Milwaukee, WI – Organizers with the Coalition to March on the RNC held a press conference Monday, May 22, to condemn the Fire and Police Commission’s (FPC) recent decision to suspend policy requiring Milwaukee Police officers to release body cam footage within a reasonable time frame to the public.

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement by the Coalition to March on the RNC 2024.

Milwaukee, WI – May 15 marked the 75th anniversary of the Nakba. Over 250 community members and activists gathered in downtown Milwaukee to see Chief Zwelivelile Mandela, the grandson of the great anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela, in commemoration of the tragedy in Palestine.

Milwaukee, WI – On Sunday, May 7, 150 people gathered for the annual commemoration of the Bay View Massacre. 137 years ago, in May 1886, over 14,000 union workers gathered outside the Milwaukee Iron Company Rolling Mill in demand of an eight-hour workday. These unionists had shut down every single business in the city of Milwaukee except the rolling mills in Bay View. As they were marching towards the mills, Governor Jeremiah Rusk ordered 250 national guard members be posted outside to prevent any striker from entering – these orders included shooting the marchers on sight and resulted in the death of seven people and many others injured.

Milwaukee, WI – On May 13, two days before the 75th anniversary of the Nakba, over 50 community members and activists from different organizations gathered in downtown Milwaukee to demand an end to the on-going genocide of Palestinians and to put a stop to all U.S. aid to Israel. The assembled crowd chanted things like “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s war crimes!” and “Free, free Palestine! Long live Palestine!” Signs declaring support for the cause of Palestinian liberation were prevalent throughout, and members of the Milwaukee Anti-war Committee (MAC) held a 30-foot long banner that read “Long live the popular Palestinian resistance, from Milwaukee to Palestine!”

Milwaukee, WI – Over 20 people gathered at Zao MKE Church to attend the “No to NATO!” teach-in hosted by the Milwaukee Anti-War Committee on May 6. In response to the ongoing war in Ukraine, the Milwaukee Anti-war Committee (MAC) held this event to challenge the pro-NATO narrative pushed in the U.S. Presented by MAC member Stephanie Spalatin and her mother Mira Spalatin, attendees learned about some of the crimes NATO has committed both in the present in Ukraine and in the past in places like the former Yugoslavia, as well as a general framing of NATO as an offensive and not defensive apparatus of U.S. and European Union. imperialism.

GOP wants more cops in schools and communities, and less police oversight

Milwaukee, WI – Earlier this month, Wisconsin Republicans introduced a proposal regarding the shared revenue – LRB-2938: Local Government Funding. This proposal increases Milwaukee’s city and county shared revenue if they agree to do the following: reinstate police officers in Milwaukee Public Schools, preserve current staffing levels, at the minimum, of police officers, fund the police pension through an increase in the sales tax, eliminate the policy creation power of the Fire and Police Commission (FPC), and require representatives from the police association to serve on the FPC.

Milwaukee, WI – At a press conference on the evening of April 30, members of Reproductive Justice Action Milwaukee (RJAM) and Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) addressed local media with a call to action for people in Milwaukee and around the country to mobilize on June 24, the day that marks a year since the overturning of Roe.

Milwaukee, WI – As has been the case all spring across the Midwest, cold rain and winds greeted hundreds of youth, workers and trade unionists, community organizers and faith leaders on May 1 as they gathered outside the headquarters of Voces de la Frontera (VDLF) for their annual May Day “Day Without Latinx and Immigrants'' action. All told, more than 400 people joined the ensuing march that ended downtown at Zeidler Square.

Milwaukee, WI – More than 20 people filled a room at the Urban Ecology Center in the Silver City neighborhood on April 29 to hear a report from Freedom Road Socialist Organization member Omar Flores on his recent trip to Venezuela. Flores was one part of a FRSO delegation that was invited to participate in a special conference that coincided with the tenth anniversary of the death of Comandante Hugo Chavez, the former Venezuelan president and one of the primary figures behind the ongoing Bolivarian Revolution.