Local 99 solidarity picket report

On August 15, NAWC turned out 19 people to support our long-time ally Workers United Local 99 in their fight for fair working conditions at the Pickwick Restaurant in Duluth. Local 99 represents low-wage workers in the hospitality and restaurant industries, including the 85-year union at the Pickwick. The new Pickwick owner (Chris Wisocki) is trying to bust the union and even fired two long-time employees for union activity. Local 99 responded with informational pickets and a community boycott of the restaurant. The boycott is making a mark, but the battle isn't over.

A hearty Loaves & Fishes contingent turned out to the NAWC picket, as well as Vets for Peace. We sang some old labor songs (with Rachael Kilgour's help) and heard from CJ and Sandy, the two women who lost their jobs but still show up in front of the restaurant every day, rain or shine, to fight for their rights and the rights of other union workers.

The picket was a great show of solidarity and sure to strengthen the ties between our movements. Please consider dropping by the picket to show your support - every day but Sunday during lunch and dinner hours. Local 99 especially needs a big turnout on Saturday evenings from 5-8. Join them if you can!

A new wave of war resistance

by Joel Kilgour

On August 14 in Fort Hood, Texas, Sgt Travis Bishop (making a peace sign in the photo) was sentenced to 12 months in prison for refusing deployment to Afghanistan. Bishop said his resistance was influenced by both a previous combat tour in Iraq and his awakening religious pacifism.

On August 5, another Ft Hood soldier and Iraq veteran, Spc Victor Agosto, was sentenced to 30 days in prison for publicly refusing to take part in what he called an "immoral and unjust" occupation.

There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan. The occupation is immoral and unjust. It does not make the American people any safer. It has the opposite effect.

Army Spc Victor Agosto, from a statement to his commander at Ft Hood

Last year, the Army admitted to an 80% jump in desertions from 2003-2007. Hundreds of Iraq war resisters have fled to Canada, where they have been welcomed with open arms by Parliament and the majority of the public. Army Sgt Chris Vassey, an Afghanistan veteran who was facing redeployment in support of the occupation, has recently joined their ranks. Unfortunately, the once Bush-allied Conservative minority government continues to block asylum claims, and war resisters Robin Long and Cliff Cornell have both been forcibly returned to the US, where they faced courts-martial and lengthy prison sentences.

Other resisters are underground, in prison, or facing legal limbo in special military units. In their article "Echo Platoon: Warehousing Soldiers in the Homeland," Dahr Jamal and Sarah Lazare expose the inhumane living conditions faced by more than 50 such AWOL soldiers, many suffering PTSD, at Ft Bragg.

Resisters like Agosto, Bishop and Vassey have dealt a blow to the myth of public consensus on Afghanistan. Still, they and other military personnel who resist illegal wars and occupations do so at a great price to themselves and their families. They need encouragement as well as financial and political support. To learn more about what you can do to support war resisters, visit Courage to Resist or the War Resisters Support Campaign in Canada.

Anti-war day on the picket line with Local 99

Members of Workers United Local 99 are long-time supporters of NAWC, and always show up when we need them on the street. Now they need our help to save union jobs at the Pickwick Restaurant in Duluth.

The anti-war movement is invited to take a two-hour shift on the picket line on Saturday, August 15 from 6-8 pm, to show its solidarity with the union. Please join us! These are the busiest hours of the week for the restaurant and we want to make a splash. The Pickwick is located on Superior Street near the Fitger's shopping center. Please DO NOT bring banners - the union will provide them. Feel free to bring instruments, labor songs, and snacks to share.

Keep reading for a wrap-up of the labor dispute and boycott by Adam Ritscher.

Boycott the Pickwick Restaurant!

Following months of unsuccessful negotiations and numerous unfair labor practices, Workers United Local 99 is asking that the public boycott the Pickwick restaurant.

The Pickwick has been a union restaurant for 85 years, and for four generations has been owned and run by the Wisocki family. Many of the workers have been there for 20-30 years. But the current owner, Chris Wisocki, seems to determined on tearing up all of that history and busting the union.

Among the unjust acts Chris Wisocki has committed is the firing of two long serving workers (CJ Cannon and Sandy Reinholt) for carrying out their legal right to picket; demanded that the workers give up their health benefits, longevity pay and 401(k) plans; and started a union decertification plan. All of this while the restaurant claims its business is doing great. Even the former owners of the Pickwick, Tony and Steve Wisocki, are outraged by this, and have publicly come out in support of the workers!

If the Pickwick succeeds in busing the union, it will set a dangerous precedent for employers throughout the region to do the same. It’s crucial that we rally in support of these workers in their time of need! Local 99 has a plan of action, but they need our help to win. Currently the union is holding pickets in front of the Pickwick from 11:30am - 1pm Monday through Saturday, 5pm - 7pm Monday through Thursday, and 6pm to 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Please come by and join the pickets; we can use all of the bodies that we can get!

Local 99 is also asking for folks to call the Pickwick at (218) 727-8901 or send them an email at cwisocki@charter.net and tell them that you won’t be eating at the restaurant until they settle with the union.

Together, with a little solidarity, we can save these union jobs! Never forget - an injury to one is an injury to all!
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The article above was written by Adam Ritscher, borrowing heavily from information in the July 22, 2009 issue of Labor World newspaper. For more information about this important struggle, check out the front page article in the Labor World:
http://www.laborworld.org/documents/Jul-22-2009v5.pdf

NAWC Statement on the Crisis in Honduras

We offer our support and admiration to the people of Honduras who are bravely and nonviolently confronting the coup regime

They're afraid of us because we're not afraid

August 11, 2009

BACKGROUND:

On June 28, 2009, heavily-armed Honduran soldiers abducted President Manuel Zelaya from his home and forced him into exile in neighboring Costa Rica. The coup d’etat was staged on behalf of the wealthiest sectors in Honduran society, who were unhappy about minimum wage increases and other reforms enacted or proposed by the populist president. The military leaders who carried out the coup included many notorious human rights abusers and one-time accomplices of the US-backed Battalion 3-16 death squad, which terrorized Honduras throughout the 1980s.

Hundreds of thousands of Hondurans have taken to the streets in protest, and teachers and hospital workers have announced indefinite strikes. Security forces are responding to the resistance with tear gas, clubs, and even live ammunition. According to international human rights organizations, at least ten Zelaya supporters have been killed or disappeared since the coup, and many more have been critically wounded. On July 1, interim president Roberto Michiletti announced the suspension of civil liberties across the country, and security forces have harassed or closed press outlets that are critical of the coup regime. Parts of the country are under 24-hour curfew.

The coup has been roundly condemned by the international community, including the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations. The Obama Administration has declared the coup illegal and suspended most military aid to Honduras as well as the diplomatic visas of some of the coup plotters.

However, the US maintains a military presence in Honduras and, despite pledges from Obama to cut military assistance to the coup regime, Honduran troops continue to train at the Army’s Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly the School of the Americas. In recent days, the US State Department under Hillary Clinton has backed away from calling the coup a coup or demanding Zelaya’s return, and has taken to suggesting Zelaya’s “provocative actions” caused his removal from power. Former Clinton White House lawyer Lanny Davis has been retained by Honduran business leaders as a pro-coup lobbyist in Washington, and public relations firms are working hard on behalf of the coup plotters to influence the debate in the US with a campaign of misinformation.

NAWC’S POSITION:

The Northland Anti-War Coalition, representing hundreds of labor, religious, peace, student and community activists in Northeastern Minnesota and Northwestern Wisconsin, strongly condemns the coup d’etat and illegitimate Michiletti government in Honduras. We offer our support and admiration to the people of Honduras who are bravely and nonviolently confronting the coup regime with mass marches, blockades and strikes.

We further call on the Obama Administration to withdraw military forces from Honduras; to sever all military ties with the coup regime (including training of Honduran soldiers at the SOA/WHINSEC); and to suspend diplomatic visas and freeze US-held assets of all members of the coup regime.

We call on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to show the same support to the democracy movement in Honduras as she does to the democracy movement in Iran. Clinton is wrong when she labels Zelaya and his supporters “reckless” and “irresponsible” for rightfully resisting the coup regime. Clinton should place the blame for violence in Honduras where it belongs: the coup government.

Finally, we support the efforts of Representative James Oberstar and others in Congress to close and investigate of the School of the Americas/WHINSEC, which has for decades trained Latin American soldiers to make war on their own people. Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, leader of the Honduran armed forces that overthrew President Zelaya, is a graduate of the school, as are at least 5 other coup leaders. The SOA/WHINSEC represents a terrible chapter in US history, and its closure should mark a radical new approach to Latin America based not on greed and militarization, but on respect, economic justice and cooperation.

Barrel Investigation Report

On Wednesday, August 5, members of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and employees of EMR, Inc environmental contractor spoke to a crowd of about 40 people in Duluth about their investigation of military waste barrels in Lake Superior. The event was hosted by Duluth Mayor Don Ness at City Hall, and was attended by representatives of of the Fond du Lac Band, the Duluth American Indian Commission, Nukewatch, Save Lake Superior Assocaition, and NAWC, as well as the mayor of Superior and staffers of Representative James Oberstar, Representative Dave Obey, Senator Russ Feingold and Senator Amy Klobuchar.

"We need to know the truth about these barrels ... and to hold the people who dumped the barrels to account."

Duluth Mayor Don Ness

After a water ceremony led by women of Red Cliff, Mayor Ness welcomed the crowd and thanked Red Cliff for taking the lead on this important study. He called the dumping of military waste into the Lake by the US Army a "terrible wrong."

Former Red Cliff Tribal Chair Jean Buffalo then explained the importance of this investigation to Anishinaabe people - from their spiritual and practical dependence on the water to the treaties signed with the US government that guarantee perpetual rights to hunt, fish and gather on their ceded lands. Pollution, she said, compromises these treaties by endangering the very sustenance of the Anishinaabeg.

Sue Anderson and Scott Carney of EMR, Inc, the environmental contractor hired by Red Cliff to assist with the study, reported that they had positively identified 591 barrels at three sites near the Lester, Talmadge and Sucker Rivers north of Duluth. This is roughly 300 more barrels than were found by the MPCA in the 1990s, and will offer a broader statistical sampling. More than 800 barrels dumped into the Lake from the Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant (TCAAP) are still unaccounted for, they acknowledged, but explained that the size of the Lake and funding constraints limit what they can do. The barrel project is being underwritten by a $1.2 million grant from the Department of Defense under its Native American Lands Environmental Mitigation Program (NALEMP), a program to clean up the DoD's own environmental disasters. According to Sue Anderson, the $40 million allocated to this program is shared by all tribes in the US, and has not changed in value since NALEMPs inception 13 years ago.

In early summer of 2010, EMR, Inc will begin pulling up 70 of these 591 barrels for testing. Red Cliff environmental officer Tracey Ledder said that the recovery will be an expensive and careful process, noting that the barrels may contain PCBs and other toxins, explosives, or even radioactive material. Based on what they find in the barrels, the Band will then test water and sediment in the Lake for possible contamination.

Red Cliff representatives concluded the presentation by welcoming local governments and environmental groups as partners in the barrel project. The activists in the audience were eager to offer partnership, but expressed some skepticism of the DoD's role in the project, specifically why the US Army Corps of Engineers, which dumped the barrels, couldn't seem to find even half of them. People also asked about rumors of dumping continuing into the 1970s, about testing the water at the city water intake for radioactivity and other dangerous toxins, and about holding Honeywell financially liable for testing and clean-up costs.

The Red Cliff Band will post periodic updates on the barrel project at its website. You can read the Nukewatch report on the barrel scandal here.

Hiroshima-Nagasaki commemorative events

Veterans for Peace Chapter 80 and several local churches are hosting Hiroshima/Nagasaki commemoration events this week.

Thursday, August 6, 7pm, UU Congregation
(835 College St, Duluth)
Bob Bowman, retired Air Force lt colonel and head of the Star Wars programs under presidents Ford and Carter speaks about the weaponization of space.

Friday, August 8, 7pm, Peace Church
(1111 N 11th Ave East, Duluth)
Film: "White Light Black Rain."

Sunday, August 9, 7pm, Duluth Congregational Church
(3822 E Superior St, Duluth)
Nagasaki remembrance service

Palestine Regional Conference

by Bob Kosuth
Regional Coordinator, MN Break the Bonds Campaign

This is to inform you that some folks from the Twin Cities group of MN Break the Bonds Coalition are available to come up to Duluth on Sunday afternoon, August 23rd 1-3 p.m. (location to be decided) in order to plan for a fall regional conference on Palestine issues and the goals of MN BBC. The fall conference would probably take place sometime in October or early November. Ours would be the first of a series of regional meetings to take place around the state.

Besides planning for the fall conference, the 8/23 meeting will be an opportunity for local people to meet some of the folks in the Cities responsible for getting the state organization off the ground and discuss any questions you might have about the goals and methods of the Campaign.

I plan to get information about this meeting to the wider NAWC (Northland Anti-War Coalition) group as well, but for purposes of planning for fall it's especially important to have in attendance those most interested in and committed to the issue. Thus, I am writing to you first. (Advance apologies for any later duplications!)

The following is a tentative agenda for the organizational meeting:

1. agenda/content for regional meeting--What is most important to cover in the time we have?
2. venue--What would a good location be? Will we need space for concurrent workshops? What would be a good "neutral" location?
3. target audience--who should we most try to reach?
4. date--What time/date would be most convenient?
5. how to publicize the event--how wide a net should we try to cast?
6. how much time should be allocated--e.g. a Saturday/a Friday night-Saturday a.m., a Sunday p.m., etc.
7. a list of tentative presenters--local, state, etc.--we certainly have some good local resources that we should capitalize on
8. refreshments/fundraising as needed
9. a plan for implementing the above--subcommittees

(Obviously, some of these items are less important and could be taken care of later, but given their experience with the issue the folks from the Cities might have some ideas about how to approach them.)

Please let me know of any other ideas or suggestions you might have.

Please let me know if you expect to be able to attend. I'll be sending a follow up message along with information about a location. If you have a suggestion for a location, please let me know. Finally, please note that this is an organizational meeting, not an informational meeting. Our purpose is to plan for a conference that will educate and stimulate the general public, but we will not be focusing on details of the issue itself at this planning meeting.

Thank you and I hope to hear from you at your earliest convenience.