Recently the media has been abuzz with talk of the possible ‘nationalization’ of ailing big banks such as Citigroup. Both Democrat and Republican senators, as well as the former chair of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, have raised the possibility of a temporary ‘nationalization’ or government takeover of big banks.

Yes, I haven’t heard, much less said “capitalist pig” for more than 30 years. But I couldn’t help thinking it when I heard that Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch (three former Wall Street investment banks; Merrill Lynch has been taken over by Bank of America) are planning to pay $20 billion in bonuses. To make matters worse, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are receiving $10 billion each in bank bailout money, while Bank of America will receive $25 billion.

One year after the current financial crisis began, the situation has gone from bad to worse. What began with the failure of small mortgage lenders has toppled Wall Street investment banks, the largest mortgage company in the world, and a trillion-dollar insurance firm. Depositors are starting to flee banks and money market funds, putting businesses in danger of not being able to get loans. Banks don’t want to lend to each other and the stock market can’t find buyers. The economy continues to get worse month by month. As job losses mount, companies declare bankruptcy, foreclosures rise and consumers cut back on spending.

Keep the heat on Congress!

Commentary by the editor of Fight Back!

A Fight Back! Editorial

St. Paul, MN – Representatives from the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War meet with the Mayor Coleman, the City Attorney, and other Saint Paul city officials, Dec. 11 at City Hall to press their demands for permits to march on the Republican National Convention and for the city to observe the rights of protesters.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following commentary by Jess Sundin, a member of the Twin Cities based Anti-War Committee and the Coalition to March on the RNC and Stop the War.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call for an important conference that will help prepare for the protests at the Republican National Convention.

Reporting to Congress Sept. 11, General David Petraeus confirmed what most in the anti-war movement have long been saying: The U.S. has no intention of getting out of Iraq anytime soon – unless it is forced to.

In March, U.S. antiwar activist and Freedom Road Socialist Organization member Kosta Harlan attended a historic international solidarity conference in Italy with leaders of the Iraqi resistance ( see “Voices of the Iraqi Resistance,” Fight Back!, March 2007). Since returning to the United States, Harlan has traveled to college campuses and cities across the South, speaking to hundreds of students and antiwar activists about the Iraqi resistance. He spoke at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, Chapel Hill, and Charlotte; at Winthrop University in South Carolina; at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and at community centers in Winston-Salem and Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Saint Paul, MN – Local leaders of the Twin Cites peace and justice movement announced their planned march route here at a June 7 press conference. The massive demonstration on Sept. 1, 2008 will coincide with the Republican National Convention. A large map of the march route was displayed.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call for demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. We urge all anti-war and progressive organizations to endorse the protest.

St. Paul, MN – Anti-war activists confronted police officials here, April 20, resubmitting permit applications for demonstrations at the Republican National Convention. In addition to resubmitting the permit applications, Jess Sundin of the Twin Cites-based Anti-War Committee delivered officials a letter challenging their contention that no permits will be considered until six months before to the RNC.

In the face of recent moves by Democrats in Congress, the anti-war movement needs to reject both fuzzy timelines and continued funding for the war in Iraq. We need to insist on the demand, “U.S. out now!” Nothing less will do.

Saint Paul, MN – The city council here passed a resolution April 4 directing city personnel to ensure the right to political speech and civic debate during the Republican National Convention. The convention is scheduled to take place over Labor Day weekend, 2008.

“Stop the war, yes we can! SDS is back again!” This was a popular chant heard around the country as students in high schools and colleges walked out of classes, held rallies, marches, teach-ins and other creative actions in response to the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) call for national coordinated student actions on March 20, the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War. The call was put out by SDS groups that met at the School of the Americas protest last November, where 100 students from 20 campuses voted unanimously to make March 20 a national day of student action against the war. Those 20 schools quickly became 83, as colleges and high schools from the Northeast to the Midwest, from West Coast to the South, signed on to the call.

At colleges and high schools across the country, students are building for a day of protests on March 20 against the U.S. war in Iraq. Students at more than 60 schools have protests planned on that day, in the largest coordinated day of student anti-war protests in years. A press release for the March 20 actions says, “In the space of just three weeks, over sixty campuses have signed onto the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) call to action—from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to Grand Rapids, Michigan; from high schools in central North Carolina to the west coast campus of UC Santa Barbara; from urban centers of Chicago, Boston, New York, and Los Angeles to rural campuses of Tennessee and Iowa—and in dozens of places in between.”

St. Paul, MN – Since the announcement that the 2008 Republican Convention would take place in Saint Paul, Twin Cities anti-war organizations and others have been making plans to hold protests against the U.S. war on Iraq. Progressive activists from around the country are coming to the convention to speak out against the war. Permit applications and payments were submitted in October 2006. After holding the applications for five months, St. Paul officials are now saying they don’t want do deal with the issue until next year. This does not work.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call for a March 20 national day of student and youth protest against the war in Iraq.

In light of the intense repression carried out against protests at the Republican National Convention, we are reprinting material that Terri Smith, of Minnesota Homeland Security and Emergency Management, presented at the Fifth Annual Governor’s Homeland Security Conference, Sept. 29-Oct. 1 at the Embassy Suites in Des Moines, Iowa.