Chicago, IL – The U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) commemorated the Nakba, “Catastrophe” in English, which marks the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 Palestinians, and the massacre of thousands more, by Zionist militia groups in 1948, in the wake of the establishment of the settler colonial state of Israel. Palestinians and their supporters all around the world remember the Nakba every year on or around May 15.
In response to the wave of repression unleashed by the U.S.-backed regime of Philippines President Duterte against the militant trade union grouping the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU)/May First Movement, progressive forces in the U.S. are speaking out.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Luis Jalandoni, Member, Executive Committee and National Council, National Democratic Front of the Philippines.
Chicago, IL – 100 cars surrounded the Thompson Center in Chicago’s Loop, April 20, during Governor J.B. Pritzker’s daily press briefing on COVID-19. The caravan protest was held to demand Pritzker free police torture survivor Gerald Reed and all vulnerable prisoners at Cook County Jail, Illinois Department of Corrections prisons and ICE detention centers in Illinois – especially those over 60, those with medical conditions, and those who the governor’s own Torture Commission has already confirmed are victims of police torture and therefore wrongfully convicted.
On April 20, Marco L. Valbuena, the Chief Information Officer of the Communist Party of the Philippines denounced the arrest of former Anakpawis Representative Ariel Casilao and 12 other volunteers and residents by elements of the Philippine National Police in Norzagaray, Bulacan.
Fight Back! interviewed Charlotte Kates, International Coordinator of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, on the fight to free Palestinian political prisoners in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask that all of our readers to support this important effort.
Chicago, IL – Hundreds of people took their cars to Chicago’s jails and detention centers on Tuesday morning, April 7, to demand a mass release of incarcerated people in the city. Isolated from each other in their cars, they were united in their message: Jails, prisons and detention centers must be depopulated before the spread of COVID-19 turns them into death camps.
Frank Chapman, a long-time leader in the Black liberation movement, talks about the November 22- 24 Chicago conference to refound the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. The interview was prepared for the print edition of Fight Back! which is now on hold due to the pandemic.
Mass pressure and a mayor’s own greed stall a planned power grab
Chicago, IL – In true Chicago fashion, Mayor Lori Lightfoot had expected to easily ramrod through a police reform bill this week that would have affirmed her grip on power. If passed, the “Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability” ordinance would have left the entire police accountability system in her control, rendering it at the discretion of the executive branch whether to hold itself accountable for abuses of power committed by its police department, rather than giving communities terrorized by police tyranny the power to defend their rights.
Call-In to save the life of Facundo Molares!Call Bolivian AmbassadorWalter Oscar Serrate Cuellar at202-483-4410 ex. 4When: Tuesday, February 25, 2020between 8 am and 4 pm Eastern timeFight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Committee To Free Facundo Molares.
San José, CA – On February 16, the San Jose Day of Remembrance held its 40th annual event with the second-highest attendance ever – more than 550 people. The event started in 1981 as part of the nationwide movement of Japanese Americans demanded redress (an official apology) and reparations (monetary compensation) for their incarceration during World War II.
Chicago, IL – The courtroom was packed February 14. This was my fourth Gerald Reed court hearing. Usually, there is a crowd of folks who show up to support Gerald and his mother, Armanda Shackleford, who has been fighting for her son since he was arrested, tortured and framed in 1990. Shackleford sits in the front row, wearing her Free Gerald Reed t-shirt. Together we sit for an hour, two hours, three, and hear powerful men debate the innocence of a man whose sentence was vacated a year ago.
Fight Back! News Service is circulating the following statement from the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Chicago Torture Justice Center, and Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity.
Facundo Molares Schoenfeld is an Argentinian photojournalist who was illegally arrested by the Bolivian dictatorship, and who is currently held in terrible conditions in a Bolivian prison. His life is in danger, as he does not receive adequate medical attention for a life-threatening condition.
Minneapolis, MN – Hundreds of people came out for several events marking Black History month with Chicago’s Frank Chapman, who is a leading member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
