Chicago NLG member, Jerry Boyle was interviewed for WBEZ for his participation in the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Check out the story here:
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Chicago NLG member, Jerry Boyle was interviewed for WBEZ for his participation in the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
Check out the story here:
by Admin
Leonard I. Weinglass (1933-2011) was a criminal defense attorney and constitutional law advocate. Over the course of his career, he represented political activists, government opponents, and criminal defendants— including Angela Davis, the Cuban Five, the Chicago Seven, the Pentagon Papers, and the death row appeals of Mumia Abu-Jamal—in a half century of politically significant cases. He was a longtime Guild member and served as Chair of the NLG International Committee.
Thanks to a generous bequest from the Weinglass estate, the NLG has established a fellowship for recent law graduates. Each year, one fellow will receive a stipend to work for the Guild on a specific civil rights or civil liberties project.
Max Suchan is a Chicago NLG member who will be spending 10 weeks working with the Chicago Community Bond Fund to increase volunteer capacity and help develop organizational strategies to end money bond. Max is a long-time abolitionist activist and first year lawyer. Since the age of 13, Max was involved in organizing against the second Iraq invasion in both grammar school and high school. In 2007, Max attended Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank, where he studied Arabic and politics while supporting Palestinian-led direct action against the occupation. After spending more than a year and a half in Palestine over several trips, Max was also a passenger on the U.S. Boat to Gaza as part of Freedom Flotilla II, which sought to challenge the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. In Fall 2011 and Spring 2012, Max worked with the Palestine Solidarity Project to co-organize a national U.S. speaking tour to highlight the cases of hundreds of Palestinian minors in Israeli military prisons and jails.
As an undergrad at Beloit College in Wisconsin, Max founded Beloit Books Behind Bars to send books and match student pen-pals with people in state prisons. He decided to go to law school in order to obtain a concrete skill-set to support liberation movements both here and abroad, and more effectively work for an end to mass incarceration. Max attended DePaul University School of Law, where he played a key role in NLG organizing on campus. In August 2014, Max traveled to Ferguson to support the uprising in the wake of the police killing of Michael Brown. There he was arrested as an NLG legal observer and he still faces municipal charges of interfering with a police officer.
Upon returning to Chicago, Max supported the family members of the DeSean Vigil 5, a group of Black residents who were beaten and arrested after Chicago police aggressively disrupted a community vigil following the police killing of 17-year-old DeSean Pittman. Max helped fundraise tens of thousands of dollars to bond everyone out of jail and match all arrestees with attorneys. These relationships and organizing gave birth to the Chicago Community Bond Fund, a nonprofit collective which works to abolish cash bond in Illinois, while simultaneously bonding individuals out of Cook County Jail to mitigate the severe harm of pre-trial detention. Since December 2015, CCBF has posted bond to free 27 people from jail or house arrest.
Max remains heavily involved with the Chicago NLG chapter as the local mass defense coordinator, a co-coordinator of the legal observer program, and a member of the Chicago board.
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Back by popular demand, Chicago NLG member Dan Massoglia hosted a Crypto Party workshop.
The world-wide CryptoParty movement empowers regular people to protect their private data in an era of widespread surveillance. There are many tools available to do this – some more user friendly than others. Technical experts were there for an introduction to crypotography and hands-on help for those who were interested in learning how to keep themselves and their data safe.
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On Tuesday May 3, in the Schmitt Academic Center at DePaul, Jeff Frank (of the
National Lawyers Guild, Friends of MST (Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement)), Vicki Cervantes (of the Honduras Solidarity Network), Juan David Lopera (of the Congreso de los Pueblos Colombia), and Jesus Rodriguez Espinosa (Consulate of Venezuela in Chicago) hosted a panel sponsored by DePaul University Department of Peace, Justice, & Conflict Studies, Friends of the MST, Congreso de los Pueblos Colombia, La Voz de los de Abajo, Chicago ALBA Solidarity, and Consulate of Venezuela in Chicago.
Brazil’s right wing opposition voted to begin impeachment against progressive President Dilma Rousseff, even though she is not accused of having committed a crime. The majority who voted to impeach her are themselves under investigation for corruption and other crimes. On March 31, 700,000 marched in support of Rousseff.
Brazil is the latest example of U.S. backed right-wing neoliberal resurgence in Latin America. The events in Brazil follow the U.S. supported coups against democracy in Honduras (2009) and Paraguay (2012), failed coup attempts in Ecuador (2010, 2015), Bolivia (2009), repeated stealing of elections in Haiti, and the ongoing attempt to overthrow President Maduro of Venezuela. Jeff Frank will report on his recent trip to Brazil, including the killing of peasant leaders; other short reports will address the increase in death squad activity in other countries and the role of the U.S.
Full video here:
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On Wednesday April 27 at the Corboy Law Center panelists discussed the task force’s report and its ramifications for future policymaking, people’s lawyering, and activism.
On April 13, 2016, the mayor-appointed Chicago Police Accountability Task Force Report released a scathing indictment of the state of the Chicago Police Department. Many applauded the report’s candor, empirical data, and “painful but necessary reckoning.” Others blasted the absence of community members on the task force, an inadequate critique of the City’s disinvestment in mental health, the (over) emphasis on CPD’s “history,” and, above all, the report’s reiteration of lived experiences that have been ignored, dismissed, and appropriated for generations.
Panelists
Paul Strauss, director of impact litigation
Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights
Stan Willis, civil rights and criminal defense attorney
The Law Offices of Standish E. Willis, Ltd.
Cosette Hampton, youth activist and organizer
Black Youth Project 100
Moderator
Alan Raphael, professor of law
Loyola University Chicago School of Law
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On Saturday, April 16, EFF co-hosted a free workshop on surveillance self-defense with local grassroots groups based in Chicago. The workshop was particularly structured for lawyers and activists supporting social movements.
Participants did need not wield technical expertise to attend this session, which is geared towards regular smartphone and laptop users. EFF’s Shahid Buttar facilitated a teach-in and skill-share on surveillance, some immediate and practical steps you can take to protect your communications, and how to work with neighbors to inform surveillance policy at the state and local level.
The event was co-sponsored by the Chicago GNU/Linux User Group, Restore the Fourth, and the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.