Top Fight Back! articles of 2018: Deepening the struggle in the era of Trump

St. Paul, MN – There was a high tide of struggle on many fronts in 2018. With so much going on, it can be easy to forget some of the things our movements have accomplished. That makes it all the more important to look back and review the lessons from this year’s resistance so we can move forward stronger.

Since there were so many Fight Back! articles covering important struggles this year, there’s no way we can include everything that was important in this review. So we’ll do the best we can by highlighting five of the most popular articles from each month.

There were many excellent Fight Back! articles that aren’t listed here — you can see them all at the archive. (Also see the 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017 retrospectives).

If there were other Fight Back! articles you liked this year that aren’t listed here, let us know which ones in the comments!

First, we’d like to recognize the people that Fight Back! wrote about who passed away in 2018 and say in their honor: ¡presente!

• Community rallies for Black man executed in rural Florida county #Justice4DJBroadus
• On the passing of Winnie Nomazamo Madikizela-Mandela
• Honor the memory of freedom fighter Tyrone Rashad Williams
• Thousands march in Crown Heights after police killing of Saheed Vassell
• Ora Schub: In memoriam
• Jacksonville rallies for Black transwomen, demands police accountability (Cathalina Christina James, Celine Walker and Antash’a English)
• BCA community meeting on Thurman Blevins killing
• Chicago protest planned to demand justice for Harith Augustus
• Jacksonville rallies for mentally ill man killed by JSO cop (Harold Kraai)
• Commentary: Say Her Name, Justice for Nia Wilson
• Supporters and family of Isaiah Tucker demand police accountability and justice for man killed by Oshkosh cops
• Family protests killing of Erick Aguirre by Rialto police department
• Justice for Tenia Williams! Stop the attacks on Black trans women!
• Protest in MN against jail death of Hardel Sherrell
• Family and community protests at East LA Sheriff’s station demanding “Justice for Anthony Vargas”
• Salt Lake rallies for Cody Belgard, shot in the back and killed by SLCPD
• Deadly November: Cops kill 3 Native American men in MN (Travis Jordan, J Scott Alan Widmark, Vernon May)

And here are the exclusive interviews that Fight Back! published in 2018:

• Video: Interview with Cuban teachers union leader Niurka González Orberá
• Video: Basque Country union leader speaks on Basque independence, the European Union, and education struggles
• Interview with Alderman Carlos Ramirez Rosa and community leader Frank Chapman
• Video: Interview with Oaxaca, Mexico teachers union leaders
• Interview with Aaron Leonard, author of new book detailing FBI repression of 1970s revolutionary movements
• Arab community resists in Chicago suburb: Interview with Bassem Kawar, of the Campaign to TAKE ON HATE
• Interview: 50 years of Young Lords with founder Jose “Cha Cha” Jimenez
• Fight Back! interview with Jose Maria Sison on struggle against U.S.-backed Duterte regime
• Interview with Charlotte Kates, of the Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network
• Nicaragua six months after soft coup attempt: An interview with a Sandinista
• Interview with former Black Panther Thomas “Blood” McCreary and Frank Chapman
• Interview with MLPD Chairwoman Gabi Fechtner on fighting the right in Germany

Now, here are some of the top Fight Back! articles for each month of 2018.

January

• Socialist Cuba hits record lows in infant mortality rate
• Jacobin dead-wrong on Zimbabwe & international solidarity
• Imperialist clouds gather over Latin America
• Major year of struggle for Milwaukee’s Young People’s Resistance Committee
• Los Angeles Salvadorians, supporters demand Temporary Protective Status and residency

February

• Black Liberation and socialism celebrated in Chicago
• March on Super Bowl challenges police brutality and racism
• Photo essay: Twin Cities march on the Super Bowl
• Angry Chicano community protests LAPD killing of Christian Escobedo
• New York stands with Ahed Tamimi

March

• UNF SDS wins major demands, creation of a African American/Diaspora major
• 50-year commemoration of the Chicano East L.A. walkouts
• World Federation of Teachers Unions (FISE) concludes successful Congress in Mexico
• Working Women’s Congress of WFTU held in Panama
• A class analysis of the U.S. opioid epidemic

April

• Labor, civil rights supporters march in Memphis on anniversary of MLK assassination
• Thousands march in Crown Heights after police killing of Saheed Vassell
• 50,000 Arizona educators strike, march on capitol
• May Day 2018: Fight the billionaires and their bigot politicians
• Puerto Rican teachers pepper sprayed protesting school closings

May

• Marx at 200: A renewed interest in the critique of capitalism
• Arizona educators end historic strike: An analysis of Ducey’s deceitful deal
• FSU SDS wins victory. Panel votes to remove racist Eppes statue, building names from campus
• Fourth annual May Day in Boyle Heights demands, ‘Jail killer cops’
• Chicago community rebels against rigged hearing on police accountability

June

• Hundreds march against Philippine President Duterte in NYC
• Nicaragua battles the U.S. intervention playbook
• Protest in Milwaukee against the Israeli ambassador to the U.S.
• A victory for peace and unity of the Korean people
• Stop child detentions, legalization for all

July

• Capitalism’s impact on mental health
• Sandinista supporters keep Nicaragua free of ‘soft coup’
• Two-tier concession at UPS sparks outrage
• Commentary: The right-wing assault, post Janus
• Ahed Tamimi Released, Now Free All Palestinian Political Prisoners

August

• Jacksonville community rejects mayor’s police state budget
• UPS, Teamster Tentative Agreement means technology-based firings for part-timers
• Janus, anti-worker court rulings can’t stop a fighting labor movement
• Chicago delegation sees Palestinian resistance first hand
• Full house at 48th Chicano Moratorium commemoration in LA

September

• Which side are you on? Jacobin and the revolution in the Philippines
• CSFR NYC announces campaign against the NYPD Strategic Response Group
• A message from Rasmea Odeh
• Look back with anger: The 2010 FBI raids on anti-war and international solidarity activists
• Frank Chapman recaps developments in trial of cop who killed Laquan McDonald

October

• 1000 march in Chicago following guilty verdict in Van Dyke trial
• UPS contract defeated
• Trauma and the Black community: A dive into national oppression, violence and trauma in Jacksonville, Florida
• Students for a Democratic Society grows with 13th national convention
• FRSO leader condemns Trump’s plan for executive order against birthright citizenship

November

• Black solidarity with the struggle of Central American immigrants and refugees
• Trump handed setback in midterm elections
• Teamsters Local 705 outmaneuvers Hoffa, wins improvements
• International rally against US/NATO military bases held in Dublin
• Court sides with L.A. cop who murdered Jesse Romero

December

• Tucson protests troops on border at Davis-Monthan Air Force base
• Chicago People’s Thanksgiving rejects Rahm, demands a people’s agenda
• Minnesota Anti-War Committee celebrates 20 years of fighting U.S. imperialism
• Chicago Teachers Union (CTU) members overwhelmingly ratify UNO/Acero tentative agreement
• Capitalism, not the Grinch, stole Christmas from Wall Street