Left Forum Panel: War on Terror- Criminalizing Communities & Suppressing Movements

Date 

Add to My Calendar Sunday, June 1, 2014 12:00am

Location 

CCR Legal Worker Abigail Downs will moderate a panel discussion between CCR partners and friends at the Left Forum on June 1st. Join us!

No Separate Justice (NSJ) is a new post-9/11 domestic human rights campaign that aims to shed light on and end a pattern of abuses in “War on Terror” cases in the U.S. criminal justice system.  NSJ will be hosting a panel discussion, co-sponsored with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), that will highlight various cases marked by constitutional and human rights violations that cut across many other cases.  The panel will feature the stories and voices of impacted family members and former prisoners.

Bringing to bear their experience in diverse movements, the panelists will examine various abusive aspects of US domestic “counter-terrorism” policy. By making links between the repression and targeting of environmental activists, Muslims, and immigrants in the US in the War on Terror, the panel will also explore how activists can work to build bridges and mobilize together to strengthen our respective efforts.

What: War on Terror: Criminalizing Communities, Suppressing Movements panel at Left Forum
Where: John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Room L2.81
When: Sunday, June 1, 2014, 12:00pm (Session 6)
RSVP: Register for the Left Forum online here

Speakers:

Daniel McGowan is an environmental and social justice activist from NYC. As a former criminal defendant and political prisoner, Daniel will reflect on how terrorism laws have been used to target activists and how the War on Terror rationale is invoked again post-conviction to punish First Amendment-protected activity, e.g., through the use of Communication Management Units (CMUs) and other harsh conditions of confinement that suppress political speech.

Ms. Shahina Parveen Siraj is a leader in DRUM - South Asian Organizing Center, and the mother of Shahawar Matin Siraj, who was convicted on conspiracy charges after an entrapment operation by the NYPD and is now serving a 30-year sentence. Ms. Siraj will speak about the impact on her family and her efforts to change the practices that targeted her family and broader community.

Fahd Ahmed is the Legal and Policy Director at DRUM. Fahd will speak about building connections between grassroots movements and discuss how government policy has contributed to the broad criminalization of Muslim and South Asian communities. In particular, he will focus on how the War on Terror framework has impacted immigration policy and enforcement since 9/11.

Moderated by Abigail Downs, Legal Worker at the Center for Constitutional Rights in the International Human Rights docket and Guantanamo Global Justice Initiative. Her work focuses on challenging persecution of human rights defenders and activists, government abuse of power post-9/11, and militarization in the Americas.

Follow the Campaign on Twitter, @NSJCampaign, and join the conversation at #NoSeparateJustice. Like the Campaign on Facebook and learn more at www.no-separate-justice.org and in The Nation’s “America After 9/11” Series.

Left Forum is the largest annual conference of the broad Left in the United States. Each spring thousands of conference participants come together to discuss pressing local, national and global issues; to better understand commonalities and differences, and alternatives to current predicaments; or to share ideas to help build social movements to transform the world. This year's conference theme is "Reform and/or Revolution: Imagine a World of Transformative Justice.” Speakers include Harry Belafonte, Angela Davis, Cornel West, and over 1,000 more.
 

Last modified 

May 23, 2014