Articles Posted on February 21st, 2012

  • Activist Young Workers Refuel Labor Movement

    by Niesha Lofing on Feb 21, 2012 | 1 Comment

    “Young people are being told that they just have to suck it up and live in a world without jobs. We’re being told that America can’t afford teachers, but we can afford CEO tax cuts. We’re being asked to accept a society that rewards wealth and punishes work. A society that makes it harder for young people to go to college. A society where hate is growing … It’s shameful,” said Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, in her keynote address during the Next Up conference held last fall. “The economic and social problems, the hate and the fear we see around us this day can only be solved by a fresh generation of committed, smart, tireless and creative activists.”

    Posted in News, Politics

  • Occupy Groups Converge on San Quentin
    in Support of Prisoners, Protest Prison Conditions

    by Eric Louie on Feb 21, 2012 | 4 Comments

    Speakers, including some who have been incarcerated, talked about reform of the California’s three-strikes sentencing law, the mental punishment of solitary confinement and support for prisoners undertaking hunger strikes to protest conditions inside prisons. They included members of the San Quentin Six, prisoners who faced charges after the 1971 shootings that killed Black Panther George Jackson along with guards and other prisoners. Shane Bauer, one of the three Americans captured in Iran in 2009, talked about the hunger strikes and denial of family letters in his time there.

    Posted in Events, Politics