Minneapolis, MN – The held a protest outside the Hennepin county welfare office, June 8. At the protest, signatures were gathered and attached to a ball and chain, symbolic of the slave labor/workfare programs being pushed by Governor Pawlenty.

St. Paul, MN – The Senate Business, Industry and Jobs Committee voted to outlaw workfare – forced, free labor performed by welfare recipients. The bill, authored by David Tomassoni (D-Chisholm), was initiated by the Twin Cities-based Welfare Rights Committee.

St. Paul, MN – Members of the Twin Cities based Welfare Rights Committee picketed at the governors mansion, Nov. 20 to, “put Governor Pawlenty on notice that, in the 2008 legislative session, we will fight his every attempt to take poor families’ money.” The protest had a Thanksgiving theme. A huge banner reading, “Hey Pawlenty! Stop gobbling up poor people’s money!” was fastened to the mansion’s wrought iron fence.

Houston, Texas – Hundreds more New Orleaneans came to the Astrodome today seeking help. Yet many were turned away at the security gate and given nothing. The people who left New Orleans before Katrina landed are very aware that without federal government aid, they will not be able to survive much longer.

St. Paul, MN – Low-income families spoke out April 15 against the state politicians who are raiding federal welfare (TANF) funds to balance the budget. The tax day protest was organized by the Twin Cities-based Welfare Rights Committee.

St. Paul, MN – Welfare recipients and low income people chanted and held signs in the state capitol building here, Nov. 29, while government officials delivered their state budget forecast.

Philadelphia, PA – On April 24, tens of thousands of people, some from as far as France, gathered here at the Millions for Mumia March. A simultaneous demonstration took place in San Francisco, California. Mumia Abu-Jamal, a former member of the Black Panther Party, has been on death row for over a decade for a crime he did not commit. Attempts by the city officials to prevent the march by not granting a permit failed, as people united around the rallying cry: Free Mumia! Speakers ranging from the Black Police Officers Federation to the Move organization called for Mumia's release.

Philadelphia, PA – On October 13 1999, Governor Ridge of Pennsylvania signed a new warrant for “the execution by lethal injection of Mumia Abu-Jamal of Philadelphia.” The execution date is set for December 2.

St. Paul, MN – Taking the podium at the June 3 meeting of the Legislative Commission to End Poverty by 2020, Angel Buechner, flanked by members of the Welfare Rights Committee, stated, “We are here today at the ‘retreat’ of the Legislative Commission to End Poverty to speak out against the tens of millions of dollars stolen from Minnesota’s poor. Just 15 days ago, on the last day of the Minnesota legislative session, tens of millions of dollars were taken from the TANF fund – the federal block grant for welfare – and used to pay for the state’s budget deficit. Furthermore, not one dime of the tens of millions in federal welfare dollars was spent to put money back into the pockets of poor families.”

Washington, D.C. – 1,000 people descended on the Supreme Court, February 28, demanding a new trial for political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. Protestors blocked traffic and clogged the streets in a civil disobedience action. Police arrested 185 people. The Washington D.C. demonstration coincided with a protest in San Francisco where 166 people were arrested for jamming the streets around the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Minneapolis, MN – Low-income tenants of the Rodeway Inn won a victory! On March 31, Hennepin County Housing Court ruled that homeless families living in the building could stay for another 30 days. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is buying the building and plans to turn it into a parking lot for museum patrons.

Minneapolis, MN – The Welfare Rights Committee held a celebration and organizing event Aug. 9 to get low-income families geared up for the Sept. 1 march on the Republican National Convention (RNC). Low-income women and their familes filled the Sibley Park Community Center where the event took place.

Premiering March 18, Walkout is a powerful film created by HBO on the Chicano student walkouts that shook Los Angeles in 1968. Directed by Edward James Olmos, the film is an inspiring depiction of one of the most important episodes in the Chicano national movement.

Washington DC – Sonia, a Colombian revolutionary and political prisoner of the U.S. government, was found guilty in a U.S. Federal Court here, Feb. 20. Sonia’s trial is part of a Bush administration plan to criminalize Colombian freedom fighters.

Washington DC – With no evidence and only the testimony of U.S. government paid informants, Colombian revolutionary “Sonia” awaits a jury’s verdict here in Federal Court. Sonia, whose full name is Anayibe Rojas Valderrama, is a peasant rebel who joined the fight for a free, just and independent Colombia. A nurse with the 30,000 member Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Sonia was extradited to the U.S. in violation of Colombia’s sovereignty.

In a speaking tour organized by the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera, Professor Daza-Cotes will travel to the U.S. to talk about fellow professor and political prisoner Ricardo Palmera. She will speak about U.S. intervention in Colombia and her own journey, as Colombian military death squads tortured and murdered those around her, from liberal politics to more radical views. Ms. Daza-Cotes was forced into exile in Sweden around the same time Ricardo Palmera decided to join the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). As the peaceful path to social justice in Colombia was blocked, the choices were limited.

Los Angeles, CA – More than 500 marched here, Aug. 27, in a mass march and rally demanding an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Other demands included that the U.S. get out of Latin America and an end to U.S. military recruiting of Latino youth in high schools. Organized by Latinos Against War In Iraq, SEIU Local 660, National Chicano Moratorium Committee, Partido Nacional de La Raza Unida, MECHA and other community and labor groups, protesters marched from Belvedere Park in East Los Angeles to a rally at Salazar Park.

Washington D.C. – Colombian revolutionary Ricardo Palmera is facing a second trial, March 26. Ricardo Palmera, known in Colombia as Simon Trinidad, is a political prisoner of the George Bush and the U.S. government. Palmera’s first trial resulted in a hung jury and Judge Hogan was forced to declare a mistrial. U.S. prosecutor Kohl and Judge Hogan will need to bend the legal rules more if they are going to win this time.