ckaihatsu
23rd June 2016, 14:24
Help support the final session of the Southern Workers School!
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SWA Southern Workers School final session set for August 5 - 7: Help make it happen (http://southernworker.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=552d3a984b02de482ee7d0a6b&id=9853e59466&e=48ada11f89)!
In March, upwards of 80 workers from 10 states and over 30 workplaces came together in Raleigh, NC for the first session of the Southern Workers School, organized by the Southern Workers Assembly. They included longshore workers from Charleston, SC; hospital workers from El Paso, Texas; diesel engine parts manufacturing workers from Rocky Mount, NC; state mental health workers from Petersburg, VA; farm workers, union organizing committees and social movement activists.
Since then, school participants have convened via teleconference calls every 2 weeks for sessions covering a number of historical lessons from the workers movement in the South, practical on the job organizing skills and experiences, and much more.
The Southern Workers Assembly (SWA) is a growing rank-and-file labor network of local unions, worker organizations and activists with support of allies committed to building a social movement to organize labor in the US South has been organizing itself since 2012. The Southern Workers School is an integral component of continuing to develop and consolidate this perspective and organization across the South.
The Southern Workers School will convene its final session in person in Raleigh, NC from August 5 - 7 -- and we need your help to make it happen! Please make an urgently needed donation today to help cover the many costs associated with hosting this gathering! (http://southernworker.us7.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=552d3a984b02de482ee7d0a6b&id=6c519eddd2&e=48ada11f89)
Organize the South! Build worker power!
Make a donation to support the Southern Workers School! (http://southernworker.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=552d3a984b02de482ee7d0a6b&id=ccfbd452b0&e=48ada11f89)
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Black Workers For Justice Statement on the Orlando Massacre
The Black Workers for Justice is outraged and saddened by the brutal attack on the patrons of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. We extend our condolences to the families of those killed, and hope for healing and a speedy recovery of the wounded. We stand in strong solidarity with the LGBTQ community. While we don’t know why the shooter picked Saturday night for his heinous crime, it was a Latin Night and as such many in the club were Latinx. We extend our solidarity to that community as well.
This outrageous homophobic attack did not happen in a vacuum. The creation of hateful and anti-democratic legislation like North Carolina’s HB2 and similar laws passed or proposed in other states and the poisonous rhetoric used by its proponents is the toxic environment in which this reprehensible act took place.
As one of our members has said, we are living in the intersection of homophobia, religious extremism and Islamophobia. The attacks on the LGBTQ community are both physical and policy based. Extremism masked by religion is subjecting millions of true believers to unimaginable horrors of violence. It is anti-democratic, patriarchal, racist and fascist. However, this unspeakable violence cannot be separated from the continuous violence caused by the US direct and supported violence of wars and military invasions throughout the Middle East and Africa to dismantle governments and for regime change. All of this, at the end of the day is in the service of US and European Imperialism. To be clear, this extremism is not restricted to Islam.
Islamophobia is an irrational hatred of Muslims based on the actions of religious extremists and is racialized to target Brown and Black people from the Middle East, South Asia, the US and Africa.
Capitalism and white supremacy undergirds these ideologies. Capitalism in crisis and decline uses them to try to maintain the status quo while its benefactors continue to enrich themselves creating even more destitution for workers with austerity budgets, privatization and a reduction in wages. They continue to trample on Black workers and other workers of color with scandalous levels of structural unemployment, mass incarceration, including the school to prison pipeline, and rampant and unpunished brutality and murder of Black people by the police and other state sanctioned actors.
Fighting back is the only answer as demonstrated by Verizon workers who waged a courageous strike and won. Similarly, public employees in Durham with the aid of the community and progressive elected officials conducted an extended campaign for a Living Wage and won. The workplace struggles and the struggles against homophobia and Islamophobia have to be linked and joined with the Movement for Black Lives, and the various Moral Monday type efforts across the country.
We all must become hyper vigilant as we have argued before and protect each other with security measures designed to defend against a variety of attacks. The relative comfort and safety of our churches, mosques and gay clubs cannot be taken for granted in this environment. From Stonewall to Pulse, from the 16 Street Baptist Church to Emmanuel AME Church we must defend ourselves and openly and vigorously oppose the hatred that drives these attacks.
The Black liberation movement is critical to the larger fightback against working class exploitation, national, women’s and LGBTQ oppression. A Manifesto for Black liberation can help to unite our many battlefronts and mobilize mass based and transformative power against these conditions.
Copyright © 2016 Southern Workers Assembly, All rights reserved.
You either attended an event hosted by the Southern Workers Assembly or have signed one of our online petitions.
Our mailing address is:
Southern Workers Assembly
PO Box 934
Rocky Mount, NC 27802
Add us to your address book
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You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list
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https://gallery.mailchimp.com/552d3a984b02de482ee7d0a6b/images/bd30208b-7885-4ebf-8d9e-ae94cae6c2a7.jpg
SWA Southern Workers School final session set for August 5 - 7: Help make it happen (http://southernworker.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=552d3a984b02de482ee7d0a6b&id=9853e59466&e=48ada11f89)!
In March, upwards of 80 workers from 10 states and over 30 workplaces came together in Raleigh, NC for the first session of the Southern Workers School, organized by the Southern Workers Assembly. They included longshore workers from Charleston, SC; hospital workers from El Paso, Texas; diesel engine parts manufacturing workers from Rocky Mount, NC; state mental health workers from Petersburg, VA; farm workers, union organizing committees and social movement activists.
Since then, school participants have convened via teleconference calls every 2 weeks for sessions covering a number of historical lessons from the workers movement in the South, practical on the job organizing skills and experiences, and much more.
The Southern Workers Assembly (SWA) is a growing rank-and-file labor network of local unions, worker organizations and activists with support of allies committed to building a social movement to organize labor in the US South has been organizing itself since 2012. The Southern Workers School is an integral component of continuing to develop and consolidate this perspective and organization across the South.
The Southern Workers School will convene its final session in person in Raleigh, NC from August 5 - 7 -- and we need your help to make it happen! Please make an urgently needed donation today to help cover the many costs associated with hosting this gathering! (http://southernworker.us7.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=552d3a984b02de482ee7d0a6b&id=6c519eddd2&e=48ada11f89)
Organize the South! Build worker power!
Make a donation to support the Southern Workers School! (http://southernworker.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=552d3a984b02de482ee7d0a6b&id=ccfbd452b0&e=48ada11f89)
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/552d3a984b02de482ee7d0a6b/images/62c36725-7789-4363-a6e2-59e4b32620a2.jpg https://gallery.mailchimp.com/552d3a984b02de482ee7d0a6b/images/cda8e957-eb09-4300-b5bd-d93d2baae859.jpg
Black Workers For Justice Statement on the Orlando Massacre
The Black Workers for Justice is outraged and saddened by the brutal attack on the patrons of the Pulse nightclub in Orlando, Florida. We extend our condolences to the families of those killed, and hope for healing and a speedy recovery of the wounded. We stand in strong solidarity with the LGBTQ community. While we don’t know why the shooter picked Saturday night for his heinous crime, it was a Latin Night and as such many in the club were Latinx. We extend our solidarity to that community as well.
This outrageous homophobic attack did not happen in a vacuum. The creation of hateful and anti-democratic legislation like North Carolina’s HB2 and similar laws passed or proposed in other states and the poisonous rhetoric used by its proponents is the toxic environment in which this reprehensible act took place.
As one of our members has said, we are living in the intersection of homophobia, religious extremism and Islamophobia. The attacks on the LGBTQ community are both physical and policy based. Extremism masked by religion is subjecting millions of true believers to unimaginable horrors of violence. It is anti-democratic, patriarchal, racist and fascist. However, this unspeakable violence cannot be separated from the continuous violence caused by the US direct and supported violence of wars and military invasions throughout the Middle East and Africa to dismantle governments and for regime change. All of this, at the end of the day is in the service of US and European Imperialism. To be clear, this extremism is not restricted to Islam.
Islamophobia is an irrational hatred of Muslims based on the actions of religious extremists and is racialized to target Brown and Black people from the Middle East, South Asia, the US and Africa.
Capitalism and white supremacy undergirds these ideologies. Capitalism in crisis and decline uses them to try to maintain the status quo while its benefactors continue to enrich themselves creating even more destitution for workers with austerity budgets, privatization and a reduction in wages. They continue to trample on Black workers and other workers of color with scandalous levels of structural unemployment, mass incarceration, including the school to prison pipeline, and rampant and unpunished brutality and murder of Black people by the police and other state sanctioned actors.
Fighting back is the only answer as demonstrated by Verizon workers who waged a courageous strike and won. Similarly, public employees in Durham with the aid of the community and progressive elected officials conducted an extended campaign for a Living Wage and won. The workplace struggles and the struggles against homophobia and Islamophobia have to be linked and joined with the Movement for Black Lives, and the various Moral Monday type efforts across the country.
We all must become hyper vigilant as we have argued before and protect each other with security measures designed to defend against a variety of attacks. The relative comfort and safety of our churches, mosques and gay clubs cannot be taken for granted in this environment. From Stonewall to Pulse, from the 16 Street Baptist Church to Emmanuel AME Church we must defend ourselves and openly and vigorously oppose the hatred that drives these attacks.
The Black liberation movement is critical to the larger fightback against working class exploitation, national, women’s and LGBTQ oppression. A Manifesto for Black liberation can help to unite our many battlefronts and mobilize mass based and transformative power against these conditions.
Copyright © 2016 Southern Workers Assembly, All rights reserved.
You either attended an event hosted by the Southern Workers Assembly or have signed one of our online petitions.
Our mailing address is:
Southern Workers Assembly
PO Box 934
Rocky Mount, NC 27802
Add us to your address book
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list
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