http://www.telesurtv.net/english/multimedia/Diplomatic-War-vs.-Venezuela-20170322-0017.html

http://www.telesurtv.net/english/index.html

https://www.pambazuka.org/pan-africanism/au-summit-held-amid-economic-decline-and-social-instability

Critical analysis written by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire, http://panafricannews.blogspot.com/, on the recently-held 29th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, was also published by Pambazuka News. Azikiwe looks at the broader social and political context within the continent in relationship to the overall international situation. According to one source: “Pambazuka News is an open access, Pan-African e-mail and online electronic newsletter. It is published weekly in English, Portuguese and French by Fahamu. The word Pambazuka means ‘dawn’ or ‘arise’ in Kiswahili. Since its inception in 2000, its mission has been to provide a platform for social justice in Africa, for example, by promoting human rights for refugees. Pambazuka News provides commentary and analysis on politics and current affairs. The estimated readership is 500, 000. Pambazuka News produces the AU Monitor, a blog which provides information to civil society organizations in Africa about the proceeds of the African Union. It also produces podcasts. Pambazuka promoted the ratification of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.”

Hosted by Freedom Inc

Join us for our annual Health Day. Location and activities TBD.

Hosted by Mid-Atlantic General Defense Committee

Hello Fellow Workers and Comrades!

The Baltimore J20 defendants and support network are pleased to kick off the July 20-27 Week of Solidarity for J20 Defendants with a phone blast to demand investigation of the conduct of the Metropolitan Police Department on J20. With defendants facing 9+ felony charges and trials set to begin in November, it is crucial that the Office of Police Complaints have made a report on the MPD’s conduct so that the defendants have the necessary tools for a proper defense.

We are working together with the national Defend J20 Resistance network in a week of solidarity. We have created a brief script for people to use, but encourage people to make the message their own. As always, avoid threatening or provoking language.

Here is a sign up sheet for the phone blast: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Cz3Rv-G8UYVQO9OzvDa3a7qs57sV2DAPWg–c04lKL8/edit?usp=sharing

Please sign up for a couple different times to call over the course of the week by tallying an ‘X’ in the time slots that you plan to call. Our priority is filling up every time slot with at least one caller, but we welcome people to still call during times when others have already signed up as well. And don’t forget to add your times to your calendar! Of course, if you find yourself with a few spare minutes during the week, don’t let the schedule keep you from making calls when you can.

Everyone who acts in solidarity is welcome to join in!

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Phone Numbers:
Rochelle Howard at the Office of Police Complaints: (202) 727-3838
Mayor Bowser by way of her chief of staff: (202) 727-6263

Call in Script:
Make the below script your own. You want this to be a human interaction. If you live outside of DC, emphasize that people from all over the country came to DC to protest, and that the actions of the police represent DC to everyone who may come here to make their voice heard.

Hello, my name is _____ and I live in _____.

I’m calling to voice my concern about the lack of action regarding the Office of Police Complaints’ investigation of the mass-arrests that occurred during the inauguration protests. Like many, I was greatly disturbed to see the indiscriminate nature of the arrests and potential violations of protesters’ rights. With the first trials regarding these arrests coming up in November, it is necessary for the investigation to begin as soon as possible, as this investigation could generate relevant information regarding the police actions that day and decisions which preceded it. The office’s February report identified that there were serious concerns regarding potential police misconduct, there is no reason to for the office to delay or drag its feet on this pressing issue.

901 N 9th Street, Milwaukee County Courthouse, 9 A.M., Room 201

Every human being deserves stable, affordable housing. Unfortunately, an estimated 32,872 Milwaukee County residents were evicted from their homes last year, many of them families with children. There is an eviction crisis in Milwaukee County and we must come together as a community to solve it.

Fortunately, a new resolution co-sponsored by Milwaukee County Supervisors Marina Dimitrijevic and Marcelia Nicholson would provide some relief for tenants living in defective homes or facing unlawful evictions. Click here to read more about this resolution: http://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/milwaukee/2017/07/06/milwaukee-county-eviction-proposal-would-let-tenants-reduce-rent-payments-defects/452522001/

Support of this fair housing resolution by joining us at the county board committee meeting this Monday, 7/17. There will be opportunities to give two minutes of commentary, so feel free to prepare testimony if you like.

Hosted by Milwaukee IWW

814 W Wisconsin Avenue, Milwaukee Public Library, 6-8 P.M.

Join us for a training on how to support prisoner unionization efforts in Wisconsin. Monday July 17, 6:00-8:00 PM at the Central Library, community room 1. This has two parts: 1) How to do phone zap against prisons, supporting prisoners organizing 2) How to respond to organizing letters by incarcerated workers writte to the IWW, in ways that build connections and support collective action. This training will be hands-on. We will learn phone zap process by seeing and doing a phone zap in support of current hunger strike. We will learn about writing to prisoners by seeing and doing prisoner-writing, with ample space for questions and discussion

Many of the attendees for this event will have a basic level of familiarity with the Incarcerated Workers Organzign Commitee. If you’re going to be attending this event and have not attended an IWOC event before, it might be useful to reach out to get context, receiving context documents or having a phone chat Q & A prior to the event. Please email j.glicklich@gmail.com or text 630-415-7315 if you’ll be attending, you are new to this kind of work and you want more information.

Snacks and drinks will be provided. Please also contact us if you need help with transporation or childcare to be able to attend this event.

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The IWW is a member-run union for all workers, a union dedicated to organizing on the job, in our industries and in our communities. IWW members are organizing to win better conditions today and build a world with economic democracy tomorrow. We want our workplaces run for the benefit of workers and communities rather than for a handful of bosses and executives.

We are the Industrial Workers of the World because we organize industrially.

This means we organize all workers producing the same goods or providing the same services into one union, rather than dividing workers by skill or trade, so we can pool our strength to win our demands together. Since the IWW was founded in 1905, we have made significant contributions to the labor struggles around the world and have a proud tradition of organizing across gender, ethnic and racial lines – a tradition begun long before such organizing was popular.

We invite you to become a member whether or not the IWW happens to have representation rights in your workplace. We organize the worker, not the job, and recognize that unions are not about government certification or employer recognition but about workers coming together to address common concerns.

http://en.granma.cu/cuba/2017-07-10/is-it-possible-to-meld-the-best-of-capitalism-and-socialism

Enrique Ubieta, editor of the journals Cuba Socialista and La Calle del medio, talked with Cubadebate about political centrism, neo-annexation, and the permanent clash between socialism and capitalism, as conflicting systems – all important issues in the ideological struggle underway around the world today.

Is it possible for centrism to represent the best of both capitalism and socialism?

Capitalism is not the sum of its negative and positive components, of elements that can be saved or discarded. It is a system, that at one point was revolutionary and today is not. It engulfs and links everything: advanced technology, the most sophisticated wealth, and the most absolute poverty. The elements that contribute to greater productivity are the same ones that alienate human labor. Those that generate wealth for a few, produce poverty for the majority, on the national and international level. Establishing such a goal seems fallacious to me. The “best of capitalism” doesn’t exist, as if it could be cleaned up, as if a good capitalism were feasible. There are very bad versions, like fascism and neoliberalism, but I am not aware of any good version. Capitalism is always savage.

On the other hand, socialism, as opposed to capitalism, is not an organic total, a reality already constructed, but rather a path that cannot, all at once, leave behind the system it is trying to replace. We try this and that, we adopt new structures, advance and retreat, eliminate what doesn’t work, correct errors over and over again – a path to another world, in the middle of the jungle, because capitalism is a hegemonic system. What characterizes it is its expressed, conscious intention, to replace capitalism.

Does a center exist? On what principles is it founded? In the capitalist electoral system, a left and a right supposedly exist, but this left – with social democracy as its ideological framework, which was Marxist in its origins, and sought to reform capitalism until it gradually disappeared – functions today within the system and has rejected Marxism. This left differentiates itself from conservative parties with its social policies and its non-prejudiced understanding of diversity. The centrist formula functions within the capitalist system as an electoral option. The voter is managed like a customer since elections function like a market, and are full of right wing parties and left wing parties that alternate in office, but implement similar policies, and thus the system constructs a false “third way…”

http://www.floc.com/wordpress/

[espanol abajo] On July 12, 2017, Governor Cooper signed S615, rejecting requests from labor and immigrant rights organizations and other social justice NGOs for a veto. The bill was sponsored by farmers elected to the General Assembly and aimed at stopping migrant farmworkers from joining FLOC, the state’s only agricultural union, and winning improved working conditions through union agreements.

On Tuesday, July 18, Farmworkers will be joined by supporters from the Labor, Religious, and Faith leaders to publicize this disgraceful act of the NC government. Please show your support for farmworkers by joining us for a press conference and petition delivery to Gov. Cooper’s office.
**We will be meeting outside the Old State Capitol on Morgan St!

El 12 de julio de 2017, el gobernado Cooper firmo S615, negando peticiones de organizaciones laborales y en defensa de inmigrantes y otras organizaciones de justicia social para un paro. La ley fue patrocinada por rancheros elegidos a la Asamblea General y fue dirigida a detener la afiliacion a FLOC de lxs trabajadores del campo, el unico sindical agricola, y el logro de mejores condiciones laborales por acuerdos sindicales.

El martes, 18 de julio, trabajadores del campo se van a juntar con lideres del movimiento laboral y de la comunidad de fe para publicar la verguenza de esta ley hecha por del gobierno de NC. Por favor, muestra su solidaridad con lxs trabajadores del campo y unense con nosotros para una conferencia de prensa y entrega de peticion a la oficina del gobernador Cooper.
**Nos vamos a juntar fuera del Old State Capitol en la calle Morgan!

http://www.floc.com/wordpress/

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FLOC PRESS RELEASE:

Only a few weeks ago during meetings with worker and immigrant rights organizations, NC Governor Roy Cooper committed to support workers and veto anti-immigrant bills. His promise was put to the test when the NC Legislature passed S615, a bill sponsored by farmers elected to the NC General Assembly that aims to stop FLOC from continuing our efforts to improve wages and working conditions for farmworkers. Despite numerous requests from labor and immigrant rights organizations and other social justice NGOs for a veto, Governor Cooper signed S615 on July 13.

The amendment sponsor, Rep. Dixon, himself a farmer, was asked about why he feared farmworkers would join unions when there are already anti-union laws in place and replied, “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” clarifying without a doubt his intention to stifle workers’ right to freedom of association and speech.

“Gov. Cooper chose to be on the wrong side of history, supporting the continuation of racist Jim Crow-era laws aimed at keeping immigrant farmworkers from achieving equal rights and ending abuses in the fields. It is a shame that this Democrat and others refuse to stand on the side of the most marginalized working poor and the immigrant workers that keep this state’s economy afloat.”

– President Baldemar Velasquez

However, the fight is not yet over. We plan to challenge this bill in the courts. Please join us for a press conference next Tuesday, July 18 at the Governor’s office in Raleigh, NC to discuss next steps to stop this bill’s implementation. More details coming soon!

People’s Public Pantry program, taking 2 youth for a employment opportunity, and visiting Emani’s vigil site.