Sentenced to Jail Time: Women Soldier Stands Firms in Refusal to Serve
- Courage to resist.org -
FT. BENNING, GA Army National Guard Specialist Katherine Jashinski received a bad conduct discharge today and was sentenced to 120 days confinement after pleading guilty to the charge of refusal to obey a legal order. She was acquitted of the more serious charge of missing movement by design. With 53 days already served (on Fort Benning), and 20 days off for good behavior, Ms. Jashinski has 47 days of confinement remaining.
On November 17, 2005, Jashinski made a public statement of conscientious objection on the eve of her scheduled deployment to Afghanistan. Eighteen months after filing, the Army denied her application for a discharge. She was then court-martialed for refusing to train with weapons. Jashinski’s superiors testified that they believed in the sincerity of her CO claim, and the Judge noted that he was convinced of the same.
Aidan Delgado and Camilo Mejía, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, attended Ms. Jashinski’s trial today to support her. They described the atmosphere of the courtroom as initially tense, but said that Jashinski’s powerful heartfelt testimony changed the tone of the room.
Iraq Veterans Against the War supports the right of every soldier to follow their conscience, said Delgado. As the first woman GI to publicly take a stand against this war and to declare herself a CO, Katherine’s actions are very significant. She is a fine example of a young person standing up for her beliefs.
Ms. Jashinski is feeling triumphant and happy to have resolution. After completing her sentence she will return to school at the University of Texas at Austin and continue her work with the newly founded Austin GI Rights Hotline.
Read the complete article
FT. BENNING, GA Army National Guard Specialist Katherine Jashinski received a bad conduct discharge today and was sentenced to 120 days confinement after pleading guilty to the charge of refusal to obey a legal order. She was acquitted of the more serious charge of missing movement by design. With 53 days already served (on Fort Benning), and 20 days off for good behavior, Ms. Jashinski has 47 days of confinement remaining.
On November 17, 2005, Jashinski made a public statement of conscientious objection on the eve of her scheduled deployment to Afghanistan. Eighteen months after filing, the Army denied her application for a discharge. She was then court-martialed for refusing to train with weapons. Jashinski’s superiors testified that they believed in the sincerity of her CO claim, and the Judge noted that he was convinced of the same.
Aidan Delgado and Camilo Mejía, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, attended Ms. Jashinski’s trial today to support her. They described the atmosphere of the courtroom as initially tense, but said that Jashinski’s powerful heartfelt testimony changed the tone of the room.
Iraq Veterans Against the War supports the right of every soldier to follow their conscience, said Delgado. As the first woman GI to publicly take a stand against this war and to declare herself a CO, Katherine’s actions are very significant. She is a fine example of a young person standing up for her beliefs.
Ms. Jashinski is feeling triumphant and happy to have resolution. After completing her sentence she will return to school at the University of Texas at Austin and continue her work with the newly founded Austin GI Rights Hotline.
Read the complete article
“I believe in humanity”: Resisting Illegal War and Occupation Is Not a Crime
- Statement of Army SPC Katherine Jashinski -
My name is Katherine Jashinski. I am a SPC in the Texas Army National Guard. I was born in Milwaukee, WI and I am 22 years old. When I graduated high school I moved to Austin, TX to attend college. At age 19 I enlisted in the Guard as a cook because I wanted to experience military life. When I enlisted I believed that killing was immoral, but also that war was an inevitable part of life and therefore, an exception to the rule.
After enlisting I began the slow transformation into adulthood. Like many teenagers who leave their home for the first time, I went through a period of growth and soul searching.
I encountered many new people and ideas that broadly expanded my narrow experiences. After reading essays by Bertrand Russel and traveling to the South Pacific and talking to people from all over the world, my beliefs about humanity and its relation to war changed. I began to see a bigger picture of the world and I started to reevaluate everything that I had been taught about war as a child. I developed the belief that taking human life was wrong and war was no exception. I was then able to clarify who I am and what it is that I stand for.
The thing that I revere most in this world is life, and I will never take another person’s life. Just as others have faith in God, I have faith in humanity
I have a deeply held belief that people must solve all conflicts through peaceful diplomacy and without the use of violence. Violence only begets more violence. Because I believe so strongly in non-violence, I cannot perform any role in the military. Any person doing any job in the Army contributes in some way to the planning, preparation or implementation of war.
For eighteen months, while my CO status was pending, I have honored my commitment to the Army and done everything that they asked of me. However, I was ordered to Ft. Benning last Sunday to complete weapons training in preparation to deploy for war.
Now I have come to the point where I am forced to choose between my legal obligation to the Army and my deepest moral values. I want to make it clear that I will not compromise my beliefs for any reason. I have a moral obligation not only to myself but to the world as a whole, and this is more important than any contract.
I have come to my beliefs through personal, intense, reflection and study. They are everything that I am and all that I stand for. After much thought and contemplation about the effect my decision will have on my future, my family, the possibility of prison, and the inevitable scorn and ridicule that I will face, I am completely resolute.
I will exercise my every legal right not pick up a weapon, and to participate in war effort. I am determined to be discharged as a CO, and while undergoing the appeals process, I will continue to follow orders that do not conflict with my conscience until my status has been resolved. I am prepared to accept the consequences of adhering to my beliefs.
What characterizes a conscientious objector is their willingness to face adversity and uphold their values at any cost. We do this not because it is easy or popular, but because we are unable to do otherwise. Thank you.
Statement read near Fort Benning gate, November 17, 2005
Read the complete article
My name is Katherine Jashinski. I am a SPC in the Texas Army National Guard. I was born in Milwaukee, WI and I am 22 years old. When I graduated high school I moved to Austin, TX to attend college. At age 19 I enlisted in the Guard as a cook because I wanted to experience military life. When I enlisted I believed that killing was immoral, but also that war was an inevitable part of life and therefore, an exception to the rule.
After enlisting I began the slow transformation into adulthood. Like many teenagers who leave their home for the first time, I went through a period of growth and soul searching.
I encountered many new people and ideas that broadly expanded my narrow experiences. After reading essays by Bertrand Russel and traveling to the South Pacific and talking to people from all over the world, my beliefs about humanity and its relation to war changed. I began to see a bigger picture of the world and I started to reevaluate everything that I had been taught about war as a child. I developed the belief that taking human life was wrong and war was no exception. I was then able to clarify who I am and what it is that I stand for.
The thing that I revere most in this world is life, and I will never take another person’s life. Just as others have faith in God, I have faith in humanity
I have a deeply held belief that people must solve all conflicts through peaceful diplomacy and without the use of violence. Violence only begets more violence. Because I believe so strongly in non-violence, I cannot perform any role in the military. Any person doing any job in the Army contributes in some way to the planning, preparation or implementation of war.
For eighteen months, while my CO status was pending, I have honored my commitment to the Army and done everything that they asked of me. However, I was ordered to Ft. Benning last Sunday to complete weapons training in preparation to deploy for war.
Now I have come to the point where I am forced to choose between my legal obligation to the Army and my deepest moral values. I want to make it clear that I will not compromise my beliefs for any reason. I have a moral obligation not only to myself but to the world as a whole, and this is more important than any contract.
I have come to my beliefs through personal, intense, reflection and study. They are everything that I am and all that I stand for. After much thought and contemplation about the effect my decision will have on my future, my family, the possibility of prison, and the inevitable scorn and ridicule that I will face, I am completely resolute.
I will exercise my every legal right not pick up a weapon, and to participate in war effort. I am determined to be discharged as a CO, and while undergoing the appeals process, I will continue to follow orders that do not conflict with my conscience until my status has been resolved. I am prepared to accept the consequences of adhering to my beliefs.
What characterizes a conscientious objector is their willingness to face adversity and uphold their values at any cost. We do this not because it is easy or popular, but because we are unable to do otherwise. Thank you.
Statement read near Fort Benning gate, November 17, 2005
Read the complete article
Tonawanda: Picket Against Military Recruiting
The Buffalo War Resisters League (BWRL) held their 46th weekly Saturday picket. Participants picketed at the Sheridan Drive military recruiting offices in the Town of Tonawanda, taking their stand that aggressive war is a terrible crime against humanity. The two-hour picket opposed deceptive and abusive military recruiting and also highlighted the massive illegal Pentagon database of children aged 16-25.
On Wednesday, May 17, after the downtown picket, BWRL held the first of more-to-come “surprise” weekday afternoon pickets at Sheridan Drive from 6 to 7pm. The goal of the military is to enlist/enslave 100,000 children this summer, so BWRL is going to be stepping up its presence at Sheridan.
The recruiters were clearly surprised, and the Town of Tonawanda police felt it necessary to stop and observe, but otherwise did not interfere. The youth in the Marines’ DEP (delayed entry program) came out to exercise in the parking lot. They were singing a USMC cadence song that goes “When I get to Iraq.” This was just one indication of the conditioning of the youth to submit to military demands to commit war crimes.
At the picket, participants were approached by a young man on active duty who was walking home from the VA hospital (on Bailey) to the City of Tonawanda, carrying numerous psychiatric medications. He told us how he is suffering mentally from his experiences in Iraq, and that he has been so traumatized he has lost everything, including his marriage and his home. He is also facing a variety of criminal charges. He was very glad to see the protest and appreciated the support.
The picket at Sheridan was an important one for the organizing work and it serves to show the recruiters that BWRL will be “bird-dogging” them throughout the summer to help stop recruitment of the youth to fight in unjust and illegal wars.
To learn more about the weekly Saturday Sheridan Drive picket, send email to geoffreysnyder@yahoo.com.
Read the complete article
On Wednesday, May 17, after the downtown picket, BWRL held the first of more-to-come “surprise” weekday afternoon pickets at Sheridan Drive from 6 to 7pm. The goal of the military is to enlist/enslave 100,000 children this summer, so BWRL is going to be stepping up its presence at Sheridan.
The recruiters were clearly surprised, and the Town of Tonawanda police felt it necessary to stop and observe, but otherwise did not interfere. The youth in the Marines’ DEP (delayed entry program) came out to exercise in the parking lot. They were singing a USMC cadence song that goes “When I get to Iraq.” This was just one indication of the conditioning of the youth to submit to military demands to commit war crimes.
At the picket, participants were approached by a young man on active duty who was walking home from the VA hospital (on Bailey) to the City of Tonawanda, carrying numerous psychiatric medications. He told us how he is suffering mentally from his experiences in Iraq, and that he has been so traumatized he has lost everything, including his marriage and his home. He is also facing a variety of criminal charges. He was very glad to see the protest and appreciated the support.
The picket at Sheridan was an important one for the organizing work and it serves to show the recruiters that BWRL will be “bird-dogging” them throughout the summer to help stop recruitment of the youth to fight in unjust and illegal wars.
To learn more about the weekly Saturday Sheridan Drive picket, send email to geoffreysnyder@yahoo.com.
Read the complete article
Demand June 14 Union Meeting Be Used to Discuss Proposals: Step Up the Discussion on the Contract at All Garages
- Transit Workers Discussion Group -
Transit workers at Frontier garage invite and encourage everyone to discuss together our demands for the contract. To involve people in this discussion and take it to all garages, we are posting a Contract Demands Board for everyone to list their demands and vote on those they think are most important. We put a board up at Frontier to start, and immediately drivers gathered to make suggestions, discuss and vote for the issues of greatest concern to them. We will also take a Contract Demands Board to the Cold Springs and Babcock garages.
Based on discussion we have had, we put the demands for bathrooms and time to use them and no concessions on healthcare at the top of the list. At Frontier, workers have already added demands to decrease the time it takes for newer drivers to reach the full pay scale, to increase wages for Metrolink drivers and other demands. In targeting these issues, drivers are expressing their drive to reject company efforts to divide the workers. They are acting to block the company efforts to pit younger and older workers, or Metrolink and regular drivers, against each other, using the different pay scales.
The experience at Frontier has already been very positive. Everyone is encouraged to join in the discussion and place their demands on the poster board. We are also calling on everyone to make their mark in favor of the demands listed and join with us in going to Cold Springs and Babcock.
The main aim in these efforts is to make sure we workers together decide the demands for the contract. The contract between NFTA-Metro and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1342 expires July 31, 2006. We need to determine the main issues to fight on.
The union has said that the June 14 meeting will be used discuss the contract. So we also encourage everyone to come out for that meeting, demand full discussion and call on the union to unite with the demands we workers have decided on. It is up to all of us to decide, not a handful of people at the top — that is what democratic decision -making is all about. The Contract Demands Boards will be brought to the union meeting June 14.
Join in the discussion. Make your demands. Let’s make our claim for our rights! Volunteer to go to other garages. Let’s take action to strengthen our unity and common thinking by all standing together to say: Concessions Are Not Solutions! All for One and One for All!
June 14 Union Meeting
American Legion Post
533 Amherst St.
10:00am & 7:30pm
Read the complete article
Transit workers at Frontier garage invite and encourage everyone to discuss together our demands for the contract. To involve people in this discussion and take it to all garages, we are posting a Contract Demands Board for everyone to list their demands and vote on those they think are most important. We put a board up at Frontier to start, and immediately drivers gathered to make suggestions, discuss and vote for the issues of greatest concern to them. We will also take a Contract Demands Board to the Cold Springs and Babcock garages.
Based on discussion we have had, we put the demands for bathrooms and time to use them and no concessions on healthcare at the top of the list. At Frontier, workers have already added demands to decrease the time it takes for newer drivers to reach the full pay scale, to increase wages for Metrolink drivers and other demands. In targeting these issues, drivers are expressing their drive to reject company efforts to divide the workers. They are acting to block the company efforts to pit younger and older workers, or Metrolink and regular drivers, against each other, using the different pay scales.
The experience at Frontier has already been very positive. Everyone is encouraged to join in the discussion and place their demands on the poster board. We are also calling on everyone to make their mark in favor of the demands listed and join with us in going to Cold Springs and Babcock.
The main aim in these efforts is to make sure we workers together decide the demands for the contract. The contract between NFTA-Metro and the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1342 expires July 31, 2006. We need to determine the main issues to fight on.
The union has said that the June 14 meeting will be used discuss the contract. So we also encourage everyone to come out for that meeting, demand full discussion and call on the union to unite with the demands we workers have decided on. It is up to all of us to decide, not a handful of people at the top — that is what democratic decision -making is all about. The Contract Demands Boards will be brought to the union meeting June 14.
Join in the discussion. Make your demands. Let’s make our claim for our rights! Volunteer to go to other garages. Let’s take action to strengthen our unity and common thinking by all standing together to say: Concessions Are Not Solutions! All for One and One for All!
June 14 Union Meeting
American Legion Post
533 Amherst St.
10:00am & 7:30pm
Read the complete article
Upcoming Events
Buffalo
“Let Them Eat Cake”
Saturday, May 27, 10AM
Elmwood at Bidwell
Veterans for Peace and artist Cindy DeFelice present antiwar artwork titled “Let Them Eat Cake.” Afterwards, join the Women in Black silent vigil at noon.
Contact: cindy defelice@hotmail.com 506-637-0144 or pamtritto@webtv.net 716-822-1017
Protest at NYS Democratic Convention
Tuesday, May 30, 11:30AM
Hyatt Regency Hotel, Pearl St.
The NYS Democratic Party will hold its convention in Buffalo on May 30-31. Join us to oppose pro-war Democrats like Hillary Clinton.
Contact: WNY Peace Center, 894-2013.
Free Film Screenings
“The Take”
Sunday, June 4, 7PM
271 Grant St.
Monday, June 5, 7PM
118 East Utica St.
Organized by arissa
“The Take” is the story of Argentinean people taking control of more than 200 abandoned factories, including the Forja auto plant. It is an inspirational example of local resistance against globalization.
Contact: www.arissa.org or 716-796-5460
“Peace Has No Borders”
Friday, June 16, 7PM
Kleinhans Music Hall
Symphony Circle
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Tickets: $15
Join us for ‘’Peace Has No Borders,” a rally/concert to oppose the war, support U.S. war resisters in Canada and strengthen our unity both sides of the border. Organizations of veterans and military families participating.
Contact: 888-223-6000
Rochester
Workshop Opposing Military Recruitment
Saturday, June 3, 10-12noon
Friends Meetinghouse
84 Scio St.
Information for youth on their rights and options, including Conscientious Objector Status. Workshop is free, but please register in advance to: Elaine Johnson: ejohns11@rochester.rr.com.
Contact: Rochester Chapter of Fellowship of Reconciliation at 585-381-3018
Hamilton
Six Nations Concert
Friday, June 16th, Noon
Chiefswood Park
All Are Welcome
Six Nations peoples are trying to reclaim their land and to stop the illegal construction of a housing project on Six Nations land in Caledonia, near Hamilton, Ontario. The reclamation started on February 28, 2006 and is continuing. Stand with us in this vital fight for our rights.
See: www.cpcml.ca for more information
National
STOP Bulldozer
Sales to Israel
Wednesday, June 14
Demand that the U.S. end its support of Israel and that Caterpillar stop providing bulldozers used to destroy the homes and towns of Palestinians.
Contact: mattgaines@ameritech.net
Read the complete article
“Let Them Eat Cake”
Saturday, May 27, 10AM
Elmwood at Bidwell
Veterans for Peace and artist Cindy DeFelice present antiwar artwork titled “Let Them Eat Cake.” Afterwards, join the Women in Black silent vigil at noon.
Contact: cindy defelice@hotmail.com 506-637-0144 or pamtritto@webtv.net 716-822-1017
Protest at NYS Democratic Convention
Tuesday, May 30, 11:30AM
Hyatt Regency Hotel, Pearl St.
The NYS Democratic Party will hold its convention in Buffalo on May 30-31. Join us to oppose pro-war Democrats like Hillary Clinton.
Contact: WNY Peace Center, 894-2013.
Free Film Screenings
“The Take”
Sunday, June 4, 7PM
271 Grant St.
Monday, June 5, 7PM
118 East Utica St.
Organized by arissa
“The Take” is the story of Argentinean people taking control of more than 200 abandoned factories, including the Forja auto plant. It is an inspirational example of local resistance against globalization.
Contact: www.arissa.org or 716-796-5460
“Peace Has No Borders”
Friday, June 16, 7PM
Kleinhans Music Hall
Symphony Circle
Iraq Veterans Against the War
Tickets: $15
Join us for ‘’Peace Has No Borders,” a rally/concert to oppose the war, support U.S. war resisters in Canada and strengthen our unity both sides of the border. Organizations of veterans and military families participating.
Contact: 888-223-6000
Rochester
Workshop Opposing Military Recruitment
Saturday, June 3, 10-12noon
Friends Meetinghouse
84 Scio St.
Information for youth on their rights and options, including Conscientious Objector Status. Workshop is free, but please register in advance to: Elaine Johnson: ejohns11@rochester.rr.com.
Contact: Rochester Chapter of Fellowship of Reconciliation at 585-381-3018
Hamilton
Six Nations Concert
Friday, June 16th, Noon
Chiefswood Park
All Are Welcome
Six Nations peoples are trying to reclaim their land and to stop the illegal construction of a housing project on Six Nations land in Caledonia, near Hamilton, Ontario. The reclamation started on February 28, 2006 and is continuing. Stand with us in this vital fight for our rights.
See: www.cpcml.ca for more information
National
STOP Bulldozer
Sales to Israel
Wednesday, June 14
Demand that the U.S. end its support of Israel and that Caterpillar stop providing bulldozers used to destroy the homes and towns of Palestinians.
Contact: mattgaines@ameritech.net
Read the complete article
Bush Border "Security": No to Annexation! No to Police State Measures to Divide the Peoples
President George W. Bush, using border “security” and immigration as his justification, is imposing measures aimed at annexing Mexico and pitting the workers against each other. The use of 6,000 National Guard troops at the border creates the conditions for these troops to take action inside Mexico. Whether in the name of pursuing “human smugglers,” or “pre-empting” immigrants from crossing the border, it is very likely that the troops will mainly be used, as Bush put it, for “security both sides of the border.” Given the history of the U.S. using troops first for “training” and “surveillance,” and then in combat, as is taking place in -Colombia and took place in Nicaragua, the peoples here and in Mexico are very right to call the measure one of militarization and annexation.
The Bush plan does nothing to solve the problems of mass migration from countries impoverished by U.S. imperialism. It does nothing to assist the peoples of Mexico, Central and South America and contribute to raising their standards of living, something readily possible given the massive wealth produced by workers in the U.S. Canceling the debt of these countries, paying reparations for U.S. wars, interference and robbery of their land and resources, these are actions that would assist and contribute to fraternal relations.
Increasing use of force and lining the border with more troops and firepower serves annexation and repression. Buffalo Forum vigorously denounces any use of U.S. troops in Mexico. The millions in action on May Day made clear that the workers will not accept these divide and conquer measures by the U.S. rulers. We say, No to Annexation, Yes to Sovereignty!
The latest Bush plan is also designed to finalize arrangements for a police state. The plan includes special identification cards, with biometric identifiers, issued by the federal government and required for “work eligibility.” While the ID is aimed at immigrants to start with, there is every indication that it will be required of all workers in the name of “employer verification of legal status.” It is also the case that the cards are being tied to Bush’s “guest worker” program, forcing individual immigrants to secure a contract with an employer. Again, this is a measure that can readily be extended and required of all workers, as a condition for work. It also serves to give employers a much freer hand in imposing lower wages, slave-like conditions and elimination of unions and collective contracts.
Another police state measure is use of local and state police agencies to enforce federal immigration law. This serves to put these forces under federal control, in this case Homeland Security and its Border Patrol, while also engaging them in activity beyond their legal authority as local or state police agencies. Already, in Arizona, as well as New York City, where local police have been involved in such enforcement, there is widespread impunity by the police, including racial profiling and terrorizing of people on the streets, demanding they show proof of citizenship. This terrorizing in turn is being used to force people to accept the notion that police can stop, brutalize and detain anyone, without cause, in the name of verifying their “legal status.”
Conditions are being created so that everyone will be required to have the federal ID, in order to work, to qualify for Medicare or welfare, to vote, and so forth. The ID will only be issued according to government dictate. When one adds Bush’s claim that everyone must submit to “American values” as dictated by the government, it can be seen that these measures will be used to broadly repress the people, justify mass round ups and detention, and outrightly banish people from society.
Buffalo Forum calls on all to be vigilante against all these measures and all efforts to split and divide the people, inside the country and from our sisters and brothers in Mexico, Canada and around the world. Let the May Day actions stand as our model: No One is Illegal! Defend the Rights of All!
Read the complete article
The Bush plan does nothing to solve the problems of mass migration from countries impoverished by U.S. imperialism. It does nothing to assist the peoples of Mexico, Central and South America and contribute to raising their standards of living, something readily possible given the massive wealth produced by workers in the U.S. Canceling the debt of these countries, paying reparations for U.S. wars, interference and robbery of their land and resources, these are actions that would assist and contribute to fraternal relations.
Increasing use of force and lining the border with more troops and firepower serves annexation and repression. Buffalo Forum vigorously denounces any use of U.S. troops in Mexico. The millions in action on May Day made clear that the workers will not accept these divide and conquer measures by the U.S. rulers. We say, No to Annexation, Yes to Sovereignty!
The latest Bush plan is also designed to finalize arrangements for a police state. The plan includes special identification cards, with biometric identifiers, issued by the federal government and required for “work eligibility.” While the ID is aimed at immigrants to start with, there is every indication that it will be required of all workers in the name of “employer verification of legal status.” It is also the case that the cards are being tied to Bush’s “guest worker” program, forcing individual immigrants to secure a contract with an employer. Again, this is a measure that can readily be extended and required of all workers, as a condition for work. It also serves to give employers a much freer hand in imposing lower wages, slave-like conditions and elimination of unions and collective contracts.
Another police state measure is use of local and state police agencies to enforce federal immigration law. This serves to put these forces under federal control, in this case Homeland Security and its Border Patrol, while also engaging them in activity beyond their legal authority as local or state police agencies. Already, in Arizona, as well as New York City, where local police have been involved in such enforcement, there is widespread impunity by the police, including racial profiling and terrorizing of people on the streets, demanding they show proof of citizenship. This terrorizing in turn is being used to force people to accept the notion that police can stop, brutalize and detain anyone, without cause, in the name of verifying their “legal status.”
Conditions are being created so that everyone will be required to have the federal ID, in order to work, to qualify for Medicare or welfare, to vote, and so forth. The ID will only be issued according to government dictate. When one adds Bush’s claim that everyone must submit to “American values” as dictated by the government, it can be seen that these measures will be used to broadly repress the people, justify mass round ups and detention, and outrightly banish people from society.
Buffalo Forum calls on all to be vigilante against all these measures and all efforts to split and divide the people, inside the country and from our sisters and brothers in Mexico, Canada and around the world. Let the May Day actions stand as our model: No One is Illegal! Defend the Rights of All!
Read the complete article
FYI: Bush Proposal on Immigration
President George W. Bush presented proposals concerning border “security” and immigration in a televised speech May 15. Notable in the speech was the plan to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the border with Mexico and the stepped up use of “state and local authorities assisting the Border Patrol on targeted enforcement missions.”
Bush also elaborated the plan for a biometric identification card for workers, using digital fingerprints. The card would serve to verify “work eligibility.” Bush is calling for “every legal foreign worker,” to have one. However, given that employers will be doing the verifying, it is likely that the cards will be required, as Bush indicates, for “work eligibility” for all workers. His speech on immigration April 24 put it this way, “You got to have the card to get work.”
The speech again put forward a “guest worker program,” that would force many immigrant workers into indentured servitude, much like the Irish and Italian immigrants before them. The government would act as a “hiring hall” for the monopolies. Immigrants would be forced to sign individual contracts with employers for a set period of time, would only be allowed into the country if the employer says so and deported if the employer fires them or lays them off. When the set time period is completed, they would be deported. The plan is much like the old WWII bracero program, notorious for imposing slave-like conditions of work and deporting workers without paying them, or based on their resistance (see p. 9). It should also be noted that if, over time, all workers are required to have the identification card, it is quite possible that all workers would also be subject to signing individual contracts with employers for set periods of time in order to work.
Bush also repeated that being a citizen means submitting to what the government decides are “American values.” These requirements are listed on the White House webpage on -immigration as acceptance of “liberty and civic responsibility, equality under God, tolerance for others, and the English language.” In his speech Bush stated it in a similar manner, saying anyone who wants to be a citizen must recognize that “Americans are bound by our shared ideals, an appreciation of our history, respect for the flag we fly and an ability to speak and write the English language.” He concluded the speech by giving an example of who qualifies for citizenship — an immigrant from Mexico who joined the Army and was wounded in Iraq.
Arrangements of Annexation and Police State
Bush’s emphasis on “a system that is secure, orderly and fair,” together with the specific proposals, shows that the main significance of the May 15 speech is the effort by the Office of the President to more fully put in place arrangements of annexation externally and a police state internally. This is evident in the proposal to place 6,000 National Guard troops along the border with Mexico, the increased use of local and state police agencies in federal law enforcement, the ID requirements for “work eligibility,” and imposing the concept that only those who agree with the government can be citizens. Or, as Bush put it in his April 24 speech, “I believe that a person should never be granted automatic citizenship.” While the context in which he was speaking was for existing immigrants, the statement is consistent with the general direction of government to strip people of their rights, as can be seen with Katrina survivors, with those forced to show proof of citizenship to receive health benefits, and so forth.
Bush’s speech followed massive demonstrations of millions of workers, in the U.S., Mexico and Canada as well as worldwide, marching for rights on May Day. Millions also demonstrated in the U.S. in March and April. It also comes on the heels of the summit between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, where “law and order” and a single border perimeter, embracing all three countries and controlled by the U.S. and its military, were discussed.
The proposals serve the government’s need to pit workers against each other, in the U.S. and North America as a whole, and to secure a single border perimeter. The documents from the summit, for example, speak to “a single integrated North American trusted traveler program and swift law enforcement responses to threats posed by criminals or terrorists.” In his speech Bush added, “We will continue to work cooperatively to improve security on both sides of the border, to confront common problems like drug trafficking and crime, and to reduce illegal immigration.”
A main aim then of troops on the border, as distinct from Border Patrol and local law enforcement, is to have a force that can “work cooperatively to improve security on both sides of the border.” Migrants trying to come into the country to work will be used as an excuse for U.S. troops to go into Mexico, either in “hot pursuit,” or as a “pre-emptive” measure. One can readily imagine the troops being used to go after vehicles branded as those of “human smugglers,” and to do so “on both sides of the border.”
The positioning of the Guard on the border then has far more to do with U.S. efforts to increase its presence inside Mexico as part of annexationist efforts, than it does with immigration. This is further evidenced by the known failure of similar measures for border “security,” already implemented in Arizona.
Consistent with striving to secure arrangements for U.S. military control in Mexico are the arrangements inside the country to unify U.S. military and police agencies. One of the difficulties facing any police state is centralized federal control of the military and policing agencies. This is particularly difficult in the U.S., where there are so many different agencies at various levels, all of them armed to the teeth and highly “turf” conscious.
The governor of each state controls the National Guard and the president must request that they be federalized. In calling for National Guard troops, Bush is forcing the governors of the southern border states (California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas) to agree to have their troops federalized and controlled by the president. Once this action is taken, the governors will have little ability to reverse the decision, as can already be seen with Bush forcing Guard deployment to Iraq. Thus the Office of the President is acting to have control of the National Guard for internal and external use, particularly for the border states, and absent any national emergency or “civil unrest.”
Additionally, the call for “state and local authorities assisting the Border Patrol on targeted enforcement missions,” is a mechanism to assert federal control over state and local authorities. At present, state and local authorities are not permitted to enforce federal immigration laws and there has been broad resistance to such a role by local governments and police forces (see L.A. City Council for example, p.7). It is recognized that such enforcement would require racial profiling and force officials who are neither equipped nor trained to verify a person’s immigration status. One main result of local enforcement is increased racist harassment and brutality against immigrants, with and without documents, in the name of “border security.” It also creates a situation where everyone will need to carry the special identification at all times and accept being stopped, harassed and detained for no reason.
These measures will do nothing to solve the problems of immigration and poverty, a main source for immigration. Taken together, including the requirement that everyone submit to the government’s “values” of racism, war and aggression, these are measures for -finalizing police state arrangements.
Read the complete article
Bush also elaborated the plan for a biometric identification card for workers, using digital fingerprints. The card would serve to verify “work eligibility.” Bush is calling for “every legal foreign worker,” to have one. However, given that employers will be doing the verifying, it is likely that the cards will be required, as Bush indicates, for “work eligibility” for all workers. His speech on immigration April 24 put it this way, “You got to have the card to get work.”
The speech again put forward a “guest worker program,” that would force many immigrant workers into indentured servitude, much like the Irish and Italian immigrants before them. The government would act as a “hiring hall” for the monopolies. Immigrants would be forced to sign individual contracts with employers for a set period of time, would only be allowed into the country if the employer says so and deported if the employer fires them or lays them off. When the set time period is completed, they would be deported. The plan is much like the old WWII bracero program, notorious for imposing slave-like conditions of work and deporting workers without paying them, or based on their resistance (see p. 9). It should also be noted that if, over time, all workers are required to have the identification card, it is quite possible that all workers would also be subject to signing individual contracts with employers for set periods of time in order to work.
Bush also repeated that being a citizen means submitting to what the government decides are “American values.” These requirements are listed on the White House webpage on -immigration as acceptance of “liberty and civic responsibility, equality under God, tolerance for others, and the English language.” In his speech Bush stated it in a similar manner, saying anyone who wants to be a citizen must recognize that “Americans are bound by our shared ideals, an appreciation of our history, respect for the flag we fly and an ability to speak and write the English language.” He concluded the speech by giving an example of who qualifies for citizenship — an immigrant from Mexico who joined the Army and was wounded in Iraq.
Arrangements of Annexation and Police State
Bush’s emphasis on “a system that is secure, orderly and fair,” together with the specific proposals, shows that the main significance of the May 15 speech is the effort by the Office of the President to more fully put in place arrangements of annexation externally and a police state internally. This is evident in the proposal to place 6,000 National Guard troops along the border with Mexico, the increased use of local and state police agencies in federal law enforcement, the ID requirements for “work eligibility,” and imposing the concept that only those who agree with the government can be citizens. Or, as Bush put it in his April 24 speech, “I believe that a person should never be granted automatic citizenship.” While the context in which he was speaking was for existing immigrants, the statement is consistent with the general direction of government to strip people of their rights, as can be seen with Katrina survivors, with those forced to show proof of citizenship to receive health benefits, and so forth.
Bush’s speech followed massive demonstrations of millions of workers, in the U.S., Mexico and Canada as well as worldwide, marching for rights on May Day. Millions also demonstrated in the U.S. in March and April. It also comes on the heels of the summit between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, where “law and order” and a single border perimeter, embracing all three countries and controlled by the U.S. and its military, were discussed.
The proposals serve the government’s need to pit workers against each other, in the U.S. and North America as a whole, and to secure a single border perimeter. The documents from the summit, for example, speak to “a single integrated North American trusted traveler program and swift law enforcement responses to threats posed by criminals or terrorists.” In his speech Bush added, “We will continue to work cooperatively to improve security on both sides of the border, to confront common problems like drug trafficking and crime, and to reduce illegal immigration.”
A main aim then of troops on the border, as distinct from Border Patrol and local law enforcement, is to have a force that can “work cooperatively to improve security on both sides of the border.” Migrants trying to come into the country to work will be used as an excuse for U.S. troops to go into Mexico, either in “hot pursuit,” or as a “pre-emptive” measure. One can readily imagine the troops being used to go after vehicles branded as those of “human smugglers,” and to do so “on both sides of the border.”
The positioning of the Guard on the border then has far more to do with U.S. efforts to increase its presence inside Mexico as part of annexationist efforts, than it does with immigration. This is further evidenced by the known failure of similar measures for border “security,” already implemented in Arizona.
Consistent with striving to secure arrangements for U.S. military control in Mexico are the arrangements inside the country to unify U.S. military and police agencies. One of the difficulties facing any police state is centralized federal control of the military and policing agencies. This is particularly difficult in the U.S., where there are so many different agencies at various levels, all of them armed to the teeth and highly “turf” conscious.
The governor of each state controls the National Guard and the president must request that they be federalized. In calling for National Guard troops, Bush is forcing the governors of the southern border states (California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas) to agree to have their troops federalized and controlled by the president. Once this action is taken, the governors will have little ability to reverse the decision, as can already be seen with Bush forcing Guard deployment to Iraq. Thus the Office of the President is acting to have control of the National Guard for internal and external use, particularly for the border states, and absent any national emergency or “civil unrest.”
Additionally, the call for “state and local authorities assisting the Border Patrol on targeted enforcement missions,” is a mechanism to assert federal control over state and local authorities. At present, state and local authorities are not permitted to enforce federal immigration laws and there has been broad resistance to such a role by local governments and police forces (see L.A. City Council for example, p.7). It is recognized that such enforcement would require racial profiling and force officials who are neither equipped nor trained to verify a person’s immigration status. One main result of local enforcement is increased racist harassment and brutality against immigrants, with and without documents, in the name of “border security.” It also creates a situation where everyone will need to carry the special identification at all times and accept being stopped, harassed and detained for no reason.
These measures will do nothing to solve the problems of immigration and poverty, a main source for immigration. Taken together, including the requirement that everyone submit to the government’s “values” of racism, war and aggression, these are measures for -finalizing police state arrangements.
Read the complete article
Exploitation Without Borders
- Eisha Mason -
I am waiting to board the train in San Diego when I notice the Border Patrol agent making his way down our line. He stops by each person who looks “Latino” and asks them to present their legal documents. As the people standing next to me rummage for their identity papers, I stand by, angry, embarrassed and ashamed. In that moment, I don’t know what to say or do to protest.
My mind suddenly travels back in time. I “remember” what it must have been like during slavery for Black people who made it to the North. If they had no papers, they were doomed to live each day in fear. If they were “legalized” by free papers, they still always needed these documents, no matter who they were or how old they were or how long they had lived in their community. These papers were all that stood between them and being “deported” and returned to their slave status.
My mind traveled across the ocean to South Africa, to a time not so long ago when the lives of African peoples in South Africa were controlled by the dreaded Pass Laws that made it compulsory to carry papers at all times. Without a pass, they would be considered “illegal” and could be put in detention. Much like proposed guest worker programs for immigrants, South African Pass Laws Act specified where, when, and for how long an African could remain anywhere in his country.
My mind returns to the present. As the immigrant rights movement is building momentum nationwide, African Americans debate about where we should stand on immigration issues — shoulder to shoulder with immigrants, in direct opposition or on the sidelines. I believe that if we look just under the surface, we can see that our Black and Brown fates are deeply intertwined.
As I am watching a video, Rights on the Line, about the phenomenon of the vigilante movement along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Minutemen are on “night patrol,” literally hunting the people trying to cross the border into the U.S. Dressed in their military garb, with flashlights, walkie talkies and weapons, the militia freely wield the privilege and the power of race and their legal status. As I watch them rounding up frightened men and women, hairs are raised on my arms.
Again, I seem to actually “remember” the plight of runaway slaves, the fear and desperation they felt as they were tracked and trapped by white militia and returned to a life where their labor was exploited and their lives were not in their control. As the Black-Brown debate continues, I see that we have both been sources of cheap labor. First, Africans were the slaves required to perpetuate the globalized economics of the 1700s known as the Triangle Trade (slaves, sugar and rum). Today, Latinos are the cheap labor required for maquiladoras south of the border (outsourced manufacturing needs of international business), international agribusiness, and jobs at the lowest rungs of the U.S. economy. Proposals for guest worker programs only perpetuate this model of workers without rights or protection. Black and Brown people have far more in common than we often realize.
Both Black and Brown are the targets of the racism used to justify unjust political, economic and social policy. Past and present, members of the exploited and marginalized communities are portrayed as different from and less than other Americans. The poison of racism continues to allow those who are privileged to feel morally justified as they exploit and dehumanize people who provide “cheap labor” and simultaneously blame them for their lot in life.
Both Black and Brown share common dreams of work with dignity, a better life for our families and our children. Isn’t that why slaves escaped to the North and freed slaves initiated the Northern Migration? Isn’t that why people from other countries risk their lives to reach the U.S. today? We all desire the opportunity to build a life and to be respected and accepted members of the communities and country where we live.
Black and Brown are not each other’s adversaries; we are natural -allies. The economic and political forces that doomed millions of Africans to servitude and later to second-class citizenship are the same forces responsible for unsustainable economic conditions in many foreign countries and the current migration of people to the U.S. They are the same forces responsible for conflict over jobs, wages, and economic opportunity in the U.S., a conflict that results in racism, discrimination and repressive legislation.
Because issues of labor, immigration and race are deeply enmeshed, we should be working together toward solutions that include all of us. We must (1) protect the rights and dignity of individuals who have come to the U.S. to work, (2) raise the labor standards and wages on both sides of the border through reform of international trade policy, (3) protect local economies everywhere, rather than allow them to be overwhelmed by trade agreements favoring international corporations, (4) guarantee that every U.S. worker has the right and the protection to organize, and (5) we must organize!
The border patrol officer is gone. Boarding the train in San Diego, I remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “We are caught in an escapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” Black faces…brown faces…human faces. My heart feels what my mind already knows. The people from across the border are not the problem. A system of economic exploitation and racism is the problem. Rather than believing our interests are in conflict, Black and Brown must stand in unity and work together to transform this system. There is ultimately one movement — the movement for human dignity and opportunity — and I am a part of it.
Eisha Mason is the Associate Regional Director for the Pacific Southwest Region of the American Friends Service Committee and co-founder of Soulforce Trainings. Contact her at: emason@afsc.org. From blackcommentator.org.
Read the complete article
I am waiting to board the train in San Diego when I notice the Border Patrol agent making his way down our line. He stops by each person who looks “Latino” and asks them to present their legal documents. As the people standing next to me rummage for their identity papers, I stand by, angry, embarrassed and ashamed. In that moment, I don’t know what to say or do to protest.
My mind suddenly travels back in time. I “remember” what it must have been like during slavery for Black people who made it to the North. If they had no papers, they were doomed to live each day in fear. If they were “legalized” by free papers, they still always needed these documents, no matter who they were or how old they were or how long they had lived in their community. These papers were all that stood between them and being “deported” and returned to their slave status.
My mind traveled across the ocean to South Africa, to a time not so long ago when the lives of African peoples in South Africa were controlled by the dreaded Pass Laws that made it compulsory to carry papers at all times. Without a pass, they would be considered “illegal” and could be put in detention. Much like proposed guest worker programs for immigrants, South African Pass Laws Act specified where, when, and for how long an African could remain anywhere in his country.
My mind returns to the present. As the immigrant rights movement is building momentum nationwide, African Americans debate about where we should stand on immigration issues — shoulder to shoulder with immigrants, in direct opposition or on the sidelines. I believe that if we look just under the surface, we can see that our Black and Brown fates are deeply intertwined.
As I am watching a video, Rights on the Line, about the phenomenon of the vigilante movement along the U.S.-Mexico border, the Minutemen are on “night patrol,” literally hunting the people trying to cross the border into the U.S. Dressed in their military garb, with flashlights, walkie talkies and weapons, the militia freely wield the privilege and the power of race and their legal status. As I watch them rounding up frightened men and women, hairs are raised on my arms.
Again, I seem to actually “remember” the plight of runaway slaves, the fear and desperation they felt as they were tracked and trapped by white militia and returned to a life where their labor was exploited and their lives were not in their control. As the Black-Brown debate continues, I see that we have both been sources of cheap labor. First, Africans were the slaves required to perpetuate the globalized economics of the 1700s known as the Triangle Trade (slaves, sugar and rum). Today, Latinos are the cheap labor required for maquiladoras south of the border (outsourced manufacturing needs of international business), international agribusiness, and jobs at the lowest rungs of the U.S. economy. Proposals for guest worker programs only perpetuate this model of workers without rights or protection. Black and Brown people have far more in common than we often realize.
Both Black and Brown are the targets of the racism used to justify unjust political, economic and social policy. Past and present, members of the exploited and marginalized communities are portrayed as different from and less than other Americans. The poison of racism continues to allow those who are privileged to feel morally justified as they exploit and dehumanize people who provide “cheap labor” and simultaneously blame them for their lot in life.
Both Black and Brown share common dreams of work with dignity, a better life for our families and our children. Isn’t that why slaves escaped to the North and freed slaves initiated the Northern Migration? Isn’t that why people from other countries risk their lives to reach the U.S. today? We all desire the opportunity to build a life and to be respected and accepted members of the communities and country where we live.
Black and Brown are not each other’s adversaries; we are natural -allies. The economic and political forces that doomed millions of Africans to servitude and later to second-class citizenship are the same forces responsible for unsustainable economic conditions in many foreign countries and the current migration of people to the U.S. They are the same forces responsible for conflict over jobs, wages, and economic opportunity in the U.S., a conflict that results in racism, discrimination and repressive legislation.
Because issues of labor, immigration and race are deeply enmeshed, we should be working together toward solutions that include all of us. We must (1) protect the rights and dignity of individuals who have come to the U.S. to work, (2) raise the labor standards and wages on both sides of the border through reform of international trade policy, (3) protect local economies everywhere, rather than allow them to be overwhelmed by trade agreements favoring international corporations, (4) guarantee that every U.S. worker has the right and the protection to organize, and (5) we must organize!
The border patrol officer is gone. Boarding the train in San Diego, I remember the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “We are caught in an escapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” Black faces…brown faces…human faces. My heart feels what my mind already knows. The people from across the border are not the problem. A system of economic exploitation and racism is the problem. Rather than believing our interests are in conflict, Black and Brown must stand in unity and work together to transform this system. There is ultimately one movement — the movement for human dignity and opportunity — and I am a part of it.
Eisha Mason is the Associate Regional Director for the Pacific Southwest Region of the American Friends Service Committee and co-founder of Soulforce Trainings. Contact her at: emason@afsc.org. From blackcommentator.org.
Read the complete article
Freeze Debt Payments! Increase Funding for Social Programs: Say No to Control Board Demands for Concessions
Both the Buffalo and Erie County Control Boards are again demanding more cuts, while refusing to even consider the solution to freeze debt payments. For the County, the Board is maneuvering to try and seize more power. Newly appointed Board chairman Anthony J. Baynes is demanding detailed information from the County. He said failure to supply these documents would be grounds for the Board seizing the power to fully dictate all budget matters, including contracts, wages, layoffs and more. The County Board has also made clear whose interests they are serving, inviting the Buffalo Niagara Partnership to “play a greater role,” in securing concessions from county workers. The Partnership is a well-known representive of Buffalo’s monopolies.
The County Board is objecting to plans by the County to borrow about $55 million for payments to the Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) and other infrastructure projects. The Board provides no alternative to funding ECMC which is a main provider of healthcare for the poor. It also complains that the County is paying $60 million for debt payments, which is 85 percent more than four years ago. The solution here is clear. Instead of borrowing the $55 million, the County need only freeze its debt payment for a year or even two years and utilize the funds to meet the needs of the people for healthcare and other social programs. The amount involved, $60 million, certainly will not break the bank, while continued cuts to the County could significantly impact County -workers and residents.
Similarly, the Buffalo Control Board is continuing to demand concessions from teachers. Superintendent James A. Williams called on the Common Council to “use their influence” to convince the school unions to accept concessions. Using the Control Board’s usual “sky is falling” approach to justify more attacks, Williams claimed, “If we do not get givebacks, our system is not going to survive.” Actually, quite the opposite is true. The schools require more funding to raise the level of working conditions simply to meet the minimum needed for teachers to teach and youth to learn. This is a fact accepted by all, including the previous school superintendent. More cuts will solve nothing. The city, like the County, also pays tens of millions for debt payments.
Teachers have already sacrificed millions in wages, agreed to by contract, as a result of the wage freeze imposed by the Control Board. Far from demanding more concessions from teachers, the city needs to take the stand to call on the banks to wait for their money. Freezing debt payments is a solution that contributes to solving the problems in the schools, which stem from the refusal of government at all levels to provide the funding required. Freezing the debt utilizes tax dollars to fund the schools, instead of the banks.
The Buffalo Control Board is also opposing the current budget proposed by the Mayor and Common Council. They claim the budget calls for “too much spending.” They do not, however, elaborate how the repeated and massive cuts and layoffs of teachers, city workers and firefighters constitutes “too much” spending, while of course, tens of millions in debt payments do not. The Control Board has already grabbed $12.7 million in budget funds, claiming they can not be used for funding social programs but can only be used for measures that “cut costs” and provide “new efficiencies,” both code words for concessions and securing more work out of fewer workers.
To their credit, the Common Council may actually oppose some of the Control Board demands. As Majority Leader Dominic J. Bonifacio Jr. said, “Ever since the Control Board has been in place for the past three years, all this Council has done is cut.” He said the budget was a balanced one and the Council will defend it. The Control Board is set to reject the proposed budget on June 6.
Read the complete article
The County Board is objecting to plans by the County to borrow about $55 million for payments to the Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) and other infrastructure projects. The Board provides no alternative to funding ECMC which is a main provider of healthcare for the poor. It also complains that the County is paying $60 million for debt payments, which is 85 percent more than four years ago. The solution here is clear. Instead of borrowing the $55 million, the County need only freeze its debt payment for a year or even two years and utilize the funds to meet the needs of the people for healthcare and other social programs. The amount involved, $60 million, certainly will not break the bank, while continued cuts to the County could significantly impact County -workers and residents.
Similarly, the Buffalo Control Board is continuing to demand concessions from teachers. Superintendent James A. Williams called on the Common Council to “use their influence” to convince the school unions to accept concessions. Using the Control Board’s usual “sky is falling” approach to justify more attacks, Williams claimed, “If we do not get givebacks, our system is not going to survive.” Actually, quite the opposite is true. The schools require more funding to raise the level of working conditions simply to meet the minimum needed for teachers to teach and youth to learn. This is a fact accepted by all, including the previous school superintendent. More cuts will solve nothing. The city, like the County, also pays tens of millions for debt payments.
Teachers have already sacrificed millions in wages, agreed to by contract, as a result of the wage freeze imposed by the Control Board. Far from demanding more concessions from teachers, the city needs to take the stand to call on the banks to wait for their money. Freezing debt payments is a solution that contributes to solving the problems in the schools, which stem from the refusal of government at all levels to provide the funding required. Freezing the debt utilizes tax dollars to fund the schools, instead of the banks.
The Buffalo Control Board is also opposing the current budget proposed by the Mayor and Common Council. They claim the budget calls for “too much spending.” They do not, however, elaborate how the repeated and massive cuts and layoffs of teachers, city workers and firefighters constitutes “too much” spending, while of course, tens of millions in debt payments do not. The Control Board has already grabbed $12.7 million in budget funds, claiming they can not be used for funding social programs but can only be used for measures that “cut costs” and provide “new efficiencies,” both code words for concessions and securing more work out of fewer workers.
To their credit, the Common Council may actually oppose some of the Control Board demands. As Majority Leader Dominic J. Bonifacio Jr. said, “Ever since the Control Board has been in place for the past three years, all this Council has done is cut.” He said the budget was a balanced one and the Council will defend it. The Control Board is set to reject the proposed budget on June 6.
Read the complete article
Contract Negotiations and Union Elections: Advancing the Fight for Decision Making
- Transit Workers Discussion Group, May 17, 2006 -
Transit workers are continuing to prepare to defend our rights for the upcoming contract negotiations. During last week’s discussion, drivers expressed their determination to block NFTA efforts to “divide and conquer.” Since we work out of different garages, and have different groups of workers, like drivers, including Metro-link, and mechanics. NFTA tries to use these differences against us.
Here at Frontier we have our experience with regular discussion and organizing resistance as well as history of struggle that goes back many years. This is not the case at Cold Springs and Babcock. So we at Frontier have a responsibility to be pro-active in building discussion as part of drawing everyone into the struggle for our rights.
Various drivers emphasized that being pro-active means we have to take concrete action to strengthen our unity, not just talk about it as an idea. This means going to other locations to discuss and leaflet there. It means paying attention to including mechanics and Metro-link drivers in the discussion. We need the input and views of everyone together to work out our own fighting program for the contract negotiations and the 2007 union elections. TWDG’s own experience in going to Cold Springs and Babcock is that our fellow transit workers are excited at the opportunity to discuss.
TWDG thinks that one aim of building discussion and working out a program is advancing the fight for decision making. Transit workers must together identify our main concerns, select a slate of candidates, work out our tactics to achieve change, and do this decision making from start to finish. This is a job that belongs to us, not NFTA, not a handful of top union people, but all of us together. So let us step up our efforts and include all the garages.
One possible way to proceed is to work out a proposal for an action program for the contract and select a potential slate for the union elections based on their readiness to represent that program. Hopefully the slate could include at least one driver from Cold Springs and one mechanic. Then have the workers selected together visit the other garages, distribute leaflets with the program, and so forth. We need both the content of the program and the workers to represent it. And we need those representing the program — candidates and their supporters, organizing far and wide.
There was also a proposal to try and get a central location for contract discussions. Many people feel the current set-up, where union meetings are not held at a central spot, means fewer people participate. People also feel that there is great interest in discussing the contract and getting started now. We call on the union to take action to solve this problem. We also call on all concerned to prepare to take action ourselves, if the union refuses to do so. We have experience taking action ourselves in our struggle for bathrooms, in organizing for anti-war actions, in defending Taylor-Oliver and more. So let us all demand the union take action and prepare to organize contract meetings ourselves if that becomes necessary. We can consider getting a meeting hall in a community center and calling on workers from all the garages to come and join in discussion and participate in selecting candidates.
Let there be no doubt that NFTA will come after transit workers during negotiations and try to take full advantage of the anti-worker atmosphere already imposed by the Buffalo and Erie County Control Boards. They will seek to blame us for problems in order to hide their attacks on our union and all our rights. So let us prepare and organize to step up our struggle to defend our rights and the rights of all. Join in!
Read the complete article
Transit workers are continuing to prepare to defend our rights for the upcoming contract negotiations. During last week’s discussion, drivers expressed their determination to block NFTA efforts to “divide and conquer.” Since we work out of different garages, and have different groups of workers, like drivers, including Metro-link, and mechanics. NFTA tries to use these differences against us.
Here at Frontier we have our experience with regular discussion and organizing resistance as well as history of struggle that goes back many years. This is not the case at Cold Springs and Babcock. So we at Frontier have a responsibility to be pro-active in building discussion as part of drawing everyone into the struggle for our rights.
Various drivers emphasized that being pro-active means we have to take concrete action to strengthen our unity, not just talk about it as an idea. This means going to other locations to discuss and leaflet there. It means paying attention to including mechanics and Metro-link drivers in the discussion. We need the input and views of everyone together to work out our own fighting program for the contract negotiations and the 2007 union elections. TWDG’s own experience in going to Cold Springs and Babcock is that our fellow transit workers are excited at the opportunity to discuss.
TWDG thinks that one aim of building discussion and working out a program is advancing the fight for decision making. Transit workers must together identify our main concerns, select a slate of candidates, work out our tactics to achieve change, and do this decision making from start to finish. This is a job that belongs to us, not NFTA, not a handful of top union people, but all of us together. So let us step up our efforts and include all the garages.
One possible way to proceed is to work out a proposal for an action program for the contract and select a potential slate for the union elections based on their readiness to represent that program. Hopefully the slate could include at least one driver from Cold Springs and one mechanic. Then have the workers selected together visit the other garages, distribute leaflets with the program, and so forth. We need both the content of the program and the workers to represent it. And we need those representing the program — candidates and their supporters, organizing far and wide.
There was also a proposal to try and get a central location for contract discussions. Many people feel the current set-up, where union meetings are not held at a central spot, means fewer people participate. People also feel that there is great interest in discussing the contract and getting started now. We call on the union to take action to solve this problem. We also call on all concerned to prepare to take action ourselves, if the union refuses to do so. We have experience taking action ourselves in our struggle for bathrooms, in organizing for anti-war actions, in defending Taylor-Oliver and more. So let us all demand the union take action and prepare to organize contract meetings ourselves if that becomes necessary. We can consider getting a meeting hall in a community center and calling on workers from all the garages to come and join in discussion and participate in selecting candidates.
Let there be no doubt that NFTA will come after transit workers during negotiations and try to take full advantage of the anti-worker atmosphere already imposed by the Buffalo and Erie County Control Boards. They will seek to blame us for problems in order to hide their attacks on our union and all our rights. So let us prepare and organize to step up our struggle to defend our rights and the rights of all. Join in!
Read the complete article
Upcoming Events
BUFFALO
ISRAEL/PALESTINE COFFEE HOUSE
Monday, May 22, 7PM
Network of Religious Communities
1272 Delaware Ave.
John Lloyd, who taught and lived in Gaza City during the 2004-2005 school year will report on daily life under occupation.
Call the Peace Center at 894-2013.
NO WAR ON IRAQ!
Protest At NYS
Democratic Convention
Tuesday, May 30, 11:30AM
Hyatt Regency Hotel
Pearl St., Downtown Buffalo
Call the Peace Center at 894-2013.
ALBANY
HEALTH CARE IS A RIGHT!
Tuesday, May 23, 3PM
State Assembly hearing on the Fair Share for Health Care Act
Buses are leaving from Buffalo early in the morning, returning in the evening
Sponsor: Working Families Party
Contact: Louisa Pacheco - 716-881-5400
lpacheco@workingfamiliesparty.org
Read the complete article
ISRAEL/PALESTINE COFFEE HOUSE
Monday, May 22, 7PM
Network of Religious Communities
1272 Delaware Ave.
John Lloyd, who taught and lived in Gaza City during the 2004-2005 school year will report on daily life under occupation.
Call the Peace Center at 894-2013.
NO WAR ON IRAQ!
Protest At NYS
Democratic Convention
Tuesday, May 30, 11:30AM
Hyatt Regency Hotel
Pearl St., Downtown Buffalo
Call the Peace Center at 894-2013.
ALBANY
HEALTH CARE IS A RIGHT!
Tuesday, May 23, 3PM
State Assembly hearing on the Fair Share for Health Care Act
Buses are leaving from Buffalo early in the morning, returning in the evening
Sponsor: Working Families Party
Contact: Louisa Pacheco - 716-881-5400
lpacheco@workingfamiliesparty.org
Read the complete article
Opposition to U.S. Imperialism Mounts: Peoples Demanding Fraternal Relations of Cooperation and Mutual Benefit
The massive May Day demonstrations across the U.S. and worldwide brought to the fore the peoples’ demands for fraternal relations of mutual aid and cooperation. As workers in their many millions marched for rights and chanted together, proclaiming in many languages that No One is Illegal, they took their stand against U.S. imperialism and its efforts to divide and conquer. In many countries, workers directly expressed their support for the actions in the U.S. as well as their firm opposition to U.S. wars of aggression. Without doubt, humanity is rising as one against war and imperialism and fighting for rights, in each country and for the peoples worldwide. This fight is advancing the fraternal unity of the peoples and giving expression to the new world being created by the peoples themselves.
The stand against U.S imperialism is also being seen in the stands among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to reject the U.S. drive to use the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) to completely control these countries, politically, militarily and economically. Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia are advancing their Peoples Trade Agreement and ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of the Americas. As their joint statement emphasizes, “Only the united actions by the Latin American and Caribbean nations, based on principles of cooperation [and] mutual aid and solidarity will allow us to preserve our independence, sovereignty and identity.” These actions, and similar ones around the world, show that the fight for sovereignty is critical for uniting the peoples and bringing forward the new.
At a time when the U.S. is striving to pit workers inside the country against each other, immigrants against African Americans, those with documents against those without, the united stand of the May Day actions show the way forward. The actions brought out that if one is illegal, whether that one is a worker from Mexico, or a transit worker on strike, or an Arab or a Muslim, or a Katrina survivor or a youth opposing police brutality or a woman defending her being, then all are illegal. And if one is illegal, then all have the duty to together insist that No One is Illegal. Let no one succumb to the brutality of U.S. imperialism’s drive to divide and conquer! Let all take their place in the powerful fist of workers of all countries united in the fight for the rights of all.
Fight for the dignity and rights of all!
Read the complete article
The stand against U.S imperialism is also being seen in the stands among the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean to reject the U.S. drive to use the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) to completely control these countries, politically, militarily and economically. Cuba, Venezuela and Bolivia are advancing their Peoples Trade Agreement and ALBA, the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of the Americas. As their joint statement emphasizes, “Only the united actions by the Latin American and Caribbean nations, based on principles of cooperation [and] mutual aid and solidarity will allow us to preserve our independence, sovereignty and identity.” These actions, and similar ones around the world, show that the fight for sovereignty is critical for uniting the peoples and bringing forward the new.
At a time when the U.S. is striving to pit workers inside the country against each other, immigrants against African Americans, those with documents against those without, the united stand of the May Day actions show the way forward. The actions brought out that if one is illegal, whether that one is a worker from Mexico, or a transit worker on strike, or an Arab or a Muslim, or a Katrina survivor or a youth opposing police brutality or a woman defending her being, then all are illegal. And if one is illegal, then all have the duty to together insist that No One is Illegal. Let no one succumb to the brutality of U.S. imperialism’s drive to divide and conquer! Let all take their place in the powerful fist of workers of all countries united in the fight for the rights of all.
Fight for the dignity and rights of all!
Read the complete article
May Day Across the U.S.: No Business As Usual As Millions Demand Rights
- LeiLani Dowell -
On May 1, a “Day Without Immigrants,” May Day — International Workers Day was celebrated. In every state, businesses closed, workers took the day off, students walked out of schools, and a multinational sea of humanity marched and rallied to demand full rights for all.
The impact of the boycott was felt in the streets as well as in the pocketbooks of businesses that profit from super-exploited immigrant labor.
The demonstration in Chicago was one of the biggest protests in the city’s history. Organizers estimated the turnout at 700,000. Tens of thousands marched from schools. One high school organized transportation to the march as a “field trip.”
There were two feeder marches, one from Benito Juarez High School, and another organized by the Coalition of African, Arab, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois, and others. Colorful T-shirts distinguished union members from UNITE-HERE and the Service Employees.
Organizers estimated that between half a million and a million people throughout New York City overfilled Union Square in Manhattan and then marched down to Federal Plaza. New York’s diverse immigrant communities were reflected, with contingents from virtually every Latin American and Caribbean country; from China, Korea and the Philippines; from Senegal and other African countries; from Pakistan — whose shopkeepers based in NYC closed their doors for an hour — and other South Asian countries; from Poland and Ireland. Celebrities like Susan Sarandon joined speakers representing Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, who is from Trinidad — released from jail on April 28 after serving five days of a 10-day sentence for leading the December transit strike — and Teamsters Black National Caucus leader Chris Silvera, who offered his union’s office as the New York May Day Coalition headquarters, both applauded the immigrant struggle. Community and anti-war organizers like Larry Holmes of the Troops Out Now Coalition, Brenda Stokely of the Million Worker March, Berna Ellorin of Bayan USA, Nellie Bailey of the Harlem Tenants Council and International Action Center’s Teresa Gutierrez also spoke.
In front of imposing court buildings, thousands gathered to listen to the closing rally at Federal Plaza. Along with demanding legalization of immigrants, speakers explained how neoliberalism had driven so many from their homelands to seek work at the center of world imperialism.
A sea of protesters, tens of thousands, continued marching in well after the rally ended. Traffic was forced to a standstill on the Brooklyn Bridge until police violently attacked the crowd.
Lauren Giaccone reports: “The cops then started pushing. We pushed back. A cop then punched a girl, she went down and that started a huge fight between the cops and the people. The people fought back against the brutality.
When Workplace Project organizer Carlos Canales asked the mayor of Hempstead, on Long Island, for a rally permit for 800 people, he never expected that 5,000 would show. “Labor and -immigrants on Long Island changed history today,” he said.
Organizers convinced more than 60 Long Island businesses to close. And they sent five busloads of people to the New York City rally. Participants cheered when organizers called for “Primero de Mayo 2007.”
The West
In the San Francisco Bay area, despite last-minute attempts by the big-business media to downplay May 1, businesses stood idle as hundreds of thousands protested.
The day began with an East Oakland march to the Federal Building. Later, contingents of community organizations, unions, churches and student groups gathered for a grand march through San Francisco’s financial district.
More than a thousand people rallied at the University of California, Berkeley. Demonstrators blocked the on-ramp to Route 80, a major thoroughfare. In San Jose, tens of thousands marched.
In Los Angeles, the May 1 boycott and march was initiated by the Mexican American Political Association and Hermandad Mexicana Latino American. Organizers estimate the City Hall demonstration at up to one million marchers. Reportedly 72,000 students missed school. Ninety percent of Los Angeles and Long Beach port truckers did not work. Boycott participants bolstered the numbers at a later demonstration in downtown McArthur Park.
The streets of south San Diego overflowed. There was no business as usual. Events were held in downtown San Diego as well as San Ysidro (at the border) Escondido and Vista.
In a show of solidarity, protesters in Tijuana shut down the U.S./Mexico border on the Mexican side. After a 500-person march in San Ysidro, youths were able to shut down the border again — this time on the U.S. side.
By evening, crowds had more than doubled as people gathered in Balboa Park, where a
candlelight vigil and rally was scheduled. Instead, folks broke police barriers and took to the streets in an impromptu march that shut down main streets, surrounded the mall and flabbergasted tourists.
In Denver, more than 50,000 began their march across the street from Escuela Tlatelolco, the school founded by the great Chicano activist Corky Gonzales.
Across Washington state, workers shut down the agriculture and service industries. An estimated sixty-five thousand workers poured into downtown Seattle. Marchers carried flags of countries from Somalia to Honduras. In the agricultural town of Yakima, Washington, thousands of marchers paraded. Thousands more demonstrated in Wenatchee, which is apple country.
The country’s biggest beef processor was forced to give workers the day off in seven plants in Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Texas and Nebraska.
The South
Tens of thousands honored the boycott in Georgia. Not one worker showed up at the Vidalia onion farms in southern Georgia.
Thousands, including whole families with small children and babies, rallied in Atlanta. In Athens, Georgia, some 2,000 grade-school and high-school students, young workers and a number of white supporters assembled near the University of Georgia campus. One activist said it “was the biggest protest Athens had ever seen.”
An estimated 10,000 people marched in uptown Charlotte, NC, and over 800 students were absent from the --Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system.
Protesters also marched though downtown Lumberton, NC. They were joined by workers from Smithfield Foods Inc.’s plant in Tar Heel. Gene Bruskin, with the Food and Commercial Workers union, said, “We’re in the middle of absolutely nowhere, pig farms, and you’ve got 5,000 workers marching.”
In Raleigh, NC, some 3,000 people surrounded the State Capitol. In New Orleans thousands of Katrina survivors and Latino workers marched together.
The North and East
Thousands rallied in Washington, DC. They demanded an end to government attacks on undocumented workers. More than half of the 1,147 construction workers at Dulles International Airport boycotted work. Businesses from downtown DC to the affluent Georgetown shopping area closed because of absent workers.
Across Massachusetts, tens of thousands demonstrated in over 30 cities. In Boston, a delegation from Steel Workers Local 8751, the Boston school bus drivers’ union, followed a banner hoisted by youths of color.
Service Employees union leaders led chants with Local 8571 members, including all of the local’s chief stewards, its newly elected Haitian President Frantz Mendes, and Vice President Steve Gillis, as well as rank-and-file members.
The militant protesters filed past the Federal Building to the statehouse for a mostly anti-imperialist speakout and to support a pro-immigrant news conference taking place inside, where Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee member Bishop Filipe Teixeira was speaking. They then marched on Boston Common for a mass rally.
LeiLani Dowell reports for Workers World
Read the complete article
On May 1, a “Day Without Immigrants,” May Day — International Workers Day was celebrated. In every state, businesses closed, workers took the day off, students walked out of schools, and a multinational sea of humanity marched and rallied to demand full rights for all.
The impact of the boycott was felt in the streets as well as in the pocketbooks of businesses that profit from super-exploited immigrant labor.
The demonstration in Chicago was one of the biggest protests in the city’s history. Organizers estimated the turnout at 700,000. Tens of thousands marched from schools. One high school organized transportation to the march as a “field trip.”
There were two feeder marches, one from Benito Juarez High School, and another organized by the Coalition of African, Arab, Asian, European and Latino Immigrants of Illinois, and others. Colorful T-shirts distinguished union members from UNITE-HERE and the Service Employees.
Organizers estimated that between half a million and a million people throughout New York City overfilled Union Square in Manhattan and then marched down to Federal Plaza. New York’s diverse immigrant communities were reflected, with contingents from virtually every Latin American and Caribbean country; from China, Korea and the Philippines; from Senegal and other African countries; from Pakistan — whose shopkeepers based in NYC closed their doors for an hour — and other South Asian countries; from Poland and Ireland. Celebrities like Susan Sarandon joined speakers representing Latin America, Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands.
Transport Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint, who is from Trinidad — released from jail on April 28 after serving five days of a 10-day sentence for leading the December transit strike — and Teamsters Black National Caucus leader Chris Silvera, who offered his union’s office as the New York May Day Coalition headquarters, both applauded the immigrant struggle. Community and anti-war organizers like Larry Holmes of the Troops Out Now Coalition, Brenda Stokely of the Million Worker March, Berna Ellorin of Bayan USA, Nellie Bailey of the Harlem Tenants Council and International Action Center’s Teresa Gutierrez also spoke.
In front of imposing court buildings, thousands gathered to listen to the closing rally at Federal Plaza. Along with demanding legalization of immigrants, speakers explained how neoliberalism had driven so many from their homelands to seek work at the center of world imperialism.
A sea of protesters, tens of thousands, continued marching in well after the rally ended. Traffic was forced to a standstill on the Brooklyn Bridge until police violently attacked the crowd.
Lauren Giaccone reports: “The cops then started pushing. We pushed back. A cop then punched a girl, she went down and that started a huge fight between the cops and the people. The people fought back against the brutality.
When Workplace Project organizer Carlos Canales asked the mayor of Hempstead, on Long Island, for a rally permit for 800 people, he never expected that 5,000 would show. “Labor and -immigrants on Long Island changed history today,” he said.
Organizers convinced more than 60 Long Island businesses to close. And they sent five busloads of people to the New York City rally. Participants cheered when organizers called for “Primero de Mayo 2007.”
The West
In the San Francisco Bay area, despite last-minute attempts by the big-business media to downplay May 1, businesses stood idle as hundreds of thousands protested.
The day began with an East Oakland march to the Federal Building. Later, contingents of community organizations, unions, churches and student groups gathered for a grand march through San Francisco’s financial district.
More than a thousand people rallied at the University of California, Berkeley. Demonstrators blocked the on-ramp to Route 80, a major thoroughfare. In San Jose, tens of thousands marched.
In Los Angeles, the May 1 boycott and march was initiated by the Mexican American Political Association and Hermandad Mexicana Latino American. Organizers estimate the City Hall demonstration at up to one million marchers. Reportedly 72,000 students missed school. Ninety percent of Los Angeles and Long Beach port truckers did not work. Boycott participants bolstered the numbers at a later demonstration in downtown McArthur Park.
The streets of south San Diego overflowed. There was no business as usual. Events were held in downtown San Diego as well as San Ysidro (at the border) Escondido and Vista.
In a show of solidarity, protesters in Tijuana shut down the U.S./Mexico border on the Mexican side. After a 500-person march in San Ysidro, youths were able to shut down the border again — this time on the U.S. side.
By evening, crowds had more than doubled as people gathered in Balboa Park, where a
candlelight vigil and rally was scheduled. Instead, folks broke police barriers and took to the streets in an impromptu march that shut down main streets, surrounded the mall and flabbergasted tourists.
In Denver, more than 50,000 began their march across the street from Escuela Tlatelolco, the school founded by the great Chicano activist Corky Gonzales.
Across Washington state, workers shut down the agriculture and service industries. An estimated sixty-five thousand workers poured into downtown Seattle. Marchers carried flags of countries from Somalia to Honduras. In the agricultural town of Yakima, Washington, thousands of marchers paraded. Thousands more demonstrated in Wenatchee, which is apple country.
The country’s biggest beef processor was forced to give workers the day off in seven plants in Colorado, Kansas, Iowa, Illinois, Texas and Nebraska.
The South
Tens of thousands honored the boycott in Georgia. Not one worker showed up at the Vidalia onion farms in southern Georgia.
Thousands, including whole families with small children and babies, rallied in Atlanta. In Athens, Georgia, some 2,000 grade-school and high-school students, young workers and a number of white supporters assembled near the University of Georgia campus. One activist said it “was the biggest protest Athens had ever seen.”
An estimated 10,000 people marched in uptown Charlotte, NC, and over 800 students were absent from the --Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system.
Protesters also marched though downtown Lumberton, NC. They were joined by workers from Smithfield Foods Inc.’s plant in Tar Heel. Gene Bruskin, with the Food and Commercial Workers union, said, “We’re in the middle of absolutely nowhere, pig farms, and you’ve got 5,000 workers marching.”
In Raleigh, NC, some 3,000 people surrounded the State Capitol. In New Orleans thousands of Katrina survivors and Latino workers marched together.
The North and East
Thousands rallied in Washington, DC. They demanded an end to government attacks on undocumented workers. More than half of the 1,147 construction workers at Dulles International Airport boycotted work. Businesses from downtown DC to the affluent Georgetown shopping area closed because of absent workers.
Across Massachusetts, tens of thousands demonstrated in over 30 cities. In Boston, a delegation from Steel Workers Local 8751, the Boston school bus drivers’ union, followed a banner hoisted by youths of color.
Service Employees union leaders led chants with Local 8571 members, including all of the local’s chief stewards, its newly elected Haitian President Frantz Mendes, and Vice President Steve Gillis, as well as rank-and-file members.
The militant protesters filed past the Federal Building to the statehouse for a mostly anti-imperialist speakout and to support a pro-immigrant news conference taking place inside, where Rosa Parks Human Rights Day Committee member Bishop Filipe Teixeira was speaking. They then marched on Boston Common for a mass rally.
LeiLani Dowell reports for Workers World
Read the complete article
If One Is Illegal, All Are Illegal!: Fight for the Dignity and Rights of All!
A phony debate is swirling in the U.S. monopoly media on two issues concerning immigrant workers: Do immigrant workers lower the wages of U.S. workers; and, how much do immigrant workers contribute to the U.S. economy, if at all?
The debate, if one could call it that, is part of a propaganda campaign to attack the rights of immigrant workers according to an arbitrary legal status. The debate is meant to divide the U.S. working class, setting up second and third-class and “slave-status” workers to undermine the rights of all. A very specific effort is being made to drive a wedge between immigrants and the large, unorganized poorly paid section of U.S. workers who are mainly African Americans.
The first phony debate: Do immigrant workers lower the wages of U.S. workers? That such a debate appears in this manner at all is a provocation against the working class. The question suggests workers, and specifically the poorest workers, are to blame for their own low wages and for others’ misfortunes as well. The truth is quite the contrary.
In a capital-centered economy, like that of the U.S., the workers are victims and must actively defend themselves no matter what status the ruling class gives them. Immigrants are victims first in their home region, which they are forced to leave, and then again when they are compelled to sell their servitude in the U.S.
The working class must take -concrete, practical steps to unite and defend itself, its claim for U.S.-standard wages, benefits and livelihoods and to uphold the rights of all by virtue of being human. Workers cannot accept the dictate of the owners of capital as to whose rights among the working class will be recognized.
Workers are a single undivided class, not split according to the arbitrary divisions of capital based on race, nationality, language, gender, religion or how or when they arrived in the country. Workers warmly accept all members by virtue of being human, as unity and cooperation are the future of humanity, not division, competition and war.
Solidarity is based on principled opposition to exploitation and oppression, not charity. This is the experience of the workers, from the days of slavery to today. It was sharply evident in the recent May Day marches, where workers of all nationalities, chanting in different languages, stood as one fist, fighting for the rights of all.
The financial oligarchy wants disunity and competition among workers. One way it conspires to make that happen is to declare a large section of the working class illegal or undocumented and without rights, as occurred under slavery, as has occurred with immigrants over the years. The demand for documentation is again being used to divide and to provide the means to criminalize all workers. Declaring some legal and some not effectively makes it more difficult to organize into trade unions and to wage other political battles, against unjust wars and laws, deportation and detention, jailing of union leaders and so forth.
The stand taken by workers at the May Day actions brought to the fore that an attack
on one is an attack on all. Limiting workers’ rights because of a dictated status as “indentured guests” or “undocumented migrants” negatively affects the rights of all and undermines the struggle for change that favors the people, whether at the workplace or in society as a whole.
In the particular battles now being waged, the attack on immigrants is also an effort to target the political stand being taken at these actions. The monopolies are organizing to block the workers from any political role and create a situation where everyone can be branded illegal. The workers are taking their stand that No One Is Illegal and all must have their rights, as workers and as human beings.
A society’s advance is marked by the extent to which it enforces rights and makes them judiciable. The monopolies and their governments hand out rights as privileges in the manner of a dog owner rewarding or punishing a pet. The people can clearly see that the victims in this denial of rights are the immigrants, national minorities, women, the elderly along with the entire working class.
Monopolies and their governments use legal and other means to split the working class and hinder it from organizing to defend its common interests against the very force that dictates who has certain rights and who does not. Rights belong to the holder by virtue of being. They can only be exercised and cannot be given, taken, or forfeited in any way.
The monopolies and their governments are to blame for denying the rights that people possess by virtue of being human. The government’s declaration that certain workers do not even have the right to be is a major weapon against the entire working class.
In the U.S., the financial oligarchy has long denied the legal rights of people of African descent and discriminated against them in many ways. The denial of rights of those of African descent has been a huge negative factor in the denial of the rights of all and a block to progress much in the same way that today any denial of the rights of immigrants becomes a huge dead weight on the rights of all, dragging the entire society downward into a medieval mire of repression, racism, ignorance, irrational hatred and war.
The monopolies and their governments are responsible for downward pressure on living standards. The antidote is unity and cooperation among the working class. Workers must step up their united efforts to fight for their just first claim on the wealth they produce and for U.S.-standard wages and benefits and livelihoods for all. Workers as first principle must unite and defend the rights of all. All workers, whatever their dictated status, have rights by virtue of being human.
If one worker at a workplace is declared “illegal” and victimized, then all workers are “illegal” and victimized. If one is declared illegal then all are illegal. Workers must respond as one united force to uphold the dignity of labor until all are legal with their rights held high and honored.
All for one and one for all!
We have rights as human beings!
No one is illegal!
Read the complete article
The debate, if one could call it that, is part of a propaganda campaign to attack the rights of immigrant workers according to an arbitrary legal status. The debate is meant to divide the U.S. working class, setting up second and third-class and “slave-status” workers to undermine the rights of all. A very specific effort is being made to drive a wedge between immigrants and the large, unorganized poorly paid section of U.S. workers who are mainly African Americans.
The first phony debate: Do immigrant workers lower the wages of U.S. workers? That such a debate appears in this manner at all is a provocation against the working class. The question suggests workers, and specifically the poorest workers, are to blame for their own low wages and for others’ misfortunes as well. The truth is quite the contrary.
In a capital-centered economy, like that of the U.S., the workers are victims and must actively defend themselves no matter what status the ruling class gives them. Immigrants are victims first in their home region, which they are forced to leave, and then again when they are compelled to sell their servitude in the U.S.
The working class must take -concrete, practical steps to unite and defend itself, its claim for U.S.-standard wages, benefits and livelihoods and to uphold the rights of all by virtue of being human. Workers cannot accept the dictate of the owners of capital as to whose rights among the working class will be recognized.
Workers are a single undivided class, not split according to the arbitrary divisions of capital based on race, nationality, language, gender, religion or how or when they arrived in the country. Workers warmly accept all members by virtue of being human, as unity and cooperation are the future of humanity, not division, competition and war.
Solidarity is based on principled opposition to exploitation and oppression, not charity. This is the experience of the workers, from the days of slavery to today. It was sharply evident in the recent May Day marches, where workers of all nationalities, chanting in different languages, stood as one fist, fighting for the rights of all.
The financial oligarchy wants disunity and competition among workers. One way it conspires to make that happen is to declare a large section of the working class illegal or undocumented and without rights, as occurred under slavery, as has occurred with immigrants over the years. The demand for documentation is again being used to divide and to provide the means to criminalize all workers. Declaring some legal and some not effectively makes it more difficult to organize into trade unions and to wage other political battles, against unjust wars and laws, deportation and detention, jailing of union leaders and so forth.
The stand taken by workers at the May Day actions brought to the fore that an attack
on one is an attack on all. Limiting workers’ rights because of a dictated status as “indentured guests” or “undocumented migrants” negatively affects the rights of all and undermines the struggle for change that favors the people, whether at the workplace or in society as a whole.
In the particular battles now being waged, the attack on immigrants is also an effort to target the political stand being taken at these actions. The monopolies are organizing to block the workers from any political role and create a situation where everyone can be branded illegal. The workers are taking their stand that No One Is Illegal and all must have their rights, as workers and as human beings.
A society’s advance is marked by the extent to which it enforces rights and makes them judiciable. The monopolies and their governments hand out rights as privileges in the manner of a dog owner rewarding or punishing a pet. The people can clearly see that the victims in this denial of rights are the immigrants, national minorities, women, the elderly along with the entire working class.
Monopolies and their governments use legal and other means to split the working class and hinder it from organizing to defend its common interests against the very force that dictates who has certain rights and who does not. Rights belong to the holder by virtue of being. They can only be exercised and cannot be given, taken, or forfeited in any way.
The monopolies and their governments are to blame for denying the rights that people possess by virtue of being human. The government’s declaration that certain workers do not even have the right to be is a major weapon against the entire working class.
In the U.S., the financial oligarchy has long denied the legal rights of people of African descent and discriminated against them in many ways. The denial of rights of those of African descent has been a huge negative factor in the denial of the rights of all and a block to progress much in the same way that today any denial of the rights of immigrants becomes a huge dead weight on the rights of all, dragging the entire society downward into a medieval mire of repression, racism, ignorance, irrational hatred and war.
The monopolies and their governments are responsible for downward pressure on living standards. The antidote is unity and cooperation among the working class. Workers must step up their united efforts to fight for their just first claim on the wealth they produce and for U.S.-standard wages and benefits and livelihoods for all. Workers as first principle must unite and defend the rights of all. All workers, whatever their dictated status, have rights by virtue of being human.
If one worker at a workplace is declared “illegal” and victimized, then all workers are “illegal” and victimized. If one is declared illegal then all are illegal. Workers must respond as one united force to uphold the dignity of labor until all are legal with their rights held high and honored.
All for one and one for all!
We have rights as human beings!
No one is illegal!
Read the complete article
Control Board Again Tries to Force Unions to Submit
The Buffalo Control Board has continued to interfere in negotiations between the unions and its workers. While the Board was given the authority to reject contracts and impose wage freezes, existing labor law does not permit the Board to interfere in negotiations. Blackmail is also not permitted. Even so, the Board is insisting that it will not negotiate with the teachers until they accept the Board’s dictate concerning healthcare. The teachers have repeatedly said they are prepared to accept a single-provider health plan as part of a negotiated contract. This is not good enough for the Board. They want to impose the change unilaterally and outside contract negotiations and the expect the teachers to simply submit. The teachers have stood firm in defending their rights and demanding that the Board submit to existing labor law, including the Taylor Law.
The tyranny of the Control Board can also be seen in their recent decision to cancel a meeting with all the city’s unions. The meeting is said to be the initiative of state politicians who are trying to get the unions to find -“common ground” with the Control Board. According to a Buffalo News report, as conditions for the meeting, the Board told the unions that only one representative from each union could speak, for five minutes, “each in turn.” Only two representatives were permitted to attend the meeting, to keep the group “within a manageable and orderly size.” The meeting was not a “negotiating session,” and the Board did not want to hear about the “negative effects of the wage freeze.” They only wanted to hear what concessions the unions would make.
Consistent with their stand to defend their contracts and unions, the unions decided not to attend, forcing the Board to cancel the meeting.
Read the complete article
The tyranny of the Control Board can also be seen in their recent decision to cancel a meeting with all the city’s unions. The meeting is said to be the initiative of state politicians who are trying to get the unions to find -“common ground” with the Control Board. According to a Buffalo News report, as conditions for the meeting, the Board told the unions that only one representative from each union could speak, for five minutes, “each in turn.” Only two representatives were permitted to attend the meeting, to keep the group “within a manageable and orderly size.” The meeting was not a “negotiating session,” and the Board did not want to hear about the “negative effects of the wage freeze.” They only wanted to hear what concessions the unions would make.
Consistent with their stand to defend their contracts and unions, the unions decided not to attend, forcing the Board to cancel the meeting.
Read the complete article
Reject Control Board Tyranny
For the people, the days when a king speaks and everyone bows down and submits, are long over. The same cannot be said of the Buffalo Control Board.
The Board continues to try and impose relations of a king to its subjects. It insists that the teachers union accept changes to the contract without any negotiations — just the unilateral decree of the king to submit, or face retaliation, in this case more layoffs and cuts.
While the city, following Control Board dictate, refuses to negotiate any of the contracts for teachers, firefighters and city workers, the Board is demanding that the unions participate in a closed door session with Board members. They are dictating the conditions of the meeting and calling on the unions not to discuss the wage freeze. Instead the unions are to provide different concessions.
The Board is trying to convince the people of Buffalo that the teachers and city workers are to blame for the current funding crisis. How are the people to blame for the fact that the Board grabs more and more of the public treasury and hands it over to the financiers in debt payments? How are the people to blame for the refusal of government at all levels to use public funds to fund public needs, like education?
In many ways the Control Board tyranny is simply a new form of taxation without representation. Perhaps the Board should remember history and where kings ended up.
Read the complete article
The Board continues to try and impose relations of a king to its subjects. It insists that the teachers union accept changes to the contract without any negotiations — just the unilateral decree of the king to submit, or face retaliation, in this case more layoffs and cuts.
While the city, following Control Board dictate, refuses to negotiate any of the contracts for teachers, firefighters and city workers, the Board is demanding that the unions participate in a closed door session with Board members. They are dictating the conditions of the meeting and calling on the unions not to discuss the wage freeze. Instead the unions are to provide different concessions.
The Board is trying to convince the people of Buffalo that the teachers and city workers are to blame for the current funding crisis. How are the people to blame for the fact that the Board grabs more and more of the public treasury and hands it over to the financiers in debt payments? How are the people to blame for the refusal of government at all levels to use public funds to fund public needs, like education?
In many ways the Control Board tyranny is simply a new form of taxation without representation. Perhaps the Board should remember history and where kings ended up.
Read the complete article
Report Cards Give False Information: Superintendent’s Letter Hides Efforts to Narrow Education
Parents throughout Buffalo were both angered and confused with their children’s report cards, issued at the beginning of the month. For many, including those whose children do well in music, art or physical education, it is likely their children received a lower average. This was due to a significant change in how the averages are calculated. As of this marking period, only the grades for Math, Science, English and Social Studies will be counted toward the overall average (grades are given as a numeric number, with 100 the highest).
The report cards themselves did not explain this change or explain how the average was calculated, so many parents may not even realize the change has been made. Superintendent James A. Williams did send a letter home to parents, which only partially explained the change. According to the superintendent, the problem is a technical one, where some schools calculate the overall average including only the four subjects and others do it in a different manner. For some schools subjects such as music are counted, while for other schools, these subjects are not included in the overall average. According to the letter, all he is doing is making the calculation “standard.” He says that as of now, the overall average does not include “art, music, home and careers, and technology grades.” It is not clear what happens to physical education.
The letter provides no explanation as to why only the four subjects are to be counted. It also does not address the widespread anger among teachers and parents alike — directly known to the superintendent — with dismissing the importance of all those courses not counted. Given the existing system, centered on grades and test scores, the youth cannot help but feel that those classes that are not included in the average, do not count. Given the on-going attacks on education in general, many teachers also think this action is a step towards eliminating these courses altogether. At the very least, students and parents are being conditioned to think that only the four subjects “count.”
According to the superintendent, a task force is being created by Community Superintendents, with input from principles, to create a “consistent, uniform process that is aligned with our Three Year Academic Achievement Plan.” Any such task force should hold public hearings on the matter so that parents, teachers, students and all concerned can give views. It is already clear that everyone wants all subjects counted and the quality and scope of education raised and expanded.
Read the complete article
The report cards themselves did not explain this change or explain how the average was calculated, so many parents may not even realize the change has been made. Superintendent James A. Williams did send a letter home to parents, which only partially explained the change. According to the superintendent, the problem is a technical one, where some schools calculate the overall average including only the four subjects and others do it in a different manner. For some schools subjects such as music are counted, while for other schools, these subjects are not included in the overall average. According to the letter, all he is doing is making the calculation “standard.” He says that as of now, the overall average does not include “art, music, home and careers, and technology grades.” It is not clear what happens to physical education.
The letter provides no explanation as to why only the four subjects are to be counted. It also does not address the widespread anger among teachers and parents alike — directly known to the superintendent — with dismissing the importance of all those courses not counted. Given the existing system, centered on grades and test scores, the youth cannot help but feel that those classes that are not included in the average, do not count. Given the on-going attacks on education in general, many teachers also think this action is a step towards eliminating these courses altogether. At the very least, students and parents are being conditioned to think that only the four subjects “count.”
According to the superintendent, a task force is being created by Community Superintendents, with input from principles, to create a “consistent, uniform process that is aligned with our Three Year Academic Achievement Plan.” Any such task force should hold public hearings on the matter so that parents, teachers, students and all concerned can give views. It is already clear that everyone wants all subjects counted and the quality and scope of education raised and expanded.
Read the complete article
Open Letter From a Jailed Union Leader: TWU’s Toussaint Continues to Fight for Workers & Communities
Transit Workers Union Local 100 President Roger Toussaint began serving a ten-day jail sentence on April 24 for leading the first transit workers strike in New York City in 25 years. The union took its stand to defend pensions for all and for safer conditions for workers and riders. The strike was criminalized by the state and a judge imposed a fine of $2.5 million on the union, eliminated the automatic dues check off from paychecks and ordered Toussaint to jail for 10 days. Workers marched together with him to the jail, and widely distributed T-shirts demanding that Toussaint be freed. He was, after serving four days. He and many TWU members marched in the April 29 anti-war actions and on May Day. The city’s Metropolitan Transit Authority is still refusing to sign the agreed upon contract.
* * *
I am in jail because New York’s transit workers were not willing to roll over and play dead when their jobs, their families’ futures, and the well being of the next generation of transit workers were all on the line. I am in jail because I preside over a union that is not afraid to stand up to management when the interests of our members and of the riding public are at stake.
I am not in jail just for violating the Taylor Law. If that were the case, the MTA [Metropolitan Transit Authority] leadership would be here with me. Their insistence on making pensions a topic of bargaining and refusing to negotiate in good faith was no smaller a violation of the Taylor Law than was our strike.
My jailing is in large part a symbolic act, undertaken because you cannot put 35,000 transit workers in jail, at least not if you want the buses and trains to run. But the attacks against our union, the fines and loss of dues check-off, are far from symbolic. They are aimed at three goals. First, to reduce our union’s strength to the point where we are unable to stand up for our members, unable to challenge management, unable to resist the economic and political interests that dictate the MTA’s priorities.
Second, to imprint the memory of this on transit workers for a generation to come, so they will be afraid to stand up for their rights. Third, to warn off others in the public sector from doing the same.
As far as the MTA is concerned, if crippling our union is injurious to our members, then so be it. And make no mistake about it, this would be injurious.
New York’s subways run 24 hours a day, every day. This is the condition under which our members take to the tracks to inspect, maintain and repair the equipment and the tunnels themselves. This means constant hazards to life and limb.
Every day the union’s safety -inspectors are traveling through the system, making sure that work is done safely, identifying hazards before hazards claim lives. Without the money to pay their salaries, these inspections could cease.
Every year over 15,000 disciplinary notices are issued, launching proceedings that could claim days of transit workers’ salaries or even their jobs. Union representatives are there every day to ensure that our members get due process and are not penalized to cover up the failings of supervisors or managers, or as objects of their spite. Without the money to pay reps’ salaries, that representation could falter.
But this constant presence probably offends the powers that be less than the audacity of our union in speaking out on matters of concern. Our union has fought the ‘consolidation’ and downsizing of bus service. Our union has fought taking conductors off the trains and station agents out of the booths. Our union has fought fare hikes. And we have won more than we have lost.
We have won as much as we have because, fighting in the interests of our riders, we have always had riders, community groups and elected officials at our side. No one is in a position to bankrupt riders, community groups and elected officials, but some may hope that crippling Local 100 financially may take us out of those fights.
It is for much the same reason that the MTA is playing games with our contract. To be sure, if the MTA can successfully force the contract into arbitration and get a second chance at winning what they could not win at the negotiating table, they will be sorely tempted to do so. And if the lame duck governor who imagines himself a presidential contender can get out of office without repaying the pension refund due to thousands of transit workers, he will certainly do so. But the motives do not end there. There is also the hope of leaving TWU Local 100 twisting in the wind, a shell of its former self and a warning to all comers. For some, this would be well worth the risk of leaving our transit system in a state of perpetual crisis.
But it is not going to play that way. Transit workers did not roll over and play dead in December and we will not do so now. We will persevere and we will prevail. And if I should find myself behind bars again, whether for ten days, a hundred or a thousand, I will accept it as an honor rather than tell my members to bow down and give up their rights and the rights of future generations.
Read the complete article
* * *
I am in jail because New York’s transit workers were not willing to roll over and play dead when their jobs, their families’ futures, and the well being of the next generation of transit workers were all on the line. I am in jail because I preside over a union that is not afraid to stand up to management when the interests of our members and of the riding public are at stake.
I am not in jail just for violating the Taylor Law. If that were the case, the MTA [Metropolitan Transit Authority] leadership would be here with me. Their insistence on making pensions a topic of bargaining and refusing to negotiate in good faith was no smaller a violation of the Taylor Law than was our strike.
My jailing is in large part a symbolic act, undertaken because you cannot put 35,000 transit workers in jail, at least not if you want the buses and trains to run. But the attacks against our union, the fines and loss of dues check-off, are far from symbolic. They are aimed at three goals. First, to reduce our union’s strength to the point where we are unable to stand up for our members, unable to challenge management, unable to resist the economic and political interests that dictate the MTA’s priorities.
Second, to imprint the memory of this on transit workers for a generation to come, so they will be afraid to stand up for their rights. Third, to warn off others in the public sector from doing the same.
As far as the MTA is concerned, if crippling our union is injurious to our members, then so be it. And make no mistake about it, this would be injurious.
New York’s subways run 24 hours a day, every day. This is the condition under which our members take to the tracks to inspect, maintain and repair the equipment and the tunnels themselves. This means constant hazards to life and limb.
Every day the union’s safety -inspectors are traveling through the system, making sure that work is done safely, identifying hazards before hazards claim lives. Without the money to pay their salaries, these inspections could cease.
Every year over 15,000 disciplinary notices are issued, launching proceedings that could claim days of transit workers’ salaries or even their jobs. Union representatives are there every day to ensure that our members get due process and are not penalized to cover up the failings of supervisors or managers, or as objects of their spite. Without the money to pay reps’ salaries, that representation could falter.
But this constant presence probably offends the powers that be less than the audacity of our union in speaking out on matters of concern. Our union has fought the ‘consolidation’ and downsizing of bus service. Our union has fought taking conductors off the trains and station agents out of the booths. Our union has fought fare hikes. And we have won more than we have lost.
We have won as much as we have because, fighting in the interests of our riders, we have always had riders, community groups and elected officials at our side. No one is in a position to bankrupt riders, community groups and elected officials, but some may hope that crippling Local 100 financially may take us out of those fights.
It is for much the same reason that the MTA is playing games with our contract. To be sure, if the MTA can successfully force the contract into arbitration and get a second chance at winning what they could not win at the negotiating table, they will be sorely tempted to do so. And if the lame duck governor who imagines himself a presidential contender can get out of office without repaying the pension refund due to thousands of transit workers, he will certainly do so. But the motives do not end there. There is also the hope of leaving TWU Local 100 twisting in the wind, a shell of its former self and a warning to all comers. For some, this would be well worth the risk of leaving our transit system in a state of perpetual crisis.
But it is not going to play that way. Transit workers did not roll over and play dead in December and we will not do so now. We will persevere and we will prevail. And if I should find myself behind bars again, whether for ten days, a hundred or a thousand, I will accept it as an honor rather than tell my members to bow down and give up their rights and the rights of future generations.
Read the complete article
May Day Actions: We Are All One!
- Transit Workers Discussion Group -
Around the world on May Day, workers marched to demand an end to imperialist war and to defend the rights of all. Here in the U.S. millions of workers took their place with workers around the world to defend their rights and organizations and together say: No One is Illegal! We Have Rights as Human Beings! We Are All One!
TWDG represented Buffalo transit workers and participated in actions in New York City, at the antiwar demonstration April 29 and at the May Day march. TWDG proudly marched with our blue transit workers flag that reads: Buffalo Transit Workers Say: End the Iraq War! Organize for Empowerment! TWDG spoke to numerous New York City transit workers who had a large presence April 29. They were standing against the war in Iraq as well as opposing the criminalization of their struggle, including defending their union president who was thrown in jail for defending the workers’ rights.
On May Day in New York City workers of all nationalities proudly participated, bringing their flags, marching together, embracing each other. The workers, youth, families and organizations participating brought forth the finest of feelings. There was broad unity and a determined commitment to ensure that the U.S. will not dictate to the world and that it will not be permitted to declare who is a human being and who is not. A militant stand that we workers will not back down and are organizing to strengthen our united fight prevailed.
The workers rejected the direction of U.S. imperialism for war and repression. They stood against the direction of the government, which is trying to impose a situation where it can make everyone illegal — whether for strike actions like that of the NYC transit workers, or for standing against war, or for opposing racism and attacks on rights, or simply for trying to work without the documents dictated by the government, documents that will soon be required for all workers. The stand of the workers together was No One is Illegal! We have rights as workers and as human beings and we demand a society that guarantees these rights!
In Los Angeles, Chicago, and another 60 cities nationwide the spirit and stand were the same, with workers of all nationalities, native and foreign born, newcomers and those here for generations, standing together. As a banner in Los Angeles emphasized, the actions let the government know: The Sleeping Giant Has Awakened!
Read the complete article
Around the world on May Day, workers marched to demand an end to imperialist war and to defend the rights of all. Here in the U.S. millions of workers took their place with workers around the world to defend their rights and organizations and together say: No One is Illegal! We Have Rights as Human Beings! We Are All One!
TWDG represented Buffalo transit workers and participated in actions in New York City, at the antiwar demonstration April 29 and at the May Day march. TWDG proudly marched with our blue transit workers flag that reads: Buffalo Transit Workers Say: End the Iraq War! Organize for Empowerment! TWDG spoke to numerous New York City transit workers who had a large presence April 29. They were standing against the war in Iraq as well as opposing the criminalization of their struggle, including defending their union president who was thrown in jail for defending the workers’ rights.
On May Day in New York City workers of all nationalities proudly participated, bringing their flags, marching together, embracing each other. The workers, youth, families and organizations participating brought forth the finest of feelings. There was broad unity and a determined commitment to ensure that the U.S. will not dictate to the world and that it will not be permitted to declare who is a human being and who is not. A militant stand that we workers will not back down and are organizing to strengthen our united fight prevailed.
The workers rejected the direction of U.S. imperialism for war and repression. They stood against the direction of the government, which is trying to impose a situation where it can make everyone illegal — whether for strike actions like that of the NYC transit workers, or for standing against war, or for opposing racism and attacks on rights, or simply for trying to work without the documents dictated by the government, documents that will soon be required for all workers. The stand of the workers together was No One is Illegal! We have rights as workers and as human beings and we demand a society that guarantees these rights!
In Los Angeles, Chicago, and another 60 cities nationwide the spirit and stand were the same, with workers of all nationalities, native and foreign born, newcomers and those here for generations, standing together. As a banner in Los Angeles emphasized, the actions let the government know: The Sleeping Giant Has Awakened!
Read the complete article
Upcoming Events
BUFFALO
FAIR SHARE FOR HEALTH CARE
Saturday, May 13, 8:30-11AM
United Auto Workers Region #9
35 George Karl Blvd.
Amherst, NY
Meeting with WNY Assembly Members and State Senators to address these key issues:
-Workers’ Compensation Reform
-Fair Share Health Care legislation
Sponsor: Coalition for Economic Justice
COFFEEHOUSE ON BOLIVIA
Monday, May 15, 7PM
Network of Religious Communities, 1272 Delaware
Speaker on current developments in Bolivia, Dr. Newton Garver, president of the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund
Latin America Solidarity Committee
LIVING WAGES FOR RURAL/METRO EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS
Monday, May 15, 10AM
City Hall
We will gather out front for a rally before proceeding inside to deliver our message to Common Council members!
Sponsor: Coalition for Economic Justice
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/buffalolwo
LESSONS FROM THE NEW WORLD: MOTIVATING NATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING
Wednesday, May 17, 4PM
Castellani Art Museum
Niagara University
Linguist Blair Rudes, who wrote the Tuscarora/English dictionary, will speak at the Castellani Art Museum. This event is free and open to the public.
Sponsored by Native American Community Services and the Castellani Art Museum.
For more information: (716) 874-4460
ROCHESTER
ON MOTHER’S DAY STAND AGAINST THE IRAQ WAR
Sunday, May 14, 2006
12:00 noon-1:30PM
Highland Park Lilac Festival
Corner of Highland Ave. & South Ave
NATIONAL
USA: HANDS OFF CUBA AND VENEZUELA!
May 20, 10AM
Malcolm X Park
15th & Euclid, NW
Washington, DC
www.may20coalition.org
May 20, 12PM
Federal Building
Downtown Los Angeles
For Los Angeles information:
(213) 383-9283 or (323) 936-7266
Read the complete article
FAIR SHARE FOR HEALTH CARE
Saturday, May 13, 8:30-11AM
United Auto Workers Region #9
35 George Karl Blvd.
Amherst, NY
Meeting with WNY Assembly Members and State Senators to address these key issues:
-Workers’ Compensation Reform
-Fair Share Health Care legislation
Sponsor: Coalition for Economic Justice
COFFEEHOUSE ON BOLIVIA
Monday, May 15, 7PM
Network of Religious Communities, 1272 Delaware
Speaker on current developments in Bolivia, Dr. Newton Garver, president of the Bolivian Quaker Education Fund
Latin America Solidarity Committee
LIVING WAGES FOR RURAL/METRO EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS
Monday, May 15, 10AM
City Hall
We will gather out front for a rally before proceeding inside to deliver our message to Common Council members!
Sponsor: Coalition for Economic Justice
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/buffalolwo
LESSONS FROM THE NEW WORLD: MOTIVATING NATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING
Wednesday, May 17, 4PM
Castellani Art Museum
Niagara University
Linguist Blair Rudes, who wrote the Tuscarora/English dictionary, will speak at the Castellani Art Museum. This event is free and open to the public.
Sponsored by Native American Community Services and the Castellani Art Museum.
For more information: (716) 874-4460
ROCHESTER
ON MOTHER’S DAY STAND AGAINST THE IRAQ WAR
Sunday, May 14, 2006
12:00 noon-1:30PM
Highland Park Lilac Festival
Corner of Highland Ave. & South Ave
NATIONAL
USA: HANDS OFF CUBA AND VENEZUELA!
May 20, 10AM
Malcolm X Park
15th & Euclid, NW
Washington, DC
www.may20coalition.org
May 20, 12PM
Federal Building
Downtown Los Angeles
For Los Angeles information:
(213) 383-9283 or (323) 936-7266
Read the complete article
"A Day Without an Immigrant" May Day Actions: Workers in Their Millions March for Rights
Across the United States workers in their millions took center stage on May Day, united as one and fighting for rights. A powerful internationalist spirit was felt in these massive actions, in Los Angeles, Chicago, New York City and another 60 cities nationwide. Workers of many nationalities, from many sectors of the economy, many new immigrants, many old ones, whole families, contingents of high school youth, all stood together to say We Have Rights As Human Begins! No One Is Illegal! Reports from participants in all the marches emphasized the united and brotherly spirit that marked all the actions. With great warmth and joy workers of the many nationalities saluted each other, marched together and felt their strength as a powerful force for change.
See photos from the April 29 and May 1 actions, U.S. and Worldwide
Efforts by the ruling circles to split the workers, along racial lines, based on documentation, or whether foreign or native born — all were rejected. Millions together marched with great dignity and pride as workers. Many signs brought out that it is the workers who have built the country. It is the workers who are coming forward to make their claims on the wealth they have produced and to have their say in the kind of society they live in. While the ruling circles no doubt thought they could stir up divisions and strife among the workers, these actions brought out that instead, a giant has awakened. Workers are taking their stand united against the government, against attacks on their rights and for the rights of all.
Los Angeles saw the largest demonstration, filled with a determined spirit. The demand for General Amnesty was widespread, showing that the workers do not accept the government plans to document some while criminalizing others. The action was largely immigrants of Mexican origin, and had many cultural expressions of the peoples, such as bands, drumming and more.
Chicago and New York also had hundreds of thousands in the streets. These actions had large contingents from many nationalities including those of African, Irish, Polish, Palestinian, Haitian, Chinese, Korean, and Filipino descent. Puerto Ricans also joined in large numbers. Whatever the nationality, the feel was that of the working class, standing proud. It was no accident that these actions were called for May Day and the spirit was true to the internationalism of workers everywhere—united against war and reaction and standing for all of humanity.
Read the complete article
See photos from the April 29 and May 1 actions, U.S. and Worldwide
Efforts by the ruling circles to split the workers, along racial lines, based on documentation, or whether foreign or native born — all were rejected. Millions together marched with great dignity and pride as workers. Many signs brought out that it is the workers who have built the country. It is the workers who are coming forward to make their claims on the wealth they have produced and to have their say in the kind of society they live in. While the ruling circles no doubt thought they could stir up divisions and strife among the workers, these actions brought out that instead, a giant has awakened. Workers are taking their stand united against the government, against attacks on their rights and for the rights of all.
Los Angeles saw the largest demonstration, filled with a determined spirit. The demand for General Amnesty was widespread, showing that the workers do not accept the government plans to document some while criminalizing others. The action was largely immigrants of Mexican origin, and had many cultural expressions of the peoples, such as bands, drumming and more.
Chicago and New York also had hundreds of thousands in the streets. These actions had large contingents from many nationalities including those of African, Irish, Polish, Palestinian, Haitian, Chinese, Korean, and Filipino descent. Puerto Ricans also joined in large numbers. Whatever the nationality, the feel was that of the working class, standing proud. It was no accident that these actions were called for May Day and the spirit was true to the internationalism of workers everywhere—united against war and reaction and standing for all of humanity.
Read the complete article
May Day Actions: Buffalo and Rochester Say - No Human Being is Illegal!
Hundreds of people in Buffalo and Rochester took their stand with the millions demonstrating nationwide in defense of rights. Both cities saw many workers, students, religious and community activists stand together against government attacks on immigrants. -Expressing the common spirit across the country to stand together to win change, participants chanted “Si se peude!” “It Can Be Done!”
In Buffalo, in an action organized mainly by youth, participants rallied at the UB south campus and marched down Main Street to Shoshone Park, chanting and carrying signs and banners. Organized under the banner “No Human Being is Illegal” speakers addressed concerns among the youth of government attacks on rights. As one organizer said, “Our battles are not with immigrants in this country.” He emphasized, “Our enemies are the rich, the capitalists, the lawmakers, the politicians, the elite and those who leave us disenfranchised and oppressed.”
As participants marched down Main Street, police targeted two youth organizers of the event and arrested them, claiming they were in the street instead of on the sidewalk. Participants challenged this claim and brought out that police could have easily arrested others on the same charge but only targeted the two main organizers. They brought out that construction on Main Street blocked parts of the sidewalk forcing the protesters into the streets, and that the two organizers were also acting as marshals and at times needed to be in the street in order to keep everyone on the sidewalk. Participants saw the arrests as an effort to prevent more organizing and took their stand with the youth, affirming the rights to speak and organize.
In Rochester about 500 workers, many of them immigrants, and their families as well as women, youth and activists rallied downtown. Demonstrators first converged at the Federal Building downtown at 4:30pm and then marched two miles to St. Michael’s Church at North Clinton and Clifford, where dozens more joined them. Marchers energetically chanted “They say ‘go back’, we say ‘fight back’,” “Si se puede, Si se puede” (“It Can Be Done”). They carried huge banners and signs defending the rights of immigrants and all workers. This was the second demonstration in Rochester in the past three weeks.
Dozens of local businesses joined in the day’s actions as well. In addition, over a dozen Hispanic state legislators and one Asian state legislator walked out in support of the local and nationwide actions.
Read the complete article
In Buffalo, in an action organized mainly by youth, participants rallied at the UB south campus and marched down Main Street to Shoshone Park, chanting and carrying signs and banners. Organized under the banner “No Human Being is Illegal” speakers addressed concerns among the youth of government attacks on rights. As one organizer said, “Our battles are not with immigrants in this country.” He emphasized, “Our enemies are the rich, the capitalists, the lawmakers, the politicians, the elite and those who leave us disenfranchised and oppressed.”
As participants marched down Main Street, police targeted two youth organizers of the event and arrested them, claiming they were in the street instead of on the sidewalk. Participants challenged this claim and brought out that police could have easily arrested others on the same charge but only targeted the two main organizers. They brought out that construction on Main Street blocked parts of the sidewalk forcing the protesters into the streets, and that the two organizers were also acting as marshals and at times needed to be in the street in order to keep everyone on the sidewalk. Participants saw the arrests as an effort to prevent more organizing and took their stand with the youth, affirming the rights to speak and organize.
In Rochester about 500 workers, many of them immigrants, and their families as well as women, youth and activists rallied downtown. Demonstrators first converged at the Federal Building downtown at 4:30pm and then marched two miles to St. Michael’s Church at North Clinton and Clifford, where dozens more joined them. Marchers energetically chanted “They say ‘go back’, we say ‘fight back’,” “Si se puede, Si se puede” (“It Can Be Done”). They carried huge banners and signs defending the rights of immigrants and all workers. This was the second demonstration in Rochester in the past three weeks.
Dozens of local businesses joined in the day’s actions as well. In addition, over a dozen Hispanic state legislators and one Asian state legislator walked out in support of the local and nationwide actions.
Read the complete article
May Day Worldwide: Peoples Stand Against War and Fight for Another World
Around the world on May Day, working people took to the streets to fight against imperialist war and for another world that recognizes the rights of all. In the U.S. millions of workers marched for rights in L.A., Chicago, Los Angeles, and more than 60 other cities nationwide (see p. 5-8). An internationalist spirit was prevalent as workers of many nationalities stood as one with workers everywhere in saying No to War! No One is Illegal! We Demand Our Rights!
In Canada and Mexico many of the actions expressed their unity with the demonstrations in the U.S., opposing attacks on rights by the U.S. government. Canadians opposed having Canadian troops in Afghanistan and firmly opposed U.S. efforts to embroil Canada in aggression. The demand for an anti-war government was evident as were the many demands for the rights of all.
In Mexico too, actions expressed their support for the battle being waged in the U.S. to defend immigrants and all workers. Stands were also taken against recent government attacks on miners.
In Cuba, more than one million people poured into the Plaza of the Revolution in Havana. Expressing their unity with the struggle of immigrants in the U.S., alongside Cuban and red flags were Mexican flags and others of the Americas. Demonstrators also denounced U.S. aggression, including recent military maneuvers aimed at intimidating Cuba and Venezuela. The demonstrators made clear Cubans are standing firm in defense of their sovereignty and their revolution.
Numerous demonstrations took place across the Americas, including those in Bolivia, Venezuela, Panama, Brazil, and elsewhere.
In Asia, Indonesia saw more than 100,000 workers protesting against government attacks on workers, including a new labor law targeting pensions and contracts. Sri Lanka had actions despite efforts by the government to cancel them. Thousands also demonstrated in India, Pakistan, south Korea, Japan and elsewhere. In the Philippines protesters confronted police as they stood against U.S. imperialism and demanded the ouster of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
In the Middle East, Palestinians took their stand against the war on Iraq and against the U.S-backed Israeli occupation, with the call Viva Viva Intifada widespread. Workers in Iraq also protested U.S. aggression, as did those in Iran and elsewhere.
In Africa, numerous actions also took place, including those in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
All across Europe, east and west, workers demonstrated, many carrying the banners of their unions. In Belarus people opposed the attacks on the right to protest. In Bosnia the people targeted the high levels of unemployment. In Greece the focus was against the war on Iraq, with workers marching to the U.S. Embassy. In Britain workers 50,000 strong defended their rights and organizations and also took their stand against imperialist war.
Read the complete article
In Canada and Mexico many of the actions expressed their unity with the demonstrations in the U.S., opposing attacks on rights by the U.S. government. Canadians opposed having Canadian troops in Afghanistan and firmly opposed U.S. efforts to embroil Canada in aggression. The demand for an anti-war government was evident as were the many demands for the rights of all.
In Mexico too, actions expressed their support for the battle being waged in the U.S. to defend immigrants and all workers. Stands were also taken against recent government attacks on miners.
In Cuba, more than one million people poured into the Plaza of the Revolution in Havana. Expressing their unity with the struggle of immigrants in the U.S., alongside Cuban and red flags were Mexican flags and others of the Americas. Demonstrators also denounced U.S. aggression, including recent military maneuvers aimed at intimidating Cuba and Venezuela. The demonstrators made clear Cubans are standing firm in defense of their sovereignty and their revolution.
Numerous demonstrations took place across the Americas, including those in Bolivia, Venezuela, Panama, Brazil, and elsewhere.
In Asia, Indonesia saw more than 100,000 workers protesting against government attacks on workers, including a new labor law targeting pensions and contracts. Sri Lanka had actions despite efforts by the government to cancel them. Thousands also demonstrated in India, Pakistan, south Korea, Japan and elsewhere. In the Philippines protesters confronted police as they stood against U.S. imperialism and demanded the ouster of Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
In the Middle East, Palestinians took their stand against the war on Iraq and against the U.S-backed Israeli occupation, with the call Viva Viva Intifada widespread. Workers in Iraq also protested U.S. aggression, as did those in Iran and elsewhere.
In Africa, numerous actions also took place, including those in South Africa and Zimbabwe.
All across Europe, east and west, workers demonstrated, many carrying the banners of their unions. In Belarus people opposed the attacks on the right to protest. In Bosnia the people targeted the high levels of unemployment. In Greece the focus was against the war on Iraq, with workers marching to the U.S. Embassy. In Britain workers 50,000 strong defended their rights and organizations and also took their stand against imperialist war.
Read the complete article
Change to Report Cards: Content and Quality of Education Further Attacked
Buffalo teachers recently learned that all elementary and middle school students’ report cards will be changed, as many subjects will no longer be counted in the students’ numerical grade averages. The new report cards will only include the “core four” subjects — English, math, science and social studies. All other courses — foreign languages, health, music, art, band, orchestra, chorus, home and careers, physical education and technology — will no longer be included in the numerical average. These subjects will receive a grade, but will not count toward the average.
The numerical average is used in determining placement of the students, their ability to get into various high schools, honor role and so forth. Schools were notified by the Supervisor of School Administrative Technology, from the Office of the Superintendent. The new report cards will be sent home Monday, May 8.
A numerical average based on only the four subjects will significantly change averages for many youth, espeically those who excel in music, art, lanugages, all those subjects no longer included. Even so, the action is being presented by school officials as a minor change in how the average is calculated.
Parents, for example, were only informed that “due to a district-wide computer error, the grade point average was calculated incorrectly on all report cards.” The information that the average is being calculated differently and in a manner that will lower the numerical average for many youth, was not provided. It is likely that the report cards themselves will not explain the change.
Teachers and youth see the change as a direct assault on the right to education and to the dignity of the teachers, especially those teaching the subjects that “do not count.” Teachers emphasized that their role is to provide youth with the education they require to be members of society. Music, art, languages, industrial arts, are an integral and critical part of this. They also object to this effort to pit the teachers against each other, designating some teachers and subjects as more important or valuable than others, when what is required is an education that is on a par with the needs of society and participation of youth in it. Teachers added that given the general emphasis on math and science now occurring in Buffalo and nationwide, teachers are very concerned that the very conception of the content and quality of education required is being attacked. This action is yet more evidence of this negative direction, being opposed by teachers and students alike.
Read the complete article
The numerical average is used in determining placement of the students, their ability to get into various high schools, honor role and so forth. Schools were notified by the Supervisor of School Administrative Technology, from the Office of the Superintendent. The new report cards will be sent home Monday, May 8.
A numerical average based on only the four subjects will significantly change averages for many youth, espeically those who excel in music, art, lanugages, all those subjects no longer included. Even so, the action is being presented by school officials as a minor change in how the average is calculated.
Parents, for example, were only informed that “due to a district-wide computer error, the grade point average was calculated incorrectly on all report cards.” The information that the average is being calculated differently and in a manner that will lower the numerical average for many youth, was not provided. It is likely that the report cards themselves will not explain the change.
Teachers and youth see the change as a direct assault on the right to education and to the dignity of the teachers, especially those teaching the subjects that “do not count.” Teachers emphasized that their role is to provide youth with the education they require to be members of society. Music, art, languages, industrial arts, are an integral and critical part of this. They also object to this effort to pit the teachers against each other, designating some teachers and subjects as more important or valuable than others, when what is required is an education that is on a par with the needs of society and participation of youth in it. Teachers added that given the general emphasis on math and science now occurring in Buffalo and nationwide, teachers are very concerned that the very conception of the content and quality of education required is being attacked. This action is yet more evidence of this negative direction, being opposed by teachers and students alike.
Read the complete article
Letter from a Teacher
The recent change to report cards is an attack on the youth and teachers, but it is also an opportunity. By removing things like band and chorus and art from the average grade students receive, school officials are attacking the quality of education. They are telling the youth that only a very narrow education is needed and the rest “does not count.” This is also calculated to crush the initiative of the youth to explore various subjects and discover their talents and skills. Now those who excel in art or music or languages will be punished and pitted against those who excel in math or science. Why this effort to divide the youth and limit their learning? Why this effort to divide the teachers and make some feel as though they too, do not count?
This whole approach begs the question, What is an education? Is education the responsibility of teachers to impart knowledge, information and experience to the younger generation, to work to develop and socialize human beings to be active participants and contributors to the advancement of society? Or is education a training ground for the narrow needs and self-interests of the monopolies and their agenda? Are the youth to be trained only to acknowledge “math and science” as necessary before marching off to fight imperialist wars, rendering their whole lives as cannon fodder?
There is no question that this attack on education needs to be opposed. School officials are counting on the teachers to throw up their hands and accept humiliation and defeat. We will not permit this!
We can also see this elimination of grades for some subjects as an opportunity. The pressure to affix a grade to students as a “measure” of their progress and learning has long been a source of conflict for teachers and students. Teachers have been forced to think that “if there is no grade attached, students won’t do anything.” This most often is not the case. Students want to learn just as teachers want to teach.
If there is no longer to be a grade that “counts” in so many of the crucial and vital elements of education, then teachers, along with students, have the space to discuss new ways to measure learning and development. Let us counter the administration’s effort to divide and dismiss us by working out our own standard for the content of education and how to assess the learning and abilities of the students.
Read the complete article
This whole approach begs the question, What is an education? Is education the responsibility of teachers to impart knowledge, information and experience to the younger generation, to work to develop and socialize human beings to be active participants and contributors to the advancement of society? Or is education a training ground for the narrow needs and self-interests of the monopolies and their agenda? Are the youth to be trained only to acknowledge “math and science” as necessary before marching off to fight imperialist wars, rendering their whole lives as cannon fodder?
There is no question that this attack on education needs to be opposed. School officials are counting on the teachers to throw up their hands and accept humiliation and defeat. We will not permit this!
We can also see this elimination of grades for some subjects as an opportunity. The pressure to affix a grade to students as a “measure” of their progress and learning has long been a source of conflict for teachers and students. Teachers have been forced to think that “if there is no grade attached, students won’t do anything.” This most often is not the case. Students want to learn just as teachers want to teach.
If there is no longer to be a grade that “counts” in so many of the crucial and vital elements of education, then teachers, along with students, have the space to discuss new ways to measure learning and development. Let us counter the administration’s effort to divide and dismiss us by working out our own standard for the content of education and how to assess the learning and abilities of the students.
Read the complete article
Upcoming Events
BUFFALO
COFFEEHOUSE OF CONSCIENCE
Friday, May 5, 7PM
Unitarian Universalist Church
Elmwood and Ferry
A night of entertainment featuring local singers, musicians, poets and performers, with proceeds to support the Peace Center.
Cost: $10.
Contact: 894-2013.
STATE REPRESSION: FROM COINTELPRO TO THE PATRIOT ACT
Friday, May 12, 7PM
El Buen Amigo
114 Elmwood Ave.
Free lecture by Susan Tipograph, criminal defense attorney with the National Lawyers Guild. Tipograph has defended activists and political prisoners for 30 years. She is currently defending fellow attorney Lynne Stewart. Stewart while defending a client convicted on terrorism charges, was herself falsly charged and convicted of “aiding” terrorists.
Contact Arissa: 796-5460
www.arissa.org
ROCHESTER
PEACE ACTION & EDUCATION ANTIWAR VIGILS
May 14 and 21
at the Lilac Festival
South and Highland
Contact Metro Justice (585-325-2560)
NATIONAL
OPERATION REFUSE WAR: A WEEK OF ACTION UNITING RESISTERS:
In Celebration of International Conscientious Objectors Day
May 11-16
New York City
Washington DC
Workshops, actions, and an international conference to highlight the difficulties that resisters face, and build relationships and connections within the anti-war movement
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF RESISTERS TO GLOBAL WAR
Washington DC, May 13-14
Church of the Brethren, 337 North Carolina Ave. SE, Washington, DC
Contact: youth@warresisters.org
www.operationrefusewar.org
Read the complete article
COFFEEHOUSE OF CONSCIENCE
Friday, May 5, 7PM
Unitarian Universalist Church
Elmwood and Ferry
A night of entertainment featuring local singers, musicians, poets and performers, with proceeds to support the Peace Center.
Cost: $10.
Contact: 894-2013.
STATE REPRESSION: FROM COINTELPRO TO THE PATRIOT ACT
Friday, May 12, 7PM
El Buen Amigo
114 Elmwood Ave.
Free lecture by Susan Tipograph, criminal defense attorney with the National Lawyers Guild. Tipograph has defended activists and political prisoners for 30 years. She is currently defending fellow attorney Lynne Stewart. Stewart while defending a client convicted on terrorism charges, was herself falsly charged and convicted of “aiding” terrorists.
Contact Arissa: 796-5460
www.arissa.org
ROCHESTER
PEACE ACTION & EDUCATION ANTIWAR VIGILS
May 14 and 21
at the Lilac Festival
South and Highland
Contact Metro Justice (585-325-2560)
NATIONAL
OPERATION REFUSE WAR: A WEEK OF ACTION UNITING RESISTERS:
In Celebration of International Conscientious Objectors Day
May 11-16
New York City
Washington DC
Workshops, actions, and an international conference to highlight the difficulties that resisters face, and build relationships and connections within the anti-war movement
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF RESISTERS TO GLOBAL WAR
Washington DC, May 13-14
Church of the Brethren, 337 North Carolina Ave. SE, Washington, DC
Contact: youth@warresisters.org
www.operationrefusewar.org
Read the complete article
