Abayomi Azikiwe

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Abayomi Azikiwe

Abayomi Azikiwe is a Detroit organizer of the Workers World Party and editor of the Pan-African Newswire.

“The Immigrant Struggle: from L.A. to Detroit”

More than 150 community, labor, and youth activists packed a Southwest Detroit hall on Saturday, March 7, 2026 for a powerful and emotional display of cross-coastal solidarity as a direct response to the Trump administration’s escalating attacks on working-class people both at home and abroad.

As winter thawed into spring, a broad coalition of organizations hosted “The Immigrant Struggle: from L.A. to Detroit” in one of the city’s most prominent immigrant and working-class neighborhoods. With flags of Palestine, Mexico, and Cuba on stage, the event opened with a statement of solidarity for all oppressed peoples and a specific call to end the U.S. blockade on Cuba.

The stage featured speakers representing major fronts in the immigration fight: trade unions, community organizations, and youth leaders. The lineup included representatives from the Detroit Federation of Teachers, RAICES Detroit, the African Bureau of Immigrant and Social Affairs (ABISA), Michigan Students Dream, the Peoples Assembly of Detroit, Michigan United Action, Michigan Working Families Power, Moratorium Now Coalition, and the Latino Youth Council.

The event was moderated by People's World Michigan.

Keynote speaker Rossana Cambron, a longtime Los Angeles organizer and co-chair of the Communist Party USA, connected the fightback against Trump and the billionaire class to the working-class legacy of the immigrant rights movement in L.A. She framed the current attacks as a familiar chapter in U.S. history.

That solidarity was echoed by Veronica Rodriguez, a Southwest Detroit community member with the Peoples Assembly. She described how neighbors unite daily to face ICE agents in the streets.

Lakia Wilson-Lumpkins, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, highlighted the fight in schools. “Our students are afraid to attend school, and our families are living with uncertainty,” she said, describing the agonizing choice families face between sending kids to school or “self-deporting.”

She insisted that schools “should be places of trust, not places of fear” and credited teachers with pushing the fight to make schools “ICE-free zones.” She added, “We know something powerful here in Detroit: that when we organize and mobilize, we WIN!” The room erupted in chants of “Stand up, fight back!”

Laura Chavez, founder of the Detroit-based organization RAICES, detailed the compounded devastations facing Southwest Detroit’s immigrants, which include not only ICE attacks but also the February 2025 water main break that destroyed homes and infrastructure.

“There are so many of us working together with other organizations and allies,” Chavez said. “Allyship is one the key things we need to have, as well as representation. We hold the power of our stories.”

She stressed the need for mental health support, saying, “We can’t ever erase the trauma of seeing a parent be detained and not knowing what’s going to happen afterwards.” She reminded the audience that immigrants live throughout Detroit, “and it’s not just Latino immigrants. We need everyone to unite.”

Adja Ndoye of ABISA, which advocates for Black and African migrants, addressed the specific challenges faced by these often-overlooked communities. “Trump sets out to dehumanize those who look like me, after insulting African countries,” Ndoye said.

Arturo Cambron, an organizer and cultural worker from Los Angeles, expanded on this. “The way people express themselves is an act of resistance,” he said, recalling anti-fascist activists in L.A.

Perhaps the most powerful voices came from Detroit’s youth. During a panel, two students from Cass Tech High School and MI Students Dream, Valery and Fatima, spoke through tears about losing family and friends to deportation and violence.

The event closed with speeches from local political leaders, including Michigan Senate candidate Abraham Aiyash and Sara Habbo, a campaign director for the Working Families Party running for Southfield City Council, as well as Abayomi Azikiwe from the Moratorium Now Coalition and Adonis Flores from Michigan United.

Aiyash gave a passionate speech on working-class resistance, declaring that “government has to be the mechanism that we continue to push into so that our people and our communities can fight for a greater justice.” He followed with calls for a liberated Palestine, the abolition of ICE, and an end to the bombardment on Iran.[1]

Detroit Anti-Fascist Organizing Committee

According to Cameron Harrison, Danielle Francisca and John Crutchfield, in early April 2025, Detroit activist Abayomi Azikiwe, addressed a crowd of 60 residents, union members, and community leaders gathered at the Detroit Public Library. The event, organized by the Detroit Anti-Fascist Organizing Committee, served as both a rallying cry and a dire alert about the growing threat of fascism in the U.S.

Russ Bellant of Detroiters for Tax Justice echoed the alarm and said recent Trump policies are “steps toward an open dictatorship of the far-right capitalist class.” He discussed how U.S. fascism today serves the most chauvinistic and reactionary sections of big business and how they viciously want to suppress the popular movements for democracy and workers’ rights.

Detroit Palestinian activist and Nakba survivor Ismail Noor tied domestic repression to global imperialism.

Em Barnes, chair of the Detroit Communist Party USA, brought the discussion to grassroots, political action. “I don’t care if I’m at the nail salon or the grocery store—I talk to everyone about this fight,” Barnes said.[2]

National Conference to Reclaim Our Cities

The Workers World Party instigated National Conference to Reclaim Our Cities was held Friday, November 11 thru Sunday, November 13 in Detroit in the Wayne State University Student Center Ballroom.

People from the throughout the state of Michigan and delegations from New Orleans, Cleveland, Baltimore, New York and other cities will converge on the Wayne State University campus to develop strategies for the rebuilding of urban areas around the country. Under the theme: "Money to Rebuild New Orleans and all U.S. Cities, Not for War," this national meeting of grassroots, labor and peace activists will call for the feeding of the cities and the starving of the Pentagon.

Demanding funds for jobs, housing, Social Security, schools, healthcare and the environment, the conference will focus on the Bush administration's budget which slashed 150 domestic programs while it pushes the spending for war to over half a trillion dollars a year. Organizers of the event say that it is time to launch a struggle to win the right to healthcare, quality education, decent housing, food, utilities, and jobs at living wages.

A partial list of endorsers for this event includes: Maryann Mahaffey, President of the Detroit City Council, JoAnn Watson, member of the Detroit City Council, Donald Boggs, President of the Metro-Detroit AFL-CIO, Nathan Head, President of the Metro-Detroit Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Ed Rowe, Pastor of Central United Methodist Church, Marian Kramer, Co-President of the National Welfare Rights Organization, the Gray Panthers of Metro-Detroit and Workers World Party members David Sole, President of UAW Local 2334and Abayomi Azikiwe, Editor of the Pan-African News Wire.

All day Saturday, November 12, there will be plenary sessions and workshops to discuss solutions to the urban crises across the United States and the role of the increasing militarization of both domestic and foreign policy of the national government.

This conference was open to the general public and was sponsored by the WSU student chapter of the the Workers World Party front Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice.[3]

Michigan Coalition for Human Rights

In 2007/08 2007-08 Abayomi Azikiwe was Chairman of the Board of the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights.[4]

2009 WWP National Conference

Program Schedule for National Conference of Workers World Party: 50 Years in the Struggle for Revolution and Socialism.[5]

Saturday, November 14, 2009

  • Opening Plenary Session: The Global Capitalist Crisis, the Coming Class Struggle, the Obama Administration and the Fight for a Socialist Future.

Moratorium NOW!

On Sept. 17, 2008, the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures and Evictions sponsored a rally at the Michigan State Capitol, demanding the State Legislature enact SB 1306, a two-year foreclosure moratorium bill. Represented at the rally was UNITE HERE, Change to Win, United Auto Workers, Service Employees International Union, American Federation of Teachers, Green Party of Michigan, Detroit Greens, the Cynthia McKinney presidential campaign, Students for a Democratic Society, National Lawyers Guild, Workers World Party, Food Not Bombs, Critical Moment, Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice, Michigan Welfare Rights, Call ’Em Out, Latinos Unidos of Michigan, Grand Rapids Latino Community Coalition, Joint Religious Organizing Network for Action and Hope, Adrian Dominican Sisters & Associates for Peace. The following led or spoke at the rally: Sandra Hines and Abayomi Azikiwe of the Moratorium NOW!; Kris Hamel; Reverend Ed Rowe, Central United Methodist Church; State Representatives Gabe Leland, Shanelle Jackson, Bettie Cook Scott and Steve Tobocman; State Sen. Martha G. Scott; Rubie Curl-Pinkins and her daughter Nikki Curl; Jerry Goldberg, people’s attorney and coalition leader; Juan Daniel Castro, Grand Rapids Latino Community Coalition; Linette Crosby; Larry Holmes, a leader of the Troops Out Now Coalition; Robert Pratt of UNITE HERE; and Rosendo Delgado of Latinos Unidos of Michigan.[6]

Moratorium NOW! is affiliated with the Bail Out the People Movement and is controlled by the Workers World Party. The organization's office is located at the Central United Methodist Church and holds meetings there.[7][8]

Speaking at the People's Summit

From June 14-17 2009, the Moratorium NOW!-initiated People's Summit was held at Grand Circus Park, Detroit, MI. A "tent city" was built at the location, and protesters camped there for four days of "Active Resistance, Political Discussion and Strategizing for a “People's Stimulus Plans” and an “Economic Bill of Rights” for Working People and the Poor." Moratorium NOW! is a Workers World Party-front organization. Speaking at the summit were Jesse Jackson; JoAnn Watson; Abayomi Azikiwe, Workers World Party; Mike Martinez, FIST, Workers World Party; Baldemar Velasquez, FLOC; Ignacio Meneses, U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange; and Rosendo Delgado, Latinos Unidos.[9]

Endorsed SB 1306

As at Feb. 10, 2011, Abayomi Azikiwe had endorsed State Senator Hansen Clarke's Senate Bill 1306, "which would stop all mortgage foreclosures and evictions for two years." The bill is being supported by the Workers World Party-front, Moratorium NOW!.[10]

Meeting with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

On September 21, 2010, Abayomi Azikiwe attended a meeting at a midtown hotel with President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and approximately 130 members of the U.S. "peace and social justice movements", as well as "major figures in the Black activist community."[11]

Left Forum 2013

Imperialism Today: What it is and why we must fight it Sponsored by: International League of Peoples Struggle Participants:

UNAC leadership

The names and organizations of the people on the United National Antiwar Coalition administrative committee are below:

"Eyewitness Report from Aleppo"

Eyewitness Report from Aleppo, Dec. 12, 2016;

What’s Ahead for the War on Syria- Eyewitness Report from Aleppo

Join the Moratorium NOW! Coalition and the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) for a special meeting to discuss the US/NATO war against Syria, featuring Eva Bartlett. Eva Bartlett is an independent journalist who recently spent time in Syria, covering one of the hottest points in the war, the battle for Aleppo. Our panel will expose the NATO role, make the connection to militarism in the horn of Africa, link domestic struggles with the war, and of course talk about the meaning of Trump in regards to Syria.

Speakers:

References

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ [2]
  3. ↑ Pan-African News Wire, October 30, 2005 Event: National Conference to Reclaim Our Cities (NCRC) Friday, November 11 thru Sunday, November 13
  4. ↑ MCHR website, accessed Feb. 1, 2011
  5. ↑ http://www.workersworld.net
  6. ↑ International Action Center - Boston: People tell Michigan legislators: ‘MORATORIUM NOW!’ (accessed on Feb. 10, 2011)
  7. ↑ Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr: Members of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition attending a meeting at the Central United Methodist Church on Nov. 20 in Detroit, Nov. 20, 2010 (accessed on Feb. 10, 2011)
  8. ↑ International Action Center - Boston: People tell Michigan legislators: ‘MORATORIUM NOW!’ (accessed on Feb. 10, 2011)
  9. ↑ KeyWiki: People's Summit (accessed on Feb. 11, 2011)
  10. ↑ Moratorium NOW!: Endorsers of Senate Bill 1306 (accessed on Feb. 9, 2011)
  11. ↑ War Is A Crime.org: Ahmadinejad Meets With U.S. Peace Activists, Sept. 27, 2010 (accessed on Oct. 12, 2010)
  12. ↑ [Chttps://www.unacpeace.org/about.html, UNAC administrative committee]
  13. ↑ Report from Aleppo, Dec. 12, 7pm What’s Ahead for the War on Syria- Eyewitness Report from Aleppo
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