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

#RevolutionaryTheory #ClaudiaJones #WomensMovement #AfricanAmerican #OppressedNationalities #CPUSA #Featured

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.

#Opinion #Remembrances #AfricanAmerican #OppressedNationalities #JessieJackson

Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, February 24, over 30 students and community members gathered in University of Illinois Chicago’s (UIC) Black Cultural Center for a screening of Judas and the Black Messiah, followed by a guided discussion led by comrades in the Chicago district of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

Directed and written by Shaka King, Judas and the Black Messiah (2021) is a cinematic telling of the story of the Black Panther Party Illinois Chapter, the grassroots genesis of Chicago’s historic Rainbow Coalition, and the final days of Chairman Fred Hampton of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party. Following the story of both the late chairman and William O’Neal, FBI informant and party infiltrator, the film depicts the real-life conspiracy to murder Chairman Fred carried out by the FBI, the Cook County State Attorney’s Office, and the Chicago Police Department.

After the movie, Kobi Guillory, a member of FRSO Chicago and the Chicago Teacher’s Union, inquired about the audience’s takeaways from this story of revolutionary struggle, class solidarity and political repression. Audience members recounted similarities to their own experiences of police brutality, loved ones murdered or abducted by state thugs, others invoked the very origins of U.S. law enforcement as rooted in the slave patrols.

This Black History Month, it is more important than ever to remember the revolutionary legacy of the Black Panther Party and the Rainbow Coalition: a legacy of working class solidarity, standing against anti-Black and anti-worker political repression. Fred Hampton, as chairman of the Illinois Chapter of the Black Panther Party and deputy chair of the National Black Panther Party, could see Chicago’s race divide for the smoke screen that it was.

In the wake of a torrent of state-sanctioned violence against the oppressed nationalities and those who stand with them continues across the nation, we continue to struggle. And in the words of Comrade Fred Hampton, when you dare to struggle, you dare to win!

#ChicagoIL #IL #StudentMovement #SDS #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackHistoryMonth #FRSO #CTU

New Orleans, LA — On February 24, students from the Black Students Resistance Network (BSRN), a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) affiliate at Xavier University of Louisiana, organized a panel of activists from around the New Orleans area to discuss how and why students should fight for progressive policies on their campuses and in their communities.

The panel featured speakers from BSRN, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, the NAACP, Students for a Democratic Society, and a political opinion blog, The Daily Salad.

Central to the discussion was the question of “Why do we protest?”

“One of the reasons we hold these direct actions is because that is how people learn about these struggles and how we keep attention on these issues,” said Rosalina Framboise, a student activist at Loyola University. She invoked the story of the Black Panther Huey P. Newton putting up a stop sign in a community when the government refused to, and concluded by saying, “I think that is what our job is as organizers. If campus administration, or the government, or anyone else is not going to properly advocate the needs of the students or the community, it is our job to get together and do that ourselves.”

Among the other questions posed to the panelists was a question as to how people should respond to the idea Black people should “sit back,” as opposed to engaging in political organizing, because it “isn’t [their] fight.”

Aniya Grisham of BSRN responded, “Just because we can ‘sit at the front of the bus’ now doesn’t mean that it’s all sunshine and rainbows.” She added, “Black people are the most incarcerated people in the country, the least educated.” Grisham emphasized that the work of Black liberation is not done and that it is up to the people to continue fighting.

Overall, the event was a strong opportunity for Xavier students to discuss their thoughts with local student activists and learn more about how to get organized.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #StudentMovement #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BSRN #SDS #FRSO #NAACP

Tampa, FL – This past weekend, the Andrew Joseph foundation held a benefit gala on the 12th year angelversary of Andrew Joseph III.

Lovingly known by family and friends as “Peewee,” Andrew Joseph, III was a 14-year-old student who was attending a school district-supported fair day with friends when he was struck and killed by a motorist as he tried to cross Interstate 4 on foot after being wrongfully detained, ejected, transported and then abandoned outside of the fair by local law enforcement officials, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, with no call to parents.

The gala’s theme was “Coming to America” which was in part inspired by an 1980s movie of the same name, but also in part by the African Diaspora all across the world over the last several centuries. Deanna Joseph, co-founder of AJF and mother to Andrew Joseph III stated, “What began as a sacred gathering through the Coming to America Gala has grown into a worldwide diaspora collective rooted in remembrance, culture and connection across oceans and generations.”

The gala was hosted by community leader Dr. Michelle N. Williams and had a number of cultural performances, sermons and featured keynote speaker Norman Harris. The speakers recounted the monumental struggles that the Joseph Family has waged and won, from civil lawsuits to statewide policy reform. As the event came to a close, the Josephs emphasized the continued and ongoing work that must be done to address systemic racism and police terror all across the United States and beyond.

“From Florida to Africa. From grieving families to global community. The work is moving onward,” said Deanna Joseph.

#TampaFL #FL #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #KillerCops #PoliceCrimes

Tallahassee, FL – On February 7, the Tallahassee Community Action Committee (TCAC) led a second protest against the sale and privatization of the Capital City Golf Course now owned by the Capital City Country Club (CCCC). The land itself is the site of at least 17 known, unmarked graves of formerly enslaved people, has never been thoroughly surveyed, and is marked only by a small memorial.

The CCCC only opened its membership to the public in 2015, having maintained private membership for years as a loophole to remain segregated.

Tallahassee Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) member Regina Joseph, identifying the Black community’s struggle as one for Black liberation, said, “The city of Tallahassee does not care about Black people. It only cares about profit over people. We insist on our liberation.”

FAMU Students for a Democratic Society President Justin Jordan expressed similar frustration with the Tallahassee City Commission, saying, “these people cloak themselves in our communities when it’s convenient for them – when they need votes, And if you think these people have your best interest at heart, they voted against a motion to do further examination of these unmarked graves.”

Speeches were held at Country Club Park in the southwest corner of the property, then the group marched to the memorial site for more speeches. While speaking at the site, a group of golfers drove up, teed up, and hit shots over the heads of speakers, an act that directly endangered multiple people. With plenty of other open areas, golfers knowingly drove over grave sites the course is built upon as the protesters demanded they respect the lives of the people buried. The golfers and owners called the police, but they were unable to trespass marchers, as the memorial site is open to the public.

TCAC President Delilah Pierre described this as an illustration of the difficulties of negotiating the reversal of the sale, “I’ve heard people ask, ‘Have you tried to talk to the commissioners? Have you tried to talk to the golfers?’ In my opinion they’re all to be held accountable because they all know what they’re doing.”

Tallahassee SDS and Tallahassee Immigrant Rights Alliance (TIRA) also participated in the action, connecting the struggle for students on campus and immigrants in the community to the continual erasing and whitewashing of Black people’s history.

Participants were encouraged to attend the city commission meeting on February 18 to demand the reversal of the sale, which occurred despite widespread opposition from Tallahassee residents, as well as demand a full archaeological survey and a town hall meeting. Additionally, TCAC has been canvassing in nearby neighborhoods and circulated a petition to reverse the sale, which has currently gathered nearly 200 signatures.

#TallahasseeFL #FL #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #TCAC #FRSO

New York, NY – On February 4, the Movement of Rank and File Educators held their general assembly this month in Manhattan. Over 50 teachers came together to discuss how to organize around Black Lives Matter in their schools during the upcoming week of action.

The assembly began with a brief history of the organization Black Lives Matter at Schools (BLMAS) as an organization grown out of the Black Lives Matter movement. BLMAS organizers went over the demands for the week of action, which include ending “zero tolerance” discipline against students, ending racist hiring practices, and funding community needs instead of cops.

Organizers shared their experience bringing the BLM movement and anti-racism into their schools by bringing up the demands of BLMAS, centering voices of Black liberation during Black History Month, and bringing together Black community organizations. Educators emphasized ties between teaching about the Black liberation movement and structural racism, and teaching about imperialism, immigration and the ongoing ICE attacks in Minneapolis.

The attendees broke out into groups to strategize how they can teach about Black history in their classrooms and with their coworkers during and beyond the week of action. Teachers expressed their willingness to fight against reluctant administrators to ensure Black history was taught properly in their schools, emphasizing on-the-ground organizing with coworkers.

New York City currently has the most segregated school system in the U.S.

#NewYorkNY #Labor #MRFE #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BlackLivesMatter #BLMAS #BlackHistoryMonth

Jacksonville, FL – On January 24 families who have lost loved ones at the hands of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office rallied at James Weldon Johnson Park, outside of Jax City Hall. The event, organized by the Jacksonville Community Action Committee, centered on shared frustrations over delayed investigations, a lack of communication from authorities, and narratives that misrepresent their loved ones.

The families detailed a common experience of seeking basic facts, such as autopsy reports and investigative findings – only to face procedural delays and silence. This collective frustration has sparked a new effort to organize directly among the affected families to address what they describe as a systemic failure of accountability.

The families of Charles Faggart, Rashaud Martin, Devon Gregory, Reginald Boston Jr, and Alquan Suydam, along with other families negatively impacted by police violence in Jacksonville all rallied to remember their loved ones.

Chants of “Justice for Charles” or “Justice for Rashaud” could be heard all through the area. Someone from each family addressed the crowd, demanding answers.

The newly formed Families Coalition is forming with clear demands – Jax cops stay out of mental health crises, timely release of all information to families, and civilian oversight over the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office through a Public Safety Committee. They gathered to push back against characterizations of their loved ones, insisting the public deserves a full and honest accounting of each incident.

Organizers from the Jacksonville Community Action Committee stated the rally highlights a shift from the often depicted “isolated” cases to showing this is a systemic issue across the city. The growing coalition plans to bring its demands directly to city, leveraging collective power to challenge the current process and continue the demand for community control of the police.

Yvonno Kemp, mother of Reginald Boston Jr. who was killed by JSO in 2020, ended the program reading a letter on behalf of the mothers to Mayor Donna Deegan, pushing that she meet with the families.

The rally ended with a candlelight vigil where emcees yelled the names of the lost loved ones, with the crowd chanting “Say their name!”

The families and the JCAC vowed to keep up the fight.

#JacksonvilleFL #FL #InJusticeSystem #JCAC #KillerCops #PoliceCrimes #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican

New Orleans, LA – On Monday, January 19, 100 activists and community members marched through the busy streets of New Orleans to commemorate MLK’s long legacy.

The protest was headed by the New Orleans Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NOAARPR). Demands included an end to deportations and justice for victims of police brutality.

The protest began with a rally at A.L. Davis Park.

“King was taken from us too soon, but his words and deeds were not. We remember King as someone who fought not only to protect peace but to protect the dignity of all working people,” said Toni Jones, chair of NOAARPR. Jones later stated, “His actions are what are worth remembering in trying to change history.”

Mich Gonzales of Sanctuary Now Abolition Project quoted Martin Luther King Jr, saying, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.” Gonzales then stated “We, the people of the United States, will not be spoken for by the filthy rich. The working-class people are rising up, and we are done!”

Before taking to the streets, Toni Mar from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) read from MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, finishing with the line “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Mar then said, “We have to heed the call to take to the streets! We will not take one step backwards, we are only going forward!”

As the crowd marched through the streets, chants rang out such as “Cell blocks for crooked cops!” And “No justice! No peace!” Community support was high, with people along the streets chanting along with their fists in the air.

The march concluded in front of a sculpture commemorating MLK Jr. on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Central City.

Rosalina Framboise from Liberate and Unite New Orleans Students for a Democratic Society (LUNO SDS), spoke on the importance of remembering the true legacy of MLK, “This is not just something that we learn about in our classes. This is something we experience right here today in our real lives as we continue to shape history.”

Before the protest was over, the crowd gathered together and repeated Assata Shakur’s famous quote, “It is our duty to fight for our freedom. It is our duty to win. We must love and protect one another. We have nothing to lose but our chains.”

#NewOrleansLA #LA #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #MLKDay #NOAARPR #NAARPR

Dallas, TX – On January 19, National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression-Dallas honored the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the 97th anniversary of his birth, by participating in the MLK Day parade in Dallas. Marching through the streets with a banner reading “One day the South will recognize its real heroes” and “Freedom is a constant struggle,” NAARPR honored the radical legacy of MLK Jr.

In a time of ICE repression and the rolling back of the Civil Rights Act, NAARPR continues to remind the community of Dallas that there are still people who remember the dream of MLK and his movement.

Xavier Velasquez, the chair of NAARPR-Dallas, said, “We will live in a United States where ICE thugs kidnap innocent immigrants, tear families apart and murder people along the way. We also cannot ignore the warmongering against Venezuela and the illegal kidnapping of the president and first lady of that country. We have to remember that Martin Luther King Jr. said 'The evils of capitalism are as real as the evils of militarism and evils of racism.’”

The contingent of members of NAARPR chanted while parade onlookers joined in: “Power to the people!” “Community control now” and “DPD, ICE, KKK they're all the same!”

#DallasTX #TX #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #MLKDay #NAARPRDFW

La Comisión Afroamericana de la Organización Socialista Camino de la Libertad condena inequívocamente el brutal tiroteo y asesinato de la observadora comunitaria desarmada Renee Good el enero 7 en Minneapolis por los agentes terroristas del ICE de Trump. Este asesinato ocurrió a solo unas cuadras de donde George Floyd fue asesinado en 2020.

La policía y en general el estado policial racista son la vanguardia de la opresión nacional aquí en los Estados Unidos hoy en día. El mismo terror policial que históricamente ha sido usado contra las comunidades afroamericanas está actualmente siendo desplegado contra las comunidades inmigrantes para llevar a cabo la agenda supremacista blanca Trump de deportaciones masivas. Bajo Trump, hemos visto una expansión tanto del estado policial como del sistema carcelario. Por casi un año entero, la policía federal de Trump ha infligido crímenes diarios a comunidades negras, inmigrantes, chicanas, y de otras nacionalidades oprimidas, desde Chicago y Memphis hasta DC y Nueva Orleans.

“Ley y orden” para Trump y su horda racista significan terror policial y criminalización desenfrenada para todos los demás. A menos de que los movimientos por liberación nacional se unan y luchen en contra, la administración de Trump se volverá más osada haciendo cumplir el terror policial, el asesinato y acoso de protestantes y organizadores, y la destrucción de cualquier indicio de “Estado de derecho” en este país.

Nuestra unidad con otras nacionalidades oprimidas está basada en opresores comunes: capitalistas de monopolio como Trump. La criminalización aumentada de la gente negra en las ciudades donde los agentes terroristas del ICE de Trump rondan y han sido desplegados muestra este hecho.

Todo el sistema que Trump representa es culpable de asesinato en Minneapolis, Chicago, Gaza, Caracas, y demasiados otros lugares para nombrar. Debe ser derrocado y el socialismo–un sistema hecho por y para los pueblos obreros y oprimidos–debe ser construido en su lugar. La unidad entre los movimientos de nacionalidades oprimidas, la nación afroamericana, la nación chicana, y la clase obrera multinacional es una necesidad para la lucha exitosa por la autodeterminación de las naciones oprimidas y el socialismo.

#frso #oscl #statement #oppressednationalities #africanamerican #immigrantrights

Charleston, SC – On January 19, Charleston’s Elbit Out Of South Carolina (EOSC) coalition marched with a large contingent in the city’s Martin Luther King Day parade. Around 40 community members carried Palestinian flags, large banners, and a variety of signs criticizing Elbit Systems of America for producing weapons for Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The coalition handed out hundreds of flyers with information about Elbit’s Charleston County facility as well as ways to get involved with the coalition's efforts to shut the factory down.

“It was so great to see families watching the parade from the sidelines light up when they saw a contingent in solidarity with Palestine,” said Alfred Peeler, of the Charleston District of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO). “It showed that the community supports our efforts to do our part locally in demanding an end to the U.S.’s role in supporting the genocide.”

Elbit Systems of America opened its Charleston factory in 2023 to construct Next Generation Sigma 155 mm Howitzer cannons for Israel, and at least two loads of weapons and other munitions have already been shipped.

“It’s important for us to take every opportunity we can to publicly show our support for Palestinians and bring attention to the ways our community is wrapped up in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza,” stated Nate Hubler, an EOSC organizer. “Most people are unaware that Elbit was given tax breaks by our county council to operate here, depriving the public of hundreds of thousands of dollars annually.”

The Elbit Out Of SC Coalition formed at the end of 2024 to shut the factory down and has pursued a variety of tactics including weekly pickets in front of the facility for over a year, regular teach-ins at community meetings, speaking at county council to scrap the tax breaks, and appealing to labor unions and religious institutions.

The Coalition consists of Free Palestine Charleston (FPC), Charleston DSA, the Lowcountry Action Committee and FRSO Charleston as well as numerous at-large organizers.

The coalition kept the energy up for the entire length of the parade, chanting for an hour and a half. Attendees were led in chants like “Free, free Palestine!” and “Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation!”

“It was so great to see the people chant along with us, especially the kids,” said Autumn Waddell, an organizer with FPC and EOSC.

Volunteers with the Charleston Linea Directa Comunitaria Inmigrante, the local Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) verification hotline, also marched with the coalition. Representatives handed out flyers to spread the word about the hotline’s phone number and made connections between attacks on Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, and attacks on immigrants in the U.S.

“It looks like the local news covering the parade turned off their coverage as we approached, which they did last year as well,” said Alfred Peeler. “But it’s all good, we’ve been getting more and more coverage, more and more engagement, and Elbit facilities are shutting down across the globe. We are winning!”

#CharlestonSC #SC #AntiWarMovement #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #MLKDay #FPC #EOSC

Orlando, FL – On Saturday, January 17, dozens of organizations joined a parade in downtown Orlando to commemorate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

While the parade included local police, one of the organizations that marched in the parade wanted to send a clear message to the police, the city and county governments to hold police accountable, jail killer cops, and reinstitute a civilian police review board.

Orlando Against Police Crimes (OAPC) is a local, grassroots organization in central Florida that fights for justice for victims of police crimes and political repression. Activists in the group have worked to support the families of those killed by police and demand State Attorney Monique Worrell press charges against cops who kill community members.

“The police were not friends of Martin Luther King, of Black people on general, or of the Civil Rights movement! Why not babe the parade led by the Klan?” said OAPC organizer David Porter. “The police have not changed. And it's an insult to have them leading this parade!”

For the parade, members of OAPC marched with large posters that served as memorials for those recently killed by Orange County Sheriff's Office and OPD. The names and faces on posters and moving billboard were of Luis Lopez, Tyrone Bartley, Kaleb Williams, Juan Silva, Ronald Greene, Salaythis Melvin, Clarence Lake and Karvas Gamble, Jr., all of whom were killed by police.

#OrlandoFL #FL #InJusticeSystem #PoliceCrimes #OAPC #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #MLKDay

The African-American Commission of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization unequivocally condemns the brutal shooting and killing of unarmed community observer Renee Good on January 7 in Minneapolis by Trump‘s ICE terror agents. This murder happened only a few blocks from where George Floyd was killed in 2020.

Police and the broader racist police state are the cutting edge of national oppression here in the United States today. The same police terror that has historically been used on African-American communities is currently being deployed towards immigrant communities to carry out Donald Trump’s white supremacist agenda of mass deportations. Under Trump, we have seen an expansion of both the police state and the prison system. For almost a full year, Trump's federal police have inflicted daily crimes in Black, immigrant, Chicano, and other oppressed nationality communities, from Chicago and Memphis to DC and New Orleans.

“Law and Order” to Trump and his racist flock means police terror and rampant criminalization for everyone else. Unless the national liberation movements unite and fight back, the Trump administration will become more bold with enforcing police terror, killing and targeting protesters and organizers, and destroying any semblance of the “rule of law” in this country.

Our unity with other oppressed nationalities is based on common oppressors: monopoly capitalists like Trump. The increased criminalization of Black folks in cities where Trump’s ICE terror agents roam and have been deployed show us this fact.

The whole system Trump represents is guilty of murder in Minneapolis, Chicago, Gaza, Caracas, and too many other places to name. It must be overthrown and socialism—a system made by and for working and oppressed people—must be built in its place. Unity between movements of oppressed nationalities, the African American nation, the Chicano nation, and the multinational working class is a necessity for a successful struggle for self determination for oppressed nations and for socialism.

#FRSO #AfricanAmericanCommission #ImmigrantRights #PoliceCrimes #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican