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.
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:
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
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.
THANK YOU so much to everyone who came out Saturday night to help us celebrate the people power in our beautiful city and raise some resources for NLG Chicago! We raised over $1800 dollars that will help us keep doing our work. Chicago Community Bond Fund made over $200 just selling t-shirts! Enjoy this Love & Struggle Photos album from that night, and tag yourself and your friends! Special thanks is due to Sarah-Ji (our photographer), Lifted Voices (our guest speakers), our DJs, and Lagunitas Brewing Company and Anarchist Brewing Collective for the beer and cider. Thanks again to everyone who showed up to build community towards resistance, and see you next year!
On Thursday March 31 at the Loyola Corboy Law Center, the Chicago NLG co-sponsored an event discussing the over 3,500 women are incarcerated in the state of Illinois. It covered such topics as who are these women, and how they end up in prison. The panel addresses the reality of prison for women, the effects of prison on women and the consequences in their lives and their communities.
On Wednesday, March 30 at the Corboy Law Center, the Chicago NLG hosted an event that discussed nontraditional approaches to practicing law and building legal
practices through organization-building. Panelists answered their thoughts on what it means to be a people’s lawyer, how progressive attorneys help interrupt
systems of oppression through their work, and how are attorneys working to consciously build organizing power and community leadership in their practice.
The panelists had participated in programs such as the AmeriCorps VISTA Legal Fellowship and Justice Entrepreneurship Project (“JEP”) where they learned how to build crossdisciplinary relationships to the end that “human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests.”
Over the past fifteen years, people in the United States–and dissidents in particular–have witnessed a steady escalation of the National Security State, including invasive surveillance and infiltration, indiscriminate police violence, and unlawful arrests. These concerted efforts to criminalize dissidents and undermine mean ingful social change are made more repressive by the coordination of numerous local, state, and federal agencies often operating at the behest of private corporations.
On Sunday, March 13th at 4pm at In These Times the Chicago NLG chapter sponsored an event featuring activist and PM Press author Kris Hermes discussing his new book Crashing the Party: Legacies and Lessons from the RNC 2000 .
Hermes will spoke alongside Sarah Gelsomino, an NLG attorney with thePeople’s Law Office who has worked on high-profile political cases including the Free the NATO 3, Leila Taha from Arab American Action Network who talked about the campaign supporting Rasmea Odeh, and Alex Goldenberg of Southside Together Organizing for Power – STOP, who with others used an innovative legal defense after arrests linked to the demand for a level 1 adult trauma center at the University of Chicago.
Copies of Crashing the Party: Legacies and Lessons from the RNC 2000 are available for purchase here.
This morning, a ruling from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals represents a partial victory in the case of Rasmea Odeh, the legendary Palestinian American icon who was convicted of a politically motivated immigration charge in 2014, and sentenced to 18 months in prison and deportation last year.
Organizers with the Rasmea Defense Committee, which represents over 50 institutions across the country, have been waiting for a decision in the appeal since last October, and are pleased with the result.
“This isn’t a full victory yet, of course,” said Nesreen Hasan of the committee’s headquarters in Chicago, “but it really is what we were hoping for and anticipating at this stage. The conviction wasn’t overturned altogether, but at least Judge Drain will be forced to rethink his decision on the torture evidence.”
The appeals court determined that Gershwin Drain, the trial judge who sentenced Rasmea, wrongfully barred expert torture witness, Dr. Mary Fabri, from testifying at the trial. According to lead attorney Michael Deutsch, “The case will be remanded [back to Drain] for a determination as to the admissibility of the expert testimony. The appellate court has essentially ruled that it was an error for Drain to have precluded that testimony.”
We are hopeful that Rasmea’s full story will be told, and that she will ultimately be exonerated of all charges.
For more info: http://justice4rasmea.org/news/2016/02/25/appeal-a-partial-victory/
Fred Korematsu Day Film Screening & Discussion: “Of Civil Rights and Wrongs”
In 1942, at the age of 23, Korematsu refused to go to the government’s incarceration camps for Japanese Americans. After he was arrested and convicted of defying the government’s order, he appealed his case all the way to the Supreme Court. In 1944, the Supreme Court ruled against him, arguing that the incarceration was justified due to military necessity.
On Tuesday, February 9, at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, we honored Fred Korematsu, a civil rights hero by holding a special screening of the documentary “Of Civil Rights and Wrongs” which followed by reflections by a group of panelists, including a former internee of the Japanese internment camps.
SPONSORS: Asian Americans Advancing Justice-
Chicago CAIR-Chicago, National Lawyers Guild-
Chicago TUPOCC, Japanese American Citizens
League
STUDENT GROUP SPONSORS: Chicago-Kent
chapters of NLG, ACS, APALSA, ILS, MLSA
