Minneapolis, MN – On January 17, supporters held a press conference and packed the room for Robyn Harbison’s pre-trial hearing. He is currently facing a fourth degree felony assault charge after his arrest alongside ten other protestors at the occupation of Morrill Hall at the University of Minnesota. The University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society (UMN SDS) was protesting the university’s continued refusal to divest from Israel. Protesters renamed the building to Halimy Hall, after Palestinian student killed by Israel in August 2023.
New Orleans, LA – During a visit to New Orleans, Dr. Rabab Abduhadi held an evening talk addressing students, community members and activists about the dangers and impacts of institutional Zionism and ways to combat it in academia and beyond.
On January 11, at the University of New Orleans, Dr. Abdulhadi shared her decades-long experience battling institutionally embedded Zionism, its various modes of operation, and tactics it uses to repress Palestinian activism.
Duluth, MN – At 4 p.m. on a blustery January 15 in Duluth, workers from Essentia Health-Deer River pulled up in a bus in front of the Essentia Health-Duluth hospital and began a solidarity picket in front of the main entrance to the hospital.
The Deer River Essentia workers are represented by the Service Employees International Union, Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa (SEIU HCMNIA). January 15 marked their 38th day of an open-ended strike at their hospital and nursing home.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Frank Chapman, National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression executive director, on the present political landscape, and the need for the people’s organizations to rally towards an all-out mobilization on January 20. NAARPR branches and affiliates across the country should join up with the call to fight back against Trump’s agenda and show out for Inauguration Day!
Statement on Trump’s victory and need to protest January 20
In all of the post-election analysis and armchair commentaries, there emerges a fundamental truth, and that truth is that both parties are controlled and managed by the rich. Meaning that the people are left with the best election money can buy.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call from New Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).
As the first step of our national campaign to defeat Trump, National SDS is calling for a national week of action during the week of Trump’s inauguration, from November 20th through November 24th. SDS invites other student organizations and groups to protest the week of January 20th. National SDS encourages our chapters to take up campaigns against Trump’s policies and attacks on education and to demand that their campuses shut down Trump’s agenda. We will be rallying to say, “Defeat Trump’s Agenda!”
Fight Back News Service is circulating the Liberate and Unite New Orleans Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) statement on the suspension of Carson Cruse.
On December 13, Loyola University student and SDS member Carson Cruse was suspended for speaking at the Port of New Orleans public hearing in October. Carson was there supporting New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports (NOSHIP) and their demands which included that New Orleans stop shipping arms to Israel, ends its ties to the Port of Ashdod in Israel, and to suspend its contracts with entities that do business with Israel, i.e. Møller-Mærsk.
Los Angeles, CA – As the holiday peak season wraps up, after workers around the country toiled away for a surge in parcel deliveries, the United Parcel Service (UPS) plans again to shutter large facilities due to automation.
On January 15, the UPS facility in Vernon, California, also known as the Grande Vista hub, will be shutting its doors for a year-long closure. The purpose of the closure is for building renovations and the automation of various classifications, part of UPS’s larger “Network of the Future” project, which aims to automate union jobs to reduce labor costs.
Colorado Springs, CO – On Saturday, December 21, the union workers of the Starbucks on Centennial Boulevard in Colorado Springs began a four-day strike as a part of the national Starbucks Workers United strike. Tiffany Sparks, a shift supervisor with nine years at Starbucks, and the store's current delegate to Starbucks Workers United, stated, “We just want better wages, more labor, better benefits and hundreds of unfair labor practices resolved.”
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following December 27 statement from New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police (NOCOP).
On Monday December 23rd, Joe Biden commuted the sentences of 37 out of 40 federal inmates who had been on death row. These 37, including the killer cop Len Davis, will now serve life in prison without parole. The three that did not have their sentences commuted were excluded because they were convicted of crimes of terror.
San Jose, CA – On December 24, Starbucks workers took to the picket line at Capitol Square Mall, one of the busiest locations in San Jose. They joined more than 5000-plus workers across the country as part of a five-day Unfair Labor Practices (ULP) strike.
The strike comes after more than nine months of bargaining between Starbucks Workers United, the union representing the interests and will of the baristas and shift leads at unionized locations, and Starbucks Corporation.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning, at a December 23 Beijing press conference, responded Trump’s claim that the Panama Canal “must be returned” to the U.S.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Communist Party of the Philippines.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Philippines has directed its entire membership and the New People’s Army to frustrate the AFP’s all-out war in a statement issued today, December 26, to mark its 56th founding anniversary.
To mark the 131st anniversary of the birth of the outstanding Chinese revolutionary Mao Zedong on December 26, Fight Back News Service is circulating his well known 1956 article “U.S. Imperialism is a Paper Tiger.”
Thornton, CO – On December 20, Teamsters from the Denver area showed up for another solidarity picket at Amazon’s DEN3 warehouse in Thornton, Colorado.
Colorado Springs, CO – On December 13, at approximately 9:40 p.m., an unidentified man called 911 stating he was suicidal and had a firearm. By the time El Paso County sheriffs responded, an hour later, they could not find the man, as he had made his way to the parking lot of a local business. Colorado Springs Police claim the man refused to comply with demands to drop his weapon, and the police eventually shot and killed him.
On December 20, Amazon Teamsters across the country were on day two of major strikes at Amazon facilities in New York, California, Illinois and Atlanta. Other Teamster locals in Milwaukee, Dallas and Des Moines, as well as many places, were conducting solidarity ULP (unfair labor practice) pickets.
Tampa, FL – On December 19 and 20, UPS workers represented by Teamsters Local 79 and supportive community members attended a picket in Ruskin, Florida in support of Amazon workers who are fighting to form a union across the United States. Amazon workers say they are organizing to win job protection and benefits as well as a seat at the bargaining table.
Brooklyn, NY – On Friday evening, December 20, two dozen New Yorkers gathered in the cold outside of the 71st Precinct to remember and demand justice for Eudes “Erd” Pierre.
Denver, CO – On December 10, 50 people marched in downtown Denver in honor of Human Rights Day and to condemn Colorado’s complicity with the genocide in Gaza. The event was organized by the Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) in coordination with a national call to action made by the Anti-War Action Network.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the World Federation of Trade Unions.
The World Federation of Trade Unions, representing 105 million workers across the globe, extends its fullest support to the militant strikes being launched by the U.S. Teamsters Union members against the gigantic Amazon corporation. Thousands of workers at 7 Amazon worksites across the United States struck on December 19, and additional strikes are planned. The Amazon corporation continues its lawless and dictatorial campaign against its workers who want to join trade unions, and are demanding better pay and conditions. Inaction and paralysis on the part of the U.S. government in the face of this outrageous Amazon company conduct has pushed the workers to take this strike action.
