Workers Resistance

Author: Fight Back

  • Tennessee statewide day of action for farmworker justice

    Clarksville, TN – In six cities across the state of Tennessee on July 20, people held pickets and delivered letters to Publix managers urging the Publix grocery store chain to join the Fair Food Program that would improve wages and working conditions for tomato pickers in Florida.

    So far eleven major companies have signed on to the Fair Food Program, developed by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW). Yet, despite massive protests, marches, hunger strikes and demonstrations around the country, for four years Publix has refused to even sit at the table to discuss joining this program that would not only help farmworkers get a better wage, but would also help to put an end to pervasive human rights abuses in Florida tomato fields.

    In Nashville, Zach Blume with the Student Farmworker Alliance at Vanderbilt University said, “Publix, if you want to move into Tennessee we need you to expand your human rights!” This sentiment was echoed across the state as picketers in Clarksville held a banner that read, “Publix: sign on to Fair Food” and chanted “No more slaves! Pay a living wage!” outside of the two Publix locations in the area. A member of Students for a Democratic Society who helped organize the demonstration in Clarksville said, “We are asking Publix to follow the words of its founder and ‘not let making a profit get in the way of doing the right thing.’ We want Publix to do the right thing and sign on to Fair Food, a program that ensures the basic rights and respects the dignity of farmworkers.”

    For several years Publix has been steadily expanding its stores into the state of Tennessee and July 20 marks the first time that organizers have come together across the state to collectively put the heat on one the Southeast region’s largest food store chains. Protesters made their message to Publix very clear and could be heard from Knoxville to Clarksville, chanting “Publix, escucha! Estamos en la lucha!” meaning “Publix, listen up! We’re in the fight!”

    Organizers plan to continue building the fight back in Tennessee against attacks on farmworkers. More information about the CIW and the Fair Food Program can be found at: www.CIW-online.org. For more information about the Fair Food Campaign in Tennessee visit: www.NashvilleFairFood.wordpress.com.

  • Protests demanding justice for Trayvon grow larger in San José

    San José, CA – A week after the acquittal of George Zimmerman, another rally and march drew more than 250 people, three times the size of the week before. The protest continued to be majority African American with a large number of Chicanos, Mexicanos and Latinos. Many of the protest signs were in Spanish. There were also more middle-aged and older people and a sprinkling of families with children at the rally. At the top of the demand list was that the Department of Justice file civil rights violation charges against George Zimmerman.

    During the rally, Ross Pusey told the crowd how he had been made a suspect because he was a young Black man. “I could have been Trayvon,” he said. “It is happening right here [in San José]. Another speaker said in Spanish “¡Este sistema judicial es basura!” (This justice system is garbage), referring to the outcome of the case. Akabandu of the All-African People’s Revolutionary Party (A-APRP) said, “This is not a one person task – we need to organize!”

    The protest then marched down Santa Clara through the heart of downtown San José to the Federal Building. After briefly blocking a streetcar line, the rally continued. One of the speakers was Masao Suzuki from Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) who asked: “Did the police arrest Zimmerman after he killed Trayvon? No! Did the prosecutors file charges against Zimmerman? No! He was only arrested and charged after the youth of Florida protested, including sitting in at the Sanford Police station. If we want the Department of Justice to file charges, we need to continue to protest, we need to continue to organize!”

  • Build the fight to get justice for Trayvon Martin

    On July 13, an almost all-white jury ruled that George Zimmerman was not guilty on all charges for the murder of Trayvon Martin. While saddened and angered by this verdict, we were not surprised that the U.S. so-called ‘justice system’ has again said that racist cops and vigilantes like Zimmerman have a green light to shoot and kill African Americans.

    Just as one of the foundations of the U.S. economy was profits from slavery, the U.S. legal system began with a constitution that said that African Americans were only 3/5 of a person. In 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that African slaves and their children have no rights in the U.S., in the case of Dred Scott v. Sanford. Then in 1896, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was constitutional in the case of Plessy v. Ferguson. And early this year, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Civil Rights Act, opening the door for racist local and state governments to exclude Black and Brown voters from the polls.

    The law, the police and the courts are not about justice, they are about protecting the property, privilege and power of the monopoly capitalists, the richest 1% who own and control the corporations and government that dominate the economy and society. They are part and parcel of the national oppression that African Americans face: the all-around, social, political and economic inequality of Black people face as an oppressed nationality in the U.S.

    The fight for full equality and liberation by African Americans has been a powerful force for progress in the U.S. The sit-in by four African American college students at a segregated Woolworth’s lunch counter on Feb. 1, 1960 launched a national movement of direct action to desegregate the South and to fight for Black political power. This movement, and the organization that arose out of it, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee or SNCC, directly led to the rise of Students for a Democratic Society and the anti-war movement and was an inspiration to other oppressed nationalities, especially Asian Americans, Chicanos, Native Americans and Puerto Ricans, as well as the women’s movement, and the struggle of LGBTQ people.

    Our experience from participating in these movements for almost 50 years is that progress does not mainly come from the courts or elections. Nor does it mainly come from economic struggles such as boycotts. The fight for equality advances when the masses of working people organize and show their power in the streets through militant mass actions such as rallies, marches, occupations, strikes, etc.

    The huge protests across the county that have mobilized hundreds of thousands of people, including large numbers of Black and Brown youth, are a great development. Everything possible should be done to build this struggle.

    Justice for Trayvon Martin!

    Fight for Full Equality and Liberation for African Americans!

    Don’t Mourn, Organize!

  • Protesters march through streets of San Jose, demand justice for Trayvon Martin

    San José, CA – On July 14, almost 100 protesters, more than half African American, marched through the streets of downtown San José to protest the acquittal of George Zimmerman, who was on trial for the murder of Trayvon Martin. The protest began at the San José City Hall, where Reverend Houston of the House of San Kofa told the crowd, “It is necessary that our voices be heard!”

    The protest was overwhelmingly of young people. A young African American women told Fight Back! that she works with children and thought about how it could be any one of them. “How will it be for my children when I have them?” she asked. Miriam Mosqueda, a member of the nearby San José State University MEXA and Native American Student Organization, said, “It is not right to kill someone and walk free. There is a lot of anger and it is important to come together, so change can come.” Another young African American woman told the crowd that, “We need to be courageous and fight – not just make statements on Twitter.”

    The protesters then marched to the nearby federal building, filling the street along the way. With chants of “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” and “No justice, no peace! We’re taking over the streets!” the militancy of the crowd attracted honks and raised fists from cars passing by.

    At the federal building, Masao Suzuki said that, “It was right to be here. The federal government cleared out the native peoples and oversaw their genocide. The federal government was founded on a constitution which said that Blacks were 3/5 of a person. The federal government put Japanese Americans in concentration camps during World War II, and now the federal government is deporting record numbers of immigrants, mainly Mexicans and Central Americans!”

    The protest then marched backed to city hall, this time attracting more than half a dozen police cars, which forced the marchers on to the sidewalks. Back at city hall, there was a call to return the following Sunday, July 21, at 6:00 p.m. with even more people.

  • 30,000 California prisoners begin hunger strike and work stoppage against long-term solitary confinement

    Los Angeles, CA – On July 8, 30,000 prisoners in California began a massive, system-wide hunger strike and work stoppage. This is likely the largest prison strike in U.S. history. The prisoners have five demands, centered on stopping long-term solitary confinement, group punishment and administrative abuse, as well as other issues of appalling prison conditions, many of which can be classified as torture. The strike is uniting prisoners across lines of race and nationality throughout the California prison system.

    The prisoners say they will not eat and will also not work unless the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agrees to negotiate honestly about their demands. Their five demands are:

    — End Group Punishment & Administrative Abuse
    — Abolish the Debriefing Policy, and Modify Active/Inactive Gang Status Criteria
    — Comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006 Recommendations Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement
    — Provide Adequate and Nutritious Food
    — Expand and Provide Constructive Programming and Privileges for Indefinite SHU Status Inmates.

    California prisoners engaged in two three-week hunger strikes in 2011 based on the five demands. There were 12,000 prisoners in at least a third of California’s 33 prisons who participated in the 2011 hunger strikes. In the face of the protests, the authorities had agreed to make some changes, but two years later those changes haven’t been implemented and some conditions have worsened.

    The prisoners’ action has its roots in the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) prison. The SHU is a supermax prison designed to isolate that prisoners who authorities feel they can’t control, including politically conscious prisoners. They are away from the general population in total isolation, in conditions widely acknowledged to be torture. Prisoners can get sent to the SHU indefinitely. Similar conditions exist in the Administrative Segregation units of California’s other prisons. The California prison system currently holds nearly 12,000 prisoners in solitary confinement units, with dozens having spent more than 20 years each in isolation.

    Those 12,000 imprisoned people spend 23 of 24 hours living in a concrete cell smaller than a large bathroom. The cells have no windows, no access to fresh air or sunlight. People in solitary confinement exercise an hour a day in a cage the size of a dog run. They are not allowed to make any phone calls to their loved ones. They cannot touch family members, who often travel days for a 90 minute visit; their conversation and their mail is monitored by prison guards. They are not allowed to talk to other imprisoned people. They are denied all educational programs and their reading materials are censored. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, stated that any time over 15 days in solitary confinement constitutes torture. Yet many people in California state prisons have been caged in solitary for 10 to 40 years.

    The prisoners have called on people on the outside to support their struggle and amplify their voices. See a video about the hunger strike: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw4bgeZpgdU and follow the hunger strike solidarity website for developments: http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

  • North Carolina hunger striker Uriel Alberto fights against his deportation

    Charlotte, NC – On July 4, father and head of household Uriel Alberto sat in front of Immigration and Customs Enforcement office here to partake in a hunger strike against his scheduled deportation on July 17. The hunger strike was temporarily suspended for him to join his family and friends in Winston-Salem who demonstrated against his deportation, but will return to Charlotte on July 8 to continue his hunger strike.

    What started off as a simple demonstration against reactionary anti-immigration policies, turned into a year-long struggle against Uriel Alberto’s ICE-enforced deportation process. In Raleigh, on Feb. 29, 2012, immigrant rights group El Cambio crashed a House Committee meeting on immigration issues, resulting in Alberto standing up and ripping off his outer shirt, revealing an undershirt reading, “Undocumented and Unafraid!”

    Alberto was detained for his actions, sparking a ten-day hunger strike against his imprisonment. He was eventually released, but from then on ICE has been scheduling a year-long process in deporting him back to Mexico because of his unwillingness to do so voluntarily.

    Alberto has been in this country since he was seven. He’s the father of two children and provides for them financially. His deportation won’t just affect him as an individual with rights, it will affect his whole family, if the reactionary rightists get their way.

    Giovanna Vargas, member of Yadkinville chapter of El Cambio, has started a petition, calling for the U.S. House of Representatives to end the hunt against undocumented immigrants, and in particular Uriel Alberto. The petition can be accessed here: http://www.change.org/petitions/john-morton-luis-guti%C3%A9rrez-help-sto…

    Giovanna says in relation to the current situation, “Uriel’s case is one of many. Families are torn apart every day; perfectly good parents are taken from their children. Their children are then placed into institutions, when they actually have parents who love them and want to care for them. This immigration reform makes the system worse – it further criminalizes those families who want nothing more but a safe and better future.”

    She continues, “North Carolina legislators have a huge fight on their hands, because organizers like myself, and more people from our communities are watching, we are resisting and we will keep fighting against the powers that be.”

    So show your solidarity to Uriel Alberto by signing the petition, sharing it amongst friends and family, and join with Alberto in Charlotte, in front of the ICE office, in hunger strike against his deportation.

    No more deportations! Legalization for all!
    ¡No a las deportaciones! ¡Legalización para todos!

  • Venezuela offers asylum to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden

    The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela offered asylum, on humanitarian grounds, to NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, July 5.

    The U.S. government has been placing intense pressure on governments around the world to deliver Snowden into U.S. custody. Earlier this week, the U.S. government sparked outrage when it prevailed on European countries to force down the plane of Bolivian President Evo Morales, on the grounds that he might be transporting Snowden from Moscow.

    Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro announced the asylum offer, saying that the most powerful empire on earth was trying to persecute a young man who has done nothing but tell the truth.

    Maduro then went on to say, Who is the terrorist? Governments like ours who offer humanitarian asylum to a young man like Snowden, or the U.S. government who shelters terrorists like airline bomber Luis Posada Carriles or sends bombs to the terrorist opposition is Syria?

    Snowden has the support of progressive people across the globe for revealing massive NSA spying operations.

  • The Egyptian people are waging a great struggle in the face of great dangers

    Over the past week the people of Egypt have been in the streets and waging a struggle that has assumed truly extraordinary dimensions. They have met austerity and repression with a mass heroism that people everywhere can learn from. The crowds that filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square and staged huge demonstrations across the country created the conditions for the end of the Morsi regime and pushed forward the national democratic process.

    The movement that has filled the streets and squares of Egypt this past week is a continuation of the movement that broke out Jan. 25, 2011 and toppled the hated U.S.-backed dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak.

    Despite these accomplishments, the movement of the Egyptian people now faces real challenges. It is a fact: President Morsi was removed from power by the Egyptian military. Was it in the context of a powerful mass movement demanding change? Sure, no doubt about that. It is also the case, at least for the short term, that the removal of Morsi via a coup, the suspension of the constitution, the ending of parliament and other measures taken against the Muslim Brotherhood, will strengthen the hand of the military – the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces – in the struggle between different factions of Egypt’s elite.

    The strengthened role for military presents a real set of problems for the Egyptian people. The most important being that Egypt’s military is closely linked with the U.S. and it could care less about the national or class interests of the Egyptian people in particular or the Arab peoples in general. The military was the author of the shameful treaty with Israel that strengthened the Zionist occupation of Palestine. Its collaboration with Israel continues right up to today. Many of its ranking officers have been trained in the U.S. Second to Israel, Egypt received $1.3 billion in military assistance last year from the U.S.

    While the White House has ordered a review of the aid to Egypt – because U.S. law forbids assistance to governments that come to power via coups – it is worth noting that the administration is being careful not to say the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces carried out a coup.

    Progressives in the U.S. should extend their solidarity to the people of Egypt. Across the Middle East, from Syria, to Palestine, to Yemen, Lebanon and Bahrain, people are resisting imperialism, Zionism and reaction of all kinds. They deserve our support. We demand an end to all U.S. aid to reactionary regimes in the Middle East, including Israel, and support the right of the Arab peoples to determine their own destiny.

    Victory to the struggle of the Egyptian people!

  • Egyptian Communist Party: Long live the struggle of the Egyptian people

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Egyptian Communist Party:

    Egyptian Communist Party: Morsi’s speech hammers the last nail in the coffin of his regime and his group

    The recent speech of (President) Morsi came shortly before the expiration of the forty-eight hours ultimatum indicating the size of disregard and lack of respect, if not hostility, of this man and his group towards all classes and sects of the Egyptian people who massively took to the streets in the thirtieth of June, unanimously in an unprecedented popular rising with unrivaled numbers. He set aside the Egyptians’ hope for a peaceful and smooth transition of power as demanded by these masses in by far the biggest revolution of human history, as witnessed by all observers and analysts.

    He refused to respond to any of the demands of these masses and decided to hold fast to power and even being ready to die for power.

    Perhaps, the word much repeated in this inauspicious speech was “LEGITIMACY” (198 times), but no one knows which meaning of legitimacy he meant!!

    Does it mean that his being free to destroy the country’s economy, cracking down on its institutions, detracting its sovereignty and sabotaging its national unity?

    Does it mean he stays roosting on the heart of the homeland, although he was completely rejected?

    The source of legitimacy is the people; all institutions of the state derive their legitimacy from the will of this people. It was clear the size and extant of its strength. In addition, this popular will, which is the essence of democracy and source of any legitimacy, only asked for an absolutely true democratic constitutional demand, i.e., holding early presidential elections, a tradition well known in all democratic experiences.

    This speech, in fact, was not directed to the Egyptian people, as they are no longer a concern of his. It was directed to his people and family of terrorists and their supporters to push them into more bloodshed of Egyptians, depending on what he thought of their numerical power and old terrorist expertise.

    As for his being supported by the U.S. or any other foreign powers for his existence – stressing his betrayal and infidelity of his country – he was disappointed because no one could ever stand in the face of the people, no matter what strength he might have. This people would never accept a ruler who rejects them no matter who stood behind him and supported him. No one in the world can accept to deal with a ruler rejected by his own people, regardless of his importance.

    We hold Morsi and his group responsible for any violence and any Egyptian blood shed or would be shed and reaffirm that they will pay dearly thereof. This blood shall increase Egyptians’ insistence to continue revolution till they get rid of them.

    Therefore, our party calls the hero masses of the Egyptian people to continue demonstrations in streets and squares, and immediately start comprehensive disobedience, besieging all centers of government including ministries, bureaus of governorates, councils of cities and municipalities etc. as this is the only way to eliminate all maneuvers and compromises that can empty the popular revolution of its content.

    Long live the struggle of the Egyptian people!!!

    Long live the Revolution!!!

    Death to terrorists, enemies of the people, enemies of life!!!

    The Egyptian Communist Party Wednesday morning, 03.07.2013

  • Chicago continues protests against U.S. war on Syria

    Chicago, IL – Dr. Matar speaks for the Syrian American Forum July 2, as people gathered here, for a third week in a row of protests, to say, “Hands off Syria! No new wars!”

    The Anti-War Committee-Chicago (AWC), the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, the March 19th Coalition and the Syrian American Forum are organizing the rallies. Kait McIntyre of AWC announced that this week and again next, “Chicago’s protests are part of a national coordinated effort called by the United National Antiwar Coalition, A.N.S.W.E.R., United for Peace and Justice and over a hundred other groups.”