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In
Commemoration of the 80th Anniversary of
DR.
MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.’s Birthday
In
NYC:
A
FIGHTBACK CONFERENCE
Bail
Out the PEOPLE,
Not Wall Street!
Uniting & fighting
against WAR and for economic & social justice in the biggest
crisis since the depression of the 1930s!
SATURDAY,
JANUARY 17th
12 to
6 pm
Public School 41, 116 West 11 St., NYC
Public School 41, 116 West 11th St. NYC
INVITED GUESTS/WORKSHOPS/ACTION PROPOSALS
CHALLENGES AND ACTION PROPOSALS TO BE TAKEN
UP (PARTIAL LIST):
* BAIL OUT THE PEOPLE FIRST: A FIGHTBACK PROGRAM
* COMBINING A STRATEGY OF MASS ACTION AND DIRECT
ACTION
* THE NEXT PHASE OF THE FIGHT AGAINST FORECLOSURES
AND EVICTIONS
* OPENING THE FIGHT FOR JOBS OR INCOME NOW: CHALLENGING
ORGANIZED LABOR TO DO MORE
* RECRUITING AN ARMY OF ORGANIZERS
* APRIL 3 AND 4TH, 2009: PROPOSAL FOR MASS MOBILIZATION
ON WALL STREET ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF DR. KING’S ASSASSINATION--Some
peace activists are planning peace mobilizations, possibly on Wall
Street, in New York City on April 4th. This is a good idea. A better
idea is to mobilize for two days including Friday, April 3, when
the New York Stock Exchange, businesses and banks are open and workers
are there.
* MAY 1, 2009: ON INTERNATIONAL WORKERS DAY--Mass
mobilization for immigrant and all workers’ rights. How can
we strengthen participation and solidarity, especially now?
* SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2009: MARCH ON THE PENTAGON--on
the sixth anniversary of the war and occupation of Iraq
WORKSHOPS AND BREAKOUTS (LIST IN FORMATION)
* THE ROLE OF YOUTH IN THE FIGHTBACK
* UNITING THE COMMUNITY WITH ORGANIZED AND UN-ORGANIZED
WORKERS
* THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT AND THE STRUGGLE VS. THE
WAR AT HOME: FORGING A NEW RELATIONSHIP—Hear voices from the
growing GI and Veterans’ Resistance Movement, Stop the war
against Gaza, End the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. Stop the
War on GAZA, Defend Palestine!
* THEY SAY CUTBACK–WE SAY FIGHTBACK: The growing
struggles against cutbacks, tuition increases, transit fare hikes,
layoffs, and more
* CREATING AN ARMY OF ORGANIZERS
* IMMIGRANT WORKERS’ RIGHTS: FIGHTING RACISM
IS THE KEY TO SOLIDARITY
Dear activists and organizers:
In 2009, more and more lives are going to be devastated
by the biggest global economic crisis since the Great Depression
of the 1930s. This crisis is the challenge of a lifetime to those
of us who have made a commitment to fight for people’s economic
and social rights. What we do, or fail to do will prove decisive
to the coming battle over whose interests in society shall prevail--the
needs of the people, or the greed of the super-rich few who insist
that their profits always come first.
The Bail Out the People Movement invites you to come
together in New York City on Sat., Jan. 17, 2009 and help plan the
fightback. If you live in the western part of the U.S., we invite
you to come to our West Coast Fightback Conference in Los Angeles
on Sat., Jan. 24, 2009.
How fitting it is that we meet on the anniversary
of the 80th birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If ever there
was a time to remember King’s legacy of struggle against war,
racism and for economic and social justice, now is such a time!
That Barack Obama will become president on Jan. 20,
realizes a measure of King’s dream. But depression- level
joblessness, evictions and foreclosures made worse by cutbacks,
war, bigotry and racism are not a dream, but a nightmare.
The nightmare is borne out in the numbers: $1 trillion
for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, $8 trillion to bail out the biggest
and richest banks and bankers, while millions lose their jobs, homes,
healthcare, ability to go to school, and sink into life-threatening
poverty.
There is the promise of a “Stimulus program
that will create or save some jobs.” But the stimulus will
be a drop-in-the-bucket; it’s expected that one million jobs
will be lost per month in 2009 in the U.S.
It is up to the people to fight for the right to jobs
or a living income, along with a moratorium on foreclosures and
evictions, as well as no escalation of the war in Afghanistan.
No election or president, however historical and inspiring,
can be a substitute for a mass movement in the struggle against
war or for social and economic rights.
Let’s take inspiration and example from some
recent and current struggles like those of the Republic Glass and
Doors Co. workers in Chicago who occupied their factory to fight
for their rights, or the workers at the Smithfield meat processing
plant in Tar Heel, North Carolina, who fought for and won a union.
Or the students at New York City’s New School who held a successful
sit-in. Or the youth in Greece who are fighting police terror and
economic oppression. The lessons of these struggles are that we
will need to utilize both mass action and direct action in the fightback
ahead of us.
Join with activists in New York and from across the
country: If you are an anti-war activist, a union organizer, a student
activist, or someone who first became excited about politics because
of Obama’s campaign, or if you face losing a job, a home,
the ability to go to college, healthcare, or a pension—and
you are ready to unite and fight back--let’s come together
and determine what we can do to help give birth to a desperately
needed fightback movement.
Pre-register for the conference - -http://www.bailoutpeople.org/bailoutpeopleendorse.shtml
Endorse - http://www.bailoutpeople.org/bailoutpeopleendorse.shtml
See list of endorsers - http://www.bailoutpeople.org/mlkconfendorsers.shtml
Donate - http://bailoutpeople.org/donate.shtml
Sponsored by:
The Bail Out the People Movement
55 W. 17th St., Fifth Floor
New York, NY 10011
212-633-6646
www.BailOutPeople.org
Download
leaflets
Sponsored
By: The Bail Out The People Movement

Stop
Foreclosures and Evictions!
|
In
Los Angeles:
FIGHTBACK
Conference
Sat. Jan. 24
1 pm to 7 pm
SEIU Local 721
500 S. Virgil Ave.
Bail Out the People Movement
111 N. La Brea Ave., Suite 408
Inglewood, CA 90301
310–677–6407 |
This Shoe
is for you!
Bail Out the People Activists Disrupt MTA Baord Meeting

On Wednesday, December 18, activists from the Bail Out the People
Movement attended the MTA board meeting to protest proposed draconian
budget cuts and fare hikes. The increase in subway & bus fares,
layoffs, and service cuts are all going to fatten the coffers of
Wall Street Bankers - the same bankers who have received hundreds
of billions of dollars in bailout money.
Steve Millies, a long time activist, took the podium at the meeting
and denounced the MTA as "a collection agency for the biggest
banks and insurance companies," and said that the budget should
be "thrown in the garbage can."
Today's New York Times reports:
“We don’t need any fare increases and we don’t
need our transit system ravaged either,” said Mr. Millies,
who said he was an Amtrak signal-tower operator and a member of
the Bail Out the People Campaign, a group that has stood up for
victims of the economic crisis. He called for the subway and bus
fare to be reduced to $1, to help unemployed New Yorkers.
Then, referring to the authority’s chief executive, who
was sitting about 15 feet away, he said: “Where is Elliot
Sander?” He stooped, slipped off one of his shoes and shouted,
“You made $300,000 last year.”
Immediately, authority police officers swarmed him and pushed
him out of the room. He was clutching his shoe, a black, thick-soled
oxford, in his hand....
“I wanted to show the sole of the shoe as a sign of contempt
for someone who makes so much money and yet wants to raise fares
on the disabled,” he said. He said that the authority’s
plans to more than double the $2 fare for disabled passengers
who use the Access-a-Ride service particularly incensed him.
He said the gesture was planned with Muntader al-Zaidi, the
Iraqi shoe-thrower, in mind.
“I was very much inspired by that courageous Iraqi journalist
who was protesting the occupation of his country by the American
and British oil companies and their governments,” Mr. Millies
said.
Mr. Millies said the ticket he was given charged him with “intent
to cause a public annoyance.”
“What’s the point of having a public hearing,”
he said, “unless you allow people to annoy public officials?”
Activists all around the city and country are applauding Steve
Millies. He did what millions of New Yorkers, who are paying more
for everything while bankers are being bailed out, would love to
do.
Millies reported for work yesterday at AMTRAK, where he has been
a union worker for 24 years, and was told by his supervisors to
go home because of this incident.
Action Alert:
Here's how you can help:
* Please call the NYPD Switchboard at 1-646-610-5000 - demand
that the false charges against Steve Millies be dropped.
* Make a donation online at http://bailoutpeople.org/donate.shtml.
Help us defend Steve Millies and continue to organize to demand
"Bail Out the People Not the Banks!"
Steve Millies will be one of the many activists and community organizers
attending the important January 17 Fightback Conference, held on
the weekend of the 80th Anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s
80th birthday. This important conference will include skill sharing,
workshops, and planning for direct action and peoples' intervention
against fare hikes, tuition and utility increases, evictions and
foreclosures, as we continue to mobilize to demand "Bail Out
the People - Not the Banks!"
MEDIA COVERAGE***
Youtube - Ch 11
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BjAslDC3BbU
Say Whatever You Want, but No Throwing Shoes (New York Times):
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/18/nyregion/18sander.html
The shoe must go on: MTA adopts 'miserable' budget
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/transportation/ny-limta185969267dec18,0,1516669.story
Touching your shoes during conference can land you in jail!
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/touching-your-shoes-during-conference-can-land-you-in-jail_100132527.html
This Shoe's For You: Emotions Boil At MTA Hearing:
http://wcbstv.com/cbs2crew/mta.cash.crunch.2.889271.html
At M.T.A. Hearing, Another Shoe Almost Dropped:
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/at-mta-hearing-another-shoe-almost-dropped/
Rider to MTA boss: 'This shoe is for you!":
http://www.newsday.com/iphone/ny-nymta1218,0,5427568.story
This Shoe's for you, MTA! Protestor at board meeting inspired by
Iraqi who threw shoes at Bush:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2008/12/17/2008-12-17_this_shoes_for_you_mta_protestor_at_boar-1.html
MTA Board Approves Fare Hike, Service Cuts:
http://www.ny1.com/content/top_stories/90797/mta-board-approves-fare-hike--service-cuts/Default.aspx
Disgruntled Subway Rider Attempts to Throw Shoe at MTA Boss:
http://www.wpix.com/landing/?Disgruntled-Subway-Rider-Attempts-to-Thr=1&blockID=164538&feedID=1404 |