Colorado Jobs with Justice

Jobs with Justice Rallies to Support Verizon Workers

2011-12-12T15:23:00.007-07:00

This past Saturday, December 10th, more than forty activists from Colorado Jobs with Justice rallied to tell Verizon to bargain fairly with its workers. All across the East Coast, forty five thousand CWA and IBEW members are trying to hold on to middle class jobs, but the massively-profitable Verizon wants to cut starting pay, force retirees to pay up to $6,000 a year for healthcare they've already earned, make it easier to outsource jobs, and cut pensions. Jobs with Justice coalitions across the country have been taking action in solidarity.

Here in Denver, in front of the Verizon Wireless store on the 16th Street Mall, the gathered crowd heard from Mary Taylor, Vice President of District 7 for CWA, Brother David Garner of Interfaith Worker Justice, and Seth Donovan, Co-Chair for Colorado Jobs with Justice. Mary Taylor said CWA is "proud of the fact that [we've] worked hard to make sure our member have stable middle-class jobs. . .what Verizon is doing is not just an attack on its own workers, but an attack on working people across the country." Brother David Garner emphasized that this struggle "must be seen in a moral context" because "we believe in people over profits. . .but profits over people is in the corporate DNA."

Last but not least, Seth Donovan from Jobs with Justice spoke to why JwJ turned out for our sisters and brothers at Verizon: We all took the Be There Pledge to show up for others' fights as well as our own, to stand against corporate greed and for workers' rights, and Jobs with Justice promised to show up to support Verizon workers. Thanks to everyone who showed up to help us keep that promise!

For more pictures from the rally, go here.

Time to stand up for Jeanette Vizguerra

2011-06-07T16:59:00.001-06:00

by David Garner
posted orginally at examiner.com

Jeanette Vizguerra, a Colorado leader and mother of four, faces what may be her final court date on July 13. She faces deportation as an undocumented alien. Jeanette has lived in Colorado for over 14 years. She has 3 small children who are all US citizens

During her time in Colorado, she started a small business with her husband and has given selflessly as a community activist. She worked for SEIU as a labor organizer and currently volunteers at her children’s schools. She is part of the the Aurora Neighborhood Watch Program, and Rights for All People. During the time she was doing all of this, her husband was diagnosed with cancer and the family incurred over twenty eight thousand dollars in medical bills. By working sometimes as many as three jobs at one time, this debt was retired. Not one dime of tax payer money went toward helping the family because, in Jeanette’s words, “It wouldn’t have been right.” In any other situation, and most any other country, all of this would have qualified Jeanette for a Citizen of the Year award. But not in our community and not in this country at this time in our nation’ history.

Jeanette’s story exemplifies our broken immigration system in which mothers, fathers, students, and workers are criminalized for minor violations. In her case, it was a matter of an expired emissions sticker. When she was pulled over, the first question asked was “Are you in this country illegally?” With that traffic stop, she entered the criminal justice system and became a statistic.

In testifying before the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary on March 9 of this year, Secretary of Interior Janet Napolitano said the following: “Likeour actions at the border, our interior enforcement efforts are achieving major results. In Fiscal Years 2009 and 2010, ICE removed more illegal immigrants from our country than ever before, with more than 779,000 removals nationwide in the last two years. Most importantly, more than half of those aliens removed last year – upwards of 195,000 – were convicted criminals, the most ever removed from our country in a single year.”There is a good chance that Jeanette Vizguerra will join that number.

Mark Twain once wrote that “there are three kinds of lies: plain lies, damned lies and statistics.” Our immigration policy is based upon the third kind of lie. It is time we change that. There will be a demonstration prior to Jeanette’s court appearance. It will be at 7:30Am in front of the federal court building at 17th and Welton in downtown Denver. It is your chance to help in this change.

Br. David received his doctorate in religious studies from Emerson Theological Institute. Dr. Garner also holds an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Denver. Br. David is a member of the Interfaith Worker Justice Council of Colorado and serves on the Steering Committee of the Abrahamic Initiative here in Denver. He was recently recognized by the Denver Area Chapter of the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement for his commitment to the community and to the Latino Movement. Author, teacher and social activist , he is currently Abbot of St. Dunstan's Benedictine Abbey in Denver, Colorado.

Regis University Ends Relationship with Sodexo

2011-06-03T15:15:00.002-06:00

by Victoria Harris

After a student and faculty campaign to raise awareness about Sodexo’s practices, Regis has ended its relationship with Sodexo.

Students on campus were concerned that they weren’t getting what they were paying for. Regis students described the campaign “ 'I Love Sodexo Workers’ as an effort to bring awareness to the fact that Sodexo, one of the biggest food service providers for college campuses here in the US, and also at Regis, has been accused of paying poverty wages, cutting hours, and offering its employees unaffordable health insurance. Meanwhile students are paying high prices for low quality food, and contributing their money to a corporation that mistreats its employees. The purpose of the campaign is that we want to show Sodexo workers that we appreciate them, but find that Sodexo as a company does not fit in with the Regis motto of 'How Ought We to Live?"

Students wore purple on campus to show support for workers rights and to send a message to Sodexo management and university decision makers. Students also filled out hundreds of comment cards, reflecting on the poor quality of food and their continuing support of the workers. "The workers are the only reason why I still eat at Sodexo. The food is AWFUL! But the workers try to make your eating experiences better,” said one Regis student. Another student comments, “"The workers here deserve better. We are a Jesuit University, let's start acting like one!"

In a speech to classmates in the Sodexo dining hall, Jon Denzler stated, “Workers have a right to organize, have decent pay, and affordable health care benefits. We think at Regis University, as a Jesuit School, when we ask “How Ought We to Live?” maybe our campus food providers should fit into that model as well. We also think that whoever the food service provider is, the workers should be hired back. These aren’t just workers, they are our friends.”

The new food service provider, Bon Apetit, will be on campus beginning in July.

2011-05-27T16:27:00.000-06:00

Build Power. Fight Back. Win!

By jwjnational, on May 26th, 2011

JOBS WITH JUSTICE NATIONAL CONFERENCE AUGUST 5-7, 2011 IN WASHINGTON, DC

Corporations want to use the failing economy as an excuse to reverse every worker protection put in place over the last century, but we are standing together and fighting back!

Come to the Jobs with Justice conference to learn from and strategize with labor leaders, rank & file workers, students, religious leaders, community activists, workers excluded from labor law protection, and many, many more about how to build a powerful movement of working people to defeat the corporate agenda! Join us as we explore:

Establishing a new framework for collective bargaining rights in the 21st century

Building a new economy that supports full & fair employment

From the Middle East to the Midwest, building a culture of resistance – what’s next?

Defending, promoting, & expanding collective bargaining rights

Defeating attacks that divide workers by turning the tide on immigration criminalization & enforcement

Forging successful coalitions to defeat the corporate attack on working people

Kickoff to the Jobs with Justice 25th Anniversary Celebration

REGISTER NOW! Early bird rates in effect until June 24th.

HIGHLIGHTS OF

Continue reading Build Power. Fight Back. Win!

After Three Years, Reynolds Agrees to Meet with Tobacco Workers | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

2011-05-16T17:34:00.000-06:00

After Three Years, Reynolds Agrees to Meet with Tobacco Workers

by James Parks, May 15, 2011

Tobacco workers march in front of Reynolds American headquarters last week.

In a major turnaround, officials of Reynolds American, who have refused for three years to meet with representatives of tobacco workers, agreed last week to look into the labor practices in their supply chain and work with other parties, including the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC) to ensure they are not complicit with human rights violations.

More than 50 FLOC members entered theReynolds American shareholders’ meeting last week in Winston-Salem, N.C., to deliver a report on the horrible conditions in the fields. Nearly 100,000 immigrant tobacco workers in North Carolina are paid sub-minimum wages and are exposed to dangerous conditions in the fields.

The FLOC representatives pressed company executives to ensure that this new stance is more than just words and is backed up with serious action, including meeting with farmworkers and their representatives. No date for a meeting has yet been set.

Continue reading After Three Years, Reynolds Agrees to Meet with Tobacco Workers | AFL-CIO NOW BLOG

BREAKING NEWS: The National Labor Relations Board Doing Its Job: GOP Upset

2011-05-14T16:33:00.014-06:00

by Russell Bannan

The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against Boeing for violating sections of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). In its complaint, the board said that Boeing’s decision to move a production line to South Carolina was illegal retaliation against union workers for a previous strike and would discourage employees from striking again in the future (employees went out on a 58-day strike in 2008 over a contract dispute).

The board explained that Boeing officials had clearly, in both interoffice communications and in a news interview, stated that the move to South Carolina was to avoid potential work stoppages. According to the NLRA, it is illegal for employers to retaliate against workers for striking or for engaging in protected concerted activity.

The GOP quickly began defending the corporation by verbally attacking the board for holding Boeing accountable to the law. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley stated several times that the board is “bullying” employers. “The administration, I believe, is acting like thugs that you might see in a third-world country, trying to bully and intimidate employers,” stated Senator Jim Demint (dictionary.com defines “bully” as “a blustering, quarrelsome, overbearing person who habitually badgers and intimidates”).

Also now Senator Lindsey Graham is threatening to defund the NLRB. Why? He doesn’t agree with the board’s complaint against Boeing. Sen. Graham’s threat to defund the board would be like someone threatening to defund the Supreme Court because they did not agree with a decision made. South Carolina politicians have a history of staging flamboyant political theatre when they do not get their way.¹

The GOP’s recent bullying has made one thing crystal clear: they will stand to defend corporations; not working people.

¹ Senator Strom Thurmond has the record for the longest filibuster, speaking for 24 hours and 18 minutes in a failed effort to stop the Civil Rights Act of 1957. More recently Joe Wilson continued the tradition by yelling “You Lie!” at President Obama.

The title for this article came from the Mario Solis-Marich show in the interview below.
Listen to AM 760's Mario Solis-Marich interview with Russell Bannan about the GOP's attack on the NLRB

Wisconsin: The Implications

2011-05-11T17:50:00.000-06:00

by Russell Bannan

originally published in the Colorado Labor Advocate

Wisconsin public sector unions face a sobering truth after nine weeks of over 100,000 activists in the streets --- no contracts.

Wisconsin Republicans with the leadership of Governor Scott Walker railroaded through the “budget repair” bill on March 9, which will strip many public sector unions of almost all of their collective bargaining rights. Although it is currently tied up in the legal process many expect the bill to eventually take effect.

This may seem like a statement we should be depressed about, but it is not. It is a statement we should be proud of. Out of the nine week struggle came forth a realization that all of us, together, must fight back. Out of the nine week struggle rose up unprecedented solidarity across the country speaking out loud enough that a sleeping giant awoke---the labor movement.

The implications of what has already taken place in Wisconsin are now being felt across the country. Governors are using the budget crisis to justify cutting resources to public programs and blaming teachers, firefighters, and nurses who exercise their right to collectively speak together to advocate for safety and economic democracy as the problem. Why? Politicians receive financial contributions from the same individuals and corporations that are not contributing to the community by paying their fair share in taxes.

Dennis Kucinich, U.S. representative from Ohio, stated it best at a rally in Wisconsin:

This attack on our workers, this attack in Washington on working people that results in wealth being accelerated to the top, that results in tax cuts going to the rich, that results in energy policy turned over to the oil companies, that results in defense policy turned over to the arms manufacturers, that results in endless war, that results in the National security State, it's all a part of the same thing, and it's up to us to FIGHT BACK!

So now working people are being asked to bear the budget on their backs. The question is: Will we?

Letter sent by British Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald to Joslyn Williams, President of the Metropolitan Washington Council of the AFL-CIO.

2011-05-09T15:02:00.000-06:00

BAT actions Ambassador Letter to Mr Williams AFL-CIO 5 4 11.pdf

State of Fear

2011-05-05T08:00:00.000-06:00

CONTACTS: FLOC: Briana Connors, 763-229-5970
Oxfam America: Patrick Scully, 617-678-9098

SEVERE HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES PERSIST IN NC TOBACCO FIELD,
NEW STUDY BY OXFAM AMERICA & FLOC REVEALS
Manufacturers Urged to Pursue Industry-Wide Solutions

Download the Executive Summary (PDF)

Winston Salem, NC –The men and women who arrive in North Carolina each summer to tend and harvest the state’s economically critical tobacco crop are often repaid for their hard journey and work with subminimum wages, needlessly dangerous conditions in the fields, and inhumane living conditions. These are among the findings released today from a forthcoming, in-depth human rights assessment conducted by Oxfam America and the Farm Labor Organizing Committee, AFL-CIO (FLOC).That assessment, “A State of Fear: Human rights abuses in North Carolina’s tobacco industry,” will be published in full this summer.

Oxfam and FLOC released their summary of findings, together with recommendations for correcting abuses in the industry, on the eve of the annual shareholders’ meeting of Reynolds American International (RAI). RAI is one of the major tobacco manufacturers whose profits are based on the abusive system they created and control. Those abuses were documented during the last growing season and harvest by researchers who conducted over 100 one-on-one interviews with farm workers, and with growers, tobacco manufacturers and the governmental and nongovernmental agencies mandated to protect and serve the workers’ needs.

“This research reveals an industry that systematically exploits farm workers’ fears of arrest and deportation to deprive them of their basic, internationally recognized human rights,” said Minor Sinclair, Director of Oxfam America’s U. S. Regional Office, which oversaw the adaptation and execution of the international research model used for this study. ”These stunning findings should be a wake-up call to everyone attending the RAI shareholders’ meeting. Do they really want to be a part of system that perpetuates these inhumane conditions? We hope the people who can truly influence RAI will review this meticulously documented, first-hand research and take the suggested actions contained in the report. Nothing less is acceptable,” he said.

Among the findings highlighted in the summary released today are:

• One-fourth of workers reported being paid less than the federal minimum of $7.25 per hour.
• Most of the workers interviewed suffer regularly from symptoms of “green tobacco sickness” (GTS) including dizziness, vomiting, weakness, coughing, nosebleeds, and headaches. GTS is caused by excessive absorption of nicotine through the skin and can be prevented by use of gloves and other protective clothing.
• Heat stroke is the leading cause of work-related death among farm workers, and many workers reported a lack of clean water or sufficient breaks to protect themselves from dehydration.
• Nearly all who lived in employer-provided housing described inadequate or non-working showers and toilets, overcrowding, leaky roofs, beds with mattresses that were worn out or missing, insect and rodent infestations, and lacking or inadequate cooking and laundry facilities.
• Growers who were interviewed said that changes in the industry have left them with little or no profit margin and no way to negotiate for better prices that would enable them to offer more to their workers.
The report concludes with these recommendations:
• Manufacturers must ensure respect for international human rights just as strictly as they ensure the quality and quantity of tobacco from their growers.
• Industry leaders should create a council that brings together manufacturers, growers, farm workers, and their chosen representative, allowing all parties to have a voice and creating an effective tool for workers to ensure legal compliance in the workplace.
• Manufacturers should act to ensure stability in the tobacco industry by allowing more grower input in their pricing formulas and by using multiyear contracts, agreed to earlier in the season, giving the growers more time to plan.

As summer approaches, the next cycle is beginning. Hundreds of workers have already arrived at farms across the state to begin preparing and planting the fields. Their numbers will swell to about 100,000 by harvest time. This gives special urgency to efforts to address the problems uncovered by the researchers and to begin implementing their recommendations for resolving them. Although many of the tobacco manufacturers, including RAI, profess support for human rights throughout the tobacco supply chain, those words are not enough.

“Every day of delay is a day when workers will be needlessly sickened because of the lack of safety equipment or of adequate clean drinking water, when workers will continue to be paid illegal sub-minimum wages, when they will have to endure squalid, unsanitary housing, and when instead of being able to speak up to change these conditions they will continue to be silenced by fear,” said FLOC organizer Justin Flores. “This is an emergency that shames the entire tobacco industry and at Reynolds’ shareholder meeting tomorrow we will challenge the company to be a leader in its industry by taking responsibility and taking action to make things right.”

# # #

Axioms for Organizers by Fred Ross, Sr. 1989

2011-05-01T19:35:00.001-06:00

Fred Ross (1910 – 1992)

Every Day –Organizing isn't a job done once and done with. If organizers don’t renew their efforts every day of their lives, then only the grasping and greedy people remain active.

Doing It “For” People –If you think you can do it for people, you’ve stopped understanding what it means to be an organizer.

Lead By Pushing –An organizer is a leader who does not lead but gets behind the people and pushes.

Duty of Organizer –The duty of the organizer is to provide people with the opportunity to work for what they believe in.

Follow-up –90% of organizing is follow-up.

Never Give Up –Good organizers never give up –they get the opposition to do that.

Urgency –A good organizer must be able to charge an issue with a supreme sense of urgency.

“From The Heart”–How can you move others unless you are moved yourself?

Little Things –If you are able to achieve anything big in life, it’s because you paid attention to the “little” things.

Half-Assed Job –In any kind of work if you do a half-assed job at least you get some of the work done; in organizing you don’t get anything done.

People –It’s the way people are that counts, not the way you’d like them to be.

Short-Cuts –Short-cuts usually end in detours, which lead to dead ends.

Organizing Is –Organizing is providing people with the opportunity to become aware of their own capabilities and potential.

Hope –To inspire hope, you have to have hope yourself.

Winning Hearts & Minds –to win the hearts and minds of people, forget the dry facts and statistics; tell them the stories that won you to the cause.

Questions –When you are tempted to make a statement, ask a question. Temporary Organizer –An organizer tries to turn each person she meets into a temporary organizer.

Ask #1 –Don’t tell the people–ask them.

Build New –Don’t try and rebuild a dead organization; start over and build a new one. (Cesar Chavez)

Organizing or Manipulating? –If you are moving people to act through truth and for truth, as you understand it, then you are organizing them. If you are moving them to act through deception, then you are manipulating them.

Do It Now #1 –If there is something to be done, do it now.

Do It Now #2 –If you wait until you have all the time, people and resources to go ahead, you may still never get there because you didn’t fill the interval with the action needed to get you there.

Winning & Losing People –It’s easy to win people–and twice as easy to lose them

Losers –Losers are loaded with alibis.

Maybe –“Maybe” is a double, triple “No!”

Messages #1 –Rare is the delivered message.

People Power –People power must be visible.

Reminding –Reminding is the essence of organizing.

Organize –The only way to organize is to organize, not sit around and jaw about it.

Burn-Out –Organizers don’t “burn-out”, they just give up and cease being organizers.

Pressure –It’s not the quantity of pressure we exert that counts, it’s the quality.

Willpower #1 –There is no substitute for willpower in an organizer.

Ask #2 –Usually those who can spare a little time for the cause are actually ready to give it all if only someone would ask them.

Concentration –When you are pushing a big drive or issue, you stay on it to the total exclusion of everything else –until it is done.

Live Wires –When you find “live-wires” put them to work immediately. Find something they can do –any little thing –get them started and ready to do more, or you’ll lose them for the cause.

All the Way –When you do something –do it all the way!

Leadership –You don’t develop new leaders, you push people in to taking action by refusing to do it yourself. You are then providing them the opportunity to become aware of their own capabilities.

Willpower #2 –An organizer has to want to win badly enough to succeed.

Volunteers –Never get so hungry for volunteers that you do their work for them instead of insisting they do it themselves.

Hardest Choice –The hardest choice is usually the correct one.

Vacations –Injustice never takes a vacation.

Monotony –the way to break monotony is with motion and emotion.

Appreciation #1 –Appreciation has an exceedingly short memory so strike while the iron is hot.

Appreciation #2 –People are infinitely more appreciative of what they do for you than what you do for them. (Cesar Chavez)

Respect Yourself –Don’t let them kick you around. You have to live and organize, in such a way that you can respect yourself and be treated with respect by others.

Put People To Work –Don’t talk at people –put them to work.

The Disrupter –The disrupter is the lowest form of organizational life.

Be Ready –A good organizer delegates responsibility but is always ready to jump in and do the job himself if necessary. (Saul Alinsky 1947)

Social Arsonist –A good organizer is a social arsonist who goes around setting people on fire.

Messages #2 –There is nothing less likely to be delivered than a message.

Reaching People –If you can’t catch people at home during ordinary hours, you’ve got to go after them during extra-ordinary hours, to the outer edge of your tenacity and forbearance.

By Brick –It isn’t hard to organize if you take it granule by granule, brick by brick.

Fast Talkers –Look out for the fast talkers.

Details –The measure of a good organizer is the amount of attention she pays to the most minute details.

Helping People –Organizers must grow beyond helping people to “egging them on.”

A Time For Silence –There is a time for sound and a time for silence and a good organizer needs to be able to differentiate between the two.

Finding That Person –To keep an organization alive you’ve got to find that person who has to do something about it.

The Incidentals –The incidentals make up the fundamentals.

United Front: Labor, Immigrant Rights Movements See Converging Future

2011-05-01T16:22:00.001-06:00

originally posted on inthesetimes.com
By R. M. Arrieta

This May Day, the immigrant rights movement and the labor movement are joining forces for large rallies across the nation.

Five years ago, the massive crowds who turned out in support of immigrant rights and finding a path to citizenship surprised the nation. Those May Day marches were among the largest coordinated protests in U.S. history.

Now, with the labor movement itself under attack, an effort is underway to strengthen the alliances between immigrant rights and labor. Both Latinos and labor are under atack by right-wing forces. This year public-sector workers' collective bargaining rights have been rolled back in some states, and are being challenged in others. Hate crimes and anti-immigrant rhetoric against Latinos have increased by 40 percent in the last five years.

With their falling membership numbers, unions need Latino workers in order to grow. By virtue of their enormous numbers in the service sector and the construction industry, their role is pivotal for bringing union numbers up. Latino immigrants possess one of the highest participation rates in the labor force: 70.8 percent.

The relationship is mutual. Latinos, among the most vulnerable workers, need the protections and benefits provided by unions. Union leadership has to reflect inclusion of minorities.

For much of its history, unions have opposed the loosening of immigration restrictions. Now leaders of labor groups are realizing that Latino workers could positively impact the future their unions.

The new report “Latino Workers in the United States 2011” by the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA), offers a critical analysis about the state of Latino and undocumented workers. (The report can be downloaded on LCLAA’s website.)

Latinos are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. workforce, which is now joining unions is at ‘near record lows.” The report says:

"If the U.S. economy is a many-colored fabric, then Latino workers are the foundational cross-threads on which the bright pattern is woven. Without their dependable presence in nearly every job, the U.S. economy would literally disintegrate. Yet these workers remain stubbornly invisible to mainstream media and to those with the power to enforce and change labor laws that could help protect them."

Tom Buffenbarger, International President of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) wrote:

The future of America’s labor movement will be written in Spanish. Over the next twenty years, Latinos and Latinas will lead new fights for new rights all across this country. They will organize and mobilize a new generation of labor activists who will prevail over prejudice, corporate power and political foes. And they will change their communities and our country forever.

Hector E. Sanchez, executive director of LCLAA and the report’s main author, wrote: “…As we reflect on this historical evolution of social conditions and labor rights for workers, there is a serious contradiction today where millions of workers in the nation still lack access to any of the benefits that this movement brought. This is especially true for a particular group of workers — Latino and immigrant workers — a community that has been under constant attack from various fronts throughout this nation over the last several years.”

He told People’s World:

Enforcement-only policies have only enhanced that vulnerability to the point that immigrants have become disposable workers. It's a perfect system for exploitation, but we need to ask who is really benefiting from this, because so far everyone wants to blame undocumented workers. Eleven million immigrants living in the U.S. is not a mistake. This is public policy and the corporations and entire sectors of the economy are profiting from this broken system.

Many Latinos in the labor force have to endure unsafe or abusive working conditions to make ends meet. Latino workers also deal with more minimum-wage and overtime pay violations than any other ethnic group. More than 77 percent of Latinos surveyed in various minimum wage industries did not receive overtime pay with higher incidences among immigrants.

The bottom line: Thousands of working-class people, whether immigrants or not, unionized or not, are under attack across the board and they are beginning to understand their common links.

Sanchez writes:

Organized labor has been on the front line defending the most vulnerable and exploited workers. As we celebrate May Day all over the world, this is the time to stand in solidarity with those that are under serious attack in this nation – our immigrant brothers and sisters.
The union movement must welcome these workers in a more aggressive way. Furthermore, Latinos and immigrants must embrace the labor movement as a tool for social protection and economic advancement. This is the future of our movement, but more importantly this is the future of a more just and a stronger nation. No one should allow the assault of labor, human or civil rights of any group. It’s just bad political, social and economic policy.

LCLAA AND COLORADO JOBS WITH JUSTICE ADDRESS HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES.

2011-04-27T16:19:00.009-06:00

Delegation delivering the letter to H.M. Consul General Kevin Lynch.

DENVER—The Labor Council for Latin American Advance (LCLAA), Colorado Jobs with Justice, and community activists, led a delegation on behalf of the Farm Labor Organizing Committee (FLOC), the AFL-CIO, the TUC, the Geneva-based federation of food and agriculture workers, IUF, and American church groups into the British Consulate to deliver a letter to British Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald at the British Embassy in Washington, DC addressing human rights abuses.

The letter and delegation addressed the widespread and egregious human rights abuses against U.S. tobacco field workers involving a British-based corporation, British American Tobacco (BAT), which owns the controlling shares in the U.S. tobacco giant Reynolds American.

"These workers are scared to exercise their most basic human right. The right and freedom to associate and collectively work to together to raise standards, living conditions, and fight for a living wage," stated Russell Bannan with Colorado Jobs with Justice. "At Reynolds and out in the fields there is a culture that is conditioning this type of fear and it is unacceptable."

LCLAA Denver Metro President Solomon Juarez who organized the delegation and asked, "Is it too much to ask that farm workers be treated like human beings?" After a few seconds Kevin Lynch, Consul General, responded "No."

The delegation was part of an International call to protect human rights of U.S. tobacco farm workers. Similar delegations and letters were delivered to consulates in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.

Tomorrow in London, at BAT’s annual shareholders’ meeting, FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez will present a new report detailing the abuses of workers in the U.S. tobacco supply chain and will urge BAT to take immediate steps to ensure that all of the companies in its supply chain respect and follow the standards spelled out in the company’s corporate code of conduct.

“We are urging the company to back up its words of support for human rights with monitoring and enforcement,” said Velasquez. “Through its control of Reynolds, BAT has the power and the moral obligation to take action to end these abuses.”

AUDIO: Listen to the interview from AM760's The Mario Solis-Marich Show with Russell Bannan

DENVER ACTIVISTS JOIN INTERNATIONAL CALL TO PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS OF U.S.TOBACCO FARM WORKERS

2011-04-25T19:24:00.000-06:00

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: Wednesday, April 27, 12 NOON

WHERE: British Consulate -1675 Broadway Denver, CO (

British Embassy in Washington, DC, and Consulates in Atlanta, Boston,

Chicago, Denver, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco

CONTACTS: In Denver: Russell Bannan 864-978-9374 (C), rpbannan@gmail.com

FLOC contact: Nancy Coleman 301-587-1034 (O); 301-537-0172 (C)

DENVER ACTIVISTS JOIN INTERNATIONAL CALL TO PROTECT HUMAN RIGHTS

OF U.S.TOBACCO FARM WORKERS

Community leaders urge British Consulate to help end tobacco industry abuses

At noon on Wednesday, April 27, union and community leaders will hand-deliver a letter to British Ambassador Nigel Sheinwald at the British Embassy in Washington, DC, asking him to urge British American Tobacco (BAT), which owns the controlling share in the U.S. tobacco giant Reynolds American, to end “widespread and egregious” human rights abuses against U.S. tobacco field workers.

In Denver, a copy of that letter will be delivered to the British Consulate by Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, Denver Area Labor Federation, and Colorado Jobs with Justice. Similar deliveries are slated for the consulates in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Miami, Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.

The letter cites “widespread and egregious violations” on tobacco farms in North Carolina, which supplies the largest share of the U.S.-grown crop. These include:

“. . . tobacco farm workers in North Carolina are exposed to pesticides and nicotine poisoning in the fields—while they endure squalid farm labor housing. There is no protection for these workers if they complain or are fired for seeking union representation to help them improve their working and living conditions. . .

“We believe you will agree that these workers’ desperate situation is something that no civilized society can tolerate, and we hope that you will use your good offices to urge BAT to take a leadership role in safeguarding human rights by insisting that the companies and suppliers they do business with must abide by the same code of corporate social responsibility they established for their own company.”

In London on Thursday, April 28, at BAT’s annual shareholders’ meeting, FLOC President Baldemar Velasquez will present a new report detailing the abuses of workers in the U.S. tobacco supply chain and will urge BAT to take immediate steps to ensure that all of the companies in its supply chain respect and follow the standards spelled out in the company’s corporate code of conduct.

OBITUARY of Hazel Dickens

2011-04-25T18:44:00.000-06:00

Hazel Dickens 1935 –2011

An Obituary by John Pietaro

The high lonesome sound that touched so many, so deeply, could only have been born of both strife and fight-back in equal proportions. Singer/guitarist Hazel Dickens’ sound was probably about as high and lonesome as one got. The soundtrack of “Harlan County USA” introduced her to the many outside of the country home she remained a visceral part of, even long after she’d physically moved on. Dickens didn’t just sing the anthems of labor, she lived them and her place on many a picket line, staring down gunfire and goon squads, embedded her into the cause.

She was born on June 1, 1935 in Montcalm, West Virginia, one of the faceless towns dotting Appalachian coal country. Her father was an amateur banjo player who worked as a truck driver for the mines and ran a Primitive Baptist church each Sunday. Here was where Hazel first began singing, unaccompanied out of necessity and the laws of tradition. But the devotional songs melded with the mountain tunes and ballads, creating a unique personal style. Bearing a rough, at times coarse timber, her voice eagerly reflected the broken topography about her as well as the pains of poverty in her midst. In a family of thirteen residing in a three-room shack, the music was far from distant symbolism for her.

At age 16 Dickens relocated to Baltimore where she encountered Mike Seeger on the still fledgling folk scene. Seeger, working alongside his parents Charles and Ruth Crawford Seeger in the Library of Congress Archive of American Folksong, began performing with the Dickens family trio, but it was Hazel’s association with Seeger’s wife Alice Gerrard that offered notable area for impact on the music. The duet of Hazel & Alice recorded original compositions and deeply explored the feminist archetypes in Appalachian song. Dickens was sure to not only raise issues such as the need for equal pay for women workers, but to actively fight for these on and off stage. Among the titles she penned were “Working Girl Blues” and “Don’t Put Her Down, You Helped Put Her There”. She also composed the noted “Black Lung”, which called on the miners’ plight back home. Like Aunt Mollie Jackson before her, Dickens was able to capture the struggle of the moment in song, and this was most evident in her on-screen performances in celebrated films such as “Matewan” and “Song Catcher” and her work on the above noted “Harlan County USA”. The union cause was her cause and it lived anew each time she conjured a topical song set to a melody that sounded as old as the ages.

A clear heir to the Appalachian stylings of Aunt Mollie Jackson and Sarah Ogan, Dickens became a respected figure and was a featured singer at folk festivals for decades. Since the 1970s, Dickens had performed with a wide array of musicians including Emmy Lou Harris, Elvis Costello, Linda Ronstadt, Mary Chapin Carpenter and Rosanne Cash. In 2007 she was inducted into the West Virginia Music Hall of Fame. Dickens was active as recent as last month when she was seen attending the South By Southwest Festival in Austin. Hazel Dickens died of complications of pneumonia in Washington DC on April 22. In the blackened crawlspaces of West Virginia’s mines the lament was a deafening silence as the mountain peaks seemed to bow in solemn reverence.

-John Pietaro is a musician, writer and labor organizer from New York City—http:TheCulturalWorker.blogspot.com

2011-04-21T15:04:00.001-06:00

Print the flyer here: FLOC Seeks Justice for Reynolds Tobacco Field Workers

National Labor-Community Conference to Defeat the Corporate Agenda and Fight for a Working People’s Agenda

2011-04-21T01:51:00.000-06:00

Working people across the country — from Wisconsin and Ohio to New York, Oregon, and California — are facing unprecedented attacks by corporations and the rich with the help of the federal, state and local politicians that they fund.

The corporate agenda is clear: It is to bust unions and cut workers’ pay and benefits — both in the private and public sectors. It is to erode and privatize Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. It is to dismantle the public sector and social services by denying funds for job creation, education, health care, environmental protection, and rebuilding the infrastructure. It is to ensure that taxes on the wealthy are constantly lowered while the bite on workers and the poor is constantly increased. It is to perpetuate U.S. wars and occupations whenever it serves the interests of the multinationals. It is to divide the working class by race, gender, national origin, religion, and sexual orientation. It is also to limit and restrict constitutionally guaranteed civil liberties. The list goes on.

In state capitals, communities and workplaces across the country, workers are fighting back. But if we're going to be successful in pushing back the attacks on collective bargaining, stopping the budget cuts and concessions, creating jobs, and defending social services and education, we need to build unity within our movement, including forging stronger ties with labor's allies: communities of color, students and youth, single-payer advocates, environmentalists, antiwar activists, immigrant rights supporters, and other progressive forces.

Relying on politicians to defend us — the so-called “friends of labor” — has proven to be disastrous. During the past three decades, working people have suffered a dramatic decline in their standard of living while the rich have amassed an unprecedented amount of wealth at the top, regardless of which of the major parties was running the government. We have had every combination imaginable: Republicans occupying the White House with a majority in Congress, Democrats occupying the White House with a majority in Congress, or some kind of “divided government.” But in each case the result for working people has been the same: conditions got worse for workers while the corporations prospered even more. Why should we continue this vicious cycle?

The working class has the power to put an end to this situation. And as the debate over the debt and the deficit intensifies, the need has never been greater for an organized campaign to demand “No Cuts, No Concessions!” whether in regard to social programs or workers' wages and benefits. We say place the burden for solving the financial crises squarely where it belongs: on the rich and the corporations. They caused the crisis, let them pay for it!

The Emergency Labor Network (ELN) was initiated earlier this year at a historic meeting of 100 union leaders and activists from around the country. Join us June 24–26, 2011 at Kent State University in Ohio for a national labor-community conference to spur the campaign to build a more militant fight-back movement and to launch a national campaign for an alternative agenda for working people. Together we can move forward on both fronts.

For more information visit laborfightback.org

Independent Philadelphia Security Officers Union Wins First Union Contract at the Museum of Art

2011-04-20T13:26:00.000-06:00

By Allison Fletcher Acosta, on April 20th, 2011

After four years of organizing, officers at the Philadelphia Museum of Art employed by AlliedBarton Security Services have a union contract! The agreement, ratified by a majority of guards on April 18th, will increase wages by 14.5% over the life of the 3-year contract and will institute a grievance procedure and a seniority system.

“We are proud that our 4 year struggle has resulted in a better quality of life for our coworkers and families,” says Donald Lindsey, President of the union.

The union mounted a public pressure campaign which engaged supportive city council members, the Philadelphia labor movement, student activists, Jobs with Justice, and dozens of local faith leaders to win their victory against the nation’s second-largest security company.

Security guards are prevented from joining most labor unions due to the Section 9 (B) 3 of the National Labor Relations Act. This clause of the National Labor Relations Act states that security guards must join “security guard only unions,” of which there are few.

On October 10, 2009, the Continue reading Independent Philadelphia Security Officers Union Wins First Union Contract at the Museum of Art

Purple Lunch in Solidarity with Sodexo Workers at Regis University

2011-04-18T16:40:00.000-06:00

Come out Tomorrow (4/19) and wear purple and bring a brown bag lunch to show solidarity and with Sodexo workers. Lets show our workers how much we appreciate them and our willingness to stand up for social justice.

Student Labor Action Project and Colorado Jobs with Justice will be out in full support of Regis Students & Workers.

Regis University Dining Hall (3333 Regis Boulevard, Denver, CO)

The Dining Hall is in the Student Center near 51st Ave and Lowell Blvd.

Link to the facebook event: http://goo.gl/XBumj

Colorado Stands Ground to Maintain Workers Rights

2011-04-10T22:45:00.002-06:00

by Toni Fresquez
Posted on El Seminario 04-06-2011

In 1968, Martin Luther King went to Memphis to support the Sanitation workers’ struggle to earn a living wage. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King was assassinated in the midst of a battle for dignity for those public employees. Decades later, in response to attacks by ultra-conservative governors, the struggle for workers’ rights is spreading from union workers in states like Wisconsin to Americans who just want the chance find a job and earn a decent living.

Several of Denver’s prominent union forces -- Colorado Jobs with Justice, Service Employees International Union, American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, Communications Workers of America -- assembled along with students and community members who marched throughout downtown Denver on Monday, participating in a national ‘We Are One’ themed rally to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of Rev. King’s last speech and assassination.

The march ended at the Auraria Campus in Denver with an energetic rally featuring various human rights advocates carrying signs with bold slogans, some holding brooms and mops high symbolizing the depths of the service industry workers – who make up 90% of the nations workforce, according to recent research.

In conjunction with the March, the Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) coordinated a student “walk-out” to attend the events on campus, and to send a message of solidarity with workers.

Curious students gathered around the rally to listen to the scheduled speakers, learning first-hand on the necessity of a renewed movement.

“We are going to take back as a movement what is rightfully ours, the power and prestige of this great nation,” stated Prior Kieran of St. Dunstan's Priory in Denver, an ecumenical order of Benedictines.
Citing prose from late civil rights leaders, Prior Kiernan recalled Rev. King’s quote, “‘Faith is never voluntary given by the oppressor it must be demanded by the oppressed.’ Today we demand our rights, we demand our rights to organize, to bargain to not only have a say, but to have a majority say in what is produced in this great nation of ours.

“I had the honor and privilege to be arrested with my friends and companions as part of The Denver 14 last June, by the time we got out of jail we were announced in over 200 places in this great nation of ours -- so I thought I should tell the head of my order,” explained Prior Kiernan. “I’ve always believed in the old Jesuit axiom that it is better to pray for forgiveness than to ask permission. So I didn’t ask permission to go to jail, I went jail because it was the right thing to do.

“So I called the head of my religious order, I said ‘Brother Abbott I have something to tell you. I was arrested and its’ been in all of the papers so you are probably going to hear about it.’ He asked, ‘Brother why were you arrested?’ I said I was arrested to protest the immigration policy or lack thereof, at the federal level in this country. He immediately answered back, ‘Oh Brother don’t you worry about a thing, I was with César in the fields in the sixties.’”

Prior Kiernan offered a quote from César Chávez, “‘You cannot oppress a people who are not afraid anymore.’ We have seen the future, and the future is ours; and in the words of Dolores Huerta and César Chávez – Yes we can, Si Se Puede,” he said to a resounding applause.

Guest speaker Nita Gonzales, CEO of the Escuela Tlatelolco Centro de Estudios offered an uplifting speech at the Campus ‘teach-in", "Mil gracias to all of you who heard the call and stand together today. I stand here today with each and every one of you in the spirit of my father Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales. In Denver Colorado we weren't waiting for superman – we had our superman in Corky Gonzales. Who thankfully lived a life that gave me the advantage of not only meeting César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, but marching, organizing rallies and supporting the work and struggle for human rights for this nations farmworkers, for human rights and for work that is not yet finished; and it isn't finished and we marched today because of that. We march in the spirit of our ancestors who overcame fear and injustice who struggled and died because they chose to live as free human beings who walked the talk.

“Chavez and Huerta grasped the essential task – organize, organize, organize – his legacy and that of my father Corky Gonzales is one of action, not words, not promises that are not kept – but action. Mobilization against injustice hatred, mobilize, unionize, so that all workers can reap the fruit of their labor,” said Gonzales to her captive audience.

“Let me teach you something about our homeland, we’ve always been here, this is our homeland, we will always be here. So let me remind you of that. We stand here today in honor of the memory of those nineteen who died right here in Colorado at Ludlow. Do you remember that? April 20, 1914? The United Mine Workers stood up against the Rockefeller corporations – they weren’t fearful. What are we afraid of,” challenged Gonzales.

“In the spirit of César Chávez, Emiliano Zapata, Dolores Huerta, Cuauhtémoc – learn those names – Crazy Heart, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Jr…people of destiny of courage, of sacrifice and vision. This is a global struggle for rights for all people and we must remember that this work is not yet done. Our nation continues to wage war upon its own working class and people, the powers that be make themselves richer by exploiting everyone of us – workers, middle class, poor, - in the words of Dr. King, I love these words, ‘There comes a time when people get tired of being trampled over by the iron feet of oppression,’” quoted Gonzales.

“We are tired of being trampled, we have to stand up, stop being fearful. We need more marches, we need thousands of people blocking the streets. Nothing in the development in the history of this country regarding justice and human rights came because some President or Congress thought it was the right thing to do – it came because people marched in the streets like we do today.

“In the words of my father, he said ‘no one has the right to oppress people and all oppressed people have the right to a revolution.’ So let us send a message today, workers rights are human rights, we stand unified and tell the people of Colorado we are not Wisconsin and united we stand and united we will win,” proclaimed Gonzales.

Dock workers shut down ports in solidarity with Wisconsin struggle

2011-04-10T20:35:00.000-06:00

by Dave Welsh

Wednesday Apr 6th, 2011 11:50 AM

The power of workers to bring production to a halt was on dramatic display April 4th, when longshore workers of ILWU Local 10 shut down the ports of Oakland and San Francisco for 24 hours, in solidarity with the heroic struggles in Wisconsin. The big container port of Oakland was deader than a doornail Monday at 6:00 a.m. I saw a long snake-line of trucks bearing shipping containers idled on the roadway. The shipping cranes were all “standing at attention” – i.e., not working any containers. The dock workers stayed away, and no cargo was worked on any shift Monday in Oakland or San Francisco.
“This was a voluntary rank and file action – an organized act of resistance,” said Clarence Thomas, Lo.10 exec board member.

Oakland, CA, April 4, 2011 - The power of workers to bring production to a halt was on dramatic display April 4th, when longshore workers of ILWU Local 10 shut down the ports of Oakland and San Francisco for 24 hours, in solidarity with the heroic struggles in Wisconsin.

The big container port of Oakland was deader than a doornail Monday at 6:00 a.m. I saw a long snake-line of trucks bearing shipping containers idled on the roadway. The shipping cranes were all “standing at attention” – i.e., not working any containers. [These are same Port of Oakland cranes that gave George Lucas the idea for some of his “Star Wars” imagery.]

The ILWU hiring hall was practically deserted at dispatch time for the night shift, leaving several hundred jobs unfilled. The dock workers stayed away, and no cargo was worked on any shift Monday in Oakland or San Francisco.

The rank-and-file-initiated shutdown was part of nationwide actions on April 4th to challenge the draconian budget cuts and union busting in Wisconsin and other states.

An “organized act of resistance” by rank-and-file dock workers

“This was a voluntary rank and file action – an organized act of resistance,” said Clarence Thomas, a dock worker and Local 10 executive board member.

“It is significant that the action by Local 10 was taken in solidarity with Wisconsin public sector workers who are facing the loss of collective bargaining,” Thomas said. He pointed out that April 4th is also the anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. – who was killed in Memphis demanding collective bargaining for sanitation workers in that city.

“So we’ve come full circle,” he concluded. The Memphis public workers got their union, after a two-month strike. Now 40 years later their Wisconsin counterparts are threatened with losing theirs. But it is Wisconsin’s “fierce resistance that is inspiring all of us today.”

It is not surprising that the 24-hour port work stoppage came out of International Longshore & Warehouse Union Local 10, a racially diverse, predominantly African American local, and the home local of legendary labor leader Harry Bridges. Martin Luther King was named an honorary member of Local 10, six months before he was killed.

Oakland teachers shut down Wells Fargo Bank for 3 hours on Apr. 4

The Oakland Education Association has been facing crippling attacks on the public school system - including layoff notices for 600 of their members. When the April 4th Day of Action arrived, the OEA chose to protest at Wells Fargo Bank in downtown Oakland, demanding “Bail out schools, not banks.”

About 100 teachers and supporters chanted, marched and sat down at the bank entrance, effectively shutting down the bank for three hours. They set up a makeshift classroom in the bank plaza to teach about the key role of the banks in bringing on today’s economic crisis. OEA President Betty Olson-Jones pointed out that Wells Fargo received a $50 Billion federal bailout, and the people chanted: “Banks took our money…Now give it to the schools!”

Protesters took turns at the bullhorn:

1. They demanded that workers' jobs, pensions, schools & social services must be safeguarded before one cent of interest is paid to the banks and wealthy bond investors. Which has priority, they asked: Profits for the wealthy, or our children’s future?

2. They highlighted Wells Fargo's role in the foreclosure epidemic – affecting many families of district school children – and demand a moratorium on foreclosures, so families can stay in their homes. An OEA press release said Wells Fargo must "stop foreclosures and lower mortgage debt to reflect homes' reduced market value."

The Bail out the People Movement organized demonstrations Monday at Wells Fargo branches in Los Angeles and Baltimore, in solidarity with the teachers’ action in Oakland. Wells Fargo is based in California, with their main headquarters in San Francisco.

2011-04-10T16:48:00.000-06:00

ELM - National Conference to Build Unity in the Labor Movement & Defeat the Corporate Agenda

200+ Denver Students Stage Walkout for Labor & Education

2011-04-08T10:35:00.001-06:00

By Chris Hicks, on April 8th, 2011

On Monday, April 4^th, over 200 students from University of Colorado Denver, Community College of Denver, and Metropolitan State College of Denver participated in a walkout and rally in support of labor and education. The action was in conjunction with the April 4^th “We Are One” National Day of Action that SLAP, Jobs with Justice, and United States Student Association all actively participated in as a response to the recent attack on workers and students across the country.

In Colorado, two anti-worker bills earlier this February:

Senate Bill 12, by Sen. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, would have prohibited public entities from collectively bargaining with a labor union, or an employee association from acting as a bargaining agent for public employees.
Senate Bill 38, by Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, would have prohibited an employee organization from being officially recognized as the exclusive representative of state employees, barred the state from negotiating with an employee organization to create an employee partnership agreement, and terminated any existing partnership agreements.

At a time when workers’ rights are under attack around the country, many students have provided the spark for protest and fighting back. Students in Denver saw the direct impact these laws will have on them and their own livelihood, which inspired them to walk out.

Speakers at the rally came from different backgrounds and issues, but showed how our movement must unite as one in order to protect all rights. The speakers from the rally came from local radio stations, students who identify as LGBTQ, anti-war, immigrant rights, education reform, and labor. The theme of the speakers was shared struggle, shared identity, and how we must begin to view ourselves within our own communities: “We Are One”!

Learn more about SLAP.

2011-04-03T16:33:00.006-06:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Russell Bannan
Colorado Jobs with Justice
864-978-9374
rpbannan@gmail.com

APRIL 4TH “DAY OF ACTION” EVENTS WILL BRING TOGETHER UNIONS, ORGANIZATIONS, STUDENTS AND ACTIVISTS TO DEMAND SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE
Commemorating 43rd Anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Last Speech and Assassination

Labor unions, progressive organizations, community leaders and higher education students will join together Monday, April 4th in several Colorado cities at rallies, marches, teach-ins and walk-outs to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and to demand political and economic justice for all people.

Denver, CO, April 3, 2011 – College students, union members, organization leaders, community activists and others will join together on Monday, April 4, 2011, to commemorate the 43rd anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s march for sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, followed by his famous last “Promised Land” speech, and assassination on April 4th, 1968.

A Justice for Janitors (SEIU) march will begin at 17th and California streets and will conclude at Tivoli Square (SW corner of Tivoli between the King Center and the Plaza Building) in Denver for a “Teach-in”. From 12:15 – 2:00pm, a panel of community leaders representing labor, immigration, education, civil rights, the inter-faith community, and other areas will speak about worker’s rights and social justice. AM760 Progressive Talk Radio’s Mario Solis-Marich will emcee the event and introduce speakers, including DeFENSE Denver’s Andrea Merida (also a Denver Public Schools Board Member), Benedictine Monk Brother David Garner, and keynote speaker KGNU radio talk show host and Civil Rights leader, Shareef Aleem.

The Student Labor Action Project (SLAP) has coordinated a student “walk-out” to attend the events on campus, and to send a message of solidarity with workers.

The Communications Workers of America (CWA) will also hold a rally from 1:00-3:00 pm at 17th and Esplanade in City Park, near the MLK statue, to protest the Dex Corporation outsourcing American jobs. An evening Rally and Candlelight Vigil to honor workers, organized by Colorado AFL-CIO, will begin at 5:30pm at City Park Band Shell, on the east side of Ferrell Lake (near E. 17th and Steele Street entrance). Meanwhile, similar events will be held in Colorado Springs and other cities.

Labor unions around the United States are organizing politically in response to recent events in Wisconsin and Michigan, where Republican governors are attempting to take away collective bargaining rights of workers and to drastically cut public education.

The march, rallies, teach-in and walk-out have been organized by a grassroots coalition of labor unions and community groups including the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Colorado Immigrant Rights Association (CIRC), Colorado Jobs With Justice, New Era Colorado, and Progressive Outreach Colorado, MoveOn.org and others. Teach-In speakers will include representatives from the Denver Classroom Teachers Association (DCTA), Colorado Young Workers (CYW), Democrats for Excellent Neighborhood School Education (DeFENSE Denver), Politically Active Ztudents (PAZ), Escuela Tlatelolco, and others.

The events have been promoted on radio, on the Auraria campus, and through on-line social media including facebook, twitter and email.

For more information, please contact Russell Bannan at 864-978-9374 or rpbannan@gmail.com.

###

Jobs with Justice is a national campaign for workers’ rights. Around the country, local Jobs with Justice Coalitions unite labor, community, faith-based, and student organizations to build power for working people.

Students Call for Walk-Out in Solidarity with Nationwide Actions on April 4

2011-03-30T03:51:00.005-06:00

Auraria Campus students send out a call for a walk-out:

WE the students demand justice for the public workers in Wisconsin.

WE stand in solidarity with the workers of Wisconsin and workers around the country as they demand justice and fair treatment.

WE understand that as students we collectively wield incredible democratic power; and we will channel and utilize this democratic power to stand side-by-side with the workers and their rights, not only in Wisconsin, but around the US.

STAND-UP, WALK-OUT!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=135470159858209

On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, where he had gone to stand with sanitation workers demanding their dream: the right to bargain collectively for a voice at work and a better life. The workers were trying to form a union with AFSCME.

On April 4, 2011, join union members, community activists, people of faith, students, youth, LGBTQ, civil rights, and immigrant rights allies to stand in solidarity with working people in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, and dozens of other states where well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away the rights Dr. King gave his life for: the freedom to bargain, to vote, to afford a college education and justice for all workers, immigrant and native-born.

It’s time to come together to curb unchecked corporate power. Who will control our communities: working people or corporations?

In Dr. King’s words:

I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

APRIL 4: We Are One!

2011-03-24T23:59:00.001-06:00

You can print the flyer or download the pdf version here: http://www.docstoc.com/docs/document-preview.aspx?doc_id=74677012

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April 4 - Rally & Candlelight Vigil

2011-03-16T18:04:00.000-06:00

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SPRING BLITZ For FARMWORKER JUSTICE!

2011-03-09T15:18:00.001-07:00

"Justice too long delayed is justice denied." -Martin Luther King, Jr.

3 weeks of protest against Quiznos and for farmworkers' human rights!

Friday, March 18, 12:00noon
Quiznos at 216 16th St. (one block W. of Broadway)[map]
Dress like a tomato!

Sunday, March 27, 12:00noon
Quiznos at 1275 Grant St. (13th & Grant)[map]
Picket at 1st ever Quiznos

Thursday, March 31, 12:00noon
Quiznos Headquarters, 1001 17th St. (17th & Curtis)[map]
Cesar Chavez Day Protest and Rally! honor the continuing struggle for farmworker justice!

A new era of human rights, fair wages and dignity - for which farmworkers have been fighting for so long - is taking hold in Florida's tomato fields. Yet, despite Quiznos' promises to the contrary, the Denver-based fast food chain still refuses to adopt the principles which would allow these changes to spread and thrive. The workers who pick tomatoes which end up on Quiznos' subs can no longer tolerate the delay of justice. And neither can we!

Join us, in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, to push for an end to the farmworker exploitation which has subsidized Quiznos' profits for too long.

contact DenverFairFood@gmail.com for more info.

BACKGROUND:
Florida's farmworkers have long faced brutal conditions. They earn sub-poverty wages, have no right to form unions or to over-time pay, lack traditional employment benefits such as health, sick leave or pensions, and have not received a significant raise in nearly 30 years. At the current rate of .50 cents per 32lb bucket, a Florida tomato picker must harvest over TWO TONS just to earn the equivalent of minimum wage for a typical 10 hour. In the most extreme situations workers are held in modern-day slavery and forced to work against their will.

However, there is a new hope on the horizon, thanks to the hard-fought campaigns of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), a community-base organization of Haitian, Latino and Mayan farmworkers in Florida. Today, nine leading food corporations (including Subway, McDonald's and Burger King) and over 90% of the Florida tomato industry have joined to support the CIW's Fair Food principles, including a penny-per-pound piece rate wage increase, a strict code of conduct, a cooperative complaint resolution system, a participatory health and safety program, and a worker-to-worker education process.

However, Quiznos - which continues to profit from the exploitation of farmworkers - has yet to do its part. While there have been discussions with the CIW, those talks continue to drag on because Quiznos won't agree to the same Fair Food principles that the entire Florida tomato industry has already adopted. Visit ciw-online.org or DenverFairFood.blogspot.com for more info.

Colorado Jobs with Justice Pledge

2011-03-09T15:09:00.003-07:00

TAKE THE PLEDGE!

I'll be There...

...standing up for our rights as working people to a decent standard of living.

...supporting the right of all workers to organize and bargain collectively

...fighting for secure family-wage jobs in the face of corporateattacks on working people and our communities

...organizing the unorganized to take aggressive action to secure a better economic future for all of us.

...mobilizing those already organized to join the fight for jobs with justice.

During the next year, I'LL BE THERE at least five times for someone else's fight, as well as my own. If enough of us are there, we'll all start winning.

* Required

2011-03-07T17:24:00.002-07:00

posted by Russell Bannan

REPORT on Emergency Labor Meeting

{Cleveland, Ohio- March 4-5, 2011)

BUILDING UNITY TO DEFEAT UNION-BUSTING AND CONCESSIONS

Ninety-six union leaders and activists from 26 states and from a broad cross-section of the labor movement gathered at the Laborers Local 310 Hall in Cleveland on March 4-5, 2011, in response to an invitation sent out in January urging them to "explore together what we can do to mount a more militant and robust fight-back campaign to defend the interests of working people." [See excerpts from Letter of Invitation and list of endorsers of the meeting in this report-back packet.]

Three weeks prior to the Emergency Labor Meeting (ELM), unionists and community and student activists in Wisconsin unleashed a resistance movement against Governor Scott Walker's union-busting and concessionary attacks that in a short time has breathed new life into the labor movement. The sustained occupation of the State Capitol and the sustained mobilizations in the streets -- including 7,000 people who marched on March 3 "Against All Concessions for Workers" at the initiative of National Nurses United and 50,000 people who rallied on March 5 -- have galvanized working people across the country.

Participants in the ELM took full note of the new situation and of the grave dangers to the U.S. labor movement and to workers' and democratic rights posed by Governor Walker's attacks. They pledged to make the fight against union-busting and the budget cuts/concessions in Wisconsin the centerpiece of an emergency action plan centered on two national days of action called by the labor movement:

*March 12: Participants pledged to go back to their unions and workers' organizations to promote the March 12 Day of Action called by the Wisconsin AFL-CIO. Brother David Newby, President-Emeritus of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, attended the ELM and relayed the proposal from his state federation that all unionists and labor activists in Wisconsin and neighboring states mobilize in Madison on March 12, with labor-led solidarity actions the same day in cities across the country.

*April 4: Participants welcomed the call issued by Larry Cohen, International President of the Communication Workers of America (CWA) to organize on April 4, the anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., a "not-business-as-usual" Nationwide Day of Action at workplaces and communities across the country in support of labor rights. This call has since been supported by the AFL-CIO Executive Board, which is urging "movement-wide dramatic actions" on this day.

Participants agreed to go back to their unions and communities to promote broad support for this April 4 Day of Action in all ways deemed appropriate by unions and community organizations on the ground, including, where possible, industrial actions. They also urged support for these actions around demands that link the struggle in defense of labor rights to the struggle against budget cuts and concessions, and that point to solutions to the federal and state budget deficits, including taxing the rich and the corporations, cutting the war budget, and creating 27 million full-time jobs through a massive public works program (which could be launched immediately and without raising the U.S. budget by a penny with a $1 trillion “Bridge Loan” from the Federal Reserve).

To promote these actions, participants pledged to go back to their cities to build “We Are All Wisconsin!” committees of labor and community activists.

Also, in the event the Walker bill is approved by the Wisconsin legislature, the state’s labor movement has announced that it is prepared to launch a recall campaign designed to remove from office seven members of the Wisconsin Senate. The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO, in fact, has already initiated a fundraising campaign for this purpose. [To send a donation, or for updates on this campaign, go to http://www.wisaflcio.org or call 414-771-0700.]

In Ohio, a bill to deny collective-bargaining rights to public employees is likely to pass in the General Assembly. Ohio labor and its allies are already gearing up to get the bill rescinded through a referendum. To qualify for a referendum for the ballot in Ohio, supporters must gather about 230,000 valid signatures within 90 days after the bill passes and is signed by the governor. The Ohio labor movement is organizing to gather the necessary number. The bill will not be implemented for 90 days regardless, but if the requisite number of signatures is submitted and validated, the bill will be held in abeyance pending the November 2011 election. A bill passed by the Ohio General Assembly in 1997 to gut workers' compensation was never implemented because of a successful labor-led campaign to rescind it through a referendum vote.

Participants in the Emergency Labor Meeting discussed a “Perspectives” document submitted by the ELM Organizing Committee. Changes and additions were made to the text, which will serve as the framework for future efforts undertaken by a Continuations Committee that will emanate from the meeting. [See Perspectives document in this report-back packet.]

Participants also took a stand urging the ELM Continuations Committee, in collaboration with the fighting unions and community organizations, to consider the possibility of organizing in the not-too-distant future a broader and open Labor-Community Conference structured around the points included in the ELM Perspectives document.

Throughout the four panel discussions of the meeting, participants submitted a whole host of proposals and ideas aimed at bolstering the capacity of the labor movement to assert its independence and fight back against the employers’ and government’s offensive. These will be incorporated into a “Tool Box” on the new website that will be set up by the ELM Continuations Committee.

For example, proposals on how best to organize labor-community coalitions, with reports on activities of the “We Are All Wisconsin!” committees in different cities, will be included in the Tool Box. Also included will be articles and proposals geared to helping to educate union members about the roots of the current economic and financial crisis from a working-class perspective. These are just two of the many sections that will be included in the Tool Box. Participants entrusted the new Continuations Committee with the task of publishing as many of these texts as possible in Spanish and other languages, to strengthen the ties with immigrant workers.

Participants left the meeting encouraged by the new fight-back movement in the country and by the necessary contribution to this movement that this ELM effort can provide. All unionists and activists interest- ed in working with the ELM Continuations Committee to advance the goals contained in the ELM Perspectives document should write to <emergencylabor@aol.com>.

PERSPECTIVES APPROVED BY EMERGENCY LABOR MEETING (Cleveland, Ohio – March 4-5, 2011)

As they are doing throughout most countries, the corporate class is using the financial crisis orchestrated by them to launch unprecedented attacks on the job security, living standards, working conditions and useful public services once enjoyed by the working class in the United States. This cold-blooded offensive threatens the very existence of our unions.
Labor movement unity in action -- public and private sector, the two federations and the independent unions -- is indispensable to success in stopping and reversing this assault.
As recent events in Wisconsin have reaffirmed, the key to an effective fight-back is mobilization of the union ranks. We envision a strategy that includes both actions in the workplace and in the streets.
We must go to the streets to defend trade union and democratic rights, as public sector workers are now doing. The right to collective bargaining is a right enshrined in universally recognized Conventions 87 and 98 of the UN-based International Labor Organization (ILO); it is also a human right codified in the UN Charter. In fact, the United States is on trial before world public opinion for violating basic labor rights at home. The ILO ruled recently that the state of North Carolina was out of compliance with international labor standards for denying collective-bargaining rights for public sector workers, and the ILO called on North Carolina and the U.S. government to repeal this ban on collective-bargaining rights.
We must also go to the streets to oppose the concessions demanded by the bosses and the government. There is plenty of money available without demanding givebacks from public employees, but this requires changing our nation's priorities to raise taxes on the rich, redirect war dollars to meet human needs, and more -- all demands that we must place on the federal government. We can no longer effectively deal with such crucial issues as health care and retirement through collective bargaining alone.
We not only defend the social insurance model -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, public education, food stamps, unemployment insurance, etc. -- but demand that these programs be strengthened and improved. And it is high time we follow the example won by our Canadian sisters and brothers decades ago by extending Medicare to all.
Nor can contract negotiations create the 27 million full-time jobs urgently needed today. Since the private sector has failed to do this (in fact, the corporations continue to off-shore good full-time jobs in their continued drive to lower labor costs), we need a public sector that can put America back to work rebuilding our neglected and crumbling infrastructure, revitalizing mass transit, and promoting a sustainable economy. The public sector and public services provide the basic core safety net for human rights.
In fighting for such independent solutions to our country's crises we would return to what once was the bedrock of trade unionism -- our unions champion the needs of the entire working class, including the unemployed, not just our dues-paying members. That approach was what enabled the historic labor victories during the depths of the Great Depression. This is not only the right thing to do; with union density at near record lows we cannot win the big struggles just on our own.
To cement working class unity we reject every attempt to divide us by race, skin color, gender, immigration status, religion, or sexual orientation. This means not only politically correct resolutions but active support to all targets of such pernicious discrimination.
A unified, energized working class could reach out for even wider alliances. There are millions of students, mom-and-pop businesses, family farmers, and others who are being squeezed by the corporate class. Seeking to partner with the Chamber of Commerce and corporate America, however, can only lead to failure for labor and its allies.
Our goals cannot be met while American blood and vast amounts of our tax dollars are being consumed by unjust wars to advance the global corporate agenda. We say end the wars, bring all of our troops home now -- and put the war budget to work for human needs.
Instead of supporting wars of intervention, the labor movement should embrace international worker solidarity. The mutual declarations of support between protesters in Madison and insurgent independent unions in Egypt are a proud example that deserve wide emulation.
Since many of the attacks we face today have bipartisan support, labor must act independently of these two parties. To the extent that the labor movement subordinates its demands to agreements with these parties in the name of "shared sacrifice," it will not be able to defend effectively the interests of its members and of the working-class majority.
The call to protect the right to collective bargaining must include the demand to repeal all laws that prevent workers, such as those in the U.S. South, from having the right to bargain collectively and arrive at enforceable contracts. All laws, such as the Taft-Hartley Act, that prevent the consolidation of strong unions in the Southeast and other regions of the country must be repealed.
We must view organizing the South as fundamental to rebuilding a strong national labor movement in this country.

EXCERPT FROM LETTER OF INVITATION TO THE EMERGENCY LABOR MEETING

“We want this meeting to address how we can spur more effective action by the labor movement to win the creation of millions of new jobs at the expense of Wall Street and the rich; a moratorium on home foreclosures; defense of Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid; protection of pensions; closing the widening gap in economic and social inequality; enactment of the Employee Free Choice Act; redirection of war dollars to meet human needs; and generating federal support for state and city governments that are poised to lay off even more teachers and other public employees, support that includes allocating sufficient resources to ensure that ALL of our children have access to quality public schools and affordable higher education.”

ENDORSERS OF CLEVELAND EMERGENCY LABOR MEETING: Donna Dewitt, President, South Carolina AFL-CIO • David Newby, President Emeritus. Wisconsinate AFL-CIO* • Jos Williams, President, Washington Metro Council, AFL-CIO • Ken Riley, President, International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) Local 1422 • Karen Lewis, President, Chicago Teachers Union (AFT) Local 1* • Henry Nicholas, President, National Union of Hospital and Health Care Employees, AFSCME • Jim Savage, President, USW Local 10-1 • Lew Moye, President, St Louis Chapter, Coalition of Black Trade Unionists • Eduardo Quintana, President, International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local Lodge 933* • David Poklinkoski, President and Business Manager, IBEW Local 2304 • Monadel Herzallah, President, Arab American Union Members Council – USLAW-affiliate • Dominick Patrignani, President IUE-CWA Local 81359 • Jeff Crosby, President, North Shore Labor Council • Traven Leyshon, President Green Mountain Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO • Ron Dicks, International Vice President, International Federation of Professional and Technical Employees (IFPTE)* • Erin McKee, President, Charleston Central Labor Council* • Tim Paulson, Executive Director, San Francisco Labor Council • San Francisco Labor Council, AFL-CIO • Laborers Local 310 • Laborers Local 483 • GEO 6300 (IFT-AFT). • Portland Jobs with Justice • Sonia Ivany, National Vice-President, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, President, New York City, LCLAA • Andrea L. Delgado, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement (LCLAA) • Dennis Serrette, Education Director, Communications Workers of America* • Tom Leedham, Secretary-Treasurer, Teamsters Local 206 • Ashaki Binta, Field Orgnizer, UE* • Sal Rosselli, Interim President, National Union of Healthcare Workers* • Gladys McKenzie, Field Representative, AFSCME Council 5 (Minnesota)* • Phil Qualy, Minnesota State Legislative Director, United Transportation Union* • Mark Dudzic, National Coordinator, Labor Campaign for Single-Payer Health Care* • Saladin Muhammad, member of Black Workers For Justice and Coordinator of UE Local150’s International Worker Justice Campaign • Jesse Sharkey, Vice President, Chicago Teachers Union (AFT) Local 1* • Virginia Robinson, former Treasurer and Reporting Secretary, Cleveland AFL- CIO; retired member, Steelworkers Union • Bill Henning, Vice President, CWA Local 1180 • Gabriel Prawl, ILWU Local 52 ,Executive Co-chair African American Longshore Coalition • Eduardo Rosario, Grievance Representative, AFSCME Local 375, New York City* • John Wagner, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Tri-County Regional Labor Council, AFL-CIO* • Jan D. Pierce, retired Vice President, CWA District One • Ed Sadlowski, Staff Representative, Wisconsin Council 40, AFSCME, AFL-CIO*; Member, Local 938; membership in Council 40 Field and Support Staff Union • Mary Prophet, Co-Chair, Ca Teachers’ Association Peace & Justice Caucus; KPFA Community Advisory Board; Steering Committee, USLAW* • Jerry Tucker, former Intl UAW Exec Board Member; Center for Labor Renewal Co-Founder • David Riehle, United Transportation Union Local 650 Vice-Chairman; past local Chairman 1989-2007 • Chris Silvera, Secretary-Treasurer, Teamsters Local 808 • Sandy Eaton, RN; Chair, National Nurses United Legislative Council* • Dr. Peter Rachleff, professor of history, Macalaster College; author and researcher on U.S. labor, immigration and African American history • Mary Nichols-Rhodes, LPN, Ohio coordinator, Progressive Democrats of America • Dean Gunderson, Minnesota Association of Professional Employees Region 5 Director and past local president • Gregory Cendana, Executive Director, Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO • Bill Fletcher, Jr., Center for Labor Renewal; BlackCommentator.com • Jim Lafferty, UAW Legal Service Workers; Director, National Lawyers Guild Los Angeles • Dr. Jack Rasmus, Member, American Federation of Teachers University Council, University of California Berkley; Former National First Vice President, National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981; former local union Vice President and Business Representative, CWA Local 9415 and SEIU Local 715 • Alan Benjamin, Executive Committee, San Francisco Labor Council; Co-Convenor, Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign • Jim Hamilton, State Executive Committee, Missouri AFT* • Carolyn Park, Steward, AFSCME Local 232* • Mike Carano, Member Teamsters Union Local 348, member, State Council, Single- Payer Action Network Ohio (SPAN Ohio)* • Bill Leumer, Former President, International Association of Machinists Local 565*; Co-Convenor, Workers Emergency Recovery Campaign • Russell Bannan, LCLAA Denver Metro Communication Coordinator; Colorado Jobs with Justice Executive Board; Colorado Young Workers Steering Committee • Bill Onasch, Retired former vice president, ATU Local 1287* • Steve Early, labor journalist, lawyer, and former CWA International Representative; author of Embedded with Organized Labor and The Civil Wars in U.S. Labor • Dan La Botz, National Writers Union/UAW* • Clarence Thomas. Executive Board, ILWU Local 10 • Lenny Potash, Co-Chair Labor United for Universal Healthcare* • Fred Hirsch, Executive Board Member, Plumbers & Fitters Local 393; Delegate to the South Bay AFL-CIO Labor Council and to the Santa Clara and San Benito Counties Building & Construction Trades Council* • Dan Kaplan, Executive Secretary, AFT Local 1493, the San Mateo (CA) Community College Federation of Teachers* • Ann Robertson, Executive Board Member, California Faculty Association – San Francisco State University - Delegate to San Francisco Labor Council* • Allan Fisher, Executive Board Member, AFT Local 2121 - Delegate to San Francisco Labor Council* • Marc Rich, United Teachers Los Angeles delegate to Los Angeles County Federation of Labor* • Paul Bigman, Business Representative, IATSE Local 15; Treasurer, Washington State Jobs with Justice*• Harry Kelber, The World of Labor • Genevieve Morse, member, Massachusetts Teachers Association, shop steward in the Classified Staff Union at the University of Massachusetts Boston and elected delegate to 2010 annual MTA conference • Steve Edwards, President, AFSCME Local 2858, Chicago, IL and Steering Committee member, Public Workers Unite! • Ira Grupper, labor journalist, Louisville KY • Phyliss Walker, President, AFSCME Local 3800 (clerical workers) at the University of Minnesota • Muata Greene, Labor Liaison for EMT’s,Paramedics & Inspectors of FDNY • Lee Sustar, member, National Writers Union/UAW Local 1981; labor journalist • Ron Lare, UAW Local 600, former Local-wide Executive Board member • Bernie Hesse, Political Director and Director of Special Projects, UFCW 1189 (St Paul MN)* • Randy Raskin, Vice General Chairman, United Transportation Union General Committee of Adjustment (UP-former C&NW) St Paul/Minneapolis* • SEIU Local 49 (Portland, OR) • Jerry Gordon, Retired International Representative, United Food and Commercial Workers Union*; Secretary, Emergency Labor Meeting

[* for id only]

SC Union Leader Calls for Possible Nationwide General Workers Strike

2011-03-03T18:52:00.000-07:00

By Corey Hutchins (reporter for the Columbia Free Times)

reposted from Huffington Post

A high-profile South Carolina union leader said Wednesday that he doesn't see any other way for the labor movement to win the battle against an anti-union bill in Wisconsin than to call for a general workers strike if such legislation passes.

Kenny Riley, who heads up the Charleston local 1422 of the International Longshoremen's Association - the largest and most powerful union in the Palmetto State - is a bright star among the national union leadership.

He's heading to Cleveland today for the Emergency Labor Meeting.

Riley will speak in Cleveland on a panel titled "How Can We Help Mobilize the Labor Movement to Fight the Attacks Against Working People?"

Panelists who were also scheduled include Russell Bannan, Colorado Jobs with Justice Executive Board Member; Gladys McKenzie, Field Representative, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Council 5 (Minnesota) and David Newby, President Emeritus, Wisconsin State AFL-CIO.

Riley's main worry is what will happen after all the rallies and protests that brought the debate over workers’ rights and collective bargaining onto the front pages of newspapers and prime-time TV broadcasts.

In Wisconsin, for instance, if Republican Gov. Scott Walker ends up passing a bill that strips collective bargaining rights, what good was all that noise?

"I don't see any other way than [proposing] a general workers strike," Riley says. "I would actually want to have a call for a general strike before the bill is passed."

Riley plans to say as much during the Cleveland meeting tomorrow tonight.

Riley says he's tired of having feel-good meetings and isn't looking forward to listening to labor experts or historians talk in the abstract.

For his part, Riley is ready to move forward with warnings about the prospect of a nationwide general workers strike in response to the anti-collective bargaining legislation in Wisconsin, even if workers never actually have to pick up a picket sign.

"You don't always have to pull the trigger, but you have to pull a gun," he says.

If that sounds strongly worded, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley might have been expecting it.

The newly elected anti-union Republican governor recently took to her Twitter page recently to declare: "The more heavy-handed the unions are with us, the more we are going to talk smack back."

Last year, South Carolina had the third-lowest organized workforce in the country at 4.5 percent, according to the national Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Palmetto State has a bloody history when it comes to unions, including a brutal massacre in the town of Honea Path in 1934 when security forces working for a textile company opened fire on workers attempting to organize.

100,000+ Protest Across America, 3,000 in Denver

2011-02-28T19:10:00.002-07:00

by Nancy Cronk

Rallies were held at state capitols in all fifty states on Saturday, bringing out more than 100,000 Americans to stand in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin. The rallies were a joint effort of MoveOn.org, labor unions, and progressive organizations, and were planned in less than a week. The protests, which were purported to be "the largest rallies since the Vietnam War" on Facebook and Twitter, were held in support of collective bargaining rights for all people.

In Denver, 3,000 people showed up to voice their support, carrying signs that read things like "Cairo-Madison-Denver" and "Unions are the bedrock of the middle class." Immediately following the Denver pro-union rally, a coalition of pro-choice groups rallied against the congressional attacks on women's reproductive rights. Several hundred individuals marched along neighboring streets, and back to the capitol.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was that only five self-identified Tea Party activists were in attendance at the Denver rally.

As a regular rally attendee at the capitol, it was obvious to me Denver's rally was not just the typical rally crowd -- there were many new faces. A number of individuals I interviewed turned out after hearing reports about the rally this past Tuesday, which was estimated at 1,000-1,200 people. Several people said they did not belong to a union, but they believe in them philosophically. As teacher Jodi Katz told me, "If it weren't for unions, there would be no middle class. I'm a teacher and we must stand with other teachers and other union employees. We all want the same things. We need to save our jobs."

I asked a number of people in the crowd their occupations, and how they heard about Saturday's rally in Denver. Several were teachers who said they heard about the rally through MoveOn.org. School social worker Mollie Cullom said she did not hear about it through her union, the Colorado Education Association (CEA), and was disappointed they didn't encourage more members to participate. Retired teacher Robert Katz, a former member of the Denver Classroom Teacher's Association (DCTA), said he heard about the rally on the television news. He called to confirm the details with his union. "They had to put me on hold to look it up."

Several other teachers said they heard about the event through their union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Labor organizer Russell Bannan mentioned it on the radio. According to Bannan,

"This is not just a union issue," said Russell Bannan, who sits on the Board of Director for Colorado Jobs with Justice. "This is an attempt to deny workers--starting with public service workers--the right to collective bargaining, which means having a voice at work. Wall Street crashed the economy and now that's being used as an excuse to take away our rights. Well we are not going to let that happen."

Union members in attendance also included firefighters, truck drivers, grocery workers, communication workers, air traffic controllers, and pipefitters. One man wore his firefighter gear combined with a Wisconsin "cheesehead."

Humans were joined with dozens of canine "protesters," including a few service animals. Several people arrived in wheelchairs, and a number of children arrived in strollers.

In Madison, Wisconsin, the crowd was estimated to be between 100,000-150,000, depending on the source.

Olympia, WA with Dennis Kucinich

Oregon rally:

Chicago, Illinois:

In Minnesota:

In Indiana:

In New Mexico:

From Tuesday in Boston, MA:

Tuesday in Oakland, CA

Albany, NY

RALLY TO SAVE THE AMERICAN DREAM!

2011-02-25T14:30:00.000-07:00

Rally to Save the American Dream

In Wisconsin and around our country, the American Dream is under fierce attack. Instead of creating jobs, Republicans are giving tax breaks to corporations and the very rich—and then cutting funding for education, police, emergency response, and vital human services.

On Saturday, February 26, at noon local time, we are organizing rallies in front of every statehouse and in every major city to stand in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin. We demand an end to the attacks on worker's rights and public services across the country. We demand investment, to create decent jobs for the millions of people who desperately want to work. And we demand that the rich and powerful pay their fair share.

We are all Wisconsin. We are all Americans.

This Saturday, we will stand together to Save the American Dream. Be sure to wear Wisconsin Badger colors—red and white—to show your solidarity. Sign up today to join in!

Find A Rally Near You!

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e-mail you a link to your tools.

2011-02-25T12:12:00.000-07:00

I’LL BE THERE with Wisconsin and working people everywhere!

By jwjnational, on February 25th, 2011

Now more than ever we need to stand together for the right to a decent standard of living, a strong voice at work, and to fight for secure family-wage jobs in the face of corporate backed attacks on working people in Wisconsin and beyond!

For over 25 years, Jobs with Justice has mobilized tens of thousands to take direct militant actions for workers and communities across the country. We have done this through a simple JwJ Pledge that “during the next year, I’LL BE THERE at least five times for someone else’s fight, as well as my own. If enough of us are there, we’ll all start winning.”

CEO and corporations have millions of dollars to put out lies, elect anti-worker puppets, and try to buy our democracy! We will need millions of people to fight back and defend the fundamental human rights of all workers to organize and bargain collectively, and to preserve the right to form unions without intimidation.

Join the fight and take the Jobs with Justice I’LL BE THERE Pledge!

Check out on-going action updates here and help spread the word! On Twitter? Hashtag #jwj with tweets of actions!

"Quit breaking our hearts, Quiznos!" Photo report and Spring Blitz announcement

2011-02-18T11:21:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday we held a sweet little Valentine-themed protest in Denver's Capital Hill outside the first-ever Quiznos restaurant. Our hearts have been breaking because Quiznos can't commit to showing farmworkers the respect they deserve.

Quiznos is still holding out against agreeing to the same Fair Food Code of Conduct that the entire Florida tomato industry has already adopted - a code which improves pays, establishes enforceable standards for worker rights and solidifies farmworkers' voice in the decisions which impact their lives. But we're not going to accept Quiznos' feet-dragging any longer. The question to Quiznos is simply: will the fast-casual sub chain help usher in the new era of dignity for farmworkers or will it continue to maintain a status quo of poverty and sweatshops in the tomato fields of Florida?

We made clear which side we're on; we're on the side of farmworkers - some of the nation's poorest and most exploited workers. Pictured here is a Denver Fair Food member being interviews by a reporter from KGNU.

And as the spokesperson from our delegation made clear while delivering dozens of valentines to the lone Quiznos employee on duty that day, if Quiznos does not join the side of justice for farmworkers, we will be intensifying the protests. In fact . . .

We already made plans . . .

Save the dates

Spring Blitz for Farmworker Justice

Friday, March 18th, 12:00noon

Saturday, March 26th, 12:00noon

Thursday, March 31st (Cesar Chavez Day!), 12:00noon

Locations to be announced.

Join us for a month of actions against Quiznos and for farmworkers' human rights!

The Class War in “Progressive” Wisconsin

2011-02-18T01:31:00.000-07:00

Posted on February 18, 2011 by dsalaborblogmoderator

by Don Taylor

Don Taylor

As I write this, we are in our fourth day of demonstrations against Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s “budget repair” bill and its’ provisions to effectively eliminate public sector collective bargaining. Today, the Democrats in the senate have fled the state, leaving the Republicans one vote short of a quorum to pass the bill. The Democrats say they will not return until the anti-union provisions are off the table.

Disguised as a bill to fix a shortfall in the current budget, this bill would:

Abolish public sector collective bargaining on all topics except wages. There would be no more negotiating leaves of absence, health and safety, discipline for just cause, or anything else. Negotiated wage increases would be capped at CPI; in other words, no real negotiation could occur.
Prohibit public employers from deducting union dues via payroll deduction. This measure is one of several that demonstrate the bill’s true intent, because it represents no savings whatsoever for the taxpayer.
Require all unionized units to hold annual decertification elections. Again, this relates to the budget in no way whatsoever, and is the most blatant example of the ideological agenda behind this bill.
Impose higher employee costs for health care and pensions for state employees.
Institute “right to work” for public employees.

In other words, an existing unionized unit would have to collect hand dues, would be unable to collect payment from free riders, and would be prohibited from negotiating anything except wages at some level below the rate of inflation. Then, as employee discontent grows over a perception that “the union can’t do anything,” along would come the state-mandated annual decertification vote.

The basis for this clearly is not the budget, although that’s the spin put on it by the GOP and the media. “We have to do this,” they cry, “the state is broke!” Just last month, Walker and the Republicans spent $140 million on the establishment of Health Savings Accounts and other special interest expenditures. Now, they say the state is broke, by a coincidental amount of $137 million.

Clearly, the backlash from working families has been enormous. Madison has not seen demonstrations of this size since the Vietnam War. Schools are closed. The University of Wisconsin-Madison is effectively shut down. Every day this week, thousands have converged on Madison, and have held demonstrations around the state. Firefighters and law enforcement officers, although exempt from the bill, have come in massive numbers.

There is no question that this is a coordinated frontal attack; the class war in action. With private sector union density squashed by technological change, globalization, and a rigged legal system, we’ve been warning for years that soon, they’d be coming after the public sector. The day of reckoning has come. Using the economic crisis as a pretext, they are seeking to eradicate the final barrier to the evisceration of the middle class.

The economic impact of passing this bill will be serious. Thousands of public employees across the state (all of whom are willing to “share the pain” in a fair manner) will see immediate reductions in their compensation (which, according to the Economic Policy Institute, is already 8.2% lower than in the private sector). Permanently eliminating employees’ ability to negotiate – even for a future time when the economy is doing well – will permanently reduce the pay of hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin working families. These people will spend less money in their communities as a result – they won’t buy new cars at the local dealership, they won’t take their families out to local restaurants, and they won’t have work done on their homes by local handymen. The economic impact of this bill will be massive, and it will hurt businesses and communities statewide. More than just a “nuclear option” for public sector unions, this bill is a bomb for the Wisconsin economy.

Much more than dealing with our current economic situation, this dismantles employees’ rights forever. It is a permanent, far-reaching attack in response to a temporary – and overstated – problem.

But alas, facts and reality take a back seat to ideology and eliminating political enemies. If Walker and his friends get their way, more than fifty years of stable public sector collective bargaining will be undone in just five days.

If the law passes, what comes next? Will resignation and despair set in? I don’t think so. People on the ground in Madison are living through something transformative right now; this is a struggle and a fight-back unlike anything most folks have ever seen. Transformational learning takes place in lived experience. By being in the streets every day and sleeping in the capitol building every night, people in Wisconsin are re-learning that we have power.

Don Taylor is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin’s School for Workers.

Campaign to Stop Killer coke Movement Erupts!

2011-02-14T12:36:00.000-07:00

Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Update February 13, 2011

The past few months have been busy and productive here on the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke. We enter 2011 optimistic and ready for the challenges that lie ahead. New allies are making us stronger then ever before and the campaign is reaching more and more communities and countries as you read this. We'd like to keep you posted on some of the most recent developments, and encourage you to share your Killer Coke campaign updates with us. Our latest news updates include:

1. Labor Union Support Growing

a. UAW Pres. Bob King Vows to Make International & Local Unions Coke-Free

Our annual trip to Fort Benning in Columbus, GA, to support shutting down the School of Americas (School of Assassins), was a tremendous success. We met hundreds of union members and students eager to bring the fight back to their unions and campuses and committed to ridding their communities of Coca-Cola.

The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Movement Erupts!

A highlight of our time in Georgia was linking up with Bob King, President of the United Autoworkers and other UAW members. Bob has been a fighter on behalf of workers his entire life, and his pledge to "pull Coke out of the International union... and ask our locals to do the same" reaffirms Bob's commitment to human rights around the world.

The UAW has more than 390,000 active members and more than 600,000 retired members in more than 750 local unions in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

Watch this video, which includes Bob King speaking prior to our showing of "The Coca-Cola Case"

In addition, joining us was Jeffrey Wright, the former Coca-Cola Enterprises employee in Atlanta who wrote the book, "What Coca-Cola Did to Stop the Union from Coming In." The book, well-documented by Wright, was written about Coke's corrupt union-busting activities. You can read about the book athttp://www.killercoke.org/literature_books.php.

National Organization of Legal Service Workers, UAW, Local 2320 Passes Boycott Resolution

In June, the National Organization of Legal Service Workers, UAW, Local 2320, passed a resolution at their convention:

RESOLVED, that the National Organization of Legal Service Workers, UAW Local 2320 will ban all Coke products from all its meetings and events;

RESOLVED, that the National Organization of Legal Service Workers, UAW Local 2320, calls on its members to initiate and support campaigns in schools, labor unions and public institutions, etc. to similarly hold The Coca- Cola Company accountable by removing all Coke machines and Coke beverages and banning the sale and advertising of Coke products.

http://www.killercoke.org/resolution_uaw2320.php

UAW Local 2320, AFL-CIO is the union representing the majority of those who work in federally-funded legal services programs across the USA. UAW Local 2320 also represents workers in other types of law offices and in various human services programs.

b. AFSCME Local 1549 Will No Longer Serve Coke

AFSCME Local 1549 represents approximately 18,000 Clerical-Administrative employees in almost every city agency in New York City.

Do Not Buy Coke Products; Coke is unfair to workers

Local 1549 Bulletin, January 2011

Local 1549 Delegates approved a resolution from the Local's Political Action Committee to eliminate serving all Coca-Cola-owned products from union events. This includes all Coke products such as Dr. Pepper and Snapple.*

Coca-Cola is fighting to undermine unionization in its U.S. facilities, is promoting union busting worldwide by outsourcing jobs out of the country and promoting undemocratic measures in other countries. The company is also responsible for polluting drinking water in areas in the United States where it runs factories and exploits children in countries with weak child labor laws.

Coke is bad for you. This is not just because it is full of "empty calories." It is downright anti-worker and antiunion.

Local 1549 will no longer provide Coke and its other products at union meetings once our supply runs out. We urge you to do the same!

* Dr. Pepper and Snapple are not produced by Coca-Cola, but under a June 2010 agreement The Coca-Cola Company paid $715 million to Dr Pepper Snapple Group in exchange for rights to distribute certain Dr Pepper Snapple Group brands, so the Campaign is asking supporters to avoid purchasing any Dr Pepper Snapple beverages. To read more about this agreement go to: http://killercoke.org/dr_pepper.php

c. Denver Area Labor Federation Passes Resolution to Boycott Coke

Russell Bannan, Colorado State Organizing Director for the American Federation of Teachers introduced a motion to boycott all Coca-Cola products at the Denver Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO, meeting on January 27. Delegates passed the motion unanimously. The affiliated organizations of DALF represent more than 130,000 workers.

d. Surrey Teachers' Assn. Shows 'The Coca-Cola Case'

The Surrey Teachers Association in British Colombia, Canada, will be showing "The Coca-Cola Case" in February. The Association is a part of the British Columbia Teachers Federation, which passed a resolution in November 2005 that "the BCTF support workers in Colombia by asking members to join the boycott of Coca-Cola products."

e. Guatemalan Union Leaders at Coke Speak Out

A Guatemalan Coke worker, Armando Palacios, is in exile in the U.S. after an assassination attempt on him failed. Armando joined us at the Shut Down SOA activities in Columbus, Georgia, accompanied by Bob Perillo, who works with International Rights Advocates and lives in Guatemala. Armando spoke at workshops, person-to-person at our table and before more than 800 people at the showing of "The Coca-Cola Case." We are also including an interview with Coke union leader, Jose Alberto Vicente Chavez. Translating for Chavez and Palacios was Bob Perillo:

Interview with Coke Union Leader, Jose Alberto Vicente Chavez Mr. Chavez, along with other victims are plaintiffs in a lawsuit charging Coca-Cola and operations in Guatemala with murder, attempted murder and rape. (http://www.killercoke.org/crimes_guatemala.php)

In this moving interview, Mr. Chavez, accompanied by Bob Perillo in Guatemala, describes how his son and nephew were murdered and his teenage daughter gang raped because of his union activities:

Interview with Coke Union Leader, Armando Palacios

f. The Fight Against Outsourcing: A Tale of Two Countries

(i) Colombian Police Invade Coca-Cola Bottler in Medellin to Prevent Outsourced Workers from Joining SINALTRAINAL

[A key goal of SINALTRAINAL and the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke is to stop The Coca-Cola Company’s global policy of turning employees into non-employees, known as outsourcing or subcontracting.

The vast majority of Coke workers in Colombia who wear Coke uniforms, drive Coke trucks, work in Coke plants and help make huge profits for Coke are subcontracted workers. Outsourced workers receive minimal pay, meager, if any, benefits, have no job security or future with the Company, are fired if they try to join a union and many are mired in poverty.

In April 2007, 16 Coke outsourced workers were fired for joining SINALTRAINAL, the Colombian food workers union. This was a warning to all outsourced workers in the Coca-Cola System: You have no rights! Do not join a union!—Campaign to Stop Killer Coke]

From WORKERS FIGHT, Newsletter of SINALTRAINAL, By Javier Correa, President, SINALTRAINAL

On December 18, 2010, the police entered the Coca-Cola bottler in the city of Medellin, authorized by the president of Coca-Cola. They entered with armored tanks, shields, firing weapons with chemical fumes, intimidating and pressuring the subcontracted workers who were protesting. They militarized the dispute and forced workers to desist and accept verbal commitment of the multinational that promised to resolve the conflict, but simultaneously the workers were notified of their dismissal. Since then, the police remain in the Coca-Cola bottling plant, 24 hours a day, terrorizing workers.

The police are present at all meetings of the factory, even in the restaurant area and workers take their food under pressure. This militarization of the labor dispute is an attack on international humanitarian laws is further evidence of the brutal procedure of Coca-Cola and the warmongering alliance between the military and multinational forces to suppress workers and SINALTRAINAL. Trampling on human rights, violating freedom of association and placing the lives of workers in jeopardy is done with the complicity of the authorities. [Google translation]

(ii) Coke Tunisia: Struggle for Democracy Leads to Union Victory [Against Outsourcing]
February 5, 2011, By Paul Garver
Read Article

"Trade unions played a crucial coordination and organizing role in the mass revolt in Tunisia. Communities in revolt turned to the General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) for coordination and organization as the social movement gathered force. The social upheaval in turn strengthened the unions in their power struggles with transnational companies like Coca-Cola.

"At Coca-Cola's Tunisian bottler SFBT, the union Federation generale de l'alimentation et du tourisme (FGAT-UGTT) seized the opportunity to negotiate an end to agency work and roll back the abusive use of precarious employment contracts. After a series of mobilizations and strikes in the 10 bottling plants, the Coke bottler had to concede the creation of 1000 new permanent positions for workers who had been employed "temporarily" for over four years, and the direct employment of another 1000 agency workers in positions covered by the union contract. These employees would also be made permanent after they had been employed for four years.

"Within Coke's global empire, from India and Pakistan through China and Colombia (to name just a few of the most egregious cases), the abusive practice of sub-contracting workers (sometimes called agency or dispatch labor) is rampant..."

g. Labor Solidarity Activism in the Campaign

To read more about labor solidarity and to download a sample resolution, go to the Labor Solidarity Activism section in our website.

h. How unions can obtain DVDs of "The Coca-Cola Case"

U.S. unions can obtain copies of the film at http://thecoca-colacase.org. There it can be ordered online through PayPal or by sending a donation by check or money order, made out to Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, Cooper Station, PO Box 1004, New York, NY 10276-1004.

Unions outside the U.S. can obtain copies of the film through the National Film Board of Canada by contacting Jenny Thibault, c/o National Film Board of Canada, Postal Box 6100, Centre-ville Station, Montreal (Quebec), H3C 3H5, Canada; Telephone: 514-283-9189; Email: j.thibault@onf.ca

Local 103's huge electronic billboard promoting a showing of "The Coca-Cola Case" was seen by hundreds of thousands of Boston- area commuters. IBEW local 103, the largest building trades local in New England, had earlier removed their Coca-Cola machine and banned Coca-Cola products from their facilities and functions.

I. Thank you Yukon Area Council, PSAC

We want to thank the Yukon Area Council of the Public Service Alliance of Canada for its generous financial contribution and its organizational support for the campaign. Labor unions can support the campaign by making a contribution via PayPal from our website, www.KillerCoke.org or by sending a check made payable to Campaign to Stop Killer Coke and sending it to PO Box 1004, Cooper Station, New York, NY 10276-1004, USA.

2. KillerCoke Campaign Active in the South, Pennsylvania, Canada & Germany

a. Southern Human Rights Organizer's Network Conference

Hundreds of participants at the Southern Human Rights Organizer's Network Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, in December continued their support for the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke. Hundreds of Shut Down SOA/Stop Killer Coke Unthinkable! Undrinkable! posters were carried at a protest demonstration during the conference. Below is a collage of photos showing some of the demonstrators with our signs, led by the Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights.

Southern Human Rights Organizer's Network
http://southernhumanrights.org/

Mississippi Workers Center for Human Rights
http://msworkers.org/

b. Dickinson College

Campaign Director Ray Rogers was invited to speak at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on November 16, 2011 where Coke has an exclusive contract. The packed audience of more than 110 students and faculty when asked if they would like to see Coke off campus, responded with a unanimous "Yes!" All students received Killer Coke buttons, posters and leaflets to help promote the campaign on their campus and beyond.

c. Mt. Allison University

"The Coca-Cola Case" was shown at Mt. Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada, on Jan. 31, 2011. Campaign Director Ray Rogers spoke to the students and answered questions via Skype.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs3kVjgeCRI

d. McMaster University

We received this message from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, in November.

"Our campaign to end Coke's monopoly at McMaster has finally succeeded. It took two referenda in which the undergraduates rejected the exclusive contract and constant work by the campus club called Campus Choice, with its allies, to get this to happen. We are not specially happy that the company that has replaced much of the Coca Cola' machines on campus is Pepsi, but at least Pepsi has not murdered anyone to our knowledge."

We responded to this email with a congratulations and this link to Director Ray Rogers's answer to a question about Pepsi at the University of Alberta.

e. Activists in Germany Chain Themselves to Coca-Cola Truck

Aktivisten ketten sich an Coca-Cola Truck (Dez. 2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAr0Ea5_dbg

The Article in German: [B] Aktivisten ketten sich an Coca-Cola Truck

3. Killer Coke Campaign arrives in New Zealand

Killer Coke Campaign lands in New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand
Report of Ian Hoffmann; Organizer, Corporate Campaign, Inc./Campaign to Stop Killer Coke
December 11, 2010

Eighteen hours ahead of New York, and enjoying the warmest Spring on record, Kiwi's (Kiwi is the nickname used internationally for people from New Zealand, as well as being a relatively common self-reference.) are ready to take on Coca-Cola. Staying in Wellington's largest youth hostel, it was amazing to see the interest people from all over the world have as they delve into the Killer Coke literature I brought. Numerous "Stop Killer Coke" posters will be traveling back to places throughout New Zealand, Australia, Asia, the Americas and Europe.

Sunday, December 12th was truly special. In town for a few days, and docked in the Wellington harbor, was the famous "Sea Shepherd Steve Irwin" ship. Featured on the Animal Planet's "Whale Wars," the Sea Shepherd is a beacon of hope for whales and marine life around the world as it intercepts whaling ships and educates the public as to the concerns of endangered marine life.

On a tour of the ship, we arrived in the kitchen where I began talking to a member of the crew as I handed out literature. Doug was not only familiar with the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, but was also familiar with the "School of America's Watch." (He even asked: "Didn't the SOA change their name?" Indeed they have.) Doug was from Berkeley, CA and has been the "Steve Irwin" carpenter for the past few months. I look forward to hearing about his work with the Sea Shepherd when he returns to the States. Our message of Stopping Killer Coke now travels throughout Antarctica, the South Pacific and around the world with the Sea Shepherd's "Steve Irwin."

On December 13th, I met with representatives of the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand, and also with organizers of the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions regarding the Killer Coke Campaign. Organizers and representatives were eager to join us on the campaign and gladly accepted our literature, posting it throughout their offices. We're looking forward to being in touch with our new allies and thrilled that New Zealand has jumped on board the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke.

4. Upcoming Events

a. St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota, U.S.

St. Olaf College has a Killer Coke campaign in full force, being led by Irene Lawrence. Please join concerned students on February 15, 2011 from 3:00 pm to 8:00 pm at Crossroads at Buntrock Commons as students decide whether to kick Coke out of St. Olaf.

For more information, contact Irene at lawrence@stolaf.edu. St. Olaf College is located at 1520 St. Olaf Avenue, Northfield, Minnesota.

b. Michigan State University, Lansing, MI, U.S.

The film showing of "The Coca-Cola Case" sponsored by MSU Amnesty International will be held on Wednesday, February 23, 2011 at 7:00 pm.

Campaign to Stop Killer Coke Director Ray Rogers will make introductory remarks and respond to questions via Skype after the film showing.

For more information, contact Adam Liter at Literada@msu.edu Location of film showing: South Kedzie Hall, Room 107, MSU campus

c. Surrey Teachers Association, Surrey, British Columbia, Canada

The film showing of "The Coca-Cola Case" sponsored by the Surrey Teachers' Association will be held on Thursday, February 24, 2011 at 4 pm.

For more information, contact Tammy at neuman_t@sd36.bc.ca. Location of film showing: Afgan Chopan Restaurant, 12888 80th Avenue, Surrey. Cost for Surrey Teachers is $5.00/non-members pay for their meal. The film showing is free.

d. Annual Shareholders Meeting of The Coca-Cola Co.

To be held in April 2011; date and place to be determined

WE NEED YOUR PROXIES for Coke's Annual Meeting

We need help to have a presence at Coca-Cola's annual shareholders' meeting. The annual meeting is the only place we can challenge Coke's chief policymakers -- the top executives and members of the company's board of directors— face-to-face. By having a visible presence at the meeting, no stockholder, creditor, other potential investors or stock analysts can say they were not forewarned about the increasing risk in investing heavily in Coke since

Coke is facing hundreds of millions of dollars or more in lost sales, fines, settlements and brand name value.

The Campaign to Stop Killer Coke is working with individuals, other organizations and stockholders to hold Coke accountable around serious labor, human rights, health and environmental abuses. If you or your organization would like to participate in activities around the annual meeting, contact us at (718) 852- 2808 or e-mail us atinfo@killercoke.org.

In early March, stockholders should be receiving their notice of the annual meeting and proxy card from The Coca-Cola Co. If you are not able to attend the annual meeting and would like to help the Campaign, we would like your proxy assigned to us so that others can attend. You can contact us at (718) 852-2808 or info@killercoke.org and we will explain how to transfer your proxy. If proxyholders plan to attend the shareholders' meeting and would like to join us in the activities, please contact us.

Please consider making a donation to the Campaign by check or via PayPal from our website to help defray the expense of the Campaign's presence at the annual meeting.

5. Thank You, Phil Willkie

Phil Willkie, is a veteran labor organizer and grandson of Wendell Willkie, GOP candidate for president who ran in 1940. Phil, a supporter of the Campaign to Stop Killer Coke, contributed the full-page ad that is on the back cover of the February 2011 edition of The Progressive.

This is the ad that appears on the back cover of The Progressive

6. Order Stop Killer Coke Campaign Buttons/Pins/Badges

The Campaign has produced five different buttons/pins/badges with our original graphics. We are asking supporters to contribute according to the following price list. These buttons will make our Campaign visible on campuses, in unions and in the community.

The buttons are all laminated and have pins with clasps. There are five different buttons, which are shown below. Sizes are in the Order Form in our "Campaign Store". Donations for all buttons are $2.50 each plus shipping & handling. These buttons are all union-made. We offer a pack of 10 buttons for $22.00 plus shipping & handling, a pack of 20 buttons for

$40.00 plus shipping & handling and a pack of 100 buttons for $150.00 plus shipping & handling. If ordering packs, you can choose buttons you want in the packs. You can pay through PayPal in our "Campaign Store" or by check. For more info on our buttons, go to http://www.killercoke.org/store.php

So Much Love for Workers' Rights We Can't Stand It!

2011-02-11T18:25:00.000-07:00

SHOW YOUR LOVE FOR WORKERS' RIGHTS!

TWO ACTIONS ON FEBRUARY 12

12:00 NOON: Come to this Valentine's-themed protest at Quiznos and show your love for farmworkers!!!

1275 Grant St. (13th & Grant) the first-ever Quiznos restaurant

Carpool right after the Quiznos action to show your love downtown for Rite Aid workers

1:00 PM: National Valentine’s Action to support Rite Aid workers

Rite Aid, 750 16^th Street, Denver, CO

Contact: Russell Bannan, Colorado JWJ, 303 928-9369, rpbannan@gmail.com

On Any Given Sunday?

2011-02-09T23:45:00.000-07:00

by Zack Mischo

I was expecting the full display of team pride from my brother, the cheese head. That’s right, the Packers have won the Super Bowl, once again bringing the Lombardi title back to “Title Town”. I thought I would be subject to a full on assault of the senses with the nauseating hunter green and “taxicab” gold of the packer faithful, if not the cheese head hat. What I got instead was a sort of nonchalance, heck, even smug attitude towards the victory in this year’s Super Bowl.

While I joke about things like the trivialities of the team colors, what is serious… is the issue of a potential lockout next season. The threatened lockout by billionaire owners looking to line their already fat pockets, in the interest of greed alone, is something that has direct parallels to the theft of the American Dream from workers in general. The theft of millions of jobs, of a guaranteed retirement, of dignity and respect in the workplace, of our homes and even a basic assurance at a chance of survival for our families, has been orchestrated by the kleptocrats, oligarchs and banksters that are members of the same country clubs and sit on the same boards of directors as the billionaire owners of the NFL.

This year’s game was unique in that it featured two teams named for workers and American industry. The Steelers and Packers both have a long history and tradition rooted in the blue-collar cities from which they hail. In fact, when we talk about the greed of the NFL owners, one thing most people do not realize, is the Packers are the only team in the NFL that is not owned by a billionaire or group of billionaires. That’s right; the Green Bay Packers are the only team in the NFL that is owned by the community, by the people. This is a fact that the NFL tried to downplay and not give attention to during the “big game”. Why? The answer, again, is simple greed. At a time when the NFL has never been more popular, the owners are crying poverty and claim that their share of an estimated $1 Billion dollars in operating profit is too small. They don’t want you to know, in the words of Dave Zirin, “…the team from Green Bay stand as a living breathing example that if you take the profit motive out of sports, you can get more than a team to be proud of: you get a Super Bowl Champion.”

Don’t you just feel for these fat-cat owners? In an industry where, in the words of NFL player and NFPLA Executive Committee member Scott Fujita, “We’re the only business with a one-hundred percent injury rate.”, the owners are attempting to crush the player’s Union and steal not just from the pockets of players, but devastate communities around the country by not just locking out the players, but the concession workers, security guards, bar and restaurant workers and others who derive direct benefit from the games played in the form of local income. In most cases the average player’s career is only four years, makes the league minimum, and when discarded by teams and ownership (who talk about “business decisions”), faces a life after football of financial uncertainty, debilitating injuries and health problems. And we’re expected to feel sorry for the owners?

The issue of profit-sharing and an extension of the regular season from 16 to 18 games are the main points of contention between the NFL and the NFLPA. These issues are something that can be directly compared to the current theft from American workers. You heard it before, right? “We need to do more with less” or, “We all need to tighten our belts and share the pain”. In effect, what they’re telling us and what they’re telling the players is, “you need to give more, and expect less compensation. You need to feel the pain, because I’m going to get mine."

The NFLPA and its members have stayed strong and come together as one voice to stand up and say, “Let Us Play”. These guys love their job, do it well, and want to be able to continue to perform at the highest level of competition for their chosen field. It’s no different than us; we want to work, we want to be the best at what we do, we want to contribute – what we don’t want is to be taken advantage of by those who would seek to enrich themselves from our efforts and say that we need to endure needless struggle and sacrifices for their greed.

Corporations are holding on to enormous cash reserves and not hiring, in the interest of depressing real wages for the rest of us. Massive unemployment has led to record home foreclosures. Our jobs, our homes, our chances at a meaningful existence for us and our families are being stolen from us. The NFL has refused to open its books to show how bad they are “hurting” and why they need a bigger share of the profits. Our fight is one in the same - The fight for dignity and respect in the workplace, for safety and security for our families at home and in the workplace, for recognition of the honor in work, for a decent wage. This is the labor exchange and we demand nothing less.

This March marks the expiration of the current CBA, with the owners holding steadfast that if they don’t get what they want from the players, they will be locked out. The NFLPA is standing up to the attacks on its membership; we need to do the same. Kyle Orton, QB of the Denver Broncos and NFLPA player rep has said, “As a proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO, the National Football League Players Association is a part of the world's most responsible labor organization. Fair and equitable compensation along with a safe working environment are legitimate goals of tens of millions of working Americans, including the players of the NFL. As we enter negotiations for a fair and equitable collective bargaining agreement, the interests of our loyal fans and the impact on the very livelihoods of thousands of game day employees are in our thoughts. We are truly blessed to have our sisters and brothers of the AFL-CIO stand with us.” You can help the players in their efforts by going to NFLockout.com and signing a petition demanding the owners let them play, recognizing our common cause with the brothers of the NFLPA and not crossing any picket lines or putting one single dollar in the pockets of greedy owners who refuse to negotiate in good faith. We can help ourselves by keeping in mind (especially with our own contract negotiations around the corner) that we must stand in solidarity and demand the things we need for us and our families, in exchange of the blood, sweat, and tears we give every day, just like the players are doing now.

So, while we look toward the future and the possibility of no football next season, I’d like to ask that you take a minute to consider what the players are asking for, and how their demands are no different from ours in terms our labor exchange with our employer. Also, congratulations to the Packers and their fans….a victory well deserved. In fact, I’m thinking that Green Bay should be held up as the new model, and more closely resembles the moniker – America’s Team (sorry, Claude), than any other. Just don’t ask me to wear that ridiculous cheese head hat!

Action Alert! "Quit breaking our hearts, Quiznos!"

2011-02-08T19:01:00.001-07:00

Come to this Valentine's-themed protest at Quiznos and show your love for farmworkers!!!

Saturday, February 12, 12:00noon
1275 Grant St. (13th & Grant)
the first-ever Quiznos restaurant

For months, Quiznos has promised that it would soon be joining in agreement with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to improve the wages and working conditions of farmworkers who pick tomatoes bought by the company. But the Denver-based fast food chain continues to drag its feet, delaying the dreams of thousands of farmworkers for dignity and justice, and that's breaking our hearts!

Join Denver Fair Food and the Student/Farmworker Alliance to demand that Quiznos make Fair Food a reality!

BACKGROUND:
Florida farmworkers who pick tomatoes are among the nation's most exploited workers: they earn sub-poverty wages, have no right to form unions or to over-time pay, lack traditional employment benefits such as health, sick leave or pensions, and have not received a significant raise in nearly 30 years. At the current rate, a Florida tomato picker must harvest over TWO TONS just to earn the equivalent of minimum wage for a typical 10 hour. In the most extreme situations workers are held in modern-day slavery and forced to work against their will.

In 2001, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers - a grassroots organization of migrant farmworkers based in Florida - and their allies launched the Campaign for Fair Food, calling on retail food industry leaders to address the egregious working conditions and poverty stemming from these companies' high-volume/low-cost purchasing practices. As a result, the CIW has reached historic agreements with McDonald's, Burger King, Subway and others to directly improve farmworker wages and working conditions and set new standards for social responsibility in Florida agriculture.

Despite these breakthroughs, Quiznos - who profits from the exploitation of farmworkers due to the sheer volume of its tomato purchases - has yet to take responsibility. While there has been discussions with the CIW, those talks continue to drag on because Quiznos won't agree to the same Fair Food Code of Conduct that the entire Florida tomato industry has already adopted. Visit ciw-online.org for more info.

What We All Stand to Lose in the NFL Lockout...

2011-02-06T15:22:00.006-07:00

by Russell Bannan

originally posted on www.aftcolorado.blogspot.com as "NFL Players, Fans, and the AFT"

Most of us love football. Not only do we love it, we feel a part of our favorite team. When our team wins, we win. When our team loses, we also feel the pain. And after the Super Bowl, we all may lose football.

The owners of the National Football League are threatening to lockout the players next season unless they take less money and agree to play two more games. More work, less pay. That's not the way we want to relate to our favorite players.

“We want to play,” says Kyle Orton, Quarterback for the Denver Broncos, “fair compensation and a safe workplace is something that all Americans want, including the players of the NFL.”

The National Football League Players Association has launched a petition at NFLlockout.com calling attention to the harm that would come to communities and workers with a lockout.

So when NFLPA Executive Director DeMaurice Smith declares, "We are at war!" he is not just speaking for the 1,600 plus NFL players, he is speaking for the 140,000 working people around the country whose jobs also depend on football games. And he is speaking for all of us who have been asked to work more for less pay.

According to Forbes, “the NFL has never been more profitable by our count with the average team earning $33 million in 2009 in operating profit.” Yet the NFL owners claim the current model will not work in the future. Why? They won't say. They refuse to open up their books or provide sufficient financial information to back up their claim.

"The NFL has never been more popular," says Brian Frederick, Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition, a Washington-based nonprofit fighting to give sports fans a voice on public policy issues and has previously worked with AFT Colorado to call attention to the wasteful spending on sports stadiums. "Yet, the owners want to throw a screeching halt to what we have all helped build for the sake of their own profits. It would be disastrous for everyone."

With each NFL city standing to lose up to $160 million, the NFL owners plan for a lockout is not only a war against the players, but on our communities and on the game we love.

Frederick also pointed to the amount of money cities and states have paid toward NFL stadiums. "Fans and taxpayers around the country have paid at least $6.5 billion for NFL stadiums," he said. "In some cases, like Denver, perfectly good stadiums were torn down in favor of lavish new ones that cost taxpayers hundreds of millions. And now NFL owners are complaining about the costs of stadiums?"

Players, fans, and the AFT are fighting back. Join the fight.

Help block the lockout by going to NFLlockout.com and sign the petition demanding that the NFL owners let them play. Either we all stand together, or we stand to lose jobs in our communities and the game we love.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"As a proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO, the National Football League Players Association is a part of the world's most responsible labor organization. Fair and equitable compensation along with a safe working environment are legitimate goals of tens of millions of working Americans, including the players of the NFL. As we enter negotiations for a fair and equitable collective bargaining agreement, the interests of our loyal fans and the impact on the very livelihoods of thousands of game day employees are in our thoughts. We are truly blessed to have our sisters and brothers of the AFL-CIO stand with us."
-Kyle Orton, Quarterback for the Denver Broncos

The Importance of Being Artist

2011-02-02T16:31:00.004-07:00

By Ricardo Levins Morales
Excerpt of a full article originally published in Reimaging America by New Society Publishers, 1990

Every night, whatever the weather, I step outside and look at the sky. It helps me feel connected to a larger world beyond my city streets -- to my people, scattered across a thousand lands, working, struggling, breathing under the light of this sky. Sometimes the stars seem to shine back to me with the gaze of ancient faces. People who crisscrossed these lands in times long past. People to whose survival we owe our own. The silent night sky reflected their questions and ideas about the world as tonight it does mine. This is my link of intimacy with them. Perhaps another 15,000 years in the future someone else will share these quiet moments and it will be my gaze they imagine in the stars.

I see myself as a representative of that future. As an organizer I’ve learned that without a future it’s difficult to organize the present. If the sun probably won’t rise tomorrow we may as well throw our beer cans on the lawn, our chemicals in the sea, our topsoil to the wind. It there’s no tomorrow then living for the pleasures of the moment, getting it while we can, is a reasonable thing to do.

In my time and in my adopted, second homeland, the United States, hopelessness reaches epidemic proportions. It is the toxic by-product of racial, sexual, class and every other oppression. It weakens our ability to act, to see beyond the “rules of the game” to other ways of being.

In a society governed by lies, cynicism becomes the street corner philosophy. Hope and respect are scorned and hungered for. To be optimistic, in a broad, social sense, is to be regarded as some kind of nut. At the same time, to express hope in a persistent and credible way it to be sought after like a water merchant in the desert.

The fear (worse yet, the resignation!) about nuclear holocaust is one of today’s most widespread and paralyzing expressions of hopelessness. It hangs before our daily lives like a misty curtain, dimming the bright colors of the world. It is the ultimate message of disempowerment: “ In the face of this you are nothing.”

Artists are as infected as anyone else and their art can become a reflection of their people’s nightmares. Much of the art that tries to grapple with the dangers of nuclear weapons does little to challenge the disempowerment. Antinuclear art is usually a desolate wall of grief and fear, inviting viewers or listeners to leave their comfortable life of distraction for one of despair. Some people continue creating scenes of destruction year after year in an apparent hope that someone will come along to reassure them that it just ain’t so.

My impression is that for a brief moment twenty years ago, the mushroom cloud, doomsday art, played a positive role. At a time when the reality of the arms race was hidden from the public mind, these images helped to break the silence. It was a conversation starter. Since then they have tended to reinforce the passivity they were meant to challenge.

When faced with problems that seem bigger than ourselves, we sometimes wait around hoping that sooner or later a grown-up will come along to set things right. Our supposed grown-ups aren’t always so helpful. Their experts blandly assure us that we can run along and play, everything’s under control. Our experts are mesmerized by the deadly scenarios of destruction with which they try to frighten us into action. Your presence, reading this, is a defiance of both scripts. So we must be our own grown-ups and tap our own sources of hope. As artists we must find the resources to work through our own fears if we’re to help our people move through the dangers.

Every inhalation is an act of love. Medical people say that when a person loses hope they stop breathing, they die. In every living human there remains an ember of self-love. It’s the hidden story behind every headline. An ember that when kindled becomes the driving force of history.

Missing that fact means missing the whole story. Sometimes even in our moments of generosity we miss it. Antiwar art of our day often depicts Third World people as mere victims: tortured, beaten down, cheated of life. European and U.S. cartoons against the war in Vietnam fit this pattern, (Vietnamese art did not). This artwork is a form of protest against injustice and as such is praiseworthy. Without the bond of love, however, the acknowledgement of dignity, it remains an act of pity and can never project the power of solidarity.

Art that disempowers is best kept to oneself. This is self-censorship at its best. Being honest with your loved ones does not require saying anything that pops into your head. You remain aware of whether your words will be hurtful or irresponsible. Art seen as the dreamlife of a people is a useful metaphor. But a metaphor is not the same as reality. This one breaks down because with art we have the tremendous power to choose what we say. Thus, art becomes conscious dream-telling, responsible creation with the potential to affect the life of our people.

We artists have no special answers unavailable to other people. What we have is work that’s intricately entangled in our people’s dreams, hope, and self-images. Like it or not, we are part of society’s process of dreaming, thinking, and speaking to itself, reflecting on our past and finding new ways forward. Our greatest challenge is to accept that what we do with our work and our lives is exactly as important as we believe our people and their world to be.

Ricardo Levins Morales is an artist/activist...or is it activist/artist? It's impossible to put one before the other or separate them. The work on his website represents artwork which he has created, sometimes on his own and sometimes in relationship with organizations, communities and organizers. He believes that art can contribute to changing people's perceptions, hearts and understandings of what has been, what is and what's possible. He's enough of an organizer to understand that art can't do it alone; people getting together and acting together is the real source of social change. The dignity and possibility in all people is the underlying message of his work.

Audiotape of my talk at war and conscience weekend

2011-01-28T10:33:00.001-07:00

TUESDAY, JANUARY 25, 2011

by Alan Gilbert

Here is the tape of my keynote speech at the War and Conscience Weekend at the Unitarian Church in Golden on October 23. It can also be downloaded here. In the talk, I explore what I call exemplary activism, the psychology and leadership of radical activists of conscience, like Daniel and Phillip Berrigan, who regardless of what any one in a hierarchy tells them especially that of the Catholic Church, act to save humanity. The challenges of militarism are real; the actions, even if the press does not notice, even if they spend years in jail and even if a New York Times book reviewer regrets the poor, weak wings of a jet on which an 85 year old Daniel Berrigan beat with his ostensibly John Henry like fists…Berrigan could do no other. Seehere and here.

I distinguish these acts from other, more mass forms of political, and often nonviolent resistance, such as the repeated wave of strikes against the war at Columbia, Kent State, Jackson State et al (I took part in the Harvard strike of 1969) and large demonstrations in Washington. These are mass political actions designed to bring the war or war-supporting entities to a halt.

The distinction is not rigid. In Tunisia, Mohammed Bouazizi burned himself. This, too, was an exemplary act. But then ordinary people rose up and overthrew the US and French-sustained tyrant Zine El Abedine Ben Ali. In Vietnam, Thich Quang Duc burned himself - there is an eerie photo of his sitting calmly in a meditation position in the flames. This awakened the conscience of the world and inspired many to resist (though Thich Nat Hanh came to the United States, ultimately influencing King’s decision to give his speech on Vietnam on April 4, 1967, because he realized that the way of his friend was not sufficient). Norman Morrison, a Quaker, followed Quang Duc’s example at the White House with less startling though I think still profound results. This is a particularly terrifying form of exemplary activism, one whose sadness there are no words to express.

Often, exemplary activism ends in jail or death, and without sparking the huge movement against injustice for which it is an angry prayer. John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry, leading a multiracial band of 50 activists, is a paradigm. And yet when the South hanged Brown, the gatherings all over the North and Canada, led by Thoreau and Emerson (Emerson spoke of “the gallows glittering like the cross”), mobilized abolitionist sentiment from below, repelled the slave-owners, and crystallized Civil War. Blue coats marched into battle singing “John Brown’s body lies amouldering in the grave, but his soul goes marching on.” The Battle Hymn of the Republic ingloriously replaces these too honorable and incendiary words. Julia Ward Howe, who wrote it, is a great figure, but the supplanting of one by the other still has this fairly racist significance. What the Battle Hymn says wrongly is that ours is not a republic of freedom upheld by great struggles against the odds to overthrow slavery for which many paid with their lives. Yet at its best as in “John Brown’s body,” America is, “America will be,” as Langston Hughes put it.

I detail the war complex, the “great demonic destructive suction tube at war with the poor” in Martin Luther King’s words. Recently, Deborah Avant spoke at my school of the increasing role of mercenaries, privately manipulated by the Executive in American wars beyond any popular, democratic or Congressional control. Of course, the mercenaries, 7 for every 3 soldiers currently in Afghanistan, have also eaten out the military from within; as I have emphasized elsewhere, the American military is now a privatized shadow. See here and here. But Avant brought up a 2004 Bush escalation which she asked how many people, in an audience of 100, at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, knew about. Not one of us did (not even me, who, a scholar of these matters and anti-War activist, would certainly aspire to know such things). Bush sent 70,000 mercenaries into Iraq without a whisper of public discussion…

I recently spoke with my dean Chris Hill, who had just left the foreign service as ambassador to Iraq in August before coming to the University of Denver. He told me there were 50,000 troops but 72,000 mercenaries still there: a total of 122,000. Outside the corporate press, the figure 75,000 mercenaries has occasionally appeared. But in the New York Times, even last week, the figure of American occupying troops was 55, 000 rather than 127,000. Avant hopes that her research, and perhaps democratic attention will lead to the corporate press responding. She emphasizes the remarkably anti-democratic character of these arrangements; they strengthen what Schmitt and Strauss (see here, here, here, and here) call sovereignty or Fuehrer power – Schmitt on the Night of the Long Knives in 1934 – or “commander in chief power.” This is a frightening development in its independence from democratic scrutiny or control. I hope she is right about protest and urge everyone to expose these practices and act against them. But militarism, as King says, is a great weight. It extends, through the war complex even into last week’s dishonest coverage of the somewhat diminished occupation of Iraq under Obama. May this war and conscience weekend be the first of many exemplary and mass acts of resistance…*

*The church did not lend itself to recording. I would like especially to thank Scott Houck and Adrienne Christy for painstakingly creating a good tape.

ALAN GILBERT: is john Evans professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and author of Marx's Politics:Communists and Citizens (Rutgers, 1980), Democratic Individuality (Cambridge, 1990), Must Global Politics Constrain Democracy (1999) and Emancipation and Independence (Chicago 2009 fortchcoming), Gilbert is also an active member of the Metro State Faculty Federation, AFT Colorado and an activist with Colorado Jobs with Justice.