The Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) took another major step forward with the launching of an African American Commission and a Chicano/Latino plus other oppressed nationalities commission. Comrades from more than a dozen cities where the FRSO does organizing among African Americans, Chicanos, and other oppressed nationalities gathered to carry out a decision by the 9th Congress to establish these commissions.

Attendees ranged from veterans of the upsurge of the Asian American, Black, and Chicano peoples struggles in the 1960s and 1970s to a plurality of the meeting who joined in the last three years following the rebellions and protests after the murder of George Floyd in 2020. The meeting also reflected a surge in organizing by the FRSO in new cities, in both the African American and Chicano nations in the South and Southwest, respectively.

Participants formed into the two commissions, discussing the Marxist-Leninist theory on the national question, and the particular experiences and thus demands of different oppressed nationalities within the United States. There was also discussion of key forces in the African American and Chicano nations, and how to further party-building and recruitment to the FRSO in the oppressed nations and among oppressed nationalities.

Michael Sampson, chair of the African American Commission, who became active in the 2012 struggle for justice for Trayvon Martin, said, “The creation of the African American Commission is a historic advance in our fight for Black liberation today.”

Sampson continued, “The Black liberation struggle is a struggle for national liberation. The creation of the African American commission will only strengthen the fight against national oppression because of the historic role that Black people have played, from the Civil Rights and Black Power movements of the 1960s to the fight against police crimes today.”

Marisol Marquez, co-chair of the Chicano/Latino (plus) Commission, who joined the struggle for immigrant rights more than ten years ago, said that “We were able to target areas within Aztlán, where the commission plans on expanding. Launching this new commission is a significant advancement for us Marxist-Leninists doing organizing among Chicanos and Latinos. It is a big step in accomplishing our goal for freedom from national oppression.”

Masao Suzuki, member of the FRSO Standing Committee and chair of the Joint Nationalities Commission, said, “The launching of the African American and Chicano/Latino (plus) commissions is a major victory on the path to building a new communist party in the United States. These commissions, along with our Labor Commission, will help advance the struggle for Marxist-Leninist leadership needed to forge a strategic alliance between the working class and the oppressed nationalities, which is at the core of the united front needed to overthrow the capitalist system and establish socialism in the United States.”

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