AMAZING SPEECH BY WAR VETERAN

ThePhaedrus83 — December 20, 2009 — "Our real enemies are not those living in a distant land whose names or policies we don't understand; The real enemy is a system that wages war when it's profitable, the CEOs who lay us off our jobs when it's profitable, the Insurance Companies who deny us Health care when it's profitable, the Banks who take away our homes when it's profitable. Our enemies are not several hundred thousands away. They are right here in front of us." - Mike Prysner

Please share with your friends, family and acquaintances. Every little effort counts in the long run.

Please Support the Veterans at:
http://www.ivaw.org/

Also visit
http://www.antiwar.com/

Speech Transcript:
http://dotsub.com/view/749fb533-dad3-4105-a56e-565e3f6d0972/viewTranscript/eng



Video con subtitulos en español
Asombroso discurso de un Veterano: DISCURSO DE MIKE PRYSNER
Indicando quienes son el enemigo verdadero de su pais.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kWU-JHetMM&feature=player_embedded

Documental: La lucha de trabajadores electricistas

Suben a la web documental sobre la lucha de trabajadores del SME

Canal 6 de Julio presenta en tres partes

"Que se haga la luz" ante la "oscuridad informativa"

El filme denuncia la intención oficial de comercializar el servicio de triple play con la fibra óptica de LFC

El material está disponible en Youtube y en la página electrónica del sindicato

VER VIDEO

Tania Molina Ramírez, La Jornada, 11 de enero de 2010

El documental Que se haga la luz (también llamado Y se hizo la luz) busca, efectivamente, ofrecer luz en medio de lo que sus realizadores consideran la oscuridad informativa en lo que se refiere al conflicto generado por la extinción de Luz y Fuerza del Centro (LFC). Y, para agilizar su difusión, su productora, Canal 6 de Julio, lo subió a Youtube, en tres partes, y además se puede ver en la página electrónica del Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas (SME). La productora recomienda que se grabe en dvd y se pase de mano en mano, para que sea visto por la mayor cantidad de personas posible, y que se hagan proyecciones colectivas que provoquen diálogos posteriores.

"Aprovechando la Internet, que permite la descentralización de los mensajes, se tiene la intención de que llegue más allá de la zona de conflicto SME-LFC, a otros lugares dentro y fuera de la República Mexicana", explicó Canal 6 de Julio, vía correo electrónico.

Durante el filme, advierten: "El ataque al SME es un ataque a todos los trabajadores de México".

Parte fundamental de la labor de la productora es informar sobre temas de los cuales, a su juicio, los medios electrónicos más bien desinforman, como es el caso del conflicto del SME y la privatización de la energía eléctrica. La cinta habla sobre "las compañías trasnacionales, que son las principales beneficiarias de la privatización de la industria eléctrica mexicana", así como "de las protestas en varias partes del país por el mal servicio y cobros excesivos de la Comisión Federal de Electricidad".

En el documental explican que la fibra óptica es "una tecnología que el gobierno de Felipe Calderón pretende comercializar, mediante de la red eléctrica, para ofrecer los servicios de televisión por cable, teléfono e Internet, a todos los usuarios de LFC, por medio de su red de mil 100 kilómetros de extensión. ¿Sabía usted que el Sindicato Mexicano de Electricistas propuso que estos servicios fueran ofrecidas por una empresa pública, y así mejorar las finanzas de Luz y Fuerza?"

Y más adelante: "¿Es posible que la liquidación de LFC y la agresión al SME sean parte de una estrategia para asegurar el negocio de la fibra óptica?"

La cinta, realizada por Carlos Mendoza y producida por Nancy Ventura, incluye entrevistas con los escritores Carlos Montemayor y Paco Ignacio Taibo II. "Un país no avanza, no crece, no mejora, no se desarrolla, reprimiendo trabajadores, destruyendo sindicatos democráticos, abriendo las puertas al gran capital extranjero, a los negocios turbios, a la podredumbre. Los electricistas han demostrado que no todo está a la venta en México. Que sólo están a la venta los que se dejan vender. Que no todo se puede comprar con dinero. Han dado una demostración de verdad formidable, de sobriedad, de orgullo, de conciencia. Han sido un ejemplo para el resto de los mexicanos", dice Taibo”.

El obispo Samuel Ruiz ofrece un mensaje en nombre de la Conferencia Interinspectorial del Cono Sur de América Latina (CICSAL): "Al dejar sin empleo digno a más de 40 mil trabajadores, el gobierno federal está realizando no sólo un acto de injusticia, sino un acto inmoral, pues atenta contra uno de los derechos sagrados...: el derecho a una fuente de trabajo digno".

Y se dirige al SME: "Sepan que nosotros, desde la Iglesia y desde el CICSAL, estamos acompañándoles en este proceso y en el justo reclamo a sus derechos, el derecho al trabajo, el derecho a una vida digna, el derecho a la salud, a la vivienda, a la educación de sus hijos. Continúen con ánimo esta lucha de resistencia, pues en su lucha está representado el anhelo de todos los mexicanos a vivir en una patria donde la justicia y la dignidad del pueblo trabajador sean respetadas".

La cinta refuta el argumento del gobierno federal "acerca de que el SME es la causa principal del quebranto de Luz y Fuerza del Centro".

"Piense y actúe", recomiendan al final los realizadores del documental.

Que se haga la luz o Y se hizo la luz, con archivo fotográfico de La Jornada y la revista Proceso, puede ser vista en tres partes:

Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAo3WDSuUjc&feature=related

Sitio electrónico del SME:

www.sme1914.org/?cat=4

Sheriff Joe Arpaio tortura mujer al dar a luz

Latina.Com

The news team for Telemundo 52 recently reported on Alma Minerva Chacon, a women who was terrorized by Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Unfortunately, she is just the latest in a long line of Latinos who have suffered at the hands of the ruthless Sheriff whose personal goal is to rid Arizona of all "illegals" and just maybe, all Latinos. Arpaio has repeatedly stated that he is breaking no laws and just enforcing the constitution by arresting more than 600 Latinos a year. But the problem with his tactics is that less than half of those arrested are even in this country illegally.

The most recent atrocity committed by the self-proclaimed "America's Toughest Sheriff" involves a woman who was detained while 9-months pregnant. Alma Minerva Chacon's case has been receiving media attention due to the brutality with which she was treated. The very same night of her arrest, Chacon went into labor and found herself afraid and alone, being rushed to a local hospital with her hands and legs chained in shackles.

Once she reached the hospital, nurses repeatedly begged the Sheriff's staff to allow them to unchain the mother, but they refused and Chacon was forced to give birth while still shackled to the bed. At one point, the nurse asked for them to release her so that she could be escorted to the bathroom for a urinalysis, but even that request was denied. But the worst came once Chacon gave birth to her baby girl.

Still chained to the bed, Arpaio's police staff refused to allow Chacon to hold her newborn baby and then warned her that if no one came to pick up the child within 72 hours, she would be turned over into state custody. Telemundo 52 sat down with Chacon and let her tell her side of the story. Check out the interview below and if you don't support Sheriff Arpaio's barbaric practices sign the petition at www.SheriffJoeMustGo.com:


sdcampaigns.blogspot.com

No thanks no giving

www.sdcampaigns.blogspot.com

We are the 37

SME: La Luz es del Pueblo (Spanish)

Click in the picture or http://laluzesdelpueblo.blogspot.com/

Labor Hits the Streets as the Clock Ticks to 2010

Labor News, November 12, 2009

In the week leading up to the 99th anniversary celebration of the 1910 Mexican Revolution, workers across Mexico took to the streets. In the Tamaulipas border city of Reynosa, scores of former TRW maquiladora workers staged a demonstration November 10 outside the offices of the Federal Labor and Conciliation Board. Laid off from the US-based auto parts company earlier this year, the workers contended that they had not received severance pay in accordance with Mexican law.

"We're here to pressure them so they will pay attention to us," said worker leader Jovita Moreno.

To the southwest of Reynosa, in the industrial city of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, about one hundred transit cops occupied department headquarters in protest of firings for alleged corruption and drug use.

By far, though, the biggest mobilizations, stretching from Chiapas on the border with Guatemala to Chihuahua bordering Texas and New Mexico, were held November 11 in support of 44,000 Mexico City-area utility company employees sacked from their jobs by presidential decree last month. In a one-day work stoppage, unions representing electricians, mineworkers, teachers and telephone workers joined with small farm, popular and student organizations to oppose the firings and restructuring of the publicly-owned Central Light and Power (LFC) company.

Almost reminiscent of the Villista and Zapatista convergence on Mexico City nearly 100 years ago, tens of thousands of people streamed into the capital city's Zocalo Plaza from all directions to hear speakers support the Mexican Electrical Workers (SME) union representing the fired employees and call for a national strike. Solidarity messages were heard from Samuel Ruiz, former bishop of San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas, and Bishop Raul Vera of Coahuila.

"We are at the point of the independence bicentennial and the Mexican Revolution centennial," said SME leader Martin Esparza. "And as before, we will defeat the transnationals, the dictatorship, tyranny and violations of the constitution. It's time for the people to organize," Esparza declared, adding that a new national pact and the peaceful recovery of power by the people was needed.

Actions in support of the SME were held in at least 22 states. In Chiapas, grievances also included recently approved tax hikes and the detention of farmer leaders accused of having links with armed groups. In central Mexico, highway blockades led to crack-downs by the Federal Police, while in Oaxaca, an estimated 70,000 school teachers stayed off the job.

In the north, hundreds of telephone workers, Labor Party members and social activists conducted various public marches in Chihuahua City and Ciudad Juarez, where marchers braved the border city's violent streets and even held a torch-lit procession through the city's downtown.

Eduardo Gonzalez Perales, secretary of the Ciudad Juarez branch of the telephone workers union, called for the restitution of the SME's collective bargaining agreement and an end to a "business attitude" towards unions in the country.

Considering that the LFC company only serves customers in and around Mexico City, the breadth of support for the November 11 protest was significant.

The LFC issue has stirred widespread controversy in Mexico. Some polls claim a majority of Mexicans support the Calderon administration's move against what is portrayed as a corrupt union hindering the economic progress of the nation. On the Internet, many writers back the government's action against the allegedly overpaid, lazy union workforce, while yet others strongly support the SME's stance that the federal government should keep its hands off the LFC and its workers.

In comments about the protest, Senator Gustavo Madero, coordinator of President Calderon's PAN party in the Mexican Senate, said unions have a right to meet and speak out just as priests can also "call people to mass."

Mexico's Supreme Court rejected a request this week from SME head Esparza to investigate the government's action.

Increasingly, Mexican labor struggles are receiving cross-border support from US and other international unions. Last month, a delegation of United Auto Worker (UAW) union members traveled from Michigan to south Texas to support the laid-off TRW workers in Reynosa and protest the North American Free Trade Agreement. While on the border, the UAW members held public demonstrations at the Hidalgo-Reynosa international crossing and later briefly blocked traffic at another bridge connecting Brownsville with Matamoros.

George Hardy, first vice-president of UAW Local 174, said: "We want jobs. We need to feed our families, but NAFTA wiped away all our jobs in Michigan and America. We are demonstrating with TRW workers because NAFTA pit workers against one another, but now we want to tell all corporations that workers are united."

In a separate statement on the LFC conflict, United Steel Workers President Leo Gerard charged that the mass firings were additional proof of the Calderon administration's anti-worker, anti-union agenda and its scorched earth policy against democratic and independent unions."


Sources: La Jornada, November 11 and 12, 2009. Articles by correspondents and Notimex. El Diario de Juarez, November 12, 2009. Enlineadirecta.info, November 9 and 11, 2009. Articles by Carlos Pena Palacios and Rodolfo Sanchez Barron. El Universal, November 11, 2009. Articles by Alberto Morales, Julian Sanchez, Carlos Aviles, Jonathan Tapia, Ricardo Gomez, and Sergio Javier Jimenez.

Lapolaka.com, November 11 and 12, 2009. Proceso/Apro, November 10, 2009.
Article by Sain Mandujano. AFL-CIO, November 3, 2009. Brownsville Herald/McAllen Monitor, October 5, 2009. Article by Sean Gaffney.
Brownsville Herald, October 6, 2009. Article by Jazmine Ulloa. Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, October 2, 2009. Press release.

Frontera NorteSur (FNS): on-line, U.S.-Mexico border news Center for Latin American and Border Studies New Mexico State University Las Cruces,New Mexico

For a free electronic subscription email: fnsnews@nmsu.ed

comunitycampaigns.blogspot.com

TRW Workers Nov 12 2009

TRW Workers intercept the Border Cities’ Summit, deliver their demands directly to the Governor, and announce their solidarity with the Electrical Workers Union (SME)

Action

Write a letters to TRW’s executives supporting the workers
Write a letter to President Obama demanding NAFTA Free Trade be addressed

On November 12th the TRW Workers Coalition hijacked the Border Cities’ Summit, which was held in Reynosa, Tamaulipas. The workers learned that the governor of Tamaulipas, Eugenio Hernandez, would be attending the event, so they arrived early at the Holiday Inn Hotel, before security guards cordoned off the area.

The mayors of Tamaulipas’ cities were surprised by the courage of the workers, who stood up to the police and security guards and approached the Governor of Tamaulipas. The Governor’s Secretary told them to put down their signs and wait for the Governor to come to them; but the workers went directly to the podium and asked the Governor to hear what the TRW Workers Coalition had to say.

Please see the following link:

http://www.despertardetamaulipas.com/nota.php?art_ID=50177

The TRW Workers Coalition gave the Governor a letter asserting that they are not troublemakers; instead, they are workers some of whom have 20 years seniority at TRW. But now, the TRW corporation is violating their right to jobs, to freedom of association and to collective bargaining by relocating them to a warehouse without adequate security and transportation and by refusing to recognize the workers’ coalition and deal with them.

Please see the following link:

http://www.enlineadirecta.info/nota.php?art_ID=110984&titulo=Le_piden_a_“Ge_o”_ser_reinstalados_en_TRW.html


The workers demanded that TRW negotiate the relocation directly with them or pay them severance including back pay, in keeping with Mexican labor law. They recommended to the Governor that corporations be required to provide a deposit to local government to begin operations in a city, in order to guarantee that corporations not behave with impunity, without accountability to workers and without paying what the law requires. The workers demanded that the Governor investigate TRW’s practice of blacklisting the workers who formed the TRW Workers’ Coalition.

Please see the following link:

Agüita protesta Cumbre Fronteriza

The letter ended by stating that TRW and the CTM union have informed the workers that TRW’s actions have the support of the three levels of government. The letter asks, if that is true, then the government is failing in its obligation to defend the rights of the people. The workers asked the Governor to intervene in order to reach a prompt and fair solution to the conflict.

The Governor told the workers that he will study their letter and respond. During this exchange, the Mayor of Reynosa appeared to be very angry at the failure of the security guards to block the workers’ access to the Governor.

Three TRW workers, Delfino, Antonio and Leonardo, accompanied the Governor to his bus. The exchange was covered widely by the media.

Earlier, on November 11th, workers from the TRW Workers Coali tion took over the Labor Board again, demanding that its President set a date for the evidentiary hearing in the case. The date was set for December 7th. TRW Workers also made a statement to the media that they would join the call by the Electrical Workers’ Union (SME) to turn off the lights in their homes for two hours, in a show of solidarity with the SME struggle.

Please see the following link:

http://www.hoytamaulipas.net/index.php?v1=notas&v2=77289

http://www.noticiasdetamaulipas.com/nota.php?art_ID=49151

http://www.prensaescrita.com/diarios.php?codigo=MEX&pagina=http://www.elcinco.net

Action

1. Please write a letter to TRW’s CEO in Michigan headquarters, demanding that TRW be accountable to the workers and negotiate directly with the Workers Coalition instead of the charro corporate CTM union

2. Please keep sending messages to President Obama demanding that NAFTA be renegotiated

3. Send a tax-deductible contribution to the Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras: Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, 3611 Golden Tee LN, Missouri City, TX 77459

SAMPLE TRW headquarters message to send to:

John C. Plant, President and Chief Executive Officer TRW Automotive. Phone: 734.855.2600. Email: John.plant@trw.com

Neil Marchuk Exec. VP for Human Resources. Phone: 734.855.3871 (office) 734.748.0676 (cell) 734.855.2473 (fax) Email: Neil.Marchuk@trw.com

John Wilkerson, Senior Communication Manager. Phone: 734 855 3864. Email: John.Wilkerson@trw.com

Please send copy of your letters to CJM at: cjm_martha@igc.org, cjm_cynthia@igc.org


Subj: Continued concern about TRW operations in Reynosa, Mexico
To: "John.plant@trw.com" , "Neil.Marchuk@trw.com" , "John.Wilkerson@trw.com"


John C. Plant, President and Chief Executive Officer TRW

Dear Mr. Plant:

I am writing to express my continued concern about TRW’s operations in Reynosa, Mexico. I learned that yesterday the workers met the Governor of Tamaulipas and asked him to investigate TRW’s actions in Reynosa. I am sure that you understand by now that the CTM “official” union does not adequately represent the workers and has repeatedly failed to stand up for their rights.

No corporation wants to be known as an entity that condones violations of labor rights and labor law. It is in TRW's interests to respect workers’ rights to safe jobs, freedom of association and collective bargaining. I urge you to take action now to guarantee that TRW reinstate workers who were fired unjustifiably from their jobs at the TRW Del Norte Industrial Park plant and respect all severance and seniority payments as required by Mexican labor law.

I call on you to guarantee respect for workers rights and to take immediate action to address these concerns about TRW operations at the Reynosa plant. I request that you keep me informed of the steps you are taking to address this extremely serious situation.


Respectfully,


SAMPLE MESSAGE to President Obama: Phone: 202-456-111, 202-456-1414, Fax 202 456-2461

E-mail: info@messages.whitehouse.gov.

Please send copy of your letters to CJM at: cjm_martha@igc.org, cjm_cynthia@igc.org

To: info@messages.whitehouse.gov
Subject: NAFTA fails to protect workers’ rights

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President,

The NAFTA trade agreement has failed to meet the expectations of economic growth and development. Instead, NAFTA has increased unemployment, economic instability and insecurity, poverty and environmental injustice in the three countries of North America.

Multinational corporations such as TRW, a US corporation based in Livonia, Michigan, have profited by exploiting cheap labor, thanks to free trade agreements. After many years of phenomenal earnings, corporations are now laying off workers. In the case of TRW in Mexico, they are laying off workers without the severance payments that the workers are owed by law.

Trade agreements are about much more than trade. Trade agreements must have mechanisms to address and resolve the social consequences they create.

Despite the economic crisis, now is the right time to renegotiate NAFTA and address the need for immigration reform, which is inextricably linked to NAFTA.

The evidence of NAFTA's failure is everywhere - people are suffering the real consequences of unregulated and irresponsible free trade policies.

I call on you to investigate and regulate multinational corporations such as TRW, which is violating workers' rights and operating with impunity in Mexico.

I also urge you to uphold your commitment to address immigration reform and renegotiate the NAFTA trade agreement immediately.

Respectfully

community campaigns.blogspot.com