FIST hosts youth forum in Los Angeles

Twenty-five people gathered at a youth forum hosted by San Diego FIST (Fight Imperialism-Stand Together) in the office of the International Action Center in Los Angeles on Aug. 26, a year after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast of the U.S. and showed the U.S. government’s racist neglect of the people of the area, to talk about fighting U. S. imperialism’s wars at home and abroad.

From left, Sister Haero, Mary Tamburro and Sarah Al Nnan. WW photo: Gloria Verdieu

Sarah Al Nnan, a student at UCLA who is a member of the Muslim Student Association, the Lebanese Social Club, and the United Arab Society, gave her personal account of visiting her family in Lebanon when the Israeli Air Force began bombing last month. She talked of the fear that kept her awake at night, and that eventually led her to cross the border into Syria to come back to the U.S., which was by no means an easy accomplishment. She told us that after the first day of bombings and devastation, Lebanon was set back 15 years in terms of destruction of infrastructure.

A member of San Diego FIST gave an introduction to FIST and talked about how to get military recruiters away from the youth and out of our schools. The FIST organizer explained how to use “opt-out” forms to exclude a youth’s personal information from being handed over to the military for recruiting purposes and encouraged those attending to make copies of the forms FIST handed out and give them out to family and friends.

“The United States government is the terrorist and the military rank-and-file are forced to become sheep that follow orders blindly. Do not let our youth become sheep,” was her encouragement to listeners to get involved in the anti-recruitment struggle.

And as a special treat, the meeting ended with revolutionary chairperson Sister Haero offering a beautiful spoken word performance. One piece entitled “Black August” talked of political prisoner George Jackson and his brother Jonathon Jack son, who attempted to free George in August 1970 by taking a judge hostage, and of the struggle of African Americans through out history in the month of August.