Speak-Out vs Police Brutality NYC 10-3 id AAA15352; Sun, 21 Sep 1997 00:58:32 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit ------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the September 25, 1997 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- NEW YORK: LABOR/COMMUNITY SPEAK-OUT VS. POLICE BRUTALITY SET By Leslie Feinberg New York Rampant racism and police violence are more than burning issues in New York today. They are raging infernos. But the united force of oppressed communities and the labor movement could exert a powerful impact on the war against these forms of inhuman brutality. In a nutshell, that's the agenda of a labor and community speak-out against police brutality planned for Oct. 3 at the 1199/Martin Luther King Labor Center in Manhattan. The meeting is sponsored by the National People's Campaign and Workfairness. The sparks igniting the urgent need for this speak-out are the inspiration drawn from the Teamsters' UPS victory and the outrage ensuing from the vicious police assault on Abner Louima, the Haitian immigrant raped and beaten nearly to death by Brooklyn police last month. An impressive array of speakers is already confirmed to address the meeting of community activists and trade unionists. They include Mail Handlers Local 300 President Larry Adams, AFSCME Local 420 President Jim Butler, Hotel Employees Local 300 organizer Jos, Guzm n, Teamsters Local 808 Secretary-Treasurer Chris Silvera, Teachers Local 3882 President Trudy Rudnick, AFSCME Local 371 Vice President Ira Williams, Workfairness co-founder Larry Holmes, community/labor activist Estela V squez, Haiti Progress newspaper Co-director Ben Dupuy, and a representative of Parents Against Police Brutality. What steps can labor and community activists take to strengthen bonds of solidarity between the union movement and the communities under the gun of occupying armies of racist cops? Some unions were present in the demonstrations of rage that poured through the streets of Brooklyn to confront the torture of Abner Louima. But what more can and should the labor movement do to battle police brutality and racism? What are the connections between police brutality, low wages, union busting, the fight for jobs, the struggle against workfare, and labor's campaign to organize the unorganized? The answers to these imperative questions will form the crux of this vitally important political event. More information about it is available from Workfairness at (212) 633-6646. The speakout will begin at 7 p.m. at 310 West 43 Street. For more information, contact the National People's Campaign and Workfairness, 39 West 14 Street, #206, NY, NY 10011. Phone (212) 633-5545. FAX 633-2889. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted if source is cited. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://workers.org) ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-09.21.97-00:58:33-29579