Jobs With Justice Student/Labor Network Meeting

Posted by on January 16, 2004

Dear activist,

Happy New Year! 2003 was a big year for activism and 2004 promises to be just as historic. One of the noticeable trends in 2003, was the progressive shift in the labor movement. I hope that we, community and social justice activists, can continue to build friendships with the labor movement and build a stronger, more cohesive movement for social justice.

In 2003, we saw the American labor movement take bold stances one several important issues. For example, the AFL-CIO put a renewed emphasis on organizing rather than lobbying politicians, the labor movement opposed the war in Iraq, unionists came out in the hundreds of thousands to stand up for immigrant rights during the Immigrant Workers? Freedom Rides and organized workers fought against globalization by sending thousands of people to Miami, Florida to protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Many youth and students joined with Jobs with Justice, our community partners and unionists at these many inspiring events. Because of this, many student and youth activists have expressed the need to create a network to continue a dialog with unions and to engage in more activism with workers fighting for their rights. For this reason, Jobs with Justice is hosting the second in a series of forums on the possibility of forming a youth and student coalition for labor action. Because we know that, like us, you are concerned with the state of human rights in the work place, we would like to invite you to the next meeting.

The second forum for this network will take place on January 29th, 6-8:30 pm at 1319 Locust St. We will hear a report about Reena?s trip to the World Social Forum in India. This will be a pot-luck style meeting, so bring a dish to share if you can. Please email me (Fabricio Rodriguez) if you plan to attend.

In solidarity,

Fabricio Rodriguez
Philadelphia Jobs With Justice
fabriciomrodriguez@yahoo.com