September, 07 2022, 10:45am EDT
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Sunrise and CWA Celebrate Visionary Collective Bargaining Agreement
WASHINGTON
Today, Sunrise Movement and the Communications Workers of America Union (CWA) reached a visionary, one-of-its-kind collective bargaining agreement. In response, Sunrise Movement and the CWA put out the following joint statement:
"As workers across the country are realizing their power and forming unions, Sunrise Movement management and staff are proud to have reached an innovative and rigorous bargaining agreement with the CWA. We are thankful for all of the workers and bargaining members whose vision and drive in these last nine months have made this a reality. Strong unions are a core pillar of the Green New Deal. Our commitment to the labor movement and the dignity of all workers is crucial in our fight. We all benefit from a strong, pro-worker contract.
"We are especially proud that this contract is one of the most progressive agreements reached by CWA. In particular, our revolutionary non-discrimination article, voluntary recognition and neutrality details, and our time off and leave provisions are some of the first of their kind. This contract treats each worker with the utmost respect as human beings, putting care and community for one another first in the workplace. We hope this sets an example for other organizations and businesses across the country.
"Sunrise and the CWA will continue working together during the life of the contract to make Sunrise a dignified and meaningful place to work."
Varshini Prakash, Executive Director of Sunrise Movement:
"I am so damn proud of this visionary collective bargaining agreement that gives our staff dignified and healthy working conditions. Our people deserve to get paid well, get enough vacation and rest, and have support if they choose to have a family or unexpectedly get sick. I have nothing but respect for our workers and the good team at CWA and the partnership we've built over the last year. Onward to combat the existential crisis of our time, while standing up for workers and good jobs everywhere."
CWA Local 1180 President Gloria Middleton:
"It is a breath of fresh air to negotiate a contract for our members with a management team that understands the value of its employees and knows that an unbalanced work-life schedule will lead to their demise. When management and unions can find a way of working together for the best interests of all parties involved, then everyone comes out a winner. This Sunrise Movement contract now will hopefully set an example for other non-profits down the road."
Sunrise Movement is a movement to stop climate change and create millions of good jobs in the process.
LATEST NEWS
Palestinian Envoy Demands End to 'Most Documented Genocide in History'
"Peace will not be achieved at the expense of our rights but by upholding them," said Riyad Mansour. "That is the only path to peace. Let us finally collectively embark on it."
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Ahead of the International Court of Justice's expected advisory opinion on legal consequences for Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, Palestine's permanent observer at the United Nations reminded other diplomats at a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday that the slaughter of more than 38,000 people in Gaza has been broadcast for nine months—while Israel has claimed it is acting in self-defense and is targeting Hamas.
"What is happening in Gaza is going down as the most documented genocide in history," Riyad Mansour said. "When will the world denounce the crimes and stop tolerating their reoccurrence?"
In addition to the daily news of aerial and ground attacks on schools, homes, and places of worship in Gaza, Mansour pointed to Israeli soldiers' filming of their own attacks in the enclave, leaving no doubt that innocent civilians are being targeted.
Members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have "openly, brazenly, and repeatedly" shared its "crimes" on social media, said Mansour.
Since the IDF began its bombardment of Gaza in October with political and material support from the United States and other Western countries, videos taken by Israeli soldiers themselves have shown the controlled detonation of Israa University, a soldier blowing up a mosque, and another IDF fighter giving a thumbs up while driving a bulldozer into a destroyed car, accompanied by the caption, "I stopped counting how many neighborhoods I've erased."
In a segment produced by Al Jazeera in March, Sarah Leah Whitson of Democracy for the Arab World Now said that "there have been a remarkable number of videos posted by Israeli soldiers on social media, depicting themselves pillaging property, mocking the death and destruction that they are causing, and most egregiously, torturing, humiliating, and mocking detained Palestinian prisoners."
Meanwhile, human rights experts and aid groups have amplified images of the results of Israel's use of what Mansour called "the ultimate weapon": a near-total blockade on humanitarian relief. Last month, the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights documented the deaths from starvation of five-month-old Fayez Attaya and 13-year-old Abdulqader Al-Serhi—two of more than two dozen children who have perished as U.N. experts have warned famine has taken hold in Gaza.
"Two million people who were subjected to a 17-year-old blockade are now confronted with a hermetic siege, dying of hunger and disease while food and medicine are available only meters away," said Mansour on Wednesday.
Palestinians including Bisan Owda, a journalist who won a Peabody Award for her coverage, have also documented their own forced displacement, the destruction of their homes, and the loss of loved ones.
Mansour on Wednesday asked the Security Council—which only voted in favor of a cease-fire in Gaza in June, after U.S. officials had vetoed several resolutions—why it has allowed Israel to violate international laws and norms.
"What is a rule that's not enforced? What do these rules mean anymore when for nine months Israel has bombed the homes, hospitals, schools—including those designated as U.N. shelters—and now people in tents as is the case in al-Mawasi?" he asked.
Mansour emphasized that Israeli soldiers have good reason to think they can film themselves committing potential war crimes.
"Everything in [Israel's] history tells it it will get away with it," said the envoy. "It is betting this time will be no exception. But, this time must be the exception, and change must start right now."
Mansour added that the ICJ's pending ruling on the occupation of Palestine "should serve as basis for our collective action in the days to come."
"As all your nations have refused to forego their rights, the Palestinian people will never accept to relinquish theirs," he said. "Peace will not be achieved at the expense of our rights but by upholding them. The right to life, to liberty, and to dignity. That is the only path to peace. Let us finally collectively embark on it."
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'Scathing' Report Exposes Broken Promises of Cori Bush's Primary Challenger
"Wesley Bell promised long overdue reforms in St. Louis County, but—like his predecessor, Bob McCulloch—he's continued to punish primarily poor and working people," said the Working Families Party national director.
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A local coalition on Wednesday released a report blasting the record of St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, who is challenging progressive Congresswoman Cori Bush in the Democratic primary for Missouri's 1st District.
The report about Bell's five years in his current office was published by the Prosecutor Organizing Table, which includes Action St. Louis, ArchCity Defenders, Freedom Community Center, Forward through Ferguson, MacArthur Justice Center, and Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty.
"Early on, Bell cast himself as a progressive looking to make fundamental changes to the way that the St. Louis County prosecutor's office operated," the report explains. "He promised changes to address some of the key issues that plague the criminal legal system, including overcharging, lack of transparency, reliance on cash bail, and criminalization of poverty, drug use, and mental health illness."
When Bell took office in 2019, "many residents hoped to see a leader that would fight to dramatically reduce mass human caging on behalf of Black communities and others disproportionately impacted in St. Louis County," the document notes. "We have seen the office fail to implement meaningful change on a number of important fronts."
The analysis began in August 2022 and includes data the coalition collected from Bell's office, "freedom of information requests, independent research, as well as lived experience from people impacted by the carceral system." The report features a timeline of their communication with his office and points out that "some of the issues and questions raised by the table went unanswered."
The Missouri coalition—whose members lead local decarceration and racial justice efforts—evaluated Bell based on five metrics: transparency, charging decisions, pretrial detention, convictions and sentencing, and commitment to community-based alternatives.
"After early progress, the St. Louis County jail population has steadily climbed under Bell's leadership. It has increased 23% in the past year and 46% in the past two years," the report highlights. "Meanwhile, the nation's overall jail and prison population has fallen by over 10%."
"While failing to reduce the jail population long-term, Bell's office has succeeded in securing a $1.8 million budget expansion and a $700,000 [American Rescue Plan Act] grant to hire new attorneys and build out satellite offices with the police," the publication continues. "This risks inflating the office’s budget for years to come, creating even more power to put our neighbors behind bars."
In addition to calling out Bell's prosecutorial record, the groups offered "recommendations for shifting policies and practices towards a survivor-centered approach to restorative justice to decarcerate and address violence at its core."
Bell "discounted the report as politics," according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Many of the organizations backing the report, he said, have endorsed Bush. And he said she won't debate the issues publicly."
The prosecutor told the newspaper, "My opponent refusing to answer questions and hiding behind this group is disingenuous and does a grave disservice to this community."
Meanwhile, ArchCity spokesperson Z Gorley pointed out that the analysis began long before Bell announced he was running for Congress and Bush's campaign accused Bell of using the congresswoman as a scapegoat "to evade responsibility."
The Working Families Party (WFP)—which has endorsed Bush—called the report "scathing."
"Wesley Bell promised long overdue reforms in St. Louis County, but—like his predecessor, Bob McCulloch—he's continued to punish primarily poor and working people," said WFP national director Maurice Mitchell. "St. Louisans deserve better from their prosecuting attorney."
The race between Bell and Bush has garnered national attention in large part because Republican billionaires and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) have backed the prosecutor for the August 6 primary in hopes of ousting the congresswoman for criticizing the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip and her supportiveness of a range of progressive issues.
AIPAC's other top progressive target this cycle was Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), who was defeated by his pro-Israel primary challenger, Westchester County Executive George Latimer, last month. Just days later, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) released a joint statement endorsing Bush.
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65% of Democratic Voters Want Biden to Step Aside: Poll
A majority of respondents said they want both Biden and Trump to quit the race, and were not confident in the mental fitness of either candidate.
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A majority of U.S. voters want both President Joe Biden and Republican nominee Donald Trump to drop out of the 2024 presidential contest, with nearly two-thirds of Democrats favoring the Democratic incumbent's withdrawal amid mounting concerns over his mental fitness, a poll published Wednesday revealed.
The AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey of 1,253 U.S. adults conducted between July 11-15 found that 70% of all respondents want Biden to step aside in favor of an alternative nominee and 57% think Trump should quit the race. Broken down by partisan affiliation, 73% of Republicans, 70% of Independents, and 65% of Democrats want Biden to stand down, while 26% of Republicans, 51% of Independents, and 86% of Democrats say Trump should withdraw.
"I just feel like these two individuals are a sad choice," Alexi Mitchell, a 35-year-old civil servant in Virginia and self-described Democratic-leaning Independent, toldThe Associated Press, adding that Biden has "put us in a bad position where Trump might win."
Black Democrats are Biden's strongest supporters—50% want Biden to continue running—while only 25% of all Democratic voters aged 18-44 want him to stay in the race.
A majority of respondents said they were not confident in the mental fitness of either candidate. Seventy percent of voters said they had little or no confidence in Biden's "mental capacity to be an effective president," while 51% said the same thing about Trump.
The former president was recently convicted of 34 felony charges in New York state related to the falsification of business records regarding hush money payments to cover up sex scandals during the 2016 presidential election. Trump still faces dozens of federal and state charges in connection with his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, cases that could be impacted by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling granting presidents "absolute immunity" for acts committed in their official capacity.
Earlier this week, a Trump-appointed federal judge dismissed a case involving Trump's alleged mishandling of classified documents—a decision Special Counsel Jack Smith, who has led the case since Trump announced his current campaign, is appealing.
Trump was also impeached twice by the House of Representatives—but not convicted by the Senate—during his first presidential term.
A separate survey by Data for Progress published Wednesday found that "swing" voters are increasingly more concerned about Biden's age than Trump's criminal charges.
According to Data for Progress:
Before the debate and before Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts, we found that swing voters were more concerned about Trump's criminal charges (48%) than Biden's age (41%), with 11% unsure.
After the debate, swing voters have flipped. Now, 53% say they are more concerned about Biden's age, a 12-point increase from our last survey of swing voters. Only 37% say they are more concerned about Trump's criminal charges, an 11-point decrease.
Notably, the new AP-NORC survey was conducted before Saturday's attempted assassination of Trump at a Pennslyvania campaign rally. The deadly shooting seemed to take some wind out of the sails of the burgeoning movement of Democrats urging Biden to withdraw from the race: In the four days before the incident, over a dozen Democratic U.S. lawmakers called on Biden to step aside. In the four days since the assassination attempt, only one more has joined the list, Rep. Adam Schiff of California.
"Our nation is at a crossroads," Schiff told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. "A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the president can defeat Donald Trump in November."
A Pew Research Center poll published last week showed that more than 6 in 10 U.S. voters see both Biden and Trump as "embarrassing" choices and nearly 9 in 10 said that the 2024 election campaign "does not make them feel proud of the country."
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