Tampa, FL – On June 1 over 50 activists rallied at the MacDill Air Force Base, calling for the release of whistleblower Bradley Manning.

Tampa, FL – On May 1, a large crowd gathered during a rain storm to demand legalization for all undocumented people and overall genuine immigration reform. May Day, or International Workers' Day, traditionally has been a day for demanding workers' rights. In recent years, it has been a day for Latinos, immigrants and allies to demand legalization and full equality.

Tampa, FL – On April 18, immigrant rights activists, community members and students demanded that the city of Tampa allow drivers licenses for undocumented people. In the morning, activists with Dream Defenders marched into city hall demanding that the city council pass a resolution in favor of the state of Florida passing a law granting licenses for the undocumented. The Tampa City Council attempted to shut down speakers for demanding licenses for all. After the council meeting, the activists left with council members inviting them to meet again on a personal basis.

Tampa, FL – Activists came together here, March 29, to announce a campaign under the demand “Licenses for All” undocumented people in Florida. Members of Dream Defenders, Hondurenos Unidos en Tampa, Mexican American Student Association (MASA), and Latin American Student Association (LASA) at the University of South Florida will be pushing the Tampa City Council to allow drivers licenses for undocumented immigrants. The number of undocumented immigrants in Florida is estimated to be 1 million people. Many of the undocumented end up being deported after being pulled over from driving without a license.

Tampa, FL – Eleven activists with the Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) occupied the University of South Florida's Kiran C. Patel Center, March 29. From noon until the school's top administrators left their offices at 5:00 p.m., students erected signs denouncing tuition hikes, perused a stack of books by leftist authors and gawked at how much more luxurious the building was, than the buildings than don't house the University's top administrators.

Tampa, FL—Students, anti-war activists and community organizers gathered at the First United Church of Tampa on Sunday, March 24 to demand an end to U.S. government political repression. 35 people discussed ways to oppose political repression and gain freedom for the Holy Land Five.

Tampa, FL – Students gathered in the Marshall Student Center, on the University of South Florida's (USF) campus, on March 6 protesting budget cuts and tuition hikes. The average USF student's debt is over $22,000 from loans. Meanwhile, the school's Board of Trustees – those who cut the budgets and raise tuition – are made up of representatives of corporations like Tampa Electric Company and Fifth Third Bank. Last year the Board voted to raise tuition by 11%. On top of this, Florida Governor Rick Scott has cut $300 million from the eleven state universities' budgets. Now, the USF administration is threatening to raise tuition yet again.

Tampa, FL – Feb. 26 marked the one-year anniversary of Trayvon Martin's murder. Students and community members met in front of the student union on the University of South Florida campus demanding justice for Martin and an end to Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' Law. This law legalizes murder on the grounds of self-defense. The state government and judges use it to let white murderers go free for killing African-Americans and Latinos. The same is true for George Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin’s murderer, whose lawyers are attempting to get his charges dropped.

Tampa, FL – Student groups from the Tampa Bay area and neighboring Polk County came together, Jan. 24, to demand answers from Congressman Dennis Ross and protest his anti-immigrant record.

Tampa, FL – Part-time Teamsters working for United Parcel Service (UPS) are angry because the starting pay has not changed in over 15 years. It is back breaking work, yet the starting wage rate is only $8.50 per hour. Part-time Teamsters are demanding their union fight for a substantial wage increase in its current contract negotiations with UPS. T-shirts reading, “End part time poverty” are springing up in UPS hubs around the country.

Tampa, FL – Around midnight Jan. 10, the home of well-known Arizona immigrant rights activist Erika Andiola was raided by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). ICE agents asked Andiola who the other people in the home were. One of them was her mother. During the raid, Erika's brother, who had been staying at neighbors for the night, came over and was asked if he was related to the Andiolas. Both Erika's brother and mother are undocumented immigrants from Mexico and both have lived in the U.S. for many years. Shortly after the questions, ICE handcuffed and transported Erika's brother and mother to the Florence Detention Center.

Tampa, FL – 287(g) is a racist law that was created on Sept. 30, 1996. For 17 years this law has been terrorizing, racially profiling, oppressing and breaking our immigrant families apart. 287(g) gives permission and training to regular police officers to do Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) work whenever ICE is unable to be around. Specifically 287(g) gives permission to local police to ask people in our neighborhoods and on the streets about their immigration status. Since 1996, 287(g) has been responsible for the arrests, abuses and deportations of over 400,000 of our hard-working and exploited immigrants in the U.S.

Tampa, FL – 30 students gathered outside of the University of South Florida's Marshall Student Center, Dec. 1, to mourn the murder of 17-year-old Jordan Davis. On Nov. 23, Jordan Davis was racially targeted by a 45 year-old bigot named Michael Dunn in a Jacksonville gas station. Dunn shot eight or nine times at the vehicle Davis was in, with the excuse that Davis and his friends had been playing their music too loud. Dunn claims he saw a shotgun and feared for his life. This fear Dunn claims, drove him to not only shoot at these four high school students' vehicle and murder Jordan Davis, but to also flee the scene of the crime. When authorities searched the vehicle Jordan Davis was shot in, there were no signs of a weapon.

Tampa, FL – On Nov. 17, nearly 100 people stood against Israel's ongoing bloodbath in Gaza. Students for Justice in Palestine organized the demonstration. Black-clad protesters waved Palestinian flags, held signs and stretched banners as thousands of cars drove through the intersection separating Tampa from Temple Terrace – a city with a large Palestinian community. The large contingents on all four corners of Fowler Avenue and 56th Street rotated when the lights changed, making sure that motorists got a long look at banners adorned with statistics on the brutality of occupation and its financial dependence on the U.S. government.

Tampa, FL – On Oct. 25, the Tampa Committee to Stop FBI Repression held a solidarity event to support the Holy Land Five on the corner of Fowler Avenue and 56th Street, which is within the heart of the Muslim community here. Members of the local chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) were also there to show their support, as well as other members of the community. People waved signs reading, “Charity is not a crime!” as the busy rush hour traffic slowed down and drivers showed their support.

Tampa, FL – At the University of South Florida, Oct. 8, about 30 students gathered outside of Cooper Hall to protest on the 11th anniversary of the war in Afghanistan. Six speakers from Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) spoke to the crowd about the impact this war has had on the students across the United States, and on the targets of U.S. wars abroad. After the protesters listened to the speeches made by the students and various community members, they marched to the C.W. Bill Young Building, which houses the ROTC program on campus. The building is named after Congressman Bill Young, whose anti-worker and anti-student policies sent many young people from poor communities to fight wars for members of the 1% – such as him.

Tampa, FL – About a dozen activists gathered outside of Sam M. Gibbons United States Courthouse here, Sept. 24, to mark the second year anniversary of the FBI raids against anti-war activists in 2010. These events and the subsequent grand jury investigation amount to nothing more than a witch hunt, with the aim of interfering with the anti-war movement. The protest demanded an end to the federal investigation of the peace activists.

Tampa, FL – On Sept. 11, members of various student and community groups gathered at the University of South Florida (USF) to commemorate the millions of victims affected by the conflicts sparked by the U.S. after the attacks on this day eleven years ago. The gathering was organized by Tampa Against the War on Terror and was supported by the campus chapter of Students for a Democratic Society. It came before a counter-protest in downtown Tampa, against a hate group that was seeking to ban the Council on America-Islamic Relations from speaking in Hillsborough County Public Schools.

Tampa, FL – Over 1000 people rallied and marched in the streets of Tampa, August 27, to demand good jobs, affordable education, healthcare, equality and peace. Although the Republicans canceled the first day of their convention due to Tropical Storm Isaac, organizers with the Coalition to March on the RNC went through with their promise to march to the site of the convention to show their opposition to the agenda of the 1%.

Tampa, FL – Members of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) from the Eastern and Western wings of the Southern Tour met up in Tampa, Florida after completing their tour of campuses in Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, and Georgia.