Photos: Joe Brusky / https://bit.ly/2Yvrj9K

#BlackLivesMatter #TransLivesMatter #BLM

June 14, 2020

June SSN – Letter Campaign to End Violence Against Black People

Juneteenth Celebration Rally

406 Fremont Street, Algoma, WI – 4-8 P.M.

Just like last week! Come down and show your support for BLM! Bring a sign and have some fun writing uplifting messages on the sidewalk. I’ll be bringing the chalk and some water for people. Let’s show that Algoma cares for all of its residents and that racism and brutality wont be tolerated. Bring a mask and hand sanitizer if you feel you need them.

Juneteenth, also known as Freedom Day, Jubilee Day, and Cel-Liberation Day, is an American holiday celebrated annually on June 19. It commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union general Gordon Granger read federal orders in Galveston, Texas, that all previously enslaved people in Texas were free.

https://wicuba.wordpress.com/2020/06/08/revolutionary-medicine-in-a-time-of-pandemic/

A special virtual event, Tuesday, June 23rd, 2020, at 7 PM.

Preregistration is required.

Join us for a special event on June 23, 2020, at 7 PM Central, in support of Pastors for Peace/IFCO & its challenge to U.S. restrictions on our right to travel to Cuba. It will feature excerpts from the film “Revolutionary Medicine: A Story of the First Garifuna Hospital.” Joining us LIVE will be Gail Walker, Executive Director of IFCO/Pastors for Peace, plus a U.S. graduate of Cuba’s international medical school which is transforming the delivery & practice of medical care worldwide.

This acclaimed film tells one remarkable story of a marginalized population that worked together and built a hospital for their community. Click here to see the trailer for this amazing film.
“https://player.vimeo.com/video/185880276“

You can learn how dedicated people can and have implemented high-quality preventative medicine, even to the most under-served populations. During the event, there will be an opportunity for you to donate to the important mission of Pastors for Peace/IFCO, to support the poor and disenfranchised in developing and sustaining community organizations to fight human and civil rights injustices. 

To share this meeting and join our Facebook group, click here: https://www.facebook.com/events/2984229654978704/

https://wicuba.wordpress.com/

Stokely Carmichael also known as Kwame Touré was a Trinidadian-American political activist best known for leading the civil rights group SNCC in the 1960s, and later, the global Pan-African movement. Growing up in the United States from the age of eleven, he graduated from Howard University. He rose to prominence in the civil rights and Black Power movements, first as a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), later as the “Honorary Prime Minister” of the Black Panther Party, and finally as a leader of the All-African Peoples Revolutionary Party.

Teach-in, Speak Out! Uprisings and Police Brutality in Milwaukee

The Jackson family. Family and coworkers say Mike Jackson, an 45-year-old father of eight and employee at Briggs & Stratton in Wauwatosa, died of coronavirus after collapsing on the job. They allege the company has done little to protect its employees. (Photo via Voces de la Frontera

https://bit.ly/2C1MIj7

Jonathon Sadowski 

Yet another ‘essential worker’ died after reportedly being mistreated by his employer.

Mike Jackson, a 45-year-old father of eight, was in the midst of organizing with his fellow workers at Briggs & Stratton in Wauwatosa to demand better worker safety when he collapsed on the job last week.

Days later, Jackson died from COVID-19.

His family and coworkers say he had been experiencing coronavirus symptoms for weeks. They allege he felt pressured to work — in close quarters on an assembly line  — because Briggs & Stratton never laid out clear guidelines for employees experiencing symptoms, never provided adequate protection, or allowed paid sick days.

“That’s bogus, just how they did my father,” said Jackson’s 25-year-old son, Kavonte, through tears. “All he wanted to do was take care of his kids. But instead of letting him stay home and be safe, they forced him to work. Now he’s gone, and we don’t have no father no more.”

Jackson is the latest victim of alleged corporate malpractice against so-called essential workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Voces de la Frontera, a Milwaukee-based immigrant and worker advocacy group, hosted a press conference late Thursday afternoon with Jackson’s family and coworkers to call attention to workers’ treatment at Briggs & Stratton, a Wauwatosa-headquartered small engine and lawn mower parts manufacturer.

“One thing that needs to be addressed is these companies and these corporations who are putting pressure on these workers for profit,” said Jackson’s younger cousin, Adebisi Agoro. “Capitalism is moving towards this new system of ‘isms’: Essentialism, where they’re putting the essence of the worker before the existence of the worker.”

Voces de la Frontera has filed an OSHA complaint against Briggs & Stratton demanding a company-wide mask-wearing policy, proper distancing at work stations, coronavirus tests for all employees, and more transparency with its own workers.

“The company has been secretive about infections and has used the pandemic as an excuse to suppress workplace democracy, putting workers’ lives in danger,” said Chance Zombor, a grievance representative with United Steelworkers Local 2-232, which represents Briggs & Stratton employees. “I believe Mike would be alive right now if the company had put safety first, if they put people over profits, and if they put lives over lawnmowers.”

Zombor and another Briggs & Stratton Employee, Herb Williamson, said workers only get two personal days per year but not any sick days. Each day off results in a “point”; if an employee gets too many points in a year, they are fired, Zombor said.

It took Jackson’s death to get coronavirus testing for workers in Jackson’s immediate area, Zombor said, but there is no wide-scale testing happening.

“They’re not educating anyone on the floor about what’s going on,” Williamson said.

The pandemic has shown how poorly millions of essential workers, oftentimes people of color, are treated by their employers. Black and Latino workers, especially women, are disproportionately considered essential. The Brookings Institution found that the essential status of so many black and brown workers is almost certainly contributing to the disparate effects of coronavirus on minority communities.

That has manifested in Wisconsin, where Black residents are at a much greater risk of contracting and dying from coronavirus than white people.

“It’s a shame we had to lose someone in order for all this to come into the light,” said Jackson’s older brother, Ed.

Christine Neumann-Ortiz, executive director of Voces de la Frontera, said Briggs & Stratton will meet with the group to address safety concerns. The company could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

Voces de la Frontera was also involved in highlighting poor conditions for food processing workers in April, especially at meatpacking plants in Green Bay, where over 600 workers were infected at just two facilities.

“These kind of core issues that have all been flagged everywhere you go, it’s just the same themes over and over again,” Neumann-Ortiz said.

This #blacklivesmatter mural is being painted by artists from around Milwaukee. It features often overlooked woman of the Civil Rights Movement.

MPS: Defund Police in Our Childrens’ Schools

The Milwaukee Board of School Directors is meeting on Thursday, June 18 to discuss the contract with the Milwaukee Police Department for School Resource Officers. We know that police have no place in our schools and result in increased trauma and exposure our children unjustly to the criminal justice system. Join us for a watch party and email your board director to let them know they should #DefundPolice in schools.

Shavonda Sisson is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Power to the Parents: Defund the Police
Time: Jun 18, 2020 05:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82827188237

Meeting ID: 828 2718 8237
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ALSO: Join Leaders Igniting Transformation on June 17 for their Rally to end contracts between MPS and MPD!.