(December 2002)
by Susan Church, Co-Chair of the Chapter
The dark, dreary, dreadful, despicable and depressing days of the Bush/Ashcroft administration are here and more miserable than any of us ever anticipated. Our government is now proud that it holds people in detention and deports people secretly. It is amazed at its new power to track every credit card purchase, magazine subscription, bank deposit and prescription refill you make. It boasts about its eager anticipation of the next war with Iraq and it arrests protestors for peacefully exercising their rights. It has been an incredibly awful year.
We have been trying to do whatever possible to minimize the political disaster imposed upon us since the September 11th Tragedy. First with the help of a number of progressive coalitions, the Guild has mounted a campaign on behalf of the “Logan 19"- immigrants who swept the floors, cleaned the bathrooms and cooked the food at Logan Airport and who were arrested simply because they needed these jobs to support their families. The US Attorney, egged on by Ashcroft himself, continues to prosecute the Logan 19 because they allegedly used a false social security number or a false identification to secure their
jobs. At every court hearing, the Guild held press conferences and organized protests to try and bring attention to the unfairness of the prosecution. Most of these press conferences were covered by the Globe and the Herald. The Guild even helped secure a meeting with the US Attorney in an effort to sway his decision to prosecute - especially in light of the dismissal of similar charges in virtually every other state. Although the US Attorney has not dropped the charges, the Logan 19 campaign trudges on in the face of his opposition buoyed by his strong future political ambitions!!!
Similarly mistreated is Amer Jubran, who was arrested, coincidentally, by the INS two days after he participated in a rally in support of Palestinian rights. His Guild lawyer, Nelson Brill, had tried for two weeks to obtain Amer a bail hearing
which the INS finally granted and Amer was released from the INS detention after almost three weeks in jail. The Guild participated in a press conference at which we presented our objections to the ways the INS has been implementing the
PATRIOT Act.
As has been our work since September 11th, the Guild has also organized “Know Your Rights” seminars at mosques, community centers, churches and schools. The Guild had the “Know Your Rights” pamphlets translated into several languages including Arabic, Spanish, and Farsi. Unlike the regular Street Law Clinics, the request for these “Know Your Rights” seminars usually start with a call from a
community leader hoping to pass on information to the community.
Oh, so much more to talk about. Here is the short list for all of you who don’t really like to read anyway. In the past year the Guild:
• Organized a forum at Northeastern University on the Status of Civil Liberties post-9/11
• Provided representation for Janitors, protestors, students and others who were arrested for civil disobedience or just wrongly arrested.
• Trained housing rights activists for civil disobedience and represented them in criminal court.
• Gave talks and lectures around the state about the PATRIOT Act.
• Organized a Mentor/Mentee free lunch program so that progressive law students could meet with Guild lawyers and
receive advice about following the progressive lawyering path.
• Helped organized a regional Guild conference, raising funds for Lynn Stewart.
In May we celebrated again legal achievements of outstanding Guild members and friends at our Annual Testimonial Dinner. This year the Chapter awarded Allan Rodgers, Petrucelly and Nadler, Michelle Waters-Ekanem (paralegal) and
students Rachael Holmes and Uyen Kry.
Among our great achievements, we also have to list the Chapter’s very successful “triple shower” held in April for three Guild women: two married-wanna-be (Paromita Shah and Michele then-Malchisky) and one mother-wanna-be (Angela
Davidovich). Over 30 Guild women converged at Cambridge’s hottest disco spot (Urszula M.-L.’s basement) and sang with Elvis (who made a special appearance), danced with a belly dancer, and shared important (for three wanna-bes) life
secrets.
Mass Dissent is striving. We are very excited to announce that starting with this issue, we are launching a new column titled “In Your Opinion....: Deep Thoughts of Guild Members on Fashion and Other Important Life Issues.” The column will
be prepared by Angela Davidovich and will be based on personal interviews with Guild members (how exciting!)
As most of you know, with all this work the Guild has been doing this year, and with the grant money dwindling day by day, we are running a deficit. Anything you can do to put us back on track would be greatly appreciated so we can continue to do all the work of the Guild. I will leave you with a small view of our future “Homeland Security” agencies new favorite toy as described by William Safire:
“Every purchase you make with a credit card, every magazine subscription you buy and medical prescription you fill, every Web site you visit and e-mail you send or receive, every academic grade you receive, every bank deposit you make, every
trip you book and every event you attend -- all these transactions and communications will go into what the Defense Department describes as "a virtual, centralized grand database.”
What a country!!!
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