Olympia Workers Resource

[olympiaworkers] Leonard Peltier was from the Northwest

2012-02-01T06:05:00.001-08:00

Please post widely

From the Tacoma Chapter of the LPDOC

THE NORTHWEST UNITED IN SOLIDARITY!

  LEONARD PELTIER WAS FROM THE NORTHWEST. Leonard had been living in Seattle and was a member of Northwest AIM. He had been involved in a number of local struggles including the occupation of Fort Lawton. When the traditional Oglala Lakota people were suffering under a reign of terror after Wounded Knee II, over 66 of them murdered, many more wounded, villages shot up and so on. Northwest AIM answered a plea by  Oglala Lakota Elders and help them survive. On the very day in which a part of  Oglala Lakota was being illegally signed away to the U.S. government, the FBI attacked the Northwest AIM encampment and a firefight took place.
  The first two AIM members to go on trial, and were found not guilty for reason of self-defense, were from the northwest. The one AIM member who died upon that day, Joe Stuntz Killsright was from Port Angeles. We of the Northwest need to let everyone know that we will not forget and that we will stand strong for our own. Leonard is in prison for the people and we need to be out here for him!
  On Feb. 4, 2012, this coming Saturday, is the INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER, we here in the northwest, Portland, Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle and other towns in unity, have organized a Regional Leonard Peltier Clemency March and Rally in Tacoma. We need the help of all of you to make this a strong statement that northwest people stand with Leonard in solidarity. Everyone of you is important.
  Please northwest people join with us as we join with people around the world. The Northwest region of the U.S. (Tacoma, Portland, Olympia, Seattle and other towns united together) march in Tacoma, WA;  Toronto and Vancouver; Canada; Binghamton, UK; Berlin, Frankfurt and Hamburg, Germany; Brussels and Antwerp Belgium; Dublin, Ireland; Boulder, CO, San Jose, CA; Gullup, NM; Los Angeles, CA; Albuquerque, NM; San Francisco, CA; New York City, NY; Fresno, CA; Buffalo, NY; Macon and Decatur, GA; and other places.
  This is the most important march and rally so far in the northwest for Leonard. If you have marched with us before, please join us again. If you have ever thought about supporting Leonard, now is the time to do it. Please join us, please bring your family and friends. Thank you.

As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all together we make a mighty fist.
-- Sitting Bull

INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER
NW REGIONAL MARCH AND RALLY FOR CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY, 4, 2012, TACOMA, WA.

12:00 NOON: MARCH FOR JUSTICE Portland Ave. Park (on Portland Ave. between E. 35th & E. Fairbanks. Take Portland Ave. exit off I-5 and head east)
1:00 PM: RALLY FOR JUSTICE U.S. Federal Court House, 1717-Pacific Ave.

PLEASE POST, SHARE AND LIKE ON FACEBOOK:
Please share
INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER NW MARCH AND RALLY: FEB. 4, TACOMA. 12:00 NOON: MARCH FOR JUSTICE Portland Ave. Park (on Portland Ave. between E. 35th & E. Fairbanks. Take Portland Ave. exit off I-5 and head east)
1:00 PM: RALLY FOR JUSTICE U.S. Federal Court House, 1717-Pacific Ave.

Feb. 4, 2012 Regional March in Tacoma Facebook event pages please sign that you are coming and please invite your friends.
http://www.facebook.com/events/#!/events/163763897043790/
http://www.facebook.com/events/#!/events/179938242097693/

  RESOLUTIONS FOR CLEMENCY: Leonard needs resolutions for clemency from Tribes, Unions, Human Rights Organizations and others. See a sample resolution at:
http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/resolution.htm

  For donations: Please make checks payable to the Leonard Peltier Defense/Offense Committee (mark them for NW March) and send them to: Tacoma Chapter LPODC, P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415.

  Join Tacoma Chapter LPDOC on facebook at: http://facebook.com/tacoma.lpdoc
Subscribe to: Northwest Peltier Support at: nwpeltiersupport-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
For more information: www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

TACOMA CHAPTER, LPDOC, P.O. BOX 5464, TACOMA, WA 98415-0464. bayou@blarg.net

ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,

NORTHWEST PHONE AND E-MAIL ZAP, FEBRUARY 6 TO 10, 2012
White House Comments Line - 202-456-1111; 202-456-1112
E-mail: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Message: Northwest people support clemency for Leonard Peltier

It is important to keep phone calls, e-mails, and letters going to the White House during the clemency campaign. But we want to make sure that it is very clear that the northwest supports clemency for Leonard Peltier, so we have called for a phone and e-mail Zap (a phone Zap is when a lot of people call around the same time), the week after the regional march and rally. Please northwest folks show your support of Leonard Peltier. Thank you.

[olympiaworkers] Have you thought about supporting Leonard Peltier?

2012-01-27T16:37:00.000-08:00

PLEASE POST WIDELY

From: The Tacoma Chapter of the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee and the Office of the Northwest Regional Organizer of the LPDOC

IF EVER YOU THOUGHT ABOUT SUPPORTING LEONARD PELTIER, NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT!
The New Leonard Peltier Clemency Campaign is the most important Leonard Peltier campaigns in many years. To help build pubic pressure in support of clemency, the Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee has issued a call:

âThe Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee calls on supporters worldwide to protest against the injustice suffered by Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier. Gather on February 4, 2012, at every federal court house and U.S. embassy or consulate worldwide to demand the freedom of a man wrongfully convicted and illegal imprisoned for 36 years! â

âAlthough the courts have acknowledged evidence of government misconductâ"including forcing witnesses to lie and hiding ballistics evidence reflecting his innocenceâ"Mr. Peltier has been denied a new trial on a legal technicality. Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, 55 Members of Congress and othersâ"including a judge who sat as a member of the court in two of Mr. Peltierâ s appealsâ"have all called for his immediate release.â

  âThe Courts may not be able to act but Barack Obama, as President, can. Please join with us to free an innocent man. On February 4, 2012, tell Obama to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier.â
.
  Over the years Leonard Peltier's bid for freedom has been supported by many people, including labor unions, Amnesty International, First Nations and Native organizations (like the National Congress of American Indians, (see http://lpdoc.blogspot.com/2011/12/ncai-to-obama-its-time-to-free-leonard.html) , human and civil rights organizations, many celebrities, and people around the world just like you. Each and every Leonard Peltier supporter is important and together we must build the public support that is needed to free Leonard.
  WE must free Leonard because he is a person who has stood up for his people and in 36 years in prison refuses to be broken. WE must free Leonard because he is an innocent activist who was framed up and the laws of this land, including the constitution, have not applied to him. WE must free Leonard because he is a part of the Native struggle against polices of genocide, theft of Native land and broken treaties.
  WE must free Leonard because we are all connected to him. All social activists are threaten by what they have done to Leonard. All the non-corporate people share, in many different ways, in the great suffering that the giant computations have caused for us all. So please help free Leonard for your own and your families well-being also.
  Please join with us on February 4, 2012 for THE INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER. Join with people at organized events in many places including: The Northwest region of the U.S. (Tacoma, Portland, Olympia, Seattle and other towns united together) march in Tacoma, WA;  Toronto and Vancouver; Canada; Binghamton, UK; Berlin and Hamburg,Germany; Brussels, Belgium; Dublin, Ireland; Boulder, CO, San Jose, CA; Albuquerque, NM; San Francisco, CA; New York City, NY; and other places. If there is no event in your area please organize one and let LPDOC know about it at; Phone: 701/235-2206, E-mail: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info.
   Also while this is going on The Leonard Peltier Walk For Human Rights is moving across the country.
  Here in the Northwest region we have for many years organize marches and rallies for Leonard. Since 1992 we have organized 63 marches in Portland, Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle, Everett, Mount Vernon, Bellingham and at the U.S./Canadian border. All this organizing and educational experiences has lead us to the INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER, NORTHWEST REGION MARCH AND RALLY on February 4, 2012 in Tacoma. This is the most important march the Northwest has ever organized! If you have supported Leonard in the past, please join with us again. If you have ever thought about supporting Leonard, now is the time to do it. Thank you.

As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all together we make a mighty fist.
-- Sitting Bull

INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER
NW REGIONAL MARCH AND RALLY FOR CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY, 4, 2012, TACOMA, WA.

  SPEAKERS:
Co-MCs
Matilaja: YuâPik Eskimo from Mountain Village Alaska. Member of N.W. AIM since 1973, Friend of Leonard Peltier for 38 odd years and member of Tacoma Chapter LPDOC
Steve Hapy: Long time Leonard Peltier and Native struggles activist, Tacoma Chapter LPDOC
Leonard Peltier Honor Song:
AIM Warrior Society Drum
Opening:
Dorothy Ackerman: Lakota Elder
Drum:
Albert Combs and Coastal Hand Drum Singers
Welcoming:
Deeahop Conway, Puyallup Tribal member, Tacoma Chapter LPDOC
Leonard's case and up-date;
Arthur J. Miller: Northwest Regional Organizer LPDOC, Tacoma Chapter LPDOC,  long time union member and human rights activist
Keynote Speaker:
Ramona Bennett: Puyallup Tribal Elder, Life long friend of Leonard Peltier, Grand Mother, Great Grand Mother
Chester Earl: Puyallup Tribal member
Zoltan Grossman: Evergreen State College faculty in Geography and Native Studies, in Olympia. former board member of Midwest Treaty Network in Wisconsin.
Decolonization:
Claudia Serrato
Unity:
Michael One Road: Portland Chapter LPDOC
Closing words:
David Duenas: Puyallup Tribal Member

  CAR POOLS: OLYMPIA: There will be a carpool leaving from the parking lot at Harrison and Division at 10:15 am. PORTLAND, meet up outside of KBOO Radio Station (20 SE 8th, Portland, OR 97124) before embarking to Tacoma between 9:00-9:30am.SEATTLE: Meet at the Red Apple parking lot at 23rd and Jackson by the bus stop. Will be leaving at 10:30 am
  We need new banners and signs.  We need video of this event to use for support work, please send us DVD copies. We need supporters to get out fliers, if you can please contact us. We need people to forward our e-mail statements. We need people to share on facebook information on the march. Our marches are not about one group but rather they are the work of all Peltier supporters in our region.

  RESOLUTIONS FOR CLEMENCY: Leonard needs resolutions for clemency from Tribes, Unions, Human Rights Organizations and others. See a sample resolution at:
http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/resolution.htm

  For donations: Please make checks payable to the Leonard Peltier Defense/Offense Committee (mark them for NW March) and send them to: Tacoma Chapter LPODC, P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415.

  Join Tacoma Chapter LPDOC on facebook at: http://facebook.com/tacoma.lpdoc
Subscribe to: Northwest Peltier Support at: nwpeltiersupport-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
For more information: www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

TACOMA CHAPTER, LPDOC, P.O. BOX 5464, TACOMA, WA 98415-0464. bayou@blarg.net

MARCH STATEMENT

âI have no doubt whatsoever that the real motivation behind both Wounded Knee II and the Oglala firefight, and much of the turmoil throughout Indian Country since the early 1970s, wasâ"and isâ"the mining companiesâ desire to muffle AIM and all traditional Indian people, who soughtâ"and still seekâ"to protect the land, water, and air from their thefts and depredations. In this sad and tragic age we live in, to come to the defense of Mother Earth is to be branded a criminal.â --Leonard Peltier, Prison Writings â"

Leonard Peltier (of the Anishinabe, Dakota, and Lakota Nations), long time Native Activist and member of the American Indian Movement. Leonard Peltier, an innocent man who was convicted for the 1975 shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. prosecutors have repeatedly admit ted that they did not and cannot prove Peltier's guilt, and the appellate courts have cited numerous instances of investigative and prosecutorial misconduct in this case. As late as November 2003, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that "â¦Much of the governmentâs behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed." The trial of the first two AIM members in this case were found not guilty for reason of self-defense.
  Behind the case of Leonard Peltier and the events that took place on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation is the continuing theft of Native land for energy corporations. High grade Uranium was found in the northwest corner of Pine Ridge. It was well known that the Lakota people would be unwilling to sell their land because they refused payment for the Black Hills. So a plan was carried out to suppress the traditional Oglala Lakota people and their supporters from the America Indian Movement. This lead to the Wounded Knee II Occupation, over 500 AIM members being indited on charges, a two and a half year reign of terror against the Oglala Lakota people, and the firefight near Oglala, that Leonard was charged with, that took place at the same time that a corrupt tribal Chairman was illegally signing away the part of Pine Ridge with the Uranium. The firefight took place as a means to divert attention and to suppress AIM.
  Leonard has been in prison for over 36 years for a crime he did not commit and a crime that forces of greed were responsibly for. They have withheld medical care for Leonard and recently Leonard was placed in solitary confinement for 72 days and then sent to a high security prison in Florida, as far away from his lawyers and family as they could send him. Leonard is in bad health and they want Leonard to die in prison, alone and forgotten.  We will not let that happen.
   We are now organizing a new clemency for Leonard Peltier campaign and the regional march on Feb, 4, 2012 are a very important part of that. Please help us raise money for it and get the word out everywhere.  Please. let us come together in the spirit of unity for Leonard and for the kind of justice and peace we want for our world. Thank you.

LINKS
Join Tacoma Chapter LPDOC on facebook at: http://facebook.com/tacoma.lpdoc
Subscribe to: Northwest Peltier Support at: nwpeltiersupport-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
For more information: www.whoisleonardpeltier.info
March web site; http://leonardpeltiermarch.wordpress.com/
On the web
http://zinelibrary.info/international-day-solidarity-leonard-peltier-feb-4-2011-fliers-and-info
Two page flier for NW Regional March: http://zinelibrary.info/files/Peltier_March_2011.pdf
One page flier for NW Regional March: http://zinelibrary.info/files/Peltier_March_2001_info.pdf Portland flier for NW Regional March: http://zinelibrary.info/files/Portland_Peltier_Flier.pdf
11 by 17 poster for the march/rally: http://zinelibrary.info/files/Peltier_Poster_2011.pdf
March statements and flier: http://zinelibrary.info/files/Peltier_March_2001_info.pdf
Feb. 4, 2012 Regional March in Tacoma Facebook event pages:
http://www.facebook.com/events/#!/events/163763897043790/
http://www.facebook.com/events/#!/events/179938242097693/
Back ground article on Leonard
http://zinelibrary.info/files/2012_case_of_leonard_peltier.pdf
Video: LPDOC NW Regional Organizer Arthur J. Miller speaking about the case history of political prisoner Leonard Peltier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_pvxqgIVRlo
LPDOC: Constitutional Violations in the Peltier Case:    http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/violations.htm
youtube video of Ramona Bennett from last May rally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yP-NnxB4RU
Audio recording of The May rally in Tacoma:
http://www.indybay.org/uploads/2011/05/26/peltier_march_2011.mp3
An Open Letter to the OCCUPY! Movement;
http://zinelibrary.info/files/open%20letter%20to%20occupy.pdf
Organizing Marches and Rallies: The Tacoma Model:
http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/download/marches.doc
Matilaja: (YuâPik Eskimo from Mountain Village Alaska. Member of N.W. AIM since 1973, Friend of Leonard Peltier for 38 odd years and member of Tacoma Chapter LPDOC) speaking at the showing of âIncident At Oglala, The Leonard Peltier Storyâ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2kadnAv-dI
Puyallup Tribal News article on Feb. 4, 2012 Regional Leonard Peltier March in Tacoma:
http://www.puyalluptribalnews.net/news/view/march-rally-for-leonard-peltier-in-tacoma/

ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,ZAP,

[olympiaworkers] 100th Anniversary of Bread and Roses Strike— Was It the First Occupy?

2012-01-22T18:14:00.001-08:00

by Adele Stan, Jan 12, 2012 AFL-CIO

Today in Lawrence, Mass., union members and their allies will gather at a
historic mill building for a re-enactment of the historic Bread and Roses
strike that moved the conscience of the nation, bringing national
attention to the plight of the families, including young children, who
toiled in the dirty and dangerous factories of Lawrence and throughout the
country.

The re-enactment kicks off a yearlong celebration of the Bread and Roses
centennial, which will commemorate change-making events in Lawrence that
gave rise to the U.S. labor movement.

On Jan. 12, 1912, some 25,000 workers at the mills of the American Woolen
Company in Lawrence walked off the job when the company cut their
pay—already a mere $8 a week for the men, and less for the women and
children—after the state legislature passed a law shortening the length of
their workweek from 56 hours to 54 hours. Workers stayed off the job for
months, enduring beatings from police and the Massachusetts militia, who
spared not even women and children.

Some see in the conditions that led to the Bread and Roses strike
parallels to today's growing income disparity between the wealthy and the
rest of us, as well as the exploitation of America's workers by financial
interests. Robert Forrant, a history professor at the University of
Massachusetts, calls it "the first Occupy movement." Says Massachusetts
AFL-CIO President Steven Tolman:

It's an unfortunate irony that we have come full circle since 1912.
The strikers then were immigrant workers barely able to survive on low
wages. Today Lawrence, like many industrial cities, is a place where
immigrant workers are really struggling in an unfair economy.

The strikers were mostly immigrants who had crossed the ocean on a promise
of prosperity, only to find themselves and their children brutally
exploited by the textile tycoons.

Ethan Snow, a member of the Centennial Committee and a UMass graduate
student, noted that the Bread and Roses strike spelled the beginning of
the end for child labor in America, and the start of real workplace
reforms. He added:

The strike is notable because it was the first time that over 25,000
people from 50 nationalities speaking 27 different languages united to
win rights in the workplace. The labor movement in 1912 was very young
and no decisive victory had really been achieved until the 1912 strike
in Lawrence.

Before the strike, the mill owners had effectively pitted the various
ethnic groups against one another, and set different conditions for the
skilled workers of the AFL's craft unions and the so-called unskilled
workers who had no union representation until the strike drew the
organizers of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW). In solidarity
with the unskilled workers, the AFL supported the strike.

Coined by a mid-19th century French philosopher, "One may live without
bread, but not without roses," today continues to mean that people are due
more in their life than toil. "Bread and Roses" also has been immortalized
in a song.

More information about events sponsored by the Bread & Roses Centennial
Committee is here. For more on the history of the Bread and Roses strike,
see this video on the website of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO

[olympiaworkers]

2012-01-22T02:33:00.000-08:00

The Occupy Solidarity Social Forum is approaching and a couple hundred folks who have found an affinity and hope in the Occupy movement are coming from all over the nation for a weekend of plenaries, panels, actions and workshops. Find out more and register to participate through http://ossf2012.org. We are looking for locals to pick folks up at the airports, the train stations, homes for out of towners, food preparers and volunteering during those days, February 18-19. Friday the 17th we will have a small social event in the evening at the Labor Center, at 9th and Colombia, where the conference will primarily be located. Sunday the 19th we will be having a public celebration at the Olympia Ballroom at 7:30 with music performance by Jim Page, Danny Kelly, David Rovics and guests.

President's Day, Monday, February 20, we are putting our training into practice with actions all day at the capitol, the banks, and other secret locations around town. We need a mass of folks at Sylvester Park starting at 10AM to rally, then a march taking off at noon to the capitol where we will end on the Supreme Court steps and perform street theater and actions. It is a big day so let your friends know, there is a flier here that can help with that! A thousand good folks will be at the capitol that day for other events and we want to be there in support of all those who show up and honor their participation. However our message is clear for all to hear that day. Stop the cuts, make the 1% pay!

"Whatever the legislators do is not enough. We have no faith in their representation and no money to buy their loyalty. That's why we are stepping forward, to take what's ours; our dignity, our democracy, our resources, our future which we envision as beautiful without fear and with promise. For we are the 99% and we are passive no longer!"
- anonymous citizen and Occupy participant.
http://www.facebook.com/events/329525373737086/

Solidarity,
-bruce
ossf2012@gmail.com

[olympiaworkers] Condemn Use of U.S. Military to Escort Scab Grain Ship in Longview, Washington

2012-01-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

San Francisco Labor Council Resolution – Adopted Jan. 9, 2012 by unanimous
vote

Condemn Use of U.S. Military to Escort Scab Grain Ship in Longview WA

Whereas, EGT, a joint venture led by multinational grain giant Bunge,
agreed to hire union Longshoremen when accepting millions in taxpayer
funds to build a huge new grain exporting terminal at the Port of Longview
WA, but once the terminal was built has tried to void its contract and
refused to hire ILWU labor. With the use of brutal police and courts and
220 arrests in the 225 member ILWU Local 21, EGT has managed to get enough
scab grain across picket lines into the new terminal that EGT appears
poised to load a ship soon in violation of their agreement with the port;
and

Whereas, a solidarity caravan of thousands of union members and community
activists – endorsed by ILWU Locals 10 and 21, the S.F. and Cowlitz County
(Longview) labor councils and many others – is being organized to support
our brothers and sisters in Longview, for an emergency mass protest when
requested to do so, to confront union-busting by Wall Street on the
Waterfront; and

Whereas, according to Longshore & Shipping News, within a month, the empty
grain ship will be escorted by armed U.S. Coast Guard vessels and
helicopters, from the mouth of the Columbia River to the EGT facility. The
Coast Guard is an integral part of the US Armed Forces, operating under
the Department of Homeland Security (except when engaged in combat
operations abroad, as it did in Iraq, when it operates under the Navy);
and

Whereas, this is the first known use of the US military to intervene in a
labor dispute on the side of management in 40 years – not since the Great
1970 Postal Strike when President Nixon called out the Army and National
Guard in an (unsuccessful) attempt to break the strike. The use of the
Armed Forces against labor unions is something you expect to see in a
police state. This is part of a disturbing trend where the US military,
acting as enforcers for the 1%, is poised to be used against our own
people, as exemplified by the new law allowing the military to imprison US
citizens indefinitely without trial; and

Whereas, now the US military, which has been oppressing, bombing and
threatening other nations [a military that's paid for with the workers'
taxes] is now being used against us, against American working people and
our unions. To quote ILWU international President McEllrath: "ILWU's labor
dispute with EGT is symbolic of what is wrong in the United States today.
Corporations, no matter how harmful the conduct to society, enjoy full
state and federal protection while workers and the middle class get
treated as criminals for trying to protect their jobs and communities."

Therefore be it Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council condemn in
the strongest terms the announced use of US Armed Forces (Coast Guard) to
provide an armed sea and air escort for the empty grain ship, which is due
to call at the new EGT grain terminal, Port of Longview, Washington, to
load scab grain for export to Asia. We condemn this use of the military as
part of a union-busting campaign to lower the cost of labor on the
waterfront and destroy the union;

And be it further Resolved, that the San Francisco Labor Council join with
allies in other cities on the West Coast to participate in any press
conferences and demonstrations that are organized to denounce this use of
the military to intervene in a labor dispute on the side of Wall Street on
the Waterfront;

And be it finally Resolved, that the Council circulate this resolution to
affiliated unions, Bay Area labor councils, the California Labor
Federation, as well as labor bodies in Oregon and Washington, for
concurrence and action, and urge labor leaders including Richard Trumka
and Mary Kay Henry to take a strong stand against this brazen assault on
our labor rights and civil liberties.

http://phillyworkersvoice.wordpress.com/2012/01/10/condemn-use-of-u-s-military-to-escort-scab-grain-ship-in-longview-wa/

[olympiaworkers] Help needed for Feb. 4th Peltier march

2012-01-11T13:23:00.001-08:00

Please share

HELP NEEDED FOR INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER, NW REGIONAL MARCH. FEB. 4, 2012 IN TACOMA. We people to video tape the march and rally. This is very important because we will use it help build support for clemency. Please send copies of video to: Tac. LPDOC, P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415-0464. Two page flier for NW Regional March: http://zinelibrary.info/files/Peltier_March_2011.pdf Portland flier for NW Regional March: http://zinelibrary.info/files/Portland_Peltier_Flier.pdf 11 by 17 poster for the march/rally: http://zinelibrary.info/files/Peltier_Poster_2011.pdf

[olympiaworkers] The Looming Showdown in Longview

2012-01-10T12:26:00.001-08:00

January 10, 2012 Counterpunch.org

"The ILWU Cannot Lose This Fight"

by BEN SCHREINER

The long-simmering dispute between the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union (ILWU) and the international consortium EGT Development
transpiring in Longview, Washington looks to be coming to a head.

In a January 3 letter addressed to his members, ILWU International
President Robert McEllrath disclosed that EGT will soon attempt to
commence operations at its new $200 million grain terminal located at the
Port of Longview. As McEllrath wrote, "We believe that at some point this
month a vessel will call at the EGT facility in Longview,
Washington…Prepare to take action when the EGT vessel arrives."

The Struggle and Its Stakes

At the heart of the Longview dispute has been EGT's refusal to hire
longshoremen from ILWU Local 21 to work its grain terminal at the Port of
Longview. The publicly owned port—as with all West Coast public port
docks—has been worked exclusively by the ILWU for decades.

Dismissing this hard-won jurisdiction, EGT chose to break off negotiations
with the ILWU last year and contract with a third party employing labor
from International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) Local 701. The
ILWU argues that this is in direct violation of EGT's lease agreement with
the Port of Longview, which explicitly stipulates all port work is to
indeed be done by the ILWU.

For its part, IUOE Local 701 has been widely condemned within the
Northwest labor community, with many accusing the local of conspiring with
EGT to break the ILWU. Both the Washington and Oregon state AFL-CIO
bodies, along with numerous other unions, have already passed resolutions
condemning Local 701. The July resolution passed by the Oregon AFL-CIO
described 701's actions at the EGT terminal as "scab labor."

The national AFL-CIO, on the other hand, has remained conspicuously muted
on the dispute. No mention of the ILWU's struggle in Longview can be
found on the federation's website or blog. In fact, AFL-CIO President
Richard Trumka has referred to the entire matter as a mere "jurisdictional
dispute."

Yet despite the AFL's seeming indifference, the outcome of the struggle
couldn't have greater stakes. As Kyle Mackey, Secretary/Treasurer of the
Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Central Labor Council (the umbrella labor body for the
Longview area), argues, "If EGT succeeds, they will have essentially
broken the ILWU." As he explains:

First, they will set a precedent that work on public port docks is no
longer automatically longshore jurisdiction. Then within less than a
year, when the northwest grain handlers' agreement is set to be
negotiated, all the other grain elevators will seek to either go
non-ILWU or to match the eroded standard EGT creates. Shortly
thereafter, in 2014, the ILWU will negotiate its master contract with
the Pacific Maritime Association. If they lose, you can bet the PMA
will take notice and hit hard.

In the midst of a nationwide attack on organized labor and the right to
collectively bargain, the defeat of the powerful ILWU would also be sure
to have consequences reaching far beyond the docks.

The Call for Solidarity

Responding to the intensifying situation, the Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Central
Labor Council on January 2 passed a resolution calling for solidarity
action to stop the EGT vessel from being loaded. The resolution read in
part:

Be it Resolved: That this Council call out to friends of labor and the
"99 percent" everywhere to come to the aid of ILWU Local 21, and to
support them in any way possible in their fight against multinational
conglomerate EGT. And,

Be it further Resolved: That this Council request that anyone willing
to participate in a community and labor protest in Longview,
Washington, of the first EGT grain ship do so when called upon by this
body.

Accordingly, planning for a regional solidarity caravan to shuttle ILWU
rank-and-file and other supporters to Longview on word of the EGT vessel's
arrival is already underway. With the support of the San Francisco Labor
Council, ILWU Local 10, for one, has already pledged funds for a bus to
ferry rank-and-file picketers up to Longview once given the word.

The Northwest Occupy movement, meanwhile, has also begun to mobilize. On
December 19, Occupy Longview issued a call for Occupy activists to
converge on the port to blockade the loading of any vessel at EGT's
terminal. As Occupy Longview stated, "We are calling out to all occupies,
from New York City down to Florida, all the way through to the West Coast,
to join us in solidarity…We ask that tens of thousands travel to Longview
to join us and make this action the central action for January 2012."

Occupy and the ILWU

The inclusion and participation of outside activists in the ILWU's
Longview struggle—such as those from the Occupy movement—has not been
without its share of controversy. As was widely publicized, the ILWU
leadership refrained from embracing the West Coast Port Shutdown in
December, which the Occupy movement had called in part to show solidarity
with the ILWU in the struggle against EGT. In fact, the Occupy-led port
shutdown led a few unionist and other observers to question the merits and
rational behind an action conducted without much in the way of ILWU input
and participation.

Occupy activist, though, maintained that they did indeed have
rank-and-file support for the action. Moreover, they argued that the
antagonistic statements coming from the ILWU leadership regarding the port
shutdown were merely for legal cover. (Local 21, for instance, already
faces upwards of $300,000 in fines due to unfair labor practice charges
accrued from its ongoing struggle.)

Regardless, the matter of independent action conducted in solidarity with,
or in the name of, the ILWU remains an issue. As President McEllrath
cautioned in his January 3 letter, "Any showing of support for Local 21 at
the time that a vessel calls at the EGT facility must be measured to
ensure that the West Coast ports have sufficient manpower so as not to
impact cargo movement for PMA member companies. A call for a protest of
EGT is not a call for a shutdown of West Coast ports and must not result
in one."

Facing a Stacked Deck

The dictate to limit any ILWU action to EGT in Longview stems from the
severe restrictions American labor law places on unions. As McEllrath
notes in his letter to members, "Locals need to be aware of the narrow
path that we must cut through a federal labor law (the Taft-Hartley Act)
that criminalizes worker solidarity, outlaws labor's most effective tools,
and protects commerce while severely restricting unions."

Of course in addition to repressive labor laws, a key challenge facing any
attempt to effectively blockade EGT's terminal from beginning operations
will be the expected heavy-handed police presence. To date, at least 75
out of the 200 Local 21 members have already faced arrest, citation,
fines, or both. (Little surprise, then, to learn that EGT has made
contributions to local police and fire bureaus.)

But as for what to expect once EGT seeks to load a grain barge later this
month, McEllrath warns, "We have been told that this vessel will be
escorted by armed United States Coast Guard, including the use of small
vessels and helicopters, from the mouth of the Columbia River to the EGT
facility and that the facility itself will be protected by a full
complement of local law enforcement from multiple jurisdictions."

But even facing such a stacked deck—with the courts, police, and, needless
to say, the media conspiring against them—make no mistake: the ILWU has
never been a union to back away from a struggle. As ILWU Local 21
President Dan Coffman has stated, "The ILWU cannot lose this fight; we are
in it to it to win it."

And so it is that as we approach the one-year anniversary of the Wisconsin
uprising, the long sleeping giant that is American labor stirs once more.

Ben Schreiner is a freelance writer living in Salem, Oregon. He may be
reached at bnschreiner@gmail.com.

Re: [olympiaworkers] Call to action from Longview, WA

2012-01-02T21:37:00.001-08:00

Why are u blocking the "EGT grain ship arrival

Diane

On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 2:27 AM, <olympiaworkers@riseup.net> wrote:

from West Coast Port Shutdown

***EGT Grain Ship Arrival - Call to Action by Occupy Longview Washington***

Occupy Longview (Washington) is officially putting out a call to action to
block the EGT grain ship expected to arrive mid-January.

There has already been discussion between occupies in various cities to
caravan here to Longview, WA for the purpose of blocking this ship. We,
Occupy Longview, are ready to move forward with planning and coordinating
to make this action successful.

We are calling out to all occupies, from New York City down to Florida,
all the way through to the West Coast, to join us in solidarity.

What we will need:

1) Numbers! We need to have a large turn-out. We need your bodies!

2) Media coordination/help

3) Finances/donated funds from larger occupies (for buses, housing early
arrivers, etc.)

Arrangements are already being planned to acquire a donated space or rent
a building for the month of January for the purpose of planning,
organizing and housing those who may arrive early and/or for those who may
come from afar.

We ask that tens of thousands travel to Longview to join us and make this
action the central action for January 2012. Let's kick off 2012! Join us
in Solidarity!

Re: [olympiaworkers] Call to action from Longview, WA

2012-01-02T11:27:00.001-08:00

Do u have a definite date yet or an approximate one?

Diane-OCFB

On Sun, Jan 1, 2012 at 2:27 AM, <olympiaworkers@riseup.net> wrote:

from West Coast Port Shutdown

***EGT Grain Ship Arrival - Call to Action by Occupy Longview Washington***

Occupy Longview (Washington) is officially putting out a call to action to
block the EGT grain ship expected to arrive mid-January.

There has already been discussion between occupies in various cities to
caravan here to Longview, WA for the purpose of blocking this ship. We,
Occupy Longview, are ready to move forward with planning and coordinating
to make this action successful.

We are calling out to all occupies, from New York City down to Florida,
all the way through to the West Coast, to join us in solidarity.

What we will need:

1) Numbers! We need to have a large turn-out. We need your bodies!

2) Media coordination/help

3) Finances/donated funds from larger occupies (for buses, housing early
arrivers, etc.)

Arrangements are already being planned to acquire a donated space or rent
a building for the month of January for the purpose of planning,
organizing and housing those who may arrive early and/or for those who may
come from afar.

We ask that tens of thousands travel to Longview to join us and make this
action the central action for January 2012. Let's kick off 2012! Join us
in Solidarity!

[olympiaworkers] Call to action from Longview, WA

2012-01-01T02:27:00.001-08:00

from West Coast Port Shutdown

***EGT Grain Ship Arrival - Call to Action by Occupy Longview Washington***

Occupy Longview (Washington) is officially putting out a call to action to
block the EGT grain ship expected to arrive mid-January.

There has already been discussion between occupies in various cities to
caravan here to Longview, WA for the purpose of blocking this ship. We,
Occupy Longview, are ready to move forward with planning and coordinating
to make this action successful.

We are calling out to all occupies, from New York City down to Florida,
all the way through to the West Coast, to join us in solidarity.

What we will need:

1) Numbers! We need to have a large turn-out. We need your bodies!

2) Media coordination/help

3) Finances/donated funds from larger occupies (for buses, housing early
arrivers, etc.)

Arrangements are already being planned to acquire a donated space or rent
a building for the month of January for the purpose of planning,
organizing and housing those who may arrive early and/or for those who may
come from afar.

We ask that tens of thousands travel to Longview to join us and make this
action the central action for January 2012. Let's kick off 2012! Join us
in Solidarity!

[olympiaworkers] Occupy Wall Streets Next Steps – Part 2 – How to Win a Fight with the 1%

2011-12-23T10:26:00.001-08:00

anarkismo.net

Occupy supporters must re-orient their organizing from mass, symbolic
actions – such as "mic-checking politicians" and waving signs at CEO's -
to more targeted campaigns designed to win real, immediate gains for
ourselves.

Over the past month, Occupy Wall Street has chalked up a large number of
bold actions against both government and private authorities; it has led
an attempted general strike, raucous marches, occupations of banks and
abandoned buildings, disruptions of political speeches and press events,
and a massive West Coast shut down of major port terminals partly to aid
longshore workers in their fights against their employers.

The actions, moreover, have already achieved limited successes – besides
having created space for Americans to come together outside of the
established political system, they have rightly been credited with having
stopped fee increases amongst the largest banks in the country, as well as
having widely validated the American public's fury over increasing
inequality, generating massive media exposure. Largely, however, the only
real material victory of Occupy so far – its having stopped increased bank
fees – has been incidental, and was in no way a conscious objective of the
Occupy Movement.

Accordingly, the Occupy Movement remains increasingly susceptible to
losing its momentum if it does not achieve some tangible, substantive
gains for itself and for its communities. People, after all, don't just
want to vent forever – they want something done. We can be certain that if
people do not see real results from the Occupy Movement soon, they will
move on to something which seems to offer them more; and with our two
political parties gearing up for election season, we should take this
threat all the more seriously.

Concretely, what this is going to mean for Occupy supporters is to
re-orient their organizing from mass, symbolic actions – such as
"mic-checking politicians" and waving signs at CEO's - to more targeted
campaigns designed to win real, immediate gains for ourselves.

A look at Direct Action and the Seattle Solidarity Network:

A small group, comprised of only several hundred people, SeaSol is an
organization for local Occupy groups to look to for inspiration, because
of just how much it has achieved with such little resources, largely
because of its winning strategy.

Originally, a good part of this strategy was borrowed from organizations
such as the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty and the Industrial Workers
of the World, who had launched Direct action campaigns similar to SeaSol's
present day actions.

The idea of confronting our problems ourselves, of course, actually
predates both SeaSol and its forerunners. It is based not only in the
anarchist tradition of self management, but critically on the idea that by
surrendering control over the outcome of your problems to someone else,
you've more than likely surrendered the outcome of your problem being
solved in your favor.

Thus, unions who have relied on the Democratic Party have lost the battle
over the Employee Free Choice Act, NAFTA, and even the right to basic
collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin; environmentalists have lost a
series of contests over offshore drilling and smog regulation; and citizen
volunteers for the Obama's 2008 campaign have lost battles for more
transparency in government, and an end to corporate influence over
legislators. The list could go on.

Despite the obvious setbacks of relying on political parties and
'specialists,' the reason organizations like the Democratic Party remain
so pervasive is because there is no obvious alternative for most people.
What alternatives there are in the United States are often disorganized,
directionless, and most importantly, they normally aren't relevant. They
simply don't achieve anything meaningful to our day-to-day lives.

SeaSol might be seen as a response, then, to both the dominance of
"professional" activist organizations which specialize in mediating
people's struggles, and to their ineffective counterparts who partake in
the sorts of symbolic, wishy-washy politics the grassroots left has become
synonymous with.

Practical Politics:

For social movements to not only sustain themselves, but also to grow, its
important for them to be relevant to other people's daily lives. They must
offer something that will, at least eventually, markedly improve their
quality of life.

The Seattle Solidarity Network has seen a good amount of growth in its
relatively short life span because it focusses on partial solutions to a
problem most people face: naked exploitation. Has your boss stolen your
wages? Is your landlord refusing to make needed repairs to your home? Have
you been discriminated against?

A brief visit to their website reveals that all of the fights SeaSol has
taken on – over stolen wages or deposits, for example – are rather small
conflicts. SeaSol's record of fighting for small gains such as these is an
important distinction between itself and other grassroots organizations on
the left.

SeaSol recognizes that to effectively address a problem, you must have the
resources and capacity to hurt your target more than it will cost them to
give into your demand. For a group comprising only several hundred people
– even for a group a hundred times this size – a fight to "end corporate
influence on government" would be absurd. A fight to force a landlord to
fix a mold problem, however, is probably much more manageable.

SeaSol shows this relationship – between the amount of leverage we have,
and the amount it would cost a target to give in to our demands – in its
"winnability graph."

Say, for example, you and your comrades in Occupy Wall Street wanted to
force a national bank to pay back all of the taxpayer money which was used
to bail it out when the recession hit. How hard a demand would this be for
the bank to give in to?

Well, that's billions upon billions of dollars that the bank would have to
pay back. That's a pretty big demand. So how badly would you need to hurt
the bank in order to make it easier for them to pay back that money than
not to give in to your demand? Theoretically, you would have to launch a
series of actions across the country which threatened to cost them
billions and billions of dollars.

Even with the size of the occupy protests as they are – that's probably
not something we should consider a "winnable" demand.

But what if instead of using our time at Occupy to make unwinnable
demands, we focussed on winning a series of smaller fights? What if
instead of trying to get the banks to pay back all the money they had
taken from taxpayers, we tried to stop foreclosures in our cities, home by
home? With the level of participation in the Occupy movement, demands such
as this might be much more workable – and consequently, build a larger and
better organized movement, which down the line, can demand larger and
larger concessions.

How to win a fight with the 1% – Putting the hurt on:

So, you've decided on a righteous demand that people will find compelling
and just – a demand you feel confident you and other occupiers in your
city can win. How do you go about fighting for it?

Make it clear what the demand is:

Throughout a fight, it is important that the target know exactly what they
are expected to do, or what demand they are expected to meet. SeaSol,
therefore, begins all of its campaigns with what they call a "demand
delivery."

First, they write a "demand letter" addressed to the boss or landlord they
have a grievance with. Then, along with as many folks as they can gather,
the tenant or worker leads the group into the office or home of the
target. For a wonderful example of this in action, here's a great video of
one of SeaSol's demand deliveries:

The point is both to make it very clear what we expect the boss or
landlord to do, and to show our collective strength – the implication is
that here is a group of people who are going to be on you, hard, until our
demand is met.

Tactics:

SeaSol normally approaches a fight with a few principles in mind.

First, they know that the name of the game here is pressure. Essentially,
how are we going to make life very, very hard for our target until they
give in?

There are, of course, a lot of ways one may hurt an individual or company.
You can disrupt their bottom line, and hurt them economically, with
pickets, boycotts, or blockades. You can target their social connections,
and embarrass them in front of neighbors, fellow church goers or business
partners with flyers, letters, protests, or sit ins. There are,
ultimately, a nearly infinite number of tactics you can use to put
pressure on a target – it just takes some creativity.

To fit these tactics together into a coherent campaign, SeaSol first asks
itself "will this tactic hurt us, and will it hurt our target?" While a
sit in or a brick through a window may hurt our target, they also have the
potential to get our members arrested – in which case, we would also be
hurt by the tactic. So while there are no hard and fast rules for planning
which tactics fit any given situation, the general rule of thumb is that
you normally want your tactics to be sustainable (meaning you could,
theoretically, continue them indefinitely), and you want them to hurt your
target more than they hurt you.

Escalation:

A SeaSol organizer put the concept of escalation this way: "it isn't the
memory of what we did to the boss yesterday that makes them want to give
in, but the fear of what we'll do to them tomorrow."

As a campaign progresses, you want to give the target the impression that
things are getting increasingly worse for them – that you are constantly
escalating your fight. This means that campaigns will generally begin with
tactics wich are less intense, and gradually become more confrontational,
both in terms of their militancy and frequency.

So while yesterday you may have simply been putting up flyers around their
business, tomorrow you may be picketing their shop or disrupting a fancy
dinner party.

Next Steps:

It cannot be emphasized enough that there is a real threat to the Occupy
Movement in the Democratic Party. This election season, as is custom, the
presidential campaign will dominate most news coverage – pushing the
publicity for Occupy off the front page. Obama's campaign will be drumming
up support, threatening the American public with the prospect of a
Republican administration if he should fail to win re-election.

Good organizers and participants in your local Occupy groups will leave
Occupy to organize for Obama and the Democrats. The only effective
countermeasure against this will be to draw in new layers of support from
people not yet involved – and in order to do that, you will need to start
taking on fights which help and empower regular folks.

And, of course, whatever the targets local Occupy groups plan to take on
next, it will be important to remember these few little tips: make sure
the fight is relevant, winnable, and hurts.

[olympiaworkers] OCCUPY MOVEMENT CLAIMS SUCCESS

2011-12-15T20:08:00.000-08:00

For immediate release – December 15, 2011

OCCUPY MOVEMENT CLAIMS SUCCESS IN COORDINATED "WALL STREET ON THE
WATERFRONT" PORT SHUTDOWNS

RESPONDS TO OAKLAND CITY COUNCIL EMERGENCY RESOLUTION CALLING FOR GREATER
REPRESSION

On Monday, December 12, in response to police attacks on Occupy camps
across the nation, the Occupy Movement effectively shut down sea ports up
and down the West Coast, including in Oakland, Portland, Seattle, and
Longview, with partial shutdowns or support actions at Long Beach, San
Diego, Hueneme (Ventura County), and Vancouver, B.C. The "Wall Street on
the Waterfront" campaign targeted the ports as sites of the corporate and
financial power of the 1 %, and were particularly directed at the
investment banking giant Goldman Sachs and grain exporter EGT, which has
been in conflict with the ILWU/Longshore workers for refusing to hire
union dockworker. The search from profits of these and other multinational
corporations affect people's daily lives around the world, from
determining the global flows of commodities and capital, to expropriating
agricultural lands from indigenous peoples.

The coordinated shutdown, with support by Longshore workers, Teamsters,
and independent truckers, demonstrates the continuing vitality and
widespread appeal of the Occupy Movement. Support actions were held in
numerous other cities. In Bellingham, WA protesters locked themselves to
rail lines carrying Goldman Sachs goods. In Denver, CO, Salt Lake City,
UT, and Albuquerque, NM, demonstrators blockaded Walmart distribution
centers to protest its low wages and lack of adequate health care for
workers. In New York, Occupy Wall Street protesters stormed financial
institutions. Other support actions occurred in Houston, Tacoma, Coos Bay,
Anchorage, Hawaii, Canada, Japan and elsewhere.

Despite concerted efforts to thwart the Oakland Port blockade by Mayor
Jean Quan, the ILWU International leadership (which mounted an
international media campaign) and the Port itself, which spent tens of
thousands of dollars taking out full page newspaper ads, the Oakland Port
blockade was a success. Teamsters did not go to work, and with few
exceptions, Longshore workers and independent truckers did not cross the
picket lines. A group of truck drivers parked their trucks and helped
block a gate.

In dramatic contrast with the ILWU International leadership, rank and file
workers have expressed extensive solidarity and support. For example, ILWU
Local 21 President Dan Coffman told a crowd of 10,000 in Longview, WA: "On
behalf of Local 21, we want to thank the occupy movement for shedding
light on the practices of the EGT and for the inspiration of our members."

In an "Open Letter from America's Truck Drivers on Occupy the Ports"
(http://westcoastportshutdown.org/content/open-letter-americas-truck-drivers-occupy-ports),
port drivers wrote: "We are inspired that a non-violent democratic
movement that insists on basic economic fairness is capturing the hearts
and minds of so many working people. ... Poverty and pollution are like a
plague at the ports. ... Just like Wall Street doesn't have to abide by
rules, our industry isn't bound to regulation. ...We receive Third World
wages and drive sweatshops on wheels. ... We have never recovered from
losing our basic rights as employees in America."

Port Of Oakland Was Shut Down For 24 Hours

After the arbitrator sent workers home, ending the morning shift, 5-10,000
protesters re- assembled in the afternoon and marched from two locations
to the Port to picket the evening shift. Marine veteran Scott Olsen,
recovering after Oakland Police shot him in the head with a tear gas
canister during an Occupy protest in October, led the march, joined by
members of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Teamsters, the Feminist Block,
and the Tactical Action Committee, among others. In response, Port workers
cancelled the evening shift, and rescheduled it for 3:00 am.

As pledged in the event of police repression at any of the port actions (see

www.occupyoakland.org/2011/11/occupy-oakland-calls-for-total-west-coast-port-shutdown-on-1212
), several hundred protesters continued to picket at the Port gates until
workers canceled the substitute shift and departed around 3:45 am.

The Port protests were peaceful, even as police in various cities rioted,
caused injuries, and made arrests. For example, Seattle police used
teargas. Houston police, hiding their names and badge numbers with tape,
snatched protesters whom the fire department concealed under a giant
inflatable tent while the police made arrests. Houston Police on horseback
later re-attacked the crowd. In San Diego, police broke the picket line
and violently arrested protestors.

Proposed Resolution by Oakland City Council

On December 15, Oakland City Council members De La Fuente & Schaaf
introduced an emergency resolution calling on Mayor Quan and the City
Administrator to "use whatever lawful tools we have, including enforcement
of all state laws and local municipal code regulations and requirements,
to prevent future shut downs or disruptions of any port operations."

"Threats of even greater repression by Oakland officials illustrates that
they are more concerned with protecting business as usual for the one
percent than addressing the concerns of the rest of us" said organizer
Barucha Peller.

The divisive and repressive tactics of elected officials, global
corporations and police goons will only strengthen our resolve to fight
back with direct action, because we know that another world is possible.

[olympiaworkers] Occupy Olympia: A call for solidarity

2011-12-15T19:29:00.000-08:00

Up to date info as of 12:45 P.M., Thursday, December 15th

Friends,

At about 8:30 A.M, Thursday, December 15th, . the Washington State Police
and Department of Enterprise Services delivered a "Notice to Cease and
Desist Camping" effective 12:01 A.M., January 16th., midnight tonight. The
notice stated they will come in and seize all property at Occupy Olympia.
In addition, they will not allow any future camping equipment at Heritage
Park. They reduced what is going on to an encampment although it is much
more than that, a site of protest and resistance, a movement for economic
equality and more.

A rally is being planned for today, Thursday, December 15th, beginning at
10 P.M.. There will be music and workshops. We invite you!

People will be at Media Island, today, 816 Adams, today, making signs and
cooking food. Help if you can.

We are asking people to show solidarity and support for those who have
been staying at Occupy Olympia by coming to Heritage Park tonight and
staying for the night if you can. Bring signs.

We are asking for solidarity and resistance to be non-violent.

The police may come at midnight, tonight, as they have threatened, but it
is also possible they will wait until dawn, Friday before they make their
raid. Raids are likely to be ongoing.

Legal and medical support and medical supplies in case there is a police
raid are urgently needed,

There will be a rally and march, Friday, December 16th at 4 P.M.,
beginning at Heritage Park.

Join us, invite others!

We hope that you can show up to support Occupy Olympia. Occupy Olympia is
just beginning.

Housing is still a need for the homeless in case Occupy is shut down.

We also need places where people can store their tents.

Peter

UPDATE: Impending Eviction at Heritage Park

December 15, 2011, 12:06 PM
UPDATE: Notice to vacate was served to occupiers of Heritage Park this
morning.

The notice said all structures and tents needed to be out of the park by
midnight tonight.

December 14, 2011, 9:42 PM
Impending Eviction – Meeting at 8AM, First Christian Church

There are a few sources indicating that State officials will be arriving
at Heritage Park to deliver a 20 hour notice to vacate to those camping at
Heritage Park. That puts time of eviction at around 5am Friday morning.

A meeting at First Christian church has been called for 8am Thursday
morning to discuss the impending eviction.

Letter to Gregoire

Governor Gregoire et al,

The Occupy Movement manifested as a direct response to the social and
economic injustices caused by a corrupt and heartless financial system. As
you know, the political encampment at Heritage Park, built by Occupy
Olympia, has quickly become home to a large number of people whose basic
needs have, for too long, gone unmet. As Occupy Olympia organizers
realized the magnitude of these needs, our focus shifted from simply
describing these injustices to actively mitigating them. For two months,
in addition to our other political actions, Occupy Olympia has run an
all-inclusive, all-volunteer social services agency in the mud- offering
heath care, drug & alcohol counseling, conflict mediation, food, shelter,
and weather-appropriate clothing to those in need. Our outrage against
bank bailouts, corporate personhood, government corruption, and unequal
distribution of wealth manifested itself not as violence or aggression,
but as 24/7 shifts in the wind and rain, working tirelessly with and for
the victims of corporate governmental policy. With the support of the
greater Olympia community, our success has been overwhelming and the
conversation has reached a fever pitch.

Repeated attempts to dismiss the political encampment at Heritage Park as
a "homeless camp" have failed; make no mistake, the encampment is a
political action. While people's basic needs go unmet, they cannot engage
in dialogue about social and economic justice. What we see emerging at
Heritage Park is a new wave of social and political activists– people who
care for each other and their community as it grows. Occupy Olympia didn't
create homelessness, or drug addiction, or poverty, or illness. We have
simply exposed these social problems by drawing them out and laying them
on the doorstep of our Capitol. As our elected officials and state
employees, yours is the burden of responsibility, while ours is a labor of
love.

Winter is here, and we are faced with a dilemma: wintering in tents
between two large bodies of water in the middle of a wind corridor does
not sound pleasant, and while many of us have houses to which we can
retreat if conditions become unbearable, some of us do not. There are at
least 1,000 homeless people in Thurston County, and close to 100 living in
Heritage Park. We know that you want us to leave, but it's not that
simple. Some of the most dedicated among us call Occupy Olympia at
Heritage Park their home. In addition to having our physical needs met,
many of us have found within this community a place to build
relationships, escape from long-term drug addictions, and reclaim some of
the inherent human dignity that the system had stolen from us. It would be
unconscionable and unwise for you to use the threat of violence to evict
us, as is happening in so many other places; Occupy Olympia denounces
violence and expects that the Washington State Patrol will hold true to
their recent promise of meeting non-violent protest without violence. We
can only hope that the Olympia Police department will follow this noble
example.

It is imperative that this blossoming community have a place to grow
roots, free from harassment, and that it have access to the training and
support necessary to creating a safe and sustainable self-governing
community. Occupy Olympia, in partnership with many local organizations,
is endeavoring to facilitate a situation in which the community
established at Heritage Park can be preserved indefinitely. We expect the
State of Washington to fulfill its responsibility to its citizens, by:

- working with the City of Olympia to provide an empty building for this
bourgeoning houseless community to spend the winter;
-bringing social service employees to this space to educate residents
about available resources;
-facilitating first aid, drug counseling, and conflict resolution
trainings for residents;
-refusing to support any budget cuts which further marginalize this
community; and
-creating new legislation which addresses, on a statewide level, the
issues outlined above

The location of this new space should be neither hidden nor distant; this
community will need quick access to main bus lines, grocery stores, and
free health clinics. This community will be recognized not as a fringe
minority, but as a group whose welfare is central to and indicative of the
health of our State as a whole.

In the spirit of the season, Occupy Olympia is giving the State of
Washington the opportunity to set a righteous and powerful example for the
rest of the nation by addressing the most basic needs of its people. Do
not let us down.

Sincerely,
Occupy Olympia

Occupy Olympia Receives Human Rights Award

Monday December 19th there will be a reception honoring Occupy Olympia as
the receiver of the 2011 Human Rights Award by the Thurston County
Diversity Council. Occupy Olympia is receiving this award for unique
achievement.

This reception is scheduled to occur in Building One, Room 152 of the
Thurston County Courthouse, 2000 Lakeridge DR SW. 6:30pm

[olympiaworkers] Occupy Takes Over the Ports: A Report from Oakland

2011-12-15T15:23:00.000-08:00

Dec. 14, 2011 The Progressive

by Josh Healey

In all my years of marches and demonstrations, I had never been on a
picket line at 3a.m. Yet here I was on this oh-so-early Tuesday morning,
out on a quiet street on Oakland's waterfront alongside hundreds of my
fellow Occupy activists. All of us were cold, tired -- and cheering louder
than ever. Why the noise? We had just received word that the port
authority had cancelled yet another work shift, and the docks would be
closed till morning.

"We did it!" a young woman behind me shouted.

And indeed we had -- not just here in the Bay Area, but up and down the
west coast, the Occupy movement claimed victory in undoubtedly its boldest
action so far.

From San Diego, CA to Anchorage, AK and over a dozen cities in between,
the Occupy movement staged a coordinated day of action on Monday, December
12 aimed at disrupting the coast's various ports, dubbed by activists
"Wall Street on the Waterfront. Occupy Oakland had already shut down the
Port of Oakland once as part of its general strike of 40,000 people on
November 2, and put out the call to action for this protest to our sister
Occupy cities. We had done it before locally, but this time, with the
national focus and possibility for heightened repression, the stakes were
even higher.

Occupy activists framed the port shutdown as a solidarity action in
support of two labor struggles along the coast. We highlighted the
International Longshoreman and Warehouse Union (ILWU) dockworkers in
Longview, WA, whose union members have been attacked both physically and
politically by the international grain corporation EGA. Monday's action
also stood in solidarity with independent truck-drivers at the Port of Los
Angeles, who are paid bare-bone wages and denied the right to unionize.
One of the main port terminals, SSA, is owned in large part by Goldman
Sachs, the Wall Street financial giant that symbolizes the worst of
corporate greed and corruption. Targeting the international commercial
supply chain, and supporting the port workers in their ongoing campaigns
for justice, was a direct, one-day strike to the economic power of the 1%.

For the Occupy movement itself, however, this was our opportunity to
retake the initiative and claim new ground in an increasingly hostile
atmosphere of repression. After the aggressive police evictions of most
Occupy encampments around the country last month, many wondered if and how
the movement would continue without its signature bases. The West Coast
Port Shutdown, alongside the national "Occupy our Homes" direct actions
against foreclosures the week before, show that if anything, the movement,
still only three months old, is moving in a more radical, more coordinated
direction.

I spent the day on the streets of Oakland, participating in the largest,
and surprisingly perhaps least confrontational, action across the country
that day. I arrived to Oscar Grant/Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall
at 12p.m. on Monday, where a small crowd was gathered. By that time,
Occupy Oakland had already shut down the morning shift at the port, with
hundreds of activists blocking port entrances starting at 6 a.m. After
several hours at the plaza of music and occasional speeches, things picked
up at 3 p.m. with a larger crowd of over 1,000 people taking part in a
rally that featured veteran activist Angela Davis, hip-hop group Zion I,
and, receiving the biggest applause of all, Scott Olson, the Iraq war
veteran who became a movement hero after he was critically injured by
police in an October demonstration.

The Occupy movement is not about standing around listening to speeches,
though, and crowd members soon made it clear they were ready to march.
Along the now-familiar march route from city hall to the port, and even at
the port gates, the Oakland Police Department was almost nowhere to be
seen. Maybe they did not want to be seen shooting tear gas on peaceful
protesters again, or maybe there were too many of us to be able to do so,
but one thing is for sure: they were not missed by the marchers.

By 5p.m. when we reached the dock terminal, the crowd had swelled to over
3,000 people. Soon after our arrival, Boots Riley, the rapper/activist of
leftist hip-hop group The Coup and one of the lead organizers for the day,
made a welcome announcement: the dockworkers had been sent home again! We
had successfully shut down another shift, this time before we even set up
our picket line. A roar went up in the crowd, and the festive atmosphere
continued with music and dancing alongside - and sometimes on top of - the
empty big-rig trucks lining the road.

Word started coming in about the other Occupy actions around the country.
We heard that activists in Portland and Longview, WA had successfully
forced the closure of their ports, while other cities' actions were unable
to shut them down but still made a powerful presence. We also learned that
police had cracked down on activists in Seattle, San Diego, and out in
Houston, which was one of several non-Pacific cities to hold solidarity
actions the same day. According to the original Occupy Oakland resolution
calling for the port shutdown, we had decided that if there were any
police crackdowns, we would continue the blockade to the following day. At
the makeshift General Assembly that took place at the port at 7p.m., a
speaker asked the thousands of people in the audience, "Will we keep our
word?" The rousing cheer from the crowd was all the answer anyone needed.

A small group of activists stayed to hold down the entrance until the next
shift at 3a.m. Along with most the crowd, I left in search of rest and
food. Most people called it a night, but I came back at the agreed-upon
meeting time of 12:30am to rejoin the ranks. The group that had stayed was
still there blocking one entrance, and reportedly numbered between 150-200
people. I do not know the exact number because I did not see that group
all night. Instead, with our newly assembled group of roughly 100
returning protesters, we went to another port entrance, this one near Jack
London Square, where we had received word that the dockworkers would be
arriving later. Communication between the two groups continued for the
next several hours, along with several rank-and-file dockworkers
themselves who provided the most crucial information.

We picketed the entrance for two hours, mostly uneventfully, letting the
occasional car out (but never in) and trying to stay warm. At 2:30a.m.,
dockworkers started showing up in their cars, and several truckers pulled
up in their big-rigs. Small teams of Occupy activists went to go talk to
each person in their vehicles, hoping to win their support despite the
fact that many of them were losing money by not being able to work. The
dockworkers, part of the militant ILWU Local 10 with its own history of
shutting down the port, were almost universally supportive, if annoyed
about being up before the sun for no reason. The truckers, who are
independent contractors who do not have nearly the same amount of job
security or monetary benefits, alternated between confusion, sympathy, and
frustration. They were willing to listen, even happier to talk, and most
importantly, seemed willing to wait until 3a.m. to see what would happen.

As the scheduled shift time got closer, the picketers livened up with more
energy, especially after a much-celebrated coffee delivery. At 3:15am, all
the dockworkers drove off, and we received word that the port had sent
them home. A cheer went up along the line, but we decided to stay a while
longer just to make sure they would not call the workers back. Finally, at
3:30am, we called it a victory and called it a night. The dockworkers were
gone, and the few truckers left were allowed through to drop off their
containers -- but without anyone there to unload them.

We had stood our ground, and despite threats and intimidation by the port,
the corporate media, politicians, and even some union leaders, we had
successfully shut down the Port of Oakland for over 24 hours. This was not
some small demonstration at the local bank branch -- the Occupy action
directly hit the bottom line of major multi-national corporations. Isaac
Kos-Read, director of external affairs for the Port of Oakland, said that
"for the day, it was a loss of $4 million to $8 million, easily."

Beyond the economic impact, the West Coast Port Shutdown pushed the limits
of what is possible within the movement. In other countries, general
strikes and economic blockades are common protest tactics -- here in the
U.S., we had not seen them since the labor battles of the 1930s. But now
in just the last two months, the Occupy movement has done both, and
strategies that seemed impossible just yesterday are now on the table for
legitimate discussion.

At the same time, the action showed the continuing need for Occupy
activists to build coalitions beyond our ranks. While the November 2
general strike had the support of the ILWU leadership and most local
unions, this action did not. This had as much to do about legal
obligations and internal union conflicts between the leadership and the
rank-and-file. Still, Occupy is at its best when it makes strong
connections with progressive unions and community organizations. These are
the groups who have fought for affordable housing, immigrant rights,
racial justice, and other community concerns for years. Many of them are
already part of the Occupy movement, but this alliance-building takes
time. We need leaders and members from these various groups to continue
doing the hard work to bring people together. The 1% would love nothing
more than to play divide and conquer. It is on us to make sure our unity
is stronger than their attacks.

So now what? What's next for the Occupy movement, here in Oakland and
around the country? There are as many ideas as there are activists, but I
would offer this proposal: while we continue to escalate our tactics
towards the 1%, our focus should be on deepening our relationship with the
99% we say we speak for. This means connecting with local issues,
occupying foreclosed homes and shuttered schools, going door-to-door in as
many neighborhoods and languages as possible. In other words: organizing.
Let us use the winter as our chance to recruit our neighbors, coworkers,
and relatives. Then we might be able to really build a strong, sustainable
movement in every corner of our crazy, beautiful United States.

But hey, that's just my opinion. Tonight I am going to the General
Assembly of Occupy Oakland to hear everyone else's, and to celebrate our
victory down at the ports. After that, who knows, I might even get a good
night's sleep.

[olympiaworkers] Port truck drivers thank ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protesters

2011-12-13T12:11:00.001-08:00

By Agence France-Presse
Monday, December 12, 2011

A group of port truck drivers thanked the "99 Percenters" on Monday for
bringing attention to their profession, which they claim is rife with
labor abuses.

"Occupy" protesters disrupted traffic at ports along the U.S. west coast
on Monday, as a small number were arrested for seeking to shut down the
major trade cargo hub, officials said.

The port truck drivers, who were affiliated with the Coalition for Clean &
Safe Ports, stopped short of supporting the effort to shut down the ports.
But they were "humbled and overwhelmed" by the attention the action
brought. "Normally we are invisible," they said.

The biggest action was in Oakland, California where the anti-Wall Street
demonstrators closed the major U.S. port for 24 hours last month, as
protests were called from southern California up to Alaska.

Hundreds of demonstrators marched on the port early in the day, at one
point preventing trucks from entering or leaving a couple of gates. And
some 150 of 200 longshoremen were sent home to due to companies shutting
docks due to safety concerns, said the International Longshore and
Warehouse Union.

But port authorities said operations continued despite some disruption and
delays.

"The companies we work for call us independent contractors, as if we were
our own bosses, but they boss us around," the truck drivers said. "We
receive Third World wages and drive sweatshops on wheels. We cannot
negotiate our rates."

"Why are companies like SSA Marine, the Seattle-based global terminal
operator that runs one of the West Coast's major trucking carriers,
Shippers' Transport Express, doing this?" they continued. "Why would
mega-rich Maersk, a huge Danish shipping and trucking conglomerate that
wants to drill for more oil with Exxon Mobil in the Gulf Coast conduct
business this way too?"

"To cheat on taxes, drive down business costs, and deny us the right to
belong to a union, that's why."

Despite the hardships, they did not want to quit their jobs. The drivers
would rather stick together and transform the industry from within by
organizing themselves.

"Nowadays greedy corporations are treated as 'people' while the
politicians they bankroll cast union members who try to improve their
workplaces as 'thugs,'" they said.

"But we believe in the power and potential behind a truly united 99%. We
admire the strength and perseverance of the longshoremen. We are fighting
like mad to overcome our exploitation, so please, stick by us long after
December 12."

In Long Beach, south of Los Angeles, two people were arrested after
protesters marched on the port terminal of SSA Marine, a company 51
percent owned by Goldman Sachs, a key target of the Occupy Wall Street
movement.

But by early afternoon the Port of Long Beach said there had been "minimal
impact to port operations" during the rain-soaked demonstration by several
hundred protesters at one of the world's largest shipping ports.

"Most freeways, bridges and port access routes remained open, and all
shipping terminals were operational during the protest," a port statement
said.

Further north in Portland, Oregon, where protesters also began
demonstrations before dawn, two people were arrested for possession of
weapons, and the port was partially closed down, according to local media.

In Seattle, Washington state, demonstrators planned rallies later in the
day, according to organizers. There were no immediate reports of protest
actions in Anchorage, Alaska.

In Oakland, across the Bay from San Francisco, more protesters were
expected later in the day, organizers said.

Authorities in the northern California city wrote an open letter to
protesters urging them not to shut down a port which handles some $39
billion in imports and exports per year.

"The port is connected to over 73,000 jobs in the region and more than
800,000 across the country. These are not just numbers. These are good
jobs held by real working people and working families," it said.

The loosely organized, left-leaning Occupy Wall Street protesters insist
they are exercising their freedom of speech in the run-up to November 2012
national elections.

Protest camps sprung up in recent months across the United States from New
York to Los Angeles, though many have been closed down by officials
wielding varying degrees of force.

With reporting by Eric W. Dolan

[olympiaworkers] Protesters halt operations at some western ports

2011-12-13T00:21:00.001-08:00

OAKLAND, California (AP) — More than 1,000 Occupy Wall Street protesters
blocked cargo trucks at busy West Coast ports, forcing some shipping
terminals in Oakland, California, Portland, Oregon, and Washington state
to halt operations.

While Monday's protests attracted far fewer people than the 10,000 who
turned out Nov. 2 to shut down Oakland's port, organizers declared victory
and promised more demonstrations to come.

"The truckers are still here, but there's nobody here to unload their
stuff," protest organizer Boots Riley said. "We shut down the Port of
Oakland for the daytime shift and we're coming back in the evening.
Mission accomplished."

Organizers hoped the "Shutdown Wall Street on the Waterfront" protests
would cut into the profits of the corporations that run the docks and send
a message that their Occupy movement isn't finished.

The closures' economic impact, however, wasn't immediately clear.

The longshoremen's union did not officially support the protests, but its
membership cited a provision in its contract that allowed workers to ask
to stay off the job if they felt the conditions were unsafe.

Some went home with several hours' pay, while others left with nothing.

Oakland Longshoreman DeAndre Whitten was OK with it. "I hope they keep it
up," said Whitten, who lost about $500. "I have no problem with it. But my
wife wasn't happy about it."

Others, such as the truck drivers who had to wait in long lines as
protesters blocked gates, were angry, saying the demonstrators were
harming the very people they were trying to help.

"This is joke. What are they protesting?" said Christian Vega, who sat in
his truck carrying a load of recycled paper. He said the delay was costing
him $600. "It only hurts me and the other drivers.

"We have jobs and families to support and feed," he said. "Most of them
don't."

From Long Beach, California, to as far away as Anchorage, Alaska, and
Vancouver, British Columbia, protesters beat drums and carried signs as
they marched outside port gates.

Rain dampened some protests. Several hundred showed up at the Port of Long
Beach and left after several hours.

The movement, which sprang up this autumn in New York against what it sees
as corporate greed and economic inequality, is focusing on the ports as
the "economic engines for the elite." It comes weeks after police raids
cleared out most of their tent camps.

The port protests are a "response to show them that it's going to hurt
their pocketbooks if they attack us brutally like that," Riley said.

Protesters are most upset by two West Coast companies: port operator SSA
Marine and grain exporter EGT. Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs
Group Inc. owns a major stake in SSA Marine and has been a frequent target
of protesters.

They say they are standing up for workers against the port companies,
which have had high-profile clashes with union workers lately.
Longshoremen in Longview, for example, have had a longstanding dispute
with EGT, which employs workers from a different union to staff its
terminal. The longshoremen's union says the jobs rightfully belong to
them.

"Disrupting port activities makes it harder for U.S. manufacturing, the
farm community and countless others to sell to customers and contribute to
our nation's economic recovery," EGT chief executive Larry Clarke said.

While the demonstrations were largely peaceful and isolated to a few gates
at each port, local officials in the longshoremen's union and port
officials or shipping companies determined that the conditions were unsafe
for workers.

In Oakland, several hundred people picketed before dawn and blocked some
trucks from going through at least two entrances.

A long line of big rigs sat outside one of the entrances, unable to drive
into the port. Police in riot gear stood by as protesters marched in an
oval and carried signs.

Shipping companies and the union agreed to send home about 150 of the 200
morning shift workers. Protesters cheered when they learned about the
partial shutdown and then dispersed.

Scott Olsen, the Marine Corps veteran who was struck in the head during a
clash between police and Occupy Oakland protests in October, led nearly
1,000 people marching back to the Port of Oakland on Monday evening.

A spokesman for the longshoremen's union said shippers at the port would
typically request 100 to 200 workers for the overnight shift but weren't
asking for any Monday due to the ongoing protests. Port spokeswoman
Marilyn Sandifur said the move would bring nighttime operations to a
virtual halt.

In Seattle, police used "flash-bang" percussion grenades to disperse
protesters who blocked an entrance to a Port of Seattle facility Monday
evening.

In Portland, a couple hundred protesters blocked semitrailers from making
deliveries at two major terminals.

Security concerns were raised when police found two people in camouflage
clothing with a gun, sword and walkie-talkies who said they were doing
reconnaissance.

[olympiaworkers] West Coast Port Shutdown Monday December 12

2011-12-11T21:25:00.000-08:00

Greetings and Solidarity from Occupy Oakland!

We present this call to you because we believe it is time the occupation
movement begins to work together to carry through coordinated, pinpointed
actions. We want to disrupt the profits of the 1% and show solidarity with
those in the 99% who are under direct attack by corporate tyranny.

Occupations throughout the US have been evicted through nationally
coordinated police raids. It is time for us to respond with our own
coordinated actions. Our aim is to shutdown the West Coast ports:

On December 12, the occupy movements in different cities will stage
mass mobilizations to march on the ports, create community pickets,
and effectively shutdown the hubs of commerce, in the same fashion
that Occupy Oakland shut down the Port of Oakland on November 2nd, the
day of our general strike. The Oakland Port Shutdown was a historic
and effective action, and the memory of that night on the port lives
in the hearts of people across Oakland and around the country.

The message to you from Occupy Oakland in the face of police raids and
continued disruptions of workers lives by the 1% is the following: The
Occupy movement will strike back and rise again! We will blockade all
of the West Coast Ports on December 12th in solidarity with
longshoremen, port workers and truckers in their struggle against the
1%! Together we are unstoppable! Strike while the iron is hot!

The following is the call for a coordinated West Coast Port Blockade to be
carried out by the Occupy movement. It is this call which we wish for
other Occupies to endorse and carry out. West Coast Occupations will have
full political and material support for each other in whatever ways are
necessary before, during, and after the port blockades. This call was
passed unanimously at our Occupy Oakland General Assembly on Friday,
December 18th.

Proposal for a Coordinated West Coast Port Blockade Passed Unanimously at
the Occupy Oakland General Assembly 11/18/2012:

In response to coordinated attacks on the occupations and attacks on
workers across the nation:
Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic
apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire
West Coast on December 12th. The 1% has disrupted the lives of
longshoremen and port truckers and the workers who create their wealth,
just as coordinated nationwide police attacks have turned our cities into
battlegrounds in an effort to disrupt our Occupy movement.

We call on each West Coast occupation to organize a mass mobilization to
shut down its local port. Our eyes are on the continued union-busting and
attacks on organized labor, in particular the rupture of Longshoremen
jurisdiction in Longview Washington by the EGT. Already, Occupy Los
Angeles has passed a resolution to carry out a port action on the Port Of
Los Angeles on December 12th, to shut down SSA terminals, which are owned
by Goldman Sachs.

Occupy Oakland expands this call to the entire West Coast, and calls for
continuing solidarity with the Longshoremen in Longview Washington in
their ongoing struggle against the EGT. The EGT is an international grain
exporter led by Bunge LTD, a company constituted of 1% bankers whose
practices have ruined the lives of the working class all over the world,
from Argentina to the West Coast of the US. During the November 2nd
General Strike, tens of thousands shutdown the Port Of Oakland as a
warning shot to EGT to stop its attacks on Longview. Since the EGT has
disregarded this message, and continues to attack the Longshoremen at
Longview, we will now shut down ports along the entire West Coast.

Participating occupations are asked to ensure that during the port
shutdowns the local arbitrator rules in favor of longshoremen not
crossing community picket lines in order to avoid recriminations
against them.
Should there be any retaliation against any workers as a result of
their honoring pickets or supporting our port actions, additional
solidarity actions should be prepared.

In the event of police repression of any of the mobilizations,
shutdown actions may be extended to multiple days.

We ask that you bring our proposal to your next General Assembly, as it is
urgent that each Occupy begins to organize and mobilize for this major
offensive ASAP. Please let us know if you have questions or need help.
Most importantly, please copy us on your support resolutions passed at
your GA's.
In Solidarity and Struggle,
Occupy Oakland

-In Oakland: the West Coast Port Shutdown Coordinating Committee will meet
on General Assembly days at 5pm before the GA to organize the local
shutdown, and to network with other occupations.

http://westcoastportshutdown.org/

[olympiaworkers] The Atlanta Solidarity Network Continues Winning Streak

2011-12-02T14:18:00.001-08:00

Libcom.org Dec 1 2011

ASOL keeps up it's perfect record with another victory!

A few weeks ago, ASOL received a phone call from "N." - a part-time
employee of Key Lime Pie Hair Salon. She expressed, over the voicemail,
that she had heard of ASOL from a friend and really needed support:

DJ, the owner of Key Lime Pie (as well as Belly General Store, if you
remember from an earlier fight we had) owed her about $250; the remainder
of her last paycheck.

N. had been employed by DJ at Key Lime Pie for about a month doing odd
tasks like sweeping and rearranging display items. She was asked by the
owner to work there and that she would be paid $7.00/hr (less then minimum
wage) because it was an easy job. Having no other option at the time, N.
accepted the job and worked dutifully at it for several weeks.

After about a week-and-a-half, N. also began working at a nearby CVS for a
few hours a week - they were paying her much better and were flexible with
her schedule, allowing her to work only when she wasn't busy working at
the salon.

Shortly after this, DJ began complaining to N. that she thought N. was
"picking CVS over Key Lime Pie" and that "hurt her feelings." Predictably,
N. relieved herself of the burdensome employment at the hair salon to work
a more sustainable, fulfilling, and economical job at CVS. Unfortunately,
Key Lime Pie would continue to be a problem for N.

Despite several calls to the owner, the manager, the head of payroll, and
after visiting the store in-person several times, N. was not paid her
final paycheck for many weeks after her employment ended at Key Lime Pie.
In desperate need of funds, she called us.

A few of us met with N. the next day at a local coffee shop and discussed
a strategy with her and she came prepared with a demand-letter! Urgent to
act immediately, and willing to lead her own campaign (a necessary
prerequisite for our involvement) - we decided we would roll up on DJ
later that week, on November 2nd.

About 25 of us gathered at the corner of St. Charles and North Highland to
review the issue and go through the plan one more time. We then began our
march, excited and unified, into Key Lime Pie. The response couldn't have
been much better.

As soon as we walked in, the front-end clerk - recognizing us from a
previous fight, where we targeted the hair-salon for it's tertiary
involvement in another instance of exploitation - insisted that we needed
to leave and called the police! Rather than scare us off, this emboldened
us. N. demanded to speak to the owner all the while and a few ASOLers
spoke to a woman in line next to us about why exactly we were doing this.

After several minutes, N. realized the futility of continuing to talk to
the front-end clerk, a sympathizer of the boss, and decided we should take
this into our own hands; we began marching out of the product area, into
the actual salon area where the patrons received hair cuts. Finding the
owner here, N. demanded to speak to her immediately while other ASOLers
shouted over the payroll manager that "the next time you think about
getting your haircut here, remember that the owner doesn't pay the
hairdressers: tip really well!"

Reading the demand-letter, the owner began to crumble. Frantically, she
handed N. a paycheck. Opening it, N. realized that the check was still
$200 short and she let the owner know that we would be back at the end of
the week for the rest.

That, however, was not necessary.

Although we did come up with an exciting plan of action, the boss wired
$250 to N.'s account early in the morning!

Remembering the force we were able to put on her last time, it seems that
DJ is starting to get the picture: workers won't put up with mistreatment
anymore!

Always,
The Atlanta Solidarity Network

http://atlsolidarity.tumblr.com

[olympiaworkers] Britain's unions say two million joined strike

2011-12-01T01:42:00.001-08:00

AFP – Nov. 30, 2011

British unions say up to two million public sector workers joined a strike
Wednesday over government plans to weaken their pension rights as part of
its austerity programme.

The action shut thousands of schools, paralysed local authorities and left
hospitals to operate on minimum staffing, in what unions called the
biggest walkout in decades.

But the government contested the unions' participation figures and Prime
Minister David Cameron dismissed the day's action as a "damp squib".

London Metropolitan Police said the city's ambulance service had been
forced to ask them for help responding to emergency calls across the
capital due to a staffing shortage.

However, fears of long delays at London's Heathrow airport, one of the
world's busiest air passenger hubs, failed to materialise as most
immigration officials turned up for work.

Ferry ports and cross-Channel rail services linking Britain to continental
Europe also operated largely as normal.

Thousands of workers marched through central London and Manchester,
northwest England, during the 24-hour strike. Birmingham, Britain's second
city, in central England, hosted another major union rally.

London police confirmed they had made 75 arrests for a variety of offences
committed during the capital's demonstration.

The strike was the biggest test so far of Prime Minister David Cameron's
Conservative-Liberal Democrat government.

It was their plan to make public sector workers pay more into their
pensions and work longer that sparked the unions' fury.

Under the government's proposals, which form part of its efforts to slash
the budget deficit, public sector workers would have to work until they
are 66 and increase the amount they pay into their pensions.

But staff also face a lower pension payout based on their average salary
as opposed to the final salary schemes to which they are currently tied.

Britain's newspapers were generally critical of the walkout.

The centre-right Daily Telegraph called for a change in the law "to
prevent a repeat of yesterday's indefensible public sector strike".

The popular Daily Mail accused headteachers of abandoning schools and
causing "chaos and misery for millions of families."

Even the more sympathetic Independent bemoaned the strikers' "bad timing"
but stressed they were within their rights to walk out.

Unions reacted angrily Tuesday when finance minister George Osborne
announced a new two-year, one-percent cap on public sector pay rises and
plans to cut an extra 300,000 public sector jobs.

He had just revealed a sharply reduced growth forecast for Britain.

But Cameron was scathing about the strike, telling parliament it had been
a "damp squib" and lambasting unions for calling the action while
negotiations talks pensions were continuing.

Reforms to public sector pensions were "absolutely essential", he insisted.

And he accused Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, of
being "irresponsible, left-wing and weak" for refusing to condemn the
strike.

Unison, which represents 1.3 million public sector workers, said two
million workers had taken part in the stoppages, and they claimed they
also had wider support.

But Britain's Cabinet Office challenged this.

"The figures we have show turnout was much lower than these claims and
significantly less than the unions predicted," it said in a statement.

Brendan Barber, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the
umbrella group for Britain's unions, said the government had put the
public sector "under attack" and the strike was fully justified.

"There comes a time when people really have to stand up and make a stand,"
he told ITV television.

Neil Clarke, a union organiser with Unite, another major public sector
union, said: "The average public sector pension comes in at £3,000
($4,650, 3,500 euros) a year. Could you live on £3,000 a year?"

BAA, the operator of Heathrow Airport, said queues at border control
points were "normal", despite earlier fears that there might be delays of
up to three hours.

[olympiaworkers] Support Grows for Occupy Movement's Coordinated West Coast Port Shutdown on December 12th

2011-11-29T12:17:00.000-08:00

Indybay.org

As of November 27, 2011, the Occupy movement in every major West Coast
port city: Occupy LA, Occupy San Diego, Occupy Portland, Occupy Tacoma,
Occupy Seattle have joined Occupy Oakland in calling for and organizing a
coordinated West Coast Port Blockade and Shutdown on December 12, 2011.
Other West Coast Occupies, including Occupy Anchorage and Vancouver,
Canada are planning to join the economic blockade and disruption of the 1%
on that date, according to organizers.

"We're shutting down these ports because of the union busting and attacks
on the working class by the 1%: the firing of Port truckers organizing at
SSA terminals in LA; the attempt to rupture ILWU union jurisdiction in
Longview, WA by EGT. EGT includes Bunge LTD, a company which reported 2.5
billion dollars in profit last year and has economically devastated poor
people in Argentina and Brazil. SSA is responsible for inhumane working
conditions and gross exploitation of port truckers and is owned by Goldman
Sachs. EGT and Goldman Sachs is Wallstreet on the Waterfront" stated
Barucha Peller of the West Coast Port Blockade Assembly of Occupy Oakland.

"We are also striking back against the nationally' coordinated attack on
the Occupy movement. In response to the police violence and camp evictions
against the Occupy movement- This is our coordinated response against the
1%. On December 12th we will show are collective power through pinpointed
economic blockade of the 1%."

Each Occupy is organizing plans for a mass mobilization and community
pickets to shut down their local Port. The mobilization of over 60,000
people that shut down the Port of Oakland during the general strike on
November 2, 2011 is the model for the West Coast efforts. Organizers state
that a police attempt to disrupt the port blockade or police violence
against any city participating will extend duration of the blockade on the
entire coast.

"These Ports are public. People have a right to come to the Port and
protest. The ILWU has historically honored picket lines at the Port."
stated Clarence Thomas, a member of ILWU Local 10.

ILWU longshore workers are involved as individuals in the planning of the
Shutdown. "I am a longshoreman and I support the December 12th Blockade
against EGT. EGT is a threat to the survival of the ILWU," stated Anthony
Leviege, a member of Local 10. Dan Coffman, the president of Local 21 in
Longview, has publicly thanked the Occupy movement and Occupy Oakland for
its actions on November 2nd.

Further interviews and details can be obtained through local Port Blockade
committees and the Oakland West Coast Port Blockade Assembly.

http://westcoastportshutdown.org/

[olympiaworkers] Saturday: "The Wobblies" film at Kings Books

2011-11-29T03:25:00.001-08:00

This Saturday! âThe Wobbliesâ Film showing. Dec. 3rd, 7 PM  At Kings Books, 218 St. Helen's, Tacoma.
  Tacoma General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World is sponsoring a film showing at King's Books, 218 St. Helen's Ave. in Tacoma. The film to be shown is the documentary "The Wobblies," and is a good account of the IWW during the early part of the 20th Century, with interviews with eye-witnesses and members of the Union filmed in 1979. We encourage all who are curious about our Union to attend, and there will be members present to answer your questions and engage in discussion. A suggested donation is $5.00, but low income people, unemployed, and students can contribute what they can afford.
  The IWW, aka the Wobblies, was founded in 1905 by veterans of the labor struggle who sought to create a new industrial union organization that would be open to all workers. The IWW stood then, as it does today, for working class solidarity, industrial democracy, direct action, rank and file control, and no control over it from the outside. The IWW seeks to organizer working people for their needs of today, while at the same time building the organization for a better society.
  The IWW has a history that spans 105 years and is very active today with many job shops and has active groups in 61 cities in the U.S., 8 cities in Canada, 14 cities in England, 3 cities in Scotland and also is active in Australia, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and South Africa. For more information on the IWW please go to its official web site at: www.iww.org.
  The Tacoma General Membership Branch of the IWW has monthly meetings, guests are welcomed.

TACOMA GMB-IWW, P.O. BOX 7276, TACOMA, WA 98417. E-mail: TacIWW@iww.org on facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Tacoma-Gmb-iww/100002540934803

[olympiaworkers] The Case of Leonard Peltier

2011-11-26T07:51:00.001-08:00

PLEASE POST WIDELY

From the Tacoma Chapter, LPDOC

INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER
FEBRUARY 4, 2012

The Case Of Leonard Peltier

After a conflict between the Lakota people and the U.S. government and corporate interests a peace treaty was signed and the great Lakota reservation was created in the late 19th century. That peace treaty meant nothing to U.S. interests, for its terms were violated from almost the moment it was signed. Those interests continued to steal more Lakota land wherever they found gold and other minerals that they wanted. At the same time, they sought to destroy the Lakota way of life. U.S. interests outlawed Lakota religion and massacred the Lakota at Wounded Knee in an act of religious suppression. U.S. interests kidnapped Lakota children and placed them in internment, in schools where they were held for years away from their families, while their language and traditions were being beaten out of them. U.S. interests carried out a secret forced program of sterilization of Lakota women. Then, in the 1920s, acting upon the interests of oil and mineral companies, the U.S. forced a 'government' entity upon the Lakota people, to be controlled by those corporate and U.S. interests.

In the late 1960s uranium was found in the northwest section of the Pine Ridge Lakota Reservation. The U.S. interests wanted that uranium for their weapons of mass destruction and nuclear power plants.

The U.S. interests knew that the Lakota people would not give up any more of their land willingly: they had already refused to take payment for the Black Hills, stolen from them for its gold. U.S. interests then set out to suppress all possible resistance to further theft. That led the resistersâ to request the help of the American Indian Movement (AIM). Upon a request by Lakota Elders, a stand was taken at Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge reservation of the Lakota people.

In the two and a half years after what became known as Wounded Knee II there was a 'Reign of Terror' the resisters on Pine Ridge was forced to suffer. Whole villages were shot up, people were run off the road, many Native people were wounded and over 67 of them were murdered. The Lakota people again asked AIM for help and an AIM encampment was set up. Most of the people in that encampment were from Northwest AIM. And Leonard Peltier was one of them.

The AIM people were under considerable oppression and lived there daily in danger from the death squad (they called themselves the Goon Squad). One day two cars came speedingÂ onto the land of their encampment, in the same manner that earlier drive-by shootings by the death squad had taken place on Pine Ridge. The AIM members there that dayÂ defended themselves from what they saw as another murderous attack. In the firefight that took place two FBI agents and one AIM member died.

Norman Zigrossi, head of the local FBI office at the time, defended the illegal actions, saying, âIndians are a conquered nation and the FBI is merely acting as a colonial police force.âÂ He went o n, âWhen youâre conquered, the people youâre conquered by dictate your future.â

It is clear that the attack upon the AIM encampment was planned to start a conflict to draw away resistance to the illegal signing away of Lakota land that had taken place in Washington, D.C. at that time. Before the firefight, hundreds of U.S. Government agents were brought on to Pine Ridge reservation, the roads leading to the AIM encampment were blocked before the firefight and local hospitals were given notice to expect casualties.

In the first trial of two AIM members, who had been in the firefight at their encampment, the jury came back with a verdict of not guilty by reason of self-defense.

The U.S. interests then put all their efforts into convicting Leonard Peltier. They fabricated evidence, intimidated witnesses and illegally changed judges, settling on one who would not allow Leonardâs lawyers to present his case of self-defense.

Through appeals, Leonardâs lawyers have been able to disprove the case against him to the point that the U.S. Government prosecutors have stated that they donât know what role Leonard played in the firefight-- he was just there that day and thus by default aided and abetted in the deaths of the agents. It can be reasoned that since the first two AIM members were found not guilty by reason of self-defense, then Leonard has been in prison all these years for aiding and abetting an act of self-defense!

Much of our focus should be on FBI political repression, COINTELPRO, and how they are connected to Leonardâs case, for the FBI has been continually be used as the U.S. Governmentâs and corporate interestsâ Political Police Force.

As you read this, Leonardâs lawyers struggle to get all the documents that the FBI has withheld in his case. The FBI claims it needs to withhold those documents to protect national security. We need to ask, âWhose national security needs to be protected from the truth?â Given that documents already received by the defense team have exposed the U.S. Governmentâs frame-up of Leonard to the point that the governmentâs lawyers have had to admit that there is no evidence connecting him directly to the deaths of the FBI agents, and have shown that the FBI took illegal, aggressive actions to suppress the right of Native people to organize to air their grievances, there is no doubt that documents still withheld will show further evidence of FBI illegal actions.

Even the courts have recognized the repressive nature of the government actions against AIM and Leonard. Judge Heaney stated, âThe United States Government overreacted at Wounded Knee. Instead of carefully considering the legitimate grievances of the Native Americans, the response was essentially a military one, which culminated in the deadly firefight on June 26, 1975.â

And in 2003 the Tenth Circuit Court found that, âMuch of the governmentâs behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and in its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed.â

Even with this acknowledgment Leonard has been in prison for over 28 years. Leonard is not in prison based upon the laws of this land, for the courts have stated over and over again that the U.S. government has violated those laws in Leonardâs case. Leonard Peltier is in prison for one reason and one reason alone, and that is because it is in the interests of the few to keep him locked up: because he represents the essence of this land, the wrong upon which the United States was established, a simple truth which has to be recognized before the country can ever be sound. Leonard suffers under the same interests that hung Chief Leschi, the same interests that massacred the Lakota at Wounded Knee, the same interests that are behind many of the wars around the world, the same interest behind the WTO, the Wor ld Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the same interests that strips our schools of basic funds, that strip you of your unemployment benefits and overtime pay, and the same interests that we all find ourselves struggling against in our common pursuit of peace and well-being. Justice for Leonard and the end to political repression by the FBI will only come from the organized spirit of solidarity ofÂ all people struggling in their true interests.

Illegal actions by the FBI should be the concern of all AmericanÂ people who believe in social justice, because Leonard was not and will not be the only victim of political repression.Â Among thoseÂ that were targeted by the FBIâs COINTELPRO were: Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights activists and organizations including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and Jesse Jackson (note that the FBI also carried out intimidation of Jackson supporters in the south when he ran for U.S. pre sident), Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers (UFW), the National Lawyerâs Guild, antinuclear weapons campaigns (SANE-Freeze), the National Council of Churches, American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), antiwar organizations, the alternative press, student organizations including the National Students Association (TNSA) and Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), environmental, anti-racism and feminist organizations, the alternative media,GI organizations, the Industrial Workers of the World, organizations of self-determination for people of color, and Native organizations such as the American Indian Movement (AIM).

The political repression carried out by the FBI has never ended. It was seen this year with the FBIâs intimidation of antiwar protestersÂ who planned to protest at the national conventions of the two major political parties. Though the FBI claimed it needed more power, money and agents to deal with the threat of terrorism after 9-11, the agency still had the time, money, and forces to harass people who questioned the war in Iraq.

The same drive to acquire enormous profits that keep this country in Iraq over the opposition of its own people is also what led to the U.S. Governmentâs suppression of traditional indigenous people, AIM and in its frame-up of Leonard Peltier.

And as to making connections, the war on Iraq was justified by using false documents, lies about weapons of mass destruction and sham connections to terrorists. That is the same tactic the U.S. Government used in its suppression of AIM and in its frame-upÂ of Leonard Peltier. The government used the war in Iraq in theÂ interest of bringing global U.S. companyâs huge profits, and on the Pine Ridge reservation that same government carried out its repressionÂ in the interest of U.S. energy corporations.

We call on you as sisters and brothers to join us for THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER, LEONARD PELTIER MARCHES A ND RALLIES FOR CLEMENCY, FEBRUARY 4. 2012, either at the Tacoma Regional March, or by organizing a march and rally where ever you maybe in the world, as we send the message: We will not give up! We will not surrender! We will continue to stand for justice for Leonard Peltier and for justice for all that he represents for as long as it takes to set him free! Our strength is building and time is on our side, the sweep of justice is moving throughout the world and we are a part of that great wave of truth and justice. Please join with us on February 4, 2012 for a tremendous show of solidarity, a march and rally in Unified Solidarity for Justice for Leonard Peltier. All of us working together will free Leonard Peltier.

In The Spirit Of Crazy Horse
Tacoma Chapter, Leonard Peltier Offense/Defense Committee
Susan Morales
Steve Hapy
Arthur J. Miller

For donations for the NW Region March: Please make checks payable to the Leonard Peltier Defense/Offense Committee (mark them for NW March) and send them to: Tacoma Chapter LPODC, P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415.

TACOMA CHAPTER, LPDOC
P.O. BOX 5464, TACOMA, WA 98415-0464
bayou@blarg.net

[olympiaworkers] International Day in Solidarity

2011-11-17T08:16:00.000-08:00

Please post widely

From: Tacoma Chapter, LPDOC

As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all together we make a mighty fist.
-- Sitting Bull

INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SOLIDARITY WITH LEONARD PELTIER
NW REGIONAL MARCH AND RALLY FOR CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY, 4, 2012, TACOMA, WA.

12:00 NOON: MARCH FOR JUSTICE Portland Ave. Park (on Portland Ave. between E. 35th & E. Fairbanks. Take Portland Ave. exit off I-5 and head east)
1:00 PM: RALLY FOR JUSTICE U.S. Federal Court House, 1717-Pacific Ave.

This march is answering the call by LPDOC for marches and rallies on Feb. 4, 2012 Internationally in support of clemency for Leonard Peltier. Of all the regional marches in Tacoma, 16 since 1992, this is the most important one yet. The New Leonard Peltier Clemency Campaign is building and we need to show public support. If you are a regular supporter, please join us again. If you are a new supporter, who has thought about supporting Leonard, now is the time to do it. We need all of you.

  SPEAKERS:
Co-MCs
Matilaja: YuâPik Eskimo from Mountain Village Alaska. Member of N.W. AIM since 1973, Friend of Leonard Peltier for 38 odd years and member of Tacoma Chapter LPDOC
Steve Hapy: Long time Leonard Peltier and Native struggles activist, Tacoma Chapter LPDOC
Drum:
Albert Combs and Coastal Hand Drum Singers
Welcoming:
Deeahop Conway, Puyallup Tribal member, Tacoma Chapter LPDOC
Leonard's case and up-date;
Arthur J. Miller: Northwest Regional Organizer LPDOC, Tacoma Chapter LPDOC,  long time union member and human rights activist
Keynote Speaker:
Ramona Bennett: Puyallup Tribal Elder, Life long friend of Leonard Peltier, Grand Mother, Great Grand Mother
Chester Earl: Puyallup Tribal member
Zoltan Grossman: Evergreen State College faculty in Geography and Native Studies, in Olympia. former board member of Midwest Treaty Network in Wisconsin.
Closing words:
David Duenas: Puyallup Tribal Member

  CAR POOLS: OLYMPIA: There will be a carpool leaving from the parking lot at Harrison and Division at 10:15 am. PORTLAND, meet up outside of KBOO Radio Station (20 SE 8th, Portland, OR 97124) before embarking to Tacoma between 9:00-9:30am.SEATTLE CAR POOL: Meet at the Red Apple parking lot at 23rd and Jackson by the bus stop. Will be leaving at 10:30 am
  We need new banners and signs.  We need video of this event to use for support work. We need supporters to get out fliers, if you can please contact us. We need people to forward our e-mail statements. We need people to share on facebook information on the march. Our marches are not about one group but rather they are the work of all Peltier supporters in our region.

  RESOLUTIONS FOR CLEMENCY: Leonard needs resolutions for clemency from Tribes, Unions, Human Rights Organizations and others. See a sample resolution at:
http://www.whoisleonardpeltier.info/resolution.htm

  For donations: Please make checks payable to the Leonard Peltier Defense/Offense Committee (mark them for NW March) and send them to: Tacoma Chapter LPODC, P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415.

  Join Tacoma Chapter LPDOC on facebook at: http://facebook.com/tacoma.lpdoc
Subscribe to: Northwest Peltier Support at: nwpeltiersupport-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
For more information: www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

TACOMA CHAPTER, LPDOC, P.O. BOX 5464, TACOMA, WA 98415-0464. bayou@blarg.net

MARCH STATEMENT

Leonard Peltier (of the Anishinabe, Dakota, and Lakota Nations), long time Native Activist and member of the American Indian Movement. Leonard Peltier, an innocent man who was convicted for the 1975 shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. prosecutors have repeatedly admit ted that they did not and cannot prove Peltier's guilt, and the appellate courts have cited numerous instances of investigative and prosecutorial misconduct in this case. As late as November 2003, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that "â¦Much of the governmentâs behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed." The trial of the first two AIM members in this case were found not guilty for reason of self-defense.
  Behind the case of Leonard Peltier and the events that took place on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation is the continuing theft of Native land for energy corporations. High grade Uranium was found in the northwest corner of Pine Ridge. It was well known that the Lakota people would be unwilling to sell their land because they refused payment for the Black Hills. So a plan was carried out to suppress the traditional Oglala Lakota people and their supporters from the America Indian Movement. This lead to the Wounded Knee II Occupation, over 500 AIM members being indited on charges, a two and a half year reign of terror against the Oglala Lakota people, and the firefight near Oglala, that Leonard was charged with, that took place at the same time that a corrupt tribal Chairman was illegally signing away the part of Pine Ridge with the Uranium. The firefight took place as a means to divert attention and to suppress AIM.
  Leonard has been in prison for over 35 years for a crime he did not commit and a crime that forces of greed were responsibly for. They have withheld medical care for Leonard and recently Leonard was placed in solitary confinement for 72 days and then sent to a high security prison in Florida, as far away from his lawyers and family as they could send him. Leonard is in bad health and they want Leonard to die in prison, alone and forgotten.  We will not let that happen.
   We are now organizing a new clemency for Leonard Peltier campaign and the regional marches on Feb, 4, 2012 are a very important part of that. Please help us raise money for it and get the word out everywhere.  Please. let us come together in the spirit of unity for Leonard and for the kind of justice and peace we want for our world. Thank you.

DONATIONS: Organizing this march has already costs us more than we have raised by donations. We are a grassroots movement, we get no outside funding and depend upon donations. Please make checks out to: The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee, (mark them for NW March) and mail them to: Tacoma Chapter, LPDOC, P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415-0464. Thank you.

International Day of Solidarity With Leonard Peltier:
Clemency For Leonard Peltier Marches and Rallies

From:
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106
Phone: 701/235-2206
E-mail: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

International Day of Solidarity With Leonard Peltier:
Clemency For Leonard Peltier Marches and Rallies

February 4, 2012

  The Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee calls on supporters worldwide to protest against the injustice suffered by Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier. Gather on February 4, 2012, at every federal court house and U.S. embassy or consulate worldwide to demand the freedom of a man wrongfully convicted and illegal imprisoned for 36 years!
  Leonard Peltier is a Native American activist wrongfully accused in 1975 in connection with the shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Government documents show that, without any evidence at all, the FBI decided from the beginning of its investigation to 'lock Peltier into the case'.
  U.S. prosecutors knowingly presented false statements to a Canadian court to extradite Mr. Peltier to the U.S. The statements were signed by a woman who was forced by FBI agents to say she was an eyewitness. The government has long since admitted that the woman was not present during the shootings.
  Meanwhile, in a separate trial in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Mr. Peltier's co-defendants were acquitted by reason of self defense. Had Leonard been tried with his co-defendants, he also would have been acquitted.
  Unhappy with the outcome of the Cedar Rapids trial, prosecutors set the stage for Mr. Peltier's conviction. His trial was moved to an area known for its anti-Indian sentimentâ"Fargo, North Dakota. The trial judge had a reputation for ruling against Indians, and a juror is known to have made racist comments during Mr. Peltier's trial.
  FBI documents prove that the U.S. government went so far as to manufacture the so-called murder weapon, the most critical evidence in the prosecution's case. A ballistics test proved, however, that the gun and shell casings entered into evidence didn't match. The FBI hid this fact from the jury. Mr. Peltier was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive life terms. According to court records, the United States Attorney who prosecuted the case has twice admitted that no one even knows who fired the fatal shots.
  Leonard Peltier is 67 years old and in poor health. An accomplished author and artist, Mr. Peltier is renowned for his humanitarian achievements. In 2009, Leonard was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for the sixth consecutive year.
  Although the courts have acknowledged evidence of government misconductâ"including forcing witnesses to lie and hiding ballistics evidence reflecting his innocenceâ"Mr. Peltier has been denied a new trial on a legal technicality. Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, 55 Members of Congress and othersâ"including a judge who sat as a member of the court in two of Mr. Peltierâs appealsâ"have all called for his immediate release.
  The Courts may not be able to act but Barack Obama, as President, can. Please join with us to free an innocent man. On February 4, 2012, tell Obama to grant clemency to Leonard Peltier.
  If you can organize, or help organize and event in your area, please contact LPDOC. Please if you can make a donation to help with the costs of the LPDOC. Scheduled events will be announced and details provided at www.whoisleonardpeltier.info.
Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee
PO Box 7488, Fargo, ND 58106
Phone: 701/235-2206
E-mail: contact@whoisleonardpeltier.info
www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

[olympiaworkers] Film showing "The Wobblies" Dec. 3rd Kings Books Tacoma

2011-11-16T20:27:00.001-08:00

âThe Wobbliesâ Film showing. Dec. 3rd, 7 PM  At Kings Books, 218 St. Helen's, Tacoma

  Tacoma General Membership Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World is sponsoring a film showing at King's Books, 218 St. Helen's Ave. in Tacoma. The film to be shown is the documentary "The Wobblies," and is a good account of the IWW during the early part of the 20th Century, with interviews with eye-witnesses and members of the Union filmed in 1979. We encourage all who are curious about our Union to attend, and there will be members present to answer your questions and engage in discussion. A suggested donation is $5.00, but low income people, unemployed, and students can contribute what they can afford.
  The IWW, aka the Wobblies, was founded in 1905 by veterans of the labor struggle who sought to create a new industrial union organization that would be open to all workers. The IWW stood then, as it does today, for working class solidarity, industrial democracy, direct action, rank and file control, and no control over it from the outside. The IWW seeks to organizer working people for their needs of today, while at the same time building the organization for a better society.
  The IWW has a history that spans 105 years and is very active today with many job shops and has active groups in 61 cities in the U.S., 8 cities in Canada, 14 cities in England, 3 cities in Scotland and also is active in Australia, Finland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands and South Africa. For more information on the IWW please go to its official web site at: www.iww.org.
  The Tacoma General Membership Branch of the IWW has monthly meetings, guests are welcomed.

TACOMA GMB-IWW, P.O. BOX 7276, TACOMA, WA 98417. E-mail: TacIWW@iww.org on facebook: www.facebook.com/people/Tacoma-Gmb-iww/100002540934803

[olympiaworkers] Providence Hospice Workers on Strike Now. Picket line on SouthBay Rd.

2011-11-10T15:31:00.001-08:00

Providence Hospice workers are walking the picket line into the evening.

Stop by if you get the chance.

3432 South Bay Road NE Olympia, WA

[olympiaworkers] Providence Hospice Workers on Strike Now. Picket line on SouthBay Rd.

2011-11-10T15:26:00.001-08:00

Providence Hospice Workers on Strike.

Picket line going into the evening.

3432 South Bay Road NE Olympia, WA

[olympiaworkers] Solidarity to Occupy Oakland General Strike

2011-11-04T22:27:00.001-07:00

by PALEA indybay.org Friday Nov 4th, 2011

The Philippine Airlines Employees' Association (PALEA), the union of
the ground staff of Philippine Airlines, and Partido ng Manggagawa
(Labor Party-Philippines), the independent party of the working class
in the Philippines, stand shoulder to shoulder with the Occupy Oakland
protesters. We too struggle against corporate greed and capitalist
globalization with its destructive impact on the workers and the
youth. Truly the movement against corporate greed and capitalist
globalization is international in scope.

To the Occupy Oakland protesters:

We express our solidarity with the Oakland general strike on November 2
especially the blockade of the Port of Oakland. The general strike and
port blockade will reveal the truth that the 99% creates the wealth that
the 1% now monopolizes. Such forms of mass actions will also show the way
forward for the occupy protest movement now surging in the US and other
countries.

We likewise salute the Occupy Oakland protesters who bravely faced violent
eviction last October 25 even as we condemn the police for their brutal
attack.

The Philippine Airlines Employees' Association (PALEA), the union of the
ground staff of Philippine Airlines, and Partido ng Manggagawa (Labor
Party-Philippines), the independent party of the working class in the
Philippines, stand shoulder to shoulder with the Occupy Oakland
protesters. We too struggle against corporate greed and capitalist
globalization with its destructive impact on the workers and the youth.
Truly the movement against corporate greed and capitalist globalization is
international in scope.

More than a thousand PALEA members are presently occupying areas outside
the international airports of Manila and Cebu, the two biggest cities in
the Philippines, for a month now since the company locked out and
terminated some 2,400 employees. The layoffs are part of an outsourcing
scheme that aimed to downgrade us into contract workers which we have been
fighting against for the last two years.

Two weeks ago a court sheriff accompanied by hired goons of the company
attempted to disperse the picketline in Manila. The resistance of PALEA
members forced them to retreat. And then last Saturday, scores of hired
goons launched a daybreak attack on PALEA's occupation camp while many,
including women and children, were still asleep. Half of the campout was
destroyed and several protesters were hurt but the dispersal attempt
masterminding by the company was repelled. In less than a day the
occupation camp was wholly rebuilt.

We have vowed to defend our occupation. PALEA's struggle is inspired by
the Occupy Wall Street and Occupy Oakland protests and our fight is part
of the global movement against corporate greed and capitalist
globalization.

On November 2, PALEA and its supporters started a three-day "long march"
around several cities to bring the campaign against corporate greed and
capitalist globalization to the working class communities and areas. The
Oakland general strike and port blockade will be an inspiration to our
"long march" protest.

http://www.partidongmanggagawa2001.blogspot.com/

[olympiaworkers] Olympia General Strike, March + Rally//November 2nd.

2011-11-01T16:35:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, the occupiers of Oakland, California courageously faced off
against a monstrous deployment of riot police. The police, armed to the
teeth and swarming in from 15 different jurisdictions, violently evicted
and brutally beat occupiers, denying them entry to Oscar Grant Plaza. The
following day, while we in Olympia were occupying Heritage Park in
solidarity with our comrades around the world, our comrades in Oakland
were victoriously tearing down the fences that had barred them from their
occupation site and, once again, reclaiming Oscar Grant Plaza. That
evening, the Oakland General Assembly, attended by over 2,000 in high
spirits, approved (by 96.9%) a November 2nd General Strike and Mass Day of
Action.

We in Olympia stand with Oakland as they initiate the first citywide
general strike in the United States since 1946. In so doing, Oakland has
joined millions in Egypt, Greece, Spain, and elsewhere who have launched
waves of General Strikes to shut their economies down in the struggle
against the global capitalist system. We in Olympia are fighting against
the same system. And, sooner or later, massive strike actions are sure to
explode here in our city. This is not a speculation, it's a guarantee. The
same has happened in every place hit by the global economic crisis. It has
followed each of the occupations with which occupy Olympia is inspired and
in solidarity – Tahrir, Syntagma, Barcelona, and now Oakland.

So what does it mean to have a General Strike in our city? It is a mass
refusal across multiple sectors of the economy in a city or region, and it
is one of our strongest weapons against capitalism. "General Strike" means
nobody and nothing works. It means that we refuse the demands of our
bosses and re-appropriate our activity toward our own desires. It can last
for one day, for a week, or for as long as we make it. No money is
exchanged during a General Strike – Everything is for Everyone.

Or, as those in the Oakland General Assembly put it, the General Strike
means that we liberate our city and ourselves by shutting down the profits
of the ruling class.

November 2nd, 2011 General Strike

In solidarity with the general strike in Oakland, let us:

Call in sick to work
Walk out of school
Find and create egalitarian ways of sharing
Organize marches and actions
Do whatever we want for the day

Olympia will not have a successful general strike on November 2nd unless
tens of thousands join us. Yet every empty desk, every unpunched time
card, and every sick call is a strike against global capitalism. And rest
assured, they will feel it.

Everything for Everyone//General Strike November 2nd// Liberate Your Desires

(this text has been lovingly adopted from an Occupy Seattle pamphlet and
approved by the Olympia General Assembly)

MARCH + RALLY//NOON, NOV. 2ND AT HERITAGE PARK

[olympiaworkers] Defend Occupy Oakland With The Muscle Of Organized Labor-Statement Of ILWU Members & Retirees

2011-10-28T13:26:00.001-07:00

Oct 28th, 2011 Indybay.org

ILWU Members and Retirees Are calling for full labor support for
Occupy Oakland

DEFEND OCCUPY OAKLAND WITH THE MUSCLE OF ORGANIZED LABOR

Demonstrators in downtown Oakland protesting the bank-driven economic
crisis were brutally attacked by police from 18 Bay Area agencies on Tuesday
Oct. 25. Mayor Quan, who was supported by ILWU Local 10 in the recent
elections, ordered this bloody assault. Cops used potentially lethal
weapons to break up the occupation of Frank Ogawa (now renamed Oscar
Grant) Plaza just as they did in the port against anti-war protesters in
2003. That police attack was even criticized by the UN Human Rights
Commission and ended up costing Oakland over $2 million in civil suits.

Then-Local 10 longshoreman Billy Kepo'o was hit in the hand by a police
tear gas canister causing a bloody mess. Now, Iraqi war vet, Scott Olsen,
was hit in the head with a police projectile, causing a fracture and
putting him in critical condition in Highland Hospital. This is
exactly what killed one of the strikers in Seattle in the Big Strike of
1934. That history of police violence against strikers is why our Local 10
Constitution bans cops from membership in our union.

Last year, Local 10 shutdown all ports to protest the police killing of
young Oscar Grant. This year ILWU has been supporting Occupy Wall Street.
Just last Monday the San Francisco Labor Council declared the Occupy San
Francisco and Occupy Wall Street "sanctioned union strike lines" offering
the protesters an umbrella of union protection.

ILWU is under attack from PMA employers, not just here in the port of
Oakland but especially in Longview, Washington. Our jobs and the survival
of the ILWU as a fighting union are at stake. We heard the report of our
Longview Local 21 brothers at our union meeting last week and we pledged
our
solidarity, just as we did for other unions under attack, whether in
Charleston, South Carolina or Madison, Wisconsin.

At the same time there is an outrage at the bankers and the capitalist
crisis which has caused massive hardship on the working class. Occupy
Oakland protesters have called for a General Strike on November
2. Whether this actually means real strike action by workers depends in
large part on union participation. Local 10 has always been in the lead in
the labor movement and all eyes are on us. As a first step, in defending
our union and others against economic and political repression, we need to
mobilize our members to participate in the rally and occupation November 2
in Oscar Grant Plaza. Shut it down!

October 28, 2011

Anthony Leviege #9576, Ronnie Armour #9922, Troy Bell #9837, Tremaine
Waters #9202, Richard Washington #9402, Anthony Manning #9986, Odis Rucker
#9811, Robert Grissom #101284, Jack Heyman #8780 (ret.), Samantha Levens
(S.F. IBU), Robert Irminger (S.F. IBU), Howard Keylor #220447 (ret.),
Clarence Thomas #8718

Re: [olympiaworkers] Occupy Olympia wants your support.

2011-10-22T11:11:00.001-07:00

I'm glad u mentioned the people's movement assembly, a time to get dry and free food

Diane

On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 11:00 PM, Bruce Wilkinson <bwildleaf@gmail.com> wrote:

Dear South Sound Community,
The 99% are Occupying Olympia with a camp of 100 tents at Heritage Park by Capital Lake. We are in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, against greedy multinational banks, corporate personhood, the continuing military occupations and money destroying our democracy. Come Saturday, October 22, to march in downtown Olympia for Community Banks and against Wall Street banks and the following Saturday join us at the People's Movement Assembly at the Olympia Center.

To subscribe to the listserves go to these links and type in your e-mail. Everyone will be on togetheroly@lists.riseup.net, but you might want to consider making that digest mode to not get your mail box overrun and then sign up under a work group listserve according to interest. Some lists are not active but they are available for use as we build our structure and are great for folks who are not camping as a way to get involved. These e-mail lists are for both helping with logistics of camp but also for bigger ideas. For example togetherhealth may help with the first aid tent while some may work also on developing a free clinic in town and planning events and strategies around achieving universal healthcare in Washington, the US and the world. Similarly with the other lists. The hope is that these lists will keep us together in honor of the way Occupy Wall Street has brought us together. We are the 99%.
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togetheroly
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togethermedia
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togetherfeed
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togetherhealth
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togethercommunicate
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togetherfund
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togetherart
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togethershelter

Solidarity!
-Bruce

Move Your Money March – Saturday, October 22, 2011
Heritage Park by Capital Lake @11:30AM
Occupy Olympia, in solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Wall Street movement, will be marching in support of alternatives to Wall Street banks in our community — including local banks, credit unions, time banking, bartering, and the "free economy" movement. The rally begins at 11:30 AM at Heritage Park and the march will follow at noon.

Citizens angry over bank bailouts and economic disparity that benefits the 1% are invited to join Occupy Olympia. We are the 99% and we are powerful!

Marchers will pass peacefully (no funny business!) by Bank of America, an institution which paid no taxes while taking billions in bailouts and profits during 2010. The march will then move to alternative local institutions, including Olympia Federal Savings and Washington State Employees Credit Union. This is a family-friendly and fun event.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=264079250295938

We won't stop till the Wall Street Banks are out of Olympia forever but we need your support!
For more info call 360-545-3267.

Solidarity,
-bruce wilkinson
bruce@mediaisland.org

[olympiaworkers] Occupy Olympia wants your support.

2011-10-21T23:00:00.000-07:00

Dear South Sound Community,
The 99% are Occupying Olympia with a camp of 100 tents at Heritage Park by Capital Lake. We are in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street, against greedy multinational banks, corporate personhood, the continuing military occupations and money destroying our democracy. Come Saturday, October 22, to march in downtown Olympia for Community Banks and against Wall Street banks and the following Saturday join us at the People's Movement Assembly at the Olympia Center.

To subscribe to the listserves go to these links and type in your e-mail. Everyone will be on togetheroly@lists.riseup.net, but you might want to consider making that digest mode to not get your mail box overrun and then sign up under a work group listserve according to interest. Some lists are not active but they are available for use as we build our structure and are great for folks who are not camping as a way to get involved. These e-mail lists are for both helping with logistics of camp but also for bigger ideas. For example togetherhealth may help with the first aid tent while some may work also on developing a free clinic in town and planning events and strategies around achieving universal healthcare in Washington, the US and the world. Similarly with the other lists. The hope is that these lists will keep us together in honor of the way Occupy Wall Street has brought us together. We are the 99%.
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togetheroly
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togethermedia
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togetherfeed
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togetherhealth
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togethercommunicate
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togetherfund
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togetherart
https://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/togethershelter

Solidarity!
-Bruce

Move Your Money March – Saturday, October 22, 2011
Heritage Park by Capital Lake @11:30AM
Occupy Olympia, in solidarity with the worldwide Occupy Wall Street movement, will be marching in support of alternatives to Wall Street banks in our community — including local banks, credit unions, time banking, bartering, and the "free economy" movement. The rally begins at 11:30 AM at Heritage Park and the march will follow at noon.

Citizens angry over bank bailouts and economic disparity that benefits the 1% are invited to join Occupy Olympia. We are the 99% and we are powerful!

Marchers will pass peacefully (no funny business!) by Bank of America, an institution which paid no taxes while taking billions in bailouts and profits during 2010. The march will then move to alternative local institutions, including Olympia Federal Savings and Washington State Employees Credit Union. This is a family-friendly and fun event.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=264079250295938

We won't stop till the Wall Street Banks are out of Olympia forever but we need your support!
For more info call 360-545-3267.

Solidarity,
-bruce wilkinson
bruce@mediaisland.org

[olympiaworkers] Occupy Oly, "YES to Community Banks!" Mass March and Rally! Sat. @11:30, Heritage Park

2011-10-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

[olympiaworkers] OCCUPY!

2011-10-18T06:21:00.001-07:00

OCCUPY!

  âFew trends could so thoroughly undermine the foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible.â Milton Friedman.

  The 400 richest families in the U.S. hold as much wealth as the bottom 50% combined. 1% of the people control 40% of the wealth. Since 2009, 88% of income growth went to corporate profits and 1% went to wages. And now the greedy few are orchestrating one of the largest power and wealth gabs ever at the expense of the rest of us. .

  âThe working class and the employing class have nothing in common.â From the IWW Preamble

  The deafening roar of the bootsteps of the march of corporate fascism can be heard throughout the world. The horrendous sound of the exploitation of all for the benefit of a few. The human heard hears those sounds and is told it is the sound of progress, more jobs and a better way of life. The human heard becomes intoxicated by the fantasies of the professional deceivers. Hoping against all hope that the good life they will gain, never realizing that the good life is for but a few leaches. The pitiful poor raise their heads up and ask âcan I have more? I have so little now.â The rich proclaims that we are in hard times and the suffering must be shared by all. OCCUPY!
  Pity the suffering rich as they wear the latest fashion statements, made by sweatshop workers, often children, that one outfit costs more than most workers around the world make in a month. Eat food that the cost of which could feed 50 poor families. Drive cars that cost more than most workers make in years of labor. Live in fine homes that the cost of which could house 100 or more working families. Pity the suffering rich when the international economic and political system of corporate fascism is designed for them to accumulate massive wealth while others must do without. OCCUPY!
  The earth shudders with the pounding of the bombs in the interest of corporate control. Bombs for peace, that is the peace of total subjection, bombs for freedom, the freedom of the many to be exploited by the few. This peace and freedom has been a bloody affair, but the blood flows from the bottom, not the top. The human heard mutilates itself in moribund rituals of death, dancing bravely in human carnage. Not understanding that working people fight and kill each other in the interests of that which forces them into servitude. OCCUPY!
  A small baby child cries out in the night, there is nothing for her, in a long line of nothing for societies nobodies. There is nothing for you dear child, it is all spent else where. Governments of the world spend over one trillion dollars a year on the military so that you may feel safe in your hunger. 21% of children in the U.S. live on poverty. OCCUPY!
  Our Elders who worked hard all their lives, both on their jobs and raising the next generation deserve to be able to retire with dignity and financial security. But the greedy few now are going after their pension plans, social security and health care, as another means to increase their wealth at the expense of the many. OCCUPY!
  We do all the useful, needed, work in society, but many of us cannot even get basic medical coverage. Over 40 million in the U.S. have no medical coverage. Many more do not have enough medical coverage. Many of us must fight with greedy medical insurance companies over the medical care we need. Many of us, though we have medical coverage, find that our medical conditions are not covered because they are âpreexisting conditionsâ. The greedy ones of the medical industry gouge the economy by outrageous prices for medical care. The medical drug industry inflates the cost of medication to the point that many cannot afford it. While many must choose between food and their medicine. This clearly is a crime against humanity. OCCUPY!.
  So many working people die each year on their jobs and next to never are their employers held accountability for those deaths. Often the death of workers are no accident, but rather the direct result of greed where the rich accumulate greater profit by cutting costs at the expense of worker safety. When workers die on the job, at best the employers must pay a fine. In many cases this is nothing more than legalized murder. If you or I caused the death of others by outright negligence, we would find ourselves in a prison cell. OCCUPY!
  Our land is a magnificent land of beauty and resources, but much of it is owned and exploited by the rich who acquired it by means of  a policy of genocide of the original people and the outright theft of their land. This continues to this day. This system keeps Leonard Peltier in prison, now for 36 years, for standing up to this policy and defending his people from attack. And still this all is cerebrated on Columbus Day. OCCUPY!
  WE, that is humanity, do not live outside of our environment. Rather we are a part of the environment and depend upon it to survive. The greedy ones exploit, abuse and pollute the environment for their own profit. And now they seek to dismantle environmental laws to increase their wealth even more. This clearly shows that their deranged lust for more even goes beyond the basic instinct of survival. Their madness of gluttony so overwhelms them that their existence places the human society in a suicidal mode. OCCUPY!
  Economic crisis that was created by greed, has the government bailing out those responsible for it while cutting programs for those that are not responsible for the crisis, but are only victims of it. In other words the rich get too greedy and cause great hardship and the solution is to make working people pay the costs. While the rich take advantage of the situation to increase their wealth by outsourcing jobs and trying to break unions. OCCUPY!
  The dream weavers proclaim the coming of great things for all, if we only give our betters their due. For wealth will trickle down to us below when the rich have all they want. WE have heard that song and dance before. International trade agreements, we were told, would create good jobs for all. !5 years later where are those jobs? We were deceived then as they seek to deceive us now. WE will not be deceived again! OCCUPY your own mind and think for yourself.
  Enough all ready! The human heard proclaims. We will not be silent fools. OCCUPY!
  What started out as a movement to Occupy Wall Street has now spread across the land and throughout the world. OCCUPY! Time to take what is rightfully ours.
  The greedy parasites, who are nothing more than vampires feeding upon the host body of humanity, terrible when they hear, OCCUPY! The human heard is in rebellion.
  The politicians seek to move the grassroots movement from the streets to the ballot box. But the truth is revealed, it is us in the streets that are standing up to the greed and not those in the halls of political scoundrels. OCCUPY!
  Let it be understood by all, working people do all the necessary labor in any society. No society could exist without working people. Those who exploit us, have no usefulness in our world. We have the needed skills, knowledge and ideas to run things ourselves. Time to dump the greedy parasites off our backs. OCCUPY!
  To those OCCUPIERS who are arrested, they can jail you but they cannot jail the spirit of OCCUPY. WE all stand in solidarity with you, for you are in there for us, and we will be out here for you. Jails will not break the rebellion, for we are struggling to break out of an economic/political system that imprisons us as a class. So we say to the forces of repression, WE will OCCUPY your jails too.
  As all grassroots movements progress, OCCUPY should go in the logical direction of OCCUPYING workplaces and communities. OCCUPY BP for murdering workers on an oil rig and fouling the Gulf Coast. OCCUPY hospitals who refuse medical treatment for the uninsured. OCCUPY companies that out source jobs or try to break unions. OCCUPY our workplaces and stop producing wealth for the rich and start producing for the well-being of all. OCCUPY!
Arthur J. Miller
Just an old shipyard worker

[olympiaworkers] New book on Joe Hill author event

2011-10-06T14:08:00.001-07:00

NEW BOOK ON JOE HILL, AUTHOR BOOK EVENT
Tacoma I.W.W is pleased to announce our sponsorship of a book tour event. Author William Adler has penned a new biography of the iconic Wobbly troubadour, poet and organizer Joe Hill entitled "The Man Who Never Died." He will be reading and answering questions about the book at King's Books, 218 Saint Helens Avenue, Tacoma, WA (253) 272-8801 Â· kingsbookstore.com , Tuesday, Oct. 11 at 7:00 P.M. The Tacoma Branch of the Industrial Workers of the World will have a table with information and literature, and we welcome all workers, students and residents who are curious about Joe Hill and the One Big Union.
  For more information on the book and author go to: http://themanwhoneverdied.com/
  For more information on Wobblies and the IWW go to: www.iww.org
  To contact the Tacoma IWW and information about meetings, send an e-mail to: TacIWW@iww.org

[olympiaworkers] NW Regional International Day in Solidarity with Leonard Peltier and important petition

2011-10-05T11:21:00.001-07:00

PLEASE POST WIDELY
From: The Office of the Northwest Regional Organizer of the Leonard Peltier Defense/Offense Committee and the Tacoma Chapter of the Leonard Peltier Defense/Offense Committee, P.O. Box 5464, Tacoma, WA 98415-0464 bayou@blarg.net

As individual fingers we can easily be broken, but all together we make a mighty fist. -- Sitting Bull

INTERNATION DAY IN SOLIDARITY

NW REGIONAL MARCH AND RALLY FOR CLEMENCY FOR LEONARD PELTIER

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY, 4, 2012, TACOMA, WA.

MARCH STATEMENT

Leonard Peltier (of the Anishinabe, Dakota, and Lakota Nations), long time Native Activist and member of the American Indian Movement. Leonard Peltier, an innocent man who was convicted for the 1975 shooting deaths of two agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. U.S. prosecutors have repeatedly admitted that they did not and cannot prove Peltier's guilt, and the appellate courts have cited numerous instances of investigative and prosecutorial misconduct in this case. As late as November 2003, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals acknowledged that "â¦Much of the governmentâs behavior at the Pine Ridge Reservation and its prosecution of Mr. Peltier is to be condemned. The government withheld evidence. It intimidated witnesses. These facts are not disputed." The trial of the first two AIM members in this case were found not guilty for reason of self-defense.
  Behind the case of Leonard Peltier and the events that took place on the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Reservation is the continuing theft of Native land for energy corporations. High grade Uranium was found in the northwest corner of Pine Ridge. It was well known that the Lakota people would be unwilling to sell their land because they refused payment for the Black Hills. So a plan was carried out to suppress the traditional Oglala Lakota people and their supporters from the America Indian Movement. This lead to the Wounded Knee II Occupation, over 500 AIM members being indited on charges, a two and a half year reign of terror against the Oglala Lakota people, and the firefight near Oglala, that Leonard was charged with, that took place at the same time that a corrupt tribal Chairman was illegally signing away the part of Pine Ridge with the Uranium. The firefight took place as a means to divert attention and to suppress AIM.
  Leonard has been in prison for over 35 years for a crime he did not commit and a crime that forces of greed were responsibly for. They have withheld medical care for Leonard and recently Leonard was placed in solitary confinement for 72 days and then sent to a high security prison in Florida, as far away from his lawyers and family as they could send him. Leonard is in bad health and they want Leonard to die in prison, alone and forgotten.  We will not let that happen.
   We are now organizing a new clemency for Leonard Peltier campaign and the regional marches on Feb, 4, 2012 are a very important part of that. Please help us raise money for it and get the word out everywhere.  Please. let us come together in the spirit of unity for Leonard and for the kind of justice and peace we want for our world. Thank you.

Join Tacoma Chapter LPDOC on facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=100002154914197
Subcribe to: Northwest Peltier Support at: nwpeltiersupport-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
For more information: www.whoisleonardpeltier.info

The Leonard Peltier Whitehouse Petition

The We the People/ official White House petition site - https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/fb/petition/petition/grant-clemency-native-american-activist-leonard-peltier-without-delay/LLWBZq1S
We still need over 2000 signatures to make it to the minimum threshold of 5000 signatures in 30 days. Please use every means possible of communicating with the public on this â"flyers around town, canvassing and referring folks to the website, call in to broadcast and internet radio shows to promote the petition---be creative. This is an important opportunity and we need to surpass that 5000 mark to make an impressive showing. Many people have had difficulty completing the signature process--but in a nutshell--you register your name, email and zip code.Leave the website page open and open another window/tab to retrieve your email ...which will contain a passcode..you then go back to the website to sign in with your email address(user name) and the passcode. From LPDOC

[olympiaworkers] Post-Ramadan strike wave hits Egypt

2011-10-04T23:35:00.000-07:00

Libcom.org Sep 30 2011

The first two weeks of September have witnessed a massive wave of strikes,
with many more planned for the rest of the month. These are taking place
despite the law - issued in April - criminalizing strikes which harm the
national economy, and despite regulations issued by the ruling military
junta making negotiations during the course of strikes unacceptable.

Hundreds of thousands of workers and employees have launched strikes,
sit-ins and marches to protest their working conditions. Among these are
public school teachers - who are planning a general strike on the new
academic year's first day of classes, 17 September; workers at private and
public-sector textile mills; security and custodial workers at the
American University in Cairo; farmers; and nurses and doctors in eight
different governorates.

These strike actions come against a political backdrop that once seemed
encouraging to Egypt's 27-million labor force.

Shortly after President Hosni Mubarak's resignation in 11 February, over
500,000 workers, professionals, farmers, employees and pensioners moved to
establish their own independent trade unions and federations to provide a
bargaining mechanism for workers long deprived of negotiating with both
the state and the business community. These independent unions are
reportedly playing a significant role in organizing protest actions and
strikes nationwide.

Yet the recent resurgence of widespread strikes, analysts say, reflect a
deep disillusionment with the democratic transition process, with workers
feeling more and more that improving their economic and political
conditions were but hollow promises from the revolution.

"The primary demand behind all the strikes - in the public, private and
informal sectors - is improved incomes in line with increasing living
expenses," said Karam Saber, director of the Land Center for Human Rights.
Other common demands include the payment of overdue bonuses, incentive
payments, fixed or full-time contracts for full-time work, among other
demands.

"The interim authorities have made very little progress in terms of
raising wages, incomes and salaries; or in terms of putting a cap on the
salaries of managerial officials in the form of a maximum wage," Saber
said.

According to Saber Barakat, a member of the caretaker council at the
Egyptian Trade Union Federation, there are other reasons motivating the
working class to protest and strike. One of the main factors causing
dismay is the fact that Mubarak's officials and generals are still calling
the shots and pulling Egypt's strings. The old guard is still in power.

"The revolution gave workers the impression that their conditions would
improve; but reality has proven otherwise," said Barakat. "The Supreme
Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has sent signals to investors
reassuring them that their interests will be protected and upheld."

In April, the SCAF and the interim cabinet issued a law outlawing strikes,
and they have failed to issue a new trade union law to replace the old and
restrictive 1976 law which places severe bureaucratic hurdles on
independent labor organization. Furthermore, these authorities have
insisted they will not engage in negotiations with strikers until they
stop striking or protesting.

Egyptian laborers' grievances are countless, and the fruits of the 18-day
revolution that raised the slogans of freedom and social justice are yet
to be reaped.

The interim cabinet has been procrastinating over implementing an LE700
minimum wage. On Wednesday, Finance Minister Hazem al-Beblawy said that
the government will implement it in January 2012, six months later than
originally announced.

Some 700 textile workers at the Indorama Shebin al-Kom Textile Company -
which was privatized in 2007 - went on strike this week, and around 400 of
them blocked highways, roads and even occupied the Munifiya Governorate
headquarters on Monday to demand the re-nationalization of their company,
as well as improved working conditions and wages.

In the Nile Delta governorate of Gharbiya, over 1000 workers went on
strike at the Wool Production Company in the town of Samannoud on
Saturday, and on the same day, over 3000 workers at the Nasr Company for
Fabric Dyeing in Mahalla City went on strike. Both groups of workers were
demanding the payment of overdue bonuses, along with increased incentive
payments.

Elsewhere in Mahalla City, over 20,000 workers at the Misr Company for
Spinning and Weaving threatened to launch an open-ended strike this past
week. Workers at this massive textile mill (the largest in the Middle
East) demand increased bonuses and food allowances. They also demand
increased investment in public sector textile enterprises in order to save
the industry from collapse.

"All of Egypt's workers from Aswan to Alexandria are exploited and
under-paid. The interim government and SCAF should set a just and adequate
minimum wage, for workers in all sectors of the economy, which is in
keeping with rising living expenses," said Mohamed al-Attar, a veteran
labor activist at Misr Company for Spinning and Weaving.

"Workers are tired of empty promises. Workers gave the authorities seven
months to address these common grievances and have seen little to nothing
in terms of actual reforms. We are reaching boiling point."

On Thursday, Minister of Manpower and Immigration Ahmed Hassan al-Borai
said that labor unions' elections will be postponed till after the
parliamentary elections slated for November, yet another blow to the
aspirations of independent labor organizations which have been trying to
legally consolidate their emerging structures.

"The interim authorities are treating workers and the general populace
just as Mubarak did. If they do not change their course then another
popular revolt may break out," Attar said.

By Jano Charbel. Originally from Al-Masry al-Youm.

[olympiaworkers] Demonstration Against State Repression in Longview, Washington Sat, 09/24/2011

2011-09-28T02:59:00.000-07:00

Puget Sound Anarchists

Location: Civic Circle - Longview, WA by the Post Office
Time: ‎5:30PM Thursday, September 29th

Union, Non-union, Friends, Family, anyone and everyone who is disappointed
with the way EGT has failed to follow through with their promises to our
community and are upset with the way the police use intimidation,
repression and violence to stamp out our resistance to corporate
exploitation.

Bring your own: banners, signs, leaflets, posters, plans, voices and courage!

The ILWU workers in Longview Washington have taken a courageous stand on
behalf of all of us. They are on the frontline of a struggle that touches
working people everywhere. They serve as examples to everyone by refusing
to be exploited and walking the hard line by physically standing in the
way of industry to increase their quality of life.

Labor militancy in the United States has been disappearing for decades and
as it goes away, so does our ability to look towards a future that holds
the kind of promise we want to deliver to the next generation. The ILWU
workers are standing up for those of us whose power has been taken away,
those of us without a union, without a say in how we get paid, what our
employers do or how responsible our work places are to our needs and
communities.

The ILWU DOES NOT have authorization from their union leadership to
strike. We recognize that union authority flows directly from the workers.
This rally is about recognizing the workers themselves and supporting them
in taking a militant stand against a labor system that takes advantage of
us all. It is also about showing our empathy and solidarity with them as
they face a tremendous force of state repression.

In this time of financial crisis and global uncertainty about the future,
the Longview strikers and all of their solidarity strikers and support
protesters serve as powerful examples of what we can do when we assert
ourselves directly. They show us that if the rules are unfair, we can't
play by the rules and when we act together, those powers that wish to take
away the last bit of security we have left are helpless but to change.

Thank you Longview Longshoremen! You're here for us and we're here for you!

See you on Thursday at 5:30pm in Longview!

SOLIDARITY & DIRECT ACTION!

[olympiaworkers] THIS WEAPON HAS A HEART! An evening of local music & radio stories from Honduras resistance.

2011-09-24T11:00:00.001-07:00

THIS WEAPON HAS A HEART! An evening of local music & radio stories on Honduras resistance.
Wednesday, September 28, $5 suggested donation. 7PM till. @ Media Island, 816 Adams St. SE
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=263056587050144

Caitlin Payne Roberts- "I got back from Honduras a couple of weeks ago after getting to know folks from 6 community radio stations, doing a lot of interviews, grabbing resistance music files, and recording live music. I'm putting it all together to create an AUDIO documentary, that's no video, to broadcast on over a dozen radio stations internationally. It's about Honduran community radio spitting in the face of state terror. I'm crafting the documentary, which is called THIS WEAPON HAS HEART or ESTE ARMA TIENE CORAZÔN, in two versions, one in Spanish and one in English.

The title refers to the fact that at each of the 6 stations I visited, I was told that community RADIO IS THE WEAPON OF CHOICE for indigenous, campesino, and Garifuna groups in land struggles. During this tour I will share what I experienced with activists nationwide and encourage thinktanks on actions we can take, such as forming local anti-militarization campaigns, or starting our own community radio stations, to pressure the U.S. government to drain military funding to Honduras and end human rights abuses in Central America.

So on Wednesday Sep 28, we can talk about solidarity strategies and I'll give a report back from Honduras. Then we'll play music."

Violet Flame Meditation -- Ruth Allison Dana solo or with special guests, raw -- http://www.myspace.com/violetflamemeditation

1985 -- matt FU of seattle doing up his solo set while kayaking on an atlantic wave -- http://masarecords.bandcamp.com/

autococoon -- cait PAYNE doing up her solo set on guitar run through some analog pedals -- http://autococoon.bandcamp.com/

Segments from the audio doc will be played between sets.
---------------------

First Sunday Brunch Benefit for Olympia Movement for Justice & Peace
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=220063244717605
Gandhi's Birthday! October 2, 11-2 @ Media Island, 816 Adams St. SE
We are making buckwheat pancakes, eggs, potatoes, fruit & pastries. Buffet style! Delicious! It is to support the Olympia Movement for Justice & Peace who have been doing great work and are gearing up for the People's Movement Assembly!

This First Sunday Community Brunch is a tradition at Media Island! If you have come before please come again and bring a friend. We are trusting word of mouth to make this secret buffet brunch a continued success!

We ask for a donation of a sliding scale and if you can't donate much we could use your help cooking, doing dishes, greeting people, as live entertainment or by asking local business for donations.

[olympiaworkers] Thousands of Employees Riot at Indonesian Shipyard

2011-09-20T01:08:00.001-07:00

Sept. 20, 2011 Jakarta Globe

Thousands of subcontracted employees working for PT Nexus Engineering
Indonesia in Batam went on the rampage on Tuesday morning, burning a
company office.

It is the second such attack involving a ship-yard business in the
province in 18 months.

Antara reported that the incident was sparked by a security officer who
allegedly punched an employee.

Outraged employees soon ran amok, forcing the evacuation of a number of
personnel as the mob burned an equipment check room and a motorcycle
belonging to the security guard.

Subandi, the coordinator of subcontract employee at the company, said the
incident happened so quickly "the security officers could not control the
angry mob."

He said the company hires 5,000 subcontracted employees though not all
were present at the site on Tuesday.

Thousands were involved in the riot, he said.

Police have secured the scene.

Nexus, which also operates in Singapore, is yet to make a statement.

[olympiaworkers] Pizza Hut Workers: Cheesed Off From Paris To Sheffield

2011-09-19T22:50:00.001-07:00

Wage theft, union-busting and fighting back at the pizza chain in France,
Spain and the United Kingdom

By Monika Vykoukal
Industrial Worker #1738 - September 2011

"The pizzas are better, and they've got newer scooters," observes David as
we hang out just outside a Pizza Hut store on a hot, sticky July night in
Paris. A fellow worker who is organizing at Pizza Hut in Sheffield, U.K.,
David is here for a couple of days to connect with local Pizza Hut
workers, who have been on strike for over nine weeks at press time.

July 11 was the employment tribunal hearing for two workers who contend,
with the support of their union Solidaires Unitaires Démocratiques (SUD),
that they have been sacked in connection with their strike and union
activities. As the entire city seems to wind down for the holiday period,
the ruling will not be out until early September, and our comrades have
decided it's best to pause their struggle for now as well.

David, an IWW member since February, has gotten 25 of his 30 colleagues on
board for concerted action and to join the IWW. They are just gearing up
to get properly started in Sheffield. The Britain and Ireland Regional
Administration (BIRA) of the IWW received their "Certificate of
Independence," which puts the IWW on equal footing with other unions in
terms of labor law, allowing for legal strike action. Once we had the
certificate, David and his colleagues would really get going. Meanwhile,
as we had learned earlier that same day, the Confederación Nacional del
Trabajo (CNT) at Pizza Hut in Cáceres, Spain—who had been protesting since
February—had won the reinstatement and back pay for three workers who were
found to have been unfairly dismissed because of their union activity.

As I join David in conversations with the workers in Paris, I learn how
much their struggle is a shared experience, yet again, of low pay, lack of
pay for hours worked, unsafe working conditions, lack of health coverage
and other protections, food safety issues at the stores, lack of support
from business unions, and unionbusting efforts when workers get together
to ask not even for improvements, but merely for the adherence to existing
rights and protections.
Workers' Struggles At Pizza Hut

Pizza Hut, a U.S.-based global fast food chain, is a subsidiary of Yum!
Brands—the world's largest restaurant company. Pizza Hut and Yum! Brands
are, under different guises, attacking their workers across Europe once
more, apparently going just as far as they can under the different legal
frameworks of each country. In France this backlash might be particularly
bitter, as numerous earlier struggles at the chain had fought hard for and
won the very same demands that now have to be fought for once more.

Strike action has taken place almost yearly since 2000, in the early years
significantly led by the business union Confédération Générale du Travail
(CGT), and largely by its militant organizer and longtime Pizza Hut worker
Abdel Mabrouki. Around 2003, concerted action by CGT organizers across the
fast food sector also included a major strike in a McDonald's store that
lasted for almost a year. Abdel, who worked at Pizza Hut from the late
1980s until 2009, went on to become a co-founder of Paris-based network
Stop Précarité (http://www.stop-precarite.fr), which remains central in
supporting struggles like those at Pizza Hut, and wrote the book
"Génération Précaire" (Le Cherche Midi, 2004) about union organizing in
the casualized retail sector in France, at companies such as Pizza Hut,
McDonald's and Disneyland. In 2005, Pizza Hut also saw strike action in
New Zealand as part of the organizing campaign "Supersize My Pay" of the
Unite Union (http://www. unite.org.nz), who remain active there and at
other fast food chains, such as KFC and McDonald's.

Changing ownership of Pizza Hut in France, as well as the gradual
franchising of previously directly held stores—a process which forms part
of Yum!'s business strategy—have caused the loss of the hard-won gains
made in those multiple struggles and have had a negative impact on the
Pizza Hut workers' ability to organize. In France, the company tends to
retain direct ownership of more profitable locations, while benefiting
from the fixed rates it gets from less successful, franchised locations. A
watershed moment here appears to be the 2009 sale of its French operations
by Yum! to a new "master franchise" holder: the Belgian company Top
Brands, which was already running Belgium's Pizza Huts.

Most Pizza Hut workers are in their early- to mid- 20s, but some of them
have worked for the company for many years. Many workers are also
students, and everyone I meet works part time, making just a couple
hundred euros a month, while living in a very costly city with a long-term
housing crisis. Keeping up with both a fast food job and studies can be
tricky, and some of the workers here in Paris are from North African
countries such as Morocco, Tunisia or Algeria, so they also depend on
their student status to allow them to stay in Paris. This vulnerability to
such double pressure was one of the triggers for the renewed action at
Pizza Hut stores in Paris.
Workers Strike

"This strike started when a migrant worker, who had been doing a manager's
job for an employee's pay, was suspended when the company claimed to
'suddenly acdiscover this, although they had records that showed they were
aware of his circumstances long before, just a few months before he could
get legal," explains Hichem Aktouche, the SUD delegate at Pizza Hut. "Not
only did Pizza Hut fail to inform him of the situation previously, he also
had no other immediate means to support himself."

Additional grievances included the firing of the manager of a store who
had been "too nice to his employees." A few days into the protest,
organizers also checked out the workers' paychecks, and, to Hichem, "it
was obvious that some hours were 'forgotten' every month, from August 2009
on." The demand for the back payment of all hours worked became a key
focus of the following strike, in addition to the "usual" demands of
timely payment of wages, paid sick leave, complete coverage of work
accidents, and the payment of the 13th month salary (Editor's note: In
France and other countries, a "13th month salary" is a common form of a
bonus that is not mandatory, but can be negotiated).

The fight began on May 13, with strikes on weekends at alternating
take-out and delivery store locations across the city. This strategy lends
an element of surprise and hits the stores in some of their busiest
periods of the week. Strikers have been hard-hit financially, and the
company appears unlikely to be willing to compensate them for any of their
strike days. To raise funds, donations were solicited during the pickets,
at the presidential campaign launch rally of the Front de Gauche ("Left
Front"), at the "Indignant Assembly" and from other sympathetic political
organizations.

Pizza Hut, refusing to negotiate with the strikers, instead asked the
representative of the majority union Confédération Française Démocratique
du Travail (CFDT) to end the strike, which they attempted without success.
Subsequently, management also wrote to a leader of SUD to contend that the
strike action was illegal. The result: the contacted union leader appeared
at the next picket himself and yelled into his megaphone: "I demand to see
Chapalain [the director of Pizza Hut France] now!"

Pizza Hut's next move was to contact Inspection du Travail, a body of
civil servants who surveil employment and labor law—yet again backfired
when workers provided the inspector with their evidence, who then asked
the company to pay workers for their unpaid hours. With a renewed flaring
up of support in late June, workers decided to continue their weekend
pickets until the day before their employment tribunal on July 11.

While it's impossible to predict the results of this specific tribunal,
past tribunals of this kind were won. During the 2009 Pizza Hut strike,
one of the workers eventually won his reinstatement and back pay after an
18-month trial. Pizza Hut then gave the worker a substantial additional
payment on the condition that he did not return to work.

On July 11, the day of the tribunal hearing, the Communist Group and the
elected representatives of the Left Party presented a resolution in
support of the striking workers at The Council of Paris, which passed,
asking the mayor to write to Pizza Hut demanding they respect employment
legislation. However, despite their determined and fierce fight, and after
nine weeks of struggle at press time, the company is still unwilling to
negotiate, and the workers have not won any concessions. Most notably, the
company still owes the workers full payment of all hours they have worked
in the last year. Yet at least, they hope, they have shown their anger and
willingness to stick together and fight for their rights.
Struggles in Spain and the U.K.

Union busting, meanwhile, has been rebuffed in the CNT's struggle in
Spain, where they have organized stores in Cáceres and Badajoz. In
February, several workers posted a list of demands— including weekends
off, holiday pay and transportation contributions—on a notice board at
their store. The company, despite its recognition of the union, promptly
sacked three of the unionized workers. In addition to regular pickets on
Fridays and Saturdays, as well as a demonstration in Cáceres in April, the
union filed a complaint with the labor court and eventually won the
reinstatement with full back pay of all three workers. Beyond this initial
victory, the struggle for better conditions is set to continue.

Workers' demands in Sheffield are not dissimilar to those elsewhere, but
they respond to the slightly different circumstances of the U.K. labor
situation and its exploitation by Pizza Hut. Unlike in France, where the
CFDT—who opposed the recent strike action, as well as the smaller radical
union SUD—had been active at Pizza Hut for some time, there was no
previous union presence in Sheffield, as is characteristic of the
commercial and services sector in general. Since organizing with the IWW
earlier this summer, fellow workers have begun to start their union
activity for safety in maintaining the scooters they use for delivery and
to support workers individually. Their main demands are focused on the
working conditions of delivery drivers and on wage increases.

"Working conditions at the company are very bad, the hourly rate is
£5.83," David went on to explain in an interview with activists from the
youth section of the left-political New Anti-capitalist Party (NPA), who
covered the strike in their newspaper Tout Est À Nous:

"Delivery drivers who have no license for the scooters have to use their
own vehicle, but they are only reimbursed £0.6 per delivery. It's a total
rip off! We have filed a collective grievance against this situation."

In late July, due to pressure from IWW members, management at Pizza Hut
admitted that the IWW's demand for better commission for delivery drivers
was justified. However, as David writes, this review does not in any way
guarantee an adequate outcome, and it could be used to justify further
reduction of the delivery drivers' pay. IWW organizing is expanding to
other Pizza Hut stores in Sheffield and elsewhere.
Looking Forward

A few days after David leaves to return to Sheffield, I am chatting with
Hichem, who is getting ready for his own summer break. I think this is the
first time I've seen him sit still since I came to their picket for the
first time a few weeks ago. Having been at Pizza Hut since he was 20, he's
seen past strikes, past wins and the losses that followed. He tells me,
somewhat wryly, that we can't know yet whether workers will be in a
position to renew their strike in the fall. Too many new hires will still
be in their trial period. The bosses have also changed shifts, so more
militant workers are now surrounded by those new hires. And, perhaps, by
the fall, too many people will be desperate to earn a bit of money, or
they will need to return to their studies.

Yet, with David's visit, we have given each other a better insight into
our shared situation than any abstract analysis of "precarious labor"
could have provided. We have also seen each other's determination to keep
fighting, and to find ways to not only oppose the attacks of management,
but to make demands for—and win—better working conditions. Since the
employment tribunal hearing here in Paris on July 11, it looks like our
fellow workers in France face even more attacks on their union rights.
Meanwhile, Wobblies in Sheffield have now presented their demands and are
awaiting the company's response. In September, the heat might be on.

For updates from Pizza Hut Sheffield, see the IWW Sheffield Blog at
http://www.iwwgmbsheffield.wordpress.com.

The SUD Pizza Hut Strike Fund is still in need of donations: SYND SUD
COMMERCES SERVICES IDF; BIC: CCOPFRPP; IBAN: FR 76 4255 9000 0121 0264
5370 690.

[olympiaworkers] Tacoma Teachers On Strike, Thousands Of Kids Free For The Coming Days

2011-09-13T22:30:00.001-07:00

Sept. 13, 2011 Puget Sound Anarchists

TACOMA, Wash. -- Striking teachers in the state's third-largest school
district hit the picket line Tuesday morning after weekend contract
negotiations failed to result in an agreement.

Eighty-seven percent of the Tacoma Education Association's total
membership voted Monday evening to walk out, union spokesman Rich Wood
said.

On Tuesday morning, teachers walked back and forth in front of Lincoln
High School with picket signs while the districts 28,000 students stayed
home.

"Kids need us. But they also need us in a positive learning environment,"
said teacher Brent Gaspaire.

The union and district are still fighting over pay, class size and the way
the teachers are transferred and reassigned.

The Tacoma School District will seek an immediate court injunction Tuesday
to terminate the strike, which school officials contend is illegal,
district spokesman Dan Voelpel said.

Superintendent Art Jarvis will revisit the decision to keep schools closed
in light of whatever happens in court, Voelpel said.

Both the Washington attorney general and state judges have ruled that
state public employees do not have the right to strike.

District officials sent automated calls to parents and staff explaining
their response to the strike. Athletics will continue since coaches are
covered under a different contract.

Tacoma teachers have been working without a contract since school started
Sept. 1. The union and district negotiated Saturday but couldn't agree on
a contract proposal.

A strike vote at the end of August failed by about 28 votes. Union bylaws
require approval by 80 percent of the nearly 1,900 members to authorize a
strike.

Since the last strike vote was so close, the union decided to allow
members with schedule conflicts to vote early. About 200 union members
with after-school responsibilities like coaching voted Friday or Saturday,
Wood said. This time, 1,623 of the union's 1,869 members voted to walk
out, he said.

A 2006 state attorney general's opinion said state and local public
employees - including teachers - have no legally protected right to
strike. That opinion also noted state law lacks specific penalties for
striking public employees.

During several past teacher strikes, Washington school districts have gone
to court and judges have ordered teachers back to work.

In Washington, only the Seattle and Spokane school districts are larger
than Tacoma.

Tacoma teachers earned an average salary of $63,793 during last school
year, according to the district. They are the best-paid teachers in Pierce
County and about the fifth-highest paid among the state's largest
districts, behind teachers in Everett, Northshore, Seattle and Bellevue,
according to state data.

The Legislature included in its state budget a 1.9 percent cut in teacher
pay but left it up to school districts to figure out how to save that
money. Some districts have made cuts elsewhere, some have cut teacher pay,
and others have worked out compromises with their local teachers union.

The News Tribune reports that on the issue of pay, the district said
Sunday it has offered teachers two options.

They could maintain the current pay schedule and sacrifice pay for one
personal day, one individual optional training day and one school-wide
training day. Or they could accept an effective 1.35 percent cut in the
salary schedule. In exchange, teachers would be allowed to schedule 2.5
furlough days.

The district said it has also offered to keep class size maximums at the
current level. The union wants to decrease class sizes, but the district
says subtracting one child per class could cost the district about $1.8
million a year.

[olympiaworkers] Here’s why Longshore workers in Longview are so angry

2011-09-10T03:40:00.001-07:00

By DAVID GROVES
The Stand

LONGVIEW (Sept. 8th) — Violence erupted today in a major labor dispute
that has simmered for months at the Port of Longview, leading to work
shutdowns at ports up and down the Washington coast. Why are members of
the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) — and their
supporters in Washington and Oregon — so upset about a grain terminal that
employs just 50 workers?

Here's why.

EGT Development is a joint venture of Japan-based Itochu Corp, South
Korea's STX Pan Ocean and St. Louis-based Bunge North America. Like so
many corporations that promise good jobs to get what they want, EGT got a
special state tax exemption and a sweetheart lease deal from the Port of
Longview to build a $200 million grain terminal there. The government even
seized adjacent land for the project. But as soon as the deal's ink was
dry and the ceremonial first shovel of dirt was overturned two years ago,
EGT began running the project on the cheap.

Despite high unemployment in Cowlitz County and the availability of
hundreds of skilled union building trades workers, EGT imported the vast
majority of its construction crews from low-wage communities out-of-state
and did not pay area standard wages, leading to howls from the local labor
community.

After the terminal was built, EGT decided to ignore the Port of Longview's
contract with ILWU Local 21 to hire union labor on its leased site.
Instead, the multinational conglomerate hired non-union workers — claiming
it would save the company $1 million a year (a figure the company later
admitted had been plucked from the sky) — and EGT sued the Port, arguing
it was not bound by the contract with the ILWU.

For months, ILWU picketed EGT and attempted to pressure the company to
negotiate with the union. Those protests gradually grew in size as EGT
refused to meet with the union, culminating in a major rally on June 3,
when more than 1,000 ILWU supporters from Washington to California rallied
outside EGT's headquarters in downtown Portland. The protest was loud, but
nonviolent.

The dispute escalated at a July 11 protest outside the EGT terminal in
Longview, when members tore down a chain-link gate and stormed the EGT
grain terminal. About 100 union dock workers, including union leaders,
were cited and arrested.

"We are going to fight for our jobs in our jurisdiction. We have worked
this dock for 70 years, and to have a big, rich corporation come in and
say, 'We don't want you,' is a problem," ILWU 21 President Dan Coffman
told the (Longview) Daily News. "We're all together. We're all going to
jail as a union."

On July 14, hundreds of union dock workers crowded onto railroad tracks to
block a train from delivering grain to the EGT terminal. The Daily News
reported that the 107-car train was rerouted to Vancouver following the
standoff, which prompted Burlington Northern Santa Fe to indefinitely
suspend train traffic to the grain terminal for safety reasons.

"By far this is the most intense labor event that I can remember," Cowlitz
County Sheriff Mark Nelson told the Daily News. But he said he understands
what the union is trying to accomplish even though he didn't agree with
its tactics. "Bless their hearts. These are our neighbors, too. These are
our folks. This is our community."

EGT was feeling the heat, and community support for the local ILWU workers
was growing as more people learned the facts of the dispute.

Then the company made a surprise announcement that it would hire a
unionized subcontractor to run the terminal. EGT signed an agreement with
Federal Way-based General Construction Co., a subsidiary of Kiewit, to
operate the terminal with union members from the Portland-based
International Union of Operating Engineers Local 701.

The Washington State Labor Council condemned EGT's attempt to pit union
members against each other.

"EGT, a Japanese multinational corporation that has received tax breaks
from our state to build this grain elevator, has thumbed its nose at the
members of ILWU Local 21 and is trying to pit workers against workers,
local unions against local unions. This is unacceptable," said WSLC
President Jeff Johnson (pictured at left at a July 24 rally). "The work at
the Port of Longview is longshore work and we need to come together as
community and labor and say 'no' to EGT — 'you will not disrespect labor
in Longview or anywhere else in our state'."

There have been numerous incidents provoked by EGT's union-vs.-union
arrangement. Most recently, a contractor drove right through the ILWU
picket line on Aug. 29 and struck two ILWU members who, fortunately, were
not seriously injured. Although the contractor was not cited or arrested
for the vehicular assault, an angry ILWU picketer was arrested for
allegedly damaging the next vehicle that attempted to cross the picket
line, a charge based on video surveillance provided by an EGT security
guard.

The next day, the National Labor Relations Board announced it was seeking
a court order to end "aggressive picketing" at the EGT facility and allow
Burlington Northern Santa Fe trains to deliver grain to the facility. Such
an order was issued last week, according to Rich Ahearn, director of the
NLRB's Seattle office.

Which brings us to yesterday, Sept. 7.

Some 400 ILWU members stood on the railroad tracks to block a train from
delivering grain to the terminal for about four hours, but the train
passed through after protesters were confronted by 50 police officers in
riot gear. ILWU President Robert McEllrath, who attended the protest, was
detained by police, escalating tensions between protesters and officers.
In the confrontation that ensued, police beat protesters away with clubs
and pepper spray.

ILWU President Robert McEllrath is detained by police Sept. 7. Click to
enlarge and see photo credit.

Ultimately, McEllrath returned to urge members to end the standoff.

"You can get maced and tear-gassed and clubbed (today)" or wait for
longshore support from all over the West Coast when the next train tries
to enter the EGT terminal, McEllrath reportedly told protesters after he
met with police. "If we leave here, it doesn't mean that we gave up and
quit. It means we're coming back."

All but 16 of the protesters returned to the union hall; the 16 who
refused were arrested for trespassing.

Early this morning, hundreds of ILWU members and their supporters
reportedly stormed the EGT terminal at the Port of Longview, broke down
the gates, overpowered security guards, damaged railroad cars, and dumped
grain, according to Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha. Initial reports
indicated no one was hurt and nobody has been arrested. After a few hours,
the protesters returned to their union hall.

So that's where we stand, as of this writing.

To sum up: a taxpayer-subsidized international conglomerate, which is
operating on public property, is suing the public so it can avoid paying
the area's standard wages and undercut its competitors that do. Then, it
exacerbated tensions with the local labor community by importing union
workers from another jurisdiction to cross the picket lines.

That's why ILWU members are angry, and that's why this is about more than
just 50 jobs in Longview.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story indicated that the Oregon
AFL-CIO had weighed in on EGT's effort to pit unions against each other.
That state federation has taken no position in this dispute. A resolution
previously approved by the Oregon AFL-CIO was ruled out of order by the
national AFL-CIO.

Short URL: http://www.thestand.org/?p=4718

[olympiaworkers] Federal injunction issued as Longshoremen storm Longview port

2011-09-10T02:09:00.001-07:00

TACOMA, Wash. (AP) - A federal judge ordered union protesters to stop
using illegal tactics Thursday as they battle for the right to work at a
new grain terminal in Washington state.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton issued a preliminary injunction to
restrict union activity, saying there was no defense for the aggressive
tactics used in recent days. Protesters twice blocked the pathway of a
train carrying grain to the terminal at the Port of Longview on Wednesday,
and early Thursday morning hundreds of them stormed the facility,
overwhelmed guards, dumped grain and broke windows, police said.
[This is the labor movement at its most radical and militant. Inspiring &
...]

The dispute halted work at four other Washington ports, including Seattle,
on Thursday as hundreds of longshoremen refused to show up or walked off
the job.

Leighton said he felt like a paper tiger because the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union clearly ignored a temporary restraining
order he issued last week with similar limits. He scheduled a hearing for
next Thursday to determine whether the union should be held in civil
contempt.

"The regard for the law is absent here," the judge said. "Somebody is
going to be hurt seriously."

Six guards were trapped for a couple of hours after at least 500
Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the
guard shack, Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha said. He initially referred
to the guards as "hostages," but later retracted that after the guards
clarified no one had threatened them.

"The guards absolutely could not get out," Duscha said. "They feared for
their lives because of the size of the crowd and the hostility of the
crowd."

No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested - although Duscha said that
could change if police are able to use surveillance video or other means
to identify the protesters.

Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting train
brake lines and spilling grain from a car at the EGT terminal, Duscha
said. They also pushed a private security vehicle into a ditch.

The union believes it has the right to work at the facility, but the
company has hired a contractor that's staffing a workforce of laborers
from another union, the Portland-based Operating Engineers Local 701.
Representatives of the engineers union did not immediately return a call
seeking comment.

In Seattle, Tacoma, Everett and Anacortes, hundreds of Longshore workers
failed to show up or walked off the job Thursday in apparent solidarity
with the Longview activists, halting work at those ports. Union leaders
said they had not called for any such actions.

"It appears the members have taken action on their own," said ILWU
spokesman Craig Merrilees from union headquarters in San Francisco.

He said some workers might have been motivated by a photograph of ILWU
President Bob McElrath in police custody in Longview on Wednesday.

McElrath was not arrested, but an Associated Press photo showed him being
grabbed by several police officers before union activists intervened and
grabbed him back.

Police arrested 19 protesters as they blocked railroad tracks on Wednesday
night, allowing the train to finally arrive at the terminal.

The protesters in Longview have portrayed themselves as being on the front
line in the struggle for jobs and benefits among American workers in an
economic downturn. But while union strife has flared up around the country
- most notably in Wisconsin - the aggressive tactics seen in Longview have
been a rarity in recent labor disputes.

Labor activists insist that after receiving tax breaks and promising to
create well-paying jobs at the new $200 million terminal, EGT initially
tried to staff the terminal with nonunion workers. Following a series of
protests by the Longshore workers this year, the company announced it
would hire a contractor staffed by workers from a different union.

"Today, the ILWU took its criminal activity against EGT to an appalling
level, including engaging in assault and significant property
destruction," the company's chief executive, Larry Clarke, said in a
written statement. "This type of violent attack at the export terminal has
been condemned by a federal court, and we fully support prosecution of
this criminal behavior to the fullest extent under the law.

[olympiaworkers] Longshoremen storm Wash. state port, damage RR

2011-09-08T13:51:00.001-07:00

Sept. 8, 2011 Associated Press

LONGVIEW, Wash. — Hundreds of Longshoremen stormed the Port of Longview
early Thursday, overpowered and held security guards, damaged railroad
cars, and dumped grain that is the center of a labor dispute, said
Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha.

Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more
Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the
guard shack, he said.

No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested. Most of the protesters
returned to their union hall after cutting brake lines and spilling grain
from car at the EGT terminal, Duscha said.

The International Longshore and Warehouse Union believes it has the right
to work at the facility, but the company has hired a contractor that's
staffing a workforce of other union laborers.

Thursday's violence was first reported by Kelso radio station KLOG.

Police from several agencies in southwest Washington, the Washington State
Patrol and Burlington Northern Santa Fe responded to the violence to
secure the scene that followed a demonstration Wednesday.

"We're not surprised," Duscha said. "A lot of the protesters were telling
us this in only the start."

One sergeant was threatened with baseball bats and retreated, Duscha said.
"One officer with hundreds of Longshoremen? He used the better part of
discretion."

The train was the first grain shipment to arrive at Longview. It arrived
Wednesday night after police arrested 19 demonstrators who tried to block
the tracks. They were led by ILWU International President Robert
McEllrath, who said they would return.

The blockade appeared to defy a federal restraining order issued last week
against the union after it was accused of assaults and death threats.

EGT chief executive Larry Clarke said it was unfortunate that law
enforcement needed to make arrests.

[olympiaworkers] Poisoned Chinese Workers Demand Action from Apple CEO Successor

2011-09-03T11:56:00.001-07:00

by Debby Chan Talking Union

The poisoned workers at Wintek, an Apple supplier in Suzhou, China, have
been awaiting a response from Steve Jobs, the former CEO of Apple.
Regrettably, he had not responded before his resignation. The poisoned
workers hope the new Apple CEO, Tim Cook, will live up to its claim of
corporate social responsibility and provide them remedies.

Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM) supports the
cause of the victims and calls on Tim Cook to address the grievances of
the poisoned workers and provide remedies for them.

The massive poisoning at Wintek is a serious breach of the labour law and
Apple's code of conduct. Corporate social responsibility is no more than
rhetoric if there is no remedy to the workers for the code infringement.
SACOM demands Apple under the leadership of Tim Cook has dialogue with the
workers as soon as possible.

A strike erupted at the Taiwanese-owned electronics manufacturer Wintek,
which produces touch screens for the iPhone, in early 2010. The rumour of
massive poisoning was confirmed by the local authorities after the strike.
According to the workers, about 200 of them were poisoned by the chemical
called n-hexane which leads to nerve damage. Apple only admitted the gross
labour rights violation in its Supplier Responsibility Progress Report one
year later. The company stated there were 137 workers hospitalized due to
the poisoning and that all of them had been successfully treated. In
reality, 2 years on after the poisoning, the workers still feel weak and
suffer from symptoms of relapse including sweaty hands and feet, and leg
cramps.

Mr. Jia Jing-chuan, a former engineer at Wintek, confided that he remains
worried about his health even now. He spends about CNY 500-600 (USD
$78-94) for health supplements per month because he feels weak. Mr. Jia
has recently resigned from Wintek and is taking rest in his hometown.
"Steve Jobs was indifferent to our poisoning and evaded his
responsibility. The new CEO should live up to corporate social
responsibility. There should be policies to protect the poisoned workers
and pay the health expenditures for the victims. Our predicament is solely
inflicted by the negligence of Apple though we contribute so much to the
revenue of the company. I also call on Apple to reform its audit system to
prevent similar tragedy," said Mr. Jia angrily.

"I hope the new Apple CEO can assure the company will take care of our
health problems in the future," Mr. Guo Rui-qiang, another victim of the
poisoning, requested. Guo expressed bitterly that he has difficulties in
looking for a new job owing to his poor health condition. "Many jobs
require me to stand for long hours, but my health condition does not allow
me to perform standing-operations anymore," he added.

Debby Chan is Project Officer at SACOM (Students & Scholars Against
Corporate Misbehavior) in Hong Kong.

http://talkingunion.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/poisoned-chinese-workers-demand-action-from-apple-successor/

[olympiaworkers] Farm workers are marching to Sacramento

2011-08-25T15:39:00.001-07:00

by Dan Bacher Indybay.org Aug 25th, 2011

Odilia Chavez, a field worker who gets work where she can in various
crops, is planning on marching all 13 days.

"I am going to march from Madera to Sacramento because of the bad
conditions we farm workers work in," she stated. "The farmers and farm
labor contractors put a lot of pressure on us, they don't respect us,
we are paid very poorly and it is not enough to make ends meet. We are
going to Sacramento to tell Governor Jerry Brown that it is time for
him to sign what we are asking."

Farm workers just started a 13 day, 200 mile march to Sacramento. Their goal?

"To press for enactment of the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act and the
right to be paid overtime after 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week just like
any other worker," according to a statement from the United Farm Workers
Union (UFW).

The two bills are expected to be introduced in the legislature shortly.
The Fair Treatment For Farm Workers Now march will end on Sept. 4th, Labor
Day weekend, at the State Capitol. If you're in California, please
consider joining workers for one of the days of the march.

If you can't join the march in person, please join virtually by signing
the petition: http://action.ufw.org/page/s/200milemarch.

Two months ago, Gov Brown vetoed the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act,
a bill that would have made it easier for farm workers to join a union and
speak up for their rights. More than 1,000 farm workers visited the
Capitol during the 12 days Governor Brown deliberated on the bill. Risking
their jobs to attend, they held vigils, fasted and rallied for change.

"They told the Governor how the laws in the books are not the laws in the
fields," according to the UFW. "They talked about having no bathroom
breaks, no overtime pay, no respect and the lack of enforcement of heat
regulations. And they were right-- two more workers may have died of heat
related illness this year alone."

Farm workers can't afford to wait any more, not when their lives are at
risk. So they are using their marching feet to try and convince Gov. Jerry
Brown to sign their new bills when they reach his desk.

One of these workers is Maria Escutia, who has toiled in the table grapes
for more than a decade. She is marching all 13 days. Her reason?

"I am doing this because I am very upset," stated Escutia. "I believe we
work in dangerous conditions, in the heat, in the cold and I believe we
deserve to be treated better without being intimidated at work; we deserve
the right to have benefits. We deserve this and more."

In Governor Brown's veto of the "Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act," he
says he is "not yet convinced." For farm workers, "not yet" means farm
workers don't get water and shade. "Not yet" means farm workers continue
to die of heat illness.

"Not yet" means farm workers do not have basic justice implemented by the
Agricultural Labor Relations Act. "Not yet" means hundreds of farm workers
who last year voted for union representation have waited more than a year
for the Agricultural Labor Relations Board to take the simple act of
certifying the elections.

Aaying the time to act is now, farm workers will begin a 200 mile
pilgrimage up the Central Valley to Sacramento to press for enactment of
the Fair Treatment for Farm Workers Act.

Odilia Chavez, a field worker who gets work where she can in various
crops, is planning on marching all 13 days.

"I am going to march from Madera to Sacramento because of the bad
conditions we farm workers work in," she stated. "The farmers and farm
labor contractors put a lot of pressure on us, they don't respect us, we
are paid very poorly and it is not enough to make ends meet. We are going
to Sacramento to tell Governor Jerry Brown that it is time for him to sign
what we are asking."

There will be up to 50 full time marchers who will be joined by farm
workers and community folks throughout the route and by thousands of farm
workers when they arrive in Sacramento. To do a march of this size will
cost close to $250,000.

"Between meals, water & ice alone we are talking about $31 per marcher per
day or $403 per marcher for 13 days or $20,150 just for the full time
marchers. Farm workers from up and down the state will want to join in on
the weekends when they can get off work. On the last day we will need to
rent buses for the thousands of workers who plan to attend," the
organization stated.

"Enough with 'not yet.' The time is now. Join the virtual march by signing
the petition to get Maria and other farm workers the fair treatment they
deserve," the UFW concluded. Go to:
http://action.ufw.org/page/s/200milemarch

[olympiaworkers] Verizon strike highlights need for new workers' movement

2011-08-24T21:07:00.001-07:00

Libcom.org Aug 21 2011

45,000 workers at US communications giant Verizon have been on strike for
nearly two weeks. Adam Ford, of Infantile Disorder, examines the lengths
the company and the state have gone to to undermine the strike.

Global communications giant Verizon have made profits of more than $19
billion over the last four years - that's nearly two British pounds per
person on the planet. All of that was created by the company's workforce,
but instead found its way into the bloated bank accounts of executives and
shareholders. That's not enough for them though, so Verizon are currently
trying to extract the equivalent of $20,000 per US employee per year. In
this effort, they are being assisted by the corporate media, the court
system, the FBI, and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and
International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) unions.

The 45,000 American workers have been on strike for nearly two weeks,
having not surprisingly rejected management's demands. As the strike has
worn on, the government has aggressively intervened on the side of the
company, imposing strict anti-strike injunctions to facilitate
strikebreaking, and setting up an FBI investigation into alleged
'terrorist' sabotage of the Verizon networks.

It is instructive to examine the injunctions, and to see just how
carefully calculated the attempt to force strikers into submission
actually is. For instance, New York pickets are limited based on the
number of scab workers on each site. A workplace with twenty-five
strikebreakers can have only six pickets at any one time. Fifty
strikebreakers can be met by ten pickets, et cetera. In Pennsylvania, all
pickets are limited to six strikers, who must be fifteen feet from the
door. More than this, "videotaping, photographing, or recording in any
manner, the likeness of any individual at any worksite of any Verizon
employee or contractor performing company work" is illegal. Neither the
CWA nor the IBEW have raised a finger to dispute this injunctions, and
have instructed strikers to follow them to the letter.

Last Friday, the FBI announced that it is investigating a "national
security" issue, relating to possible "sabotage" by Verizon workers.
Special Agent Bryan Travers declared that: "Because critical
infrastructure has been affected, namely the telecommunications of both a
hospital and a police department, the FBI is looking into this matter from
a security standpoint as part of our security efforts leading up to the
9/11 anniversary."

Verizon workers immediately dismissed this as a slander, designed to
reduce public sympathy. As a cable splicer in Fairfax, Virginia commented
to the WSWS: "Of course they'll say that. In reality the cables go down
all the time, even on a good day like this. These are scare-tactics that
Verizon is attempting to use." And a Pittsburgh employee added that: "I
feel the company is feeding the media the reports on sabotage. They want
to have a lot of negative publicity out there about us and try and make us
look bad. We need to all stand together."

The company have attempted to put an abstract limitation on the strike, by
setting a deadline of 31st August for workers to return, or face the
immediate suspension of all health-related benefits. For their part, the
union bureaucrats continue to offer their assistance to the company,
stating that they will accept major concessions if Verizon "bargain
fairly". As the company's artificial deadline approaches, workers can
expect unions to do far more than "meeting [the company] halfway."

As always in industrial disputes, one cent taken off the compensation
workers receive for their blood, sweat and tears would be an outrage, but
as things stand the total will be far more than that. To have a chance of
winning, Verizon employees must take charge of their own struggle by
forming rank-and-file committees, and make the biggest possible appeal for
the solidarity of the wider working class. Their interests are
diametrically opposed to those of the union tops, and can only be defended
by a total break from their control.

[olympiaworkers] Foreign Students in Work Visa Program Stage Walkout at Plant

2011-08-22T20:04:00.001-07:00

Aug 18, 2011 The New York Times

PALMYRA, Pa. — Hundreds of foreign students, waving their fists and
shouting defiantly in many languages, walked off their jobs on Wednesday
at a plant here that packs Hershey's chocolates, saying a summer program
that was supposed to be a cultural exchange had instead turned them into
underpaid labor.

The students said they were expecting to practice their English, make
money and learn what life is like in the United States.

The students, from countries including China, Nigeria, Romania and
Ukraine, came to the United States through a long-established State
Department summer visa program that allows them to work for two months and
then travel. They said they were expecting to practice their English, make
some money and learn what life is like in the United States.

In a way, they did. About 400 foreign students were put to work lifting
heavy boxes and packing Reese's candies, Kit-Kats and Almond Joys on a
fast-moving production line, many of them on a night shift. After paycheck
deductions for fees associated with the program and for their rent,
students said at a rally in front of the huge packing plant that many of
them were not earning nearly enough to recover what they had spent in
their home countries to obtain their visas.

Their experience of American society has been very different from what
they expected.

"There is no cultural exchange, none, none," said Zhao Huijiao, a
20-year-old undergraduate in international relations from Dalian, China.
"It is just work, work faster, work."

Each summer, the State Department brings many thousands of foreign
students to the United States on the international work-travel program,
with visas that are known as J-1. Over the years, the program has
successfully given university students from distant countries a chance to
be immersed in everyday America and to make lasting friends.

But in recent years, the program has drawn complaints from students about
low wages and unexpectedly difficult work conditions. It appears, however,
that the walkout at the Palmyra plant is the first time that foreign
students have engaged in a strike to protest their employment.

John Fleming, a State Department spokesman, said officials were aware of
the students' protest and had sent staff members to Hershey, Pa., where
the candy company is based, to investigate. "It is our job to ensure that
all J-1 visa holders are accorded their rights under all provisions of the
Summer Work Travel program," Mr. Fleming said.

The arrangements that brought the foreign students to work at the Eastern
Distribution Center III, a vast warehouse in a trim industrial park near
Hershey, the American chocolate capital, involved layers of contractors.

The students said they mainly placed blame on the organization that
manages the J-1 visa program for the State Department, the Council for
Educational Travel, U.S.A., which is based in California.

Rick Anaya, chief executive of the council, said he had brought about
6,000 J-1 visa students to the United States this summer. Mr. Anaya said
he had tried to respond to the Palmyra workers' complaints. "We are not
getting any cooperation," he said. "We are trying to work with these kids.
All this negativity is hurting an excellent program. We would go out of
our way to help them, but it seems like someone is stirring them up out
there."

A spokesman for Hershey's, Kirk Saville, said the chocolate company did
not directly operate the Palmyra packing plant, which is managed by a
company called Exel. A spokeswoman for Exel said it had found the student
workers through another staffing company.

The spokeswoman, Lynn Anderson, said: "We contract with a staffing agency
to provide temporary employees, some from the local work force and some
J-1 visa holders. We don't have a lot of influence over some of those
issues that they've raised."

A labor organization, the National Guestworker Alliance, which has been
working with the students, presented a complaint on Wednesday to the State
Department asking for the Council for Educational Travel, U.S.A. to be
removed from its list of sponsoring organizations.

In the protest on Wednesday, about 200 students who were scheduled to
start work on an evening shift at 3 p.m. walked into the plant and
presented a petition with several hundred signatures to a management
representative. Then, together with some students coming off the daytime
shift, they marched out.

The students walked off their jobs at a plant in Palmyra, Pa.

They came down the driveway to the plant, with semi-trailer trucks
wheeling by, chanting, "We are the students, the mighty, mighty students!"
and labor slogans in English as well as their own languages. The students
said they believed that so many of them walking off their jobs would stop
some production on their shifts.

"We want to own our rights," Ms. Zhao said, speaking in English. She and
three other Chinese students held out their arms, pointing to bruises they
said they had from moving large boxes.

Representatives from two American labor unions participated in the rally
at an intersection outside the plant. Three labor officials, including
Rick Bloomingdale, president of the Pennsylvania State Federation of the
A.F.L.-C.I.O., and Neal Bisno, president of a Pennsylvania branch of the
Service Employees International Union, staged a brief sit-in at the plant
entrance and were arrested.

Harika Duygu Ozer, 19, a second-year medical student from a university in
Istanbul, said she had heard from friends that the summer exchange program
would be fun and that she would earn enough money to pay for her medical
school tuition.

"I said, 'Why not?' This is America," Ms. Ozer said.

When she was offered a contract for a job at a plant with Hershey's
chocolates, she said, she was excited. "We have all seen Charlie's
chocolate factory," she said. "We thought, 'This is good.' "

Like many other students, Ms. Ozer said she invested about $3,500, which
included the program costs, to obtain the J-1 visa and travel to the
United States.

Several Chinese students, including Ms. Zhao, said they had paid more than
$6,000 in the process of securing visas.

Ms. Ozer said she worked an eight-hour shift that began at 11 p.m.

"You stand for the entire eight hours," she said. "It is the worst thing
for your fingers and hands and your back; you are standing at an angle."

At one of the sites where she worked, she said, cameras were trained on
her, and supervisors told her that if she did not want to maintain the
pace of work, she should leave.

Godwin Efobi, 26, a third-year medical student from Nigeria who is
studying at a university in Ukraine, said his job was moving boxes. "Since
I came here, I have a permanent ache in my back," Mr. Efobi said. "Holding
a pen is now a big task for me; my muscles ache."

The students said they decided to protest when they learned that neighbors
in the apartments and houses where they were staying were paying
significantly less rent.

"The tipping point was when we found out about the rent," Mr. Efobi said.

Ms. Ozer and other students said they were paid $8.35 an hour. After fees
are deducted from her paychecks as well as $400 a month for rent, she
said, she often takes home less than $200 a week. "We are supposed to be
here for cultural exchange and education, but we are just cheap laborers,"
Ms. Ozer said.

[olympiaworkers] Verizon workers return to work, without a deal

2011-08-20T14:30:00.001-07:00

By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER - Aug. 20, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of striking Verizon workers will return to work
starting Monday night, though their contract dispute isn't over yet.

Both the company and the union say they have agreed to narrow the issues
in dispute and have set up a process to negotiate a new contract. But the
talks are likely to be contentious. The two sides still disagree on touchy
subjects such as health care benefits, pensions, and work rules.

About 45,000 employees went on strike on Aug. 7, after their previous
contract expired. They work in the company's landline division in nine
states from Massachusetts to Virginia.

Verizon says that it needs to cut costs in the traditional landline phone
business, which is in decline as more Americans switch to mobile phones.
The company has proposed freezing its pension and switching union workers
to its non-union health plan, which has higher costs for employees.

The unions counter that the landline business supports the growing
wireless business and that Verizon, which earned about $3 billion in the
first half of the year, can afford to maintain the benefits in the
contract that expired on Aug. 6. They also say Verizon put too many
proposals on the table.

Of the 45,000 striking workers, 35,000 are covered by the Communications
Workers of America, while 10,000 are covered by the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

Jim Spellane, a spokesman for the IBEW, said the strike occurred because
Verizon "came in with an extreme set of proposals and never really moved
off of them."

But after the 14-day strike, "I think they realized the unions are
serious," he said. "It's in everybody's best interest to get back to
work."

Verizon spokesman Richard Young said that many of the benefits and work
rules were put in place when Verizon faced much less competition in its
landline business. "The contracts are not reflective of today's
marketplace," he said.

Spellane said that much of the traditional phone network helps support the
faster-growing wireless business. And many of the technicians that went on
strike install and maintain the company's new fiber optic network, FiOS,
which provides Internet, video and phone services.

Verizon has 196,000 workers, with 135,000 of those non-union. The wireless
division, which wasn't affected by the strike, is mostly non-union.

Nearly 30 percent of U.S. homes have dropped landline phone service and
rely on mobile phones only, according to the National Center for Health
Statistics.

Verizon Wireless added 1.3 million wireless customers in the April-June
quarter, for a total of 89.7 million. That growth has been helped by the
addition of Apple Inc.'s iPhone in February. The company owns 55 percent
of Verizon Wireless, with Britain's Vodafone owning the rest.

Meanwhile, total voice connections, which measures FiOS digital voice
connections in addition to traditional landlines, declined 7.9 percent to
25 million. But the company has seen increases of more than 20 percent in
customers subscribing to both FiOS Internet and TV services over the past
12 months.

Candice Johnson, spokeswoman for the CWA, said Verizon is asking $20,000
per worker in annual concessions. The company has disputed that but hasn't
offered its own figure.

Johnson said earlier this month that the union's best-paid Verizon workers
get about $77,000 a year in New York. The company puts the figure at
$91,000 and said benefits average $50,000.

"These are very important issues" being negotiated, she said. "They are
issues that help families ensure a middle-class life."

While union workers walked the picket lines, managers and non-union
employees performed their duties.

Verizon's Young said the company began training managers and non-union
workers at the beginning of the year to prepare for the strike. Thousands
of employees were brought in from as far away as Texas, California, and
Colorado, he said. They have worked 12 hours a day, six days a week, he
said.

The company also used newer technologies to resolve 50,000 problems a day
remotely, Young said, such as resetting set-top boxes and routers and
testing lines.

Peter Thonis, Verizon's chief communications officer, acknowledged there
was "a little bit of a slowdown" in installing new services like FiOS, but
said replacement workers largely kept up on repair work.

The company said in its statement that it will "quickly address any
backlog in repairs and unfulfilled requests for service."

While customers who will now get their FiOS services installed on time may
be winners, Verizon's Thonis said neither the company nor the workers
could claim a victory.

"We still have a lot of hard and difficult bargaining to do. None of the
major issues that were on the table before the strike, are off the table,"
he said.

____

AP radio correspondent Julie Walker contributed to this report.

[olympiaworkers] 45,000 Verizon workers go on strike over contract

2011-08-08T01:03:00.000-07:00

By CRISTIAN SALAZAR - Associated Press Aug. 7, 2011

NEW YORK (AP) — Tens of thousands of unionized Verizon Communications Inc.
workers from Massachusetts to Washington, D.C., went on strike early
Sunday after they failed to agree on a new labor contract with the
telecommunications company.

The Communications Workers of America said negotiations in Philadelphia
and New York stalled Saturday night after Verizon continued to demand more
than 100 concessions from workers and the unions refused to budge.

Mark C. Reed, Verizon's executive vice president of human resources,
called the outcome of the unions' actions "regrettable" for customers and
employees.

"We will continue to do our part to reach a new contract that reflects
today's economic realities in our wireline business and addresses the
needs of all parties," he said in a statement.

The contract that expired midnight Saturday covers 45,000 workers,
including 10,000 represented by the International Brotherhood of
Electrical Workers, who serve as telephone and repair technicians,
customer service representatives, operators and more.

"Even at the 11th hour, as contracts were set to expire, Verizon continued
to seek to strip away 50 years of collective bargaining gains for middle
class workers and their families," CWA said in a statement Sunday.

Verizon, the nation's largest wireless carrier, has 196,000 workers;
135,000 are non-union.

At the center of the contract negotiations, which began June 22, are the
costs of health care, pensions and work rules.

The CWA said the concessions are unjustified and harsh, given that Verizon
is highly profitable — the company's revenue rose 2.8 percent to $27.5
billion in the second quarter. Its growth was largely attributed to its
wireless business.

But Verizon said its wireline business has been in decline for more than a
decade, and that it is asking for changes in the contract to strengthen
the unit. The company said union employees contribute nothing to their
health care premiums.

Verizon activated a contingency plan to ensure customers experienced
"limited disruption in service" for the length of the strike.

"Tens of thousands of Verizon managers and other personnel have been
trained to step in and perform emergency work assignments," Verizon
spokesman Rich Young said.

A customer satisfaction survey released in May showed Verizon Wireless and
Sprint Nextel Corp. ranked highest among the Big 4 wireless carriers. The
survey polled 8,000 households in the first quarter of this year.

Verizon added 1.26 million wireless subscribers under contract in the
April to June period this year, a result that flies in the face of the
slowdown in new subscribers across the industry in the last two years. A
year ago, Verizon added just 665,000 subscribers under contract.

Verizon ended the last quarter with 106.3 million devices connected to its
wireless network. No. 2 and chief rival AT&T is trying to leapfrog Verizon
in size by buying No. 4 T-Mobile USA for $39 billion.

[olympiaworkers] Chilean miners strike and join wave of protest against government

2011-08-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

Libcom.org Aug 4 2011

Strikes in Chilean mines strengthen workers' struggles throughout the
copper industry, and reflect growing political unrest in Chile.

2,300 miners at Chile's Escondida copper mine - the largest in the world -
have been out on strike since 22nd July, and were joined by 7,000
contractors on 27th July. The mine is privately owned by Australian firm
BHP.

Workers at Escondida are demanding a rise in monthly production bonuses,
and initially aimed for $11,ooo per worker to be paid out by the end of
the year. BHP have declared the strike illegal, as bonuses are
discretionary and fall outside the collective contract and strict
anti-labour laws in Chile prevent workers from striking outside of the
collective negotiating agreement. The union rejected BHP's offer of
$6,000, which has since been lowered to $5,600 per worker. The strike
continued, with the union lowering it's demand to $8,700, but BHP are now
refused to negotiate while workers are still downing tools. Today, the
union has put the $5,600 offer out to be voted on, and if accepted by the
workers, the strike will be over. The union is also demanding protection
for workers who contract work-related illnesses, removal of surveillance
cameras throughout the mine, and improved punch-clocks which monitor their
12 hour shifts.

The Escondida strike is yet another case of workers' struggle throughout
the mining industry in Chile and the rest of the world, as workers are
demanding their share of record profits. Workers in Zambia and Indonesia
have also been striking against private firms such as Anglo-American and
Freeport McMoran.

Industry bosses are keen to bring an end to the Escondida strike as they
fear a success for the workers here could fuel further strikes across
Chile. At another major Chilean copper mine, Collahuasi, workers staged a
24hr stoppage over the weekend in protest against anti-union measures,
pressure being placed on workers, and bosses attempts to negotiate with
workers outside of the collective union contract. Collahuasi workers have
previously held a 33-day strike in December 2010.

The state-run Coldeco mines have also seen their first walk-outs in over
20 years, prompting the increasingly unpopular President Pinera to meet
with union leaders and assure them that Coldeco will not be privatised.
Previous strikes at Coldeco saw sub-contractors demanding improved
conditions. Signs outside the Escondida mine are calling for the mining
industry to be re-nationalised.

The miners strikes form part of a wave of growing unrest in Chile, as
students and environmentalists have also been protesting against the right
wing Pinera government.

[olympiaworkers] Palestinian quarry workers strike

2011-07-29T12:10:00.001-07:00

Libcom.org Jul 28 2011

Palestinian quarry workers at an Israeli settlement in the occupied
territories have gone on strike over unpaid wages.

The strike began last month at Salit Quarries in Mishor Adumim, in
occupied East Jerusalem. The workers demands included a pay raise, and end
to the withholding of pay, arranges pension provision and signs a
collective agreement with the workers.

The action is supported by WAC-Ma'an, an independent trade union based in
Israel that states that is aims to unite "workers regardless of
nationality, religion, gender or the color of their skin." The strike
began on June 16th after quarry management failed to attend a meeting
organised to discuss a collective bargaining agreement.

The Israeli-owned Salit quarry are employed to break rocks down to gravel.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians work in similar conditions in
Israeli-owned businesses, rarely with any form of union organisation.

[olympiaworkers] Union Dock Workers Block Train

2011-07-19T14:53:00.000-07:00

July 19, 2011 The Stand.org

ILWU 21: 'We're all going to jail as a union'

UPDATE (July 19): The Daily News reports — Local ILWU dock workers will
continue to fight to work at the EGT Development grain terminal at the
Port of Longview despite the company's weekend announcement that it's
hiring a Federal Way union contractor. EGT announced Sunday that it hired
a union contractor to employ about 25 to 35 workers. The company would
likely hire from IUOE Local 701, based out of Gladstone, Ore. Two messages
left at Local 701′s headquarters were not returned Monday. Ed Taylor,
president of IUOE Local 612 based out of Tacoma, said the EGT terminal is
out of his jurisdiction and his local would not claim work from other
unions, such as the ILWU. Local 701 has not said whether it would undercut
the ILWU either.

UPDATE (July 18): The Daily News reports — In a move that "stunned" the
local longshore leadership, EGT Development announced Sunday it will hire
a union contractor to staff 25 to 35 jobs at its terminal. Federal
Way-based General Construction Co., a subsidiary of Kiewit Infrastructure
West Co., which hires workers through the International Union of Operating
Engineers, will start working at the terminal this week, EGT officials
say.

By David Groves
The Stand

LONGVIEW (July 15) — The biggest labor dispute in Washington state —
spawning one of the more militant union campaigns in decades — is
happening right here, right now. About 100 union members were cited and
arrested earlier this week in Longview, and yesterday hundreds more
crowded onto railroad tracks to block a mile-long train.

Here's what's going on.

EGT Development, a joint venture of Japan-based Itochu Corp, South Korea's
STX Pan Ocean and St. Louis-based Bunge North America, is using non-union
labor to handle grain in the testing phase of its new $200 million
facility at the Port of Longview. All other grain export terminals from
the Columbia River to the Puget Sound have successfully and profitably
worked with unionized labor for decades.

Talks between EGT executives and the International Longshore and Warehouse
Union Local 21, which has a contract for all longshore work on Port
property, about becoming signatory to the area standard contract broke
down months ago and the company has refused to return to the table.
Instead, EGT has sued the Port in federal court, arguing that the company
was not bound by the contract with Local 21 to hire union labor on its
leased site. The company claims that keeping the facility's 50 full-time
workers non-union will save EGT $1 million a year.

Now, after months of picketing and attempts to pressure EGT to return to
the table, the ILWU members are angry.

And go to jail they did. At a July 11 protest, members tore down a
chain-link gate and stormed the EGT grain terminal. About 100 union dock
workers, including union leaders, were cited and arrested. It was the
latest of four large-scale demonstrations the ILWU has held in the last
two months. On June 3, more than 1,000 ILWU supporters from Washington to
California rallied outside EGT's headquarters in downtown Portland. The
protests have all been loud, but nonviolent.

Yesterday (July 14), hundreds of union dock workers crowded onto railroad
tracks to block a train from delivering grain to the EGT terminal. The
Daily News reports that the 107-car train was rerouted to Vancouver
following the standoff, which prompted Burlington Northern Santa Fe to
indefinitely suspend train traffic to the grain terminal for safety
reasons.

"Union longshore workers have made the Northwest one of the most
productive grain exporting regions in the world," Coffman said. "This new
grain terminal stands to gain by playing by the same rules as the other
grain operators that are making lots of money with productive union
workers."

From the start, EGT has been trying to run its new facility on the cheap.
Despite high unemployment in Cowlitz County and the availability of
hundreds of skilled union building trades workers, the Northwest Labor
Press reports that EGT imported the vast majority of its construction
crews from low-wage communities out-of-state and did not pay area standard
wages.

To make matters worse, Washington taxpayers subsidized EGT's construction
of the terminal. Operators of grain elevators like EGT get a special state
tax exemption entitling them to a "remittance equal to one hundred percent
of the amount of tax paid for qualifying construction, materials, service,
and labor."

So, to sum up: a taxpayer-subsidized international conglomerate, which is
operating on public property, is suing the public so it can avoid paying
the area's standard wages and undercut its competitors that do.

Stay tuned to The Stand for updates on this dispute and for information
about what you can do to support the ILWU 21 members in their struggle to
maintain standards at the Port of Longview.

Short URL: http://www.thestand.org/?p=3084

[olympiaworkers] Samsung workers in Mexico on hunger strike - Solidarity needed

2011-07-17T21:03:00.001-07:00

Libcom.org July 16 2011

Original here:
http://www.kaosenlared.net/noticia/accion-urgente-solidaridad-dramatica-protesta-trabajadoras-manzanillo-

More info (Spanish): http://www.cilas.org/

UNHEARD-OF VIOLATION OF THE LABOUR AND HUMAN RIGHTS OF WORKERS OF THE
KOREAN BUSINESS

WE MUST PREVENT THIS RIGHTFUL PROTEST BECOMING A TRAGEDY

Four female workers, unfairly fired and victims of workplace abuse, have
caged themselves and sewn their lips shut as they launch a hunger strike
and threatens to burn herself alive in a dramatic protest against the
multinational corporation Samsung,funded by Korean capital which is
currently constructing a plant for the extraction of natural gas in the
Mexican port of Manzanillo, in the state of Colima.

Madaí Díaz Rodríguez, Sandra Gómez, Lourdes Zamora y Elvira Orozco worked
in the kitchen of the Ingeniería Civil construction company, subcontracted
by the multinational and whilst working were victims of constant abuse and
mistreatment which escalated to daily verbal and physical violence from
their Korean bosses and foremen. To these facts there can also be added
multiple instances of arbitrary treatment and labour abuses such as the
imposition of 12-hour days, with no pay for the extra hours which were
their legal right. This situation is a daily reality for the hundreds of
workers who lend their services to the aforementioned company.

The inhuman and degrading conditions imposed on both male and female
workers have already resulted in a diversity of protests, including a
strike, without any affect on the violation of human and labour rights. On
the 3rd June of last year, Madaí Díaz, a single mother workign as a cook,
initiated the protests against the abitrary sacking and beatings dealt out
to her by Korean employees. In the first instance she locked herself in a
cage and sewed shut her lips, before days later caging herself again along
with her two children, after which she officially denounced her
aggressors, an accusation that has not had any effect.

Last July 6 the compañera Madaí, who had been reinstalled, was once again
attacked and thrown out of work; failing to receive a positive response to
her demands for justice from either the labour authorities or her union,
she returned to the cage, accompanied by her workmates who had also been
fired. They are currently on hunger strike and have sewn their lips shut.
Furthermore, Madaí has declared her readiness to take the extreme action
of setting herself on fire in the event of receiving an unsatisfactory
answer to her demands.

It must be mentioned that the construction of the gas plant in Manzanillo
has itself provoked multiple instances of rejection, both for the serious
environmental effects it will impose on the coastal and lagoon region into
which it will be embedded, and for those that it will cause to the economy
and life of the fishing towns of the zone.

As can be observed, this is a situation of serious conflict and the
potential exists or it to worsen, with even greater effects on the health,
physical integrity and life of the compañeras in protest. All this is
caused, needles to say, by the violatory and merciless infringement of
every human and labour norm on the part of the transnational business and
its representatives.

Faced with the events related herein, the solidarity of all organizations
is an urgent necessity. Coordinated and determined action is required to
oblige the bosses of this transnational to desist from their arbitrary
actions, to demand that the governmental authorities that cease their
indolence and intervene to achieve a solution and, above all, to prevent a
dramatic end to this conflict.

We ask all organizations to declare their demands through the sending of
communiqués to the following:

C. Mario Anguiano Moreno
Gobernador Constitucional
Estado de Colima
México
gobecol@col.gob.mx
C. Gustavo Adolfo Buenrostro Cabello
Presidente Municipal
Manzanillo, Colima
México
gbuenrostro@hotmail.com
Centre of Labour Investigation and Union Advice

(Sample letter reproduced below in Spanish and English)
A nombre de nuestra organización, (___________), queremos comunicarle que
hemos sido enterados de la difícil situación de conflicto por la que
atraviesan las trabajadoras Madaí Díaz Rodríguez, Sandra Gómez, Lourdes
Zamora y Elvira Orozco, quienes se encuentran en huelga de hambre y
realizando una protesta por el despido injustificado y los abusos de que
han sido objeto por parte de la empresa Ingeniería Civil y, por medio de
esta, de la empresa transnacional Samsung.

Por este conducto manifestamos nuestra más enfática solidaridad con las
compañeras y su protesta, así como nuestro rechazo a las ilegales
prácticas de que han sido objeto ellas y sus compañeros trabajadores. Por
tal motivo nos permitimos solicitar a ustedes su inmediata intervención
para:

·La solución satisfactoria e inmediata de las demandas de las trabajadoras

·El cese a las violaciones a los derechos laborales y humanos de ellas y
de quienes laboran en las empresas mencionadas

·El castigo legal a las y los responsables de las agresiones a que hemos
hecho referencia; y,

·Sobre todo y de manera urgente, evitar que el asunto que nos ocupa tenga
un desenlace lamentable que afecte aun más la integridad física y la salud
de dichas trabajadoras.

Con la seguridad de recibir mediante su pronta acción una atención
positiva a lo aquí planteado, quedamos de ustedes

ATENTAMENTE
(Nombre del responsable y de la organización)

In the name of our organization, (___________), we wish to communicate
that we have been made aware of the difficult situation of conflict that
confronts the workers Madaí Díaz Rodriguez, Sandra Gómez, Lourdes Zamora
and Elvira Orozco, who are currently on hunger strike in protest at the
unwarranted dismissal and the abuses to which they have been subjected by
the business Civil Engineering and, through this, by the transnational
business Samsung.

The extreme measures to which the dismissed workers have been forced are,
according to our information, due to the situation of generalized
violation of their human and labour rights that they have suffered, the
same that has arrived at acts of violence, harassment and other
aggressions and that is also suffered by the workers employed in the
construction of the gas plant in the Port of Manzanillo.

By these means we hereby declare our most emphatic solidarity with the
compañeras and their protest, as well as our rejection of the illegal
practices to which they and their fellow workers have been subjected. For
such motive we request your immediate intervention for:

·An immediate and satisfactory solution to the workers' demands

·The cessation of all violation of human and labour rights of the workers
concerned and of all those working in the aforementioned companies

·Legal redress for those responsable for the aggressiones to which we have
made reference; and,

·Above all, and as a matter of urgency, that you act to ensure that this
situation does not end tragically and affect still further the physical
integrity and health of said workers.

In the expectation of receiving a swift and positive response from
yourselves to that laid out above, we remain attentively yours,

(Name of official and organisation)
Please send a copy to:

Centro de Investigacion Laboral y Asesoria Sindical
Tabasco 262 Planta Baja, Colonia Roma, Delegación Cuauhtémoc
México, DF CP 06700
Tel/Fax: +52 (55) 5207 4147
+52 (55) 5514 7675

[olympiaworkers] Huge strike by some 90,000 Pou Yuen shoe workers, some strike leaders arrested

2011-07-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

July 12, 2011 Committee to Protect Vietnamese Workers

[CPVW 12th July 2011] There are unconfirmed reports that dozens of strike
leaders have been arrested by the Vietnamese authorities after a strike
from 21st to 28th June, at its peak involving all of the approximately 90
thousand workers at all Saigon factories of the Taiwan-owned shoe
manufacturer Pou Yuen, an Adidas contractor.

Workers told CPVW today that they have heard of strike leaders' arrests
but have not obtained specific names. Some, they say, had distributed
leaflets calling for wage increases. Last year the Vietnamese authorities
jailed 3 strike leaders for up to 9 years for distributing similar
leaflets. CPVW therefore holds grave fears for strike leaders.

According to official statistics, Pou Yuen has some 65,000 workers, but
its workers told us that the real number is about 90,000.

CPVW MR - Huge strike by some 90,000 Pouyen shoe workers, some strike
leaders arrested 12Jul2001PHOTOS: Workers streamed out to form large
crowds. A company spokesperson shouted into a handheld loudspeaker,
ordering workers to sit down. They ignored him. A female worker took the
loudspeaker to vent her anger. Outside are some of the many police,
uniformed and plainclothed, while people with dust masks ride by

Workers believe that plain-clothed police were sent in to try to identify
strike leaders.

The media in Vietnam – all state-run – have avoided reporting about this
strike.

Workers wanted a raise in the basic wage of 500,000 dong a month. On 28th
June, company management agreed to raise the basic wage by 300,000 and the
supplement payments by 200,000. Workers told us that on 10th August, when
they next get their pay, they will know whether the company will again
break its promises on supplements, as it has done previously.

CPVW is writing to Adidas's Hongkong-based Regional Manager asking it to
intervene. Adidas' CSR policy demands that contract workers be treated
with respect, but workers say they are treated "like buffaloes, like
cows". Adidas says it respects contract workers' right to have their own
unions, but Pou Yuen recognises only VGCL and works closely with this
state-run organisation which actively works to neutralise workers'
collective strength.

In 2009, VGCL boasted that its 675 officials stationed throughout Pou
Yuen's huge factories have been successful in preventing large strikes.

CPVW's Australia-based members are asking the Australian Council of Trade
Unions to intervene. And our Europe-based members are doing the same with
the International Trade Union Confederation.

CPVW is a member of Free Viet Labor Federation, the other members being
groups of labor-rights advocates in Vietnam working silently to avoid
imprisonments. Three such advocates – Chuong, Hung, and Hanh – are serving
up to 9 years for helping organise a 10,000-strong strike last year at the
shoe maker My Phong.

[olympiaworkers] Port protest leads to trespassing citations for dozens of union longshoremen

2011-07-13T00:55:00.001-07:00

By Erik Olson and Tony Lystra / The Daily News Monday, July 11, 2011

About 100 union dock workers, including union leaders, were arrested
Monday afternoon after they tore down a chain-link gate and protested
inside the EGT grain terminal at the Port of Longview.

In one of the boldest labor demonstrations in recent memory, members of
the Longview-based International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 21
stormed the terminal to protest EGT's use of non-union labor to handle
grain in the testing phase of the new $200 million facility. Authorities
said the gate appeared to have been pulled down with a pickup, and
protesters blocked EGT employees from working in the terminal.

About 20 law enforcement vehicles swarmed to the east end of the port just
after 3 p.m. Sheriff's deputies and other officers from the Longview and
Kelso police departments moved freely among the protesters, who were
sometimes loud, but not violent.

"By far this is the most intense labor event that I can remember," said
Cowlitz County Sheriff Mark Nelson, who stood at the crowd's center at one
point discussing the situation with the union's leadership.

Tensions have been rising between EGT executives and ILWU since contract
talks broke down about three months ago. The company's officials have said
they plan to open the terminal this summer with about 50 workers, likely
non-union.

"We are going to fight for our jobs in our jurisdiction. We have worked
this dock for 70 years, and to have a big, rich corporation come in and
say, 'We don't want you,' is a problem," Dan Coffman, Local 21 president,
said Monday as he waited for police to issue him a citation.

"We're all together. We're all going to jail as a union."

Law enforcement officers took the protesters aside one by one, issued them
citations for second-degree trespassing, photographed them, handcuffed
them and loaded them into patrol cars and a corrections department van.
Nelson said the protesters were taken to the Cowlitz County fairgrounds
and released. The idea, he said, was simply to get them away from the
protest.

Additional charges may be filed against those who pulled down the fence if
they can be identified, Nelson said.

EGT is owned by St. Louis-based Bunge North America, Japan-based Itochu
Corp. and Korean shipper Pan Ocean STX. Later this summer, officials from
the ILWU's San Francisco-based headquarters plan to meet with Itochu and
Pan Ocean officials in Asia.

Monday's protest, which included ILWU leaders from Portland and Vancouver,
was the latest of four large-scale demonstrations the ILWU has held in the
last two months. On June 3, more than 1,000 ILWU supporters from
Washington to California rallied outside EGT's headquarters in downtown
Portland.

Union officials have pinpointed the EGT grain terminal as a major
battleground along the West Coast. If EGT succeeds in operating the
terminal with non-union labor, ILWU officials say they fear other grain
companies would follow suit.

This was the first time that the ILWU, one of the region's most powerful
labor unions, is known to have resorted to trespassing and damaging EGT's
property, Nelson said.

EGT officials said Monday they will protect their workers, and they
haven't finished hiring.

"The safety of our employees and service providers is our top priority.
And actions by any group that threaten their safety will not be
tolerated," Larry Clarke, EGT's president and CEO, said in a written
statement.

After pulling down the gate, the protesters first gathered inside a large
building, then moved to a fenced-off area just outside, Nelson said.
Nelson said he offered to let the protesters go without arrests if they
agreed to walk away peacefully.

"They chose to stay," Nelson said. "Everybody's trying to make a statement
here."

At around 4 p.m., a deputy announced over a loudspeaker that everyone on
EGT's property was under arrest for second-degree trespassing, a
misdemeanor. The protesters broke out in shouts of "ILWU! ILWU!"

Union men scaled two grain cars behind the fence, waving ILWU signs and
chanting. At one point, the protesters briefly locked arms.

Asked if he worried the situation between the longshoremen and the grain
terminal could escalate this summer, Nelson said, "In a word, yes."

Ken O'Hollaren, director of the Port of Longview, said port officials were
discussing Monday whether they need to beef up security around the site.
The damaged fence belongs to EGT, which is leasing the 38-acre site from
the port, he said.

"It's an unfortunate turn of events here. We're still very hopeful that a
resolution can be found. This is not the kind of thing that we hope to see
or condone," O'Hollaren said.

Most of the protesters were ILWU members, and leaders of area woodworkers'
and construction trade unions also showed up outside the fence to show
their support.

EGT "isn't a good neighbor. They're not going to be a good neighbor," said
Dave Myers, president of the Longview Kelso Building Trades Council.

Union officials say EGT has violated their contract with the port, which
stipulates that all longshore work on port property must be conducted with
Local 21 labor.

In January, EGT sued the port in federal court, arguing that the company
was not bound by the port's contract with ILWU local 21. EGT attorneys
said union labor would increase their annual costs of operating the
elevator by $1 million. Coffman said the added labor costs are only a
fraction of EGT's total costs.

Nelson, the sheriff, said he understood what the union was trying to
accomplish even though he didn't agree with its tactics Monday.

"Bless their hearts," Nelson said. "These are our neighbors too. These are
our folks. This is our community."

[olympiaworkers] Fwd: rrfm

2011-07-08T15:42:00.000-07:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Diane Martin <dianemusicmagic@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 3:30 PM
Subject: rrfm
To: annie clay <annieclay@scattercreek.com>, outreach@thurstoncountyfoodbank.org, fair-budget- <fair-budget-@googlegroups.com>, Berd W <robertfwwhitlock@gmail.com>, Jim <Bluenote37@msn.com>, Betty Hauser <elizha@comcast.net>

REALLY REALLY FREE MARKET

July 9 Sat. 10am-4pm at Harrison Ave- woodruff park across from Ethans' Hamburgers

July 10 Sun 10-4 at bigelow park

come have a good time and get free stuff

[olympiaworkers] Support Leonard Peltier in the Northwest

2011-07-05T12:54:00.000-07:00

AN INJURY TO ONE IS AN INJURY TO ALL! Make solidarity a way of life. Support Leonard Peltier today. Becoma a "Friend" with the Tacoma Chapter of the LPDOC at: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=100002154914197

And/or subcribe to: Northwest Peltier Support at: nwpeltiersupport-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

[olympiaworkers] Updates from the General Strike In Greece

2011-06-30T01:35:00.001-07:00

Wednesday, June 29th: Constant updates
Second day of nationwide general strike

http://en.contrainfo.espiv.net/

URGENT PLEA FOR DOCUMENTS (PHOTOS/VIDEOS) OF CLASHES, in order to prove
the innocence of the arrested demonstrators and to expose the brutality of
State's repression.

Any relevant information should be sent to Athens IMC:
imc-athens-editorial@lists.indymedia.org
Legal Aid Group of Syntagma Square: 0030 6932 582973, 0030 6938 907267

Videos from June 29th

01.20 GMT+2 Ongoing assembly at the occupied town hall of Chania, Crete.

24.40 GMT+2 The Monastiraki assembly decided to march in the centre. An
about 500 people march takes place in Thissio and Gazi areas of the
centre. Some people from this crowd ended up in Syntagma where they joined
the small number of people who had remained there.

23.00-24.00 Updates from the province
Thessaloniki: A demonstration of about 6,000 people moved through the city
streets heading to the town hall in order to occupy it. The demo also
passed before MPs' offices. At the moment the people are gathered in front
of the city hall while police squads have lined up in the streets above
the city hall.
Kozani, northern Greece: The occupation of the Labour Centre of the city
continuous.
Patra: Ongoing open popular assembly.
Chios Island: The town hall has been occupied by demonstrators.
Mytilini, Lesvos Island: A call for a PA's [mikrofoniki] and a gathering
at Sapfous Square has been made earlier.

23.30 GMT+2 Riot police have had all their work leaves recalled for the
next few days and have been ordered to be on high alert.

23.00 GMT+2 Exarchia: 100-150 DELTA motorcycle cops appeared in Asklipiou
Street and lined up in the surrounding streets, in groups of 4–5.

About 23.00 GMT+2 Kozani, northern Greece: The assembly of the occupied
Labour Centre decided to continue the occupation; there is a call for an
open assembly at 5 pm tomorrow.

22.30-23.00 GMT+2 Slightly more calm the situation in Syntagma. Many
people are inside the metro station; outside ongoing minor clashes. Tear
gassing against the Medical Centre at the lower side of the square.

22.46 Heraklion, Crete: The open popular assembly of Eleftherias Square
decided and realized a demo of 700 people in solidarity with the arrested
in Athens and against the police State and the repression at Syntagma
Square.

22.30 GMT+2 Despite the profound level of state violence in Athens today,
thousands remain in the streets and on Syntagma Square, resisting. An
assembly is ongoing at Monastiraki Square while a barricade has just been
erected in Filellinon. There are several police blockades in various
points across the city. Since early morning today, there is an ongoing
chemical warfare against the people. DIAS and DELTA motorcycle police
attacked and beat up hundreds of demonstrators around Ermou Street, raided
university premises and even restaurants beating up tourists and
protesters. For the first time ever, the luxurious King George Hotel on
Syntagma Square has been evacuated.

22.00 GMT+2 Tension is transported to Exarchia. Earlier in Bouboulinas
Street rioters attacked a riot police wagon. The squads fired tear gas and
then a manhunt followed in Tositsa alley; a new Molotov cocktail attack
against police squads that are situated behind the Museum.

21.30 GMT+2 The Exarchia police station and two police jeeps on Tositsa
street in the neighbourhood have both been attacked in retaliation for
today's wave of state violence.

21.00 GMT+2 People are gathering at Monastiraki Square, responding at the
gathering call that had been announced earlier in order to coordinate
self-organized actions. Latest reports suggest an assembly of about
600–700 people. Almost at the same time, 5o motorcycles of DELTA and DIAS
police forces surrounded the Akropolis metro stop and chased people even
inside the district's shops and cafes. Then they passed the Aeropagitou
pedestrian street without hesitating to fire tear gas – occupants on
motorcycles – against passers-by.

20.30 GMT+2 A lot of different fronts of clashes all around the city;
barricades in front of King George Ηotel and most of the streets around
Syntagma square. Citizens responding to the repeated pleas for help, have
started to join the people on the streets; at the same time, cops blocked
even an ambulance which was reaching injured protesters. Police brutality
is undiminished. A while ago, at the lower side of the square, the pigs in
uniforms detained a youngster and many of them have beaten him fiercely.
Just after that, they had the audacity to do the V sign in front of the
protesters that tried to prevent the detention.

20.15 GMT+2 MAT forces attack the perimeter of the square.

20.00 GMT+2 The DIY medical centre that functioned in the metro station of
Syntagma Square helped more than 500 people who had been injured or went
there with severe breathing problems. The Gennimatas General Hospital in
Athens by now has had 80–100 injured demonstrators, while 170 protesters
visited the A&E of Evangelismos hospital by 5 pm.

19.55 GMT+2 Urgent plea for medical help and doctors at Syntagma. There is
a need for masks, antacid medicines, blankets and oxygen.

19.45 GMT+2 About 1,000 people are gathered again in Kolonaki, after they
have been expelled from the central streets.

19.40 GMT+2 Syntagma: Cops are throwing once again stones against the
protesters' heads.

19.35 GMT+2 Akadimias Street, at the height of the Law School: A DELTA
team has surrounded a group of demonstrators. The people finally managed
to escape into the premises of the university.

19.30 GMT+2 Tension at the Columns of the Olympian Zeus [Olympieion].
Police forces are trying to push away the gathered crowd.

19.20 GMT+2 Cops over the upper stairs at Syntagma raid the square with
murderous fury, throwing stun grenades and stones at protesters; lots of
tear gas now. At least two seriously injured persons were carried out by
doctors. People respond with stone throwing. Meanwhile, there are no
longer any protesters at Propylaea (where an evening gathering had
previously been called). Only four police squads are lined up there.
Police have blocked the wider area of Syntagma. A few fighters remain on
the square. Most people have dispersed to the surrounding streets and
districts.

19.00 GMT+2 Tension outside the National Garden.

18.55 GMT+2 DELTA motorcycle cops are chasing and beating demonstrators in
the streets of Plaka.

Injured demonstrator; murderous attack

18.50 GMT+2 People gathered at Propylaea, Plaka and Monastiraki are
attacked and chased. At Monastiraki the 'democratic forces' didn't
hesitate to throw tear gas even at the electric railway (ISAP) station.
Cops fired tear gas and invaded the university building of the Department
of Media and Communications (in Kalamiotou Street, Kapnikareas Square)
where many protesters fled. The cops were repelled from the School.

18.45 GMT+2 A crowd is recovering inside Syntagma metro station which
continues to operate normally. The metro workers have not stopped for a
minute to help demonstrators in every possible way. The demonstrators have
taken over the square once again while cops have encircled its perimeter.

18.30 GMT+2 There is an urgent need for severely injured demonstrators to
be transferred to hospitals. The square is once again full of people.

18.25 GMT+2 About 20 DELTA motorcycle cops rushed through the crowd
situated in Ermou Street near Kapnikarea. A clash between groups of
protesters and joined DELTA, MAT forces followed. One of the DELTA cops
crashed with the protesters and got badly beaten right afterwards.

18.20 GMT+2 Barricades and clashes in Panepistimiou Street. There are
250–300 protesters at the same spot —maybe more. Meanwhile, smoke comes
out from the Ministry of Finance arcade, at Syntagma.

18.18 GMT+2 The use of tear gas inside Syntagma metro continues; the cops
invade now. The people disperse in all directions at the risk of being
trampled.

18.15 GMT+2 The cops moved from the surrounding streets and have invaded
Syntagma Square. The people are encircled. The cops hit brutally, throwing
chemicals and stepping over the demonstrators' tents. Shortly before the
Medical Centre of Syntagma Square was broken, which has been moved into
the metro station for safety reasons.

18.05 GMT+2 The forces of repression are shooting rubber bullets at
Stadiou and Voukourestiou streets.

18.00 GMT+2 People have gathered in Propylaea, responding to the gathering
call at 6 pm.

17.53 GMT+2 Attempted arson at the Agrotikil Bank on Panepistimiou Street.
People are smashing the surrounding banks. The protesters who tried to
burn the bank stopped when they realized that there were people inside.

17.20 GMT+2 Street battles now in Filellinon Street. Continuous reports of
severely wounded protesters. A municipality pillar was burned. Everybody
demands the withdrawal of cops; great fatigue and anger of the people.
Apart from the merciless chemical warfare, the cops are throwing stones
back against demonstrators since hours.

17.10 GMT+2 Cops appear to open a passageway in Amalias, in order for the
MPs to flee from the parliament. There is a confrontational mood among the
people that have regrouped at Propylaea (Panepistimio metro stop is open).
THERE IS A CALL-OUT FOR AN EVENING'S GATHERING AT PROPYLAEA, AT 6 pm.

17.00 GMT+2 A tremendous coordinated cop attack in Amalias Street, right
in front of the parliament; apparent police operation for Syntagma's
evacuation. Countless tear gas attacks and stun grenades. The cops have
permitted Ermou Street as the only outlet. Syntagma metro station
operates, but its spaces are overcrowded. People fight back with
unprecedented courage. There is an estimated 500 injured protesters.
Volunteers of the Medical Centre of Syntagma Square are making commendable
efforts to aid wounded protesters. There is also a nursing unit near
Athens Megaron (Megaro Moussikis metro stop).

16.47 GMT+2 After a half-hour ceasefire, and numerous detentions in
various parts of the city centre, a simultaneous police attack was
launched at the four corners of Syntagma. The cops raid the square
throwing chemicals. One arrest on the square, among many other detentions;
clashes on the square.

16.42 GMT+2 Easy access to Syntagma via the open metro stations:
Panepistimio and Syntagma stops.

16.24 GMT+2 It has just been confirmed that the cops have also been using
rubber bullets against demonstrators at Syntagma. Furthermore, the use of
a new type of grenade by motorcycle cops has been reported.

16.10 GMT+2 The agreement (mid-term memorandum) was voted in the
parliament from a total of 155 MPs. Ongoing street battles in Propylaea
and Stadiou Street. A while ago DELTA and DIAS motorcyclist cops raided
the district. There's still a way for people to reach Syntagma:
Panepistimio and Syntagma metro stations operate.

15.55 GMT+2 A savage beating of a detainee at the junction of Ermou
Street. Continuous attacks by cops against medics and nurses. Too harsh
clashes, melees and dense stone throwing. Chemical warfare.

15.30 GMT+2 The large-scale police operation continues. Tear gas shot
directly at demonstrators in the square. People panic and risk the danger
of being trampled. The body of strikers is split in three parts: towards
Mitropoleos, Filellinon and Stadiou streets. The situation is hazardous in
Filellinon Street.

15.07 GMT+2 A large-scale police operation in front of the Hotel Grande
Bretagne; marble by the hotel has been broken up for use. People remain
persistently at Syntagma Square.

14.58 Kozani, northern Greece: During the past half hour the premises of
the Labour Centre have been occupied by anarchists in solidarity with all
those who struggle right now on the Greek streets. This will be a 24hour
occupation in order to serve as a local centre of counter-information.
There is a call out for an open assembly at 5 pm.

14.30 GMT+2 In Filellinon Street there are quite large blocks of ML-'K'KE,
EEK, Synaspismos Youth, Poultry Farmers' Cooperative of Epirus,
Association of Radio Technicians and a large group from the popular
assembly of Egaleo.

14.16 GMT+2 Police attack the demonstrators with an unprecedented amount
of teargas. Everyone is refusing to leave the square. Main slogan is
'Bread, Education, and Freedom–Τhe Junta did not end in 1973.'

14.11 GMT+2 Cops re-erect the railings in front of the parliament, while
police squads attack people on the square with an unprecedented amount of
tear gas. Protesters resist, and do not leave the place.

14.00 GMT+2 Chania, Crete Island: Occupation of the town hall after a
large morning gathering in solidarity with the students and teachers who
are persecuted because of their involvement in a protest against last
year's nationalist parade of October 28th. In their way to the town hall,
the demonstrators paid a visit to PASOK ruling party's offices and
vandalized them. An assembly was held in the building. It was agreed to
continue the occupation until 8 pm.

13.55 GMT+2 At this moment, clashes at Syntagma Square in front of the
parliament.

13.38 GMT+2 Railings in front of the parliament no longer exist. People
tore them down. Unbelievable melees; police squads have moved in front of
the fallen barriers.

13.36 GMT+2 Cops defiantly fire tear gas against the crowd. The
demonstrators are well organized and determined to struggle. With bare
hands they pick the tear gas canisters and throw them back to the cops.
Nobody leaves the place.

13.30 GMT+2 A block of about 500 protesters that were gathered at
Kallimarmaro decided to move to Syntagma. At the same time, thousands of
people are gathered at Syntagma, while the cops start throwing tear gas in
Amalias Street.

13.24 GMT+2 One of the unprovoked attacks by riot police; video from the
Hilton blockade.

13.00 GMT+2 'Vouli,' the Parliament's TV channel broadcasts an almost
empty parliament hall.

12.45 GMT+2 Two protesters were detained in front of the Ministry of
Finance. The people managed to liberate them. The two protesters that were
detained earlier at Evangelismos blockade were released as well.

12.12 GMT+2 Almost 100 protesters occupy the alley behind Zappeion. There
is a strong presence of repressive forces such as the motorcyclists of the
DELTA police unit.

12.00 GMT+2 Police managed to hold two passages at Zappeion and the War
Museum from where MPs passed in order to enter parliament. There is a need
for reinforcements of demonstrators. At the same time, people swarm
Syntagma in numerous blocks (the 'communist' PAME too) and reach the
square.

11.59 GMT+2 The Evangelismos blockade is broken. Two Mercedes cars of MPs
passed Vassilissis Sofias Avenue heading to parliament.

11.55 GMT+2 Protesters have barricaded the alley behind the Zappeion Hall.
There is a need for its reinforcement to prevent the passage of more MPs.

11.50 GMT+2 Thessaloniki: A while ago, a group of anti-authoritarians
occupied the Central Finance Office of Church (EKYO). They hung a banner
on the building which read 'Social expropriation of church property.'

11.40 GMT+2 An estimated 10,000 now at Syntagma. Demonstrators arrive from
other Greek cities (Thessaloniki, Patras, Chalkida, Larissa, Volos,
Trikala) and from the Evangelismos blockade.

11.25 GMT+2 Eight injured protesters have been transferred to the hospital
so far, several beaten by cops and others with respiratory problems due to
tear gas.

11.20 GMT+2 Minor stone throwing at Kallimarmaro.

11.15 GMT+2 Approximately just 10 MPs are now inside the parliament. There
is an ongoing, large-scale police operation to ensure the entry of MPs in
the parliament (the start of the agreement's enactment is scheduled for 2
pm).

11.07 GMT+2 The Kallimarmaro blockade consists mainly of neighbourhood
assemblies. There is an immediate need for reinforcements. The protesters
have erected barricades with trash bins which have been set alight. A
while ago, stone throwing against the riot police began in Kallimarmaro.

11.06 GMT+2 Downtown Athens: At least 200 demonstrators passed through the
wealthy district of Kolonaki chanting the slogan: 'Bread, Education,
Freedom –The Junta did not end in '73.'

11.05 GMT+2 Two detentions at Evangelismos. People were forced to move
towards Kolonaki.

11.00 GMT+2 Thessaloniki: About 500 workers of the Thessaloniki Water
Supply and Sewerage Company's rank'n'file unions march to the city's port.

10.56 GMT+2 There are around 200 demonstrators at the Evangelismos
blockade. The police forces have been reinforced.

10.53 GMT+2 Athens, Kallimarmaro: Police squads have attacked the
protesters in Eratosthenous Street and detained one protester.

07.30-10.00 GMT+2 Komotini, northern Greece: The premises of the
Prefecture of Eastern Macedonia–Thrace have been occupied by about 30
people from the popular assembly of Komotini Square (indignant citizens).
After that, the squatters moved to the square where they met with other
people in order to continue the counter-information actions, as it was
decided yesterday at the assembly. People from Xanthi also participated in
the occupation.

09.00 GMT+2 A few minutes ago, police squads launched a fierce attack
against nearly 500 protesters who were at the Evangelismos blockade.
People tried to use smoke bombs to prevent units of DIAS motorcycle police
forces from blocking the road. Extensive use of tear gas. Reports of at
least three injured protesters. Evangelismos metro station is closed. The
strikers regrouped at the Hilton hotel, where the cops attacked them
again. At the same time, at the Panathenaic Stadium [Kallimarmaro]
blockade, protesters from neighbourhood assemblies that had blockaded
Vassileos Constantinou Avenue were attacked and pushed back by two police
squads and their block was split. Half of them are now (ca 9.30) at
Eratosthenous Street and Vassileos Constantinou Avenue intersection; the
other half are in Ardittou Street; reports of at least one injured
protester.

01.00 GMT+2 Ongoing police brutality. Cops beat people with fury. A
demonstrator announced that a nurse was attacked fiercely and was
seriously injured. The Medical Centre of Syntagma Square makes a plea for
pharmaceutical supplies, volunteer doctors, medics and nurses. There is an
urgent need for people who can provide first aid.

00.45 GMT+2 At the upper side of the square the 'indignados' shout against
police squads. At the square a lot of people are dancing. At the lower
side the clashes continue.

00.44 GMT+2 Athens: Metro stations 'vibrate' with the people's slogan 'THE
JUNTA DID NOT END IN 1973'. Employees of the metro defied police orders
and instead of blocking the stations' entrances they helped people get
away from police forces.

00.40 GMT+2 More detentions reported, along with continuous use of tear
gas on the upper side of the square, in front of the Unknown Soldier
Monument.

00.30 GMT+2 Athens: Motorcycle cops and police squads launch a large
operation in Stadiou Street. There are detentions and savage beatings.
According to reports, one protester suffered beatings with a baton and was
kicked by cops for five minutes.

00.04 GMT+2 Kalamata, Peloponnese: At the moment, at least 100 people
march to the town's police station, demonstrating against the repression
at Syntagma Square.
June 29th, 2011 | Tags: general strike, greece, June 29th, live updates |
Category: Announcements – Events, Ecology – Health, Labor, Migration –
Antifascism, News, Prisons – Detention, State Repression, Videos -
Multimedia | 6 comments
Tuesday, June 28th: Constant updates
First day of nationwide general strike

24.00 GMT+2 Downtown Athens has become a battlefield. Yet, the people
remain on the streets despite the relentless use of tear gas and the
fierce attacks by cops, which culminated during the night. The protesters
are in urgent need of aid; whoever withdraws from streets does this
because of great fatigue, rather than fear. All day there were blunt
orders by the regime to evacuate Syntagma area, via a superpower of
repressive forces and a strong presence of plainclothes. Also cops were
conscripted from across the province. It should be reminded that tomorrow
at 2 pm the mid-term memorandum will be put on vote, so the strikers are
asked to flood Syntagma from early in the morning in order to encircle the
parliament. Many strikers in solidarity are expected with the first train
from Thessaloniki.

23.50 GMT+2 A few minutes ago, police squads stormed from Stadiou Street
and suffocated people with tones of tear gas. At the lower side of
Syntagma Square barricades are erected. Protesters resist despite their
great fatigue. The entire area vibrates by the slogans COPS, PIGS,
MURDERERS and THE JUNTA DID NOT END IN 1973.

23.39 GMT+2 After a 3hour detention, detainees were transferred to police
HQ in Athens for another six hours. All 20 detentions were swiftly turned
into arrests. All people in solidarity are calling for a gathering
tomorrow, June 29th, at 10 am outside the courthouse in Evelpidon Street.
Among others, a 56-year-old woman has been arrested earlier at Syntagma
Square.

23.30 GMT+2 Up to this time, there are constant harsh clashes.
Continually, medics run to help numerous injured protesters, transferring
them from outside Hotel Grande Bretagne.

23.17 GMT+2 Dissent is generalized; there are people hurdling rocks to the
police across the centre of Athens. In Stadiou Street police are now
attacking demonstrators, and the clashes continue in Syntagma as before.
Filellinon and surrounding streets are lined with police squads. There are
at least 5-6 police units outside the Russian Church near Syntagma. At the
Zappeion hundreds of DELTA motorcycle police forces. At the junction of
Ardittou and Vouliagmenis streets, near First Cemetery of Athens, there
are dozens of motorcyclist cops.

23.15 GMT+2 A huge crowd at Syntagma tonight, multiple times larger than
the crowd at the general strike demo in the morning. Clashes between
police squads and demonstrators forced the temporary halting of the
concert. There are many stun grenades and tear gas thrown against
demonstrators' heads.

22.55 GMT+2 In Athens large-scale clashes still go on. People are
committed to struggle despite the extremely brutal suppression.

22.35 GMT+2 Cops' attack against people who are situated in Amalias Street
in front of the parliament; at least one detention. The live concert was
interrupted. People ostracize stones against police squads.

22.20 GMT+2 Syntagma: The live concert continues. For quite some time,
people have lit bonfires at different points in order to extinguish the
chemicals.

21.24 GMT+2 The clashes between people gathered at the square and police
have started, once again. Live stream from Syntagma also here.

21.10 GMT+2 Police tried to evacuate Syntagma square, to no avail. The
people are defending the square.

21.00 GMT+2 Street battles outside Hotel Grande Bretagne. Extensive use of
tear gas; shock grenades.

20.35 GMT+2 Motorcycle rally just arrived from Thessaloniki at Syntagma.

19.50 GMT+2 Syntagma: Police squads' attack in front of the parliament on
the pretext of plastic water bottles throwing. Gathered people regrouped
and counterattacked: Almost with bare hands they moved towards cops,
pushed them back and put aside the four rows of railings; so they retook
the point in front of the Unknown Soldier Monument. Continually people
swarm in Syntagma square.

19.02 GMT+2 Athens: A photojournalist and a lawyer faced threats and
insults by uniformed police officers when they ran to help two more
detainees at the junction of Panepistimiou and Omirou streets. According
to the official police bulletin, 5 arrests and 17 detentions were made. At
the moment, lots of people are gathering at Syntagma Square.
Self-organized demonstrators are cleaning the square of chemicals with
buckets of water. There are also motorcycle rallies and occupations in
town halls in many Greek cities. For tomorrow, there is a call by various
collectives and neighbourhood assemblies all around Athens for the
encirclement of the parliament. A ship has already departed from
Heraklion, Crete, to Piraeus with organized demonstrators coming to join
the general strike tomorrow morning in Syntagma.

19.00 GMT+2 Heraklion, Crete Island: 2-3,000 protesters participated in
the rally. There were two pre-gatherings: at the Labour Centre and
Eleftherias Square. By 11.15 the demo began from Eleftherias Square. Also,
nearly 800 people participated along union fat-cats of the Labour Centre.
Most blocks were dynamic; flyers [trikakia] were thrown while slogans were
written on walls. In addition, eggs and red paint were thrown against
PASOK ruling party's offices. The demo was under close observation by cops
situated in nearby alleys. Several protesters from Heraklion had already
traveled to Athens; a gathering was called out at 17.00 in Eleftherias
Square, in order for people to go to the port to participate in tomorrow's
mobilizations in Athens —the afternoon's assembly meant to decide whether
the protesters will travel free of charge or not.

17.50 GMT+2 People are heading again from the square towards Amalias Street.

17.45 GMT+2 According to eyewitnesses, one police squad's officer threw
away his helmet and shield, giving up his democratic duty of massive crowd
suppression. Other police squad's cops have beaten him fiercely, forcing
him not to leave. Cops fired tear gas while a Red Cross [Erithros Stavros]
ambulance transferred the injured protesters and persons suffering from
respiratory problems to hospital.

17.39 GMT+2 A generalized pogrom across the area of Syntagma Square.
Police squads chase after demonstrators, pushing them back towards
Propylaea. Unconfirmed reports of 3 arrests, 18 detentions.

17.25 GMT+2: A few people remain in Syntagma Square holding banners. A
fire truck arrived to extinguish a fire coming from the van of a mobile
phone company. Reports suggest the van caught fire as the result of a
shock grenade. Clashes continue; demonstrators fight back against the
cops' chemical warfare by building barricades. There is an unconfirmed
number of detainees; correspondences refer to 4 arrested and 21 detained,
while the police report 4 cops injured.

17.00 GMT+2 Demonstrators move away, so the tension shifts to the lower
side of the square. Othonos Street has re-opened and is gradually filled
with people. The area is under continuous attack from tear gas and shock
grenades.

16.50 GMT+2 Syntagma: A lot of tear gas inside the metro station, from
Amalias Street. The majority of anarchists are not present at the time,
but comrades remain near Syntagma. Police raid en mass the upper side of
the square; melees between demonstrators and cops. From Othonos Street a
minor militant group with football fans' distinctive features throws
stones against the numerous repression forces. Several organizers of the
Syntagma Assembly, possibly along with far-right '300 Greeks', are
offering Maalox in order to protect people from chemicals.

16.40 GMT+2 Ongoing clashes; tear gas thrown now in front of the Unknown
Soldier Monument. The majority of the people have split away from the
place. It is estimated that approximately 2,000 remain gathered.
Nevertheless, demonstrators do not leave the square.

16.05 GMT+2 According to reports, three people have been detained at
Syntagma – one of the detainees is a trade union member.

15.57 GMT+2 Protesters are taking back the area around Filellinon Street,
at the lower side of Syntagma square.

15.45 Athens: Police squads evacuated Amalias Street by a savage chemical
warfare operation; asphyxiant gases were poured inside the metro station
and thrown even against the Medical Centres' tend in Syntagma square.

15.36 GMT+2 Ioannina: Strikers occupied the premises of the municipal
radio station (98.7fm). A popular assembly that was held in the central
square immediately after the demonstration, decided to undertake this
occupation in order to propagate this evening's assembly, at 8 pm,
concerning the organization of tomorrow's activities and the march itself
which will begin at 10.30 am from the Labour Centre of Ioannina.

15.25 GMT+2 Stadiou, Filellinon, Othonos streets, parametrically: People
surrounded and trapped in Syntagma Square resist by throwing stones, using
also fire extinguishers against police squads. Meanwhile, other protesters
surround the cops that attack the square. Demonstrators that head from
Syntagma to Propylaea can hear shock granades every thirty 30 seconds.

15.02 GMT+2 Syntagma: The police are throwing broken marble against
protesters.

14.55 GMT+2 Syntagma: The main demonstration block has been in the square
for approximately an hour. A total of 32 police squads, guarding the
parliament, are firing tear-gas extensively and attempt to break up the
blocks. For the past 40 minutes there are constant clashes on the lower
part of Syntagma Square, by Karageorgi Servias Street. There are also
clashes on Stadiou Street. According to people at the square, police are
firing tear gas every few seconds.

14.52 GMT+2 Cops raided Syntagma Square.

14.40 GMT+2 Maroussi, Athens northern suburb: At least 200 DIAS police
force motorcycles crossed Kifissias Avenue at high speed, defiantly
pressing horns.

14.32 GMT+2 Syntagma: A Greek flag is burning at the moment. Clashes take
place in Fillelinon and Voukourestiou streets and in front of the Hotel
Grande Bretagne.

About 14.30 GMT+2 Thessaloniki: Minister of Health Loverdos was blocked
inside 'Papafeio' Institution by a big number of demonstrators. Reports
mention that the minister managed to escape.

14.20 GMT+2 Protesters smash McDonald's; bonfires are lit and barricades
are erected; shock grenades, tones of chemicals. A lot of people take part
in the clashes. Flares, stone throwing up to Stadiou Street. Many
demonstrator blocks remain in front of the parliament.

14.10 GMT+2 Stone throwing against the cops that fire tear gas and shock
grenades; first clashes at the lower side of Syntagma Square. People split
and moved towards Stadiou and Panepistimiou streets, but other
demonstrators remain at Syntagma.

14.05 GMT+2 Syntagma, Othonos and Amalias streets: The fascist scums were
previously blocked inside 10, Othonos Arcade by at least 1,000 protesters.
Police squads tear gazed the area up to Filellinon Street. People
retreated to Syntagma Square, but gradually re-gather in front of the
parliament.

14.02 GMT+2 Prisoners' mutiny in the A wing of Koridallos men's prisons;
they refuse to enter the prison cells.

13.40 GMT+2 Syntagma: About fifteen neo-Nazis chanted fascist slogans near
the Citizens Service Centre at the corner of Othonos and Amalias streets.
Anarchists have rushed to repel them.

13.14 GMT+2 Patras: The march of 2-3,000 people completed without
problems. Before its beginning, comrades expropriated the banner of the
Labour Centre which attempted to lead the demonstration. Then, all blocks
passed by the Labour Centre's block which eventually withdrew completely.
About 300 anarchists of 'Ergaleioforos' and 'Perasma' groups participated
in one common block. Leftish parties have completed the rally in Georgiou
Square where the 'indignados' normally gather, while several rank'n'file
unions along with the anarchists' block terminated in Olgas square. There
is an ongoing occupation of the Labour Centre of Patras by
anarchists/anti-authoritarians.

13.03 GMT+2 Athens: The block of the sold-out General Confederation of
Greek Workers (GSEE) is reaching Syntagma Square, with approximately 5,000
demonstrators.

12.34 GMT+2 In Xanthi, northern Greece, there were three different bodies
of demonstrators. In the morning members of PAME occupied the Tax Office
building. In general, the participation both from the Resistance
Initiative of and the Labour Centre was lower in comparison to previous
strikes. As result of their attempt to seclude the trade unionists, the
Resistance Initiative's block marched without politically independent
workers, only with several members of the anarchist block on its side.

12.20 GMT+2 Athens: Approximately 15,000 protesters of various base unions
along with the anarchist block begin to march from the National
Archaeological Museum (Patission Street) towards Syntagma. The body of
demonstrators head to Kolokotroni Street. People are gathering at Syntagma
while protesters from other Greek cities also arrive there.

12.17 GMT+2 Thessaloniki: Demonstrators of rank'n'files unions joined the
strikers' pre-gathering at the junction of Egnatia and Aghia Sophias
streets. The march of approximately 10,000 protesters is heading from the
Labour Centre of Thessaloniki to Aghios Demetrius Street.

12.14 GMT+2 Mytilini, Lesbos Island: The rally of nearly 600 demonstrators
is completed. An open popular assembly will follow.

12.05 GMT+2 According to the announcement of the General Federation of
Personnel of Electricity Sector (GENOP/DEI: PPC), today between 11.00 and
15.30 blackouts of almost one and a half hour will be rotating at various
areas in Attica.

11.00 GMT+2 At the port of Pireus, since early in the morning, dockworkers
as well as members of PAME (of the so-called 'Communist' Party of Greece)
seized the ships' launchers, blocking the sailing from the central port of
the country. In Athens approximately 25,000 people have gathered in front
of the parliament, mainly demonstrators of PAME.

01.01 GMT+2 Prisons across Greece: Excerpt of a prisoners' text about the
mid-term memorandum — '[...] Prisons are a mechanism which is based on
poverty and reproduces inequalities and injustice. Prisons are an unjust
and inhumane mechanism which demoralizes and enrages people. It is a class
and antisocial mechanism which should be abolished. We know that there is
no potential for basic living problems' substantial solution inside
prisons because, as we said before, life behind prison walls becomes even
more difficult due to the crisis. Hence, the main slogan of inmates in
Greek prisons today is "Immediate release of all prisoners." Today our own
struggle cannot but be common. Common among all prisoners, common among
all the oppressed of all nationalities who are in the streets and squares
of Greek cities. Let's start here and now a real confrontational struggle
that will prevent the mid-term memorandum's voting. And the only way to do
so is to factually threaten the political and economic system's function.
[...]' This text is co-signed by a total of 468 women and men inmates of
the prisons: Koridallos (also F male wing), Ioannina, Avlona, Nafplion and
Corfu. At least 789 women and men prisoners decided to remain outside the
prison cells during the midday closing in: Koridallos (also A, D, F male
wings), Diavata, Amfissa, D1 male wing of Grevena. A total of 1,508
inmates will protest via abstention from mess in: Grevena, B male wing of
Larissa, Ioannina, Avlona, Malandrino, Diavata and Cassandra in
Thessaloniki. On the day of the mid-term memorandum's voting, the
prisoners protest against the financial and political impasse in which the
Greek society is situated, against the country's occupation by the big
Capital, against the parliamentary junta. This mobilization is also held
in solidarity with those who fight in cities' streets and squares across
Greece.

About 00.00 GMT+2 Arta, western Greece: Dozens of workers and
solidaritarians blocked the entry of the poultry cooperative's factory of
the city. They had decided to blockade the factory throughout the entire
48hour general strike, but the blockade ended at about 4.30 am. Reports
mention that lately the employers practice factual terrorism against the
workers, intimating them not to participate in strikes. The unpaid workers
of the cooperative invite all people to participate in the strike.

Transportation information for the 48hour general strike

[olympiaworkers] Locked out workers' anger grows at Canada Post

2011-06-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

Libcom.org Jun 16 2011

Following weeks of rolling strike action, Canada Post locked out its
50,000 workers on the night of 14 June. Here follows an exciting personal
account of workers fighting back and locking managers in in Edmonton.
Yesterday at the Post Office: June 15th 2011 By P. Gage

Last weekend Canada Post declared a series of service cuts that reduced
the Letter Carrier work week down to three days a week. On the first day
of the service cuts there were several early morning actions where
hundreds of Letter Carriers showed up for work and demanded to deliver
mail that had piled up inside their depots. In Edmonton several depots
took this one step farther by sitting down inside the depot and refusing
to leave. Several other depots rallied outside and marched around outside
their workplaces.

Following these actions the Canadian Union of Postal Workers held a
demonstration on Whyte Avenue where over 300 Postal Workers marched on
Depot 9, one of the largest and most militant depots in the city. When the
workers arrived at the depot they used the password on the door, which had
not been changed, to storm the depot with camera phones in hand. Again the
workers staged an occupation with management locking themselves in their
office to hide from the angry mob. Workers with cameras photographed piles
of mail stuffed into the depot exposing Canada Post Corporations lie that
there was no mail to be delivered.

Workers banged on the walls to make noise, flipped over trash cans to use
as drums and banged on metal racks with sticks. This episode went on for a
while before the crowd retired to Gazebo Park down the road for speeches
and a short rally. Although rowdy, the event was entirely non violent if
not very confrontational. Many workers said afterwards that this day was
the best moment of their lives, but the day was not even yet over.

Across town the facilities still operating were extremely tense with major
confrontations reported with management across the board often involving
groups of workers. As the afternoon wore on the public was told that the
Air Canada Workers were about to be legislated back to work. Emboldened by
this move and in retaliation for militant action across Canada by Postal
Workers the Canada Post Corporation locked the CUPW out at 9:15pm.

As the workers filed out of the plant they noticed that about ten members
of management were staying behind, many putting up tarps over the windows
so no one could watch them operate mail equipment. Incensed the crowd went
on to erect barricades out of metal construction fences at the back gates,
they turned around any trucks coming in and parked a 5-ton Canada Post
vehicle in the truck gate and padlocked the mail inside.

Several hours later the management team started sending their people out
to go home. The pickets locked arms and chanted "no one in, no one out".
Management was informed that the workers sincerely hoped management had
brought pyjamas. The bosses looked dejected. Then the police arrived. They
sincerely wanted to not have to intervene but said we couldn't hold
management forever and at some point it became unlawful confinement and
suggested we open up negotiations.

The pickets decided that an apology was in order from the Labour Relations
team and Senior Management. If one person from the top of the management
team came out and announced to the crowd that they were sorry for
disrespecting the picket line that evening and the previous week during
the rotating strikes the workers would not stop them from crossing the
line in order to leave. Management categorically refused. Our next offer
was to have them come out and walk through a small gap in our lines and
board cabs waiting outside. Their personal vehicles were to remain outside
and over 100 angry postal workers would see them off. We agreed on a path
of travel, the crowd agreed to stick to where they were and heckle.

When management left the building they quickly veered to the right and
made for a gap in the side of the building walking past their personal
vehicles but not entering them. The police officer in charge was visibly
displeased at them breaking the agreement. The crowd surged forward with
camera phones in front jeering and heckling the bosses as they left the
building. The event was rowdy but no one was even shoved, the workers
remained disciplined, not by some outside force but by their own rank and
file members giving each other encouragement.

This day was the high water mark in years of struggle for several
militants in the Post Office and there is no doubt we will carry this
story with us for the rest of our lives. But it is also just the
beginning. Yesterday workers got a taste of their own power and made the
first step towards taking back control over their own work. This won't end
with a new collective agreement and it will continue when we all walk back
into the post office with our heads held high.

Taken from the excellent Recomposition blog

[MI Weekly] Oly Arts, Activism, Music and News. Jun. 16- 22, Issue 12

2011-06-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

Media Island Weekly: Oly Arts, Activism Music and News. Jun. 16- 22, Issue 12
http://mediaisland.org, 816 Adams, St. SE, 360.352.8526
Weekly Calendar / Under-Reported / Local Review / Links / SUPPORT

Weekly Calendar: Arts / Activism / Music
Thursday, June 16: 1963 – Soviet Space Program: Vostok 6 Mission – Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
6:30- 9PM: Building a Village: A Community Design Charette for the OlyVBC, Urban Onion Ballroom, 116 E. Legion Way
The Olympia Village Building Convergence will be a community-wide placemaking event later this summer, slated for August 11-14 (save the date). At Thursday's Community Design session we invite you, our neighbors to listen, give input, visit and get involved at project sites around town. About our Facilitator: Mark Lakeman is a founder of the City Repair Project. Mark is a creative, urban place-maker in his commitment to the emergence of a thriving and sustainable cultural landscape.
8PM: Laurie Lewis & the Right Hands, Traditions, 300 5th Avenue SW
This is a Midsummer Celebration with Laurie Lewis on vocals, fiddle, and guitar. Her 30 year career has been stellar. She has won a Grammy ("True Life Blues: The Songs of Bill Monroe," 1997), and twice been named Female Vocalist of the Year by the IBMA (International Bluegrass Music Association). $20, $12 students/ low income
9PM: Industrial Revelation! The Eastside Club, 410 4th Ave. E

Friday, June 17: 1971 – President Richard Nixon declares the U.S. War on Drugs.
4:30- 6PM: Bring the Billions Home Anti-militarism Peace Vigil, Percival Landing 4th and Water St.
Every Friday as long as you are available. Plenty of signs and friendliness maintain this vigil for over 10 years. Also enjoy the Artesian Rumble Arkestra jazz band that performs here! http://www.olyfor.org
6PM: Karl Friedrich presents Wings: A Novel of WWII Flygirls, Orca Books, 509 4th Ave E,
Camas, Washington, author Karl Friedrich will present his novel Wings, an historical novel about women who served as air force service pilots in the Second World War. Publishers Weekly called it an "entertaining and spirited saga."
7PM: Community Discussion on forgiveness, Traditions, 300 5th Avenue SW
We never find true happiness until we experience forgiveness. How can we find it in our heart to forgive if the one who has wounded us won't change. This has both personal and societal implications as people and nations struggle under the burden of hatred. Come to this community discussion with Dr. David James and bring your stories of forgiveness to share.
7PM: The Kareem Kandi Band, The Royal Lounge,
8PM: Jabi Shriki, McMenamins Spar Cafe, 114 4th Ave E
8PM: Summer in the Sixties, Harlequin Productions 202 4th Ave E,
A harlequin original musical celebration directed by Linda Whitney Musically directed by Bruce Whitney
9PM: RELEASE PARTY FOR MS VALERIE PARK DISTRO'S "WELL, I DON'T SEE WHAT NOT" VOLUME 3 LETTERS CORESPONDENTS GUMAR AND IS MAGICAL MIDI BAND, Le Voyeur, 404 4th Ave E
9PM: Oxcart, System & Station, Big Wheel Stuntshow, the 4th Ave Tavern

Saturday, June 18: Global Day of Listening, http://globaldaysoflistening.org/
9AM- 2PM: West Olympia Farmers' Market, Garfield Elementary 300 Thomas Street,
* VEGETABLES * VEGGIE, FLOWER & HERB STARTS * EGGS * FLOWERS * * BAKED GOODS * COFFEE * KRAUT * PICKLES * CRAFTS * AND MORE! * All locally produced goods! * http://wolyfarmersmarket.org/
9- 5PM: 13th Annual Olympic Airshow, Olympic Flight Museum, 7637 A Old Hwy 99 SE.
Father's Day Weekend at the celebrated Olympic Air Show, hosted by the Olympic Flight Museum at the Olympia Regional Airport. http://www.olympicflightmuseum.com/
9- 4PM: Fertile Ground Neighborhood Yard Sale, Fertile Ground, 9th and Adams St.,
Behind the Olympia Timberland library. Call us if you're a neighbor and you'd like to sell things too! 360.352.2428
8- 3PM: Swede Day Midsommar Festival, Swede Hall, 18543 Albany St. S.W Rochester,
Thurston County Parks & Recreation 5K & 1 Mile Fun Run 8:00 to 10:30 Centralia Kiwanis Pancake Breakfast Adult $6 Child $3 Family $15 Noon to 3 PM Swedish Meat Ball Lunch $7 Child age 6 to 11 $4 Under age 6 free Hamburgers/Hot dogs Entertainment May Pole Dance – noon to 12:30 PM Scandinavian Dance with Nordic Exposure – 12:30 to 1:30 PM Independence Valley Players & Yvonne Ruege – 1:30 to 2 PM Kim's TaekwonDo Karate Demonstration – 2- 2:45 PM Noon to 4 PM Swede Hall Swede Day Midsommar Festival Station USPO Cancellation 7:30 AM to 3 PM ~ Happy Meadow Pony Rides ~ Vendors & Information Booths ~ 11 AM http://www.rochester-wa.com
11- 4PM: Olympia Really Really Free Market, Woodruff Park 1500 Harrison Ave. NW
Please bring things to give away, food to share, and/or games/musical instruments to play with others.
11- 5PM: Northwest Detention Center Solidarity Vigil, Capitol Way and State Ave.
CARPOOL from downtown Olympia (at the Olympia-Rafah Solidarity Mural) at 11 AM. Every month, Bridges Not Walls hosts a Solidarity Vigil at the Northwest Detention Center. The Northwest Detention Center is a for-profit prison, tucked away and hidden on the industrial tide-flat area of Tacoma, WA where over 1500 immigrants are detained.
12:30- 3:30PM: Beach Naturalist Program: Meet us at the beach!, Priest Point Park, 2600 East Bay Drive NE,
Come Explore Low Tides with Trained Beach Naturalists Beach Naturalists Can: * Help you find where beach animals live * Teach you how to keep the beach healthy * Answer questions about the beach and the animals that live there
5- 10PM: The MAIA Mural Project Cafe & One Big Drawing, Mariah Art School, 1403 Garfield Ave NW
Come enjoy a nice meal and drinks, live acoustic music will begin at 7pm! Susan Greene, director of ORSMP and Ziad Abbas, director of MECA will introduce the project and share images from past projects in Palestine as well as the process of ORSMP and the MAIA Water purification units. There will even be face painting and art activities! For more information about The MAIA Mural Project Café and One Big Drawing visit olympiarafahmural.org
6PM: Green Party Potluck and meeting, MIXX96 Meeting Room, corner of State and Washington
7PM: Kila (from Ireland) With The Burren Boys, Capital Theater, 206 5th Ave E, $15 OFS members, $20 general
7:30- 9PM: Masterworks presents Your Hit Parade, The Washington Center for Performing Arts, 512 Washington St SE,
Your Hit Parade was a broadly popular American program broadcast form 1935 to 1955 on radio, and 1950 to 1959 on television. Tonight's music harkens back to that era when, each Saturday evening. $27.50 adults, students/seniors $17.50
8PM: Jim Page with Fast Rattler,Traditions, 300 5th Ave.
"In the tradition of Woody and Dylan, he cuts right to the heart with music you actually enjoy listening to. I'm a longtime admirer." - Bonnie Raitt He is going to be joined tonight by Portland group "Fast Rattler" Fast Rattler started with the discovery of an old song book of Utah Phillips songs called "Starlight On The Rails."
8PM: Phoenix Farm Solstice Dance Party! ABC House
Sip from our decadent nectar bar featuring herbal elixers! Dance all night to booty beats from DJs Ira Coyne, Teddy K, Johnny Wulf, and Jeffrey Dahmer (of Ghost Feet)! A solstice dance party benefit for Phoenix Farm.
9PM: Georgy, Chung Antique, KAREN and Total Bros, The Northern, $5
9PM: KLONDIKE KATE! CURBSIDE AVENGERS ANA BENDER BAD FATE, Le Voyeur, 404 4th Ave E
9- 11PM: Jazz in the Cellar with Vince Brown & Jessica Blinn, Swing Wine Bar Cafe, 825 Columbia St. SW
Vocalist/ violinist Jessica Blinn will join Vince Brown for an evening of swing standards.
9PM: Func Pro Tunc, the 4th Ave Tavern
9PM: Mendozza! Mosquito Hawk! Bone Sickness! Blues Druid! The Eastside Club, 410 4th Ave. E

Sunday, June 19: Juneteenth, Freedom Day or Emancipation Day, commemorating the announcement of the abolition of slavery in the U.S. State of Texas in 1865.
9- 5PM: 13th Annual Olympic Airshow, Olympic Flight Museum, 7637 A Old Hwy 99 SE.
Father's Day Weekend at the celebrated Olympic Air Show, hosted by the Olympic Flight Museum at the Olympia Regional Airport. http://www.olympicflightmuseum.com/
9- 4PM: Fertile Ground Neighborhood Yard Sale, Fertile Ground, 9th and Adams St.,
Behind the Olympia Timberland library. Call us if you're a neighbor and you'd like to sell things too! 360.352.2428
2PM: Oly Coalition for a Fair Budget Meeting, Media Island, 816 Adams St. SE
5:30PM: Veterans For Peace meeting, Traditions, 300 5th Ave.
8PM: Hurray for the Riff-Raff, Sam Doores and the Tumbleweeds and guests, The Northern, $6

Monday, June 20: Earliest date for the summer solstice, longest daylight of the year.
6- 8PM: Next Steps Community Conversation at POWER Outage, Darby's Cafe, 211 5th Ave.
We will share a potluck meal at 5:30, childcare will be at the POWER office, down the street, from 6 - 8. Now that our state government has made it clear that while they are willing to spend tax dollars supporting wealthy individuals and corporations, but not the basic needs of Washington citizens, we need to come together as a community and plan.
6PM: KOWA 106.5 LP FM meeting, Media Island, 816 Adams St. SE
9- 11PM: Greta Jane Quartet, Royal Lounge, 311 Capitol Way N

Tuesday, June 21: Summer solstice occurs exactly when the Earth's axial tilt is most inclined towards the sun at its maximum of 23° 26'.
2- 4PM: TC Commissioners Meeting, Building 1 County Courthouse, 2000 Lakeridge Dr. SWLocal participation is the key to responsive government. The Thurston County Commissioners meet every Tuesday at 2 p.m. and welcome public comment at the beginning of each meeting. Click on this link to see this week's agenda. http://www.co.thurston.wa.us/bocc/agenda.htm
7PM: Olympia City Council Meeting, City Council Building.
Public gets 3 minutes to speak. Public encouraged to voice displeasure for the anti-homeless and anti-busking criminalization of poverty ordinances.
7PM: Busk-in! Oly City Hall, 900 Plum St SE,
Citizens in Violation of Illegal Laws [CIVIL] cordially invites all citizens to stand up against Olympia's repressive and unconstitutional anti-busking law. Come ready to play music.
9PM: RICKY STEIN, Le Voyeur, 404 4th Ave E

Wednesday, June 22: 2003 – The largest hailstone ever recorded falls in Aurora, Nebraska
Noon- 1PM: "STAND UP FOR PEACE" vigil, Sylvester Park,
As we have been doing every Wednesday since March 5, 1980. Please come for all or part of the hour. We provide plenty of signs and a friendly atmosphere. Oly FOR
6PM: Olympia Media Cooperative Meeting, Media Island, 816 Adams St. SE,
Are you a citizens journalist, videographer, editor or blogger here in Olympia? Come learn how through cooperation we can take on corporate media and win with your help.
7PM: Dinner For ALL, Traditions, 300 5th Avenue SW
A special invitation to the homeless in Olympia. Since there is more to community than owning a house or even living in one, many of us wish to break down any real or imagined barriers and to instead begin to establish bonds that bind all of us together as member of the same Olympia community. A dinner is being provided by members of the Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation to be enjoyed by any and all who show up. Please come to meet your neighbors and enjoy a potluck dinner.
8PM: Derek M Johnson, Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, Thee Source Ov Fawnation and Stasis Field, The Northern, $8
---###---

/ Under-Reported
Media Island's Weekly News Roundup:
June 18 and 19, Global Day of Listening
http://globaldaysoflistening.org/
A Simple Idea to Transform the Life of Our Cities
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/06/15-1
America's Next War Theater: Syria and Lebanon? Washington's War against the Resistance Bloc
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=25000
China treads new path in Libya
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/MF17Ad01.html
Weak Job Growth Leads to Further Rise in Unemployment
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/data-bytes/jobs-bytes/jobs-2011-06
Chris Hedges' Columns No Justice in Kafka's America
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/no_justice_in_kafkas_america_20110613/
UK ministers ignored 'peak oil' warnings, report shows
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/15/peak-oil-warning
A Visit Inside Colombia's Most Notorious Prison, La Tramacúa
http://afgj.org/?p=1207
Deal near on trade agreements, worker aid
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/deal-near-on-trade-agreements-worker-aid/2011/06/15/AGHg3XWH_story.html
Organization United for Respect at Walmart!
http://ourwalmart.org/
Fukushima: It's Much Worse Than You Think
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/06/16-4
An Exit Strategy from America's Longest War -- 40 Years of Disastrous Drug Prohibition
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/151300/an_exit_strategy_from_america%E2%80%99s_longest_war_--_40_years_of_disastrous_drug_prohibition/
---###---

/ Local Review
Media Island's Local Media Watch: http://www.netvibes.com/olyblogwatch#Prolific-Bloggers
Oly Blog: Hyper local news!
http://olyblog.net
Drops of Water Falling* (new)
http://dropsofwaterfalling.blogspot.com/
Disarm Now Plow Shares: Cruel and Inhuman Punishment
http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com/2011/06/01/cruel-and-inhuman-punishment/
Local Musician Richard Lopez Goes to Gaza on the Freedom Flotilla 2.
http://lopeztogaza.wordpress.com/
Janines little hollywood
http://janineslittlehollywood.blogspot.com/
Free Radio Olympia: Streaming music from 98.5
http://www.frolympia.org/
Shelton Progressive
http://sheltonprogressive.blogspot.com/
This is historic times
http://thisishistorictimes.com
Olympia Coalition for a Fair Budget
http://olycoforfairbudget.wordpress.com/
Last Word Blog: Daily Bleed
http://lastwordblog.blogspot.com/
POWER: Parents Organizing for Welfare and Economic Rights
http://www.oly-wa.us/power/
Olympia Power and Light
http://www.olympiapowerandlight.com/
---###---

/ Links
Links Independent News (worldwide)
http://www.indymedia.org/
http://www.globalresearch.ca/
http://www.counterpunch.org/
http://www.commondreams.org/
http://www.truthout.org/
http://www.alternet.org/
http://www.rawstory.com/
http://cryptome.org/
http://www.soaw.org/index.php
http://quixote.org/
http://www.nacla.org/
http://www.thenation.org/
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
http://www.cipcol.org/
http://www.enlacesamerica.org/
http://sites.google.com/site/transborderproject/
http://americasmexico.blogspot.com/
http://www.americaspolicy.org/
http://www.truthdig.com/
http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/
http://www.cindysheehanssoapbox.com/Home_Page.html

The following are good sites for video:
http://papertiger.org/
http://english.aljazeera.net/watch_now/
http://www.democracynow.org/
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html
http://therealnews.com/t/index.php
http://fora.tv/
http://www.edmaysproductions.net/
http://www.talkingsticktv.org/
http://insubordination.blogspot.com/
http://www.freespeech.org/

Women's Issues:
http://www.lifeandlibertyforwomen.org/
http://www.naral.org/
http://www.prch.org/
http://www.now.org/
http://feminist.org/

Native American Issues:
http://www.ienearth.org/
http://www.myspace.com/treatycouncil
http://www.blackmesais.org/
http://www.indianz.com/
http://www.indiancountry.com/
http://www.nativeamericacalling.com/
http://reznetnews.org/
http://www.blackmesawatercoalition.org/
http://desert-rock-blog.com/
http://www.honorearth.org/
http://www.indigenousaction.org/
http://www.leonardpeltier.org/
http://indigenouswomenforjustice.org/
http://www.shundahai.org/
http://www.humanrights.de/u/usa/AIP.html
http://www.redwiremag.com/
http://www.nativemovement.org/
http://www.welrp.org/
http://www.ipcb.org/
http://www.transformcolumbusday.org/
http://www.alaska.net/~gwichin
http://www.thundervalley.org/
http://carbon.cudenver.edu/fwc/
http://www.wsdp.org/

Organizations We Like:
http://www.freepress.net/
http://www.amnesty.org/
http://ccrjustice.org/
http://www.npsctapp.blogspot.com/
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/
http://www.wearenotyoursoldiers.org/
http://www.jubileeusa.org/index.php
http://www.nukefree.org/

Periodicals:
http://www.arc.org/C_Lines/ArcColorLines.html
http://www.zcommunications.org/zmag
http://www.adbusters.org/home/
http://www.dollarsandsense.org/
http://www.inthesetimes.com/
http://www.merip.org/
http://www.newint.org/
http://www.rethinkingschools.org/index.shtml
http://www.sojo.net/
http://www.theecologist.org/
http://www.progressive.org/default.htm
http://www.tricycle.com/
---###---

Donate at the Media Island PayPal link on the website!
We need volunteers. If you like this e-mail then please help to make it better! We need folks to send links of under-reported news to the weekly editor for that section to exist. We also need folks to send their events in. You can participate by coming to Media Island at 3PM, Wednesday nights or through the internet anytime you find something cool that you want folks to know about!
---###---

Media Island Weekly, is a product of Media Island International.

Our goal is to engage Olympia residents in their community and in supporting community events and progressive causes. We feel that change begins at home and believe that a strong community is a well organized and networked community. Our editorial collective meeting is Wednesday, 3-5PM at 816 Adams St. SE, feel free to stop in for inquiries or to get involved.

To get your event or news item on our calendar or under our list of links: E-mail us, weekly(at)mediaisland(.) org. If the event benefits a socially responsible organization or features local artists then you are likely to make it. Space is limited, if it is a continuous event then we may feature it at a later date or if your groups event doesn't make the front listing then it may make the back listings and we may feature your organization in later issues.

To get on our listserve you can sign up by clicking the link on the bottom or by e-mail us or going to our website. We currently go out to a private moderated list of 1,700 people and only use the list once a week.

General information about the mailing list is at: https://lists.resist.ca/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mediaisland Click the link to join or unsubscribe.

We are a 501c3 registered non-profit and would love for you to donate time or money. We would also like to hear your feedback and hope you get involved with any of the many wonderful community organizations in Olympia.

[olympiaworkers] Power strike ongoing in Karachi

2011-06-14T19:48:00.001-07:00

Libcom.org Jun 9 2011

A strike by workers at Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) has yet to
come to a resolution, and is disrupting industry across Pakistan.

Workers at KESC have been taking strike action for over a month, with
negotiations between the workers' union and management reaching deadlock.
A solidarity strike called by several political parties last week which
caused significant disruption to the local economy and which saw violent
clashes failed to move management to seeking a resolution.

The ongoing strike by the privatised power company's staff is causing
three to four outages daily, and power supply is likely to be badly
affected should the strike be ongoing during the summer rains.

Manufacturing is being affected across Pakistan as suppliers and
industrial sites around Karachi see local power outages going unfixed for
days.

The strike revolves around the retrenchment of around 4,000 KESC staff
fired earlier in the year, and has seen a relentless media campaign by
KESC management against the strikers. In return, a number of acts of
sabotage have been committed against substations and power lines to
strengthen the strike.

[olympiaworkers] Wildcat strike at Royal Mail delivery office gets the goods

2011-06-14T02:50:00.001-07:00

Libcom.org Jun 10 2011

Staff at a London delivery office have taken illegal strike action and won
the reinstatement of a fellow worker.

Around 90 postal workers at the N1 sorting office took unofficial strike
action yesterday in support of a longstanding worker suspended for "wilful
delay of the mail".

After three hours of strike action managers caved in and reinstated the
worker. "It's a complete victory," said Mark Dolan, a senior CWU union rep
in north London.

The Royal Mail saw more strike action today as engineers working for Royal
Mail subsidiary Romec struck at mailcentres around the country. According
to union officials, non-union staff refused to cross the picket at
Warrington mailcentre.

The CWU-organised ballot saw 92% of members voting for strike action on a
turnout of 75%. Further strikes are scheduled for Cardiff, Dorset and
London on Monday,

The strike relates to imposed changes to shift patterns pushed through
without consultation, and which have seen pay docked from workers for
non-compliance.

Meanwhile, London postal workers have voted to strike in an official CWU
ballot in a dispute arising from the closure of mailcentres in Vauxhall
and Bow. Thus far, Royal Mail mangement have refused to rule out
compulsory redundancies as a result of the closures. They are expected to
result in over 500 job losses.

Postal workers voted four-to-one in favour of strike action. CWU
divisional officer Martin Walsh said, "London postal workers have sent a
clear message to Royal Mail in this ballot that they will not be bullied
or intimidated by the company.

"Royal Mail's closure plans are a clear threat of compulsory redundancy
and this is completely unacceptable. In their race to push services to the
bottom Royal Mail will eventually provoke a reaction wider than London."