The Southern Coalition for Social Justice believes that now is the time to unite and build a collective grassroots action to challenge the recent changes…
Join in an exciting, interactive workshop on how to successfully integrate legal and organizing strategies.
Activists from justice organizations in the Southeast share lessons and strategies from two victories: a campaign for access to public services within a rural African American community in North Carolina, and a guestworker rights campaign in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Bring your voice to the room as we share skills on combining strategies within and between movements to build grassroots power.
Another roadblock for the Eastern District?
Posted to NC Policy Watch on 9/19/2013 by Sharon McCloskey
Reposted to SCSJ with permission
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Have you wondered why the Social Forum is being held in Detroit? Many people at the forum, including much of the SCSJ delegation, have never visited Detroit and they got the chance to learn about the city's significance on Wednesday. At the evening plenary, we all learned why Detroit is known as the "City of Resistance.” Grace Boggs, Detroit’s renowned anti-racism and civil rights community activist fervently detailed the history of political and racial struggle in Detroit, which led to the coining of the term. She explained that Detroit, in the midst of the economic crisis with its car industry, was selected to be the host because of the opportunity it presents to “create something new and something different.” She, along with former Black Panther members, talked about the many national movements that began in Detroit, including the Shrine, the Freedom Now Party, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Nation of Islam. In the second part of the plenary, we learned about Detroit’s role as a “border city” and how “secure” the U.S. and Canadian border has become since September 11. While the U.S.-Mexico border cities contain stories of harassment against the Latin@ community, the American Muslim community as well as the Latin@ community, are simultaneously targeted here. The first mosque in the U.S was founded Detroit in 1921 and the Nation of Islam was founded here in 1931. Since then, the Muslim community has commuted between Windsor, Canada and Detroit, MI for worship. Panelist Malik Yakini from the Counsel of American-Islamic Relations, explained that “every international issue facing the Arab world are local issues faced by the Islamic community in Detroit.” He communicated that their right to worship freely has been greatly affected.
Further talks reflected the infringement upon human rights on a variety of issues. To learn more about the US Social Forum, click here. For more pictures, click here.
City Council protesters plead guilty to trespassing
TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2010 (Updated 11:19 am)
STAFF REPORTS
GREENSBORO — Five people who were arrested while protesting at a City Council meeting in May pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree trespassing in Guilford County District Court.
The defendants were Cherell Brown, Wesley Morris, Clarence Bradley Hunt II, Carlyle Phillips and Jonathan Johnson.
District Court Judge Wendy Enochs entered a prayer for judgment continued, which means there is no conviction on record.
The five were represented by Becky Jaffe, a staff attorney for the Durham-based Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
The protesters, from a group called the Spirit of the Sit-In Movement Initiative, took over the council dais during a break in the May 4 council meeting. The group was protesting what they called a “subculture of corruption” in the police department.
The protesters did not disperse as requested and were arrested. They were each charged with one count of trespassing.
More than 30 community leaders and friends attended the trial, wrote the Rev. Nelson Johnson in a statement Monday.
The presence of the supporters was "both encouraging and reaffirming," said Brown, one of the five protesters, in the statement.
"The consequences we face in response to our act of civil disobedience pales in comparison to the injustices that our community, our family, is facing everyday due to a fragmented and corrupt system,” she said.