Minneapolis, MN – On January 22, Facebook disabled the main pages of two major community organizations, Peoples Power Assembly and Women In Struggle/Mujeres En Lucha, as well as activists around the country who have played roles in either group, including Puerto Rican activist Berta Joubert-Ceci; Greg Butterfield, Struggle La Lucha writer; Cheryl La Bash, co-chair, National Network on Cuba; Maggie Vascassenno, Los Angeles Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice; and others.

It also banished Peoples Power Assembly page editor Charlene Lady J. Jenkins, a founder of “What’s Up Baltimore,” whose Baltimore grassroots network was shut down as a result.

In addition, 16 individual activists’ profiles were disabled, which means that close to a dozen other progressive pages and groups were frozen when their administrators were disabled, including: the Baltimore Harriet Tubman Solidarity Center, ICE Out of Baltimore, Prisoners Solidarity Committee, Youth Against War & Racism, and Baltimore and Maryland Amazon Workers.

Sharon Black stated: “Facebook’s disabling of pages and the accounts of major activists who have not violated community standards is meant to silence and censor our voices. The Peoples Power Assembly has played a significant role in the Baltimore Black Lives Matter protests in the summer and more recently opposing Trump’s effort to overturn the election. On Dr. King Jr.’s birthday holiday, we held a car caravan to Jessup Correctional Institute and the Howard County Immigrant Detention Center to demand justice for prisoners and detainees.”

Berta Joubert-Ceci, founder of the Women's Fightback National Network/Red Nacional de Mujeres en Lucha and Women In Struggle, stated, “It is appalling – the cowardice of Facebook in silencing the voices of women and progressive people who struggle for justice and a better life for all.” Joubert-Ceci is also an organizer of the International Peoples' Tribunal on U.S. Colonial Crimes in Puerto Rico. Her personal page, used to connect with the Puerto Rican movement, was deleted along with Women In Struggle.

Attorney Summerfield stated, “We intend to fight this. This includes waging a public campaign to demand that the pages of all activists and the groups they represent are reactivated. We intend to use every avenue at our disposal, including legal remedies, to stop the censorship of voices that are too often marginalized.”

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #facebook #PoliticalRepression #PeoplesPowerAssembly

The Peoples Power Assembly page, which has over 11,000 followers, was disabled along with several other pages affiliated with the event.

Before this lockout, the Peoples Power Assembly’s main phone was barraged with harassing calls from Trump supporters and calls from the Department of Homeland Security connected to the Baltimore federal courthouse.

Some of the above groups including Struggle La Lucha and Women In Struggle are national, and have been targeted.

It is important to note that the Peoples Power Assembly in Baltimore has led protests of thousands of people against racism and police terror since this spring.

Sharon Black, an organizer with the Peoples Power Assembly, stated, “We take these attacks very seriously; they are a violation of our constitutional rights and are a blatant attempt to shut down organizing for the November 4 march and car caravan in opposition to the possibility of Trump stealing the upcoming election.”

Black continued, “It is also an attempt to silence a ‘Peoples Mandate’ which calls for jobs or income now, stimulus for workers, not billionaires; and end to racism and police terror, community control now; health care for all; no evictions, foreclosures, or utility shutoffs; safe work conditions and hazard pay; no wars or sanction, and feed the people not the Pentagon.

“This unconstitutional and undemocratic attack on our movement is a threat to activists and the general community everywhere and we are monitoring this closely to see if these attacks become more widespread as we get closer to the election.

“At present we will mobilize mass support both locally and nationally against these illegal attacks and also seek legal remedies.

“Our movement is united and strong and will not be deterred or defeated.”

#BaltimoreMD #PeoplesStruggles #PoliticalRepression #PeoplesPowerAssembly #StruggleLaLucha

Baltimore, MD – Several dozen Baltimore community activists and youth endured sleet, hail, snow and rain to stage a march January 18 from East to West Baltimore and to downtown to draw the connections to ongoing war and racism with food stamp cuts and workers’ rights.

The group rallied at Penn North, the neighborhood of Freddie Gray, and ended at Lexington Market. Organizers reported that the response was deeply encouraging. The group then held a car caravan to a general assembly of the FMLN (Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front) of the Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia region.

The march was initiated by the Peoples Power Assembly and endorsed by dozens of groups including Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

#BaltimoreMD #AntiwarMovement #PeoplesStruggles #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganizationFRSO #Antiracism #PeoplesPowerAssembly