CHAPTER ACTION SPOTLIGHT: DURHAM

Defend the Durham 5!

The campaign to defend the Durham 5 — five protesters facing state repression for standing against housing injustice and neglect at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) — is being led by Student Panthers Durham, and supported by a growing network of mass organizations and activists across the country. Support the defense efforts by contributing to the fundraiser below:
https://chuffed.org/project/defend-the-durham-5

You can also add your organization or individual endorsement to the growing statement of support by signing here:
https://cryptpad.fr/form/#/2/form/view/wSSxuSkX83cR8WgupEE36AnQULuSBWvJvMSgFR45oI0/

The Durham 5 were arrested while protesting the unsafe, decaying conditions in NCCU student housing. Their arrests show that even basic demands for dignity and livable conditions are treated as threats by the imperialist system — especially when raised by working-class and Black students.

Support actions are spreading steadily. In Columbus, Ohio, comrades organized a solidarity action linking the defense of the Durham 5 to the broader struggles of students facing housing injustice and decay in their own dormitories. Their action emphasized that political repression and daily exploitation are two sides of the same system — and that the fight for liberation must be rooted in the living conditions and survival needs of the people.

We thank all individuals and organizations who have shown solidarity — through donations, endorsements, outreach, and political support.
We send militant and unwavering solidarity to all forces confronting white supremacist state terror, imperialist domination, and the daily conditions of exploitation.
Victory to the Black Nation! Victory to the oppressed peoples of the world!

NATIONAL NEWS

Afghan Immigrants’ Visas Revoked

Afghan refugees have reported receiving emails from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) notifying them that they must self-deport within the next seven days.
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-admin-tells-afghan-refugees-who-fled-taliban-self-deportreport-2061049

This comes amid a broader wave of nationalities at risk of deportation, notably Venezuelans and South Sudanese. A large portion of the Afghan community targeted arrived through Special Immigration Visas (SIVs) or Temporary Protected Status (TPS), typically awarded to those who cooperated with U.S. coalition forces in Afghanistan. Collaborating with an occupying imperialist force in one’s own country meant risking one’s life — and now, DHS’s order to return to Afghanistan effectively serves as a death sentence.
This demonstrates how U.S. imperialism operates: it uses people to plunder their homelands, offers incentives, and discards them the moment it is convenient.

Harvard Threatened With Revocation of Tax-Exempt Status

The Trump administration escalates threats against Harvard University, with the IRS investigating possible revocation of its tax-exempt status.
https://www.chronicle.com/article/what-revoking-tax-exempt-status-would-mean-for-harvard-and-the-rest-of-higher-ed

IRS officials confirmed they are investigating whether Harvard violated requirements for charitable organizations. Trump also posted on TruthSocial, claiming Harvard should be taxed as a political entity pushing “terrorist-inspired sickness.” This follows Harvard’s rejection of federal demands tied to $9 million in research funding. Harvard’s own spokesperson admitted revoking tax-exempt status would have “grave consequences” for higher education in America.
This highlights the necessity of political independence: Harvard, despite its claims, remains completely dependent on the capitalist state.

Venezuelan Migrants Threatened With Deportation Under 1798 Act

Venezuelan migrants are now being threatened with deportation under the contested 1798 Alien and Sedition Acts.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/18/headlines/new_group_of_immigrants_threatened_with_removal_under_contested_wartime_act

This 18th-century law, originally used to crush political dissent during wartime, is now being weaponized against migrants fleeing crises largely created by U.S. imperialism.
The U.S. ruling class displaces millions through sanctions and intervention — then criminalizes those forced to flee.

ICE Announces New $30 Million Deal With Palantir

ICE has signed a $30 million deal with Palantir Technologies to expand mass surveillance of immigrants.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/18/headlines/ice_signs_30_million_deal_with_palantir_as_it_expands_mass_surveillance_of_immigrants

Palantir, infamous for building surveillance systems used against migrants and workers, strengthens ICE’s repressive power to target poor and working-class communities.
This technological warfare shows that imperialism adapts new methods to the same goal: controlling and suppressing the people.

Trump’s Public Health Cuts Hit Brazilian Universities

In another instance of U.S. imperialism indirectly harming the Global South, researcher Patrícia Rondó from the University of São Paulo’s School of Public Health announced that the CDC has indefinitely suspended its Lab Quality Assurance Program — a move she had feared.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/04/16/trumps-science-cuts-hit-brazilian-health-research/

This program had linked Brazil’s leading public health institutions to international standards for 25 years. Without it, quality control over nutrients like vitamins A, D, and E will suffer — worsening the lives of Brazil’s majority Black, Indigenous, poor, proletarian, and peasant masses.
No reliance on new imperialist alliances like BRICS will solve this. Only a New Democratic and proletarian revolution can free Brazil’s health and future from imperialist domination.

Congolese Activists Decry U.S.-Congo Mineral Deal

The DRC government, facing deepening crisis and M23’s advances, is moving toward another devastating mineral extraction deal with U.S. imperialists — brokered by Erik Prince, founder of Blackwater.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/04/20/congolese-activists-decry-us-congo-mineral-deal/

Prince seeks to oversee “security” and taxation in mineral-rich Katanga, exploiting cobalt, rubber, lithium, and more.
This betrayal reflects the long comprador tradition of selling out Congo’s people since the assassination of Patrice Lumumba.
Mass resistance inside Congo continues to demand national sovereignty and an end to foreign plunder.

“The Doxxing-to-Deportation Pipeline”: Tufts Student Rümeysa Öztürk Abducted

On Friday, April 18th, Rümeysa Öztürk, a Turkish Ph.D. student and research assistant at Tufts University, was transferred to Vermont after being abducted by plainclothes ICE officers in Massachusetts.
https://www.democracynow.org/2025/4/22/rumeysa_ozturk_vermont_ice_tufts

Öztürk was targeted after co-authoring an op-ed criticizing her university’s complicity in Palestinian oppression. Despite no evidence of “terrorism,” she remains detained without bond, a symbol of escalating fascist attacks on political dissent and immigrant students.
Her bail hearing is scheduled for May 9th, and her habeas corpus petition for May 22nd.

DHS Targets Black Muslim Activist D. Musa Springer

On April 8th, Black Muslim activist and researcher D. Musa Springer was detained and interrogated for hours by DHS and CBP at Tampa Airport after a trip to Cuba.
https://hoodcommunist.org/2025/04/17/dhs-targets-black-muslim-activist-border-policing-political-repression/

Springer was denied access to a lawyer, subjected to invasive searches, and grilled about political activities supporting Palestine and socialism.
His case exposes how the U.S. increasingly treats Black, Muslim, and working-class activists as enemy combatants inside its borders.

Noor Abdalla Gives Birth While Mahmoud Khalil Remains Detained by ICE

On April 21st, Noor Abdalla gave birth to her first child without her husband Mahmoud Khalil by her side, as he remains imprisoned over 1,000 miles away in a private ICE detention center.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/04/22/noor-abdalla-wife-of-mahmoud-khalil-gives-birth-while-husband-languishes-in-ice-detention/

Khalil, a Columbia University graduate student and pro-Palestine advocate, had his request for temporary release denied.
This cruelty shows the deliberate targeting of pro-Palestine migrant students under the Trump regime’s fascist offensive.

China Condemns U.S. Tariffs on Haiti Amid Worsening Crisis

China’s deputy representative to the UN condemned the Trump administration’s new 10% tariffs on Haiti amidst worsening mass displacement, cholera outbreaks, and social collapse.
https://peoplesdispatch.org/2025/04/22/china-condemns-us-for-imposing-tariffs-on-haiti-amid-worsening-crisis-in-the-caribbean-country/

While China poses as a defender of Haiti, it too has acted as an imperialist power there.
Only the Haitian people’s independent revolutionary movement can end foreign domination and achieve true national liberation.

ReBuild! Collective’s Spring 2025 Periodical (Black Nation)

The ReBuild! Collective has published its Spring 2025 periodical, focused on the struggle for the self-determination of the Black Nation in the US.
https://www.rebuildcollective.org/_files/ugd/633c20_8ff60a48c1b5468883efc859d9053b31.pdf

Contents include:

• “Malcolm X at 100”
• “13th Amendment Survey Results: Should We Stay, or Go?” by Fatou Nsorama
• “The Pitfalls of Boycotts” by Comrad Bukasa
• “The Status of National Consciousness” (from the archives) by Harry Haywood
• “The Black Family is Dead! Long Live the Family” by Comrad Otto
• “Ask a New Afrikan”
• “Notes + Rants from a New Afrikan Activists Notebook”
• “Film Review: “Soundtrack to a Coup d’etat”: New Documentary Re-Frames the Cold War Struggle for Influence in the Congo” by Kwasi Akwamu
• “Our comrad (Hondo T’Chikwa) is recognized by Chicago Council of Elders”
• “News Briefs from the Black Belt, and Beyond”

Ireland – 109 Years Since the Easter Uprising: The Struggle Against Colonialism Continues

The Irish people have fought for over 850 years against British colonial rule. In 1916, the Easter Uprising, led by workers and peasants under comrades like James Connolly, ignited a new era of national liberation struggle.

Connolly taught that unless the working class seized power and uprooted landlordism, capitalism, and imperialist domination, Ireland would remain enslaved — even without the British flag. His warning proved correct. Today, Ireland remains a colony in substance, with British occupation in the North and foreign control over Irish politics and economy.

This month, Irish republicans and socialists mobilized against NATO expansion. In Dublin, the Free State police violently attacked an anti-NATO protest, proving again that the Irish ruling class serves imperialism, not the Irish people.

As students, we must take up the lessons of Easter: national liberation must be fought as a workers’ and oppressed’ struggle, not a negotiation between elites.

Read More on the Dublin Protest

Turkey – Students and Masses Defy Fascist Repression

Across Turkey, the people rise against the fascist Erdogan regime. After the arrest of Istanbul’s mayor exposed deep divisions among the ruling classes, mass protests erupted nationwide.

The regime responded with repression: banning marches, arresting journalists, jailing over 100,000 students. But the masses refuse to submit. Students from universities like Boğaziçi marched despite police bans, facing down beatings, arrests, and long prison sentences without hesitation.

Where there is repression, there is resistance. Turkish students show that the struggle cannot be banned or voted away — it must be organized and waged, even under terror.

Yeni Demokrasi Report on the Resistance

Brazil – Police Terror and Worker Resistance Rise Together

In Brazil, the police serve as a blunt weapon of fascist repression. Military police recently hosted open fascist rallies, flaunting Nazi and KKK symbols, showing again their true character as enemies of the people.

While state violence intensifies, so does resistance. Workers continue to organize despite threats and murders. This month, the Brazilian police murdered Senegalese worker Ngange Mbaye during a protest. His death has become a rallying cry for workers and youth to demand justice and build struggle.

In every incident, the truth is clear: police violence is not a malfunction — it is the natural operation of the oppressors’ state.

Read More: Murder of Ngange Mbaye

Finland – Anti-Election Campaigns Expand Among the People

In Finland, revolutionaries are waging a campaign against the fraud of capitalist elections. Recognizing that elections inside the oppressors’ state only reproduce exploitation, militants are painting slogans and organizing actions across Helsinki and beyond.

The oppressed masses understand: only by organizing outside and against the system can real power be seized. Elections are not instruments of liberation — they are traps to pacify revolt.

See More: Punalippu Reports

France – Youth and Workers Face Fascist Violence and Fight Back

In France, fascist attacks have escalated. Far-right gangs armed with weapons attacked Turkish workers and left-wing youth in Paris, injuring several. Weeks later, 20 fascists attacked the Young Struggle group again after a political film screening.

But the masses fight back. Thousands have taken to the streets in solidarity with immigrant workers and revolutionary youth. The only answer to fascism is mass mobilization and militant resistance.

More on Fascist Attacks in Paris

Greece – Students Smash Fascist Activity in Schools

In Greece, fascists infiltrated schools to terrorize immigrant students and teachers, spraying pro-junta slogans and making threats. This is no accident — when the ruling class deepens exploitation, fascists are unleashed to divide and terrorize.

Students, refusing to be intimidated, have launched counter-mobilizations, organizing collective defense inside schools and agitating for broader struggle against fascist forces.

Their example shows that organized mass resistance is the only shield against rising fascism.

See More: Mathitiki Antistasi

Netherlands – Students Occupy for Palestine and Justice

At the University of Amsterdam, students occupied university buildings to demand full divestment from “Israel” and solidarity with Palestinian resistance. They renamed occupied spaces after murdered Palestinian doctors and linked their struggle to global anti-imperialist movements.

Police and undercover agents raided the occupations, beating and arresting dozens. But solidarity grew: workers, professors, and entire faculties rallied to the students’ defense.

This shows: the struggles of students and workers must unite to deal real blows to imperialism and oppression.

Full Report: Communistisch Comité van Nederland

Norway – Health Crisis in Working-Class Communities

In Oslo, public health research reveals that only one-third of residents in poor, immigrant-heavy districts believe they are in good health. The government systematically deprioritizes these neighborhoods, cutting healthcare services while wealthier areas expand.

The capitalist state sacrifices the health and lives of workers and migrants to protect the profits of the rich. Healthcare under capitalism is not a right — it is a privilege sold to those who can pay.

Read More: Tjen Folket Media

Yemen – U.S., UAE, and Saudi Arabia Plot New Attacks

While denying open negotiations, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and the U.S. continue to prepare for expanded war against Yemen. Trump has promised new escalations against Houthi forces, after years of devastating siege and bombing campaigns.

The situation in Yemen shows that imperialism will manufacture endless war to maintain domination, and that the only solution lies in armed people’s resistance.

Reuters Report on New Yemen War Plans

Algeria – Tensions With France Expose Colonial Continuity

Tensions between Algeria and France flared this month after an Algerian official was arrested in Paris. In retaliation, both countries expelled 12 diplomats.

This confrontation exposes that the colonial relationship was never dismantled — it was merely reshaped. Algeria remains economically bound to French imperialism.

Middle East Eye: Analysis on France-Algeria Relations

Somalia – Imperialist Destabilization Continues

In Somalia, the imperialists’ legacy of destruction continues. Al-Shabaab forces seized towns and expanded control — a direct result of the U.S.-backed Ethiopian invasion in 2006 that shattered Somali unity.

Just like in Iraq and Syria, the imperialists use proxy forces and endless war to divide nations and justify military presence. The Somali people’s true enemy is not just internal forces, but the imperialists who created the chaos.

Al Jazeera Report on Al-Shabaab

Democratic Republic of Congo – Masses Reject U.S.-Backed Mineral Looting

The U.S. and Congolese governments are finalizing a mineral deal that would hand Congo’s resources over to imperialist corporations. But the Congolese people are rising up, launching anti-imperialist protests across multiple regions.

Like all colonial projects, imperialist looting fuels poverty, war, and displacement — and it is the masses who resist, despite brutal repression.

People’s Dispatch Report on Congo Uprising

Final Word

Across the globe, the contradictions of imperialism sharpen.
Where there is oppression, there is resistance.
As students, we must stand as auxiliaries of the masses — not isolated “activists,” but organized fighters rooted in the struggles of the people.