WI AFL-CIO, http://www.wisaflcio.org/

Working people across the country are flooding their legislators’ town halls this week to demand that Congress not take health care away from tens of millions of people.

In Wisconsin, union members, healthcare workers, patients and community members are rallying on Saturday, February 25, at the IBEW Local 494 office, 3303 S 103rd St, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53227, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Join the movement to save affordable healthcare, ‘Rally 4 our Healthcare’ Saturday!

It’s hard to believe, but some extreme legislators want to carry out a quadruple threat against health care in America. They want to repeal the Affordable Care Act coverage without providing anything close to a decent replacement. They’re planning to slash the Medicaid program that provides essential services to children, people with disabilities and the elderly, as well as end Medicare as we know it. On top of this, they want to impose a new tax on workplace health benefits that will come directly out of workers’ paychecks and lead many to lose the coverage we get through our jobs.

But these legislators are now feeling the pressure. Some, like Speaker Paul Ryan and Senator Ron Johnson, have even refused to hold town halls just to avoid their constituents. But with health care coverage for tens of millions on the line, we can’t let them ignore us.

Will you take a minute to call your representative right now and demand he or she protect our health care?

Click here or dial 1-855-976-9914 to call your representative now and tell her or him to keep workers’ coverage free from taxes and to save our health care.

The more we hear about the Republican health care plan, the worse it gets. If Republicans repeal the ACA, 30 million Americans could lose health care coverage and millions more will face less affordable and less accessible health care.

And the “replacement” they’ve promised? It would impose a huge new tax on the health benefits of workers and end Medicare and Medicaid as we know them.

The bottom line is their plan will cost working people more, cover fewer families and literally endanger the lives of people who need critical care. Affordable health care coverage is a life-or-death issue for many families—and with so much at stake, we can’t afford to stay silent.

We need to send our leaders a powerful message: We won’t let them gut our health care. Join the rally in Milwaukee Saturday or call today to demand that your representative do the right thing and protect our care!

Click here or dial 1-855-976-9914 now to call your representative and demand he or she protect health care for working people.

In Solidarity,

Phil Neuenfeldt, President

Stephanie Bloomingdale, Secretary-Treasurer

Ken Riley, President of the International Longshoreman Association 1142, http://www.ila1422.com/, called this week for a nationwide strike of dock workers in order to protest unsafe conditions and restrictive hiring on the docks. Riley’s local led day-long wildcat strikes of dockworkers in 2013.

“We are protesting damage to the nation’s economy that is caused by the kind of interference that President Donald Trump promised to stop,” Riley said in a statement.

Riley says his union plans to protest understaffing on the docks, which has led to unsafe conditions and excessive overtime work. Part of the reason for the understaffing, says Riley, is that overly restrictive background checks prevent many qualified people from taking jobs on the docks.

There hasn’t been a date set for the strike. Riley hopes that it coincides with a march of dockworkers on the White House.

Fight For $15:

We’re on the brink of a crisis for working people.

Donald Trump JUST admitted that he supports slashing worker pay and limiting your freedom at work – all to help his rich buddies get even richer.

His Republican cronies in Congress are chomping at the bit to help make it happen – with so-called “right to work” laws that are TERRIBLE for working Americans.

Bryan: We can’t, we WON’T back down.

Tell Congress and state lawmakers: OPPOSE any and all legislation that hurts working people.

I live and work in Michigan. Five years ago, my governor pushed through a law that makes it next to impossible for people to join together in strong worker organizations, like unions. Just the kind of law that Trump said he supports now.

I’ve seen my wages stagnate. I can’t get a raise. I still make just $8.90 per hour at McDonald’s – even though I’ve been working hard for 5 years.

It’s not enough to feed myself or my kids – and it’s not right.

I’m not the only one. Across the country, in states like Michigan where people don’t have the freedom to form strong organizations, people make $6,000 less on average than others working the same exact job.

Send a message to lawmakers in Congress and President Trump to say NO to these attacks on worker freedom and worker pay. We simply can’t afford a pay cut.

Donald Trump ran as a champion of working people, with a promise to take on the rigged economy – but his support for these attacks shows that he only wants to rig it up even more.

We can’t let Trump, Congress, and their corporate cronies make life even harder for working people – and our movement must be strong, loud, and united if we’re going to stop them.

Add your voice to pressure Trump and Congress. “Right to work” is anti-democratic and wrong for working people, like firefighters, nurses, teachers, and fast-food workers like me.

Thanks for standing united at this important time. We’re proud to stand with you.

Onward,

Alexis Wright
McDonald’s Worker
Detroit, MI
Fight for $15

P.S. This is a movement-wide effort to fight back – and we’re proud to team up with these groups in a show of strength and solidarity:

AFSCME, AFT, Courage Campaign, CPD Action, Daily Kos, Democracy for America, Economic Policy Institute Policy Center, Fight for $15, Good Jobs Nation, Jobs with Justice, The Nation, National Employment Law Project, OUR Walmart, People Demanding Action, People for the American Way, Progressive Congress Action Fund, Public Citizen, RootsAction.org, Watchdog.net, and The Zero Hour.

On Feburary 24, 2017
Yellow Rose Gallery will hold a benefit for Young Gifted & Black
Suggested donation $5 to help support Y.G.B. efforts in Documenting Black Needs, Building Collective Analysis, Direct Action and Activism. Not sure if you can make it but still want to support? You can donate online through this link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=Z4XG4N59SJ3M6 “

The eviction of Oceti Sakowin #NoDAPL encampment by armed forces has been scheduled for today, Feb. 22. Unicorn Riot plans to have two live feeds to cover this; visit our website to watch both simultaneously. We will update our post as we learn more information: http://www.unicornriot.ninja/?p=13517

Cam 2 – Eviction of Main #NoDAPL Camp
For live updates go to: http://www.unicornriot.ninja/?p=13517
Support our work: http://www.unicornriot.ninja/?page_id=211

http://www.workers.org/

By LeiLani Dowell posted on February 21, 2017

San Diego is a border city barricaded from its Mexican sister city, Tijuana, by an ugly, metal wall. Recent days here have witnessed a much greater than usual level of activity on the part of La Migra (the U.S. Border Patrol) in the area’s poorer communities, on public transportation and at the supermarkets where Spanish speaking people shop. New immigration checkpoints have popped up on the streets of residential communities.

The unprecedented level of repression is frightening. But the huge outpouring of angry, pro-immigrant San Diegans on Feb. 18 made it clear that President Trump’s racist, anti-immigrant program will meet strong resistance here. Thousands assembled at the County Administration Building that morning and marched downtown to the Federal Building, where their numbers filled the open plaza area and packed the street in front from curb to curb. Their message to President Trump was loud and clear: Muslim people and all immigrants are welcome here!

Un Día sin Inmigrantes/A Day without Immigrants in the Philadelphia area caused many restaurants and other businesses to shut their doors on Feb. 16. A rally organized by Lucha Pro Licencias PA gathered at noon and marched around City Hall, despite cold, windy weather.

When the kitchen workers at Restaurant Bahama Breeze in the suburban King of Prussia area were fired the next morning for being absent, the Coalición Fortaleza Latina Pennsylvania urged supporters to call the business. The campaign won within hours, when the restaurant called every worker to tell them that they were rehired and would also be paid for the day off.

Many motorists on busy East Jefferson Avenue near downtown Detroit honked their horns in support on Feb. 17 as they passed a lively demonstration of 150 people on the sidewalk in front of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement building. The protest received wide coverage in the big-business-owned media.

The newly formed Michigan People’s Defense Network called the action in solidarity with immigrants who are being targeted, banned, scapegoated, raided, rounded up and deported across the U.S. An MPDN statement noted, “The attacks on immigrants are intended to divide the working class and distract us from identifying the real threat and our common enemy: hate groups, the corporations and the banks.” The network is a multinational and intergenerational organization founded to counter the racist and neofascist policies of Trump and his right-wing supporters. For more information, please like the group at facebook.com/MichiganPeoplesDefenseNetwork/.

Tens of thousands on Feb. 13 joined the Día sin Latinos, Inmigrantes y Refugiados/Strike Against Clarke rally and march to stop Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke from ordering deputies to act as Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents under Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. Protesters also demanded an immediate end to raids and deportations, to any Muslim or refugee bans, to walls between the U.S. and Mexico and to attacks on worker rights. The protest was organized by Voces de la Frontera.

“We have to remember to stay strong, not fear,” said Gutiérrez Ayala. “And what else can we do? Just sit there? We’re not going to take it. We’re going to organize as best as we can as a family and a community.”

Participants on Feb. 13 came to Milwaukee from at least 25 cities around the state for what Voces called a daylong strike. Many Latinx workers from business sectors such as the dairy industry, restaurants and meat packing in Wisconsin stayed away from work or joined the actions in Milwaukee. Thousands of students, including many members of Youth Empowered in the Struggle, also joined the protest, as did numerous labor-community supporters from unions, the Muslim community and others.

Beginning at the offices of Voces on the southside of Milwaukee, the 50,000 protesters marched to the Milwaukee County Courthouse in a militant display of people’s power.

“Following Monday’s ‘Day Without Latinos, Immigrants, and Refugees in Wisconsin,’ we are witnessing a spontaneous groundswell of immigrant workers, small business owners and our supporters taking similar bold action to demand an end to Trump’s deportation raids,” said Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera on Feb. 16.

Added Neumann-Ortiz: “We applaud the leadership of immigrant workers and business owners around the country in using their economic power, and we call on community organizations to follow their lead. We invite organizations and the public to join us in coordinated, escalated actions nationwide leading up to a mass general strike on May 1. Monday, May 1, 2017, must be a national Day Without Latinos, Immigrants, and Refugees to demand Trump rescind all of his executive orders on immigration.” To support and for more information, visit https://www.facebook.com/VocesdelaFronteraWI and vdlf.org.

Kris Hamel, Bob McCubbin, Joe Piette and the Workers World Wisconsin bureau contributed to this report.

Milwaukee Feb. 13, 2017 / Photo: Joe Brusky

http://bit.ly/2m7CkNx

#NoDAPL

From Red Fawn’s sister:

Today, Feb. 21, my sister Red Fawn was moved from Stutsman County Jail to Bismarck, ND. I believe she will be held there until her trial, which is set for next month but will most likely be moved to a later date. We have secured private counsel for Red Fawn, who will be led by Mr. Bruce Ellison. We would like to thank everybody who has donated/supported ✊🏼 #FreeRedFawn thus far and humbly ask that y’all continue to SHARE our sisters story as we have a long way to go with our fundraising efforts!