#takeemdown

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‘FAKE NEWS’

Vandalized Columbus statue in Norwalk, Connecticut

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Indigenous student leader: ‘The racism we’ve faced has been intense’

By Greg Butterfield

November is Native American Heritage Month. Struggle-La Lucha spoke with Kisha James, president of the Wellesley College Native American Student Association and an activist with the Massachusetts Indigenous Peoples Day campaign.

Our demands are simple — we demand that Wellesley begin recruiting Native students, hire tenure-track Indigenous faculty members, create an Indigenous Studies minor, make a public land acknowledgment and strive to make Wellesley a better place for Native students. These demands are truly the bare minimum that Wellesley College should be doing, and it should not have taken this long for the college to start thinking about the Native student population.

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#IndigenousPeoplesDay NOT Columbus Day!

In 1977, Indigenous leaders from around the world organized a United Nations conference in Geneva to promote Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. Their first recommendation was “to observe October 12, the day of so-called ‘discovery’ of America, as an International Day of Solidarity with the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.”

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Protesters march from Boston Common to denounce Columbus, support Indigenous Peoples' Day

Indigenous Peoples' Day is an official holiday in several states and more than 100 municipalities that celebrates the culture and contributions of Native Americans and replaces Columbus Day on the calendar.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside Park Street station on Boston Common Saturday afternoon and marched to the downtown waterfront to denounce Christopher Columbus and show their support for Indigenous Peoples' Day.

Mahtowin Munro, co-leader of United American Indians of New England and leader of indigenouspeoplesdayma.org, listed a series of demands as she spoke outside the station.

“Rename the Christopher Columbus park in Boston’s waterfront. Rename Faneuil Hall. Remove all public white supremacist monuments and names," she said. “No more publicly displayed Columbus statues. The city of Boston needs to consult with and act upon advice from indigenous peoples.”

Protesters also demanded the city permanently remove a statue of the explorer in the North End’s Christopher Columbus Waterfront Park, which was decapitated in June and then placed in storage.

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Boston: Indigenous Peoples Day March, October 10, 2020.

Our Boston Indigenous Peoples Day march and rolling rallies today were extraordinary and powerful. We had over 300 people. There was a speak out at Park Street, a march to the Old State House, and a ceremony there where Crispus Attucks was killed, with Sistahs of the Calabash. We then marched over to Faneuil Hall to join up with the New Democracy Coalition and their demand to change the name of Faneuil Hall because Faneuil was a slaver and thousands of slaves were auctioned at Faneuil Hall.

We then marched over to Christopher Columbus park and gazed upon the pedestal that no longer has the beheaded Columbus statue on it. It was definitely quite a moment when Chali'Inaru Smilez Dones and other Tainos jumped up on the pedestal to speak! (Photo below) Then at the end our beautiful Taino relatives danced bomba in "Christopher Columbus" park. A lot of territory was liberated in Boston today and bonds strengthened. Wopila tanka to everyone who made the day happen, including helpful people who stepped up and dealt with things on the spot. We will post more photos later!

In addition to all the speakers, organizers and cultural workers, we want to give a shout-out to the ASL interpreters who were working under very difficult circumstances. Also to all the marshals, legal observers, the unsung sound, truck and car heroes and the people who held and carried the lead banner for hours.

Via Mahtowin Munro

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Where are the statues of Viola Liuzzo?

By Stephen Millies

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo doesn’t think the statue of Christopher Columbus in New York City’s Columbus Circle should be removed. Cuomo said that the statue “represents in some ways the Italian American legacy in the country, and the Italian American contribution in this country.”

So where are the statues in honor of Viola Liuzzo? She was an Italian American mother of four children who was murdered in Alabama on March 25, 1965, by the Ku Klux Klan. Liuzzo was supporting the Montgomery to Selma human rights march that led to the Voting Rights Act.

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Trials for Durham Confederate Statue Case Begin Feb 19 

Takiyah Thompson and seven anti-racist activists go to trial in Durham district court on Monday, Feb 19.  They are charged in connection with the toppling of the Confederate monument in Durham on August 14, 2017. Defendants scored a major victory in January when all felony charges against them were dropped.  Three misdemeanor charges remain.

Defendants invite all those who choose to side against racism and white supremacy to come to Durham on February 19 and 20 to pack the courts and show solidarity with the ongoing struggles against monuments to racism.

Call in Day to Drop the Charges: Feb 15

Pack the Courts! Fighting White Supremacy is Not A Crime! Come to Durham Feb 19

Can’t come to Durham? Donate to support mobilization efforts and upcoming Toppling Racism tour

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Tearing Down Monuments of Oppression Is the First Step to Decolonization

Decolonization is about remaking the here and now.

One of the most inspiring and audacious direct actions against a racist statue recently was in August in Durham, North Carolina. A group of more than 100 activists from leftist and anti-capitalist groups, such as the Workers World Party and the Industrial Workers of the World physically tore down the Confederate Soldiers Monument in front of the old Durham County Courthouse while chanting "No cops! No KKK! No fascist USA!" Multiple activists were later arrested and charged with felonies for tearing down the statue, the first of whom was 22-year-old student Takiyah Thompson.

"I think it's important to think about the position of the Confederate statue in front of the old courthouse," Thompson told Truthout. "Even though that courthouse is no longer in use, it's still a government building, and the fact that it's on the courthouse steps makes a very clear statement to Black people, and people of color more generally, about what kind of justice they're going to receive when they enter that courtroom. People are talking about tearing down history, but it's not history. Not when the legacy is still very much alive."

Thompson said that the action started as a response to an uninspiring post-Charlottesville vigil organized by the liberal, pro-Democratic Party group IndivisiblesNC on August 13. According to Q. Wideman -- a Black, queer woman and friend of Thompson's who went to Charlottesville -- when she attempted to speak and criticize the liberal, pacifist rhetoric at that vigil, the Indivisibles organizers stopped her, threatened to call the police and cut the livestream. Right before the livestream was cut, a white man can be seen telling Wideman "You're not going to sabotage this!" and that she "can have another rally" if she wanted to speak. When Wideman was finally given time to speak, it wasn't included on the livestream.

The next day, the Workers World Party organized its own rally which ended with the Confederate statue being torn down and history being made.

"I think it's important that the people struggle to remove the statues themselves because when people struggle for their own liberation, they won't allow others to come in and claim themselves as liberators," Thompson told me. "It's important that this movement be taken up by regular-ass people."

Not long afterwards, with Columbus Day in sight, people began taking direct action against statues of Columbus.