Stop the Political Persecution and Drop the Charges against Maya!

Dear Friend,

We live in a time when standing up for what is right is crucial and also carries dangers.  Revolutionaries, like me, who come under attack in the course of this have to be supported and defended.  In this spirit we are asking you to sign this petition to drop the charges.

My name is Maya (Diya) Cruz, a member of the Revolution Club. On March 1, 2018, as part of a nationwide protest called for by Refuse Fascism, I, along with three other Revolution Club members, took part in 11 minutes of silence for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who are being terrorized in an escalating ethnic cleansing by the Trump/Pence fascist regime. Video of the action- https://youtu.be/e6eidNFACgk

The University of Chicago police brutally attacked and arrested me for participating in this SILENT protest and charged me with FELONY battery on a police officer. I’m also banned from the University of Chicago campus! Read more about the case here - https://revcom.us/a/561/outrage-maya-faces-7-years-in-prison-for-silent-protest-in-support-of-immigrants-en.html

What is being done now to immigrants is nothing short of ethnic cleansing and there is a clear message here that those trying to fight this will be criminalized. But the real criminals are in the White House! The U.S has supported death squads, dictators, coup d’etats, displaced local farms with corporations, causing extreme devastation in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. This system of capitalism-imperialism is responsible for thousands of people fleeing extreme violence and poverty, seeking asylum to feed their children and stay alive.

I am a revolutionary and a follower of Bob Avakian, the leader of the revolution and architect of the new synthesis of communism. I participated in this protest as part of building a movement for revolution, because a system that rips children from their parents’ arms at the border and cage them like dogs, a system that has over 15,0000 children held in concentration camps in unimaginable, gut-wrenching conditions, and who tear gas babies at the border is a system that needs to be overthrown! Read article here - https://revcom.us/a/566/as-migrants-march-to-the-US-en.html

The Revolution Club fights for a world without borders and wars for empire, a world where no more will anyone be considered “illegal”, a world where women are not seen as less than human, Black and Brown people are not shot down like dogs or mass incarcerated, and a world where the people are caretakers of the planet. We must not allow revolutionaries like Maya to be silenced. And we must not allow the chilling of dissent and protest on university campuses. Now is the time for all people with a sense of justice to step forward in support of Maya, and for many more people to become part of making revolution to emancipate all humanity.

WHAT YOU CAN DO NOW:

• Sign this Petition
• DONATE! https://www.fundedjustice.com/Free_Maya
• SHARE! SHARE!
• Available for speaking engagements - school, social group, church
• Help reach out to media - newspapers, college newsletters, radio/tv
• Pack the courtroom: May 15 @9:30, Court House, Room 207, 2650 S. California Ave/26th
• Get updates, email mayarevolutionclub@gmail.com