Jacksonville, FL – The Coalition to March on the RNC applied for permits from the city of Jacksonville, June 17, to hold a rally and march opposed to Donald Trump and the Republican National Convention.

The main slogan of the event will be “We Can’t Breathe – Defeat Donald Trump.” The Coalition to March on the RNC will seek to emphasize the Black-led struggle against police brutality under the past four years of Trump in office. The Coalition also stands for a people’s agenda – money for living-wage jobs, education, universal healthcare, peace and equality.

The Coalition to March on the RNC is a national formation of community organizations and activists that seeks to defeat Donald Trump and stop his right-wing, reactionary agenda. The rally and march will take place on August 27, on the day Donald Trump gives his acceptance speech at Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in downtown Jacksonville.

Members of the Coalition to March on the RNC organized large protests against previous Republican national conventions in 2008 (Minneapolis), 2012 (Tampa), and 2016 (Cleveland). The Coalition expects thousands or more from all around the United States to participate in the historic rally and march. The event will consist of a rally with prominent speakers near the Duval County Clerk of Courts building, followed by march through downtown Jacksonville, passing within sight and sound of the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena.

According to a Coalition statement, “On August 27, 2020, millions around the world will have eyes on Jacksonville. The people opposed to Donald Trump and his wretched policies must speak out against injustice and struggle to build a movement capable of defeating his agenda.”

For more information, please email the Coalition to March on the RNC at MarchOnRNCJAX@gmail.com.

#JacksonvilleFL #ImmigrantRights #PoorPeoplesMovements #StudentMovement #InJusticeSystem #Labor #OppressedNationalities #US #SpecialCoverage #PoliceBrutality #CoalitionToMarchOnTheRNC #DonaldTrump #2020RepublicanNationalConventionRNC

Chicago, IL – The U.S. Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) commemorated the Nakba, “Catastrophe” in English, which marks the ethnic cleansing of over 750,000 Palestinians, and the massacre of thousands more, by Zionist militia groups in 1948, in the wake of the establishment of the settler colonial state of Israel. Palestinians and their supporters all around the world remember the Nakba every year on or around May 15.

On May 14, USPCN-New York member Suzanne Adely moderated a webinar with George Khoury, a Nakba survivor and longtime Detroit-based organizer, and Rasmea Odeh, the famous former Palestinian political prisoner who, after a politically-charged prosecution that was an attack on her organizing and the Palestine national movement as a whole, was deported from the U.S. in 2017.

After George Khoury told his powerful Nakba story, Rasmea Odeh provided a historical analysis and talked about Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonialism. Both emphasized the need to continue organizing for justice and liberation, especially in the U.S., which provides Israel over $5 billion of military and other aid per year. The U.S. under Trump has taken even more extreme steps to support the racist state, like moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, accepting Israel’s declaration of full sovereignty over the Golan Heights, which is stolen Syrian land, and proposing the “Deal of the Century,” a sham peace plan that ignores all Palestinian rights.

“The Nakba taught me that whatever is taken by force, it must be taken back by force, and thus we need to organize and tell our people: Your history was denied, your future was denied. The only way to get liberation is to organize,” stated Khoury at the end of his speech.

Odeh added to Khoury’s statement: “We will accept nothing less than our right of return, and to create a democratic state on our land.”

The next day, USPCNs Chicago chapter organized a Palestinian Car Caravan, in which 75 cars and over 100 community members and allies participated.

The caravan started in Chicago’s southwest suburbs, home to one of the largest communities of Palestinians and Arabs in the U.S., and drove to the Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago, where U.S. Senators Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth have offices.

Simultaneously, USPCN organized a Twitter storm, asking supporters to call their Representatives in the U.S. Congress and demand that they support the No Way to Treat a Child bill (HR 2407), which calls for Israel to stop the detention of children, and take action to end the blockade on Gaza now.

One Palestinian from Chicagoland, who is a descendant of refugees barred from returning to their homes that were stolen in 1948, declared, “The Right of Return to our homes is a must! We will never forget. We will keep on organizing and fighting until we are able to return home.”

#ChicagoIL #InJusticeSystem #OppressedNationalities #Palestine #SpecialCoverage #MiddleEast #PeoplesStruggles #alNakba #Antiracism #PoliticalRepression #RasmeaOdeh #USPalestinianCommunityNetworkUSPCN

New York, NY -This past week reports poured in as New York City opened and built several new medical support structures to aid the overwhelmed city hospital network. Over the weekend, pictures of the converted Javits Center, a huge convention center in Midtown, were circling around, boasting 1200 new hospital beds.

On Tuesday, March 30, tents began going up in Central Park. The makeshift tent hospital will have 68 beds, each with their own respiratory equipment. It will treat overflow patients from Mount Sinai Hospital as the spread of COVID-19 continues to overwhelm NYC hospitals. As Mayor Bill de Blasio praised the new makeshift hospital, he glossed over the finer details of the organization which funded and erected the new facility – Samaritan’s Purse.

Samaritan’s Purse is led by Franklin Graham, an anti-LGBTQ and Islamophobic preacher, who has used humanitarian and charitable missions to preach an evangelical agenda.

Samaritan’s Purse is already hard at work with its bigoted agenda as Graham’s son, Billy Graham, is seeking to recruit only Christian medical staff to the facility in Central Park. Graham and his son are asking all volunteers and staff to adhere to their statement of faith, where they define marriage as “exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female” and the unrighteous are sentenced to “everlasting punishment in hell.”

Under normal circumstances, involvement from a right-wing fundamentalist organization in the medical field is troubling. During a pandemic, it’s dangerous and could cost the lives of hundreds. Under normal circumstances, folks have a choice to disregard certain medical facilities. During a pandemic, where hospitals are overwhelmed and access to a ventilator is a matter of life or death, many will have to turn to makeshift facilities.

A NYC city hall spokesperson stated that any field hospital must operate as an extension of the permanent facility, and therefore their code of conduct. The Samaritan’s Purse facility should be operating under Mount Sinai and therefore must adhere to the hospital's policy against discrimination.

Later that day, Mayor DeBlasio finally spoke about it. “We're going to send people over from the mayor's office to monitor,” de Blasio said. “I am very concerned that this is done right. But if it is done right, we need all the help we can get.”

Other doctors have spoken about their concerns of Samaritan’s Purse setting up in Central Park. They’ve mentioned that Samaritan’s Purse’s response to other crises, such as Ebola, was disastrous and only caused confusion and chaos.

Graham went on Sean Hannity’s FOX news show on Tuesday night to attempt to calm fears and salvage their image. “We're going to give the best health care we can to all New Yorkers, it doesn't matter who they are or what they are,” he said. “We're going to give them the best medical care that we possibly can in Jesus' name.”

New Yorkers shouldn’t have to worry about whether their doctors and specialists are discriminating against them, especially during this pandemic. This global virus continues to push the contradictions of imperialism and more and more working-class people are forced into a smaller and smaller corner.

#NewYorkNY #CapitalismAndEconomy #PoorPeoplesMovements #LGBTQ #SpecialCoverage #Healthcare #NYC #Coronavirus #COVID19 #CentralPark #SamaritansPurse

Aurora, CO – Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) members from Denver, Colorado joined the UAW picket line, October 13, at the General Motors (GM) distribution facility in Aurora. That facility is part of the national strike of General Motors where workers are seeking to improved pay, to maintain high quality health care and to provide a path for temporary workers to become permanent workers.

GM has used multiple wage and benefit tiers, including ‘temporary’ workers, to slash wages and divide the workforce. It is reported that over 46,000 UAW members are out on strike all over the country since the GM strike started on September 16.

There are 48 union UAW employees at the GM warehouse in Aurora; they are all on strike and on the picket lines. These 48 workers manage to picket the warehouse 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Morale is high, as there is much solidarity from other unions and from the community at large. The Teamsters at UPS are not crossing UAW picket lines in Aurora, and it is reported that a large section of the local UPS warehouse is full of GM parts that are not being distributed.

Nicole Adams, a UAW member of Local 431, said she was confident of a victory in the strike and stated, “We are tired of lifting up these companies and they promise us this, and they promise us that, and they make money off of our backs.”

Fight Back! was distributed on the picket line and well received by the strikers. The FRSO members pledged to return to the picket line and to continue to act in solidarity with the Aurora GM workers.

#AuroraCO #SpecialCoverage #PeoplesStruggles #AutoworkersFightBack #UAW #FreedomRoadSocialistOrganizationFRSO #Strikes #Socialism #2019UAWGMStrike

Wyoming, MI – On day 20 of their strike, workers waved “UAW on strike!” signs as they walked back and forth, October 5. Six groups of determined United Auto Workers of Local 167 stood outside and blocked entrances at the enormous General Motors (GM) plant in Wyoming, a working-class Michigan town. A total of 46,000 union strikers are out 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across the United States. GM is losing millions of dollars while negotiations with the UAW continue.

Every few minutes, men and women passing by in cars and pickup trucks honked and yelled out their windows in solidarity. One UAW picketer said, “People flash their lights at night, instead of honking, so as not to wake the neighbors.” At one point a group of 25 motorcyclists roared past at funeral speed, fists raised in the air.

This West Michigan GM plant makes lifters, cam phasers, and axles for light duty trucks. In days gone by it employed over 3000. Today there are 700 to 800 workers on three shifts.

“The members out walking the picket line are in high spirits,” said Scott Poole, a UAW member who works in the plant. “Members from other UAW locals are coming down to support us. A group of four UAW retirees from Flint were here to walk the line in solidarity.”

The big issues for union members on the picket lines are health care costs going up and the fact that most temporary workers are now past three years of employment. Temps make about half the pay of full-timers. Temporary workers now comprise 7% of the GM workforce.

Negotiations are ongoing, with pay increases, pay progression for temporary workers, and pensions reportedly being haggled over. With GM making record profits in four recent years – a net income of $27.5 billion – workers are expecting to do far better than the past two UAW contracts.

#WyomingM #WyomingMI #SpecialCoverage #PeoplesStruggles #AutoworkersFightBack #UnitedAutoWorkers #GeneralMotors #Strikes #2019UAWGMStrike

Lansing, Michigan – The United Auto Workers (UAW) called a strike on Sunday, September 15. Fight Back! interviewed Jean “Johnny Bravo” Duchemin, an alternate committee member in UAW Local 1753 in Lansing, Michigan about the GM strike.

Fight Back!: How do you see the strike fitting into the broader labor movement and the current political climate?

Jean “Johnny Bravo” Duchemin: That one, I had to take time to think about that one. When it comes to the political climate and the labor movement, the labor movement in this country has been died out. A lot of people are uneducated. So, since the last major strike, and the last major movement, it’s been stagnant. Stagnated. So you have a whole generation of 30 years that hasn’t been educated on unions or any other kind of labor force movement. So they are unaware of the importance of the union, so now in today’s political climate it is extremely important, I feel, because... Let me think for a second. I don’t want to give a wrong answer here. So in today’s world we are under severe attack. We have the Right to Work law, which absolutely makes no sense, it just doesn’t make sense. Everyone has the right to work, but they don’t deserve union representation without paying for it. So laws like that, those are straight up union busting, and we’re under attack with these politicians. And so today our movement I believe is super important because it will, if we become victorious over this, I believe that other unions will fall in and stand up instead of accepting what the corporations offer them. That’s the word on the street that you hear. Because we get a lot of people yelling at us every day, “Just be grateful for what they give you,” “Just be grateful for the paycheck.” They don’t really understand the “why” we’re going on strike, why a movement like this is important.

Fight Back!: How many workers is this affecting?

Duchemin: GM employees [are] 49,800 and change, but on top of that 49,000 you have all the other plants actually feed parts, and then you have Canada and Mexico. The plants can’t function without us. So this is actually affecting more than half a million people currently, and now if we stay on strike for another two weeks then we’re looking at maybe 2.5 million people being affected by this. GM right now is leading, it’s leading this.

A lot of people have been accepting lower wages and, you’ve seen it, you got your corporation’s CEOs getting 300-350 times more than the current employee, but the employee doesn’t know that they can actually negotiate and get more money, and then we can burn down that big gap in the middle. So our job as unions, as union members and union representatives, is to agitate, educate and get the community to participate, that’s the main three roles of any union member.

Throughout the past two years I’ve been trying my best to educate everybody, get them prepared for something like this, and they just think you’re crazy ‘cause again we’re in a generation that is uneducated about this and the media’s been raising everybody so they have mixed views. But now they can honestly see that the company gives you nothing. Nothing. Everything that a union has, has been negotiated. The wages, every single entitlement we have, GM gave us none of that. It all has been negotiated. So I feel that when this is said and done, and we all go back to work, at least the UAW will be stronger. And Ford and Chrysler, they’re going to follow suit. But hopefully, other unions outside the auto industry pay attention and stand up.

I try to tell my plant all the time when they say, “The union ain’t fighting for us, the union’s not doing this,” I have to really insist that they themselves are the union. The leaders are elected, they can be unelected, but you guys are the union, and when you all come in numbers you can actually change who’s in the leadership, and you can actually change policies.

Fight Back!: In general what do you hope comes out of the strike, both within and outside of the union?

Duchemin: I hope what comes out of this strike is a message to working class Americans that you don’t have to accept what the company gives you. You don’t have to accept, because they’re going to try all the fear tactics. “You trying to get higher wages? We’re going to have to close down. You want better healthcare? We’re not going to be able to afford your wages.” That’s all bullshit! Excuse my language. They’re fear tactics, so hopefully they can see us stand tall between all the GM threats that are coming out. They can take our healthcare, they can lock us out, they can lock us up, but if we stay strong and everybody stays strong, you’ll get what you want, as long as we don’t accept what they give us.

#LansingMichigan #LansingMI #SpecialCoverage #PeoplesStruggles #AFLCIO #AutoworkersFightBack #UnitedAutoWorkers #Strikes #2019UAWGMStrike #UAWLocal1753

Milwaukee, WI – An April 4 press conference, to take place at Milwaukee’s City Hall, will announce a major protest at the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

“The Coalition to March on the DNC is excited to announce a rally and march on the opening day of the Democratic National Convention, Monday, July 13 at 12 p.m. within sight and sound of the arena,” said Chris Antimo Perez, spokesperson for the Coalition to March on the Democratic National Convention. “All eyes will be on Milwaukee as the DNC takes place at the Fiserv Forum from July 13-16th, 2020. We call on all progressive, left, democratic and socialist organizations to join us in unity.”

Organizers of the protest have applied for a permit for a rally at Red Arrow Park (Dontre Park) and a march to the Fiserv Forum.

The organizers of this coalition have led mass marches that drew thousands to the 2008 Republican National Convention in Saint Paul, Minnesota; the 2012 RNC in Tampa, Florida, and the 2016 RNC in Cleveland, Ohio.

“The Coalition to March on the DNC will be a broad, national coalition of left and progressive forces, working with local Milwaukee groups and activists,” said Perez. He stated they are rallying behind demands including but not limited to: End U.S. Wars and Interventions; Money for Human Needs, Not War; Community Control of the Police; Stop Police Terror; Legalization for All; No More Deportations; Tax the Rich; Medicare for All; Climate Action Now; Fight to Expand Union and Worker Rights, and Demand Peace, Justice and Equality!

#MilwaukeeWI #US #SpecialCoverage #PeoplesStruggles #DemocraticNationalConventionDNC #Elections #MarchOnTheDNC #CoalitionToMarchOnTheDemocraticNationalConvention