News and Views from the People's Struggle
Houston, TX – On July 8, activists with Malaya-Texas and Bayan, U.S.-based Filipino organizations, held events across the state of Texas against the repressive legislation enacted in the Philippines – the Republic Act 1147, also called Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
Houston, TX – The police murder of George Floyd, the catalyst of a national and now global wave of mass demonstrations against anti-Black racism and police brutality, took place in Minneapolis. But Floyd was a son of Houston, Texas, a longtime and much beloved neighborhood personality of the Third Ward, one of the city’s historic centers of African-American life. Judging by the sheer size of the recent protests in Houston, Floyd’s home city will never forget him.
Houston, TX – July 4 saw union educators push for freedom for refugees and undocumented families. After a daylong meeting of the annual National Education Association’s annual Representative Assembly, a massive group of educators demonstrated their anger at Trump’s concentration camps for children and families.
Houston, TX – On May 22, 50 students disrupted and walked out of a Q and A session with U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley hosted by the University of Houston. The protest began minutes after the president of the University of Houston, Renu Khator, extolled Haley’s popularity in a glowing introduction.
Houston, TX – In late August, Hurricane Harvey hit Houston and it caused untold destruction upon the city. Entire neighborhoods were submerged in water, hundreds of people lost their cars to flooding, and there were over three dozen deaths. The city's response was not very good; the well-off middle-class communities received immediate aid, but the working class and predominantly Black and Chicano/Mexicano neighborhoods received little assistance. In Houston's Sunnyside, for example, a predominantly Black neighborhood, there were nearly no FEMA responders and large rescue teams.
Fight Back! intervened Houston resident Lilli Ana Castrillon, late in the evening, Friday, August 25 about the approaching hurricane Harvey.
Houston, TX – During the last elections, Hillary Clinton, who used a sort of bourgeois ‘feminism’ to sell reactionary ideas to the public. Since then, there have been a number of films, such as Wonder Woman, that use images of powerful women to promote a pro-war capitalist agenda. Atomic Blonde is the latest of this genre, which stars Charlize Theron as a kind of female James Bond, who fights communist leaders in the German Democratic Republic, aka East Germany to help the British Intelligence and the CIA stage their famous 1989 coup d’état.
Houston, TX – In the last six months, there have been a few really good pro-Black films: Moonlight, Get Out, and Sleight. The most recent addition to the list of Black Lives Matter era films is director Benny Boom's All Eyez on Me, a movie that chronicles the life of rapper Tupac Shakur. Unlike some films about famous rappers such as Get Rich or Die Trying (50-Cent) and 8 Mile(Eminem), All Eyez on Me has a strong focus on the political dimension of Tupac's music. It also gives a beautiful portrait of his life and the incredible passion with which he made great hip hop music.
Houston, TX – Assembling at the Guadalupe Plaza, angry family members and supporters marched through downtown Houston, June 7, demanding justice for John Hernandez.
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Houston, TX – Governor Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 4, a racist anti-immigrant law, amidst massive opposition, on May 7. The law gives law enforcement the ability to ask any person who “looks undocumented” for their identification papers when detained. Specifically, the law is designed to attack sanctuary cities, and is therefore tied to Trump's attacks on immigrants. It is very similar to SB1070, which passed in Arizona in 2010. The law will legalize racial profiling and create an environment of terror in the Chicano/Mexicano communities.
Houston, TX – There were two May Day events in Houston, Texas. Immigrant rights groups demanding an end to deportations and to defend the rights of undocumented workers organized a noontime march and rally. With some union support, the crowd of hundreds marched to Houston City Hall and rallied on the steps.
Houston, TX – Houston activists held two major actions in Houston to protest Trump's illegal war against Syria, April 7.
Houston, TX – About 20 people rallied in front of City Hall, April 4, to demand Justice for Alva Braziel and Vincent “Vido” Young, both of whom were murdered by Houston police. They passed out a leaflet to people at City Hall with the photo of the cops that killed Alva Braziel with the title “Wanted for murder.”
Zionists driven away
Houston, Texas – On March 27, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) hosted a discussion at the University of Houston called “The Black Radical Tradition and Palestine” with Dr. Gerald Horne, chair of African-American Studies at the University of Houston (UH). Over 50 students and people from the community who showed up to learn about the history of Black activism and about the importance of solidarity between Black people and Palestinians in America.
Over 900 people took to the streets during pre-Super Bowl actions in Houston to protest the reactionary agenda of Donald Trump. Demonstrators came from many struggles, particularly the immigrant rights and anti-racist movements.
Over 1000 people protested at Bush Intercontinental Airport against Trump's Muslim ban. According to various news sources, multiple people are being detained at the airport due to the new executive order. The protesters occupied the international terminal and demanded that all the detained be released. The police tried to disperse the crowd, but were unsuccessful as more people poured into the terminal. There were people both inside and outside. At the height of the action, the entire hallway was filled with people from all walks of life. They chanted, “No more borders!” and ''Stop the hate, stop the fear, Muslims are welcome here.”
On Jan. 20 Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States of America. That same night, the People's Coalition Against Trump, made up of working-class people and organizations, rallied at Houston City Hall in protest of the inauguration.
On Jan. 20 Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States of America. That same night, the People's Coalition Against Trump, made up of working-class people and organizations, rallied at Houston City Hall in protest of the inauguration.
Houston, TX – On Jan. 19 students at the University of Houston (UH) held a walkout to show their disgust with the election of Donald Trump.
Students and activists in Houston are organizing two major actions against the inauguration of Donald Trump. On Thursday, Jan. 19, students at the University of Houston are organizing a walkout. They have created a petition, which demands that the university defend students of color and undocumented students against attacks from the new Trump administration. The students will be walking out at 10 a.m. and hold a rally in front of the library afterwards.
