[Peace-discuss] Tue 5/31, Chicago:: "Then They Came for Me - Civil Liberties in Peril in Chicago"

[Stuart Levy]

In case you might be in Chicago on Tuesday evening, May 31st,
the American Friends Service Committee will have a panel on
the ongoing use of FBI raids and grand jury subpoenas to threaten activists,
and how the civil liberties community has been mobilizing in response...

[Whether any of us can attend or not, should AWARE register our support
of this event?]

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Action Name: Then They Came for Me - Civil Liberties in Peril in Chgo

Action URL:
http://icjpe.org/actions/Then-They-Came-for-Me-Civil-Liberties-in-Peril-in-Chgo
[http://pjep.org/sso]

Action Mini URL: http://pjep.org/sso

Date:  2011-05-31

Event Time: 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm

Location:  DePaul University, McGowan South Room 104
1110 W BELDEN AVE
CHICAGO, IL, 60614-2245
MAP [http://maps.google.com/?q=1110+W+BELDEN+AVE+CHICAGO%2C+IL%2C+60614-2245]

Organization: American Friends Service Committee

Description: On September 24, 2010 the FBI carried out a series of raids of
homes and anti-war offices of public activists in Chicago and Minneapolis.
Following the raids the Justice Department subpoenaed 23 Palestine and Colombia
solidarity activists to appear before a Chicago grand jury headed by US Attorney
Patrick Fitzgerald. A grand jury is a secret court proceeding where the jury
members are not screened for bias, where a prosecutor questions witnesses
without a defense attorney present, and where there is no judge.

Many believe that the government is testing a June, 2010 US Supreme Court
ruling, Holder vs. the Humanitarian Law Project, which goes a long way in
criminalizing political dissent. What do these FBI raids and the calling of a
grand jury mean for the right of freedom of speech, public debate and peace and
justice organizing in the US? How can this chill debate over this nation’s war
policies, national security doctrine and role in the world?

Come hear from those who have been directly affected and from the Chicago civil
liberties community, which has been mobilizing to bring to light the realities
of grand jury proceedings and the right to freedom of speech.

Speaker Panel:

Moderated by MICHAEL MCCONNELL, Great Lakes Regional Director of the AFSC and
ordained minister in the United Church of Christ.

MICHAEL DEUTSCH is an attorney with the People’s Law Office in Chicago. For over
40 years he has represented political activists and other victims of police and
government civil rights violations.
LEAH FRIED has been an organizer with the UE (United Electrical, Radio and
Machine Workers of America) for 12 years.
SARAH SMITH is a young Chicago student who participated in a delegation to
Palestine and Israel, and shortly thereafter was subpoenaed by the FBI to appear
before a grand jury.
REEMA AHMAD is the Executive Director of Project Mobilize, a political action
non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of politically marginalized
communities at the local, state and national level.
STEPHANIE WEINER teaches English in Chicago City Colleges, is a founder of
AFSCME Local 3506, and is one of the activists raided and subpoenaed.
HATEM ABUDAYYEH is Executive Director of the Arab American Action Network and
one of the activists raided and subpoenaed.

Free and open to the public. For more information, contact Miryam Rashid at
(312) 427-2533 x 18 or mrashid at afsc.org [mailto:mrashid at afsc.org]

Sponsored by American Friends Service Committee, Amnesty International -
Chicago, Coalition to Protect People’s Rights, Chicago Faith Coalition on Middle
East Policy, Students for Justice in Palestine (DePaul), Chicago Committee
Against Political Repression, Arab Jewish Partnership for Peace and Justice in
the Middle East, American Muslims for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago,
National Lawyers Guild, Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism, Council on
American-Islamic Relations - Chicago, Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and
Palestine, North Shore Coalition for Peace, Justice and the Environment, Chicago
Area Peace Action, US Palestinian Community Network