Fight Back News Service is circulating the following resolution from AFSCME Local 3800.

This is another heartbreaking day in America. AFSCME 3800 stands in solidarity with the family, friends, and loved ones of George Floyd, with the Black community, and with everyone demanding police accountability and justice.

WHEREAS on May 25, 2020 a white Minneapolis police officer killed 46 year old George Floyd by kneeling on his neck for eight minutes while he pleaded to be allowed to breathe, and

WHEREAS three other police officers assisted in restraining George Floyd while he was being killed, or spewed anti-black and war-on-drugs rhetoric, or stood by and did nothing, and

WHEREAS the Black community repeatedly faces the deaths of loved ones at the hands of the police, and

WHEREAS the core principle of the labor movement – “An Injury to One is An Injury to All” – requires all working people of conscience to take a stand for justice;

THEREFOR BE IT RESOLVED that AFSCME 3800 offers our deepest sympathy to, and stands in solidarity with, the family of George Floyd and the entire community.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that AFSCME 3800 calls for the immediate arrest and vigorous prosecution of Derek Chauvin for the murder of George Floyd. We further call for the immediate arrest and vigorous prosecution of officers Thomas Lane, Tou Thao, and J. Alexander Keung for aiding and abetting the murder of George Floyd.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that AFSCME 3800 calls for an immediate de-escalation by police and an end to police violence against protesters.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that AFSCME 3800 supports President Gabel’s decision to sever the University of Minnesota’s contracts with the MPD and we call upon other institutions to likewise disassociate.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that AFSCME 3800 calls for immediate and ongoing community oversight of the Minneapolis Police Department.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that AFSCME 3800 calls for a thoroughgoing review of law enforcement policies and practices by federal, state, and local authorities, followed by concrete and systemic reforms to ensure that all people in our society are granted equal treatment by law enforcement and criminal justice systems, regardless of the color of their skin.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that AFSCME 3800 calls for an end to systemic racist police terror and the murder of black and brown people in our communities.

BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that AFSCME 3800 will mobilize our members to safely participate in or otherwise support actions called for by those seeking Justice for George Floyd.

White supremacy and systemic oppression must end!

Black Lives Matter!

An injury to one is an injury to all!

Adopted at the May 28, 2020 Membership Meeting

#MinneapolisMN #Labor #OppressedNationalities #PeoplesStruggles #AfricanAmerican #PoliceBrutality #AFSCMELocal3800 #Antiracism #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #MinneapolisUprising

Minneapolis, MN – University of Minnesota AFSCME members confronted soon-to-be-inaugurated University of Minnesota President Joan Gabel at the September 13 Board of Regents meeting in the McNamara Alumni Center.

Steph Taylor, AFSCME 3800 vice-president, said, “We presented over 1000 petition signatures demanding that our contributions should be respected with a contract that includes real wage increases and moves people to the top of the pay scale faster, with no increases to health care costs.”

She added, “President Gabel has met with every employee group but refuses to meet with us while we are in negotiations. The fact is, this is the most important time to meet with us because what we are negotiating dictates our livelihoods – so we are putting ourselves on your agenda.”

Cherrene Horazuk, AFSCME 3800 president said, “The university likes to talk about equity and inclusion, but they refuse to recognize and reward the contributions of the predominantly female clerical workforce. When it comes time for budgeting, the Board of Regents seems content to leave frontline staff behind.”

Next week the university will be hosting inauguration activities and AFSCME will ensure visibility for the workers who do the behind- the-scenes work, every day, that makes the university run.

#MinneapolisMN #PeoplesStruggles #AFSCMELocal3800 #UniversityOfMinnesotaRegents #PublicSectorUnions #StudentsForADemocraticSocietyUOfMN

Minneapolis, MN – The streets were full of working-class solidarity on Saturday, February 23, when well over 100 people, including trade unionists, Latin America solidarity groups and anti-war activists gathered under the banner “U.S. hands off Venezuela!”

The event was part of a global day of action to protest the ongoing U.S.-backed coup attempt against the democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro. Protesters occupied multiple intersections in the high-density Uptown neighborhood of Minneapolis, distributing fliers and speaking with pedestrians about the situation in Venezuela.

The demonstration took place as the coup attempt took a turn closer to an invasion, involving a high-profile attempt to storm the Venezuelan border from Colombia. U.S. and U.K. media spent much of the day highlighting groups seeking Maduro’s overthrow, who claim to bring U.S.-sponsored ‘humanitarian aid’ into Venezuela from Colombia.

In a speech, Gerardo Cajamarca, an organizer with SEIU who is an asylee trade unionist from Colombia, rejected that narrative, saying, “Right now what is happening on the border of Colombia and Venezuela is coordinated by an interventionist group. It is very important that you, as United States citizens, tell your government not to go forward with this intervention. Latin Americans have the right to choose autonomy, to choose solidarity, to choose our own economic system.”

In recent weeks, the International Red Cross and the United Nations had refused to participate in the U.S. plan to storm the Venezuelan border with so-called ‘aid.’ Both organizations explicitly rejected the ‘humanitarian’ label for the plan touted by U.S. officials, instead calling it politicized and concealing military objectives.

At the Minneapolis event, Cajamarca also noted the hypocrisy of Colombian President Ivan Duque’s invocation of ‘humanitarian aid’ as cover for the coup attempt in Venezuela. “Yes, there is humanitarian need; yes, there is genocide – in Colombia!” he said. “They are murdering social leaders every day in Colombia. Corporations like Coca-Cola and Chiquita sponsor paramilitary groups. This is a model that is linked with narco-trafficking and with corporate power.”

“Using aid as a political weapon is nothing new,” stated April Knutson of Haiti Justice Committee of Minnesota. “In fact, there is an organization that is very much involved in the Venezuela situation right now called USAID. And they are an arm of the U.S. government, the U.S. military, and the CIA. They are often involved in regime change around the world, and in the Caribbean, and in Central America and South America. In fact, they toppled the democratically elected president of Haiti twice. President [Jean-Bertrand] Aristide was toppled by the CIA and USAID.”

Stephanie Taylor, vice president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 3800, said, “As workers in the United States we are here today to stand with you all and oppose any U.S. intervention in Venezuela. First, because we know the brutal history of U.S. intervention and colonialism in Latin America. It has propped up dictators, overthrown democratically-elected leaders, illegally funneled drug money and weapons into war-torn regions, and trained death squads and despots at the U.S. School of the Americas. Second, because Maduro, a former unionized bus driver and union activist, is carrying forward Hugo Chavez’s intentions of putting the working class at the steering wheel of governing the country.”

On February 19, AFSCME Local 3800 passed a resolution to denounce any U.S. sanctions, support for a coup, or other interference in Venezuela, mirroring similar moves by labor groups around the country and the world, including the San Francisco Labor Council, U.S. Labor Against the War, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Canadian Labor Congress, and the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU).

The anti-war movement was out in force as well. “We must dispel State Department lies about Venezuela,” said CJ McCormick of the Anti-War Committee. “Maduro's election was fair until the United States saw a window for intervention. It's the U.S. that installs dictators, not the Bolivarian Revolution, and no country which has suffered U.S. regime change has ever become more democratic. It's the CIA's playbook to falsely claim a foreign leader is un-democratic in order to justify invasion.” McCormick added, “And this isn't even about democracy. It's about oil!”

The action was organized by the Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and endorsed by a long list of progressive groups.

The coalition plans to hold an emergency response protest if the U.S. sends in troops. In the meantime, the next protest has been called for by the MN Anti-War Committee for March 15 at 5:30 p.m. in front of Senator Amy Klobuchar’s office, 1200 S. Washington Avenue in Minneapolis, to draw attention to that presidential candidate’s support for the Trump administration’s coordination of the coup in Venezuela.

#MinneapolisMN #AntiwarMovement #Labor #Venezuela #US #Americas #PeoplesStruggles #SEIU #AFSCMELocal3800 #MinnesotaPeaceActionCoalitionMPAC #DonaldTrump #HandsOffVenezuela

Minneapolis, MN – About 100 members of Teamsters Local 320, AFSCME Local 3800, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and others rallied Sept. 8 on the University of Minnesota campus at the McNamara building to demand decent contracts for the university workers’ unions.

After the rally, workers marched into a press event that included university President Eric Kahler; the chair of the Board of Regents, university mascot Goldy Gopher, and numerous cheerleaders. Mick Kelly, a member of the Teamster Local 320 negotiating team, led workers marching into the university event with the chant, “What do we what? Decent contract! When to do we want it? Now!”

University officials we visibly shaken by the protest.

Speaking at the rally, Cherrene Horazuk, president of AFSCME 3800, stated that university workers would not be driven into poverty.

Mick Kelly of Teamsters Local 320 told the crowd, “We need to be serious. In the weeks, ahead it is not what we say that counts, it is what we do.”

#MinneapolisMN #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #Teamsters #UniversityOfMinnesota #AFSCMELocal3800 #TeamstersLocal320

Minneapolis, MN – About 150 members of AFSCME Local 3800, the union that represents clerical workers at the University of Minnesota, came together June 16 for a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the union’s founding. Early organizers of the union, past and present leaders, retirees, members other campus unions and Students for Democratic Society participated in the event.

AFSCME 3800 is well known in the Twin Cities trade union movement for the determined fights, including two strikes, that it has waged with the employer and the solidarity it has demonstrated with other labor struggles.

Cherrene Horazuk, the president of AFSCME 3800 told the crowd, “Stand up and fight. We won’t always win. But if we do not fight, we will surely lose.”

Horazuk urged people to join the picket lines of the nearly 5000 nurses who are planning to strike area hospitals June 19.

#MinneapolisMN #AFSCMELocal3800