Denver, CO – On the evening of October 30, a dozen people rallied in front of Senator Michael Bennet’s office building to protest the worsening blockade against Cuba.

The rally was organized by Cuba Sí Colorado and others, including the National Lawyers Guild and Denver Labor Against ICE. The protest was the fourth event for a week of action in solidarity with Cuba.

People chanted, “From Cuba to the Philippines, stop the U.S. war machine!” and “Not another nickel, not another dime for the Department of War crimes!” while holding handmade signs demanding “Hands off Cuba!”

Since Cuba’s successful socialist revolution in the 1960s, the United States government has tried to crush its government, with attempted coups, political intervention, assassination attempts, and an intense economic embargo. All have failed, though they do not come without harm to the average Cuban citizen.

In late January, President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio cut off Cuba’s fuel supply from Venezuela after illegally kidnapping Venezuelan President Maduro and further intensifying sanctions. Trump also signed an executive order threatening any country selling oil and fuel to Cuba, strangling its energy supply. Since then, there have been at least eight blackouts in Cuba involving internet and phone service outages. Frequent power outages, changes in living conditions, and a worsening economy and hyperinflation are the result of these sanctions.

“The lack of oil and electricity has been devastating for the island,” said Kacey Hicks, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. “Despite having world-class doctors, Cuba is not able to give basic medical care to its people. This has increased the rates of death for child cancer patients and infant mortality rates in their nation compared to life before Trump’s executive order.”

Despite the United States’ energy blockade, Cubans are standing strong and refusing to let their nation fall.

“In pre-revolutionary Cuba, the people were oppressed and they threw out their oppressors, and they said we’re going to organize ourselves. That’s what the U.S., and especially Trump, is scared of,” said Khalid Hamu, another member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

#DenverCO #CO #International #Cuba

Amherst, MA – On Thursday, October 29, the River Valley Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) hosted FRSO Central Committee Member Chrisley Carpio at the University of Massachusetts Amherst for a reportback discussing her recent visit to South Korea as part of the Jaju Solidarity Delegation in August.

The delegation was organized by Nodutdol, with activists traveling from the U.S., Guam, Hawaii and the Philippines. They represented groups including FRSO, the Anti-War Action Network (AWAN) and many others.

Carpio presented to nearly a dozen attendees, telling the crowd, “In the United States, people often refer to the Korean War as the ‘forgotten war’, But in Korea, they call it ‘the war that never ended’.”

Carpio and others on the delegation visited multiple sites of U.S. military atrocities, including Camp Humphreys, the largest U.S. military base in the world, as well as the mass grave of Sannae Gollyeongol – the “longest grave in the world” and Camp Casey, a military base known for its camp town where women were sex trafficked for American soldiers. Carpio explained to the room that the camp town sex trade is still operational, but now employs Filipino women instead of Koreans.

During her time in the country, Carpio met with organizers from the student movement, women’s movement, and other civic society organizations, like local anti-war groups as well as farmers and trade unions. She explained to the attendees the culture of anti-imperialist organizing in the southern part of the peninsula and how activists are fighting for justice for those killed by U.S. soldiers and displaced by the occupation while they organize against the military presence altogether. She also discussed the current organizing Korean by activists protesting the possibility of South Korean troops being asked to assist the U.S. in aggression against Iran and in the Strait of Hormuz.

The event ended with a question and answer session. One attendee asked if the delegates faced political repression during their visit, Carpio responded, “What we were doing was high profile enough that they didn’t enforce those rules, but if you are an author locally who writes something sympathetic to North Korea, you are likely to do prison time.”

Carpio continued, “But we did a lot of our organizing in private churches and in restaurants that were reserved for the day. We were followed by spies and policemen and they knew we were coming and knew about the protests, but I think it was a calculated decision to not make a big incident by arresting us.”

When asked what reunification would look like, after explaining the desire for reunification across the peninsula from Korean activists, Carpio said, “There is not reunification without socialism, even if there is a debate about what reunification will mean.”

#AmherstMA #MA #International #Korea #AntiWarMovement #AWAN #Nodutdol

The National Democratic Front (NDF) condemns the US-Marcos regime and the Armed Forces of the Philippines for conducting a series of expanding live-fire exercises and war games, which endanger civilians, disrupt livelihoods and divert public resources from the people’s urgent needs.

Under “Bantay Kalayaan,” the AFP’s so-called “unilateral defense plan,” military drills are presented as preparations for external defense. But peasant and fishing communities bear the costs: disrupted fishing and farming, restricted access to land and sea, canceled classes and exposure to the dangers of live fire. Public funds should meet people’s needs, not bankroll military spectacles that serve foreign power projection.

Exercise Surigao Sentinel 2026 was held Oct. 22-25 across Surigao City and the Dinagat Islands. It included live-fire and strike operations, as well as maritime and emergency-response scenarios. The local government was even made to share in the costs for hosting the military exercises, reportedly spending one million pesos for the exercises.

In Bugasong, Antique, Army and Air Force exercises began Oct. 19 and included air support and artillery operations. In Sipalay City, residents are being barred from designated mountain areas, farms and grazing grounds during artillery firing scheduled for Oct. 29-30. Such restrictions take land and livelihoods away from residents in the guise of “military readiness.”

The AFP has also held SIMEX “Aksyon Lucena” and regional exercises involving special forces, police, the Coast Guard and emergency-response agencies in Lucena City, Batangas and Quezon. In Sulu, the Army’s 11th Infantry Division launched Exercise Orion’s Taming, described as an interagency territorial-defense exercise involving civil-military disaster response and joint law enforcement.

We reject the use of civilian communities as combat training grounds and the concommitant imposition of military restrictions on people who have no say in these operations, nor benefit from these. These exercises are harmful to the civilian population: artillery fire and airstrikes threaten homes, farms, forests and fishing grounds, while unexploded ordnance can continue to endanger residents long after the guns fall silent.

These live-fire exercises blatantly violate international humanitarian laws requiring parties to protect civilian lives and property.

We stand with the fishing and farming communities harmed by these exercises. Their safety, livelihoods and rights must not be sacrificed for saber-rattling and military spectacles.

#Philippines #International #AFP #NDFP

New Orleans, LA – On Saturday, October 24, the New Orleans Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) hosted a “U.S. Out of Korea” event with around 20 attendees. Speaker Meredith Aby discussed U.S. imperialism in Korea and her recent trip to the southern part of the peninsula as a part of the Jaju Solidarity Delegation. Aby is a Central Committee member of the FRSO and a seasoned anti-war activist who founded the Minnesota Anti-War Committee in 1998, and a steering committee member of the Anti-War Action Network.

The Jaju Solidarity Delegation was organized by Nodutdol, a Korean diaspora activist group. The delegation included international activists from the U.S., the Philippines, Guam and Hawaii. Participants joined demonstrations against U.S. occupation in Korea this past August. Aby reported on their visits to several U.S. military bases in the Republic of Korea (ROK), where they learned about the history and breadth of U.S. occupation in the country. She learned from local Korean activists about their various struggles for independence.

“What Americans refer to as the ‘forgotten war’ is called the ‘war that never ended’ by Koreans,” said Aby, while discussing the history of occupation.

Shortly after Korea gained its independence from imperialist Japan, the U.S. swooped in and divided the peninsula along the 38th parallel, splitting the country, and separating families. The U.S. also enacted various laws which disallow ROK residents to visit the northern part of their country and forced dispossession of their lands for U.S. military base expansion. There are currently 80 U.S. military bases (or U.S.-controlled Korean bases) spread across the country.

Aby’s presentation focused on the consistent pattern of dispossession, physical and sexual violence, and environmental degradation caused by the U.S. presence and control over Korea. She also highlighted the various instances of communities, villages, political and workers’ groups rising up against the occupation. On August 15, the delegation joined tens of thousands of Koreans in the streets of Seoul on Korea’s national liberation day. The people demanded peace, sovereignty, reunification with the northern part of the peninsula and an end to U.S. occupation.

Aby also relayed that, shortly after the Jaju Delegation’s visit, the ROK government resisted pressure from the U.S. to send South Korean troops and other military assets to the Strait of Hormuz and Iran. When the public became aware of Trump’s demand, demonstrations and mass protests erupted in the streets. ROK President Lee Jae Myung refused Trump and suggested that what Korea needs is operational control over its own military – something that has never been said by an ROK leader. This defiance is a clear sign that the U.S. is a declining imperialist power.

The event ended with questions and comments from the attendees. “I’m inspired by the Koreans who continue to demand their freedom from the still-growing number of U.S. military bases and influence in their government. I believe that every American has a duty to support their cause,” said Augusta Elebash from New Orleans Stop Helping Israel’s Ports.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #International #Korea #AntiWarMovement #NOSHIP #AWAN

Fight Back! interviewed Michael Humaña, a trade union leader from Chile, on October 14 to learn about the trade union struggle there and in Latin America.

Fight Back!: Which organizations are you a member of?

Michael Humaña: I am the president of the National Union of Education Workers in Chile (SNTE) and organizational secretary of the Continental Federation of Education Workers.

Fight Back!: What took place in Bolivia on October 10 and 11?

Humaña: In the Trópico of Cochabamba, Bolivia, we founded CIMA, la Coordinación Internacionalista de los Movimientos Sociales Antiimperialistas del Abya Yala. It is an organization that looks to be the anti-imperialist wall of the peoples to confront the criminal “Shields of the Americas” of Donald Trump.

With the leadership of President Evo Morales, we hope to be the anti-capitalist, socialist alternative of the peoples who struggle.

Fight Back!: What was your role in the meeting to form CIMA?

Humaña: In this anti-imperialist gathering, I was part of the coordination team.

Fight Back!: What is the significance of the presence and participation of Evo Morales at the gathering?

Humaña: Evo Morales is the leader of the revolutionary left and of the movements of peasants and popular in the south of our America. After the kidnapping of President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, Evo Morales transformed into the main anti-imperialist leader of all the continent. The experience of 14 years in the government of Bolivia, the proposal of Living Well and Pluri-Nationality, are examples for peoples of “Indoamérica.”

Fight Back!: Did the gathering result in any agreements, points of unity, or plan for action?

Humaña: The main objective of the encuentro was to advance a programmatic unity, therefore the resolution to found CIMA. There are the fundamentals to create a solid continental organization with real capacity to mobilize a front against U.S. imperialism and Israeli Zionism.

Some of the points of agreement are: Declare October 9 as an International Anti-Imperialist Day to honoro Che Guevara; to advance to building of a Continental Network of Popular Communication; defense of Mother Earth and common goods – this will be a fundamental task to confront predatory extractivism and confront electoral processes to retake local and national governments, but with a program that is socialist, anti-colonial,and anti-imperialist, without trusting the neoliberal politicians.

To demand the freedom of our political prisoners like President Nicolás Maduro, First Lady Cilia Flores of Venezuela, President Pedro Castillo and Victor Polay in Perú, former Assembly Representative Freddy Mamani in Bolivia, and to end the political persecution of social leaders on the continent like our brother Evo Morales Ayma.

Fight Back!: What are the lessons to share with movements in the U.S. that are to be learned from the national mobilizations in Bolivia?

Humaña: We believe in the fundamental task of unity of the social movements of the continent, from Alaska to Patagonia. The social movements in Bolivia give us the lesson that the bravery of the people can take down criminal and tyrannical governments. Unity of the working class, the peasants and students is fundamental to stop the oligarchies in our countries. The anti-imperialist conviction of the people of Bolivia must be an example to all the peoples of the world.

Fight Back!: Can you provide a brief explanation of the situation in Chile?

Humaña: Today in Chile, there is the return of Pinochetism to the government; the criminal military dictatorship returns to push reforms and deepen neoliberalism. Sadly, the previous governments of progressive neoliberalism and social democrats governed with the laws and constitution of the dictatorship. They have allowed education, healthcare and pensions to be run like a business and we have lost many social rights. So now, the far right comes to deepen the neoliberal agenda further. The popular movement and trade union movement are weakened and only the students maintain the call to rebel and engage in struggle against neoliberalism.

But, from the teachers and other popular forces, we continue giving battle to rebuild the Chilean popular movement behind a program and project with a socialist perspective and popular power.

#International #Chile #Labor #SNTE #CIMA

Orlando, FL – On October 19, over 30 people packed into Bookburn Cafe and Social in Orlando's Milk District to hear FRSO Central Committee member Chrisley Carpio give a detailed report back from her two-week solidarity trip to Korea.

The focus of the Jaju Solidarity Delegation to Korea, and of the subsequent North American speaking tour, was “U.S. out of Korea.” Participants at the event were eager to hear about the well-organized, high level of resistance by the people of Korea against U.S. military occupation.

Much of the presentation focused on the pattern of violence, exploitation, abuse and environmental degradation that the U.S. military has imposed on the people of Korea.

“Koreans are not just sitting back and allowing the U.S. to dominate their communities, their environment, and their daily lives. They are fighting back! There is an active and vibrant resistance movement that is fighting for peace, sovereignty, reunification and national liberation from the U.S.,” Carpio told the crowd.

#OrlandoFL #FL #AntiWarMovement #International #Korea

Minneapolis, MN – On October 17, the U.S. Out of Africa committee of Women Against Military Madness held its first protest at Mayday Plaza in the Cedar Riverside neighborhood. The protest was part of the International Month of Action against AFRICOM, a month of actions focused on the withdrawal of U.S. military from Africa and bringing an end to U.S. involvement in African wars. AFRICOM is the U.S. military command that focuses on for Africa.

Protesters rallied in the predominantly East African neighborhood with signs that said, “Shut down AFRICOM” and “End U.S. drone strikes.” The neighborhood gave them a friendly response with honks and waves.

Lina Jebara, a member of the US Palestinian Community Network, spoke about the connection between U.S. imperialism in Africa and Israel’s genocide in Palestine and about how the Minneapolis Honeywell plan is contributing to these atrocities.

Jebara stated, “Today, we’re seeing the oppression of African countries subject to U.S. imperialist aggression converging and aligning with the oppression faced in the Middle East. The MQ-9 Reaper drone is yet another example that proves that the tools used by U.S. imperialism are one in the same, built and honed from centuries of plundering, colonizing and occupying nations.”

Honeywell makes the engines and navigational components for the MQ-9 Reaper drones used by Israel in its genocide of Gaza and by the U.S. in Somalia and Nigeria. Honeywell produces Inertial Measurement Units (IMUs), a navigational component for the MQ-9 Reaper drones, at its navigation lab and production plant in northeast Minneapolis.

Protesters demanded an end to Trump’s racist war on Somalia. Trump has escalated U.S. air war in Somalia, increasing U.S. drone strikes and civilian casualties. Donald Trump has so far bombed Somalia 215 times in his second term as president and 434 times total. President Trump has bombed Somalia more than all the other presidents combined in the 20 years that the U.S. has been at war in Somalia.

Domestically, Trump is also engaged in a racist hate campaign against Somali people, and has called Somali people “garbage,” “low-IQ”, and “bad people,” and said that Somalia was “barely a country.” Trump has repeatedly attacked the Somali community in Minneapolis, using ICE during Operation Metro Surge to target Somali neighborhoods and most recently using ICE to raid Congresswoman Ilhan Omar’s Washington DC house as part of the attempt to revoke her citizenship.

Speakers from Black Lives Matter Minnesota and the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice highlighted the connections between the U.S. intervention in Africa and police militarization, racist police violence, and mass incarceration here in the U.S.

Alissa Washington, the founder of the Wrongfully Incarcerated & Over-sentenced Families Council-MN, talked about the importance of international solidarity, stating, “Our experiences are different, but they compel us to stand together. We want an end to the killing and exploitation of Black people, wherever it happens. If I want people to care about my family, I have a responsibility to care about families in Palestine, in Sudan, in Congo, in Somalia, and across the whole continent of Africa.”

The U.S. Out of Africa committee is a new committee in Women Against Military Madness. The organization calls for the abolition of AFRICOM, withdrawal of U.S. bases, and an end to U.S. drone strikes in Africa. The U.S. Out of Africa committee is working alongside the Minnesota Anti-War Committee on a campaign to stop Honeywell from producing weapon components in Minneapolis.

#MinneapolisMN #MN #AntiWarMovement #International #Africa #AFRICOM #WAMM #USPCN

¡Lucha y Resiste! entrevistó a Michael Humaña, un sindicalista Chileno y un internacionalista, el 14 de octubre para aprender sobre de la lucha de su sindicato y en América Latina

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Cuáles son las organizaciones de que estas un dirigente?

Michael Humaña: Soy Presidente del Sindicato Nacional de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores de la Educación – SNTE Chile y Secretario de Organización de la Central Continental de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores de la Educación.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Que acaba de pasar en Bolivia esta fin de seman en pasado?

Michael Humaña: En el Trópico de Cochabamba, Bolivia, fundamos CIMA, la Coordinación Internacionalista de los Movimientos Sociales Antiimperialistas del Abya Yala. Organización que busca ser la Muralla Antiimperialista de los Pueblos para enfrentar al criminal “escudo de las americas” de Donald Trump.

Con el liderazgo del Presidente Evo Morales, esperamos ser la Alternativo Socialista y Anticapitalista de los Pueblos que Luchan.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Cuál era tu posición en el encuentro?

Michael Humaña: En este encuentro Antiimperialista me corresponde ser parte del Equipo de Coordinación

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Que significa la presencia y la participación de Evo Morales en el encuentro?

Michael Humaña: Evo Morales es el Líder de la Izquierda Revolucionaria y de los Movimientos Campesinos y Populares del Sur de Nuestra América. Luego del secuestro del Presidente Nicolas Maduro de Venezuela, Evo Morales se transforma en el principal líder de los antiimperialistas de todo el Continente. La experiencia de los 14 años de gobierno en Bolivia, la propuesta del Vivir Bien y la Plurinacionalidad, son ejemplos para todos los pueblos de Indoamérica.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Finalizaron acuerdos como puntos de unidad o un plan de acción? 

Michael Humaña: El principal objetivo del Encuentro era avanzar en la unidad programática, por tanto, los resolutivos de la Fundación de CIMA son fundamentales para crear una organización Continental sólida y con capacidad real de movilización para hacer frente al Imperialismo estadounidense y al sionismo israelí.

Algunos de los puntos de acuerdos son: Declarar el 9 de Octubre como Día Internacional Antiimperialista en homenaje al Che Guevara. Avanzar en la construcción de una Red Continental de Comunicación Popular. La defensa de la Madre Tierra y los bienes comunes, será una tarea fundamental para enfrentar el extractivismo depredador y enfrentar procesos electorales para recuperar los gobiernos locales y nacionales, pero con un programa Socialista, Anticolonialista y Antiimperialista, sin confiar en los progresismos neoliberales.

Exigir la Libertad de nuestros presos políticos como el Presidente Nicolas Maduro, la Diputada Cilia Flores de Venezuela, el Presidente Pedro Castillo y Victor Polay de Perú, el ex Diputado Freddy Mamani de Bolivia y el fin a la persecución política de líderes sociales del continente como el hermano Evo Morales Ayma.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Cuales son lecciones a compartir con los movimientos en los EEUU que aprendieron desde las movilizaciones nacionales en Bolivia? 

Michael Humaña: Hoy creemos que es una tarea fundamental la unidad de todos los Movimientos Sociales del Continente, desde Alaska hasta la Patagonia. Los movimientos Sociales de Bolivia nos dan la lección que con valentía el pueblo puede derrocar a los gobiernos tiranos y criminales. Que la unidad de la clase obrera, los campesinos y los estudiantes es fundamental para frenar a las oligarquías nacionales. La convicción antiimperialista del pueblo de Bolivia debe ser ejemplo para todos los pueblos del mundo.

¡Lucha y Resiste!: ¿Como puede explicar la situación en Chile ahora?

Michael Humaña: Hoy en Chile ha vuelto a gobernar el Pinochetismo, los criminales de la dictadura militar vuelven al gobierno para impulsar reformas de profundización neoliberal. Lamentablemente los gobiernos del progresismo neoliberal y la socialdemocracia, gobernaron Chile con las leyes y la constitución de la Dictadura, permitieron que la educación, la salud y las pensiones fueran un negocio y se perdieran como derechos sociales. Por tanto hoy, la ultraderecha solo viene a profundizar más de 30 años de neoliberalismo con gobiernos civiles. El movimiento popular y sindical está muy debilitado y solo los estudiantes mantienen viva la llama de la rebeldía y la lucha antineoliberal.

Pero desde el magisterio y otras fuerzas populares seguimos dando batalla para reconstruir el movimiento popular chileno tras un programa y proyecto con perspectiva socialista y de poder popular.

#International #Chile #Bolivia #CIMA #Labor #EvoMorales #MichaelHumana

New York, NY – A group of eight activists attended the October 15 arraignment of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and First Lady Cilia Flores in a show of support for the kidnapped Venezuelan leaders. The activists included representatives of the Anti-War Action Network, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and leaders of the New York City Latin American community.

At the hearing, President Maduro and Cilia Flores both entered the courtroom with chains shackled to their feet. Maduro waved to the crowd watching the trial, knowing a plurality of the crowd were U.S. federal agents and escualidos who supported his kidnapping and U.S. invasion.

The judge presiding over their case, Alvin Hellerstein, who is 92 years old, struggled to sit on his chair and to even read aloud the new charges of terrorism. Maduro and Flores confidently declared their innocence – claiming these charges as completely false and bogus.

Although the court documents do not name the alleged victims who are cited throughout the indictment, the descriptions given match some well-known figures who have worked to undermine the Maduro government. The person identified as “Official-3” matches the description of ex-General Raúl Baduel, arrested in 2017 along with two co-conspirators in a plot to massacre civilians at a political rally and blame the government in order to destabilize the Maduro administration. “Victim-3” matches far-right leader Leopoldo López, who attempted to organize coups against the Venezuelan government in 2002, 2014 and 2019. Finally, “Victim-7” matches Osman Khan, an American citizen who, since his release in 2022, has built a career speaking for pro-regime-change think tanks like the Atlantic Council.

One of the activists in attendance at Thursday’s arraignment, Ebtesham Ahmed of the Freedom Road Socialist Organizations, traveled to Venezuela for the International People’s Assembly for Sovereignty and Peace of our Americas in December 2025, shortly before the U.S. kidnapped Maduro and Flores in an illegal raid on January 3, 2026.

“When I was in Venezuela, I talked to people there from all different sectors – from students to workers to indigenous people and more – all of them demanded the U.S. respect their sovereignty and to take its hands off their country!” said Ahmed.

Lucy Pagoada-Quesada, a Honduran activist living in the U.S. and a retired NYC teacher added, “The case of the U.S. government against the constitutional President of Venezuela Nicolás Maduro Moros and the First Lady Cilia Flores has no legal grounds. It’s a clear case of lawfare, judicialization of politics. It’s a political case that has two major reasons: To take over Venezuelan oil and other natural resources and to destroy the Venezuelan Bolivarian Revolution. The kidnapping of a president violates all international law, U.S. law and Venezuelan law. We, as taxpayers, cannot allow the government to perpetrate this or any other illegality or violation of the law.”

The activists reiterated their demand that the U.S. government drop the charges against Maduro and Flores and return the President and First Lady to Venezuela. They also shared that a New York City-based coalition of progressive organizations opposed to U.S. intervention abroad plans to rally outside the next hearing, scheduled for December 17, when Judge Alvin Hellerstein will hear oral arguments on the motion to dismiss the charges.

#NewYorkNY #NY #International #InJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression #Venezuela #AntiWarMovement #Maduro

Porto, Portugal – On Saturday, October 17, the rage of the people in the streets of Spain and France over the deteriorating quality of life for working-class and young people fully arrived in Portugal. Unions led massive marches around the country, and encampments led by young people demanding affordable housing were reestablished in Porto, after government repression earlier in the week. The protests spread to the capital of Lisbon and other cities.

Since October 10, young people in Porto, inspired by the hundreds of thousands of people in the streets of neighboring Spain have tried to maintain an encampment demanding an end to skyrocketing housing costs while wages stay flat. But the police responded to the protesters with brutality, injuring 37 people and callously dismissing them and their demands in a way that shook the conscience of the country.

In that context, Portugal’s largest and most militant union federation, the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), led huge marches in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra on Saturday, October 17. The marches brought thousands of working-class people into the streets in a similar trajectory as the young people who have been pressing the demand for affordable housing.

The CGTP put forward concrete demands that could address the deep capitalist crises that working people face in all aspects of life in Portugal – like a 15% increase of the minimum wage, increases in pensions and social security, strengthening the national health system (SNS), and increasing funding to education.

Portugal’s conservative government has been systematically chopping away at working people’s quality of life, defunding public systems then privatizing them for the profit of the rich and multinational corporations. They’ve allowed private equity firms and short-term rentals like AirBnB to gobble up real estate, driving housing prices through the roof, while passing a new law that weakens renters’ protections and makes evictions easier.

After the CGTP marches filled the streets on Saturday, thousands of people gathered that evening in assemblies and decided to reestablish a tent encampment in Porto’s Praça Dom João I and to establish a new encampment in Praça do Rossio in Portugal’s capitol, Lisbon.

After having said earlier in the week that he would draw a hard line and absolutely refuse to allow a tent encampment in Porto, and then sending in the police to injure protesters in their tents in middle of the night, Porto’s municipal leader Pedro Duarte was forced to backtrack and allow the encampment to be reestablished on Saturday night in the face of huge public sympathy for the protesters and widespread repudiation of his harsh treatment of peaceful protesters. Lisbon’s officials were also powerless to stop the establishment of a huge new encampment in the center of the city.

At the union march in Lisbon on Saturday, CGTP Secretary General Tiago Oliveira said, “Today, it is quite evident that we live in a state of permanent class conflict – a conflict that is intensifying and becoming increasingly clear to each and every one of us. Let us be aware of one thing: when we have a government that does not view the world through the eyes of those who work—those who live by their own labor, the youth, and the majority of the people—it is highly unlikely that we will see policies that address the interests of workers, retirees, young people, or that same majority. These are distinct and opposing interests—class interests—and big capital will never look toward the working population with the aim of improving their living conditions. Instead, it will always pursue policies that serve its own interests and the accumulation of wealth through exploitation.”

Oliveira then called on people “to make this coming November a month of action and struggle – and, among other initiatives, to commit here and now that on November 24, the day the final vote on the national budget is scheduled to take place, we will be there, out in the streets near the Assembly of the Republic, for yet another major day of struggle!”

#International #Portugal #Labor #CGTP

Porto, Portugal – A protest encampment sprang up in the heart of Porto on October 10 demanding affordable housing and has now continued for many days. Inspired by the massive movement that brought hundreds of thousands of people out into the streets in Spain in recent weeks, on October 10 protesters rallied and then set up tents in Porto’s Praça Dom João I, with a banner reading, “Can’t afford rent? Bring a tent!”

After one night, police removed the tents from the plaza, and Porto’s Mayor Pedro Duarte said tents absolutely would not be allowed. Protesters continued occupying the plaza without tents.

Then on October 14 during an evening rally of around 1000 people, protesters again set up around a dozen tents in the plaza. Police quickly moved in to try to remove the tents but then retreated after the protesters refused to back down.

The demands of the Porto encampment are: Down with the new anti-tenant rent law that was just passed; stop evictions; halt the buying of housing stock by capitalist investment funds; more public housing; rehabilitation of vacant housing property, and put in place a rent ceiling

Portugal’s neighboring country of Spain has been convulsed since late September by mass protests demanding affordable housing and an end to evictions, after an 87-year-old woman named Maricarmen was evicted from the Madrid home where she had lived for more than 70 years, after an investment firm bought the property and jacked up her rent. In response, encampments and protests spread throughout Spain.

Then, about a week after her eviction, Maricarmen died, with most people placing the blame squarely on the government and naming her traumatic eviction as the cause of her death. Spain’s main unions have announced a general strike for November 11, and Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called snap elections after an attempt to pass new housing legislation in response to the crisis failed. The new elections are coming up November 29.

Housing costs have skyrocketed in major European cities over the past decade, while wages have stagnated. Rent in Portugal’s main cities of Lisbon and Porto has gone up even more than in Madrid and Barcelona in Spain. So, it’s no surprise that the movement sparked in Spain has now spread to Portugal. The Porto encampment is one of several that have sprung up in cities throughout Portugal this week.

The movement seems poised to gain momentum this weekend, as Portugal’s largest and most militant union federation, the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (CGTP), is organizing mass demonstrations on Saturday, October 17 in Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra protesting the high cost of living while wages stagnate. The CGTP’s protests are demanding higher salaries, better pensions and public services, an end to the increasing cost of living, and defending the national health care system (SNS) and social security.

#International #Portugal #PeoplesStruggles #Housing