7 anti-war letter-size (8.5″x11″) placards in a PDF

Tabloid-size (11″x17″) anti-war placards in PDF

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Struggle-La Lucha anti-war posters

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Minneapolis – A SWAT officer from the Minneapolis Police Department killed a man after busting into a downtown Minneapolis apartment at 7 a.m. on February 2. The victim has been identified by the community as Amir Locke. He’s become the third Black man killed by Minnesota police in 66 days. In each case, the victim is demonized by the police and the press.

Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is in charge of all the investigations into each of the three deaths: Amir Locke, Kokou Christopher Fianfonou in Austin, and Noah Kelley in Mounds View. Protests have called for transparency and accountability in each of the cases.

Amir Locke – Minneapolis – February 2, 2022 – Killed by Minneapolis PD Mark Hanneman

Amir Locke, who is said to be around 24 years old, was killed by Mark Hanneman, a SWAT officer with the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) while they were executing an early morning search warrant on February 2. The killing occurred at the Bolero Flats Apartment Homes on the 7th floor.

The police narrative, which contradicts what Locke’s family says, is that Minneapolis Police were assisting St. Paul Police in executing a search warrant on a homicide suspect when the suspect brandished a weapon, and in fear of their lives, they shot and killed him.

Locke hasn’t officially been named but according to activist Nekima Levy Armstrong, Locke’s family has identified him as the one killed. Armstrong also posted on Facebook that MPD’s Interim Chief Amelia Huffman called her in the morning after the shooting to tell her that it happened.

The family says that Amir was sleeping on the couch of a family member’s apartment when the police busted in the door executing a search warrant seeking three people, none of whom were Locke.

His family said that he was a licensed gun owner with a conceal and carry permit. He was startled from the pre-dawn police actions and sought to protect himself when he was shot and killed by the police, his family says.

According to reporting by Georgia Fort, at least three apartments were raided during the operation that killed Locke. Two on the 14th floor and the one on the seventh, where Amir was killed.

During a press conference hours after the killing, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and Interim Chief Huffman expressed condolences from the tragedy of the loss of life and provided their explanation for yet another violent police killing in the City of Minneapolis.

Interim Police Chief Huffman stated that SWAT officers were “serving search warrants to assist the St. Paul Police Department’s homicide unit … related to an ongoing murder investigation.” She said officers gained entry using a key fob and “loudly and repeatedly announced police search warrant” before entering. Then, nine seconds into the 7th floor apartment “the officers encountered a male who was armed with a handgun. He was holding that gun in his hand. At the time that shots were fired.”

The City of Minneapolis swiftly revealed Locke was killed by Minneapolis Police Department Officer Mark Hanneman (002654) and released documents related to the shooting, with some redactions: Incident Detail Report, Fire Incident Detail Report, and Fire Incident Report, along with a news release, and two photos of the gun (1, 2).

The documents reveal that Hanneman was part of Unit 1280 that initially entered the apartment and that Locke was killed by two gunshot wounds to the chest and one to the wrist.

Hanneman was previously a police officer in Hutchinson and was involved in a statewide intra-agency scheme to offer illicit drugs to protesters in the Occupy movement and the unhoused as part of Minnesota State Patrol’s Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) program. The program was briefly halted during the controversy and a lawsuit but continues to operate. Hanneman had since become an officer with MPD after serving a minor reprimand for his participation in DRE and recently graduating with a masters degree in criminal justice.

Other officers assigned to Unit 1280 according to MPD’s Incident Detail Report were John K Biederman (000548); Ryan J Carrero (001003); Conan D Hickey (002997); Dominic Manelli (123219); Aaron Pearson (005504); Nathan J Sundberg (007011); John Sysaath (007026).

Providing cover to Unit 1280 was 1281 and involved in that unit was MPD offficer Kyle Mader, who was filmed violently slamming an advocate for the houseless to the ground at George Floyd Square in late 2020.

In a controversial pattern, Locke was named a homicide suspect in the initial reports by the police that were widely published by the press. In her short press conference, Interim Chief Huffman referred to the “homicide” investigation from which the warrant was based, three times. Similar inaccurate homicide allegations were spread about Winston Smith after he was killed by a federal task force last year in Uptown Minneapolis. Corporate news reports were later retracted that initially called Smith a murder suspect.

If what the family says is true and that Locke was not named on the warrant, he was then not a suspect in the investigation – yet he was still killed.

The pattern of criminalizing victims is clearly seen in each of the last three police killings in Minnesota.

Kokou “Christopher” Fianfonou – Austin, MN – December 23, 2021 – Killed by Austin PD Zachary Gast

38-year-old Kokou “Christopher” Fianfonou was killed by Austin Police Department Officer Zachary Gast in the parking lot of a gas station in Austin, Minnesota around 9:30 p.m. on December 23. Police say Fianfonou was threatening officers with a knife.

Fianfonou, originally from Togo, was reportedly stuck in an extended standoff with Austin PD starting on December 22 from a report of a man walking in traffic with a knife.

During the standoff that lasted over 24 hours, Austin Police shot tear gas, foam marker rounds, and deployed Tasers into Fianfonou’s cousin’s house (where he was staying) in an attempt to clear him out. On the evening of December 23, officers left the sight of the house and a few hours later, they say Fianfonou then confronted them, armed, and they shot and killed him.

Fianfonou’s family disputes official narratives that Fianfonou was threatening anyone. They say he was unarmed when he was killed and that he had bags of groceries in his hands. Friends and family say he was going through a mental crisis the day before being killed.

A GoFundMe has been created by his family to help support his wife and children. Activists have called for all video footage to be released, cops fired and prosecuted and Christopher’s family to be compensated.

Noah Kelley – Mounds View, MN – November 28, 2021 – Killed by Mounds View PD Sgt. Michael Hanson and New Brighton PD John Thomas

21-year-old Noah Kelley was killed by Mounds View Police Department Sergeant Michael Hanson and New Brighton Police Officer John Thomas inside a Mounds View liquor store around 7 p.m. on November 28. Police say Kelley was armed with a handgun and alone in the liquor store when officers arrived and killed Kelley. According to the Department of Public Safety, body cameras captured “portions of the incident.”

On January 10 protesters rallied at the Mounds View City Hall before a City Council meeting and spoke during (video).

Brian Kelley, Noah’s father, addressed City Council members during the meeting and insisted the videos be released, and requested a meeting with the mayor and police chief. Kelley said that he had been left in the dark as to what happened to his son with no information besides the police report.

“I’ve spent the last month and a half in extra grief because I’m completely unaware of what took place – and that’s the reason why the taxpayers provide things like the body cameras. In addition, Gov. Walz, in June of 2021 insisted that those types of footage be available to family members within five days of an incident that resulted in death.”

Brian Kelley addressing the Mounds View City Council on January 10, 2022

Kelley’s requests seem to have been granted and a meeting with the family and authorities is scheduled for the first Friday in February.

Brian Kelley has spent nearly two decades building families through a ministry called All About Family and teaching youth about designing and building with the Young Builders and Designers Program. Noah worked alongside him and Brian said “he was going to become a carpenter or in a similar labor trade.”

Kelley leaves behind a young daughter and a wife. His family has created a GoFundMe to help support his family.

Source: Unicorn Riot

Europe stands closer to all out war than at any time since WWII. It is imperative that the Western left fully understands the global geopolitical significance of the escalations currently taking place. Of course, the principal struggle which the U.S. is conducting is with China, and it is this that structures all other major world events. In the event of a major struggle with one adversary, the intelligent tactic would be to create and exploit divisions within that adversary’s system of alliances. In this case, by far the most important geostrategic ally of China is Russia.

However, the tactics pursued by the U.S. over the past decade have amounted to the solidification of the Sino-Russian relationship. This curious way of proceeding can only be understood in terms of the very narrow limits placed on the room for maneuver by the U.S.’s prior project of encircling Russia. The principal instrument of this encirclement in Europe is NATO. And contrary to what is discussed in the Western media, it is the expansion of NATO to the east, to include first the countries of the former Warsaw Pact, and now the attempt to incorporate some former Soviet republics. Fig.1 shows NATO member states and their proximity to Russia. Note that the incorporation of Ukraine and Georgia, both of which are candidates for membership, would bring NATO right up to Russia’s borders to join Latvia and Estonia. Moreover, given the attempt at regime change in Belarus in 2021 which if successful would probably have led to a government favorable to NATO candidacy, it is clear that Russia has legitimate security concerns.

It is instructive to summarize the stages in the planning and execution of this eastward expansion. A detailed summary of the early assurances against NATO expansion given by leading diplomats derived from declassified documents is given in the National Security Archive.

In early February 1990, U.S. leaders made an offer. According to transcripts of meetings in Moscow on Feb. 9, then-Secretary of State James Baker suggested to Minister of Foreign Affairs, Eduard Shevardnadze, that in exchange for cooperation on German reunification the U.S. could make “iron-clad guarantees” that NATO would not expand “one inch eastward.” Less than a week later, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev agreed to begin reunification talks. After discussing the issue with West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl on February 24-25, the U.S. gave the former East Germany “special military status,” limiting what NATO forces could be stationed there in deference to the Soviet Union.

However, by March 1990 – only one month after Baker’s agreement with Shevardnadze –  State Department officials were advising Baker that NATO could finesse Eastern Europe into the U.S.’s orbit. By October, U.S. policymakers were contemplating whether and when (as a National Security Council memo put it) to “signal to the new democracies of Eastern Europe NATO’s readiness to contemplate their future membership.”

The promise was reiterated in 1993 when the Partnership for Peace Program was proposed as a U.S. initiative at the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Travemünde, Germany, on October 20–21, 1993. In her memoirs, Madeleine Albright confirmed that the pro-expansion decision was reached in June 1993. Yeltsin was still in his first term as President of the Russian Federation. Indeed, in 1993 Yeltsin told Polish President Lech Walesa “Russia does not oppose Poland’s membership in NATO and does not perceive its membership in NATO as a threat to Russia.” However, ‘Under pressure from opposition within Russia, this informal declaration was retracted the following month, and Yeltsin wrote in October that NATO expansion violated the spirit of the 1990 agreement’.

Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic were invited to join NATO at its Madrid summit in 1997 and became full members in 1999. In 2004, during the George W. Bush presidency, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia joined, and Bush made an unsuccessful attempt to gain the membership of Georgia and Ukraine. In 2009 Albania and Croatia joined, in 2017 Montenegro became a member, and in 2020 North Macedonia became a member. The invitation to Georgia to join was a factor in the Georgian decision to attack South Ossetia in 2008 igniting the Russo-Georgian war of the same year. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that a pro-Western government came to power in Georgia following the so called ‘rose revolution’.

George W. Bush’s successful push to expand NATO to include the Baltic republics, and his even more brazen though unsuccessful effort to gain membership for Georgia and Ukraine at the Bucharest NATO summit greatly antagonized Russia. This promise of NATO membership for Georgia and Ukraine, was forestalled only by the opposition of Germany and France on the grounds that it would unnecessarily antagonize Russia, nevertheless encouraged Georgia to provoke a war with Russia by attacking South Ossetia. The background to the Russo-Georgian war of 2008 is the ‘rose revolution’ of 2003, which replaced the pro Russian government of Eduard Shevardnadze with the pro-Western government of Mikheil Saakashvili. This regime change occurred with the assistance of the suspension of aid by the IMF and U.S., and the active participation of some 4000 mostly foreign funded NGOs, including USAID, and which closely followed the model of the Serbian ‘bulldozer revolution’ which led to the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic on 5 October, 2000.

The model of regime change which led to the overthrow of pro Russian governments in Serbia and Georgia was further pursued by the Obama administration in Ukraine, building on the ‘orange revolution’ of 2004-5 and culminating in the Maidan uprising which overthrew the pro Russian government of Viktor Yanucovych in 2014 as a result of his refusal to sign a political association and free trade agreement with the EU. The overthrow of the Yanucovych government was accompanied by a purge of civil servants associated with the former government and a de-russification of the country. That is what has led to the current long standing internal civil struggle between the predominantly Ukrainian and predominantly Russian regions of the country (see Fig.2).

Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the NATO military alliance has extended its borders 800 miles to the east, incorporating Poland, Hungary, Czechia, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia. In 2021, NATO officially recognized Ukraine itself as an “aspiring member,” and Sweden and Finland are also considering joining the anti-Russia alliance. Both Finland and Estonia are less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from St. Petersburg, and Ukraine’s eastern border is less than 750 kilometers (465 miles) from Moscow. The current strategic situation facing Russia is shown in Fig.3.

In addition to the already accomplished eastward expansion of NATO and the proposed additions of Ukraine and Georgia, it is also necessary to account for the failed attempts to overthrow the pro-Russian governments of Belarus in 2021, and Kazakhstan earlier this year. Had these attempts been successful it is extremely probable that there would be moves to incorporate these additional states into NATO. This would accomplish a complete encirclement of Russia on its European and central Asian borders. The cases of Ukraine and Georgia are particularly sensitive since membership of NATO means that states are covered by NATO’s mutual defense article. Therefore Ukraine would be encouraged to retake Crimea and the Donbas by force and Georgia would be encouraged to retake Abkhazia by force secure in the knowledge that if Russia intervenes they would have the protection of the other NATO powers. This would deprive Russia of access to the black sea.

As can be seen from the above, the current heightened tension has been building for some time, and results directly from Western deceptions around NATO expansion at the moment of the dissolution of the U.S.SR, which are intensified by the present day geopolitical confrontation between the Western powers and the Eurasian Bloc led by China and Russia. For instance, Fig.4 shows an excerpt from a speech given by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in 2018.

Source: Socialist Action Britain

SATURDAY AT 12 PM – 2 PM
Baltimore No U.S./NATO War on Russia & Donbass
N. Charles Street & North Ave

No U.S./NATO war on Russia & Donbass.

Fight evictions, not Russia. We need money for healthcare, jobs & housing, not for war profiteers and banks and big oil profits!

Join us this Saturday, Feb 5, 12 noon to 2 pm. We will be posting educational information, videos, and graphics in the discussion. At 1 pm we will car caravan after outdoor protest at 12 noon.

Please dress warmly — masks required.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 2022
La Lucha Llama en el Día de la Candelaria – manifestación contra Luma y privatización de la Energía
Negociado De Energía De Puerto Rico, 268 Av. Luis Muñoz Rivera, San Juan

Mujeres contra LUMA convoca una manifestación a realizarse el 2 de febrero de 2022 a las 3:30pm, Día de la Candelaria. Usamos este día de nuestra tradición de pueblo, simbólicamente, para significar que la llama de nuestra lucha contra la privatización del sistema energético sigue encendida.

Nos manifestaremos frente al Negociado de Energía de Puerto Rico (NEPR), en el edificio que también alberga a la Junta de Control Fiscal en la Milla de Oro, para repudiar la complicidad del Negociado de Energía en la privatización de nuestro sistema energético, el otorgamiento del Contrato con LUMA y por su incumplimiento de las funciones que por ley tiene.

Las Mujeres contra LUMA somos un grupo amplio de mujeres compuesto por trabajadoras de la energía, trabajadoras del sector público y privado, organizaciones feministas, políticas, y en su carácter personal, que estamos en este proceso por entender que esta lucha va más allá de los derechos de las trabajadoras de la AEE. El Contrato de LUMA y su ejecutoria afecta a todo Puerto Rico.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2022 AT 2 PM
No to War With Russia!
Canal and Broad

No to War with Russia!

Speak out, Saturday, Feb 5, 2 pm, at Canal and Broad

• U.S./NATO/Ukraine Planning Massacre of Donbass Anti-Fascist Fighters
• U.S. out of Eastern Europe, No More Wars for Oil!
• Money for Children, Youth, COVID Relief Not War Profiteers!
• Anti-fascist and anti-NATO protests in Ukraine.

A message from Andrey Kochetov, a labor leader in the Lugansk People’s Republic:

“Now the situation around our Republics is very serious. Ukraine brought to the front line about 125,000 soldiers of Ukrainian Army and murders from Nazi battalions. Many foreign instructors came to train Ukrainian soldiers.

“But mass media of US and EU says about “Russian aggression”. But we can’t see any Russian troops on our territory. We hope that common sense and wisdom will win and the world doesn’t fall into war.

“We still remember that Ukrainian authorities decided to drop bombs on the heads of Donbass residents instead of sitting down at the negotiating table. And we will never forget that only Russia, not so-called “civilized world”, gave us real help, support and defense.

“It is difficult to make any prognosis right now. We just see US push Ukraine into the war very hard. It is terrible but it is so!

“What you can do for us? Thanks to Russia we not suffer from hunger. Only one thing we need. Your support and help us dissemination of real information about the situation in our Republics.”

We Need Money For Workers Welfare, Not for Capitalist Warfare

The monthly child supplement has been cut and millions are facing eviction and foreclosure. Millions are denied childcare and affordable health care. COVID is overwhelming hospitals and killing people by the thousands. Republicans and Democrats have rushed to spend another $500 million on weapons to send to the Ukrainian army and its allied Nazi paramilitaries which have been terrorizing people. That $500 million is destined for the pockets of the U.S. military corporations which already make record profits and already loot 65% of our federal tax dollars for themselves.
Why is the U.S. in the Ukraine anyway?

Members of the Ukrainian National Guard flying NATO flag, the flag of the Azov battalion, and the Nazi swastika.

This is not about protecting people in the Ukraine. It is about profit and preparing for war with Russia. U.S. troops have been ordered to the Ukraine because the U.S. wants to build another military base on the Russian border. Imagine if Russia wanted to build a base on the Mexican border.

The corporate media outlets that falsely claim that the U.S. is defending Ukrainian sovereignty don’t mention that when Biden was Vice President, the U.S. orchestrated a fascist-led coup in 2014 that forced mass layoffs, price increases, cuts to social programs, and open terror on the Ukrainian people. Nor do they mention the $2.4 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars used to build up the swastika-flying militias of the Ukrainian National Guard who have killed more than 14,000 people in their 8-year bombing war on the Donbass in eastern Ukraine. These are the reasons that the people of the republics of Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbass and the republic in Crimea are determined to be independent from Ukraine. Russia did not invade or seize Crimea; after the 2014 coup, the people voted overwhelmingly to disassociate from fascist Ukraine.

Solidarity with Anti-Fascist Fighters in Donbass and Ukraine

By now 150,000 U.S.-armed and -trained Ukrainian troops have amassed at the border of the People’s Republics of the Donbass located between Ukraine and Russia. They have been supplied with 250 tons of military equipment and ammunition (which corporate media has tried to hide in plain sight by calling it “lethal aid”) by the

U.S. They are reinforced by U.S./NATO deployed jets, warships, and nuclear-armed submarines.

By attempting to crush the anti-fascist resistance in the Donbass and advance U.S./NATO forces up to the Russian border, the U.S. is daring Russia to respond. Even the Ukrainian government has asked the U.S. to pull back but the capitalists in control of the U.S. and NATO have their eye on the vast energy reserves and infrastructure in the Donbass and Russia.

The U.S. government has declared that the world belongs to its capitalists and has 800 foreign military bases to enforce that ownership. Russia has a handful of bases in former Soviet states. Russia has adopted a defensive position by putting troops and military equipment on its own western border. The “imminent Russian invasion” being hyped by the corporate U.S. media is a lie being peddled on behalf of U.S. arms manufacturers and oil and gas companies hungry for new sources of profit, no different than the lies they told about WMDs in Iraq 20 years ago. By promoting this dangerous lie, they are pushing us to the edge of a catastrophic war.

Working people have no interest in another rich man’s war.

Join us in saying no more blood for oil!

Join us at Canal and Broad for a speak-out on Saturday, Feb. 5 2PM.