Salt Lake City, UT – On Saturday, August 29, Salt Lake City community members gathered at the Day-Riverside Branch library for a teach-in and letter-writing campaign for Venezuela. Organized by the Utah Anti-War Committee, attendees wrote letters to their senators demanding an end to U.S. sanctions of Venezuela, the unfreezing of Venezuelan assets in Western hands, and the release of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores.

“Engaging in sanctions is a form of economic warfare, a crime against humanity,” said Amber Grace, a UAWC leader.

The need to drop the sanctions and return Venezuela’s leadership was made all the more pressing by the devastating June earthquakes, which killed over 6000 people. American sanctions hinder the normal conduct of business and government operations during the relief effort.

“Ending the U.S. sanctions, unfreezing Venezuela’s assets, frees up billions in funds to recover from the damage and recover on their own terms,” continued Grace.

The national Anti-War Action Network, of which the UAWC is the Salt Lake City member, called for the letter writing campaign. Attendees wrote letters to Utah Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis demanding true earthquake relief in the form of an end to U.S. intervention in the country.

The event was successful, with over 15 physical letters written and those who could not attend instructed on how to submit electronic correspondence to Lee and Curtis’s offices. Additionally, activists raised over $200 in grassroots earthquake relief.

Nevertheless, the organizers stated that there would be adequate Venezuelan financial and political capacity to address the disaster if the U.S. ceased its interventions

“These senators hold power, they probably hold the most power in our legislature to enact change for Venezuela,” said Grace. “Lift every sanction and every coercive measure imposed on Venezuela!”

Utah constituents can join the UAWC’s letter writing campaign for Venezuela by addressing letters demanding an end to U.S. intervention to these addresses:

Senator John Curtis, SH-502 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510

Senator Mike Lee, 363 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, DC 20510

#SaltLakeCityUT #UT #AntiWarMovement #International #Venezuela #UAWC #AWAN

New York, NY—On September 9, a motion was filed for Venezuela’s First Lady Cilia Flores, petitioning for her release from the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), and for her to be instead placed under house arrest in New York City, due to the severity of her heart condition.

After she and President Nicolás Maduro were illegally kidnapped by the U.S. in January of this year, her health has rapidly deteriorated throughout her imprisonment.

First Lady Flores is the 69-year-old wife of Venezuelan President Maduro and a sitting deputy of the Venezuelan National Assembly. She was lead attorney for Hugo Chávez’s defense, securing his release from prison in 1994, and emerged throughout the 1990s and 2000s as a key figure in the victory of the Bolivarian Revolution. She was the first woman to serve as president of the National Assembly, from 2006 to 2011, before becoming attorney general of Venezuela from 2012 to 2013. In 2017, she was once again elected to the National Assembly. Throughout her career, she has remained a staunch defender of human rights and the achievements of the Bolivarian Revolution.

According to court documents, she was in good health before the illegal U.S. invasion of Venezuela, in which the U.S. abducted her and Maduro from their home in Caracas and killed over 100 people. Now, after eight months imprisoned at the MDC, she suffers recurring chest pains, has lost two molars, has lost more than 25 pounds, and likely suffered a minor heart attack on July 29.

The MDC is notorious for horrific conditions. Detainees go weeks without seeing the sky or breathing fresh air. Power and water cut out, sometimes for up to a week at a time. And there is a well-documented pattern of medical neglect. In one case, cited by Federal Judge Jesse Furman in a January 2024 decision on conditions at the MDC, the jail refused to transport an inmate for surgery to repair his broken cheekbone; when he finally received surgery, his cheek had to be rebroken. In another case in 2024, a man named Terrence Wise died in custody after months of medical neglect let his lung cancer proliferate unchecked. This context makes Flores’s fragile health all the more alarming.

In the last eight months while imprisoned, Flores has experienced palpitations, elevated heart-rate, chest tightness, chest pain and fatigue. On July 29, her lawyers believe she had a minor heart attack when she reported intense pressure on her chest and a shortness of breath. She is able to sleep only three or four hours a night and suffers asthma attacks when the MDC guards use pepper spray against other prisoners.

The MDC medical staff has recommended that she undergo cardiac surgery. But under the conditions at the MDC, recovery from such a surgery is unthinkable.

The medical neglect Flores faces is not accidental. Rather, it must be understood as part of the U.S. government’s strategy to punish Maduro, Flores and Venezuela for withstanding U.S. imperialism.

The U.S. government’s total disregard for Flores’ health has been apparent since it first abducted her. At her first hearing on January 5, it was reported that Flores appeared with wounds on her forehead – the new motion reveals further detail. The U.S. government was almost certainly aware that, at the time of the invasion and abduction on January 3, Flores was still in recovery from a recent total hysterectomy and had been ordered by her doctors to limit movement for three months. Despite this, when the U.S. military invaded her home, she was thrown against a wall or a dresser, causing the injuries to her forehead, which required some 20 stitches and left her with permanent scarring.

This violence, like the medical neglect she now faces, is violence against a woman who has dedicated her life to fighting for her people and standing against imperialism and intervention. It should be met with outrage from all progressive and imperialist forces. It is not enough for Flores to be merely released under house arrest; the charges against her must be dismissed, and she must be freed once and for all.

Across the country, member organizations of the Anti-War Action Network are mobilizing on October 3 to say no to U.S. intervention in Venezuela and to free Maduro and free Flores! Visit www.antiwaractionnetwork.org/ to find an organization near you and get involved.

#NewYorkNY #NY #AntiWarMovement #International #Venezuela #CiliaFlores #Maduro #AWAN

Portland, OR – On September 9, ICE beat a Portland area Palestinian who was resisting deportation to the genocide in Palestine. ICE attempted to place Tareq Zakarneh on a deportation flight. When he resisted, ICE put him in a WRAP restraint device and beat him so badly his tooth was broken.

ICE arrested Zakarneh in May 2024 in Vancouver, Washington. He’s been in ICE detention for over two years and resisted deportation numerous times.

On September 8, ICE moved him from the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington to a facility in Mesa, Arizona for a final removal flight. He filed two emergency motions, for a habeas appeal and an emergency temporary restraining order.

Despite these motions, ICE attempted to put him on a plane and assaulted him when he resisted. If Zakarneh is deported, he will be sent to Israel and possibly the West Bank.

“The United States is attempting to deport Tareq to an active genocide that they are funding,” said Cole Dunahugh, “If he is deported, he risks ending up in a Israeli prison subject to torture, or becoming a victim of settler and military violence in the West Bank. Both the deportation and U.S. funding of Israel must end.”

Dunahugh is a member of Portland for Palestine (P4P), a grassroots group advocating for Zakarneh’s release.

In response to the escalated attempts at deportation, P4P visited the office of Zakarneh’s congressional representative, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, last week to ask her to act. They were turned away. P4P is currently calling on the public to call and email the judge overseeing Zakarneh’s case to demand his release. Judge Krissa Lanham can be contacted at 602-322-7590 and lanham_chambers@azd.uscourts.gov.

“Those who are supposed to serve the public have failed Tareq every step of the way,” said P4P member Kacey Desantis, “It calls into question who these government officials really work for – the people, or ICE and warmongers?”

Over the last year, ICE used private jets owned by Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer to deport Palestinians to Tel Aviv and then the West Bank. Detainees report being dropped off at a West Bank checkpoint in prison uniforms, with nowhere to go and no way to contact anyone. The flights are estimated to have cost $500,000 of U.S. taxpayer money per flight.

Zakarneh is still under immediate threat of deportation. P4P was able to hire a lawyer with donations from supporters and will continue to fight the case.

#PortlandOR #OR #ImmigrantRights #ICE #Palestine #P4P #AntiWarMovement

North Charleston, SC – On Tuesday, September 8, over 20 community members joined the Elbit Out of South Carolina (EOSC) coalition’s picket of a Charleston County Council meeting to demand a cancellation of the tax breaks given to Elbit Systems.

Outside of the public services building, participants filled the plaza with signs linking Council Chair Joe Boykin to the body’s failure to end the tax breaks and chanted “Boykin, Boykin your hands are red, over five hundred thousand Palestinians dead!” and “County council you will see, we’ll kick Elbit out of SC!”

The picket was seen as an escalation of anti-war activists' efforts to compel the council to end the Fee in Lieu of Tax (FILOT) agreement with the Israeli weapons manufacturer, through meetings with councilmembers and public comment speakouts.

Two EOSC organizers also used the public comment period of the meeting to again demand an end to the FILOT, call attention to the picket happening outside, and read messages written by Boykin’s constituents who signed EOSC’s petition demanding an end to the tax breaks.

“In the almost five years since the FILOT was signed, our public schools have lost hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars as a direct result of your action,” stated Zach Hall, EOSC organizer and member of Charleston Democratic Socialists of America. “At the same time, Elbit has made bomb bodies and howitzer cannons in Ladson that it sells to commit war crimes and genocide. This is a losing deal for working-class people in Charleston and working-class people around the world.”

The combined picket and public comment drew the attention of many council members who remarked on the anti-war activists' presence. Most notably, Boykin, who had previously missed an EOSC community meeting in his district because of a lobbying trip to Israel, noted there are two-sides to every story and that “it’s not a role for county council to involve itself in. We are here to serve the citizens of Charleston County and govern accordingly.”

Attendees of the picket listening in through the council’s live stream laughed at Boykin’s closing remarks.

“It’s amazing that after two years of organizing at county council that councilmembers can still peddle the lie that the FILOT is serving Charleston County,” remarked Nate Hubler, an EOSC organizer and member of the Lowcountry Action Committee (LAC). “It's obvious that defunding Charleston’s public school system of millions of dollars doesn’t serve the citizens of Charleston County.”

The picket continued for another hour after the council meeting ended. “We wanted to make sure every single council member had to walk by the picket and make the choice to either ignore us or engage with their constituents,” said Matt Colburn, a member of LAC.

Boykin, almost an hour after the meeting concluded, was the final councilmember to leave the public services building. He was escorted to his car by multiple police officers and refused to make eye contact as the crowd chanted, “Boykin, Boykin you can’t hide! You’re supporting genocide!”

#CharlestonSC #SC #AntiWarMovement #BDS #ElbitSystems

Jacksonville, FL – On Tuesday, August 8, community members of the Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network (JPSN) mobilized to Jacksonville City Council to demand the Police and Fire Pension Fund Board of Trustees not reinvest into TEVA Pharmaceuticals and divest its investment portfolios from Israel and Israeli companies.

TEVA Pharmaceuticals is a predatory company that helped fuel the fentanyl crisis, and it functions as an economic and societal pillar of the genocidal, war-mongering state of Israel. Despite the Jacksonville’s Police and Fire Pension Fund (PFPF) being in a 45% underfunded state of crisis, it currently has $200 million invested in Israeli bonds with $2 million invested into TEVA Pharmaceutical junk bonds specifically, one of which is up for renewal on October 1, less than a month away.

The press conference at the start of the mobilization served as the official launch of the new campaign, detailing reasons for the community and the PFPF board to act with urgency on the matter of divestment.

JPSN’s press representative stated, “While everyday Jacksonville residents are struggling to afford basic medical care, in just the past decade, Teva has been found guilty in multiple lawsuits, settling for billions of dollars for fraudulence and drug price fixing.”

Public comment from community members echoed shared sentiments of struggling to afford basic needs and advocated for better funding for social programs. One speaker stated, “The $2 million invested into TEVA could provide 20 million meals, according to Feeding America, for Jacksonville families that have recently experienced a lapse in SNAP benefits.”

Speakers presented the case that investments in companies like TEVA are a root cause of skyrocketing city debt that diverts funds from the community.

Immediately after the mobilization, members of JPSN conversed with Jacksonville residents and found unity on the demands that our tax dollars should benefit the people of Jacksonville, not an Israeli foreign corporate entity, that repeatedly breaks U.S. laws, actively chooses to harm our communities, drains local resources, and perpetuates the genocide of the Palestinian people.

#JacksonvilleFL #FL #AntiWarMovement #BDS #Palestine #TevaPharmaceuticals

New York, NY – 50 activists gathered outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, on Thursday, September 3, to protest the ongoing detention of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores. Attendees represented a broad coalition of New York organizations fighting against U.S. Intervention in Venezuela, including Brooklyn Against War, Workers World Party, Black Alliance for Peace, Venceremos Brigade, and the Venezuela Solidarity Network.

Attendees held signs demanding freedom for the kidnapped Venezuelan president and first lady and joined in chants like “Free the prisoners, free them all! Free Maduro from these walls!” and “We will say it every time! U.S. sanctions are a crime!”

The protest occurred the day after motions were filed to dismiss the charges against Maduro and Flores. In the motions, the lawyers for Maduro and Flores maintain their innocence of the charges against them and further argue that the couple are immune from prosecution since they are the president and first lady of Venezuela. At the rally, speakers from multiple organizations pointed out that should the charges not be dismissed, this opens the door for the U.S. to pursue similar strategies of illegal imprisonment and prosecution against the leaders of other sovereign nations.

Speaking on behalf of Brooklyn Against War, Briony Smith said, “We know that this prosecution is baseless. We know it’s fabricated. And we know it’s illegal. But we also know that we are up against an administration rank with dangerous absurdity and hypocrisy. So, we’re going to keep fighting, and we’re going to be loud enough that the people of Venezuela can hear us, so that they know that we have not forgotten them, that we have not turned our backs on them, and that we will keep fighting until President Maduro and First Lady Flores are free!”

Protesters will return to the MDC on October 3, at 2 p.m. as part of the Anti-War Action Network’s National Day of Action against U.S. Intervention in Venezuela. The activists also vowed to rally outside the federal courthouse in Manhattan in support of Maduro and Flores on November 17, when the court will hear oral arguments to dismiss the charges.

#NewYorkNY #NY #AntiWarMovement #Venezuela #Maduro #CiliaFlores

Jacksonville, FL – On September 3, over 20 supporters from around Jacksonville, Florida attended a pro-Venezuela film screening hosted by the Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network (JPSN). Attendees watched The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. The documentary is a firsthand account of the failed 2002 CIA coup attempt against elected Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. It was produced by Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha Ó Briain.

After the film, JPSN’s Hands Off Latin America work team chair and recently released political prisoner Conor Cauley led a film discussion and comparison of the 2002 coup to the current situation in Venezuela. One common theme in that discussion was that corporate media continues to be a favorite weapon of Wall Street and the U.S. government.

In 2002, much of the failed coup attempt was done in direct collaboration with the reactionary news outlets inside of Venezuela. They employed false claims of Chavez supporters shooting at protestors. Some of the privately owned news outlets directly collaborated with CIA-aligned traitors inside the Venezuelan military to organize and execute the coup strategy.

Today, some of those same channels, which represent the wealthy right-wing political minority in Venezuela, work with the U.S. to sell the kidnapping of President Nicolas Maduro and Celia Flores to the American people. In tandem, we see U.S. corporate media excluding from their coverage massive pro-Maduro demonstrations in Venezuela. They also give little attention to the growing number of people here in the U.S. who insist President Maduro and First Lady Flores be released. There is little coverage of American opposition calling for Trump to end his so-called “Donroe Doctrine” attacks on Venezuela, or to lift the U.S. sanctions, or to return control of Venezuelan oil.

After the discussion, participants worked together to write letters to Florida Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody. The group is writing to reinforce demands being circulated by the Anti-War Action Network (AWAN) to end all U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, unfreeze all Venezuelan assets, and free Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and First Lady Flores.

“Some people might be wondering why we organized this event for Venezuela if we’re a Palestine organization,” said AWAN steering committee member Ryan Delaney, as they recruited attendees at JPSN’s outreach table.

Delaney answered the question, “But JPSN’s analysis is that we aren’t free until everyone is free. That means if we want to fight for Palestine, especially from here in the U.S., that’s a fight against the whole U.S. war machine that makes genocide and Zionist occupation possible. If we want to fight for Palestine, we need to fight for Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen; we have to fight for everyone else that’s been bound up in the fight against U.S. wars and interventions. So, when a longstanding ally to the Palestinian cause like President Nicolas Maduro gets kidnapped by the U.S., after winning an election where the main opposition party was openly campaigning on Zionism, we as a Palestine solidarity organization need to respond.”

#JacksonvilleFL #FL #AntiWarMovement #Venezuela #JPSN #AWAN #Maduro

Pittsburgh, PA – In a partial victory for students, Carnegie Mellon University dropped its case against eight students charged with discrimination and harassment. The students were charged after painting a series of anti-Zionist messages on the university’s designated “free speech fence.”

While the exonerated students and other activists recognize this as a step towards victory, a ninth student involved in the original case, Rosalyn Tosh, is now facing additional charges, including the threat of expulsion.

Aster Lufkin, one of the exonerated students, said, “Our free speech victory is important, but we still have work ahead of us. The university is still persecuting Rosalyn. And, ultimately, securing our right to speak out about Palestine is step zero to organize for divestment and other truly impactful ways of supporting Palestinian liberation.”

Tosh spoke with Fight Back! News about her ongoing struggle with university administration. “CMU is trying to break me. It unilaterally cut my housing contract a week before move-in, which has put me in an unstable housing situation, citing a third charge it added on a whim. It denied my request for permission to schedule times for dining on campus property, preventing me from using financial aid to afford food, after months of documentation of my limited access. I can barely study and my physical health is deteriorating. It is using those as bargaining chips to pressure me to take their deal.”

The exoneration of eight students comes after activists around the city rallied behind the fence painters, with the support of the groups Palestine Legal and Jewish Voice for Peace. Shortly after the charges were levied against the students, a joint letter from activist organizations, including the American Association of University Professors, Coalition for Higher Education, Concerned Jewish Faculty and Staff, Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism, Palestine Legal, the Sunrise Movement, and Jewish Voice for Peace, called on the university to clear the students from all charges.

In August, the charged students worked with the International Solidarity Committee of Pittsburgh (ISCPIT) to lead a call-in action during move-in week. ISCPIT leader Dot Bodwell spoke about her experience tabling near CMU campus during the call-in, “We managed to speak face-to-face with over 120 CMU students and quickly found out the student body does care about this; they don’t want to face repercussions for political speech in these moments when they are first learning and figuring out their politics.”

Marigold Cameron, chair of ISCPIT’s actions subcommittee, went into further detail about the significance of the recent development. “This decision from the administration shows the value of raising our voices to confront repression. The targeted students didn’t hide or go for a quiet legal defense; they showed up at activist meetings, spoke at protests, and helped us organize our call-in where students and community members alike flooded CMU’s voicemail with messages of discontent. It is thanks to pursuing this activist work alongside the defense by Palestine Legal that nearly all of the students are free.”

“The decision also shows the absurd arbitrariness of CMU’s position, by letting only some of the students off the hook despite the original charges being the same,” Cameron added. “Administration is in for a rude awakening if they think we are leaving Rosalyn behind.”

In July of this year, Carnegie Mellon began investigations into the students, barring many of them from campus on the grounds that their anti-Zionist, pro-Palestine statements painted on the fence constituted “threatening,” and “antisemitic” speech, and therefore violated campus anti-discrimination rules.

An earlier Fight Back! News article reported that ten students were facing repression. At this time, one of the original fence painters is no longer being represented within the same defense as the nine others and does not wish for any aspects of their case to be made public.

#PittsburghPA #PA #StudentMovement #PoliticalRepression #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #FreeSpeech

Minneapolis, MN- August 26, 50 protesters rallied to demand an end to Palantir’s catastrophic violence in Gaza and terror campaign here in the United States. The action included three banners on the Irene Hixon Whitney Bridge, which connects Loring Park to the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden over Interstate-94. The banners read, “MN money funds AI weapons: divest MN from Palantir,” “Divest Minnesota from apartheid Israel! No tax $$$ for occupation” and “Divest MN from Palantir! Israel and Palantir out of Palestine!”

Organizers explained how Palantir has a long, dark history, made worse under the Trump administration. Founded 23 years ago during the so-called War on Terror, the company marketed itself as a software start-up. “Palantir isn’t just another technology company sitting in an investment portfolio,” said Alissa Washington from Wrongfully Incarcerated & Over-sentenced Families Council-MN (WIAOFC-MN).

According to Vincent O’Connor from the Minnesota Anti-War Committee (AWC), Palantir is a “tool used to commit countless crimes against humanity with the funding and support of the U.S. military and a plethora of agencies like the CIA and the FBI that have an interest in surveilling and controlling entire populations.”

Miki Pensec from Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAC) pointed out that Palantir is not only a Republican problem, but in fact, “the first Palantir contracts were signed under Obama.”

Organizers highlighted U.S. regime change plots around the world, intensified with Trump in office, in support of its imperialist intentions. O’Connor said that Palantir allows the United States government to “commit this violence more quickly and more efficiently, or, in other words, on a larger scale than ever.”

It’s not just the U.S. government that uses this technology, but also the Israeli government. According to Nadiyah Salawdeh of U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN), in 2024, “Palantir entered into a ‘strategic partnership’ with Israel. This partnership has allowed the cowardly Israeli military to hide behind screens, remote controls, and AI models to commit genocide in Gaza and Lebanon.”

O’Connor added that the Israeli occupation forces “use Palantir to recommend bombing targets, generate kill lists, and even track Palestinians so they can bomb them when they’re in their homes with their families.”

“Palantir CEO Alex Karp said in February 2026 that Palantir’s ‘weapons software is in every combat situation I’m aware of’,” said Salawdeh. “It looks like double-tap strikes on hospitals. It looks like hundreds of bullets fired at Hind Rajab. It looks like hundreds of thousands of dead kids. It looks like mass murder and displacement in Lebanon.”

Salawdeh continued, “What we have allowed to happen to Palestinians has come back to roost. These same technologies that have been tested on Palestinians for over a decade are being deployed in our communities.”

Within the U.S., Palantir is an integral tool used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In Minnesota, Palantir’s AI surveillance technology reportedly was used directly during Operation Metro Surge. O’Connor said this allowed for “racist policing and mass deportations” by thousands of agents who were “brutalizing, killing, and abducting our own community members.”

Pensec explained how during Operation Metro Surge, “ICE agents photographed MIRAC members, observers, and ordinary bystanders, called them out by name and told them they knew where they lived.” This was likely aided by Palantir’s technology.

Activists drew attention to the fact that the Minnesota State Board of Investment still has $57 million invested in Palantir. “Minnesota cannot claim to protect immigrant communities and civil liberties while our public money is invested in infrastructure being used to surveil and target people,” said Washington.

The organizers spoke to an upsurge of protest against Palantir around the country and called on the community to rise up and demand accountability and justice. “We are tired of politicians creating another advisory board, another task force, another committee that can make recommendations and then be ignored,” Washington added.

Pensec concluded, “They are starting with immigrants, with people of color, with trans people, with activists. But the endpoint is a profile on every one of us.”

The action included a rally at the nearby busy Hennepin/Lyndale Avenue interchange, where the banners were visible. The rally featured speakers from several groups, including the US Palestinian Community Network, Wrongfully Incarcerated & Over-sentenced Families Council-MN, Minnesota Anti-War Committee, MN 50501, and the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #Palantir #Surveillance #ImmigrantRights #ICE

San Jose, CA – On September 2, San Jose State University intended to host Northrop Grumman at the Fall ‘26 Business, Financial Services, and Logistics Job and Internship fair. Northrop Grumman, a weapons manufacturer which maintains $3 billion in contracts with the Defense Department, is a target for Students for a Democratic Society’s (SDS) ongoing campaign demanding SJSU cut ties with war profiteers.

In response to Northrop Grumman’s invitation to the campus career fair, SDS at SJSU organized a mail-in and rally calling for the career center and university administration to deplatform war profiteers like Northrop Grumman. The mail-in was a tactic employed by students to flood the inboxes of university administrators leading up to the day of the career fair, and it proved to be an effective one.

On the day of the career fair, as student protesters gathered outside the SJSU Student Union, SDS received notice that Northrop Grumman had completely withdrawn from the career fair. This withdrawal follows a similar incident last semester at SJSU, in which student protesters forced Lockheed Martin to withdraw from a campus informational session.

Despite Northrop Grumman's withdrawal, the students continued with their rally outside the career fair to call out the school administration’s ongoing collaboration with war profiteers, echoing chants such as “When Northrop does the killing, admin makes a killing!”

Panda Shim from SDS stated, “Whether it’s Lockheed Martin or Northrop Grumman, we will not allow these defense organizations who actively supply weapons to commit genocide overseas and terrorize our immigrant communities onto our campus!”

“SJSU has invited Northrop Grumman to this career fair despite the students making it clear, time and time again, that we will not ever accept war profiteers to do business on our campus. Northrop Grumman is the sixth-largest weapons manufacturer on the planet and has been supplying the U.S. and Israeli air forces with missile delivery systems and laser weaponry for their fighter jets and attack helicopters. Shame!” said Mateo Rodriguez-Deal from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Sharat Lin from San Jose Against War provided words of support, “As you build the anti-war student movement here on campus, know that the people of San Jose support your struggle and are building the anti-war, pro-Palestine movement!”

“Our voices matter, our concerns matter, and what happens to people outside our campus matters. San Jose State should be a place where students can build their futures without having to compromise their conscience. Keep war profiteers off campus!” said Haddy Barghouti from Students for Justice in Palestine to close the rally.

While the students were able to successfully kick Northrop Grumman off campus, their fight is not over. This smaller victory was part of a larger ongoing struggle to push their campaign forward and cut ties with all war profiteers.

#SanJoseCA #CA #AntiWarMovement #WeaponsIndustry #StudentMovement #SDS #SJAW #Feature

Grand Rapids, MI – On September 2, over a dozen community members gathered for an emergency protest held by Grand Rapids Opponents of War (GROW) in response to Trump air strikes on southern Iran. 

The U.S. strikes resulted in multiple civilian deaths, with Al Jazeera reporting at least 11 people killed. Iran’s state media confirmed a separate U.S. strike on a family wedding procession killed two women and two children in south Iran.

The rally was met with overwhelming community support from pedestrians, as well as dozens of cheers and solidarity fists from cars passing by on their way home from work.

Protesters held a large banner that read “No U.S. war on Iran” visible at the intersection. Many participants held signs reading, “No blood for oil” and “U.S. hands off Iran!” 

Jude Florez, representing GROW, reminded the crowd about the U.S. government’s history of bombing wedding processions, including a Yemeni wedding procession. Jude urged the crowd that with Trump as commander in chief, “We must not grow desensitized to the brutal acts carried out by the U.S. government. We must continue to show up and condemn these war crimes.” 

Aanya Usmani spoke on behalf of Palestine Solidarity Grand Rapids, saying, “By being out here today, we are honoring the brave Iranian people who lost two daughters and two mothers in yesterday's U.S. air strikes on a wedding celebration.” At which the crowd shouted “Shame!” 

The rest of the hour was spent chanting and handing out flyers to people. GROW promoted their current campaign urging Grand Rapids City Council to adopt a proclamation calling for no U.S. sanctions and no U.S. war on Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

#GrandRapidsMI #MI #AntiWarMovement #Iran #GROW

Minneapolis, MN – On August 30, the newly-formed U.S. Out of Africa Committee of Women Against Military Madness hosted its first event, “Understanding the Tools of Empire: A Panel on Mass Incarceration, Police Violence, and Extraordinary Rendition.” 

Dozens of community members packed the main room of the Lucy Parsons Center. They wanted to learn about the relationship between racialized policing and mass incarceration inside U.S. borders, and U.S. intervention and state-sponsored abductions in Africa.

Khrys Wetzel, a founding member of the U.S. Out of Africa committee (UOA) and volunteer with the MN Anti-War Committee (AWC), opened the function. Wetzel grounded attendees in a brief history of Black August. In 1979, the Black Guerrilla Family, a group of revolutionaries incarcerated in San Quentin State Prison started it. Black August is a month to commemorate persecuted and slain Black freedom fighters. It is also an opportunity to strengthen organized resistance to racial injustice and state repression of Black people and other oppressed nationality peoples. 

Panelist Jae Yates of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice (TCC4J) explained, “North American policing has its roots in the slave patrols responsible for capturing escaped slaves and forcibly returning them to plantations.”

Yates continued, “Post-Reconstruction, these militias were formalized into modern police departments that funneled Black people into prisons for crimes that boiled down to taking up space in public.”

Panelist Alissa Washington, the executive director of Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-sentenced Families Council (WIAOFC), said, “These struggles aren’t identical, but they’re connected through systems of power that decide whose lives deserve protection, whose suffering matters, and whose lives can be treated as disposable.”

Washington highlighted the sprawling nature of the U.S. prison system, which now comprises 20% of the global prison population. This, in spite of the fact that U.S. residents only make up 4.2% of the world’s population. The U.S. prison system is by far the largest on earth, with Black, Chicano, indigenous and other oppressed nationalities jailed at higher rates than whites.

One of the primary campaigns that WIAOFC has championed is the call to free Washington’s fiancé Cornelius Jackson, known as Corn. Jackson was sentenced to life without parole at the age of 19 for being present at the scene of a crime he did not commit. Panel attendees listened with rapt attention as Washington described Jackson’s case, then joined her in chanting “Free Corn!”

Nicholas Tolliver, another founding member of UOA emphasized that the same system that surveils, represses, incarcerates, and kills Black and other oppressed people across the U.S. also inflicts horrific violence on civilians in Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia. 

Over the past quarter-century, the U.S. has used the “War on Terror” as a pretext for expanding military intervention in countries across the African continent. This causes regional instability, rampant corruption, and bloody counterinsurgent aggressions funded and directed by the U.S. government and the Pentagon.

The strategic command center of the U.S. military in Africa, AFRICOM, carries out lethal drone strikes and summary executions with impunity. Companies including Honeywell and Palantir reap enormous profits manufacturing equipment and planning for this military violence. Meanwhile, the shadowy state-sponsored kidnapping practice of extraordinary rendition continues to transfer people to foreign countries. Prisoners are detained indefinitely and subjected to extrajudicial torture.

While racist domestic police forces brutalize, criminalize, incarcerate, and kill people inside U.S. borders, the U.S. military-industrial complex invests in militarized violence across the countries of Africa and beyond. 

Panelists closed by encouraging audience members to join groups like UOA, TCC4J and WIAOFC in order to build the collective power needed to effectively combat the oppressive U.S. state and its imperialist appendages overseas.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #OppressedNationalities #BlackAugust #AFRICOM #AntiWarMovement

Chicago, IL – 100 nurses and their allies gathered outside the Cook County Pension Fund in downtown Chicago on Augurst 27 demanding the fund sever ties with Palantir, a surveillance technology company. National Nurses United (NNU), the largest union of registered nurses in the U.S., organized the Chicago protest, as well as seven others across the country.

NNU’s campaign to “Purge Palantir” comes as many hospitals establish deeper ties with the company. Some hospitals use Palantir to automate nurse staffing, laying off local managers and worsening working conditions. Other hospitals share patient data with Palantir, which then uses that information so ICE can target and deport immigrant patients.

“Union nurses cannot be silent when our most vulnerable people, babies and children, are being detained by federal immigration agents,” said NNU President Jamie Brown, RN. “While our patients and neighbors are living in fear of immigration raids enabled by Palantir, our hospitals are facing huge cuts, and our patients are facing mounting health care costs because of HR 1. Nurses aren’t just saying no to Palantir, but we’re calling for our public resources to go toward the benefit of working people, not billionaires and their corporations.”

Husam Marajda of U.S. Palestinian Community Network stated, “Per Palantir’s own admission, it serves to help fight ‘U.S. adversaries.’ This specifically means that Palantir serves war and terror. It means that Palantir gives technology to criminal governments and administrations like the United States and Israel and others, to commit war crimes. To kidnap and separate families. To cause destruction everywhere.”

Among Palantir’s backers and investors are the managers of various public worker pension funds, including the Illinois State Board of Investment and the Cook County Pension Fund. CTU Recording Secretary Vicki Kurzydlo explained, “We cannot tell our students and our families that we stand with them while our retirement dollars are invested in companies like Palantir, whose technologies are being used to target, arrest, and disappear people!”

Nurses and health care workers occupied the street for ten minutes. Organizers placed baby shoes in front of banners reading, “Patients over Palantir” and “Purge Palantir.” The shoes represented the over 500 babies that ICE has detained since 2025. Other protesters held notes that children wrote in ICE detention. Some raised umbrellas with big eyes attached symbolizing that nurses are “keeping an eye” on Palantir’s harmful activities.

NNU continues to organize against hospital funding cuts and Palantir. They fight for a better, healthier, future for all. One of NNU’s main calls is to, “Fund care, not billionaires.” You can sign the petition at the National Nurses United website.

#ChicagoIL #IL #Labor #NationalNursesUnited #Palantir #ImmigrantRights #ICE #AntiWarMovement

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Dallas Against the Trump Agenda Coalition. The group plans to march on the RNC in Dallas on September 10.

Dallas Office of Special Events has cancelled our permit application to protest the RNC

As organizers attempt to exercise their First Amendment right to protest the midterm Republican National Convention, the city of Dallas has escalated from stalling our permit request to cancelling it.

Organizers applied for a permit and had repeatedly met with city officials to negotiate in good faith. From officials rejecting our original route without finalizing an alternative to city hall police and DPD ordering our organizers to leave the vicinity of the City Hall Plaza during our press conference, the city has placed obstacle after obstacle in our way.

Taken together, these actions appear intentional in an attempt to weaken the march, disrupt our preparations, and push protesters out of sight and sound of the convention.

The First Amendment protects our right to march and bring our message within sight and sound of its intended audience.

With the convention approaching, the process of finalizing this permit has gone from glacial to permafrost. In a phone call with the Office of Special Events, they mentioned that they were told by the Dallas Police Department to cancel our permit. Further, we were told that DPD wants us to fill out a “First Amendment Activity Request form.”

We will not accept being pushed around. We will exercise our right to assemble and our right to free speech. We will march on the Republican National Convention.

Republicans claim they’ll bring thousands of people to Dallas to organize behind the Trump agenda. We are preparing a family-friendly statewide march to represent the millions of people who reject the Trump agenda, to confront their attacks on immigrants, women, trans people, marginalized communities, anti-fascist organizations and people, and their hawkish pursuit of endless wars.

They don’t want us there. That is exactly why we have to show up.

#DallasTX #TX #PeoplesStruggles #Trump #ImmigrantRights #AntiWarMovement #RNC2026 #RNC

Salt Lake City, UT – On Tuesday, August 25, members of the Utah Anti-War Committee met with Salt Lake District 1 Councilor Jiro Johnson. Johnson’s county council district covers a Raytheon facility, which the UAWC has been campaigning against since May. The anti-war activists demanded that Johnson publicly condemn the Raytheon facility in his district.

The meeting was secured after activists packed Salt Lake County Council earlier in August, calling on Johnson to introduce legislation against the facility. At the meeting, Johnson at first did not commit to issuing a written and public condemnation of Raytheon, citing concerns around Republican backlash to his policy agenda.

Activists continued to push for a firm anti-Raytheon, anti-war stance at the meeting. They gave the deadline of September 16, marking 200 days since the start of Trump’s war against Iran, in which a Raytheon Tomahawk missile killed over 100 schoolchildren at an Iranian girls’ school.

After the meeting, UAWC took to social media to urge the community to call on Johnson to take a side against Raytheon. In comment sections and Instagram stories, more community members began to call on Johnson to condemn the war-profiteering facility in his district.

Soon, Johnson relented, posting on August 28 the public, written condemnation of war and Raytheon, which activists had demanded, on his official social media page.

“It's despicable that corporations like Raytheon and other members of the military-industrial complex are getting rich off this violence,” Johnson’s statement read.

In their own statement, the UAWC said, “This condemnation was demanded by activists and did not come from nowhere, and it was not easy to win. It was the result of deliberate and sustained anti-Raytheon activism by the community since May of this year.”

“A statement from the councilor where Raytheon operates is a good step. We count it as a win. But clearly, much more is needed to stop the U.S. war machine,” continued UAWC.

Those wanting to join the anti-war movement and build on this victory should attend the next Utah Anti-War Committee meeting on Saturday, September 5, 3 p.m. at the Salt Lake City Main Library Level 3 Conference Room.

#SaltLakeCityUT #UT #AntiWarMovement #UAWC #BDS #Raytheon

Philadelphia, PA – On Wednesday evening, August 26, over 80 protesters gathered outside the entrance of the Pennsylvania Convention Center to protest the war profiteers attending the Defense Industrial Base Accelerator, a convention centered around building the U.S. industrial base for greater war production.

It is not surprising that Philadelphia would be chosen to host such a convention. There has recently been a bipartisan push at local and national levels to bolster the position of the defense industry in Philadelphia.

Just last August, Trump cooked up a deal with Republic of Korea President Lee Jae Myung which entailed a direct investment of $5 billion into shipbuilding venture Hanwha Philly Shipyard Inc. so that it may expand its facilities and workforce to take on U.S. military contracts. This July, Trump announced a $10 billion investment for new defense industry jobs at the first ever Pennsylvania Defense and & Innovation Summit. At the same conference, the U.S. Missile Defense Agency awarded a $2 billion contract to Hanwha Philly Shipyard Inc. for new missile instrumentation ships. Rhoads Industries, right next door to the shipyard, also secured a $24 million investment from JPMorgan Chase for skilled workforce training and the development of nuclear sub facilities.

Protesters lined up along the road with banners reading “Hanwha out of Philly – no war profiteers in our city!” and “Smash U.S. imperialism.” Some carried effigies of IDF soldiers and ICE agents hanging from nooses.

A member of Koreans for Decolonization, representing the Philly Alliance Against Imperialism, spoke out against Hanwha’s presence at the convention, stating, “The Korean people do not want war and division. But these money-hungry companies are willing to cash checks into the U.S. war economy while exploiting Korean and American workers. Hanwha is an arm of U.S. imperialism, from its partnerships with the IOF to the UAE, and until the U.S. imperialist project is destroyed, Hanwha will continue to contribute to the violence and genocide it benefits from.”

Members of Philadelphia Students for Justice in Palestine also highlighted the presence of Philly-headquartered Day and Zimmerman, an artillery manufacturing company and IDF supplier, at the convention.

After an hour of speeches, protesters entered Broad Street, marched around the convention center and dispersed.

#PhiladephiaPA #PA #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Hanwha #WarIndustry #BDS

St. Paul, MN – Amid a nationwide wave of outrage against Flock automatic license plate readers, community members packed city council chambers on August 26 for a public hearing on police surveillance technology and data privacy. Dozens of community members testified to their opposition to the city’s use of the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered cameras made by Flock and Axon, as well as autonomous drones manufactured by Skydio.

The public hearing was initiated after the previous week’s city council meeting, when activists with the Free Palestine Coalition (FPC) interrupted the proceedings to demand transparency around the city’s contract with Skydio and a process to end it. Organizers explained that Skydio was complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza, supplying cutting-edge drones that use AI to surveil urban areas and identify potential targets.

“Skydio is a U.S. company, but the reason it scaled up its sales to institutions started when it sold hundreds of drones to the Israeli military for its genocide in Gaza,” explained FPC organizer and Saint Paul resident Wyatt Miller in his comments to the council members. “If it wasn’t necessary before a genocide, it shouldn’t be necessary now.”

In June, the FPC initiated a campaign against a proposed Skydio contract with the nearby city of Minneapolis. Hundreds of community members mobilized to urge Minneapolis not to contract with a genocide-complicit company and raised concerns around the technology’s use in the hands of the city’s infamous police department. Minneapolis City Council ultimately caved to community pressure and voted to reject the proposed Skydio contract.

The coalition then teamed up with anti-surveillance group Eyes Off Saint Paul to address the issue in that city. Advocates learned that the Saint Paul Police Department (SPPD) had quietly adopted a similar Skydio drone program without a public hearing, claiming the drones constituted an expansion of an existing contract, allowing it to bypass normal public process.

“We can’t find any public record of the contract. We don’t know how much money is being spent,” Miller told the council. “The only dollar amount that’s been published publicly comes as an ‘estimate’ to the media from the police department itself.”

Many speakers expressed outrage over expenditures on new surveillance tools at a time when Mayor Kaohly Her’s budget includes significant cuts and the closure of the public library in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood.

Anna Madison is a member of Eyes Off Saint Paul as well as Families Against Military Madness. “Militarized AI-powered technology continues to advance at a pace that is increasingly difficult to keep up with,” Madison explained to the council. “The only way we can ensure that this technology is not used to harm us is to end these contracts and ban AI-powered mass surveillance immediately.”

Much of the popular outrage has focused on Flock, with high-profile instances of communities destroying the stationary AI cameras around the country. At the regular Saint Paul City Council meeting that took place just before the special hearing on surveillance, the council passed a nonbinding resolution announcing the removal of two city-operated Flock cameras. However, the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office reportedly continues to operate Flock cameras in Saint Paul.

Activists vowed to continue the fight, looking beyond just Flock to other city contracts with AI-powered surveillance companies. They said the oppressive nature of these technologies were demonstrated by their use during the federal anti-immigrant crackdown as well as by Israel in its oppression of Palestinians.

“Corporations cannot be trusted not to share data and recordings with immigration enforcement like what we saw with Operation Metro Surge,” Cedar Larson of Women Against Military Madness told the council. “We know that Axon recently acquired Israeli company Carbyne, which makes AI-powered emergency communications used by police. This props up Israel’s tech sector, which makes up 20% of the apartheid state’s GDP and about half of its annual exports.”

Sana Wazwaz is a Palestinian American and chapter lead of American Muslims for Palestine – Minnesota, part of the FPC. “Our coalition firmly believes that no fantasy of stopping crimes is worth the greater crime of being complicit in fascism and genocide,” Wazwaz told the council. “Skydio has an active contract with the very entity that terrorized our community just this last winter. In the words of Minneapolis Council Member Aurin Chowdhury, ‘To contract with Skydio in light of what happened during Metro Surge is nothing short of morally bankrupt.’ ”

Speakers also argued that crimes committed by SPPD and other police departments showed they could not be trusted with new surveillance technologies. Officers in several states have been accused of using Flock data to stalk ex-girlfriends. An officer in Texas allegedly used the system to track the movements of a woman seeking an abortion.

Wazwaz concluded, “What we have seen with the murder of Marcus Golden here in Saint Paul, with the murders of Philando Castile, George Floyd, Jamar Clark, that law enforcement without community control over police must not be given surveillance tools.”

#StPaulMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #Skydio #Palestine #Surveillance #Flock

New Orleans, LA – On August 27, about 30 people gathered for a demonstration against Palantir, a data analytics corporation notorious for its use in mass surveillance and the Palestinian genocide. New Orleans Nurses United led the protest alongside National Nurses United (NNU) locals in seven other cities.

“We nurses are outside the federal building in New Orleans today because one in four people detained by ICE are taken to Louisiana detention centers,” said Hannah Miller, an ICU nurse and NNU member.

The crowd chanted “Purge, purge Palantir!” and raised picket signs that read “Palantir Out!”.

NNU chose to target Palantir in this coordinated National Day of Action because hospitals contract the corporation to manage patient information, including automated scheduling and management. Palantir is currently partnering with the Trump regime to target people for deportation based on Medicaid data from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“Trump and his fearmongers in Congress continue to send billions to corrupt CEOs who profit from violence and suffering. They have stolen more than a trillion dollars from healthcare for working people,” said Miller.

Nurses then occupied a busy street for over ten minutes and raised a giant banner that read, “Patients over Palantir!” They put stickers on signs and buildings informing bystanders on the dangers ICE and Palantir pose.

“We must unite to say no to Palantir making us work harder for less, no to Palantir arming masked thugs to kidnap our neighbors, no to Palantir enabling Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, and no to Palantir everywhere!” stated Nick Michaels, an organizer with New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports (NOSHIP).

Organizations that joined NNU in this demonstration include NOSHIP, Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP), and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #Labor #Nurses #NationalNursesUnited #Palantir #AntiWarMovement #ImmigrantRights #ICE

On Tuesday, August 25th, members of Utah Anti-War Committee met with Salt Lake District 1 Council member Jiro Johnson.

We demanded that Johnson formally and publicly condemn the Raytheon AST weapons facility located in his district in West Valley City. Raytheon makes bombs and guided missiles for the Israeli and U.S. military. These weapons are used in well-documented war crimes in Iran and Palestine.

Earlier in August, our movement won a verbal statement against Raytheon from Johnson in County Council. But he stopped short of agreeing to write a public anti-war condemnation of Raytheon. Johnson said he needed to “consider” before condemning Raytheon AST, as he feared political backlash from Republicans against his policy agenda.

He told community members in our meeting that, “children are dying every day, but I need to think of the political ramifications.”

This is an issue of right and wrong, and about where average people in Salt Lake want political power spent. There can be political costs to doing the right thing. But Raytheon is a company profiting off bombing civilians in tents in Gaza and killing unarmed schoolgirls in Iran.

What’s worse, Raytheon does it with our taxes while housing, education, jobs, healthcare, and our environment are left on the wayside. Jiro Johnson should release a statement against Raytheon AST. He ran for Council on a progressive platform, and the war-profiteering facility is in his district.

A statement from the County Councilor where Raytheon AST operates would represent a real blow against the Republicans’ unpopular pro-war agenda. We need to make companies profiting from war and genocide with our taxes unwelcome in our communities and demand reinvestment in people’s needs.

Johnson committed to meet UAWC again by September 16, 200 days from the start of Trump’s illegal war on Iran. It’s the perfect time for him to publicly condemn an unpopular, genocidal war-profiteer like Raytheon and call for money for Utah’s needs, not war.

We only got this meeting by months of protesting, educating, and building the anti-war movement. To strike a blow against Raytheon, we need to organize even more and stay united.

Be ready to call on Jiro Johnson to honor the progressive principles that got him elected.

Raytheon Out of Salt Lake!

#SaltLakeCityUT #UT #AntiWarMovement #Raytheon #BDS #Palestine #Iran

San José, CA – On August 20, the second day of the fall semester, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) led a protest on the San José State University Campus. SDS has been leading a “No Tech for Genocide” campaign for several years, demanding that university administration cut all ties with weapons manufacturer Lockheed Martin. San José State University has maintained ties with Lockheed for decades, including hosting specific engineering master’s programs tailored to send students straight to working as weapons designers.

At 1:30 p.m., students gathered at the Arch of Dignity and started chants such as “Lockheed Martin off our campus!” and “Lockheed does the killing, admin makes a killing!”

Nikki Flowers from SDS stated, “We are here to make sure our university knows we will not sit idly by. We will not allow our tuition, our resources, to be funneled into companies like Lockheed Martin.”

Flowers demanded that SJSU admin “cut all university partnerships with these war profiteers, with these defense and technology corporations, and government entities complicit with the occupation and genocide of Palestine.”

Ethan Maruyama from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization stated, “While tuition goes up every year, making living increasingly unaffordable for students, SJSU admin continues to maintain contracts with war profiteers.”

Maruyama continued, “We will not passively watch as the U.S. empire tries to consolidate the little power they can hold onto. Students on this campus and across the nation have led a long militant history of struggle, from the anti-war movement to the immigrant rights movement, and we will continue down that militant path. Through our day to day struggles, like this protest today, we can build the movement to strike blows against the enemy by continuing to put pressure on SJSU admin.”

Finally, the students stopped at the Martin Luther King Jr. Library for a speech from Jack McCann of San José Against War. “Israel continues to murder Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank,” McCann stated. “It is clear that institutions like San José State have made it possible for this to happen.”

The students continued to march throughout the campus, with many students joining them along the way. This action and noise demonstration called attention to SJSU's ties to war profiteers and complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza. SDS will continue to pressure university administration to cut ties with Lockheed Martin, and all other war profiteers.

#SanJoseCA #CA #AntiWarMovement #StudentMovement #BDS #Palestine #LockheedMartin