Interview with Bassem Kawar, of the Campaign to TAKE ON HATE

Fight Back! interviewed Bassem Kawar, national coordinator of the Campaign to TAKE ON HATE, a project of the National Network for Arab American Communities.

“The combination driver will create animosity in the work place” —Teamster Central Region International VP Robert Kopystynsky

Chicago, IL – Teamster Chief Negotiator Dennis Taylor and UPS shook hands on a tentative agreement, June 22, which will include a new driving position called Full-Time Combination Drivers (Combo Driver). Full details were released July 10. UPS Teamsters across the country are calling the new position a two-tiered concession that spells doom for future package car drivers.

To my comrades and friends in the Black Liberation movement I say: Yes, it is important to point out the mutual suffering of separation of Central American and Mexican children from their families at the border and Black children daily separated through policies of mass incarceration and police perpetrated genocide; it is important if our point is to demonstrate that no oppressed people should be alone and isolated in the struggle for their humanity.

Chicago, IL – About 50,000 people rallied and marched in Chicago’s Loop, June 30, to protest the Trump administration for separating kids from parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. The cruelty of this practice brought together over 100 organizations under the slogan Families Belong Together.

Chicago, IL – Nearly 700 Chicagoans united to celebrate the coming home of over three dozen wrongfully convicted torture survivors during the People Power Weekend, hosted by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression on June 16 and 17.

Chicago, IL – To me, Ora Schub is a Palestinian. Her parents, who practiced Judaism, were born in Palestine before the founding of the settler-colonial state of Israel, so in essence, they were Palestinian Jews. And Ora took her nationality from her parents, so in my book, that makes her a Palestinian. But even if she didn't identify as one, Ora made a decision long ago to be an anti-Zionist and an anti-racist, and to join the movement in support of Palestinian self-determination, in support of the Right of Return for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and in support of ending Israeli colonization and occupation of all Arab lands.

Ora Schub: In memoriam

Struggle continues against police terror in Chicago

![Armanda Shackleford speaking](https://i.snap.as/MfeGwaPk.jpg “Armanda Shackleford speaking Armanda Shackleford speaking at hearing on the civilian component of the police accountability system in Chicago. She is the mother of Gerald Reed, tortured into confessing 27 years ago by members of the gang of cops under Detective Jon Burge.

(Photo by Mike Siviwe Elliott)”)

Chicago, IL – In the past two years in Chicago, over 50 cases of wrongful convictions have been thrown out of court, and most of the Black and Latino men involved have walked out of prison, or had their charges dismissed. These cases have been overturned because of the exposure of crimes by officers of the Chicago Police Department, including many cases of people’s confessions that were exacted through torture. According to attorneys involved in these cases, there are hundreds more that will be making their way through the courts in the coming years.

Chicago, IL – Juan and Rosendo Herndandez have been prisoners for 21 years. The two brothers were falsely accused of a murder by the notorious Detective Reynaldo Guevara, once head of the Gang Crimes Unit in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, and his partner, Joe Miedzianowski, who was convicted years ago for running a drug ring out of the Grand and Central police station. Miedzianowski was out to get Juan Herndandez to protect his drug ring. With no physical evidence linking them to the crime, Guevara framed them by manipulating eye witnesses to pick them out of a lineup.

Chicago, IL – More than 1000 people rallied and marched in Chicago, May 15, in an emergency response to Israel’s brutality, and a rejection of the Trump administration’s dangerous and illegal U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem. The protest also coincided with the commemoration of 70 years of Nakba, what Palestinians call “The Catastrophe,” which marks the ethnic cleansing of almost 800,000 Palestinians upon the establishment of Israel in 1948.

Chicago, IL – City council allies of Mayor Rahm Emanuel held a hearing in the South Side neighborhood of Roseland Tuesday night, May 15, to consider several pieces of legislation on police accountability. They attempted to use a rigged process to smother the voices of the mainly Black movement for community control of the police. For six years, the movement has supported legislation to create an elected, civilian police accountability council (CPAC).

Chicago, IL – Elmer “Bong” Labog is chairperson of the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU), or May First Movement, one of the largest industrial labor federations in the Philippines. Ka Bong, as he is known by his kasamas, or comrades in Filipino, came to Chicago May 14 and 15 to pay tribute to the Haymarket martyrs. He was hosted by the Illinois Labor History Society, who invited the KMU to be the international union this year to place a plaque at the memorial to the Haymarket martyrs in Chicago.

“Netanyahu, you will learn. By the millions we’ll return!”

Chicago, IL – On Friday evening, May 11, 500 Palestinians and their supporters marched on the Israeli consulate in Chicago. For the consulate staff, no chant could have unnerved them more than, “Netanyahu, you will learn. By the millions we’ll return!”

Chicago, IL – Karl Marx was born May 5, 1818 in the town of Trier, Prussia. He was not born into a revolutionary family but he was born in revolutionary times, in the wake of the French Revolution and the decline of the Prussian Empire. The French Revolution came to Trier during the Napoleonic wars. It tore the city out of the Holy Roman Empire and for two decades before the birth of Marx, it replaced the feudal society, with its chartered privileges, with a government in which all citizens were equal under the law. It was a turbulent period in which all the old, feudal orders of Europe were trembling in the face of bourgeois led popular revolutions.

Chicago, IL – More than 500 people, mainly union members, assembled at the moment in Haymarket Square, May 1, to mark International Workers Day. Raymond “Mong” Palatino spoke on behalf of the largest trade union federation in the Philippines, the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) or May First Movement.

Chicago, IL – Las negociaciones están en progreso entre el sindicato de la Fraternidad Internacional de los Teamsters y la empresa UPS ya que el contrato de cinco años, que cubre a 250,000 trabajadores, se vence el primero de Agosto. La quinta ronda de negociaciones empezó el 19 de Marzo y continuara hasta Abril.

Chicago. IL – The meeting room at the United Electrical workers building in Chicago rang with song, as 60 working people of all nationalities and backgrounds – Black, Chicano, Mexicano, Honduran, Filipino, Puerto Rican, Asian, and white – gathered together to celebrate International Workers Day. Sponsored by Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), the crowd was made up of fighters from the many battle lines in the class struggle and the national liberation movements.

Chicago, IL – In a press conference Saturday morning, April 21, in the Philippines, Jerome Aladdin Succor Aba spoke about the 28 hours of torture he suffered by an agent of Homeland Security inside the San Francisco airport earlier last week.

Chicago, IL – Maya Arcilla was angry as she opened the protest rally at the Federal Plaza in Chicago. A human rights activist from the Philippines, Jerome Succor Aba, had been held by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and then subject to psychological torture during a 28-hour period inside the San Francisco airport.

¡Lucha y Resiste! entrevistó al concejal Carlos Ramirez Rosa y Frank Chapman de la Alianza de Chicago contra la Represión Racista y Política sobre la lucha por un Concilio Elegido de Transparencia Policial (CPAC, por sus siglas en inglés). La legislación para establecer este concilio fue promovido por el concejal Rosa y otros ocho miembros del concilio de la cuidad de Chicago. ¡Lucha y Resiste!: Quiero pedir que usted exprese su opinión sobre la legislación de transparencia policial recién avanzada esta semana en el concilio municipal. Los concejales Osterman y Sawyer no han apoyado al CPAC, pero ahora están promoviendo un proyecto de ley para una comisión comunitaria de seguridad pública y de transparencia. ¿En su opinión, por que lo han hecho?