Raleigh action held against repression
By Yolanda Carrington
Raleigh, N.C.
The Raleigh chapter of Fight Imperialism-Stand Together and
other activists organized a "Defend Free Speech in Raleigh"
news conference/demonstration Nov. 19. Media outlets in
attendance at the North Carolina State University Memorial
Tower included reporters from the Associated Press, the Raleigh
News and Observer, the Independent Weekly, and local television
stations such as WRAL-5, Disney ABC-11, and WB-22.
The news conference took place during the weekly
demonstration of "Honk for Peace" by the Student Peace Action
Net work at North Carolina State University.
This media event was organized in the aftermath of the Nov.
5 political protest at the North Carolina Republican Party
headquarters that resulted in the arrest of three young
activists on felony charges. In the wake of that incident,
local and federal law enforcement began a campaign of haras
sment targeting the Raleigh/ Triangle activist community.
Participants in the evening's conference-demonstration felt
that this media outreach was important in alerting the general
public to the real dangers posed by the intervention of state
repression. Elena Everett, chair of the North Carolina Green
Party and an NCSU student, said, "The outcome of the trial, if
these three youths are convicted, could set a dangerous
precedent for other activists and all political activity in the
future."
Everett played an instrumental role in sending out a
national statement to "Defend Free Speech in Raleigh" and in
support of the three arrested activists. So far 100 prominent
activists and progressive organizations have signed on to this
call.
Everett and others say there is no valid evidence tying the
youths to the felony charges.
Members of both FIST and SPAN felt that this news conference
was necessary to show solidarity with the three young people
accused of vandalizing the GOP headquarters and with the North
Carolina activist community. Dante Strobino, co-founder of NCSU
SPAN and a member of FIST, says: "We are reclaiming the left.
We must show solidarity in the face of state repression and
harassment."
He also points out that in the aftermath of the GOP
incident, no activist in Raleigh was immune from state
scrutiny. Members of both the Joint Terrorism Task Force of the
FBI and Raleigh City Police immediately began pumping local
acti vists for information related to the case.
Contributing to this already egregious behavior on the part
of law enforcement was an article that appeared in the Nov. 9
edition of The News and Observer by writers Oren Dorell and
Barbara Barrett.
Headlined "Man Charged in Courtroom Scrap," the article
attempted to link the incident at the GOP headquarters to the
weekly SPAN-sponsored Honk for Peace event held six hours
earlier. The article implied that SPAN members were directly
involved in the act"--FBI's words--at the GOP office.
This irresponsible oversight promp ted an angry email
response from Raleigh FIST member Yolanda Carrington to
co-author Dorell, castigating him for tainting the public image
of both SPAN members and political activists in general.
Many of the people who participated in Friday's events felt
that a show of solidarity with the three young people charged
in the case was very important. Most of them were very clear
that the youths' struggle with state repression was everyone's
struggle.
Attempts by reporters at the event to elicit condemnations
of the actions of Nov. 5 were met with stiff rebuttals from all
activists interviewed. People refused to contribute to the
hypocrisy of popular discourse of denouncing an act of petty
vandalism while the U.S. government continues its vicious
military assault against the city of Falluja in Iraq.
Says SPAN's Strobino, "They [the state] are terrified that
power will shift away from them, and we are doing everything we
can to fight back and reclaim the message." Email
ealbiston@yahoo.com for more information about the Raleigh 3
case.
Also on Nov. 19, in addition to the news conference and
"Honk for Peace," a mass contingent of bicyclists, including
Stro bino himself, participated in Raleigh's version of
Critical Mass, the widely popular international movement of
bike riders who take back the streets from motor vehicle
traffic. Regularly held during the last Friday of every month
in Raleigh, this Critical Mass protest was important and large
enough this time out to force police "protection" of the bikers
in the form of two Raleigh motorbike cops.
Queeneta "Q" Allen, the leader of Raleigh FIST, said, "The
cops have been giving us some trouble lately, but this time
they were there to escort us."
A candlelight vigil honoring the Pales tinian leader Yasser
Arafat (1929-2004) was held by the Middle Eastern North African
Students Association in the evening of Nov. 19. People observed
a brief moment of silence for the long-time freedom fighter,
who passed away in early November in a Paris hospital at age
75. The vigil for Arafat, a voice for oppressed peoples
everywhere, was a more than fitting end to the historic events
of the Friday evening.
The writer is an organizer of Raleigh FIST. Email FIST at
FIST@workers.org or go to FIST's website
www.fightimperialismstandtogether.org
Reprinted from the Dec. 2, 2004, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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