Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality

The newly formed Coalition for Accountability held a MARCH FOR ACCOUNTABILITY on Tuesday, Oct. 10, the 217th anniversary of the execution of the great slave rebellion leader Gabriel at the Town Gallows in Shockoe Bottom. We multiply our individual strengths by supporting each other in our various struggles and call for ACTION and ACCOUNTABILITY from our city leaders! The march began at 6 p.m. at the Robert E. Lee statue on Monument Avenue and headed to the Devil’s Half Acre in Shockoe Bottom, where community leaders addressed the current issues facing our people today: Take Down the Confederate Statues      & Build the Shockoe Bottom Memorial Park! Fix the Schools! Expand Public Transit! Hands Off Public Housing! Fight for $15! Hands Off Immigrants! LGBTQ Rights! No Pipelines! Serve the People! For a full report, see the Autumn 2017 issue of The Virginia Defender.

NO to White Supremacy! Confederate Heritage IS Hate! Take down all the Confederate statues NOW! On Saturday, Sept. 16, a Tennessee-based organization called the New Confederate States of America (CSA II) plans to hold some kind of gathering at or near the Lee statue on Richmond’s Monument Avenue. The group’s stated purpose is “standing up to protect the General Robert E. Lee Monument in Richmond, Virginia from being taken down or destroyed.” The organizers claim that “This rally is a Heritage ~ Not Hate Rally.” Right. Waving Confederate flags near a Lee statue so soon after Charlottesville in a city that is half-Black is clearly meant to be a declaration of white supremacy and must be opposed. Many Richmond progressive groups have called for protests, some on Monument Avenue, some in other parts of the city. We support all expressions of anti-racism. For our part, we will be as near to the Lee statue as possible, with signs, banners and chants denouncing white supremacy and

Report on Charlottesville & Richmond From The Virginia Defender On Aug. 12, some 500 fascists gathered at Charlottesville's Emancipation Park. Many came prepared for battle, with helmets, shields, body padding and visible weapons, including guns. Thousands of defiant protesters massed in the surrounding streets. Shouted insults morphed into throwing water bottles, then more dangerous projectiles, then fistfights. Pepper spray and some kind of tear gas left many people choking and gasping for air, but the protesters kept up their presence mere feet from the fascists. READ THE FULL REPORT HERE NOTE: Since this report was written, the organizers of the planned Sept. 13 rally at Richmond’s Lee monument have withdrawn their permit request; Gov. McAuliffe has suspended the granting of any permits for rallies at the statue; and Richmond Mayor Stoney has said that removing the five Confederate statues on Monument Avenue will now be considered. The struggle continues.

On Aug. 9, the Defenders attended the first public hearing of Mayor Stoney’s Monument Avenue Commission, which is supposed to come up with recommendations about what to do with the five Confederate statues on Monument Avenue. But Mayor Stoney has already ruled out taking down the statues! On July 29 we sent an  OPEN LETTER  to the commission members, asking that they publicly state that removing the statues will be on the table; that they invite opponents of the statues to join the commission; and that they invite New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu to speak at the second commission hearing, now scheduled for Sept. 13. Mayor Landrieu has issued a wonderful statement explaining why his city took down their monuments. The commission members did not respond, but our letter was published in the Richmond Free Press, which is also calling for the statues to be removed.  The Defenders are urging all people who oppose honoring these shrines to white supremacy to attend the next commissio

Stop the Wars at Home and AbroadBuilding a Movement Against War, Injustice & Repression! A National Conference hosted by the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) June 16-18, 2017 at the Greater Richmond Convention Center in Richmond, Virginia Thank you for joining 300+ activists in the struggle to "Stop the Wars at Home & Abroad!" through shared knowledge and a unified front. People who attended were from the many domestic and international struggles that must unify against the Trump Regime and the underlying system responsible for imperialist wars, poverty, racism, sexism, the oppression of LGBTQ people, attacks on Muslims and undocumented immigrants, environmental destruction and all forms of injustice. Click here to read the 2017 UNAC Conference Report. Click here to view all live-streamed Conference Sessions. Or visit the Program Schedule page to select the specific session you'd like to watch.

Mon. March 27, 2017, at City Hall, 6-7 pm – Please join the Defenders' Sacred Ground Project as we present a statement on the Community Proposal for a Nine-Acre Shockoe Bottom Memorial Park to Richmond's City Council during the Public Comment Period. Let us know you're coming: https://www.facebook.com/events/1198728803567961/

... it is our responsibility to understand how the US acts on its foreign policy just as we need to do with its domestic policy. That's why the theme of the conference this year is STOP THE WARS at HOME and ABROAD! Today's topic is the Crisis in the Congo. Excerpt from Friends of the Congo's Congo Primer   Questions and Answers: Congo Conflict What is the source of the conflict in the Congo?  The source of the conflict in the Congo is the scramble to control Congo’s vast natural wealth of gold, diamonds, coltan, copper, cobalt, uranium, tin and many other precious and strategic minerals. Nobel Laureate Wangari Mathaai says “these wars when you look at them, they are all about resources and who is going to control them.” Is this an ethnic conflict between so-called Hutus and Tutsis?  No. It is a resource war. Ethnicity is being used as a pretext to access and control Congo’s natural resources. Former Chief of the UNHCR famously warned in an interview he gave to th