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

Kirkland, WA – On October 8, in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland, over 300 people rallied in support of the Palestinian liberation movement and against the ongoing Israeli occupation.

The Palestinian resistance has launched a major operation to reclaim their land by any means necessary, and protesters across Seattle gathered in Kirkland to stand with Palestine. The rally was called by Tamkeen Muslim Youth and Council on American-Islamic Relations WA, and many other organizations came out to support. Among those attending were families, children, and other youth from the Palestinian and Arab communities. They waved Palestinian flags and held signs reading “End the siege of Gaza” and “Self determination for Palestine.”

As the event began, around 100 Zionist provocateurs arrived. They held a banner from Congregation Ezra Bezaroth, carried Israeli and U.S. flags, and shouted and spat at the crowd.

Just before the event was scheduled to start, Zionist thugs charged into the crowd and launched an attack, kicking, grabbing and hitting demonstrators with speakers and flagpoles. Other protesters stepped in to de-escalate the situation, and police soon arrived and sprayed pepper gas into the crowd before stationing themselves between the two groups. Later, city buses were called in and parked on either side of the street where pro-Palestine demonstrators faced off against their Zionist attackers.

Despite these unprovoked attacks, demonstrators continued undeterred in their support of the Palestinian resistance. For over three hours, the protest continued and culminated in a march through downtown Kirkland. Spirited chants of “Free, free Palestine!”, “We don’t want two states, we want 1948!” and “In our millions, in our billions, we are all Palestinians!” rang out for the entirely of the protest.

“This is a really big step for Palestinian resistance because we are showing the world how the people of 1948 have been invaded,” said Rabal Haroun, an organizer with Support the Palestinian Voice. “This means even more than last year’s protests and the year before, because we are actually seeing walls being crossed.”

Dre Say, a Filipino union organizer who attended the rally, spoke to the crucial role of solidarity in the fight for liberation of all oppressed peoples. “Palestinian people who are fighting for their own liberation are always in solidarity with struggles across the world for liberation, especially for the struggle for national democracy in the Philippines. I want to respect their leadership, their solidarity and show my own solidarity here today.”

Organizers plan to continue showing their solidarity as events in Palestine rapidly unfold. Another rally, called by Students United for Palestinian Equality and Return, is scheduled for Thursday, October 12 at 12 p.m.

#KirklandWA #Palestine #SeattleWA #NationalLiberation #AntiWar #Israel #Zionism

Tucson, AZ – In the second rally in three days, organizations and community members gathered outside the Federal Building in downtown Tucson on Monday, October 9 to show their support for the Palestinian struggle for liberation. Around 75 people gathered with signs reading, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.”

After a stretch of spirited chants of “Palestine is our demand, there is no peace on occupied land!” and “No more annexation, no more occupation, fight for liberation and bring the whole thing down!,” the group circled up for a round of speakers.

First, the diverse group of trade unionists, students, youth, elders and community activists heard from Mohyeddin Abdulaziz, an organizer with Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance. He mentioned the historical record of Israel brutalizing Palestinians across his lifetime. Abdulaziz is as old as the occupation itself – 75 years. He continued describing the complicity of the U.S. government and other actors who align themselves with the Zionist project.

Later, Maria Sohn Hasman of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization spoke to the group about the coordinated Palestine resistance that achieved historic results in operation Al-Aqsa Flood. Calling Israel a paper tiger and the U.S. an empire in decline, the fiery speech called for continued, escalated actions to not only demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel, but to “make damn sure none of it is delivered and contributes to ongoing bombing and oppression of Palestinians.”

The Arizona Palestine Solidarity Alliance, Tucson Anti War Committee, Students for Justice in Palestine, and others co-sponsored the event.

One of the student organizers from Students for Justice in Palestine informed the group there will be another action on campus at the University of Arizona on Thursday, October 12 at 12:30 p.m.

#TucsonAZ #Palestine #NationalLiberation #AntiWar #SJP #TAWC

The Palestinian resistance is dealing a heavy blow to the Israeli apartheid state. The decades of oppression, humiliation and callous cruelty by the occupiers of Palestine are being answered in the only language oppressors truly understand.

Operation Al Aqsa Flood, the coordinated military response of the resistance, has changed the calculus of one-sided wars. In the past, Palestinian protesters marched from Gaza to exercise their right to return to their homes. Zionist snipers laughed as they killed and maimed the kids and elders. That day is over. Forever. The Palestinian resistance has arrived with bulldozers to remove the barbed wire and have used motorized hang gliders to cross the separation barrier. This is a good turn of events, and everyone who yearns for justice needs to stand with the Palestinian resistance. It’s the right thing to do.

Israel has long promoted the myth of a Zionist superman. That is over. Palestinians have taken over the armed settlements that surround Gaza. They have occupied Israeli military bases. Gun battles are going on across the West Bank. Rockets are responding to occupation. Hezbollah is shelling Israeli positions in occupied Lebanon. The world is changing and not a moment too soon.

Israel is a torture state. Thousands of Palestinians languish in Israeli jails, jails where prisoners face every sort of sick brutality. It is no surprise that the Palestinian resistance groups want to exchange the soldiers and settlers they have taken prisoner for their people who have suffered so much in the fight for liberation.

Israel exists on stolen land and borrowed time. It has no legitimacy whatsoever. It was a colonial project of Britain that was taken up by the U.S. Without billions of dollars of U.S. funding, weapons and training, the Israeli occupation would have ended long ago. Like the U.S., Israel is a paper tiger – a spider web that can be swept away by the collective action of the Arab peoples.

Israel, the U.S. government, and much of the media promotes the idea that the Palestinian resistance is somehow “terrorist.” Nothing could be further from the truth. The Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS), the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and so many others represent the aspirations of a free people, Palestinians who insist on the end to occupation. Freedom Road Socialist Organization rejects the notion that freedom fighters are “terrorists.” We are proud to stand with the resistance.

Those of us who stand in solidarity with Palestine have our work cut out for us. The Zionist regime is carrying out horrific crimes – including indiscriminate bombings in Gaza that have destroyed homes, schools and health care facilities. Their logic is genocidal. We need to act fast.

Demonstrations in solidarity with Palestine should be organized everywhere. The role of the U.S. needs to be highlighted. U.S. weapons are killing people. Biden wants to send Israel more weapons. Not one U.S. dollar should be funding the occupation of Palestine.

In the days ahead, lots of politicians are going to be saying “stand with Israel.” They will lie and cry. Do the opposite. This is time to stand with Palestine. Time is on the side of the oppressed. And a new stage of the freedom struggle has arrived.

Stand with Palestine!

Victory to the Palestinian resistance!

End U.S. aid to Israel!

From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free!

Download a printable PDF version of this statement: one-sided full sheet or two-sided half sheet

#Palestine #FRSO #Statement #AntiWar #NationalLiberation #Feature

In the strongest terms, I condemn the murder of Randall (Randy) Echanis and his neighbor who were unarmed. Randall was a peaceful social activist. He was a mild-mannered man of 71 years. He had a consistent modest personality with a high level of education and intellect. He had long dedicated himself to his social advocacy and had made tremendous sacrifices for many decades.

He was outstanding as an advocate of genuine land reform, rural development and national industrialization. He was the National Chairperson of the Anakpawis Party List and Deputy Secretary General of the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas and was a leading consultant of the NDFP on agrarian reform and member of the NDFP Reciprocal Working Committee on Social and Economic Reforms. He played a key role in the drafting of documents on agrarian reform and rural development and the Comprehensive Agreement on Social and Reforms.

Even after the termination of the peace negotiations by Duterte, Randall was supposed to enjoy the protection of the safety and immunity provisions of the JASIG just like all the other negotiators, consultants and staff of the GRP and NDFP in the peace negotiations. Duterte and his gang of butchers are truly monstrous for murdering the unarmed Randall and his neighbor.

It is widely known that the DILG secretary Ano has been boasting to his staff and other people that he has mapped out the locations of all social activists through the local governments and neighborhoods and that he can wipe them out the social activists anytime. This boasting of Ano is taken seriously by all the social activists that he threatens to kill.

With the murder of Randall and his neighbor, the Duterte gang of butchers has aroused the indignation and just wrath of the peasant masses and the entire Filipino people. All social activists have no choice but to intensify in every necessary way their struggle against the tyrant, traitor, butcher and plunderer Duterte.

The murder of Randall and his neighbor will have far reaching consequences towards the intensification of the Filipino people’s struggle for national and social liberation against the evil Duterte regime and the unjust ruling system of big compradors, landlords and corrupt officials who are servile to foreign monopoly capitalism.

#Philippines #nationalLiberation #Duterte #NationalDemocraticFrontOfThePhilippinesNDFP #RandallEchanis #Asia

In spite of the everchanging Minnesota weather, the protesters gathered for an opening ceremony led by Kalpulli Ketzal Coatlicue (Precious Mother Earth learning community). Representatives from the American Indian Movement (AIM) also participated in the ceremonies. Organizers arranged for vendors to sell bebidas, paletas and platos. Marshals from the various Black liberation movement groups, including the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J) assisted with security. There was a heavy youth presence at the event including Sanchez’s friends. Protesters from the closed intersection of 38th Street and Chicago, where George Floyd was killed, also attended and spoke.

Speakers from the national liberation movements stressed the need for unity between movements and confirmed that the police weren’t the answer and that the Minneapolis Police Department neglected the needs of oppressed nationalities. They highlighted the MPD’s unwillingness to investigate due to Mario’s immigration status and the proximity to the George Floyd memorial site.

Organizers vowed to get Justice for Mario Sanchez and for Chicano liberation.

#MinneapolisMN #ChicanoLatino #nationalLiberation #Antiracism #MarioSanchez #BrownBeretsOfMinnesota

In spite of the everchanging Minnesota weather, the protesters gathered for an opening ceremony led by Kalpulli Ketzal Coatlicue (Precious Mother Earth learning community). Representatives from the American Indian Movement (AIM) also participated in the ceremonies. Organizers arranged for vendors to sell bebidas, paletas and platos. Marshals from the various Black liberation movement groups, including the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar (TCC4J) assisted with security. There was a heavy youth presence at the event including Sanchez’s friends. Protesters from the closed intersection of 38th Street and Chicago, where George Floyd was killed, also attended and spoke.

Speakers from the national liberation movements stressed the need for unity between movements and confirmed that the police weren’t the answer and that the Minneapolis Police Department neglected the needs of oppressed nationalities. They highlighted the MPD’s unwillingness to investigate due to Mario’s immigration status and the proximity to the George Floyd memorial site.

Organizers vowed to get Justice for Mario Sanchez and for Chicano liberation.

#MinneapolisMN #ChicanoLatino #nationalLiberation #Antiracism #MarioSanchez #BrownBeretsOfMinnesota

The Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) recently joined the Fairway Oaks community in a struggle against environmental racism.

The Fairway Oaks community was established in 2000 with the joint effort of the city of Jacksonville and Habijax. The city of Jacksonville knowingly and negligently sold hazardous land to Habijax, who then used the land to develop low-income affordable housing and sell it to low-income Black residents. Over 85 homes were built in a 17-day blitz of volunteers who propped up dozens of subpar houses.

After several years, residents noticed that their homes were starting to deteriorate. Houses began to crack in half, rot, and the very soil on which the foundation of the house were built began to implode. High levels of arsenic, methane gas and other toxic waste has put residents’ health at risk. The Fairway Oaks Community began to organize themselves and took action. They rallied, protested and fought for justice.

Nathaniel Borden, Fairway Oaks resident and leader of their movement, said, “Justice for Fairway Oaks would be each homeowner receiving enough money to go buy a house that is not on toxic land and each individual that has lived in Fairway Oaks for the last 18 years to receive a lifetime of health monitoring services.”

Jacksonville Community Action Committee (JCAC) members came out to support the Fairway Oaks community at their third court hearing on June 21.

JCAC organizer Joshua Parks commented, “This is a blatant case of negligence and racism. The city and Habijax should be held accountable for their role in endangering a whole community of people simply to make a buck. People are paying mortgages on homes that are built on a toxic waste site, many of them first time home owners. That's just unacceptable.”

Parks continued, “This isn't the city’s first brush with environmental racism. Another poor community on the same side of town, in the Fairfax area, is also located on a toxic waste site which has been deemed an EPA Superfund site because of its high level of toxins. Workers at the site have serious health issues from exposure and residents have some of the highest rates of cancer.”

The South is no stranger to injustice. In fact, most of its Black residents are accustomed to it. This history of slavery and Jim Crow still lingers within Jacksonville’s social relations. Racism manifests itself in overt ways, with police crimes and vigilante murders of Black residents such as Keegan Roberts; and subtle ways, with the sneaky environmental racism of the city of Jacksonville and Habijax – a non-profit affordable housing development company, which knowingly built houses on a former toxic waste site in one of the poorest regions of the city, now known as Fairway Oaks.

The Fairway Oaks community and the Jacksonville Community Action Committee plan to continue working together and pressuring the city of Jacksonville and Habijax for justice.

#FairwayOaks #JacksonvilleFL #Healthcare #HousingStruggles #nationalLiberation #EnvironmentalJustice #environmentalRacism #JacksonvilleCommunityActionCommitteeJCAC

Tampa, FL – Twenty Tampa student and community activists gathered for a barbecue on June 19 to celebrate Juneteenth. Hosted by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), attendees discussed topics such as African American history, the Black Lives Matter movement, socialism and African American liberation in the Black Belt South.

Juneteenth is a celebration held every year, particularly in the U.S. South, celebrating the beginning of the abolition of slavery in Texas. Juneteenth is also a celebration for reflecting on the history of national oppression that continues to be visited on African Americans. The civil rights movement used Juneteenth celebrations in order to help build the struggle.

Speakers included Chris Wilson from Black Lives Matter and Chrisley Carpio of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Carpio gave a speech on the ways national oppression continues to affect African Americans, saying, “We cannot let our African American brothers and sisters die at the hands of police or in prisons making products for billion dollar corporations. We must learn the lessons of history, and crush the legacy of slavery once and for all.”

Sarah Owusu-Tweneboah of Students for a Democratic Society said, “I feel as a Black woman in America, my ancestors were slaves that I should celebrate and remember a day that was so important in their lives, and by extension my own. This is my history. I wish they taught us more in school but I guess it’s up to us to teach each other just like the slaves did.”

Activists renewed their commitment to the fight against national oppression of African Americans, and the ongoing fight against police brutality in particular.

#TampaFL #InJusticeSystem #Labor #PeoplesStruggles #nationalLiberation #Antiracism #Juneteenth #Slavery #America

On July 17, Eric Garner, an African American father of six, was choked to death by New York City police, who then went through his pockets instead of calling an ambulance. Three weeks later, Michael Brown was shot at least six times and killed by policeman Darren Wilson in Ferguson, Missouri. His body was left in the street and no medical help was called. For more than a week the police refused to release Officer Wilson’s name and turned in no official police report. All of this shows that another cover-up is underway in the murder of Michael Brown.

Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Jordon Davis and Trayvon Martin are just the most publicized of the recent string of police and vigilante killings. Across the country Black and Brown men are being hunted down, some guilty of nothing more than “walking while Black,” while others are accused of petty crimes where the police have acted a judge, jury and executioner. These killings are but the tip of the iceberg. For every murder by police and vigilantes, there are thousands of Black and Brown men and women who are singled out by racist police, racist laws and courts set up for the rich and powerful, filling the prisons of this country.

One of the foundations of U.S. wealth is the oppression of African Americans. For the first 200 years of the British colonies and then the founding of the U.S., millions of Africans were taken from their families, homes and people to work as chattel slaves in the Americas. Millions died in the infamous “middle passage” between Africa and the Americas, and those who survive have been forged into an oppressed nation, with a common culture, language and economy in the U.S. South.

To suppress the slaves’ fight for freedom, the U.S. institutionalized local government militias to put down slave revolts. After the Civil War and the freeing of the slaves, the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, founded by former Confederate general Bedford Forrest, along with the with the use of African American prison labor in the infamous chain gangs saw the union of racist vigilantes and the system of police and courts, to enforce a system of U.S.-style apartheid segregation known as Jim Crow. This is at the root of the criminalization of Black people in the U.S.

Legal segregation was broken in the 1950s and 1960s by the African American freedom struggle known as the Civil Rights movement. This struggle not only brought about gains in the rights of, and opportunities for, African Americans, but also set the stage for Chicanos, Latinos, Asians, Native American, women, and LBGT people to launch their own movements for liberation. The 1960s was also a high tide for labor struggles and strikes, and saw the beginnings of many government programs such as Medicare, Head Start, Medicaid that benefitted the elderly, children and poor.

But the 1% who rule America rallied under President Nixon behind a two-fold strategy to deal with the Black Liberation Movement. On one hand, there was a wave of repression, centered around the FBI COINTELPRO to murder and jail African American leaders and organizations such as the Black Panther Party. At the same time, there was a conscious development of a new sector of Black capitalists and government managers. While traditionally Black-owned businesses were based in African American community and needed the support of the working masses, this new sector of elite African Americans was to serve at the highest level of U.S. corporations, military and government. One result is the traditional Black national bourgeoisie was weakened as mainstream corporations took their markets.

We can see this strategy at work today. On one hand there is the militarized response to the protests that rocked Ferguson for more than a week, complete with storm-trooper like police to military armored personnel carriers. On the other hand there are a few African Americans at the highest levels of power, from former military Chief of Staff Colin Powell, to Attorney General Eric Holder, to McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson, to president Barack Obama.

But the masses of Ferguson and their supporters from the Saint Louis area and around the country withstood both the police repression and the efforts of established Black leaders to cool out their fight. They rejected the police attempt to criminalize Michael Brown and to justify the shooting. While the media have been echoing the police claims of “outside agitators” across the country, in fact, the vast majority of those arrested were from the Saint Louis area.

The Freedom Road Socialist Organization hails the African American working masses of Ferguson and Saint Louis as heroes for standing up to intense police repression and continuing to fight, night after night, for justice for Michael Brown. Just as the Civil Rights movement attracted supporters from across the country, the fight in Ferguson is drawing people to the struggle today. Political consciousness is spreading, from rap artists who take up the cause to local politicians who side with the protesters and not the police.

New challenges will face the movement. Police body cameras, which many people hope will limit police brutality, are now being turned on the protesters to try to criminalize them. Officer Darren Wilson has not been arrested, and instead the case has been turned over to a secretive grand jury under the direction of a prosecutor with strong ties to the police. Their plan is to drag out the proceedings behind closed doors for months and hope that the movement dies down, allowing them to let Darren Wilson go free.

There is a saying that there are many Black leaders, but there is no leadership. What is needed is leadership from a new generation of Black youth, who can organize and lead the working masses of African Americans in the ongoing struggle for justice, equality and power. Just as the Student National Coordinating Committee or SNCC emerged out of the Feb. 1, 1960 Greensboro sit-in and the wave of civil disobedience against segregation that followed, so today what is needed is grassroots, militant organizations that can rally a broad movement against racist police and vigilantes and for equality and power.

Above all, we must continue to focus on the demands: Justice for Michael Brown! Arrest and jail Darren Wilson and all killer cops and racist vigilantes!

#UnitedStates #PoliceBrutality #NationalOppression #AntiRacism #nationalLiberation #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #MichaelBrown #Ferguson

Chokwe Lumumba was an exemplary leader for Black liberation in the U.S., particularly in the U.S. South. As a founding member of the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, he dedicated his life to the African American liberation struggle and the belief that African Americans in the U.S. have a right to self-determination. As an attorney, he represented many African American political prisoners and people facing state repression, including Assata Shakur and hip-hop artist Tupac Shakur.

On June 5, 2013, Chokwe Lumumba was elected mayor of Jackson, winning 87% of the vote in the general election. His term as mayor was cut short by his sudden death. Chokwe Lumumba will be missed for his revolutionary legacy that taught people all over the world that the struggle for Black liberation in the Black Belt South continues boldly in the 21st century.

Chokwe Lumumba’s passing is felt by working and oppressed people far and wide. The struggle to which he dedicated his life continues.

With regards, The Freedom Road Socialist Organization

#JacksonMS #Remembrances #selfdetermination #nationalLiberation #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganization #ChokweLumumba #MalcolmXGrassrootsMovement #NewAfrika #Elections

Since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the anti-war movement has grown and the Bush administration’s popularity has faded. The right wing has answered this with attacks on the queer community. They use the gay marriage issue to mobilize anti-gay voters in support of unpopular candidates and an unpopular war. This divides people who should be allies in the struggle for human needs, not war and greed. Just as anti-gay sentiment is used to divide Americans, the U.S. war on Iraq divides Iraqis. It forces them to either collaborate with foreign occupation or to join the resistance. Either way, they are risking their lives. The U.S. military deliberately inflames sectarian tensions and falsely labels the conflict a sectarian civil war, when it is actually a struggle for national liberation.

The U.S. occupation of Iraq has been a disaster for Iraqis for over four years. 655,000 Iraqis have been killed. Nearly four million Iraqis have fled their homes to other parts of Iraq or to neighboring countries. 60% of Iraqis are unemployed and one third of Iraqi children are malnourished. 82% of Iraqis strongly oppose the occupation and over 60% consider the U.S. military to be legitimate targets for violence. Less than 1% of Iraqis think that U.S. forces are responsible for any improvements in security. And 80% of Iraqis believe that their country is worse off now than under Saddam Hussein.

Just as gay Americans are told to wait for recognition of their civil rights, Iraqis are told to wait for justice as well. They have already endured over four years of war and occupation, but the Bush administration plans to perpetuate the war indefinitely. Even Democrats who claim to be against the war debate nonbinding timelines that would continue the war for 12 months or 18 months, while Iraqis and Americans are dying every day.

The Anti-War Committee believes the only just solution is, “Out now.” In confronting injustice, timelines are not acceptable. Should gay people have to wait for the right to marry the partner they love? Should they have to wait to benefit from all the privileges straight people enjoy? Should they wait to visit a dying loved one in the hospital? Queers deserve justice now just as Iraqis deserve self-determination now.

Waiting is familiar to all oppressed peoples who have struggled for liberation. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. had the following response to those who said the Civil Rights Movement should be more patient: “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with a piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see with the distinguished jurist of yesterday that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’”

The Anti-War Committee plans to continue working with the broader peace movement to end the war and bring the troops out of Iraq now. “We will respond with unity in the face of division and exert a sense of urgency in demanding self-determination for the people of Iraq and equality for the queer community,” said the Anti-War Committee’s Tracy Molm. “Hollow promises and timelines aren’t enough. We need justice now.”

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #Commentary #Iraq #LGBTQ #GayMarriage #queerLiberation #nationalLiberation #timelines