The delegation will deliver a letter to Consul General Gina Jamoralin with regards to Brandon Lee, an American citizen who was shot in Ifugao, Philippines. Lee is a human rights activist and a native of San Francisco.

Lee was attacked by suspected elements of the 54th Infantry Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. Lee survived the gun attack but has had eight cardiac arrests during multiple surgeries.

The delegation will appeal to the Philippine government to ensure Brandon Lee’s safety and apprehend the assailants.

This week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed a motion supporting the immediate evacuation of Lee from the Philippines and his repatriation to San Francisco to ensure his safety and access to adequate medical care.

#ChicagoIL #Philippines #PeoplesStruggles #CarlosRamirezRosa #RossanaRodriguezSanchez #JaimeAndrade #Asia

¡Lucha y Resiste! entrevistó al concejal Carlos Ramirez Rosa y Frank Chapman de la Alianza de Chicago contra la Represión Racista y Política sobre la lucha por un Concilio Elegido de Transparencia Policial (CPAC, por sus siglas en inglés). La legislación para establecer este concilio fue promovido por el concejal Rosa y otros ocho miembros del concilio de la cuidad de Chicago. ¡Lucha y Resiste!: Quiero pedir que usted exprese su opinión sobre la legislación de transparencia policial recién avanzada esta semana en el concilio municipal. Los concejales Osterman y Sawyer no han apoyado al CPAC, pero ahora están promoviendo un proyecto de ley para una comisión comunitaria de seguridad pública y de transparencia. ¿En su opinión, por que lo han hecho?

Carlos Ramirez Rosa: Despues del asesinato de Laquan McDonald, hubo una protesta masiva de la parte de gente común reclamando la verdadera transparencia policial. Eso trajo a luz una vez mas la manera en que la policía ha fallado de rendir cuentas a la ciudad cuando matan a gente de color. Esa protesta masiva fue representada en el movimiento por CPAC. El pueblo salió a la calle. Habían piquetes masivos fuera de los comercios en Michigan Avenue en donde el pueblo estaba gritando, “¡No habrá negocios a lo acostumbrado mientras seamos asesinados por la policía!”

No solo esa lucha, sino también conversaciones con aquellos impactados de manera directa por la violencia policial – sean las victimas de tortura a las manos de Burge (el Detective Burge manejaba un grupo de tortura dentro del Departamento de Policía de Chicago en los ochentas y noventas] o aquellos quien han perdido un ser querido por la violencia policial, me llevó a promover el CPAC. Es una ordenanza informada directamente por aquellos impactados por la violencia policial y eso de verdad representa la exigencia del pueblo de que el pueblo tenga el verdadero control democrático sobre los empleados públicos encargados de servir y proteger la cuidad.

Esta ordenanza transforma la relación entre el pueblo y la policía de manera fundamental. Por eso, representa una amenaza al statu quo a través lo cual la policía de hecho sirve los intereses de los ricos y los adinerados del Ayuntamiento. La policía sirve para aburguesar los barrios, sirve a encarcelar y criminalizar los pobres y los trabajadores quien luchan por arreglárselas.

A pesar de que el Alcalde y aquellos en poder de la cuidad no apoyen esta transformación fundamental de la policía en Chicago, ellos no pudieron ignorar las reclamaciones que estaban viniendo de las miles de personas participando en esta campaña. Vimos esas reclamaciones expresadas en los foros públicos que se han sido obligados por la cuidad como resultado del hecho de que el Departamento de Justicia de los EE.UU. había investigado lo que estaba pasando con la policía en Chicago. A cada uno de esos foros, fue claro que el pueblo quería CPAC. El pueblo quiere el control comunitario de la policía.

A causa de esta exigencia constante el Alcalde no pudo avanzar sus debiles reformas sin hablar de la necesidad del control comunitario de policía. Eso se convirtió en una alianza de mayoría de ONGs que participan en la organización comunitaria y se han juntado durante dos años, y han trabajado sobre su propia versión del control comunitario de la policía. Su propuesta toma muchos de los elementos que vemos en CPAC pero intenta a organizarlos de manera precaria alrededor de la burocracia fracasada que ya existe. De esa manera se sabe que esta propuesta no abordará las causas profundas de estos problemas, porque no se puede arreglar una casa que se está quemando.

Por eso, yo estoy comprometido a CPAC. Esa otra tentativa es para entablar reformas que, según unas personas, son mas aceptables y alcanzables a corto plazo. Pero sabemos que una solución a corto plazo no arreglará los problemas de racismo dentro de la fuerza policial de Chicago.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Frank, quiere usted responder a algo que ha dicho el concejal Rosa?

Frank Chapman: Si estuviéramos en la iglesia, mi respuesta sería, “Amén.” El énfasis que yo añadiría es que hemos creado un movimiento masivo alrededor de la cuestión de transparencia policial, con todos los elementos ya mencionados por el concejal. Hoy en día tenemos mas de 50,000 defensores en la ciudad. Cada distrito electoral de la cuidad tiene defensores de CPAC. 25 distritos electorales tiene un promedio de 1,000 firmas de apoyo para el CPAC. Nosotros enverdad somos un movimiento de base, un movimiento popular. El CPAC es una reclamación democrática que viene directamente del pueblo. No queremos un cambio burocrático: queremos una solución democrática para este problema.

Rosa: Añadiría que si no hubiera la lucha por CPAC, esta propuesta de la parte de los concejales Sawyer y Osterman no existiría. Es algo que necesita elevarse y reconocer para mostrar que pese al hecho de que no hayamos logrado CPAC durante el régimen de este alcalde y su concilio que aprueba maquinalmente sus demandas, ellos no pudieron ignorar nuestra reclamación que viene del pueblo.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: En la manifestación del Viernes Negro convocada por la Alianza, usted declaró que planea plantear por votación el CPAC ante el concilio municipal este año. Cuales son sus planes exactamente?

Rosa: No es secreto para nadie que el alcalde de Chicago controla totalmente el concilio municipal entero. No pasa nada en concilio, no hay nada con posibilidad de moverse dentro de los comités del concilio sin el permiso del alcalde. Durante mi tiempo como concejal, he visto los miembros de la oficina del alcalde dar a los presidentes de los comités un texto que tuvieron que leer durante la reunión del comité. Es algo que muestra claramente la manera en que el alcalde orquesta todo. Es él quien nombra los presidentes de los comités, y luego les dice lo que se puede plantear por votación en comité, y por fin, ante el concilio entero en un momento dado.

Por eso, dado que el alcalde no quiere apoyar aún esta solución burocrática diluida – menos aún nuestra legislación fundamental y transformadora – hemos visto que el CPAC se ha movido del comité por mas de un año. Hemos visto que en el Ayuntamiento han bloqueado la página web de CPAC. Los que trabajan en el Ayuntamiento ni siquiera pueden averiguar las informaciones sobre CPAC, porque los han puesto en la lista negra. Cuando se intenta, una página web aparece diciendo, “Esto es una expresión política que no se puede ver dentro del Ayuntamiento.”

Una de las tácticas de procedimiento legislativo que se puede usar cuando algo ha durado en comité por mas de 60 días es, bajo la regla numero 41 del concilio municipal de Chicago, un concejal con un preaviso de cinco días puede convocar una votación en la Cámara, primero para descargar el artículo del comité y además para que se lo consideren por inmediato. Entonces, en los meses que viene esta primavera, si no se considera este artículo en comité, bajo la regla 41 mocionaremos ante el concilio municipal entero que el artículo se considere de inmediato y que se promulgue. En este momento, se sabrá cuales son los concejales al lado del pueblo y cuales son los que protegeran la institución racista de la policía, y también protegeran con sus votos al alcalde y a los intereses de sus amigos ricos.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: Frank, ¿cómo impactará la lucha por CPAC con este procedimiento parlamentario – una votación del concilio municipal entero?

Chapman: Yo creo que tendrá un impacto tremendo y reforzará aún mas la comprensión entre nuestros miembros y en el pueblo que [CPAC] es una legislación de verdad por la cual estamos luchando. Además representa una verdadera posibilidad de triunfo. Porque sacar a luz las intenciones de los concejales, sobre todo en los barrios afectados del lado sur y lado oeste de la cuidad es clave, muy importante para nuestro triunfo. A pesar de que el concilio sea controlado por el alcalde, a pesar de que la mayoría de los miembros del concilio municipal sean sus lacayos, nosotros planteáramos claramente ante el pueblo lo que es nuestra tarea: nos deshacernos de la presente situación.

Nuestra tarea es cambiar la configuración política dentro del concilio municipal, si es necesario, para que el CPAC sea promulgado. Lo más pronto que el pueblo lo vea como su propia tarea, se convertirá no solo en algo transformador, en términos de nuestra relación con la policía, sino se convertirá en algo transformador en cuanto la manera en que se dirija la cuidad porque desafiaremos los poderes establecidos. Alistaremos no solamente los 50,000 ciudadanos de que estábamos hablando, sino el pueblo de Chicago se juntaran con nosotros en esta lucha para hacer este cambio.

Lo que tenemos en el presente en Chicago, como el concejal acaba de mencionar, es una dictadura. Nosotros creemos en las luchas democráticas. Creemos en el poder del pueblo para cambiar eso.

#ChicagoIL #PoliceBrutality #FrankChapman #CPAC #CarlosRamirezRosa

Fight Back! interviewed Chicago Alderman Carlos Ramirez Rosa and Frank Chapman of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression about the struggle for an elected, civilian police accountability council (CPAC). The legislation to create this ordinance was sponsored by Alderman Rosa and eight other members of the Chicago City Council.

Fight Back!: I want to ask you to respond to the police accountability legislation put forward this week in the Chicago City Council. Aldermen Osterman and Sawyer wouldn’t sign on to CPAC, but now they’re sponsoring a bill for a Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability. Why do you think that is?

Carlos Ramirez Rosa: In the wake of the murder of Laquan McDonald, there was a mass outcry from regular folks demanding true police accountability. It exposed once again the manner in which the city had failed to hold the police accountable for killing young Black and brown people. That massive outcry was represented in the movement for CPAC. People took to the streets. There were massive pickets outside businesses along Michigan Avenue where people said, “We can’t have business as usual as long as we’re being murdered by the police.”

That struggle, as well as my conversations with those directly impacted by police violence, whether victims of torture at the hands of Burge, [Detective Jon Burge led a torture ring within the Chicago Police Department in the 1980s and 1990s] or those who have lost a loved one as a result of police violence, led me to introduce CPAC. It’s an ordinance that is informed directly by those impacted by police violence, and that really represents the demand from the community that they have real democratic control over those public employees that are meant to serve and protect the people.

That ordinance fundamentally transforms the relationship between the people and the police. For that reason, it represents a threat to the status quo where the police really serve the interests of the rich and moneyed interests in City Hall. They act to gentrify neighborhoods; they act to imprison and criminalize poor and working people that are struggling to get by.

Despite the mayor and those in power in the city not supporting such a fundamental transformation of policing in the city of Chicago, they couldn’t ignore the demands that were coming from the tens of thousands of people that were involved in this campaign. We saw those demands voiced in the public meetings that were required to be held by the city as a result of the Department of Justice looking into what was occurring with policing in Chicago. At every single one of those hearings, it was clear that the community wanted CPAC. They wanted democratic control of the police.

Because of that consistent demand, the mayor could not move forward with his paltry police reforms without speaking to the need for community control. That developed into this grassroots alliance of primarily non-profit organizations that engage in community organizing coming together, and for the past two years working on their own version of community control of the police. That proposal takes many of the elements that we see in CPAC but attempts to jury rig them around the existing failed bureaucracy. In this way we know that this proposal will fail to address the root causes of the problem, because you can’t fix a burning house.

That is why I remain committed to CPAC. This is an attempt to engage in a reform that some individuals feel is more tenable and achievable in the short term. But we know that this short-term solution will not fix or address the problems of racist policing in the city of Chicago.

Fight Back!: Frank, do you want to respond to anything that Alderman Rosa had to say?

Frank Chapman: My response if we were in church would be to say, “Amen.” The only emphasis I would put in, we have built a mass movement around the question of police accountability, with all the elements that the aldermen put out. We currently have more than 50,000 supporters in this city. Every ward has CPAC supporters. 25 wards have an average of 1000 CPAC signatures. We are truly a grassroots movement. CPAC is a democratic demand coming from the people. We don’t want a bureaucratic change: we want a democratic solution to this problem.

Rosa: I would add that this proposal which was introduced by Alderman Sawyer and Alderman Osterman would not exist but for the struggle for CPAC. That’s something we need to uplift and recognize, to show that despite the fact that we have not yet won CPAC under this existing mayor and his rubber stamp council, they’ve been unable to totally ignore our demand that is coming forth from the community.

Fight Back!: At the Black Friday protest called by the Alliance, you announced that you planned to bring CPAC up for a vote of the whole city council this year. What are your plans around that?

Rosa: It’s no secret that the mayor of the city of Chicago totally controls the whole city council. Nothing passes the city council, nothing has the ability to even move through committee without the consent of the mayor’s office. During my time as an alderman, I have seen staff from the mayor’s office hand to committee chairs a script that they are to read during the committee meeting. That is something that clearly demonstrates the manner in which the mayor orchestrates everything. He appoints the committee chairs, and then tells them what can be brought up to a vote in committee, and ultimately to the council floor at any given time.

As a result of that, given that the mayor is not even willing to support even this very much watered own bureaucratic solution – let alone our fundamental, transformative piece of legislation – we have seen CPAC languish in committee for over a year. We have also seen the website for CPAC has also been blocked at city hall. Individuals that work at city hall don’t even have the ability to look up information about CPAC; it is blacklisted. You get a website that says, “This is political speech that is not allowed to be viewed at city hall.”

One of the legislative procedural tactics that we can use is when any item has sat in committee for more than 60 days, under rule 41 of the Chicago City Council, any single alderman with five-days-notice can put forward a call for a vote on the floor, to first discharge the item from committee, and to immediately consider that item. So, if in the coming months of this spring, we do not see that this item is heard in the committee, under rule 41 we will motion before the entire city council that the item be heard immediately and that the item be passed. Then we will know which aldermen are on the side of the people, and which aldermen are voting to protect the racist institution of policing, to protect the mayor and his rich friends’ interests with their votes.

Fight Back!: Frank, how will this parliamentary procedure – a vote of the whole city council – impact the struggle for CPAC?

Chapman: I think it will have a tremendous impact, because it will further strengthen the realization among our followers and people in the community that it’s a real piece of legislation that we’re fighting for and the real possibilities of victory. Because exposing the hand of the aldermen, particularly in the highly impacted areas of the South Side and the West Side, is very key, very important to us having a victory. Even though the city council is controlled by the mayor, even though the majority of the present city council are the mayor’s lackeys, we will clearly put before the people what our task is: to get rid of this present situation. Our task is to change the political configuration within the city council, if necessary, in order to get CPAC passed. Once people see that as their task, then this becomes not only a fundamental transformative thing in terms of our relationship with the police, it becomes a fundamentally transformative thing in terms of how this city is run, because we will be challenging the powers that be. We will be enlisting not only the 50,000 people we’re talking about, we’ll be enlisting the people of the city of Chicago to join us in this struggle, to make this change. What we have in Chicago presently, as the alderman just pointed out, is a dictatorship. We believe in democratic struggles. We believe in the people’s ability to change that.

Fight Back!: Some in the media are making Rahm out to be a role model for fighting Trump, and that he’s been rehabilitated, surviving the crisis that engulfed his administration after the cover-up of the video of the murder of Laquan McDonald. What grade would you give Rahm in the struggle against racism?

Rosa: Every action that we’ve seen Emanuel take during his time as a public official, as an advisor to President Clinton, as chief of staff to President Obama, or now as mayor of Chicago, we have seen that he consistently puts the interests of the wealthy and of big corporations before the public and the working people of this country. We saw that when he advised President Clinton to engage in and claim record deportations; we saw that when he advised President Obama not to save union jobs in Detroit that were facing the collapse of the American automobile industry; or when he advised President Obama not to pursue the Employee Free Choice Act and strengthen the ability of workers to form unions in the U.S.; and we’ve seen that in the sweetheart deals and contracts that he’s given to those that seek to privatize city services, and in exchange have given him large campaign contributions while at the same time we see a degradation of our services as he turns these over to private corporations.

So, we know that Emanuel sees his role as serving the rich and powerful, and he spends more time meeting with those that finance his campaign and give him campaign contributions in the hundreds of thousands of dollars than he does seeking to address the needs of working people in impoverished communities throughout the city of Chicago. Rahm understands, as a Democratic politician, he has to pay lip service to standing up to Donald Trump. But his claim to be a champion for sanctuary cities and undocumented immigrants does not stand up to the light of day when you speak to actual undocumented immigrants that have been placed into deportation proceedings as a result of the mayor’s administration and their policing policies. There was actually a lawsuit that was filed that showed that undocumented immigrants were being turned over to ICE as a result of being on the police Gang Database, which is something that the mayor has refused to address.

Instead, what the mayor has done is he’s spent money on a PR campaign where he puts his image and the image of his supporters on banners proclaiming that this city is welcome to all immigrants. While it’s necessary to match the anti-immigrant of President Trump with our own pro and welcoming rhetoric, that rhetoric in and of itself is not enough. You need to actually pursue policies that would strengthen Chicago’s resistance to ICE. He continues to collude with ICE. We also have to understand that the deportation regime that Trump now has at his disposal was masterminded and supported by Emanuel during his time in the White House under Clinton and Obama.

Fight Back!: Rahm rehabilitated?

Chapman: It depends who you ask. Ask the families whose sons and daughters have been murdered by the police, who’ve heard him apologize and shed crocodile tears over torture victims of the Chicago Police Department, but haven’t seen any action coming from his office as a result of this.

And then look at our communities. Look at the schools still being closed. We’re fighting right now in Englewood for schools to not be closed. If you look at his deeds, which is what the community has to live with, there’s no rehabilitation. We’re talking about the same old insensitive, cruel, inhuman policies being perpetrated by this mayor against the people.

Fight Back!: What needs to happen in the struggle against Trump in the coming year?

Chapman: First of all, we need to break through the political delirium which says that we only have two choices in this country: Democrats or Republicans. That’s not the way forward. We need to build a people’s movement that gets us past that by emphasizing the results that we want. We want an end to deportations, we want an end to racism and racist policies, we want an end to union busting. We’re not talking about an agenda that simply says, “Dump Trump.” We want an agenda with concrete, democratic demands for the people. We need to create the political vehicles that will carry forth that agenda, and look beyond the Democrats and Republicans.

Sometimes the only difference between a Democrat and a Republican is whether you want to be hung from a low tree or a high tree. People are tired of this.

Fight Back!: Will the movement against Trump be an anti-racist movement?

Rosa: One of the things that I think is a great irony about Donald Trump and Rahm Emanuel’s public feud is that under Rahm, Chicago exemplifies the law and order policing that Trump wants across the U.S. Trump ran and said, “I’m going to be the law and order president,” while Emanuel is the law and order mayor. Chicago spends nearly 40% of its budget on policing. We have more police officers per capita than any other major American city. Police unions generally advocate for about two police officers per 1000 residents. We see numbers like that in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. In Chicago, we have over four police officers per 1000 residents, and the mayor says he is going to hire even more police officers. We have not seen those strategies improve public safety in the city of Chicago. As a matter of fact, we’ve seen our communities become less safe as we’ve had to witness the horrific acts of police violence in our community.

#ChicagoIL #PoliceBrutality #FrankChapman #CPAC #CarlosRamirezRosa

Chicago, IL – Carlos Ramirez-Rosa is a member of the Chicago City Council who is well known to every progressive activist in Chicago. Brought to office in a 2015 wave of insurgent candidates opposing Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s pro-business agenda, the 28-year-old Rosa has become a fixture at labor rallies, protests against Trump’s attack on the undocumented Dreamers, as well as community meetings fighting gentrification.

Rosa also showed leadership in the fight against racist national oppression when he introduced legislation to create an elected, civilian police accountability council into the city council in the summer of 2016.

As quoted in Fight Back! at the time,

Rosa said, “This isn’t my ordinance, it’s the community’s ordinance.” Referring to the mass movement and organizations that have organized for this demand, he said, “They believe that injecting democracy into the system is the best way to ensure that the community – the people – have control over the actions of police officers.”

No one was surprised last week when a liberal Democrat vying for the Democratic nomination for governor chose Rosa as his running mate. In fact, many commentators saw this partnership as a smart move by Daniel Biss, a state senator from the suburbs north of Chicago. Biss was running well behind the billionaire J.B. Pritzker, and the multi-millionaire Chris Kennedy. “Bringing Rosa on as candidate for lieutenant governor was meant to get the movement behind him,” said Sarah Chambers, a well-known rank-and file-activist in the Chicago Teachers Union.

Less than a week later, Biss has dropped Rosa from his slate because of the alderman’s support for Palestine. Biss came under pressure from the leadership of the Democratic Party when it became public that Rosa supported the Palestinian cause after a Boycott-Divestment-Sanction (BDS) resolution was adopted at the recent convention of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), of which he is a member.

Frank Chapman, Field Organizer for the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, said of the move by the Democrats to enforce support for Israel, “You can’t claim to be on the side of oppressed Black and Latino people, struggling against white supremacy, and at the same time support the brutal occupation of Palestine.”

#ChicagoIL #Palestine #PoliceBrutality #Elections #CarlosRamirezRosa #DanielBiss