New Orleans, LA — On February 24, students from the Black Students Resistance Network (BSRN), a Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) affiliate at Xavier University of Louisiana, organized a panel of activists from around the New Orleans area to discuss how and why students should fight for progressive policies on their campuses and in their communities.

The panel featured speakers from BSRN, the Freedom Road Socialist Organization, the NAACP, Students for a Democratic Society, and a political opinion blog, The Daily Salad.

Central to the discussion was the question of “Why do we protest?”

“One of the reasons we hold these direct actions is because that is how people learn about these struggles and how we keep attention on these issues,” said Rosalina Framboise, a student activist at Loyola University. She invoked the story of the Black Panther Huey P. Newton putting up a stop sign in a community when the government refused to, and concluded by saying, “I think that is what our job is as organizers. If campus administration, or the government, or anyone else is not going to properly advocate the needs of the students or the community, it is our job to get together and do that ourselves.”

Among the other questions posed to the panelists was a question as to how people should respond to the idea Black people should “sit back,” as opposed to engaging in political organizing, because it “isn’t [their] fight.”

Aniya Grisham of BSRN responded, “Just because we can ‘sit at the front of the bus’ now doesn’t mean that it’s all sunshine and rainbows.” She added, “Black people are the most incarcerated people in the country, the least educated.” Grisham emphasized that the work of Black liberation is not done and that it is up to the people to continue fighting.

Overall, the event was a strong opportunity for Xavier students to discuss their thoughts with local student activists and learn more about how to get organized.

#NewOrleansLA #LA #StudentMovement #OppressedNationalities #AfricanAmerican #BSRN #SDS #FRSO #NAACP

Baton Rouge, LA – On July 28, around 20 community members gathered in a local hair salon to hold a vigil for Sonya Massey, a Black woman who was wrongfully killed by state of Illinois Deputy Sean Grayson. The vigil took place five days after the release of body cam footage by Illinois police. The goal of the event was to link the killing of Sonya Massey to the killing of Alton Sterling by Baton Rouge police almost exactly eight years ago. Participants called for an end to the ongoing police brutality that plagues Louisiana.

The vigil provided space for attendees to discuss their feelings and reactions to the killing. One attendee felt that deputy Sean Grayson “baited” Massey in order to kill her. Laramie Griffin, an organizer with Evolve, pointed out that the officer who killed Massey had his body camera off and was only recorded because the other deputy had left his turned on. Most of the conversation focused on changes that would be necessary to end the killings.

“What needs to happen is that police are held accountable when they turn the body cameras off,” commented a representative of the Nation of Islam.

Laramie Griffin of Evolve says that his organization’s immediate demands are for Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The organization calls for the shutdown of the “brave cave” building, the location of a Baton Rouge Police Department black-site and torture warehouse. Evolve also demands that police agencies no longer be allowed to turn off body-worn cameras at any time during a shift, and for footage to be released to the public within 72 hours of any incident.

Griffin also noted that reforms passed after the killing of Alton Sterling, like Louisiana Act 272, may have saved Massey’s life if they were law in Illinois. This 2017 Louisiana law expanded the grounds for police decertification.

The event was hosted by Victory Over Louisiana Violence (Evolve) and the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and was well represented by local groups, including Not Your Past Ministry, New Orleans for Community Oversight of the Police, the Baton Rouge NAACP, and a local Black gun rights organization all attended.

The vigil ended with a hopeful tone, playing a music video of the song change, dedicated to Sonya by Shreveport musician RayDaYungin.

#BatonRougeLA #SonyaMassey #Evolve #NOCOP #PSL #NotYourPastMinistry #NAACP

Atlanta, GA – The family of Christon Collins, a 27-year-old veteran who died in Dekalb County Jail, held a press conference on Monday morning, July 22, to share new information about their son’s death.

Jonia Milburn, Collins’s mother, says she got mixed and confusing stories from the sheriff’s office. The family is asking for an independent investigation and for those responsible to be held accountable.

Emotions filled the room as Jonia Milburn talked about what she saw in the video of her son’s last moments in the jail. “My son laid on the floor for three hours with no care. Nobody noticed. No guards, no supervisors, no one but the inmates.” Milburn says the video shows her son losing balance and hitting his head, then lying on the floor for three hours in the common area of the jail with no one checking on him but the inmates. Documents shared by the family show that when Collins was finally attended to hours later, EMTs did not perform life-saving measures on him.

Christon Collins was a veteran with PTSD and had severe mental health issues. He was sent to the Dekalb County Jail after having an episode and was placed on the maximum security floor. “He needed to go to the hospital, not the jail,” his mother says. Collins ’s family had been trying to get him sent to the VA hospital instead of the jail for months before his death. The VA accepted, but the sheriff’s office refused to transport him until after he died in jail. Collins had not been sentenced.

Collins’s family shared their frustration with the lack of transparency from the sheriff’s office. Milburn says the coroner’s office kept her son’s brain and spleen without her knowledge, which she only found out in an independent autopsy afterward. The independent autopsy also showed no drugs in Christon’s system, which contradicts the Dekalb County coroner’s office toxicology report. The family says the jail gave them some documents for the wrong inmate, which only added to their confusion and frustration. Milburn stated she wants change “for all the other Christons suffering in there.”

There were over 30 deaths in Fulton and Dekalb County jails in the past year due to neglect and deadly conditions. Inmates can be heard yelling for help through broken windows in Dekalb County Jail. Current and former Inmates speak of overcrowding, no running water, medical neglect, and unsanitary conditions. These inhumane conditions are in a county jail where most inmates have not been convicted of a crime. The working-class Black residents of Dekalb County are most affected by the deadly jail. While Black residents make up about 50% of Dekalb County, Black inmates make up over 80% of the jail population. Nearly all inmates who died in Dekalb County Jail since 2022 were Black. This is a symptom of over policing of Black communities and racist mass incarceration.

The Dekalb County NAACP, the Atlanta Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, and New Order Human Rights Organization attended the press conference and vowed to keep fighting for transparency and accountability from the sheriff’s office.

#AtlantaGA #GA #InJusticeSystem #DekalbCountyJail #NAARPR #AAARPR #NAACP #feature

“We will not tolerate abuse of children at the hands of MOA security or members of law enforcement. What happened to the child in question was completely unwarranted, unnecessary and traumatic. The security personnel in question must be held accountable for their abuse of a child,” said Nekima Levy-Pounds, President of the Minneapolis NAACP.

“These egregious actions on the part of MOA security must be taken seriously. We must raise the question of whether MOA security is engaging in retaliatory action against Black youths in the aftermath of the recent Black Lives Matter demonstration at MOA. The officers who engaged in abusive behavior of a child must be held accountable,” said Pastor Danny Givens, clergy liaison to Black Lives Matter Minneapolis, and member of Black Clergy United for Change.

The Minneapolis NAACP is calling on MOA management to fire the security officers who were involved in this unwarranted, violent attack on a 14-year-old girl; to issue a public apology to the family of the victim; to conduct racial sensitivity training and de-escalation training to prevent violent encounters as MOA security and Bloomington police interact with MOA visitors, especially children.

#MinneapolisMN #NAACP #AfricanAmerican #Antiracism #MallOfAmerica

Tallahassee, FL – More than 200 people from Jacksonville, Orlando and Miami met at the steps of The Old Capitol in Tallahassee for Florida’s first Moral Monday rally, March 3. The NAACP organized the rally and was joined by other coalition members. Protesters discussed a people’s agenda for the next 60 days of the Florida legislative session, which began on March 4.

The rally was modeled after the giant Moral Monday rallies in North Carolina. Moral Mondays are a response to the North Carolina General Assembly’s extreme right-wing attacks on working people, women, immigrants and African Americans. Facing the Florida legislature's equally extreme right-wing politicians and Republican Governor Rick Scott, protesters demanded a state government committed to justice for working and oppressed people.

Protesters united behind the demands for affordable health care and Medicaid expansion, ex-felon rights restoration, jobs, public education, voting rights and an end to Governor Scott's infamous voter purges.

Out of all the demands spoken about during the rally, higher wages, ending Stand Your Ground laws, and freedom for 33-year-old African American mother Marissa Alexander received the most enthusiasm from the crowd. Alexander, a resident of Jacksonville, received a 20-year prison sentence for firing a warning shot to fend off her abusive husband in 2012. She has a new trial scheduled for July 2014 and progressive activists across the country are mobilizing to demand her freedom. However, Florida State Attorney Corey is now seeking a 60-year sentence for Marissa Alexander. Corey is the same Florida prosecutor who notoriously flubbed the murder trials of the men who separately killed Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis.

The crowd heard from many speakers and groups, including Reverend William Barber of the North Carolina Moral Monday rallies, the NAACP, the Florida AFL-CIO, Planned Parenthood and progressive churches, mosques and synagogues.

Congresswoman Corrine Brown also addressed the crowd, “The truth is when we are in politics, we only have two choices: one is the low road to destruction, and the other is the pathway to higher ground.” Invoking Dr. Martin Luther King, Barber stated, “I'm reminded that the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

Bearing signs that read, “We march to end racial profiling” and “We march for jobs and freedom,” the crowd chanted on the steps of the Capitol for more than four hours. Energy remained high for the entire event as activists from across Florida discussed future efforts to fight the state politicians’ right-wing policies.

#TallahasseeFL #OppressedNationalities #NAACP #AfricanAmerican #Antiracism #MoralMonday

Chapel Hill, NC – A diverse group of over 120 students braved heavy rains to rally on UNC Chapel Hill's campus, Sept. 21, in protest of the scheduled execution of [Troy Davis](/tags/troy-davis). The students held signs saying “I am Troy Davis”, “Stop the execution”, and “Abolish the death penalty”.

The demonstration had a large turnout despite being organized in just under a day, and featured speakers from [Black Student Movement](/tags/black-student-movement), [Students for a Democratic Society](/tags/students-democratic-society), the [NAACP](tags/naacp), and other student organizations. Students chanted “We want justice for Troy Davis!” and sang civil rights songs such as “We shall not be moved”.

Rev. Curtis Gatewood of the NAACP spoke last, giving a powerful speech punctuated by students chanting “Too much doubt!”. “We need to turn this into a movement against the racist and classist death penalty,” said Rev. Gatewood.

Gatewood also reminded protesters of the parallels to [Darryl Hunt](https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Darryl_Hunt), a North Carolina man who spent two decades on death row for a crime he did not commit. Hunt is now a prominent North Carolina advocate with the Innocence Project working to abolish the death penalty.

Despite the overwhelming odds against Davis, the protesters vowed to continue the fight for justice and civil rights.

#ChapelHillNC #StudentsForADemocraticSociety #NAACP #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #TroyDavis #BlackStudentMovement #UNCChapelHill #ReverendCurtisGatewood

Raleigh, NC – Over 4000 people marched in downtown Raleigh on Feb. 12 for the 5th annual Historic Thousands on Jones Street (HKonJ) protest, organized by the NAACP and the HKonJ Coalition, which is composed of 107 civil rights, religious and social justice organizations. Buses and caravans converged from across the state of North Carolina for the annual protest which centers on a 14-point political program [http://hkonj.com/] for economic justice and civil rights.

Some of the major issues of this year's rally were the ongoing struggle over re-segregation of Wake County schools; the racist attacks on immigrant youth and the struggle for immigrant rights; the effects of the economic crisis on the Black and Latino communities in the state; education cuts to primary schools and higher education; the Racial Justice Act and the disproportionate use of the death penalty against oppressed nationalities; and the lack of collective bargaining for public sector workers in North Carolina.

Addressing these issues, the Reverend William Barber, president of the North Carolina NAACP, told a cheering crowd, “We will challenge Democrats who are not progressive. We will challenge Republicans who attempt to revise history.” Republicans are the majority in the state legislature for the first time in 100 years, but the state has a democratic governor, Bev Perdue. In his speech, Rev. Barber said Gov. Perdue should “Veto everything that's wrong.”

Ben Jealous, president of NAACP, marched on Jones Street and spoke to the crowd about segregation. “We're still fighting the old Jim Crow,” Jealous declared. “When they come to you and start preaching 'separate but equal', [remember] it was a lie then, it's a lie now.”

One of the most powerful speakers of the day was Loida Ginocchio-Silva, a young activist with the North Carolina DREAM Team, an immigrant rights organization. In her bi-lingual speech, which brought roars from the crowd, Ginocchio-Silva said, “I'm a human being. And no human can be illegal. On this stage, I am breaking the law. But I say, an unjust law is no law at all. We know that the Jim Crow laws were also laws in this country. I'm here to represent the thousands of undocumented youth whose humanity is currently being criminalized!”

Several of the speakers referenced the democratic struggles of the Egyptian and Tunisian peoples, which brought cheers from the crowd.

The demonstration showed a powerful unity between many nationalities, organizations and causes. The thousands who marched together promised to continue fighting for justice and to support the struggles of all the oppressed in North Carolina.

#RaleighNC #HKOnJ #NAACP #AfricanAmerican #NorthCarolinaDREAMTeam

North Carolina NAACP President Reverend William Barber was one of those arrested, along with Reverend Nancy Petty of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, activist Mary Williams and Timothy Tyson, a researcher at Duke Divinity School.

Wake County's new all-white school board majority, which came to power thanks to funding from right-wing foundations in the state, voted to terminate a pro-diversity busing policy in favor of keeping students in schools in their neighborhoods. This will lead to segregated schools and low quality, poorly-funded schools in communities of oppressed nationalities. Protesters have been waging a sharp struggle against this policy for months. On March 23, 70 students and youth marched on the board's meeting to demand an end to racism and resegregation efforts.

A statement from the North Carolina NAACP on the June 15 civil disobedience action said in part, “We are willing to break a lesser law and accept our punishment in order to protect the larger law embodied in the federal and state constitutions and to defend the children of our community... If it is necessary that we be locked up to resist policies that will lock down our children in resegregated, high-poverty and unconstitutional schools, so be it.”

The NAACP has played a leading role in opposing the resegregation scheme, along with a broad united front of progressive organizations and peoples in North Carolina. In a statement in March, the NAACP noted that the attempts at resegregation represent “a clear call to our community – Black, White, Latino, Asian – to employ all the moral, political, and legal means at our disposal to stop it before it’s too late.”

#RaleighNC #PoorPeoplesMovements #NAACP #AfricanAmerican #ChicanoLatino #Resegregation #ReverendWilliamBarber

Outraged people are raising their voices, marching in the streets and rallying on campuses across the country to support the Jena Six. Jena is a small town, four hours northwest of New Orleans, Louisiana. The Jena Six are African-American high school students who refuse to be second-class citizens. The Jena Six are standing up for their rights and fighting back against racism in their community. These young men refuse to be insulted, pushed around and harassed. They simply want equality with the whites in their school and community. The Jena Six are now symbolic of the righteousness of rebellion against racist national oppression.

A statement from Free the Jena 6 explains: “Last fall, when two Black high school students sat under the ‘white’ tree on their campus, white students responded by hanging nooses from the tree. When Black students protested the light punishment for the students who hung the nooses, District Attorney Reed Walters came to the school and told the students he could ‘take their lives away with a stroke of his pen.’”

Racial tension continued to mount in Jena, and the District Attorney did nothing in response to several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students. But when a white student – who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses – taunted a black student, and allegedly called several black students n_____ , was beaten up by Black students, six Black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder. Last month, the first young man to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted. He faces up to 22 years in prison for a school fight.

A Victory Is Won, the Fight Is Still On!

Thanks to the organizers – the NAACP and the families of the Jena Six – a broad and powerful protest movement of Black people and their allies arose across the U.S. This brought forward a tremendous victory! The growing movement forced the Louisiana criminal justice system to retreat. An appellate judge of the Third Circuit Court threw out the conviction (which was handed down by an all-white jury) against Mychal Bell, saying he should not have been tried as an adult.

The fight is still on, however, because District Attorney Reed Walters promises to pursue cases against the Six. On Sept. 20, organizers promise to have thousands from across the South marching through Jena. The racist railroading of these youth must be stopped.

A Fight for Freedom

The struggle of the Jena Six comes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the criminal neglect of the Bush administration, which caused the deaths of thousands of working-class people, mostly African-Americans. For Black people, these trials in Louisiana are salt in a wound. The fight of the Jena Six is the fight of the Black nation for freedom. It exposes the everyday racism of the American education system. It shines the light on the racist criminalization of young Black men. It hammers away at the shackles of national oppression faced by all Black people no matter what their class or position. The struggle of these six Black sons and brothers is being taken to a higher and higher level the longer the trials continue.

While the Bush administration loses its criminal war against the people of Iraq, the battle against racist national oppression at home must advance. The Iraqi people are committed to struggle until they regain their independence. So too the Black struggle for freedom takes a long view and links up with other struggles as it seeks to end Wall Street’s domination and control. To this end, the Black liberation movement has natural allies in the Chicano national movement of the Southwest, in the movements of other oppressed nationalities – Mexican, Puerto Rican, Arab-American, Asian American, Native-American, etc., and in the movement of the multi-national working class.

The struggle of the Jena Six shows there is growing potential to shake this system and force change. The anti-war movement is large and likely to act more militantly as the U.S. occupation continues. The May 1 mega-marches of the immigrants rights movement startled the whole world and turned back sharp attacks. As the struggle for full equality continues to build, the sight of millions marching through cities and towns has other oppressed and exploited people thinking about acting up. It appears an economic downturn is arriving. It will sharpen these struggles. The small class of rich U.S. billionaires and millionaires who control the politicians and the government will become more repressive. All workers have an interest in ending their own exploitation, which means supporting equality and liberation. The capitalist system, the system of oppression we live under, deserves to be overthrown.

Outraged people are raising their voices, marching in the streets and rallying on campuses across the country to support the Jena Six. Jena is a small town, four hours northwest of New Orleans, Louisiana. The Jena Six are African-American high school students who refuse to be second-class citizens. The Jena Six are standing up for their rights and fighting back against racism in their community. These young men refuse to be insulted, pushed around and harassed. They simply want equality with the whites in their school and community. The Jena Six are now symbolic of the righteousness of rebellion against racist national oppression.

A statement from Free the Jena 6 explains: “Last fall, when two Black high school students sat under the ‘white’ tree on their campus, white students responded by hanging nooses from the tree. When Black students protested the light punishment for the students who hung the nooses, District Attorney Reed Walters came to the school and told the students he could ‘take their lives away with a stroke of his pen.’”

Racial tension continued to mount in Jena, and the District Attorney did nothing in response to several egregious cases of violence and threats against black students. But when a white student – who had been a vocal supporter of the students who hung the nooses – taunted a black student, and allegedly called several black students n_____ , was beaten up by Black students, six Black students were charged with second-degree attempted murder. Last month, the first young man to be tried, Mychal Bell, was convicted. He faces up to 22 years in prison for a school fight.

A Victory Is Won, the Fight Is Still On!

Thanks to the organizers – the NAACP and the families of the Jena Six – a broad and powerful protest movement of Black people and their allies arose across the U.S. This brought forward a tremendous victory! The growing movement forced the Louisiana criminal justice system to retreat. An appellate judge of the Third Circuit Court threw out the conviction (which was handed down by an all-white jury) against Mychal Bell, saying he should not have been tried as an adult.

The fight is still on, however, because District Attorney Reed Walters promises to pursue cases against the Six. On Sept. 20, organizers promise to have thousands from across the South marching through Jena. The racist railroading of these youth must be stopped.

A Fight for Freedom

The struggle of the Jena Six comes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the criminal neglect of the Bush administration, which caused the deaths of thousands of working-class people, mostly African-Americans. For Black people, these trials in Louisiana are salt in a wound. The fight of the Jena Six is the fight of the Black nation for freedom. It exposes the everyday racism of the American education system. It shines the light on the racist criminalization of young Black men. It hammers away at the shackles of national oppression faced by all Black people no matter what their class or position. The struggle of these six Black sons and brothers is being taken to a higher and higher level the longer the trials continue.

While the Bush administration loses its criminal war against the people of Iraq, the battle against racist national oppression at home must advance. The Iraqi people are committed to struggle until they regain their independence. So too the Black struggle for freedom takes a long view and links up with other struggles as it seeks to end Wall Street’s domination and control. To this end, the Black liberation movement has natural allies in the Chicano national movement of the Southwest, in the movements of other oppressed nationalities – Mexican, Puerto Rican, Arab-American, Asian American, Native-American, etc., and in the movement of the multi-national working class.

The struggle of the Jena Six shows there is growing potential to shake this system and force change. The anti-war movement is large and likely to act more militantly as the U.S. occupation continues. The May 1 mega-marches of the immigrants rights movement startled the whole world and turned back sharp attacks. As the struggle for full equality continues to build, the sight of millions marching through cities and towns has other oppressed and exploited people thinking about acting up. It appears an economic downturn is arriving. It will sharpen these struggles. The small class of rich U.S. billionaires and millionaires who control the politicians and the government will become more repressive. All workers have an interest in ending their own exploitation, which means supporting equality and liberation. The capitalist system, the system of oppression we live under, deserves to be overthrown.

Justice For the Jena Six!

Statement by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization: www.frso.org

For news and views from the people’s struggle: www.fightbacknews.org!

Statement by the Freedom Road Socialist Organization: www.frso.org

For news and views from the people’s struggle: www.fightbacknews.org

#UnitedStates #Editorial #NAACP #Editorials #AfricanAmerican #RacismInTheCriminalJusticeSystem #Jena6 #nooses

Raleigh, NC – Raleigh sanitation workers changed tactics, after months of protests to city management fell on deaf ears. The sanitation workers held a four-hour and a two-hour temporary work stoppage on Sept. 13 and 14, forcing city management to address their concerns. An important struggle has unfolded in the weeks since.

The sanitation workers, the overwhelming majority of whom are Black, face exhausting 14-hour days and are understaffed and overworked. Forced overtime and harassment of workers by management is commonplace. Sanitation worker Daron Green emphasized, “We need to have our management looked at. We have very bad management overall. We need new management, period.”

The Raleigh sanitation workers put forward five demands to city management: An immediate end to forced overtime; overtime pay after 40 hours work and not compensatory time; make temporary employees permanent and hire more workers to reduce workload; end the harassment against workers for speaking out against problems; city to meet-and-confer with the elected North Carolina Public Service Workers Union (UE Local 150) representatives in sanitation. The sanitation workers gave the city council one week to meet their demands.

Meanwhile, community organizers began rallying mass support for the workers – from the NAACP to religious groups to student organizers, who drove a sound truck through Raleigh neighborhoods to raise support for the sanitation workers’ struggle. Unions and community organizations from all over North Carolina passed resolutions declaring their support for the sanitation workers.

The city council met to discuss the situation on Sept. 20. In a hall packed with supporters, organizers with UE 150 and over 40 sanitation workers presented their demands and stressed the need for collective bargaining. Under a 1959 North Carolina state law, collective bargaining is prohibited for public sector workers – a holdover from the Jim Crow era, when higher numbers of Black workers were concentrated in the public sector in the South.

Jerry Ledbetter, a spokesperson for the sanitation workers, said, “We are asking for collective bargaining, to meet and confer with city council of Raleigh. We are ready to cooperate. We are here in good faith. But we have to be treated fairly, and be treated like human beings.”

Jimmy Gaye, who has worked in the Sanitation department for 22 years, told the city council, “It’s so much of a work overload that we have, we’re doing two to three jobs a day. We take the truck out, we go back in, we take the truck out, we bring it back in, until it gets so late in the day that you can’t do it any more.”

Gaye continued, “We’re thinking about our future here. We can’t grow if you don’t let us grow. Raleigh grows, and we know that we’re going to be expanding out, we’re doing Durham County, we’re out in Raleigh, we’re out to parts of Morrisville, we’re out in parts of Cary. We cover those areas. Those are big areas that you trying to cover, that you’re allowing to be annexed into a part of Raleigh now that the growth is here. Now, what about us? We want to grow too – can you let us do that?”

Raleigh mayor Charles Meeker and the city council, under pressure from workers and the community, stated that a “complete overhaul” of solid waste services management was necessary, and agreed to meet the demands, including recognition of UE 150. The city council promised to send city manager Russell Allen to meet with the workers on Friday, Sept. 22, to discuss their grievances.

The sanitation workers were optimistic about the hearing at the city council but stressed that the struggle was by no means over. Ledbetter said, “I thought the meeting went real well. Only thing we can do now is wait. You know anyone can say a thing, but you got to wait and see if they live up to it.”

But Friday’s meeting was a disappointment to the workers as city manager Allen balked on most of the demands and ignored the key issue of union recognition.

As a result, the alliance of labor, religious groups and student activists mobilized again. Over the weekend, Black Workers for Justice, UE 150 and other organizations held a community forum to rally support for the sanitation workers’ struggle, with 60 people attending.

Community organizers gave powerful speeches, noting that this was not just a struggle for workers’ rights, but also a fight for real equality for African-Americans. Many also made the connection between the Raleigh sanitation workers’ struggle and the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, while rallying support for sanitation workers there.

On Monday Sept. 24, over 100 workers and their supporters, including Reverend William Barber, president of the state NAACP, took to the streets in a picket of the city council. They demanded a shake-up of the solid waste services department management and that the city council meet the workers’ demands. Mayor Meeker emerged from City Hall to publicly state that he supported the demands and would recognize the elected union leadership.

Less than a week later, Gerald Latta, the director of the sanitation department, announced he was stepping down, while Lash Hocutt, the operations superintendent, was transferred out of the department. Soon after, eleven temporary jobs were made permanent in the sanitation department, while the city council voted to make any city job longer than six months a permanent position – a victory for all of Raleigh’s city workers. Over half a dozen jobs were added to the solid waste services department, with plans to add more in the future. Sanitation workers are now receiving overtime pay, while an audit is set to take place of the city’s solid waste services department to determine how to reduce their workload and improve work conditions. In addition, Mayor Meeker has met with the sanitation workers’ union leadership.

UE 150 now represents 85% of the city’s sanitation workers, and is reaching out to organize other departments in the city. By standing together to put pressure on the city, Raleigh’s sanitation workers and their supporters have scored major victories – winning important concessions for the workers and building a fighting union.

But the struggle continues. City manager Russell Allen is still refusing to recognize the elected union leadership of the sanitation workers, and management still tries to pressure workers into forced overtime. Finally, as mentioned above, North Carolina has a long-standing legislative ban on collective bargaining for public sector workers. Many workers and activists involved in the sanitation struggle have decided to continue the fight for the rights of public sector workers, and that the time has finally come to overturn this unjust Jim Crow law.

#RaleighNC #NAACP #AfricanAmerican #SouthernLaborMovement #UE150 #unionRecognition

Raleigh, NC – Over 4000 people, the majority African American, marched in downtown Raleigh, Feb. 14, in a show of force organized by the North Carolina NAACP. This is the third year that “HK on J” (Historic Thousands on Jones Street) has taken place, bringing together over 85 grassroots organizations, trade unions, coalitions and churches around a 14-point program for change. The 14-point program is centered around addressing the needs of the African American community, low-income people, immigrants rights and ending the war.

“We are gathering to continue to remind our state legislators and other elected officials that our 14-point agenda and more than 80 action items are still relevant. The people of this state who turned out in record numbers to vote last November want to see real change,” said North Carolina NAACP President Dr. William Barber. “And further, we are coming to further say, in the midst of this current financial crisis, ‘Do not balance this budget on the backs of the poor.’”

Hundreds of students and trade unionists from across North Carolina mobilized for the protest. The program also featured speeches from workers who won union recognition at the Smithfield processing plant and UE union members who occupied their factory in Chicago.

Dr. Barber and other leaders of the HK on J movement urged the thousands in attendance to keep building the grassroots movements for change. In particular, the speakers emphasized the importance of building as broad a movement as possible to oppose massive cuts to social services and people’s needs.

#RaleighNC #CapitalismAndEconomy #PoorPeoplesMovements #Labor #News #HKOnJ #NAACP #BlackLiberationMovement #BudgetCrisis #capitalistCrisis