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NEW DATE! March 29th: FBI’s War on Black Liberation Panel featuring Ralph PoynterFebruary 27th, 2018Ralph will be speaking on this upcoming panel at Project Reach (39 Eldridge Street, 4th floor, NY, NY) along with several other speakers. For more information, please go to their Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1992494661076811/
Ralph Poynter Featured Speaker Saturday January 27January 25th, 2018PARTISAN DEFENSE COMMITTEE
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If “our task is to help organize, nurture, and shape the raw resistance that is exploding across America – and help to build what may come in its wake.”, then this panel is right on time. For in the words of the late Lynne Stewart, from her 2003 Minneapolis before the NLG,… I am reminded of the ancient nature of what we came for, what we accomplished and where we are going. For we are a gathering of the warriors of our day; those people who were placed on this earth at this time to change it. We were summoned here because tradition; ancient and modern affirm the strength doubled and tripled unto infinity by the collective will. And we saw that it truly works.” The main goal of this panel is that we want people to understand what is in their best interest politically, economically, socially and culturally. We want people to understand how to act in their best interests. Once again, in the words of our beloved Sister Lynne, “ We warriors came here to listen to each other, to enjoy each other, to exchange ideas, to remember battles of old, to plan…. We learned. We have been inspired once again by the almost mystical and marvelous ability to gather strength through camaraderie, intellectual jousting and exchange but mostly by sharing the collective will to change the world.” By analyzing, critiquing and duplicating the successful strategies that led to the freedom of Lynne Stewart, we can review t he successful methods and methodologies that created the united international front that led to her liberation. SPEAKERS Chair/Moderator: RALPH POYNTER New Abolitionist Movement, Lynne Stewart Org., African People’s Socialist Party, NYC Jericho, NYS Farmer’s Market Assoc., Brownsville Matters, NYS Green Party, NYC Free Mumia Coalition Biography: Born in Western PA in 1934, the son of a union organizer in Steel. He was a founding member of The Teacher’s Freedom Party Caucus in the UFT. Jailed during human rights struggle for community control of schools in the sixties, he organized first successful prison protest during incarceration. Supported recently deceased spouse Lynne Stewart in her lifelong struggle against judicial double standard and successfully led worldwide movement to free her from Carswell Federal Prison. Joel Meyers — Biography: Born and raised in Bklyn, he was among the first group of anit Vietnam War resistors. He was in the first ever demonstration against the Viet Nam War in 1963. He resisted the draft and was incarcerated in Bk,NY. He received a four year sentence. He participated in the Thompkins Square Park Uprising Chris Hedges Truthdig, Princeton University, New York Times, Contact Biography: Chris Hedges is an American Pulitzer- prize winning journalist and Presbyterian minister. He is a professor at Princeton University and author of several New York Times best-sellers. He was a faithful support and champion of the late Lynne Stewart. He is a columnist for the progressive news and commentary website Truthdig. Anne Lamb NYC Jericho Org. Biography: Anne is an activist with the NYC Chapter of the Jericho Movement for Recognition and Amnesty for US Political Prisoners of War. She has been doing political prisoner work since the 1970’s. She was very active in the coalition to free Lynne Stewart. Bob Lederer WBAI, Justice & Unity, Biography: Bob Lederer is a longtime gay radical activist and supporter of U.S. political prisoners. In particular, he has been active in the cases of the Puerto Rican political prisoners, Mumia Abu-Jamal, and the late Lynne Stewart. He also contributed to the 2008 book, Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners, edited by Matt Meyer. Bob is a co-founder of the anti- racist/anti-imperialist Resistance in Brooklyn collective. For many years, he organized with ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and later, the WBAI Justice & Unity Campaign (he still co-produces the Health Action show on that radio station). In 1985, he was imprisoned for three months, along with several other radicals, for refusing to collaborate with a federal grand jury investigating revolutionary underground groups. Pam Africa Free Mumia Coalition, MOVE, Biography:Pam Africa is world renowned for her work on building a successful movement for the release of death row journalist, Mumia Abu Jamal, and her tireless efforts to free the MOVE 8. She has worked on films, documentaries and traveled across the planet in pursuit of justice. Search the full 2017 program HERE Join these speakers and many others at Left Forum 2017! |
Watch the video of the April 22nd Lynne Stewart Memorial below! Many thanks to Jess Sundin for all the hard work filming! The video is around 3 hours and 40 minutes long. Click on the video to view a larger version.
LYNNE STEWART MEMORIAL EVENT Saturday, April 22, 2017
At St. Peter’s Church NOTE NEW TIME! Facebook Event Page (please share):
************************************************************ Financial Appeal from Lynne’s Family & Friends Please consider supporting Lynne’s family right now by clicking here to contribute to their online fundraising appeal. |
Available here: http://m.amsterdamnews.com/news/2017/mar/23/community-sends-abolitionist-attorney-lynne-stewar/
A multi-ethnic audience of supporters attended two days of memorial services a couple of weeks ago to commemorate the life and legacy of “The People’s Lawyer,” Lynne Stewart. After a lengthy, courageous battle against cancer, she eventually succumbed to its debilitating effects at her Brooklyn home March 7, at age 77.
First, Friday, March 10, at Scotto’s Funeral Home in downtown Brooklyn (106 First Place), a host of her admirers, comrades from the legal arena, longtime friends, past clients and a few relatives reflected on Stewart’s tireless work with the poor, under-represented community she loved so dearly.
“Don’t mourn me, organize!” her husband Ralph Poynter recalled Lynne suggesting to him, as well as advocating to her supporters, upon her impending passing, as her health deteriorated during her last days. “She stood with the people and fought against the system.”
He said her cause of death was complications from cancer and a series of strokes she recently suffered.
During the services, “Sister Lynne” as she was affectionately called, was compared with the Argentinean rebel, Che Guevara, who assisted Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution, because both “were motivated by the love of the people,” and also for taking on the task of representing several clients that the mainstream media often considered to be “radicals and revolutionaries.” It was noted how Stewart often times provided her legal services based primarily on principles, and many times, for little or no pay.
Longtime friend Betty Davis reflected on Stewart’s last few weeks on this physical plateau. “It was hard seeing her like that, but she’s not suffering anymore,” Davis said. “She wants us to continue fighting for what’s right.”
At times, some have referred to Stewart as a modern-day female John Brown, after the 19th century Caucasian slave abolitionist, for daring to stand up against a racist system many say is slanted against people of color.
Shams de Barron recalled how significant Stewart was in helping his childhood friend earn a very unlikely acquittal in one of the city’s most notorious and high-profiled, criminal cases.
“[Attorney William] Kunstler gets the credit, but Lynne was very instrumental in Larry Davis beating the attempted-murder charges of six NYPD cops,” he explained, referring to the infamous Nov. 19, 1986, Bronx conflict that had the city on edge for several weeks. “She’s the one who went to the house where the shootout happened, noticed the door was still there with bullet holes, and that is how it was proved that the cops shot first. Larry is the only person in NYC’s history to shoot police and get off on grounds of self-defense.”
The following morning at St. Marks in the Bowery, on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, her funeral was conducted as mourners paid their respects to one of society’s true unsung sheroes. Those in attendance chanted Stewart’s name as her casket was hoisted up in the air and carried from the church to a waiting hearse, at the funeral’s conclusion.
Stewart’s body was interred at Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery later that afternoon.
Photo by Marty Goodman, outside of Lynne’s service March 11, 2017.
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