May 25, 1991: Operation Carlota ended. That day, the last Cuban soldiers came home after 16 years in Southern Africa. They didn’t just defend Angola, they freed Namibia & broke apartheid’s back. One of the greatest acts of internationalism in history. The world still owes Cuba.
Tomorrow is our next class in the series The Artist Must Take Sides: Culture & The Movement Past, Present & Future - it’s not too late to sign up! Join now at https://t.co/Z32F5RoAuV.
This 5th session in the series with Tahia Islam & Hannah Priscilla Craig will look at the rich history of artists organizing collectively, from the John Reed Clubs & unionization campaigns to Artists United Against Apartheid, and other organized internationalist projects, tracing how cultural workers have built power not as isolated individuals, but as a movement. Drawing on these models, we will turn to the question of the needs for the movements of artists today: the organizations, collectives, and strength required to meet this political moment and forge a culture of resistance equal to the struggle ahead.
Tomorrow’s class will open with a special performance from the @zBrooklynNomads
Join us!
🗓️ Tuesday, May 19
💻 📍 HYBRID! Everyone from all locations, backgrounds, and identities are welcome to register! Participate in-person in New York at The People’s Forum, or virtually from anywhere in the world.
✅ Register now at https://t.co/Z32F5RoAuV
Trump's fuel blockade of Cuba is not abstract, it is strangulation before our very own eyes. No oil has entered Cuba since December 3rd. The weight of this genocidal siege is now felt in every home, every hospital where patients wait to get dialysis, every darkened street. Cuba is being pushed beyond the edge at this point. Still, people refuse the Trump deal. Again and again, Cubans, especially Black Cubans, tell me: surrender to Washington means a return to bondage. They remember. When U.S. corporations and the mafia owned the land, the mines, the hotels, electricity itself. That was no freedom. That was slavery under another name: neo-colonialism. Yes, there is exhaustion, most Cubans now walk several miles every day whether to get to work or get food. But there is also defiance, fierce and unyielding. They are not only defending a piece of land or territory. They are defending the very idea of a people who decide their own future. The world needs their courage. Because what Trump is unleashing in Gaza, in Iran, in Cuba, it is the same war machine. And it must be stopped.
It's difficult for me to understand how American interests are advanced by forcing the expulsion of Cuban doctors from a free eye clinic in Honduras. Impoverished Hondurans suffer, but how do we gain?
UPDATE: New details on attack on Cuba by a Florida boat. Cuban authorities report all crew members were Cuban nationals living in the U.S., several had criminal records & were on wanted lists on the island. Cuba has the sovereign right to defend its borders & respond decisively to any violent attack in its territorial waters.
All 10 individuals on board were armed and, according to their own statements, intended to carry out terrorist attacks in Cuba. Authorities seized assault rifles, handguns, Molotov cocktails, bulletproof vests, telescopic sights, and camouflage uniforms.
The Trump Administration is at war against the First Amendment and Free Speech rights. They are not only smearing their critics. They are attempting to criminalize dissent. At stake are the most critical democratic rights for people in the United States: to speak freely and engage in protest. There are tens of millions who find Trump’s policies an affront to human dignity, and he would like to silence them all.
As part of this war against free speech, the U.S. State Department has released a statement that openly attacks The People’s Forum and other organizations. This statement, shared by the Trump White House, is designed to suppress the voices of those who dare to criticize U.S. government policy. The false allegations, peddled through right-wing media and influencers, are not just an attack on our organization but on the fundamental right to free speech itself.
The People’s Forum strongly rejects these baseless accusations. The accusations leveled against us, claiming we are “vectors of foreign influence,” are recycled tactics from a not-so-distant chapter of McCarthyism in American history. By labeling our organizations as “agents” of “foreign manipulation,” the U.S. government seeks to demonize and suppress the legitimate grievances of people who are disgusted by the violent ICE raids and deportation of immigrant communities, the deployment of military forces and federal agents to cities and towns in the United States, the persecution of students protesting the genocide in Gaza and the endless military interventions and use of blockades and sanctions to create famines abroad.
The baseless claims against the People’s Forum that we “run cover for narco-terrorists” and other equally ludicrous allegations are a blatant and transparent effort to intimidate our supporters and delegitimize grassroots movements. Criticizing and opposing the U.S. government’s policies is not the threat to democracy. The real threat is the government that kills innocent protesters in broad daylight, surveils and represses activists, arrests journalists, demonizes and deports immigrants, and seeks to dismantle all forms of dissent.
The People’s Forum has an unshakeable commitment to continue organizing for a just world through education, culture, and international solidarity. We will continue to defend immigrants at home and build dialogue with other movements in the world, challenge policies of war and aggression, and defend the right to organize and express their dissent.
We call on all people of conscience to see this for what it is: a desperate attempt to manufacture consent for a new round of repression. We will not be silenced.
BT has confirmed anti-ICE high school walkouts in eight states, with organizers in Minnesota, Georgia and Ohio expecting it to be the largest day of student action yet.
Since Minnesota-based Somali and Black students issued the call for a general strike last night, they say it has been joined by the national protest organization 50501, CAIR, several higher education unions, the Union de Vecinos in Los Angeles, VC Defensa, the Poor People's Campaign of North Carolina and a range of immigrant, grassroots and faith-based organizations nationwide.
EMERGENCY PROTEST TODAY IN NYC! Hours ago, Federal Agents killed another person in Minneapolis. This comes after a massive day of action where hundreds of thousands took the streets in Minnesota and around the country to rise up against ICE terror.
We won't let ICE kill more people with impunity. We rise up NOW to demand an end to ICE terror. ICE OUT OF EVERYWHERE!!!!!
GRAPHIC: CBP officers shoot another person in Minneapolis at point-blank range. Footage obtained exclusively by BT shows federal officers on Nicollet Ave. on top of a man on the ground, before one CBP officer pulls his gun and repeatedly fires. Witnesses say that after the shooting CBP then walked down the block filming bystanders. Nothing else is known at this point about what preceded this, the identity of the man shot, or his current condition. FBI agents and an ambulance are at the scene.
TODAY MINNESOTA LEADS THE WAY! A historic general strike is unfolding across Minnesota RIGHT NOW. Workers are walking out, students are staying home, businesses are shut down and people are taking the streets.
People demand an end to ICE brutality and the raids terrorizing our communities and justice for all immigrants. We will continue demanding justice for Renée Nicole Good, killed on January 7th while defending her neighbors and all people killed while under ICE detention.
Minnesotans are providing an important example for the whole country: When they attack us and our communities, we fight back!
There are hundreds of solidarity actions happening across the country. In NYC, join us in Union Square at 4pm!
#GeneralStrike #JusticeForRenee #StopICETerror #Minnesota
The right wing tries to smear us, but their ‘findings’ reveal what we’re proud of—that we’re on the front lines of struggle for working & oppressed people around the world—against genocide & war and building a better future!
Donate to continue this work: https://t.co/IEz7vYRaQo
Our movement is fighting on all fronts: for a free Palestine, for working people, free classes and free culture, to get ICE off our streets, and for socialism. We're proud and we're not stopping. Fuel this critical work. Donate now: https://t.co/wKW7ZRFPHh
🎥From the protest in İstanbul yesterday:
"Occupiers and imperialists cannot win forever!
Just as those weapons blew on their face at Bay of Pigs (Playa Girón), just as those weapons exploded in their hands in Vietnam and Iraq, the people of Latin America will show them the door once again.
We are sure, we are very confident about this!
Down with U.S. imperialism!"
The U.S. is running a major disinformation campaign claiming Delcy Rodríguez sold out Maduro. It's a manipulative trap. I dissect this and the real events of Venezuela's last 72 hours here:
https://t.co/nFfDcwe94Q
Really disappointed with Tariq's take here. It completely misses the mark and only plays into US imperialist psychological warfare. Sowing disunity is the CIA’s favorite weapon. To really understand what is going on in Venezuela right now please read this article:
https://t.co/g4K99RmlU7
BREAKING: In court today, Nicolas Maduro declared himself a prisoner of war, political prisoner and legitimate president of Venezuela, while pleading not guilty to all charges. His wife Cilia Flores reportedly sustained significant injuries in the abduction.
@ZoPepperC of @peoplesdispatch was in federal court for the arraignment.