Hands Off The Cambridge Insomnia Cookie Workers- Drop The Charges Now !

Dear All,

Last night the Cambridge Police attacked a legal picket of Insomnia Cookies in Cambridge, where workers have struck and initiated an IWW union drive. The police assault was apparently based on a false report by Insomnia that picketers were blocking the sidewalk in front of the store. The cops demanded we shut down our PA, which we did, then tried to force us off the sidewalk, and subsequently punched IWW member Jason Freedman in the face, threw him on the trunk of a car and then on the ground, pinning him partially under a parked car and on the curb as they piled on top of him. Jason's face was covered in blood and he sustained injuries to his back and arm. You can see pictures of the attack here. Predictably, Jason has been charged with multiple offenses including assault on a police officer. At the company's bidding, Cambridge Police had previously failed to shut down our legal pickets but last night they unfortunately succeeded. This incident has to be seen in the context of increasing criminalization of dissent and official efforts to tear away our remnants of civil liberties, labor rights and any protections against brutality by the police.

Please join IWW's and allies in an emergency rally and march, tonight at 5:30 pm in Harvard Square Cambridge. Demonstrators will gather at "the Pit," next to the main entrance of the MBTA in Harvard Square and next to Out of Town News. Feel free to register your protests over the police attack with Cambridge Mayor Henrietta Davis at mayor@cambridgema.gov or by calling 617-349-4321. Please consider a donation to the Insomnia Cookies Workers' Strike Fund. To reach Insomnia Cookies' CEO Seth Berkowitz, and let him know how you feel about his company's apparent complicity in police violence and attacks on free speech, please call 877 632-6654.

In Solidarity,

Geoff for the Industrial Workers of the World / IWW