News and Views from the People's Struggle
Jacksonville, FL – On Friday evening, December 6, the air was electric as the inaugural Southern Regional Organizing Conference (SROC) of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) kicked off with a rally outside Café Resistance. Over 200 attendees gathered to connect, reflect and prepare for the intensive days ahead.
Oakland, CA – Oakland has long been a cornerstone of the country’s revolutionary people’s movements, from the founding of the Black Panther Party to the enduring fight for justice against systemic racism and police violence. On the evening of November 19, at the 510 Firehouse Projects, this legacy was revisited as Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) Oakland, in collaboration with East Side Cultural Center’s Community Archival Resource Project (CARP), hosted a film screening centered around some of these historical moments.
Roughly 25 community members came together to watch two films that spotlight the city’s pivotal role in the fight for liberation: Agnès Varda’s Black Panthers 1968 and Shola Lynch’s Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners. The films offered not only a window into the past but a mirror reflecting the struggles and solidarity still needed in Oakland today.
Agnès Varda’s Black Panthers 1968 is an on-the-ground documentary capturing the resiliency of the Black Panther Party as they rallied to free Huey Newton, co-founder of the movement. Filmed in Oakland at the height of the Panthers’ activism, the film is a testament to their ability to unite working-class people and oppressed communities against police violence and systemic injustice. Varda’s work doesn’t just document history; it brings to life the defiant hope of the movement and its roots in the city’s streets.
The second film, Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners, is an account of Angela Davis’s trial and the international movement to secure her release. Davis, a scholar, communist and activist, was charged with crimes related to a 1970 courthouse shootout. Lynch’s documentary recounts the global solidarity campaign that demanded her freedom, framing it as both a personal and collective story of resistance. It’s a powerful reminder of what can be accomplished when movements cross borders and people stand united against oppression.
FRSO Oakland members led the program, situating these stories in Oakland’s broader revolutionary history. They reminded attendees of the Black Panther Party’s core mission – building unity between oppressed nationalities and working-class people to fight systemic inequality. They also illuminated the government’s counterattacks, particularly through COINTELPRO, the FBI’s covert program that sought to dismantle revolutionary movements.
The discussion didn’t stop with history. Participants connected the lessons of the films to ongoing struggles in Oakland, particularly the work of the newly formed Oakland Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression (OAARPR). This group, a local chapter of the national NAARPR which emerged from the fight to free Angela Davis, works alongside families of police violence victims and pushes for community control of the police.
In this context, the group also critiqued the failures of Oakland’s Community Police Review Agency, highlighting its ineffectiveness as a key example of the city's ongoing systemic issues with police corruption and violence. This discussion tied the historical and contemporary struggles together, underscoring the urgent need for real change.
Adding a tangible connection to the past, CARP displayed a collection of artifacts that captured the spirit of the Black Panthers and the Free Angela Davis campaigns. Old political pins reading “Free Angela Davis and all political prisoners” and “Black Panther Party: All power to the people” sat alongside the Panthers’ iconic “Ten-Point Program”, photo books, and pamphlets from the 1980s. These materials bridged generations, underscoring the enduring relevance of these struggles.
The films and discussions drove home a powerful message: the fight for justice is as urgent today as ever. In a city shaped by revolutionary victories and ongoing battles, the event called on everyone to organize, educate and resist with renewed purpose.
Oakland's legacy as a beacon for liberation movements lives on – not just in history books but in the work unfolding right now. From the Black Panther Party’s bold defiance to today’s campaigns for police accountability, the message resonated loud and clear, the struggle continues, and our commitment must match its urgency.
#OaklandCA #CA #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackPanthers #NAARPR #FRSO #CARP
Atlanta, GA – Since August 2024, a dozen Black men at Virginia’s Red Onion supermax prison have set themselves on fire in a desperate attempt to escape conditions that amount to prolonged torture.
Fight Back News Service is circulating this call from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression inviting organizers in the South to attend a regional organizing conference.
This December 6th-8th, the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression (NAARPR) is convening our inaugural Southern Regional Organizing Conference in Jacksonville, Florida. This conference will bring together progressive forces in the South fighting for Black liberation, Indigenous rights and land sovereignty. We are fighting back against police crimes and political repression to free all those unjustly incarcerated as well as defending all progressive movements fighting for a just society. NAARPR, which arose out of the movement to Free Angela Davis, was refounded in 2019 with well over two dozen branches and affiliate organizations nationwide. Since the 2020 George Floyd uprisings, NAARPR has seen a growth in new organizing struggles in cities across the country; specifically, in the Black Belt Region of the Deep South, the historic homelands of Africans trafficked to North America, where the majority of their descendants still live today.
Jacksonville, FL – On Saturday, August 24, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) held its annual Black August event, remembering the tradition of what Black August means to the struggle for Black liberation, along with spotlighting various struggles happening in the community. Around 70 community members attended the event, which took place at Cafe Resistance off Soutel Road, one of the centers of the Black community in Jacksonville.
Dallas, TX – Around 50 people gathered early in the evening of Sunday, August 25, in front of the headquarters of the Dallas Police Department to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the murder of two Black children killed at the hands of Dallas police.
The boys were brothers, George Johnson, aged 14, and Johnny Johnson, aged 13. The vigil was attended by three siblings of the Johnson brothers and organized by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Stop Cop City Dallas Coalition, and the DFW Anti-War Committee. Community members from all around the Dallas-Fort Worth area were present.
Winter Haven, FL – On Sunday, June 30, the voices of hundreds assembled at the Church of God the Bibleway echoed the demands for police accountability in nearby Lakeland, Florida as stories of abuses at the hands of the Lakeland Police Department were shared.
Attorney Bobby DiCello, representing the victims, moderated the press conference. Activists and victims spoke out about the abuse that Lakeland Police Department is responsible for. DiCello, on behalf of the victims, asked for a meeting between the victims and the Lakeland Chief of Police Sam Taylor, who has time and time again covered for the abuses and incompetence of his officers, as they beat, harass and invent bogus charges against African Americans in Lakeland.
Dallas, TX – On Saturday, July 6, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) Dallas partnered with the Stop Cop City Dallas coalition for a town hall meeting at Pan-African Connection to educate the community on the planned construction of a police training facility to be built on the University of North Texas at Dallas campus.
Tallahassee, FL – On Saturday, June 1, around 25 community members held a rally at Leon County Courthouse to continue to demand that the false and racist charges against Calvin Riley be dropped.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Tampa Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (TAARPR).
The Tampa Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is delighted to announce that all charges on Antwan Glover have been dismissed! This victory would not have been possible without Antwan fighting with us against these false charges. We thank all who participated in the call-ins, email-ins, and attended his court date protests in Bartow.