Manuel Jamines, Guatemalan Day Laborer Killed by LA Police

Carlos Montes demands justice for Manuel Jimenes at community meeting. (Fight Back! News/Staff)

The following article is from Fight Back! News:

Los Angeles, CA – The Guatemalan community, especially the indigenous Mayan sector, has been protesting and angry over the brutal killing of their community member Manuel Jamines. Jamines was shot in the head and body on a busy street in the late afternoon in the Pico Union, a Central American community, by the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) on Sept. 5.

At least two witnesses have said that Manuel was not armed and no threat to anyone. Police and one witness claim that Manuel Jamines had a knife and wielded it at police. Police claim to have shouted to Manuel in English and Spanish to yield, but the community says that Jamines only spoke a Mayan language native to Guatemala.

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.

Campuses rocked by education rights protests March 4

March 4 protest at UCLA (Fight Back! News/Staff)

The following article by Kati Ketz is from Fight Back! News:

 Thousands of students, workers and faculty at over 100 campuses in at least 39 states participated in a national day of action March 4. One demand was that administrators and chancellors must quit raising tuition and fees. Another demand was that theycut the salaries of the highest-paid administrators instead of the lowest-paid staffers on campus. Many of the protests opposed layoffs. Actions ranged from walkouts and marches, to occupations and shut-downs, to teach-ins and movie showings.

Nepalese Police Arrest 70 in Clash with Maoists

The following article is from the New York Times:

NEW DELHI — Nepalese riot police officers wielding batons and firing canisters of tear gas clashed Sunday with Maoist sympathizers in Katmandu, as the Maoists staged their largest protests since abandoning the government seven months ago.

The violence was a new sign that the stalled peace process was unraveling altogether. It started as Maoists blocked roads into Katmandu, the capital, as part of a three-day general strike called to protest President Ram Baran Yadav and demand a restoration of their political power.

News agencies reported that the police arrested at least 70 people on charges of vandalism, while Maoists said as many as 100 demonstrators were injured.

Video: Nepal Torch Rally and General Strike

The following is a video of the torch rally and General Strike in response to the killing of Maoist activists by the police.

40 Years After his Assassination, let us Live Like Fred Hampton!

Fred Hampton was only 21 when he died on December 4, 1969. In such a short time, he distinguished himself as one of the greatest fighters for African American liberation and socialist revolution in the history of the United States. He so distinguished himself that the FBI and the Chicago Police Department found it necessary to gun him down in cold blood while he slept in his bed. Looking back, 40 years later to the day, it is important for revolutionaries and Marxist-Leninists to commit themselves to fight with the energy and tenacity that he did.

Please read this statement from the Freedom Road Socialist Organization: Fred Hampton – A Fighter for Black Liberation, Revolution and Socialism

The Andolan in Kathmandu and the Revolution to Follow

The following article by Gary Leupp is from CounterPunch. Please see his previous article, Nepal: The Tactic of General Insurrection:

“So far,” notes Peter Lee of the Asia Times, “Western media have reported remotely and somewhat uncomprehendingly on the massive demonstrations in Kathmandu led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), with a marked lack of interest. This perhaps reflects the shared desire of the Indian, Chinese and Western governments not to inflame the situation with excessive attention and rhetoric.” He refers to the two-day action in the Nepali capital Thursday and Friday.

But those demonstrations should be of enormous interest.  According to AsiaNews, “The second phase of the so-called ‘people’s movement-III’ saw more than 150,000 participants, including former Maoist guerrillas and United Communist Party of Nepal-Maoist (UCPM-M) members of parliament and militants, gathered around the  Singha Durbar, Nepal’s official seat of government.”

The Maoists virtually paralyzed the government in a stunning display of power. All the top Maoist leaders marched through the city, some meeting the police at the barricades and breaking through  to assume positions around Singha Durbar where they addressed the huge crowd.

It was overwhelming a peaceful, even festive andolan or mass demonstration, although there were some clashes with police. A senior Maoist leader, Krishna Bahadur Mahara, was among those wounded. He told Agence France-Presse, “We are now giving the government and other parties an opportunity to look into our demands.  The ball is in the government’s court.” The most powerful Maoist figure, former prime minister Prachanda, issued a sharper warning to the regime, giving it a seven-day ultimatum (to November 20) to restore “civilian supremacy” or face a general strike and other strong protests.

A closer look at bourgeois democracy

Since today is the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall (please see my previous post, “Democracy, East Germany and the Berlin Wall” by Stephen Gowans), lets take a closer look at bourgeois democracy, since it is supposedly so fabulous according to the self-congratulatory imperialist media:

That would all be funny if this farce weren’t backed by force:

“Bourgeois democracy, although a great historical advance in comparison with medievalism, always remains, and under capitalism is bound to remain, restricted, truncated, false and hypocritical, a paradise for the rich and a snare and deception for the exploited, for the poor.” – V. I. Lenin, Bourgeois and Proletarian Democracy

30th Anniversary of the Greensboro Massacre

On November 3rd, 1979, the Workers Viewpoint Organization (which would become the Communist Workers Party) held a anti-Klan rally in Greensboro, North Carolina. Five WVO cadres were killed by the Ku Klux Klan with the assistance of the Greensboro Police. The following is an excellent documentary about the Greensboro Massacre, called “Greensboro’s Child“.

The Beloved Community Center, Greensboro Justice Fund, and other organizations in Greensboro are hosting a conference and other events to commemorate the “30th Anniversary of the Tragic Killing of Five Labor and Community Organizers by Klan and Nazis in 1979” from Nov. 4-7th.

COINTELPRO: The FBI’s War on Black America

For more information on the FBI’s COINTELPRO, check out the wikipedia page, along with Paul Wolf’s COINTELPRO reference site.