Chicago IL – On Saturday, July 1, more than 70 students and activists gathered in downtown Chicago. They joined the nationwide campaign by Students for a Democratic Society and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression demanding that the charges on the Tampa 5 be dropped.

The Tampa 5 are Gia Davila, Laura Rodriguez, Chrisley Carpio, Lauren Pineiro and Jeanie Kida. They are students and workers in Florida who were beaten and arrested, and now facing ten years in prison, for protesting DeSantis’ far-right attacks on diversity in education.

The Chicago rally was called by Students for a Democratic Society and endorsed by a dozen other organizations, including the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Uhuru Movement, Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), Students for Justice in Palestine Chicago, Party for Socialism and Liberation and The Little Village Lawndale Fightback Organization.

Kobi Guillory of Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), stated, “This unity we have today is beautiful and it’s growing. The only way that we are gonna get free is by uniting as many different groups as we can and fighting back until we have control of communities!”

Frank Chapman, executive director of NAARPR, spoke about the need to mobilize mass support for the Tampa 5 all over the country and about the July 12 National Day of Action to demand the charges on the Tampa 5 be dropped. He also spoke to the urgency of the fight to defend diversity in the face of the racist Supreme Court decision overturning affirmative action in higher education, leading the crowd in a chant of “We won’t go back!”

Joe Iosbaker of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization spoke about the 2010 FBI raids when FRSO was accused of providing material aid to terrorism for standing in solidarity with the Palestinian liberation struggle. Iosbaker was one of those 23 anti-war activists who faced down the FBI and won. Explaining why the government went to such lengths to repress the movement he said, “The people who run this country are afraid of dissent because their system is crumbling before our eyes!”

Isaiah Thomas of the Hand Off Uhuru Hands of Africa Committee read a statement condemning the FBI raids on the African Peoples Socialist Party and standing in solidarity with the Tampa 5. He emphasized the need to build organized resistance to political repression and stand against political repression, colonialism and imperialism.

Natalie Praenis, a member of SDS at UIC closed out the event: “The Tampa 5 stood up and spoke out against DeSantis and his regressive policies and for that, they were assaulted and arrested and facing prison time. This is not what a democracy looks like. Students should not be charged with felonies for exercising their right to protest on campus, and they should not be brutalized by the police for holding a peaceful demonstration. Free the Tampa 5!”

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliticalRepression #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #Tampa5

Chicago, IL – One year after playing a leading role in the George Floyd Rebellion that swept the U.S. in the summer of 2020, the Black-led National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is convening again in Chicago. The storied organization, originally founded in 1973 from the National Committee to Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners, was reestablished in November 2019. According to Frank Chapman, Executive Director of NAARPR, “We have 13 cities in which there is organizing against police crimes and for community control of the police.”

The weekend after the murder of George Floyd, NAARPR called for a national day of protests, which resulted in marches in 22 cities which were responsible for nearly 200,000 people coming into the streets.

Another milestone in the work of the Alliance over the past two years is winning freedom for some of the wrongly incarcerated after decades in prison. There have also been campaigns – some successful, some ongoing – to free Alliance members and other activists arrested during the rebellion and other protests, while continuing to support political prisoners.

However, the main work of the chapters and affiliates is the fight for community control over racist police departments. In Chicago the National Alliance branch has become the cutting edge of a mass movement that has passed legislation for civilian oversight that gives a pathway to community control of the police. The Alliance is building mass movements for community control in Minneapolis, Dallas, Los Angeles, Washington DC, New York, and Jacksonville, Florida.

Of course, the mass movement against racist policing isn’t the only army on the field. The forces of racist and political repression have also been growing at an alarming rate as we have seen with the storming of the Capitol by an organized mob of white supremacists and avowed fascists on January 6. We have witnessed a spike in police killing Black and Latino people with impunity, and the states have seen an unprecedented wave of repressive legislation designed to suppress the right to vote of Black, brown and poor people.

The Black Lives Matter youth movement was the first to raise the slogan that the police don’t keep us safe. Masses of people are seeing that what is needed is not more police but more community control of the police. At the same time, Alliance branches and affiliates have worked hard to oppose increases in police budgets and to support efforts to divert police funding to meet social needs and to demilitarize the police.

A call issued from NAARPR emphasizes, “If ever there was a time to defend and extend the democratic rights of the people to organize and protest that time is now and that is precisely why we need to call for and build this National Conference.” The conference will be held at the University of Illinois at Chicago on Saturday and Sunday, December 4 and 5.

#ChicagoIL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression

National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression denounces U.S.  criminal interference in Cuba

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following July 26 statement from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

What the U.S. is doing in Cuba is criminal. The U.S. blockade of the small island nation of eleven million is meant to put a stranglehold on the people. The economic disruption caused by the U.S. embargo causes shortages and difficulties across the island. Not only does the U.S. embargo stop U.S. businesses from trading with Cuba, it punishes companies in other countries that trade with Cuba.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of offering economic and medical cooperation, the U.S. attempted to cause trouble in Cuba by funding and provoking small groups of reactionaries. This came just as Cuba was rolling out a vaccine program to benefit every person on the island and reopen the tourist economy.

The response of Cuba’s leaders to the U.S. provocation was to mobilize large rallies with tens and hundreds of thousands of people from unions, community groups, and other sectors of society. These massive rallies for the defense of the Cuban revolution go largely unreported in U.S. media, but social media allows us to see them. We will not be fooled.

Of course, if one wishes to find political repression in Cuba, the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay detention camp is the place to look. The U.S. tortured and held under “indefinite detention without trial” hundreds of prisoners from U.S. wars in the Middle East. Prisoners are still held there today. The Guantanamo Bay Naval Base needs to be closed and returned to its rightful owners, the Cuban people.

The U.S. government, under the thumb of Wall Street financiers, has a long history of violent intervention in Cuba, from the Bay of Pigs invasion, to repeated assassination attempts on Fidel Castro, to organizing Florida based terrorists blowing up planes and physically attacking those who disagree with them. It is no surprise that masses of people across Cuba would mobilize against U.S. backed reactionaries and demand respect for Cuban independence, democracy and sovereignty.

We call for an immediate end to the U.S. blockade of Cuba. We call to restore diplomatic, trade, travel and cultural ties between the U.S. and Cuba. We call for an end to U.S. backed assassination attempts against Cuba’s leaders, as recently happened in Haiti. We call for solidarity with the Cuban people and their government. The Cuban people are in charge of their own destiny and have been ever since their revolution began on this day, July 26, in 1953.

#Chicago #Cuba #FidelCastro #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #blockadeOfCuba #Americas

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) demanding the release of jailed trade union leaders in the Philippines.

Greetings of solidarity to the Filipino people as they struggle courageously for the national liberation of their people from the bondage of U.S. imperialism

As always, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR) stands in solidarity with the struggle of the Filipino people for national democracy and call for the immediate release of the HRDay7. Six trade unionists with the labor federation KMU (Kilusang Mayo Uno, or May First Movement) and a journalist were arrested by Philippine National Police on International Human Rights Day, December 10.

In 2017 and 2018, we had the honor of hosting the KMU in Chicago, and to stand with them as the labor movement here placed the KMU plaque on the monument to the Haymarket Martyrs. They KMU is named after the historic general strike which was centered here in Chicago in 1886 to demand the eight hour day.

National oppression here is a racist system in service of a ruling class whose wealth is built on slavery, genocide, and war. Our ruling class also exploits the people of the Philippines, whose country was militarily invaded over a century ago, occupied for half a century, and today their government is a puppet of the US government.

We call for the immediate release of the HRDay7 and a stop to the filing of manufactured criminal charges against activists.

Three years ago, President Duterte betrayed his commitments to the Filipino people. For the working class, he promised an end to contractualization, the system in which most workers are denied job security, benefits, adequate income, and workplace and environmental safety protections. In addition, his failure in handling COVID-19 has led to the highest unemployment rate in history.

As the Filipino people have fought back against Duterte’s betrayal, demanding that their needs be met, the regime has responded by passing an anti-terror bill. Now anyone criticizing his government is a “terrorist.”

Working people in all countries know the same truth: the rich have their lawyers, police, politicians, and judges. The only thing we have is organization, and the most important of organizations for the working class are our unions. Duterte knows that for Filipino workers, too. That’s why he attacks the union movement.

Here in Chicago, we have built a strategic alliance between the multinational working class and the national liberation movements. Our struggle for an end to police terror through community control of the police (CPAC) rests on the backbone of the united front of the organizations of the Black liberation movement, led by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and the unions that continue to support us, especially the Chicago Teachers Union and SEIU Local 73.

Ours is a struggle for the democratic rights denied to oppressed nationalities in the US, and we raise our voices in support of the Filipino people in their struggle as well.

Free the HRDay7!

Yours in united struggle,

Frank Chapman, Executive Director, NAARPR

#UnitedStates #Philippines #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #KilusangMayoUno #PoliticalRepression #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression

Fight Back! Interview with Frank Chapman, the Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. Fight Back!: Could you say a few words about the refounding of NAARPR last year?

Frank Chapman: We convened the refounding conference of NAARPR last November 22-24, 2019. People all over the country are remembering these days because they are historic moments in the calendar of our movement. On the opening night of November 22, we packed 1200 people in the Chicago Teachers Union Hall to hear our keynote speaker Angela Davis talk about the importance of refounding the National Alliance.

The importance of the moment was attested to by the fact so many people, from 28 states, 101 cities and 150 organizations attended. They came to help set forth an agenda of struggle demanding community control of the police, free all political prisoners, the wrongfully convicted and all those who have been tortured into confessing to crimes and depopulating the jails.

Fight Back!: Could you say a few words about the Alliance work around COVID-19?

Chapman: Since the COVID-19 pandemic we have been demanding that state and federal authorities depopulate the jails, prisons and detention centers because they are simply death traps for the prisoners. This was one of principal demands of our first National Day of Protest May 30, 2020. We stated this demand in our call for the National Day of Protest.

Fight Back!: Please describe the work of the NAARPR after the murder of George Floyd.

Chapman: We actually issued a call for the National Day of Protest in the wake of the murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Atlanta, Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Louisville, Kentucky. We called for a national day of protest in these words: “The police and racist vigilantes continue to brazenly hunt and kill Black folks while they sleep in their beds and on open roads in broad daylight. We are protesting the murders of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia and Breonna Taylor in Louisville because they are outrages that demand justice. This lynch-style, racist terrorism must stop, and perpetrators must be punished.”

After the George Floyd murder, we updated our call but held on to May 30 as the day of protest. 22 cities and we were responsible for nearly 200,000 people coming into the streets. We did not stop, we had other days of protest on June 13 and July 18. Again, mobilizing tens of thousands throughout the country under the NAARPR banner.

Fight Back!: What’s ahead for the NAARPR?

Chapman: During the height of the George Floyd rebellion we were very busy mobilizing protest demonstrations, but what happened in Chicago kind of gave us a glimpse into our future.

In the midst of the rebellion some people began to organize in their respective wards for our CPAC ordinance for community control of the police. These demonstrations, sometimes involving over 1000 people, but always spirited, were putting pressure on the city council members in front of their homes, their ward offices or public parks in their wards. So, this is one part of what our future should look like locally. Continue to organize at the grassroots level in the communities.

Nationally, we need to proceed now to do all that we can do while this pandemic rages prepare ourselves for building the National Alliance. We have a projected conference coming up in 2021. Organizing for our national conference and building our organization must go hand in hand. As a matter of fact, we must turn this into a moment of consolidating what we have gained from our refounding and in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis and the George Floyd rebellion. The refounding conference gave us the beginnings of national organization, the rebellion gave us the opportunity and the energy to act like a national organization. Now we are confronted with the challenge of building a national organization. That’s what ahead for us.

#ChicagoIL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #PoliticalRepression #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #NAARPR

Jacksonville, FL – On November 4, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC), in coalition with other local organizations, continued the fight for community control of the police. This action was a part of a national day of action called by the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression. Jacksonville, along with other cities across the country, joined the post-election protest, continuing to press for community’s demands.

Outside of Jacksonville City Hall, over 100 people gathered with the knowledge that their voices needed to be heard, both, at the ballot box and in the streets. Speakers explained that real police accountability is only born out of community control of the police. Community control would extend real power to the people, rather than leaving them at the mercy of the police.

Sara Tayiba, an organizer with JCAC and the Palestinian Youth Movement, said, “We will continue to fight back as we recognize this reign of repression doesn’t begin or end with Trump. We see it extended through Trump’s allies in Florida with Governor Ron DeSantis, Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry, and JSO Sheriff Mike Williams, who all actively seek to embolden killer cops while exploiting, oppressing and killing our communities.”

Speakers also denounced the anti-protest bill, being proposed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which would criminalize protests and incentivize racist vigilantism against movements. Ben Frazier of the Northside Coalition of Jacksonville called such a measure “draconian” and “racist.”

Duval County voted to defeat Trump, the first time the city has voted against the republican candidate since Jimmy Carter’s election. Protesters chanted, “Hey hey, ho, ho, Donald Trump is ‘bout to go!” along with chants for community control of the police.

You can follow more about the JCAC’s future plans at jaxtakesaction.org.

#JacksonvilleFL #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression

Chicago is responding to the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression call for protest the day after the November presidential election. After the election, the people’s mandate for change must be carried out.

According to protest organizers, “Win or lose in the elections we are calling for mass protests the day after the election to highlight the fact that Trump’s scorched earth policies have left the political landscape almost as barren and bleak as COVID-19 and the police-state style racist repression used against tens of thousands of protesters, leaving thousands injured and jailed and some dead. Trump has openly sided with racist, right-wing elements to attack the movement against police crimes.”

“We are also rallying because we see the likelihood that Trump will refuse to concede, that the Republicans will try to challenge election results in swing states, and even take legal action to stop the counting of mail in ballots,” say organizers

Endorsing organizations include: Anakbayan, Arab American Action Network, Black Abolitionist Network, BLM-Chicago, Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) Executive Board, CTU Human Rights Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, NAACP South Side, National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, Quinn Chapel – African Methodist Episcopal Church, Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation, Trinity United Church of Christ Prison Ministry, UIC Students for a Democratic Society, US Palestinian Community Network.

For more Information: https://www.facebook.com/events/788261295081199

#ChicagoIL #IL #PoliceBrutality #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression

Normally, SDS and other student groups host their conventions around this time of year. Instead, with the White House refusing to respond to the pandemic and with coronavirus cases on the rise, these student groups took to Zoom to launch a new national campaign.

Speakers promoted the demand for community control of the police and for convictions of killer cops like Rusten Sheskey; the recently bailed-out Derek Chauvin; the recently released killer of Alvin Cole, Joseph Mensah, who faces no charges; and many others who murdered Black folks, as well as Chicano and Latino folks. Then they called for campus police departments to be defunded, disbanded and in some places even held accountable by campus civilian police accountability councils.

They shared stories of their experiences organizing for Justice for Jacob Blake, Elijah McClain and George Floyd. One recurring message was the importance of community control of the police and democratically elected CPACs, or civilian police accountability councils that would hire, fire, investigate, defund and overall control police departments.

Michael Sampson from the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression said, “People have a democratic right to control the institutions that affect their lives. Community control is about oppressed people taking power.”

Adrian Bonifacio from AnakBayan USA compared the tactics of the police here in the U.S. to the military and police tactics used by the U.S.-backed Philippine government of Duterte, which has responded to the pandemic with door-to-door military brutality in place of health care and testing: “As a youth organization fighting fascism and state terror, we know that the police are one of the most dangerous tools for maintaining political repression and violence. Not just Trump, but every president before him has deployed the police to terrorize poor and working class people here in the United States, most particularly Black folks.”

Student activists from SDS and AnakBayan said university police are used to harass student activists and have profiled and even killed community members. Victor Garcia from the University of Wisconsin Parkside SDS pointed out that Rusten Sheskey, who killed Jacob Blake in Kenosha, was actually a university police officer up until 2013.

“Campus police have been getting away with too much for too long,” Garcia said.

One speaker warned students not to fall for university administrations’ talk of diversity measures without any actions to curb their police. At the University of Minnesota, the SDS chapter has signed on to a student government resolution with other student groups that calls for the university to form a campus police accountability council, a campus version of CPAC.

Nadia Shaarawi from the University of Minnesota SDS chapter said, “Our university president has tried to co-opt the language of 'accountability.’” Shaarawi added, “but where the concessions stop is at community control because they'll do anything to maintain the status quo.”

In light of the economic crisis, most public universities around the United States have instituted hiring freezes and announced layoffs of workers and large-scale academic cuts. But one place activists found the universities were not cutting from was their police budgets.

Such is the case at the universities of South Florida and North Florida. That is why, speakers said, they are turning an eye towards campus police and calling for the defunding, disbandment and campus control of university police departments.

Enya Silva from the Tampa Bay SDS chapter asked, “If they aren't here to serve the people, why do they need this money?” Katelyn Scott from the University of North Florida SDS chapter compared this to other wasteful expenditures taken on by the university, pointing out, “UNF says they don't have the money for things on campus and for community resources, but they have $8 million for a pool.”

Then the student activists recounted their own instances of being detained, tear gassed and repressed by cops and university administrators alike. In one shocking moment, the SDS speaker Victor Garcia made an emergency announcement that a member of UW Parkside SDS had just been arrested protesting Mensah’s release.

But activists made a point of saying that we can’t be afraid in the face of shootings and repression, and that we need to fight back.

Kyle Burroughs from Denver SDS made this point crystal clear. “”The governor didn't care about the Elijah McClain case for over a year, and he didn't reopen it out of the kindness of his heart. He opened it out of public pressure. As you fight for justice in this way, the people will come to your side. You just need to be loud enough.”

#TampaFL #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #SDS #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #AnkBayan

Oshkosh, WI – On the afternoon of September 19, over 30 people gathered in Menominee Park in Oshkosh to demand justice for Isaiah Tucker. The group came together to protest the violent police killing of Tucker and to demand the officers responsible be held accountable. Tucker was a 28-year-old Black man from Oshkosh, and a father of three, who was murdered at the hands of Oshkosh Police Department officers Aaron Achterberg and Kyler Roberts.

After the demonstrators rallied on a busy street corner with signs and banners that read “Justice for Isaiah Tucker!” and “Police accountability now!” they marched through the park and shut down traffic, chanting “No justice, no peace!” and “We want CPAC now!” The community embraced the demonstration by cheering on the march, honking car horns, and even joining in the chants of “Black lives matter!” The action was organized by local grassroots organization United Action Oshkosh.

“Menominee Park definitely heard us on Saturday,” said Jeremy Bradley, United Action Oshkosh organizer and Teamsters union activist. “We were loud, consistent and did just what we wanted to do, be heard and disrupt the peace. Aside from a few counter-protesters, the community at the park showed support for the march.”

Salazar Vaas Keapa, a Black lives matter activist from Waupaca, saw the action in Oshkosh as a success, saying, “It was awesome, peaceful and had great speakers. Oshkosh was my 40th protest this year. This is just me getting warmed up. I love doing these events and making friends, real friends, plus yelling at racists with a megaphone just feels great.”

The rally for justice in Oshkosh was just one of many across the country as people organized against a racist government for the national day of protest against police terror, called by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. The message from coast to coast is clear: the people have had enough of police crimes and are ready for community control of the police.

#OshkoshWI #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression

Minneapolis, MN – Nearly 200 people gathered at Plymouth and James Avenues, the memorial site where Jamar Clark was killed in 2015, answering the call of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression – of which Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar (TCC4J) is a member – for a September 19 national day of action against police crimes.

The protest was organized under the demands for community control of the police, withdrawal of federal troops, and an end to white supremacist violence.

Protesters, led by TCC4J emcees Jae Yates and DeShaun McDonald, marched to the North Minneapolis home of Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, demanding that he use his power to do something against the state terror against Black, brown and indigenous communities in Minnesota.

Attorney General Ellison has a history of inaction on police murders, repeatedly ignoring demands for intervention and lying to family members of police victims. Last year, Ellison convened a commission on police violence that was protested for excluding family members of victims, activists and experts on police accountability. The group was over half cops and included police lobbyists but no one working against police killings.

Other protest demands included:

-- Free the unjustly imprisoned, such as Myon Burrell, by commuting his sentence. Burrell, railroaded as a teen for a murder he did not commit, has spent 17 years in prison. He was prosecuted by then-County Attorney and now U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar.

-- That the governor, attorney general, mayor and Minneapolis city council not obstruct the movements for community control of police.

-- Reopen the cases of those lost to police crimes and charge the killer cops for hundreds of murders across Minnesota. Many family members spoke at the march, including relatives of Justin Teigen, Isak Aden and Jamar Clark.

-- Increase charges in the case of white supremacist killer Anthony Trifiletti for murder of Doug Lewis. Doug Lewis’ sister gave an impassioned speech at the opening rally before the march.

Ali Fuhrman, president of ASCME Local 2822, one of the groups that endorsed CPAC, declared, “The labor movement needs the Black liberation movement,” adding, “We have to bring our movements together.”

As the crowd moved into the cul-de-sac in the development where Attorney General Ellison has a home, a person named “Paul”, one of Ellison’s neighbors, called the Minneapolis Police Department. This occurred after other neighbors invited protesters to share refreshments and speeches in front of the attorney general’s home. Protesters left Ellison’s resident with chants of “Fuck Paul” and vowed to return.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #PoliceBrutality #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #TwinCitiesCoalition4Justice4Jamar