Tidbits & Announcements - February 14, 2012

 * Re: Looks Like Syria's 'Benghazi Moment' ?  Not From     Here 
  (John Talbutt)
 * Re: Trader Joe's Caves to Coalition of Immokalee Workers,
   Signs Fair Food Agreement (Roz Boyd)
 * Labor delegation to Cuba
 * Human Rights Awards Dinner - Chicago - May 5, 2012

 ==========

 * Re: Looks Like Syria's 'Benghazi Moment' ?  Not From Here

 What is at stake for the at least one million Iraqi refugees
 still in Syria who escaped Iraq during the U .S. invasion?
 Why are they never mentioned?

 John Talbutt

 ==========

 * Re: Trader Joe's Caves to Coalition of Immokalee Workers,
 Signs Fair Food Agreement

 Good news!!! I am desperate for good news.

 Roz Boyd

 ==========

 * Labor delegation to Cuba

 With U.S. Labor for Friendship with Cuba as a program
 consultant, Marazul Charters, Inc. is organizing a research
 delegation to Cuba for full-time trade unionists:  April 25-
May 2, 2012.

 The research goals of the delegation are to (1) learn how
 the Central de Trabajadores de Cuba (CTC), Workers' Central
 Union of Cuba, the country's national trade union
 federation, is working with the new economic policies within
 the context of socialism; (2) learn first-hand from Cuban
 workers about the accomplishments and new challenges of a
 different economic system than our own; (3) be apprised by
 the CTC about the effects of the 50-year old U.S. economic
 blockade against the Cuban people, and; (4) learn how full
 economic and trade relations between the U.S. and Cuba could
 help workers from both countries by providing economic
 opportunities.

 The U.S. government continues to impose restrictions on
 travel to Cuba.  But under a General License already issued
 by the U.S. Treasury Department, full-time professionals are
 permitted to travel to Cuba to conduct research in their
 fields.  To qualify under the General License for
 professional research for this particular delegation, you
 must work full time as an appointed or elected official of a
 labor union or be an academic in this field.

 The cost of the program is approximately $1,600 for double
 occupancy and $1,700 for single occupancy, which includes
 round trip air fare from Miami to Havana, a Cuban visa,
 hotel accommodations, breakfast daily, several additional
 meals, a bilingual guide, and a full research program.

 Delegates are responsible for their own airfare to and from
 Miami.  The research program will include exchanges with CTC
 leaders and rank and file Cuban union members, visits to
 hospitals, labor unions, the Lazaro Pena School of the Cuban
 Workers, work sites, and the observance of Cuba's May Day
 celebration on May 1st.

 The deadline for all applications will be Friday, April 13,
 2012.

 If you are interested, or know someone who is interested,
 that meets the above qualifications - contact Marazul
 Charters at [log in to unmask]  Marazul Charters will send
 you details on the arrangements, the qualifications, as well
 as the application form.

 If you have specific questions about the program itself,
 please contact Carl Gentile, Chairperson of U.S. Labor for
 Friendship with Cuba, at [log in to unmask] and/or call
            240-285-6519      .

 U.S. Labor for Friendship with Cuba seeks to educate working
 people about Cuba's accomplishments in eliminating hunger,
 joblessness, illiteracy, and making free quality health care
 and education available to its entire population; creating a
 society where the 99 percent are in control of their own
 destiny.

 We are also supportive of efforts to free the Cuban Five,
 who are unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. for fighting right-
wing terrorism and for preventing attacks from Miami against
 Cuba by right-wing Cuban-Americans.

 ==========

 * Human Rights Awards Dinner - Chicago - May 5, 2012

 Chicago Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression
 Human Rights Awards Dinner

 Saturday , May 5th, 2012 5:30 P.M
 Lutheran School of Theology, 1100 E. 55th St. Chicago

 Keynote Speaker: Bill Fletcher, Jr.

 Executive Editor of BlackCommentator.com; co-founder of the
 Center for Labor Renewal; immediate past president of
 TransAfrica Forum; organizer of the Black Radical Congress;
 co-chair of United for Peace and Justice; director of the
 Monthly Review Foundation, formerly Vice President for
 International Trade Union Development Programs for the
 George Meany Center of the AFL-CIO; Education Director and
 later Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO. Co-author
 of *Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and A
 New Path Towards Social Justice* (University of California
 Press)

 Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression
http://naarpr.org/node/20

 1325 S. Wabash Ave., Suite #105
 Chicago, IL 60605
            (312) 939-2750      
http://www.naarpr.org

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