Dramatic student walk-out on May Day

By Monica Moorehead

New York

LeiLani Dowell of FIST and Latoya Deterville of Clara Barton High School. WW photo: Monica Moorehead

At the May Day march and rally in New York City on May 1, among the thousands of people who participated were a significant number of young, energetic people of all nationalities. Among this number was Latoya Deterville, a 15-year-old African-American student from Clara Barton High School, located in Brooklyn. The school is populated by more than 2,200 students and is rumored to be closing its doors permanently in the not-too-distant future.

Deterville had received a leaflet calling for student walkouts on May Day and was motivated to organize one at her school. When asked why she felt a walkout was necessary at her school on May Day, Deterville told WW: “I had helped organize a Student-Activist Council at my school to discuss the Sean Bell case, Darfur, budget cuts in education and how all of these issues affect us. The Council also put together a petition about making changes in our lunchroom, and was told by the administration that we couldn’t do that. We are not allowed to protest. We are not allowed to do anything. Some of the teachers are upset with how we are treated.”

UNC students arrested on day 16 of sit-in supporting workers’ rights

By Linda Gomaa
Chapel Hill, N.C.

Gomaa is a member of Student Action with Workers at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill chapter of the youth group FIST. She has been an active participant in sit-ins against sweatshops at UNC. The following is Gomaa’s report of the arrest of students, in which she was singled out by police after making a press statement.

Five University of North Carolina students have been arrested after 16 days of peacefully occupying the office of UNC Chancellor James Moeser.

Students from Student Action with Workers and the Carolina Sweatfree Coalition began the sit-in because the chancellor had been refusing, for three years, to meet with us as well as his own labor licensing committee to discuss UNC’s ineffective labor codes. These codes still allow UNC apparel to be made under sweatshop conditions, including poverty wages and no freedom of association.

Angry marchers react to verdict: ‘NYPD go to hell! We are all Sean Bell!’

By Tyneisha Bowens

Queens, N.Y.

On April 25 in a Jamaica, Queens, courtroom, a judge acquitted three New York Police Department officers responsible for the November 2006 fatal shooting of 23-year-old Sean Bell. The horrific attack, which took place the night before Bell was to get married, also wounded Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield. All three shooting victims are African-American.

April 25, Jamaica, Queens, N.Y. WW photos: John Catalinotto

District Attorney Richard Brown announced the judge’s ruling in front of the families and friends of the NYPD’s victims as well as the media. Brown then defended the verdict and stated that “reforms” in the NYPD were likely to come from the case. Outside the court the family, friends and supporters of Bell, Guzman and Benefield mourned and protested the decision with a march around the courthouse. This was followed by a visit to Bell’s grave site.

In preparation for the possible acquittal, the Peoples Justice for Community Control and Police Accountability Coalition called for a rally and community speakout during the evening of April 25. Speakers included families of victims killed and brutalized by the NYPD, cultural performers and representatives of various endorsing organizations.

Big business, Pentagon real sponsors of pro-war spin

By LeiLani Dowell

NYC FIST

How many times in the past five years have you turned on CNN or another news network to find some “military analyst”—usually a former general or military official—giving his opinion on how well the occupation of Iraq was going, or why the U.S. should continue with the war?

An extensive exposé in the April 20 New York Times has revealed that many of these “opinions” have been bought by the Bush administration in an unprecedented and ongoing propaganda campaign.

The article, “Message Machine: Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand,” described a network of military analysts that “represent more than 150 military contractors either as lobbyists, senior executives, board members or consultants … all part of a vast assemblage of contractors scrambling for hundreds of billions by the administration’s war on terror.”

Mass pressure forces charges dropped against Denver activist

All charges were dropped on April 22 against Denver political activist Larry Hales. Hales had been assaulted by 10 Denver cops last Nov 30. The cops had busted into Hales’s home without permission at 10:30 at night, handcuffed his partner to a chair, ripped out some of his hair and ripped his clothes, and charged Hales with interfering with the police.

Larry Hales

Hales is a leading Denver activist against police brutality and war, Denver Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST) and also leading organizing efforts for protests at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August, and is well known to the Denver police. Hales had been providing housing for a parolee who had been a police brutality victim. A parole visit had been the pretext for the cops’ raid on Hales’ home, but the parolee was not at home at the time. The cops did not have permission to enter or search in the house when the parolee was not present.

A widespread support campaign grew around the case, demanding that all charges be dropped. The National Justice for Larry Hales campaign launched an online petition which generated over 160,000 email messages to the members of the Denver legislature, the mayor, city attorney and the judge in the case, the Colorado Congressional delegation, Congressional leaders, President George W. Bush, Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and members of the media. Public officials such as Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner, unions like USW 8751 Boston School Bus Union and many rank and file union leaders, religious leaders like Bishop Filipe Teixeira OFSJC, lawyers and other public figures faxed letters supporting Hales.

The Second Murder of Sean Bell: Why We Must Fight Back

FIST Statement

The youth group FIST–Fight Imperialism, Stand Together wants to express our outrage at the recent acquittal of the three cops who killed Sean Bell; to re-commit ourselves to the struggle for justice; and to show that we stand in solidarity with the Bell family, the community and the oppressed Black masses.

As Nicole Paultre Bell–the woman Sean Bell was to marry on the morning he was killed by New York cops–said, “April 25, 2008,* **they killed Sean allover again.”*

*The thousands of protesters who rallied the night the verdict was announced, chanting “NYPD go to hell–we are all Sean Bell,”** *show clearly that the anger over this latest killing of an oppressed youth will not dissipate. It will not simply disappear into the atmosphere like steam or into our consciousness because of the many injustices happening around the world.

Students Sit-In to Demand No Sweatshop Apparel and End to Union Busting

By Linda Gomaa, Chapel Hill, NC

Several students and workers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are entering the sixth day of a sit-in in Chancellor James Moeser’s lobby, the longest sit-in at UNC since 1993. About 25 students and workers entered the administration building on Thursday, April 17th and have been occupying it ever since. These students and workers are affiliated with Student Action with Workers (SAW), a UNC group affiliated with United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS) international, as well as several other campus groups that are part of the Sweatfree Coalition and community-based youth group, Fight Imperialism-Stand Together (FIST).

American Axle strike: Unionists from all over join picket lines

By Bryan G. Pfeifer

Detroit

“It’s a historical struggle here in Detroit, in a city with all these mass layoffs and people losing their homes. The workers here at American Axle are keeping some energy in our movement and revitalizing the class struggle. So we feel it’s very important to be out here to show them support,” said Dante Strobino, an organizer with United Electrical workers Local 150 and a member of the youth organization Fight Imperialism—Stand Together (FIST).

UAW strike is a magnet for workers wanting to resist. FIST member Strobino is in middle with fist in the air. photo: Cheryl LaBash

As Strobino spoke to this Workers World reporter on April 12, the chants from an impromptu rally at UAW Local 235 rang out for blocks.

Led by Black women workers from SEIU United Healthcare Workers West, hundreds chanted before heading back to their vehicles: “Tell the whole damn world, this is union territory! On strike, shut it down, Detroit is a union town!”

Three buses and car caravans from a Labor Notes conference in Dearborn, Mich., had traveled to the site of the world headquarters of American Axle in Hamtramck.

Another group of 50 people from UAW Local 211 also came in solidarity.

Led by strikers, the supporting unionists fanned out in groups to various picket lines where they were greeted with hearty handshakes and cheers.

The internationalist spirit and power of workers from around the world electrified everyone.

FIST leader at AA picket line: ‘Fighting a common enemy’

Larry Hales WW photo

Larry Hales of the youth organization Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST) and Workers World Party visited Detroit April 3-6. Within hours of arriving in the city, Hales grabbed a picket sign and joined the striking workers at American Axle. WW Contributing Editor Bryan G. Pfeifer interviewed Hales about his experience and analysis of the strike.

WW:

You started your visit to Detroit on the picket line at American Axle. Why did you go?

LH: When I was growing up my family worked in the factories of Erie, Pa. My father has had 39 years at General Electric. My mother worked making ceramic tiles and other ceramic items. My brother worked making plastic items.

Erie is very similar to Detroit in a lot of ways, except it’s a lot smaller. I grew up being very familiar with the struggle of industrial workers against those who own and run the factories.

American Axle being one of the major battles happening—not just in Detroit, but around the country—I wanted the opportunity to talk to the workers and meet them. I went to see about issues like the foreclosures, deindustrialization and police brutality as well.

Why Mumia is a hero to young people

Mumia Abu-Jamal

By Tyneisha, Miya and Rhapsody Scintilla
Members of New York and Boston FIST

The following is a commentary from three members of the youth group Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) on the eve of the April 19 march and rally in Philadelphia to demand the freedom of Mumia Abu-Jamal.

here is a man in the state of Pennsylvania who has a street in France named after him. That man is Mumia Abu-Jamal, a journalist and ex-member of the Black Panther Party—an organization classified as “terrorist” by the U.S. government. A former Black Panther, Mumia is now in his 26th year on Pennsylvania’s death row.

Mumia is a hero to Black youth and all people seeking liberation. The “voice of the voiceless,” he chronicles the legacies of people’s struggles worldwide. One of the greatest threats to U.S. imperialism is the uprising of “young Mumias” from the streets of Philadelphia to the streets of Paris.

Black Workers For Justice hold annual banquet

By Monica Moorehead
Raleigh, N.C.

The 25th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Support for Labor banquet, sponsored by Black Workers For Justice, took place on April 5 at the North Carolina Association of Educators building in Raleigh, N.C. The theme of this year’s program was “We Charge Genocide! Stand Up, Organize & Resist!”

Fruit of Labor singers. WW photos: Monica Moorehead

The impetus for the theme comes from a movement that began in 1951, when African-American activists William Patterson, Paul Robeson and others collaborated on a document called “We Charge Genocide, The Historic Petition to the United Nations for Relief from a Crime of the United States Government Against the Negro People.” It chronicled the countless lynchings of Black people that had gone unpunished since the end of the Civil War.

This historic document could easily be applied today, with continuing racist repression of Black people embodied by the public housing crisis for Katrina survivors, the Jena Six, police brutality, incarceration and much more.

Momentum Grows for A16 Anti-Bankers Protest in Washington

April 16th in Washington, DC

BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE, NOT THE BANKS!!!

THE MORTGAGE BANKERS ASSOCIATION (MBA)—the biggest national lobby of all the banks—including the criminal predatory lenders, that are busy evicting your neighbors, relatives, friends and maybe you from your home—is holding it’s annual policy conference in Washington D.C., on April 16 and 17. Their main goal is to make sure that bankers continue to get bailed out while families get tossed out!

Cultural genocide: In Tibet or New Orleans?

By Larry Hales

Denver, CO chapter of FIST

The Dalai Lama claims that China is committing “cultural genocide” against the Tibetan people, and his claims and news of the events unfolding in the regional capital of Lhasa have captured a great deal of attention in the major media outlets in the U.S.

The “cause” of Tibet and the accusation of “cultural genocide” are not new. “Free Tibet” bumper stickers can often be seen at peace rallies, and it would seem that the case of Tibet is a real national liberation struggle of an oppressed people struggling for independence from an imperialist or colonial master.

However, the issue of Tibet has been foisted upon some sectors of the movement in the U.S. in order to weaken China. The relationship between the U.S., with its aim to undermine the gains of the Chinese revolution, and the Dalai Lama and his clique is an old one and goes all the way back to the CIA manufactured “uprising” of 1959.

Nepal’s revolutionaries stand with China

By David Hoskins

Washington, DC chapter of FIST

While China gears up to host the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, U.S. imperialism and its allies have embarked on a concerted campaign to undermine China’s global image and its ability to peacefully host the Olympics.

As workers sit in front of their television sets and watch the nightly news they are faced with an Orwellian contradiction between the images that appear before their eyes and the commentary of the newscasters reporting on the story. The images clearly show rioters, many in monks’ robes, attacking motorcyclists and taxi drivers, while shops are being burned to the ground.

The image of a peaceful Tibetan liberation movement led by a benevolent spiritual leader—the Dalai Lama—has been seared into the consciousness of many of the world’s workers, particularly young workers and students. It is a carefully crafted image

Four generations of women speak on important struggles

Workers World Party and the Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST) youth group co-sponsored a March 28 forum, “Which way forward for the women’s movement?” that commemorated International Working Women’s Month in New York City. Ranging in ages from 21 to 82, the speakers included Christina Hilo, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FiRE); Tyneisha Bowens and LeiLani Dowell, FIST and WWP; and Teresa Gutierrez, Monica Moorehead and Deirdre Griswold, WWP secretariat members. Pam Parker, a singer and WWP member in the D.C./Baltimore area, performed three songs. Joyce Kanowitz, WWP member, recited poetry. Go to www.workers.org to listen to the meeting.

The following are excerpts from the speakers:

Tyneisha Bowens: Young women, the next generation of the women’s movement, are not just taking note of the increasing attacks on our rights as women; we are acting against these attacks. Youth and students are taking up initiatives to create a new women’s movement free of segregation and racism, built-in patriarchy and hetero-normativity and the class divide of what calls itself the women’s movement today.

We are taking lessons from those that fought before us in creating a multinational sexually diverse women’s movement inclusive to the unique needs of women today and based on the elevation of queer women and women of color. We are redefining our sex, genders and sexualities as it is our responsibility to do. We are protecting the right of self-determination for all women in all nations across the world.