Monday, February 27, 2017

Labor Book Talk
























A Bernie-Recommended Guide For Taking Our Revolution Into Local Politics--and Winning!

One of the many labor-backed local groups now affiliated with Our Revolution is the Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA), subject of a new Beacon Press book by former CWA organizer and Labor for Bernie volunteer Steve Early.

Monday, February 20, 2017

Health Care California- Wednesday. Capitol




Join Statewide Rally for a Major Step Forward - Time for California to Make Healthcare a Human Right!

Join the Campaign for a Healthy California as we as we join with legislators, labor, community, nurses, doctors, healthcare advocates and grassroots activists to make a major announcement that will positively impact the future health of everyone in the state.  

What California needs:


  • Universal coverage
 
  • No deductibles, co-pays
 
  • Real patient choice
 
  • Comprehensive benefits

 
With the future of healthcare in California and the U.S. at stake, now is the time to act.


When – Wednesday, February 22

Time – 11 a.m.

Where – Secretary of State Auditorium
1500 11th Street, Sacramento


Facebook 

Friday, February 17, 2017

NAFTA and Trade


Join us for a town hall discussion on the impact of NAFTA at Sacramento State University




The North American Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA, is a trade deal between the United States, Mexico and Canada that has negatively impacted millions of workers in the United States and partner countries. After years of pressure and discontent amongst communities hurt by NAFTA and NAFTA-style trade deals, it is time shift away from corporate-dominated trade policy.

But will a renegotiated NAFTA be good for our communities? Or will we continue to get rigged trade deals that only benefit billionaires and corporations? Already we are seeing big corporations chomping at the bit to use this opportunity to renegotiate NAFTA in their own narrow interests, gaining the most profit with no consideration as to the consequences for working families, the environment and public health. The same conditions that we saw in the initial NAFTA negotiations. At the same time, most of the people President Trump has nominated to his cabinet are multimillionaires and billionaires who support TPP and NAFTA-style trade agreements.

Just like in the fight to stop the TPP, your voice will have an immense impact on the renegotiation of NAFTA.

Join us for a town hall we are hosting in partnership with the Sacramento Central Labor Council in which we will discuss the harmful impact NAFTA has had for working people along with how we will need to mobilize to push for a renegotiated NAFTA that benefits workers and the environment.
When: Join us Thursday, February 23rd at 5:30PM
Where: Sacramento State University, Folsom Hall, Room 1050, 7667 Folsom Blvd., Sacramento, CA, 95826


Withdrawing from an already-defunct TPP and simply reopening NAFTA aren’t enough. We need new trade agreements that actually create good-paying jobs and reign in abuses of corporate power at home and abroad.




Wednesday, February 15, 2017

Trump vs. Truth: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Millionaires Stop Paying Into Social Security Thursday


This Thursday, millionaires and billionaires will stop paying into Social Security. To shine a spotlight on this unfair policy, Social Security Works is joining with Social Security Champion Bernie Sanders for a national day of action.

Sign the pledge today! Pledge to call your Senators this Thursday, February 16th and tell them that millionaires and billionaires should pay into Social Security at the same rate as the rest of us—and that doing so would allow us to expand benefits. We will send a script and a reminder Thursday.

Right now, the way we fund Social Security―a regressive practice that only applies to the first $127,200 of a wage earner’s income―contributes to wealth and income inequality in the U.S.

A millionaire won’t pay anything into our Social Security system for at least the last ten and a half months of the year. This is because our Social Security system is primarily funded by payroll contributions (or FICA). Once the FICA cap of $127,200 is reached, millionaires and billionaires stop paying into the system, while the vast majority of Americans continue to pay in on all of their salary.

Stand with Senator Bernie Sanders and Social Security Works. Pledge to call your Senators this Thursday and tell them to “scrap the cap” on Social Security payroll contributions and demand the wealthy pay their fair share.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Defend the Immigrants Among Us- Our Revolution


Donald Trump’s attack on immigrants has taken a frightening turn. I’m writing you from Phoenix, one of the dozens of cities under attack from Trump’s gestapo-style raids targeting immigrant families.
Since Wednesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have detained and deported hundreds of undocumented Americans, including the parents of U.S. citizen children. There have even been reports of ICE agents following Latino children home from school in hopes of arresting undocumented parents and demanding documents from citizens and immigrants alike.
These raids targeting people based on where they live and the color of their skin have already happened at homes, stores and workplaces in California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, New York, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia. Will you help stop the attacks on immigrant families? Sign up now to let us know we can count on you to protect victims of ICE raids in your community.
Donald Trump claims that millions of "criminal" immigrants live among us -- but this is a lie, designed to give him cover for his racist plan. The immigrants Trump is targeting aren’t “rapists” or “bringing drugs” -- they are people like my friend Lupita, who was separated from her citizen children this week after living in Arizona for 20 years.
Families and communities across America are being torn apart by Trump’s xenophobic raids. This is not who we are. The raids must stop.
I am a proud and unafraid Dreamer, an undocumented immigrant who came here as a child. Through my years working with the immigrant rights’ community, I know first-hand that we build power through organizing. Through that power we have been able to reunite thousands of immigrant families. We have the power to stop these unjust deportations -- but we must act fast and take action locally.
If you marched for women’s rights in January and let Donald Trump know that “immigrants are welcome here,” your voice voice is needed once again. Demand decency and justice for the undocumented community. Sign up to if you’re willing to take action locally to protect immigrant families and stop the raids.
In solidarity,
Erika Andiola
Our Revolution
SIGN UP TO STAND WITH IMMIGRANT FAMILIES IN YOUR COMMUNITY





antiracismdsa: Immigrants and Allies Fight Back

antiracismdsa: Immigrants and Allies Fight Back: During his first weeks as President, Donald Trump has enacted some alarming and draconian executive orders. The most alarming has been h...

Monday, February 6, 2017

Trump Threatens to Defund California - Stupid Again



The sanctuary cities issue

Trump’s threatening of sanctuary cities and communities that offer protection to immigrants and that recognize the injustice in current immigration laws and practices will undermine public safety and foster further  division in the  nation.

 His threat to take money from sanctuary cities and now the state  is un constitutional overreach.  Notice, the federal government receives tax revenues from these cities. By defending sanctuary cities  citizens and tax payers  can severely limit Trump’s abuse.  Several California cities are already preparing the legal groundwork to resist paying  specific taxes into the federal treasury if Trump  follows through on his threats to cut funds to these  sanctuary cities.

Immigration officers (ICE) need the cooperation of local law enforcement and social services to do their jobs successfully.  They have far too few agents and too few jails to effectively remove large numbers of people.  The last time such removal was practiced in Operation Wetback  in  1952 the government was only  effective because local institutions cooperated.  This time they will not cooperate.

There are some 300 sanctuary cities and districts in the U.S.  Citizens and voters in these cities can have an important role in their defense.



The Sacramento Bee report: 
Trump was responding to a question from O’Reilly about efforts by Democratic state legislators to make California a de-facto “sanctuary state” that would restrict state and local law enforcement, including school police and security departments, from using their resources to aid federal authorities in immigration enforcement.

Thursday, February 2, 2017

The Last Time We Closed the Gates


My family made it to the United States just before it slammed the
door on most Jewish immigration. Jared Kushner’s grandmother
wasn’t so lucky. Will today’s refugees suffer a similar fate?
by LIZZY RATNER
THE LAST TIME WE
CLOSED THE GATES
Family album: The Ratowzer house
in Bialystok; an ID card for Max and
Moishe Ratowzer; Osher in Germany,
en route to the United States.

The Nation Magazine
Lifeboat: The RMS
Aquitania ferried
the Ratowzers and
countless others to
t
Aquitania ferried
the Ratowzers and
countless others to

the United States

Statement on Protests at U.C. Berkeley


Statement by U.C. Berkeley Chancellor on  Protests  Last Night 
We condemn in the strongest possible terms the violence and unlawful behavior that was on display, and deeply regret that those tactics will now overshadow the efforts to engage in legitimate and lawful protest against the performer’s presence and perspectives.
The University and the UCPD went to extraordinary lengths to plan for this event and put the appropriate resources in place in order to maintain security. Officials were in contact with other campuses and paid close attention to lessons learned at the speaker’s prior events. Dozens of additional police officers were on duty. Multiple methods of crowd control were in place. Ultimately and unfortunately, however, it was simply impossible to maintain order given the level of threat, disruption, and violence.
We regret that the threats and unlawful actions of a few have interfered with the exercise of First Amendment rights on a campus that is proud of its history and legacy as home of the Free Speech Movement. As Chancellor Dirks made clear in his message to the Berkeley campus community, while Mr. Yiannopoulos views, tactics and rhetoric are profoundly contrary to our own, we are bound by the Constitution, the law, our values, and the campus’s Principles of Community to enable free expression across the full spectrum of opinion and perspective. 
Read the UC Berkeley chancellor’s message, prior to the event, on the Milo Yiannopoulos appearance

Editor Note:  The Left needs to develop means to control or disassociate itself from the action of infantile anarchist movements,  These actions actually advance the agenda of the authoritarian Trump Administration by distracting attention from the important struggles against Trump's border wall, the ban on Muslims, the appointments of neo fascists to government positions.  See post below on non violence.