Submitted on Thu, 12/08/2005 - 3:27pm
By MATT APUZZO - Associated Press Writer, December 7, 2005.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. -- A professor and outspoken anarchist has agreed to leave Yale University this spring, ending an appeal over whether his termination was politically motivated.
David Graeber, one of the world's leading social anthropologists, said he will teach two classes next semester, then take a yearlong paid sabbatical after which he will not return.
"Normally, you get a sabbatical on the condition that you come back and teach the following year," Graeber said. "I'm getting the sabbatical on the condition that I don't come back and teach."
Submitted on Wed, 11/02/2005 - 6:01am
By Jon Bekken - Industrial Worker, November 2005
Every November we remember the rebel workers murdered by the employing class; a long list which grows longer every year. Fred Thompson used to speak of an IWW soapboxer whose rap went something like this: 'Workers are being fired for joining the IWW. Workers are being killed... Join the IWW.' It demonstrated, Fred used to say, a fine sense of solidarity but was not necessarily the best way to sign up new members.
The IWW has contributed more than its fair share of labor's martyr, because we have always been in the forefront of the struggle for workers' rights. By some accident of the calendar, many of our fellow workers have fallen in November, from the Haymarket Martyrs murdered Nov. 11, 1887, to the Nov. 4, 1936, death of FW Dalton Gentry, shot on an IWW picket line in Pierce, Idaho.
Some, like Joe Hill (killed Nov. 19, 1915) are famous; others, like R.J. Horton, largely forgotten. Fellow Worker Horton was shot down by a Salt Lake City cop Oct. 30, 1915, while giving a speech protesting the impending execution of Joe Hill.
Submitted on Sun, 10/09/2005 - 5:30pm
By Harry Harrington, aka Sathari Singh Khalsa - Industrial Worker, September 2005.
In June of last year the New York City Transit Authority removed me from my job as a train operator for wearing a turban. I had worked there for 23 years with a turban, nearly all as a train operator. The bosses at the MTA were quickly compelled by adverse media coverage to return me to my regular job in passenger service. The initial attempt to put me out of sight failed. My case had reached millions through TV and newspaper accounts that made the MTA officials look like narrow-minded bigots.
Not to be frustrated in their efforts to control nearly all aspects of their employees' lives, the MTA bosses then told me that I had to "pick" a job in the yard during the next job selection process if I continued to wear my turban. As a member of the worldwide Sikh community, I could not remove my religiously mandated head covering and as a union activist I could not let them violate my rights. The media campaign continued and the pick came and I did not pick a yard job but a job I had been working for the last 12 years on the number four Lexington Avenue Express line. Their threat to fire me for picking my regular job proved empty.
Submitted on Fri, 09/23/2005 - 7:36pm
In July 2005, an 18-month old baby is killed in her father's arms by Los Angeles police. Police justification of this -- that they were trying to "save" the baby -- reminds people of the famous Vietnam era military quote -- "We had to destroy the village in order to save the village." In Compton, police surround a truck where a man gave them the finger and fire 100 shots. In the last two years since Cau Bich Tran (a young Vietnamese mother of two) was killed while holding a vegetable peeler, there have been about a dozen police-involved killings in the San Jose area alone.
Rudy Cardenas was one of those stolen lives, and state drug agent Walker who shot him in the back is going to trial for manslaughter in September. Amnesty International released a report last November documenting over 70 deaths by tasers since 2001. The Stolen Lives Project has documented an alarming escalation nationwide in the numbers of people killed by law enforcement agents. These killings march hand in hand with the repression, searches and seizures legalized by today's USA PATRIOT Act, which evoke remembrances of the COINTELPRO days of the 1960s and 70s.
Submitted on Sun, 07/31/2005 - 1:18am
Urgent Action Needed!
(Again, for folks in and around Kansas, KMA is again raising money to aid with these comrades!)
New Jersey Animal Rights Activists Rearrested
Following Anti-Terrorist Task Force raid and arrests last weekend, New Jersey activists have been rearrested today [7/29/2005]. They need your support now!
Nicholas Cooney has been arrested once again. He was involved in a legal protest outside Glaxo Smith Kline's King of Prussia, PA facility and taken in for an outstanding warrant in Ocean County, NJ. During the last contact with Nicholas, it was reported that he was being held in the Upper Merrion, PA jail, but will be extradited to NJ at an undetermined time. Supporters do not currently know where Nick is being held.
Please make some polite but firm phone calls to the jail to request vegan food for Nick and to inquire about his well-being. The phone number at the jail he was last known to be at is 610 265-3232.
If and when Nick is extradited (an email will go out under separate cover), he will be transferred to the Ocean County Correctional Facility in Tom's River, NJ. After he has been transferred, the phone number for jail support calls will be 732 929-2043.