Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

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By staff

Protest in Los Angeles against US Attorney General Eric Holder

Los Angeles, CA – Angry Black and Latino activists held a protest at a fancy dinner party where U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was speaking to honor Martin Luther King, Jan. 17. The Martin Luther King Coalition for Jobs, Justice and Peace; LA Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant; Latinos Against War; Fight Back News and other allies protested the visit of the attorney general at the annual MLK SCLC gala dinner to call out how the FBI attacked and harassed Reverend King and continues those same attacks today.

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By Freedom Road Socialist Organization

Ray Sosa (center)

Brother Ray Sosa was a Chicano Los Angeles community organizer and revolutionary who dedicated his entire life to the struggle to achieve justice, equality and liberation for working and oppressed peoples.

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By staff

Hundreds march to the Ramparts police department to demand justice.

Los Angeles, CA – Hundreds of angry protesters confronted the Ramparts Los Angeles police, driving a large sound truck into the station entrance as marchers moved to the front of the building chanting, “Assassins, assassins.”

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By staff

Carlos Montes demands justice for Manuel Jamine at community meeting

Los Angeles, CA – People in Los Angeles will be marching Sept. 18 to demand justice for Manuel Jamines, the Guatemalan immigrant who was gunned down by L.A. police Sept. 5. The cop who killed Manuel Jamines has a reputation for brutality and a wave of anger has swept the Latino community. Protesters will gather at 10:00 a.m. 6th Street and Union on Sept. 18. The Southern California Immigration Coalition is organizing the rally and march.

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By staff

Manuel Jamines, killed by LAPD.

Los Angeles, CA – The Guatemalan community, especially the indigenous Mayan sector, has been protesting and angry over the brutal killing of their community member Manuel Jamines. Jamines was shot in the head and body on a busy street in the late afternoon in the Pico Union, a Central American community, by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on Sept. 5.

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By staff

_ Investigate Killing of Ruben Salazar!_

Activists raise a banner commemorating the August 29 Chicano Moratorium.

Los Angeles, CA – The August 29th Chicano Moratorium Organizing Committee held a press conference here Aug. 25 to announce a protest march and rally set for Aug. 28 in East Los Angeles. The march commemorates 40 years since the Chicano Moratorium.

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By Carlos Montes

A Long History of Struggle against War and Racism

August 29, 2010, marks the 40th anniversary of the historic Chicano Moratorium protest against the Vietnam War. On Aug. 29, 1970 over 30,000 Chicanos marched down Whittier Boulevard in the heart of East Los Angeles protesting the Vietnam War, the high casualty rate of Chicano soldiers and racist conditions in the barrios. The participants included youth and families of a mainly working class community with delegations from throughout the Southwest. The marchers chanted “¡Raza Si, Guerra No!” inspired by the call for Chicano self-determination and opposition to the imperialist U.S. war in Vietnam. Many Chicano youth had been drafted into the military after being pushed out of high school. The Chicano Movement was on the rise after several years of mass actions like the East Los Angeles high-school walkouts of 1968, land struggles in New Mexico, strikes by the United Farm Workers union, and the growth of new Chicano groups like the Brown Berets and MEChA (Movemiento Estudiantil Chicano de Atzlan, a Chicano Student Movement of the Southwest).

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By staff

White cop who murdered Grant gets involuntary manslaughter

Los Angeles, CA – Over a year ago, on New Year's Day 2009, Oscar Grant, a young African-American man with a four-year old daughter, was murdered by a police officer. He was shot in the back as he lay on his chest on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) platform in Oakland, California.

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By staff

White cop who murdered Grant gets involuntary manslaughter

By staff

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By staff

Los Angeles, CA – Protesters shouted loudly outside the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse as the killer cop Mehserle walked into, and when he exited, the court. Mehserle was given a slap on the wrist for the murder of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old African-American father. The murder occurred in an Oakland, California train station as over a hundred passengers looked on.

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By Carlos Montes

Union janitors, day laborers, and immigrants' rights activists pack the LA City

On Thursday, the Los Angeles City council passed a motion to officially boycott the State of Arizona. Arizona’s new racist law SB1070 targets Mexican, Chicano, and Native American people for harassment. From California, right across the country, many people are outraged. Under the new Arizona law, local police will have the power to harass and arrest people based on immigration status. This will increase the already existing racist harassment and arrest of Mexican, Chicano, and Native American people. Many police, including the police chief of Tucson, AZ, publicly oppose the law because of the burden it places on them and because it promotes racial profiling.

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By Carlos Montes

Fight grows for ‘Legalization Now’

Huge march fills the street

Los Angeles, CA – 250,000 people marched in the streets here, May 1, demanding immigrant rights. Most of those attending were Mexican and Central American families, along with contingents from the Philippine and Korean communities. A queer contingent also had a visible presence.

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By Eric Gardner

250,000 trabajadores inmigrantes y sus aliados marcharon aquí hoy por los derechos de los inmigrantes, denunciando la ley racista de Arizona SB1070 y exigiendo “Legalización Ahora!”

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By Eric Gardner

250,000 immigrant workers and allies marched for immigrant rights here today, denouncing Arizona’s racist SB1070 law and demanding “Legalization now!” The march on International Workers’ Day demanded that the Democratic Party and President Obama live up to their election campaign promise to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

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By staff

_Interview with Carlos Montes _

Carlos Montes

Fight Back! interviewed Carlos Montes, a veteran of the Chicano liberation struggle and a leader of the immigrant rights movement.

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By Eric Gardner

Los Angeles, CA – The March 4 National Day of Action to Defend Education saw a strong turnout at UCLA, with about 1000 attending a noon rally on campus against the budget cuts.

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By Eric Gardner

Taking action on March 4, hundreds of students, campus workers, and their supporters filled the hallways outside the chancellor's office, in Murphy Hall.

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By Charla Schlueter

Rally at UCLA

Los Angeles, CA – The fight for public education at UCLA began early this morning, March 4. By sunrise the campus had transformed. A walkout and rally is planned for 11:30 a.m. this morning where students, workers and faculty will join together at Bruin Plaza to denounce the budget cuts. Picket lines led by the unions, AFSCME, UPTE and UWA have sprung up all over and their chants can be heard all from almost everywhere on campus, “Whose university? Our university!” The administration will not be allowed to lay off workers and raise tuition without a fight! Things are expected to heat up as the day goes on, with teach-ins and marches and sit-ins.

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By Eric Gardner

Sign says "No Cuts No Fees Education Should be Free" at UCLA

Los Angeles, CA – Students from all over the state of California gathered at the University of California regents meeting on UCLA campus Nov.19. They were there to protest proposed fee hikes.

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By Eric Gardner

On second day of protests, over 1000 students blockade building entrances and form a human chain around the building where the UC regents were meeting.

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