VB Film Festival: Black and Cuba
Hosted by Benjamin Ramos Rosado

Saturday, January 26, 2019 at 2:30 PM – 5 PM

The People’s Forum
320 West 37th Street, New York, New York 10018

Join the Venceremos Brigade in the screening of Black and Cuba, followed by a brief information session on the upcoming 50th contingent of the Venceremos Brigade this summer!

The documentary “Black and Cuba” tells the story of Black resistance reading group, comprised of Black Yale graduate students who were inspired to take a trip to Cuba in 2002 and witness firsthand “how revolution lives”. All proceeds will go to support scholarships for folks who will be participating in the upcoming 50th anniversary brigade to Cuba.

THIS EVENT IS SPONSORED BY BLACK AND CUBA!

Cost: Sliding Scale $5 – $15 (nobody will be turned away due to lack of funds)

This film screening is co-sponsored by Black and Cuba. More information can be found here! https://blackandcuba.tumblr.com/

Monday, January 21, 2019 at 11:30 AM – 3 PM

Hosted by Bay Ridge for Social Justice

For the past three years, Bay Ridge residents, neighbors, and allies have come together on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to honor the radical legacy of Dr. King by showing that hate has NO PLACE in Bay Ridge.

Bay Ridge for Social Justice, Fight Back Bay Ridge, South Brooklyn Progressive Resistance and Arab American Association of New York invite you to join us for a march on Martin Luther King Day, not only to honor Dr. King’s legacy, but to continue his struggle against oppressive borders that act to divide us.

This march will take place at the beginning of our third year living under an administration whose goals are to divide us, impoverish us for the benefit of the 1%, and deny the human and civil rights of the most vulnerable among us.

We will march on January 21st to say NO to the immoral militarized borders that are created to separate us. From Palestine to Mexico, we have seen the effect of artificial borders that have ripped families apart, created inhuman living conditions, and enforced poverty, racism and Islamophobia. From Sunset Park to Bay Ridge, we are working in South Brooklyn to erase divisions and build solidarity in the fight against oppression, racism and violence.

As we move into the third year of the Trump era, we call for actions of resistance and solidarity, knowing that the onslaught of attacks by the right and the 1% will only be overcome when we stand together and rise against them.

Join us Monday, January 21st at 11.30 am at the Arab American Association. We will finish the afternoon with a rally that will include speeches from activists and community leaders, and a chance for you to get to know your neighbors and strengthen a commitment to social justice.

Organizations and groups: Please contact us at bayridgeforsocialjustice @gmail.com to endorse this action!

Love and Solidarity,

Bay Ridge for Social Justice
Fight Back Bay Ridge
South Brooklyn Progressive Resistance
TAKE ON HATE
Arab American Association of New York

This action is endorsed by:
Peace Action Bay Ridge
South Brooklyn DSA Official
Atlas: DIY
Brooklyn For Peace
Friends of Sunset Park
Equality for Flatbush : E4F
The Brooklyn Anti-gentrification Network – BAN
Young Progressives of America
Within Our Lifetime

https://www.facebook.com/bayridgeforsocialjustice/

The Peoples March – 5th Annual Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy
Hosted by Anti Police-Terror Project

#THEPEOPLESMARCH – the fifth Annual March to Reclaim King’s Radical Legacy….A mass mobilization.

We will hold Oscar Grant Plaza from sunrise to sunset. For the march, plan to:
Gather at 11:00 am
March at noon

Here’s more detail (still subject to change)
7:20 am – 7:45 am – Sunrise Ceremony
8:00 am – 9:00 am Morning meditation and sound healing – Free Breakfast Program until the March
9:00 am – 10:30 am – youth teach-in and march around the plaza
11:00 am – 1:30 pm – Program & March!
1:30 pm – 2:30 pm – March ends in celebration, music and dance
2:30 pm – 4:30 pm – People’s Assemblies & Lunch:
:30pm-5pm – Last torch is lit, chanting Oscar Grant’s name as well as the names of all of the other victims of police brutality over the last ten years, gong is hit, we move into sunset ceremony
5:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Sunset ceremony by Lead to Life
ASL interpretation will be available for some parts of the day’s programming.

For the 5th consecutive year, the Anti Police-Terror Project calls the Bay Area into the streets for the People’s March to Reclaim MLK’s Radical Legacy.

MLK’s legacy has been whitewashed for many decades. The state would have us believe he was a passive figure. The truth is he was a radical leader, unshakable in his demands for rational change: an end to capitalism, to war, to empire, to poverty, and to white supremacy. We take this opportunity every year to celebrate the true spirit of this revolutionary.

January 2019 marks the 10th anniversary of the murder of #OscarGrant. This year on #ReclaimMLK Day, we honor the mothers of those lost to police violence, and lift up their resistance and resilience.

It’s also been another 10 years of gentrification. Another 10 years of displacement. Another 10 years of a worsening houselessness crisis. Another 10 years of the Bay Area’s elected leaders putting profits over people. Another 10 years of government for and by developers, tech companies, and banks – instead of for and by the People.

The People have had enough. For seven months, we waged a People’s Campaign for a just and equitable Oakland. Our campaign galvanized tens of thousands of Oaklanders and most importantly, it did not end in November. We continue that Campaign and its demands into the new year.

On Jan. 21, we march for justice for all victims of police terror and their families. We march for housing as a human right. We march for a just economy that meets everyone’s human needs. We march for real community safety, which means defunding the police to invest in our communities. We march for quality education for all our kids. We march for real sanctuary in the Bay. We march for a sustainable climate and healthy environment for all families.

We demand a Bay Area for All of Us. We demand a Bay Area for the People.

Demands:
– Justice for ALL victims of police terror and their families
– Housing as a human right: truly affordable housing for all in need, immediate shelter for our unhoused neighbors, and public land for public good.
– A just economy that works for everyone, puts people over profits, provides living wage jobs with dignity for all, requires corporations to pay their fair share to do business in our cities, and ensures that any development benefits the community.
– Community-based public safety: Invest in prevention, not criminalization; make all police use of force transparent and accountable.
– Quality education for all: Fair pay for teachers. No cuts, no closures, no more charters.
– Real sanctuary for all: Abolish ICE, end criminalization of our most marginalized, and guarantee the safety of all queer, Black, Brown and Indigenous communities.
– Environmental justice: clean, air, water, and safe food supplies for all.
Indigenous sovereignty and respect for sacred sites.

#ThePeoplesMarch
#ReclaimMLKOak
#10Hours4OscarGrant
#HousingIsAHumanRight

https://www.facebook.com/APTPaction/?eid=ARCxzaEusIjgoI-Nd7B-PA5NBcY9UzsEVtW1L3d3CWcsOyBnsOiylUtlhkh5YwNtNZFLFj8nbO2IoIWt

On January 18, 2019, we are uniting the Indigenous peoples across the World to stand together to bring awareness to the injustices affecting Indigenous men, women and children. Indigenous people from North, Central and South America, Oceania, Asia, Africa and the Caribbean are a target of genocide. Currently, many Indigenous people are victims of voter suppression, divided families by walls and borders, an environmental holocaust, sex and human trafficking, and police/military brutality with little or no resources and awareness of this injustice. We Must Unite and Help!!

Please visit indigenouspeoplesmovement.com for more information.

https://www.facebook.com/events/2242403212710541/

Saturday, January 19, at 10 AM
At Boston Common, Founder’s Memorial (Puritan wall on the Beacon Street Side)

Let’s have an Indigenous meet-up to be together for the 2019 Boston Women’s March! -Everyone please wear a RED scarf or shawl or hat for Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women Girls & 2-Spirits #MMIWG2S.

• Bring a hand drum if you have one.
• Indigenous people from all over will be embraced. There are no Borders or Walls in our Indigenous struggles against settler colonialism!
• This Meetup and contingent will be Indigenous-led. Respectful allies/fam welcome to be nearby with us.

Click here for Facebook Event page

Education is a right for all!

The upcoming strike by United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) — teachers, nurses, librarians, counselors and social workers in the Los Angeles County Unified School District (LAUSD) — will be critical not only for teachers, school workers and students in Los Angeles but for communities across the country.

What’s at issue is a national anti-union drive whose goal is not only to eradicate collective bargaining by public school workers but also to attack education rights for poor and working-class students. The intransigence of LAUSD and School Superintendent Beutner indicates their intent to further privatize public schools and to continue to allow charter schools to function without oversight or regulation in the second largest school district in the country.

The lack of oversight of charter schools and private schools is tantamount to the resegregation of our public school system nationally.

Those students remaining in Los Angeles public schools — largely students of color, students who are entitled to special education services and overall from low-income families — have needs that cannot continue to be neglected.

We, the undersigned, extend our full solidarity with UTLA in this important struggle.

We call on unions, communities and students to join the picket lines when possible and to reach out to community organizations, churches, co-workers, family and friends, and educate them about this important battle for union rights and for the health and development of 640,000 students.

If you are not in Los Angeles, consider holding solidarity actions and pickets in your own city, town or state. Have your union or group pass resolutions. Circulate this statement and call Superintendent Beutner at (213) 241-1000 to say that you support Los Angeles school workers.

To add your name or organization, message us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SupportLATeachers/ or send an email to harriettubmancenter@gmail.com.

#UTLAstrong #StrikeReady #Red4Ed

Endorsers (list in formation):

United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE Union) California
American Federation of Teachers Guild 1931, San Diego
Steve Gillis, Financial Secretary, United Steelworkers Local 8751, the Boston School Bus Drivers’ Union
Los Angeles Tenants Union — Eastside Local
Rev. C.D. Witherspoon, president emeritus, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Greater Baltimore
American Indian Movement — Southern California
Alise Sochaczewski, National Union of Healthcare Workers (ret.)
Harvard Blvd. Block Club — South Central Los Angeles
Los Angeles Workers Assembly
Youth Against War & Racism, Baltimore
Peoples Power Assembly, Baltimore
Prisoners Solidarity Committee
Puerto Rican Alliance — So Cal
Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice — Los Angeles
International Action Center, West Coast
Lizz Toledo, LCSW, Latinx LGBTQ activist
Project Solidarity, New York City
Baltimore Bus Riders Union
Solidarity with Novorossiya & Antifascists in Ukraine

¡Educación es un Derecho de Todxs!

La próxima huelga de la UTLA  — maestrxs, enfermerxs, bibliotecarixs, conserjes y trabajadorxs sociales en el LAUSD (Los Angeles County Unified School District) — es importante no solo para lxs maestrxs, trabajadorxs escolares y estudiantes en Los Ángeles, sino también para todas las comunidades en todo el país.

El centro de la cuestión es una campaña nacional antisindical que tiene no solo el  propósito de erradicar la negociación colectiva de lxs trabajadorxs escolares públicos, sino que también ataca los derechos educativos de estudiantes pobres y de clase trabajadora. La intransigencia del LAUSD y del superintendente escolar Beutner nos indica sus intenciones de privatizar aún más las escuelas públicas y seguir permitiendo que las escuelas chárter continúen funcionando sin supervisión ni reglas en el distrito que es el segundo más grande del país.

La falta de supervisión en las escuelas chárter y en las escuelas privadas equivale a la re-segregación de nuestro sistema de escuelas públicas a nivel nacional.

Lxs estudiantes que se quedan en las escuelas públicas de Los Ángeles  — en gran parte estudiantes de color, estudiantes con necesidades especiales y en general de familias con  bajos ingresos — tienen necesidades que no pueden seguir siendo ignoradas.

Lxs abajo firmantes, extendemos nuestra plena solidaridad con UTLA en esta importante lucha.

Llamamos a todos los sindicatos, comunidades y a lxs estudiantes a que cuando les sea posible se unan a los piquetes y se acerquen a organizaciones comunitarias, iglesias, compañerxs de trabajo, familiares y amigxs para educarles acerca de esta batalla tan importante para los derechos de los sindicatos y para la salud y el desarrollo de 640,000 estudiantes.

Si no está en Los Ángeles, considere organizar una acción de solidaridad y  piquetes en su ciudad, pueblo o estado.

Haga que su sindicato o grupo apruebe sus resoluciones. Haga circular esta declaración y llame al superintendente Beutner al 213-241-1000 para decirle que apoya a lxs trabajadores escolares de Los Ángeles.

Iniciado por el Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice, Los Ángeles

Para añadir su nombre u organización mande un correo electrónico a: harriettubmancenter@gmail.com o https://www.facebook.com/SupportLATeachers/

Endosantes:

United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America (UE Union) California
American Federation of Teachers Guild 1931, San Diego
Steve Gillis, Financial Secretary, United Steelworkers Local 8751, the Boston School Bus Drivers’ Union
Los Angeles Tenants Union — Eastside Local
Rev. C.D. Witherspoon, president emeritus, Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Greater Baltimore
American Indian Movement — Southern California
Alise Sochaczewski, National Union of Healthcare Workers (ret.)
Harvard Blvd Block Club — South Central Los Angeles
Los Angeles Workers Assembly
Youth Against War & Racism, Baltimore
Peoples Power Assembly, Baltimore
Prisoners Solidarity Committee
Puerto Rican Alliance — So Cal
Harriet Tubman Center for Social Justice — Los Angeles
International Action Center, West Coast
Lizz Toledo, LCSW, Latinx LGBTQ activist
Project Solidarity, New York City
Baltimore Bus Riders Union
Solidarity with Novorossiya & Antifascists in Ukraine

“The Palestinian people are determined to continue the intifada for all of the national rights of our people. This position is naturally consistent with the struggle of all progressive global forces confronting global imperial arrogance and struggling for independence, self-determination and liberation, for social justice, equality and socialism, based on a fair distribution of the wealth and human principles of peace, rejection of war, imperialism and all forms of oppression and exploitation…” – Ahmad Sa’adat

Today, we remember the 10th anniversary of the Israeli sentencing of prominent Palestinian national liberation and international left leader Ahmad Sa’adat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. We urge you to join us for an International Week of Action between 15 and 22 January 2019 to free Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian prisoners!

On 15 January 2019, we will mark the 17th anniversary of Sa’adat’s arrest by the Palestinian Authority in the context of “security cooperation” with the Israeli occupation. After a violent attack on the PA’s Jericho prison in 2006, where Sa’adat was held under United States and British guards, Ahmad Sa’adat and his comrades are serving lengthy sentences in Israeli prisons. Sa’adat was sentenced to 30 years in prison, convicted in an Israeli military court of leading a prohibited organization and “incitement.”

Sa’adat is a leader in the Palestinian prisoners’ movement and the Palestinian national liberation movement. He is a figure of international importance and political clarity, targeted behind bars in an attempt to isolate him from his political role. He stands alongside nearly 6,000 fellow Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails on the front lines of the liberation struggle. As such, he is a symbol of Palestinian, Arab and internationalist resistance to capitalism, racism, apartheid and colonization.

The case of Ahmad Sa’adat also clearly highlights the complicity of international powers in the occupation and colonization of Palestine. He and his comrades were held for years under U.S. and British guards in a Palestinian Authority prison – and those guards moved away in a prearranged agreement to allow the Israeli occupation army to attack Jericho prison in 2006. The support of the United States, Britain, Canada, the European Union, Australia and others for the Israeli colonial project continues to perpetuate its impunity as it carries out land confiscations, home demolitions, mass imprisonment, extrajudicial executions, the ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, the siege on Gaza and further crimes against humanity and war crimes.

The Palestinian Authority kidnapped Sa’adat under false pretenses and imprisoned him for four years before its prison was attacked by the Israeli occupation. This is part and parcel of the policy of “security coordination” that has led to the repeated imprisonment of Palestinians for their political involvement by the PA. Despite critical words, the policy remains firmly in place – with devastating and deadly consequences for Palestinians, as seen in the case of Basil al-Araj.

On 15-22 January 2019, join us in a collective call for the freedom of Ahmad Sa’adat and all Palestinian Prisoners. Join us to build the global grassroots campaign for boycott, divestment and sanctions from Israel and complicit corporations. Join us to fight for an end to aid and support for the Israeli occupation that has been confiscating land and lives for over 70 years.

We urge you to organize events, actions and protests in cities, campuses, communities, towns, campuses and all other public spaces. When we raise our voices, we can help to break the Israeli isolation of Ahmad Sa’adat and his fellow Palestinian prisoners. Free Ahmad Sa’adat! Free all Palestinian Prisoners! Free Palestine! 

Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat

Join us  in defense of the Bolivarian revolution this coming January 10 at 5PM

THE BOLIVARIAN CIRCLE OF NEW YORK INVITES OUR FRIENDS FROM THE CITY OF NEW YORK

This coming January 10 there will be a protest organized by the most reactionary elements of the Venezuelan right wing in front of the consulate of Venezuela in the city of New York. Please come with your red flags or your Venezuelan flags, bring anything that shows your support for the Bolivarian revolution, at this critical moment we must be present!

Location of the consulate of Venezuela

Manhattan: between Madison Street and Fifth Avenue on the side of St. Patrick’s Cathedral  7 East 51st Street

This coming Thursday at 5 PM in the afternoon

“The United States seems destined by Providence to plague the America of misery in the name of freedom.”

Simón Bolívar (1783-1830)

For more information: cbalbertolovera@gmail.com

“Brick by brick! Wall by wall! We’re gonna free Mumia Abu-Jamal!” hundreds of people chanted as they marched through a driving winter rainstorm in Philadelphia on Jan. 5.

They came to stand in solidarity with the Black political prisoner and revolutionary journalist known worldwide as “the voice of the voiceless.”

They came to demand that Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner respect Judge Leon Tucker’s Dec. 27 ruling that opens the way for a new appeal by Abu-Jamal of his 1982 conviction.

They came to show that the decadeslong people’s movement that saved Abu-Jamal’s life, that got him off death row and that won his right to life-saving hepatitis C treatment, would continue the fight until he is finally freed.

Struggle ★ La Lucha activists from Baltimore and New York and Baltimore People’s Power Assembly members joined with International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal, Mobilization for Mumia, community members, trade unionists and prisoner advocates at an organizing meeting after the march.

These videos, shot by Struggle ★ La Lucha’s Sharon Black, feature Pam Africa and the Rev. C.D. Witherspoon firing up the marchers.

https://www.facebook.com/sharon.black.1650332/videos/10157085850359703/

https://www.facebook.com/sharon.black.1650332/videos/10157086210599703/