Minneapolis, MN – More than $26,000 was pledged at the May 25 Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) online fundraising event. The event featured Frank Chapman of the FRSO central committee member and executive director of National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, FRSO Standing Committee Member Fern Figueroa, and the FRSO Labor Commission Chair Cherrene Horazuk.

This means about $70,000 has been raised in the $130,000 fund drive that will help FRSO expand its national office and put more full-time organizers in the field.

Fern Figueroa, states, “Fundraising is an important part of organizing that can not be ignored. We seek to change the world around us and that takes resources. Everyone can help to build a revolutionary movement by donating.”

The online event included special guest Chrisley Carpio, one of the Tampa 5, who urged participants to contribute generously.

To contribute to the fundraising drive, go to FRSO.org and hit the donate button. You can also donate by mailing a check made out to “Lucy Parsons Institute” to 2942 Oakland Avenue, Minneapolis, MN 55407.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Socialism

In the two weeks since the announcement of Freedom Road Socialist Organization’s $130,000 Spring Fundraising Drive, more than $25,000 has come in. More contributions are coming in every day.

FRSO Political Secretary Mick Kelly states, “We are off to a great start. FRSO is experiencing a period of unprecedented growth. We need to expand our capacity. This means we will be expanding our national office and bringing on more full-time staff. We will have more publications. And we will continue to send out organizers to build new districts of FRSO.”

Kelly continued, “The decline of monopoly capitalism is accelerating and every contradiction in U.S. society is sharpening. The conditions are extremely favorable for building revolutionary organization and doing this requires more resources.”

Local organizations of FRSO are identifying people who would like to contribute to this effort.

To contribute to the fundraising drive, go to FRSO.org and hit the donate button. You can also donate by mailing a check made out to “Lucy Parsons Institute” to 2942 Oakland Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55407.

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Socialism

Caracas, Venezuela – The Freedom Road Socialist Organization delegation to Venezuela visited downtown Caracas, March 2, and spoke with working-class Venezuelan people. Delegation members include Chicano activist Carlos Montes, student organizer Enya Silva and anti-police crimes activist Omar Flores.

The group visited the home of Simon Bolivar (the Liberator), Bolivar Plaza, and several historic sites. Carlos Montes said, “I enjoyed the popular theater performance in the outside plaza with the public of all ages watching, and the displays of Simon Bolivar.”

FRSO delegate Omar Flores stated, “The city is exceptionally clean, I did not see any homeless people, which is in stark contrast to what I’ve seen in large U.S. cities. Living in the most segregated city in the U.S., Milwaukee, it is also stunning how integrated Caracas is.”

The delegation is participating in an anti-imperialist conference hosted by the PSUV, United Socialist Party of Venezuela, to honor and promote the work and legacy of Hugo Chavez, who passed away ten years ago on March 5.

The group viewed many murals dedicated to Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution throughout the city, as well as murals calling for an end to the blockade on Cuba; celebrating the victory over fascism at Stalingrad; and calling for the liberation of Palestine. Organizers for the conference are working to promote unity in Latin America and against U.S. imperialism. The demand to stop U.S. sanctions on Venezuela and freedom for diplomat Alex Saab will also be raised.

#CaracasVenezuela #Caracas #Venezuela #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Socialism #BolivarianRepublicOfVenezuela

Fight Back News Service is circulating this greeting sent by the Political Secretary Mick Kelly, of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, to the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of China.

Dear Comrades,

Freedom Road Socialist Organization congratulates the leadership of the Communist Party of China, with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, for the great successes achieved at the 20th National Congress. We are certain that the thoughtful deliberations and correct decisions made at the Congress will lead to still more victories in constructing a modern socialist county.

We congratulate Comrade Xi Jinping and all who were elected to the CPC Central Committee and the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Under your leadership the People’s Republic of China will continue to thrive and prosper.

We place a high value on the positive role the People's Republic of China plays in the world today, and support your efforts to oppose the separatism promoted by the U.S. government. The achievements of the CPC’s 20th National Congress will no doubt strengthen national unity and increase China’s capacity to resist foreign interference in your internal affairs. There is one China, and we condemn Washington D.C.’s arms transfers to Taiwan.

Socialist China is an example to oppressed people everywhere who yearn for a better future. Again, congratulations on a successful 20th Congress. The CPC is truly a great political party that has proven its ability to do great things.

Long live the Communist Party of China!

Long live the unity between the people of China and the people of the U.S.!

With fraternal greetings,

Political Secretary Mick Kelly

of the Standing Committee of the Central Committee, Freedom Road Socialist Organization

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #CommunistPartyOfChina #Socialism

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement on Biden in Palestine and the Jerusalem Declaration, signed by 80 organizations, including Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO).

The joint declaration of U.S. President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid reveals not only the fundamental bankruptcy of the imperialist and Zionist systems they represent but also underlines the necessity to act and stand now in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their resistance, to liberate their land from the river to the sea. This strategic partnership of violence, warmongering, repression and colonialism must be met with our own anti-Zionist, anti-imperialist strategic partnership for justice.

Issued in occupied Jerusalem, itself a signal of the declaration's alignment with impunity for ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity, the document boasts of “shared values and shared interests.” It is clear that the shared values referred to here are those of imperial domination, settler colonialism and the violent oppression of Indigenous peoples. We reject these “shared values and shared interests” and instead uphold the shared values of humanity: the dismantling of apartheid and settler colonialism, the liberation of the land, and the protection of peoples' rights not war profiteers' greed and colonial land theft.

The declaration repeatedly attacks the Palestinian resistance and all forces and nations in the region that seek to defend their right to sovereignty and self-determination. It labels Palestinian resistance as terrorism while remaining silent on the ongoing extrajudicial killings of Palestinians, mass incarceration, land theft, siege and the exile of millions of Palestinians denied their right to return home. Israel and the US are waging colonial war. Their declaration asserts a right to unilateral war, the logic of the colonizer, and boasts of the over $3.8 billion in U.S. taxpayer money sent to further arm that war (while enriching U.S. arms developers). The Palestinian people, like all colonized people, have the right to defend themselves.

Biden and Lapid reinforce their attacks on boycott campaigns, the growing call for boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) and the “delegitimization of Israel,” and clumsily attempt to link campaigns for justice and liberation in Palestine with anti-Semitism. In reality, the campaign to boycott and isolate Israel is growing on our campuses, in our community centers, labour unions and academic associations, in our food co-ops and social justice organizations, in the streets of our cities and communities. Such statements do nothing to legitimize a fundamentally illegitimate project — the colonization of Palestine and the dispossession of Palestinians.

While Biden and Lapid trumpet their military alliance, we must respond with a peoples' alliance: that is, an alliance that firmly rejects imperialism and Zionism, that builds the very boycott campaigns they seek to undermine or even criminalize, that supports the Palestinian people and their resistance by all means, and that stands together against the systems of domination, injustice, settler colonialism and exploitation that they represent. Together, we organize and struggle, until return and liberation, from the river to the sea.

Add your signature: https://bit.ly/bidenpalestine

Signed:

• Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC)
• Alkarama (Palestinian women's movement)
• Asociación Americana de Juristas
• BACBI
• BAYAN Canada
• BDS Vancouver – Coast Salish
• Behind Enemy Lines Anti-Imperialist Resistance
• Birmingham Palestine Action
• Cambiare rotta
• Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat
• Canada Palestine Association
• Canadian BDS Coalition
• Canadians for Peace and Justice in Kashmir
• Center for Study and Preservation of Palestine
• Centre for Counter-Hegemonic Studies
• Collectif Palestine Vaincra
• Crystal Palace Friends of Palestine
• CUNY4Palestine
• Dallas Palestine Coalition
• Dar al Janub – union for antiracism and peace policy
• Early Childhood Development Intercultural Partnership
• Edmonton Small Press Association
• Éirígí – For A New Republic
• Falastiniyat
• Free Palestine Maastricht
• Freedom Road Socialist Organization
• Frente Antiimperialista Internacionalista
• Global Peace Alliance BC Society
• Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War
• Human Rights for All ( HR4A) Saskatchewan
• Human Without Borders Organisation
• IDPAL – Indonesia Palestine Alliance
• Inminds Human Rights Group
• International Action Center
• International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network
• International Jewish Antizionist Network UK
• International League of Peoples’ Struggle – Canada (ILPS)
• Jewish Network for Palestine
• Jews for Palestinian Right of Return
• Just Peace Advocates/Mouvement Pour Une Paix Juste
• Justice for Palestinians, Calgary
• Kings Bay Plowshares
• Labor for Palestine
• Let Kashmir Decide
• Louisiana Workers Voice Socialist Movement
• Madison for Palestine
• Manchester Palestine Action
• Masar Badil – Palestinian Alternative Revolutionary Path Movement
• Nederlands Palestina Komitee (NPK)
• Nevadans for Palestinian Human Rights
• Niagara Movement for Justice (NMJPI)
• Not In Our Name: Jewish Antizionist CUNY Coalition
• NYC Jericho Amnesty Movement
• Oakville Palestinian Rights Association
• Occupy Bergen County
• One State Assembly
• PAJU (Palestinian and Jewish Unity)
• Palestine Action
• Palestine House – Palestinian Canadian Community Centre
• Palestinian Youth Movement
• Party of Communists USA
• Pax Christi Toronto
• Philippines-Palestine Friendship Association
• Plate-forme Charleroi-Palestine
• Red Banner Anti-Imperialist Collective
• Regina Peace Council
• Revolutionaire Eenheid
• Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
• Socialist Action
• Students for Justice in Palestine @ The Ohio State University
• Students for Justice in Palestine at UW-Madison
• Students For Palestine (NL)
• SUPER – UW
• SUPER PSU
• Syria Support Movement
• The Mapping Project Collective
• Toronto Raging Grannies
• U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN)
• United National Antiwar Coalition
• Upstate Drone Action
• Whanganui Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa
• Within Our Lifetime – United for Palestine
• Workers World Party
• Dr. Rabab Abdulhadi, Director and Senior Scholar, Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies, San Francisco State University

#UnitedStates #Palestine #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #MiddleEast

Late last year they approached the FRSO about joining and a comrade led them in a three-part study of the new book Marxist-Leninist Perspectives on Black Liberation and Socialism by Frank Chapman. They followed this with a study series on the basics of Marxism-Leninism.

The expansion of the FRSO to Detroit comes soon after the highly successful 9th Congress of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Party building was reaffirmed as the central task by the 9th Congress. This means the need to create a new revolutionary party, based on scientific socialism, one that leads sections of the working class and oppressed people in struggle in the U.S.

“We have been looking to join an organization that holds itself and its members accountable to do the work of building the revolutionary potential of the working class. Everything we have seen from FRSO has shown us that they are the Marxist-Leninist group in the U.S. most capable of doing that,” said Christina Ariano of the new Detroit FRSO.

The addition of a unified group of young militants means FRSO now stretches across Michigan, from Detroit to Lansing, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rapids. The Detroit comrades discussed the idea of fusion, bringing the ideas of Marxism to the working class. A couple have jobs in the health care field and plan to be active in their unions. Others are in the student movement and activists in the movement for solidarity with Palestine.

#DetroitMI #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Socialism

Fight Back News is circulating the text of a speech given by Sol Marquez at a celebration of International Women’s Day in Los Angeles.

Buenas tardes, hermanas, friends, comrades y Happy 114th IWD 2022!

My name is Sol Marquez, and I am speaking on behalf of the Marxist-Leninist Freedom Road Socialist Organization, whom I’ve been a member of for almost 12 years.

“Nobody’s going to save you. No one’s going to cut you down, cut the thorns thick around you. No one’s going to storm the castle walls nor

kiss awake your birth, climb down your hair, nor mount you on the white steed.

There is no one who will feed the yearning. Face it. You will have to do, do it yourself.”

This poem called Letting Go by one of our Chicana, queer and feminist sisters Gloria Anzaldúa is to remind us that we are more than capable of freeing ourselves. Our holiday, International Women’s Day, began when our New York garment working sisters had had enough.

But today isn’t just a day to celebrate and recognize us, it’s also a day to fight back.

We have come a long way. For Chicanas and Latinas, between the 1920s and 1950s we suffered forced and state-sanctioned sterilization in the highest numbers of the U.S. Out of about 60,000 total sterilizations, more than 20,000 were Chicanas and in California, meaning one-third all the sterilizations in the U.S. were to our people. The graph here demonstrates how in California, working-class and less educated Raza was the target. In other words, the graph proves how this country not only was founded on racism, but how it happily commits eugenics on non-white, and working-class people.

Our Black sisters in the Black Belt South, were also targeted by these sterilizations, where they too were disproportionately sterilized over white and wealthier women.

And while Chicanas in California were the biggest number of sterilizations, the highest rate of them was to our Puerto Rican sisters – one out of three – of them during this time, fell victim to being sterilized.

Chicanas and Latinas’ reproduction has forever been seen a threat to the U.S. “The Browning of America” or children of undocumented immigrants like myself who are referred to as “anchor babies.” We are seen as parasites who only want to live off this country’s social programs like WIC and welfare, and that our mothers are unintelligent and lazy. Let’s also not act like sterilizations are a thing of the past, because today our undocumented sisters are the target! Today, detention centers are continuing in this longstanding tradition of eugenics.

Today, gender-based oppression is rising like never before. Sexual violence and intimate partner abuse continue to be tolerated and taken lightly by the U.S. legal system. It’s no accident that the weight of these crimes falls most heavily on women, both cisgender and trans, and on our non-binary siblings.

Texas, Mississippi and Florida are three places where the system is currently attacking our reproductive freedom, and the right to determine what is best for our bodies.

Let’s continue fighting back against these attacks on us, sisters. March 8 is our day, but also our reminder to keep pushing back against the many ways the U.S. attempts to wipe out our people, through controlling what we do with our bodies. In Los Angeles, I have learned that not only do women hold up half the sky, but we also quite literally lead the movements.

If you would like to talk with me about revolution and joining Freedom Road, send me a message or go to frso.org/join. If you’re here today, it’s because you understand the importance of us sisters, leading ourselves to freedom. FRSO is growing in Los Angeles, and it’s because we are sick and tired of being ruled. Thank you, sisters and happy International Women’s Day!

#LosAngelesCA #PeoplesStruggles #InternationalWomensDay #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Socialism

Minneapolis, MN – Around 60 people gathered in Mayday Plaza on Sunday, March 6, for an International Women’s Day protest organized by the Twin Cities district of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Demands for reproductive rights and healthcare for all, justice for missing and murdered indigenous women and two-spirit people, an end to gender-based violence, queer and trans liberation, and justice for all stolen lives were raised. The demonstrators also stood in solidarity with Twin Cities educators preparing to strike, signs reading “Victory to the educators!” dotted the crowd gathered in the square, and similar phrases frequented the speeches given.

As the demonstration began, chants demanding an end to the oppression of women and attacks on reproductive rights and trans rights echoed around the neighborhood. Speakers were heard from many different organizations on the connection of the oppression of women and trans people to the issues they organize around.

Jess Sundin, speaking for the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, said, “Tuesday is not only the first day of our local teachers’ strike, where they’ll walk the picket line – and we’ll be with them as they fight for safe and stable schools for our kids – it is also the 165th anniversary of the first recorded labor action by women workers!” Detailing the history of the celebration, Sundin went on to say “Hundreds s of New York’s garment and textile workers picket on March 8, 1857.” Decrying the police violence that the strikers were met with, she showed that “they continued until they had marches of tens and 20 thousands of workers.”

How was International Women’s Day set aside as a celebration of that struggle? Sundin explains, “That struggle was seen around the world. In 1910 at the Second International – which was a worldwide socialist party congress – German socialist Clara Zetkin proposed that March8 be proclaimed International Women’s Day to commemorate the United States demonstration and honor working women the world over!” Sundin made clear that the struggle for women’s liberation plays an important role in the struggle for socialism and invited people to join that fight by joining the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Ana Vasquez, an educator, and the second vice president of the Minnesota Federation of Teachers Local 59 spoke about the upcoming educators’ strike. “After 50 years, MFT is ready to strike again! Why? Because we have suffered through decades of defunding education to starve public schools and to privatize them. We will not accept this. Public education is a right!” She led the protest in chanting “What do we want? Safe and stable schools! When do we want it? Now!” and “What’s disgusting? Union busting! What’s outrageous? Poverty wages!”

Ali Fuhrman, president of AFSCME Local 2822, talked about the role of women and mothers in the labor movement and decried how working mothers and caregivers in the U.S. can’t even get the support or time to take care of their families.

Speaking for SDS at the University of MN, Bella Harbison and Gillian Rath decried the attacks on reproductive rights, women’s rights and trans people that have been frequent in the past year and longer.

Kelly Thomas of the Twin Cites Coalition for Justice for Jamar stated, “CPAC, the Civilian Police Accountability Commission is how we establish community control of the police. We deserve to determine how we are policed. We deserve to determine how police are held accountable. We deserve to determine how resources are allocated. We deserve to determine what community safety looks like for ourselves and our future.”

A member of the Minnesota Immigrant Rights Action Committee, Ashley Taylor-Gougé, a member of the Anti-War Committee, and Katherine Gould from the Climate Justice Committee also addressed the crowd.

After listening to the speakers, the demonstrators lined up behind the banner, and marched onto 3rd Street and around the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Chants of “When women’s rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up fight back!” and “Every generation has an obligation for women’s liberation!” As they returned to the rally point, marshals directed people back into the plaza and the demonstration gathered to wrap up with a spirited chorus of chants, while cars driving by still honked in support.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #InternationalWomensDay #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization

Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) is opposed to the Biden administration’s war preparations against Russia and U.S. intervention in the Ukraine. We urge all progressives and revolutionaries to help organize, promote and participate in anti-war protests. We are against imperialist wars.

In recent years the Pentagon has ranked Russia as a “strategic competitor,” making it one of the main targets of U.S. war plans. Currently the U.S. is sending mountains of weapons to the reactionary Ukrainian government, deploying more troops in Eastern Europe, and is making threat upon threat. The constant barrage of accusations uttered by the Biden administration echo the campaigns of disinformation that preceded the U.S. wars on Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya.

Since the 1990s the U.S. has taken the lead in systematically expanding the NATO military alliance right up to Russia’s doorstep. It has meddled in territories of the former USSR. In the Ukraine, U.S. administrations have assisted right-wing and fascist political forces – often speaking about incorporating the Ukraine into NATO. It is these moves that set the stage for the unfolding crisis.

The reactionary Ukrainian government has been massing troops and carrying out military provocations in and around the Donbass, a heavily industrialized mining region governed by the Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics – where people do not want to live under the right-wing Ukrainian authorities. The situation has become a tinder box that could easily burst into flames.

NATO was originally created to confront the Soviet Union and the socialist countries of Eastern Europe. While Russia today is not a socialist country – it is a developing monopoly capitalist power – there is a certain continuity in the U.S. efforts to expand NATO. It is all about maintaining the economic and political reach of the U.S. empire. The decline of U.S. imperialism is accelerating, and the Biden administration is attempting to shore up its tottering empire.

The U.S. is all about waging wars to loot the land, labor and natural resources of others. That is a fact. Regardless of what the Biden administration says about “aggressors” or whoever it blames for firing the first shot, our view is the U.S has no right to intervene, and we are joining with others to oppose U.S war moves.

While we cannot predict the future, we know it always time to oppose U.S. wars for empire.

No U.S. war with Russia, end U.S. intervention in Ukraine!

#UnitedStates #International #AntiwarMovement #Asia #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Russia

As 2021 concludes and we look forward to a new year, it makes sense to survey the political landscape and discuss what’s to be done.

Monopoly capitalism is a failed system. We need a revolutionary solution to our problems. And to achieve that goal, revolutionary organization is a requirement. Freedom Road Socialist Organization has the aim of overthrowing capitalism and replacing it with socialism. If that is what you want, it is time to join our ranks.

FRSO does not just talk about change. We are active in our unions, community organizations, anti-war, student, and many other groups. Our members are African American, Chicanos and Latinos, white, and Arab American, Asian American, and Native Americans.

We are building the struggles against police crimes and for community control of the police. In the labor movement do everything we can to confront the employer and have strong, class-struggle oriented unions. We are activists and organizers, and we judge our successes according to our ability to mobilize, land blows against the enemy, raise people’s understanding of how capitalism works, and build a revolutionary movement to end it. We are serious about what we do and clear on what we want.

The world is changing, rapidly. We came into 2021 with a tremendous amount of energy from the George Floyd rebellion – a great uprising against police terror and racist inequality that radically changed the political landscape. Nothing will be the same again. Every contradiction in U.S. society is sharpening.

Unlike socialist China and Cuba, the U.S. has been unable to deal with the pandemic, so nearly 1 million people have died. Trump responded to his electoral defeat with an attempted coup. The decline of Wall Street’s empire is accelerating, highlighted by the defeat in Afghanistan. Climate change is speeding up as well. The shape of things to come is clear and there are two possible roads to take – we can accept the way things are or we can overturn the unacceptable.

While the future is unwritten, we can be certain that the year ahead will be an extremely important one. It holds out the promise of sharp battles, with the potential of bringing millions into the streets. FRSO is going to be among the shakers and movers of what happens next. We are the largest Marxist-Leninist organization in the U.S. and we are growing rapidly.

Social media can be a useful tool but we will not tweet our way to revolution. We are bringing people together in our workplaces and neighborhoods, to build a broad united front against monopoly capitalism. History is made by the people – in their hundreds of millions – and by acting as one, revolutionaries can construct a meaningful movement for change.

The time is now to join a revolutionary organization.

Go to the FRSO website at https://frso.org and check out what we have to say. Then hit “Join.”

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Socialism

From: Freedom Road Socialist Organization

To: Communist Party of the Philippines

Dear Comrades,

The leadership and members of Freedom Road Socialist Organization send our warm and militant greetings to the Communist Party of the Philippines on the occasion of the of your 53rd anniversary and we wish the CPP every success in developing the people’s democratic revolution.

Working and oppressed people around the world, including here in the U.S., take inspiration from heroic struggle of the people of the Philippines and the great advances made by the CPP. Your party has grown from a relatively small organization of proletarian revolutionaries into a powerful nationwide political force which is leading an armed struggle that aims to end the semi-colonial and semi-feudal social system. We are confident that you will defeat the U.S. imperialists, the big bourgeois compradors, and the class of big landlords. We are proud to stand in solidarity with your efforts to achieve national and social liberation.

This past year we joined with you in mourning the cowardly murder of New People’s Army spokesman Ka Oris, and we restate our view that his passing is a loss for revolutionaries everywhere. We have the greatest respect for the courage, sprit of sacrifice, and the will to win that the CPP has shown again and again.

We reject the absurd claims made by the Duterte regime and its U.S. backers that the CPP is somehow “terrorist,” and we oppose the “red tagging” of Filipino activists, which in being utilized in efforts to repress the national democratic movement. We condemn attempts by the U.S. government to use the “material support for terrorism” laws to criminalize the struggle of the people of the Philippines.

The people of the Philippines and the American people share a common enemy – monopoly capitalists who are at the apex of the U.S. empire. The growing struggle in our respective countries helps to create favorable conditions for all of us to move forward.

We place a high value on our militant friendship with the CPP and look to build upon it in the years ahead. The decline of U.S. imperialism is accelerating. Together we will win!

Long live the Communist Party of the Philippines!

Long live the unity between the people of the Philippines and the people of the U.S.!

Long live proletarian internationalism!

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #CommunistPartyOfThePhilippines #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Socialism

FRSO strongly condemns the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse on all charges. This verdict is another example of how the police and courts work hand in hand with racist vigilantes to kill and injure African Americans, other oppressed nationalities, and all who try to fight to end police crimes.

In August of 2020, Jacob Blake, a young African American man, was shot in the back four times and three times in the side in by a white police officer Kenosha, Wisconsin. Coming less than two months after the killing of George Floyd, another uprising took place, with the African American community and supporters battling police.

Into this uprising stepped Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old from across the state line in Illinois, armed with an AR-15 rifle. He ended up killing two protesters and wounding another.

Despite the outrageousness of his crimes, Rittenhouse was acquitted on all counts of murder, reckless endangerment and illegal possession of a weapon.

The FRSO hails the slain protesters Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, who were both local residents protesting the shooting of Jacob Blake. While African Americans and other oppressed nationalities (Native Americans, Chicanos and Latinos, and others) face the brunt of police violence, white Americans who protested racist discrimination have also been killed. We should never forget the beating and murder of white civil rights activists Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, along with local Black activist James Cheney, during the 1964 Freedom Summer by the police and KKK.

No criminal charges were ever made against the white police officer, Rusten Shuskey, who shot Jacob Blake seven times – Shuskey is back on the job at the Kenosha police department without any disciplinary action. What we have is a system that lets the police who shoot African Americans, and the vigilantes who shoot and kill those protesting police violence, to go scot-free. The police and courts are not here to provide justice, they are here to maintain the racist oppression of African Americans and other oppressed nationalities.

The FRSO calls upon all progressive people to protest this injustice!

Jail killer cops and racist murderers!

#UnitedStates #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #JacobBlake #KyleRittenhouse

San José, CA – On Saturday, July 31 members and supporters of the Northern California Unemployed Committee or NCUC rallied to protest the coming end of federal unemployment benefits set for September 6. Speakers pointed out how 9 million unemployed people will be losing their benefits and the rest will have their payments cut in half.

John Root spoke about his troubles with the California unemployment insurance system, stating, “I got no benefits for four months and had to depend on family to survive. I was calling up to 30 or 40 times a day without a response. The unemployment system is broken.” Root pointed out that there are more than a million other unemployed in California with similar experiences.

There were also speakers from the South Bay Mutual Aid, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the NCUC. The NCUC is calling for another protest at the local office of Congressperson Zoe Lofgren on August 23.

#SanJoséCA #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #NorthernCaliforniaUnemployedCommittee

The undersigned parties and organizations express our total support for the people’s uprising in Colombia, begun again on the 28th of April and initiated on November 2019 against the same oligarquic and pro-imperialist government of Iván Duque.

After the fifteen days of this superior phase of the Colombian resistance (they) have shown much militancy, heroism and a bigger conscience than earlier. This is the reason why they haven’t been able to stop it in spite of the repression by the National Police, the Anti-riot Mobile Squad (ESMAD, acronyms in Spanish) and general Eduardo Zapateiro’s army.

The blood-letting of patriots has been enormous, due to the repression ordered by president Duque. According to Colombian Humans Rights organizations, up to the 12th of May, there were 47 dead demonstrators, 548 disappeared, 1,023 detained and 1,040 wounded. This is why grassroots and left-wing forces of the world have organized events and many demonstrations of solidarity in many countries.

The people’s starting point was the opposition to Duque’s “Tax Reform” and his Treasury minister, Alberto Carrasquilla, who imposed new taxes on products, services and income. They argued more taxes for the treasury, but they are the same who in earlier tax reforms were benefitting the great capitalists, mining companies, oil companies and bankers, so that they paid less (taxes).

The social strife was wider and deeper, because in spite of the fact that the president withdrew his project on the 2nd of May, the strikes and demonstrations of a varied social and political band: union and social organizations within the Strike’s National Committee, with important support by workers, students, peasants, native peoples, intellectuals, traders, transport people, small and medium entrepreneurs, etc.

President Duque lives his worst political moment, isolated to the maximum and with only 33% approval rate, so it is possible that he might fall due to this struggle without the need to wait for the elections of May 2022.

The struggle continued after the withdrawal of the discriminatory project, with demands that they withdraw the law Health project 010 and that it not be privatized, that there be vaccines for all, that the ESMAD be dissolved and that there be democratic guarantees for those that mobilize and protest, among many other demands.

Our sympathy towards the Colombian people, with special respect and value for the mass of youth who are on the first line of street fighting. And our greetings in solidarity with combative social and political organizations, who are committed to the uprising before talking with Duque, looking for parliamentary or electoral advantages.

As well as condemning Duque’s current repression we also repudiate the repression against social leaders and former demobilized guerrillas, as this totally broke the 2016 Peace Accords signed with the FARC-EP and who never wanted to sign an accord with the ELN.

It is totally evident that the Duque presidency totally responds to the great capitalists and multinationals, as well as drug trafficking like his mentor Alvaro Uribe. He is a loyal server of yankee imperialism, the South Command and their military bases, pointing towards the legitimate government of Venezuela. Also, as it was made evident on the last of 28th April, its hands are stained with blood, it criminalizes protests and represses it militarily, with police and para-militaries.

“Mr” Almagro’s Organization of American States (OAS) and the High Commissioner of the UN Michelle Bachelet, so active against the government of Venezuela and at its time against Evo Morales in Bolivia, today maintain a nearly contemplative attitude towards Colombia’s drama.

The undersigned political parties and organizations are part of several movements in solidarity with the Colombian uprising in our countries. And with this joint statement we reiterate our commitment to heighten those campaigns with new declarations, events and festivals of support for that noble cause.

IF DUQUE FALLS COLOMBIA WINS AND WE ALL WIN

DOWN WITH THE SMALLER ASSOCIATE OF YANKEE IMPERIALISM IN LATINAMERICA

SOLIDARITY WITH THOSE WHO STRUGGLE IN COLOMBIA. THEY ARE NOT VANDALS NOR TERRORISTS, THEY ARE FIGHTERS AGAINST THE ADJUSTMENT, NEOLIBERALISM, FASCISM, CORRUPTION AND DRUG-TRAFFICKING.

SIGNED BY:

Liberation Party (PL) of Argentina

Chilean Communist Party of Chile (Proletariat Action)

Movement for Peace and Socialism (Cantabria)

Kurdistán Communist Party – Irak (KCP)

Spanish Workers Communist Party (PCOE)

Simón Bolívar Coordinator, Venezuela

Socialist Workers Party of Croacia (SRP)

Proletariat Union (Spain)

Spanish Communist Party of the People (PCPE)

Workers World Party (WWP) USA

Egyptian Communist Party

Communist Party (Switzerland)

Spanish Workers Party (PTE)

Spanish Youth Red Guard (JGRE)`

Albanian Communist Party (PKSH)

Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR, Chile)

Bolchevique Communists of All the Union Party (VKPB) – Russia

People’s Revolution Party (PRP), Dominicana Rep.

Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist Leninist) – CPGB ML

Communist Party of Germany (KPD)

Azerbaiyan Communist Party

Communist Union (Mexico)

Italian Marxist Leninist Party (PMLI)

Mexican Communist Movement

ChavismoSur

Foro Pacifista Ciudad Real (Spain)

Italian Communist Magazine “Cumpanis”

Communist Initiative (Spain)

Volksrat der Suryoye in Europa (Council of the Suryoye in Europe).

Euskal Komunisten Batasuna / Union of Basque Communists (EKB).

The Workers' Party of Ireland (WPI).

Andalusian nation.

Internationalist Anti-Imperialist Front (FAI) – Spain.

Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) – USA.

Red Red (Spain).

La Garland Polar Cultural Magazine (Canada).

Traditional indigenous Tait-Tatewari government (Mexico).

Community news agency Urgent Notice! TV.

Union of Farm Workers-Nayarit.

Danish Communist Party (KP).

Palestinian Communist Party (PCP).

Communist Party of Puerto Rico (PCPR).

Iraqi Communist Party.

Jeunesse Patriote Communiste-PCQ (Québec).

Communist Party of Kenya (C.P.K).

Marxist Movement “Popular Resistance” Republic of Moldova.

(Translator: Eduardo Salgado, M.A. SolidarioGB)

#Colombia #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization

With $80,000 in hand, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization fundraising drive is a great success. Thousands of additional dollars are pledged, and many have indicated a desire to give more. Now is that time. We urge you to contribute at once, so that our goal of $100,000 can be achieved.

FRSO is making a great leap forward. Our numbers are growing. Rapidly. We are in more cities. We have played an important role in the battle against police crimes and in so many other movements

But the most important thing is this. We are constructing a revolutionary organization, while working to build a revolutionary movement – one which can and will contend for power. We are not there yet, but that is the direction we are heading in. To speed this process up, we are going to establish a national office with full-time staff that adds capacity to the effort. And to do that we need your help.

We have accomplished a lot in this past period, and we are ready to do so much more. On June 4, this fund drive will come to an end. If you pledged, make good on it and send in the money – now. Do that final ask of your friends and comrades. And consider the question, “Is there more that I can do?”

Monopoly capitalism is not going to last. Its gravediggers are coming together. And all of us can chip in for the most festive funeral ever.

A bright future is in front of us. Together we will win!

#UnitedStates #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization

We are proud of the progress that our Spring Fundraising campaign has made so far. $65,000 in hand, with many thousands in pledges. We are in striking distance of goal of $100,000. We are poised to make a great leap forward.

FRSO has been growing rapidly, and as a result we need to grow our capacity as a national organization. This fundraising drive makes it possible for us to open a national office and hire staff that can work full time to develop the revolutionary movement.

The decline of U.S. imperialism is accelerating. In the heart of the beast, we have seen a great rebellion against racist inequality and police crimes. Within the past year, cities across the U.S. have been on fire. People all over the world have had it with U.S. imperialism and its puppets. Witness what is happening in Palestine – where a mighty battle is underway against the U.S.-backed Israeli occupation. Empires come and go and U.S. empire is declining. Fast.

In times like these, it is critical to build revolutionary organization – and this fund drive is vital to taking these efforts to the next level.

We urge all of you who have pledged contributions to get your money in as soon as possible. We need to do what we say.

We urge all of you who are thinking about contributing to do so. We do not ask for money often, but we are asking for it now. The need is real. We are serious people who are serious about revolution and socialism, and we need to act accordingly.

Ask your friends, ask your comrades, and ask yourself, “how can I make this campaign a success?” If you have already done something – ask yourself if you can do more.

We thank all of you who have already contributed and set the Spring Fund Drive on the road to success. Our combined efforts mean victory.

Contribute today by going to FRSO.org and hitting donate.

We need to do what ever it takes. We have a world to win!

#UnitedStates #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Socialism

Minneapolis, MN – Over 50 people came together May 2 to socialize and for a short program at a local park pavilion celebrating International Workers Day. The event came on the heels of a 1000-person May Day march in Minneapolis.

Jess Sundin started out the program for FRSO, stating, “The capitalist class does nothing to justify their power over us. They literally let half a million people die of COVID this year – one of the worst death rates in the world, despite the tremendous resources to prevent that. They wanted us to say ‘thank you’ for a few stimulus checks, while hospital CEOs laid off health care workers in the middle of a pandemic and Amazon made record profits while blocking union campaigns by their workers. All of this is business as usual under capitalism. It’s their profit or our death. Or both. They don’t care.” Her rousing speech ended with a reminder that what our class needs is organization, and for activists to join FRSO.

This was the first in-person event for Freedom Road in the Twin Cities since the COVID-19 pandemic and was a great success, with speakers from many different movements in the Twin Cities – immigrant rights, labor, anti-war, environment, students and anti-police crimes. Jae Yates from Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar ended the program reminding everyone about the successes that were achieved over the past year as a result of the rebellions and uprisings that included burning down of a police station. Without the people’s outrage, “Chauvin wouldn’t have been found guilty, or even gone to trial in the first place,” Yates said.

It was a great event bringing together all the movements with the agreement that we need to work together if we are going to make greater gains over the next year.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #internationalWorkersDay #Socialism

As familiar faces and new friends talked and mingled under the Salt Lake sun, FRSO chapter members kept the crowd entertained with music, food and speeches. Between tending the grill and serving up food, member Nick Godfrey took to the microphone for a speech. “Let’s remember the reasons we gather for May Day and celebrate those labor heroes who made this holiday possible. Let’s be sure to celebrate in remembrance of the Haymarket Square martyrs and their struggle which we share today!”

After taking a look at the history of May Day and its beginnings with the labor movement, Godfrey passed the microphone to Utah Against Police Brutality member Adrian Romero. Romero stated, “We still need to fight every day as the capitalist system is creating a crisis right here, right now in Utah. We’ve got to put an end to the housing crisis and camp abatements our unsheltered community are dealing with every day.”

Under the pavilion there were books for sale and May Day themed artwork including posters and t-shirts designed by local FRSO member Derek Ballard. Money donated for the books and art was collected along with some donations for a gift basket raffle which was held as the speeches and barbecue wound down.

As the pavilion cleared and music faded the organizers spoke and laughed about the pleasures of being able to hold an event on May Day after the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the celebration last year.

“I’m happy we were able to finally do a barbecue and celebrate such an important day for all of us,” said Salt Lake City organizer Jade Arter.

#SaltLakeCityUT #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #internationalWorkersDay #Socialism

Minneapolis, MN – A major online fundraising event, featuring FRSO Political Secretary Steff Yorek and Frank Chapman, a leader of the Black Liberation movement and a member of the Central Committee of FRSO, is set for the evening of May 7. To attend, go to https://fb.me/e/15XuADQ5O

Those attending the event will be able to meet and talk with many of the leaders of FRSO.

Mick Kelly, the editor of Fight Back! and a part of FRSO’s national leadership states, “We have set the goal of raising $100,000 to open a national office, and we are well on the way to achieving that goal. Friday’s event is critical to the success of this effort.”

Kelly continued, “The decline of U.S. imperialism is accelerating. In this past year, the great rebellion after the murder of George Floyd showed that it is possible to make this country ungovernable. We need to build a powerful revolutionary organization. Join us at this event. Together, we are going to win.”

The event will take place Friday, May 7 at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (7 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Mountain and 5 p.m. Pacific).

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #Socialism

Minneapolis, MN – Freedom Road Socialist Organization’s Spring fundraising drive has brought in more than $40,000 as of May 1, International Workers Day. Given the rapid increase in FRSO membership, plans are being made to establish a national office with full-time staff.

FRSO Organizational Secretary Tom Burke states, “Revolutionaries are called on to make many contributions to advance the struggle. We give our time, energy, and yes – money – to do what we need to do to achieve liberation and socialism. Now is time for all of us to do what we can to help FRSO make a leap forward.”

A major online fundraising event, featuring FRSO Political Secretary Steff Yorek and Frank Chapman, a leader of the Black Liberation movement and a member of the Central Committee of FRSO, is set for May 7. To attend, go to https://fb.me/e/15XuADQ5O

You can contribute today by going to FRSO.org and hitting donate.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #frso #Socialism