Portside

For years our community has marched, voted, and gone through the courts. We've won some battles, but we're losing the war. Striking will show the public that this country cannot function without us and help us win protection, dignity and respect. Cosecha is organizing a series of strikes that will culminate in a week without immigrants. It all starts on May 1st. STRIKING REVEALS OUR TRUE POWER - MAY 1ST IS JUST THE BEGINNING.

Organizing in Omaha and small towns with meatpacking plants is altering politics in this reddest of states. At the top of the city's power structure sit representatives of large corporations. The corporate elite has transformed the downtown, now brimming with office towers, condominiums and a redeveloped Old Market tourist mecca. Corporate domination has failed to transform the lives of Omaha's working-class families for the better, however.

During the 1860's, Chinese laborers were brought in to help construct the first U.S. trans-continental railroad between the Atlantic & the Pacific coasts. They worked long hours & were underpaid, and most of the time in extreme weather conditions. Many lost their lives in this historic epic, but their contributions were buried & their history untold.

On May 18 in Fresno, California, the state's Court of Appeals for the 5th District ruled that a key provision of the state's unique labor law for field workers is unconstitutional. Should it be upheld by the state's supreme court, this decision will profoundly affect the ability of California farm workers to gain union contracts. At issue is the mandatory mediation provision of the state's Agricultural Labor Relations Act.

Justice for Janitors posting response: Many of the janitors and leaders who fought in Century City were the Central American immigrants coming into LA from the wars. Their experience in their home countries was very important in their willingness to fight, and the use of the tactics of mass demonstrations and even CD in the street. They’re one of the best examples of the way migration, for all the pain it causes migrants, has benefited our labor movement enormously.

Reader Comments - Obama and the TPP; Stop-and-Frisk; White Americans and Police Accountability; Vietnam and Anti-War History and the Ongoing Debate; Remembering Jackson State Murders; Greece, Organizing New York; Those Who Work in Customer Call Centers; Announcements - Immigration, Work and Wages - Washington - May 21; Film Showing and Discussion - Blood Fruit - New York - May 22

Living Peace: Connecting Your Spirituality with Your Work for Justice, by Victor Narro 2014, a new book on the spiritual side of organizing, is just over 100 pages long. This little volume is broaching a topic that might raise cynical eyebrows in certain quarters in our labor movement. Narro's thesis intrigued me and in the spirit of self-mindedness I read the book and reflected on my own recent experience with ILWU Local 6 and the Campaign for Sustainable Recycling.

What does it mean for a society to fight for democracy when the ranks of its disenfranchised keep growing?