Holiday season events raise funds and spirits
CHICAGO — Amid exclamations of “Opa!” over flaming Greek saganaki, Puerto Rican ballads and “Solidarity Forever,” a packed Parthenon Restaurant hall rocked at the 18th Annual People’s Weekly World Banquet here, Dec. 4.
Clean sweep for Houston janitors
HOUSTON — In what union leaders called one of the largest organizing victories ever in Texas, a majority of nearly 5,000 Houston janitors have signed to become members of the Service Employees union and initiated a process to bargain their first contract.
A gift of survival: Venezuelas Citgo provides low-cost heating oil to U.S. needy
BRONX, N.Y. — Residents of the Fordham-Bedford cooperative housing project, home to thousands of working-class people, were facing desperate times. Many were unable to pay their electric bills, and their lights were shut off. A desperate mother had lost her job and could not afford to pay the rent. This holiday season promised to be hard for the parents: they weren’t going to be able to afford gifts for their children. Then Citgo stepped in.
Bring New Orleans Back Commission Holds Town Hall in Dallas
DALLAS - Mayor Ray Nagin’s Bring New Orleans Back Commission held a town hall meeting here Dec. 6, attracting almost 300 evacuees. The event was one of several planned for cities where large numbers of New Orleans residents have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina. Although the town hall meetings have been widely publicized to include the mayor, Nagin was not present, nor was any member of the city council, prompting frequent complaints from attendees who had many questions for their city’s leaders.
Sacramento City Council stands by antiwar resolution
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento City Council, in spite of vitriolic testimony by Iraq war supporters and hundreds of threatening e-mails from mostly out-of-town residents, on Nov. 22 refused to back down on a resolution calling for the withdrawal of troops from Ira
Houston activists protest Iraq war
HOUSTON — On Nov. 19 over 200 Houston activists gathered to protest against the war on Iraq, marching from Market Square to City Hall. The event was sponsored by a coalition of 20 organizations to include Veterans for Peace, United Methodists for Peace, Catholics for Peace, the Progressive Action Alliance, the Progressive Workers Organizing Committee among others.
Pilgrimage honors deaths in Arizona desert
TUCSON, Ariz. — Supporters of immigrant rights here conducted an eight-mile pilgrimage from Tucson to San Xavier Mission on the Tohono O’Odahm Indian Reservation to observe the Mexican traditional Día de los Muertos and to mourn and honor the known deaths of 282 migrants in the Tucson desert in 2005.
Johnny Cash: from cotton to guitar picking
The Nov. 16 CBS special, “I Walk the Line: A Night for Johnny Cash,” featured everybody from Sheryl Crow to Martina McBride, from Dwight Yoakam to U2, performing some of Cash’s most famous songs. It was a night of extraordinary music and yet it only spotlighted the fact that Cash was unique. No one else can “do” Johnny Cash. It’s got to be the real deal.
Life under occupation explored at Toronto film fest
Each year Bill Meyer reviews movies shown at the Toronto International Film Festival for the PWW. The following is the first in his Progressive Cinema series.
