A revolutionary New Year’s greeting for 2010
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 spokes-
person 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 2066
Brunswick, VIC 3055
Australia
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