United Workers

MMP reports on Our Harbor Day and other May 1 actions across the northeast:

Big problems necessitate big solutions. Media Mobilizing Project’s work has focused on connecting the struggles of poor and working people in Greater Philadelphia in order to build a more powerful force for change than any single organization or sector could create on its own. We also recognize that the problems we face are not limited to this region. And we know that if we are to be successful, the solutions we are building cannot be smaller than the problems we face. The problems we face are not just about jobs, just about land, or just about health care – so our solution cannot be either. The problems we face do not just affect some racial groups, some genders, some religions or some age ranges – so our solution cannot either. The problems we face do not just exist in Philadelphia and other urban centers – so our solution cannot either.

On May 1, MMP joined our allies across the Northeast to celebrate International Workers Day and continue building our solution: a movement to end poverty led by poor and working people. Here are some photos and reports from United Workers Association’s Our Harbor Day in Baltimore, Maryland; Vermont Workers’ Center’s Health Care Is a Human Right rally in Montpelier, Vermont; CATA’s celebration in Kennett Square; and the May Day Rally and Family Unity BBQ here in Philadelphia. read more

Our Harbor Day as Leadership Development and Reflection of a Strategic Power Analysis:

The Harbor Day is significant for a number of reasons.  First, this was the latest step in a long term campaign for human rights in the workplace, a campaign that has already seen significant victories for the workers of Baltimore.  This campaign is built on the development of powerful leaders from the ranks of Baltimore’s workers.   Another important aspect of this Day was the fact that workers from the United Workers and other workers’ groups came together with artists, musicians and theatrical workers to make the day happen.  This collaboration strengthened the power of the narrative being created, and will likely be the basis of further and deeper relationships between the United Workers and cultural workers throughout the city and beyond. read more

This photoset is from MMP and includes photos of their other actions across the northeast, including in Vermont, Phily and Baltimore. Read more about MMP’s May Day 2010.

Help transform this space into a party zone. Join us May 5!

Your involvement makes history. History can be a lot of work to create. On the weekend we declared our demands for Fair Development, now we’re declaring Wednesday May 5 to be a day for rest, relaxation and celebration.

That’s why we’ll be having a Thanks in Solidarity Party for everyone involved in making Our Harbor Day happen. The party will be in the Participation Play Studio, starting at 6 PM.

We’ll be serving up tacos (it’s also Cinco de Mayo!) and will have videos and photos from all the participation plays.  This will be the final day that we’re at the studio as well, so we can reflect back on how the space was transformed into a powerful place of social transformation for justice and human rights.

Hope to see you there!

Thanks in Solidarity Party…

• Who: Everyone who helped make Our Harbor Day is welcome to celebrate with us
• When: Wednesday May 5, 2010 @ 6 PM
• Where: Participation Play Studio (3500 Parkdale Ave. Bldg. 10, Baltimore)

April was a busy month!

It started with attending the Poverty Initiative strategic dialogues on the role of religion, media and communications, followed by a delegation taking part in the CIW’s Farmworker Freedom March. We also joined the Labor Notes conference in Detroit.  All this as we prepared for Our Harbor Day.

Here’s a look back at the month of leadership and solidarity, including an incredibly powerful summation by Dan Jones (Philadelphia Student Union) of the why and how of building a social movement to end poverty, led by the poor.  Dan gave his talk following remarks by Chris Hedges.  See below for more details on the dialogue.

The Poverty Initiative’s Poverty Scholars Program hosted Chris Hedges on Saturday, April 10th in James Chapel at Union Theological Seminary.  He addressed the assembled low-income organizers, religious leaders and media makers from around the country who had convened from April 8-11th for “Strategic Dialogues” on the topics of the role of religion, media and communications in building a movement to end poverty. Chris Hedges’ remarks were in dialogue with Poverty Scholars Dan Jones with the Philadelphia Student Union, Ron Blount with the Unified Taxi Workers Alliance and others.

A caravan of farmworkers from the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) – an internationally-recognized human rights organization based in Immokalee, FL – and hundreds of consumers from across the country will march for three days from Tampa to Lakeland on April 16-18 to demand that Publix join a growing partnership among farmworkers, Florida tomato growers, and retail food giants aimed at ending decades of farm labor abuse in Florida. The march will culminate on Sunday afternoon, April 18, with a public concert and rally at Munn Park in Lakeland, near the corporate headquarters of Publix Supermarkets, Inc.

The CIW is a community-based farmworker organization headquartered in Immokalee, Florida, with over 4,000 members. The CIW seeks modern working conditions for farmworkers and promotes their fair treatment in accordance with national and international labor standards. Among its accomplishments, the CIW has aided in the prosecution by the Department of Justice of six slavery operations and the liberation of well over 1,000 workers. The CIW uses creative methods to educate consumers about human rights abuses in the U.S. agriculture industry, the need for corporate social responsibility, and how consumers can help workers realize their social change goals. The CIW’s Campaign for Fair Food has won unprecedented support for fundamental farm labor reforms from retail food industry leaders, with the goal of enlisting the market power of those companies to demand more humane labor standards from their Florida tomato suppliers.

The following video is from a solidarity protest with ROC of Michigan at the Labor Notes conference:

Visit Open Source Video for video of the worker testimonials during the Curtain Call, footage of the “Education” Participation, the Inner Harbor March and more.

Children of United Workers families made signs and practiced on drums to prepare for the day’s participation plays and march to the Inner Harbor. Check out a short video of some highlights from children’s preparations for the day…

This video was produced and posted by William Hughes, an ally of the united workers.

Armando Tema, Meimbro de Trabajadores Unidos

Por Armando Tema, Meimbro de Trabajadores Unidos

(English version follows.)

Soy Armando Tema, miembro del consejo de liderazgo de Trabajadores Unidos. El año pasado fui parte del programa becas de pobreza, actualmente estoy en el Programa de Nuevos Organizadores.

Como marcaba nuestro plan estratégico, hoy 1 de mayo, celebramos el día de Nuestro Harbor, este evento comunitario fue posible después de desarrollar la idea por aproximadamente dos años y casi un año de planificación y acciones con los miembros, aliados y amigos  de Trabajadores Unidos.

Puedo decir que el día de Nuestro Harbor fue realmente exitoso. El día de Nuestra Harbor fue un evento comunitario, donde todos participamos y fuimos actores y protagonistas de las obras que fueron contadas y escitas por las mismas personas, reviviendo las historias de luchas en el pasado y que hoy tomaron vida de nuevo, ya que vivimos en la misma situación.

Los problemas de TIERRA, EDUCACION Y TRABAJO, fueron los temas que resaltamos en las obras de teatro, porque consideramos que son estos problemas los que afectan a nuestras comunidades, y tanto las autoridades como las grandes corporaciones y desarrolladores se hacen de la vista gorda, nos hacen pensar que todo está bien pero en realidad todo marcha mal mientras pisotean nuestros derechos  humanos económicos, como nuestra dignidad.

Pero hoy, cientos de trabajadores y aliados dijimos basta de un desarrollo de zonas de pobreza! Basta a la falta de educación! Basta a la contaminación de nuestro medio ambiente!

Los aliados que se levantaron en solidaridad por un desarrollo justo fueron CIW (La Coalicíon de Trabajadores de Immokalee) de Florida; MMP (Media Mobilizing Project) de Filadelfia; Backbone Campaign de  Washington; Puppet Underground de D.C.; El Proyecto Algebra de Baltimore; IWW (Industrial Workers of the World); Red Emma’s; 2640; La Iniciativa de Pobreza de Nueva York; DWU (Trabajadoras Domesticas Unidas) de Nueva York y mucha mas.

Demostramos nuestra solidaridad el uno con el otro porque solo unidos podemos crear un movimiento capaz de terminar con la pobreza. En  esta mañana todos estábamos ansiosos por salir a las calles y gritar por la igualdad de oportunidades que todos tenemos derechos a vivir con oportunidades y llevar una vida con justicia y equidad.

En el acto final quisimos trasmitir a todos los presentes el mensaje que todos somos líderes y capaces de luchar por nuestros derechas humanos. La clave no es solo caminar juntos sin desanimarnos sino solo ver hacia delante y seguir caminando hasta victoria. Los grandes lideres no son los que nos jalan de la mano para seguir. Los grandes lideres son los que caminan con nosotros mano en mano. No podemas sentarnos, y esperar que alguien haga el cambio por nostros. Nosotros, los pobres, somos responsables para luchar contra la injusticia para nosotros mismos, nuestras familias, y nuestra sociedad.

The First Step to Change

by Armando Tema, United Workers Member

My name is Armando Tema. I am a member of the United Workers’ Leadership Council. For the past year I have gone through the Poverty Scholars Program and am now part of the New Organizers Program.

Today May 1st, we celebrated Our Harbor Day, after developing the idea two years ago in our strategic planning process and over a year of planning and actions with members, allies and friends of the United Workers. Our Harbor Day was a complete success. It was a truly community event, where all participated as actors and protagonists in participation plays that were told and written by those same people, retelling the story of past struggles, giving them new life and reflecting how our struggles are connected.

The themes of EARTH, EDUCATION and WORK were turned into plays because we felt they are the problems that affect our communities most.The large corporations and developers ignore the reality, saying everything is okay, but really they are humiliating us by walking all over our economic human rights–our dignity. But today hundreds of workers and allies said enough to poverty zone development! Enough to being denied education! Enough to polluting our earth!

The allies that stood in solidarity for Fair Development were the CIW (Coalition of Immokalee Workers) from Florida; MMP (Media Mobilizing Project) from Philadelphia; the Backbone Campaign from Washington; Puppet Underground from D.C.; the Algebra Project from Baltimore; IWW (Industrial Workers of the World); Red Emma’s; 2640; the Poverty Initiative from New York; the Domestic Workers United from New York, and many more.

We demonstrated our solidarity with each other because only united can we create a movement capable of ending poverty. This morning we were all excited to take to the streets and chant for the equal opportunity and our rights to live a life with justice and equity.

In the final act, we conveyed to all those present the message that we are all leaders and have the capacity to struggle for our human rights. The key is to walk together; to not be discouraged; to look forward, and continue on the path until victory. The great leaders are not those who grab our hand and pull us behind them. The great leaders are those who walk with us hand in hand. We can’t just sit around and wait for someone to make the change for us. We the poor, are responsible for fighting injustice for ourselves, our families, and our society.

Kevin Harris, United Workers Member

By Kevin Harris

Before I told my boss: “I feel like a slave working here” and he fired me.  Today I looked him in the eye at the Our Harbor Protest.  Here’s how it went…

Standing Together. Standing Stronger.

I believe that in order to get treated better as human beings we have to come together as people, no matter what color, and make these developers do the right thing. Without us their businesses can’t be run. We deserve to be treated fairly. How hard is that to ask about something so little?

Wake up, people. The United States right now doesn’t stand for life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It stands for the rich-stay-rich and the poor-stay-poor. At the Inner Harbor they lay people off in the winter to take the money that should be yours, but they could care less whether you drop dead or not.

All they care about is money, just like the rest of these scandalous businesses. These businesses could give you money if you are unemployed until you find another job, but yet they are not really trying to give you back anything in return.

We Are Leaders

It feels great to have people fighting for these rights, because we are leaders – just like me. We want things out of life in a sacred and positive way. Instead of this evil system trying to keep us down and wanting us to tap out. We need thousands of the same leaders like MLK, Malcolm X, W.E.B. DuBois, Harriet Tubman and the whole nine yards.

I feel as though that the only way we can make a change is if we keeping standing together even if the businesses take out one of us by firing us. If we keep standing there we can win. And there will be another who stands, and another, and another, and another leader. Then they will finally realize that they can fire us, or even lock us down, but they can’t take away our knowledge or brain power. And someone will always be standing there.

Then they will finally realize and finally give in to our demands. I think the United Workers is a great organization because they teach and give you a lot of knowledge about the system and show you how to use it against the system and go about it in a correct righteous manner. I just hope that the people in the United States realize now that you have to be a leader to get this thing to happen because I believe that there is more of us than them, we just have to come together and defeat them with our knowledge.

Do Something for a Change

Stop making excuses and do something for a change. You have all the time in the world for everything else, doing what the system is trying to feed you into, but you don’t think your rights are important. Come on, people let’s make a change.

I got tired of being treated like a nobody: no health care, no raise, getting clocked out early, and my pay not being right when I work overtime, by not receiving overtime pay. I felt as though I was lied to so they could play their dirty tricks and use me to keep their pockets fat.

They don’t even care about their workers. If they did, why do they pay us so little and still lay us off? Another thing is why can’t they wait till we do the smallest thing so they could fire us. Huh? Answer that question: I guess so they could bring somebody new in, that’s in desperate need of money, so they think that they can’t complain about the small pay – because they are new at the workplace. That’s why now I think it should be justice for all, because the businesses are wrong with no remorse, and they will have to answer to God on why they treated us in this manner. What are they gonna say to Him?

I Look Boss in Eye. He Runs in Shame.

Today at Our Harbor Day as I marched with hundreds of people to the Inner Harbor, it felt great to see the look on one of my old supervisors face as we were marching near Phillip’s today. He saw me with my sign in my hand (that said “End Poverty Now” and “Human Rights” on the other side) and he ran back in the building with a look of shame on his face.

He knew he was wrong for what he did to me. All I said, on the day they fired me, was that “I feel like a slave working here” and he fired me. But I am not worried. He felt so exposed and ashamed of the decision that he made and he can’t look me in the eye and can’t look at himself in the mirror. He tried to jump out of his skin when we came down the street, when he saw me with hundreds of others backing each other up.

Everyone is  Person Worthy of Universal Dignity

At the end of the day, when I think about how everything is going on I know that we all need to be treated as human beings. I also feel that I have to surround myself with more caring human beings, people that truly want to help someone out and give someone a hand. In my heart I feel: What is so hard about sharing a dollar and being equal?

We the people as fellow humans need to stop the madness against each other, cause right now the system’s story is not adding up like long division. They want to divide us but we’re truly equal. Plus, when you keep adding to a problem it becomes more of a problem and it don’t get solved. All I expect is fair exchange. We put our heart and soul into the businesses, but really are not getting anything in return but slave-like treatment.

John Duda just sent a link to his Flickr photoset from Our Harbor Day. Click the photo below to view the photos.

If you have photos to share, send photos or links to photos to kertes@unitedworkers.org.

The Media Team is hard at work getting updates, videos, photos up on the website soon.  Workers are writing blog entries.  Media makers from MMP are doing their video creation stuff on the media lab, sharing skills and installing new software to get our media lab up and running. Students from Towson are uploading gazillions of great photos.  And we’re fueling up on coffee, junk food is on the way.  We’ll start posting soon.

Check back soon for updates from the parades, plays and rest of Our Harbor Day.

“Work” Play rehearsal at the Participation Play Studio, last night.  Everything’s pack up and at 2640.  We’re ready to go!