Workers Resistance

Author: Fight Back

  • Protesters rally at courthouse to demand “Justice for Jordan Davis”

    Jacksonville, FL – Over 35 protesters gathered here outside of the Duval County Courthouse, Feb. 4, for the first day of jury selection in the trial of Michael Dunn, the racist killer of 17-year-old African American youth Jordan Davis. Holding signs and chanting together, the crowd demanded “Justice for Jordan” and the conviction of Dunn.

    The case has drawn national attention for its similarities to the murder of Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Dunn shot and killed Davis in November 2012 at a Gate gas station in Jacksonville, for Davis allegedly playing loud music from his car. Prosecutors charged Dunn with first-degree murder after his arrest.

    Members of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the New Jim Crow Movement and the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition attended the protest, along with other concerned members of the Jacksonville community.

    “The sentiment of the people out there was, enough is enough,” said Wells Todd, an organizer with the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition and one of the protesters. “The theme was that we need to get rid of Angela Corey, stop stand-your-ground [laws] and win justice for Jordan Davis.”

    Todd’s quote speaks to the continued outrage by African Americans and others in Florida at state attorney Angela Corey’s role in the botched prosecution of George Zimmerman and her racist prosecution of Marissa Alexander, the 33-year-old African American mother whose conviction for resisting domestic abuse was recently overturned.

    Corey’s office, which is prosecuting Dunn, drew criticism from the Jacksonville community when she filed a motion to limit the public and the media’s access to the trial. Judge Russell Healey, who is handling the Dunn trial, agreed with Corey’s stance and ordered to prevent the public from accessing evidence and case materials for 30 days. A First District Court of Appeals decision overturned Healey’s decision, allowing the public and the media greater access to the trial.

    At one point in the protest, local police from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office instructed protesters to leave the courthouse on orders from Judge Healey.

    “A police officer gave me a court order from the judge that forced us to move from the courthouse onto the grass,” explained Todd. “If there was a large enough turnout from the community, there’s no way they could control where we stood.”

    The trial has drawn international attention and controversy. An English documentary crew was present outside the courthouse and interviewed protesters about the issues at play in the trial.

    Although the fact that Dunn shot and killed Davis unprovoked is not in dispute, protesters still doubt that the legal system will deliver justice for Davis and other African American youth victimized by police and racist vigilantes. Most of the people at the protest were active in the Justice for Trayvon Martin movement that erupted across the country when the court failed to convict George Zimmerman last July.

    “With the atmosphere the way it is, it could go either way,” said Todd. “I don’t see a slam dunk. I think people saw a slam dunk with Zimmerman too. The reason I say that is because the pressure has to come from outside, and from what I see, it’s not there yet. The fear that’s been out there for so many years, brought on by the mass media and the politicians, has really divided the white and black communities [in Jacksonville].”

    The prospects for a larger movement demanding an end to the racist killing of African American youth are not without hope, though. Todd continued, “What I thought was interesting yesterday is that the people who walked by the signs we were holding – whether they were white or black – agreed with what we were saying. People who walked by made supportive comments – white or Black. But we don’t know what the courts are going to do. The courts are this racist institution that’s hell-bent on oppressing and demoralizing the African American community. It’s something the African American community needs to understand.”

    Jury selection concluded on Feb. 5 and the trial will begin on Feb. 6. Another courthouse protest is planned for the morning of Feb. 6 to coincide with the first day of the trial.

    Organizers from the SCLC, the New Jim Crow Movement and the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition plan to hold events throughout the trial to pressure the criminal injustice system into delivering a guilty verdict.

     

  • Palestine solidarity activists disrupt speech by ‘Homeland’ TV series creator

    Milwaukee, WI – Nearly 50 Palestine solidarity activists disrupted a speech hosted by the Israel Center of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation on Jan. 30. The event featured Ron Leshem, the original producer of the Israeli television series Hatufim, which was adapted for U.S. television as the series Homeland.

    The event “TV: An Israeli Success Story” was designed to laud Israel’s cultural achievements in arts and entertainment while using those talking points to ignore or whitewash Israel’s illegal existence on stolen land. During the lecture, Leshem described his use of writing to humanize his subjects, who are often members of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF), and showed a clip of an Israeli prisoner displaying his scars. Leshem spoke of shaping global public opinion, telling the “other side of the story,” and of making Israeli media more “cosmopolitan.”

    20 minutes into the presentation, an activist stood in front of Leshem and loudly announced “Occupation is not cosmopolitan, it’s genocide! If you want to understand the other side, listen to the 2002 Palestinian call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel. Stop filming on occupied territory, stop touring with the IDF, stop advocating for Israel. Occupation is not entertainment!”

    During the interruption, about 50 activists in the front of the room wearing t-shirts that read “Occupation is not education” and “Boycott Israel” stood up and slowly filed out of the event. About 30 people remained in the room, many hurling insults as the activists walked out.

    Israel funding campus propaganda

    With Palestine solidarity activism growing on U.S. campuses, Israel has poured millions of dollars into public relations to counter the success of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. A 2013 move by the Jewish Agency for Israel will allocate $300 million a year to fund pro-Israel events, most of which will fund events on U.S. campuses, according to watchdogs.

    Campus activist groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine have found success in neutralizing pro-Israel events with walk-outs, disruptions, mock checkpoints and other direct actions.

    Ihsan Atta, member of the Milwaukee Palestine Solidarity Coalition states, “As Zionist groups continue to invite speakers who promote hatred and discrimination, we will continue to be there to remind them that oppressing the civilian population of Palestine is not acceptable nor will it be tolerated.”

     

  • Senate vote to extend on Extended Unemployment Compensation (EUC) set for Feb. 6

    Washington, DC – The Senate Democratic leadership announced today, Feb. 4, that a vote to extend benefits for long term unemployed workers is scheduled for Feb. 6.

    The vote will be on a three-month extension of Extended Unemployment Compensation (EUC). The measure has the support of a few Republican senators. 60 votes are needed to overcome a Republican filibuster.

    In December 2013, Democrats did not force Republicans to accept extended jobless benefits as a part of the budget deal, setting in motion the uphill fight to restore unemployment compensation for those who have been without work for more than six months.

    To date, about 1.7 million workers have been affected by the cut to unemployment benefits.

    The long-running economic crisis, which started at the end of 2007, impacted the major capitalist countries and changed their economic landscapes. The outcome has been high unemployment rates, a net decline in the number of good paying jobs – especially in manufacturing – and more workers in part-time employment.

    In the U.S. both major political parties have been part of a consensus to cut the social safety net.

  • Reports say Senate to vote on Extended Unemployment Compensation (EUC) this week

    Washington, DC – According to widespread reports here, Feb. 2, the Senate is close to an agreement that would allow a vote on Extended Unemployment Compensation (EUC) the week starting Feb. 3.

    Bloomberg news quotes Senate Majority leader Harry Reid as saying, “I hope we have something on the floor next week.” Insiders report that a vote is close, with Democrats and some Republicans nearing agreement on a funding source for the jobless benefit extension.

    To date, about 1.6 million job seekers have lost or been denied extended benefits. The number grows every day that congress fails to act.

    The seeds for this disastrous cut to the unemployed were planted in December of last year, when Democrats failed to insist that the funds for Extended Unemployment Compensation were included in the budget deal. Congressional Republicans are generally hostile to any assistance for the unemployed.

    A bipartisan consensus exists in Washington D.C. that federal spending must be cut and that social programs that serve working and low-income people need to be put on the chopping block. Recently unemployment insurance, food stamps and rental assistance have been targeted by politicians who favor austerity.

     

  • PFLP leader Ahmad Sa’adat transferred to Gilboa prison by Israeli authorities

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Feb. 2 statement from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)

    The Popular Front’s prison branch reported that the Zionist prison authority has transferred the Front’s General Secretary, Comrade Ahmad Sa’adat, from Shata prison to Gilboa prison.

    The Prison Branch said that this is aimed to distract and obstruct the efforts of Sa’adat as a leader in the prisons to unify the national prisoners’ movement and build the struggle within the prisons. The Branch noted that Sa’adat and other leaders of the prisoners’ movement are always subject to vindictive measures and are closely monitored by the Zionist prison authorities in attempts to obstruct their leadership and influence within the prisons.

     

  • Fight for Black, Chicano Studies continues at CSULA

    Los Angeles, CA – Over 100 students, community activists, faculty, staff and others jammed the Cal State University of Los Angeles (CSULA) faculty Academic Senate, Jan. 28, to demonstrate support for Ethnic Studies – Chicana/o Studies, Pan-African Studies and Asian American Studies – becoming part of the General Education program.

    General Education (GE) courses contribute to a student’s bachelors graduation requirement. These courses are intended to introduce undergraduates to a broad knowledge base from a wide range of disciplines in the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences. General Education courses are important, for they help students develop basic problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

    As it currently stands now at CSULA, Chicana/o Studies, Pan-African Studies and Asian American Studies are not fully supported within the GE course structure. They are primarily electives.

    Dr. Melina Abdullah, professor and Chair of Pan-African Studies, proposed a remedy to the lack of institutional support of ‘Ethnic Studies’ by including language that essentially institutionalizes Chicana/o Studies, Pan-African Studies and Asian American Studies into the General Education structure. This means that all students planning to graduate from CSULA would have as part of their education an Ethnic Studies course requirement.

    Dr. Abdullah’s motion states: “At least one of the two diversity courses must be taken in one of the four Ethnic Studies/Area Studies Departments/Programs: Asian/Asian American Studies, Chicana/o Studies, Latin American Studies, or Pan African Studies.”

    Yet, as the Academic Senate debated, it was evident that there was strong opposition among CSULA faculty to explicitly require Ethnic Studies be part of the new General Education structure for Fall 2016.

    In a most undemocratic manner, it was also made clear to all of us in attendance, that this was not a public forum, and that it would be up to the Academic Senate to vote on whether to allow public comment or not.

    To add insult to injury, for the first-time ever the Academic Senate voted with clickers, ensuring that there’d be no accountability or transparency on this matter.

    When Dr. Abdullah continued to press for faculty accountability and transparency by calling for a roll call vote, the Academic Senate refused and voted it down with their clickers.

    As of now, we do not know which professors voted for or against Dr. Abdullah’s proposal. Chicano Studies professors remained silent during the debate. However, the final tally to include the language that would make Chicana/o Studies, Pan-African Studies and Asian American Studies part of the GE was voted down 29 to 20.

    Ethnic Studies evolved out of the militancy and radicalism of the 1960s and 1970s and since then have been under assault by right-wing elements of this country. The fight for Ethic Studies is part of the struggle of Blacks and Chicanos for equality and self-determination. The oldest Chicana/o Studies Department was founded at Cal State University L.A. in 1968 as a result of the Chicano power movement.

    In recent years, Chicana/o Studies has been banned, Chicana/o books censored and educators fired in the Tucson Unified School District in Arizona.

    The opportunity to strengthen Ethnic Studies at CSULA by incorporating it into the General Education course structure was an opportunity lost. Yet, it is clear that the very presence of hundreds of students and community activists at the meeting demonstrated that this battle is just beginning and the community is once again ready to mobilize to stop the attacks against Chicana/o Studies, Pan-African Studies and Asian American Studies at CSULA. This event created a new spirit of unity and action among the students, faculty and community to continue to fight to expand Ethnic Studies.

    On Jan. 30 scores of students marched to the office of CSULA president to demand that Ethnic Studies be included in the General Education requirements. This issue is receiving more support from students in other colleges.

    “We have an opportunity to bridge divides and stand as a model if we move in the right direction. The Senate meets every Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. in Golden Eagle Ballroom 3. There is always an opportunity to right the course,” stated Dr. Abdullah.

    The students, faculty, staff and surrounding community of CSULA request your support to demand that CSULA require Ethnic Studies as part of the General Education (GE) course structure by calling or writing letters to the following offices:

    CSULA Academic Senate Staff

    Jean Lazo-Uy, Administrative Support Coordinator

    5151 State University Dr.

    Los Angeles, CA 90032

    Office: Administration 317

    Tel: (323) 343-3750

    FAX: (323) 343-6495

     

    Chicana/o Studies Department

    C/O Dr. Bianca Guzman, Chair

    5151 State University Dr.

    Los Angeles, CA 90032email: chicanostudies.csula@gmail.com

    Tel: (323) 343-2190

     

    Department of Pan-African Studies

    C/O Dr. Melina Abdullah, Chair

    5151 State University Dr. Los Angeles

    King Hall C3095

    Phone (323) 343-2290

    Fax (323) 343-5485

     

    Asian and Asian American Studies Program

    C/O Ping Yao, Program Director

    5151 State University Dr.

    Los Angeles, CA 90032

    Email: pyao@calstatela.edu

    Phone: (323) 343-5775

     

    David Cid is a Los Angeles-based Chicano activist and educator. Cid is active in the anti-war and immigrant rights movements. He recently received his Masters in Chicano Studies at CSULA.

     

  • Response to the State of the Union address

    Milwaukee, WI – As soon as President Obama’s State of the Union address was over, debates around the speech’s central theme of wealth inequality were distributed in carefully packaged arguments to all who would listen.

    In tackling the issue, Former Republican Congresswoman Michelle Bachman from Minnesota claimed the problem was not one of income inequality, but of income opportunity. According to the free market capitalist, a lack of jobs are the fundamental problem and we haven’t gone far enough yet in giving corporations freedom to grow as they see fit, and that this will create the jobs Americans need to heal our deeply divided society.

    Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, the supposed “socialist” who works closely with the Democratic Party, towed the party line, claiming that solving the problem of soaring education costs will level the playing field and address the inequality gap. The Democrats say that in educating the population, they will provide Americans access to “better” jobs and make our corporations more dynamic, and thus, more profitable, making everyone wealthier along the way.

    The problem with both arguments: neither deals with the issue.

    When Democrats talk about the cost of education, they mean finding a way to help give middle class students access to getting a degree that leads to a “better” job. When Republicans talk about income opportunity, they mean to shift the blame for a bad economy back onto the poor themselves.

    The gap between the 99% and the 1% cannot be solved with how many jobs there are, or what kind of job you have. Jobs themselves have nothing to do with the income gap. The income gap is a question of ownership and power in our society, with which group – working people or Wall Street has influence. The problem lies with who writes the paycheck.

    The genius behind the Occupy Movement is that it places the issue in its right place: a problem of class. The working class in the U.S. is on the defensive, losing rights in the workplace, opportunities in school and society, and bargaining rights with the bosses–the 1%. The owners, on the other hand, are gaining more and more power, and seeing their wealth soar as a result.

    President Obama’s challenge to employers to raise wages on their own is an empty one. It is a ploy to keep the left-liberals in the Democratic Party happy, while not doing anything to threaten the profits of the super rich. Further, it flies in the face of the experience of the labor movement in the United States, which saw Americans workers organize and struggle for every penny increase in wages and benefits. If the President wanted to take a serious stand for working people, he would do well to remember the words of the great Abolitionist Frederick Douglass, “Power concedes nothing without a demand.”

    Working people in the United States need more jobs and higher wages. In an age where one in five children deals with hunger, this cannot be any clearer. We need people to construct buildings, drive ambulances, and work on new technologies. What we do not need is the bankers and corporate heads of Wall Street who suck billions out of workers labor and give nothing back but foreclosures and outsourced jobs.

    That said, simply creating more jobs inside the 99%, either the so-called “better” jobs the Democrats propose or just any-old-job we can create as the Republicans wish, does not address the issue of the power divide between the haves and have-nots. It only exposes the fact that both political parties are representatives of the haves, and as such they never will address the real issues workers face.

    We won’t find our answers on Wall Street, in Congress, or in the White House. Only when working people, as a class, see through the smoke screen, recognize the problem, and organize to take power in their workplaces and communities will we be able to toss out Wall Street bankers and corporate boards and make a better world possible.

     

     

  • People’s songster Pete Seeger dies

    Grand Rapids, MI – Singer and folk music icon Pete Seeger passed away today, Jan. 28. Seeger was known for popularizing folk songs and signing everywhere he went. Peter Seeger united peoples in song across the entire society. Children in schools, teenagers at summer camps, worshippers in churches, workers on strike picket lines, civil rights marchers in the South and anti-war protesters across the country and over the decades lifted their voices to sing with Pete Seeger. Always an internationalist, Seeger helped not only to launch the American folk music revival, but folk music revivals in other countries like Australia too.

    Pete Seeger was more than a folk musician. He dedicated his life to ending oppression and exploitation. When the going got tough, Seeger appeared to lift people’s spirits and strengthen their resolve.

    Seeger joined the Young Communist League in 1936 at the age of 17. He advocated and sang for the U.S. to join the fight against Hitler once the Soviet Union was invaded. He joined the Communist Party in 1942, the same year he was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he continued singing for the troops. The next year he recorded Songs of the Lincoln Battalion in honor of the American revolutionaries who fought fascism in Spain before World War II. After the army, Seeger helped create People’s Songs, an organization that promoted music and songs about workers and the people’s struggles.

    In the face of McCarthyism and Cold War political repression, Seeger refused to back down. He was blacklisted from performing with the hugely popular Weavers on radio and television. With the Hollywood Ten already convicted and imprisoned for refusing to testify and being ruled in contempt of Congress, Seeger took a principled stand at the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings. He was eventually convicted of contempt in 1961 and sentenced to ten years, but the sentence was later overturned on appeal in 1962.

    During the African-American Civil Rights movement, Seeger played an important role reaching white audiences, thus changing hearts and minds. He also appeared at countless rallies against the U.S. war in Vietnam and visited Vietnam with his family in 1972, before the final defeat of the U.S. and its puppets.

    From If I Had a Hammer to Where Have All the Flowers Gone? to Turn! Turn! Turn! Pete Seeger is remembered today and for years to come.

    In Seeger’s words, “A good song reminds us what we’re fighting for.”

     

  • Twin Cities Fight Back! fundraising event major success

    Minneapolis, MN – More than 40 people came together here, Jan. 25 for an event to raise funds for Fight Back! newspaper. The house party netted close to $2000. Steff Yorek, who helped organize the fundraiser, stated, “The event exceeded our expectations. It’s clear that people want to help build a revolutionary newspaper that builds the people’s struggle.”

    The event included brief toasts from leaders in the trade union, anti-war, low-income and student movements, who stressed the accomplishments of the paper and the commitment to build Fight Back! in the coming year. Linden Gawboy, an event organizer and member of the Welfare Rights Committee, stated, “We need the print edition of Fight Back!. We use it during our outreach at the welfare offices and in the community. Most of our folks don’t have the internet. A lot of people don’t even have phones for half the month. We need a printed paper that tells the truth and clearly states what needs to be done.”

    Also speaking at the event was Fight Back! editor Mick Kelly who said that the real heroes who have made the newspaper a success are those who in the thick of building the people’s struggle. Kelly urged attendees to read the internet edition of Fight Back! every day and to forward the articles in social media. He also said that the next print edition would be distributed in many workplaces and communities across the U.S.

    “Fight Back! is a tool for change. It is tools to help us in our collective effort to get rid of, to destroy capitalism and replace it with socialism,” said Kelly.

     

  • Activists march in Jacksonville MLK Parade

    Jacksonville, FL – 40 progressive activists marched together in the city’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. parade on Jan. 20. These activists commemorated King’s legacy by demanding freedom for Marissa Alexander, the 33-year-old African American mother whose conviction for resisting domestic abuse was recently overturned, and justice for Jordan Davis, a 17-year-old African American youth murdered in 2012 by a white vigilante in Jacksonville.

    The MLK Parade is an important event that takes place in downtown Jacksonville every year. While the event commemorates the life and accomplishments of King, Jacksonville’s activist community wanted to draw attention to modern day civil rights struggles taking place in the city.

    “It honors his [King’s] legacy and brings attention to the fact that we still have work to do,” said Terri Brown Neil, an activist with the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition and a participant in the parade. She continued, talking about the current campaigns to free Marissa Alexander and win justice for Jordan Davis, “These issues just keep coming back up. Every now and then, you have to ask yourself, what year is it now? These issues show how important it is to be involved and not just sit back and wait for someone else to do it.”

    Activists from the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition, the New Jim Crow Movement and several other organizations marched together as a contingent in the parade. They held signs that featured little-known quotes from King, including, “We must guard against being fooled by false slogans, such as ‘right to work.’ It is a law to rob us of our civil rights and job rights.” This quote in particular speaks to the continued struggle against anti-union laws, like the movement to stop right-to-work laws in Michigan last year.

    Other important people in Jacksonville’s growing people’s movements attended, including Helen Jenkins, the mother of Marissa Alexander. Shirley Reed, the grandmother of Travis Swanson – an African American youth who was arrested at his high school without a warrant in 2009 – also marched in the parade, carrying a sign with her grandson’s image.

    As the parade progressed through the city, activists led chants including, “Hey hey! Ho ho! Angela Corey has gotta go,” referencing Jacksonville-based state attorney Angela Corey, who unjustly prosecuted Alexander, Swanson and countless other African-Americans in the city. Corey was also assigned by Florida Governor Rick Scott to prosecute George Zimmerman, the racist vigilante who murdered Trayvon Martin in February 2012. Activists widely blame Corey’s lackluster prosecution of Zimmerman for that vigilante’s acquittal in July 2013.

    Governor Scott attended the Jacksonville parade and rode in the front of the procession, far from the activist contingent. Nevertheless, the sizable crowd that gathered to watch the parade nodded in agreement and chanted along with activists as they yelled, “Hey hey! Ho ho! Rick Scott has got to go!” and “Workers need a raise! Pay a living wage!”

    “I’m very pleased with turnout,” said Neil. “This was the first MLK parade I participated in, and the first one in Jacksonville I’ve ever been to. It was inspiring to see that many people turn out. To see young people there was good, too. It’s great to see a renewed presence of the SCLC [Southern Christian Leadership Conference] in Jacksonville, and the folks marching with the Free Marissa campaign. I think we brought attention to issues we still need to work on.”