Resolutions and Statements

Resolution adopted by the State Central Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party, Sacramento, California, April 12, 2010:

Whereas, Lynne Stewart is a long time activist and fighter for human and civil rights, and

Whereas, Lynne Stewart, a 70-year-old People’s Lawyer, has been convicted and disbarred as a lawyer, had her bail suddenly and unexpectedly revoked in November 2009, and is now imprisoned, in a continuing government attempt to threaten and intimidate all lawyers; and

Whereas, in a dangerous and unprecedented higher-court ruling, Lynne Stewart has been ordered to be re-sentenced with a much harsher sentence then the already outrageous 28 months she is currently serving; and

Whereas, it is critical that these attacks be challenged by working class political organizations in the United States, and

Whereas, the Peace and Freedom Party recognizes that Lynne Stewart is a political prisoner who spent decades as an attorney defending the rights of the politically persecuted and the disenfranchised, and became a victim of the Patriot Act and its champion, Attorney General John Ashcroft; and

Whereas, at the original Lynne Stewart sentencing Judge John G. Koeltl noted that there was no evidence that her actions caused any harm, and added that during her long career of representing unpopular clients, Lynne Stewart had "performed a public service, not only to her clients, but to the nation"; and

Whereas, her incarceration has deprived the working people and the oppressed in the United States an advocate and these attacks have intimidated lawyers throughout the United States from representing and defending political activists, Muslim Americans and immigrants, and

Whereas, the Obama administration and US Attorney General Eric Holder have continued the use of repressive legislation and continue efforts to destroy democratic rights through violating basic democratic rights by intercepting communication between attorneys and clients, and

Whereas, there has been continued support by the Obama administration for the so-called "Patriot Act", the "Anti-Terrorism Act" and other repressive acts that have been used to retaliate against political opponents and Muslim Americans,

Therefore Be it resolved, That the Peace and Freedom Party protests and condemns Lynne Stewart’s unjust imprisonment and unprecedented re-sentencing, and that the Peace and Freedom Party endorses the campaign to free her, and calls for her release, and that the Peace and Freedom Party endorses the campaign to free her and the repeal of all laws that take away the democratic and civil rights of people in the United States.