Florida

Mutual Aid Groups Mobilize In Wake Of Hurricane Helene

October 4, 2024 It's Going Down, Grassroots Economic Organizing. Organize! climate crisis, disaster relief, Florida, Food Not Bombs, Hurricane Helene, Kentucky, Mutual Aid, Natural Disasters, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia

A Category 4 storm, Hurricane Helene, one of the largest storms to hit the Gulf Coast in a century, collided into the Big Bend area of Northern Florida on Thursday, before moving into neighboring states of Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, and the Carolinas. According to media reports, upwards of 60 people have already been confirmed dead, although the death toll is expected to rise as many municipalities have yet to release official numbers as cell phone service and internet remains down and millions are currently without power. Extreme flooding has been reported in Atlanta, GA and Asheville, NC, as whole communities are left stranded and lacking proper shelter and access to clean drinking water.

NAARPR Southern Regional Organizing Conference 2024 Call To Action

October 4, 2024 Fight Back! News. Organize! Florida, Indigenous Rights, National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression (NAARPR), Police, Political repression, Repression

This December 6th-8th, the National Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression (NAARPR) is convening our inaugural Southern Regional Organizing Conference in Jacksonville, Florida. This conference will bring together progressive forces in the South fighting for Black liberation, Indigenous rights and land sovereignty. We are fighting back against police crimes and political repression to free all those unjustly incarcerated as well as defending all progressive movements fighting for a just society. NAARPR, which arose out of the movement to Free Angela Davis, was refounded in 2019 with well over two dozen branches and affiliate organizations nationwide.

Nearly 50,000 US Dockworkers Strike And Flex Collective Power

October 2, 2024 People's Dispatch. Resist! Boston, Dockworkers, Florida, Houston, International Longshoremen's Association’s (ILA), Maersk, Massachusetts, Miami, New York (NY), Strikes, Texas, Worker Rights and Jobs

At midnight on October 1, nearly 50,000 dockworkers across the US’s East Coast walked off the job, shutting down ports across the coastline across cities including Boston, New York, Miami, and Houston. This is the International Longshoremen’s Association’s (ILA) first strike since 1977. ILA dockworkers are a lynchpin of the US economy. Ports affected by the strike include the Port of New York and New Jersey, the nation’s third largest port in terms of the volume of cargo. “When my men hit the streets from Maine to Texas, every single port will lockdown,” said ILA President Harold Daggett. “Everything in the United States comes on a ship.”

Uhuru 3 Found Not Guilty Of Being Russian Agents

September 12, 2024 Hands Off Uhuru, Popular Resistance. Educate! Florida, Free Speech, Legal System, Uhuru 3

On the morning of September 12th, the jury returned a verdict in the free speech trial of the century, where Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel faced bogus charges of working as Russian agents. The 12 person jury concluded a not guilty verdict on count number two, “failure to register as a foreign agent,” in other words, working as agents of Russia. This was the big charge that carried an up to ten year prison sentence. The jury contained no black jurors, but to their credit, they saw clearly that African people have agency and sovereignty over their actions.

Uhuru 3 Trial: FBI Lead Investigator Exposed, Both Sides Close

September 11, 2024 Hands Off Uhuru! Hands Off Africa!. Resist! FBI, Florida, Free Speech, Legal System, Uhuru 3

On Monday, September 9, 2024, the free speech trial of Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel began its second week. Proceedings were delayed because two jurors had not arrived. One of the missing jurors arrived late and then at 9:45am, Judge William Jung declared that he would give the other absent juror 30 more minutes and then would remove her from the jury. Attorney Mutaqee Akbar raised the fact that the missing juror was the only African on the jury. He asked the judge to replace her with the sole African juror in the pool of alternates who have been seated in the jury box throughout the trial. The judge refused and seated a white juror. The 12-person jury now has no African members.

Update On The Uhuru 3 Free Speech Trial Of The Century

September 8, 2024 Hands Off Uhuru, Popular Resistance. Resist! FBI, Florida, Free Speech, Legal System, Uhuru 3

Tampa, FL—The first week of the free speech trial of Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel left observers shaking their heads and asking how the government has dedicated 30 FBI agents over the course of 3 years, conducted military raids on peaceful U.S. residents, offered a $10 million reward for information and still has no case. With only one witness left, the prosecution has failed to present any actual knowledge or evidence of the government’s baseless charges that the Uhuru 3 are “secret pawns in a Russian government conspiracy to sow political discord and interfere in elections”.

Uhuru 3 Free Speech Trial Begins; Jury Selection, Opening Arguments

September 4, 2024 Hands Off Uhuru, Popular Resistance. Educate! Florida, Free Speech, Legal System, Uhuru 3

Day one of the free speech “trial of the century” began with a press conference across the street from the Federal Courthouse in Tampa. Free speech defenders and social justice activists from across the U.S. expressed their support for the Uhuru 3—Chairman Omali Yeshitela, Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel, falsely accused of being secret pawns in a Russian government conspiracy to “sow discord” and “interfere in elections.” The press conference was hosted by Mwezi Odom, Chair of the Hands Off Uhuru! Campaign. She declared that the government’s false accusation that the Uhuru 3’s call for reparations, a petition against the U.S. charging genocide against Black people and the group’s opposition to U.S. wars were carried out under the control of the Russian government to be a “racist denial of Black people’s agency. We can think for ourselves and define our own agenda!”

Pensacola CWA Workers Stand Strong Against AT&T

September 1, 2024 Fight Back! News. Resist! AT&T, Florida, Strikes, Unions, Worker Rights

Pensacola, FL – On a humid August morning, the sound of car horns fills the air up and down Davis Highway, each honk a note of solidarity for more than 25 members of the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 3109. These workers, standing firm outside the AT&T worksite, are part of the largest strike currently unfolding in the United States, a powerful labor struggle involving over 17,000 CWA members across nine southeastern states. Their picket line is just one of four in the far-west of Florida’s panhandle. The strike was called as a direct response to AT&T's bad faith tactics during contract negotiations, which began in late June.

Freedom Summer 2024, The Struggle For Black Rights Continues

August 6, 2024 The International People’s Democratic Uhuru Movement, Popular Resistance. Organize! FBI, Florida, Political Education, Solidarity, Uhuru 3

On July 29, 2022 the U.S. government initiated violent military-style assaults on seven offices and homes of the African People’s Socialist Party (APSP) and Uhuru Movement in two cities and states – St. Louis, Missouri and St. Petersburg, Florida. Nine months later three members of the Uhuru Movement, African People’s Socialist Party Chairman Omali Yeshitela and Penny Hess and Jesse Nevel, two white leaders of the Party’s solidarity front, were indicted under charges of being Russian agents. This is one way the colonial government is attempting to stifle any criticism of the U.S. for its ongoing mistreatment of African people within this country.

Palm Beach Residents Sue County Over Its Israel Investments

May 24, 2024 Michael Arria, Mondoweiss. Resist! BDS Movement, Divestment, Florida, Israel, Legal System, Palestine, Zionism

In the first legal action of its kind, a group of Palm Beach residents are suing the Florida county over its massive investment in Israeli bonds. Palm Beach has invested $700 million in the bonds, 22 times more than any other county in the United States. On May 15, dozens of local organizers and human rights advocates gathered outside the county’s courthouse for a press conference announcing the move. David Piña, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, told the crowd that Comptroller and Clerk of the Circuit Court Joseph Abruzzo had put 15% of the county’s investments in Israeli bonds. “[Abruzzo] has has not only failed us morally, he’s also violated two state statutes in the process,” Piña explained.

Student-Led Climate Action Is Flourishing In Florida

March 22, 2024 Nick Engelfried, Waging Nonviolence. Strategize! climate crisis, Climate Justice, Florida, Student Activism

The University of Florida made history last month when its student senate became the first at a public university to pass a climate resolution in support of Green New Deal policies. The “Green New Deal for UF” is a statement of support for bold, progressive climate action put forward by students at a time when the far-right holds a near monopoly on power in the state. “This is big news for the climate movement at universities — not just in Florida, but everywhere,” said Cameron Driggers, a UF freshman. “It’s a first of its kind resolution that pushes back against the narrative that some states are lost causes for climate action.”

US Higher Education Is Being Gutted, But We Can Fight Back

February 29, 2024 Olivia Wood, Left Voice. Strategize! Austerity, Budget Cuts, Education, Florida, Higher Education

In January 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis overhauled the Board of Trustees of the New College of Florida, replacing several members with conservative activists, including Christopher Rufo. New College of Florida was known as a hippie college, a queer college, but Rufo aimed to change all that, saying, “We will be shutting down low-performing, ideologically-captured academic departments and hiring new faculty.” He added, “The student body will be recomposed over time: some current students will self-select out, others will graduate; we’ll recruit new students who are mission-aligned.”

Tens Of Thousands Of Florida Workers Just Lost Their Labor Unions

February 17, 2024 Daniel Rivero, Portside. Educate! Florida, Labor Unions, union busting, Worker Rights

In St. Johns County, on the Atlantic shore of Northeast Florida, more than 55% of public school teachers paid their union dues this last year. Despite that, nearly 3,500 teachers are facing the threat of having their union representation revoked. At the same time, in Southwest Florida, only 16% of law enforcement officers of the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office paid union dues last year. Their union is under absolutely no threat of being decertified. A year after Governor DeSantis signed into law a sweeping anti-union bill requiring most public sector unions to boost the rate of members paying dues or be disbanded, the full effects of the new union rules are coming into clear view — double standards and all.

What We Can Learn From One Florida Community About Climate Resilience

December 14, 2023 Danielle Arigoni, Next City. Create! Climate Change, climate crisis, Extreme weather, Florida, Housing, Resilience

The health and safety we enjoy as individuals and the opportunities for employment, education, and recreation available to us are shaped to a large degree by the built environment in which we live. For the past 70 years, the vast majority of new housing development has followed the example of Levittown, New York. The city now serves as the poster child for a seemingly endless wave of car-dependent greenfield suburban sprawl developments that not only helped to generate the carbon emissions that contribute to the climate crisis we now face but also modeled a form of growth that provided opportunity for wealth creation for some households and not others.

Charges Dropped On The Tampa Five

December 9, 2023 Fight Back! News. Resist! Florida, Free Speech, Legal System, Police, Tampa 5, Victory

The Tampa 5 are proud to announce a great victory: their misdemeanor and felony charges will be dropped! This victory was made possible by months of mobilizations of people across the state of Florida, and even across the entire country, in defense of the Tampa 5. It is because of the bravery of students and youth protesters coming out for diversity and for student protest, that these five members of Students for a Democratic Society protesters will not see a single day in prison. They have just agreed to a misdemeanor intervention program that will lead to the dismissal of their charges upon the fulfillment of various conditions such as 24 hours of community service.

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