Hello,

I am writing to express my solidarity and support for your protest against the racist Tom Tancredo. Racism is not "free speech" and you are to be applauded for confronting a symbol of anti-immigrant hatred.

In Arizona, we are involved in an ongoing struggle to remove the racist Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio - a symbol of racism and anti-immigrant bigotry just like Tom Tancredo. Last July Sheriff Arpaio came to Tucson to promote his book "America's Toughest Sheriff" and we disrupted his book-signing with a large, militant protest. Youth who were present at this protest bashed a Joe Arpaio pinata. The use of a pinata is a tradition in the southwest that pre-dates the conquest of the region by US expansionism.

The media responded to this pinata bashing by unleashing a massive, relentless campaign calling for the heads of those who planned the demonstration. The ferocity of the media blitzkrieg, which included radio, television, and newspapers, was frightening.

I believe this is what you are enduring now. The media is acting as a repressive arm of the state, punishing you for your bravery and resistance.

Continue your struggle against racism and all the other poisonous forms of injustice that exist. There are those of us who stand with you, united in this struggle.

Again, my sincerest expressions of solidarity.

Paul Teitelbaum

International Action Center of Tucson

http://www.iactucson.org/

Sisters and Brothers,

Every day on multiple occasions here in Southeastern Michigan and
throughout this state, nothing less than terrorist raids by ICE and
other government agencies end in the cruelest ripping apart of
families. Of course these raids against immigrant workers are being
carried out nationwide as you know. I am proud of you and your allies
at UNC who shut down the racist Tancredo. There is no "free speech"
for racists. I'm in complete solidarity with your actions and if you
need anything just let me know.

No human being is illegal!
Si Se Puede!

In unity, solidarity and struggle,
Bryan G. Pfeifer / 313-559-7074
Michigan Emergency Committee Against War and Injustice (MECAWI)
M.S. UMass Amherst
B.A. UW-Milwaukee

Philadelphia Students for a Democratic Society supports and commends all those who participated in protests against former congressman Tom Tancredo on April 14th, 2009.

A recent article by CNN highlighted a newly released report by the Department of Homeland Security and FBI titled, "Right-wing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment." The report says reasons for the increases in recruitment include anger at the new Presidential administration's "perceived stance on a range of issues, including immigration and citizenship, the expansion of social programs to minorities," economic concerns and more. It states that membership in such extremist groups increased by more than 50% between 2000 and 2008, and continues to rise. Predictably, hate crimes have also risen.

Given the history of violence against minorities in America perpetrated by such groups, it is critical that viewpoints which stoke the flames of fear and bigotry by scapegoating minorities, such as illegal immigrants, are met with firm nonviolent opposition. Philadelphia Students for a Democratic Society supports UNC SDS and all other student groups and individuals that protested the talk by former Congressman Tom Tancredo. Tancredo's far right-wing message against immigrants sows the seeds of hatred and division that too often create racist and xenophobic impressions that manifest as violent hate crimes against people of color and perceived immigrants. To counter the destructive force of such hateful, dangerous, and deceitful speech is one's moral obligation. Such protest helps ensure that UNC remains a peaceful community.

Dear Friends,

I would like to express my heartfelt support and solidarity for your action against the event hosted by
"Youth for Western Civilization" involving Congressman Tancredo at UNC-CH. You should make no apologies for shutting  down this event, even if this was not the intent. Racism deserves no platform and there is little to be gained from dialogue with people affiliated with neo-confederates and the borderline Fascist "young americans for freedom". Efforts by campus security and the administration should not deter you from acting upon your convictions. Those who raise the hue and cry about "free speech" are the very same people who compile blacklists of 'subversive' professors and enthusiastically support violent efforts to prevent progressive movements from assembly. I salute your courage and wish you all well. The rightwing extremists are running scared, as they should be!

Solidarity from Columbus, Ohio

Brian Chorley

UNC-A SDS stands in solidarity with UNC SDS in their April 14^th protest of white supremacist Tom Tancredo. We support the right of all student organizations to protest the kind of blatant racism and hatred shown by Tom Tancredo and his supporters.  We attribute the unfortunate escalation of the nonviolent protest outside the event to police aggression, and fully support the demand for a standing student review board to oversee and monitor all police conduct on campus..

Although it has been stated that it was not the intent of UNC SDS to shut down the event, UNC-A SDS understands that disrupting and shutting down Tom Tancredo’s speech is a blow against the type of white supremacist hate mongering people like him represent. We see a window being broken starkly contrasted with millions of broken homes and destroyed lives Tom Tancredo has played part in. We are against any kangaroo court action taken against our fellow activists by the UNC system,with the purpose to bypass the bounds of formal judicial process in favor of a sham designed to unfairly and unjustly punish the accused.

The heroic actions of UNC-Chapel Hill SDS stand as a shining example of the progressive fight against hate and racism that exists here in the United States. We will continue to battle these abhorrent ideas at every turn and salute UNC-Chapel Hill’s great blow against bigotry.

UNC-Asheville SDS

April 16, 2009

Dear UNC Students for a Democratic Society:

The Arab American Action Network (AAAN), a grass-roots organization that works to help
empower the Arab immigrant and Arab American community of greater Chicago, sends its
support and solidarity to the UNC Students for a Democratic Society and all the student
protestors of former congressman Tom Tancredo’s address on your campus.

As an organization that upholds the rights of immigrants and all oppressed people in the U.S.
and across the world, we support your first amendment right to protest Tancredo and the
racism, hate, and criminalization of immigrants that he represents.  White supremacist
formations like the Youth for Western Civilization, the student group that invited Tancredo,
should be confronted and denounced at every turn, and the students at UNC who participated
in these protests should be esteemed as the heroic fighters for justice that they are.

We also condemn the brutality of the UNC campus police in its attempts to silence and shut
down the protests.  Immigrants and their supporters across the country have had to endure a
climate of fear and repression for many years in this country, so we demand that the actions of
the UNC campus police be fully investigated and we support your call for a standing student
review board to oversee all police conduct on campus.

We in the International Action Center would like to congratulate the students at the University of North Carolina for their heroic confrontation with former-Rep. Tom Tancredo on April 14. While we differ with Tancredo on his whole history of political positions, the central question here is that of our solidarity with the millions of undocumented workers who have been residing in the United States and contributing to the U.S. economy

Tancredo has become a national political symbol representing intolerance and open racism toward these millions of hard-working residents of all areas of the United States, who have made enormous contributions to the growth of the U.S. economy and performed the hard labor in construction, agriculture and services that otherwise would not have been made

Tancredo recalls the role of Alabama Gov. George Wallace’s role in the 1960s. Wallace attempted to play a national political role mobilizing rabid racism behind a political campaign. Tancredo has been auditioning for that position in the current economic climate within the current political arena. His arguments are not simply an intellectual discussion of a controversial issue; they are an open call for hatred against a section of the population and should be treated like any hate speech, like the ranting of the Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan

During a time of economic crisis, with high unemployment and a feeling of despair among large sections of the population, such an attempt as Tancredo is making to use the immigrant community as a scapegoat for the crisis presents a reactionary danger to all working people. He and others like him must be stopped. Undocumented workers must be defended

Dear friends and allies,

Please bear with the long email and read all the way through- I believe that it is incredibly important for all of us to show solidarity with students and community members who stood against Tom Tancredo's racist hate speech at UNC on Tuesday night. If you have already heard about this and support the just actions of hundreds of protesters, please sign the online solidarity petition and send this link to your friends and allies: http://www.petitiononline.com/sds41409/petition.html

On Tuesday, a newly founded chapter of a white supremacist national student organization, Youth for a Western Civilization (http://www.westernyouth.org/) brought former US representative Tom Tancredo to speak at UNC Chapel Hill. His speech was supposed to cover topics like- banning the sons and daughters of immigrants from obtaining in-state tuition levels, closing down the US border with Mexico, and white-washing all immigrants before they are allowed to become "true" members of our society. In the past, he has urged the bombing of Mecca. His mass xenophobia and hate was countered by many political and social groups on UNC's campus and a diversity of tactics was used. Importantly, student leaders from several student organizations met prior to the scheduled talk to share information regarding their groups' plans of resistance.