Minneapolis, MN – The Minnesota Nurses Association announced that a strike authorization vote will be held on June 21.

Detroit, MI – Supporters and friends of Fight Back! are building towards the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit on June 22-26. There will be thousands of activists, students and organizers for social change. Many are hoping to learn about building the people’s fight back during the current economic crisis. Students will be discussing how to oppose cutbacks to education while the White House spends billions on wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Latin America solidarity leaders from across the country will speak about stopping seven new U.S. bases in Colombia and the spread of U.S. militarism.

Minneapolis, MN – More than 50 protesters gathered here, June 12, to condemn the Israeli massacre on human rights activists bringing aid to Gaza and to demand an end to the blockade of Gaza.

Minneapolis, MN – The one-day strike of 12,000 members of the Minnesota Nurses Association (MNA) concluded at 7:00 a.m., June 11.

Minneapolis, MN – Anti-war activists gathered here at May Day Books, June 6, for an anti-war event titled “New War Crisis in Korea?” The featured speakers were Mick Kelly, the editor of Fight Back! newspaper and Meredith Aby, a leader of the Anti-War Committee. The event was sponsored by May Day Books and the Anti-War Committee.

Chicago, IL – Larry Davis, the new president of Teamsters Local 743 in Chicago, fired five staff members on May 28. Davis had been installed by International President Jim Hoffa on May 14.

Newark, NJ – The Community Coalition against Foreclosure and Homelessness rallied here, May 22, to demand that effective measures be taken by government to help victims of the housing bubble. Coalition members include the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), the Newark Teachers’ Association (NTA) and New Jersey Citizen Action (NJCA). In all there were 12 organizational sponsors.

Minneapolis, MN – More than 200 people gathered here, June 1, at the office of U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, to protest the Israeli murders of pro-Palestine activists who were bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“The labor movement is at a crossroads”

Fight Back! reporters interviewed Sal Rosselli on April 21, 2010 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He was in Minneapolis to speak at a fundraiser for the National Union of Healthcare Workers.

St. Paul, MN – On May 18, as news reports stated that 1000 U.S. military deaths had occurred in Afghanistan, over 70 people joined a Saint Paul protest at the office of U.S. Representative Betty McCollum to demand that she vote against a $33 billion request for additional funding for the war in Afghanistan.

Minneapolis, MN – The Chop from the Top Coalition at the University of Minnesota, which includes undergraduate & graduate students, staff and faculty, blasted the budget proposal that University President Bob Bruinicks presented at a meeting of the Board of Regents, May 14th

There is a big battle going on in the Teamsters Union, pitting reformers against corrupt officials. In Chicago, Teamster union reform leaders, President Richard Berg and Secretary Treasurer Gina Alvarez of Local 743 were removed from office by Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa Jr. this past Friday. Hoffa’s action aids corrupt union officials and criminals trying to worm their way back into Chicago’s Teamster unions. Fight Back! interviewed Richard Berg just before he received the official letter from Hoffa Jr.

Dallas, TX – More than 20,000 people marched and rallied here on May 1. Protesters marched for legalization and against the racist Arizona law that targets Mexicans, Chicanos and other Latinos. The new Arizona law criminalizes the undocumented, requiring police to demand papers concerning a person’s status. A Chicano truck driver was already jailed in Arizona until his wife produced his California birth certificate hours later. The new law targets Chicanos born in their own homeland and Mexican immigrants because of their nationality.

Members fighting mad

Chicago, IL – Fight Back! learned May 9 that Jimmy Hoffa, Jr., at a meeting in Las Vegas, has joined with the corrupt Teamsters officials in Chicago to remove President Richard Berg and Secretary Treasurer Gina Alvarez from office in Local 743. Berg and Alvarez are rank-and-file reformers who fought for years against the gangsters who ran their union while Hoffa and officers of the Joint Council in Chicago turned a blind eye to the corruption in the local.

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

“Pawlenty thought he was a king. Now he is just pathetic.”

Fight Back! interviewed Linden Gawboy, a leader of the Welfare Rights Committee and the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout on the implications of the May 5 Minnesota Supreme Court decision limiting Governor Pawlenty’s power of unallotment. Gawboy has been involved with fighting for low-income people at the Minnesota state legislature for over 15 years.

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

Chicago, IL – 100,000 came out in force to march from Union Park to Daley Plaza in the Loop. Speaker after speaker denounced the apartheid-type legislation in Arizona. Youth were a major part of this demonstration.