Friday, February 23, 2018

Aspen Institute: How a Farmworker Movement Changed the Way Your Food Gets Made…

omcast.net  
Aspen Institute: How a Farmworker Movement Changed the Way Your Food Gets Made…
From left to right: Steven Greenhouse (author, former labor reporter, New York Times), Susan Marquis (Dean of RAND Graduate School, author, “I Am Not a Tractor”), Jon Esformes (Chief Operating Partner, Pacific Tomato Growers), Gerardo Reyes (CIW) and Greg Asbed (CIW). The speakers were gathered at the Aspen Institute offices in Washington, DC, earlier this month for a panel discussion on the Fair Food Program as a new model for social responsibility in agriculture and the new book on the CIW’s history to date, “I Am Not a Tractor”.
Jon Esformes, Pacific Tomato Growers: “We all bear the responsibility to ensure that our fellow men are treated fairly.”

On February 9th, the Aspen Institute hosted an animated discussion on the CIW’s Fair Food Program, its roots in the CIW’s twenty-year struggle to advance farmworkers’ fundamental human rights, and its remarkable potential for helping workers around the globe who toil at the bottom of corporate supply chains in dangerous, low-paying jobs. The idea for the panel was sparked by the publication late last year of a new book on the Fair Food Program, entitled “I Am Not a Tractor: How Florida Farmworkers Took on the Fast Food Giants and Won,” by the Dean of the RAND Graduate School, Susan Marquis.

We were planning on excerpting portions of the 90-min long panel discussion and providing a report from the day’s events in DC, but the Aspen Institute beat us to it! And they did such a great job that we decided, why reinvent the wheel? So, click below for the Aspen Institute’s report, in its entirety, from the discussion earlier this month.

Check out video highlights from the Aspen Institute panel at the CIW website!
Coalition of Immokalee Workers
Coalition of Immokalee Workers | 110 S 2nd St, Immokalee, FL 34142
Unsubscribe alfredjohnson34@comcast.net
Update Profile | About our service provider
Sent by workers@ciw-online.org in collaboration with
Trusted Email from Constant Contact - Try it FREE today.
Try it free today
Posted by at No comments:

In Cambridge- Changes in the US Political Economy Since 2007, John Womack | 2/24 @ 3PM

Center for Marxist Education
To  cme-emaillist@googlegroups.com,    act-ma@act-ma.org  
Join us at the Center for Marxist Education ( 550 Massachusetts Avenue,
2nd Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139) this Saturday...
*Saturday February 24 | 3:00 – 5:00 PM*
*Changes in the US Political Economy Since 2007*
John Womack, Professor of Latin American History and Economics at Harvard
Historian John Womack reviews economic and political changes in the US
since the 2007-8 crisis. The changes have wide-ranging implications for
labor movement strategies. Based on a late-November presentation and
discussion with a delegation from the Communist Party of China.
_______________________________________________
Act-MA mailing list
Act-MA@act-ma.org
http://act-ma.org/mailman/listinfo/act-ma_act-ma.org
To set options or unsubscribe
http://act-ma.org/mailman/options/act-ma_act-ma.org
Posted by at No comments:

March 17 at MIT: Boston Socialist Unity Project Third Annual Conference 2018

Boston Socialist Unity Project
To  bostonunity@googlegroups.com   Blind copy  act-ma@act-ma.org  
*Boston Socialist Unity Project Annual Conference 2018 *

*Saturday, March 17, 9-5 pm, @ MIT Building 34-101
<https://whereis.mit.edu/?go=34>, 50 Vassar Street
<https://whereis.mit.edu/?go=34>*

* Website: BostonSocialistUnity.org <http://bostonsocialistunity.org/> *

*Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1600917569991653/
<https://www.facebook.com/events/1600917569991653/> *

*We invite you to join our third annual conference on the theme "Building a
Socialist Political Force: social movements and the Left in an Election
Year." The conference will feature speakers on important issues facing the
Left and socialists, as well as a full range of workshops.*

*ANNOUNCEMENT OF PROGRAM *

*Saturday, March 17, 9:00 AM*

*registration opens 9:00 a.m. / program begins 10:00 a.m.*

*Featured speakers*

*o Savina Martin, eastern Massachusetts chair of the new Poor Peoples
Campaign*

*o Monica Poole, associate professor at Bunker Hill Community College, on
a radical take on #MeToo and current women's issues*

*o Ari Wohlheimer, national deputy director of Jewish Voice for Peace, on
Palestinian rights*

*o Jill Stein, former Green Party presidential candidate, on the crisis
in Korea and US imperialism*

*o member of Massachusetts Teachers Association on labor issues and
education*

*Our lunchtime plenary presents different perspectives on the 2018
elections and electoral politics, seeking common ground and strengthening
the movement: presentations will include the Socialist Party of Boston, a
member of Our Revolution, the Communist Party USA of Greater Boston, and
the Party for Socialism and Liberation*

*Two sessions of participatory workshops will showcase movement-building
work and issues. T**opics include: Puerto Rico, immigrant rights and
deportation, Fair Trade Action, Jobs not Jails, lessons from Gramsci,
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of Israel, socialist organizing strategy,
student organizing*

*Breakfast and lunch options available at the conference.*

*Everyone is welcome, $10 suggested donation
<http://www.bostonsocialistunity.org/>; nobody turned away for lack of
funds.*

*Write with your questions and more
information: bostonsocialistunity@gmail.com
<bostonsocialistunity@gmail.com>*
_______________________________________________
Act-MA mailing list
Act-MA@act-ma.org
http://act-ma.org/mailman/listinfo/act-ma_act-ma.org
To set options or unsubscribe
http://act-ma.org/mailman/options/act-ma_act-ma.org
Posted by at No comments:

"SAVE OUR VA", STOP THE KOCH BROTHERS AND PRIVATE HEALTHCARE EXECUTIVES FROM PRIVATIZING AND THUS DESTROYING OUR VA.

"SAVE OUR VA", STOP THE KOCH BROTHERS AND PRIVATE HEALTHCARE EXECUTIVES FROM PRIVATIZING AND THUS DESTROYING OUR VA.
This is our Smedley VFP event, Please forward this to friends and other organizations you know!!!


Inline image 2




Join us to help
SAVE VA HEALTHCARE
Featuring author Suzanne Gordon “Battle for Veterans’ Healthcare” with a Panel discussion on current policy making and patient care

VFW, POST 529, 371 Summer Street,
Somerville, MA., 02144
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 7th, 6:30 - 8:30 PM




The Veterans Health Administration is under attack by groups who are trying to eliminate government programs and pushing the idea that only the private sector ‘works’.  Polls show that up to 80% of veterans reject this and want to keep our VA Healthcare System.
SPONSORED BY:     Veterans For Peace,   BOSTON. CHAPTER 9, “SMEDLEY D. BUTTLER BRIGADE”



-- 
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SmedleyVFP" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to Smedleyvfp+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
Posted by at No comments:

In Boston- 2/26 Assata Taught Me: Black Radicalism Past and Present, with Dr. Donna Murch

Charlie Wekcg
To  act-ma@act-ma.org  
Assata Taught Me: Black Radicalism Past and Present, with Dr. Donna
Murch

* *When:* Monday, February 26, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
* *Where:* Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts

Donna Murch is associate professor of history at Rutgers University. She
has a forthcoming book of essays entitled, Assata Taught Me: State
Violence, Mass Incarceration and the Movement for Black Lives. In 2010,
Murch published the Phyllis Wheatley Prize award-winning monograph
Living for the City: Migration, Education and the Rise of the Black
Panther Party in Oakland, California . She has written for the Nation,
Boston Review, Jacobin, Black Scholar, and has appeared in Stanley
Nelson’s documentary, Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution.
Join us for a presentation and discussion on the influence of Black
radical history on the current movement for Black lives.

88 Warren St
Roxbury, Massachusetts 02119
Get Directions
<https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fshare.here.com%2Fr%2Fmylocation%2Fe-eyJuYW1lIjoiVXJiYW4gTGVhZ3VlIG9mIEVhc3Rlcm4gTWFzc2FjaHVzZXR0cyIsImFkZHJlc3MiOiI4OCBXYXJyZW4gU3QsIFJveGJ1cnksIE1hc3NhY2h1c2V0dHMiLCJsYXRpdHVkZSI6NDIuMzI3OTIzODc0NjE1LCJsb25naXR1ZGUiOi03MS4wODI5MDk2OTc2OTIsInByb3ZpZGVyTmFtZSI6ImZhY2Vib29rIiwicHJvdmlkZXJJZCI6MTQyMDY2NTE5MTY4NzE1fQ%3D%3D%3Flink%3Daddresses%26fb_locale%3Den_US%26ref%3Dfacebook&h=ATPcZkyuKJ_vlKfyrCmcx5JJ8yr8JfzfNymG_yygSmgKagmujTtx1WirSKonBvUnV5vPhaI8iK-tMWGeGhD7gZSsHmjnfsYxjpa9vODbEBpY5g5wkR0>

This program is hosted by the Dudley Branch of the Boston Public
Library, the Fellowes Athenaeum,  and the Urban League of Eastern
Massachusetts.

http://baystatebanner.com/events/2018/feb/26/assata-taught-me-black-radicalism-p/?et=15581
_______________________________________________
Act-MA mailing list
Act-MA@act-ma.org
http://act-ma.org/mailman/listinfo/act-ma_act-ma.org
To set options or unsubscribe
http://act-ma.org/mailman/options/act-ma_act-ma.org
Posted by at No comments:

March 17, save the date: Boston Socialist Unity Project Annual Conference 2018


Boston Socialist Unity Project

To  act-ma@act-ma.org  
*Boston Socialist Unity Project Annual Conference 2018 *

*Saturday, March 17, 9-5 pm, @ MIT Building 34-101
<https://whereis.mit.edu/?go=34>, 50 Vassar Street
<https://whereis.mit.edu/?go=34>*

* BostonSocialistUnity.org <http://bostonsocialistunity.org/> | Facebook:
search for BostonSocialists *

*We invite you to join our third annual conference on the theme "Building
Socialist Power: social movements and the Left in an election year." The
conference will feature speakers on important issues facing the Left and
socialists, as well as a full range of workshops.*

*ANNOUNCEMENT OF PROGRAM (in formation)*

*Saturday, March 17 **registration opens 9:00 a.m. / program begins 10:00
a.m.*

*Featured speakers*

*o Savina Martin, eastern Massachusetts coordinator of the new Poor
Peoples Campaign*

*o Monica Poole, associate professor at Bunker Hill Community College, on
a radical take on #MeToo and current women's issues*

*o Rebecca Vilkomerson, national executive director of Jewish Voice for
Peace, on Palestinian rights*

*o Jill Stein on the crisis in Korea and US imperialism*

*o member of Boston Teachers Union on labor issues and education*

*Our lunchtime plenary presents different perspectives on the 2018
elections and electoral politics, seeking common ground and strengthening
the movement: presentations will include the Socialist Party of Boston, a
member of Our Revolution, the Communist Party USA of Greater Boston, and
the Party for Socialism and Liberation*

*Two sessions of participatory workshops will showcase movement-building
work and issues. **Proposed topics so far include Puerto Rico, immigrant
rights and deportations, work of Our Revolution, Fair Trade Action, Jobs
not Jails, lessons from Gramsci, Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions of
Israel*

*Breakfast and lunch options available at the conference.*

*Everyone is welcome, $10 suggested donation
<http://www.bostonsocialistunity.org/>; nobody turned away for lack of
funds.*

*Write with your questions and more information:
bostonsocialistunity@gmail.com <bostonsocialistunity@gmail.com>*
_______________________________________________
Act-MA mailing list
Act-MA@act-ma.org
http://act-ma.org/mailman/listinfo/act-ma_act-ma.org
To set options or unsubscribe
http://act-ma.org/mailman/options/act-ma_act-ma.org
Posted by at No comments:

Dr. King’s Vision: The Poor People’s Campaign of 1967-68

Dr. King’s Vision: The Poor People’s Campaign of 1967-68

Why a Poor People’s Campaign?

Just a year before his assassination, at a Southern Christian Leadership Conference staff retreat in May 1967, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
I think it is necessary for us to realize that we have moved from the era of civil rights to the era of human rights…[W]hen we see that there must be a radical redistribution of economic and political power, then we see that for the last twelve years we have been in a reform movement…That after Selm…
Later that year, in December 1967, Rev. Dr. King announced the plan to bring together poor people from across the country for a new march on Washington. This march was to demand better jobs, better homes, better education—better lives than the ones they were living. Rev. Dr. Ralph Abernathy explained that the intention of the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968 was to “dramatize the plight of America’s poor of all races and make very clear that they are sick and tired of waiting for a better life.” Rev. Dr. King proposed, “… If you are, let’s say, from rural Mississippi, and have never had medical attention, and your children are undernourished and unhealthy, you can take those little children into the Washington hospitals and stay with them there until the medical workers cope with their needs, and in showing it your children you will have shown this country a sight that will make it stop in its busy tracks and think hard about what it has done.” King aligned with the struggle of the poor and black sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee in March and April 1968. He suggested their struggle for dignity was a dramatization of the issues taken up by the Poor People’s Campaign—a fight by capable, hard workers against dehumanization, discrimination and poverty wages in the richest country in the world.
Dr. King saw that poverty was not just another issue and that poor people were not a special interest group. Throughout his many speeches in the last year of his life, he described the unjust economic conditions facing millions people worldwide. He held up the potential of the poor to come together to transform the whole of society. He knew that for the load of poverty to be lifted, the thinking and behavior of a critical mass of the American people would have to be changed. To accomplish this change of consciousness a “new and unsettling force” had to be formed. In other words, the poor would have to organize to take action together around our immediate and basic needs. In doing, we could become a powerful social and political force capable of changing the terms of how poverty is understood and dispelling the myths and stereotypes that uphold the mass complacency and leave the root causes of poverty intact. He described this force as a multi-racial “nonviolent army of the poor, a freedom church of the poor.”
In his last Sunday sermon, he stated:
There can be no gainsaying of the fact that a great revolution is taking place in the world today. In a sense it is a triple revolution; that is a technological revolution, with the impact of automation and cybernation; then there is a revolution of weaponry, with the emergence of atomic and nuclear…
The triple revolution that Rev. Dr. King highlighted in this sermon emphasized: 1. a technological revolution, 2. a revolution of weaponry, and 3. a human rights revolution, with the freedom explosion taking place all over the world. He argued that social transformation was not inevitable, arising solely out of the historic conditions, but rather needed the commitment, consciousness, capacity and connectedness of the “new and unsettling force” to build a credible and powerful campaign.
The first gathering of over fifty multiracial organizations that came together with SCLC to join the Poor People’s Campaign, took place in Atlanta, Georgia in March 1968. Key leaders and organizations at this session included: Tom Hayden of the Newark Community Union, Reis Tijerina of the Federal Alliance of New Mexico, John Lewis of the Southern Regional Council, Myles Horton of the Highlander Center, Appalachian volunteers from Kentucky, welfare rights activists, California farm workers, and organized tenants. Rev. Dr. King addressed the session saying that it was the first meeting of that kind he had ever participated in. Indeed, meetings where leaders of different sections of the poor and dispossessed come together on the basis of their common needs and demands remain rare and politically taboo.

The Platform for the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968

As a first step in building the power needed to achieve the goal of a radical redistribution of political and economic power King, along with other leaders of the poor such as Johnnie Tillmon of the National Welfare Rights Organization (NWRO), helped work out the major elements of the platform for the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968. An important aspect of the Campaign was to petition the government to pass an Economic Bill of Rights as a step to lift the load of poverty.
  • $30 billion annual appropriation for a real war on poverty
  • Congressional passage of full employment and guaranteed income legislation [a guaranteed annual wage]
  • Construction of 500,000 low-cost housing units per year until slums were eliminated
The Campaign was organized into three phases. The first was to construct a shantytown, to become known as Resurrection City, on the National Mall between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument. With permits from the National Park Service, Resurrection City was to house anywhere from 1,500 to 3,000 Campaign participants. Additional participants would be housed in other group and family residences around the metropolitan area. The next phase was to begin public demonstrations, mass nonviolent civil disobedience, and mass arrests to protest the plight of poverty in this country. The third and final phase of the Campaign was to launch a nationwide boycott of major industries and shopping areas to prompt business leaders to pressure Congress into meeting the demands of the Campaign.
Although Rev. Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, on April 29, 1968, the Poor People’s Campaign went forward. It began in Washington where key leaders of the campaign gathered for lobbying efforts and media events before dispersing around the country to formally launch the nine regional caravans bringing the thousands of participants to Washington: the “Eastern Caravan,” the “Appalachia Trail,” the “Southern Caravan,” the “Midwest Caravan,” the “Indian Trail,” the “San Francisco Caravan,” the “Western Caravan,” the “Mule Train,” and the “Freedom Train.”4
The efforts of the Poor People’s Campaign climaxed in the Solidarity Day Rally for Jobs, Peace, and Freedom on June 19, 1968. Fifty thousand people joined the 3,000 participants living at Resurrection City to rally around the demands of the Poor People’s Campaign on Solidarity Day. This was the first and only massive mobilization to take place during the Poor People’s Campaign.
Bayard Rustin put forth a proposal for an “Economic Bill of Rights” for Solidarity Day that called for the federal government to:
  1. Recommit to the Full Employment Act of 1946 and legislate the immediate creation of at least one million socially useful career jobs in public service
  2. Adopt the pending housing and urban development act of 1968
  3. Repeal the 90th Congress’s punitive welfare restrictions in the 1967 Social Security Act
  4. Extend to all farm workers the right–guaranteed under the National Labor Relations Act–to organize agricultural labor unions
  5. Restore budget cuts for bilingual education, Head Start, summer jobs, Economic Opportunity Act, Elementary and Secondary Education Acts

The Legacy of MLK’s Poor People’s Campaign

Unfortunately, the unity and organization needed for the Poor People’s Campaign of 1968 to complete all three of the planned stages and form the “new and unsettling force” capable of disrupting “complacent national life” and achieving an economic bill of rights was not easy to come by. The assassinations of Dr. King and Senator Robert Kennedy, a key proponent of the Campaign and Presidential candidate, only served to cripple the Campaign and greatly limit its impact. King emphasized the need for poor whites, Blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Native Americans to unite. He asserted that the Poor People’s Campaign would only be successful if the poor could come together across all the obstacles and barriers set up to divide us and if they could overcome the attention and resources being diverted because of the US engagement in the Vietnam War. In August 1967, he preached:
One unfortunate thing about [the slogan] Black Power is that it gives priority to race precisely at a time when the impact of automation and other forces have made the economic question fundamental for blacks and whites alike. In this context a slogan ‘Power for Poor People’ would be much more appro…
And the night before his assassination, in his “Promised Land” speech, he reminded the people that being disunited only benefitted the rich and powerful:
You know, whenever Pharaoh wanted to prolong the period of slavery in Egypt, he had a favorite, favorite formula for doing it. What was that? He kept the slaves fighting among themselves. But whenever the slaves get together, something happens in Pharaoh’s court, and he cannot hold the slaves in sla…
Shortly before the Poor People’s Campaign was launched, King described the kairos moment they were in. His words still ring true today:
Something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today, whether they are in Johannesburg, South Africa; Nairobi, Kenya; Accra, Ghana; New York City; Atlanta, Georgia; Jackson, Mississippi; or Memphis, Tennessee — the cry is always the same: “We…
King and the other leaders of the Poor People’s Campaign asked fundamental questions about the contradictions of their day. Today, many of the groups interested in re-igniting the Poor People’s Campaign are asking similar questions about the problems of inequality, power and class:
We are called upon to help the discouraged beggars in life’s marketplace. But one day we must come to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring. It means that questions must be raised. And you see, my friends, when you deal with this you begin to ask the question, ‘Who owns the …
King exemplified the clarity, commitment, capability, and connectedness needed to build a movement to end poverty:
I choose to identify with the underprivileged. I choose to identify with the poor. I choose to give my life for the hungry. I choose to give my life for those who have been left out…This is the way I’m going.
This commitment is needed from all leaders interested in taking up King’s mantle. He demonstrated the difficulty and necessity of uniting the poor and dispossessed across race, religion, geography and other lines that divide. In our efforts to commemorate and build a Poor People’s Campaign for our times, we will undertake an analysis of the 1967-68 Campaign. We aim to stand on the shoulders of those who came before and put effort into learning lessons and getting into step together.
Source: https://poorpeoplescampaign.org/index.php/poor-peoples-campaign-1968/
Upgrade to Premium Plan
✔ Save unlimited bookmarks.
✔ Save PDFs, DOCX files, images and Excel sheets as email attachments.
✔ Get priority support and access to latest features.
Upgrade To Premium
EmailThis
Send web pages & articles to your email inbox.
If you have any suggestions, bug reports or comments, please let me know at bharani@hq.emailthis.me. You can also Tweet to us at @EmailThis_
Posted by at No comments:
Labels:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)