The Western Cape Informal Traders Coalition (WCITC) are meeting Mansoor Mohammed at 9h00 tomorrow, December 2, 2009, at the Cape Town Civil Centre, in the Mayor’s quarters on the sixth floor. The people that will be attending will be representatives of each area trading in Cape Town including CHATA (Concerned Hawkers and Traders Association) of Mitchells Plain Town Centre. This is another meeting regarding the memorandum given to officials by the WCITC. They traders gave officials seven days, but they responded within three. The memorandum states that there needs to be a moratorium on the evictions, confiscations, harassments and all other issues pertaining to the informal sector. Press is invited to speak with the Coalition starting at 8h30 in the cafeteria of the Cape Town Civic Centre.

For more information please contact Mischka Cassiem 0731286657 and/or Nkosinathi 0718268076

Pursuant to trade union Solidarity’s claims that Telkom plans to retrench 4000 contract and temporary employees, the company has released a statement saying that as part of the existing substantive agreement between Telkom and organised labour as represented by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), South African Communications Union (SACU) and Solidarity, there is a two-year moratorium (1 April 2009 to 31 March 2011) with regard to the forceful retrenchment of permanent employees.

Telkom currently employs just over 4000 temporary staff who have been acquired through service providers (labour brokers) to deal specifically with variations in our need for human resources due to cyclical business circumstances. The statement also indicates that there is a need to reduce temporary staff in certain business areas based on current and future business requirements.

Telkom says that it is not directly terminating the employees of the labour brokers but is reducing the levels of service provided by these suppliers. The process of reviewing the services rendered by third party suppliers will continue as the Company endeavours to drive down costs in our business operations and processes.

The temporary reduction programme is aimed at reducing the number of temporary employees and not full-time employees. Therefore, as stated above, the process does not have any impact on the agreed moratorium on the forceful retrenchment of full-time employees.

Telkom and organised labour have been in extensive discussions and a Task Team, comprising of management and organised labour, has been established to deal specifically with this matter. The Task Team will meet during the course of next week and recommendations will be made to Telkom’s Restructuring and Company Forums in order to ensure a coherent way forward with the support of organised labour.

As per an agreement with CWU, Telkom has agreed to defer the termination of temporary employees until 31 December 2009

Friends of Ariel are reporting today that the prosecutor and Ariel’s lawyer settled on a plea agreement of a Class 2 Misdemeanor (probably Criminal Mischief) that would carry zero jail time, one year probation, and payment of restitution of $5,500. In court today, this agreement was hashed out some formalities about money were formalized, and the next court date was arranged.

Ariel’s next and FINAL court appearance will be Monday December 21st at 8:30 AM in courtroom 472W.

We are relieved to hear that Ariel is going to stay free and safe. Unfortunately, there is still the large restitution which is of course an overwhelming financial burden.  If you are able to donate or throw a benefit or anything, any amount would be immensely appreciated.

Thank you so much for all of your support.

again:

December 21st, 8:30AM, Room 472W, 1435 Bannock St.

Please donate if you can!

friendsofariel@riseup.net to get up with us.

Check out Ariel’s dashing outfit over at The Boulevardier in ariel attack, part 3.

All of our best goes forth from this blog to Ariel and comrades in Denver.

Once again Bristol ABC is delighted to be helping distro ‘Certain Days: the 2010 Freedom For All Political Prisoners Calendar’, which this year has a focus on Indigenous Resistance.

Calendar back cover showing 12 months artwork

This beautiful 44-page calendar is packed with superb full colour artwork, alongside extensive writings on the prisoners, campaigns and communities represented. It includes artwork by Martin Mantxo, the former Bristol street artivist and co-founder of Kebele social centre, who has now returned to his native Basque country (where he remains extremely active and artistic!). If you are looking for the perfect politically conscious gift supporting some vital causes this solstice/new year, then this is it!

December 2010 artwork - by Jesus Barraza

Available from us for the great price of £7, or £8.50 incl p&p, get in touch quick to secure your copy. The calendar is also available in Bristol from Kebele Infoshop (same price), and from Booty and Harvest shops, or if you live further afield you can order by post – full details on our 2010 Calendar page. The calendar is also available online from Natterjack Press, based in Brighton.

For more details, calendar artwork, and info on the recipients of funds raised, see our 2010 Calendar page, and you can find even more detailed facts & writings at Certain Days.

from imc, 21 November 2009:

This is the call for Revolutionary Solidarity with our Swedish anarchist comrade Jonatan and for all fighting prisoners! Please spread it and publish it on your websites, blogs and lists.

from ABC-Orkan:

On the 14th of October 2008 the Swedish secret police SAPO raided 3 houses in different places in Sweden. They arrested the anarchist Jonatan and took different tools, political pamphlets, his computer and other personal stuff with them. After two months in custody he had his trial and was sentenced to about 15 Months in Prison, which he begins in October ‘09. He is accused of three ELF-Actions.

“Urban Sprawl is the destruction of the natural world in order to expand the cities according to the ever-increasing mode of development and progress. Middle class villas, luxury mansions and industry are threatening wildlife and endangered species, as this is present on a global scale, in every major or minor city, it is a threat to the continuation of life in this planet. It must be therefore be met with no-compromising resistance! It must be destroyed!” Jonatan.

On the night between the 20th and the 21st if April 2008 ELF claimed responsibility for three actions in Almhult/Sweden. A communication tower connected to the Department of Defence infrastructure was sabotaged with a firebomb, a building crane in a urban-sprawl project was sabotaged and a logging truck got its security ropes and hydraulic cables disabled. Nearly at the same time another ELF-cell has claimed responsibility for destroying a new luxury villa under construction in the forest by arson. This action Jonatan was accused of, too. But the case was dropped.

Especially when comrades take action on their own, without a group or community around them and are faced with repression its more important then ever to show them that they are not alone! In this and other cases, for example in the case of Michel Sykes, a 17 year old North American anarchist comrade sentenced for different ELF actions against urban sprawl to up to 10 years in prison, we have to be there, not just waiting on the outside.

We have to show that attacks by the state won’t crush our ideas and break us. It just gives us more rage and strength! But solidarity is not just mutual aid! Solidarity is a way to be a partner in struggle and crime, a way of showing your happiness about an action and deep affinity with a hostage of the state.

Its not just about giving a comrade infrastructural help. Its about showing the incarcerated that she/he is not alone and that her/his struggle was just the beginning and will be continued on the outside.

Build up Revolutionary Solidarity!

Let us make the time in prison for Jonatan and all the others as short as possible and fight for the freedom of all and against every kind of oppression! For social war, anarchy and total freedom!

Write letters of support and attack!

Jonatan Strandberg
BOX 248
593 23 Vastervik
Sweden

Information and contact:
http://noprisonnostate.blogsport.de

email:
freejonatan@yahoo.se, abc-orkan@riseup.net

http://www.wombles.org.uk/article2009115740.php 

Other comrade:   http://supportmichael.wordpress.com/about/

Solidarity with Six Nations and organizing against the 2010 Olympics.

For over a year now, AW@L has been devoting much of energy to our No Olympics on Stolen Native Land campaign. In October of 2008 we, along with some of our friends from Toronto, Guelph and London teamed up with a crew from Six Nations to blockade the Olympic Spirit Train. Just yesterday a friend and I (from KW ARA) worked with a group of youth activists from Six Nations to drop several No2010 banners at the Canadian Aboriginal Festival in Hamilton.

On December 27 in Kitchener, AW@L will be joined by friends from Six Nations and across the region for a rally, march and demonstration against the Olympic Torch Relay.

For AW@L Radio, every time we have spoken with any of the members of Yong Onkwehonwe United (YOU),  they have stressed how central the anti-Olympics campaign was to their work at Six Nations. When Missy Elliott and John Henhawk spoke at the KW Community Centre for Social Justice (kwccsj), as when they spoke at the Rally in Solidarity with Six Nations Land Rights, they stressed the importance of Indigenous-settler solidarity in practise against the Games.

It has been suggested by some media commentators, both locally and nationally, that the Olympics as a target of protest is merely an attention getter. While the international media spotlight is part of the reason this protest movement has become so heated, it is ignorant to suggest that it is the grassroots activists who are the ones that are taking advantage of the spotlight.

The feds, BC, Vancouver, VANOC and the Olympics’ corporate sponsors are using the Olympics to send a message to world; they are all good global citizens representing the alleged Olympic ideals of unity and excellence through competition.

Their $6 Billion media stunt is nothing but a hoax.

Part of the message of the 2010 Olympics is that Canada has reconciled with First Nations—that this is a post-apology Canada. They are trying to make the world forget that we are one of only three countries that have not signed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (DRIP). They are trying to make Canada forget that the Union of BC Indian Chiefs refused to endorse the Olympics, so instead a corporation called The Four Host First Nations, comprised by willing Band Council representation from four coastal First Nations, was created to host the Games. They are trying to send the same bullshit message that Harper espoused at the G20 in Pittsburgh when he stated that Canada has “no history of Colonialism.” But Canada does not only have one of the ugliest colonial histories in the world, in fact, in Canada colonialism is ongoing.

On the west coast, in so-called British Columbia, almost all of the territories are unceded, meaning that Canada has no treaties legitimizing their occupation of the land and their control of the resources. One result where treaties have been signed, recently in the case of the Nisga’a, has been the institution of private property on the res. In other places in the west, like in the land claims process across the country, the negotiations are dominated by the structures and limits imposed from the federal side, and only money in exchange for title and access to resources is on the table for “negotiation”.

And this is where it all comes back to Six Nations. The negotiations on land claims at Six Nations are a disgrace; at a total standstill with the feds being obstinate, disruptive and disrespectful. And with respect to those claims, AW@L is very cognizant of the fact that we live on Six Nations’ land.

KW is right on the Grand River, the Haldimand Tract, which is Six Nations territory. Like the Coast Salish Territories, the Grand River Territory is stolen land. The land on the coast remains unceded, and Kitchener-Waterloo, Brantford, Cambridge, and others are all partially on lands that have been illegitimately obtained through illegal surrenders.

VANOC parading the torch through the Grand River Territory, like the scheduled “Sunrise Ceremony” planned for Kitchener’s Torch stop, is an attempt to put a certain face on Canada’s relationship with Indigenous people, with Six Nations. Because, at AW@L, we believe in the importance of the stories we tell ourselves in our communities, we don’t intend to let that lie be told unchallenged. Not in our town.

We plan to support YOU and other activists from Six Nations in their stand when VANOC tries to bring the torch through the Six Nations res on December 21; we will support in whatever way we are asked. There the issue is sovereignty. Canada wants Six Nations to participate in the Torch relay as a Canadian municipality. But Six Nations is not a Canadian municipality. So we will support activists from Six Nations when they assert their sovereignty by saying that Canada and VANOC cannot dictate the terms by which an international symbol is paraded across Haudenosaunee territory.

Upriver from Six Nations, we are pleased to be able to say that we are working with our allies there to resist the Olympic Torch Relay when it comes through Kitchener, the last stop on the Haldimand Tract.

Some passing thoughts on the Berkeley and Santa Cruz occupations, from someone who was there briefly

It is no great secret that the terminal crisis of capitalism is before our eyes: the welfare state, the bitter product of two world wars, the child of Hitler and Noske, wherein a certain social safety net was provided for a measure of social peace, is in the process of being forcibly liquidated by the exigencies of an incresingly bankrupt social system. This much is evident to all those who have a basic thinking capacity. And thus, those who are protesting for a defense of this transient historical form will find nothing here of value, nor even anything here addressed to them. Such people can protest all day for a return to the glory days they imagine, but since these halcyon times never existed anyways, one can see they will certainly have no success now. Rather we address ourselves to those who believe in any fashion in the “terminus of student life”; but not of course to open something so worthless as a literary polemic or discussion, nor to presume to give prescriptions or orders — all we do here is attempt a “generalization of insinuation.” For, to be right means nothing, what is important is acting in consequence.

The movement has already become acquainted with its enemies: the unionist, student politician type being only the most insidious and veiled. In this we have had to re-learn one of the primary lessons of the Movement of 77: the actual complicity of all unions and parties, however radical sounding, with the cops. At Berkeley, this special type of policing seems far more prevalent than at Santa Cruz, along with the historical baggage of Savio and the Black Panthers weighing like a nightmare on this current generation, not to mention the tired front-group appeals to some sort of radicality concerning Obama, which is about as sad and deluded as one could get. Whereas at SC, these safety valves were less firmly in place, and the flimsy protection of last resort for American capitalism, that is to say the pathetic ideological detritus of Crimethinc, was more in evidence. At SC, the occupation of Kerr Hall marked a high point of initiative and offensive, as the protestors left their original building and took another. This perhaps shows the opportunities afforded by the “repressive tolerance” of the SC administration. Yet after a while even this was not enough — in truth, what was important was not so much the building taken, but the audacity of the participants. This energy was lost throughout the following time, as the occupation tried to sit still while the police sent informants and surveyed the area, readying a response. Meantime, a list of responsible, and because of that, totally boring and irrelevent demands were made. It must be said that these demands were far less reasonable than others that might be made, or even better, as happened previously, there could be a breaking with the logic of demands itself. For the demands, to our knowledge, were not fulfilled in any serious way, nor could they be by a terminally ill capitalism on life support — rather there was a recognition of force, and the peasant ferocity of the police quickly gave way to a leniency when a crowd was present (at all occupations, from what one can gather, but especially in the case of SC and Berkely). Thus far, no one has deigned to say what is explosive, or perhaps implosive, in the US situation — the knavery of the police (smashing that girl’s hand, rubber bullets, numerous instances of wanton brutality, etc.) is rather the product of a deep fear among the US elite: their army is twice defeated, collapsing from a morale and logistical perspective; the country is essentially bankrupt; the inequality, notable even for the sociologists, continues to grow. These times are revolutionary, it must be said, even if the people are not yet.

What must change this is willfulness. At SC, certain proposals were insinuated as to the hosting of a love-in, or auto-reducing, to open lines of supplies and communications. An interruption of the “business operations of the University” is only the beginning; far more important is to elaborate new forms-of-life to replace the old world. Against this, one excuses onself from acting with the old Situationist shuffle step of not wanting to be an avant-garde. But if not us, who, and if not now, when are we to taste the delights of communism? We must be honest here: if a radical nucleus allows pitiful demands to be made, for fear of being too radical, then they only allow themselves to become pitiful. At the end of the SC occupation, a clever choice was made to withdraw from Kerr Hall without arrests. But this is also because there was nothing worth getting arrested for, let alone dying for. And to think of the splendor of Exarcheia, and how Alexandros was killed there, and the comrades there fight the cops, fascists and state-controlled armed struggle groups every day and face a biopolitical democracy that has revealed the Nazism in its heart — no, no, there has been far too much shallow triumphalism thus far from the unions and bureaucrats, pleased to have stirred out of their sickbed for a breif while; we must be honest, film screenings commemorating what has happened thus far must be discarded, true revolutionaries can not be satisfied with what has thus far transpired, even indulgently — as if, should we wait long enough without acting radical, revolutionary things will happen on their own. It is time we leave the beautiful soul of the post-1972 Situationism that does nothing but criticize behind, in order to direct and succour the unthinking consciousness that tries to act. Communism can not be talked about, it must be really lived. This is the historic task, at once simple and complicated, of this, the final moment of world-spirit. The prisoners of Plato’s cave must be led into the sunshine of the revolution, not bantered with in the darkness of capitalism.

Ergo, really living communism must be our objective. As the Kerr Hall protestors perhaps discovered when they were leaving the building, what mattered was not a building they took, certainly not the architectural concrete disaster of Kerr Hall, but what was in their hearts. A wall falling down means nothing, so long as we believe in communism, since it was never a country, or a party, but a way of relating to one another. One slogan appropriate to this revelation might be the title of the latest Tiqqun re-issue in France: Everything has failed, long live communism!

Concordantly, writing petty trash about saving and defending the university, or any other number of things, must be forgotten. Our first task must be to liberate all of our prisoners: poor Doug and so many others. And just as in the prior form of spirit, factory strikes became qualitatively more revolutionary when they posed political, international goals, so must we leave behind the sad demands of students pleading and whining for integration into a failed social system: we should rather aim to punish the wicked, to deliver a crushing riposte to the infamous scoundrels and their arrogant pretensions of this depraved time. Moreover, in Greece, the Conspiracy of the Nuclei of Fire are our prisoners too; these poor kids framed by an increasingly repressive state need to be liberated. There is another ridiculous new arrest in the Tarnac affair, coming on the heels of an intimidation arrest in Rouen, which only underlines the petty malice of the government that its frame up there has collapsed. And the 9 defendants are still prohibited from seeing one another! This is all too shameful: let us call for an unlimited human strike, since the revolutionary general strike of the working class is no longer the proper figure of spirit, respond to a 32% increase with rent strikes, mass expropriation, sabotage of classes, refusal of alienated social relations — here’s hoping we collapse the dollar and further aggravate the crisis!

This is where our movement must go in order not to be covered with infamy; at the hour when the Greeks and Austrians descend en masse on American embassies — to help us, to magnify our blows! — to allow others to pose these shit demands and to do nothing crazy with these buildings when we take them is simply ineptitude plastered over with good will. Why are not the clocks spirited away, masks given to all, monogamy annulled, electronics banned, counter-intelligence set up to ferret out spies, look outs placed around the building, sorties mounted to harass the enemy, food expropriated, and surreptitious withdrawals enacted to commence the party somewhere else? We know the Commune is not dead, it is wherever we are: “The hopes and expectations of the world up till now had pressed forward solely to this revelation, to behold what absolute Being is, and in it to find itself. The joy of beholding itself in absolute Being enters self-consciousness and seizes the whole world; for it is Spirit, it is the simple movement of those pure moments, which expresses just this: that only when absolute Being is beheld as an immediate self-consciousness is it known as Spirit.” This, one suspects, is precisely what exists in Tarnac, in Exarcheia, in millions of hearts the world over, and it is this that the dying old world hates so much. As for us, it is time to start really living what we believe.

In closing, the future of humanity will be communist, or not at all. This current movement can remain ignominiously tied to a collapsing system, its leaders, unions, daily routine, practices, and parties, or it can desert this sinking ship, and accomplish greater things than anyone can presently imagine. These are the ethical, profoundly metaphysical choices of the moment: “There is no longer a problem of the Head. There is only a problem of the body, of the act.”

So that perhaps some on the campuses will know at least one of the authors of this piece, and better understand their encounters, which may have confused them, owing to the caprices of this strange war of shadows in which we find ourselves engaged, and thus remembering may change prior opinions that were formed, this is signed,

M.

Post-script: “In other words: the situation is excellent. This isn’t the moment to lose courage.”

This in today from Jobs with Justice National. Sort of fun to send in a nomination or at least to think about those who have screwed over the workers this past year. I am sure the list will be a long one and perhaps that is how the award should be given out. To everyone, person or company that has jerked us around, has laid us off, has fired us, have with held that which we work hard for has taken our tax money for their CEO’s and those who are just all around just capitalist pigs.

So put on your thinking caps, many have tried hard this year to do us in but as always workers and allies will continue to fight back.

bah, Humbug!!

Each year, national Jobs with Justice gives an “award” to the greediest, most cold-hearted company or person of the year. 

Past winners of this dubious honor include: Wal-Mart, George W. Bush, and Goodyear Tire & Rubber.  National Jobs with Justice is now accepting nominations for the 2009 “Scrooge of the Year” contest. We are collecting nominations this week and will start the election on December 7th.

SUBMIT YOUR NOMINATION TODAY!

2^nd Annual Birthday Party Bash! Happy Birthday to Susan Gaertner! Drop the Charges!

 It’s that time of the year again. Susan is hosting another birthday party – this time in St. Paul! Last year, we were outside her birthday party dancing up a storm at the Minneapolis Club in downtown.

Join the RNC 8 Defense Committee for another birthday celebration to remind her that we aren’t going away as long as she continues to prosecute the RNC 8!

When: Tuesday, Dec. 1^st - 4:45 pm Where: Mancinis 531 West Seventh St., St. Paul

 P.S. – If you need a ride to the party, RSVP at info@rnc8.org
—–Inline Attachment Follows—–

Defend the RNC8!
http://rnc8.org

http://www.myspace.com/rnc8support
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=33661596527
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=32230462519

Follow us on Twitter
http://www.twitter.com/defendthernc8

Sign a petition to Defend the RNC8 at
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/defendthernc8

Make your voice heard at the HIV/AIDS Town Hall in New York City

Great news! I wanted to make sure you were the first to know that a National HIV/AIDS Community Discussion has been scheduled for December 4th in New York City. We need your help to make sure that the new National HIV/AIDS Strategy addresses the needs of young people – all young people – in the United States!

Attend the HIV/AIDS Community Discussion
Alumni Auditorium
Columbia University
650 West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032
6:00pm-8:00pm

Make sure you RSVP for the event!

What Do I Have To Do?

Town halls have been getting a bad reputation during the health care debate this summer – but the good news is they aren’t actually so intimidating. Click here to learn more about how to participate in the HIV/AIDS Community Discussions. Take a friend – or nine! – who can support you, figure out what you want to say, and amplify your voice! (And then ask your friends to speak too!)

What Should I Say?

The most important thing is to talk about why you care about these issues and what should be included in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. We know you have your own concerns about HIV and AIDS in your community, and we encourage you to share your concerns at the community discussions. Many of you have personal stories or experiences that will be directly relevant – maybe it’s an experience with sex education (or lack of education) in school, maybe you or someone you know is HIV positive, or maybe you have a particular policy idea you want to share. Click here to learn about important policy goals which should be included in the Strategy.

The Obama Administration wants to hear from all of us – and it’s our diversity of ideas and experience that makes young people such a powerful force in this discussion.

Thank you in advance for the great work you are doing in your community and for bringing the needs of young people to the forefront of a National HIV/AIDS Strategy!

Peace,

Sarah Audelo
Program Manager, Youth Activist Network

PS – Once the town hall is over, send me an email (sarah@advocatesforyouth.org) to let me know how it went! Post a blog on www.amplifyyourvoice.org or write a letter to your local paper. Twitter about what you’re hearing and seeing using #HIVTownHall. Or, if you were not able to attend in person, you can still submit your suggestions online.

Comrade Ariel Attack will be back in court today in Denver. According to a posting on Denver Anarchist Black Cross Ariel may be entering a plea agreement before the judge and nearly wrapping up the legal battle.  Friends and defenders of Ariel still need to raise money:

“We still have a couple thousand dollars in legal costs to raise, so if you are able, please donate through paypal here.  You can also email friendsofariel@riseup.net about sending mailing orders, etc.”

To read about Ariel’s case and to follow all updates about the case click over to http://denverabc.wordpress.com/. Look to the left and you will see a section, Current/Open Legal Cases, and click on Ariel’s name.

For at look at Ariel’s great outfits for going to court click on over to The Boulevardier, and read court fashion and ariel attack, part 1, and court capes and ariel attack, part 2.

I know, I’ve been painfully neglectful of this blog since school started. As a Social and Cultural Analysis major at New York University, I’ve let the studies of the interdisciplinary interplay of intersectionality of race, class, and hegemonic artichokes interfere with Vocal Eyes.

On a side note, I’d like to mention my experiences with Students for Justice in Palestine. NYU’s chapter of SJP is at most seven or so people on its good days (but a vibrant group!), shadowed by at least three Jewish (predominantly Zionist)  powerhouse centers for University life. Most of our meetings we spend strategizing how to avoid Zionists coming to our events, flyering, and eventually kicking us out.

Special Thanks to naughton321 on Twitter

In all seriousness, in applying my studies of minorities and overcoming patriarchy to my passion and baby, why is it this way? Why do we accept our role as the subordinate “group”, people, or culture, and the negotiate our lives via this role in a statically patriarchal system? All our brainstormings do is acknowledge how the Zionists have won the power game, and we tip toe lightly around their rampant, uncalled for racism.

Perhaps, if we (as both SJP, Palestinian Solidarity, and Palestine) are to have influence, as organizations we need to disregard the power dynamic that comes with the occupier/occupied construct. Instead of tip toeing lightly, we need to reclaim sovereignty and let the chips fall where they may.

Trumka: Free Elections Not Possible Now in Honduras
Posted By James Parks On November 16, 2009 (2:26 pm) In
on AFL-CIO blog.

The continued repression of trade unionists by the regime set up in Honduras after a June 28 coup makes it impossible to hold free and fair elections, says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka in a Nov. 13 letter to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Trumka points out that delegates to the AFL-CIO Convention in September passed a resolution calling on the U.S. government to suspend military aid to Honduras until President Manuel Zelaya, the democratically elected leader, is returned to office and human and trade union rights have been restored.

With an illegitimate government in power, scheduled elections later this month cannot be fair, free and open, Trumka says.

and still no cops charged over his death

Lots of waffle in the media over the last week about the G20 policing, and various reports and reviews into their misbehaviour have been announced. But a stunning lack of comment or news relating to Ian Tomlinson, the newspaper vendor who died at about 7.25pm on 1 April 2009, just a couple of minutes after being viciously assauled from behind by a member of the Territorial Support Group (TSG – hardcore riot cops).

Ian Tomlinson was dead about 5 minutes later

The Tomlinson Family Campaign have called a candlelit vigil for Tuesday 1 December, from 6pm, at Royal Exchange, by Threadneedle St, London EC3V. This will be exactly 8 months since Ian Tomlinson died. The Family had this to say: “Ian died in tragic circumstances, an ‘innocent passerby’ trying to get home, after a police assault at the G20 protests on April 1st 2009. Eight months on our family are preparing for our first Christmas without him and still waiting for justice. We have been grateful for public support this year and would like an opportunity to hold this public memorial gathering to remember Ian, with our friends and supporters around us. We ask that those who attend please wear black as a mark of respect and remember that this is peaceful event.” You can send messages of support – see the Family website.

8 months after his death no cop has been charged. The IPCC report into his death was passed to the CPS in early August, nearly 4 months later no cop has been charged. A cop from the TSG was interviewed under caution ages ago on a possible charge of manslaughter, and has been suspended (on full pay we believe) since mid-April. But 8 months after the assault, he has not been charged, despite numerous witnesses and masses of footage showing him assault Ian Tomlinson.

Imagine if YOU went on a protest, and in front of a load of witnesses and cameras, assaulted a cop from behind, who died within a couple of minutes just a few meters from where you assaulted him. Do you think that 8 months on YOU would still not have been charged, and would not have been held on remand that whole time? Of course you wouldn’t. You would have been tried, jailed, and no doubt the media would be calling for the death sentence for you. So, do the police get away with killing people? The answer…is apparently YES. Do they get away with cover-ups and misleading the public? The answer…is apparently YES.

There is an excellent timeline leading up to Ian Tomlinson’s death on the Campaign’s website, and a briefing (pdf file) from Inquest in June that raises some very disturbing questions about the police cover-up and the subsequent actions of the IPCC. Justice in Britain? Don’t think so!

WE stand in solidarity today with the students, staff, and faculty members at the University of California campuses who have been occupying campus buildings in protest of the 32% fee increase, budget cut, laying off of the workers, and loss of quality public education and those who are engaged in the similar struggle at Michigan State University. Your movement not only makes visible the demand that the public university be valued and maintained as an important site in society for the redistribution of wealth and privilege. The occupations of the buildings at UC Davis, Berkeley, Santa Cruz, and San Francisco State University–along with other acts engaged in solidarity–have proved that the students can free time and space in the midst of today’s corporate university. It is the time and space stolen from that university that matters, the kind of university that is so bent upon making profits while sacrificing our desire to learn and think, exploiting its workers, especially the vulnerable ones such as the non-tenured faculty members and the non-teaching workers on campus, and, worse still, demanding that its students must pay money for the kind of education that teaches us to be a “competitive labor,” a euphemism for a calculative, lonely individual subjected to the forces of capital and shackled to student loans. In many ways, if we may quote from the Zapatistas, we are you here in Okinawa. Our budget has been cut annually, our part-time language teachers lost their jobs or teaching hours, our curriculum began to include classes on job search, job interviews, and individual psychological health. “Hell no,” (“jodan ja nai” in Japanese or “yukushi” in Okinawan) has been our response, so we pitched tents on campus last winter to make visible the same tension, to steal time and space on this island. It is in this spirit that we show our support and solidarity to the students, faculty, and staff members at the UC and Michigan State University.
You and we are the beginnings!
November 27, 2009
Concerned Students at the University of the Ryukyus
Project Disagree

source  website.

I am not attracted to elitism; I want to hear solidarity

I really don’t like to hear talk about selecting the “top 10%” or managing some people, they so-called talent, differently from other people.  I am not attracted to elitism; I want to hear solidarity.  Partly this is a matter of temperament.  It is also a matter of technicalities.

I am a personnel psychologist by trade. I do selection.  Y0u can’t position a business to work for only a few people!  You will not be able to secure your labour supply.  And without a constant supply of labor, you simply don’t have a business!  So please, don’t be disloyal and ridiculous!

That doesn’t mean we treat every one the same though.  We treat them differently because their needs are different.  But we are equally committed and loyal to everyone.

Can’t do it?  Yes, we can.  I’ve run a class of 850+ students and I was able to run it with a policy that “each and every student was as important as the next.”  You can run you much smaller outfit with the same even handedness.  I am not going to let you off!

As it is Sunday, a motivational story

The Two Pots

A Water Bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole, which he carried across his neck.

One of the pots had a crack in it while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full.

For a full two years, this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots of water to his house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After 2 years of what it perceived to be bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. “I am ashamed of myself, because this crack in my side causes my water to leak out all the way back to your house.”

The bearer said to the pot, “Did you notice that there are flowers on your side of the path, but not on the other pot’s side? That’s because I have always known about your flaw, so I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you water them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, we would not have such beauty.

Love us for our unique flaws

Each of us has our own unique flaw. But it’s the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding.

We’ve just got to take each person for what they are and look for the good in them.

Found on wow4u

From blog pix

About a week ago I received an interview request from Rebekah Tucker, the Editor of Longwood University’s newspaper, the Rotunda. She sent a few questions along and I thought it would be appropriate to post the answers here. They are good and important questions, and I’m glad that people like Rebekah are wrestling with them, just as I am.

1. How did you start in your activism with PEG?

Actually, the PEG project kind of fell into our laps. We went to Guatemala on our honeymoon, not looking for a project, but while we were there we learned some things that led us to take action. We learned about the conditions that children were studying and living in and the lack of much government funding for education. We also learned how far US dollars can go in Guatemala, and it occurred to me that I have the opportunity, as a musician, to speak to thousands of people each year, and we might be able to raise some money to help out. Five years later we had raised about $100,000, which in Guatemala is a lot of money (we built a one-room school there for $2500 about three years ago).

I should be clear, though, that I don’t think we have to go to distant lands to find meaningful work to do. We just have to pay attention to what is in front of us and look for ways to be of service and have an impact.

One way to explore your own calling is to ask yourself three questions: first, what really winds you up? What frustrates you when you read the news, or gets you really excited? That’s another way of asking “what are you passionate about?” The next question is “What is one small thing you can do about it?” I choose the word ’small’ intentionally. Don’t start huge, just think of one small thing you can do and let that lead you to the next small thing. We can become overwhelmed and immobilized if we take on too much, but all big things are made up of small things. Doing something small is much better than doing nothing, and may even be better than trying to do something big. After you do it, you ask the third question, which is “What next?”

2. What do you feel are the benefits of working with the project (or any project like this)?

If you’re asking about the benefits for me, I think the main benefit is that it has been extraordinarily empowering. No one can tell me I can’t change the world. There are kids getting an education in Guatemala who likely would not be if it weren’t for PEG. When people start talking about “changing the world” there are always people who will roll their eyes and say that it’s naive to talk and think like that, people who argue that idealism evaporates with a dose of “real world.” They’re wrong, though. It may be naive to think you can *fix* the world, but it’s not naive to think you can change the world. In fact, it’s just the opposite: it’s naive to think you could possibly be in the world and NOT change it. Everything you do changes the world whether you like it or not. It’s just a question of deciding what matters, and which changes you are going to make.

One other simple answer to your question, though, is “Because it feels good.” Sharing what we have deepens our connectedness, and turning outside of ourselves can heal our isolation. It’s the right thing to do, but it’s not just about self-sacrifice; giving of yourself has deep benefits for you too.

3. What are some of the best ways you’ve found to spread the word to others about this project?

Part of what led me to take this on was the fact that because I was a performer I had a public platform to reach people, but the truth is that if you have something worth saying, there are always places to say it and people who are interested. Civic groups like the Rotary Club, Kiwanis or the Lions, church groups, school groups, various publications, etc.— they’re all looking for compelling stories. One myth about this kind of work is that you have to be somebody special to do it. You don’t. Or maybe you do, but you ARE somebody special. The famous Catholic activist Dorothy Day said “Don’t call us saints, we don’t want to be dismissed that easily.” I think what she was getting at was that if we leave good works to heroes, then that gets us off to the hook from actually doing anything. The work gets done by the people who decide to do it.

4. What advice would you give to someone who is looking to start a project like this, or give to a project like this?

I guess I’ll answer that in two parts. My advice to someone who is interested in starting a project like this is twofold: First, pay attention. Find mentors who are doing work similar to the work you’re doing and ask for their guidance. Study up on your topic and on how others have approached these kinds of issues, investigate what the main pitfalls are, some common errors, etc. Mentors will save you from making some mistakes so that you’ll have the opportunity to make other mistakes.

My other tip contrasts with the first one, though. Namely, go for it! If you wait until you have it all figured out, you’re an expert on the subject, you have the perfect plan, etc., you’ll never do anything. Jump in and make some mistakes and get some things done. A lot of people focus on the errors, and there can be some costly goofs in this kind of work. It seems to me, though, that apathy and inaction are much bigger problems than faulty models. It is true that in the worst case scenario you can make things even worse, but I think it’s also true that if you set out to have a positive impact and you’re fairly smart about how you approach things, you’re likely to have a positive impact.

In terms of giving, I think that’s great too. Not everyone is called to go into the field and spend their lives in community with poor and oppressed people, but there are a lot of other ways to be involved too. One of my favorite quotations is from Howard Thurman, who was a big influence on a young Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He said “”Don’t just ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and then go and do it, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” I like that a lot. I think what he was trying to say was that we have different callings. What brings you joy? How can you use that to make the world a better place? The answer may not be obvious, but if you keep chewing on it some creative possibilities may emerge. I know some guys who are passionate about cycling and they raised over $12,000 for PEG a couple of years ago cycling across Canada in a fund raiser. They had a blast, and they also had a huge impact on a school in the village of Chacaya, Guatemala.

5. Why do you feel it is important to give to those less fortunate, especially during the holiday season?

Honestly, I don’t use the term “less fortunate” much. Honestly, I’ve learned a lot about community and how to live a full life from people who have a lot less than I do materially. I think we’re pretty impoverished in the western world in terms of community— we’re n less fortunate in some ways, and ironically, we’re burdened by our comfort. Sometimes it isolates us and we end up lonely in a way that I rarely see in the third world (or “the two-thirds” world, as some friends of mine say— the vast majority of the people in the world live in what most people in the U.S. would consider abject poverty). Still, the poor are definitely less fortunate in a lot of ways, so it’s not really an inaccurate term. One of the main differences is that there is no ‘net’ for people living in poverty. I’ve got a credit card, and if things go terribly wrong for me, I can run up the bill, I can call the U.S. Embassy for help getting home, I can turn to my family, etc. Yesterday I squatted in the home of a hand loom weaver in rural Andhra Pradesh, India. It’s a mud hut with a palm frond roof. His whole family lives on about 80 cents a day, and if a storm blows the hut away, he can’t go to Home Depot and get building materials. If he gets sick, he simply can’t go to the doctor because he can’t pay the doctor. If he has no money, he has no food. On the other hand, he has a village where everyone knows everyone and helps when there is a problem. I think it’s important for all of us to know each other and to deal with each other compassionately. Caring about each other, learning from each other, saving all the energy we expend trying to avoid the harsh realities of our privilege— engaging with each other makes all of our lives richer.

The holiday season is about faith, arguably for everyone— though for some it is religious faith and for others it is faith that our happiness lies in ’stuff.’ I think that giving, in whatever way you feel called to give (money, time, compassion, etc.), deepens our connectedness with each other, and that is holy in and of itself. My own religious faith tradition teaches that this is also a very basic way in which we can be faithful to God, and in fact all of the world’s major religions teach that, so it makes good sense that especially at this time of year we should give some thought, prayer and action to these questions.

From blog pix

a hand loom weaver I visited yesterday

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“In 1977, the General Assembly called for the annual observance of 29 November as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People (resolution 32/40 B). On that day, in 1947, the Assembly adopted the resolution on the partition of Palestine (resolution 181 (II)).

In resolution 60/37 of 1 December 2005, the Assembly requested the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People and the Division for Palestinian Rights, as part of the observance of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on 29 November, to continue to organize an annual exhibit on Palestinian rights or a cultural event in cooperation with the Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the UN. It also encouraged Member States to continue to give the widest support and publicity to the observance of the Day of Solidarity.”

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source:

http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/palestinian/index.html

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This statement from the Worker Solidarity Alliance:

Defend and Expand the Campus Occupations!

The campuses of California have been occupied. Last week, the California Board of Regents decided to impose a 32% tuition increase across the University of California system. The Workers Solidarity Alliance extends its full support and encouragement to the students and workers across the state of California in their struggle against astronomical tuition increases and other measures intended to make workers pay for a crisis deliberately manufactured by the state’s governing elite.

We take inspiration from your fight and the militancy of your struggle and wish to offer any support and solidarity we are able. We are not directly present in your struggle, and as such, we do not have the understanding of what is happening that you do. However, as an organization of working class militants engaged in struggles across North America over the last 25 years, we would like to humbly offer not only support, but also analysis based on our own experiences as you move forward in your fight. We welcome communication from you about ways we can support you, about lessons you suggest we take away from your struggle, and above all about how to extend this struggle further.

As news reaches us, we find it encouraging to hear that the struggle so far has been waged in a largely libertarian and confrontational manner – through general assemblies and direct actions, such as occupying buildings or physically preventing the departure of the UC Regents from their meetings. We believe that it is vital to avoid efforts by politicians and other opportunists to mislead the students and workers into narrow reformism or accommodation into existing channels for dissent that demobilize social movements, such as lobbying, waiting for the next election cycle, or waiting for a bailout from the federal government. Your time is now.

While we applaud the bravery of those who risk life and limb confronting the forces of the capitalist state on the picket lines and behind barricaded doors, we also feel we must soberly acknowledge that this is a defensive struggle. Unless the struggle rapidly grows, it will succumb to repression and dissipate in the face of meager concessions.

It is therefore necessary to expand the struggle, building on the already impressive participation in the struggle by working class students. We lack specific first-hand information, but it seems that the racial and ethnic composition of the movement fairly closely parallels the composition of California’s working class. Workers of color have once again taken the lead in advancing the class struggle in the United States. It is unclear to us if white workers and students are participating in the struggle in proportional numbers, but we hope that white activists play a role in building class unity across racial lines- encouraging participation by working class whites and actively combating any attempt by the bosses to offer a white supremacist sweetheart deal to white workers or students in order to split the movement. The involvement of large, diverse working class base of previously “unpoliticized” students and workers is the only hope for success in the struggle, and also the only real defense against the repression of the movement.

One urgent task facing the movement is the extension of the struggle to the California State University campuses. If resistance to the longstanding efforts by California’s owning classes to shrink and privatize both university systems is to be successful, the students and workers of all the state’s educational systems must stand united.

Beyond broadening participation in the struggle amongst students, it is necessary to expand the struggle to other sectors of the class that are impacted by the crisis. We are heartened by the level of collaboration between students and workers in the current struggle. We understand that this has been possible because of years, if not decades, of committed organizing between these two groups. This sort of solidarity is critical if we are to avoid co-optatation as an “interest group” grasping for benefits from the bosses. Capital can shift resources around to buy off and pacify one particular group. It cannot deal with one big union of all the workers, all in support of each others’ demands. The long, slow work of mass organizing must continue even in the period between mass mobilizations to build this solidarity and prepare for the next upsurge.

In discussions among ourselves based on your struggles and our own experiences, we brainstormed a few possible ways to expand the struggle to other sectors of the class. Some of the ideas we discussed are for working students to mobilize their coworkers around workplace demands, for masses of students to shut down businesses in areas around the universities that depend on students as customers, or for workers to stage job actions in workplaces that employ large numbers of students. You could also seek out workers currently on strike in other sectors of the economy, or ask your parents to participate by coming to campus or organizing their coworkers in support of your demands. Another option would be to bring non-student coworkers to assemblies on occupied campuses, as was common in the 1968 uprising in France. You might also look for inspiration to the 2004 Quebec student strike, in which student unions shut down university campuses and then went on the offensive by creating “economic perturbances”- student occupations of critical sections of the highway system, the port, and the stock exchange. The Quebec students won their demands with broad support from unions and workers across Canada.

If steps are taken to deepen and expand the struggle, the student-worker movement will be able to extract more favorable concessions from the California capitalist class, hopefully leading to the removal of some of the burdens they seek to foist on UC students and workers. However, we believe that it is only through a national, if not international, unification of campus struggles that the worker and student movement will be able to move from a defensive position against Neo-liberal cutbacks to more radical changes in the education system such as democratic self-management of the universities by the staff, faculty, and students.

We ask respectfully if the California students in action consider it a useful step to form a national student union to coordinate solidarity not just between campuses and across states, but with students and workers around the world. We see this as a potentially useful tool for advancing your struggle, the struggle of working class students, and of our class generally. We welcome response on this suggestion from the students in action now, and would be happy to collaborate to the best of our ability on such a project.

The protests and occupations of the students and workers in the UC system have captured the attention of the nation. Such actions speak louder than our words ever could. We hope that your example will find its echo on campuses and workplaces around the world as university managements and governments seek to further immiserate workers and students in the wake of the economic crisis. Furthermore, we hope that your fight in turn inspires workers in other sectors across the world to organize and fight their own bosses, building the unity and strength of the workers movement in preparation for the long years of struggle ahead, and setting the stage for the eventual global workers revolution.

The Workers Solidarity Alliance
http://workersolidarity.org

The Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawai‘i at Manoa expresses its strong support and solidarity with the University of California students, faculty and workers who demonstrated their opposition to the UC Board of Regents’ decision to raise student fees 32 percent last week. We extend our grateful appreciation and commend them for their individual and collective actions to ensure that public higher education remains accessible for minority and low-income students. Their defiant and determined efforts to maintain control of their university are a much needed response to the devastating budget cuts that threaten the future of public education across the nation. That their protests are occurring this fall term is especially significant since this year marks the fortieth anniversary of the establishment of ethnic studies following a five and a half month long student strike at San Francisco State University. We call on our colleagues at other colleges and universities to stand in support of the UC students, faculty and workers.

This is a statement of solidarity with UC students and workers from the Workers Solidarity Alliance.

———
Statement of the Workers Solidarity Alliance In Solidarity With the California Worker/Student Movement

Defend and Expand the Campus Occupations!

The campuses of California have been occupied. Last week, the California Board of Regents decided to impose a 32% tuition increase across the University of California system. Forced to quit school or go even deeper into debt, workers and students across the state have responded by launching widespread protests against the new austerity measures in the best tradition of working class resistance – with pickets, barricades, and occupations. The Workers Solidarity Alliance extends its full support and encouragement to the students and workers across the state of California in their struggle against astronomical tuition increases and other measures intended to make workers pay for a crisis deliberately manufactured by the state’s governing elite.

We take inspiration from your fight and the militancy of your struggle and wish to offer any support and solidarity we are able. We are not directly present in your struggle, and as such, we do not have the understanding of what is happening that you do. However, as an organization of working class militants engaged in struggles across North America over the last 25 years, we would like to humbly offer not only support, but also analysis based on our own experiences as you move forward in your fight. We welcome communication from you about ways we can support you, about lessons you suggest we take away from your struggle, and above all about how to extend this struggle further.

As news reaches us, we find it encouraging to hear that the struggle so far has been waged in a largely libertarian and confrontational manner – through general assemblies and direct actions, such as occupying buildings or physically preventing the departure of the UC Regents from their meetings. We believe that it is vital to avoid efforts by politicians and other opportunists to mislead the students and workers into narrow reformism or accommodation into existing channels for dissent that demobilize social movements, such as lobbying, waiting for the next election cycle, or waiting for a bailout from the federal government. Your time is now.

While we applaud the bravery of those who risk life and limb confronting the forces of the capitalist state on the picket lines and behind barricaded doors, we also feel we must soberly acknowledge that this is a defensive struggle. Unless the struggle rapidly grows, it will succumb to repression and dissipate in the face of meager concessions.

It is therefore necessary to expand the struggle, building on the already impressive participation in the struggle by working class students. We lack specific first-hand information, but it seems that the racial and ethnic composition of the movement fairly closely parallels the composition of California’s working class. Workers of color have once again taken the lead in advancing the class struggle in the United States. It is unclear to us if white workers and students are participating in the struggle in proportional numbers, but we hope that white activists play a role in building class unity across racial lines- encouraging participation by working class whites and actively combating any attempt by the bosses to offer a white supremacist sweetheart deal to white workers or students in order to split the movement. The involvement of large, diverse working class base of previously “unpoliticized” students and workers is the only hope for success in the struggle, and also the only real defense against the repression of the movement.

One urgent task facing the movement is the extension of the struggle to the California State University campuses. If resistance to the longstanding efforts by California’s owning classes to shrink and privatize both university systems is to be successful, the students and workers of all the state’s educational systems must stand united.

Beyond broadening participation in the struggle amongst students, it is necessary to expand the struggle to other sectors of the class that are impacted by the crisis. We are heartened by the level of collaboration between students and workers in the current struggle. We understand that this has been possible because of years, if not decades, of committed organizing between these two groups. This sort of solidarity is critical if we are to avoid co-optatation as an “interest group” grasping for benefits from the bosses. Capital can shift resources around to buy off and pacify one particular group. It cannot deal with one big union of all the workers, all in support of each others’ demands. The long, slow work of mass organizing must continue even in the period between mass mobilizations to build this solidarity and prepare for the next upsurge.

In discussions among ourselves based on your struggles and our own experiences, we brainstormed a few possible ways to expand the struggle to other sectors of the class. Some of the ideas we discussed are for working students to mobilize their coworkers around workplace demands, for masses of students to shut down businesses in areas around the universities that depend on students as customers, or for workers to stage job actions in workplaces that employ large numbers of students. You could also seek out workers currently on strike in other sectors of the economy, or ask your parents to participate by coming to campus or organizing their coworkers in support of your demands. Another option would be to bring non-student coworkers to assemblies on occupied campuses, as was common in the 1968 uprising in France. You might also look for inspiration to the 2004 Quebec student strike, in which student unions shut down university campuses and then went on the offensive by creating “economic perturbances”- student occupations of critical sections of the highway system, the port, and the stock exchange. The Quebec students won their demands with broad support from unions and workers across Canada.

If steps are taken to deepen and expand the struggle, the student-worker movement will be able to extract more favorable concessions from the California capitalist class, hopefully leading to the removal of some of the burdens they seek to foist on UC students and workers. However, we believe that it is only through a national, if not international, unification of campus struggles that the worker and student movement will be able to move from a defensive position against Neo-liberal cutbacks to more radical changes in the education system such as democratic self-management of the universities by the staff, faculty, and students.

We ask respectfully if the California students in action consider it a useful step to form a national student union to coordinate solidarity not just between campuses and across states, but with students and workers around the world. We see this as a potentially useful tool for advancing your struggle, the struggle of working class students, and of our class generally. We welcome response on this suggestion from the students in action now, and would be happy to collaborate to the best of our ability on such a project.

The protests and occupations of the students and workers in the UC system have captured the attention of the nation. Such actions speak louder than our words ever could. We hope that your example will find its echo on campuses and workplaces around the world as university managements and governments seek to further immiserate workers and students in the wake of the economic crisis. Furthermore, we hope that your fight in turn inspires workers in other sectors across the world to organize and fight their own bosses, building the unity and strength of the workers movement in preparation for the long years of struggle ahead, and setting the stage for the eventual global workers revolution.

The Workers Solidarity Alliance
workersolidarity.org
http://workersolidarity.org/?p=505

from: the california professor blog

Here is a statement in support of mobilization at UC, started by Peter Hallward (Middlesex University, London), which is currently gathering signatures:

We the undersigned declare our solidarity with University of California students, workers and staff as they defend, in the face of powerful and aggressive intimidation, the fundamental principles upon which a truly inclusive and egalitarian public-sector education system depends. We affirm their determination to confront university administrators who seem willing to exploit the current financial crisis to introduce disastrous and reactionary ‘reforms’ (fee-increases, lay-offs, salary cuts) to the UC system. We support their readiness to take direct action in order to block these changes.  We recognise that in times of crisis, only assertive collective action – walkouts, boycotts, strikes, occupations… – offers any meaningful prospect of democratic participation. We deplore the recent militarization of the UC campuses, and call on the UC administration to acknowledge rather than discourage the resolution of their students to struggle, against the imperatives of privatization, to protect the future of their university.

Demand $ For JOBS not war 

 Protest OUTSIDE OF
THE WHITE HOUSE JOBS SUMMIT  

12 Noon – Thursday, Dec. 3  

(Pennsylvania Ave. between 15 and 16 St., directly in front of the White House) 
 
If you can attend on Dec. 3, go to http://www.bailoutpeople.org/dec309vol.shtml