Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

CAARPR

By Kobi Guillory

Chicago, IL – Hundreds of Barclays employees were unable to enter their workplace on Thursday morning, October 10, after protesters blocked off all entrances to the bank's downtown headquarters. Barclays owns $2.5 billion worth of shares in eight companies that provide weapons, components and military technology to the genocidal state of Israel and provides loans worth $7.6 billion to seven of those eight companies. The protesters demanded that Barclays divest from these companies as part of the international Boycott, Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

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By Merawi Gerima

Chicago protest demands freedom for the wrongfully convicted.  | Staff/Fight Back! News

Chicago, IL – 75 people assembled outside of the office of Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, September 30. One of the leaders of the protest was Jasmine Smith, a young firebrand organizer with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR). Smith shouted into a well-worn megaphone, “What do we want?” The crowd roared back, “Justice!”

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By Gabriel Miller

Meeting of the newly appointed Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability.  | Staff/Fight Back! News

Chicago, IL – Chicagoans demanded action to stop police crimes on Thursday, June 30, at the first official meeting of the newly appointed Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA), a citywide body charged with holding the Chicago Police Department accountable.

50 community members, organizers, police district councilors and family members of those lost to police violence showed up at Saint Sabina Church on the Southside to demand an end to pretextual traffic stops and so-called “tactical teams.” Nine of the ten speakers who gave public comments raised the demand to end these racist police practices which have caused the murders of Dexter Reed and Reginald Clay Jr among many others, as well as the daily harassment of Black and brown people.

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By staff

Protestors hold signs saying “Free Them All” while a woman speaks over a bullhorn.

Chicago, IL – “This is only a pinch of what we're going to do in August,” Merawi Gerima said to 150 people who rallied outside the 18th District police station on the Near Northside of Chicago, May 19.

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By Kobi Guillory

Campus police raid University of Chicago Palestine solidarity encampment.  | Fight Back! News/staff

Chicago IL – Students at the University of Chicago set up an encampment in solidarity with Gaza on Monday, April 29. After a week of threats from the university administration, the University of Chicago Police Department (UCPD) raided the encampment before dawn on Tuesday, May 7.

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By staff

Chicago protest demands justice for Dexter Reed. | Fight Back! News/Alec Ozawa

Chicago, IL – On April 18, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, alongside other organizations in the Black liberation movement, called a rally at Chicago Police Department Headquarters ahead of the police board meeting to demand that the five officers who fired 96 shots and murdered Dexter Reed, Jr. be fired, indicted and convicted.

200 activists and supporters from all corners of the movement in Chicago, from torture survivors to family members of those killed by police violence, as well as those from the Palestinian liberation movement, converged on CPD HQ to make clear to the powers that be that Chicagoans will no longer stand for police terror.

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By Kobi Guillory

Naledi Pandor, second from left, meets with Chicago activists. | USPCN

Chicago, IL – “We are busy building a new nation out of the embers of apartheid, and if we had sanctions and American companies withdrawing from South Africa it would devastate our country and create a total disaster,” said Naledi Pandor, South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation.

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By Joe Iosbaker

Coalition to March on the DNC demands permits for protest at Democratic National Convention.  | Fight Back! News/staff

Chicago, IL – Groups supporting Palestine are suing Chicago to ensure that Joe Biden “can hear us and see us” at the Democratic National Convention in August, sats Kobi Guillory, spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the DNC.

When the convention opens at the United Center, August 19, the coalition is adamant that they get the attention they deserve.

Guillory states, “As the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza continues unabated – with over 32,000 killed, almost all by U.S. bombs and missiles – we must march. This is the party in power, the party of Genocide Joe Biden. Biden could stop the war with one phone call. He refuses to take action, and so we must protest.”

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By staff

Progressive organizations speak out at press conference demanding permits for Palestine march at Democratic National Convention. | Fight Back! News/staff

Chicago, IL – The fight to get permits to march on the Democratic National Convention is heating up. On August 19 to the 22, the Democratic National Convention (DNC) comes Chicago. The massive movement against the genocide in Gaza is preparing to march to the United Center where the convention will be held.

The Coalition to March on the DNC has raised the slogans, “Stand with Palestine! End U.S. aid to Israel!”

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By Gabriel Miller

Coalition for Justice in Palestine March in downtown Chicago

Chicago, IL – Over 1000 people rallied and marched from the Israeli Consulate through downtown Chicago on March 16 calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel’s genocide in Palestine and an immediate and unconditional ceasefire. Irish flags rippled in the wind alongside Palestinian, Yemeni and South African flags on Saint Patrick’s Day weekend, as the afternoon demonstration highlighted the connection between Ireland and Palestine’s history of struggle and the need for solidarity against colonial oppression.

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