Dallas, TX – On June 14, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression-Dallas hosted a protest against increased ICE presence, particularly in Dallas due to the FIFA soccer World Cup 2026. The protest was attended by community members and several fans who had come to watch the group stage game between the Nederland’s and Japan.

Even before the games even began, the United States made it extremely difficult for fans to travel to the games, with long lines at the airport, and increased visa scrutiny resulting in fans, players, coaching staff and referees of several teams being detained at the airport or denied entry based on arbitrary reasons. Many questioned whether the U.S. would ever be suitable to host the games again.

The protest was in conjunction with Legalization for All Network's call to action against ICE detention centers. NAARPR Dallas members held a banner that read “Free the people, empty the ICE concentration camps.” Onlookers and pedestrians were supportive of the message.

Blake Van Wicklen, a member of Teamster Local 767 and Freedom Road Socialist stated, “ Those of us in the labor movement know that an injury to one is an injury to all. An attack on immigrant workers, the backbone of labor in this country is an attack on the entire working class.”

Several chants were heard such as, “ICE out of the World Cup”, “Killer ICE off our streets, ICE melts in the Texas heat” and “Legalization for who? Legalization for all”

The protest ended with a call to action for community members to attend the next ICE out of the World Cup protest on July 14, during the semi-final game at the Dallas Stadium.

#DallasTX #TX #ImmigrantRights #NAARPRDFW #WorldCup #ICE

Austin, TX – Approximately 20 community members gathered in front of Travis County Jail on Saturday, June 13 in a show of solidarity with those resisting in Delaney Hall and Adelanto ICE processing facility. The rally was organized by La Frontera Unida (LFU), a member of the Legalization for All Network (L4A), as a part of L4A’s Weekend of Action Against Immigration Detention Centers.

LFU targeted the Travis County Jail because Travis County Commissioners and Sheriff Sally Hernandez continually hold people suspected to be in the U.S. “illegally” past their release date, in order to give ICE time to pick them up from jail.

La Frontera Unida president, Jesse Valdelamar, broke down the shameless submission of Travis County to Greg Abbott and Donald Trump: “When Sheriff Hernandez complies with the state in executing an immigration hold against community members, she is handing them over to a murderous system. Detained people are denied their basic human rights, medical care, adequate food, water. When people die because of these cruel conditions, no one is held accountable. Not the agents! Not the sheriffs! Not the commissioners!”

Valdelamar continued, “The people in Delaney Hall understand this reality. They are risking their own wellbeing because they know that collaboration with ICE is collaboration with death. These detainees have every right to resist their oppression, and it is our duty to assist them. For Sheriff Hernandez, the Travis County commissioner, this is our demand. This is not a request. Free our people! Free them all now!

In between speeches, the rallygoers chanted “Se ve se siente el pueblo está presente!” and “What do we want? ‘Legalization!’ When do we want it? ‘Now!’” Several people released from jail for unrelated reasons stopped to chat with organizers and a couple joined in on chants and took pictures with the signs and banners.

Mia Reballosa of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization pointed out, “La migra’s violence has one simple goal, fear and submission. Instead of listening to the people, of uplifting and supporting its people, the U.S. has decided to continue its longstanding tradition of beating its own people into submission with the goal of continued exploitation.”

LFU is continuing its campaign to end the Austin Police Department's collaboration with ICE, and will hold its first Barrio Walk on June 27.

#AustinTX #TX #ImmigrantRights #LFU #L4A

Garland, TX – On Friday, June 12, 20 community members gathered outside the Paligen bomb factory in Garland, Texas to say no to Trump’s war on Iran. The factory, situated in a working-class Chicano neighborhood, produces vast quantities of the bombs that the U.S. and Israel are dropping on communities in Iran, Lebanon, Palestine and elsewhere. The DFW Anti-War Committee has an active Stop the Bombs Garland campaign to target this factory.

Speakers at the protest condemned Trump’s war on Iran and Paligen’s bombs used to wage it. Paligen, the U.S. subsidiary of Turkish REPKON, has been coming under increasing fire in Türkiye for its bomb production in the U.S. in an effort to skirt around trade embargoes with Israel. These same bombs, the Mk-80 and BLU-109 series, make up a core part of the U.S. and Israeli arsenals in their current wars of aggression around West Asia.

Jo Hargis with the DFW Anti-War Committee commented, “These bombs have been used in countless attacks on Iran, Lebanon and Palestine, and have been used in war crimes as far back as the U.S. wars on Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia. Now Paligen, which is complicit in killing students and destroying educational institutions, is bringing Garland-area students into their bomb factory for ‘experience’ through the FAME program.”

A member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization Dallas, Glen Reed, said, “It was great to see people come out and make a stand against this company that has been profiting off of killing innocent lives in Iran and Palestine.”

Community members in attendance chanted “Stop the bombs Garland” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” towards the nearby Paligen bomb factory and the Dallas College campus, which houses the office of Paul Mayer, board of trustees chair and initiator of the FAME program partnership with Paligen.

Lauren Aguilar, a Garland resident and organizer with the DFW Anti-War committee, said, “The partnership between schools and Paligen is revolting. The location of this bomb factory, close to schools and colleges and neighborhoods within a mile radius, is another important factor in this fight to shut down this factory. There are a lot better partnerships schools should be making instead of Paligen.”

The Stop the Bombs Garland campaign has an active petition demanding Paul Mayer remove Paligen from FAME, available at tinyurl.com/NoFamePaligen.

#GarlandTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #Paligen #DAWC

Fight Back News service is circulating the following statement from the Dallas Against the Trump Agenda Coalition.

Texas is a battleground against the fiercest of Donald Trump and Greg Abbott’s attacks on the people, and the Dallas -Fort Worth metroplex continues to stand up and fight back. We are proud to announce the formation of the Dallas Against the Trump Agenda (DATA) Coalition as a unified voice to strike back against these attacks on our communities.

We are an action oriented coalition of organizations working together against Trump’s agenda. We are not here merely to speak up, but to build the people’s movements so that they can take meaningful action against this far-right violence. From the first Trump regime to the current one, our communities here in Texas have been a training ground for racist police violence, anti-LGBTQ laws targeting Trans kids, attacks by ICE on our immigrant neighbors, and rollbacks hard-won labor rights. We are building mass people power to keep our communities safe through collective action, no matter what Trump and Abbott throw our way.

We have seen the power of Dallas-Fort Worth in action, and we will continue to grow our unified strength. From the George Floyd uprisings in 2020 and Reproductive Rights rally in 2022 to the Free Palestine marches in 2023 and the ICE Out protests in 2026, we have seen our communities show up in the tens of thousands to stand united against attacks on the people. Now, in the midst of the Trump regime as these attacks heighten, we must stand taller than ever and fight back twice as hard.

The ground is fertile for collective strength as our communities have nothing to lose but their chains. Trump and Abbott took the gloves off as they repress communities across Texas and the people see them for what they represent: the throes of a dying empire as it tramples everyone underfoot. The people united will never be defeated and together the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex will rise against our enemies in the White House and Governor’s Mansion.

We call on all DFW organizations fighting against the Trump agenda to join the DATA Coalition and stand alongside us in our mutual struggle for the freedom we all deserve. To our local communities, we ask you to join us in the streets, get organized in the people’s movements, and build this coalition alongside us. Together, we have the power to win and our future looks bright.

#DallasTX #TX #Trump #PeoplesStruggles #ImmigrantRights

On the evening of January 31, 1938, hundreds of workers crowded into a San Antonio, Texas factory meeting room. Management had just announced a wage cut of up to 30%, a devastating blow to workers who were already among the lowest-paid in the United States. The atmosphere was tense and uncertain. Then a young Chicana organizer, Manuela Solis Sagar, climbed onto a table and cut through the hesitation: “Well, what are we going to do? Are you going to sit there, or are we going to strike?”

The answer came back in a roar, “Vamos a la huelga!” Within hours the decision was made. By the next morning, thousands of pecan shellers across San Antonio had walked off the job. The barrios of the city's West Side erupted into mass demonstrations as workers took to the streets in a militant display of workers’ power. What followed was nearly two months of struggle against the bosses, against the police, and against the city's corrupt political machine that would shake San Antonio to its foundations.

A city built on exploitation

To understand the eruption of 1938, it is necessary to understand what life was like on San Antonio's West Side. Between 1910 and 1930, the Mexican population in Texas more than tripled, driven north by the upheavals of the Mexican Revolution and the displacement of peasants and small landholders by large-scale commercial agriculture on both sides of the border. These workers arrived in San Antonio systematically excluded from most trades and industries, funneled into the most grueling and lowest-paid work available, including pecan shelling.

By the late 1930s, the West Side resembled one of the most impoverished urban districts in the country. Families of eight or ten were crowded into two-room shacks without running water or electricity, renting for as little as one dollar a week. The pecan shelling plants themselves were overcrowded and unventilated; state health inspectors described filthy floors, broken containers, and no soap or towels. Workers were paid by the pound, just five or six cents per pound shelled, with a WPA survey finding average weekly wages of $2.73.

Julius Seligsman, the “Pecan King” whose operations supplied half the country's pecans and who reportedly paid himself a salary of $1000 a week, testified before a federal hearing that “The Mexican pecan shellers eat a good many pecans, and five cents a day is enough to support them in addition to what they eat while they work.” Respiratory illnesses, particularly tuberculosis spread by the ever-present pecan dust was rampant. Many workers brought shelling home with them in the evenings, enlisting their children to try to earn a few extra cents.

La Pasionaria: Emma Tenayuca and the Workers Alliance

“I was arrested a number of times; I never thought in terms of fear, I thought in terms of justice.” – Emma Tenayuca

The 1938 strike was the culmination of years of labor struggle and militant organizing amongst San Antonio's working class. At the center of that organizing was a young Chicana communist organizer named Emma Tenayuca.

Tenayuca had first emerged as an organizer in 1934, while still in high school, participating in strike support activities at the Fink Cigar Company, one of the low-wage, labor-intensive industries that relied heavily on young Chicana women. She was arrested at 16, the first of many times. She soon became an organizer with the Communist Party-led Unemployed Council, and helped to lead a series of struggles, supporting striking garment workers, demanding public relief for unemployed families, and defending immigrant workers threatened with deportation and repatriation. She built a reputation as an uncompromising advocate for the West Side's working class, earning her the moniker of “La Pasionaria.”

The organizational vehicle for this work was the Workers Alliance. The Workers Alliance was a national mass organization of the Communist Party. In San Antonio, the CPUSA and the Workers Alliance organized for WPA jobs and federal relief, and crucially, fought the systemic discrimination that locked Mexican Americans out of national relief programs.

As early as 1930, the local Communist Party and the Unemployed Council had organized a march of the unemployed drawing over 1000 participants, the majority of whom were of Mexican origin. Under Tenayuca's leadership, the San Antonio chapter became one of the most active in the country, staging sit-ins at City Hall, organizing mass demonstrations, confronting immigration repression, and building a network of chapters rooted in the barrios of the West Side. Through this work, the Workers Alliance elevated Tenayuca to its national executive committee, placing the young Chicana communist in the leadership of a national mass organization

In addition to her labor work, Tenayuca also made significant theoretical contributions in applying the National Question to Chicanos in the Southwest. In her 1939 article titled “The Mexican Question in the Southwest” she advanced the idea that Mexicans in the United States represented an oppressed nationality, stating that “the status of the Mexican people as an oppressed national group may be compared in a number of respects with that of the Negro today.” While she stopped short of calling for self-determination of the Chicano Nation, her analysis of Chicanos as an oppressed nationality earned her a place as one of the earliest revolutionary theoreticians of the Chicano National question.

The strike: Class war in the open

The walkout on January 31 was spontaneous. The local union leadership vacillated and opposed launching such a large-scale strike. But the workers moved anyway, and they moved toward their most trusted militant leaders. Tenayuca, alongside fellow communist organizers like Manuela Solis Sagar, helped transform the spontaneous walkout into coordinated action. Over 10,000 workers ultimately joined the strike, affiliated with Pecan Workers Local 172 of the CIO affiliated UCAPAWA (United Cannery, Agricultural, Packing, and Allied Workers of America). What had begun as a response to a wage cut became a social rebellion of the Chicano working class.

The city’s ruling class responded with force. Within a day of the walkout, police arrested several strike leaders, including Tenayuca and her husband Homer Brooks, both known Communist Party members. San Antonio Police Chief Owen Kilday openly justified the crackdown, declaring to the press that he “would not permit the reds to take part in the strike.” San Antonio elites maintained that the strike was an attempt to place the entire west side of San Antonio “under the red banner.”

The workers' response was equally forceful. Hundreds marched on the police station demanding Tenayuca's release. When she emerged from jail the next day, the workers elected San Antonio's most prominent communist organizer honorary strike captain by acclamation.

What followed was weeks of intensifying repression. Chief Kilday deployed over 250 police officers and firemen into the West Side, using tear gas, beatings, and mass arrest against picketers. Workers were charged with blocking sidewalks, loitering and disturbing the peace. The city jail, which critics took to calling the “black hole” of Texas, held over 1000 strikers over the course of the strike, some as young as 14. Inside the cells, workers were hosed down with cold water to break their spirits.

Organizers adapted. When picket lines were broken up for loitering, they devised rolling pickets, coordinated groups moving from plant to plant. When police targeted public property, they picketed from private lots adjacent to the factories, with the permission of homeowners.

All the forces of reaction in San Antonio united in an effort to crush the threat of the strike. The city's corrupt health department shut down CIO soup kitchens on spurious sanitary grounds. The archdiocese issued a statement defending the police beatings and condemning the strike leadership as communist. The Mexican Chamber of Commerce and the local LULAC chapter—representatives of the Mexican American aspiring petty bourgeoisie also joined in the smear campaign against the workers' movement.

Under pressure from the national CIO leadership, Tenayuca stepped back from the public face of the strike; the constant red-baiting had become a strategic liability. But in reality, she continued to run the operation: writing circulars and coordinating picket lines.

Victory, reversal, and legacy

Hearings sought by UCAPAWA president Donald Henderson before the Texas Industrial Commission gave workers a platform to testify publicly to the abuse they had endured. 14-year-old Dora Enriquez testified that she had been arrested and threatened if she returned to the picket line. 45-year-old Refugia Garcia testified that Chief Kilday had personally threatened to “split my head wide open.” The commission ultimately found that the civil rights of the striking workers had been fundamentally violated, though with no enforcement mechanism, Kilday and the bosses continued their campaign of terror.

Texas Governor James Allred eventually pushed both sides toward arbitration. On March 8, after nearly six weeks on strike, the pecan shellers returned to work pending a formal settlement. The arbitration board awarded formal union recognition and a wage increase to five-and-a-half cents per pound for pieces and six cents for halves. It was a real, if partial, victory: workers had forced the state and the bosses to respond to their demands and won.

The victory would be short-lived. The pecan operators mechanized their operations. Julius Seligsman shuttered his plants and reopened with a fraction of the workforce. Many of the workers who had fought so hard found themselves unemployed once more.

But the strike still left an enduring legacy in San Antonio and beyond. For nearly two months, over 10,000 of the most exploited workers in the country, overwhelmingly Chicana women, earning less than three dollars a week, had organized, resisted and fought back. They demonstrated that even under conditions of national oppression, violent repression and economic exploitation, the working class could fight their employers and win. That capacity had not developed spontaneously, but had been carefully built, year by year, through the patient organizing of the Workers Alliance and the militant minority of communists and labor leaders like Emma Tenayuca who led the workers in the struggle.

Today, the San Antonio pecan shellers’ strike remains a powerful reminder that the working class has never won anything without militant struggle. Faced with starvation wages, racist repression, police violence, and red-baiting, thousands of Chicano workers still organized and fought back. Their struggle shows us that militant organization, class solidarity, and communist leadership can transform workers economic grievances into collective power. At a time when workers across the country continue to face exploitation, union busting, and attacks on immigrants, the legacy of Emma Tenayuca and the pecan shellers remains not just a piece of history, but an example to follow.

#EmmaTenayuca #Labor #LaborHistory #SanAntonioTX #TX #N

Fort Worth, TX – In response to the murder of Emmit Elijah Mayo by the Fort Worth Police on May 16, National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, NAARPR-Dallas, organized a protest June 7 at the Fort Worth Police Department to demand justice for Mayo, accountability from the officers involved, and the immediate release of the unedited body cam footage.

Mayo, a musician, performed under the stage name 88Dub.

This demonstration followed a funeral service for Emmit Mayo that police had threatened to disrupt by arresting members of Mayo’s family during the procession, prompting the family to request NAARPR-Dallas’ presence as a deterrent. No arrests were made at the funeral.

Over 50 people crowded around the police station, making their demands as police within the station made mocking faces and gestures towards the crowd. While police watched from the station’s balcony, organizers led the protesters in chants shouting, “Jail all killer cops!” “Community control now!” and “Justice for 88Dub!”

Members of Emmit Mayo’s family took the opportunity to speak to the crowd and to the police onlookers about the truth of the situation. One family member stated, “It’s funny the kind of quality we can get from videos taken by drones off in faraway places, but when it comes to people being murdered in our community all we get is blurry and edited videos.”

A few hours into the action, several FWPD vehicles left the station’s parking lot in quick succession, prompting the crowd to gather around the exit and make their demands heard up close to the officers who had refused to acknowledge the protest.

After the action, FWPD officers followed three members of Emmit Mayo’s family to their homes and arrested them.

#FortWorthTX #TX #InJusticeSystem #KillerCops #NAARPRDFW

Dallas, Texas- On May 25, the 6th anniversary of the murder of George Floyd, organizers in Dallas held a memorial vigil and rally to honor Floyd’s memory and all victims of police violence. The action was organized by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression-Dallas.

Dozens of Dallas residents crowded around a vigil table at Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge and listened to speeches from Black Alliance for Peace, Revolutionary Front, and the organizers of the event, NAARPR-Dallas.

NAARPR-Dallas called this action not only to remember the life and unjust killing of George Floyd, but to acknowledge the resistance that bloomed from his passing and to draw attention to the need for such a resistance again.

Xavier Velasquez, chair of NAARPR-Dallas, spoke at the action saying, “It has been six years since the murder of George Floyd and the great rebellion of the people that followed. We saw a huge outpouring of protest to achieve justice for his murder. For a lot of us it feels like nothing really changed, and in large part it hasn't.”

Attention was also drawn to the impending closure of the Police Accountability Board by the city council, and how this presents a prime opportunity for the residents of Dallas to organize around a campaign to affect real change and create a system of community control:

“Now that the Dallas city council is actively trying to shut down its own accountability board, we have a huge opportunity now to try to put our own version of Chicago's ECPS ordinance onto the floor of Dallas City Council.”

Between the speeches, organizers led the crowd in passionate chants calling for “Community control now!” “Jail all killer cops!” and “Power to the people!”

After the action was over, space was given for people to come to the altar and make prayers or give offerings in remembrance of George Floyd and the George Floyd Rebellion.

#DallasTX #TX #GeorgeFloyd #NAARPRDallas #NAARPR #InjusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities

Dallas, TX – Outside Dallas College’s Board of Trustees monthly meeting, May 12, DFW Anti-War Committee activists and supporters gathered to demand an end to Dallas College’s partnership with Paligen, the bomb factory located in Garland, Texas. DAWC’s petition demanding an end to this partnership is now over 450 signatories.

In the hour before the protest, Dallas College police surrounded the front of Dallas College administrative office with nine squad cars. They put up “Do not cross” tape in the area and barricaded the streets on either side of the building.

Jo Hargis of DFW Anti-War Committee observed, “It seems like a waste of money for Dallas College to pay all these police to close the street down to one lane instead of answering our emails, but it sure is making people slow down and look at our signs about Dallas College’s partnership with the war machine.”

During the protest, several people pulled over to ask about the protest and how to get involved.

Through the FAME program, Dallas College sends its students into the Paligen factory. This factory is the sole manufacturer of the shells for the MK-80 series bombs, which are the majority of bombs used by Israel to commit genocide in Palestine and to bomb Iran. In March, the U.S. State Department approved a sale of over $400 million more of these bomb bodies to Israel, naming the factory in Garland as the sole supplier of these weapons.

“The factory that builds the bombs used by the U.S. and its allies is right here in North Texas, and our educational system is normalizing their operations and endangering our students. Shame on Paul Mayer, and on Dallas College!” said Kai Leslie of DFW Anti-War Committee. Paul Mayer is the president of the Board of Trustees for Dallas College.

After a coordinated call and email campaign, or “phone zap”, organizers from DFW Anti-War Committee were able to meet with one of the school districts involved in the FAME program. At the meeting, Superintendent Dr. Angel Rivera confirmed that students from Mesquite ISD would not work in this factory.

Dallas College leadership has not responded to any of DAWC’s requests to discuss their partnership with FAME. DAWC organizers plan to return to the next Dallas College board meeting and to continue their pressure campaign until Paligen is dropped from all educational partnerships.

The next board meeting protest will be June 2, at 4 p.m. across the street from 1601 Botham Jean Boulevard, Dallas, TX 75215.

#DallasTX #TX #AntiWarMovement

Austin, TX – On Thursday morning, May 7, community members packed the Austin City Council meeting to demand that the city take action to stop local police collaboration with ICE. Jesse Valdelamar, of La Frontera Unida, gave public comment on this issue as supporters packed the room with signs with messages such as, “ICE out” and “Legalization for all.” After the public comment, around 25 people rallied outside City Hall.

In his speech, Valdelamar said, “On April 24, this city government shamefully capitulated to the racist demands of Governor Abbott and updated police orders such that officers ‘should, when operationally feasible’ contact ICE over administrative warrants.”

Just before this, Texas Governor Greg Abbott threatened to withdraw $2.5 million in city funding. Valdelamar said, “If this was really a money issue, we should be talking about cutting back on the millions of dollars in handouts to big business that this city gives out on a regular basis rather than risk sending any of our community members to their deaths in a concentration camp.”

Sameeha Rizvi of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) spoke on how the Trump administration is making claims about ICE taking criminals off the streets. Rizvi said, “I mean so far, if that’s the reason we are going to use, how come we have so many Muslim immigrants who have been detained just because they spoke up on Palestine?”

Rizvi continued, “Let’s be clear. ICE does not make our neighborhoods safer. Agencies that exist to tear families apart have no place in our communities.”

Jake Holtzman, of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, said, “These racist politicians are a product and a symptom of a whole rotten system. And that is the system of monopoly capitalism. The capitalists are waging ICE terror, mass deportations and tearing families apart, all to line their own pockets. Shame!”

Holtzman continued, “We need a revolution to kick the capitalists out of power and put working and oppressed people in charge. And our demand is national liberation and self-determination for the Chicano nation here in the Southwest, and full equality for all Chicanos, Mexicanos and Central Americans in the U.S..”

#AustinTX #TX #ICE #ImmigrantRights #LaFronteraUnida

Austin, TX – On Friday, May 1, labor unions and activist and student groups took the streets of downtown Austin for International Workers Day. Around 200 protesters marched on the Capitol building chanting and holding signs in support of immigrants and workers’ rights.

Before the march, the Austin Central Labor Council held a tabling fair through the rain, with many union locals, like IBEW and AFSCME, and activist groups, including the Freedom Road Socialist Organization giving out information.

Austin Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Students for International Labor Solidarity, and other student groups led a contingent to the Capitol from the UT Austin campus, demanding that UT cut its ties with a company that provides ICE with vehicles for deportations. The students chanted, “UT stop the lies, cut your ties with Enterprise!”

Daniel Ramirez from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization told the crowd, “On May 1, 1886, tens of thousands of workers said ‘enough is enough’ and went out on strike against the bosses and their hired guns. So, when we come out to celebrate the historic workers holiday of May Day, it reminds us that when people are organized, we can land blows against the rotten system we live in. That a better future is possible.”

At the Capitol, SDS talked about the fight against the UT Austin administration as it cut classes and departments that study race and gender. Devon May from SDS talked about how the same Texas government, led by Greg Abbott, that is attacking workers in Texas, is the government that UT admin is bending the knee to.

May said, “Our state government is entirely on the side of the billionaires!” This was met with a flurry of boos and calls of, “Shame,” from the energetic crowd. May ended by highlighting the unity between workers and students, saying “We – the united front of workers and students and immigrants, and everyone else who is tired of living in the shadow of the ruling class – aren’t going to stop until we’ve won everything!”

#AustinTX #TX #StudentMovement #Labor #ImmigrantRights #MayDay #SDS

Dallas, TX – On May 1, 600 workers, students and community members converged at Dallas City Hall demanding an end to billionaire rule and for a society that puts working people first.

The rally took place at Dallas City Hall and was organized by Dallas Fort Worth May Day Coalition, made up of community organizations, labor unions, including the North Texas Area Labor Federation, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Young Active Labor Leaders, Palestinian Youth Movement, and the Revolutionary Front, among others.

Organizers are framing the action not as a symbolic protest, but as part of a broader strategy to build real working-class power.

Marching through the streets of Dallas, the crowd chanted, “When workers’ rights are under attack, What do we do? Stand up! Fight back!”

FRSO organizer Faye Damara stated, ”We can build movements that can win victories on the shop floor, victories against the cops, victories against war, victories where we seize a little more power and then use that power to seize a little more. Day by day, degree by degree.”

May 1, International Workers Day, has its roots in the U.S. labor movement, particularly the struggle for the eight-hour workday. Today, it is observed globally as a day of worker solidarity, even as it remains marginalized in official U.S. politics.

Ultimately, the Dallas May Day protest was about power—who has it, and who doesn’t.

As inequality widens and political institutions increasingly serve the interests of the ruling class, more and more workers are concluding that change will not come from above. Instead, it will come from collective action: strikes, walkouts and mass mobilizations, that make this country ungovernable.

#DallasTX #TX #Labor #ImmigrantsRights #MayDay

Arlington, TX – On April 23, around ten rank-and-file Teamsters at the Arlington UPS hub marched on the boss. They presented a petition with 70 signatures gathered from workers across the building, demanding start times be posted earlier and made more consistent.

For years, workers have been dealing with day-by-day start times, often not knowing when to report until the night before, or even the day of. This has caused difficulties planning sleep, family time, appointments and other responsibilities.

After hearing the workers' demands, the division manager agreed to start providing tentative weekly start times, rather than only notifying workers one day at a time. He also said this could be implemented across all four shifts, not just day sort.

One of the workers who took part in the march said, “I really liked that management not only actually listened to us, but we got a concrete win out of this.”

After the meeting, workers gathered to celebrate the win, chanting “When we fight, we win!” and “Who are we? Teamsters!” The action showed that when workers organize together, they can push management to make changes on the shop floor.

#ArlingtonTX #TX #Labor #Teamsters #UPS

Justin, TX – En una muestra audaz de unidad, los trabajadores del Centro de Distribución de Piezas de Volvo en Justin marcharon ante la gerencia el 13 de abril para exigir el reconocimiento sindical, intensificando su lucha por el respeto, seguridad y una voz real en el trabajo.

Los trabajadores del almacén entraron juntos a la oficina del jefe, entregando su mensaje directamente, declarando, “Estamos organizados, somos militantes y esperamos que reconozcan a nuestro sindicato”. La acción marca un punto de inflexión en una campaña de organización donde los trabajadores han dejado de lado sus diferencias en favor del poder colectivo.

El almacén, operado por Volvo Group, constituye un vínculo crítico en la cadena de suministro de la compañía. Los trabajadores manejan el flujo constante de piezas que mantienen en movimiento camiones y equipos pesados en todo el país. Pero quienes realizan el trabajo dicen que los han llevado al límite – enfrentando horarios agotadores, aumentos en las demandas de producción y constantes preocupaciones de seguridad.

Los trabajadores describen un trabajo donde la velocidad es todo y las heridas son un riesgo siempre presente. La falta de personal ha empeorado las condiciones, obligándolos a jornadas más largas y cargas de trabajo más pesadas. Muchos dicen que la gerencia ha ignorado sus preocupaciones durante años, dejándoles poca opción más que organizarse.

La acción también toma impulso más allá de Texas. Hace apenas unos meses, los trabajadores de Volvo en una instalación de distribución de piezas en Joliet, Illinois votaron para unirse a la Local 179 de la Hermandad Internacional de Camioneros (International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 179 en inglés), demostrando que los trabajadores en toda la red de la empresa están empezando a moverse en la misma dirección. Esa victoria ayudó a mostrar lo que es posible y les dio a los trabajadores de Justin la confianza adicional para dar un paso adelante.

Al marchar ante el jefe como grupo, los trabajadores dejaron claro que este esfuerzo no viene de un puñado de individuos, sino que es una demanda colectiva respaldada por un creciente apoyo en todo el almacén.

Marchar ante el jefe es una táctica con una larga historia en el movimiento obrero – los trabajadores actuando juntos, presentando sus exigencias directamente y demostrando su unidad de una forma que la gerencia no puede ignorar. Suele ser un paso clave para ganar reconocimiento y construir la confianza necesaria para la lucha por el contrato.

La demanda es directa: reconocimiento sindical y el derecho a negociar un contrato digno. Los trabajadores quieren mejores salarios, condiciones más seguras, cargas de trabajo razonables y el fin de la falta de respeto que dicen ha definido este empleo.

Para los trabajadores de Volvo que actuaron, esto es solo el comienzo. La gerencia ahora enfrenta una decisión. Puede reconocer al sindicato y respetar la decisión de los trabajadores o enfrentar el poder de la solidaridad de sus trabajadores.

De cualquier manera, el mensaje desde el taller es claro. Los trabajadores están organizados, son militantes y están listos para luchar por lo que merecen.

#DallasTX #TX #DFW #JustinTX #UPS #Labor #Volvo #Teamsters

Garland, TX – A coalition of Dallas Fort Worth antiwar organizations including DFW Anti-War Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and others, rallied in the city of Garland’s Freeman Heights neighborhood outside of the Paligen Technologies facility, formerly REPKON USA.

The Anti-War group’s Tax Day rally protested the misuse of working people’s tax dollars on war and genocide, as well as Garland institutions’ complicity in funneling students and workers into war manufacturing via the FAME program.

DFW and Garland Community members arrived around 6:30, chanting “Say it loud! Say it clear! Paligen’s not welcome here!”

Mohammad Khan of DFW Shias for Justice told the crowd, “This company has been identified as a principle contractor of producing components of 12,000 BLU-110AB general purpose 1000-pound bomb bodies for Israel”.

Josh Rudd with DFW Anti War Committee stated, “This community does not have a hospital, but they have a bomb factory.”

Dilan Ahmadi of Revolutionary Front said, “By participating in targeted pressure campaigns like ‘Stop the Bombs Garland’, like ‘Boycott Chevron’, we can hit them where it hurts: their pocketbooks.”

The crowd made their way to the adjacent Dallas College campus, where the Garland Chamber of Commerce meets to hold trainings and meetings with the Garland FAME program. Josh Rudd spoke on the FAME program, “We don’t want students being recruited for genocide.”

After the rally, Garland resident and North Texas DSA member Ella Haag told the crowd, “I'm thankful for the DFW Anti-War Committee for taking on this campaign and for bringing attention to the Paligen facility.”

Haag continued, “I've lived in Freeman Heights since 2018 and was horrified to find out I lived across from a bomb factory. It haunts me every day. Every war is connected to this factory. Every life lost from these weapons is connected to this factory.”

#GarlandTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #WeaponsIndustry #DAWC

Justin, TX – In a bold show of unity, workers at the Volvo Parts Distribution Center in Justin marched on management, April 13, to demand union recognition, escalating their fight for respect, safety and a real voice on the job.

Warehouse workers walked into the boss’s office together, delivering their message directly, stating, “We are organized, we are militant, and we expect their union to be recognized.” The action marks a turning point in an organizing drive that has seen workers put aside their differences in the interest of collective power.

The warehouse, operated by Volvo Group, is a critical link in the company’s supply chain. Workers there handle the constant flow of parts that keep trucks and heavy equipment moving across the country. But those doing the work say they’ve been pushed to the limit – dealing with exhausting schedules, rising production demands and ongoing safety concerns.

Workers describe a job where speed is everything and injuries are an ever-present risk. Short staffing has made conditions worse, forcing longer hours and heavier workloads. Many say management has ignored their concerns for years, leaving them little choice but to organize.

The action also builds on momentum beyond Texas. Just months ago, Volvo workers at a parts distribution facility in Joliet, Illinois voted to join the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 179, showing that workers across the company’s network are beginning to move in the same direction. That victory helped demonstrate what’s possible and gave workers in Justin added confidence to step forward.

By marching on the boss as a group, workers made clear that this effort isn’t coming from a handful of individuals, it’s a collective demand backed by growing support across the warehouse.

Marching on the boss is a tactic with a long history in the labor movement – workers acting together, presenting their demands directly, and demonstrating their unity in a way management can’t ignore. It’s often a key step in winning recognition and building the confidence needed for the contract fight.

The demand is straightforward: union recognition and the right to negotiate a decent contract. Workers want better pay, safer conditions, reasonable workloads and an end to the disrespect they say has defined the job.

For the Volvo workers who acted, this is just the beginning. Management now faces a choice. They can recognize the union and respect the workers’ decision or face the power of their workers’ solidarity.

Either way, the message from the shop floor is clear. Workers are organized, they are militant and they’re ready to fight for what they deserve.

#JustinTX #TX #DallasTX #Labor #Teamsters #Volvo #Featured

Dallas, TX – A coalition of Dallas anti-war organizations met at Main Street Garden Park Wednesday evening, April 8, in response to the Trump administration’s genocidal calls for violence against the Iranian people and the wholesale destruction of their infrastructure.

A crowd of 200 community members gathered around 7 p.m., arriving to chants of “From Iran to Palestine, Israel is on borrowed time!” Energy remained high while DFW Foot Not Bombs set up a hot food table.

Ryan Ahmadi of DFW Shias for justice told the crowd, “Just yesterday it seemed that we were on the brink of a genocidal, apocalyptic nuclear war. Donald Trump used his war-mongering and genocidal language, and tactic of psychological warfare that had the entire world sick to their stomachs and on the edge of their seats, waiting to see if he would carry out his threat where he said ‘an entire civilization will die tonight.” A 3000-year-old civilization, a nation of over 90 million people. Well, we’ve got news for you – you gambled, and you lost.” 

Nura Bawab of Palestinian Youth Movement stated, “The Iranian people held their ground with honor and steadfastness and showed the world that their sovereignty would not be compromised by imperialists and Zionists without global repercussions. We are proud of the resilience of the people of Iran.”

Jo Hargis of DFW Anti War Committee spoke on the role of North Texas weapons manufacturers in the last month of attacks, stating, “The factory producing the bombs Israel is using to attack Lebanon and Iran, and to carry out genocide in Palestine? Many of you know that bomb factory is in our own backyard. Many of you know that this bomb factory normalizes its complicity in murder by participating in the FAME program, partnering with schools in Garland, in Mesquite, and at Dallas College to bring students into this very facility. Many of you know DAWC is working to end those partnerships that use students at home to make the bombs killing students abroad, that DAWC has a petition at tinyurl.com/NoFAMEPaligen which all of you should sign before you leave today. And many of you know that infamous bomb factory by an old name: REPKON USA.“

Hargis continued, “The owners of this factory are the same, but seemingly overnight they changed their name to Paligen. This change happened so abruptly that when a DAWC member drove by, the old REPKON signs were simply flipped around and haven’t been replaced with anything. Paligen urgently felt the need to distance themselves from the name REPKON, and that is because they are scared. Paligen is scared of the negative international press they are receiving for arming Israel as it expands this war.”

The evening ended in chants and evening prayers as community members cleaned the park and packed out. 

DFW Anti War Committee’s next rally is April 15, directly outside the Paligen Technologies facility in Garland, to draw attention on Tax Day to the gross misuse of our tax dollars to weapons of war.

The protest was organized by DFW Anti War Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Code Pink, Communist Party DFW, DFW Food Not Bombs, Young Active Labor Leaders, and others.

#DallasTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #Iran #Palestine #Lebanon

Austin, TX – On Saturday, March 28, over 10,000 people rallied for No Kings Day, to protest against Trump’s agenda. After a march beginning at Austin City Hall, protesters gathered at Auditorium Shores for a rally featuring over 80 organizations tabling, many of them giving speeches and teach-ins throughout the event.

Jesse Valdelamar from the immigrant rights organization, La Frontera Unida, said, “Today was a great day. Austin came out in force today to let Trump and his lackeys in the governor’s office know that we will not stay idle as they trample over our rights.”

Ellie James from Austin Students for a Democratic Society said, “We are here to take a stand against the conservative agenda being forced upon UT Austin’s academic curriculum.”

During the rally, several unions and organizations spoke on a labor panel, focused on how workers and their unions are fighting back.

Taylor Carriker-Cavin, a panelist speaking on behalf of Education Austin, said, “Teachers’ unions across the country have been going on strikes successfully, winning things for their unions, for their workers, for their students, and for their families at home. Education Austin is building toward that, but we cannot do it alone.”

“We need the support,” Carriker-Cavin continued, “of all of your community organizations.”

Later in the same panel, Jules Lattimore of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “We need to change economic struggle into class struggle. Take a local struggle about say, wages, benefits, or working hours, and transform that into an avenue for not just a fight against your own boss, but against the billionaires in your city, and against the police that are working for them.”

Lattimore continued, “We need unity in action to get out of this mess where we are always on the defensive from the billionaires, from the capitalists. We also need a new system that has us, the working class, in charge. And that’s only possible through the science of Marxism-Leninism.”

#AustinTX #TX #NoKings #PeoplesStruggles #ImmigrantRights

Austin, TX – Around 30 people rallied at Austin City Hall Saturday afternoon, March 21, against the Austin Police Department (APD) collaboration with ICE.

Jesse Valdelamar of La Frontera Unida, the group that organized the rally, said that the city of Austin canceled its contract last June with the company Flock Safety. This came after community pressure over the presence of Flock surveillance cameras, which ICE has used to obtain data on immigrants.

La Frontera Unida is a member organization of the Legalization For All Network. Valdelamar explained, “The demand ‘Legalization for All’ offers real, permanent relief for immigrants. Unlike the incomplete demand of ‘abolish ICE,’ ‘legalization for all’ would integrate the undocumented into the labor force, make it easier for immigrants to form labor unions, protect immigrants irrespective of nationality against the threat of deportation, and it will never expire.”

Michael Luxemburg, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace Austin, spoke about the role of the APD in protecting the rich and their property stating, “Those same guardians of capital are welcoming” ICE into the city. “They’re doing it behind our backs using Flock information from other cities. And they’re doing it openly, collaborating in the streets.”

Paul Vonder Haar of Hands Off Central Texas said, “We don’t want another dime to go to ICE.” He continued to say we need to “make it so that when they come, they will have the fight of their lives.”

Jake Holtzman of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “At the same time, as we continue to fight against Trump’s agenda of mass deportations, we also recognize that Trump represents the system of monopoly capitalism. This whole system of capitalism must be overthrown and replaced by a system made by and for working and oppressed people. And that system is socialism!”

The Off Hand Brass Band played songs of protest, such as Which Side Are You On, between speeches and as the rally came to a close.

#AustinTX #TX #ImmigrantRights

Austin, TX – On Sunday, February 22, around a dozen people gathered in front of Austin City Hall to demand that the city create a policy preventing local police from collaborating with ICE. People driving by honked and shouted in support as they saw the group holding a banner reading, “ICE out! Legalization for all.”

Jesse Valdelamar of La Frontera Unida said that the group showed up “to protest against the collaboration taking place between the Austin Police Department and ICE.”

On February 5, the Austin Police Department (APD) held a community meeting concerning policy changes overt how APD officers will interact with ICE. Valdelamar called this meeting “nothing more than a PR stunt,” and he said, “Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis knew that no reordering of her words will ever change the fact that APD and the city council have capitulated completely to the racist and Republican-controlled state legislature without a fight.”

Valdelamar continued, “The city of Austin ended its contract with Flock, a company that sells license plate reader technology and is known to give its surveillance data to ICE. Despite this, APD continues to use Flock cameras maintained by two neighboring agencies in Round Rock and Sunset Valley.”

La Frontera Unida, the organization that called the protest, is starting a campaign to prevent this and other collaboration between APD and ICE.

Jake Holtzman of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “At the end of the day, as we continue to fight against ICE terror and Trump’s racist agenda, we also recognize that Trump represents an entire rotten system – the system of monopoly capitalism. This whole system must be overthrown!”

Holtzman continued, “So let’s unite to stop the deportations, and stop the raids. Let’s build the mass movement together to kick ICE out of Austin, ICE out of everywhere, and win legalization for all!”

#AustinTX #TX #ImmigrantRights #LFU

Garland, TX – On March 15, in Garland, Texas, 100 people joined DFW Anti-War Committee’s no war on Iran protest at the REPKON USA ordinance facility. REPKON USA just closed a $660 million U.S. arms deal to send 27,000 more bombs to Israel to continue its bombardment of Iran.

Attendees chanted, “Say it loud, say it clear, REPKON isn’t welcome here!” as 45-mph winds buffeted the crowd. Signs included “REPKON bombs slaughter Iranian students. REPKON out of our schools!”

Through the FAME program, Dallas College, the Garland school district, and the Mesquite school district partner with REPKON to use the bomb factory as a professional training resource for their students. Ending these partnerships between REPKON and schools is the current campaign of the DFW Anti-War Committee.

“We’re working to get REPKON kicked out of the FAME program because we think students shouldn’t be brought into a bomb factory for ‘on the job experience’ when those bombs are being used to kill students and destroy schools around the world,” said Josh Rudd, coordinator for the DFW Anti-War Committee.

#GarlandTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #Iran #DAWC