Labor solidarity
What will happen to our Social Security benefits? This question is
being asked by the program’s 56 million recipients in response to the
Obama administration’s proposal to cut the annual cost-of-living raise
for all who receive these monthly checks, as part of his 2014 budget....
|
...
|
...
|
Chicago — The Rahm Emanuel administration and the Chicago Public
Schools, along with politically connected corporate interests, are making a
calculated move to turn the clock back for Black and Latino/a students to the
bad old days of Jim Crow apartheid “separate but equal”
schools....
|
Neither rain, snow nor sleet kept postal workers from protesting to demand
“Save six day mail.”...
|
Thousands of teachers, parents and community members rallied on March 27 in
the Chicago downtown area to protest Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s plan to close
54 public schools — in the predominately African-American and Latino/a
communities — to erase a $1 billion deficit. The rally began in
Chicago’s Daley Plaza and was followed by a march to City Hall that ended
at the Chicago Public Schools headquarters....
|
The National Association of Letter Carriers has called for 100 rallies and
other protests on Sunday, March 24, 2013, to save postal jobs and to keep six-day delivery. The NALC call for a National Day of Action invites unions, small business customers, civic organizations and faith groups, as well as all postal workers, families, friends and neighbors, to gather outside specified post offices in the major cities of each state. “We want to make this fight about the
cost of losing Saturday mail delivery and how it would affect people in each
and every state,” NALC President Fredric Rolando said. The American Postal Workers Union, the National Postal Mail Handlers Union and the Rural Letter Carriers Union have all endorsed the March 24 rallies....
|
A coalition of community-based
women's organizations that has organized events for the past eight years
have announced plans for women's events in Manhattan, Harlem, Brooklyn and
the Bronx to celebrate women's struggles. The events include a rally and
march on March 9th, starting at the site of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist
Factory fire in Manhattan, and tributes to Harriet Tubman on March 10 at
Harlem’s African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, in Brooklyn at Boys and
Girls High on Sat. March 16 and in the Bronx at the Bronx Art Space Gallery on
Sunday, March 24. All events are open to the media and are free. There will
also be a special tribute March 9 to the late President Hugo Chávez of
Venezuela -- the leader of the ongoing Bolivarian Revolution that promotes the
rights of women especially those of African and Indigenous
descent....
|
...
|
A coalition of community-based women's organizations that has
organized events for the past eight years have announced plans for women's
events in Manhattan, Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx to celebrate women's
struggles. The events include a rally and march on March 9th, starting at the
site of the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in Manhattan, and tributes to
Harriet Tubman on March 10 at Harlem’s African Methodist
Episcopal Zion Church, in Brooklyn at Boys and Girls High on Sat. March 16 and
in the Bronx at the Bronx Art Space Gallery on Sunday, March 24. All events are
open to the media and are free....
|
...
|
...
|
It is not too late to RSVP for this important fundraiser
for the Mississippi Workers Center which fights for social justice in one of
the poorest states in the country. No one will be turned away for lack of funds
or for making a modest donation. There will also be a silent auction held
during the event....
|
Organizers with PIST — Parents to Improve
School Transportation — have begun talks with union and local activists
about a community response to the non-union student transportation crashes that
have occurred in the fourth week of the New York City public school bus
strike....
|
Fourteen people in Bushwick were injured -- eleven of them children -- when a
car was slammed into by a school bus that union sources say was operated by the
non-union Fortuna Bus Company.
...
|
Millions of workers across the United States received a rude and unpleasant
jolt this January when they discovered that their take-home pay had just shrunk
by 2 percent. The Social Security payroll tax cut of 2009 was restored, costing
workers an average amount of $850 a year, a significant wage decrease for
workers on the edge of financial ruin....
|
La Coalición Primero de Mayo Por los Derechos de Los Trabajadores y Los
inmigrantes, invita a todas las organizaciones de la Ciudad de New
York, para discutir la planeación de la Marcha y Rally del
Primero de Mayo, celebrada desde el 2005. / The May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights invites everyone to the Citywide Meeting to discuss plans for the May 1st rally & march as well as for other events throughout the year. This event has been hosted by the Coalition annually since 2005 at Union Square
Park....
|
The 8,800 school bus drivers, matrons and mechanics of Amalgamated Transit
Union Local 1181-1061 have been on strike since January 16th, fighting the
anti-union Bloomberg administration's attempt to take away their job and
contract security. As the New York State AFL-CIO wrote, "For the first
time in 30 years, the mayor has removed a requirement that keeps the most
qualified, experienced, and skilled drivers on the job." He did not have
to do this and he can put it back legally!
...
|
New York — More than 8,000 school bus drivers who transport
152,000 pupils in this city every day, many of them children with special
needs, were forced to go on strike Jan. 16 to protect not only their jobs but
also the safety of the children they serve....
|
Charleston, S.C. — People from the West Coast and across the
country traveled to Charleston, S.C., to attend the ninth biannual Southern
Human Rights Organizers Conference (SHROC) on Dec. 7-9. The conference was held
in a hall belonging to Local 1422 of the International Longshoremen’s
Association, which represents thousands of dock workers on the East Coast....
|
There are times when an individual framed, beaten and jailed by the police
is just a victim. There are other times when that person becomes a symbol of
struggle for an entire movement....
|
International Longshore and Warehouse Union locals in the Pacific Northwest
continue to work at terminals owned by the Grain Handlers Association after
three out of four terminal owners imposed the agri-bosses highly concessionary
“last, best and final” offer on Dec. 27. By nearly 94 percent, ILWU
members rejected that package, which the ILWU reports demanded “more than
750 changes to a contract that’s made the industry successful for the
past 80 years.”...
|
Just days before a potential strike by more than 14,500 workers at 14 ports
along the Eastern U.S. and the Gulf coasts, the International
Longshoremen’s union and the U.S. Maritime Alliance (USMX) — the
port bosses — announced another temporary extension of their collective
bargaining agreement until Feb. 6 as negotiations continue. The previous
extension would have expired at midnight on Dec. 29....
|
The passage of the union-busting “right-to-work” law in Michigan
is a severe legal setback for the labor movement and for the workers, the
oppressed and all the progressive masses in the state. If not turned around, it
will encourage right-wing, anti-labor forces across the country....
|
This year, possibly for the first time ever, the United Mine Workers did not
endorse a presidential candidate. In 2008, the union was an early endorser of
Obama, and has usually supported Democratic candidates. The union’s
decision to sit it out this year was an indication of the crisis that has
befallen coal miners, who don’t know where to turn for help....
|
While this is not and legally cannot be an ILA- union initiated mobilization, it is supported by ILA rank-and-file leaders in solidarity with the Bangladeshi workers who lost their lives last month in the tragic fire, exploited with slave wages by Walmart and other corporate retail giants....
|
In Colombia union organizers operate under the threat of violence, torture,
and even death. More union organizers are killed in Colombia than in any other
country in the world. Corporations like General Motors take advantage of the
anti-union climate....
|
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder
wasted no time signing anti-labor, so-called “right-to-work” laws
passed today, disregarding the daylong protest of more than 12,000 workers and
community constituents. “The workers united will never be defeated”
echoed in the Capitol rotunda, while outside mounted Michigan State Police
pepper-sprayed laborers, many of them unemployed, and other workers to disperse
them. The rushed lame-duck enactment sought to make it a fait
accompli, but instead it is a declaration of war on the entire U.S.
working class and labor unions. A banner reading “General Strike to beat
back ‘right-to-work’ ’’ attracted much interest, as did
thousands of leaflets headlined: “Beat back ‘right-to-work’
Yes, WE CAN!” The Rev. Jesse Jackson called for a one-day work stoppage
and march on Washington, D.C.
...
|
For almost 500 days, Asotrecol, the Association of Injured Workers and
Ex-Workers of General Motors Colmotores, has been fighting for justice.
Colmotores, the GM assembly plant in Bogotá, Colombia, is a house of
horrors....
|
Oakland, Calif. — “Picket line means don’t
cross,” chanted striking Service Employees Local 1021 workers and their
community supporters as they picketed all seven terminals at the Port of
Oakland on Nov. 20. The workers had walked out in an unfair-labor-practices
dispute with the port....
|
Millions of people struck Nov. 14, and hundreds of thousands more poured
into the streets in an unprecedented, coordinated general strike against the
austerity measures that tear at the very bodies of the poor and working people
of Europe. People in 23 countries protested, coordinated by the European Trade
Union Confederation....
|
In the Western Cape of South Africa, where farmworkers produce fruits, and
wines that are sold domestically and internationally, employees in 16 towns and
farming communities have been on strike since Nov. 6. They are demanding a
minimum wage increase from $8 to $20 per day. Many are members of the South
African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (SACCAWU), an affiliate
of the Congress of South African Trade Unions. Nonetheless, the strikes are
similar in character to the unprotected miners’ actions....
|
The following letter to the Obama administration was issued by the National
Network On Cuba on Nov. 13 following the United Nations General
Assembly’s 21st vote to end the U.S. embargo of Cuba....
|
On top of sanitation workers laboring 12-hour workdays and seven-day
workweeks, needed nonstop to clean up the city after Hurricane Sandy, one of
the workers’ biggest problems is the difficulty of obtaining fuel to get
to work. According to the president of the sanitation workers’ union,
Harry Nespoli: “They want to work but they have to have gas. People are
saying that they’re not going to give gas to Sanitation Workers.
That’s a total disgrace.” (thechiefleader.com, Nov. 9)...
|
The people of Europe are angry, very angry — and they’re doing
something about it....
|
Harsh austerity measures have created an economic and social disaster that
affects tens of millions across Europe. Greece, Portugal and Spain are
particularly hard-hit. A coalition of New York Greek-Americans, groups in
solidarity with Greece and working people across Europe have called for a rally
at the United Nations Missions of Greece and the European Union on Wednesday,
November 14, 2012....
|
|
|
Money is the lifeblood of capitalism.More and more, the bankers have it
locked away in their vaults and don’t know what to do with it. They
already face that most irrational feature of capitalism,
“overproduction,” which to them means that corporations
aren’t expanding because there’s not much of a market for more
goods and services, so therefore companies aren’t borrowing money and the
bankers are stuck with cash that’s just sitting there, not drawing
interest....
|
South African police have arrested striking workers in an effort to stem
protests and violence in the areas surrounding platinum and gold mines. Since
rock-drill operators walked off the job in August at the Lonmin Platinum
facilities at Marikana, 45 people have been killed....
|
Charlotte, N.C. — Over 300 Southern workers, trade unionists and
community allies gathered for the Southern Workers Assembly on Sept. 3, Labor
Day, the opening day of the Democratic National Convention. The Wedgewood
Baptist Church was packed and supporters had to stand beside the pews. There
was a feeling in the air that Southern labor was uniting to forge a historic
new direction, towards rank-and-file-led social justice trade unionism,
particularly to challenge right-to-work (for less) laws and combat racism....
|
Some 50 workers celebrated outside the jail as South African authorities
announced on Sept. 2 that they were provisionally dropping murder charges
against 270 miners. All the jailed workers were scheduled to be released by
Sept. 6...
|
hirty-four African miners were killed by police on Aug. 16 in Marikana, South Africa. Another 78 were wounded and 259 were arrested.These platinum miners were striking against Lonmin PLC-based in London-for living wages and safety. Every month a worker dies in the mines owned by Lonmin....
|
Charlotte, N.C. — Volunteer activists with the March on Wall Street South coalition are in high gear mobilizing for a week of protest actions Sept. 1-6 around the Democratic National Convention. These events include a Festivaliberacion on Sept. 1, a march and rally on Sept. 2, and a Southern Workers Assembly on Sept. 3....
|
Aug. 20 — Striking platinum miners have defied Lonmin Platinum PLC’s back to work orders and continue their job action in Marikana, South Africa, despite a horrific police massacre and threats of termination. This is the British-based, multibillion-dollar firm’s latest ultimatum to the mineworkers, who walked off their jobs on Aug. 10 to protest low salaries and poor working conditions....
|
The International Action Center will be marching and urges all progressives to join in with the Coalition to March on the RNC in Tampa, FLA on August 27 . And on September 2, we will join with the Coalition to March on Wall St South;in Charlotte, NC for a March for Jobs and Justice at the start of the DNC....
|
Ed Childs, chief steward of UNITE HERE Local 26 in Boston, has been in Charlotte since Aug. 1, hitting the streets, meeting and talking with poor and working people throughout the city as part of organizing efforts for the March on Wall Street South on Sept. 2....
|
Organizing for the March on Wall Street South is going full speed ahead in Charlotte and across North Carolina and beyond....
|
Teachers, students with jobless futures and indentured to enormous loan debt, and public workers from the U.S. will travel to Tijuana, Mexico, for the Aug. 17 through 19 Ninth U.S./Cuba/Mexico/Latin America Labor Conference. The conference will be preceded by a 3-day seminar from Aug. 15 through 17 led by instructors from the Cuban Workers Central Union’s Lázaro Peña Workers School. The Aug. 17 evening program will uplift the struggle to free the Cuban 5 — Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labañino Salazar, René González Sehwerert, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez and Fernando González Llort — unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. since 1998....
|
U.S./Cuba/Mexico/Latin America Labor Conference Aug 17 - 19...
|
Cars, buses and vans of labor and community activists will form a Caravan to Washington, DC, in the early hours of Thursday, June 28, to join a mushrooming national hunger strike to save postal services and jobs....
|
The world crisis in education and the attack on public workers is the theme for a special U.S./Cuba/Mexico/Latin America/North America conference Aug. 17-19 in Tijuana, Mexico, which is next door to San Diego....
|
Colombians launched a new movement in April that may challenge the oligarchy’s rule there. La Marcha Patriótica [Patriotic March or PM] is an outgrowth of the diverse social movements in Colombia....
|
The recent G8 summit did nothing to relieve the worldwide capitalist crisis that has cost up to 80 million jobs worldwide since 2008. Nor did it help feed the hungry, stop global warming or prevent wars....
|
A broad array of immigrant rights groups, day laborers, grassroots unionists, street vendors, community organizations and some of the city’s most important labor unions have joined the youthful Occupy Wall Street movement in calling on everyone to be in Union Square on May Day....
|
Students and community people marched and rallied April 16 at the Pontiac Academy for Excellence in Education to demand the school rehire teacher Brooke Harris, 26, who was terminated after her students participated in an educational project related to the struggle for justice for Trayvon Martin....
|
In 2006, immigrant workers and their supporters revived May Day as part of a
spring of actions against the Sensenbrenner bill which attempted to criminalize
immigrants, especially the undocumented....
|
A historic unity has been achieved in NYC. Immigrant groups, labor, the Occupy Wall Street and progressive movement have united for one single demonstration at Union Square on Tuesday, May 1st....
|
A historic unity has been achieved in NYC. Immigrant groups, labor, the Occupy
Wall Street and progressive movement have united for one single demonstration
at Union Square on Tuesday, May 1st....
|
A 24-hour general strike, involving more than 80 percent of the workforce on a countrywide level, stopped large sections of the economy in Spain on March 29. The leaders of the two major union confederations that called the strike, the UGT and the CCOO, provided the numbers. ...
|
The People’s Power tour was launched in New York on March 11. The tour
seeks to bring working, poor and oppressed people into a nationwide discussion
to help develop a unifying fightback program of action. Its literature points
to the life-and-death social issues that are intensified by the current global
capitalist economic crisis, such as “unemployment, low wages,
foreclosures, police and ICE terror, racist incarcerations, hunger and
homelessness.”...
|
While the stock markets in the United States and Europe have recovered — a bit — and the Greek workers have not had a general strike and massive protests for a few weeks, the struggle is far from over....
|
Demonstrators chanted, “Tear down Jailhouses! Build up School Houses!” outside Heery International Inc.’s Philadelphia office as part of a national call from Occupy Oakland to Occupy for Prisoners on Feb. 20....
|
One of the speakers at the opening meeting of the People’s Power Tour at Judson Memorial Church here on March 11 was retired postal worker and union organizer Eleanor Bailey, who has been putting in her time and enthusiasm organizing for a demonstration on March 17 to stop Post Office closings. Bailey began working at the P.O. just when both African Americans and women were flooding into the system, and her trade union activism represented the shift in the demographics of P.O. workers. Her talk, which we paraphrase here, gives a special perspective to the current struggle....
|
Can postal workers and the communities that depend on postal jobs and services stop Congress from privatizing the highest rated government agency — the U.S. Postal Service?...
|
Displaying the mighty power of workers and the poor in Wisconsin and beyond, more than 60,000 protesters flooded the State Capitol grounds for a people’s march and rally on March 10. Refusing to be beaten down by union busting and austerity imposed by Gov. Scott Walker and his 1% bosses, the rainbow of protesters made clear that the people’s uprising in Wisconsin is in full fightback motion. March 10 was the one-year anniversary of when the state Legislature illegally rammed through, and Walker signed, the union-busting bill attacking public sector workers....
|
On Dec. 5, 2008, workers at a Chicago factory made history. When the Republic Windows and Doors management told them, with no advance notice, that they were out of a job and had lost their health benefits, 260 members of United Electrical Workers Local 1110 occupied the plant....
|
The May 1st coalition, other immigrant groups, sectors from the labor movement
as well as the Occupy Wall Street movement are all meeting to discuss May Day 2012...
|
...
|
The love affair with Trader Joe's is over! We're tired of the lies
and false promises! Trader Joe's claims to be wholesome, hip and
sustainable, but it’s all just an image. After nearly two years of a
nation-wide campaign, Trader Joe's still refuses to sign an agreement with
the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, a group of farm workers in Florida who have
successfully pressured corporate giants like Whole Foods and McDonald’s
to agree to ensure that farm workers in their supply chains get treated
humanely and get paid at least one penny more per pound of tomatoes they pick....
|
As many people as possible should go to 100 Centre St. tomorrow starting at 11 a.m. in solidarity with Larry Holmes, Caleb Maupin, Tony Murphy, Gavrielle Gemma, Toni Arenstein and Tim Barker following their arrests during the Occupy 4 Jobs protest today. The Court Clerk's office, located on the 1st floor, will have a docket list of cases. Please look for these names on the list. We are still unaware of the charges as of tonight. Take the #4, 5 or 6 trains to City Hall...
|
The San Francisco Labor Council on Jan. 9 unanimously condemned military
escort for the union-busting international grain and food cartel EGT,
headed by Bunge Ltd. at the Port of Longview, Wash. ...
|
In the spirit of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on Monday, Jan. 16, at 1
p.m., hundreds of people -- including those who have exhausted unemployment
benefits, as well as students, labor and community activists -- will gather in
Union Square NYC to commence an Occupation for Jobs....
|
International Longshore and Warehouse Union rank-and-file
members and the Occupy movements in Longview, Wash.; Portland, Ore.; Seattle;
Oakland, Calif.; Los Angeles and other West Coast cities are organizing to
blockade a grain ship arriving in Longview sometime in January. This ship is
supposed to be loaded by a non-ILWU crew with cargo from the new EGT export
terminal. The date won’t be known until three to four days in
advance....
|
ILWU rank and file, Occupies in Longview, Portland, Seattle, Oakland, LA and
other West Coast Occupies are organizing to blockade a grain ship coming to
Longview. This ship is intended to load scab cargo from the EGT terminal. The
date won't be known until 3-4 days in advance, but is anticipated to be
sometime in January....
|
The Labor Outreach Committee (LOC) of Occupy Wall Street is appealing
for your support for the nurses. Their struggle embodies many of the
core issues motivating the Occupy movement. They are up against
hospital CEOs who make millions in salaries, yet demand givebacks in
healthcare at a time when, like the rest of the 99%, nurses are
struggling with soaring living expenses....
|
The Occupy 4 Jobs network is celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day in New
York City with a direct action to demand jobs. The Jan. 16 event will begin at
1 p.m. at Union Square. “The MLK holiday is the perfect day to do this,” said Larry Holmes, a leading organizer of the Bail Out the People Movement, one of the founders of Occupy 4 Jobs. “What most people don’t know is that in the last months of his life, King was devoted to opening a struggle for everyone to have a decent-paying job.” In early 1968, before his April 4th assassination, King announced the Poor
People’s Campaign, which was to culminate in a March on Washington
demanding a $12 billion Economic Bill of Rights. The demands of the campaign
were jobs, income and housing. The Economic Bill of Rights guaranteed
employment to all and an annual income to those unable to work....
|
The police campaign to wipe out the Occupy Wall Street movement across the
country should drive home a truth that has long been experienced by oppressed
communities, workers on strike, fighters for civil rights, immigrant workers
and many others. The regime of capitalist democracy in the United States has a
violently repressive character — side-by-side with its controlled
“democratic” institutions....
|
Today, Occupy activists from Vancouver, Canada, to San
Diego, Calif., disrupted and shut down West Coast ports in solidarity with port
workers. Specifically, they embraced the port truckers’ struggle for
union recognition and efforts by the International Longshore Workers Union to
fight union-busting in Longview, Wash. They were also responding to federally
coordinated attacks on the Occupy movement across the country. Once again, the largest protests were in Oakland, Calif. Despite continuous and well-publicized attempts by Oakland city officials and the Port of Oakland to discredit the port shutdown campaign, the all-day protest was massive. It started at 5 a.m. at the West Oakland Bay Area Rapid Transit station, in the shadow of the Port of Oakland....
|
Battle lines have formed as the West Coast Occupy movements, from San Diego to Alaska, flex their collective muscle against the federally coordinated, brutal attacks targeting the Occupy movements across the country. They are organizing for blockades of West Coast ports on Dec. 12 in San Diego; Los Angeles/Long Beach; Port Hueneme, CA (central coast); Oakland; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Tacoma, Wash.; and possibly more. Solidarity actions have been called by OWS in New York and by Occupy movements inland locations, as well....
|
More than 2 million workers walked out for 24 hours on Nov. 30 in England, Scotland and Wales in an action the union leadership called the largest in at least 30 years. Some say it was the biggest since the 1926 general strike. The strikers closed two-thirds of the schools, picked up no garbage, forced the postponement of 6,000 nonessential operations in the hospitals and did this defying weeks of anti-strike propaganda....
|
The New York City Central Labor Council coordinated a Dec. 1 march for “Jobs and Economic Fairness” from Herald Square to Union Square in midtown Manhattan that drew 20,000 workers, according to the organizers. (www.nycclc.org) Unions in both the public and private sector participated, including many teachers and iron workers, with strong delegations from the United Federation of Teachers, the Professional Staff Congress, the New York State Nurses Association and many other unions....
|
Battle lines have formed as the West Coast Occupy movements, from San Diego to Alaska, flex their collective muscle against the federally coordinated, brutal attacks targeting the pro-Occupy Wall Street movements across the country. They are organizing for blockades of West Coast ports on Dec. 12 in San Diego; Los Angeles/Long Beach; Port Hueneme, Calif. (central coast); Oakland; Portland, Ore.; Seattle; Tacoma, Wash.; and possibly more. Solidarity actions have been called by OWS in New York and inland locations, as well....
|
Organizing is under way for a coordinated mass blockade of West Coast ports
on Monday, Dec. 12, targeting “Wall Street on the waterfront”
— the major companies owned and controlled by “the 1 percent”
ruling elite....
|
More than 3 million workers in Portugal walked off the job on Nov. 24 to
protest austerity measures and the takeover of their country’s economy by
the “Troika” — the European Union, the European Central Bank
and the International Monetary Fund. This has been done with the collusion of
the big Portuguese capitalists and their political parties....
|
“A social movement strong enough to force change.” That
statement could describe the Occupy Wall Street movement, but it refers to the
struggle of Mexican electrical workers and Mexican miners in Cananea, Sonora.
Leaders from these struggles will open the 8th U.S./Cuba/Mexico/Latin America
Labor Conference on Dec. 2 in Tijuana, Mexico....
|
The eyes of the world were on the city of Oakland and the massive people’s march to the nation’s fifth-largest container port on Nov. 2 for the General Strike and Day of Mass Action called by Occupy Oakland. Not only has the Occupy movement gone global, Occupy Oakland has become the focal point of the movement. In fact, on Oct. 28, Egyptian pro-democracy protesters marched from Tahrir Square to the U.S. Embassy in support of Occupy Oakland and against police brutality witnessed in Oakland on Oct. 25, and commonly experienced in Egypt....
|
Nov. 15 — As the political character of Occupy Wall Street has grown sharper, with its movement increasingly targeting foreclosures and union-busting, the ruling class made a decision: Cut off the movement at the head. After Occupy encampments in Portland, Denver, and Oakland were shut down, New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg ordered the New York Police Department to clear out Zuccotti Park — the site of Occupy Wall Street, which since Sept. 17 has spawned a worldwide movement against the ravages of capitalism. Police in riot gear went into Zuccotti Park at 1 a.m. on Nov. 15 and violently evicted protesters, with about 70 arrested at last count. The goal of Billionaire Bloomberg and his cohorts on Wall Street remains the same: to decapitate the movement. As protesters reentered the square, they did so under heavy police presence, with onerous rules such as no tents, sleeping bags, backpacks and so on. People with medical equipment were denied access....
|
This Dec. 2, 3 and 4 workers from the U.S., Cuba, Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela,
Argentina and other Latin American countries will analyze the global capitalist
crisis, its effects on workers throughout the hemisphere and with real examples
showing how to combat it. Three days of intensive classes and discussion --
Nov. 29, 30 and Dec. 1 , with teachers from Cuba's Lazaro Pena workers'
school -- will precede the conference....
|
On Tuesday, November 15 thousands of people were in the streets again to
respond to the brutal, coordinated police attack on the center of the Occupy
Wall Street movement - Zuccotti Park – at 1 am Tuesday morning. The mass
arrests and destruction came without warning or any provocation. When word went out of the police attack immediately supporters descended on the Wall Street
area of Manhattan. At Zuccotti Park, activists resisted the police destruction and theft of their personal belongings. There were beatings and 200 mass arrests.The media was illegally barred from the area during the police assault. Refusing to be intimidated, the movement quickly regrouped and mobilized on
Tuesday. Activist lawyers rushed into court for a temporary restraining order.
The city immediately appealed the order and not surprisingly the courts sided
with billionaire Bloomberg. The police and courts, just like the Pentagon,
defend the interests of the 1%. ...
|
...
|
A People’s Assembly held Nov. 5 at Hostos Community College in the South Bronx launched an exciting fightback program for jobs, against racism and for the rights of workers and poor people to unions, food, healthcare, and public education....
|
People’s Assembly Sat. Nov. 5 to be Live-Streamed from Hostos College,
12noon – ...
|
The scene was a perfect storm of organized chaos. Here
were the young and old, students and workers, immigrants and oppressed, all
addressing the failures of capitalism’s current worldwide crisis,
outlining the destructive forces of global banking systems and highlighting the
lack of communal values in a place that loves to cry patriotism....
|
On Tuesday, Oct. 25, a pre-dawn police raid tore up and destroyed the Occupy
Oakland camp. It was a war zone. More than 500 police from at least 12
jurisdictions took part in the paramilitary operation, arresting more than 130
by day’s end, beating many and sending one Iraqi war vet to the hospital
in critical condition....
|
Nov. 1 — Like a force of nature that astonishes everyone with its
power, Occupy Oakland has inspired bold actions by youth and workers across the
United States, electrifying the political climate and forcing city officials
and police authorities to constantly revise their plans for dealing with this
broad-based people’s movement....
|
On the day Verizon announced that its third-quarter profits had jumped to $1.38 billion, more than 2,000 members of the Communication Workers union, together with contingents from unions including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union, District Council 37; the United Auto Workers; the Teamsters union; and the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York held a vibrant, militant picket line in front of Verizon’s headquarters on Water Street on Oct. 21....
|
The People’s Assembly at Hostos College in the Bronx, N.Y., scheduled
for Saturday, Nov. 5, has the ingredients for a unifying moment, bringing
workers’ and communities’ struggles together with the mushrooming Occupy Wall Street movement. Outreach in the Bronx has focused on postal workers’ unions, parents’ associations and tenants’ groups. People are excited to know they will be encouraged to speak up for themselves as well as hear from others with the same problems....
|
Almost every major national labor union — except in the construction
trades — and the AFL-CIO have endorsed Occupy Wall Street. But more
important is that in major cities they have offered significant organizational,
financial and political support to this movement....
|
The first confrontation between the Occupation Wall Street demonstrators and
billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the New York cops ended in victory for...
|
Occupy Boston and the United National Antiwar Committee
rocked the city’s business district as 5,000 protesters marched on Oct.
15 with cries of “Whose streets? Our streets!” A contingent from
Steelworkers Local 8751 representing Boston school bus drivers led the march
from a union sound truck festooned with placards declaring “Wall Street =
War Street.” The truck was ringed by a steadfast security contingent from
Vets for Peace/Smedley Butler Brigade....
|
This Friday evening, Oct. 21, together with Occupy Wall Street, Verizon and Verizon Wireless workers will march to protest Verizon corporate greed. Please join us.
We will assemble at 140 West Street between 4 and 5 p.m., march east on Barclay Street and then down Broadway. We should arrive at Liberty Plaza around 5:30 p.m. and move on towards the Verizon Wireless store at about 6 p.m....
|
These are hard times. There doesn’t appear to be any respite coming soon. The political atmosphere has shifted in response to the greatest economic calamity since the Great Depression. This crisis, because of how the changes in technology, communication and production have made the world smaller, is global in its impact....
|
ost news published in the corporate media here about the problems in the
“eurozone” involve the threat of Greece declaring bankruptcy and
this spreading to Portugal and maybe even Spain and Italy....
|
...
|
During an interview with WOR radio on Sept. 16, New York City’s
billionaire mayor, Michael Bloomberg, stated that the conditions of high
employment in the U.S. could lead to social unrest on a par with what has
occurred throughout parts of North Africa, the Middle East, Britain, Spain,
Greece and elsewhere. His specific comment was, “You have a lot of kids
graduating college can’t find jobs. That’s what happened in Cairo.
That’s what happened in Madrid. You don’t want those kinds of riots here.”...
|
The vast majority of the people in the U.S. depend on wages to get by. Only
7 percent of those who work full-time are self-employed. Farmers, for example,
who a century ago made up almost half the population, now account for less than
1 percent. Vastly more people work for large corporations or retail chains than
have their own businesses....
|
President Barack Obama, facing formidable challenges to his re-election bid in 2012 as well as the potential further erosion of the Democratic Party base in the Senate and House of Representatives, unveiled the American Jobs Act during a special address to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 8. On Sept. 12 he announced the submission of a $447 billion proposal to Congress that is purportedly designed to create jobs amid the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s....
|
Some 15,000 children and thousands more adults will be cut off cash
assistance in Michigan on Oct. 1 due to draconian legislation adopted in the
state in recent months. These cuts were passed by the conservative state
Legislature and signed into law by Republican Gov. Rick Snyder....
|
In the largest U.S. strike in four years, 45,000 union members took to the picket lines from Massachusetts to Virginia on Aug. 7 after their contract with Verizon Communications expired. The courageous strikers, who belong to the Communication Workers union and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, refuse to go back to work until they have a decent contract....
|
In addition to the mass protests in Egypt, another arena for demanding
rights and fighting corruption has been Egypt’s independent trade union
movement. This movement expressed its solidarity with the demonstrators, and
added its clout to the struggle to bring down Hosni Mubarak five months
ago....
|
Whether or not a deal is reached in Washington on how to raise the debt
ceiling and avoid a government default, the workers and the oppressed have no
independent voice in the debate. The process gives them no choice but to accept
the result of venomous political warfare in the capitalist establishment....
|
At first glance it would seem that Athens, Ohio, and Athens, Greece, are worlds apart. Not only does language separate them, but more than 5,100 miles of land and ocean stand between them. The only thing they seem to have in common is a name....
|
On June 28, as the New York City Council was scheduled to vote on a pro-banker, anti-people budget deal, more than 100 residents of the “Bloombergville” encampment marched around City Hall. They had been sleeping on the sidewalk nearby for 16 days trying to stop Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s impending cuts....
|
The U.S. Supreme Court recently dealt a brutal blow to women workers employed by Wal-Mart. On June 20 the justices dismissed the Dukes v. Wal-Mart lawsuit, decreeing that these workers cannot sue their employers as a class for sex discrimination....
|
Greece’s left-wing labor confederation PAME held the third general
strike of 2011 on June 15, protesting the government’s newest plans to
cut another 6.4 billion euros from the already existing austerity budget. PAME,
which marched in 67 cities, represents about half the organized workers and has
led the workers’ struggle against the Troika....
|
Some 80,000 people marched down the streets to Syntagma Square in Athens,
Greece, on June 5 on the 12th straight day of protests emulating the uprising
of youth in Spain. In Greece organized struggles over the past 18 months have
also included general strikes led by the PAME labor confederation....
|
May 30 — Demonstrations and occupations against the capitalist crisis, austerity and mass unemployment continued into their third week across Spain, sending ripples across the rest of the continent as other young people and workers organized protests and encampments in solidarity with the revolt that ignited on May 15. It’s now called 15-M....
|
As a result of the ongoing people’s struggle in Wisconsin and worldwide support for it, a permanent injunction was issued by a Dane County judge May 26 that struck down the union-busting bill signed by Gov. Scott Walker on March 11....
|
As the Japanese economy reels from the combined effects of the recent
tsunami and human-made nuclear disaster, Japanese workers are facing increased
repression as they attempt to fight back against the economic effects of the
calamity and expose the nuclear industry for the danger it poses....
|
Drawing inspiration from the fighting spirit and determination of Tahrir
Square and the peoples of Egypt, Tunisia and the Middle East, the peoples of
Spain took the struggle against capitalist austerity, mass unemployment and the
conditions of the economic crisis to a new level this past week....
|
Since the beginning of the people’s upsurge in Wisconsin in early
February, the students and workers have resisted in numerous mass actions. One
of the most courageous of these was a student occupation at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee, which ended in the early morning hours of May 7 after the
students were evicted from their occupied space by the administration and
charged with “trespassing.”...
|
All out on May 12 in New York City! Join in a mass march on Wall Street to
say ‘Enough!’ to service cuts, job cuts, wage cuts and other
anti-worker, anti-union, anti-poor, anti-youth attacks. Wall Street has the
money. It’s time to stop budget cuts and make the bosses and bankers pay
up! March with New Yorkers Against the Budget Cuts, CUNY Mobilization Network,
Transport Workers Union, students, youth and many others. Gather at 4 p.m. at
the Bowling Green subway stop, across from 2 Broadway....
|
International Workers’ Day — May Day — was honored throughout the U.S. on May 1 with marches demanding legalization for immigrants and an end to union busting and attacks on workers, including vicious anti-immigrant and anti-worker legislation enacted or under consideration in several states....
|
In one of the biggest marches and rallies in Wisconsin history, more than 100,000 people participated in this year’s May Day in Milwaukee....
|
The workers’ movement in the United States took a significant step forward this May Day when labor and immigrant organizations in New York City came together after a march and closed the day by exchanging speakers under the banner “May Day Is Workers’ Day.”...
|
Union leaders from the center of the struggles in Wisconsin and California
spoke at a news conference April 29 in New York’s Union Square to help
build for what they hope will be a massive May Day march this year....
|
...
|
...
|
In a
show of unity, May 1st Coalition members joined with union members from LIUNA,
SEIU Local 1199, 32BJ, LACLAA and others at City Hall to announce that speakers
from the Foley Square Coalition & May 1st would be sharing speakers and
supporting each others activities. The Union Square organizers will be leaving
14th St. earlier than usual to join the Foley Square rally in a closing unity
rally....
|
he increased attacks on both immigrant and non-immigrant workers show the
need for the most united, militant action possible on May Day in the U.S.
May Day originated in the U.S. from the struggle of immigrants and other
workers who fought and died for the eight-hour workday in 1886 – for the
right of all workers to a decent life....
|
Leaders From Immigrant Workers Organizations and Unions Will Announce May
Day Plans Tomorrow at City Hall Press Conference...
|
...
|
Mobilize! That is the way the San Francisco Labor Council is answering the Pacific Maritime Association’s attack on the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10. In a unanimous resolution, the SFLC called for mass action at the PMA’s San Francisco headquarters on April 25 and established a broad defense committee for the union and its members....
|
...
|
The antiwar movement is back on the streets. Thousands marched on April 9 in
New York and April 10 in San Francisco. These demonstrations represented an important step forward for the United National Antiwar Committee and the antiwar movement as a whole. The new antiwar movement needs to oppose the US foreign wars but also defend the domestic victims of the "war on terror," the Muslims who are being attacked. It must connect the dots between the money spent on war and the attacks on unions and cuts to education and needed programs. This is what these demonstrations on April 9 and 10 did....
|
The ongoing people’s struggle in Wisconsin won a victory in the April 5
elections when independent Wisconsin Supreme Court Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg won
a seat in the Wisconsin Supreme Court over Justice David Prosser, a Republican
conservative. It was announced on April 5 that Kloppenburg had won the election
by a few hundred votes....
|
And the beat goes on. Right-wing, pro-corporate politicians continue their
attacks on working and poor people across the country. At the same time, they
are escalating their war on women’s rights and health care, but not
without resistance....
|
On April 4th longshore workers joined tens of thousands of workers in more
than 1000 cities and towns across the country. They heeded the call of the
AFL-CIO for 'no business as usual' to show support for embattled
Wisconsin workers on the anniversary of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.'s assassination as he supported Memphis, Tenn. sanitation workers'
strike for collective bargaining and dignity forty-three years ago....
|
After demonstrating against U.S. wars abroad, join the May 1st Coalition for Worker & Immigrant Rights in protesting the war at home!...
|
The union movement has called for “We Are
One” actions across the country to mark this important
anniversary and to call for solidarity with Wisconsin workers and the struggle
for justice every where. Thousands of actions both big and small are
being called not only by the unions but by community and student groups who are
joining on this day....
|
he major national Antiwar Rallies in NYC
at Union Square, on Saturday, April 9 and in San Francisco on Sunday, April 10
are just 2 weeks away. Momentum is building based on the urgency of
responding to the new attacks in Libya, no end to the U.S. wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan, more attacks and threats to Gaza, ugly attacks on
Muslims, new attacks on unions and collective bargaining and a new rounds of
cutbacks of every possible social program, particularly hitting the Black and
immigrant communities and the unemployed....
|
The passage of right-wing Gov. Scott Walker’s union-busting bill
should not be the end of the story in Wisconsin. It should be the beginning of
a new phase of escalated struggle by the unions, the community and students to
overturn this illegal denial of workers’ rights. Walker and the right-wing Republican state legislative group are outright tools of the banks, the bondholders and corporations that are rolling in money
and still putting their profits before union rights and people’s
needs. There are many grounds on which to base a mass fightback to overturn this bill: It is illegal under international law; it was passed illegally; it denies
fundamental rights of unions and all workers, and it attacks communities and
students....
|
At a meeting at Hostos College on Saturday, March 5, some 200 labor, student
and community activists gave a ringing endorsement for a large-scale
mobilization to rally at City Hall and march to Wall Street on March 24. The
coalition includes numerous public sector unions, the CUNY Mobilization
Network, the South Bronx Community Congress, the Freedom Party, the Coalition
for Public Education, and the Bail Out the People Movement....
|
Wisconsin private sector and public workers in the tens of thousands thrust
their fight against a union-busting law into news front pages. More than two
years ago, the Mexican Electrical Union - SME were robbed of their collective
bargaining rights. Their union was declared illegal. The pro-big business
Mexican government forced 44,000 workers out of their jobs at Mexico's
second largest electrical power distributor, Luz y Fuerza (Central Light and
Power), jeopardizing not only the workers but the income of pensioners. Find
out how their struggle is like the one faced in the U.S. from the workers on
the front lines in Mexico and from a Cuban representative of the World
Federation of Trade Unions who will present some of the alternatives already in
process in the Americas. An injury to one is an injury to all. There are no
borders in the workers struggle against capitalism. Come out to learn about our
common interests and struggles and the need for mutual solidarity....
|
...
|
Senate Republicans in Wisconsin attempted the nuclear option! In a
final show of disregard for the sentiments of the majority of the people they
severed the union-busting provisions from the budgetary bill. This move allowed them to vote without a quorum on the union busting part alone. Last night they rammed this through the Senate. Thursday it will come before the Assembly. But not without resistance, thousands of people have already refilled the Capitol bringing with them sleeping bags, drums and making plans to stay.
The Wisconsin AFL-CIO and many others have put out an emergency call to come to Madison this morning. Protests are schedule this whole week and weekend. On Saturday, farmers are planning to drive their tractors to Madison to join union members. Milwaukee high school students are marching 80 miles to the Capitol....
|
The great struggle of the Wisconsin public workers has galvanized union
solidarity on a national level not seen since 1981. That was when the AFL-CIO
organized the Solidarity Day demonstration of half a million workers in
Washington, D.C., after President Ronald Reagan had fired 18,000 air traffic
controllers, members of the PATCO union, and banned them from federal
employment for life....
|
The movement to stop Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget
repair bill” continues to draw mass support nationally and
internationally. The resistance has blossomed into a statewide people’s
rebellion with rallies, demonstrations, candlelight vigils and other protest
actions all focused on “kill the bill.”...
|
STOP THE ATTACKS ON WORKING FAMILIES, THE ORGANIZED & UNORGANIZED, AND ALL WORKING PEOPLE AROUND THE GLOBE!...
|
In a back-and-forth struggle where the final result has still not been determined, the mass mobilization to stop Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s aggressive assault on workers is growing stronger as the confrontation continues. On March 1, as Gov. Walker delivers his cutback budget speech, nearly 100 young protesters still occupy the state Capitol. Thousands continue to protest
outside. Last night we saw youth in sleeping bags start a “Walkerville” outside the Capitol, reminiscent of the “Hoovervilles” named after Herbert Hoover, the U.S. president who presided over the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression...
|
The Al-Mahalla strike is part of the spate of industrial unrest that has rocked the country in the midst and aftermath of the 25 January revolution. Policemen, bank employees, workers at the Helwan Coke Company, in military production, cement, iron and steel and at the Suez Canal all struck for higher wages and improved working conditions, demanding an end to corruption in the workplace....
|
|
For 12 straight days peaceful protesters: high school and college students,
families with children, workers from all of the unions including teachers,
state workers, nurses and firefighters have continued a 24 hour presence at the
Capitol....
|
The International Action Center urges solidarity with the resistance
struggles shaking dictatorships throughout the Arab World....
|
The heroic occupation of the Wisconsin state Capitol in Madison has electrified the entire U.S. labor movement, which has suffered decades-long attacks in the form of devastating layoffs; plant closings; loss of wages, health care benefits, pensions and much more.Now right-wing, Tea Party-supported governors like Scott Walker in Wisconsin – on behalf of big business and Wall Street – are attempting to decimate the right of all workers to unionize with reactionary legislation like the “budget repair bill” that would deny workers the basic right to collective bargaining....
|
Inside the state Capitol building in Madison, Wis., the halls normally filled with politicians and corporate lobbyists are now occupied by thousands of people. Banners and posters with messages of solidarity and slogans denouncing Gov. Walker's attack on the public sector hang from every wall....
|
“Now is the time. We can't let this die because we are at ground
zero and what happens here affects the rest of the world. We have to be strong.
A united front,” said Mahlon Mitchell of the Professional Firefighters of
Wisconsin at the massive afternoon rally at the state Capitol Feb. 19. Mitchell
became the first African-American president of the PFW on Jan. 12. On Feb. 19 the biggest demonstration yet, with an estimated crowd of
100,000, filled the grounds outside the state Capitol and continued the sit-in.
A massive roving picket line with all sectors of the working class -- union and
non-union workers, the unemployed, students, people of color, immigrants, and
the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer community -- marched on the
streets for the entire day accompanied by drumming, chanting, dancing and
singing....
|
Since Feb. 14, tens of thousands of students, workers and other community members have liberated the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison in response to Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair” bill, which would eliminate collective bargaining rights for 175,000 public sector union workers statewide. Gilbert Johnson, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 82 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, told this reporter: “We’re repulsed by the efforts of the current administration to strip us of our rights and dignity. The increasing protests statewide, and especially at the state Capitol, are exactly what’s needed to kill Gov. Walker’s bill, which is a union-busting and anti-worker attack. The resistance by the people of Wisconsin is inspiring and instilling hope in poor and working people all over the country. We need a constant stream of people going to the Capitol to stop this bill and for all to come out to the emergency rally Thursday.”...
|
The Bail Out the People Movement is calling for nationally coordinated actions on Friday, February 18 and Saturday, February 19 in support of Wisconsin workers and students who have been occupying the state Capitol for the past four days. Activists involved in the occupation are enormously excited about the idea of coordinated national actions of support....
|
Thousands of Wisconsin public workers, students and teachers have been occupying the state Capitol for four days. In Capitol Square 50,000 workers have protested Gov. Scott Walker’s attempt to enact legislation ("Budget Repair Bill") that would wipe out the right of public workers to have a union, and would make collective bargaining illegal. Across Wisconsin schools and universities have been shut down by teachers, students and communities defending their right to education. Wisconsin workers and students are standing up for the rights of workers everywhere....
|
The Egyptian military would like to put the genie of the
Egyptian Revolution back in the bottle. But it won’t go back. The
so-called “orderly transition” — backed by the Obama
administration, NATO and the Egyptian ruling class — has the immediate
tactical goal of pushing the masses of people off the streets and off the stage
of history....
|
On behalf of the banks, the corporations and the Pentagon, Wisconsin Gov.
Scott Walker has declared all-out war on unions and their allies.
Walker’s “budget repair bill” proposal, which he unveiled at
a state Capitol press conference on Feb. 11, proposes to virtually eliminate
collective bargaining for approximately 175,000 public-sector union members.
Walker has submitted his proposal to the Wisconsin Legislature with the
directive that he wants his bill passed in the Assembly and the Senate by Feb.
17. In a swift response, unions and their allies across the state are mobilizing
to descend upon the Capitol in Madison this week with two major rallies planned
for Feb. 15 and 16. Numerous other protest actions by labor-community-student
organizations are ongoing across the state, including two major actions on Feb.
14: a march and rally to the Capitol building led by the Teaching Assistants
Association-AFT and a rally at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee led by the
Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association-AFT Local 2169 and AFSCME....
|
On September 24, 2010 the FBI, on orders from U.S. Attorney Patrick
Fitzgerald, raided seven Chicago and Minneapolis homes of well-known anti-war
and international solidarity activists. Their ranks included a number of
trade unionists....
|
The
greatest analysts of human society described real revolutions
as “festivals of the masses.” We see then that the 18 days
that overturned the Hosni Mubarak dictatorship is one of the
greatest revolutions in the history of humanity. Never before
have so many in such a condensed period of time become the
actors and writers of their own history. We congratulate the
people of Egypt for their tremendous victory over a tyrant who
for 30 years had the support of the “great powers” of the
European Union and especially of the United States until the
final moments of his reign....
|
The International Action Center joins with the people of Egypt and the world in
celebrating the stunning triumph of people's power and mass action in
Egypt. The greatest analysts of human society described real revolutions as
“festivals of the masses.” We see then that the 18 days that
overturned the Hosni Mubarak dictatorship is one of the greatest revolutions in
the history of humanity. Never before have so many in such a condensed period
of time become the actors and writers of their own history. We congratulate the
people of Egypt for their tremendous victory over a tyrant who for 30 years had
the support of the “great powers” of the European Union and
especially of the United States until the final moments of his reign....
|
...
|
The Egyptian revolt against the U.S.-backed Hosni Mubarak regime has inspired many workers and oppressed people throughout the world. Mass solidarity demonstrations have taken place to show support for Egypt’s popular uprising. Here are brief reports on just a few notable actions, most of them on Feb. 5 or 6....
|
Feb. 9 reports from Cairo say there are growing numbers of Egyptian workers who have gone out on strike all over the country, as the struggle to oust the despised, U.S.-backed Mubarak regime intensifies....
|
Feb. 8 — Hosni Mubarak’s military-police regime and its creators in Washington are waging a war of attrition to wear down the newly emerging Egyptian revolution. But the people show no signs of backing down. More than a million anti-government demonstrators today once again filled Liberation Square. Despite police-agent attacks, gradual escalation of pressure from the military and slanderous campaigns against the protesters on Egyptian state television, all reports are that masses of people have flooded into central Cairo to demand the immediate ouster of Mubarak....
|
Bloomberg and Cuomo are leading attacks on unionized workers, especially in the public sector. They want to cut pension and lay off teachers and other civil servants. These attacks hurt all workers...
|
The revolutionary upheaval in Egypt has brought millions of workers, youth
and professionals into the streets to demand the removal of the U.S.-backed
regime of Hosni Mubarak. The potential looms for a total collapse of
Washington’s foreign policy in the region....
|
Jan. 24 — Tunisia’s workers and youth have continued mass demonstrations and strikes aimed at removing the neocolonial regime and replacing it with a representative government of national unity....
|
The Pima County Tea Party Patriots are holding a rally Jan. 28 in Tucson, Ariz., to launch a campaign to oust County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. The Tea Party and right-wingers all over the country have opened a campaign of vilification against Dupnik because he pointed the finger at the ultraright in his press conference on the day of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, an attack that claimed six lives....
|
The Martin Luther King Day protest focuses on
Woodlawn management’s announced plans to outsource 23 of the remaining 38
union jobs at Woodlawn, as an act of vengeance against the workers for choosing
a fighting union to represent them. Woodlawn management told the union it has
contracted with the Brickman group, a Westchester-based firm that exploits
immigrant labor, underpaying them and then abandoning them when they stand up
and ask questions....
|
A powerful storm system dumped heavy snow from the Carolinas to Canada on the U.S. East Coast during 36 hours starting Dec. 26. New York and the rest of the Northeast took the brunt of the blizzard, with snowfall totals measuring from 20 to 32 inches. The follow-up to this storm has raised the stakes as Wall Street and the banks are on the attack against unionized public service workers and insist on eliminating jobs....
|
The Bail Out the People Movement took to the streets
yesterday in the wake of the storm crisis that paralyzed the city....
|
Tens of thousands of workers in Greece took to the streets Dec. 15 to
protest the drastic austerity measures the Greek government has imposed on
them, under pressure from the banks that loaned money to cover its financial
crisis....
|
For the seventh consecutive year, union leaders, social movement activists
and socialists from many countries in the Western Hemisphere came together in
this dynamic border city on the first weekend in December for intense
discussions. They focused on the global crisis of the imperialist system, its
increasing belligerence and its devastating attacks on the living conditions of
the international working class....
|
Many participants believed the real choice humanity faces is between increased misery and wars on one side and the struggle for a socialist future on the other. The capitalist collapse and persistent decline for the working class make this choice ever more urgent....
|
A recent decision by the Federal Reserve to provide the bankers another $600
billion in bailout funds demonstrates the government’s continuing
failure, even under Democratic Party leadership, to provide any relief for
working people and the oppressed....
|
From Dec. 3 to 5 in Tijuana, Mexico — just minutes from the San Diego,
Calif., airport — a cross-section of workers from Latin America who are
confronting the global crisis will meet with U.S. workers grappling with
devastating challenges. Building on six previous conferences, the
meeting’s aim is to grow the unity of the working class in the Americas
and increase its influence — from the tip of Chile to Alaska — by
sharing problems but also examining strategies to fight and win....
|
ll are well-known and respected activists who, according to FBI
spokespersons, were targeted because of their role in seeking justice for
workers and other oppressed peoples throughout the world. In addition to having
their homes invaded, they were subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury. They
have not been arrested or charged with any crime....
|
Clarence Thomas, long-time ILWU Local 10 member and labor activist who
co-chaired the rally with Jack Heyman, another ILWU dockworker, proudly
announced, “All of the Bay Area ports are shut down today in honor of the
fight for justice for Oscar Grant.”...
|
Cuban leaders of the Confederation of Cuban Worker s (CTC) will visit Tijuana,
Mexico, a border city 15 minutes south of downtown San Diego and the
San Diego Airport - U.S./Mexico border. This conference will give people
from North America (the United States, Canada and Mexico) the opportunity to
hear first hand from the Latinoamerican and Caribbean workers. Also, you will
hear from Union leaders of Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Haiti,
Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Brazil, El Salvador, Puerto Rico and the
U.S. discussing the social and labor movements in the Americas.
and coordinators of Encuentro Sindical Nuestra America have also been
invited. ESNA is a new development that involves the largest and most militant
labor federations throughout Latin America.
...
|
DeAsia Bronaugh, a Black high school student, was acquitted on all charges on Oct. 7 in Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court....
|
At the rally on Saturday, Oct. 2, for jobs,peace and equality, many critical issues will be raised by the International Action Center and Bail Out the People Movement and other organizations, such as the need for a real WPA jobs program. However in the wake of the FBI raids and Grand Jury subpoenas against activists last week, the IAC and BOPM want to make sure that there is very visible opposition to FBI repression, with the understanding that the attack on these activists is an attack on all who are fighting against war, racism and for economic and social justice....
|
The thousands who united on Sept. 11 to say no to the Tea Party and its
racist allies have given a new impetus to the anti-racist and workers’
struggle. They faced a right-wing opponent with a month’s head start, big
funding and enormous media publicity. But they stood strong to defend their
Muslim sisters and brothers and confront the hate-mongers, resisting pressure
from the government and corporate media. In the end, they outnumbered and
out-shouted the elements who follow Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich and their ilk.
Even the rightist New York Post had to admit that the anti-racists
out-organized the right-wing gang....
|
The official unemployment rate, which was 9.5 percent in July, has no
credibility. It is classic “political spin” intended to fill
workers’ heads with hope that a recovery is right around the corner....
|
New York — Chants of “We want jobs!” rang out at the corner of Wall and Broad streets in the shadow of the Stock Exchange at noon on Aug. 12 as the “99ers” made their first appearance in struggle in the streets....
|
he economic crisis has hit the workers in Michigan, a state of heavy industry, especially hard, and has also brought with it an intensified struggle against racism. These brief reports cover three different areas of the state....
|
An energetic protest demanding jobs in Harlem, N.Y., and beyond hit several targets on Aug. 6. Community leaders and activists began their action at North General Hospital — where workers, represented by Service Employees Local 1199, were given only four days’ notice that the entire hospital would be shut down. Describing the closing of the hospital as an attack on the whole community, union members declared their struggle to be not just a fight for jobs, but also a fight to preserve affordable health care in Harlem....
|
...
|
On July 29 the racist, anti-immigrant law SB1070 went into effect in
Arizona. On July 28, federal judge Susan Bolton temporarily blocked the worst
parts of the law from being implemented. Nonetheless, July 29 was a day filled
with nonstop protests and bold actions as people took to the streets to show
their outrage at this bigoted attack against immigrants and workers....
|
...
|
Despite a continuous onslaught of attacks against immigrant workers,
resistance and opposition continue to grow in the U.S. — not only against
Arizona’s Senate Bill 1070, but also against the entire campaign to
criminalize and drive workers born outside this country underground....
|
Workers across Europe — specifically in Greece, Portugal, France,
Spain and Italy in the West and Romania in the East — have begun to
resist the capitalists’ relentless assault on their wages, benefits,
social services and secure existence....
|
Israel and its apologists bristle when Israel is called an apartheid state.
Most loudly shouting, “Israeli apartheid,” however, are those who
know the best — the workers of South Africa, who suffered the most under
South African apartheid. South African trade unions have denounced the siege of
Gaza and the apartheid wall on the West Bank, and have urged forward the
boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign (BDS)....
|
At 12:35 a.m. on May 16, more than 20 Detroit police officers staged a raid
at a two-family dwelling on the east side where they said a warrant was to be
served for a suspect in a recent murder case. The police threw a flash bomb
through the front window of the frame house. It caused a fire in the bed where
7-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones was sleeping alongside her grandmother,
Mertilla Jones....
|
|
|
After four weeks on the picket line, 1,500 nurses and allied professional
workers at Temple University Hospital forced management to back down on
contract proposals that demanded severe concessions from the workers. The
nurses’ victory in this confrontation strikes a blow for all workers who
face concessions in upcoming contracts....
|
In Nepal, Honduras, Greece and elsewhere around the world, this year’s
May Day actions went far beyond the traditional workers’ holiday by
opening major struggles over decisive policies and in some cases over questions
of power....
|
It was a significant event that not even the big-business-owned press could
ignore, hard as they wanted to do. May Day 2010 in the United States was the
largest national outpouring of protests since the May Day Immigrant Uprising of
2006, when millions of people, the great majority of Latin American and
Caribbean origin, took to the streets against the reactionary Sensenbrenner
bill that denied full immigrant rights....
|
Tens of thousands of people rallied, chanted and rocked to Hip Hop performers and other artists and orators for more than three hours in Union Square today before marching two miles to the federal buildings in downtown Manhattan. This year’s May Day action focused on combating the recently passed Arizona anti-immigrant law and demanding legalization of all undocumented workers in the U.S. and their families....
|
This week nationwide press conferences are being held in various
cities by leading coalitions in the immigrant rights movement to collectively
denounce attempts to criminalize immigrants, from the recent bill in Arizona to
the Schumer plan. Included in the media events are the May 1st Coalition in
Tucson, Arizona; the May 1st Coalition in New York, New York; the Miami May Day
Coalition in Miami, Florida; and here in Los Angeles the Southern California
Immigration Coalition (SCIC)....
|
On Saturday May 1, 2010, a diverse coalition of immigrant rights advocates,
community and union leaders, artists and youth-based community organizations
will gather in Union Square at midday for a rally, march and Hip Hop concert in
support of immigrant and worker rights. In light of legislation passed in
Arizona last week, the Union Square event will emphasize condemning this
racially charged legislation that will terrorize not only immigrants but all
communities of color....
|
Seventy-five years ago, Pres. Roosevelt signed the executive order
establishing the Works Projects Administration, the biggest public jobs program
in U.S. history. Join unemployed people, trade unionists, community and youth
activists and organizations from all over the country on Saturday, May 8 in
Washington, D.C. to call for a real jobs program for the 30 million unemployed
and underemployed people in the U.S. today....
|
In 2006, May Day was revived in the U.S., the country of its origin, as a result of the upsurge of immigrant workers. This was a great step forward for the workers' struggle....
|
The strike at Temple University Hospital in north Philadelphia that began March 31 is heading into its third week. Hospital administrators are demonstrating their lack of concern over patient safety and are ready to spend whatever it takes to break the union representing more than 1,500 nurses and professional/technical staff....
|
The PASNAP members of the Temple University Nurses and Healthcare Professionals remain strong in continuing their strike, begun March 31, against Temple University Hospital. Members remain committed to improving patient safety and raising the bar on union rights....
|
A visit of the “Tea Party Express” to cities in the Midwest
— a region of the country that has been most devastated by the economic
crisis of capitalism — did not go unchallenged. Rather, activists and
community members confronted them at several stops to denounce the right-wing
attempt to divide working and oppressed people and to show that the racist,
sexist, anti-lesbian-gay-bi-trans, anti-immigrant, corporate-funded Tea Party
does not speak for working people....
|
The corporate media may give it a different spin, but for
Palin and Wall Street’s Tea Party, Boston was a bust....
|
On April 3, day four of their continued effort to win a fair contract,
striking nurses from Temple University Hospital brought their case to the
doorstep of a luxury condominium in Rittenhouse Square — the home of
Temple University President Ann Weaver Hart. If Hart didn’t get the
message, her neighbors and visitors in the park clearly heard it....
|
While a group of workers held an 18-day occupation at Vestas wind turbine
plant on Great Britain’s Isle of Wight in July, other Vestas workers and
their supporters erected an encampment outside the plant. On Nov. 27 this tent
community — which after four months included such comforts as a kitchen,
showers, furniture and a solar-powered laptop/cell phone charging station!
— was disbanded when Vestas obtained a court eviction order. Campers,
however, were hardly demoralized....
|
Southern California, Occupied México- On Friday and Saturday March 26 and
27, the International Action Center (IAC) and Unión del Barrio hosted a
National Labor Tour coordinated by the US/Cuba Labor Exchange to Southern
California. The purpose of the tour was two fold; 1) to bring together workers
in the US with those from Latin America to discuss the current social and
political problems arising from US Economic Trade Policies (Free Trade
Agreements), and 2) to build support for the Bolivarian Alternative for Nuestra
América (ALBA) the social and economic integration program for continental
unity....
|
|
Join unemployed people, youth, labor and community activists from all over the
country in Washington D.C. on May 8 to tell the government that today’s
jobless crisis is as bad as it was 75 years ago — when the unemployed
demanded and won a public jobs program....
|
Tens of millions of people in this country were hoping to be delivered from
the clutches of the ruthless profiteers who control the health care system and
were hoping for universal health care. But the very opposite has happened....
|
On March 21 a multitude of immigrants and their supporters amassed in the
largest demonstration for immigrant rights in Washington, D.C., in decades, if
not ever....
|
On March 21, tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people will be demonstrating for immigrant rights in Washington, D.C....
|
This year’s May Day is more important than ever as the economic and
financial crisis continues to strike a heavy blow on workers from the U.S. and
around the world. A recovery with no jobs is a recovery solely for the
multinational corporations, who are raking in record profits as the people face
increasing poverty, joblessness, homelessness, disease and death. The escalation of war abroad in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and the racist,
ruthless military occupation of Haiti demand our response....
|
On March 4 more than 100 demonstrations were organized in 33 states
against the devastating cuts, layoffs and tuition hikes as part of the National
Day of Action to Defend Education, including campuses such as the University of
Maryland and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The following reports
are examples of some of these significant protests, which are signs pointing to
the potential of a revitalized national youth and student fight-back movement
reminiscent of the 1960s....
|
The year is 2010. Yet discrimination against and exploitation of the workers who grow and harvest our food supply continues today and in its vilest forms — against immigrants and women....
|
This year’s May Day is more important than ever as the economic and financial crisis continues to strike a heavy blow on workers from the U.S. and around the world. A recovery with no jobs is a recovery solely for the multinational corporations, who are raking in record profits as the people face increasing poverty, joblessness, homelessness, disease and death....
|
Since the 1980s, militarists in Honduras
have trained paramilitary forces to torture and murder labor unionists and
other activists to prevent the people from exercising their basic right to
resist exploitation and oppression....
|
...the Open Letter supports the growing international campaign for Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, by calling on trade unionists in
the United States to Divest from State of Israel Bonds, support workers'
refusal to handle Israeli cargo, break ties with the racist Histadrut, and
oppose U.S. military and economic aid for Israel....
|
100s of billions are being spent on imperialist wars and occupations in
Afghanistan and Iraq, but as Martin Luther King pointed out, the bombs also
fall on poor communities in the U.S in the form of deepening poverty. This is
true across the country, but especially true in California - slammed by the
twin crises of skyrocketing unemployment and a resulting state budget crisis
that is prompting deep cuts in badly needed services. Students at UC campuses
are fighting to reverse a whopping 32% increase in tuition, home foreclosures
are still on the rise, and communities of homeless people are cropping up in
rural areas and in cities across the state. The media keeps calling it
recovery, but the jobs are just not coming back....
|
On December 3rd, 2009, in New York City the Business Council for International
Understanding (BCIU) is presenting Vale CEO Roger Agnelli with its Global
Citizenship Award. Agnelli isn’t a ‘good citizen.’ Under his
watch Vale has waged an all out war on workers all over the world....
|
Recently, at three General Motors and Ford plants in the U.S. and Canada, production was temporarily brought to a standstill. This time, however, the cause was not sagging car sales but an event halfway around the world....
|
Why is Bloomberg, the 8th richest man in the U.S.,
spending $100 million to buy this election? Yes he’s arrogant and enjoys
controlling the lives of 9 million people in NYC....
|
Stella D’Oro, owned by the vulture private equity company Brynwood
Partners, closed its Bronx, N.Y., biscuit plant and fired 136 workers.
Management refused to pay the full amount of severance and other benefits to
the workers although their union contract spells it out explicitly. Many of the
workers have over 30 years of service....
|
On Oct. 3, more than 200 people attended a conference in Chicago on the
deepening economic crisis in the United States. The event, whose theme was
“They Say Cut Back, We Say Fight Back,” was held at the Teamster
City building on the city’s West Side....
|
Tomorrow morning, Brynwood Partners, the Union busting company that brought
Stella D’Oro, is sending trucks to the plant in the Bronx to remove
machinery. The workers are asking supporters to join them in an emergency
protest against the removal of the machinery....
|
The tragic death of Mr. Roy George, Vice-president of Pricol Ltd., Coimbatore on 22 September 2009 occurred, as you are aware, against a background of deeply disturbing actions of management of Pricol Ltd Coimbatore. Not only has the company continually and openly flouted labour laws, Supreme Court directions, Chennai High Court directions, orders of the Government of Tamil Nadu, issued on 29th June 2009 that the demands of the workers are met, and the directions of the Labour Department of Government of Tamil Nadu, but it has continued to victimise and harass the workers. It has also pressurised and blackmailed them to try to force them to leave their union, the AICCTU. The workers however have refused to leave their union and have continued to struggle through a variety of peaceful and democratic means....
|
ouncil Member Tony Avella will hold a press conference with Stella D’Oro workers, Ms. Joyce Alston, President of the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM) Local 50, and many other union leaders and representatives to urge the mayor to personally intervene to prevent the proposed closure of the 77 year old Stella D’Oro bakery in the Bronx,......
|
Over a thousand people gathered in Arsenal Park in Pittsburgh to resist the G-20 countries meeting in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center downtown. Young activists representing struggles against racism, gentrification, imperialist wars, gender oppression and environmental destruction gathered together in an effort coordinated by the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project. ...
|
More than 1,000 protesters marched through the streets here on Sept. 20 demanding a real jobs program, like the public works program the Roosevelt administration enacted during the Great Depression of the 1930s.
It was the first demonstration related to the G-20 summit, a gathering of Treasury officials and central bankers from 20 countries that is to take place in the city later in the week. The goal of the G-20 is to protect bank profits. ...
|
...
|
As we write, caravans are already on the road to Pittsburgh, some
from as far away as California and Florida. Over the next few days, community
organizers, activists, students, veterans, unemployed people and trade
unionists will be arriving in Pittsburgh for the March for Jobs and Tent City.
As the G20 assembles to discuss the global financial crisis, this broad
coalition of people across the U.S. is building for this major protest to
ensure that the voiceless are heard. This will be a week-long effort, starting
on on Sunday, September 20 with a March for Jobs, and continuing with the Tent
City which will last through Friday....
|
Chanting, “Whose factory? Our factory!” a strong contingent of
Stella D’Oro workers and hundreds of supporters transformed the annual
New York City Labor Day celebration on Sept. 12 into a militant march.
“Keep Stella D’Oro in the Bronx!” resonated with thousands of
parading working-class rank-and-file union members. Wave upon wave of workers
chanted and raised fists in solidarity as they passed by the Stella D’Oro
contingent, which stopped at 70th Street and Fifth Avenue. Spirits were
lifted....
|
Over the next few days, community organizers, activists, students, veterans,
unemployed people and trade unionists will be arriving in Pittsburgh for the
March for Jobs and Tent City.? As the G20 assembles to discuss the global
financial crisis, this broad coalition of people across the U.S. is building
for this major protest to ensure that the voiceless are heard. This will be a
week-long effort, starting on on Sunday, September 20 with a March for Jobs,
and continuing with the Tent City which will last through Friday....
|
As the G-20 summit prepares to descend upon Pittsburgh, the city has been
thrust into the spotlight and is being highlighted for its "commitment to
employing new and green technology to further economic recovery and
development". It has been and is being denoted as the city that got it right,
where pollution has been eroded, the rivers cleaned and the jobs in industry
have thoroughly been replaced....
|
Although providing transportation for especially unemployed workers across the country is an expensive venture, we must make it happen. Why? A delegation of participants who traveled great lengths and made stops along the way to highlight California's growing jobless and homeless plight is decisive. California's economy and its worsening trend has become a crystal ball showing the bleak future for working people in the entire nation and an example of how politicians refuse to address the needs of working and poor people and instead cater to the needs of the super rich monopoly banks and corporations. Buses and caravans to Pittsburgh would say in a loud clear voice:...
|
"Fight or Starve" read the headlines of a leaflet being distributed by the Unemployed Council members in 1933. Flash forwards 76 years and it?s Labor Day 2009. A year ago the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a worldwide melt down of the banking system and the biggest world economic crisis since the 1930s. One year later, after more than 13 trillion dollars of help from the government, they say Wall Street is okay. As finance ministers prepare for the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh this month, the spin is that the recovery is here or near and that U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke saved the country and the planet from a second great depression....
|
...
|
...
|
United Steel Workers Union and United Electrical Workers have endorsed and are mobilizing....
|
Both the United Steel Workers and the United Electrical workers unions have endorsed the March for Jobs in Pittsburgh, September 20....
|
It's a group of Treasury officials and central bankers from 20 countries, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Its goal is to protect bank profits, whatever it costs the people of the world....
|
December, 4, 5 and 6,/ Diciembre 4,5 y 6, 2009.
¡La lucha obrera no tiene fronteras! The workers’struggle has no borders!Uniting America's Working Class and Increasing its Influence...
|
BEFORE THE G-20 SUMMIT, A CALL TO JOIN A NATIONAL MARCH FOR JOBS. The Unemployed, the Homeless, the Hungry & the Poor must no longer be INVISIBLE & SILENT.
IN PITTSBURGH SUNDAY, SEPT. 20. 2009. Tent City on the Hill - Sept. 20-25. Revive Dr. King's dream of a movement for a right to a job. If you don't have a job, fight to get one - if you have one -- fight to keep it....
|
Whereas, there is no recovery in sight from the current economic crisis.
Although government measures have enabled Wall Street to pocket hundreds of
billions of taxpayer dollars, still unemployment, foreclosures and poverty
continue to soar...
|
If the U.S. government was interested in supporting democracy or in building
respect for the will of the people in a democratic election, it should have
started by respecting the outcome of the 2006 Palestinian election. The
Palestinian people voted in large numbers, electing Hamas candidates to
parliament with large enough votes to form the Palestinian government. In Gaza,
Hamas had a total sweep....
|
For the better part of the last 75 years, revolutionary
peoples’ artist Irving Fierstein used his immense talent to depict the
many struggles of working and oppressed people for social and economic justice
and against imperialism. In the early 1980s Fierstein created a unique genre of
art—striking full-color revolutionary banners thoughtfully composed and
painstakingly painted by hand....
|
In September the eyes of the world will be on Pittsburgh, where the G20 countries will meet to consider what to do about the biggest global economic crisis since the 1930s. The heads of governments, finance ministers and central bankers that will be in Pittsburgh for the summit hear the concerns of bankers and corporate executives all the time. They need to listen to the voices of the millions of people who have lost their jobs and their homes because of the crisis. The Bail out the People Movement, a coalition of community, labor, religious, and grassroots activists, wants to help dramatize the crisis of joblessness, and the need for action both in the U.S. and worldwide to the G20 summit. It is now clear that the stimulus legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in March has done little to stop the loss of jobs. There is no recovery for the unemployed, the underemployed and the poor; and things are only getting worse. This is why we're asking you to help make the idea of a Global Week of Solidarity with the Unemployed from September 19 through September 26, the week of the G20 Summit, a reality....
|
What a week coming up! The "G192" (UN Conference on the Financial and
Economic Crisis and its Impacts on Development), previously scheduled for June
1-4, is happening June 24-26: this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday....
|
June 16—Hundreds of poor and working people have gathered at the
National People’s Summit and Tent City in downtown Detroit to put forward
the people’s vision of a future with guaranteed jobs and income,
universal health care, housing and utilities, and all rights that working class
people are currently denied under the capitalist system....
|
On May 18, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a stunning blow to women workers,
overturned lower courts’ decisions and ruled that AT&T, the
seventh-largest corporation in the world, could exclude maternity leaves when
calculating pension benefits....
|
Organizing for the June 14-17 People's Summit and Tent City in Detroit
is building fast. A planning meeting April 25 was attended by representatives
from a broad base of progressive organizations. They included the Autoworkers
Caravan, which has been in the forefront of challenging the massive attacks on
auto workers' wages and benefits; the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop
Foreclosures and Evictions; disabled activists from Warriors on Wheels; Call
'Em Out; the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization; the Detroit Coalition
Against Police Brutality; and the National Lawyers Guild. Two UAW members from
Toledo, Ohio, also attended....
|
...
|
There was a kickoff rally May 1 at Union Square's historic site of many May Day gatherings -- and then a march to Foley Square, in front of the
notorious Federal Building, where many immigrants have experienced abuse, grief
and discrimination at the hands of "la migra," formerly known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service and now Immigration and Customs
Enforcement....
|
Over the last several months, a series of dramatic cases involving police killings of civilians has brought to light the essential role of law enforcement within capitalist societies. Numerous cities throughout the United States have seen a dramatic increase in the murder of African Americans by cops as well as the escalation of raids and deportations against immigrants both documented and undocumented....
|
May 1 is May Day -- International Workers' Day. It began in the United States a long time ago during the struggle for the eight-hour work day, but that history is not well known here, and for good reason. The scions of
capitalism who feed us their ideology don't want workers and oppressed people to know their own history of struggle....
|
While May Day has historically been a day of workers solidarity and a
celebration of labor power, this is not a day or year like any other....
|
Clearly, the fight to bail out the people will not end in April. We must
continue to build a movement that will guarantee jobs,homes, health care, an
end to repression and war, and everything the people need during this growing
economic crisis....Since 2006, workers have come out to commemorate May 1st, International Workers
Day. Despite the raids and deportations, immigrant workers, the sector whose
struggle bore May Day in Chicago two centuries ago, have revived May Day, a day
celebrated by billions around the world every year. In 2005, workers and
activists reclaimed May Day once again and held several May Day demonstrations
in New York City and elsewhere....
|
In an early sign of what promises to be a growing movement, 1,000 people defied
a torrential downpour to rally on Wall Street on Friday, April 3 in response to
a national call from the Bail Out the People Movement. The central demands of the demonstration were: 1) a real jobs program; and 2) an immediate moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. Participants included unions,
community groups, youth and students from Detroit, Boston, Baltimore,
Philadelphia, Buffalo and dozens of organizing centers throughout the
country....
|
On Friday morning, just a few hours before the Wall St. rally, the bureau of
labor statistics is going to announce that another two-thirds of a million
workers got laid off in March....
|
The May 1st Coalition for Worker and Immigrant Rights held a news conference
on March 17 at Union Square to announce the upcoming May Day rally in New York
City, which has been held there each year since 2005....
|
Members of immigrant groups, unions, laborers, students, human rights
activists, and workers in general who are part of the May 1st Coalition Worker
and Immigrant Rights will announce the next steps on the path to achieve the
same success of past demonstrations of immigrants in the city of New York and
other American cities....
|
Let us remind the world that part of Dr. King's dream was that everyone
should have the right to a job or an income. Rekindling that dream could not be
more crucial today when the worse economic crisis since the 1930s is throwing
20,000 workers out of a job each day....
|
Ending Ceremony Triangle Shirtwaist Fire Memorial at 4 p.m. Site of 1911
fire that killed 146 women workers and girls.......
|
Trade union actions starting in January have brought Guadeloupe, a French colony in the Caribbean, to a standstill. The underlying reasons for the work
stoppage stem from the global economic crisis and the total political control of Guadeloupe by the French imperialist state under the leadership of the rightist president, Nicholas Sarkozy....
|
Activists from around New England will gather Feb. 28 at the union hall of
the Boston School Bus Drivers, United Steelworkers Local 8751, for a conference
on the economic crisis and how to fight back. The event is being hosted by USW
8751....
|
The heroic six-day factory occupation this past December by the Republic Windows and Doors workers in Chicago continues to resonate among labor activists and progressive forces throughout the United States....
|
The 1,400-plus delegates at the 18th Congress of the Portuguese Communist Party, and the thousands of other PCP militants invited to observe, made it clear that in this one corner of imperialist Europe there is a living, breathing combat organization with roots in every laboring and productive
section of society....
|
There are not enough adjectives to express the kind of gratitude due the
courageous workers of the Chicago Republic Window and Doors factory....
|
...
|
Their workplace was suddenly shutdown when Bank of America withdrew a line of credit. No 60 days notice was given to these workers, as required by the WARN (Worker Adjustment Retraining and Notification) Act. Their vacation pay was stolen, too....
|
The Bail Out the People Movement invites you to come together on Jan. 17, 2009
to talk, share and plan to fight back. If there was ever a time for us to recommit ourselves to Dr. King's struggle for economic and social justice, there can hardly be any doubt that now, 80 years after his birth, is that time....
|
During the week of December 8-13 Organize Protests in Front of Your Local Bank of America Office or Building....
|
This afternoon more than 250 community activists, union leaders and others gathered in a rally in front of Republic Windows Factory on
Chicago's northwest side. They were voicing their solidarity with the
workers -- the majority of them Latin@ -- who have refused to leave the
factory in protest over the shutdown of the plant. Speakers included members of
the Service Employees International Union; Teamsters; Chicago Teachers Union; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees; and others....
|
The 2008 Cuba/Venezuela/Latin America/North America Labor Conference is fast approaching - along with an economic crisis that crumbles illusions in the
profit-first capitalist system and a new administration coming to Washington,D.C. setting the sights of millions of workers on a better life. There is a lot to learn and much to discuss and share....
|
As banks fail, jobs disappear and the economy sinks deeper into a horrific crisis of poverty and misery, the television channels and political campaigns have suddenly become full of the most unlikely people denouncing "big business."...
|
Cuban leaders of the Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC) will visit Tijuana, Mexico, a city 15 minutes from the San Diego, U.S./Mexico border. This conference will give people from North America (the United States, Canada and Mexico) the opportunity to hear first hand from the Cubans about Cuba’s workers and their unions. Also, you will hear from leaders of the Venezuelan union, UNT, about the present situation of the Venezuelan revolution and the issues facing Venezuelan workers, representatives of Mexico, United States, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Haiti, the Philippines and Nicaragua discussing the social and labor movements in the Americas....
|
...
|
If bombs start falling on Iran, a world calamity will surely result. Yet this
is a distinct possibility since President Bush has not taken the "military
option" off the table - the exact same language he used just before the
senseless attack on Iraq, hundre4des of thousands of Iraq deaths, over 4100
U.S. military deaths and $562 billion ago....
|
On June 9, the San Francisco Labor Council passed a resolution "For a
Moratorium on Foreclosures, Utility Shutoffs, Evictions & Public Housing
Demolitions."...
|
Join with the International Action Center and U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange on a fact-finding mission to investigate human rights violations in Colombia and attend the Tribunal!...
|
...
|
The International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), known for its militant and democratic traditions as well as its economic and social justice activism, has written a new chapter in its glorious labor history by shutting down all 29 ports on the West Coast for eight hours on May Day....
|
May Day, or International Workers' Day, was celebrated with marches, combative demonstrations and sometimes open struggles all over the world. In the non-imperialist world, these actions focused on the great increase in food
prices in recent weeks, in Europe on defending jobs and workers' wages. In both Europe and the United States, immigrant rights were up front. In the U.S. longshore workers held a rare political strike against war on the West
Coast....
|
For the third consecutive year U.S. workers reclaimed their historic holiday, which originated with Chicago labor struggles for the 8-hour day in the 1880s. The dominant call this year was for full rights for 12 million undocumented workers....
|
We hope that you can join us to welcome and hear Edgar Paez, from the National Board of SINALTRAINAL, the Colombian union of the food industry workers. He will be April 1-2, 2008, in Philadelphia as part of a tour through the U.S. to bring attention to the danger not only for Colombian orkers, but for workers in the U.S as well, of signing a Free Trade agreement with Colombia....
|
Resolution calls for federally-funded public works program (like WPA of the 1930s) with prevailing wages and the right to organize...the Right of Return of evacuees...and an end to state repression, racial profiling and police brutality in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast....
|
In a significant show of international support for the International Campaign to Hold Coca-Cola Accountable, over 500 activists from around the world packed the workshop on the campaign at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil on January 29, 2005. The workshop was one of the most popular workshops at the World Social Forum. A pattern has emerged as a result of Coca-Cola's bottling operations in India. Communities living around Coca-Cola bottling plants in India are facing severe water shortages and the groundwater and soil has been contaminated as a direct result of Coca-Cola's practices. Coca-Cola is also accused of distributing toxic waste to farmers and selling contaminated drinks in India. ...
|
From June 27 to July 1, Atlanta will host the first-ever Social Forum held in the United States. The U.S. Social Forum will gather thousands of grassroots and community activists from across the country who will engage each other in political discussion and strategy planning. The operating slogan for the five-day event is "For another world to be possible, another U.S. is
necessary."...
|
More than 1 million immigrants and supporters skipped work and school and took to the streets of New York City today in support of immigration rights.
As the day began, many businesses throughout the region remained closed, as owners observed the May 1 Great American Boycott -- a day of no work, no School, no shopping, and no selling. ...
|
We the undersigned uncategorically denounce the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid and detention of at least 350 immigrant workers at Michael Bianco Inc. in New Bedford, MA. which took place the morning of Tuesday, March 6, 2007. We stand firmly in solidarity with our sisters and brothers in all immigrant communities and demand the immediate release of all who have been detained by ICE. Further, we demand an immediate end to these raids and deportations of immigrant workers and the reunification of their families.
...
|
On
Aug. 28, 2007, New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. attacked British unions
for supporting a boycott of Israel. The Chief, an influential weekly newspaper
that covers civil service unions and is widely read by New York City civil service
union members and New York City politicians, published an article in the Sept.
7th edition about Comptroller Thompson’s action. The article included a
statement of praise for Thompson’s action that was issued by Jewish Labor
Committee (JLC) President Stuart Appelbaum....
|
We urge our fellow trade unionists to join us on Sept. 29th and to participate in an encampment in front of the Capitol from Sept. 22-29 to
demand no war funding....
|
|
|
Loading
Get updates on
 |
