ARTICLE: http://tinyurl.com/o39nte3

“From policing to sentencing to incarceration, LGBTQ people—especially those who are poor, black, and brown—are systematically targeted and then, once locked up, subjected to “constant violence by both prison staff and other prisoners,” a harrowing new study reveals.

Coming Out of Concrete Closets, released Friday by the LGBTQ prison abolition organization Black and Pink, is based on 1,118 prisoners’ hand-written responses to a 133-question survey that was designed with the participation of incarcerated people. Researchers say the findings of the study, the largest-ever survey of this population, indict the U.S. prison system as a whole.

“The prison industrial complex is a tool of racial control to marginalize and contain people of color,” Rev. Jason Lydon, national director of Black and Pink and lead author of the report, told Common Dreams. “It is also a tool of homophobia and transphobia.”

A stunning 85 percent of respondents reported spending time in solitary confinement at some point, with half reporting two or more years there. Black, Latino, mixed-race, and Native American respondents were two times as likely to have been in solitary confinement than white respondents. In many cases, prisons employ euphemisms such as “protective custody” to justify such policies.

However, the targeting starts long before—in the streets. Nearly a fifth of respondents reported being homeless before being locked up and over a third said they were unemployed. Fifty-eight percent of respondents said they were arrested when they were younger than 18 years old, and that ratio jumped to 66 percent among Black and Latino populations…”

A labor-community victory won on a social unionism basis for ATU 998 with major solidarity from AFSCME, the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association (MTEA), the Coalition for Justice and other Black Lives Matter activists, FIST, FRSO Fightback, the Latin American Solidarity Committee, Light Brigades, Riverwest Radio, Occupy groups, WI Bail Out The People Movement, Labor Forum on WRFG in Atlanta, Workers World Party and many more. And of course the examples of Black-White unity of the rank-n-file and their militant resistance to austerity and Jim Crow southern style politics in WI. A union won in 1934 with a long history of civil/human rights union history (including the late Father James Groppi as a previous president) continues to fight on to smash racism and union busting. Power to ATU 998 and community supporters! SOLIDARITY

Workers World Party Conference 2015: Putting Socialist Revolution on the Table

Workers World Party 2015 National Conference
‘Putting Socialist Revolution on the Table’
November 7 – 8, 2015
Malcolm X and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial & Educational Center, 3940 Broadway (at W. 165th St.), New York, NY
Twitter @WWPNatl
#Time4SocialistRevolution

SCHEDULE:
Saturday, Nov. 7
8 a.m. – Register / coffee
Sessions 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 8
9 a.m. – Register / coffee
Session 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Plenaries
Workshops
Discussion groups
Cultural presentations

Go to http://workersworldparty.org/ for updates on schedule, pre-registration, housing, childcare and more.

http://tinyurl.com/o3ncfdf

“I don’t have to be a worker today and a queer person tomorrow and a woman tonight. I can be all of those things at once,” Alicia Garza, cofounder of Black Lives Matter, told an audience at City University of New York’s Murphy Institute. “What’s important about the high levels of participation [in these movements] is that it signals that there is space for people to be who they are unapologetically and for us to fight among multiple dimensions.

…One of those contours is economic justice—which is one way the strikes led by low-wage workers around the country pursuing better wages have converged with the goals of Black Lives Matter. Roughly 40 percent of fast-food workers are people of color, more than half of them are women, and most of them are between the ages of 25 and 54, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Fells recalled seeing this intersection in action in Ferguson after Brown was killed, when McDonald’s workers who had been striking for higher wages took up the fight against anti-black racism being waged in the streets.

“There is a natural intersection between what’s happening with Black Lives Matter and the Fight for $15,” Fells said. “If we take advantage of this and link these movements together, we have opportunities to create more success in years to come.”

Make sure you’re also following us on Twitter at @FightFor15WI: https://twitter.com/FightFor15WI

Familias Unidas por la Justicia, Community to Community and Columbia Legal Services have had some amazing successes over the past two plus years. In a true grassroots movement, farm workers in Washington’s Skagit Valley formed their own union, Familias Unidas, to seek living-wages and fair treatment in the fields. When management sought to thwart their efforts, the workers responded with old-school protests and boycotts along with new-millennia social media and enlisted the help of dedicated public interest lawyers to fight for justice.

In nearly all court cases, the courts have sided with the workers in securing better working conditions and the right to organize. Some of those victories include Washington Supreme Court decides that farm workers have a right to be paid for rest breaks, Sakuma Brothers Farm is required to remove the guards from worker’s housing and to refrain from following union members and their supporters on public highways and elsewhere, and Court orders Sakuma to stop retaliating against worker’s who went on strike by denying them work and housing for their kids.

This is their story…

Don’t buy Driscoll Berries, Haagen-Daz and Yoplait Yogurt, which use Sakuma Bros. berries for their products!

For more info visit: boycottsakumaberries.com

The Boycott Continues. Solidarity Still Needed: Continue to Increase the Pressure on Sakuma and Driscoll’s Berries. Call & Email Today to Support the Farm Workers at Sakuma Farms.

http://stopmpstakeover.com

First they came after local control in Milwaukee, now they’re going after Racine, which leaves you wondering who’s next?

A bill currently making its way through the Wisconsin State Legislature will sidestep the democratically elected process of the Racine School Board to fill a vacant seat created by the resignation of a board member earlier in the year. According to the proposed legislation, introduced by Racine Senator Van Wanggaard (R-Racine), an open seat could be unilaterally appointed by the board president, rather than voted on by existing board members, as is currently the case. Passage of the legislation would allow the current board president to install an anti-public education majority on the board. The Racine school board president is taking a page out of the Republican legislators’ playbook, changing the laws to gain majorities and push through unpopular legislation.

Find out how to support the fightback here: http://stopmpstakeover.com

This attack on the local control needs to be stopped. The legislation has already passed the Assembly and is awaiting passage in the Senate, which could happen at any hour. It will then go to Governor Walker, who undoubtedly will sign it. This puts an extreme importance on electing pro-public education candidates in 2016 school board elections.

Hear Maria Luisa Rosal National Organizer for SOA Watch and Asst. Prof. Joan Braune discuss the School of the Americas with Gary Grass and Babette Grunow. http://tinyurl.com/pkfxlae

Ms. Maria Luisa Rosal