Fight Back Friday!

815 E Locust Street, Milwaukee, 4-6 P.M.

We love working in Milwaukee Public Schools, but know our days are also challenging and stressful. That’s why Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association (MTEA) welcomes all MPS educators and education workers to the Riverwest Public House Cooperative for “Fight Back Friday.” This event will be held on the first Friday of every month from 4pm to 6pm, and will offer local educators and education workers a space to connect, rejuvenate, and advocate for our students and profession.

Every month we will feature a different activity or speaker to keep the event fresh. Come and join others fighting to make our public schools the best possible place for our students.

https://weac.org/

PROTESTS AT STATE CAPITOL IN MADISON ALL DAY AND NIGHT DECEMBER 4, 2018!!

UPDATE: The Joint Finance Committee voted 12-4 along party lines early Tuesday to approve three GOP-authored extraordinary session bills after making several tweaks to the legislation. The bills, which both houses of the Legislature plan to take to the floor this afternoon after they were introduced Friday, would make a series of changes to state law to give the Legislature more oversight of the incoming Tony Evers administration and say over the decisions of AG-elect Josh Kaul. 

WEAC is partnering with our allies to push back on the right win legislative lame duck session, after over 40 provisions were introduced at the very end of the day Friday. Radio ads startedMonday and WEAC members and public education supporters are being asked to immediately email your legislators and share digital content on social media channels. WEAC will inform you about opportunities to be part of press events, rallies and townhalls being organized in various areas of the state as well.

Please cut and paste the message below to share with your members:

Lame duck session an outrageous attempt to bypass election results

An outrageous attempt by Legislative Republicans to ram through last-ditch laws is on the fast-track, with five bills containing more than 40 changes in state law being announced at 4:30 p.m. Friday, set for a hearing Monday and up for a vote as soon as Tuesday.

Voters were clear: Strengthen schools, fix roads, protect health care access. The Republican majority instead is set to go back to their old nasty tricks of getting their way – voters be damned. If anyone still questioned their capacity to put politics over people, this should settle the question once and for all.

Governor-Elect Tony Evers should have the same ability to governor as that afforded to Governor Walker. But there’s no getting around how far his political opponents will go. This special session is a signal that this is not the end of Walker’s reign. It’s a sign of what’s to come when Governor-Elect Evers takes office, and how active we’ll need to be to counter the GOP legislators who are digging in their heels at all costs.

Here are some of the key measures being pursued by Republicans in the Lame Duck Session:

Preventing withdrawal of health care lawsuit

Republican candidates campaigned on protecting health care access, yet a key part of the package would fundamentally change the role of the state Attorney General, giving lawmakers broad new powers to constrain incoming AG Josh Kaul and prevent him from intervening in Scott Walker’s lawsuit against the federal ACA. The provision limits the ability of the Attorney General to settle or withdraw cases by requiring the approval of the Joint Committee on Finance. Current law only requires approval of the governor.

Limiting early voting

Another bill would bar early voting from starting earlier than two weeks before an election — despite a federal judge’s ruling two years ago that struck down similar restrictions as racially discriminatory. The proposed voting changes come after Democrats won every statewide office in the November election, powered by record voter turnout for a midterm and record early voting totals.

The Assembly GOP proposal could disproportionately affect early voting in Wisconsin’s biggest cities, which vote heavily Democratic.

Stripping the governor’s power on jobs agency

One bill would give GOP lawmakers more power over Walker’s job-creation agency, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., which Evers has sought to dissolve, and strip the governor of the power to appoint the agency’s CEO.

Moving the presidential primary

Another change would move Wisconsin’s presidential primary to March, which local election officials have said would be “impossible” to carry out. The effort to move the 2020 primary would improve the chances of conservative-backed state Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly, who would be up for election for the first time in the April 2020 election. Walker appointed Kelly to replace retiring Justice David Prosser in 2016.

Pre-Existing Conditions

One bill included passed the Assembly last year, but stalled in the Senate. It would help people with pre-existing conditions get health coverage if the federal Obamacare law is repealed or struck down in court. The bill doesn’t provide the same level of protections as Obamacare to people with serious health conditions.

Republicans are considering a slew of other changes to elections, taxes and transportation funding, including these items of note:

• Provisions that prohibit courts from deferring to administrative decisions.
• Provisions that would allow the Legislature to intervene in lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of a statute with their own counsel outside of the Attorney General’s office and to require that “special counsel” represent the defendant in such cases where JCLO determines the interests of the state would best be represented.
• Elimination of the solicitor general and the Attorney General’s ability to appoint to the positions.
• Provision authorizing legislators to have their own representatives outside of the Department of Justice.
• Provision related to senate confirmation of the governor’s appointments, requiring that any individual nominated by the Governor or another state officer or agency, and with the advice and consent of the Senate appointed, to any office or position may not hold the office or position, be nominated again for the office or position, or perform any duties of the office or position during the legislative session biennium if the individual’s confirmation for the office or position is rejected by the Senate.  Currently, there is nothing prohibiting the governor from nominating the individual again for the office or position or appointing the individual to the office or position as a provisional appointment.
• Total appropriations for workforce development grants for career and technical education remain the same but are allocated differently, with no funding allocated for teacher development program grants. The program’s goal is to increase the number of licensed teachers in Wisconsin Schools, so given the state teacher shortage is at best a questionable move.

https://weac.org/

http://overpasslightbrigade.org/

Join fellow workers to say NO to the right wing lame duck session! If we don’t get it, SHUT IT DOWN!

Solidarity Singers 12 NOON

Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association

#RespectMyVote

Protest Deaths at WI DOC

3099 E Washington Avenue, WI Department of Corrections, Madison, 10-11:30 A.M.

This Thursday a variety of anti-prison organizations invite you to join us in confronting the WI Department of Corrections (DOC) Central Office during the open section of the Committee on Inmate and Youth Deaths (COIYD).

We will demand information from COIYD on recommendations they’ve made to the DOC in recent years, and how the DOC has changed policies in response. The COIYD will likely refuse to release any such information (they have in the past).

Then we will then gather for a brief news conference in the lobby or outside the DOC where we will share what we do know about some recent incidents as well as trends of frequent and preventable deaths occurring inside DOC facilities.

Speakers and more details to be determined.

Dress for the weather. It will be cold with a chance of snow.

MORE ABOUT COIYD:

In April of 2001 the DOC created this committee to “provide the
Department of Corrections Secretary and the facilities with an objective review of inmate and youth deaths so as to help the facilities and the Department of Corrections continually improve
the quality of care.”

In recent years, organizers have attended COIYD meetings and found that the committee is mostly composed of DOC employees, doesn’t seem to do much oversight and refuses to share their recommendations or any DOC responses, accountability or policy changes with the public.

We’ve asked the committee questions and they claim all the information is restricted by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and other laws protecting the privacy of the dead. We told them we’re not interested in specific people’s private information, but in the COIYD’s recommendations and the DOC’s corresponding policy changes, which they ought to discuss at the public part of their meetings, under WI public meetings law.

They told us the only way we can get such information is to file public records requests. So we did, and only received inadequate and evasive responses. We’re filed more specific requests, citing records they referenced in the little information they did release. We’re awaiting their response to this request.

At the last COIYD meeting (September 2018) we specifically demanded that they share more information at their next meeting. This week, we are asking you to come with to the open session of this committee meeting and back our demand for transparency from the DOC about people who die while held in their facilities.

ABOUT THE NEWS CONFERENCE:

If the COIYD and the DOC continue to refuse transparency, we will report what we do know to the public. We are in touch with family members of two prisoners who recently died while under “observation” (suicide watch) at Columbia Correctional Institution (CCI), as well as with prisoners who witnessed these deaths. If these family members cannot make it, we will share whatever information they wish to release.

We’ll also share prisoner witness stories about an incident in CCI at the end of October where CO Russel Goldsmith, CO Michael Thompson and others attacked a prisoner and then faked that prisoner’s suicide attempt to justify the assault. https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/crime/columbia-correctional-institution-officers-charged-in-incident-of-alleged-inmate/article_c599077c-e8bd-54e1-ba7d-661ed8005e23.html

The CLOSEmsdf campaign has tracked at least seventeen deaths over 17 years at Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility. We suspect more occurred, but were hidden from public view.

Outside of these violent deaths, death by medical neglect and excessive incarceration are routine in the DOC. We will speak about reforms such as compassionate release, executive clemency, and overhauling the parole board that can reduce the frequency of such unnecessary and cruel deaths in the DOC facilities.

Call to Action

In following the example set by SPARC in calling upon the board of regents to fire the administrative staff at UWSP, and the Portage County Eco-Socialists calling for Greg and Bernie’s resignation, the UWSP Eco-Socialists have taken it upon ourselves to take action.

As students at this university (who are largely pursuing degrees in COLS), and as student who have grown close to many faculty members who now face termination, we want to do everything we can to preserve the integrity of this institution and bring about an end to this act of injustice.

On Wednesday, December 5th, we will be holding a meeting at 7pm in CPS room #210 at UW Stevens Point that we hope you will all attend. At this meeting, we will be filming personal testimonials from UWSP faculty, students and Stevens Point community members not only endorsing the call for for an administrative change but to speak to the importance of the humanities and social sciences at this university. We will then compile these statements into a larger video (along with a petition) which we will distribute on social media platforms and send to the board of regents, the administration themselves, the press, and the community at large.

1-866-832-1560

ALL DAY ACTIONS DECEMBER 3, 2018 AT THE STATE CAPITOL IN MADISON! RALLIES AT 12:30 P.M. AND 5:30 P.M. 

SOLIDARITY SINGERS AT 12 NOON

Shining a Light on the Wisconsin GOP Power Grab

BRING SIGNS, BANNERS, NOISE AND DIRECT ACTION!

____________________

Gov. Scott Walker:
(608) 266-1212, govgeneral@wisconsin.gov, walker.wi.gov/contact-us.

CLOSEmsdf Picket (December)

901 N 9th Street, Milwaukee County Courthouse, 11:30 A.M. – 1:30 P.M.

Why do we picket?
1. To educate people on the inhumane conditions at MSDF
2. To memorialize the 17 people who have died in MSDF since it opened.
3. To let WI taxpayers know that each day someone spends in MSDF for a crimeless rule violation it costs us $100.84 vs $40 to treat that person in the community where their job, housing & support systems stay secure.
4. Former Governer Tommy Thompson has said building MSDF was a mistake. Its time the state corrects that error.

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Please join us during the lunch hour on December 20 on the 10th Street side of the courthouse. Partway through the picket we might march over to the state office building on 6th and Wells, where the DOC has offices.

Parking is metered or nearby public lots. If you don’t mind walking a couple blocks, its often easier to find free parking on the other side of the freeway.

We’ve been holding down this monthly picket since the spring of 2017. A coalition of Milwaukee organizations have joined up to shut down MSDF. This facility is a building within a building, where captives have no access to fresh air or sunlight. They are triple bunked in lockdown cells for over 20 hours a day. There is no outdoor rec. The facility was built and is run using funds that should be used for diversionary programs to keep people out of jail, instead it’s being used to keep them on supervision under arbitrary and vindictive probation and parole officers.

We are organizing this protest on every 23rd (unless that lands on a weekend, when there’s less foot traffic). The National Religious Campaign Against Torture has called for actions on the 23rd of every month (to bring attention to 23 hour a day lockdowns). http://www.nrcat.org/about-us/take-action-current-legislation/563-together-to-end-solitary

Can’t come?

SIGN THE PETITION!!!!

If you haven’t signed the petition yet yourself, please do here: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/its-time-to-close-milwaukee-secure-detention-facility-msdf

https://tinyurl.com/yc79gv5b

Listen to the Sat. Dec. 1, 2018 edition of the Pan-African Journal: Worldwide Radio Broadcast hosted by Abayomi Azikiwe, editor of the Pan-African News Wire. The program features a tribute to the life, times and contributions of former Republic of Cuba President Fidel Castro on the second anniversary of his transition. Join our audience throughout the United States, Canada, Britain, Ireland, Spain, Germany, France, Norway, Australia, Ivory Coast, Libya, Morocco, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa and other geo-political regions throughout the globe in their engagement with this audio news magazine.