For Immediate Release:
September 10, 2007

***PRESS RELEASE***

CONTACT:
www.myspace.com/solidaritynotcharity

RESPECT & DIGNITY CONCERT
September 11, 2007 8pm
Little Village Discount Mall
26th and Albany, Black Hole

Little Village- On Tuesday, September 11, 2007, a network of youth Hip-Hop organizations and community members will hold a Concert for Respect & Dignity in support of immigrant rights and unity among communities of color in Chicago, New York, and New Orleans.

Symbolically, the event will take place in the same Little Village Mall where hundreds of families and children were terrorized and arrested by U.S. immigration authorities in a heavily-armed raid this past April. Located a block away from Cook County Jail, the event location is also meant to call attention to what concert organizers say is the ever-increasing criminalization of immigrant workers and
young people of color.

The event's timing is also not accidental. "For many immigrants, September 11 symbolizes not fearing of terrorism but, rather, fearing we will be profiled as terrorists," says event co-organizer Claudio Gaete of Solidarity not Charity. "The history of scapegoating is not
new to modern U.S. history or humanity. In times of repression, communities of color have found strength in our culture- through spoken word, song, and dance. That is what we are doing at the Concert for Respect and Dignity on Tuesday."

For co-organizer G1 of Rebel Diaz, whose parents are political exiles from Chile, the day of the event has also a personal meaning. On September 11, 1973, a CIA-financed coup toppled Chilean socialist President Salvador Allende. Installed in his place was a military dictatorship that for 17 years tortured, disappeared, and executed thousands of dissidents. "Neoliberal US foreign policy is at the root
of increasing immigration across the border," says G1. "By placing a higher value on profit over human lives, multi-national corporations are super-exploiting land and labor resources in Latin America. At the Concert For Respect and Dignity we want to remember those who have
perished crossing the border in search of a better life; those who have had their families separated by deportation; those immigrant workers who didn't survive the WTC attacks," says G1.

The event will open with an indigenous ceremony in the Albany Discount mall parking lot at 8pm. It will be followed by a Hip Hop concert at the Black Hole, featuring Rebel Diaz and local community youth groups. The celebration of solidarity and unity will continue until 2am with local DJs spinning Hip-Hop, Latin, house, and reggae.

FOR MORE INFO:
www.myspace.com/solidaritynotcharity