Racist Pay Difference Defeated

Chicago, IL – A year of struggle has brought success for workers in Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73 at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). On Sept. 17 and 19, nearly 400 workers came out to overwhelmingly ratify a new contract.

Chicago, IL – Over 400 workers, members of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 73, rallied on the city's West Side, June 5. They have been fighting for a new contract at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) since October 1.

Chicago, IL – There has been a high tide of conflict at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). In January, two Saturdays were spent in hearings on campus before Black and Latino state legislators. Called by the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus, the hearings resulted in a 67-page report, released finally in late August. It details the many demands by the forces that are fighting the administration: union workers, oppressed nationality students, faculty and staff, and the residents of the surrounding communities, mostly Mexicano and African American.

Saladin Muhammad is a veteran leader of the labor and African American liberation movements in North Carolina. He is responsible for coordinating organizing in North Carolina and Virginia for the North Carolina and Virginia Public Service Workers Unions UE Locals 150 and 160. Muhammad is building the fight against a North Carolina law, NC 95-98, which limits workers’ rights to collectively bargain.

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.

Workers' rights are under attack in South Carolina. Later this summer, five members of the International Longshoreman's Association (ILA) will be going on trial. Elijah Forde Jr., Kenneth Jefferson, Peter Washington Jr., Rick Simmons, and John Edgerton face up to 5 years in prison. They are changed with felony riot. In truth, they have done nothing wrong. They stood up to a union-busting shipping firm and exercised their right to picket. For that, South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon says they deserve “jail, jail, and more jail.”

Interview With Conference Participants who are members of the Twin Cities based Welfare Rights Committee and Low Income People Organizing for Power (Duluth).

On June 19-21, the founding convention of the Black Radical Congress (B.R.C.) was held in Chicago. Nearly 2000 people came together to exchange experience, and to discuss strategy on how to build the Black Liberation Movement.

Chicago, IL – Sirlena Perry is a clerical worker and a trade unionist in Chicago. She has also been a supporter of the Teamsters 743 New Leadership Slate for many years. She gave a speech introducing members of the Slate when they were honored at this year’s People’s Thanksgiving in Chicago, an annual fundraiser for Fight Back! newspaper.

Cincinnati, OH – Police attempt to suppress African American uprising following the police murder of Timothy Thomas, April 7. Thomas was the fourth Black man killed by Cincinnati police since November. Cincinnati police have killed 15 African Americans since 1995.

Christine Royster ran for vice president of the International Brotherhood of the Teamsters (IBT) last year on the Tom Leedham Rank & File Power Slate. Unfortunately, she lost, denying the Teamsters their first African American woman vice president. Royster, running as a rank-and-file member, would have been a dynamic addition to the Teamsters national executive board.

Minneapolis, MN – In a packed Hennepin County Court room, May 26, District Judge Lloyd Zimmerman decided to delay the foreclosure-related eviction trial of Rosemary Williams until June 22. A hearing on the legal issues to be considered at the trial is scheduled for June 16.

Minneapolis, MN – “Banks got bailed out, we got sold out! Stop foreclosures now!” was the chant on a spirited picked line here, April 28 at the Hennepin County Government Center. Rosemary Williams, who faces eviction from her foreclosed home, along with leaders of the Minnesota Coalition for a People’s Bailout and the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign announced some important developments in her legal case.

Plainfield, NJ – The fight here to save Muhlenberg Hospital continues to intensify and broaden. Two public hearings of the New Jersey Health Planning Commission, on May 5 and on June 5, each drew more than 1200 people. The Commission must grant a Certificate of Need (CN) to legally allow Solaris Health Care Corporation to close the hospital.

Trenton, NJ – 500 people traveled to Trenton, the state capital of New Jersey, April 5, to protest the threat to close Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield. Hospital closings are at crisis level in New Jersey and Muhlenberg, which has served Plainfield for 125 years, is only the latest to be threatened.

Plainfield, NJ – A throng of 600 turned out here, March 15, to protest against the closing of Muhlenberg Hospital by its owner, Solaris Healthcare. A 250-person protest had already come out on March 1 at the call of the People's Organization for Progress.

Plainfield, NJ – A move to close Muhlenberg Hospital in Plainfield, New Jersey has triggered a storm of protest. Plainfield would hardly be a city without the 125-year old Muhlenberg Hospital.

Chicago, IL – Aaron Patterson was sentenced to 30 years in prison on trumped-up gun and drug charges, Aug. 14. Patterson was targeted for prosecution because of his powerful activism against police misconduct in Chicago. The case hinged on a government informant, a known drug dealer and gang leader, who Patterson says was trying to entrap him.

San Jose, CA – In late September the Census Bureau reported that, for the second year in a row, household income fell, the number of poor rose, and more Americans lacked health insurance. Household incomes, adjusted for inflation, fell 1.1%. 1.7 million more people fell below the government’s official poverty line in 2002. In addition, 2.4 million more individuals went without health insurance than the year before.

Chicago, IL – Aaron Patterson is one of the four death row inmates pardoned by Illinois Governor Ryan on Jan. 10. Sentenced to die in 1989 for murders he did not commit, he is one of the many tortured by Area 2 Chicago Police Commander Jon Burge.

East Los Angeles, CA – December 11, 60 young people, activists and organizers, met at the kick-off conference against Proposition 21. The purpose was to plan the strategy and actions against the racist, anti-youth ballot initiative called the Gang Violence and Juvenile Crime Prevention Act (Proposition 21). Californians will vote on the measure March 7.