Stand against repression, drop the charges against Carlos Montes and prepare for more challenges ahead

Carlos Montes

The following statement is from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and is being reposted here Fight Back! News: 

On Sept. 24, 2010 the FBI launched a series of coordinated raids against anti-war and international solidarity activists in the Midwest. More than 70 agents of the FBI, ATF and Joint Terrorism Task Force were involved. Also raided that day was the office of the Twin Cities Anti-War Committee. In concert with the raids, the FBI made attempts to intimidate activists in California, North Carolina and Wisconsin.

That day, the authorities started the process of serving subpoenas for activists to appear in front of a Chicago-based Grand Jury. Subpoenas mounted in the days and months following – until a total of 23 activists were ordered to appear in front of the grand jury witch hunt headed by U.S Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Simultaneously, more FBI ‘visits’ took place in the Midwest and Southwest.

FRSO presentation to the 2011 International Communist Seminar in Brussels

The following is the report from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization to the International Communist Seminar. The topic of the 2011 seminar was “The strengthening of communist parties in times of a deepening capitalist systemic crisis”:

Building A Communist Party in the United States, 2011

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization Faces U.S. State Repression

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is currently facing a campaign of repression by the United States government.  On September 24, 2010, under orders from U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raided homes and activist offices in Chicago, Illinois, and Minneapolis, Minnesota.  14 anti-war and international solidarity activists, including two in Michigan, were subpoenaed to appear at a secretive Grand Jury investigation.  Nine more Palestine solidarity activists, most Arab-Americans, were subpoenaed to appear on January 25, 2011, bringing the total to 23.  The 23 refuse to appear at the Grand Jury inquisition where U.S. Attorney Fitzgerald claims to investigate “material support for terrorism”, focused on the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  In actuality, the FRSO is the target of political repression by the U.S. government.  Comrades are facing indictments, a trial, and possibly Federal prison.  The main issues are free speech and the right to organize, recently narrowed by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the Holder vs. Humanitarian Law Project case.  The trial will center around the testimony of a Federal Agent who infiltrated the mass groups and the FRSO.

Petition: Drop the Charges Against Carlos Montes

Door kicked down by SWAT team at Carlos Montes' home. (Committee to Stop FBI Repression)

The following is being posted here from the International Action Center website. To see the petition please go here:

Petition Text

To: U.S. Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald, President Barack Obama, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder,

cc: Vice President Biden, DOJ Inspector General Fine, the Senate and House Judiciary Committees, Congressional Leaders, the Congressional Black Caucus, U.N. Secy Gen Ban, and members of the media

** Drop All Charges against Carlos Montes, and immediately return all of his property!

** Stop the attack on the Chicano and Immigrant Rights Movements!

** Call Off the Chicago Grand Jury and Stop the Expanding Witchhunt against Anti-war and International Solidarity Activists!

** Hands Off Palestine Solidarity Activists!

** Throw Out the reactiviated subpoenas against Tracy Molm, Ann Pham and Sarah Martin in Minneapolis, and ALL of the 14 subpoenas from the September 24 FBI raids of homes of anti-war and international solidarity activists.

**Immediately return all confiscated materials: computers, cell phones, papers, documents, etc.

**End the grand jury proceedings against anti-war activists.

I am writing to oppose the continuation and expansion of the FBI campaign of harassment of immigrant rights, anti-war and Palestine and other International Solidarity Activists, including the raid on the home of Carlos Montes and his arrest and the confiscation of his property, the 9 added subpoenas in the Chicago area, and reactivation of 3 of the original 14 subpoenas from the September 24 FBI raids of anti-war and international solidarity activists’ homes.

FBI and Los Angeles County Sheriff raid veteran Chicano activist Carlos Montes

Door kicked down by SWAT team at Carlos Montes' home. (Committee to Stop FBI Repression)

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

Los Angeles, CA – On May 17, 2011 at 5:00 AM the SWAT Team of the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and members of the FBI raided the home of Carlos Montes, a long time Chicano activist and active member of theCommittee to Stop FBI Repression. The SWAT Team smashed the front door and rushed in with automatic weapons as Carlos slept. The team of Sheriffs and FBI proceeded to ransack his house, taking his computer, cell phones and hundreds of documents, photos, diskettes and mementos of his current political activities in the pro-immigrant rights and Chicano civil rights movement. Also taken were hundreds of historical documents related to Carlos Montes’ involvement in the Chicano movement for the past 44 years.

David Rovics: Comrades Come Rally!

David Rovics dedicates The Internationale, the anthem of the international working class, to the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, targets of recent FBI attacks, including infiltration, raids, and an ongoing Grand Jury investigation. For more info on the broad push-back to this McCarthyite witch hunt, see StopFBI.net

Jan. 25: Take Action to Protest FBI and Grand Jury Repression!

From the Committee to Stop FBI Repression:

Join the National Day of Action on Tuesday January 25, 2011

In December 2010, under the direction of U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, the FBI delivered nine new subpoenas in Chicago to anti-war and Palestine solidarity activists. Patrick Fitzgerald’s office is ordering the nine to appear at a Grand Jury in Chicago on January 25.

Tracy Molm describes FBI raid, Grand Jury repression

From StopFBI.net

Tracy Molm, a Minneapolis-based Palestine solidarity activist, describes what happened during the recent FBI raid on her apartment in September, its aftermath, and her solidarity work for Palestinians. Her subpoena has now been reactivated by the grand jury in this assault on First Amendment rights of peace activists. Her presentation was made at the Dec. 4, 2010 People’s Thanksgiving Dinner in Chicago. For more information on the solidarity campaign: http://www.stopfbi.net.

New York meeting builds movement against Grand Jury, FBI repression of anti-war activists

The following article by Maureen Murphy is from Fight Back! News:

Tom Burke speaking at Committee to Stop FBI Repression New York City meeting (Fight Back! News/Staff)

New York, NY – More than 150 movement leaders and concerned individuals packed a standing room-only hall at Saint Mark’s Church in the Bowery on Nov. 6 for the first national meeting of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression.

The national committee was formed after 14 anti-war, international solidarity and labor activists were served subpoenas in late September to appear before a federal grand jury. Many of the activists’ homes were raided, as were the offices of the Anti-War Committee in the Twin Cities. According to a statement made by the targeted activists, “The subpoenas claim that the grand jury is investigating violations of the 1996 law on the issue of ‘material support’ of ‘designated foreign terrorist organizations.'” (http://www.stopfbi.net/about/statement-on-the-grand-juries)

Kosta Harlan of Freedom Road on building movement against FBI and Grand Jury repression

The following talk by Kosta Harlan of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization is from the regional conference of Workers World Party that took place recently in Durham, North Carolina:

For more info see StopFBI.net

The Curious, Mysterious, Obsolete and Dangerous Federal Grand Jury

The following commentary by Bernardine Dohrn is from Fight Back! News:

I was subpoenaed to a federal grand jury in May of 1982 in New York City. It has left me as something of a specialist in an arcane, secretive and obsolete area of the law – one that has just reappeared with FBI raids, seizures of private papers, computers and subpoenas to compel testimony in Chicago, Minneapolis and other cities across the country.