Chicago, IL – Two dozen prominent organizations and individuals have urged Gov. J. B. Pritzker in a letter to use “the powers of [his] office to provide long overdue justice to Gerald Reed.” Reed’s deteriorating health puts him at extreme risk due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He has heart failure, and late last year while awaiting a new trial at Cook County jail he had a heart attack.
The National Prison Movement (Movimiento Nacional Carcelario) and other prisoner rights groups called a demonstration in Colombian prisons on March 21, to protest the lack of protection against the COVID-19 virus and the general lack of decent healthcare in the Colombian prisons. Twelve Colombian prisons answered the call for a ‘cacerolazo,’ a protest where one bangs on pots and pans to make enough noise so that the protest is heard.
Call-In to save the life of Facundo Molares!Call Bolivian AmbassadorWalter Oscar Serrate Cuellar at202-483-4410 ex. 4When: Tuesday, February 25, 2020between 8 am and 4 pm Eastern timeFight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from Committee To Free Facundo Molares.
Chicago, IL – The courtroom was packed February 14. This was my fourth Gerald Reed court hearing. Usually, there is a crowd of folks who show up to support Gerald and his mother, Armanda Shackleford, who has been fighting for her son since he was arrested, tortured and framed in 1990. Shackleford sits in the front row, wearing her Free Gerald Reed t-shirt. Together we sit for an hour, two hours, three, and hear powerful men debate the innocence of a man whose sentence was vacated a year ago.
Fight Back! News Service is circulating the following statement from the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, the Chicago Torture Justice Center, and Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition and Solidarity.
Facundo Molares Schoenfeld is an Argentinian photojournalist who was illegally arrested by the Bolivian dictatorship, and who is currently held in terrible conditions in a Bolivian prison. His life is in danger, as he does not receive adequate medical attention for a life-threatening condition.
Minneapolis, MN – Hundreds of people came out for several events marking Black History month with Chicago’s Frank Chapman, who is a leading member of Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
Bolivia suffered a vicious coup d’état on November 10, 2019 that was provoked by right-wing gangs rampaging in the street, traitorous police and military officers, the old guard political elite, and, of course, supported by the United States Embassy. As soon as Evo Morales was elected to a fourth term as president of Bolivia on October 20, with almost 47% of the vote, right-wing elements, centered in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, started a campaign to destabilize the progressive government headed by Evo.
Kenosha, WI – As the semester approaches, members of the UW-Parkside chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) have been hard at work. Kicking off the new year, SDS is leading a rally in support of the release of Chrystul Kizer, a Milwaukee teenager accused of killing her sex trafficker, Randall Volar III.
Chicago, IL – More than a 1200 joined together November 22, at the hall of the Chicago Teachers Union, to refound the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. The newly refounded Alliance will center its efforts on building the fight against police crimes and for community control of the police, and it will campaign for the release of political prisoners and the wrongfully convicted.
Entrevista con Frank Chapman sobre la Conferencia Nacional para la Refundación de la NAARPR este 22 al 24 de noviembre, 2019.Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Pudiera compartir unas palabras sobre cómo se lucirá la conferencia para relanzar la Alianza Nacional en Contra de la Represión Política y Racista?
Chicago, IL – Founded in 1973 as an organization that grew out of the movement to free the wrongfully imprisoned Angela Davis and other political prisoners, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is set to relaunch this November. This refounding, led by the Chicago Alliance against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR) and other organizations, will be taking place in Chicago, Illinois on November 22-24 at the Chicago Teachers' Union Hall.
¡Lucha y Resiste! está circulando la siguiente declaración del Partido Comunista de México de 10 de junio.
Los Gobiernos de EEUU y México han expresado a través del Departamento de Estado de los EEUU un reforzamiento de la política antiinmigrante, después de un sainete en el que se amagaba con medidas arancelarias por un lado, y con una ola de patriotismo por el otro. Al final después de la farsa escenificada quedó claro el objetivo real de la negociación.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following April 14 statement from the Office of the Chairperson, International League of Peoples’ Struggle (ILPS).
The Committee to Stop FBI Repression strongly supports Rasmea Odeh’s right to speak in Berlin about the Palestinian liberation struggle. We stand with the many other organizations who condemn the German, Israeli, and U.S. governments’ attacks on Rasmea and their attempts to silence her by revoking her visa and prohibiting her from political activity ( see article about the March 15 incident).
Thomas “Blood” McCreary is a veteran of the Black liberation movement of the 1960s and 70s, having been a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), then the Black Panther Party (BPP), and then the Black Liberation Army. Today he continues to press for release of the former Panthers who are still in prison, many for 45 years. He also advocates for the dropping of the cases against the Panthers abroad, including Assata Shakur.
_ “Defending Palestinian struggle and the right to resist occupation by any means necessary must, by necessity, also prioritize the struggle to free all political prisoners.”_
Fight Back! interviewed Charlotte Kates, International Coordinator of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, on the fight to free Palestinian political prisoners. We encourage all of our readers to support this effort.