Interview with Kait McIntyre

Fight Back!: You’re running for the Board of Directors of the Boeing Company (NYSE: BA) on an anti-war platform. Your main goal is to stop them from building a new combat drone for the Pentagon. What’s that about?

Chicago, IL – Over 2000 people attended the 2014 Labor Notes conference here, April 4-6, bringing together some of the best fighters in the labor movement for 140 crowded workshops of people discussing how to rebuild labor in the U.S. and abroad, and a militant protest at Staples on behalf of postal workers fighting privatization.

Chicago, IL – Under attack from aggressive Ukrainian fascists, 40 anti-war activists held a teach-in here on the unfolding Ukraine crisis and NATO expansion, April 12. An equal sized crowd of Ukrainian reactionaries, one carrying the battle flag of the fascist Ukrainian Insurgent Army and another man wearing a scarf bearing the insignia of the violent neo-Nazi Right Sector, attempted to push their way into the door of the union hall during the speakers’ presentations.

Chicago, IL – 100 Syrians gathered here, April 5, in front of the Turkish consulate to demand “Turkey, NATO, hands off Syria!” The group also called out their love for their homeland in Arabic, chanting “Tahya Suria!” Long live Syria!

Chicago, IL – 3000 workers at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) have gone without a contract, and without a contract raise, for over a year. In response, the Joint Bargaining Committee of Clerical, Service and Maintenance, and Technical units at UIC has called for a strike authorization vote.

_Confrontation with right-wing Ukrainians _

Chicago, IL – In a rally to mark the International Day Against Fascism and Racism, 35 people stood against a right-wing crowd of more than 100 at the Ukrainian Consulate in Chicago. Chanting, “Obama, McCain, no fascist Ukraine,” the small crowd braved the anger from the Ukrainian nationalists.

Chicago IL – To mark International Women’s Day (IWD) in Chicago, and to honor leading Palestinian women’s rights organizer Rasmea Odeh, 70 activists came together here, March 8, for a panel and dinner titled, “Winning Justice for Palestine & for Rasmea Odeh.”

Chicago, IL – 1100 faculty members at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) went on strike, Feb. 18, to demand a fair contract. Several rallies drew 500 strikers and their supporters to the middle of campus.

Do I remember when I met Pete Camarata? Yeah, I remember. It was in Pittsburgh in the late 1980s before the national convention of our reform caucus, Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). All the Teamster reformers were there.

Chicago, IL – On Jan. 10 the progressive Uri-Eichen Gallery in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood opened its doors to celebrate a true people’s artist, Joe Hill. Joe Hill was a member of the revolutionary labor union Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). The IWW was known for its popular art and music which captured the imagination of millions of workers. None of the IWW members was more famous for song writing and music than Joe Hill.

Chicago, IL – Despite being the target of a major political attack by the U.S. government, Rasmea Odeh continues to work for the Palestinian people. This is why the 22nd Annual People’s Thanksgiving Dinner, held in Chicago Dec. 8, honored her with the “Nelson Mandela Award: Opposing Israeli Apartheid is not a Crime.”

Chicago, IL – Since 1992, activists with Fight Back! news, some of whom are members of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, have held a People’s Thanksgiving dinner. According to Joe Iosbaker, “It was started as part of a movement to protest 500 years of colonialism and to celebrate the resistance of the indigenous people.”

Chicago, IL – Community advocates from Chicago’s West and South Sides delivered a petition with 1000 signatures to the office of Governor Quinn in the State of Illinois Building, Nov. 27. The petition calls for shorter sentences and justice for prisoners in Illinois. In a statement read by Curly Cohen of Affordable Power & Justice, the group asked, “What kind of Thanksgiving is this, with 50,000 in Illinois prisons, and 10,000 in Cook County Jail?”

Chicago, IL – More than 2500 people have signed the online petition demanding the federal government drop the charges against longtime Palestinian community leader Rasmea Odeh. Odeh is facing a trumped up immigration charge that could lead to imprisonment, the stripping of her U.S. citizenship and deportation.

Chicago, IL – Michael Deutsch of the National Lawyers Guild and the People’s Law Office spoke Nov. 12 about the case of Rasmea Yousef Odeh, a 65-year-old, Palestinian American, women's rights activist who was recently indicted and tomorrow faces arraignment Nov. 13 in U.S. District Court in Detroit. The immigration charge against Odeh could result in ten years in prison and deportation for violations in her application for citizenship.

Chicago, IL – A massive online petition effort demanding that the government drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh was launched Nov. 2. Odeh, a longtime Palestinian community leader war arrested by Homeland Security on Oct. 22.

Chicago, IL – About 50 people protested here, Oct. 24, to oppose Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and also to call for the U.S. government to drop charges against local Palestinian activist, Rasmea Odeh. The demonstration took place outside the Chicago Hilton where a fundraising event for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) was held.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 23 statement from the Arab American Action Network. We urge all our readers to participate in the national call in day.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following important statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR). We urge all of our readers to share this statement as broadly as possible. Outrageous arrest in Chicago Stop the repression of Palestinian activists

Chicago, IL – 50 people gathered in Chicago’s Federal Plaza Oct. 13 joining thousands rallying around the world in an international day of solidarity with the people of Syria. Syrians stood together with anti-war activists to tell the U.S., “No war on Syria!”