Chicago, IL – 100 people attended the International Women’s Day celebration sponsored by Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) in Chicago. The speakers, as well as the people in the room, were from the Black liberation movement – most notably the Chicago Alliance against Racist and Political Repression – labor unions, and anti-imperialist movements like the Filipino, Palestinian and Puerto Rican liberation movements, as well as electoral candidates and elected officials.
Los Angeles, CA – On March 7, Centro CSO: Community Service Organization hosted a celebration of el Día Internacional de la Mujer (International Women’s Day), filled with poetry, singing and political discussion at the Benjamin Franklin Branch Library in Boyle Heights. This year’s event, the third that Centro CSO has put on, honored the women of Boyle Heights and East Los Angeles who have fought back against the privatization of public education, police terror, sexism and transphobia.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following speech delivered by Freedom Road Socialist Organization leader Jess Sundin, at the Twin Cities celebration of International Women’s Day.
Los Angeles, CA – The Boyle Heights group Centro Community Service Organization (Centro CSO) will host Día Internacional de la Mujer, International Women’s Day, Saturday, March 7 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Benjamin Franklin Library. CSO aims to honor and represent local women who are working for LGBT rights, fighting for socialism, defending public education, resisting police terror and brutality, and ending deportations.
Kenosha, WI – Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) organized a #FreeChrystul rally at UW-Parkside on February 5 that saw 40 protesters attend. The demonstrators congregated outside the building where District Attorney Mike Graveley, Chrystul Kizer’s prosecutor, was teaching his first class of the spring semester, on criminal law.
Caracas, Venezuela – During the World Anti-Imperialist Congress, members of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) delegation talked with women in the Bolivarian Militia. The Bolivarian Militia was created in 2005 in response to U.S. intervention. As of December 2019, President Maduro said he is moving toward making the Militia into “combat units” within the Armed Forces. In 2019, with multiple U.S.-backed coup attempts to install Juan Guaidó in place of democratically elected President Maduro, the Bolivarian Militia nearly doubled to 3.3 million members in a country of around 30 million people. Their role and responsibilities have increased in that time as Maduro assigned them to the food distribution program in May 2019.
New Orleans, LA- LGBT activists are getting ready for the Trans March of Resilience this Wednesday, November 20. The community’s leading Black trans organizers are heading the march. Activist groups Operation Restoration, BreakOUT!, GLAAD, the Southern Equality Fund, and the Real Name Campaign are in support.
Tallahassee, FL – On November 6, over 30 students held a sit-in at a Sigma Lambda Beta’s multicultural fraternity informational meeting. The students and allies of the survivors gathered at the Sigma Lamda Beta meeting to protest its alleged conduct and defense of members accused of committing sexual assault.
Kenosha, WI – When Cyntoia Brown’s case was brought forward to the media, there was a large public outcry for justice. How could a victim of human trafficking be imprisoned for killing her rapist and trafficker? Unfortunately, her case is not novel. Chrystul Kizer, a Milwaukee native, has been charged with multiple counts for defending herself against a sexual predator, Randall Volar III.