Judith Mirkinson

Judith Mirkinson

Template:TOCnestleft Judith Mirkinson is a Bay Area activist.

Honoring Ann Fagan Ginger

Neither power outages nor fires dimmed the respect and admiration that brought folks out October 27 2019 when WILPF East Bay and San Francisco held a reception honoring long term WILPF member Ann Fagan Ginger.

Ann, Executive Director Emerita of Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute, MCLI, sentinel for human rights in Berkeley, California has successfully argued a civil liberties case in the U.S. Supreme Court. She has provided expert testimony for several U.N. Human Rights Committees, taught courses on Peace Law and Human Rights at a number of law schools and is now in the final editing of her 23rd book: Our 100 Human Rights.

When Ann spoke at our afternoon program she pointed out that few of us, especially our youth and children, are aware of all of our human rights, particularly those found in International Treaties. Our 100 Human Rights makes U.N. treaties accessible and describes each of the rights in these documents: U.S. Constitution Amendments, Statutes passed by Congress, Court Opinions, Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the U.N. Charter.

Walter Riley, MCLI Board President, spoke of Ann's continued work for peace and justice law through MCLI's involvement in local issues of housing, homelessness, and sex workers.

President of the San Francisco Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, NLG, and WILPF member, Judith Mirkinson acknowledged the relationship of international human rights and international law as the foundation of Ann's work and that women attorneys today stand on Ann's shoulders. NLG uses AFG's work to educate younger generations.

Past MCLI Board President, Steven Bingham talked of Ann's concept of using international law in American courts, of her remarkable tenacity and follow through as well as her books of history. He claimed: "Ann is a jewel in our midst!"

ON NEW AFRIKAN FREEDOM FIGHTERS DAY

Speech by Judith Mirkinson on behalf of PFOC, Los Angeles, August 21,1982,

PFOC

In 1994, Judith Mirkinson, a member of the Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, and a member of the Breakthrough editorial board, contributed an article to Forward Motion Summer issue "Building a culture of resistance".

Center for Political Education

In 2001, Judith Mirkinson of the GABRIELA Network; Jay Mendoza of the Filipino Studies Institute; and Kawal Ulanday of the Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines were in a forum entitled: "People Power Round II" The forum was held at the San Francisco based Center for Political Education, an organization closely associated with the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism.

Philippines detention

On Aug. 9 2007, Gabriela Network USA, a Philippine-U.S. women’s solidarity mass organization, announced that, “de facto President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo put three GABNet leaders on a “watch list” and preventing them from boarding their return flights to the United States. The GABNet 3—Dr. Annalisa Enrile, Ninotchka Rosca and Judith Mirkinson—were in the Philippines to attend the 10th bi-annual Women’s International Solidarity Affair.

GABNet launched a letter-writing campaign to put pressure on the U.S. government and its ambassador in the Philippines.Several organizations took up the call, including the Alliance for a Just and Lasting Peace in the Philippines and the ANSWER Coalition.

ANSWER supporters sent 1,360 faxes and 2,272 emails to their congressional representatives and to Ambassador Kristie Kenney in the Philippines.

In addition, GABNet called for emergency protests and on Aug. 13 hundreds rallied nationwide outside Filipino Consulates to demand the immediate release of the GABNet 3. The Party for Socialism and Liberation participated in protests in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and San Francisco.

Due to the determined international campaign conducted by the Gabriela Network and its supporters, on Aug. 14, the GABNet 3 boarded flights to the United States. They suffered continued harassment by immigration officials, but returned safely the same day.

Rodt conference

In 2012 Judith Mirkinson addressed the Norwegian Womens Conference, organized by Rodt magazine of the Norwegian Red Party, on the situation on "the women's struggle in the U.S".

The Red Party was formed in 2007 when the Workers Communist Party (AKP) and the Red Election Alliance (RV) dissolved to form Rødt together with AKP’s youth party Red Youth (RU) and independents.

Tragic Times, Five Times Two

Matt Meyer July 21, 2016: Tragic Times, Five Times Two;

Some thoughts on Policing, Black Lives Matter, and July 21st — with Claude Marks, Lumumba Bandele, Kazi Toure, Basir Mchawi, Judith Mirkinson, Amilcar Shabazz, Spiritchild XspiritMental, Jay-Marie Hill, Kali Akuno, Herman Bell, Monifa Bandele, Signe Harriday, Nate John Buckley, Osagyefo Sekou, Melina Abdullah, Asha Bandele, Jalil Muntaqim, Bob Lederer, Rosa Clemente, Anne Lamb, Paulette D'auteuil, David Ragland, Leslie Mac, Jared Ball, Rosa Bettina, Susan Rosenberg, Dequi Kioni-sadiki, Sundiata Acoli, Meg Starr, Brittany L. Williams, Robert Seth Hayes and Mutulu Shakur.

San Francisco statue

Steven Whyte, the Carmel-based artist who created San Francisco’s memorial, had a similar learning curve. “I was familiar with the term ‘comfort women,’ but I didn’t realize the extent of the torture,” he said. Once he saw the call for applications, he researched the topic, and wanted the job so much that he reduced his regular prices. “You think of every girl you’ve ever known—your nieces, your daughters, your girlfriends, everything. It’s desperately upsetting.”

While most of the comfort-women statues around the world have been put up by South Koreans or members of the Korean diaspora, the push for this statue was led by San Francisco’s Chinese-American community, with support from several other groups, including members of the Japanese-, Filipino-, Korean-, and Jewish-American communities, Eric Mar, who served as the city supervisor during the planning-and-design process and championed the project, said. “I thought, to be successful, we had to build a pan-Asian coalition,” he explained. Mentioning his own teen-age daughter, Mar began to weep. “It’s very emotional, for a lot of people.”

At the cavernous Cathay House restaurant, just up the street from St. Mary’s Square, Lillian Sing and Julie Tang were joined by Judith Mirkinson, the president of the board of the Comfort Women Justice Coalition.

NLGSF Board of Directors

National Lawyers Guild San Francisco July 2018:

Executive Board

• Judith Mirkinson, President
• Sara Kershnar, Vice-President
• Rachel Gendell, Treasurer
• Cat Brooks, Secretary

At Large Members

• Dennis Cunningham
• Finn Finneran
• Hasmik Geghamyan
• Terry Koch
• Karen Jo Koonan
• Rachel Lederman
• Jessica Lee
• Debra Murov
• Lori Rifkin
• Katie Tertocha

References

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