The Free Washington Project is hosting a virtual panel featuring organizers who have played integral roles in building resistance and coordinated action in Minnesota.

Panelists will share concrete strategies and lessons learned from recent actions to help mobilize communities under rapidly escalating conditions. The conversation will also explore how people in Washington can prepare our communities for coordinated, effective resistance. The event will include time for panelists to respond to written questions submitted by attendees.

Featured speakers include:

• Rabbi David Basior is Rabbi and Acting Director at Kadima Reconstructionist Community, a progressive Jewish community based in Seattle. He answered a call for religious leaders to travel to Minnesota in support of resistance to the fascist attacks launched by the Trump administration, and will share lessons learned from his three days on the ground.

• Bernie Burnham is President of the Minnesota AFL-CIO and a member of Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance. The MN AFL-CIO worked as part of a broad coalition to organize the citywide strike on Friday, January 23.

• Todd Dahlstrom is an Organizing Director of the Minnesota AFL-CIO. He has been a part of training 350 union and community members to be Union Peace Keepers.

• Mark k. Tilsen is an Oglala Lakota Poet Educator from the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He comes from activist families long steeped in the struggle for liberation for all people and the long term survival of the Lakota Nation. At Standing Rock he stepped into the role of a direct action trainer and police liaison. He has been involved in the South Minneapolis rapid response and ICE watch network.

• Friendly Vang-Johnson is a daughter of Hmong refugees and uses her skills to advance food sovereignty, racial justice and land reparations in Minneapolis and Washington State. She is the founder of Friendly Hmong Farms and the PNW BIPOC Farmland Trust. Minnesota is the home of the largest population of Hmong people where Friendly is organizing to ensure their needs are addressed.

Event Moderators:

• Cindy Domingo is a founding member of Free Washington Project and Standing for Democracy, nationally and in Washington state.

• Michael T. McPhearson is a U.S. Army veteran, Executive Director of Veterans for Peace and a founding member of Free Washington Project. Drawing on his military experience, faith, and lifelong commitment to justice, he leads national efforts to oppose war, militarism, racism, patriarchy, and authoritarianism while advocating for human rights, veteran care, and peace at home and abroad.

Registration closes Wednesday, Feb 4th, at noon.

About Free Washington Project
The Free Washington Project is a grassroots network and hub for individuals and organizations taking action against the authoritarian and anti-democratic actions of the MAGA regime. We connect across diverse organizations to uplift each other’s efforts and stand in solidarity with immigrants and targeted communities. We aim to be your go-to resource for trainings, actions, and tools that facilitate and inspire beautiful, creative, nonviolent resistance in Washington State. Join us.