Rochester & Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation

At the September 10th meeting of the Rochester Labor Council, Delegates voted to release this statement on the killing of Daniel Prude. In addition to this statement, the Council agreed to a material donation of medical supplies to those volunteers who have been acting as medics at recent protests.
The continuous cycle of police brutality and the killing of Black and Brown men and women has got to stop. Too often their lives are forfeited because men and women who have taken an oath to serve and protect decide that the oath does not apply to the lives of Black and Brown sisters and brothers. The Rochester Labor Council is appalled that these actions have continued unchecked.

On March 23, 2020 Rochester police officers committed an act of police brutality against an unarmed Black man, Daniel Prude, who was experiencing a mental health crisis, and he died days later. Despite body camera footage that captured the action, it was not made public until September 2, 2020. The officers who committed the crime remained on active duty and the Mayor of Rochester and the chief of police failed to come forward until five months after the incident occurred. This is egregious and unacceptable.

After Eric Garner was strangled by police in New York City; Michael Brown was shot by police in Ferguson, Missouri; Ahmaud Arbery was chased and shot by armed white men in Georgia; George Floyd was suffocated by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Breonna Taylor was shot while sleeping in her home in Louisville, Kentucky; and Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, the Rochester Chapter of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists (CBTU) took action and called on the labor community to stand up and fight back against police brutality and the violence too frequently perpetrated against our Black and Brown brothers and sisters. The Rochester Labor Council is now calling on all affiliate unions to take a stand against racism and police brutality by supporting and lobbying for the passage of Daniel’s Law; reallocate resources and demilitarize the police; and support the Black Lives Matter movement.

In response to these atrocities and in recognition that we need to be the change we wish to see, the Rochester Labor Council Racial Justice committee has been established. This committee has been empowered to challenge the status quo and initiate actions that will help increase diversity in the Rochester Labor Council’s structure, leadership, internal organization and external programming. This includes establishing community partnerships and coalitions with organizations to fight the racism and injustice that plagues our city. It is imperative to remember that social justice, racial justice and human rights are forever intertwined with the fight for labor rights, and to do anything less than uphold them all is unconscionable and hypocritical.

Silence and inaction are unacceptable. To be silent is to be complicit. It is time to make noise, time to get in trouble…good trouble.

Rochester & Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation

UIC workers rallying and continuing the fight for respect, safe working conditions and fair pay. #StrikeForOurLives #UICFairContractNow #ProtectAllWorkers

SEIU Local 73

Illinois Nurses Association

Graduate Employees’ Organization 3550

GEO members, our strike is surging in momentum — and that means events are moving fast. We’re committed to keeping you as informed as possible about rapidly changing schedules; appreciate your patience and flexibility!

Two important upcoming virtual member events:

1) NEXT EMERGENCY STRIKE GMM, DATE/TIME TBD: We will likely need to confirm the date and time of this event on very short notice. Please RSVP (once!) now to make sure you receive information when it is finalized: http://bit.ly/GMMTBD

2) MEMBER STRIKE UPDATE ZOOM Q&A: 5:30pm today. Bring any questions and concerns. RSVP: http://bit.ly/QASept15

Please check the steps at bit.ly/GEOFilter if you don’t see these announcements in your inbox.Also, tonight’s planned Labor Organizing 101 event has been cancelled – we will keep you posted on rescheduling plans!

And on September 16, 2020 – “Anti-Policing Rally on the Diag:” https://bit.ly/35GE1b0

Ways to Help:

Here’s letter of support folks at any academic institution can sign: http://tiny.cc/ScholarsSupportGEOStrike

Donate to the strike fund: https://www.geo3550.org/join-us/contribute/

Sign this petition for alums: https://t.co/gs2mO5FU2G?amp=1

Thank you to Graduate Employee Organization (GEO-UAW) for their statement of solidarity!https://www.geouaw.org/solidarity-with-geo-3550-umich-campus-workers/

UMass Amherst graduate employees of GEO-UAW2322 stand in firm solidarity with GEO-3550, the graduate employees of the University of Michigan, who are currently striking in opposition to UM’s unsafe and unjust operations in the collective emergency of the global pandemic. You have inspired solidarity from many organizations across your campus—including residential staff, dining and construction workers—and your actions have reverberated across the country.

During an unprecedented event, you have stood as a bulwark against the dangerous and ill-advised actions of your university, making you are a model for GEO unions everywhere. At the outset of your strike, your administration published a letter intended to deny, deflect and divert from your issues—with the ultimate goal of deceiving and dividing your membership. Central to their argument was the reminder that yours is a “Right to Work” state, making your strike an illegal act. Nevertheless, you persisted for the sake of both your union and the university at large.

Last night, you voted to extend your historic strike with 80% of your membership in the affirmative; this comes less than a week after rejecting an offer that did not include an option for GSIs to work remotely or flexible subsidies for caregivers. Crucially, it also did not address the militarization of UM police.Here at UMass, our administration is saddling us with similar challenges: the university is currently threatening its workers with 300 layoff notices if our Professional Staff Union and University Staff Association do not agree to the university’s most recent offer intended to “bridge the gap” on a revenue shortfall caused by COVID-19. Just as with your administration, ours is attempting to deny, deflect and divert from the issues important to workers.

This is unsurprising, but it does not distract from the facts: that in an unprecedented moment of uncertainty, the most vulnerable among us need support from our institutions, and, if our institutions are unwilling to give us the support we need, our workers will do their job for them. At a time when universities need to rise to the challenge of protecting their students and supporting their employees, you are stepping up to fulfill their duty—a duty they have neither the courage nor conviction to realize.

Your efforts do not just protect your workers, they also protect the larger student body from both the pandemic and from the militarized police presence used to carry out the punishment from an otherwise feckless university. Your demands are both righteous and just: this is a fight worth fighting, which means it is a fight worth winning.

Yours in solidarity,GEO-UAW 2322 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst 9/10/20

122 E Olin Avenue, Madison – 3 P.M. at GSAFE

Hello Everyone My Name is SunShine Raynebow i just moved to Madison im a Poet Artist Activist And Drag Queen i m put this March Together because i wanted to Bring All the things that are apart of me together and SPREAD MY LOVE AND KINDNESS TO OTHERS AROUND ME

THIS EVENT IS ALL AGES FAMILY FRIENDLY AND WE WILL HAVE A BLAST WE ARE GOING TO MARCH FROM GSAFE HERE IN MADISON AND TO THE CAPITOL AND HAVE A DANCE PARTY AND DRAG SHOW I WILL BE PERFORMING AS WELL AS SOME DOPE ASS BLACK ARTIST HERE IN MADISON

YOU ARE GONNA BE MIND BLOWN WE ARE GONNA WAKE AMERICA THE HELL UP AND LET THEM KNOW THAT ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER AND THAT BEING BLACK IS NOT A CRIME BRING TIPS BRING YOURSELF HAVE FUN RESPECT OTHERS LOVE YOURSELF LOVE OTHERS SHINE BRIGHT LIKE THE STAR YOU ARE AND NEVER LET ANYONE OR ANYTHING DEM YOUR BRIGHT LIGHT

United Action Oshkosh

Join United Action Oshkosh as we demand justice for Isaiah Tucker, and all the other victims of police terror. We are rallying to force public attention on to the particular officers who are getting away with murder, and to the issue of systemic police crime.
We are demanding that the officers who murdered Isaiah Tucker be held accountable for their actions, and that they be fired and arrested. We are calling for a Civilian Police Accountability Council to be established in Oshkosh, that will be a transparent body of democratically elected civilians, which have the power to discipline police officers that are out-of-control.
We will be participating in a national day of protest called by the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.https://naarpr.org/updates/september-19-day-protest/?fbclid=IwAR0n6JfCoQXi6pSqqn7pzvOsJwhnCiKVD5ShLEIUTIESLFnZc8g3CfzRdAg

We will be meeting at Menominee Park in Oshkosh at 1pm. The plan is to meet in the big parking lot right next to the baseball diamonds( not by the zoo), rally on the corner of Hazel st and Irving ave, then march through the park back to the rally point. Family-friendly event.

Justice for Jonathon Tubby

“Be apart of the movement, be apart of the change”
It is important for the all people to see our communities come together and recognize what is happening within our Indigenous communities. We want to bring awareness to the continuous injustices that continue to happen to Indigenous people. for those who are unaware, to be aware. Come and stand in solidarity with us as we continue to fight for justice! Please watch for updates on the Justice for Jonathon Tubby facebook page. Any questions or inquiries can be made to the facebook page or JusticeforJonathonTubby@gmail.com
We are looking for speakers, volunteers and donations!

https://panafricannews.blogspot.com/

https://blackagendareport.com/

Reprinted by: https://fighting-words.net/2020/09/13/stop-meddling-in-the-internal-affairs-of-belarus/

By U.S. Peace Council

The U.S. Peace Council (USPC) expresses its solidarity with the people of Belarus whose country is undergoing a campaign of destabilization and interference in their internal affairs by outside forces. USPC calls on all parties to respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of this country.

Belarus, a former constituent republic of the USSR, first declared its sovereignty in 1990 with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Under its new President Alexander Lukashenko, first elected in 1994, Belarus rejected the Western-imposed “economic shock therapy” that looted the public wealth of many of the other former Soviet republics. Belarus retained state-run industry and agriculture, the social safety net, and the relative equality of the socialist period.

In 2000, Belarus and Russia established the Union State, a supranational confederation for economic integration and common defense. Russia’s missile defense system in Belarus is a critical deterrent against a NATO nuclear first strike.

In 2004, the US passed the Belarus Democracy Act overtly funding anti-government NGOs in Belarus and prohibiting loans. In that year, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia joined NATO; now post-coup Ukraine is likely on the way. The addition of Belarus to NATO would complete the US foreign policy goal of military occupation of Russia’s entire western border. The National Endowment for Democracy, the quasi-governmental US agency which does legally what the CIA does extra-legally, currently lists projects to bring “democracy” to Belarus.

The presidential election on August 9, 2020 has been seized as an opportunity by leading imperialist powers allied with a cultivated domestic opposition in Belarus to foment a “color revolution.” A coalition of opposition parties, supported by the USAID, calls for a total reorientation of the Belarusian state and society from east to west and the establishment of a neoliberal political economy. Western capitals, including Washington and Brussels, have refused to recognize the results of the election.

Lukashenko officially won with approximately 80% of the vote, amid accusations by the opposition of vote tampering and suppression of opposition candidates, along with authoritarian practices, mismanagement, and corruption. Sergei Lebedev, the head of the Commonwealth of Independent States election observation mission, reports that the “legitimate … election was conducted in compliance with the Constitution and the Electoral Code of Belarus.”

The leading opposition candidate, Svetlana Tsikhanouskaya, received around 10% of the official vote. She claims she had won the election and is ready to lead Belarus. After the election, Tsikhanouskaya left Belarus for Lithuania, where she met with U.S. First Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun.

The Western media have reported massive demonstrations against the government, but have ignored pro-government demonstrations. While predominantly peaceful, incidences of violence by demonstrators and security forces have been documented. Unlike the Maidan color revolution in Ukraine, heavily armed pro-fascist elements have not been present in Belarus, although the opposition has adopted the red and white flag used during the Nazi occupation of Belarus. The opposition draws heavily from the professional class, while industrial workers have been less involved.

The situation in Belarus remains tense, but due to the government rallying support in the streets, the opposition has changed its demands from calling for regime change to now asking President Macron of France to mediate a process leading to the resignation of President Lukashenko. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov remarked: “They are trying to redraw Belarus according to their own design and offer their mediation.…” It is clear that foreign forces are trying to sow division and violence in Belarus and hope for the ouster of President Lukashenko.

The U.S. Peace Council calls on the government of the United States and other foreign powers to cease from meddling in Belarus and to follow the principle of international law of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states. We express our solidarity with the people of Belarus in this trying time and are confident that they can resolve their differences peacefully free from foreign interference.