Labor meeting accents unity, struggle
HARTFORD, Conn. – A fighting spirit filled the hall last week as the Connecticut AFL-CIO convention mapped out plans for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, support for striking machinists and university workers, and turnout for the 2004 elections.
Freedom Ride momentum strengthens FTAA fight
Opinion In the early spring, activists across the nation started preparing for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride that began on Sept. 23 and peaks in New York City on Oct. 4.
A Freedom Riders journal: Solidarity saved us
Kat Rodriguez, coordinating organizer with Derechos Humanos, a human rights organization, joined one of the Los Angeles Freedom Ride buses in Tucson, Ariz. Here she shares excerpts from her on-the-road journal with PWW readers.
California home care workers launch Poor Peoples Campaign
LOS ANGELES – Hundreds of members of Service Employees International Union Local 434 B gathered at Griffith Park Recreation Center on Sept. 13 to launch a Poor People’s Campaign aimed at eradicating poverty in Los Angeles.
A historic message — Justice for immigrants
WASHINGTON – Busloads of Immigrant Workers Freedom Riders brought their agenda into the heart of the nation’s political arena, Oct. 1, demanding Congress enact comprehensive reform of the nation’s immigration laws.
The why of massive migration
The current high level of immigration into the United States is part of a worldwide phenomenon. Almost every industrial country in the world is registering large numbers of people from poorer countries who are arriving without papers every day.
Grassroots mobilizes to defeat recall
LOS ANGELES – Imelda Ramos just became a citizen. She will be casting her first vote on Oct. 7. She told this reporter she will be voting against the recall of Gov. Gray Davis and will hedge her bet with a vote for Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the leading Democrat in the race.
Kucinich gets ovation at UE meet
PITTSBURGH – Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, brought cheers from delegates to the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers 68th convention here recently, challenging them to consider “a new vision for America” and to put “a people’s president in a workers’ White House.”
Amtrak unions plan one-day protest strike
Six unions representing 5,000 Amtrak employees have announced that Amtrak employees will withdraw their services from the railroads on Oct. 3 in what the Transport Workers Union calls a “one-day political protest.”
Australian teachers defend public schools
Teachers in New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia have conducted 24-hour work stoppages and nationwide protests as part of the Australian Education Union’s (AEU) efforts to make education a top-level national priority.
