The Freedom Road Socialist Organization shares its condolences with the family, friends and comrades of Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez, chairman of the Young Lords Organization. He died on January 10, 2025, at the age of 75 in Chicago.

All those who knew him appreciated Jimenez’s determination and his ability to motivate others to action, all the while teaching about the need for revolution and socialism. A revolutionary to the end, he often quoted Mao Tse Tung on the united front strategy, “Unite the many to defeat the few!”

The Young Lords Organization was founded by Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez in 1968 in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. Puerto Ricans and other working people were being forced out of the now wealthy neighborhood by big financiers and real estate firms working with Mayor Richard Daley’s Democrat political machine.

At that time, Jimenez turned a street gang into one of the most successful political movements of its day, resisting community displacement and opposing the U.S. war in Vietnam. Their militant tactics attracted masses of people to protest for better housing, education, childcare and health care in Chicago. The Young Lords spread to New York and many other cities, inspiring Puerto Rican people who were forced to move from the island by U.S. domination and exploitation. Cha Cha popularized the slogan, “Tengo Puerto Rico en mi corazón!” [I have Puerto Rico in my heart]

The Young Lords travelled and met the Brown Berets, whose stance for national self-determination for the Chicano people was an inspiration. They also took leadership from Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party in Chicago, beginning to study Marxism-Leninism and devising ways to oppose the violent repression and assassinations they faced from the FBI, COINTELPRO and the Chicago Police.

It was the Young Lords who had ties to the Young Patriots, an Appalachian youth group in the Uptown neighborhood. This was key to Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party forming the first Rainbow Coalition.

In recent years, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization organized closely with and supported Cha Cha Jimenez and the Young Lords. We promoted the Young Lords and their lessons while participating in the Trayvon Martin protests and the George Floyd uprising. There was the launch of the Young Lords Archive at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, the 50 Years of Young Lords Anniversary Conference at DePaul University in Chicago, and the “Young Lords Pass the Torch, Honor Cha Cha Jimenez” event in Humboldt Park on June 4, 2022, recognizing a new era of Young Lords leaders.

In one of his last interviews, Cha Cha Jimenez told Fight Back!, “Ours is a protracted struggle until victory and beyond!”

Long live the legacy of Jose Cha Cha Jimenez!

#OppressedNationalities #PuertoRico #NationalLiberation #YoungLords #ChaChaJimenez #FRSO #Statement

“One of the most lucid and brilliant leaders in Africa, Comrade Amílcar Cabral instilled in us tremendous confidence in the future and the success of his struggle for liberation.” — Fidel Castro

September 12, 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of the giants of 20th century African liberation struggle and global anti-imperialist movement, Amilcar Cabral.

Progressive and revolutionary people should take this occasion to celebrate the proud revolutionary legacy of Amilcar Cabral, the national liberation movement he led in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, and the worldwide anti-imperialist movement he was part of.

Cabral: Fighter for the liberation of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde

Amilcar Cabral was the principal leader of the national liberation struggle in Guinea Bissau and the islands of Cape Verde on the west coast of Africa. The national liberation movement that he led declared independence from Portugal on September 24, 1973.

The people of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde had been brutally colonized by Portugal for centuries. The first Portuguese people arrived in Guinea Bissau in the 1440s when the Portuguese monarchy began “exploring” the Atlantic coast of West Africa in pursuit of gold. The Portuguese colonizers enslaved hundreds of thousands of people from this region of Africa through the 1800s, many of whom were taken in chains across the Atlantic Ocean to Brazil, which was a Portuguese colony in the Americas, to work as slaves in mines and on plantations. As a result, to this day Brazil has the largest African-descendent population in the Americas.

Under brutal Portuguese colonialism, by the 1950s the literacy rate was as low as 1%; the few schools were more for the Portuguese colonizers. There were barely any doctors and only 300 hospital beds in the whole country.

A wave of national liberation movements gained steam in Africa in the 1940s and 50s, with powerful inspiration and support from the world’s first socialist country, the Soviet Union. Victories for national liberation movements in China in 1949 and Cuba in 1959, which became socialist countries after liberation, provided further momentum and inspiration. This was part of a broader anti-colonial and anti-imperialist movement that was sweeping not just Africa, but also Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, where the majority of humanity had been subjugated by competing European empires for centuries.

In reaction to this wave, and as rival colonial powers were losing their grip on their colonies, Portugal tried to exert an even tighter and more brutal grip on its African colonies. In 1951, Portugal declared Guinea Bissau a province of Portugal itself. In that context, the movement fighting for national liberation advanced in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde in the 1950s.

Amílcar Cabral was born September 12, 1924 in “Portuguese Guinea” as it was called before liberation, to Cape Verdian parents. He was one of a small number of Africans from Guinea Bissau who was able to pursue higher education in Portugal. He studied agronomy, and while he was there, he participated in the student movement opposing Portugal’s right-wing dictatorship and supporting independence for Portugal’s colonies in Africa.

When he returned home, he carried out a country-wide agricultural census, traveling extensively and learning in great detail about the people, the land and the problems of his country. This deep knowledge of the material reality of his people and his country allowed Cabral to make a materialist assessment of who could be united to fight for liberation, and how they needed to be organized to do so. There is an echo here of Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong’s deep investigation into the material realities of the oppressed peasant majority in China in the 1920s that led to strategic breakthroughs in the Chinese revolution’s path to victory.

In 1956, Amilcar Cabral co-founded the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), the organization that led the national liberation struggle in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. Cabral was the PAIGC’s secretary-general. After Portuguese soldiers carried out a massacre against dockworkers in 1959, the PAIGC moved toward armed struggle to win liberation. The PAIGC began its armed struggle in earnest in 1962-63, fighting a guerrilla war until they liberated the majority of the country and then declared independence.

Tragically, Amilcar Cabral was assassinated on January 20, 1973, on the eve of the PAIGC liberating Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde and declaring independence in September 1973. According to leaders of the PAIGC, agents of colonialism carried out the assassination on behalf of the government of Portugal, who had as a key objective the decapitation of the liberation movement’s leadership. But despite Cabral’s assassination, the movement still won independence.

Cabral: Anti-imperialist and internationalist

“Either we admit that there really is a struggle against imperialism which interests everybody, or we deny it. If, as would seem from all the evidence, imperialism exists and is trying simultaneously to dominate the working class in all the advanced countries and smother the national liberation movements in the underdeveloped countries, then there is only one enemy against whom we are fighting. If we are fighting together, then I think the main aspect of our solidarity is extremely simple; it is to fight.” – Amilcar Cabral

While primarily focused on building the revolutionary movement in Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, Amilcar Cabral also built Pan-African and worldwide anti-imperialist unity. Starting in 1961, the PAIGC united with national liberation movements in Portugal’s other colonies in Africa, creating the Conference of Nationalist Organizations of the Portuguese Colonies together with the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) in and the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).

Cabral also built alliances with socialist countries like Cuba as well as other countries that had won liberation from imperialism. Cabral attended the Tricontinental Conference in Havana, Cuba in 1966, where he expressed strong support for Cuba’s socialist revolution and even offered to send fighters to defend socialist Cuba against imperialism if needed.

Cabral was inspired by Marxism-Leninism’s anti-imperialist theory and practice. In 1970 he wrote, “Whether Marxist or not, Leninist or not, it is difficult for anyone not to recognize the validity, even the genius of Lenin’s analysis and conclusions, which prove to be of immense historical scope, illuminating with fruitful clarity the often thorny and even somber path of the peoples who are fighting for their total liberation from imperialist domination.”

In his writings, Cabral talked explicitly about applying a dialectical and a materialist method, and the need for class analysis and class struggle. Along with Kwame Nkrumah and Franz Fanon, Cabral was an early theorist on the dangers of neo-colonialism after winning independence.

When Cabral would come to the U.S. to speak at the United Nations to gain support for the national liberation movement in Guinea Bissau, he sought out meetings with revolutionaries in the U.S., especially African American revolutionaries. Cabral understood that anti-imperialist struggles in colonized countries and the struggle inside the imperialist countries share a common enemy, and that any blow against imperialism from within or without is mutually beneficial.

In a meeting with around 120 Black revolutionaries in the U.S. in 1972, Cabral said, “We try to understand your situation in this country. You can be sure that we realize the difficulties you face, the problems you have and your feelings, your revolts, and also your hopes. We think that our fighting for Africa against colonialism and imperialism is a proof of understanding of your problems in this continent. Naturally, the inverse is also true. All the achievements here are real contributions to our own struggle.”

Cabral’s understanding of the relationship between revolutionary movements in the colonies and in the imperialist countries themselves ended up being prophetic when the surging revolutionary national liberation movements in Guinea Bissau and Portugal’s other African colonies helped spark a progressive uprising of soldiers and then workers in Portugal in 1974 against the reactionary Portuguese government.

Amilcar Cabral stands among the greatest heroes of 20th century fighters for liberation. He studied the concrete conditions of his country and developed a revolutionary strategy based on that. He built a revolutionary organization to lead the struggle for liberation. He built unity on an anti-imperialist basis with liberation movements around the world. He united with socialist countries. By doing these things, he was able to lead a successful national liberation movement that won independence from Portuguese colonialism. His life and contributions should be remembered and celebrated by revolutionaries the world over.

#International #GuineaBissau #CapeVerde #AmilcarCabral #Socialism #NationalLiberation #RevolutionaryTheory #Opinion #Feature

San Francisco, CA – On October 8, upwards of 3000 people from across the Bay Area marched in San Francisco to show solidarity with Palestine. They rallied to support the Palestinian people’s struggle for freedom from Israeli occupation.

The Bay Area protest, like demonstrations around the United States, support the Palestinians’ united effort to take back occupied land seized by Israel since 1948. Israel has a decades-long record of oppression and brutal human rights atrocities. The recent campaign of resistance is named “Al-Aqsa Flood” after the historic Al-Aqsa mosque in Al Quds, which has been the target of Israeli attacks in recent years.

The protest began at the San Francisco Israeli consulate building, where thousands gathered with Palestinian flags. The crowd unapologetically cheered for the liberation of Palestine with repeated slogans such as “Free, free Palestine!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!”

During the initial rally, police in riot gear were present in front of the Israeli consulate, separating protesters from the building. Meanwhile, the Palestine coalition’s security kept a small contingent of pro-Israeli reactionaries away from the crowd. Despite tensions, the leadership of the pro-Palestine rally and its security encouraged the crowd to not engage with the Zionists.

After the starting rally, the crowd marched from the Israel consulate to Embarcadero Plaza. Taking to the streets, the protesters flew the Palestinian flag. They also displayed depictions of Ghassan Kanafani, a Palestinian revolutionary with the PFLP, and Che Guevara, a revolutionary icon who has inspired many such as Kanafani. As the protesters marched, an unidentified man tried to infiltrate the crowd. Protest security confronted him and prevented the man from getting closer, while the march continued.

At Embarcadero Plaza, the coalition began its program with speakers. The theme throughout the different speeches was the condemnation of the U.S. government for aiding Israel in the oppression of Palestine. Another theme was the hypocrisy of the Western media for ignoring the brutal Israeli bombing campaigns and massacres against Palestinian people.

Protesters defended the Palestinian right to self-determination and demanded an end to the occupation. They refused to label Palestine’s united front of resistance arising from Gaza as “terrorists.” In San Francisco and around the world, the people are demanding, “Solidarity with Palestine!”

The protest was organized by a coalition of Palestinian and socialist organizations such as the Palestinian Youth Movement, U.S. Palestinian Community Network, Al-Awda Coalition, Palestinian Feminist Collective, Party for Socialism and Liberation and others.

#SanFranciscoCA #Palestine #NationalLiberation #Israel

Atlanta, GA – On October 8, Atlanta nearly 200 community members gathered in front of the General Consulate of Israel to show solidarity with the resistance movement in Palestine. The protest came a day after Palestinian resistance fighters launched a massive operation against Israeli settlements and military bases to fight back against the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Bisan Amin from the Palestinian Youth Movement and a host of the protest, stated, “We showed up to send a message, first and foremost to the Palestinian resistance, that we stand in solidarity with them exercising their right to resist the ongoing Nakba, the ongoing occupation of Palestine and daily violence committed by the Zionist entity against the Palestinian people.”

Protesters marched in Midtown Atlanta, a busy downtown area of the city. When protesters attempted to take the streets, police pushed them back to the sidewalk, threatening arrests and taking pictures of protesters.

The protest featured speakers from the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Atlanta Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (AAARPR), Community Movement Builders, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Georgia State University, and SJP at Emory University, as well as others.

“Israel and the U.S. work together, sharing tactics and weapons to oppress Black Americans and Palestinians. One of the ways they do this is through training police in the U.S. using Israeli occupation forces tactics,” Laith Abdel Hader of AAARPR stated in his speech. “The Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange [GILEE] program here in Atlanta works primarily with Israel, teaching police the most brutal repression tactics to use on Black and brown communities here.”

Protesters called for an end to the GILEE program in Atlanta, and an end to all U.S. aid to Israel. They demand an end to the overall occupation of Palestine, and support the resistance fighters.

The rally ended with final remarks from Amin declaring that, “The Palestinian struggle is one of decolonization and total liberation of Palestine from the Zionist entity, and we showed up in support of this struggle. The events we bore witness to on Saturday, October 7 were a testament to the liberation of Palestine that is soon to come. Free, free Palestine!”

#AtlantaGA #Palestine #NationalLiberation #AARPR #PYM #SJP

New Orleans, LA – The New Orleans Palestinian community and supporters rallied on October 9 in solidarity with Gaza and the Palestinian struggle for liberation. Around 200 people came to Duncan Plaza in the city’s central business district, waving dozens of Palestinian flags. The event was held in the wake of the “Al-Aqsa Flood” and the renewed declaration of war on Gaza by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

“Blood is on the hands of the Israeli government and its supporters around the world: the U.S. government, which encourages and enables Israel’s daily depredations against the Palestinians, and every leader of every foreign government who is complacent in their capitulation to Israeli and U.S. intransigence,” said Josh Teitlelbaum of Jewish Voice for Peace.

Several speakers emphasized the right of Palestinians to defend themselves from aggression in the context of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land.

Leila Abu-Orf, a Palestinian human rights lawyer, said, “After 75 years of enduring apartheid, occupation and state-sanctioned annihilation, what exactly is that the U.S. and Israel expect to happen? Maybe they want us to go silently dying into the night, but that’s not an option. We have been given no choice but to fight back and reclaim our dignity.”

“Members of the Muslim Students Association wanted to be here tonight, but decided not to because they didn’t feel that it would be safe,” said Toni Jones of New Orleans for Community Oversight of the Police. “I’m here to continue the deep historical solidarity between the Black liberation and Palestinian liberation struggles.”

As the rally wound down, Palestinian community members expressed their desire to take the streets for their cause. Some of the rally’s organizers sprang into action to plan the route, help block intersections, and provide sound equipment. Participants yelled, cried and laughed through an emotional and empowering march.

Protesters chanted, “Israel, you can’t hide! We charge you with genocide!” and “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!” as they marched. They held three lanes of rush-hour traffic on Canal Street, a major thoroughfare bordering the French Quarter and known for its heavy tourist foot traffic. The march ended at city hall with chants of “Free Palestine, free Gaza! Globalize the intifada!”

#NewOrleansLA #Palestine #NationalLiberation #AntiWar #Israel #Gaza