Holiday Letters to Prisoners

Letters to Prisoners has been going strong for many years. We have sent hundreds of letters and cards to people behind the bars. We have forged great solidarity with people on the otherside of the wall. When the holidays come around, it is especially hard for incarcerated folks.
Letters to Prisoners is a fun, educational, and easy way to send solidarity on the other side of the prison wall.
No experience neccessary! We are always looking for stamps, cards, and donations to keep this form of solidarity strong!
Look for the envelopes, and letters, and sign at Folks School!

Organizer Training 101: Build the Committee

#ThePeoplesPaper
Issue 1 | Winter 2019

Our first NEW issue of The Peoples’ Paper touches on #CommunityProtection against energy companies, landlords, & the settler-colonial U.S.

https://www.afge.org/

This is the fourth segment of AFGE’s 5-part series: The Secret Memo: Inside Trump’s Plan to Destroy Unions.

From the beginning, the American people came together to form a government that provides public resources for things that we individually cannot achieve. From scientific and medical breakthroughs to the armed forces, our government and its workforce exist to create safe and thriving communities across the country. No one, for example, can lead a good life and reach his or her potential without having clean water to drink, clean air to breathe, or clean food to eat. Without our government and these shared responsibilities, the American Dream could quickly turn into an American nightmare.

But President Trump sees our government and its workforce as a “swamp” that needs to be drained. Once in office, he set in motion a comprehensive plan to dismantle it. First, he issued a hiring freeze despite severe staffing shortages at many agencies. Second, he appointed people who stand diametrically opposed to the agencies they lead. Third, he cut budgets and staff to make it harder for agencies to accomplish their missions. Then he issued executive orders targeting federal workers and their families.

The Trump administration may not like the “big” government, but they like the shadow government – for-profit contractors who charge the government two to three times more to do the same jobs. They’re already privatizing major parts of the Department of the Veterans Affairs, and other agencies will be next.

A leaked White House memo prepared in 2017 outlines the administration’s plans to fire federal workers through various means. The memo’s seven bullet points explains how they plan to do it:

• Interpret the Constitution to give the president authority to dismiss any federal employee. The president should issue an executive order to shorten the firing process.
• Extend the probationary period from one year for most of the government to three years so agencies can fire new hires easily (never mind the time and money spent to hire and train people)
• Prohibit hundreds of thousands of employees in a “sensitive” position to appeal their dismissal to an independent third party.
• Change the Douglas Factors, the rules that make sure there is fairness and due process for employees facing discipline, to make it easier to remove employees. Douglas Factors are important because they ensure that the punishment is reasonable and fits the circumstances.
• Limit the unions’ scope of bargaining to exclude termination appeals and disciplinary action processes, taking away employees’ due process and protections against unfair firings.
• Encourage and educate managers on how to remove “poor performers.” (Don’t fall for the disingenuous talk of firing “poor performers.” Their real goal is to get rid of most employees, as admitted by acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney who recently said they’re relocating agency headquarters outside the D.C. area to encourage federal workers to quit).
• Work with Congress to pass legislation to make it easier to fire federal workers….

Youth Climate Activists – Fox Valley‎Global Climate Strike

All of Us or None Wisconsin will be hosting the monthly #CLOSEmsdf Coalition meeting on Tuesday, November 12th from 5:30 PM to 7:30 PM. We look forward to seeing you there. The address is 1220 W. Atkinson Ave., Milwaukee, WI 53206. Click here to RSVP.

#CLOSEmsdf leaders will be joining a critical community discussion that is part of Milwaukee Turners’ Confronting Mass Incarceration (CMI) program on Tuesday, November 19th at 6:00 PM at Marquette University’s Sensenbrenner Hall. Join us for this community discussion entitled, “Rethinking Justice and Incarceration in Wisconsin -Who’s in Prison, Why and Should they be?” Click here for more information and to RSVP.

Reclaiming Armistice Day

Annual Armistice Day observance to celebrate peace, not militarism. Two nationally prominent and highly knowledgeable speakers are on the program:

*** SUZANNE GORDON, award-winning author and journalist whose latest book is “Wounds of War: How the VA Delivers Health, Healing, and Hope to the Nation’s Veterans.”

*** GERRY CONDON, national board president of Veterans For Peace, a Vietnam era veteran and war resister who has long been active in the veterans peace movement.

Suzanne Gordon has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Nation, The American Prospect, The Washington Monthly, The Globe and Mail, The Toronto Star, JAMA, The Annals of Internal Medicine, The BMJ, and others. She is the co-editor of The Culture and Politics of Health Care Work series at Cornell University Press.

Suzanne is the author, co-author or editor of 19 books including Life Support: Three Nurses on the Front Lines and Beyond the Checklist: What Else Healthcare Can Learn from Aviation Teamwork and Safety. and The Battle for Veterans’ Healthcare: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Policy For her coverage of VA Healthcare, Suzanne has received the DAV’s 2017 Special Recognition Award.

Gerry Condon has a long history in the veterans peace movement. In 1983-84, he organized the first two veterans delegations to revolutionary Nicaragua, and in 1987, he was a co-coordinator of the Veterans Peace Convoy to Nicaragua. From 1993-96, Gerry worked for IFCO/Pastors For Peace, organizing humanitarian aid and political solidarity caravans to Cuba. Since 2004, Gerry has been on the front lines of supporting Iraq and Afghanistan war resisters in Canada, Germany and elsewhere.

The Pardee Boys, an acoustic trio who got a warm reception at last year’s event, will perform before and during the program. They will begin at 6:30.

Save the date and watch for more details. The program is at 7pm at Central United Methodist Church, 25th & Wisconsin. There is a church parking lot and plenty of on-street parking. The event is free and open to the public.

Joining us as co-sponsors:: Peace Action of Wisconsin, Milwaukee Area Labor Council, Milwaukee DSA, 1st Unitarian Society pf Milwaukee, Wis. Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals Local 5000, Greater Milwaukee Green Party, Wis. Bail Out The People Movement, United Nations Association of Greater Milwaukee, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Central United Methodist Church, Milwaukee Turners, Inc., Wis, Network for Peace, Justice and Sustainability, Milwaukee Muslim Women’s Coalition, Milwaukee National Lawyers Guild, Wis. Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, Grassroots Northshore, Milwaukee County Progressives No Palestine Exception, Zao MKE Church, and Nukewatch. More are pending.

Holiday Open House