Labor Day -Solidarity

 

A demonsration per day keeps the fascists away, 

Solidarity

 

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

—Martin Niemöller

 

This quote is attributed to a prominent German pastor Martin Niemöller. 

After World War II, Niemöller openly spoke about his own early complicity in Nazism and his eventual change of heart. His powerful words about guilt and responsibility still resonate today.

 

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez - Solidarity Is the Strategy. UAW

AOC Speaks at UAW Strike Rally Solidarity IS the strategy

Los Angeles Teacher _ The Strike

My name is Mark Campbell. As a UTLA public high school English teacher and DSA-LA member, I appeal to you to consider giving a donation to the Reclaim Our Schools UTLA Strike Fund.

My brothers and sisters, the 31,000 UTLA teachers who will strike, do so at great risk of their personal and professional well-being. There is every indication the Los Angeles Unified School District will make every attempt to prolong the strike in an attempt to weaken the union’s attempt to improve the school and classroom environment for the over 600,000 students who attend classes in the district’s schools.

Although 98% of us authorized this strike and are prepared to go the long haul to guarantee its success, a strike of this magnitude brings along with it a number of challenges. Teachers will be on the picket line each and every day without pay for the duration of the strike.

Like too many of us are all too familiar with, my comrades live paycheck-to-paycheck, have pressing healthcare issues, and children of their own, also students in LAUSD public schools.  Any amount you can contribute will help in any of a number of ways to alleviate some of the stress teachers will inevitably encounter. Thank you for supporting UTLA teachers and this crucial moment in the history of public education.

The Honduran Exodus

International Call to Action for the Refugee Caravan and Central American Exodus

As thousands of our refugee relatives—children, elders, brothers, sisters, LGBTQI+ siblings and people with disabilities—make their way to the border, we are calling for an InternationalDay of Action in Solidarity with the Caravan and Exodus from Central Americaon Sunday, November 25^th, 2018.We, an ad-hoc Migrant and Refugee Solidarity Coalition, composed of migrant rights and social justice groups, invite individuals and organizations across the country and globe to organize demonstrations in their cities, and if they have the capacity, to join our rally and march to the border.  

We call for an action on November 25th to commemorate the anniversary of the 2017 Honduran election stolen by the US government-backed, right-wing military dictator Juan Orlando Hernández (JOH). We are demonstrating on this day to acknowledge and draw attention to the current social and political crises driving the exodus from Central America. We understand that these crises—drug wars, military coups, destruction of indigenous lands for the benefit of corporations, and environmental catastrophe in the region—are all symptoms of US foreign policy, corporate profiteering and war-making. 

Moreover, we see that the Trump administration is creating a warlike atmosphere against the caravan. It should be clear that they are not just acting with the support of a cabinet of white supremacists and a majority GOP in the Senate but are also emboldened by the last few decades of bipartisan militarization of the border, mass raids, expansion of for-profit detention centers, and mass deportations—with more than 2.5 million migrants under Obama and Trump alone. Further, these policies are a continuation of a long history of anti-Indigenous colonial violence and genocide.

These attacks have been complemented by decades of pushback against the migrants’ rights movement and years of terror against all who participated in the mega marches for Migrant’s Rights back in 2006 and since. We must continue to build and consolidate our gains no matter how large or small. 

Legal precedent, “civility,” regard for life: the administration has no respect for any of it. The only thing that it responds to is resistance from below.

The US government, as with all governments, and the people of the United States have a choice: We can reject the humanity of the refugees and buy into the racist anti-migrant rhetoric of the Administration and the media. OR, we can do what humans have an obligation to do and what the US government owes the people of Central America: insist on allowing all the refugees the right to seek asylum!

Demands

1. Respect for the right of asylum for all members of the Central American Exodus. Stop the profiling and criminalization of refugees; lift the executive order limiting access to asylum. 
2. Process all asylum claims made at Ports of Entry with expediency. We reject Custom and Border Protection’s claim that Port of Entries lack capacity to let in refugees. We also reject the shift away from decades of international asylum agreements that allow for requests to be made anywhere on the border.
3. The US government must publicly acknowledge a) its role in Honduran Coup in 2009, b) that the Honduran government is a US supported dictatorship, and c) recognize the political and social crises throughout Central America as caused by US foreign policy. 
4. Call for international solidarity beyond the US and Mexico. The United Nations and Red Cross must also recognize the Humanitarian crisis at the US/Mexico Border.
5. We demand freedom for incarcerated migrants now and free movement for asylum seekers. No incarceration of migrants in shelters or for-profit detention centers.
6. No impunity for governments that violate international asylum agreements and processes. Prosecute officials who violate the human right to seek asylum in any country of their preference.

Endorsing Organizations: 

Pueblo Sin Fronteras

Otay Mesa Detention Resistance

Union Del Barrio 

People over Profits 

QTPOC colectivo

American Federation of Teachers 

Border Angels, San Diego

Defend Boyle Heights

Yano Project

Cosecha

Democratic Socialists of America- San Diego Chapter

Democratic Socialists of America – Immigrants’ Rights Committee

International Socialist Organization

The legacy of Cesar Chavez and the economic crisis of 2011

Cesar Chavez and Duane Campbell,1972

 César Chávez:

By  Duane E. Campbell

On March 31, 2011, California and ten  other states will celebrate the life and work of labor organizer Cesar Chavez.  State workers will have the day off.  Ironically, however, farm workers will not.  It is interesting that these states take a day off to recognize the contributions of a labor leader while cutting vital services for poor people.   Meanwhile the spirit of Cesar Chavez lives on in the struggle for union rights and justice in the fields of California, Ohio, and Florida as well as  in the struggles for union rights and workers dignity in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania.  What can we learn from the creation of the UFW that is useful today?

 Along with Dolores Huerta, Philip Vera Cruz, and others, César created the United Farm Workers  (UFW) the first successful union of farm workers in  U.S. history.  There had been more than ten prior attempts to build a farm workers union.

            Each of the prior attempts to organize farm worker unions were destroyed by racism and corporate power. Chávez chose to build a union that incorporated the strategies of social movements and community organizing  and allied itself  with the churches, students,  and organized labor.  The successful creation of the UFW changed the nature of labor organizing  in the Southwest  and contributed significantly to the growth  of Latino politics in the U.S. The UFW has shown unions that immigrants can  and must be organized.   

        César Chavez, Dolores Huerta,  Philip Vera Cruz, and others deliberately created a multiracial organization, Mexican immigrants,  Mexican American, Filipino, African-American, Dominican, Puerto Rican and Arab workers, among others, have been part of the UFW.  This cross racial organizing  was necessary in order to combat the  prior divisions and exploitations of workers based upon race and language. Dividing the workers on racial, language lines and immigration status  always left the corporations the winners.

We can afford to re-hire teachers

  If the U.S. can spend millions to bomb Libya (see below) then the government can spend millions to re-hire the thousands of teachers that have been laid off this year, and the tens of thousands scheduled for lay offs next year.

  Leaders in the Tunisian Federation of Labor, themselves organizers  of the mass mobilization that led to the overthrow the Tunisian Dictator called for support of the Libyan revolution and for support of Tunisian unions and the  Egyptian Democracy Movement  at a solidarity dinner held by  the Sacramento Central Labor Council and the California Labor Federation  in Sacramento on March 20, 2011.  Delegates and members of community based organizations heard a direct report from the leaders of the labor side of the mass mobilizations.  The Tunisian revolution was the first of the over 6 major revolutions presently changing the nature of politics and freedom in the Middle East.  The success of the Tunisian revolution sparked the hopes and encouraged the other revolutions.

            Labor unions in Tunisia were  suppressed by the government for over two decades.  These labor union leaders  have been active in the resistance to the dictatorship for these decades.

             As of today, the Libyan revolution is still being resisted by the armed forces of Colonel Gadafi with planes, tanks and guns.  Non violent  revolutions are shaking Yemen and Bahrain (where oil workers are on strike), among others.  The revolutionary movement in Egypt has won initial success, by toppling the Murbarak dictatorship,  but consolidation of the revolution is still precarious.

Rep. Kucinich Fires Up Madison Workers' Rights Rally

Oppose attacks on union workers - Wisconsin and California

Brothers and sisters, 

Last night in Madison, Wis., in the dead of night, Senate Republicans rammed through a bill that strips Wisconsinites of the collective bargaining rights their parents and grandparents bargained for, marched for, went on strike for and sometimes even died for. 

This assault on workers' freedom will not stand.

As the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO said last night: 

"Scott Walker and the Republicans' ideological war on the middle class and working families is now indisputable, and their willingness to shred 50 years of labor peace, bipartisanship and Wisconsin's democratic process to pass a bill that 74 percent of Wisconsinites oppose is beyond reprehensible." 

What we saw in the dead of night in Wisconsin wasn't democracy. It was back-door deal-making, partisan politics taken to the limit. That isn't worthy of America. And working Americans simply won't stand for it. Not in Wisconsin, and not anywhere.

Brothers and sisters, it's time to turn outrage into action. 

Take action now: Tell your CA state legislators that what happened in Wisconsin last night is unacceptable in any state: [http://act.aflcio.org/c/18/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1691 ].