ARTICLE: http://tinyurl.com/kvv9duw

A tremendous series of mass demonstrations across the United States, Canada and the world since last summer against racist violence and police brutality has shaken the corridors of the ruling class. Hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets from Missouri and California to Boston, Toronto, London and New York City.

What does the brutal police repression of African American and Latinos communities have to do with the economic devastation caused by the banks in the city of Detroit?

Why is the corporate-oriented city administration and governor ordering the shut-offs of tens of thousands of household water services and forcing hundreds of thousands more out of their homes due to unnecessary tax foreclosures?

How can the ruling class backed up by the courts justify the attacks on retirees and the wholesale theft of public assets, while the public sector is being privatized with billions of dollars being turned over to banks and corporations under the guise of an illegal bankruptcy that has further institutionalized national oppression and economic inequality in majority African American cities in Michigan?

Event: The Black Liberation Struggle & the Fight for Socialism
Date: Sat. Jan. 24, 2015, 5-8 p.m.
Location: 5920 Second Ave. at Antoinette, Near WSU
Speaker: Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor of the Pan-African News Wire and
Contributing Editor of Workers World Newspaper
Sponsor: Workers World Party Detroit Branch
URL: workersworlddetroit.org
Contact: 313-671-3715

To participate in this discussion and answer these burning questions please attend this important meeting this Sat., Jan. 24 from 5-8: p.m.

https://www.facebook.com/justicefordontre

From the Coalition For Justice:

Calling All Concerned Community Members!!! We Need You!!! Show Up!!!

We’ve gotten word that the Fire and Police Commissioners are thinking about giving Christopher Manney his job back. WE CANNOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN! We are asking that all of you, this community; come out and let these commissioners know that we do not want officers who brutalize, murder, oppress, and repress our people on the police force of this city.

Please come out let your presence be felt and heard.

If weather permits, we will gather at Red Arrow Park at 5pm to do our justice circle, then head over to City Hall (if not we will just meet in the atrium of City Hall). Be aware that the meeting is subject to change location. We will keep you updated.

ARTICLE: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/01/rasmea-odeh-verdict-organizing/

How to support the Rasema Odeh campaign: http://www.stopfbi.net/

“…Let us continue to lift Odeh up precisely because she has never labored to gain a platform of her own, to stand on a pedestal over others, or to become a celebrity. Instead, she meticulously crafted and protected organizing spaces so that more and more people could come in and gain strength.

Pulling Odeh into the cyclone of fetishization will only do her and her struggle a huge disservice. Continuing her legacy requires growing a politics of the collective as we organize tirelessly for her release and for her appeal, as part and parcel not only of her liberation but also of ours — and Palestine’s.”

EVENT: http://tinyurl.com/k8l4u8b

The Departments of Africology and History will participate in a Community Brainstorming Conference Breakfast Forum on “Police Brutality in the U.S. and Abroad.”

Held at Saint Matthew C.M.E. Church.

Panelists are:

Dr. Gladys Mitchell-Walthour, UW-Milwaukee, Visiting Assistant Professor of Africology speaking on “Police Brutality in Brazil and Global White Supremacy”

Dr. Robert S. Smith, UW-Milwaukee, Associate Professor of History and Associate Vice Chancellor, Global Inclusion and Engagement and Executive Director, Cultures & Communities Program speaking on “An Occupied Milwaukee: Lessons, Reminders and Projections about Police Brutality”

Dr. Robert “Biko” Baker, League of Young Voters, Executive Director, speaking on “Getting to the Future: How the Protests in Ferguson can Change the Movement”

Dr. Pamela Malone, Milwaukee Area Technical College, is chairing the event.

EVENT: http://tinyurl.com/qa5ffn8

FLIER: http://tinyurl.com/nmqo7dj

In Celebration of Black History (LIBERATION) Month
Join us for a Workers World Forum to discuss the struggle to stop the war on youth including racist police terror and low wage slavery.

*MORE INFO COMING SOON*

Malcolm X College, 1900 W Van Buren, Chicago Room 3603

FROM ELECTRONIC INTIFADA: http://tinyurl.com/lt9jtwr

A group of activists, artists, musicians and journalists on the frontlines of the struggle against racist policing in the United States traveled to Palestine earlier this month to build on the growing bonds of solidarity between the Black American and Palestinian liberation struggles, which have intensified since last year’s uprising in Ferguson, Missouri.

The historic delegation — which included lead organizers from Dream Defenders, Black Lives Matter, Black Youth Project 100 and Hands Up United — spent ten days linking up with Palestinian activists. The group witnessed first-hand what it means to live under Israeli occupation and apartheid.

Since returning to the US, the group has released a powerful video of a flash mob demonstration it staged in Nazareth — a city in historic Palestine — in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle against Israeli settler colonialism.

“We came here to Palestine to stand in love and revolutionary struggle with our brothers and sisters,” says journalist Marc Lamont Hill, kicking off the demonstration.

He continues: “We come to a land that has been stolen by greed and destroyed by hate. We come here and we learn laws that have been cosigned in ink but written in the blood of the innocent. And we stand next to people who continue to courageously struggle and resist the occupation, people who continue to dream and fight for freedom. From Ferguson to Palestine the struggle for freedom continues.”

STATEMENT: http://nepajac.org/unac_011615.html

“…We will NOT join the Paris parades orchestrated by imperialist French President Francois Holland and the heads of state of the world’s “great powers;” nor will we applaud their call for the worldwide “Anti-terrorist Conference” that President Holland has set for Paris. We are saddened at the participation of French working people in these state-sponsored mobilizations, whose objectives are to further war in the Middle East and Africa and to restrict democracy for Muslim communities in France and around the world. Those who participate believing that they can advance freedom of expression, peace and solidarity are being used for opposite ends…”

http://tinyurl.com/pexzyko

Update Jan. 17: Due to a people’s campaign, Ms. Benjamin is now free.

We will be planning protests at the women’s detention and city jail every day until Sara Benjamin is released. We consider her arrest and jailing as racist and egregious and we will not rest until she is out.
Benjamin is one of the youngest activists who are consistently leading the Baltimore protests for #BlackLivesMatter. She traveled to Ferguson with her 5 year old daughter and was interviewed by CNN on national news. Just 3 hours before she was scheduled to MC the “Strike Against Racism” rally, she was targeted at a bus stop in front of the college that she was registering for classes and arrested on a year old warrant on a minor misdemeanor which she had already made arrangements through the Public Defender’s office to go to court on. She is also one of the social media coordinators for the Peoples Power Assembly and community organizer and a member of the FIST youth group. Her iPad, computer and cell phone were seized. This is highly unusual in Baltimore to have a wanted poster at a community college for a possible student, Sara Benjamin, on a misdemeanor charge. It is reprehensible that one of the younger activists who are Black would be the target of this kind of harassment.
Everyone that knows Sara can testify to her courage, tremendous dedication and love for her 5 year old daughter. The repressive state apparatus (police and courts, etc.) are stooping this low to try to preemptively disrupt a major protest and to target someone as beloved and cherished in our community as Sara.
We can’t stop, we won’t stop — till Sara is FREE!