albany, N.Y., 5 p.m., Federal Building

ICE on the Offensive Again

After a couple of months of low activity ICE is back on its racist agenda, attacking immigrant workers. Headlines in the New York Times in the last couple of weeks read like this: "Immigration Officials Arrest 905 in California Sweep" (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/us/24deport.html?scp=3&sq=immigration&st=nyt ) and "270 Illegal Immigrants Sent to Prison in Federal Push" (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/24/us/24immig.html?scp=25&sq=immigration&st=nyt)
The latter article details the outcome of the largest raid in U.S. history at the Agriprocessors Inc. meatpacking plant in Iowa. Over 389 workers were detained for working with false papers. This raid is unique from others because until now, relatively few immigrants caught in raids have been charged with federal crimes like identity theft or document fraud.

It is important to keep in mind under what political context this new offensive is coming: 1) an election year, which has divided sections of the immigrant's rights movement.
2) ICE has been up until now on the defensive, with the well publicized mistreatment of detained immigrants by the New York Times, Washington Post and CBS News.
3) U.S. economy is heading towards a recession, which means that the Mexican economy shall soon be in a deeper one. (Ruling class also need a scapegoat--immigrant workers)
4) The ruling class in this country is looking for a restructuring of the immigration system in this country, fast.

Fight Back:

The response of immigrant rights activists both in Postville, Iowa and all around California, particularly in the Bay area and San Diego, has been remarkable. Some good coverage can be found at http://socialistworker.org/2008/05/26/san-diego-protest-against-ice. In New York City, the No Raids Committee of Queens along with The Humanist Center, Polo Democratico and other community groups will be marching to demand the right of immigrants to vote in local elections and to show the community that we will not let the Iowa Raids intimidate us. Also, activists in the No Raids Committee are preparing a petition in support of the 270 workers in federal prison, the demands are: to drop the charges of document fraud and to release workers immediately. I will post petition shortly.

Struggle continues:

In spite of the largest ruling class offensive against immigrants in decades activists and family members have been committed to fight for worker's rights. Although this layer of people nationally is small, the dynamics of social movements, i.e. its retreats and victories, will prove to be an invaluable lesson for all of us .

On the Picket Line: Fresh Direct

The online grocery store Fresh Direct has joined countless other companies using the racist backlash against immigrants to thwart attempts of workers to organize.


Fresh Direct, a company that made $240 million in profits in 2006, has been battling both the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the Teamsters Local 805 since 2006.


With a scheduled union ratification vote December 22-23, Fresh Direct told workers at their plant in Long Island City, Queens, that federal officials planned to check their immigration status and demanded that workers bring their documentation to work.


This led to undocumented workers walking off the job out of fear of being reported to immigration authorities. More than 250 workers didn't show up to work the next day, creating a state of fear and panic in a plant of 900 workers.
Javier Guzman, a former worker in the plant, who is now an organizer for UFCW Local 348-S, told me that “workers inside the plant are scared; management has told workers that it is the union's fault that the firings occurred.”
Some plant workers have drawn the conclusion that the union is to blame. This was evident during a community rally on December 20 in front of the plant. Dozens of workers watched the rally wearing “Vote No” pins, and jeered at the mention of the union.


Conditions inside the plant are staggeringly bad. Warehouse employees at the company often work 13-hour shifts in 30-degree temperatures for $7.50-9.75 per hour, while most unionized warehouse workers in New York City earn $10-20 an hour. Guzman also reported how management has been able to pit workers against each other by their race--putting Black supervisors to look after a section of the plant with Latino workers, while white supervisors oversee a section of the plant with Black workers.


In the end, with 500 plant workers participating in the election, 426 voted against unionization, with 73 in favor. The pro-union votes were split between Teamsters Local 805 and UFCW Local 348-S.


The UFCW has been trying to organize the plant since November 2006. José Merced, Local 348-S organizer, said that the struggle at Fresh Direct has just begun. “There can only be fair elections once Fresh Direct stops its anti-immigrant tactic of dividing workers and intimidating pro-union workers” he said.

ICE is “trying to scare the community"

June 8, 2007
THIRTEEN GUATEMALAN immigrants are the victims this time in yet another Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid in New York City.
On May 20, about a dozen ICE agents rushed into a Brooklyn apartment, allegedly looking for an “Oscar.” Nobody with that name was found, but agents demanded that everyone in the apartment present valid identification. Of the 15 people in the apartment, all but Obispo Lopez and his 16-year-old son Nehemias were detained.
As Lopez told the El Diario newspaper, “They asked us for our papers, and I showed them my identification from the Guatemalan consulate, and the others did as well, but they took them anyway. They didn’t even let them take anything or get dressed.”
Lopez, a construction worker, says the agents took away two of his sons, Evijoel and Avimail, and his son-in law, Alvaro Juarez. As of now, there is no word where the men are being held, but the family has received a phone call saying that they are in good condition.
The day after the raid in the largely immigrant neighborhood of Bensonhurst, people were concerned for the fate of the detainees, and for their own safety. ICE officials say the raids are designed to detain “criminals,” or those who have ignored final deportation notices. But the May 20 raid isn’t an isolated one.
“This is the third time there’s been a raid in this neighborhood,” Benny Hernandez, who owns a small deli across the street from the apartment where the Guatemalan immigrants were detained, said in an interview. “The raid before this, they left children behind and deported one of the parents.
“They’re attempting to scare the community...People who just want to work will be terrified to do that.”
Others in the community know firsthand what it is like to have their lives disrupted. A mother of two said she remembered vividly a raid four months ago, in which the husband of a close friend was detained. Once again, ICE agents were looking for someone who either didn’t exist or no longer lived in the apartment. But five people in total were detained and deported back to Ecuador.
“Her husband is in Ecuador now, and they don’t know what to do,” the woman said. “I’m undocumented too, and I think it’s unjust to separate families. I live very close by, and I’m worried about my children. I don’t have any family here, so what happens if they take me? Who will take care of my children?”
Stories like these will only multiply as federal immigration authorities attempt to reach their goal of deporting 75,000 immigrants by the end of this year.
“The government has to be responsible for its actions,” says Maribel Lopez, an immigrant mother of two who also lives near the site of the Brooklyn raid. “I’ve seen people die of hunger in my native country. People come here to seek a better life and to see their children succeed, but this [proposed immigration legislation under consideration in the Senate] is unjust and doesn’t allow for us to settle.”
Currently, Obispo Lopez and Brooklyn Pastor Erick Salgado are working with the ACLU in New York to get legal services for the workers detained in Brooklyn and their families back in Guatemala. We need to continue building a grassroots response to the ICE raids, and demand an end to the deportations and a just immigration policy.
Luisa Gallego contributed to this report