[Onthebarricades] Anti-racist protests, October 2007

[Andy]

*  UK:  Protest over deportation threat to British person's partner

*  US:  Irving immigration persecution sparks protests

*  US:  Orange County immigration crackdown protested

*  ITALY:  Immigrants protest inefficient bureaucracy

*  US:  Black leaders plan hate-crimes rally

*  US:  Hundreds march over boot camp death of black teen

*  US:  Black teens sell book in racism protest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/sussex/7043746.stm


Protest over deportation threat
A protest march to highlight the case of an African woman facing deportation 
has been held in Sussex.
Marjory Cook, 47, who is married to a UK resident, has been told to return 
to Zimbabwe to apply for a UK visa. But she says she fears for her safety.
She married in 2002, but the Border and Immigration Agency said her wedding 
was six weeks after her former visa expired, and she needs a spousal visa.
A rally was held in Portslade on Sunday, where Mrs Cook lives.
Her husband, Dave Cook, 53, has said he is unable to travel abroad with his 
wife, and cannot understand why the Home Office is suggesting Marjory go to 
Zimbabwe voluntarily.
It is a truly awful situation

Celia Barlow MP
The demonstration is backed by Celia Barlow, MP for Hove and Portslade, who 
said Mrs Cook's family were opponents of Robert Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe.
Ms Barlow said: "It is a truly awful situation where a couple who are 
clearly committed to one another and have enjoyed a happy and loving 
marriage are still in legal limbo."
She said Mrs Cook had been asked to go back to Zimbabwe to apply for a visa 
that she would "in all likelihood be granted anyway"
Mrs Cook has said the couple did not marry earlier because the Home Office 
had her passport.
In a statement in August, the Border and Immigration Agency, which is part 
of the Home Office, said: "We do not comment on individual cases.
"In order for an applicant to be settled as a spouse they must hold a valid 
UK entry clearance for entry in the correct capacity.
"Applicants who do not meet the requirements for leave to remain as a spouse 
will be expected to return home and apply for entry clearance in the correct 
capacity in order to join their spouse/fiance in the UK."

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/stories/101007dnmetirvrally.2b192db.html

March planned to protest Irving's immigration stance
08:08 PM CDT on Tuesday, October 9, 2007
By BRANDON FORMBY / The Dallas Morning News
bformby at dallasnews.com
Hispanic activists are planning a march Saturday to protest the Irving 
Police Department's use of a controversial program that turns illegal 
immigrants who have been arrested over to federal officials for deportation 
proceedings.
"We think it's excessive and needs to be looked at," said Jose Galvez, a 
rally organizer.
The march is scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday and will begin at the corner of 
Rock Island Road and Main Street and move west along Rock Island to City 
Hall. A rally will follow.
Mr. Galvez, a Farmers Branch resident who ran unsuccessfully this year for a 
City Council seat there, said the march will be peaceful. He expects 400 to 
1,200 people from North Texas to participate.
The march will come less than a month after more than 1,000 protesters 
rallied at Irving City Hall and called for an end to the city's use of the 
Criminal Alien Program.
The program provides around-the-clock communication with federal 
authorities. Irving officials say that they aren't deporting anyone but 
rather working with federal officials in a program open to all cities. 
Police have turned over more than 1,600 people to Immigration and Customs 
Enforcement in the last year.
Last month, Mexican Consul Enrique Hubbard Urrea warned immigrants from his 
country to avoid the suburb.
For more information about the rally, call 214-524-1741.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-march19oct20,0,4286269.story?coll=la-home-center

Day laborers march in protest of Orange's new ID rules
By David Reyes, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
12:05 PM PDT, October 19, 2007
Day laborers marched today near an Orange job center to protest the city's 
new requirement that workers present residency documents to use the center.

"We are walking to protest as a way to give the city of Orange a message 
that they have to repeal their decision," said Pablo Alvarado, executive 
director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

Under the requirement, day laborers must show two forms of identification to 
use the Orange Resource Center on McPherson Road.

The rule, which targets workers suspected of being here illegally, was 
prompted by a city report that found that 80% of the center's participants 
were not from Orange.

"We as a city need to uphold the federal requirement laws and not go against 
what new laws require on employment. The council will be addressing this 
issue in the near future," said Orange Mayor Carolyn Caveeche.

Alvarado is hoping city officials will negotiate a better solution. In the 
meantime, more than 50 laborers marched to an unofficial job site at the 
intersection of Chapman Boulevard and Tustin Avenue.

"If they keep the current situation, we will fight back and take it to the 
streets and the court," Alvarado said.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/21/news/italy.php

Immigrants protest inefficient bureaucracy in Italy

By Elisabetta Povoledo
Published: October 21, 2007

PRATO, Italy: Immigrants in this central industrial city railed Sunday 
against inept bureaucratic practices that they say thrust foreign workers 
and residents into a state of illegality.
The difficulties of renewing residence permits "is the most pressing issue 
for immigrants in Italy today," said Junyi Bai of Associna, an association 
of second-generation Chinese immigrants that organized a debate on the issue 
along with other local associations.
Citing statistics from the Interior Ministry, Associna contends that only 
120,000 of the 900,000 requests made in the last year to renew residence 
permits had been completed. In some cases, Bai said, immigrants will pick up 
their permits only to find out they have already expired.
"We're not talking of criminals, or clandestine immigrants. These are people 
who fall within the law and want to respect it," he said. "The message we're 
getting from this unfair treatment is that immigrants aren't wanted in 
Italy."
Critics put the blame on Italy's sluggish bureaucratic machine, as well as 
the government's decision last year to outsource some of the steps involving 
residence permit renewals to the Italian postal service, Poste Italiane.
Designed to take the pressure off the overstretched resources of the police 
department, the results from outsourcing have been less than satisfactory. 
Immigrant associations say that claimants can expect to wait nine months for 
their papers to be processed instead of the 20 days cited by the law.
"You have a system that asks immigrants to respect a series of rigid rules 
but at the same time isn't able to live up to its part," said Antonio Ricci, 
an immigration expert with the Catholic charity Caritas. "The government has 
demonstrated good will to change things, but it isn't working."
The issue is particularly pressing in this part of Tuscany, where a 
once-thriving textile industry fueled immigration, especially from China. 
The influx of new workers had spurred local administrations to meet with the 
police department to cut through the bureaucracy. The new procedure has been 
a huge setback, local officials said.
"Before, we could get papers processed in 15 days, we were cited as a model 
area," said Irene Gorelli, the provincial councilor for social affairs. "Now 
it's as bad as Milan or Rome, it takes months."
Immigrants whose residence permits have expired can stay in Italy as long as 
they can show - via a stub from the post office - that they have applied to 
renew them. But not having official papers takes its toll, Bai said. "It's 
harder to find work, rent homes, and impossible to travel in Schengen 
countries," and psychologically "it's devastating," he said.
Although immigration is a relatively recent phenomenon in Italy, the number 
of newcomers has swelled rapidly. In the last year alone, about 500,000 
foreigners applied for residence permits, bringing the resident immigrant 
population to around 3.5 million. Most live in the central and northern 
regions, providing manual labor in factories or in the fields, or as 
caregivers to Italy's aging population.
Protests against the bureaucratic shortcomings have increased in recent 
months, including the peaceful occupation in September of the central post 
office in Rome, enough to lead Paolo Ferrero, the minister of social 
solidarity, to tell immigrants to take to the streets in protest.
"Is it right for a civilized country to have people who have been here for 
15 years wait for 18 months to have their permits renewed?" Ferrero asked 
last month. "This way, people who are perfectly legal are in danger of 
turning into illegal immigrants."

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2007/10/22/march_1023.html

Black leaders to announce hate-crimes protest
Plans in place for march on Washington next month

By SAEED AHMED
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 10/22/07
Several African-American leaders, including the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin 
Luther King III, are expected to gather in Atlanta on Tuesday morning to 
announce a march on Washington, D.C., to demand that federal authorities 
intervene in the "huge outbreak" of hate crimes nationwide.
The gathering will take place at 10 a.m. outside the Richard B. Russell 
building in downtown Atlanta.

Charles Steele, the president of the Southern Christian Leadership 
Conference, is scheduled to attend, as are representatives from the Nation 
of Islam and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
At the gathering, organizers will formally announce plans for the march on 
the nation's capital that will take place Nov. 16.
"In the history of the civil rights movements, we have often had to appeal 
to the federal government to intervene. That was certainly the case during 
my father's era of leadership," King said Monday night. "[The march next 
month] is an appeal to the federal government to do something about the 
crimes, such as the nooses that seem to be popping up all over the nation."
Since a noose-hanging case on a high school campus in Jena, La., made 
headlines, there have been a number of other nooses found in incidents 
across the country: in a black Coast Guard cadet's bag, on a Maryland 
college campus and, earlier this month, on the office door of a black 
professor at Columbia University in New York.
In Atlanta last week, a worker at a construction site for Atlanta's 
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport was fired for hanging a noose.
"Some people say it's a prank or a joke. But there are some things you just 
don't joke about," King said.
Nooses are a symbol of the lynching violence of the segregation era.
The Department of Justice already has created a task force to handle 
noose-hanging investigations. It investigated the Jena matter but decided 
not to prosecute because the federal government typically does not bring 
hate crimes charges against juveniles, the government said.
The march will also ask the federal government to intervene in other cases, 
such as the death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson in Panama City, Fla.
Last week, seven former boot camp guards and a nurse were acquitted of 
manslaughter in the death the boy who was hit and kicked by the drill 
instructors in a videotaped altercation. Anderson was black. The guards are 
white, black and Asian.
The guards' attorneys said Anderson's death was unavoidable because he had 
undiagnosed sickle cell trait.
- Information from the Associated Press was used in this report

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/23/america/NA-GEN-US-Boot-Camp-Death.php

Hundreds march in protest over death of black teen in Florida boot camp

The Associated Press
Published: October 23, 2007

TALLAHASSEE, Florida: About 700 protesters marched to a federal courthouse 
Tuesday to denounce Florida's handling of a black teenager's death after he 
was hit and kicked at a state boot camp last year.
Demonstrators demanded a federal investigation of what they allege were 
civil rights violations against 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson by camp 
staffers and authorities, including Florida's former top law enforcement 
official.
Anderson's death sparked widespread outrage, prompting Florida lawmakers to 
dismantle the state's military-style boot camps for youth offenders and pay 
the teen's family $5 million to settle civil claims. The case also led to 
the resignation of the chief of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The protest comes less than two weeks after an all-white jury acquitted 
seven camp guards and a nurse of manslaughter charges in Anderson's death. 
The U.S. Justice Department announced within hours of the Oct. 12 verdicts 
that it was reviewing the state's prosecution.
"Lord, we need justice and we need it right now," Pastor Fred Maeweathers of 
the Shady Grove Mission Baptist Church of Ocala said in the opening prayer 
on the steps of the federal courthouse.

A videotape showed guards at the military-style camp in Panama City, 
Florida, repeatedly punching and kicking the boy's limp body, as a nurse 
stood by watching. Anderson died in a hospital one day later, on Jan. 6, 
2006.
U.S. Attorney Gregory R. Miller and Justice Department officials met with 
some of the protesters inside the courthouse.
The protest, organized by the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People, also targeted former Florida Department of Law Enforcement 
Commissioner Guy Tunnell. He was Bay County's sheriff when his office 
founded the boot camp and now works as an investigator for the state 
attorney's office in the area.
The civil rights organization wants Tunnell investigated for allegedly 
trying to prevent the videotape from being made public and making racist 
remarks related to the case.
NAACP officials also alleged Tunnell has committed other civil rights 
violations unrelated to Anderson's death.
Joe Grammer, spokesman for State Attorney Steve Meadows, said Tunnell would 
not discuss the boot camp case because he is not authorized to speak to the 
media.
Tallahassee mayor John Marks welcomed the protesters - many of whom traveled 
from South Florida in an all-night bus caravan - and praised them for 
keeping the pressure on federal authorities to take up the case.
After meeting with the NAACP, Miller and the representatives from the civil 
rights division and FBI met with Martin Lee Anderson's parents and their 
counsel.
Miller's office said "if there is sufficient evidence to establish a 
prosecutable violation of any federal criminal civil rights statutes, 
appropriate action will be taken." But it declined further comment on an 
open investigation.
NAACP attorney Chuck Hobbs said, "They pretty much assured us that they have 
taken these types of cases seriously in the past and they are definitely 
taking this case seriously."

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071013/BREAKINGNEWS/71013015

Originally published October 13, 2007
Students gathering Sunday to discuss next step in Anderson protest
The Student Coalition for Justice is meeting Sunday to discuss the group's 
next step in its protest of the Martin Lee Anderson verdict.
Bay County jurors on Friday found seven guards and one nurse at a boot camp 
not guilty on manslaughter charges in the death of Anderson, 14. Anderson 
died after a confrontation with the boot-camp personnel.
A number of students protested in Tallahassee after the verdict was read. 
They clogged downtown streets and chanted for justice. No one was arrested 
or hurt.
The meeting is set for 8:30 p.m. at the Rattlers Den on the campus of 
Florida A&M University.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7004734,00.html

Fla. Students Drop Boot Camp Protest

Thursday October 18, 2007 2:01 AM
By BRENT KALLESTAD
Associated Press Writer
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Federal authorities reached a truce Wednesday with 
college students who had threatened to march on the state Capitol next week 
to protest the acquittal in state court of seven boot camp guards and a 
nurse in the death of a teenage boy.
U.S. Justice Department officials assured protest organizers that they were 
continuing their investigation into possible civil rights violations by the 
guards and nurse. The students said they would hold off on a protest.
``It was a very productive meeting,'' said Cendino Teme, spokesman for a 
coalition of students from Florida State University, Florida A&M University 
and Tallahassee Community College. ``I am confident in the individuals we 
spoke with. That they will try to pursue some types of civil rights 
violations.''
Students from the three schools briefly blocked traffic during rush hour 
Friday in downtown Tallahassee, a few hours after the all-white jury in 
Panama City delivered its verdict.
Teme, a 26-year-old Florida State graduate student from Miami, said it was 
too early to plan further protests.
Teme was one of nine black leaders who spent roughly 90 minutes with 
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tom Kerwin and Karen Rhew. A Justice Department 
official from Washington also attended.
Kerwin would not talk about the meeting, saying a written statement would be 
issued, but none was immediately made available. U.S. Attorney Gregory 
Miller was out of town.
Black teenager Martin Lee Anderson died in January 2006, a day after being 
hit and kicked by the guards as the nurse watched at the boot camp in Panama 
City. Prosecutors argued that the videotaped altercation caused his death, 
and they tried the eight defendants on manslaughter and other charges.
Defense attorneys argued that the staff's tactics were acceptable in the 
boot camp system and that Anderson died of a previously undiagnosed medical 
condition.
After Anderson's death, the Legislature dismantled the military-style youth 
boot camps and the chief of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement 
resigned. The Legislature also agreed to pay Anderson's family $5 million to 
settle civil claims.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-liwats1024,0,3129455.story?coll=ny_community_guide_lihistory_util

Black teens sell Watson book in protest


Sisters, from left, Safiya Cesar, 17, Karah Cesar 17, and Diana Cesar, 14. 
The sisters are auctioning their signed copies of a book by Nobel 
prize-winning scientist and author Dr. James Watson on eBay to protest his 
recent statement that Africans are generally less intelligent than whites. 
(Photo by James A. Escher / October 23, 2007)

BY MICHAEL AMON | michael.amon at newsday.com
3:15 PM EDT, October 23, 2007
Karah and Safiya Cesar, 17-year-old seniors at Cold Spring Harbor High 
School, were honored to meet DNA co-discoverer James Watson at a recent book 
signing in Locust Valley and thrilled that he personally signed copies of 
his new book.

That was before the twins, who are black, knew that Nobel Prize winner was 
quoted questioning the inherent intelligence of Africans.

"They were level-headed about it, but they thought it was really 
inappropriate," said their father, Joe Cesar, a psychologist.
Now the girls have put their signed copies up for sale on eBay, in hopes the 
scientist's notoriety will help them pay for college and prove Watson wrong 
about the intelligence of blacks.

"This book is worth something to someone," a statement from the girls said 
on eBay. "All proceeds will go to paying for college."

The opening bid for Watson's book, "Avoid Boring People: Lessons Learned 
from a Life in Science," is $300, but there are still seven days for online 
shoppers to make an offer.

The books were signed to Cesar's four daughters -- Angelique, 18, Karah and 
Safiya, and Diana, 14 -- on Oct. 14, the same day The Times of London quoted 
Watson saying that he was "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa" 
because "all of our social policies are based on the fact that their 
intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really."

Watson has apologized for the comments and said that science does not 
support them. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory suspended Watson last week from 
his administrative duties as chancellor.