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Youth join community in postal workers’ struggle

Published Apr 16, 2012 10:46 PM

Young people occupied a Harlem post office for an hour and a half on the afternoon on April 6 as part of a national action to save 200,000 jobs and community services needed at hundreds of U.S. Postal Service centers set to be closed. Based on the idea of 14-year-old Victoria Pannell, people saved their mail for a week or two and took it to the post office that day to show that the community needs postal services and the workers need their jobs.

The youths first rallied at the office of the National Action Network, the group that called the action, at its center on 145th Street in Harlem. Picture the Homeless, part of the coalition of Community-Labor United for Postal Jobs and Services, CLUPJS organizer Johnnie Stevens and Clarice Torrence, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, spoke at the rally, and Pannell chaired it.

Then the activists marched to the College Station P.O. on 140th Street, which is one of 34 New York City postal offices to be closed. Their chant was “Whose P.O? Our P.O.”

About 45 people went into the post office and lined up to mail packages and letters. They explained to the people in the P.O. that they were there to save jobs and community services. They let others go to the front of the line.

The community responded sympathetically. People were friendly throughout the protest, CLUPJS organizer Stevens told Workers World.

“What we saw today was a civil rights movement of youth that embraced the community and workers, demonstrating the need for jobs and services,” said ­Stevens.