 Hey, hey, ho, ho, these racist beds have got to go, hey, hey, ho, ho, these racist beds have got to go, hey, hey, ho, ho. My name's Laura. I'm with the Community Voices for Immigrant Rights. We're a grassroots organization here in Burlington, about a year old now. We formed in the wake of Trump's increasingly horrendous treatment of immigrants and the realization that we have concentration camps in our country. And we have been organizing since then, and are really just honored to be here today, to stand in solidarity with people's movements all across the country and across the world. Gotta love the tuba. Gotta love for the tuba. So I'm going to be here empty for tonight. It's going to be great. And I just want to give some context for why we're here today. And we'll have a couple speakers here, speak to us all. And then we will be marching down Church Street. And we will be educating people as we go with our chants and our flyers and a couple of little speeches in between. And then we're going to end up down at Main Street by the Democracy Sculpture, here from a couple more folks down there. So just to kick things off, I want to start off by acknowledging that we stand on unceded land, Apanaki land. The roots of American aggression and fascism are really deep. And we need to remember that this moment is not new. This moment is a continuation of so much other harm that has happened in the name of America. The reason we are here today in particular is because President Trump has unleashed federal agents from Customs Border Patrol and ICE in Portland, Oregon. And they are actively detaining and attacking protesters who are standing up for Black Lives and human rights. And as we see, though, the tactics of these federal agents are not that different from tactics of local police in handling the protests and the rebellions that have been erupting all across the country. So we cannot deny the connection between local policing and the greater militarization of the US. And this is especially important to remember when we have mayors, like the mayor of Chicago, Mayor Lightfoot, welcoming federal agents into her city to quote unquote help with real crime. And that is atrocious. And so let us not get into the habit of saying there's good cops and bad cops, whatever. Policing is problematic. We know that. And we need to stand up against it in all its forms. And just another note on this. Like I said, Lori Lightfoot, if you're not familiar with Mayor Lightfoot, she's a Democrat. So we cannot assume that Democrats alone will save us. We can't assume that voting Trump out alone will save us. We will need to be in the streets to solve this problem as long as it takes. And we owe a great debt to indigenous black immigrant and anti-war activists who have been warning us of the problem of militarization and increased surveillance of people here in this country for decades, if not longer. So to kick things off, I've got to have everything written. To kick things off, migrant justice, who we have partnered with very closely as community voices for immigrant rights on campaigns such as NoMox Polymigra and other initiatives, they are sad that they couldn't be here today, but they sent a statement to be read out. So I'm going to start with that. And then we're going to have a couple more speakers. And we're going to take the streets. All right, so this is migrant justice speaking. Thank you very much for being here tonight. And thank you to community voices for immigrant rights for planning this protest and for reading this statement. Migrant justice is a human rights organization founded and led by immigrant farm workers in Vermont. Unfortunately, we can't be with you today on the streets in Burlington, but we are with you in spirit. At this moment, organizers and leaders in migrant justice are on dairy farms around the state, distributing money from our COVID solidarity fund. We created this fund to support farm workers excluded from the government's response to this crisis. Even when they call us essential, they don't care about us. It's a lie. This country has told us time and again, that it wants our labor, but not our lives. We know from experience that when the government doesn't care about your community, you have to take matters into your own hands. That's what we are doing right now with our solidarity fund. And that's what communities are doing around the country when they hit the streets to denounce racist police violence and lift up the call to defund the police. When the systems that supposedly exist to protect us are used against us, it is time to create our own systems and protect ourselves. But we have seen that when we demand what's ours, the government is always there to try to put us down. This has happened here in Vermont. It's happening today on the streets of Portland. And unless we act, it will keep spreading. When immigrant farm workers in Vermont have spoken out to demand respect for human rights, ICE has tried to shut us up. These federal agents surveilled and infiltrated our organization. They spread lies about us to try to divide the community and they arrested dozens of our leaders, kidnapping them off farms, county roads, and from right here in Burlington. ICE tried to shut us up, but we didn't let them. When we walked down, we brought them to court and we are still fighting for our rights. Now federal immigration agents are being sent to Portland and other cities to try to shut down the national movement against police violence. They are assaulting protesters and kidnapping them off the streets. They think that they can shut us up, but we won't let them. We can't back down. We will fight back. And together we will continue to speak up and demand our rights. Cece Puede! We are going to speak up on behalf of their organization. So welcome them. Testing, is this good? I'm here on behalf of BTV Cop Watch. We're a collective who speak out for our fellow citizens by holding the cops accountable. The cops would rather not have anyone watching them. They would rather not have accountability to those who they pretend to protect and serve. If you don't believe me, come on a cop watch shift and listen to how they react to our presence. The pigs at One North Avenue have more in common with the federal agents disappearing our comrades in Portland than they do with you and me. Just like the feds arresting people for knocking on the door of federal property, someone got arrested for knocking on the courthouse door. DPD values private property over the lives of most citizens of Burlington. How can you explain the continued presence of abusive pigs, Joseph Corral, Jason Belvance, and Corey Campbell on the BPD roster? They value private property over the lives of black men. How can you explain their outright resistance to implement migrant justice's policy, no-moss polymigra, barring BPD from collaborating with ICE and Border Patrol? They'd rather be able to call ICE to deport our comrades, consequence for even protect anyone who isn't white. All of this takes place in a nation founded on stolen land built by stolen people. How can cops claim to be arbiters of peace and justice while defending the institutions that sprang from native genocide and slavery? Because to acknowledge the hypocrisy inherent in their position would undermine the authority they so desperately cling to. BPD, you protect property and serve the wealthy. When those who claim to protect and serve the people unite with Donald Trump's government to shoot rubber bullets into tear gas clouds, they must find a new job or admit where their loyalties truly lie. The one and only thing the thin blue line separates from is our shared humanity. Just like ICE, the Border Patrol, cops exist to divide and conquer, quote, dangerous classes, end quote, as has been the case since their inception. Their jobs are unnecessary for anything other than the continued maintenance of capitalism. They defend the system that is sacrificing countless lives to keep the wheels of commerce spinning greased with our blood. While the majority of us struggle to get through this pandemic alive, they defend the Jeff Bezos' of this world, those who aspire for trillions of dollars. Truly, pigs protect the wealthy and serve the rest of humanity as if we were objects to be bought and sold. From here on occupied Endocana, home of the Avanaki on Turtle Island, we stand in solidarity with all of us fighting for justice. We ask that you stand with us tomorrow in Montpelier. At 11 a.m. at the State House lawn, we will be staging a counter protest of a quote, blue lives matter, end quote, military, solidarity. Thank you so much. All right, next. Next and last speaker for now is Keena from Peace and Justice Center, also a amazing member of Community Voices for Immigrant Rights. Thank you for being here today. Well, thank you everybody for being here today. To speak out against injustice is a fundamental right that we are all supposed to have. The fact that it's being, the fact that it's being encroached on is horrific, but it is not anything that is new. During the civil rights era cops hosed black people and stuck dogs on them when they demanded equality. Protesters at Standing Rock are arrested and detained for trying to protect their land. The attack on people of color who dare to advocate for ourselves is nothing new. The fact that this is happening now when, yes, people of all races, but primarily people of color is being led by people of color are advocating for simply just our right to live, our right to not die. It's nothing new. And I think that for a lot of people of color in this town and across the country, we know this and we know this to be true. The only reason that people are waking up to it now is because, thankfully, what's happening now has been a very multi-racial effort. And so now that white people are on the lines and white people are experiencing it and white people can say, oh yeah, this is real, now people care and now people wanna do something about it. And it's great because change is happening and change is important, but whether it's today or whatever actions you're doing in the future, remember that it's important to listen to people of color because it is true. When you didn't stand up for us then, they are now coming for you. And they will continue to come for you if you don't help protect and advocate for all people before it reaches your front door. Thank you, Kena. That was really powerful. All right, y'all. We're gonna march. Woo! So just a little bit about this march. We'd love it for this lovely banner to lead us down the street. We will be marching down Church Street. We have, you know, we're really hoping to reach the people who are there. This is an issue that we all need to be caring about and concerned about and fighting back against. Like Kena said, if we don't fight back now, they're coming for us all. So this banner's gonna lead the way. We'll be stopping at the intersections to hear some more powerful words from people along the way. So just be heads up about that. Maybe try and circle around. We've got marshals who'll be helping to block the streets. So we're gonna keep it safe. And then, yeah, let's do it. Ashley, a chant. Let's go. Hey, hey, oh, oh, these racist men, these racist men have got to go. Hey, hey, oh, oh, these racist men have got to go. Hey, hey, oh, oh, these racist men have got to go. Hey, hey, oh, oh, these racist men have got to go. Hey, hey, these racist men have got to go. Hey, hey, these racist men have got to go. Hey, hey, oh, oh, these racist men have got to go. Hey, hey, oh, oh, these racist men have got to go. Hey, hey. I would like to have a better visual. If you're crowded up there, feel free to filter in. Filter in. Woo! I'm just going to say one thing about where we are. Okay. Um, because Leahy's office is in this building, Senator Leahy. And I think it's important to point out, um, with this protest and, um, that Leahy, Senator Leahy is largely responsible for bringing the ICE data center to Williston, Vermont. Whoa! And the F30. I don't like that. Later. But for now, I also want to introduce Marguerite from People for Peace and Security to come up and talk to us. And I am a member of People for Peace and Security, the Women's International Leads for Peace and Freedom, and the Champlain Valley Chapter of Amnesty International. You know, the harrowing scenes of paramilitary-style units in the streets of American cities like Portland has shocked so many of us in America. But that's kind of ironic, because while we're shocked, those who work and report on border security and immigration and human rights here and internationally will tell you that this is actually how the U.S. has and is operating around the world. A recent international poll listed the U.S. as the most feared nation in the world. And we need to own up to our own rights-violating, war-based foreign policy and its connections to militarized policing and racism here at home. We need to remember Martin Luther King Jr.'s radical call to action against what he called the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism. Since the beginning of the Trump administration, U.S. military spending has increased by more than 100 billion, almost 20 percent. And there is no other part of the federal budget that even has increased anywhere near that amount, not education, not housing, not public health. So the images in the news of police and federal agents wearing helmets and masks, toting assault rifles and riding in mine-resistant armored vehicles are not isolated incidents. They represent a long-time national trend toward militarization. Federal programs provide surplus military equipment to police departments, and they've outfitted officers with firepower that is far beyond what is necessary for their jobs to protect our community. The change in equipment actually parallels a corresponding change in attitude. Police and federal agents conceive of themselves at war with communities, rather than as public servants who are concerned about keeping communities safe. We need to advocate for a return to a less dangerous, more collective style of policing, and we should not be mistaking our police officers for soldiers. For many of us locally in Vermont, the F-35 stands for what is wrong in the U.S. in terms of militarization and capitalism. The community surrounding the Burlington International Airport boated against placing the F-35 in exorbitantly expensive, dangerous, health-damaging, environment-damaging instrument of war, and they placed it in our densely populated communities where, if there is a crash or accident, it is sure to result in death and toxicity to the environment. Our voices and our votes have not been heard or acknowledged. Instead, the military-industrial complex has won out, taking more than half of our tax dollars, dollars that we cannot spend on mental health, education, health care, environmental programs, economic justice programs, and more. Follow the money, folks. It's going to the military-industrial complex. And many individuals have told us that we should just give up the fight against the F-35. It's a done deal. But you see, that's the good thing about being an American. We don't have to give up fighting for what we believe is right. That's right. And on this 100th anniversary of women's suffrage, it's good to remember that we must fight for what we believe in and value, and of course, we must vote. In fact, we must vote out those who would support policies that deploy Gestapo-like tactics on the streets of American cities. We must vote out those who support the tear-gassing of mothers and fathers who are protecting the protesters. We must vote out those who send federal agents where local and state authorities don't want them. And we must vote out those who continue to give more and more money to the military-industrial complex. What we must vote for instead is to give money to peace and to policies that benefit people and our planet. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, comrades. That was an education. Okay, so next up, we're going to have Wafiq Fawor representing the Monters for Peace in Palestine. Give him a hand. If you ask why somebody like me here, because if you think of the indigenous people, you have to think about the Palestinian, the indigenous people of Palestine. If you believe of the rights of our black and brown sisters, you have to think about the black and brown of Palestine. If you believe on the right of the migrants, our sisters and brothers on the farm, you have to think of the checkpoints the Palestinians are standing every day on their own land. My sister here reminded us of the FTA 5. It has been used for the first time on Gaza Strip. What is Gaza? It's the black and brown people of the Palestinians who are in a prison, 2 million people on the largest open air prison. I will never be free as long as our black people, our black sisters and brothers are not free. I will never be free as long as our migrants getting shot and jail on this country. I will never be free as long as our indigenous people not recognized as the people of this land. Most of your police department and the federal forces we're talking and demonstrating against today, every department had been trained on Israel. Every department including in your school, the chief of police in UVM visited Israel and studied security over there. And they have contract with Israel for their software security. If you think your tax money 3.8 billion dollars can come back and help our people over here. Instead of coming over there and killing us, for all of you, for my sisters and brothers of white people, please listen to us for a change. Listen to us. The white supremacy here is no different than the white supremacy over there. That's right. Until you recognize this, nothing will happen. Thank you. Give him a hand. Brothers, sisters and siblings, Trump is desperate. The pandemic, the recession and the uprising for black lives have undermined Trump's popularity and wrecked his credibility. Trump's polls are plummeting across the country, even in red states. To salvage his failing regime and hopes for reelection, he has turned to law and order racism and repression. He tried to send the military first, but the general said no. So now he's deployed federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security to try and crush the protests in Portland, Oregon. Now he wants to send them to Chicago, to New York, to Oakland and over a dozen more cities across the country. These thugs evoke the memories of the Gestapo. Their uniforms do not have identification. They patrol in unmarked vans. They pack military-grade weaponry. They have tear gas protesters beating them and detain them without any charge in undisclosed locations. Trump hoped this state repression would intimidate the people of Portland, but a strategy backfired. The movement has grown bigger and broader. Parents have formed a wall of moms and a wall of dads. To protect activists from Trump's stormtroopers, dads in an incredible, eventful and creative idea showed up with leaf blowers to disperse the tear gas. And the protests have become so large and so militant that they have forced the feds to retreat to their headquarters. We must rise up against the deployment of Trump's stormtroopers everywhere. In the words of the anti-fascist movement in Spain against Franco in the 1930s, we must say, no pasaran, you shall not pass. But who are these stormtroopers? What do they usually do? They all come from the Department of Homeland Security. It was formed as part of the so-called war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq. But we know that was all based on lies. It has nothing to do with terrorism and it's everything to do with empire and oil. The U.S. set up the DHS to be the domestic arm of its war abroad. It houses customs and border protection, ICE, and ICE's border tactical unit called BORTECH, which is exactly what they've deployed in Portland, Oregon. They usually police the borders, surveil, arrest, and deport undocumented immigrants, Arabs, and Muslims. Trump has turned this giant apparatus of repression against the Black Lives Matter uprising and against all of us. As Martin Luther King said during the war in Vietnam, the bombs dropped abroad, explode at home. Thankfully, the Democratic Party has protested the deployment of these paramilitary forces in Portland. But let's be honest about the Democrats. They supported the establishment of DHS. Obama used ICE to deport more immigrants than any president in U.S. history. The good Senator Leahy secured the contracts for the DHS offices and the ICE offices out in Williston. We should know those ICE offices in Williston centralize information nationally on undocumented workers and turn them over to ICE agents all across the country. Leahy has that responsibility. He is guilty of aiding and abetting Trump. And even worse, Democrats like the mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot, have now announced that they're going to collaborate with the deployment of the troops in Chicago. She claims she supports it for policing violent crime in her city. In other words, she will aid and abet federal police brutality carried out by Trump's stormtroopers. Luckily, other Democratic governors and mayors oppose the deployment of them. But they don't do so on anti-racist grounds. They say that their state troopers and local police can control protests and fight crime. That is no alternative. We don't want state troopers and local cops repressing our protests and policing our cities. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution. But we should know Trump won't listen to the Democrats anyway. He will deploy his stormtroopers if we do not rise up and resist. We have no choice but to follow the example of Portland and protest in bigger numbers against the federal and local police. We have a responsibility in particular in Vermont. We must protest at the ICE and DHS offices in Williston. They help Trump carry out the repression in our state and across the country. We all have a stake in this fight. That's why Community Voices for Immigrant Rights is calling for an open planning meeting to organize a demonstration out at the ICE and DHS offices in Williston. As Martin Luther King declared, a threat to justice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Trump is threatening immigrants, black people, Muslims and Arabs. He is equally threatening everyone's right to assemble and protest for justice, equality and freedom. Think about it. All the money wasted on racist repression and policing at the border and across the country could go to jobs programs, could go to healthcare, could go to a grand new deal and could go to social services. That's what we all need amidst this pandemic and recession. That's why we have to unite to fight to defund and abolish DSA, DHS. We have to unite to defund and abolish ICE. We have to unite to defund and abolish the police departments in the United States. We have to build our money and pay reparations to black people and other groups oppressed in this country and internationally. And let's spend that money to put people's needs in the environment first. Jane has to protest ICE and DHS. No Trump. No KKK. No fascist USA. No Trump. No KKK. No fascist USA. No Trump. No KKK. No fascist USA. No Trump. No KKK. No fascist USA. No Trump. No KKK. No fascist USA. No Trump. No KKK. No fascist USA. No Trump. You're here tonight, but like Ashley said, this is just the beginning. This is not an end. And so please take the energy you're feeling right now, the things that you've learned, the new just experiences you're having today and know that we are gonna come back bigger and stronger and better next time. So please join us Monday, August 3rd, 6 p.m. There'll be a Zoom link. Check the Facebook page, it'll be there. And just wanna say that, see a lot of cool folks taking photos. So if you could drop those photos in a Facebook event or Community Voices for Urgent writes Facebook page or if you're not on Facebook, Keena at Peace and Justice Center is happy to have them in her inbox, which is program at PJCVT.org. So thank you. So thank you. And actually to get us moving. Hey, hey, hello, the racist feds have got to go, hey, hey, the racist feds have got to go, hey, hey, hello, the racist feds have got to go, hey, hey, hello, the racist feds have got to go, hey, hey, hello.