Join The Picket Against Scott Walker – NO Union Busting VT

Hilton Burlington Lake Champlain, 60 Battery Street, Burlington, Vermont, 5 P.M.

The VT Republican Party has invited Wisconsin’s former Governor, Scott Walker, to speak at a fundraiser with some VIPs shelling out $1,000 a plate. Our own Governor, Phil Scott, plans to be there to welcome him. Here’s why you should join the picket called by AFSCME, Vermont’s unions, and progressive organizations.

Walker is a Paid Agent of the 1 Percent. Billionaires Charles and David Koch and their pro-business front groups poured millions of dollars into Walker’s Gubernatorial campaigns in Wisconsin.

Walker Busted Unions. As Governor of Wisconsin, he enacted a law that stripped public sector unions of their right to collective bargaining and blocked private sector unions from collecting agency fees from workers they represent.

Walker Attacked Programs for Workers. He prevented any increase in the minimum wage, rolled back enforcement of equal pay protections, purged thousands of Wisconsinites from the state’s Badgercare health insurance program, and implemented massive tax cuts for the wealthy.

Walker Privatized Public Education. He carried out the largest per student K-12 education cuts in the nation and redirected public funds towards private charter schools.

Walker also opposes a woman’s right to control her body, is against efforts to reduce racial discrimination and to guarantee equal rights for all, and opposes proactive common sense environmental policies.

Unite to Stop the Anti-Union Right!

We must not let the Vermont GOP use Walker’s visit to import this reactionary agenda into our state. To endorse the picket and find out more information, contact AFSCME-VT Union Rep Dave Van Deusen at dvandeusen@afscme93.org.

You can also get updates on the Vermont AFL-CIO Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/vtworkers/

All out to picket Scott Walker on May 30th and advance progressive pro-Union solutions that put working class people above profit!

As of 5/16/19 Picket Endorsed By: Vermont State Labor Council AFL-CIO, Vermont Building Trades Council AFL-CIO, Green Mountain Central Labor Council AFL-CIO, AFSCME Local 490 (Bennington County), AFSCME Local 1201 (Rutland & Addison Counties), AFSCME Local 1343 (Chittenden & Franklin Counties), AFSCME Local 1369 (Washington County), AFSCME Local 1674 (Howard Center), AFSCME Local 2413 (Northeast Kingdom), AFSCME Local 3797 (Windsor County), AFSCME Local 3977 (Lamoille County Mental Health), AFSCME Local 4802 (VT Home Healthcare), IBEW Local 300, Laborers’ International Union of North America (VT), The Bricklayers & Allied Craftworkers Local 2 VT/NY, Iron Workers Local 7, Roofers & Waterproofers Local 241 VT/NY, USW Local 4, AFT-Vermont, United Academics at UVM, APWU-Vermont, UFCW Local 1459, Operating Engineers Local 98 VT/NH, Vermont State Employees’ Association, VSEA Chittenden County Chapter, VSEA Central Vermont Chapter, Staff Alliance at VSEA, Vermont-NEA, Vermont National Staff Organization at NEA, UE Local 255, Vermont Workers Center, Vermont Labor United, Vermont Woman’s March, Rights And Democracy, 350 Vermont, Vermont Sierra Club, Vermonters For A New Economy, Green Mountain John Brown Gun Club, Peace & Justice Center, LBGTQIA Alliance of Vermont, Vermont Progressive Party, Burlington Progressive Party, Vermont House of Representatives Progressive Party Caucus, Vermont Liberty Union Party, Vermont Democratic Party, Burlington Democratic Party.

Welcome Fr. Luis Barrios, of Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba

On Thursday, June 13, Milwaukeeans will welcome Fr. Luis Barrios of Pastors for Peace (PFP) with a potluck dinner at 6pm and a program at 7pm, at Central United Methodist Church, 633 N. 25th Street in Milwaukee, 53233. This event is part of a national movement in dozens of cities, welcoming the 30th Friendshipment Caravan to Cuba, an act of civil disobedience in defiance of what PFP calls an immoral policy of hostility against the people of Cuba.

President Trump and his National Security Advisor John Bolton recently announced an attempt to further tighten the U.S. restrictions on the right of our people to travel to Cuba. Trump also authorized lawsuits in U.S. courts that no U.S. president had ever allowed, against U.S. and other companies doing business in Cuba. This is on top of an admitted U.S. government policy against Cuba since 1960, designed “to decrease monetary and real wages, to bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of government.” (4/6/1960 memo, State Dept. Central files, 737.00/4 -660. Secret. Drafted by Mallory.) The U.S. has also admitted that this “is the most comprehensive set of U.S. sanctions on any country.”

Fr. Barrios, a native of Puerto Rico, is a pastor in NYC, and a former prisoner of conscience for challenging the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas which has trained military torturers throughout Latin America. He is a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and the author of many works on liberation theology and other topics, including the acclaimed The Almighty Latin King and Queen Nation: Street Politics and the Transformation of a New York City Gang. He is the Board Chairman of PFP, and will speak on US/Cuban Relations in the Age of Trump, and the role of the Pastors for Peace travel challenge.

All are welcome to attend, and to bring a dish to share if possible. Financial donations to Pastors for Peace will also be welcome.

The event is sponsored locally by the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba, with Peace Action–WI and the End the Wars Coalition MKE. For more information or for interviews, call 414-273-1040 ext.12, or visit www.wicuba.org, www.facebook.com/WICNRC/ or email CubaWiFriends@mindspring.com.

Prayer Vigil for Pastor Betty Rendon & her spouse Carlos Hincapie who – despite being vital assets to their communities – are reportedly scheduled very soon to be deported by ICE.

The vigil is Tuesday, May 28 at 6 P.M. Emaus Lutheran Church, 1925 Summit Avenue, Racine, WI.

PLEASE SHARE WIDELY. THANK YOU

__________

[Photo below from May 15, 2019 support rally for Pastor Rendon and Carlos at the Kenosha Detention Center. Shortly thereafter they were transported to another “detention facility” in southern Illinois. In response to the racist, cruel and inhumane ICE raid, kidnapping, barbaric forced transportation and caging, Pastor Rendon & Carlos continue to receive thousands of messages of support and efforts to stop their deportation are still ongoing. See the Voces de la Frontera and Racine Interfaith Coalition (RIC) pages for more info & how to help stop the outrageous ICE deportation order. Thank you.]

May 15, 2019 Kenosha Detention Center

https://fosna.nationbuilder.com/cufistatement

We invite organizations and individuals to sign onto the following statement by filling out the form below. If you are signing on behalf of an organization, church, mosque, or synagogue, the name of your organization will be published along with the statement on FOSNA’s website.

For too long, Palestinians have been calling for freedom, justice, and equality. As organizations that share these values, we urge you to join us in confronting Christians United for Israel (CUFI). CUFI has quietly become the largest organization in the United States driving support for Israel’s oppression of the Palestinian people. With over five million members, CUFI uses its political leverage to ensure ongoing U.S. support for Israel’s colonization and military occupation of Palestine, including imprisoning Palestinian children; bombing homes, schools, and hospitals in Gaza; massacring peaceful protestors; and confiscating Palestinian land. By its own admission, CUFI “led the charge to have the U.S. recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital,” and it continues to push for unconstitutional anti-BDS legislation and illegal settlement expansion.

CUFI is a Christian Zionist organization: Its ideology and politics are deeply entrenched in white nationalism, anti-Muslim racism, anti-Semitism, and other systems of oppression. In spite of its strong political influence on the Hill, CUFI has operated largely under the radar and received little attention in comparison with groups like AIPAC. Until now. This is the moment to act: This July, many of your Congressional representatives will be attending CUFI’s annual summit as invited guests. We cannot allow CUFI’s influence to go unchallenged. Come to Washington, D.C. on July 7 and 8 to tell the world to #CounterCUFI! It will take each and every one of us to rise against racism, to reclaim and protect our communities, and to uphold the liberation of all people in the vision of justice, equality, and freedom.

Signed,

Friends of Sabeel North America

Jewish Voice for Peace

American Muslims for Palestine

US Campaign for Palestinian Rights
We will be congregating in Washington, D.C. on July 7 and 8 to challenge Christian Zionism and express our solidarity for the Palestinian people. Join us in person in D.C. by registering here and help make the action possible by donating here.

PLEASE SHARE WIDELY. THANK YOU

Prayer Vigil for Pastor Betty Rendon & her spouse Carlos who – despite being vital assets to their communities – are reportedly scheduled very soon to be deported by ICE. The vigil is Tuesday, May 28 at 6 P.M. Emaus Lutheran Church, 1925 Summit Avenue, Racine, WI.

http://vdlf.org/

MILWAUKEE – DHS communicated with attorneys for Pastor Betty and her husband that their petition for a stay on their order of deportation was denied and that they intend to move them to another detention center in Louisiana, then deport them this Tuesday.

Pastory Betty’s family, Voces de la Frontera and allies are asking the public to contact their U.S. Senators over the Memorial Day weekend to call on DHS to stop the deportation of Pastor Betty and her husband, and to publicly condemn this action by DHS. Please call these U.S. Senators from Wisconsin and Illinois, as well as your own if they are not included below:

· WI Senator Tammy Baldwin: 608-264-5338
· WI Senator Ron Johnson: 414-276-7282
· IL Senator Tammy Duckworth: 312-886-3506
· IL Senator Dick Durban: 312-353-4952

“On this Memorial Day weekend when millions of Americans are spending quality time with family, Pastor Betty and her family are being ripped apart,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, Executive Director of Voces de la Frontera. “The response of DHS should be a rallying call to all of us that DHS continues to be a rogue agency that is quickly escalating their human rights violations. Instead of making Americans safer, they are sowing operations that create fear and tear families apart. We must call on our U.S. Senators who have oversight over DHS to stop the deportation of Pastor Betty and her husband and to stop funding an agency that is causing so much harm in our communities.”

Follow Voces de la Frontera on Twitter at @voces_milwaukee and on Facebook.

May 25, 2019 Stand For Peace!, Milwaukee

More Photos: Wisconsin Bail Out The People Movement

May 24, 2019 Milwaukee / Photos: WI BOPM

https://bit.ly/2HzSMjehttps://bit.ly/2HzSMje

Despite reforms and overtures to the West, sanctions continue

Amid power outages, fuel shortages and currency devaluation, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe is attempting bring economic stability to the Southern African state.

With the inauguration of a Second Republic in 2018 under the leadership of Zimbabwe African National Union, Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) ruling party, President Emmerson Mnangagwa has sought to attract investment to the country through the downsizing of the civil service and the control of prices.

There have been several attempts to appeal to Britain, the former colonial power, and the United States, to lift the draconian sanctions which have been in place since the radical land reform process began in 2000. Since this time period the western imperialist states have funded an opposition party, so-called civil society organizations along with a massive targeted propaganda campaign waged by corporate and government media outlets aimed at the overthrow of the ZANU-PF government, the liberation movement turned political party which fought for the national independence of the country from European settler-colonialism during the 1960s and 1970s.

At present there are efforts by President Mnangagwa to ameliorate the impact of the sanctions which have caused consternation for the majority of the people in the country. Nonetheless, these policy shifts have not resulted in any actual improvement in the economic relations with the industrialized western regimes.

Although the imperialist states utilized the redistribution of land policy enacted under the previous government of President Robert Mugabe as their principal reason for imposing sanctions against Zimbabwe, the confiscation of the farms which had been stolen from the African people under colonialism was more than justified….

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa And First Lady Auxilia At His Inauguration After Winning The July National Election