Workers Resistance

Author: Fight Back

  • FARC announces pause in peace negotiations

    Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC):

    Peace Delegation announces pause in peace talks.

    From the beginning of the peace process with the government of Colombia in Havana, our primary concern has been to open the doors to people’s participation for the construction of a democratic peace agreement with social justice.

    Apropos of this, and because of the importance for the country and for the future of our country of the issue of the resolution of the social and armed conflict, starting from the establishment of social justice, democracy and sovereignty, in a responsible and wellconsidered way, the FARC-EP proposed convening a National Constituent Assembly so that the sovereign people can decide on the crucial issues of political, economic and social development of all Colombians.

    We also said that the Constituent Assembly, convened under the auspices of a large national political agreement would be the way to achieve a real peace treaty, just and binding, which could melt our reconciliation, govern the fate of the nation and lead it towards the summits of real democracy.

    In contrast, the government yesterday announced to the country its decision to appeal to the referendum as a mechanism for countersignature, without mentioning at all the procedures of democratic construction which would endorse it.

    Under these new circumstances, at a moment in which from all the corners of Colombia you can hear the outcry of unsatisfied people, protesting against the consequences of a disastrous economic policy, behind the back of the interests of the great majority of citizens and which requires their participation in the decision-making of major national issues, the Peace Delegation of the FARC-EP has decided to pause the discussion of the Table, to focus exclusively on the analysis of the government’s proposal, without detriment to the internal consultation we have to carry out as organization.

    We will use this time also to listen to points-of-views, which will surely arise among the people in the fervor of political and social struggle that makes Colombia shudder today.

    Colombia’s peace is everybody’s business.

    PEACE DELEGATION FARC-EP

  • Chelsea Manning is a hero

    Minneapolis, MN – The anti-war movement sees Chelsea Manning as a hero for exposing the truth of the brutality of U.S. warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a result of her bravery in releasing classified documents that exposed U.S. war crimes to WikiLeaks, on Aug. 21 Manning was sentenced to military prison for 35 years.

    The day after her sentencing Manning performed yet another act of bravery. In a statement publicly thanking all those who supported her through her trial she also came out as transgender.

    While many of us in the queer community have known for a while that Manning was a member of our community, this was the first time she publicly addressed this topic. With this act Manning expands the arena where she is a hero, providing inspiration to the LGBT community. I hope her struggle will bring more awareness to the cause of transgender people and transgender liberation. Free Chelsea Manning!

    Please read the following statement from Chelsea Manning:

    The Next Stage of My Life

    I want to thank everybody who has supported me over the last three years. Throughout this long ordeal, your letters of support and encouragement have helped keep me strong. I am forever indebted to those who wrote to me, made a donation to my defense fund, or came to watch a portion of the trial. I would especially like to thank Courage to Resist and the Bradley
    Manning Support Network for their tireless efforts in raising awareness for my case and providing for my legal representation.

    As I transition into this next phase of my life, I want everyone to know the real me. I am Chelsea Manning. I am a female. Given the way that I feel, and have felt since childhood, I want to begin hormone therapy as soon as possible. I hope that you will support me in this transition. I also request that, starting today, you refer to me by my new name and use the feminine pronoun (except in official mail to the confinement facility). I look forward to receiving letters from supporters and having the opportunity to write back.

    Thank you,
    Chelsea E. Manning

  • South Florida protests Bradley Manning’s 35-year sentence

    Ft. Lauderdale, FL – 20 supporters of whistleblower Private First Class Bradley Manning gathered on the evening of Aug. 21 at the Federal Building in downtown here for an emergency protest. They demanded a presidential pardon for the 25-year old whistleblower.

    The action was organized by the anti-war group People’s Opposition to War, Imperialism and Racism (POWIR) in response to the 35-year jail sentence imposed on Manning earlier that day, for sharing military documents and videos of U.S. war crimes with Wikileaks. The sentencing came after Manning had already served three years, including nine months spent in solitary confinement.

    As activists from South Florida arrived, they were given tape to cover their mouths as a symbol of how President Obama is silencing whistleblowers during his term. Along the sidewalk in front of the building were large letters on yellow signs spelling, “Free Manning” and demonstrators held signs reading, “Manning leaked the truth,” “Release Bradley Manning,” and “Jail our nation’s war criminals, not our whistleblowers.”

    Manning disclosed injustices, human rights violations and war crimes that the U.S. military was involved with and continues to commit abroad. He believed that by exposing these ugly truths to the American public, he could help put an end to them. In her opening remarks at the protest, Pamela Maldonado, a lead organizer with POWIR explained, “Manning’s sentence is being used by the Obama administration as a threat to all future whistle-blowers thinking of exposing the truth to the public.”

    After the activists removed the tape from their mouths, whistles were distributed for all to blow shrilly in solidarity with Manning. The protesters shouted, “We will not be silent!” and blew their whistles loudly. As cars and trucks passed the busy intersection, many honked in solidarity. Upon seeing the protest, a few passersby picked up signs and joined the demonstration chanting, “Same thing every time, leaking truth is not a crime!”

    Towards the end of the action, Victor Agosto, the lead organizer of POWIR and a Veteran for Peace member, read from Manning’s poignant and compelling statement released after the sentencing was announced. The crowd listened in silence. “I realized that in our efforts to meet the risk posed to us by the enemy, we had forgotten our humanity,” Agosto read. “We consciously elected to devalue life both in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

    Whistles were held until the end and once the statement was finished the crowd whistled in unison.

    POWIR, Veterans for Peace, Progressive Democrats of America, Occupy Miami and Food Not Bombs members demanded that President Obama pardon Manning. The South Florida response was held in unity with actions being led by the Bradley Manning Solidarity Network on the same day. Manning’s defense team is now seeking a presidential pardon. As one of the signs held by the South Florida activists read “Call Obama 202-456-1414 and ask him to pardon Manning.”

  • Civil liberties group condemns Bradley Manning sentence

    Grand Rapids, MI – Tom Burke, a spokesperson for the Committee to Stop FBI Repression,condemned the 35-year sentence that was handed down against whistleblower Bradley Manning.

    Burke stated, “Bradley Manning’s sentence of 35 years is harsh and unjustified. Manning exposed war crimes committed by U.S. soldiers and covered up by the top ranks of the Pentagon, State Department and White House. There are U.S. war criminals who belong on trial and in prison cells instead of those like Manning who expose the actual crimes. The U.S. government is becoming more and more repressive, spending money on war, prisons and repression, while the rich get away with ruining the lives of working people at home and abroad. “

    Burke was one of the anti-war and international solidarity activists targeted in a Department of Justice investigation of “material support for terrorism.”

  • Minnesota Palestine solidarity activists target SodaStream

    Minneapolis, MN – On Sept. 19, activists with the Minnesota Coalition for Palestinian Rights will return to the downtown Minneapolis Target store, urging shoppers not to buy products from SodaStream. This will follow a successful Aug. 15 mobilization, where 30 people held signs, chanted and passed out informational flyers to hundreds of pedestrians.

    Sold at Minnesota-based Target stores, SodaStream is a company that manufactures home carbonation systems at a plant in the largest Israeli Jewish settlement on the West Bank. The construction of hundreds of settlements in the West Bank has been condemned by numerous human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, for violating international law and Palestinian human rights.

    “We met with a positive response from the hundreds of people walking on Nicollet Mall at rush hour,” said Meredith Aby of the Anti-War Committee. “Minnesotans don’t support a company that makes its profits from stolen Palestinian land and the system of Israeli apartheid.”

    The Minnesota campaign opened a few months ago with a letter initiated by Jewish Voices for Peace, which called on Target to discontinue sales of SodaStream products because the company is in violation of international law and in violation of Target’s ethical standards and Social Compliance Program.

    This is effort is part of an international campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights. A truly global movement against Israeli Apartheid is rapidly emerging.

  • Chicago youth say: ‘No more racial profiling’

    Chicago, IL – 60 youth from the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), along with their supporters, held a rally and march here, Aug.15, to demand an end to racial profiling of Arabs and Muslims and and end to the criminalization of all communities of color. The youth who organized and led the protest reminded onlookers that harassment, surveillance and infiltration by the FBI and its local counterparts doesn’t just happen in New York City and California, but is widespread in Chicago.

    The key demands were: stop bullying and harassment of communities of color; end racist criminalization of Arabs, Muslims and all people of color; end the envestigation of the Midwest 23; and close National Security Loopholes in the federal ban on racial profiling.

    The AAAN’s Youth Organizing Program has been providing political education, leadership development and organizing training for high school and college youth for close to ten years and has been focusing on FBI repression for the past three. Farreh Qatanani, youth leader with the AAAN and co-emcee for the day, said, “The FBI oppresses not only Arabs and Muslims, but all communities of color.”

    After an early afternoon rally at Federal Plaza, the protesters chanted, “Out of our schools, out of our mosque! FBI go get lost!” while marching to the Chicago headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to protest another key part of the Department of Homeland Security’s program of criminalizing Mexicans, Central Americans, Latinos in general, Arabs and Muslims, as well as other immigrants of color. There, Lulu Martinez of the Dream 9, who ‘self deported’ to Mexico but recently returned, talked about her experiences and the federal policies of detentions and deportations that have devastated her community for years.

  • ‘Black August’ honors freedom fighters

    Durham, NC – On Aug. 28, 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom galvanized hundreds of thousands in the streets of the nation’s capital. On Aug. 25, 1925, A. Philip Randolph helped to establish the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in Harlem, New York. It was in August 1791 that the Haitian Revolution first broke the chains of French colonialism. August marks the Nat Turner Rebellion of 1831 and Watts Uprising of 1965. It was on Aug. 8, 1978 that the Philadelphia Police Department first raided the MOVE Organization, giving way to the MOVE 9. August also bears the births of Fred Hampton, Marcus Garvey and Mutulu Shakur. Ironically, August has always been a month of African American struggle and radical resistance.

    ‘Black August’ is a month-long celebration that marks the remembrance of the lives of freedom fighters who gave their all for African American progress, freedom and mass consciousness. The origin of Black August was first initiated in honor of the fallen soldiers who valiantly fought to liberate George Lester Jackson from the modern day slave trade we now call the U.S. penal system.

    On Aug. 7, 1970, freedom fighters – James McClain, William Christmas, Ruchell Magee, Khatari Gaulden and 17-year-old Jonathon Jackson led a courthouse rebellion in a brave display of all out resistance and armed struggle. Unfortunately, lives were lost as they typically are in any war. Magee, who is currently still incarcerated, was the only survivor. And though our heralded comrade, George Jackson was not completely freed, the efforts of Jonathon and others would inspire decades of continued resistance and revolutionary solidarity.

    In 1970, George Jackson had just completed the book Soledad Brother, a philosophical revolutionary classic. Jackson however, was assassinated by San Quentin prison guards one year later on Aug. 21, 1971. His second book, Blood in My Eye was published posthumously by Black Classic Press. Jackson’s legacy has inspired millions worldwide, while his literary works continue to teach even in his physical absence. This is the background in which Black August was first formed. It was deep within the belly of the California Penal System that it was first embraced and formally established as a month of reverence, as a time of revolutionary celebration.

    Inmates today have continued to protest and press forward all over the U.S. Hunger strikes have roused hundreds of thousands in states such as California, Georgia and North Carolina. Letter writing campaigns have served as vital lines of inspiration and direct communication. Human rights activists such as Mumia Abu-Jamal have served as critical catalysts, tirelessly working to empower the voices of those who continue to be oppressed by the public and private prison industry.

    Today, in the spirit of continued resistance we honor the deaths of Mark Clark, Fred Hampton and Geronimo Pratt. We honor the sacrifices and life work of political prisoners, Eddie Conway, Assata Shakur and Sundiata Acoli. We honor the countless victims of COINTELPRO’s callous attacks upon the people. We duly recognize the destructive ills of capitalism and its disastrous effects upon the oppressed, worldwide. In the age of the prison industrial complex, school-to-prison pipeline and widespread police brutality, the struggle for justice and liberation is alive now more than ever.

    In the 34th year of Black August, may we all take heed to the spirited words of our brother and mentor, George Lester Jackson: “Settle your quarrels, come together, understand the reality of our situation, understand that fascism is already here, that people are dying who could be saved.”

    Lamont Lilly is a contributing editor with the Triangle Free Press, a Human Rights Delegate with Witness for Peace and organizer with Workers World Party. He resides in Durham, North Carolina.

  • U of M AFSCME workers rally, march against attack on health care

    Minneapolis, MN – More than 100 University of Minnesota AFSCME workers came together for a spirited march and rally here, August 5. After rallying in front of Morrill Hall, the administration building, workers headed upstairs to the office of President Kahler to deliver about 1300 signed petitions demanding the university drop proposed changes to the health care plan. The administration’s proposed attack on the health care plan would have some workers pay more premiums and significantly increase out of pocket medical costs for all university employees.

    President Kahler left his office shortly before the workers arrived, so the petitions were delivered to a staff member. Chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, cuts to health care have to go,” workers then marched to the Donhowe Building which houses officials responsible for human resources and employee benefits.

    University workers, represented by AFSCME Locals 3800, 3937 and 3260, insist that the University of Minnesota drop proposed changes they claim are necessary due to provisions in the Affordable Health Care Act, and instead adopt a more equitable sliding scale plan.

    “The university administration is using the Affordable Health Care Act to propose changes to our health care plans that will shift costs to employees and significantly raise out of pocket costs, particularly for people with chronic health issues. It is another example of the university administration’s decision-making that deliberately shifts costs to the most economically vulnerable workers at the U,” says AFSCME Local 3800 President Cherrene Horazuk.

    All university employees would face increases in deductibles and co-pays if the changes proposed by the administration are followed through. Workers on the employee plus spouse/domestic partner benefit tier would see premium increases ranging per pay period from $22 to $35.80, depending on their plan.

    Co-pays would increase from $15 to $25, and there would be a $100 deductible added. These cost shifts are devastating to the university’s lowest paid workers, while being a negligible increase for those making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

    AFSCME Locals 3800, 3801, 3937, and 3260 represent clerical, technical and health care workers at the University of Minnesota.

  • U of M AFSCME workers rally, march against attack on health care

    Minneapolis, MN – More than 100 University of Minnesota AFSCME workers came together for a spirited march and rally here, August 5. After rallying in front of Morrill Hall, the administration building, workers headed upstairs to the office of President Kahler to deliver about 1300 signed petitions demanding the university drop proposed changes to the health care plan. The administration’s proposed attack on the health care plan would have some workers pay more premiums and significantly increase out of pocket medical costs for all university employees.

    President Kahler left his office shortly before the workers arrived, so the petitions were delivered to a staff member. Chanting “Hey, hey, ho, ho, cuts to health care have to go,” workers then marched to the Donhowe Building which houses officials responsible for human resources and employee benefits.

    University workers, represented by AFSCME Locals 3800, 3937 and 3260, insist that the University of Minnesota drop proposed changes they claim are necessary due to provisions in the Affordable Health Care Act, and instead adopt a more equitable sliding scale plan.

    “The university administration is using the Affordable Health Care Act to propose changes to our health care plans that will shift costs to employees and significantly raise out of pocket costs, particularly for people with chronic health issues. It is another example of the university administration’s decision-making that deliberately shifts costs to the most economically vulnerable workers at the U,” says AFSCME Local 3800 President Cherrene Horazuk.

    All university employees would face increases in deductibles and co-pays if the changes proposed by the administration are followed through. Workers on the employee plus spouse/domestic partner benefit tier would see premium increases ranging per pay period from $22 to $35.80, depending on their plan.

    Co-pays would increase from $15 to $25, and there would be a $100 deductible added. These cost shifts are devastating to the university’s lowest paid workers, while being a negligible increase for those making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

    AFSCME Locals 3800, 3801, 3937, and 3260 represent clerical, technical and health care workers at the University of Minnesota.

  • Hundreds of laundry workers on strike

    Saint Paul, MN – More than 240 members of Workers United Local 150 walked off the job from Health Systems Cooperative Laundries, August 5, forming picket lines at the plant entrances in a strike over unfair labor practices, which include the company’s unilateral discontinuation of sick-day benefits.

    Workers poured out of the building starting at 1:00 p.m., completely shutting down operations at the commercial laundry facility.

    Many of the striking workers are Latino and Asian immigrants. They work in conditions that often include temperatures inside the building in excess of 100 degrees. They have walked the picket lines twice this summer during contract negotiations to protest the company’s unfair labor practices. Worker say money is not the issue, but rather protecting workplace rights, which they have had in their labor agreement for many years, including the sick-day benefit the company unilaterally discontinued in April.

    Union members nearly unanimously voted down the company’s “last, best and final offer” on July 26. Since then, Workers United – along with other labor organizations such as SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and area labor federations and councils – have been urging hospitals, clinics, doctors and the board of directors that oversees the operation of the laundry to restore the benefits and drop oppressive and unnecessary demands.

    Negotiations resumed between the union and the laundry the morning of August 5 at the offices of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services in Minneapolis, but at this point have been unsuccessful.

    Workers at Health Systems Cooperative Laundries provide linens to nearly every hospital in the Twin Cities. The linens are typically used the day they are laundered, delivered to hospitals in carts specially set up for distinct uses. It is unclear where the hospitals will obtain linen service, but it will likely be at a much higher cost and without assurance that they will receive the same service that the striking workers provide.

    “Going on strike is not something we want to do. We want to provide linens for the hospitals so healthcare workers and medical staff can continue caring for patients with the quality linens they are used to,” said Anita Beachler, a member of the union’s negotiating committee, who has worked in the laundry for over 30 years. “The company already took our sick-day benefits, and the contract they proposed would strip us of important leave of absence language, limit our bargaining rights over mid-term changes imposed by the employer and give us no protection should they sell the business to a new owner.

    “The work we do is extremely valuable. Hopefully our bosses will understand that we deserve to be treated with respect, and that they need to give back our sick days and move off their anti-worker proposals in order to avoid a strike,” continued Beachler.

    There is no indication as to how long a strike could last.

    Members of SEIU Healthcare Minnesota are supporting Workers United and will be joining them on the picket line.