Chicago, IL– 30 Chicago community members from the South and West sides gathered at the office of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression on Saturday, August 15 for an event discussing the widespread attacks on Black political power and Freedom Road Socialist Organization’s (FRSO) political line on the struggle to defend voting rights.

In late April, the Supreme Court struck a fatal blow to Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, ruling that states could redraw congressional districts in a way that reduces Black voting power, as long as they say the racist outcomes aren’t intentional. The decision, called Louisiana v. Callais, was a major attack in a larger Trump offensive against the political power of Black people.

The program covered the history of African American struggle for voting rights in the United States, analyzed the current wave of attacks and racist redistricting, and explored Freedom Road’s line on the African American national question.

Frank Chapman, representing the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, described the history of the struggle for the African American right to vote in the context of the U.S. and explained the significance of the Reconstruction period following the Civil War.

“It was during this period that Black people expressed the right to vote,” Chapman said. “They elected members to Congress, sheriffs and constables, justices of the peace and mayors.”

After World War II, the Black Liberation Movement grew in the deep South into the historic Civil Rights struggle that culminated with what Chapman called the “Civil Rights Revolution.”

“The Voting Rights Act of 1965 once again set the nation upon a course of addressing the question of the oppression of Black people and recognizing the agency of Black people to end their oppression,” he said.

After the history lesson, FRSO member Tulsi McDaniels presented an analysis of the particular attacks on Black voters in key Southern states, suggesting that the racist redistricting that followed the Callais decision represents the greatest rollback in political power since the end of Reconstruction.

In Tennessee, for example, Republicans redrew the state map to eliminate the only Black-majority district that has existed in the state since Reconstruction. In response, Black legislators and community members fought back with a protest and sit-in at the Tennessee capitol building in Nashville in May, McDaniels said.

Dr. Dorothy Nairne, one of the plaintiffs in the Callais case, joined the program over Zoom to share more about the fight against Black voter suppression in her home state of Louisiana. Nairne has seen the Black population in Louisiana growing over the past decade, reaching two-thirds of the state population, often in territories where Black people were once held as slaves, she said.

“If we are two-thirds of the state, that means we should have two districts that have the chance to vote for the person of our choice,” Nairne said.

Louisiana is ranked worst in the country on many metrics, including incarceration, air quality and economic opportunities, all of which affect the Black population at higher rates, she said.

“Our lives are on the line in Louisiana,” she said. “We need some change here. When we vote and we have a candidate that supports us and a candidate that looks like us, things can change.”

Reverend Patricia Williams spoke next, connecting the struggle to defend voting rights with the fight for community control of the police in Chicago. Williams is a co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and has lived in Chicago for over 60 years.

“The Proud Boys and hate groups are on the police force,” Williams said. “We don’t know when our children go out the door if they’re going to get back in. We have to vote. We have to have power over our communities and power over the police.”

To close, FRSO member Kobi Guillory presented on how the struggle to defend voting rights connects to Freedom Road’s strategy for revolution. A core issue is Black political power and self-determination for the African American nation, he said.

“There is a tiny group of people called monopoly capitalists who steal from the majority of the world,” Guillory said. “Our strategy is to unite everyone who can be united against the monopoly capitalists.”

A crucial part of that united front is the African American nation, he said. FRSO understands a nation to be a stable, historically constituted group of people with a common language, territory, economic base and culture, which describes Black people in the U.S. South.

Just like in a marriage, if one party doesn’t have the agency to separate, the relationship is not free and equal, Guillory said. “FRSO supports full equality and self-determination for the Black nation, up to and including secession.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #VotingRights #PeplesStruggles #CAARPR

Baton Rouge, LA – On May 12th, Louisiana residents gathered at the Louisiana State Capitol to condemn the state Senate’s new redistricting plans. This comes after Governor Jeff Landry illegally declared a state of emergency to stop the elections after the Louisiana v. Callais decision.

The Committee on Senate and Governmental Affairs meeting, which was supposed to take place on May 13, was moved to May 12, a last-minute blatant attempt to reduce attendance. They tried to silence the people, but the people would not be silenced. The crowds stayed for the entire session, spanning from 7 p.m. to 4:30 a.m., with many arriving hours beforehand. Testimony after testimony was put forward condemning the racist redistricting plan and affirming the need for representation of Black voters.

Under the previous map, there were four majority-white districts and two majority-Black districts. SB 407, written by Senator Ed Price, proposed maintaining a 4-2 map. Hundreds of people came out to testify in support of SB 407, staying for hours to make sure their voices were heard.

Checo Yancy from Voice of the Experienced addressed the committee, saying: “Here we are in 2026 and Jim Crow is still hanging around. This is unacceptable.” He continued, “Some people have never had equal rights, equal treatment, equal opportunities, and now you don’t want us to have two Black districts.”

Senator Jay Morris submitted SB 121, a racist bill proposing five majority-white districts and only one majority-Black district. Ziad Eissa from Freedom Road Socialist Organization spoke against SB 121, saying, “The only motivation I can think of to support this kind of gerrymandered districting, like the kind put forward in 121, is subservience to Jeff Landry, to conservative politicians, and to billionaires.”

The committee voted 4-3 in favor of SB 121, bringing it to a vote by the full Senate. The people of Louisiana came and showed that they would not accept any racist repression by the legislature. In the face of racist attacks, they showed their ability to mobilize to defend their rights.

#BatonRougeLA #LA #VotingRights #PeoplesStruggles #OppressedNationalities

Desde 2013 cuando la Corte Suprema con mayoría conservadora debilitó la Ley de Derecho al Voto de 1965, Republicanos y derechistas han intentado pasar más y más restricciones jurídicas al voto. El objetivo principal de estos esfuerzos es reprimir los votos de afroamericanos, quienes llevan mucho tiempo luchando en contra del racismo del Partido Republicano moderno. Estos esfuerzos han incrementado tras la derrota electoral de Donald Trump en las elecciones presidenciales del 2020 y la victoria de un senador afroamericano en Georgia. Las mentiras de Trump y sus aliados acerca de fraude electoral se han unido a la campaña para suprimir el voto. Su objetivo no es solamente ganar las elecciones del 2022 y 2024 sino también establecer la fundación para anular futuras elecciones si los resultados no les convienen. La supresión del voto de afroamericanos, chicanos y otras nacionalidades oprimidas es el enfoque de estos esfuerzos.

La lucha por el derecho a votar ha formado parte de la lucha por la democracia en los Estados Unidos por más de 150 años. Después de la Guerra Civil y durante el periodo de la Reconstrucción, el logro del derecho a votar para los afroamericanos estableció la legislación más progresista de aquel tiempo. La lucha para abolir la esclavitud y la victoria del sufragio, o el derecho para votar, para los estadounidenses negros fueron catalizadores para la lucha por el sufragio femenino. Al igual, el movimiento de los derechos civiles de hace 60 años, en el cual el derecho a votar constituyo una parte fundamental, motivó otras luchas de parte de chicanos y otras nacionalidades oprimidas, la lucha en contra de la guerra imperialista en Vietnam, y fortaleció el movimiento ecologista. La lucha por la igualdad de las mujeres, la lucha por los derechos LGBTQ, y otros movimientos progresistas han crecido gracias al movimiento por los derechos civiles.

A pesar de que los derechistas fracasaron en las elecciones de 2018 y 2020, están aprovechando los frutos de sus esfuerzos de las últimas décadas por llenar las cortes con jueces derechistas. En junio del 2020, la Corte Suprema ratificó dos leyes que suprimen el voto en Arizona, abriéndole las puertas a este tipo de leyes en otros estados.

Aunque haya personas que desean aislar el movimiento popular al poner el derecho a votar en contra de las luchas de las masas, lo cierto es que manifestaciones populares en las calles ayudan a la lucha por el derecho a votar. La Ley de Derecho al Voto de 1965 fue establecida después de una década de la lucha de las masas por el derecho a votar y la eliminación de la segregación. En 2020, la inscripción de votantes incrementó después de varias demostraciones populares, incluyendo las rebeliones urbanas y la multitud de actos de desobediencia civil después del asesinato de George Floyd.

Sería erróneo poner el derecho a votar en contra de nuestra lucha por el socialismo. Como dijo el revolucionario ruso, Vladimir Ilich Lenin, “debemos exponer y recalcar ante todo el pueblo los objetivos democráticos generales, sin ocultar en ningún momento nuestras convicciones socialistas.” El control comunitario de la policía y el derecho a votar son exigencias democráticas, que son aún más importantes hoy en día porque son exigencias de afroamericanos y otras nacionalidades oprimidas, quienes, junto a la clase obrera, forman el núcleo de la lucha por el socialismo en los Estados Unidos.

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #Elections #VotingRights

Ever since the Supreme Court conservative majority weakened the 1965 Voting Rights Act in 2013, Republicans and the right wing have tried to pass more and more legal restrictions on voting. The main aim of these efforts is to suppress the votes of African Americans, who have long fought the racism and reaction of the modern Republican Party. These efforts redoubled in the wake of the 2020 elections with Donald Trump’s loss in the presidential race, and the election of one African American senator from Georgia. Trump and his allies’ lies about voter fraud have merged with this campaign for voter suppression. Their goal is not just to try to win elections in 2022 and 2024, but to lay the basis for trying to overturn future elections if the outcome is not to their liking. Disenfranchising as many African Americans, Chicanos and other oppressed nationalities is at the center of their efforts to turn the clock back.

The struggle for voting rights has been part of the fight for democracy in the United States for more than 150 years. After the Civil War, during the Reconstruction, African Americans winning the vote gave rise to some of the most progressive legislation of the time. The struggle to abolish slavery and win the franchise, or right to vote, for Black Americans helped fuel the fight for women’s suffrage. And the Civil Rights movement of 60 years ago, of which voting rights was a central part, sparked struggles by Chicanos and other oppressed nationalities as well as the fight against the imperialist war on Vietnam, and the strengthening of the environmental movement. The fight for equality for women, the struggle for LGBTQ rights, and many other progressive movements grew in the wake of the Civil Rights movement.

While the right wing was roundly defeated in the 2018 and 2020 elections, their decades-long campaign to pack the courts with right-wing judges is paying off. In June of 2020, the Supreme Court upheld two of Arizona’s voter suppression laws, giving a green light to similar bills in many other states.

While some people who wish to marginalize the people’s movement try to pit voting rights against mass struggles, the fact of the matter is that people in the streets helps the struggle for voting rights. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 came after ten years of mass struggle against segregation and for voting rights. In 2020, voter registration picked up after the wave a mass actions, including urban rebellions and many acts of civil disobedience after the murder of George Floyd.

It would also be wrong to pit the struggle for voting rights against our fight for socialism. As the Russian revolutionary V.I. Lenin said, “we are obliged for that reason to expound and emphasize general democratic tasks before the whole people, without for a moment concealing our socialist convictions.” [“What Is To Be Done?”, page 102, italics in the original]. Community control of the police and voting rights are both democratic demands, made even more important here and now because they are also demands of African Americans and other oppressed nationalities, who, along with the working class, make of the core of the struggle for socialism in the United States.

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #Elections #VotingRights