Good Middle East website for Egypt and Tunisia
www.arabist.org
Good Photos of Tunisia Rev -
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/01/an_uprising_in_tunisia.html?camp=localsearch:on:twit:rtbutton
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Estate of the Unionless:
My first reaction to Pres. O's State of the Union Address last night:
He touched on nearly everything, was inspiring at times, but:
O. never mentioned LABOR, or the attack on Labor by the GOP
O. never mentioned Guantanamo, or the Torture regime of Cheney
O. never mentioned fraudulent Bank FORECLOSURES crushing America
O. never mentioned unemployed 99ers (1 million near homelessness)
O. never mentioned protecting CHOICE, or Women's Rights
O. never mentioned repealing the unPatriot Act (wiretapping, etc.)
O. never mentioned his right to MURDER Americans without trial
O. never mentioned Global Warming, but he will cut Oil subsidies (or try)
Pres. Obama is without doubt the most articulate and persuasive speaker
ever to be elected President. Execution, however, is part of his problem.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
TOM HAYDEN, longtime Peace leader is launching:
A Live Workshop:
Vision, Strategy and Tactics to End the Afghanistan War
and Build a Progressive Majority
You are invited to join a live online School of Activism with
Tom Hayden, Tuesday, February 1st at 6 pm PST/7 pm
MST/8 pm CST/9 pm EST.
The online seminar will be held once a week for four weeks, and will focus on how to build a Long Peace Movement to End the Long War. Each session will be one-hour, including a 30-minute presentation and a 30-minute live interactive conversation.
The goal of the series is to build leadership in key states and Congressional districts to forge effective progressive coalitions, ones that our government will have to take seriously.
Topics will include:
* Defining the Long War and its domestic consequences.
* Alternatives in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
* Organizing: What works?
* A strategy for influencing the electoral debate, 2011-2012.
Write to contacthayden@gmail.com with
"School of Activism" in the subject line...
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
GOP Attacks California Unions
Public Workers, and All Unions are Under Fierce Attack
from New GOP State Leaders
CWA (Communication Workers of America) the labor movement and
its allies are preparing for battle as States across the country declare a renewed war on Unions, with special attacks on the rights, wages and pensions of public employees. Republican lawmakers in at least 10 states have or plan to introduce anti-union, so-called "right to work" legislation and other bills aimed at stripping workers of their rights to organize, to strike and to negotiate fair wages and benefits to support their families.
In Minnesota, lawmakers are even pursuing a "right to work" constitut-ional amendment to make it harder for workers to form and join unions. Among new governors, Ohio's John Kasich is "planning the most comp-rehensive assault against unions," the New York Times said. He wants to take away the right to unionize from 14,000 state-paid child care and home care workers, ban teacher strikes and kill rules requiring that contractors on public projects pay union-scale wages.
In Ohio and "throughout the battleground Midwest, there is a serious attack on our jobs and communities," CWA District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen said, explaining that district activists are already working to build coalitions to show lawmakers and the general public that it's not just unions that care about workers' rights. "These attacks affect all of us, public and private sector workers, both at work and in our communities," Rosen said. "By uniting labor, community, civil rights and enviro-nmental groups, we can wage a powerful fight for good jobs and strong communities.
"Ohio's Kasich appears to be competing with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to be the country's most anti-union, anti-public worker governor. Christie has become infamous over the last year for his loud, mean-spirited assaults on his state's employees, despite the fact that 60,000 CWA members and other unionized public workers have made a half-billion dollars in wage and benefit concessions over the last three years.
CWA New Jersey continues to aggressively lobby, mobilize and rally to oppose Christie’s extreme agenda.Learn more about the assaults on and myths about public workers at these links:
Click HERE or go to http://www.youtube.com/ for a brief film by Robert Greenwald, "Wall Street Fat-Cats Flip Public Service Workers the Bird."
Click HERE (Acrobat PDF) or go to http://www.epinet.org/, for a Rutgers University study debunking the myth that public workers are paid more than private-sector employees.
Click HERE for "The Shameful Attack on Public Employees," a column by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. "It's far more convenient to go after people who are doing the public's work—sanitation workers, police officers, fire fighters, teachers, social workers, federal employees—to call them "faceless bureaucrats" and portray them as hooligans who are making off with your money and crippling federal and state budgets. The story fits better with the Republicans' Big Lie that our problems are due to a government that's too big," Reich says.Virginia CWA, Sierra Club Activists Get Fired Up at Joint Training CWA and Sierra Club members in Virginia met in early January to discuss shared goals and projects they can undertake together.
Strengthening a partnership that began a year ago, enthusiastic CWA and Sierra Club members in Virginia met last week for joint training to discuss their shared goals and how to work together to accomplish them.
CWA led half of the sessions and Sierra led half, allowing both organizations to learn about each other's priorities."We were all struck by the similarities that we face," said CWA Local 2201 Executive Vice President Richard Hatch, who is coordinating the partnership in Virginia. "Our people formed great relationships with the Sierra Club folks and now the challenge will be to build upon this."CWA and the Sierra Club already are working together on a Speed Matters campaign to bring high-speed broadband to Charles City County, a sprawling rural area that lags behind Virginia's big cities in Internet access.
Following the success of the two-day workshop, leaders of both groups say they’re optimistic about future collaboration."We started with 30 wary but willing participants and ended with 30 CWA-SC ambassadors eager to take our experiences back to our respective organizations," said Allison Chin, a national board member for the Sierra Club.
Like Hatch, she said similarities in "our organizations, our motivations, our allies, our opponents, and the issues we care about" far outweighed differences. Praising Hatch and the activists who attended, CWA President Larry Cohen said, "This is a great example of the deeper coalition-building we will need to do to build majority support on the key economic justice issues facing our members."
from New GOP State Leaders
CWA (Communication Workers of America) the labor movement and
its allies are preparing for battle as States across the country declare a renewed war on Unions, with special attacks on the rights, wages and pensions of public employees. Republican lawmakers in at least 10 states have or plan to introduce anti-union, so-called "right to work" legislation and other bills aimed at stripping workers of their rights to organize, to strike and to negotiate fair wages and benefits to support their families.
In Minnesota, lawmakers are even pursuing a "right to work" constitut-ional amendment to make it harder for workers to form and join unions. Among new governors, Ohio's John Kasich is "planning the most comp-rehensive assault against unions," the New York Times said. He wants to take away the right to unionize from 14,000 state-paid child care and home care workers, ban teacher strikes and kill rules requiring that contractors on public projects pay union-scale wages.
In Ohio and "throughout the battleground Midwest, there is a serious attack on our jobs and communities," CWA District 4 Vice President Seth Rosen said, explaining that district activists are already working to build coalitions to show lawmakers and the general public that it's not just unions that care about workers' rights. "These attacks affect all of us, public and private sector workers, both at work and in our communities," Rosen said. "By uniting labor, community, civil rights and enviro-nmental groups, we can wage a powerful fight for good jobs and strong communities.
"Ohio's Kasich appears to be competing with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to be the country's most anti-union, anti-public worker governor. Christie has become infamous over the last year for his loud, mean-spirited assaults on his state's employees, despite the fact that 60,000 CWA members and other unionized public workers have made a half-billion dollars in wage and benefit concessions over the last three years.
CWA New Jersey continues to aggressively lobby, mobilize and rally to oppose Christie’s extreme agenda.Learn more about the assaults on and myths about public workers at these links:
Click HERE or go to http://www.youtube.com/ for a brief film by Robert Greenwald, "Wall Street Fat-Cats Flip Public Service Workers the Bird."
Click HERE (Acrobat PDF) or go to http://www.epinet.org/, for a Rutgers University study debunking the myth that public workers are paid more than private-sector employees.
Click HERE for "The Shameful Attack on Public Employees," a column by former Labor Secretary Robert Reich. "It's far more convenient to go after people who are doing the public's work—sanitation workers, police officers, fire fighters, teachers, social workers, federal employees—to call them "faceless bureaucrats" and portray them as hooligans who are making off with your money and crippling federal and state budgets. The story fits better with the Republicans' Big Lie that our problems are due to a government that's too big," Reich says.Virginia CWA, Sierra Club Activists Get Fired Up at Joint Training CWA and Sierra Club members in Virginia met in early January to discuss shared goals and projects they can undertake together.
Strengthening a partnership that began a year ago, enthusiastic CWA and Sierra Club members in Virginia met last week for joint training to discuss their shared goals and how to work together to accomplish them.
CWA led half of the sessions and Sierra led half, allowing both organizations to learn about each other's priorities."We were all struck by the similarities that we face," said CWA Local 2201 Executive Vice President Richard Hatch, who is coordinating the partnership in Virginia. "Our people formed great relationships with the Sierra Club folks and now the challenge will be to build upon this."CWA and the Sierra Club already are working together on a Speed Matters campaign to bring high-speed broadband to Charles City County, a sprawling rural area that lags behind Virginia's big cities in Internet access.
Following the success of the two-day workshop, leaders of both groups say they’re optimistic about future collaboration."We started with 30 wary but willing participants and ended with 30 CWA-SC ambassadors eager to take our experiences back to our respective organizations," said Allison Chin, a national board member for the Sierra Club.
Like Hatch, she said similarities in "our organizations, our motivations, our allies, our opponents, and the issues we care about" far outweighed differences. Praising Hatch and the activists who attended, CWA President Larry Cohen said, "This is a great example of the deeper coalition-building we will need to do to build majority support on the key economic justice issues facing our members."
TUNISIA
Did WikiLeaks and Facebook Bring Down Tunisia's Ben Ali?
Jessika Walsten January 15, 2011, Deputy Editor
Tunisia, near its border with Algeria. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, the Tunisian leader who fled the country after more than 20 years of rule, may have fallen because of WikiLeaks and Facebook.
The Telegraph reports:
Mr Ben Ali may also have been the first victim of Wikileaks. Cables by an American ambassador giving colourful descriptions of the lives of luxury pursued by his family, and the business empire it controlled, were eagerly emailed around the country, despite a repressive system of censorship.
Protests began in the country more than a month ago after the suicide of fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi sparked unrest. Activists took to Facebook, creating pages to communicate information on what was happening.
The government was quick to block many Facebook pages and news sites. But that didn't stop the protesters.
The Daily Beast reports:
The current site [of SBZ News] is the sixth that SBZ has put up, Àli says. The government even phished passwords from Facebook and email accounts, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders reports that at least five bloggers have been arrested.
Yet the young Tunisians have been firing off dispatches all the same—the government’s long-standing censorship policies have trained a generation of people like Àli in the art of cybersubversion.
Twitter has also played a role in the events in Tunisia.
SBZ News regularly tweeted protest updates and many followed the revolution with the hashtags #sidibouzid, #Tunisia, #Tunisian, or #Tunise.
Egyptian opposition leaders also used Twitter as a means of communication. Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei), former head of the atomic watchdog IAEA and an Egyptian opposition figure, tweeted that "Tunisia: repression + absence of social justice + denial of channels for peaceful change = a ticking bomb."
Ayman Nur (@ayman-nour), the leader of the Al-Ghad Party, also tweeted, saying, "From Ceausescu to Ben Ali, I say to those who are frustrated, you must learn your lesson: dictatorship continues to resist; it tries to tighten its grip; but suddenly it falls in the last minute."
Only time will tell who the next victim of Wikileaks, Twitter or Facebook will be. "In the 21st century things will be different," writes Richard Spencer in the Telegraph. "The internet has brought people closer to their leaders. It is they who will determine their futures, not the ambitions and ideologies of their generals."
Jessika Walsten January 15, 2011, Deputy Editor
Tunisia, near its border with Algeria. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, the Tunisian leader who fled the country after more than 20 years of rule, may have fallen because of WikiLeaks and Facebook.
The Telegraph reports:
Mr Ben Ali may also have been the first victim of Wikileaks. Cables by an American ambassador giving colourful descriptions of the lives of luxury pursued by his family, and the business empire it controlled, were eagerly emailed around the country, despite a repressive system of censorship.
Protests began in the country more than a month ago after the suicide of fruit vendor Mohamed Bouazizi sparked unrest. Activists took to Facebook, creating pages to communicate information on what was happening.
The government was quick to block many Facebook pages and news sites. But that didn't stop the protesters.
The Daily Beast reports:
The current site [of SBZ News] is the sixth that SBZ has put up, Àli says. The government even phished passwords from Facebook and email accounts, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, and Reporters Without Borders reports that at least five bloggers have been arrested.
Yet the young Tunisians have been firing off dispatches all the same—the government’s long-standing censorship policies have trained a generation of people like Àli in the art of cybersubversion.
Twitter has also played a role in the events in Tunisia.
SBZ News regularly tweeted protest updates and many followed the revolution with the hashtags #sidibouzid, #Tunisia, #Tunisian, or #Tunise.
Egyptian opposition leaders also used Twitter as a means of communication. Mohamed ElBaradei (@ElBaradei), former head of the atomic watchdog IAEA and an Egyptian opposition figure, tweeted that "Tunisia: repression + absence of social justice + denial of channels for peaceful change = a ticking bomb."
Ayman Nur (@ayman-nour), the leader of the Al-Ghad Party, also tweeted, saying, "From Ceausescu to Ben Ali, I say to those who are frustrated, you must learn your lesson: dictatorship continues to resist; it tries to tighten its grip; but suddenly it falls in the last minute."
Only time will tell who the next victim of Wikileaks, Twitter or Facebook will be. "In the 21st century things will be different," writes Richard Spencer in the Telegraph. "The internet has brought people closer to their leaders. It is they who will determine their futures, not the ambitions and ideologies of their generals."
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