Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

Michigan

By Tom Burke

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Grand Rapids, MI – Fifty local people gathered for an emotional vigil to remember Vanessa Guillen, the U.S. Army soldier murdered and disappeared by another soldier at Fort Hood, Texas. The U.S. armed forces are rife with sexual harassment and rape, both on and off military bases. The unrelenting response of Guillen’s family, demanding answers, has top military leaders on the defensive, scrambling.

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By Tom Burke

Enter a descriptive sentence about the photo here.

Grand Rapids, MI – Fifty local people gathered for an emotional vigil to remember Vanessa Guillen, the U.S. Army soldier murdered and disappeared by another soldier at Fort Hood, Texas. The U.S. armed forces are rife with sexual harassment and rape, both on and off military bases. The unrelenting response of Guillen’s family, demanding answers, has top military leaders on the defensive, scrambling.

Read more...

By Tom Burke

Enter a descriptive sentence about the photo here.

Grand Rapids, MI – Fifty local people gathered for an emotional vigil to remember Vanessa Guillen, the U.S. Army soldier murdered and disappeared by another soldier at Fort Hood, Texas. The U.S. armed forces are rife with sexual harassment and rape, both on and off military bases. The unrelenting response of Guillen’s family, demanding answers, has top military leaders on the defensive, scrambling.

Read more...

By Tom Burke

Transit workers stand up to union busting in Grand Rapids, MI.

Grand Rapids, MI — Union bus drivers gathered 40 people at the West Michigan Labor Fest, Sept. 4, to confront Mayor Rosalyn Bliss of Grand Rapids about her role in union busting. Mayor Bliss was set to speak at the nearby kickoff of the Labor Day bridge walk. That is, until a group of ATU Local 836 bus drivers and their supporters emerged from the crowd of walkers and confronted Bliss. They chanted, “Union busting is disgusting!” Bliss quickly moved back into the waiting walkers.

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By Tom Burke

![ATU Local 836 bus drivers resist union busting.](https://i.snap.as/EzUvaoNe.jpg “ATU Local 836 bus drivers resist union busting. ATU Local 836 bus drivers resist union busting.

Photo credit: Jeff Smith”)

Grand Rapids, Michigan – Upset they still do not have a union contract after two years, ATU Local 836 bus drivers forced west Michigan politicians to end a press conference early. Grand Rapids Mayor Rosalyn Bliss, a Democrat, and several suburban mayors are refusing to negotiate a union contract with the bus drivers that serve their communities.

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By staff

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Grand Rapids, MI – Anti-war activists here held signs during rush hour traffic on Sept. 9 to support the Iran nuclear agreement and ending U.S. intervention in the Middle East. Both Democratic Michigan senators and Republican Congressperson Justin Amash support the deal.

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By Tom Burke

Michigan Teamsters Union Local 406 rallies outside Sysco Corporation.

Grand Rapids, MI—Around 50 workers and drivers joined a Teamsters Union Local 406 rally outside the food distribution giant Sysco Corporation on April 29. A huge black and gold Teamster truck was parked just outside the Sysco warehouse, bordering the Gerald R. Ford airport in Grand Rapids.

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By Tom Burke

Grand Rapids, MI – Michigan workers are now seeing the harm caused by last year’s so-called ‘right to work’ law. Passed by Republican politicians in Lansing in 2013, the new law caused a noticeable drop in union membership – from 16.3% down to 14.5%. The trend is likely to continue as more union contracts, typically three years long, come to an end.

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By Tom Burke

Grand Rapids, MI – More than 1000 students and community members marched in the streets here and at the nearby Grand Valley State University (GVSU) to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 19. Thousands then filled college field houses to hear Sybrina Fulton, mother of Trayvon Martin. Martin was the African American teenager murdered by vigilante George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was allowed to walk free from a Florida court.

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By staff

Fight Back News Service is circulating this Nov. 6 statement from the Rasmea Defense Committee. Report on trial day 3: Rasmea takes the stand!

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By Joe Iosbaker

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Detroit, MI – Rasmea Odeh’s supporters were in high anticipation as they waited on line for Judge Drain’s court room to open this morning, Nov. 6. Everyone expected the high point of the trial to be when Rasmea Odeh took the stand to testify in her own defense.

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By Joe Iosbaker

“Organized mass struggle is the only way justice is won” say activists

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Detroit, MI – Judge Gershwin Drain oversaw jury selection today in the case of Rasmea Odeh. Odeh is on trial in Detroit for failing to disclose in her application for citizenship that she was tortured by the Israeli military in 1969 until she confessed to a crime she didn’t commit. Over 90 people filled the overflow room set up for her supporters to watch on close circuit television.

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By staff

Detroit courtroom packed

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 2 statement from the Rasmea Defense Committee

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By staff

Detroit, MI – Judge Paul D. Borman was forced to remove himself from the case of Palestinian community leader Rasmea Odeh, Aug 11. Late last month, Judge Borman stridently denied a defense motion calling on him to step down. The motion asserted that his lifelong support for the state of Israel – whose arrest, torture and conviction of Odeh for alleged Jerusalem bombings in 1969 is at issue in this case – would not allow for a fair trial. Odeh has pleaded not guilty to the charge of Unlawful Procurement of Naturalization and vehemently refutes the Israeli convictions, which were based on a forced confession after extended periods of vicious physical and sexual torture.

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By staff

Tom Burke (center), of Committee to Stop FBI Repression

Grand Rapids, MI – Close to 100 people celebrated Nelson Mandela Day here over the weekend. Some gathered on July 18 to view posters from the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa and the work of local artists portraying Nelson Mandela and Maya Angelou. Local artist Paul Collins shared a large canvas of hands reaching across the world portraying King, Gandhi and Mandela. On July 19, the Institute for Global Education hosted a jazz band, church choir, African dance and the poetry of Maya Angelou.

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