by Buckles

Building democratic mass movements in our workplaces and communities should be the strategy for combating the capitalist economic crisis and advancing revolutionary struggle. An alternative economic sector does not have the capacity to win short-term reforms or fundamentally transform society.

Wayne Price and Eric Larsen at the New York Anarchist Bookfair, 4/11/2009

Calling Labor and Community Supporters:

RALLY!
FOR 1199 SPECTRUM STRIKERS

SATURDAY, APRIL 24
11:00 AM TO 12:00 NOON

PARK PLACE HEALTH CENTER
5 Greenwood Street, Hartford
(off Park St. Parking on Amity, Madison, Grace, and nearby streets)

*Please forward widely!*

STOP THE RAIDS! Students of Trinity College present:

Let's Discuss Immigration Reform

Tuesday, April 20th
5:00pm
Terrace Rooms A, B & C
Mather Hall, Trinity College
300 Summit Street
Hartford CT

Friday, April 16, 2010 -- Nurses, nursing assistants and elder-care support staff at skilled nursing homes operated by Spectrum Healthcare are hitting the picket lines again this morning in four Connecticut towns.

Almost 400 caregivers at the four facilities - Birmingham Health Center in Derby, Hilltop Health Center in Ansonia, Laurel Hill Health Center in Winsted and Park Place in Hartford went on strike over Unfair Labor Practices on the part of their corporate operator, Spectrum. Caregivers at the four striking homes have been working under the terms of their previous contracts, which expired more than a year ago (March 15, 2009).

Recent events have raised many important questions: What does a real and vital movement look like? What is the nature of leadership in struggle? Is there a ‘correct’ way for us to fight against our conditions? Below is a statement from some friends addressing theoretical and practical concerns that have arisen in the last month or so...

Occupation, as a particular tactic, has become such a frequent topic of conversation in recent time only because it has resonated highly with workers and students across the country. People tend to forget that student occupiers’ inspiration came directly from workers in Chicago who occupied their factory in December of 2008 against the theft of their pay. Soon after the New School and NYU occupations, the students and non-students involved were heading regularly up to the Bronx to reciprocate the support of the Stella D’Oro strikers on their picket lines, and offer support for the potential occupation that the workers were considering. Today poor and homeless people are “occupying” empty land, foreclosed homes, and warehoused properties. So much for occupation as the ‘fetishized’ plaything of privileged elites!

Part of the reason for the resurgence of occupation – and land takeovers more generally – are the particular necessities that it addresses. Not merely a means or an end, an occupation or a land takeover becomes a venue for transforming the use of space for self-directed activity, and forging new bonds of material solidarity. It directly addresses the contradictions of a class society in which privatized space lays empty while public common space is closed and policed, and homelessness surges alongside a startling swell in home foreclosures and warehoused condos. By seizing space and holding it hostage from those who would control it, occupation creates a venue for collective action on a greater scale and can also significantly disrupt the normal functioning of institutions. Workers, students, and the homeless effectively put this form of direct action back on the table in the United States, where it has become the most notable feature of recent mass struggle.

(This reply posted on take the city is a response to The Politics of Impatience and references events at Hunter College in New York City on March 4th.)

http://fadge.wordpress.com/

A Partial List of Upcoming Workshops for F.A.D.G.E. Fest 2010:

Sexual Assault in the Activist Community: A How-To of Accountability- Description to follow…

DIY Speculum Exam Workshop-

The subprime mortgage crisis that erupted in the United States has transformed into a global financial crisis. This crisis, which is being spun as a simple recession, is in fact one of the most serious crises since the 1929 Great Depression. As such, capitalism, on the brink of bankruptcy, has called on the State for help and is demanding that workers pay for the crisis by having their income reduced. As we can see by the rising numbers of unemployment and households struggling to survive, no one is left unharmed.

Numerous experts and economists have intervened to offer solutions that would, they hope, rehabilitate capitalism. They argue that the causes of this disaster are outside or foreign to capitalism. We do not agree. Let's be clear and identify what we believe are the true reasons behind this crisis that affects us all.

Saturday, April 10, 2010
5:00pm - 8:00pm
Community Church of Boston
565 Boylston St.
Boston, MA

Panel, followed by discussion, composed of individuals with experience in different organizations around soliciting grievances and mobilizing around labor, housing, and immigration issues.

Panelists will talk about their organizing experiences and strategic orientation. Specifically panel will address how taking collective action and directly confronting bosses, landlords, and other powerful institutions brings a sense of empowerment and consciousness to those involved. Discussion will focus on how best to support, network, organize, and/or supplement these activities.

Sponsored by NEFAC.
Info: boston@nefac.net, (617)544-3932

STORRS - University of Connecticut students, unhappy with next fall's tuition increase and with costly renovations to President Michael Hogan's office, were treated to an impromptu walk on the president's $4,215 rug Monday.

The office tour occurred as the students who call themselves SCORE — the Student Coalition on Reprioritizing Education — were delivering their list of grievances and demands to Hogan's office.