"State Your Re-Action to State Repression" Conference

April 24, 2005, Syracuse University

Free!

On September 11, 2001, the political landscape changed
dramatically. Instantaneously, it became unpatriotic to
criticize President Bush, the government, or US policy on
any front. Activist groups like the Sierra Club announced
that they were indefinitely suspending all criticism
against Bush’s pro-corporate agenda as the nation tried to
pull together.” (Best and Nocella, 2004, p. 9).

The
depletion of civil rights and freedoms are nowhere more
obvious than with the October 26, 2001 passage of the USA
PATRIOT Act, which gave the green light to the government
to have unlimited mobility of their powers of
surveillance, search and seizure, detention, and
suppression of dissent. The American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) believes,

Many parts of this sweeping legislation [PATRIOT Act]
take away checks on law enforcement and threaten the
very rights and freedoms that we are struggling to
protect. For example, without a warrant and without
probable cause, the FBI now has the power to access
your most private medical records, your library
records, and your student records... and can prevent
anyone from telling you it was done.

Neo-McCarthyism is upon us and the United States citizens
are dumbfounded.

All one needs to do is look around. The
Mass arrest of nearly 500 nonviolent activists at the 2004
Republican National Convention in New York City, which the
judge (State Supreme Court Justice John Cataldo) ordered
the immediate release of just hours before President
Bush's speech at the Republican National Convention. Were
not denied release by the city. The city was later fined
in the refusal to comply with the judge’s order.

Or look
at the witch-hunt after animal rights activists that are
involved in the international campaign Stop Huntingdon
Animal Cruelty. “The government has issued a five-count
federal indictment that charges each activist, and SHAC
USA, with violations of the 1992 Animal Enterprise
Protection Act, the first law that explicitly seeks to
protect animal exploitation industries from animal rights
protests.” The committee's minority leader, Sen. Patrick
Leahy (D-VT), refused to partake in a meeting to talk
about the denial of these aboveground nonviolent animal
rights activists as a serious threat. It was a “…
corporate conspiracy masked as a Senate hearing. Instead,
Leahy wrote a statement for the public record that
vilified the proceedings, wherein he remarked that , “most
Americans would not consider the harassment of animal
testing facilities to be 'terrorism,' any more than they
would consider anti-globalization protestors or anti-war
protestors or women's health activists to be terrorists.”

Of course in this age of Neo-McCarthyism the landscape in
the United States has changed dramatically from the 1950s,
but the blueprint is still is the same. Communists are
replaced with terrorists. Attorney General John Ashcroft
played the role of Senator Joseph McCarthy (and it remains
to be seen whether or not Alberto Gonzalez will continue
to fill those shoes), and the Congressional Meetings on
Eco-Terrorism stand in for the House Un-American
Activities Committee. Similar to the past, the government
is convincing the public that the enemy lurks not only
outside our borders, but within them as well. The
Administration might even say, “There are those in this
country that are not with us.” The danger is said to be
catastrophic, a demand for immediate measures, with no
questioning of implementation of counter-action with no
limitations.

Please join us April 24th, 2005 at Syracuse University to
begin to question U.S. policies. On April 24th, 2005,
Syracuse University will be the site of a timely and
highly important forum on civil liberties, the Bill of
Rights, and freedom of expression, thought, and speech, at
the State Your Re-Action to State Repression Conference.

For information and inquiries, contact the Conference Committe
staterepression@gmail.com

Schedule

Welcoming Opening Remarks
(9:00-9:20)

Facilitator: Alyson Newquist, Conference Commitee Member

Professor Winston Grady-Willis, African American Studies
at Syracuse University


Different Political Campaigns Against Repression
(9:30-11:10)

Facilitator: Dr. Maxwell Schnurer, Marist College



1. Speaking in Defense of Lynne Stewart

Laura Raymond, National Lawyers Guild

2. Speaking in Defense of Dr. Rafil Dhafir Madis Senner,

Dr. Rafil Dhafir Defense Committee

3. Speaking in Defense of Jeffrey "Free" Luers ,
Friends
of Jeffrey Luers

Freedom of Speech and Action
(11:20-12:50)

Facilitator: Joel Capolongo, Conference Committee Member

1. SHAC7

Andy Stepanian, Animal Defense League

2. Fighting the PATRIOT Act

Christine Rizzo, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)

3. Speaking in Support of Revolution is the U.S.

Leslie James Pickering, Arissa Press


Lunch (12:50-1:40)

Nationalism, Racism, and Identity
(1:50-3:20)

1. The Case of Abu Ali

Elaine Cassel, Author and professor of Law

2. From Fighting Terrorism Since 1492 to Ward Churchill

Scott Richard Lyons, Native American Studies, Syracuse
University

3. International Foreign Imperialism

Professor Horace Campbell, Political Science and African
American Studies, Syracuse University


Alternatives to Repression
(3:30-5:00)

Facilitator: Jessica Maxwell, Syracuse Peace Council

1. Former Political Prisoner from the Jericho Movement

2. Abolish of Prisons

Ashanti Alston, Critical Resistance

3. Prisonization of Communities: What are the Alternatives?

Marsha Weissman, Director, Center for Community
Alternatives and Alan Rosenthal, Director, Justice
Strategies, Center for Community Alternatives Center for
Community Alternatives (CCA)

Community Dialogue on Creative Responses to Repression

(5:00-5:40)

Facilitators: Conflict Management Center (CMC), Maxwell
School, Syracuse University

Group Break Out

Keynote Speaker (5:40-6:20)

Facilitator: pattrice jones, Coordinator, Eastern Shore
Sanctuary

Terrorism: A Word Used to Repress

Ann Hansen

Closing Comments (6:20-6:40)

Facilitator: Eli Moore, Conference Committee Member

Professor Micere M. Githae Mugo
Syracuse University,
African American Studies