Grand Rapids, MI – Singer and folk music icon Pete Seeger passed away today, Jan. 28. Seeger was known for popularizing folk songs and signing everywhere he went. Peter Seeger united peoples in song across the entire society. Children in schools, teenagers at summer camps, worshippers in churches, workers on strike picket lines, civil rights marchers in the South and anti-war protesters across the country and over the decades lifted their voices to sing with Pete Seeger. Always an internationalist, Seeger helped not only to launch the American folk music revival, but folk music revivals in other countries like Australia too.
_Quotes from Mandela on racism, armed struggle and communism _
Nelson Mandela, a leader of the South African struggle for national liberation, passed away today, Dec 5. Mandela led the African National Congress, and along with South African communists, founded the armed struggle group Umkhonto we Sizwe, After 26 years in prison, the national liberation movement of the African masses, supported by a broad international anti-Apartheid movement, won his freedom. The official racial segregation and discrimination of Apartheid was brought down and Nelson Mandela elected president of South Africa.
Minneapolis, MN – National liberation movements around the world are morning the Oct. 4 passing of General Vo Nguyen Giap who, along with Ho Chi Minh, was one of the main leaders of Vietnam’s fight to free itself from Japanese, French and finally U.S. domination.
With news of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s death today, the working class of Britain and the world should not mourn. Working people should take solace in the fact that after so many years of attacks on the working class that the British politician who instigated mass privatizations, cutbacks to public services, the student loan system and breaking unions has now passed into history. Margaret Thatcher set an example that Ronald Reagan followed. They both waged wars on much smaller countries and funded and trained death squads to attempt to defeat national liberation movements. Thatcher also set the standard for torture of political prisoners and liberation fighters that the U.S. would follow.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following letter that Freedom Road Socialist Organization conveyed to the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela on the passing of President Hugo Chavez.
Jenni Rivera was truly a CHICANA Mexican regional music star (even sang it out loud in a song) representing the LBC (Long Beach City), homies, single-moms and homegirls from across Cali, the Southwest and the Americas.
Revolutionary activist and scholar Joel Olson passed away on March 29, 2012. He was 45 years old. His passing came as a shock to friends and comrades and as word spread there was an outpouring of grief and memories on facebook. A fund was quickly set up to support his wife and three children. Memorials are planned for his home of Flagstaff, Arizona, as well as New York and other cities where he had close friends and comrades.
