Arlington, TX – On September 1, the Progressive Student Union rallied 50 people to protest the recent attacks launched by Governor Greg Abbott and the GOP against women’s rights, and democracy. The most egregious of these attacks came in the form of an anti-abortion bill that sought to restrict the access to abortion in Texas to only the first six weeks of pregnancy, and made it a liable offense to offer aid in a woman getting an abortion in any way if it was beyond the first six weeks.
Austin, TX – Around 100 people rallied at the Texas State Capitol on September 1 to protest against the statewide abortion ban that went into effect that same day. Texas abortion clinics have been forced to stop taking appointments in order to avoid what could be thousands of lawsuits against them. The new law especially affects low-income and working-class women who don’t have the resources to take time off work, since the ban forces women in Texas to drive an average of 248 miles one way to access an abortion clinic out of state.
Chicago, IL – On Sunday, August 29, there was a parade commemorating the 30th anniversary of the “renewed independence” of Ukraine. While this may at first glance seem to be no threat to labor, progressives and anti-racists, the true character of the event is revealed by the Nazi-coded language used in a letter written by the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America inviting other Ukrainian organizations to participate.
New Orleans, LA – On August 29, at 11:55 a.m., Hurricane Ida made landfall on the Louisiana coast. The storm arrived on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Like then, working class, Black, and indigenous Louisianans are least able to evacuate and suffer the most damages.
St. Paul, MN – Over 2000 people came to the Minnesota State Capitol building, Wednesday, August 25, occupying the capitol grounds in protest of the Line 3 oil pipeline. Over 40 people walked 256 miles from the headwaters of the Mississippi to the capitol building to demand that Governor Tim Walz stop the pipeline’s construction. Over 200 people met the water protectors about a mile and a half away to march through the streets for the final stretch with them towards the capitol grounds.
Minneapolis, MN – On Thursday, August 26, window cleaners in Minneapolis reached a tentative agreement with their employers and ended their open-ended strike after ten days on the picket lines.
Milwaukee, WI – On the evening of August 26, a 33-year-old man was observed driving erratically going northbound near the Sherman Park neighborhood on Milwaukee’s Northside. Milwaukee police responded to calls and immediately engaged in a high-speed chase. The car pursuit ended when the man crashed his vehicle and attempted to escape on foot. Officers continued after him, also on foot.
Milwaukee, WI – On the evening of August 26, a 33-year-old man was observed driving erratically going northbound near the Sherman Park neighborhood on Milwaukee’s Northside. Milwaukee police responded to calls and immediately engaged in a high-speed chase. The car pursuit ended when the man crashed his vehicle and attempted to escape on foot. Officers continued after him, also on foot.
Minneapolis, MN – In Minneapolis and surrounding Hennepin County, AFSCME members are demanding that the county commissioners use some of the $246 million they county received from the American Rescue Plan to go to hazard pay for frontline workers as well as compensation in the form of stipends for remote employees for things like internet and cooling bills, to cover the increases in those utilities caused by working from home. Last year Hennepin County received $224 million in relief funds while offering nothing in the form of hazard pay at the same time as grocery store workers saw a $3 per hour increase.
New Orleans, LA – On August 21, around 30 community members gathered in opposition to the U.S. government’s role in fueling crises around the world. They met at the historic Congo Square in the Treme neighborhood of New Orleans.
The Freedom Road Socialist Organization urges all progressive activists to take action to support the Ojibwe people in their fight against the Line 3 oil pipeline. Line 3, just like the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipeline projects before it, tramples on the sovereign rights of the indigenous peoples whose traditional lands and waters it crosses – in this case the Ojibwe, who are part of the broader Anishinaabe peoples. In FRSO, we see the struggle against pipelines not just as an environmental issue but also one of the most important and militant struggles for indigenous sovereignty.
Minneapolis, MN – Some 80 people gathered at North Regional Library on August 22 to hear Frank Chapman speak about his book Marxist-Leninist Perspectives on Black Liberation and Socialism. This event was the final meeting of a book club that had been meeting over the summer to read the book together with Freedom Road Socialist Organization. After outlining the book for attendees, Chapman took questions and signed books. Like his book, the discussion focused on both the fundamental revolutionary content of Marxism and the significance of what Chapman calls the George Floyd Rebellion. As he writes in his book, “We think it is deeper, we think it is the youth sounding the death knell of the racist police repression that stands like a blockade in the road to Black liberation. It is a call for mass resistance to the police terror that has stalked our communities and denied us the organizing space we need as a nationally oppressed people to wage the struggle for Black Liberation, to finish the unfinished revolution.”
Kenosha WI – On August 21, members of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression joined in a Kenosha rally and march marking the first anniversary of the attempted murder of an African American man, Jacob Blake. Blake, a Kenosha resident, had stopped to break up a fight one year before. When police arrived at the scene to respond to a resident’s call, they immediately assumed Blake was at fault, and seven shots were fired into his back. Blake was paralyzed from the waist down due to this attack. The incident led to what is now known as the Kenosha Uprising.
Minneapolis, MN – On August 20, the strike continued for around 50 SEIU Local 26 union members who clean the majority of the tall buildings in downtown Minneapolis and Saint Paul. Through their first five days of the strike the window cleaners picketed in locations all around downtown Minneapolis. They also held multiple larger events for members of other unions and the community to show their support for the workers and their strike over wages and safety.
Chicago, IL – More than 1000 union members represented by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers' union have been striking at Nabisco, where the workers who make Oreo Cookies, Ritz Crackers, and many other popular snacks have walked out of work, saying the strike is a fight to keep what they have had. The workers are striking in Colorado, Illinois, Oregon and Virginia.
St. Paul, MN – On August 18, representatives from Twin Cities anti-war groups and the local Afghan community gathered at the Lake Street-Marshall Avenue bridge to hold a press conference on the unfolding situation in Afghanistan. The event was part of a weekly peace vigil organized by Women Against Military Madness.
Last Monday, August 16, Ka Parts Bagani, renowned revolutionary painter and illustrator, was murdered in cold-blood in Barangay Cannery Polomolok, South Cotabato by military and police operatives.
Minneapolis, MN – On August 17 at 7 a.m. around 50 high rise window cleaners represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 26 in Minneapolis began a strike. The window cleaners are part of a master contract in which three companies bargain together for one large contract.
The images are searing. Helicopters ferrying diplomatic personnel from the U.S. Embassy while plumes of black smoke billow from the building. Taliban fighters with heavy artillery parade through the thoroughfares of provincial capitals. The International Airport, still under U.S. control, is in chaos as collaborators try storm planes to flee the country. In the space of a few weeks the puppet government collapsed, and its figureheads have vanished. The decades of occupation have come to an end. Those that fought to end it now sit at the former president’s desk.
