Philadelphia, PA – On Friday February 27, the Philadelphia Alliance against Racist and Political Repression held a movie showing to commemorate Black History Month. The movie, Judas and the Black Messiah, is about the iconic Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and William O’Neal, who the FBI used to infiltrate the Black Panther’s and helped the Chicago Police department kill Fred Hampton.

The event was held at the LavaSpace in West Philadelphia and was attended by dozens of people from the neighborhood who were interested not only in learning more about Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party, but in getting to know all about the Philadelphia Alliance against Racist and Political Repression (PAARPR), its campaigns and its mission.

PAARPR chair Musa Bey had conversations with many of the attendees about the work PAARPR is doing in Philadelphia and the families it is working with, including the families of Robert Jones, Aaron Rainey and Amanda Cahill.

The movie event began at 5 p.m. with a short speech made by PAARPR Co-Chair Olujimi Alade which delved into Fred Hampton as a revolutionary and his impact on the Black Panther Party and the struggle for socialism and liberation.

PAARPR was able to establish a connection with the neighborhood residents, which is a foundation in building a presence in the West Philadelphia area, an important section of the city where many people have either experienced police brutality or know a loved one who did. By holding similar events, PAARPR aims to advance its aim of fighting for the community control of the police.

#PhiladelphiaPA #PA #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistoryMonth #NAARPR #PAARPR

Chicago, IL – El martes, 24 de febrero, más de 30 estudiantes y miembros de la comunidad se reunieron en el Centro Cultural Negro de la Universidad de Illinois Chicago (UIC) por un estreno de Judas y la Messiah Negra, seguido por una discusión guiada por camaradas del distrito de Chicago de la Organización Socialista Camino de la Libertad (OSCL).

Dirigido y escrito por Shaka King, Judas y el Mesías Negro (2021) es un cuento cinemático de la historia del Capítulo de Illinois del Partido Pantera Negra, el origen de base de la histórica Coalición Arcoíris de Chicago, y los días finales del presidente Fred Hampton del Capítulo de Illinois del Partido Pantera Negra. Siguiendo la historia del difunto presidente y de William O’Neal, informante del FBI e infiltrador del partido, la película muestra la verdadera conspiración para asesinar al presidente Fred llevado a cabo por el FBI, la Fiscalía del Condado de Cook y el Departamento de Policía de Chicago.

Después de la película, Kobi Guillory, miembro de la OSCL en Chicago y del Sindicato de Maestros de Chicago, hizo preguntas sobre los pensamientos de la audiencia acerca de la historia de la lucha revolucionaria, solidaridad de clase y la represión política. Los participantes entre la audiencia contaron sus propias experiencias de brutalidad policial, seres queridos asesinados o secuestrados por los matones del estado, otros invocaron los orígenes de la policía de los EE.UU. como resultado de las patrullas cazadoras de esclavos.

Este Mes de la Historia Negra, es aún más importante que nunca recordar el legado revolucionario del Partido Pantera Negra y la Coalición Arcoíris: un legado de solidaridad de la clase trabajadora, de lucha contra la represión política anti-negra y anti-obrera. Fred Hampton, como presidente del Capítulo de Illinois del Partido Pantera Negra y vicepresidente del Partido Pantera Negra Nacional, vio con toda claridad la distracción que era la división racial de Chicago.

Tras la ola de violencia sancionada por el estado contra las nacionalidades oprimidas y quienes se solidarizan con ellas sigue en todas partes de la nación, continuamos luchando. Y en palabras del Camarada Fred Hampton, cuando te atreves a luchar, ¡te atreves a ganar!

#ChicagoIL #IL #StudentMovement #MovimientoEstudiantil #SDS #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistoryMonth #NacionalidadesOprimidas #Afroamericano #elMesdeHistoriaNegra #OSCL #CTU

New Orleans, LA – On Saturday afternoon, February 27, the New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NOAARPR) held a panel to discuss the history of police brutality in New Orleans. The panel took place at the Gwangi and Hollywood Community Center in Algiers.

NOAARPR Chair Toni Jones gave a brief history of the rise of policing in the Crescent City, beginning with its origins from slave catchers to the Code Noir during French and Spanish colonial rule.

“Police exist to uphold the ruling power,” she said. Toni cited many historic cases of police brutality throughout the centuries in New Orleans. Members of the community, some of them former Black Panthers who spent much of their lives incarcerated in Angola as political prisoners, affirmed the names and stories of Black residents and freedom fighters past who stood up to police brutality.

“The police are only in our communities not for our security but for our containment,” said Sister Shanta Scott of the People’s Political Party, quoting Huey P. Newton. Jace Lee Scott, her son, was murdered by the son of NOPD officer Victor Gant in 2019. She educated attendees about the murder, NOPD corruption and cover-ups, and the collusion of city officials and court justices. “Justice must be transparent. Justice must be consistent. Justice must be fearless. No more broken protocol, no more selective enforcement, and no more silence. Justice for Jace Lee Scott. That’s my son,” said Scott.

NOAARPR member, Danyelle Christmas shared about her run for city council, which was inspired by the police brutality and political repression against her uncle who was murdered by NOPD, and her father who was falsely convicted for murder in 1994. She spoke about the impacts incarceration had on her family. Her father spent ten years on death row in Angola, and when he was finally acquitted, they offered him $10. A dollar for each year of his life lost in prison. She continued to connect the struggles of the Black community to the exploitation of capitalism, highlighting systemic issues that negatively impact everyone.

“Let’s remember, the KKK is still considered a party, they’re still considered a non-profit, they’re still recognized by the United States. But the Black Panther Party was dismantled,” Christmas said. “We have to rise up.”

The panel was followed by an open forum discussion where members of the community shared their experiences within the prison industrial complex. Errol Williams shared his story, incarcerated for 21 years in Angola. “I don’t want to be oppressed anymore. I know what it's like, I’ve been living it all my life,” he said. “I realized the only ‘equal opportunity’ afforded to me is to die.” Another community member proudly stated that “Black history is world history.”

NOAARPR will hold a rally on March 5 to pack the city council chambers and demand justice for Jace Lee Scott, federal charges against Victor Gant, and a Civilian Police Accountability Council.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistoryMonth #NOAARPR

Chicago, IL— On Tuesday, February 17, the Chicago District of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization drew over 35 community members to a presentation honoring Black History Month and discussing strategy and tactics in the Black liberation movement.

Kobi Guillory, a FRSO leader and middle school science teacher, opened the event with a presentation on revolutionary movements. He described how oppressed workers and colonized peoples have always fought back against their oppressors, and said we are called to do the same today.

Trump, Epstein and the whole ruling class “are proving through the crimes they commit against the people that they need to go. They need to be overthrown,” Guillory said. “And it is on us to do that. No one is going to do that for us.”

Next, Guillory offered a definition of nationhood. Marxist-Leninists consider a nation to be a group of people who share a common territory, economic base, culture, and language. The Black nation fits all these criteria, from its history as a people enslaved to the common territory of the Black Belt South today, Guillory said.

Frank Chapman, a longtime leader in the Black liberation movement and member of the FRSO central committee, spoke next. “The Black nation is oppressed and exploited to an extreme degree by the ruling class of the United States, meaning it has a natural ally in other nations and oppressed groups also fighting against U.S. imperialism,” Chapman said.

The history of Chicano people and Black people in the United States is intertwined going back to the annexation of Texas from Mexico in order to preserve slavery in the union, he said. “The border patrols in Texas were also slave patrols.”

People ask what the ICE attacks “got to do with Black folks,” Chapman said. “We’re talking about a mutual enslaver, a mutual oppressor. We have a real reason, not an imaginary one, to be united with the Chicano people, with brown people on this question,” Chapman said, as the audience applauded in approval.

The racist super-exploitation of Black workers hurts all workers and oppressed people, Chapman continued. “It is our duty and responsibility to work with the immigrants’ rights movement and all progressive democratic forces to oppose the entire Trump agenda,” he said. “Ain’t none of this shit right.”

“The thing that broke the confederacy and lost them the war was the general strike of the enslaved,” he said. The slaves – the people who made the clothes, worked the farms and generally produced the goods and services that sustained the lives of the white slaveholder class – walked off the plantations and stopped their production.

But a general strike does not in and of itself destroy the entire system, Guillory said.

Chapman agreed. “The real solution is revolution,” he said. “We have to overthrow this corrupt, rotten, racist, regime.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #FRSO #OppressedNationalities #BlackHistoryMonth

Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, February 24, over 30 students and community members gathered in University of Illinois Chicago’s (UIC) Black Cultural Center for a screening of Judas and the Black Messiah, followed by a guided discussion led by comrades in the Chicago district of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

Directed and written by Shaka King, Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) is a cinematic telling of the story of the Black Panther Party Illinois Chapter, the grassroots genesis of Chicago’s historic Rainbow Coalition, and the final days of Chairman Fred Hampton of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. Following the story of both the late chairman and William O’Neal, FBI informant and party infiltrator, the film depicts the real-life c