Tallahassee, FL – On Thursday, April 24, Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organized a rally demanding the FSU administration stop allowing manifestations of white supremacy on campus.

The protest was called in response to a mass shooting by a white supremacist on April 17 that resulted in the deaths of Robert Morales and Tiru Chabba, as well as the injury of six others. As confirmed by former classmates, the shooter frequently spewed white supremacist rhetoric both in class and in extracurricular clubs.

SDS convened at the Legacy Fountain on Landis Green and marched to the Westcott building, where the administration offices are located. The demands of students were clear throughout the protest. SDS demands that the FSU admin make a public commitment to never allowing a white supremacist speaking event to occur on campus ever again. SDS demands that the FSU administration work with identity-based student union groups, such as the Black Student Union, Pride Student Union, and others to develop comprehensive student conduct policies targeting hate speech. Using those new policies, SDS demands that FSU act against students who engage in racist and bigoted harassment of other students.

About 30 students and supporters rallied at the Westcott building. This event hosted speakers from a variety of organizations including the Tallahassee Immigrants’ Rights Alliance (TIRA), the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Food Not Bombs, and Graduate Assistants United (GAU).

Towards the end of the protest, Lain Dorsey, head of communications with the SDS chapter, turned on a microphone with a hidden speaker and pointed it toward the admin building. She then started chanting, “Prevent another tragedy! Smash white supremacy!” One FSU police officer gave Dorsey a trespass warning for using amplified sound, but she ignored it. A swarm of police descended upon Dorsey, arresting her as she chanted, “Robert Morales and Tiru Chabba! Say their names!” The rally continued for about ten minutes, as protesters chanted in anger at FSUPD and admin.

Protesters left campus to gather at the Leon County Jail and demand Dorsey’s immediate release. JJ Glueck, co-chair of communications for SDS, stated “Lain was arrested for honoring the lives that were lost to tragedy, but people who are hateful like Charlie Kirk are allowed not only amplified sound but uplifted by FSU. It’s just a double standard that shows where FSU‘s priorities are; their priorities are with repressing progressive students while they protect racist white supremacists and IDF soldiers.”

After about five hours, Dorsey was released on $500 bail, to an awaiting crowd of 20 supporters. She rejoined her fellow activists to chants of “Shame on FSUPD! Now Lain is free!”

Following the release, Dorsey stated, “We have been demanding for years now that FSU stop allowing white supremacists like Charlie Kirk to come to our campus. Last week, one of the white supremacists who supports Kirk murdered members of our community. Loudly declaring our anger with admin’s complicity, was the right thing to do. It was the only thing to do to honor those we lost.”

Tally SDS will hold a press conference on April 25 to condemn FSUPD and FSU admin for the arrest of Lain Dorsey and continue their demands for action to be taken against white supremacists on campus. The press conference will be held outside of Common Ground Books (1102 S Adams Street) at 2 p.m.

#TallahasseeFL #FL #StudentMovement #PoliticalRepression #WhiteSupremacy #ImmigrantRights #SchoolShooting

On Saturday, May 14, Masao Suzuki, chair of the Joint Nationalities Commission of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) expressed outrage at another white supremacist mass murder. “Three years ago, white supremacist Patrick Crusius drove hundreds of miles to kill Chicanos and Mexicanos in El Paso, Texas,” said Suzuki. “Then today another young white supremacist, Payton Gendron, also drove into Buffalo, New York to attack the African American community.” Eleven of the 13 people Gendron shot were African American, and ten died.

Both Crusius and Gendron had posted manifestos repeating the lies of “replacement theory,” a neo-Nazi idea that white Americans and Europeans were being displaced. This theory is a call for ethnic cleansing and mass murder of people of African, Asian, and Latino descent. Gendron livestreamed his killing spree to further spread hate and violence.

“These events are just the modern-day versions of mass lynchings historically aimed at African Americans, Asian Americans, Chicanos and Latinos, and indigenous people,” said Suzuki. “This country was founded on the genocide and seizure of land from Native Americans, and enriched by the chattel slavery of millions of Africans kidnapped from their homelands.” Suzuki added, “These white supremacists are trying to start a race war, and our communities need to prepare to defend themselves.”

“Today the white supremacist movement is funded by parts of the monopoly capitalists, and their poison spread by Fox News and anchor Tucker Carlson. These same capitalists are the ones jacking up prices,” referring to the record profits being reported by big businesses such as Shell Oil and Tyson Foods. “Wages can’t keep up, more and more people are turning up at food banks, and the numbers of homeless keep rising,” said Suzuki, “Our organization sees the need to replace this racist and exploitative system with socialism.”

#UnitedStates #Editorials #WhiteSupremacy #massShooting

On August 3, a Trump-supporting gunman carried out a massacre of at least 20 people in El Paso, Texas, which he justified in racist, anti-immigrant statement.

Suzuki added, “Racist violence, from the massacres of Native Americans to the lynchings of African Americans to the mass shootings of Chicanos, Mexicanos and Central Americans today are part and parcel of the national oppression that the United States was founded on. Now is the time to say enough is enough. We have to step up the struggle against the Trump regime. We have to organize to defend our communities from future white supremacist attacks.”

#WashingtonDC #ImmigrantRights #US #PeoplesStruggles #ChicanoLatino #WhiteSupremacy #Antiracism #Antifascism #Trump #DonaldTrump #ElPaso

Jacksonville, FL — 200 people gathered at Memorial Park on August 13 in support of the victims of the right-wing attack in Charlottesville, Virginia. The call for an emergency rally came after reports from major news outlets about Nazis marching at the University of Virginia. The Nazi march the next day left Heather Heyer dead, and many others wounded.

“We saw white supremacy for what it really was on Saturday. This is not something that is brand new. This is something that has been growing for a while now. We would be foolish to respond to this violence with inaction,” read a statement by University of North Florida Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), delivered by Tony Alvarez.

The protesters at this event braved the rain and wind to stand in solidarity with the victims in Charlottesville. They chanted, “No Trump, no KKK, no fascist USA,” and “No justice, no peace.” There were speakers from various local community organizations, then a candlelight vigil to remember Heather Heyer. Heyer was killed by white supremacist James Alex Fields, who drove his car through a crowd of progressive and leftist counter-demonstrators.

#JacksonvilleFL #WhiteSupremacy #Florida #Antiracism #antifascism

Tallahassee, FL — On August 13, over 400 students and community members rallied on the steps of Tallahassee’s historic Old Capitol building in solidarity with the victims of white supremacist terror in Charlottesville, Virginia.

“On Saturday August 12, an anti-fascist protest in Charlottesville was attacked by neo-Nazis, murdering 32-year-old protester Heather Heyer and injuring 30 others. During the protest, the white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. accelerated his car into the crowd. This is a wake-up call; the far-right is dangerous and is carrying out violent terrorist attacks,” read a statement by Tallahassee Students for a Democratic Society (SDS).

The protesters chanted in the rain, “Charlottesville means, we got to fight back!” and “No hate! No bigotry! End white supremacy!”

“It was important to show up tonight because these white supremacists already have the upper hand on us. They have organization, they have power, they have political structure. We need to show them their days are numbered. We need to show them we have a militant resistance to them,” said Maddie Hen, a member of SDS.

Protesters held signs reading, “From Charlottesville to Gaza, stop fascism,” “White silence is violence,” and “Punch Nazis.”

Satya Stark-Bejnar lead the protesters in song, It Could Have Been Me, But Instead It was You and Step by Step the Longest March. Bejnar then led a short moment of silence for Heather Heyer — the woman murdered by white supremacist James Alex Field Jr.

The crowd marched down College Avenue to the Francis Eppes statue on Florida State University campus. Katherine Draken explained, “The Francis Eppes statue is as much a symbol of racism as the Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville. Both honor people who upheld slavery and provide figureheads for white supremacists to rally around. We need to remove these symbols of hate and remember the victims of slavery and genocide, not the perpetrators.”

At the end of the protest, the organizers of the event urged protesters to continue the fight against white supremacy. A tradition of Tallahassee SDS, the rally ended with the quote by Assata Shakur that begins, “We have a duty to fight for our freedom.”

#TallahasseeFL #PeoplesStruggles #WhiteSupremacy #Florida #Antiracism #Antifascism #CHarlottesville

White supremacist Michael Page opened fire on the temple August 5, killing five men and one woman and injuring two more.

The memorial had the caskets of the Sikh victims, which included Ranjit Singh and Sita Singh, two brothers in their 40s; 84-year old Suvig Singh, a former farmer from India; Praskash Singh, a priest; and Paramjit Kaur, a 41-year old mother who worked over 60 hours a week to provide for her family.

Nikki Rehal is a young member of the Sikh temple and spoke to Fight Back!.

She said her parents immigrated from India to the U.S. in 1972.

Rehal spoke about the discrimination her family faced after 9/11 and said all she