Workers Resistance

Author: Fight Back

  • Holiday appeal for Rasmea Odeh from Meredith Aby

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following appeal from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression

    Happy Holidays to our friends and supporters,

    On Sept. 24, 2010 my life changed as the FBI rummaged through my home looking for evidence of “material support for terrorism” as I stood holding my 18-month-old. I felt alone when they came to my home but I have not felt alone since. Locally and nationally the response from the peace and justice movements has been amazing. Thank you for standing with me and the other 22 anti-war and international solidarity activists who were raided and subpoenaed in 2010.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression plays a key role in leading the national effort to defend the Anti-War 23. It coordinates our national outreach and organizing on our case and against state repression. Our activists speak out against surveillance and political repression on the national and local level at conferences and protests. We are on the forefront nationally and locally in defending our rights to protest and to show solidarity.

    Currently we are organizing support for Rasmea Odeh, the newest activist to be caught up in the crosshairs of the FBI’s investigation of Midwest solidarity and anti-war activists. We continue to be concerned about the FBI’s continued investigation into our movement but we are not afraid to organize against war! Thanks for standing with us!

    Your Support is Key!

    We could not have kept the Anti-War 23 out of jail, stopped the attack on Carlos Montes, or continued our grassroots organizing for civil liberties without YOUR support. Thank you.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is a grassroots all volunteer national organization. We hope you can support our work by contributing financially to support this important work. Your contribution will be spent organizing against state repression, funding our legal support of Rasmea Odeh and our continued activism around the case of the Anti-War 23.

    Peace,

    Meredith Aby-Keirstead

    Donate here: http://www.stopfbi.net/donate

     

  • NSA, CIA role in murder of FARC leaders exposed

    Washington, DC – The Washington Post, in a major Dec. 21 article entitled “Covert Action in Colombia” confirmed the role of U.S. intelligence agencies in the systematic murder of at least 24 leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), as well as a smaller rebel group. The FARC, Latin America’s largest and oldest insurgent movement, is fighting for social justice and to free the country from foreign domination.

    Observers have known for many years that covert ‘signals intelligence’ gleaned by U.S. spy agencies plays an important part in keeping Colombia’s death squad government in power.

    The Post article states, “The secret assistance, which also includes substantial eavesdropping help from the National Security Agency, is funded through a multibillion-dollar black budget. It is not a part of the public $9 billion package of mostly U.S. military aid called Plan Colombia, which began in 2000.”

    The article says of the targeted killings, “The covert program in Colombia provides two essential services to the nation’s battle against the FARC and a smaller insurgent group, the National Liberation Army (ELN): Real-time intelligence that allows Colombian forces to hunt down individual FARC leaders and, beginning in 2006, one particularly effective tool with which to kill them. That weapon is a $30,000 GPS guidance kit that transforms a less-than-accurate 500-pound gravity bomb into a highly accurate smart bomb.”

    The article states that the outstanding Colombia revolutionary, Raul Reyes, was targeted in these attacks.

    In the face of harsh repression by U.S. government and its Colombian puppets, the FARC has continued to hold its own, forcing the Colombian government to join a new round of peace talks in Havana.

     

  • PFLP reviews past, make plans for future

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

    Statement on the work of the Seventh National Conference of the PFLP

    The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine issued the following statement regarding the Seventh National Conference of the Front, recently convened, as an important station on the road to return and the ongoing revolution until the liberation of the entire Palestinian national soil.

    The National Conference was held in three sessions in the homeland and in diaspora to carry out a comprehensive review and evaluation of the Front’s methods, work, overall policies and plans, and the formulation of a political vision and organizational methods for the new phase of struggle. The Conference aimed to form the base for developing the Front’s positions and policies, building the Front’s effectiveness, role, and presence in the struggle to achieving our goals of national and social liberation.

    The Front began with a moment of silence in honor of the martyrs of our people and our nation who sacrificed their lives for Palestine and its freedom, and in respect of the prisoners, detainees and the freedom fighters who continue to march on a difficult path to obtain our inalienable, legitimate, and historical national rights of our Arab Palestinian people.

    After the adoption of the agenda, the Conference was presented with a comprehensive statement and letter from imprisoned General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat, addressing political issues, organizational matters, and theoretical issues, as well as addressing the role of the Seventh National Conference in the future direction of the Front.

    The conference discussed draft reports submitted by the Central Committee, as well as recommendations submitted by the conferences of the Front’s branches, and ended with the election of the members of the General Central Committee and the Central Supervisory Board. The conference’s output reflected democratic principles on the workings of the internal life of the Front, as well as emphasizing the importance of wider participation in formulating the policies, programs, plans, and basic direction of the Front. The Conference emphasized the importance of strengthening the unity of the organization through the deepening of democratic systems and structures at all levels.

    The Seventh National Conference came at a time of serious political concern and complexity, when continuing U.S. imperialist and Zionist schemes aim at the liquidation of the Palestinian national cause by exploiting the conditions within Arab countries and their internal political, economic and social programs to exercise additional pressure on the Palestinian Authority to conclude more agreements ignoring international law, UN resolutions, and the inalienable national rights of the Palestinian people.

    The conference discussed the international environment around the Palestinian and Arab situation and its effects on our national struggle for liberation, and the struggle of the Arab people. The United States government is hostile to the aspirations and goals of our people for freedom, self-determination and return, a fact that is reflected every day on the ground and in international diplomatic forums, engaged in a security partnership with Zionist aggression. The Conference also noted the historical impact of international and regional events on the Arab scene.

    The rise of the role of Russia, China, and regional powers has shifted on some level the equations of international conflict. The Conference discussed the Arab political, economic and security situation, in its international context, as well as the structural disorder of Arab regimes and the failure of Arab states to safeguard national sovereignty, political independence, or economic security.

    The Front noted the large mobilizations witnessed in a number of Arab countries which aimed to confront injustice, poverty, and tyranny, and build modern democratic societies. It further noted the high level of imperialist interventions hostile to the aspirations of the Arab nation in an attempt to steal and co-opt the goals and objectives of Arab popular movements through external military interventions and political efforts to spur sectarian and ethnic conflict in order to control the destiny of the Arab peoples while protecting the Zionist entity.

    The Conference also discussed at length the Palestinian reality and the numerous developments in the over a decade that has passed since the Sixth Conference in 2000, reviewing the most important events in the Palestinian scene. At the center of this review are the ongoing and disastrous effects of the turning point in the Palestinian struggle in 1993, marked by the signing of the Oslo agreement. The Conference emphasized multiple issues, particularly the centrality of rejecting the negotiations, which do not serve the Palestinian people’s interests, and the need to fully reject the entire process of negotiations and “solutions” that have failed for over twenty years.

    The importance of rehabilitating the Palestinian national liberation movement and building a new Palestinian strategy based on achieving the full rights of our people was viewed as critical by the Conference. In particular, this will mean drawing lessons from this last stage and entirely ending the absurd negotiations for which our people have paid dearly.

    Further, the Conference discussed the Front’s organizational report, looking at the objective and subjective factors that have affected the structure of the Popular Front. This included engaging in a criticism of the organizational state of the PFLP, and learning lessons from past experience in order to tighten and develop the Front’s organizational structure and theoretical and political vision as a way out of crisis for the Front.

    The Conference also discussed amendments to the rules of procedure and agreed upon a number of amendments to the Front’s internal structural documents.

    The Conference addressed the political program, emphasizing the continuation of the struggle of our people to achieve their strategic objective, and that the goal of the struggle of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is to liberate every inch of Palestinian land from colonial occupation and establish a democratic state on the entire Palestinian national soil.

    The Conference confirmed political tasks in the revolutionary struggle, including the following:

    • the utmost importance to rebuild the institutions of the PLO on new democratic and inclusive foundations, rehabilitating the PLO’s original program and charter
    • working to develop and strengthen the unity of the Palestinian people as the sharpest weapon of the national liberation movement to achieve its goals and break the cycle of division
    • armed struggle is fundamental to the confrontation of the occupation, as imposed by the nature of the occupation and its violence, and is central and a primary component of overall resistance against occupation.
    • resistance to all plans and projects of political liquidationism proposed by imperialism and Zionism to bury the Palestinian cause
    • the struggle for the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their lands and homes from which they were expelled in 1948 must be at the center of work, rejecting all plans and projects aimed to liquidate this right
    • the issue of prisoners and the necessity to free them from Israeli jails is a central issue that must be taken up by all political means, through international bodies, and through the national struggle by all means
    • the central importance of the struggle for identity and liberation of the Palestinian people in 1948 occupied areas and their resistance to all attempts to displace them and Judaize the Palestinian cities and villages
    • the need for unwavering struggle against all forms of political discourse that attempt to legitimize the “Jewish nature” of the racist state, to expose the objectives of these attempts and their effects on the future of the national struggle and the Palestinian people
    • emphasize the importance of the role of the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in all locations and in exile, including exposure to difficult and complex conditions.

    Our people in diaspora have played a key role in the march of the contemporary Palestinian revolution and it is critical to focus on the issues of our people in exile and diaspora.

    The Conference stressed the need to continue efforts to develop the democratic trend in the broad Palestinian arena. At the conclusion of the Conference, the delegates elected the General Central Committee and Central Supervisory Board in an atmosphere of democracy and transparency, with a significant number of new members elected to the leading bodies.

    The Conference also expressed its constructive criticisms in a spirit of camaraderie and national responsibility, and sent warm greetings to the General Secretary Ahmad Sa’adat and all prisoners in Israeli jails, as well as paying tribute to the comrades who retired from their leadership positions to support the advancement of young leaders and the renewal of the Front. The Conference also expressed its vow to the martyrs and the prisoners to continue their struggle and march on the same long road to liberation, saluting the Front’s founder, Dr. George Habash, the martyred General Secretary Abu Ali Mustafa, the martyr leader Abu Maher al-Yamani and tall of the martyrs of the Front and the Palestinian revolution.

    The Conference saluted the Palestinian people, struggling everywhere, and all factions and forces of the Palestinian revolution, the Arab liberation movement, and popular forces of the Arab homeland; and greeted all of the forces of progress, freedom and socialism around the world who oppose and confront injustice, oppression and imperialism, the enemy of the people and the enemy of humanity. Glory to the martyrs and victory to our great people.

    Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
    General Central Committee

     

  • Arizona communists join Freedom Road Socialist Organization

    Tucson, AZ – A significant grouping of communists recently joined the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO). Centered in Tucson, the group ranges from a well-read high school student up to a comrade in his late seventies with lifelong experience in the Communist Party-USA. They include students, workers and educators from a variety of backgrounds and experiences, united in struggle for immigrant rights, workers and unions and against U.S. wars and oppression. Rings of other activists and revolutionaries are now discussing this bold move by the Arizona communists.

    The decision to leave the Communist Party and join the FRSO was not taken lightly. It was serious and deliberate. As Jafe Arnoldski said, “We discussed the problems we were facing and three things stood out. One, the social-democratic leadership of the Communist Party has rejected Marxism-Leninism and the historical experiences of socialism at a time when the socialist vision is especially necessary. Two, the Communist Party’s program and line misleads the working class with illusions about the Democratic Party, while putting socialism on the back burner for some future ‘stage.’ And three, under the social-democratic line, party discipline and organization have deteriorated, accountability and criticism/self-criticism have collapsed and bureaucratic formalities are the norm.”

    The Arizona grouping felt the Communist Party leadership was dismantling everything of value and drifting away from revolutionary politics. Many were especially upset with the dumping of the print edition of the newspaper that existed for generations. So the Arizona comrades debated their options and contacted a local FRSO member. It was suggested they study the FRSO documents at www.frso.org and share their views. Approached by other revolutionary groups, the Arizona group collectively joined the FRSO because it embodies the best traditions of the communist movement in the U.S.

    Speaking for the group of Arizona communists as a whole, Arnoldski described their reasons for joining the FRSO: “The FRSO has a dynamic program for revolution in the U.S. which applies the principles of Marxism-Leninism to the concrete national and class struggles and conditions at hand. As well, the FRSO makes use of the mass-line approach to leadership, expanding the political presence of the FRSO in the movements in which it works. The FRSO’s organizational norms and practices uphold the principles of democratic centralism and effective Leninist organization.”

    Arnoldski emphasized, “Also, I would add, the FRSO is committed to building cooperation and alliances among other Marxist-Leninists, on the road to constructing a new communist party.”

    The FRSO sent leaders to meet, discuss and answer questions, both practical and ideological. Cadres also shared our assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the FRSO as it expands to new cities and grows in all regions of the country. Despite facing ongoing U.S. government repression, the FRSO is vibrant and making strides in its party building efforts. The FRSO is growing younger and wiser, while strengthening its internal structures and democratic functioning, and all the while increasing its capacity to lead struggles regionally and nationally.

    The new Arizona district organizer summed up their big move, “We want to be a part of an organization that isn’t waiting for revolution and socialism. We want to be working with a group who are organizing for revolution and socialism right now through their principled practical work with the masses. We learned through struggle that the Communist Party could not provide us, or the masses, with such an organization and that FRSO has the elements to lead and unite working and oppressed peoples to fight back. We need a new communist party to lead us through revolution and build socialism. We have a world to win!”

     

  • Immigration and housing activists tell Sheriff Stanek: ‘Not one more deportation or eviction’

    Minneapolis, MN – On Dec. 19, MIRAc’s No More Deportations campaign and Occupy Homes MN joined together to protest deportations and evictions in Hennepin County. They demanded that Hennepin County Sheriff Rich Stanek stop evicting people from their homes and stop cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to deport immigrants from the county jail.

    The protest started outside the Hennepin County jail, where immigrants are routinely turned over to ICE for deportation, even if they have not been convicted of any crime. Outside the jail, a street theater skit began in which “Mr. Rich” (Mr. Grinch) came to steal the holidays by deporting and evicting as many people as possible in the interests of the 1%. The group then marched to City Hall, went inside the building and marched to Sheriff Stanek’s office door.

    The street theater continued there, where Mr. Rich was confronted by three “ghosts of evictions and deportations past,” who spoke about their experiences with eviction and deportation in Hennepin County. The protesters also set up a full-size Christmas tree directly outside the Sheriff’s office, decorated with ornaments with anti-deportation and anti-eviction messages.

    “Sheriff Stanek used our tax dollars to violently and illegally raid my home on Election Day, breaking down my door and forcing my daughter to walk barefoot across broken glass,” said Jaymie Kelly, who remains in her home and is currently fighting her eviction with Occupy Homes MN. “We should not be using tax dollars to violently separate families and force them into the streets. It’s time for Scrooge Stanek to change his ways. Not one more eviction or deportation!”

    According to Brad Sigal of the No More Deportations campaign, “Sheriff Stanek holds immigrants in the county jail for ICE to come deport them. He doesn’t have to do that. This holiday season, we demand that he stop using the jail as a deportation machine. Everyone should be able to stay in their home with their families for the holidays.”

     

  • Florida organizing for immigrant driver licenses

    Tampa, FL – On Dec 17, a new immigrant rights group, Raíces en Tampa, met with community members and students to launch a movement to demand driver licenses for undocumented immigrants in Florida.

    Previous attempts to pass driver license bills in Florida had support, but still failed. In 2012, the Dream Act Driver License bill unanimously passed in the state legislature. However, Florida Governor Rick Scott brought it down with a veto.

    Jared Hamil a member of Raíces en Tampa explained, “The Dream Act Driver License bill would have only been offered to those who currently receive Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA.” Hamil continued, “DACA recipients already can obtain driver’s licenses so this bill really did not affect anyone. We know this same bill is up for debate again in the 2014 legislative session and it is probably the one that will pass. So we are here as Raíces en Tampa to ensure we push for what 1.5 million undocumented immigrants need; not what the politicians will compromise with. We organize people, not politicians.”

    Raíces en Tampa has decided to take this issue at full-force. Already tabling and flyering, Raíces en Tampa is uniting the community and groups across Florida by talking to people one on one. They created a Facebook page, Driver’s Licenses for All Undocumented – Florida, attracting followers, including the popular band La Santa Cecilia.

    “We are workers, students, and community members,” said Marisol Marquez, a member of Raíces en Tampa. “We are not paid to do what we do and we do not have the money to lobby in the Capitol in Tallahassee. We are everyday people who are committed to connecting the people locally to take action. We are teaching others in different cities of Florida to do the same.”

    Raíces en Tampa’s meeting was filled with bright ideas and enthusiasm. There was talk about similar groups, non-profits and organizations taking on the issue of driver’s licenses for undocumented immigrants.

    “I believe the time is now. If we as Raíces en Tampa don’t do it who will?” says Alicia Argeñal of Raíces en Tampa “We know that in Florida, before we decided to take this campaign on, no one was touching it. Lobbyists in Tallahassee were not bringing this issue home to everyday people. I myself do it because it affects me. I do it for me, for my brothers, sisters and future generations in the state of Florida.”

    Raíces en Tampa was founded on Aug. 29, 2013 and is gaining momentum. The list of groups signing on to the campaign for drivers licenses for all includes both Florida and national groups: Raíces en Tampa, United Families in Miami; Consulado Mexicano – Orlando; DREAMers Moms from Orlando, Miami, Dallas, Arizona, and Utah; Students for a Democratic Society; League of United Latin American Citizens and Young American Dreamers. The list continues to grow.

    If you wish to join the campaign, be sure to visit: http://facebook.com/dl4allflorida, and stay tuned. If you have a photo you wish to submit to show support for Driver’s Licenses for All Undocumented – Florida, email it to raicesentampa@gmail.com.

     

  • New Jersey protests Food Stamp cuts

    East Orange, NJ – The People’s Organization for Progress (POP) held a protest here, Dec. 18 against the recently concluded ‘budget deal’ that will end unemployment benefits to 1.3 million people at the end of this month and to many more in months after.

    A common theme of speakers was the way Wall Street continues to rake in huge profits even while millions of people suffer and go hungry. The role of the Democrats in supporting the cuts was condemned.

    The budget deal is supposedly a victory for the Democrats, since even passing something as routine as a funding bill has become a big deal in Congress. But the workers are still the losers.

    15 people turned up at short notice. Organized labor was represented, as was Veterans for Peace, the Coalition to Save Our Homes, the Irvington NAACP, the Popcorn Kids and the POP youth auxiliary. The multinational gathering signified the broad people’s unity that is the real strength of the people’s struggle for economic justice.

    After the protest, several people left to go to the offices on Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and Representative Donald Payne, Jr. (D-NKJ) to demand that the cuts be restored.

  • Gov. Dayton told: ‘Raise the welfare grants!’

    St. Paul, MN – Organized by the Welfare Rights Committee, low-income people gathered in front of Governor Mark Dayton’s mansion, Dec 18, to demand the state budget surplus be used to meet the needs of the poor and for an increase in the welfare grants. Protesters did a spoken word version of the song Twelve Days of Christmas, called Twelve Days of Poverty. Building on the Christmas theme of the event, they threw brightly colored packages adorned with slogans over the mansion fence.

    A statement by protest organizers said, “Two weeks ago, the state announced that there is a projected $825 million surplus. The surplus is there because of years to cuts to programs for poor and working people. For most of us, the economic crisis is still very real, and we need help now. But Governor Dayton announced that he will propose tax cuts, mostly for businesses and the relatively well-to-do. His proposal to increase the Working Family Credit is cynical, since for years this credit has been partially funded by raiding federal welfare TANF block grant dollars. We say, TANF money should go to TANF families, in the form of a cash grant increase.”

    The statement continued, “For years, state legislators have stolen money from the federal TANF block grant that was meant for welfare. They have used TANF dollars to supplant General Fund dollars in many areas (including the Working Family Tax Credit). Last year, only 28% of the TANF welfare money went to cash MFIP grants for desperately poor families. The Welfare Rights Committee aims to reverse that trend in 2014.”

    The Welfare Rights Committee has legislation drafted for 2014. Their bill does three things. It moves up the implementation date of their 2013 victories for a housing allowance and undoing the family cap. It also calls for putting all of the federal TANF dollars that Minnesota gets towards a grant increase for families who are on welfare.

     

  • Victory: Jacksonville activists win name change for Nathan B. Forrest High School

    Jacksonville, FL – With more than 50 activists and community members present, the Duval County School Board voted unanimously, Dec. 16, to change the name of Nathan Bedford Forrest High School. The historic vote by the school board comes at the end of a six-month campaign by the Jacksonville Progressive Coalition (JPC) and other forces to drop the local high school’s racist namesake.

    “We have to change the name of this school because this city can no longer honor a slave trader, war criminal and grand wizard of the KKK,” said Richard Blake, a Teamster and member of the JPC who spoke at the school board meeting before the vote. “The heritage of Nathan B. Forrest is not our heritage – it is that of the oppressor.”

    Superintendent Nikolai Vitti began the school board meeting by sharing the board’s findings in polling the community about the name change. A poll conducted last week by the school board at Forrest High School found that about 64% of the student body favored changing the name. He then made a recommendation to the board to change the school’s name, which was approved by every board member.

    Paula D. Wright, one of the school board members who spoke out in support of the name change, said, “We talk about what’s in a name. A name does matter because it can service the foundation of how we think of ourselves and how we move beyond the particular place we’re in at the time.” She shared with the board and the audience her own story of attending school and receiving second-class treatment as an African American student. “This moves our entire city towards equality and justice.”

    The campaign to rename Forrest High School drew hundreds of community activists together, who attended forums, gathered petitions and protested the school’s racist name. More than 160,000 people signed an online petition at change.org started by Jacksonville community activist Omotayo Richmond. The JPC spent months gathering more than 2000 hand-written community surveys, which overwhelmingly showed support for changing the name. Supporters of the name change also brought their energy and arguments to several town hall forums called by the school board, which pressured the board into changing the name.

    Forrest High School, named after the infamously racist slave trader and Confederate general Nathan B. Forrest, received its name in 1959. The United Daughters of the Confederacy chose the name as a stunt to protest the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, which desegregated all-white schools throughout the country. To advance their racist agenda, they ignored the students’ vote to keep the school named Valhalla High School.

    The name Nathan Bedford Forrest is a blunt reminder of racist hatred, violence and terror. Forrest was a brutal slave trader, ordered the infamous Fort Pillow Massacre, and led the KKK. At Fort Pillow, Forrest’s troops executed hundreds of captured and surrendering Union soldiers, most of whom were African American, which Forrest bragged about in his military dispatches. The Daughters of the Confederacy chose the name to intimidate courageous African American civil rights activists, many of them teenagers, struggling for freedom.

    “Tonight was a historic blow to the racism of the Deep South,” said Fernando Figueroa, an activist with the JPC. “The neo-confederates who spoke in favor of Forrest saw the writing on the wall. We’re building the freedom struggle in Jacksonville star by star.”

    When Forrest High School opened in 1959, it was an all-white, segregated school. Today, 54% of the school’s approximately 1800 students are African-American.

    Jason Fischer, another school board member, concluded his remarks in support of the name change, saying, “We need to make today about honoring the future, which is our children.”

  • Rally demands justice for Corey Stingley

    West Allis, WI – Family and friends of Corey Stingley organized a rally outside VJ’s Food Mart, Dec. 15, where the 16-year-old was strangled by white vigilantes one year ago. Supporters demanded charges be filed against the people responsible for killing Stingley.

    In December 2012, three white adult vigilantes accused Stingley, who was Black, of theft and strangled him to death. A year later, no charges have been filed against the killers. A John Doe investigation produced a report containing “enough evidence for a conviction,” according to Stingley’s father Craig. Still, there has been no word from the Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm about pursuing charges.

    Activists are planning a call-in day to District Attorney Chisholm on December 30 to tell him that Corey Stingley deserves justice. “The decision to prosecute the killers lies entirely with Chisholm. We know if the race roles were reversed the killers would have faced trial and been locked up long ago,” said Hilary Wilson, a supporter of Corey Stingley.

    Contact Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm at 414-278-4646 or da.milwaukee@da.wi.gov