Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

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By Sol Márquez

LAPD cop caught on video brutalizing Chicano

Los Angeles, CA – The violent attack happened on April 27. The video released was not caught on LAPD Hollenbeck patrol vehicles, nor on body cameras. Instead the video was recorded by a neighbor witness in Boyle Heights.

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By staff

International Workers Day in LA.

Los Angeles, CA – On Friday, May 1, a car protest of over 40 vehicles driven by workers, teachers and activists took to the streets for the sixth consecutive year to celebrate International Workers Day, May Day, in the Boyle Heights neighborhood. Organized by Centro CSO, this year’s May Day protest focused on Trump’s attacks on immigrants and called for free healthcare for COVID-19 patients, support for public education, jailing killer cops and community control over the police.

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By staff

Los Angeles, CA – Luis Sifuentes, of the community group Cento CSO states, “Due to the pandemic and Stay At Home order in Los Angeles, Centro CSO is organizing this year's May Day as a car caravan through Boyle Heights with our demands: Jail killer cops, defend public education, and legalization for all – along with demands for hazard pay, better protections for workers in the front lines during this pandemic and expand COVID-19 testing in Black and brown communities.”

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By staff

Los Angeles, CA – Long time Chicano leader Carlos Montes blasted the Trump administration’s mishandling of the pandemic, March 25, stating, “President Trump’s irrational and disjointed response to this COVID-19 pandemic is causing major harm to working people.”

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By staff

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Los Angeles, CA – On March 7, Centro CSO: Community Service Organization hosted a celebration of el Día Internacional de la Mujer (International Women’s Day), filled with poetry, singing and political discussion at the Benjamin Franklin Branch Library in Boyle Heights. This year’s event, the third that Centro CSO has put on, honored the women of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles who have fought back against the privatization of public education, police terror, sexism and transphobia.

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By staff

Los Angeles, CA – The Boyle Heights group Centro Community Service Organization (Centro CSO) will host Día Internacional de la Mujer, International Women’s Day, Saturday, March 7 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Benjamin Franklin Library. CSO aims to honor and represent local women who are working for LGBT rights, fighting for socialism, defending public education, resisting police terror and brutality, and ending deportations.

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By Sol Márquez

Los Angeles, CA – For nearly three years, activists have been trying to get Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey to open her doors to them. This morning, March 2, the front door to Lacey’s house was indeed opened, but with a gun pointed at the activists.

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By Jared Hamil

LA protest against U.S. war on Iran.

Los Angeles, CA – On January 25, protesters joined together at the U.S. Marine recruitment center to demand “No war against Iran!” The event was organized by the 50th Chicano Moratorium Organizing Committee and was part of a day of action across the U.S. against war with Iran.

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By Marisol Márquez

In 1978, the Congreso de Artistas Chicanos de Aztlán (CACA) a collective of arti

Los Angeles, CA – September 16, 2019 marked the 50-year anniversary of Chicano Liberation Day. The day was proposed September 16, 1969 in El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, as the date when Chicanos would have Independence. After 50 years we still have not gained our right to self-determination.

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By staff

Mothers, teachers, Jackie Goldberg and Carlos Montes at GHS.

Los Angeles, CA – 2019 marked the ten-year anniversary of the successful fight to stop the charter school Green Dot from taking over Garfield High School. The threat started with the so-called Public School Choice 1.0, approved by the then pro-charter Los Angeles Unified School District board and Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines in 2009. Low-performing schools were to be put on a bid list. This allowed charter schools like Green Dot and others to write up a bid or proposal to take over and manage a publicly-funded school.

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By staff

Mark Napieralski (right)

Los Angeles, CA – On November 30, Anakbayan-USA had their Third Congress, with more than 200 members from 12 chapters across the country in attendance. They learned lessons on solidarity, talked about the economic situation in the United States and reported back on the progress being made on a national and local level.

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By Sol Márquez

Los Angeles, CA – On November 9, hundreds rallied in downtown Los Angeles at Los Angeles State Historic Park to mark 25 years after the defeat of the racist California Proposition 187. California Proposition 187 which was commonly referred to as the Save Our State (SOS) initiative, was a 1994 ballot initiative initiated by the Republican Party with then Republican Governor Pete Wilson attacking mostly Mexican immigrants. Prop 187 called for a state-run citizenship screening system and prohibited the undocumented from using non-emergency health care, public education and other services in the State of California.

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By Sol Márquez

High school walkout in East LA.

Los Angeles, CA – Hundreds of students from Garfield High School in East LA have walked out of their classrooms to defend DACA. The students are taking the metro train to downtown Los Angeles where participants will rally. A group of youth gathered in downtown as early as 6 a.m.

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By staff

Carlos Montes, Eloisa Galindo with Felicitas Mendez daughter in parade.

Los Angeles, CA – A joyous parade, block party and festival were held October 12 in Boyle Heights to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the opening of Mendez High School. The parade down First Street with beautiful vintage lowriders, featured Chicano writer Luis Rodriguez, author of Always Running; the daughter of Felicitas Mendez; Eloisa Galindo of Eastside Padres Contra la Privatización; Carlos Montes of Centro CSO; Jose Huizar of Council District 14 and Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) board member Monica Garcia.

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By Luis Sifuentes

49th anniversary of Chicano Moratorium marked in LA.

Los Angeles, CA – On August 29, hundreds of community members, activists and families gathered at a local Chicano art center, Self Help Graphics, to commemorate the 49th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War.The event marks the August 29, 1970 Chicano Moratorium, which included over 30,000 Chicanos and supporters marching against the Vietnam War in East Los Angeles. The large march ended with a rally at Laguna Park – now known as Ruben Salazar Park. The moratorium was against the Vietnam War, against the high casualty rate of Chicanos in that war, against police terror and against racism. East LA Sheriffs and LAPD attacked the peaceful rally, beating hundreds, tear gassing thousands and killing three participants. One of those killed was well-known Los Angeles Times reporter and KMEX news director Ruben Salazar.The commemoration was organized by Centro CSO, which continues to denounce police terror, President Trump's ICE raid threats against undocumented immigrants, militarization of the U.S./Mexico border, and threats of intervention in Iran and Venezuela.The event kickstarted with local indie-funk band Resonance, while everyone attending got food and refreshments. Centro CSO members Rosario Bonilla and Lupe Torres gave an introduction about Self Help Graphics.The keynote speaker of the evening was the author and longtime Chicano activist from Denver, Colorado, Ernesto Vigil. Vigil spoke about the importance of organizing the community and having the correct ideas to defeat U.S. imperialism. Lisa Vargas, the mother of Anthony Vargas, who was shot and killed by East Los Angeles Sheriffs last August, spoke about her son's legacy and her fight to seek justice.Antonia Montes, a public school teacher at Eastmont Avenue School spoke about charter schools’ devastating effects on public schools, about co-locations, and the parents, students and teachers united against privatization of education. They are currently fighting to remove Extera Charter school. Rudy Chavez, a Vietnam veteran and activist, performed an exclusive poem which included an atmospheric set up and props. Carlos Montes, a longtime Chicano activist, spoke about the Vietnam War and its high mortality rate of Chicano soldiers and about continuing the fight for public education, defeating the mega KIPP Promesa charter school and police killings.Sol Marquez, member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), spoke about different countries in Latin America and the Caribbean currently fighting back against U.S. domination. Marquez informed the crowd that FRSO trade union delegation arrived in Caracas, Venezuela for the “1st International Meeting of Workers in Solidarity with the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, its Government and Its People,” which started on August 29.

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By staff

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Los Angeles, CA – A commemoration event honoring the 1970 Chicano moratorium will take place in Boyle Heights, Thursday, August 29, 6 to 9 p.m., at Self Help Graphics, 1300 E. First Street, Los Angeles.

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By Luis Sifuentes

Memorial for Paul Rea

Los Angeles, CA – On August 23, over 70 people, including the family of Paul Rea, gathered for a memorial. 18-year-old Rea was shot and killed by East Los Angeles Sheriffs on June 27, after a minor traffic infraction. The East LA sheriff's station is currently under FBI investigation. Since 2014, there have been lawsuits against and reports that there is a Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department gang called Los Bandidos. Additionally, East LA sheriffs have a long history of brutalizing and murdering Chicanos.

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By Marisol Márquez

UFCW picket line.

Los Angeles, CA – Over 40 supporters picketed outside of Ralphs grocery store on Sunset Boulevard, July 31. The store’s United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike authorization in June.

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By Marisol Márquez

LA protest agaisnt raids and deportations.

Los Angeles, CA – A protest on June 29, at the busy intersection of Soto Street and César E. Chávez in Boyle Heights, demanded an end to ICE raids and deportations. Attended by 30 people, the participants included students, parents and Centro CSO. The protest was energetic and extremely well-received by locals, people driving by, public transportation bus drivers and everyone in between.

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By Carlos Montes

Families unite to demand: Legalization for all, no Trump wall, no deportations!

May Day march in LA.

Los Angeles, CA – On the afternoon of May 1, International Workers Day, Boyle Heights families, workers and students protested the Trump anti-immigrant attacks and raised the demand “Legalization for all” and “No Wall on the Mexico border!”

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