Dallas, TX – On December 20, 30 activists and community members from across the area gathered for the first annual holiday fundraiser and social event, Red Christmas. 

The continued escalation by the United States towards Venezuela loomed large in the background and was a central point of discussion. The event brought together organizers, families and supporters for an evening of music, food, games and political discussion, celebrating struggle and solidarity during the holiday season.

Red Christmas honored the many freedom fighters in Dallas and across North Texas organizing against capitalism, ICE terror and U.S. imperialism in Venezuela and around the world.

Organizations in attendance included Vecinos Unidos DFW, DFW Anti War Committee, El Movimiento, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), as well as members of Local 767 Teamsters, reflecting the broad coalition of groups committed to advancing people's struggles across on all fronts across North Texas.

Justin Mitchell, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the DFW Anti-War Committee, spoke about the recent solidarity delegation of Americans who traveled to Venezuela to stand with the Bolivarian government against continued threats, sabotage and illegal acts of piracy by the United States. While many delegates were prevented from traveling due to the ongoing blockade and no-fly zone, a small number were able to break through the blockade.

As Mitchell noted, “Having just a few people make it through was a huge win.”

Jo Hargis, also of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the DFW Anti War Committee spoke on the necessity of organizing a broad front of organizations across the DFW area to build a people’s movement against “another war that is very openly for conquest and oil.” Participants were encouraged to bring as many organizations as possible into the recent call by the Anti War Action network to organize demonstrations in the event of a direct attack on Venezuela

Rick Majumdar, a Teamster and member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, closed out the event stating, “By any definition this is an act of war,” referring to the recent illegal seizure of unarmed Venezuelan oil tankers. 

The event brought in over a $1000 in donations and was by all accounts a major success, strengthening ties amongst organizations and individuals on the frontline of building people’s movements across North Texas and beyond.

#DallasTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #Christmas #Fundraiser #FRSO #VUDFW #DFWAWC #NAARPR

Garland, TX – A coalition of DFW Anti War Committee, Palestinian Youth Movement and Freedom Road Socialist Organization rallied outside the REPKON USA facility off of Glenbrook Drive, on October 10. Settled in a relatively quiet suburb outside of Dallas next to a high school football stadium, the REPKON facility spans 38 acres and is responsible for the production of the Mk-80 and BLU-109 “bunker buster” bombs, the vast majority of the munitions dropped on families and refugee camps in Gaza along with other theatres of war around the globe.

Formerly part of General Dynamics, the facility was sold to REPKON’s defense holdings in 2025. The facility itself is no stranger to public pressure, with groups having held multiple teach-ins, community canvases, rallies and direct actions there since 2023 while it was still owned by General Dynamics.

Reacting to the impact of this facility, Siham Saadeh with Code Pink Dallas and the DFW Anti-War Committee said, “For many of us across DFW, learning that a bomb body plant, disguised as an aerospace defense site, sits blocks from a high school field was like a blow to the gut. It is shocking, ominous and unbearable. Communities across the world, especially in Gaza, live under the real-world consequences of these weapons every single day. And yet, we’re transforming that shock into action. Our resistance to this bomb manufacturer is a gesture of solidarity and a powerful statement: we refuse to be complicit.”

In light of the recent ceasefire agreement, a member of the DFW Anti War Committee stated, “Whether they fall in Gaza, in Yemen, in Venezuela, or in our own backyards, we will not rest until this factory becomes a site of creation rather than destruction. Regardless of any platitudes or promises of temporary peace, the time for change is now, and the time for change is always!”

The energy was high leading into the evening, with a wide range of speakers from Code Pink, Jewish Voice for Peace, and other groups sympathetic to the liberation of Palestinians delivering obituaries of those martyred by the bombs manufactured in Garland. Their voices echoed across the field, with chants of “We demand an arms embargo.”

As the sun set, demonstrators made their way to the corner of Glenbrook Drive and Walnut Street to hold a vigil honoring the memory of those who have lost their lives at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces. Demonstrators were met with an overwhelmingly positive community response, with many locals expressing their support for bringing awareness to REPKON’s involvement with the Palestinian genocide.

One DAWC member, who grew up in Garland, shared their thoughts, “When learning about the bomb factory, I felt shocked and then I felt sick. When thinking about how the place I grew up plays a key role in tearing families apart and killing children, I feel a pit of dread in my stomach. Knowing every bomb that kills a mother, father, son and daughter in Palestine passes through Garland at some point, makes me feel sadness and grief. As community members in Garland, we have power to say this is not what our city is about and is not something we want here. We need to say it loud!”

Not everyone was in support, however. As the evening progressed, a local biker presenting a tattered American flag stood by the vigil. As speakers shared the stories of those martyred by REPKON’s bombs, the counter-demonstrator stationed himself in the median of Glenbrook Drive, displaying the flag for commuters to see. According to many attendees at the scene, he was holding it backwards.

#GarlandTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #DFWAWC #PYM #FRSO #WeaponsIndustry

Garland, TX – Two dozen people gathered on Sunday, August 24 for a community discussion and screening of Don’t Frack with Denton as part of DFW Anti-War Committee’s campaign to shut down the Repkon bomb factory in Garland, Texas.

This factory, located across the street from a high school football stadium in the middle of a working-class neighborhood, manufactures the MK-80 bomb series, which, according to Al Jazeera, are the primary aerial munitions used in the U.S./Israeli genocide in Gaza.

Don’t Frack with Denton was produced in 2017 by Garrett Graham and Candice Bernd to chronicle the wins and losses of the Frack Free Denton campaign, which sought to end hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in the city limits of Denton, Texas. Organizers succeeded in winning the ban, but the state government retaliated by eliminating the ability to locally ban hydraulic fracturing.

“We screened Don’t Frack With Denton to spark tactical ideas for our organizing against Repkon, and on that score it was extremely successful,” said Jo Hargis, a co-coordinator for the DFW Anti-War Committee. “People from different movements, Frack Free Denton organizers, and members of the surrounding community shared their observations and insight, and we came out of the event with actionable steps for building community power to stop the bombs.”

Ella Haag, who lives in the neighborhood surrounding the Repkon facility, said, “Upon first learning about Repkon, my brain went completely silent. Not in a peaceful way, but like the calm before the storm. Ominous. Then, I felt rage and shame that this manufactured monstrosity was across the street all this time. I wanted to behave monstrously myself in response. The Stop the Bombs Garland campaign will be a way to funnel my rage and shame into something productive. I'm grateful to know others care so profoundly.”

Discussions ranged from the impact of canvassing extensively, how to communicate effectively with people who don’t already agree, lessons from the labor movement, the importance of bringing in families, and ways an electoral campaign can raise the profile of an issue even if the law is overturned, as it was in Denton. There was also interest in how the Frack Free Denton campaign escalated to direct action tactics after exhausting all legal remedies, which created buy-in from people disappointed by the failures of the legal system.

“It was really awesome to see local organizers making real strides on their campaign and to translate it back to our work in Garland,” said William Capper of DAWC and Jewish Voice for Peace. “Taking the time to get in community with Garland residents will be vital. Activists in Denton used performance art and music to connect with folks in a way that drew them into the campaign. Developing our own artistic approaches that highlight Repkon's crimes in approachable ways will be instrumental in broadening our base.”

Reflecting on the importance of the event for the Stop the Bombs Garland campaign, Rick Majumdar with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization said, “The documentary Don't Frack with Denton and discussion on the topic afterwards was an enriching experience. It highlighted the importance of a campaign, and illuminated the path to achieve goals that are realizable. The main takeaways for myself were the size of the base the organizers were able to build over a course of five years, reaching out as many people as possible on a common unified struggle. It also showcased the shortcomings of the campaign in terms of strategy, and tactics, the organizers were involved primarily in an electoral strategy, and only incorporated agitation, protests and demonstrations after the electoral strategy failed. These learnings are critical to anyone willing to change society one struggle at a time, through an effective campaign that can activate the masses.”

The next event in the Stop the Bombs Garland campaign is a community town hall on Saturday, September 13 at Compass Grove Fellowship Church from 3 to 5 p.m. DAWC has invited the surrounding community to come together and discuss how to stop the production of bombs in Garland, Texas.

#GarlandTX #DFWAWC #AntiWarMovement

Dallas TX – On April 5 organizers from Freedom Road Socialist Organization, DFW Anti War Committee and the National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression joined the DFW Indivisible and 50501 groups in a rally to say “Hands off” to the Trump administration’s attacks on labor, public services and government infrastructure.

The Dallas, Denton and Tarrant County communities met at historic Dealey Plaza off Elm Street in downtown Dallas on Sunday afternoon to a crowd of about 2000. The event featured a wide array of voices. The Texas labor movement had speakers from American Federations of Government Employees and teachers and Starbucks Workers United. Trump recently signed an executive order to cut collective bargaining rights for federal employees while his administration continues to target students and workers across the country.

The 50501 and Indivisible groups alongside the DFW area’s many other diverse movements have seen a dramatic influx of people looking to get involved wherever they can, starting with modest afternoon crowds just weeks ago to a diverse and galvanized crowd today that nearly filled Dealey Plaza. Cars honked in support as a train passed overhead, its own horn nearly drowned out by the crowd’s accumulating cheers.

Organizer Jo Hargis of the DFW Anti War Committee told the crowd, “When we come together to defend one another’s movements, when we see one another’s destinies as tied up with our own, when we come together across movements and across borders and across every division to unite in action against our common enemy, then we will build a world that no billionaire could take away, and I don’t know about you, but I’m here to fight for that world.”

The crowd took to the streets chanting, “This is what democracy looks like” and “We will not be silent,” as Dallas police looked on. The crowd flowed its way past the historic red courthouse and once around the city before the crowd returned to Dealey Plaza across from Dallas’ landmark Grassy Knoll for a second round of speakers.

Xavi Velasquez of Dallas’ National Alliance Against Racism and Political Repression as well as Legalization for All continued, “We working-class people have a rich history of struggle in this country. Your rights were not given to you. They were won with bloody struggle.”

Velasquez continued with a call to action: “I want you to get involved in your communities. I want you to join an organization doing the work, to make this country ungovernable.” He called for an event at Fort Worth City Hall, May 1 at 3 p.m. in observance of a Day Without Immigrants and International Workers Day.

#DallasTX #TX #PeoplesStruggles #Trump #DFWAWC #NAARPR #Indivisible #FRSO

Grand Prairie, TX – Members of the DFW Anti-War Committee on did a banner drop March 1 in front of the local Lockheed Martin Fire and Missile Control Center to protest against Lockheed’s annual coding competition, Code Quest.

Jo Hargis with the DFW Anti-War Committee said, “This action was part of our campaign against weapons manufacturers within the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. One aspect of this campaign is tackling the influence of weapons manufacturers on students. At previous actions we have protested job fairs where weapons manufacturers were tabling and handed out flyers to educate students on the military industrial complex at campuses such as the University of Texas at Arlington.”

Another member of the DFW Anti-War Committee, Josh Rudd, said, “Weapons manufacturers like Lockheed Martin have contributed to U.S. imperialism around the world, particularly in the genocide on Palestine. The goal of students should be to gain an education, and companies that play a role in contributing to genocide should have no part in our education system.”

Attendees chanted slogans such as “Lockheed Martin you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide” and “We know what your factory’s for, occupation, endless war.”

According to Lockheed Martin’s website, “Each year, Lockheed Martin hosts Code Quest, an annual computer programming competition where teams of two to three high school students work together to solve problems by using Java, Python, C#, and/or C++ programming to complete the ‘quest’. The problem set consists of 20 to 30 challenging problems created by Lockheed Martin engineers and computer programmers.” Aside from Grand Prairie, Texas, competitions were in a total of 19 cities, including Denver and Orlando.

#GrandPrarieTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #WeaponsIndustry #DFWAWC #LockheedMartin

Plano, TX – Dozens of community members gathered north of Dallas on Sunday, February 2, for a protest against Chevron’s complicity in the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza. This protest marked the launching of a local campaign against the oil and gas company by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) – North Texas Chapter.

Speakers highlighted the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields off the coast of occupied Palestine, which are used to provide energy to Israeli military and prison facilities. They also called out the theft of indigenous land and resources around the world and Chevron’s central role in the global climate catastrophe.

During a speech, Sean Byrne of DSA North Texas called on participants to boycott Chevron gas, stating that Israel “is a laboratory for how the nations of the imperialist world will deal with the waves of human beings displaced by the very climate catastrophe that they themselves have sown, with corporations like Chevron being among the worst culprits of this capitalism-driven environmental and social crisis.” Byrne condemned comments by Chevron CEO Mike Wirth during a shareholder call the previous Friday, where he called for peace while simultaneously uplifting energy extraction projects that have helped enable the U.S.-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza.

A member of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Dallas-Fort Worth, William Josef, called out the “energy apartheid” practices of the Israel Electric Corporation, which bans many Palestinians from accessing the electrical grid and charges higher prices for electrical services to Palestinian communities in the occupied West Bank than to the illegal Israeli settlements nearby.

Speaking in solidarity with the local campaign launch, Jumana Saadeh of the Dallas-Fort Worth Anti-War Committee (DAWC) and Code Pink Dallas said, “Today, we say ‘no’ and stand against one of the many companies supporting and aiding in the oppression and genocide of the Palestinian people. Chevron has supplied and continues to supply energy and millions of dollars of tax revenue to a genocidal, apartheid racist state.”

During the protest, hundreds of cars passed by with many honking and waving in support. Simultaneously, many members of the organizations present, including the DFW Anti-War Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace, Code Pink, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation were assisting with a large protest in downtown Dallas against the Trump administration’s attacks against immigrants.

#PlanoTX #TX #AntiWarMovement #Palestine #Chevron #DSA #DFWAWC #JVP #CodePink