Student-labor victory at Georgetown U: Unity wins living wage for campus
WASHINGTON — Georgetown University workers won a tremendous living wage victory last week. After months of organizing and a nine-day hunger strike, a student-labor alliance at Georgetown won a $14-an-hour wage for 452 fulltime contract campus workers, who had been making as little as $8.50 an hour. Workers will receive a minimum of $13 per hour by July 1 this year and $14 per hour by July 1, 2007.
Wal-Mart freeloads off Georgia kids
Thousands of Georgia kids are going without health care as a result of Wal-Mart’s freeloading on the state’s health care program for poor children, according to a state legislator in Georgia, where a $5 million health care budget deficit was filled by “locking out” 45,000 low-income kids this year.
Cuba fends off U.S. attacks on human rights
WASHINGTON — A crowd at the Cuban Interest Section here applauded warmly March 29 as Ambassador Dagoberto Rodriguez Berrera assailed Bush administration hypocrisy on “human rights” in Cuba. Cuba, he said, will never bow to U.S. diktat.
Puerto Ricans fight against death penalty
A U.S. federal court in Puerto Rico may sentence two men to death this week, contrary to the wishes of most Puerto Ricans and in violation of the island nation’s Constitution. The situation highlights the issue of colonialism in the relationship between the United States and Puerto Rico.
Labor cant win in a house divided
Like no other time in the last 50 years, a united labor movement is critical to defending the working class and the American people. It is decisive to any hope for a progressive agenda for the whole nation, not just for union members.
Miguel Contreras, 52, warrior for working families
Miguel Contreras, secretary-treasurer of the 800,000-member Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, died of a heart attack May 6 at the age of 52.
I Just Want To Do My Job
A poem
Awards go to filmmakers of color
NEW YORK — The Tribeca All Access (TAA) Connects program, which fosters relationships between U.S.-based filmmakers of color and the film industry, announced April 29 the winners of the second Tribeca All Access Creative Promise Awards.
U.S. band plays to 50,000 in Cuba
HAVANA — With an inspired 26-song set, Audioslave made history May 6, playing by far the biggest show for an American band in Cuba.
Social Security rooted in grassroots struggle
Three years before President Franklin Roosevelt enacted Social Security, the Communist Party issued a pamphlet saying: “Social insurance is a system of government support to give workers financial assistance, thus affording them a measure of security in case of accident, sickness, death of the wage earner, unemployment, child bearing, or dependent old age. ... The fight for social insurance must go on because it is a fight for security in the daily struggle for existence faced by every member of the working class.”
