Interview with Bassem Kawar, of the Campaign to TAKE ON HATE

Fight Back! interviewed Bassem Kawar, national coordinator of the Campaign to TAKE ON HATE, a project of the National Network for Arab American Communities.

“The combination driver will create animosity in the work place” —Teamster Central Region International VP Robert Kopystynsky

Chicago, IL – Teamster Chief Negotiator Dennis Taylor and UPS shook hands on a tentative agreement, June 22, which will include a new driving position called Full-Time Combination Drivers (Combo Driver). Full details were released July 10. UPS Teamsters across the country are calling the new position a two-tiered concession that spells doom for future package car drivers.

To my comrades and friends in the Black Liberation movement I say: Yes, it is important to point out the mutual suffering of separation of Central American and Mexican children from their families at the border and Black children daily separated through policies of mass incarceration and police perpetrated genocide; it is important if our point is to demonstrate that no oppressed people should be alone and isolated in the struggle for their humanity.

Chicago, IL – About 50,000 people rallied and marched in Chicago’s Loop, June 30, to protest the Trump administration for separating kids from parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. The cruelty of this practice brought together over 100 organizations under the slogan Families Belong Together.

Chicago, IL – Nearly 700 Chicagoans united to celebrate the coming home of over three dozen wrongfully convicted torture survivors during the People Power Weekend, hosted by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression on June 16 and 17.

Chicago, IL – To me, Ora Schub is a Palestinian. Her parents, who practiced Judaism, were born in Palestine before the founding of the settler-colonial state of Israel, so in essence, they were Palestinian Jews. And Ora took her nationality from her parents, so in my book, that makes her a Palestinian. But even if she didn't identify as one, Ora made a decision long ago to be an anti-Zionist and an anti-racist, and to join the movement in support of Palestinian self-determination, in support of the Right of Return for all Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and in support of ending Israeli colonization and occupation of all Arab lands.

Ora Schub: In memoriam

Struggle continues against police terror in Chicago

![Armanda Shackleford speaking](https://i.snap.as/MfeGwaPk.jpg “Armanda Shackleford speaking Armanda Shackleford speaking at hearing on the civilian component of the police accountability system in Chicago. She is the mother of Gerald Reed, tortured into confessing 27 years ago by members of the gang of cops under Detective Jon Burge.

(Photo by Mike Siviwe Elliott)”)

Chicago, IL – In the past two years in Chicago, over 50 cases of wrongful convictions have been thrown out of court, and most of the Black and Latino men involved have walked out of prison, or had their charges dismissed. These cases have been overturned because of the exposure of crimes by officers of the Chicago Police Department, including many cases of people’s confessions that were exacted through torture. According to attorneys involved in these cases, there are hundreds more that will be making their way through the courts in the coming years.

Chicago, IL – Juan and Rosendo Herndandez have been prisoners for 21 years. The two brothers were falsely accused of a murder by the notorious Detective Reynaldo Guevara, once head of the Gang Crimes Unit in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood, and his partner, Joe Miedzianowski, who was convicted years ago for running a drug ring out of the Grand and Central police station. Miedzianowski was out to get Juan Herndandez to protect his drug ring. With no physical evidence linking them to the crime, Guevara framed them by manipulating eye witnesses to pick them out of a lineup.

Chicago, IL – More than 1000 people rallied and marched in Chicago, May 15, in an emergency response to Israel’s brutality, and a rejection of the Trump administration’s dangerous and illegal U.S. embassy move to Jerusalem. The protest also coincided with the commemoration of 70 years of Nakba, what Palestinians call “The Catastrophe,” which marks the ethnic cleansing of almost 800,000 Palestinians upon the establishment of Israel in 1948.