Dec. 16, 2006

WASHINGTON — “Union power’s on the rise, now’s the time to organize!”
More than 1,000 union members took up that chant as they marched to Capitol Hill, Dec. 8, still riding high from labor’s huge victory in the Nov. 7 midterm elections.

Veterans and military families are planning dramatic actions in the nation’s capital in late January to appeal to ordinary Americans to speak out for an end to the Iraq war.

CHICAGO — The Illinois Legislature wasted no time heeding the national voters’ mandate, overwhelmingly passing a bill to raise the state’s minimum wage from $6.50 an hour to $7.50 effective next July. The bill, which Gov. Rod Blagojevich said he looks forward to signing, will make the Illinois minimum wage one of the nation’s highest.

The United Steelworkers union has announced a massive solidarity campaign to support the 15,000 striking Goodyear workers and their families. The campaign begins with a National Day of Action Dec. 16, with 100 demonstrations in 100 cities at Goodyear facilities across the nation.

OAKLAND, Calif. — In a midnight action Dec. 5, Oakland’s City Council responded to a wave of community opposition by referring a controversial measure for more apartment-to-condominium conversions for further study.

SACRAMENTO, Calif.: Two labor victories
Chicago: The right to be warm
CLEVELAND: Kucinich to run for president
WASHINGTON: Green light for police brutality
NORTH POLE: Votes pour in for Claus ‘naughty’ list

The symposium “James and Esther Jackson, the American Left and the Origins of the Modern Civil Rights Movement” at the Tamiment Library of New York University on Oct. 28 was an event of singular enlightenment and emotional impact.

CLEVELAND — “Just look at how far we’ve come in just three years,” remarked Gene Bruskin, co-convener of U.S. Labor Against the War, to hundreds of union representatives at the opening of the group’s annual conference here Dec. 1.

LISBON, Portugal — Joy over a string of election victories in Latin America and the U.S. was mixed with deep concern over the bloodletting in the Middle East when representatives of 64 communist and workers’ parties met here Nov. 10-12.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — “You can get a phone call with a recorded message in a broken Arabic language … ‘Evacuate your house, we are coming to destroy it,’” said Mohammed Omer.