Tidbits - June 8, 2017 - Reader Comments: Paris Climate Withdrawal a Crime; Free Speech on Campus; China Labor; Unexpected Afterlife of American Communism; Jews Against Settlements; Whole Foods; Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor; Union-Worker Coops; Korea; and more

Reader Comments: Paris Climate Agreement - Withdrawing is a Crime; Free Speech on Campus; Ivanka's Shoes in China; The Unexpected Afterlife of American Communism; Jews Against Settlements; Hate Crimes; Wonder Woman; Whole Foods; Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor Attacked; Resources: Labor Activism; Immigration politics; Announcements: Union-Worker Coop - tomorrow; Webinar: Korea, Labor and Anti-Militarism; Women's March to Ban the Bomb; and more...

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Tidbits - Reader Comments, Resources, Announcements and Shorts - June 8, 2017,Portside
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Resources:
Announcements:
 
What are we going to do? How can we stop this maniacal rush over a cliff?
 
Meredith Tax
 
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Are there set requirements or obligations in the accord.....or do individual countries set their own standards?
 
Glenn Gokey
 
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There's an overarching goal, but each administration can decide how to try and achieve it. Trump could have stayed in and continued to let the free market achieve the goals. but instead he's made things harder for the whole world, his own country, and for any administration that follows him. Now it's entirely up to the free market in USA to push for action on climate change, and they'll have to do it under tariffs from a lot of angry nations. Good job Trump, you've left your nation without allies.
 
Josh Davis
 
 
 
 
 
Because the federal gov't can do it more efficiently and better. But now it seems the feds might be shirking their obligation and someone has to step up and do the job.
 
Ron Ingle
 
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I find it fascinating that every negative comment on this article revolves around money. Consider if you will that it is the very mode of thinking that is the root source of the issue in the first place, do you really think that clinging to the same mode of thought is going to solve it? My species is doomed, and after reading these comments I'm beginning to wonder if not rightfully so...
 
Michael Davis
 
 
 
 
 
This is not about killing jobs, it's about saving lives. This planet will not survive if we do not stop destroying it ... now.
 
 
 
 
Rob Rogers
June 1, 2017
 
 
 
 
 
 
US President Donald Trump's ravings against the 2015 Paris climate agreement are partly a product of his ignorance and narcissism. Yet they represent something more. They are a reflection of the deep corruption of the US political system, which, according to one recent assessment, is no longer a "full democracy." American politics has become a game of powerful corporate interests: tax cuts for the rich, deregulation for mega-polluters, and war and global warming for the rest of the world.
 
Bill Audette
 
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Caveat, just skimmed the article, nothing new here.
 
But set me to thinking on a deeper level. Political evolution and often reversion.
 
I lived in China 2008-2010, before relocating (and since returning) have read a lot of Chinese history. Chinese will boast "5000 years", meaning theirs is considered the longest standing organized government existing today.
 
That's 5000 years of dynastic rule.
 
At least 3 times in the past 100 years or so, China has attempted to move past dynastic rule, but in fact, they continue to revert back to their roots, the systems supported by the society at large. In explaining to westerners what China is like in every day living, I say it's like living in a kingdom, an absolute monarchy.
 
And in China, it seems to work.
 
Here in America, I wonder how we revert. Governing systems will tend to evolve over time(I think).
 
Still thinking about, and studying. I suspect the key factor here is the capitalistic base of our society. Maybe that wealth naturally tends to the top, the top then taking more and more control over our governance.
A couple things I will investigate and give thought to, mercantilism and the French Revolution.
 
Paul Bailey
 
 
 
 
 
Thanks to my Baltimore connection for sending this one along. It is an excellent analysis!
 
William Llewellyn Lloyd
 
 
 
 
(posting on Portside Labor)
 
 
the union workers that fought for the first union is what gave us the wages and benefits we have today. Without their courage more people would be working for poor wages and no benefits. Unions can bring all workers upwards.
 
Peggy Simington
 
 
 
 
(posting on Portside Labor)
 
 
ALEC is an evil organization devoted to enslaving the poor and working classes in order to further enrich and empower the wealthy. They must be fought at every turn.
 
James McGinnis
 
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You see now who republicans take their marching orders from??
 
David Auld
 
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Greed Inc. is killing this country and conservatives love it. how sad it is that the corporations put the profit of a few ahead of the needs of many
 
Kamp Dan Kirkpatrick
 
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Except wage suppression decades predated ALEC's boilerplate Right-to-Work legislation papering R-fascist controlled states. Wage suppression joined forces with demolishing unions, primarily to dilute union's then-Democratic political power, although at peak, only about 30% of the workforce was union. To perpetuate/hide wage suppression, trade was opened with China for cheap goods the suppressed could still afford, leading then to ridiculously easy access to credit as a sort-of combination wage deferment to disguise the fact full-time workers were earning less, while costs were rising. In 1968, one full-time min wage worker could support a family of three. College/vocational school expenses were affordable on part-time min wages.
 
Suzann Ellingsworth
 
 
 
 
 
My concern is that if you move on to domestic affairs Drumpf will screw that up too. I think a lot of people think Drumpf should be ousted first then all his EOs can be cancelled, his healthcare package can be cancelled, universal health care can be implemented and the electoral college can be torched. Then we can rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and fix Flint's water problems. We can undo everything he's done and start all over again with a new president, not a Republican.
 
Carol Lister
 
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Nina Turner can exit stage left, she also helped get Don the Con elected constantly bashing Hillary during the election... The shortsightedness of those in the Democratic party at that time had me screaming at the TV... They played right into Republicans hand on social issues that would rile up their base...
 
Angela Holmes
 
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The real issue is deteriorating living standards for most people while the oligarchy consolidates its power and wealth.
 
 
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Although Trump represents serious problems on many levels, this is ALSO why I believe he is a smokescreen!!!!
 
Kathe Karlson
 
 
 
 
 
The conclusion of this article provides no answer. Equating speech with violence is fruitless. Yep, the reactionaries have stacked the deck, not new news. The only answer is to fight for free speech for everyone.
 
David Hostetter
 
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The National Lawyers Guild used to be a bulwark in the defense of free speech.  Sadly that seems to be over as this seems to be a defense of those pseudo-leftists who actively suppress speech they find disagreeable.  But if free speech is allowed to be crushed we can be sure that it will be speech from the left that will be the first to go under.  This sort of mindless activism with thuggish overtones is a clear sign of a degeneration on the part of some leftists and their institutions.  It is a very sad development.
 
Stan Nadel
 
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At a local university graduates were admonished to 'listen respectfully' as a rich right winger delivered a commencement speech. In piratically the same news cycle it was revealed that far right owned news outlets didn't let Montanans know that a right wing candidate body slammed a reporter. This is how their version of free speech works: we will talk about how important it is for you to listen to us while denying you any voice of your own. Their mantra of one dollar, one vote extends to one dollar one voice
 
Capn' Steve Krug
 
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While I find the analysis to the well-written and disturbingly accurate, I continue to believe that the issue itself is incredibly complex when it comes to offering solutions. I wish I had one.
 
Patrick L. Courts
 
 
 
 
 
It would be interesting to know if foreign NGO groups are able to go into factories in the US etc.  Does anyone know if the CIA still interviews people from NGOs returning from foreign countries that are considered non-democratic, i.e. socialist?  Who funds China Labor Watch?  I just went to their website and found no listing of the organizations that fund them: is it funded by the US National Endowment for Democracy or an organization like that? Has China Labor Watch, for instance, sent undercover agents into factories, workplaces in the United States or examined the US labor laws and how well they work here to foster unions and democracy for working people?
 
Hollis Stewart
 
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American "activists" infiltrating Chinese factories in ways that violate Chinese laws is somehow Trump's fault. You people are amazing.
 
Alan Bauerle
 
 
 
 
 
Jeremy Corbyn is one of the few politicians today with any real integrity...He is SO right. This has been causing "Terrorist" actions for YEARS. It's not an EXCUSE for such actions, but it IS the REASON. WHY IS THIS NOT STRESSED 
 
Grace Richardson
 
 
 
 
 
I was perplexed by this not because anything in it was wrong but because it omits so much. (CP in urban settings with huge outreach, CP in Civil Rights efforts in 50s and 60s, etc.)
 
Daniel Millstone
 
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I thought this article was reasonable enough, but it's in the New York Times, which I don't trust at all. 
 
Sooooo... please let me know what you think of it.  Is it as fair a description of the state of the Communist Party as you could expect from the Times, and what does it leave out or slant?
 
Thanks,
 
Romi Elnagar
 
 
 
 
 
 
Have you read "Blessed are the Peacemakers; A Palestinian Christian in the Occupied West Bank"?
 
I wrote it several years ago on behalf of Audeh Rantisi, who lived in Ramallah but died about 15 years ago.  I think his story can help us understand the problem, which still exists today.
 
Ralph Beebe, Prof. of History Emeritus
George Fox University, Newberg, Oregon
 
 
 
 
 
When is this genocide going to stop. Where is human rights? The World Court? Stop all aid to Middle East and this Fascist govt.
 
Peter Jimenez Sr.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Watch here. 
 
Suzy Townsend
 
 
 
 
 
I cannot like your page - it is full of lies. Israel is the closest to a democracy in the middle east and they sure as hell do NOT torture their prisoners -I want off this page!
 
Ruth Meta
 
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I worked in Israel as a journalist and anthropologist for 4.5 years. I speak Hebrew and Arabic....you are all full of shit .. and are gullible children to believe Zionist propaganda.
 
Allen Gunderson
 
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It isn't just the prisoners they treat worse, it's every Palestinian!
 
Benita Silas
 
 
 
 
 
Bravo N.O has the guts to put the city in her real time. Slavers and slavery are over. Next equality freedom and brotherhood.
 
Jean Pierre Petit
 
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Interesting and worth reading. These monuments were erected to commemorate racist events and attacks that occurred long AFTER the Civil War!
 
Mike Glick
 
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Read carefully the outrageous statement on he pedestal of the last of the Confederate Monuments that was taken down: "The national election of 1876 recognized white supremacy in the South and gave us our State." Do not weep for the take down of "Our Southern Heritage."
 
What do you know about the post-Civil War battle of Colfax, when Black Reconstruction Radical Republicans citizens put up a futile military defense of their dying Reconstruction government.
 
"In The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction, Charles Lane describes the events — several years of events including the Civil War and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, though only briefly — that led up to the Colfax Massacre. What happened was incredibly complex and only a very detailed description can do justice. But, I’ll try to summarize it his way: A war was fought over slavery, and slave holders lost. A conflict then ensued between the new, victorious, anti-slavery government and the racist pigs of the Confederacy, who insisted on repressing blacks and, essentially, emulating slavery in any way possible. In Louisiana, some two thousand blacks were killed over a period of time, maybe more, between the Civil War and the Colfax Massacre, and another 150 on that day. The Colfax massacre was the largest single one-event racial killing event in the United States. The exact number killed is uncertain, but it is known that most of those killed had been captured by white supremacists who had formed an illegal militia. The prisoners were then summarily executed. Many, possibly most, of the bodies were tossed in the river.
This is how Democrats and Republicans used to do politics in the South. (Reminder: In those days, the Republicans were the good guys, the Democrats were the bad guys, and in Louisiana, of where we speak now, that is not an oversimplification.)
 
The Colfax Massacre has a lot more to it than that, and The Day Freedom Died: The Colfax Massacre, the Supreme Court, and the Betrayal of Reconstruction gives those details, including the famous United States v. Cruikshank ruling by the Supreme Court. It occurred on April 13th 1873. But it is an event that occurred a little while later, on September 14th, 1874, that I’d like to draw your attention to. It was known as the Battle of Liberty Place"
 
Larry Aaronson
 
 
 
 
 
Wonder Woman opens in theaters today, starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot in the title role. The film is getting great reviews, but many are refusing the see it over Gadot’s support for the Israeli military, especially during the 2014 onslaught on Gaza. Here, Carlos Latuff imagines Gadot’s Wonder Woman being outmatched by her latest opponent, Mother Palestine.
 
 

 
June 1, 2017
 
 
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Ok, you're clad in black suits and you don't have a bracelet that deflects bullets But you're still the WW
 
Steve Meacham
 
 
 
 
 
These figures do not count the costs of unemployment and other income support payments, retraining expenses, etc. for those who are likely to become unemployed due to the major reductions in insurance work single payer will bring, both in the insurance companies and in medical offices.
 
Perhaps some, many, or all of the people with jobs at risk in the change will gain employment in whatever new or expanded system the state uses for the single-payer program.
 
Many system changes (e.g. energy system change, reduction of incarceration, reduction of military spending) are presented as bringing big savings but do not include those costs.  The limited accountings seem to presume that it is OK to throw people away and call it savings.  Perhaps an eagerness to promote reform eclipses what for me at least is the most powerful argument for reforms: the improvement of living conditions and health for ALL.
 
On the other side of the ledger, the claims often leave out the costs of NOT making the changes -- the financial and non-financial costs to governments and to individuals, families and communities.
 
My guess is that a fuller accounting which would include both financial and difficult-to-monetize factors will show even more convincingly how society and planet benefit than the very partial versions most advocacy presents do.
 
Joe Maizlish
 
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Went to a panel on this. Could get tricky to do this state by state, and essentially hand over medicare to governors who have to balance their budgets annually and could disappropriate those funds...Let's see what happens
 
Melodie Bryant
 
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GOPers are traitors and should be held accountable for undermining our country, you hateful bigots will have your time and when its comes, may your suffering be excruciating and endless
 
Richard H Schaefer
 
 
 
 
 
Food Cooperatives created awareness and educated many on the benefits of eating/growing/distributing decent food, no other single source did more to create the market that WtF stores have capitalized on. Food Co-ops have long stood for community ownership and therefore control of the entire food system. In talking with Food Co-op managers in large markets, they told me of this scenario: WtF would send someone into the Co-op either as an employee or volunteer, learned what sold well and  learned the way it marketed. WtF would then tell certain employees that they could either come work for them at their new store, which would certainly overpower and shut down the Co-op, or forever get blacklisted at WtF stores. Few Co-ops were able to withstand this bit of corporate espionage and survive. WtF has a long history of Union busting/suppression.
 
This is what "conscious capitalism" is all about.
 
Capn' Steve Krug
 
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Yes, conscious capitalism has it's serious flaws and they include more than convincing consumers to shop at Whole Foods and spend their money -- Whole Foods completely failed millions of conscious consumers instead of supporting their desire for increasing Whole Foods' organic offerings.  And it did nothing to help boarder line customers' understand of the importance of organic food to our health and wellbeing.  Instead Mackey lost millions of dissatisfied customers likely because he failed the in these ways (and as all this has only gotten worse in recent months more failure and loss of disillusioned customers is on the horizons):
 
1) Mackey's organic products, more and more of it from Mexico, as well as his marketing which is intentionally vague about organic vs. natural, has helped to dilute the standards for organic labeling in many of the remaining customers' eyes and in agriculture in general as he turned a blind eye while AgriBusiness got deeper into the profit taking of organic products and marketing without upholding organic standards (eg., hydroponic strawberries grown with artificial fertilizer are not as nutritious as organically grown strawberries plucked from organic soil;
 
2) filling the Whole Food stores with so many unhealthy products (eg., candy carts, predominately non-organic prepared foods, packaged organic and inorganic convenience foods, and the like, all of which are unfortunately high in sugars and oils that many of Whole Foods' customers are lead to believe that because these foods come for Whole Foods, the organic store, that these products are somehow just great.
 
3) Mackey's line of organic fresh produce has been declining for years. Keeping at least a seasonal supply of fresh organic lemons and bananas, beans, peas and peppers, for example, should not be hard to arrange with farmers if he really cared about organic produce. Through this failure to provide, he has trained his customers to settle for less at a higher price, to give up or leave him if they expect a wider array of organics he simply is not going to provide. He, as well as his new partners, are too busy running the business with an eye to squeezing out more profits over quality, happily running it's original promise for organics into the ground!
 
4) sustainability -- Whole Foods mostly have high ceilings with no insulation -- if Mackey had cared about efficiencies and cost savings from the beginning of his years of building new stores, he would have built sustainable structures that are easier to heat and cool. He has had his profit taking run and so the lack of efficiency of his buildings will get pasted on to his new partners/owners, and they have even less compunction about cutting product quality to increase profits endlessly, or at least to the bitter end. Of course there is no thought about all the plastic used, no effort to find alternatives or encourage customers to manage without out it, as they do in many European grocery stores.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT! -- let's join the 14 million people who wised up and left off shopping at Whole Foods. Let's support local stores that sell organics or start/expand local coops.  Let's support/encourage our farmers to take care of their land using organic AND permaculture solutions to managing and protecting the soil. Let's support organizations trying to stand up to AgriBusiness and the Feds assault on the organic standards.  Let's have more community and victory gardens.  Let's live by the abundant knowledge that better food (and soil, water and air) means great health and a joyful life without all the over indulgence of easy consumerism.
 
Bernadine Young
 
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A kale-eating capitalist - is still a capitalist.
 
Eleanor Roosevelt
 
 
 
 
 
 
“If you’re teaching the Harlem renaissance and the civil rights movement, can you say Paul Robeson was proud to be a member of the Communist party?"
 
Yes, you can say that, but you'd be wrong.
 
He was proud of his association with Communists who were the most dedicated foes of fascism.
 
He was proud to support and vote for Communists like Ben Davis and other advocates of racial equality.
 
He was proud of his friendship with supporters of Russian War Relief like Itzik Feffer, Solomon Mikhoels, and my late mother, Emily R. Lehrman (Mikhoels' interpreter throughout New England, who interviewed Robeson for her student newspaper at Simmons).
 
But he was not a member of the Communist Party.
 
He answered the question of party membership, once, in the negative, at a hearing in California, and then refused to answer it again, on principle.
 
That is what needs to be taught.
 
Leonard J. Lehrman
 
 
 
 
 
Sarah Jones
June 2, 2017
 
 

 
Where is the outrage for Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor? Princeton University professor Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor has been forced to cancel speeches in Seattle and at the University of California, San Diego due to violent threats from the right wing. As The Seattle Times reported on Thursday, the threats started after Fox News covered her May 30 commencement speech at Hampshire College. In it, she correctly called Donald Trump "a racist, sexist megalomaniac."
 
"Since last Friday, I have received more than 50 hate-filled and threatening emails. Some of these emails have contained specific threats of violence, including murder," she said in a May 31 statement. "I have been threatened with lynching and having the bullet from a .44 Magnum put in my head."
 
But Taylor's crisis hasn't received much attention outside local news. When Middlebury College students protested Charles Murray, pundits protested. As Osita Nwanevu noted at the time, a Washington Post column even compared his situation to that faced by the Little Rock Nine. See also: Ann Coulter and Milo Yiannopolous.
 
There are some distinctions to note: Taylor is not being no-platformed in the sense that we commonly understand it, and the fervor she now fights developed in response to a campus speaking engagement to which no one objected at the time.
 
Nevertheless, it's striking that her situation has garnered almost no outrage from the usual free-speech defenders. There are no columns in The New York Times or The Atlantic or New York magazine. There are no fevered tweets, no hand-wringing on her behalf. Instead, we have yet another Times column about the excesses of college liberals.
 
Taylor is inarguably in more danger than Charles Murray. She is a black person in a country with a long history of white supremacist violence-and in recent years that violence has been especially public. Just last month, a white supremacist stabbed two bystanders to death in Portland when they interfered with his racial abuse. Racism may also have motivated the May slaying of a black college student in Maryland.
 
Coverage of free speech fights in the U.S. casts the left as illiberal antagonists and lets the right off the hook for its own, much more serious history of censorship. By defending Charles Murray, and not Taylor, the media has shown some revealing inconsistencies in its concerns about free speech.
 
 
 
 
 
Sarah Jaffe, an independent journalist covering labor, economic justice, social movements, politics, gender, and pop culture. She is the co-host, with Michelle Chen, of Dissent magazine’s Belabored podcast, as well as an editorial board member at Dissent and a columnist at New Labor Forum. Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt is her first book.  She was one of the first reporters to cover Occupy Wall Street and the Fight for $15
 
and
 
Mark Brenner, Director of Labor Notes, a media and organizing project that has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement since 1979. Labor Notes also works with local unions and community groups to organize Troublemakers Schools, bringing labor activists together for a day of workshops on grassroots unionism and skills that officers and rank and filers need.
 
Sarah Jaffe  covers the class war one battle at a time.  She has criss- crossed the country, asking people what they were angry about, and what they were doing to take power back.  She penetrates the heart of these movements, explaining what has made ordinary Americans become activists. She attended a people's assembly in a church gymnasium in Ferguson, Missouri; walked a picket line at an Atlanta Burger King; rode a bus from New York to Ohio with student organizers; and went door-to-door in Queens days after Hurricane Sandy.  From the successful fight for a 15 minimum wage in Seattle and New York to the halting of Shell's Arctic drilling program, Americans are discovering the effectiveness of making good, necessary trouble. Sarah Jaffe captures the essence of the class struggle, tells the stories of the movers and shakers in labor and community activities to empower the people towards building a just, egalitarian,  peaceful society.
 
Mark Brenner knows that we don’t need a crystal ball to figure out what a Trump presidency has in store for labor:  national “right-to-work” legislation, outsourcing and privatizing more public services, large-scale deportations, a ban on prevailing-wage laws and this is just the tip of the iceberg.   But that’s precisely when Labor Notes kicks into gear insisting, “after we mourn, we need to organize”. Mark will talk about how under Trump, labor must abandon its insider approach and concentrate on the power of the rank and file and where that’s happening.
 
Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report National Edition
 
Produced by Ken Nash and Mimi Rosenberg
 
To Download or listen to this 27:52 minute program,
Pacifica Stations only go here
 
all others go here
 
or
 
 
 
Building Bridges is regularly broadcast live over WBAI, 99.5 FM in the N.Y.C Metropolitan area on Mondays from 7-8pm EST and is streamed, and archived cast at www.wbai.org
 
 
 
 
 
by Jane Guskin and David L. Wilson
 
 
 
372 pages | $24 pbk
 
 
“The Politics of Immigration brilliantly interrogates this urgent subject that defines our time. This concise volume—ideal for students and the general public—presents a wealth of data in lively and engaging prose that ultimately explores who is an American and what is America. Read this book now!”
—Ron Hayduk, San Francisco State University
 
Praise for the first edition of The Politics of Immigration:
 
“We desperately need to put aside false information about immigrants, to see them as we see ourselves with honesty and compassion. This book gives powerful meaning to the slogan ‘No Human Being is Illegal.’ I hope it will be widely read.”
—Howard Zinn, author, A People’s History of the United States
 
U.S. immigration has been the subject of furious debates for decades. On one side, politicians and the media talk about aliens and criminals, with calls to “deport them all.” On the other side, some advocates idealize immigrants and gloss over problems associated with immigration. Dialogue becomes possible when we dig deeper and ask tough questions: Why are people in other countries leaving their homes and coming here? What does it mean to be “illegal”? How do immigration raids, prisons, and border walls impact communities? Who suffers and who profits from our current system—and what would happen if we transformed it?
 
The Politics of Immigration: Questions and Answers goes beyond soundbites to tackle these concerns in straightforward language and an accessible question-and-answer format. First published in 2007, this updated and expanded edition is an effective tool to confront current stereotypes and disinformation. Those who believe immigrants take jobs from citizens, don’t pay taxes, strain public services, and threaten the dominant culture will find their assumptions challenged with compelling arguments and hard data. Ideal for classroom use, The Politics of Immigration provides those who are undecided about immigration with the facts and clear reasoning they need to develop an informed opinion.
 
Jane Guskin and David L. Wilson have been writing since 1990 about immigration, labor, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Their articles have appeared in Truthout, NACLA Report on the Americas, MR Online, The Huffington Post, and other publications. For over twenty years, they co-edited Weekly News Update on the Americas, an English-language bulletin covering grassroots news from Latin America. Guskin also edited a companion publication, Immigration News Briefs. Guskin and Wilson are both based in New York City, where they work for immigrant and labor rights.
 
order online here
 
 
 
 
 
 
Eastern Conference For Workplace Democracy --  Renewing the Alliance: Unions and Co-ops Fight for Worker Power in NY, Cincinnati, and Beyond
 
 
Friday, June 9, 2017  ---  1pm to 5pm
 
Fordham Law School at Lincoln Center  
150 West 62nd Street
New York City 
 
 
**FREE** Register here.
 
 
Under fierce attack from the corporate sector, labor unions are exploring worker co-ops as a way to organize new members, save members’ jobs, create new jobs, and build community alliances. Presenters from NYC, Cincinnati and beyond will share their unions’ experiences with these experiments. Through panels, small group discussions and networking opportunities participants will explore how the co-op business model can help to strengthen and expand our unions.
 
 
Speakers include:
  • Ellen Vera - National Manufacturing Organizing Coordinator, IUE-CWA; cofounder, Cincinnati Union Co-op Initiative
  • Mary Hoyer – co-chair, UnionCo-ops Council of US Federation of Worker Co-ops
  • Carmen Huertas-Noble – director, CUNY Law School Community & Economic Development Clinic, legal expert on unionized worker co-ops
  • Keith Joseph - 1199SEIU rep for Cooperative Home Care Associates, the US’s largest worker coop
  • David Hammer - ICA Group, consultants to unions on business conversions
  • Brendan Martin - director, The Working World, which supported the launch of New Era Windows in Chicago
  • Arturo Archila - United Steel Workers NYC, helped launch a unionized co-op
  • Roger Green - director, Bunche-DuBois Center for Public Policy Research, Medgar Evers College
 
Sponsors: UnionCo-ops Council of US Federation of Worker Coops, Murphy Institute for Worker Education & Labor Studies-CUNY, NYC Network of Worker Cooperatives, FPWA, 1Worker1Vote.org
 
Although it is a free conference. we encourage registration (see the link above).
 
 
 
 
 
 
Tuesday, June 13, 2017
8:30pm Eastern, 7:30pm Central, 6:30pm Mountain, 5:30pm Pacific
 
 
 
Protests rocked South Korea’s capital city of Seoul in 2015, as workers demanded the ouster of President Park Geun-hye and an end to her plans for drastic, anti-worker changes to the country’s labor laws.
 
South Korea has historically been one of the United States’ strongest allies in the region. Its government, like so many others in the age of corporate globalization, was trying to weaken unions and restrict democratic debate.
 
But a growing resistance rose up to oppose Park, led by organized labor. The KCTU anchored a coalition of workers, farmers, the urban poor, and students to oppose Park’s pro-corporate agenda and neo-authoritarian rule.
 
Hyun Lee will present on this uprising and its relationship to anti-militarism, Trump, and North Korea.
 
 
 
 
Hyun Lee is a New York City-based writer and activist.  She is a member of the Solidarity Committee for Democracy and Peace in Korea. She is also a Korea Policy Institute http://kpolicy.org/ fellow and a member of Nodutdol for Korean Community Development.
 
 
Sponsored by:  US Labor Against the War
1030 15th St, NW #153 | Washington DC 20005 | 202-521-5265 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Make nuclear weapons illegal!
 
The UN General Assembly is negotiating a treaty to ban nuclear weapons, just as land mines have successfully been banned. Nations in the “nuclear club” are opposing this.
 
Nukes don’t keep us safe.
They endanger our cities, pollute our lands, & drain our treasury.
In the 1990s, the US and Russia did destroy certain types of nukes. IT CAN BE DONE.
 
Demand that nuclear-armed nations join the UN negotiations to BAN THE BOMB.
 
11:45: Brooklyn groups meet at La Colombe (40th and 6th, Manhattan)
12:30: March begins to the UN
1:15-4:00 Rally at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza
 
Sponsored by Brooklyn for Peace
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Bans. Walls. Raids. Hate crimes. Immigrants and refugees are in the crosshairs of the Trump Administration and the rising tide of nationalism and xenophobia. Our new landscape echoes the darkest chapters of American history. The work to protect, defend, embrace, and enfranchise millions of American immigrants and refugees has never been more urgent.
 
Join us at AND JUSTICE FOR ALL: National Immigrant Integration Conference (NIIC) 2017, the largest conference on immigration in the United States, that will be co-hosted by the National Partnership for New Americans (NPNA) and Promise Arizona (PAZ) in Phoenix, December 10-12, 2017.
 
Now in its 10th year, NIIC will bring together advocates, government agencies, direct service providers, the business community, faith and labor leaders, academics and researchers, activists, and funders. Arizona has faced some of the worst of this country's anti-immigrant movement. In the southwest, close to the border, and in a demographically evolving part of our country, we will learn, resist, and dream together.
 
Registration for NIIC will open in June. In the meantime, share your suggestions for NIIC track and plenary sessions, speakers and more through our Call for Proposals. The deadline is June 15, 2017.
 
Seeking justice for all,
  • National Partnership for New Americans, NIIC 2017 Co-Host
  • Promise Arizona, NIIC 2017 Co-Host
  • Chicanos Por La Causa, NIIC 2017 Executive Committee
  • Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, NIIC 2017 Executive Committee   
  • Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, NIIC 2017 Executive Committee  
  • New York Immigration Coalition, NIIC 2017 Executive Committee  
  • One America, NIIC 2017 Executive Committee
  • One Arizona, NIIC 2017 Executive Committee  
  • Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition, NIIC 2017 Executive Committee