Los Angeles , CA – Organizers of the event commemorating the 53rd anniversary of the 1970 Chicano Moratorium will be holding a cultural, political teatro and music, free event for the public. This year’s event will take place Saturday, August 26 at Ruben Salazar Park in East Los Angeles. It will begin at 4 p.m. and end at about 6 p.m. All participants are encouraged to bring their own lawn chair or blankets to enjoy the program.
Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is proud to announce that longtime Chicano revolutionary Carlos Montes was elected to co-chair the Chicano Latino and Other Oppressed Nationalities Commission, newly formed this July 2023. This followed his re-election to the Central Committee at our Congress held in May 2022. The Chicano, Latino, and Other Oppressed Nationalities Commission will help build Chicano power and develop theory. It will also work to forge alliances with Native American people in the Southwest. Carlos self-recruited to FRSO in the mid-1990s, when he saw the importance of building revolutionary organizations to fight for Chicano liberation and socialism.
Tallahassee, FL – On Saturday, August 5, several racist white patrons fucked around found out when they attempted to publicly lynch an African American dock worker who asked the groups of whites to move their tugboat. The tugboat was in the way of a riverboat, the Harriott II, trying to dock. The thugs began raining down blows on the African American dock worker, who fought back but was outnumbered. Then, over a dozen African Americans rushed towards the pier and handed down one of the most viral asswhoppings of all time. The event, now dubbed by many on social media as Alabama Sweet Tea Party, Augustteenth, and Bloody Saturday (reminiscent of Blood Sunday), is inspiring hope, laughs and memes.
San Jose, CA – On August 4, around 70 people gathered to celebrate the removal of the Thomas Fallon statue that had stood at the corner of West Julian Street and Notre Dame Avenue in San Jose for over 20 years. Fallon was a captain of the U.S. military during the Mexican-American War and captured San Jose in 1846. In the 1850s, he returned to the area and began a political career, culminating in a one-year term as mayor of San Jose in 1859. His time in public office took place during a period of genocide against the indigenous peoples of California, as well as the oppression and disenfranchisement of Mexican people in California.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) took another major step forward with the launching of an African American Commission and a Chicano/Latino plus other oppressed nationalities commission. Comrades from more than a dozen cities where the FRSO does organizing among African Americans, Chicanos, and other oppressed nationalities gathered to carry out a decision by the 9th Congress to establish these commissions.
Atlanta, GA – Hundreds of Black organizers from across the country convened in Atlanta, June 23-25, for the “National Black Radical Organizing Conference” organized by Community Movement Builders. With the theme of “Unity in Our Lifetime,” the conference linked the struggle for self-determination to the Pan-African movement, uniting organizers both old and new around the demand for Black liberation in our lifetime.
Sacramento, CA — On June 24 La Mesa Nacional de Brown Berets held the annual Brown Berets National Gathering in Sacramento, California. Around 150 community members, organizers and Brown Berets from across the country attended the gathering.
Jacksonville, FL – Hundreds gathered Tuesday afternoon, June 27,in downtown’s James Weldon Johnson Park across from City Hall to remember Ben Frazier, a well-known civil rights activist and elder in Jacksonville, Florida who passed away this past Saturday, June 24, after a bout with cancer.
Seattle, WA- On May 25, 60 students and community members gathered at the Ethnic and Cultural Center of UW Seattle to listen to the experiences of longtime organizer Carlos Montes. Carlos Montes is a nationally recognized leader in the Chicano, immigrant rights and anti-war movements. He co-founded the Brown Berets, a Chicano youth organization, in the late 1960s and was a key figure in the Chicano Blowouts, a series of high school walkouts protesting racism and inequality. Today, Carlos Montes is an active and well know community leader in East Los Angeles.
Milwaukee, WI – Thursday, May 25 marked the three-year anniversary of George Floyd’s murder by killer cop Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis. George Floyd’s murder sparked a rebellion in which millions took to the streets in the U.S. and around the world. His murder resonated in Milwaukee, a city with countless victims of police crimes. To commemorate George Floyd and all victims of police crimes in Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (MAARPR) organized a vigil.