St. Paul, MN – On Saturday, September 12, the annual Justice for Stolen Lives March took place. The march is organized annually by Toshira Garraway and Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence (FSFAPV) to honor and demand justice for all lives stolen by police. Garraway’s fiancé, Justin Teigen, was brutally murdered and had his body dumped into a recycling bin in 2009 by the Saint Paul Police Department.

The three-mile march started at the Saint Paul Police Department on Hamline Avenue and ended in front of the Minnesota State Capitol, where impacted families spoke powerfully about their loved ones and their fights for justice.

The chanters of the march included Mississippi organizer Marquell Bridges of the Building Bridges Coalition, who travelled to Minnesota with Daveon Williams, the father of Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old baby who was shot and killed in the arms of his mother earlier this year by a Senatobia, Mississippi police officer.

Bridges spoke to the shared struggle between organizers in Minnesota and Mississippi. Bridges stated, “It's important for us to build this network. It’s important for us to build community and share this space together. Continue to lead the world. We need you to come to Mississippi and show us how you got ICE out. Show us how you created the 2020 movement.”

There was no shortage of stories from impacted families to be shared at the Justice for Stolen Lives March. The family of David Storbakken, an unhoused Native man whose disappearance has not been investigated by SPPD; Ebony Dobbins, a mother who had her home broken into unlawfully by Minneapolis police; Amity Dimock, the mother of Kobe Heisler, an autistic Black man shot during a mental health crisis, and others, all spoke passionately about the painful impacts of experiencing police violence, only to face the indifference of government and the public.

Karen Wells, the mother of Amir Locke, who was murdered in 2022 by Minneapolis Police Department officer Mark Hanneman, spoke candidly about Mayor Jacob Frey’s role in protecting MPD from consequences. Wells called out Frey for dancing in the streets with Black folks while failing to protect communities from MPD’s well-documented racism and violence.

“I have a problem with that, because you’re still trying to cover up my son's murder,” said Wells. “After you shoot our loved ones, you tie their hands behind their backs? There is going to come a time today when [Frey] is going to meet me in person and you are going to have to deal with Amir Ricardo Locke’s mother.”

Many impacted family members are still finding their voices while going through the pain of losing their loved ones and the fear of reprisals from police criminals. That is why organizations like FSFAPV, the Building Bridges Coalition and the Wrongfully Incarcerated & Over-sentenced Families Council are so important. Impacted families need the support of the people’s movements, because the onslaught from the enemy does not cease after the police kill a community member. Those who speak up and fight for justice, like Garraway is currently doing for her fiancé Justin Teigen, often face retaliation and threats from police or their sycophants.

The Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, a branch organization of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, played key roles in helping organize and execute the march by volunteering as marshals, emcees, chanters and speakers. Members also petitioned and spoke about their ongoing campaign to win community control of Minneapolis police.

Jae Yates, a TCC4J organizer, told the crowd, “Someone in the crowd reminded me that disabled people are twice as likely to be killed by police, and it’s important that we uplift that. So many of the families we advocate for had their loved ones murdered because of mental health or mobility problems that made police perceive them as uncooperative or dangerous. We have to commit to protecting all marginalized people, because if the person next to you can’t live in safety and peace, neither can you. We are being kept down by the exact same people, and we only win by fighting together.”

On Friday, September 11, at the Capri Theater in north Minneapolis, community members and organizers gathered for a screening of the 2024 documentary The People’s Way.

The documentary, created by two Black filmmakers, Ashley and William Tyner, follows three Black women leaders in Minneapolis: George Floyd Square caretaker Janelle Austin, City Council member Robin Wonsley and Toshira Garraway, founder of Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence. The film was a powerful reminder of the strength of the movement for Black liberation here in Minneapolis.

#StPaulMN #MN #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #TCC4J #FSFAPV

Jacksonville, FL– As summer comes to a close, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) has completed a second year of their Popular Education in the Park series.

Each summer, the committee chooses a series of public parks in primarily Black neighborhoods to host a teach-in and barbecue. The heart of the series is the outreach. Leading up to each event, the group contacts neighborhood associations, businesses and churches. Most importantly, they knock on doors to invite residents into the space to discuss the needs in the neighborhood. This season, the Jacksonville Community Action Committee knocked on over 600 doors to listen to the concerns of Jacksonville residents who often go unheard.

“The strength of this series is really just meeting people where they're at,” said Ash Chatmon, a community organizer with the Jacksonville Community Action Committee. “I think our city intentionally sets so many important conversations during work hours. They don't want to give us a chance to really speak out. Popular Education in the Park proves people have a lot to say about what's happening in this city and a lot of needs that aren't being met.”

This year's series focused on neighborhoods around Riverview Park, Panama Park and Marion Park. Primary concerns of residents were around infrastructure, such as damaged roads, rising utility costs, mental health resources, and concerns that, as Jacksonville rapidly develops, some parts of town will be left behind in budget priorities.

The series concluded with a special commemoration of Black August. Black August is a month-long observance to honor Black political prisoners and fallen freedom fighters around the world. The Jacksonville Community Action Committee recognized this history by presenting a plaque to honor A Mother's Cry, a coalition of local mothers and siblings who have lost their loved ones to the excessive force of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office.

The event also included educational sessions on self-determination through voting rights, political prisoners in the Black Belt South, and a dive into JCAC’s joint campaign with A Mothers Cry to establish a Mental Health Emergency Response Team that responds to vulnerable individuals with trained mental health professionals instead of inept and dangerous officers.

The event was uplifted with performances by local poets and onsite childcare.

The Jacksonville Community Action Committee encouraged all attendees to learn more about their campaigns and stay updated on their upcoming events.

#JacksonvilleFL #FL #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #JCAC

Chicago, IL – Thousands of Chicagoans lined up around the block to celebrate the launch of Mayor Brandon Johnson’s re-election campaign at the DuSable Black History Museum on the South Side of Chicago. Overcast skies and drizzling rain did nothing to dampen the spirits of Johnson’s supporters. The crowd represented a vast range of community organizations, unions, faith-based groups, elected officials, youth organizations, and individuals in working and oppressed communities.

“We came together four years ago and said ‘It’s time to get a brother from Chicago on the fifth floor. Someone who will fight for the working class,’” said State Senator Graciela Guzmán, kicking off the event by describing Johnson’s first campaign.

“After generations of trying to speak truth to power, we finally have someone who is speaking truth in power,” added Rev. Tanya Lozano, founder of Healthy Hood Chicago.

“Brother Brandon Johnson does not just represent us, Brother Brandon Johnson is us,” continued Lozano, whose family has brought forward some of the most prolific working-class organizers in Chicago’s history, including Rudy Lozano and Emma Lozano.

“For decades we were told that, to keep people safe, we need mass incarceration and policing. Mayor Johnson showed that we keep people safe through care,” said 33rd Ward Alder Rossana Rodriguez Sanchez.

“The time to organize is now!” declared 20th Ward Alder Jeanette Taylor, encouraging the crowd to work with the Johnson administration in advancing its progressive goals. Taylor also spoke on the history of the predominantly Black 20th Ward, which is home to both the DuSable Museum and Dyett High School, which Taylor went on hunger strike to keep from closing in 2015.

Taylor, Rodriguez Sanchez, Guzmán, and dozens of progressive elected officials and union leaders took to the stage to voice their support of Mayor Johnson. Among them were school board presidential candidate Hilario Dominguez and District 5A incumbent Jitu Brown, who was also one of the Dyett hunger strikers.

“Rebuilding a village takes longer than one term. We had decades of disinvestment and that's not gonna be fixed in four years,” said Chicago Teachers Union member Ashley Davis.

Davis and other speakers uplifted the Johnson administration’s successes. These include investments in schools, mental healthcare, youth programs and violence prevention, as well as minimum wage increases and childcare for working people. Speakers also mentioned Johnson’s stances against ICE and for Palestine.

“He made Chicago one of the first cities in the nation to call for a ceasefire in Gaza,” said Imam Tariq El-Amin, referring to Johnson’s tiebreaker vote on a ceasefire resolution in 2024.

A number of speakers, including Johnson himself, cited the fact that in 2025 Chicago saw its lowest murder rate in 61 years.

“They said there would be blood in the streets and violence would run amok,” Johnson said, referring to a statement by Fraternal Order of Police president John Catanzara in 2023.

The FOP has spent the last four years trying to undermine the Johnson administration and the District councilors elected to hold police accountable. The FOP recently endorsed Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias.

“The ultrarich have done a lot to confuse my record,” said Johnson, explaining why racist groups like the FOP and billionaires like Michael Sacks and the Pritzker family are opposing his reelection. “The same people who closed schools spent millions lying about what we’re doing.”

“This city is better, stronger and safer than the city I inherited,” Johnson said.

He then stressed the importance of the working-class character and cross-racial unity of the coalition that brought him into office. “We refuse to allow authoritarianism to separate us by race when we are united by class.”

#ChicagoIL #IL #BrandonJohnson #Elections #PeoplesStruggles #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican

Colorado Springs, CO – On September 7, the Colorado Springs Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (COSAARPR) rallied with community members outside of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office to demand equal protection for Black ranchers in the county.

They were joined by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), which also endorsed the action. Attendees waved signs reading, “Black lives matter” and “Justice for Freedom Acres” and chanted “Sheriff Roybal, stop the repression, we demand equal protection!”

In 2020, Courtney “C.W.” Mallery and Nicole Mallery moved from Houston, Texas to the countryside east of Colorado Springs to escape the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. Both Black veterans, the Mallerys founded Freedom Acres Ranch, with a mission to fight food insecurity and bring food to families in need, something they wish they had had access to.

Shortly after moving to the 1000-acre property, the Mallerys came under attack by neighbors. “For years, the Mallerys have been subjected to endless threats, violence towards them and their livestock, and an exhausting legal battle,” said COSAARPR member Memphis Curry.

Instead of doing something about the neighbors responsible for the harassment, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office charged C.W. and Nicole Mallery multiple times over the years. In 2023, the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office arrested C.W. and Nicole Mallery and charged them with felony stalking, misdemeanor tampering, and petty theft. During the arrest, El Paso County Sheriff’s Deputy Emery Gerhart removed three of the Mallerys’ security cameras. The charges were quickly dismissed, and, in response, the Mallerys created a petition to fire Deputy Gerhart, which received over 12,600 signatures. The Mallerys allege Deputy Gerhart used the police department to instigate “racism, discrimination, terrorism, [and] denial of police service.”

At the action outside the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Curry stated, “I am tired of the narrative that any reasonable reaction to racism is an overreaction. The excusing of the targeted harassment that the Mallerys have been experiencing for years is simply exhausting.”

Curry further questioned the motives of the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, saying, “Despite the Sheriff's department’s ‘reassurance’ that they would never stand for racist treatment of community members and [that they] have thoroughly investigated every report, this is the same institution that colludes with ICE and excuses every use of force case as reasonable and necessary.”

FRSO member Brandon Rincon spoke to systemic issues, saying,“Our local law enforcement agencies only protect and serve the interests of the billionaires who exploit Black and brown bodies for profit and terrorize us to keep us down.”

As the sun set on the office, members closed out the action by chanting “No justice, no peace, no racist police!”

#ColoradoSpringsCO #CO #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #Ranchers #Farmers #COSAARPR #Featured

Jerome Scott, a member of the LRBW since its founding, was there to join the discussion.

The documentary follows the founding of the LRBW by joining together different union caucuses led by militant Black workers. Each was at a different factory but soon realized they faced the same issues. All of the factory managements had racist practices, racist pay scales and dangerous work conditions.

By getting together and founding the LRBW, they were able to work on something bigger and learn from each other. They saw that the factory owners, the mayor, and the police were all on one side.

The organization also expanded into the community, colleges and schools. Having people who did not work in the factories on their side helped them in times of strikes, firings or arrests. With an organization uniting Black workers across industries, they had enough support to put up election campaigns for city office in Detroit.

After the movie showing, there was a question-and-answer session with Jerome Scott who recently co-wrote Motown and the Making of Working-Class Revolutionaries. The book details his experience in the LRBW. Scott filled in some details not mentioned in the documentary, like how they related to other groups, and the mistakes they made. Attendees talked more about the need to fight for people’s everyday problems, organizing at the workplace, and building the strategic alliance between the Black Liberation Movement and the struggle of the multinational working class for socialism.

The screening was put on by Resistance Cinema Atlanta, Atlanta Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Speakers talked about what their groups do and urged everyone to join.

#AtlantaGA #GA #Labor #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican

Brooklyn, NY — On Thursday, August 27, activists led a protest in front of the 71st Precinct of the NYPD to demand, “Justice for Eudes Pierre!” Undeterred by rain, community members stood outside the precinct responsible for Pierre’s murder and chanted, “NYPD kills on patrol! How do we stop them? Community control!”

Speakers from the New York Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NYAARPR) explained the details of Pierre’s death and the suffering that has continued to this day. In December of 2021, Eudes Pierre experienced a mental health crisis and called 911. The NYPD officers who responded to his call from the 71st Precinct brutally murdered him. Since then, no action has been taken against the police. New York’s Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) found that the officers acted within NYPD guidelines, and the state Attorney General Letitia James declined to pursue any charges against the officers.

NYAARPR spokesperson Daniel Koh shared details, “134 cops work at this precinct. 79 of them have allegations of misconduct and brutality. That means three of every five cops have abused their authority and hurt the people in this neighborhood. That means if anyone dials 911 in this neighborhood, they’re likely to get a crooked cop.”

This includes Officer Conrado Abreu-Gerez, one of Eudes Pierre’s killers, who has multiple allegations from before and after Pierre’s murder.

The New York Alliance also fights for community control of the police, a system that would give people the democratic power to determine how their communities are policed. Jamie Kowalski of the NYAARPR said, “We know that if our communities come together and we combine our power, we are stronger than the billionaires and their racist attack dogs in the NYPD! Compared to the power of the people, the pigs are nothing!”

Together with the family of Eudes Pierre, the New York Alliance will continue holding monthly protests at the 71st Precinct on the last Thursday of each month. The next protest will be Thursday, September 24.

#BrooklynNY #NY #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #KillerCops #EudesPierre #NYAARPR #NAARPR

Minneapolis, MN – On August 22, at 11:30 a.m. the People’s Action Coalition Against Trump (PACAT) organized a counter-protest to the Jake Lang hate rally. More than 100 protesters showed up in opposition to Lang’s white supremacist hate speech, aimed this time at the Black community. Lang has also called for the reinstitution of Jim Crow laws, calls to deport all immigrants from the U.S., and anti-Muslim hate speech.

When counter-protest organizers arrived at city hall, Minneapolis Police Department officers threatened to tow away their sound and medic vehicles. But when Jake Lang and his band of less than ten supporters showed up with two vehicles, MPD allowed them to drive onto the sidewalk. Officers surrounded Lang’s vehicles as they moved forward, effectively providing them with an armed escort.

MPD can be seen on video pushing and hitting protesters, ensuring Lang’s hate speech could continue. Mayor Jacob Frey stated to the press that MPD arrested Lang after he was run off by the crowd. But there was no reason to not arrest Lang for driving on the sidewalk. This unequal treatment of left and right-wing protest is nothing new to PACAT organizers.

MPD also arrested an anti-Lang protester who dressed as Spider-Man and adopted the hero’s persona by facing off with Lang and his ilk directly. MPD threw Minneapolis’ Spider-Man to the ground and stomped on his head before forcing him into a squad vehicle. The protester was released later the same day and received medical care after leaving the jail. PACAT and other community members are organizing a support action around Spider-Man’s September 4 court appearance on bogus assault charges.

A statement from PACAT notes, “If it was not clear before where the priorities of the Minneapolis police, and the mayor with sole authority over them, lie, it should now be clear to every Minneapolis resident who considers themselves anti-fascist and anti-racist that we are not the people they serve or protect. After the complete failure of Mayor Frey and MPD to protect residents from ICE during Metro Surge, and years of violence against Black, native and immigrant communities, we must understand them as ineffective at best and capitulators to the far right at worst.”

The People’s Action Coalition Against Trump and its member organizations are calling for the immediate resignation of Mayor Jacob Frey and interim MPD Chief Bill Peterson, as well as systemic reforms like community control of the police.

The PACAT counter-protest was supported by Black Lives Matter MN, Twin Cities Coalition for Justice, the Wrongfully Incarcerated & Over-sentenced Families Council-MN, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, TC Democratic Socialists of America, Minnesota 50501, and MN Immigrant Rights Action Committee.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #InJusticeSystem #PeoplesStruggles #RightWingers #JakeLang #Fascists #WhiteSupremacists #PACAT #JakeLang #SpiderMan #Feature #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ImmigrantRights

This statement was written by Joe Iosbaker on behalf of the Labor Committee of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression – caarpr.org.

Carol and Aaron Ammons are African American elected officials in Champaign, Illinois. Trump’s Department of Justice has come after them, trying to drive them from office and to stop their efforts against racism and their support of the democratic demands of the Black community.

I believe Carol and Aaron Ammons

Aaron Ammons is my union brother. He’s a fighter for workers’ rights, for Black liberation and social justice.

He has the great fortune to have a soul mate who is also a freedom fighter: his wife, State Representative Carol Ammons.

Aaron and I met as members of the executive board of SEIU Local 73. We were both employees of the University of Illinois. I worked for the Chicago campus, and Aaron for the Urbana-Champaign campus.

Aaron went from organizing his co-workers for better wages and working conditions to running for and winning election as an alderman in the city of Urbana, and then winning election as Champaign County Clerk in 2018.

Carol was elected to the General Assembly in Springfield in 2014.

Theirs is a great story of the African American freedom struggle.

Mississippi up north

Today we have a racist culture war emanating from Trump’s presidency. It was a shock when I heard that Aaron and Carol were indicted by a grand jury for alleged misuse of campaign funds and state grants.

It was a shock, but it should not have been a surprise.

Illinois is a racist state. I live in Chicago, where the 21-year reign of Mayor Richard J. Daley caused the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to refer to the city as “Mississippi up north.” This week, marchers went into Marquette Park to commemorate 60 years since Dr. King marched there. In Dr. King’s words, “I've been in many demonstrations all across the South, but I can say that I had never seen, even in Mississippi, mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as in Chicago.”

Illinois is the only state in the country that has a Torture Commission in the state legislature. It was created to deal with the hundreds of cases of young Black and Latino men who were beaten and even electrocuted by Chicago police officers, led by the sadistic, racist Detective Jon Burge, into confessing to murders they did not commit.

Carol Ammons and the fight for reparations

Supporters in the Black Liberation movement in Illinois see the hand of the Trump administration in the indictment handed down by a grand jury.

Everyone knows that Trump has it in for Chicago, the city that sent Barack Obama, the first Black president to the White House. Everyone remembers it was his white racist anger at a Black man in the White House that propelled Trump to run for president in the first place. Furthermore, Trump hates on Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson as well as Governor Pritzker for their defiance of his racist anti-immigrant attacks.

Trump’s Department of Justice joined a lawsuit against the city of Evanston for discrimination against white people for its reparations program, a program that aimed to address harm caused by discriminatory housing policies and disinvestment in Black communities over the past century.

Kamm Howard, director of Reparations United, said he believes Representative Ammons is facing false charges from the federal government in retaliation for her support in the General Assembly of reparations. There are several bills and other motions in Springfield to make amends for the enslavement of Black Americans, and the systemic racism still present in the U.S. today. Representative Ammons even travelled to Ghana, where she pledged to dedicate her public life to raising awareness of the transatlantic slave trade and advocating for reparative justice for people of African descent.

Indictments

“But they’ve been indicted,” say the corporate-owned media! “There was an investigation by a grand jury,” said the leadership in Springfield.

I know a little about grand juries. In 2010, because of activism against the criminal occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, I was among a group of anti-war activists raided by the FBI and subpoenaed to a federal grand jury. The pro-Israel types in the Department of Justice thought they could intimidate the burgeoning BDS (boycott, divestment and sanction) movement. The Joint Terrorism Task Force tried to smear us with the lie that we were providing “material support to foreign terrorist organizations.”

They failed, because the anti-war movement rallied in our defense. We were also able to get unions representing over a million members and 14 members of Congress to speak out that ours was a civil liberties case.

What exactly is a grand jury?

A grand jury is an infamous prosecutorial tool. It’s an anti-constitutional instrument which returns indictments 99% of the time! Among prosecutors and civil liberties advocates, there’s a well-known adage: A grand jury will indict a ham sandwich. In other words, an inanimate object.

Grand jury proceedings are secret.

Grand jurors hear one side only; prosecutors draft and read the charges to the grand jurors who are not instructed on the law or screened for bias.

Defense counsel is barred from the grand jury, and no judge is present.

You don't have the right to have your lawyer present; to see the evidence presented against you; to cross-examine witnesses; to refuse to testify.

Most European countries stopped using grand juries decades ago because they are essentially tools for the prosecution.

Don’t believe the hype.

Aaron and Carol Ammons have done nothing wrong. All people of good conscience should oppose the railroad that the Trump Department of Justice has brought to threaten these courageous elected officials.

#ChicagoIL #IL #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #CAARPR #SEIU

Tacoma, WA – Community members gathered in People’s Park to honor the memory of victims of police violence on Friday, June 19.

The event was organized by the Tacoma chapter of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (TacAARPR), a newly-formed group aiming to achieve civilian oversight of local law enforcement agencies.

TacAARPR is seeking justice for Rhoda Butler, a 61-year-old woman suffering dementia who was fatally shot by a TPD SWAT team in January 2024. One of her killers, Aaron McNeely, sits on a board that investigates police-involved shootings. This board conveniently cleared McNeely of any wrongdoing.

In attendance was a contingent of activists led by James Rideout, whose niece, Jacqueline Salyers, a Puyallup tribal member, was killed by TPD in 2016. Of the slaying, Rideout expressed, “You don't want to know how this feels, and unfortunately, my family, through Jackie, does know.” Rideout has been involved in the decade-long Justice for Jackie campaign, which has culminated in a lawsuit brought against the city of Tacoma. Right now, this case is being heard by the Washington Supreme Court. He added, “We never gave up, and that gives the citizens hope. Your issue is everyone’s issue.”

Attendees also paid their respects to Kohen Wiley, a one-year-old boy shot by police in Mississippi on June 14 over false allegations that his family members had stolen diapers from a local Walmart, when they were in fact bought and paid for.

A local passerby, who ended up sticking around for the length of the program, said of the proceedings, “The police make it clear over and over that they won't hold themselves accountable, so the only way we can see justice is to get community oversight.”

#TacomaWA #WA #InJusticeSystem #Juneteenth #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican

Chicago, IL- Activists rallied in Federal Plaza, June 20, to celebrate Juneteenth and raise demands to defend voting rights and stopping police crimes, including wrongful conviction, police torture, and CPD-ICE collaboration. The National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression had called for a day of action in response to the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court.

Mayor Brandon Johnson made an appearance and asked the crowd, “Are we ready to put an end to racist repression?” He pledged to continue his fight for affordable rents, living wages and to defend public education against politicians putting the interest of corporations over that of the working class.

Johnson continued, “We have to ensure that the voting rights, particularly for Black folks, are protected, because if they undermine voting rights, they undermine labor rights, reproductive rights, civil rights,” he said. The crowd cheered him when he closed his speech, “But we’re not going to allow that in Chicago, are you with me?”

Frank Chapman, NAARPR’s executive director, made it clear in his remarks that the working class can defeat this backwards federal administration, but only through the largest united front possible.

“We are going to exercise our inalienable right to overthrow all institutions, and all government obstacles that stand in the way of our full rights under the Thirteenth, Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments,” Chapman said.

“We are going to overturn all of those institutions that oppress our people and deny our people the right to vote and the right to exist as equal citizens of this country and equal participants in this democracy. And our people are not a narrow, isolated group – our people are Black, brown, LGBTQ, white and working class.”

Kobi Guillory, a middle school science teacher and executive board member of the Chicago Teacher’s Union, reminded the crowd that the reason slavery ended was because Black people fought back.

“Millions of Black people left the plantation, therefore taking away the labor that the plantation owners relied on, and then took up arms with the union army, and that is what broke the back of the Confederacy,” Guillory said. “And it’s that tradition of struggle that we have to celebrate today.”

Elijah Edwards, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 2858, pointed out in his remarks that there were over 200 slave rebellions during the time of chattel slavery in the United States. “Solidarity existed during slavery, solidarity exists today,” Edwards said. “And only through solidarity will we defeat them.”

Reverend Ciera Bates-Chamberlain, executive director of Live Free Illinois, has organized and led church congregations in the fight against Trump’s deportations. At the rally, she led chants of, “We ain’t free until we’re all free!”

“Juneteenth is more than a celebration,” Bates-Chamberlain said. “Juneteenth is a moment of confrontation. And in that moment of confrontation we are reminding people, declaring, and demanding to set our people free.”

To raise the demand for freedom for the wrongfully convicted, Jasmine Smith of the Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture called two different currently incarcerated survivors of wrongful conviction on the phone and held the mic up to her phone to allow them to address the crowd from inside prison.

One of the survivors is Samuel Elam, who was wrongfully convicted for a 2011 home invasion and robbery. Elam recently suffered a heart attack in Menard Correctional, where he has been held for over a decade. Despite receiving specific instructions for care from the doctors at the hospital where he was sent, Elam has been denied consistent medical attention, and his family members who have called into the prison on his behalf have been blocked from contacting him.

“They are violating every right and administrative rule in this correctional facility,” he said, over the phone. “What they’re doing is killing us, and they are killing us slowly. This is not rehabilitation; these are torture chambers.” Smith echoed Elam’s statement about the prisons in Illinois: “I call them slave ships!”

Lara Haddadin from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR) stated,

“Our struggles have always been interconnected,” she said. “ICE has come for all of us. Whether it’s a Black man being pulled over and put into a head lock by an ICE agent, a Palestinian protester abducted by ICE after speaking out against genocide, or a Latina rapid response member shot at for attempting to document ICE activity.”

Haddadin pointed out that the attempt to overturn birthright citizenship is “part of a coordinated effort to disenfranchise and limit voters of color. It’s an authoritarian power grab. And now Trump's deportation machine is an extension we see clearly of the prison industrial complex that the American economy relies on so heavily today.”

The protest here was organized by the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (CAARPR), with a number of endorsing organizations, including the Arab American Action Network, National Alliance for Filipino Concerns, and Good Kids/Mad City.

#ChicagoIL #IL #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #NAARPR #CAARPR

Gulfport, MS – On June 21, a crowd of about 15 people gathered for a rally and vigil against the murder of one-year-old Kohen Wiley at a Walmart in Senatobia, Mississippi.

The action was put on by the Mississippi Gulf Coast Mutual Aid Collective, drawing people from organizations including Indivisible, the Gulf Coast Humanists and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

Speaking to Fight Back! at the rally, Ash Dawn of Gulf Coast Humanists said, “Our message is to amplify the demands of the people of Senatobia, which is to release the tape. Release everything and get full transparency for everything relating to Kohen Wiley’s murder.”

While addressing the crowd, Dawn also stated, “The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation relentlessly withholds information from Mississippians,” and spoke on the extreme lack of trust between the corrupt police departments and the local community.

Miu Sims of FRSO addressed the crowd saying, “We are absolutely outraged that a one-year-old child could be a victim to police brutality.” Sims drove with fellow activists from New Orleans to attend the rally, taking the trip to show support and solidarity. “These racist institutions do not care about your age. They don’t care if you’re a baby sitting in your mother’s lap while she is trying to take care of you. They will murder whoever they want!”

Sims also spoke on the particular violence that Black people face, saying that the police “see the color of our skin, and they automatically assume that a mother who is trying to take care of her child is a ‘looter’ or someone who is stealing.” Sims spoke passionately on how quickly racist, killer cops choose to “pull the trigger” and senselessly murder rather than protect Black lives.

The rally united protesters on the need for justice, Black liberation, and resistance to crooked intuitions of policing. Ash Dawn said to the crowd, “The people of Mississippi are damn tired!”

The crowd chanted, “When Black lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”

#GulfportMS #MS #InJusticeSystem #KillerCops #KohenWiley #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #Feature

Headlines are flooded with images of property destruction and chaotic crowds, and the moral of most news stories on the topic is “we need more police” and “parents should be held accountable.” We know from experience that these are not real solutions, and when we treat Black teens like people and speak to them about their needs and wants, they can offer solutions to problems the racist ruling class wants us to think are insurmountable.

Black people have faced relentless attacks from white supremacy during our entire history in the U.S. The youth are reacting to generations of exploitation and repression, which is today seen in decades of defunding housing, education, healthcare and other public services while funding for racist policing and mass incarceration always increases.

Alderpersons like Brian Hopkins have used the “takeovers” as an excuse to push legislation effectively denying Black youth the right to gather in public. Calls for “accountability” suggest punishments from fines to jail time for parents of the teens. Some are kind enough to say parents need mentorship in how to raise their kids. Very few talk about the material difficulties of supporting a family while under constant attack by the white supremacist ruling class.

175,000 families in Illinois had their SNAP benefits taken by the Trump administration in May. My school saw a dramatic downward turn in student behavior the following week. One morning, a sixth grader told me he had been outside partying at 2a.m. because his mother works night shifts and, like many children, he will choose the more fun and risky option if adults aren't present to make him choose the safe, boring one.

Long work hours are only one reason parents struggle to spend quality time with their children. Many are incarcerated by the racist legal system. Some are afflicted by unemployment, addiction, mental illness, or other problems made inevitable by capitalism.

So, if it's clear that the “teen takeovers” are rooted in the same systemic cause as poverty and violence in Black communities, why are we talking about parenting?

In the 1960s, the Johnson administration was giving concessions to the Black liberation movement in the form of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. They were also planning ways to keep Black people ignorant of the imperialist system which oppresses them as a nation and exploits the vast majority of them as members of the multinational working class.

In 1965, Lyndon B Johnson's Secretary of Labor, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, published a report claiming that the main cause of problems in the Black community was not centuries of brutal exploitation and oppression, but a dysfunctional family structure. The report blamed Black women in particular as the heads of single parent households.

People who ignore the economic and political roots of discontent in Black communities and blame children or their parents are playing into the strategy of the ruling class. Instead, we should use the strategy outlined in the words and work of leaders like Martin Luther King Jr, Fred Hampton and Malcolm X who fought for working and oppressed people.

These strategists condemned the system, not the people struggling to survive within it. If we are concerned about violence at “teen takeovers” or any other time and place in Black communities, we need to support the movements fighting to improve conditions for Black people.

We should join the movement for community control of the police and an end to mass incarceration. We should fight for quality, fully funded public goods like housing, healthcare and education. We should fight for worker’s rights and empowerment in unions. We should resist the imperialist wars and interventions of the U.S. government, so tax dollars are used to help children here instead of murdering families overseas. We should defend the historical gains of the Black liberation movement such as voting and civil rights.

Black people did not choose to be exploited and oppressed for 400 years on this land, but we have advanced historically when we chose to fight back. The choice today is to dwell on the individual decisions of children and parents impacted by the racist and greedy ruling class, or to join the movements uniting with families to oppose the ruling class.

#Opinion #Commentary #AfricanAmerican #OppressedNationalities #Youth

Chicago, IL -Chicago is preparing for May Day, which is again a national day of protest against Trump’s racist agenda. A broad coalition of immigrant rights, Black liberation, workers, youth and student organizations are preparing to rally and march on May 1, International Workers Day.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is going all out to build for May Day. One part of FRSO’s contribution is our annual Working Class Awards Dinner. Again, this year, it was held in the hall of the Chicago Teachers Union on Saturday, April 18.

The purpose of the event is to recognize individuals and organizations that have made contributions to the struggle of workers and the oppressed over the past year, celebrate some victories, and recognize the people who made them possible. It is also FRSO Chicago’s main annual fundraiser.

The event was very successful, with almost 300 people in the hall and over $20,000 raised.

A year of resistance to ICE: Four awards presented

Chicago was one of the first targets of ICE occupation, beginning in September 2025. ICE and Customs and Border Patrol officers terrorized immigrant communities, arresting 3000. They even staged a raid with 300 agents at 3 a.m. in the Black community of South Shore, with agents rappelling from helicopters onto an apartment building where Venezuelan refugees lived.

The Rapid Response teams, Migra Watch, and emergency response protests began before Trump surged agents here.

The awards dinner recognized four activists for contributions to resistance to Trump and ICE. Kathryn Zamarrón is an elementary school music teacher at the Walt Disney Magnet School, and a rank-and-file leader in the Chicago Teachers Union. She serves on the CTU Latinx Caucus and Elementary Education Committee. Zamarron played a crucial role in organizing sanctuary teams to protect students not only in her own school, but across the city. She was presented with an award named for Karen Lewis, the legendary president of the Chicago Teachers Union.

Corina Pedraza, a worker at the Chicago public library, played a leading role in helping the community provide services to the tens of thousands of migrant laborers bused here by the governor of Texas starting in 2022. She was also recognized for her leading role as an organizer of both Southwest and Southeast Side rapid response teams in 2025. Her award was in the name of Silverio Villegas González, murdered by ICE in a Chicago suburb at the outset of the ICE/CBP occupation.

Reverend Ciera Bates-Chamberlain received the Angela Davis Award for organizing faith leaders in opposition to ICE. As executive director of Live Free Illinois, when ICE threatened Chicago, she organized a multifaith, multiracial coalition including Black ministers and churches on Chicago’s South and West Sides. The network held a press conference, a protest in the pulpits, and rallied with the immigrant rights movement to defend our communities.

Finally, the Mexican Students de Aztlán (MeSA) at UIC received an award named for Rigo Padilla Pérez. A member of the Immigrant Youth Justice Alliance at UIC, Rigo was a leader in the Dreamers movement, which compelled passage of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals legislation. He died of cancer three years ago.

MeSA was honored because in October, ICE agents arrested two women near campus. Students protested, and ICE released the women, but the UIC administration failed to respond. MeSA then led a mobilization of over 200 students to oppose ICE on campus and demand a sanctuary campus.

Award for Palestine solidarity

Gabriella Martinez is a Special Education Certified Assistant in the Chicago Public Schools and a rank-and-file leader in SEIU Local 73. She organized coworkers to file ethics complaints against Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs for the purchase of Israel Bonds. Frerichs even purchased more bonds during the ongoing genocide in Gaza. For her work, Martinez received the Assata Shakur award. Together with several members and retirees from SEIU Local 73, Gabi’s family joined her for the event.

Lifetime Achievement Awards: Pete Camarata Award to Jim Fennerty for movement legal defense

Jim Fennerty has been a fixture at protests in Chicago for decades, wearing the lime green cap of the National Lawyers Guild. Jim is a people’s lawyer who has consistently defended our movement from attacks by the ruling class. Jim and his wife, Janet have been politically active in the movement for over 50 years. Jim represented Rasmea Odeh and the Anti-War 23, and he helped win a historic civil settlement representing 800 protesters arrested at the start of the Iraq War.

Fennerty’s award was named after the late Pete Camarata. Pete was a founder of the Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU). In his fight against the criminals that took control of the union, Pete was one of the first to combine rank and file power with legal action.

Fennerty was introduced by family friend Hatem Abudayyeh of the Arab American Action Network and US Palestinian Community Network. Many tables were filled with Jim and Janet’s friends and family, including son Nate, daughter Dina, her husband Daniel Contreras, and grandson Quinn Contreras.

In addition, the family of Pete Camarata was there with the Fennertys, including his wife, Robin Potter, stepson Jackson and his wife, Joan; stepdaughter Aimee, and granddaughter Phoebe.

William L. Patterson Award to Frank Chapman

The night’s biggest moment was the lifetime achievement award for Frank Chapman. It came with recorded greetings from CTU President Stacy Davis Gates and Vice President Jackson Potter.

The William L. Patterson Award was introduced by Anthony Quesada, 35th Ward alderman:

“Through his leadership with the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Frank has helped lead campaigns that have shaped Chicago. He has been central to the fight for justice for the wrongfully convicted and for community control of the police. His work helped push forward the movement that won elected police district councils, giving people a real voice in public safety. And today, Frank continues to advance this struggle through our fight for the Community Power Over Policing referendum.

“He has also mentored generations of organizers, many of whom are in the room tonight. Across Chicago and beyond, people have learned from him how to stay grounded, how to build collective power, and how to keep going through every phase of struggle. His impact lives in the people he has shaped and the movements that continue to grow.”

There were other elected officials present, including 33rd Ward Alderwoman Rossana Rodriguez-Sanchez, 35th Ward Democratic Committeeperson Carlos Ramirez-Rosa, 25th Ward Alderman Byron Sigcho Lopez, and State Senator Graciela Guzman.

The award is named after William L. Patterson, the Communist Party USA attorney who led the International Labor Defense (ILD), and who organized the mass defense of the Scottsboro Boys in the 1930s. Later he headed up the Civil Rights Congress, and together with Paul Robeson took the We Charge Genocide petition to the United Nations. The formation of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression was based on the model of the ILD.

Chapman: “We’re part of a better world in birth”

Chapman is the executive director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression; field organizer and education director of the Chicago Alliance; and a Central Committee member of FRSO. In his remarks, he shared some perspective on the Trump regime and on change in this country from his vantage point having been born in 1942.

Referring to people who see Trumpism as an aberration when they say, “That’s not us,” meaning not what the U.S. stands for, Chapman responded, “The hell it ain’t. What they’re doing to the immigrants happened to me and my people…6200 children have been held in detention since Trump came in,” adding, “And shooting people on the streets execution style.”

“But we’ve seen this: we saw Laquan McDonald shot 16 times. And a few days ago, the state police shot a man 15 times, not far from my house,” and “Quit telling me this is something you haven’t seen before.”

“We’re demanding an end to Trumpism, but we’re going further than that. We’re part of a better world in birth!” Going on with the lyrics of The International, Chapman said, “Arise you prisoners of starvation. Arise you wretched of the earth. For justice thunders condemnation. A better world’s in birth.”

“Are you ready to get this done? Are you ready for the revolution?” he asked, to thunderous applause.

#ChicagoIL #IL #ImmigrantRights #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #FRSO #NAARPR #FrankChapman #Trump #PeoplesStruggles

The great labor leader and former General Secretary and Chairman of the CPUSA, William Z. Foster, wrote hundreds of articles and pamphlets, giving a Marxist-Leninist analysis to the events and struggles of the day. He also wrote a number of longer books, especially in his later years. 

Foster wrote three major books summing up his experience as a revolutionary organizer in the trade union movement, From Bryan to Stalin (1937), Pages From a Worker’s Life (1939), and American Trade Unionism (1947). These are essential works on the labor movement that every revolutionary should study.

Foster also wrote five major histories, where he looked at particular aspects of history from a distinctly Marxist-Leninist, historical materialist perspective. These important works are Outline Political History of the Americas (1951), History of the Communist Party of the United States (1952), The Negro People in American History (1954), History of the Three Internationals (1955), and Outline History of the World Trade Union Movement (1956). 

All of these books are tremendously valuable works of Marxist-Leninist analysis, but here we’re going to focus on his book on the history of the Black liberation struggle in the U.S., The Negro People in American History.

Foster’s analysis

Foster sets out the purpose of his book clearly. He writes

“The general purpose of the present book, written from the standpoint of Marxism-Leninism, is to outline the growth of the American Negro people in relation to the historical development of the American nation. Concretely, the book also aims to stimulate further the present struggle of the Negro people for the fullest freedom along with their white allies, to analyze the factors making for the historical growth into ‘a nation within a nation,’ and to indicate the main lines of the young nation’s perspective of further social development.”

From this standpoint, Foster looks at the history African Americans going back to Africa and its colonization, through the international slave trade, slavery in the American colonies, the role of African Americans in the American Revolution of 1776, the rise of the Abolition movement, Republicanism, and the Civil War, Reconstruction and the counter-revolution against it, up through the Jim Crow period. 

The scope of The Negro People in American History is enormous, so for our purposes we’ll only zero in on a few points of particular interest so that we can get a look at how Foster puts Marxism-Leninism to work in analyzing the contradictions in motion in the history of the Black liberation struggle.

Let’s look at how Foster addresses the African American National Question, the central point of the “nation within a nation,” as he put it. This central question runs throughout the book, especially the chapters on Reconstruction, and the chapters on “The Communist Party and Negro Question” and “The Negro People As an Oppressed Nation.” 

Foster, first of all, recognizes the revolutionary character of the Civil War and Reconstruction. Foster says “The Civil War was a revolution, the second in United States history. It was a bourgeois-democratic revolution… because it brought about ‘a transference of power from one class to another.’” 

Indeed, the Civil War deposed the Southern Planter class that had until then “dominated the Federal Government” and put “the Northern industrialists firmly in the political saddle.” Foster notes that “The general effect of the war was to clear away barriers in the path of capitalism and to stimulate that system into tremendous expansion.” The main barrier in question was the outmoded and archaic system of chattel slavery in the South, which acted as a fetter, holding back industrial capitalist development, then centered in the North. 

Foster also astutely points out that the revolutionary demands of the African American people aimed “straight at the heart of the Confederacy.” These were the demands for “(a) the emancipation of the the slaves; (b) the arming of Negro slaves and freedmen; © the enfranchisement of the Negro people; (d) the abolition of Jim Crow and social inequality; and (e) the redistribution of land in the South.” Foster goes on to explain,

“The degree of revolutionary content in the Federal Government’s policy was always measured by the extent to which it adopted and was enforcing the national demands of the Negro people. The sequel showed that the Government never really made the Negro people’s demands its own. It always considered them something alien, to be picked up or dropped as political or military expediency dictated…” 

Foster explains that “The revolution, despite its final betrayal [toppling Reconstruction in 1877], brought basic advancement to the Negro people, achieving some of their major demands. Most important of all, it freed them from the terrible, centuries-old bondage of chattel slavery. It also won for them the legal right to vote, the right to education and to bear arms in the national defense.” 

But the betrayal of Reconstruction led to counter-revolution, disenfranchisement, lynch-terror and all of the other horrors of the Jim Crow system, including robbing African Americans in the South of political power, stripping them of their land, and thrusting them back onto the plantations under peonage and sharecropping. This period, coinciding with the rise of monopoly capitalism in the United States and its compulsion towards the super-exploitation of the African American people, marks the origin of the African American oppressed nation in the Black Belt South. 

Foster writes,

“Joseph Stalin, the greatest of all authorities on the national question, formulated the following classical Marxist definition of a nation: ‘a nation is an historically evolved stable community of language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a community of culture.’ … On the basis of this scientific definition, clearly the Negro people in the Black Belt of the South comprise a nation, and those in the North and West constitute a national minority.” 

Foster then proceeds to look at each of these aspects of nationhood and explain exactly how they apply to the African American people of the Black Belt. He therefore raises the Leninist demand for self-determination. “It is right which must be conceded to the Negro nation in the Black Belt of the United States, to be used under such concrete forms as it so resolves.” This means it is up to the African American people of the Black Belt South to decide how they want to relate to the United States, whether that means secession, federation, or some other relationship. 

Foster’s The Negro People in American History today

The key role of the Black liberation struggle within the revolutionary movement as a whole has been on sharp display, especially since the uprisings that swept the country after the police murder of George Floyd. Clarity on the African American national question is therefore more important than ever. Foster’s book on the history of the Black liberation struggle in the United States is a key work of Marxist-Leninist historical analysis. It casts a bright light on the revolutionary currents and material contradictions that have propelled the Black liberation movement forward. 

As Frank Chapman said in his excellent book Marxist-Leninist Perspectives On Black Liberation and Socialism, regarding the strategic alliance between the Black liberation movement and the multinational working class struggle at the heart of the united front against monopoly capitalism, “...a key to building such an alliance is the recognition of the centrality of the struggle for Black Liberation in the struggle for socialism in the United States of America.” Understanding the material forces at work, not only the current balance of forces, but the historical trajectory of those contradictions, is absolutely essential for revolutionaries to grasp as we move forward.

J. Sykes is the author of the book “The Revolutionary Science of Marxism-Leninism”. The book can be purchased by visiting frso.org/books

#RevolutionaryTheory #RedReviews #WZFoster #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican

Philadelphia, PA – On Friday February 27, the Philadelphia Alliance against Racist and Political Repression held a movie showing to commemorate Black History Month. The movie, Judas and the Black Messiah, is about the iconic Black Panther leader Fred Hampton and William O’Neal, who the FBI used to infiltrate the Black Panther’s and helped the Chicago Police department kill Fred Hampton.

The event was held at the LavaSpace in West Philadelphia and was attended by dozens of people from the neighborhood who were interested not only in learning more about Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party, but in getting to know all about the Philadelphia Alliance against Racist and Political Repression (PAARPR), its campaigns and its mission.

PAARPR chair Musa Bey had conversations with many of the attendees about the work PAARPR is doing in Philadelphia and the families it is working with, including the families of Robert Jones, Aaron Rainey and Amanda Cahill.

The movie event began at 5 p.m. with a short speech made by PAARPR Co-Chair Olujimi Alade which delved into Fred Hampton as a revolutionary and his impact on the Black Panther Party and the struggle for socialism and liberation.

PAARPR was able to establish a connection with the neighborhood residents, which is a foundation in building a presence in the West Philadelphia area, an important section of the city where many people have either experienced police brutality or know a loved one who did. By holding similar events, PAARPR aims to advance its aim of fighting for the community control of the police.

#PhiladelphiaPA #PA #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistoryMonth #NAARPR #PAARPR

Chicago, IL – El martes, 24 de febrero, más de 30 estudiantes y miembros de la comunidad se reunieron en el Centro Cultural Negro de la Universidad de Illinois Chicago (UIC) por un estreno de Judas y la Messiah Negra, seguido por una discusión guiada por camaradas del distrito de Chicago de la Organización Socialista Camino de la Libertad (OSCL).

Dirigido y escrito por Shaka King, Judas y el Mesías Negro (2021) es un cuento cinemático de la historia del Capítulo de Illinois del Partido Pantera Negra, el origen de base de la histórica Coalición Arcoíris de Chicago, y los días finales del presidente Fred Hampton del Capítulo de Illinois del Partido Pantera Negra. Siguiendo la historia del difunto presidente y de William O’Neal, informante del FBI e infiltrador del partido, la película muestra la verdadera conspiración para asesinar al presidente Fred llevado a cabo por el FBI, la Fiscalía del Condado de Cook y el Departamento de Policía de Chicago.

Después de la película, Kobi Guillory, miembro de la OSCL en Chicago y del Sindicato de Maestros de Chicago, hizo preguntas sobre los pensamientos de la audiencia acerca de la historia de la lucha revolucionaria, solidaridad de clase y la represión política. Los participantes entre la audiencia contaron sus propias experiencias de brutalidad policial, seres queridos asesinados o secuestrados por los matones del estado, otros invocaron los orígenes de la policía de los EE.UU. como resultado de las patrullas cazadoras de esclavos.

Este Mes de la Historia Negra, es aún más importante que nunca recordar el legado revolucionario del Partido Pantera Negra y la Coalición Arcoíris: un legado de solidaridad de la clase trabajadora, de lucha contra la represión política anti-negra y anti-obrera. Fred Hampton, como presidente del Capítulo de Illinois del Partido Pantera Negra y vicepresidente del Partido Pantera Negra Nacional, vio con toda claridad la distracción que era la división racial de Chicago.

Tras la ola de violencia sancionada por el estado contra las nacionalidades oprimidas y quienes se solidarizan con ellas sigue en todas partes de la nación, continuamos luchando. Y en palabras del Camarada Fred Hampton, cuando te atreves a luchar, ¡te atreves a ganar!

#ChicagoIL #IL #StudentMovement #MovimientoEstudiantil #SDS #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistoryMonth #NacionalidadesOprimidas #Afroamericano #elMesdeHistoriaNegra #OSCL #CTU

New Orleans, LA – On Saturday afternoon, February 27, the New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NOAARPR) held a panel to discuss the history of police brutality in New Orleans. The panel took place at the Gwangi and Hollywood Community Center in Algiers.

NOAARPR Chair Toni Jones gave a brief history of the rise of policing in the Crescent City, beginning with its origins from slave catchers to the Code Noir during French and Spanish colonial rule.

“Police exist to uphold the ruling power,” she said. Toni cited many historic cases of police brutality throughout the centuries in New Orleans. Members of the community, some of them former Black Panthers who spent much of their lives incarcerated in Angola as political prisoners, affirmed the names and stories of Black residents and freedom fighters past who stood up to police brutality.

“The police are only in our communities not for our security but for our containment,” said Sister Shanta Scott of the People’s Political Party, quoting Huey P. Newton. Jace Lee Scott, her son, was murdered by the son of NOPD officer Victor Gant in 2019. She educated attendees about the murder, NOPD corruption and cover-ups, and the collusion of city officials and court justices. “Justice must be transparent. Justice must be consistent. Justice must be fearless. No more broken protocol, no more selective enforcement, and no more silence. Justice for Jace Lee Scott. That’s my son,” said Scott.

NOAARPR member, Danyelle Christmas shared about her run for city council, which was inspired by the police brutality and political repression against her uncle who was murdered by NOPD, and her father who was falsely convicted for murder in 1994. She spoke about the impacts incarceration had on her family. Her father spent ten years on death row in Angola, and when he was finally acquitted, they offered him $10. A dollar for each year of his life lost in prison. She continued to connect the struggles of the Black community to the exploitation of capitalism, highlighting systemic issues that negatively impact everyone.

“Let’s remember, the KKK is still considered a party, they’re still considered a non-profit, they’re still recognized by the United States. But the Black Panther Party was dismantled,” Christmas said. “We have to rise up.”

The panel was followed by an open forum discussion where members of the community shared their experiences within the prison industrial complex. Errol Williams shared his story, incarcerated for 21 years in Angola. “I don’t want to be oppressed anymore. I know what it's like, I’ve been living it all my life,” he said. “I realized the only ‘equal opportunity’ afforded to me is to die.” Another community member proudly stated that “Black history is world history.”

NOAARPR will hold a rally on March 5 to pack the city council chambers and demand justice for Jace Lee Scott, federal charges against Victor Gant, and a Civilian Police Accountability Council.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistoryMonth #NOAARPR

Tallahassee, FL – On February 12, over a dozen students of Florida A&M University gathered at the university’s iconic Eternal Flame to stand up against the consolidation of numerous degree programs, including the university’s Black history programs.

The rally was one of FAMU Students for a Democratic Society’s first actions on campus. FAMU, a public historically Black college (HBCU), has seen an upsurge in the student movement after constant attacks on the student body and Black history by the state’s Republican establishment.

One of these most recent attacks was aimed at the African American Studies programs, and it follows a pattern of consolidations, terminations, and removal of humanities programs in states across the country.

“Black lives matter! Black history matters!” FAMU SDS President Justin Jordan led students in chanting around the school’s Eternal Flame to oppose the consolidation of African American History programs.

In addition to rallying at the Eternal Flame, protesters also marched through the quad area where students campaigned for positions in FAMU’s student government and SGA, chanting and holding signs.

“Black studies built Black leaders,” one sign read.

“FAMU’s academic diversity matters,” read another.

Students also tried to speak during public comment at the FAMU Board of Trustees meeting, but the meeting was fast-tracked, and only one member of FAMU SDS was allowed to talk.

University leaders told students that the “decision had already been made,” regardless of the lack of public comment or a university forum for students to voice their discontent.

Despite the university’s attempts to sway public opinion, the student body has clearly voiced its discontent with the erasure not only of African American Studies but also of a whole host of other programs, including fine arts, mechanical engineering, environmental science, and many other crucial degree programs.

FAMU SDS’s post informing the student body about the situation has reached over 100,000 people, and FAMU SDS is dedicated to continuing to fight for the students of FAMU.

FAMU has a long history of activism, from Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson, who refused to leave their seats on a city bus and launched the famous Tallahassee Bus Boycotts, to the students who formed the Malcolm X Liberation Front. The students are now ready to carry on that legacy of struggle, fighting against repression and an administration more concerned with lining its pockets than addressing student concerns.

FAMU finds itself in a perilous position, with an incredibly unpopular MAGA puppet in office, Marva Johnson, who not only attended a White House “Black History” event, but also proudly went on a trip to Israel with FAMU students during Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people. Johnson was on the committee to help organize the ultimately cancelled 2020 Republican National Convention.

For many years, FAMU has been under the gun, from the threats of consolidation with the nearby public predominately white institution in the 1970s, to the abolition and eventual relocation of its law school, to staggering disparities in funding. Still, FAMU has persisted, through bold student struggle.

FAMU’s chapter of SDS plans to continue that legacy of struggle, fighting for bold progressive change on FAMU’s campus!

To get involved, follow @famusdsofficial on Instagram.

#TallahasseeFL #FL #StudentMovement #FAMU #SDS #HBCU #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican

There’s no system better at crushing dreams than monopoly capitalism.

When Claudia Jones' parents immigrated to the United States from Trinidad and Tobago in 1922, “they hoped to find their fortunes in America where ‘gold was to be found on the streets.’” (Autobiographical History, Claudia Jones).

Instead, they found poverty, Jim Crow oppression, and despair.

These evils disillusioned Claudia Jones and showed her the hypocrisy of the so-called American Dream. She would become a Marxist-Leninist organizer, theorist and revolutionary.

After joining the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA), Jones never stopped fighting against U.S. imperialism. In her article “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of Negro Women”(1949), Jones analysis analyzes the special status of Black women under U.S. imperialism and teaches organizers exactly how to fight back.

The proletarianization of Black women in the United States

“Negro women – as workers, as Negroes, and as women – are the most oppressed stratum of the whole population. In 1940, two out of every five Negro women, in contrast to two out of every eight white women, worked for a living. By virtue of their majority status among the Negro people, Negro women not only constitute the largest percentage of women heads of families but are the main breadwinners of the Negro family.” (from “An End to the Neglect of the Problems of Negro Women”)

Capitalism’s super-exploitation of African Americans forced Black women to proletarianize and join the working class. Black working women were often forced to do domestic work, completing household chores for white families and then coming back home to complete more chores for their own family. Unionization and legal protections did not extend to most domestic workers.

It wasn’t until World War II, where the U.S. needed to recruit new workers to the industries as hundreds of thousands of former workers went off to fight in the war, were Black women finally allowed to do some skilled work and explore other fields due to the necessity for industry to hire new workers.

These obstacles, including political and legal repression, lynching, rape, and many other layers of exploitation, need to be at the foundation of any serious analysis of the conditions of Black women in the U.S.

No women’s liberation without Black liberation

Despite this fact, political organizations that fight for women still ignore the importance of class and the necessity of national liberation. Jones criticizes the behavior of suffragettes and white petty-bourgeois women for ignoring the African American struggle in their fight for women's liberation in the 20th century.

Again from “An End to Neglect,” “it was the historic shortcoming of the women's suffrage leaders, predominantly drawn as they were from the bourgeoisie and the petty-bourgeoisie, that they failed to link their own struggles to the struggles for the full democratic rights of the Negro people following emancipation.”

Progressives in the fight for women’s liberation ignored the reality that there is no women’s liberation without national liberation.

These same attitudes appear today, albeit under different arguments with different terminologies. Postmodernist ideology, popular among petty-bourgeois revolutionaries and academics in particular, attempts to convince organizers within the movement to view the struggles for women’s liberation, working class liberation, and Black liberation in competition with each other.

In J. Syke’s article “On the Origin and Development of Postmodernism,” he explains how postmodern ideology cannot recognize the principal issue around struggles for liberation and limits people’s thinking to subjective and one-sided analyses.

Sykes notes, “The basis of the postmodern idea [is] that truth isn’t objective, but rather, that truth is socially constructed… [postmodernists believe] that any given “discourse” should “stay in its lane” since it isn’t capable of understanding where the others are coming from. In other words, we have no universal, shared experience. This mentality leads to subjectivism and relativism, and an inability to strategically unite different struggles. Further, it makes it impossible to name any particular struggle as the principal contradiction that drives the process, which we could leverage to maximize our effectiveness across struggles.”

Postmodernism divides while Marxism-Leninism unites. Instead of showing the historical connections that prove there is a basis for unity among all working-class women and focusing on the fact that Black liberation struggles’ unity with working class struggles have created progress and real victories for the people’s movement in the United States, postmodernism pits the masses against each other.

Discourse is centered around criticizing white people as a homogenous whole with the same political and social interests or an assumed shared consciousness. This abstract, eclectic argument refuses to acknowledge that the multinational working class as a whole can be won to support the national liberation movements’ struggles, meaning there is a material interest for all working-class women when it comes to fighting against national oppression.

Only the struggle for a socialist society, where the working class has the power and self-interest to abolish oppression against all exploited and oppressed people, can erase the contradictions at the root of the problems Black women in the U.S. face.

Black women bring the Black Belt Nation forward

In the 1940s, Black working-class women played a huge role not only in mass organizations, but in labor struggles as well. As both workers and wives of workers, Black women’s militancy and struggle helped develop the struggle against poor working conditions, mistreatment, and national oppression on the shop floor.

At the same time, it was still unusual for Black women to be in positions of leadership within unions and mass organizations. Claudia Jones used her writing to combat manifestations of white chauvinism and fight against the tendency seen in the labor movement to dismiss the leadership capabilities of Black working-class women. She stressed that the advanced Black women could pull intermediate elements of the African American masses to engage in the fight against imperialism.

Jones wrote, “The strong capacities, militancy, and organizational talents of Negro women, can… be a powerful lever for bringing forward Negro workers-men and women-as the leading forces of the Negro people's liberation movement… and for rooting the Party among the most exploited and oppressed sections of the working class and its allies.”

For a communist party to avoid opportunist and self-serving positions and remain dedicated to its role as the party of the working class, it's necessary to recruit leaders and allies who have a deep antagonism against the capitalist system that develops the consciousness, determination and drive to end it. Black women often face the greatest humiliation, disrespect and discrimination from the monopoly capitalist class. This mistreatment and oppression helps to create driven and disciplined revolutionaries.

Greater than a dream

Capitalism crushed the dreams of a young Claudia Jones.

That didn’t stop Jones from organizing and fighting back against the rotten system she correctly understood as the greatest threat to national liberation domestically and internationally. Even after she was deported from the U.S. for her organizing, she remained a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain until her death in 1964.

The conclusions Jones reaches in her article still apply to the struggle for the multinational working class and the national liberation movement today. Black working-class women’s unique issues cannot be understood as isolated, abstract concepts. Revolutionaries must continue to deepen their understanding of the special status of oppression of Black women and all oppressed women.

No matter the consequences, Claudia Jones never stopped fighting for freedom. Her writing and organizing continue to pave the road for socialism, the only system that can abolish national exploitation and oppression forever.

It is the responsibility of communists in the U.S. to erase the illusions of all oppressed people in the belly of the beast and prepare them for struggle. The struggle for Black liberation and women’s liberation is something far greater than a dream: it’s a reality, something that can be done and will be done, especially if we listen to the guidance of the revolutionaries that came before us.

Delilah Pierre is a member of the LGBTQ and Women's Movement Work Team of Freedom Road Socialist Organization

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El Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. fue un icono del movimiento por los derechos civiles. Forjado en el fuego del terror racial, surgió de la brutal era Jim Crow como un guardián de luchadores por la libertad, cuyas contribuciones fueron hechas evidentes por sus actividades a través de su vida.

Jesse Jackson siguió los pasos de Fannie Lou Hamer y el Partido Demócrata por la Libertad de Mississippi, que luchó para tomar al Partido Demócrata fuera de las garras del control Dixiecrat basado en el desapoderamiento del pueblo negro en el Cinturón Negro del sur. El Rev. Jackson construyó sobre esa fundación y presionó por más reformas, que trataban sobre cuestiones de igualdad, incluyendo trabajos y vivienda para el pueblo negro.

Sus campañas por la nominación presidencial Demócrata en 1984 y 1988 electrificaron una generación de progresistas. Arrasó en el sur en 1988, ganando en Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, Carolina del Sur, Carolina del Norte, y el Distrito de Columbia, amplificando el poder de las aspiraciones de un pueblo oprimido por el poder político y la democracia. Trajo al pueblo negro a la corriente principal de la política burguesa, contribuyendo a una ola de candidatos negros en campañas electorales. Los marxistas-leninistas apoyaron las campañas de Jackson, reconociéndolas como una expresión de los sentimientos democráticos de un movimiento nacional afroamericano.

El Rev. Jackson tomó una posición justa en asuntos domésticos e internacionales. Promovió la campaña por la desinversión en Sudáfrica y se opuso a la intervención de EE.UU en Nicaragua, Irán, y la Guerra del Golfo. Fue el primer líder nacional negro en abordar la cuestión del Estado Palestino y desinversión anti-apartheid de una manera valiente durante su campaña.

Una figura monumental del movimiento por los derechos civiles, él es el último de los líderes surgidos de la Conferencia de Liderazgo Cristiano del Sur de los 1960s, emergiendo directamente del movimiento de Martin Luther King Jr. El impulso de sus campañas llevó adelante la lucha por el poder político negro, un componente de la liberación negra. Extendemos nuestras condolencias a su esposa Jackie y a toda su familia. Su legado nos recuerda que la lucha por la libertad es constante.

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