See you at the annual PIELC (Public Interest Environmental Law) conference! Join members of Move to Amend’s national leadership team - Ashley Sanders and Ben Manski - in this three-part workshop that tackles both corporate capitalism and the U.S. Constitution. The session is entitled, "Move to Amend: A New Constitution for a New Society and Ecology."
On Wednesday, February 13th, Governor Walker is having his annual "performance review" in front of his real bosses. No, not the people of Wisconsin. The corporate lobby group Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Who buys elections? Who bribes politicians? Who writes the anti-worker and anti-environment laws? First and foremost, the answer is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its state affiliate, the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC).
Join Dennis Kucinich, the fighting progressive from Ohio, former mayor of Cleveland, seven term congressman, and twice presidential candidate. as he joins us in launching a national campaign to "Shut the Chamber!"
This election is being threatened by unverifiable voting machines, voter ID laws that disenfranchise millions of eligible voters, restrictive election laws for third party candidates and voters who wish to vote early, as well as many other forms of voter suppression that we are likely to witness on and before November 6. Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 have taught us that our elections can be stolen if we do not act.
A coalition of local labor and community groups has formed a CTU Solidarity Commitee to support the striking Chicago teachers. Buses/caravans are being organized from the Memorial Union/ Labor Temple in Madison to send folks down to a mass "Wisconsin Style" rally CTU is holding on Saturday.
A talk by Tom Hayden, one of the founders of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). He served as president of SDS from 1962 to 1963 and drafted its most famous work, the Port Huron Statement. He is currently a peace & justice activist based in Los Angeles and founder and director of The Peace and Justice Resource Center.
Tom Hayden’s talk will be introduced by John Nichols, political correspondent for The Nation magazine and associate editor of The Capital Times.
A talk by Carl Davidson, who was Vice President and National Secretary of the Students for a Democratic Society from 1968 to 1976. He is currently national co-chair of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and a national board member of Solidarity Economy Network.
Carl Davidson’s talk will be introduced by Matt Rothschild, editor of the Progressive Magazine
"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing Government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." ~ Abraham Lincoln
Presenters:
- Ben Manski, Esq., Liberty Tree Foundation for the Democratic Revolution; Associate Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
- Dr. Margaret Flowers, National Occupation of Washington D.C. (NOW DC)
- Daniel Wayne Lee, Los Angeles Move to Amend; Occupy Los Angeles
- Steve Cobble, adviser to Free Speech For People; Associate Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies
The conveners "invite you to attend a conference which brings together historians, social theorists, contemporary student activists, and Port Huron veterans to discuss the origins, historical impact, and contemporary relevance of the New Left's founding manifesto."
Inspired by our friends at Occupy Wall Street, and Dr. Cornel West, Move To Amend is planning bold action to mark the second anniversary of the infamous Citizens United v. FEC decision!
Learn how to engage the public and gather signatures for a campaign to demand a Constitutional Amendment to end Corporate Personhood, get the money out of our political system, and reverse Citizens United.
Right here, in Iowa… as the movement spreads across America.
Where do the movement to abolish corporate personhood, the Wisconsin protest wave, global resistance to austerity, and the voting rights, election integrity, anti-war, and campus democracy movements come together? Beneath the branches of Liberty Tree, committed to "building a democracy movement for the U.S.A." since 2004.
You’re invited to a free community forum, Corporations Are Not Persons and Money Is Not Speech. The event includes a presentation by and discussion with David Cobb, the national spokesperson for Move to Amend.
Cobb will discuss the national Move to Amend campaign and what we can do to abolish never-intended corporate constitutional rights and reverse the legal doctrine that money is speech! Download flyer here.
Oregon Area Progressives is sponsoring All About ALEC, a forum on the American Legislative Exchange Council with an outstanding lineup of speakers, including Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D - IL) Sen. Mark Miller Rep. Mark Pocan Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts Lisa Graves - Center for Media and Democracy Mike McCabe - Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Jack Norman -Institute for Wisconsin's Future Jim Cavanaugh - South Central Federation of Labor Dan Holub - WEAC Julie Underwood - UW Madison School of Education Joanne Ricca - Wisconsin AFL-CIO Robert Kraig - Citizen's Action of Wisconsin and Jay Heck - Common Cause Moderated by John Nichols Advance Registration $10 - includes lunch register now at www.allaboutalec.org
The Dover Delaware United Nations Association will be celebrating World Water Day!
We will be passing out statistics and requests for water advocacy as well as offering car pooling to events sponsored by the Greater Philadelphia UNA and the League of Women Voters luncheon to discuss Economic Disparity.
In the second half of the meeting we will read an article together and then and request support for "Move to Amend." Come join us!
March to End the Wars!
Ten Years in Afghanistan - Ten Billion Dollars a Month
March & Rally in Madison, Wisconsin
Saturday, Oct. 15
Join the Madison Area Peace Coalition (MAPC) for a March and Rally to mark 10 years of U.S.-led war in Afghanistan on Saturday, Oct. 15th. We will call for an end to this war and all wars. We want jobs, schools, and healthcare -- not war.
Please gather at UW Library Mall at 11:30 am. Bring your peace and labor signs. Come early for parking because it's a football Saturday and Farmer's Market Day. We'll begin marching after noon, and be up at the Capitol by quarter to 1:00 pm.
Sponsored by the Madison Area Peace Coalition. Endorsed by AFSCME 171 and the South Central Federation of Labor (SCFL).
We're going public this month for the first time by holding our October meet-up at the Infinitea Teahouse! This month's notable attendees will be Eau Claire City Council member, Dana Wachs, as well as Eau Claire County Board member, John DeRosier, who are considering sponsoring a resolutions in support of reversing the Supreme Court's "Citizens United v. FEC" decision.
Come share how unlimited/undisclosed corporate influence of our elections has made an impact on the issues that you care about! We'll need your input as we propose, discuss, and vote on local resolutions to pass.
Bringing the inspiration of the Wisconsin protest wave -- from the occupation of the state's capitol to the recent national Democracy Convention in Madison -- to the planned October 2011 occupation of Freedom Plaza in D.C.:
From August 24th to August 28, 2011 over 1200 people from around the country covened in Madison for a Democracy Convention designed to further the growing nationwide Democracy Movmeent. This event, sponsored by the Liberty Tree Foundation (which also sponsors the Wisconsin Wave) gave participants and organizers alike the skills to return to their communities and fight for Democracy where it matters most -- in our schools, our workplaces and local economies, our military, our governm
Come one, come all, hear the call to . . .
DUMP TEA! DUMP PALIN!
Speakers and Music TBA…as confirmed.
MC's John "Sly" Sylvester and Sarah Manski.
NOON, SATURDAY, APRIL 16th
WI STATE CAPITOL
Change: STATE STREET CORNER
Please share widely. The puppets are coming, the puppets are coming! Corporate puppets Sarah Palin and "Americans" for "Prosperity" are rallying at our Wisconsin State Capitol on 4/16. For more information:http://www.danegop.org/latestnews.aspx
12:00pm-2:00pm RALLY AT STATE CAPITOL: Ride the Wave Back to the Capitol!
2:00pm-3:00pm MARCH TO WMC: Take Wisconsin Back from the Corporate Interests!
4:00pm Registration Opens at Georgia O'Keefe Middle School, 510 South Thornton Ave., Madison
5:00pm & 7:00pm MAJOR PANELS at Georgia O'Keefe Middle School:
5pm UNDERSTANDING AUSTERITY: Wisconsin in a global perspective
7pm BUILDING A POPULAR MOVEMENT: Overcoming inequality & uniting us all in common cause
~ Sunday, April 10th ~
8:30am Registration Reopens at Downtown Campus of Madison Area Technical College
9:30am-11:00am MAJOR PANEL: DIRECT ACTION CAMPAIGNING: Achieving the Will of the People when government closes its doors
11:30am-1:00pm WORKSHOPS
1:00-2:30pm Lunch Break
2:30pm-4:00pm WORKSHOPS
4:30pm-6:30pm MAJOR PANEL: DEMAND DEMOCRACY: Democratizing our elections, economy, budget process, and constitutions
In the midst of a battered economy, Puerto Rican college campuses have been battlegrounds of differing ideologies, a Puerto Rican scholar said Thursday.
When the city of Pontiac, Michigan, shut down its fire department last Christmas Eve, city councilman Kermit Williams learned about it in the morning paper. "Nobody reports to me anymore," Williams says. "It just gets reported in the press." This was just the latest in a series of radical changes in the city, where elected officials such as Williams have been replaced by a single person with unprecedented control over the city's operation and budget.
Wisconsin's public school open enrollment period begins Monday, and for the first time, families will have three months to decide whether and where to enroll their students outside of their home school district.
For the Madison School District, the extra time could mean more families choosing to leave for other districts or virtual schools, though Superintendent Dan Nerad said it's too early to know what the affect will be.
"By the nature that there's an open window, that's likely to happen for us as well as other districts around the state," Nerad said.
WASHINGTON — Education was historically considered a great equalizer in American society, capable of lifting less advantaged children and improving their chances for success as adults. But a body of recently published scholarship suggests that the achievement gap between rich and poor children is widening, a development that threatens to dilute education’s leveling effects.
The Pulaski High Marching Band, of Pulaski Wisconsin, made an awesome statement in yesterday's Rose Bowl Parade.
It was quite an honor for the Red Raiders from this small town (pop. approx. 3000) northwest of Green Bay to be marching in 80-degree weather in Pasadena, while their proud community looked on from windy 18-degree Wisconsin.
The TV coverage started as they marched along playing "On Wisconsin," looking properly Badger-like in their red uniforms.
And then they got to the grandstand, at about 1:15 in the YouTube ... listen to what happened.
A federal lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Milwaukee alleging that Wisconsin's new voter ID law is unconstitutional and will deprive people of the right to vote.
The suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin and the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, claims top state officials includng Gov. Scott Walker and Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the non-partisan state elections agency, as well as employees tasked with implementing the law at the state Department of Motor Vehicles and Social Security offices have created a poll tax and other obstacles that present a "severe and undue burden on the fundamental right to vote."
State officials recently announced this year’s final state aid sent to local school districts. All but 13 of Wisconsin’s 424 local school districts received cuts. The historic school aid reduction in Wisconsin is the second largest per pupil cut in the nation.
Local education leaders, parents and teachers are concerned about the long-term effects of such deep funding cuts.
At the same time, Gov. Walker’s recent radio address touted his commitment to education. “We kept education a priority,” he said. “We also passed reforms that will help protect taxpayers and improve government.”
ONDON (AP) — Paramedics, emergency crews, teachers and even some employees from the prime minister's office took to the streets of Britain for the country's largest strike in decades — drawing attention to government cuts but failing to bring the nation to a standstill.
Public sector employees staged the one-day walkout Wednesday over government demands that they work longer before receiving a pension and pay more in monthly contributions, part of austerity measures to tackle Britain's 967 billion-pound ($1.5 trillion) debt.
The strike came a day after the government announced that public sector pay raises will be limited to 1 percent through 2014 — even as inflation now runs about 5 percent.
Protesters at the University of California, Davis, have been calling for the chancellor to quit since a pepper spray attack Friday by the police. LOS ANGELES — It has become something of an annual tradition on California college campuses, in what is perhaps the most prestigious state university system in the country: the state makes large cuts in public universities, they in turn raise tuition, and students respond with angry protests.
Tuesday morning, the police cleared Zuccotti Park, but today the people are back. The police should know that this protest is not a battle for territory. We're not fighting for the right to occupy a park here or there. We are fighting for justice. Justice, not just for the people of the United States, but for everybody.
On Wednesday, October 12, 2011, the Liberty Tree Foundation convened a special briefing, the Teleconference on the Global Wave of Resistance. This global conference featured over 100 participants, and updates from leading organizers of the global wave of student and labor strikes, occupations, and revolutions. Panelists include core organizers from the UK, Germany, Israel, and Chile, as well as Wisconsin, Boston, Oakland, Washington D.C., and Wall Street, among others. This was the second such teleconference on corporatization and austerity org
Additional Information:
Panelists included Nicolas Valenzuela, Uri Gordon, Mo Gas, James Sevitt, Adam Porton, Sarah Manski, Nadeem Mazen, Elaine Brower, Matt Nelson, plus moderator Ben Manski.
Press TV: Edward Spannaus, why don't you tell us your impression of these movements? I mean, they are obviously gaining momentum. Tell us why? And of course we see Occupy Wall Street as being one of them that has inspired other movements.
Spannaus: Well, I would actually go back to the spring when you had the mass protests in Madison, Wisconsin, in Indiana, in Ohio and at that time also you had demonstrations in hundreds of cities in support of the trade unionists and when you had governors of those states trying to break the unions.
The protests that began in Wisconsin this year, and which now also fill the streets of Manhattan, Boston, Chicago, and this week, Washington D.C., have gotten the attention of the American political class. And how could they not? 2011 is becoming a remake of the 1999 Battle of Seattle, except this time the protests are ongoing, national and global, and the target is not just the World Trade Organization, but the entire edifice of corporate capitalism.
These videos range in quality, but most are easy to follow. Additional videos are posted, and will continue to be added as they become available, at http://democracyconvention.org/press
WisconsinEye is the C-Span of Wisconsin's civil society. The folks at WisconsinEye video recorded 18 different sessions at the 2011 Democracy Convention. They may be watched or listened to for free on their website, or purchased for download, here:
It's easy to subscribe to the belief that America doesn't have enough resources for everyone to enjoy a high standard of living. But Cheri Honkala, one of the leading figures in the movement against poverty, said at the Liberty Tree Foundation's Democracy Convention in Madison, Wisconsin that this is a false message.
In the United States, the richest 400 people own more collective wealth than the bottom 150 million. As historian and writer Gar Alperovitz puts it, this is quite literally medieval. America's distribution of wealth is controlled by corporations and the extremely wealthy—if there is to be real social change, this gaping inequality needs to be addressed and radically altered. The people need to take the pain of the laborers affected by politicians such as Governor Scott Walker and unite around this as something to replace with progressive reforms.
Civil disobedience is a transformation of consciousness, a sudden revelation that something new must be done. It is the knowledge that there are two options: disrupt and change the system or remain silent in the face of injustice. Right now, civil disobedience is emerging from the anti-war and environmental movements in significant ways, most notably around opposition to the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.
See you at the annual PIELC (Public Interest Environmental Law) conference! Join members of Move to Amend’s national leadership team - Ashley Sanders and Ben Manski - in this three-part workshop that tackles both corporate capitalism and the U.S. Constitution. The session is entitled, "Move to Amend: A New Constitution for a New Society and Ecology."
Join Dennis Kucinich, the fighting progressive from Ohio, former mayor of Cleveland, seven term congressman, and twice presidential candidate. as he joins us in launching a national campaign to "Shut the Chamber!"
Call to Action
Come one, come all, hear the call to . . .
