Peoples’ General Assembly: Protest flails ‘dictatorship of bankers’

By Dee Knight
New York

A People’s General Assembly near Wall Street on Aug. 2, organized by New Yorkers Against Budget Cuts and others, responded to the debt-ceiling deal signed that day in Washington after a weeks-long game of political “chicken.”

“We need to make sure people know that what happened on this infamous day is a threat to everyone who is not a billionaire or millionaire,” declared Larry Holmes of Workers World Party at the start of the assembly.

“There’s a reason we called it a General Assembly and not merely a rally or protest,” Holmes said. “We believe what we’re dealing with is a dictatorship of bankers and that democracy is a thin façade — if you blow on it you’ll find out it doesn’t exist.” Holmes recalled that German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler pushed out what the bankers and German industrialists considered a weak government in 1933, “because it could not wage war on the workers and the poor. They needed their own version of the so-called Tea Party, and so they got behind Hitler,” Holmes observed. “This was the beginning of fascism in much of Europe.”

Durham, N.C., picket hits austerity budget

By Andy Koch, Raleigh-Durham FIST
Durham, N.C.

On the same day that Congress passed the so-called “deficit reduction” austerity bill, North Carolina residents were in the streets calling out the legislation for what it is: an attack on working people.

FIST member Eva Panjwani speaks to crowd at VA hospital. FIST photo: Dante Strobino

Members of local trade unions, activist groups and community members picketed outside the Veterans Affairs medical center in downtown Durham. Workers from the medical center also joined in.

“The VA center was chosen since both veterans’ benefits and public medical care in general are going to be cut under the new legislation,” one protester told Workers World. Drawing the attention of motorists and hospital foot traffic, the group chanted slogans such as “Fund people’s needs, not corporate greed” and “Congress, confess: You caused this mess!”

Speaking on behalf of the youth group Fight Imperialism, Stand Together (FIST), Eva Panjwani pointed out the injustice of the austerity bill. “They are cutting services that people like us depend on to survive. Why don’t the congresspeople responsible explain to our children why they won’t be getting that birthday present or explain to our elderly loved ones why they will now have to pay out of pocket for medication they need?”

FIST launches in Detroit

By Derek Thacker
Detroit

Detroit FIST

The founding meeting of the new Detroit chapter of Fight Imperialism, Stand Together — FIST — was held on July 22.

Detroit has not had an active branch of the militant youth organization for about a year. But since late 2010, new youth have begun taking an interest in activism and have gravitated to work with the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions & Utility Shutoffs, and Workers World Party.

Some of these youth moved to form a new FIST branch in Detroit in order to combat the effects of imperialism at home and abroad. The attendance was excellent at the initial meeting and the discussions were meaningful. Introductions were conducted, and the revolutionary program of FIST was introduced and reviewed.

DREAM students win in Texas

By Gloria Rubac
Houston

Texas DREAM students — advocates and activists for the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act — won a major victory on July 25 as Marlon Arboleda, a University of Houston student, turned himself in to Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities and came out with a deferred action on deportation. When Arboleda and his attorney emerged less than an hour later, shouts of joy filled the air.

The sidewalk in front of the Immigration Processing Center in north Houston was filled with young DREAM students and their supporters, who cheered upon hearing the good news. Earlier in July Arboleda’s brother, Mauro Arboleda, was detained by ICE agents as he left his home to tutor a student, despite having a valid driver’s license. Mauro eventually got deferred action on his deportation and was told his brother had to turn himself in to be considered for deferred action.