Sara Rich is an activist and a tireless advocate for her daughter, Army Specialist Suzanne Swift, who is awaiting a court-martial for refusing to return to Iraq under the command of a sergeant who raped her. Today Sara Rich travels around the U.S., speaking out against the war and military sexual violence. Fight Back! interviewed Sara Rich on Oct. 28.

Fight Back! interviewed Carlos Montes, one of the founders and former Minister of Information of the Brown Berets National Office in East Los Angeles from 1967 to 1970. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Brown Berets emerged as one of the most powerful and militant organizations in the Chicano liberation movement. Like the Black Panther Party, the Brown Berets were hit hard by government repression. This interview brings out a part of our history that is rarely taught in schools and some lessons for today’s activists from our movement’s past.

Interview with Parents of Police Murder Victims

Fight Back! talked on May 8 with Elizabeth (Bonnie) Moore, whose son Rasheed, 26, was killed in January by Newark, NJ police officer Thomas Ruane (see Fight Back! March/April 2005.) Fight Back! also talked with Earl Williams, whose son Earl Faison was killed by Orange, NJ policemen in April of 1999. After a struggle of five years, led by the Faison’s family and by the People’s Organization for Progress, four cops were sentenced to terms of 33 months each for violations of the victim’s civil rights. One officer was sentenced to nine years.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People’s Army (FARC-EP) is the largest rebel group in Colombia. Freedom Road Socialist Organization members Kosta Harlan and Erika Zurawski recently traveled to the rebel held territory and met with commanders of the FARC-EP. Fight Back! interviewed these American revolutionaries to discuss the struggle in Colombia.

Fight Back! interviewed Oscar Silva, the Colombian lawyer for U.S. political prisoner and Colombian revolutionary Ricardo Palmera. The U.S. government is holding Palmera in a prison cell without access to his lawyer, reporters or his family and friends. Palmera, born to a wealthy family, has dedicated his whole life to the working class and peasant farmers of his country. Palmera’s only crime is to struggle for the Colombian people and their right to rule their own country. The trial is a sham and is an attempt to criminalize one of the leading groups fighting for Colombia’s liberation – the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Interview with Marty Hoerth, Tsione Wolde-Michael and Erika Zurawski

Meredith Aby of Fight Back! interviewed members of a delegation to Colombia: Marty Hoerth, Tsione Wolde-Michael and Erika Zurawski.

Build a broad united front for immigrant rights

Fight Back! interviews Carlos Montes on the next steps in the struggle for immigrant rights. Montes is a veteran leader in the Chicano liberation movement and is an important leader in the struggle for immigrant rights.

At the May 1 march in Chicago, three busloads of workers and their families came to represent Teamsters Local 743. The union represents workers at hospitals, nursing homes and small manufacturing plants in the Chicago area. The factory workers include a large number of immigrants, mostly from Mexico and Central America.

‘You have to make a commitment, if we want to make changes’

On July 5, writers for Fight Back! interviewed Dolores Huerta. Huerta is a longtime organizer best known as a co-founder of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO (UFW). She is vice president and secretary-treasurer emeritus of that organization, and currently heads the Dolores Huerta Foundation.

Gregg Shotwell, a key leader of rank-and-file autoworkers was interviewed by Fight Back! shortly before the ratification of the Chrysler contract. The contract at Chrysler passed by a relatively narrow margin following an aggressive campaign by UAW officials.

Interview with Rank-and-File Leader Gregg Shotwell

Fight Back! interviewed Gregg Shotwell, a key leader of the rank-and-file movement that is growing inside the United Auto Workers. A worker at the Delphi auto parts plant in Cooperstown, Michigan, Shotwell helped organize the mass meetings of autoworkers that took place over the past two months. These meetings led to the formation of the rank-and-file organization, Soldiers of Solidarity.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) will sit down in August to negotiate a new contract with the Big Three automakers – General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler. Many union activists expect the negotiations to be characterized by concessions to management. Detroit launched an assault on autoworkers years ago, and it continues. For example, GM slashed some 120,000 jobs in the 1990s.

At the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) Medical Center, the Illinois Nurses Association (INA) is in negotiations for a new contract. The bosses here are out to serve the wealthy few that own the healthcare corporations. They have been bombarding workers with attack after attack, and the INA has been actively resisting. Fight Back! interviewed Barb Cleveland, a nurse in the Oncology Clinic, and a member of the INA bargaining committee.

Just after the protest, Fight Back! caught up with Jose Artemio Arreola, a key organizer of the massive protest for immigrant rights that rocked Chicago, March 10. He explained how the Coalition Against HR 4437 built the unity necessary for a turnout of such proportion.

Fight Back! interviewed Ted Ludwig, president of Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association (AMFA) Local 33, the union that is leading the strike against Northwest Airlines.

Interview with Javier Correa, president of SINALTRAINAL

Javier Correa is the president of SINALTRAINAL, the courageous beverage workers’ union, which fights for labor rights in Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia. Coca-Cola-sponsored death squads are responsible for murdering nine Colombian trade unionists. SINALTRAINAL calls for an international boycott of Coca-Cola products because of Coke’s use of paramilitary violence against the union.

Erika Zurawski of Fight Back! interviews two Colombian trade unionists who are in the U.S. through the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center. Jhonny Meneses is a union leader from SINCONSTASCAR (a union of taxi drivers in Cartegena) and an outspoken opponent of U.S. free trade and economic policy in Latin America. Nelson Quijano is a union leader from USO (Oil Workers Union). USO is a leading social force in Colombia. In the spring of 2004, USO went on strike for several months to successfully fight the privatization of the national oil company.

Part Two of an Interview with Miguel Cifuente

Members of the Colombia Action Network, Thistle Parker-Hartog and Meredith Aby, interviewed Colombian peasant leader Miguel Cifuente, the executive secretary of the Cimitarra River Valley Peasant Association. For reasons of space we broke the interview into two parts. The first part can be found in here.

Part 1 of 2

Members of the Colombia Action Network, Thistle Parker-Hartog and Meredith Aby , interviewed Colombian peasant leader Miguel Cifuente, the executive secretary of the Cimitarra River Valley Peasant Association.

Four thousand union members took on the management of one of America’s most elitist bastions of the rich – Yale University. Fight Back! interviewed two leaders of the Yale Strike: Laura Smith, President of Local 34, which represents the Clerical and Technical workers and Shirley Lawrence of Local 35, which represents Service and Maintenance workers.