Workers Resistance

Author: Fight Back

  • Workers’ unity, struggle puts brakes on firing of School Bus Union 5

    Fight Back News Service is circulating this following article from Workers World. We urge our readers to go to the Team Solidarity website at tinyurl.com/d5tntcg and lend your support to this important struggle.

    By Joseph Piette

    Boston, Oct. 23 — In an impressive display of strength and unity in the face of a state attack against a militant union, hundreds of Boston bus drivers, bus monitors and community supporters came out tonight, in support of the School Bus Union 5: Andre Francois, Steven Gillis, Stevan Kirschbaum, Richard Lynch and Garry Murchison. Today’s events put the Veolia transnational corporation on the defensive, thwarting its hell-bent plan to break the union by attempting to unlawfully fire these long-time, respected members of Steelworkers Local 8751, the Boston School Bus Drivers Union.

    The first hit against Veolia’s plans to terminate Gillis, Kirschbaum and the three other defendants was the legal brief presented to the corporation from the Steelworkers International legal defense team on Oct. 21. It reads in part: “As is explained herein, none of the named employees has engaged in any of the misconduct alleged against them inasmuch as the facts (as now known to the union) make clear that the events of October 8, 2013, amounted to an unlawful lockout by the Company and not a work stoppage by the employees and that, even if there were a work stoppage prior to the time when the Company locked the employees off the property, such work stoppage would have been a lawful unfair labor practice strike in any event. Moreover, pursuant to the facts expounded herein, the five named employees did not plan or orchestrate any of the concerted activity that occurred on October 8 and thus have no culpability beyond that.”

    The 65-page document includes testimony, photos and other facts explaining that the company’s unfair labor practices were the real cause of the events on Oct. 8.

    But the real power that made Veolia nervous today was the workers’ strength. The company knew workers and community members would be gathering outside the meeting at the company’s executive offices. That was why they announced early on that no one would be terminated today during the first disciplinary hearing against the Five. Another hearing is set for Oct. 28.

    Strength of workers’ power

    At the 3 p.m. start of the disciplinary meeting, the number of those gathered outside the building was understandably small because most workers were on their buses until 5:30. Union leaders demanded that all Five accused workers be present throughout the hearings.

    When the company handed over three copies of the charges against Steve Gillis, union representatives demanded copies for every worker in the room, as past practices dictate. The company was forced to call a recess while that was done. The Five took the opportunity to walk out to the assembled crowd and hold the first of four or five rallies that took place over the next several hours.

    Each time they walked out, Kirschbaum, chair of the union’s Grievance Committee, gave a report to a steadily growing crowd. Veolia management personnel drove in and out of the gates as the meeting progressed in order to report to their bosses the increasing size of the rally.

    By 7:15 p.m., the gathering, which had grown to more than 350 workers and supporters, was a virtual occupation of Veolia’s corporate headquarters. As Kirschbaum walked out the door, some of the workers picked him up and carried him to a makeshift stage on the back of a truck. The rest of the Five joined him, as well as Boston City Councillor Charles Yancey.

    Each member of the Five spoke during the last rally of the day. Kirschbaum reported that the disciplinary meeting would be continued on Oct. 28. Decisions have been delayed, but Veolia’s attempt to fire the five union leaders is still on the table. Kirschbaum pointed out that the rank-and-file members’ willingness to mobilize in support of the Five has put Veolia on the defensive.

    Steve Gillis, USW local vice president, focused his remarks on the villainous role of the Veolia corporation as a worldwide imperialist pirate, more powerful than many governments. Through its four divisions Veolia does business in the trillions of dollars, has operations in 48 countries and employs more than 300,000 workers. It is trying to corner the world’s water supply; is an energy monster that even uses fracking, which is known to destroy the environment; and runs apartheid bus lines and Israeli-settler-only garbage dumps in the occupied West Bank.

    But, Gillis pointed out, the real, much stronger power is the power of the workers fighting for their rights in unity as a powerful workers’ assembly.

    Francois, Lynch and Murchison all thanked the assembled rank and file for demonstrating by their actions the time-honored motto: “An injury to one is an injury to all.” The three thanked the workers for showing by their solidarity that they would not allow a single union leader to be sacrificed to Veolia’s union busting. Then they told the workers they were living the 8751 motto: “Together we will win. Ansamb nou se yon fos. Todos unitos. De juntos somos forte!”

    Councillor Yancey told the drivers and monitors: “You offered to do the afternoon run and pick up the children [on Oct. 8], but the mayor refused and locked the gates. The mayor sided with Veolia. You love the children of Boston. You deserve respect for the work you do. If you win, all of Boston wins. If you lose, workers all over lose.”

    This reporter heard workers express a common belief: If the union leaders are terminated, their wages and benefits will go next. They must stop the company’s plans. Hands off the School Bus Union Five!

    Piette is a retired letter carrier from Philadelphia.

  • Veterans and community rally against drones at Jacksonville Naval Air Station

    Jacksonville, FL – More than 20 war veterans and community allies from the North Florida area gathered outside of Jacksonville’s Naval Air Station (NAS) to protest a new drone operations base run by the Pentagon. The protest, organized by Occupy Jacksonville and Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), drew supporters from as far away as Gainesville and Pensacola.

    Protesters showed up outside the Naval Air Station commercial gate in the late morning on Oct. 26, carrying bullhorns and banners. Some protesters carried signs that read, “Down all drones” and “You can’t make peace with bombs.” Others brought signs from last month’s protests to stop the war in Syria, noting the proposed use of drones to carry out a strike on the war-torn Middle Eastern country.

    The announcement that Jacksonville would host a major command center for surveillance drones came in February 2013 amid growing opposition by the community. According to the Pentagon, the center will cost an estimated $22 million to build.

    “7.4% of workers in Jacksonville are unemployed right now because of an economic crisis brought on by a decade of war and occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Dave Schneider, a protester at the event. “The only class in this country that benefits from this policy is a small collection of banks and corporations at the top, while working people like us pay the price. We stand against drones because they terrorize our sisters and brothers overseas and destroy our future right here at home.”

    Event organizers played anti-war protest songs through a megaphone, including the bluesy jams of Watermelon Slim, a strong VVAW supporter and Vietnam veteran. Soon after, the crowd heard from a few speakers who talked about the use of drones in the U.S. imperialist wars in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and other oppressed nations. They called for an end to drone use by the U.S. military and for immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan.

  • Top 5 progressive horror films for activists on Halloween

    Odds are that Karl Marx would have enjoyed horror movies.

    The German revolutionary and author of The Communist Manifesto died almost 40 years before the release of Nosferatu, the first commercially successful horror movie. But as a harsh critic of capitalism and colonialism, Marx was familiar with his fair share of real life horrors perpetrated by the capitalist class on working and oppressed people. 100 years before Night of the Living Dead, Marx was already likening capitalist oppression to the undead: “Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.”

    About a century later, Malcolm X would echo these sentiments and say, “Show me a capitalist, and I’ll show you a bloodsucker.” For Malcolm X and other freedom fighters throughout history, the system of imperialism faced by African Americans and other oppressed people was a real-life house of horrors full of violence and exploitation, literally sucking the life out of its victims. It’s precisely this reflection of the real conditions of oppression around us, especially in the U.S., that make horror films so interesting for activists and revolutionaries.

    All movies reflect the culture, politics and conditions around them, but horror films in particular reflect our collective fears as a society – and sometimes the fears that our rulers want us to have. For instance, Texas Chainsaw Massacre is only remembered now as an early slasher film. But in 1974 when it was released, the story was a terrifyingly exaggerated reflection of people’s real concerns: five young hippie kids go looking for gasoline after their car breaks down in Texas – a very common problem given the gas shortages from the 1973 oil embargo – and get terrorized by a family of unemployed meatpackers, who turned to maniacal violence only after losing their jobs to technology and outsourcing by the 1%.

    Sometimes horror films reflect the genuinely terrifying outlook of the right wing. The wave of slasher flicks in the 1980s reflected the rise of Ronald Reagan and the Christian Right, who violently imposed their vision of trickle-down economics and ‘family values’ on women, poor and working people and the youth. Similarly, The Exorcist (1973) was a thinly-veiled reactionary statement against single working mothers and the threat that science posed to conservative religious orthodoxy.

    The post-9/11 period featured horror films eerily reflective of the things people saw on the news, whether it was terrorists on video tapes (The Ring), exploding buildings in Manhattan (Cloverfield), torture (Saw, Hostel), or right-wing religious fanatics (The Mist).

    Today, it’s no surprise that the most successful horror films since the 2008 economic crisis all dealt with insecurity about people’s homes – whether its bankers haunted by the victims of foreclosures in Drag Me To Hell or traditional haunted house flicks like Insidious, Paranormal Activity, Sinister and The Conjuring.

    A few horror films particularly reflect what Malcolm X called “the American nightmare” of exploitation and oppression. Social justice activists can use these films as a jumping-off point for conversations about the very real horrific imperialist system that we face today. For activists looking for a couple of scary but socially-conscious movies for Halloween 2013, I present the top five most progressive horror movies:

    5. The Purge (2013)

    It didn’t seem right not putting a recent horror flick on this list, and The Purge holds its own with the rest of the list. Written like an episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, the film takes place in a dystopian future U.S. where a fascist group called the New Founding Fathers seized state power in a coup and implemented an annual, 12-hour event called “the purge.” During the purge, all criminal activity – including murder – becomes legal, which allows the rich to literally hunt down the poor or hide away in expensive defense fortresses that only they can afford. The Purge follows the lives of a wealthy family that gets attacked by a fascist gang of racist vigilantes after they give refuge to an African American man during the night. In the wake of the murder of Trayvon Martin and the outrageous Zimmerman verdict, The Purge has some genuinely scary and disturbing moments that make us reflect on the real police and vigilante violence inflicted on African Americans, Latinos and other oppressed nationalities every day.

    4. Tales From the Hood (1995)

    Tales From the Hood was Spike Lee’s entry into the horror genre and although it’s not necessarily the scariest film because of its occasionally tongue-in-cheek humor, it stands out as one of the most anti-racist horror films ever made. Tales From the Hood is told as an anthology, the premise being that three gang members are told four stories by a funeral home owner named Mr. Simms. The stories range from the ghost of a civil rights activist haunting the police officers who murdered him to the souls of dead slaves exacting revenge on a Ku Klux Klan politician, who converts an old slave plantation into his office. The most striking part of the film is that although some of the horror elements are over the top, like the use of ghosts, none of the disturbing stories are unrealistic. Police or racist vigilantes murder African Americans every 36 hours, and many of the politicians in office today have extensive connections to fascist groups like the Klan. Tales From the Hood had a poor theatrical run, but it’s made a comeback on Netflix and deserves a Halloween viewing by activists in the US.

    3. George Romero’s Dead Series (1968, 1978, 1985, 2005)

    I cheated a little with this entry by rolling four films into one, but I can’t preference one of Romero’s four classic zombie films over the others. Night of the Living Dead (1968) feels very dated and hardly scary anymore, but activists will still find its commentary on racism and national oppression powerful today. The not-so-subtle Dawn of the Dead (1978) is an extended critique of rampant consumerism and Day of the Dead (1985) asks the audience to consider whether the U.S. military is a greater threat to humanity than the undead ‘enemies’ they claim to fight. Land of the Dead brings it all together in a zombie-filled class war that also comments on the U.S.’s destructive immigration policies. Some of the films are scarier than others, but all four are required viewing for activist horror fans.

    2. Candyman (1992)

    Set predominantly in a Chicago public housing project, Candyman on its face is about an urban legend involving a hook-handed killer who appears when you say his name five times into a mirror. In actuality, this underrated early 90s classic harshly criticizes white liberal racism and academia’s fixation on studying – but never solving – poverty and national oppression. Candyman, seemingly the villain of the film, is actually the victim of racist violence by a lynch mob. The real villains are the middle and upper class academics, whose discrimination and condescension towards poor people in the community actually exacerbates their oppression. Terrifying and surprisingly nuanced, Candyman is a horror movie staple for any social justice advocate.

    1. Alien (1979)

    Alien is the most progressive horror film I’ve ever seen, hands down. Ridley Scott’s masterpiece features truckers and miners in space who get sent on a suicide mission by their corporate employers to retrieve a deadly alien. The most oppressed workers are African Americans and women and they’re also the people who survive the longest. The film features Sigourney Weaver as Lieutenant Ellen Ripley, a strong female fighter who essentially organizes her co-workers to revolt against the company’s plan to capture the titular alien. Set more than 100 years in the future, the concerns of the workers on board the Nostromo echo those of Wal-Mart cashiers, UPS part-timers and fast-food workers in the U.S. today – poverty wages, wage theft, and in the case of the Nostromo Crew, incredibly unsafe working conditions. Alien still holds up as a genuinely scary film, but the real draw for activists is its fairly explicit anti-capitalist, pro-worker message.

  • Protest demands: “Drop the charges against Rasmea Odeh”

    Chicago, IL – About 50 people protested here, Oct. 24, to oppose Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people and also to call for the U.S. government to drop charges against local Palestinian activist, Rasmea Odeh. The demonstration took place outside the Chicago Hilton where a fundraising event for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) was held.

    Odeh was arrested at her home the morning of Oct. 22 by agents of the Department of Homeland Security on allegations of an immigration violation.

    According to Hatem Abudayyeh of U.S. Palestinian Community Network-Chicago, “The IDF enforces Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and siege of Gaza. Now the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice are enforcers of that illegal occupation as well.” He added, “We will raise our voices to oppose this fundraiser and to show our support for Rasmea Odeh. Her voice and ours won’t be silenced.”

    Odeh is a well-known activist in the Palestinian community and is a symbol of the enduring spirit of the Palestinians in the face of years of oppression at the hands of the Israeli occupation.

    The protest was sponsored by the Palestine Solidarity Group-Chicago, Jewish Voice for Peace-Chicago, American Muslims for Palestine, U.S. Palestinian Community Network-Chicago, Committee for a Just Peace in Israel and Palestine, Anti-War Committee-Chicago, Code Pink-Chicago and the ANSWER Coalition-Chicago.

  • ILPS-US Stands in Solidarity with Rasmea Odeh

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the International League of Peoples’ Struggles-U.S.

    The International League of Peoples’ Struggles-US chapter condemns the cowardly arrest of 65 year-old Palestinian leader, Rasmea Yousef Odeh. Odeh, Associate Director of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), was arrested at her home by agents from the Department of Homeland Security on October 22, 2013. Odeh was charged with an alleged immigration violation on a decades-old application.

    This latest attack against Odeh, a deeply respected elder and community leader in both the Palestinian and Arab-American communities in Illinois, is part and parcel to the brutal US-Zionist occupation and assault against the Palestinian people (both in Palestine and in the diaspora). Being a Palestinian immigrant Odeh has called many places home but no matter where she lived she always dedicated her life to serving the people.

    Over the last decade her advocacy had a special emphasis on the empowerment of immigrant Arab women in Chicago. Having survived years of persecution and torture as a political prisoner in the hands of the US-Zionist state in occupied Palestine, Odeh shines as a beacon of strength and hope for millions of Palestinians and freedom-loving people around the world who dare to dream and struggle for self-determination.

    The persecution of Rasmea Odeh and other Palestinian activists here shows the hypocrisy of the US administration’s sweet words about peace in the Middle East and recognizing Palestinian self-determination. On the ground in Palestine, the Zionist-Israeli terror forces murder people daily with the weapons they get from the United States. The so-called US budget crisis has interfered with neither the FBI’s attack on free speech and civil liberties of Palestinians and Arab Americans here nor the endless flow of US weapons to the Israeli apartheid state.

    This arrest is part of the on-going political witch hunt targeting all peoples standing in solidarity with the Palestinian people and other oppressed peoples around the world fighting for self-determination. Just like the US government’s coordinated FBI-raids targeting 23 international solidarity activists in 2010, her arrest and persecution is nothing less than a violation of civil, political and human rights. It is also a maneuver intended to silence activism and pre-empt people from seeking justice.

    In both situations, the US-government criminalizes both our inalienable and collective human right to self-determination and international covenants that guarantee civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. The right to self-determination is a fundamental right, enshrined in both the United Nation Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The ILPS-US recognizes that is not merely a right, but a necessity, that peoples assert their collective rights to wage struggles for self-determination and national liberation in order to defeat free themselves from oppression by imperialist-backed and-financed tyranny.

    The ILPS-US recognizes that one of our most powerful actions against political repression in the United States is solidarity. Solidarity that is seen and heard in the streets. We stand in solidarity with just struggles for peace and freedom around the world, and we stand in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh.

    ILPS-US calls on all its member organizations and allies to defend Rasmea Odeh.
    The ILPS-US stands in solidarity with Rasmea Odeh and demands that the charges be dropped immediately!

    The ILPS-US supports the call to action of the Committee to Stop FBI Repression for mass mobilizations on November 1.

    Hands Off Rasmea Odeh and all Palestinian activists!

    Drop the Charges Against Rasmea Odeh Now!

    End All US Aid to the Racist State if Israel!

    Stop the Repression against all activists!

  • Drop the Charges against Rasmea Odeh

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following Oct. 23 statement from the Arab American Action Network. We urge all our readers to participate in the national call in day.

    Statement from the Arab American Action Network

    The Arab American Action Network (AAAN) condemns the politically-motivated arrest and indictment of Rasmea Yousef Odeh, our beloved Associate Director. The sixty-five year old was arrested at her home yesterday by agents from the Department of Homeland Security, alleging an immigration violation on a 20-year-old application. Rasmea, who has made it her life’s work to serve and help empower Palestinian and Arab families, is the victim of another witch-hunt by our federal law enforcement agencies, which continue to violate the civil rights of Arabs and Muslims with impunity, particularly those who are critical of U.S. support for Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people.

    Rasmea is a leading member of Chicago’s Arab and Muslim communities, and her decade of service here has changed the lives of thousands of people, particularly disenfranchised Arab women and their families. She has been with the AAAN since 2004, and as Associate Director, is responsible for the management of day-to-day operations and the coordination of our Arab Women’s Committee, which has a membership of close to 600 and leads our work in the areas of defending civil liberties and immigrant rights. She is a mentor to hundreds of immigrant women, as well as many members of our staff and board, and is a well-known and respected organizer throughout Chicagoland, the U.S., and the world.

    Earlier this year, Rasmea received the “Outstanding Community Leader Award” from the Chicago Cultural Alliance, which described her as a woman who has “dedicated over 40 years of her life to the empowerment of Arab women, first in her homes of Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon, where she was an activist and practicing attorney, and then the past 10 years in Chicago.”

    Rasmea is a community icon who recently completed a Master’s degree in Criminal Justice from Governors State University. She overcame vicious torture by Israeli authorities while imprisoned in Palestine in the 70s, and is a proud reminder of the millions of Palestinians who have not given up organizing for their rights of liberation, equality, and return.

    It is appalling that our government is now attempting to imprison her once again. We condemn this attack on our friend and colleague Rasmea, as well as the broader pattern of persecuting Arabs and Muslims who are outstanding and outspoken leaders in their communities in the U.S.

    We ask all of our supporters to call Barbara McQuade, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit, at 313.226.9501 or 313.226.9100, on Friday, October 25th, from 8 AM to 4 PM CST, to demand that she Drop the Charges Now!

    We will also be mobilizing to support Rasmea at her next hearing in Detroit on November 1st. Details coming soon.

    And for more information, email the Coalition to Protect People’s Rights at cppr@aaan.org

  • Outrageous arrest of Palestinian activist in Chicago

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following important statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR). We urge all of our readers to share this statement as broadly as possible.

    Outrageous arrest in Chicago
    Stop the repression of Palestinian activists

    A Palestinian woman, Rasmieh Odeh, was arrested at her home this morning, Oct. 22, by agents of the Department of Homeland Security.

    She is charged with immigration fraud. Allegedly, in her application for citizenship, she didn’t mention that she was arrested in Palestine 45 years ago by an Israeli military court that detains Palestinians without charge – a court that has over 200 children in prison today and does not recognize the rights of Palestinians to due process.

    The arrest today appears to be related to the case of the 23 anti-war activists subpoenaed to a grand jury in 2010. Well-known labor, community and international solidarity activists around the Midwest had their homes raided by the FBI when the U.S. attorney alleged that they had provided material support to foreign terrorist organizations in Palestine and Colombia.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas is leading the investigation against the 23. He was at the courtroom in Chicago this morning, consulting with the assistant U.S. attorney who was presenting the indictment to the judge. Jonas was also the prosecutor in the case of the Holy Land Five, the heads of the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. before 9/11. He was successful in getting prison sentences for as long as 65 years for the five men, who provided charity to children in Gaza.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) denounces this attack as another example of the continuing repression of Palestinians and people who stand in solidarity with them. Homeland Security, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s office now are carrying out enforcement of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

    Odeh will appear in court in Detroit on Nov. 1, where she will be represented by Jim Fennerty of the National Lawyers Guild. CSFR urges people to attend the proceedings at the Federal Court in Detroit in her defense.

    Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR)
    http://www.stopfbi.net/

  • Outrageous arrest of Palestinian activist in Chicago

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following important statement from the Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR). We urge all of our readers to share this statement as broadly as possible.

    Outrageous arrest in Chicago
    Stop the repression of Palestinian activists

    A Palestinian woman, Rasmieh Odeh, was arrested at her home this morning, Oct. 22, by agents of the Department of Homeland Security.

    She is charged with immigration fraud. Allegedly, in her application for citizenship, she didn’t mention that she was arrested in Palestine 45 years ago by an Israeli military court that detains Palestinians without charge – a court that has over 200 children in prison today and does not recognize the rights of Palestinians to due process.

    The arrest today appears to be related to the case of the 23 anti-war activists subpoenaed to a grand jury in 2010. Well-known labor, community and international solidarity activists around the Midwest had their homes raided by the FBI when the U.S. attorney alleged that they had provided material support to foreign terrorist organizations in Palestine and Colombia.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Barry Jonas is leading the investigation against the 23. He was at the courtroom in Chicago this morning, consulting with the assistant U.S. attorney who was presenting the indictment to the judge. Jonas was also the prosecutor in the case of the Holy Land Five, the heads of the largest Muslim charity in the U.S. before 9/11. He was successful in getting prison sentences for as long as 65 years for the five men, who provided charity to children in Gaza.

    The Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR) denounces this attack as another example of the continuing repression of Palestinians and people who stand in solidarity with them. Homeland Security, the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Attorney’s office now are carrying out enforcement of the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

    Odeh will appear in court in Detroit on Nov. 1, where she will be represented by Jim Fennerty of the National Lawyers Guild. CSFR urges people to attend the proceedings at the Federal Court in Detroit in her defense.

    Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR)
    http://www.stopfbi.net/

  • JPMorgan Chase settlement leaves struggling homeowners in doubt

    Minneapolis, MN – As JPMorgan Chase reaches a record $13 billion settlement with the Justice Department over its role in the lead-up to the foreclosure crisis, it remains unclear whether this settlement will keep people like Jaymie Kelly in their homes.

    $4 billion of the settlement will go to consumer relief, but it’s still not clear where that money would go. $3.3 billion was earmarked for foreclosed homeowners as part of the Independent Foreclosure Review Settlement, which resulted in most homeowners, many of whom had lost their homes, receiving checks of $300 to $500.

    “The first priority of the settlement should be to keep people in their homes,” said Jaymie Kelly, who has lived in her south Minneapolis home for 30 years and is now facing imminent eviction by JPMorgan Chase and Freddie Mac. “JPMorgan Chase refused to work with me after I fell behind on a predatory loan, even though I had paid for my home five times over. Now they want to evict me from my home of 30 years. I am not interested in a settlement check. I want a negotiation with principal reduction to stay in my home.”

    Kelly, who bought her home in 1983 for $74,900, has paid $425,000 for it over the years. When Chase foreclosed on her, they claimed she still owed $255,000. Instead of modifying her loan, they sold her home to Freddie Mac, which is aggressively pushing to evict.

    Kelly is fighting an eviction defense campaign with Occupy Homes MN. On Oct. 8, 150 community members blockaded the sheriff’s attempt to evict her. JPMorgan Chase and Freddie Mac have filed for another eviction order to remove Kelly from her home, but Kelly is not going anywhere.

    “No settlement check could make up for the trauma of being forced out of my home of 30 years,” said Kelly. “If this settlement doesn’t keep me in my home, my community will. I am not leaving.”

  • CCNY administration seizes Morales/Shakur Center, students fight back

    New York, NY – On Oct. 20, the City College of New York (CCNY) administration shut down the Guillermo Morales/Assata Shakur Student and Community Center in the North Academic Center (NAC) building. The Morales/Shakur Center is a hub of political and social activism at CCNY and the surrounding Harlem and Washington Heights communities.

    As of early Sunday morning Oct. 20, the NAC building, which houses the Morales/Shakur Center and the library, were both closed during the day. Though the library has since reopened, the Morales/Shakur Center remains closed, despite a policy for all CCNY buildings to be open 24 hours during midterms week to allow students to study.

    Police, CUNY security and administrators have been refusing to let students into the Morales/Shakur Center. Police arrested David Suker, a former CCNY student who sat in front of the door of the Center, as can be seen in this video.

    Student and community activists are inviting everyone to come to an emergency press conference and protest in defense of the Morales/Shakur Center on Monday, Oct. 21 outside City College at 138th Street and Amsterdam.

    The administration has placed a new sign in front of the Morales/Shakur Center that reads “Center for Professional Development.” A university representative informed students in a press release that the Morales/Shakur center has been closed and they intend to convert it into a Career Resource center. Books, documents and personal belongings of students were removed from the center and are being held and “examined.”

    Students won use of the Morales/Shakur Center space in North Academic Center room 3/201 as a result of the 1989 CUNY student strike against a proposed tuition increase. The purpose of the space was for students to engage in activism and build links with the surrounding Harlem and Washington Heights communities. The administration tried to retake the space from student activists several times and also got caught engaging in video surveillance of the activist space in 1998. However, students and community members repeatedly fended off administrative attacks.

    During one of those attempts to get rid of the Morales/Shakur Center in 2006, Ydanis Rodriguez, a leader in the 1989 student strike and a longtime leader of the Center’s community projects, stated, “In 1989 when we ended our organizing movement against the tuition increase proposed by Governor Mario Cuomo, we were able to persuade the governor not to increase tuition. At the end of that movement, as part of the negotiation, we got that space to use as a student and community center. The center has been a very important place at City College because this is a real link between the university and the surrounding community, especially Harlem, Washington Heights and El Barrio.”

    A press release from Students for Education Rights (SER), one of the groups housed in the Morales-Shakur Center, says, “The Morales/Shakur Center is a space for community groups to meet on campus, for students to connect with their political elders and for movement histories to be retained and shared in Harlem. The Center has provided a space for students to organize around a number of issues recently, including the addition of gender identity into the school’s anti-discrimination policy and the combating of rape culture at City College. The closure of this space is a serious assault on our right as students to organize and cultivate community. This follows the Sept. 17 arrest of six CUNY students peacefully protesting David Petraeus’s teaching appointment. Furthermore, the CUNY Board of Trustees plans to impose a policy broadly curtailing our right to political assembly on CUNY campuses at its next Nov. 25 business meeting. Please join us Monday, Oct. 21 at 12:30 pm outside the North Academic Center to hold CUNY accountable for its stifling of student voices and disempowerment of community organizing.”