Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality

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 ...

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Coverage from Russia TV https://www.rt.com/news/368238-fidel-castro-dies-90/ and ABC News USA http://abcnews.go.com/International/cuban-leader-fidel-castro-dead-90/story?id=43787601 and ABC News Australia http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-11-26/fidel-castro-former-cuban-leader-dies-at-90-state-tv-reports/8060614

US observers, including Phil Wilayto of The Virginia Defender and the United National Antiwar Coalition, documentary filmmaker Regis Trembly and activist Bruce Gagnon, were of the 3-4,000 people attending today's 2nd anniversary memorial of the massacre of pro-federalist Odessans which took place at the Trade Unions Building of Kulikovo Square in Odessa, Ukraine on May 2, 2014. ".... the May 2 memorial has emerged as an important focus in the fight to keep fascist forces in Ukraine from being able to intimidate their opponents into retreating from political struggle and at the same time strengthen their own role in the post-coup government. Another focus is a WWII veterans march planned for May 9 in the capital city of Kiev to mark the end of Nazi occupation. The march is being threatened by the paramilitary Right Sector organization. The elderly veterans, who often display socialist symbols, are saying they will march anyway and, if threatened, will defend themselves...

Make your plans now to attend the 2016 Virginia People’s Assembly For Jobs, Peace & Justice! The 8th Annual Virginia People’s Assembly for Jobs, Peace & Justice will be held Saturday, April 23, 2016, at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church (1720 Mechanicsville Turnpike) in Richmond, Va. Doors open for onsite registration at 8 am, with the conference starting at 9 am. The VPA is an annual gathering of people from many communities across Virginia who are engaged in a broad range of struggles. We are union members, community activists, ex-prisoners and prisoner advocates, immigrants, students, youth, elders, women, antiwar organizers, veterans, members of Black Lives Matter, members of the LGBT community, the physically and mentally disabled, environmentalists and more. We are fighting against police abuse and for a $15 wage for fast-food and other low-wage workers. We are defending our unions and organizing the unorganized. We are struggling against war, racism, classis...

The Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality will be holding a Public Forum on Saturday, Feb. 20, to promote solidarity among local communities and struggles now under attack. Please think about joining us - to learn what our sisters and brothers are going through now, and how we can come together in mutual defense. https://www.facebook.com/events/616893275115539/ This forum represents a major theme for this year's Virginia People's Assembly, scheduled for April 23, 2014.