Direct Action for Freedom of Movement (Tucson and Salt Lake City)

No One Is Illegal - No One is Criminal

“remember those walls you built? / well baby they’re crumbling down
they didn’t even put up a fight / they didn’t even make a sound...”

On Wednesday, June 29th, a group of autonomously organized Tucson community members entered the offices of international private security firm G4S. Organized under the banner Direct Action for Freedom of Movement, the action was meant to demonstrate our opposition to the company’s profiteering off of criminalization of immigrant communities and the expansion of the prison-industrial complex, as well as its’ role in the proliferation of policies such as Arizona’s SB1070 through its’ membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The action was also taken in solidarity with six individuals who locked down at the Border Patrol headquarters in Tucson last summer who were in court at the time of yesterday’s action.

Unfurling banners reading “Prison Profiteers Destroy Communities”, “Take Direct Action to End Border Militarization”, and “Direct Action for Freedom of Movement”, the group attempted to deliver a letter to company representatives before asking for ten seconds of silence to remember those who have been separated from families, died the desert or been locked in cages as a result of militarization and criminalization. After G4S employees refused the accept the letter or honor the ten seconds of silence, the protesters commenced ten minutes of noise, with chants including “No Borders, No Nations, Stop Deportations”.

Although the protesters were never asked to leave the building, and were there only 10 minutes, the Tucson Police cited 16 individuals for criminal trespassing after a two hour detention in a nearby parking lot.

Simultaneously, in Salt Lake City, Utah, dozens of demonstrators protested at the national headquarters of Management and Training Corporation, the third largest private prison company in the country. MTC is a member of ALEC and has given campaign contributions to Arizona Senator Russel Pearce (also an ALEC member), sponsor of SB1070.

Protesters brought the following two demands to the MTC. 1.) Close all their prisons, starting with the Willacy processing center in Raymondville, Texas (the largest immigration facility in the country) 2.) Take the $121 million from their U.S. Government contract and and pay retributions to the the communities that are being impoverished in Mexico by NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement).

Stories of deportation and detention were read loudly in the offices to make the prison profiteers confront the voices that they silence. They were escorted out of the offices but were met by supportive motorists and neighboring business who were more receptive to their message. One passerby stopped and profusely thanked protesters for being there. Protesters carried banners and chanted slogans in opposition to the Prison Industrial Complex and the Border Industrial Complex. Signs read “Borders, No Prisons”, “No one is illegal, No one is criminal”, “Abolish Prisons”, “Management and Training Corporation funds racist legislation” and “Management and Training Corporation (MTC) profits from destroying families.” The protesters read first-hand accounts of deportation and detention, shedding light on the human rights abuses in which Management and Training Corporation is implicated.

As these actions came to an end, so did the trial of the BP6, with a verdict of Not Guilty of disorderly conduct for all defendants. Press releases from the BP6 and organizers of the Tucson and Salt Lake City actions are included below.

Direct Action for Freedom of Movement signals an attempt to better disrupt and expose the corporate interests behind militarization and criminalization. The choice to place the spotlight on G4S and MTC came not only from their role as prison profiteers, but also as a result of their membership in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

ALEC operates as a mechanism for corporate influence on legislation by bringing together business interests and state legislators and drafting “model legislation.” Private sector members include Corrections Corporation of America, GEO Group, G4S, MTC and others with a direct stake in the expansion of the prison-industrial complex. SB1070 was derived from model legislation developed by ALEC and brought back to Arizona by legislative member Russel Pearce. In past decades, ALEC has been involved in the proliferation of policies that led to a dramatic increase in incarceration such as three-strikes laws. Now, as private prison companies look to immigration detention as their opportunity for further profit, ALEC is serving a similar role, pushing policies that further militarization, criminalization, and the expansion of the PIC.

We seek to make clear the connections between prison and border profiteering and the proliferation of state legislation that criminalizes immigrants and funnels them into the jails and detention facilities of the very companies who wrote and lobbied for that legislation. So long as this pattern continues, G4S can expect to see actions like today’s multiply and escalate.

Expect more Direct Action for Freedom of Movement in the future.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall.
DAFM.

For more information, please see:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/6084/corporate_con_game
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741
www.survivalsolidarity.wordpress.com
http://oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com
http://firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com
http://chaparralrespectsnoborders.blogspot.com