New Orleans, LA – On Juneteenth, June 19, 40 people braved the threatening New Orleans weather and gathered on the bricked pavement outside the federal building on Poydras Street to rally for victims of police murder and Black voting rights.

Just five days earlier, police officers in Senatobia, Mississippi, opened fire on a car in a Walmart parking lot, killing Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old Black baby. In stark contrast, banners for the forthcoming 250-year anniversary of the U.S. decorated the columns of the Hale-Boggs Federal Building. The banners featured the so-called Founding Fathers, many of whom owned slaves.

Sister Shanta Scott, whose own son, Jace Lee Scott, was murdered in 2019 by the son of Police Officer Victor Gant Jr., took the mic first and reminded the crowd that Juneteenth wasn’t just a celebration, it was a call to action.

“Freedom delayed is freedom denied,” Scott said, “and that lesson still applies today.” She detailed the long history of Black struggle and revolt in this country before stressing that it was our generation’s responsibility to fight for justice and accountability. “Political power is not given. Political power is organized. Political power comes from community standing together and demanding accountability.”

Scott concluded with an impassioned rendition of Sam Cooke’s A Change is Gonna Come before raising her fist and crying out, “All power to the people!”

Toni Jones of the New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NOAARPR) addressed the crowd. She uplifted Kohen Wiley and connected that death to Jace Lee Scott’s murder.

NOAARPR will be hosting a press conference on Saturday, June 27 to call out New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno for her silence and refusal to fire Victor Gant Jr, who is under her direct employ.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #Juneteenth #NAARPR #KohenWiley #InjusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #JaceLeeScott

New Orleans, LA – On Saturday, June 6, community members and organizers rallied for a noise demonstration outside the Ogden Art Museum's annual Magnolia Ball Fundraiser. They demanded federal murder charges be brought against Andrew Gant for his role in the 2019 murder of Jace Lee Scott. The demonstrators also demanded Gant’s father, NOPD officer Victor Gant Jr, be fired from the New Orleans Police Department for corruption.

Jace's mother, Sister Shanta Scott, has been fighting to get justice for her son Jace's murder since 2019. Through information requests, she was able to get police records that showed that Andrew Gant called his father, NOPD’s Victor Gant, before 911 as Jace was on the ground dying.

“The last thing we need is police policing the police. And the city council won't listen to us. The mayor has ignored my letters. So now we're here at this fundraising event to make sure they know we won't stop demanding justice for my son and all families impacted by police violence,” said Sister Shanta Scott to the crowd outside the event.

Over 20 people banged on drums and cookware, chanted, and blew whistles to disrupt the event and call attention to the continuing injustice.

Vonne Crandell of the New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression highlighted the class discrepancy at play, saying, “While they [city council members, NOPD] are inside having their fancy gala, you know who's out here demanding justice? The people! And it's these same city officials that are supposed to serve us that not only turned a blind eye to this perversion of justice, they aided and abetted in this criminal cover-up.”

A friend of one of the demonstrators attended the fundraiser and informed them that Mayor Helena Moreno had opted to not show up, despite it being on her event calendar.

Moreno has been a target of the campaign since Shanta Scott sent her a letter in April 2026 demanding her to take action and fire Victor Gant Jr. The New Orleans Alliance and Jace Scott’s family plan to continue targeting the mayor’s calendar of events to pressure a response from her on the case.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #InJusticeSystem #NOAARPR #NAARPR

New Orleans, LA – On May 16, in the historic Bywater district, Freedom Road Socialist Organization hosted a comprehensive panel on Iran and the current Iran War started by U.S. and Zionist aggression. The panel also covered how this war relates to the current and historical student movement.

The panel included four activists from the local anti-war movement and student movements. All spoke on why this war is an act of aggression from U.S. imperialists and its loyal Zionist lapdog, Israel, in occupied Palestine.

Piece by piece, the panel destroyed the genocidal propaganda put out by Western media, which are hostile to anti-imperialist resistance anywhere, especially when the resistance is effective. One speaker, Miu Sims, informed the audience that this mass resistance existed in the Vietnam War student movements, as well as today on campuses. Student activists today must be unrelenting in the face of the powerful, but not unbeatable, opponent: U.S. imperialism.

The panel went on to dispel the lie that this war is being fought to “help” the women of Iran. They reminded the audience that this war benefits only the American elites, as no average American benefits from the destruction of Iranian infrastructure and the slaughter of schoolgirls.

Furthermore, the panel clarified that this war is about Iran’s role in the region’s Axis of Resistance, defending oppressed nations from constant imperialist attacks.

Charlie Schully, another member of the panel, stressed that it is important to support victory to all oppressed nations fighting against the tentacles of imperialism. Schully and the other panelist went on to say that true anti-imperialists want Iran to win decisively, as a blow to imperialism in West Asia is a blow against imperialists everywhere.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #AntiWarMovement #Iran

New Orleans, LA – A crowd of around 40 attended the NOLA Freedom Forum on May 15 to hear from local anti-war activists about their successful campaign to remove Chevron as a sponsor of French Quarter Fest. The activists, largely members of New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports (NOSHIP), presented “Stop Fueling Genocide: Chevron Out of French Quarter Fest Campaign” as a public summation of their efforts.

The struggle, called the “Chevron Out of French Quarter Fest Coalition”, brought together anti-war activists, pro-Palestine organizers, local musicians, and a robust collection of organizations such as Jewish Voices for Peace, New Orleans Democratic Socialists of America, Sunrise Movement New Orleans, and NOLA Musicians for Palestine.

NOSHIP members spoke about the primary platforms – ecocide and genocide – which formed the basis of their public campaign against Chevron.

Organizer Matt Banks spoke about the damage that Chevron has caused to the region’s coast, which led to a Plaquemines Parish jury finding the corporation liable for the loss of 50% of the parish’s land. On April 17 of this year, Chevron won a lawsuit against Plaquemines Parish at the Supreme Court, requiring the case to be removed to federal court. “But this is standard practice for Chevron,” Banks said. From Ecuador to occupied Palestine, where Chevron owns the two largest oil fields, Chevron has gotten rich off of the suffering of other nations.

The organizers explained why and how they chose French Quarter Fest as their target and how they built a strategic coalition. For 13 years, Chevron and French Quarter Fest were considered synonymous, another organizer said, pointing to their website that still features a second line parade with a “Chevron” sign on the front. Chevron Out of French Quarter Fest proved that to be untrue. They noted that, in fact, French Quarter Fest existed for 29 years without Chevron as a primary sponsor.

NOSHIP helped organize teach-ins, public campaigns, petitions and protests that built awareness, another organizer said. They conducted power mapping and identified their primary targets, and they wrote a letter to the French Quarter Fest Board asking them to drop Chevron as early as October of 2025. As a result, they could identify their allies and opponents and develop their strategy. The Coalition got hundreds of signatures on their petition the day they launched their campaign in October.

Melina Diner, another organizer with NOSHIP, discussed the timeline of the coalition’s success and their planned action with the musicians. On February 20, they learned that Chevron would be completely pulling out of its sponsorship of French Quarter Fest in 2027, but they would still sponsor the event this year. This allowed the organizers time to plan an “Oil Free Afterparty” to celebrate.

At French Quarter Fest, instead of staging a disruption, attendees handed out small Palestine flags, donned keffiyehs, and wore “Chevron Out” shirts. The public and the musicians supported them. Four bands in total made statements in support of Palestine, Diner noted. The New Orleans Police Department was ruthless, however, threatening to escalate against them for wearing matching shirts and giving out flags. “But, you’re wearing matching shirts and wearing flags too!” Diner said, evoking laughter from the audience.

The public summation closed with a message of hope, noting that Chevron Out got their lessons from successful BDS campaigns in Austin and Denver. “We hope that our campaign can help the next one win, too,” Banks said.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #NOSHIP #Palestine #AntiWarMovement

Baton Rouge, LA – On May 2, students from Baton Rouge High School and Liberty High School marched from the Louisiana State Capitol to reactionary Governor Jeff Landry’s mansion to demand “ICE out of everywhere!” This comes alongside a string of nationwide high school walkouts to celebrate International Workers’ Day.

International Workers’ Day, or May Day, is a holiday celebrating workers’ struggles. Trump’s attacks on the working class and deportations are hitting immigrants the hardest. The students carried on the legacy of hundreds of years of organizing by uniting on May Day to protest ICE attacks.

Baton Rouge High senior Selah Cheong said, “America was built on immigration through waves of newcomers who provided the essential labor, innovation and cultural diversity needed to transform the colonies into a global industrial power.”

Gabriela DeJean of Louisiana State University’s (LSU) Students for a Democratic Society continued by saying, “May Day is a day to celebrate the unbreakable spirits of workers. Immigrants brought May Day back onto the streets in 2006 when thousands of immigrants marched across this country demanding legalization for all.”

These students planned to walk out on Friday but faced threats from administration of not being able to graduate. This hostility came after Jeff Landry threatened the predominantly Black admins’ jobs if they allowed a walkout to happen. Landry has a long track record of meddling in public school affairs. He has signed a bill requiring schools to display the ten commandments, created an initiative to expand private school vouchers and take away resources from public schools, and was responsible for the firing of a law professor at LSU.

Landry also signed Act 399, which mandates cooperation with ICE agents and criminalizes any interference with federal immigration enforcement, to align Louisiana with Trump’s mass deportation campaign.

Ziad Eissa of Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “We are here to tell Landry and Trump we will not tolerate ICE in our state. The enemy is monopoly capitalism, and our allies are workers, documented or not.”

Since ICE’s attacks, some families have opted to keep their children home out of fear of separation. At LSU, university police collaborated with ICE to arrest two Iranian students in