(source)

On Tuesday, March 31, starting at 5 pm, workers, students and allies will picket to get justice for survivors of employment discrimination by the world’s richest university. Please join us in Harvard Yard at Massachusetts Hall, steps from the Harvard Sq T stop in Cambridge (map). We’ll expose three specific cases of workplace discrimination:

Judy Rouse: an active UNITE HERE shop steward, Judy worked in a dining hall where managers called workers of color derogatory names. Judy was written up for her union activity and even assaulted by a manager. When she called the HUPD* to report the assault, Judy herself was terminated, and slapped with a no-trespass order in a flagrant abuse of police power.

Nassim Kerkache: famous for his dedication on the job, Nassim became a union rep in HUCTW, and stood up to a boss who made racist comments about him & his co-workers. Nassim’s reward was to have the boss tell him to pick between being laid off or demoted three salary grades! Denied promotion in favor of a less-qualified, US-born colleague (who made efforts to help management sweep sexual harassment under the rug), Nassim was fired after he took a disability leave.

Paul Casey: employed for 30+ years, Paul was targeted by an administrator who perceived him as disabled and tried to get him to quit. After taking an approved leave to have his hip replaced, Paul pushed himself to return to his busy job. He came back to work only to be told a few weeks later that he would be laid off due to “lack of work.” His job duties were simply assigned to co-workers.

PHONE/EMAIL ZAP: Please call or email William Murphy, Harvard’s Director of Labor Relations, any time at 617 496-9193, bill_murphy@harvard.edu. Suggested message, “I am appalled by convincing narratives of discrimination against terminated employees Judy Rouse, Nassim Kerkache and Paul Casey. I call on you to use all your influence to see that their cases are promptly resolved! Failure to do so will invite further consequences.”

For more information about workplace discrimination at Harvard, please visit twoharvards.wordpress.com.

Harvard University Police Department
Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers

(from act-ma)

Dear All,

This Wednesday 3/18/15, IWW Delegate Jason goes on trial for phony charges including assaulting a police officer. Jason was attacked by the cops and slammed with a frame-up because he attended a peaceful, legal picket on 11/14/13. There are two ways you can help:

Pack the court! Come to Jason’s trial at Cambridge District Court, 4040 Mystic Valley Parkway, Medford, MA 02155 (a short walk from the Orange Line’s Wellington T). The trial starts Wednesday at 9 a.m. (Jason’s lawyer advises court-appropriate attire for supporters).

Donate! Please click here http://igg.me/at/DefendJason to help with Jason’s legal and living expenses. You can also send checks to: Boston IWW, PO Box 391724, Cambridge, MA 02139 (please indicate your check is intended to assist Jason).

Background: On 11/14/13, I was picketing with other union members in front of Cambridge’s Insomnia Cookies. Insomnia workers had joined the IWW and gone on strike in August due to long shifts ending after 2 a.m. with no breaks, for pay below minimum wage. They demanded health benefits, $15/hr and a union, and were all promptly fired.^* The cops had been trying to shut down our pickets for months, becoming ever more aggressive in their attempts to help crush the fledgling Insomnia Workers’ Union.

That night in November, scores of Cambridge and Harvard cops swarmed our picket and demanded we shut down our portable PA. We promptly turned it off. The cops surrounded me (I’d been holding the PA) and began to push me backwards into the street. Concerned for my safety, my friend and fellow IWW delegate Jason cried out to the cops that they should let me be. Immediately four of them piled on Jason, one of them seizing him by the throat and covering his mouth and nose. They punched him, bloodying his face, threw him down on the ground, and pinned him partially under a car. Finally they dragged Jason away, and he was hit with false charges that could bring jail time.

Bravely refusing to accept a disadvantageous “deal” that would limit his employment opportunities, Jason has held out for a trial. The fact that he has open charges means he cannot find regular work, and is relying on odd jobs for income.

Jason goes on trial Wednesday, after months and months of appearing in court due to the frame-up. Please come to the trial to show support, or make a donation to assist Jason, and please forward this email as widely as possible.

An Injury to One is an Injury to All!

–Geoff for the Boston Industrial Workers of the World

^* The union’s campaign ultimately won back pay and offers of reemployment for the strikers.

WHEN: Saturday, March 14, 2015 at 1pm

WHERE: Sprouts Farmers Market, 1530 Geary Road, Walnut Creek, CA 94597

WHAT: Farmers and supporters of the Gill Tract Farm Coalition will rally to tell Sprouts “Save the Gill Tract! Don’t pave over this historic farmland!”

On March 14th, farmers and supporters of the Gill Tract Farm are gathering to demand that Sprouts “Farmers Market” stop their plans to pave over public historic farmland in Albany, CA to put up a big-box store. The farmers and supporters are demanding that all 20 acres of the historic Gill Tract be protected as an education and research center in urban agriculture and food justice, including a productive urban farm.

Farmers like Hank Herrera want to highlight the hypocrisy of Sprouts calling itself a “farmers market” while it is destroying the historic Gill Tract farmland to build its newest store.

“Sprouts is not a Farmer’s Market. Using that name for a big-box supermarket is an insult to local farmers who are actually working to fix our broken food system.” – Hank Herrera, New Hope Farms & Gill Tract Farm Coalition

Supporters from the labor and food justice communities, like Brooke Anderson, are also expressing their concerns with Sprouts.

“We do not need another corporate supermarket giant that exploits its workers, especially not on public land. We need a real farmers market.” – Brooke Anderson, Movement Generation Justice & Ecology Project

In late February, UC Berkeley cut down 53 trees in preparation for the construction of the new Sprouts store, despite an ongoing lawsuit regarding the projects’ Environmental Impact Report. Farmers and supporters want to see the land used for a community-university partnership exploring innovative solutions to problems in our food system.

Background:

Despite almost 20 years of local organizing against commercial development, UC Berkeley continues to push for a chain grocery store and commercial retail space on the Gill Tract.

In April 2012, Occupy the Farm raised the profile of this 20-year community struggle by camping on the land and planting a publicly-accessible farm on the Gill Tract. Under pressure from community activists, Whole Foods pulled out of the proposed development, and instead opened two blocks south of the tract. Occupy the Farm helped win temporary protection for a portion of the land, some of which is now the vibrant Gill Tract Community Farm. Farmers hope to see this project expand to all remaining 20 acres of the historic farmland stewarded by the University of California, Berkeley for research and education for the public good.

occupythefarm.org

Registration for the 2015 US Social Forum is open! The event will take place in three locations: Philadelphia PA, Jackson MS, and San Jose CA.

In its nearly a decade of existence, the US Social Forum (USSF) has been one of this country’s largest and most successful movement building processes: a space for people to come together to develop solutions to the 
economic and ecological crisis and continue building a powerful multi-racial, multi-sectoral, inter-generational, diverse, inclusive, internationalist movement that transforms this country and
 changes history.

For information about the US Social Forum: https://www.ussocialforum.net
To Register: https://www.ussocialforum.net/registration