Chicago, IL – Now more than ever it’s important for our movement to talk about what the Trump administration is doing and what we need to do to stop it. Right now, he doesn’t have the entire ruling class behind him, but right now he has the MAGA people of the Republican Party, which operates like a racist cult. The difference being that they have state power, and this is the difference that makes a difference.

What we should be looking at is what they’re actually doing with that state power vis a vis Kristi Noem with the Department of Homeland Security and Pam Bondi with the Justice Department, and how both these agencies of government have gone rogue and show no intention, much less a desire, to abide by the Constitution, or to respect the balance of powers.

So, all we’ve had since the election is one act of defiance after another, and the most blatant one before engaging us in the war against Iran and the peoples of the Middle East, was clearly the refusal to obey the mandate from Congress to release the Epstein files.

Although it’s been a back and forth with the federal courts because the Supreme Court has time and time again taken the side of Donald Trump, there’s a trend that can’t be ignored where Trump has also been in defiance of federal district courts with regard to ICE and lately the Supreme Court itself on the question of the tariffs. The thing to be noted here is that the basic trend has been to vilify the courts and refuse to obey their rulings if they are against Trump’s policies.

What Trump has done through all these measures is to turn the federal government into the enemy of the people and actively engage in setting up a regime of racist and political repression.

This administration has been actively engaged in weakening the federal government in areas that have to do with workers’ rights. It’s active in weakening if not abolishing the Voting Rights Act with new ID requirements which have become a new poll tax. This regime has told people that the gains made by the LGBTQ community do not have to be respected. They’ve done several broadsides against women and the women’s movement, and one of the headline things is what they did in the Winter Olympics, so much so that the athletes who participated in those games, both men and women, have come out and denounced the administration, and refused to go along with it.

There are so many instances of blatant, open, racist expressions on the part of Trump and his administration. We can take what happened with Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl, or the instance where Trump portrayed the Obamas as apes. All of these incidents spell one thing: that already this administration is in open defiance of Congress, the Constitution, and the people of the United States who have been demonstrating en masse against them, manifested by what happened in Minneapolis.

As of this moment, they are illegally holding people, despite court orders, in detention centers. They are illegally going about the business of trying to set up concentration camps throughout the United States. What has put a hold on it is that these jurisdictions where they’re trying to set these up are saying “no, we don’t want that here.” Why would people be saying no? Because people know what it is. They know that these detention camps are really the prelude to concentration camps, a place where they can send those of us who are engaged in resistance as well as immigrants. If they get these detention camps set up all over the country, they’re not going to make a distinction.

Also, they have entered into hidden and open agreements with other countries. We know about the agreement they’ve entered into with El Salvador, but they’re not just talking about sending immigrants to El Salvador. They’re talking about sending American citizens to El Salvador, including people who are in prison on felony charges having absolutely nothing to do with immigration. Again, it is obvious that in fact, we have a regime of repression that is openly and flagrantly carrying out its illegal actions with the power of the state. They have taken over the government to make the government an instrument of their illegal actions.

All the major news networks talk about what they’re doing. The reporting on Fox News now and the reporting on MSNBC and CNN are not fundamentally different. What’s different is Fox News is openly supporting Trump and the other ones are being critical of him and taking advantage of the mass protests and whatnot to express that criticism. But also making him popular at the same time, giving him a lot of airtime.

Right now, he’s using his authority as president to make wars, and to do all of these things that he’s not supposed to be able to do, except through Congress, he is in fact doing them.

What the war on Iran and the peoples of the Middle East has revealed is more than the prerogatives of an imperial presidency. It has revealed that defending and perpetrating the crimes of U.S. imperialism remains a significant point of unity for the U.S. ruling class. Is there any doubt that the war that is presently being waged against Iran has the support of the U.S. ruling class, even though some of them raise issues of legality? At the same time, they praise Trump for having murdered the leaders of the Iranian people and ruthlessly prosecuting a war for regime change.

This brings us down to this here. There are no big differences in the understanding of what’s going on between the different networks, between the masses of the people and the politicians. Millions of people see where this is going.

A word about the Texas elections. The Texas elections are again a clear demonstration of the willingness of the Democratic Party to still pursue the bankrupt policy of reaching across the aisles in search of mythical unity with the Republican Party that will stop the movement that they’re engaged in to destroy every semblance of democracy in the United States.

So where is the real opposition? It’s the spontaneous uprising of the people in the streets and the growing organized engagement of the people on the part of Freedom Road and our allies.

We have to make up our minds going forward to really give a program to our slogan “make the country ungovernable.” Now is the time to do that because in these momentous times, our movement and our people are engaged in an existential struggle to bring about an end of the Trump administration, which is using every enforcement mechanism the government has to protect the rights of the people to destroy the rights of the people. And finally, choosing world war over peace.

This is not so much an analysis as a factual depiction. These are the facts. This is the reality created by the Trump administration that we must change.

#ChicagoIL #Opinion #Commentary #Trump #PeoplesStruggles #ImmigrantRights #Elections #DemocraticRights #AntiWarMovement

Milwaukee, WI – Former President Trump returned to Milwaukee this past Friday, November 1, to speak at a rally at the Fiserv Forum, the same venue where he accepted the Republican presidential nomination during the Republican National Convention (RNC).

Once details of Trump’s visit were made public, the Milwaukee organizations who helped lead the Coalition to March on the RNC rallied together for an emergency protest to say no to Trump. Trump’s reactionary agenda stands against multiple movements that have a strong home in Milwaukee – anti-police crimes, reproductive justice, anti-war, labor, student, and Palestinian liberation.

Speaking to the question of reproductive justice, Allison Smith of Reproductive Justice Action – Milwaukee, stated, “we don’t want a man with a documented history of sexual misconduct. We want to remind him, and everyone else, that we did not stand idly by when our rights were stripped away in 2022, and we will not be silent now. We are committed to doing everything in our power to push back against right-wing attacks on reproductive healthcare and the healthcare system at large.”

Progressive elements of the labor movement have largely united against Trump on account of his prioritization of CEOs rather than workers and his vile attempts at sowing division among workers. While dividing the working class isn’t unique to Trump, his reliance on reactionary rhetoric has emboldened the reactionary elements of the U.S. population. Jacob Flom of the Milwaukee Area Labor Council made this point clearly, stating, “the labor movement stands for everything that Trump is against. Trump has tried to pit workers against each other by fostering anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ hate.”

With all the hatred Trump and his supporters have voiced against working and oppressed peoples, the imperative to take a firm stand against it and fight back became another consistent theme in the remarks of Friday night’s speakers. Speaking on behalf of the Milwaukee Antiwar Committee, Eva Dickenson, stated, “Trump’s comments on Palestinians have been sickening. He’s promised to put pro-Palestinian protesters like us in jail, and he has said that he wants to finish the job. No matter what he tries, he will never kill our spirit of resistance.” Aurelia Ceja, co-chair of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, carried a similar message forward, explaining “we’re united to show that Milwaukee is a fighting city.”

A Trump presidency will require mass organizations capable of standing up against the multiple attacks on various movements. Trump has made it clear that he’s an enemy of the people, and the only antidote against him will be mass movement. Speaking to the importance of organizing, Audari Tamayo of Freedom Road Socialist Organization stated, “We recognize the ballot box as an arena of struggle, but we say that the best way to fight reactionaries like Trump and his supporters is right here in the streets. Trump represents the U.S. empire in decline, but this system won’t fall on its own or through the ballot box. The real hammer of change will be socialism built by the working and oppressed people!”

Tuesday’s election is quickly approaching, and for the people of Milwaukee, the road ahead is one of struggle.

Milwaukee has become a must-visit location for Republicans and Democrats given the city’s significance for the Wisconsin vote, which will play a key role as a swing state. Regardless of the outcome, it will be up to the people of Milwaukee to fight like hell for what they need and deserve. Friday offered a small glimpse into how the progressive movements of Milwaukee intend on standing together post-election.

#MilwaukeeWI #WI #2024Elections #Trump #PeoplesStruggles #Elections #NAARPR #MAARPR

La OSCL urge a nuestros miembros y simpatizantes a que salgan a las calles y organicen las protestas más amplias posibles el día después de las elecciones del 5 de noviembre. Sin importar el resultado, debemos seguir apoyando a Palestina y oponernos a la guerra cada vez más amplia de los Estados Unidos/Israel en el Medio Oriente. Y debemos avanzar una agenda progresista que defienda los derechos de los inmigrantes, los trabajadores, las personas LGBTQ, las mujeres y los derechos reproductivos.

Es cierto que Harris es una facilitadora del genocidio en Palestina, y que Trump es un tonto racista y reaccionario. Ninguno de los dos merece un voto ni apoyo, y es importante que estemos en las calles el 6 de noviembre diciendo que continuaremos la lucha por la justicia. No podemos descansar.

Sabemos que las protestas serán más grandes si Trump gana o se declara ganador, así que es importante que intentemos unir a todos los que se puedan unir. No tenemos que estar de acuerdo con todos los que marchan con nosotros, pero sí necesitamos llevar a la mayor cantidad de personas posible a las calles. Independientemente del resultado, queremos la respuesta más fuerte posible.

El futuro no está escrito, hay cosas de las que podemos estar seguros y cosas que ciertamente podemos hacer. Continuaremos apoyando a Palestina y exigiendo el fin de toda ayuda a Israel. Avanzaremos en la lucha por la paz, la justicia y la igualdad. Y seguiremos construyendo la lucha del pueblo, llevando a la mayor cantidad posible de personas hasta donde puedan llegar.

¡Todos a las calles el 6 de noviembre!

#PeoplesStruggles #FRSO #OSCL #Statement #Espanol #Elections #2024Elections #Harris #Trump

The upcoming presidential election is referendum on the U.S.-sponsored genocide in Palestine and the broader war that the U.S. and Israel are waging in the Middle East. The Biden/Harris administration is coordinating the attack on Iran, and the U.S. has dispatched troops and missiles to Israel. There is a minimum of 44,000 dead in Gaza, and Israel is raining 2000-pound bombs down on the cities of Lebanon. While it should go without saying that a reactionary racist like Trump does not deserve a vote, Kamala Harris doesn’t either.

The resistance to Israeli apartheid and the struggle throughout the Middle East to end Western domination is a turning point in world history – it is a key part of a revolutionary process that will bring the U.S. empire to an end. The Palestinian resistance embodies progress and hopes of oppressed people everywhere.

FRSO is a revolutionary organization. We do not believe that we can vote our way to socialism. The rulers of the U.S. have shown that they will resort to violence rather than give up even a small piece of their empire, like Afghanistan. They deployed troops – the National Guard – all over the country during the George Floyd Rebellion. They will never peacefully surrender their wealth, privilege or power.

While elections cannot bring about the rule of the working class (socialism), elections under capitalism are an arena of struggle.

Our electoral line has always been a flexible one that takes a number of criteria into account. We have never favored an abstentionist approach. Instead, we look at the issue from the overall perspective of how we can find the most favorable terrain to fight on and build revolutionary organization.

The four criteria for developing our line on elections in the past have been as follows: One, is a given candidate is a special danger? Two, is the election a referendum on a major social question, such as war or economic crisis? Three, is a campaign contending in an election the embodiment of a national movement, for example, Jesse Jackson in 1984. Four is the issue of whether there is significant political action that is independent of the two major capitalist parties, such as Nader in 2000. While these points serve as benchmarks for looking at what is at stake in any particular election, they are not all equal all the time.

We see this election as a referendum on genocide in Palestine, which is facilitated by Harris and Biden – so we don’t advocate voting for Harris as a way to oppose Trump. We fully understand that on a number of issues there are policy differences between the presidential candidates, for example on labor and reproductive rights. But, given the importance of Palestine in the revolutionary process on an international scale, and the role that Palestine has played in the popular movement in the U.S. – the Palestine issue stands above other factors in determining our views on the election.

It is correct to say that monopoly capitalism has two political parties in this country – the Republican Party and the Democratic Party – and that both parties are in the pockets of the big corporations. That said, it is wrong to say there is no difference of policy between the two. Labor and issues like anti-union “right to work” laws illustrate this. Some of our friends in the trade union movement disagree with us on making Palestine and the growing war in the Middle East a priority, so they tell us we need to support Harris. That is not going to happen, but we can continue to work together on union issues we agree on. And we are going to continue to promote labor for Palestine groups in the trade union movement.

We understand that many progressives are concerned about Trump representing a fascist danger and say the only way forward is to support Harris. We disagree. While there is no doubt that Trump is a racist, reactionary fool, we do not think he will rule by open terror, which is the essence of what fascism is. The specter of a Trump win should not give a pass to the candidate of genocide and war, namely Kamala Harris.

We are not advocating that people boycott the elections. We should not be indifferent to progressive candidates or positive ballot initiatives such as those for reproductive rights. But here is the big takeaway from the 2024 elections: capitalism is a failed system, and its two main political representatives do not deserve our support. Rather, the rotten choices are an indictment of a system that serves the wealthy, and which must be overturned.

#PeoplesStruggles #Elections #2024Election #Trump #Harris #FRSO #Statement #Feature

Lenin’s important book, “Left Wing” Communism, An Infantile Disorder, was written in 1920. According to the subtitle of the original manuscript, it was intended to be “a popular exposition on Marxist strategy and tactics.” After the victory of the Great October Socialist Revolution in 1917, the working class in the former Russian Empire had smashed its chains and set out on the road to socialism. Revolutionaries all over the world were eager to understand how the Bolsheviks had succeeded in defeating Tsarism and imperialism. Lenin, therefore, wrote this book to help guide the international communist movement and to sum up some of the critical lessons of the revolution in Russia.  

Reading this book by Lenin, one point is made clear again and again – there are no ready-made formulas that can be applied whenever and wherever just the same, but, rather, the concrete analysis of concrete conditions is paramount, and everything must be undertaken in accordance with the present time, place and conditions. Marxism-Leninism is a revolutionary science. It understands that there are general laws of motion that hold true. At the same time, those general laws must be applied creatively to any particular situation based on a dialectical analysis of the material processes at work. 

Lenin’s argument

Lenin begins this text with a look at what is universal in the experience of the Russian revolution. He says that “the Russian model … reveals to all countries something – and something highly significant – of their near and inevitable future.” 

From the outset, Lenin stresses that “the experience of the victorious dictatorship of the proletariat in Russia has clearly shown even to those who are incapable of thinking or have had no occasion to give thought to the matter that absolute centralization and rigorous discipline of the proletariat are an essential condition of victory over the bourgeoisie.” This is Lenin’s first point, that a party of the Bolshevik type is absolutely necessary if the working class is to win power. 

After a summation of the history of Bolshevism, Lenin begins to draw some conclusions. The first of these is that Bolshevism gained strength through struggle against opportunism within the revolutionary movement. Lenin writes that “Bolshevism’s principal enemy within the working-class movement” from 1914 until the time of his writing this book, was, “First and foremost, the struggle against opportunism which in 1914 definitely developed into social-chauvinism and definitely sided with the bourgeoisie, against the proletariat.” This is the “right” opportunist trend. This struggle is well known, Lenin says. If we want to study it, we can look at Lenin’s other texts like The Proletarian Revolution and the Renegade Kautsky. Here he wants to focus on another enemy of the working class, the trend of “left” opportunism. This takes shape as “petty-bourgeois revolutionism,” and Lenin explains how this arises ideologically from the material class position of the petty bourgeoisie, among whom it is rooted. 

“...[T]he petty proprietor, the small master (a social type existing on a very extensive and even mass scale in many European countries), who, under capitalism, always suffers oppression and very frequently a most acute and rapid deterioration in his conditions of life, and even ruin, easily goes to revolutionary extremes, but is incapable of perseverance, organization, discipline and steadfastness.”

He draws particular attention to “the instability of such revolutionism, its barrenness, and its tendency to turn rapidly into submission, apathy, phantasms, and even a frenzied infatuation with one bourgeois fad or another.” Surely everyone who has spent any time organizing has encountered these people and knows exactly what Lenin means. 

Drawing from the Bolshevik experience, Lenin writes, “The struggle that Bolshevism waged against ‘Left’ deviations within its own Party assumed particularly large proportions on two occasions: in 1908, on the question of whether or not to participate in a most reactionary ‘parliament’ and in the legal workers’ societies, which were being restricted by most reactionary laws; and again in 1918 (the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk), on the question of whether one ‘compromise’ or another was permissible.”

These are today still the points where the ultra-leftists try to drag the revolutionary struggle into the mire: how to relate to bourgeois elections, how to relate to the trade unions, and how to deal with the question of compromise. 

Bourgeois elections

Looking at how Lenin and the Bolsheviks dealt with the question of bourgeois elections, we would benefit from quoting the following paragraph in full: 

“The Bolsheviks’ boycott of “parliament” in 1905 enriched the revolutionary proletariat with highly valuable political experience and showed that, when legal and illegal parliamentary and non-parliamentary forms of struggle are combined, it is sometimes useful and even essential to reject parliamentary forms. It would, however, be highly erroneous to apply this experience blindly, imitatively and uncritically to other conditions and other situations. The Bolsheviks’ boycott of the Duma in 1906 was a mistake, although a minor and easily remediable one.  The boycott of the Duma in 1907, 1908 and subsequent years was a most serious error and difficult to remedy, because, on the one hand, a very rapid rise of the revolutionary tide and its conversion into an uprising was not to be expected, and, on the other hand, the entire historical situation attendant upon the renovation of the bourgeois monarchy called for legal and illegal activities being combined. Today, when we look back at this fully completed historical period, whose connection with subsequent periods has now become quite clear, it becomes most obvious that in 1908–14 the Bolsheviks could not have preserved (let alone strengthened and developed) the core of the revolutionary party of the proletariat, had they not upheld, in a most strenuous struggle, the viewpoint that it was obligatory to combine legal and illegal forms of struggle, and that it was obligatory to participate even in a most reactionary parliament and in a number of other institutions hemmed in by reactionary laws (sick benefit societies, etc.).”

So, should revolutionaries participate in bourgeois elections, and how should they go about it? Lenin doesn’t exactly give us a final “yes” or “no” which is true always and everywhere. He does say that “participation in a bourgeois-democratic parliament … actually helps that proletariat to prove to the backward masses why such parliaments deserve to be done away with; it facilitates their successful dissolution, and helps to make bourgeois parliamentarianism ‘politically obsolete’.” 

We should harbor no illusions that a peaceful, electoral transition to socialism is possible. However, revolutionaries must engage with the masses in electoral politics, simply because that is where the masses are at, and we want to create more favorable conditions for revolutionary work. We should use the mass line to take up the demands of the advanced among the masses and, with the lens of Marxist analysis, find ways to see them through. Then we sum up those experiences with the advanced and draw conclusions.  

It has to be stressed that Lenin’s main point in this regard is that particular conditions demand particular tactics. The goal is to build the revolutionary movement, which can only be done together with the masses in real struggle, and tactical decisions must start from there. 

Work in the trade unions

On the trade unions, Lenin writes, 

“The trade unions were a tremendous step forward for the working class in the early days of capitalist development, inasmuch as they marked a transition from the workers’ disunity and helplessness to the rudiments of class organization. When the revolutionary party of the proletariat, the highest form of proletarian class organization, began to take shape (and the Party will not merit the name until it learns to weld the leaders into one indivisible whole with the class and the masses) the trade unions inevitably began to reveal certain reactionary features, a certain craft narrow-mindedness, a certain tendency to be non-political, a certain inertness, etc. However, the development of the proletariat did not, and could not, proceed anywhere in the world otherwise than through the trade unions, through reciprocal action between them and the party of the working class.”

Lenin could not be clearer when he says, “If you want to help the ‘masses’ and win the sympathy and support of the ‘masses’, you … must absolutely work wherever the masses are to be found.” 

This is why we must not shun work in the unions, even if they are led by business unionists who want “class peace” or sellouts who are in it only for themselves. Instead, we have to fight for class struggle unionism and build the militant minority in order to put the unions on a class struggle basis. These are the main mass organizations of the working class. They are not sufficient for revolutionizing the class structure of society by themselves, but they are where the advanced fighters of the working class are to be found, and we will win them over by fighting shoulder to shoulder with them. 

“Left-Wing” Communism today

We find ourselves in interesting times, and the lessons of Lenin’s text deserve careful consideration. First, the working class has no organized vanguard. There is no communist party in the United States. While some claim the name, none in practice can honestly say that their cadres are the “generals of the proletarian army.” This means that the central task is to build such a party. We must do that by winning over the advanced fighters of the working class and oppressed nationality movements to Marxism-Leninism through practice. As Mao Zedong clearly put it, “A leading group that is genuinely united and linked with the masses can be formed only gradually in the process of mass struggle, and not in isolation from it.” In other words, party building has to be done in the course of real mass struggles. How else could we build a party comprised of the true leaders of the masses? 

Furthermore, we are deep into an unusual presidential election season, and we are simultaneously witnessing a U.S.-backed genocide being carried about by the Zionists in Palestine. These are issues that many are talking about and that shouldn’t be ignored. It is unavoidable that we should discuss Lenin’s text in this context, particularly in regard to how we address bourgeois elections generally, and this one in particular. 

One of the main ways the broad masses engage with politics is through bourgeois elections. We may know that bourgeois elections, a contest for rulership between two sections of the capitalist class, is “politically obsolete,” but that doesn’t mean anything if the masses haven’t yet come to the same conclusion. Furthermore, while elections cannot fundamentally change the class nature of society, they can influence the conditions under which we are fighting to build a revolutionary movement. This has been proven in practice, such as in the struggle for community control of the police. 

All that said, how do we concretely analyze electoral questions? When we look at bourgeois elections, we need to consider four questions: 1) Does one candidate represent a special danger? 2) Is the election a referendum on a major social question, such as war? 3) Does a contending campaign embody a particular social movement, such as the Black liberation movement? 4) Is the election part of a significant political movement independent of the two main capitalist parties? 

Of course, all of these questions are in play, but in the present moment it is crystal clear that genocide in Palestine, and the heroic fight for liberation being fought by the Palestinian Resistance, is primary. The advanced fighters in many mass movements are united in this understanding. Solidarity with Palestine and the demand to end the genocide are at the forefront of the peoples struggles, and the Palestinian liberation movement is at the center of revolutionary process that can defeat the Zionist proxy of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East. Those who get this question wrong will lose the confidence of the advanced and will be rightly seen as betrayers of the Palestinian people. 

For the reason, we have to be clear that in the present moment the U.S. presidential election is a referendum on the genocide. It has never been clearer – as we are presented with a choice between the reactionary Trump, on the one hand, and the architects of genocide on the other – that this is a failed system and that the choice presented to us is rotten to the core. Neither choice is acceptable.

Communists must unite with the advanced, using Marxism to analyze the situation and find the way forward. Lenin’s book stresses this same point. Today, that way forward is to unite with and help lead the struggle to stop the genocide and to fight for a free Palestine, from the river to the sea. 

More than anything else, Lenin’s book “Left Wing” Communism shows us how to apply Marxism to the dynamic and complex mass struggles in which we find ourselves, and how to navigate those struggles, always with the goal of building towards revolution and socialism.

J. Sykes is the author of the book “The Revolutionary Science of Marxism-Leninism”. The book can be purchased by visiting tinyurl.com/revsciMLbook

#RevolutionaryTheory #RedReviews #Lenin #MarxismLeninism #Elections #Unions

Caracas, Venezuela – “A PSUV victory is the most important present for Commander Hugo Chavez. Today, July 28, is the anniversary of his birthday, the same day as the popular triumph of the people,” says international observer Diakaridia Diakita, the president of the youth of the Yelema party in the Republic of Mali. PSUV stands for the United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

Over 800 international observers from around the world are in Venezuela to observe the historic elections between the Chavista PSUV leader Nicolás Maduro and the opposition pro-imperialism parties.

The main opposition candidate is Edmundo Gonzalez, who supports the privatization of the oil companies, schools, healthcare, and the removal of social programs that former President Chavez started.

These international observers come from unions, left parties, newspapers, and organizations from around the world. The grandson of Nelson Mandela, Nkosi Zwelivelile, is also observing this important election. Observers talk about the importance of this election for Venezuela, Latin America and the world.

Observers from Africa, Latin America, Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, and all over the world will be monitoring today’s election.

“Venezuela has been strangled by sanctions for over a decade. This election will show us if Maduro has been able to lead his country to persevere, or if smear campaigns and national betrayal of the opposition will bring the country back down into vassal status. The fate of Venezuela rests on July 28,” says Ahmed Eltouny, the former cochair of the Green Party in the U.S.

Booker Omole, the vice president of the Communist Party of Kenya, says, “I am here in Caracas to attend this very important event of the revolutionary history of Venezuela. Particularly, the Communist Party of Kenya is an internationalist organization, and we support the Bolivarian Revolution. Also, there are certain commonalities between the Venezuelan revolution and the ongoing processes in Kenya, which is still a neocolonial entity.”

Omole continued, “In 1989, in Caracas and major cities in Venezuela, there was a social explosion in the streets, where the IMF and World Bank had imposed austerity measures, the anti-people policies. In Kenya today, the masses and the working class are also resisting. We have seen millions of people pouring into the streets to resist the puppet regime that is sponsored by the USA imperialism. This reminds of similarities where the IMF has designed policies, particularly here in Venezuela, that took ten years after the social explosion for the Bolivarian revolution to materialize. Hugo Chavez still lives among us, not only here in Caracas, but also in Kenya.”

#CaracasVZ #Venezuela #Caracas #Venezuela #Maduro #NicolasMaduro #Elections #VZElection #HugoChavez #PSUV #Chavista #EdmundoGonzalez #Mali #DiakaridiaDiakita #GreenParty #Kenya #IMF #WorldBank #Kenya #BookerOmole #HastaLaVictoriaSiempre

Caracas, Venezuela – “Hasta la victoria! El pueblo unido jamás se ha vencido!” tens of thousands chanted, filling the streets, in the rally for President Nicolás Maduro on July 26.

The presidential elections of Venezuela are July 28. These historic elections are crucial in continuing the PSUV-led Bolivarian revolution of former President Chavez and the current President Maduro.

Under Chavez and now Maduro’s leadership, widespread social programs such as free schools, literacy centers, free universal healthcare and free universities have been established. Due to these widespread literacy centers and free education, UNESCO declared Venezuela free of illiteracy. The PSUV also launched a program called, “La Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela” (Great Mission Housing Venezuela) and built over 5 million units of free housing for Venezuelans. You can see these buildings all over Venezuela, with Chavez’ signature in big letters on the outside of the buildings.

Under Maduro’s leadership, the government launched the People’s Assembly, made up of leaders from Las Comunas, the neighborhood organizations. The democratic People’s Assembly has real power and can pass laws and establish new programs that serve the Venezuelan people.

They have also nationalized the oil companies to bring more profit into Venezuela, instead of having the profits go to other imperialist countries like the USA. Before Chavez, five-sixths of the profit from petroleum went out of the country. Now, most of the profits stay in the country to support social programs. 

In Venezuela, the pro-imperialist opposition parties want to take control away from the people and remove social programs. The main opposition candidate is Edmundo Gonzalez. His neoliberal program, called the “Land of the Grace,” states that his first measure will be to privatize the oil and gas industry. The opposition wants to privatize schools, so they will no longer be free; privatize companies; amend the Organic Law on Labor to remove the restrictions on labor rights; remove pensions so workers will pay their own retirement in private banks.

The opposition party has close relations with the United States government. The U.S. government has major interest in these elections due to the profit they would make from the opposition’s right-wing program and to crush the Chavista national democratic movement. 

Venezuela is an inspiration to workers all around the world that another world is possible, a world where the power is in the hands of the “pueblo” (the people).

#CaracasVZ #Venezuela #Caracas #Venezuela #Maduro #NicolasMaduro #Elections #VZElection #HugoChavez #PSUV #Chavista #EdmundoGonzalez #HastaLaVictoriaSiempre

Tallahassee, FL – On July 20, the Tallahassee Community Action Committee hosted a forum for candidates running for city commission Seats 1 and 2. The forum was held at the Dr. B.L. Perry Southside Branch Library.

For Seat 1, Jacqueline “Jack” Porter, the incumbent, and one challenger, Louis Dilbert, was in

attendance. Another challenger, Rudolph “Rudy” Ferguson, did not respond to TCAC’s requests to attend.

For Seat 2, one of the challengers, Dorothy “Dot” Inman-Johnson, attended. The incumbent, Curtis Richardson, and another challenger, Donna Nyack, did not respond to requests to attend. Another challenger, Bernard Stevens, was going to attend, but was stuck out of town due to delayed flight.

The forum lasted around two hours. Topics discussed included civilian oversight and community control of the police, women’s, reproductive, and LGBTQ rights in Tallahassee, and the genocide in Palestine.

When asked about the conduct of the Tallahassee Police Department and Chief Lawrence Revell, Inman-Johnson said that the police department “has become a political pawn of the city manager, the mayor, and two of the city commissioners. The chief does what he knows what those three commissioners and the city manager wants.”

City Manager Reese Goad is a close ally with the conservative bloc of the commission, especially the mayor.

Inman-Johnson also mentioned that Chief Revell had actually retired at the end of 2023 and was appointed by Goad to a new Other Personal Services Employment (OPS) position, while also pulling retirement benefits.

To the same question, Commissioner Porter referred to her public comments on the dais, on social media, and in press conferences against the chief over her time in office.

“I believe we have a political problem that can only be fixed with a political solution, and that has to be a change at the top and a change of city manager,” Porter commented.

On the same subject, Dilbert spoke towards the responsibilities of people in public positions, particularly Revell’s speaking at an event hosted by the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, an anti-LGBTQ organization. Dilbert stated, “He has freedom of speech, that’s his prerogative. But when you do that under the banner of your position, that’s where I have an issue.”

Regarding the budgeting process of the city, all three candidates agreed that changes need to be made.

“We could improve city spending by making budget workshops real workshops where the public is invited,” said Inman-Johnson.

“We need to strike a balance between helping the least off with the ability to raise money,” said Dilbert.

Commissioner Porter emphasized reprioritization towards the poorest people in Tallahassee. “If the roof of your house is leaking, you’re going to fix that before you buy a new couch.”

The final question was about the genocide in Palestine. All three attendees agreed to vote for a ceasefire resolution, which would make Tallahassee the first city in Florida to do so.

On the five person city commission, Porter and fellow commissioner Jeremy Matlow comprise a more progressive minority. Commissioners Curtis Richardson and Dianne Williams-Cox, alongside Mayor John Dailey, lead a more conservative majority. They use that power to push through contracts that are beneficial for developers and to prevent more progressive demands such as affordable housing.

Inman-Johnson winning against Richardson would bring a progressive majority to the dais, a seismic shift to the city’s decision making board, as long as Porter wins re-election. Porter’s biggest challenger, Rudy Ferguson, has been endorsed by all three of the sitting conservative commissioners.

The full replay is available on TCAC’s Instagram, @tallycac. The primary for positions in the city and Leon County is on August 20.

#TallahasseeFL #FL #PeoplesStruggles #Elections #TCAC

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following April 3 statement from the Wisconsin District of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Palestine solidarity activists are celebrating the success of a protest vote campaign in the Wisconsin Presidential Primary. 48,000 people voted “uninstructed” in the April 2 primary, Wisconsin’s version of “uncommitted,” that has found success in several state primaries.

The Wisconsin campaign more than doubled its goal of 20,682 votes, representing Biden’s margin of victory over Trump in Wisconsin in the 2020 election. The “uninstructed” campaign was led by Listen to Wisconsin, and supported by 60 pro-Palestine, progressive, and left organizations across the state, including Freedom Road Socialist Organization’s Wisconsin District.

The success of the “uninstructed” campaign demonstrates the growing popular support for the Palestinian people in their just struggle for liberation from U.S.-backed Israeli occupation and genocide. Since October 7, mass protests in support of Palestine have reached historic levels, along with the development of a strong state-wide Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine.

The Democratic Party has tried to downplay the huge number of protest votes in several critical swing states, dismissing concerns over Biden’s support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but the numbers are undeniable. In nine states that have an uncommitted/uninstructed option, the campaign has already garnered over 415,000 votes, with more states to come. After six months of marches, disruptions, and boycotts, Biden continues to send billions of dollars of weapons to re-arm Israel’s occupation forces, who have killed over 33,000 Palestinians. Many voters see the protest vote as one of the few options to force Biden and the Democratic Party to face political consequences for continuing to support the genocide in Gaza.

With a Biden vs. Trump rematch on the horizon, the two-party system doesn't offer any solutions for oppressed people. Both the Democratic and Republican parties have been relentless in their support of Israel’s racist, settler-colonial occupation of Palestine for over 75 years. Israel serves an important role for Western imperialist domination of the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. The two capitalist parties want Israel to continue its role as an outpost of U.S. capitalist interests. But the Palestinian people are waging a fight that has the potential to end the Zionist project and limit the influence of U.S. imperialism in the Middle East, and we want them to win.

Over the past six months, millions of people across the U.S. have joined actions in solidarity with Palestine. Hundreds of thousands of protest votes against Biden are one manifestation of the power of the growing movement for Palestine. The movements that are being built have real potential to stifle U.S. support for the occupation of Palestine.

We encourage supporters of Palestinian liberation to continue bringing the demands of the movement to the doorstep of the Democratic and Republican parties by participating in the March on the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on July 15, 2024, and the March on the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, August 19 – 22, 2024.

#WI #PeoplesStruggles #AntiWarMovement #International #MiddleEast #Palestine #Biden #Elections #DNC2024 #RNC2024

Despite Bukele’s declaration of victory, two days after the election almost all of the ballots cast for the Legislative Assembly still remained uncounted and a significant number of presidential ballots also remained uncounted. On election night, poll workers across the country started reporting in live videos on social media that the computer system for reporting results kept trying to double or triple the number of votes for Nayib Bukele’s party, Nuevas Ideas, as they tried to transmit the results. Then the system crashed entirely, grinding ballot counting to a halt.

After the vote counting was stopped late Sunday night, the ballots from the country’s capital San Salvador were then “lost”’ for over a day, leaving open the possibility that they had been tampered with before they were “found” the next day.

On February 5, the day after the election, the Popular Resistance and Rebellion Block (BRP), a block of left-wing and progressive organizations in El Salvador, released a statement saying that they condemn:

“… the unconstitutional reelection of Nayib Bukele, imposed with the complicity of the Supreme Court and the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE). As an expression of the organized Salvadoran popular movement, the Popular Resistance and Rebellion Block DOES NOT recognize the illegal election results or the de facto regime surging from this electoral farce. We denounce the fact that to guarantee this fraud in favor of the governing party, the regime also illegally modified the electoral system and violated many legal dispositions during the electoral campaign. We positively appreciate the courage of hundreds of thousands of people who voted for the opposition in a context of illegalities, political persecution and the continuing State of Exception, which suppresses constitutional guarantees and which the government utilizes as a mechanism of social containment. In this context of rupture with the constitutional order, of repression and regression in the political, social and economic order, we reiterate our call to build a broad front of left, democratic, and progressive forces to impede the consolidation of the dictatorial regime that seeks to perpetuate itself in power. We call on the people to get organized and deepen the struggle against the Bukele clan’s dictatorship, which sustains itself with illegalities and which has the backing of the oligarchy and imperialism.”

In a press conference after the election, a spokesperson for the group of accredited international election observers from the Center for Interchange and Solidarity, which has observed every Salvadoran election since the 1992 Peace Accords, said, “We suspect that there was an attempt to modify the results by the system that completely failed in the final counting. There wasn’t a ‘Plan B’ and they haven’t given any explanation for why the internet went out, for why the Supreme Electoral Tribunal’s electoral reporting system failed, why the printers stopped working. Some reported that the boxes containing the technology arrived without being properly sealed. This has never happened before. So we don’t know if something happened with bad intentions, but the Attorney General must investigate. There were many irregularities and these were the most chaotic elections since 1994.”

Despite these flagrant and widely-reported problems observed by international election monitors, on the day after the election U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken hastily recognized Bukele as the winner, saying, that the U.S. “looks forward to working with President-elect Bukele and Vice President-elect Felix Ulloa following their inauguration in June.”

Prominent right-wing political figures in the U.S. also quickly recognized Bukele as the election winner, including Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Bukele is popular with Republicans in the U.S., including Donald Trump. On the other hand, U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar and several of the more progressive members of Congress sent a public letter to the Biden administration the week before the Salvadoran election raising alarms over President Bukele's state of emergency, unlawful arrests and detention, harassment of political opponents, restrictions on press freedoms, and other actions.

Bukele’s self-declared victory in this election, for which he was ineligible to run, which took place under a militarized State of Exception, brings to an end El Salvador’s period of political opening that began in 1992 with the end of the Salvadoran Civil War. The Peace Accords signed that year put in place reforms forced by the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) during its period as a left-wing guerrilla movement, which allowed the left to openly participate in elections for the first time in the country’s history. The left in El Salvador was outlawed and excluded from elections through the 1980s; the elections that the left tried to participate in under the umbrella of broad coalitions in the 1970s were stolen from them through fraud and brutal repression, leading to the rise of the armed left-wing revolutionary movement of the 1980s.

The Salvadoran constitution’s prohibition against a president serving two consecutive terms was put in place because of repeated experiences of military dictatorship in the 20th century, to prevent the same thing from recurring. But after winning the presidency in 2019, President Bukele illegally sacked and replaced the country’s Supreme Court justices with his own supporters, who then “reinterpreted” the constitution to allow him to run again.

Throughout this year’s electoral campaign Bukele changed the rules and tilted the playing field to his party’s advantage while threatening and repressing opposition parties to assure he and his Nuevas Ideas party would win. Bukele’s maneuvers included reducing the number of seats in the Legislative Assembly and redrawing the map of the country, and combining cities where opposition parties like the left-wing FMLN have support with areas where he had more support in order to reduce opposition parties’ representation.

Bukele and his supporters’ had an explicit goal in this year’s election of forcing the left wing FMLN’s disappearance as a recognized political party, by keeping their vote totals under the limit that would allow them to continue as a legal electoral party. While the results are still unclear, the partial and provisional results that were reported before the system crashed seem to indicate that Bukele failed in his attempt to erase the FMLN out of existence. In the numbers released so far, the FMLN has the second highest vote totals, higher than all other opposition parties.

This election took place under restricted democratic rights, with the militarized State of Exception that has dragged on for two years now with no end in sight. The mass arrests of more than 76,000 people under the State of Exception has rocketed El Salvador to have the highest incarceration rate in the world.

While the mass arrests are said to be aimed at combating street gangs, the government itself has admitted that at least 10% of the people they’ve arrested and held without charges are innocent, with the actual number likely higher.

While Bukele’s targeting of violent street gangs has been popular, he has also used the “war on gangs” and the State of Exception as cover to attack his political enemies, principally the left-wing FMLN party. Both of the former presidents from the FMLN, Salvador Sanchez Ceren and Mauricio Funes, have been forced to flee the country to avoid political persecution, receiving political asylum from neighboring Nicaragua’s progressive government. Several other FMLN leaders have been jailed and dragged through trumped-up trials accusing them of corruption, and Bukele frequently accuses the FMLN of being terrorists.

Bukele’s government has also attacked progressive activists like the environmental movement leaders in the town of Santa Marta who helped win a ban on exploitative foreign mining operations in El Salvador, jailing five key leaders for over a year on bogus charges before being forced to release them after widespread international protests.

Bukele’s government also tried to jail Ruben Zamora on bogus charges. Zamora is an important figure in modern Salvadoran history, as a founder of the Revolutionary Democratic Front (FDR) in 1980 who survived capture and torture, and whose brother was assassinated by the U.S.-backed military during the Salvadoran Civil War. Zamora was also the FMLN’s presidential candidate in the first election after the civil war in 1994, an ambassador to the U.S. and the UN under FMLN presidents. In recent years he has been an outspoken critic of President Bukele, reminding Salvadorans that their constitution allows insurrection against an illegitimate government. International outcry forced the government to rescind their order of capture against Zamora.

While Bukele currently has a base of support in El Salvador – and even more so among Salvadorans living abroad, due to his highly-orchestrated self-promoting propaganda campaign and the perception that he has ended violence in the country – he seemingly wasn’t content to gamble that his personal popularity would transfer to his party’s candidates for the Legislative Assembly enough to keep their supermajority – a supermajority that allows him to push through whatever policies he wants without debate.

Bukele’s use of extralegal means to attack the left and to tighten his grip on power has politically catapulted El Salvador back 50 years, to the time when right-wing leaders aligned with the military and with U.S. imperialism ruled through open repression and tried to silence any left-wing or popular movement.

#International #LatinAmerica #CentralAmerica #ElSalvador #FMLN #Elections #Imperialism #RightWing #Feature

Milwaukee, WI – U.S. President Joe Biden paid Milwaukee a visit on December 20 to deliver remarks at the Black Chamber of Commerce as part of his “Bidenomics” talks. Details of his visit were kept minimal until Tuesday evening, but that did not deter members and supporters of the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine from assembling outside of the security perimeter set up around the venue.

For the Biden campaign, it was a strategic visit, as Wisconsin will play a key role in the presidential elections next fall, and if Biden can’t win Milwaukee, odds are small for winning Wisconsin.

As the anticipation of Biden’s arrival grew, the crowd of protesters grew to several hundred people. Chants of “Genocide Joe” and “Free Palestine” were loud enough that the venue resorted to playing music in a desperate attempt to drown out the protesters.

Tensions grew as Milwaukee police multiplied their presence and threatened arrest, but they failed to move the protesters further away from the venue. The fierce and brave protesters began to loudly chant, “We will not move!” and they held their ground. From 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., the people of Milwaukee delivered a clear message to Joe Biden and the complicit Wisconsin Democrats: End all U.S. aid to Israel and stop the genocide of Palestinians, or else lose in 2024.

To provide an opportunity for people who were at work during Biden’s brief visit to protest him, the Wisconsin Coalition for Justice in Palestine had also called for a rally and march at 6 p.m. Although Biden had already fled Milwaukee, nearly 500 people gathered at Dontre Hamilton/Red Arrow Park ready to march.

Alan Chavoya, Outreach Chair of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, welcomed the energized crowd and reminded them of the significance of marching from Dontre Hamilton Park: “We must not forget that almost ten years ago, Milwaukee police killed Dontre Hamilton in this park. These are the same police officers who were threatening us with arrests as Genocide Joe spoke. These police officers who terrorize Black and brown communities in Milwaukee are the same ones who train with the Israeli occupying forces!” Chavoya said.

While the focus was rightfully on the Palestinian struggle, speakers at the march also established links between Palestinian liberation and other issues that the Biden administration has been failing at. Jacob Flom, president of AFSCME Local 526, spoke on behalf of the Wisconsin Labor for Palestine and said, “We’re protesting Biden today because he’s going around saying he’s the most ‘pro-labor’ president in history. I can tell you that nickname didn’t come from us, the workers. Pro-labor presidents don’t bomb hospitals, schools, civil defense workers, journalists and media workers, and they don’t commit genocide!”

Flom delivered a powerful message of labor solidarity with Palestine, stating, “When workers in Palestine are calling on solidarity from the workers of the world, especially those of us here in the U.S., the belly of the beast, because they are getting slaughtered and massacred by our government, we’re going to stand in solidarity with them.”

Over the past 75 days, Biden has been rapidly losing support on many fronts, but the losses aren’t only materializing in electoral support. U.S. imperialism and the murderous Zionists are becoming increasingly isolated, and the armed Palestinian resistance is winning.

Ryan Hamann of Freedom Road Socialist Organization spoke to the significance of these conditions. “The popular Palestinian armed resistance is winning the war on the field of battle, and it’s winning the fight for the hearts and minds of the people of the world,” Hamann said. “The blows are coming from all sides now as the allies of resistance flex their muscles. Eleven of the world’s largest shipping companies have shut down all traffic to Israel through the Red Sea on account of the broader resistance in the region.”

The combined actions represented a significant and historic day for Palestinian solidarity in Milwaukee. Much like the global trend, the movement for support of Palestinian liberation has grown tremendously in Milwaukee over the past decade. Thousands of people from young children to elders carrying signs reminding the world that they are “older than Israel” denounced Biden’s visit to Milwaukee. They confronted the Milwaukee police with bravery and courage, and they made it clear that there is unwavering support for Palestine in Milwaukee.

#MilwaukeeWI #PeoplesStruggles #Biden #Elections #Palestine #International

Minneapolis, MN – Police accountability. Rent control. Ending cruel encampment evictions when no shelter is available. A minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers. A city council that doesn’t oppose community initiatives from communities like East Phillips, Little Earth and North Minneapolis.

These are some of the issues at stake with the upcoming Minneapolis city council elections. As the election gets closer, conservative forces in Minneapolis are going into a panic that they might lose control of the city council, and their attacks on the more progressive council incumbents and candidates are getting more shrill and desperate. For example, they’re ridiculously trying to cast the more progressive and socialist candidates as “pro-terrorism’ if they are in any way critical of Israel’s horrifying and genocidal operation against the Palestinian people in Gaza.

On November 7, all 13 Minneapolis city council seats are on the ballot. Early voting has already begun. This year there are no national, state or mayoral elections. Historically when it’s an “off year” election like this with only the city council on the ballot, it will be a very low turnout election.

Why should we care?

As Marxists, we understand that both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are pro-capitalist, pro-imperialist parties. History has shown that the capitalist class won’t let us elect our way to socialism. Given that, should these elections even be of any concern to working-class and oppressed people, and to socialists?

Electoral politics has been and will remain an important realm of political struggle for working-class and oppressed people, to improve our daily lives, to gain a greater measure of political power (especially for oppressed nationality and national minority communities), and to win important reforms.

In the context of capitalism, elections help set the conditions that our movements struggle within. Voting for candidates who are more likely to stand with our movements can be important. In low turnout elections like this one, wealthier, whiter, older and more conservative voters participate in greater numbers. So if working-class, oppressed nationality and younger people ignore the election, we'll end up with a much more conservative city council.

What does the city council do anyway?

The main powers of the Minneapolis city council are to pass ordinances (laws) for the city, and to approve the city’s annual budget. Currently Minneapolis has a nearly $2 billion annual budget that pays for departments like Public Works (roads, infrastructure, etc.); the Office of Community Safety, which includes the police and fire departments; Regulatory Services, and much more. In recent years the Minneapolis city council has passed some ordinances that have made a real difference in working people’s lives, like the $15 minimum wage, earned sick and safe time for all workers, and measures to combat wage theft. The city council didn’t come up with those ideas on their own. It was unions and mass organizations engaging in serious, prolonged struggle that pressured the city council to take action.

Class struggle at City Hall

Just as the country as a whole is becoming more politically polarized, we see increased polarization and struggle between opposing class interests at City Hall.

Mayor Jacob Frey consistently represents and fights for the interests of the rich and powerful – landlords, big developers and big corporations and the police that protect their interests. Like most Democratic Party leaders in big cities, he tries to sell a progressive image to the public, but his actions betray his complete subservience to the rich and powerful.

The city council elections in 2021 created a more politically polarized city council than before. Some of the newly elected council members were more sharply conservative and more fully aligned with the mayor and the powerful interests backing him. But on the other side, a block of council members more sharply to the left were elected as well. Three of them identify as socialists and two others mostly vote with them as a block of five. A few council members in the middle vote with one side or the other depending on the issue.

During the current two-year term, when issues touching on the power of corporations, developers, landlords or police are voted on, the votes are often 8-5. Eight council members are aligned with the mayor and the powerful interests backing him, and five vote against them. On some issues, when mass movements have brought a lot of pressure to bear, like around rent control or the East Phillips Roof Depot struggle or minimum wage for Uber and Lyft drivers, one or two council members have flipped and the votes have been 7-6 in one direction or the other.

This situation means that if two or more council seats flip in this election from more conservative to more progressive members, it would flip the council from an 8-5 majority aligned with the corporations, developers, landlords and cops, to at least a 7-6 majority potentially willing to challenge their power. There are multiple competitive races where those flips could realistically happen.

The issues in play – from police accountability to rent control to encampment response to minimum wage for gig workers – matter deeply to working-class and oppressed people in Minneapolis. So it’s worth voting for the candidates who are more likely to stand with the people's movements.

Let’s look at some of the races in a little more detail.

Ward 10: Aisha Chughtai runs for reelection against two conservative challengers

Aisha Chughtai won election for the first time in 2021 in Ward 10, which is 80% renters and is heavily working class and multinational with many young people. She ran openly as a socialist and foregrounded her experience as a union organizer and immigrant rights activist. She’s the first Muslim woman and the youngest person ever elected to the Minneapolis city council.

Her leadership on issues like rent control, police accountability, and standing up to the mayor and business interests, have led two conservative candidates to try to unseat her. One is a cop, Nasri Warsame, who’s main issue seems to be wanting more police. He gained infamy, and may have torpedoed his ability to win, when video went viral of his supporters rushing the stage to attack Aisha Chughtai and her supporters at this summer’s DFL nominating convention. Another person also jumped into the race at the last minute to challenge Chughtai: Bruce Dachis. His sparse website also focuses on his desire for more police, echoes the mayor’s dishonest talking points about encampments, and represents his interests as a developer.

The more conservative forces in the city want to get Aisha Chughtai out of office because they recognize her ability to successfully advance policies that benefit working people and challenge the powerful. Her deep ties to grassroots organizations and unions, her organizing experience, and her firm socialist principles mean that she’s a formidable opponent for them.

Our movements must support Aisha’s reelection. She’s a powerful voice on the council for police accountability and community control of the police, for rent control and other renter protections, for climate justice and in favor of community initiatives like the East Phillips Urban Farm, for public housing and for housing the unhoused who are currently living in encampments, for increased funding for immigrant rights and abortion rights. These are some issues she has led on in her first term.

Ward 8: Council President Andrea Jenkins vs. Soren Stevenson

Council President Andrea Jenkins was the first Black trans woman elected to office in the U.S. She essentially has run unopposed twice. But her votes on key issues have more often than not lined up with the mayor and the powerful forces that back him, rather than with working-class people in the city. Her role in continually increasing police budgets, in siding with the mayor against native people and environmentalists in East Phillips on the Roof Depot struggle, and her role in pushing through a vote to kill rent control this year on a Muslim holiday when three rent control supporters on the council who are Muslim were absent are just three examples of extremely backward things she’s done.

This year she has a serious challenger, Soren Stevenson. Stevenson identifies as a socialist. He’s a young white man who lost his eye when the MPD shot him in the face with a “non-lethal” projectile as he participated in the protests after the murder of George Floyd. Out of that experience, he built relationships with family members of police brutality victims and earned their respect, and decided that he would challenge the incumbent who has been on the wrong side of many votes on policing on the council. His politics are more in line with the majority of people in Ward 8 than Jenkins, despite her identity. Stevenson pulled off an upset by winning the DFL endorsement in the race. We’ll see if that translates into winning the election, but it seems he has a real chance to do so. If he wins, he’ll almost surely vote with the more progressive people on the council, so people in Ward 8 should vote for Soren.

Ward 5: Jeremiah Ellison vs. Victor Martinez

Jeremiah Ellison was elected after the police murdered Jamar Clark and he participated in the protests outside the MPD’s 4th Precinct. He usually votes with the progressive block. Ellison’s challenger, Victor Martinez, is an open Trump supporter, a pastor at an anti-choice church, and very likely committed fraud in signing up hundreds of people as his supposed supporters in the race for the DFL endorsement, people for whom he could provide no paper trail for. Martinez’s main issue is supporting the police; he’s basically a Republican who is only running as a Democrat because you can’t win as a Republican in Minneapolis. It’s important to vote for Ellison, who mostly votes with the progressive block, to keep Martinez out of office.

The open seats: Wards 7 and 12

Ward 7 and 12 are open seats with races between people aligned more or less with opposite sides of the city council divide. It’s important to vote for the more progressive candidates in these races – Aurin Chowdhury in Ward 12 and Katie Cashman in Ward 7 – to keep the conservatives out.

Chowdhury in Ward 12 is a first generation Bengali-American, daughter of working-class immigrants, and a renter who’s running on a progressive platform, while her opponents are campaigning on a more conservative platform. In Ward 7, the main conservative candidate – Scott Graham – is a landlord who has been exposed as having at least 209 violations in his rental units documented by the city. That’s not a person who should be deciding the future of renters rights and making decisions about development on the council.

If all the incumbents win, it’s these two races that would determine the political composition of the new council.

The rest of the races

Ward 2 is the only uncontested race this year, where Robin Wonsley of Democratic Socialists of America is running unopposed. Elliot Payne (Ward 1) and Jason Chavez (Ward 9), two of the other progressive incumbents, have opponents that are not running serious campaigns with much of a chance to win. In Ward 3, Green Party-endorsed Marcus Mills is running on a progressive platform challenging incumbent conservative Democrat Michael Rainville. It’s good to support independent progressive candidates like Mills. In Ward 6 incumbent Jamal Osman faces two challengers. Ward 11 incumbent Emily Koski, who has often aligned with the mayor on key votes, has no credible opponent. Ward 13 incumbent and current Council Vice President Linea Palmisano, a core force on the conservative side of the council, has two opponents: Kate Mortenson, who is running to her right on some issues, and Zach Metzger who seems to have little chance to win.

What is to be done?

Any hope for real change comes from independent mass movements and unions willing to wage class struggle and fight for working class and oppressed people’s felt needs. That said, elections can create better or worse conditions in which our movements wage those fights.

This year, it’s important to vote for city council candidates who are more likely to stand up to big developers, corporations, landlords and the police. This could create better conditions for mass movements to make gains that improve the lives of working-class and oppressed people in Minneapolis. And if the mayor vetoes good policies the council has passed, it would help expose the ruling class interests he represents. The capitalist class and their bought and paid for politicians and media mouthpieces would rather try to make this election a referendum on Palestine, or on socialism, or try again with their racist attack from the election two years ago in backlash against the George Floyd uprising. They’d rather scaremonger about those things than have to defend their favored policies that give big corporations, developers, landlords and the police whatever they want, directly harming working-class and oppressed people in Minneapolis.

#MinneapolisMN #Elections #PoliceAccountability #RentControl #UberLyft #CityCouncil #FRSO #FRSOTC

Milwaukee, WI – Nearly 400 people marched in the streets of Milwaukee on the evening of August 23 in protest of the first Republican presidential primary debate. Chants like “Racist, sexist, anti-gay, GOP, go away!” and “Whose streets? Our streets! Whose city? Our city!” rang out as marchers ignored the 100-plus degree heat.

The debate comes just under a year before the GOP returns to the city for the 2024 Republican National Convention. The action was organized by the Coalition to March on the RNC 2024, a broad-based progressive network of different local and national organizations opposed to the Republican agenda which attacks trans people, immigrants, workers, education and the democratic rights of oppressed nationalities.

The action started with a rally at Red Arrow Park, known to activists in the city as Dontre Hamilton Park in honor of Hamilton, who was murdered by Milwaukee police there in 2014.

“The Republican candidates are in there debating whether or not we deserve rights, whether we deserve bodily autonomy, and whether or not the U.S. should bomb other countries or just coup them. We stand out here to say we fight back,” said Aurelia Ceja, co-chair of the Coalition to March on the RNC.

“They have tried to make Wisconsin their playground, and Milwaukee has fought back with a vengeance. The Republican-created Act 12 was a direct attack on Milwaukee for the work we have done in fighting for police transparency and accountability,” Ceja continued. “This is part of the Republican national agenda. It’s a reactionary agenda. They saw our power when we came together in 2020, and they have been working to overturn our gains. This is because the Republicans are scared, and they should be.”

Many of the organizations that make up the coalition had speakers to kick off the event. These organizations included Voces de la Frontera, the Milwaukee Area Labor Council, and Reproductive Justice Action Milwaukee (RJAM).

“Republicans are not actually pro-life. They’re pro-controlling people’s bodies and they want forced pregnancy. They don’t support free healthcare, they don’t support social safety nets, they don’t support workers' right to a living wage. Our society is not sustainable, most of us can barely afford to live but they want more workers to serve the rich,” said Catie Petralia with RJAM. “Republicans are not pro-life, but they are pro-war, pro-prisons, pro-capitalism.”

The keynote was special guest Chrisley Carpio of the Tampa 5, a group of activists who were assaulted by police in Tampa, Florida during a protest against HB 999 which slashed DEI programs in public universities across the state.

“We’re not gonna sell out the student movement, we’re not gonna say it was wrong to protest DeSantis and the Republicans – just like everyone here is doing – and they took our four felony counts and turned them into eight, and they took my five years and turned them into ten, so it’s clearly a political attack by the Republicans on our right to protest, but it’s not gonna work!” Carpio said. “One week later, students in Texas and at other universities across the state of Florida had protests, including at Florida International University where 700 students protested against HB 999, showing that this didn’t work. The only thing that the Republicans did in attempting to stop us was lighting a fire that’s gonna take down their whole agenda!”

The march route took the protesters right next to the Fiserv Forum, home of both the first debate as well as next year’s RNC. Other chants took aim at specific candidates, such as “Donald Trump is MIA! Milwaukee says stay away!” and “Hey hey, ho ho, Ron DeSantis has got to go!”

The march wound around the debate venue and back to Red Arrow Park where a second batch of speakers shared their own messages. Groups speaking included the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, Community Task Force MKE, Never Again Action, the Milwaukee Anti-war Committee, and the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression.

The Coalition to March on the RNC will continue to organize in the months leading up to the convention in 2024. They are encouraging all organizations across the U.S. who recognize the Republicans as one of the main enemies of working and oppressed peoples to join the coalition. A national organizing conference is being planned for February 2024 in Milwaukee as a prelude to the mass protest scheduled for the first day of the RNC on July 15, 2024.

#MilwaukeeWI #StudentMovement #PoliticalRepression #Elections #RepublicanDebate #RNC2024

Chicago, IL – Our perspective on the elections must be based on a sober, scientific analysis that assesses the relationship of forces in this moment in order to find the pathway forward. We believe that objective social relations in the final analysis is what determines subjective evaluations. In other words, we must take every precaution to make sure that every policy change, every tactical adjustment and firming up of our strategy is soundly rooted in a concrete analysis of concrete conditions.

There has been an emerging high tide of movement in Chicago ever since the George Floyd and Breanna Taylor Rebellion of 2020. The principal demand of this movement is justice and our movement here in Chicago has a program for delivering justice vis-a-vis our united front struggle for community control of the police.

The policy we adopt going forward must be different from the policy we had when we were building a united front against former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and her allies in city council because the mayor-elect is our ally. We must maintain our united front strategy in different circumstances with different contradictions and challenges. In precisely what ways it will be different must be informed by the facts we have and the facts we will encounter in practice (experience).

We should be flexible when working with people: struggling alongside them when we are aligned; struggling with them when they are against our goals.

The same people can be with you, vacillating, or opposing you depending on the conditions of the moment. We need to look for grounds on which different forces will work with us

A pinch of power: What do we do with it?

The phase we are in now is that of the first 100 days, which started on the mayoral inauguration day, May 15.

Our focus in this phase should be to regroup and reeducate our forces to the reality that we now have a pinch of power. The main question then is how we bring the district councilors and the new commission into the playing field with the mayor so we can quickly consolidate our gains. Now our people are in a position where we can do more effective self-organizing to bring the police under community control in terms of police conduct regulation by the Police Board and COPA and the police budget.

We must always bear in mind that the police are also the cutting edge of mass incarceration and the principal reason why there are so many wrongfully convicted people in jails and prisons. Insofar as Chicago is concerned, we know that all the cases of torture and racist frameups originated in police districts mainly on the South and West Sides. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us to figure out how to use the Police District Councils and the city-wide Community Commission on Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) to put pressure on the state of Illinois to free and compensate the wrongfully convicted.

At the April 14 meeting with councilors, there was discussion about how to implement the little power we have. Arewa Winters said, “I’m not fighting anymore; I’m enforcing the law.” Others said we have this power, but the powers-that-be are trying to stop us from implementing what we were elected for.

These different views show there is a struggle to comprehend how the power relationship has changed.

There are a number of things we need to learn:

We have to gather facts and investigate circumstances. We have to learn about parliamentary procedure in city council; when there is a fight in the city council, we’ll have to organize to fill the gallery, to defend the people’s mayor.

We’re not part of the transition team, but we took part in the first expanded meeting, and we’ll take part in more of those. We don’t want to join the administration; we want to make sure the district councils do their part as a people’s voice about policing, and to put forward policy initiatives. The councils need to call meetings, find out what people in their districts think, get people in the districts engaged.

There are many extremely important items on Mayor Brandon Johnson’s agenda pertaining to healthcare, education, jobs, municipal services, youth programs, housing and homelessness. But we must stick to our role as a mass defense organization of the Black Liberation movement, the workers (especially immigrant workers) and the people’s movements in general. We want community control of the police because we believe that creates the organizing space for a democratic movement for jobs, youth programs, mental health, etc. We want community control of the police to stop them from regulating and controlling us, as a means ending police tyranny in our communities and stopping our country from morphing into a police state.

Toward that end, we need to agitate for the mayor to give the district councilors and the commission all the support they need in implementing the ECPS Ordinance, in holding police accountable.

For the district councils and the commission, there are three issues that are on the front burner: the Consent Decree, the Gang Database, and the selection of the superintendent.

Two elections and our public posture

Chicago has been a pace setter, both in the struggle for community control of the police, and more generally the Black movement and the working class-led struggle versus neo-liberal policies.

Public safety has been the main issue in the mayoral election. Objectively, there has been a rise in the crime rate in the city in recent years, although it has fallen in the past six months. The second, and principal reason is the law-and-order backlash that followed the historic protests of the George Floyd Rebellion.

While Mayor Johnson focused on a service response to public safety, he has united with the ECPS coalition. Also, polls showed that public safety was the main concern of all nationalities, but for Black voters, the second main concern was police accountability because for Black people public safety and police accountability are not separate issues. There’s the overriding issue of racist cops occupying our communities. In the words of the Ferguson rebels: “Back up, back up! We want freedom, freedom! All these racist cops we don’t need ‘em!”

During all the debates between mayoral candidates Johnson and Vallas, public safety was never linked to the demands for justice, and even in his victory speech, Brandon Johnson didn’t mention CAARPR, or justice for those harmed by the Chicago Police Department (CPD). However, Johnson is in fact keenly aware of CAARPR’s role in the struggle for justice and objectively joined us in that struggle during the Police District Council elections. He not only endorsed our candidates but united with us in field operations. Our respective campaigns were united in action throughout this election season. We appreciate the meetings with the mayor’s election transition team. Now we must transition into the movement being a part of policy making, for that is how power is executed.

We need to remind ourselves as the movement around Mayor Brandon Johnson that there were two elections: one for mayor and city council, and one for the newly created district councils.

While not in the headlines or the focus of Brandon’s campaign, because of the urgency of the demand for justice in the Black community, we believe that our work played a key role in Brandon’s victory. We must continue to push our issues.

First, the Alliance gets credit for the historic district council elections. And of the 39 councilors (elect) that we backed, more than 36 of them endorsed Brandon Johnson.

The Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) attempted to undermine the ECPS victory by running candidates to torpedo the district councils. We beat them on February 28.

Why? Because the Black community first and foremost rejected their attempt to undermine what we had gained.

So, we can say that we helped set the stage for the Brandon Johnson victory. And we can also say that he knows this.

The Black community then rallied to Brandon for the April election and dealt the FOP a second defeat.

To help drive home the support from the people received for the district council elections, a few facts are helpful: Councilors backed by CAARPR and the ECPS coalition garnered over 230,000 votes. Councilors in the Black wards – overwhelmingly aligned with CAARPR – received over 90,000 votes. And when combining Black wards with Latino wards, the vote total is over 130,000 votes.

Vallas tried to undo the advances made by the Black Liberation movement, but he was defeated. Looking at the increase in voting in the Black wards (below) shows that decisive motion by the Black movement put Brandon in office.

What have been the demands that agitated the mass Black Liberation movement into existence over the past decade? The demand for justice against police crimes was first. The mass movement that erupted in 2014 was focused on that, but it was on top of economic injustices: the crime of poverty, homelessness, the mortality rate. These elements were addressed prominently in Brandon Johnson’s campaign.

Johnson can’t implement his program without the Black Liberation movement, Chicano Liberation movement, and the organized working class being the drivers.

The FOP is threatening blood in the streets in response to Johnson’s election. There’s already been Black blood in the streets from the violence internal to the community that CPD aggravates. In addition, there have been police crimes, such as the murder of Reginald Clay Jr., who was shot after a foot chase. Chasing people on foot without an apparent reason to pursue is the same violation of CPD's own policy that caused the murder of Adam Toledo in 2021.

What we have proved through the district council mayoral elections is that we, united with Brandon as Mayor, intend to end both of these.

Assessing the election campaign

We saw that in the February 28 initial elections Mayor Johnson was weak in the Black wards on the South and West Sides.

But the Black wards came alive for Brandon after the February 28 primary.

The increase of Black voters in the April 4 runoff election was the biggest difference for Brandon Johnson’s victory: 46%.

But that doesn’t exhaust the proportion of the impact that the Black community had in Brandon Johnson’s victory.

The general increase in votes for Johnson from February to April was 162%; but the increase for him in the Black wards was 288%!

While UWF (United Working Families, an electoral action group) brought their ground game to the South and West Sides, that can’t explain this explosion in voting. This reflects the self-organization of the Black movement.

The Alliance (CAARPR) is in an important position as the only Black-led citywide organization rooted firmly in the community that is closely aligned with the mayor.

Again, we have to continue to point out that the district council campaigns that worked with the Brandon campaign helped to root the Brandon campaign on the South and West Sides.

On May 2, 66 people were inaugurated as district councilors, an inauguration at which Mayor-elect Johnson spoke. The principal overriding theme of the inauguration was police accountability.

And in several polls about issues in the mayoral election, like the Sun Times newspaper/WBEZ public radio poll in early February, “31% of Black voters listed criminal justice reform as their top issue, with 30% concerned about crime and public safety.”

When we consider that none of the wards in the South, Lower West (Mexicano neighborhoods), or West Side districts went for Brandon in February; that Brandon's increase from February to April was 197,388 votes, and that the increased vote in the Black wards was 90,101 – 46% of the total; that together with the Latino wards, the increase for Brandon was 58%; and that the majority of the district councils candidates on the ballot in February were combining voter identification for themselves with identifying votes for Brandon – we think that the district council candidates, especially on the South and West Sides, played the decisive role in Brandon's victory.

Frank Chapman is the Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

#ChicagoIL #PoliceBrutality #Elections

Deegan, of Lebanese ancestry, is a former newscaster, and is a known personality in the community, anchoring Channel 12 news for years. She subsequently went on to run a nonprofit, the Donna Foundation, focused around breast cancer awareness, using her own experiences with beating cancer multiple times to connect her with the broader community.

Deegan ran under the banner of uniting the community. Unlike her opponent, she swore off negative ads. Her campaign was supported by progressive forces as she supported calls for more investment in neglected communities and stood against privatization of city services and the publicly-owned electric utility. Unlike her opponent, she supported calls for civilian oversight of police and supported calls for taking down Confederate monuments. She also advocates ridding city hall of corruption after eight years of Republican leadership under Mayor Lenny Curry. Backed by every major labor union in the city with the exception of police and fire unions, she ran on supporting labor and using her office to support worker’s rights.

Daniel Davis, current CEO of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, ran unabashedly on a pro-cop, anti-police accountability, anti-BLM platform, parroting Fraternal Order of Police cop union talking points, using over $8 million raised (the most of any Jacksonville mayor race in history), to attack Deegan over her support of civilian review, something police and cop union forces have fought off for years.

Davis claimed if Deegan was elected, “radical activists” would oversee police. He called for adding over 200 new police officers, even saying he’d support cutting other city services to make it happen. Black Republican Sheriff T.K. Waters was used as Davis pit bull, being on the face of TV ads calling Deegan a radical who wants to defund police and support policies harmful to cops. Waters, an opponent of police accountability and civilian oversight, in his first interview after Deegan’s victory spoke about why civilian review shouldn’t happen, a clear signal of their fear of what Deegan’s election could mean.

Local grassroots activist Ben Frazier, president of the activist group the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville, cited, “It should be acknowledged that black voters in Duval played a major role in the historic mayoral victory of Donna Deegan,” adding, “From the urban core to the northwest, Black voters propelled the trajectory of the Deegan victory.”

Deegan’s election comes at a time when the state of Florida has been terrorized by a Republican state legislature that has sought to limit the power of local counties and local city mayors. Governor DeSantis, with a Republican supermajority, pushed through reactionary policy after reactionary policy in order to grease the wheels for his bid for presidency. The city council of Jacksonville still has a 14 to 5 Republican to Democrat ratio, with a few moderate Republicans. However, to grassroots activists, Deegan’s election represents a change and more room to politically maneuver.

Under the previous mayor, after historic police accountability protests in 2020 where tens of thousands hit the street, Mayor Curry and former Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Sheriff Williams, along with current State Attorney Melissa Nelson, in response to rallies led by the Jacksonville Community Action Committee and their partners, met with and succumbed to activist demands around the release body camera footage. They released a new body cam policy pledging to release footage after a certain time frame in the summer of 2020. They’ve since reneged on that, only releasing body cameras when the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) deems it appropriate for them to do so.

In 2020 and 2021, in response to the rallies, the city council of Jacksonville created a special committee called the Safer Together Committee which proposed and supported the creation of a civilian review board. Deegan’s late cousin, Tommy Hazouri, a Democrat and former mayor, was city council president at the time. Families of police crimes used the committee meetings as a forum to air grievances with JSO and call for civilian oversight and change. JSO subsequently pressured to have that committee shut down and was eventually successful, stopping any change of police accountability reforms at that time through city council.

That is why progressive forces are optimistic about Deegan’s election. She represents the possibilities of a new era in Jacksonville politics and new organizing terrain for activists. However, those same forces plan to hold her accountable to her support if she fails to pursue pro people agenda.

Time will most certainly tell, but the smashing of the right-wing machinery that has held city hall in Jacksonville for almost a decade is a significant development.

#JacksonvilleFL #US #Opinion #PeoplesStruggles #Elections #DonnaDeegan #MayorOfJacksonville

Minneapolis, MN – At the Minneapolis Ward 10 Democratic Farmer Labor (DFL) party convention on Saturday, May 13, current socialist City Councilmember Aisha Chughtai, along with her campaign volunteers and delegates, were subject to an attack by her electoral opponent, who is a cop, and his campaign operatives. Video of the incident went viral and has become a national news story.

Chughtai is the incumbent councilwoman who was elected in 2021. She comes out of the labor movement and is an immigrant rights activist. Chughtai has led the fight against Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey’s inhumane approach to homelessness; she’s a leader on the city council around police accountability, community control and housing justice and is a consistent voice for people’s movements in the Minneapolis. This has put her on the opposite side of some of the wealthiest and most powerful forces in the city.

Chughtai’s opponent, Nasri Warsame, is a “community service officer,” which means he’s a cop. Warsame’s main campaign theme so far is to support the police. But despite Warsame’s ‘law and order’ rhetoric, his campaign’s attack turned the convention into chaos as some of his operatives assaulted multiple supporters of Chughtai and caused the convention to be hastily ended before an endorsement could be voted on. In procedural votes earlier in the day, it was clear Councilmember Chughtai had enough delegates to win 60% of the vote and therefore win DFL endorsement. The DFL is the name of the Democratic Party in Minnesota, as a result of a merger in the 1940s between the Democratic Party and the Farmer Labor Party.

The Warsame campaign’s attack came several hours into the convention, as Councilmember Chughtai came to the stage along with supporters to give her nomination speech. But the entirety of the convention was contentious as the Warsame campaign packed the meeting with non-voting guests, tried various procedural votes to get a large number of Chughtai’s delegates removed, repeatedly accused the convention organizers of cheating without saying how, bullied the neutral Somali translator until they were able to replace him with their own translator, tried to get non-delegates onto the delegate floor, and more.

After several hours of tensions, things boiled over as Chughtai was about to start her nomination speech. Before she could start speaking, Warsame’s campaign operatives started yelling and booing, then led their delegates to storm the stage, physically assaulting many of Chughtai’s supporters and threatening Chughtai herself as they took over the stage, yelling at the convention conveners and accused them of cheating, and physically harming the two sergeants-at-arms who they had been harassing all day. The fact was simply that Chughtai had more delegates than Warsame which she had gained through organizing a base of support throughout all Ward 10 neighborhoods for her progressive agenda. Warsame’s campaign refused to accept that reality and tried to take over the convention by force.

In the face of this unprovoked attack, Chughtai’s campaign team moved in a calm and disciplined way to lead their delegates out of the auditorium to deescalate the situation, bringing their delegates and supporters to a locked room while being pursued by some angry Warsame delegates. Conflict and chaos to get the convention shut down was only in Warsame’s interest as he didn’t have the votes to win the looming nomination vote that would have come after Chughtai and Warsame gave their speeches.

The purpose of the convention was for precinct-based delegates to vote on which candidate, if any, would receive the DFL party endorsement for November’s Ward 10 city council election. Ward 10 is a multinational and largely working-class area of Minneapolis where 80% of residents are renters. City council elections in Minneapolis are non-partisan, but an endorsed candidate gets access to the party’s resources that the other candidates don’t have.

In the aftermath of Saturday’s attack on Chughtai, her campaign released a statement that in part read, “This happened because they knew that the Ward 10 community was once again behind us and we were going to win — over 60% of the delegates in the room were identified to be supporting us. Because we’ve shown the wealthiest folks in this city, and the politicians they’ve bought, that the people of this city have the power to make real change and build the community we deserve. That’s why they’re afraid of us. That’s why they stormed at us.”

Soon after the convention was ended by the Warsame campaign’s orchestrated chaos, Warsame put out social media posts and statements that were a complete mockery of the reality that hundreds of people witnessed in person and hundreds of thousands of people have now seen in video clips taken by delegates that went viral online. Then they did a press conference Wednesday where they continued to make wild allegations that aren’t backed up by any of the video evidence from the convention. Warsame claimed to be the victim of cheating and violence, the opposite of the reality everyone could plainly see.

Some unions and elected officials put out statements and wrote social media posts supporting Chughtai, and denouncing the Warsame campaign’s attack on Chughtai and her supporters. At first DFL Party Chair Ken Martin, who has not been friendly to progressives, put out a vague statement of concern without naming who was responsible for what happened. But then under growing pressure, he put out a clear statement blaming the Warsame campaign for attacking Chughtai, and calling an emergency meeting of the state party committee, promising swift action. That meeting of the DFL State Executive Committee happened on Thursday, at which they banned Nasri Warsame from ever seeking the DFL Party’s endorsement. It’s still unclear whether the Ward 10 convention will be reconvened to vote on whether to endorse Chughtai or issue no endorsement.

As this story has gained national and even international media attention, much of the coverage has distorted the essence of what happened: a right-wing candidate who is a cop, Nasri Warsame, orchestrated an attack on a socialist and Muslim woman, Aisha Chughtai and her supporters. Instead, the corporate media’s dominant narrative has been to report it as “chaos” devoid of political clarity, implicating both sides rather than accurately reporting it as right-wing violence aimed at the left.

While electoral politics are not the path to socialism, they are an arena of the people’s struggle where working-class and oppressed people can fight to win what can be won to improve our lives within the capitalist system and to expose the oppressive nature of the system. Socialists who succeed in electoral struggles, especially those who are oppressed nationalities and those who are women, face frequent threats and attacks, like what Councilmember Chughtai is currently facing. The people's movements must stand with socialists who continue to stand with the movement after being elected and come under attack from right-wing forces.

#MinneapolisMN #Elections #AishaChugtai

Interview with Frank Chapman, executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression Fight Back!: The Democratic Party has announced that their convention will be held in Chicago, August 19 through 22, 2024. The National Alliance was part of the March on the Democratic National Convention Coalition in Milwaukee in 2020. Will you march again at the Chicago convention?

Frank Chapman: I think it is absolutely necessary for us to march again, given what has happened from 2020 until now. The crisis in democracy at this point is deeper and broader, involving everything from the continued struggle that we've been waging around community control of the police, and while nothing's been done about the George Floyd bill in Congress.

With the attack on abortion rights, there has been a great leap backwards in the rights of women; there are also attacks on the LGBTQ community. There has been no progress in Washington in the rights of immigrants. There is also a renewed struggle for the rights of workers to organize and to strike to change the deplorable working conditions under which they work. This includes a the drive for new unionization both at Starbucks and Amazon. Biden betrayed the railroad workers unions in their demands for safe working conditions.

All of these issues have matured and gotten deeper, and so we have to address those issues with the people's agenda.

The Alliance, if you don't mind me mentioning this, is a defense organization. It is our duty and our responsibility to defend the democratic rights of the people. And when we say defend the democratic rights of the people, what are we talking about? We are specifically talking about defending the democratic rights of the people to organize, protest and bring about the systemic changes necessary to better their lives.

Fight Back!: What about the demands of the peace movement?

Chapman: Of course! It's directly related to racist and political repression. Why do I say that? What happened to Biden’s great Build Back Better legislation? What happened to the great renewal we were supposed to have after the COVID epidemic?

It's been gobbled up by the war in Ukraine, which is a proxy war that our country is waging with Russia. So, we see something that we've seen before. We saw it with the Vietnam War. We saw it with these police-like interventions in other countries like Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The military budget deprives us of the means of making the social reforms that are necessary to improve the life of the people in our country. And so, we have to be opposed to that.

Also, the military feeds the repression in our cities with regard to the police because they feed the police weapons, including tanks, sniper equipment, and all kinds of things,

We have to be opposed to the war because first and foremost, what war does, as Dr. King pointed out years ago, it takes the ability of the government to address much needed social reforms in this country. It puts guns before bread and butter.

Fight Back!: Any final thoughts that you want to share with the readers?

Chapman: Yes. Some people are going to say, why protest the Democratic Party? Shouldn't you just protest the Republican Party? That's who the real enemy is.

And what we're going to say in response to that is that, as a movement, we have an unalienable democratic right to make demands of whoever is in power, whether it's a Democratic Party or the Republican Party. And in this era in which we talk about the billionaire class and all of that, I think they're both in service to the billionaire class. So, hell yeah, we're going to make demands of them.

#ChicagoIL #DemocraticNationalConventionDNC #Elections

By Destiny Spruill and Jacob Buckner

Chicago, IL – Two factors have made public safety a lynchpin issue in the upcoming mayoral election between Brandon Johnson, former teacher supported by the Chicago Teacher’s Union, and Paul Vallas, former CEO of Chicago Public Schools, backed by the Fraternal Order of the Police (FOP). First is the rise in the crime rate in the city in recent years. The second, and principal, reason is the law-and-order backlash that followed the historic protests of the George Floyd Rebellion.

Groups like the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) are fighting to make sure that the city’s supposed concern for public safety prioritizes police accountability for its Black, Latino, indigenous and working-class residents. These residents face the highest rates of incarceration and violent police raids and have been the most likely to face the full force of the police state.

You can’t discuss public safety without discussing the struggle for community control of the police – a struggle for democratic rights.

“This mayoral election is historic. It is the first time in four decades that we’ve had a truly progressive candidate for mayor – Brandon Johnson. For the first time in history, the people of Chicago have a real choice between the old reactionary, recycling of the status quo and taking a progressive road towards advancing the democratic right of the people,” says Frank Chapman, the executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression (NAARPR).

The movement for community control of the police in Chicago began over 50 years ago. CAARPR played a leading role in the 1970s and starting 11 years ago has led it through its Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) campaign. They believe that electing Brandon Johnson is an important piece in the broader struggle for police accountability. Understanding the history of CAARPR’s CPAC movement is crucial in assessing the needs of Chicago’s most vulnerable populations. It is also crucial in evaluating how we can chart the way forward.

CAARPR and its struggle for community control of police in Chicago

By 1968, the first citywide attempt at community control was started by the Black Panther Party (BPP), which initiated a number of programs that demanded to transform the power structure of the police and its effect on the lives of Black Chicagoans. The Panthers believed that community control of the police was a political necessity for Black community members to decide for themselves how public safety would be implemented. Their demands were clear: violent police officers must be held accountable through community boards, the people must decide the funding of the Chicago Police Department (CPD), and the power of supervising and administering the police department must be transferred to the citizens of Chicago. The National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression (NAARPR) took up these demands and created a model to bring these demands to legislation.

Starting in 2012, CAARPR, the Chicago branch of NAARPR, provided a model based on the principle set forth by the Panthers, and on legislation that had been developed by the National Alliance in the 1970s. Decades later, the need for this movement continued as racist policing in Chicago increased as a result of the heightened power of the CPD. In 2012, 22-year-old Rekia Boyd was murdered by an off-duty police detective named Dante Servin. Following community protests, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression began a ten-year process of building a movement to pass an ordinance that would create community-controlled police boards in all 22 Chicago police districts. This movement became known as the Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) campaign.

CAARPR spent the next years in working-class neighborhoods most affected by police violence and spoke to survivors and community members about their public safety needs. These efforts continued from the murder of Laquan McDonald in 2014 to the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor in 2020. When George Floyd was murdered, the National Alliance Against Racist Political Repression called for a national day of protest on May 30. In Chicago, 20,000 marched or car caravanned into the Chicago Loop. In the following weeks, over 100,000 marched in Chicago. Every protest called for “CPAC now!”

The campaign collected over 60,000 signatures with an average of 1000 signatures in 38 wards. Their efforts proved that victory is only possible with the leadership and experience of the community. This mass movement created the conditions for passing legislation.

By 2021, CAARPR had the support of 19 of the 50 city council members. A competing police accountability legislation, the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA), had the support of 26 of the 50 city council members. Council members of the Socialist Caucus of Chicago told GAPA that they would not cast a vote to support their legislation unless they came to an agreement with the CPAC legislation proposed by CAARPR. After then-mayor Lori Lightfoot refused GAPA’s demand to include control of police policy in their legislation, negotiations between CAARPR and GAPA began, and a compromise was reached two months later.

The Empowering Communities for Public Safety (ECPS) ordinance was passed in the city council and officially created two bodies for police accountability: the Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability (CCPSA) and the police district councils, for which there were elections in February. These bodies have the following powers: Directly investigating crimes of police violence; determining Chicago Police Department policy; hiring and firing the Chief Administrator of the Civilian Office of Police Accountability (COPA); holding hearings about police superintendents; and recommending preventative, proactive, community-based and evidence-based solutions to violence.

These District Councils and the CCPSA go beyond stopping vicious and racist police officers, they hold a model for community members directly affected by racist police violence to see justice and build a regenerative model to change public safety.

Many of the candidates for these boards had never run for public office – they are motivated by their own experiences with police violence. Cynthia McFadden, for example, ran for the board because she was inspired by her father who fled the South due to extreme violence only to be murdered by Chicago police the day of his arrival. Coston Plummer was motivated by his older brother who was forced by Chicago police to falsely confess to a murder when he was just 15 years old. These candidates believe that ECPS represents the will of communities impacted by police violence to finally experience justice.

On February 28, 2023, for the first time in history, residents of Chicago had the opportunity to vote for these boards – resulting in 39 of 66 district councilors being elected from the movement for police accountability. CAARPR, alongside their partners in their community, expanded this grassroots campaign and made it possible to succeed.

From CPAC to ECPS to Brandon Johnson

“The terms of this election were set by the murder of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Across the U.S., 26 million people called for justice – including Brandon Johnson. Brandon Johnson has received the support of the Chicago Alliance because he alone included police accountability and working with ECPS in his platform and campaign. Paul Vallas received support from the FOP to maintain injustice. On February 28, the Black community voted against the FOP and for justice through democratic control of the police in the district council elections,” says Joe Iosbaker, cochair of the Labor Committee of CAARPR.

During a mayoral forum on public safety at the UIC Forum on March 14, Paul Vallas put forth his vision of police accountability by saying, “Community policing fundamentally means, you have beat officers on every beat. So every single beat is covered by a patrol car, manned with officers. Officers know the community, and are known by name and by badge number, by the community.” Vallas has seized on rising concerns for public safety – which have steadily grown as the city of Chicago experiences more violence and believes the only way forward is to increase police presence and grant them more control over the city. Chicago’s FOP, an organization that is nationally known for its hostility towards Black and brown people, threw its support behind Paul Vallas. He welcomed its endorsement and thanked “Chicago’s finest, men and women of the FOP who sacrifice their lives to make our city safer. Reducing crime and making Chicago safer are my top priorities.”

Brandon Johnson has built his public safety platform with the intention of addressing the “root causes of violence and poverty.” Johnson’s campaign for Chicago mayor is not only about the use of community control boards, but about creating an overall model of safety which positions the needs of the community at its center. Johnson argues that public safety is not only about stopping police violence but about investing in generative initiatives such as mental health care and housing.

Johnson believes these measures will prevent systemic violence from attacking Chicago communities. One of his initiatives involves getting rid of the racist “Gang Database,” which currently “labels more than 280,000 people – 95% people of color as gang members without requiring evidence of gang affiliation or informing them of their listing.” The Gang Database has been used to profile and surveil Black neighborhoods, resulting in heightened Black and Latino arrests. Johnson also supports the Anjanette Young Ordinance, which will stop no-knock warrants. He believes in collaborating with the democratically elected District Councils to manage police accountability and decide the Chicago Police Department's policy.

Each of Johnson's initiatives interconnects with the overall needs of the community, including mental health. Within mental health initiatives, Johnston aims to Launch Crisis Response Teams with non-police personnel, reopen all 14 mental health centers, and expand the 988 mental health crisis hotline to 24 hours.

The fight for Brandon Johnson is the fight for justice for the Black and Latino community In Chicago

The mayoral election between Brandon Johnson and Paul Vallas will decide if the city continues the struggle for a public safety plan that includes Black and Latino Chicagoans and its working-class neighborhoods. The grassroots work of the last ten years – the struggle for democratic control of the police – could be upheld through Brandon Johnson’s leadership. For ten years, Chicagoans have fought for police accountability, affirmative mental health treatment, and housing for all community members. Many believe Brandon Johnson’s candidacy represents the work that Black Chicagoans have put toward a movement to see their own collective needs met against systemic violence.

Throughout the ten-year CPAC campaign, CAARPR created a grassroots movement that won a historic ordinance to hold the police accountable. CAARPR responds to the calls for public safety this way: “Black and brown communities are over-policed and under-protected. There’s a reason that 70% of violent crimes in our neighborhoods go unsolved. No one trusts the police. And why would they? After generations of police crimes, like the reign of torturer Jon Burge!” In the words of Frank Chapman, “We want to hold the police accountable for what they do, and what they don’t do.”

CAARPR’s current task is to uphold the advances made by the district council elections through the election of Brandon Johnson, but they will carry forth the mission toward real police accountability, in partnership with the local community, well beyond this mayoral election. We will continue to look to them as leaders in our struggle against state-sanctioned violence.

#ChicagoIL #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #US #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #Elections #ChicagoAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #CommunityControlOfThePolice #BrandonJohnson

Chicago, IL – Brandon Johnson’s campaign for mayor of Chicago held an event at Saint James Community Church on Chicago’s South Side on Thursday, March 16. The event was organized by United Working Families, a movement group behind Johnson.

The purpose of the event was the launch of the offensive to win big on the South Side, the part of the city with the largest Black population.

Johnson was not well known across the city before he announced for mayor. The South and West Sides of the city were mainly won by outgoing Mayor Lori Lightfoot. Two weeks after the February 28 general election, in which Lightfoot came in third behind Vallas and Johnson, polls showed Johnson with support from 63% of Black voters, with pro-cop candidate Paul Vallas only getting 18%.

To overcome the advantages Vallas has with rich donors and among white voters, in the words of Frank Chapman, Field Organizer of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), “The key to victory for Brandon in the runoffs is unity within the Black community and unity between the Black and Latino communities.”

The atmosphere in the church was lively and optimistic as people of all ages waited for the event to begin. Jerk chicken, beef and veggie patties, and fried plantains were served as people mixed and mingled. The church’s electric stairlift was in constant use, shuttling numerous elders and handicapped attendees up two flights of stairs to the sanctuary. The joyful atmosphere was a stark contrast from Johnson’s press conference earlier that morning in which professional hecklers, paid by the Vallas campaign, caused a disturbance and accosted elders.

Over 150 people packed inside the dining room and then the sanctuary. The group was mostly Black, but Latinos and some Asians and white folks were also in attendance. Speakers included organizers, survivors of police violence, students and clergy.

Parish Brown, a South Side organizer, started by telling the crowd about his experience during the bitter fight to stop the city from closing 50 schools on the South and West Sides. He said the four-year struggle culminated in a 34-day hunger strike, “And guess who was a part of that fight?” The audience shouted “Brandon Johnson!” without missing a beat.

Brown went on to detail how he also became involved in the fight to open a Level 1 trauma center on the South Side after his brother was shot. He said, “I remember seeing his blood on the pavement. And it’s people like Brandon Johnson who got involved in that fight to get a Level 1 trauma center, which we have today!”

A South Side small business owner who grew up in Cabrini Green Projects stood up and told the story about how Brandon Johnson changed her life as her seventh-grade teacher in 2007, “with his dreadlocks full of wisdom.” She talked about how he taught them about a range of history topics from Somalia, the Incas and Aztecs, the Great Depression and even public housing. “Mr. Johnson gave us a sense of belonging and listened to us, making us feel loved and respected in his classroom. When he becomes mayor that is exactly how he’ll make the residents of Chicago feel as well.”

Later, participants were split into groups according to their region of the South Side. In the breakout groups, everyone had a chance to say why they were supporting Brandon Johnson and to collectively discuss ways to get him in office. In the breakout group from streets in the 6000s through the 8000s, David Lincoln of CAARPR spoke about being tortured by two cops as a teen. He said, “We need to elect Brandon to help hold the police accountable, working with the district councilors.” He said we can’t have Vallas, because Vallas thinks the cops “already have too many restrictions.”

A woman from the Southeast Side breakout group cited Brandon’s participation in the ongoing fight for housing justice in Chicago as proof of his dedication to the people and as the reason for her support. Other participants in her breakout group were attracted to the campaign by Brandon’s plans for economic justice and his summer youth employment strategy to increase public safety. As the group nodded in agreement, Julio Miramontes, a Latino resident who ran for District Council on February 28 summed the discussion up by saying, “We’re trying to build a multi-racial, multi-generational coalition so at the end of the day it’s not just Brandon up there. We could have progressive aldermen up there, progressive state reps, and one of them could be us.”

#ChicagoIL #Elections #PoliceBrutality

Los Angeles, CA – Dr. Rocio Rivas was finally declared winner in the highly anticipated Los Angeles Unified School District board race for District 2. On December 13 she was sworn in at an LAUSD board meeting. Board member and longtime human rights activist Jackie Goldberg gave her the oath of office while surrounded by family.

LAUSD District 2 includes East LA, Boyle Heights and several other east area communities. The LAUSD is the second largest in the nation, with majority Chicano students.

In her acceptance speech, Rivas thanked the community, mothers and union members for running a grassroots campaign, pointing out the key role of women in our history of struggle for equality. She spoke of fighting racism and supporting the working class, and how her and family moved to LA from Mexico and their struggles. Rivas acknowledged the history of struggle for public education by the Chicano movement and acknowledged several activists including Carlos Montes.

Dr. Rivas ran a grassroots race with door-to-door canvassing and local outreach efforts. United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) had also endorsed Dr. Rivas ran an excellent independent campaign on her behalf. As of December 1, votes total showed Dr. Rivas ahead with 55,159 to loser Maria Brenes with 49,927 votes, a clear victory.

Dr. Rocio Rivas is a parent of an LAUSD student, has a PhD in education, and studied education systems in South America and Europe. She is critical of the neoliberal politics that target privatization of public resources like education. She works with current board member Jackie Goldberg.

The choices were clear, with Dr. Rocio Rivas advocating for public education and holding charter schools accountable. Defeated candidate Maria Brenes had hollow slogans about educational choices, and supported charter schools like KIPP Promesa, which attempted to build a large school in Boyle Heights. Centro CSO organized and sued successfully and in April stopped this KIPP Promesa charter school.

But the community and public did not fall for the million-dollar campaign for Brenes with four to five mailers per week. Brenes benefited from millions from Netflix owner Reed Hastings and big developers. Toward the end, Brenes started sending false attack pieces against Dr. Rivas, but to no avail.

Brenes also had an independent campaign effort directed by the same consultant for Sheriff Alex Villanueva, Javier Gonzalez. A former labor activist, Javier Gonzalez sold out for the money and the politics of hate promoted by now former LA Sheriff Villanueva – who lost his reelection bid. Brenes has been employed by the non-profit InnerCity Struggle with her husband Luis Sanchez. ICS is a fake grassroots group that pretends to do social justice advocacy, but in reality, is anti-union and supports the privatization of public education.

The defeat came despite the millions spent on Brenes’s behalf and came ten years after her husband was defeated in a similar race for LAUSD. The unity of parents, teachers and students to fight for public education made it possible for Dr. Rivas’s victory.

#LosAngelesCA #ChicanoLatino #LAUSD #PublicEducation #Elections