Chicago, IL – Maya Arcilla was angry as she opened the protest rally at the Federal Plaza in Chicago. A human rights activist from the Philippines, Jerome Succor Aba, had been held by the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, and then subject to psychological torture during a 28-hour period inside the San Francisco airport.

Arcilla is the chairperson of AnakBayan Chicago, a progressive Filipino youth organization. She explained to the crowd of 40 what she had learned about the abuses Jerome had suffered. In the 28 hours in which he was not allowed to sleep, he was questioned almost constantly by agents of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). They threatened to shoot him; they placed a gun and a hand grenade in the room and left him alone with them; they made him strip naked and questioned him with an industrial fan flowing on him in a cold interrogation room.

At times holding back tears, Arcilla reported that Jerome was asked multiple questions that revealed authorities’ knowledge of details of his family, his education, and his activism in the Philippines. He had secured a visa from the U.S. embassy in the Philippines in order to visit the U.S. He had been invited by a coalition mainly of churches here to speak to them about human rights violations of the indigenous people of Mindanao, the southernmost large island in the Philippines.

Later that evening, in a livestream broadcast from Manila, Jerome identified his main abuser as a DHS agent named Lopez. Lopez repeatedly accused Jerome of being a communist and a terrorist. Jerome was denied anything to eat, but was then offered ham, even though he stated to his torturers that he is a Muslim.

Speakers at the rally included Nataki Rhodes of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Rhodes expressed solidarity with Jerome, and the struggle of the people in the Philippines. She stated, “They’re calling us terrorists, when they’ve built a whole system of terrorism.”

#ChicagoIL #InJusticeSystem #Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #humanRights #PoliticalRepression #Antifascism #Activism #IL

Chicago, IL – Over 10,000 marched here, July 20, to condemn Israel’s murderous assault on Gaza. The protest began with a die-in of young people. They held the names of Palestinian civilians who have been killed. The names of all the over 400 dead were read. One of the readers was Ahmed Hamad, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine-Chicago, who lost six family members in Gaza when Israel bombed their house.

The marchers filled the streets for ten blocks with a sea of Palestinian flags. “After two weeks of protesting, this is the largest protest in Chicago and the largest in the country so far,” said Hatem Abudayyeh of the U.S. Palestine Community Network, who co-emceed the rally.

#ChicagoIL #Gaza #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #Israel #Rally #Activism #ChicagoIllinois #MiddleEast

Gainesville, FL – Two dozen students gathered in Gainesville, July 19, at a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) day school. Students from the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of South Florida, and for the first time in SDS’s history, from the University of North Florida in Jacksonville attended. Months of planning the day school on SDS National Working Committee phone calls paid off nicely.

The purpose of the day school was two fold. First, the students honed their skills by attending workshops on a variety of topics central to organizing. Students learned how to make a flyer, how to host protests and demos and how to recruit new students to SDS. Second, the students geared themselves up for a new semester at their respective universities this fall by sharpening their political ideas and campaign plans.

The workshops also included learning how to do outreach and agitation among students to build for campaigns, and what the difference was between working in coalitions and broader united front work. The day school ended with dinner and a social that night.

SDSers went home fired up to build the student movement and fight back against injustice on their campuses and in the community this fall. Morale was high; especially after Florida SDS chapters worked together this past spring to win a campaign for undocumented students to receive in-state tuition rates while attending college – the Tuition Equity campaign. Organizers plan to build on this and other successes.

Tampa Bay SDS organizer Jessica Schwartz said, “All the Florida chapters share similar concerns over transferal of leadership to younger organizers. The purpose of this is to help empower them to take leadership in SDS.”

Jacksonville SDS Organizer C.O. Scanlan said, “For someone just beginning his active involvement in an organization, the day school was incredibly encouraging. It put in clear, concrete terms the steps I need to take in providing the student struggle with another point of focus.”

Tallahassee SDS Organizer Zachary Schultz said, “The day school was an excellent opportunity to share our experiences organizing, and build unity around the methods which will lead the next generation of student activists to victory: militancy and organization.”

The main on- the-ground organizer of the day school, Michela Martinazzi from Gainesville SDS, said, “As many of the veteran SDSers graduate and move on to other struggles, it’s important that that newer organizers keep the same militant line and methods of organizing. I think today proved that all generations of SDS are organizing on the same page.”

To contact National SDS to talk about how to host a student organizer training or start an SDS chapter by visiting http://www.newsds.org/contact.

#GainesvilleFL #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #SDS #UniversityOfSouthFlorida #FloridaStateUniversity #USF #UF #UniversityOfFlorid #FSU #Activism