trade unions

Friday, January 20, 2012, 6:00 p.m. Join Immanuel Ness and Elaine Bernard for a panel discussion on From Occupy to Workers Control sponsored by the Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture Series and hosted by encuentro 5.

The Occupy Movement is taking new and exciting steps as it continues to reshape political possibilities (such as reclaiming foreclosed homes).

The discussion of how to organize a society that represents the interests and aspirations of the 99% is a debate that is being held across Occupy sites. What would it mean to really take the Occupy Movement into the workplace? Into the heart of the economic system itself? And how to do it?

All of those invited to speak at this event contributed to a recent Haymarket Book "Ours to Master and to Own."

Thursday, September 22, 2011, 6:00 p.m. The Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) and the Boston Recycling Coalition (BRC- an emerging campaign between community, environmental and worker groups in Boston to dramatically improve the recycling system in Boston) co-host a gathering of inspiring grassroots waste/recycling movement leaders from around the world. Following a panel, there will be a wide-ranging discussion between local recycling workers, international guests and members of the Boston community interested in improving dismal conditions in Boston's waste/recycling sector. Come join us! This event is organized by the Boston Recycling Coalition.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011, 7:00 p.m. Join organizers Jeff Crosby and Carly McClain in a conversation about the Workers Center for Economic Justice organized by the North Shore Labor Council and the New Lynn Coalition. The coalition’s mission is to organize all sectors of working class people in the region into a unified permanent, political and economic force that is union and non-union and transcends racial, linguistic, ethnic, citizenship and gender boundaries. Together the organizations within the New Lynn Coalition are identifying goals for regional development which revolve around social and ecological needs and concerns and where there is a renewed sense of the public role in social welfare.

Tuesday, July 20th, 2011, 7:00 p.m.  Rescheduled due to another event. New date to be announced soon: Join organizers Jeff Crosby and Carly McClain in a conversation about the Workers Center for Economic Justice organized by the North Shore Labor Council and the New Lynn Coalition. The coalition’s mission is to organize all sectors of working class people in the region into a unified permanent, political and economic force that is union and non-union and transcends racial, linguistic, ethnic, citizenship and gender boundaries. Together the organizations within the New Lynn Coalition are identifying goals for regional development which revolve around social and ecological needs and concerns and where there is a renewed sense of the public role in social welfare.

Thursday, September 8th, 2011, 6:30 p.m. Wendy Call visited the Isthmus of Tehuantepec—the lush sliver of land connecting the Yucatan Peninsula to the rest of Mexico—for the first time in 1997. She found herself in the midst of a storied land, a place Mexicans call their country's “little waist,” a place long known for its strong women, spirited marketplaces, and deep sense of independence. She also landed in the middle of a ferocious battle over plans to industrialize the region, where most people still fish, farm, and work in the forests. In the decade that followed her first visit, Call witnessed farmland being paved for new highways, oil spilling into rivers, and forests burning down. Through it all, local people fought to protect their lands and their livelihoods—and their very lives.

Sunday, December 5, 2010, 1:00 - 7:00 p.m. Come hear about the social ventures that Global Potential leaders have created since they returned from their 45 days in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Nicaragua this summer 2010! Play drums like you are in the Bateys of the Dominican Republic. Participate in a yoga session. Paint a mural. Watch and learn how to dance capoera. Watch award-winning documentaries made by GP youth. Listen and create your own slam poetry. Donation: $7 (door)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. The Struggle to Unionize Starbucks: Join us as Starbucks organizer/barista, Anja Witek, discusses the truth about life behind the counter at Starbucks!

She explains how innovative solidarity unionism organizing has enabled the Starbucks Workers Union/Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) to establish a foothold in an industry with the lowest union density in the United States. She discusses strategies behind the recent organizing at fast food franchise Jimmy John’s sandwich shops in Minneapolis.

Thursday, November 4, 2010, 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. José Brito formerly worked at the Cerrejon mine in Colombia. He is a trade unionist representing thousands of workers at giant surface strip-mines. The Drummond and Cerejon mines produce 90% of Colombian coal exports. These help fire Massachusetts' Salem and Somerset electrical generating plants in addition to other generating stations in the United States.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010, 7:00 p.m. The NAACP, SEIU 1199, La Raza and Green Jobs for All have called upon the peace and justice movement to join a mass mobilization in Washington DC, October 2. This is a large national protest demonstration for jobs, justice and progressive change, and to counter the right wing. It will be the largest progressive mobilization in years.

Friday, March 5, 2010, 8:00 p.m. [Updated flyers attached] Join  Paul Baker Hernandez (from Nicaragua), Sergio Reyes, Dave Scandurra & The Excited People, The Grass Gypsys.

Paul Baker Hernandez - Eco-Minstrel performing Songs of Loveliness and Courage

Paul has invaded Queen Elizabeth II’s private castle heading a posse of bishops and other church leaders protesting nuclear weapons, confronted popes with protest songs for global justice, joined Hollywood stars on Central American picket lines in Los Angeles, and helped fight off death squads attacking Salvadoran exiles right in the heart of the USA.

He now lives in Nicaragua where he has founded Echoes of Silence, a network of “artists with broken nails” who support community health, education, ecological and cultural projects, and with whom he continues to write irreverent songs about cell phones, dictators, Starbucks, and more.

with Elaine Bernard & Rand Wilson

Tuesday, July 7, 2009, 7:00 p.m. Join Steve Early, author of Embedded with Organized Labor: Journalistic Reflections on the Class War at Home. Find out more about:

• Workers and the economic crisis
• The fight for health care reform
• The fate of "Employee Free Choice"
• Current struggles for union democracy and rank-and-file control
• The future of national labor federations like Change to Win and AFL-CIO

Steve will address his critique of organized labor, using examples from his book, propose his vision and what American workers can do to get out from under the terrible economic and political institutional constraints they endure.

Monday, July 6, 2009, 7:00 p.m. Come welcomeleaders of the Haitian and Guadeloupan trade union movement to Boston. Meet Elie Domata, General Secretary of the General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe, and Fignolé Saint Cyr, General Secretary of the Autonomous Confederation of Haitian Workers.

This event is sponsored by Chelsea Uniting Against the War/Chelsea Uniéndose en Contra de la Guerra and endorsed by the Bolivarian Circle of Boston, the Boston May Day Committee, Greater Boston Stop the Wars Coalition, Mass Global Action, Proyecto Hondureño, and United for Justice with Peace.

Tuesdays, April 21 & 28, May 5, 2009, See flyer for times
Workshop 1: The economic crisis (led by Mike Prokosch)
Workshop 2: April 28 -- The Global Dimension (Led by Adrian Boutureira, Tim Costello, Mike Prokosch)
Workshop 3: May 5 -- What do we do? Where's our leverage? (Led by Stephanie Luce and Mike Prokosch)
Sponsored by the Radical Education Project.

Colombian Trade Union Leaders Speak Out!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 6:00 p.m. Coal provides almost 50% of the electricity produced in the United States. Much of that coal—including what's burned at the Salem and Brayton Point plants in Massachusetts—comes from two giant, multinational mines in Colombia.