May 10, 2003

EAST CHICAGO, Ill. – Bruce Gaddy is single. Tony McIntosh is married and has two children. Both live in this working-class suburb, 25 miles south of downtown Chicago. And both are unemployed: Gaddy because his plant closed, McIntosh because he was “down-sized” after working 22 years for AT&T.

WASHINGTON – As civil rights veterans gathered in Birmingham, Ala., May 3-4 to celebrate their victory 40 years ago over Police Chief Bull Connor’s attack dogs and fire hoses, a report released by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights (LCCR) warns that the Bush administration seeks to roll back the gains they went to jail to win.

During these difficult times of war, rising poverty and inequality, and attacks on basic hard-won democratic rights, the independent press – a press independent of the monopoly corporate and far right wing control – is a key part of struggling for a better society.

SAN FRANCISCO — The International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) called on the Bush administration and Congress to adopt policies of peace, as delegates to the 32nd International Convention overwhelmingly passed resolutions against the war in Iraq and in opposition to President Bush’s foreign policy.

Mark Smith, president of the Iowa AFL-CIO, said his federation is not “doing much” when it comes to the 2004 election. “That comes after the AFL-CIO makes its endorsement. But some of our affiliates are busy,” he added, pointing to the May 17 forum organized by the State, County and Municipal Employees.

NEW YORK — It looks like this city and state will be spared the worst of the “doomsday” budget crisis, thanks to the continued fightback of unions and community organizations, but the struggle goes on.

Imagine this. A mother, trying to escape the poverty of her country, comes to the United States with her three-year-old son. He grows up here. Goes to school and does well. In high school he’s in “the Honors Program and take[s] three Advanced Placement classes.”

LAWRENCE, Kansas – People protest war profiteering / CARSON CITY, Nevada – Our state is not a nuclear waste dump / BIRMINGHAM, Alabama – Civil rights ‘foot soldiers’ honored / CHARLESTON, W. Virginia – Stop privatization of Coast Guard

WASHINGTON – Immigrant workers observed May Day with a Capitol Hill rally to demand that Congress grant legal residency to 8.5 million undocumented workers by passing the FREEDOM Act. They then moved downtown to a “Justice for Janitors” rally that turned into a May Day celebration of a contract victory for 4,000 custodial workers here.

CLEVELAND – The battle for affordable healthcare was the central theme of this year’s May Day event here, where, for the second year in a row, the Cleveland AFL-CIO officially observed this historic working-class holiday.