Targeted activists speak out, vow to continue struggle

Oct. 5 — Representatives of 14 solidarity activists in the Midwest announced this morning that none of them would comply with subpoenas ordering them to testify before a grand jury in Chicago today or Oct. 19. They stood before television cameras and more than 100 supporters in front of the Federal Building where a grand jury was about to be empaneled.

Stephanie Weiner and Joe Iosbaker announced during Oct. 5 news conference in Chicago that they and other subpoenaed activists would not cooperate with the FBI “fishing expedition.”

Speaking for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, Chicago labor and international solidarity activist Stephanie Weiner charged that federal prosecutors are “attacking conduct that clearly falls under the realm of freedom of speech and never could be imagined to be ‘material support for terrorism.’

“We intend to exercise our right not to participate in this fishing expedition,” declared Weiner.

“The next step is in the hands of the government. But we know what our next step is. We will not be silent. We will continue to speak out against this unjust investigation, this unjust law, this unjust U.S. foreign policy.”

Weiner cited the repressive use of grand juries throughout U.S. history, against targets such as the abolitionists before the Civil War, the civil rights movement, the American Indian Movement, the Central America solidarity movement, the Puerto Rican independence movement, and the animal rights and environmental movements.

“This grand jury process is an attempt to isolate our right to freedom of political speech and association and the right to advocate for change,” said Weiner. “One does not even need to be opposed to U.S. foreign policy to realize that the U.S. government is working to establish a dangerous precedent.”

“We have nothing to say to a grand jury,” said Joe Iosbaker, Weiner’s spouse and fellow activist. The subpoenaed activists, none of whom have been charged with criminal activity, are claiming their right to silence under the Fifth Amendment.

“This is not the first time the U.S. government has targeted the Palestinian community in Chicago,” said Miryam Sharif of the American Friends Service Committee. “Before it was Muhammad Salah. Now the target is Hatem, a father and a friend to many of us.” Hatem Abudayyeh is an organizer with the Palestine Solidarity Group in Chicago. Salah, a Palestinian-American resident of Bridgeview, Ill., was acquitted of terrorism charges in 2007, though convicted of some minor offenses, after a 14-year campaign by the U.S. and Israeli governments.

“Palestinians in Chicago like Hatem have friends and family who live under Israeli military rule,” said Sharif. “They are forced to use separate roads from Israelis who live next to them, they have different colored license plates so they can be identified, they live under a different set of laws.

“Working to change U.S. policy which supports Israel’s military occupation should not be a crime.”

Veteran anti-apartheid activist Prexy Nesbitt, through a written statement, and attorney Jim Fennerty both pointed out that the African National Congress, which led the fight against apartheid in South Africa, was called a terrorist organization by the U.S. government. “Under current law,” said Fennerty, “calling for Nelson Mandela to be freed from prison could get you investigated for aid to terrorism.”

An interfaith statement condemning the FBI raids and grand jury subpoenas, signed so far by more than 30 Muslim, Jewish and Christian organizations and 80 individual religious leaders, was read by the Rev. Dan Dale of the Wellington Avenue United Church of Christ.

Declaring that peacemaking is “a sacred duty,” Dale said that “some of us have visited conflict areas [such as Palestine and Colombia], accompanied by those most affected by the violence.” He noted that those solidarity trips were like the ones the FBI is using as a pretext for its investigation into the targeted activists.