1 First Friday Vigil for Jobs - NYC
2 Request for Support from Todos Somos Arizona

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First Friday Vigil for Jobs - Come Stand With Us to Send a 
Message to Washington, DC

Create a National Jobs Program
“People need to cut through Washington double talk about 
‘stimulus’ and make the politicians embrace the right word 
— ‘jobs…jobs…jobs’ — that is the true solution.”
-- William Greider  The Nation


Friday, January 7, 2011   •   12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
in front of Senator Schumer’s Manhattan office, 757 Third Ave.
(between E. 47th & E. 48th Streets)

Join the Vigil on the First Friday of every month BECAUSE…

•  In November 2010, 15 million persons were officially 
unemployed, and another 15 million persons wanted full-time 
work but were forced to work part-time or had given up looking 
for work. This past year, one out of every four families in America 
have been affected by unemployment.  This must not become the 
“new normal.”
• The best way to solve this crisis is for the federal government 
to create a new national jobs program, similar to the innovative 
work programs created by President Roosevelt during the 1930’s 
Great Depression.
• Congress must also act immediately to 1) extend benefits for 
the long-term unemployed who have been jobless for longer than 
93-99 weeks and 2) continue financial assistance to state and local governments to avoid massive layoffs in health care, education and 
other essential services.


Speakers at Vigil: Hazel Dukes, NAACP-NYS,
 Bill Henning, CWA-Local 1180, Charles Bell, NJFAC,
Heidi Siegfried, Hunger Action Network, 
Noreen Connell, NOW-NYS

Endorsed by…
Communications Workers of America, Local 1180
Empire State Economic Security Campaign
Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition
Healing of the Nations Fndtn, Rev. James Forbes, Jr., Pres.
Hunger Action Network of NY State
Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, NYC Chapter
National Jobs for All Coalition 
National Organization for Women - NYS
New York City Chapter of U.S. Labor Against the War
NYC Democratic Socialists of America
Workers Defense League, Inc.

Individual Endorsements, org. for identification only:
Ed Ott, former Exec. Dir. NYC Central Labor Council
Jim Perlstein, Retiree Chptr, Profesional Staff Congress/CUNY
Paul Vasquez, Pres., NABET-CWA Local 16

For more info contact www.njfac.org or NYC vigil coordinator, Noreen Connell, 212-586-3257, [log in to unmask]
Download Vigil flyer from:  www.JobsCampaign.org


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Hi friends and colleagues,

Here's to a 2011 full of successful mobilizations for human rights 
and social justice! 

I am writing to appeal to you, my amazing professor friends and 
colleagues.  I am part of a diverse and committed group of racial/
social justice activists in Los Angeles. Our group is named 
Tod@s Somos Arizona, and we have undertaken civil disobedience 
in order to protest unjust laws, such as SB 1070, 287(g) agreements,
 and corporate involvement in the criminalization of immigrants and 
communities of color. The politically ambitious and right-wing LA City Attorney, Carmen Trutanich, has targeted our group (among others!) 
with harsh sentences, in an effort to stamp out dissent in Los Angeles.

Below is a request for your support -- the main thing I am asking is 
that you consider signing on as a supporter to the open letter to 
Trutanich. Your name and affiliation will appear  on our website, 
which is under construction. I will send you the link to it as soon as 
it's up and running.

If you can take a moment to send an email to us at [log in to unmask] if you want to sign (name, university affiliation) the open letter to Carmen Trutanich in support of us, 
that would be great!  (Scroll down to see the letter.)

If you teach in the Southern California region and you’re planning 
next term’s courses and would welcome us to come give a short talk 
(which we can tailor to your course’s topic), that’s also fantastic!  If 
you don't, please disregard this -- and accept my apologies for the 
mass email.

Thirdly, please forward widely to your networks of allies.This is really important -- thanks!!

Thanks for considering my request fellow scholar activists! Happy2011!

Also... if you are part of any professional or community organizations 
that would like to sign on, this would be fantastic, too. Just let us know 
via [log in to unmask]

In solidarity,
Molly
CSULA
******************************


Dear Professors,
 
I’m writing to let you know about an important social justice struggle happening in Los Angeles, and I am asking for your support in raising 
public awareness about it, especially within your classrooms and among 
your colleagues.

A group of social justice activists, Todos Somos Arizona (“We Are All Arizona”), have taken Martin Luther King Jr.’s quote, “It is our moral 
obligation to disobey unjust laws” to heart and organized two protests 
in Los Angeles earlier this year (in May and July 2010) to challenge 
Arizona’s draconian anti-immigrant law, SB1070, and the 
criminalization of our communities that results from such laws. 
Twenty-four people, including directors of community organizations, students, organizers, and lawyers were arrested in these two actions.
 (Please see the attached documents for details about the specifics of 
the actions and more about the group.)

As a result, the 24 people arrested in these two non-violent civil 
disobedience actions are being threatened with up to a full year in jail 
by City Attorney Carmen Trutanich. This level of prosecution against 
non-violent demonstrators is unprecedented in Los Angeles history.  
Many others arrested for civil disobedience in recent months in L.A. are 
also facing this type of intense prosecution.

I invite you to take a look at the attached call to action and letter of 
support as well as this informative NPR story about the links between 
private prisons and laws like SB1070 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130833741&sc=fb&cc=fp for more information.  
Then we’d like to make three requests:
 
1)      We ask for your individual endorsement on our “Open letter 
to Trutanich,” which is attached to this email, as well as pasted below.  
As we move forward with a campaign against this politically motivated prosecution, we would love to count your name among our many 
supporters within universities, organizations, and communities. If you 
wish to endorse the letter, please indicate your support in an email 
reply to [log in to unmask] and be sure to tell us the 
correct name and university affiliation that you want to appear on the 
letter.
 
2)      Consider inviting us to speak to one or more of your classes.  
We are a diverse group of students, educators, and activists, and we 
believe that our struggle for immigrant rights, social justice, and now, 
against a politically motivated form of persecution would be instructive 
to students in sociology, history, political science, anthropology, 
philosophy, liberal studies, and ethnic and gender studies. .  We are experienced presenters, and our presentation is about 15-20 minutes 
in length plus discussion. That said, we would be happy to work with 
you on length and focus to meet your particular course needs. We are contacting you now in hopes that as you plan your winter quarter/spring semester courses, you might be able to find a place for us between early January and early February.
 
3)      Consider sharing this email with colleagues who are concerned 
about, and perhaps teach about, immigration, civil rights and civil disobedience, history, politics, and social issues. Please forward widely.

Thank you so much for your consideration. We look forward to your 
response, and we welcome your solidarity.  Please feel free to contact 
us at [log in to unmask] with any questions or comments.
 
*****************************
OPEN LETTER TO TRUTANICH
City Attorney Carmen Trutanich,
Arizona’s SB1070, a bill that mandates racial profiling, was signed 
into law by Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer in late April 2010. 
Deportations, detentions, and draconian anti-immigrant laws such as Arizona’s SB1070 have created an atmosphere of terror for millions of undocumented people living in this country. The bill’s racism and intent 
to criminalize immigrants and people of color sparked protests and 
resistance throughout the country including acts of civil disobedience 
in Arizona, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Orange County and many 
other cities.

A grouping of immigrant rights and community activists organized a 
protest on May 6th, where 14 people staged a sit-in in front of the 
Federal Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles blocking buses 
used for deportations from accessing the facility for several hours. 
On July 29th, the day SB 1070 took effect, 10 more people engaged 
in an act of civil disobedience at the Los Angeles headquarters of G4S/Wackenhut Corporation, a private prison and security corporation
 that lobbied for and stands to profit from SB 1070. The demonstrators arrested for acts of civil disobedience in Los Angeles were guided by the words of Dr. King, “It is our moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.”
Now, these 24 demonstrators along with many others struggling for 
social and economic justice in Los Angeles have become the targets of 
an unprecedented politicized prosecution by the Los Angeles City 
Attorney that seeks to criminalize dissent at a moment when it is most necessary. For their decision to stand peacefully for justice, they have 
been charged with multiple misdemeanors and threatened with the 
possibility of up to one year in jail. The charges and potential jail time 
in these cases are far more severe than anything faced by those who
 took similar actions in Santa Ana, Arizona, and elsewhere.  We believe 
that Los Angeles should be a place where the right to protest is 
protected and we are concerned about the chilling effect that these prosecutions could have on free speech and protest in the city.  

We stand in solidarity with the demonstrators, their actions, and their message of justice and legalization for immigrants.  We call on you to 
stop aggressively prosecuting those who take a stand for civil and 
human rights and demand that you drop all charges against these 
protesters.
 
Sincerely,

___________________________________________

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