Fight Back! News

News and Views from the People's Struggle

tampa5

By staff

On Tuesday, December 12, at 8pm Eastern (7pm Central, 6pm Mountain, 5pm Pacific), the Emergency Committee to Defend the Tampa 5 will host a webinar on the lessons of their victorious struggle to get their charges dropped. Laura Rodriguez and Lauren Pineiro will speak on behalf of the Tampa 5. They will be joined by Frank Chapman, Executive Director of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, as well as a speaker representing Students for a Democratic Society.

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By staff

Members of the Tampa 5 speaking outside the courthouse. | Fight Back! News/staff

Fight Back New Service is circulating the following statement from the Emergency Committee to Defend the Tampa 5.

The Tampa 5 are proud to announce a great victory: their misdemeanor and felony charges will be dropped! This victory was made possible by months of mobilizations of people across the state of Florida, and even across the entire country, in defense of the Tampa 5. It is because of the bravery of students and youth protesters coming out for diversity and for student protest, that these five members of Students for a Democratic Society protesters will not see a single day in prison.

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By Vanessa Christaldi

Orlando, Florida rally in solidarity with the Tampa 5

Orlando, FL – On Monday, November 13, Orlando for Gender Equality organized a rally at the University of Central Florida in support of the Tampa 5. Chrisley Carpio, Laura Rodriguez and Lauren Pineiro of the Tampa 5 spoke at the demonstration as a part of their national speaking tour, in which they visited over 20 cities to bring awareness to their case.

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By Cas Casanova

Tampa 5 speaking tour event in Tallahassee. | Fight Back! News/staff

Tallahassee, FL – On November 17, Chrisley Carpio and Gia Davila continued their nationwide speaking tour with a stop in Tallahassee, Florida. On this tour, the Tampa 5 have visited 25 cities in 16 different states to raise awareness about their story – they were arrested for protesting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ racist attacks on public education and are currently facing multiple felony charges and up to ten years in prison.

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By staff

Orlando visit of the Tampa 5 speaking tour. | Fight Back! News/staff

Orlando, FL – On Saturday, November 11, around 20 community members gathered at the Orlando Public Library for a discussion panel featuring the Tampa 5 as part of their national speaking tour. The event was hosted by Orlando for Gender Equality and the Florida chapter of the New Era Young Lords. The panel’s speakers consisted of Laura Rodriguez, Gia Davila, Lauren Pineiro and Chrisley Carpio of the Tampa 5.

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By Andy Schaefer

San Jose event to defend the Tampa 5. | Fight Back! News/staff

San Jose, CA – Student activist Gia Davila of the Tampa 5 visited San Jose on October 26, as part of the Justice for the Tampa 5 national speaking tour. She spoke at two events about how the Tampa 5’s struggle against systems of repression became personal when they were brutalized by the police and betrayed by the justice system.

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By staff

Denver, CO – On October 27, Laura Rodriguez of the Tampa 5 continued her speaking tour with a stop in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the tour is to combat political repression in the form of the felony charges that would put her and her fellow Tampa 5 organizers in prison for five to ten years.

These felony charges come against the Tampa 5 after they were shoved to the ground, brutalized, groped and arrested by police officers during their protest against Governor Ron DeSantis’ attacks on diversity and equity programs at the University of South Florida.

Rodriguez addressed a crowd of 50 community members, union organizers and student organizers.

The event consisted of two panels. The first panel highlighted different organizers and their own perspectives when it comes to the different barriers they have faced in education and organizing. The panel featured Jacob Marshall of SDS; Miah Ntepp, Denver NAACP vice president and leader at MSU’s Black Student Alliance; and Candi CdeBaca, a tireless advocate for Denver communities and former city councilperson.

Kat Draken, a shop steward for Teamsters Local 455 in Denver and former student organizer in Tallahassee, Florida talked about her experiences when her fellow organizers were arrested for protesting a few years before, “You have to be persistent and annoying, you have to keep holding events and keep up the pressure, if they figure out that they can just wait you out and let the momentum die, that’s what they are going to do.”

The second panel featured organizers who have themselves faced political repression or whose work surrounds political repression in some way. Shaine Carroll-Frey from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization spoke on the repression the organization experienced in 2010 when prominent leaders of the FRSO were raided by the FBI in a coordinated attack aimed at destroying the organization. Other speakers included Ryan Stitzel, a community organizer with Denver Aurora Community Action Committee, who organizes against police terror in the Denver Metro area, and Eliza Lucero, a community organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation in Denver, as well as a labor organizer with the Colorado Education Association. Lucero was a leading local organizer of the mass demonstrations against the overturning of Roe v. Wade and in the 2020 uprisings was one of the local leaders targeted by the Aurora Police Department and charged with multiple bogus felonies.

During the keynote speech, Rodriguez stated, “When they asked us to apologize to the police who had beat us up, to apologize to the people who brutalized our friends right in front of our faces and we said, ‘No thank you.’ And then we were charged with additional felonies. So now I face ten years in prison for standing up for what I know is right.”

This event comes at a time when organizers around the country are facing arrests and other forms of suppression surrounding the mass support for Palestine. Just a couple days before, Ron DeSantis’ administration took steps to ban the pro-Palestine group Students for Justice in Palestine from campuses in Florida. This fact was brought up continuously throughout the second panel because of the connection between the political repression the Tampa 5 is facing and the political repression against pro-Palestinian organizers.

The high energy event ended with chants and a sing-along banjo rendition of Free the Tampa 5 by SDS member Jake Newman. Many different organizations attended and participated in the event, including Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Students for Democratic Society, Party for Liberation and Socialism, Boulder Young Democratic Socialists of America, and the Denver-Aurora Community Action Committee.

#DenverCO #PoliticalRepression #Tampa5 #SDS

By staff

LA event for the Tampa 5. | Fight Back! News/staff

Los Angeles, CA – On October 28 two events were held to educate and fundraise for five women who were brutally arrested on University of South Florida (USF) campus for protesting against Governor Ron DeSantis’ attacks on public education and diversity. These women, who are now facing felony charges for their activism, are called the Tampa 5.

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By staff

Tampa 5 speaking tour in Orange County, California. | Fight Back! News/staff

Orange County, CA – On Friday, October 27, over 30 students and community members gathered across two events to listen to Gia Davila of the Tampa 5 on her stop of the Justice for the Tampa 5 speaking tour. The Tampa 5 are a group of students, workers, and community activists who were violently arrested while protesting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ racist attacks on education at the University of South Florida. They are facing up to ten years in prison and are on a speaking tour to call for these unjust charges to be dropped.

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By staff

Participants in a panel against the repression of progressive speech on campus chant, "Protesting is not a crime!"  | Fight Back! News/staff

Salt Lake City, UT – On October 23, members of the Salt Lake City community filled a room on the University of Utah campus for a panel against the repression of progressive speech on campus. Chrisley Carpio of the Tampa 5 was the keynote presenter and was joined by MECHA at the University of Utah and Armed Queers SLC.

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By Justin Bent

Tampa 5 speaking tour event in Arlington, Texas. | Fight Back! News/staff

Arlington, TX – On Wednesday, October 25, the Progressive Student Union at University of Texas, Arlington hosted Laura Rodriguez on her tour across the South and Southwest, to raise awareness about the repression she and the other members of the Tampa 5 are facing.

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By staff

Gia Davila of the Tampa 5 | Fight Back! News/staff

Seattle, WA – On October 23, Gia Davila of the Tampa 5 spoke before an enthusiastic crowd of 50 people at the University of Washington’s Ethnic Cultural Center. The Tampa 5 are charged with felonies for protesting against Governor Ron DeSantis’s assaults on education. The five, three student organizers, a union member, and a community activist – are currently on a tour of the United States to raise awareness of their case, and how to resist political repression.

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By Jake Holtzman

Event to defend the Tampa 5 in Austin, Texas. | Fight Back! News/staff

Austin, TX – Laura Rodriguez of the Tampa 5 came to the University of Texas at Austin on Tuesday, October 24, to speak about political repression, defending diversity programs and ethnic studies in schools, and the call to drop the charges on the Tampa 5.

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By staff

Tampa 5 speaking tour event in Atlanta. | Fight Back! News/staff

Atlanta, GA – On Saturday, October 21, the Atlanta Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression held a panel speaking event at Adams Park Library hosting Laura Rodriguez of the Tampa 5 and building the struggle against political repression.

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By Serena Sojic-Borne

Speaking event participants pose behind Loyola SDS banner. | Fight Back! News/staff

New Orleans, LA – On Monday evening, October 23, close to 100 people gathered in a lecture hall at Loyola University of New Orleans to listen to Laura Rodriguez of the Tampa 5. The Tampa 5 are three student organizers, a community leader, and a union member facing up to ten years’ imprisonment on felony charges. The charges came after their brutalization and the arrests of four of them, while they participated in a protest against DeSantis’ attacks on education at the University of South Florida. The state later charged a fifth. Members of the Tampa 5 are touring the U.S. to raise support for their case.

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By Shaine Carrol-Frey

SDS national convention held in Chicago. | Fight Back! News/staff

Chicago, IL – On October 14 and 15, roughly 180 members and affiliates of the New Students for a Democratic Society(SDS) from over 20 campuses met for their annual National Convention in Chicago, Illinois.

The students came from all over the U.S. to unite under the slogan of “Students Defend Education, Unions Strike Back!” to highlight both the attacks of education, especially ethnic studies such as Black studies and American Indian studies, and the increased level of union activity in 2023. Attendees listened to panels and gave workshops over a variety of topics, sharing strategy and tactics with SDS chapters from across the country.

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By Briony Smith

Three people sit at a panel with microphones in front of them speaking to an audience

New York, NY - On October 18, over 100 activists and community members, representing nearly 20 different grassroots community organizations, packed The People’s Forum in Manhattan for an evening of solidarity and resistance. The event, titled “Defend People’s Struggle: A Conversation on State Repression,” kicked off the East Coast leg of the Justice for the Tampa 5 speaking tour. It centered activists who have been directly targeted for arrest and trumped up charges as part of the increased state repression facing organizers.

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By staff

Laura Rodriguez of Tampa 5 speaking at NYC action in solidarity with Palestine.  | Fight Back! News/staff

New York, NY – Around 300 students and community members gathered outside the steps of the CUNY grad center in Midtown, October 18, to protest CUNY's involvement with Israel and to support the Palestinian resistance.

Organized by CUNY 4 Palestine, the energetic crowd was loud in their chants and vocal in their support for the Palestinian cause.

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By staff

Pictured from left to right: Joe Iosbaker of Freedom Road Socialist Organization, Elijah Edwards, Tiffany Childress Price of the CTU Human Rights Committee and her two children, CTU president Stacy Davis Gates, Christly Carpio and Lauren Pineiro, Kobi Guillory, co-chair of the Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and CTU vice president Jackson Potter. | Photo credit: Richard Berg.

Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, September 26, a coalition of unions, students and community organizations kicked off the Chicago leg of the Justice for the Tampa 5 Tour. These five activists are facing serious prison time in Florida for the crime of standing up to the DeSantis agenda. On March 6, a group of students at Tampa’s University of South Florida walked into an administrative building to defend diversity, equity and inclusion. They wanted to meet with the university president but were instead attacked by 15 campus cops. The state attorney is now charging the five with multiple felonies, and they face up to 10 years in prison.

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By staff

Grand Rapids, MI – On Thursday, September 28, the IASTE Local 26 West Michigan Stagehands Union hosted a speaking event featuring two Tampa 5 protestors in a show of solidarity. The speakers, Lauren Pineiro and Chrisley Carpio, are in the midst of a countrywide tour, spreading the word about their struggle against political repression by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' administration. IATSE Local 26 hosted the event to help mobilize labor activists to rally support for dropping the charges against the Tampa 5.

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