Call-In to save the life of Facundo Molares!Call Bolivian AmbassadorWalter Oscar Serrate Cuellar at202-483-4410 ex. 4When: Tuesday, February 25, 2020between 8 am and 4 pm Eastern timeFight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Committee To Free Facundo Molares.
Tampa, FL – Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held a rally at the University of South Florida calling for justice and all victims of police brutality, highlighting Jamee Johnson, a Black man who was murdered by officers in Jacksonville. At the February 19 protest, about 15 students promoted the need for community control of the police through police accountability councils. They also demonstrated for their ongoing campaign to increase Black enrollment at USF.
New York, NY – On February 22, a Wisconsin delegation invited a conference of nearly 60 organizations to join a major protest at the Democratic National Convention taking place in Milwaukee in July.
Chicago, IL – On February 21, in a letter sent to the staff and principal officers of the Teamsters, James P. Hoffa announced that he would not seek re-election as general president and would retire from the union at the end of his term in March 2022.
New York, NY – Organizers with the Milwaukee-based Coalition to March on the DNC are attending the national conference of the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), to build support for a major protest at the Democratic National Convention in July.
Minneapolis, MN – When Minnesota Governor Tim Walz appeared at the University of Minnesota to reflect on his first year of governing, he was confronted by angry community members demanding that he call for the prosecutions of killer cops across the state. Family members of police murder victims were joined by Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, UMN Students for a Democratic Society, SMASH students from Minneapolis South High School, and others.
On March 14, the Russian revolutionary, Marxist working-class theorist and leader of the October Revolution of 1917 will come to Gelsenkirchen, Germany. 150 years after his birthday he will move permanently into Gelsenkirchen-Horst – in the form of an over two meter tall, artfully shaped cast-iron statue in front of the Horster Mitte, the federal headquarters of the Marxist-Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD).
San José, CA – On February 16, the San Jose Day of Remembrance held its 40th annual event with the second-highest attendance ever – more than 550 people. The event started in 1981 as part of the nationwide movement of Japanese Americans demanded redress (an official apology) and reparations (monetary compensation) for their incarceration during World War II.
St. Paul, MN – On February 19, the House Subcommittee on Local Government voted to pass House File 3060. HF 3060 is a bill that would end contracts that local jails in Minnesota have with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to detain people facing civil immigration charges. Currently several county jails in Minnesota have contracts with ICE to hold hundreds of immigrants facing deportation.
St. Paul, MN – More than 40 immigrant rights activists from all over the state of Minnesota rallied at the capitol here, February 11, the opening day of the legislative session. People traveled from as far as Zimmerman and Rochester to participate in the action. The rally and lobbying action were organized by Minnesota Immigrant Movement (MIM) and Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC). Activists asked the Minnesota legislature to support driver’s licenses for all and to make Minnesota a sanctuary state.
Chicago, IL – The courtroom was packed February 14. This was my fourth Gerald Reed court hearing. Usually, there is a crowd of folks who show up to support Gerald and his mother, Armanda Shackleford, who has been fighting for her son since he was arrested, tortured and framed in 1990. Shackleford sits in the front row, wearing her Free Gerald Reed t-shirt. Together we sit for an hour, two hours, three, and hear powerful men debate the innocence of a man whose sentence was vacated a year ago.
Fight Back! News Service is circulating the following statement from the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Chicago Torture Justice Center, and Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity.
In January, Fight Back! reporters participated in the World Anti-Imperialist Gathering in Caracas, Venezuela. While there, they interviewed delegates from Venezuela and from several other countries. In this interview, Ender Sabalsa, a leader of the youth sector and the Afro-descendent sector of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), gives his message to the people of the United States.Ender Sabalsa: Revolutionary greetings to everyone reading this and to all the peoples of the world. My name is Ender Sabalsa. I’m a member of the youth sector of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). I’m also in the Afro-descendent sector and the social movements that are supporting the progressive governments here in Latin America and especially the elected government of our constitutional president Nicolas Maduro Moros.
En enero unos periodistas de ¡Lucha y Resiste! participaron en el Encuentro Mundial Antiimperialista en Caracas, Venezuela. Allí hicieron entrevistas con delegados de Venezuela y de varios otros países. Esta es una entrevista con Ender Sabalsa, un líder de la Juventud PSUV (Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela) y del sector afrodescendiente en que él comparte un mensaje al pueblo de los Estados Unidos.Ender: Un saludo revolucionario a todos los que nos están viendo y a todos los pueblos del mundo. Mi nombre es Ender Sabalsa, milito en la juventud del Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela, del sector afrodescendiente y de los movimientos sociales que están apoyando a los gobiernos progresistas de acá de América Latina y especialmente del gobierno electo y nuestro presidente constitucional Nicolás Maduro Moros. Quiero recordarles al pueblo estadounidense que nosotros no estamos en contra del pueblo norteamericano, estamos en contra del gobierno de Estados Unidos, el presidente Trump, la administración Trump que ha hecho tanto daño en América Latina y en el mundo en general, que no reconoce las políticas de los gobiernos, no reconoce la autodeterminación de los pueblos, no reconoce el derecho internacional, y sobre todo no reconoce el daño tan grande que le hace el capitalismo a la naturaleza, lo que le hace el capitalismo a la vida de nuestro planeta.
Minneapolis, MN – In response to Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman’s decision to not press charges against the Richfield and Edina police officers who killed Brian Quiñones, the groups Justice for Brian Quiñones, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar (TCC4J), the Racial Justice Network and others gathered for a spirited picket of Mike Freeman’s residence the evening of February 11.
Jacksonville, FL – On February 5, the University of North Florida hosted an event called “A Conversation with Madeleine Albright” where UNF President David Szymanski joined her on stage celebrating her life as a woman in politics and discussing her new book.
Chicago, IL – The latest episode in the Jussie Smollett saga continues to unfold as the campaign to rid Cook County of the first honest, progressive, Black woman state’s attorney in county history, Kim Foxx, reaches lower and lower into the barrel of dirty tricks, a la Roger Stone and Donald Trump. And make no mistake about it: this is not about rooting out favoritism to the wealthy in the state’s attorney’s office, as cynically declared by Bill Conway, the billionaire Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) candidate running against her. It’s about getting rid of the first state’s attorney in Cook County history who has actually done something about crooked cops and prosecutors and freed their victims and survivors from unlawful prosecution and incarceration.
Milwaukee, WI – As the July 13 start of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) draws closer, the Coalition to March on the DNC has risen to the occasion. Since the start of the new year, the coalition has seen tremendous gains.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following February 11 statement By Jose Maria Sison, National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) Chief Political Consultant.