Posted by raleighfist on April 29, 2008
Join FIST to Protest Bank of America in Chapel Hill
Friday, May 9th, 12 noon, 137 E. Franklin St.
FIST Youth Fight Back Against the Banks!
Moratorium on Foreclosures and Evictions, Now!
Bail Out the People Not the Banks!
Jobs for Youth, Not Jail!
FIST members picketing in Washington DC in front of Mortgage Bankers Association
to protest Foreclosures and Evictions Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General, Imperialism, White Supremacy | No Comments »
Posted by raleighfist on March 31, 2008
Posted by raleighfist on March 31, 2008
By LeiLani Dowell
FIST in New York City
Now that a Black presidential candidate has a real chance of winning the Democratic nomination and even the presidency, we’re once again asked not to talk about oppression. We’re supposed to reject the teachings of, for instance, Malcolm X, and even Martin Luther King Jr. We’re supposed to deny what, for so many poor and oppressed peoples in the United States and throughout the world, is a clear-cut reality. We’re not supposed to be angry—and we’re definitely not supposed to speak up and fight back.
Such is the case in the media-bashing of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, former spiritual mentor of presidential candidate Barack Obama.
In a media flooded with racist, sexist and anti-LGBT images and voices, the words of a Black man calling the U.S. on its violence and oppression are labeled “hate speech.” Obama’s opponent for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Rodham Clinton, went so far as to put Wright on a par with Don Imus—who is back on the air even after his racist, sexist rants made international headlines.
The attack on the Rev. Wright is nothing less than nationalist baiting and anti-patriot baiting. It is being used not only to undermine Obama’s campaign, but particularly in an attempt to defeat the Black struggle.
The media, as they will often do when attempting to defile someone’s character, have reduced Wright’s comments to mere snippets and sound bites of supposedly inexplicable outbursts against the U.S. Even in that limited context, it is hard to find fault in his words.
For instance, the idea that HIV was created to target people of color (and LGBT people) is not new, and understandable given the overall government attack on those communities. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by raleighfist on March 18, 2008
By Dante Strobino
Cleveland, N.C.
A March 4 community event here for the Freightliner 5—members of United Auto Workers Local 3520 who were fired after leading a strike—highlighted support the five are getting from other militant unionists in the South.
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Ken Riley, President of ILA
Local 1422, gives encouragement
at Freightliner 5 meeting.
FIST photo: Dante Strobino
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After the workers refused to accept the company’s concessionary contract and initiated a strike on April 3, 2007, Freightliner bosses fired five members of Local 3520’s bargaining committee—Robert Whiteside, Allen Bradley, Franklin Torrence, Glenna Swinford and David Crisco—along with six other workers.
The contract had 22 articles with no tentative agreement and 86 unsettled sub-issues relating to health and safety. Among the concessions was a two-tier wage structure, which pays newer workers far less than their seniors.
The other six got their jobs back after signing “model employee” agreements; one was subsequently terminated.
Kenneth Riley, a dockworker and president of International Longshoremen’s Association Local 1422, gave encouragement to the 50-plus Freightliner workers at the meeting. Local 1422 is home of the Charleston 5—workers who were put under house arrest in 2000 for leading a picket in Charleston, S.C. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Labor, White Supremacy | 1 Comment »
Posted by raleighfist on March 13, 2008
Emergency Demonstration to Free Sami Al-Arian
Saturday, March 15 11:30pm
Raleigh NC, Federal Building on New Bern Ave
Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation and Fight Imperialism Stand Together (FIST) youth are calling for a demonstration and press conference to Free Sami Al-Arian. While his 3rd hunger strike carries on, his health continues to deteriorate as he is a diabetic and the wardens refuse to give him the needed IV. He is currently being held the Federal prison in Butner, NC and attention is needed to this case.
The press conference is scheduled for 12noon. Please get there by 11:30 so we look strong when the press arrives!
Call Khalilah Sabra of MAS FF at 919-345-8105 or Dante Strobino of FIST at 919-539-2051 for more information.
Free Sami Al-Arian!
Free Palestine!
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by raleighfist on February 17, 2008
By Larry Hales
Hip-hop is still under attack. Popular media outlets have forgiven Don Imus’ comments; the sexist and racist radio personality has been given another position on another station to pollute the airwaves. But hip-hop is still heavily scrutinized and made the scapegoat for the sexism, racism and homophobia rampant in the U.S.
Whatever contradictions exist in rap music or any of the other elements of hip-hop, the culture is neither the greatest purveyor of the contradictions nor the initiator. It is merely subject to infiltration from the culture that comes with capitalist society.
Any student of the evolution of Black music knows that in the beginning, hip-hop was not just party music, but social commentary. The phenomenon of what was then known as a counterculture—partly because hip-hop in its early days was underground—was a response to the conditions imposed upon Black and Puerto Rican youth in New York and across the country in inner city areas in the late 1970s and 1980s. Those conditions included white flight from city areas, the beginning of deindustrialization and the decline of the great social movements of the 1960s and 1970s as a result of the boom and bust cycle of capitalism. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by raleighfist on January 24, 2008
By Tyneisha Bowens
Jena, La.
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Anti-racist activists from many parts
of the country march in Jena, La.,
Jan. 21.
FIST photo Tyneisha Bowens
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One hundred and fifty anti-racist activists continued the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on Jan. 21 as they confronted members of the white supremacist organization, the Nationalist Movement, in Jena, La. The event took place on Martin Luther King Day in this small Louisiana town that has been the stage for what is being called the new civil rights movement.
The Nationalist Movement was in Jena for what they called “Jena Justice Day,” which was in opposition to the September 2007 mobilization of tens of thousands people in support of the Jena 6 and the overall message of equality that Martin Luther King Jr. preached. The white supremacists recently won a suit with Jena giving them the right to march there without a permit, carrying nooses and white cross flags and even firearms. Various anti-racist organizations, groups, and individuals drove into the city to say “No to nooses!”
The diversity of the anti-racist group, which included Black, Latin@, Arab, Asian, Native and white folks, showed the unity that is being forged between oppressed nationalities in the United States. People came out from Los Angeles; Chicago; New York; New Orleans; Atlanta; Jersey City, N.J.; Durham, N.C.; and Jena.
At 9 a.m. the anti-racist activists met at two checkpoints outside of Jena and caravanned in for safety. “We have been harassed by the police, pulled over and ticketed almost everyday,” explained one of the organizers from the January 21 in Jena Committee. After caravanning into the town, the anti-racists held a rally in Jena’s park where the crowd listened to speakers including police brutality activist Juanita Young, Rev. Raymond Brown of Louisiana’s National Action Network, a representative of the youth group FIST—Fight Imperialism, Stand Together, Carl Dix of the Revolutionary Communist Party, a member of the Common Ground Collective and activists from cities across the country. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by raleighfist on January 24, 2008
By David Hoskins
More than 800,000 Palestinians have been living in darkness since Israel forcibly closed the border and blocked fuel shipments into Gaza on Jan. 18, forcing Gaza’s only electrical plant to shut down. The general director of Gaza‘s single electricity plant, Derar Abu Sissi, explained that “the catastrophe will affect hospitals, clinics, water wells, houses, factories, all aspects of life.”
Hospital generators are rapidly running out of fuel. Health Ministry official Moaiya Hassannain exclaimed, “We have the choice to either cut electricity on babies in the maternity ward or heart surgery patients or stop operating rooms.” (Washington Post, Jan. 22)
Israel sealed off all entrances into Gaza last week, shortly after President Bush’s recent trip to the Middle East, and just a week after Bush met with Mahmud Abbas and Ehud Olmert. The blockade was no doubt approved by the Bush administration. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Counter-Recruitment, General, Imperialism, White Supremacy | No Comments »
Posted by raleighfist on January 24, 2008
The following statement was issued by the Rocky Mount, N.C.-based Black Workers League Reconstruction Commission on Jan. 11.
The reparations movement is an important section of the African American liberation movement. It is made up of various political and ideological tendencies and class forces and represents the largest alignment of Black liberation organizations and activists inside of the U.S. It offers a basic framework for connecting the struggles of Black people inside the U.S. to the struggles throughout Africa and the African Diaspora against the continuing super-exploited and genocide committed against our peoples, lands and communities by U.S. and global capitalism.
Pan Africanists and internationalists must viewed reparations as a demand against U.S. and global imperialism for the redistribution of the wealth amassed from the historical and continuing oppression of Africa and the African Diaspora.
The demand for reparations is core to the struggle for African American self-determination, national liberation and for building socialism in the 21st century. This means that the reparations movement inside of the U.S. must be anti-imperialist, mass- based, and active in mobilizing Black people and allies for radical structural changes that address historical problems on national oppression, and that seek to alter the balance of power in favor of the struggles against U.S. and world imperialism. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by raleighfist on January 3, 2008
By Dante Strobino
On Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day, public-sector workers in North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia—in a common struggle to deepen the protections under state law for collective-bargaining rights, and all organized by the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America—held simultaneous news conferences announcing the most recent step in the International Worker Justice Campaign.
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UE organizer Ashaki Binta at
news conference.
Photo: UE
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They are requesting that the Inter-American Council on Human Rights, a body chartered under the Organization of American States, investigate why workers are denied the fundamental human rights to organize and collectively bargain labor contracts with their employers.
The workers in these three states all suffer from different conditions and laws but they all share the fact that none of these states protects their right to collectively bargain. North Carolina, the state with the worst laws and conditions, where public-employee collective bargaining is actually illegal, was the prime focus of this action.
For several years, UE along with Black Workers for Justice and other community and labor organizations have been building a grassroots movement to demand repeal of General Statute 95-98, the North Carolina law prohibiting collective bargaining for public workers. Read the rest of this entry »
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