Campaign to Stop Minuteman Conference in Kansas City

The Anti-Uptown Working Group and others in the Kansas City and Lawrence communities ask you to take a stand against racist terror!

The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, an anti-immigrant armed vigilante group that patrols the U.S./Mexico border, is having their regional leadership conference in Kansas City on Feb 1st and 2nd.

Keep the pressure on: Some calls to action against the Minutemen!

Please forward widely…

The Anti-Uptown Working Group and others in the Kansas City and Lawrence
communities ask you to take a stand against racist terror!

The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps, an anti-immigrant armed vigilante group that patrols the U.S./Mexico border, is having their regional leadership conference in Kansas City on Feb 1st and 2nd.

Anti-Racists and immigrant rights supporters from Kansas City and the surrounding areas are organizing to stop this meeting from happening!

THREE THINGS YOU CAN DO TO HELP SHUT DOWN THE MINUTEMEN!

1) Keep the pressure on venues that are supporting the Minutemen Conference. The bottom line is that our pressure on the Uptown has created a climate where no major venue in KC will ever work with the Minutemen again after this conference is over.

However, the hotels they are staying in (and there is much reason to believe that one of these hotels is hosting their meeting for the second day of their conference) need to have a clear message sent to them.

The MCDC has rented a block of rooms in the following hotels. We’re calling on any and all people concerned about the Minutemen Civil Defense
Corps to bombard these hotels with phone calls:

a. Marriot – 4445 Main, Kansas City MO, 816-531-3000
b. Holiday Inn – 1 E. 45th St., Kansas City MO, 816-753-7400
c. Hyatt Regency Crown Center – 2345 McGee St., Kansas City MO 64108,
816-421-1234
d. Hampton Inn – 4600 Summit, Kansas City MO, 816-448-4600
e. Sheraton Suites – 70 W 47th, Kansas City MO, 816-931-4400

When calling, we’re asking people to be specific about their concerns:
-The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps and its members are renting rooms from
your hotel
-The Minutemen Civil Defense Corps is an anti-immigrant vigilante organization with ties to international white supremacist organizations.
-The Minutemen are coming to Kansas City to further recruit and strengthen their white supremacist agenda.
-We’re concerned with your hotel’s active support for a white supremacist organization by renting their organization rooms.
-We would ask you to take a stand against racial terror in the KC community by canceling any and all contracts that you may have the Minutemen or any attendees of their conference.
-If this is impossible, we would ask your hotel to make a public statement denouncing the Minutemen and their tactics and post this at your hotel in a public space.

Of course, in the instances that the Minutemen have rented the rooms as individuals, this won’t be as affective, but we need to demand public statements from these businesses.

2) On Friday, Feb 1st, people will meet at 4PM at Cristo Rey School (211 W. Linwood BLVD) in Kansas City and then march to the Uptown Theater (3700 Broadway St), the location of the first day of the Minutemen meeting. We are calling for you to come and join the people of Kansas City in response to the Minutemen’s racist action in our community.

3) The following day, Saturday, Feb 2nd, the Minutemen will be holding their membership-only meeting to discuss and determine their plans for 2008. This meeting will be crucial to the ability of the Minutemen to continue to function as an organization.

In response, Kansas Mutual Aid is calling on fellow anti-racists to converge on the location (TBA as these details become available, but keep this date open if you want to participate in actions to shut them down) of the meeting and help us “build a wall against racism”. We will shut this meeting down!

More details will be announced as they become available. There is room for a variety of tactics, and we are calling on anyone wishing to confront racism to join us. We encourage people to form affinity groups and take autonomous action.