MFOL website: https://marchforourlives.com/

Text MARCH to 954-954

Come protest with us in the city of San Francisco as we demand END GUN VIOLENCE,
with people rising up in the San Francisco Bay Area, throughout California and across
the United States.

Together, we rose up 4 years ago across the coutnry. 1 million of us demanded change. We built a movement. We voted for new leaders. And the gun deaths increased. Now is the moment we march again in 2022.

We are marching again in Washington D.C. and in 100+ local marches nationwide. We need as many people as possible to show that the American public wants a nation free of gun violence.

Can we count on you to be there June 11? Text MARCH to 954-954 to learn more.

WHY WE ARE MARCHING

May 26th marked the one-year anniversary of the San Jose VTA mass shooting in 2021, the deadliest in Bay Area history and less than two years after the Gilroy Garlic Festival mass shooting in 2019.

Two days before the first anniversary of the VTA massacre, there’s been yet another mass shooting — this one at a Uvlade, Texas elementary school that ended the lives of 21 people on May 24th.

Only a couple weeks ago, there was the mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York in a predominately Black neighborhood, a crime reported as being racist-hate motivated.

And the next day after Buffalo, there was a church shooting that left one person dead and five others injured at a meeting of Asian churchgoers in Laguana Woods, Southern California.

All these more recent events are part of a long, but ever growing history of gun violence taking and wounding the lives of American family members, including children. Everywhere we look, gun violence is decimating our families and communities.

Whether it’s the mass shootings in shopping malls, concerts, schools, and places of worship, the retaliatory gun violence in urban neighborhoods haunted by the legacy of economic disinvestment, racism, and poverty, or the solitary suicides committed nationwide with increasing frequency, gun violence adds up: over 100 Americans die from it every day.

That’s 100+ lives lost every single day. We started March For Our Lives (MFOL) to say, “Not One More.”

END GUN VIOLENCE NOW!

This massive funding package represents a clear escalation of the war in Ukraine by the government of the United States using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder in a proxy war with Russia. It will prolong the war, resulting in thousands more Ukrainian and Russian deaths, at the very least. It risks escalating and widening the scope of the war – up to and including nuclear war.

Despite promising just two months ago to “work relentlessly toward de-escalation” of the war in Ukraine, California Congresswoman Barbara Lee voted in lockstep with every Democrat in Congress behind President Biden’s war policy without voicing such questions or concerns and without a single mention of diplomacy or de-escalation. Billions in funding for the war serves the interests of weapons manufacturers and military contractors who are making huge profits from this war and not those of working and oppressed people worldwide, who now face even more dire prospects from food and fuel shortages than before the onset of this war.

Join us at Barbara Lee’s Oakland office to say:

– Vote NO on the next weapons supplemental for Ukraine and support oversight hearings on prior weapons shipments.

– Urge President Biden to back a negotiated settlement that recognizes the security interests of all stakeholders and to lift key sanctions in return for concessions from Russia.

– “Work relentlessly for de-escalation” and not for more war.

‘Love Will Keep Us Together,’ but only for the state.

Mayor London Breed sweeps houseless queer and trans youth from the Tenderloin just in time for corporate Pride’s open air beer garden. The preparation is a community affair as Urban Alchemy, case managers, and Karen “safety” snitch have rubbed their fingers raw by calling 911. Two million people scamper in to attend San Francisco’s massive LGBTQ+ themed blue lives matter march— a dress rehearsals for death squads. It’s no secret that policing is a sign of fascism, and Supervisor Rafael Mendlemn just can’t get enough. 500 more, 500 more! Meanwhile in the Mission, business owners clear tents to make way for outdoor dining “parklets” that are locked up at night to assure no one can use them for shelter. Breed’s police state won’t be taking Pride weekend off from its “Care Court,” where “care” means torture for those that don’t have the celebrity to fight off their conservatorship. DPW won’t sweep up the Pride afterparty but they will boost your HIV meds if it’s in a tent and SFPD cleans up, if by clean up you mean make off with the COVID money while it’s impossible to find a testing site.

Despite a 2 year hiatus where we tore down colonizer statues, dispossession is still at the heart of rainbow capitalism’s colonial catastrophe. Looting keeps us together~~~<3

Julian Assange is an innocent journalist, jailed and tortured for revealing TRUTH. Global citizens deserve to know of the US/UK war crimes done in their names and with their tax dollars. Julian remains held on remand, at the behest of the USA, in Belmarsh Prison, London.

If the USA succeeds in his extradition, he will serve 175 years in the worst kind of prison; pursued under the 1917 Espionage Act. This sets a dangerous History- changing precedent for any journalist anywhere in the world and forever threatens Journalism and Freedom of Speech.

Speakers, information/flyers, cupcakes and camaraderie will be on hand.

The United States extradition of Julian Assange looms ominously this week as UK Home Secretary Priti Patel is due to deliver her decision by June 17, unless she requests an extension.

How Julian Assange’s family copes and fights for his release:

Julian Assange’s wife, Stella Moris Assange, reveals how they raise children together while he is in jail awaiting an extradition decision: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-08/stella-moris-my-life-with-julian-assange-extradition/101132624

Stella writes about what it is like for their children to visit Julian in Belmarsh prison:
https://twitter.com/StellaMoris1/status/1534278367419179022?s=20&t=KzAUHNK1ImJMgAkz2yMBCg

Ithakamovie.com:
Gabriel Shipton’s new movie, Ithaka, will soon be launching in the UK.  Ithaka premiered at the Sydney Film Festival in November 2021, and at the Capricorn Film Festival in Queensland, the film won awards for Best Documentary and Best Direction. There is no word yet on plans for showings in the USA, but we will keep you posted.

About the film:
A moving and intimate portrayal of one father’s fight to save his son, Ithaka exposes the brutal realities of the campaign to free Julian Assange.
The world’s most famous political prisoner, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, has become an emblem of an international arm wrestle over freedom of journalism, government corruption and unpunished war crimes.

Now with Julian facing a 175-year sentence if extradited to the US, his family members are confronting the prospect of losing Julian forever to the abyss of the US justice system.  This David-and-Goliath struggle is personal – and, with Julian’s health declining in a British maximum-security prison, the clock is ticking.

Now it’s up to Julian’s father, John Shipton, and fiancé (at the time of filming) Stella Moris, to join forces to advocate for Julian on this international odyssey. As they rally a world-wide network of supporters and politicians, they cautiously step into the media’s glare – and are forced to confront the events that made Julian a global flashpoint.

What Can You Do?
If you can’t join us for an event, consider taking a stand to educate others on your own or with friends. We’d love to promote your event on the website & social media to inspire others. Informing others, calling your Representatives & signing petitions are powerful actions.

Resources:
https://bayaction2freeassange.org/resources/ https://assangedefense.org/take-action/ https://dontextraditeassange.com/take-action/

The inspiration of standing alone in protest is bravely demonstrated by Julian’s wife, Stella as a brilliant example that anyone can take, any place, at any time for Julian:
https://twitter.com/JeaniRN/status/1533561468985040897?s=20&t=KzAUHNK1ImJMgAkz2yMBCg

Speakers will include:
– Susan Stryker, renowned professor, author, and theorist whose work focuses on gender
– Jason Woody, Development Director at Rich City Rides,
– Andrés Soto, Richmond community organizer,
– Paul Paz y Miño, Associate Director at Amazon Watch
– Doggtown Dro, Activated Anguished Artist, Anti-Colonial Acab Abolitionist and Agitator, and
– Wayne Hsiung, an animal rights activist with Direct Action Everywhere who is facing felony charges for investigations and rescues.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has a long history of abusing its powers to surveil, infiltrate, and thwart progressive activist groups. The bureau has targeted civil rights and Black power groups, women’s rights groups, anti-war activists, environmental activists, animal rights activists and many others challenging an oppressive status quo.

From 1956 to 1971, as part of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program, or COINTELPRO, federal agents partnered with state officials and police to eavesdrop on phone calls, create fake activist publications, infiltrate organizations, and fabricate evidence aimed at turning activists against each other.

Today, the FBI continues to monitor activist groups, including some of us hosting this protest, as we have seen from Freedom of Information Act requests and other sources. Instead of letting this repression hold us down, we must come together, expose the FBI’s abuse of power, and support one another as we work to overcome similar obstacles to a more just world for all.

———-

WHO: Everyone is welcome! However, please do not come if you have or recently had symptoms of or exposure to COVID-19. If you’re nervous, you can come observe or hold a sign quietly.
ACCESSIBILITY: This event will involve standing for a couple of hours. Some chairs will be provided.

Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) is a grassroots network of animal rights activists. Through open rescue, demonstration, and disruption, we help build a world where every animal is safe, happy and free.

DxE cultivates a welcoming and supportive community. We ask that all those who attend our events (online and offline) respect our Code of Conduct which can be reviewed at dxe.io/conduct.