March 8, 2010 will mark 100 years of International Women’s Day. Around the world people will celebrate the contributions of women in the movements to end inequality and exploitation, to insist on the complete liberation of women and to look forward to the day when oppression of all kinds has become a thing of the past.

Tom Burke, spokesperson for the National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera, urgently requests, “Help and aid from Americans, Colombians, and the international community to stop a crime.” Professor Palmera is being put on trial in Colombia while held in solitary confinement in the U.S. He is being forced to wear prison clothes, shackled at the hands and feet and then chained together around the waist, with the ever-present threat of electrical shock if he moves too quickly. This ‘trial’ is a violation of Professor Palmera’s dignity and his rights as a prisoner of war. Tom Burke says, “There is nothing fair or just about the trials and imprisonment of this brave Colombian freedom fighter Ricardo Palmera. Ricardo Palmera should be set free.”

Thousands of students, workers and faculty at over 100 campuses in at least 39 states participated in a national day of action March 4. One demand was that administrators and chancellors must quit raising tuition and fees. Another demand was that theycut the salaries of the highest-paid administrators instead of the lowest-paid staffers on campus. Many of the protests opposed layoffs. Actions ranged from walkouts and marches, to occupations and shut-downs, to teach-ins and movie showings.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Network to Fight for Economic Justice.

Students across the country are mobilizing for a nationwide protest against tuition and fee hikes and in support of staff and faculty facing pay cuts and layoffs. Tens of thousands of students and workers across California participated in demonstrations and building takeovers in November. They were protesting the University of California Regents proposal to increase already skyrocketing tuitions. These protests are inspiring students across the country to take action to demand that universities chop from the top and stop balancing their budgets on the backs of students and workers.

Organize! Fight Back!

Today education is under attack. Tuition and fee hikes are closing the doors to higher education. Working class and even many middle class college students are being forced out or are taking on crushing debts. Cuts in financial aid and student services and extra fees for undocumented students are limiting access. Furthermore, programs won through past struggles such Ethnic Studies and campus Women’s Centers are coming under attack. We say “Education is a Right, Not a Privilege”!

_Year One of the New Administration Saw Change but not Progress _

One year ago Chicanos, Mexicanos and Central Americans celebrated the end of the eight years of Bush administration. In addition to launching two wars and ushering in the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, the Bush administration stepped up repression against immigrants. Raids and deportations of workers by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) doubled, redoubled and then doubled again under Bush. The Bush administration implemented the notorious 287(g) program, where ICE teamed up with local police and sheriffs allowed racists such as Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio to harass Chicanos, Mexicanos and Central Americans. The October 2006 “Secure Fence Act” stepped up the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border, contributing to the deaths of more and more immigrants trying to enter the United States.

The U.S. government is stepping up its surveillance and harassment of U.S. activists in an attempt to intimidate them and dampen their spirits for the change we believe in. International solidarity activist James Jordan was returning from a two week trip to Haiti, on Jan. 7, five days prior to the terrible earthquake disaster. When his flight touched down in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, flight attendants called out for “James Patrick Jordan” and asked him to come to the front of the airplane. Homeland Security came on board the airplane to escort him off.

The Student Commission of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) met over the 2009 winter break to discuss education rights, building a movement against war and occupations in Afghanistan and Iraq, fighting racism on campus and supporting immigrant rights. FRSO students came from as far as California and Florida, with large delegations from the South and Midwest. With a burning desire for social justice, the national cold wave could not stop them

_Put a Tax on Wall Street! _

In September of 2008 the New York Federal Reserve gave the U.S. insurer American International Group (AIG) an $85 billion loan as part of the bailout of Wall Street. The NY Fed told AIG to pay big banks in full the $62 billion AIG owed for credit default swaps. In addition, the NY Fed told AIG not to tell the public how much they owed or who they were paying off. The government bailout of AIG has been increased three times since then and now totals more than $180 billion.