637 South Dearborn Street, Third Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60605
Ph: 312-913-0039
Fax: 312-913-0045
contact@nlgchicago.org
www.nlgchicago.org
"...to the end that human rights shall be regarded as more sacred than property interests."
The National Lawyers Guild is dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system. Through its members -- lawyers, law students, jailhouse lawyers, and
legal workers united in chapters and committees -- the Guild works locally, nationally and internationally as an effective political and social force in the service of the people.
Our aims:
. to eliminate racism;
. to safeguard and strengthen the rights of workers, women, farmers and minority groups, upon whom the welfare of the entire nation depends;
. to maintain and protect our civil rights and liberties in the face of persistent attacks upon them;
. to use the law as an instrument for the protection of the people, rather than for their repression.
More about the NLG
Support Lynne Stewart
"You can't tell lawyers how to do their job."
View Our Rosa Parks Memorial
|
Jurors Deliberating in Israeli Torture Case
Since January 11, 2007, jurors have been in deliberations. Click here for the original story of the trial.
The U.S. Attorney's office for the Northern district of Illinois on Friday, September 22, moved the district court
to dismiss one of three charges against Muhammad Salah.
Voir dire will begin Thursday, October 12, as scheduled, before Judge Amy St. Eve. NLG Chicago encourages members and supporters to attend court. Contact the
chapter office.
The government dropped the charge of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization (under 18 U.S.C. 2339B),
apparently in direct response to successful questioning
of an FBI informer's credibility by the defense.
Other issues that had been in pre-trial litigation included:
* The admissibility of Mr. Salah's false confessions under torture in Israel in 1993, prior to his five-year incarceration there. Result: Most statements will
be admitted.
* Whether the hearing on defense motions to suppress the tortured statements would be open to the public. The court granted local corporate media motions to
intervene and argue for an open court. NLG Chicago member-attorney Steve Saltzman represented the Guild, the Center for Constitutional Rights,
and other interveners. Result: The court was closed, and portions of the suppression order were redacted, pursuant to the Classified
Information Procedures Act, 18 U.S.C. Appendix III.
* Juror anonymity. Result: The court denied the government's motion without prejudice.
The remaining two counts against Mr. Salah are racketeering and making a false statement.
A U.S. citizen of Palestinian birth, and a husband, father, and business man, Mr. Salah has a defense team that includes long-time NLG Chicago member-attorneys.
Would You Like Union Solidarity With That?
http://www.starbucksunion.org
The baristas at the Logan Square Starbucks store joined the IWW Starbucks Workers Union Tuesday, August 29, according to the Wobblies. They became first Starbucks workers outside New York City to join the union.
The NYC organizing drive won a dollar-an-hour raise for all Starbucks workers, including those not in the union, as well as more-consistent scheduling and some safety changes.
Chicago workers’ demands include a living wage, guaranteed work hours, and the reinstatement of IWW Starbucks workers fired for organizing the union.
A further demand is “respect for an independent voice on the job through union membership.”
Based in Seattle, the world's largest corporation in the “specialty-coffee” business likes to boast about its generous benefits, including health insurance for part-time workers.
But NLG executive director Heidi Boghosian called Starbucks a “serial violator of labor rights, who should be ashamed to be cashing in on a socially-responsible image.”
The NLG called for a national boycott of Starbucks, and our legal workers swear that when staffing the chapter office they get caffeinated strictly at independent, locally-owned Gourmand Coffeehouse, with a vegan-friendly menu (728 S. Dearborn).
In fact, say the Wobblies, Starbucks’ health insurance covers a smaller percentage of workers than that of Wal-Mart: 42 as opposed to 47 percent.
Chicago Starbucks baristas start at $7.50 an hour.
In March, Starbucks settled four unfair labor practice charges the union filed with the National Labor Relations Board, without admitting wrongdoing (in keeping with NLRB practice).
The corporation agreed not to enforce (in several NYC stores) a national policy prohibiting workers from sharing written union information or wearing buttons. Such a policy would be in violation of federal law.
Fired union organizers got their jobs back with some back pay.
The IWW is not certified under the National Labor Relations Act.
Instead, this organizing drive operates on a philosophy of “solidarity unionism”.
Minneapolis Police to Feds:
"Hey! You got Homeland Security in our overzealous local policing!"
Feds:
"Hey! Your zeal goes great with our War on Terror!"
We in the Guild like to say, "We interrogate the law." Sometimes we feel like interrogating the corporate media, too.
On Wednesday, July 26, ABC News Nightline opened breathlessly with the news that a "Khat Epidemic" is sweeping the nation, that hordes of Somali immigrants are behind it, and that the profits are funding terrorism.
What's Khat? It's a chewable narcotic plant. Is it supplanting crystal meth? That would seem to be a dubious claim.
Are Khat dealers bankrolling bin Landen wannabees in Mogadishu? Well, that's the government's theory in indictments unsealed in New York the morning of the TV show.
Chris Cuomo, the dangerously handsome younger son of the former governor of New York, accepted Federal agents' invitation to tag along in New York City and Minneapolis while they and local cops busted Somali-Americans and Somali immigrants for selling the plant, which is legal in most of Europe and Africa.
In a Minneapolis neighborhood called the West Bank (that's what side of the Mississippi it's on), FBI, DEA, "ICE" — formerly the INS or "La Migra," and the Minneapolis Police Department raided homes and made arrests. The West Bank and the Cedar-Riverside area are longtime hipster zones and home to large East African immigrant communities, including many Ethiopians and Eritreans. Relations with the local police have been tense for well over a decade.
Missing from the Nightline piece was any background on the long and stormy history between the overwhelmingly-white Minneapolis police force and Minneapolis' many communities of color, which include not only the largest Somali population in the U.S. but also old and established African-American and American Indian communities.
Community-based organizations including Communities United Against Police Brutality, the Legal Rights Center, and the American Indian Movement have struggled for years against excessive force and deadly force incidents, racial profiling, and the apparent indifference of the local corporate media.
Skeptics and critical thinkers everywhere might pose some questions:
* If Khat is not illegal elsewhere, should it be illegal in the U.S.?
* Remittances from emigrants make up the largest share of Somalia's gross domestic product. Remittances are less crucial, but still important, for other nations with emigrant populations in North America. Is sending money home always suspect, or only when the folks doing it are Black or Muslim?
* If Somali warlords are terrorists, why is the CIA funding them?
After the law and the corporate media, let's interrogate our own assumptions.
As part of our continuing collaboration with CUAPB, NLG Chicago will keep you posted on developments in this story.
“Taste of Chicago 7” Update
 It's now the Taste of Chicago Six!
The defendants demanded a jury trial. Trial date will be in March 2007. Stay tuned. NLG Chicago attorneys Melinda Power, Jeffrey Frank, and Robert Ludemann are working pro bono.
Click here for the original story.
Charges against the only defendant accused of violence were dismissed at "Lady Z's" first appearance, on motion of the state's attorney, when the complainant failed to appear.
Lady Z was accused of two counts of
battery, a class A misdemeanor under 720 ILCS 5/12-3A, in a disagreement with one of the young, female, civilian temps the army hired to work the recruiting booth.
Words were had and Pepsi spilled. Lady Z ended up with scratches on her arms which she photographed after release from First District Headquarters in the wee hours. Chicago police declined to take her complaint against the temp.
Lady Z's pro bono attorney was Robert Ludemann, a recent DePaul Law alumnus and NLG Chicago Next Generation Committee chair. Congratulations to defendant and counselor both!
The remaining six arrestees,
charged with disorderly conduct under the Chicago municipal code, made first and second appearances in court in early August, accompanied by many friends and supporters.
Their three pro bono lawyers from NLG Chicago are Melinda Power (West Town Community Law Office; past chapter president), Jeffrey Frank (board member), and Rob Ludemann.
The Taste of Chicago Six rejected the city's plea offer of $25 fines and 3 months supervision, and demanded jury trials. Trial is set for November 13, 9 a.m., at Branch 46, 555 W. Harrison (at Clinton, west of the river, south of the Clinton stop on the Blue Line). Whether the ToC 6 will be tried jointly or separately remains to be litigated.
The ToC 6 deny the charges and want the public to see their case as a free speech issue.
Click here for the original story.
Soweto Uprising Thirtieth Anniversary
To those who were there, to those who survived and to those who died, we say, "Thank you."
Some of us in NLG Chicago are old enough that we remember that day, and how it changed our lives. Some of us learned about your sacrifice as history.
For all of us, attorneys, legal workers, law students, and those struggling to litigate from behind bars, the lesson you taught us is indelible:
This moment is always the right moment to struggle, no matter what say the doubters, no matter how heavy and unrighteous the repression.
Now it is night for the rule of law in America. Lies and crimes, rendition and torture, illegal surveillance and indefinite detention are the orders of this night.
Impeachable offenses go unchallenged, except by the "radical." The illegal war drags on. Another one appears to loom.
Your Uprising began as a protest against being taught the language of your oppressor.
Our act of resistance is learn the language of the oppressor, to speak the language of the law fluently, to strive for so much as an iota of justice.
Thank you. We hope that we have learned well from you. Now we will need everything that we have learned.
South African law links:
Independent Development Trust: http://www.idt.org.za/
Truth & Reconciliation Commission: http://www.truth.org.za/
University of Pretoria Faculty of Law Center for Human Rights:
http://www.chr.up.ac.za/
Michael Avery event a success! Click here to read more.
NLG Chicago member Joey Mogul comments on the United Nations Committee
Against Torture report Joey Mogul is a staff attorney at the People's Law
Office:
http://www.nlgchicago.org/torture-portal.shtml
http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/gay/lesbian/news/ARTICLE.php?AID=11523
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2006/05/158581.php
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20060509111843421
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2006/05/339678.shtml
October 29, 2005: I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby indicted in Plame CIA Leak Investigation
|
