Workers Resistance

Author: Fight Back

  • Obama says U.S. will continue war in Afghanistan past 2014

    Minneapolis, MN – President Obama announced May 27, that by 2015 the U.S. will have 9,800 troops in Afghanistan and that by the end of 2016 the U.S. will leave troops to guard the U.S. embassy in Kabul. The next day when Secretary of State John Kerry was interviewed by Chuck Todd on MSNBC, Todd pointed out that “there’s eight more years of that agreement, and the next president, without the authorization of Congress, without seeking new permission from Afghanistan, could end up sending more troops back in” and Kerry agreed that it is possible that the U.S. could send in more troops. He was quick to point out that that decision would be made under a different administration though.

    While the President’s speech focused on how the U.S. is changing its operation in Afghanistan, many in the anti-war movement see the speech as a political smokescreen for the U.S. continuing its war and occupation of the country.

    Sarah Martin, an activist with Women Against Military Madness reacted to the president’s speech, “Make no mistake about it, these troops will be seen as a continuation of the US/NATO occupation of Afghanistan. Life for the Afghan people especially women and girls will continue to be dangerous. The Afghans will be able to get on with their lives when there are zero troops in Afghanistan.”

    Sophia Hansen-Day from the Anti-War Committee agreed, “With his declaration that almost 10,000 U.S. troops will remain on the ground in Afghanistan after 2014, President Obama yet again proves his steadfast commitment to empire building. Once again, his initial calls for change ring hollow in favor of the hypocrisy of Washington.”

    Military Families Speak Out has called for protests in response to the president’s announcement. So far there have been protests in Kansas City, California and New Jersey. There will be a picket at in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office on Friday, May 30, at 4:30 PM to show opposition to the continuation of a U.S. presence in Afghanistan. The protest is organized by the MN Peace Action Coalition.

  • Tampa in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh

    Tampa, FL – A group of Tampa activists gathered at the intersection of 56th Street and Fowler Avenue, May 27, to show support for Rasmea Odeh, an Arab American leader in Chicago. Cars honked and people waved as the activists chanted, “From Tampa to Palestine, solidarity is not a crime!”

    Rasmea Odeh is associate director of the Arab American Action Network and won a prestigious award last year for community organizing in Chicago. Odeh was arrested on bogus immigration fraud charges, Oct. 22, 2013, and is now facing trial in a Detroit, Michigan.

    The group of Tampa activists who gathered to spread the word included Mel Underbakke of the National-Coalition-To-Protect-Civil-Freedoms, Jared Hamil of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression and Marisol Márquez of Raíces en Tampa.

    Márquez related, “Like Rasmea Odeh, different immigrants living in the U.S. understand how their battles are at times very similar. People like Odeh are a target of U.S. government repression because they are effective at organizing against U.S. intervention and war. As a member of Raíces en Tampa, I speak on behalf of my organization knowing that we will fight against Odeh’s deportation. We will not rest until the threat is over – of Odeh being separated from her friends and family.”

    Jared Hamil of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression added, “Anti-war and international solidarity activists are always under the scope of the FBI and Justice Department. If they’re not repressing you, they’re planning on it. Activists should not be scared by these attacks. As we saw with the case of Chicano leader Carlos Montes, when people unite and fight back against political repression they can win.”

    Rasmea Odeh has a new court date in Detroit, Oct. 21. See the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (www.StopFBI.net) for more information. Cities across the country are organizing Rasmea Odeh solidarity events leading up to her next appearance.

  • Deportations to continue at a record pace all summer

    San José, CA – On May 27, President Obama told the head of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, to postpone his recommendations for changing deportations policies until after Congress wraps up in August. Under pressure from immigrant rights activists to stop the record number of deportations, more than 2 million, the President had promised a review of deportations back in March.

    Obama claimed that any action to stem the tide of deportations would make the Republicans mad so that they won’t act on immigration reform. But the reality is that it has been almost a year since the Senate passed their Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR) bill last June 27. Despite this bill being so loaded up with more militarization of the border, expanding workplace verification, expanded temporary worker visas and elimination of the diversity visa to woo right-wing Republicans, the Republican led-House of Representatives has refused to consider an immigration reform bill. While there are a lot of rumors that Republicans are softening, the House just shot down a bill sponsored by a California Republican that would legalize undocumented veterans of the U.S. military.

    Many forces in the immigrant rights movement have condemned Obama’s latest action to appease Republicans. Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON), said that the delay “damages legislation’s prospects, hurts real people…” Marisol Marquez, of the Tampa, Florida immigrant rights organization Raices, told Fight Back!, “Obama needs to stop hiding behind the House Republicans. Face the people and put a stop to deportations.”

    But sadly enough, a few organizations, including the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Migration, among others, not only approved of Obama’s delay, but actually encouraged him to do so. With deportations running at a pace of more than 1000 per day, supporting this delay means supporting the deportation of at least another 60,000 immigrants, many of whom could be eligible for legalization.

     

  • Trial of Rasmea Odeh set for Oct. 21

    Detroit, MI – Rasmea Odeh, a Palestinian American organizer from Chicago, appeared in U.S. District Court here for a status hearing, May 28, along with her new attorney, Michael Deutsch of the People’s Law Office.

    Deutsch filed an official appearance as Odeh’s representative and was granted a continuance on her trial until Oct. 21. Judge Paul Borman also ruled that the deadline for pre-trial motions had passed, and seemed reluctant to budge on this issue, but Deutsch stated afterward, “as the case develops, hopefully, he’ll be more flexible.”

    Odeh is being charged with Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization, but strongly asserts her innocence. Deutsch, who has represented political activists and victims of police and government civil rights violations since 1970, was pleased with the ruling for a continuance and has begun working on a strategy for the defense.

    The prosecution was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Tukel, the Chief of the National Security Unit.

    The Rasmea Defense Committee, which, since Odeh’s arrest and release on bond last October, has been demanding that the U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Michigan, Barbara McQuade, drop the charges immediately.

    Rania Shkairat, a member of the Rasmea Defense Committee in Chicago, said, “We are extremely happy that such a prominent attorney as Michael Deutsch is on the case and that we now have more time to continue our organizing to pressure the government to drop the charge. Rasmea is a wonderful role model for women like me who have dedicated their lives to social justice, and we will do everything in our power to clear her name.”

    Mick Kelly, of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression urges activists to check the United States Palestinian Community Network (uspcn.org) and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (stopfbi.net) websites for updates and action steps.

  • UE leadership releases statement on Ukraine crisis

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following May 27 statement from the United Electrical Workers (UE) on developments in the Ukraine and U.S. intervention.

    The Ukraine Crisis and the New Cold War

    On February 22, the elected president of Ukraine was overthrown in a coup which was supported by the Obama administration. Since then, the country has been torn apart and violence has escalated. On May 2 in the southern city of Odessa, supporters of the new unelected Kiev government, including members of the violent extremist Right Sector party, surrounded peaceful, unarmed anti-government protestors who had taken refuge in the city’s main union hall. The right-wing crowd then set the union hall on fire, and 46 people died by being burned alive or jumping to their deaths trying to escape.

    We are troubled by this horrific atrocity, and by the fact that mass murder was committed by burning a union hall. We are concerned about the conflict in Ukraine, by the massing of Russian troops near Ukraine’s eastern border and U.S. and NATO troops and planes in neighboring Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which signal the return of the Cold War and the threat of a much hotter war.

    A defining period in the history of UE was our union’s courageous opposition to the Cold War. At the end of World War II there was great hope among union members and other Americans for a continuation of FDR’s New Deal, with progressive social and economic policies including national healthcare, expanded Social Security, and progress against racial discrimination in employment. What we got instead was the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act and the Cold War. Military spending, including the nuclear arms race, continued to trump all other priorities. Local conflicts all over the world were treated as global showdowns between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. In the name of “fighting communism,” the U.S. sided with the French and British colonial empires against independence movements, and backed many brutal dictators against their own people. The 40-year-long Cold War included some very hot wars – notably Korea and Vietnam. The CIA organized coups that overthrew democratic governments that dared to disagree with the U.S. government or corporations. On the domestic front, the Cold War was a massive attack on civil liberties and an effort to wipe out organizations, including UE, that refused to enlist in the Cold War.

    UE said the U.S. government should direct its resources toward making life better for its own people. UE favored negotiations to resolve differences between the U.S. and the Soviets, and to end conflicts such as Vietnam. UE said the arms race robbed human needs on both sides of the Cold War divide. As UE President Albert Fitzgerald often said, “You can’t have guns and butter.”

    The Cold War supposedly ended with 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, which had been composed of the USSR and its Eastern European allies. A key event was the 1990 agreement between the U.S., West Germany and the Soviet Union allowing the reunification of Germany. In those negotiations, President George H.W. Bush promised Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev that NATO – the U.S.-led anti-Soviet military alliance – would not expand any further east than Germany.

    Yet despite that promise, and despite Russia and its former allies no longer having communist governments, NATO has moved steadily eastward toward Russia. NATO now includes the former socialist states of Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as three former republics of the U.S.S.R. which border Russia – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Two more former Soviet republics, Ukraine and Georgia, have been promised eventual NATO membership. NATO is now clearly an alliance against Russia, sitting on Russia’s doorstep.

    In late 2013 the U.S. began expressing hostility toward Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, and sympathy with the often violent anti-government protestors in Kiev. Yanukovych was not an exemplary leader – we now know that he’d been feathering his own nest – but he was elected in a fair election, and the U.S. supports many governments that are more corrupt and undemocratic than his.

    What made Yanukovych a target for regime change was his decision in November to reject harsh loan terms from the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) – including the kind of pension cuts and austerity that have driven Greece into poverty. Yanukovych instead accepted a more favorable offer of economic aid from Russia. His proposal that Ukraine have good economic relations with both Russia and the EU was rejected by the EU and the U.S., which wanted a Ukrainian government hostile to Russia.

    U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland met in December 2013 with Oleh Tyahnybok, head of the far-right Svoboda Party. In a 2012 resolution the European Parliament had called Svoboda “racist, anti-Semitic and xenophobic” and appealed to democratic parties in Ukraine “not to associate with, endorse or form coalitions with this party.” In May 2013 the World Jewish Congress labeled Svoboda “neo-Nazi” and called for the party to be banned. Svoboada leader Tyahnybok has called for ridding Ukraine of the influence of “the Moscow-Jewish mafia.” Svoboda is also anti-gay, anti-black, and hostile to equal rights for women.

    But since the overthrow of Yanukovych, Svoboda holds four cabinet ministries in Ukraine’s “provisional government” (including deputy prime minister.) In a Feb. 4 conversation caught on tape, Nuland and the U.S. ambassador to Kiev discussed who would get which positions in the new government, including cabinet seats for Svoboda.

    In Europe since the end of World War II, there has been a political taboo against allowing fascist and neo-Nazi parties into any government. The Obama administration has now broken that taboo and allied our country with fascists in Ukraine. According to German media reports, about 400 elite mercenaries from the notorious U.S. private security firm Academi (formerly Blackwater) are taking part in Ukrainian military operations against anti-government protesters in southeastern Ukraine. News that Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden has joined the board of directors of Ukraine’s largest private gas company adds the element of conflict of interest. Obama’s policies toward Ukraine and Russia have significantly increased the chances of military confrontation between the U.S. and Russia, the world’s two nuclear superpowers. This threatens world peace.

    It is unclear whether the presidential election conducted on May 25, under conditions of near-civil war, will help to defuse the crisis in Ukraine.

    We reaffirm UE’s historic position. We favor peace and friendly, equitable economic relations between nations. We favor negotiations rather than military confrontation to resolve disputes, including this one. We believe the countries that defeated Nazism in World War II, including the U.S. and Russia, should work together against any resurgence of racism, anti-semitism and fascism in Europe.

    Bruce Klipple, General President

    Andrew Dinkelaker, General Secretary-Treasurer

    Bob Kingsley, Director of Organization

    May 27, 2014

  • Tucson teach-in on U.S./NATO intervention in Ukraine

    Tucson, AZ – Tucson activists organized a presentation and discussion on the crisis in Ukraine, May 23. The teach-in was part of the nationwide emergency action campaign, initiated by the United National Antiwar Coalition, against U.S. intervention in Ukraine.

    The event, attended by 20 anti-war activists and Tucsonans eager to learn about the ominous developments in Ukraine, featured speakers from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Alliance for Global Justice, and Workers World Party. The presentations covered the history and dynamics leading up to the Maidan protests, the U.S. and NATO-backed fascist coup in February, the current anti-fascist resistance across the country and the role of U.S. imperialism and the corporate media.

    Paul Teitelbaum with Workers World Party and an organizer of the panel explained, “People will never be told the truth of the situation by the bourgeois media. So it’s important to gather and learn about the role of U.S. imperialism in creating the crisis in Ukraine and the relationship between the imperialists and the fascists. Combating media lies and clarifying the political character of the events will help us build the strong anti-imperialist, anti-war movement that we need.”

    After the presentations, a lively question and answer discussion shed further light on the urgent need to oppose the U.S. efforts that are backing fascists in Ukraine and the malicious expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe. Speakers and participants also drew connections between U.S. meddling in Ukraine, Belarus and Venezuela.

    In front of a flag of the newly established Donetsk People’s Republic in Eastern Ukraine, activists demanded “U.S. hands off Ukraine,” and “Victory to the anti-fascist resistance,” and vowed to uphold solidarity with the people of Ukraine in opposing the U.S.-backed Kiev junta.

  • The Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB) obtains its first deputies in several parliaments in Belgium

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB) on the May 25 elections.

    On 25 May three elections took place in Belgium: for the federal, regional and European parliaments. The main winner turns out to be the Flemish nationalist party N-VA (Rightist), obtaining more than 33% of the vote in Flanders. But there is also the major advance of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB), making its entry in the federal parliament and in the regional parliaments of Wallonia and Brussels.

    Raoul Hedebouw, for the province of Liège, and Marco Van Hees, for Hainaut, have been elected to the federal parliament on the list PTB-go! Raoul Hedebouw, the PTB’s spokesman, “For the first time in 25 years, a new political family, genuinely Leftist, and active in Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels makes its entry in the federal and regional parliaments. We send two deputies to the federal parliament, two to the regional parliament of Wallonia and four to the Brussels parliament. “

    In Wallonia, the PTB-go! gets 5,81% of the vote (and in the province of Liège 8,30%), making it the fifth political force in the South of Belgium. In Brussels, the list gets 3,84%, and thanks to a technical agreement with some small lists, the undemocratic threshold of 5% could be surpassed, giving the PTB-go! no less than four seats in the Brussels parliament.

    In Flanders the PTB has waged an exemplary election campaign in a very difficult political context, with the dominance of the Flemish nationalist N-VA, the existence of the fascist party VB and the Green party in a comfortable situation of opposition. In these conditions, and with the 5% threshold, unfortunately the PTB was not able to get its chairman, Peter Mertens, elected, although it got a honorable result of 4,52% in the province of Antwerp and 8,85% in the city of Antwerp, making it the fourth largest party there.

    As regards the elections for the European Parliament, the PTB-go! received 5,49% of the vote, largely insufficient to obtain a seat (Belgium has only 21 seats in the EP, to be divided over the different language groups).

    On election evening, Peter Mertens told party militants gathered in Antwerp, “120 years ago, the first Belgian socialist, Edouard Anseele, who hailed from the Flemish city of Ghent, was elected in the Walloon city of Liège. Anseele spoke the language of the working class. Today, Raoul Hedebouw has been elected in Liège as well, and he will also speak the language of the entire working class. We are a national party that cannot be divided, nor by place of birth nor by the language spoken at the kitchen table. For us, what prevails is the social interest of the people, of all people in this country.”

    “During this long election campaign, we have laid the foundations for a strong social current at the grassroots level, and we will absolutely need this in the years to come. Our commitment is to defend the interests of the working class, in all its diversity; of the youth, with all its dynamism; of the voiceless, of those whom this society considers as nothing but numbers; of all people who are going through difficult times. “

    Raoul Hedebouw, national spokesman of the PTB, echoed these words at the party meeting in Liège, “As member of parliament elected for a national party, I will also be the representative of the workers of Flanders, in Antwerp, Limburg and Ghent. And no, the votes for the PTB are not protest votes, they are votes of hope. Votes for a Left that refuses austerity policies, that believes that we, the workers, will further build up self-confidence in order to be able to write the social history of this country. We warn the traditional parties: if you plan to impose more austerity measures as is the case elsewhere in Europe, you will find yourselves confronted with the PTB deputies, as with the workers who want to stop these policies of budget cuts.”

    With these election results, and on the basis of an enthusiastic campaign, the PTB commits itself, in the words of its president Peter Mertens, “to build, stone upon stone, a social future.”

  • Another LAPD checkpoint in El Sereno, second this month

    Los Angeles, CA – The El Sereno community in East Los Angeles came out to protest another police checkpoint May 24. Mexican, Chicano and Central American residents, most of whom are immigrants, challenged the second LAPD checkpoint in the area this month. Residents felt targeted by the LAPD Traffic Division as this checkpoint was on Huntington Drive, located in the heart of the community, near a major market.

    On May 2, local residents and the Centro CSO protested a similar checkpoint (at Huntington and Poplar) and were successful in helping many residents avoid getting their car impounded, to the dismay of LAPD and the local Official Police Garage Association tow company. Members of the Official Police Garage Association reap millions in profits from car impounds and often make donations to local politicians.

    In January 2015 the Department of Motor Vehicles will make California driver’s license available to the undocumented, and the millions of dollars generated by car impounds will dry up.

    For years, the Community Service Organization (CSO) has pointed out that police target Mexican/Chicano communities, where the majority undocumented immigrants with no driver’s licenses as easy prey for car confiscations. Centro CSO, with many other organizations such as Hermandad Mexicana Latinoamerica, fought for California driver’s license for the undocumented for years. Now that licenses are finally coming, the police – especially the LA Sheriff’s Department in league with the Official Police Garage Association – are trying to make as much money as they can.

  • Utah march against Monsanto

    Salt Lake City, UT – Over 200 activists and community members gathered at the state capitol, May 24, to join with cities across the country by rallying against the Monsanto Corporation. People assembled on the steps of the capitol despite the rain to listen to a number of speakers including Craig Bowden, Melanie Widerburg-Zucker, Justin Danneman, Lorena Apgar Hansen and Jonathan Hansen. People spoke of the effects that Monsanto has across the globe and locally on families and communities.

    The keynote speaker for the event was former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson. Anderson gave a fiery speech on the effects of corporate interests in the U.S. and nailed former Monsanto VP and lobbyist Michael Taylor who is now head of the FDA. Anderson stated, “We don’t need a government of the rich, we need a government of the people, by the people and for the people.” Musicians Michael Cundick and Josh Blakesley also performed for the crowd.

    Gregory Lucero of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization was passing out a Fight Back! commentary describing Monsanto’s role in the U.S. dirty war in Colombia. Lucero said, “The U.S. government has spent over $8 billion since the year 2000 on war in Colombia. Monsanto is the company contracted by the U.S. military to spray Roundup chemicals on Colombian peasants’ crops under the guise of a ‘war on drugs’, decimating the countryside. This contributes to hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Colombia. We need to support Colombian farmers and say, ‘No more Monsanto fumigations. No to U.S. war in Colombia!’ We’re out here to show our solidarity with the Colombian people.”

    The crowd then took to the streets in a militant manner, despite a police presence, marching from the capitol to the County Building. The large group raised their signs and banners as they walked through traffic chanting “Monsanto against the wall, no more GMO’s at all” and “Monsanto no more, we won’t fund your secret war!” Protest leaders ended the protest with calls for the people of Salt Lake City to continue organizing and fighting back.

  • Hundreds march against Monsanto in Miami

    Miami, FL – About 400 people gathered downtown here, May 24, as part of a global day of action to “March Against Monsanto.” Activists and concerned families, young and old, met outside of the Adrienne Arsht Center Metro Mover with signs and banners, chanting, “Save our farmers, save our seeds, listen to the people’s needs!”

    Those in attendance called on the corporate food monopoly to stop creating and selling genetically modified organisms (GMOs), for the U.S. government to place labels on all genetically modified foods and for the food giant to stop forcing farmers throughout the world to buy its seeds and products.

    “While the health concerns regarding GMOs are legitimate, what is worse is the disastrous impact Monsanto has on people and workers throughout the world,” said Pamela Maldonado, a lead organizer with the anti-war group POWIR. “In countries like Colombia, where I was born, Monsanto and the U.S. continue to instigate violence and repression.”

    Monsanto is a powerful arm of the U.S. empire, especially in Colombia where the U.S. government and Monsanto work in tandem to destroy the lands and farms of small farmers in that country. The majority of farms destroyed by Monsanto’s poisons are those owned by farmers living in areas where the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have a strong presence. So the toxic chemicals created by Monsanto are being used to further U.S. domination over the people of Colombia.

    Hundreds of people marched along Biscayne Boulevard, beginning first on the sidewalk and later taking to the streets chanting, “Hell no, GMO! Hell no, GMO!” Onlookers took part in the chanting and some even joined in the march, as passing cars honked in solidarity. As people marched under the hot South Florida sun, they held signs that read, “I am not a science experiment,” and “Support farmers and workers! End Monsanto’s monopoly over the food industry!”

    The march lasted two hours, as protesters wound their way throughout busy Biscayne Bay. Upon returning to the Metro Mover stop, protesters listened to speeches by local community members and political hopefuls.