Join the Virtual Sit-In against the MinuteMen

sheff_imcista | 26.05.2005 21:02 | Anti-racism | Social Struggles | Sheffield

"Swarm the Minuntemen" invites people from all over the world who oppose racist violence to join the Electronic Disturbance Theatre action on May 27th, 28th and 29th, 2005 to engage in a virtual sit-in on the MinuteMen website during their "Unite to Fight" Summit.

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door."

- “The New Colossus,” by the nineteenth-century American poet Emma Lazarus inscribed on a plaque at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Dear sisters and brothers,

Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) in solidarity with Swarm The MinuteMen action will hold a 3 Day Virtual Sit-In starting on May 27th to May 29th (2005) on the MinuteMen Project. We call on all you to join us and let the MinuteMen Project know that hard borders are alien in an age of global interdependence and to the ideals of liberty as a “golden door” that is open to all. An ideal that so many have died trying to reach.

To Join The Virtual Sit-In On Starting on May 27th Click:

http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/ecd.html

Why we must swarm the MinuteMen:

For Víctor Nicolás Sánchez, Adolfo Pérez Hernández, Daniel Barrientos, Santos Orozco Aguilar, Raúl Hernández Soria, Sandra Edna Durán, Jesús Medina Contreras, Edgar Venegas Brambila, José Gutiérrez, Melquíades Gómez Baca, Martha Rivera García...

Myth Number 1: Immigrants take jobs away from Americans.
Myth Number 2: Most immigrants are a drain on the U.S. economy or treasury.
Myth Number 3: America is being overrun by immigrants.
Myth Number 4: Immigrants aren’t really interested in becoming part of American society.
Myth Number 5: Immigrants contribute little to American society.

Facts to dispel to these myths from the American Immigration Lawyers Association:

http://www.aila.org/contentViewer.aspx?bc=17,142

We call on you sisters and brothers from all over the world who oppose the MinuteMen Project and in the name of the 3,500 women, men and children who have died crossing into “The Land of Liberty” since 1994 to join the Electronic Disturbance Theatre action on May 27th, 28th and 29th,
2005 to engage in a Virtual Sit-In on the MinuteMen website during their "Unite to Fight" Summit.

Who are the MinuteMen:

The MinuteMen are a non-governmental group of people vowing to patrol the US/Mexico border with guns in order to stop migrant people from crossing the border. They represent an intensification of the trend of violence towards migrant people and people of color that has increased since
9/11/2001. While they claim that they are not violent, their very use and display of deadly weapons is a violent act in itself. How can guns be used to detain people without being violent? Already there have been numerous reports of people being forced to lie on the ground by the MinuteMen and
being forced to have their pictures taken with MinuteMen volunteers, recalling Abu Ghraib style dehumanization.

SWARM the MinuteMen Group Statement:

http://swarmtheminutemen.com/

While the MinuteMen publicly claim to be non-violent, we here at SWARM know a different face of the MinuteMen. We've received numerous death threats and threats of violence filled with racial slurs. We plan to publicly release these soon to let everyone know the exact kind of hatred the MinuteMen are acting as a lightning rod for, attracting it and focusing it towards migrant people.

Just as important though, the MinuteMen are a clear result of the violent, us-versus-them mentality promoted by the Bush administration.

We are intervening into and dancing with the communication systems of the MinuteMen because along with the physical violence they are creating, they are extremely conscious of the violent power their messages have and they had any measure of success thanks to the complicity the corporate media. Their communications are a critical part of their mission to send a message to legislators that more
militarization of the border is necessary. Their images and words can't be separated from the violence of their guns, and both must be stopped.

We refuse to support the United States government's attempts to find a scapegoat to blame this country's problems on while it bankrupts our social services, wages wars on the world, sends our brothers, sisters, friends and neighbors to die and profits off of the whole plan. Who stands to profit from a more militarized border? Will the same corporations that made billions in government contracts off of the war in
Iraq like Halliburton and CACI be the same ones to profit from the war on the border?

We must stand together now to say that this country is made up of millions of people of many different ethnicities and cultures and that is due to migration. Migrant people have human rights, regardless of the government's and the racist's attempts to deny that fact. Until the United
States has a sane immigration policy that allows people to move as freely as capital and goods do, we will continue to struggle.

Why should you join the Virtual Sit-In On May 27th 2005:

For Benito González Cruz, Benito González Serrano, Javier Rojas Bracamonte, Juan José Romo Zetina, José Luis Garza, Roberto Acegueda López, Román Robles Rojas, Reynaldo González Corona and the thousands of other people who have been murdered for simply trying to cross the border into what is now the United States and which was once Mexico.

Contact:

For any questions on the Electronic Disturbance Theater’s action in solidarity with SWARM the MinuteMen contact

Ricardo Dominguez (co-founder of the Electronic Disturbance Theater) at