The CFC

So sad I won’t be at AMC this year :-( please write about it. Post pictures say you miss me!

Wed, 19 Jun 2013 06:44:01 -0400

So sad I won’t be at AMC this year :-( please write about it. Post pictures say you miss me!

thesmithian: …up to 200,000 people angry with high costs and...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 22:51:33 -0400

…up to 200,000 people angry with high costs and poor public services took to the streets. Protesters in Rio de Janeiro burned cars and looted buildings as police attempted to disperse them with teargas and rubber bullets. Aerial images showed thousands of people attempting to storm the congress building in Brasilia. The rallies…are some of the biggest ever seen in the country…

more.

"Indigenous Feminism Without Apology" by Andrea Smith

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 16:01:24 -0400

"Indigenous Feminism Without Apology" by Andrea Smith: oberlinsic: “DECENTERING WHITE FEMINISM The...

womenwhokickass: Reina Gossett: Why she kicks ass She joined...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 14:00:57 -0400

womenwhokickass:

Reina Gossett: Why she kicks ass

She joined the Sylvia Rivera Law Project in July 2010 as the membership coordinator, and staffs the newly created Movement Building Team, working to develop SRLP’s membership and community organizing work.

Formerly, she was the director of the Welfare Organizing Project at Queers For Economic Justice, and is a Soros Justice Fellow at Critical Resistance.

She also has numerous writing credits, including The Scholar & Feminist Online and Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex.

tranqualizer: [photo: centered in the photo is a Black woman...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 12:01:20 -0400

tranqualizer:

[photo: centered in the photo is a Black woman carrying a child in one arm with her other arm and fist raised. she is in the middle of chanting. there are others around her. a protest sign from the fast food strike in the background reads, “we are worth more. strike for 15. D15”

thepeoplesrecord:

Fast food strike wave spreads to Detroit, St. Louis
May 10, 2013

St. Louis, and last month’s in New York and Chicago, today’s work stoppage is backed by a local coalition including the Service Employees International Union, and the participants are demanding a raise to $15 an hour and the chance to form a union without intimidation.

Organizers say that over a hundred workers joined the St. Louis strike between Wednesday and Thursday. That included a group of Jimmy John’s workers who alleged that management humiliated them by requiring them to hold up signs in public with messages including “I made 3 wrong sandwiches today” and “I was more than 13 seconds in the drive thru.”

“Sometimes I walk for more than an hour just to save my train fare so I can spend it on Ramen noodles,” St. Louis Chipotle worker Patrick Leeper said in an e-mailed statement Thursday. “I can’t even think about groceries.”

A spokesperson for Jimmy John’s declined to comment on Thursday’s strike; McDonald’s and Wendy’s did not respond to inquiries last night.

As I’ve written elsewhere, the fate of the fast food strike wave carries far-reaching implications: Fast food jobs are a growing portion of our economy, and fast food-like conditions are proliferating in other sectors as well. Organizers say the fast food industry now employs twice as many Detroit-area workers as the city’s iconic auto industry. These strikes also come at a moment of existential crisis for the labor movement, a sobering reality that was brought into sharp relief in December when Michigan, arguably the birthplace of modern US private sector unionism, became the country’s latest “Right to Work” state.

Along with a shared significant supporter—SEIU—the campaigns in New York, Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit have apparent strategies in common. Rather than waiting until they’ve built support from a majority of a store’s or company’s workers, they stage actions by a minority of the workforce designed to inspire their co-workers. Rather than publicly identifying the campaign and its organizers with a single international union, these union-funded efforts turn to allied community groups to spearhead organizing. Rather than training all their resources on a single company, they organize against all of the industry’s players at once. And—faced with legal and economic assaults that have weakened the strike weapon—these campaigns mount one-day work stoppages that are carefully tailored to maximize attention and minimize, but not eliminate, the risk that workers will lose their jobs.

Whether these strategies can ever compel a fast food giant to negotiate with its employees remains to be seen.

“After what I would consider well over three decades of wage suppression, workers in this particular industry—and then I think it’ll go to others—are realizing that their only way up the wage ladder is through their own organizations,” CUNY labor studies lecturer Ed Ott said Wednesday. Ott, a board member of the community organizing group that spearheaded the New York fast food strike, added, “The only way these workers are going to be able to advance these jobs is through unionization. And I think that idea has finally gotten traction.”

Update (9:15 AM Friday): According to the campaign, a walkout by twenty workers at Detroit’s 10400 Gratiot Avenue McDonald’s prevented the store from operating. Some workers brought in as strikebreakers to replace those striking workers chose to join the strike instead.

Organizers say that by day’s end, today’s strike could be the largest fast food work stoppage yet, topping last month’s 400-strong strike in New York.

Source

thegoddamazon: geekeryandhockey: burn-thenightaway: pondermoof...

Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:00:48 -0400

thegoddamazon:

geekeryandhockey:

burn-thenightaway:

pondermoofin:

watchtheskytonight:

purplesmauge:

crowleysdelicateass:

popsible:

I love this new trend of actresses calling reporters out on their bullshit.

Can I just, Renner’s face is the second and third frames. He’s so disappointe in the male race at that moment. And so proud of Scarlett.

Scarlett Johansen, you are badass.

Bless her.

Four for you, Scarlett! You go, Scarlett!

Forever reblog this damn woman.

Reason #…A LOT that we still need Feminism

Basically.

WHEN PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS ARE VISITING

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 16:01:35 -0400

whatshouldwecallgradschool: credit: mllemlle

"We as Black people have to tell our own stories. We have to document our history. When we allow..."

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 14:00:40 -0400

“We as Black people have to tell our own stories. We have to document our history. When we...

Photo

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 12:01:18 -0400

ICWA Summit Event

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 10:00:33 -0400

ICWA Summit Event: TRIBE IS FAMILY, STATE IS NOT! Do you know children who’ve been taken by the...

Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe

Mon, 17 Jun 2013 08:02:30 -0400

Mama’s Baby, Papa’s Maybe: Father’s Day has come and gone again. As someone who did not grow up with...

Colleges Soak Poor Students to Funnel Aid to Rich

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 16:01:23 -0400

Colleges Soak Poor Students to Funnel Aid to Rich: art-is-the-word: U.S. colleges such as Boston...

If you don't know, now you know! Black Men Standing for Reproductive Freedom

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 13:39:12 -0400

If you don't know, now you know! Black Men Standing for Reproductive Freedom:...

Mamas in the South Continue the Fight for Reproductive Justice | Flyover Feminism

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 12:01:09 -0400

Mamas in the South Continue the Fight for Reproductive Justice | Flyover Feminism:...

somethingnoo: thepeoplesrecord: How a few Philly high school...

Sun, 16 Jun 2013 10:00:32 -0400

somethingnoo:

thepeoplesrecord:

How a few Philly high school students organized themselves into a few hundred in four days
May 9, 2013

It began, not surprisingly perhaps, with a modest online message.

About two weeks ago, school district officials had announced, once again, a serious hole in the District’s budget and had laid out, once again, severe cuts that would be implemented if a roughly $300 million hole wasn’t filled — this time invoking layoffs and cuts to programs, especially arts and extracurricular.

And as students pondered cuts to their favorite programs, the irony that last Friday would mark “Teacher Appreciation Day,” was not lost upon them.

Before news of the proposed cuts reached them, says Teyin Tseng (upper right), a member of the student council at the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, “Our plan was to see how much money we had and see if we could buy flowers for every teacher.”

“But then the budget [was unveiled] — and we decided to do this.”

So, on Friday, another CAPA student, Maureen Smith (lower center), created a new Facebook page: Silenced Students March — announcing a plan by her and some of her classmates to protest the threatened cuts. She opened with something of a rallying call:

“As students we are fed up and want to be heard. Its OUR education and WE should have a say in it. TUESDAY May 7th is teachers appreciation day, we are organizing a march to 440 North Broad Street, which is the school district building. Depending on your school’s location you can choose a meeting area and then proceed to march to 440.We will all be meeting there by 4:30. There is strength in numbers.”

The response — recorded online in blow-by-blow Facebook posts — was immediate, enthusiastic, and complex as any overnight organizing effort.

Talking points were discussed; a deliberate effort to attract media and control the message was conceived.

And there was, as there is in any organizing effort, vigorous debate over tactics and message: When some students announced a planned walkout; other students objected, worried the organized disobedience would undermine their credibility as a group — a debate which continues as some students contemplate a walkout tomorrow.

A system was worked out: each school’s protest contingent should nominate a representative to contact.

“We have a huge network,” explained Tseng outside the building. “We all called each other, and we got a lot of schools to join.”

“I was contacted by Teyin over here,” said Belal Shami (lower left), “and he told me he needed my help. My role was to gather people from Franklin Learning Center and get them to the protest. … I brought roughly 35 people.”

In a stretch of years in which there has been no shortage of protests outside 440 N. Broad, yesterday nonetheless marked the first time many of these students had ever done anything of the sort. And their motivations often went beyond their personal welfare.

“People are saying, ‘You’re a Senior,’ why are you here?’ Well, I have friends that I’ve made this year in lower grades,” said Kelechi Ekwerike (upper left), for whom this protest was his first. “For their education to be cut short, truncated, I will not stand for that. And if this carries on next year, if nothing is done, they [the School District] will not hear the end of it.”

“The sense in my class is a little bit like we’re the last survivors on the Titanic,” is how Samantha Ho (upper center), a junior at Masterman High School, put it. “We survived. But I have a cousin who’s going to be first year at Masterman — I can’t really imagine that place without extracurricular activities. That’s where people connect.”

“My little brother, my sister — I don’t care about myself,” said Spencer Nguyen (lower right) from the Palumbo Academy of Art. “This is for future generations.”

About two hours after the protest had started, a small knot of these students remained outside school headquarters, huddled as they debriefed and planned for whatever comes next.

“I’m more than happy with the turnout,” acknowledged Facebook event creator Maureen Smith. “It really does speak volumes, that young people can make a difference.”

Source

From the Philadelphia Student Union: Today, hundreds of students walked-out of school and took to the streets. We rallied at City Hall to tell City Council that we need funding for our public schools. We have had enough budget cuts. We marched down Broad St. to 440. Students are ready to fight back against budget cut backs. Get ready to see a lot more of us next time.

People at my high school organized a walk-out because of a “no flip-flops” policy. Philly kids, YOU ARE DOING IS RIGHT! Keep up the fight.

Time flies; the time flies feed on rotting clocks: How To: Use Handicap Parking

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 16:01:24 -0400

Time flies; the time flies feed on rotting clocks: How To: Use Handicap Parking: gimpunk: First off...

Black Weirdo: It is Not Transphobic to Treat Trans Men as Men

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:00:47 -0400

Black Weirdo: It is Not Transphobic to Treat Trans Men as Men: tobitastic: I have recently been...

Tracee McDaniel sits down with SPARK to share her incredible journey, activism, wisdom for families, and newly published book.

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 12:01:16 -0400

Tracee McDaniel sits down with SPARK to share her incredible journey, activism, wisdom for families,...

THE EMPIRE OF FEAR!: Five Things That Twerking Isn't

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 10:00:36 -0400

THE EMPIRE OF FEAR!: Five Things That Twerking Isn't:...

Photo

Fri, 14 Jun 2013 21:18:50 -0400