Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

PoliticalRepression

By staff

Student speaks out against charges against pro-Palestine protesters.  | Fight Back! News/staff

New Orleans, LA – On Friday, September 13, Tulane University encampment arrestees held a press conference outside the Orleans Criminal District Court ahead of their court appearance. They read a resolution signed by over 40 of New Orleans’ community organizations, demanding that charges against pro-Palestine encampment protestors and activist Toni Jones be dropped.

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By staff

Josh Teitelbaum, of Jewish Voices for Peace demands charges be dropped against pro Palestine protesters at courthouse rally.  | Staff/Fight Back! News

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following resolution in solidarity with New Orleans’ pro-Palestine protesters.

WHEREAS, the undersigned organizations stand in complete solidarity with New Orleans’ pro-Palestine protesters, and denounce Tulane University for pursuing unjust charges and tacitly endorsing police brutality against these activists, simply because they protested this institution’s ties with Israel;

WHEREAS, Tulane emeritus board member Walter Isaacson grabbed and shoved Tulane student Rory MacDonald on video at a protest on March 13, without facing repercussions;

WHEREAS, Toni Jones, organizer with New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police (NOCOP), was arrested by TUPD on March 16 at a protest for MacDonald’s and other students’ rights to free speech;

WHEREAS, Brenna Byrne, Sruly Heller, Quest Riggs, Serena Sojic-Borne, and three other protesters, were arrested by TUPD on April 29 on the first day of Students for a Democratic Society’s (SDS) peaceful encampment for Gaza, several suffering injuries from police horses or officer misconduct;

WHEREAS, Rory MacDonald, Carson Cruse, Juleea Berthelot, Shreyas Vasudevan, Vonne Crandell and nine other protesters were arrested by Louisiana State Police on May 1, the third day of SDS’s peaceful encampment for Gaza, over one hundred state troopers used tear gas, a BearCat armored vehicle, and rifles aimed at students to arrest fourteen people, including one just passing by for a walk that evening; and

WHEREAS the TUPD targeted and arrested a student days after the encampment ended, unjustly charging them with a felony;

BE IT RESOLVED, the undersigned demand that District Attorney Jason Williams and City Attorney Donesia Turner drop the trumped-up charges against these protesters;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the undersigned call upon the administration of Tulane University to end their witch-hunt of these protesters.

In signing this resolution, our organizations commit to doing everything we can to make this gross injustice known, and to organize a powerful solidarity movement to defend these protesters, who courageously stood against aid for Israel’s genocide.

Voice of the Experienced

Masjid Omar

Jewish Voices for Peace – New Orleans

First Grace Community Alliance

Hagar’s House, shelter

Project Ishmael, immigration law

Louisiana InterFaith for Human Rights

Friends of Sabeel – New Orleans

Palestinian Youth Movement New Orleans

William Quigley, Emeritus Professor of Law, Loyola University

American Federation of Musicians – New Orleans

Starbucks Workers United NOLA

Louisiana National Lawyers’ Guild

Queer Trans Community Action Project

New Orleans for Community Oversight of Police

Sunrise Movement NOLA

Reproductive Justice Action Collective

Harvey Mudd College Dissenters

NOLA Healthcare Workers for Palestine

Southern Solidarity

New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports

Muslims for Just Futures – Gulf South

NOLA Musicians for Palestine

Freedom Road Socialist Organization NOLA

Laveau Contraire, drag artist

Students Organizing Against Racism TU

Feminist Alliance of Students at Tulane

Rev. Gregory Manning

Justice and Beyond

Muslim Students Association – Loyola

NOLA Democratic Socialists of America

NOLA Freedom Forum

Miss Anne’s Maypop Herb Shop

LifeCity Impact Management Firm

End Jim Crow Louisiana

SPORTS DRINK

Trans Income Project

Mo Munchies LLC

Fight Covid NOLA

Fred Hampton Free Store

Chicken’s Kitchen

Tulane Students for a Democratic Society

Loyola Students for a Democratic Society

LSU Students for a Democratic Society

#NewOrleansLA #LA #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #StudentMovement #SDS #InJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression #FreeSpeech #NOCOP

By Freedom Road Socialist Organization

On September 12, 2024, three leaders of the African Peoples' Socialist Party (APSP) and the Uhuru Movement were convicted on the charge of conspiring to act “as agents of the Russian government within the United States without prior notification.” The charge carries up to five years in prison. The jury found them not guilty of the charge of already acting as unregistered foreign agents.

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By staff

Tampa, FL – On September 10, the sixth day of the trial of the Uhuru 3, members of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) and Uhuru Solidarity Movement charged with “acting as agents of a foreign government,” both the prosecution and defense finished presenting their arguments. The courtroom was packed full of supporters of the defendants.

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By staff

Tampa, FL – On Tuesday, September 3, Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (Tampa Bay SDS), along with 20 other students and community members, held a pro-Palestine rally at the Marshall Student Center Bull Fountain to demand that the University of South Florida (USF) administration reverse the expulsion of Victoria Hinckley and suspension of Joseph Charry, disclose and divest investments to Israel, and stop attacks on the student movement.

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By Gage Lacharite

Tampa, FL – The trial of the Uhuru 3 entered its second week on Monday, September 9. The 17th floor courtroom of the Sam Gibbons Federal Courthouse in downtown Tampa was packed with observers from across the country and across social movements, there to support the defendants.

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By staff

Tampa, FL – As the trial of the Uhuru 3 enters its second day, the prosecution calls its first witnesses. The Uhuru 3 are members of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) and the Uhuru Movement who are charged with conspiracy and “acting as agents of the Russian government within the United States without prior notification.” The courtroom was packed with supporters of the defendants. Many had traveled from all across the country to be there.

The prosecution first called Professor Brian Taylor, a professor of political science, to the stand as a witness. Taylor’s role in the trial was to provide background information on the Russian intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service (FSB). When other witnesses were questioned, it was revealed that there was no proof of any of the defendants or the Russian nationals being agents of the FSB.

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By Chrisley Carpio

Tampa, FL – On September 3, at the Sam Gibbons Federal Courthouse in downtown Tampa, the trial of the Uhuru 3 began. At 8 a.m., over 50 supporters of the defendants gathered across the street for a press conference and then a rally.

“We will beat these charges and we will put be the ones to put the state on trial,” said Mwezi Odom of the Hands Off Uhuru Defense Campaign.

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By Lauren Pineiro

Rally demands "Drop the charges against Uhuru 3."  | Fight Back! News/staff

St. Petersburg, FL – “We’re going to beat you in the court, and then when we do that we’re going to beat you in the streets,” said former NYC Councilman Charles Barron. He was talking about the fight for justice for the Uhuru 3, addressing a crowd of 125 community members and activists. The crowd gathered outside the Uhuru House in Saint Petersburg, Florida on August 31 to rally around the Uhuru 3, three Uhuru Movement leaders facing 15 years in prison for their international solidarity work.

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By staff

The photo is outside on a lawn and three people watch on as two other people shake hands.

New Orleans, LA- On June 25, FBI agents phoned Cuba solidarity activist Jack Reno Sweeney to attempt to interrogate him about his work. A week prior to calling him, they visited his former apartment, and then called his mother on June 24. They called his mother a second time two days later. 

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