June, 02 2020, 12:00am EDT

NLG Statement on the President's Unlawful Declaration of Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization
In the long history of protest, governments have often sought to discredit political activists who challenge the status quo. President Donald Trump's recent declaration, that "Antifa"--shorthand for "anti-fascist"--is a domestic terrorist organization, is no departure from this tradition.
WASHINGTON
In the long history of protest, governments have often sought to discredit political activists who challenge the status quo. President Donald Trump's recent declaration, that "Antifa"--shorthand for "anti-fascist"--is a domestic terrorist organization, is no departure from this tradition. As protests continue to erupt around the country in response to the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis Police officer on May 25, people of all classes, races, genders, and political orientations are expressing outrage and grief in the streets and on social media. The demonstrators have been repeatedly and violently attacked by heavily militarized police departments using an array of tactics--including chemical weapons during a global pandemic--against people in the streets. In an effort to shift blame away from legitimate calls for racial justice and the violent police response to protests, the President is using his bully pulpit to obscure the fact that these demonstrations are supported by a broad majority of Americans.
The term Antifa originates in the 1930s when progressive activists organized to oppose far-right authoritarianism emerging throughout the world. In recent history, some have re-adopted the phrase as a political orientation opposed to the re-emergent ultranationalism in the US and throughout Europe and Latin America. Contrary to the suggestions of Trump and many of the right-wing politicians who support his presidency, Antifa has no leaders and it is not a formal organization, although activists who identify with the term often favor direct action instead of policy reform, as well as autonomous mutual aid. It is not clear who or what the targets of a federal Antifa investigation would be, and whether such an effort would be lawful.
"When police continue to murder Black people with impunity and when calls for systemic change to policing and structural racism are ignored, popular unrest is inevitable," said National Lawyers Guild legal worker Kris Hermes. "Federal investigations and the targeting of antifa will unfortunately result in increased surveillance and repression, and must be resisted."
While the Department of Justice (DOJ) can indict people on federal terrorism charges, no clear legal authority exists for the President to designate Antifa a "domestic terrorist organization." Nevertheless, Attorney General William Barr quickly followed Trump's declaration with an official statement announcing that the DOJ would use its existing network of 56 FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) offices to investigate Antifa. DOJ investigations will only serve to harass protesters and provide the state with additional means to prosecute political activists. The Trump administration's threats are nothing more than political theater and an attempt to sow division and intimidate those who exercise their right to fight injustice.
"Trump's declaration that Antifa is a domestic terrorist organization has no basis in fact or law and is merely an attempt to criminalize ordinary people who are exercising their right to protest," said NLG Mass Defense Director Tyler Crawford, "The NLG condemns any such attempts by the government to interfere with the right of the people to have their voices heard in demanding justice for George Floyd and an end to racist police violence."
The NLG will continue to oppose any attempts to exploit this crisis to repress political activism and social justice movements working to end to white supremacy. The Trump administration continues to ignore the ongoing injustice wrought on Black communities by institutional racism, including police brutality, in favor of seeking to physically or politically punish those who are part of anti-racist and anti-fascist movements. The NLG will continue to provide legal support to activists as they take to the streets to call for justice for George Floyd, from Minneapolis to Washington, D.C. and many other cities.
Related Links & Resources:
- NLG Know Your Rights Guides
- Directory of NLG Chapters
- NLG Mass Defense Program
- Movement for Black Lives
- Law for Black Lives
- Directory of US bail funds by the National Bail Fund Network
- Black Lives Matter petition to #DefundThePolice
- 6/1/20: NLG Condemns Violent Police Response to Black Lives Matter Protests Nationwide
- 5/28/20: NLG in Solidarity with Minneapolis Following Police Killing of George Floyd
The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) works to promote human rights and the rights of ecosystems over property interests. It was founded in 1937 as the first national, racially-integrated bar association in the U.S.
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Nebraska Women Gets Two Years in Prison After Giving Abortion Pills to Teen Daughter
"In this particular case, here's the audacity: Self-managed abortion is not even a crime in fucking Nebraska," said one rights advocate.
Sep 22, 2023
Amid a wave of right-wing efforts to quash abortion rights across the United States, a Nebraska judge on Friday sentenced Jessica Burgess to two years in prison after helping her teenage daughter end her pregnancy and bury the remains in early 2022.
Police have said that over two years ago, then-17-year-old Celeste Burgess took abortion pills—provided by her mother—at approximately 29 weeks pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn fetus, which the pair burned and buried in Norfolk, Nebraska.
Celeste Burgess was sentenced to 90 days behind bars and released earlier this month. Tanner Barnhill, who pleaded no contest to attempting to conceal a death for helping with the burial, was sentenced to nine months of probation and 40 hours of community service.
Jessica Burgess, who took a plea deal, faced up to five years in prison. She pleaded guilty to providing an abortion after 20 weeks of gestation, tampering with human remains, and false reporting. As Jezebelnoted, the 42-year-old was charged even though the state's 20-week ban that was in effect at the time applied to "licensed abortion providers, not people self-managing their own terminations."
As Rafa Kidvai, director of If/When/How's Repro Legal Defense Fund—which is not representing Jessica Burgess—put it to Jezebel, "In this particular case, here's the audacity: Self-managed abortion is not even a crime in fucking Nebraska."
"None of this is about justice or safety or someone's health or society being better or kinder or safer—this is about control from the state," Kidvai argued. "Everything is a distraction, including conversations around gestational age... They're distracting you constantly by telling you that your individual choices are the problem, not the systems that keep you oppressed."
The Appeal reported Friday that "abortions after 21 weeks rarely occur within the United States, accounting for just 1% of all abortions. It is unclear when Celeste first knew she was pregnant. Police say Celeste, then 17, got an ultrasound showing she was 23 weeks pregnant on March 8, 2022."
"That same month, police say Jessica Burgess ordered abortion pills online. But the medication took about six weeks to arrive," the outlet added. "[Celeste] Burgess stated in court that she wanted to end her pregnancy because she was in an abusive relationship and did not want to share a child with the man who impregnated her."
While Celeste Burgess' stillbirth occurred a couple of months before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, abortion rights advocates have connected the Nebraska mother and daughter's cases to a broader assault on reproductive freedom since the right-wing justices' Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organizationdecision.
Nebraska is among several states that have tightened abortion restrictions since June 2022. In May, Republican Nebraska Gov. Jim Pillen signed a bill banning abortion at 12 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, and to save the life of the pregnant person—a measure which has taken effect but that rights group are fighting in state court.
The Burgesses' cases have also heightened concerns about digital communications, given that police obtained and Facebook parent company Meta complied with a search warrant for their private messages. Further, there are rising fears that U.S. law enforcement may eventually try to use new laboratory methods allegedly developed by researchers in Poland—which has outlawed most abortions—to detect medication commonly used to end pregnancies in biological specimens.
Across the United States from 2000 to 2020, "at least 61 people were criminally investigated or arrested for ending their own pregnancies or helping someone else do so," according to a report released this month by Pregnancy Justice and other groups. From 2006 to 2020, "more than 1,300 people were arrested in relation to their conduct during pregnancy," including people who experienced miscarriages and stillbirths but were suspected of self-managing abortions.
Emma Roth, senior staff attorney at Pregnancy Justice, told The Appeal that "even if the state's law does not criminalize abortion itself, prosecutors will still seek other creative ways to try to incarcerate, shame, or make a case out of that person."
"Prosecutors will charge anything that they can think of when what they're actually trying to criminalize is what they view as immoral conduct," Roth stressed. With the Burgesses, she said, "the prosecutor's whole case was about shaming somebody for being a young teenager and having an abortion later on in pregnancy. These prosecutions create a culture of fear."
Nebraska is one of multiple U.S. states where reproductive rights advocates are currently working to put a question on 2024 ballots regarding an amendment to the state constitution that would protect the right to abortion.
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Biden to 'Join the Picket Line and Stand in Solidarity' With Striking Autoworkers
"This is unprecedented: a sitting president showing up on the picket lines with workers," said Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal.
Sep 22, 2023
In a historic move, U.S. President Joe Biden vowed Friday to travel to Michigan next week and stand with striking United Auto Workers members, an announcement that came just hours after union autoworkers widened their strike to include all U.S. General Motors and Stellantis parts distribution centers.
"Tuesday, I'll go to Michigan to join the picket line and stand in solidarity with the men and women of UAW as they fight for a fair share of the value they helped create," Biden said on social media. "It's time for a win-win agreement that keeps American auto manufacturing thriving with well-paid UAW jobs."
Last Friday, Biden called on automakers to share more of their windfall with UAW workers, who are seeking better pay and benefits.
"Auto companies have seen record profits... They have not been shared fairly with workers," the president said. "I understand the workers' frustration. Over generations, autoworkers have sacrificed so much to keep the industry alive and strong, especially during the economic crisis and the pandemic."
"The companies have made some significant offers," Biden added. "But I believe they should go further to ensure that record corporate profits mean record contracts for the UAW."
Biden—who is seeking reelection next year—is a self-described "pro-labor president" but his response to the UAW is notably different from last year, when he came under fire for signing legislation to block a nationwide rail strike.
At noon Eastern time this Friday, workers at all 38 GM and Stellantis parts distribution facilities across the U.S. walked off the job as the UAW escalated its strike.
"We will shut down parts distribution until those two companies come to their senses and come to the table with a serious offer," UAW president Shawn Fain said in a video update. "The plants that are already on strike will remain on strike."
Fain said Ford was spared the escalation because UAW and company negotiators were making "real progress" at the bargaining table.
While some striking workers said they'd prefer the president didn't join them, others welcomed the solidarity.
"Me personally, I wouldn't mind if Biden stepped up and showed some support," 55-year-old Laura Zielinski of Toledo, Ohio, toldReuters earlier this week, recalling 2010, when he was vice president and visited her city's Stellantis assembly plant.
"Support like that would put a spotlight on the talks—kind of give a nudge to the companies," she added.
Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said Friday on social media that it was "unprecedented" for a sitting U.S. president to join striking workers on a picket line.
Jeremi Suri, a historian and presidential scholar at the University of Texas at Austin, toldReuters the last time it happened was probably in 1902, when then-President Theodore Roosevelt invited striking coal miners to the White House.
"This would be a major, major shift for Biden to identify the presidency with striking workers," said Suri, "rather than siding with industry or staying above the fray."
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"Netanyahu made clear with his little map today what normalization really seeks: eliminating Palestine... from the region and legitimizing greater Israel, all with the blessing of Arab regimes," one critic said.
Sep 22, 2023
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu angered Palestinians and their defenders Friday after presenting a map of "The New Middle East" without Palestine during his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
Speaking to a largely empty chamber, Netanyahu—whose far-right government is widely considered the most extreme in Israeli history—showed a series of maps, including one that did not show the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Gaza. These Palestinian territories have been illegally occupied by Israel since 1967, with the exception of Gaza—from which Israeli forces withdrew in 2005, while maintaining an economic stranglehold over the densely populated coastal strip.
Middle East Eyereported Netanyahu also held up a map of "Israel in 1948"—the year the modern Jewish state was established, largely through the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Arabs—that erroneously included the Palestinian territories as part of Israel.
Palestinian Ambassador to Germany Laith Arafeh said on social media that there is "no greater insult to every foundational principle of the United Nations than seeing Netanyahu display before the UNGA a 'map of Israel' that straddles the entire land from the river to the sea, negating Palestine and its people, then attempting to spin the audience with rhetoric about 'peace' in the region, all the while entrenching the longest ongoing belligerent occupation in today's world."
As Middle East Eye noted:
The inclusion of Palestinian lands (and sometimes land belonging to Syria and Lebanon) in Israeli maps is common among believers of the concept of Eretz Yisrael—Greater Israel—a key part of ultra-nationalist Zionism that claims all of these lands belong to a Zionist state.
Earlier this year, Netanyahu's finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, spoke from a podium adorned with a map that also included Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria as part of Greater Israel. In the same event, he said there was "no such thing as Palestinians."
The use of such maps by Israeli officials comes at a time when Netanyahu's ultra-nationalist government has taken steps that experts say amount to the "de jure annexation" of the occupied West Bank.
Netanyahu used the maps in an attempt to illustrate the increasing number of Arab countries normalizing relations with Israel under the Abraham Accords brokered by the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump.
"There's no question the Abraham Accords heralded the dawn of a new age of peace," the Israeli prime minister said. "But I believe that we are at the cusp of an even more dramatic breakthrough, an historic peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia will truly create a new Middle East."
Critics have countered that peace between apartheid Israel and Arab dictatorships has come at the cost of advancing Palestinian rights. In the case of Morocco, the United States recognized the North African nation's illegal annexation and brutal occupation of Western Sahara in exchange for normalization with Israel.
Netanyahu's props on Friday reminded numerous observers of the time during his 2012 General Assembly speech when he used a cartoon drawing of a bomb to illustrate Iran's progress on advancing a nuclear weapons program that both U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies said did not exist.
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