The COVID-19 pandemic is shaking up the working class as we witness illness in our loved ones and callous bosses who are willing to put workers’ lives on the line to keep their own profits flowing.
Our union has issued a call to both our members and nonunion workers to stand up and fight, created new resources to help nonunion workers take action to win safe workplaces, published a special issue of the UE Steward on how to organize members on COVID-19 issues in the workplace, and is providing organizing support to workers who are ready to take on their boss. Our members, in both organized shops and workplaces where we have organizing campaigns, are winning concessions from their employers through militant and creative tactics.
Many people who are still receiving a paycheck are considering donating some portion of the stimulus check they are about to receive to worthy causes. If you are among them, we ask you to consider donating to the UE Research and Education Fund to help us continue to support working people.
We hope that this message finds you and your family in good health. We look forward to working with you to advance the rights of working people now and in the future.
In solidarity,
Kari Thompson, UE Co-Director of Education
The plant opened today at 6am, and workers and their families are once again at risk of being exposed to COVID-19 as they work together in close proximity. If they do not show up, they are at risk of being fired, and not have the income to support their families. We need your support.
Take action today by clicking this link to send an email to Mark Reif, HR Employee and Community Relations Manager, at the Mountaire Plant to demand that Mountaire Farms guarantee that all workers (including temporary workers) will NOT lose their jobs if they choose to stay home due to COVID-19 concerns and will receive paid leave. You will also find a call script and phone numbers to call Mark Reif at the Siler City Plant and the Mountaire National Headquarters.
215-724-1618 / Mobilization4Mumia.com / mobilization4mumia@gmail.com
PRESS RELEASE April 16, 2020
Contact: Sophia Williams 917-806-0521, Pam Africa 267-760-7344 or Joe Piette 610-931-2615
Press Conference condemns PA DOC cruel hoax that claimed Mumia Abu-Jamal was ill with COVID19
When a PA Department of Corrections official falsely claimed Mumia Abu-Jamal was being hospitalized with COVID-19 at 5pm on April 15, the news was shared worldwide in minutes. Supporters around the world, who have been misled by DOC statements in the past, immediately called the institution and demanded confirmation from Mumia himself. By 8:45pm, the DOC allowed Mumia to call his supporters and he confirmed that the official report was false. “I am fine, I am not hospitalized,” he can be heard on the recorded call saying, part of which was played at the press conference, “…What I need is freedom.”
The whole incident adds to a long list of lies and misinformation by the PA DOC since Mumia was first unjustly incarcerated in 1982. Why did a person at the SCI Mahanoy Superintendent’s Office on an official phone tell a concerned advocate that Mumia was being hospitalized with COVID-19?
How would you react if someone in authority falsely told you your elderly relative was sick with COVID-19? As a concerned person, you would be outraged. So were the participants in the April 16 virtual press conference.
Santiago Alvarez, the UC Santa Cruz student who called the prison, not only described the recorded conversation he had with the DOC official but played a portion of it. The person clearly said “Mumia was taken to the hospital 30 minutes ago … suffering from headaches and breathing problems … to be tested for COVID-19 as a precaution.”
Johanna Fernandez, Baruch College professor whose uncle died as a result of the pandemic last week, explained US prisons have the highest rates of infection in the world. She demanded that the official’s callous misinformation, which was recorded, should lead to disciplinary procedures and his firing.
Temple Professor and activist Marc Lamont Hill exposed high rates of infection at Rikers Island prison many times worse than in New York City or in Italy. He explained that imprisoning people for small crimes like gambling and prostitution basically sentences them to the possibility of death because of the pandemic. Hill called the prison spokesperson’s actions “shocking — a stunning level of cruelty and indifference.”
Megan Malachi’s statement from the Philadelphia activist group Philly For REAL Justice said in part: “The false statement issued by the prison in the middle of a global pandemic is yet another example of the inherent violence of mass incarceration. This cowardly attempt to spread fear amongst the family and supporters of Mumia has not stopped our efforts…to demand the release of Mumia Abu Jamal and all prisoners. Free Mumia! Free ‘em all!”
Delbert Africa, recently released MOVE 9 member, recounted how these “racist, sadistic guards and staff did the same thing to me, denying I was sick, denying I was hospitalized”, misleading his friends and family when he was actually very ill in prison. Calling for the release of Mumia, Russell Maroon Shoatz, Mutulu Shakur, Jalil Muntaqim and other political prisoners, he complimented the solidarity movement for forcing the DOC to take Mumia from his cell to make the call confirming his condition – a very unusual step.
Dr. Suzanne Ross described the support for Mumia by solidarity organizations in Japan, Europe and Latin America. Recounting how the movement forced the PA DOC to make hepatitis C medicine available to Mumia and other prisoners, she is in the process of filing a lawsuit forcing the state to release Mumia because they are incapable of preventing the epidemic from infecting Mumia and other prisoners.
As of April 15 there have been a total of 53 tests out of 45,000 Pennsylvania inmates with a 17% positivity rate. Officials are not testing in high enough numbers to understand the full transmission of the virus. The prison reduction mitigation efforts are not at all commensurate with the epidemic. In the last month there has only been a reduction of 474 state prisoners.
Instead of reducing incarceration numbers, the DOC is making a dire situation more tense by imposing system-wide lockdowns. On the call Mumia reported “everyone’s locked down – 23 hours in cell, 45 minutes to clean cell, shower, plug up tablet to kiosk, to the yard every 3 days – all in 45 minutes. It’s insane. The fear is getting sick and dying. Guards are in fear too.”
Abu-Jamal also mentioned Rudolph Sutton, incarcerated at SCI Phoenix, who died April 8 of respiratory distress due to COVID19, “with contributing factors of hypertensive cardiovascular disease and liver cirrhosis.” Mumia also suffers from cirrhosis of the liver, caused because of the refusal of the DOC to treat him years ago for hepatitis C in a timely manner. Like Mumia, Sutton had fought for his freedom for over 30 years. Innocence Project Legal Director Nilam Sanghvi said on April 15: “Mr. Sutton should never have been incarcerated in the first place. … His tragic death underscores the urgent need for the Governor, the Department of Corrections, the legislature, and the courts to act quickly so that another factually innocent person does not risk death in prison due to COVID-19.“
Mumia was convicted because of police, judicial and prosecutorial misconduct. Like Sutton, COVID-19 threatens to end his life before he can prove his innocence.
The pandemic disproportionately affects people of color because of the effects of low wages, poor nutrition, inadequate housing and inability to pay for healthcare. Black men are hesitant to wear recommended masks to prevent infection for fear they will be falsely seen as a threat by racist whites and cops. And as in society as a whole, disproportionately imprisoned Black and Brown incarcerated prisoners face higher risks of death from the pandemic because of their increased rate of compromised health.
Organizers have planned a series of events marking Mumia’s 66th birthday from April 23 to 26, including a press conference on April 23rd, a Teach-In on 4/24, “Mumia Libre, an Instagram Live Dance Party” on April 25 and “Poetry in Motion, a 24 hour reading of Mumia’s works” on April 26. Go to https://mobilization4mumia.com/new-events or https://www.facebook.com/cbmhome/ for more details.
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We will leave from Truax at noon (you can wait in the Madison College parking lot)
Drive up Wright Street and along East Washington to the Capitol, and drive around the square making lots of noise.
The Air Force has shown no regard for our community in their decision to base F-35 fighter jets at Truax. We must continue to voice our opposition.
https://www.safeskiescleanwaterwi.org/
How Cuba’s Medical Internationalism Can Help Us
HOW CUBA’S MEDICAL INTERNATIONALISM CAN HELP US
Presented by Dr. Howard Ehrman, MD MPH, this event will explore the many ways Cuba’s policy of medical internationalism has made thIs small island a global leader in public health — and how US people can benefit from Cuba’s medicines and preventive medicine practice, despite the US restrictions on trade and travel. This includes in the fields of cancer, diabetes, infant mortality, and viral pandemics..
Dr Ehrman is a graduate of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, did his residency at Cook County Hospital in Family Practice, and has served as the Chief Medical Officer for Will County, IL. He is a “semi-retired” assistant professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago’s School of Public Health. Dr. Ehrman has worked with the Cuban Ministry of Public Health on climate disaster and earlier studied as an apprentice to a traditional medicine man among the Northern Cheyenne in Minnesota. Click here to join the webinar: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MDRlMjJmMDAtODdiZC00ZjdkLThkYzktOGFhZWFjMzA2MTU0%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%224caba98f-9d6f-4bf1-99e3-deaa93b90716%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%221658cbb8-533d-415f-8ad6-a94eddff9f61%22%7d
