People Before Profit blog

On the other side of Ferguson, a different kind of protest

Fri, 29 Aug 2014 15:40:00 +0000

FERGUSON, Mo. - Two and a half miles separate two worlds here: one on South Florissant Road and the other on West Florissant Ave., also known as Ground Zero. Mass protests and police violence, in the wake of what many call the murder of an unarmed Black teenager, Michael Brown, by a white police officer, Darren Wilson, Aug. 9, have taken place on W. Florissant. But protests of a different kind have and are taking place on S. Florissant as well - right across the street from the Ferguson Police Department headquarters.

W. Florissant has all the markings of a working-class main street with its all-night Chinese restaurant, fast-food chains Taco Bell and McDonald's, an Auto Zone, and locally owned meat market, liquor and grocery stores. While S. Florissant boasts its own share of fast food and auto parts, it also has a public library, banks, a wine bar and a micro-brewery - all the hallmarks of so-called upscale America.

Yet even the manicured hedges along S. Florissant could not block the community's response to the outrageous killing, and the police department's attempts to cover-up and other manipulations. Every day since the killing, residents have held a vigil across the street from the police department. Holding signs and sitting in lawn chairs, these protesters - mostly African American, many older - carry on away from TV cameras, and ironically, the heavily armed robo-cops. Even when there was a midnight curfew, it was reported that these protesters stood their ground without interference from law enforcement.

A tent - the kind you would take camping to eat in and avoid the mosquitoes - stands in the far corner of a local business, Andy Wurm Tire and Wheel. People sit in there to take a break from the relentless sun, and to store bottles of water. One woman said the owner (presumably Andy Wurm) had given permission for the protesters to use the property and is well known among African American residents. "He's got a relationship with the black community," she said.

As the afternoon sun began to lengthen the shadows, another woman comes to join the vigil. Pushing a baby stroller with her rescue dog in it and a sign that reads "Paws up, don't shoot," she places her chair on the sidewalk among the "I [heart] Ferguson" signs. She told us about the obstacles she had to overcome in helping her dog overcome the trauma in his pre-rescue life. At the same time three men come up with Little Caesars Pizza slices, offering them to protesters and journalists alike. They had come from Los Angeles and Cleveland, Ohio, to show support for the Ferguson community, Mike Brown's family, and the fight for justice. Wearing a "Random acts of kindness" shirt, the pizza-giver said he wrote comedy scripts in L.A. and proceeded to show why he was a comedy professional.

This crowd holding vigil may not have been as big as those that march at night on W. Florissant that have captured so much media attention, but they are just as concerned and passionate and organized. The two different scenes - W. Florissant and S. Florissant - could be compared to two different kinds of athleticism: sprint and long distance. The W. Florissant protests exploded the fight for justice for Mike Brown and all victims of police crimes and racism into the national consciousness. The S. Florissant protests proceed at a pace sustainable for longer periods of time. Both types are necessary for any track or swim team.

To add one more dimension to the community response, up the road on S. Florissant, stood Amanda Pope, grandmother of a student at the Ferguson-Florissant school district, holding another sign, "Teachers here to teach." Along this stretch, black and white volunteers hold the signs outside the library and a church, both sites for "vacation school" for public school students whose first day of school, Aug. 14, was postponed in the wake of the killing. Banding together, teachers, parents, grandparents, and local volunteers set up art, music, and computer classes to keep the children "motivated" and "involved" during the day, Pope said.

The school cancellation - opposed by some in the community as an over-reaction by the school board - created numerous problems for working parents and disappointed students. "My grandchild is a student and they asked me if I could volunteer, and I said 'What do you want me to do?'" Pope said. "Kids were so disappointed that they couldn't get to school the first day of school. Kids were devastated that 'I can't go to school.'"

Pope said the first day there were 40 students at the public library, and "today there are hundreds." So many that they set up another location at the church. One teacher - a music educator - walked down from the library with a school aide and the aide's grandchild, a fourth grader, to set up class for the overflow. The teachers in the local district are members of the National Education Association.

The fourth grader said the postponement was a let down for her. "The night before [the first day] I couldn't really go to sleep so I'd wake up in the middle of night saying I can't go to bed waiting for school. I woke up at nine and I was like 'Am I late for school?' But grandma said we wouldn't have school for another week. So that's really sad that I can't go to school and learn. But now I can," she said, referring to the volunteer-run school.

This type of community effort - pulling together, volunteering and pitching in when city leaders seemed unable or unwilling to - just added to the unity building, across race, socio-economic and residential lines, during a time of profound crisis.

Photo: Teresa Albano/PW.

U.S. schools more segregated than in 1954

Thu, 28 Aug 2014 13:17:00 +0000

LOS ANGELES - Sixty years after the U.S. Supreme Court's famous Brown vs. Board of Education ruling ordering desegregation of the nation's schools, U.S. schools are more segregated than when the court ruled in 1954, a new study shows.

And that condition greatly concerns Randi Weingarten, the American Federation of Teachers president, whose union represents most big-city school teachers - the areas that are now the most-segregated.

Weingarten, a New York City teacher, says the new segregation, by class and income, harms students just as the old state-legalized segregation in the Solid South did.

"The decision 60 years ago was a moral and legal imperative, but today we have segregated schools based on poverty," Weingarten told a crowd in Topeka, Kansas, where the case began. "The legacy of Brown vs. Board of Education is to create the opportunities in our public schools so that all kids, of all races and income levels, can succeed.

"Today's moral imperative is to give our kids a great public education system by fixing-not closing - neighborhood public schools. All kids need safe, welcoming neighborhood schools that offer an engaging, well-rounded curriculum that includes art and music, expanded early childhood education programs, resources and support for teachers, and wraparound services in schools to help disadvantaged kids and families overcome the effects of poverty."

The new study, from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), shows, ironically, that the least-segregated schools in the country are in the once-segregated South, thanks to lower federal court decisions that implemented the High Court's Brown ruling. But even in the South, there's been backsliding.

The UCLA study, "Brown at 60: Great Progress, a Long Retreat and an Uncertain Future," found that since the civil rights era of the 1960s-1980s, the number of white students in U.S. schools has dropped by 30 percent, and the number of Latinos has quintupled.

The South now has more Latino than black students in public schools, and both the South and the West are majority-minority in their public school student populations. The South hasn't returned to state-ordered segregation, but it is still least integrated for blacks. And when court-ordered desegregation ended in large school districts - such as Charlotte, N.C., Richmond, Va., and St. Petersburg, Fla. - segregation returned.

But it's now a segregation by class, the UCLA report says.

"Brown was a major accomplishment and we should rightfully be proud. But a real celebration should also involve thinking seriously about why the country has turned away from the goal of Brown and accepted deepening polarization and inequality in our schools," said Gary Orfield, the study's co-author and director of UCLA's Civil Rights Project.

"It is time to stop celebrating a version of history that ignores our last quarter century of retreat and begin to make new history by finding ways to apply the vision of Brown in a transformed, multiracial society in another century."

UCLA said segregation occurs simultaneously across race and poverty. It found that Black and Latino students are larger shares of suburban metro school enrollment, and they're in majority-minority schools.

The worst segregation for African-American students is in the Northeast. UCLA said that's because of "high fragmentation" of school districts between the cities - majority-minority - and outer suburbs. The central city schools are the most segregated of all, especially in New York, Illinois (Chicago), and California (Los Angeles). In the suburbs, though, Latinos are more segregated than blacks.

The class split puts Black and Latino students in schools with majorities of poor children. The highest segregation of Latino students is in California. White and Asian children are in schools with majorities of middle-class children.

Photo: U.S. Deputy Marshals escort six-year-old Ruby Bridges from William Frantz Elementary School in November 1960. AP

Coalition tells president racial injustice underlies Michael Brown killing

Wed, 27 Aug 2014 13:26:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka joined a diverse group of organizations and leaders from all walks of life in signing on to a letter to President Barack Obama calling for real solutions after the killing of unarmed teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.

"As the nation's largest labor federation," said Trumka, "the AFL-CIO believes that our nation must address issues of racial injustice in order to realize economic prosperity for all."

Michael Brown, the coalition points out, is only the latest in a long list of black men and boys who have died under eerily similar circumstances. Investigations into the Ferguson shooting are ongoing, and many of the specific facts remain unclear for now. However, the pattern is too obvious to be a coincidence and too frequent to be a mistake. From policing to adjudication and incarceration, it is time for the country to counter the effects of systemic racial bias, which impairs the perceptions, judgment and behavior of too many of our law enforcement personnel and obstructs the ability of our police departments and criminal justice institutions to protect and serve all communities in a fair and just manner.

The letter calls on the Obama administration to address what it calls "systematic racial bias" and the "militarization of police departments around the country."

Read the letter here.

The above article by Mike Hall is reprinted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog.

Photo: Michael Brown's funeral. Robert Cohen/AP

Thousands protest police violence in Staten Island

Wed, 27 Aug 2014 11:23:00 +0000

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y.-Thousands of people turned out Aug. 23 to protest police officers' July 17 smothering - officially ruled a homicide - of Eric Garner, an unarmed African American man, as well as a spate of other killings by police around the country.

The marchers, from all five New York City boroughs, called for reforms in the process of disciplining police officers who use unlawful force, and in police officer training. They demanded jail time for Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who allegedly killed Garner with a choke hold.

Staten Island is not known for large demonstrations or progressive politics. Nonetheless, the majority of those who marched were from the island.

"There would have been more people from the [Latino] community," said Inez Gonzalez, who marched carrying a sign bearing the name of Make the Road New York, a local organization focused on immigrant and LGBTQ rights. "But a lot of people...who have had problems with the police - all I'll say is that it's an extra burden, to be seen by the police." Indeed, northern Staten Island has a significant undocumented Hispanic population. "This affects us, too," Gonzalez continued, "police on the run; but for some of us, it's too risky."

Nonetheless, Latinos made up a large portion of the march. This coming together of Black and Latino is meaningful given the history of strife between the two communities, culminating in several violent incidents in 2010. Taking note of the unity and diversity of the crowd, the Rev. Al Sharpton, who initially called the march, said during the closing rally, "Blacks, whites, Latinos, Asians: We all came down Bay Street together, we can change the world together."

From Bay St. and Victory Ave., the march continued into the rapidly gentrifying Saint George neighborhood, the bay for which the street is named and Manhattan's majestic skyline in the background, on to the office of Staten Island district attorney Daniel Donovan, Jr.. Donovan has summoned a grand jury to decide whether to bring charges against Pantaleo. The protesters demanded that someone else lead the prosecution, suspecting that Donovan will let the officer off with a slap on the wrist.

Demonstrations will continue "until someone goes to jail," former New York Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, told the crowd. Paterson listed more than a dozen deaths of innocent people at the hands of the NYPD in recent decades. The mothers of some of these victims, including Amadou Diallo's, joined Paterson on stage.

"Hands up, don't shoot," demonstrators chanted, holding their hands in the air as they marched past the Tompkinsville neighborhood spot where Garner was killed. The chant referred to police shootings of unarmed people, especially African Americans, sometimes with their hands up, sometimes in the back.

The former was the case for Michael Brown, whose August 9 shooting sparked the ongoing outpouring of anger in Ferguson, Mo. The latter is allegedly the case on August 11 in Los Angeles, where officers shot Ezell Ford. Like Garner and Brown, Ford was African American and unarmed: According to witnesses, he was complying with police, lying face down on the ground, and shot in the back. Ford's attorney has referred to the shooting as "an execution."

Sharpton, Paterson, and nearly all other speakers emphasized that the rally was not anti-police, only anti-police brutality. Sharpton even thanked police on duty that day for logistical help. This did not keep the New York Post and other media, however, from referring to the rally as "anti-NYPD." The same media also created tension by spreading rumors that the rally would turn violent.

It didn't; not a single arrest was made.

Staten Island residents have kept a vigil where Garner's death occurred, moved both by feelings of sympathy for Garner and his children, as well as simmering anger at the way police behave in the area. The New York Times has cited the two north shore neighborhood precincts with a far higher rate of aggression than the city average. Residents, mostly Black and Latino, also express frustration at other police tactics. "Stop and frisk is supposedly over," said a demonstrator, "but what do you call it when the police pull over your car and demand to see your license and registration and insurance - all because you [were] in the area?"

Aside from Sharpton's National Action Network, organizations at the march included the NAACP, the United Federation of Teachers, the Working Families Party, SEIU 1199, churches, immigrant rights groups, and others.

Photo: A cameraman in New York City protests unlawful force, especially the Ferguson shooting. Michael R. Sisak/AP

Detroit water crisis shows the reality of our current social system

Wed, 27 Aug 2014 10:56:00 +0000

One of the common arguments against the concept of a socialized America is that it places too much government control over people and their personal rights and freedoms. These critics claim that socialism will end with an America full of mindless zombie robots and the federal government holding the remote control.

Yet we have seen recently that elected leadership and private corporate interests in the United States can trample not only constitutionally protected freedoms but basic, undeniable human rights, such as access to clean water.

The Detroit water crisis began in March of 2014. The city of Detroit has been undergoing a long and painful bankruptcy, the largest in U.S. history. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD), attempting to shore up budget and other financial shortfalls, posted a five million dollar deficit. In order to bring their budget back into the black, the Detroit City Council unanimously approved an 8 percent raise in service rates.

At the same time, DWSD began shutting off water and sewer services with little notice to people whose late bill was $150 or higher or if the bill was more than 60 days overdue. DWSD was shutting off customers at a rate of 3,000 per week. Some news estimates had the number of shutoffs at nearly 150,000 customers, nearly half of DWSD's private customers.

Imagine coming home from work or school and not having access to water for cooking dinner, or not being able to take a shower after a hard day's work, or not even being able to use the toilet. Not surprisingly, public reaction to the shutoffs has been one of outrage. Outrage to the point where citizen advocacy groups have appealed to the United Nations for intervention in the crisis.

The global attention focused on Detroit's water crisis has been one more black eye for a city that has seen its share of hard times. However, this crisis is not something unique to Detroit. It has to do with the way we do business here in United States and how we, as a country, view utility services. Most people would recognize that there are certain critical products and services that everyone has a right to, such as access to clothing, sustainable diet, emergency health care at the very least, education, police and fire protection, clean water, shelter, electricity, and heat in the winter time. The United States even recognized this when it signed, but Congress has not ratified, international treaties on the right to safe water access, agreements the citizen advocacy groups say are being violated with water shutoffs.

The fact that these shutoffs occurred shows how two-faced our capitalistic society really is. We say that people should have access to all these undeniable rights that make us look good on the international stage. But when it comes to our own housekeeping, we still believe as a nation that utilities access, and shelter with a decent meal, should only be available to those who have the means to pay for them.

One of the rumored reasons for the drastic nature of the shutoffs in Detroit is to generate a public push to privatize the DWSD. This has the potential to make future matters even worse. A government's purpose is to serve and protect the people that live within its domain. A private corporation exists only to make money, and does so by any means that it can. Handing over a public service to a private corporation may look good on Detroit's accounting books, but water and sewer services will still only be available to the rich and those with the means to afford them. To the poor and marginalized, water and sewage services will become a luxury if and when they can afford it.

This crisis shows just how messed up our way of governance is. It only reinforces the fact that we need a government for all of society that will make sure people have access to services like clean water, instead of a profit-oriented society that provides for the wealthy and leaves the rest of us high and dry.

Photo: David Coates/AP & Detroit News

Protestors stand their ground against racism and ignorance

Tue, 26 Aug 2014 14:19:00 +0000

ST. LOUIS -- Rebecca comes into my office and sternly says, "There is a pro-Darren Wilson rally on Chippewa and Hampton." The look on her face says "There is no way that is happening in our neighborhood and going unpunished." I stop what I am writing and we bolt for the car.

The rally turned out to be a fundraising benefit for Darren Wilson, the Ferguson policeman responsible for the death of Mike Brown. The location is a police hangout called Barney's Pub, situated in the Lindenwood Park area of Saint Louis. Lindenwood Park is a working-class area, with a population that is 91.2 percent white.

When we arrived, there was an inebriated crowd of about 40-50 in matching blue shirts showing support for Wilson, and about 4 of them were holding signs for traffic to see. The pro-Wilson rally attendees are 100 percent white in ethnicity. There is a counter-protest across the street of only about 8 protesters, yet the tiny crowd is ethnically diverse.

When Rebecca and I arrived, one of the Wilson supporters was on "our" side of the street and trying to debate with the protestors. I asked him to leave. He replied, "I can stand where I want." I agreed, but explained to him that he is obviously trying to create a hostile situation. He threatened, "Maybe I should show you what an asshole you are being." Again, I asked him to leave and he complied. However, his overt hostility was representative of the crowd across the street.

The vitriol was surprising. These are police officers screaming "Go back to Ferguson, you f*****s" at us and tugging at their genitals in a sexual manner.

Our crowd was growing thanks to social media. Supporters of the counter-protest were regularly swinging by to drop off water, snacks, and ice cream pops. While diverse, the majority was African American.

The drivers honking for the pro-Wilson crowd (and making lewd gestures at us) were 100 percent white...with no exception. Most were late 30s or older and almost all were driving luxury cars, SUVs, and a noticeably high concentration of heavy duty trucks.

I am from European ancestry, myself. Both sides of my family came from Ireland. The reality of my skin tone was sinking in, and I will be honest...I was embarrassed. I am sure that the makeup of our diverse (and sober) counter-protest has had more direct action training than the pro-Wilson folks. However, I would imagine that police officers would have been trained not to scream racist, homophobic, and classist comments at 50 people holding rolling cameras.

As the protesters chanted "I AM MIKE BROWN," the police party screamed "THEN YOU ARE DEAD."

As the protestors chanted "HANDS UP, DONT SHOOT," the police party smiled broadly and chanted "HANDS UP, SHOOT."

Racism is a reality that is often denied. FACT: a white male without a college degree has an easier time finding a middle class job than a black male with a degree. FACT: the average woman worker in the U.S. earns 23 percent less than her male counterpart (with comparable training and experience). FACT: the average Hispanic woman working in the USA makes 55 cents for every $1 earned by a white male in a comparable job classification.

These statistics cut like a knife when I watch white males across the street point to the Target store and shout to African American protesters to "go fill out an application and get off welfare".

The pro-Wilson folks continue screaming with unintelligible rage-soaked insults, and the protestors stoically chant in unison. Eventually, the drunken police began breaking their folding tables and chairs down and move inside.

We have won the street.

What have we won? 50 young African Americans have been reinforced in the knowledge that working together creates power. 50 white cops and families learned that holding positions of authority, at a cop bar, in a predominantly white neighborhood, shouting vitriol...is still not a safe enough place for unchecked power.

As the defeated drunks are folding up their outdoor furniture, a solo cop crosses the street and asks to address the congregation. He says he is a Saint Louis County cop, and he sincerely apologizes for the "racist, ignorant, and offensive" actions made by the attendees of the pro-Wilson rally. Tensions are calmed, and it is time for the victors to go to dinner.

Critics claim the murder of Mike Brown was not racially motivated. Those critics are ignorant of Saint Louis politics. When you witness a white cop tugging at his genitals and screaming "f****t" or "monkey" at complete strangers with a darker skin tone...you realize that specific criticism holds no water in my town.

Photo: The casket of Michael Brown at Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church in St. Louis, August 25, before his funeral. Brown, who is black, was unarmed when he was shot in Ferguson, Missouri., Aug. 9 by Officer Darren Wilson, who is white. Protesters took to the streets of the St. Louis suburb night after night, calling for change and drawing national attention to issues surrounding race and policing. Richard Perry/New York Times/AP Pool

Community and labor stand together in peaceful cry for justice for Eric Garner

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 15:07:00 +0000

STATEN ISLAND, NY: Thousands gathered in a peaceful march and rally on Saturday, August 23. Organized by the National Action Network, delegations of political and community activists, as well as many labor radicals, stood among them.

The demonstration was a call for justice in the death of Eric Garner, an unarmed Staten Island man killed during a brutal encounter with police on July 17. Rally speakers and many demonstrators' placards cited the arresting officers' use of a "choke hold," echoing the official report of the NYC Medical Examiner. Chants heard during the event included the recurrent "Hands up-DON'T SHOOT!" and "I can't breathe!" Rallying nurses union members offered, "1-2-3-4, Do not put me on the floor! 5-6-7-8, We don't want to resuscitate!!"

But this was not an anti-police event. Rather, speakers made certain to clarify that the majority of officers do a very difficult job without incident in their career. Keynote speaker the Rev. Al Sharpton told the massive crowd that he is thankful to the police for stopping crime; but if a crime is committed by an officer, he or she needs to be subject to the same laws and penalties.

The huge crowd filled the streets leading to the intersection of Victory Boulevard and Bay Street, the site of Garner's death, before winding down to the mass rally near the local NYPD precinct. A jumbo-tron stood above the stage, reflecting the moving images at the podium, as a powerful public address system carried the message far.

Throngs cheered as speaker after speaker offered their support to Garner's family and to the vision of real social justice. Garner's mother, his widow, sister, and several of his young adult children were among the speakers addressing the crowd.

NYC's labor movement was represented with many unionists on the march, including 1199 SEIU, UFT, SEIU 32 B-J, TWU Local 100, and NYSNA among them. The presidents of 1199 and United Federation of Teachers, George Gresham and Michael Mulgrew respectively, made powerful speeches of solidarity. While Gresham's healthcare workers offered unqualified support for the union's activism, some members of Mulgrew's UFT publicly spoke out against the demonstration in the days preceding it. Controversy notwithstanding, Mulgrew's message couldn't be clearer: "We are here to teach."

In recent years, progressive unions are more and more taking bold public stands in the movement to engage in social change well beyond the negotiation table or grievance hearing room. That was the notice going out from the national AFL-CIO Convention a year ago in Los Angeles.

A swath of community and social service organizations were also present in addition to various religious leaders.

"Look around you," said the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, another of the afternoon's speakers. "The people in this crowd should have this amazing view: It's a sea of people of every culture and heritage coming together for change."

Though the call concerned Eric Garner's killing, the event also served as a platform for other unresolved police incidents resulting in the death of African-American men across the city and the country. Sharpton compared this march and rally to those held in Brooklyn a quarter-century ago, where area locals taunted the marchers with racial epithets.

"Today, however, we marched together and stand here united now, twenty-five years later, Black, white, Latino and Asian," Rev. Sharpton said. "We will not go back!"

John Pietaro is a musician, writer and cultural organizer in New York City. By day he works in the labor movement. His website is www.DissidentArts.com

Photo: At the Staten Island rally. John Pietaro/PW

Rights groups sue feds over immigrant families

Mon, 25 Aug 2014 12:21:00 +0000

Some of the most important civil, constitutional and immigrants' rights groups have filed suit to block the practice of "expediting" the deportation of undocumented women and their children. The federal government, the suit alleges, deprives them of their rights and endangers their lives by short-circuiting constitutional guarantees to due process.

The plaintiffs include the American Immigration Council, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers' Guild, and the National Immigration Law Center. Plaintiffs' attorneys are Van der Hout, Brigagliano and Nightingale, and Jenner and Block.

The suit comes at a moment when there is national debate, sometimes overheated, about some 63,000 unaccompanied and undocumented immigrant minors who have entered the United States since last October.

With midterm House, Senate and gubernatorial elections in November, Republican Party politicians are trying to take advantage of the situation by spreading scare stories and organizing "NIMBY" (not in my back yard) semi-riots here and there. The "Tea Party" is trying to revive its fortunes by reverting to anti-immigrant and anti-Latino hate speech to go after not only the Democrats, but their rivals within the Republican Party.

Differences have arisen among the Democrats. More progressive Democrats, and those who have many immigrants and Latinos in their districts, are emphasizing the need to defend the rights of minor children, and are criticizing any plan to speed up deportation of those children, who lately come mostly from the Central American countries of Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Other Democrats fear that this situation might cost them votes in November.

The Obama administration has meanwhile been hurrying up the deportation of undocumented immigrant families while also hinting that at the end of the summer, it will announce new programs to give undocumented families a break, perhaps by expanding the DACA (Delayed Action for Childhood Arrivals) program it started in late 2012, which to date has benefited over half a million "Dreamers" - young people brought into the country without papers when they were minors.

The urgency of this debate is illustrated from news stories from Central America. A morgue director in San Pedro Sula, the ultra-violent second city in Honduras, told the Los Angeles Times that this year between five and ten minor children who had been recently deported have been murdered by gangs in his city.

This jibes with statements by the young migrants and their families, as well as many organizations, including the U.N. High Commission for Refugees, which have been interviewing people in the area. But it collides with the statements of the Republican right in the United States, who deny that the phenomenon of the migrant children is a humanitarian crisis caused by situations of extreme violence in their countries of origin.

The efforts of the Obama administration to speed up the deportation of undocumented families also collide with the evidence about the families and children fleeing extreme violence. The administration warns that the journey north is dangerous, and says its policies are intended to warn people against trying it. But to "expedite" deportation means hurrying people, including minor s, to a situation of mortal danger.

The suit calls for an end to deportations from the Department of Homeland Security's family detention unit at Artesia, New Mexico, which the plaintiffs' brief describes as a "deportation mill".

Basing itself on numerous reports from families facing deportees and their volunteer lawyers, the brief describes how these families' rights to a fair hearing on their pleas to be allowed to stay in the United States are systematically undermined. Mothers who have fled with their small children from Central America because of threats of murder against those children and themselves are forced to give their testimony to DHS staff within the hearing of the children, causing them to withhold information that would terrify the children.

Likewise, lawyers have to converse with their clients in earshot of DHS officers, a violation of the norms of even the worst of civil or criminal courtrooms. Artesia is also far from any urban area, making it hard for attorneys or family to keep in contact. Things move at such a pace that neither the detainees nor their lawyers can keep up with important procedural dates. And some of the hearing officers appear to be incompetent or bigoted.

The plaintiffs' press release quotes Melissa Crow, legal director of the American Immigration Council: "Fast-tracking the deportations of women and children from immigration detention is an assault on due process. There is no way that justice can be served when so many people are being rushed through the system without any real opportunity to assert claims of relief. What we are seeing in Artesia is nothing less than a sham process that values expediency over justice".

Photo: Parents and children in front of the White House, July 7, following a news conference of immigrant families and children's advocates responding to President Obama's statement on the crisis of unaccompanied children and families illegally entering the United States. A top Obama administration official says no one, not even children trying to escape violent countries, can illegally enter the United States without eventually facing deportation proceedings. Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

New generation finds its voice and power in Ferguson, Mo.

Fri, 22 Aug 2014 13:46:00 +0000

FERGUSON, Mo. - As nighttime fell Tuesday on this St. Louis suburb of 21,000 residents, squad cars began to block the streets leading to the neighborhood where an unarmed black teenager was shot to death by a white police officer, Aug. 9. Anyone wanting to participate in the nightly protests had to park their car in a nearby Save-A-Lot parking lot and walk the mile or so down W. Florissant Ave. to Canfield Dr., the residential street where 18-year-old and soon to be college freshman Michael Brown was killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson.

Passing stores and restaurants, boarded up windows were juxtaposed with their spray-painted "Open" signs. Police and National Guard troops stood with rifles, helmets and shields in the shadows as at least 1,000 people - predominantly black, but not exclusively - began to gather for the peaceful yet grim ritual: "Hands up, don't shoot" and "I am Mike Brown" marches.

Yet among the many young people, the mood was anything but grim. The best word that came to mind was resilient. Amidst the anger and grieving, the people of Ferguson and their supporters, through their demonstrations and organizing, are creating a new movement for racial justice and democracy.

Among the unsung heroes and sheroes of this new movement are young fast food workers involved in the fight for $15 an hour and rights on the job, including the right to join a union. Standing outside the W. Florissant McDonald's, Rasheen Aldridge, Shermale Humphrey, Jeanina Jenkins and Josh Kersting prepared themselves for the long night ahead. They wore protective masks around their necks for easy access in case the police unleashed tear gas like they had in previous nights. Humphrey had a bullhorn and spray bottle full of antacid to wash out the painful gas from skin, eyes, noses and mouths. Each person had attended multiple demonstrations and strategizing meetings, protected protesters and property from police violence or acts of looting and led marches up and down the street.

Despite the aggressive police tactics that have resulted in hundreds of arrests, along with the tear gas and rubber bullet wounds, Humphrey is optimistic.

"People still find a way to get out here and protest. I feel that justice will be served," she said. "They see that that's what the people want, what the people demand and what the people deserve. People do have hope, people do have courage ... [they] are resilient people." (Story continues after slideshow.)

Later that night, when the police were corralling protesters and media into smaller spaces down the street, brandishing high powered rifles, spraying pepper spray and making arrests along the way, Humphrey displayed her courage as she tried to get protesters to safely stand together. As police charged the crowd, pinning one woman against a fence, people started to run, while Humphrey on the bullhorn shouted to the police, "Let us go home. We're trying to go home." And then to the protesters, "Stop running and stand your ground! Let's get in a circle. United we stand, divided we fall." But by then, police had frightened enough people and they ran across the street.

The police declared that night a "turning point" because no tear gas or rubber bullets were employed and only 47 people were arrested. This reporter witnessed a single water bottle thrown towards police during the hour and a half stand off and at least two arrests of young men who were not doing anything violent. One young man complied with police orders to walk down the street, but he filmed the scene ahead of him with his phone. He was grabbed by the arms and placed under arrest. When asked why he would be arrested for that, another police officer said, "Filming is not walking." From my vantage point, it seemed arrests were often arbitrary.

Earlier that evening, Brooke Miller of St. Charles, Mo., and her husband Elliot, who grew up in the area, confirmed that viewpoint from their own experiences at the demonstrations.

"It's been peaceful protesting," Brooke Miller said. "The media puts out [the message] otherwise ... that the protesters are the ones being violent." She said the police "initiated" the violence the night before by preparing to attack the crowd because they were "loud" or "obnoxious," not because of threats or violence.

While decrying any violence from protesters, Brooke echoed the sentiment heard from many others, "Yes, stuff were thrown at the cops, but that wasn't until the fact the cops initiated it, which people don't see that on the media. They flip flop it. They make it seem the protesters are the ones doing this, the ones doing that. But that's not the case."

The Millers are no strangers to police harassment. Brooke, a nurse, and Elliot, a teacher - both of whom are in school getting their masters degrees - have been pulled over by police and harassed for no apparent reason, except race. Police once told Elliot that he and his friends could not hang out in front of his father's home.

"I've had personal experience," Elliot Miller said. "I grew up in Bellefontaine, right down the street. They told me I wasn't allowed to stand in front of the house with a group of my friends. It's my house, my property, you can't tell me what I can and can't do in front of my house."

Those kinds of negative, controlling interactions between African Americans and police helps to fuel the widespread distrust and anger that eventually explodes into public view when a killing by police occurs.

"It's not just here in Ferguson, it's everywhere. I can't tell you the number of times I've been profiled," Brooke Miller said. The Millers brought their four-year-old son and seven-year-old daughter to the evening protest. They want their kids to be part of this historic uprising against police crimes.

Yet, both young parents went out of their way to say they don't want to paint every police officer with the same racial profiling brush. There are many who do help, they said, but it is scary and unfortunate that some African American children are actually frightened of the police - the very people who are supposed to "serve and protect" you.

For Brooke, the demonstrations are also about First Amendment rights for African Americans. The freedom of assembly and freedom of speech space should not be infringed upon by a show of force by the government through its police force, she said.

"It's a right. We have a right to stand wherever we want and march wherever we want," she said. Heavily armed cops not only "instigate" violence, they infringe on our rights. "It's absolutely ridiculous," Brooke said.

When asked what it will take to change the situation, Elliot immediately said, "We gotta get out and vote. Young people we got to exercise our right to vote. Because a lot of these people that get in office, they don't care...If we - not even just young black people, but we as people, get out and exercise our right to vote then those people that don't deserve to be in office don't get there."

Sporting a t-shirt with the Greek letters of his fraternity - Phi Beta Sigma - on it Elliot was proud of the role of black fraternities and sororities in registering people to vote. Just that day, NPR's show Code Switch just reported that members of Alpha Phi Alpha took to the apartment complexes, which lined the street where Brown was shot and left for hours, registering people to vote.

Brooke raised the importance of the petition calling on the White House to make "cops wear cameras all the time. That can make a difference."

They were hopeful that the protests and the national attention they have garnered would spark positive outcomes on the issues of race and police crimes.

"I think it will change," Elliot said. "I think it already has," Brooke added.

Photos: From left to right, Rasheen Aldridge, Shermale Humphrey, Josh Kersting and Jeanina Jenkins, leaders of the Show Me $15 movement, take their organizing skills and dedication to justice to the protests in Ferguson, Mo. Earchiel Johnson/PW

Video by Teresa Albano. "People protested peacefully in Ferguson, Mo., August 19. However the police gave contradictory directions, brandished their military hardware, and arrested demonstrators who were not doing anything violent. Organized chaos. But no tear gas or rubber bullets."

NLRB: Don't stick workers with tax bill on lump sum back pay

Fri, 22 Aug 2014 12:52:00 +0000

WASHINGTON Reviving a decision it made when it lacked enough legal members to rule on worker-boss disputes, the National Labor Relations Board again ruled that workers should not get stuck with the tax bill on back pay lump sums they win when triumphing against management labor law-breaking.

In an August 8 ruling involving two Tucson, Arizona, workers and their employer - a tortilla plant-the board reinstated the NLRB's 2012 ruling that ordered labor law-breaking employers to reimburse the workers for extra state and federal income taxes they owe on those payouts.

And it reinstated another 2012 ruling, saying employers must report the back pay awards to the Social Security Administration, split into the quarters of the year when the workers would have earned the pay, so the workers can get proper Social Security credit.

"A back pay order is a reparation order designed to vindicate the public policy of the statute by making employees whole for losses suffered on account of an unfair labor practice," NLRB Chairman Mark Gaston Pearce and members Harry Johnson and Nancy Schiffer wrote.

"Accordingly, the board has revised and updated its remedial policies from time to time to ensure victims of unlawful conduct are actually made whole."

The board's 2012 pro-worker rulings on Social Security and income taxes got tossed out - along with dozens of other decisions - earlier this year. That's when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the board then lacked a quorum to decide anything, because of illegal "recess appointees" by President Obama.

The board, which now has a full five legal members, used the case pitting workers Mariella Soto and Anahi Figueroa against their employer, Tortillas Don Chavas, a Tucson tortilla manufacturer, to reinstate its two prior rulings.

Management fired Soto and Figueroa in 2011, through "constructive discharges" - the legal term describing cases where employers make conditions so bad for workers they have to quit. Managers changed both workers to the night shift, knowing that doing so would prevent them from arranging for childcare.

Management fired Soto for complaining about sexual harassment on the job. It fired Figueroa for walking out over hazardous working conditions, including the overheated plant in the summer. The board ordered the tortilla plant to rehire both, with back pay.

But the key part of the ruling is the board's statement that orders companies to pay Social Security and compensate the workers for the extra income tax liability they face for the back pay. Ordering firms to pay "effectuates the policies of " the National Labor Relations Act.

"Accordingly, in this case and in all pending and future cases in which we find a violation of the act that results in make-whole relief, we will continue routinely to require the law-breaking company to send documents to the Social Security Administration" crediting the injured workers with earnings they would have had - and later got in the lump sum back pay - absent the employer's labor law-breaking.

And the board will require offending companies "to reimburse the discriminatee(s) for any additional federal and state income taxes the discriminatee(s) may owe as a consequence of receiving a lump-sum back pay award in a calendar year other than the year in which the income would have been earned had the act not been violated."

Without the reimbursements from the employers for the higher state and federal taxes in the years they get back pay awards, the workers were effectively stuck with the tax bills. Those workers "may be pushed into a higher tax bracket, and consequently may owe more in income taxes than if she had received her wages when they were or would have been earned. The result is the discriminatee is disadvantaged a second time," the board said.

"The purpose of our tax compensation remedy, like that of the Social Security reporting requirement, is to ensure an employee who receives lump-sum back pay rather than regular income is truly made whole."

Image: NLRB Facebook page.

Community-labor coalition cheers minimum wage ordinance in San Diego

Fri, 22 Aug 2014 12:11:00 +0000

SAN DIEGO -- A coalition of San Diego citizens and unionists cheered a 6-3 City Council vote on August 19 overriding the Republican mayor's veto of a city-wide minimum-wage increase and paid sick days ordinance.

The ordinance would allow a worker up to 40 hours of paid sick leave yearly, starting next July 1. And it covers all workers, not just municipal workers, those whose firms hold city contracts, or only firms over a minimum size. But workers must give firms advance notice of need for the leave, and document the need if it's more than three consecutive days.

It also raises the city minimum wage to $9.75 hourly on January 1, $10.50 on Jan. 1, 2016 and $11.50 hourly on Jan. 1, 2017, before indexing it to inflation in following years. California's minimum wage rose to $9 hourly on July 1, more than the $7.25 federal minimum.

The San Diego ordinance is part of a national movement pushing to raise the minimum wage and enact paid sick leave, city by city and state by state. The movement, which began with a San Francisco citywide minimum wage hike in 2007, isn't waiting for the GOP-hamstrung, gridlocked U.S. Congress to raise the nation's minimum wage.

At least 217,000 minimum-wage workers in San Diego would see a pay hike via the ordinance, while approximately 260,000 would become eligible for paid sick leave. Most are in retail and restaurants, the two lowest-paying sectors of the economy.

But even as the San Diego Labor Council hailed the new measure, it warned - as did the city council chair who led the pro-raise majority - about an underhanded petition to undermine it. The Chamber of Commerce and other business interests are trying to nullify the new ordinance even before it takes effect next July by putting two initiatives concerning those issues on this November's ballot.

"The council has now done everything in its power to advance this common sense measure and promote the economic security and success of San Diego's working families, businesses and economy. The ordinance should be allowed to take effect next year as planned," said Debra Ness, executive director of the National Partnership for Women and Families, which pushes such laws in cities, states and on Capitol Hill.

The ordinance covers all workers, public and private, who toil in San Diego, California's second-largest city. With 1.22 million people, San Diego is among the nation's largest cities.

"When businesses do not pay a livable wage and do not allow workers to earn and use paid sick leave, the community and taxpayers pay associated costs" for tax-funded services such as hospital emergency rooms and city homeless shelters, the new ordinance says.

To help poor and ailing San Diegans, the ordinance provides all workers with one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours of work during the year. It limits paid sick leave to 40 hours, though. Workers can carry over unused paid sick leave, year to year.

The National Partnership for Women and Families reported the ordinance would give each minimum-wage San Diego worker a $1,400 yearly raise, starting Jan. 1. But business interests are trying to halt it, City Council President Todd Gloria warned.

"If any petitioner approaches you during the next 30 days saying they are collecting signatures for Minimum Wage or Earned Sick, don't be fooled. They are being paid by special interests to get rid of the Earned Sick and Minimum Wage Ordinance," he said in an open message posted on the web site of the grass-roots coalition Raise Up San Diego. That coalition and unions pushed the ordinance through.

"Big-money, out-of-town special interests are spending at least a half million dollars to take away earned sick days and the San Diego minimum wage. These petitioners are paid per signature. They can and will say anything to get you to sign. If they approach you, there's only one thing you need to remember: Don't sign it!" Gloria added.

"Nobody who works hard at a full-time job should live in poverty or worry about taking care of their family. San Diego's new minimum wage law will increase the earnings of hard-working San Diegans, helping them pay their rent, put food on the table, and support their families," Raise Up San Diego added.

"The law also gives workers the ability to take care of their sick kids or parents by using days-off they have earned by working hard. But now, a group of area businesses - with funding from out-of-town corporations that don't want to pay employees fairly - is trying to repeal our minimum wage and earned sick pay law with a deceptive petition. Don't sign it!"

Photo: From the America Needs a Raise Bus Tour, March 25. Eric Blumrich/PW

Federal court ruling a victory for 700 arrested on Brooklyn Bridge

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 15:21:00 +0000

NEW YORK -- In a major victory for free speech rights, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a ruling today denying the City of New York's effort to dismiss the lawsuit challenging the NYPD's mass false arrest of 700 Occupy Wall Street demonstrators on the Brooklyn Bridge in October 2011.

The class action lawsuit was filed by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, a non-profit public interest legal organization, within days of the mass false arrest. The case Garcia, et al. v. Bloomberg, et al., 11 Civ. 6957 (JSR), was argued before the Second Circuit in April 2013.

Carl Messineo, Legal Director for the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and attorney for the protestors, said: "This is a major victory upholding the fundamental constitutional rights of people to engage in First Amendment-protected activity in New York City without being trapped and detained, and unlawfully arrested."

Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Executive Director for the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and attorney for the protestors, said: "The decision by the NYPD high command to illegally trap and arrest 700 peaceful protestors was a disgrace. It is one of the largest mass arrests and mass violations of civil liberties in U.S. history. This is a critical victory for justice and the right to dissent in America."

"The NYPD command officials executed a mass false arrest. They knew they had to warn protestors, but they chose to use one tiny bullhorn for a march that stretched for blocks on end. Then, they turned and led marchers across the bridge. As the District Court found, this was an implicit invitation to follow, and, as the Second Circuit observed, protestors predictably followed them across. This ruling allows us to proceed to secure justice for their actions," stated Carl Messineo.

Photo: Police arrest Occupy Wall Street protesters on New York's Brooklyn Bridge October 1, 2011. Stephanie Keith/AP.

Washington state teens initiate march protesting killing of Michael Brown

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 14:26:00 +0000

PORT TOWNSEND, WA -- Protesters, their hands up, marched through this paper mill town August 20, chanting "No Justice, no peace" to show their anger at the police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American teenager.

Brown, 18, was killed by Ferguson police officer, Darren Wilson. Eyewitnesses and forensic evidence indicate that young Brown had his hands up when the police officer fired, striking Brown at least six times.

Frances Sheldon-O'Neal, 17, who enters her senior year at Port Townsend High School this month, initiated the protest rally and march. Marching with her were her sister, mother, and grandmother -- three generations of a family speaking out against what they see as a racist killing. Others came from Sequim, Port Ludlow, and other towns on the Olympic Peninsula.

"I wanted to raise awareness about this issue and also to support the people of Ferguson, Missouri, to let them know there are people here on the west coast who care about them," Sheldon-O'Neal told the People's World.

"Mike Brown was killed. He was shot so many times. He will never come back. He had his whole life ahead of him."

She added, "I think this is a national issue. Everywhere, police are using excessive force. There is a heavy influence of the military. There was the shooting of Trayvon Martin, Oscar Grant, the woodcarver in Seattle (Native American Indian, John T. Williams)," she added.

Penelope Grace, a Port Townsend resident wore a T-shirt stenciled with the words, "No Justice, No Peace." She said, "I was visiting Los Angeles when police beat Rodney King and L.A. erupted in violence. This is a problem that repeats over and over. It has not changed. Racism is a factor in this situation. I've seen it and lived it and we've got to end it."

Linda Brewster, a MoveOn organizer held a sign that read, "Stop the War on People." She was elated that a teenager initiated the action and that so many other young people joined the protest.

Police violence is an issue that is certain to continue burning fiercely, she said.

"A Grand Jury report in Missouri is not expected to be completed until October," Brewster added. She pointed out that calls are mounting for the removal of St. Louis County, Attorney General Bob McCulloch from the case. McCulloch's father was a policeman killed in the line of duty. He has such close ties to the police that civil rights and civil liberties organizations have warned that he is incapable of insuring an impartial investigation. President Obama sent U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, to Missouri to launch a Federal probe.

The protesters joined hands and sang, "We Shall Overcome."

Sheldon-O'Neal sent out a message, later, that another rally against police violence will be held at John Pope Marine Park in Port Townsend, Wed. Aug. 27 at 5:30 p.m.

Photo: Tim Wheeler/PW

Connecticut labor, environmental, peace groups join together for People's Climate March

Thu, 21 Aug 2014 13:27:00 +0000

Along with environmental, peace and faith based organizations, groups of bicyclists, and the Raging Grannies, Connecticut unions are an important part of the state coalition preparing for the People's Climate March on Sunday, September 21 in New York City. Sierra Club and 350.org initiated the statewide organizing effort this summer.

The march, endorsed by over 600 national and local organizations, coincides with a September 23 global summit on climate change called by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, frustrated at the slow pace of progress on this crucial issue. Ban Ki-moon will propose an aggressive global pact to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the end of 2015.

Delegates to the Connecticut State Council of Machinists (CSCM) led the way in the labor movement at their semi-annual conference in June when they voted unanimously to endorse and participate in the march. The Connecticut AFL-CIO, CT State Council SEIU, AFSCME Council 4, UAW Region 9A, AFT Connecticut, Connecticut Education Association and SEIU 32BJ Connecticut are also on board so far.

The CSCM delegates represent more than 10,000 active and retired Machinists Union members in Connecticut from industrial sites including Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton Sundstrand, Electric Boat, Stanley Works and other IAM-represented workplaces around the state.

"We recognize that working people will suffer disproportionately from the current patterns of investment and neglect that do not prioritize good jobs, clean air, and healthy communities," says the resolution that supports "the demand for an ambitious, binding, and fair agreement for emission reductions to foster a sustainable adaptation to the effects of climate change."

The diverse constituencies coming together around the Climate March bring a wide range of concerns to the table. Peace organizations are especially concerned with the environmental and climate impacts of wars and militarism. Educating the public about climate change is in the forefront for environmental organizations and religious groups like New Haven Friends Meeting. the Communist Party, which has endorsed nationally, is rallying around their slogan "People and Nature before Profits." The inter-relationship of all these issues offers possibilities for future collaboration.

Sierra Club and 350.org initiated the coalition that is chartering buses around the state. New Haven organizations are digging deep into the community to bring hundreds of people to New York by train.

The Greater New Haven Peace Council is participating in a national effort that has organized a Global Climate Convergence People, Planet and Peace over Profits, to be held on Friday and Saturday, September 19-20 in New York City leading up to the march.

"Let's be clear," said John Harrity, CT State Council president. "Climate change is the most important issue facing all of us for the rest of our lives. When our kids, and grandkids, ask 'What did you do to help stop this disaster?' which they will surely ask if we do not take drastic steps immediately - Machinists Union activists can say, 'We helped save the world. We were there on September 21."

Image: Climate March logo from Sierra Club.

Yale art students show solidarity with Ferguson, Missouri

Wed, 20 Aug 2014 16:53:00 +0000

NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Over 200 Yale graduate students and community members marched yesterday from Beinecke Plaza on campus to the New Haven Green in solidarity with Ferguson, Missouri. They walked in silence holding printed signs that read "Hands Up - Don't Shoot" and handwritten posters with the names of victims of police brutality from different cities around the country including New Haven. One sign read, "We are all Ferguson."

The noontime solidarity march was initiated by students at the School of Art, only days before undergraduates are due to arrive back from summer vacation. They saw protests at other campuses and wanted to make sure that Yale students made their solidarity known.

A multi-racial group of students and staff responded in outrage at the police killing of unarmed African-American teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and the militaristic police attacks on peaceful protesters where most residents are African American and the police force is virtually all white.

Alderwoman Dolores Colon, who works at Yale, joined the march briefly during her lunch break. "I'm here to stand with the people of Ferguson," she said reflecting on double standards in the judicial system that disadvantage people of color.

The art students read a prepared message at Beinecke Plaza and again after arriving at the Green as participants sat in a large circle symbolically holding their hands up in the air.

The statement, also being circulated as a one page flier, says: "In solidarity we are compelled to speak, not just to condemn the murder of Michael Brown, but the conditions across America that allow for this to happen. It is unacceptable to kill an unarmed civilian posing no threat. It is unacceptable to presume threat based on race, age, perceived gender or appearance otherwise. It is unacceptable for authorities to abuse the rights of individuals and prevent them from participating in and being protected by the democratic process. It is unacceptable that structural racism - despite the recent efforts of the State Police and the continual good-will effort to 'heal' - remain unchallenged. It is unacceptable to manipulate the narrative in order to vilify the victims."

Lisa Bergmann, national coordinator of the Young Communist League, joined the march to be part of the anti-racist message. "Racism is at the root of capitalism in the United States and Ferguson is showing us yet again that we need a different system that promotes equality, unity, justice and healing. The 2014 elections are a major battleground for moving us forward in our next steps. We cannot afford to go backwards."

Photo: 200 Yale graduate students and community members marched in solidarity with Ferguson on August 19 in New Haven. Art Perlo/PW

Labor joins community at Ferguson march

Wed, 20 Aug 2014 13:57:00 +0000

FERGUSON, Missouri - I work for a union, the Service Employees International Union, and I work at the St. Louis office of the Healthcare IIMK local. One of the facilities to which I am assigned is a nursing home here and several of my other sites encircle this north St. Louis County suburb.

The city of St. Louis is a progressive-voting town where Republican candidates don't even bother running for office but St. Louis County is conservative. Among the 29 percent of the population that is white are the sons and daughters of many who fled the inner city in earlier times. Voter participation among that section of the town is far greater than it is in the African American population with the result being a mostly-white town government and police force.

In the town itself, black people hold the lower-paying jobs and white people tend to hold the jobs that provide what is closer to a living wage.

SEIU is a social justice union; SEIU Healthcare IIMK is one of the more progressive locals; and the St. Louis office has a reputation for being the "radical corner," a really active part of the local.

On Saturday, August 16, I arrived an hour early for a march here. It was raining, the turnout was not looking too promising, and a waterlogged assortment of flowers and candles in the middle of Coppercreek Rd. (where Michael Brown was executed) cut a morose scene in the sunless morning. Rev. Jesse Jackson was under a popup tent talking with local media. I was passing out "Hands Up, Don't Shoot" buttons that my wife and I made the night before. It was only a few minutes before the march was to start, and turnout was still dismal.

Noon hit, the clouds parted, bullhorns fired up, and waves of protestors came seemingly from nowhere to swell our ranks. The march was underway, and hundreds were chanting "Hands up! Don't shoot!"

I began to notice the purple shirts donned by my union members, before and behind me. SEIU banners were being carried, and purple bracelets were everywhere I looked. Other members that had not "purpled up" were scattered throughout, shouting their heads off. I could not have been prouder. As the mile-long column marched down the main street of Florissant, whole families poured from their doors and joined the procession. Ice cream trucks parked in the suicide lanes handed out rocket pops to kids marching. The opposing lane was loaded with cars honking in solidarity and raised open hands protruding from every window.

What does this have to do with unions, you ask?

Unions are made up of workers. Workers pay dues to hire support staff and representation. SEIU members live in north St. Louis County and north St. Louis City, so we are proud to support our workers in any capacity that we can. There should be no divide between labor and community. If it is the peoples' struggle, then it is the workers' struggle...and that is the struggle for all of us.

No justice? No peace.

Photo: Ferguson August 19, 2014. Earchiel Johnson/PW

Protesters speak out on massive failure of policing in Ferguson

Tue, 19 Aug 2014 13:33:00 +0000

FERGUSON, Missouri - "When I first heard about what happened, I felt a wide range of emotion and I thought to myself, 'No, this can't be another case of police brutality.' I really wanted to hold off my judgement until more information was released. You never really know because nowadays everything seems to be half truths." Those were the initial remarks by Natalie when I talked to her last Saturday. The graduate of St. Louis Christian College was back in town to march with the community she calls home.

She spoke with the Peoples World after she attended a vigil at the Canfield Apartments here and during a march up W. Florissant to St. Mark's Church. The crowd Natalie had joined was made up of people of all colors, classes and creeds. Their rally and march was not the type of thing that has been heard or seen much on national media.

"But when the police presented no evidence and hid the name of the officer, I knew then and there what the truth was," Natalie said. "That's what scares me most. That we will never really find out what happened and that this (the killing of Michael Brown and the militarization of the streets) is becoming a way of life here."

We took a pause as she surveyed the growing crowd and started listening to the impromptu drum circle that had just started. She turned and continued:

"You know, I really thought it would be more tense out here but it's not at all. I have seen so many kids out here. I have a one-year-old at home, I was scared to bring him with me, but now I wish I had."

She grabbed her cell phone to show me a picture she snapped right before our encounter. "You see this little boy," she said. "I know that some day he could be profiled by police because of his skin color."

I met Arrieon, from South City, who told me he was here because he figured, "it was the right thing to do. This is about justice for all -- not a black versus white deal. It's about police brutality which affects everyone."

I spoke with Mark, an organizer with the Communications Workers of America, Local 3566:

"You know, there has always been racial tensions between police and people in African-American neighborhoods," he said. "I grew up in North County right in between two white communities, one that was predominantly working class and the other middle to upper class. There had always been unspoken uneasiness when it came to police especially when most of the police were white in well-known African-American communities.

"I feel the initial police response was completely overboard. They didn't even put out any information to calm the community down. They went way too far. You know, I work out of the area for CWA Local 6355 and the members I represent live and work in that area too. They were telling me that they could not do their jobs with how the police were acting. And these were social workers we are talking about, people who couldn't go out to help make sure families were able to put a meal on the table or help place a foster child in the right home. None of them could leave the office building because police took over the entire parking lot."

As we shook hands in the church parking lot after the rally he turned back around, looked at me, and said:

"I think that we need to let the legal process run its course. First, get due process and then bring judgment against the officer for his actions. The Ferguson police department also must diversify itself.

"African Americans from the neighborhood need to police the neighborhood. Especially when most officers are white in a 67 percent African American community.

"Then, after all that, economic justice needs to be brought to the community. There are a lot of low-wage jobs, mom and pop stores, and the one big employer being Emerson Electric.

"But I couldn't tell you how many of those jobs are filled with people from the community. You know, we didn't just lose a man in Michael Brown. We lost a future entrepreneur who was about to start school to learn a trade in order to build his own business. It was a generational loss. In his business he could have helped bring good jobs to the community."

As evening set in, I met Rasheen who was carrying a bullhorn and wore a shirt that had "Justice for Michael Brown" emblazoned on it.

"I didn't really hear about it until Sunday night and when I finally made it down to ground zero I honestly shed a few tears," Rasheen said. "It was so unjust to shoot a man six times! And then to leave him on the ground for multiple hours with no sheet covering him and blood spilling all over the streets. This isn't a race issue, this is about the police murdering someone and then we have the police antagonizing people for no reason. I have been out here every day since Monday and during the daytime there are peaceful protests calling for justice. It isn't until the nighttime, when the TV cameras are gone, that the police push people to the point of rioting and looting. I was with a group of guys that was trying to de-escalate the situation and prevent anymore local businesses from being destroyed.

"You know, Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson both came into town because of this. I think that in some ways this is a good thing because they bring with them a lot of media attention.

"But, sometimes outside groups and leaders need to take a step into the background. It just seems like they are here just to be here at this moment for their own private gains.

Right now people here are peaceful, they are demanding justice peacefully and showing love for one another. This is what it has been all the time until the police show up. It's them - police - who are causing the violence to happen! Not the people in Ferguson.

"I just want justice to be served for the family of Michael Brown and that the officer be placed under arrest and charged with murder.

"I also feel that the African-American community needs a little bit of justice as well. We are the ones that are always suffering at the hands of police brutality and we need that to happen one way or another. That's what we are all fighting for."

Saturday, August 16, marked one week since Michael Brown was shot and killed by the police officer, now identified as Daren Wilson, a six-year veteran of the Ferguson force.

During this small window of time in the life of a community, people here have suffered not only from the loss of one of their sons but from the aggressive tactics of a militarized police force. The interviews with people here demonstrate how what should have been a week of peaceful protest became for Ferguson the trauma of experiencing police terrorism.

I personally witnessed some of the police department's tactics and how they turned peaceful protests, at times, into dangerous confrontations. This included the illegal detention of fellow journalists from both the Washington Post and the Huffington Post.

Throughout the week the Ferguson police department made what, at best, can be called one huge mistake after another. The result was a massive failure of policing when good community policing was needed more than ever.

Friday morning, for example, the town's police chief held a press briefing and in the process carelessly assassinated Michael Brown's character by stating that he was a possible subject in a strong-arm convenience store robbery. The statement was later modified to explain that at the time Brown was confronted by the police officer who killed him, that officer had no knowledge of anything that had happened earlier at the convenience store.

Sources in the Justice Department have told the press that Justice had insisted that the Ferguson police not release the video tapes because they were not relevant to the killing of Michael Brown and because the department expected that such release would inflame the situation, which by Thursday night had finally become calm in Ferguson. After that first full night of calm the police released the tapes anyway, over the objection of the Justice Department. And by Friday night, once again, thanks to the Ferguson police department, violence had returned to the streets of this town.

Again, my talk with Mark, the CWA member, comes to mind. He said, "For every black man that is sadly taken from us four or five more are going to suffer for it.

"Who knows how many jobs he could have given to his community and how many lives could have improved just by learning a trade that could create an infinite amount of positive possibility for Ferguson?"

Photo: Riley Winters/PW

Additional coverage:

Ferguson, Missouri residents grieve and protest in wake of killing by police

Journalists under police attack in Ferguson protests

Despite police violence Ferguson community continues peaceful protests

Ferguson community struggles for justice, unity and peace

Ferguson community struggles for justice, unity and peace

Mon, 18 Aug 2014 16:54:00 +0000

A many-year resident from the Ferguson area told Peoplesworld.org that, despite images appearing on national television, residents here continue to peacefully demonstrate daily for justice after the police killing last week of unarmed 18-year-old-Michael Brown.

Describing how, due to huge turnout, it took her hours to travel the two miles from her home to the site of a rally in a packed church Sunday, she said, "for the majority it was a day of healing, a day of looking for answers."

"This is my neighborhood. You are my family. You are my friends. And I am you," Missouri Highway Patrol Captain Ron Johnson told the 1,300 people at the rally. "When this is over - I'm gonna go to my son's room, my black son, who wears his pants sagging, who wears his hat cocked to one side, who's got tattoos on his arms...But that's my baby."

The long-time area resident who spoke with Peoplesworld.org today said that what people wanted inside that rally, which was organized by the National Action Network, was due process, rigorous investigations into the death of Brown, and the arrest and filing of charges against the officer responsible. "Above all they want transparency," she said.

It is the preliminary autopsy, according to reports, that has convinced the Brown family that the police officer who shot him should be arrested. The autopsy showed that Brown could have been shot from as far away as 30 feet. Six bullets entered his body and at least two ricocheted and travelled back through his body. Bullet wounds to his arms could have been sustained by putting his arms up. "Hands up! Don't shoot" has become a rallying cry for protesters.

Skepticism and lack of trust by the community has led to President Obama ordering a full-scale investigation by the Justice Department and the FBI and an order from Attorney General Eric Holder for a federal medical examiner to perform a second autopsy.

Referring to the release of tapes that allege Brown's involvement in a robbery of candy at a local store, Benjamin Crump, the attorney representing the family of Michael Brown, condemned the police for what he called a "smear" campaign against the murdered teen's character.

"There is nothing that can justify the execution-style murder in broad daylight by this police officer," he said

Rev. Al Sharpton added political context when he spoke. "Where are the leading candidates for president?" he asked. "Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton, don't get laryngitis on this issue. You can't get to the White House without stopping by our house and talk about policing."

The area resident, who spoke with People's World, said people are angry too, about the almost complete absence of the mayor, James Knowles III, since events began last week. "There is a problem when you have a 67 percent black town with only three out of 53 officers who are black and a mayor who is white," she said. People had set up a voter registration table near the store that is "ground zero" in the protests and it is expected that the current crisis in Ferguson will be reflected in a change in voter turnout in future elections.

Already there are calls for the establishment of civilian review boards chosen by the people in a number of Missouri towns, including Ferguson.

Back at the rally, Sharpton also condemned the few who have carried out violence in and around the protest sites. "Don't loot in Michael Brown's name," he said. "We're not looters, we're liberators."

The positive feelings during the day Sunday yielded to a different type of situation after nightfall with protesters being doused with tear gas again. Local residents, including the person who spoke with Peoplesworld.org, said that they did not see anyone throwing Molotov cocktails or firing guns, as police had reported.

"All we were doing was marching," Lisha Williams, a local protester who was tear gassed told MSNBC.

Chris Hayes, who was reporting from the scene for that cable channel, said cops threatened him with mace if he tried to get any closer to report on the protests.

Photo: Saturday, Aug. 16, protesting the police shooting death of Michael Brown a week ago in Ferguson, Missouri. Despite heavy rainfall and lightning, hundreds of protesters gathered. Charlie Riedel/AP.

Reporter to get Newspaper Guild award for defying subpoena

Mon, 18 Aug 2014 16:28:00 +0000

WASHINGTON - The Newspaper Guild-Communications Workers of America will give its 2014 Herbert Block Freedom Award to James Risen, a New York Times reporter who has defied a federal subpoena since 2006 demanding he reveal his key source for a book on the CIA, the Bush administration and the war on terror, TNG-CWA President Bernie Lunzer announced.

The award, named after the late Washington Post cartoonist and 67-year (1934-2001) Guild member, honors Risen for "risking his own freedom to protect the principles essential for a truly free press," the union said.

Since Risen published his book, State of War, the Justice Department, under both the Bush and Obama administrations, has pressured him to yield to its subpoena and name his key source. Risen has battled the feds all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which upheld lower court rulings enforcing the subpoena. Despite the threat of jail for contempt of court, Risen continues to refuse to reveal the name.

"With his book, Risen did what great journalists do," Lunzer said. "He dug for information, developed sources who trusted him and ultimately exposed some of the hard truths behind the war on terrorism. Without jeopardizing national security, he told Americans what their government wouldn't. That is his job, the job of all journalists. And we are all better for it."

But "many journalists already report sources are drying up out of fear of being fired and prosecuted if caught. What Risen is doing helps ensure the well" of confidential sources "doesn't dry up for good, which would be a catastrophic blow to our democracy," he added.

Risen is scheduled to receive the award, with a $5,000 check accompanying it, at a TNG ceremony in mid-October. Whether he will be able to do so in person is uncertain, said Lunzer. Risen's attorneys have told him not to discuss the case. And the federal sub-poena - and potential jailing for contempt of court for his defiance - still hangs over his head.

The threat of further prosecution of Risen comes just after the Guild, along with 36 other journalistic organizations, signed a letter to the White House protesting its increasing secrecy and refusal to release information. The groups also note the Obama administration now either won't let officials speak, or, when they do, insists on having "minders" sit in on the interviews. There has been no response from the administration.

Photo: Reporter James Risen speaks during the "Prosecuting the Press" event at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism on November 14, 2013. Alex Menendez/AP

Ohio governor candidate issues working-class program

Mon, 18 Aug 2014 15:47:00 +0000

CLEVELAND -- Before a packed house at the August monthly delegates' meeting of the North Shore AFL-CIO Federation of Labor, Ed Fitzgerald, Democratic candidate for Ohio Governor, calmly, simply and eloquently presented his five point working-class program for the state.

Despite the vicious, massively-funded campaign of the Republicans, and the scandal-mongering of some of the corporate media, Fitzgerald stood tall and steadfast as he showed what is really at stake in this election and the stark difference between his program and the the anti-labor, anti-civil rights, anti-woman, anti-local government, anti-public education policies of incumbent Republican Gov. John Kasich.

He also showed that even after two weeks of scandal-mongering, the latest polls show the race continues to be close with Fitzgerald trailing by only six points. The grassroots efforts of Labor 2014 and the Democratic Party have only just begun. There are one million more registered Democrats than Republicans in Ohio. This means that if labor and the Democrats reach voters with Fitzgerald's program and explain the difference between him and Kasich, Fitzgerald will win. Defeating Kasich will be a huge blow to right-wing extremism in Ohio and nationally. Below is Ed Fitzgerald's program.

Five major differences between Ed Fitzgerald and John Kasich

1. Ed is for public education. That includes restoring funding, respecting teachers, reducing standardized testing and supporting early and higher education.

Kasich slashed the public education budget and promotes poor-performing, scandal-ridden, for-profit charter schools.

2. Ed is for workers' rights, including the right to bargain and a higher minimum wage.

Kasich pushed for passage of SB 5 and, make no mistake, will push for passage of right-to-work legislation.

3. Ed is for civil rights, including women's rights, marriage equality and voting rights.

Kasich restricted women's rights, opposes marriage equality and suppressed voting rights.

4. Ed supports local communities including local government funding, public safety - and safe drinking water.

Kasich slashed local government funding, cut public safety, cut heroin treatment and sold out to the industry on water safety.

5. Ed wants an economy that works for all of us, especially the middle class which is suffering under Kasich.

Kasich consistently supports policies that benefit the wealthy while stealing money from the middle class to pay for tax giveaways to the rich.

Photo: Ed Fitzgerald Facebook page.