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Tell President Obama and Congress: No War With Iran
Today marks the tenth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, a war, which Jonathan Schell recently wrote, that created a dangerous precedent, a “change from diplomacy and agreements to force as the means for achieving nonproliferation.” This is, of course, beyond the massive loss of Iraqi and American lives.
The United States’s current bellicosity toward Iran reflects this dangerous change and threatens to repeat the previous deceptions of the rush to war on Iraq, as we’re told about fictitious Iranian weapons of mass destruction—stories just like the ones that led us into Iraq. Most recently, Senators Lindsay Graham and Robert Menendez introduced Senate Resolution 65, which lays the groundwork for the US to offer military aid to Israel in the event of a pre-emptive strike on Iran.
Democracy Is for People
On March 12, Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Ted Deutch introduced the “Democracy Is for People” amendment, which would end the unlimited and undisclosed corporate financing of American elections fostered by the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.
TO DOOpen Letter to McDonald's CEO: Meet With Student Strikers
In early March, student workers from Asia and Latin America launched a surprise strike against their employer, a McDonald’s in central Pennsylvania. The students, who paid between $3,000 to $5,000 to come to the United States as part of the J-1 cultural exchange visa program, alleged that they were assigned shifts of up to twenty-five consecutive hours, were paid less than the minimum wage, lived in substandard employer-owned housing and faced retaliation when they raised objections. Hours after the students began their work stoppage, they found themselves locked out of the employer-owned basement where they lived.
President Obama: Extend Labor Protections to Homecare Workers
In December of 2011, President Obama announced that his administration would extend federal minimum wage and overtime protections to an estimated 2.5 million homecare workers. More than one year later, the rule changes to the “companionship exemption” of the Fair Labor Standards Act are under final review by the White House Office of Management and Budget. Meanwhile, members of the profitable home healthcare industry are lobbying to keep the status quo.
TO DOOn IWD, Protect Funding for VAWA
On March 7, 2013—the day before International Women’s Day—President Obama signed into law the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), this time with added protections for the LGBT community and immigrant and Native American women. However, budget cuts implemented as part of Congress’s sequestration deal threaten to underfund the program. If the cuts go forward as planned, programs funded by VAWA could lose more than $20 million, potentially leaving 35,927 victims without access to much-needed services.
TO DOFAU: Reject the GEO Group
Last week, Florida Atlantic University raised eyebrows when officials announced that they had sold the naming rights to the school’s new football stadium to the GEO Group, the nation’s second-largest private prison company. In response, students occupied President Mary Jane Saunders’s office last week demanding a recision of the agreement given the role private prisons play in US society and the especially egregious record of GEO.
TO DOTake the Pledge to Stand Up for Workers' Rights
March 11 marks the second anniversary of the passage of Wisconsin Act 10, Governor Scott Walker’s legislative assault on public sector unions in his state. To mark the movement that rose against Walker’s agenda, the filmmakers of the documentary We Are Wisconsin have designated March 11 the National Day of Recommitment to the fight for workers’ rights in Wisconsin and around the world.
TO DOSupport LGBTQ Immigrants
As Congress debates immigration reform, it risks leaving LGBTQ people out in the cold. Currently, immigrants in same-sex couples are not eligible for the same fast-tracked path to a green card afforded to married heterosexual couples. If Congress does not address this injustice, thousands of these families could be separated or forced to leave the country.
TO DODefend Walmart Warehouse Workers
This past January, the state of California ordered a Walmart-contracted warehouse complex in Chino, California, to pay 865 employees up to $1.1 million in stolen wages. The company denied the charges and is appealing the ruling. In response, Warehouse Workers United has started a campaign urging Walmart to enforce its own “Standards for Suppliers.”
TO DOPresident Obama: Halt the Deportation of Parents
Addressing the plight of some 11 million undocumented people currently living in the United States, President Obama’s State of the Union trumpeted comprehensive immigration reform. But what immigrant rights activists really wanted to hear was a promise to halt further deportations. Many of these deportations effectively separate families through a jumbled collection of rules, directives and legislation that tear many of them apart and have left thousands of children in foster care after their parents were deported.
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