A revolutionary New Year's greeting for 2010

Este declaracion en español / This statement in Spanish

from the Freedom Socialist Party, U.S. and Australia

Warm greetings to the workers, fighters and poor of the world. The last year has confronted us with scores of challenges -- economic, ecological, and political. Yet many at home and around the world are fighting back. Students and their allies are organizing from Berkeley to Tehran, challenging cutbacks and corrupt governments. Public workers are fired up to defend labor standards and resist privatization, from electrical workers in Mexico City, to teachers in the U.S. and Guatemala, to postal workers in Australia. Queer youth are rising up to demand liberation in many countries. The streets of Copenhagen have been ringing with demands for a new order that will protect our planet and the poor. Insurgents are fighting against the U.S.-led occupation in Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world, while U.S. soldiers are protesting within the military. Lawyers continue to wage the legal wars necessary to free prisoners of the U.S. injustice system: Mumia Abu-Jamal, Lynne Stewart and the Cuban Five.

We thank everyone across the globe who is resisting oppression and exploitation. And we stand by all those who have put their lives on the line; lifted a sign, a voice, or a pen; or donated hard-earned money to battle injustice with the knowledge that our unity is key to eventual victory.

We offer this poem by Honduran feminist and coup resister Jessica Isla, which introduces the faces of those who flooded the streets to protest the overthrow of Manuel Zelaya's democratically elected government. Despite Roberto Micheletti's military-backed coup, the women, men and youth of Honduras continue resisting. They are an inspiration to everyone opposing imperialism and fighting for dignity, freedom of speech and workers' power throughout the world.

An Introduction

by Jessica Isla

I am this body marked by blows

that walks day after day under the sun,

under this uncertain sky of flying machines,

amongst gusts of smoke and

the sound of rifles

I am an infinite number of faces:

the murdered boy,

the grandmother walking

the Lenca people armed with infinite patience

The woman painting banners,

The girl on crutches

Each facing alone or joined together

The olive green walls weighed down with violence

I can say that from my body many odors emanate

The fresh-cooked montuca

The tortilla and the beans

The sweaty hands and tired bodies,

but also

the smell of shed blood

of gas and gunpowder

the smell of death and of fear.

My throat

is crowded with voices:

I am in the passionate discussions at meetings

the teacher's shout

the story of the young woman who was raped,

In the protest of the beaten, of the tortured

In the voice that sings in the streets

I am thousands of hats and

hundreds of words,

I am embraces, tears,

tenderness, bursts of laughter.

I am full of smiles that illuminate the day

colors that come from every place

I have joy, an urge to dance,

I have hope.

Because without me the streets

Would be left alone,

Because without me the walls would say nothing

Because I am your hands, your tired feet,

Your voice.

I am the resistance

Poet-activist Suyapa inspired this poem written by Jessica Isla, a spokesperson for Las Feministas en Resistencia (Feminists in Resistance). Translated by Laura Mannen of Radical Women for the Freedom Socialist newspaper.

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Freedom Socialist Party
www.socialism.com
U.S. Section
4710 University Way NE, #100
Seattle, WA 98105
USA

Australian Section
PO Box 266
Brunswick, VIC 3055
Australia