MECAWI to protest FBI raids in Detroit tomorrow

MECAWI/Moratorium NOW! Weekly Meeting to Feature Special Guest Tom Burke, Anti-War Activist Targeted in FBI Raids on Sept. 24
Monday, Sept. 27, 2010, 7-9 PM
5920 Second Ave, Detroit
Contact: 313.671.3715

This week’s regular organizing meeting for both the Moratorium NOW! Coalition and MECAWI will feature special guest Tom Burke, a longtime anti-war and solidarity activists, whose home was one of those raided in Chicago along with other activists in Minneapolis. The FBI served the activists with search and seizure warrants related to an investigation into “material aid to terrorist organizations.”

All of the organizers targeted have denied the allegations and are upholding their right to speak out against U.S. foreign policy in Colombia and Palestine. The U.S. government provides billions of dollars of direct assistance to both the repressive regimes in Israel and Colombia. Anti-war, peace and human rights organizations have all condemned the continued oppression carried out against the peoples of Colombia and Palestine.

Activists in Chicago, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Grand Rapids and North Carolina were targeted in the raids. In Minneapolis and Chicago, FBI agents entered homes and offices with drawn guns. They searched and seized personal papers, literature, organizational documents, music collections, photographs, financial records, computers and cell phones. Several activists were served with subpoenas to appear before a federal grand jury in October in Chicago.

The Moratorium NOW! Coalition and MECAWI condemns these actions by the Justice Department and demands that all property be returned to activists representing various organizations that have been targeted including the Anti-War Committee, Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (Fightback!), Women Against Military Madness and others. We stand in solidarity with those who seek to raise public awareness about the role of the Pentagon abroad and the corporate ruling class inside the U.S.

Please join us for this important meeting where Tom Burke will provide a first-hand account of the current attacks against activists by the federal government.

We are also urging everyone to come out at the McNamara Federal Building, Tuesday, September 28 from 4:30-6:00pm, to demonstrate against these outrageous attacks against our brothers and sisters in areas throughout the mid-west and the southern U.S.