Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

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By staff

Denver, CO – On February 13, over 300 flight attendants gathered outside of the plaza of the Westin Hotel located in the Denver International Airport as part of a Flight Attendants International Day of Action.

The group of flight attendants were made up of members from two unions who are fighting for a good contract, the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA, and Association of Flight Attendants (AFA).

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By staff

Denver car caravan in solidarity with Palestine. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On the afternoon of February 11 activists kicked off a car rally to loudly occupy and make noise in the streets of Denver in the name of Palestinian liberation. Pro-Palestinian protesters continue to push back at any attempts at business as usual in Denver, occupying and blocking off multiple intersections in front of the Capitol building for over an hour on Super Bowl Sunday.

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 Protesters gather outside meeting of Denver city council to demand passage of a ceasefire resolution. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On Monday, February 12, members of the Colorado Palestine Coalition (CPC) rallied at the City and County Building to speak in favor of a Denver city council vote to approve a ceasefire proclamation.

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By staff

Denver, CO – On February 6, the Denver Students for a Democratic society hosted a Teach-In Against Genocide in the North Building on the Denver Auraria campus. Students asked questions, and heard the perspective of Dr. Rabab Ibrahim Abdulhadi, a Palestinian American born and raised in Nablus, who graciously called in remotely to speak about her academic and lived experiences as they relate to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the history of Palestine, and other fights against injustice across the world.

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Denver SDS protest challenges pro genocide Zionist speaker on campus. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On Monday, January 29, the Auraria campus was disgraced by the presence of Yoseph Haddad. Haddad is a wounded member of the Israeli occupation forces who now serves as a “defender of Israel” on social media and in publicity stunts to provide cover for the Zionist occupation and its genocide.

Haddad came to speak on campus and present a showing of an occupation forces’ “documentary” about the events of Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7.

The event was held in the Tivoli Student Union building in the Tivoli Turnhalle, a venue that costs outside vendors $1950 to rent. At $40 a ticket, this event certainly didn’t cover all the barricades and dozens of police present to protect Haddad. Instead, this cost was paid by the students who attend Auraria campus and get little to no say in how the campus is used.

There are Palestinian students on Auraria campus who have lost more than 120 members of their family to the genocide that Haddad speaks in favor of. The welcome mat that Auraria Campus rolled out for him constitutes a deeply discriminatory and dangerous decision on the part of campus administration.

Haddad is charged with going on public relations damage control for the occupation, as universities and colleges across the country are increasingly organizing marches, protests, sit-ins, call-ins, and a variety of other actions in solidarity with the cause of Palestinian liberation. His lies are intended to freeze and silence the Pro-Palestinian movement with accusations of antisemitism, and by mischaracterizing the genocide of Palestinians as some righteous battle for the defense of Israel.

An SDS member who had been planted on the inside noted that Haddad’s speech was made up of thoroughly debunked Zionist talking points in what has become a fool’s toolkit of fakes and falsehoods. The more than 60 students and community members demonstrating outside the event weren’t buying any of it.

The action was a long one. Starting at 4 p.m. and ending at 7:30, the Denver chapter of Students for a Democratic Society joined forces with the Colorado Palestine Coalition and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization to show opposition to genocide-washing events.

A banner that read “End the aid, end the trade: No more funds for genocide!” was prominently displayed on the sidewalk outside the Turnhalle. Members of Freedom Road Socialist Organization held up a banner painting of a Palestinian resistance fighter holding a book and a gun and the slogan “Victory to the Palestinian resistance!”

Speeches by local organizers were interrupted by Haddad himself, who slinked up to the metal barricades that had been set up to keep the students out of the Tivoli Student Union building. Haddad tried first shouting over the speakers but was thoroughly drowned out by a rising chant of “Get this fascist, off our campus!” before he retreated inside to continue his misinformation spree.

Those protesting continued, with renewed vigor, taking to a picket-style march just outside the film screening, audible to all those inside. Towards the end of the event the march proceeded around the Student Union.

The Denver SDS and a growing coalition of student organizations on Auraria are waging a Palestine solidarity campaign to get the University of Colorado to divest from the corporations arming and enabling the U.S./Israeli genocide. It is this mounting pressure and rising level of consciousness amongst the youth on issues like Palestine that threaten U.S. aid to Israel and motivate Haddad to speak at schools here in the U.S. – thousands of miles from the genocidal project he so obediently serves.

#DenverCO #AntiWarMovement #International #Palestine #StudentMovement #SDS #FRSO

By staff

Denver protest in solidarity with Palestine. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On Monday, January 22, at 11 a.m., roughly 100 pro-Palestine protesters rallied on the Auraria campus before taking to the streets and halting business as usual.

The activists stopped at the intersection of Colfax Avenue and Speer Boulevard, occupying the block and remaining there for over an hour and a half. This disruption of one of the busiest junctions in Denver caused traffic delays throughout the entire city and marked an escalation in the militancy of the actions taken by pro-Palestinian organizers.

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By Solveig Swain

Denver protest slams U.S. backing of the occupation of Palestine. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On January 6, the Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) was joined by organizers with the Colorado Palestine Coalition (CPC) to host a march and rally that drew around 400 attendees to the streets of Denver.

This was quite the first action for a new organization. The DAWA appears to be set to continue their fight for Palestinian liberation and an end to U.S. aid to Israel in their home state of Colorado.

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By Solveig Swain

Denver motorcade in solidarity with Palestine. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – Around 12:30 p.m. on January 7, Denver Anti-War Action (DAWA) was joined by the Colorado Palestine Coalition (CPC) to host a car rally through Denver in support of the Palestinian resistance.

The event drew about 50 cars and caused chaos throughout the streets of Denver, resulting in traffic backups as far as the eye could see and protesters chanting out of beds of trucks winding through the streets. Anyone passing through Denver on Sunday could not ignore the calls for a free Palestine.

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By Solveig Swain

Capitol building in Denver shut down in solidarity with Palestine. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On Thursday, January 4, around 70 protesters gathered at the Colorado State Capitol for a protest against Colorado Governor Jared Polis.

After a few speakers and a march around the Capitol building, protesters entered the building to protest at the governor’s office. Despite the capitol being funded by the public’s tax dollars, police only let around 30 of the 70 protesters into the building.

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By staff

Activist wearing a keffiyeh speaks on a megaphone while standing on a stage. A crowd gathers around the stage with signs reading "Border walls have got to go" and "From the river to the sea" 

Denver, CO – On Tuesday, January 2, over 100 people marched to U.S. Senator Michael Bennet’s office to demand he ends his support for the U.S./Israeli genocide in Palestine. The march was organized by the Colorado Palestine Coalition because of Bennet’s failure to recognize the genocide that Israel is perpetrating against the Palestinians.

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By staff

Denver protest stands in solidarity with Palestine. | Fight Back! News/staff

Denver, CO – On Sunday, December 31, over 750 people marched in Denver to demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel and an end to Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.

The march was organized by the Colorado Palestine Coalition and came three months after October 7, when the Palestinian resistance launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood aimed at liberating all Palestinian political prisoners, among other objectives. Since then, the Israeli government has responded by displacing the majority of Palestinians in Gaza and murdering over 20,000 Palestinians, many of them children.

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By Solveig Swain

Denver, CO – Around 11 a.m. on December 23, the Colorado Palestine Coalition (CPC) entered into the Denver International Airport for a banner drop in solidarity with Palestine.

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By Solveig Swain

A large crowd holding pro-Palestinian signs and waving Palestinian flags marches behind a large banner that reads "Apartheid is not welcome in Colorado"

Denver, CO – Around 1:30 p.m., the Colorado Palestine Coalition began a protest to shut down day three of the Jewish National Fund’s (JNF) Global Conference for Israel. The protest began with a rally at the state capitol before leading a crowd of over 1000 to march to the Colorado Convention Center, where the JNF’s events are being held as they continue to fundraise for genocide of the Palestinian people. The people of Denver continue to fight against the occupation of Palestine and the JNF.

“To the cowards at the JNF, we have a few simple demands,” said Hatem Teirelbar of Students for a Democratic Society, “One: Release all Palestinian hostages. Two: Lift the siege on Gaza. Three: End all U.S. aid to so-called Israel. Four: End all trade and business with Israel. And five: An end to the cooperation between U.S. universities with Israel and weapons corporations.” As the crowd roared with applause after each demand, it became clear that activists will not stop fighting until Palestine is free.

The rally then continued with Nazek Sankari, a member of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) who flew in from Chicago, stating, “In Chicago, we have been mobilizing and targeting our so-called progressive Representative Jan Schakowsky – and one who has thousands of Palestinians in his district, Sean Casten – due to their silence on the genocide, unequivocal support for Israel and unrelenting attacks on Palestinians and their unified resistance, which is fighting to defend our people from the vicious, racist Israeli military that has destroyed Gaza,” Nazek stated to thunderous applause.

Nazek Sankari and other national speakers put on display how this struggle is one that stretches across the U.S., and internationally to Palestine. Without U.S. aid to Israel, the apartheid state would fall. It is essential to keep up actions within the U.S. to support the Palestinian resistance.

After the rally, the massive crowd flooded the streets of Denver with chants supporting Palestinian liberation and denouncing the Israeli occupation. Many onlookers cheered in support.

Upon arrival at the convention center, the event was met with a militarized police response; however, protesters would not be intimidated by this threat. Organizers continued the event with more chants and speeches without any interruption.

While the Colorado Palestine Coalition was not able to shut down the JNF conference, coalition leader Abdulluh Elagha did voice a different achievement that was won, the shut-down of Denver. The Colorado Convention Center was built to increase profits for local businesses, as conference-goers typically will spend their money around Denver. However, the Colorado Palestine Coalition made sure there would be no more business as usual. Since the start of the JNF’s conference, marches and blocked-off roads have made navigating Denver by car a nightmare, buses and light rails have been shut down, and the JNF attendees themselves were too ashamed to face protesters and spend their money in public, ordering catering instead.

With the profits of Denver businesses stymied by protests against the JNF, they will surely not want the JNF back in town. As a result, organizers across the U.S. now have an excellent blueprint for how to agitate against a JNF conference if the JNF attempts to come to their city.

After wrapping up speeches at the convention center, protesters rallied back to the capitol to conclude the protest.

Denver showed out this weekend in support of Palestine in the face of the JNF, but the fight continues until Palestine achieves national liberation. If the last two months of organizing are any indication, the people of Denver are more than up to the task of furthering the struggle until all their demands are met, and Palestine is free.

#DenverCO #COPalestineCo #JNF #USPCN #FreePalestine

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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