Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

Oppressed Nationalities

By staff

East Los Angeles vigil honors Paul Rea

Los Angeles, CA – On June 27, exactly one year after an East Los Angeles Sheriff’s deputy shot and killed 18-year-old Paul Rea, his family and friends gathered in East Los Angeles to hold a vigil in his honor. Taking place at the site on South Gerhart Avenue where Rea was murdered, the vigil included speeches from families of other Chicano and Black victims of police brutality in Los Angeles, a sermon from a pastor, and a balloon release.

Read more...

By staff

Frank Chapman

Chicago, IL -The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) will be joining the massive demonstration that is set for August 27 at the Republican National Convention (RNC), in Jacksonville, Florida. The “We Can’t Breathe” protest, organized by the Coalition to March on the RNC, will focus on stopping police crimes and advancing the demand for community control of the police.

Read more...

By satya

Tallahassee’s BLM Stonewall event.

Tallahassee, FL – Tallahassee residents assembled at 12:30 p.m. at Cascades Park, June 28 to launch a march to the capitol. Organizers and volunteers with the Tallahassee Community Action Committee (TCAC) pre-decorated the capitol steps and breezeway with rainbow flags, banners, signs and hand-painted portraits to honor the Black and brown working-class trans women who led the Stonewall Riots in New York City 51 years ago. Organizers distributed masks, water, snacks, bumper stickers and printed copies of Fight Back! to the 150-plus people in attendance. Attendees spread out across the entire capitol lawn to abide by COVID-19 safe-distancing guidelines.

Read more...

By Sam Martinez

Take Back Pride march in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis, MN – On June 28, the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar held the fourth annual protest at Twin Cities Pride, with over 10,000 in attendance. The organizing came on the heels of the Minneapolis rebellion for Justice for George Floyd. The ad hoc coalition of 100+ groups organized a Pride protest and celebration in a two-week timeframe. This was due to winning their demands of corporations and cops out of Pride. It is a victory that was built on the founding of the organization almost five years ago after the murder of Jamar Clark in 2015. This year’s protest demanded: Justice for George Floyd and all victims of police terror; defend Black trans folks; community control of police, and freedom for all political prisoners and the wrongfully incarcerated

Read more...

By Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Palestinians protest Zionist annexation plans.

The Israeli apartheid regime is poised to commit a new crime against Palestine: the annexation of up to 30% of the West Bank. As things stand Israel effectively controls Palestine, with the heroic people of Gaza confined to an open prison and the hapless Palestinian Authority serving as accomplices to the occupation.

Read more...

By staff

Minneapolis, MN – A proposal to amend faculty senate bylaws and create a new Campus Safety Committee failed to garner enough votes to pass during a June 29 University Senate meeting, open only to voting members. The proposed committee would “advise and consult with the President, the responsible senior administrators, and the Vice President for University Services on policies and major decisions relating to campus and public safety at the University,” and would be made up of faculty, academic professional members, students, civil service members, and ex officio representatives.

Read more...

By Luis Sifuentes

Family of Daniel Hernandez speaking to the crowd.

Los Angeles, CA – On June 17, Roosevelt High School Alumni for Black Lives Matter (RHS Alumni for BLM) held a rally in Boyle Heights. Chanting “Prosecute killer cops!” and “Defund the police,” participants marched almost two miles, from Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights to downtown Los Angeles.

Read more...

By staff

Jacksonville, FL march demands“Free them all, people’s budget now.”

Jacksonville, FL – Wrapping up an entire month of action, on June 27, over 400 people gathered in front of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and the Duval County Jail. Over a month ago, in the wake of COVID-19, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee led a car caravan around the Duval County Jail demanding the mass release of inmates, especially those over 65 years of age and those who are immunocompromised. Those demands were ignored and now 178 inmates have tested positive for COVID-19. This rally and march occurred under a backdrop of rising COVID infection rates in the city of Jacksonville as well as recording-setting heat.

Read more...

By Hatem Abudayyeh

Standing up for Palestine in NYC.

Chicago, IL – Israel already controls the entirety of Palestinian life in the occupied territories, even in the areas that are supposedly run by the Palestinian Authority, but this annexation plan codifies the expropriation of Palestinian land and may secure Israeli sovereignty over 30% of the West Bank, including the border with Jordan called the Jordan Valley.

Read more...

By staff

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) joined various organizations in denouncing the Duterte regime and its armed forces for the unlawful arrest of anti-mining leaders Datu Reynaldo Ayuma and six other Lumads at Purok 6, Barangay Blanco, Balingasag, Misamis Oriental on June 26.

Read more...

By staff

Minneapolis protest against police crimes.

Minneapolis MN – The Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J) has come out against the city council’s proposed Community Safety and Violence Prevention charter amendment (2020-00668), that would rename the Minneapolis police department and would give the city council and mayor the power to anoint the head of the newly-named “Department of Community Safety and Violence Prevention.” The measure was heard in the online city council meeting June 26.

Read more...

By Coalition to March on the RNC

2008 march in St Paul, MN organized by the Coalition to March on the RNC.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call from the Coalition to March on the RNC.

Read more...

By staff

Heard on video saying ‘I can’t breathe’ before death

Carlos Adrian Ingram-Lopez.

Tucson, AZ – On April 21, Tucson police officers responded to a call from the grandmother of Carlos Adrian Ingram-Lopez saying he was out of control. Within ten minutes upon arrival, Ingram-Lopez lay lifeless on their garage floor, naked, handcuffed and covered in layers of plastic police blankets. The autopsy report has ruled the manner of death as “undetermined” but that the cause of death as “sudden cardiac arrest in the setting of acute cocaine intoxication and physical restraint.” The autopsy also shared that it was reported that officers applied a spit hood.

Read more...

By staff

Jess Sundin of Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar.

Minneapolis, MN – A coalition of police accountability and civil rights organizations held a press conference to denounce plans by Mayor Jacob Frey to turn over police accountability efforts to the Minneapolis Foundation and an unnamed group of advisors. This comes on the heels of nine city council members declaring they will disband the Minneapolis Police Department.

Read more...

By staff

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) condemns the Duterte regime and its armed forces and agents for the killing spree in Northern Samar and Iloilo, June 20, that resulted in the deaths of four civilians and wounding of three others. Three of those killed were peasants and another was a local youth leader.

Read more...

By staff

Vigil to honor the life of murdered Tallahassee activist Oluwatoyin Salau.

Tampa, FL – On June 20, Tampa Bay community members gathered at the Joe Chillura Courthouse Square to honor the life of Oluwatoyin “Toyin” Salau, who was sexually assaulted, abducted and murdered. Salau was a known Black Lives Matter activist in Tallahassee, Florida. Her death follows a recent wave of violence against, and murder of, Black people in the United States committed by the police, white vigilantes and others.

Read more...

By staff

Juneteenth marked in Milwaukee.

Milwaukee, WI – Juneteenth or Jubilee Day is celebrated by people all across the country every year on June 19. It is a celebration of the day enslaved peoples in Texas found out they were free on June 19, 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation. This day is celebrated by Black Americans across the United States by gathering, drinking strawberry soda, and eating red velvet cake, red beans and rice, and watermelon.

Read more...

By staff

Protest against police crimes in Arlington, TX.

Arlington, TX – The Progressive Student Union (PSU) rallied 30 students and community members, June 18, demanding community control and defunding of the Arlington Police Department. “We need to remember why we are doing this,” said Arlington resident Adara Arrie. “This is not something to post on social media for a trend. Change has not happened,”

Read more...

By staff

Protesters in Fort Lauderdale gathered in Bubier Park to commemorate Juneteenth

Fort Lauderdale, FL – About 400 members of the surrounding communities gathered in downtown Fort Lauderdale to commemorate Juneteenth and demand an end to police violence. The event was sponsored by several local organizations, including SEIU Local 32BJ, Black Lives Matter Alliance of Broward, Broward Dream Defenders, and the New Florida Majority. The event began at 3 p.m. at Bubier Park, where those in attendance listened to speeches, chanted, and even danced.

Read more...

By staff

Antonio Gonzales's mother.

Milwaukee, WI – The families of Alvin Cole, Jay Anderson, Jr., and Antonio Gonzales (“Thee 3”), along with organizers from the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Community Task Force MKE, and their supporters, mobilized in the early afternoon of June 18.

Read more...