On the afternoon of May 20, a force equal to 600 times the Hiroshima atomic bomb’s power struck the city of Moore, Okla. The giant tornado, 1.3 miles wide, cut a swath over 17 miles long, killing at least 24 people, ten of them children, and injuring 327 others. Over 13,000 homes and other structures [...]
Philadelphia workers say, ‘We will shut city down’
“Welcome to the city that doesn’t pay their workers.” That’s how Pat Eiding, Philadelphia council president of the AFL-CIO, introduced the “Mayors’ Innovation Summit” of the U.S. Conference of Mayors held in Philadelphia on May 22-24 and hosted by its president, Philadelphia’s “Mayor 1%” Michael Nutter. Nutter has recently overseen the closing of 25 Philadelphia public schools, along [...]
San Diego labor demands immigrant rights
More than 550 janitorial workers in San Diego lost their jobs on May 17 as a result of employment audits by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The same day, in protest against this anti-worker attack, SEIU United Service Workers West organized a militant protest at the city’s Civic Center. The flyer announcing the protest [...]
Farm workers, supporters protest Wendy’s
By
G. Dunkel May 24, 2013 » Add the first comment.
Some 300 farmworkers and their supporters from New York’s labor and progressive community marched and rallied May 18 to tell Wendy’s to join the Coalition of Immokalee Workers’ Fair Food Program like other fast-food chains have. Since tomato pickers are farmworkers, they are not covered by labor law in Florida or federally. They have no [...]
New York Legal Services workers strike
After working nearly a year without a contract, the 270 members of the Legal Services Staff Association, United Auto Workers Local 2320, who work at Legal Services NYC, voted 173 to 13 to strike on May 15. They set up picket lines in all five boroughs, where they help the most vulnerable poor and elderly [...]
Grocery workers say no to wage theft
Some 50 grocery workers and their supporters held occupations at four Brooklyn, N.Y., grocery stores on May 18. The actions were organized by New York Communities for Change, with workers taking the lead. The protesters convened at a church, where an old school bus picked them up so they could travel together to the targeted [...]
Chicago teachers step up resistance to school closings
By
Eric Struch May 23, 2013 » Add the first comment.
Chicago school teachers held a large rally on May 20 that focused on resisting attempts to shut down as many as 54 public schools, most in oppressed Black and Latino/a neighborhoods. The right-wing, anti-people, anti-Black administration of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has been waging a war against public education. City Hall and the heads of [...]
No justice for Ramarley Graham
Ramarley Graham was shot in his bathroom by police officer Richard Haste. The unarmed Bronx teenager was killed on Feb. 2, 2012, in front of his grandmother and six-year-old brother. Graham’s family had to endure more grief on May 15 when Judge Steven L. Barrett threw out Haste’s indictment for manslaughter. Barrett claims the grand [...]
Malcolm X lives
The great Black leader, Malcolm X —also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz — was born on May 19, 1925. His birth name was Malcolm Little. As a child, he experienced the horrors of racism growing up in Lansing, Mich., where his father, Earl Little, was lynched when Malcolm was six years old. When Malcolm told [...]
Houston protest supports Assata Shakur
Militant supporters of former political prisoner Assata Shakur, who was liberated from a U.S. federal prison and has lived in Cuba since 1984, gathered at Houston’s federal building on May 14 to let the U.S. government know that the reprehensible $2 million bounty put on this revolutionary sister is a travesty. The protest was organized [...]
