‘We Say Fight Back!’ national conference to be held in Chicago
By Chapin Gray
In the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, leaders and organizers across the country are gearing up for the “They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back!” national conference planned for Oct. 3 in Chicago, Illinois. From California to New York, people who for the past years have been fighting back against cuts to programs that serve our communities, against home foreclosures and evictions and against plant closures will come together to share experiences and make plans to work together in the coming years.
Click on the image for a PDF flyer for the conference
The following is the call to the “We Say Fight Back” conference, a very important national working class conference that will take place October 3rd in Chicago:
We are now in the midst of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930’s. Millions of homes are in foreclosure. Unemployment is growing. Massive cuts are taking place to the programs that benefit poor and working people, while the government tries to balance budgets on our backs. Inequality is growing, oppressed people–African-Americans, Chicanos, and Latinos are the last hired and the first to lose their jobs.
The rich and powerful are waging a war on working people and many of us have decided to respond by fighting back. In cities around the country there are sharp struggles to stop evictions and to demand a moratorium on home foreclosures. At places like Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors there have been intense battles in response to plant closures. From California to New York, people have taken to the streets to protest cuts to programs that serve our communities.
On October 3, 2009, trade unionists, immigrant rights activists and members of low-income, community, housing, student and other progressive organizations will come together in Chicago for a conference that will help build our collective movements. We will take this opportunity to learn from one another’s experience. We will lend support to key struggles. Importantly, we will make common plans. Together we can make a difference and build a more powerful fight back.
Go to the Conference website for a list of endorsers and other important info: http://wesayfightback.com/
URGENT ALERT: Minnesota activists jailed in Israel
Please forward * Take action today
We have just learned that Israeli security forces have refused entry to three U.S. activists attempting to visit the Palestinian Territories. One of them, Karen Sullivan, is being sent home on a flight tonight, and two others, Sarah Martin and Katrina Plotz have refused to leave, and are being taken into custody. They are being treated as criminals, while their only goal was to learn about the reality of life for the Palestinian people. All three should be allowed to enter the country, as millions of tourists do every year.
The National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera is calling on people everywhere to stand for human rights and social justice in opposition to the cruel and unusual treatment of Ricardo Palmera, a negotiator for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), now a Colombian political prisoner of the U.S. Empire held in the Florence Colorado Supermax Prison. Professor Palmera is being held in 23-hour solitary lock-down with no access to the outside world.
Alert: 10 days Until First Round of Salvadoran Elections – Take Action to Oppose Dirty Campaign!
Thursday, 08 January 2009
US State Department must respond to false statements threatening immigrants
On the eve of the first round of El Salvador’s most contested elections since the 1992 Peace Accords, a right-wing campaign of dirty propaganda, media misinformation, provocation and violence continues to escalate. Beginning in late October and continuing to this day, Fuerza Solidaria—a right-wing organization founded in Venezuela—has flooded the Salvadoran airwaves and streets with a series of advertisements attempting to frighten Salvadoran voters with threats of U.S. retaliation. The ads state that an FMLN victory would mean the end to good relations with the U.S. government and thus the end to remittances sent home from Salvadorans living in the U.S. They also claim that an FMLN victory would threaten the Temporary Protective Status (TPS) which allows over 200,000 Salvadorans to remain in the U.S. These absurd threats are similar to the ones made back in 2004 by members of the U.S. Congress, together with the governing ARENA party; such threats turned a close election into a decisive victory for the right-wing party. In the face of Fuerza Solidaria’s blatant misrepresentation of the ramifications of an FMLN victory, the U.S. State Department—which has privately pledged neutrality in El Salvador’s electoral process—has remained silent rather than refute these claims.
The following is from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist-Leninist organization that has been waging armed struggle against U.S./Israeli occupation for 41 years:
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine called on January 3, 2008 upon the Arab people and all progressive forces in the world to escalate all forms of resistance against the Zionist and imperialist enemy.
The following is from the website of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a Marxist-Leninist organization that has been waging armed struggle against U.S./Israeli occupation for 41 years:
“The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the entire Palestinian resistance and the whole of the Palestinian people is committed to confront the occupier in the face of the Israeli massacres, ground invasions and crimes. We are calling upon people around the world to occupy and take over Israeli, U.S. and Egyptian embassies and consulates around the world.”
Students for a Democratic Society has expressed its solidarity with the factory occupation being carried out by the militant workers of Republic Windows and Doors. The following is from the national website of SDS:
Take Action in Solidarity with the Chicago Workers of Republic Windows and Doors
As students and youth, we stand in solidarity with the Chicago workers at the Republic of Windows and Doors factory in their just struggle against closure, and for the right to their jobs and health care. The wealthy bankers at Bank of America got $25 billion in the bailout, but are refusing loans to the company. The management owes over 1 million dollars in severance and vacation pay. We know it is the big bankers and bosses who have laid off, cut benefits, and sold out the worker. Everyone should support the workers’ occupation of the factory to demand workers’ rights and justice.
We join in the chant with them:
Bank of America got Bailed Out! We got Sold Out!
Students for a Democratic Society
December 7, 2008
Support Republic Window occupation
All out for protest at Bank of America
By staff
The workers at Republic Windows and Doors in Chicago are calling on supporters in Chicago to join them at a protest at Bank of America, 231 S. LaSalle today, Wednesday, December 10 at 12:00 noon.
Bank of America has attempted to sow confusion about the state of negotiations. They put out a press release that the dispute between the 260 workers and the company over the unpaid wages, vacation pay and health coverage has been settled. However, the bargaining committee has continued to demand that the company also meet the terms of the WARN Act. In Illinois, the WARN Act requires a company to give 75 days of notice to their employees before closing. Therefore, Republic owes their employees 75 more days of work or 75 more days of pay.
Chicago factory occupation: Workers say “Fight back!”
Rally on Wednesday, Dec 10 at noon at Bank of America 231 S. LaSalle Avenue in Chicago.
Chicago, IL - Sunday night, Dec. 7 in Chicago brought more good news to the workers occupying the Republic Windows and Glass factory . The enormous outpouring of support was instantly noticed in the front room outside the worker-guarded doors by the wall to wall notes of solidarity from the hundreds of people who have come by. The workers described how happy they were to get Reverend Jesse Jackson’s support earlier in the day and the cheers that happened in the cafeteria when they heard about President-elect Obama’s statement of support for their cause. They then set their sights on getting Governor Blagojevich to weigh in on the demands for the over $1 million owed these 200 workers.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following petition and we invite you to sign it and to get it out as broadly as possible.
We demand the immediate release of the Palestinian leader Ahmad Sa’adat, a political prisoner held by Israel. Ahmad Sa’adat is the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and has been elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council. He is opposed to Israeli occupation of Palestine, an occupation supported and financed by the U.S. government. This heroic leader of the Palestinian people faces trial in an Israeli military court. The military court has no legitimate authority to try Ahmad Sa’adat. The prosecutors have no jurisdiction. He faces lawless judges who know the verdict before the trial begins. Ahmad Sa’adat has done nothing wrong. This former school teacher represents the best aspirations of the Palestinian people to be free. Israel has no right to place a Palestinian leader on trial for leading a political group in his own country amongst his own people.
Free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian political prisoners!
End U.S. aid to Israel!
Free Palestine!
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following announcement for a forum that will take place at the School of the Americas protest at Fort Benning, Georgia on Nov. 22, 6:30 p.m., in the Convention Center, Room 213. Click here for PDF flyer for the event.
Join us for a forum to build opposition to U.S. intervention in Colombia!
Click the above image for full-size PDF of flyer.
Year after year, U.S. military and economic aid helps support a corrupt, narco-trafficking government that rules through repression and fear. Despite death threats, kidnappings and intimidation, a broad mass movement is organizing for justice and equality. Come hear from activists who traveled to Colombia and met with students, trade unionists and peasants organizing for peace and justice.
Kosta Harlan of Fight Back! newspaper will moderate. Meredith Aby of the Colombia Action Network will discuss the indigenous highway protests and the peasants and workers’ movement. Aby will also discuss the imprisonment of Lily Obando from the peasants union FENSUAGRO. Angela Denio of National Committee to Free Ricardo Palmera will speak about Mr. Palmera, a Colombian revolutionary and political prisoner of the U.S. government. Doug Michel of Students for a Democratic Society will talk about meeting with the student movement in Colombia, the need for solidarity and bringing political exile Imelda Daza-Cotes on a speaking tour in the United States.
The following is from 
Chicago factory occupation: Workers say “Fight back!”
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