AIFC* REPORT ON DEC. 28 FORUM: GROWING
RESISTANCE IN PAKISTAN and a REPORT ON SOUTHERN HUMAN RIGHTS CONFERENCE
Eleanor Ommani, December 29, 2012
Two AIFC* members attended a NYC
forum entitled: Eyewitness Pakistan – International Solidarity & a report
on a special meeting called the Southern Human Rights Organizing Conference
(SHROC) Report on Dec. 28, 2012. Both
presentations focused on the importance of solidarity with working class
movements and struggles for economic and social justice both here and abroad.
International Struggle:
One speaker of the evening
was Ms. Sara Flounders, Co-Director of the International Action Center (IAC),
who was invited to Pakistan along with Ms. Cynthia McKinney, former U.S.
Congresswoman, because of their organizations' on-going support and continuing
efforts to pressure the U.S. government to repatriate Dr. Aafia Siddiqui to
Pakistan. The invitation and incredible
rallies in Pakistan, are a shining example of genuine internationalism, with
these American progressives in solidarity with the Pakistani people demanding freedom
for Dr. Saddiqui, kidnapped in Pakistan, tortured in Bagram Air Force base in
Afghanistan, shot by F.B.I. agents and then falsely accused of being a
'terrorist' and convicted in a U.S. Court (of illegality and injustice!), and
now languishing in a Texas prison with a death sentence of 86 years....
When Sara and Cynthia arrived
at the Karachi Airport in Pakistan at 4:00 A.M., they were greeted by a crowd
of nearly 100 people and showered with rose petals, in what proved to be only
the first of many such welcoming crowds of tens of thousands of
Pakistani citizens, young and old, in cities throughout the country –
Islamabad, Hyderabad, Peshawar and Lahore – running along the motorcade with
signs and flags with Aafia's picture and slogans such as "Free Sister
Aafia" and condemning the U.S. government while thanking their American
guests for their defense of Dr. Siddiqui.
It seemed that at whatever
meeting they attended, people had heard that it was SARA who stood up in the U.S.
Court and shouted out, "Shame on this court! Shame on this Court!", when
the verdict was read out. Pakistani news
agencies spread her words in the international media, which is a lesson we
should take seriously: INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY IS A NOBLE DUTY!! The tragic story of Dr. Aafia Siddiqui, this
young and brilliant Ph.D. graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) and mother of three, became an international issue only two weeks after
Press TV reporter Yvonne Ridley publicized the testimony of witnesses who spoke
of being haunted by "a woman's piercing screams coming from Bagram Airbase
in Afghanistan. IAC's work with the
Pakistan USA Freedom Forum (email: pakusaff@hotmail.com ) is what brought news
and information of this case to the entire New York progressive community. For background info about Dr. Aafia: http://muslimmatters.org/2011/01/15/dr-aafia-siddiqui-the-punishment-does-not-fit-the-crime/
The unjustified 86 year
prison sentence has struck a deep emotional cord of anger in the hearts of
millions of Pakistani people and Dr. Aafia's freedom has become a national
symbol of resistance to the U.S. acts of aggression and the drone killings of
innocents! Sara rightly noted that
International Solidarity in these cases, as with the Cuban Five and others
serves several important objectives:
1)
Defense of
political prisoners - publically standing up to the fear and intimidation
–sends a message of outrage to the system that "We will not be
silent!" and our struggle will go on.
2)
It tells the
human beings incarcerated that we support them, they are not alone and gives
them strength to bear the pain they go through.
3)
Links their
individual struggle with the mass movement for change, strengthens the international
struggle for an end to racism, inequality, and wars!
Ms.
Flounders pointed out in her presentation that Dr. Aafia's case is only one of
many unjustly incarcerated persons, and cases
of Political Prisoners tried in these U.S. Courts of Injustice – Mumia Abu
Jamal, the Peoples' Attorney Lynne Stewart, Palestinian University professor
Sami Al Arian, the Holy Land Five, Native American Leornard Peltier, and
more…The U.S. government hopes that these harsh prison sentences will instill
fear and deter activists from challenging the economic, social and political
injustices rampant in this system, and that is one good reason to support these
political prisoners – we are NOT stopping our struggle!!
Domestic Struggle:
Monica Moorehead, one of the
managing editors of the Workers World weekly newspaper, published by the
Workers World Party, began her talk by showing a video of 200 activists
picketing in front of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in
support of nurses who have been illegally dismissed for filing grievances
against MUSC, a private medical facility whose management has ignored the poor
working conditions, low pay and racist attitudes. South Carolina is one of the "Right to
Work" [for Less] states that hinders the ability of unions to freely
organize new members, to automatically deduct union dues from the wages of
their members, thus incurring costs to "get permission" for the deductions,
and puts the employers in a stronger bargaining position when disputes arrive
and can penalize the unions with fines and possible jail terms. Nurses in training are over-worked, not
compensated adequately for the work they perform and are immediately subject to
being fired when and if they protest working conditions. The factor of racism is real and present,
since nearly all of the management is white and much of the nurse trainees are
people of color – Black, Latino and Native Americans Indigenous workers.
Another very important issue
brought out at the biannual conference of the SHROC, held Dec. 7-9 in S.
Carolina, in addition to defending the nurse's human rights to decent working
conditions was the current and on-going struggles of the East and West Coast
Longshoremen's unions. The International
Longshoremen's Association (ILA), which represents thousands of dock workers on
the East Coast have been on the verge of strike action over the Employer's
attempts to eliminate the previously negotiated "container royalty
payments", a fund that pays toward the loss of work by dock workers as a
result of automation. U.S. port
employers want to cut more jobs and weaken/destroy the unions, long known for
their militancy in labor struggles, using the age-old "efficiency"
cry. As reported in the World News
section of the Financial Times in the
Dec. 29/30, 2012 issue of the paper, a federal government mediator announced
that a deal reached between the union and the employers averted a strike that
had the potential of stopping goods and imports shipped from around the world
from being unloaded and delivered to retailers.
Please see
Last-minute deal averts strike at east coast ports on
Page 3 of Saturday, December 29, 2012 issue of Financial Times (USA) for the full article.
For background information in
an article entitled see: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/451d1548-f085-11e1-b7b2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2GOtcKkTE
Following the two speaker's
presentation, there were questions, answers and comments from the audience. Below are pictures of the REPORTER, Ms. Sara
Founders, and Ms. Monica Moorehead.
*AIFC stands for the American Iranian Friendship
Committee (AIFC) www.iranaifc.com
No comments:
Post a Comment