Readers’ Views (part 2)
FROM FUKUSHIMA TO NEW YORK
Shut Down Indian Point Now! is calling a press conference immediately prior to a New York State Assembly hearing to determine energy alternatives to the Indian Point plant in January. As the Fukushima, Japan, meltdown shows, nuclear power can never be made safe.
People are becoming increasingly aware [=>]
Oakland, Calif.–Following a shutdown of the Oakland Port on Nov. 2, whose success took the port and city authorities by surprise, Occupy Oakland called another shutdown for Dec. 12.
This time, Occupy Oakland linked the shutdown to demands for which port workers have been fighting: in support of the Los Angeles non-unionized truck drivers who were [=>]
Occupy Oakland
Oakland, Calif.–As part of the autonomous but connected “Occupy Wall Street” movement, we organized here on Oct. 10, a rainy Monday evening. About 500 people, the great majority under 30 years old and a very diverse group (race, gender, age, etc.), met in a general assembly and collectively decided to occupy and camp out [=>]
Detroit–The unemployment crisis is reaching far into the future. Whereas many government and private economists have been predicting that the economy will pick up in the next quarter or the next year, new reports conclude that in 50 U.S. metropolitan areas, it will take at least a decade to regain employment lost since the 2008 [=>]
Editor’s note: On Aug. 6, 15 young Mexican workers and student activists picketed the Robertson Car Wash for seven hours in support of low-wage immigrant car wash workers. They again picketed on Aug. 14, along with additional students from the AFL-CIO Union Summer program.
Of the very few drivers who came to have their cars washed, [=>]
Los Angeles–On Aug. 13 the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, Los Angeles (CHIRLA), held a press conference against Secure Community (SC), the federal government program that allows local police to act as federal immigration agents. Under the program, over a million immigrants have been deported, most after being stopped for minor offenses.
According to CHIRLA: “From [=>]
Los Angeles–On Aug. 13, 30 youths, mostly young women, gathered at the County Twin Towers Prison to support the Pelican Bay prisoners’ hunger strike. With the drumbeat and the performance of Aztec dancers, the protesters held individually made signs that read: “Prisoners are human beings, give them their rights”; “We stand in solidarity for prisoners’ [=>]
Oakland, Calif.–On June 12 over 150 demonstrators marched to downtown Oakland from Fruitvale BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station, dubbed “Oscar Grant Station” by community activists. We were protesting the mild charge and minimal sentence handed down to Grant’s killer, former BART cop Johannes Mehserle. Mehserle was released from a Los Angeles County jail the [=>]
Los Angeles–On June 16, over 100 demonstrators gathered at the Alhambra court building in support of longtime Chicano community activist Carlos Montes. He is charged with six counts, mostly possession of firearms, though his guns are all registered.
After the hearing, he spoke to his supporters outside the court building. He said his arrest is a [=>]
Los Angeles–On June 14, 1,000 mostly young grocery workers and their supporters gathered and marched for a fair contract at the East Hollywood Vons Supermarket. They represented 60,000 workers of the UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers) at Vons, Ralph and Albertson Supermarkets who have been without a contract for over three months.
Management has demanded [=>]
Los Angeles–In the school district where I work, they have cut two hours per day from the non-teaching staff. It affects insurance for employees with a family. A security worker told me, “I lose $700 per month.” Teachers are losing six furlough days per year, and step increases are frozen. That is in an economy [=>]
Los Angeles–At a March 5 gathering sponsored by the Southern California Immigration Coalition (SCIC), over 60 people gathered to address immigrant workers’ concerns, such as stopping the attacks on and the abuse of vendors, the need for “Legalization now,” abolishing Arizona SB 1070, and ending police harassment and brutality.
An LAPD officer shot and killed Carlos [=>]
From the March-April 2011 issue of News & Letters:
Los Angeles–On Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day, over 700 city workers gathered for one hour at City Hall under the theme “I love LA” to protest cuts in city services and layoffs, with more furloughs and deferred raises. A speaker said that the $588 million giveback from deferred [=>]
by John Alan
Editor’s note: To highlight what is missing from current debates on education reform, we reprint John Alan’s column from the June 1993 N&L.
* * *
This June [1993] the New Jersey Educational Commissioner, Mary Fitzgerald, will take control of the Malcolm X Shabazz High School and the rest of the Newark, N.J., school system. [=>]
Save schools, libraries
Los Angeles–On Oct. 7, over 100 activists from many Leftist groups assembled at the Los Angeles Board of Education Building to protest continuing austerity measures against the working class. Organized by the March 4th Committee to Defend Public Education and Social Services, they demanded reinstatement of all terminated teachers, library workers and other [=>]
From the Nov.-Dec. 2010 issue of News & Letters:
Labor for Oscar Grant
Labor and community support for Oscar Grant; photo for News & Letters by Urszula Wislanka
Oakland, Cal.–On Oct. 23 the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) closed all the ports in the Bay Area, leading labor and community in support of Oscar Grant, shot to [=>]
