Collin Poirot

Collin Poirot

Collin Poirot aka Collin Pelletier is a student at Harvard Law School (Harvard Law). He graduated from the University of Austin (UT Austin) in 2015. While at UT Austin, Poirot was Assistant Director at the University of Texas Campus Environmental Center.

Poirot is a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Harvard (SJP Harvard) and was a member of the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) at UT Austin.

'Fighting political repression'

On Thursday, April 3 2025, New York University Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) held a teach-in on fighting political repression under the Trump presidency. The purpose of the teach-in was to empower students to know their rights when it comes to protesting, and how to fight back if the school or state bears down.

The teach-in hosted guest speakers Collin Poirot, a member of the National Lawyers Guild; Michela Martinazzi, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, and Laura Rodriguez, of the Tampa 5.

Poirot gave a general overview of people’s rights while protesting. From what to do if a cop stops you to the laws regarding filming in public, Poirot covered all the bases.

Martinazzi spoke instead of different cases where protesters beat political repression. She brought up the cases of the Chicago 7, Antiwar 23, Carlos Montes and Rasmea Odeh. In each case, she showed what strategy the organizers used to win. Martinazzi stated, “The goal of political repression is to shut down a part of the work that is a specific thorn in the side of imperialism. They’re trying to scare you into hiding. Don’t hide. Be louder and bolder, and don’t stop organizing.”

The teach-in ended with Rodriguez sharing their experience fighting their felony charge as a member of the Tampa 5. At one point, Rodriguez said over Zoom, “To summarize our defense campaign, we were public and outspoken, united and mobilized the people on our side, and had an aggressive legal strategy. We won and got all our charges dropped because of this strategy.”

No Cops in Power rally

Around two dozen organizers and community members gathered in front of New York City Hall, the office of Mayor Eric Adams, to host a No Cops in Power rally.

The protest was organized by the New York Community Action Project (NYCAP) - an affiliate of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression - to call attention and protest how Mayor Adams continues to funnel money into the bloated $6 billion NYPD budget and away from social programs.

The rally began with Jessica Schwartz, a member of NYCAP, leading people into chants that ranged from “One, two, three four - police crimes no more! Five, six, seven eight - Eric Adams wants a police state!” to a New York City favorite, “How do you spell racist?! N-Y-P-D!”

Schwartz gave background on why they were rallying on that day and introduced the first speaker, Collin Poirot, another member of NYCAP, who gave a background on the many crimes the NYPD has committed here in New York.

The organizations that spoke out were: Socialist Unity, Southern Solidarity, Justice for Domonique Alexander, and NY Boricua Resistance.

The action was closed out by Sharif Hall, a member of NYCAP. He began his rousing speech by elaborating on what it means to have true community control of the police and finished by the speech by saying, “We know that we will never be free until we have the power, the power to take control over our communities!”

49th anniversary of martial law rally

On September 21 2021, BAYAN North East and affiliated organizations rallied and marched to mark the 49th anniversary of martial law imposed by then-Philippines Dictator Ferdinand Marcos and to oppose the repression unleashed by the current President Rodrigo Duterte.

The event began at 4:30 p.m. in the Dag Hammarskjöld Plaza near the United Nations, where President Duterte was speaking at the General Assembly. All this was happening as the International Criminal Court was launching an investigation of the ‘war on drugs’ in the Philippines, which has killed over 26,000 people and resulted in countless human rights violations.

Mike Legaspi led a chant, “In 1986 we ousted a dictator! In 2022, we’ll do it again!”

Collin Poirot, a member of the New York Community Action Project, spoke on behalf of the National Lawyers Guild. He said that many times, the legal defense is one of the last strategies when it comes to state repression, and it’s vital that people’s lawyers stand in solidarity with the workers and communities fighting against dictatorship.

New York Community Action Project

In 2021 Collin Poirot was a spokesman for the New York Community Action Project.

Fight Back! supporter

Fight Back! / ¡Lucha y Resiste! is a Facebook group for readers and supporters of Fight Back! / ¡Lucha y Resiste! the newspaper of Freedom Road Socialist Organization/FightBack!

As of July 5 2020 members included Collin Poirot.

"Women hold up half the sky"

Join us this March 8th to celebrate International Women’s Day! Revolution needs women and women need Revolution. A movement should be judged by the participation of women and we aim to honor the heroic contributions of women revolutionary comrades, learn their stories and remember their names! Presented by a panel of feminist activists and hosted by Red Guards Austin.

Participants

Second from left Meli LaSalle, Norah Andrea La Torre, Ada Yaeger, and Michelle Uche second from right

With Meli LaSalle, Vonds Dubuisson, Ada Yaeger, Norah Andrea La Torre and Michelle Uche spoke at at MonkeyWrench Books, a radical bookstore in Austin Texas, March 2015.

The event, "Women hold up half the sky" was hosted by Red Guards Austin.

Those indicating their intention to attend on Wherevent included Rachel Harris, Norah Andrea La Torre, Pamela Del Valle, Tee Luke, Alma Buena, Sophia Nachalo, Christina Crowley, Gillian Poirot, Merryn McNeil, Ashley Hurst, Anna Parris, Marleen Villanueva, AuDee Salinas, Annaliese Krumnow, Lynn Cowles, Caroline Eck, Victoria Grefer, Amanda Vickery, Joshua Mayhew, Dallas Hogan, Collin Pelletier, Julian Copado, Scott Grimes, Ramsey Doany, Kyle Joseph, Facundo Rompe, Karl Herrera, Nick Sheffield, Joseph Robertson, Devin E. Mardvich, Scan Reason, Maria Lorena Barros, Lindsay J. Porter, Benjamin Blowe, Staso Stubljar, Steven Walters, Zach Guerinot.

FRSO school

On September 10th, 2016, thirty-five students and community members gathered from Florida and North Carolina to participate in a day school hosted by members of the Student Commission of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization/FightBack!). The event consisted of presentations on revolutionary theory and how students apply it to their activism.

Fern Figueroa of the FRSO opened the event saying, “Students can play a special role in uniting and organizing sectors of people by learning revolutionary theory, engaging in their own struggle on campus, and ultimately by joining history's greatest revolutionary class - the working class.”

Tampa Bay FRSO member Danya Zituni explained, “The role of the university under this capitalist system is to indoctrinate students with the ideas of the ruling class. By mobilizing students to fight, we can learn about the nature of the system we are up against and what methods are effective against it.”

Taina Pantoja, of Tampa Bay SDS said, “It’s important to understand that Marxist-Leninist theory provides us with a guide for making actual material change.”

The event ended with a speech by Tallahassee FRSO member Zachary Schultz who said, “The Day School represents a real development in the revolutionary movement among students. Students are wanting and ready to take up Marxism-Leninism, the theory of revolution. Students are learning and organizing to build the movements of oppressed nationalities and workers to overthrow the capitalists.”

Those signalling their intention to attend on Wherevent included;

Taina Pantoja, Danya Zituni, Jessica Schwartz, Regina Joseph, Ionie Lopez, Yu Sun, Jade Weiss, Angelica Hernandez, Elizabeth Kramer, Sarah Owusu-Tweneboah, Marc Silverstein, Idris Aderoju, Matt Schott, Josiah Shand, Matthew Morrow, Fern Figueroa, Jon Mitchel, Collin Pelletier, Chrisley Carpio, Noah Peretz, Zachary Schultz, Albert Kishek, Jack Ling, Sam Beutler, Bill Aiman, Jerry Evans.

SDS 2016 National Conference

Public · Hosted by Students for a Democratic Society at UMN

Oct 8, 2016 at 9 AM to Oct 9, 2016 at 1 PM CDT

The 2016 national convention of Students for a Democratic Society, here at the University of Minnesota!

Featuring guest speakers:

• Nerdeen Kiswani of NYC Students for Justice in Palestine
• Lorena Buni of Anakbayan - USA
• Giselda Gutierrez of the Minnesota Immigrants' Rights Action Committee
• Courtney Donelson of the Twin Cities Coalition for Justice for Jamar Clark
• Collin Poirot of Student-Labor Action Movement at Harvard University

Tampa Bay SDS

Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society public Facebook group funtioned from circa 2010 to 2015. Members included Collin Poirot.