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STOP THE SWEEPS: Camp 210

2/5/2021

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--PLEASE SHARE WIDELY--
February 4th, 2021
STOP THE SWEEPS!   
As a group of local grassroots community organizations concerned with justice and human rights, we come together to publicly condemn the openly militarized use of force displayed in sweeping the encampment at 210 Lottie Street on Thursday, January 28th.  We call on the Mayor to reverse the course of escalating violence and intimidation and immediately cancel the sweep of the encampment at Geri Fields that is scheduled to take place on or before Friday, February 5th.  
We demand that the City abide by CDC guidelines for minimizing the spread of COVID-19 among people experiencing unsheltered homelessness, which state: “If individual housing options are not available, allow people who are living unsheltered or in encampments to remain where they are.”  The guidelines further note that “clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread.”
Instead of compounding the harm that has already been done to the residents of the encampment by subjecting them to further violations of their basic human rights, we call on the City to offer them options for temporary shelter, either at their current location or at another location to be mutually agreed upon, with the provision of electricity, water, and sanitation facilities adequate to serve residents’ basic needs.
In summary, we request that Mayor Seth Fleetwood and the City of Bellingham commit to:
  1. Halt all camp clean-ups and develop a permanent policy banning sweeps;
  2. Offer all Camp 210 residents adequate public services and options for temporary and permanent housing that accommodates the needs of disabled people and those struggling with mental health issues and drug addiction.
Signed,
Whatcom Human Rights Task Force (WHRTF), Whatcom Peace & Justice Center (WPJC), Community to Community Development (C2C/foodjustice.org), Imagine No Kages (INK), Birchwood Food Desert Fighters, Sunrise Bellingham, Riveter's Collective, Bellingham Unity Committee, Whatcom Democratic Socialists of America (Whatcom DSA), Bellingham Harold, Justin Globe, Indivisible Bellingham, Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship Social &. Environmental Justice Committee.

Please email whatcomhrtf@gmail.com if you would like to add your organization to this list.
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COWLITZ COUNTY REFUSES TO END COUNTRY’S ONLY CONTRACT OF ITSKIND WITH ICE DESPITE REPORTS OF HARM TO CHILDREN

1/22/2021

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PRESS RELEASE
January 18, 2021
CONTACT
Hollie Kero
(503) 893-4023
endicecowlitz@gmail.com
https://actionnetwork.org/campaigns/end-ice-contract-in-cowlitz-county

COWLITZ COUNTY REFUSES TO END COUNTRY’S ONLY CONTRACT OF ITS
KIND WITH ICE DESPITE REPORTS OF HARM TO CHILDREN 
Longview, WA — The Cowlitz County Juvenile Detention Center is the last county youth
detention facility in the nation to hold a contract with Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE).
A 2020 report by Harvard-trained child and adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Amy J. Cohen, MD
details the myriad harms perpetrated against immigrant children locked within the facility.
Despite community members’ persistent advocacy efforts, Cowlitz County refuses to terminate
the contract.
Dr. Cohen reports immigrant children at the Cowlitz facility are locked in their solitary cells for 16
hours per day, at minimum, with few breaks. There is no therapy and no psychiatric services
despite the facility placing traumatized children on psychotropic medication. The children are not
permitted outdoors unless an appointment has been made, which means that they can go for
months with no exposure to sunshine or fresh air.
“While detained U.S. citizen youth generally do not stay more than a week, migrant youth are
held for much longer,” Dr. Cohen wrote in her report. “The absence of access to stimulation
adversely and likely irreversibly affects brain development during a particularly active
developmental period.”
Conditions have worsened in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time of Dr. Cohen’s
report last summer, mask-wearing and physical distancing policies were not strictly enforced,
the children spent even more time isolated in their cells than before, and there were no longer
teachers in the classrooms to support the children in their studies. While most of the local U.S.
citizen youth were released in March 2020 to protect them against the risk of COVID-19
infection, the facility never even considered releasing the immigrant children. 
Dr. Cohen has over thirty years of experience treating vulnerable children and assessing trauma
caused by child incarceration and has testified before the U.S. Senate and members of the U.S.
House of Representatives. She has published and spoken as a recognized expert on the
subject.
Pastor of Longview United Methodist Church Allison Mattocks stated, “As a community member
and faith leader in Cowlitz County, I am appalled that our county continues this contract and
locks children in cages. This contract does not reflect our community’s values, and I implore the
county to end the contract with ICE immediately.”  

Since October 13, 2020, Cowlitz County residents have frequently commented at the Board of
Commissioners’ Tuesday morning meetings at 9 a.m., calling on them to end the county’s
contract with ICE. More than 30 individuals have urged the commissioners to end this contract
at these meetings, including teachers, ordained clergy, lawyers, medical professionals, and
social workers. The commissioners have denied multiple requests that this matter be added to
an agenda for a future commissioner meeting.
Community members have also organized several vigils in front of the detention center, in front
of the commissioners’ offices, and at Longview Civic Circle, including a vigil on Christmas Eve
2020. Despite these and other efforts, Cowlitz County has refused to terminate their contract
with ICE.
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Rep. Betty McCollum Calls for Democrats in Congress to Reject Israeli's Military Occupation

11/24/2020

 
Press Release from Office of Rep. Betty McCollum
For Immediate Release
November 20, 2020
 
Contact:
Amanda Yanchury, 202-597-1228 
 
McCollum: To Promote Middle East Peace and Security, Democrats in Congress Must Reject Illegal Israeli-Trump Annexation of Palestinian Lands
 
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Betty McCollum (DFL-Minn.) issued the following statement today after Sec. Mike Pompeo became the first U.S. Secretary of State to visit an Israeli settlement, signaling a symbolic U.S. stamp of approval of Israel’s military occupation:
“Yesterday, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo issued official U.S. ‘country of origin’ labeling guidelines that grant legitimacy to Israel’s illegal settlements by requiring all products produced in Area ‘C’ of the occupied West Bank to be marked as ‘Product of Israel’ or ‘Made in Israel’ when exported to the United States.

“Secretary Pompeo is once again flagrantly advancing the Israeli government’s effort to unlawfully annex Palestinian lands. This act effectively erases the longstanding bipartisan U.S. policy differentiating between Israel and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, territory occupied by Israel in 1967.

“This official State Department action means that the U.S. has provided tacit recognition of de facto Israeli annexation of occupied Palestinian lands in violation of international law. This further entrenches an undemocratic system in which Israel would permanently rule over a Palestinian people who are denied basic civil rights and human rights.

“Secretary Pompeo claims his actions are consistent with a ‘reality-based foreign policy approach.’ This right-wing ‘reality’ is nothing more than overt Trump administration support for Israel to maintain an unjust political system that denies Palestinians the right to self-determination and an independent Palestinian state.
“The Trump administration has acted with complete disregard for international law and decades of bipartisan U.S. foreign policy consensus to aggressively support and legitimize permanent occupation and a de facto system of apartheid. I reject Israeli annexation and will work to ensure the U.S. does not support, defend, or legitimize any plan to illegally annex occupied Palestinian lands. This is exactly why I introduced H.R. 8050, The Israeli Annexation Non-Recognition Act, in August.
“I urge Democrats in Congress to support efforts to promote peace, justice, and equality by prohibiting the U.S. from formally recognizing, legitimizing, or providing U.S. taxpayer assistance to any area of the occupied West Bank annexed by the Government of Israel in violation of international law.
“I also strongly urge President-elect Biden to implement rights-respecting policies grounded in U.S. obligations under international law, including United Nations Security Council resolutions, specifically Resolution 2334.”
​

A PDF version of this statement is available here. Information on H.R. 8050, The Israeli Annexation Non-Recognition Act, is available here.

An Extremist Writes Back

10/11/2020

 
Author: Matteo Tamburini, WPJC Board Member
Today's edition of the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica, one of the two newspapers with the widest circulation, has the following headline:
 
"Usa, Trump celebra Colombo: 'Un grande italiano'. E si scaglia contro gli estremisti che minano la sua eredità." [English Translation] "USA, Trump celebrates Columbus: 'A great Italian'. And he attacks the extremists who undermine his legacy."
 
I wrote them the following reply, in Italian (the English translation follows):
 
"Spett.le redazione di Repubblica,

Nel titolo del vostro articolo di oggi, non si capisce bene di chi sia la descrizione si 'estremisti' diretta a chi 'mina l'eredità di Cristoforo Colombo'.
 
A usare quel termine siete voi, o state citando Trump?
 
In quanto Italiano DOC (nato a Firenze, cresciuto a Pistoia), e anche in quanto cittadino statunitense che da un decennio insegna matematica in una università' di Nativi Americani, devo dire che continua a infastidirmi il vostro accanimento contro una rivalutazione del lascito storico del colonialismo europeo. 
 
E' cosi' difficile vedere le cose da un altro punto di vista? O anche solo ammettere che possa esistere un altro punto di vista?
 
Visti i tempi che corrono, sarebbe opportuno celebrare altri eroi (che certo non mancano), e  cercare di coltivare un po' più di umiltà nei confronti della nostra storia.
 
Un cordiale saluto,
 
Matteo Tamburini
 
iscritto all'AIRE del Comune di Pistoia
Residente a Bellingham, stato di Washington, Stati Uniti d'America
 

[English translation]

Dear editors of 'La Repubblica',

 
In the article you published today it isn't clear who is using the term 'extremists', directed at those who might 'undermine the legacy of Christopher Columbus'.
 
Are you using that word, or are you quoting Trump?
 
As an Italian (born in Florence, raised in Pistoia), and also as a US citizen who has spent the last decade working at a university run by Native Americans, I must say that I find your ongoing aversion to any re-evaluation of effects of European colonialism quite vexing.
 
Is it so difficult to see things from another point of view? Or even to admit that another point of view is possible?
 
Given the times we're living in, we might be better off celebrating different heroes (there is no shortage of those), and to trying to cultivate a greater degree of humbleness in regards to our own history. 
 
Kind regards,
 
Matteo Tamburini

- - - - - -

As part of my enforced isolation during the pandemic, I have been doing more research about the history of Italian Americans' path to becoming white. As part of my Capoeira practice, I turned what I learned (mostly from reading Dixie’s Italians: Sicilians, Race, and Citizenship in the Jim Crow Gulf South by Jessica Barbata Jackson, LSU Press, 2020) into a poem in Portuguese - included below with English translation. Happy Indigenous People's Day! 
​
Se contarmos uma história
algo que hove no passado
é pra imaginar futuro
que possa ser melhorado.
Tinha um tempo nem distante
quando os italianos
ao chegar em Nova Iorque
eram bem discriminados.
Até que nem eram branc@s
na visão da maioria,
suas crianças como vermes
assim o jornal dizia.
Houve até uns linchamentos,
a maldita tradição,
celebrada na imprensa
festa da população.

Foi la em New Orleans
onze foram enforcados.
Foram alvo de racismo
por milhares massacrados.
O estado italiano
a violência protestou
exigiu uma resposta
e com força condanou.
O presidente americano
para lhes acalentar
escolheu dia de Colombo
començou a celebrar.
Eram quatrozentos anos
da invasão la da Europa
a um pouco tinha acabada
a guerra contra os Lakota.
Cinco anos se passaram
e la em Louisiana
houve uma oportunidade
pra mudar a realidade:
os politicos queriam
nova constituição
pra acabar direitos negros
depois da Reconstrução.
Italiano resolveu
como se posicionar
com @s branc@s, contra @s negr@s
pra poder se assimilar.
No debate descobriram
um orgulho nacional
que também foi incentivado
pela guerra colonial.
A vitória da Etiópia
parou a colonização
logo la em Louisiana
essa feia decisão.
É uma história de tres mundos
um no outro conectados
sem heróis, sem inocentes
todos somos afectados.
Estamos presos nessa história,
ouça bem a minha voz,
e igualmente essa história
é presa bem dentro de nos.
A pergunta é sempre a mesma,
como se posicionar,
que fazer para o futuro
pois atrás não vai voltar.
If we tell a story
Something that happened in the past
It’s so we can imagine a future
That can be made better
There was a time not too long ago
When Italians
When they arrived in New York
Suffered great discrimination
They weren’t even ‘white’
In the eyes of most people
Their children like vermin
So the newspaper [the New York Times] said.
There were even lynchings [against Italians]
That cursed tradition
Celebrated in the press
And for the entire [white] population
​

It was in New Orleans
Eleven were hung
They were the target of racism
Massacred by a crown of thousands
The Italian state
Protested against this violence
It demanded answers
And condemned it strongly.
The American President
To calm them down
Chose a day to celebrate Columbus
And began to commemorate it
It had been 400 years since the beginning of the European invasion
And only a short time earlier
The war against the Lakota had ended
Five years passed
And in Louisiana
There was an opportunity
To change reality.
The politicians wanted
A new constitution
To end the rights of Black people
After Reconstruction
Italians made a choice
How to position themselves
With white people, against Black people
In order to assimilate [into whiteness]
During this debate they also discovered
Their national pride
That also received a boost
By [Italy’s] colonial wars
The Ethiopian victory [at the battle of Adua in 1896]
Stopped Italian attempts at colonization
And shortly thereafter in Luoisiana
Italians made this ugly decision
It’s a story of three worlds
One connected to the other
Without heroes, without innocents
All of us were affected
We are trapped inside this history
Listen well to what I say
And equally this history
Is trapped inside of us
The question is always the same
Which position will you take?
What will you do for the future?
Because you cannot change the past.

Speak Up Speak Out Radio Host jim justice Speaks with Damani Johnson, WPJC's 2020 Lifetime Peacemaker Award Honoree

10/10/2020

 
Radio host jim justice speaks with Damani Johnson, the Whatcom Peace & Justice Center's 2020 Rosemary & Howard Harris Lifetime Peacemaker Award honoree. Damani is the WWU's College of Humanities & Social Studies Program Director for the Munro Institute for Civil Education & editor in chief of the African Journal of Governance & Development. In 1988, Damani was on the Advisory Committee for the Rev. Jesse Jackson's Presidential Campaign. He was also on the Steering Committee of the Washington State Rainbow Coalition from 1988-1992. He's been part of the Whatcom Human Rights Taskforce & offered week long educational sessions on Civil Rights in Washington over the past several summers. Listen in to find out more about all the work Damani has done to bring people of diverse backgrounds together to learn about others.

Press Release: NLG Announces Federal Defense Hotline

8/9/2020

 
Posted on July 21, 2020
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: massdef@nlg.org
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) National Office is launching a hotline for activists and lawyers to report incidents of federal repression, such as FBI “door-knocks” at activists’ homes, grand jury investigations and subpoenas, and any other federal law enforcement efforts to undermine civil rights, including federal grab squads and the use of unidentified federal agents to police protests. The line is live at: 212-679-2811.
Since May, the NLG has continued to support the movement for Black lives, organizing to support legal defense efforts and provide Legal Observers for demonstrations. In the last week, we have seen the use of anti-protest shock troops by the federal government, such as Portland, where federal grab squads have arrested activists and taken them away from demonstrations in unmarked vans.
A memorandum from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suggests that these officers are acting under the auspices of DHS and are members of the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC). This is a unit typically tasked with high level law enforcement operations and it is formed under US Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). These officers are acting under direct orders from the Trump Administration and Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf.
The use of BORTAC to disrupt activism is a recent escalation by the federal government, which has also used the National Guard, FBI, and Secret Service in order to violently quell protests. These efforts come in combination with an aggressive political and legal strategy labeling ‘antifa’ a domestic terrorist organization. Federal prosecutors are also filing criminal charges against activists throughout the country.
The NLG Federal Defense Hotline will allow callers to have privileged conversations with attorneys, and to receive attorney referrals, know-your-rights information, and resources for responding to grand jury investigations and subpoenas. Inquiries about the line can be sent to massdef@nlg.org. The line is staffed by attorneys organizing with the NLG, and will remain active as long as federal prosecution efforts continue.
The National Lawyers Guild, whose membership includes lawyers, legal workers, jailhouse lawyers, and law students, was formed in 1937 as the United States’ first racially-integrated bar association to advocate for the protection of constitutional, human and civil rights.
​

Related:
  • VIDEO: Federal Repression of Activists & Their Lawyers: Legal & Ethical Strategies to Defend Our Movements
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The Whatcom Peace & Justice Center calls on our government and society to disavow policies of violence and seek a culture of peace.
  • Home
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    • 2020 International Day of Peace
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