Laura Rodriguez

Laura Rodriguez

Palestine press conference

In a scene echoed throughout the world October 13, 2023 hundreds of community members came out in support of Palestine and the people of Gaza. A press conference was held in front of Tampa City Hall in response to a call from the Palestinian resistance to stand in solidarity. Leaders of a diverse array of groups spoke about the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as electricity, food, aid and internet have been cut off in preparation for a ground invasion.

Protesters also wanted to condemn law enforcement for their unequal treatment of Zionist and Palestinian protesters. Last Sunday, Tampa police protected Zionist reactionaries who showed up to harass pro-Palestine activists. The press conference was intended to call out the complicity and backing of the U.S. government in this ongoing process of genocide, and to demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel.

Describing the carnage going on in Gaza, speaker Leali Shalabi, with Resistance of Tampa Bay, said, “40% of the region is rubble; 1500 Palestinians have died.”

Aida Mackic, one of the organizers explained that, in Gaza, “19 health centers have been impacted, 20 ambulances have been destroyed, 48 schools were destroyed.”

Speaking about the connection between Tampa law enforcement and Israeli oppression, Lama Alhasan of Dream Defenders said, “Police are trained with the same tactics of police brutality used by Occupying forces, that’s why Black activists have rightfully connected the Palestinian struggle to the struggle for Black liberation here in the U.S.”

Laura Rodriguez, member of Tampa Bay Community Action Committee and one of the Tampa 5, also spoke about the connection that Palestinians experience and the oppression that Puerto Ricans experience, as victims of U.S. imperialism.

Joseph Nohava, of Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), summed up his speech by quoting famed Palestinian revolutionary Leila Khaled, “The supreme objective of the Palestinian liberation movement is the total liberation of Palestine, the dismantlement of the Zionist state apparatus, and the construction of a socialist society in which both Arabs and Jews can live in peace and harmony!” Nohava said that the FRSO would continue standing with Palestinians until that day.

After the press conference, the community marched through downtown Tampa to Joe Chillura Courthouse Square, shouting “It is right to rebel, Israel go to hell!” and “Israel you can’t hide, you’re committing genocide!”

The press conference was organized by the Dream Defenders and the Council on American Islamic Relations - Florida, Tampa Bay Community Action Committee, 200 Muslim Women Who Care, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, Muslims for Democracy and Fairness, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

Rally against Florida House Bill 999

According to Jason Carles and Sierra Jones Frishman, on Tuesday, March 28, over 100 students held a rally against Florida House Bill 999, at the Skateable Art Park in the city’s Railroad Square. This bill gives the Florida Board of Governors the ability to review curriculum in higher education, review tenure of professors with the power of removal, and provides direction to each university on “removing from its programs any major of minor in Critical Race Theory, Gender Studies, or Intersectionality."

At the protest, led by three Florida chapters of New Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), student speakers demanded an end to HB 999 and called it a threat to public education.

Enya Silva from Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society said of the bill, "Last year DeSantis passed the ‘Stop WOKE Act’ to limit discussions of race in K12 school and attacked AP African American history. Why did he single out that course specifically? Because he wants to erase Black history."

Emily Dorgan of Florida State University Students for a Democratic Society noted the bill’s attacks on feminism, stating “HB 999 targets women and gender studies classes as well; courses such as women in literature and feminist ethics are under attack with this legislation. This would be taking us back to a time when women and LGBTQIA+ people were excluded from academia and would be an extreme set-back for gender equality.”

Miffordens Registre from Florida State University Black Men in Medicine said, "Right now, we are seeing these attacks on diversity begin with education. But it'll continue on into the health industry and affect health professionals. We cannot let that happen. We stand with Students for a Democratic Society and your demands!"

Laura Rodriguez, one of the Tampa 4 said, "Shame on [USF President] Rhea Law.

Kenya Sanchez Torres from the Tampa Bay Community Action Committee said, "We are demanding that the current Hillsborough state attorney picked by Governor Ron DeSantis drop the charges against the Tampa 4.

Monique Sampson from the Jacksonville Community Action Committee said, "This struggle lives in the memory of the 2020 Justice for George Floyd Uprising. You can bet that these politicians remember that and want us protesters to go away. But when you touch one of us, you touch all of us. We are not going anywhere!"

After SDS’s rally, students marched across the street to join a rally on the other end of Railroad Square, where they heard from other student grassroots organizations, members of Florida university student governments, women’s advocacy groups, veterans, College Democrats, NAACP and National Pan-Hellenic Council chapters, and the president of United Faculty of Florida.

After SDS’s rally, students marched across the street to join a rally on the other end of Railroad Square, where they heard from other student grassroots organizations, members of Florida university student governments, women’s advocacy groups, veterans, College Democrats, NAACP and National Pan-Hellenic Council chapters, and the president of United Faculty of Florida, Andrew Gothard, and Florida public officials such as the head of the Florida Democratic Party, Nikki Fried.

Alivia Kalin of University of North Florida led the crowd in a callout of the Board of Governors shortly before the meeting, as they said, “You want to ban books? To defund DEI programs? To punish teachers for teaching diversity? Shame! Don’t you dare erase religious history, deaf history, and don’t you dare erase disabled history!”

Even in the wake of the Board of Governors’ decision, and the swift advancement of HB 999 through committee, SDS and its allies refuse to back down. As the rally’s emcee Cas Casanova from Florida State University Students for a Democratic Society reminded the crowd, “every freedom we have now exists because we fought for it,” and as Jason Carles from Florida State University Students for a Democratic Societyremarked, “even if HB 999 becomes law, the power we have gained from our education, and the will to fight for that education, can never be taken from us.”

Young Lords connection

According to Tyler Register on Saturday February 18 2023, Freedom Road Socialist Organization - Orlando hosted a panel on the Puerto Rican independence movement featuring speakers from the Young Lords, a revolutionary organization dedicated to uplifting the Puerto Rican community and fighting for independence since 1968. The panel speakers included David Rivera, a founding member of the Young Lords, and Gabe Marcano, a Florida leader in the New Era Young Lords, as well as Laura Rodriguez, a Puerto Rican member of FRSO.

David Rivera spoke of his lifelong history in the struggle and his experience organizing in the Rainbow Coalition, a multicultural movement that linked the Black Panther Party and the Young Patriots with the Young Lords in their fight against police terrorism, poverty and corruption. David, alongside Cha Cha Jimenez and others, created the Young Lords when they were all very young as a response to the oppression and attacks they faced in the U.S. as Puerto Ricans. Once a street gang, David recalled how Cha Cha, after finally being released from a jail sentence, showed him a copy of Quotations From Chairman Mao Zedong, which precipitated their transformation into a revolutionary organization.

Gabe Marcano spoke of the hurricane relief visits to Puerto Rico organized by the New Era Young Lords to assist the people living on the island.

Tampa Five

On March 9 2023, University of Central Florida (UCF) students participated in a solidarity action for the Tampa 4, a group of activists with University of South Florida (USF) Students for a Democratic Society that were brutalized by USF Police Department and arrested for protesting outside the university president's office.

USF SDS’s demands were that the university take a stand against House Bill 999, the latest in Governor DeSantis’ attacks against Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs, and that the USF administration take immediate action to increase Black enrollment and restore the Diversity department at their College of Arts and Sciences.

The Tampa 4 includes Gia Davila, Chrisley Carpio, Laura Rodriguez and Jeanie Kida. They face trumped-up charges of assault or battery of law enforcement officers, resisting an officer without violence to his or her person, and interrupting a school.

Jacob Muldoon, a member of the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO), summed up that, “Building a mass movement and striving for unity among scattered organizations is a vital step to stand up, fight back and deal blows to our common enemy: the monopoly capitalists.”

Abortion protest

On June 25, over 300 people gathered on the corner of a busy intersection near the University of South Florida to protest the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade. The crowd, led by Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society and the Tampa Bay Community Action Committee, march along the street and were met with strong support from commuters passing by.

“It terrified me that the right to bodily autonomy would no longer be a right,” said Laura Rodriguez of TBCAC. “Getting on birth control no longer felt like a choice.”

Florida has a trigger law, House Bill 5 (HB5), that will criminalize all abortions past 15 weeks. “People will have less than two missed periods to figure out that they’re pregnant,” said Rodriguez. “And cough up hundreds of dollars, get time off of work, and somehow still have enough money to pay a rising rent.”

“The government that is supposed to represent us is going against what the majority of people want,” said Victoria Hinckley of SDS, referring to the overwhelming popular support for legalized abortion in the U.S.

"Free speech protest

According to Enya Silva on February 9 2020 students and community organizations gathered on the University of South Florida (USF) campus to protest recent acts by the university and the government to limit the free speech of progressive voices. Tampa Bay Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) attended to demand that the university lift their suspension and drop their charges. USF placed a suspension on Tampa Bay SDS for protesting against the university’s budget cuts.

“Administration has been constantly getting in the way of protest and then suspended SDS until the fall semester on hypocritical charges,” says Laura Rodriguez, a member of Tampa Bay SDS, “I think it is so incredibly irresponsible for USF administration to try and disband an organization that has had such a vital role in the Tampa Bay area.”

Of the many speeches prepared for the event only one was given before USF administration told the police to arrest the protesters for trespassing. Five people, most of whom are students, were detained and held in police vehicles for over half an hour. Many of the police officers were not wearing masks when in the cars with the detained protesters.

“This was about intimidation and suppression,” Simon Rowe, a member of Tampa Bay SDS who was arrested, says of the actions. “The police walked me past the same place on campus where they escorted Kaitlyn Bennett's security away from her event in October. Bennett's team was given water, I and four other people were put in handcuffs.” Rowe was referencing last semester in which notorious right-wing internet personality Kaitlin Bennett filmed a video on campus at USF. Despite drawing a large crowd, she was allowed to leave of her own accord.

“USF and the police demonstrated another act against the voices of students,” stated Laith Abdel Hader of the USF chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). “I was there to give a speech about USF's record of suppressing voices of pro-Palestine activists. Many of those who speak out against the Israeli system of apartheid and genocide are being doxed, fired from their jobs, investigated or interrogated by the state, and are falsely framed as anti-Semitic, all while neo-Nazis and white supremacists are given their ‘free speech’ without any repercussions from the state or its institutions.”

Members from Tampa Bay Community Action Committee (TBCAC), Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL), and Tampa People’s Protest were also in attendance to stand in solidarity with progressive students and raise awareness about HB1/SB484, a bill proposed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to severely limit the right to protest in the state. Members of TBCAC and PSL were among those arrested.

Many of the groups in attendance will join a statewide mobilization to Tallahassee, Florida’s state capital, on March 2 to protest against the bill.

Tampa Bay SDS stated they would continue fighting the charges against the protesters, the charges and suspension against their organization, and will continue fighting USF’s budget cuts.

“SDS has always brought issues to the table which USF admin have tried to keep hidden under the rug,” said Rodriguez.