https://bit.ly/2lKDu2S

Fidel’s tomb represents a symbol of Cuba today. Only “Fidel” is written there. No birth or death date: Fidel continues beyond time as a presence. A boulder is his grave: he, like Cuba itself, is an immovable rock. In my month in Cuba, I never felt the Cuban people considered Fidel had died. Rather, they feel his presence and are faithfully defending what he stands for and what he has built.

Cuba stands out as a shining example of a humane society, a model of what human beings can accomplish. Fidel’s Cuba embodies the vision of a just and humanitarian society that our own great leader, Martin Luther King, had sought to bring into being.

Third Anti-imperialist Solidarity Conference for Democracy and against Neoliberalism, Havana, November 1-3, 2019 (click here for how to go)

Milwaukee 53206

7979 38th Avenue, Southwest Library, Kenosha, 6-8:30 P.M.

The U.S. has the most prisoners of any nation in the world, both in raw numbers and by percentage of the population. These numbers are further compounded within Milwaukee’s mostly African-American 53206 Zip Code, where 62% of adult men have spent time in prison, making this America’s most incarcerated zip code. Milwaukee 53206 tells the story of those affected by mass incarceration in this community.

Following the documentary, the Kenosha Coalition for Dismantling Racism will lead a discussion.

YES Advisor Training

Wanted: Social justice-inclined MPS teachers to serve as advisors to YES student clubs

Voces de la Frontera and the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA) are looking for teachers to serve as advisors at their school for student-chapters of Youth Empowered in the Struggle. This is a great opportunity for teachers interested in working with like-minded colleagues in other schools to help you become actively involved in social justice issues.

What is Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES)?
YES is the youth arm of Voces de la Frontera, a nationally recognized non-profit organization that has been working with youth for many years. YES is a youth-led, multicultural social justice group that works for student, immigrant, and worker rights. YES leaders have been instrumental in the struggles for the DREAM Act, immigration reform, protecting public education and student rights through the Student Bill of Rights, marching with their teachers in 2011 to defend collective bargaining rights, and passing the MPS Safe Haven Resolution.

YES operates through a leadership committee and school-based chapters, which operate as school clubs. Students who found a chapter at their school have regular student-led meetings to address current organizing campaigns for social justice. Presently our chapters exist mostly at high schools, and also include a few universities. Student leaders also attend weekly leadership meetings at the Voces de la Frontera office to meet with leaders from every school in order to make campaign/event decisions, learn about social justice, and receive leadership development training.

The goal of YES is to create a powerful student voice within the school and the community that collaborates with parents and educators to represent the interests of students, immigrants, and workers, as well as advocate for public education.

What does a teacher advisor for Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES) do?
YES advisors are a critical support to student organizers. Advisors commit to chaperone and participate in weekly youth-led YES chapter meetings at the school. They help students navigate the school institution as needed, support students on active campaigns, and help when students want to talk to the principal about something, etc. Depending on the building, there can be advocacy involved to ensure that the students’ right to organize and advocate for social justice is recognized. Although YES is student-led, advisors provide some continuity year to year as students graduate, and help invite and incorporate new and younger students into the group.

Being an advisor to YES does take commitment, but it is also a privilege and opportunity. Advisors get to participate in an empowering and life-changing experience with their students, watching them develop their own sense of self and awareness of social justice. Advisors also have access to support and trainings through Voces de la Frontera & MTEA to facilitate their own development as educators with a focus on social justice.

We encourage advisors to sign up in groups (i.e. two or three per school) as this allows for the sharing of some of the advisory work.

Youth Climate Action Team‎Art Build 4 Climate Strike

1915 E Kenilworth Place, UW Milwaukee, 10 A.M. – 6 P.M.

LOCATION:
-Signs will be posted to guide you!
-1915 E Kenilworth Place, basement of UWM’s Kenilworth Studios
-Enter the building from the alley behind Urban Outfitters or on South Side of building from Prospect
-Basement door by loading dock will be open

Come through for this event to help trace, paint, screenprint, and trim the banners and patches that will be the centerpieces of the Milwaukee flagship of the global climate strike on September 20th.

Direct questions to Ayanna Lee, ayan2na@gmail.com

Presented by the Youth Climate Action Team of Wisconsin, in partnership with the Art Build Workers.

Group photo by Alyssa Ponto.

After a major strike in New England earlier this year, and with a massive strike looming on the West Coast, Giant and Safeway workers are rallying this morning September 12, 2019 to say ‘enough is enough.’ Hundreds of union members working at Giant and Safeway grocery stores will be joined by elected officials and community allies for a rally and march starting at 11am to call for a fair contract in upcoming negotiations. The workers are members of UFCW Local 400 and their contracts expire on October 31, 2019. Negotiations are expected to be contentious. This spring, 31,000 New England UFCW members struck Stop & Shop for 11 days before winning a fair contract. Stop & Shop, like Giant Food, is owned by Ahold Delhaize. “Our members make Giant and Safeway profitable and the dominant grocery chains in the Washington, D.C. area,” said UFCW Local 400 President Mark P. Federici, “and they have a right to a fair contract.”

photo: prepping for the march/rally; see more on Local 400’s Facebook page

Milwaukee Climate Strike!

This September, millions of us will walk out of our workplaces, schools, and homes to join youth climate strikers on the streets and demand an end to the age of fossil fuels. We’re gathering at the North Point Water Tower for a tabling event and then a march to City Hall for a rally.

Our house is one fire — let’s act like it. We demand climate justice for everyone. In the words of Greta Thunberg, “We must now do the impossible”.

Milwaukee strikers are demanding that Governor Evers, our county, and our city government declare a climate emergency. Our private sector demands are that WE Energies divest and transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030.

Can’t strike? Protest in solidarity by disrupting the status quo and striking for 11 minutes to symbolize our looming deadline. Teachers, students, employees, kids, and many more will step out in solidarity in this crucial climate movement.

Questions: general@ycatwi.org
Press: press@ycatwi.org

Forum: We Need a Green New Deal!

3614 N Humboldt Blvd., Kern Park, 3-5 P.M. 

As the world strikes against the climate crisis, people are looking for a solution that protects life on the planet without destroying the living standards of working people — A Green New Deal!

The Greater Milwaukee Green Party invites you to hear a panel of Greens and other activists discuss the meaning of the Green New Deal, and what we need to do to get it.

Sunday’s panel includes – Mike McCallister – MC – Greater Milwaukee Green Party, George Martin – Milwaukee City/County Joint Task Force on Climate and Economic Equity – representing NAACP, and Carter Reitman from the Ecosocialist Working Group of the Democratic Socialists of America

Water Protectors of Milwaukee

Our next meeting is at the Congregation of the Great Spirit (10^th & Lapham) at 6:00 PM on Sept. 19, Thursday. Bring food to share if you are able. All are welcome.

Come help us table at the 2019 Sturgeon Fest, Saturday, Sept. 28 at Lakeshore State Park in downtown Milwaukee, in the field next to the Discovery Center. Help staff our booth. Meet us around 11 AM. Riveredge Nature Center will be releasing baby sturgeon they raised into Lake Michigan at 2 PM. You may be able to release one of the baby sturgeon.

We will be talking about our activities- No Back 40 Mine on the Menominee River of the WI- MI border, the 2020 Water Walk next April by the Menominee River in Milwaukee and our support for the tribes across the country fighting mining, pipelines and environmental destruction on traditional native lands.

Honduras Solidarity Network

The Convergence Against Continuism and the Committee for the Liberation of the Honduran Political Prisoners denounce the situation of 178 people who have been prosecuted and deprived of their freedom due to their ideas or opinions, individual leadership, or for having demonstrated against the regime of Juan Orlando Hernández.

There are currently eight people in custody in La Tolva and one person detained at the Penal Facility in  El Progreso.

Rommel Valdemar Herrera Portillo and Gustavo Cáceres are in prison because there is no rule of law. The Honduran Judiciary is not independent of the Executive and Legislative powers as mandated by the Basic Principles of the United Nations and the Honduran Constitution in its Article 303. In his most recent report, the Rapporteur for Judicial Independence of the United Nations questioned the Honduran National Security and Defense Council, which, under the President, brings together  the Presidents of the Congress and of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Security and the Secretary of National Defense. The Council is responsible for designing “(…) strategies to prevent, combat, investigation and punish criminal behaviors” (art. 3) and leads an Intelligence Directorate in charge of “(…) executing public policies established by the Council in matters of Defense and Security.”

It is precisely this structure that has designed the policies criminalizing social protest and political rights that have kept people detained or subjected to judicial procedures for over 20 months. This lack of judicial independence has denied Gustavo Cáceres his right to have an impartial judge and a trial that guarantees due process.

The presiding Judge has received truthful, objective and scientific information about Gustavo’s disability. Such information reveals that he suffers from organic deterioration at a cerebral level, deterioration at a moderate cognitive level, moderate mental retardation, emotionally anxious and depressive language disorder. Despite the fact that he is 26 years old, his maturity age corresponds to a person between 6 to 9 years old. Gustavo requires psychotherapeutic attention in a specialized care center. However, such treatment has been denied by the prison and judicial authorities. The Public Ministry has failed in its duty of Objectivity.

People who defend themselves in freedom are victims of harassment, surveillance, political reprisals and denial of the right to work because they have been stigmatized and denigrated by the media as alleged criminals. Among the political and prosecuted prisoners are students, housewives, professors, businessmen, workers, indigenous people, trade unionists, intellectuals, social activists, environmentalists and human rights defenders.

Taking into consideration the criteria used for the criminalization of all political prisoners, we demand their immediate and unconditional release, and that the Honduran authorities drop the charges.

The State of Honduras must adopt, in accordance with international law and national legislation, the political and legal measures deemed appropriate to contribute to the prompt restoration of the violated rights of the political prisoners, including the return of their seized assets. At the same time we condemn the criminalization and incarceration of the Guapinol defenders in a maximum security prison.

For Political Prisoners, Freedom Now!

WE DEMAND FREEDOM FOR ROMMEL HERRERA, GUSTAVO CÁCERES AND THE 7 GUAPINOL LIFE DEFENDERS!