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Chicago is having a busy, revolutionary day today. From worker walkouts due to the terrible working conditions in the service-industry sector to this:
HAPPENING NOW! Hundeds of Chicago Public School students walk-out of testing day in protest of over-testing and the impending mass school closures to happen the beginning of next school year.
SOLIDARITY!
Chicago fast food, retail workers strike today - workers walk out at some McDonald’s, Dunkin’ Donuts, Macy’s in push for higher wages, union
April 24, 2013
Community organizers said they expect hundreds of fast food and retail workers in Chicago to walk off the job Wednesday in a campaign to push for higher wages.
The Fight for $15 campaign, named for its goal of securing $15 an hour for workers, said it expects McDonald’s, Subway, Dunkin Donuts, Macy’s, Sears and Victoria’s Secret store in the Loop and Magnificent Mile to be affected.
The rolling strikes began at 5:30 a.m. as workers walked off the job at some McDonald’s restaurants and Dunkin’ Donuts. Strikes are expected later this morning at some retailers. A rally is planned for 4 p.m. at the St. James Cathedral near Huron and Rush streets. A McDonald’s spokeswoman said that while the company believes “a few workers may have walked off the job,” it was “not a high number at all.” Basically, they are daring you to boycott them and daring their workers to strike because they feel like they can do anything they want to their workers and have no consequences. Let’s call their bluff.
“Our downtown restaurants remain open, and it remains business as usual for us,” she said.
Representatives for Dunkin Donuts and Subway said that hourly wages are set at the discretion of franchisees who operate their restaurants.
“Fight for 15, seeks to put money back in the pockets of the 275,000 men and women who work hard in the city’s fast food and retail outlets, but still can’t afford basic necessities,” the group said in a release. “If workers were paid more, they’d spend more, helping to get Chicago’s economy moving again.”
Wednesday’s action follows a nationwide Black Friday strike by Walmart workers and comes just weeks after 400 fast-food workers walked off their jobs in New York City.
“Fast food and retail workers bring more than $4 billion a year into the cash registers of the Magnificent Mile and the Loop, yet most of these workers earn Illinois’ minimum wage of $8.25, or just above it,” the group said.
In addition to higher pay, Fight for 15 says it is pushing to organize a union for workers. Among those participating will be Aimee Crawford, 56, who said she has worked for 14 months at a downtown Protein Bar restaurant for $8.75 an hour.
“I’m using my retirement funds and my savings to bridge the gap between what I bring home and what I need to survive,” Crawford said.
Ecosocialist Conference Supporting Organizations
- Centre for Social Justice (Toronto)
- Chicago Socialist Party
- Climate and Capitalism
- Ecosocialist Horizons
- Freedom Socialist Party
- International Socialists (Canada)
- Monthly Review
- New Politics
- Our Place in the World: a Journal of Ecosocialism
- Red Wedge Magazine
- Socialist Action
- Socialist Project (Canada)
- Socialist Worker
- Solidarity
- The Democratic Socialists of America
- The Green Party of the State of New York
- The International Socialist Organization
- The Young Democratic Socialists
First Nations community, cut off from transport & trampled on for Winnipeg’s freshwater
March 29, 2013
Health worker Linda Redsky sits at her kitchen table, remembering when she almost drowned bringing groceries back from the market. With no roads to her community in western Ontario, she had to walk across the frozen surface of Shoal Lake, a sprawling body of water just north of the Canada-United States border.
She and her husband Wyne were walking back to their home on the lakeshore when they heard loud cracks all around them. “I went completely under the ice,” she says, her voice trembling. “I remember looking up and it was like a moment of clarity. I could see the hole I’d fallen through, I could see stars in the sky and I was sinking.”
But Wyne grabbed her hand and pulled her to safety. They kept each other warm until help came, and it wasn’t the first time that the couple had rescued each other. “At times like that I hate living here,” said Redsky. “It’s beautiful in summer, but I hate those trips across the ice.”
The Redskys live in an indigenous First Nation community, known as Shoal Lake 40. Though they’re just a dozen kilometres from the Trans-Canada highway and a few hours’ drive from a major city, their community had been cut off from Canada’s transport network for 100 years.
This isolation has been part of a long-running dispute that many First Nations people believe is emblematic of their troubled relations with the Canadian state.
In 1913, the city of Winnipeg - about 180km to the west - got the Canadian government to evict the people of Shoal Lake from their lakeside village so they could build a fresh water intake for a growing urban population. Then the city dug a canal to keep the water clean. That canal turned the new Shoal Lake settlement into an island, cutting off the inhabitants from the forests, trade routes, roads and railroad lines all around them.
“We were blockaded,” said the elected chief of Shoal Lake, Erwin Redsky. “It’s manmade isolation. We’re not really remote. We can hear the traffic on the Trans-Canada [highway] and hear the trains go by.” In January, that isolation came to a temporary end with the opening of what Chief Redsky calls “Freedom Road”. Only open in winter, the road crosses a steel bridge that Chief Redsky demanded for years to end his community’s reliance on the often-dangerous ice crossing over Shoal Lake.
“To us it’s freedom, at least for now and until we build a permanent link. No more danger when the ice is thin,” he says. “People have been just driving on the road for no reason, just to see what it’s like.”
But Shoal Lake’s problems are far from over. There are few jobs and even the lake’s abundant fish and mineral-bearing rocks can’t be exploited, because of the City of Winnipeg’s insistence that no development take place near the source of its drinking water. Once-vibrant gold mines and commercial fishing have closed.
Now Winnipeg has big plans for its century-old water supply. A project to install central Canada’s largest inland port and a proposal to sell Shoal Lake Water to surrounding municipalities has given Chief Redsky an opportunity to call attention to his community’s plight. He and his fellow councillors have opposed the use of Shoal Lake water in these new schemes and have managed to get them delayed, if not stopped.
Treaties between the British colonial government and Canada’s First Nations explicitly allot water rights to aboriginal communities, and Chief Redsky intends to press that claim in the courts and international tribunals if necessary.
“Water is sacred to us, to all life, and our treaties call for the water to be shared. So why is only one community - Winnipeg - benefitting from this resource and not all of us?” the chief asks. “We’ll do what it takes to share this benefit.”
Shoal Lake people, he points out, have to drink bottled water because they have no purification plant.
The City of Winnipeg isn’t commenting on the case while the legal ramifications are studied.
What hasn’t been forthcoming, says the chief, is support from Canada’s federal government, which has constitutional jurisdiction over First Nations affairs. Chief Redsky says he’s still waiting for a substantive reply to a letter sent in January to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Some members of his community, he says, are tired of waiting for Ottawa or some other government to resolve their grievances. With an eye to the recent Idle No More protests and hunger strikes, they’re looking to take matters into their own hands.
“We’re at a point now in terms of our relationship with Canada. We’re at a crossroads where there’s a road to reconciliation and a road to confrontation. We prefer reconciliation, we prefer sharing our resources, consultation, as promised in our treaties,” Chief Redsky says, leaving it clear - if unsaid - that confrontation cannot be ruled out.
Idle No More supports Nishiyuu Walkers
March 27, 2013
As the bears are coming out of hibernation so is the Idle No More movement in Hastings County. On Saturday, March 23 the group held its first fundraiser of the season at a residence on Hastings Street South. The group plans to continue raising awareness throughout the community of aboriginal and environmental issues of concern to the region and the planet.
“There are so many eco-conscious people in the area,” said Idle No More Hastings County organizer Theresa Eagles.
“Friday was International Water Day, today is Seedy Saturday and tonight is Earth Hour. Earth Day is almost here. There is so much going on locally and globally at the moment, and really we are all working for the same things: a cleaner environment, better food and clean water.”
The funds raised by the garage sale was used to send members of the Idle No More Hastings County group to Ottawa on Monday, March 25 to welcome a group of Cree youth activists who have been walking from their reserve in northern Quebec all the way to Parliament Hill. “People need to know that Idle No More Hastings County is not going anywhere but it’s all about the walkers right now,” said Eagles.
The local Idle No More group has been focusing their time and energy of late on helping the walkers, who are referred to as Nishiyuu, achieve their goal by bringing awareness to their campaign. What makes the quest of the Nishiyuu even more remarkable are the ages of the organizers. Six of the original seven individuals who started the quest are under 20 years of age with the exception of their adult guide Isaac Kawapit. The original six youth are Geordie Rupert, Travis George, Stanley George Jr., Johnny Abraham, David Kawapit and Raymond Kawapit. Eagles, who has been in contact with the original seven Nishiyuu, said that as the group nears Parliament Hill their numbers have now grown to exceed 300 individuals. “They have come on such an incredible journey,” Eagles said.
“I am honoured by them and humbled by them. These young people are walking more than 1,500 kilometres. There is one young walker who is just four years of age named David who has been walking for the final 100 kilometres. It’s truly amazing.”
Their walk began from their homes in Whapmagoostui, Que., on the coast of Hudson Bay back on Jan. 16.
The Nishiyuu claim that their quest is driven by their desire to make the world a better place for others.
Their goal is to protect the people, their cultural heritage, and the land.
Throughout their journey they have stated that they are guided by their ancestral teachings of courage, honesty, humility, compassion, respect, sharing and wisdom.
Cypriot “no” inspires Greeks to rail against austerity
March 20, 2013
Greeks and opposition parties inspired by the Cypriot rejection of an unpopular bailout deal urged Athens on Wednesday to stand up to foreign lenders whose demands have resulted in repeated rounds of austerity that have made Greek life a misery.
Cyprus’s parliament on Tuesday rejected a levy on bank deposits demanded in return for aid, raising the spectre of a default for the island nation that could mean enduring wave after wave of spending cuts and tax rises, just like Greece.
“See what Cyprus did? We are proud of them,” said Fey Papadopoulou, 22, a university student. “They should be an example for our politicians, who have succumbed to every demand.”
Cyprus pleaded with Russia on Wednesday for a five-year extension and lower interest on an existing 2.5 billion euro ($3.22 billion) loan and 5 billion euros in new loans after voting down euro zone plan for a 10 billion euro bailout.
“The Cypriots set an example to follow,” left-leaning Eleftherotypia said in its leading editorial. “How can the Cypriots say ‘no’ and we can’t even reject a single property tax?”, ran a headline on Greek television channel Antenna.
Greece which first sought aid from European Union and the International Monetary Fund in 2010, has yielded to demands for harsh austerity measures that have slashed household income by almost a third and sent unemployment up to a record 26 percent.
“Cyprus said ‘No’ on our behalf too,” said Odysseas Panagiotou, a 45-year old clerk. “It’s about time that our traitors - politicians - say a big ‘No’ to the troika demands.”
The “no” vote from Nicosia comes just days before Athens and its lenders resume delicate talks on the implementation of the country’s bailout, with creditors pushing Athens to respect past pledges to fire civil servants and stick to unpopular tax rises.
Merkel’s Strategy
Whether Athens - which in the past has ignored riots and mass protests to approve austerity packages and avert bankruptcy - will be swayed by the latest outcry depends on whether Cyprus ends up bankrupt or finds a solution elsewhere, analysts said.
“If Cyprus goes bankrupt, then the government’s argument that we must stay on the austerity path will be reinforced, but if it wins better bailout terms the main opposition’s arguments will be stronger,” said Thomas Gerakis, head of Marc pollsters.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s government - which has been scrambling to assure Greeks that their bank deposits are not at risk due to the Cypriot crisis - said late on Tuesday it supported Cyprus’s choices.
But Greece’s anti-bailout opposition, including the radical leftist Syriza party, rushed to accuse him and Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras of bowing to the austerity demands of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
“After the Cypriots’ proud ‘no’, Mr. Samaras and Mr. Stournaras are the most faithful adherents of Ms. Merkel’s strategy,” said a statement from Syriza, Greece’s most popular party according to a MARC/Alpha survey published on Tuesday.
“The Cypriot parliament shows the way of real negotiation, which no pro-bailout government in Greece even considered.”
Syriza also interpreted a statement late on Tuesday by the European Central Bank to continue funding Cypris banks within existing rules, as a sign of weakness on the part of creditors.
“And just like that, we found out that another way is possible,” Syriza deputy Rena Dourou tweeted a few minutes after the ECB statement was release.
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Thousands of Greek university students protest against a higher education ‘reform’ bill, amid the government’s austerity measures.
March 7, 2013
The students held a rally in front of the parliament on Wednesday, opposing the administration’s plan to close down or merge 350 university departments and faculties.
“We want our diplomas, not worthless documents,” chanted the protesters.
As a result of the reform, many students might have to move to other cities to complete their studies or end up holding a different degree than what they initially planned.
This comes only a few days after another demonstration by primary and secondary state school teachers and unionists held in Athens against relentless budgetary restrictions in the country’s public education sector.
Athens aims to cut 150,000 public sector jobs by 2015, including 25,000 before the end of this year.
Over the past years, workers’ salaries and pensions have been cut, resulting in the country’s citizens to stage strikes and demonstrations numerous times to voice their dissatisfaction.
Greece has been at the epicenter of the eurozone debt crisis and is experiencing its sixth year of recession, while harsh austerity measures have left tens of thousands of people without jobs.
Despite declining attention, the Idle No More movement is here to stay
March 3, 2013
It may seem (from the images & stories covered on corporate media) like it’s winding down, but the Idle No More movement isn’t going anywhere.
Theresa Spence’s liquid diet helped bring the fight for native rights to the forefront, but when her diet ended in January, media attention slowly began to die off. Supporters are fighting to keep the movement alive.
At a recent demonstration in Kahnawake, a smaller but committed crowd rallied to get their point across.
“In order for things to continue and in order for the problems of indigenous people to remain in the news, we have to remain active,” said Idle No More supporter Michelle Werner.
Attawapiskat Chief Spence consistently attracted media attention, both praise and criticism, but when it was over, many wondered what would happen to the movement.
“I think the movement’s carrying forward because it wasn’t about Theresa Spence and it wasn’t about leadership. It’s about grassroots, grassroots native people of Canada,” said Joe Delaronde, a member of the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake.
A sentiment shared by Steve Bonspiel, the editor of Kahnawake’s community newspaper.
“It’s allowed people, the youth, people of all ages and all races and backgrounds to participate, so I think that’s where it really gains its strength. It’s not exclusionary,” said Bonspiel, the editor of The Eastern Door.
However, he feels the mainstream media spent too much time analyzing Spence’s hunger strike, creating a distraction from what Idle No More was actually about.
“It’s about native rights and it’s about our future, collectively as natives and non-natives, living together. It’s about the environment, it’s about land, it’s about water. It’s about things people should be concerned about.”
Marie-Pierre Bousquet, an anthropology professor at the University of Montreal described the movement as a “renewal of old requests.”
“It’s very important to remind people that native rights are in the constitution, so it’s not just people moaning in front of cameras or something. It’s really a question of laws and rights,” said Bosquet.
While the Idle No More movement may not have the same momentum it once did, supporters are convinced the fight is far from over.
“As these bills start rolling down the pipes and our communities start seeing how they’re affecting us, people are going to stand up again and realize the dangers that we’re actually in,” said supporter Jeremiah Johnson.
The People’s Record news update: three important Tibetan self-immolation news stories from the last week
February 25, 2013
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On Tuesday February 20th, 2013: Two Tibetan teenagers killed themselves by self-immolation on Tuesday to protest Chinese rule in Tibet, according to reports on Wednesday by a Tibet advocacy group and Radio Free Asia. The two were among the youngest Tibetans to kill themselves in protest, and the act was a rare instance in which Tibetans committed self-immolation together.
Reported yesterday: A young Tibetan traditional artist was sentenced to two years in jail with hard labor for having photos on his mobilephone of two compatriots who self-immolated in protest against Chinese rule, according to exile sources Saturday.
Ngawang Thupden, 20, was detained in October last year in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), but relatives learned of the prison sentence for “subversion” only four months later, the sources said, citing contacts in the Himalayan region.
“His relatives and family couldn’t see him at all until he was sent to the Tuelung Shungpa jail near Lhasa,” Tibetan Yeshi Gyaltsen, who lives near India’s hill town of Dharamsala, told RFA’s Tibetan Service. “The relatives said there weren’t any court proceedings nor were family and relatives informed when he was sentenced,” he said.
According to Yeshi Gyaltsen, the relatives said they saw many other Tibetans, from the TAR’s Chamdo (in Chinese, Changdu) and Nagchu (Naqu) prefectures, serving sentences on unspecified charges at the same prison.
Chinese authorities have been cracking down hard on any efforts by Tibetans to publicize self-immolation protests after steps taken by Beijing to stop the burnings failed.
Some 104 Tibetans have so far set themsleves alight in protests questioning Chinese rule in Tibetan majority areas and calling for the return of Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama.
Today: Reports coming out of Tibet say a Tibetan man set himself on fire Sunday in China’s northwestern Qinghai province.
The 20-year-old man, identified as Phakmo Thondup, set himself ablaze at Ja Khyung Monastery in Haidong Prefecture, allegedly protesting China’s policies in Tibet.
Reports say monks from the monastery took him to a local hospital to be treated for burns. It was not immediately clear if his life was in danger.
A Tibetan with close contacts in the area tells VOA (Tibetan service) that a large contingent of Chinese security forces were dispatched to the Ja Khyung Monastery where the monks are praying for the victim’s life.
More than 100 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in the past three years to protest what they call China’s repression in Tibet.
A strike by millions of low-skilled workers in India has seen banks close and public transport disrupted, amid reports of two deaths in the north.
An estimated 100 million Indians (for perspective, this is around the entire population of Mexico or the Phillipines - about 1/12 of the whole population of India), angry about rising prices, low pay and poor working condition, walked off their jobs on Wednesday, on the first day of a two-day strike organised by eleven major trade unions.
The strikers are demanding a legal minimum wage, fairer contracts and improved working conditions.
Solidarity!
A hope for indigenous solidarity in the Americas
February 20, 2013
On February 7, the United South and Eastern Tribes (USET), passed a resolution as 26 federally recognized tribes stood in peaceful solidarity and spoke out in the interest of preserving the security, traditions, culture, tribal homelands and languages of the indigenous people of Colombia. USET is an intertribal organization comprised of tribes on the east coast of the United States from the Micmacs in Maine to the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida.
There is a prophecy the South American Indian people and the North American Indians share. It is the Eagle and Condor. It speaks of a time of peace, a time when all people will respect each other and the land. The indigenous people of North America, the people of the mind, the Eagle, will come together with the indigenous people of South America, the people of heart, the Condor. When these two birds fly together in the same sky is when this time of balance and caring will come.
My name is Jay Levy, I am a Colombian Indian from South America, was adopted out as an infant, raised Jewish and now live with the Indian people in New England. Last year, I went home to Colombia as a human rights delegate to visit with indigenous leaders and communities who are caught in a war over Indian land and oil. It is a genocidal campaign financed by the U.S. and brutal tactics are carried out by the Colombian army, paramilitary, and guerrillas. Although Colombia’s 1991 constitution granted autonomy to Indigenous Peoples in their reserves, that provision is not respected, and there are continuous occupations of land by the military and irregular armed groups. My people are massacred, kidnapped, raped, brutally murdered and forcibly displaced off their territory. There are 1.4 million Indians in Colombia, 102 tribes and this year alone 54 indigenous leaders were assassinated.
While in Colombia, I was protected by the Indigenous Guard. The Indigenous Guard defends their territory and way of life through unarmed resistance against armed actors. They are true warriors. They passed on their colors to me and I now have a responsibility to be a voice for those who cannot.
The people here in the U.S. suffered the same circumstances 300 years ago as the South American Indian people still suffer today.Mitoke oyasin, All my relations, we are all related. My hope is to have international support from all the tribes in the United States. USET’s Cultural and Heritage Committee Chair Robert Thrower states, “USET has set a precedent for not only Native rights but human rights in general.”
When I was on the Indian reservations in Colombia, people didn’t think there were any Indians left in the United States. They thought they were all extinguished. Yet when I informed them differently, they cried. It gave them hope for their people, their children, that they too will survive and get through this brutal conflict and the violence they live every day.
These days are hard. The hate and ignorance has divided tribes and Native people. We are being divided and we must not allow ourselves to be conquered. Our culture is being replaced and our sovereignty is being negotiated. We have lost the respect we had for one another. Native people are losing themselves. We must hold onto our ancestors. Honor our relations. We must share and listen to our Indian neighbors. We walk a difficult path. We are Indian. Let’s let our children be proud.
Today (September 18, 2013) we celebrate the birthdays of Audre Lorde (1934-1992) & Toni Morrison (1931- )! ♥
“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” ― Black, lesbian womanist Audre Lorde, Our Dead Behind Us: Poems
These and other photoquotes from these two amazing women are available for liking and sharing on our Facebook photostream.
