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Labor Solidarity Committee: Mission Statement The purpose of the Labor Solidarity Committee is to facilitate communication and relationship building between labor and Occupy Portland. Labor and Unions are an essential part of the Occupy Movement and it is the goal of the Labor Solidarity Committee to make sure that they are included as much as possible. Get Involved OP Labor Outreach Committee Meeting Date: Every Friday Time: 5:45 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Location: Saint Francis of Assisi Catholic Church at 1131 SE Oak Street Jump to this event's wiki page, edit it, discuss it or return to the events page. Purpose Need volunteers to facilitate & take notes. Proposed Agenda 1. Review our committee work, the process for taking on work and moving it forward, and identify changes we should make now to prepare for a busy spring. Current Work - Community Assembly to Create a People's Budget - May 5th, First Unitarian Church - East County Education Support Future/Possible Work - Unemployed organizing - Labor Education - Occupy/Labor Panel or conference - Workers struggles: PSU Student workers, New Seasons workers Other details See Also: Community Assembly to Create a People's Budget Peoples’ Assembly Organizing Committee Occupy Portland Labor Outreach Committee Facebook Pages Occupy Portland Labor Solidarity Committee Community Assembly to Create a People's Budget more information Historical Incomplete list. Meeting Notes: Occupy Portland Labor Solidarity Committee - Friday, 3 February 2012, 5:45 - 7pm, St. Francis Labor Outreach Committee Meeting - Friday 16 December 2011 Labor Outreach Committee Meeting Friday 9 December 2011 Peoples’ Assembly Organizing Committee Meeting 7 December 2011 Labor Outreach Committee Meeting Friday 2 December 2011 Peoples’ Assembly Organizing Committee Meeting 30 November 2011 Labor Outreach Committee Meeting 18 November 2011 Emergency Labor Outreach Committee Meeting 14 November 2011 Labor Solidarity March 10 26 2011 Occupy Support of Working People Longshore Workers Name Occupy Movement as Crucial in Settlement with EGT - Coordinated action by West Coast Occupys proves effective as ILWU Local 21 ratifies contract. Major victory for Occupy and the working class! “The mobilization of the Occupy Movement across the country, particularly in Oakland, Portland, Seattle, and Longview were a critical element in bringing EGT to the bargaining table and forcing a settlement with ILWU local 21.” --Jack Mulcahy, ILWU Local 8 Labor Support of Occupy Portland Letter Carriers Support Occupy Portland! “We share the common value of people over profits, not the corporate value of profit over people. Know that we the letter carriers of the NALC Branch 82, Portland, Oregon, stand with you in this important time and this fight for the rights of the many, not the few.” Solidarity Forever! Laborers' Local 483 unites with Occupy Portland. "You are the hope for the future." Laborers’ Local 483 Unites with Occupy Portland National Association of Letter Carriers Branch 82 Supports Occupy Portland Working America in Oregon is Proud to Endorse Occupy Portland Painters Local 10 Stands in Support of Occupy Portland United Association Local 290 Plumbers and Steamfitters Stands in Support of the Occupy Wall Street Demonstrations External Links Google Group Weblog Post Related Articles America Wants to Work Action Plan The Jobs Crisis: What Did Roosevelt Do That Obama Should? Put 15 Million Back to Work Fixing $2.2 Trillion in Infrastructure: Resurrect the Works Progress Administration Labor Must Choose Between Occupy and the Democrats The Occupy Movement recognizes the dire economic situation the country is in and is not held back by mainstream politicians. This gives the Occupy Movement an amazing chance to lead labor down the right path. There is a wide gulf between the demands that the labor movement and the Democratic Party are putting forward and what working people desperately need. Occupy would not exist were this not the case. The Battles of Occupy Portland The Occupy Movement will be crushed if the demands being fought for do not connect with working people. A key characteristic of any powerful social movement is the appearance of successive, large demonstrations that draw in new layers of working people, students, and the elderly. The average working person feels impelled to join such a movement because they see their own interests reflected in the movement, and once they join they learn that their interests are the same as those of the others involved. AFL-CIO urges unions to treat Occupy DC as picket line Occupy Movement Inspires Unions to Embrace Bold Tactics Crippling the Right to Organize UNLESS something changes in Washington, American workers will, on New Year’s Day (2012), effectively lose their right to be represented by a union. Dissecting Capitalism: Contemporary Labor and Workplace Struggles (Audio) More News & Views “The collapse of the Soviet system was a pretty extraordinary event, and we are currently experiencing something similar in the developed world, without fully realizing what’s happening.” George Soros Where next for Occupy? Let us name, then, the underlying object of the protests’ discontent. It is a society that fundamentally isn’t working, a system that coerces us into ruining the planet and exploiting its people, denying us life and liberty if we refuse to comply, and sometimes withholding them even if we do comply. It is a society where life is a little bleaker, gaudier, uglier, less authentic, and less hopeful with each passing year. It is a system of winners and losers, in which even the winners are less happy than a typical Ladakhi peasant or Amazonian hunter-gatherer. It is a society of pretense, image, and illusion. It is a society where more human energy goes to war than to art. Most tellingly, it is a society where it is normal to hate Monday. The discontent behind the protests comes from the conviction, “We can do better than this!” What Occupy taught the unions - SEIU and others are embracing the movement that has succeeded as they have faded. Unions are in a death spiral. Private sector unionism has all but vanished, accounting for a measly 6.9 percent of the workforce. Public sector workers are being hammered by government cutbacks and hostile media that blame teachers, nurses and firefighters for budget crises... On the Brink: Fiscal Austerity Threatens a Global Recession (The Real News) Dr. Heiner Flassbeck, Director, Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, UNCTAD: European austerity policies past the point of no return, driving global economy towards deep and lengthy recession. Richard D Wolff on the Greek Crisis In this interview (video) for a Greek newspaper, Wolff explains how the Greek crisis is (among other things) an experiment by bankers and other neoliberal interests to see how much "austerity" a society will accept. Does ‘right-to-work’ create jobs? Answers from Oklahoma Can the Occupy Movement Save Labor? On Strike! Strike Strategy (John Steuben) A Small Taste of Student Fists: The UCSC Campus Shutdown "UCSC students could offer masters classes in organizing." Research: Social Sciences The Four Networks Theory of Power: A Theoretical Home for Power Structure Research This document explains why and how organizations are the starting point for understanding power. It focuses on four main organizational networks -- ideological, economic, military, and political -- as the building blocks for power structures. What Social Science Can Tell Us About Social Change "...change agents have to understand a key difference between themselves and other people. Most people are focused on the joys, pleasures, and necessities of their everyday lives, and will not leave these routines unless those routines are disrupted, whereas change agents sacrifice their everyday lives -- family, schooling, career -- to work on social change every waking minute." The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science - How our brains fool us on climate, creationism, and the vaccine-autism link. "(The) tendency toward so-called 'motivated reasoning' helps explain why we find groups so polarized over matters where the evidence is so unequivocal: climate change, vaccines, 'death panels,' the birthplace and religion of the president, and much else." Why Progressives Can't Ignore Religion Wall or no wall, politics and religion have always been inextricably intertwined, and we won't win until we recognize and deal with that fact. Hostile Forces Anti-union call between Bank of America, Bernie Marcus, et al. and Rick Berman, 17 Oct 2008 Summary: On 27 Jan 2009, the Huffington Post ran a story by Sam Stein titled "Bailout Recipients Hosted Call To Defeat Key Labor Bill". The story included around five minutes of an hour long recording between federal bailout funds recipients. The call shows the firms to be involved in lobbying, effectively, with public money. The file released here is the full hour long recording. References See Also D12 2011 Occupy Portland Stands In Solidarity with Labor Peoples’ Assembly Organizing Committee Occupy Portland Labor Outreach Committee Mission Statement Trade Unions Portland Union Wiki Jobs with Justice Organized Power Portland General Strike Home Labor Solidarity Organizing Committee Organized Power Working People's Campaign Newsroom