Fight Back News Service is reprinting the speech of Jess Sundin, a leader of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, delivered at the FRSO-organized May Day celebration, May 3.

Minneapolis, MN – More than 50 people gathered here May 3 for a celebration to mark International Workers Day. The event was organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization. In a festively decorated hall, the celebration began with a dinner and slide show that highlighted the struggles of the past year.

Minneapolis, MN – There are widespread reports in the Western press saying that, on May 3, Israel launched another bombing raid on Syria. Reports say the attack was carried out from Lebanon.

Minneapolis, MN – On April 15, Noor Elashi, daughter of wrongfully imprisoned Holy Land 5 defendant Ghassan Elashi, spoke to a packed room of over 50 people, mostly students from the University of Minnesota, about her father’s case. John Cline, Ghassan Elashi’s lawyer, also spoke of the injustice brought upon the five men who founded and built the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. George W. Bush shut down The Holy Land Foundation, falsely claiming its charity work for Palestine had ties to terrorism.

Minneapolis, MN – Organizers of the weekly peace vigil on the Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge between Minneapolis and Saint Paul have announced plans to dedicate the April 10 vigil to making an anti-war statement in response to the military crisis in Korea.

Minneapolis, MN – Despite rain showers, nearly 200 people joined a protest here April 6 to speak out against U.S. wars around the world and against the ever-growing use of drones as an instrument of military intervention.

Minneapolis, MN – After a spirited protest downtown, Indigenous rights leaders, including Nina Wilson, a founder of Idle No More, gathered here at the American Indian Center on Franklin Avenue, March 21, for a wrap-up of the day’s activities and to prepare for the next event. On March 22, Wilson and others will be present at the Environmental & Treaty Rights Symposium, also to be held at the American Indian Center.

Minneapolis, MN – Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), a national progressive student group, held a “Day of Action for Education Rights” on March 14. High school and college students in different parts of the country protested government cutbacks and stood up for education rights. The four demands put forward by SDS were: No cuts – chop from the top; pass the Student Loan Forgiveness Act (HR 4170); freeze all tuition and fees; and corporations off campus.

Minneapolis, MN – About 40 students and campus workers rallied at Morrill Hall and marched through the University of Minnesota (U of M) campus on March 14 to protest rising tuition costs and the university’s top-heavy administration. The protest was part of a national day of action for education rights.

AFSCME 3800 says ‘Chop from the top’

Minneapolis, MN – On March 12, the University of Minnesota presented the report it commissioned on its management structure to the Senate Higher Education Committee.

Minneapolis, MN – Jessica English, a single mother of four who was homelessness, moved into an abandoned Wells Fargo-owned home in south Minneapolis last month. The home had been broken into and used as a drug house. But English, a student, writer, dedicated worker and volunteer with Occupy Homes MN, saw in it the potential of a place to raise her family.

Minneapolis, MN – More than 50 people gathered here March 8, to celebrate International Women’s Day. The event, organized by Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), included a showing of the film “With Babies and Banners: Story of the Women's Emergency Brigade”, about the powerful role of women in the historic 1936-37 Flint Sit-down Strike at General Motors.

Minneapolis, MN – On March 8, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) will hold a celebration of International Women’s Day here. The celebration will include a showing of the film “With Babies and Banners: Story of the Women's Emergency Brigade”, about the powerful role of women in the historic 1936-37 Flint Sit-down Strike at General Motors – a key event in the fight to build unions in the U.S. The event will take place at 6:30 p.m. at 4200 Cedar Avenue S.

Protest demands the bank turn over vacant homes

Minneapolis, MN – 13 people were peacefully arrested Feb. 27 as they marched on Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, demanding the bank turn over vacant homes to community control and calling for fairer banking practices.

“There is no crime in supporting the Palestinian struggle for self-determination”

Minneapolis, MN – A standing room only crowd of more than 125 people turned out here, Feb. 23, to hear Hatem Abudayyeh, a prominent Chicago-based Palestinian activist who talked about the growing struggle for the liberation of Palestine and the repression against Palestine solidarity activists here in the U.S.

Minneapolis, MN – Members of the Minnesota Committee to Stop FBI Repression assembled here, Feb. 5, to prepare a mailing of over 900 post cards to its Twin Cities members, as part of outreach for a major speaking event featuring Palestinian activist Hatem Abudayyeh. Phone banks and mass leafleting events are planned for coming days.

Minneapolis, MN – More than 100 people braved below-zero weather to join a Martin Luther King Day march here, Jan 21, for “Jobs, Justice, and Housing.” The event was organized by Occupy the Hood and Minnesota Neighborhoods Organizing for Change.

Minneapolis, MN – As the struggle over immigration reform looms in Washington D.C., immigrant rights activists in Minnesota are pressing their senators and representatives to support genuine, progressive immigration reform. Activists are telling lawmakers to not compromise with anti-immigrant politicians, who will try to include repressive measures in immigration reform legislation. On Jan. 16, the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee (MIRAc) organized a call-in day targeting Senator Al Franken and Representative Keith Ellison. In addition to calling, people also sent messages to the politicians on their websites and tweeted a common message to them.

Minneapolis, MN – On Jan. 12, immigrant rights activists protested outside the Hennepin County jail, demanding that Sheriff Stanek stop using the jail as a deportation machine. More people are deported from the Hennepin County jail than from any other jail in the state.