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

Washington, DC – On July 7, hundreds of activists from over 60 organizations mobilized to protest the 75th anniversary NATO Summit occurring July 9 -11 in the city. The protest, organized the Resist NATO coalition started at McPherson Square and marched to the White House, demanding an end to U.S.- NATO aggression and to defend peoples’ struggles.  

The Resist NATO coalition is made up of various groups including the International League of Peoples’ Struggle – US (ILPS-US), Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), Bayan USA, Black Alliance for Peace (BAP), International Action Center, and the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR). 

A member of NAARPR spoke at the rally stating, “From the war-torn streets of Afghanistan to the devastated cities of Libya, we raise our voices in support of those who have been killed by U.S. military aggression. Instead of money going towards our military, why is money not going towards our community? Why is money not going towards education? Or mental health?” The U.S. is by far the largest contributor to NATO’s budget. In 2023, the U.S. represented 68% of the total expenditure of NATO, spending $860 billion.

An organizer in Palestinian Youth Movement stated, “It is not only important, but necessary, to resist NATO through a broad united front, in order to protect people’s just struggle for freedom in Palestine, in the Philippines, in Puerto Rico, in Washington DC, and everywhere in the world. The peoples’ resistance in Palestine threatens the interests of Western imperialism and for the first time in recent history, the tides are turning. The myth of Israeli invincibility, of U.S. supremacy, of the futility of resistance, and of capitulation being the only solution has shattered. People around the world are joining the fight for total liberation.”

The Resist NATO coalition had a successful weekend of actions to protest the NATO summit, and they plan to continue building out the united front against US-NATO military escalation and aggression.

#WashingtonDC #ResistNATO #ResistNATOCoalition #FreePalestine #Philippines #PuertoRico #Imperialism #ILPS #FRSO #NAARPR #IAC #BAP #NATO #NATOSummit #USOutOfThePhilippines

Orlando, FL – On Saturday February 18, the Orlando chapter of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) hosted a panel on the Puerto Rican independence movement featuring speakers from the Young Lords, a revolutionary organization dedicated to uplifting the Puerto Rican community and fighting for independence since 1968. The panel speakers included David Rivera, a founding member of the Young Lords, and Gabe Marcano, a Florida leader in the New-Era Young Lords, as well as Laura Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican member of FRSO. The event began with the speakers sharing their background in activism, explaining the history of the struggle for Puerto Rican Independence and offering lessons to further the movement. The event was attended by more than 20 people which filled the event space and led to an engaged audience question-and-answer session.

David Rivera spoke of his lifelong history in the struggle and his experience organizing in the Rainbow Coalition, a multicultural movement that linked the Black Panther Party and the Young Patriots with the Young Lords in their fight against police terrorism, poverty and corruption. David, alongside Cha Cha Jiménez and others, created the Young Lords when they were all very young as a response to the oppression and attacks they faced in the U.S. as Puerto Ricans. Once a street gang, David recalled how Cha Cha, after finally being released from a jail sentence, showed him a copy of Quotations From Chairman Mao Zedong, which precipitated their transformation into a revolutionary organization.

Gabe Marcano spoke of the hurricane relief visits to Puerto Rico organized by the New Era Young Lords to assist the people living on the island. Especially in the aftermath of devastating Hurricane Maria and Fiona, where the United States would give little to no support as the power failed and people perished, the Young Lords would go to the island to give aid and help rebuild from the destruction.

On the question of statehood versus independence, they said that admitting Puerto Rico into the U.S. as a state would strip the island of its culture and remove their identity. “Puerto Rico does not need another referendum on statehood, Puerto Rico needs independence!” said Rodriquez, adding, “We must withdraw all U.S. military bases from the island,” noting the bases act as a recruitment tool to enroll Puerto Ricans to fight in wars that will only benefit the defense industry and the wealthy.

Parasites in the U.S. have been buying up industries, resources, land and beaches for their own profit. David led the chant “Jibaro sí, Yankee no,” which exemplifies the spirit of the independence movement, namely giving the land back to the Puerto Rican people and getting the Yankees out. The speakers discussed the immense sorrow and fear felt by the island's people as they witnessed more and more of their homeland being stolen from them.

Even though there is sorrow, there is also a great deal of hope and determination for an independent Puerto Rico. Rodriguez expressed this in their closing remarks: “The future is bright and filled with Boricua resistance! Join the struggle for liberation. Liberation won’t happen overnight, but make no mistake, it will happen. We must walk the freedom road, unite all who can be united, and fight back against all forms of Yankee imperialist oppression.”

As the United States causes the living conditions on the island to become increasingly brutal, the desire among the Puerto Rican people for independence grows larger every day. The necessity of a free Puerto Rico that is independent from the U.S. empire is ever more urgent. The Freedom Road Socialist Organization will continue demanding an independent Puerto Rico in particular and independence for all U.S. colonies in general.

To keep up-to-date on future events of the Young Lords, follow @new_era_young_lords on Instagram.

To keep up-to-date on future events of the Orlando chapter of FRSO, follow @FRSO_Orlando on Twitter.

#OrlandoFL #PuertoRico #YoungLordsParty

New York, NY – A few dozen New Yorkers gathered in front of 1251 Avenue of the Americas on July 20 to protest Luma Energy and its lawyers, DLA Piper.

The action was called by New York Boricua Resistance in solidarity with the people of Puerto Rico who were holding protests across the island.

Luma Energy was a private company that was put in place as a response to the failing infrastructure after Hurricane Maria. However, since 2017, Luma has left more Puerto Ricans without access to water and electricity while also raising prices up $700 from one month to the next. Currently, there are a reported 22,000 households without basic utilities.

There were speakers from different allied organizations, including the New York Community Action Project, International League of People's Struggle, Malaya Movement, Lal Morich, Call to Action Puerto Rico, and many more.

During her speech, Michela Martinazzi from NYCAP said, “It seems that the mismanagement of the economy continues to fall on the people. While the wealthy who don't even live here profit off our misery, we continue to work despite it all. And that's why we have to look to Puerto Ricans who have a rich and militant history of fighting back against corruption and exploitation.”

New York Boricua Resistance will continue to call for protests to end U.S. involvement on the island and for Puerto Rican independence.

#NewYorkNY #PeoplesStruggles #PuertoRico

Chicago, IL- En un evento trascendental en Chicago, los fundadores de Young Lords (Jóvenes Señores) le pasaron la antorcha a una nueva generación. La ceremonia emotiva del 4 de Junio involucró al Comité Central de los Young Lords dirigido por José “Cha Cha” Jiménez colocando medallones sobre las cabezas de más de 50 miembros de New Era Young Lords (Jóvenes Señores de la Nueva Era). Los activistas jóvenes de siete ciudades y Puerto Rico llevaban con orgullo sus boinas moradas y sus distintivas camisas de los Young Lords. Los medallones dicen: “Tengo Puerto Rico en mi corazón”, con el logotipo original de Young Lords.

La Young Lords Organization fue fundada por José “Cha Cha” Jiménez en 1968 en el vecindario de Lincoln Park en Chicago. Puertorriqueños y otra gente obrera estaban siendo expulsados del nuevamente rico vecindario por financieros pudientes y la máquina política del mayor Demócrata Richard Daley.

En esa época, Jiménez convirtió una pandilla en el movimiento político más exitoso de su tiempo, resistiendo el desplazamiento del pueblo y oponiendo a la guerra estadounidense en Vietnam. Sus tácticas militantes atraían a masas de personas a manifestarse por el mejoramiento de las viviendas, educación, cuidado de salud y niños en Chicago. Entonces los Young Lords se extendieron a Nueva York y otras ciudades grandes donde vivían y trabajaban los boricuas.

Frente a 160 personas en Chicago, los fundadores de Young Lords y varios líderes del movimiento dieron discursos sobre su organización y las lecciones que aprendieron. Los New Era Young Lords entonces honraron a “Cha Cha” Jiménez y a los miembros originales presentes: David Rivera, Tony Baez y Omar López. Había discursos apasionados y altos cantitos de “¡Poder para la gente!” y “¡Viva Puerto Rico libre!”

“Creo que por los últimos 50 años hemos sentido que no teníamos ninguna representación en nuestra comunidad, y podíamos encender la chispa de nuevo el 4 de julio. Ha habido muchos movimientos boricuas, pero resonamos con los Young Lords, y ellos traen representación a nuestra comunidad en este país”, dijo Suby Toro, presidente nacional de los Young Lords.

Los activistas nuevos de Connecticut, Cleveland, Orlando, Tampa, Miami y Nueva York están reviviendo a los Young Lords, demandando independencia para Puerto Rico, y oponiendo asesinatos y represión por parte de la policía. Una media de los líderes nuevos son camaradas mujeres y no-binarios. Sus programas de servicio comunitario están creciendo y desarrollándose tal como crean relaciones y movilizan a la gente.

#ChicagoIL #PuertoRico #YoungLordsParty #NewEraYoungLords

Chicago, IL- At a momentous event in Chicago, the original Young Lords passed the leadership torch to a new generation. The moving June 4 ceremony involved the Young Lords Central Committee led by Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez placing medallions over the heads of more than 50 New Era Young Lords. The young activists from seven cities and Puerto Rico proudly wore their purple berets and distinctive Young Lords shirts. The medallions read, “Tengo Puerto Rico en mi corazón,” with the original Young Lords logo.

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 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 then spread to New York City and other big cities where Puerto Rican people lived and worked.

In front of 160 people in Chicago, the original Young Lords and an array of movement leaders spoke about their organizing and lessons learned. The New Era Young Lords then honored “Cha Cha” Jimenez and the original Young Lords present: David Rivera, Tony Baez and Omar Lopez. There were passionate speeches, and loud chants of “Power to the people!” and “Viva Puerto Rico libre!”

“I think for the last 50 years we have felt like we had no representation in our community, and we were able to reignite that spark on June 4. There’s been a lot of Puerto Rican movements, but we resonate with the Young Lords, and they bring representation to our community in this country,” said Suby Toro, national chairman of the Young Lords.

The new activists from Connecticut, Cleveland, Orlando, Tampa, Miami and New York City are reviving the Young Lords, demanding independence for Puerto Rico, and opposing police killings and repression. About half of the new leaders are women and non-binary comrades. Their community service programs are growing and developing as they create ties and organize the masses of people.

#ChicagoIL #PuertoRico #YoungLordsParty #NewEraYoungLords

New York, NY – Thousands of people rose up across New York City on Saturday, May 30 all throughout the boroughs in various actions organized by different groups. All of the actions were in solidarity with the Minneapolis rebellion and demanding justice for George Floyd.

One action was a car caravan that went from Harlem to the Bronx. Over a dozen cars gathered as part of the National Day of Protest with the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. The cars taped up posters with the demands of Justice for George Floyd, stop killer cops, and solidarity with the Minneapolis uprising. The caravan was organized by New York Community Action Project, The New Abolitionist Movement, Justice for Lynne Stewart, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Pueblo-People Party, and Struggle – La Lucha.

The caravan started in Harlem and first drove by a rally organized by Harlem’s Coalition Opposing Modern Day Lynching. The cars honked and chanted with the protest of over 600 people, who were met with police in riot gear. They continued driving around the neighborhood, receiving solidarity from the community, before heading up to the Bronx.

The caravan ended at the Bronx, where some of the attendees joined a protest organized by Peoples Power Assemblies. Over 300 gathered at the Hub, an area with heightened NYPD presence and harassment. After the march ended at St. Mary’s Park, the crowd chanted “Leave the park!” at the cops, who eventually left after being unable to intimidate the protesters.

Other actions were also organized in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. Protests in Brooklyn have been especially escalated, with actions happening Friday and Saturday nights that have included the smashing and burning of NYPD vehicles. The NYPD is an especially militarized police force, with a long history of its own murders of Black people and other oppressed groups. All of these demonstrations have shown that the people are fed up and are ready to fight back.

#NewYorkNY #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PuertoRico #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #NewYorkPoliceDepartment #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #MinneapolisUprising

The people of Minneapolis have taken to the streets the past 72 hours, demanding the arrest of the killer cops who murdered 46-year-old African American George Floyd on Monday night, May 25. Eyewitness video was released Tuesday morning showing now former Minneapolis cop Derek Chauvin pinning Floyd to the ground, with Chauvin’s knee directly on the back of his neck – the video shows Floyd’s last gasps for air. You can hear him telling the killer cop that he can’t breathe and calling for his mother before you see his body going limp. Three other cops on the scene stand by, with two other cops actively helping to restrain Floyd on the ground, all ignoring the pleas of bystanders to let him breathe. Since then, tens of thousands in Minneapolis and have taken to the streets, demanding justice and retribution, which prompted the Minneapolis police to immediately terminate the four officers involved with Floyd’s murder and finally to charge and jail Chauvin May 29.

We can’t forget that Twin Cities area police have been the target of recent high-profile struggles involving police murders, including the murder in 2015 of African American man Jamar Clark by two killer Minneapolis killer cops, which prompted a wave of protests; the murder of Philando Castile in the suburbs of Minneapolis on video, as well Justine Damond in 2017, which also prompted mass protests.

The question of killer cops targeting African Americans isn’t just a story of Black people being more oppressed workers, it’s also the result of the system of national oppression, a system that chains down African Americans and subjects them to the most intense methods of brutality at the hands of the ruling class and its police force. From Minneapolis to Louisville, we see a disregard for Black life at the hands of the police, with the Minneapolis rebellion becoming a breaking point for the Black liberation movement, sparking nationwide protests.

As Martin Luther King Jr, once said, “A riot is the language of the unheard.”

We must continue the call to demand community control of the police as well as the indictment and convictions of all killer cops, especially those who murdered George Floyd. We must also, as what we’ve seen in Chicago with the LaQuan McDonald cover-up, fight to kick out government attorneys and prosecutors who refuse to prosecute killer cops and racist vigilantes, as they did initially in the case of Ahmaud Arbery’s lynching in Brunswick, Georgia.

On May 30, the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression is calling for a day of nationwide protests against the murderous policies of police departments nationwide as well as demand the mass release of inmates in prisons due to COVID-19. We unite with this call and know that the more people that hit the streets, the shakier the foundations of national oppression in this country becomes. Protests have already started taking place in cities like Memphis and Los Angeles, with many cities planning protests through the week leading into the weekend.

Our job is to organize, agitate and connect the struggle for Justice for George Floyd, Justice for Ahmaud Arbery, Justice for Breonna Taylor to our own local struggles for justice and community control of the police. We need to build organization on both local and national levels to consolidate the power of the people into a fighting force against national oppression and the criminal injustice system.

The streets are on fire for action and our job is to continue to fan the flames.

Justice for George Floyd! Indict and convict the killer cops! Community control of the police now! All power to the people!

#UnitedStates #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AsianNationalities #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #HawaiianNation #IndigenousPeoples #PuertoRico #PoliceBrutality #Antiracism #Socialism #FRSOJointNationalitiesCommission #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd

The country has been riven by the murder of Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer put his knee directly on Floyd’s neck while he struggled for air and said repeatedly that he couldn’t breathe. The murder was caught on film, and as a result, more than 20,000 people took to the streets of Minneapolis May 26 to demand justice, only to be met with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Far fewer people have heard of Bernardo Palacios, shot dead over the weekend by the Salt Lake City Police Department. Officials have so far refused to release any details about the killing, other than claiming vaguely that police were responding to reports that someone in the area had been threatened with a gun.

In response, Utah Against Police Brutality is holding a car caravan protest around the downtown police station. They are demanding the immediate release of any footage showing Palacios’ killing, as well as justice for Floyd. In addition, they demand the release of incarcerated people at risk of covid-19. Above all, they are demanding justice for all the people killed by SLCPD through community control of the police.

The protest will take place Saturday morning. Those interested in attending can gather at the parking lot near 5th South and Denver Avenue at 11 a.m. The caravan will then circle the block surrounding the downtown police station.

More information can be found at https://www.facebook.com/events/574385733215704.

#SaltLakeCityUT #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PuertoRico #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Antiracism #UtahAgainstPoliceBrutality #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #NationalDayOfProtest

Chicago, IL – Instituto Justice and Leadership Academy (IJLA) is a small two-floor building that rests on the corner of Western and Blue Island Avenues in Pilsen, Chicago. At first glance you would notice the mural that decorates the wall – women of color with fists in the air, “La Lucha Sigue.” You might ask yourself, “Is this a school?” and the first answer is: yes. Though, the more accurate answer is: “It’s a home, a safe haven.”

First, some vital context. IJLA (more commonly referred to by its original name, Rudy, after the socialist Rudy Lozano) is an options school. This means that our students are 16 to 21 years old and typically are pushed out of the traditional school system, whether that be because of home responsibilities, mental health that impacts attendance, pregnancy, gang affiliation, or ‘behavior.’ We are a small school – our enrollment is currently at about 108 students though that is ever growing as we have accumulated a waitlist and have several students who refer their friends to enroll. However, what’s arguably most notable about IJLA is that we are a Restorative Justice school.

Restorative Justice is the philosophy that believes that in order to repair and heal, all parties affected need to come together to discuss the harm that was caused and a way to resolve it. In other words, believing in Restorative Justice means genuinely believing that people are capable of changing, but at the same time understanding that change takes time, patience, love and accountability – the difference is that under restorative justice, accountability is never, ever punitive.

At IJLA this Restorative Justice looks like a united staff that prioritizes the health and safety of students. This means building relationships with students to the point that we consider each other family (yes, they call us all by our first names). It means student circles, community circles, and staff circles (what we ask our students to do, we need to do ourselves). It means understanding and accepting that there are times when a student, community or staff will need multiple circles for the same behavior. It’s going back to the drawing board to see what happened and what we can do moving forward.

This emphasizes the fact that we are equals. There is no “because I’m the teacher” at IJLA. That phrase will not survive here and that’s good. Everything we do at IJLA needs to have a purpose, and that purpose should focus on dismantling the systems of oppression that are embedded in our country. If we feel challenged as teachers, we need to ask ourselves why and admit that students are right to question us, and at IJLA, we try our best to provide the tools for students to question effectively beyond our walls.

Even during a global pandemic that has pushed us to remote learning, we are embodying these beliefs. Remote learning is inherently inequitable, but if we are left with no other choice, the only thing we could do was try to find the least inequitable solutions. So, we got to working. And we found a way to communicate with each and every one of our students. We distributed laptops and hotspots to each student who needed one along with any other supplies students might need (masks, hygiene products, food, baby products, gift cards, nearly anything that could be necessary) almost immediately.

Academically, we’ve established cross-curriculum classes that are relevant (especially during COVID-19) that make it significantly less stressful for students and staff to function during this time. That means collaboration between the subjects of history and science, and the subjects of English and math to create a total of two classes that include each subject’s core competencies. This not only reduces the amount of time students are expected to log in, but it creates a unique opportunity to conduct a truly interdisciplinary project that asks students to research a different aspect of COVID-19 and create or re-write a current policy that exists. The topics can vary, from researching the lack of testing sites in communities of color to researching the stimulus check and who it really benefits – it’s all up to the students and their interests.

Nonetheless, at IJLA, we understand that because of our size, we have the opportunity to establish these practices without the barriers of a traditional school. But the traditional school system is failing our youth, especially our youth of color. This pandemic and remote learning are bringing these injustices out of the woodwork and making themselves obvious to those who have had the privilege of being blind to them. Students at IJLA have not had the privilege of ignoring these inequities; in fact, they are the exact people the school system has failed.

It is because of this that the staff of IJLA has worked passionately to create a space where our students are allowed to feel safe, to feel loved, to feel respected. It is a space that prioritizes their voices and their needs, whether that be through practicing restorative justice or reworking curriculum in the face of a global pandemic; students will always be put first – a foundational and essential right that should be given to all students at all schools.

#ChicagoIL #ImmigrantRights #StudentMovement #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Opinion #Healthcare #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PuertoRico #education #COVID19 #InstitutoJusticeAndLeadershipAcademyIJLA

New York, NY – As of April 14, the death toll from COVID-19 jumped by 3700, up to 10,000 in New York City. While the Bronx’s confirmed infection rate is in line with the city’s, the borough has the highest per-case fatality rate in NYC. There are various conditions that make the people of the Bronx especially vulnerable to the virus.

The Bronx is predominantly Black and Latino and has higher rates of poverty compared to the rest of the city. The poverty rate is at 28.4%, 10% higher than the citywide average, and makes up for 60% of the city’s low-income residents. One in four of the city’s 400,000 New York City Housing Authority residents live in the Bronx. This includes the many elderly people who are more susceptible to the coronavirus.

Many people have various medical issues that make them less immune to the coronavirus, especially in the South Bronx. Diabetes, asthma and hypertension are just some of the conditions linked with coronavirus complications. These illnesses can be linked to the fact that The Bronx is considered a food desert, where one in four residents are food insecure, and because pollution is rampant. The South Bronx neighborhood of Mott Haven, where 97% of the population is Black or Latino, has some of the worst air pollution in the country, contributing to the borough’s high rate of asthma.

Healthcare in the Bronx is also not adequately funded or supported. As a result, the hospitals in the Bronx are not fully equipped to handle the pandemic. On April 1, nurses with the New York State Nurses Association protested outside of Montefiore Hospital demanding N95 masks and other PPE. While temporary hospitals have been set up in Central Park and the Javits Center, the construction of a field hospital in Van Cortlandt Park is not expected to be completed for another three weeks. When Mayor Bill de Blasio visited Lincoln Hospital, the only public hospital in the South Bronx, he was met with protesters demanding coronavirus testing, because there are currently none available there.

While the city has recently approved to spend over $8 billion for four new jails, such money would be better spent on fixing the healthcare system and poverty that disproportionately affects the people of the Bronx. Until a new system – one that prioritizes healthcare and makes sure no one lives in poverty – is put into place, the Bronx will continue to bear the brunt of COVID-19 in the city.

#NewYorkNY #OppressedNationalities #US #Healthcare #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PuertoRico #DonaldTrump #NewYorkCity #COVID19 #Bronx

Frank Chapman, a long-time leader in the Black liberation movement, talks about the November 22- 24 Chicago conference to refound the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression. The interview was prepared for the print edition of Fight Back! which is now on hold due to the pandemic.

Fight Back!: In November, you helped organize the re-founding conference of the National Alliance in Chicago. What conditions are there in the country that led up to the conference?

Frank Chapman: Our call for the re-founding of the National Alliance was a direct response and a conscious intervention into a mass youth uprising that we can trace back to the murder of Trayvon Martin in 2012. Our young people became very agitated by how they were being ruthlessly and recklessly murdered by the system. The police said it was OK for Zimmerman to stalk and murder this teenager. That sparked a very powerful response and agitated into being organizations of young people such as Black Lives Matter, Dream Defenders, and Black Youth Project 100. This was the dawn of a new youth-led stage in the Black liberation movement.

Coming into the present, police repression has continued to grow and intensify, bringing tens of thousands of people in the streets... We had a new stirring in the Black community that had to be reckoned with, and from the point of view of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, had to be organized.

Fight Back!: How did you lay the basis for launching a national organization to oppose police crimes and fight for community control of the police?

Chapman: The Chicago Alliance was the branch of the National Alliance that refused to die, that continued to organize even though the national organization had withered and no longer existed. The reason for that are the special conditions that exist here in Chicago. In the words of Kim Foxx, our recently-elected states attorney, Chicago is the false-confession capital of the U.S. We would take that a step further, something new that was happening in the United States of North America with regard to Black people, Chicago became the capital of torture-acquired confessions: deliberate, militaristic type torture, mostly perpetrated against teenagers.

Those are the objective conditions that the Alliance had to face and struggle with, that would not permit us to fold up our tents and go home. I will always say this: thanks to Josephine Wyatt, Clarice Durham, and Ted Pearson – they kept this fire burning. When I first came to Chicago ten years ago to help the Chicago Alliance organize a campaign against police crimes, Josephine said to me, “How did we let this happen?” She held our movement responsible for the level of mass incarceration, and for the torture cases in Chicago.

So it became our duty to organize a massive campaign for community control of the police. We started that campaign in 2012, one month after the murder of Rekia Boyd, a 21-year-old Black woman murdered by a police officer, for making too much noise in the park.

By consistently working in the community – tabling, street canvassing, door to door campaigning for an all elected, all civilian police accountability council, CPAC – we built to 60,000 supporters in a seven-year period.

We raised the slogan, “Community Control of the Police,” and activists in other cities came to the conference because they saw in Chicago it wasn’t just a slogan, but backed up by a program, and there was nothing else like it in the country.

Black and Brown people understand that the slogan means we have a democratic right as a people to say who polices our communities and how they are policed. That right is being, and has been, trampled on historically. They felt the time to change this is now. The call to re-found the National Alliance could not fall on deaf ears, because the historical conditions were already there.

The national conference was held at the Chicago Teachers Union hall because the Alliance has always seen that the fight for democracy in the U.S. has to be the united struggle of two major components, and that is labor and Black liberation. In Chicago, we have proven that is not just a theory. When labor and the Black community unite in the struggle for community control, it is the foundation of an undefeatable coalition.

Fight Back!: What were the accomplishments of the conference?

Chapman: The accomplishments of the conference were beyond our expectations. We figured we would have over 500 participants, and that it would be concentrated in the Midwest, and in those areas of the country where Freedom Road had been engaged in mass struggles around police crimes, and those areas where the Alliance had some influence, like Saint Louis.

When we looked at who the registrants were, we saw that they were from 28 states, 101 different cities, and 255 different organizations. Then on the opening night of the conference, we saw 1200 people who came to the opening night of the conference. We saw mostly youth, and most of them were Black and Brown, but a significant number were also white working class, both students but also people involved in the organized labor movement.

We saw in the room that night the foundation of a united front: Black, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Palestinian and Arab, Filipino, working class, and the LGBTQ community. Based on my 50 years of experience, I have never seen the breadth and depth of what we had on November 22 – 24. That is the greatest indicator to us that we are at a significant crossroads in the development of our movement.

Fight Back!: Can you address the importance of the campaign for the release of political prisoners and the wrongfully convicted?

Chapman: We’ve always seen that the cutting edge of mass incarceration is the police. Before you see the judge, before you see the prosecutor, you see the police. This history of this is deep and overwhelming. When our movement was under attack in the 1960s, who was shooting down our movement, particularly the Black Panthers? Who was arresting people, framing them up, and trying to send them off to jail, just because they were demanding social change, and engaged in revolutionary struggle? It was the police at every level of government: local police, the FBI and the CIA.

The program they perpetrated against our movement was called COINTELPRO. From that experience there was created in this country an enormous body of political prisoners, mostly Black, but also Latino and indigenous people. We are left with that today because the U.S. government and local police still have a political vendetta against those people who participated in the Black liberation movement, Chicano, and Puerto Rican liberation movements, and the struggle of indigenous people for their sovereignty and liberation. These people are the longest-held political prisoners in world history.

We have to make our people aware of this and make the demand for this so loud and so clear until the walls of Jericho will come tumbling down. That’s why we have linked up with the Jericho movement.

In this struggle to free all political prisoners, let me just say that all of those tortured and wrongfully convicted are also political prisoners. They were tortured in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and in violation of international covenants in the United Nations. None of their torturers have been punished, and prisoners remain in jail 20 and 30 years later. It’s also time to get them out.

#ChicagoIL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PuertoRico #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PoliticalPrisoners #PoliticalRepression #FrankChapman #NationalAllianceAgainstRacistAndPoliticalRepression #ConferenceToRefoundTheNationalAlliance

Chicago, IL – In true Chicago fashion, Mayor Lori Lightfoot had expected to easily ramrod through a police reform bill this week that would have affirmed her grip on power. If passed, the “Community Commission for Public Safety and Accountability” ordinance would have left the entire police accountability system in her control, rendering it at the discretion of the executive branch whether to hold itself accountable for abuses of power committed by its police department, rather than giving communities terrorized by police tyranny the power to defend their rights.

In a stunning turnabout, the mayor’s efforts were stymied by mass pressure and a movement for transformative change that has demanded a profound, far-reaching and necessary alteration of the power dynamic in one of the most racist cities in the nation: the movement for community control of the police. As a result of that movement, and the mayor’s own avarice, the vote for the bill was called off at the last minute yesterday morning by the chair of the city’s Public Safety Committee, which would have otherwise sent the bill on to a full vote in the city council.

That the mayor’s proposed oversight bill is farcical is best judged by none other than Lori Lightfoot herself. In her former role as chair of the Police Accountability Task Force, Lightfoot wrote of the need for a new approach to police accountability, stating, “A coalition of community groups has proposed the creation of a Civilian Police Accountability Council (CPAC) to establish direct community oversight over CPD. The proposal here strives to honor the principles established by CPAC. We recommend that, as soon as possible, the City Council hold public hearings with the goal of developing the specific details of the Board – based on direction of the community – and selection of the Board members within 90 days of the start of the hearings.”

Lightfoot penned this 2016, in the wake of the murder of teenager Laquan McDonald and then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s cover-up of that murder to ensure his re-election. Now that she is mayor, how does Lightfoot’s proposed police reform ordinance “honor the principles established by CPAC”? Simply put, it denigrates them. Under the mayor’s bill, communities remain without representation to decide how Lightfoot’s police force should be controlled. Under the mayor’s bill, everyone with power over police accountability is appointed by, and accountable to, only the mayor herself.

And in stark contrast to Lightfoot’s demand in 2016, not a single community hearing on police reform has been scheduled under her watch. Instead, secret deals between her office and well-funded NGOs are being struck behind closed doors to make sure she stays in control. When asked why he hasn’t scheduled any such hearing, even though he had planned to, Chris Taliaferro, the mayor’s choice for chair of the Public Safety Committee, the body responsible for creating legislation related to policing, told supporters of CPAC that it is not up to him to schedule a hearing. That left them to ask, “Whose decision is it and why was it your decision back in November 2019 – when you said you would – but not now?”

In response to the mayor’s maneuvers, the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression has been waging a steady pressure campaign to demand actual community involvement in determining how communities can have power over the police. That includes members of the Chicago Teachers Union, SEIU Local 73, United Working Families, Democratic Socialists of America, Black Lives Matter, Trinity United Church of Christ, Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Standing Up for Racial Justice flooding Taliaferro’s office with phone calls demanding that he schedule a public hearing in the community to discuss CPAC, which some 60,000 Chicagoans have already demanded that their aldermen pass and which has been introduced into city council three times since 2016. (A newly revised version will be introduced for a fourth time on March 18). In addition, some 20 legal experts from the University of Chicago and Northwestern University law schools are set to deliver to Taliaferro’s committee an open letter of support for CPAC as the solution to ending police abuse. This follows in the wake of an op-ed on CPAC published by two prominent legal experts in the Chicago Sun-Times the night before the mayor’s proposed stealth vote.

It didn’t help that the mayor’s own quest for power got in the way of her plans. Just before the vote was scheduled, the Grassroots Alliance for Police Accountability (GAPA) coalition that has been working with her in secret came face to face with the reality of an enemy with unbridled ambitions, as Lightfoot abruptly decided to strip from their proposed “Community Commission” the power to make police department policy. This was the last holdout for GAPA, as they have otherwise given away every other power for enforcing control over the CPD to the mayor. When the mayor made her move, GAPA cried foul. Together with pressure from CPAC’s supporters, it was enough to grind the vote to a halt.

As GAPA allows Lightfoot to take more power from the community and put it in her hands, more and more of its members have left the coalition, the compromises made weakening their bill to a shell of what it once was. GAPA’s name is now synonymous with the mayor’s naked power grab. Along with the last vestiges of any power the “Community Commission” might have had, so too has gone whatever remained of the Lightfoot of 2016. The only option left for GAPA at this point is to join forces with the oldest, broadest and most militant mass movement for community control of the police in Chicago and the country, and begin demanding real power for Black, Chicano/Mexicano and Puerto Rican communities to hold the police accountable – through CPAC. Faced with a mayor who rode the coattails of a police accountability movement in order to get elected, but who will not abide by any threat to her authority now that she’s in office, what do they have to lose?

#ChicagoIL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PuertoRico #PoliceBrutality #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #PoliticalRepression #civilianPoliceAccountabilityCouncilCPAC #MayorLoriLightfoot #CommunityCommissionForPublicSafetyAndAccountability

Chicago, IL – A standing room only crowd filled the Holy Covenant United Methodist Church on September 29 to commemorate Reverend Bruce Johnson and Eugenia Johnson. The reverend and his wife Eugenia were remembered for supporting the Young Lords and their role in the struggle against poverty, war and oppression. They were savagely murdered in their own home 50 years ago, stabbed to death, during a U.S. government campaign of repression known as COINTELPRO or the Counterintelligence Program.

Ministers of the United Methodist Church, the Bishop of Chicago’s Episcopal Church and leaders from the Presbyterian McCormick Seminary honored the couple’s commitment to equality, justice and peace. Those who knew the martyred couple best spoke with reverence for their commitment to humanity and their dedication and love for their children and each other.

During the church service, it became clear the radical Christian ideas espoused by Reverend Bruce Johnson were both a challenge and an inspiration to many. Those honoring him continue to try to live up to his ideas. It was during the Young Lords occupation of the McCormick Seminary in May of 1969 that Reverend Bruce Johnson stepped forward to offer aid and solidarity to the Young Lords. It was only a few months later he and his wife were killed.

Along with the many women ministers who spoke, DePaul professor Jacqueline Lazu explained the history of the Young Lords. DePaul was one of the three big institutions involved in displacing people. Professor Lazu said, “Every day I think about how I came to teach at DePaul and how I benefit from the struggle of the Young Lords to open up access for Puerto Ricans.”

Young Lords founder Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez said, “We are here today, to remember and honor the Reverend Bruce Johnson and Eugenia. They are our martyrs. Along with Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton and Mark Clark who were killed two months later. They gave their lives, as did Young Lords Manuel Ramos and Jose “Pancho” Lind. The Young Lords led our neighborhood struggle against displacement of poor people by the big developers.”

Pat Devine, a religious and community organizer related, “70,000 people were forced out of the Lincoln Park neighborhood in four years, as developers made land grabs and built housing for only the wealthiest in Chicago.”

After the memorial mass, nearly 100 people marched through the Lincoln Park neighborhood to the former site of People’s Church. People’s Church is where Reverend Bruce Johnson hosted the Young Lords. “We ran a day care center, breakfast program for school children and organized protests and occupations to stop the displacement of our community. We also rallied to free Puerto Rico!” Jimenez said.

Tony Baez, Young Lord Minister of Education, said “Their deaths made us more serious as revolutionaries and propelled us forward. Young Lords went on to organize in other parts of society and in many other cities where Puerto Rican people lived.”

The march ended with a rally at People’s Church. “We honor their sacrifice. We will be Young Lords until the day we die! Free Puerto Rico!” proclaimed Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez.

#ChicagoIL #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PuertoRico #PoliceBrutality #COINTELPRO #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #YoungLordsParty #ReverendBruceJohnson

New York, NY – Over 300 people gathered at Columbus Circle in New York City on September 21 to rally and march for Puerto Rican independence. The action was just one of many organized by various groups around different issues over the weekend, in response to the United Nations General Assembly.

The rally started with a series of speeches and chants. The crowd then marched to Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza, near the UN. The program continued with speeches from Puerto Rican, oppressed nationality, and solidarity organizations.

Lorraine Liriano, one of the emcees from A Call to Action on Puerto Rico, led chants and encouraged the crowd to continue fighting for liberation.

“We don’t need to be given our freedom. We need to fight for our freedom,” said Liriano.

One notable speaker of the day was Oscar Lopez Rivera, a prominent Puerto Rican liberation activist and freed political prisoner. Rivera spoke about the importance of Puerto Ricans being unafraid to fight back against U.S. imperialism, and for the youth to continue the struggle. He also emphasized the need for solidarity with other countries under attack by the United States, including Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

“Imperialism will never stop trying to destroy anything that is against it,'' said Rivera. “In Cuba right now, we have an embargo, trying to stop Cuba from moving forward. All of us have the obligation to give support to Cuba. Cuba has shown us what solidarity is all about. Cuba has shown us that we could defeat imperialism.”

The rally ended with a cultural performance and music. The action was organized by Frente Independista Boricua and NY Boricua Resistance.

#NewYorkNY #PeoplesStruggles #PuertoRico #OscarLopezRivera

Jacksonville, FL – On July 22, around 100 members of the local Puerto Rican community rallied in front of the Duval County Courthouse demanding #RickyRenunica, calling for the resignation of Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rossello. General strikes and mass demonstrations have taken place in Puerto Rico for weeks, demanding the resignation of the embattled right-wing governor after the release of messages showing him and other high level officials mocking the deaths of Puerto Rican’s killed during Hurricane Maria, along with sexist and homophobic remarks.

#JacksonvilleFL #PoorPeoplesMovements #PuertoRico #RickyRenunica

Chicago, IL – About 400 people rallied marched in neighborhood of Humboldt Park, July 21, calling for the resignation of Puerto Rico’s Governor Ricardo Rossello. Jazmine Salas emceed the demonstration, which was called by the Chicago Boricua Resistance. Chanting “Ricky renuncia!” (Ricky resign), the crowd added their voices to the hundreds of thousands who are protesting on the island.

Puerto Rico is a colony of the U.S. that is fighting for its independence.

Also speaking at the protest was Kobi Gullory of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, who spoke the struggle for community control of the police and noted that Blacks and Latinos in the U.S. and people of Puerto Rico are oppressed by U.S. imperialism.

#ChicagoIL #ChicagoILIL #Labor #PeoplesStruggles #PuertoRico #Strikes #RickyRenuncia #ChicagoBoricuaResistance

There are many 50-year anniversaries being celebrated these days, including the founding of the Young Lords on September 23, 1968, and the Rainbow Coalition in April 1969.

Fight Back! interviewed the founder of the Young Lords, Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez, about the original Rainbow Coalition. The powers ruling Chicago were struck with fear when the Rainbow Coalition came together. The United States government and the FBI repressed the groups of the Rainbow Coalition with the courts and violence in the form of COINTELPRO, the counter-intelligence program. The Rainbow Coalition inspired many activists in the late 1960s and continues to hold lessons for today.

Fight Back!: How did the Rainbow Coalition come together?

Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez: In late 1968, Chairman Fred Hampton and I, the Black Panthers and Young Lords, were already working together on building Black and Brown Unity. We were working on a Black Active and Determined (B.A.D.) conference with Danny Underwood and Marion Stamps, at the Cabrini Green housing projects and the Olivet Church. The Young Lords had recently arrived back from Puerto Rico and from a trip to Denver, Colorado where we had established contact with Corky Gonzalez and other Chicano movement leaders. It was September 1968 and we were working out of the offices of the Concerned Citizens of Lincoln Park at 2512 North Lincoln, a church organization of mostly white pastors assisting the poor and opposed to urban renewal. Reverend Bruce and Eugenia Ransier Johnson, Pat Devine and Reverend James Reed were all part of this Northside Cooperative Ministry.

Around the same time, the Young Lords were also connected with the Latin American Defense Organization (LADO). It was primarily a Puerto Rican group led by Mexican national, Obed Lopez. They were forming a Wicker Park/Humboldt Park welfare rights union. It was well supported and became connected to several West Town groups like SAAC, MIO, PACA, PSP, and the West Town Concerned Citizens Coalition. Today’s Ruiz Belvis Cultural Center was also part of that grouping, centered on the Wicker Park Welfare office at North Ave. and Milwaukee.

In February of 1969 LADO asked me to bring the Young Lords to support their picket line. The Young Lords came in large numbers and we also brought along Chairman Fred Hampton and other members of the Black Panther Party.

We arrived at the picket line and were there no longer than 15 minutes when the police rounded up Chairman Fred Hampton, Obed Lopez, and I. The three of us were placed into the paddy wagon and hauled to the 13th District Police Station. We were charged with mob action. Mary Lou Porrata of the West Town Concerned Citizens Coalition and a few other Latina women were also detained and later released. The same situation occurred a couple of weeks later at the same location with Chairman Fred, Obed, and I. All three of us were arrested once again and charged with mob action in the same month of February 1969. This history is well documented in the LADO, Concerned Citizens and Young Lords newspaper collections at De Paul University and at Grand Valley State University special collections: www. gvsu.edu/younglords

Two months later in April, at the street corner of Armitage and Dayton, Chairman Fred Hampton and I were talking about police repression of our groups and the then political climate of fascism. He asked me if I or the Young Lords would object to being part of a coalition of forces for all of our protection. He said that the Black Panther Party was working with a new group on the Northside called the Young Patriots whose leader was William “Preacherman” Fesperman.

I made it clear we had no issues and agreed on the spot. Puerto Ricans had lived next to the hillbilly community at the “La Clark” neighborhood in the 1950s. There was also the Oasis Restaurant hangout at Webster and Bissell, and then a hillbilly gang called “The Rebels,” whose leader was a Puerto Rican, at a diner on Lincoln and Sheffield in Lincoln Park.

Within days all three groups were visiting each other and hanging out. Since the Rainbow Coalition became a response to Mayor Daley and the possible vehicle to stop the rioting, our first task as a coalition was to promote the announcement in a series of press conferences at various media outlets and various parts of the city. That was not a problem, as everybody wanted to be on the TV.

Fight Back!: What were the times like which brought you together?

Jimenez: The year before in 1968 was the Democratic Convention and the Black West Side, South Side and pockets of the North Side of Chicago had erupted into riots over the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. Now, in April of 1969, once again there were strong signs that these same neighborhoods were going to again erupt. The Uptown neighborhood was turning into a decaying area and the new skid row. Puerto Ricans in Chicago had also rioted several times, and they now were the predominant force in the North Side’s Lincoln Park and Lakeview neighborhoods. Reporters had also been bloodied while they covered the hippies being beaten, and now a militant wing of the SDS, the Weather Underground was preparing to wear plastic helmets and use baseball bats to duel it out with the Chicago Police in the Days of Rage.

Still what Mayor Daley feared most was the united front led by Chairman Fred Hampton and the Rainbow Coalition. In fact, Hampton publicly referred to the proposed dueling of the Days of Rage as suicidal and “Custeristic” naming it after General Custer’s last stand. Hampton added that it would lead to unnecessary mass arrests. Our few attorneys would be diverted from the many Young Lords and Black Panther repressive court cases, and this would set the movement back years. Fred Hampton proposed working instead for a disciplined armed revolution and a classless society.

There was democratic discussion taking place among the New Left, which was healthy, but a clear division took place in October 1969 between the downtown Days of Rage event and the already planned Young Lords demonstration to be held within the Puerto Rican Community to honor Don Pedro Albizu Campos and the movement for self-determination of Puerto Rico.

Chairman Fred Hampton asked me if the Young Lords could accommodate the SDS revolutionary marchers from out of town as part of our Puerto Rico demonstration. Of course, I agreed since a contingent of our East Coast Young Lords were also coming and would be among them. This would also expand the march, having greater impact in the neighborhood. It became a counter event to the Days of Rage downtown, but the press focused more on the dueling between the police and the SDS and Weather Underground. During this same period, was when Chairman Fred Hampton took to the airways and expounded on the need to organize the people for a people’s revolution. Eventually we all were reunited but it showed the power of the FBI’s COINTELPRO infiltration and the U.S. government’s re-direction of the movement’s goals, along with “divide and conquer” tactics. It was not just COINTELPRO that helped to destroy the movement, it was members of our movement themselves, those who spread rumors, and put their personal opportunist interests above the people’s interests.

Fight Back!: What were the demands?

Jimenez: One of the questions, which Chairman Fred Hampton repeated and demanded that mother country radicals ask themselves, was, “How can you go all the way to Vietnam without first going through the West Side of Chicago?” Mother country radicals sought to become internationalists without doing the day-to-day work needed to win victory in our local ghettos and barrios. It is impossible to make revolutionary change without the people. Yet the New Left wanted instant gratification instead of canvassing door to door, or a step-by-step process. The New Left wanted to make change for the people, when self-determination meant making change together, with them.

Chairman Fred Hampton also said that our work was not like a theater. White activists must not just be entertained, by Black, Puerto Rican and other oppressed nationalities, but must also organize within their own communities to fight against racism. They must attack white chauvinism and stop promoting patronizing individualism. Black people should organize within the African American communities. Red, Yellow and Brown people should also organize in their own respective communities. It is not just about being inclusive and respecting each other’s diversity, but it is about making revolutionary change. This is also because each struggle is in its own point or process of development. There is no even template. We must take a look first at, “Time, place and conditions within each community” to determine how we can come together. That is why we tolerated the Young Patriots using the symbol of the Confederate flag.

Fight Back!: How did the Rainbow Coalition view Mayor Daley of Chicago? How about the U.S. President, Johnson?

Jimenez: He was the enemy. A revolution has friends and enemies, and Chairman Fred clarified this. How else can you battle and either lose or win if there are not two clear opposing sides: the red and the blue; the people and the enemy. The Rainbow Coalition officially began in April of 1969 and within 30 days, in May of 1969 Mayor Richard J. Daley, alongside his protégé States Attorney Edward Hanrahan, organized the Mayor’s political cabinet into a special committee to declare a “War on Gangs.”

President Johnson, the FBI’s COINTELPRO and Mayor Richard J. Daley were all clear on, “Who were their friends and who were their enemies?” Who were their opposing targets. To make it appear authentic, Mayor Richard J. Daley and Edward Hanrahan immediately attacked the street youth leaders of the Disciples, Black Stone Rangers and Vice Lords; arresting them and racking up multiple charges. Jeff Fort had about 19 pending felony cases. I had 18, Obed Lopez had nine, and Chairman Fred Hampton also had nine. There were others as well. This was an effort to criminalize without legal cause; to bankrupt our finances, harass us and put us away for life.

Today we know that the clear intended targets were not these street organizations but the political groups whom the political machine feared and whom Daley and Hanrahan labeled terrorist gangs: the Rainbow Coalition. It is true that by September the street youth leaders like Vice Lord Gore was behind bars, but it was also true that on September 29, 1969 UMC Pastor Bruce and Eugenia Ransier Johnson were discovered murdered, each stabbed multiple times at their parsonage home. It is true that two months later, on December 4, 1969, State’s Attorney Hanrahan took a personal police task force to assassinate Chairman Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in their home. The patronage machine and Mayor Richard J. Daley was the clear Father of Gentrification in Chicago which displaced thousands of poor from the city. Police brutality became part of the fabric of Chicago and the Rainbow Coalition was organized to build a People’s Army to fight against it.

Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata said that the basis of all revolutions is land. The Young Lords studied the modern-day land question and began to comprehend today’s city hall plan to privatize public housing and to force the poor away from downtown and the lakefront. These were prime real estate areas where all our barrios were built. So, we were not poor by choice. We were robbed.

The Rainbow Coalition was more than just a gang of activists or folks trying to gain one or two small victories. Demands are for battles. What we wanted was revolutionary change. Each of our groups were already small revolutionary armies connected to the people’s struggle and trying to create a People’s Army to win the battle. We were lumpen proletariat, peasants from the countryside, or urban and factory industrial workers. It is why Chairman Fred Hampton’s quote stands out, “I am so proletarian intoxicated that I cannot be astronomically intimidated.” Ours was never a middle class liberal revolution, but a true grassroots people’s revolution.

If you can comprehend this, you can visualize the type of loose yet disciplined alliance that dignified and respected the empowerment of each community and their cultures. Our goals were clear, simple and known to all.

Ho Chi Minh once said that the revolution was just a job like washing dishes. The survival programs were not reformist, but structures created to provide services while constructing the new world. They were not candy to be donated or given away but part of a planned attack to bring awareness and heightened contradictions. We were exposing the city for not providing food, health and other social services. We are never a non-for profit but revolutionaries.

Fight Back!: What are the big lessons from the Rainbow Coalition?

Jimenez: We must start from within and fight racism.

We must be clear on who are our enemies and who are our friends so that we can unite with the many to defeat the few.

Ours is not about individuals but a people’s struggle led by the common folk.

Ours is a protracted struggle that will take years and we must prepare ourselves for the long run via structured community programs specific to the revolution.

We stand for Puerto Rico, all Latin American nations and oppressed nations of the world, against colonialisms and for self-determination and neighborhood empowerment.

#ChicagoIL #AntiwarMovement #InJusticeSystem #Opinion #PeoplesStruggles #Interviews #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #PuertoRico #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #YoungLordsParty #JoseChaChaJimenez #RainbowCoalition

New York, NY – On June 16, organizers in New York City held a discussion entitled “Las Carpetas: The FBI’s War on Puerto Rican Liberty.” The event was co-hosted by New York Boricua Resistance (NYBR) and the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR), and featured additional comments by Jocelyn Rodriguez of Jornada: Se Acabaron Las Promesas.

The talk began with a history of the FBI’s repression of national liberation struggles, from the time of the Pinkertons up until today. Jessica Schwartz, speaking for CSFR, explained the connections between the FBI’s attacks on Carlos Montes, Rasmea Odeh, the Anti-War 23, the Black Panther Party, and other important freedom fighters. Shwartz highlighted the role activists played in supporting these political prisoners and organizers, pointing out that “what these cases show is that through mass organizing and support, we can have victories against the FBI, and must call out and expose their tactics used against those who speak out against injustice.” Shwartz, concluded her comments with some know your rights information and advice on what to do if the FBI tries to approach you for questioning.

Raphael Ezra (Rafa) and Jorge Cruz, two members of NYBR, followed with an in-depth presentation on the history of the FBI’s role in attacking the Puerto Rican independence struggle. To help clarify the reasons why the FBI has played such a devastating role in preventing Puerto Rico from gaining true freedom, Ezra said, “the FBI and the national government of the United States are very scared of Puerto Rican independence, because they’ve done nothing but steal from our people for more than 100 years, and they’re very afraid that we will break free and then they won’t be able to steal from us any longer.”

This same imperialist logic applies to the repression of the Puerto Rican struggle here in the states as well. Cruz explained that “the formation of the Young Lords Party would see Puerto Ricans born here joining the fight for independence and for better conditions for their people. The FBI and COINTELPRO couldn’t let that occur.”

The history of targeted, intense surveillance of independentistas and Puerto Rican nationalists inspired the event’s title as well, since the word “carpeta” means binder or dossier in Spanish. “The reason we called this event ‘Las Carpetas’ was to talk about the documents and folders on each fighter and organizer -when you comb through the files, you realize they really monitored every single detail of these people’s lives,” Ezra said.

Jocelyn Rodriquez from Jornada: Se Acabaron las Promesas added that the FBI currently maintains dossiers not just on the organizers involved in the independence struggle, but on their children and grandchildren as well. Rodriquez also discussed the trumped-up charges Puerto Rican activists often face, and the way that the federal courts have been weaponized as a tool to intimidate the people of Puerto Rico. Rodriquez concluded with a powerful reminder that “the Puerto Rican people know that we will be free, and that freedom will be won at the hands of the Puerto Rican people struggling on the ground, not as some gift from above.”

The event also featured a radical vocal performance by local community activist and artist Zila Renfro, who organizes as a part of the groups Harlem Solidarity and Defense and GABRIELA USA.

#NewYorkNY #PeoplesStruggles #PuertoRico #CSFR

New York, NY – 200 people marched in a contingent demanding Puerto Rican independence from the United States, June 9 at the Puerto Rican Day Parade. The parade is one of the largest demonstrations of Puerto Rican national pride in the United States. It spans 35 New York City blocks. The day celebrates the art, history, and culture of the 3.5 million Puerto Ricans resident on the island, and the 5 million Puerto Ricans living in the mainland U.S.

The Frente Independentista Boricua marched with signs declaring 200 reasons why Puerto Rico should be independent. A line of people dressed as famed Puerto Rican revolutionary, Lolita Lebrón, led the contingent. Upon arriving at the parade grandstand, the marchers staged a die-in, until suddenly one of the Lolita’s snatched the hat off an Uncle Sam character. Then everyone rose up to finish the parade.

The marchers received many cheers and a few jeers, but they kept energy high with rousing chants, such as “Independencia! Para Puerto Rico!”

Bayan USA, Within Our Lifetime, the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, and the International Action Center supported the Frente Independentista Boricua. The Frente Independentista Boricua is organizing for a larger march in September 2019.

#NewYorkNY #PeoplesStruggles #PuertoRico