Tag Archives: national oppression

Fan the Flames – A Revolutionary Position on the Chicano National Question: A Pamphlet by the August Twenty-Ninth Movement (M-L)

The August 29th Movement (M-L) was a Chicano Marxist-Leninist organization in the U.S. from 1974-1978, when it merged with I Wor Kuen to form the League of Revolutionary Struggle (M-L). This was made available on the web by LeftSpot:

[QUOTE ON INSIDE FRONT COVER OF PAMPHLET:]

The liberation movement of the oppressed peoples and the proletarian revolution. In solving the national question Leninism proceeds from the following theses:

a] the world is divided into two camps: the camp of a handful of civilised nations, which possess finance capital and exploit the vast majority of the population of the globe; and the camp of the oppressed and exploited peoples in the colonies and dependent countries, which constitute that majority;

b] the colonies and dependent countries, oppressed and exploited by finance capital, constitute a vast reserve and a very important source of strength for imperialism;

c] the revolutionary struggle of the oppressed peoples in the dependent and colonial countries against imperialism is the only road that leads to their emancipation from oppression and exploitation;

d] the most important colonial and dependent counties have already taken the path of the national liberation movement, which cannot but lead to the crisis of world capitalism;

e] the interests of the proletarian movement in the developed countries and of the national liberation movement in the colonies call for the union of these two forms of the revolutionary movement into a common front against the common enemy, against imperialism;

f] the victory of the working class in the developed countries and the liberation of the oppressed peoples from the yoke of imperialism are impossible without the formation and the consolidation of a common revolutionary front;

g] the formation of a common revolutionary front is impossible unless the proletariat of the oppressor nations renders direct and determined support to the liberation movement of the oppressed peoples against the imperialism of its “own country,” for “no nation can be free if it oppresses other nations” [Engels];

h] this support implies the upholding, defense and implementation of the slogan of the right of nations to secession, to independent existence as states;

i] unless this slogan is implemented, the union and collaboration of nations within a single world economic system, which is the material basis for the victory of world socialism cannot be brought about;

j] this union can only be voluntary, arising on the basis of mutual confidence and fraternal relations among peoples.
[Stalin from Foundations of Leninism]

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Emergency Mobilization Against Racism and Anti-Islamic Bigotry

Fight Back News Service is circulating the following call for an important demonstration on Sept. 11 in New York City.

Emergency Mobilization Against Racism and Anti-Islamic Bigotry

Say NO to Racism and anti-Islamic Bigotry

Stand for Unity and Solidarity on Saturday, September 11

Saturday Sept. 11 in NYC

1:00 p.m. Assemble and rally at east side of City Hall, then March

Rally at Park Pl. and Church St. (Manhattan)

Why we are marching on September 11th

The Emergency Mobilization Against Racism and Anti-Islamic Bigotry is organizing a rally for civil rights and religious freedom on Saturday, September 11th. This rally is a response to the ugly and violent attacks, both verbal and physical, which are happening more and more frequently around the country. It is also a specific response to the hate-filled protest being called by a coalition of racist and anti-Islamic organizations on September 11th.

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Arizona protests say no SB1070

The following article by Grace Kelley is from Fight Back! News:

Phoenix, AZ – Over 500 activists and community members gathered here on the morning of July 29 to protest SB1070 on the day the law was going into effect. The law has lost some of its teeth due to pressure from the immigrant rights movement, which resulted in the long overdue federal injunction. On July 28, a judge struck down the part of the law that required all Arizonans to carry their proof of legal status constantly, as well as the part that legalized and mandated racial profiling, declaring these parts unconstitutional. However, most of the law remains intact, including the parts that criminalize day laborers and target families with mixed immigration status.

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SB1070: Immigrant rights struggle heats up in Arizona

The following article by Charla Schlueter is from Fight Back! News:

Phoenix, AZ – Tensions build as July 29 nears – the date set for the racist law SB1070 to go into effect. Under this law police officers will have the power to demand immigration papers from any person who they stop. Garage sales have already begun lining the streets of Arizona as families flee trying to escape the impending oppression.

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Still No Justice for Oscar Grant

The following article is from Fight Back! News:

Los Angeles, CA – Over a year ago, on New Year’s Day 2009, Oscar Grant, a young African-American man with a four-year old daughter, was murdered by a police officer. He was shot in the back as he lay on his chest on the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) platform in Oakland, California.

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Continue the Struggle Against Effects of the Economic Crisis

The following is a resolution from the 6th Congress of Freedom Road Socialist Organization:

We face the biggest economic crisis to hit working people since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Millions are out of work and collecting unemployment benefits, people are out looking for jobs, worrying about the day when the politicians stop the checks, and poor people are hitting the welfare time limit with no hope for finding jobs. People across the country are losing their homes after being misled and cheated by lenders and big banks. Outrageously, the U.S. government bailed out the very same banks, while hard working people are tossed out on the streets with their belongings. This is wrong, wrong, wrong.

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Battleground Arizona

The following article, Battleground Arizona: Students Take the Streets for Immigrant Rights and Against Racism: Undocumented students arrested in McCain’s office, held for deportation, by James Jordan, is being reposted here from Fight Back! News:

Tucson, AZ – Arizona has seen an explosion of Chicano and Mexicano led student resistance to racist laws and in defense of the right to a quality education. Nowhere is this more evident than in the city of Tucson, which is singled out for attack by racist elements of state government. The struggle has attracted attention across the nation. Since the state House and Senate adopted the anti-immigrant and anti-Latino law, SB1070, thousands of students have walked out of school in protest and there has been a wave of youth-led direct actions.

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Fight Back! News coverage of May Day events around the U.S.

Banner of Freedom Road Socialist Organization at May 1 march in Minneapolis.

15,000 join Tucson May Day march, say, “No to Arizona Apartheid” 

Tucson, AZ – Around 15,000 people took to the streets here May 1 to celebrate May Day and to demand an end to racist anti-immigrant attacks at all levels of government, including an end to the hated SB1070 (the harshest anti-immigrant law in the nation), an end to border militarization and in support of immigration reform that is humanitarian rather than punitive. (Read More) 

Over 250,000 march for immigrant rights in Los Angeles, denounce Arizona’s SB1070: Photo Essay 

250,000 immigrant workers and allies marched for immigrant rights here today, denouncing Arizona’s racist SB1070 law and demanding “Legalization now!” The march on International Workers’ Day demanded that the Democratic Party and President Obama live up to their election campaign promise to pass comprehensive immigration reform. (Read More)

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Eyewitness Arizona: Report from the Frontlines

The following article concerning Arizona’s SB 1070 by James Jordan is from Fight Back! News, and was published today with the following editor’s note: “Editors note: SB 1070 was signed into law, Friday April 23. Protests are under way in Arizona.”

Tucson, AZ – “They have every right to be here. This is about civil rights. And the youth are leading the way.” Those were the words of Pima County Board of Supervisors Chair Richard Elias as we talked across the street from where over 100 students had gathered to protest Arizona’s SB1070 – the harshest, most anti-immigrant legislation in the country.

The bill would turn Arizona into an apartheid state, requiring people to carry proof of citizenship on their person at all times – reminiscent of the hated passbook laws in segregated South Africa. While the law doesn’t explicitly state that requirement, it gives local and state police the authority to detain and investigate anyone they suspect of being an undocumented immigrant. In other words, any Latino-looking person who is speaking Spanish can be arrested if they are not carrying identification on their person. The bill includes a number of other repressive components, including provisions to sue governmental agencies for not enforcing immigration laws aggressively enough, requiring citizenship checks for all government services, making it illegal to solicit day labor or to hire day laborers and outlawing churches and government entities from offering sanctuary or instructing local police to not enforce immigration laws.

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Network to Fight for Economic Justice: ‘March on May Day’

The following statement is from the Network to Fight for Economic Justice: 

The Network for Economic Justice (NFEJ) is calling all members and affiliated unions and groups to mobilize for the May 1st immigrant rights marches and rallies across the U.S. Hundreds of thousands of working people, mainly Chicano/Mexicano – but all sorts of working people who want justice – will be out in the streets with signs and chants demanding “Legalization now!” and “Stop the raids and deportations!”

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