event details posted by: philly rnc8 support begins: Mar 6, 1:00 pm ends: Mar 6, 3:00 pm location: 3417 Spruce Street, Houston Hall, room 236 (Platt Rehearsal Room), Philadelphia

From Repression to Resistance: Lessons for Our Movements
Saturday, March 6 * 1-3 p.m. * Free
At Houston Hall, 3417 Spruce Street, room 236 (Platt Rehearsal Room)

Social movements have always faced repression. From the Red Scare to the Green Scare, COINTELPRO to the PATRIOT Act, governments have used a range of techniques to marginalize or destroy movements for justice. The U.S. government has a long history of persecuting activists, radicals and community organizers, even those who don’t break any laws.

This workshop will discuss tactics and strategies for organizers to prevent, withstand, and defeat state repression. With the help of three veteran activists, two former political prisoners and a longtime attorney, we will examine grand juries, fear, and concrete ways to support people facing political repression.

Panelists:
Soffiyah Elijah is a Clinical Instructor at the Criminal Justice Institute at Harvard Law School. She has had a distinguished career as an attorney and was an assistant professor of law at the City University of New York. She has represented a number of political prisoners and activists in the U.S. including Kwame Turé, Marilyn Buck, and Sundiata Acoli. Dr. Elijah has done extensive research on the U.S. criminal justice and prison systems over the past 20 years and served as legal advisor to Francisco Torres in the San Francisco 8 case.

Ricardo Jimenez began organizing as a high school student for Latino-relevant curriculum in Chicago area schools and universities. He also organized against drugs and gentrification in Puerto Rican communities. Arrested in 1980, he spent almost twenty years in prison on charges of “seditious conspiracy” for his involvement in the Puerto Rican independence movement. He was one of eleven independence activists granted presidential clemency in 1999. Since then, he has been an educator, lecturer, and AIDS activist.

Laura Whitehorn was a member of Students for a Democratic Society and the Weather Underground. She served 14 years in prison as part of the Resistance Conspiracy case. Since her release in 1999, she has been an editor at POZ magazine. She is a member of New Yorkers for Justice and Reconciliation (formerly the New York Task Force on Political Prisoners) and is the editor of Safiya Bukhari’s collected works, “The War Before” (Feminist Press, 2010).

This event, part of the “Bring Down the Walls!” series, is sponsored by Justseeds Artists Cooperative, Philadelphia RNC8 Support Committee and the National Boricua Human Rights Network. For more information contact NErnc8support@riseup.net.