Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

DenverCO

By Solveig Swain

Protest at Jewish National Fund’s “Global Conference for Israel.” | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – Around 2 p.m. on December 1, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) were joined by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) to march from Auraria Campus to an all-day picket in front of the Colorado Convention Center.

The picket, hosted by the Colorado Palestine Coalition drew about 250 participants, for day two of the Jewish National Fund’s (JNF) “Global Conference for Israel.” Activists picketed outside of the conference and stood up to the militarized police response, which threatened the protest for the entirety of the day.

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By Solveig Swain

Acvitist with a Keffiyeh wrapped around their face speaks into a bullhorn as other protesters gather around.

Denver, CO – About 400 protesters gathered on the Auraria Campus, November 30, to march on the first day of the Jewish National Fund’s Global Conference for Israel.

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By staff

Crowd gathers at intersection with signs and Palestinian flags.

Denver, CO – On November 28, Colorado residents protested Joe Biden’s visit to Denver. The protest condemned the president’s support of the Israeli government's genocide of Palestinians and demanded an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

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By staff

Protestors march on the street and in the bed of a white truck. They have bullhorns and signs with slogans like "From Palestine to the Philippines stop the US War Machine" and "Victory to Palestine! Long Live Palestine!"

Denver, CO – On November 9, Students for a Democratic Society Denver joined a national walkout for Palestine to demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel. In addition to the walkout, organizers took to the streets and marched to the Denver Capitol building, where approximately 500 people were gathered for a rally called by the Colorado Palestine Coalition. The rally also included local high school students who had walked out in solidarity with Palestine. Students were met with applause from onlookers and joined in with chants and songs

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By staff

Denver, CO – On October 27, Laura Rodriguez of the Tampa 5 continued her speaking tour with a stop in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the tour is to combat political repression in the form of the felony charges that would put her and her fellow Tampa 5 organizers in prison for five to ten years.

These felony charges come against the Tampa 5 after they were shoved to the ground, brutalized, groped and arrested by police officers during their protest against Governor Ron DeSantis’ attacks on diversity and equity programs at the University of South Florida.

Rodriguez addressed a crowd of 50 community members, union organizers and student organizers.

The event consisted of two panels. The first panel highlighted different organizers and their own perspectives when it comes to the different barriers they have faced in education and organizing. The panel featured Jacob Marshall of SDS; Miah Ntepp, Denver NAACP vice president and leader at MSU’s Black Student Alliance; and Candi CdeBaca, a tireless advocate for Denver communities and former city councilperson.

Kat Draken, a shop steward for Teamsters Local 455 in Denver and former student organizer in Tallahassee, Florida talked about her experiences when her fellow organizers were arrested for protesting a few years before, “You have to be persistent and annoying, you have to keep holding events and keep up the pressure, if they figure out that they can just wait you out and let the momentum die, that’s what they are going to do.”

The second panel featured organizers who have themselves faced political repression or whose work surrounds political repression in some way. Shaine Carroll-Frey from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization spoke on the repression the organization experienced in 2010 when prominent leaders of the FRSO were raided by the FBI in a coordinated attack aimed at destroying the organization. Other speakers included Ryan Stitzel, a community organizer with Denver Aurora Community Action Committee, who organizes against police terror in the Denver Metro area, and Eliza Lucero, a community organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Denver, as well as a labor organizer with the Colorado Education Association. Lucero was a leading local organizer of the mass demonstrations against the overturning of Roe v. Wade and in the 2020 uprisings was one of the local leaders targeted by the Aurora Police Department and charged with multiple bogus felonies.

During the keynote speech, Rodriguez stated, “When they asked us to apologize to the police who had beat us up, to apologize to the people who brutalized our friends right in front of our faces and we said, ‘No thank you.’ And then we were charged with additional felonies. So now I face ten years in prison for standing up for what I know is right.”

This event comes at a time when organizers around the country are facing arrests and other forms of suppression surrounding the mass support for Palestine. Just a couple days before, Ron DeSantis’ administration took steps to ban the pro-Palestine group Students for Justice in Palestine from campuses in Florida. This fact was brought up continuously throughout the second panel because of the connection between the political repression the Tampa 5 is facing and the political repression against pro-Palestinian organizers.

The high energy event ended with chants and a sing-along banjo rendition of Free the Tampa 5 by SDS member Jake Newman. Many different organizations attended and participated in the event, including Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Students for Democratic Society, Party for Liberation and Socialism, Boulder Young Democratic Socialists of America, and the Denver-Aurora Community Action Committee.

#DenverCO #PoliticalRepression #Tampa5 #SDS

By staff

Denver protest against the attacks on Gaza. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) at Metropolitan State University organized a day of action on November 2, to protest the killing of Palestinians and the ground invasion of the Gaza Strip. This came after the United States government requested more funds to be invested into Israel’s siege of Gaza and supplied weapons valued at over $14 billion in the face of the humanitarian catastrophe.

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By Solveig Swain

Denver students fight attacks on education. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On November 1, the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) Denver gathered to protest the budget mismanagement by the administration of the Metropolitan State University of Denver.

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By Solveig Swain

Denver students walk out in solidarity with Palestine. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On October 25 at 11:30 a.m., approximately 150 students, led by the Denver Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), marched out of their classrooms on Auraria Campus in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance. Student protesters staged a speak-out and rally at the former home of Zionist war criminal Golda Meir.

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By Solveig Swain

Palestinian flags wave for freedom on Auraria campus in Denver. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On the afternoon of October 11, students held a solidarity rally on Auraria Campus to voice support for the Palestinian resistance. Over 100 students and community members gathered in the rain for a speak-out. They then marched in support of the Palestinian people’s resistance to Israeli occupation.

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By Katherine Draken

Rally at the Chrysler Parts Distribution Center in Denver, Colorado.

Denver, CO – On Friday, September 29, United Auto Workers (UAW) Local 186, along with the AFL-CIO and other unions, held a rally at the Chrysler/Stellantis Parts Distribution Center where workers have been holding a picket line for the past week – since the auto workers strike expanded to the two Denver facilities.

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