Dear friends
A few groups and individuals have recently launched an explicitly class based anti-war venture known as Workers Against War. To my knowledge the Boston Wobblies have agreed to endorse, and I was wondering if your branch might also be interested.
Heres a link: www.workersagainstwar.org
If interested, or if you have any questions, please get in touch
Sincerely
Dan Read
The volunteers and projectionists at the Olympia
Film Society are having a walkout to protest
recent board actions. See below for details. I
think they also have a web site:
If people at OMJP are interested in learning more,
they can contact me directly. Email works, but
phone is faster.
Thanks
Adam
556-5633
OFS Projectionist and Volunteer Walkout
The OFS Board of Directors fired Operations
Manager Jeffrey Bartone on August 21st, 2007
after 21 years of service to the organization.
His termination was based on complaints of "rude,
abrasive, and uncooperative behavior".
It is our opinion that the recent decision was
not a true representation of the OFS community's
wishes, due to an inadequate number of
participating board members. We further feel
that Jeffrey's termination was the result of the
personal agendas of a few board and staff members
through a calculated and opportunistic effort.
Furthermore, the move included no contingency for
filling the extensive job requirements of
Technical Director, further highlighting a lack
of responsibility on the part of the board.
"To maintain high standards of participatory
decision-making..."
-OFS Goals
Section 1 Article IV of the OFS bylaws states
that the board must include a minimum of eight
members. Though violation of this bylaw carries
no explicit repercussions, we believe its intent
was clearly ignored when the board voted on
Jeffrey's dismissal with only five members taking
part. Present at the vote were three prospective
members poised to become voting parties. Their
confirmation to the board was made conditional,
requiring them to stand aside on this issue. In
a consensus system, any individual member can
block a vote from being approved. We can only
assume that the reason for this unethical action
was based on fears that one or more of the new
members would have blocked the vote. We call for
a re-vote on Jeffrey Bartone’s termination with
at least the minimum number of required board
members as required by Washington State law. We
demand that all board members are allowed to vote
free of any conditions to their participation.
The position of Operations Manager at OFS is an
extremely challenging job. Jeffrey Bartone, in
his 21 year history in the Capitol Theater, has
accrued an intimate knowledge of the facility.
Out of friendship with Jeffrey, local
electricians, plumbers, and other professional
trades-people work after hours and free of
charge. It is Jeffrey’s unique style that has
such an irreplaceable impact in making the
Capitol Theater available to us all.
We feel that the board acted rashly in firing
Jeffrey without securing an interim Operations
Manager. We believe this reveals irresponsibility
on the part of the Board, and ignorance of the
very nuts and bolts that hold the Capitol Theater
together.
We the projectionists, along with many other
volunteers, view Jeffrey as the human face to
OFS. He has personally welcomed us into the
organization, appraised our interests and skills,
and found us our place here. In firing Jeffrey,
the board cited a number of complaints about his
behavior. Many of us would not be a part of OFS
today had it not been for Jeffrey. We are now
willing to walk out on our volunteer shifts and
to possibly end our involvement with OFS. We
propose this gesture in contrast to any
complaints he may have received.
"To promote the spirit of an active volunteer
society among the membership"
-OFS Goals
Jeffrey's termination only serves to highlight
larger problems within OFS - the board is out of
touch with what many of the organization’s most
passionate volunteers want OFS to be. As trust
in volunteers dwindles, and intent on
profitability increases, volunteering at the
Society becomes more like a daily grind. We seek
to remind the Board that they are responsible to
us, the volunteers, and demand accountability.
This singular and extraordinary social
organization has been an invaluable contribution
to the Olympia community. Firing Jeffrey isn't
the first step we've disagreed with, but it is a
drastic, irreconcilable misuse of power. We're
not interested in making OFS more economically
viable at the expense of our core reason for
being here: fun. Those who view OFS only as a
business are mistaken when they expect us merely
to be obedient sources of free labor.
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Their union, Unison, is calling for an
[http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=285]
international campaign of support for those workers.
I actually live in north London, so this campaign is taking place in my
own neighborhood.
If you live in the UK, you should be concerned that privatized care homes
are treating their workers this way. If you live anywhere in the world and
work in the public sector, you should be concerned because this could
happen to you next.
It will take you only a few seconds to fill in your name and email address
and to send a strong message to the chief executive of Fremantle. If we
all take the time to do this, we can flood her inbox today with thousands
of messages from all over the world -- and we can turn this around.
I know that I can count on you.
Please visit our
[http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=285]
campaign page now. And please do pass this message on. Thanks.
Eric Lee
This message was sent by: LabourStart, 51 Briarfield Avenue, London, UK N3
2LG, United Kingdom
Powered by iContact: http://freetrial.icontact.com
Manage your subscription:
http://app.icontact.com/icp/mmail-mprofile.pl?r=932280&l=217&s=P34V&m=38626&c=154875
Dear friends,
A World Beyond Capitalism Conference (AWBC) 2007 is now accepting proposals for
workshops and presentations!
The AWBC is scheduled for Oct 19th-Oct 21st in Seattle, Washington. It is 100%
free of charge as always!
Several wonderful communities have agreed to provide housing to speakers!
No offense to anyone, but as always We accept proposals only from activists who
are not administrative employees of government or multinational corporations.
No politicians for any political party in order to maintain our educational
independence.
We also greatly need more Seattle residents to open their homes to AWBC
speakers and out of town AWBC attendants.
http://www.aworldbeyondcapitalism.org
The AWBC also invites volunteers to join us for the below Community Build-It!
Convergence!
Love for the people,
-AWBC Volunteers
===================================================
Dear friends of organic gardens, you are invited to the....
Community Build-It! Convergence, Potluck, Free Pizza and Fundraiser Raffles!
The Olympia Eceovillage and Intentional Community is once again holding
meetings as we attempt to create the commuhnity and ecovillage and gardens of
our dreams now that the Summer has ended.
Date: Thursday, August 23rd, 2007
Time: Meeting runs from 6pm-7pm.
Location: Olympia Freeschool Building, 610 Columbia Street, Olympia, WA 98501
See: http://www.Weinviteyou.org as we are forming the new Olympia Ecovillage
and Intentional community!
ALSO...
Community Build-It! Convergence, Potluck, Free Pizza and Fundraiser Raffles!
Date: Thursday, September 6th, 2007
Time: Meeting runs from 6pm-7pm.
Location: Olympia Freeschool Building, 610 Columbia Street, Olympia, WA 98501
See: http://www.Weinviteyou.org as we are forming the new Olympia Ecovillage
and Intentional community!
Also...
Olympia Freeschool Staff had a 2 hour meeting on Friday night and There are Big
Changes Taking Place at The Olympia Freeschool!
Natural Learning, Olympia Freeschool's Quarterly Publication now has a brand
new look and a brand new addition, a progressive directory, known as: Radical
Caring!
Radical Caring: The Progressive Directory Dedicated to Encouraging,
Networking and Remembering Activists, Permaculture gardeners and Communities
Nationwide
http://www.RadicalCaring.org
Next Volunteer Meeting: Potluck and we'll provide Free Pizza from Vic's and
Fundraiser Raffles!
Date: Thursday, August 23rd, 2007 – 7pm-8pm (second meeting 7pm-8pm
September 6th, 2007)
Location: Olympia Freeschool Building, 610 Columbia Street, Olympia, WA 98501
(located in downtown Olympia across from Olympia Supply Hardware Store). We
will be raffling off a Gift Certificate to Traditions Café and World Folk Art.
We have many positions for volunteers and we offer stipends, awards, delicious
snacks and stress-free enjoyable meetings to our volunteers! Join us!
Print Out our flyers here:
pdf version - http://dsame.com/radicalcaring/RadicalCaringFlyer.pdf
document http://dsame.com/radicalcaring/RadicalCaringFlyer.doc
We also have our "stars, rabbits and sharks" version of our flyer below:
http://dsame.com/radicalcaring/olyfreeschool_meeting_flyer.pdf
document version
http://dsame.com/radicalcaring/olyfreeschool_meeting_flyer.doc
Love for the people,
-Olympis FreeSchool Volunteers
http://www.olympiafreeschool.org
-Radical Caring Volunteers
http://www.RadicalCaring.org
-Olympia Ecovillage, now forming
http://www.Weinviteyou.org
There will be an IWW meeting this thursday at 5pm at Bread and Roses (1009
4th Ave E).
Lots of exciting things going on with the union, with a few shops in town
that may go union before we know it. This meeting will be very important
and the next few months will be crucial for the IWW.
I have a new number so please contact me if you'd like.
Brendan Maslauskas Dunn
Olympia IWW delegate
360 878 1879
The gist from what I've read:
IWW and SDS members were holding an informational picket and march outside a pan-asia restaurant in North Providence, RI. At issue was the restaurant's refusal to terminate its association with Dragon Land Trading, a NYC supplier that reportedly pays its workers $5 an hour and makes them work 100 hours a week.
As they peacefully marched, police attacked organizer Alex Svoboda, throwing her to the ground, and dislocating her knee. She's expected to need three surgeries. Police charged her with assaulting three officers, resisting arrest, and obstructing justice. They also arrested another demonstrator, and charged him with obstruction of justice. Several demonstrators were also pepper-sprayed.
Photos of the brutality are here: http://wallynotorious.livejournal.com/408076.html
The story from the local newspaper:
From the Providence Journal:
Protesters, police scuffle near restaurant
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, August 12, 2007
By Elizabeth Gudrais
Journal Staff Writer
NORTH PROVIDENCE — A 22-year-old Providence resident suffered a dislocated knee during a scuffle with the police yesterday, as officers intervened in a protest over the labor practices of a New York food distributor used by a local restaurant.
The police and the protesters tangled before the protesters even reached their destination, Jacky's Galaxie, a pan-Asian restaurant at 1449 Mineral Spring Ave. The protesters had parked at a Brooks Pharmacy a few blocks away and were walking to the restaurant when six North Providence officers arrived and directed them to move to the side of the road because they were obstructing traffic.
The situation escalated. The police used pepper spray. The demonstrators said officers were restraining Alexandra Svoboda, and she was trying to get free, when they "tackled" her and dislocated her knee.
"I think they were making an example of her because they were frustrated" said Mark Bray, of Providence, an organizer for Industrial Workers of the World, the labor union that arranged the protest along with the Brown University group Students for a Democratic Society. Protests "don't happen very frequently in North Providence," he said. "They don't have experience in dealing with groups like us."
Bray said he believed the incident constituted brutality and that the group would be examining avenues of recourse. The police response "was excessive and there's no excuse for it," Bray said.
Asked about Bray's statement, police Sgt. Michael Paiva, who was on the scene, said, "I totally disagree." He said the officers' response was justified in part because they were severely outnumbered.
The protesters estimated the group's size at 30 to 40, but Paiva said there were 100 protesters.
Six officers were facing a crowd of "100 people screaming in the middle of the street, refusing to move and disobeying every order the officers gave them," Paiva said.
The police charged Svoboda, of 139 Wood St., Providence, with three counts of assaulting a police officer, and with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Paiva said Svoboda was "hitting," "kicking" and "pushing" officers.
He said one officer, Brian DiPetrillo, suffered minor injuries, but declined to specify what type of injury.
Jason Friedmutter, 23, also of 139 Wood St., was also arrested, charged with obstructing an officer in the line of duty.
Paiva said he expected Friedmutter would be released after appearing before a bail commissioner at police headquarters yesterday. He said Svoboda would appear before a bail commissioner at Rhode Island Hospital, where she was being treated.
The hospital had no information on Svoboda's condition last night, but Bray said she was undergoing surgery.
The altercation occurred around noon. Half an hour later, the traffic on the always-busy Mineral Spring Avenue was complete gridlock.
At Jacky's, it was lunchtime and the neon "Open" sign was lit, but the parking lot was empty, except for police vehicles.
Two dozen protesters milled about in the 85-degree heat, chanting "No more sweatshops!" and holding signs reading, "Jacky's Galaxie doesn't care!" One banged drumsticks on a plastic bucket hanging upside-down from a string around his neck.
Two state police troopers joined the North Providence officers in keeping watch over the situation. For a brief time, a Johnston officer with a police dog was also at the scene.
"You've got to do something," the restaurant's owner, Jacky Ko, said to the officers. "They can't stay here."
When Deputy Police Chief Paul Marino approached to tell the protesters they needed to move onto the sidewalk instead of standing in the parking lot, one responded, "Hell of a day to be an officer, breaking a young girl's leg!"
Marino did not respond.
Outside the Subway restaurant next door, a man leaned against the wall, munching a sandwich in the shade and watching. He was just one of many onlookers the spectacle attracted.
A short time later, another officer approached them to warn: "If you stand still, it's considered loitering. Keep moving."
Eventually, the protesters confined themselves to the sidewalk and began filing in a small oval, carefully avoiding the restaurant driveway.
Their complaints were not specifically with the restaurant, but with Dragon Land Trading, a New York-based restaurant supply company from which Jacky's buys.
The students said Dragon Land Trading failed to pay minimum wage and overtime, as federal labor laws require, fired employees who joined a labor union, and changed its name to evade an investigation by the New York attorney general.
A search of the New York state corporations database turned up a Dragon Land Trading Inc., with Jim Zhong as registered agent, and an address of 162 Mott St., Apt. 15, in Manhattan, but no phone number or Web site for the company could be found yesterday. A phone number the protesters gave for the company was not answered.
The protest group included students from Brown, Providence College and Rhode Island College, other Rhode Islanders of various ages, and Balthazar Ramos, of New York, who said he worked for the supply company for two years but was fired for his union involvement. Ramos said he worked 112 hours per week, was paid $4.90 per hour, and was not compensated for overtime.
Bray said Jacky's is not the only restaurant in Rhode Island to use the supply company. He declined to name the other restaurants, saying the group is still trying to work with them to get them to switch suppliers.
Ko claimed yesterday that he stopped buying from the company early last month and has been using a different supplier since then. Bray said he had spoken with Ko in the weeks leading up to the protest and Ko had never mentioned this.
Ko brought out invoices to prove it, and showed them to Bray.
Bray asked for photocopies. Ko said he would provide them.
Half an hour later, the demonstrators said he returned and told them he had consulted his lawyer and did not plan to give them copies.
The protest disbanded at 2 p.m., but Bray said they planned to continue picketing Jacky's, and possibly also at the chain's other locations, in Cumberland and Bristol, until they got satisfactory proof that the chain has switched suppliers.
Raid In Shelton, 25 Detained-Mobilize!
author: Smash ICE
Mobilize!
Today, Aug. 10th, 25 workers were detained in Shelton by the Mason County
Sheriff. They were clearing brush from a field but ended up working in the
wrong field. Somehow the police found out and went to where they were
working. There, they detained 25 people and took them to Mason County
Jail, where they are currently being held. They will be taken to the ICE
Detention Facility in Tacoma either tonight or tomorrow.
We are meeting in front of the Tacoma Federal Building (directions below)
tomorrow, Aug. 11th, at 2 PM. Those planning on being there should come
with supplies (signs, megaphones, ideas, desires, puppets, etc.) and be
ready to do what they want. Those wishing to do something (make a speech,
distribute liturature, propose a plan, etc.) should come prepared. This
just happened today and we are doing the best that we can, given the
circumstances.
Also, a vigil had been planned weeks ago for tomorrow in front of the
detention facility at 10 AM. Smash ICE is not in contact with any of the
groups behind this. We would like to coordinate, if possible. If any of
the groups organizing around this wish to make any suggestions write to
smashICE@gmail.com. Two events going on in the same town is a start and we
could potentially join up or otherwise aid each other's efforts.
In Olympia: A carpool will be leaving at 1:15 from the corner of Harrison
and Division (parking lot next to abandoned building in strip mall on
Division). Bring your cars!
In Tacoma: People are currently making more concrete plans in Tacoma and
the details will be posted on the comments section of this article.
Let us show ICE and the government that this insanity cannot continue. Let
us make as big of a hassle for the City of Tacoma and ICE as we can.
In Solidarity,
Smash ICE
Direction to Federal Building:
Heading North:
From I-5, take Exit 133. After taking this exit, take the City
Center/Tacoma Dome exit. Merge onto I-705 N via the exit on the LEFT
toward CITY CENTER. Take the S 21ST STREET / WA-509 N exit toward PORT OF
TACOMA. LEFT onto S 21ST ST / WA-509. Continue to follow S 21ST ST. Take
right onto Pacific Avenue. After passing S 19th Street the Federal
Buidling should be 100 feet in front of you. It is the large domed, brick
building.
Heading South:
From I-5, merge onto I-705 N via EXIT 133 toward CITY CENTER. Take the S
21ST STREET / WA-509 N exit toward PORT OF TACOMA. Turn LEFT onto S 21ST
ST / WA-509. Continue to follow S 21ST ST. Take right onto Pacific Avenue.
After passing S 19th Street the Federal Buidling should be 100 feet in
front of you. It is the large domed, brick building.
