Dr. Edgar Rivera Colón sobre la comunidad latinx, la sexualidad, y las iglesias
Justice for Ahmaud Arbery
The Metro Atlanta DSA mourns the tragic death of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was senselessly murdered while jogging through his own neighborhood in Glynn county three months ago. No parent should have to watch their child be slain in such a disgusting way, for no reason other than racist hate. There is no question about it: this was a modern-day lynching.
This murder, and the subsequent refusal of the capitalist state to take action against the killers, reflects the despicable systemic racism that plagues our whole country. The fact that this crime has gone unaddressed for 3 months provides a glimpse into what black americans face in an environment built on racial profiling and white supremacy.
We unequivocally stand with the NAACP in demanding the resignations of District Attorneys Jackie Johnson and George Barnhill. We echo their call for justice for Ahmaud Arbery. We encourage our members and supporters to participate in the distributed Dedication Distance Run planned for this Friday, May 8th, in his honor.
REST IN POWER
What is a Strike? Reflections on May Day
You’re listening to Revolution Per Minute on listener sponsored WBAI in NYC broadcasting at 99.5 FM and streaming on your favorite podcast app. To connect with us after the show you can email us at revolutionsnyc@gmail.com. You can find us on our website revolutionsperminute.simplecast.com or on twitter @nycRPM
May Day 2020: Atlanta Car Parade & Protest
Every Human is Essential
On May 1, 2020, Metro Atlanta DSA joined with a massive coalition of Atlanta-area unions and activist organizations to put on a car parade and protest against the unacceptable handling of COVID-19 by the Georgia state government.
Protesters’ demands included:
- State-funded paid sick leave for all essential workers
- State-funded hazard pay for all essential workers
- Expanded unemployment benefits
- Expanded medicaid coverage
- Expanded food stamp subsidies
- Moratorium on rent
- Decarceration of jails and ICE detention facilities
The showing was incredible! Upwards of 100 vehicles participated in the caravan.
DSA members erected a mock guillotine along the parade route and in front of the state capitol building. Their signs read, “WE ARE NOT PAWNS FOR YOUR PROFITS.”
“Cars in the caravan all drove by blasting their horns with their fists raised, as did quite a few people who were not demonstrating,” said DSA member Rachel K, who worked closely with other organizers to make the mock guillotine stunt a reality.
More photos from the car parade and protest:
Atlanta’s 2020 May Day demonstration was organized and sponsored by:
- Concerned Members Of ATU Local 732
- United Campus Workers Of Georgia
- Shift Change Atlanta
- Southern Workers Assembly
- National Nurses United
- Black Alliance For Just Immigration
- Community Movement Builders
- Atlanta Industrial Workers Of The World (IWW)
- Metro Atlanta Democratic Socialists Of America
- Science For The People – Atlanta Chapter
- Georgia Detention Watch
- Black Workers For Justice
- Workers World Party
- Georgia Peace And Justice Coalition
- Georgia Workers Alliance
- Housing Justice League
- New Orleans Hospitality Workers Alliance
Get involved with Metro Atlanta DSA
Never forget — the wealthy elites need us more than we need them. Without our labor, they would have nothing. When we stand together, we are unstoppable.
JOIN METRO ATLANTA DSA — SUPPORT OUR WORK
Berkshires DSA STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH ESSENTIAL WORKERS
Berkshires DSA stands in solidarity with the true heroes of our community during the COVID-19 crisis.
While most of us are working from home, furloughed, laid-off or were even unemployed before COVID-19, there are a great many workers who are on the frontline of this crisis supporting the lifelines of our community in the grocery, sanitation, utility and healthcare industries.
Local journalists have investigated concerns at Berkshire Health Systems and shared the struggles of individuals around the county. Stories are percolating through the community about how essential workers: aren’t being effectively protected from the virus (not receiving PPE or being told not to wear it in the case of some grocery workers) and feel unsafe—and they are.
While the Berkshires community has shown gratitude to essential healthcare workers in the area, Berkshires DSA is interested in supporting efforts to thank ALL essential workers, by helping them (and their unions) to demand proper safety equipment, pay adjustment for working in hazardous conditions and a raised level of pay and respect after social distancing.
It’s unacceptable that the richest country in the world doesn’t have the equipment needed to protect the backbone of our nation in a time of crisis. It’s unacceptable that in the wealthiest country, we cannot provide healthcare for all.
Berkshires DSA demands #PeopleOverProfit.
As we look at ways to provide aid to our community and organize with local unions, we ask members of the community to share your story. Send us your story (anonymously if you prefer) about how your employer at a deemed essential business is not protecting you or someone you know from COVID-19, and putting profit over people.E-mail BerkshiresDSA@gmail.com with your stories and we will share them. Let’s speak up. Let’s get loud! Solidarity!
Rent Strike! featuring Marcela Mitaynes
You’re listening to Revolution Per Minute on listener sponsored WBAI in NYC broadcasting at 99.5 FM and streaming on your favorite podcast app. To connect with us after the show you can email us at revolutionsnyc@gmail.com. You can find us on our website revolutionsperminute.simplecast.com or on twitter @nycRPM
Starbucks Workers Organize to Stay Home, Stay Safe and for Continuing Pay
The CVDSA Covid-19 Response Working Group interviewed Scarlett Moore, a barista at Starbucks in downtown Burlington, about how the store is responding to the pandemic and what workers are doing.
In a recent letter to “partners”, Starbucks says it is committed to “ensuring your safety and well-being, supporting our public health and government officials and being in service to our communities.” How has Starbucks lived up it commitments?
When the pandemic broke out in China, Starbucks closed stores and they didn’t have an option not to. When the pandemic came to the United States I think that Starbucks response was so delayed that workers had to take action on their own to demand the types of environments we think are safe to work in. So when Starbucks originally promised store closures and catastrophe pay for 30 days, that was the result of workers organizing, mostly online across many stores, thousands of workers demanding that stores shut down. Starbucks had to respond to that. We certainly benefited from that in Burlington. Starbucks did provide pay (called “catastrophe pay”) when stores closed. There were problems with the way it was calculated, but it has been really helpful to a lot of people.
What about working conditions in your store?
Because of its location in a mall, my store in Burlington closed right away. Other stores like the one in Essex Junction, Vermont with drive-throughs stayed open longer. They did not however provide PPE to workers who were working at the windows within 6 feet of customers, where you still could contract the virus. So, what I heard is that when the rest of the Starbucks closed down, the customer load increased so much that it was impossible to complete recommended measures like washing hands and sanitizing between each transaction because of the level of production workers were being asked to maintain by managers. Eventually, that came to a head, and there weren’t enough people willing to work in those conditions. People won’t work when our lives are lives are on the line for $11/hour.
Workers at your store wrote a letter to management. What were they asking for?
On April 16, when we read the letter from Rossan Williams, the Exec. Vice President of Starbucks U.S., it was like getting whiplash. The letter to us read that we were being pushed back to work in unsafe conditions on threat of losing our jobs, whether or not it was cloaked in compassionate language. So we read that and were immediately concerned that the company was prioritizing its profits over our lives. We knew we had the ability to do something about that, and so we should. We wrote a letter to our manager and to our district manager, which essentially said that we would not be returning to work until the Vermont stay at home order had been lifted. We asked them to extend our catastrophe pay until that point. One of our main concerns is that baristas are not essential workers. Serving coffee is not essential work. There is no socially useful reason we should be asked to return to work. It’s all about restoring the profitability of the store, and that’s just not acceptable. Our lives are worth more than that.
So we wrote a short and sweet letter to management saying that we had made the decision on our own that our store was staying closed, regardless of the priorities of the company.
How did Starbucks respond?
We gave the letter to our manager during a Zoom meeting with our store’s staff. We discussed our concerns about our safety in being asked to return to work. Another concern on the call was that our location was on Church Street, an area of non-essential services largely for upper middle class people, and that by opening the store we were actually encouraging people to step out of their homes during a stay at home order and come to a shopping district. We felt that was not only unsafe for us, but also creating unsafe conditions for the rest of our community as well.
Although the manager said he was proud of us, the letter and our concerns were to the best of our knowledge passed up to the district manager and to upper management. This was something that we were ready for. We did not hear back for another 48 hours. And then a @StarbucksHelp account responded to one of my tweets saying that the store had never intended to open before the stay at home order was lifted. This message was given in individual calls to all the baristas at our location by the district manager and store manager the following morning. A few days after that we had a meeting where management didn’t mention our letter at all, but reiterated that the store was never going to open until the 16th. They told us that because Starbucks serves food, it is an essential service, and that it was their choice to have been closed this whole time.
I would say this type of response is an attempt to gaslight workers and distract us from what we won. Getting an extra 12 paid days off is a real victory that comes out of solidarity and comes out of community. And I think the response we’ve gotten is to convince us that we didn’t win anything by our coming together, and that our action was superfluous and didn’t have a concrete benefit for all of our lives. We know that’s not true. But it is true that my store is staying closed until the stay at home order is lifted, while every other store in the district to the best of my knowledge will be opening up May 6.
What are lessons that you learned?
Everything that happened took place in a very short period of time, about 24 to 36 hours.
It is inspiring to see how store workers could come together in such a short time. We’ve seen an enormous political shift in the last few years, and many of the people I work with are looking at a job market that is really terrifying. The economy seems to be crashing down all around us, and we are having to respond in the best ways that we can. That is always going to be through solidarity in our workplace. This is a feeling that has been building for a long time. Problems always exist in our workplaces. We are asked to work for wages that are lower than what we deserve. Never mind the pandemic, we are put in situations that are unsafe at work. We face sexism, and LGBTQ+ discrimination and racism in the workplace all the time, and we don’t have a company that stands up for us. We learn over time that we have to stand up for each other.
Night School: The Tyranny of Structurelessness
Friday, May 1, 2020 7pm – 9pm,
Join us in a guided conversation about Jo Freeman’s classic essay on organizational structure and how to build successful ones.
Join us online: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88498229836 and please e-mail marindemsoc@gmail.com for the password.
Tyranny of Structurelessness by Jo Freeman.
Working as a carpenter during pandemic
Eugene DSA’s Labor Committee is doing a series of worker profiles, to give a face to the current situation and show how people’s lives are changing. Questions are borrowed from the Working People podcast. Our first interview is with a local carpenter who took a voluntary layoff.
Tell us about what’s been happening with you, your loved ones, your community, your job, your coworkers, your organization, etc.
Here in Oregon many workplaces are participating in the “stay-at-home” order. I work as a carpenter on a big job at the University of Oregon. Construction has been deemed an “essential service” during the self isolation period. I found that it was almost impossible to practice social distancing on the jobsite. There was some effort being made to clean handrails and provide sanitizer, but on a jobsite we have to work in close proximity with others. There are too many situations that make social distancing impossible such as, team lifting, riding an elevator or working in a confined space.
The option was provided to me to take a voluntary lay off. I’m lucky that I was able to take the offer. I don’t think it’s worth risking one’s life to build a new building for a currently closed university.
What challenges have you been facing during all of this (physical, psychological, economic, social, etc)? Are you being forced to work in unsafe conditions? Have you been laid off and trying to get unemployment?
The working conditions were definitely unsafe. In general unless there is an organized pressure from workers to improve the safety nothing will be done about the issue. The general contractor makes concessions towards safety in regards to insurance cost. They say explicitly that they can’t afford workplace injuries. I don’t think they can be held accountable for illness due to a pandemic, so they only address the issue to the extent that there is pressure from the state or a union. There is no place on the job to eat lunch, there’s typically only one or two hand washing stations for hundreds of tradesmen.
I’m lucky in that I am a union member. My insurance is tied to our union fund rather than my employer so I won’t lose my insurance for at least a few months. I’m worried about what could happen after that. I am also worried about my co-workers, most of them are in a much more difficult position than I am. I have a partner that I can be insured through, I have little debt, and no family.
Nearly all of my co-workers have continued to work, no doubt because they have no choice. Their families have always come before their own health and safety. It’s a sad reality of working in construction. It’s one of the most dangerous jobs a person can do.
Furthermore those who are unlucky enough to be without a union are in a much more difficult position. The pay is typically about 30-40% less and most employers provide no insurance at all. Those folks can’t stop work and if they get sick they risk losing everything if they are forced to seek medical care. It’s a truly difficult situation.
Personally I’ve been using my time away from work to do the things that are most important in life. I’ve been working with my local DSA chapter to reach out to others and help. I’m gardening, reading, and fishing. We could all slow down quite a bit and enrich our lives so much. I wish everyone could have that experience. It’s just too bad it takes a crisis to see these things. We all deserve happiness and leisure, it is a human right
What do you think people around the country don’t know/understand about people in your situation? What do you think they need to know?
I am afraid that there are those that will use this issue as another front for the culture wars. I don’t think that everyone takes public health seriously. This will be another situation that will further the class divide in this country. A very few people stand to make a tremendous profit from this crisis. We should all ask ourselves “who’s lining their pockets right now?” because those people are our greatest threat. Most of the media will not hold them accountable. It’s up to us.
What are you, your family, community, coworkers, etc. doing to address these (or other) issues? What do you think needs to be done? Do you have any advice to offer people who are listening who may be in similar situations?
Construction is NOT AN ESSENTIAL INDUSTRY! Unless you are constructing an emergency medical facility there is simply no reason to risk your life for your job. In fact even if you are building an emergency medical facility, it isn’t for you. It’s for a private corporation to profit from your precarious position. If there is one thing I could tell all workers everywhere it’s to get organized! Talk to each other, make plans, make strategies, stand together not apart.
Are there any final words you want to share? Any lessons/thoughts you want to share or emotions you just want to vent?
To all the essential workers out there, we see you, we hear you. If this situation has taught us anything it’s that we are nothing without our grocery clerks, nurses, doctors, growers, pickers, child care providers, janitors, teachers and drivers. We in the building trades should stand in solidarity with them. The long decline of workplace organizing needs to stop right here. Organize for the future!