Published on
July 14, 2007 in
Video.
Working people’s musical theater
Here is what you’ve all been waiting for–the Eastern Maine Labor Council & Food AND Medicine production of “The Adventures of EFCA Man” performed at the 2007 4th July Solidarity Celebration in Brewer, Maine. You have a choice of Windows Media or mp4 (playable with a QuickTime plugin).
Most of you should be able to play one or the other format in your browser with your broadband connection. Sorry if you have dial-up, you probably won’t see much. You get the full 34-minute performance, including the catapulting. The whole files are quite large, so full downloads will take a while, even at broadband speed. Be patient, then enjoy!
(Windows Media) [33:59m]:
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(QuickTime) [33:59m]:
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Published on
July 8, 2007 in
Video.
At Eastern Maine Labor Council 4th July Solidarity Celebration
July 4, 2007 / Brewer, Maine
U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud (D-ME, 2nd District) gave a short, meaty speech on Independence Day at a labor solidarity family celebration sponsored by the Eastern Maine Labor Council and Food AND Medicine. Mike spoke about the recent announcement by Quaker Fabrics of Fall River, Massachusetts that it is expecting to close due to free trade policies, the effect of NAFTA on immigration, and terrible labor repression in Colombia.
Mike referred to recent activity by trade unionists to convince the Democratic Congress that approving a free trade agreement with Colombia is not a good idea at the same time it appears to be open season on union organizers in that country. (See also, media file associated with THIS June 28, 2007 hearing in the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittees on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, Bill Delahunt [D-MA], Chairman, and on the Western Hemisphere, Eliot L. Engel [D-NY], Chairman.)
Also included with this post is a downloadable audio-only mp3 file of Mike’s July 4 speech.
Additional links to news stories are below the fold. U.S. companies are alleged to be implicated in the murder of Colombian labor leaders. (Mike mentions “Operation Dragon” in his speech–”an effort to neutralize 175 social and labor leaders,” according to a USW press release.)
Continue reading ‘U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud speaks on labor’
Mourning the cucumbers
Garden pummeled
A freak hail storm seemed to pick out just our backyard and our neighbors for its worst random fury. I don’t think the cucumbers are going to make it. They are the darker green mass in the lower left. The broccoli looks okay, except for this one.
Democracy Now! had a very illuminating program featuring Faleh Abood Umara, the general secretary of the Federation of Oil Unions and a founding member of the oil workers union in Iraq and Hashmeya Muhsin Hussein, president of the Electrical Utility Workers Union and the first woman to head a national union in Iraq.
At one point, Faleh Abood Umara calls the US-written and US-backed Iraqi Oil Law “robbery.”
FALEH ABOOD UMARA: [translated] With regards to the situation of the Iraqi oil workers, they’re persevering in their work and preserving the Iraqi oil wells. The reason we went on strike was to make twenty-seven demands, which we submitted to the Iraqi prime minister. He agreed to them, but the minister of oil did not implement the demands that led to the strike.
The most important point or one of the most important points is our demand not to rush through the new Iraqi oil law, because we believe that this oil law does not serve the interests of the Iraqi people. So we ask our friends in the United States, as well, to stand in solidarity with us and publicize the ill effects of this law, so that it never is agreed upon in the parliament….
HASHMEYA MUHSIN HUSSEIN: [translated] As a part of the Iraqi society, they suffer like everybody else, but also there were laws that were issued under the occupation that specifically targeted women, especially Law No. 137, which canceled the old civil law and delegated all issues that have to do with civil law to the local communities and religious communities, religious authorities. We took this very seriously and went out in demonstrations until the new law was canceled, but it was reintroduced through the new constitution, and we now demand the cancellation of this article.
As far as women’s rights are concerned, women are not completely suppressed. As you can see, I am right here in front of you. And we have 25% of the parliament members who are women, and we seek, we hope that it will soon become 40%. And this is a result of our struggle and determination that women in Iraq will have their rightful place.
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