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.

In Houston, activists publicly spoke against the measure and handed out flyers condemning Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte’s July 3 signing of the law. The organizers, along with allies of the Philippine struggle for social and national liberation, including from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), then dropped a banner from Montrose bridge over US Highway 59, which read “Junk Philippine terror law.”

Malaya’s flyer stated the organization’s reasons for opposing the law. “What is now the ‘Anti-Terrorism Law’ (ATL) is the latest advancement of Duterte’s brutal security policy,” their statement said. “This new law grants the Philippine government unchecked power to define terrorism and extrajudicially punish its citizenry. Under the ATL, Philippine law enforcement is authorized to execute unwarranted arrests, a strategy intended to brutalize and silence political opposition.”

The Malaya statement also demanded that the “U.S. representatives in Texas champion and pass the Philippine Human Rights Act (PHRA) and release an official condemnation of the Anti-Terror Law,” and that they work to “halt all United States weapons and military equipment sales to the Philippines which are used against Filipino people.”

#HoustonTX #Philippines #Texas #JunkTerrorBill

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.

The largest demonstration in Floyd’s honor in Houston occurred on Tuesday, June 2, when an estimated 60,000 people came downtown for a march and rally between the Discovery Green plaza and City Hall some ten blocks away. The massive march rendered the streets between those two locales overflowing with mourners from all quarters of Houston.

Hometown rappers Trae tha Truth and Bun B led the official remembrance ceremony. Their presence was appropriate given Floyd’s background in Houston hip-hop. In the 1990s, Lloyd rapped as “Big Floyd,” on several DJ Screw mixtapes. “Screwtapes,” as the mixtapes are called, remain a central fixture of Houston’s music history. Originally pressed in cassette form, they constitute a special (and quite extensive) collection from the legendary DJ Screw of slowed, remixes of hip-hop and R&B classics.

Those tapes also functioned as Screw-curated freestyle marathons showcasing local talent, especially in the Third Ward. Big Floyd shined memorably on his Screwtape appearances, rhapsodizing on Third Ward life on tapes such as “So Tired of Ballin” and “Sittin On Top of the World.”

Members of Floyd’s family were present. Also in attendance were organizations representing Black Houston life in all of its diversity, including the Lil Nas X-endorsed horsemen and women of the Nonstop Riders, an urban trail riding club out of the Third and Fifth Ward neighborhoods.

Although the event was city-endorsed and organized on terms friendly with the Houston Police Department, at several city intersections on the walk back to Discovery Green, cops clad in riot gear clashed with mostly Black protesters.

On both June 2 and earlier during a protest on Friday, May 29th, riot police surrounded for several hours, attacked using tear gas, and then, after the official events and out of media’s view, arrested hundreds of protestors, including passersby’s – jailing some for up to 36 hours without notifying arrestees’ family and friends of the nature of the charges.

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo has pulled off a tremendous PR stunt this past week, earning national plaudits as a “model police chief” for several viral videos in which he professes to be on the side of protestors. Conveniently, he lies by blaming clashes between his department and protestors on outsider agitators from Austin.

Moreover, Acevedo is hiding from anger around his officers’ recent killings of six people over the past six weeks. The footage of one killing to which the public does have access—that of 27-year-old Nicolas Chavez—contradicts Acevedo’s testimony that Chavez was a dangerous aggressor. In fact, the man was shot surrounded and on his knees, executed in the manner of a death squad.

Perhaps an appropriate way for Houstonians to honor the late George Floyd is to demand justice locally for similar victims of police murders at the hands of the HPD. And, of course, to invoke the Floyd’s memory wherever and whenever possible. Such efforts are already underway. At his old stomping grounds at Cuney Homes and in Montrose off Westheimer, his nickname has been graffiti-pasted to walls in broad letters and bright paint: “RIP Big Floyd.”

#HoustonTX #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #GeorgeFloyd

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.

Rank-and-file education workers organized the protest within less than 48 hours of arriving at the convention. The group marched around a detention center located in downtown Houston, holding signs reading “Free the children!” and “Close the camps!” As they marched, they chanted “Up up with education! Down, down with deportation!”

One Latina educator shared her thoughts on why this issue is important to educators, “We know that children need to feel safe in order to learn. We know that families need to be reunited to have a solid foundation for learning. And these families need a just pathway to citizenship.”

The protest was part of a wave of national protests aimed at ending the Trump administration’s concentration camps and family separation policy.

#HoustonTX #PeoplesStruggles #concentrationCamps #NationalEducationAssociation

As Haley began to remark on her “very busy few weeks in American foreign policy,” Mohamad Fattouh, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine at UH, stood up and called out Haley’s complicity in the murder of Palestinian protesters: “Nikki Haley, the blood is on your hands! You continue to sign off on the genocide of a native people!” Visibly shaken, Haley stammered and muttered “geez!” under her breath as Fattouh continued: “You are an accomplice to terrorists and colonizers!”

Moments after Fattouh’s statement, students began chanting pro-Palestinian slogans. “Haley, Haley, you can’t hide, you sign off on genocide!” “Nikki, Nikki, can’t you see, you are on a killing spree!” went another, proclaimed by students holding up Palestinian flags.

After the protesters brought the event to a halt for over two minutes, security personnel escorted them out of the building. The students had taken up the bulk of the center aisles in the spacious auditorium, their absence thus leaving a huge empty space in the auditorium seating area for the remainder of Haley’s talk. The students then continued their protest in front of the building in which Haley was speaking.

“As a Palestinian living in the belly of the beast, the action was an outlet to directly confront someone so complicit in the ongoing genocide of my own people and find a bridge between the disconnect that exists when organizing within the U.S.,” said SJP UH member Sarah Abdulmooti, one of the organizers of the disruption. “In that moment, every name and picture of those killed in Gaza over the past months crossed my mind.”

The blood on Nikki Haley’s hands

The immediate impetus for the disruption was Haley’s recent remarks before the UN Security Council that Israel, which is financially and military backed by the U.S., showed “restraint” after snipers from the Israeli Defense Force massacred more than 100 Palestinian protesters and wounded thousands of others in the Gaza Strip between late March and mid-May.

The Palestinian protests from the besieged Gaza Strip occurred between March 30 and May 15, the 70th anniversary of the Nakba, Arabic for “the catastrophe,” when armed Zionist militias carried out ethnic cleansing campaigns against Palestinians to establish the state of Israel in historic Palestine in 1948. Named the “Great March of Return,” the protests marked a major effort by Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return by foot to their homeland.

After her May 15 remarks at the UN praising Israel’s aggression, Haley walked out of the room once the Palestinian envoy to the UN, Riyad Mansour, began to speak. Haley’s contemptuous gesture denied the Palestinian people even the pretense of having their voices heard. On May 22, students at the University of Houston, many of whom were Palestinian, got to walk out on Haley.

“For every ‘Free free, free Palestine’ we chanted, there’s real people behind it suffering under the oppression and occupation Israel imposes,” Sarah Abdulmooti remarked. “For every ‘Nikki Haley you will see, Palestine will be free’ there was assurance for everyone listening that we will never let our martyrs die in vain and a liberated Palestine will undoubtedly happen in our lifetime.”

No war propagandists on campus

The day before the disruption, on May 21, SJP at UH released a statement condemning the university’s decision to host Haley. “Nikki Haley embodies the racism inherent in the U.S.’s anti-Palestinian position,” the statement read. “In inviting Nikki Haley to its campus, the University of Houston demonstrates how little it cares about the safety and concerns of its students, including the large community of Palestinians that attend and contribute to UH’s diversity.”

A total of 12 other student organizations signed onto the statement, including Students for a Democratic Society at UH, members of which also participated in the disruption.

On the day of the disruption, SDS at UH likewise released a statement condemning Haley’s presence on campus for her warmongering against Syria, Venezuela and North Korea, in addition to Palestine. “We see our future and our stability conjoined to the cause of peace – not the endless military expansion that Haley clearly represents,” the SDS statement made clear. The statement also said that war propagandists “are not welcome at our university.”

Video footage and photographs of the disruption of Haley has since gone viral across a number of media outlets across the globe, including a number of Arabic-language media based in the Arab world such as Al Hadaf and Al Mayadeen. The popularity of the video across Palestinian media demonstrates the importance of confronting the powerful for their crimes in whatever ways possible.

A Palestinian community member in Houston known as Dr. Rezak emphasized that the youth-organized protest was very moving to witness for older generations of Palestinians. Dr. Rezak said the protest “showed that our new generation of Palestinians, even when they are living far away, are not going to give up their rights to Palestine, to Jerusalem, and the Right of Return.” Rezak added, “For me, it shows that we’ve been successful in passing the torch. My daughter was protesting Nikki Haley right at the front, and I was very proud, for although she was born in Houston, she understands.”

#HoustonTX #AntiwarMovement #US #PeoplesStruggles #Trump #DonaldTrump #NikkiHaley

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.

Two weeks later, students at UH sent a group of volunteers to donate goods to vital community mobilization and services organized in the wake of Harvey's devastation. This initiative was organized and led by Black organizations, to serve Black communities. Working together, these organizations have gathered and distributed food, water, clothes, and other essential items. They have assisted with overhauling homes destroyed by flood waters.

Patrick Higgins, an organizer with SDS says, “We in SDS are proud to do our part to assist in serving the poorest of Houston. It was poor communities of color hit the hardest by Harvey's rainwaters, much the same as it was in New Orleans before us, much as it has been the past decade all across the U.S. Gulf coast.”

Higgins continued, “While both city and federal government apparently have the military resources to impose a ‘curfew’ of one of the largest cities in the country in order to police poor people more aggressively, state services and brand name aid NGOs are nowhere to be found in Northeast Houston to meet human need. This truly is yet another Katrina, another racist barbarity of the capitalist system, where countless families are left to pick up the pieces of their lives from a manmade disaster only for the system's cheap salesmen to insist on calling these events ‘natural.’”

Students for a Democratic Society is continuing to organize students at the University of Houston to help with the relief effort. Please see their Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/houstonsds/) for updates.

#HoustonTX #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #EnvironmentalJustice #HurricaneHarvey

Fight Back!: It is Friday at 11 p.m. in Houston. How is the weather? What is likely to happen? Lilli Ana Castrillon:“It is raining hard and the wind is very, very strong. It has been this way for four hours now. I believe flooding is going to be all over this part of Texas for the next few days.”

Fight Back!: Harvey is a category 4 hurricane that just reached land in Texas. What are you and other people doing to prepare for this?

Castrillon: “We have supplies; lots of water, candles, food, etc. Enough for the next few days. The place I'm staying is relatively safe. Lots of people have evacuated. We lost power around 8:30 p.m. We can see the floods already.”

Fight Back!: Do you remember when hurricane Katrina refugees were forced to live in the Astrodome?

Castrillon:“Yes it was awful. People went thru a lot. I have a friend that was a reporter for Univision. He said that it was like a refugee camp in a war zone. My friend said it was really, really bad and he could not believe what he was seeing there. Then Barbara Bush, President George W. Bush's mother, said that after all, the people from New Orleans were much better off there because they didn't have much anyway.

#HoustonTX #EnvironmentalJustice #HurricaneHarvey

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.

The film is set in 1989 in Berlin right before the counter-revolutionary coup against the socialist government of East Germany. The film reproduces a common theme of Cold War anti-communist propaganda, which makes communists look like impersonal monsters, while portraying the imperialists as heroic. Each communist in the film is portrayed as violent, monstrous and lacking in subjectivity, while the hero of the film, British intelligence agent Lorraine Broughton, is portrayed as clever and intelligent. The plot of the film is extremely simplistic, and is centered around her mission to retrieve a list, the details of which are never revealed. The film mobilizes some very aesthetically pleasant imagery and music to deaden our senses to anti-communist ideas that this film is promoting.

Throughout the film, we see agent Lorraine murdering communists, who are depicted as dangerous and beast-like. The film creates a one dimensional good guy/bad guy framework, where the imperialists are the good guys who help save Germany from communists, who are depicted as the bad people.

Atomic Blonde is full of stereotypes about socialism, and particularly East Germany. Although West and East Germany are geographically in the same climate, the West is always depicted as full of light and having a nice climate, while East Germany is depicted as dark and depressing. They don't show the homeless people in West Germany who died during cold winters as a result of capitalism, nor the well-fed people in East Germany who had free healthcare and universal education. Instead, the film depicts the socialist German Democratic Republic as a kind of hell, while depicting West Germany as 'free' and 'democratic.' We don't learn about the heroic anti-fascists in East Germany, and the post-socialist persecution of them. In short, there is no context that would allow the spectator to make a critical analysis of socialism in the German Democratic Republic, which was not a perfect society but most certainly not the type of hell depicted in Atomic Blonde.

The film is interlaced with bourgeois newsreels from that period, which show anti-communist protesters in both West and East Germany, with the commentators celebrating their 'resistance.' In Atomic Blonde, the British Intelligence agent Lorraine Broughton helps counter-revolutionaries to overthrow the socialist government of the German Democratic Republic. Having not grown up in that period, I was amazed at how similar this is with our current times, in which the capitalist-controlled media continually shows right-wing protesters in Venezuela who are trying to bring down the democratically elected government of Nicolas Madura.

The worst part about Atomic Blonde is that the film portrays a powerful, independent woman, but all her independence and power is bound up with her job as an agent of British intelligence. She is a female James Bond who can fight, but all the people she fights and kills are communists, who were working to create a society with women's liberation on its agenda. Indeed, the German Democratic Republic was a society where women held important positions in the government, and there was a strong climate in East Germany of fighting against sexism. Atomic Blonde is a film about a woman who does the job of the capitalists to fight against a society that made significant gains for women.

#HoustonTX #PeoplesStruggles #Movies #Capitalism #feminism

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.

The film begins with a voiceover giving a stirring speech about the fight against racist discrimination and the struggle for Black liberation. After the opening credits, it starts with a scene of a Black Panther rally, in which we see Tupac's mother, Afeni Shakur, being released from prison after doing time for her political activities. The first few scenes highlight his mother’s political commitment in the Black Panther Party, and also focus on his stepfather’s role in the Republic of New Afrika (RNA) organization. There is an interesting scene, in which Tupac is attending a class about African-American history taught by his stepfather Mutulu Shakur at the Republic of New Afrika school. He tells the youth, “You must be willing to live for something, and you must be willing to die for something.” The film then follows the way that Tupac put this principle into action by committing his life to making socially-conscious hip hop music.

Throughout the film, All Eyez on Me tries to draw a historical continuity between the Black Liberation Movement of the sixties and Tupac's music of the nineties. There is one scene in which Tupac's mother states that her son is a new Black leader and that his music is a new movement for the liberation of Black people. In the film, Tupac continually emphasizes how his music can allow oppressed people a voice to directly discuss their struggles and empower them to resist against this oppression. There is one scene in which Tupac stands up against the owners of Interscope Records because they demand he tone down his music to make it more marketable (particularly criticizing his song Brenda’s Got a Baby). Director Benny Boom depicts Tupac as someone who put his principles before money and fame, with the intent of inspiring change through his music.

The film also shows how the FBI will go to great lengths to silence revolutionaries who fight for the liberation of oppressed people. In the first part of the film, there is a scene in which Tupac's father is on the front of a newspaper as a wanted man, and his mother is harassed and followed by FBI agents. There is a scene in which his home is raided by the FBI, who arrest his father for his political activities and bring about false charges against him. I found this scene to be disturbing, as it reminded me of my fellow comrades in the anti-war movement who had their homes raided by the FBI in 2010 and continue to face political repression. The film emphasizes the terrible brutality of the FBI agents and the police.

Once Tupac is famous, his mother warns him that the state will go to great lengths to silence him, both through direct repression and through promoting a destructive lifestyle. Throughout the film, we see the police harassing Tupac, we follow him in prison and witness the crimes that the police commit against him, and see how the bourgeois media continually tried to ruin his career. The film tries to show how Tupac stood by his principles and remained a good person even when many were trying to destroy him.

All Eyez on Me gives a very accurate depiction of his life, his path to becoming a successful rapper, and the struggles he faced throughout his life. Demetrius Shipp Jr. does a great job acting as Tupac, and even resembles him – some scenes it looks as if Tupac had risen back from the dead. All Eyez on Me is a must-see for everyone, whether one is a Tupac fan or not.

#HoustonTX #Movies #TupacShakur

Houston, TX – Assembling at the Guadalupe Plaza, angry family members and supporters marched through downtown Houston, June 7, demanding justice for John Hernandez.

John Hernandez, 24, was killed in a chokehold by both Sheriff Deputy Shauna Thompson and her husband Terry Thompson. The killing occurred on May 28 outside of a Denny’s restaurant and in front of John Hernandez’s wife and daughter.

According to witnesses and video, John Hernandez was outside of the Denny’s restaurant and an altercation occurred during which the Deputies Thompsons restrained and choked Hernandez.

Susana Santana, the aunt of John Hernandez helped organize the protests, along with other organizations like Familias Inmigrantes y Estudiantes en la Lucha (FIEL) Houston.

“We want the Thompsons to be jailed for what they did. This is an injustice!” says Santana.

Chanting, “What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now!” the protesters went through downtown, stopping directly outside of Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg’s office to hold a sit-in, then ending the march at the Harris County sheriff’s office.

Since the protests and press conferences, Sheriff Deputy Shauna Thompson has been put on desk-duty, but partner Terry Thompson has not been arrested.

“We will be holding a vigil tonight, June 7, at Kim Ogg’s office at 7:00 p.m.,” says Santana. “Please help us demand the Thompsons be jailed for what they did to John Hernandez.”

The family and loved ones of Hernandez urge all to show their solidarity by either donating to the Go Fund Me here John Hernandez Medical Expenses , and to like the official family-led Justice for John Hernandez page on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/justiceforJohnHernandez/ .

#HoustonTX #PoliceBrutality #PeoplesStruggles #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism

(Fight Back! News/Staff)”)

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.

Three cities in Texas and two counties have decided to sue the state over SB4, as has the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). The police chief of the Houston Police Department, Art Acevedo, spoke out against the law. He made public statements that he would not support a law that would turn Houston police officers into ICE agents. Unfortunately, Mayor Sylvester Turner specifically spoke out against the city taking any legal action at a state level against this new anti-immigrant legislation.

About 50 activists yesterday gathered May 21 in front of the Houston Police Department headquarters to demand that HPD not enforce the law. Even though Acevedo stated he would use his powers as police chief to make sure it isn't enforced, the protest made demands on the whole police department, which has a dirty history of killing Black and brown people. They chanted, “No SB4, no Trump no Pence, no fascist USA!” and “Hey, hey, ho, ho, SB4 has got to go!” Afterwards, they marched to City Hall and were met by a large group of protesters from Black Lives Matter, who were holding a rally.

David Smith, with Houston Socialist Movement said, “The enactment of Senate Bill 4 presents a significant danger to undocumented immigrants, to people of Mexican descent in general, and to other people of color. This new ‘Show Me Your Papers Law’ will lead to more unjustified deportations, more separation of families, more racial profiling, more violations of supposed constitutional rights, more unreported crimes, and more pain and misery for many people.”

Smith continued, “The Houston Police Department already has a long, ugly history of murdering and abusing people. Now HPD Chief Art Acevedo says he will make sure his officers enforce SB 4 even though he opposed its passage. To this, we can only say: Hell no. SB 4 is a racist, anti-worker law, and it should not be enforced. HPD should not serve as immigration agents. No more deportations. Stop breaking up families. End racial profiling! Stop police murders and brutality.”

Patrick Donovan with Students for a Democratic Society said, “The word I want to emphasize is 'escalate.' Escalate struggle on campuses to pressure our administrations, escalate struggle in our workplaces and on the streets to obstruct this law at every turn – escalate, escalate, escalate.”

The protest was organized by Brown Berets de TejAztlan, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Houston Socialist Movement, Latinos Inmigrantes Triunfadores, MORENA-Houston SW, and Party for Socialism and Liberation.

#HoustonTX #ImmigrantRights #PeoplesStruggles #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism #Immigration

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.

Fight Back! newspaper was widely distributed to the crowd. One worker, Jim Fratino, said, “It’s nice to read news that provides coverage on the fight against the Trump administration from a working-class perspective. I hope to see more issues of Fight Back! news next time I attend a demonstration or protest!”

The other May Day action was held in Guadalupe Plaza in East End, a historically Chicano neighborhood. This rally was organized by Houston Socialist Movement, and brought out 150 people, mostly Chicano and left activists. There were people present from dozens of organizations with a spirit of excitement and joy.

Fabian Van Onzin, a member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, said, “May Day is a day to celebrate the struggles of the working class worldwide. Here in the U.S., working people are involved in a fight against Donald Trump. We should celebrate the massive successful protests organized at airports to oppose the Muslim ban, marches through every major city in the country, and the militant opposition to every one of Trump's attacks. This is the day that we announce to the world that we will continue to make this country ungovernable and that we will fight for a revolution that can make the world a better place.”

#HoustonTX #ImmigrantRights #Labor #Socialism #Mayday

The first action, called by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), was held in front of the Mickey Leland Federal Building. Activists held a Syrian flag and gave speeches denouncing the crimes of the U.S. government against the Syrian people.

Patrick Donovan, chair of SDS at the University of Houston, said, “Regardless of what one thinks about Assad, the U.S. has no right to invade Syria and drop bombs on its people. We demand an immediate end to the Israeli and U.S. bombings in Syria, and a complete end to the war”

The second action was held a little later and attended by well over 25 people. The protesters gathered in one of the busiest intersections in Houston to get the most visibility. They chanted, “Hey Trump, what do you say, how many bombs have you dropped today?” and “Hands off Syria.”

David Michael Smith, a member of the Houston Socialist Movement, stated, “For decades, the U.S. government has wanted to overthrow the government of Syria. In recent years, Washington has funded, trained, and supported reactionary forces trying to overthrow the Syrian regime. Now the flailing, discredited Trump administration has bombed Syria, using the pretext of recent civilian deaths there apparently caused by a chemical agent.”

Smith continued, “The war in Syria has claimed almost half a million lives. The country desperately needs peace and reconstruction – not an act of aggression by the most powerful imperialist country in the world. The racist, misogynist buffoon in the White House may find it in his interest to unleash more destruction and death on Syria, and to divert attention from the mounting scandals in his administration. But many people in the U.S. and throughout the world reject this brazen act of imperialist aggression.”

#HoustonTX #AntiwarMovement #StudentMovement #US #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #StudentsForADemocraticSocietySDS #Syria #HoustonSocialistMovement #DonaldTrump

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.”

Before the rally, activists received calls from Houston Police Department Sargent William Anthony and City Councilmembers Michael Kubosh and Dwight Boykins, asking them not to speak at City Hall. They were trying to intimidate the activists and prevent them from speaking out against police brutality.

After the rally, the organization joined the family of Vincent Young to speak at the city council meeting. The group was placed almost last on the docket, and after three hours of waiting, they were called to speak. The city council was doing everything to silence the voices of opposition to their racist law enforcement practices.

When the community members finally got the chance to speak, the elected officials remained silent and ignored their criticism. The sister of Vincent Young, Melanie Young, said, “That’s it? I see you gave everyone else advice after they spoke but you have nothing to say that can help me? What do you mean, there is nothing you can do?”

The organization ended up being escorted out of City Hall for directing their protest at members of city council. They left the room shouting, “Say his name – Vincent Young!” All African American members of the council left before the group spoke.

Fabian Van Onzin, a member of Students for a Democratic Society said, “It is clear that the police are trying to escape accountability for the crimes that they have committed. City council defends the racist cops who killed Alva Braziel and Vincent Young and refuse to listen to any opposition. We demand that these cops be indicted for the crimes that they have committed.”

The rally was organized by the Justice 4 Alva Braziel Campaign, which is organized by the family of Alva Braziel and Vincent Young.

#HoustonTX #US #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #BlackLivesMatter

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.

Dr. Horne started off the lecture by stating that the main point of his speech was reciprocity. He went on to speak about the ongoing subjugation of the Palestinian people by Israel and the U.S., which still exists to this day. Dr. Horne drew attention to the similarity of the oppression of African Americans and Palestinians, and the overlap between their struggles.

He highlighted how in the same way that people like Alton Sterling and Eric Garner are murdered by the police because they are Black, Palestinians are murdered by the U.S.-backed Israeli forces because they are Palestinian. He pointed out how both face powerful U.S. imperialist forces in their struggle, and that both of their struggles demand self-determination.

Horne explained that for solidarity to exist between the Black and Palestinian community must enter a metaphorical marriage. Horne stated, “Black people have always worked in solidarity with other nationalities, to fight against racism, colonization and oppression.” He indicated the impossibility of fighting against imperialism alone, and that all oppressed people need to unite in a common struggle for national liberation.

“Fighting against oppression the dominant elite seeks to impose has been an essential aspect of this Black radical tradition,” said Horne, adding, “Internationalism and self-determination have been essential aspects of this Black radical tradition.”

He gave examples of Black leaders such as Paul Robeson, who stood in solidarity with Moscow, and Black nationalists who were in solidarity with oppressed peoples movements internationally.

At the end of the lecture, Horne reminded Palestinians and Black people that they must show solidarity by fighting issues which effect both nationalities. Because of the similarity of their struggle, he made a broad call on Black activists to support the struggle of the Palestinian people, and for Palestinian activists to support the African American movement

“I think going forward in the 21st century, reciprocity should be our bible,” Horne said.

After the event, there were interesting discussions between activists from the two movements on how to fight together in a common struggle. A Palestinian student at U of H spoke about what she learned about the oppression of Black people and how white racism and colonialism oppresses all people of color.

Sheryl Riley, a student who attended the event, said, “I am an African American woman, and I didn't really know about Palestine. I was amazed to find out that Palestinians face conditions similar to what Black people faced during Jim Crow, and continue to face today in the era of mass incarceration. This event showed me the importance of supporting the Palestinian people.”

After the lecture, a group of Zionist students who had tried to disrupt the event during the question and answer session were trying to speak to students outside the auditorium. When this was discovered, all the students left the lecture hall and shouted them down with “Free, free Palestine! Occupation is a crime.” The Zionists tried to have a confrontation, but their words were drowned in a sea of loud chanting. This continued for over ten minutes, until the students finally drove them out of the building and off campus.

Riley commented, “I couldn't believe the Zionists in the discussion who were defending Israel. It reminded me of people who deny the existence of racism and then find all sorts of ways to justify it.”

The discussion was part of Israeli Apartheid Week, which consisted of a series of events to draw attention to the illegal military occupation of Palestine by the U.S.-backed state of Israel.

#HoustonTexas #HoustonTX #StudentMovement #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Palestine #US #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #Blacklivesmatter

They began at city hall with some speeches, and then marched to a major site where pre-Super Bowl activities were being held. Because many from Atlanta had come out for the game, they chanted “Move Trump, get out the way, get out the way Trump get out the way,” an allusion to a well-known song by the Atlanta rapper Ludacris. Many of the people attending Super Bowl events loved the chant and started chanting along.

After rallying in front of the George R Brown Convention center, the police attempted to stifle further action by caging the protesters. They would not allow the protesters to march further, which resulted in a large confrontation. They chanted, “Whose streets, our streets” and demanded that police chief Acavedo let them march. After about 30 minutes, the protesters marched past the police and headed to the NRG Stadium where the Super Bowl was taking place.

During the march, the police became aggressive, snatched one of the protesters leading the action, and arrested him. This is only a few days after the police arrested a prominent member of the Peoples New Black Panther Party who was filming a police officer harassing a group of homeless people during a homeless solidarity rally. The police attempted to arrest more protesters at another large rally at the Super Bowl itself.

The action was organized by FIEL, an immigrant’s rights organization, and attended by members of Students for a Democratic Society, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Resist Houston, and Socialist Alternative.

#HoustonTX #ImmigrantRights #US #PeoplesStruggles #Antiracism #Elections

Phillip Scots, a student at the University of Houston, said, “The new Trump administration is attacking Muslims here at home in order to continue their wars abroad. The U.S. has created the refugee crisis by waging war in the Middle East, which has driven people out of their country. By attacking Muslims and undocumented people, they don't address the real problems of society, such as poverty, economic exploitation and homelessness. The real solution to the refugee crisis is a complete end to the war in the Middle East and a society free from all forms of oppression.”

More protests are planned for the coming week, although the exact details have not yet been released

#HoustonTX #US #PeoplesStruggles #immigrantRights #Elections #2016Elections #DonaldTrump

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.

Despite torrential rain and flooding across the city, every organization that was a part of the coalition attended and there was good turnout. They began with some rousing speeches about the importance of the masses to stand up against Trump and his oppressive policies.

The crowd then marched from city hall for over a mile around downtown Houston. The message people wanted to get across was summed up in the most popular chant, “Racist, sexist, anti-gay, Donald Trump you cannot stay!” It may have stormed the entire night, but much as Donald Trump's election was not stopped by weather, the protesters continued to march on. The action ended with one last rally in the pouring rain after people had marched the rest of the way back to city hall.

The protesters attempted to march in the street, but the police rushed on horseback to push the crowd back. No one was arrested. When the rain became torrential at the closing rally, the police on horseback left.

Fabian Sneevliet, with Students for a Democratic Society, said “The masses have come out here in opposition to the inauguration of Donald Trump. We will make this country ungovernable by building the people’s movements to fight back against his racist and sexist policies. Whether it is women or undocumented people we will be in the streets protesting and fighting back. Even if it rains, we will flood the streets with resistance.”

Ian Cox of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “Donald Trump ran his campaign by calling all Mexican and Chicano peoples criminals, by classifying all Arab and Islamic peoples as terrorists, by being a sexist and gloating about his objectification of women and by preaching the ideology of white supremacy. It is important to remember however, that these anti-people policies didn't originate with Trump, they are a symptom of the oppressive capitalist system. The only way working people and oppressed nationalities will ever have true freedom and liberation is if we replace this oppressive system with people-based system, and that system is undoubtedly socialism.”

Some of the organizations that participated were Students for a Democratic Society, Socialist Alternative, the Peoples New Black Panther Party, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

#HoustonTX #US #PeoplesStruggles #Elections #2016Elections

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.

Despite torrential rain and flooding across the city, every organization that was a part of the coalition attended and there was good turnout. They began with some rousing speeches about the importance of the masses to stand up against Trump and his oppressive policies.

The crowd then marched from city hall for over a mile around downtown Houston. The message people wanted to get across was summed up in the most popular chant, “Racist, sexist, anti-gay, Donald Trump you cannot stay!” It may have stormed the entire night, but much as Donald Trump's election was not stopped by weather, the protesters continued to march on. The action ended with one last rally in the pouring rain after people had marched the rest of the way back to city hall.

The protesters attempted to march in the street, but the police rushed on horseback to push the crowd back. No one was arrested. When the rain became torrential at the closing rally, the police on horseback left.

Fabian Sneevliet, with Students for a Democratic Society, said “The masses have come out here in opposition to the inauguration of Donald Trump. We will make this country ungovernable by building the people’s movements to fight back against his racist and sexist policies. Whether it is women or undocumented people we will be in the streets protesting and fighting back. Even if it rains, we will flood the streets with resistance.”

Ian Cox of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “Donald Trump ran his campaign by calling all Mexican and Chicano peoples criminals, by classifying all Arab and Islamic peoples as terrorists, by being a sexist and gloating about his objectification of women and by preaching the ideology of white supremacy. It is important to remember however, that these anti-people policies didn't originate with Trump, they are a symptom of the oppressive capitalist system. The only way working people and oppressed nationalities will ever have true freedom and liberation is if we replace this oppressive system with people-based system, and that system is undoubtedly socialism.”

Some of the organizations that participated were Students for a Democratic Society, Socialist Alternative, the Peoples New Black Panther Party, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

#HoustonTX #US #PeoplesStruggles #Elections #2016Elections

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.

The walkout began at noon and started with a rally followed by a march throughout campus. As the students marched through classrooms they disrupted ongoing classes and encouraged other students to walk out to protest Trump. The student marchers could be heard chanting, “Out of the classrooms, into the streets,” “Hey hey, ho ho, President Trump has to go,” and “Hey Trump, you liar! We’re here to say you’re fired!”

The walkout was organized by Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). Many other left-wing groups attended the student march to show solidarity, including the New People’s Black Panther Party, Socialist Alternative, and Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

#HoustonTX #SDS #US #PeoplesStruggles #Protest #Trump

Also, over a dozen organizations have formed the Peoples Coalition Against Trump, which will be holding the main action on Inauguration Day. They will hold a rally in front of City Hall at 7 p.m. on Jan. 20 and then march to the federal courthouse on Rusk at 7:30.

Their main demands include: defend the rights of undocumented people; stop the attacks on Muslims, women, and people of color; defend the democratic rights of working people; no to racism, sexism, and xenophobia. They will be leafleting at the Martin Luther King Day parade on Monday, and on campus next week.

Some organizations involved in the coalition are the Peoples Autonomist Federation, Students for a Democratic Society, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Houston Area Progressives, the Communist Party USA, Workers World Party, the Peoples New Black Panther Party, the SEIU, and Socialist Alternative.

For more information, please contact the coalition at: houstonagainsttrump@gmail.com

#HoustonTX #StudentMovement #US #PeoplesStruggles #Elections #2016Elections