Jeanette Rishell, Unity in the Community and the EZLN
By Greg L | 20 September 2006 | Zapatistas, Jeanette Rishell, 50th HOD District | 5 Comments
John Steinbach, former Unity In The Community Chairman, with Mexicanos Sin Fronteras activists at Manassas City Hall protest
On January 9th, an assortment of activist groups descended on Manassas City Hall to protest an overcrowding ordinance. There has never been an account of how all of these organizations came together, and the degree to which they shared resources, leadership and policy objectives. So far, no one has stood up to take credit for organizing this effort. But at BVBL, we think we know who deserves that credit.
Part of the protests at Manassas City Hall on January 6th involved coordinating all of the various organizations involved with a joint statement. That statement was ostensibly drafted and circulated by “Unity in the Community” who had several members speak at the council meeting, including their spokesman Dexter Fox and Kathy Clark, president of Unity in the Community. Yet the lead speaker at the event was Ms. Jeanette Rishell, who also wrote in the February 2006 edition of “Crossroads” about the event as a “social justice” committee representative.
In that newsletter. Ms. Rishell identified the organizations who signed the joint statement:
The following community groups and organizations also signed this Declaration of Concern:
Barrios Unidos, Inc., Equality Prince William, HOLA (Hispanic Outreach, Leadership and Action), LULAC (League of Latin American Citizens), Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, Saint Francis Outreach of St. Francis of Assisi Parish, Social Justice Committee of Bull Run Unitarian Universalists, and the Woodbridge Workers Committee. (emphasis added)
It is worth noting that Ms. Rishell organized fundraising for Mexicanos Sin Fronteras by the BRUU Social Justice Committee and has been coordinating material support for the Woodbridge Workers Committee, a project of Mexicanos Sin Fronteras. She is a former chairman of Unity In The Community, a top recipient of campaign donations by the Virginia Partisans Democratic Gay & Lesbian Club (which is associated with Equality Prince William), and is active in support of various liberal causes. She was also the lead speaker at the protests, and the only one afforded extended time to deliver remarks to the Manassas City Council. Not only does she appear to be a logical nexus for these various organizations, but she seems to have taken the lead at the protest.
Ms. Rishell had an opportunity to clearly define her relationship with Mexicanos Sin Fronteras during a recent liveblog over at Craig’s Musings where she was asked directly about her role in organizing these protests and her ties with Mexicanos Sin Fronteras. Instead of answering, she ducked the question, adding credibility to the conclusion that she personally coordinated these protests. She claims that she is unaware of the policy goals of Mexicanos Sin Fronteras, but I think she knows more than she can admit.
A fellow member of Unity In The Community, and past director Mr. John Steinbach, had ample opportunity to enlighten Ms. Rishell, because as it turns out he has some experience with the Zapatistas.
This bio of Mr. Steinbach comes from the Washington Peace Center:
John Steinbach has been an activist and organizer in the Metropolitan Washington Community for over twenty years. He is a member of Gray Panthers, Committee of Indigenous Solidarity (DC area Zapatistas), and is incoming Chair of Unity In the Community in Prince William County, VA. He is the coordinator of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki Peace Committee of the National Capital Area.
In addition to being one of Jeanette Rishell’s speakers from the January 6th meeting of the Manassas City Council, and an active member in the Woodbridge Worker’s Committee, Mr. Steinbach also managed to take some time to go down in 2004 and visit Chiapas province and document the plight of these poor Mexican citizens who aren’t being treated fairly by their own government. Apparently with the assistance of the EZLN, who are tremendously happy to have liberal American political activists to escort around and help their cause, no less. At some point Steinbach actually joined an affiliated EZLN organization (CIS/DC Area Zapatistas), and remained an active member while serving as the director of Unity In The Community.
There are anarchists, and then there are anarchists. Some are social anarchists, who are into it because it’s the hip thing. But all of us are anarchists to some degree, or we wouldn’t be in the movement. - John Steinbach, Washington City Paper, April 2000
So between 2004, when Mr. Steinbach developed this affinity with the EZLN, and late 2005, when Unity In The Community decided to help the EZLN front group Mexicanos Sin Fronteras (Mexicans Without Borders) and then lobby the Manassas City Council on an issue of great importance to MSF, Ms. Rishell didn’t have the opportunity to inform herself regarding the policy objectives of these various Zapatista organizations from the current, and then former director of Unity In The Community. Unity In the Community meets monthly. With all of these opportunities are we to believe that the topic of Zapatistas was never discussed? According to Ms. Rishell, when she invited Mr. Steinbach to join her in addressing the City Council she still remained ignorant about the Zapatistas and their agenda. Right.
So who are the Zapatistas? Their actions speak pretty clearly:
- December 1992: kidnapped collective farmer Mariano Encino, from Atamira township, who was tortured to death.
- March 1993: kidnapped two military officers in San Isidro El Ocotal, Chiapas. Their remains were found in March 1993, with signs of having been mutilated by an electric chainsaw, burned, and buried in graves covered with lime.
- Jan. 1, 1994: armed uprising, proclamation of the “Declaration of the Lacandón Jungle,” in which they declared war on the Mexican Army and Executive branch. The municipal seats of San Cristóbal, Ocosingo, Las Margaritas, and Altamirano, were seized by force.
- January 1994: Bombing of the Plaza Universidad shopping center in Mexico City.
- January 1994: dynamite attack, overturning electricity towers in Michoacán and Puebla.
- January 1994: failed rocket attack on the Number One Military Camp in Mexico City.
- September 1994: EZLN declared Yajalón and Simojovel as “autonomous” municipalities, and banned any presence of the national or state government (eliminate health and education services) and anything related to “the presence of the white man.”
- December 1994: EZLN returned to seize the municipal offices of Simojovel with armed commandos.
- February 1995: Farmer Gustavo Mar Kanter is kidnapped, tortured, and murdered by quartering.
Mexicanos Sin Fronteras participated in a conference on September 15th, 2005 with the EZLN Zapatista Army regarding what is called “the other campaign”. This campaign aims to forge an anti-capitalist alliance between the EZLN in Mexico and Zapatista organizations in other countries, including the United States. At this conference Mexicanos Sin Fronteras issued a declaration which included the following:
That we offer to the other campaign our collaboration, our office located in Washington DC, and our resources (capital of the United States) to develop and to coordinate these efforts with the people and organizations who decide to participate in the other campaign from the United States.
That we left our invitation open to the command of the EZLN and to all that participate in the other campaign, to visit.
Less than four months after this conference, Mexicanos Sin Fronteras showed up with Jeanette Rishell in Manassas. And nobody knew anything about all of this, particularly Jeanette Rishell. Even after her fellow member of Unity In The Community and former director John Steinbach had published an article on Chiapas province and enrolled in the DC Zapatistas at least a year before. And even after Jeanette Rishell, recent graduate of the Sorenson Candidate Training Program performed some reasonable degree of due diligence before she coordinated fundraising and material support for them. Yet she knows nothing.
Excuse me for not believing this. Jeanette Rishell needs to come clean with the voters and explain what she’s doing inviting illegal immigration activists with direct ties to organizations which engage in terrorism to Manassas. She brought them to Manassas in order to engage in political activity — a protest. “I’m not connected, in any way, with this organization and am not familiar with its agenda” doesn’t stand up at all to the evidence.
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5 Comments
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Before you associate or have your name linked with any group most reasonable people would know what they stand for. I have a hard time believing Rishell didn’t know what this group was.
Anyone who has followed the illegal immigration issue knows what these groups do.
I hope someone call’s her on it tomarrow at the debate.
Boy Greg you have very busy! So have I. I miss two day’s and I can’t keep up with your blog’s Good work.
Greg, you non-stop. I applaud your dedication to your blog.
Did you see the bit in the MJM this morning about the El Salvadoran gov’t opening up an ID shop down in Woodbridge? I don’t really understand what that’s all about so I’ll hold off on any judgements but it seems like a really strange thing…..
Andy H:
Don’t lose your nice guy image by complimenting character assasin and serial fabalist Black Velvet Bruce Lie. This isn’t work he’s done, it is just a reworking of the vicious slander he’s been mercilessly poring on Jeannette Rishell for months now. I know it is fashionable among conservative circles to treat religions that don’t push the party line — single minded focus on homosexuality and abortion to the exclusion of all other teachings of the Judeo Christian tradition — so you probably feel there is no political price to pay for approving of an attack on BRUU. Please note, however, that the signers of the Unity in Community declaration also included the Outreach committee of St. Francis of Assisi Parish. Now, basically, BVBL’s latest tirade accuses everybody who is part of that declaration of somehow being implicated in terrorism. Now Andy, I’m no political genius, but I think you might want to think twice about accusing a Roman Catholic Church, especially one attended by Sean Connaughton, of being somehow associated with a radical terrorist organization. The declaration was also signed by the Pastor of Holy Trinity Espiscopal Church. But, apparently he doesn’t count as a man of god because he doesn’t belive the whole point of religion is to humiliate and exclude people who are different — pretty much the primary operating principle of this sorry site. Finally, Dexter Fox is not a member of BRUU, but of Holy Trinity Espiscopal Church. But, wrong in small things, wrong in large things. Put that in Latin and it could be the motto for this site.
Careful Andy H —
BVBL includes St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Outreach Committee, and the pastor of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in his meanspirited and unfounded slander. They are not associated with radical groups with ties to terrorism, as Greg implies. Neither is Jeannette. Maybe it is ok for Mr. Nice Guy Moderate to associate himself with a few shots at BRUU, but you’ve basically approved of an unfounded attack on the Parish attended by Sean Connaughton. Not smart for somebody who likes to act like a moderate.