THOUSANDS OF INVISIBLE PICKETS Workers Solidarity Alliance Statement in Support of the Recent and Ongoing Prisoners Strike in Georgia

THOUSANDS OF INVISIBLE PICKETS

Workers Solidarity Alliance Statement in Support of the Recent and Ongoing Prisoners Strike in Georgia

December 13, 2010

We express our utmost support and solidarity to all of the prisoners in Georgia who have been on strike for the past three days, refusing to leave their cells to work or perform any prisoner-related duties assigned them by the prison. The strike is astounding in more than one way, perhaps the most important of which is that it has broken the racial boundaries that structure prisons. Black, white, and hispanic prisoners are uniting together to demand the following:

• A LIVING WAGE FOR WORK: In violation of the 13^th Amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery and involuntary servitude, the DOC [Department of Corrections] demands prisoners work for free.
• EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES: For the great majority of prisoners, the DOC denies all opportunities for education beyond the GED, despite the benefit to both prisoners and society.
• DECENT HEALTH CARE: In violation of the 8^th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments, the DOC denies adequate medical care to prisoners, charges excessive fees for the most minimal care and is responsible for extraordinary pain and suffering.
• AN END TO CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENTS: In further violation of the 8^th Amendment, the DOC is responsible for cruel prisoner punishments for minor infractions of rules.
• DECENT LIVING CONDITIONS: Georgia prisoners are confined in over-crowded, substandard conditions, with little heat in winter and oppressive heat in summer.
• NUTRITIONAL MEALS: Vegetables and fruit are in short supply in DOC facilities while starches and fatty foods are plentiful.
• VOCATIONAL AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITIES: The DOC has stripped its facilities of all opportunities for skills training, self-improvement and proper exercise.
• ACCESS TO FAMILIES: The DOC has disconnected thousands of prisoners from their families by imposing excessive telephone charges and innumerable barriers to visitation.
• JUST PAROLE DECISIONS: The Parole Board capriciously and regularly denies parole to the majority of prisoners despite evidence of eligibility.

In the prisoners own words: “No more slavery. Injustice in one place is injustice to all. Inform your family to support our cause. Lock down for liberty!”

The strike is taking place in at least half a dozen prisons across Georgia, involving thousands of prisoners. There have been reports of Telfair and Macon State prisons sending in tactical squads to brutally assault prisoners, in what can only be described as state terrorism aimed at silencing dissent. We stand in the company of countless others, condemning this brutal policy of repression and violence. We know that this is a strike that threatens the balance of power in the prisons, something that the wardens and guards will not allow.

That is, if the prisoners are left isolated, without public support, without us taking on their call for justice and taking action in solidarity with their struggle.

The prisoners in Macon, Hays, Telfair, Baldwin, Valdosta, and Smith state prisons do not have picket signs we can read, no do they have speeches that can be read out loud to us. We cannot see their faces or hear their voices. They are mostly invisible to us. It is now up to us to break though this wall of invisibility purposely imposed upon us and prisoners, by those who control society and our lives. The right to strike is the right of every exploited person in an exploitive society, prisoner or not. The wardens and guards in Telfair prison tuned off the heat last Thursday night when temperatures reached 30 degrees, in yet another attempt to silence the striking prisoners through dangerous and life-threatening measures. A prison system that first, does not provide adequate health-care, is now turning off the heat in the December cold of Georgia! The message is clear: “YOU DO NOT HAVE RIGHTS, WE CAN AND WILL STOP THIS STRIKE!”

We cannot allow the prisoners’ struggle to be an isolated struggle, it is a fight that needs fighting outside of prisons in order to win. Isolation kills struggles and movements, especially movements that are in firm opposition to the power of an elite class and its institutions, and the practice of those institutions. The Georgia prisoners strike demands our attention, we cannot afford to ignore struggles for human dignity. Every day is a struggle for us to retain some sense of dignity. Capitalist society lives off the dignity plundered from our lives; it exists with the exploitation of its masses for the sake of the few who build their mansions within sight of our prisons. It will exist this way until we destroy it. The working class is the victim of the global crime of Capitalism and State. We labor to build it up, all the while it buries us, quite literally. If we are going to change our society we are going to have to recognize the sources of our oppression. The oppression of the prisoners in Georgia, and all prisoners, is our oppression. Prisons are our oppression, as is the State that requires working class people to build prisons for other working class people. Support the struggle of the striking prisoners: CALL THE PRISONS DEMANDING HANDS OFF THE STRIKERS!

• Macon State Prison is 978-472-3900.
• Hays State Prison is at 706-857-0400
• Telfair State prison is 229-868-7721
• Baldwin State Prison is at 478-445- 5218
• Valdosta State Prison is 229-333-7900
• Smith State Prison is at 912-654-5000
• The Georgia Department of Corrections is at www.dcor.state.ga.us and their phone number is 478-992-5246

The Workers Solidarity Alliance aims to build a working class movement that can challenge this political and social environment, and transform society into one of self-management, where the needs of all its members are met, and none are exploited.

FOR A WORLD WITHOUT BOSSES, BUREAUCRATS OR STATES

workersolidarity.org // ideasandaction.info

Jimmy John’s Workers Union—Here to Stay!

Jimmy John’s Workers Union—Here to Stay!

WE WILL NEVER FORGET: JUSTICE FOR VICTOR STEEN!!!

On October 3, 2009, Jerald Ard of the Pensacola Police Department, killed Victor Steen, a local youth, then planted a gun in his pocket. The rest of Ard's friends in the department were soon on the scene to harass, intimidate, and threaten patrons across the street who witnessed Ard running over Steen, who had fled on his bike. Police threatened to take witnesses cell phones who were using them to videotape the scene across the street. The ones on Ard's team even made it as difficult as possible to see the scene, parking their cruisers to obstruct view.

These tragedies should shock no one. The police are a trained paramilitary army trained and armed by the government, the State, those who enforce laws. Is it a coincidence that the same ones enforcing private property and economic oppression through corrupt laws, would then give the physical means to harm or kill those who step out of line and ignore or break the rules?

This is not an opportunity to exploit Victor Steen's death to advance an idea or a cause, to win over the reader to "radical" ideas. One must look at the relationship between the poor and the police. It is a relationship of intimidation, aggressiveness, and violence. Such has always been the case, and will continue to be so long as the poor remain powerless over our own lives. Jerald Ard would not have been able to kill in a strong and conscious community that asserts its power and autonomy whenever outside forces try to coerce or harm. If we protected our own, and resistance to authoritarian violence and intimidation were never a second thought, we could avoid future deaths like Victors.

NEVER FORGET, NEVER FORGIVE.


ARD PLANTS GUN ON VICTORS BODY:

More local coverage of Nov.14th Publix picket.

From:La Costa Latina Protesta por comida justa El pasado domingo 14 de noviembre hubo una protesta frente al supermercado Publix localizado en la esquina de Bayou Blvd y la Novena Ave. (9th Ave.) en Pensacola. La organización Workers Solidarity Alliance Pensacola y el Proggresive Student Alliance de la Universidad de West Florida se unieron con la Coalición de los Trabajadores de Immokalee (CIV) Campana para Comida Justa. El propósito de la protesta fue el exigir a Publix a prometer ayudar a mejorar las condiciones de trabajo para los labradores e incluir el incremento de un centavo por libra de tomates que ellos compren. Miembros de los dos grupos locales marchaban organizadamente en la congestionada intersección, vociferando “ Abajo con la explotación, arriba con compensación justa! El evento fue parte de un movimiento nacional. Demostraciones similares se llevaron a cabo en Kansas, New York y otras regiones durante lo que el CIV refiere como la Semana de Acción en los Supermercados. “Este Noviembre del 14 al 21, seguidores del CIV le informaran a los almaceneros locales que es tiempo de dar gracias a los labradores de agricultura cuyas miserias ha enriquecido a sus negocios”, tomado de la página de Facebook del CIV. En Octubre, El Museo de Esclavitud Moderna hizo paradas en Pensacola y Tallahassee para demostrar la conexión entre la esclavitud de tiempos pasados y lo presente. También informaron al público sobre las condiciones laborales que existen en la producción de tomates cosechados para la cadena de supermercado, Publix Inc. El museo ambulante hizo un parada en el edificio del U.S States Department y el National Mall en Washington, D.C. Las exhibiciones fueron creadas con la ayuda de labradores que lograron escapar de las granjas donde habían sido esclavizados y con académicos especialistas en esclavitud e historia laboral de la Florida. El museo depende del apoyo que le brindan varias agencias que protegen los derechos humanos y organizaciones anti-exclavidutd incluyendo al Amnesty Internacional y Anti-Esclavitud Internacional.

Protest for “Fair Food” A demonstration was held in front of the Publix grocery store on the corner of Nine Avenue and Bayou Blvd in Pensacola on Sunday, Nov. 14. The Workers Solidarity Alliance Pensacola and the University of West Florida Progressive Student Alliance protested in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIV) Campaign for Fair Food. The picket was intended to demand Publix to pledge help to improve working conditions for farm workers to include an increase of cent per pound for the tomatoes they buy. Members of the two local groups organized to march on the busy intersection, chanting "Down with exploitation! Up with fair compensation!" The event was part of a national movement. Similar demonstrations in Kansas, New York, and other regions during what the CIV refers to as The Supermarket Week of Action. “This November 14-21, CIW allies across the country will be letting their local grocers know that it's time to give thanks to the farm workers whose poverty has driven their profits for years,” is posted on the CIV Facebook web page. In October, the Modern-Day Slavery Museum stopped in Pensacola and in Tallahassee to display the connections between past and present-day slavery. It also addresses labor conditions in the tomato supply chain of Publix Supermarkets, Inc. The visit followed an appearance at the U.S. State Department building and the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Museum exhibits were developed with the help of workers who have escaped from forced labor operations and leading academic authorities on slavery and labor history in Florida. The museum is endorsed by many leading human rights and anti-slavery organizations, including Amnesty International and Anti-Slavery International.

We go where you are! Pensacola WSA and Progressive Student Alliance to picket Grand Opening of Daphne Publix

We go where you are! Pensacola WSA and Progressive Student Alliance to picket Grand Opening of Daphne Publix

Time	Saturday, December 11 · 12:00pm - 2:00pm
Location	Publix 27955 US Hwy. 98 Daphne, AL

Immigrant farmworkers in Immokalee, FL work in the harshest conditions and Publix turns a profit from their exploitation. Farmworkers are still paid by the piece and the rate of wage has not increased since the 1980’s. Farmworkers often work 10-12 hours a day but don’t receive overtime pay. If a farmworker is injured on the job, the worker has to pay out of pocket medical expenses because of a lack of medical coverage. Publix ha...s an opportunity to help improve the wages yet they come up with excuse after excuse about how they don’t get involved in labor disputes. The Workers Solidarity Alliance Pensacola and the U.W.F. Progressive Student Alliance stand in solidarity with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and demands that Publix sit down and negotiate to implement a code of conduct in their supply chain and pay one cent more per pound for tomatoes picked.

Join the Workers Solidarity Alliance and the Progressive Student Alliance in a protest at the grand opening of the new Publix in Daphne, AL on Saturday, December 11 at 12:00 P.M. The address is 27955 US Hwy. 98, Daphne, AL. For more information, contact wsapensacola@gmail.com or psa@uwf.edu

There will be carpooling from Pensacola for the event.

For more information on the CIW campaign, http://www.ciw-online.org/

If you live in the Baldwin County area or the Mobile County area, please forward this to all of your facebook friends and help spread the word.

People of Pensacola picket Publix for farmworker poverty

November 22, 2010

DUSTIN TONEY - The Corsair

November 24, 2010

The Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA) and the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA), a political group based at the University of West Florida, staged a picket Nov. 14 at the Publix Supermarket on 9th Avenue. The picket was organized in conjunction with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) and their Fair Food Campaign.

The CIW is calling on produce suppliers and distributors to agree to a one-cent-per-pound pay raise for tomato farmers in Immokalee, Fla., in addition to a code of conduct which guarantees workers are being treated humanely.

So far, the campaign has reached agreements with leading food retailers, including McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Whole Foods, Compass Group, Aramark and with three Florida tomato growers, including the state’s third largest supplier, East Coast Growers and Packers. As a whole, the CIW has aided the Department of Justice with convicting six slavery operations and the accumulated liberation of over 1,000 workers.

“We decided to put this campaign together to help educate the general public about the reality that slavery continues to happen in this country, particularly to farm workers here in Florida,” said Oscar Otzoy, a member from the CIW. “Unfortunately, even though these abuses we are talking about are well documented and widely known facts and nine different major corporations have signed agreements with us.”

“Publix is refusing to do these very simple things we are asking them to do, despite the fact that they claim to be a good force in the community. We are calling on them to step up and take responsibility for the conditions that farm workers are facing.”

What conditions are the workers facing? In a 2008 report, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported that “poverty among farm workers is more than double that of all wage and salary employees” and considering the additional risks of farm labor from other industrial work, such as exposure to pesticides, inadequate sanitary facilities (despite harvesting food commonly found in the nation’s largest grocery chains) and substandard housing, they, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, “not only lost ground relative to other workers in the private sector, they lost ground absolutely.”

Unlike most professions which are covered under labor laws dating back to the New Deal, farm workers also have no right to overtime pay, no right to employment benefits, and no right to collectively bargain with their employers.

To make matters worse, the average pay rate for a 32-pound bucket of tomatoes is 50 cents. In order to maintain an income equal to minimum wage, over 2.25 tons of tomatoes must be picked in a 10-hour workday by a single worker. The pay rate of farm workers has remained stagnant, if not dwindled heavily in the last five years. The rate for the same work in 1980 would pay 40 cents. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, if this wage had kept up just with inflation, then workers today would be getting paid $1.06 per 32 pounds of tomatoes. If Publix and the CIW come to an agreement, the average pay for the same amount would be 82 cents.

“We want Publix to improve the sub-poverty wages farm workers in Florida currently earn, but we also want them to work together with us to implement a stringent code that gives workers respect and a voice in the agricultural industry which includes zero-tolerance for abuses such as slavery,” said Otzoy.

Though it is certainly not the norm, there have been nine convictions of forced labor in the last 13 years, most of them involving Florida farms. In 2007, employed once by Frank Johns, former Chairman of the Florida Fruit and Vegetable Association, the lobby for Florida’s extremely large agricultural industry, Ronald Evans, was convicted on drug conspiracy and financial re-structuring, amongst other charges, after recruiting then trapping homeless Americans from shelters. At Palatka, Fla., Evans set up a labor camp where he “perpetually indebted” workers with the use of food, alcohol and cocaine, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.

In December 2008, Cesar and Geovanni Navarratee received a 12-year sentence on charges of conspiracy, holding workers in involuntary servitude. The defendants admitted to beating workers, forcing them to work and locking them in trucks to prevent their escape. Some of those enslaved workers labored in fields for Six L’s (based in Immokalee) and Pacific Tomato Growers (based in Palmetto). Publix sustained purchases from these two companies up to a year after the persecutions were made said the CIW.

“Slavery still happens and a lot of human trafficking is involved with this,” said Lee Pryor, organizer of the event and member of the Workers Solidarity Alliance and UWF’s Progressive Student Alliance. “We are attempting to get the student and consumer base to get out into the community to help the struggle. There are a couple of methods locals can use to influence Publix’s decisions. We don’t want consumers to stop buying products, but we want them to support what the CIW is doing and show Publix that they want their company to accept that agreement.”

Publix Media & Community Relations Manager Dwaine Stevens said in an interview, “We don’t get involved with labor disputes, but we do encourage growers and the CIW to come a resolution. There are issues with labor and working conditions in which they CIW has come to resolutions and we applaud those efforts, but we are a retail grocer and it is not our business to get involved with our sppliers’ labor issues.”

Those wanting to help the CIW can send Publix managers letters, send pre-made post cards directly to the CEO of Publix, or join the next picket on Dec. 11. To get this information or for any particular questions e-mail Lee Pryor at Progressive Student Alliance at psa@uwf.edu or visit the Workers Solidarity Alliance website at wsapensacola.com. For more information about the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their campaign, visit ciw-online.org.

ACLU: Coroner’s inquest “smoke and mirrors”

From:Progressive Pensacola

ACLU: Coroner’s inquest “smoke and mirrors”

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida has formally asked State Attorney Bill Eddins to withdraw his request for a coroner’s inquest in the Victor Steen case, and to either make a prosecutorial decision himself or request a special prosecutor be appointed.

Victor Steen, 17, was killed by Pensacola Police officer Jerald Ard in October of last year. While attempting to detain Mr. Steen, Officer Ard struck the teenager with his patrol vehicle. Mr. Steen was pronounced dead at the scene.

Despite the fact that the Florida Department of Law Enforcement performed a lengthy investigation, State Attorney Bill Eddins declined to decide whether or not Officer Ard should be prosecuted. Instead, he has requested a coroner’s inquest, a procedure that the ACLU calls “arcane.” The inquest is currently scheduled for February 25. At the inquest, case material would be presented to a county judge, who would then make a non-binding recommendation to the State Attorney.

“Using an inquest to avoid making a decision about whether to prosecute this case is a waste of time, a waste of money, and is disrespectful to Mr. Steen, who lost his life,” said Benjamin Stevenson, an ACLU of Florida attorney based in Pensacola. “This is an arcane practice that is rarely used elsewhere in the state. This move is political cover — it’s time for the State Attorney to make a decision and not drag this out. This inquest is smoke and mirrors with the intent to fool the public into thinking that an independent and binding review of the facts will occur, when in fact, it will not. With FDLE having investigated this matter for three months, it is doubtful that the State Attorney will learn anything new.

Public sector strike paralyzes Greece

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From:Libcom.org

The 24h public sector general strike supplemented by private sector strikes has brought Greece to a standstill with no airplanes flying in or out the country.

It is the first big strike in Greece since the announcement of the austerity measures by the socialist government last week. And it has managed to bring the country to a standstill: the 24h strike of the public sector under the union umbrella of ADEDY has seen a complete freeze in the following fronts - all civil servants, including tax offices, social security, municipal and county workers; all doctors and nurses (except emergency personnel); all teachers at all school grades and all university teaching staff and personnel; all archeological sites (Acropolis shut); all air traffic control (no flights in or out of the country). Also in the means of mass transport, rolling stoppages of work are being performed in the National Railway System, and the suburban railway system of Athens.

The public sector strike has been further supplemented by strikes in the private sector. PAME the Communist Party umbrella union has called a 24h strike affecting large sections of the private sector, while at the same time several Autonomous unions have call a strike further hampering the private sector. The latter include: the books and printed material workers of Athens and the workers of Wind Telecom. The PAME strike is affecting a big range of private business that cannot be accurately reproduced here but include: Carrefur-Dia workers, elevator maintenance workers and construction builders. It is worth noting that all hydrofoil transport from Peiraeus and Igoumenitsa to the islands has frozen due to the strike.

At the time of writing different demos and strike related protest marches are unfolding in various cities of the country. In Athens, tension built up between protesters and the riot police forces (MAT) when the former tried to break trough police lines with the help of a garbage collecting vehicle (see picture, above).

Lat Monday, in relation to the austerity measures, anarchists broke in the central conference of the industrialists association of north greece on whose panel sat the Minister of National Economy. The protesters held banners against the sold out union bosses and soiled the conference with the help of "rotten-potato bombs" and other foul smelling devices, disrupting its procedures.

Reactions to the austerity measures are expected to augment after the announcement of the new tax scheme and in expectation of the social security reforms, a front that has in the past caused mass and massively dynamic protests in the country

REAL Solidarity, people.

Miami Autonomy and Solidarity - An Unnatural Catastrophe: Solidarity for Haiti - Call for Solidarity and Funds for the Working People of Haiti!

Date Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:09:09 +0200

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Call for Solidarity and Funds for the Working People of Haiti! ---- A natural disaster has descended upon Haiti whose scope we only are seeing the surface of at this time. The Haitian people will be struggling to rebuild their lives and their home possibly for decades in light of unprecedented collapse, both physical and social. Yet despite the unpredictability of earthquakes, this disaster is unnatural, a monstrosity of our time. The extent of the damage of the earthquake is part of the cost of unrestrained exploitation which at every step put profit above the health, safety, and well being of the Haitian people. While the world watches on ready to help, power is being dealt an opportunity. The Haitian workers and peasants have been fighting for their rights to even the most basic level of existence for decades, while the UN-occupying force, the state, and the ruling elites maintain the social misery without relenting. Now as Port-Au-Prince is in rubble, new opportunities arise for rulers to rebuild Haiti in their own interests, and likewise for the Haitian workers and peasants to assert their right to their own Haiti, one where they will be not be forced to live in dangerous buildings, and work merely to fill the pockets of elites, foreign or domestic.

As we move from watching in horror to taking decisive action, progressives can offer an alternative. There is a strong and beautiful desire to do something, to help others in this time of need. Our actions are strongest when we organize ourselves, and make a concerted effort in unity. Right now we can have the deepest impact by committing ourselves to act in solidarity with the autonomous social movements of Haiti directly. They present the best possible option for the Haitian people, and are in the greatest need. At the same time, we are in the best position to help them out our common interest as people engaged in struggling against a system that works to exploit us all. We are calling for solidarity people-to-people engaged in common struggle. It is not only a question of money for AID but also an autonomous and independent act of international solidarity that illuminates the bankruptcy of the occupying forces, multinational corporations, and Haitian elites that are primarily responsible for the decayed state of Haiti. There will be aid flowing and money given as a form of charity until the next disaster. Our act of solidarity should, in no shape or form, be solely an act of humanitarian aid. It should not be an apolitical act, and we shouldn't give the green light to those that wish to capitalize on the suffering of others. It should be an act of solidarity to the struggling people of Haiti and their organizations while at the same time rejecting the totally inept Haitian elites and their state apparatus for bankrupting Haiti. The earthquake is a natural disaster, but the state of Haiti, the abject poverty of the masses and the vile injustice of the social order, are unnatural.

We have a relationship with one organization, Batay Ouvriye, and are putting our resources and time into helping Batay Ouvriye to help rebuild from the catastrophe and maintain the struggle for a better Haiti and a better world. Batay Ouvriye is a combative grassroots worker and peasant's organization in Haiti with workers organized all over Haiti, especially in the Industrial sweatshops and Free Trade Zones. We have set up a means to send money to Batay Ourviye. If others wish to send money to Batay Ouvriye, please email miamiautonomyandsolidarity@yahoo.com

Greetings,

The Batay Ouvriye Haiti Solidarity Network is calling on all Progressives to join us in the aftermath of the Earthquake Disaster to help us organize support for the various Workers'' Unions, Peasant Associations, Toilers' Associations in the Batay Ouvriye Movement in Haiti.

Join us on Saturday January 16, 2010 at 5 P.M. at 963 Rogers Ave, between Beverly Road and Tilden Ave in Brooklyn. The Batay Ouvriye Haiti Solidarity Network has been active and doing solidarity work with Batay Ouvriye for the last decade while its members are experienced activists who have been working in the People's Camp for over thirty years.

We would like to differentiate our orientation for the disaster relief effort from other organizations and imperialist institutions on the ground.

We want to empower the People's Camp to take charge of rebuilding their lives with dignity independently of reactionary and imperialist control.

Mario

For the Batay Ouvriye Haiti Solidarity Network
http://miamiautonomyandsolidarity.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/call-for-solidarity-and-funds-for-the-working-people-of-haiti/


Please forward this to other interested parties. Translations (spanish, kreyol) will be posted when we received it to our website or when we get them done. Here's our statement (joint statement from Miami Autonomy and Solidarity/Batay Ouvriye Haiti Solidarity Network)

Miami Autonomy & Solidarityauthor email miamiautonomyandsolidarity@yahoo.com

Bank Tenants Fight to Stay in Their Homes

From NEFAC Things look bleak for bank tenants, because banks make bigger profits from selling mortgages than from collecting rents on low-income properties. But in New England, people are coming together to confront banks and, in many cases, they are winning. The cost of contested evictions is forcing banks to accede to tenants’ demands to stay in their homes, while the increasing number of bank tenants fighting eviction is developing into a movement. People are turning to each other for solidarity in direct actions to defend their homes and to make their voices heard. Across the country, the foreclosure epidemic is getting worse. As reported online by RealtyTrac, 343,638 homes received foreclosure notices in September 2009, up 29% from last year. Meanwhile, bank repossessions of houses were up as well – by 21 percent. This indicates that banks are taking over foreclosed properties, instead of helping property owners get their mortgages restructured into more manageable debt.

Bank lobbyists have already helped kill legislation meant to enable judges to reduce mortgage payments for families declaring bankruptcy. Now, they’re trying to defeat a proposal for a governmental Financial Protection Agency. The agency’s purpose would be to prevent banks from using deceptive practices to sell mortgages to people who can’t afford them.

But homeowners aren’t the only ones being hurt. Foreclosures are negatively affecting renters as well. Tenants may not know the landlord has fallen behind on mortgage payments, but when banks foreclose on rental properties, tenants are being evicted - even when they are current on their rent. Especially impacted are people in very low income families, and communities of color.

Things look bleak for bank tenants, because banks make bigger profits from selling mortgages than from collecting rents on low-income properties. But in New England, people are coming together to confront banks and, in many cases, they are winning. For example, in Rhode Island, banking interests put forth a bill to undermine tenants rights. Tenants and their supporters, working with the Rhode Island Tenant and Homeowner Association, fought the bill and won.

Banks have been unwilling to negotiate with tenants of foreclosed properties – either to sell them the property at appraised value, or to accept rent. This has left tenants feeling frustrated and angry enough to contest bank evictions. In fact, in Massachusetts, the Suffolk County Housing Court has had to create a new foreclosure division to deal with the flood.

The cost of contested evictions is forcing banks to accede to tenants’ demands to stay in their homes, while the increasing number of bank tenants fighting eviction is developing into a movement. People are turning to each other for solidarity in direct actions to defend their homes and to make their voices heard.

A Boston family, evicted when the bank foreclosed on their landlord, wanted to bring attention to the illogical policy of bank evictions. These evictions cause families to become homeless while leaving the families’ former homes vacant. With help from the Boston Bank Tenants Association, the family occupied another housing unit made empty by foreclosure. This action put pressure on the bank owner to negotiate, and ultimately to sell the property to a non-profit lender that sells and rents to local residents homes that were previously bank-owned.

A bank tenant association is a group of tenants and homeowners facing foreclosure evictions. They come together to help each other fight their cases and build a movement with the power to stop evictions so people can stay in their homes. Bank tenant associations have formed in East Boston, Chelsea, Lynn, Somerville, Providence, and Worcester. Soon to start are groups in Hartford, Brockton, Merrimack Valley, and southern Maine.

In East Boston, tenants in a foreclosed building decided to fight their eviction. Confronting the bank in court, they won $12,500, the right to stay in their apartment at $200 less rent, and all utilities paid by the bank.

In Providence, the Bank Tenant Association, along with two community groups – Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE) and the Olneyville Neighborhood Association (ONA) – came together to fight the eviction of a disabled family. The family had been intimidated, harassed, and offered money to leave by Deutsche Bank. When the Association threatened to physically blockade any attempted eviction, the bank backed down.

Though banks received a $700 billion government bailout last year when they ran into trouble due to deceitful lending practices, the foreclosure crisis continues as a cruel reality for many tenants and homeowners. As long as greedy banks and speculators are able to get rich from the housing market, people will continue to lose their homes and communities will be torn apart. The alternative is for housing, like other basic needs, to be governed by the simple principle of people, not profits.

If you or someone you know is facing foreclosure, do not leave your home! Look for a Bank Tenants
Association in your community. If your community does not have an association, contact the tenant rights organization, City Life/Vida Urbana, at 617-524-3541 or go to www.clvu.org for info on how to get one started.

Freedom #3
NEFAC New England
PO Box 230685 • Boston, MA 02123
newengland@nefac.net
www.nefac.net
617-544-3932

Steen Family Sues City, Police, for $10 Million.

Steen family will seek $10 million

by Derek Cosson January 12, 2010 Join the Discussion

Tags: Ard incident

Steen family attorney Aaron Watson has sent the Pensacola City Manager and Pensacola City Council members a letter informing them that the Steen family intends to seek damages of $10 million in the death of 17-year-old Victor Steen.

Mr. Steen died October 3 when he was struck by the police cruiser of Pensacola Police officer Jerald Ard. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s investigation into the incident recently wrapped up, and State Attorney Bill Eddins is currently considering what, if any, charges Officer Ard will face. Officer Ard remains on restricted desk duty, as he has been since October 13.

The letter states that the City, the Pensacola Police Department, and Officer Ard of “negligently caused Victor Steen’s wrongful and premature death”:

The City and its agents failed to properly screen, supervise, and adequately train police officers, including Officer Ard, regarding investigation, pursuit, and use of Tasers. In addition to, and/or in the alternative to the allegations mentioned above, claimant alleges that Officer Ard exhibited willful, wanton, malicious, and reckless conduct which exceeded the scope of his authority and position so that the sovereign immunity which might otherwise apply to him does not apply.

Download steenclaim3.pdf (PDF, 156.65KB)

The coroner’s inquest into the death of 17-year-old Victor Steen will be held on Thursday, February 25, beginning at 8:30 AM. The inquest will carry o

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The coroner’s inquest into the death of 17-year-old Victor Steen will be held on Thursday, February 25, beginning at 8:30 AM. The inquest will carry over to Friday, February 26 if necessary. The presiding judge will be John Simon.

From:Progressive Pensacola.

Mr. Steen was killed in the early morning hours of October 3 in an altercation with Pensacola Police officer Jerald Ard. Officer Ard claims that Mr. Steen was trespassing on a construction site, and that when he tried to detain Mr. Steen, he fled on bicycle. Officer Ard pursued Mr. Steen with his police cruiser, eventually striking Mr. Steen and dragging him under the vehicle.

The incident spurred the Pensacola Police Department to revise its Taser and vehicle pursuit policies.

The coroner’s inquest process is a public hearing at which the case material will be presented and the presiding judge will deliver a verdict stating whether or not there exists probable cause to believe that the death was the result of a criminal act, criminal negligence, or foul play. The State Attorney is not bound by the judge’s recommendation.

Workers Solidarity Alliance Statement on the 2009 US-Afghan Escalation On December 1, 2009, President Barack Obama announced that he will send tens of thousands of additional troops to Afghanistan, escalating the war in central Asia. Obama claims to want peace while he orders more war and death for poor and working people. He claims that the US fights for freedom and democracy, but he allies himself with tyrannical Afghani warlords. He does this with the backing of both Democrats and Republicans and the corporate interests they serve. None of this is new or unusual for the United States Government and its NATO allies. The only thing “new” is the person issuing the orders today: Obama, the “Candidate of Hope” was elected promising “Change.” Now in office, he delivers more of the same—using the US military to install pro-capitalist governments in countries around the world in order to maintain and expand access to raw materials, cheap labor and consumer markets for Western corporations. Obama and his cohorts have lured many sincere working people into supporting the war in Afghanistan by promises that it will curb terrorist attacks against the US and bring freedom, democracy and women’s rights to Afghanistan. The real facts in Afghanistan show such “humanitarian” concerns to be nothing but lies:

* US/NATO aerial bombardments relentlessly murder thousands of Afghan civilians in their homes, villages and cities; in fact, air bombings in Afghanistan have significantly escalated under President Obama
* US/NATO forces have allied since day one, and remain allied, with the “Northern Alliance” warlords responsible for mass atrocities against civilians in 1992 and who now dominate the corrupt regime in Kabul, through which they secure immunity for their past and present crimes
* Afghani women activists—to whose cause the occupiers pay lip service—have consistently denounced the US-led occupation and puppet regime, demanding that foreign troops leave and calling for prosecution of both Taliban and pro-US war criminals

The escalation of the war is a disaster for the oppressed poor and working people of Afghanistan. As such, the “surge” will inevitably fuel more terrorist attacks against civilians in the US and elsewhere, attacks which elites will then use to justify the far bloodier terrorism of “Western” military powers against cities and villages in the Middle East. US elites will then seek to manipulate workers’ fear of terrorist attacks into support for the so-called “War on Terror,” increased defense spending and decreased funding of education, welfare, healthcare and social services, increased militarization of the domestic police, and increased spying and repression of workers organizations and anti-capitalist political organizations in the United States. All in the guise of “fighting terrorism.”

It is our stance that authentic peace and security can only be achieved through worldwide working-class solidarity against all forms of oppression. The Workers Solidarity Alliance firmly stands with the oppressed people of Afghanistan and with progressive organizations such as the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) and others, who we know are risking their lives at this moment to defy imperialists, warlords and fundamentalists alike. The WSA unequivocally supports the aspirations of all oppressed Afghanis for a free, democratic and peaceful life.

There can be no hope for liberation of Afghanistan by foreign occupiers—only the struggle of oppressed Afghanis and authentic solidarity from struggling people around the world offers any such hope. American workers who wish to stand up for oppressed Afghanis should stand against the war-mongering of “our” government.

It is heartening to see the anti-war movement stirring in the US and internationally against the troop surge in Afghanistan. However, the movement as it stands now suffers grave limitations. It is telling that many liberals and Democrats who have spoken out against the war in Iraq are willing to compromise with the Afghan war. This fact alone speaks to the dire lack of coherent social principles in the broadly defined anti-war movement. Many who criticize it do so (as with Iraq) out of “strategic” or “pragmatic” reasons—that the war is a “mistake” or “cannot be won.” Such reasoning is not anti-war. These reasons imply that the war would be just fine if the US could achieve its aims.

That is but a flip-side argument to those now clamoring for “victory.” On the other hand, in our experience, many in the protest movement seem more concerned to prove their moral righteousness, while neglecting to build an anti-war movement that can actually defeat wars. We find both the “pragmatic” and “moral” arguments against the war unsatisfactory.

The WSA proposes a different orientation for the anti-war movement. As an organization of working-class militants rooted in the traditions of anarcho-syndicalism, libertarian socialism and class struggle, we are convinced that militarism can only be defeated by the rank and file of working people, in common struggle against the class of bureaucrats, politicians and capitalists who profit from the slaughter of war. Only through a mass struggle against all bosses and the overthrow of capitalism and its supporting political structure will war and imperialism ever be definitively ended. While we firmly support anti-war protesters, we know full well that news-grabbing marches by a small crew of professional activists are no substitute for the kind of mass working-class resistance that wreaked havoc on the US war effort in Vietnam: rank-and-file refusal, sabotage and mutiny, social upheaval in the ghettos and working-class communities from which the soldiers are recruited, and so on.

Here we find the Achilles heel of US imperialism. The US military is an army made up of recruits largely from working-class backgrounds. With rampant unemployment and underemployment in precarious service industry jobs, many workers increasingly see military service as their only viable career option. Many immigrants join the US military in exchange for US citizenship, interpreted as a path to a decent job and a better life. Frontline GIs are enlisted largely from working-class neighborhoods, towns and ghettos suffering economic hardship. The rank and file of the US military do not simply enlist because of blind patriotic loyalty to the ruling elite. They often enlist out of the economic hardship inherent for working-class people forced to live under an economic system in which basic necessities such as shelter and health care are treated as luxuries for those who can pay rather then necessities that all people are in need of and have a right to, in a word—capitalism. Already we have seen the first stirrings of resistance in the military’s rank and file, from soldiers who have refused to serve in Iraq. We deeply respect the courage of those soldiers and technicians who have taken a stand against the madness of war, asserting the value of working-class lives. Their brave example serves as the clearest manifestation of the fact that US soldiers do not fight simply out of ideological faith in the objectives of US imperialism.

The anti-war movement, if it is to have a chance at success, must encourage the growing resistance in the lower ranks of capitalism’s armed forces. The rank-and-file soldiers of capitalist empire, recruited from the working class, could turn against the brass to become a true workers’ army dedicated to fighting the real enemy at home: the ruling class of capitalists, politicians and the middle managers who do their bidding.

We pledge our support for rank-and-file soldiers who refuse the orders of their commanders. We extend our support in particular to the Iraq Veterans Against the War, an organized grouping of veterans and active-duty soldiers that seeks to undermine support for imperialist war in Iraq and Afghanistan from within the US military. We also encourage efforts to establish solidarity across battle lines with the rank-and-file of state militaries around the world.

While supporting anti-militarist resistance within the armed forces of the US, NATO, and other imperialist states, we also acknowledge the right of oppressed Afghanis to resist all forms of aggression and despotism at home, whether it be in the form of foreign imperialism or homegrown autocracy. Thus the Workers Solidarity Alliance extends its solidarity to all who struggle to build a truly democratic Afghanistan that respects the humanistic aspirations and needs of all working-class Afghanis, male and female alike. We affirm again our internationalist, anti-authoritarian principles and our solidarity with oppressed and struggling people everywhere.

The Workers Solidarity Alliance
workersolidarity.org

Police murder in Pensacola. WE HAVE NOT FORGOTTEN.

Pensacola Police Department: YOU HAVE BLOOD ON YOUR HANDS.

Victor steen, a 17 year old black male, was killed by pensacola city police officer jerald ard, on october 3, 2009 around 2 am.
Witnesses say they saw ard shoot his taser out of his window at a fleeing steen, who then fell off his bike and was run over and dragged 15 feet by ard.

Thursday,October 23, around 5pm, about 50 understandably pissed off locals met at cervantes and haynes street, and marched to city hall, where a few protesters spoke.
Organizers of the march say they are demonstrating to show opposition to the choice of the pensacola police department's choice to allow ard to return to work, at a desk for the patrol division, while on administrative leave. Whether or not ard will return to his regular job as armed and dangerous killer cop, is yet to bee seen.
Organizers of thursdays protest say to expect more demonstrations if ard is not relieved of all duties while the investigation regarding the incident that resulted in a local youth horribly slain on our streets, and left to die for 3 hours underneath ard's cruiser.

The Pensacola police department has more blood on its hands.
50 is not enough, we all have to make it known that we will not allow our communities to be invaded, harassed, and terrorized by the police.
Make no mistake, Victor Steen is now dead as a direct result of police terrorism.

The police are a force of violence. They exist to protect the property of the powerful at any cost, even if it means spilling blood. The police' origins can be traced back to the days of slavery, where armed bands of white racists formed to keep their slaves "in line", and ward off any rebellion, as well as terrorize black communities.

The police are not on the side of the people, they never have been. It is not a question of a "few bad apples". The entire system is founded on slavery, racism, imperialism, violence, war, and oppression. There is no getting around this. The system is not for the people, it is a weapon to be used against the people.

WE HAVE GOT TO START TAKING BACK THE LAND, TAKING BACK THE WORKPLACES, TAKING BACK OUR NEIGHBORHOODS, AND TAKING BACK OUR LIVES.

Pensacola: DEMAND JUSTICE NOW!!!