Minneapolis, MN – For the final event in a week marking three years since Jamar Clark was killed by police, the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J) hosted an organizing meeting, November 17, titled, “JusticeThruJamar: Community Control of MPD – Making it Real!”
Thomas “Blood” McCreary is a veteran of the Black liberation movement of the 1960s and 70s, having been a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), then the Black Panther Party (BPP), and then the Black Liberation Army. Today he continues to press for release of the former Panthers who are still in prison, many for 45 years. He also advocates for the dropping of the cases against the Panthers abroad, including Assata Shakur.
Minneapolis, MN – The week for #JusticeThruJamar kicked off with a news conference on November 12. Dozens of people gathered outside Minneapolis City Hall, in one of the first cold spells of winter, to announce a week of actions centered around the memory of Jamar Clark, who was murdered by Minneapolis police officers on November 15, 2015.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, Fight Back! is reprinting some excerpts from the outstanding Russian revolutionary V.I. Lenin on the class nature of the war and what socialists should do about it. When the war broke out in 1914, the leadership of most socialist parties at the time often supported their ‘own’ governments.Lenin and other revolutionaries put forward the correct proposition that the war was a battle between imperialist powers, in which working-class movement should work for the defeat of their ‘own’ rulers, and, where possible, take advantage of those defeats, turn the imperialist war in to a civil war, and make use of every opportunity to seize political power and replace capitalism with socialism.The excerpts are taken from Lenin’s 1915 pamphlet “Socialism and War.”
Chicago, IL – On November 1, John Bolton gave perhaps the sharpest anti-communist speech by a U.S. National Security Advisor since the end of the Cold War. While celebrating the election of far-right thug Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil as a “positive sign” for South America, he condemned Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua as “the Troika of Tyranny… the genesis of a sordid cradle of communism in the Western Hemisphere.” He declared that all peoples of Latin America should “look to the north, look to our flag” and that soon “the Troika will crumble, the people will triumph, and the righteous flame of freedom will burn brightly again in this hemisphere.”
Green Bay, WI – On November 2, local grassroots activist group Black Lives United Green Bay, together with Native Lives Matter from Minneapolis, hosted a vigil for Jonathon Tubby, an indigenous man murdered by Green Bay police. Nearly 200 people came out to share good memories and their feelings in response to Jonathon’s death at the hands of police.
Fight Back! interviewed Amanda Martinez, a patriotic Sandinista. Her name has been changed to a pseudonym, as counter-revolutionaries have made violent threats against her and her family. She lives in the small city of La Concepcion that is south of Managua and west of Masaya. La Concepcion has a population of around 30,000 people and is mostly an agricultural area.Fight Back!: How did the soft coup against President Ortega play out in the town of La Concepcion? Were there roadblocks? Did they sequester people? How did they treat Sandinista members? What did the National Police do?
Los Angeles, CA – On October 26, as the caravan of refugees from Central America traveled through Mexico, they were welcomed with food, festivity, aid, and clothing. As Chicanos, we must do the same when the caravan arrives at U.S. border.
Jacksonville, FL – There are around 8000 Central American immigrants and refugees making their way from Honduras and other Central American nations to the United States-Mexico border. Currently the caravan is over 1000 miles from the nearest border city. These are Central American immigrants and refugees escaping poverty and instability in their home countries due to U.S.-backed governmental regimes and violence fueled by U.S. interference. These immigrants and refugees have pleaded for humanitarian assistance and a better life. However, they have been met by Donald Trump and his racist presidential administration with disdain and hate. Trump has called the caravan a mix of “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners,” claims pulled from his own administration’s bigotry towards Central Americans and other immigrants. His administration has even sent thousands of troops to fortify the border.
Saint Paul, MN – On November 6, Minnesotans will head to the polls along with the rest of the country for the midterm elections. With copycats and enablers of Trump’s bigoted and reactionary agenda up and down the ballot, there’s a lot riding on the outcome for working and oppressed people in Minnesota.
Salt Lake City, UT – Student activists from as far as Massachusetts, Florida, Texas and Minnesota gathered in Salt Lake City for the 13th annual Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) national convention over the weekend of October 20.
New York, NY – Over 150 people gathered at the Holyrood Church in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City on October 27 for the International Peoples Tribunal on U.S. Colonial Crimes in Puerto Rico.
Jacksonville, FL – On November 6, Floridians will vote on 12 amendments to the state constitution. Some of these amendments would have a far greater impact on the working-class and oppressed communities of this state than others. Several reached the ballot by citizens’ petition, while others were added by Governor Rick Scott’s majority-appointed Florida Constitutional Revision Commission, which met in 2017.
According to widespread media reports, two Palestinian protesters were killed in Gaza, October 26, while participating in the Great Return March. According to the news outlet Ma’an, “Spokesperson of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Ashraf al-Qidra, identified one of them as Muhammad Khalid Mahmoud Abed al-Nabi, 27, saying that al-Nabi succumbed to his wounds while being treated at the al-Shifa Hospital.”
New York, NY – Organizers from across the five boroughs joined together for a press conference, Oct. 19, decrying the recent assaults by Proud Boys and 211 Bootboys on community members. The organizations and speakers at the conference not only called attention to the violent assaults and the ultra-right wing groups behind them, but also to the collusion between these street gangs and the New York Police Department.
A dive into national oppression, violence and trauma in Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, FL – The United States has a notorious history with the national oppression of Black people. In the South, remnants of slave society exist as a constant reminder of this – Confederate street names, school names and monuments are physical reminders one encounters daily – but we see it also manifest in the social structure of the Black Belt South – the historically constituted nation of Black people in the United States.
Opposition to attempt at glorifying war crimes against Palestinians
Minneapolis, MN – Dozens of protesters gathered in front of Folwell Hall at the University of Minnesota, October, 18, to protest Student Supporting Israel’s event that hosted former Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldiers. The MN Anti-War Committee (AWC) organized the protest
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 17 statement from the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, Southern Mindanao Region (SMR).
Minneapolis, MN – More than 20 people gathered in a light rain at the intersection of Chicago Avenue and Lake Street in Minneapolis to celebrate the verdict in the Laquan McDonald case, October 5. The action was organized by members of Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar (TCC4J).