Mar 26, 2005

The California Alliance for Retired Americans (CARA) campaign to maximize strong opposition to the Bush administration’s proposals of privatized Social Security accounts is picking up steam. The group, working with its 105 labor and community affiliates, is organizing 12 town hall meetings throughout the state during March and April focused on convincing congresspersons to sign the AFL-CIO pledge to defend the system.

Hundreds protest California Gov. Arnold Schwarzennegger’s proposed cuts in education and public services.

Celebrations of the life and work of the great Mexican American labor and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez, founder of the United Farm Workers of America (UFW), are being held throughout the country between now and April 3.

NEW YORK — Gerry Adams, member of parliament from Northern Ireland and the president of Sinn Fein, the political party of the Irish republican movement, addressed a capacity crowd of trade unionists and guests at a local union hall here March 14. Having been escorted into the hall by the kilted pipers of Transit Workers Union Local 100’s “Transit Pride” band, Adams was greeted by a thunderous ovation.

Coming on the heels of his nomination of extreme right-winger John Bolton as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, President Bush has delivered another slap in the face to the international community with the appointment of Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank.

The U.S. ban on travel to Cuba has become a focus for people of all shades of opinion working to reverse U.S. policy toward Cuba. Announcements are now out for a conference and several trips this year are planned as direct challenges to the travel restrictions.

On March 21 the Israeli government confirmed its approval of plans to build 3,500 new housing units in two new neighborhoods in Ma’ale Adumim, an illegal West Bank settlement. The construction would significantly expand the settlement toward the northeast and around east Jerusalem, a move that will tighten the Israeli stranglehold on Jerusalem and its Palestinian residents even further.

Japan: Peace committee says, ban the Marines. Colombia: Reveal plot to kill unionists. Tanzania: Teachers need respect, support. Britain: Union wins historic equal pay award. Afghanistan: Bitter winter kills children.

With slavery less than two decades behind them, thousands of African American home laundry workers went on strike for higher wages, respect for their work and control over how their work was organized. In the summer of 1881, the home laundry workers took on Atlanta’s business and political establishment, and gained so much support that they threatened to call a general strike, which would have shut the city down.

“First there was the working lunch, then the working vacation. Now, thanks to George Bush, we are threatened with the working retirement.” That’s the opening of a dramatic new television ad from Moveon.org, opposing the administration’s plans to cut future Social Security benefits by up to 46 percent. You can see the ad at www.moveon.org. It shows senior citizens loading industrial washing machines, carrying heavy cartons, mopping floors in a hospital, and cleaning up a construction site. You can also see the reality in communities across the country.