On Tuesday, February 7 at 7:00pm, Minnesota’s political parties will  hold their precinct caucuses. Anyone can attend their caucus, where they meet with their neighbors to discuss what issues their party should adopt for their platform, in addition to electing delegates to party conventions and stating their preference on candidates.

Anyone can bring a resolution on any issue to their caucus to attempt to get it approved there. The Minnesota Committee to Stop FBI Repression would like to encourage our supporters to take the following resolution to your caucus. Bringing the resolution to your caucus is an important way to educate folks about these dangerous attacks on our very rights to organize and speak out.

There is support for freedom of speech and assembly among people who participate in the Democratic, Republican, Green and Independence Party caucuses, which gives us an opportunity to tell the leaders of these parties that policies like the Patriot Act and the NDAA are not supported by their constituents.

If you don’t know where your precinct caucus is go to:http://caucusfinder.sos.state.mn.us/. You do not have to be pre-registered or a party member to participate in a caucus in Minnesota. Make sure to let the person chairing the caucus know at the very beginning that you have a resolution you want to introduce. You should bring at least one copy of the resolution with to your caucus, but it’s better if you can bring multiple copies for people to look at while it’s being proposed and discussed.

If you’d like background information on our case to help you feel more comfortable speaking to this issue you can print a basic info flyer here:http://www.stopfbi.net/resources/flyer/csfr-basic-info-flyer, which you might want to bring copies of to the caucus along with this resolution. Much more background info is also available at stopfbi.net.

If your caucus approves the resolution, please let us know so we can publicize what precincts approved it! Contact us at mnstopfbi@gmail.com or 612-379-3585.

Good luck and thanks for your support!

The Minnesota Committee to Stop FBI Repression

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Resolution for Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Assembly, and Against Escalating Repression

Whereas the U.S. Congress passed and President Obama signed into law, on December 30, 2011, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) which contains provisions allowing for the indefinite military detention of individuals, including U.S. citizens, without charge or trial, anywhere in the world including in the U.S.;

Whereas individuals gathering at Occupy protest sites around the nation to nonviolently protest inequitable government policies and widespread corporate greed have suffered repression and retaliation by police and government officials;

Whereas in September 2010, 23 well-known anti-war and labor union activists in Minneapolis and Chicago and additional individuals around the country experienced surprise FBI raids of their homes, confiscation of property,  a list (had any agreed to talk to the FBI) of chilling McCarthyistic questions and subpoenas to testify before a grand jury purportedly investigating “material support” of groups labeled terrorist by the U.S. State Department (although no charges and no indictments have been produced since the first raids in September 2010, this case is but one example of the hundreds of such cases pursued by the FBI over the last decade — mainly targeting Muslims and Arab Americans — without any crime committed or evidence of the planning of any criminal activity);

Therefore, be it resolved that this Precinct of the ______________ Party reaffirm our commitment to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Be it further resolved that the ______________ Party opposes indefinite military detention and advocates that section of the NDAA be repealed;

Be it further resolved that the ______________ Party supports the right of the Occupy movement to peaceably assemble and protest without experiencing mass arrests, pepper spraying, and other forms of brutality and repression;

Be it further resolved  that the ______________ Party supports the right of peace activists to organize against war without fear of being harassed, infiltrated, raided or accused of criminal behavior;

And, be it further resolved that the _______________ Party move forward to ensure these rights and provide for their protection within every precinct, town, city, county, state and federal jurisdiction.