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<div><ol><li><font size="3"><b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 15px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Bill Blum on Unions and Campaign Finance </span><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 15px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"</span><a href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=RyD818fYLyBGnDJ6Vi4LW%2Bl6unHIP0zo" target="_blank" style="line-height: 15px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(166, 66, 28); cursor: pointer; ">The Right’s Boon in Knox v. SEIU</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 15px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">"</span> </b></font></li><li><h2 class="ReadMsgSubject" style="line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font size="3">Tell Apple to End iSlavery</font></h2></li><li><h2 class="ReadMsgSubject" style="line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font size="3">What's the Matter with Indiana? </font></h2></li><li><h2 class="ReadMsgSubject" style="line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font size="3">Forum on ALBA: Chicago Thursday, March 22 and Friday, March 23 </font></h2></li><li><h2 class="ReadMsgSubject" style="line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font size="3">Participate in a: V Union Meeting " Nuestra America" at Mexico city, Mexico- May 19 to May 27,2012 </font></h2></li><li><h2 class="ReadMsgSubject" style="line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font size="3">Las Revelaciones de Wikileaks: La AFL-CIO y Colombia </font></h2></li><li><h2 class="ReadMsgSubject" style="line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font size="3">Labor Seminar to Cuba April 21 to May 5, 2012 </font></h2></li><li><h2 class="ReadMsgSubject" style="line-height: 24px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font size="3">They need an extension </font></h2></li><li><font size="3"><b><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 17px; ">Michael Moore | A 75th Anniversary for the American Dream, a 25-Year Anniversary for Me</span> </b></font></li><li><font size="3"><b><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 17px; ">The Plight of the Pregnant Worker</span> </b></font> </li></ol></div><div>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</div><div><br></div><div><span class="ecximgborder" style="line-height: 15px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: left; "><a href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=s8t94gBHURVUmiByP2bY5ikBq/Pm%2BtgR" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(166, 66, 28); cursor: pointer; "><img src="http://www.truthdig.com/images/eartothegrounduploads/seiuseiu160.jpg" border="0" alt="" width="160" height="110" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: solid; border-bottom-style: solid; border-left-style: solid; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; border-top-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); border-right-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); border-bottom-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); border-left-color: rgb(153, 153, 153); "></a></span><p style="line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 1.35em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="font-weight: bold; ">Bill Blum on Unions and Campaign Finance</strong><br>"<a href="http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=RyD818fYLyBGnDJ6Vi4LW%2Bl6unHIP0zo" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(166, 66, 28); cursor: pointer; ">The Right’s Boon in Knox v. SEIU</a>" -- On the surface, the case of Knox v. Service Employees International Union (SEIU) lacks blockbuster appeal. But in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, it has the potential to further rig the playing field in favor of big business and the right wing. <br></p><p style="line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 1.35em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></p><p style="line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 1.35em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></p><p style="line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 1.35em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></p><p style="line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 1.35em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></p><p style="line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 1.35em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></p><p style="line-height: 15px; margin-bottom: 1.35em; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></p></div><div>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</div><div><br></div><div><table width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=tKub53ylWUT0ub1js3KNkJ2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><img height="71" width="626" border="0" alt="" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/banner_afl-cio_now_blog_626.jpg" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "></a></td></tr><tr><td><table width="100%" cellpadding="13" border="0" style="line-height: 17px; "><tbody><tr><td><p style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><span style="font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><b style="font-weight: bold; ">Feb. 13, 2012</b></span></span></p><table align="right" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="7" border="0" style="line-height: 17px; width: 22px; height: 38px; "><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center; "><a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=1P1tpDbW8PC4wFe0%2BH7pyZ2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><img border="0" alt="" title="" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/demonstration1-wp.jpg" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "></a><br><span style="line-height: 13px; font-size: 10px; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=pilmuxwCPesT6NKPQBKNOZ2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; ">More than 1,200 labor and community activists from the<br>99% protested Friday outside the “Who’s Who” of the<br>1%—the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)</a>.</span></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><span style="font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">The workers in China who make iPhones, iPads and other Apple products are forced to work in slave-like conditions. Join the more than 250,000 people who are telling Apple to reform the working conditions at factories run by its suppliers. Click <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=XI%2BcYmi1e72gjBMRN57ip52rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><b style="font-weight: bold; ">here</b></a>.</span></span><br></p><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="line-height: 17px; "><tbody><tr><td height="24px" valign="bottom"><a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=1KIJ/LXH8bCmRpSiqvLrzD9tidzpi72/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><img border="0" alt="Read More" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/read_more.gif" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "></a></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><span style="font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">Got comments? Post them at </span></span><a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=Lu/faPCUqysU1fPCWv6FoJ2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "></a><span style="font-size: 13px; "><a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=SxZIpaUkSyoZitPvrapNGJ2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><b style="font-weight: bold; ">blog.aflcio.org</b></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; ">.</span></span></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 13px; "><img height="12" width="16" border="0" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/blog_arrow-blt.gif" alt="" style="line-height: 17px; "> <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=XsAg4jvvSqu1sMk0XOZ27j9tidzpi72/" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">99% Confront the 1% at Conservative Conference</strong></font></a></font></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 13px; "><font face="Arial" color="navy"><font face="Arial" color="navy"><font face="Arial" color="navy"><img height="12" width="16" border="0" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/blog_arrow-blt.gif" alt="" style="line-height: 17px; "> <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=J%2B/br9hrzqOz8dXnddmS152rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">Mitt Romney Earns More by 6 a.m. Than Many Seniors Do in a Year</strong></font></a></font></font></font></font></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 13px; "><img height="12" width="16" border="0" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/blog_arrow-blt.gif" alt="" style="line-height: 17px; "> <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=w2uqP45uswIiZKyTP8y1Ip2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">AFGE Says Republicans Have Some Explaining to Do</strong></font></a></font></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 13px; "><img height="12" width="16" border="0" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/blog_arrow-blt.gif" alt="" style="line-height: 17px; "> <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=KOmYhxon/0qP2/51gnV9QZ2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">CWA, TWU Form New Partnership</strong></font></a></font></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 13px; "><font face="Arial" color="navy"><font face="Arial" color="navy"><font face="Arial" color="navy"><img height="12" width="16" border="0" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/blog_arrow-blt.gif" alt="" style="line-height: 17px; "> <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=oVfdV8BRcwrDQTDKj%2BC2752rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">Dean Baker: Auto Manufacturing Gives Big Boost to Jobs Growth</strong></font></a></font></font></font></font></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 13px; "><font face="Arial" color="navy"><img height="12" width="16" border="0" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/blog_arrow-blt.gif" alt="" style="line-height: 17px; "> <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=cWdMLqAL5ObE9HGn5UR1K52rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">New Guide Offers Advice for Women Seeking Green Jobs</strong></font></a></font></font></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 13px; "><img height="12" width="16" border="0" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/blog_arrow-blt.gif" alt="" style="line-height: 17px; "> <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=uFUGg92EJhzoBJdMCLe4nJ2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">Nominate Your Health Care Reform Champion of Change</strong></font></a></font></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 13px; "><font face="Arial" color="navy"><font face="Arial" color="navy"><font face="Arial" color="navy"><img height="12" width="16" border="0" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/blog_arrow-blt.gif" alt="" style="line-height: 17px; "> <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=LdKJuYj8bHFT23MqOqYNGJ2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">Georgetown Panel Examines Wisconsin Uprising</strong></font></a></font></font></font></font></p><p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 13px; "><font face="Arial" color="navy"><font face="Arial" color="navy"><font face="Arial" color="navy"><img height="12" width="16" border="0" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/blog_arrow-blt.gif" alt="" style="line-height: 17px; "> <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=xbLlJ9ipxB3gihOPtByhsp2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><font face="Arial" color="navy" style="line-height: normal; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">Union Plus Lets You Say It with Flowers for Valentine’s Day</strong></font></a></font></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; text-align: left; "><span style="font-size: 13px; "><a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=vLCrBCRgPuILKlX5mcsd%2BD9tidzpi72/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><span style="font-family: Verdana; "><strong style="font-weight: bold; ">Read more important news</strong></span></a><span style="font-family: Verdana; "> of the day on the issues working families care about.</span></span></p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "></p><table align="center" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="7" bordercolor="#cccccc" border="1" style="line-height: 17px; "><tbody><tr><td><table align="center" width="100%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" style="line-height: 17px; "><tbody><tr><td align="center" valign="middle"><p style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><nobr><span style="font-size: 13px; "><span style="font-family: Arial; "><strong style="font-weight: bold; ">Follow the AFL-CIO:</strong></span></span><strong style="font-weight: bold; "><br></strong><a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=KbK%2B79VFnECTwFVpnWeg4p2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><img border="0" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/images/icon_24x24_facebook.jpg" alt="Facebook" title="Facebook" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "></a> <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=4uA0bgd%2BMYX2z5B4LGokKZ2rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><img border="0" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/images/icon_24x24_twitter.jpg" alt="Twitter" title="Twitter" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "></a> <a href="http://act.aflcio.org/salsa/track.jsp?v=2&c=xM3Jo5sGGXA2Iy70GZwJ252rbmJw/lgB" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><img border="0" src="http://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4001/c/18/images/icon_24x24_googleplus.jpg" alt="Google+" title="Google+" style="border-style: initial; 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There was nary a public peep from union<br>workers about the twin hammer blows - the second delivered<br>only days before the big game - brought upon their heads by<br>the state's conservative Republican lawmakers.<br><br>Just last week Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels led state<br>legislators to pass a "right-to-work" law - the first in the<br>Midwest - striking at the heart of union dues collection and<br>further weakening a union movement that makes up only 11<br>percent of the labor force, a shade below the national<br>average. Upon taking office in 2005, Daniels had also<br>terminated collective bargaining with all public employee<br>unions by executive order. Together, Indiana's anti-union<br>blows were decidedly tougher and more brazen than those<br>delivered by Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin.<br><br>Yet, the popular reaction and public protest in Indiana were<br>relatively mild compared to the seizure of the state capitol<br>and subsequent wave of teacher strikes and extended mass<br>protests centered last year in Madison. Other than<br>leafleting festive crowds with a "remember-the-workers"<br>message, state labor officials and Occupy Indianapolis<br>activists kept a low profile. "We don't want to disrupt<br>anything. We just want to protest, for people to see us and<br>hear our message," said one Occupy Indianapolis organizer.<br>Indeed, the Indiana State Federation of Labor reportedly<br>counseled against any Super Bowl demonstrations for fear<br>that politics would be resented at a sporting event. What,<br>then, explains the relative passivity?<br><br>In Indiana, union forces never found a way to align their<br>plight with the perceived interests of a majority of Hoosier<br>voters. The Wagner Act of 1935, keystone of labor rights in<br>the private sector, pointedly identified "inequality of<br>bargaining power" among "employees who do not possess full<br>freedom of association" as a cause of business depressions,<br>"by depressing wage rates and the purchasing power of wage<br>earners in industry." In that spirit, Indiana union leaders<br>assailed the right-to-work law as an attack on high wages.<br>Yet the argument is no longer self-evident. Today's<br>Republicans assert, to the contrary, that weaker and fewer<br>unions will relieve the recession by attracting more jobs,<br>even if with reduced pay and benefits. This is a difficult<br>debate to win. No one wants a race-to-the-bottom, says one<br>side. Is there another game in town, asks the other.<br><br>An argument centered on the economy already puts the union<br>forces on the defensive. Why should they have to rest their<br>case on statistics of employment growth and business<br>investment over income standards over which they have only<br>limited influence? They are far stronger if they hold to<br>unionism as a principle - i.e., labor rights are human<br>rights. People are better off if they have a say at their<br>workplace. No one today, for example, would publicly<br>advocate restrictions on African-Americans' or women's<br>rights in order somehow to jump-start the economy. Note that<br>even Newt Gingrich's call for sub-minimum wage jobs for poor<br>children did not find a receptive audience. Today,<br>discrimination is taboo in all aspects of society except<br>one: union preference.<br><br>Yet, how much do workers themselves - private sector or<br>public sector - value their own union rights? In Wisconsin,<br>the union presence seemed wedded to a deep sense of civic<br>identity, including connection to a long-standing state<br>tradition of "progressive" innovation and peaceful<br>reconciliation of differences among competing social and<br>economic interests.<br><br>In Indiana, despite the fact that Indianapolis had once<br>hosted more union headquarters than any other city in<br>America, legislated reduction of the union presence<br>triggered no visible sign of larger public hurt. That the<br>union leaders themselves viewed the issue as "mere politics"<br>betrays their own skepticism that worker rights can truly<br>appeal to the public conscience. Yet they stopped short of<br>making the effort: Had thousands of workers - machinists,<br>teachers, nurses, construction workers, et al. - assembled<br>in a disciplined, nonviolent ring around Lucas Oil Stadium,<br>they might have changed the chemistry for the next round of<br>statewide elections.<br><br>Political leadership and strategy were equally absent inside<br>the arena. Like Indiana workers, the NFL Players<br>Association, an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, ultimately depends<br>on state and national labor laws that set the framework and<br>standards for collective bargaining. Yet, beyond a press<br>release and letters of protest from a few Indiana-born<br>players to their state legislators, the Players Association<br>dropped the ball in response to the governor's anti-union<br>assault.<br><br>I could only think of how different was the determination of<br>the 1968 Olympic athletes who raised a black-power salute at<br>their official Olympic awards ceremony. If a similar sense<br>of solidarity had been on display in Indianapolis, players<br>from each team might have unfurled a "union" banner - Norma<br>Rae-like - at halftime and carried it aloft to their<br>respective locker rooms. Better yet, they would have handed<br>off the emblems to Madonna, a long-established member of<br>both the Screen Actors Guild and Directors Guild of America.<br><br>I'm dreaming, of course. This is Indiana.<br><br>[Leon Fink, who graduated a year prior to Governor Mitch<br>Daniels from Indianapolis' North Central High School,<br>teaches labor history at the University of Illinois at<br>Chicago and is the author of "Sweatshops at Sea" (2011).]<br><br>____________________________________________<br><br><pre style="white-space: normal; ">Reader Response: Indiana and Right-to-Work<br><br>Dear Portside Labor,<br><br>Professor Fink's article [originally from Salon.com]<br>significantly misrepresents the numbers, militancy, and<br>ongoing fightback of unionized workers and Occupy<br>groups in reference to the effort to defeat the<br>recently passed right-to-work legislation. Below is<br>just one essay I wrote on the subject (of many). He can<br>also consult various reports on Democracy Now. In<br>addition, there were thousands of workers assembling<br>daily at the State House last spring, and 19 Democrats<br>in the state legislature who absented themselves then<br>and for a shorter time this winter. He is correct to<br>suggest that union density in Indiana has significantly<br>declined but those many trade unionists, often from the<br>Building Trades, and their friends, have been engaged<br>and energized. Many of them promise to be engaged in<br>the fall elections and how state legislators voted on<br>Right-to-Work will be a determinate cause of their<br>behavior.<br><br>Harry Targ<br><br>Right to Work (for less) in Indiana:<br>The Super Bowl of anti-worker legislation<br>by Harry Targ<br>The Rag Blog<br>January 30, 2012<br><br>"The heart of the Super Bowl action will be in<br>downtown Indianapolis at the three-block<br>interactive fan environment known as Super Bowl<br>Village. AFC and NFC fans, families, visitors and<br>locals alike can enjoy this ultimate, free fan zone<br>that spans from Bankers Life Fieldhouse all the way<br>to the NFL Experience at the Indiana Convention<br>Center via the newly redesigned Georgia Street.<br><br>In addition to endless entertainment, interactive<br>games, Tailgate Town, live concerts on two<br>different stages, bars and other attractions, fans<br>can also fly over Super Bowl Village with four zip<br>lines that traverse Capitol Avenue." --<br>VisitIndy.com<br><br>WEST LAFAYETTE, Indiana -- One hundred passionate<br>activists from labor and occupy groups around the state<br>of Indiana assembled at the State House on Saturday,<br>January 28, to continue opposition to the pending<br>"Right-to-Work-for-Less" bill which appears to be close<br>to final endorsement by the legislature and Indiana<br>Governor Mitch Daniels.<br><br>Ironically, Alcoa Corporation just announced the<br>expansion of plant facilities in Lafayette, Indiana,<br>prior to the passage of the odious anti-worker bill<br>that Governor Daniels has claimed will bring more jobs<br>to Indiana. A plant in Iowa, a Right-to-Work State,<br>lost its bid for the Alcoa plant expansion to Indiana,<br>not yet such a state.<br><br>Workers in the Lafayette plant are represented by<br>United Steel Workers of America Local 115.<br><br>The Indiana House of Representatives last week voted<br>54-44 to endorse a Right-To-Work bill (several<br>Republicans voted "no" with their Democratic<br>colleagues). Now the bill returns to the Indiana Senate<br>for discussion of amendments to the bill and final<br>passage before it goes to the desk of the Governor for<br>his signature. Despite the fact that he had promised<br>labor in the past that he would not support such a<br>bill, the Governor made it his top priority item in the<br>2012 legislative session.<br><br>The intense political battle over RTW has occurred in<br>the context of enormous celebration of the impending<br>arrival of 150,000 NFL fans to the Super Bowl which<br>will be played in Indianapolis on Sunday, February 5.<br>Indianapolis big money interests have been lobbying for<br>this event for years, hoping to put the city on the map<br>for hosting huge money-making events such as the<br>football classic.<br><br>Two buses of RTW protesters traveled from Lafayette,<br>Indiana, and Purdue University, 65 miles away, to the<br>rally. After spirited speeches, including remarks from<br>three state legislators, representatives from building<br>trades unions, students, and professors, rally<br>organizers led a march through the Super Bowl village<br>in downtown Indianapolis. Marchers were seen by<br>thousands of Super Bowl celebrants who were roaming<br>around the village spending money in dozens of food and<br>entertainment venues.<br><br>Demonstrators encountered some hostile reactions,<br>including physical jostling, but also numerous thumbs<br>up and clenched fists in support of protestors carrying<br>placards demanding "Kill the Bill," "Workers United<br>Will Prevail," and "Occupy Purdue."<br><br>Opposition to Right-to-Work has a decade-long history<br>around the state since the governorship and the Indiana<br>House of Representatives has shifted from Republican to<br>Democrat and then Republican control. The Republicans,<br>for their part, are committed to destroying the labor<br>movement not only to reduce labor costs but also to end<br>political opposition to their domination of state<br>government.<br><br>Among the responses has been the Indiana Coalition for<br>Worker Rights initiated by the Northwest Central Labor<br>Council, AFL-CIO, in 2006, "to educate and mobilize<br>workers to demand and defend worker rights." It pledged<br>itself to:<br><br>educate union members and the public about the<br>negative consequences of "Right-to-Work (for Less)"<br>legislation;<br>challenge the general shift toward privatization of<br>public institutions such as schools, libraries, and<br>health care delivery systems;<br>mobilize citizens to support a living wage for all<br>workers, affordable health care and education, and<br>greater worker rights to participate in the<br>workplace and the political system;<br>and work with others to create a coalition of<br>informed citizens "who believe that the protection<br>of workers' rights is the bedrock of our democratic<br>society."<br><br>In the summer of 2011, a coalition representing various<br>progressive groups in the Greater Lafayette community<br>formed to work on reproductive health care, civil<br>liberties, peace, and labor rights. The new<br>organization, the Indiana Rebuild the American Dream<br>Coalition, held jobs and justice rallies in downtown<br>Lafayette in November.<br><br>Parallel to these developments the Tippecanoe Building<br>and Construction Trades AFL-CIO and Occupy Purdue and<br>Occupy Lafayette have mobilized around Right to Work<br>and a whole range of issues that concern the 99 per<br>cent.<br><br>It is clear from the experiences of small communities<br>such as those in Tippecanoe County (Lafayette and West<br>Lafayette are the population centers) and various other<br>communities all across Indiana that so-called "outside"<br>and "inside" strategies are needed to fight back<br>against the draconian efforts to destroy worker rights,<br>to promote acceptable living conditions for all, and to<br>begin to create a better world.<br><br>Outside strategies include mass mobilizations,<br>protests, educational forums, and dramatic public<br>displays of peoples' views in venues such as the Super<br>Bowl celebrations.<br><br>Jim Ogden, Lafayette, union electrician from IBEW Local<br>668, articulated a strategy of how best to connect the<br>mass mobilizations to electoral work, a so-called<br>"inside strategy":<br><br>We realize that at this point where it's at in the<br>legislation. We probably will not stop this.<br><br>At this point, I think we're looking at this as a<br>kickoff for the elections in November. And trying<br>to do whatever we can to get the Republicans that<br>had voted for this, to get them out of office.<br>(Journal and Courier, January 29, 2012)<br><br>It is clear that the electoral process cannot alone<br>defend workers rights. However, in the context of the<br>immediate needs of the 99 percent, elections, in<br>conjunction with massive public expressions of protest,<br>must constitute a critical component of the work of<br>progressives in the months ahead.<br><br>[Harry Targ is a professor of political science at<br>Purdue University who lives in West Lafayette, Indiana.<br>He blogs at Diary of a Heartland Radical -- and that's<br>also the name of his new book which can be found at<br>Lulu.com. Read more of Harry Targ's articles on The Rag<br>Blog.]<br><br>____________________________________________<br><br>PortsideLabor aims to provide material of interest to<br>people on the left that will help them to interpret the<br>world and to change it.<br></pre></pre><pre style="line-height: 17px; white-space: normal; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></pre></div><div>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</div><div><br></div><div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" align="center" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); text-align: center; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; ">The U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange conferences in Tijuana, Mexico focus on theses themes specifically related to workers. Please welcome Cuban Ambassador Bolanos at this excellent and informative forum! For more information on the Tijuana Conferences, bookmark: laborexchange.blogspot.com</div><hr style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div class="ecxMsoNormal" align="center" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); text-align: center; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span style="line-height: 27px; font-family: Georgia; color: navy; font-size: 16pt; ">Forum on ALBA: <br>Latin America and the Continental Integration of the Peoples</span></b></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" align="center" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); text-align: center; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><span style="line-height: 19px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; ">The achievements of ALBA-TCP</span><span style="line-height: 19px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; "> (a</span><span style="line-height: 19px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 11pt; ">lba-tcp.org) and the integration of the continental social movements<br> </span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" align="center" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: center; margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(165, 0, 33); right: auto; ">Thursday, March </span></b><b style="font-weight: bold; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(165, 0, 33); ">22</span></b><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(165, 0, 33); right: auto; "> and Friday, March </span></b><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(165, 0, 33); right: auto; ">23<br>5:00-8:00</span></b><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(165, 0, 33); right: auto; ">pm DePaul University<br>Schmitt Academic Center (SAC) Room </span></b><b style="font-weight: bold; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(165, 0, 33); ">154</span></b><b style="font-weight: bold; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(165, 0, 33); "> <br></span></b><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Arial; color: rgb(165, 0, 33); right: auto; ">2320</span></b><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(165, 0, 33); right: auto; "> N. Kenmore, Chicago<br><br></span></b></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><u style="right: auto; "><span style="line-height: 23px; font-family: Georgia; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; ">Thursday, March </span></u></b><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><u style="right: auto; "><span style="line-height: 23px; font-family: Arial; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; ">22</span></u></b><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><u style="right: auto; "><span style="line-height: 23px; font-family: Georgia; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; ">:<span style="right: auto; "> </span><br></span></u></b><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; right: auto; ">Conference on the Social Movements of the ALBA-TCP Nations</span></b></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; "><u><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">Luther Castillo</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">, S</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); right: auto; ">pokesperson for the Honduran People’s Front for</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; right: auto; ">National Resistance; </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); right: auto; "><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><font color="#000000" style="line-height: normal; right: auto; "> </font></span><span style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-size: 12pt; ">co-coordinator of Cuba’s Latin American School</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; "><font color="#000000" style="line-height: normal; right: auto; "> of Medicine's international </font></span>team of physicians working in Hait</span><span style="font-family: Georgia; right: auto; ">i after the earthquake</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><u style="right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; right: auto; ">Rummie Quintero,</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; right: auto; "> LGBT activist, Venezuela</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><u style="right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; right: auto; ">José Aguilar</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">, Free Software Movement, Venezuela</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><u style="right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; right: auto; ">Amenothep Zambrano</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; right: auto; ">, Executive Secretary of ALBA-TCP</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><u style="right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; right: auto; ">Jose Pertierra</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; ">, </span><strong style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span lang="EN" style="font-family: Georgia; right: auto; font-weight: normal; ">represents Venezuelan government in the case to extradite Luis Posada Carriles</span></strong></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; "><u><span style="line-height: 23px; font-family: Georgia; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; "><br>Friday, March </span></u></b><b style="font-weight: bold; "><u><span style="line-height: 23px; font-family: Arial; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; ">23</span></u></b><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><u style="right: auto; "><span style="line-height: 23px; font-family: Georgia; color: black; font-size: 13.5pt; ">: <br></span></u></b><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; right: auto; ">Conference with Diplomats of the ALBA-TCP Nations</span></b></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><u style="right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; right: auto; ">Francisco Campbell Hooker, </span></u></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">Nicaragua Ambassador in Washington</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><u style="right: auto; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; right: auto; ">Jorge Bolaños Suárez,</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; "> Chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; "><u><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">Angelo Rivero,</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; right: auto; "> Presiding Officer of the Embassy of Venezuela in Washington</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(252, 252, 252); margin-right: 5.75pt; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 5.75pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; "><u><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">Freddy Bersatti Tudela</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; ">, </span><span style="font-family: Georgia; color: black; right: auto; ">Presiding Officer of the Embassy of the Plurinational State of Bolivia in Washington</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; "><span style="font-family: Georgia; "> </span><b style="font-weight: bold; "><u><span style="font-family: Georgia; ">Amenothep Zambrano,</span></u></b><span style="font-family: Georgia; "> Executive Secretary of ALBA-TCP</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "> </div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "> </div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" align="center" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: center; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "><font color="#00007f" style="line-height: normal; right: auto; "><b style="line-height: 20px; font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 14pt; ">Organized by: DePaul University, General Consulate of Venezuela in Chicago,</span></b></font></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" align="center" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: center; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "><font color="#00007f" style="line-height: normal; right: auto; "><b style="line-height: 20px; font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span lang="ES-VE" style="line-height: 24px; font-size: 14pt; ">Chicago Committee to Free the Cuban 5, La Voz de los de Abajo.</span></b></font></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "> </div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "><font color="#00007f" style="line-height: normal; right: auto; "><b style="line-height: 20px; font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span lang="ES-VE" style="right: auto; "><span style="right: auto; "> </span>For more information:</span></b><span style="line-height: 20px; right: auto; "> <strong style="font-weight: bold; "> Jesús Rodríguez Espinoza <<a href="mailto:ven.chicago@gmail.com" style="font-weight: inherit; color: blue; cursor: pointer; ">ven.chicago@gmail.com</a>>; Stan Smith, </strong><a href="mailto:uscubachi@yahoo.com" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; right: auto; "><span style="color: windowtext; right: auto; text-decoration: none; "><strong style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><font color="#00007f" style="line-height: normal; right: auto; ">uscubachi@yahoo.com</font></strong></span></a><strong style="font-weight: bold; "><font color="#00007f" style="line-height: normal; ">, 773-376-7521</font></strong></span></font></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "> </div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span lang="ES-VE" style="right: auto; "> </span></b><b style="font-weight: bold; "><span lang="ES-VE"> </span></b></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "> </div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span lang="ES-VE" style="right: auto; ">What is ALBA?</span></b></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "> </div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "><span lang="EN" style="right: auto; "> The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America - Trade Treaty of the People (ALBA-TCP) presently consists of</span> Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia, Ecuador, Dominica, St. Vincent and Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, and Nicaragua.</div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "> </div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "><span style="right: auto; "> “ALBA’s fight is for a second true independence for Latin America and Caribbean; to free ourselves from poverty and illiteracy and achieve development for our people,” explains Amenothep Zambrano, Executive Secretary of ALBA.</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "> ALBA is a trade agreement that mutually benefits all parties based on the strengths and weaknesses of each of the members. It<span lang="EN" style="right: auto; "> builds Latin American unity and solidarity through mutual economic development, fair trade, joint development projects and South-South coordination. This is a radical break neo-colonial history based upon imperial exploitation, the fiction of a free market, and domination by the United States.</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: white; text-align: justify; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "> </div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: white; text-align: justify; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span lang="EN" style="right: auto; ">Why was ALBA created?</span></b></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: white; text-align: justify; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "> </div><div style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); right: auto; "><span style="right: auto; "> ALBA was created as a direct response to the attempt by the United States to impose the Free Trade Area of the Americas treaty on the entire region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Implementation of the FTAA would have imposed intensified neo-liberal economic policies, increasing crushing levels of poverty, unemployment and foreign-imposed debt.</span></div><div style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); right: auto; "> </div><div style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); right: auto; "><span style="right: auto; "> Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro formally created ALBA on Dec. 14, 2004, at the celebration of the 180th anniversary of the victory of Ayacucho, the day Simón Bolívar’s army won independence from Spain</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; ">The need for alliances such as ALBA is demonstrated by the more than 50-year-long war waged by the United States against Cuba, the 2002 failed U.S.-coup attempt against Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the 2009 U.S. coup against the democratically-elected pro-ALBA president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, the 7 new U.S. military bases in Colombia, and the failed U.S. coups in Bolivia and Ecuador.<span lang="EN">ALBA countries have recently condemned foreign intervention in Libya and Syria, and have recently strengthened their ties with Iran.</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "> </div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: white; text-align: justify; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "><b style="font-weight: bold; right: auto; "><span style="right: auto; ">What Has ALBA Accomplished?</span></b></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: white; text-align: justify; margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; right: auto; "> </div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "><span style="right: auto; "> ALBA initiatives include: the ALBA Bank,</span> funding the different development projects in their countries, working towards independence from the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and other exploiting global institutions;<span style="right: auto; "> the creation of 12 public companies to strengthen national economies in agriculture, infrastructure, telecommunications, industrial supplies and cement production; PetroCaribe, which greatly increases access to energy resources; and a diverse array of health and education programs.</span></div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "> </div><div class="ecxMsoNormal" style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-right: 0in; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-left: 0in; right: auto; "><span style="right: auto; "> ALBA’s social achievements include the elimination of poverty for 11 million people in only five years, through free universal education, food programs, and health programs. Unemployment has dropped to 8.7%, lower than in the U.S. Literacy rates have risen from 84% to 96%; now Bolivia and Nicaragua join Cuba and Venezuela in being free of illiteracy. Infant mortality rates have been reduced by 32%; life expectancy increased to 73 years. </span><span lang="EN" style="right: auto; ">1,899.808 people have had their vision restored or improved through Mision Milagro.</span><span lang="EN" style="right: auto; "> 2,294,666 handicapped persons have received health care service for their problems. </span>Hundreds of their countries students are enrolled in ALBA’s Latin American School of Medicine to develop still more critically-needed medical workers.</div><div style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); right: auto; "> </div><div style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); right: auto; "><span style="right: auto; "> The leading official of the Venezuela Embassy recently noted that U.S. media routinely demonizes ALBA and its programs as threats to its own system. He disputed that, saying that ALBA and its programs are “not threats but opportunities taken by Latin American and Caribbean countries to develop their own people with their own resources….We have changed and we aren’t going back. If U.S. representatives understand this, we will be able to go forward, if not, we will defend what we have created!”</span></div></div><div style="line-height: 20px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; font-size: 16px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); right: auto; "><span style="right: auto; "><br></span></div><div>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</div><div><br></div><div><p style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 1.35em; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: small; "><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 10pt; ">Participate in a: V Union Meeting " Nuestra America" at Mexico city, Mexico</font><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">- May 19 to May 27, 2012.</font></span></p><div style="line-height: 17px; padding-top: 25px; padding-right: 15px; padding-bottom: 15px; padding-left: 15px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; font-family: arial; "><div style="font-family: helvetica, arial; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_61713f0c-bd78-446d-beb7-00bf4142ba0c"><font color="black" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; "><br><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_2_8b5a085b-001e-47b7-9048-cff1f9162c42" style="font-size: 10pt; "><font face="arial" color="black" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_2_14543a60-6cb8-47d3-992f-294acf49e28d" style="line-height: 17px; "><font face="arial" color="black" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_2_d6ff21d8-f99d-4570-b6c8-c58af4bd1442"><font face="arial" color="black" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; "><font size="7" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 10pt; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">US/Cuba Labor Exchange </strong></font><br><br><strong style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt; ">P.O. Box 39188 Redford, MI 48239 Phone/Fax: (313) 318 5159 E-mail:</strong><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "> </font><a href="http://www.organizerweb.com/mailman/listinfo/laborexchange-n" target="_blank" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; font-size: 10pt; ">laborexchange @ </a><a href="http://aol.com/" target="_blank" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; font-size: 10pt; ">aol.com</a><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "> </font><br><br><font style="line-height: normal; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; "><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">Join the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange to participate in a: V Union Meeting " Nuestra America" at </font>Mexico City<font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "> - </font></strong></font><font size="3" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 10pt; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">Uniting America’s Working Class and Increasing its Influence<br></strong></font></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><font size="3" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 10pt; "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">Raising the level of struggle and Unity of the Worker Movements </strong></font><br><br><strong style="font-weight: bold; "><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">A Labor delegation to </font>Mexico City<font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">, from Saturday May 19 to Sunday May 27, 2012 </font><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">Labor Seminar-United for a New America, We will participate in V Union Meeting " Nuestra America"</font><div style="font-size: 10pt; "> </div></strong></div></font></div></div></font></div><div style="line-height: 17px; "><font face="arial" color="black" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "><font face="arial" color="black" size="2"><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; "><span class="ecxApple-style-span" style="font-size: 10pt; ">The price of the trip will include: round trip International airfare (</span>Los Angeles, California to Mexico City<font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">), hotel (double occupancy), breakfast, Dinner, internal transportation to and from the program, translation, and the program.* The price of $1,350 is good until the end of March, The price may increase for any application made after that date. </font><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "> </font><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">A group of trade unionists and workers are exercising their constitutional right to travel to Mexico, to gather educational information and to have an exchange of ideas with other workers of the world. These rights are guaranteed by the US Constitution and by the International Human Rights declaration of the United Nations.</font><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "> </font><br><strong style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt; ">All questions MUST be completed. PLEASE PRINT neatly and/or type. <br>The original application must be submitted, with a copy of your passport attached and $300 USDollars<br>deposit made payable to the Labor Exchange. All information will be kept confidential</strong><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "> </font><br><br><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">Legal Name (as it appears on passport):_____________________________________________ </font><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">Address:__________________________________________________________________________ </font><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">City_______________________________ State ______________________ Zip Code___________ </font><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">Phone/Fax _____________________________e-mail: ____________________________________ </font><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">Union/Organization__________________________________________________________________ </font><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">How/from whom did you learn about the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange ___________________________ </font><br><br><br><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">Passport#_________________________________ Expiration Date_________________ </font><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">Date of birth__________________________ Place of birth __________________ _______________ </font><br><font class="ecxApple-style-span" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "> </font><br><strong style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 10pt; ">Please mail your application to: <br>US/Cuba Labor Exchange <br>P.O. Box 39188 <br>Redford, MI 48239 <br>Phone/Fax:(313) 318 5159</strong></div></font></font><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica; "><font face="arial" color="black" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "><font face="arial" color="black" size="2">mailto:<a href="http://www.organizerweb.com/mailman/listinfo/laborexchange-n" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: blue; cursor: pointer; ">laborexchange @ </a><a href="http://aol.com/" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: blue; cursor: pointer; ">aol.com</a></font></font></div><div style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica; "><font face="arial" color="black" size="2" style="line-height: normal; "><br></font></div></div></font></div></span></font></div></div></div></div><div>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</div><div><br></div><div><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: small; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br>The Wikileaks Revelations: The AFL-CIO and Colombia</div><div style="line-height: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-size: 10pt; font-family: arial, helvetica; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_78ba34b8-a958-4e7d-8a36-254295ba1331"><div><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/05/the-afl-cio-and-the-colombia/" target="_blank" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; ">http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/05/the-afl-cio-and-the-colombia/</a></div><div> </div><div> </div><div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">5 de enero del 2012</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO"><br></span><strong style="font-weight: bold; "><span lang="ES-CO">Las Revelaciones de Wikileaks: La AFL-CIO y Colombia</span></strong><span lang="ES-CO"> </span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO"><br><br><br>Por ALBERTO C. RUIZ</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO"> </span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Ernesto Guevara “siente que en asuntos sociales y políticos el papel de América Latina <em>ha sido</em></span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><em><span lang="ES-CO">uno de abandono. Como ejemplo de esto, el observo en una ocasion,‘Cinco mil trabajadores son</span></em></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><em><span lang="ES-CO">balaceados en el altiplano boliviano, y quizás aparezca una línea en los periódicos de Nueva</span></em></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><em><span lang="ES-CO">York, que mencionan que hay disturbios laborales en Bolivia.” El se pregunta si los sindicatos</span></em></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><em><span lang="ES-CO">dizque internacionales de los Estados Unidos tomarían un interés en el trabajador suramericano</span></em></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><em><span lang="ES-CO">y si esto pudiera ayudar a elevar la calidad de vida de los latinoamericanos a un nivel que se</span></em></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><em><span lang="ES-CO">aproxime mas a la de los norteamericanos.”</span></em></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO"> </span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">–reporte biográfico de la CIA sobre el Che, 1958<em> </em></span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">(como reproducido en </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193592849X/counterpunchmaga" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; "><em><span lang="ES-CO">Who Killed Che? How the CIA Got Away with Murder</span></em></a><span lang="ES-CO">).</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Muchos de nosotros nos hemos preguntado lo mismo en cuanto a “los sindicatos dizque internacionales” de los Estados Unidos y si ellos tomarían un verdadero y sincero interés en los trabajadores de América Latina. Durante algún tiempo, parecía que, a pesar de sus defectos en otros países como Venezuela, la AFL-CIO había tomado un interés genuino en los trabajadores de Colombia. En concreto, parecía que la AFL-CIO había tomado una buena posición en contra de la violencia anti-sindical sin precedentes en ese país– “el país más peligroso en el mundo para ser sindicalista” como la Confederación Sindical Internacional (CAS/ITUC) ha opinado cada año durante muchos años. Los cables diplomáticos filtrados por Wikileaks, sin embargo, demuestran un rol más ambiguo! .</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO"> </span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Primero, los antecedentes históricos de Colombia. Desde el 1986, alrededor de 2900 sindicalistas han sido asesinados en ese país. Según la CSI/ITUC, que depende por su parte de la respetada Escuela Nacional Sindical de Colombia (ENS), 51 sindicalistas (de un total de 90 a nivel mundial) fueron asesinados en el 2010. En el 2011, por lo menos 28 líderes sindicales fueron asesinados, mientras centenares más (incluyendo 600 maestros/as) fueron amenazados con daños físicos, incluyendo la muerte. El gobierno colombiano, en un intento de maquillar su imagen y ganar aprobación del tratado de libre comercio en el congreso de los Estados Unidos (lo cual lo logro en octubre del año pasado) ha tratado de cuestionar estos datos. Lo ha hecho alegando que algunos de los sindicalistas incluidos en estos datos fueron asesinados, no por ser sindicalistas! , sino por otras razones, por ejemplo como resultado de delincuencia común o crímenes pasionales.</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Y por esto, por ejemplo, el gobierno colombiano tomo la posición que en el 2010, solo 37 de los sindicalistas asesinados en Colombia (del total de 51) fueron asesinados <em>por ser sindicalistas,</em> y que este es el dato que de debería usar cuando contando las víctimas. Sin embargo, aun si aceptamos estas cifras como las correctas en cuanto a los sindicalistas asesinados por ser sindicalistas en Colombia en el 2010, esto todavía significaría que en Colombia se cometieron más de 40% de los asesinatos de sindicalistas en el mundo entero – no exactamente algo del cual el gobierno colombiano se pueda jactar. De todas maneras, la lucha sobre estas cifras es altamente contenciosa, y por serias razones de política.</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Otro importante tema de fondo es la naturaleza en si del sindicalismo en Colombia. El punto de vista de grupos de derechos humanos y laborales honestos es que los sindicatos en Colombia, que representan diversas perspectivas desde la izquierda extrema hasta la derecha extrema, y de todo entre las dos posiciones, son actores cívicos y pacíficos en Colombia y merecen protecciones contra la violencia armada en Colombia. Esta es la política oficial del gobierno de los Estados Unidos que de hecho provee ayuda para protección sindical en Colombia. Esto puede ser considerado contradictorio con la política continua de los Estados Unidos de proveer ayuda masiva al ejército colombiano que en si es responsable de asesinatos anti-sindicales y aliado de los paramilitares derechistas quienes cometen la gran mayoría de los asesinatos de sindicalistas en Colombia. Sin emb! argo, el punto es que el gobierno de los Estados Unidos, particularmente el Departamento de Estado, no cuestiona oficialmente los legítimos y pacíficos objetivos del movimiento sindical colombiano.</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Por otro lado está el gobierno colombiano que, especialmente bajo el Presidente Álvaro Uribe quien ejerció el cargo entre el 2002 y 2010, intento justificar y hasta legitimar el asesinato de sindicalistas al tratar de presentar a los sindicalistas en Colombia en general como aliados de alguna manera, o de hecho o solo de pensamiento, de las guerrillas izquierdistas en ese país. Esta estigmatización del movimiento sindicalista colombiano no solo ha servido para justificar asesinatos de sindicalistas, sino que ha motivado asesinatos. Esto es porque los paramilitares derechistas, quienes son aliados del ejército, tienen la tendencia de matar a cualquier persona quien ellos ven como posiblemente alineado, otra vez aun si solo es en pensamiento, a las guerrillas. Y así, esta estigmatización sirve como luz verde para los paramilitares para llevar a cabo asesinatos ! extra-judiciales de sindicalistas. Por eso es que en Colombia es tan peligroso acusar a alguien de ser guerrillero. Del mismo modo, acusar a alguien de ser comunista es igualmente peligroso dada la realidad de que guerrilleros y comunistas son vistos como la misma cosa por los paramilitares en Colombia.</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">En resumen, las varias maneras en que son representados los sindicalistas en Colombia no solo es una cuestión académica; es literalmente un asunto de vida y muerte.</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Esto nos lleva a examinar los cables diplomáticos de Wikileaks. Hay alrededor de una docena de cables de Wikileaks que reflejan reuniones entre el Solidarity Center de la AFL-CIO y la embajada de los Estados Unidos y son bastante reveladores. Por ejemplo, hay un cable de la embajada del 11 de Agosto del 2008, titulado, “COLOMBIAN UNIONS, IDEOLOGY, AND THE ARMED CONFLICT.” [“SINDICATOS COLOMBIANOS, IDEOLOGIA, Y EL CONFLICTO ARMADO”] Y, en este cable, Rhett Doumitt del Solidarity Center [el mismo empleado del la AFL-CIO que directamente participo y apoyo a las fuerzas que llevaron adelante el golpe contra el Presidente Chávez en el 2002] expreso fuertes opiniones sobre este tema a la embajada de los Estados Unidos, en particular al Embajador Brownfield.</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">En este cable, se reporta que el señor Doumitt se “quejo de los métodos ‘Estalinistas’ de los Comunistas y otros líderes sindicales de la dura izquierda dentro del CUT,” la más grande confederación sindical en Colombia. El cable continúa:</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><em><span lang="ES-CO">En el 2006, ellos se afiliaron a la confederación internacional Socialdemócrata, que después se convirtió en la Confederación Sindical Internacional (CSI/ITUC). Aun así, RHETT DOUMITT del Solidarity Center afiliado a la AFL-CIO dijo que los Comunistas literalmente ‘apagaron las luces’ en la convención como último intento de impedir esta afiliación.</span></em></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Más adelante en el cable, DOUMITT se queja de que las políticas del movimiento sindical en Colombia hacen más difícil lograr avances positivos y prácticos en cuanto a temas laborales. En el “dialogo laboral” mensual del 22 de abril con el Presidente Uribe, las confederaciones centraron sus discusiones en torno a las investigaciones a los congresistas colombianos asociados al escándalo de la parapolítica. El Secretario de Relaciones Internacionales de la CGT (Confederación General de Trabajadores Democráticos) José León Ramírez reporto que no hubo discusión de temas laborales en la reunión. Sin embargo, DOUMITT dice que los sindicatos han progresando al alejarse de sus polémicas perspectivas tradicionales de la época de la guerra fría.</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Otro cable de otra reunión indica quejas idénticas a la Embajada por parte de Doumitt acerca de la costumbre del movimiento sindical colombiano de elevar sus intereses políticas – por ejemplo, en cuanto al escándalo de la “parapolítica” en el cual se vieron involucrados muchos políticos acusados de colaborar con los paramilitares que, entre otras cosas, han estado buscando y matando a líderes sindicales – sobre intereses meramente laborales. En este cable, fechado 5 de febrero del 2009, Doumitt se queja de que “la percepción que tiene el publico de que los sindicatos se preocupan más por la política que por los temas que afectan a los trabajadores también pone límites a la afiliación sindical. Doumitt se quejó de que el enfoque político del movimiento sindical en Colombia obstaculi! za avances positivos y prácticos en cuanto a temas laborales, pero notó que algunos sindicatos se están distanciando de sus tradicionales ideologías socialistas.”</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">En otro cable, fechado 5 de septiembre del 2008, Doumitt parece apoyar la posición del gobierno colombiano en cuanto los términos de debate sobre las cifras de sindicalistas asesinados en Colombia. Así que el cable dice:</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><em><span lang="ES-CO">RHETT DOUMITT del Solidarity Center afiliado a la AFL-CIO nos dijo que la violencia paramilitar contra sindicalistas disminuyó después de la desmovilización del último bloque paramilitar en el 2006. Los más recientes asesinatos de sindicalistas son en gran parte relacionados a la delincuencia común . . .</span></em></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">El tenor de estos cables se repite en otros países latinoamericanos, como en Ecuador, donde la Embajada reporto sobre una reunión con oficiales del Solidarity Center quienes le dijeron a la Embajada “que los sindicatos generalmente tienen una mala reputación en todos aspectos. Trabajadores jóvenes los ven como comunistas o irrelevantes, y la mayoría de ecuatorianos los ven como actores esencialmente egoístas.” En un cable del 22 de enero del 2007, procedente de Perú, y titulado, “GOP [Gobierno del Perú] Gana Batalla Contra Sindicato Radical de Maestros,” el representante local de la AFL-CIO es citado como alineándose con el gobierno en esta victoria legal que, entre otras cosas, limito el número de maestros (de 314 a 30) quienes pueden participar en actividades sindicales a tiempo completo y a la vez recibir sus s! alarios de maestros. Así, el cable dice: “Según Oscar Muro de la oficina local de la AFL-CIO, hay veces que el fondo ayuda a los maestros pero es frecuentemente mal usado. El además dijo que 30 representantes subsidiados es una cantidad generosa ya que ningún otro sindicato en el país tiene tan alto número de posiciones como porcentaje de afiliados.” Finalmente, en un cable que salió de Managua, fechado 23 de enero del 2007, y tratando el tema de reuniones con varias ONG’s anti-Sandinistas, el cable explica que los sindicatos pueden jugar un papel para desafiar las políticas del Presidente Daniel Ortega, y que “l Embajador ofreció reunirse con sindicatos independientes y sugirió que Huembés [un líder sindical de un sindicato no ligado al FSLN] contactara al represéntate regional de la AFL-CIO en Guatemala para pedir consejos.”</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Lo que estos cables muestran es una organización, la AFL-CIO, que está comprometida con el Departamento de Estado de los Estados Unidos y que esta reportándole información con regularidad. Entre otras cosas, está reportando sobre las manchas percibidas de los movimientos sindicales en esos países donde opera. Y, como durante la Guerra Fría, las “manchas” que está reportando en muchas instancias tienen que ver con la naturaleza izquierdista y posiblemente socialista o comunista de estos sindicatos. Por supuesto, la AFL-CIO le está reportando esta información al gobierno estadounidense que es hostil a estas instituciones izquierdistas y que se dedica a acabar con ellas. El cable procedente de Nicaragua hasta muestra al mismo Embajador instando a la AFL-CIO para ayudarle a agitar en contra del Presidente Sandinista Daniel Ortega.</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Este tipo de conducta por parte de la AFL-CIO es especialmente peligrosa en el caso de Colombia donde los sindicalistas están siendo amenazados y asesinados en números sin precedentes por actores estatales y cuasi-estatales que reciben su apoyo de los Estados Unidos, y donde los Estados Unidos es una poderosa fuerza interventora.</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">En el peor de los casos, estos señalamientos anti-izquierdistas del movimiento sindical en un país como Colombia a los patrocinadores militares (los EE.UU.) de ese país tienen el efecto de arriesgar las vidas de sindicalistas – quienes la AFL-CIO proclaman defender.</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO"> </span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">Es más, esta conducta por parte de la AFL-CIO tiene un impacto adverso en cuanto a la política estadounidense. Por ejemplo, en el caso de Colombia, socavar la posición del movimiento sindical en los ojos del gobierno de los Estados Unidos solo sirve para debilitar la causa de los sindicatos estadounidenses y colombianos que desesperadamente intentaron, y lograron por varios años, prevenir la aprobación del Tratado de Libre Comercio con Colombia, en gran parte basándose en el argumento de que Colombia no merecía ser premiado por su violencia anti-sindical. El mensaje fue severamente comprometido — y posiblemente de manera fatal como se vio con la aprobación en última instancia del TLC bajo Obama — por el representante de la AFL-CIO en Bogotá quien, por lo menos como queda reflejado en los cables, describi&oacut! e; las preocupaciones de los sindicatos colombianos como carecientes de valor, o porque los sindicatos son carecientes de valor por ser plagados </span> de comunistas o demasiado “políticos” (es decir, muy enfocados en el tema de funcionarios gubernamentales colaborando con escuadrones de muerte paramilitares), o porque el tema de la violencia no es tan importante como dicen esos sindicatos.</div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"> </div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO">En resumen, la AFL-CIO continúa haciendo el trabajo, no de un verdadero sindicato internacional, pero de una organización imperialista que se ve alineada con la política extranjera de los EE.UU. en hacerle frente al movimiento por el cambio radical y el socialismo en el mundo. Yo puedo decir que, como alguien que cree en la causa del socialismo – una causa más relevante ahora que nunca dada la actual crisis mundial del capitalismo – esto no es lo que quiero que quienes hablan a nombre de los trabajadores en otras partes del mundo hagan. Yo presento para consideración que el movimiento sindical de los Estados Unidos haría mejor, en vez de impertinentemente dándole lecciones a sindicatos en otros países acerca de lo que deberían estar haciendo y que orientación política deberían estar siguiendo, enfocándose en sus ! propios esfuerzos para organizar a los trabajadores y en agitando para lograr el cambio verdadero en este país – esfuerzos en los cuales ha tenido una actuación bastante inadecuada desde los años 1930 cuando, o si, estaban siendo estimulados y liderados por socialistas y comunistas militantes.</span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><span lang="ES-CO"> </span></div><div class="ecxyiv190328749MsoNormal"><strong style="font-weight: bold; "><em><span lang="ES-CO">Alberto C. Ruiz</span></em></strong><em><span lang="ES-CO"> es un sindicalista, activista pacifista, y socialista de mucho tiempo.</span></em></div></div><div>---------------------------------------------------------------------------</div><div><a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/05/the-afl-cio-and-the-colombia/" target="_blank" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; ">http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/01/05/the-afl-cio-and-the-colombia/</a></div><div>JANUARY 05, 2012</div><div> </div><div><span style="line-height: 41px; font-size: xx-large; ">The Wikileaks Revelations: The AFL-CIO and Colombia</span></div><div><div> </div></div><div class="ecxsubheadlinestyle"> </div><div class="ecxmainauthorstyle">by ALBERTO C. RUIZ</div><div class="ecxmain-text"><blockquote><div>Ernesto Guevara “<em>feels that in social and political matters the role of Latin America has been one of neglect. As an example of this, he remarked on one occasion, ‘Five thousand workers are shot down in the Bolivian highlands, and maybe there is one line in the New York papers, which mentions that there is labor unrest in Bolivia.’ He wonders if the United States so-called international labor unions would take an interest in the South American worker and if it might help to raise the living standards of the Latin Americans to a level which might come closer to that of the North Americans.”</em></div><div><em> </em>–CIA biographical report on Che, 1958<em> </em></div><div><em> </em>(as reproduced in <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/193592849X/counterpunchmaga" target="_blank" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer; ">Who Killed Che? How the CIA Got Away with Murder</a></em>).</div></blockquote><div>Many of us have wondered the very same thing about “the so-called international labor unions” in the U.S. and whether they would take a real, sincere interest in the workers of Latin America. For some time, it has appeared that, for whatever its faults in other countries such as Venezuela, the AFL-CIO has taken a bona fide interest in the workers of Colombia. Specifically, it has seemed that the AFL-CIO has taken a good line in opposing the unprecedented anti-union violence in that country – “the most dangerous country in the world to be a trade unionist” as the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has opined each year for the past many years. The diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks, however, show a more equivocal role.</div><div>First, some background on Colombia. Since 1986, around 2900 unionists have been killed in that country. According to the ITUC, which itself relies upon the well-respected National Labor School of Colombia (ENS), 51 unionists (out of 90 worldwide) were killed in 2010. In 2011, there were at least 28 labor leaders assassinated, while hundreds more (including 600 teachers) were threatened with physical harm, including death. The Colombian government, in an attempt to paint itself in the best light and to win Congressional passage of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement (which it successfully did this past October) has tried to take issue with these figures. It has done so by claiming that some of the unionists in these figures were killed, not because they were trade unionists, but rather, for other reasons – e.g., as the result of common crime or crimes of passion.</div><div>And so, for example, the Colombian government took the position that in 2010, only 37 of the unionists killed in Colombia (out of the 51 total) were killed <em>because they were unionists, </em>and that this should be the figure used when tallying up the victims. However, even if we took this as the correct number of unionists <em>qua </em>unionists killed in Colombia in 2010, this would still mean that Colombia accounted for over 40% of the entire world’s trade union killings – hardly anything for the Colombian government to brag about. Still, the fight over these numbers is highly contentious, and for serious reasons of policy.</div><div>Another important background issue is the very nature of unionism itself in Colombia. The view of honest human rights and labor rights groups is that unions in Colombia, while representing diverse views from the far-left to the far-right, and everything in between, are peaceful, civilian actors in Colombia and merit protection from armed violence in Colombia. This is indeed the official policy of the United States government which in fact provides aid for union protection in Colombia. This can be viewed as inconsistent with the U.S.’s continued policy of providing massive aid to the Colombian military which itself carries out anti-union killings and which is aligned with right-wing paramilitaries which carry out the lion’s share of anti-union killings in Colombia. However, the point is that the U.S. government, particularly the State Department, does not officially question the legitimate, peaceful aims of the Co! lombian labor movement.</div><div>On the other hand is the Colombian government which, especially under President Alvaro Uribe who held office between 2002 and 2010, attempted to rationalize and even legitimize the killing of unionists by attempting to portray unionists generally in Colombia as being aligned in some way, either in fact or at least in outlook, to the left-wing guerillas in that country. This stigmatization of the Colombian union movement has not only served to justify union killings, it has indeed encouraged them. This is so because the right-wing paramilitaries, which are themselves closely aligned to the military, have the propensity to kill anyone they view as even potentially aligned, again if merely in thought, to the guerillas. And so, this stigmatization serves as a green light to the paramilitaries to carry out extra-judicial killings of unionists. That is why it is so dangerous in Colombia to accuse someone of being a guerilla. Similarly, accusi! ng someone of being a communist is equally dangerous given that guerillas and communists are viewed as one in the same by paramilitaries in Colombia.</div><div>In short, the varying ways in which unionists are portrayed in Colombia is not simply an academic one; it is quite literally a matter of life and death.</div><div>This brings us to the Wikileaks cables. There are about a dozen Wikileaks cables which reflect meetings between the AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center and the U.S. Embassy in Bogota, and they are quite revealing. For example, there is an embassy cable from August 11, 2008, entitled, “COLOMBIAN UNIONS, IDEOLOGY, AND THE ARMED CONFLICT.” And, in this cable, the Solidarity Center’s Rhett Doumitt [the same AFL-CIO staffer directly involved in aiding and abetting forces that carried out the coup against President Chavez in 2002] professes strong views on this subject to the U.S. Embassy, in particular to Ambassador Brownfield.</div><div>Thus, in this cable, Mr. Doumitt is said to have “complained of a ‘Stalinist’ approach taken by Communist and other hard-left labor leaders within the CUT,” the largest labor confederation in Colombia. The cable continues:</div><blockquote><div>In 2006, they affiliated with the Social Democratic international confederation, which later became the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC). Even then, RHETT DOUMITT of the AFL-CIO affiliated Solidarity Center said the Communists literally ‘turned the lights out’ at the convention in a last ditch attempt to block this affiliation.</div></blockquote><div>Further in the cable, DOUMITT complains that the politics of the labor movement in Colombia impede positive, practical advances on labor issues. In the April 22 monthly ‘labor dialogue’ meeting with President Uribe, the confederations focused discussions on the investigations of the Colombian congressmen associated with the parapolitical scandal. CGT (Confederacion General de Trabajadores Democraticos) International Relations Secretary Jose Leon Ramirez notes there was no discussion of labor issues at the meeting. Still, DOUMITT says the unions have made progress in moving away from their traditional polemic cold war perspectives.</div><div>Another cable from another meeting indicates identical complaints to the Embassy by Doumitt about the Colombian labor movement elevating its political concerns – e.g., about the “parapolitical” scandal which involved scores of politicians collaborating with the paramilitaries who, among other things, have been hunting down labor leaders – over purely labor concerns. In this cable, dated February 5, 2009, Doumitt complained that “the public’s perception that the unions value politics over pocket book issues for workers also limit union membership. Doumitt complained that the politics of the labor movement in Colombia impede positive, practical advances on labor issues, but noted that some unions are moving away from their traditional socialist ideologies.”</div><div>Still, in another cable dated September 5, 2008, Doumitt seems to side with the Colombian government in terms of the debate over the figures of unionists killed in Colombia. Thus, the cable states:</div><blockquote><div>RHETT DOUMITT of the AFL-CIO affiliated Solidarity Center told us paramilitary violence against unionists subsided after the last paramilitary block demobilized in 2006. Recent murders of unionists are largely related to common crime. . . .</div></blockquote><div>The tenor of these cables is repeated in other Latin American countries, such as Ecuador, where the Embassy reported on a meeting with Solidarity Center officials who told the Embassy “that unions generally have a bad reputation all around. Younger workers see them as either communist or irrelevant, and most Ecuadorians seen them as essentially selfish actors.” In a January 22, 2007 cable emanating from Peru, and entitled, “GOP Wins Battle Against Radical Teacher’s Union,” the local AFL-CIO representative is cited as siding with the government in this legal victory which, among other things, limited the number of teachers (from 314 to 30) who could engage in full-time union activity and still receive their teachers’ salaries. Thus, the cable states: “According to Oscar Muro of the local chapter of the AFL-CIO, the fund sometimes aids teachers in need but is often misused. He! further said that 30 subsidized representatives was a generous number given that no other union in the country has such a high number of positions as a percentage of membership.” Finally, in a cable out of Managua, dated January 23, 2007, and involving meetings with various anti-Sandinista NGO’s, the cable explains that unions can play a role in challenging the policies of President Daniel Ortega, and that “he Ambassador offered to meet with independent unions and suggested that Huembes [a union leader from a non-FSLN union] contact the AFL-CIOregional representative in Guatemala to seek his guidance.”</div><div>What these cables portray is an organization, the AFL-CIO, which is beholden to the U.S. State Department and which is reporting to it on a regular basis. Among other things, it is reporting on the perceived blemishes of the union movements in those countries in which it operates. And, as during the Cold War, the “blemishes” it is reporting on in many instances revolve around the left-wing, and possibly socialist or communist, nature of these unions. Of course, the AFL-CIO is reporting on this to the U.S. government which is hostile to such left-wing institutions and which is indeed bent on wiping them out. The cable emanating from Nicaragua actually shows the Ambassador himself calling upon the AFL-CIO for help in agitating against Sandinista President Daniel Ortega.</div><div>This type of conduct by the AFL-CIO is particularly dangerous in the case of Colombia where trade unionists are being threatened and killed in record numbers by state and quasi-state actors which receive their support from the U.S., and where the U.S. is such a powerful, intervening force.</div><div>At worst, such red baiting of the union movement in a country such as Colombia to that countries’ military backer (the U.S.) serves to put the lives of unionists – who the AFL-CIO actually claims to protect – in danger.</div><div>Further, such conduct on the part of the AFL-CIO has an adverse impact on U.S. policy. For example, in the case of Colombia, undermining the union movement in the eyes of the U.S. government only serves to undercut the cause of the U.S. and Colombian unions who desperately attempted, and succeeded for several years, to prevent passage of the Colombia FTA, largely on the grounds that Colombia should not be rewarded for anti-union violence. This message was greatly compromised — and possibly fatally so as seen in the ultimate passage of the FTA under Obama — by the AFL-CIO’s representative in Bogota who, at least as reflected in the cables, portrays the Colombian unions’ concerns as unworthy, either because the unions are themselves somehow unworthy because they are communist-ridden or too political (that is, too concerned about government officials collaborating with paramilitary death squads), or because the issue of violence isn&! rsquo;t the big deal those unions are claiming it is.</div><div>In short, the AFL-CIO continues to do the work, not of a true internationalist union, but of an imperialist organization which sees itself aligned with U.S. foreign policy in challenging the movement for radical change and for socialism in the world. I can say that, as someone who believes in the cause of socialism – a cause more relevant than ever in light of the current global crisis of capitalism – this is not what I want those speaking in labor’s name abroad to be doing. I would submit that the U.S. labor movement would be better off, instead of presumptuously telling unions in other countries what they should be doing and what political line they should be following, to instead focus on its own efforts at organizing workers and in agitating for real change in this country – efforts at which it has been woefully inadequate since the 1930’s when, oh yes, it was being spurred on by militant socialists and communists.!</div><div><em><strong style="font-weight: bold; ">Alberto C. Ruiz</strong> is a long-time unionist, peace activist and socialist.</em></div><div><em><br></em></div></div></div></div></div><div>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</div><div><br></div><div><blockquote style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); display: inline !important; "><b style="font-weight: bold; font-family: arial, helvetica; "><div style="display: inline !important; "><b style="font-weight: bold; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Subject:</b> <b style="font-weight: bold; ">Labor Seminar to Cuba April 21 to May 5, 2012 </b></div></b></blockquote><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></span><p style="line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 1.35em; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> </p><blockquote style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: arial, '\d\ahelvetica'; "><div><div style="font-weight: bold; "> </div><blockquote style="font-weight: bold; "><div><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_ac8a121c-65fd-4063-9c08-e55d365b4144"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_18708881-c37a-451f-82ca-b11347774d94"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_d62fa8a1-7df9-4a61-aaf2-4dc34c45874e"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_567c93bc-2bba-43b3-aee3-7488bda36eec"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_68998ed2-4372-4744-97e1-1d5f94e2dbe5"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><br><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_ed8cf2ba-e6e3-4a0e-a357-d06675f6e565"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_38ae4118-e6dc-4d66-b3e9-aa0f8591b700"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_05f43d76-563c-406e-ba72-0ffff98359f2"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_3e1a0bca-b8ee-44cd-b22f-544ad161d984"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_4152107a-23c8-42a7-b179-6aeac077a3f1"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_a7e4ffe8-5a60-49a4-a668-776c11a33461"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_412f2d55-e38a-4836-9f81-4aad88052b4d"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: helvetica, arial; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_9f4a3b96-4661-4066-af93-025e2056286a"><font size="4" style="line-height: normal; "><strong style="line-height: 23px; font-weight: bold; ">US/Cuba</strong></font><strong style="line-height: 23px; font-weight: bold; font-size: large; ">Labor Exchange Seminar to Cuba</strong><strong style="line-height: 23px; font-weight: bold; font-size: large; "> </strong><strong style="line-height: 23px; font-weight: bold; font-size: large; ">April 2<font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="line-height: normal; ">1</font> to May 5, 201<font face="Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif" style="line-height: normal; ">2</font></strong><strong style="line-height: 23px; font-weight: bold; font-size: large; "><font face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="line-height: normal; "> Two Weeks</font></strong></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></blockquote></div></blockquote><blockquote style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: arial, helvetica; "><div><blockquote style="font-weight: bold; "><div><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_ac8a121c-65fd-4063-9c08-e55d365b4144"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_18708881-c37a-451f-82ca-b11347774d94"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_d62fa8a1-7df9-4a61-aaf2-4dc34c45874e"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_567c93bc-2bba-43b3-aee3-7488bda36eec"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_68998ed2-4372-4744-97e1-1d5f94e2dbe5"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_ed8cf2ba-e6e3-4a0e-a357-d06675f6e565"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_38ae4118-e6dc-4d66-b3e9-aa0f8591b700"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_05f43d76-563c-406e-ba72-0ffff98359f2"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_3e1a0bca-b8ee-44cd-b22f-544ad161d984"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_4152107a-23c8-42a7-b179-6aeac077a3f1"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_a7e4ffe8-5a60-49a4-a668-776c11a33461"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: arial, helvetica; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_412f2d55-e38a-4836-9f81-4aad88052b4d"><font color="#000000" size="2" face="arial" style="line-height: normal; "><div style="line-height: 17px; font-family: helvetica, arial; font-size: 10pt; "><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_1_9f4a3b96-4661-4066-af93-025e2056286a"><font size="4" style="line-height: normal; "><font face="Arial, Helvetica,
sans-serif"> <font size="2" face="Helvetica"><font size="4">21th anniversary of the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange</font>.</font><br style="line-height: 23px; "><br style="line-height: 23px; "></font></font><div id="ecxAOLMsgPart_2_90261d8c-7f71-4ee9-9c8e-fac3a367f2ef"><div id="ecxygrp-mlmsg" style="font-family: Arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif; "><div id="ecxygrp-msg" style="line-height: 1.22em; z-index: 1; "><div id="ecxygrp-text" style="line-height: 1.22em; font-family: Georgia; "><div style="line-height: 1.22em; ">US/Cuba Labor Exchange </div><div style="line-height: 1.22em; "> </div><div style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">P.O. Box 39188 Redford, MI 48239 Phone/Fax: (313) <font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">675 4026</font> E-mail: <a href="mailto:laborexchange%40aol.com" style="line-height: 1.22em; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(30, 102, 174); cursor: pointer; ">laborexchange@<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; "></a><a href="http://aol.com/" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; ">aol.com</a><br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><a href="http://laborexchang/" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; ">http://laborexchang</a><wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">e.blogspot.<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">com/2008_<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">01_01_archive.<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">html <br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Join the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange to participate in the Cuban Labor Seminar to Cuba Saturday April <font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">21</font>to <font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">Saturday</font> May <font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">5</font>, 201<font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">2</font> (one week $1,250)</div><div style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; "> </div><div style="line-height: 1.22em; "><font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">Two week of Cuba</font> Labor Seminar-<font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">On Cuban education</font><br style="line-height: 1.22em; "> </div><div style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Uniting America's Working Class and Increasing its Influence</div></div><div style="line-height: 1.22em; font-family: Georgia; "><font size="2" style="line-height: normal; "><font face="Arial">Promote people to people contact</font><br style="line-height: 17px; "></font><div style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">7<font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">3</font> Anniversary of the CTC Central Workers of Cuba<br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">5<font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">3</font> Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution<br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">This delegation will be in Havana, Cuba from Saturday April 2<font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">3</font> to Thursday May <font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">5</font>, 201<font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">1</font> Our hosts will be the CTC Confederation of Cuban Workers. We will visit hospitals, schools, and worker centers<font size="2" style="line-height: normal; "> and participate at the May day celebration</font><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">The price of the trip will include: round trip airfare (from Cancun, Mexico to Havana, Cuba to Cancun, Mexico) hotel (double occupancy), 2 meals per day (breakfast and dinner), internal transportation to and from the program, translation, visas and the program.* The price of $1,650 for two weeks. is good until the end of March, The price may increase for any application made after that date. <br style="line-height: 1.22em; "> </div><div style="line-height: 1.22em; ">A group of trade unionists and workers are exercising their constitutional right to travel to Cuba, to gather educational information and to have an exchange of ideas with other workers of the world. These rights are guaranteed by the US Constitution and by the International Human Rights declaration of the United Nations.<br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">"...one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.<br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">"Of all the civil rights for which the world has struggled and fought for 5,000 years, the right to learn is undoubtedly the most fundamental. The freedom to learn. Has been bought by bitter sacrifice. And whatever we may think of the curtailment of other civil rights, we should fight to the last ditch to keep open the right to learn." - W.E.B. DuBois, "The Freedom to Learn." (1949)<br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">All questions MUST be completed. PLEASE PRINT neatly and/or type. <br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">The original application must be submitted, with a copy of your passport attached and $300 deposit made payable to the Labor Exchange. All information will be kept confidential <br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Legal Name (as it appears on the passport):__<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_______ <br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Address:____<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________ <br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">City________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_____ State ____________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_ Zip ?Code_______<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">____ <br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Phone/Fax ____________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">________e-<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">mail: ____________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">______ <br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Union/Organization_<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">___ <br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">How/from whom did you learn about the U.S./Cuba Labor Exchange ____________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">______ <br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Passport#___<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">___ Expiration Date________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________ <br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Date of birth_______<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">_ Place of birth ____________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">______ ____________<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; ">___ <br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Please mail your application ?to: <br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">US/Cuba Labor ?Exchange <br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">P.O. Box 39188 <br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Redford, MI 48239 <br style="line-height: 1.22em; ">Phone/Fax:(313)<font size="2" style="line-height: normal; ">675 4026 </font>mailto:<a href="mailto:laborexchange@aol.com" style="line-height: 1.22em; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(30, 102, 174); cursor: pointer; ">laborexchange@<wbr style="line-height: 1.22em; "></a><a href="http://aol.com/" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; ">aol.com</a><br style="line-height: 1.22em; "><div style="line-height: 17px; text-align: center; "> </div><div style="line-height: 17px; text-align: center; "><em>All of the work we do is volunteer run, consider making a <strong style="font-weight: bold; "><a href="http://action.dreamactivist.org/r/A/NTI4MQ/MjQwODk/0/0/aHR0cDovL2FjdGlvbi5kcmVhbWFjdGl2aXN0Lm9yZy9kb25hdGUv" target="_blank" style="font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; ">donation</a></strong> to support us.</em></div><div style="line-height: 17px; text-align: center; "><em><br></em></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></div></font></div></blockquote></div></blockquote></div><div>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</div><div><br></div><div><div id="mpf0_bodyHdr" style="line-height: 15px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div id="mpf0_details" aid="toggleDetails" class="DetailToggle FB ClearBoth" title="Show details" style="clear: both; height: 11px; background-image: url(https://gfx6.hotmail.com/mail/w4/pr04/ltr/fadeBarCenter1.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; padding-top: 7px; position: relative; top: 0px; cursor: pointer; margin-top: -7px; background-position: 0px 7px; background-repeat: repeat no-repeat; "><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class="FBR" style="height: 11px; width: 80px; background-image: url(https://gfx5.hotmail.com/mail/w4/pr04/ltr/fadeBarRight1.gif); background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: initial; float: right; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; "></div><div class="FBA" style="margin-top: 4px; position: absolute; right: 80px; width: 13px; height: 7px; background-image: url(https://gfx5.hotmail.com/mail/w4/pr04/ltr/r_strip.png); background-color: transparent; background-attachment: scroll; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; background-position: -23px -1px; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; "></div></div><div class="ClearBoth" style="clear: both; "><div id="mpf0_wideMsgBarPlaceholder" class="WideMessageBarContainer"></div></div></div><div class="ClearBoth" style="line-height: 15px; clear: both; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "></div><div id="mpf0_readMsgBodyContainer" class="ReadMsgBody" style="line-height: 15px; padding-top: 8px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 8px; padding-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 12px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 12px; overflow-x: hidden; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><div class="SandboxScopeClass ExternalClass" id="mpf0_MsgContainer" style="line-height: normal; font-size: 10pt; display: inline-block; "><table width="628" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="1" border="0" bgcolor="#000000" align="center" style="line-height: 17px; "><tbody><tr><td><a href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=48thLdXZA/UdNS2g%2BkaroNldNylKj2HG&url=http://www.afscme.org/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><img border="0" alt="AFSCME e-Action Network" src="https://afl.salsalabs.com/o/4002/c/51/images/e-action_header_exo.jpg" style="border-style: initial; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-top-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-width: initial; border-color: initial; "></a><table width="626" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="16" border="0" bgcolor="#ffffff" align="center" style="line-height: 17px; "><tbody><tr><td valign="top"><div style="line-height: 15px; font-family: Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; "><p style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><br><br>Out-of-work Americans narrowly averted losing their unemployment insurance when Congress passed a two-month extension at the end of 2011.<br><br><strong style="font-weight: bold; ">But that extension is set to expire at the end of this month, and House Republican leaders are pushing for drastic cuts in benefits and new barriers for millions of unemployed workers’ and their families.</strong> This includes thousands of AFSCME members across the country who feel the painful realities of state and local service cuts. <br><br><a href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=hXVg%2BW1fC7aFHhj785X9j9ldNylKj2HG&url=http://action.afscme.org/c/51/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY%3D9497" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; "><b style="font-weight: bold; ">Dial 1-866-291-9947 or simply click here to call your representative using our click-to-call page. Tell them to renew unemployment through December without any changes to the program</b></a>.<br><br>Congressional leaders are trying to significantly change unemployment insurance through a bill, H.R. 3630, which would:</p><ul style="margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 1em; padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 1em; "><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; ">Cut the length of benefits in half in the highest unemployment states;</li><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; ">Impose drug testing of recipients;</li><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; ">Make jobless workers pay for reemployment services;</li><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; ">Deny benefits to workers who did not receive a high school diploma or GED;</li><li style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 3px; margin-left: 0px; ">Allows states to use unemployment funds for other purposes.</li></ul><p style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; ">These disasterous reforms would affect millions of jobless workers and their families. We must stand together and protect our AFSCME sisters and brothers from losing their insurance.<br><br><strong style="font-weight: bold; "><a href="http://afl.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=T%2BXAIyvOmWrfr%2BaILONw89ldNylKj2HG&url=http://action.afscme.org/c/51/p/salsa/web/common/public/content?content_item_KEY%3D9497" target="_blank" style="font-weight: inherit; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; ">Tell Congress that extending unemployment insurance is necessary for millions of out-of-work Americans and their families’ survival. Dial 1-866-291-9947 or simply click this link to be connected to Congress</a>.</strong><br><br>Congress should create jobs to put unemployed Americans back to work, not punish them by cutting off their support lifeline. <br><br>In solidarity, <br><br>Chuck Loveless<br>AFSCME Legislative Director</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1.35em; "><br></p></div></td></tr></tbody></table></td></tr></tbody></table></div></div></div><div>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</div><div><br></div><div><font style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">Michael Moore | A 75th Anniversary for the American Dream, a 25-Year Anniversary for Me</strong></font><br style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Michael Moore, MichaelMoore.com: "On this day 25 years ago, in 1987, I became a filmmaker. It was around ten in the morning and the first-ever roll of Kodak 16mm film for my first-ever movie was loaded into my friend's camera to shoot the very first scene of 'Roger & Me.' I had no idea on that morning in Flint, Michigan what my life would be like after that, or what would happen to Flint, or to General Motors." </span><br style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><a href="http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=GytSGLwOTjqo7R9JwO3lPCdzaokfAuV1" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font color="#cc0000" style="line-height: normal; ">Read the Article</font></a><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> </span>
</div><div><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></span></div><div>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</div><div><br></div><div><font style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><strong style="line-height: 17px; font-weight: bold; ">The Plight of the Pregnant Worker</strong></font><br style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); ">Dick Meister, San Francisco Bay Guardian Online: "... imagine a woman who, seven months pregnant, was fired from her job as a cashier because she needed a few extra bathroom breaks. That actually happened. So did the firing of a pregnant worker from her retail job after she gave her supervisors a doctor's note asking that she not be required to do any heavy lifting or climbing of ladders during the month-and-a-half before she went on maternity leave."</span><br style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><a href="http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=h1LrVAW6GtmzsjpyXdc9cCdzaokfAuV1" target="_blank" style="line-height: 17px; color: rgb(0, 104, 207); cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><font color="#cc0000" style="line-height: normal; ">Read the Article</font></a><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "> </span>
</div><div><span style="color: rgb(42, 42, 42); font-family: 'Segoe UI', Tahoma, Verdana, Arial, sans-serif; line-height: 17px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); "><br></span></div><div>@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@</div><br><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font size="2">Material appearing here is distributed without profit or monitory gain to those who have expressed an interest in receiving the material for research and educational purposes. This is in accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. section 107..<br></font><a href="http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html" target="_blank"><font color="#0066cc" size="2">http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html</font></a></font></div>
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