Solidarity Picket for Russian Leftists, Feminists, Queers Facing Repression

Bay Area Freedom Socialist Party

Press Release
November 27, 2012

Contact: Toni Mendicino, organizer

Office: 415-864-1278

Cell: 415-730-2917

Email: t_mendicino [at] yahoo.com

For release: Immediately

Do not use after: November 30, 2012

RE: Solidarity Picket for Russian Socialists, Anarchists, Feminists and LGBT Activists Facing Repression

San Francisco. Friday, November 30, 2012, 11:00am-1:00pm.

Bay Area in Solidarity with Russian Leftists Facing Repression by Putin Government

Community groups, feminists, socialists, leftists, queers and concerned individuals in the Bay Area will picket outside the Russian Consulate as part of a worldwide call to action in support of Russian activists facing repression and jail by the Putin government. Held on Friday, November 30, the picket will protest President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing campaign to threaten, beat, arrest and jail members of the Left Front, the Russian Socialist Movement, Occupy Moscow, LGBT, feminist and human rights groups, and other socialist and anarchist organizations opposed to authoritarian rule. Protesters in Russia are facing the same punishment as the feminist punk band Pussy Riot defendants, who in August received two-year sentences for chanting a prayer (“Virgin Mary: Rid Us of Putin”) in a nearly empty Moscow cathedral. Convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” defendants Maria Alyokhina and Nadezda Tolokonnikova are imprisoned in Perm and Mordovia. The picket will take place on Friday, November 30, 11:00am-1:00pm at the Russian Consulate, 2790 Green Street (at Baker Street) in San Francisco (on #41 & #45 Muni bus lines). Initiated by the Freedom Socialist Party. Call 415-730-2917 or email t_mendicino [at] yahoo.com for more information or to set up an interview.

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