labor

Madison Area AFL CIO Votes to Prepare For General Strike

Posted by copwatch | Mon, 03/14/2011 - 12:04am story

By Mike Elk February 22nd, 2011

This evening in a press release from IBEW Local 2304 President Dave Pokilinski, I received word that the 45,000 member Southern Central Federation of Labor, the local chapter of the AFL-CIO for the Madison and Southern Central Wisconsin area, has voted to make preparations for a general strike.

The press release reads as follows:

OAKLAND PORT TO SHUT FOR OSCAR GRANT, OCT 23rd! OSCAR GRANT & MUMIA; TWO RALLIES, SAME FIGHT

- An urgent message from the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal -

Please forward, post and distribute widely: * Oscar Grant & Mumia Abu-Jamal - Mass mobilizations*!

TWO RALLIES, SAME FIGHT! Against racism, injustice and official murder of the innocent! PLEASE SCROLL DOWN for full information

 

1. OAKLAND, October 23rd 2010: PORT SHUT DOWN FOR OSCAR GRANT!
Rally: 12 Noon, City Hall, 14th and Broadway

 

OUTRAGE! An Innocent Black Man Shot in the Back by Police and... Killed for No Reason!

 

*Killer Cop Gets Off With Involuntary Manslaughter! * *

 

Photographic Evidence Proves: It Was Murder! *

 

Oscar Grant was a father of a young daughter, a working person in Oakland, and innocent of any crime! He was shot while he was held face-down with his hands behind him, by BART cop Johannes Mehserle!

 

Only because of massive street protests in Oakland, and cell-phone videos of the shooting which made it onto the nightly news, was the cop eventually charged with murder. But after a change of venue to Los Angeles, Mehserle received the lightest conviction: involuntary manslaughter. Oakland's integrated community rose again to protest.

 

ILWU Calls Rally& Port Shutdown!  

With Mehserle's long-delayed sentencing set for November 5th, Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), supported by many other unions and local community groups, called for a rally in downtown Oakland for Saturday, October 23rd at 12 noon.

 

And now the longshore membership has voted for a port shutdown as well, to say: Justice for Oscar Grant! Labor Unity With the Community! Jail Killer Cops!

HAPPY MAY DAY! - from Critical Resisance, Strategy & Struggle to ABOLISH the Prison Industrial Complex

Posted by copwatch | Sat, 05/01/2010 - 10:57am story

Dear Friends,   
                                    
Happy May Day!

Today all over the world people are coming together to demonstrate the power of political and economic solidarity; to challenge anti-immigrant racism; to celebrate spring and rebirth; and to affirm our capacity to build a society founded on interdependence.

We know that in the United States, this "other labor day" isn't officially recognized or celebrated in every community.  Reclaiming May Day is an important tactic for building alliances with communities worldwide.