Madison’s 2021 Capital Budget ($162 million) is being discussed tonight while our communities are facing evictions, unemployment, and poverty. Register to speak to demand they #InvestInCommunity.Today and tomorrow at 4:30pm.Attend the Budget Hearings online.Register to speak on item #22: http://bit.ly/speakMBWatch online: http://bit.ly/watchMB—

“We have demanded for years that our state seriously invest in the safety and well-being of our Black and Southeast Asian communities. Now, we demand that the empty statements of solidarity be withheld in favor of concrete action to address the very conditions that are preventing us from achieving it. The city of Madison will be finalizing its budget for 2021 over the next few months, and we demand that the police budget be used to ensure that our neighbors and families are able to keep their homes. We demand that the integrity of our community resources be maintained. We demand that the state invest meaningfully in the lives of its citizens, not police inflicted deaths.” – Freedom Inc’s 8/31/20 Statement

TAA – Graduate Worker Union of UW-Madison

Issued September 2, 2020:

Today is the start of the most bizarre, upside-down, shameful semester we’ve ever seen at UW, set amidst a global pandemic and a mass uprising against anti-Black state violence. We hope that everyone has individually made their working and learning situations as safe as possible.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison has abdicated any sense of responsibility to the well-being of its students, workers, and those under its supervision, going as far as to require students to sign pledges releasing the university from liability for student well-being. This university is now—and has been for a while—a business first; it is responsible primarily to its debtors, and we are all its source of revenue.

Marginalized and underrepresented students will shoulder the disproportionate burden of these twin crises of COVID-19 and systemic racism, compounded by administrators’ refusal to offer anything other than austerity. Put simply, UW is failing all of us, failing this community, and failing the state of Wisconsin.

To combat this feeling of powerlessness, Madison needs to get organized. We are stronger together. One way to do that is through building a union culture at UW and in Madison. There’s a reason that Wisconsin legislators went after public sector unions in 2011’s Act 10 battle (https://projects.jsonline.com/news/2016/11/27/for-unions-in-wisconsin-fast-and-hard-fall-since-act-10.html#).

Public sector unions have the power to imagine and democratically enact a different type of university and education system guided by our community’s needs and collective capabilities. As a labor union, we believe changing institutions starts with community control and empowering workers to govern our own workplaces.

How would this semester be different if the teaching assistants, research assistants, foodservice workers, housefellows, custodial staff, building trades workers, adjuncts, athletes, faculty, and administrative staff could run the university as a unified body? If workers were in control of our workplaces, would we reopen campus and bring tens of thousands of people into town during a pandemic? Would there be furloughs? Would tuition have risen across the board? Would administrators be making $150,000+? Would head coaches be making $4 million while athletes go unpaid? Or would there be better safety protocols? Income continuation and hazard pay for essential student and campus workers? Deep and sustained investments in ensuring the success of BIPOC students and other students of color?

The state legislature eliminated any meaningful shared governance in 2015 with Act 55—it’s purely a ceremonial advisory role now. What is required is collective action. Together, we can shut down the university until administrators come to the table.If you are seeing this, and you work at UW, get tapped into your unions. AFSCME Local 171 and AFSCME Local 2412, Building and Construction Trades, United Faculty and Academic Staff, and the TAA.If you are a housefellow, a dining hall worker, an athlete, or other student worker and you want to learn more about organizing to change your working conditions, contact us. Solidarity to everyone right now.

We love you and will fight alongside you.[Image description: At the top of the image, a large fish chases a small group of disorganized fish. Below this is the phrase “Organize!”. Below the phrase, the small group of fish has grown and has come together to chase after the same large fish.]

https://bit.ly/3ig5Nyj

For centuries, police forces have been employed to maintain the status quo of white supremacy in our neighborhoods. The community of Hartland, a place that is over 97% White, has been able veil their racism for too long. Even worse news— they aren’t hiding anymore. They are coming to us, to our community, to insist to us how much we need them. We reject their propaganda.

Join us for a mutual aid event to drown out the hate the RPWC plans to bring to Nixon park. At this event, we will have food, first aid, water, sign making, clothes, schools supplies, and more. Our goal is not to be confrontational to the other rally, but to show them how powerful our love truly is. Let us be an example of the community care that we call for when demanding our lawmakers defund the police. Let’s show Hartland how much Black Lives Matter.

If you can not attend the event, please consider donating $ via PayPal/venmo/cashapp AND/OR donating books, food, clothing, or supplies. Please DM the organizer on Facebook to get involved this way. Masks and social distancing required. This event is open to folks of all ages. https://bit.ly/3ig5Nyj

Join us virtually. Next week we are reading Chapter 5 of Walter Rodney’s book “The Russian Revolution.” The title of the Chapter is: On the “In-evitability” of the Russian Revolution. Here’s the link to Chapter 5 on Google Drive:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aseh-ibsUWNJwAygPoTDcXVto__algu_/view?usp=sharing During this current period of economic and public health crises along with the eruption of mass demonstrations, urban rebellions and sharpening debates around the objective nature of the state and the capitalist-imperialist system, the work of Dr. Rodney becomes even more relevant. Before Walter Rodney was assassinated he was a renowned
Pan-African and socialist theorist on the Bolshevik Revolution and its relationship to Africa’s post-colonial legacy. Abayomi Azikiwe will lead the discussion. His scholarly approach will allow us to find insights and create a deeper understanding of this extraordinary work. ABOUT WALTER RODNEY In his short life, Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the foremost thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, Africa, and the Caribbean. Wherever he was, Rodney was a lightning rod for working-class Black Power organizing. His deportation sparked Jamaica’s Rodney Riots in 1968, and his scholarship trained a generation how to approach politics on an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding the Working People’s Alliance in Guyana, the thirty-eight-year-old Rodney was assassinated. This class is presented by the Communist Workers League of Detroit. Register for the virtual meeting, which will be held on Tuesday September 15, 2020 at 7 PM EST Register in advance for this meeting:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kcemhqzwqHNWJcKZcIYyxLkUwwlREhTtR After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

http://usw.to/museumworkers

Employees from across all four of the Carnegie Museums have come together to create a more equitable and transparent workplace. The United Museum Workers consists of professional scientists, curatorial/collection specialists, technicians, technologists, web developers, archivists, educators, publishers, marketers, visitor services frontline staff, gift shop clerks, event ushers, and grant writers. They are diverse in age, experience, gender and social background, but they are unified in their dedication to the Carnegie Museums and their visitors.

The United Museum Workers are fighting for the health and safety of our staff and our visitors and investments in the careers of all workers at the Carnegie Museums. Above all, they seek accountability regarding pay, benefits, and working conditions, and a collective voice to promote respect, equity, and inclusion across our beloved museums.

SIGN PETITION: http://usw.to/museumworkers

During this unprecedented time it is imperative that CMP marshal its considerable resources to support their workforce. In March, CMP management decided to close the museums, reduce pay, and furlough more than 600 workers. The museums reopened in late June with little to no consultation with the workers those decisions affected the most. CMP must prioritize the health of employees and visitors in response to the complex challenges of COVID-19. Recent events have made it all the more clear that a union is the best way to protect workers’ rights.

Already the United Museum Workers have helped hundreds of coworkers file for unemployment, provided personal protective equipment to staff when CMP neglected to do so, and vastly improved communication and solidarity across the entire workforce.

It is overtly in conflict with the museums’ institutional image and mission of promoting humanistic values to disregard the voices and needs of the very people whose tireless dedication upholds that mission.

I STAND WITH THE UNITED MUSEUM WORKERS

As a concerned community member, I unequivocally support the right of the workers of the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh to form a union, so they have a collective voice and the autonomy to determine their own working conditions. I call upon CMP to respect the United Museum Workers and remain neutral in their efforts to form a union.

SIGN PETITION: http://usw.to/museumworkers

Hosted by North Side Rising – 7-9 P.M. W Fond du Lac & W Center Street (Across from the WI Black Historical Society) – Join us in our campaign to “Support the Post Office and Keep the Lights On” were we will encourage the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin to “Keep the lights on in Wisconsin!” a.k.a extend the utilities moratorium! So far the moratorium has been extended to October 1st but the PSC is scheduled to vote whether to extend it on September 17th. They are only accepting public comment through mail, thus our letter writing campaign. We will have glow in the dark signs on site and a station with letter writing materials to encourage folks to get involved! Stop by with your flashlights/glow sticks to support North Side Rising and stay to help us hand out literature!

The Peoples Revolution / Day 104 (September 9, 2020) Michael Mattioli is a PUNK. He’s trying to run from what he did to Joel Acevedo. He’s a murderer who worked for MPD, a flawed department who cover up for killer cops. These cops have NO ACCOUNTABILITY. Now he think he can go find a job elsewhere (maybe Tosa might take him, they have a history of protecting killer cops too. Continue to demand the arrest and conviction of punk Mattioli and his accomplices. ” INDICT, CONVICT, SEND THEM KILLER COPS TO JAIL, THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS GUILTY AS HELL.”

Meet up at Jackson Park (43rd & Cleveland), 4pm, leaving at 5 pm

https://bit.ly/35mknk7

Last spring, as coronavirus swept through Connecticut and the state’s nursing homes became ground zero for deadly outbreaks, nursing aide Gloria Duquette pushed aside her fear and continued showing up for her shifts.

Duquette was working upward of 80 hours many weeks between her two jobs at Kimberly Hall South in Windsor and Saint Mary Home in West Hartford, stringing together enough hours to pay her bills despite concerns of catching the disease.

But in July, after occupancy at the homes dropped, rehabilitation services slowed down and a floor at one of the facilities was closed as part of a planned renovation, Duquette’s hours were drastically scaled back. She’s now working 48 hours a week, which nets her less than $500, and struggling to pay her rent and utility bills.

“I feel like we were used,” said Duquette, of Bloomfield, who has watched several of her colleagues at Saint Mary lose their jobs recently. “Nobody cares about us.”

The problem is playing out across the industry. As nursing home residents die and the facilities see far fewer short-term residents – people who need rehabilitation or other post-acute care – homes are left with more empty beds. Weakened by revenue loss and added expenses associated with the pandemic, nursing homes in Connecticut are now resorting to widespread layoffs and reductions in employee hours… https://bit.ly/35mknk7