My Socialist Party is hosting a forum next Monday in defense of Lynne Stewart, the famed civil rights attorney who is being sent up the river for “aiding ‘terrorists’ ” by defending their constitutional rights in our modern witch-hunt times. Tom Good has organized a very interesting panel, and it looks like yours truly will be offering a few opening remarks and introducing the speakers. I strongly encourage you to attend if you are free in New YOrk City this coming Monday night. This will be the party’s biggest event in the city this summer (we have some cool things cooking up for the fall).
July 6, 2005
For Immediate Release
P R E S S R E L E A S EFREE SPEECH FORUM IN DEFENSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS ATTORNEY LYNNE STEWART
New York, NY – The Socialist Party is hosting a Free Speech Forum in defense of Lynne Stewart on July 11th, 2005. It will be held at Judson Church’s Assembly Hall, 239 Thompson Street near Washington Square. Speakers will include human rights attorney Lynne Stewart, Center for Constitutional Rights attorney Shayana Kadidal and labor organizer Daniel Gross – also a law student.
The Socialist Party of New York City is hosting the event which is co-sponsored by the Direct Action Tendency (DAT). DAT secretary and event organizer Thomas Good applauds Stewart’s efforts in seeking justice for political prisoners: “I became aware of Lynne Stewart while reading about her defense of Dave Gilbert. She works tirelessly to protect us all from a corrupt system that’s simply a mechanism for populating the prison industrial complex. The idea that Lynne might be absorbed into this dehumanizing, immoral system, this modern day form of slavery, is unthinkable. We have to fight for her as she has fought for all of us.”
“Putting Lynne Stewart in a cage for her legal defense work would be a major miscarriage of justice,” said Daniel Gross, an organizer with the Starbucks Workers Union of the IWW. “Working people, often the targets of unjust criminal prosecutions, should be gravely concerned when an attorney for unpopular clients is steamrolled by government lawyers virtually screaming ‘War on Terror’ at the jury box.”
Lynne Stewart remarked, after the guilty verdict in her recent trial: “We are going to fight on. This is the beginning of a longer struggle. I think everyone who has a sense that the United States needs to protect the Constitution at this time understands that struggle. And this case could be, I hope it will be, a wakeup call to all of the citizens of this country and all of the people who live here that you can’t lock up the lawyers. You can’t tell the lawyers how to do their job. You’ve got to let them operate. And I will fight on. I’m not giving up. I know I committed no crime.”
Shayana Kadidal, scheduled to speak at the forum, is an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). Kadidal represented Farouk Abdel Muhti, the WBAI producer and Socialist Party member who was wrongfully detained by the immigration service for over two years – without the the government filing charges. Kadidal helped secure Farouk’s release, allowing him to spend the last six months of his life speaking out against political repression in the US. Sharin Chiorazzo, Farouk’s fiance and a member of the Socialist Party of New Jersey, is one of the event organizers.
Judson Church’s Assembly Hall is the site of the forum and the event is free and open to the public. Doors open at 6:30 pm and the forum is scheduled to conclude at 9 pm.
Thanks to the staff and congregation of Judson Memorial Church for the use of this space. Judson continues to be a beacon for free spirits in the arts and politics and a leader among progressive faith communities in the city and nation for over 100 years.
Founded in 1901, the Socialist Party is a multi-tendency democratic socialist organization that strives to establish a radical democracy that places people’s lives under their own control — a non-racist, classless, feminist, socialist society in which people cooperate at work, at home, and in the community. Direct Action (DAT) is a tendency of the Socialist Party, well known for its commitment to activism in service to peace and progress.