Nov/Dec 2023 Newsletter

Newsletter NOV/DEC 2023

“In Grief and Solidarity”: a statement of solidarity with Palestine Hundreds of activists and organizers from a wide spectrum of struggles express solidarity with Palestine. Written by Kelly Hayes, Juliana Pino, Tanuja Devi Jagernauth. Originally published in Rampant Magazine on October 23, 2023.

We see environmental racism, gender-based violence, reproductive violence, and ableism.

Palestine has served as a laboratory for Israel’s violent technologies of war-making, surveillance, and policing.

Israel has exported those technologies, along with its ethnonationalist, authoritarian worldview to countries around the world. As Antony Loewenstein has written, Israel is making despotism “shareable with compact technology.” When we say that our liberation is inextricably linked to the liberation of the Palestinian people, we are not only recognizing our shared humanity, but also alluding to the realities of settler colonialism and imperialism, in which frameworks and technologies of oppression are imported and exported globally.

As activists and organizers building movements for power in the United States, we strongly condemn and decry the 75year-old settler-colonial occupation of Palestine, ongoing apartheid toward Palestinians, and the active campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide of Palestinian people being carried out by the government of Israel with the support of its backers in the United States government and other nations.

As we bear witness and collectively mourn, we refuse to be silent in light of these atrocities, and we believe that organizers and social justice organizations have a special responsibility to use our power to take action, name what is happening, and call for an end to Israeli apartheid, the colonial theft of lands, the genocidal violence Israel is presently enacting, and the United States’ financial support of Israeli aggression and apartheid.

In addition to land theft and long-term resource deprivation as key features of Israel’s settler-colonial violations toward Palestinians, it is crucial to note that the Israeli government has now also chosen to weaponize deprivation of water, energy, food, fuel, medical supplies, and humanitarian aid against over two million Palestinians in Gaza. These are genocidal actions that violate all standards of human decency.

To rain down bombardment upon a population trapped in a concentration camp with no means of escape, in addition to hospitals and other infrastructure crucial to life, crushes life and destroys the potential for a future alike.

We are organizers on many fronts. Our work addresses the horrors of the prison industrial complex, the police state, bordering, and the imperial war machine. We organize for labor justice, environmental justice, reproductive justice, disability justice, and beyond. In Palestinian struggle, we see iterations of all of these struggles.

The Israeli government has ordered over a million people to immediately vacate their homes and move southward while continuing to ensure deprivation and enacting thorough human and ecological death. The Israeli government has instructed medical facilities to rapidly relocate operations, patients, and staff, and Amnesty International and other health and medical aid organizations have noted that this is virtually impossible: with no transportation access or access to fuel, children, sick, elderly, pregnant people, and disabled people cannot make this journey.

These directives were followed by a wretched escalation in attacks on escape routes and hospital facilities alike. Each and all of these actions violate every form of social justice.

The fight for a free Palestine is a fight for a freer world, where colonial logics of who is worthy of life, freedom, and land are upended. In the occupation of Palestine, we see the violence of incarceration, policing, borders, and war.

We denounce settler-colonial violence in all its forms. This violence must stop. Palestinians have the right to demand their liberation and access to that which will enable them to thrive.

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We denounce the existence of and increase of anti-Palestinian, anti-Islamic, and anti-Arab violence everywhere, including verbal and physical attacks, dehumanization of any form, hateful and racist statements, and tacit or explicit encouragement of further violence—rhetoric and actions that have already had an impact on Chicagoland communities with the horrifying murder of six-year-old Palestinian child Wadea Al-Fayoume and attack on his mother in Plainfield by their landlord this past weekend.

We denounce the existence of and increase of antisemitic violence and hate, including harassment and attacks against anti-Zionist Jewish friends and comrades. We cannot and must not continue to allow the conflation of Jewish identity with the Israeli state and Zionism. This conflation only enables Zionism to flourish and fuels the violence of white supremacists.

We denounce the practice of workers, artists, and community organizations being punished for supporting Palestinian liberation. We refuse to accept a world in which our safety and economic survival is predicated on the tacit alignment with genocide and oppression.

We call upon other organizers and organizations to join us in strongly condemning the violent dehumanization and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and demanding both a ceasefire and a permanent end to settler-colonial occupation.

Together we must take action against this violence.

We call on our communities to answer the call of Palestinian activists and thinkers like Rasha Abdulhadi, who has stated, “Wherever you are, whatever sand you can throw on the gears of genocide, do it now. If it’s a handful, throw it. If it’s a fingernail full, scrape it out and throw.”

We call upon other organizers and social justice organizations to uplift additional demands from Palestinian organizers, shaping what solidarity is needed now and into the future, including in continuing boycott, divest, and sanctions campaigns and actions to delegitimize Zionism and Zionist colonialism.

We call upon other organizers and social justice organizations to resist the isolation and fear that Zionist oppression perpetuates and embrace this moment to collectively and publicly grieve. In lifting our voices, let us create a collective space to metabolize the grief and pain we are witnessing and channel it into acts of love and solidarity.

As Rabbi Brant Rosen wrote on Yom Kippur this year in a sermon about Jewish anti-Zionism, “Let us find the courage to speak the words that must be spoken. Let our words kindle sparks of possibility, and may they inspire us all to create the world we know is possible.”

Almost A Decade After Police Killed Her Son, Chicago Mom Celebrates His Birth With Holiday Toy Drive Hundreds of activists and organizers from a wide spectrum of struggles express solidarity with Palestine. Written by Kelly Hayes, Juliana Pino, Tanuja Devi Jagernauth. Originally published in Rampant Magazine on October 23, 2023. Written by Maxwell Evans, originally published in Block Club Chicago on November 14, 2023.

A donation drive, which for years has helped the mother of a South Side man killed by police turn her grief into community action, is collecting toys and winter wear for Chicago kids.

The ninth annual RonnieMan Holiday Toy Drive is underway, founder Dorothy Holmes said. She started the drive during the 2014 holiday season — just a couple months after Chicago police officer George Hernandez killed her 25-year-old son, Ronald “RonnieMan” Johnson III. “By [Johnson] not being here anymore to get his birthday gifts and Christmas gifts, I came up with the idea of helping some kids in need,” Holmes said. “I’d rather do work in the community, which would involve cont’d on next page

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helping other families in the struggle that can’t get their kids anything for Christmas.”

Toys of all types — from Tickle Me Elmos and sensory toys for kids with autism to mini-basketball hoops and remotecontrolled cars — are requested.

To donate to the drive’s GoFundMe, visit https://gofund.me/8e51e306. To buy items from the drive’s Amazon wish list and send toys directly to Holmes, visit https://amzn.to/410Laxx.

Holmes is still working with local schools and community organizations to finalize giveaway locations. She hopes to bring in enough gifts to start the giveaways on the South Side, head over east, then travel to the West and North sides, she said.

Two celebrations will also take place in the days around Dec. 14, which would have been Johnson’s 35th birthday.

Haymarket House will also host a donation party Dec. 9, where attendees can donate gifts to the drive and enjoy hot cocoa, games, holiday crafts and other activities.

A Justice For All Sneaker Ball will be held Dec. 16 in support of families who have lost loved ones to police violence. Its location is still to be determined, but Holmes is considering the Grand Ballroom in Woodlawn, she said.

All money raised will go toward toys, winter clothing, food and rental fees for the Justice for All Sneaker Ball, Holmes said.

Hernandez killed Johnson Oct. 12, 2014, as Johnson ran from police responding to calls of shots fired, according to prosecutors.

Hernandez fired the fatal shots within seconds of exiting his car as Johnson ran toward Washington Park with his back to the officers, the Tribune reported.

Voices from Inside The Dixon writing team wins first place in the Pen/America national prison writing competition for its play "The Story of Violence"

by Brian Beals Part I was published in October 2023's issue Part II It was late November 2021 when I walked into the DPA classroom we used as training our area. The mood in the room was somber because we'd recently completed "Coping with Covid," a program that served as a memorial for the men who died at the prison from covid.

We were there to decide what our next project was going to be, so I shared an op-ed that had been published in the Chicago Sun-Times. The piece called for new voices to join the conversation looking for ideas to stop the surging violence plaguing Chicago's under-resourced communities. After I finished reading, I saw a spark enter their eyes. The energy in the room caught fire, ideas started flowing like lava. We all understood this was our opportunity to do something meaningful for the people of Chicago, because no one knows more about violence than the incarcerated.

I was at chalkboard trying to keep up with ideas emerging from our vision casting session, when Toussaint "Saint" Daniels stood up and said "I got this." Thus far, Toussaint had produced all the DPA Spoken Word Poetry Slams, even though he was a contributing writer on all our plays, he hadn't been a lead writer. When he spoke, the fire in the room chilled to a smolder in the quiet, the three other facilitators and I looked at each other and nodded our assent.

Casting a play in prison requires a focus on balance, because some incarcerated people identify as members of distinct groups. We don't allow our productions to get involved in group politics, and we make that perfectly clear. There are other factors the facilitators must balance, such as age, experience and talent. Our goals go beyond producing entertaining and educational events. It’s equally important that our mission develops character, infuses positivity into our community and provides a safe space to explore ways to address personal and community trauma. cont’d on next page

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Our rehearsals are part classroom. It's where the facilitators introduce our participants to the DPA mission, practices, project research and intent. The classroom continues while we read scripts or evaluate submitted poetry and lyrics.

Things loosen up when we do acting exercises. We use methods we created but it's fun.

Another thing we do in our early rehearsals is engage in some intense debates for the purpose of peeling back the scab of some old wounds. This opens emotional channels that both create bonds built on empathy and understanding, and it also becomes fuel that participants use during performances.

Midway through preparation for a production we encourage a lot of feedback. It's true, every performer wants to be a director / writer. The facilitators allow participants to demonstrate their ideas, and we implement the ideas that improve the production. This helps everybody stay focused and invested in our projects. We encourage performers to set up rehearsal teams in their units, so when we bring the cast together it runs more like a practice. The reality is that our access to rehearsal time is often canceled, especially in the aftermath of covid. Staffing shortages have caused excessive lockdowns.

My favorite part of our productions are right before a performance and right after we wrap a project. Seeing the nervous energy of the performers right before showtime is thrilling. Some guys are pacing, some are doing push ups.

They all are stealing peeks behind the curtain watching the audience fill up. This is when facilitator Delandis "Big" Adams or I will pull them together to calm the nerves. We bring it in, put our hands together and say something encouraging before we break the huddle. After the last encore performance of a production, I love to see the participants leaving the theater building. The bonds they formed during their project are on full display, they are congratulating each other, laughing and joking. It's beautiful everytime. Anyone who sees this knows peer-led programming is essential to making corrections work.

Updates at CTJC Transitions at the Center Aislinn Pulley and Cindy Eigler, co-directors of the Chicago Torture Justice Center, have led the Center through the challenges of a global pandemic, the 2020 uprisings and a significant increase in demand for services for survivors of police torture. The Center is now planning for a leadership transition, as Cindy is stepping down from her position at CTJC, effective January 2024.

In 2024, Aislinn will become CTJC’s sole Executive Director. Aislinn is a visionary leader, strategic advocate and an accomplished, results-oriented manager. As a Black woman born and raised in Chicago who is deeply rooted in social justice work in the city, Aislinn is firmly grounded in our movements and in CTJC’s mission.

Practicing Gratitude On Thanksgiving, we want to remember and honor the original stewards of the land and to uplift the continued movement led by Indigenous activists and organizers to decolonize the land. Chicago is located on the ancestral land of the Council of the Three Fires--the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi. We acknowledge that this nation not only violently stole the land from Indigenous peoples, but made systematic attempts to erase Indigenous culture, language, and land stewardship.

Indigenous communities across Turtle Island (North America) prove that despite centuries of violence and attempted erasure by European settlers, Indigenous people are here to stay.

Thanksgiving can also be a day to acknowledge all that we are thankful for. Here are some practices we invite you to use to help ground you and connect with gratitude during a time of year that can feel lonely and isolating.

1. What are you grateful for today? Notice what comes up, and write it down if you'd like.

2. Write letters to your idols, your past of future self, people who changed you and may not even realize it. You can always write to us at CTJC at the address below! In your writing, say what you wish you had known or said, what you want to say or do one day. What you do with the letters is up to you: You might choose to send the letters, keep them, or destroy them.

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