Texas Labor Against the War

MAY DAY RALLIES CELEBRATE UNITY; LABOR UNIONS AND IMMIGRANTS PLAN TO MARCH SIDE BY SIDE

http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/29/may_day_rallies_celebrate_unity_labor

Excellent program on Democracy Now!, April 29, 2011.  Read (or listen to) the whole thing.  Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman interview Clarence Thomas, member of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 in San Francisco–”The local has a history of shutting down the ports of Oakland and San Francisco in protest, most recently on April 4th in solidarity with workers in Wisconsin;” and Christine Neumann-Ortiz, director of Voces de la Frontera, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin–”On May 1, 2006, she was key organizer behind the 70,000-strong march in Milwaukee.”

HERE ARE A FEW HIGHLIGHTS:

Juan Gonzalez:  “The immigrant rights movement has in essence resuscitated May Day and now is building closer ties with the organized labor movement. . . . immigrants have continually renewed the radicalism and the fighting capacity of the American labor movement.”

Clarence Thomas:  “So many of our younger members in the trade union movement have very little knowledge about May Day. They associate it with countries overseas celebrating International Workers’ Day, [but] it started here in the United States with the fight to establish the eight-hour workday and to eliminate child labor exploitation. . . . we believe that solidarity is not an empty slogan. Solidarity means making a sacrifice. And on April 4th [anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.] our members did not go to work. We did not get paid. And for 24 hours, international commerce was shut down. And we believe that more unions need to do the same. . . . [Immigrants] are the most exploited sector of the trade union movement. And as such, the issues that they face have to do with the fundamental rights of workers. . . . The labor movement is very small, when you talk about the percentage of workers that are represented by a union. The overwhelming majority of workers don’t belong to a union, so that the labor movement has the responsibility for charting a course for all workers. That’s why it’s so important that this year that we’re going to have a united May Day action.”

Christine Neumann-Ortiz:  “[The May Day mobilization] has always been supported by labor and has had a greater diversity each and every year. But this year, because of the attacks on public employees, like teachers, we know that, you know, there’s a level of support and mutual support. And that’s really what is historic about this march, is these movements coming together at a scale that hasn’t been seen before. . . . [Governor Walker's] budget is also an attack on immigrant rights and poor people.  In terms of immigrant rights, one of the biggest threats that’s pending, you know, in the budget is the repeal of in-state tuition rights for immigrant youth that was won in 2009, as well as the institutionalization of discrimination against legal immigrants, low-income families that would be denied access to food stamps or healthcare because they’re non-U.S. citizens, as part of this broader attack on poor people’s access and privatization of the public sector, like public education and so forth.  But one of the biggest things that’s motivating the Latino and immigrant community as part of this broader platform that we have is that there’s a pending Arizona copycat bill that’s being circulated in the state legislature . . . we’ve had a number of unions, maybe now close to 10, including the South Central Federation of Labor, that have passed resolutions rejecting this bill and also asking for—or building for May 1st.”

TxLAW note:  Sunday, May 1, San Antonio holds its Gran Marcha por los Derechos del Migrante on May Day–El Dia del Trabajo.  See http://txlaboragainstwar.org/2011/04/20/san-antonio-march-on-may-day/

And in Houston, also:  http://txlaboragainstwar.org/2011/04/30/houston-may-day-march-for-immigrants-and-working-families/

Fresh off his concert in Houston, David Rovics graces Austin with his moving calls for resistance against the Empire.  Texas Labor Against the War calls Rovics “the greatest since Phil Ochs.”

MonkeyWrench is happy to host this evening of music and politics with David Rovics. Described by Amy Goodman as the “musical version of Democracy Now!,” Rovics is an internationally celebrated political folks musician. David has traveled the world as a professional flat-picking rabble-rouser, and regularly tours on four continents, playing for audiences large and small at cafes, pubs, universities, churches, union halls and protest rallies. He has shared the stage with a veritable of who’s who of the left in two dozen countries, and has had his music featured on Democracy Now!, BBC, Al-Jazeera and other networks. His essays are published regularly on CounterPunch elsewhere, and the 200+ songs he makes available for free on the web have been downloaded more than a million times. Most importantly, he’s really good. He will make you laugh, he will make you cry, he will make the revolution irresistible. The show will cost $10 for those with a paying job, and $5 for students and the unemployed. A portion of the proceeds go to MonkeyWrench Books.   http://www.monkeywrenchbooks.org/events/monkeywrench-presents-evening-music-david-rovics

On Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/?sk=events#!/event.php?eid=165936730093904

http://www.davidrovics.com/

Excerpt from Amy Goodman’s interview on Democracy Now! today (Nov. 9, 2009) with journalist Dahr Jamail and with Michael Kern, Active-duty veteran of the Iraq war stationed at Fort Hood. He is a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

To watch video of the interview and to read the entire transcript, go to http://www.democracynow.org/2009/11/9/when_the_war_comes_homes_iraq

. . .AMY GOODMAN: Well, I’m joined now by two guests. Private Michael Kern joins us on the phone from Fort Hood, Texas, where he’s an active-duty veteran of the Iraq war. He’s with Iraq Vets Against the War and returned from Iraq earlier this year. He’s been diagnosed with PTSD; that’s post-traumatic stress disorder.

Also with us via Democracy Now! video stream from California is independent journalist and author Dahr Jamail. His latest book is called The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan. His article for IPS, published just after the shootings, is called “The War Comes Home.” His latest article, at TomDispatch.com, “Where Will They Get the Troops: Preparing Undeployables for the Afghan Front.”

Michael Kern, let’s begin with you at Fort Hood. You were familiar with Major Hasan, the Army psychiatrist?

MICHAEL KERN: Yes, he was not my particular psychiatrist, but he did work in the building that I go to pretty much weekly. And, you know, the only conversation that we had was, you know, basic greeting: “Good morning, sir. How are you doing, sir?”

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about the unit that he works in, where you were being treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

MICHAEL KERN: He works in a unit called the Medical Evaluation Board, where he basically sees soldiers, diagnoses soldiers with PTSD and other things like that, before they get out of the military, when they’re applying for an evaluation board to be medically retired from the United States Army.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what you saw in Iraq, what it means to be treated for PTSD? You said he was not your psychiatrist, but you have commented on what he was hearing from his many patients, soldiers who had returned from the front.

MICHAEL KERN: Yeah, I mean, imagine just having a job where, you know, every soldier comes in and tells you the most horrible tragic stories about what happened in Iraq and what they’ve done in Iraq. And you have to deal with all these things, and then all of a sudden you get orders to deploy? That’s going to screw with anyone, mentally.

AMY GOODMAN: Talk about what happened to you in Iraq, Michael Kern.

MICHAEL KERN: Numerous things happened to me in Iraq. I actually engaged and shot and killed a child, believing at the time that it was a legitimate kill. That still troubles me to this day. You know, anything—we got hit with mortars, IEDs, EFPs, small arms fires, RPGs, anything you can think of. I lost a lot of good friends out there for a, you know, immoral and an unjust war. . . .