Seven people arrested trying to stop the eviction of Rosemary Williams

Protester from the MN Coalition for a People's Bailout is arrested trying to stop the eviction of Rosemary Williams.

The following is from Fight Back! News:

Seven people arrested trying to stop the eviction of Rosemary Williams
By staff 

Minneapolis, MN – After a months long fight against her foreclosure, police came  to evict Rosemary Williams from her home, Sept. 11.  Dozens of police cordoned off the street, sidewalks and alley all around the home, police with rifles and tear gas were at the ready at windows inside the house, as a private security company used metal grating to  board up windows and doors. The police showed up as preparations were being made for a birthday party for Rosemary Williams’s grandson, Talib, who turned two that day. 

More than a hundred supporters gathered to support the Williams family, as they hastily removed their personal belongings from the house. In a last ditch effort to stop the eviction, seven supporters went onto the property and were immediately arrested. They were dragged away by police, who kicked people laying on the ground and sprayed the crowd with pepper spray.   

People’s occupation to resist the eviction of Rosemary Williams

The following breaking story is from Fight Back! News:

Rosemary Williams Evicted from her home
Peoples’ occupation to resist the eviction taking place

By Steff Yorek

Rosemary Williams and Steff Yorek

Minneapolis, MN – Fight Back! News is reporting from the home of Rosemary Williams on the 3100 block of Clinton Ave S. in Minneapolis, MN.  Early this afternoon, Hennepin County Sheriff Deputies came to Rosemary’s home and evicted Rosemary, her daughter in law and two of her grandchildren.  The deputies carried out the wishes of GMAC mortgage with calculated precision.  They allowed the Williams family to collect a few personal items, then changed the locks on the home and padlocked the garage.  A family locked away from their life so the GMAC can be the proud owners of another vacant home on a block with 7 other vacant homes. 

This eviction is not like the others though.  Rosemary Williams has been fighting this eviction from the very beginning and that struggle is continuing.  Within one hour of the eviction supporters from the Minnesota Campaign for a People’s Bailout, Poor Peoples Economic Human Rights Campaign, neighbors and many others from the South Minneapolis Community gathered at Rosemary’s home.  The house was reopened in the name of the Williams family.  It is currently being occupied by more than 50 people.  Many have vowed to remain in the home for as long as it takes for Rosemary to get her home back from the bank.

Quad City Die Casting: Struggle catches fire as workers from around the country rally in support

The following is from Fight Back! News Service:

Quad City Die Casting: Struggle catches fire as workers from around the country rally in support

By Fight Back! editors

The workers of Quad City Die Casting are on the frontlines in the battle against plant closures.

Quad City Die Casting is a tool and die factory in Moline Illinois, on the Illinois/Iowa border.   Quad City had been a successful locally-owned factory, until the current economic crisis, making custom aluminum parts for farm equipment dealers and manufacturing.  Even though business is down during the current crisis, this factory has been a source of steady work for Moline workers for generations.  The factory has a loyal customer base that would continue to buy parts from the factory.  With sufficient credit lines the factory could stay in business and the 100 workers could stay on the job during this crisis.  Instead, Wells Fargo Bank, which got 25 billion dollars in bailout money, has cut off credit to the factory and without a new development, Quad City Die Casting will close this summer.

On the Student Movement in the United States

The following is the contribution to the 18th International Communist Seminar by Josh Sykes, Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Click on the image for a pamphlet-layout PDF

Freedom Road Socialist Organization has a rich history of work among youth and students. Many of the veteran cadres of our organization were active with the youth of the Black Panther Party, Brown Berets and the Students for a Democratic Society of the 1960s, the Revolutionary Student Brigades in the 1970s, or the Progressive Student Network in the 1980s. Others worked on campuses to organize against South African Apartheid, in the historic Jesse Jackson campaign, or in solidarity with the Central American revolutionary movements. Many also organized Asian American and Pilipino (1) students, or worked in mostly oppressed nationality student formations like the Student Liberation Action Movement (SLAM) in New York. Today, students and youth in Freedom Road continue to do mass student organizing, mainly in the new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) formed in 2006.

System Crisis

The following article is from Études Marxistes, n°84, October-December 2008 and is being reposted here from the website of the Workers Party of Belgium

by Jo Cottenier and Henri Houben

It’s likely that September 2008 will continue to ring in our minds in the same way that September 2001 does. After the attacks on the Twin Towers, America went to war. After the recent financial crisis on Wall Street, the warrior is knocked out. After September’s tidal wave, Americans are worrying and wondering: what does the future hold? Two million families have lost their homes. Savings, jobs and pension benefits are all in danger. Purchasing power was already under pressure, will it get even worse?

International Communist Seminar held in Brussels on youth and the crisis

The following is from the website of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, a regular participant in the International Communist Seminar:

International Communist Seminar held in Brussels on youth and the crisis

Press Statement

From 15-17 May 2008, 49 communist and workers’ parties from 40 countries gathered in Brussels for the 18th International Communist Seminar, hosted by the Workers’ Party of Belgium. Its main theme was communist work among youth — for which 20 of the parties had sent a young delegate. The participants presented papers and held discussions on the current situation of youth, the work of communists among youth and the incorporation of new generations in communist parties.

Harpal Brar on the Capitalist Crisis

The following videos are from a Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist) party school in Birmingham:

May Day 2009: Fighting the Crisis

The following statement is from Freedom Road Socialist Organization (en español):

By Freedom Road Socialist Organization

On May 1, International Workers Day, millions upon millions will be marching against the capitalist economic crisis that has engulfed most of the world. Working people in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and North America will hit the streets to protest the soaring unemployment, shorter hours and cuts in pay that are sweeping the world.

Review: Build a Fighting Workers Movement

Click the image for a PDF pamphlet version

The following review of FRSO’s Build a Fighting Workers Movement  (also here at the Marxist-Leninist) is from Fight Back! News Service:

A review of the pamphlet Build a Fighting Workers Movement by the Labor Commission of Freedom Road Socialist Organization

By Joe Iosbaker

This past Dec. 5, 250 workers occupied the Republic Windows and Doors factory on Goose Island in Chicago. They had been told a few days earlier that the company was closing and that there would be no severance pay, or even payment of wages or sick or vacation pay owed them. Their protest, targeting their company and the Bank of America, became a national symbol of working people’s anger at the rich and powerful. “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out,” they chanted as their story was reported across the world.

Now over three months later, there has been no wave of labor action in the U.S. to follow up this spectacular beginning. Why? Aren’t millions of workers just as angry? Don’t they want to strike blows against the billionaires on Wall Street?

Massive Job Losses Show Economy Sliding Into a Depression

The following is form Fight Back! News:

Massive Job Losses Show Economy Sliding Into a Depression
650,000 More Jobs Lost in February

By Adam Price

San José, CA – On March 6, the Labor Department reported that the economy lost 650,000 more jobs in February. The report also said that the number of jobs lost in December and January was revised upwards by 150,000. This brought the total job losses since the recession began to 4.4 million, more than half lost in the last four months alone. The total number of jobs has shrunk by 3.2% since the recession began, the most in more than 50 years.