You’re listening to RPM Underground on listener sponsored WBAI in NYC broadcasting from the occupied studio and streaming on your favorite podcast app. To connect with us after the show you can email us at revolutionsnyc@gmail.com or sign-up for our newsletter to get links to what we talk about on the show. You can do that on at our website revolutionsperminute.simplecast.com. You can also find us on twitter @nycRPM.

MADSA members again marched with our banner and signs in Atlanta’s massive LGBTQ Pride parade, despite scattered showers, as thousands cheered from the sidelines. Photos: Michael Roberts

On Oct. 11, MADSA and Ga. Tech Young Democratic Socialists of America, with the Georgia Latino Alliance for Human Rights, Mijente, the Black Alliance for Just Immigration and others marched and picketed at Amazon headquarters in Buckhead during the workday, to protest the company’s contracts with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency that separates families, jails people legally seeking asylum in the U.S. and puts children in cages. The action was coordinated with events taking place throughout the U.S. during the weekend leading up to Indigenous People’s Day (AKA Columbus Day). Below is the statement issued by the demonstrators:

From the day he took office, Donald Trump escalated a failed and cruel immigration policy into an all-out war against immigrants, banning Muslims, slamming the door on refugees, tearing children from their parents’ arms. Each new affront has been met with outrage and protest, but even when he has retreated, Trump has sought new lines of attack: concentration camps, workplace raids, new bars to green cards and citizenship.

Meanwhile many immigrants are being terrorized in their own communities, afraid to answer the door, take children to school, or go to work. These communities need to see and feel the solidarity of the majority that stands with them.

We call on all those who oppose the raids, family separation, deportations and incarceration to unite against this reign of racist persecution. It is time to say, “¡Basta Ya!” Enough is enough!

This indigenous people’s day weekend let us act together –whether with a march, vigil, rally or direct action– against those who would give us a future of division and white supremacist hate. Let us unite in broad regional coalitions drawing together people of faith, unions, anti-nativist fighters and other progressives to target camps, jails, shelters or other parts of Trump’s anti-immigrant, deportation machinery.

Let us act in the knowledge that no human being is illegal anywhere, not least in a country formed through violent colonialism. Most of all, let us open our arms to immigrants in our country or at our borders with a greeting of friendship: Mi casa es tu casa. Our home is also your home.

Photos: Reid Freeman Jenkins

You’re listening to Revolution Per Minute on listener sponsored WBAI in NYC broadcasting at 99.5 FM and streaming on your favorite podcast app. To connect with us after the show you can email us at revolutionsnyc@gmail.com or sign-up for our newsletter to get links to what we talk about on the show. You can do that on at our website revolutionsperminute.simplecast.com. You can also find us on twitter @nycRPM.

If you're interested in fighting back against the WBAI Lockout please reach out to redwavewbai@gmail.com. This is a sad day for us, WBAI, local independent media, and the radio community nationwide. We will be putting out further information in the coming days.

You’re listening to Revolution Per Minute on listener sponsored WBAI in NYC broadcasting at 99.5 FM and streaming on your favorite podcast app. To connect with us after the show you can email us at revolutionsnyc@gmail.com or sign-up for our newsletter to get links to what we talk about on the show. You can do that on at our website revolutionsperminute.simplecast.com. You can also find us on twitter @nycRPM.

MADSA’s general meeting Sept. 28 included our annual officer elections. We chose Councilman khalid for our new chair; Cole Reardon treasurer; Brandyn Buchanan membership secretary; Nate Knauf recording secretary; and three at-large members: Q Benford, Rara Imler and Catie Elle, who will help make the many decisions that our officers face and take on other work as needed. Thanks to outgoing officers Jen Garcia, chair and membership secretary; José Perez, treasurer; Barbara Joye, recording secretary; and at-large officers Jeff Corkill and Wendell Bohannon (Q also served this past year).

A representative of Ga.Tech YDSA (TBA) and any other Atlanta YDSA chapter that is chartered by national DSA will also have a seat on the MADSA executive committee. Two are on the way: Emory and Ga. State U., and three other area campuses may join them soon.

Councilman khalid volunteered to organize our traditional contingent in the Atlanta Pride parade that starts at noon on Sunday, Oct. 13 (see other Atlanta Pride events here). Meet at Civic Center MARTA station, 11am, parade steps off at noon.

On Friday, Sept. 27, MADSA, Extinction Rebellion and 10 other local organizations participated in the Global Climate Strike, calling for “rebellion against the government for criminal inaction in the face of climate catastrophe and ecological collapse,” saying: “The science is clear. The planet is steadily warming as carbon is released unabated into our atmosphere. Ice caps are melting, ecosystems are collapsing, and natural disasters are becoming more and more common. Meanwhile, in the shadow of this unprecedented threat to life on earth, the rich and powerful continue business as usual, upholding the status quo of the economic system that depends on the unlimited and unsustainable use of our planet’s resources. Our goal is to stand against those who wish to ignore the evidence and continue business as usual.”

MADSA member Michael Roberts reported:

Today MADSA comrades joined over 100 protesters in a climate strike. The strike began at the Buckhead MARTA station, then quickly moved across much of north Atlanta in an attempt to stay ahead of the police, who were prepared with a small army equipped with bikes,trucks, and buses. The police prevented access to the streets and even arrested many protesters, including some MADSA members. Despite being out-matched by the police, the protesters held strong and lasted the day, constantly asking the police “Who do you serve?” as a reminder and a call to action.

MADSA stands in solidarity with any group of grassroots activists who are willing to highlight and call into question the unquenchable greed that has brought on this climate crisis, and stand ready to defend all oppressed people to prevent further victimization while trying to hold back the exctinction of the human race.
Photo: Michael Roberts

See also AJC report and Channel 11.

Comrades Daniel Hanley and Lorraine Fontana were among 20 demonstrators arrested (all have been released). Donate to the bail fund: https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/extinction-rebellion-mass-action-bail-fund

“You’re listening to Revolution Per Minute on listener sponsored WBAI in NYC broadcasting at 99.5 FM and streaming on your favorite podcast app. To connect with us after the show you can email us at revolutionsnyc@gmail.com or sign-up for our newsletter to get links to what we talk about on the show. You can do that on at our website revolutionsperminute.simplecast.com. You can also find us on twitter @nycRPM.

By Julian Prados Franks

In early September, Metro Atlanta DSA’s Immigrant Rights Working Group organized a second solidarity visit to the infamous Stewart Detention Center in Lumpkin, Georgia. Even compared to other ICE detention centers, Stewart, a private prison owned by CoreCivic, has a particularly gross penchant for abject cruelty and abuse. With the solidarity visit, we intended to provide some of the detained immigrants, especially those without family members to visit regularly, one hour of open conversation outside of the monotony of life inside Stewart. A group of four DSA members (Julian Prados Franks, Kaitlyn Barnes, Daniel Hanley, and Israel Tordoya Henckell) met at the Edgewood MARTA station before sunrise to make a two-and-a-half-hour trek to Lumpkin.

Before arriving at the detention center, however, we received a house tour and orientation from volunteers at El Refugio. El Refugio, which coordinates the visits with the men detained in Stewart, is a nonprofit established in the late 2000s by members of Georgia Detention Watch for the purpose of providing safe lodging and warm meals free of charge to families and individuals wanting to spend the weekend with their loved ones detained by ICE.

After orientation, our members waited multiple hours in processing, allowing us to experience the grueling wait that immigrant families will endure to spend one hour in direct contact with the men at Stewart. We each spoke to one man. Many of the personal details shared with us must remain confidential, but we can confirm that they were in good spirits during our conversations and felt excited to speak with new people from outside the prison. Some acknowledged the deplorable conditions inside, while others wanted to focus on happier things.

El Refugio encourages volunteers to debrief and decompress after the visits, so we made our way back to their lodging house to share our thoughts and feelings. Additionally, El Refugio provides volunteers with the information necessary to write letters and send gifts to the people they visited.

Reflecting on the experience, our own Daniel Hanley said, “El Refugio does incredible work to connect families and friends with their loved ones detained at Stewart, giving otherwise isolated immigrants an appreciated connection to the outside world. Detainees confirmed accounts of torture (such as solitary confinement and tasers), routine human rights violations, psychological trauma, years of valuable time wasted. Despite these abuses, we met with detainees who are resilient and hopeful they will emerge from detention to pursue their dreams, possibly with the assistance of popular mobilization outside the facility. One friend inside the detention center recounted a grueling intercontinental journey to escape threats to their life. They described an inspiring sense of unity, solidarity, and mutual aid among fellow migrants, and they were welcomed with smiles and open arms throughout the countries of Latin America, until they encountered scowls along the U.S. border. Now they struggle in Stewart for greater access to education as months of their life are pointlessly wasted in a privately owned cage.”

We left the house feeling a deeper connection with the immigrant community and a heightened sense of concern for their future. We also felt a little more hopeful experiencing the radical love of the volunteers at El Refugio and observing the perseverance of the immigrant families visiting Stewart.

You’re listening to Revolution Per Minute on listener sponsored WBAI in NYC broadcasting at 99.5 FM and streaming on your favorite podcast app. To connect with us after the show you can email us at revolutionsnyc@gmail.com or sign-up for our newsletter to get links to what we talk about on show. You can do that on at our website revolutionsperminute.simplecast.com. You can also find us on twitter @nycRPM.