Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW)

http://www.ciw-online.org/

April declared “Month of Outrage” in national Wendy’s Boycott!

Outrage over explosive Harper’s article connecting Wendy’s to infamous Mexican tomato supplier prompts farmworkers, consumers to call for month of action to kick off national boycott…

Just a few short weeks ago, over 100 farmworkers from Immokalee — joined by 400+ consumers from across the state of Florida — wrapped up the Workers’ Voice Tour in Palm Beach, Florida, with an unforgettable march through the heart of the exclusive island community.  With one voice they declared to all that would hear: Boycott Wendy’s!

The workers and their consumer allies declared the national boycott for three principal reasons:

1) Wendy’s is profiting from farmworker poverty by holding out while all its major competitors joined the Fair Food Program years ago;

2) Wendy’s has chosen public relations over human rights by releasing an empty, toothless code of conduct in response to the FFP’s award-winning, enforcement focused, worker-driven approach to social responsibility; and

3) Wendy’s abandoned the Florida tomato industry after the implementation of the FFP and shifted its purchases to Mexico, where human rights violations are endemic and effectively unchecked.

It was the third reason, of course, that truly set Wendy’s apart from all other major food retailers yet to join the Fair Food Program, and made this month’s declaration of a boycott all but inevitable.

But it is one thing to run away from the most widely-respected social responsibility program in agriculture today — Whole Foods called the Fair Food Program “the leading worker welfare success story in the U.S.” just this past week — into the arms of an industry in Mexico known around the world for the prevalence of child labor, sexual abuse, and forced labor there. It is another thing altogether to make one of its most notorious growers one of your key suppliers. […]

[…] Time for action… 

And so was born the Month of Outrage.  Building on the massive wave of energy generated by the tour and the launch of the boycott, the Fair Food Nation is dedicating the next month to letting Wendy’s know that the longer the fast food giant waits, the stronger this national boycott will grow…

Find out how you can join farmworkers in taking action in the Wendy’s Boycott over at the CIW website!

STATEMENT: NC BlackLivesMatter QTPOC Rally Against HB 2

BAIL FUND: http://durhamsolidaritycenter.org/bondfund/

SPREAD THE WORD!

These brave queer and trans North Carolinians are surrounded by police RIGHT NOW and facing arrest for shutting down the street at NC Governor’s mansion.

UPDATE: 6 people have been arrested.

If you can help with legal costs, donate at www.durhamsolidaritycenter.org/bondfund

http://www.ctunet.com/blog/why-officers-propose-an-april-1-day-of-action

Chicago Teachers Union

“…Now is the time for us to fight for what we value. The CTU stands as a critical force in position to stop vicious attacks on public services and public education in this state. We are the most influential voice on public education,  outpolling the mayor by a 3:1 margin on matters of education in Chicago. Our tasks may be daunting, but if we fight, we will inspire the public and become part of a larger movement that can win funding for our schools. Ultimately, that is our best hope for defending public education.”

In solidarity,
Karen GJ Lewis, NBCT

Wisconsin Network for Peace and Justice and partner organizations will be kicking off the Racial Justice Tipping Point project with a gathering and training. Register here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1ieD1nvmpjPAdfm5k0roPAydRn0iUpNEFxLUtvMRo2qE/edit

This is a chance for organizations and individuals to come together to learn about one another’s work, get trained on how to bring more people into the struggle for racial justice, and get support for next steps you or your organization is taking to work for racial justice.

The stakes are high right now with some incredible work being done for racial justice sparking a new movement moment amidst high levels of overt and institutional racism and violence all around us. Now is the time for us to connect, learn from, and take action with one another.

There will be 3 main breakout sessions offered: organizational change for racial justice, direct action, and engagement for base building. Visit the website for more information: racialjusticewi.org

Training team includes:

Cynthia Lin: WNPJ Board Member, former Western States Center trainer and current organizer with National Network of Abortion Funds
Barb Munson: WNPJ Co-Chair, Chair of Wisconsin Indian Education Association “Indian” Mascot and Logo Taskforce
Brandi Grayson: Young Gifted and Black co-founder, YWCA Empowerment Center Manager
Claire Tran: WNPJ Board Member, Trainer with School of Unity and Liberation (SOUL), Asians for Black Lives
Dana Schultz: Executive Director of Wisconsin Voices
Liz Bruno: WNPJ Board Co-Chair, Herbalist, Generative Somatics trainee
Z! Haukeness: WNPJ Organizer, Groundwork, various social justice organizations

This is an exciting project that we have been putting a lot of work into. We look forward to taking this next big step with you all. Register now!

Green Bay Advocates 4 Public Education

Mission:
We believe in and advocate for:
* public schools as a cornerstone of democracy.
* neighborhood schools that are the center of our communities
* local control
* using tax dollars for public schools
* fully funding public education as written in the Wisconsin Constitution.
* students, teachers, and parents in the public school system.
* teachers as professionals
* respecting the voice of teachers participating in their professional endeavors

Click HERE to view in browser        PLEASE SHARE WIDELY!             

SIGN Petition to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf:
Hep C cure NOW for Mumia Abu-Jamal and 10,000 PA prisoners

SIGN the petition at www.iacenter.org/mumiahepcsign (your signature will be printed out and brought to PA Gov Wolf along with all the other signed statements on Friday April 22 in Philadelphia – Text of the petition statement appears at the bottom of this email)

URGENT! Read separate announcement about making calls to PA officials demanding immediate health care for Mumia, at http://www.iacenter.org/prisoners/mumia/mumia031716/

We initiated a campaign in 2015 to get Mumia Abu-Jamal and 10,000 other prisoners in Pennsylvania access to the hep C virus cure they urgently need. We took the PA Department of Corrections to court last December where we were able to show that the DOC spent over $160,000 treating Abu-Jamal’s hep C symptoms, but is refusing to provide him with a life-affirming hep C protocol that provides a 95 percent effective cure. Denying the cure not only increases a patient’s suffering, but leads to higher financial expenses as the disease develops into cirrhosis, cancer of the liver and ultimately death.

The latest phase of our campaign is a petition to PA Gov. Tom Wolf asking him “to make the DOC’s hep C protocol a guide to treatment and eradication of HCV, not a manual for the denial of care.” The petition points out that “the PA DOC’s refusal to fully treat Abu-Jamal and other prisoners is a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Eighth Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment.”

Please sign the petition online as soon as possible and no later than April 15. Please forward and share this email immediately to all your friends, co-workers and fellow activists who are concerned about health care and justice for all. We plan to print out and deliver all the petitions to Gov. Wolf on Friday, April 22, in Philadelphia — two days before Mumia’s 62nd birthday.

PLEASE SIGN NOW

Thank you,

International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal

Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition, NYC

Campaign to Bring Mumia Home

International Action Center

The MOVE Organization

Educators for Mumia

DOWNLOAD PDF of hard copy petition (print and get signatures):

www.iacenter.org/mumiahepcwolfpetition.pdf

Text of petition::

To Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf

We call on you to make the cure for hepatitis-C possible for thousands of Pennsylvanians infected with this virus, including up to 10,000 in PA prisons and 45,000 in Philadelphia. There is a cure that is 95 percent effective but Gilead Sciences charges up to $94,500 for the 12-week long treatment with Sovaldi or Harvoni. Thousands are being denied the hep C cure by Medicaid, the Veterans Administration, personal medical insurers and the PA Department of Corrections. In 2015, while many people were suffering and dying from cirrhosis or cancer of the liver because they didn’t have the means to pay the steep price for the cure, Gilead made an obscene $17 billion in profits.

As we informed you in petitions last year, political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal almost died from hepatitis C complication. The DOC spent over $160,000 treating Abu-Jamal’s hep C symptoms but refuses to provide him with the available cure. The cost of the DOC’s refusal to cure the disease when first detected is not only immeasurable in suffering and loss of lives of state prisoners but leads to higher financial expenses as the disease is allowed to develop into cirrhosis or cancer of the liver. We ask you to make the DOC’s hep C protocol a guide for treatment and eradication of HCV, not a manual for the denial of care. Prisoners with untreated hep C unknowingly bring this deadly disease back to their communities – often to neighborhoods with poor access to quality healthcare.

HCV is a greater threat to PA residents than HIV, Ebola or Zika. Countries such as Egypt and India are providing the hep C cure to their patients for a tiny fraction of the cost in this country. Why not Pennsylvania? Gov. Wolf, it is your job to see to it that everyone with the hep C virus should get the cure – those in prison too.

For prisoners like Mumia Abu-Jamal, untreated hepatitis C is a death sentence. The PA DOC’s refusal to fully treat Abu-Jamal and other prisoners is a clear violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Eight Amendment prohibiting cruel and unusual punishment. In light of the PA DOC’s refusal to provide the cure to HCV, we therefore call on you to release Mumia Abu-Jamal and all other prisoners needlessly suffering from untreated hepatitis C.

[your signature will appear here]

Please sign by submitting form online HERE by Friday, April 15. The signed petitions will be delivered to Governor Wolf on Friday, April 22.

International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal
Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Coalition
NYC Campaign to Bring Mumia Home
International Action Center
The MOVE Organization