The Activist Files Podcast

On episode 39 of the Activist Files, Center for Constitutional Rights Bertha Justice Fellow Rafaela Uribe talks with Heena Sharma and Katrina Hamann-Azanov, two members of the Free Ashley Campaign, about their work to support Black trans liberation and prisoners’ rights activist Ashley Diamond while she is incarcerated in a men’s prison in Georgia. They discuss why it’s important to organize support campaigns for people in prison and how to get involved, how their support work connects to their position as abolitionists, and how Ashley’s experience offers an important case study for the particular issues faced by trans people both in prisons and through the discrimination-to-incarceration pipeline that criminalizes and punishes trans people for their survival. The Center for Constitutional Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center represent Ashley in her legal case, while the Free Ashley Campaign works with Ashley to provide her with support to meet her material needs, advocates for her safety and her release, and organizes events and actions to mobilize the large community of supporters that Ashley has on the outside.

Resources:

Free Ashley Campaign: https://www.freeashleydiamond.com/ / IG:

https://www.instagram.com/freeashley_now/ / Twitter: https://twitter.com/freeashley_now

/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freeashleynow/

Survived & Punished: https://survivedandpunished.org (national) /

https://www.survivedandpunishedny.org (NY) /

Guide to Organizing Survivor Defense Campaigns: https://survivedandpunished.org/defense-campaign-toolkit/

Mariame Kaba: http://mariamekaba.com/

Ky Peterson: https://www.freedomoverground.org/ky/ / https://linktr.ee/KyPeterson

Ruth Wilson Gilmore: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html / https://theintercept.com/2020/06/10/ruth-wilson-gilmore-makes-the-case-for-abolition/

In, “Motherhood on Trial: Pregnant and Incarcerated,” Legal Administrative Associate Afrika Owes spoke with De'Jone Watts about her experiences as an incarcerated mother and shed light on the traumatizing experience of preparing to give birth while incarcerated. De'Jone, a women's support and social services manager at Root & Rebound, whose mission is to restore power and resources to the families and communities most harmed by mass incarceration through legal advocacy, public education, policy reform and litigation, shared her powerful journey that led her to work at an organization where she uses her pain as power to inspire and uplift formerly incarcerated women of color. 

On April 12, 2021, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed petitions on behalf of clients who were sentenced to Death By Incarceration by non-unanimous juries in Louisiana, where they remain in the Louisiana State Penitentiary colloquially known as “Angola,” despite the Supreme Court’s clear ruling that their convictions were unconstitutional. We joined more than 700 volunteer attorneys across the country in filing petitions in the cases of more than 1,000 people, mostly Black men, imprisoned in Louisiana from convictions by non-unanimous juries. They are known as “Jim Crow Juries” because they are a relic of the Jim Crow era that has systematically discounted the votes of jurors of color, led to a significant number of wrongful convictions, and helped maintain disproportionately high rates of incarceration of Black people in Louisiana. In this episode of the Activist Files, Angelo Guisado, staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, speaks with Jamila Johnson, managing attorney for the Jim Crow Juries: Unanimous Jury Project at Promise of Justice Initiative in New Orleans, who coordinated the massive effort, about what comes next. 

Resources:

●      The Promise of Justice Initiative

●      State v. Henry / State v. Allen (Jim Crow Juries)

How can we honor the leadership of Black trans sex worker communities in struggles for gender and LGBTQIA+ justice this Women’s History Month? Black Trans Nation executive director and Decrim NY steering committee member TS Candii and Women with a Vision Sex Worker Advisory Committee member Paris Jackson speak with advocacy associate maya finoh and communications assistant Alex Webster about their work to pass legislation ending the criminalization of people in the sex trades and trans people in New York State and Louisiana, as well as their freedom dreams for Black and trans liberation. They explain why decriminalization is the legislative proposal that can best guarantee the safety of marginalized people working in the sex trades, why sex work must ultimately be recognized as the labor that it is and be provided labor protections the same as any other work, and how the criminalization of work in the sex trades is part of a larger and centuries-long project by the state to target and criminalize Black and trans communities. They also discuss how the histories of sex workers organizing to support each other appear in current mutual aid projects, and how to support and promote their crucial work.

Resources:

New York legislation:
Walking While Trans Ban Bill (New York Senate Bill 1351 /Assembly Bill 3355) (signed into law)
Stop Violence in the Sex Trades Act (New York Senate Bill 3075 /Assembly Bill 849) (pending)

Louisiana legislation:
Louisiana House Bill 67 (pending)
Deep South Decrim Toolkit
Sign-on form to support Louisiana House Bill 67

What happens when a response to the demands that come from the street lead to radically reimagining public safety? Protest and policy merge and “The BREATHE Act” is born.

Nadia Ben-Youssef, advocacy director at the Center for Constitutional Rights, talked with Ash-lee Woodard Henderson, co-executive director of the Highlander Research and Education Center, for “The BREATHE Act: A love letter via policy,” in Episode 34 of “The Activist Files.” Nadia and Ash-Lee discuss the current political moment for “The BREATHE Act” to take shape in relationship with the history and trajectory of the Black liberation freedom struggle. In that conversation, they examine what we have learned from history when power is chipped away, the sources of inspiration from other “Black Agendas for Liberation” that surface in “The BREATHE Act,” and how COVID-19 has shown that transformative moves are possible. 

Resources:

·      “The BREATHE Act”

·      M4BL

·      Gina Clayton

·      Mjiente

·      Rep. Ilhan Omar

·      Rep. Cori Bush

·      “Victory is Mine”

Throughout its history, law enforcement has deemed Black activism as a national security threat. Law enforcement has used its powers to chill the speech and movements of Black activists and activism that’s done on behalf of issues that impact Black communities. In Criminalizing Black protest: When we resist, the 34th episode of “The Activist Files,” two activists working to bring attention to the environmental racism in St. James Parish, Louisiana, which is a historic Black community under threat of destruction by Formosa Plastics, share their stories of how police criminalized their activism.

Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, was arrested, charged with terrorism, and faced up to 15 years in prison. Pastor Gregory Manning, head of Broadmoor Community Church and a member of the Coalition Against Death Alley was arrested, charged with a felony for allegedly inciting a riot, and faced six months to 21 years in prison. They share the details of what led to their arrests. Pam Spees, senior staff attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights, provides information on the trends she’s seeing in laws that are increasingly criminalizing activists and how activists can stay safe in movement spaces. 

Resources: 

·      Louisiana Bucket Bridge

·      Broadmoor Community Church

·      St. James Parish, Louisiana

·      Death Alley AKA Cancer Alley

·      Formosa Plastics

·      Nurdles

·      Legal observers

·      Critical infrastructure law

On Episode 33 of The Activist Files, Rutgers Law School Distinguished Professor of Law Beth Stephens and University Network for Human Rights Supervisor in Human Rights Practice Thomas Becker, both Center for Constitutional Rights cooperating attorneys, speak with Senior Legal Worker Leah Todd about Mamani v. Sánchez de Lozada and Sánchez Berzaín, a case against the former Bolivian president and minister of defense for their role in the use of deadly military force, largely in Indigenous Aymara communities, during 2003 popular protests. Beth and Thomas share updates on victories in the case since the district court judge overruled the jury's unanimous verdict in favor of our clients, and discuss how it emerged from Indigenous community-led organizing in Bolivia and continues to model how people's lawyering can be guided by social movements. They also situate the case in the context of Bolivia's 2019 coup and historic 2020 election, and the five century-plus history of Indigenous resistance to colonization in the Americas.

Resources: https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/mamani-et-al-v-s-nchez-de-lozada-mamani-et-al-v-s-nchez-berza-n

On Episode 32 of The Activist Files, Senior Managing Attorney Shayana Kadidal speaks with Ramzi Kassem about the case of American Muslims who were placed or kept on the No-Fly List in retaliation for refusing to spy on their communities. Ramzi, Professor of Law and Director of the CLEAR project (Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility) at CUNY School of Law, argued Tanvir v. Tanzin before the U.S. Supreme Court on October 6, 2020, and Shane and the Center for Constitutional Rights are co-counsel (along with the law firm of Debevoise & Plimpton LLP). They discuss how our clients’ lives were turned upside down by the FBI and how the men were removed from the No-Fly List just before their first major court date. They talk about the legal questions before the Court, whether the Religious Freedom Restoration Act was intended to allow for damages, and what we can expect going forward. It’s a lively conversation between two lawyers who have worked together closely for many years and a peek behind the curtains of what it’s like to argue a case before the highest court in the land via video camera.

Resources

Tanvir v. Tanzin (formerly Tanvir v. Holder and Tanvir v. Lynch) case page

Supreme Court Case: Tanzin v. Tanvir

FAQs: Tanzin v. Tanvir

Muhammad Tanvir client bio

Naveed Shinwari client bio 

Organizations

The CLEAR project (Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility)

On episode 31 of "The Activist Files," Staff Attorney Angelo Guisado and Senior Legal Worker Ian Head discuss two forthcoming Center for Constitutional Rights publications aimed at supporting communities and activists as they oppose rising right-wing and state violence. Combatting White Supremacist Organizing: Tools to Protect Our Communities from Violence is a toolkit of legal and non-legal strategies for opposing, managing, and healing from white supremacist activity before, during, and after it comes to town. With reflections on past incidents, details on how to use media, legislatures, and the courts, and sample resources, the Toolkit is a comprehensive manual for pushing back. If An Agent Knocks is the Center for Constitutional Rights' longstanding handbook for how to handle interactions with federal agents. Originally published in 1989, it has been updated for these increasingly authoritarian times. The new version includes both the timeless advice included in the original version and extensive updates to reflect the current state of the law and law enforcement tools. Together, these two publications are invaluable resources for fighting back against the dual threats of right-wing and state violence. These two reports are a part of Toolkit for the Movement, a collection of resources from the Center for Constitutional Rights to support and protect our communities and movement partners who are on the frontlines.

On episode 30 of “The Activist Files,” Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Ghita Schwarz and Attorney Chinyere Ezie talked with Make the Road New York’s Lead Organizer Eliana Fernandez about the impact organizing played in the two key Supreme Court of the United States’ decisions –  Wolf v. Vidal, the decision that preserves Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), which Eliana was a plaintiff, the Bostock/Zarda/Stephens cases, which the Court found that an employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The movement lawyers and activist agreed the organizing and narrative shifting in some of the cases had the justices so worried that the credibility of the court was brought to the forefront. 

Eliana talks about her brave decision to be a plaintiff in the DACA case – she’s a DACA recipient and a mom, who didn’t want to be separated from her children. She said Make the Road New York protected her and gave her the tools to empower the movement. 

And Chinyere, who wrote an amicus brief in Aimee Stephens, of R. G. & G. R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and attended the argument, tied this Title VII case to Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru, which held that Catholic elementary school teachers are “ministers,” so they cannot sue their employer for employment discrimination. While Our Lady of Guadalupe is not about LGBTQIA+ rights, it impacts that community because statutes that prohibit discrimination, from age to disability, were not applied to this case because the employer is a religious organization and the employees, who were subject-matter teachers, were classified as “ministers.” Chinyere noted that Our Lady of Guadalupe School v. Morrissey-Berru did not have a large movement behind the case and wonders if the court didn’t feel compelled to uphold the anti-discrimination statutes because of the lack of public awareness and involvement. 

Resources:

·      Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda

·      Aimee Stephens, of R. G. & G. R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

·      R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Aimee Stephens (Amicus)

·      Bostock v. Clayton County

·      Publ