2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Vietnamese liberation forces over the imperialist US military. This timing coincides with the release of the zine, Ho, Ho, Ho Chi Minh, the NLF Is Gonna Win: Solidarity and the War in Vietnam 1955-1975, written by James Kilgore. The zine is an overview of the international solidarity efforts that emerged in the US and beyond in support of the Vietnamese struggle and is part of the zine series A La Luta Continua from Community Justice Exchange.

The launch of this zine comes at a moment when a massive global solidarity movement has emerged in support of the liberation of Palestine. In this webinar, a panel comprised of individuals who took part in the anti-war movement of the 60s and 70s, as well as contemporary activists engaged in Palestinian solidarity organizing, will share perspectives on the parallels and differences in the struggles, look at lessons learned from the support for the Vietnamese, and assess how we might learn from that history. The discussion hopes to provoke answers on how we can mobilize more support for Palestinian freedom and build a global movement based on international solidarity and visions of true liberation.

This event is organized by Community Justice Exchange in partnership with Haymarket Books.
 

***Register through Ticket Tailor to receive a link to the live-streamed video on the day of the event. This event will also be recorded and captioning and ASL will be provided.***

Speakers:
James Kilgore is a Building Community Power Fellow at Community Justice Exchange, a former political prisoner, and author of the A Luta Continua zine series. James spent 27 years as a fugitive from US law enforcement. He spent much of that time living in Southern Africa where he worked in solidarity with the liberation movements there. He ultimately spent 6.5 years in US prisons for his political actions. Upon release he began organizing against mass incarceration and for abolition. Along with his organizing, he is a writer, the author of seven books dealing with mass incarceration and the history of southern Africa.

Rick Ayers is an activist who comes out of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and military resistance of the 60s and 70s. He enlisted in the military to organize GIs but ultimately went AWOL and fled to Canada where he lived underground until the war ended in 1975. He taught in the Communication Arts and Sciences small school at Berkeley High School, where he pioneered innovative and effective strategies for academic and social success for a diverse range of students. He is Professor Emeritus in Education at the University of San Francisco and is the co-author, with his brother Bill Ayers, of Teaching the Taboo: Courage and Imagination in the Classroom.

Linda Evans was an early organizer against the Vietnam war as part of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). She travelled to Vietnam in 1969 to meet with the liberation movement. Subsequent to her anti-war work she continued as an active anti-imperialist and was sentenced in 1985 to 40 years in federal prison for her political actions. Upon her release in 2001, she co-founded All of Us or None, a national civil rights organization of formerly-incarcerated people and their families. She is currently organizing with CCWP (California Coalition for Women Prisoners) and California's statewide DROP LWOP Coalition, fighting to eliminate Life Without Parole sentences, and with Migrant Justice in Action and the Sonoma County Sanctuary Coalition.

Final panelists forthcoming
 

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This event is cosponsored by Community Justice Exchange and Haymarket Books. While all of our events are freely available, we ask that those who are able make a solidarity donation in support of our important publishing and programming work.