Steff Yorek

Steff Yorek

Steff (Stefanie) "Stef" Yorek is a leading member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization/Freedom Road Socialist Organization/FightBack! for nearly 20 years. She has been active in the movements for peace and justice since she became involved in protests against the Persian Gulf War in 1991, as a student.

She is the wife of Jess Sundin.

Early Life and Family

Steff grew up in Little Falls, Minnesota and is a clerical worker at the University of Minnesota. She lives in South Minneapolis with her partner and their six year old daughter.

Palestinian liberation panel

On Thursday, February 15, 2024, the Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Minnesota, in collaboration with the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, held a panel in Nicholson Hall on the UMN campus discussing Marxist-Leninist perspectives on Palestinian liberation. Thirty people, both students and community members, were in attendance.

The panel speakers included Mira Altobell-Resendez from SDS, Jae Yates from the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar, Steff Yorek from the Climate Justice Committee, and Andrew Josefchak from the Minnesota Anti-War Committee. All four are also members of FRSO and specifically analyzed the Israeli occupation of Palestine with a Marxist-Leninist lens.

FRSO Sparked the 2020 Riots

FRSO Admits to Organizing 2020 Riots

Jess Sundin and Steff Yorek of Freedom Road Socialist Organization were featured in a clip bragging about the organizing that took place in the wake of the death of George Floyd:

Transcript:

Narrator: Minneapolis Communists from Freedom Road Socialist Organization claim credit for sparking recent riots that spread to more than 40 States. Freedom Road supports the Communist Party of China and the Communist Mass murderers Mao and Stalin.

Steff Yorek:"This is Steff Yorek, I'm the political Secretary of Freedom Road Socialist Organization. Mao and Stalin were both Marxist-Leninists, uh that is how also how I identify as Marxist-Leninist as well.

Narrator: "On the day President Trump was inaugurated, Steff Yorek vowed to make this country ungovernable. Steff Yorek is married to fellow activist Jess Sundin.

Jess Sundin: Myself, I am a revolutionary, I have been a communist for uh more than 20 years.

Narrator: Jess Sundin leads a militant anti-police group called Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar. According to Chicago Freedom Road leaders Frank Chapman and Joe Iosbaker, Jess Sundin's Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar was the movement that launched the nationwide rebellion.

Jess Sundin: Hi folks, this is Jess from Twin Cities Coalition for Justice 4 Jamar. The first two weeks after George Floyd was killed saw an intense high level of organizing all day and all night, every day. During the day we would have marches and rallies and at night the um focus was often at the third precinct which is the police station where George Floyd's killers were working out of. Um, I can't tell you the uh Joy it brought all of us to see the third precinct um destroyed. There were marches, like I said there were rallies, um and lots of the buildings were destroyed, some by fire, um uh, you know, some by brute force, sometimes it was golf club, sometimes it was baseball bats and a lot of folks wanted to get out to other sites around the cities where there is you know really pitched battles happening, um and we support all of that and I want to be absolutely clear as an organizer, those night demonstrations, the emptying of the police department, the emptying of the ma...of Target and other major stores is absolutely tied to, connected to, and part of the movement."

Narrator: Within hours of Minneapolis outbreaks, Freedom Road Socialist Organization supporters staged often violent protests in Chicago, Milwaukee, New York, Dallas, Houston, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Miami, Tampa, Salt Lake City, and Los Angeles. Allied pro-China Communists spread protest to many other cities Across the nation. When will the Communist Party of China's American supporters be brought to Justice?

We've Carried The Rich For 240 Years! Let's Get Them Off Our Backs!

We've Carried The Rich For 240 Years! Let's Get Them Off Our Backs! is the name of a 2016 Facebook group for folk to exchange views and memories of the Revolutionary Union/Revolutionary Communist Party/Revolutionary Workers Headquarters lineage of the '70s New Communist Movement.

This group is for folks who were members of these groups or those who were “never actually in the RCP but I knew a lot of people who were.” Scholars, whether rigorous or casual, of the US left are also welcome.''

Members included Steff Yorek

FRSO member

Stef Yorek was a member of the original Freedom Road Socialist Organization before the 1999 split.

Forward Motion

Steff Yorek , contributed a review of lesbian literature to Freedom Road Socialist Organization's Forward Motion, March/April issue 1993.

AFSCME

Yorek has been active in the anti-war movement and in the union movement since her student years, including helping to reorganize American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 1164 at the University of Minnesota Hospital after it was privatized. She has held the positions of Secretary and Union Steward with AFSCME Local 3800 at the University of Minnesota.

Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout

Circa September 19, 2009, Steff Yorek, AFSCME 3800, Minneapolis, MN signed a petition initiated by the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout entitled, Petition to Demand a People's Bailout which includes the statement, "Tax the rich, make them pay for their crisis!"

September 24, 2010 FBI Raids

On September 24 the F.B.I. raided the homes of twelve leftist activists across the U.S.A. looking for links to foreign terrorist organizations. Steff Yorek was one of those whose home was raided and who is being investigated by the FBI.

FBI raids

The material that the FBI copied and returned comes from the homes of Twin Cities activists Jess Sundin, Steff Yorek, Mick Kelly, Meredith Aby, Anh Pham and Tracy Molm and the office of the Anti-War Committee. All of them are among the 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists summoned to appear in front of a Chicago grand jury headed by U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, investigating ‘material support for terrorism.’

US Social Forum

Freedom Road Socialist Organization/FightBack! table at the US Social Forum - Another World is Possible in San Jose, California. — with Masao Suzuki, Chrisley Carpio, Jared Tony Hamil, Steff Yorek and Gregory Lucero.

Anti-Trump

In the aftermath of the dramatic 5000-person protest that caused Trump to cancel his March 11 campaign appearance on the campus of the University of Illinois, Steff Yorek, the political secretary of Freedom Road Socialist Organization/FightBack!, urged progressive activists around the U.S. to follow Chicago’s example.

“We need two, three, many Chicagos,” said Yorek. “Trump is an open advocate of racism and national chauvinism. Forcing Trump to chicken out of his Chicago campaign appearance was a real victory. Chicago protesters of all nationalities sent a message to the world, that here in the U.S. there is widespread and militant opposition to his reactionary agenda.”

Make the country "ungovernable"

Washington DC, Jan 20, 2017, Steff Yorek Left, Tom Burke second from left

Speaking to a protesters assembled in Columbus Circle, Jan. 20, 2017, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization/FightBack! Political Secretary Steff Yorek said, “We need to stay in the streets the entire four years opposing Trump and making the country ungovernable.”

Twin Cites FRSO holds event on midterm elections

Minneapolis MN – More than 50 people packed Mayday book store, Nov. 11 2018, for an event hosted by Freedom Road Socialist Organization/FightBack! on the outcome of the midterm elections. Speakers at the event included leaders of the movements for immigrant rights, labor, and against police terror.

Steff Yorek, the Political Secretary of FRSO told the crowd, “These elections were a referendum on Donald Trump and his policies. Voters provided an important setback to him and reduced the number of friends he has in the House and among state governors.”

Brad Sigal, also of FRSO said, “Working people’s lives are not getting better under this system. Environmental catastrophe looms. We need socialism – a system where political and economic power is in the hands of the working class to serve the needs of the vast majority. While the elections won’t get us there, they are an arena of struggle we have to continue to take seriously as we continue the struggle for a new society.”

Minnesota SDS

Members of the Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Minnesota Public group in 2017 included Steff Yorek.

References

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